I occasionally run into nice white men who think George Will makes an inordinate amount of sense. It’s a strange malady, but it can mostly be explained by their conventional success and isolated existence. They did what was expected of them; they went to good schools; they got excellent jobs, and they never got too far out of their comfort zone. It would almost be harmless except that we need nice people to support progressive policies and oppose reactionary bigots. Most of these misunderstandings could be solved by simple cultural exchange programs. Instead of sending your kid to France, have her work for ACORN. Two weeks working with real Americans in the inner city will cure anyone of the idea that George Will makes even the smallest iota of sense whatsoever. I can guarantee that. They might even meet a Latino that doesn’t mow lawns or work in food service. You never know.
About The Author
BooMan
Martin Longman a contributing editor at the Washington Monthly. He is also the founder of Booman Tribune and Progress Pond. He has a degree in philosophy from Western Michigan University.
Lol, Matthew Yglesias hates George Will; I love it. I, too, hate George Will. Not even for the fact that people find him reasonable, but because a lot of conservatives see him as intelligent; like the new William F. Buckley. It’s kind of ironic, because I too see him as the new William F. Buckley. However, that’s not a compliment. William Buckley was far from what I would call an intellectual heavy weight; and he was very racist and homophobic, openly.
So yes, George Will is the new William Buckley, and no, that’s not a compliment 🙂
People think George Will makes sense because he’s mastered the art of sophistry; he’s good at sounding like he’s being logical when he’s not.
Precisely, which is exactly what William Buckley did. Whenever I listen to the debates that he had with Noam Chomsky or Gore Vidal, there was no contest as to who was the winner in the intellect portion of it, with my bias put to the side.
In case anyone’s interested:
True, but at least Buckley could be in the same room with minds like that, and even contribute something worth thinking about. What a long, depressing fall from there to Beck and Palin. And Will, for that matter.
what an asshole
Instead of sending your kid to France, have her work for ACORN.
I know you didn’t direct this at me 😉
swimmer is going to France next academic year. She already did voter registration in 08 and is among the more informed and outspoken kids on campus.
George Will is an ass.
ACORN is a good idea, but spending time within another country can be more than just a vacation. The culture shock on returning to the US of A can be most enlightening.
Can be recommended for all.
Now, she is already multi-cultural and multi-lingual.
Her mom from Ethiopia and me from Norway; 12 years at the UN International School before going to college.
So true.
George Will had the misfortune to grew up in the wake of the racist 1924 immigration law that virtually stopped all non-Northern European immigration until 1965. That (and being overly wealthy) made it easier for him to settle into the comfort zone from which he rarely even attempts to emerge.
Fortunately the demographic future of the country is flowing away from the George Wills of the world. In many parts of the country, it’s now common for suburban school districts to have students from scores of countries speaking dozens of home languages.
It may be too late for George Will, but if we can keep the Republicans out of power for a few more years, the future looks somewhat better.
Many years ago, George Will had a column in THE WASHINGTON POST about some (conservative?) student’s science fair project on the H2O atom and about how the liberal elites were walking around not realizing the project was about the water atom. Naturally, letters to the editor followed pointing out to Mr. Will that water is a molecule, not an atom. George has always been big on scientific literacy!
Also, regarding George Will versus William Buckley, I’ll quote from a column by the late R. David Cox, Faux Paws #15 (1996):
That’s was the idea behind school busing.
But people from “exclusive” (ponder that term) neighborhoods don’t want cultural exchange. And going to France isn’t cultural exchange for them, it’s a symbol that they have arrived in being “cultured”.
That said, the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s included as Freedom Riders students from prestigious universities. Children of the well-to-do also signed up for the Peace Corps. And children of the well-to-do were more likely to be the more radical anti-Vietnam war demonstrators. On May 4, 1970, those formerly permissive parents said “Never again.” And it was off to business majors and law degrees for a generation of late Boomers and Gen-Xers.
Cultural exchange today amounts to chanting U-S-A to other nationals.
Those nice white men want to remain “nice” and “white” and “men” and unthreatened by “the other”. And they pull their families into their isolated communities.
Speaking of that, I remember when I was having a bake sale down at the local bars for Relay for Life (drunk people make great contributors, and who doesn’t love baked goods after a nice night on the town 🙂 ), there was this exchange student from Spain there. After 2:00 when the bars closed, all of the students would wait in the designated area for their rides to pick them up. While waiting I noticed that some guy was talking to the Spaniard, and eventually made some contest out of it between him and someone else. I think they bought a baked good, and it was like a tossing contest into the others’ mouth. Anyway, the Spanish guy lost, and then the asshole kept berating him by getting the crowd to chant U-S-A! It was sickening beyond belief to me. I just don’t understand why anyone gets any satisfaction out of that.
If you want to see these “nice” men in all their glory, just watch the financial reform hearings as the overdressed, overcoifed, overprivileged, and overrated try and understand why anybody would be mad at them for breaking the economy and raining down misery on millions. Their strange obliviousness regarding their assumption of superiority harks all the way back to some of the testimony at the Nuremberg trials.
There is no whiter place than the ivory tower where George Wills resides. His writing is always disdainful and snide, as if he cannot fathom why there is unrest among the underlings in the country. He invents falsehoods when it comes to global warming and immigration and pats himself on the back for being so very wise.
I loathe him. His privilege is always showing.
Will’s sentence “They were in America before most Americans’ ancestors arrived” by “they” does he mean conquistadores and children thereof? does he mean the ppl who crossed the Bering Straits? weird, and btw, George Will, everyone in Mexico is still in “America” as are all the people residing south of them except those scientists in Antarctica.
If I am not mistaken, our very own Man Eegee comes from a family that lived in Arizona prior to it becoming part of the United States. They didn’t immigrate, but their political leaders became white settlers. It’s good that George Will at least acknowledged as much. Unfortunately, it was mere lip service.
Link
sometimes, the small posts have a potent amount of sense.
thanks BooMan.
I remember a comment MC Rove made a while about not wanting his kids to work in “some hotel in Las Vegas.” Then I look at this comment. Then I remember a prominent think-tank wingnut (Byron York?) commenting after the 2008 election that black people vote like a communist bloc. These people really have no use for us. I used to think they didn’t care because they didn’t know. But now I think they do know. But they still just don’t care. It doesn’t affect them and they don’t want it to. It’s an amazing display of honesty. And lack of awareness.
I would like to add something to the cultural exchange program idea: watch the Golden Girls. Seems like everything that could enlighten a young, closeminded wingnut was dealt with in that show. Gimme Blanche, Rose and Dorothy over George Will and his hatred of denim and David Brooks and his non-existent salad bars anyday.