Taibbi on Bobo on Haiti
Matt Taibbi is a very controversial topic here. Some laud him as today’s Hunter S. Thompson, some deride him as a self-indulgent hack. In any case, I thought his piece on David Brooks’ column on the Haitian earthquake was excellent, not because I hate Bobo (though I do), but because it goes to something central to our current public dialog: the need to blame victims.
It’s natural, of course, that when something terrible happens to someone else you want to say it couldn’t happen to you. My neighbor dropped dead of a heart attack? He smoked, I don’t. That kid across town got hit by a stray bullet walking home from school? He was probably in a gang.
Maybe thinking that way is what keeps us from living under our beds. But when it meshes with politicizing and patting yourself on the back, it’s ugly. Taibbi:
TRANSLATION (of Bobo): Although it is true that Haiti was just like five minutes ago a victim of a random earthquake that killed tens of thousands of people, I’m going to skip right past the fake mourning period and point out that Haitians are a bunch of lazy niggers who can’t keep their dongs in their pants and probably wouldn’t be pancaked under fifty tons of rubble if they had spent a little more time over the years listening to the clarion call of white progress…
[....]
Again, unlike Brooks, I actually lived in the Third World for ten years and I admit it — I’m not exactly in the habit of sending checks to Abkhazian refugees, mainly because I’m not interested in buying some local Russian gangster a new Suzuki Samurai to tool around Sochi in. And I’ve actually seen what happens to the money people think they’re giving to Russian orphanages goes, so no dice there, either.
But you know what? Next time there’s an earthquake in Russia or Georgia, I’m probably going to wait at least until they’re finished pulling the bodies of dead children out of the rubble before I start writing articles blasting a foreign people for being corrupt, lazy drunks with an unsatisfactorily pervasive achievement culture whose child-rearing responsibilities might have to be yanked from them by with-it Whitey for their own good.
It’s a short step from lamenting that “Responsibility is often not internalized” (as Brooks does) to talking about strapping young bucks buying T-bone steaks with their UN relief checks.
January 31, 2010 7:45 pm
Posted in: Burkean bells, Good News For Conservatives
131 Comments
131 Responses
TR - January 31, 2010 | 7:47 pm · Link
I’m in the pro-Taibbi camp. If only for this kind of fuck-you punch to Bobo’s type.
DougJ - January 31, 2010 | 7:49 pm · Link
I’m in the pro-Taibbi camp.
Me too. Though I’m also in the Tim Fenholz camp on some of Taibbi’s financial writing.
Jim, Foolish Literalist - January 31, 2010 | 7:50 pm · Link
Which I think correlates to the notion of the “deserving poor” that underlies so much of our domestic, and I guess foreign, policy.
General Winfield Stuck - January 31, 2010 | 7:52 pm · Link
You are going to have to up your game DougJ. I think Taibbi out Bobo-trolled you by eleventy hundred.
bayville - January 31, 2010 | 7:53 pm · Link
Tim Fernholz? You mean the Ross Douthat of the left.
The next time Fernholz writes something original or interesting, will be the first time.
TR - January 31, 2010 | 7:53 pm · Link
@DougJ:
Me too again.
Silver Owl - January 31, 2010 | 7:54 pm · Link
I like Taibbi’s crap is crap stance.
DougJ - January 31, 2010 | 7:55 pm · Link
You are going to have to up your game DougJ. I think Taibbi out Bobo-trolled you by eleventy hundred.
I don’t think I can compete, obviously.
Anne Laurie - January 31, 2010 | 7:55 pm · Link
To tell the truth, Doug, when I first saw Bobo’s “The coloreds: so shiftless! What they need is more tough love!” column, I worried you’d burst a blood vessel reading it. I’m very much on Team Taibbi, so I couldn’t agree more that his smackdown of the odious Brooks deserves to be highlighted.
Chad S - January 31, 2010 | 7:56 pm · Link
The only way Taibbi and Thompson are comparable is that they’re both carbon based life forms. Thompson probably would have hated Taibbi’s smug orthodoxy(one of Thompson’s fav drinking buddies was Pat Buchanan).
thomas Levenson - January 31, 2010 | 8:01 pm · Link
Taibbi ain’t Thompson, I agree. But his is a good Taibbi, and that’s sufficient to the cause right now. In any event Bobbo needs to be abused like a rented mule every chance possible—and we’ve all got to do our part.
I’ve been laying down on the job in my own small way, and this marvelous, and accurate take down is a reminder to get on the stick. Remember: the MSM opinion class is actually not that large—a hundred folks or so, maybe less. And even though no individual DFH can do that much damage, death (or discreditation) by a thousand cuts is still death. Pointing out that our media overlords are in fact feckless hacks who project their own miserable selves onto all experience is a constant task, but a necessary one.
In otherwords, more of this please, and I’ll do what I can to roll the rock uphill.
How many metaphors can I mix in one comment?
Keith G - January 31, 2010 | 8:01 pm · Link
Maybe some day Douthat will write something to get in Taibbi’s cross hairs. Then, I can die happy.
Napoleon - January 31, 2010 | 8:01 pm · Link
@bayville:
Is he right or wrong?
Napoleon - January 31, 2010 | 8:05 pm · Link
@thomas Levenson:
Exactly.
calipygian - January 31, 2010 | 8:05 pm · Link
In fin-de-siecle, decadent Moscow, on the staff of the eXile must of have been crazy as shit.
Elie - January 31, 2010 | 8:06 pm · Link
Mostly what it does is disable the arguments of advocates for change of the status quo. If you got poisoned eating something that should have been “safe”, its your fault rather than dealing with the accountable parties, their processes and procedures that resulted in the poison being where it shouldnt be.
Its part of the ongoing epic war we are having in this country: Am I my Brother’s Keeper? Its an important answer.
Progressives would posit “yes” to some extent—while theoretically libertarians and the right would argue “No”. ( I think that the libertarians and conservatives just don’t cotton to being “brothers” with all the darkies and foreigners so that necessarily says they want to be apart and “indpendent” without need to help or be helped by those folks)
Europeans and others across the globe have answered that question for their own people unequivacally but we still struggle because of the racial, ethnic thing (just my opinion).
The other thing is that everyone knows that Haiti is OURS. No way to divorce from this, though we almost made it with our treatment of the Katrina victims. The universe made this come back to us, our mark of Cain, using biblical reference points…We ARE our brother’s keeper, and defying that will reap not only bad things short term, but will break this nation apart.
bayville - January 31, 2010 | 8:09 pm · Link
@Napoleon:
Who?
Mark S. - January 31, 2010 | 8:10 pm · Link
I also liked Taibbi’s takedown of Bobo’s piece on how investment bankers enrich our lives each day.
Ash Can - January 31, 2010 | 8:11 pm · Link
Taibbi’s style is often over the top, to my taste, but there’s no denying his fundamental arguments are reliably on target. And he hits the bullseye with this one.
Obliterati - January 31, 2010 | 8:12 pm · Link
I think of Tiabbi the same way I think of Glennzilla: if I knew them in real life, I’m pretty sure I’d want to punch them in the face every 20 minutes. Yet on the whole, I consider Tiabbi (like Greenwald) a huge net positive.
The in-your-face-attitude gets a little overpowering sometimes, but it’s better than that wishy-washy “some people say” stenograporting we get from the MSM.
MikeJ - January 31, 2010 | 8:13 pm · Link
Taibbi is generally not worth the effort of actively disliking. Writing an article pointing out that Bobo is an elitist prick? Is there anybody on earth who couldn’t have written it without even having to go through the trouble of even reading Brooks?
Omnes Omnibus - January 31, 2010 | 8:13 pm · Link
@Ash Can:
This.
Cassidy - January 31, 2010 | 8:14 pm · Link
So what? Are you saying we can’t blame brown people, stuck on an island, and hit by an earthquake causing mass death? Should we check with Lieberman first?
johnny - January 31, 2010 | 8:14 pm · Link
There’s no reason Taibbi can’t both be a self-indulgent asshole and also this generations version of Hunter S. Thompson.
I think the commenters here and most people writ large are smart enough generally to tell when Taibbi veers from good to bad. I’m skeptical on Taibbi on the whole, but he’s much better than media whores like David Gregory ever will be.
This is one of his good articles; on financial issues, he’s less reliable to me (the Goldman stuff is over the top to the point where it’s not even clear that he’s right anymore)
Omnes Omnibus - January 31, 2010 | 8:17 pm · Link
@Cassidy:
You can blame them if you want. Just don’t be surprised if everyone else calls you an asshole for doing it.
Napoleon - January 31, 2010 | 8:18 pm · Link
@bayville:
Tim, because we all know Ross is wrong.
Napoleon - January 31, 2010 | 8:21 pm · Link
I wish Taibbi was on some show like Hardball all the time. He is both knowledgeable and really entertaining. There are few if any like him who can get the point over.
Just Some Fuckhead - January 31, 2010 | 8:21 pm · Link
Matt Taibbi’s cool around here until he fails to show the proper adulation to Black Jesus.
Cat Lady - January 31, 2010 | 8:23 pm · Link
Say what you will about his Goldman Sachs analysis, he’s got Bobo and Tom Flathead Friedman’s number like no one else does.
Chad S - January 31, 2010 | 8:27 pm · Link
@Just Some Fuckhead: Taibbi’s already criticized Obama. No one cared.
Martin - January 31, 2010 | 8:29 pm · Link
No point typing this again.
mainsailset - January 31, 2010 | 8:31 pm · Link
Ian Welsh’s piece on “It’s not your money” dovetails well with Taibi’s premise. The Bobo’s of the world need reminding from time to time just what kind of a leg up this country gives its citizens http://www.ianwelsh.net/it%e2%.....our-money/
Martin - January 31, 2010 | 8:34 pm · Link
@Cassidy: Well, Lieberman would of course tell us that the people of Israel are far more deserving of our foreign aid than Haiti, because losing the cultural contributions of the Jewish people would be a catastrophe, but there’s plenty of black people out there if an island’s worth get wiped out. That’s assuming the Haitian lobby doesn’t gang up on Congress first…
Chad N Freude - January 31, 2010 | 8:35 pm · Link
Let’s not forget that the Haitians were also irresponsible in not democratically voting the Duvaliers out of office.
Kobie - January 31, 2010 | 8:36 pm · Link
OT: I’m in some argument with some rabid (and I mean RABID) teabagger on another site, and while all the familiar boogeymen are being brought up (wtf is up with all the Saul Alinsky talk lately when the man’s been dead since 1972?), he’s absolutely screaming about how the teabaggers are going to run the progressives out of office.
And you know what? For the first time, I’m having a very difficult time telling him he’s wrong. Perhaps it’s my pessimistic nature, having been both a lifelong Democrat and Buffalo Bills fan, but I’m just getting this sinking feeling that we’re going to get absolutely throttled in November. Someone pull me off the ledge.
Jorge - January 31, 2010 | 8:41 pm · Link
Hunter S. Thompson was a self-indulgent jerk. He was just a self-indugent jerk that rocked our impressionable minds at an early age.
patrick - January 31, 2010 | 8:44 pm · Link
I disagree with those who think Taibbi is overwrought or too hyperbolic. When Taibbi writes “The world’s most powerful investment bank is a great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money.” I couldn’t agree more, and if I had the talent to write like that (instead of calling them something like greedy assholes, which is about as good as I normally do) I would.
People should be angry and saying so, instead of of being over-polite zombies.
Bubblegum Tate - January 31, 2010 | 8:45 pm · Link
@Kobie:
Teabaggers have finally figured out George Soros’ diabolical plan to turn us all into Alinsky.
In all seriousness, Alinsky came up at some point during the 2008 campaign, and since then, it’s become some sort of deflector shield for wingnuts—whenever you mock them, they say that said mocking just proves that you are a total commie because mocking the enemy was one of Alinsky’s Rules.
Kobie - January 31, 2010 | 8:48 pm · Link
@Bubblegum Tate: I seem to remember hearing Alinsky’s name in passing during the campaign. However, I swear I’ve seen it probably 10-15 times in the last week.
PurpleGirl - January 31, 2010 | 8:50 pm · Link
@Jorge: This is true.
eastriver - January 31, 2010 | 8:51 pm · Link
@johnny:
Hunter S Thompson was a self-indulgent asswipe, and a great writer.
I don’t think Taibbi is self-indulgent. And he’s a better writer than HST. But HST certainly took more drugs. I don’t know, or care, if that’s a factor.
Bobo is such an easy target, though. All fish, no barrel.
(Dougie, this came out a few days ago. Slowin’ on us?)
John Cole - January 31, 2010 | 8:52 pm · Link
I’m gonna go out on a limb here and guess that Bobo never mentioned how we basiaclly ignored Haiti and Duvalier during the 60’s onwarrd because of the Cold War.
Kinda hard to worry about personal achievement and building codes when the Tonton Macoutes are hacking your brother to death in the street with a machete. And I guarantee Bobo didn’t mention which country’s Marines trained the Tonton Macoutes.
PurpleGirl - January 31, 2010 | 8:53 pm · Link
Alinsky was the ultimate community organizer. In the mid-1970s I took training in organizing from his Industrial Areas Foundation.
Mike E - January 31, 2010 | 8:53 pm · Link
@Mark S.:
Seconded. Plus, there’s a satisfying amount of “fuck” words throughout, also. Fuck those bastards. Too.
PurpleGirl - January 31, 2010 | 8:57 pm · Link
@John Cole: Yeah, Papa Doc just had to say he was anti-communist and we shoveled more money at him. He then proceeded to steal it for himself. A good literary treatment of this time period is Graham Greene’s The Comedians.
nepat - January 31, 2010 | 8:57 pm · Link
The Taibbi Haiti piece: crap, like everything else from this – as my teenager calls em – poseur.
Chad N Freude - January 31, 2010 | 9:00 pm · Link
@mainsailset: Very nice essay. I did not know about Ian Welsh until now. I think some of his premises and assertions are debatable, but he really got me with “the government has the moral right to tax” and “the pragmatic duty to do so”, the clearest, most succinct statement of what differentiates modern society from feudalism or worse I’ve ever seen.
I have to say, though, that the statement on his front page that
is as offensive as anything the neo-Norquistians say.
Ash Can - January 31, 2010 | 9:01 pm · Link
@mainsailset: Interesting article, and pretty good smackdowns of the inevitable mine-mine-mine brigade in the comments.
satby - January 31, 2010 | 9:02 pm · Link
I’m a big Taibbi fan, esp. when he slaps down Bobo. I read that Bobo column first and honestly was amazed: shorter Bobo could have been “black, blackety black, niggers”.
It was unreal. Taibbi was not at all over the top on this one.
Phoebe - January 31, 2010 | 9:08 pm · Link
DougJ:
Please change “putting” [yourself on the back] to “patting”. Or “kissing”.
Thank you.
nepat - January 31, 2010 | 9:09 pm · Link
@Just Some Fuckhead:
Please. Taibbi has always been a hack. Using “fuck” as punctuation does not a renegade make. He will have no cultural impact at all – like his hosting publication, Rolling Stone, which jumped the shark during Reagan’s first term.
ps – Jesus really was black.
eastriver - January 31, 2010 | 9:09 pm · Link
@Phoebe:
kissing yourself on the back? hmph. can I get video?
Kobie - January 31, 2010 | 9:09 pm · Link
While I think Taibbi was a smidge harsh on some of the racial aspects of Bobo’s piece (I think the “lazy niggers” comment was a bit much, Bobo’s piece didn’t seem to me to be as much racially insensitive as it did to be culturally self-righteous), he hit the nail on the head with his criticism of the timing of it. They’re still recovering bodies, for fuck’s sake, and this prick has the gall to basically sit there and write “well, maybe they deserved it”? Fuck David Brooks sideways with a rusty shovel.
Svensker - January 31, 2010 | 9:09 pm · Link
@Kobie:
The wingnuts have this idea that O was a student of Alinsky’s and has figured out how to use his super commie Obama-fu to get all of Alinsky’s ideas passed into law. We have all been softened up by Soros, but now SEIU, ACORN and Obama/Alinsky are finishing the job of turning us the United Sockalistates of ‘Murica. Bill Ayres was in on the plot also, too.
Zach - January 31, 2010 | 9:11 pm · Link
I’m more anti- than pro-Taibbi, but that Brooks column is insane. We don’t know what works; in fact, no amount of progress guarantees that a country won’t plunge again… so the programs he suggests will work?
There is literally nothing differentiating this from the column that got someone fired from ESPN except for:
1. A detached tone; everything offensive he says is sourced an academic work
2. Religious bigotry; Shirley didn’t have any of that (he probably would’ve had he not been completely ignorant about Haiti’s history and culture).
It’s really stupid for Brooks to put this out there right now. He might not know about the Shirley thing, but surely his assistant or editor does. He’s risking getting lumped together with Shirley in stories about people making the case against donating (Olbermann doing a worst person in the world on this seems likely, right?) and actually hurting his generally untouchable career.
eastriver - January 31, 2010 | 9:12 pm · Link
@nepat:
“jumped the shark” jumped the shark about 2 years ago, if you want to get technical.
rob! - January 31, 2010 | 9:13 pm · Link
According to Byron York, the Haitians caused the housing collapse, too. Man, they may be shiftless, but they’re clever!
General Winfield Stuck - January 31, 2010 | 9:13 pm · Link
@Phoebe: LOL. these people, and there sloppy grammer, they need to tighten up.:=)
chrismealy - January 31, 2010 | 9:17 pm · Link
Hunter S. Thompson was a self-indulgent hack.
Phoebe - January 31, 2010 | 9:21 pm · Link
@General Winfield Stuck: It takes a village!
DougJ - January 31, 2010 | 9:23 pm · Link
@Phoebe:
Done.
Martin - January 31, 2010 | 9:24 pm · Link
I want to know when Taibbi is about to go after these book monopolies!
I think it’s outrageous that Going Rogue is only published by HarpersCollins. Someone should do something about that!
slag - January 31, 2010 | 9:24 pm · Link
I’m in Sarah Palin and David Brooks’ “real America” right now at a hockey game. I’m fairly certain Brooks has absolutely nothing to be “culturally self-righteous” about.
eastriver - January 31, 2010 | 9:27 pm · Link
@DougJ:
You shoulda gone with “kissing”. Feh.
SiubhanDuinne - January 31, 2010 | 9:31 pm · Link
Had to laugh just now when I was checking “Recent Comments” to see if there was anything new, and saw:
It’s like a list of begats, or a classic infield triple-play squad, or the chorus of a half-remembered children’s song.
maus - January 31, 2010 | 9:31 pm · Link
@Just Some Fuckhead:
you must be new here. welcome, troll!
Phoebe - January 31, 2010 | 9:33 pm · Link
@DougJ: I know! And I hope I didn’t sound like the braying nitpicky jackass that so many typo-cops are. But perfection is our collective goal, and I’m sending this link to my friend, my copy editing friend. Now she will read the sentence without whinnying like a startled mare.
Not that she is a braying nitpicky jackass. She has complained about those types, in fact. Whew. I’d just better leave.
Chad N Freude - January 31, 2010 | 9:37 pm · Link
@Phoebe: I just want you to know that I am grateful for your sharing Pedant Policing duties. Way too much for one person around here.
AngusTheGodOfMeat - January 31, 2010 | 9:38 pm · Link
Sorry, I am just an old fashioned cow. I was taught that when tragedy struck, if you didn’t have something positive to say, don’t say anything at all.
I don’t know of any reason to modify that rule, and if there were a reason, the Haiti catastrophe might be the last event on earth that would warrant suspension of that rule.
You can tell a lot about people when they open their mouths about something terrible happening to somebody else.
As for this ….
... we all know how well white people keep it in their pants, that’s why we will go extinct, like the Shakers.
Whatever.
MikeJ - January 31, 2010 | 9:41 pm · Link
@chrismealy:
Perhaps, but it worked for him.
MikeJ - January 31, 2010 | 9:43 pm · Link
@SiubhanDuinne:
A porn movie so bad even putting Phoebe in there couldn’t save it. (I’m assuming any member of the balloon-juice commentariat could only improve the rest of that nightmare.)
jl - January 31, 2010 | 9:43 pm · Link
Sometimes I like Taibbi, sometimes I do not. I think Taibbi does much more straight reporting than Thompson, so hard to compare the two.
But, I thnk Bobo bashing is always good. Brooks is a silky smooth, well-heeled but vicious, ignorant fraudulant hack who appears on all the respectable outlets of mass media to spread reactionary propaganda.
Their intent is to intentionally spread misinformation, habits of thought, and those memey thingees for the purposes of reactionary social engineering.
Harder and oftener you bash people like Bobo, the better.
Thanks to Cole for going out on a limb, above. I read the piece and will not go out on a limb to say that the ignorant blowhard Bobo did not go into the runious reparations Haita had to pay for the crime of winning their own freedom from one of the most brutal systems of slavery in human history, or the embargoes, attempted invasions, and discrimination against their country by richer whiter countries, or the fact that the US basically ran the place for 20 years for the benefit of the elites, or the fact Haiti had to deal with a richer, bigger and very hostile Santo Domingo for years, or what country did turn a blind eye when Papa Doc went bad because of Cold War geopolitical interests, or whose Marines trained the Haitian internal security forces to oppress their own people and squelch democratic and social development.
Query: When the next big earthquake that kills thousands of people who must live in homes with substandard engineering because of corrupt or lazy governements run for the elites only, will this punk Bobo write a piece about how it is the ordinary peoples’ fault that they do not live in an ‘achievement oriented culture’?
Let us watch when the next big one hits the Philippines, Turkey, Pakistan. Or for that matter, the PRC or the Hayward Fault slips in the SF East Bay. Or another New Madrid quake hits the Ohio Valley. God forbid, but we all know all those earthquakes will happen, it is just a matter of timing.
And, speaking of ‘achievement oriented cultures’, what does it say about the US that this either butt-ignorant or very dishonest white man in a suit and tie is considered to be a Very Serious and Respectable Pundit, rather than a vile and fraudulant progadandist for reactionary power brokers?
General Winfield Stuck - January 31, 2010 | 9:47 pm · Link
@Phoebe:
Please don’t.
SiubhanDuinne - January 31, 2010 | 9:49 pm · Link
@MikeJ #71: LOL. Can’t you just picture the lobby poster art?
Kobie - January 31, 2010 | 9:51 pm · Link
@maus: Just Some Fuckhead might be the most aptly-named troll I’ve ever seen. He exists to do nothing other than antagonize, and he’s pretty good at it considering the feedings he gets regularly.
He is, however, underneath it all, still a colossal asshole.
nepat - January 31, 2010 | 9:59 pm · Link
@eastriver:
A hall monitor!
burnspbesq - January 31, 2010 | 10:02 pm · Link
Well, Andrew is pissed that the DOJ Office of Professional Responsibility report was softened to the point that it no longer reaches a conclusion that would have led to Yoo and Bybee being referred to their respective state bars for potential disciplinary action.
http://andrewsullivan.theatlan.....aily_dish/
So am I, but the difference between Andrew and me is that I know that this action (by a career DOJ lawyer who is widely respected) is meaningless. The likelihood of a referral leading to any disciplinary action was always exactly zero. Donald Segretti, who was convicted of a felony for his role in the Nixon dirty tricks apparatus, was reinstated to the California bar within 30 days after becoming eligible for reinstatement. The legal profession doesn’t do any better at policing itself than the medical profession.
Adam Collyer - January 31, 2010 | 10:08 pm · Link
@Zach:
For those of you who don’t know the Paul Shirley blog that Zach referred to, the link is here.
And my response to him point-by-point is here
It’s a shameless plug, but I really think it’s worth reading if only because if we just let Paul Shirley’s thoughts fester, then his awful attitude spreads.
Anne Laurie - January 31, 2010 | 10:17 pm · Link
@Svensker:
Don’t forget Hillary Clinton, who wrote her OMGSECRETWHATISSHEHIDINGFROMUS senior thesis on Alinsky. Of course the Teabaggers are temporarily refraining from attacking Hillary (just as they temporarily laid off suspiciously-not-white Sec. Colin Powell when he was waving spurious photos of Saddam’s ‘weapons trailers’ during the run-up to Operation Enduring Clusterfuck) because of the PUMAs. But back during Clinton’s first term there was a tremendous amount of wingnut-wurlitzer blather about Hitlery’s cult-leader Alinsky, whose Little-Red-Book template for destroying Heartland Values™ she intended to implement as soon as the vigilant Fox purity guardians let down their defences. And the idea that she had intimidated Yale into “hiding” her evil liberal thesis lest she be prematurely exposed became an item of faith among the perennial wingnutters. You can make an analogy that this first Alinsky-freakout, which entirely failed to excite anyone outside the core of the core 27 Percenters, was the initial exposure to the thought-allergen that has now exploded into a rash of Obama-clawing unreason.
Mary - January 31, 2010 | 10:18 pm · Link
@Adam Collyer: That was an outstanding rebuttal you wrote to Paul Shirley. I prefer it to Taibbi’s overwrought style. Thanks for bringing it here.
John O - January 31, 2010 | 10:18 pm · Link
Matt will forever hold a place dear in my heart for his work on Goldman.
Plus, I find him really funny, though no HST.
Annie - January 31, 2010 | 10:30 pm · Link
When tragedy strikes, we respond, and we should save political posturing for later. Faulting Haitians for their development failures at this point is disgusting.
Historically, Haiti has never existed in a vacuum. If we want to have a political discussion over why Haitians are the way they are necessitates some real self-searching. Throwing money at a previous dictator with no accountability on our part means that we are somewhat responsible for how Haiti turned out. Americans are largely ignorant of the ways in which “development aid” has been and is tied to perceived national security interests. We have a long history of giving development aid for political, security and strategic interests—- and, most of these interests had nothing to do with the development of large parts of the population.
Is Haiti a mess? Yes. Has the country moved forward in a systematic way towards poverty reduction? No. Is it just the fault of the Haitians? No. Is it because the population somehow lacks the intelligence to move forward to solve fundamental problems? No. Does the government need to be accountable and responsive to its population? Yes. Do we need to be held accountable and responsive for our interference in the country? Yes.
We need to understand our history of interference in order to move forward and not make the mistakes of the past. And, we need to get our priorities in line with what is best for the population, not just the political interests of the ruling party, no matter how much they love or not love the US.
I have several Haitians in one of my classes that cried last week when I turned the discussion of Haiti from blaming the Haitians to a discussion of both internal politicals and external interference in the country. They said that they assumed that most Americans did not understand nor cared about their history.
Alfie - January 31, 2010 | 10:41 pm · Link
Taibbi is great eyecandy—I drool watching him, and I’m a guy.
J. Michael Neal - January 31, 2010 | 10:41 pm · Link
Can I throw both Taibbi and Brooks into a lifeboat with nothing to eat but each other?
@Ash Can:
No, he doesn’t. He fires a blunderbuss, and some of the shrapnel hits the bullseye, some grazes the target, some misses everything entirely, and some nail the guy who loaded the gun for him. This column is every bit as much of a mess a Bobo’s.
Yes, he correctly calls out Brooks’ implicit racism. That’s a target worth every bit of his ire. Along the way, though, he equally attacks some points that are not only valid, but very important.
Here, Taibbi just flat out lies about what Brooks says. He conflates the, perfectly correct, point that we don’t really have any good idea about how to deliver foreign aid with an argument that we should stop. His problem is that Brooks is completely accurate: we don’t have any good idea how to deliver foreign aid. That’s just an empirical fact. Even if you take all of the military aid we’ve delivered out of the equation, there is zero, and I mean zero, evidence that sending large amounts of aid does any good at all. Most of what’s been sent in the past has been, at best, a complete waste of resources.
Now, the proper attitude is to do a better job of figuring out how to deliver foreign aid. Of course, Taibbi can’t admit this, because then he’d have to acknowledge that Brooks never said not to send aid. It’s just as plausible an interpretation of what Brooks said that that’s what we should do. Instead, Taibbi’s rage demands that he accuse Brooks of being a moral monster, rather than, perhaps, just being a condescending jerk.
Of course, this isn’t quite what Brooks does, either. If the whole column were just an attack on “lazy niggers,” as Taibbi says in another part, then why does Brooks say good things about the population of the Dominican Republic (distinctly non-white) and Barbados (distinctly black, actually). What Brooks does is ask why it is that these other non-white populations have done better than Haiti, despite having many of the same handicaps.
Now, I think Brooks completely blows the analysis. He ignores a number of handicaps that were unique to Haiti. Some of those are cultural, some of them were imposed from outside, and some of them are just accidents of nature. Nevertheless, Brooks’ crime here is a combination of a need to be contrarian, some ignorance, some racism, and a complete lack of thought. What he does not do is say anything that can be reasonably interpreted is just saying it’s a bunch of lazy niggers.
Just as with his financial stuff, Taibbi finds something to be angry about, and then decides that rage without thought is the way to go. He adds nothing of value to the conversation. He’s a great test, though. Watch how progressives respond to him, and it becomes easy to sort out the ones who are just like the teabaggers in their inability to think seriously.
DougJ - January 31, 2010 | 10:44 pm · Link
Watch how progressives respond to him, and it becomes easy to sort out the ones who are just like the teabaggers in their inability to think seriously.
I love it when you say shit like this.
(EDIT: I’m not trying to be a jerk here, I do enjoy it when you take it up to 11.)
RoryBellows - January 31, 2010 | 10:50 pm · Link
Bobo’s article and that one from the basketball dude (shirley?) can all be filed under Just World Hypothesis. As well as all the articles in the WSJ from the last year blaming the bank collapse on teh negroes and mexicans: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Just-world_phenomenon
jl - January 31, 2010 | 11:00 pm · Link
@J. Michael Neal: I agree with some of your points, but Taibbi explicitly says in his piece that he is not an uncritical fan of how foreign aid has been used by rich countries as a tool for development.
Look at the very beginning of the piece where Taibbi talks about his own experiences living in less developed countries.
But just yesterday, evacuation of the wounded earthquake victims from Haiti to the US was halted becuase of fights and uncertainty over who would pay for treatment.
That kind of crisis disaster aid is completely different from aid for long term economic and social development, and I think anyone who can add 2 and 2 could see that.
So, I think it is very destructive and vile for people like Brooks, Limbaugh and others to try to confuse these two obviously different issues in the midst of a crisis.
And what does Brooks’ relative approval of the populations of Haiti, the Dominican Republic and the Barbados prove? Are you that naive about the rhetoric of propaganda? Of course he will throw in some tricks so that the reader will subconsciously internalize the racist and classist subtext of the piece. Of course he is going to throw in some compliments to the happy black people of a small, relatively high income, island whose main industry is catering to, and serving richer whiter tourists from richer whiter countries.
PS. In my previous comment above I typed Santo Domingo instead of Dominican Republic. Sorry.
nepat - January 31, 2010 | 11:02 pm · Link
@J. Michael Neal:
Taibbi is an emocrat, fer shure.
J. Michael Neal - January 31, 2010 | 11:06 pm · Link
@DougJ: Isn’t taking it up to 11 a requirement to get out of moderation on this blog?
DougJ - January 31, 2010 | 11:07 pm · Link
Isn’t taking it up to 11 a requirement to get out of moderation on this blog?
Ha!
J. Michael Neal - January 31, 2010 | 11:08 pm · Link
@jl: I intensely dislike convicting someone of complete racism based upon inference. If you have something concrete with which to accuse Brooks, fine, but this sort of conjecture is poisonous.
DougJ - January 31, 2010 | 11:10 pm · Link
But I do think you’re way too tough on Taibbi. When he’s wrong, he’s very wrong. But when he’s on-target, he’s terrific. The smugness of a lot of Official Political Discourse is genuinely problematic and he skewers it better than anyone.
I wish he’d stay away from the $24 trillion in obligations stuff, I’ll grant you that.
DougJ - January 31, 2010 | 11:11 pm · Link
@J. Michael Neal:
The implied racism may not be fair. But in some ways it’s a generous interpretation of why Bobo wants to blame Haitians for getting hit with an earthquake.
FlipYrWhig - January 31, 2010 | 11:18 pm · Link
Is there any way to get Matt Taibbi and Glenn Greenwald mad at each other? Because I think the never-ending back and forth could power a maglev train.
J. Michael Neal - January 31, 2010 | 11:19 pm · Link
@DougJ:
I disagree. It’s more generous than some interpretations, but a hell of a lot less generous than other, equally plausible, interpretations.
I wouldn’t know, because I can’t remember him being on-target. All I’ve seen is a bunch of hack jobs. Just because someone says, “Fuck,” a lot of times when discussing something you also disagree with doesn’t mean that he’s on target. Taibbi doesn’t seem to value accuracy, just anger. I have zero respect for that approach. He’s terrible.
jl - January 31, 2010 | 11:25 pm · Link
@J. Michael Neal: How simple are you, or pretend to be? Seriously…
Yutsano - January 31, 2010 | 11:26 pm · Link
@Alfie: I would too. And I’m a guy. But I also have an established history here as a meat-eater.
@J. Michael Neal:
Taibbi in three rounds. Oh wait that wasn’t the question…
@FlipYrWhig: I think they’d make an interesting couple honestly. Though Taibbi has never indicated which team he bats for.
Adam Collyer - January 31, 2010 | 11:33 pm · Link
@Mary:
Thanks Mary. I needed to get all of that off of my chest.
What’s interesting is that the first time I read it, I wasn’t so upset. He really did “write” a technically fine piece. But the more I read it, the more upset I became until finally I thought it was important to pen a response. I’m still irritated with him.
geg6 - February 1, 2010 | 12:06 am · Link
Yutsano @97: Taibbi is straight. If you read his books, he mentions a live-in girlfriend. Bobo, OTOH, is the kind of guy who lets guys feel him up at the dinner table.
Church Lady - February 1, 2010 | 12:09 am · Link
@Alfie: Can we assume a gay guy? If yes, are you blind? If no, are you really, really blind? He’s maybe a 3 or 4 on a 10 point scale.
asiangrrlMN - February 1, 2010 | 12:13 am · Link
@Zach: Oh. My. God. That piece was just…it flabbergasts me. It seriously does. I am so fucking glad ESPN fired him for that. I also like Mo’Kelley’s point (via HuffPo, via Google) that Shirley has the right to say whatever the fuck he wants, and ESPN has the right to fire him for not following their work code. Too often, the people who bleat about free speech don’t realize that it doesn’t mean you won’t have consequences at all for what you say.
You are right, though. The basic point is pretty much the same as the one Bobo is making.
@Adam Collyer: Nicely done. I like your even-handed tone and the little bit of history lesson you slip in there. Wow. I’m fuming still over that blog post.
Yutsano - February 1, 2010 | 12:31 am · Link
@geg6: He not only lets guys feel him up he admits getting a strange tingly feeling. I’m sure that was his inner wetsuit coming out.
Call it a feeling or a ping but I could see Taibbi going both ways.
Paula - February 1, 2010 | 12:33 am · Link
“Watch how progressives respond to him, and it becomes easy to sort out the ones who are just like the teabaggers in their inability to think seriously.”
THIS.
The point is not that Bobo’s bs is not a worthy target or that Taibbi’s sentiments are wrong. It’s the fact that he feels the need to distort what is actually in front of him to get you all hot n bothered when a simple takedown of Brooks’ points would stand on its own as a rebuke.
Brooks is dumb, but as Obama demonstrated in B-more a few days ago you can get just as much mileage by taking your opponents seriously during an argument. Even more so, because you are seen as arguing in good faith.
Yes, please, for the sake of the energy crisis, Taibbi needs to be conned into doing something that would stoke GG’s ire.
Also: a smackdown of David Brooks is hardly an intellectual feat of strength. Taibbi presents nothing uniquely insightful in this piece about the complications of Haiti’s history and our current (militarized) presence there. All he does is ego stroke all the “right thinking people” that make up his audience. A “masterpiece of cultural signaling”, indeed.
celticdragonchick - February 1, 2010 | 12:38 am · Link
@Kobie:
I really blew up at him a couple of months ago. I just ignore him now.
celticdragonchick - February 1, 2010 | 12:43 am · Link
@Paula:
I agree. There were points in Brooks’ column that could have invited serious discussion and debate. I know of anthrolpologists (emic viewpoint and so on) who would not have seen some of the points as controversial. However, Taibbi gave his audience sarcasm, flippancy and snark. There was no attempt to actually make an argument or disprove what Brooks said.
Btw, I see the same things with Creationists and young earthers all the time.
General Winfield Stuck - February 1, 2010 | 12:45 am · Link
@Paula:
Talk like this will get you labeled an Obot. And maybe even Narcissistic.
jl - February 1, 2010 | 12:54 am · Link
I disagree with some of the comments immediately above.
For one, I do not believe people like Brooks are dumb. I think they know exactly what they are doing.
Look at how quickly the talking point of the day, or leading question of the day, or issue of the day, spreads around the rightwing and pseudo-centrist political blogs, and poisonous wells like Fox news. They plan very well the campaigns of intellectual garbage that they wage to delude the public.
Second, I think there is an optimal mix of snark, sarcasm and serious response. I ask you, how is Brooks spouting on about the white-man-like-him ‘culture of achievement’ in the middle of a column that is about as ignorant and bigoted as it can possibly be not a total hoot? Huh? I ask you.
jl - February 1, 2010 | 1:00 am · Link
@General Winfield Stuck, AKA ‘young fuss and feathers’:
I think you would agree, if you are in a charitable mood this evening, that I am not an O-bot.
But I think that Obama’s performance in front of the GOP goon squad was excellent. I hope he does more of that.
I think his comments on the GOP during the State of the Union Address were good too.
But think he has to stop with the useless GOP-lite economic policies, simply becuase I do not believe they are good policies.
If I remember rightly, Obama promised to formulate policy based on evidence and science. As an economist, I see very little good evidence based economic science in his current economic policy proposals, and it irks me when he proposes bad policy for no reason at all except that, it seems to me, it will be deemed ‘centrist’ by the Villagers.
But it is possible that Obama has different ideas about what is scientifically sound evidence-based economics than I do. I do grant that possibility (as I shift into my O-bot mode).
He spent too much time around that dang Chicago School, which merely by the utter badness of its macroeconomic predictions, has discredited itself over the last 2 years. The good economists at Chicago (eg, Heckman) excepted.
Paula - February 1, 2010 | 1:06 am · Link
@ Stuck #106
Well, the thing that I realized watching that B-more exchange is that
1) Obama is the president of everyone, and to the extent that the mainstream Republican party represents a good chunk of those he governs, it behooves him to treat them seriously, even if I can’t.
2) Because of that, if I were a progressive “activist” I would realize right quick that Obama’s motives and sentiments and choices are produced by a completely different context than mine. At that point, I would stop depending on him to do things for me. I didn’t quite agree w/ what you said on the “Pants on the ground”, thread, Stuck, but I, too, was mighty icked by the attitude espoused on the thread of “oh, he’s following our advice, that’s why.” No he’s not: he’s just trying to deal with the crappy political moment he’s been given and using his skillz to get back on the public’s good side. There’s no guarantee that he will “fight harder” for a better health care bill or that he would be able to keep the Congressional Dems in line.
2a) BTW, I find it hard to reconcile the sentiments expressed in re Obama’s (lack of) backbone and/or respect for progressive sentiments. If they consider themselves a significant part of the “base” that elected him, why can’t they use their own position to influence others? Because that is what being part of the base entails—like unions, you have power because you can swing votes. If the complaint is that they are “powerless” and that it’s up to Obama to deliver progressive policy messages, then why should Obama listen to a bunch of people who are, in effect, powerless and can give him nothing in exchange? Because he told people he’d be a “good guy” and now he’s hurting everyone’s “feelings”? Because the whine of “betrayal” smacks of political naivete, not people who actually know what they’re doing in the political process. And why would seasoned politicians listen to novices?
3) Which leads me to Taibbi. The people who love him seem to really eat up the undercooked red meat that he serves, which suggests that they are less than interested in serious argument or even movement building than they are w/ boilerplate progressivism. It saps the energy that might form the base of a real progressive movement, which would require a good amount of intellectual rigor in thinking about social institutions and group interests that Tabbi does not evince in any way. It saddens me that he’s currently one of the progressives’ argumentative go-to guy and that gets lotsa face-time on the teevee.
4) Flame away.
gwangung - February 1, 2010 | 1:12 am · Link
@Paula: Um, absolutely fabulous, particularly point 2a.
(Edit: though I will slightly demur in that Taibbi is a necessary component for progressives, supplying heart and passion that has to be yoked to intellect and reason. He is necessary, but not sufficient).
General Winfield Stuck - February 1, 2010 | 1:18 am · Link
@jl:
Don’t believe I addressed such sentiments to you. “Young fuss and feathers” LOL, not that young and fussing is what we do here.
General Winfield Stuck - February 1, 2010 | 1:24 am · Link
@Paula:
I said a lot of stuff in that thread, and my comment to you here was not meant to say you are, or are not an Obot or suggest that you agree with me on much, cause I know full well you don’t/ It was a generalized sarcastic attempt at humor, emphasis on the sarcastic part. That’s my thang, as it were.
jl - February 1, 2010 | 1:25 am · Link
@General Winfield Stuck:
A while back, I accused Obama of being a lousy ‘centrist progressive’ and you scolded me.
You also told me to ‘tighten up, man’, which I interpreted to mean that you were advising me to have a few drinks, which I promptly did.
I am still deeply hurt by your scolding, but thank you for your sage advice.
General Winfield Stuck - February 1, 2010 | 1:30 am · Link
@jl:
Don’t remember that, and don’t know why I would scold you for accusing Obama of being “lousy centrist prog”, since that is pretty much what I think he is, though I would likely term it center/left progressive. The real kind of progressive that strives for an end result of progressive, but accepts compromise with less than the ideal, but with a goodly portion of progress/
Paula - February 1, 2010 | 1:34 am · Link
@ Stuck:
Heh, you did say a lot of things on that thread. Sorry for not specifying. Maybe I’m saying you support O a little more than I do or have a sunnier view of his intentions based on what you said in there. I could be wrong. In any case, I mentioned it because I desperately wanted to respond to the argument going on in that thread and I found myself more sympathetic to your position than others’, though not quite agreeing.
In any case, don’t really care about being called an O-bot. It’s one of those insults that are so overused it’s become meaningless, no?
—Paula, out for the night. Thanks for the ranting space.
jl - February 1, 2010 | 1:35 am · Link
@General Winfield Stuck: Oh. OK. I somehow misinformed myself.
However, thanks for suggesting I get a little drunk. That was very helpful of you.
General Winfield Stuck - February 1, 2010 | 1:42 am · Link
@jl: I admit to being a jackass much of the time. Please don’t take it personal.
Yutsano - February 1, 2010 | 1:44 am · Link
@General Winfield Stuck: The really cute puppeh takes the edge off a lot of your more egregious sins. FWIW.
Notorious P.A.T. - February 1, 2010 | 1:59 am · Link
If someone thinks Sarah Palin is such an unqualified joke that they are a danger to the country, they have a responsibility to say so in their newspaper column.
David Brooks sucks.
Yutsano - February 1, 2010 | 2:05 am · Link
@Notorious P.A.T.: That would require him admitting also that by virtue of Grandpa selecting her, McCain the war hero’s qualifications also are suspect. But that would be one bridge too far for ol’ Bobo.
Uriel - February 1, 2010 | 2:05 am · Link
Here’ s the thing i think:
Thompson was a self-indulgent, erratic, possibly insane but brilliant and insightful writer who couldn’t help but being what he was- Hunter S. Thompson.
Taibbi is a self-indulgent, ideologically ridged, obviously sane (in spite of himself) but occasionally brilliant and insightful writer who will never be what he most desperately wants to be- Hunter S. Thompson.
The man who wrote “Hell’s Angels” would have found Taibbi an odious popinjay, and Taibbi probably would have found him something close to an amoral sociopath.
I mean, lets be frank- putting your money down on anything besides “in his bed, of old age, after a long and bitter fight,” in the Matt Taibbi dead pool is just an exercise in willful self-delusion.
jl - February 1, 2010 | 2:09 am · Link
@General Winfield Stuck: Well, I was serious about thanking you. When I read ‘you need to tighten up, man’ I realized I needed a few drinks, and went to look for some cold dry ciders I had forgotten about in the fridge.
Carol - February 1, 2010 | 4:39 am · Link
@Angus the God of Meat
At least I was told to wait until the bodies were buried, the place rebuilt, and things got back to normal at least. Then if you wanted to criticize, then do so.
BTW, I also remember that if you don’t like what’s going on, grab a shovel and help, if not, keep your yap shut-your criticism is worthless.
cmorenc - February 1, 2010 | 9:00 am · Link
The most discomforting fact about Bobo is that he is the most civil, decent, and reasonable among contemporary conservative writers. In fact, he (and Douhat) are at the top of the class of conservative writers, but in a class that has to be graded on a very steep curve to create any possibility of anyone with a passing grade, and without any of the tiny handful of bona fide brilliant curvebusting students who could do just fine on a straight-up grade scale.
‘Nother words, the “civil, decent, and reasonable” part are all strictly relative, like the “warmer” parts of Sweden in mid-winter.
cmorenc - February 1, 2010 | 9:14 am · Link
@John Cole
The US has regrettably resumed its counterproductive Cold War habit of falling into both explicit and tacit alliances and collusion with not merely the wrong sorts of people, but people who in the long run are much more toxic to our basic objectives than helpful, even in a coldly cynical way. Karzai in Afghanistan. The government of Pakistan. And so on.
Barbara - February 1, 2010 | 10:58 am · Link
Of course BoBo could never bring himself to speak to the plight of Haitians in terms of the influence of the Catholic Church, because the Church is staffed and led by a bunch of white guys, but as someone who participated in assistance projects focusing mostly on primary education (funding education for about 300 students by the time I moved on), I can tell you that there is a big difference between Haiti and other Caribbean nations that relates at least partly to the Church’s influence over reproductive politics and its utter obsession with being a Daddy-knows-best kind of institution.
It’s a similar kind of difference, for instance, that you might see between Thailand or Indonesia and the Philippines in Southeast Asia.
DonBelacquaDelPurgatorio - February 1, 2010 | 11:14 am · Link
This point sort of slipped by in all the fervor to practice pundit worship …. but, what happened in Haiti is not that untypical of what might happen in a lot of cities if a big earthquake struck. Most American cities are unprepared for an earthquake that size. I’d wager that the vast majority of the world’s cities are unprepared for it too. Building codes that address earthquake resistance are peculiar to locales that have earthquake histories. Our west coast is an example. But check out the New Madrid fault. According to Wikipedia, this zone in Illinois and Missouri has had four of the largest earthquakes, in the magnitude 8 range, recorded in North America in a 3 month period a couple hundred years ago.
The point is, what happened in Haiti can happen elsewhere too. A surprise magnitude 7+ quake in a densely populated area is going to be a catastrophe no matter where it happens.
ThatLeftTurnInABQ - February 1, 2010 | 11:35 am · Link
@J. Michael Neal:
This.
Having said that, Taibbi is a useful ally – the enemy of my enemy, etc. He goes after people who need to be gone after. A media environment that had 10x more folks like Taibbi in it than we have today would be a massive improvement if only because the BS artists of the establishment would have to watch their backs more carefully. But his beserker rage style of analysis is only good for tearing people and institutions down, not building something new and better on top of the smoking ruins, and one of the big reasons by why he is successful at being “on target” is that we have such a target rich environment, which doesn’t say much about his sense of aim. That he is able to shoot randomly and still hit something or somebody who has it coming says more about our times than it does about his skills as a thinker or writer. He is our Jean-Paul Marat.
iluvcapra - February 1, 2010 | 11:41 am · Link
These two things aren’t mutually exclusive.
NB. I’m not saying that HST was a self-indulgent hack per se, but that Venn Diagram has a pretty big crotch.
Evinfuilt - February 1, 2010 | 11:48 am · Link
So if I understand Bobo correctly. We shouldn’t try to help people because people like Bobo will get in the way, steal all the money and sabotage the help. My FSM, Bobo is a libtard after all.
MikeF - February 1, 2010 | 11:49 am · Link
@Paula:
I agree. That hit piece he did on Obama a while back wasn’t a departure from his usual style. The quote mining, sloppy arguments, distortions, dishonest presentation of data, etc. were all par for the course. Too many people look past that though when the target is palatable. And there are an awful lot of progressives out there making honest, rigorous arguments who get marginalized as a result.