Editorial: The New Yorker doesn't understand Texas

[IsailedawayfromFR]

We generally just assume that The New Yorker is going to get Texas wrong - there are some fundamental worldview differences that take a lot of work to overcome. But the magazine’s most recent issue has an astonishing level of cherry-picking of facts and events to fit a particular narrative. It’s both misleading and disturbing.

In an essay titled “America’s Future is Texas,” reporter Lawrence Wright says everything that’s wrong in America is summed up in Texas. http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/07/10/americas-future-is-texas

“Texas is as politically divided as the rest of the U.S., but a recurrent crop of crackpots and ideologues has fed its reputation for proud know-nothingism and retrograde thinking,” he writes.

There’s so much in that single sentence to unpack, but let’s give it a go. Is Texas politically divided? Sure - as is the rest of the nation, as Wright notes. But it’s hard to say that Texas is more divided, when we haven’t seen the riots and political violence experienced elsewhere (Washington D.C. during the inauguration itself; in Berkley and Anaheim, California; in Olympia, Washington and Portland, Oregon; and in Virginia when a leftist gunman opened fire on Republican members of Congress).

Crackpots? Surely there are enough crackpots of both sides that we should agree to trundle them aside and at least try to speak like adults.

And as for “know-nothings,” that’s simply a misreading of history. The Know-Nothings were a pre-Civil War political movement that was, indeed, nativist, but more complex than that. As historian Stephen Taylor noted, “the party also distinguished itself by its opposition to slavery, support for an expansion of the rights of women, regulation of industry, and support of measures designed to improve the status of working people.”

So that’s a compliment, yes?

As for retrograde thinking, that’s a hard case to make of the state that’s home to NASA, and to the tech hub in Austin, which now outpaces Silicon Valley for startups, according to CNBC.
http://www.tylerpaper.com/TP-Opinion/291116/editorial-the-new-yorker-doesnt-understand-texas

NY elitist envy is pretty evident when one reads articles like the New Yorker hit piece.

Texas is on the way up while NY continues its inevitable decline downwards, and looks for a culprit to blame rather than itself.

As a comparison, the number of Fortune 1000 companies in New York declined from 98 to 95 between 2000 and 2016 while for the same period they increased from 80 to 100 in Texas.

That change is not due to the thinking prevalent in the New Yorker.

[Sanguine]

To say that the writer doesn't understand Texas is to say that...well, I can't think of anything that diametrically opposed right off.  I'll have to think on it a bit.

[txradioguy]

Typical elitist attitude of someone who's probably very rarely left the 5 boroughs.

Oh and Mr Wright...our crackpots are in Austin and Houston...and they are very much your brand of hard left Liberal...and sadly one of them keeps getting sent to Congress...Shiela Jackson Lee.

[endicom]

Typical elitist attitude of someone who's probably very rarely left the 5 boroughs.

Oh and Mr Wright...our crackpots are in Austin and Houston...and they are very much your brand of hard left Liberal...and sadly one of them keeps getting sent to Congress...Shiela Jackson Lee.

"Wright lives in Austin, Texas, where he lives with his family and plays the keyboard for the Austin-based blues band WhoDo."

http://www.newyorker.com/contributors/lawrence-wright


"Wright graduated from Woodrow Wilson High School in Dallas, Texas, in 1965..."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawrence_Wright

[Smokin Joe]

Typical elitist attitude of someone who's probably very rarely left the 5 boroughs.

Oh and Mr Wright...our crackpots are in Austin and Houston...and they are very much your brand of hard left Liberal...and sadly one of them keeps getting sent to Congress...Shiela Jackson Lee.

Nex' t'ing ya know, Noo Yawkahs are gonna claim Texans tawk fuhnee.

[txradioguy]

"Wright lives in Austin, Texas, where he lives with his family and plays the keyboard for the Austin-based blues band WhoDo."

http://www.newyorker.com/contributors/lawrence-wright


"Wright graduated from Woodrow Wilson High School in Dallas, Texas, in 1965..."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawrence_Wright

I stand corrected...however...that makes his totally wrong portrayal of Texas that much more ignorant.

[rodamala]

[Wingnut]

Ah, The New Yorker. The paragon of redoubtable journalism and prestige culture for any good upper-crust liberal intellectual who turns down their nose at those living west of the hudson river.

[endicom]

Ah, The New Yorker. The paragon of redoubtable journalism and prestige culture for any good upper-crust liberal intellectual who turns down their nose at those living west of the hudson river.

Or east of the East River.

But that's of a mentality and not a locale. The writers have been from all over, the publication in New York for NYC having been the publishing capitol.

[berdie]

I stand corrected...however...that makes his totally wrong portrayal of Texas that much more ignorant.

Well ya can't blame the guy...he lives in Austin and is a musician. AND went to Woodrow in the '60s.

Don't get me wrong...I love musicians and what they play. And I used to adore Austin back in the day, when I was still a little bit on the goofy side. Woodrow was kind of liberal in it's attitude in the 60's due to population composition.

So the biggest fault I see with the guy is that he is spouting off in New York (NEW YORK CITY...get a rope! ) He is a typical Austin goofball.

'

[Hondo69]

He did OK with the title of the article, should have left it at that.

[Sanguine]

Well ya can't blame the guy...he lives in Austin and is a musician. AND went to Woodrow in the '60s.

Don't get me wrong...I love musicians and what they play. And I used to adore Austin back in the day, when I was still a little bit on the goofy side. Woodrow was kind of liberal in it's attitude in the 60's due to population composition.

So the biggest fault I see with the guy is that he is spouting off in New York (NEW YORK CITY...get a rope! ) He is a typical Austin goofball.

'

@berdie, as in Woodrow High School?

[Bigun]

I stand corrected...however...that makes his totally wrong portrayal of Texas that much more ignorant.

Give him credit where it's due.  He knows exactly what it takes to get ink in that rag.

[Wingnut]

I don't have the gumption to look it up...but is it Woodrow Wilson HS...or Aunt Esther's husband, Woodrow "Woody" Anderson?

[berdie]

@berdie, as in Woodrow High School?

At the high school...not the president is what I meant @Sanguine .

[Frank Cannon]

[TomSea]

Every minority-majority state goes blue; Texas is no Oklahoma with every county being red. It's probably in the best interests that conservatives go to Texas as they have been encouraged. Even those voting lawsuits have been about how voting districts were gerrymandered. Thank goodness, people voted for a President that will do as much to get the country back on the right track and maybe open up other areas of the country to Republicans.

[catfish1957]

NY elitist envy is pretty evident when one reads articles like the New Yorker hit piece.

I personally don't really give a sh__ what New Yorkers think of us.  Just prefer they stay away.

[goatprairie]

My  older brother moved down to Texas from Wisconsin forty years ago and ended up marrying a Texas girl whose father worked in the oil business. They had one child, a boy who is super smart to the point where my brother wondered one time where he got his brains  because he, the boy, didn't get them from his pappy.  I looked at my brother and said "here's where I'm supposed to disagree?"  He laughed.