# D'Souza- Life After Conviction **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [May 7, 2015, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dsouza-life-after-conviction/719433 "2015-05-07T00:27:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Ca3799](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9f8e36/32.png) [@Ca3799](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ca3799)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2015, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dsouza-life-after-conviction/719433/1 "2015-05-07T00:27:21Z")
> **[Get a Rare Glimpse of Dinesh D’Souza’s Life After Conviction](https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2015/04/dinesh-dsouza-video-life-after-conviction)** > > D’Souza, who spends his nights in a confinement center, reflects on his sense of humor, his conservative bona fides, and what he sees as Obama’s wrath. Great article- I almost felt sorry for D’Souza for a minute there. So, he was compelled to provide the illegal campaign donations the ‘easy way,’ (by having friends and colleagues donate and reimbursing them) and in the meantime enstranged his ‘classic American trophy’ wife, and began an affair with a younger star-struck ‘fan-girl’, lost his new job as President of a conservative university because he brought his new, younger, married paramour to a (conservative) university conference and they blatanly carried on their affair while there. Well, during his sentence, he does get to go home every day and just has to sleep at the detention center at night only. He requested six weeks off for the summer, but was denied. I guess felons don’t get summers off. He does say that he has a new appreciation for immigrants (being one himself and all) and for those whose marriages have failed (something he couldn’t understand before it happened to him!). One would think he’s learnt a lesson or two! One would be wrong. ---
**Author:** ![Gerald\_II](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/43a26b/32.png) [@Gerald\_II](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gerald_II)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2015, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dsouza-life-after-conviction/719433/2 "2015-05-07T01:48:48Z")
Informative article so far. It’s pretty crazy that he got so involved in partisan politics before he even finished college. I remember at that age, and in that environment, I was pretty impressionable politically and it took a lot of life experience and further education to get a better grasp on history, ethics, society, politics, etc. I’m not too interested with the break up of his marriage or the reasoning behind the campaign donations. I was far more interested, and a little shocked, to read what he did while working at _The Darmouth Review_ and how he got involved in conservative politics. He comes across as someone who craves being a celebrity in the word of politics and needs the sense of belonging that goes with being a member of a political party and it ends making him very close minded and cut throat. Tired of not getting the money and attention you think you deserve? Give into sensationalism and exaggeration by writing stuff like _"This philandering, inebriated, African socialist is now setting the nation’s agenda through the reincarnation of his dreams in his son.”_ ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2015, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dsouza-life-after-conviction/719433/3 "2015-05-07T04:31:07Z")
I was at college with him. He was an asshole then and age has not improved him. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2015, 8:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dsouza-life-after-conviction/719433/4 "2015-05-07T08:10:06Z")
Should we be expected to know who D’Souza is without reading the links? Because I’m coming up blank. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2015, 10:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dsouza-life-after-conviction/719433/5 "2015-05-07T10:51:43Z")
Dinesh D’Souza is an American author, political activist, and media personality who’s involved a lot in conservative causes. He plead guilty last year to campaign finance violations, after making donations to political campaigns in other peoples’ names to get around the maximum contribution laws, and was sentenced to a fine, 8 months in a halfway house with community service, and 5 years probation. ---
**Author:** ![Gerald\_II](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/43a26b/32.png) [@Gerald\_II](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gerald_II)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2015, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dsouza-life-after-conviction/719433/6 "2015-05-07T17:43:16Z")
Wow, he really said this about Obama taking a selfie: \*YOU CAN TAKE THE BOY OUT OF THE GHETTO…Watch this vulgar man show his stuff, while America cowers in embarrassment \* ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2015, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dsouza-life-after-conviction/719433/7 "2015-05-07T19:26:26Z")
_Vanity Fair_ is a notoriously liberal magazine, for those who judge articles by their context. I thought the article was fair, although in a “I’ll try to bend over backwards to be fair to this asshole” sense. And in a “how can he ever make up for the feces he’s flung over everything for decades” sense. And a “I now want to wash my hands just from reading about him” sense. I tried to find a comparable post-conviction article from a right-wing source but none appears on the first page of Google. If you can cite one I promise to read it. ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2015, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dsouza-life-after-conviction/719433/8 "2015-05-07T22:14:35Z")
> [@Captain\_Amazing](#): > > Dinesh D’Souza is an American author, political activist, and media personality who’s involved a lot in conservative causes. He plead guilty last year to campaign finance violations, after making donations to political campaigns in other peoples’ names to get around the maximum contribution laws, and was sentenced to a fine, 8 months in a halfway house with community service, and 5 years probation. First came onto the radar while in, and fresh out of, Dartmouth, as one of the writers popularizing the use of the phrase “Political Correctness” in the sense as it has come to be used by the American Right, decrying the alleged abandonment of the “Western Canon” from higher education, and denouncing American Catholicism as too liberal-influenced (huh…). Was for a while one of the golden boys of the hope for the rise of a new generation of young hardcore ultracon intellectuals – someone who could cover the younger demographic and more-intellectual end of the spectrum with his Ivy credentials yet still hitting hard at his pointyhead peers on the left, while Rush L. and the likes covered the older and the middle-and-bottom. But at some point somehow he began enjoying the taste of celeb status, being on the bestseller list and moving DVDs a little too much, and out the window went intellectual rigor in exchange for guaranteed sales. Kind of faded from the A-list during the Neocon period but even so still rakes in big cash by claiming Barry O is a subversive out to destroy us. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Stamos\_Left\_Ear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_stamos_left_ear/32/3198_2.png) [@John\_Stamos\_Left\_Ear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Stamos_Left_Ear)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2015, 9:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dsouza-life-after-conviction/719433/9 "2015-05-10T09:09:33Z")
I believe you mean convicted felon Dinesh D’Souza. Do you mean convicted felon Dinesh D’Souza? Because I think you are talking about convicted felon Dinesh D’Souza but I want to be sure that it’s really convicted felon Dinesh D’Souza we’re talking about. ---
**Author:** ![pool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pool/32/4152_2.png) [@pool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pool)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2015, 12:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dsouza-life-after-conviction/719433/10 "2015-05-10T12:22:41Z")
The guy found a kind of niche political entertainment market and made, probably quite a few million while he could, good for him I guess though he should have stopped while he was ahead and not committed felonies. He’s kind of a non-entity that has had his 15 minutes of fame and will now most likely fade out into the background. I don’t really have strong feelings about him one way or the other. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2015, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dsouza-life-after-conviction/719433/11 "2015-05-10T18:05:36Z")
Its a relatively minor, but consistent theme on the right, the craving for intellectual cred. Mostly, what they do is endow chairs at Major University with the tacit understanding that someone who reflects their views will park his porky butt therein. Few are as blatant as the Koch Creeps in Florida… > [@](#): > > …A foundation bankrolled by Libertarian businessman Charles G. Koch has pledged $1.5 million for positions in Florida State University’s economics department. In return, his representatives get to screen and sign off on any hires for a new program promoting “political economy and free enterprise.” … [http://www.tampabay.com/news/business/billionaires-role-in-hiring-decisions-at-florida-state-university-raises/1168680](http://www.tampabay.com/news/business/billionaires-role-in-hiring-decisions-at-florida-state-university-raises/1168680) “Political science” (whatever the fuck _that_ means!) and economics ain’t rocket science, you seldom have a chance to prove anything for sure and for certain. But worldwide, the data is filtering in. When I was fresh faced young Objectivist peckerwood, not a week would go by without reading how Sweden was a failed socialist state, swirling around the drain, due to collapse any day now. Or proof positive that socialized medicine was a total disaster, due to be abandoned any day now. Just a wee bit short of fifty years. And what a long strange trip its been… Now, to be sure, the Pubbie base doesn’t give a rat’s about intellectual firepower. But the college educated elites crave to believe that their positions have intellectual credibility. They hunger for a Major Intellectual standard bearer, but the pickings get slimmer and slimmer. Over time, they have declined from the sharp (if spasmodic) wit of Buckley to the scattered derangement of D’Souza and Ted Cruz. Not because they pick the best and the brightest, but because they take what they can get. ---
**Author:** ![PastTense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pasttense/32/14550_2.png) [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2018, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dsouza-life-after-conviction/719433/12 "2018-05-31T16:21:48Z")
Updating this thread: > [@](#): > > President Trump announced Thursday that he would offer a full pardon to conservative pundit Dinesh D’Souza, who pleaded guilty in 2014 to violating federal campaign finance laws but later said he was targeted for his conservative views. > **[Trump pardons conservative pundit Dinesh D’Souza, suggests others also could...](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-offers-pardon-to-conservative-pundit-dinesh-dsouza-for-campaign-finance-violations/2018/05/31/b4939a08-64d5-11e8-a768-ed043e33f1dc_story.html)** > > The president said he is also considering breaks for former Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich, and the author and television personality Martha Stewart. ---
**Author:** ![Icarus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/icarus/32/72_2.png) [@Icarus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Icarus)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2018, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dsouza-life-after-conviction/719433/13 "2018-05-31T17:08:01Z")
> [@PastTense](#): > > Updating this thread: > > [https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-offers-pardon-to-conservative-pundit-dinesh-dsouza-for-campaign-finance-violations/2018/05/31/b4939a08-64d5-11e8-a768-ed043e33f1dc\_story.html](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-offers-pardon-to-conservative-pundit-dinesh-dsouza-for-campaign-finance-violations/2018/05/31/b4939a08-64d5-11e8-a768-ed043e33f1dc_story.html) Weeeee! Probably a White House job (until he’s fired), a new book, then back into pundit-ville and wing-nut welfare! Isn’t America great? ---
**Author:** ![Novelty\_Bobble](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Novelty\_Bobble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Novelty_Bobble)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2018, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dsouza-life-after-conviction/719433/14 "2018-05-31T17:23:18Z")
I saw him being roundly beaten by Christopher Hitchens. His arguments were tired and facile but he put them across with a competence than they barely warranted. I wish him no particular ill-will but he probably deserved it. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2018, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dsouza-life-after-conviction/719433/15 "2018-05-31T17:36:27Z")
> [@Icarus](#): > > then back into pundit-ville Read that as “pundit-vile” 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2018, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dsouza-life-after-conviction/719433/16 "2018-05-31T20:40:45Z")
I refuse to stop referring to him as “Dinesh D’Felon”, though. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2018, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dsouza-life-after-conviction/719433/17 "2018-06-10T17:40:55Z")
> [@Novelty\_Bobble](#): > > I saw him being roundly beaten by Christopher Hitchens. > > His arguments were tired and facile but he put them across with a competence than they barely warranted. I wish him no particular ill-will but he probably deserved it. Oh? It seemed too me his go-to tactic was to repeat or paraphrase his opponent’s position in a dumb-guy voice. Watching Hitchens crush him was entirely satisfying. ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2018, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dsouza-life-after-conviction/719433/18 "2018-06-10T18:34:50Z")
> [@PastTense](#): > > Updating this thread: > > [https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-offers-pardon-to-conservative-pundit-dinesh-dsouza-for-campaign-finance-violations/2018/05/31/b4939a08-64d5-11e8-a768-ed043e33f1dc\_story.html](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-offers-pardon-to-conservative-pundit-dinesh-dsouza-for-campaign-finance-violations/2018/05/31/b4939a08-64d5-11e8-a768-ed043e33f1dc_story.html) Trust the idiot to set a terrible precedent. ---
**Author:** ![Novelty\_Bobble](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Novelty\_Bobble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Novelty_Bobble)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2018, 11:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dsouza-life-after-conviction/719433/19 "2018-06-14T11:34:27Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > Oh? It seemed too me his go-to tactic was to repeat or paraphrase his opponent’s position in a dumb-guy voice. Watching Hitchens crush him was entirely satisfying. Sure, I don’t deny any of that but I merely suggest that he did it competently and fairly smoothly even though what he was saying never had any intellectual value and held no real surprises or insight. Perhaps I’m just an old softy and because he came across as polished and inoffensive I didn’t take quite the visceral pleasure that you clearly did.🙂 For me, I really enjoyed [Hitchen’s going after George Galloway](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XLKQGwVkczg). There is a true pro shit-stirrer for you. Hitchen’s is rarely ruffled but you could almost taste the simmering hatred and disdain. ---
**Author:** ![Novelty\_Bobble](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Novelty\_Bobble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Novelty_Bobble)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2018, 12:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dsouza-life-after-conviction/719433/20 "2018-06-14T12:01:29Z")
> [@Novelty\_Bobble](#): > > For me, I really enjoyed [Hitchen’s going after George Galloway](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XLKQGwVkczg). There is a true pro shit-stirrer for you. Hitchen’s is rarely ruffled but you could almost taste the simmering hatred and disdain. Can anyone explain to me why I suddenly started using a possessive apostrophe for Christopher Hitchens? Am I subliminally thinking that he “owned” Galloway and D’Souza? (to use the term that all the cool kids are using) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dsouza-life-after-conviction/719433.md?page=2)