Once again, the inevitable “has he ever…?” question arises, as it does with pretty much every column David Brooks writes. In this case, it’s a small variation on the theme: Has he ever heard of Google?
Dana catches David Brooks in a fine display of what I call Googlestupid- the act of looking like a complete idiot by saying something you could have realized was completely wrong by searching the internet for less than five minutes.
In today’s example, Brooks devotes a column to chastizing what he sees as a society-crumbling message of avoiding marriage before 30 forwarded by the lyrics of two female pop musicians… who are both, of course, in their 20’s and happily married. Oops.
It’s hardly groundbreaking to point out that many conservative pundits remain employed despite having been utterly wrong about the war and its consequences. But David Brooks is in a class by himself. David Brooks takes wrongness to levels undreamt of by lesser mortals. David Brooks is the Olympic Gold Medal Champion of Being Wrong About Things. David Brooks could write a column about drinking a glass of water, and the end of it, you would sit at your kitchen table puzzled, thinking to yourself, “Has he ever actually had a glass of water?”
(… readers interested in a refresher course in the Unbearable Wrongness of David Brooks are directed to this classic article by Sasha Issenberg.)