The Algorithm That Generates "David Brooks" Columns For The New York Times...

...is performing optimally.

From me, five years ago:

Held in durance vile by the need to pay the mortgage on his $4M dollar estate, twice a week, every week, David Fucking Brooks is forced out onto the balcony of his demesnes to toggle his giant head around and around, searching...searching...searching the narrow, well-manicured ideological easement between the Washington Beltway and his mansion for one more oddly tufted of bit dandelion or fleck of poo upon which to hang his one thousandth column about Centrism and/or the decline of Western Civilization at the hands of the Dirty Hippies.

Mr. Brooks' makes his obsessive devotion to constantly, drearily repeating the same soggy lies for large piles of money ever so much easier on himself by subtracting history, economics and human nature from his ruminations. Thus liberated from the need to write about actual people and stuff, Mr. Brooks instead bumbles around through an airless, abstract null-zone full of geometric shapes and big, stupid ideas. And from this chill, dead, interstellar void, Mr. Brooks moans out his melancholy bi-weekly dirges about  Centrism and/or the decline of Western Civilization at the hands of the Dirty Hippies, singularly unaware of and unconcerned with the real plight of we tiny, weak humans out here beyond  the narrow, well-manicured ideological easement between the Washington Beltway and his mansion in a place known as the Real World.

From Mr. David Brooks today (with emphasis added):

The Siege Mentality Problem

...

I just took part in a compelling conversation on this subject at the Faith Angle Forum, founded by the late Michael Cromartie of the Ethics and Public Policy Center, and came away with one core explanation: the siege mentality. In fact, I’d say the siege mentality explains most of the dysfunctional group behavior these days, on left and right...

You see the siege mentality not just among evangelical Christians but also among the campus social justice warriors and the gun lobbyists...

Today Christians are more likely to argue that the liberal order itself is intolerant toward faith. Social justice warriors are prone to argue that America is racist and oppressive in its very bones...

So what is the solution to this terrible problem?

David Brooks answers.

It should be met with confident pluralism.

Dammit!  If only there were some political party or school of ideological thought out there somewhere which would publicly embrace and promote tolerance and pluralism!

And what specifically could America's great influencers of opinion have done during, say, the Dubya Administration to avert this terrible state of affairs?

David Brooks answers.

Suppose America’s leaders had gone to conservative evangelicals a decade ago and said: Look, we understand that changing attitudes about gay marriage put you in a tough position. We’re not going to stop doing what we think is right, but we’re going to try to work out some accommodation with you on religious liberty so you can feel at home here and practice your faith.

"America’s leaders"?

And just who the fuck are "America’s leaders"?

You see, Mr. David Brooks understands an important fact about his audience that perhaps you do not.  His real audience are a handful of influential titans of industry, academia, media and politics.  They adore and underwrite his column because they are mostly doddering old New York plutocrats and ivory tower Centrists who live far above the cares and concerns of peasants like you and me.  And their extreme privilege affords them the luxury of simply refusing to remember what the past was really like for peasants like you and me, and instead allows the to relax and daydream in a comfortable hammock of Brooks-spun bullshit that completely ignores the fact that the GOP has been a racist shitpile of dementia, paranoia and engineered-rage for decades.

What Mr. Brooks desperately needs his readers to ignore is that, a decade ago, the Right had already long since given up listening to reason.  Had already written off anything they didn't hear on Hate Radio or see on Fox News as Liberal propaganda.  Had long since disappeared down the Limbaugh/Gingrich rat-hole never to return. 

See it didn't matter how welcoming we on the Left were or are.  It didn't matter how bent-over-backwards willing to compromise were were or are.  It didn't matter who we nominated as our standard bearer or how much of an open heart that standard bearer would offer:

Because thanks to decades of concerted effort by Mr. Brooks's Republican party, the Right was already dead from the neck up.  Already reduced to reprogrammable meatbags willing to take direction from any demagogue who would tell them their fear was really freedom and their paranoia was really patriotic.

Which is why, a decade ago the leaders of Mr. Brooks's Republican party weren't worrying about calming the Right down so that they could feel safe in the confidently pluralistic country of Mr. Brooks' imagination. Instead they were very busy keeping the wingnut Evangelicals scared shitless and voting Republican with dire warnings that the Libtard Traitor Brigade (that's me) was coming to steal their guns and march their kids into Gay Reeducation Camps:

From Kevin Drum, in 2005:

AARP GETS THE SWIFT VETS TREATMENT....In my continuing quest to prove that a picture is worth a thousand words, here's your picture of the day. Via Josh Marshall, it's a screen capture from the American Spectator site of an ad from USA Next, a loony right group that thinks of itself as the conservative alternative to AARP. Apparently "the real AARP agenda" is to endorse gay marriage and disband the military.

Lovely folks, these USA Nexters. Clicking on the link doesn't provide any explanation for this putrid charge, but no matter. Clearly AARP is little more than a front group for godless communism anyway. Here is USA Next figurehead Art Linkletter, attempting a pale imitation of the John Birch Society:

I’d like to ask some blunt questions: Do you want more taxes taken out of your earnings? Do you want more unelected bureaucrats taking over more details of your life and your family’s life? Do you want federal regulators making your health choices, instead of you, your family, and your doctor? Do you want government regulators to control the investment and retirement decisions of your family, instead of you?

If you answered “Yes,” then AARP is your group....

That brings back memories. In any case, USA Next has now hired the same guys who created the SwiftVets commercials last year — apparently the military/gay marriage ad wasn't quite incendiary enough — and they ought to be a good fit. A marriage made in heaven, so to speak.

...

Although it is an era now obviously lost the memory of David Brooks and his readers, dirty hippies like me vividly recall things like  “Justice Sunday”, when Conservative Men of God openly terrorized members of the federal judiciary because judges who did not obey the dictates of the mullahs of the American Taliban were all worse than “a few bearded terrorists who fly planes into buildings.”

And so it was back in those ancient days that a Very Prominent Republican known as “John Of The Cornyn” was more than willing to link “words” and “violence”, just as long as it served his sick, theocratic agenda:

Senator Links Violence to 'Political' Decisions

'Unaccountable' Judiciary Raises Ire

By Charles Babington

Washington Post Staff Writer

Tuesday, April 5, 2005; Page A07

…

Sen. John Cornyn said yesterday that recent examples of courthouse violence may be linked to public anger over judges who make politically charged decisions without being held accountable.

In a Senate floor speech in which he sharply criticized a recent Supreme Court ruling on the death penalty, Cornyn (R-Tex.) -- a former Texas Supreme Court justice and member of the Judiciary Committee -- said Americans are growing increasingly frustrated by what he describes as activist jurists.

"It causes a lot of people, including me, great distress to see judges use the authority that they have been given to make raw political or ideological decisions," he said. Sometimes, he said, "the Supreme Court has taken on this role as a policymaker rather than an enforcer of political decisions made by elected representatives of the people."

Cornyn continued: "I don't know if there is a cause-and-effect connection, but we have seen some recent episodes of courthouse violence in this country. . . . And I wonder whether there may be some connection between the perception in some quarters, on some occasions, where judges are making political decisions yet are unaccountable to the public, that it builds up and builds up and builds up to the point where some people engage in, engage in violence. Certainly without any justification, but a concern that I have.”

Of course, being a Republican, when the actual facts of the case did not in any way support his venomous talking points, Cornyn just made shit up (citation of vintage Tom DeLay fatwa included for no extra charge):

…

Cornyn, who spoke in a nearly empty chamber, did not specify cases of violence against judges. Two fatal episodes made headlines this year, although authorities said the motives appeared to be personal, not political. In Chicago, a man fatally shot the husband and mother of a federal judge who had ruled against him in a medical malpractice suit. And in Atlanta last month, a man broke away from a deputy and fatally shot four people, including the judge presiding over his rape trial.

Liberal activists criticized Cornyn's remarks, and compared them to House Majority Leader Tom DeLay's comments last week following the death of a brain-damaged Florida woman, Terri Schiavo. DeLay (R-Tex.) rebuked federal and state judges who had ruled in the Schiavo case, saying, "The time will come for the men responsible for this to answer for their behavior."…

I could go on and on and on and on, but it wouldn't matter because neither Mr. Brooks nor his readers is ever going to cop to remembering any of these terribly inconvenient facts.

To them, all of this happened thousands of years ago. 

On a different planet. 

Orbiting a different sun.

And speaking of Mr. David Brooks of The New York Times, you know who was a big 'ol hero (just for one day) on Hate Radio yesterday?

Yep.

From the Rush Limbaugh Show:

David Brooks Swerves into the Truth on Bill Clinton and Sexual Harassment
Nov 13, 2017

 [Transcript from the Charlie Rose Show followed by Boss Limbaugh's Deep Thoughts]

...
BROOKS: (muttering) The uncomfortable thing for a lot of progressives, frankly, is: How much did the Clinton thing create this whole environment? How much did tolerance of Bill Clinton create the environment in which the rest of this, uhhh, was given permission?

ROSE: How much do you think?

BROOKS: I think it had effect. And if you don’t draw lines in these big cases, then you don’t draw lines in the little cases. You know, we saw Republicans, you know, tolerating what Donald Trump was accused of doing. And today we’re seeing this astounding case where Republicans in Alabama are tolerating what Judge Roy Moore is accused of doing. It’s a sign of how partisanship has replaced everything else. Partisanship can blind you to moral… morality, toward truth. Partisanship has become the, the, the, uh, idol — uh, idol of our time.

RUSH: Let me help out here. I’ll tell you what is uncomfortable is when only one side continues to get away with it. I don’t care what it is. I don’t care if it’s collusion with the issues, like Hillary buying that dossier or Bill Clinton and his cavorting with a 19-year-old intern. If one side, the Democrats, constantly get away with it and are never held to account — and if the media and the Democrats circle the wagons and not only do they tolerate it, but then promote the perp… I mean, Dan Rather. Dan Rather totally made up stories and documents about George W. Bush and the National Guard. He was exposed as having done it. And what did the journalism community do?

They gave him two brand-new awards! They created new awards and had two dinners to honor Dan Rather for his service. They circled the wagons. They knew that if they joined the parade of condemning Rather, they were condemning their own industry. So rather than do that, they circled the wagons, held a couple of awards dinners for Rather, and proclaimed him to be a great journalist and so forth. When one side gets away with it all the time and when one side is rewarded with applause and laughter for getting away with it?

And so because Mr. David Brooks is absolutely incapable of functioning outside of his Both Siderist biosphere, it was imperative that he haul Bill Clinton. Monica Lewinski and the 1990s right smack into the middle of a discussion about Roy Moore's pedophilia. 

And because of that, Rush Limbaugh listeners may now take comfort in the fact that even a New York Times cuck like David Brooks thinks that what we should really be talking about is Bill Clinton and how Democrats always get away with everything.

As I have mentioned once or twice or a thousand times, without Both Siderists like David Brooks to drive their getaway car, the batshit Right would collapse.

Way to go, Mr. Brooks!

Behold, a Tip Jar!