The Babbling Brooks By Thaddeus G. McCotter

[mystery-ak]

The Babbling Brooks

Elitists like David Brooks completely lack self-awareness, engage in projection, denigrate dissent as paranoia, and pine for the primacy of an unquestioned and unchallengeable “epistemic regime."

By Thaddeus G. McCotter
December 4, 2020

As if we already didn’t face a cornucopia of crises, now “we live in a country in epistemological crisis, in which much of the Republican Party has become detached from reality.” Worse, “this is not just an American problem. All around the world, rising right-wing populist parties are floating on oceans of misinformation and falsehood.”

Eeek! Oh, wait. This latest apocalyptic caterwauling is from David Brooks, a social commentator who once LARPed as Nostradamus by prognosticating Senator Barack Obama would be a “very good president” based upon his “perfectly creased pants.” So, count me among the skeptical when it comes to the babbling Brooks’ assessment of Republican populism.

Nonetheless, though curiosity killed the cat, it no longer matters since climate change will kill us all in less than a decade according to Brooks’ beloved credentialed (if not accomplished) class, many of whom religiously watch weathercasts while awaiting the End Times. Ergo, let’s take a peek at Brooks’ critique of we lesser lights in his November 28 New York Times column, “The Rotting of the Republican Mind.”

Brooks commences with a cursory list of reasons why he believes Republicans are cognitively degenerating: the belief Joe Biden won because of fraud; climate change denial; and objections to mandatory lockdowns and masks.

Here’s my executive summary: Brooks is peeved we don’t listen to him and his ilk.

more
https://amgreatness.com/2020/12/04/the-babbling-brooks/

[DB]

David Brooks is a moron not worth anyone's time.

[Night Hides Not]

David Brooks is a moron not worth anyone's time.

...especially with the never ending pop up ads appearing every few seconds. I get the need to monetize the website, but not to the point of distracting the reader.

[Fishrrman]

Night Hides complained:
"...especially with the never ending pop up ads appearing every few seconds. I get the need to monetize the website, but not to the point of distracting the reader."

A good adblocker helps.

But even that may not prevent popups, forced videos, subscription/paywall warnings, etc., that are put up by javascript.

The solution is remarkably easy:
TURN OFF javascript in your browser, then reload the page.

Some browsers may make it more difficult to disable javascript than others.

On the Mac, using Safari, I keep the "develop" menu displayed (you do this in Safari preferences/advanced).
I used the Keyboard pref pane to create a custom command key (command-J) to toggle javascript on/off in Safari.
Now, if I go to a website that seems impossible to read, I just type in succession:
Command-J (disables javascript)
then
Command-R (reloads page)

... and suddenly, an unreadable page is "tamed", just like that...!

[DB]

...especially with the never ending pop up ads appearing every few seconds. I get the need to monetize the website, but not to the point of distracting the reader.

I've been using Microsoft Edge for a browser for a week or two and so far I like it. It has two levels of tracking blocking that so far has worked pretty well. No more Google Chrome for me.