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Twice a day, a stopped clock is right, right? Sometimes I even find something laudable in what David Brooks writes. Today, for example, I agree withhis conclusionbut his argument is so bizarre that I can only surmise he got to a truththrough the turning of the earth.

As Iwroteyesterday, I am moving quickly toward a position of free-speech absolutism, something at odds to the prevailing attitude among college and university administrations today. Its a position that Brooks also claims. He, too, grabs theCharlie Hebdomoment, as I did, to make a point against speech codes on campus.

Thats all well and good. Its how he gets there that I find bizarre. And patronizing.

Brooks divides us into those at the adult table (himself) and those at the kiddie table:

The people who read Le Monde or the establishment organs are at the adults table. The jesters, the holy fools and people like Ann Coulter and Bill Maher are at the kids table.

Huh? I am reminded ofthe ten-year-old who dresses in a suit, foldsThe New York Timesunder his arm, and expects to be treated as an adult.

Lets look a little at what Brooks is saying: The adults, the assumption goes, are the ones who are right, who know what they are doing. They are the elite, the people who should be making the decisions. That the kids sometimes make fun of them is simply something that comes with the territory. It should be toleratedbut not encouraged.

But those Brooks imagines as adults are also the people whose actions are destroying our worldmuch more that even the most despicable of terrorists. Their riches come through the impoverishment of others, their successes through the destruction of their competitors. The destructiveness of their actions is covered by the assumption of mannersbut that does not excuse them. Social skills do not replace morality. Brooks, though, concludes that theCharlie Hebdoattackshould remind us to be legally tolerant toward offensive voices, even as we are socially discriminating.

Surebut Brooks we is a self-defining elite patronizing the rest. Though he mentions only Coulter and Maher (trying for that tired and false balance between left and right), Brooks relegates to the kiddie table almost all of the people Id rather sit with, the people who are real adults, not simply those dressed up in grown-up clothes. Here are just a few:

Charlie Chaplin Stephen Colbert Joseph Heller Aldous Huxley Franois Rabelais Jon Stewart Jonathan Swift Kurt Vonnegut Evelyn Waugh

Originally posted here:
David Brooks has a Bill Maher problem: More smug, sanctimonious nonsense from NYTs laziest columnist