David Brooks writes most mansplainy David Brooks line ever

Upset about sexual assault? Buck up, says David Brooks. The world is hard! Complex, even. Also, study philosophy

Published June 2, 2015 3:00PM (EDT)

David Brooks                                 (AP/Nam Y. Huh)
David Brooks (AP/Nam Y. Huh)

Gather 'round, campus activists. David Brooks -- a very serious man with a very serious column at a very serious newspaper -- would like to explain the way the world works to you.

See, you may be driven by "noble impulses to do justice and identify oppression." You may be living with "the legacy of sexism, with the threat, and sometimes the experience, of sexual assault." Your goal may be "equal rights for gays, lesbians and other historically marginalized groups."

But listen: You're making very serious scholars feel like they can't use the N-word on campus. And you all are just way too sensitive.

You'd have to read all the way to the end of today's faxed-in drivel from the 1992 PC wars to reach the most condescending line, so you here you go:

Another and more mature moral fervor would be structured by the classic ideal of the worldly philosopher, by the desire to confront not hide from what you fear, but to engage the complexity of the world, and to know that sometimes the way to wisdom involves hurt feelings, tolerating difference and facing hard truths.

David Brooks thinks you should all just grow up.


By Salon Staff

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David Brooks Mansplaining New York Times Politically Correct