David Brooks: What if We're the Bad Guys, here?

[Pwns]

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/02/opin ... cated.html

In this story, we anti-Trumpers are the good guys, the forces of progress and enlightenment. The Trumpers are reactionary bigots and authoritarians. Many Republicans support Trump no matter what, according to this story, because at the end of the day, he’s still the bigot in chief, the embodiment of their resentments and that’s what matters to them most.
I partly agree with this story, but it’s also a monument to elite self-satisfaction.
So let me try another story on you. I ask you to try on a vantage point in which we anti-Trumpers are not the eternal good guys. In fact, we’re the bad guys.
This story begins in the 1960s, when high school grads had to go off to fight in Vietnam but the children of the educated class got college deferments. It continues in the 1970s, when the authorities imposed busing on working-class areas in Boston but not on the upscale communities like Wellesley where they themselves lived.
The ideal that we’re all in this together was replaced with the reality that the educated class lives in a world up here and everybody else is forced into a world down there. Members of our class are always publicly speaking out for the marginalized, but somehow we always end up building systems that serve ourselves.
The most important of those systems is the modern meritocracy. We built an entire social order that sorts and excludes people on the basis of the quality that we possess most: academic achievement. Highly educated parents go to elite schools, marry each other, work at high-paying professional jobs and pour enormous resources into our children, who get into the same elite schools, marry each other and pass their exclusive class privileges down from generation to generation.
Daniel Markovits summarized years of research in his book “The Meritocracy Trap”: “Today, middle-class children lose out to the rich children at school, and middle-class adults lose out to elite graduates at work. Meritocracy blocks the middle class from opportunity. Then it blames those who lose a competition for income and status that, even when everyone plays by the rules, only the rich can win.”

Wanted to point out here that literally everything that liberals think attracts Trump voters to Trump they can get from Ron DeSantis and yet Trump still seems to be coasting to the presidential nomination. Trump is and always was a burn-it-all-down candidate no matter how many dumb Donk strategists just think it's "racism" and "xenophobia".

[Skjellyfetti]

Also a personality cult that DeSantis doesn't have (outside of Florida)

[houndawg]

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/02/opin ... cated.html

In this story, we anti-Trumpers are the good guys, the forces of progress and enlightenment. The Trumpers are reactionary bigots and authoritarians. Many Republicans support Trump no matter what, according to this story, because at the end of the day, he’s still the bigot in chief, the embodiment of their resentments and that’s what matters to them most.
I partly agree with this story, but it’s also a monument to elite self-satisfaction.
So let me try another story on you. I ask you to try on a vantage point in which we anti-Trumpers are not the eternal good guys. In fact, we’re the bad guys.
This story begins in the 1960s, when high school grads had to go off to fight in Vietnam but the children of the educated class got college deferments. It continues in the 1970s, when the authorities imposed busing on working-class areas in Boston but not on the upscale communities like Wellesley where they themselves lived.
The ideal that we’re all in this together was replaced with the reality that the educated class lives in a world up here and everybody else is forced into a world down there. Members of our class are always publicly speaking out for the marginalized, but somehow we always end up building systems that serve ourselves.
The most important of those systems is the modern meritocracy. We built an entire social order that sorts and excludes people on the basis of the quality that we possess most: academic achievement. Highly educated parents go to elite schools, marry each other, work at high-paying professional jobs and pour enormous resources into our children, who get into the same elite schools, marry each other and pass their exclusive class privileges down from generation to generation.
Daniel Markovits summarized years of research in his book “The Meritocracy Trap”: “Today, middle-class children lose out to the rich children at school, and middle-class adults lose out to elite graduates at work. Meritocracy blocks the middle class from opportunity. Then it blames those who lose a competition for income and status that, even when everyone plays by the rules, only the rich can win.”

Wanted to point out here that literally everything that liberals think attracts Trump voters to Trump they can get from Ron DeSantis and yet Trump still seems to be coasting to the presidential nomination. Trump is and always was a burn-it-all-down candidate no matter how many dumb Donk strategists just think it's "racism" and "xenophobia".

DeSantis exudes phoniness. Trump's racism and xenophobia, unfortunately, is straight from the heart like a cannonball

[kalm]

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/02/opin ... cated.html

In this story, we anti-Trumpers are the good guys, the forces of progress and enlightenment. The Trumpers are reactionary bigots and authoritarians. Many Republicans support Trump no matter what, according to this story, because at the end of the day, he’s still the bigot in chief, the embodiment of their resentments and that’s what matters to them most.
I partly agree with this story, but it’s also a monument to elite self-satisfaction.
So let me try another story on you. I ask you to try on a vantage point in which we anti-Trumpers are not the eternal good guys. In fact, we’re the bad guys.
This story begins in the 1960s, when high school grads had to go off to fight in Vietnam but the children of the educated class got college deferments. It continues in the 1970s, when the authorities imposed busing on working-class areas in Boston but not on the upscale communities like Wellesley where they themselves lived.
The ideal that we’re all in this together was replaced with the reality that the educated class lives in a world up here and everybody else is forced into a world down there. Members of our class are always publicly speaking out for the marginalized, but somehow we always end up building systems that serve ourselves.
The most important of those systems is the modern meritocracy. We built an entire social order that sorts and excludes people on the basis of the quality that we possess most: academic achievement. Highly educated parents go to elite schools, marry each other, work at high-paying professional jobs and pour enormous resources into our children, who get into the same elite schools, marry each other and pass their exclusive class privileges down from generation to generation.
Daniel Markovits summarized years of research in his book “The Meritocracy Trap”: “Today, middle-class children lose out to the rich children at school, and middle-class adults lose out to elite graduates at work. Meritocracy blocks the middle class from opportunity. Then it blames those who lose a competition for income and status that, even when everyone plays by the rules, only the rich can win.”

Wanted to point out here that literally everything that liberals think attracts Trump voters to Trump they can get from Ron DeSantis and yet Trump still seems to be coasting to the presidential nomination. Trump is and always was a burn-it-all-down candidate no matter how many dumb Donk strategists just think it's "racism" and "xenophobia".

David Brooks discovers a conscious and realizes the ascension of neoliberalism only serves a select few.

Trump is all of the above. Burn it down, racist, xenophobic, narcissistic, born on 3rd base. His followers are the ultimate sheep.

[houndawg]

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/02/opin ... cated.html



Wanted to point out here that literally everything that liberals think attracts Trump voters to Trump they can get from Ron DeSantis and yet Trump still seems to be coasting to the presidential nomination. Trump is and always was a burn-it-all-down candidate no matter how many dumb Donk strategists just think it's "racism" and "xenophobia".

David Brooks discovers a conscious and realizes the ascension of neoliberalism only serves a select few.

Trump is all of the above. Burn it down, racist, xenophobic, narcissistic, born on 3rd base. His followers are the ultimate sheep.

I guess the wilful suspension of disbelief is easier than the ten seconds of thought it takes to see through him.

[SeattleGriz]

Ah yes, the power of influential family. I remember hearing a conversation years ago when I was working at the Arizona Biltmore Resort.

A regular in the fitness center was telling another how he gotten his son a job with Ernest and Julio Gallo. He was dismayed that his son was only offered $75k and then said he told his son not to take the job. "How is he supposed to get by on only $75k per year?"

All this while I'm rolling towels in the fitness center making $6 per hour.

[BDKJMU]

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/02/opin ... cated.html



Wanted to point out here that literally everything that liberals think attracts Trump voters to Trump they can get from Ron DeSantis and yet Trump still seems to be coasting to the presidential nomination. Trump is and always was a burn-it-all-down candidate no matter how many dumb Donk strategists just think it's "racism" and "xenophobia".

David Brooks discovers a conscious and realizes the ascension of neoliberalism only serves a select few.

Trump is all of the above. Burn it down, racist, xenophobic, narcissistic, born on 3rd base. His followers are the ultimate sheep.

So what’s that make Biden then? A Super racist?

So Trump is a narcissist just like Obama..(The chance that someone who writes 2 autobiographies before age 50 being a narcissist is 100%)..

[BDKJMU]

Ah yes, the power of influential family. I remember hearing a conversation years ago when I was working at the Arizona Biltmore Resort.

A regular in the fitness center was telling another how he gotten his son a job with Ernest and Julio Gallo. He was dismayed that his son was only offered $75k and then said he told his son not to take the job. "How is he supposed to get by on only $75k per year?"

All this while I'm rolling towels in the fitness center making $6 per hour.

And if this was mid 1990s, that would be more like 150k today..

[SeattleGriz]

Ah yes, the power of influential family. I remember hearing a conversation years ago when I was working at the Arizona Biltmore Resort.

A regular in the fitness center was telling another how he gotten his son a job with Ernest and Julio Gallo. He was dismayed that his son was only offered $75k and then said he told his son not to take the job. "How is he supposed to get by on only $75k per year?"

All this while I'm rolling towels in the fitness center making $6 per hour.

And if this was mid 1990s, that would be more like 150k today..

Bingo! This was my very first job after leaving Montana after college.

[CID1990]

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/02/opin ... cated.html
Wanted to point out here that literally everything that liberals think attracts Trump voters to Trump they can get from Ron DeSantis and yet Trump still seems to be coasting to the presidential nomination. Trump is and always was a burn-it-all-down candidate no matter how many dumb Donk strategists just think it's "racism" and "xenophobia".

David Brooks discovers a conscious and realizes the ascension of neoliberalism only serves a select few.

Trump is all of the above. Burn it down, racist, xenophobic, narcissistic, born on 3rd base. His followers are the ultimate sheep.

*conscience


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[UNI88]

David Brooks discovers a conscious and realizes the ascension of neoliberalism only serves a select few.

Trump is all of the above. Burn it down, racist, xenophobic, narcissistic, born on 3rd base. His followers are the ultimate sheep.

*conscience


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And Marx’s followers are the ultimate sheep.


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[kalm]

*conscience


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And Marx’s followers are the ultimate sheep.


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Burn!

[houndawg]

*conscience


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And Marx’s followers are the ultimate sheep.


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Fuck yeah! Tell em!

[kalm]

And Marx’s followers are the ultimate sheep.


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Fuck yeah! Tell em!

The funny thing is that Marxism is similar to Ayn Rand’s libertarianism. Great on paper while ignoring human corruption and greed.

[houndawg]

Fuck yeah! Tell em!

The funny thing is that Marxism is similar to Ayn Rand’s libertarianism. Great on paper while ignoring human corruption and greed.

I was just thinking of her a couple days ago - I'm having a hard time retrieving a couple of vehicles from where they went to be serviced/repaired. My electric buggy (4wd/64Volt) went to the shop for a microswitch 2 months ago, still there; another local dealer has had my mowing machine for a month since the deck belt broke, still there....entropy is picking up speed on multiple fronts.

[kalm]

The funny thing is that Marxism is similar to Ayn Rand’s libertarianism. Great on paper while ignoring human corruption and greed.

I was just thinking of her a couple days ago - I'm having a hard time retrieving a couple of vehicles from where they went to be serviced/repaired. My electric buggy (4wd/64Volt) went to the shop for a microswitch 2 months ago, still there; another local dealer has had my mowing machine for a month since the deck belt broke, still there....entropy is picking up speed on multiple fronts.

Is this what is meant by capitalism needing to be saved from itself?

[houndawg]

I was just thinking of her a couple days ago - I'm having a hard time retrieving a couple of vehicles from where they went to be serviced/repaired. My electric buggy (4wd/64Volt) went to the shop for a microswitch 2 months ago, still there; another local dealer has had my mowing machine for a month since the deck belt broke, still there....entropy is picking up speed on multiple fronts.

Is this what is meant by capitalism needing to be saved from itself?

Back in the day capitalists understood that the crumbs they left on the table supported a thriving middle class whose ambition was to be just like them.

[UNI88]

Is this what is meant by capitalism needing to be saved from itself?

Back in the day capitalists understood that the crumbs they left on the table supported a thriving middle class whose ambition was to be just like them.

Back in the day big government types understood that the revenue generated by capitalists was what ultimately funded the government now they think the government is the engine and that they can just print money like some Weimar Republic.


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[kalm]

Back in the day capitalists understood that the crumbs they left on the table supported a thriving middle class whose ambition was to be just like them.

Back in the day big government types understood that the revenue generated by capitalists was what ultimately funded the government now they think the government is the engine and that they can just print money like some Weimar Republic.


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How far back?

[UNI88]

Back in the day big government types understood that the revenue generated by capitalists was what ultimately funded the government now they think the government is the engine and that they can just print money like some Weimar Republic.


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How far back?

Pre Bernie, Warren, AOChe and the other social terrorists.


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[kalm]

How far back?

Pre Bernie, Warren, AOChe and the other social terrorists.


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What were the tax rates?

[houndawg]

Pre Bernie, Warren, AOChe and the other social terrorists.


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What were the tax rates?

[UNI88]

What were the tax rates?

You two are making a solid run at replacing SG and SDH as Lloyd Christmas and Harry Dunne. Keep up the good work. In your current path you’ll be there soon.


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[houndawg]

You two are making a solid run at replacing SG and SDH as Lloyd Christmas and Harry Dunne. Keep up the good work. In your current path you’ll be there soon.


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Translation: Back in the day corporations paid their fair share.

[kalm]

You two are making a solid run at replacing SG and SDH as Lloyd Christmas and Harry Dunne. Keep up the good work. In your current path you’ll be there soon.


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We’ll never replace you and Ganny!