David Brooks has done it again.
The (sort of) conservative columnist for the New York Times was criticized Tuesday for his latest column that asserted that the road to solving America’s gun violence problem ran through red states and that showing proper “respect” to gun owners was essential.
“So if you want to stop school shootings it’s not enough just to vent and march. It’s necessary to let people from Red America lead the way, and to show respect to gun owners at all points,” said Brooks in his piece, “Respect First, Then Gun Control.” “There has to be trust and respect first. Then we can strike a compromise on guns as guns, and not some sacred cross in the culture war.”
Brooks’ pandering to gun owners just days after 17 people were gunned down in a Florida high school didn’t sit well with the internet, with the columnist being the subject of Twitter condemnation for this opinion.
on guns, david brooks proposes a bridge to nowhere — with lots of safe spaces along the way for gun owners to feel unthreatened while the people who don’t like being shot dead apologize for antagonizing them by advocating for life-saving policies https://t.co/D5xja7B5KY
— Philip Gourevitch (@PGourevitch) February 20, 2018
In which David Brooks argues that when 17 people get gunned down in a high school the most important thing is to be polite and deferential https://t.co/eskBvnyZLh
— Judd Legum (@JuddLegum) February 20, 2018
https://twitter.com/joshgreenman/status/965951346905100288
https://twitter.com/owillis/status/965839251270193152
David Brooks and the Times Opinion Section has entered its Phil Plantier phase and they're Sorry Not Sorry about how much everyone fucking hates their dumb shit. pic.twitter.com/5Xf6F0nbFy
— David Roth (@david_j_roth) February 20, 2018
David Brooks is the personification of the clueless, cocktail-crowd media with absolutely NO IDEA what's actually happening in America. These are the people who excel in U.S. media–paid lots of $ to distract and deflecthttps://t.co/aLPV1Kkfjq
— Jordan (@JordanChariton) February 20, 2018
David Brooks thinks we need to let Red America "lead the way."
Red America led us into unending wars, a financial crisis, a reality show @POTUS, and the gun deaths of children.
We're done following their lead. We're leaving that path and marching straight to the polls.
— Nick Jack Pappas (@Pappiness) February 20, 2018
It's bad on its own, but David Brooks' suggestion that liberals need to listen to Red America on gun control would be less offensive if we had any evidence that he's ever really listened to Red America himself.
— Kevin M. Kruse (@KevinMKruse) February 20, 2018
I thought the worst thing about today so far was when Instagram suggested I follow a bunch of pugs who are deceased. Then I saw the David Brooks column.
— Maris Kreizman (@mariskreizman) February 20, 2018
it's never gonna be a good day when you click Twitter and "David Brooks" is trending so before I even look can I remind you that you don't have to read him
— Sarah Jaffe (@sarahljaffe) February 20, 2018
This is not the first time David Brooks has trended on Twitter. In another column, Brooks suggested that his non-college educated friend was too dumb to understand her surroundings in a gourmet sandwich shop.
“Recently I took a friend with only a high school degree to lunch. Insensitively, I led her into a gourmet sandwich shop. Suddenly I saw her face freeze up as she was confronted with sandwiches named “Padrino” and “Pomodoro” and ingredients like soppressata, capicollo and a striata baguette,” wrote Brooks in this piece last July “I quickly asked her if she wanted to go somewhere else and she anxiously nodded yes and we ate Mexican.”