Another day at the New York Times!

THURSDAY, APRIL 13, 2017

"Love Gov" v. incoherence:
In her column today for the New York Times, Gail Collins offers readers a bit of perspective—if they read all the way to paragraph 14.

If you read to graf 14, you're offered this bit of perspective:
COLLINS (4/13/17): On occasion we are reminded that the worst things that happen in this world are generally not about consensual sex.
Interesting! The worst things that happen are not about consensual sex!

Unfortunately, the rest of Collins' column today is about consensual sex, or at least it concerns a near-relative. The columnist couldn't help herself. The headline on her column says this:

"Trump Versus The Love Gov"

Collins burns her column rummaging through ex-governor Bentley's underwear drawer, comparing it to the underwear drawer of President Donald J. Trump. In fairness, you do get that one brief bit of perspective.

Collins' column struck us as a bad old New York Times moment. We'll suggest that you pair it with Amanda Taub's puzzling Upshot report.

Taub's lengthy piece tops today's National section. It seems to be an attempt to explain the rise in political partisanship. Hard-copy headline included, it starts off like this:
TAUB (4/13/17): Partisanship as a Tribal Identity: Voting Against One's Economic Interests

Working-class Americans who voted for Donald J. Trump continue to approve of him as president,
even though he supported a health care bill that would disproportionately hurt them.

Highly educated professionals tend to lean Democratic, even though Republican tax policies would probably leave more money in their pockets.

Why do people vote against their economic interests?

The answer, experts say, is partisanship.
Party affiliation has become an all-encompassing identity that outweighs the details of specific policies.
As you can see, that's an inauspicious start.

Taub starts by asking why (some) people "vote against their economic interests." One possible answer is fairly obvious:

They vote against their economic interests because they have other types of "interests!"

Taub doesn't waste time on that. In her taxonomy, you have your economic interests—and after that, you have "partisanship." Or so the experts say!

We recommend the Taub piece as a reading challenge. The piece strikes us as wonderfully incoherent, in a wonderfully challenging way.

Through the bulk of the piece, the expert on whom Taub relies is Lilliana Mason, a youngish assistant professor at the University of Maryland. Our guess would be that the incoherence comes more from Taub than from Mason. But for today, your assignment will be to see how much of Taub's presentation, if any, you feel you can puzzle out.

Upshot pieces are supposed to represent the New York Times' brainiest work. We hope to return to this piece in the next few days to try to puzzle it out.

For today, we'll recommend the intellectual challenge presented by this work. In case the strain becomes too great, you can always enjoy the Love Gov, or turn to A2 and A3.

We've been a bit under the weather in the past week. For that reason, we haven't yet discussed the new format the Times has adopted on pages A2 and A3. (Hard-copy editions only.)

On those new pages, the Times is talking way down to its readers. Today, Taub adds a puzzle to the mix, and Collins throws in the fun.

Warning:

Seamus the dog isn't mentioned today. Neither is the "21-year-old intern," the icon who didn't exist.

8 comments:

  1. Is the Times secretly anti-woman? Suppose the NY Times opposed women's lib. Suppose they wanted to argue that women shouldn't deal with serious news. They could run nonsense like this column under a woman's byline. Many of Dowd's columns also appear to be designed to portray women as airheads.

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    Replies
    1. Suppose you are Bob's only consistent fan.

      Delete
    2. Hello, I am Theresa Williams After being in relationship with Anderson for years, he broke up with me, I did everything possible to bring him back but all was in vain, I wanted him back so much because of the love I have for him, I begged him with everything, I made promises but he refused. I explained my problem to my friend and she suggested that I should rather contact a spell caster that could help me cast a spell to bring him back but I am the type that never believed in spell, I had no choice than to try it, I mailed the spell caster, and he told me there was no problem that everything will be okay before three days, that my ex will return to me before three days, he cast the spell and surprisingly in the second day, it was around 4 pm. My ex called me, I was so surprised, I answered the call and all he said was that he was so sorry for everything that happened that he wanted me to return to him, that he loves me so much. I was so happy and went to him that was how we started living together happily again. Since then, I have made promise that anybody I know that have a relationship problem, I would be of help to such person by referring him or her to the only real and powerful spell caster who helped me with my own problem. email: drogunduspellcaster@gmail.com you can email him if you need his assistance in your relationship or any other Case.

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  2. Hey guys, I'm so excited of getting my husband back after he left me and our 3 kids for another woman. After 2 years of marriage, me and my husband has been into one quarrel or the other until he finally left me and moved to California to be with another woman. i felt my life was over and my kids thought they would never see their father again. i tried to be strong just for the kids but i could not control the pains that torments my heart, my heart was filled with sorrows and pains because i was really in love with my husband. Every day and night i think of him and always wish he would come back to me, I was really upset and i needed help, so i searched for help online and I came across a website that suggested that Dr Unity can help get ex back fast. So, I felt I should give him a try. I contacted him and he told me what to do and i did it then he did a (Love spell) for me. 28 hours later, my husband really called me and told me that he miss me and the kids so much, So Amazing!! So that was how he came back that same day,with lots of love and joy,and he apologized for his mistake,and for the pain he caused me and the kids. Then from that day,our Marriage was now stronger than how it were before,All thanks to Dr Unity. he is so powerful and i decided to share my story on the internet that Dr Unity real and powerful spell caster who i will always pray to live long to help his children in the time of trouble, if you are here and you need your Ex back or your husband moved to another woman, do not cry anymore, contact this powerful spell caster now. Here’s his contact: Email him at: Unityspelltemple@gmail.com ,you can also call him or add him on Whats-app: +2348071622464 ,his website:http://unityspelltemple.yolasite.com . Jessica, 26 years, Texas, USA.

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  3. They vote against their economic interests because they have other types of "interests!"

    Exactly! They have Godly interests.

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    Replies
    1. And it's been going on for most of our history.

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    2. White Supremacy is their interest.

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  4. Hey guys my wife and I have been married for 15 years. For over five years I have been dealing with jealousy issues because of flirting and her having emotional type affairs with other men. I felt like my masculinity was in question and if I said the way she was acting bothered me, it seemed to make matters worse or I was accused of being controling. During this period I did state I wanted a divorce if the behavior was not going to end: texting men a night, leaving for the weekend without letting me know where she was going or not responding to messages. We do have a son and basically it's been him and I for the last year on the weekends. She disconnected completely from being a good wife and mother. In April she said she wanted a separation and I said no we need to get into marriage counseling. We did try that, but she was not very responsive and didn't give any effort. Afterward she was adamant about separation and divorce. I continued to say no and that we needed to save our family. She presented a separation agreement and I had to hire a lawyer. Because of the above behavior my lawyer suggested a private investigator. The investigator discovered my wife was having an affair with a close friend of the family who also is married with children. We know the extended families. I feel like I should tell this man's wife about what happened. This adultery has devastated me emotionally, I feel betrayed and I'm physically drained. I know my wife is passionate in terms of her sexuality, and I can't get the thought of them out of my head. It makes me question my own manhood, and I feel very inferior or that he must be a better lover or what ever. The problem is my wife pursued him. She would go to him and she lured him into this adultery. I felt this was coming for some time and could not stop it. She was not only lying to me but also to our son about what she was doing and where she was going. My family is important, my son loves her and as crazy as it sounds so do I. Can you respond with a course of action on how to proceed? I was still have a very huge place in my heart for her. so i searched for help online and I came across a website that suggested that Dr Ahmed can help solve marital problems, restore broken relationships and so on. So I felt I should give him a try. I contacted him and he told me what to do and i did it then he did a spell for me. 28 hours later, my wife came to me and apologized for the wrongs she did and promise never to do it again. Ever since then, everything has returned back to normal. I, my son and my wife are living together happily again.. All thanks to Dr Ahmed. as it is a place to resolve marriage/relationship issues, do you want to be sure if your spouse is being faithful to you or Do you want your Ex to come back to you Contact.: E-mail: Ahmedutimate@gmail.com or call/Whats-app: +2348160153829 save your crumbling home and change of grades its 100% safe. I suggest you contact him. He will not disappoint you.
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