http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/david-brooks-structural-revolution-column-8682328
Another discussion of Brooks' new mansion and his recent attack on entitlement/welfare state spending
― curmudgeon, Wednesday, 9 May 2012 19:00 (twelve years ago) link
Apparently Krugman's been tearing apart Brooks' horseshit without ever actually mentioning the dude by name
― Choad of Choad Hall (kingfish), Wednesday, 9 May 2012 19:16 (twelve years ago) link
TBF, while Brooks' horseshit is indeed horseshit, that Pierce takedown kind of misapprehends some key points about our economy. The finance industry didn't really wreck a perfectly good economy, they bubbled us out of a bad one by creating fake wealth, skimming the profits and then peacing out as it burst. There really are structural problems in our economy beyond the aftermath of mortgage securitization -- I don't think even Krugman would completely discount that.
― Scott, bass player for Tenth Avenue North (Hurting 2), Wednesday, 9 May 2012 19:47 (twelve years ago) link
In fact whaddya know:http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/09/28/structural-problems-not-structural-unemployment/
― Scott, bass player for Tenth Avenue North (Hurting 2), Wednesday, 9 May 2012 19:58 (twelve years ago) link
I dream of him being dropped by the NY Times, NPR and PBS and seeing if it would give him a new perspective. But that's not gonna happen so I similarly just dream of someone telling him how absurd he is on some tv or radio talk show. But that also is not gonna happen.
― curmudgeon, Thursday, 10 May 2012 14:25 (twelve years ago) link
This paragraph at the end of Ezra Klein's response to Brooks' recent column gets it (emphasis mine):
It happens to be the case that Brooks likes Obama’s “hypercompetitive, restrained, not given to self-doubt, rarely self-indulgent” temperament, which is fine. But here he’s presented readers with a mystery that isn’t actually a mystery, and then told them, without evidence, that “most of the cause is personal” and “the key is [Obama’s] post-boomer leadership style.” Not that Brooks thinks that, or sees a case for it, but that that’s how it is. But it isn’t! Or, at the least, we have no evidence for it.
This is the feeling that I get listening to him on All Things Considered on Fridays. I think I get where he's trying to go but the logic is so convoluted and a lot of what he states as fact is really just incredibly misguided analysis. That plus his arrogance can be enraging.
― all things must pass (shaane), Tuesday, 15 May 2012 17:23 (twelve years ago) link
I'm actually surprised he can afford a $4m house. How much can the Times possibly pay his columnists? His most recent book was a #1 bestseller, but at this point in history how much actual cash money does that translate into?
― Guayaquil (eephus!), Tuesday, 15 May 2012 18:35 (twelve years ago) link
he's been around forever. dude is loaded.
― Roger Barfing (Shakey Mo Collier), Tuesday, 15 May 2012 18:39 (twelve years ago) link
He's been around forever but as far as I can tell he's only written three books. A book every 4 years just can't translate into that much income, can it? And surely even a plummy job writing a column once a week for the New York Times can't pay more than, I dunno, $200K. I'm still not seeing how it turns into $4m house money.
― Guayaquil (eephus!), Tuesday, 15 May 2012 18:55 (twelve years ago) link
TV appearances over the last 30 years
― Roger Barfing (Shakey Mo Collier), Tuesday, 15 May 2012 19:04 (twelve years ago) link
Atlantic Monthly, WSJ, NPR, Weekly Standard - that shit adds up
― Roger Barfing (Shakey Mo Collier), Tuesday, 15 May 2012 19:06 (twelve years ago) link
Speaker fees?
― quincie, Tuesday, 15 May 2012 19:07 (twelve years ago) link
I always imagine dudes like him get "grants" from shady "think tanks" but that's basically something I made up so
― this guy's a gangsta? his real name's mittens. (Hurting 2), Tuesday, 15 May 2012 19:07 (twelve years ago) link
Dude is moving to my hood and I will run him down with my car if I get the chance.
― quincie, Tuesday, 15 May 2012 19:08 (twelve years ago) link
it's also not super far from where I grew up. My synagogue was in Cleveland Park.
― this guy's a gangsta? his real name's mittens. (Hurting 2), Tuesday, 15 May 2012 19:19 (twelve years ago) link
holy crap, I think quincie is right. According to this:
http://speakermix.com/david-brooks
brooks gets $20-40K every time he shows up to give an hour talk and eat banquet chicken.
― Guayaquil (eephus!), Tuesday, 15 May 2012 19:22 (twelve years ago) link
Bobos in Paradise was a huge hit in 2000 and 2001; I worked in a bookstore then.
He can still use it as a memoir title.
― Exile in lolville (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 15 May 2012 19:55 (twelve years ago) link
Adas Israel or Washington Hebrew?
Wonder which (if any) 'gogue the family Brooks attends.
― quincie, Tuesday, 15 May 2012 20:01 (twelve years ago) link
AI
― this guy's a gangsta? his real name's mittens. (Hurting 2), Tuesday, 15 May 2012 20:10 (twelve years ago) link
Oh sweet. I have studied with rabbiAvIs MILL3r. Have also been in classes with some of the other AI rabbis. Too big/too conservative for me; also their mikveh reminds me of my high school locker room; wanna find something more "atmospheric" if I convert.
― quincie, Wednesday, 16 May 2012 00:03 (twelve years ago) link
This is the story of a failed rescue, not vampire capitalism
Predictable column from him today defending venture capitalism with cherry-picked anecdotes and admissions that do not tell the whole story
― curmudgeon, Tuesday, 22 May 2012 15:13 (twelve years ago) link
so my local college alumni has a book club (which I've never participated in) and the book for June is bobos in paradise. I'm tempted to read it and go just for the horror.
― catbus otm (gbx), Tuesday, 22 May 2012 20:26 (twelve years ago) link
Didn't read but I get the impression that maybe wrt that book he was sort of onto something for once. Athough it does sound like it has a touch of his trademark stealthy conservative spin.
― this guy's a gangsta? his real name's mittens. (Hurting 2), Tuesday, 22 May 2012 20:27 (twelve years ago) link
Yeah it's not so bad from what I recall (read many years ago before I actually became a bobo).
― quincie, Wednesday, 23 May 2012 01:49 (twelve years ago) link
i detest Brooks, but Bobos in Paradise was not terrible
― Iago Galdston, Wednesday, 23 May 2012 02:01 (twelve years ago) link
DAVID BROOKS: Okay, so our act starts with us inflating a giant internet bubble. Then that collapses, taking the country's economy with it, just as we massively cut taxes on millionaires because, we say, if we don't the government will have too much money. Right after that we blow off warnings about terrorism and let 3,000 Americans get slaughtered. We use that as a chance to lie the U.S. into invading a country that had nothing to do with the attack, killing hundreds of thousands of people and turning millions into refugees. In the middle of all that we borrow torture techniques from the Inquisition and use them on people in secret sites around the planet. Then we make billions off another financial bubble, the biggest in human history, and do nothing as it collapses, plunging the world into the greatest economic calamity since the Great Depression. To fix that we open up the national bank vault and shovel out money as fast as possible to all the criminals who made it happen in the first place. Then—as the amazing finale—we refuse to prosecute anyone for that, for the war, or for torture, and we start killing U.S. citizens with flying death robots.[LONG PAUSE]AGENT: ...That's a hell of an act. What do you call it?DAVID BROOKS: The Aristocrats!
[LONG PAUSE]
AGENT: ...That's a hell of an act. What do you call it?
DAVID BROOKS: The Aristocrats!
― Julie Derpy (Phil D.), Wednesday, 13 June 2012 17:23 (eleven years ago) link
Ha. I see that was prepared in response to an actual Brooks column that was cartoon-like:
http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/david-brooks-calls-for-dissolving-the-people
― curmudgeon, Wednesday, 13 June 2012 18:39 (eleven years ago) link
http://s3.amazonaws.com/data.tumblr.com/tumblr_m5kkxbJXho1qd96hso1_1280.jpg
― mookieproof, Thursday, 14 June 2012 01:05 (eleven years ago) link
I liked atrios' post on this, http://www.eschatonblog.com/2012/06/authoritah.html
Pierce and others did much more elaborate takedowns of The Follower Problem column, but this is the shorter version of everybody. And I've finally been coming around to Black's incredibly venomous style in the past few months (maybe it was too much to bear when the US was the primary home of all grand fuckups and incompetent, unaccountable villainy, and now I can get into it because ~50% of his sniping is about Europe? I dunno) but the way he drops the last sentence in this particular post is just wonderful.
bullets
1. Brooks remains exceptionally good at providing labels. I suspect "follower problem" might have more legs than Bobo in the long run.
2. What would it take to get him fired? I live in DC. I feel a need to crash these cocktail parties where this motherfucker is something other than a bad joke. I know the village exists - I'm sure I've spent lots of time on the metro and in traffic, mere inches away from no-shit villagers - but what is this construct? how is the vacuum maintained?
― El Tomboto, Thursday, 14 June 2012 02:24 (eleven years ago) link
Plant a tracker on Maureen Dowd perhaps.
― Dreaming in Infrared (kingfish), Thursday, 14 June 2012 02:28 (eleven years ago) link
planting things on modo? am I a roomba? who would not be disgusted by this option?
I should just nab some addresses from these overpaid shitbirds' public property tax whatevers and show up with a shaker full of straight shitty whiskey and goat eyes for garnishes and see how far I get before they notice my suit is made of vegetables and not poor people
― El Tomboto, Thursday, 14 June 2012 03:01 (eleven years ago) link
Brooks remains exceptionally good at providing labels. I suspect "follower problem" might have more legs than Bobo in the long run.
yeah i dunno, been reading him lately and wondering if people are still "following" him. like he's trying too hard with the conceptual term-coining
― (REAL NAME) (m coleman), Thursday, 14 June 2012 09:44 (eleven years ago) link
x-post to El Tomboto
I thought Brooks' new DC digs were close to you? Maybe you will run into him somewhere
Here's a criticism of Brooks re his thoughts on the Gehry design for the Eisenhower memorial
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/arts-post/post/david-brookss-criticism-of-eisenhower-memorial-design-falls-short/2012/06/13/gJQAtUurZV_blog.html
― curmudgeon, Thursday, 14 June 2012 17:21 (eleven years ago) link
His new digs are close to ME. Brooks is not cool enough to have digs close to tombot.
― quincie, Thursday, 14 June 2012 17:22 (eleven years ago) link
david brooks, opinion leader
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2012/06/20/e-mails-show-uva-board-wanted-big-online-push
Another article -- this one forwarded from Kington to Dragas -- was the "The Campus Tsunami," by the New York Times columnist David Brooks, predicting massive change from the MOOCs, and also predicting that the new model will involve much more learning from professors who are not at the college or university a student attends.
(re the university of virginia board members' push for online courses, in connection with their firing the president of uva)
― j., Wednesday, 20 June 2012 19:15 (eleven years ago) link
http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2012/07/david-brooks-strange-preoccupation-single-parents
― curmudgeon, Wednesday, 11 July 2012 17:57 (eleven years ago) link
Bringing serious lols today. "(Elites) work much longer hours than people down the income scale, driving their kids to piano lessons and then taking part in conference calls from the waiting room."
― Fig On A Plate Cart (Alex in SF), Friday, 13 July 2012 15:32 (eleven years ago) link
can't read anything of Brooks' without imagining him in this pose:
http://jewishachievementblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/40-david_brooks.jpg
― a regina spektor is haunting europe (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 13 July 2012 15:34 (eleven years ago) link
he's giving Christopher Hayes book some attention at least-
I’d say today’s meritocratic elites achieve and preserve their status not mainly by being corrupt but mainly by being ambitious and disciplined....
― curmudgeon, Friday, 13 July 2012 16:11 (eleven years ago) link
feel like he really had trouble with that one, a lot of straining to reach the liberal boogeyman.
― bnw, Friday, 13 July 2012 16:19 (eleven years ago) link
Man, I hope Elites carry towels with them to wipe off after those grueling fucking conference calls.
― Marco YOLO (Phil D.), Friday, 13 July 2012 16:23 (eleven years ago) link
Like, has David Brooks ever worked a graveyard shift or lifted anything weighing more than 10 pounds in his entire life? Does he know anyone who does?
http://amcatholic.files.wordpress.com/2010/04/photoshopped-david-brooks.jpg
― a regina spektor is haunting europe (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 13 July 2012 16:25 (eleven years ago) link
motherfuckers don't understand i'm doing work emails while in line at starbucks
― bnw, Friday, 13 July 2012 16:29 (eleven years ago) link
when people talk about corruption and rigging the game they mean Kaplan test prep courses. i'm surprised the occupy kaplan movement hasn't taken off.
― bnw, Friday, 13 July 2012 16:31 (eleven years ago) link
Like, has David Brooks ever worked a graveyard shift or lifted anything weighing more than 10 pounds in his entire life?
His butt?
― Nothing cracks a turtle like Leeeon Uris (Leee), Friday, 13 July 2012 16:51 (eleven years ago) link
in today's column, he also uses the word "scrupulosity," which is defined as "a psychological disorder characterized by pathological guilt about moral or religious issues. It is personally distressing, objectively dysfunctional, and often accompanied by significant impairment in social functioning. It is typically conceptualized as a moral or religious form of obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD), although this categorization is empirically disputable."
he meant "scrupulousness."
but you know, that's just my elite education showing.
― for reasons of sass (the table is the table), Friday, 13 July 2012 23:48 (eleven years ago) link
Scruples are such tiny things that even the scrupulous overlook most of them.
― Aimless, Saturday, 14 July 2012 01:04 (eleven years ago) link
http://www.phillymag.com/articles/booboos-in-paradise/
― s.clover, Sunday, 12 August 2012 15:06 (eleven years ago) link
Kevin Drum re latest Brooks column on Romney/Ryan medicare plan:
As near as I can tell, the truth is almost exactly the opposite of what Brooks has written. He may not be impressed with Obama's plan, but that's not a good excuse for so badly misrepresenting what Romney and Ryan would do.
― curmudgeon, Tuesday, 21 August 2012 15:55 (eleven years ago) link