I swear I believe that his idea of the idealized past is based entirely on family sitcoms, from the Donna Reed Show and Father Knows Best to the Brady Bunch.
If young &. Middle aged people are angry and rude today, a lot can be attributed to right wing attacks on freedom and democracy and denial of the existential threat of climate change.
Very good article Stephen. Why is Brooks still seen as the voice of thoughtful moderation (or the voice of anything) continues to baffle.
Well entire education systems are being reorganized on the premise of not making white people sad so Dave's concerns should be resolved in a couple of school.years.
"I was recently talking with a restaurant owner who said that he has to eject a customer from his restaurant for rude or cruel behavior once a week—something that never used to happen."
This is precisely why I try to be super-extremely polite to restaurant servers, checkout clerks, drug store employees, you know, the people who are too unimportant for Brooksie to pay attention to because he is currying favor with the restaurant OWNER. They have tough jobs and a little basic politeness never hurts.
Of course, if you are dumping the mother of your children for a newer model, "Ta-ta, tootsie and toodaloo-to-you" is perfectly OK.
David Brooks is conflating "too much uppity noise outside the gates to enjoy my 30yr old whiskey in the warm embrace of the clubhouse" with "meanness." We are a bit more coarse these days, and likely shoot each other with more frequency (I would not argue with him if that was his point). But I'm reminded of a story from my childhood, back in the halcyon days of 1978 when we were all more civilized in the way David Brooks approves of:
I grew up in a neighborhood afflicted by a fevered white-flight. Many of my friends did not look like my dad's friends, or the friends of the burnt-out, Reverend Jim-style next door neighbor, who was exactly an age in between me and my dad. While my closest friend, Reggie, and I played in my small backyard, my neighbor came out into his adjoining yard and screamed racially-motivated insults and expletives, ordering my young friend to "go the fuck home, wherever you're from." He was "from" halfway down the block. Reg just stood there with his head down - as he was, I'm sure, taught to do - trying to let it pass. My dad had to come out, drag the neighbor by the neck and throw him back into his house. He screamed some things at him about disrupting his son while he plays in the yard.
1978 Southwest Philly was full of the kinds of civilized to which David Brooks would like us to return.
Come to think of it, so is 2023 Fox News. So who knows?
Ooh it chaps my hide when people start going on about a lack of morals. Cause you know damn well they only recognize one sort - theirs - and assume if those are in decline then morality itself is about to perish. Never crosses their mind that we might have a WHOLE DIFFERENT set of things we find moral and immoral. And yet amazingly enough, we do.
America was and Americans were always mean to somebody. He's just not used to "somebody" meaning upscale cis-het white men.
That being said, Newt Gingrich institutionalized meanness as a tactic for Republicans. Donald Trump was a major cause of it metastasizing throughout the electorate.
Oh, where to begin. I spotted David's nonsense the other day on The Atlantic website. Having recently terminated my NYTimes subscription (after 55 years), I thought I was safe from his fulminations and those of Bret Stephens, Jeff Douthat, David French, and the occasional idiot linked to the asylum called the Claremont Graduate University. (That includes: Stephen Cambone, Tom Cotton, Larry Arnn, Michael Anton, Chris Caldwell, John Eastman et al.) But there it was. His column weighs in at 20 printed pages, and he finally mentions Trump on page 10.
So, David Brooks, here's your answer: Americans got mean because Donald John Trump gave them permission to be assholes. And because of that, Trump has become the cult figure of all his fans. It's not that complicated.
What I have noticed as the parent of a 13-year-old is that my daughter and her friends are some of the kindest and most accepting people I've ever met. Gender identity, sexual orientation, race and other "differences" mean little to them. Granted, I have emphasized respect and kindness to my daughter so maybe she just picks good people, but I see hope in our kids.
Is America Meaner Now Than When It Lynched People? David Brooks Unsure.
That is my experience for sure
I swear I believe that his idea of the idealized past is based entirely on family sitcoms, from the Donna Reed Show and Father Knows Best to the Brady Bunch.
If young &. Middle aged people are angry and rude today, a lot can be attributed to right wing attacks on freedom and democracy and denial of the existential threat of climate change.
Very good article Stephen. Why is Brooks still seen as the voice of thoughtful moderation (or the voice of anything) continues to baffle.
Quote/
Yep, you read correctly: Brooks has built his article’s premise on the bedrock foundation of anecdotal evidence.
/Quote
You say that like it's not the foundation of *every* Bobo article.
Rich, white, privileged asshat.....
"The Atlantic" used to publish Mark Twain.
Now they publish this nebbish.
I have a feeling that a lack of etiquette is not at the root of such a cultural cliff-dive.
Brooks lost me when he ditched his family for the woke assistant. He has a lot off stuff to process.
Well entire education systems are being reorganized on the premise of not making white people sad so Dave's concerns should be resolved in a couple of school.years.
"I was recently talking with a restaurant owner who said that he has to eject a customer from his restaurant for rude or cruel behavior once a week—something that never used to happen."
This is precisely why I try to be super-extremely polite to restaurant servers, checkout clerks, drug store employees, you know, the people who are too unimportant for Brooksie to pay attention to because he is currying favor with the restaurant OWNER. They have tough jobs and a little basic politeness never hurts.
Of course, if you are dumping the mother of your children for a newer model, "Ta-ta, tootsie and toodaloo-to-you" is perfectly OK.
Thank you, Stephen, for reading Brooks’ inane article so I didn’t have to, and for so eloquently distilling why his premise is absolute bullshit.
David Brooks is conflating "too much uppity noise outside the gates to enjoy my 30yr old whiskey in the warm embrace of the clubhouse" with "meanness." We are a bit more coarse these days, and likely shoot each other with more frequency (I would not argue with him if that was his point). But I'm reminded of a story from my childhood, back in the halcyon days of 1978 when we were all more civilized in the way David Brooks approves of:
I grew up in a neighborhood afflicted by a fevered white-flight. Many of my friends did not look like my dad's friends, or the friends of the burnt-out, Reverend Jim-style next door neighbor, who was exactly an age in between me and my dad. While my closest friend, Reggie, and I played in my small backyard, my neighbor came out into his adjoining yard and screamed racially-motivated insults and expletives, ordering my young friend to "go the fuck home, wherever you're from." He was "from" halfway down the block. Reg just stood there with his head down - as he was, I'm sure, taught to do - trying to let it pass. My dad had to come out, drag the neighbor by the neck and throw him back into his house. He screamed some things at him about disrupting his son while he plays in the yard.
1978 Southwest Philly was full of the kinds of civilized to which David Brooks would like us to return.
Come to think of it, so is 2023 Fox News. So who knows?
Ooh it chaps my hide when people start going on about a lack of morals. Cause you know damn well they only recognize one sort - theirs - and assume if those are in decline then morality itself is about to perish. Never crosses their mind that we might have a WHOLE DIFFERENT set of things we find moral and immoral. And yet amazingly enough, we do.
David Brooks can go fuck himself, with or without votes.
America was and Americans were always mean to somebody. He's just not used to "somebody" meaning upscale cis-het white men.
That being said, Newt Gingrich institutionalized meanness as a tactic for Republicans. Donald Trump was a major cause of it metastasizing throughout the electorate.
Oh, where to begin. I spotted David's nonsense the other day on The Atlantic website. Having recently terminated my NYTimes subscription (after 55 years), I thought I was safe from his fulminations and those of Bret Stephens, Jeff Douthat, David French, and the occasional idiot linked to the asylum called the Claremont Graduate University. (That includes: Stephen Cambone, Tom Cotton, Larry Arnn, Michael Anton, Chris Caldwell, John Eastman et al.) But there it was. His column weighs in at 20 printed pages, and he finally mentions Trump on page 10.
So, David Brooks, here's your answer: Americans got mean because Donald John Trump gave them permission to be assholes. And because of that, Trump has become the cult figure of all his fans. It's not that complicated.
What I have noticed as the parent of a 13-year-old is that my daughter and her friends are some of the kindest and most accepting people I've ever met. Gender identity, sexual orientation, race and other "differences" mean little to them. Granted, I have emphasized respect and kindness to my daughter so maybe she just picks good people, but I see hope in our kids.