God, I hate to keep doing this, but I really can’t overlook THIS.
Let me first preface my upcoming remarks by noting that it’s really not Mr. Kristof’s fault. His limitations are not only all too obvious, but as they say, "They are what they are."
It just makes one wonder “Just who did he know or blow, to get that (high profile writing) job at the NY Times?”
I know the NY Times is very much into “hiring the handicapped,” they have been for a very long time – Walter Duranty (“Stalin’s USSR is a worker’s paradise”), Jason Blair (who penned “first-hand accounts” of far-away places from his Brooklyn flat), the “hair-twirler” (Maureen Dowd)...and the list goes on and on, but Mr. Kristof is so stultifyingly dimwitted that his hiring surely pushes the envelope on that policy.
In his latest offering (October 23, 2008), Mr. Kristof recounts an alleged conversation with an alleged and unidentified “Beijing friend,” and overlooks the most salient aspect of that alleged exchange to make an ancillary point that is, in essence, reducto absurdum.
I’ll let that pithy alleged exchange stand on its own;
Re-branding the U.S. With Obama
The NY Times
By Nicholas D. Kristof
October 23, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/23/opinion/23kristof.html?_r=2&ref=opinion&oref=slogin&oref=slogin
Let me first preface my upcoming remarks by noting that it’s really not Mr. Kristof’s fault. His limitations are not only all too obvious, but as they say, "They are what they are."
It just makes one wonder “Just who did he know or blow, to get that (high profile writing) job at the NY Times?”
I know the NY Times is very much into “hiring the handicapped,” they have been for a very long time – Walter Duranty (“Stalin’s USSR is a worker’s paradise”), Jason Blair (who penned “first-hand accounts” of far-away places from his Brooklyn flat), the “hair-twirler” (Maureen Dowd)...and the list goes on and on, but Mr. Kristof is so stultifyingly dimwitted that his hiring surely pushes the envelope on that policy.
In his latest offering (October 23, 2008), Mr. Kristof recounts an alleged conversation with an alleged and unidentified “Beijing friend,” and overlooks the most salient aspect of that alleged exchange to make an ancillary point that is, in essence, reducto absurdum.
I’ll let that pithy alleged exchange stand on its own;
Re-branding the U.S. With Obama
The NY Times
By Nicholas D. Kristof
October 23, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/23/opinion/23kristof.html?_r=2&ref=opinion&oref=slogin&oref=slogin
The other day I had a conversation with a Beijing friend and I mentioned that Barack Obama was leading in the presidential race:
She: Obama? But he’s the black man, isn’t he?
Me: Yes, exactly.
She: But surely a black man couldn’t become president of the United States?
Me: It looks as if he’ll be elected.
She: But president? That’s such an important job! In America, I thought blacks were janitors and laborers.
Me: No, blacks have all kinds of jobs.
She: What do white people think about that, about getting a black president? Are they upset? Are they angry?
Me: No, of course not! If Obama is elected, it’ll be because white people voted for him.
[Long pause.]
She: Really? Unbelievable! What an amazing country!
We’re beginning to get a sense of how Barack Obama’s political success could change global perceptions of the United States, redefining the American “brand” to be less about Guantánamo and more about equality. This change in perceptions would help rebuild American political capital in the way that the Marshall Plan did in the 1950s or that John Kennedy’s presidency did in the early 1960s...
.
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OK, quick, what is the most telling part of that alleged exchange?Why surely it’s “She: "But surely a black man couldn’t become president of the United States? "
Me: "It looks as if he’ll be elected."
She: "But president? That’s such an important job! In America, I thought blacks were janitors and laborers."
Me: "No, blacks have all kinds of jobs."
She: "What do white people think about that, about getting a black president? Are they upset? Are they angry?"
Me: "No, of course not! If Obama is elected, it’ll be because white people voted for him."
.
[Long pause.]
.
And THAT is without question, a fact.
Which also makes the last line of that exchange, “She: ...What an amazing country,” to be suspect, to say the least, especially, coming as it does, on the heels of the phrase "UNBELIEVABLE.!"
Of course, in my view, Mr. Kristof’s entire exchange is at least as suspect as his conclusions are convoluted...but again, his limitations are what they are and given what must be his admiration for the likes of Duranty and Blair....well...
So, Nick Kristof takes an alleged ringing endorsement of ethnic bigotry from an alleged “Beijing friend” as proof that “An Obama win will prove America a better place in the eyes of the rest of the world!”
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WHY???
HOW???
Look, I’d have no doubt that a real “Beijing friend” would consider such a development “Unbelievable,” NOT because “racism is widely considered endemic to America,” as nimrods like Mr. Kristof insist, but because it IS endemic to the entire WORLD, because it’s endemic to the human condition! So riddle me this "Crayons" Kristof, "Why would a largely bigoted world see an absence of what they see as self-preservation, A GOOD THING?!"
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She: "Really? Unbelievable! What an amazing country!".
.
Well, leaving how contrived and patently paternalistic ("the great white Liberal Kristof enlightening his ignorant "Beijing friend") that alleged exchange is, Kristof’s “Beijing friend” really seems to be enunciating a universal truth - that ethnic bigotry is the universal nature (and default position) of mankind and that such a thing would be inconceivable almost anywhere else in the contemporary world.And THAT is without question, a fact.
Which also makes the last line of that exchange, “She: ...What an amazing country,” to be suspect, to say the least, especially, coming as it does, on the heels of the phrase "UNBELIEVABLE.!"
Of course, in my view, Mr. Kristof’s entire exchange is at least as suspect as his conclusions are convoluted...but again, his limitations are what they are and given what must be his admiration for the likes of Duranty and Blair....well...
So, Nick Kristof takes an alleged ringing endorsement of ethnic bigotry from an alleged “Beijing friend” as proof that “An Obama win will prove America a better place in the eyes of the rest of the world!”
.
WHY???
HOW???
Look, I’d have no doubt that a real “Beijing friend” would consider such a development “Unbelievable,” NOT because “racism is widely considered endemic to America,” as nimrods like Mr. Kristof insist, but because it IS endemic to the entire WORLD, because it’s endemic to the human condition! So riddle me this "Crayons" Kristof, "Why would a largely bigoted world see an absence of what they see as self-preservation, A GOOD THING?!"
.
Uhhhhhh.....Well, the short answer is, they wouldn't...and generally, they DON'T!
Consider, that as disgusted as the vast majority of Americans are by Jeremiah Wright’s “racist, anti-white, anti-American tirades,” is ANY American, black or white, all that surprised?!
Of course not!
Wright’s far from the first black bigot to freely and openly express his broiling hatred for whites, any more than Tom Metzger is the only white to openly express his own hatred for blacks.
Believe me, that one alleged exchange by the alleged “Op-Ed writer” Nicholas “Crayons” Kristof is, without question, absolute and irrefutable proof of how astoundingly, stupefyingly DUMB (so dumb, his dimwittedness is the stuff that other mentally challenged people make fun of) he really is.
What’s so sad about all this is that this is pretty much the standard of quality we’ve come to expect from the once “widely respected” NY Times.
Consider, that as disgusted as the vast majority of Americans are by Jeremiah Wright’s “racist, anti-white, anti-American tirades,” is ANY American, black or white, all that surprised?!
Of course not!
Wright’s far from the first black bigot to freely and openly express his broiling hatred for whites, any more than Tom Metzger is the only white to openly express his own hatred for blacks.
Believe me, that one alleged exchange by the alleged “Op-Ed writer” Nicholas “Crayons” Kristof is, without question, absolute and irrefutable proof of how astoundingly, stupefyingly DUMB (so dumb, his dimwittedness is the stuff that other mentally challenged people make fun of) he really is.
What’s so sad about all this is that this is pretty much the standard of quality we’ve come to expect from the once “widely respected” NY Times.
Well, leaving how contrived and patently paternalistic ("the great white Liberal Kristof enlightening his ignorant "Beijing friend") that alleged exchange is,
ReplyDeleteNo matter what, Kristol was shoving O down the throats of NYT readers.
My god, Obama has none NOTHING for blacks. Has anyone heard of Altgeld? It was the new housing he pushed for then ignored it. Now the residents live in virtually the same crumbly slums as they were before O showed up. THAT's why I won't vote for the dude. Bill Cosby has done more for blacks than him.
Thank you :)
I hadn't heard of Altgeld Gardens, but I looked it up and it IS an interesting story.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you about Bill Cosby, although I think Cosby's offered advice that would be well to be taken across all ethnic lines.
If more people would just take the kind of common sense approach to making their own lives better, the kind offered by Walter E Williams, Tom Sowell and Bill Cosby, we'd all be better off.
The NYT has given us another pathetic attempt to make us all feel good by letting the world know that we aren't racists. Funny thing is, so many people like this Kristof guy are always telling us how that the rest of the world knows more about Americans than Americans know about the rest of the world because, unlike Americans, the rest of the world is more open minded.
ReplyDeleteWho cares what people in China think? This election is about more than feeling good and impressing communists in China. The fundamental and uniquely American economy and culture are at stake and I'm not talking about racism. I am talking about the very essence of American culture that gives us the ability to move on and grow beyond things like racism. If Obama becomes president, that aspect of "Americana" will be threatened. His entire platform is based upon the haves and have nots and the whites against the blacks and the rich against the poor and the greedy against the needy.
That's not what America is about. There is no caste system in America regardless of what Obama/Wright might say. I'm afraid we will be closer than ever to establishing one if Obama is elected.
Joe, the irony here is that Kristof's piece drips with a paternalistic "racism" or bigotry - the enlightened, sensitive, liberal white male helping the misinformed and racially bigoted Chinese woman see the light.
ReplyDeleteLiberals love to cast themselves in that light....it projects a less impotent impression.
We've had a great quarter century (from 1981 to 2007) and we have entered a decidedly Keynesian cycle in early 2007....the only question IS, "How bad will things get?"