Matt Taibbi has a brilliant take down of David Brooks’ latest column on the perils of gay marriage. According to Brooks, marriage is bad for gay people because it imposes constraints on their animal instincts and what freedom loving, irresponsible hedonist would want that?:
Ostensibly, the column purports to make a single ironic point, which is that by petitioning the Supreme Court for the right to marry, gays and lesbians were not expanding their freedoms – and thus continuing, as Brooks implies, a long and perhaps-regrettable winning streak for people’s right to “follow their desires” that dates back to those hated Sixties – but rather constraining them. Brooks puts it this way:
But last week saw a setback for the forces of maximum freedom. A representative of millions of gays and lesbians went to the Supreme Court and asked the court to help put limits on their own freedom of choice. They asked for marriage.
Brooks here apparently expects his gay and lesbian readers to scratch their heads here and think, “Gosh, what does he mean by that? I thought we were seeking new freedoms with this campaign?”
What does he mean? Well, the self-appointed hetero-in-chief is here to enlighten us as to what marriage is – and he’s here to tell you, it’s no bowl of freedom-cherries!
Marriage is one of those institutions – along with religion and military service – that restricts freedom. Marriage is about making a commitment that binds you for decades to come. It narrows your options on how you will spend your time, money and attention.
Gee – really? Boy, those gays and lesbians are sure going to be in for a shock when they find out that being in a committed relationship involves constraints on behavior. That’ll be some unpleasant new ground they’ll be breaking there.
What an asshole!
I can only assume that Mrs. Brooks is illiterate.
Wait, why does David Brooks suddenly remind me of this character?:
I think what we’re seeing here is a glimpse into David Brooks’ blighted soul. The guy would seriously love to lose the tie and let what’s left of his his hair down but it’s been beaten out of him and now he has to play the part of whip kisser extraordinaire for the rest of the world. Maybe he assumes that everyone is like him, secretly harboring desires that dare not speak their names. Without the mental chastity belt, we would all just throw off our chains of civilization and get down and dirty in the mud in a frenzy of orgiastic freedom and never get any work done because, let’s face it, work is drudgery and who wants to do that all day when you could be having lots of sex?
Or, here’s my new theory. Republicans are going to abandon their opposition to marriage equality because they see the writing on the wall demographically and have to make up their numbers, replacing the dying religious conservatives with a potentially large group of voters with money- gay couples. What better way to attract gay couples than with a militantly anti-tax message? And where does that leave David Brooks? Well, there’s always abortion to rail against since women are the LAST people on earth who will ever be allowed a taste of freedom and equality. But people in Brooks’ class think discussing money is gauche otherwise he’d be writing silly, offensive screeds for the Wall Street Journal.
Well, whatever.
His attitudes about gay people and marriage equality are about as informed as any white supremacists and twice as ignorant.
People like Brooks need to be shunned by polite society.
Filed under: General | Tagged: David Brooks, gay, LGBT, marriage equality, Matt Taibbi, Pete Campbell, white supremacists |
The Confluence 
Why are you surprised (or not) about Brooks, he’s one of the stable (literal) defecating his opinions in that second rate fish-wrap the New York Times. The metro-rag that brought us such luminaries as Maureen Dowd and Judith WMD Miller.
Not surprised at all. I just think it’s time we call them what they are: ignorant bigots with condescending attitudes. I don’t hang out with those kind of people.
PhARMA news. Maybe off topic , but sounds really important.
—Indian Court Ruling Victory for Patients Around the World:
““It was only when Indian firms began to make cheap copies of HIV drugs that it became possible more than a decade ago to contemplate the treatment of millions of people in impoverished countries of Africa, where the AIDS epidemic was at its worst,” The Guardian writes.
All this seemed to be in jeopardy when in 2005, India’s parliament, under Western pressure, amended the patent law to comply with World Trade Organization rules. A lot of observers, including me, were worried that this move would mark the death-knell for the availability of affordable drugs around the world. But the Indian judiciary has pleasantly surprised us.
Advocacy groups are delighted.
This is a huge relief for the millions of patients and doctors in developing countries who depend on affordable medicines from India, and for treatment providers like MSF,” Dr. Unni Karunakara, the head of the Nobel Peace Prize-winning Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders), said. “The Supreme Court’s decision now makes patents on the medicines that we desperately need less likely.”
http://www.progressive.org/indian-court-ruling-victory-for-patients-around-world