I don’t believe I’ve ever been guilty of accusing American conservatives of intelligence, but in one specific area I suppose I must allow that the right wing consistently demonstrates a pathology that, from a certain perspective, if you squint hard, and you’ve been drinking the sorts of fluids that make photocopiers work, might be taken as some species of genius, namely, conservatives are very good at exclaiming to the heavens against some featherweight cross — which is to say, wingnuts are forever inventing flabbergasting imaginary bullshit grievances.

To witless, Brent Bozell, who is shocked, shocked to discover that a Library of Congress exhibit on Bob Hope (link for the kiddies) is all about the socialism:

Unfortunately, as with so much that affects our popular culture, this man’s legacy is also an excuse to unveil a leftist political agenda, the likes of which Bob Hope would be the first to denounce.

And what is this Leftist Political Agenda? Well, uh, first, it’s that “this exhibit seems to consider Hope merely an excuse for a much broader exhibit sprawling all over a myriad of topics.” Which is quite the complaint, given the actual point of the exhibit, which, like past Hopeian exhibits, is all about the wider context. But it’s even worse!

Instead, the first thing a visitor would notice and absorb is the video presentation, hosted by Comedy Central star Stephen Colbert. Think of all the archival television material they could use to showcase Bob Hope entertaining the troops, and remembering all the stars who generously donated their time to bringing the home front to the war front, especially at Christmas time. But the Library of Congress displays its boredom with Hope in the interests of a broader topic. But while they broadened the subject, the exhibit didn’t have the slightest whisper of interest in who’s been entertaining the troops in the last few decades, and honoring them.

Uh, that would be Stephen Colbert.

Bozell is also annoyed that a letter from feminists suggesting that Hope’s schtick was kinda sexist (uh, it was) is included in the exhibit, and that the exhibit also has the effrontery to point out that in the history of American comedy, controversies are involved.

Yes, this is trivial and so forth, but in its own way this nonsense is exemplary of the wingnut mind. Bozell is annoyed because the exhibit attempts to introduce a certain degree of complexity to the examination of the past — he does not like it that the “bureaucrats” of the Library of Congress are not engaging in the hagiography of a “lifelong Republican.”

To which, what can one say? I can’t remember ever actually laughing at a Bob Hope joke, but then, what do I know?

And then there is this.

Complexity, eh. Watch it.