From silly thesis to silly film

By Steve Benen

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Fri Jul 13, 2012 1:18 PM EDT

Remember Dinesh D'Souza? He's the right-wing writer who wrote a strange book attacking President Obama for trying to carry out an "anti-colonial" agenda he inherited from his Kenyan father. It's a thesis as silly as it is ugly, based on bizarre assertions about the president having the mindset of an African "Luo tribesman."

The Weekly Standard criticized it for "misstatements of fact, leaps in logic, and pointlessly elaborate argumentation." When D'Souza's thesis first appeared as a piece in Forbes, one of the magazine's own columnists blasted D'Souza's "intellectual goofiness," "factual problems," and "unsubstantiated ideological accusations." The Columbia Journalism Review called D'Souza's piece "a fact-twisting, error-laden piece of paranoia" and a "singularly disgusting work."

And of today, the thesis is a movie. No, seriously. Here's the "trailer," which I assure you is not a parody.

The estimable Mariah Blake, my former colleague at the Washington Monthly, reported forSalon this week on how D'Souza's harangue found its way to filmmakers, boosted in part by millions of dollars he received from conservative benefactors, including TD Ameritrade founder Joe Ricketts.

As for the smear itself, the thesis is so deeply ridiculous, I'm not sure whether to be offended by the disgusting attack or to feel sorry for those foolish enough to be associated with such transparent nonsense.

Regardless, I can only assume the "movie" will do quite well -- it was produced by the maker of a 2008 anti-evolution documentary that ranks among the highest-grossing documentaries of all time.