Althouse: "I am a sick man. I am a spiteful man. I am an unattractive man. I believe my liver is diseased. I am one of those fanatics on the alt-right and the alt-left..."

September 6, 2019

"I am a sick man. I am a spiteful man. I am an unattractive man. I believe my liver is diseased. I am one of those fanatics on the alt-right and the alt-left..."

"... the ones who make online forums so vicious, the ones who cancel and call out, the minority of online posters who fill the air with hate. I’m one of those radicals whose rage is intertwined with psychological fragility, whose anger at real wrongs is corrupted by my existential panic about myself."

David Brooks understands you from the inside!

"To know anything about me you have to understand the chaos at the core of my innermost being. I was raised without coherent moral frameworks. I was raised amid social fragmentation and division, the permanent flux of liquid modernity...."

Mmm. Liquid modernity.

"I yearn for order. Blunt simplicities. Politics provides the Manichaean binaries I can’t find anywhere else, and so I make everything political. Own the libs! Smash the racist right! A war of pure good and pure evil. I crave the single narrative that will make everything clear: Everything is race. Everything is class. Everything is moral rot caused by godlessness. They say that fundamentalism is rigid and authoritarian. I say to them: Yes! I want fundamentalism. Please wrap me in that rigidity...."

Wrap me in that rigidity... Now, I'm getting distinctly uncomfortable, David. This fantasy of the inside of other people's head... it's unsettling. And the semi-concreteness of you metaphor bothers me. In my world, things used for wrapping — blankets, aluminum foil, tissue paper — are flexible.

"From the abstract vantage point of my computer screen, I see a world in which my opponents are elite oppressors and my kind are oppressed. They have their exclusive cliques and I am disdained. And here we get to the ultimate injustice: Why are they recognized while I am not? This is the molten core from which my indignation flows...."

Molten! We're getting back to liquid.

"So my politics is not really about issues... You stumbled? I delight in crushing you! Owning the libs spares me the terrifying ambiguity of actually getting to know one...."

The libs?! Suddenly the fiend Brooks is channeling is a right-winger? Initially, he was "one of those fanatics on the alt-right and the alt-left." Now, we know which one.

207 comments:

1 – 200 of 207 Newer› Newest»

Lincolntf said...: I am so sick of pundits/intellectuals projecting their own neuroses onto the rest of the world. We are normal. David Brooks is fucked.; 9/6/19, 7:59 AM
Ann Althouse said...: "Anxiety" is a new tag. I've gone back and added it to some old posts, but I can't add it everywhere where I'd have put it if I'd used it all along. I've been missing it, but only this post tipped me over the line to actually doing something about this gaping hole in my blogging soul.; 9/6/19, 8:00 AM
Lyle Smith said...: Someone paid him to write that. They should stop. I would be great if I could get into their mind.; 9/6/19, 8:03 AM
JPS said...: Brooks should really try some honest self-criticism before channeling others.

Even as an exercise in rhetoric or creative writing, and even without the garbled metaphors, this doesn't work. In theory he's trying to get inside the heads of people he disagrees with, but it fails because he imagines the alt-right or alt-left fanatic seeing himself exactly as David Brooks sees him.; 9/6/19, 8:04 AM
Big Mike said...: Owning the libs spares me the terrifying ambiguity of actually getting to know one...."

And imagining yourself in the mind of an alt-right individual spares Brooks from ever having to fulfill his November 2016 pledge to get out of New York City and meet Trump voters. Did he ever get further west than Newark?; 9/6/19, 8:04 AM
doctrev said...: Fisking is nice, but sometimes brevity works. David Brooks is straw-manning, and the quality says a lot more about how David Brooks sees himself than anyone else.

The fact is globalists are incredibly fragile, and unable to face challenge. David Brooks clearly has no idea who he's facing. I'm one of the extremists who he decries, I admittedly -love- liberal tears, and he's still a thousand miles off. Which wouldn't be so bad, except dime-store psychology is one of the few tasks David Brooks is qualified for, and he still does it poorly.; 9/6/19, 8:06 AM
Drago said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 9/6/19, 8:06 AM
Drago said...: Brooks, like all fake conservatives who have been exposed as lefties, is panicking because all his preferred democrat candidates are imploding.

Sleepy Creepy Bloody Eye, Li'l Tomahawk, Soviet Boy, et al have in just the last few weeks come out in favor of the new green commie deal, banning guns, banning everything really, trade surrender to the world, car confiscation, endless wars at Europes behest, etc.

And so what does Brooks do? Cry and whine like a little girl.

Trump may not be your cup of tea, but these LLR's are arsenic.; 9/6/19, 8:08 AM
JPS said...: It occurs to me that the one thing that rings true about his writing in that voice is that he puts words in others' mouths that they would never agree with, for the purpose of scoring points against them. That is something the fanatics actually do.

But this:

"And here we get to the ultimate injustice: Why are they recognized while I am not? This is the molten core from which my indignation flows...."

Now how many people do you think would nod their heads to that, or, if ashamed of the sentiment, inwardly think, "Yeah, he's got my number"? It would be more honest if he simply thundered away in the genuine voice of David Brooks, "I know what's really bothering you: I'm recognized and you're not!"; 9/6/19, 8:08 AM
narciso said...: Brooks who called palin a cancer on the party, just go back to your 28 year old tesearch assiatant brooksie.; 9/6/19, 8:09 AM
Patrick said...: " Now, we know which one."

We knew as soon as he started writing.; 9/6/19, 8:11 AM
robother said...: One man's diseased liver is another man's rare entree with fava beans and a fine chianti.; 9/6/19, 8:11 AM
WWIII Joe Biden, Husk-Puppet + America's Putin said...: David Brooks usually gets a bit snippy and sensitive when his side is on the losing end of the argument.

You racists.; 9/6/19, 8:13 AM
Robert Cook said...: Brooks was channeling Dostoyevsky's Underground Man.; 9/6/19, 8:13 AM
narciso said...: Because you disdained the huntress, you got trump, you bring him down who knows what slouching beast youll awaken; 9/6/19, 8:14 AM
WWIII Joe Biden, Husk-Puppet + America's Putin said...: Brooks cannot bring himself to mention Antifa. or leftwing fascism. It's really those 5 kkk-ers on a park bench who are to blame. 4 are FBI agents. You lib haters.; 9/6/19, 8:18 AM
mccullough said...: Brooks left his wife for another woman. Just like George Will.

They are part of the problem.

Resign your gigs and go away; 9/6/19, 8:19 AM
Michael K said...: Has Brooks been west of the Hudson in 20 years ? I( saw him in Chicago one time but that was more than 20 years ago. More than 30.; 9/6/19, 8:20 AM
narciso said...: Yes and she tanked the walker campaign, maybe on jebs orders.; 9/6/19, 8:21 AM
CWJ said...: Equivalence must be manufactured. Newton's third law misapplied to politics.; 9/6/19, 8:22 AM
Fen said...: David Brooks beaten by his own Strawman.

Trump: The Great Unmasking.; 9/6/19, 8:22 AM
Fernandinande said...: "I yearn for order.

A couple of days ago some highly trained social scientists were claiming that the people they don't like have a psychological "need for chaos".; 9/6/19, 8:23 AM
Quayle said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 9/6/19, 8:24 AM
mccullough said...: I left my wife for a younger woman. I am a New York Times columnist who scolds others for their lack of character.; 9/6/19, 8:24 AM
MikeR said...: Brooks sounds like he's doing the same thing? Insane incompetent mind-reading.; 9/6/19, 8:25 AM
narciso said...: Add chris buckley to that list, who atepped out on the daughter of company man donald gregg, his boss and friend of the family.; 9/6/19, 8:25 AM
Quayle said...: It is exhausting watching the rediscovery or attempted recreation of the golden rule, let alone the core principles of the sermon on the mount, and the parables and admonitions of the New Testament.

Out of fashion: going to church once a week and being told that (a) you have issues you need to resolve within yourself and so you need to repent, and (b) you should forgive others of their issues that impact you and let them repent.

In fashion: a daily deluge of words and more words on how people are doing this and that, and how bad it is, and how much you should stop them, and how great you are that you think like me or like her or like this.

At this rate, in another few hundred years, we'll have it all boiled down to the number of pages of the Book of Luke and John.; 9/6/19, 8:25 AM
CWJ said...: "Own the libs! Smash the racist right!"

One of these is a real impulse, the other is a fabrication I've never heard before.; 9/6/19, 8:25 AM
Fen said...: But this:

"And here we get to the ultimate injustice: Why are they recognized while I am not? This is the molten core from which my indignation flows...."

Yup. I read that as "don't you know who I think I am?!" LOL

He's revealing more about himself than us. And he is too self-centered to realize it's embarrassing that he chose to publish this.

I actually feel kinda sad for him.; 9/6/19, 8:26 AM
doctrev said...: We don't "need" chaos. Chaos is a tool. The problem is it's a rollicking good one, while the libs have "crisis management" teams, yet no one who's good in a crisis. Just putting up with the chaos of the Trump era has left liberals in obvious mental distress, while the nationalists are energized and ready to let the guns sound. Antifa is a useful tool to persuade regular Americans that the left is psychotic, and they are a hateful terrorist group. Yet they find themselves mainly stuck in liberal cities. Red states would just have them beaten into the ground. And if the police didn't do it, the citizens would. It's their idea of fun.

So red states will tend to have suppression of chaos, while liberal cities tend to have increases of chaos. You don't need to be Julius Caesar to know which one will be more stable in a war.; 9/6/19, 8:27 AM
robother said...: Seriously, what's with the hypochondria about a diseased liver? Is this some kind of Timesman in joke, at Krugman's expense?; 9/6/19, 8:27 AM
mccullough said...: I am guided by the philosophy of Reinhold Niebuhr. Although Niebuhr didn’t directly put forth the proposition that I should leave my wife for younger pussy, I don’t believe his philosophy is inconsistent with my choice.; 9/6/19, 8:29 AM
BamaBadgOR said...: David Brooks ought to spend a few hours in the FloraBama and experience life in the real world.; 9/6/19, 8:30 AM
Carol said...: If they get this much so wrong, you have to question most historical characterizations too.

And I like history.; 9/6/19, 8:32 AM
traditionalguy said...: Brooks just can't get any respect. His conservative persona is a useless waste of time. And Trump doesn't even bother to attack him back for his drivel.; 9/6/19, 8:32 AM
MBunge said...: Why does anyone know the name "David Brooks?" What has he done, written, or said that merits anyone paying attention to him? If he's ever added anything of value to the public discourse it has been so generic and so intermittent that virtually anyone could have done the same thing.

Brooks isn't an elite. He's a seat-filler, a piece of furniture, and there are far too many pods like him supposedly leading our civilization.

Mike; 9/6/19, 8:33 AM
Laslo Spatula said...: Vee shall graft a thin portion of zee patient's liver to their brain: the thin slice of liver will filter zee chaos und impurities of thought, letting only cleansed concepts through the brainy matter: in this way vee shall purify the toxins of our intersectionalities!

PURIFY THE TOXINS!

Then vee shall graft zee beefy arm to the back of zee body...

I am Laslo.; 9/6/19, 8:34 AM
Bob Boyd said...: No No, Brooks has a point.
For example, it never even occurred to me to that I could predict a Presidential candidate's performance in office simply by glancing at his trousers. Never even occurred to me. But Brooks knew instinctively. Incredible.
Heck, even if I'd thought of it, I wouldn't have even known what to look for. I'd have been impressed the guy was even wearing pants. So many of my lowly brethren forget sometimes. Sure, I might have checked for a slowly spreading stain in the crotch. Sometimes that can give you a some insight. Not always. But the creases? Wow. Just wow. I'm in awe.
That's why Brooks is Brooks and I'm just a lowly deplorable.
You know what? People like Brooks really should be in charge. They really should be able to veto elections when the rest of us let them down like we did in 2016. It's all clear to me now. Thanks David!; 9/6/19, 8:34 AM
Fernandinande said...: "Own the libs! Smash the racist right!"

One of these is a real impulse, the other is a fabrication I've never heard before.

Don't keep us in suspense!

"Own the libs" -> About 577,000 results [150 actual results]
"Smash the racist right" -> 3 results [not even an "about"!], one is the NYT and two are this blog talking about the NYT.; 9/6/19, 8:35 AM
chickelit said...: So my politics is not really about issues... You stumbled? I delight in crushing you! Owning the libs spares me the terrifying ambiguity of actually getting to know one....

Brooks obviously never met Ritmo online. What a poser.; 9/6/19, 8:35 AM
Mike Sylwester said...: Last weekend I watched an hour-long interview of David Brooks on BookTV.

I generally admire Brooks and I enjoyed watching the interview.

He said several times that he does not consider himself to be a conservative now. He depicted the conservative period of his life to be an interlude that ended several years ago.

He generally disdains conservatives, and he hates Trump. He hopes a Democrat will win the 2020 election.

However, PBS continues to feature Brooks every Friday as the conservative counterpoint to Mark Shields.; 9/6/19, 8:38 AM
Fernandinande said...: "Smash the right" -> About 2,160,000 results = only 73 actual results [some are about badminton or smashing the right piggybank].; 9/6/19, 8:39 AM
Wince said...: Brooks offering up a hackneyed version of “I’m up here, your down there”.

Is he looking to share one column inch or salary of his NYT platform to someone whom he disagrees with yet meets his standards of probity?

Not on your life!; 9/6/19, 8:39 AM
Phil 314 said...: I liked Brooks in the past but I can't listen to or read his commentary. Its just too....; 9/6/19, 8:40 AM
Fen said...: I remember seeing my father cry only two times in my life.

I found him at the kitchen table at 3am, sobbing. I still don't know the exact incident that caused it, but it was the moment that he realized his profession had been disgraced.

He was an attorney. A damn good one. The highlight of his life was getting to argue before the Supreme Court. He was like a kid with his first model rocket that day.

He had worked himself up from nothing, side jobs to put himself through law school. He was so proud of his profession. And he garnered much respect. Was a big name in Texas politics.

Sure, there were always the lawyer jokes. But I remember how much it bothered him when they started to let lawyers advertise on tv. He thought it was the beginning of a slippery slope where the practice of law would be viewed with contempt.

That's what he was crying about. Something had happened to confirm his worst fear - his profession was no longer respectable.

I think journalists are having that same moment now. And some of them, like David Brooks, are lashing out.

The dancer slows her frantic pace
In pain and desperation
Her aching limbs and downcast face
Aglow with perspiration
Stiff as wire, her lungs on fire
With just the briefest pause
The flooding through her memory
The echoes of old applause
She limps across the floor
And closes her bedroom door

The writer stares with glassy eyes
Defies the empty page
His beard is white, his face is lined
And streaked with tears of rage
Thirty years ago, how the words would flow
With passion and precision
But now his mind is dark and dulled
By sickness and indecision
And he stares out the kitchen door
Where the sun will rise no more

Some are born to move the world
To live their fantasies
But most of us just dream about
The things we'd like to be

Sadder still to watch it die
Than never to have known it
For you, the blind who once could see
The bell tolls for thee,

- Losing It, RUSH; 9/6/19, 8:41 AM
dreams said...: Brooks lives in a liberal bubble within a liberal bubble. Maybe he should wrap his head in bubble wrap.; 9/6/19, 8:43 AM
bagoh20 said...: Brooks, like most leftists, just doesn't get the desire many of us have to simply be left alone. We don't want to smash anybody, and we don't really care at all about what you think. We simply want you to stop following us, you creeper.; 9/6/19, 8:44 AM
dreams said...: I read his book Bobos in Paradise and really enjoyed it. Maybe he should reread his book.; 9/6/19, 8:47 AM
chickelit said...: Fen wrote: That's what he was crying about. Something had happened to confirm his worst fear - his profession was no longer respectable.

I think journalists are having that same moment now. And some of them, like David Brooks, are lashing out.

This is insightful.; 9/6/19, 8:47 AM
Bob Boyd said...: This is Progressive-ism. This is how they see the world.

Obama with his, "bitter clingers" and Hillary with her "basket of irredeemables and deplorables". The same world view on display.; 9/6/19, 8:48 AM
I'm Full of Soup said...: Brooks is such a douche; 9/6/19, 8:49 AM
Gusty Winds said...: Imagine being Dave Brooks and working yourself into a delusional world where you convinced yourself that the masses actually care about what you think.; 9/6/19, 8:49 AM
Fen said...: "This is insightful."

Thanks. It's the only reason Althouse puts up with me. Every few weeks, I have a redeeming moment ;); 9/6/19, 8:50 AM
chickelit said...: I'm not hearing a lot of moderate voices coming out of the NYT. It's all just leftwing posing and bellyaching. For this alone, they deserve challenge and ultimately -- failure if they fail to connect to the audience they keep blowing off. Sure they pander to their Trump-hating readers, but they are deliberately blowing off a larger audience. I suppose that this direction comes from the top of their management.; 9/6/19, 8:51 AM
Ralph L said...: Please wrap me in that rigidity

Roger me rigid.; 9/6/19, 8:52 AM
Bob Boyd said...: I've been thinking lately about the possibility that for a lot of people their politics are more of a status symbol than a reasoned position.; 9/6/19, 8:57 AM
Ann Althouse said...: Maybe he wrote "wrap" because it was close to what would have fit the metaphor: rape.; 9/6/19, 9:01 AM
chickelit said...: narciso said...Brooks who called palin a cancer on the party, just go back to your 28 year old tesearch assiatant brooksie.

That about sums him up. No prayers for Brooks. Who was that other "conservative" who dumped his first loyal wife for a hotter model? Oh yeah -- George Will. And both those guys sit in moral judgement of Trump. They are more like self-ashamed Trump imitators.; 9/6/19, 9:02 AM
Nonapod said...: So much projection, so little real understanding.

In fairness I suppose we're all guilty of imagining those who disagree with us as caricatures. I'm sort of doing it right now when I attempt to characterize what might be going on in the head of a liberal elite NYT journalist/commentator.

What Brooks is doing here is definitely punching down hard. He's demonstrating his utter contempt for those deplorable rubes who disagree with him, reducing them to ignorant mongrels. To what end though? To satisfy his paymasters? To placate his readership? Such a blunt hate piece is certainly not going to convince or persuade anybody of anything.; 9/6/19, 9:03 AM
The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...: Not the Class War I was promised. Marx couldn’t have foreseen how 70 years of peace and prosperity would create a proletariat divided by...transgender bathrooms? WTF, Friedrich?; 9/6/19, 9:03 AM
Known Unknown said...: Gotta please your readers.; 9/6/19, 9:05 AM
Michael K said...: I remember how much it bothered him when they started to let lawyers advertise on tv. He thought it was the beginning of a slippery slope where the practice of law would be viewed with contempt.

I agree and felt the same way when I saw doctors doing ads. There was a whole series of billboards in CA when I still lived there. They were about gastric banding for weight loss. A year later, the whole thing was busted. It was a chain of outpatient surgery centers advertising. They were hiring poorly trained surgeons. Had a series of disasters.; 9/6/19, 9:06 AM
Seeing Red said...: I know he wrote about Obama’s pants crease; but is Brooks also the one who took his hick friend to the deli and mocked her because she didn’t know breads and salamis?

You can buy prosciutto in Wal-Mart in West Virginia. I saw it there while buying a pretty decent steak to grill.; 9/6/19, 9:09 AM
Seeing Red said...: True story. We watch cooking shows. We watched an interview with a chef under Tony Mantuano. 40 years ago he had grow his own basil to use in I think it was Spiaggia because grocery stores didn’t stock basil.

People need to get a grip.; 9/6/19, 9:13 AM
Bob Boyd said...: I wish I could buy Brooks for what he's worth and sell him for what he thinks he's worth.; 9/6/19, 9:14 AM
Tommy Duncan said...: "And here we get to the ultimate injustice: Why are they recognized while I am not? This is the molten core from which my indignation flows...."

Did Chuck write this?; 9/6/19, 9:14 AM
Rick said...: Politics provides the Manichaean binaries I can’t find anywhere else, and so I make everything political.

So the man uniformly characterizing those he opposes criticizes them as Manichean. Comedy Gold.; 9/6/19, 9:15 AM
narciso said...: Frum hasnt left his wife, shes stuck with him.; 9/6/19, 9:20 AM
rcocean said...: "reasonable conservative" attacks made-up "unreasonable Right". One of the most annoying things about the NYT's is their constant lies about themselves. They constantly pose as the "Moderate middle" the "normal ones without labels". When in fact - they are way on the Left. Or in Brooks' case represent an elite bow-tie minority who support globalism and big business and quirky social views. Only in the Wapo/NYT/PBS world would Brooks be a conservative.; 9/6/19, 9:20 AM
Known Unknown said...: "Politics provides the Manichaean binaries I can’t find anywhere else, and so I make everything political."

Like Dancing with the Stars or some shit?; 9/6/19, 9:23 AM
rcocean said...: Frum was another fakecon. Its only after his hysterical attacks on Palin (a precursor to the Trump hatred) and his support for Obama, that people finally accepted it. Before that he posed as a "compassionate conservative" who was always attacking Pat Buchanan, Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter and policing the Right.; 9/6/19, 9:24 AM
Ignatius Acton Chesterton OCD said...: This is how Brooks’ army of fellow BoBos think.

He’s really turned on the psychoanalytic spigot of late. Unqualified, methinks. Projections of a raving neurotic, wailing about his fears of people he doesn’t know.

At least he can be with the smart people at the right cocktail parties, with his new woman in tow.; 9/6/19, 9:25 AM
mockturtle said...: Note to David Brooks: This is shit and that is Shinola. Got it?; 9/6/19, 9:25 AM
rcocean said...: I'm glad people are reading Brooks and attacking him. Frankly, I can't be bothered. He always struck me as a wordy gasbag, someone to play the Washington Generals to the Liberals Globetrotters. Intelligent but without any insight. A Provincial Establishment type.; 9/6/19, 9:27 AM
Ignatius Acton Chesterton OCD said...: “Politics provides the Manichaean binaries I can’t find anywhere else, and so I make everything political.“

Oh my. That’s rich.

Brooks’ home must be devoid of mirrors.; 9/6/19, 9:28 AM
Bay Area Guy said...: The Dude needs some serious medication. That fantasy shitstorm going thru his mind is disturbing. That's what Brooks thinks other people are thinking?!!? He & Bedbug Brett should probably quit the NYT and open up a pizzeria.; 9/6/19, 9:29 AM
bagoh20 said...: I stopped ironing my pants because of Brooks. I didn't want some people to see me as a fraud, and have others staring at me like stalkers imagining the greatness I clearly possess.; 9/6/19, 9:29 AM
mockturtle said...: Intelligent but without any insight.

Of average intelligence and utterly lacking in insight. FIFY, rcocean.; 9/6/19, 9:30 AM
rcocean said...: Does any smart, forceful, Right-winger wear a bow-tie on a regular basis? Its seems to a marker for Fakecon.; 9/6/19, 9:30 AM
rcocean said...: "Of average intelligence and utterly lacking in insight. FIFY, rcocean."

True - but that's smart enough for the NYT's.; 9/6/19, 9:32 AM
Fernandinande said...: Manichaean binaries

A type of specially imported Trump Crumpets.; 9/6/19, 9:34 AM
Temujin said...: I feel sorry for New Yorkers.; 9/6/19, 9:34 AM
Ignatius Acton Chesterton OCD said...: “A liberal pretending to be a conservative? That's like a straight person pretending to be gay to get greater acceptance.” — David Mamet; 9/6/19, 9:34 AM
Fernandinande said...: I. A. C. OCD said...

My OCD is such that when I see the acronym OCD I always think "Occupational Committee Disorder". Can't help it!; 9/6/19, 9:38 AM
Danno said...: Brooks still ejaculates every time he thinks of Obama's pants crease.

Every time.; 9/6/19, 9:40 AM
Ken B said...: So, only diseased and unhygienic men are nasty online? No women? None who bathe or don’t have diseased livers? No Sarah Jeong? No Ilhan Omar? No Anita Sarkeesian?; 9/6/19, 9:40 AM
Greg Hlatky said...: David Brooks, like the rest of the mainstream commentariat, isn't worth the powder to blow him away. He's done nothing, said nothing, changed nothing in his overly-reimbursed life. A cafe intellectual, nothing more.; 9/6/19, 9:43 AM
mockturtle said...: Manichaean binaries

A type of specially imported Trump Crumpets.

Wanna come up to my apartment and see my Manichean binaries?; 9/6/19, 9:44 AM
etbass said...: Like the blue contrast, Althouse. Makes it clearer as to who is speaking. Many times in the past, I had to study awhile to know for sure.; 9/6/19, 9:51 AM
I Have Misplaced My Pants said...: I wish I could buy Brooks for what he's worth and sell him for what he thinks he's worth.

I am stealing this delightful turn of phrase for reuse in my personal grumblings.

Why do we have all this writing talent here at Althouse while overwrought silliness like Brooks' little ramble is published the Paper of Record?; 9/6/19, 9:55 AM
William said...: Maybe armor would express the metaphor better than wrap. It does seem that the vehemence and rigidity with which people express themselves is directly proportional to the vulnerability of their core assumptions. I don't suppose it would occur to Brooks to apply such an insight to the Climate Change Evangelicals. Anyway, it's a good point but it applies more to the left than the right. They're the ones who have made a religion of their politics..... I put Brooks in a class with Maureen Dowd as one of those Times columnists who occasionally writes something interesting. Paul Krugman has never once sullied his reputation and, in addition, his prose is turgid......There are levels of hypocrisy in the comments section here that I find difficult to fathom. It is not fitting for supporters of Trump to say that since Brooks left his wife for a younger woman his worth as a human being may safely be disregarded.....Fen makes a good point about journalism being a tarnished profession. That consciousness may be seeping into Brooks' consciousness but he channels it into opposion to internet trolls. The difference between journalists and internet trolls is, nowadays, hard to distinguish. Mostly journalists live beyond the river of Da Nile, and Brooks accepts that border. He is himself in his literate and reasoned way a bit of an internet troll.; 9/6/19, 9:55 AM
elkh1 said...: Brooks is channeling himself.; 9/6/19, 9:57 AM
tim in vermont said...: That’s the opening from Notes From Underground, I believe, tweaked a little at the end. So you can use an “Underground” tag, if you like.; 9/6/19, 9:58 AM
tim in vermont said...: I see Robert got there first.; 9/6/19, 9:59 AM
Mr Wibble said...: Soy un perdedor.; 9/6/19, 10:00 AM
tim in vermont said...: Oh, I know lots of liberals. Hence my disdain for their childish beliefs when it comes to steering the ship of state.; 9/6/19, 10:01 AM
Chris N said...: These columns don’t write themselves.; 9/6/19, 10:07 AM
tommyesq said...: These columns don’t write themselves.

Probably would be better-written if they did.; 9/6/19, 10:11 AM
Roughcoat said...: I think journalists are having that same moment now.

This presupposes that journalists have the capacity to feel shame, which requires self-awareness and insight. A highly doubtful proposition.; 9/6/19, 10:11 AM
Narr said...: Eco, as passed through Brooks.

But really, what's with all the divorce-bashing? So some guys dump their wives and get better ones (and vice-versa). When did this become an issue?

Narr
Buncha damn scolds!; 9/6/19, 10:13 AM
effinayright said...: doctrev said...
We don't "need" chaos. Chaos is a tool.
***************

Agreed. The person who said "Never let a good crisis go to waste" is not a conservative.; 9/6/19, 10:13 AM
Roughcoat said...: That about sums him up. No prayers for Brooks. Who was that other "conservative" who dumped his first loyal wife for a hotter model? Oh yeah -- George Will.

Yes, but that's okay, because, you know, the heart wants what the heart wants ... right?; 9/6/19, 10:14 AM
Howard said...: Since he nailed you people, obviously Brooks is an avid reader of the the Althouse Kruel Kuck Klan; 9/6/19, 10:18 AM
wildswan said...: I looked up Martha Readyoff, the person who brought up abortion at the climate town hall, to see whether she was a eugenicist or a person taken in by crypto-eugenics and found an article by her expounding her beliefs [http://www.nyspirit.com/author/martha-readyoff/] and, as far as that goes she seems to be the latter - a person simply not aware of who lives in "poor countries" i.e. people of color who are to reduce their birthrate which is already below replacement level in most place with US assistance by murdering their unborn children.

But I wondered if David Brooks had read the same article because she almost perfectly exemplifies the kind of person he was talking about. There is not one person commenting on this blog who is this kind of person and it would make you all convulse with nausea to read her. So I sacrificed some precious brain cells and reread the thing to find some select quotes:

Here is how her article begins and ends:
"I have never been popular. I’ve always been quiet, quirky, introverted. I tend towards misanthropy and melancholy. But I’m also almost compulsively hopeful. I like how Marilyn Manson once described himself: “I fall in love with everything. I also hate everything. It’s very hard to be both a misanthrope and a romantic.” I don’t know if I hate everything (all the time) but I can attest that it is indeed difficult to be a misanthrope and a romantic, to find much of the behavior of most people (myself included) exasperating, and still to have so much hope and belief in humanity’s capacity for change....

Because of my less-than-popular-kid appeal, I’ve never held much sway over the attitudes, beliefs, or behaviors of the people in my life. I’ve never really wanted to. I’ve always tended to do what no one else was doing, to think and see things differently. I’m sure, in part, this has been a way to create solitude for myself. But now, having found a message that it so important to tell, my (partly self-imposed) social isolation and invisibility is a frustrating, impassible wall. “Something there is that doesn’t love a wall. That wants it down.” I have never felt my isolation and just my way of being me with such frustration and sadness as this.

Between my personal struggles as an introvert and romantic misanthrope, and the fractured, conflicted vegan community of which I find myself a committed member, I sometimes feel lost in the deep woods of confusion and uncertainty. How do I make myself heard? What is the best approach to activism on behalf of this cause? How do I change people’s minds? How do I make a difference? Confronted with the multitude of choices, I feel a Bell-Jar-level paralysis in the face of indecision."

And close to the end we get this:
"... my heartbreak. Why won’t people, even close friends and family, give me the time of day when it comes to veganism? And why don’t they know how hard it is for me, as an introvert, to put this spotlight on myself and ask for their attention?"

http://www.nyspirit.com/author/martha-readyoff/

As David Brooks said:
"And here we get to the ultimate injustice: Why are they recognized while I am not? This is the molten core from which my indignation flows...."

But can you picture Chuck or Fen or Inga (forgotten but not gone) "Confronted with the multitude of choices, I feel a Bell-Jar-level paralysis in the face of indecision." HA! But I wonder how widespread is this attitude? and I think David Brooks wonders the same.; 9/6/19, 10:26 AM
The Minnow Wrangler said...: It's funny how Brooks posits his ideological foes living in a black and white world where they need "rules" and blunt simplicities to be comfortable.

And yet it is he and his compatriots who wrap themselves in a New York bubble where they never need to see or speak with anyone that opposes their "moderate" liberal dogma. I am just an average person in the Midwest and I come into contact daily with right and left-wingers and somehow I don't find them any less human. Maybe wrong sometimes but I still like them for who they are.

His strange projection with diseased livers and psychological fragility and rage is completely bizarre. He obviously feels "terrifying ambiguity" about getting to know any Trump voters.; 9/6/19, 10:39 AM
narciso said...: I like to view it as a necessary evil, jesus knew the sadduccees and pharisees even the zealots would not stomach him, as they did to the prophets.; 9/6/19, 10:42 AM
wildswan said...: Commenting on Martha Readyoff (above) I made some references to eugenics which I am expanding here.

Bernie Sanders agreed that the babies of people of color in other countries who are poor need to be aborted in greater numbers than at present for the sake of the planet and that US aid to pay for Third World abortions is the way to do this. For the sake of the planet = this is and was the rationale for "population control", a fancy name for the US interfering with family formation in other countries and hence with their social organization. The rationale was proposed by International Planned Parenthood an organization founded by eugenicists and headquartered during its crucial formative early years in the headquarters building of the English Eugenics Society. Following upon the Nazi eugenics era, American and English eugenicists recognized that the post-war Anglo-American form of eugenics aka "race building in a democracy," required that eugenicists conceal their purposes and work through front organizations without mentioning their eugenic purposes. This policy was called "crypto-eugenics" and was formally adopted as policy at a meeting of the English Eugenics Society and it was stated that this aligned them with the American Eugenics Society which had been following the policy without a formal statement. The tactic to be used was birth control including abortion and the slogan was to be "choice." Facts on the ground indicate that "choice" about abortion or sterilization was really coercion in India under Indira Ghandi and in China under the "one child" policy and in dozens of countries looking for US development aid which was dependent on an acceptable population policy. Both Reagan and Trump pushed back on on this eugenic policy but the Democrats totally support it. I don't say Bernie Sanders knows he is promoting policies formulated by eugenicist to reach their eugenic goal of stemming the rising tide of color against white world supremacy. I say that population control is systemic eugenics and the Dems refuse to see it.

Check on the Eugenics Watch list of eugenic society members on Scribd for documentation; 9/6/19, 10:43 AM
iowan2 said...: So this piece of fluff is evidence of how great a President Trump is proving to be. There is absolutely nothing on the political field that can be used to elect a Democrat President. The country is doing great. President Trump has been doing all the right things. All Brook's can do is re-write someone elses work and make a weak attempt to apply it to his clueless perception of reality.

Compare this to any other time in history. Peace a prosperity reign supreme.; 9/6/19, 10:44 AM
mikeski said...: need for chaos.

To a certain sort of mind, freedom looks like chaos.; 9/6/19, 10:46 AM
iowan2 said...: Howard said...
Since he nailed you people,

Evan Brooks with his navel gazing, was rightfully mocking those that identified an individual as a group. Because that's the best simple minds can manage.

Thanks for playing; 9/6/19, 10:50 AM
buwaya said...: I have often said that I straddle the American divides because I am not American.
I cross these lines at will, because I am not immediately perceived as an enemy to either side.

I have lived in a liberal city, possibly the most liberal of all, for over thirty years. I have pursued a career, raised children, and even have been engaged in civic activities (in education).

Almost all the people we know are liberal, other than, probably, my wife's cousin in Anaheim.

On the other hand, professionally, most of the people I work with are quite conservative. If it came to an open question I think most would say they voted for Trump. It is a question or professions in that case.

I am therefore in an excellent position to judge what world, between these two, most misunderstands the other. Which one lives in a bubble and which doesn't.

Without doubt it is that liberal society that lives in a bubble, are the most parochial, in spite of their education.; 9/6/19, 11:03 AM
buwaya said...: With age, I have found, the brain starts to go.
Therefore one has to rely on the other organs to take up the burden, the liver, spleen and testicles.

It works for me.; 9/6/19, 11:04 AM
Skeptical Voter said...: Dropkick me (David Brooks) Jesus through the goalposts of life!

That old boy needs an intervention of some sort.

As for not being raised within a coherent moral framework, that may be David Brooks's problem, but it's not mine.; 9/6/19, 11:05 AM
YoungHegelian said...: Smash the racist right! A war of pure good and pure evil. I crave the single narrative that will make everything clear: Everything is race.

Has David Brooks never heard basically these words from the mouths of NYT readers?

I have, at multiple DC dinner parties. You can tell the readership of the NYT by the party line they espouse.; 9/6/19, 11:15 AM
Lovernios said...: "This is insightful."

Thanks. It's the only reason Althouse puts up with me. Every few weeks, I have a redeeming moment ;)

So we're good until mid-October? Just the usual hate-filled, racist, right-wing diatribes we're used to till then?

Just kidding! I like your hate-filled, racist, right wing diatribes.

I also like to read about people's love and respect for their fathers. While I loved my father is some way, I couldn't respect him. A abusive alcoholic who fathered 8 kids he couldn't support or nurture.

You're lucky you had such a Dad.; 9/6/19, 11:15 AM
dreams said...: I've always wondered why he didn't get his teeth corrected early in his life, Every time I see him on TV I'm distracted by his crooked Canine teeth 'tushes.'; 9/6/19, 11:18 AM
cf said...: fen said and michael K said
I remember how much it bothered him when they started to let lawyers advertise on tv. He thought it was the beginning of a slippery slope where the practice of law would be viewed with contempt.

I agree and felt the same way when I saw doctors doing ads.

i felt the same way when my First-Amendment-defending/Supreme-Court-Winning 150-year-old family-owned newspaper -- who was then sold to a corporation late 90s instead of letting "death taxes" ruin the broader family -- ran a cheerful oped in favor of a controversial bill that let corporations own multiple media outlets in the same area. The thing is, they left out the ONE disclaimer needed to keep their contract with the readers: "... this newspaper and our corporate owners stand to gain from this bill ..."

I was stunned. contract broken. Worse, When I ripped into this treason at the morning editors meeting, i saw the despair of our awesome editor, who it turned out had battled the owners on this the day before, and had left with the honesty on the page. Somehow, however, those distant folks had it cut before it presstime. Yo.

my heart slammed shut. i left the industry a couple of years later, and a couple of years after that my compatriots were asking "wow! how were you so prescient to get out before the dam broke?"

Interesting Times.; 9/6/19, 11:19 AM
Yancey Ward said...: Brooks writes for the NYTimes, as such a columnist, the essay really did require him to speak to the audience that reads the NYTimes, and with that last part Althouse quoted, Brooks showed himself incapable of truly addressing his audience.

Ms. Althouse, are there comments allowed on Brooks' essay? If so, what are the five highest rated ones?; 9/6/19, 11:20 AM
Bob Boyd said...: And Now A Word From An Elite Intellectual
Inside the mind of David Brooks

"I am an educated man. I am a wealthy man. I am a sophisticated man. My liver is really something. My doctor loves to palpate my liver. When I am in his office for my weekly checkup I can tell he wishes he could summon his colleagues so they could palpate my liver too, because they don't believe him when he brags to them about my incredible liver. But my doctor knows I would never allow it. Can you imagine such a display? How crass.
Yes, my liver is a wonder, as is my colon, but if you truly want to understand what sets me apart, you must look to my spleen."; 9/6/19, 11:22 AM
Sam L. said...: David Brooks in on my DO NOT READ list. I don't trust him.; 9/6/19, 11:26 AM
Big Mike said...: Could someone please clarify something for me? Why would Brooks suppose that we ordinary folks don’t know what libs are like when they are in our faces 24/7 with ever more lunacy? Isn’t the fundamental problem for Brooks not that we don’t understand libs, but that we do understand them all too well?; 9/6/19, 11:28 AM
Tyrone Slothrop said...: Now, we know which one.

Was there ever any doubt?; 9/6/19, 11:28 AM
Sebastian said...: "Now, we know which one."

Surprise!; 9/6/19, 11:31 AM
Sebastian said...: "Why are they recognized while I am not?"

Justified ridicule of DB aside, this is a question. What happens when society systematically disdains some groups compared with others?

We did that, and it wasn't pretty. Now we're about to do it a different way, and it won't be pretty. Particularly since the groups being devalued (as racist, white supremacist, etc.), are rather large.; 9/6/19, 11:45 AM
Fen said...: "..some guys dump their wives and get better ones (and vice-versa). When did this become an issue?"

A woman gives you the best years of her life, births and raises your children? A real Man doesn't abandon her for a piece of ass.; 9/6/19, 11:46 AM
Jeff Brokaw said...: Every one of the several blogs I read daily has better content than that sloppy, muddled mess.

The NYT specializes in monolithic thought peddled by mediocre writers. The best blogs have been more compelling than that for nearly 20 years now.; 9/6/19, 11:52 AM
narciso said...: well ideally one should be loyal to ones spouse, but that goes for joe walsh, charles sykes, david brooks, christopher buckley (who went from political satire, to weak historical one) as well as trump and say the late henry hyde, to cite both sides of the coin,; 9/6/19, 11:56 AM
Bay Area Guy said...: BedBug Brett and BetaMale Brooks -- the new NYT vaudeville act! Singing! Dancing! Magic Tricks! Lugubrious monologues on the daily depredations by the Trump administration on the collective psyches of the privileged white upper West side Males!

Come join the fun!; 9/6/19, 12:02 PM
gerry said...: Brook no Brooks.; 9/6/19, 12:06 PM
Robert Cook said...: "Seriously, what's with the hypochondria about a diseased liver? Is this some kind of Timesman in joke, at Krugman's expense?"

As I said above, Brooks is channeling Dostoyevsky's Underground Man:

"I am a sick man....I am a spiteful man. I am an unattractive man. I believe my liver is diseased. However, I know nothing at all about my disease, and do not know for certain what ails me.I don't consult a doctor for it, and never have, though I have a respect for medicine and doctors....No, I refuse to consult a doctor from spite."

From the famous opening lines of NOTES FROM UNDERGROUND.; 9/6/19, 12:11 PM
walter said...: His cocktail party invites must be on the decline.
This should help.; 9/6/19, 12:16 PM
narciso said...: yes I understand that, brooks triggered me years ago, as did frum, who I thought was merely mistaken in somethings and George will, tony Schwartz, trump's ghost now says his work was a fiction, I guess that's in procopean style, but he won't give back 30 years of royalties,; 9/6/19, 12:16 PM
M Jordan said...: David Brooks, like all faux conservatives, always sides with the Left. I’m kind of ashamed of myself for not seeing this year’s ago when I thought Bill Kristol was actually conservative and Jonah Goldberg and .....

It took Trump to pull off the masks.; 9/6/19, 12:24 PM
Lem the artificially intelligent said...: Brooks is channeling twitter's @KurtSchlichter.; 9/6/19, 12:25 PM
JAORE said...: If/when President Trump is re-elected,I far Brooks will sharpen the crease on his trousers and do himself harm.; 9/6/19, 12:29 PM
Balfegor said...: Re: Fernandistein

"Smash the racist right" is something no one says -- the actual Antifa saying is "bash the fash." But I think Brooks may be trying to draw a broader parallel, including both political violence of the Antifa/SA sort, and nonviolent cancel culture SJW stuff, which is more analogous to "own the libs." That said he obviously hates the Right more so he wouldn't focus on the most obviously repellent branch of modern progressivism, hence the made up slogan.; 9/6/19, 12:31 PM
Mike (MJB Wolf) said...: Sounds more like the people they've been hiring at the Times lately, than any entity outside the walls that house Brooks and his strange fantasies. What a bedbug!; 9/6/19, 12:33 PM
The Minnow Wrangler said...: Sebastian said, "Justified ridicule of DB aside, this is a question. What happens when society systematically disdains some groups compared with others?

We did that, and it wasn't pretty. Now we're about to do it a different way, and it won't be pretty. Particularly since the groups being devalued (as racist, white supremacist, etc.), are rather large."

Indeed. And what will happen when "society" discovers that they are outnumbered and outgunned by those that they habitually ridicule?; 9/6/19, 12:34 PM
Drago said...: Howard: "Since he nailed you people, ...."

LOL

Brooks hasn't "nailed" a single thing correctly in the last 20 years.

But you go on believing that Li'l Brooksie has broken the code on the deplorables!!

Too funny.

Howard leaning on Brooks who is worshipped by LLR Chuck! What a cavalcade of ignorance.; 9/6/19, 12:37 PM
Bay Area Guy said...: Singlehandedly, Brooks is smashing the claim to white supremacy. What a loser.; 9/6/19, 12:46 PM
FrankiM said...: ‘A woman gives you the best years of her life, births and raises your children? A real Man doesn't abandon her for a piece of ass.’

Trump. How many wives did he cheat on?; 9/6/19, 12:52 PM
Balfegor said...: Re: Sebastian:

What happens when society systematically disdains some groups compared with others?

We did that, and it wasn't pretty. Now we're about to do it a different way, and it won't be pretty. Particularly since the groups being devalued (as racist, white supremacist, etc.), are rather large.

In terms of what happens when society systematically disdains some groups compared with others - well, that's always been the case for every society that's more than just a random assortment of people who happen to be physically located in proximity to each other.

The US isn't one single unified "society" -- there's many different overlapping social groupings, whether it's family, neighbourhood, ethnicity, region, church, profession, school, hobby, etc. People have varying degrees of attachment to different social groups. E.g. I have a strong attachment to family and hobby communities, moderate attachment to my school and ethnic identities, weak attachment to regional and professional identities, and no church affiliation whatsoever.

What we're seeing now is a combination of regional, educational, and professional networks becoming lockstep progressive. I think there's an intentional element to this -- activists have deliberately tried to shape the mores of these groups, indoctrinating new members and pressuring existing members, and have met with considerable success. But I think the development of these baroque progressive social signifiers (e.g. specifying pronouns and whatnot) has been mostly organic.

What's not organic is that activists are now deliberately trying to impose their progressive in-group/out-group criteria on every other social grouping, whether they're part of that community or not. This isn't the first time that's happened -- religious groups and temperance groups have tried to impose their mores on the entire country in the past, with mixed success. But it does provoke a backlash.; 9/6/19, 12:56 PM
n.n said...: Left vs Right. Lib[eral] vs Lib[ertarian]. Wasn't this a MAD comic?; 9/6/19, 2:10 PM
rcocean said...: Another thing that makes David Brooks such a bore is his standard Establishment Cliches. The Liberal establishment ALWAYS claims their critics are ignorant and want "Simple answers". While they, of course, are the sophisticated masters of nuance, who understand how COMPLEX everything is and how THERE ARE NO EASY ANSWERS.

Which is simply BS, since people like Brooks are ALWAYS pushing simple answers "More Immigration" "More Globalism" "Throw Money at the Problem" "Vote against HATE", etc.
Its just a dumb dodge - they always use. Polices are either right or wrong, good or bad. You don't get any points for giving a "sophisticated" answer - that's wrong.; 9/6/19, 2:17 PM
Iowan2 said...: Trump. How many wives did he cheat on?

I know. I know! Pick me! Please?

Zero. Prove me wrong.; 9/6/19, 2:38 PM
Narr said...: I'm impressed that people here have such close knowledge of strangers' marriages and sex lives as to discern who did what when and to whom, as well as the clear moral-ethical, wait, SPIRITUAL standing to preach.

I said the same thing when when people were ragging Newtboy, and the least of my problems with Bubba Bill was that he dicked bimboes.

But since Fen raised the always-delicious mother-of-your-children blather: what about childless men? What about men married to adulterous women? Are we certain all these chillun are his?

Maybe some helpful soul here will post links to the divorce proceedings so we can sort it all out.

Narr
Like I said, buncha damn scolds; 9/6/19, 2:49 PM
Marc in Eugene said...: I appreciate the commentary in one color of text and the quotations in another! Experiment or accident, I wonder.; 9/6/19, 2:54 PM
tim in vermont said...: “Even Brooks with his navel gazing, was rightfully mocking those that identified an individual as a group. Because that's the best simple minds can manage. “

That would leave a mark If Howard were smart enough to understand it.; 9/6/19, 3:00 PM
Narr said...: Years ago, before the testing got good enough to put me on the stoplist, I was a regular blood donor. They had a long, required questionnaire given by a nurse (medical history, sex life, etc) including the question "Have you ever given or taken money for sex?" I answered, "Yes, I've been married for 35 years!"

I don't think she laughed, but I did.

Narr
"Baby's Blood" they said I had; 9/6/19, 3:01 PM
Lewis Wetzel said...: Drago said...
Howard: "Since he nailed you people, ...."
LOL
Brooks hasn't "nailed" a single thing correctly in the last 20 years.

I have never read a liberal's description of conservatives that was recognizable.
They assume that conservatives value the same things that liberals value, and then betray those values out of greed, wickedness, or bigotry.
If there are three types of conservatives (oversimplified, I know), social conservatives, capitalist conservatives, and nationalist conservatives, a liberal will take what he believes to be the worst characteristics of all three and apply them to all conservatives.
So conservatives are sexual prudes who believe in dog-eat-dog capitalism and white supremacy.
There actually is no such person who is not in an insane asylum.; 9/6/19, 3:02 PM
narciso said...: a fair point, but brooks, will, buckley fils, what was david burge's nic for him, sykes and joe walsh's preening is nauseating enough,; 9/6/19, 3:11 PM
Unknown said...: Brooks is our legacy from slavery.

Everything we are is slavery.; 9/6/19, 3:11 PM
Howard said...: Drago doth proteth too muth; 9/6/19, 3:46 PM
narciso said...: Ah snorfle,

http://acecomments.mu.nu/?post=383182; 9/6/19, 3:50 PM
Sebastian said...: @Balfegor: "What's not organic is that activists are now deliberately trying to impose their progressive in-group/out-group criteria on every other social grouping, whether they're part of that community or not . . . it does provoke a backlash."

We are on the same wavelength. I might quibble slightly: all non-prog groups are excluded but some are excluded more than others. Check with James Damore and Brendan Eich.

In any case, the attempted inorganic exclusion does provoke a backlash. Brooks gets much wrong, but he intuits some it--crossing the Hudson, at least.; 9/6/19, 4:04 PM
madAsHell said...: I’m one of those radicals whose rage is intertwined with psychological fragility, whose anger at real wrongs is corrupted by my existential panic about myself.

Wow! I've never really thought that hard about it.; 9/6/19, 4:09 PM
narciso said...: convenient isn't it,

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/national-security/ex-cia-spy-readies-publish-book-without-approval-agency-n1050456; 9/6/19, 4:13 PM
narciso said...: oh,

http://www.journal14.com/2019/09/05/burnin-down-the-house/#comments; 9/6/19, 4:33 PM
Michael K said...: I just learned that US Soccer does not permit Betsy Ross flags at games.

It's a symbol of "Hate." I just ordered one.; 9/6/19, 4:36 PM
Ellie said...: I'm sure this type of person exists on both sides but I'm a liberal and I've seen this type of alt-right guy. In my experience these folks may have once been liberals - or can't admit they love Trump but are slowly turning towards him. There's is something that is attracting emotionally shutdown or unbalanced people to Trump. Like I said, I've seen it in the flesh, more than once. I think it's freaking scary.; 9/6/19, 4:36 PM
Michael K said...: There's is something that is attracting emotionally shutdown or unbalanced people to Trump.

Whereas you think the world will end in 12 years.; 9/6/19, 4:39 PM
Michael K said...: On Blogger since September 2019

Profile views - 1

New troll.; 9/6/19, 4:40 PM
Stephen St. Onge said...: Law Three: Social Justice Warriors Always Project.; 9/6/19, 4:56 PM
Jim at said...: There's is something that is attracting emotionally shutdown or unbalanced people to Trump.

Whereas three days of screaming about a Sharpie on a map is, like, totally balanced and emotionally astute.

You think we're scary? Take a good, long look in the mirror.
Boo!; 9/6/19, 5:06 PM
Ellie said...: @Michael K - I do not think the world will end in 12 years. At all. Let's stay on topic.
I've seen this person and it's scary.; 9/6/19, 5:07 PM
Jay Vogt said...: Don't we all know some deplorable who's yearning for some Manichean binaries.

Jeeesh!; 9/6/19, 5:15 PM
narciso said...: wasn't there an astroturfer in the oughts named ellie light, who spammed many editorial pages,; 9/6/19, 5:28 PM
Birkel said...: EllInga is the new FrankIngaM?
Lame!; 9/6/19, 5:54 PM
gg6 said...: imho, Brooks has become visibly and increasingly unanchored over the recent handful of years. With this, I suspect he has just moved into the next stage of whatever breakdown he is having. Go or the devil only know what's next - Brooks's shrink will simply dismiss it. Sad, somewhat scary stuff.; 9/6/19, 5:55 PM
Fen said...: "On Blogger since September 2019. Profile views - 1, New troll."

While back someone posted a list of all of Inga's known aliases.

Crazy stuff, there were like 30 of them.

I remember several variations of "Ellie" and "Allie"; 9/6/19, 6:05 PM
gg6 said...: Blogger Ann Althouse said...
"Anxiety" is a new tag. I've gone back and added it..."
I suggest the tag should be 'Borderline insanity' Or possibly "19th Nervous Breakdown"?; 9/6/19, 6:09 PM
Seeing Red said...: There's is something that is attracting emotionally shutdown or unbalanced people to Trump.

Bwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa; 9/6/19, 6:12 PM
Fen said...: This hitjob is nothing new. Peggy Noonan, in The Greenwood Position, writes that during the Florida 2000 recount:

"... Democratic operative Paul Begala writes his now-famous essay suggesting Republican candidates draw their political strength from murderers, sadists, racists and the killers of innocent children."

It's the same crap, 20 years old and recycled.; 9/6/19, 6:15 PM
Michael K said...: Let's stay on topic.
I've seen this person and it's scary.

Definite Inga flavor.; 9/6/19, 6:15 PM
Seeing Red said...: Red meat halves risk of depression
Women who reduce lamb and beef in their diets are more likely to suffer depression, according to the new study. Telegraph -London

Which side has more vegetarians and who wants a meat tax?

Unbalanced...; 9/6/19, 6:20 PM
Seeing Red said...: Not the first study, either.

And vegetarians dumb down their children if the don’t eat meat during pregnancy, it seems. Babies need choline.; 9/6/19, 6:24 PM
Michael K said...: Which side has more vegetarians and who wants a meat tax?

\A bunch of vegetarians invaded a rodeo in Argentina.

Hilarity ensued.

The activists walked onto the central track, bearing posters with slogans against the exploitation of animals.”

Less than a minute later a group of cowboys, or guachos, began riding horses into the group, disrupting the protest. They essentially moved the protesters as they would cattle, circling them, pushing them with their horses, and even using whips. They then began pushing the protesters out of the arena. The audience seemed to be on their side as they erupted into applause as the protesters were driven away and ran around in confusion over what was happening.; 9/6/19, 6:24 PM
wbfjrr2 said...: Brooks is a pseudo intellectual writing for a totally intellectually corrupt organ.

Yet Althouse always goes there because it’s “respectable”.

What rot.; 9/6/19, 6:37 PM
Char Char Binks, Esq. said...: At least Brooks admits it.; 9/6/19, 6:37 PM
Jeff said...: So, Brooks admires pant creases and longs for rigidity. Is there a pattern emerging here?; 9/6/19, 6:44 PM
Fen said...: I've never understood Jews who demonize entire swaths of people based on bigoted stereotypes. You would think that's a monster they don't want dug back up.; 9/6/19, 6:45 PM
Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...: Lol. He's describing YOU, Ann. Hahaha.; 9/6/19, 7:21 PM
Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...: I've never understood Jews who demonize entire swaths of people based on bigoted stereotypes. You would think that's a monster they don't want dug back up.

Right. Because they were ever the ones to plant that seed and grow that forest in the first place. Dug back up. Hilarious.

How are those synagogue mass shooters you identify with coming along these days?; 9/6/19, 7:24 PM
Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...: On the other hand, professionally, most of the people I work with are quite conservative.

Sounds like you work in The Matrix. Must be a real hoot.

Let me guess, do they all dress like Agent Smith, with the same white shirts and thin black ties?

Uniformity is very important to ambitious automatons!; 9/6/19, 7:27 PM
Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...: I'm not hearing a lot of moderate voices coming out of the NYT. It's all just leftwing posing and bellyaching. For this alone, they deserve challenge and ultimately -- failure if they fail to connect to the audience they keep blowing off.

You are one of the silliest douchebags alive. If they wanted to call it The Mississippi Times they'd first have to change headquarters and move out of the most vibrant and economically dynamic powerhouse cities in the world for these grayer and browner and more boring pastures that you pretend to be so fond of.; 9/6/19, 7:32 PM
Fen said...: "Right. Because they were ever the ones - "

No, because they were incinerated by bigots like you.

And my wife is jewish, you idiot.; 9/6/19, 8:03 PM
chickelit said...: You are one of the silliest douchebags alive. If they wanted to call it The Mississippi Times they'd first have to change headquarters and move out of the most vibrant and economically dynamic powerhouse cities in the world for these grayer and browner and more boring pastures that you pretend to be so fond of.

How badly does Trump need the NYT on his side? He's made them all less relevant. That's got to have pissed them off. Actually, I think Trump benefits more from the mutual dislike.; 9/6/19, 8:13 PM
buwaya said...: Short-sleeved button down shirts over khakis and jeans, mostly.
This is California after all. But there is surprising uniformity regardless!; 9/6/19, 8:13 PM
Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...: No, because they were incinerated by bigots like you.

And my wife is jewish, you idiot.

Sounds like your wife is the idiot.

It's nice to see you hanging off her like that, though. I'm not surprised you do.

I'm sure there are lots of Jews (proper nouns are capitalized, BTW) you hate. And many more you'd call "bigots."

Be proud of your hatred of knowledge and education, Flat-Earth Fen. It's one of your most gentile qualities.; 9/6/19, 8:31 PM
buwaya said...: New York is the ultimate in imperial cities.
Sucking the substance out of its (global, in this case) hinterlands, as it is the residence and headquarters of the exploiters and their courtiers, producing nothing in itself save some luxuries (goods and services) for its patrons.
Every hegemony needs it’s center.

This was a left wing concept, not that long ago. As also the concept of hegemony.
Look, for instance, in Hardt & Negri.

Some of this may have leaked into “Hunger Games” I think, from the left, not the right, but by the time it was published the conceptual framework had flipped.; 9/6/19, 8:36 PM
Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...: How badly does Trump need the NYT on his side?

Side? Credible media needs truth and decency on their side - the very things Trump hates most.

He's made them all less relevant.

Not that their financial statements would know it. You must be one of those conservatoddlers who hates the free market.

That's got to have pissed them off. Actually, I think Trump benefits more from the mutual dislike.

And now we get to the point to where the mind blind devolves into psychobabble.

You are so disappointing. The fact that someone as innocent, unknowledgeable and naive as yourself so ardently decides to carry water for such liars, charlatans and morons is something I will never understand. You pick your loyalties and causes so predictably and erroneously - whatever the right-wing meme is you'll take it up. Many people make political caricatures of themselves but the extent you go to in becoming the most cartoonish sort of caricature is downright depressing. You are being played like a violin by these billionaires and you don't even have the slightest clue whose interest you're just the simplest willing foot soldier for. It's like watching one of the 12-year old kids taking up arms for der Fuehrer in the Battle of Berlin. I've never seen anyone so childlike fight so heartily for such evil and twisted things or be used and fooled so easily.; 9/6/19, 8:39 PM
Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...: Sucking the substance out of its (global, in this case) hinterlands, as it is the residence and headquarters of the exploiters and their courtiers, producing nothing in itself save some luxuries (goods and services) for its patrons.

WTF are you even talking about?

If these unnamed "hinterlands" are so economically strong then let them create all this value that somehow was denied them.

Your hero Trump is from New York.

It's funny watching the right-wing conservatoddlers show their true, anti-capitalist colors. Goes well with the Russian crony-communism.; 9/6/19, 8:41 PM
buwaya said...: Pointing out the ironies, of rhetoric then and now.
San Francisco was similarly condemned, for the same sins.
In San Francisco proper, by left-wing papers and a couple of generations of its own intelligentsia, denouncing Pacific Heights and “Downtown”, with every tactic in the book.
I think the last of this was when the “occupy” characters occupied everything from the Federal Reserve to the Embarcadero in 2011.

But power was changing flavor by then, or changing religions.; 9/6/19, 8:51 PM
Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...: Not sure what bywaya is babbling about but his War on Cities apparently continues apace!

Onward!; 9/6/19, 8:53 PM
buwaya said...: Michael Moore has a sense of this irony.
He has said as much, a few times.
His early work plays oddly today.
But he has to rationalize his religion now in some other way.

Left? Or right? Or a certain sort of right? Which merges into a certain sort of left?
Chavez was not an inch away from Mussolini. They just had different friends.

The religions are not that different. The interests can change but the formulas of faith persist, sometimes, to an outsider, seeming quite odd.

I leave you to your happy bile.; 9/6/19, 9:00 PM
Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...: bubu is a mystery wrapped in a riddle and smothered in an enigma.

It is possible for people who like to make sense of things to also be happy.

I'm very sorry that you were not able to convince me of the virtue of being happily nonsensical.; 9/6/19, 9:09 PM
narciso said...: Possibly but suzanne collins, lives in a suburb, she says she got the idea from the illiad but there are traces of jack londons iron heel.

Re new york as imperial city, coppola is revisiting his catilinr tale, megalopolis set in a near future new york; 9/6/19, 9:43 PM
narciso said...: Buwaya has faced real revolutionaries ritmo, you dont intimidate him. Interesting collins seems to have set the capital in the rockies around denver.; 9/6/19, 9:46 PM
narciso said...: Moore has one insight every decade, on a good day, he was right about roger smith, and the transnational displacement of industry, no he got nothing right about columbine and very little right about september 11th.; 9/6/19, 9:51 PM
narciso said...: The districts have a certain colonized atmosphere in the periphery re the center, much more the glove of huxley but the first of orwell.; 9/6/19, 10:00 PM