RIP David Brooks

i hate david frum and the things he has historically stood for but at least he's not a total waste of space

Not the right thread, but since we're posting remarks by GOP buffoons here's Douthat's latest dispatch from fantasyland.

So Frum with some hand-wringing seemingly admitted yesterday that stimulus might have been necessary and now Douthat says stimulus would have been ok if it had been done by a President McCain (in a better way of course than the Dems did). Oy veh.

oh douchehatpaws

more like Ross don'tdouthat amirite

my fav douthat moment was when i saw him interviewed on tv and the interviewer read a wonkete quote that called him a something like a misogynist neck beard homunculus and his response was all 'well sometimes you make arguments that work and sometimes they kinda fall flat but you know' and it was like dawg they just called u a homunculus

lol

In November 2009 I saw Douthat on a Friday at noon in the gay portion of Dupont Circle with a man-friend.

haha wow: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/03/opinion/workers-of-the-world-unite.html

this turdball should write slashfic:

Occasionally you get a candidate, like Tim Pawlenty, who grew up working class. But he gets sucked up by the consultants, the donors and the professional party members and he ends up sounding like every other Republican. Other times a candidate will emerge who taps into a working-class vibe — Pat Buchanan, Mike Huckabee or Sarah Palin. But, so far, these have been flawed candidates who get buried under an avalanche of negative ads and brutal coverage.

This year, Romney is trying to establish some emotional bond with the working class by waging a hyperpatriotic campaign: I may be the son of a millionaire with a religion that makes you uncomfortable, but I love this country just like you. The strategy appears to be only a partial success.

Enter Rick Santorum.

The country doesn’t want an election that is Harvard Law versus Harvard Law.

wait, hasn't david brooks spent years arguing that this is a perfectly good thing??

If you took a working-class candidate from the right, like Santorum, and a working-class candidate from the left, like Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio, and you found a few islands of common ground, you could win this election by a landslide.

Brown was born in Mansfield, Ohio, the son of Emily (née Campbell) and Charles Gailey Brown, M.D.[1] He was named after his maternal grandfather. He became an Eagle Scout in 1967. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Russian studies from Yale University in 1974. At Yale, he was in Davenport College, the same residential college as U.S. Presidents George H. W. and George W. Bush

and you found a few islands of common ground

Sometimes he sounds just like Tom Friedman

Has anyone read the Life Reports David Brooks has been running in the nytimes? It's a really good way to make yourself hopeless and depressed.

Otoh, you can probably say that about anything relating to David Brooks.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/14/opinion/brooks-the-materialist-fallacy.html

had to physically restrain myself from ripping the skin off my face as I was reading this.

He really is such a dunce.

what the hell's he talking about

yogurt, I think

He is doing a little kid level response to the standard criticism of Murray's latest book

http://ussc.edu.au/blogs/David-Brooks-apparently-thinks-society-means-white-people

http://motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2012/02/america-might-be-better-shape-david-brooks-thinks

more like Roast in Piss

Please take a number, if you would like to be the next columnist/blogger/economist etc. to critique David Brooks' latest pronouncement:

Here's Dean Baker

http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/david-brooks-denounces-economics-is-biology-next

Brooks also has an interesting theory on the loss of skills. He tells readers:

"The American social fabric is now so depleted that even if manufacturing jobs miraculously came back we still would not be producing enough stable, skilled workers to fill them."

Five years ago we had two million more people employed in manufacturing than we do today. Has the social fabric become so depleted in this period that these people or others could now not fill these jobs if they came back? If Brooks really thinks that the ill effects of unemployment are that extreme he should be screaming for more stimulus in every column.

brooks recasts real world problems as a morality play in his role as conservative apologist: every david brooks column

tho often i guess they are not so much real world problems as fake made up problems

Today's helping, courtesy of a certain ilx alumnus: http://www.salon.com/2012/02/17/david_brooks_i_have_heard_of_jeremy_lin/singleton/

But even while grappling with the tension between religious values and contemporary cultural values, which is basically well within Brooks’ wheelhouse, he demonstrates a hilarious misunderstanding of sports, and what sports are “about,” because Mr. Brooks has been spending far too much time in his cloistered elite liberal media ivory tower munching on brie and arugula and not enough time among Real Americans in their “Sporting Taverns” watching “The Big Game” over a pint of mass-market domestic lager.

suspect beating up brooks when u need an easy column will outlast "analyzing" linsanity/linreality tbh

A few generations ago, teenagers went steady. But over the past decades, the dating relationship has been replaced by a more amorphous hook-up culture.

a few generations ago, it was legal to marry a 15 year old

a few generations ago, interracial marriage was against the law

a few generations ago, bestiality was legal in Florida

The half-century between 1912 and 1962 was a period of great wars and economic tumult but also of impressive social cohesion. Marriage rates were high. Community groups connected people across class

In the half-century between 1962 and the present, America has become more prosperous, peaceful and fair, but the social fabric has deteriorated. Social trust has plummeted. Society has segmented. The share of Americans born out of wedlock is now at 40 percent and rising.

Ah, the good ol' days..... If only married people had kids, we could have impressive social cohesion and a strong social fabric like we did before 1961, when only men could get decent jobs and we kept those darned negroes out of our good schools, restaurants, and bus seats....

beyond self-parody at this point

Can't be a coincidence that his name is *this* close to douche-hat: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/19/opinion/sunday/douthat-the-safe-legal-rare-illusion.html

First they went after the Rockefeller Republicans, but I was not a Rockefeller Republican. Then they went after the compassionate conservatives, but I was not a compassionate conservative. Then they went after the mainstream conservatives, and there was no one left to speak for me.

Got pretty bummed because he's scheduled to speak at a conference I'll be attending next month, which meant I would have had to cover his talk for our org's magazine. Was dreading that. But turns out he's speaking at a luncheon during the conference, so I think I'm free of that burden!

does your org have a rule against reporting on luncheons?

one more liberal wanting a free ride!

David Brooks making right-wingers angry:

http://www.redstate.com/erick/2012/02/28/is-david-brooks-comparing-the-tea-party-to-nazis/

I would also point out that the Rockefeller Republicans were losers and compassionate conservatism put us on the brink of financial ruin

the last half of the sentence OTM

Similar statements were made about Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, George W. Bush, and John McCain.

maybe reagan but otherwise, no, child

well ok W in 04 too

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/taibblog/is-david-brooks-teaching-humility-at-yale-the-most-pretentious-moment-in-history-20121219

https://docs.google.com/document/d/14zUrsmH6eO_i-arEN0zf1LwFID7SoyxkgAo36NUiHp0/pub

The strategies covered here start from a similar premise—that human beings are blessed with many talents but are also burdened by sinfulness, ignorance and weakness, which is why I call on both parties for common sense solutions to our problems, the most notable of which is a cat o' nine tails.

We will pay special attention to those who attended elite prep schools and universities.

u don't say

someone please call his office phone

Modern societies have become economically and socially more unequal. We will explore status competition and the desire for social distinction—executives who feel unabashed when asking for lavish salaries. We will ask whether it is proper to put a Yale window sticker on the back of your car. We will look at codes of social modesty and ask whether modest people make better business leaders

"Students will be asked to grapple with the indictment of their generation made by Christian Smith, Alasdair Macintyre and Jean Twenge."

The official NJ Twitter account has come for him now:

Hey @nytdavidbrooks, here’s what $78 at Smoke House actually looks like 😉

(ordered at their Trenton location) pic.twitter.com/2UgFlIvSPJ

— New Jersey (@NJGov) September 22, 2023

It would be a start, now play out the logic and stop writing, period:

>> @nytdavidbrooks: "I screwed up. I should not have written that tweet. I probably should not write any tweets." #NeverTweet pic.twitter.com/NECpWRA1pG

— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) September 23, 2023

So it was my mom's birthday, and I was feeling sappy, so I sent my mom this really sweet email in which I thanked her for instilling in me a lifelong love of learning.

Her response started out "That's funny. I am reading this book by David Brooks who spends a lot of time talking about how to know other people in today's divided world..."

Well, I'll talk to her again next year.

God damn it.

No! It's like a pulling someone out of wet cement - you got to tackle the problem NOW before that shit is literally set in stone!

For many, reading David Brooks is the best way to begin hating David Brooks

cruel revive

No! It's like a pulling someone out of wet cement - you got to tackle the problem NOW before that shit is literally set in stone!

― birdistheword

She's my mom. I'm not her mom. It was stupid and self-destructive of me to even try and talk to her after what she did to me. I'm grateful to her for reminding me of that right off the bat.

So I guess, uh... thank you David Brooks for reminding me to stop talking to my abusive mother?

David Brooks: Favorite pundit of abusive mothers everywhere

Apologies Kate, I didn't know your family history beyond that single post.

Haha no worries it's not like I provided a great deal of context. I mean if it's funnier to you to think that I decided to stop talking to my mom, who is otherwise a kind, loving, and caring person, simply because she happened to read a David Brooks book, by all means Barthes the fuck out of my post. That's kind of why I made that post, because I thought it would be kind of funny.

Bobos in Hate

it's a real struggle for me to communicate the absolute tragedy and pathos i felt in that conversation. it's indicative of something larger. like, she legitimately is more emotionally invested in the writing of david brooks than she is in the life of her own daughter. she legitimately, i think, legitimately has no idea what she's doing wrong, what she's done wrong. she's the smartest person i've ever known, which is saying a lot, but i could never explain to her why her following up my trying to emotionally connect with her by talking about a _david brooks_ book made me cut bait as an act of self-preservation.

there's a whole world of people like me who have these kinds of fraught relationships with our parents. i've read that book "adult children of emotionally immature parents". the one that got me was "down the rabbit hole: the world of estranged parents' forums":

https://www.issendai.com/psychology/estrangement/

i read this and i understood so much more about, like, the theory of mind that leads my mom to act in the ways she's acted all her life.

and maybe this is a thread swerve and isn't _about_ david brooks per se, but to me it's part of a larger trend, it's part of the toxic influence of neoliberalism. like my mom always had problems, and as a result of those problems she engaged in severely abusive behavior towards her kids, and even now i don't think of her as _irredeemable_. she's just not someone who _i_ can heal or make better. there's a lot of talk about "social contagion" and for me, that's one of the reasons i got the hell out of indiana. because i was afraid of becoming like her. it's something i worry a lot about. i don't think she's a bad person. she just doesn't know what she's doing wrong, and at this point, i've accepted the strong possibility that she never will. that's why i'll say sometimes that i'm waiting for her to die. i love her deeply, and right now, she's only _capable_ of hurting me. it really helped me a lot when my dad died. it took a load off my chest. because, again, he was stupid and fucked up and so guilt-ridden over abandoning us that he didn't answer the phone when i called. i kept trying, though, because as long as someone's alive, it's not too late. it was this self-defeating cycle. yes, he abandoned us, yes, we suffered a great deal after he abandoned us, and i couldn't get across to him that i legitimately didn't give a shit, that he was still my dad, and that even though his actions hurt me a lot i still loved him and wanted him in my life. we couldn't ever talk about the real shit like that.

and it's the same way with my mom, with most of my family. we can't talk about the real shit, for the most part. i talk about my feelings and she talks about some horrible book she's reading, and she argues in this... i mean, you know, you've seen it, the "debate me" people who come on like they're being all rational but are deeply emotionally driven. my mom is very good at putting an intellectual veneer on her cruelty. she's very good at justifying and making excuses for herself. she's very bad at acknowledging or accepting responsibility for her behavior.

that's kind of what frames my view on discourse, where that comes from. i learned that pattern of behavior from her, and i put it into practice, often, in my younger years. discourse, particularly internet discourse, _thrives_ on that sort of abusive behavior. i really internalized the idea that that sort of behavior was... not normal, but _righteous_, that it was _righteous_ to behave that way. i don't think it is today. i think it's dishonest and cruel to treat another human being that way, particularly to treat your own child that way.

i don't blame david brooks for that, but i think the intellectual tradition he represents is, honestly, a harmful social contagion, a form of trauma inflicted on and by people who can't get away from it. a basilisk. i guess el sandifer wrote a book about that once, right? _neoreaction, a basilisk_? it's probably good. i haven't read it. i don't really read books about discourse. any of them could turn out to be basilisks. what's more important to me is that my relationship with my mom has been very painful for a very long time, and david brooks happens to be a good symbolic representation of that pain.

kate, i got a wildly abusive xmas card from my mom just a few weeks ago. i opened it, started to read it, tore it apart, put the pieces back together, read the whole thing twice. the next week or so was a little rough but the clarity from that - that i had made the right choice to cut her off two years ago - was really invigorating, and i walked into the new year grateful to be rid of the poison and growing on my own. ask her not to contact you unless she is ready to take responsibility for her abuse (keep it to 1 sentence) and cut her off completely. block on all channels. she can send you a letter in the mail if she has a change of heart, but she won't. no contact. stop the poison from flowing to you. you deserve better. the years will pass and there will be hard moments and the grief won't end but you will grow and know that you made the right decision.

Ok can this just be a thread about Davis Brooks ffs

thanks map :heart:

I'm still waiting for the announcement of his demise.

Grim Reaper doesn't want to go near him

thanks map :heart:

― Kate (rushomancy), Thursday, January 25, 2024 3:38 AM (seventeen hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

you're welcome babe

Doth he not have feels.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/08/opinion/trump-republicans-immigration.html

Down at the bottom: "READ 1230 COMMENTS"

No, I don't think I will.

He thought he was beyond shockable

"are we the baddies????"

My progressive readers are now thinking: Have you not been paying attention? Donald Trump has owned this party for years. If he told them to kill the immigration compromise because he needed a campaign issue, they were going to kill that proposal.

To which I respond: I don’t think you quite understand what just happened.

Do go on.

"Let me recount my dinner conversation with my wife, who I think, as I told her at the time, doesn't quite understand what just happened"

this man is a walking definition of fatuity

They have to mouth the Trumpian prejudices to survive in this era, but somewhere deep inside, the party of Reagan still lives in their souls.

Uff da

it doesn't matter a damn what's deep inside their souls because they sold their souls to Trump and are no longer in possession of them

"souls"

lol the party of Reagan is where the problems really started, asshole

when will this fucker really die, c'mon 2024

seriously, thread lets me down time and again

LOL I know. Every damn time.

Seriously, "the party of Reagan." I spent the Reagan years protesting his illegal wars, go fuck yourself.

Spouse suggested that I love to hate on DB the way I watched 60 Minutes to hate on Andy Rooney back in the day, but it is truly a different thing with me and Brooks