The great Republican troll Dinesh D’Souza will speak at Chapman University next week. That’s right, the man who spends his days writing books no one needs to read and making films no one on Earth should ever have to watch will get a chance to talk to college kids right here in Orange County.
Absolutely nothing D’Souza says is trustworthy. At no time does he ever make arguments in good faith. His understanding of history is at best horribly flawed and at worst flagrantly dishonest. He’s a propagandist, a con-man, and nothing more. He strings together bits and phrases from history into hammering attacks on Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and the Democratic Party. His ubiquity in the media is in large part due to the Republican Party degenerating into what historian Rick Perlstein calls “The Long Con“–a giant scam that today exists only to sell white supremacist misogyny to fools while it hands trillions of dollars in tax cuts to billionaire oligarchs.
Here’s how Kevin Kruse, an American history professor at Princeton University, explained D’Souza when asked in this Feb. 19, 2019 interview with The Politic why he spars with him so often on Twitter:
He’s not a historian, and that’s clear from his lack of knowledge about basic facts of the fields. He’s constantly presenting these things that we’ve talked about endlessly as something he’s discovered, like, “Did you know that Southern Democrats were the party of segregation and slavery?” Yes, it’s kind of actually a big theme of what we do in the classroom and in our work, I mean I literally wrote a book on what segregation has to do with Southern Democrats, it’s kind of a big thing. But he’s also clearly not a historian in the way in which he approaches this. He starts with a fixed political argument he wants to make, and when he looks back into the past for evidence, he cherry picks. That’s exactly wrong. You do history by looking at the evidence, as much evidence as you can, and following that to your conclusion, not the other way around. That’s not what an historian does.
And yes, D’Souza also famously got into trouble with the law in 2012. Here’s an excerpt from this May 31, 2018 explainer from Vox that briefly lays out D’Souza’s crime and punishment.
D’Souza pled guilty to one count of making illegal contributions in the names of others, but has claimed throughout that he is being selectively prosecuted by the Obama administration for his political beliefs. Prosecutors, led by prominent US Attorney for the Southern District of New York Preet Bharara, pushed for D’Souza to be sentenced to 10-16 months in federal prison. Judge Richard Berman spared him jail time, sentencing him to eight months in a community confinement center, five years probation, and a $30,000 fine. But Berman categorically rejected the idea that D’Souza was a victim of selective prosecution: “That’s nonsense. Spin is what that is.”
The least surprising thing President Donald Trump ever did was pardon D’Souza on May 31, 2018.
Anyway, here’s the event listing on the Chapman University website:
The Chapman Republicans present guest speaker Dinesh D’Souza. He is an Indian-born, nationally known conservative commentator and film maker. Dinesh is filled with many outspoken opinions, and is known as the guy who was tried by the Obama administration and later freed by the Trump administration.
Now we can imagine that the writer of that gibberish is just another dumbass bro drunk on his privilege. Or we can consider these words and think, “this was written by a future federal appeals court judge with a lifetime appointment who will make Brett Kavanaugh seem like Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.,” and suddenly the price we pay for letting someone like D’Souza speak at a place like Chapman University becomes all too clear.
Dinesh D’Souza will appear at Chapman University on Thursday, Nov. 7, 6:30-9:30 p.m. in Sandhu Conference Room D. The talk is open to all faculty and students.
Anthony Pignataro has been a journalist since 1996. He spent a dozen years as Editor of MauiTime, the last alt weekly in Hawaii. He also wrote three trashy novels about Maui, which were published by Event Horizon Press. But he got his start at OC Weekly, and returned to the paper in 2019 as a Staff Writer.
Nice unbiased, fictional article. You know as a mild conservative it is OK for people to have different opinions and beliefs and what would be great is if each would listen to the other side and at a minimum hear them out and then even if the result is “agree to disagree” do it with respect. Unfortunately, I see to much of just the opposite coming from the liberals who are essentially becoming fascists, tyrants, enemies of free speech and worse (look no further than ANTIFA). Your articles feed right into this and therefore become nothing more than propaganda. You’re a weak journalist as are most of the OC Weekly staff. Have some perspective and fairness and unbaised information in your articles for a start.
Your comments are much better written than the article, which may have been copied copied from a toilet wall in San Francisco.
I understand that you would have me believe Darth D’Souza is a white supremacist Nazi overlord who eats kittens. We can agree to disagree on that. But you should know one thing: future federal circuit judges don’t go to Chapman lolz
I doubt you could get into Chapman University
Ugh, who is this twit that OC Weekly just hired. Do your advertisers know you brought such a micro brain into Orange County? We’re unsubcribing.
He’s been triggered. Free Speech Advocate, not. Typical narrow minded liberal who is so tolerant. Let people speak and form their own opinion. Chapman University demonstrating diversity of thought in the political arena. Looks and sounds like a real college learning vs indoctrination.
College: it’s not just for smart people anymore!
Well since you’re slinging trash Anthony, I’ll bet he has sold way more books than your “three trashy novels about Maui.” You’re welcome for the plug.
In fact, I would say, over all, he is probably a far more successful writer than you.
P.S. Let’s see how long it takes your moderators to remove this comment. Ready, set, go…
Wow, what a joke. Did you ask Dinesh to provide his view on his prosecution by the Obama administration? No, you did not. This is an opinion piece mascarading as news. Like Dinesh or not, this article is typical liberal bias media BS.
Sweet, sign me up. I want to see him speak. Glad I found this article otherwise I wouldn’t have known he’s coming to town.
It’s the first in a “Distinguished Felons” speaker series.
Dinesh D’Souza is a loser, as is the commenters here.
Wrong, liberal feminist welfare recipient! Not one single liberal retard has been able to defeat him in debates of facts!
lol so many triggered far-right conservatives here 😛
The Left has killed journalist. The above article is a perfect example. Now all we get from the “press” is name calling and lies. Unless you follow the party line and heaven forbid think for yourself you will be vilified, humiliated and silenced.
I have read several of Mr D’Souza’s books. He is a very brave man. And, THANK YOU CHAPMAN UNIVERSITY for allowing other voices to be heard. You won’t find that at the Ivies or the University of California.
D’Souza is so “brave” that he never responded to AJ Jacob’s challenge to a fistfight. D’Souza, like his fans, are keyboard cowboys who piss their petards when confronted with an actual challenge.
So, the best liberal inbreds can do is do fist fights? We already know not one single liberal retards were able to debate him using FACTS. So, all liberals can do is beat you up physically like a school bully? I got it, retard!
It seems that these days, ad hominem is also publishable as an article, instead of in the youtube comment section where it belongs. This article contains only assertions on the author’s personal feeling about Dinesh. It attacked Dinesh as a person instead of his viewpoints and ideas. I like Dinesh but I can appreciate some of the criticism towards him. This article definitely is not one of them.
Gotta love these comments by all the triggered boomers!!
But, but, but OCWeekly, wHaT AboUt eQuAl TiMe?
Not all conservatives are”boomers”, moron. Then I guess you are a poor retarded millennial living with your fat single mom?
Nice pathetic utter bullshit once again passed off as some intellectual journalism.
Anthony is a communist POS who is desperately trying to get hired by NY Times. And inbred losers like you cheer him on.
The room reservation was a placeholder, he isn’t coming this semester. Check your sources.
When you start your article with name calling (Troll? Really? What are you 5 years old?) you lose all credibility as a source of information. I see you refer to yourself as a journalist in your bio, you may want to reconsider applying that term. In this case, it is an inaccurate description.
OC Weekly seems to be hiring some turds these days! This guy’s body of work is pathetic.