Week 6, Column 6 - "The Liberal Gloat"
*ALERT: For this blog post, I plan to rant about my strong feelings towards Ross Douthat (but do not fret. I will also include the necessary portions of the usual blog post within it.)*
Oh, Ross Douthat. Every time I see an FTC blog post is due, I shake a bit, but for many reasons. While I'm excited to read others' opinions on social issues, I am never fully prepared for the extreme anger I will feel. At first, I chose Douthat because I noticed he wrote about controversial topics. I soon came to realize that our views were on such opposite sides that the controversy he wrote about would not be the good kind where you can finally see from both sides, but the bad kind where you go wake up your mom from her nap just to rant and release all of the hate his article has just filled you with. Each article has further convinced me that Ross Douthat is a conservative Republican and Christian, the complete opposite of myself. Please do not take my dislike for Douthat as intolerance towards people like him; I completely understand everyone has different views. But when he continually bashes on my views, I begin to have a problem with him. Not only is he weakening his argument by constantly shutting down opposing views, he's being really disrespectful. I have to say, the article I just read ("The Liberal Gloat") is what really set me off.
(IT ANGERED ME SO MUCH THAT I HAVE TO MAKE A SEPARATE PARAGRAPH ON IT. PLEASE FEEL FREE TO SKIP OVER IT IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO CONTINUE ON TO THE ACTUAL ASSIGNMENT THat I now realize I've completely deferred from...)
Like the rest of the articles I've read by him, Douthat mocks and belittles liberals' point-of-views on issues. By quoting made-up statements, such as "'Those poor, benighted Republicans! They can't read polls! They can't reach Hispanics! They don't understand women! They don't have a team of Silicon Valley sorcerers running their turnout operations!'", Douthat paints liberals as judgmental whiners. He then goes on to almost "excuse" liberal/Democratic views by basically saying the only reason the Democratic poll is up is because they need government assistance. While this may be true for many, I find it absolutely ridiculous that Douthat dismisses liberal views as almost a last resort. Almost as if you can't be successful and believe in economic and social equality. So then, Ross Douthat goes on to label most non-churchgoing Americans as liberals, which may be true. (I'm not sure. I don't have evidence. Oh, hey, look at that, neither does Douthat!) This is an actual sentence from this article: "But the typical unchurched American is just as often an underemployed working-class man, whose secularism is less an intellectual choice than a symptom of his disconnection from community in general." He is basically saying people who aren't religious just aren't religious because they are "disconnected" and not using their intellect to choose to be religious or not! As if you can't just not be religious because you made an INTELLECTUAL choice to believe differently! THIS IS ONE OF MY BIGGEST PET PEEVES AND UNFORTUNATELY ROSS DOUTHAT'S GO-TO ARGUMENT TACTIC(justifying his thinking by dismissing the opposite view as pure ignorance(PARENTS DO THIS WHEN THEY SAY "YOU JUST DON'T UNDERSTAND YET" (AHHHHH YES I DO STOP IT AHHHH))). Okay, I'm done.
Most of the time, Douthat's tone is critical, as he finds fault in people's views on hot-button issues. I appreciate his usual tone despite all of my hate. While I may not always agree with his critical statements, I do love that he's really almost "snappy". He's just biting at the reader. Just look at the rise he gets out of me every time I read one of his pieces. I aspire to be a snappy journalist. So, I applaud Douthat on that. His purpose is usually the same: to inform and analyze. I learned about many intense American issues through his pieces and I even found my own views through his. Maybe the reason I have so many mixed feelings towards him is because I'm not his typical audience. While I believe I am mature and educated for my age, Douthat writes for the economically and socially mature and educated. Sure, I get A's & B's, but I don't even know where my taxes end up (excuse me, my parents' taxes), I had to look up 90% of the words he used, and up until recently, I've steered away from politics in the brattiest way by saying "WHO CARES I CAN'T EVEN VOTE YET BLAH" every time the issue arises.
So, is Ross Douthat a a good arguer? HA, ABSOLUTELY NOT. He loses me (and probably every single liberal Democrat to have ever been born) early on every time. But, is he a good journalist/op-ed columnist? Heck yeah. He writes strong, enraging, opinionated pieces that inform the reader. Do I love him? UM, DEFINITELY NOT. Do I hate him? Eh. "Live and let live", I guess. It just depends on what kind of American you are.
LINK TO "THE LIBERAL GLOAT": http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/18/opinion/sunday/douthat-The-Liberal-Gloat.html?ref=rossdouthat&version=meter+at+5®ion=FixedCenter&pg&priority=true&module=RegiWall-Regi&action=click
(IT ANGERED ME SO MUCH THAT I HAVE TO MAKE A SEPARATE PARAGRAPH ON IT. PLEASE FEEL FREE TO SKIP OVER IT IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO CONTINUE ON TO THE ACTUAL ASSIGNMENT THat I now realize I've completely deferred from...)
Like the rest of the articles I've read by him, Douthat mocks and belittles liberals' point-of-views on issues. By quoting made-up statements, such as "'Those poor, benighted Republicans! They can't read polls! They can't reach Hispanics! They don't understand women! They don't have a team of Silicon Valley sorcerers running their turnout operations!'", Douthat paints liberals as judgmental whiners. He then goes on to almost "excuse" liberal/Democratic views by basically saying the only reason the Democratic poll is up is because they need government assistance. While this may be true for many, I find it absolutely ridiculous that Douthat dismisses liberal views as almost a last resort. Almost as if you can't be successful and believe in economic and social equality. So then, Ross Douthat goes on to label most non-churchgoing Americans as liberals, which may be true. (I'm not sure. I don't have evidence. Oh, hey, look at that, neither does Douthat!) This is an actual sentence from this article: "But the typical unchurched American is just as often an underemployed working-class man, whose secularism is less an intellectual choice than a symptom of his disconnection from community in general." He is basically saying people who aren't religious just aren't religious because they are "disconnected" and not using their intellect to choose to be religious or not! As if you can't just not be religious because you made an INTELLECTUAL choice to believe differently! THIS IS ONE OF MY BIGGEST PET PEEVES AND UNFORTUNATELY ROSS DOUTHAT'S GO-TO ARGUMENT TACTIC(justifying his thinking by dismissing the opposite view as pure ignorance(PARENTS DO THIS WHEN THEY SAY "YOU JUST DON'T UNDERSTAND YET" (AHHHHH YES I DO STOP IT AHHHH))). Okay, I'm done.
Most of the time, Douthat's tone is critical, as he finds fault in people's views on hot-button issues. I appreciate his usual tone despite all of my hate. While I may not always agree with his critical statements, I do love that he's really almost "snappy". He's just biting at the reader. Just look at the rise he gets out of me every time I read one of his pieces. I aspire to be a snappy journalist. So, I applaud Douthat on that. His purpose is usually the same: to inform and analyze. I learned about many intense American issues through his pieces and I even found my own views through his. Maybe the reason I have so many mixed feelings towards him is because I'm not his typical audience. While I believe I am mature and educated for my age, Douthat writes for the economically and socially mature and educated. Sure, I get A's & B's, but I don't even know where my taxes end up (excuse me, my parents' taxes), I had to look up 90% of the words he used, and up until recently, I've steered away from politics in the brattiest way by saying "WHO CARES I CAN'T EVEN VOTE YET BLAH" every time the issue arises.
So, is Ross Douthat a a good arguer? HA, ABSOLUTELY NOT. He loses me (and probably every single liberal Democrat to have ever been born) early on every time. But, is he a good journalist/op-ed columnist? Heck yeah. He writes strong, enraging, opinionated pieces that inform the reader. Do I love him? UM, DEFINITELY NOT. Do I hate him? Eh. "Live and let live", I guess. It just depends on what kind of American you are.
LINK TO "THE LIBERAL GLOAT": http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/18/opinion/sunday/douthat-The-Liberal-Gloat.html?ref=rossdouthat&version=meter+at+5®ion=FixedCenter&pg&priority=true&module=RegiWall-Regi&action=click