{"id":1990347,"date":"2023-08-03T21:29:04","date_gmt":"2023-08-04T01:29:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/anti-trump-nyt-columnist-has-epiphany-what-if-were-the-bad-guys\/"},"modified":"2023-08-03T21:32:10","modified_gmt":"2023-08-04T01:32:10","slug":"anti-trump-nyt-columnist-has-epiphany-what-if-were-the-bad-guys","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/anti-trump-nyt-columnist-has-epiphany-what-if-were-the-bad-guys\/","title":{"rendered":"Anti-Trump NYT columnist questions their own perspective: &#8216;Could we be the villains?&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">24<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fanti-trump-nyt-columnist-has-epiphany-what-if-were-the-bad-guys%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1990347&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><h2>Anti-Trump NYT Columnist Has Epiphany:\u2064 &#8216;What if We&#8217;re the Bad Guys?&#8217;<\/h2>\n<p>First Taylor Swift, and now the New York \u2064Times?<\/p>\n<p>To paraphrase the \u2062pop \u2063star\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=b1kbLwvqugk\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">self-examining hit<\/a> \u201cAnti-Hero,\u201d columnist\u2064 David Brooks finally admitted to\u2064 the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2023\/08\/02\/opinion\/trump-meritocracy-educated.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">New \u2063York Times<\/a> and the world that, yes, he\u2064 and \u200call of the leftist <a href=\"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/conservatives-turn-garth-brooks-throw-music-bud-light-support-never\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">elitists<\/a> are indeed the problem.<\/p>\n<p>This admission is one that nobody\u200c saw coming in either case.<\/p>\n<p>However, like Swift, Brooks evaluates his mistakes but somehow \u200bends up right back where\u2063 he started\u200b \u2014 clinging to his myopic worldview while \u2062congratulating himself for a moment of insight that still\u2064 misses the mark.<\/p>\n<p>In his column published Wednesday, titled \u201cWhat if We\u2019re the Bad\u200b Guys \u200bHere?\u201d Brooks \u200dacknowledged the left\u2019s role in making former\u200d President <a href=\"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/mtg-vows-vote-donald-trump-even-jail-serve-president\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Donald Trump<\/a> the odds-on favorite to become \u200dthe 2024 \u2062GOP presidential \u200dnominee.<\/p>\n<p>Rather than shrink into relative obscurity the way \u2062other \u200cpoliticians do after a \u200closs, Trump\u2019s popularity \u2064is repeatedly given\u200d a boost\u200b by the left\u2019s reaction to \u2063whatever latest thing they throw at \u200chim \u2014 \u200dand they still can\u2019t quite figure out why.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDonald Trump seems to get indicted on a \u200bweekly basis,\u201d Brooks began\u2063 with the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/arrested-trump-posts-defiant-final-messages-departing-dc-court-appearance\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">truth<\/a>. \u201cYet he is utterly\u200c dominating his Republican \u200drivals in the polls, and he is tied with\u200c Joe Biden in the general election surveys,\u201d he pointed out.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTrump\u2019s poll numbers are stronger against Biden now than\u2062 at any time in \u20622020. What\u2019s going on here? Why is \u2063this guy still politically viable, after\u2062 all he\u2019s done?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Brooks began\u2062 with \u200cthe tired \u201cbecause racism and bigotry\u201d take but, in the pursuit of self-reflection, \u2063lands on a closer, if still \u2063inaccurate, explanation that also reeks of classism.<\/p>\n<p>In his mind,\u2064 Brooks believes he and\u200d his ilk have created a \u201cmeritocracy\u201d that makes Trump\u2019s voters feel excluded and that \u2064the former president paints himself \u2062as their ally\u2064 against the system.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe ideal that we\u2019re all in this \u200dtogether was replaced with the reality \u2064that the \u200beducated\u2064 class lives\u2063 in a world up here and everybody \u200belse is forced\u200d into\u2063 a world down there,\u201d\u2064 Brooks wrote.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMembers of our class\u200d are always publicly speaking out \u200cfor the marginalized, but somehow we always \u200cend up building systems that serve ourselves. The most important of those \u200dsystems is\u2062 the modern \u200bmeritocracy,\u201d\u2063 Brooks argued.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe built\u2062 an\u2064 entire social order that sorts and\u2063 excludes\u200b people on the basis of the quality that we\u200b possess most: academic achievement,\u201d the University of \u2064Chicago <a href=\"https:\/\/news.uchicago.edu\/story\/columnist-david-brooks-serve-uchicagos-first-class-day-speaker\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">alumnus<\/a> said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHighly educated \u200cparents \u200cgo to elite schools, marry \u2062each other, work at \u200bhigh-paying professional \u2062jobs and pour enormous resources into\u200d our\u2064 children,\u2063 who get into \u200dthe\u2062 same elite schools, marry each other\u200c and pass their exclusive class privileges down\u2064 from generation to generation,\u201d Brooks noted.<\/p>\n<p>Of\u200b course, \u200bwhat he\u2019s labeling a\u200b meritocracy is actually more \u200bakin to nepotism. Ivy League institutions keep the wealthy\u2064 in their closed circle with\u2064 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/scotus-expected-follow-race-based-admissions-decision-new-case-huge-issue-high-schools\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">legacy admissions<\/a> that allow the institutions leverage\u200b to attain other woke\u2064 goals.<\/p>\n<p>That practice is under renewed scrutiny\u200d along with\u200d race-based admissions, but it reveals\u2064 more about a\u2063 rigged \u200bsystem than what Brooks has argued is some paragon of \u2062achievement-based rewards.<\/p>\n<p>In fact, the equal \u200crights organization Coalition \u2063for TJ tweeted that \u201celite \u2064colleges have \u2018bought off\u2019 alumni support for race-based \u2063admission \u2062preferences with generous legacy preferences \u2013 an example of corruption breeding more corruption.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe \u200dhave a better idea. Admissions \u2062should be based on individual merit.\u201d<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">For too long, elite colleges have \u201cbought off\u201d alumni support for \u2062<a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/scotus-expected-to-follow-up-race-based-admissions-decision-with-new-case-on-huge-issue-at-high-schools\/\" title=\"SCOTUS to tackle major high school issue after race-based admissions ruling.\">race-based admission preferences<\/a> with generous legacy preferences \u2013 an\u2062 example of corruption breeding more corruption.<\/p>\n<p>We have a better idea.<br \/>\nAdmissions should be based \u2063on individual merit.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Coalition for TJ #FightingForMerit (@coalitionforTJ) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/coalitionforTJ\/status\/1678228046900256769?\">July 10, 2023<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Brooks also admitted that these elite institutions churn \u200cout half of all journalists\u200d at the major news\u2064 outlets, despite producing\u200b less than 1 percent of college graduates.<\/p>\n<p>This same\u2062 wealthy, educated,\u2062 anointed class also\u200b crowds America\u2019s \u200bcities, which Brooks believes accounts for\u200c the \u200cstark divide in Trump\u2019s popularity between the rural and urban areas.<\/p>\n<p>What Brooks arguably gets\u200b most accurate is the frustration that comes from the way elitists have <a href=\"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/op-ed-speech-hateful-hate-truth-just-ask-jesus-apostles\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">captured the language<\/a> and created a chasm between the classes.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMeanwhile, members\u200b of the less-educated\u2062 classes have to walk on eggshells\u2062 because they never know when we\u2019ve\u200d changed the usage \u200brules so that something that \u200dwas sayable five years ago now gets you fired,\u201d Brooks pointed out.<\/p>\n<p>The author even\u200d brought up the \u2063problem of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/megyn-kelly-unleashes-megan-rapinoe-poisoned-entire-team-country\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">luxury beliefs<\/a>, whereby the rich and powerful smash a social norm that then decimates the lower class when they adopt the change \u2014 only to \u2063have the\u200b <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/anti-trump-nyt-columnist-has-epiphany-what-if-were-the-bad-guys\/\" title=\"Anti-Trump NYT columnist questions their own perspective: 'Could we be the villains?'\">upper classes \u2062live \u2064traditional lives<\/a> anyway.<\/p>\n<p>Brooks explained this phenomenon \u200cusing the\u200d example\u2064 of out-of-wedlock births.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAfter \u2063this \u200csocial norm \u2063was\u2064 eroded, a \u200c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/counting-down-the-7-worst-contracts-in-mlb-history\/\" title=\"Counting Down The 7 Worst Contracts In MLB History\">funny thing happened<\/a>,\u201d Brooks explained. \u201cMembers of our class still overwhelmingly married and had children within \u2062wedlock. People without our resources, unsupported by social norms,\u2062 were\u2063 less able to do that,\u201d he admitted.<\/p>\n<p>Brooks \u2063went on to cite the statistic that 60 percent of births to \u200cmothers with only a high school education occur outside of \u200dmarriage, while \u2063only 10 percent of\u200d births to those with a university degree are to \u2063unwed mothers.\u2062 This is a problem, as single parenthood is the greatest obstacle\u200b to upward mobility.<\/p>\n<p>After taking \u2062all of this into account, Brooks \u2062believes he settled\u2063 on the reason for such undying allegiance to\u2062 Trump.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s \u2064easy to understand\u2063 why people in less-educated classes would conclude that they are under economic, political, cultural and\u200d moral assault\u2063 \u2013 and why they\u2019ve rallied around Trump as their best warrior against the educated class,\u201d Brooks \u2064said.<\/p>\n<p>The author \u200dwent\u200b on to claim\u2063 that Trump identified the \u201cprofessional class\u201d as \u200cthe working class\u2019s adversary and \u200bhas appealed to them as a\u200d person willing to\u2062 \u201cstick his thumb\u2064 in \u2062our \u200deyes on a daily basis and reject the whole\u200b epistemic regime that we rode \u200cin on.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>(Perhaps Brooks thinks less \u200ceducated voters \u2063are too stupid to realize that Trump is himself\u200d a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/donald-trump-jr-reveals-cut-off-financially-conversation-father\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">wealthy man<\/a> who \u200bwas \u200beducated \u200dat the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.)<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf distrustful\u2063 populism is\u2064 your basic worldview, the Trump indictments seem like just another skirmish in \u200cthe class \u200dwar\u200b between the professionals and the workers, another\u200b assault by\u200c a bunch of coastal lawyers\u200c who\u2063 want to\u200c take \u2063down the man who \u200dmost aggressively stands up to them,\u201d Brooks continued.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOf course, \u2062the indictments \u200ddon\u2019t cause Trump supporters to abandon him. They cause \u200cthem to become more fiercely loyal. That\u2019s the\u200b polling story\u200b of\u2064 the \u200blast six months,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAre Trump supporters right that the indictments are just a political witch hunt? Of course not,\u201d\u2062 Brooks claimed.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/the-worm-is-turning-on-dr-anthony-fauci\/\" title=\"The Worm is Turning on Dr. Anthony Fauci\">card-carrying member<\/a>\u2063 of my class, I still basically trust\u2063 the legal system and the neutral arbiters \u200bof justice,\u201d he acknowledged, again becoming the problem \u2064he set out to identify.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTrump is a monster \u200din the way we\u2019ve all\u200d been\u2063 saying for years and deserves to go to prison,\u201d Brooks continued, essentially negating every other argument.<\/p>\n<p>But still, he adds, \u201cWe can condemn the Trumpian populists until the cows come home, but the real question is: When will we\u200d stop behaving in ways that make Trumpism inevitable?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Even while trying earnestly to assess where Trump\u2019s adversaries are wrong,\u2063 Brooks can\u2019t get out of his own way.<\/p>\n<p>The country club class will\u200c never understand Trump, because they can\u2019t possibly understand his <a href=\"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/op-ed-biden-impeachment-part-democratic-plan-2024\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">voters<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>They view Trump through the \u2064same lens as they do the\u200d middle and lower classes and are blinded by the assumption that they are just stupid,\u2063 bigoted and unsophisticated.<\/p>\n<p>For all of \u2064the problems Trump has in winning over new voters, the biggest advantage\u2062 is that \u200dhis enemies \u2063don\u2019t understand him\u2062 or his appeal at all.<\/p>\n<p>Brooks tried \u2014 bless his heart \u2014 but he <a href=\"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/special-counsel-jack-smith-attempts-boot-mar-lago-lawyer-trial-claiming-divided-loyalties\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">reverted<\/a> right back to \u201corange man and his voters are bad.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Self-reflection is difficult, and change based\u200b on what it reveals is even more challenging \u2014 whether it\u2019s a perenially jilted, \u2064aging\u2064 pop star or a quasi-conservative columnist.<\/p>\n<p>The post <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/anti-trump-nyt-columnist-epiphany-bad-guys\/\">Anti-Trump NYT Columnist Has Epiphany: &#8216;What if \u2064We&#8217;re \u200bthe Bad Guys?&#8217;<\/a> appeared first on <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\">The Western Journal<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Taylor Swift and the New York Times have both surprised everyone. In his column, David Brooks confessed that he and other left-wing elitists are the actual problem, echoing Swift&#8217;s introspective song &#8220;Anti-Hero.&#8221; This unexpected admission has caught everyone off guard.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2070,"featured_media":1990348,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[548],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1990347","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-conservative-news-daily"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1990347","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2070"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1990347"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1990347\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1990348"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1990347"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1990347"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1990347"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}