David Brooks

[[File:David Brooks 2022 (51984350446).jpg|thumb|right|165px|Brooks in 2022]]
{{pundits}}
'''David "Bobo" Brooks''' {{lived|1961}} is an [[United States|American]] [[author]] and [[pundit]].  He holds the position of [[tokenism|token conservative]] on the [[PBS]] ''Newshour'' and at the ''[[New York Times]]''. He is more or less a tamer counterpart to former columnist [[Bill Kristol]], in that both are always [[Fractal wrongness|spectacularly wrong]], but Kristol was wrong about big, serious things (like [[Iraq War|war]]) while Brooks tends to be wrong about small, trivial things (like the lifestyle of the residents of Franklin County, [[Pennsylvania]]). 

Brooks is an odd fit with the modern Republican Party as he often writes columns against the [[Anarcho-capitalism|economic principles]] or [[manufactroversy|imaginary scandals]] of the party.  He is not a party loyalist, having endorsed [[Barack Obama]] in [[2008 U.S. presidential election|2008]] (albeit primarily because of his dislike of Sarah Palin<ref>http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/10/08/david-brooks-sarah-palin_n_133001.html</ref>) and [[Hillary Clinton]] in [[2016 U.S. presidential election|2016]].  He does not adhere to any conservative philosophy, but rather a conservative fantasy, [[Good old days|longing for a time]] when [[Nuclear family|families]] were more traditional, cultural Christianity was [[Theocracy|uncontested]], and minorities quietly [[Racism|knew]] [[Homophobia|their]] place.  He reveres [[noble savage|small town conservatives]] as long as they [[Yuppie|don't live]] in either [[The South|the South]] (including the border states) or the Western US; they in turn find him [[Elitist|ill-informed and condescending]].  (Not that they bother to read his column.  Nor should you.)

==What, exactly, is a "Bobo"?==
The term "Bobo" comes from Brooks's 2000 book ''Bobos in Paradise: The New Upper Class and How They Got There''. The word is a [[portmanteau]] of the words ''[[bourgeois]]'' and bohemian.<ref>[http://www.pbs.org/newshour/gergen/jan-june00/brooks_5-9.html A Conversation With David Brooks], PBS</ref> In the book, Brooks (who self identifies as a "bobo") argues that modern [[American]] culture is controlled largely by these upper-class baby boomers who mix counter-culture with [[consumerism]]. This sort of [[pop psychology]] is Brooks's stock-in-trade.

'''Fun detail''': ''Bobo'' is also a [[Spanish]] word meaning "dumb."

==From Bobos to Social Animals==
Brooks unleashed further pop psychology on the public with ''The Social Animal'', a fictional narrative about a [[DC|Beltway]] [[think tank]] set romance which is peppered with (often misinterpreted or [[Quote mining|out-of-context]]) factoids from [[social science]] research.<ref>Reviews by [http://www.salon.com/books/review/2011/03/04/pz_myers_on_david_brooks_the_social_animal/index.html PZ Myers], [http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/13/books/review/book-review-the-social-animal-by-david-brooks.html?src=recg&pagewanted=all Thomas Nagel], and [http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2011/aug/18/david-brooks-fooled-by-science/?pagination=false H. Allen Orr]</ref>

==Brooks and politics==
The leitmotif of Brooks's career is [[WASP|claiming that he has a special understanding of and appreciation for the salt-of-the-earth types]] who don't actually know who David Brooks is. His first major work of this variety was his 2001 ''Atlantic'' column "One Nation, Slightly Divisible"<ref>[http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2001/12/one-nation-slightly-divisible/376441/ Full Atlantic article link]</ref>.The column was all about the differences between the [[elitist]], [[Atheism|godless]], [[Yuppie|self-important]] [[blue state]]s and the [[Homophobia|hardy]], [[Lost Cause of the South|honest]], [[Global warming denial|respectable]] [[red state]]s.

{{cquote|Different sorts of institutions dominate life in these two places. In Red America [[Theocracy|churches are everywhere]]. In Blue America [[Xenophobia|Thai]] restaurants are everywhere. In Red America they have QVC, the Pro Bowlers Tour, and hunting. In Blue America we have NPR, Doris Kearns Goodwin, and socially conscious investing. In Red America the Wal-Marts are massive, with parking lots the size of state parks. In Blue America the stores are small but the markups are big. [[Bullshit|You'll rarely see a Christmas store in Blue America]], but in Red America, even in July, you'll come upon stores selling fake Christmas trees, wreath-decorated napkins, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer collectible thimbles and spoons, and little snow-covered villages.}}

One of the most well-known sections of the article concerned a trip Brooks took to Franklin County, Pennsylvania in search of Red America. He wanted to demonstrate the [[American Dream|simple life]] enjoyed by these [[noble savage]]s, so he had a mission:

{{cquote|I was going to spend $20 on a restaurant meal. But although I ordered the most expensive thing on the menu—steak au jus, "slippery beef pot pie," or whatever—I always failed.}}

In 2004, Philadelphia Magazine writer Sasha Issenberg followed up on several of Brooks's columns, including "One Nation, Slightly Divisible." He actually went to Franklin County, where he quickly discovered that Brooks was completely full of [[Bullshit|shit]] after dropping more than 20 dollars on several meals. Issenberg later talked to Brooks about this and the many, many other misrepresentations Issenberg found in his columns. Brooks didn't see anything wrong with it.<ref>[http://www.phillymag.com/articles/booboos_in_paradise/ Boo-Boos in Paradise] - Issenberg actually seems to respect Brooks, and gets genuinely disappointed when Brooks gives him the [[Handwave|runaround]].</ref>

"One Nation, Slightly Divisible" is perhaps one of Brooks's most reviled columns to date. It fell flat with many [[liberal]]s, who thought (with good reason) that it was cliche-ridden and [[Anti-intellectualism|intellectually insulting]]. It's possible that Brooks intended it an olive branch to [[conservatives]]; however, they hated it too, viewing it (again, with good reason) as condescending and snobbish.

==At the ''New York Times''==
Apparently, the one group of people who actually liked Brooks's work were the [[New York City]] elite, because he managed to land a slot at the ''New York Times'' in 2003. His performance there is best expressed in bullet-point form:

*Brooks, who self-describes as a "[[Lulz|third-wave feminist]]," believes that women shouldn't work,<ref>[http://select.nytimes.com/2006/01/01/opinion/01brooks.html?n=Top/Opinion/Editorials%20and%20Op-Ed/Op-Ed/Columnists/David%20Brooks "The Year of Domesticity"]</ref> but if they insist on working, they should have kids first and wait to enter the work force until they are over 40.<ref>[http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B00E5DF1538F936A25752C0A9639C8B63 "Empty Nests, And Hearts"]</ref>
*Brooks was positive that [[McCain]]'s support for the Iraq War wouldn't hurt him.<ref>[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kvvwtxZmdHY Brooks: No One Will Care That McCain is Wrong on Iraq]</ref>
*Brooks loved [[George W. Bush]]. Why? Because "[his] foreign policy doctrine transcended the [[War on Terror]],"<ref>[http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/22/opinion/22brooks.html?n=Top/Opinion/Editorials%20and%20Op-Ed/Op-Ed/Columnists/David%20Brooks "Ideals and Reality"]</ref> he "thinks in long durations" and is "[[Style over substance fallacy|assertiveness on stilts]]."<ref>[http://select.nytimes.com/2006/09/14/opinion/14brooks.html?hp "Ends Without Means"]</ref>  
*Brooks thought Obama was in trouble because "he doesn't seem like the kind of guy who can go into an Applebee's salad bar and people think he fits in naturally there," probably because Applebee's restaurants ''don't have salad bars''.<ref>[http://fair.org/extra-online-articles/david-brooks-vs-the-real-world/ David Brooks vs. the Real World] FAIR</ref>
*Brooks alleged that the term "[[neoconservative]]" was an [[Antisemitism|anti-Semitic]] slur,<ref>[http://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/06/opinion/06BROO.html?ex=1388725200&en=39e0c5c2749496d1&ei=5007&partner=USERLAND "The Era of Distortion"]</ref> apparently unaware that the term in its modern usage was popularized by Irving Kristol.<ref>[http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0377/is_n121/ai_17489596/pg_5/ American conservatism 1945-1995]</ref>
*More recently, Brooks argued that the real reason [[Haiti]] is [[poor]] is because of [[voodoo]].<ref>[http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/15/opinion/15brooks.html?adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1263823214-M9kAbtRAHjc/Y+XzFJYE6Q "The Underlying Tragedy"]</ref>

==External links==
*[http://www.vanityfair.com/online/daily/2014/01/david-brooks-weed-column David Brooks: Been There. Done That.] (Also, [http://www.garygreenbergonline.com/w/?p=449 I smoked pot with David Brooks])
*Language Log has been following the pop-scholarship adventures of Bobo for quite some time: [http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/003246.html David Brooks: Cognitive Neuroscientist], [http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/003586.html Neuroendocronologist], [http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=478 Social Psychologist], [http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=1927 The Butterfly and the Elephant]
*[http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2014/01/krugman-definitely-not-arguing-with-brooks.html Fight!]  [http://www.thewire.com/politics/2012/05/david-brooks-and-paul-krugman-need-take-it-outside/52044/ Fight!] [https://twitter.com/stefanjbecket/status/484792257867153409 Fight!]

==References==
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[[Category:Authors]]
[[Category:Political pundits]]
[[Category:Popular science]]
[[Category:Pseudoscience promoters]]
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Brooks, David}}

Categories: Authors, Political pundits, Popular science, Pseudoscience promoters,  Living people