David Brooks thinks Americans are getting meaner | Hacker News Reader

David Brooks thinks Americans are getting meaner

vox.com

4 pointsbikenaga12 comments

"We don’t treat each other well because we haven’t taught young people for several generations how to be considerate to each other in the small circumstances of life, how to sit with somebody who’s suffering from depression, how to disagree well."

Absolutely classic Brooks. Make up some imaginary past, lament how today's kids don't get it, patronizingly explain how he does get it. Several generations ago we were casually accepting cruelty to women, minorities, poor people, and we sure as hell were not considerate to people suffering from depression.

To be fair to Brooks things were probably extremely polite in the academic housing district around the University of Toronto in the 1960s and just as polite and good mannered in the affluent up market parts of the Philadelphia Main Line of his later youth.

He inherited a blinkered world view and didn't get a lot of family stories about being front row at a lynching.

Is there anyone in the country that actually cares about what David Brooks says?

"I’ll often go to a party and leave and think, “That whole time, nobody asked me a question.”"

Clearly not

I don't know who this guy is but this is certainly something I have observed for a few years now, and also experience in my daily life. I don't even bother small talking with people anymore, and I don't think people care to talk to me anyway.

There are too many global emergencies, political grievances, historical injustices, social oppressions, and they all need to be solved ASAP. People seem to be on edge and there's very little trust in strangers. Anyone who doesn't see this is probably in a bubble.

People should be meaner to David Brooks.

why?

Maybe to him. He has... strayed from the path... as it were, lately.

I've got to wonder if direct reader feedback isn't the cause here. Back in the day of postal email, it just wasn't worth it to object to a risible editorial, except for the most dedicated, or for the most hackneyed editorial. Today, someone like Brooks gets publicly roasted instantly for any misstep.

Books on leadership say that a leader sets the guardrails of the culture, through words and actions. Recent leaders have have normalized racism and violence. I wish that we can restore a culture of respect for each and all.

That doesn't sound right. It seems culture determines how people choose their leaders. When the culture changes, different people rise to power, not the other way around. At least for democratically elected leaders.

The books were business books, so the context is business, where boards and committees choose leaders, and books also delve into that process. It's the opposite of democracy.

I think the matter of guardrails always applies in business and politics. Ponzi schemes, “mark-to-market accounting" (Enron) or calls for violence and racism bust reasonable norms. And that's the aspect of culture that I am addressing.

This is propaganda. He recognizes meanness in the homicide rate in America, which has plummeted since the 1970s. The states with the highest homicide are the hospitable Deep South. Rude New England? Quite low.

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