Part 2—Extremely revealing behaviors: In our view, Nicholas Kristof’s recent column was extremely revealing.
(The column appeared on Sunday, January 25. To read it, just click this.)
Let’s be clear. The column wasn’t extremely revealing about Kevin Green, Kristof’s friend from high school who recently died at age 54. The column wasn’t dispositive about the various problems Green faced in his adult life.
In his subsequent, January 29 column, Kristof described Green as “a warm and helpful man who floundered in a tough job market, hurt his back and died at the age of 54.”
That said, neither column offered any suggestions about ways we might improve the job market in rural places like Kamhill, Oregon, Kristof’s home town, which is—just for the record—just 35 miles from Portland.
The column didn’t nail down the nature of Green’s back injury, or the extent to which the injury kept him from the job market. At one point, Clayton Green is even said to have said that his brother’s monthly disability payments “hurt him because he might have looked harder for a job if he hadn’t been getting those checks.”
This suggests that there may have been jobs which Kevin Green actually could have pursued. But none of this really gets explained in Kristof’s peculiar column.
In the end, Kristof’s column wasn’t hugely revealing about the reasons for his late friend’s difficult adult life. The column doesn’t really explain how his friend ended up dying prematurely, with legal problems, in an apparent state of poverty or near-poverty.
Nor did the column really explain the financial condition at issue. With whom did Kevin Green live? How had he been able to retain the family farm, where he fished and maintained a “huge vegetable garden?”
None of these points are really explained, because the true state of his late friend’s life simply wasn’t the actual focus of Kristof’s remarkable column.
Kristof’s actual focus was different. We find his focus extremely revealing.
Kristof’s actual focus was the meanness of the American people, or at least of a great many of these unpleasant people. Kristof seems remarkably sure of himself as he describes the moral failure of what seems to be millions of people.
Once again, this is the remarkable way Kristof started his column, under a Yamhill byline:
KRISTOF (2/3/15): The funeral for my high school buddy Kevin Green is Saturday, near this town where we both grew up.We think that passage is remarkable—and quite revealing. For starters, this is why:
The doctors say he died at age 54 of multiple organ failure, but in a deeper sense he died of inequality and a lack of good jobs.
Lots of Americans would have seen Kevin—obese with a huge gray beard, surviving on disability and food stamps—as a moocher. They would have been harshly judgmental: Why don’t you look after your health? Why did you father two kids outside of marriage?
That acerbic condescension reflects one of this country’s fundamental problems: an empathy gap. It reflects the delusion on the part of many affluent Americans that those like Kevin are lazy or living cushy lives.
Kristof’s friend wasn’t a public person. No one said a bad word about him at the time of his death.
Despite this fact, the actual focus of Kristof’s column is the moral failing of “lots of Americans” who he imagines denouncing hid friend. All through his column, Kristof describes this moral failure with a great degree of moral certainty, not to say with glee.
According to Kristof, the many people to whom he refers “would have been harshly judgmental” about his friend. They would have voiced an “acerbic condescension,” reflecting their “empathy gap.”
As he ends his column, Kristof continues to scold these people. “You were a good man,” he says to his friend, “hardworking and always on the lookout for someone to help—yet you were overturned by riptides of inequality. Those who would judge you don’t have a clue. They could use a dose of your own empathy.”
We think the attitude driving this column is extremely revealing, though not about Kevin Green. We think the column is very revealing about Kristof himself, and about a deeply unintelligent tone which is currently swallowing the culture of pseudo-liberalism.
Kristof is scathing in his assessment of “lots of Americans.” He’s happy to put unpleasant words in their mouths.
These people would dismiss his hardworking, empathetic friend as “a moocher,” Kristof grandly says. No one had actually used that word, but Kristof seemed perfectly happy putting the word in those bad peoples’ mouths. He seems to be perfectly happy denouncing their values and character.
Here’s why we think that’s extremely revealing:
Was Nicholas Kristof’s friend a good person? As far as we know, he was.
That said, Kristof describes his friend behaving in ways which are highly undesirable. You don't have to be “harshly judgmental” to notice this obvious fact.
Most heinously, he describes his friend failing to pay child support, to the point where he has his driver’s license revoked. Tragically, Kristof reports that the children his empathetic friend failed to support have “had trouble in school and with the law,” that they have been “jailed for drug and other offenses.”
Plainly, this is a terrible story, however one might explain it. But so what? In his rush to condemn “lots of Americans” (but not his friend), Kristof brushes past this obvious fact in a truly remarkable way.
Earth to Kristof, one of our top moral scolds:
Yes! For better or worse, many people will be inclined to judge or condemn the conduct he rather blithely describes. Many people will be inclined to see that conduct as heinous—and it’s perfectly obvious why.
You don’t need “acerbic condescension” or an “empathy gap” to be troubled by that deeply tragic story. You don’t have to be “harshly judgmental” to see that something was terribly wrong in the story Kristof has told.
Perhaps you simply need some empathy for children whose parents fail them! Even as he condemns The Others, Kristof seems to lack the moral trait.
Here at THE HOWLER, we don’t recommend judging people you don’t know. Attempts to judge the late Kevin Green are, in our view, an obvious fool’s errand.
That said, it’s amazing to see the way Kristof rushes past those unfortunate children in his headlong rush to condemn “lots of Americans” for their (imagined) condemnations of Green. As he goes through these peculiar moves, we think Kristof’s conduct is very revealing indeed.
Can we talk? We the modern pseudo-liberals simply love condemning The Others. We love to tell “lots of Americans” about their moral squalor.
We especially love the tell The Others that they’re racist, as Kristof would soon find out.
This conduct is very dumb and it's rather ugly. It tends to produce extremely bad politics. Despite these facts, we Maoists routinely end up behaving this way. The results we get tend to be very poor.
Alas! Not long after that column appeared, this same impulse, sharpened a bit, was turned back against Kristof himself. In this case, the moral condemnations had a racial cast.
In our view, this impulse was turned against Kristof in a deeply revealing way.
We Maoists of the pseudo-left always seem to come out of the woodwork at times like these. As our revolutions advance, we’re known for our deeply self-assured moral condemnations of Everybody Else Except Us—and for our considerable skill at helping the nation’s plutocrats retain their societal power.
We Maoists are increasingly active these days. Tomorrow, we’ll let Joan Walsh illustrate our point.
Tomorrow: Joan Walsh at the crucifixion
"Kristof’s friend wasn’t a public person. No one said a bad word about him at the time of his death." Somerby, today.
ReplyDelete"Can we talk? No “Americans” had said a word about Kristof’s friend, the late Kevin Green, who recently died at age 54." Somerby yesterday.
As one of Bob's most frequent defenders is fond of commenting. excessive literalism is a symptom of mental illness or brain injury.
An estimated 26.2 percent of Americans ages 18 and older or about one in four adults suffer from a diagnosable mental disorder in a given year.
In Europe, especially the Netherlands and Scandinavia, people with a major clinical diagnosis of mental illness receive a monthly living allowance. They are not permitted to work or to be homeless. If you are suggesting that Kevin Green may have been mentally ill, or that Kristof is, clearly the one given the cushy writing job had a far better chance of being self-supporting than the one on the vegetable farm outside Portland.
Delete"Diagnosable mental disorder." Every day, the left's version of the military industrial complex diagnoses new wars that need fighting and funding with taxpayer dollars.
DeleteMedicine is left wing?
DeletePsychobabble isn't medicine but it is left wing.
Delete@ 3:49 you wrote: "If you are suggesting that Kevin Green may have been mentally ill, or that Kristof is,...."
DeleteI get the distinct impression he is talking about the blog's author.
Mental illness isn't psychobabble. The term "psychobabble" is a sure sign someone knows nothing about the topic.
Delete
Delete“Thank you for making my wish true! I was totally devastated when Frank left me. It was like all my world vanishing into sorrow and pain. But your kind words when I first emailed you gave me hope. I felt how sincere, honest and authentic you were from your first email. I know it sounds weird but out of all the casters I contacted, you were the only one to give me that impression of being so true and caring. More than your words, it’s the fantastic work you accomplished for me that I will keep in mind. You brought my lover back and you made all my wishes come true. He’s now loyal, pays attention to me, he offers me flowers every Sunday, and we often go out at the cinema or at the restaurant. I will be forever thankful for turning my life from hell to heaven!” CONTACT via EMAIL: LORDSHAKIKISPELL@GMAIL.COM . or LORDSHAKIKISPELL@YAHOO.COM.+2348100399287
or you can also contact him through his website http://lordshakikispell.webs.com
I, for one, am more concerned about Kristof's insensitivity to SNAP recipients by continuing to use the tired and stereotypical reference to "food stamps." I salute Somerby for pointing this out yesterday.
ReplyDeleteI recall a post where Bob attacked Paul Krugman and the New York Times for making an error about the size of cuts the GOP House had adopted in the food stamp program. Krugman never used the term SNAP, however. He only talked about food stamps. Bob did not write "which Krugman insists on calling “food stamps” as he did with Kristof.
Delete"as the moral scolds typically do, Kristof hears voices in his head."
ReplyDeleteSomerby, scolding Kristof 2/2/15
"Early today, we were roused from sleep by a gaggle of sobbing analysts.
“Who the [#$%^] is Cara Buckley?” the youngsters sobbingly said."
Somerby, preparing to flog a flyweight 1/22/15
While Kristof is blasting the rest of us, who, he imagines, look down on Kevin Green, I wonder what, if anything, Kristof actually did to help his long-time friend. Did he do as much as he should have?
ReplyDeleteP.S. I am confused by the concept of a 'good person who bahaves badly'. How can he be distinguished from a bad person who behaves badly? In other words, what does it mean to be a 'good' or 'bad' person? Wouldn't that classification be based on how they behave?
A good person who behaves badly is someone who harms himself, his children and society but votes for Democrats. A bad person who behaves badly is a person who does or does not harm himself, his children, and society but goes to church, votes Republican, thinks abortion is ethically complicated, speaks with a southern accent while being white, poor, and uneducated, or owns a gun to protect his family while not being able to afford living in a better neighborhood.
DeleteDavid, all people think of themselves as good even while doing heinous things. Fundamental attribution error states that we judge others by their inherent essence or character and call them good or bad people while we understand our own experiential contexts and allow for the pressures that push us toward our behaviors, so when we do something bad we believe we didn't have much choice about it. The field of Social Psychology studies this stuff.
Delete"The field of Social Psychology studies this stuff."
DeleteThe field of Actuarial Science, apparently not so much.
Anon -- I think the field that studies who is or is not a good person would be theology.
DeleteNo, theology doesn't "study" anything. Religious knowledge is revealed. Theology may define who is good or not but it doesn't study it.
Delete2:03@, Sorry, Republicans DO NOT have a monopoly on morality or virtue. Yours is a very odd world view that might suggest the presence of a Narcissistic Personality Disorder. The good news is it's treatable.
DeleteActually, personality disorders aren't very treatable.
DeleteI'm no Dr. Freud, but what the hey, I think what we have going on in Kristof is a classic case of projection. Kristof, not the American people, secretly thinks his friend is lazy, a moocher, a bad parent, etc. But he is disturbed by those thoughts, because they contradict his self-image as a compassionate liberal - thus, he projects them onto others, i.e., nameless "Americans" who lack empathy (and what he really means is republicans).
ReplyDelete"I'm no Dr. Freud ...."
Deletehow about Carnac the Magnificent?
"Lots of Americans would have seen Kevin — obese with a huge gray beard, surviving on disability and food stamps — as a moocher."
DeleteSo after reading Kristof's column and Somerby's take on it, how do you view Kevin Green, majneb?
Kristof noted that Green collected cans for recycling. That is one job illegal aliens haven't taken from us. And damn hard work for someone with a bad back. As is hoeing, planting, weeding, and harvesting in the veggie garden.
DeleteBut I am a Maoist and would have preferred his garden be collectivized.
If only Bob had stopped a few paragraphs before the terrible, terrible ending. So it's wrong for Kristof to broad stroke "lots of people", but he feels happily free to go on a completely unsupported generalization orgy against us "Maoists" (it's not the first time Bob has shown us he's happily down with a little good old fashioned red baiting.).
ReplyDeleteMost liberals with a halfway decent college education can easily see through the fallacies in Kristof while still believing, as someone once said "we have to make it easier for men to do good."
Howler, heal thyself.
Some of my best friends are liberal. They are not only likable, most are at least of average intelligence. One or two exhibits some energy and rare bursts of industriousness. I can't blame Somerby though (although my failure to blame may be due to association with liberals).
DeleteIf your second paragraph were true you might have a point but there is little evidence it is.
Delete2:05 - if your first sentence were true, you might have a point but there is little evidence it is.
Delete1:54 - that's mighty white of you.
I'm a tiger @ 3:28.
DeleteYes! For better or worse, many people will be inclined to judge or condemn the conduct he rather blithely describes. Many people will be inclined to see that conduct as heinous—and it’s perfectly obvious why.
ReplyDeleteYou don’t need “acerbic condescension” or an “empathy gap” to be troubled by that deeply tragic story. You don’t have to be “harshly judgmental” to see that something was terribly wrong in the story Kristof has told.
Well, this isn't good. And where is the trigger alert for this piece? Bob has failed to censor himself in the manner in which Kristof and we self-identified progressives require. He has failed to even hedge his transgressive observations by finding a way of ultimately blaming The Other.
This kind of noncompliance cannot stand. We must jump up and down in place and point to Bob's "dog whistles," accuse him of suffering from Alzheimer's and ordering us off his lawn, take to the airwaves and Twitter with torrents of scolding, withering R- and various other-bombs for his noticing that which shall not be noticed much less typed, and as a final solution, declare him to be lacking any basic compassion and therefore something less than human (unlike those of us possessing the insight to "see" all the millions who are judging individuals they've never heard of).
If we don't put a stop to this, others may follow suit, and what will become of our primary, endless arsenal of material for boosting our self-regard? What if our and Kristof's courageous and sane tendencies to preemptively root out possible millions, maybe billions, for their flawed thoughts, become the subject of ridicule? Or worse, what if someone claims that these tendencies and related practices are now among the most significant cultural factors in the past and future production of millions of Kevins and royally screwed children of Kevins?
What if other people start noticing, I mean deciding due to their racial or other forms of discriminatory animus, we're the problem? Our -ist bombs could begin to lose potency in that kind of nightmare scenario. Who cares about Kevin and Kevin's kids? What about our self-esteem?
BOB IS OLD!
"Yes! For better or worse, many people will be inclined to judge or condemn the conduct he rather blithely describes. Many people will be inclined to see that conduct as heinous—and it’s perfectly obvious why."
DeleteTRANSLATION: I too hear those voices, Nicholas!
Kristof said millions of imagined Americans would see Kevin as a moocher by virtue of the fact he was fat, on disability and food stamps.
DeleteKristof was careful to separate conduct from superficial facts and give us very little in the way of conduct, so that he could condemn millions for misjudging Kevin on those superficial facts alone. Kristof would not dare go too deeply into why those superficial facts became true about Kevin. He glosses over it because if these facts were presented about the VAST majority of cases like Kevin's, it would be discovered that bad luck played little or no role.
Actually "millions" is from your imagination Anonymous @ 2:19. And Kristof did not gloss over how that happened. Bob Somerby told you he did, and like the pinhead you are, you took him at his word. Which is not surprising. He imagines things too.
DeleteKristoff said, and I quote: "Lots of Americans would have seen Kevin — obese with a huge gray beard, surviving on disability and food stamps — as a moocher."
DeleteThen Somerby proves Kristof's point.
Somerby is getting better and better at proving his own points.
DeleteIt is something the young and inexperienced aren't very good at. But give them time.
10:52, many are moochers and should be seen as such if they qualify. Your point?
DeleteMany Are Moochers?
DeleteThey had a dream about the King of Sweden.
He gave them things that they were needin.
He gave them a home and gold and steel,
A Diamond car with platinum wheels.
No end to the race card: The Nation’s Dave Zirin wrote a post-Super Bowl column attributing the Seattle Seahawks’ horrible decision to throw a pass on the one-yard line in the final seconds of the game was due to “the politics of race” and an anti-Marshawn Lynch conspiracy. The theory, as relayed by Zirin, is that Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll called a pass because he wanted the young, clean-cut quarterback Russell Wilson to be seen as the game-winner, not the renegade running back Marshawn Lynch. BTW, making this silly theory even sillier is the fact that Wilson is also black!
ReplyDeleteSure Russell Wilson is black, but he's not BLACK black.
DeleteRight in your wheelhouse, Benjy.
DeleteBrought to you from the same people who believe Julian Edelman wasn't the SB MVP because the NFL is anti-semitic.
Deletecicero was absent until race and football got added back into the mix.
DeleteDeceased fat deadbeats are no fun. More on deflated footballs
Deleteand poo flinging football writers, please!
I see that the VDARE class has been let out early today.
ReplyDeleteMany of the comments come from wonderful youngsters unable to get into a four year VDARE class. But liberals have no empathy for them.
DeleteMost of the comments here are trolls picking on Somerby, as usual.
ReplyDeleteKristof isn't examining whether men should pay their child support or whether it is healthy to be obese or what the unemployment rate is outside Portland. Neither is Somerby. No one is even speculating about whether this deceased person will be allowed into heaven or relegated to hell. Both columns are about how people should treat each other. If you are judgmental toward people face-to-face, it results in impaired social relations. If you are kind to other people life is better for everyone concerned. All the rest is pragmatics.
Silly trolls who are pointing out that Somerby is being judgmental when he criticizes Kristof for sounding critical of his friend, are just being jerks. Somerby is obviously asking whether the left is going overboard in its criticism of others for being insufficiently empathetic. I think it is a fair question, and not one invalidated by its own raising unless you are a 5 year old.
A Bobinista trifecta: what Kristof means to say, what Somerby means to say, and what trolls mean to say. Bravo!
Delete5 year olds need to have such things explained to them
DeleteBoth of your "5 year old" comments go overboard in terms of how people should treat each other.
Delete"That said, Kristof describes his friend behaving in ways which are highly undesirable. You don't have to be 'harshly judgmental' to notice this obvious fact.
ReplyDelete"Most heinously, he describes his friend failing to pay child support, to the point where he has his driver’s license revoked."
Is it heinous -- that is, odious and wicked -- not to pay child support when you lose your job due to an injury and can't work to earn money to pay the support? You know, like when you can't work and before you get disability (at least a year in Oregon)?. Because that's the story Kristof is telling.
(Oh, and according to Kristof, at some point, Green was paying child support, so that he only had $180 a month left from his disability check afterwards. But Somerby fails to note that, because it's not part of his favored narrative.)
Why did Kristof think that some people might judge the deceased harshly? Perhaps, without naming names, Kristoff was thinking of Rand Paul, the affluent quack who recently lied: "Over half of the people on disability are either anxious or their back hurts. Everybody in this room knows somebody who's gaming the system." Perhaps he was thinking of the invited and connected douchebags at the GOP presidential debate who cheered at the thought of an uninsured injured man being denied emergency room care, without a thought in their head about the man's dependents. Perhaps he just read Somerby's mind, or has read letters to the editor and blogs, or listened to talk radio, sometime in the past 20 years.
Shorter Somerby: "Wny would you assume anyone's judging this obese deadbeat, Kristof!?! Now feck off and let me judge him, like any reasonable person would!"
Let me guess. You're either on disability for a peanut allergy so you can't pay your child support, or you're in the 1% so you can afford paying taxes to support the deadbeat millions. No one else would write this claptrap.
DeleteNo need to guess with you 11:02. You just aren't bright.
DeleteShorter Somerby: "Wny would you assume anyone's judging this obese deadbeat, Kristof!?! Now feck off and let me judge him, like any reasonable person would!"
Delete---
Bingo!
"But Somerby fails to note that, because it's not part of his favored narrative."
DeleteReal Bingo!!!
"That said, neither column offered any suggestions about ways we might improve the job market in rural places like Kamhill, Oregon, Kristof’s home town, which is—just for the record—just 35 miles from Portland."
DeleteWith all those liberals just down the road the Kevin Green could have made big bucks selling organic local produce to Maoist eateries. Instead he just cashed his disability checks and just got fat eating up his own potential profits.
Just for the record.
Interesting that Somerby describes the failure of a guy with all these issues to pay child support as "most heinous(ly)."
DeleteWhen did I hear him use that word before? Oh yeah. To describe the crimes of Gov. Ultrasound as "not so heinous."
Just for the record . ,. . the town is Yamhill, not Kamhill. You would think our stickler for detail and accuracy would pay attention to that.
DeleteSecondly, how big was his veggie garden? Big enough to produce a crop large enough to sell to those "Maoist eateries"?
Thirdly, assuming Green could grow, market and sell his crop to enough "eateries" to make a living all by himself, how was he going to deliver it without a driver's license?
Once again, you prove the point that Somerby is trying so hard to disprove. "Lots of Americans" would judge Green as a moocher.
The point being he lived close enough to a large city to move there and take work that required less physical exertion than does keeping a huge garden.
DeleteThe point being that you don't know a damned thing about Kevin Green or the circumstances of his life, but that won't stop you from judging him and imagining all those things he "coulda, shoulda" done differently.
DeleteWhich is exactly the attitude Kristof is pointing to, and Somerby says -- for three days running -- exists only in Kristof's head.
11:02,
DeleteThe man suffered an injury which disabled him. He was awarded disability, so someone thought he couldn't work gainfully at any job. The internet tells us that you can't get disability in Oregon for at least a year after your injury. It's possible that after a year without income, no other household income (because the girlfriend left with the kids) and no other financial support, you get into a hole where you can't pay -- or keep up with -- the child support obligations.
Of course, maybe Green just said "f-ck the wife and kids if they leave me," and had income from some undisclosed source which would have allowed him to pay in full. Maybe he fooled whoever approved him to recieve disability benefits while collecting cash under the table for heavy labor. But that's not in the story Kristof tells.
Somerby's problem is he cherry picks the details he likes to insinuate the guy's a willful, malicious deadbeat dad, when the facts presented could, at a minimum, go the other way. He doesn't just say, "well, we don't know enough." He says -- twice -- that Green acted in a "heinous" manner by not paying child support. And he says it while morally scolding Kristof for making assumptions.
This has to be Somerby at his best.
ReplyDeleteAt least since the last post he did on a similar topic. Yesterday. Damn near identical.
Yesterday the post today was supposed to be about Joan Walsh. Instead Bob wrote yesterdays's post today. And promised Joan Walsh tomorrow.
Just like yesterday.
An absolute outrage! Ask for your money back.
DeleteExcessive repetition is a symptom of......
DeleteDon't have to ask for anything back. I've gotten to the point where I skip the post and go directly to the comments for my daily dose of humor.
DeleteSo you're down to the it didn't cost you anything excuse?
deadrat has trouble coming up with something pithy and new when he is awakened early by the wailing analysts.
DeleteHere's the point: Somerby doesn't owe you a blog entry you like.
DeleteConsider how slowly I typed that so you could follow.
Oh, sorry. I guess that wasn't pithy and new enough for the money you paid to read the comment. My bad.
ReplyDelete“Thank you for making my wish true! I was totally devastated when Frank left me. It was like all my world vanishing into sorrow and pain. But your kind words when I first emailed you gave me hope. I felt how sincere, honest and authentic you were from your first email. I know it sounds weird but out of all the casters I contacted, you were the only one to give me that impression of being so true and caring. More than your words, it’s the fantastic work you accomplished for me that I will keep in mind. You brought my lover back and you made all my wishes come true. He’s now loyal, pays attention to me, he offers me flowers every Sunday, and we often go out at the cinema or at the restaurant. I will be forever thankful for turning my life from hell to heaven!” CONTACT via EMAIL: LORDSHAKIKISPELL@GMAIL.COM . or LORDSHAKIKISPELL@YAHOO.COM.+2348100399287
or you can also contact him through his website http://lordshakikispell.webs.com