Why do so many bloggers engage in online debates with Jonah Goldberg?
But he basically answered his own question:
He's a gigantic honking ignoramus. He doesn't know anything about anything.
Probably the most successful kind of internet troll, the kind of troll unaware that it is actually attempting to troll, is the truly stupid person. They attract an immense amount of attention, bringing out all of our inner teachers. We cannot believe they are actually that stupid. We believe that maybe, somehow, if we explain things to them very slowly they will actually have the capacity to learn. But they don't. They are giant honking ignoramuses who don't know anything about anything and likely never will.
Yet we can't resist them, because we are fascinated by their stupidity. Fascinated that they manage to be that profoundly dumb yet still manage to tie their shoes, string complete sentences together, etc.
Jonah's so stupid he has no idea how stupid he is. It'd be funnier if he wasn't one of the standard bearers of the dominant (if fast waning) political movement in this country.