An opinion piece in the New York Times got quite a bit of press as it was shared across social media and television on Monday. The reason it got so much attention is because it was one of the few times liberals break rank and admit they might have been wrong. Think of it similar to the Kayne West tweets which caused the liberal elite to clutch their pearls in disbelief and send their enforcers out to try to reign him in.
In this case we have Gerard Alexander, who is a professor of political science at the University of Virginia. In his piece for the NYT titled “Liberals, You’re Not as Smart as You Think you are.”, Alexander writes that liberals have taken over the commanding heights of American culture, most notably the media, universities, and entertainment. Through this he argues that liberals often think their beliefs are more popular than they actually are and as a result, liberals often come off as arrogant or condescending and thus push people away who otherwise might be persuaded to come to their side. Or to put it another way, liberals are getting high on their own supply and coming off like total douche bags.
But what Alexander totally fails to realize is that he is doing the EXACT thing he is accusing other liberals of doing. Which is being condescending to anyone who happens to hold a different viewpoint than his. So let’s look at a few examples of where Alexander was guilty of doing exactly what he is trying to prevent.
From the article:
“Racist is pretty much the most damning label that can be slapped on anyone in America today, which means it should be applied firmly and carefully. Yet some people have cavalierly leveled the charge against huge numbers of Americans — specifically, the more than 60 million people who voted for Mr. Trump.
In their ranks are people who sincerely consider themselves not bigoted, who might be open to reconsidering ways they have done things for years, but who are likely to be put off if they feel smeared before that conversation even takes place.”
The above quote shows that while Alexander is trying to be fair, his bias shows. The sentiment of this segment is based upon the premise that many conservatives are indeed slightly racist. He tries to balance this by saying these same people don’t believe they are bigoted, but the rest of the paragraph shows Alexander believes they are to some degree. A perfect example of the condescending tone he says is wrong.
Next we look at another quote:
“It doesn’t help that our cultural mores are changing rapidly, and we rarely stop to consider this. Some liberals have gotten far out ahead of their fellow Americans but are nonetheless quick to criticize those who haven’t caught up with them.”
Once again Alexander does the same thing. The paragraph assumes that liberal positions, no matter how insane, are the ones that will be proven right by history, despite the fact that history has shown that not to be the case. For example, the diabolical notion of eugenics was popular among progressives in the 1930’s. Eugenics was thought to be at the leading edge of modern progressive ideas, obviously history has proven that wrong.
Not only this, the quote just reeks of elitism, almost like the friend who has to be the first to discover a new band or artist. Alexander seems to compare liberal ideas to fashion or trends, where his kind are so far ahead of the curve, they forgot they left everyone else behind. It’s as if Alexander and his fellow liberals want to be teenagers all over again and roll their eyes at their parents for not listening to the latest music. But instead of their parents, they roll their eyes now at the average American, not realizing that it’s the liberals that have become the uncool and old establishment.
There are countless more examples in the article itself, and I suggest people go and read the full article which is linked here. I doubt anyone can read it and not instantly sense the condescending tone. The only thing more noticeable is the obvious irony that Alexander is guilty of when he berates other liberals for doing exactly what he just did for an entire opinion piece in the New York Times.
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