I always knew David Brooks was an asshole ....

author of the study:

http://i51.tinypic.com/2enw8hs.jpg

yeah half the sources for this new yorker article are the sorts of things that other new yorker article http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/12/13/101213fa_fact_lehrer?currentPage=all was talking about.

As I type, I'm listening to Brooks and that other unctuous bowl of Quaker Oats, E.J. Dionne.

couldn't bring myself to read this and now I know that was the right decision - thanks for saving me the headache, guys.

I basically stopped reading Brooks column in the Times cause he's been doing a lot of ersatz Gladwell-style social psychology & now here he is in the NYer itself.

funny how that works.

I can't wait for the mail on this

"Mr. Brooks argument fails to account for the fact that several studies have indicated, with confidence, that he is a diseased, prolapsed asshole"

"Occasionally, you meet a young, rising member of this class at the gelato store, as he hovers indecisively over the cloudberry and ginger-pomegranate selections, and you notice that his superhuman equilibrium is marred by an anxiety."

Stopped reading after this....

Stopped reading and started stabbing.

No no I stopped and went to the gelato store.

young, rising member

The intro was like a Burt Stanton post.

I probably already know the answer to this, but why are consumer items on sale the same store or supermarket still coded by class? And usually always by a rich media commentator/pundit/talking head douchebag (i.e. elite) who wants to attack "elites", since as mentioned upthread, class warfare is a-ok when aimed at left-leaning folks. The success of distribution networks from railworks & the Sears & Roebuck catalog to Walmart/Kroeger/insert your supermarket chain here onward.

Bobo does it here, too, with the exaggerated gelato remarks. Two other signposts/dogwhistles: "arugala", "latte." You've been able to get all three of these things in any American grocery store for over a decade. Mcdonalds has used that kind of lettuce in their salads for years. But somehow, if I choose _this_ head of lettuce over _that_ one sitting next to it on the same shelf and costing cents more per pound, _I'm_ somehow now a clueless elitist liberal toff? do these assholes even have _any_ idea how much Walmart rakes in on "organic"-labelled foods?!

He made the Buffalo Beast's 50 Most Loathsome People of 2010:

25) David Brooks
Charges: The Bernie Madoff of American letters, every tortured construct and inaccurate assumption ever set to print by this annoyingly self-described “Bourgeoisie Bohemian” is a fraudulent attempt to justify why his house is more expensive than yours. Brooks couldn’t even wait for the bodies to cool after the Haiti earthquake before writing about how useless it is to send money because those voodoo-lovin’ savages simply can’t be helped.
Aggravating factor: “It’s time to find self-confident local leaders who will create No Excuses countercultures in places like Haiti, surrounding people—maybe just in a neighborhood or a school—with middle-class assumptions, an achievement ethos and tough, measurable demands.”
Sentence: Buried under rubble; cholera.

I can't stop laughing at this:

Haley Barbour: Looks like William Shatner if William Shatner ate a racist butter sculpture of William Shatner.

Ha -- Brooks also made Salon's list of worst journalists.

"Occasionally, you meet a young, rising member of this class at the gelato store, as he hovers indecisively over the cloudberry and ginger-pomegranate selections,
and you notice that his superhuman equilibrium is marred by an anxiety."

Old man yells at cloudberry.

Why is Brooks occasionally meeting these guys at the gelato store anyway is that some sort of code?

wide stance, double scoop etc

Creamy taste, throat-soothing texture, free samples

Various research teams have conducted a simple study. They hire a woman to go up to college men and ask them to sleep with her. More than half the men say yes. Then they have a man approach college women with the same offer. Virtually zero per cent say yes.

hold the phone what

― goole, Friday, 14 January 2011 20:38 (5 days ago)

this is actually true. Unlike 99% of Brooks' facts/"experiences."

Driftglass--who does the Professional Left podcast--has a blog http://driftglass.blogspot.com/ that seems about 60% devoted to critiquing David Brooks' columns.

Then they have a man approach college women with the same offer. Virtually zero per cent say yes.

That man was David Brooks

and now you know...

the rest

of the story

"Practicing a piece of music for four hours requires focused attention, but it is nowhere near as cognitively demanding as a sleepover with 14-year-old girls."

wise words, no doubt based on painful experience, from his latest column about amy chua

read way too much of the stupid article before looking at the author's name

i tried to finish this. i really did.

Can't we start a Kickstarter fund to round up David Brooks and Caitlin Flanagan, lock them in a shipping container and drop it into the Marianas trench?

*donates ten dollars*

timoreilly Tim O'Reilly
David Brooks wants to be a comedian at #TED2011. Audience is laughing, but I'd have preferred some substance.
4 minutes ago

hodgman hodgman
Brooks describes Park Slope and thinks he's describing america. #TED
5 minutes ago

Bill_Gross Bill Gross
"Ben and Jerry's should make a pacifist's toothpaste. Doesn't kill germs, just asks them to leave." David Brooks @ #TED
5 minutes ago

Why would Ben and Jerry make toothpaste in the first place.

cause you can eat more ice cream if you brush your teeth

Damn corporations are always a step ahead of me. :(

i get conservatives' fascination and disgust with well-off liberals but i'll never get their blind inability to comprehend them in the slightest. it's like they're staring at the sun. they're not that hard to figure out, guys! you don't need david damn brooks interpreting for you.

well even accepting their existence requires breaking w/ their core beliefs - "why would any rich/successful person advocate for higher taxes / bigger government / anything that might work against their immediate interests? that's just not human nature." the only explanation is that they must be literally insane.

Bill_Gross Bill Gross
After Chris apologizes for inviting right-of-center David Brooks, he gets a mild standing ovation in the first session of #TED.
2 minutes ago

Bill_Gross Bill Gross
Now Chris is trying to define what a #Stnading #Ovation is supposed to be for. #TED Also tells us not to stand if we don't want. #NoDuh?
1 minute ago

david brooks broke #TED

well tbf 'we' get similarly weird about poor right-wingers... but the explanation is basically the same. beliefs r funny.

xps

I don't get weird about them, I just think they're venal and hard-of-thinking.

sorta...but I mean, it's lol/sad that most of america votes against their economic interests, but that doesn't destroy my basic economic logic cause I don't believe in a world where people are acting completely on self-interest. there is something of a difference there.

People who act in complete self-interest are generally great big sociopathic drains on the rest of society.

to turn it around, i guess i mean more than just voting behavior. conservatives looking at rich liberals suffer from some kind of total incomprehension. the jokes don't even make sense. the logic of what's 'hypocritical' doesn't make sense. the resentment doesn't make sense, considering their own leaders. the whole thing is bizarre.

you just want to say, no really, believing in civil rights, gay rights, a fair shot for everyone, full bodily right for women, a decent regulatory state, religious ideas kept to the private sphere, a frank and adult culture... people just believe this stuff! even some rich people! it's pretty simple!

tom scocca goes hard http://www.slate.com/blogs/blogs/scocca/archive/2011/03/01/the-politics-of-entitlement-david-brooks-will-decide-when-it-s-time-for-you-to-die.aspx

Words designed to chill the heart:

David Brooks introduces a new blog in which he hopes to publicize, discuss and evaluate new work in the study of human nature

http://grab.by/9kJ1

why do humans keep punching me

The secret to good writing is to write about things you're passionate about imo

http://brooks.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/03/07/the-thrill-of-victory/

I just discovered this old article via a Tom Scocca link. A great point-by-point takedown of the Brooks method. Includes Brooks's whiny rebuttal.

http://www.phillymag.com/articles/booboos_in_paradise/

http://www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2011/05/03/christopher-tayler/yo-douche-bag/