Thread by @cmclymer

David Brooks is the kind of "learned man" who asks people from the South why we don't have southern accents. We are caricatures and fables and old movies. We are always white, always straight, always cisgender, and always have a 4th grade education.

We are always right even when we're clearly wrong. We are always children received as precocious even when we're unethical. We are always in need of saving and explaining by the likes of David Brooks. And most of all, we are never truly held accountable.

This is the problem I have with so many coastal commentators who cover "the Heartland": they're willing to excuse white supremacy, misogyny, anti-LGBTQ nonsense, and erase most everyone who is not a white male just so some white guy will tell them they're not really elitist.

David Brooks wants some Joe Sixpack to tell him this:

"Ya know, Day-vid, yer one of the good ones. You're not elitist. You never talk down to us. You never mock our religion or our guns. You treat us as equals. We'd love for you to join us at our hog roast as a guest of honor."

Let me tell you something about Joe Sixpack:

He's a fucking clown. He's lazy. He's hypocritical. He's often racist, thinks women belong in the kitchen, and that being LGBTQ is a choice. He can be abusive. He's willfully ignorant.

And all he wants is someone to say this is okay.

And people like David Brooks and Joe Scarborough and all the rest, right up to Donald Trump, in varying degrees, all tell Joe Sixpack that it's fine that he's willfully ignorant and hateful.

"We'll move around you, Mr. Joe Sixpack. You don't fret. We understand you."

The David Brooks of the world do two terrible things at once: give Joe Sixpack enormous cultural power that translates into political dominance and offer no accountability of what he does with it.

And while the David Brooks of the world are doing that, they also do this:

Erase just about everyone in the "the Heartland"--the culturally conservative parts of the country--who is not white, male, straight, cisgender, conservative, and Christian.

And by the way, every Democrat who talks down to voters in these areas does the same damn thing, and it's why elections can backfire so spectacularly.

The Heartland has always had folks of color, LGBTQ people, religious minorities, progressives, etc.

And they're always erased.

The Heartland has tens of millions of people who lack white privilege, male privilege, straight privilege, cis privilege, and all the rest, and they're consistently pushed to the side in these stunningly ridiculous safari-like country store bullshit color pieces reporters do.

Journalism on "the Heartland" is almost always like the reporter walked into a hall of mirrors with Walker Texas Ranger and asked them softball political questions.

Journalist: Huh, you think Obama is a Muslim?

WTR: Sure do.

Journalist: Fascinating! Who's your fave NFL team?

Sigh... anyway, you've all heard me say this before.