Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

In his book "Hoodwinked" Jack Cashill has developed an alarming thesis, and provides clear evidence that much of what passes for "progressive" beliefs of the cultural elite in the West, are actually based on foundations of pure fraud. There are countless examples provided, and while some are seemingly harmless ramblings of lost souls trying to gain glory, others depict a more savage and harmful intent. First, my criticisms of the book are as follows. I felt the author could have improved his prose greatly by including his source material more readily in the text. While well documented in the back, the book reads too much like an essay, and less like the researched prose it is intended to be. Second, there were several examples in the book that were stretches at best. He would have been better off taking a half dozen of his points and expounding in more detail than filling in with examples not as relevant or as strong. That said, the book is quite strong. Jack spends the first few chapters delving into the origins of "progressive" thought. There are several stories of well documented frauds that were trotted out to serve political interests. Of the most alarming is the work of one Walter Duranty who falsified the horrors of Stalin and legitimized the Soviet Union in the West. (Page 32). This gave rise to many of the liberals that still sympathize with Castro today for example, for much of the same reasons. Of course these lies come out in time, yet surprisingly as the book depicts, they are ignored by the cultural elite who continue to trot out time and time again philosophical "truths" long since exposed as frauds. The exploits of John Kerry (Page 91) who falsely staged his own Viet Nam "protests" in the 1970's for political gain only to have the truth hurt him 30 years later in his run for the Presidency, shows that this tactic is alive and well in the academic and left elite. There are simply too many examples of these frauds and deliberate deceptions to count, but here are a few highlights: A movement by some leftist academia to try and give Africa claim to the intellectual powers of the Greeks rested on the supposed plunder by Aristotle of an Egyptian library built "25 years after he died" (Page 108); Ward Churchill of the University of Colorado comically claims to be a Native American (which he isn't) and fabricates stories which have been totally shown to be false. One for example, was about US Soldiers deliberately giving the Native Americans smallpox (Page 139), which has no basis in any facts at all. In a move which simply captures the academia mindset, CU makes him the Chairmen of their Ethics Committee!; The acclaimed work of Rigoberta Menchu, her supposed autobiography: "I, Rigoberta Menchu: An Indian Woman in Guatemala", is shown to be totally fabricated, yet the cultural elite ignore the facts, and "The Chronicle of Higher Education" even states: "It doesn't matter if the facts in the book are wrong" (Page 147) and allow it retain its heralded status as non-fiction and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize! The origins of Planned Parenthood are nothing less than eugenics and racism. Margaret Sanger, the founder of the group was famous for her work "The Pivot of Civilization" written in 1922, in which she based the organizations foundation on; "the most urgent problem today is how to limit and discourage the over-fertility of the mentally and physically defective". (Page 222) As hard to believe as this is, it gets far worse than this. Remember this when you hear the shrill marketing slogans about "choice". The sections on the personal habits and pedophile supporting Alfred Kinsley are too horrific to print here. Yet this hasn't stopped Hollywood from depicting him sympathetically. So desperate for a justification of their lifestyle, the obvious lack of reliability of his methods and the illegal activities he fostered and encouraged towards abusing children, are left ignored. Overall, this is a fascinating look behind the scenes of so many well documented frauds which continue to be propagated even today. The book is well written and interesting, but has its flaws as I noted. You will never view the academia and cultural elite of the left the same way again after reading though, so if the truth doesn't matter to you, then skip this book.