Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

The Anchoress

Home
Catholic
NYTimes Bestsellers and 3 Pinpricks of Fascism

NYTimes Bestsellers and 3 Pinpricks of Fascism

Last updated on: July 10, 2015 at 2:22 pm by Elizabeth Scalia

NYTimes Bestsellers and 3 Pinpricks of Fascism 2015-07-10T14:22:07+00:00 Elizabeth Scalia

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Okay, I’m not a Ted Cruz fan, (I’m not an anyone fan, at the moment), but that doesn’t mean I am not curious as to the NY Times so-called “standards”, here:

The New York Times informed HarperCollins this week that it will not include Ted Cruz’s new biography on its forthcoming bestsellers list, despite the fact that the book has sold more copies in its first week than all but two of the Times’ bestselling titles, the On Media blog has learned.

Cruz’s A Time for Truth, published on June 30, sold 11,854 copies in its first week, according to Nielsen Bookscan’s hardcover sale numbers. That’s more than 18 of the 20 titles that will appear on the bestseller list for the week ending July 4. Aziz Ansari’s “Modern Romance,” which is #2 on the list, sold fewer than 10,000 copies. Ann Coulter’s “Adios America,” at #11, sold just over half as many copies.
[…]
This week, HarperCollins, the book’s publisher, sent a letter to The New York Times inquiring about Cruz’s omission from the list…The Times responded by telling HarperCollins that the book did not meet their criteria for inclusion.

“We have uniform standards that we apply to our best seller list, which includes an analysis of book sales that goes beyond simply the number of books sold…This book didn’t meet that standard this week.”

Asked to specify those standards, Murphy replied: “Our goal is that the list reflect authentic best sellers, so we look at and analyze not just numbers, but patterns of sales for every book.”

When asked a direct and unambiguous question, the New York Times, ladies and gentlemen, uses the same evasive, non-answering tactics we have come to know and love from Hillary Clinton. The same Hillary Clinton, by the way, whose latest book of plegm and ghost-written vauge-eries shipped to sellers, was bought by almost no one (and now gets handed out as a lovely parting gift at $35,000-a-plate fund-raisers) but somehow nevertheless showed up on the NY Times “best-seller” list.

Yeah, I’d like more information on the “uniform standards” and the “selling patterns” that render a book ineligible to be included on their sacred list. If 10,000 copies get sold — at author’s discount, no doubt — to the Clinton Family Foundation, and warehoused for the next election, that’s more legitimate than 11,000 copies sold over Amazon, and delivered to small towns within the Rodney Dangerfield Flyover Area that gets no respect, except the grudging kind that comes when reporters explore its exotic strangeness and discover actual, respectable human beings.

Seriously, what are the “patterns” that negate the validity of a book sale?

The Times has done this before, and peddled this same pure-d manure before, too. In ten years of blogging, I may not remember all the details, but I do recognize a story when I’ve read it before, and the reality is this: it’s always a Conservative whose book misses the mysterious standards.

Why is that so? I think there are three reasons, none of which make the Times look good:

The cool kids just can’t have that at their lunch table
Cowards always try to suppress what they fear.
People who do not trust their own arguments will do what they can to make sure other arguments do not get a sound hearing.

These are the little pinpricks that, while not particularly fascistic in and of themselves, help to build tolerance for the more punishing blades eventually brought to bear against thoughtcrimes and speechcrimes and geekwearcrimes, unfortunate contributioncrimes when they are stubbornly unrepented of, in the public square.

Madame Defarge is collecting her knitting. Image Public Domain

The fascist is whoever is trying to shut you up, shut you down, dis-employ you, silence you, cripple you, or marginalize you for the crime of daring not to march in lockstep with the party and the prevailing conventional wisdom.

Last year, Brendan Eich was disemployed and he’s still unable to earn a living.

Today, the inconsistent Sally Kohn hopes to see socially ostracized the people she used to call “emotionally correct,” and who, it’s worth mentioning, never called for similar action against her. Or anyone else.

Tomorrow? Tomorrow, perhaps the server that carries your favorite blog will refuse to do so.

Tomorrow, perhaps a book or an article you would like to re-read will become difficult to find, or a news story you thought relevant will cease to be covered, slipped down the oxymoronic memory hole.

Tomorrow, perhaps the pinpricks will draw just enough blood for people to notice, and to become a tad squeamish at where we are headed.

Fascism is what happens when an idea is made into an idol, and all are required to think the correct thought, and bow to the thinkers, or be excluded and, if possible, impoverished. There is no magnanimity in the fascist’s victory; minds are to be run through and then salted, so no dissenting thought may ever grow there, again: cogitandi intelligo delenda est. Or something like that.

Hey, that sounds like a book someone wrote.

Previous Post

July 9, 2015

Old Altar Boys at Mass: A Bold Witness

Next Post

July 14, 2015 Yes, the Pope's Speech Should Bother Us, But...

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category "Remaking" Ourselves 'Remaking' America 9/10 Mindset 9/11 trials Abortion ACORN Adoration Advent Advent 2008 Advent 2009 Advent 2010 Alternative Energy Alternative Media America American Catholic Church American Church American Genius Ameridolatry ANCHORESS BOOKSHELF Anglican-Roman Reconciliation Answers & Questions Anti_Semitism Archbishop Hilarion Ayn Rand Bad Mass Barack Obama Baseball Benedict Benedict & Islam Benedict in UK Benedict XVI Benedictine Bill Whittle Birth Control Blogs and Blogging Blogs and Blogging Bloodless Coup Bobby Jindal Bookchat Breitbart Bride at every wedding... Bride at every wedding... Buckley Bullies Bush Bad? Bush Good Buster Capitalism Catholic Fiction Catholic Vocations Catholicism Celibacy Chaput Charitable Stuff Chesterton Chile Chris Christie Christians in Exile Christine O' Donnell Christmas Christmas Gift Ideas Church Hates Science? Church hates women Communion of Saints Compline Conclave 2013 Confession Constitutional Stuff Conversion Crisis & Opportunity Critical Thinking Crooks and Liars Crucible of Faith Cuba Culture of Life Culture of Life/Death Culture of Treason? Dancing Death Dialogue re Islam Dick Meyer Divorce and Remarriage DOJ Domestic Terrorism Dominican Order Don't try me too high Dowd Dumb Democrat moves Dumb GOP moves Economic woe Education Egregious Harry Reid Elder Son Elder Son's Sweet Girlfriend Elderly Election '10 Election '12 Election '16 Election 2004 Election 2006 Election 2008 Election 2010 Election 2016 Elena Kagan Elitism Embryonic Stem Cell Research End Times? English language Enhanced Interrogation Erosion of Rights Eucharist Euthanasia Exorcism Extraordinary Synod Facebook Faith Faith and Reason Faith Friday Faith Perspective Faithful Friday Fascism Again Fascism in America Fatima FCC Feminism Film First Things Forgiveness Fr. James Martin Francis and Islam Francis in America Frassati Fred Thompson Free Speech? Freedom of Worship FutureChurch Global Pandemic GOP Congress Haiti Head Covering Health Care Here and Queer Hermits Heroes Hitchens Holy Spirit Holy Week '09 Holy Week '10 Hoo-Hah & BS Hoo-Hah & BS Icons Illegal Immigration In The Arena Interviews Interwebz Iran Uprising Iraqi Christians ISIL ISIS Islamic State Islamification/Islamofascism Islamification/Islamofascism Isra-El It's all about me! Me! ME! James Burke Jerry Lewis Jesus Christ Joblessness John Boehner John McCain John Paul II John XXIII Juan Williams Just Words Katrina/Rita King is a Fink Latin Mass Leadership Lectio Divina Lent Lent '08 Lent '09 Lent 2010 Lent 2011 Limbaugh Listen to Lizzie Litigious Society Liturgy Liturgy of the Hours Mainstream Media Manliness Marriage Mary Media Excess Medical Merton Michelle Obama Mighty John O' Connor Misc. Miss Ella Missionaries Mitt Romney Monasticism My brother S My Irish Aunties Mystic Monks Nanny Statism Nature NEA Neri New Media Newman Noonan Notre Dame NPR Stuff Nun News Obama Bad? Obama Good? Obama White House Oil Spill Online Retreat '08 Online Retreat Days Oratory Orthodoxy Our Hillary! Parenting Passionists Patheos Patheos Book Club Patrons Paul Ryan Penance Penn Jillette Philosophy PJTV Podcasts Poetry Politics-free zone Pop Culture Pope Emeritus Pope Francis Prayer Predictions Priesthood Pro-Life Public Sector Unions Purgatory Questions about Catholicism Quotes of the Day Quoting the News Race in America rants Recipes Remarried Catholics Reposts by request Retreat thoughts Rome Rudy Giuliani Russia Saints Sarah Palin Scandal Scott Brown SCOTUS Scriptural stuff Secularism Send in the clowns Serving up hot links Sexuality Sherrod Shroud of Turin Sisters and Nuns Social Entrepreneurship Social Media Social Security Socialism doesn't work Sports and Faith Stem Cells Strange Gods Suffering Synod Tea Parties Tea Party Terri Schiavo The 9/11 Commission The Catholic Answer The Constitution The Desert The Fourth Estate The Pelosi The Perpetual Adolescents The Rosary Third Party? Timothy Dolan Touch of evil TSA Tsunami TV/Pop Culture/Music TV/Pop Culture/Music Twitter Uncategorized Unemployment Unintended Consequences US Military Vaginal Musings Vatican Vespers video faves Vile Joe Biden Voter Fraud War by Litigation War on Terror War, What it good for? Why can't weeee be ... World Youth Days Year of Faith Year of the Priest

Select a Month August 2016 July 2016 April 2016 March 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 December 2005 November 2005 September 2005 August 2005 July 2005 June 2005 May 2005 April 2005 March 2005 February 2005 January 2005 December 2004 November 2004 October 2004 August 2004

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small, out of you will come a ruler over Israel. What makes this town significant?

Select your answer to see how you score.

David's hometown A holy city A place of prophecy The birthplace of the Messiah