david brooks vs. thomas friedman vs. ross douthat

hard choice but got 2 b friedman

^^^

I actually find him the least worst of these three

this is like choosing b/w bullshit, pigshit and chickenshit.

hate to say it but friedman is the least bad of the three. at least he occasionally bothers to make an actual argument. reading brooks is like trying to get day-old caramel out of your teeth.

seriously, it's really b/w Friedman and Brooks. Douthat is awful, but he's awful b/c he's pretty upfront about being a wingnut. Brooks has his fake centrist nonsense -- and he's a Mets fan -- but only a complete pinhead who's spent the last decade or so locked in a closet can't see through his schtick at this point.

so Friedman it is.

i assume that brooks and douthat have a sinister purpose behind everything they write, so while i no doubt disagree, it at least makes sense.

friedman just seems clueless and is a terrible writer. 'my cab driver in cairo' etc good lord.

well the clueless head in the clouds thing is what makes it marginally more defensible, like he's just this crazy guy talking to you on the bus

Friedman the crazy guy on the bus talking nonsense whilst drooling on his overcoat also has the ear of the President and a shockingly large number of Democratic movers and shakers. that's why i voted for him.

I'll be the contrarian and say Douthat, the only one who creates the blip of an impression that he's read other things besides editorials and policy statements. Also, I saw him in the queer part of Dupont Circle in 2009 in the company of what looked like a Provincetown bartender.

^^^ sounds like infidelity

also, aren't we voting for the worst?

yes

Friedman's latest column is a masterpiece of cowardice and stupidity:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/18/opinion/friedman-one-for-the-country.html?_r=1

I'll vote for Friedman as worst because he's taken most seriously. The right wing doesn't even take Brooks seriously.

voted Douthat cause i hate the way he couches intolerant/ugly sentiments in the deceptive rhetoric of "reason" and "balance"

alfred OTM on what makes Friedman the worst of this entire sorry lot.

Brooks would win on photos alone

http://www.againstcronycapitalism.org/wp-content/uploads/David-Brooks.jpg

ross is "known" in conservative circles for his impeccable sense of style

http://images.nymag.com/news/intelligencer/encounter/encounter120326_250.jpg

douthat's face def bothers me the most

motherfucker just looks SOFT

http://www.charlierose.com/images_toplevel/content/10/1051/segment_10518_460x345.jpg

brooks is the worst. friedman is ok minus the globalization shtick.

Douthat looks like a late 30-something version of Paul Dano's character from the extra man.

Douthat still thinks it's 1995.

Jonah Goldberg has the same delusion.

i was hoping this thread title was something that happened.

what is douthat's shtick, as compared to brooks' red/blue staters are like *this* and friedman's absurd metaphors that lead nowhere?

He's a Christian whose hands shake at the suspicion that libs might think he hates gays and women.

he's not one of those republican extremists - heavens - tho he takes pains to diplomatically point out how liberals/women/gays/muslims/etc bring problems on themselves

that's right

a concern troll then; how innovative

if forced at gunpoint to read one of the three every day for the rest of my life i'd still choose douthat

friedman... just pull the trigger

your doppelganger

while we also talk about their merits as writers, how about we also turn this into a MFK thread?

when i was working a (very good and non-depressing) temp job at a financial planning group, the well meaning 50 something jewish libs frequently discussed friedman columns in reverent hushed tones... first time i'd ever heard anyone irl bring dude up as a serious columnist

voted Douthat cause i hate the way he couches intolerant/ugly sentiments in the deceptive rhetoric of "reason" and "balance"

― demolition with discretion (m coleman), Thursday, April 19, 2012 8:48 PM (43 minutes ago)

^^

i still find that less distasteful (or at least more garden variety) than friedman's schtick

all three are vile of course

NYT doesn't really have any 'very good' writers as columnists. i mean krugman's always worth a read but even following charles m blow on twitter has tempered my like of him

krugman is a very good writer

i'd heard that 'from beirut to jerusalem' was good, but find it a little hard to credit now -- perhaps the subject matter restrained him from making it an archetypical global fable, as with everything else?

yeah i changed my mind after i wrote his name and didn't bother to change my first statement haha xp

charles m blow seems ripe for display name puns, now that i think of it

The late William Safire was the only one who could occasionally write a sentence I'd read twice.

i agree that krugman is worth reading and i always do but i am often smh at the way he seems to be preaching to the choir, he takes such a hard line that even though he's right he sort of paints himself into an ideological corner that just inflames the right instead of engaging him

obv that's not entirely or even largely his fault but i feel like he's wielding a battle axe when should be using the rapier

lol ross douchehat

brooks is like the bill gates looking dude in the back of newsweek who even though i am on the other side of the political spectrum i find myself agreeing with or at least appreciating the differing view cause his tone is measured

really love the loyal opposition guy though

Krugman has given up on trying to talk w/ the shit-throwing baboons who call themselves conservatives these days. i don't blame him at all, it's really the most sensible approach.

i'll also stan for Nicholas Kristof.

Krugman is a classic example of a pundit with whom I agree often but whose prose is pedestrian at best (boy, does he love his rhetorical questions).

douthat = least stupid/ most hateful

krugman = shrill
brooks/douthat = reasonable

does this perception hurt k-thug or not?

i *think* this is a poorly-formed joek? idk

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D-kP8nKW4AAFuER.jpg

i prob voted Douthat. can't remember rn.

but now i'd have to say the answer is Brooks

douthat is the one that annoys me least and amuses me most

Imagine getting paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to write this drivel

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/07/opinion/biden-campaign-covid.html

the URL doesn't do it justice

What America Needs Next: A Biden National Unity Cabinet

how did douthat not win this

I def voted for him at the time lol youth but hahaha no no no he’s far and away the least worst of these clowns in 2020

lol I guess I literally just said this a few months ago.

Love to remember things better from 8 years ago than from 8 months ago. Is this being old? Am I old now

https://i.imgur.com/91A6BYo.jpg

'anthony fauci isn't omniscient, so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯'

the podcast "know your enemy" had douthat on as a guest and my opinion of them went way down.

hell yeah man

Tom Friedman is on CNN right now saying the best case scenario is Biden winning and Republicans holding the senate so both will be forced to compromise.

LOL.

— Nicholas Miller (@Nick_L_Miller) November 3, 2020

https://media.newyorker.com/photos/5909515e6552fa0be682bce9/master/pass/dr-strangelove-still-580.jpg

Encanto is the best Disney since Moana but also its fifth movie in a row without a meaningful love story; decadence continues:https://t.co/Qr7oe9VLRp

— Ross Douthat (@DouthatNYT) January 11, 2022

must be causation

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FSE_c0xXoAEncBu?format=png&name=small

Twitter has time today.

i wish ross would explain how it is that he is participating in the workforce given his lack of any skills or talents

blame roe v. wade

One reason I think "op-ed writer at major newspaper" should be something various people should get to do a few times a year, tops, rather than be a few people's full-time job is the staggering intellectual laziness it too often facilitates and encourages. pic.twitter.com/ApVBnYZj4J

— David Watkins (@djw172) May 6, 2022

the recent Roe news has really given Doubthat a chance to outshine the other two in the dipshit Olympics

still time for someone with the "music will get better after Roe is overturned" take

or one of those aborted fetuses could have been the next Cobain

I am curious what kind of ‘truce’ on abortion @DouthatNYT has in mind here. Because I literally can’t imagine one that would be workable in the current moment. pic.twitter.com/ruirrXDEry

— Jordan Weissmann (@JHWeissmann) September 5, 2022

They still remember that guy on Kavanaugh’s street?

Piss on this turd:

Yes yes yes:https://t.co/UFWtGzepXG

— Ross Douthat (@DouthatNYT) November 2, 2022

Israel and Hungary, huh

weirdo

A proposed screening Q for the next GOP administration: Is Swift-Kelce --
(a) a sweet thing to watch and maybe the last best hope for America, we need them to marry and procreate
(b) a psy-op to get NFL fans to get booster shots and vote for Democrats
no (b)s need apply

— Ross Douthat (@DouthatNYT) January 29, 2024

lol Stephen Miller would probably choose a)

Truly wish Lyme would have just killed him.

we need them to marry and procreate

normal!

c. *monday night football song starts playing*

it is kinda funny that b is more true than a but its not "a psy-op" its just a contrived celebrity relationship like theyve been doing in hollywood for 100 years

they're both gay?

if youve never looked into the taylor swift conspiracysphere and are interested in such things then i can recommend it

gaylor has been pretty much canon on tumblr for at least a decade

I'm pretty sure the smiley football guy op is damage control for the Matty Healy op

taylors been getting in the news for her boyfriends for 15 year now but this one is next level, multiple appearances on the most watched tv show of the week, travis kelce is booking credit card commercials, everyones winning

Celebrity creampies that can save America's bipartisan consensus.

everyones winning

i'm getting a bit tired of winning so much

Wow I had no idea all that MAGA Taylor Swift stuff was a thing. Kinda wish I still didn’t know.

Eh, it's better than when they thought she was an Aryan goddess awhile back.

On the recent grasping of Swift conspiracy by the dumbass misogynist Charlie Kirk types:

…To be acceptable in this strange crowd you gotta believe getting vaccinated is unmanly, you gotta believe Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce are nefarious plants to elect Joe Biden, you gotta believe all sorts of foods and activities will make you too feminine, but that a man can ever be a woman. And so on and so forth. This set of beliefs, always paired with the need for dominant and potentially violent manhood, contributes to more and more men viewing unhealthy, dangerous masculinity and fascist beliefs as core parts of their identity. And this wave of young men is shifting right in their political beliefs. But while we can’t deny the danger of this shift, and the danger of men being taught to hate women, as evidenced by the link between domestic violence and mass shootings, there is a real possibility that this sharp edge of patriarchy can only go so far. These misogyny influencers have done and will do serious damage, but sharpen the patriarchy too much and it gets brittle and fragile. Sharpen it too much, as these men are doing, and you begin to lose people. You begin to demand too much and men start to drop off.

https://open.substack.com/pub/newmeans/p/its-expensive-to-be-a-man

I'm pretty sure the smiley football guy op is damage control for the Matty Healy op

― Beyond Goo and Evol (President Keyes), Monday, January 29, 2024 1:58 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

i'm sure dating travis kelce is a real relief after that douchebag

the kelce family seems nice

https://i.imgur.com/IWsAEKu.jpg

https://bsky.app/profile/nonrenormalizable.bsky.social/post/3l3vlcr6obx2j

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_fullsize/plain/did:plc:fp5xtbrubzj6mdgvwlcqbq27/bafkreidtrdppsppryhqtwdnylovhg6ncfnua2v2p6bgd3wlaq7curriv6u@jpeg

sad will pray for god

God switched to RFK Jr. but now he's considering just destroying the world

I swear I actually couldn’t remember who Ron DeSantis was for a minute there. I started to picture Ron Paul.

Amazing that Douthat thought DeSantis was the way to make the GOP seem less abnormal and more trustworthy, but invoking God as his direct sponsor is just abysmally stupid. ofc anyone capable of saying it is also incapable of noticing that.

douthat is so left field i almost respect it

perfect

New: David Brooks is leaving the NYT for the Atlantic, where he will be a staff writer and host a video podcast