Stanford University Professor David Palumbo-Liu wrote a column at Salon about how much white liberals suck, using David Fucking Brooks as an example of a white liberal who sucks:I’m not familiar with this columnist’s work. I confess I didn’t read the whole thing once I’d ascertained that yes, the author really, really does seem to be operating under the assumption that David Fucking Brooks is a liberal.*
Lord. I hate white liberals too sometimes — have you ever been cornered at a dreary cocktail party by someone who drones on about Monsanto for two hours? We can be a clueless lot on deadly serious, heartbreaking subjects, such as the one the column was written address.
But good Christ, if David Fucking Brooks was among our number, I’m not sure I’d be able to stop punching my own self in the face. For fuck’s sake, Salon! Have you no editors?
Open thread, I guess. Jeebus.
* I think someone hit the prof with a clue-by-four while I was putting this grousey post together — it appears some of the more obvious “Brooks is a liberal” passages have been lightly scrubbed. But the thesis remains so central to the piece that it can’t be completely eradicated. It’s a pity because he’s not altogether wrong…
Baud
You misspelled The Onion.
Emma
Nope. I’m not clicking. [wanders off to look for some crappy fanfic]
White Trash Liberal
University Professor fails to perform basic research on essay thesis.
/Lemongrab UNACCEPTABLE /Lemongrab
(But I think Salon is worse for publishing this. That place has been fucked ever since they gave Paglia space to project her leather goddesses of Phobos cosplay upon)
kc
It’s Salon. They specialize in lazy troll-y clickbait.
jl
From the article:
” Even the best critiques of Brooks make the same mistake I would’ve made. They go too far in treating Brooks as if he were a rational human being, open to reason, evidence, argumentation. ”
Obviously she does not read the BJ blog critiques of Brooks, which are, it goes without saying the best critiques of Brooks, done with the most class and make the smartest hugest classiest points.
kc
Was there a time, perhaps in the distant past, when Salon was not godawful?
Germy Shoemangler
@kc:
But hasn’t it gotten a lot more horrible recently? The headlines are garbage. The articles are desperate bullshit. The two often have nothing to do with each other.
mai naem mobile
Wow. Even my niece at ten would have done a basic google search. Is this more performance art?
gian
@kc:
Didn’t Greenwald have a gig there back when he hated Bush?
Cacti
Brooks’ premise that for every Jefferson Davis, there’s an Abraham Lincoln, is blinkered rubbish.
Lincoln had 15 predecessors who did nothing to significant further emancipation, and a like number of successors who were content to leave black people to the mercy of the un-reconstructed, Jim Crow south.
burnspbesq
@kc:
The only thing worse than Salon is playing the semifinals of a major international soccer tournament indoors on artificial turf. Which will be happening tomorrow night in Atlanta. Fcukin’ CONCACAF …
EthylEster
I’m waiting for the followup article: The Cult of Pretty Much Clueless Professors at Elite Schools
Belafon
OT: They showed some of the dash-cam video of Sandra Bland being pulled over. After starting the ticket and asking her to put out her cigarette, he tells her to step out of the car. When she challenges him on that, asking for what reason she had to get out of the car, his voice got louder, telling her to get out and that she had to. She finally got out when he ducked inside the car himself.
A question for any lawyers: Was she correct in questioning why he wanted her out, and refusing to get out? I have heard she was correct. For the non-lawyer types, I know that you’d most likely follow what he said – which, btw, would generally lead to your car being searched – but I want to know the legal side.
JPL
Tweety is making some sense. He’s upset that the GOP is now going after Trump but when he was all out birtherism, they ignored him.
slag
Well, he is all over PBS, NPR, and NYT. The so very liberal media.
Betty Cracker
@Cacti: Of course Brooks is full of shit — always and forever, amen. I hope HERE, at least, we can all join hands and sing a rousing round of kumbaya over that sweet kernel of truth!
JPL
@Belafon: Remember Henry Gates, he should have never stepped outside his own home.
kc
@Germy Shoemangler:
Last time I followed a link there it was to an “article” that was just a collection of tweets someone had pulled. I wonder how much they pay people for that lazy crap.
kc
@JPL:
I remember, that asshole cop got him to step out so he could then arrest him on a completely bullshit disorderly conduct charge.
Germy Shoemangler
@kc:
I suspect absolutely nothing.
I think they’ve got interns doing everything. Grateful for the “exposure” and resume-building.
My favorite thing was when I’d click on an article that contained maybe six or seven videos and they’d all autoplay at once!
Germy Shoemangler
@JPL: He got into trouble for stepping into his own home.
Chris
This is the result of 30 years of Even The Liberal X rhetoric.
JPL
@Germy Shoemangler: He was arrested because he stepped outside.
kc
@Belafon:
Check this out.
A guy
The problem with white liberals is not that they are white
Gimlet
Open thread – Not sure what to make of this.
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/clinton-rakes-wall-street-cash-163323440.html?l=1
During her nascent presidential campaign, Hillary Clinton has called for expanded regulation of the financial system, slammed wealth disparity and pushed for tougher punishment on individual rule breakers.
All of that rhetoric has mattered little to Wall Street. Already among the biggest donors to Clinton’s political career, employees of some megabanks have funneled big money into her bid for the 2016 nomination.
Employees of five financial firms-Citigroup (NYSE: C), Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS), JPMorgan Chase (NYSE: JPM), Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) and Bank of America Merrill Lynch (NYSE: BAC)-gave about $290,000 to Clinton’s campaign committee through June 30
Sanders’ total contributions from employees of Wall Street firms came in at about $6,000, according to MapLight.
kc
@Germy Shoemangler:
I don’t look at it frequently enough to be an authority, but I think . . . yes. It’s really bad now.
kc
@gian:
That’s right, he did.
Chris
@Cacti:
And the only reason Lincoln ever got as far as he did was that the worst of the racists gave him an opening through open revolution.
Germy Shoemangler
i didn’t know that part. I knew a neighbor alerted the authorities when Gates was seen entering his house. I didn’t know he was arrested for leaving.
Bernie Sanders says income equality would solve these problems. But Gates makes more money than I do, and I’ve never had someone call the cops on me at my own doorstep.
kc
@JPL:
Yeah, if I recall correctly his stepping onto the porch gave the cop a pretext for arresting him for “disorderly conduct,” because the law requires that the conduct be in public.
Baud
@Gimlet:
There is nothing to make of it. Hillary is far better known, and many employees at Wall Street firms will support her regardless of her specific regulatory policies because, among other things, she is from New York and she would break the glass ceiling as the first female president.
Pogonip
@kc: There was. They used to do excellent reporting on autism research.
Joel
When you’re the poor man’s Slate, that’s saying something.
Gimlet
@Baud:
The stereotype says they are conservative, Republican and “free-marketeers”.
If she means what she says, why don’t they buy their influence in Congressmen?
Keith G
As was said up-thread, so now the professor has told us that water is wet. Well, at least that David Brooks is all wet. And I understand the disgruntlement that one might feel about a lack of action from liberal academia and thought leaders (in addition to Brooks who is no liberal…what was this Comp Lit prof smoking?)
It seems we are getting a pretty good grip on what most of the bad ideas and bad behaviors are in this crisis. It seems a growing list is under development of who the the bad, or at the very least insincere, actors are. Now is a good time to turn the ship toward policy recommendations.
Patrisse Cullors and Tia Oso understand that this is an emergency. Emergencies should spawn action and since we are a bit of a dopey society, an agenda of plainly worded specific action would be a very good idea. Slapping David Brooks (or Sanders, or O’Malley) around, as good as it feels, will not help very many folks.
Baud
@Gimlet:
And it is a stereotype. These are big firms with lots of employees, and a large number of them will be socially liberal and/or women, and some of them may even be more economically liberal than their firms in general are.
sigaba
David Brooks is a small-l liberal in the way the pretty much everyone in the US from Sarah Palin to Bernie Sanders is a liberal — everyone basically claims to believe in freedom of speech, democracy, some positive condition of private property, the rule of law and equality before the law, separation of powers and republicanism. The argument in the US is between different visions of liberalism, and the essay says about Brooks what could be said about a lot of “Liberals” or “liberals.”
The writer means liberal in the Phil Ochs sense. Someone who claims to love freedom but loves the establishment more. He’s not really as pithy as Phil Ochs, though.
Joel
@Keith G: in Palo Alto, and Stanford especially, liberal has a different connotation. It’s all relative, as they might say.
Gimlet
@Baud:
I would have thought those traits would have shown Jewish Bernie a little more love.
biff diggerence
I’m rather partial to Charles Pierce and his take on Bobo – e.g., Brooks’s Irish Setter’s name: Moral Hazard.
JPL
@Germy Shoemangler: Gates lived in a nice area while black.
Baud
@Gimlet:
Huh? Bernie hasn’t emphasized his social liberalism and he’s not a woman. And he’s not from New York. And he is still something of an unknown outside of political circles.
Germy Shoemangler
Meanwhile at the Cosby Haters Headquarters
MomSense
I’m making some Cajun seasoned meatloaf and mashed taters for some friends. The meatloaf smells so delicious that I am seriously tempted to give up my veggie diet.
Roger Moore
@Gimlet:
I think Donald Trump, of all people, had this about right. The really rich people give money to all the likely candidates because they want the winner to be in their debt no matter who it is. I don’t know how well this works in practice- the candidates have to know that the rich folks are giving money to both sides- but it seems to happen a lot.
kc
Oh, Christ, here’s the dashcam video of Bland’s arrest. This is awful.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yf8GR3OO9mU
kc
@kc:
Cop goes apeshit because she sassed him. Period.
kc
@kc:
I can’t watch the whole thing. Jesus Christ.
Frank Wilhoit
“…For fuck’s sake, Salon! Have you no editors?”
Why, no.
This has been another edition of Short Answers to Simple Questions.
Gimlet
@Baud:
Born in Brooklyn, has cultural ties with many on Wall Street, and those workers can be counted on to know well whom they are donating to.
I don’t think they believe Hilary when she says she will crack down on them.
I think they are dismissing Bernie as someone who can’t win and is not deserving of sympathy or encouragement.
shell
If you need a reality break
On TCM tonight
8pm: Cover Girl
10pm: The Quiet Man
SiubhanDuinne
O/T, sad news. Theodore Bikel has died, age 91. A wonderful entertainer.
RIP, Mr Bikel.
Another Holocene Human
@Belafon: what’s terrifying is that she told the bail bondsman she feared for her life but didn’t have the money to get out … and why did it take so long to see a judge?
Tree With Water
Minutes after the most shocking moment in Super Bowl history had ended the game last February, another Stanford graduate had this to say about the worst coaching blunder in the history of professional football (a pass that was intercepted): “You’ve got to think about running the ball down there”. That insight sprang from the big brain of former NFL great John Lynch.
Villago Delenda Est
@White Trash Liberal: Anyone who gives space to the Paglia poseur needs to be beaten about the head and shoulders.
Mandalay
@Baud:
I think it is far simpler than that; she is running for president, she has shown herself to be a friend of Wall Street in the past, and she stands a fair chance of winning, so she gets lots of money.
Sanders is also running for president, but he has little chance of winning, and is certainly no friend of Wall St, so he just gets thrown some loose change.
Felonius Monk
I still just cannot imagine this man in the Senate, although it would probably make for some interesting legislatin’.
mtiffany
This just tickles me in the pelvic splanchnic ganglion: if the Krapublicans scuttle the Iran nuclear deal, what’s to stop Pakistan from shipping them a nuke, either “on loan” until Iran can build a nuke of their own and then ship the loaner back, or “for sale” in exchange for an equivalent amount of nuclear material the Pakistanis can then use to build a replacement for the one they sold to Iran?
Absent the nuclear deal, is there anything to prevent that scenario?
It makes sense because in my fevered twisted mind because:
1) Iran and Pakistan share a common border, and with Afghanistan on another border, it is absolutelty not in the Pakistani’s interest to have yet another conflict on their doosrstep.
2) With the Krapublican Klown Kar occupants all beating the war drum, it’s in Iran’s interest to have a deterrent: “attack us and we nuke Israel.”
Just spitballing.
Pie, pie, pie, pie… I like pie!
Baud
@Mandalay:
Simpler, but not necessarily as precise or complete.
mtiffany
@Roger Moore:
It works well enough — it reminds the candidates that like any other employee, they can be replaced.
MomSense
@kc:
It’s horrific.
Joel
@mtiffany: well, for one, Iran and Pakistan are rivals in Afghanistan.
Baud
@MomSense:
I can’t watch, but can only hope this is true.
RSA
@kc: Salon has had some interesting digital properties. One was an online forum called Table Talk, where TBogg got his start. The Julie/Julia Project was originally a Salon blog. Cary Tennis, Patrick (Ask the Pilot) Smith, and Anne Lamott were best known, I think, as writers for Salon. (I first started writing for public consumption on Open Salon, though that didn’t go anywhere.)
John Revolta
@gian: I first encountered Greenwald when he was at Salon and I thought he was mostly pretty good, if kinda full of himself. Later when he moved on, I didn’t follow him but I started hearing all this horrible stuff and I was confused. Had I been misreading him or something?
Turned out it wasn’t me; it was him.
different-church-lady
I’m beginning to think David Brooks is actually Andy Kaufmann doing his most subtle shtick ever.
It’s “new media” — what do you think?
different-church-lady
@kc:
It’s “new media” — content providers don’t get paid for that.
schrodinger's cat
@RSA: Regarding Julie/Julia, that was a crappy movie, especially the Julie part. They should have just made the movie about Julia Child instead.
cckids
@Mandalay:
And, just possibly, they are following their own self-interest & understand the difference between how the economy does under Democratic/reality based administrations vs the shitshow that is likely if ANY of the Repubs get into office & run the country back into the shredder.
Schlemazel
@Belafon:
If you are stopped by the police – particularly if you are a minority, much less so if you are white – your one hope of coming out of it alive and uninjured is to do whatever the hell the cop says. Legally the cop is on shaky ground but the court would most likely give them a pass because of “suspicion”. But most cops do not respond well to “uppity” and any resistance is going to be perceived as a threat to their A-thor-IT-AY.
ruemara
He assumes David Brooks is liberal. Although I agree with the conclusion in certain circumstances, I would pass this article as based on faulty data.
yodecat
David Brooks is a stale fart and I really think that he, and his antics shouldn’t be a part of polite conversation.Does he make you happy? Then don’t listen to him. Is he about to break into your house? Unlikely, but if he did shoot ’em. Geeze, DB’s ramblings aren’t worth the time you spent reading his… shit .
RK
From the Salon article: “And here I am broadening my focus beyond David Brooks to that sizable portion of the white liberal class who simply don’t and won’t get race in America.”
Mike E
@schrodinger’s cat:
And the portions, too small!
LT
Ho Lee Fuck:
Possibly the most David Brooks sentence ever written. Surpasses Brooks, even.
Sherparick
I like a lot about Salon, (particularly now that Heather Cox Richardson (a/k/a Digby) , Scott Kaufman, and Erik Loomis (both from Lawyers Guns and Money) write regularly for them now), but unfortunately they have lot of a Green Hornetism and No True Liberal from the likes of Bill Curry, Tom Franks, and Glenn Greenwald in their editorial DNA. Besides this column that calls David Fucking Brooks a “liberal” (which probably David Fucking Brooks would think is the worst insult one can throw his way), another example was in someways an interesting piece by Andrew O’Heir about Republican Party becoming the Stanford University Prison experiment done on a national scale, O’Heir throws out the meme that Tricky Dick Nixon proposed a “single payer” health plan back in 1970-73 . First, being old enough to have been around, I know he did not (most of his energy was going into how fuck the Democrats and the hippies which included the way he fought the Vietnam War through his reelection). But even if you did not want to talk to an old codger, one could “google” wikipedia and “History of Health Reform in U.S.” and find out he never proposed anything of the sorthttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_health_care_reform_in_the_United_States#1970s
When you read this short little history, you realize what an historical achievement the Affordable Care Act (even if to some extent it was similar to one of Nixon’s proposals) was. President Obama, Speaker Pelosi, Senator Reid, and even Senator Max Fucking Baucus, really will get historical props for achieving it. It can certainly be improved, but at least it provides the basic structure for a universal care system.
Betty Cracker
@RK: He edited it (without noting that he’d done so) after numerous commenters pointed out that Brooks is no liberal. Now the column is just incoherent instead of 100% based on a faulty premise.
@LT: If I had to pick one Balloon Juice commenter who would corner some hapless soul at a cocktail party and drone on about a pet topic, it would be you.