I’m a big fan of Dean Baker. Every morning I check in to get his latest take on the sins of the press. It is his self appointed task to correct the economic illiteracy of the press and the punditocracy. It’s a horrible job, but someone has to do it. Still, it seems to me the poor guy should be spared the task of reading David Brooks. I personally, make a point of never reading Brooks, preferring to have him filtered through parody, scorn or vituperation. (Where do guys like Brooks come from, anyway? Has he ever actually done anything, or did he just start life as a conservative pundit who is wrong about everything? Even –shudder- Maureen Dowd had a productive former life as a reporter.)
Today, Baker vents his frustration at the typical Brooksian straw man argument. It goes something like this, and I will present the argument not as Brooks would, but as I might:
There are two kinds of people in the world: There are people who want to transfer all the country’s wealth to the very rich, and there are Democrats (or, to adopt Brooks’ formulation, “people like me”).
(I would then go on to prove that my position is sanctioned by God and is self evidently correct.)
Now, as you can see, there is sometimes a grain of truth in these dichotomies, though seldom in those advanced by Brooks. But even in my seemingly unarguable proposition, there are problems. First of all, there are in fact, many people who aren’t terribly interested in transferring wealth to the 1%, but that are still not Democrats (and, I like to flatter myself, not like me). There are people who believe in a wrathful god and want to subject us to the laws of Leviticus and return to the times of Abraham. There are racists who pine for a return to more recent yesteryears-say, 1860. There are gun nuts, climate change deniers, and all other manner of crackpots, none of whom are like me, none of whom are Democrats, and yet most of whom are also not much interested in transferring wealth to the 1%. There are, in fact, just a lot of people out there, so anytime anyone tells you that there are two kinds of people, you really have to get your bullshit detector out.
Now, my examples do Brooks too much justice, because despite the fact that they don’t hold up to even superficial analysis, at least there really are people out there who are interested in transferring wealth to the 1%, imposing Christian Sharia law, returning to the good old days of slavery, and arming each and every white person in the country at all times and everywhere. Baker’s frustration is with the fact that there are literally no people who fit any given “not David Brooks” side of Brooks’ dichotomies.
Dean, your frustration is totally understandable. Let me make an observation. There are two kinds of people in the world. Those who read David Brooks, and those who do not. Do yourself a favor, and join those of us in the latter group.
Post a Comment