Monday, April 01, 2024

David Brooks' Pony-Hunting Machine Cracks The Earth's Asthenosphere


 
Most of you know the joke, and probably know it has a dozen variations.  Some versions are about two young kids -- one an extreme pessimist, the other an extreme optimist -- others are just about the optimist.

For the sake of brevity, we'll go with the single, very optimistic kid version.

Kid wakes up early Christmas day and is surprised to find a heap of horse manure under the tree instead of a collection of presents. But being very optimistic, the kid is not discouraged.  Later that morning his parents find  him excitedly digging through the manure with his bare hands.  He explains to them that, “With all this manure, there must be a pony somewhere!”

This was apparently Reagan's favorite joke.  Or parable.  Or whatever.  The point being, hey, the power of optimism, amirite!  

Except...is that the point?  I mean, if you think about it for even a second, aren't these worst parents in the world?  How many other cruel tricks have they played on their child?  Isn't this really a story about awful people duping children and/or the mentally ill?  

And speaking of people duping dimwits, perhaps you saw this exchange on the PBS Newshour regarding the Ronna McDaniel/NBC/MSNBC clusterfuck last week.

William Brangham [host]: Yes, but, David, this gets to a point that journalists — a very difficult issue for a lot of journalists, which is, how do you represent this slice of the country, the MAGA slice of America, that believe fervently in the things that they believe, but yet it's very difficult to have a conversation with people if you can't even agree on simple facts, like who was legitimately elected?

David Brooks:  Yes. This is a problem decades in the making. So when I started as a police reporter in Chicago, there were tons of working-class guys there, and I guess, in my case, they tended to be guys, but they had no college degree. It became over the course of the decades that if you wanted to work in journalism, you had to have a college degree.

And suddenly we're just slicing off the majority of the country, basically. And so those people felt their voice wasn't heard. And then so there's this populist revolt, and then now you have got a lot of people who are supportive of Donald Trump, but who violate our standards. They don't want to live up to the standards of just basic modesty or just honesty. We're just going to respect the truth.

For the record, to my knowledge, over the course of his entire career,   Mr.  Brooks has never lived up to basic standards of honesty or respect for the truth for three days running.  But do please continue, Mr. Brooks.

David Brooks:  I do think there are a lot of people out there who would fit both bills, who are good journalists and support Donald Trump... I think they're out there.  We just have to work harder, I think. I still think we have to work harder to find those people and give them — so their voices are heard.

For the record, this assertion is absurd on its face.  If you just want to find people who support Trump and have media experience, they're not exactly hiding.  Just come on out here to Trump country.  Their voices are heard loud and clear.  We've got 'em vomiting their derangement on AM and FM radio all day long.  They're on Fox.  They're on OANN and NewsMax.  They're running the local Republican party.  

The problem, of course, is that to succeed in any of these venues you have to be either a credulous idiot who actually believes all the lies and the conspiracies...or a cynical fraud who makes a living exploiting those credulous idiots.   You must have either take French leave of reality and are never coming back, or you can ape the derangement of the MAGA goofs well enough to get a job in their media.

But "Good journalists" and "support Donald Trump"?  There is no point at which those two things overlap.  Those concepts are matter and antimatter.  And yet there is Brooks, squinting and frowning and wishfully conjuring such imaginary creatures out of thin air to please the sensibilities of the Tote Bag Centrists who still take PBS seriously.  

So, let's take a look at the strange pocket dimensions where Brooks believed such exotic creatures exist.  

David Brooks:  There's a fine magazine called "Compact" magazine that's more populist. There's a place called the Claremont Institute in California that's more populist. 

I know nothing about "Compact" magazine other than Glenn Greenwald has found safe harbor there.  But the Claremont Institute?  

The fucking Claremont Institute?  

That's Brooks' idea of a Trump-supporting outfit that lives up to Brooks' ideals of "basic modesty... honesty...respect the truth."  

In the interest of fairness and basic modesty, I'm going to sit my Liberal ass down and let a 30-year veteran of Conservative media who is no friend of this blog, tell you all about the fucking Claremont Institute.

Ready?







And just for fun, a few other conservatives who are no friends of this blog weight in:




Conserative David Brooks remains pot-committed to the lie that there are are still honest, sensible people within MAGA Right institutions because that lie reassures the Both Siderist invertebrates who are his core audience.

Conservative Never Trumpers loathe MAGA Right institutions for driving them out and selling out to Trump. 

And oh how I would love to see these two groups collide on a debate stage somewhere that sells popcorn by the barrel.

By the way, today is my 19th blogiversary, so if you are inclined to support Liberal media...


I Am The Liberal Media


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2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Maybe Brooks is stocking food in a dead-end Claremont bunker so he has a place to retreat to.

1:09 PM
Robt said...

Brooks has been able to smear the Walkers blood and guts all over him to last a while more and mingle through the Zombie Horde.
At some point, the smeared on innards of the zombies wears off and makes him vulnerable.

I grantee you, there is NO MAGA that reads Brooks' imaginative creation of the softer more pleasant side of the NAZI take over.
How Brooks can romance the covens heating up at America GOP Auschwitz.

Ah, the smell of burning corpses in the morning.......

3:52 PM

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