Self-Critical Navel Gazing for Thee, But Not for Me

Bingo!

... Know what stuck out about that to me? The self-satisfied, misguided "above it all" tone of the piece. Yes, Brooks is correct that, "very few in public life habitually step back and think about the weakness in their own thinking and what they should do to compensate." However, I can't help but notice that he seems to be exempting himself and other people who think like he does from that criticism. Yet, David Brooks in his own mentally flabby way, is every bit as rigid in his thinking as the hardcore activists he scorns. The little tribe that Brooks belongs to, Team RINO, has its own "tribal purity tests" and its own weaknesses in thinking that are habitually brushed aside as easily as those on the Left and Right.

So, here's the question: When do people like David Brooks start asking themselves some tough questions? When do they engage in some self-criticism? When do they consider the possibility that maybe the principled people with the fire in their bellies have it right? When do they consider the possibility that their smug attitudes, upturned noses, and lukewarm politics represent exactly the sort of epistemic closure that they like to complain about?

If Brooks genuinely considered questions like those in print, it might lead to his first worthwhile column in years.

[Read the whole thing]

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David Brooks Wonders What Went Wrong [UPDATED]

"Educated Class" Waking Up to Fact That Us "Yokels" Were Right All Along

Noemie Emery on David Brooks and the "Educated Class"

Michael Barone on David Brooks and the "Educated Class"

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