Ridicule becomes less fun as you become more aware of your own frequent ridiculousness.
― jmm, Friday, 9 January 2015 21:10 (nine years ago) link
that must be an excruciatingly long and slow process for him
― man alive, Friday, 9 January 2015 21:24 (nine years ago) link
wicked subtweet
http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/03/11/when-values-disappear/?_r=1
― mookieproof, Thursday, 12 March 2015 14:47 (nine years ago) link
That posting is a nice rebuttal to Kristoff's misinterpretation of WJW as well as to Brook's absurd let's punish non-college going Dads for their lack of morals and values thing in a recnet column of his(based on Brooks misinterpretation of Putnam's new Our Kids book)
― curmudgeon, Thursday, 12 March 2015 16:30 (nine years ago) link
every time i open this thread
http://stack-dog.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/0571AE26-7118-4B22-9810-B37B1C100BAE_zpszc2oknoh.png
― flappy bird (spazzmatazz), Thursday, 12 March 2015 19:13 (nine years ago) link
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/for-david-brooks-the-rich-are-people-the-poor-are-numbers-20150311#ixzz3UG7EQzeE
Matt Taibi v. Brooks
― curmudgeon, Friday, 13 March 2015 16:53 (nine years ago) link
Brooks is EXCITED about Marco Rubio! He has *ideas*!
On his first day in office, he handed each legislator a book with the cover “100 Innovative Ideas for Florida’s Future.” The pages were blank. He was inviting his members to fill them in — a nice collaborative touch.
well, I guess that's one way to look at it...
― Οὖτις, Tuesday, 21 April 2015 23:04 (nine years ago) link
my dad has a blank book titled everything i know about sailing; where's his bobodorsement
― difficult listening hour, Tuesday, 21 April 2015 23:05 (nine years ago) link
http://i.imgur.com/sQGxpot.jpg
― Flow-through nonresident pass-through entity (los blue jeans), Sunday, 26 April 2015 01:15 (nine years ago) link
Easy target but couldn't resist.
― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, 26 April 2015 03:06 (nine years ago) link
"Despite all these efforts, there are too many young men leading lives like the one Gray led. He was apparently a kind-hearted, respectful, popular man, but he was not on the path to upward mobility. He won a settlement for lead paint poisoning. According to The Washington Post, his mother was a heroin addict who, in a deposition, said she couldn’t read. In one court filing, it was reported that Gray was four grade levels behind in reading. He was arrested more than a dozen times."
― Treeship, Friday, 1 May 2015 14:24 (nine years ago) link
this is a more fucked up way to frame the situation than just saying something outright racist.
― Treeship, Friday, 1 May 2015 14:25 (nine years ago) link
dude was beaten to death for no reason and brooks feels the need to scrutinize his academic record
― Treeship, Friday, 1 May 2015 14:26 (nine years ago) link
Without connecting it to the fact that he was sufficiently exposed to lead paint at a young age to merit a large settlement. And connecting that to our failures in cities generally.
― I might like you better if we Yelped together (Phil D.), Friday, 1 May 2015 14:33 (nine years ago) link
Like, the connection between lead exposure, brain damage and antisocial behavior is sufficiently well-established that not taking the next step in THAT little mental journey is beyond irresponsible. If you feel like that's the nut of this story, tell the whole damned story.
― I might like you better if we Yelped together (Phil D.), Friday, 1 May 2015 14:34 (nine years ago) link
I mean, Brooks does address that stuff but he says the failure has to do with the culture of poverty -- avoiding that specific buzz phrase of course because it is rightly derided now. He sees Gray as a "victim" but doesn't point his finger at the institutional racism that is enshrined in policy on the federal, state, and local level. That's what's so insidious about him.
― Treeship, Friday, 1 May 2015 14:36 (nine years ago) link
He's not crude enough to say "Freddie Gray was a thug and it's his own fault." He blames "systems" just not ones he could be seen as complicit in upholding.
― Treeship, Friday, 1 May 2015 14:38 (nine years ago) link
and also freddie gray as far as we know didn't engage in much antisocial behavior -- brooks admits as much. and even if he did, that is immaterial. the penalty for whatever it is he might have done over the course of his life isn't supposed to be death.
― Treeship, Friday, 1 May 2015 14:39 (nine years ago) link
last one: i wouldn't be too quick to make the lead paint-brain damage connection without more evidence. for most people who read below grade level, the problem isn't their capability. usually it's a problem in their educational background, a learning difference that wasn't addressed or something like that
― Treeship, Friday, 1 May 2015 14:46 (nine years ago) link
In a fantastic interview that David Simon of “The Wire” gave to Bill Keller for The Marshall Project, he describes that, even in poorest Baltimore, there once were informal rules of behavior governing how cops interacted with citizens — when they’d drag them in and when they wouldn’t, what curse words you could say to a cop and what you couldn’t. But then the code dissolved. The informal guardrails of life were gone, and all was arbitrary harshness.That’s happened across many social spheres — in schools, families and among neighbors. Individuals are left without the norms that middle-class people take for granted. It is phenomenally hard for young people in such circumstances to guide themselves.
That’s happened across many social spheres — in schools, families and among neighbors. Individuals are left without the norms that middle-class people take for granted. It is phenomenally hard for young people in such circumstances to guide themselves.
Holy shit.
"Cops are on a rampage. Hey, that reminds me of how poor people have no morality."
― jmm, Friday, 1 May 2015 14:49 (nine years ago) link
how I would love to stuff David Brooks into a woodchipper
― Οὖτις, Friday, 1 May 2015 15:49 (nine years ago) link
you should be able to say any and all curse words to cops without fear of anything more than a cold stare.
― he quipped with heat (amateurist), Friday, 1 May 2015 20:39 (nine years ago) link
unless they're off-duty, in which case they might smack you like anyone else.
higher standard
― j., Friday, 1 May 2015 21:14 (nine years ago) link
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/05/opinion/david-brooks-what-is-your-purpose.html?ref=opinion
where is your porpoise?
― scott seward, Tuesday, 5 May 2015 19:26 (nine years ago) link
"These days we live in a culture that is more diverse, decentralized, interactive and democratized. The old days when gray-haired sages had all the answers about the ultimate issues of life are over."
r.i.p. gray-haired dude...
― scott seward, Tuesday, 5 May 2015 19:28 (nine years ago) link
he is for TPP in case ya missed it
― the increasing costive borborygmi (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 5 May 2015 19:40 (nine years ago) link
(so he and T Friedman can clink glasses over that one)
Correction: May 5, 2015
An earlier version of this column misspelled the given name of a French philosopher. He was Jean-Paul Sartre, not John-Paul.
An even earlier version misspelled it as Ringo.
― Vic Perry, Tuesday, 5 May 2015 19:55 (nine years ago) link
I think he was actually referring to Pope John-Paul Sartre. A gray-haired sage of the middle ages.
― scott seward, Tuesday, 5 May 2015 19:58 (nine years ago) link
http://images.politico.com/global/news/110705_brooks_bloggers_nbc_328.jpg
― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 5 May 2015 19:59 (nine years ago) link
Being Nothingness
― Vic Perry, Tuesday, 5 May 2015 20:07 (nine years ago) link
As I travel on a book tour, I find there is an amazing hunger to shift the conversation.
lol
― Οὖτις, Tuesday, 5 May 2015 21:00 (nine years ago) link
"can we talk about something else besides your stupid book plz"
oh shit more conversation
i heard Brooks being interviewed for 15 mins on WNYC last week before realizing it wasn't James Woods on downers.
― the increasing costive borborygmi (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 5 May 2015 21:06 (nine years ago) link
Brooks and Woods comparison making my day
― Vic Perry, Tuesday, 5 May 2015 21:16 (nine years ago) link
the voices are closer than you might think!
― the increasing costive borborygmi (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 5 May 2015 21:17 (nine years ago) link
My disdain for Woods is earned since I usually made it halfway through a New Yorker article and then went uh, who is this jerk again? Oh, him.
― Vic Perry, Tuesday, 5 May 2015 21:24 (nine years ago) link
James Woods, the David Brooks of literary criticism. Book him, Dan-O.
― Vic Perry, Tuesday, 5 May 2015 21:34 (nine years ago) link
he means James Woods the actor, not James Wood the critic.
― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 5 May 2015 21:38 (nine years ago) link
Ah hell. I was thinking "authorial" voice. Not unreasonably.
― Vic Perry, Tuesday, 5 May 2015 21:45 (nine years ago) link
Except of course that there is no James Woods the critic. I see that now.
A joke about stopping by Wood on a snowy evening takes on a totally different meaning, doesn't it?
― Vic Perry, Tuesday, 5 May 2015 21:48 (nine years ago) link
I don't care much for his recs these days but James Wood was often a great critic although he looks like I imagine a New Yorker critic looks.
― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 5 May 2015 21:50 (nine years ago) link
I've heard that & figure there must be some reason for his reputation. As I hadn't paid attention, I can only go by what I've read in the New Yorker for the last ten years or so. It's sanctimony, it's unimaginative. He takes up the most boring issues one could have with books.
― Vic Perry, Tuesday, 5 May 2015 22:02 (nine years ago) link
If you have answers to these questions, go the website for my book, “The Road to Character,” click on First Steps and send in your response.
David Brooks, click-baiter.
I vaguely remember The Road to Character.
http://media.nola.com/tpphotos/photo/2014/11/10/16305462-standard.jpg
(l-r: gray-haired sages)
― something of an astrological coup (tipsy mothra), Wednesday, 6 May 2015 03:46 (nine years ago) link
Also I just noticed he was so excited about linking to his website that he left out a preposition. We really are without moral authorities these days, aren't we?
― something of an astrological coup (tipsy mothra), Wednesday, 6 May 2015 03:49 (nine years ago) link
i believe the oldest sage in that photo is the only one not wearing a very obvious rug.
― the increasing costive borborygmi (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 6 May 2015 03:50 (nine years ago) link
http://the-toast.net/2015/05/05/david-brooks-writes-a-sestina-about-poverty/
― Οὖτις, Wednesday, 6 May 2015 15:44 (nine years ago) link
Krugman wrote a nice response
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/04/opinion/paul-krugman-race-class-and-neglect.html?_r=0
― Doktor Van Peebles (kingfish), Wednesday, 6 May 2015 20:56 (nine years ago) link
Every time you’re tempted to say that America is moving forward on race — that prejudice is no longer as important as it used to be — along comes an atrocity to puncture your complacency.
was surprised this turned out to not be a reference to Brooks' column tbh
― Οὖτις, Wednesday, 6 May 2015 21:04 (nine years ago) link