There should be something like the "7 stages of grief" but for being red-pilled. The tone of this article is one I often see Leftists take when they finally move past the denial stage and start waking up to the insanity around them: one of painfully forced glibness. Your comment about the homeschooled child being unable to compute 12 minus 9 is especially revealing about your continued arrogant condescension of conservatives, particularly when you consider how our public schools, dominated by Leftists, are producing high school graduates who can barely read, write, or do basic arithmetic.
Oh and conservatives aren't docile. That would be the Leftists who all have the same signs in their yards, shout the same slogans, and whose opinions on any given issue you know already just by reading the latest NYT headline. They think exactly what they are told to think, and consider themselves intellectually superior for doing so.
I often try to ask folks like Ben to please tell me exactly what they want. I never get an answer. I have railed about the consequences of confirmity for over a decade. We are now reaping the whirlwind . As for intellectual superiority, if you refuse to debate , you are neither intellectual nor superior
They want to feel special while doing nothing to earn it, to continue refusing to contribute to society by adhering to the norms that created it, while continuing to benefit from it and mocking those who make that possible
I sometimes think that they want exactly what they are getting. And that is where their dissonance comes from. They are getting what they want...which is making them miserable. And it often takes a lot for a person to admit being wrong, so many of them don't get over that hump of "What I want, is the problem not who is doing it or how it is being carried out."
Also, I think some of it is that they didn’t think past the initial ideas to see where such ideas would lead to— and are embarrassed by being taken in by slogans and one-dimensional thinking.
Agreed. Basically once you become heavily invested in an idea or belief, it becomes harder to change track and admit fault. This is definitely not just a think left leaning people fall into. But I do think they may be more prone to it simply because, by nature, conservatives are less likely to push for change in the first place. So they are leaning on things that usually have a history or working, even if those things also have flaws.
Traditions typically exist for good reason. One such tradition is honor thy father and mother. To put it bluntly, children don't know squat. (Kawaller admits this when he describes his chagrin at reading his own thoughts from 18 years ago). Any society which places them in positions of power deserves what it gets.
For years in America, such things were bestowed on people because of merit and talent (with some longstanding nepotism, per usual). Unfortunately, meritorious skill (e.g. readin' writin' 'rithmatic) and behavior (work ethic, rule following, selflessness, family, fidelity, honor) aren't distributed equally across all "cultures" or individually within said cultures.
Which means that some people got more than others. Which in their mind is unacceptable.
Basically the two-party duopoly thinks the same, just reversed.
Republicans like to get rich in order to accumulate power (See Bush/Romney/Cheney families). Democrats aspire to power in order to get rich (See Obama/Clinton/Biden/Pelosi families).
My feeling is that all DNC and RNC dues-paying members who believe in "our democracy" and "norms" deserve to be entered into a Shirley Jackson Lottery, and they might start living differently.
It feels like when we were little in the back of the car, "When will we be there?" "...exactly what they want" I wonder that, too. What will it look like with no bell-shaped curves? A Rembrandt with no contrast? E.E. Cummings with proper format? Joyce with no run-on sentences? Where is "there?"
It's pretty simple Ben. You are a nerdy sort, not physically confident, and as a young man, you are full of hormones that make you want to fight. This stage has to be passed through, same as the terrible twos. If you were a more self-confident physical sort, you would play football, baseball, basketball, or something else and socialize your aggression.
The academy is where young men (mostly) that are smart enough to spar intellectually (or just be obnoxious assholes) go in order to win a place there. It is every man for himself though, which is why the academic political environment (like the newsroom) can be so backstabbing. Sports, on the other hand, teach group cohesiveness.
I think the difference today is that young people are raised in a milieu of word-salad associations and get through school without having to really do much that is actually hard that forces them to think. Here we are Ben.
I'm glad this comment - and many others below - are "liked" more than the article itself.
I'm not sure how to characterize this article. The best I can think of is to analogize it with "damning by faint praise." Conservatives are great, they're so docile and compliant. Say, "yes, sir/no, sir" and make me feel like a general. Homeschool for ridiculous reasons and can't do math. I suppose condescending is the word.
Actually it was a fairly cheesy LA style look at me I'm so ironically humorous bs piece. Just accept the Your Kids Ate SO POLITE for the losers they fundamentally are.
I love all these leftists who speaking of "fighting" while never having gotten into an actual fight in their lives. But from the comments and actions I see - including the dad trying to get across the Brooklyn Bridge to his daughter when it was blocked by braying brats agitating for the baby killers of Hamas - this is going to change. Soon.
I am polite "Sir" until some smarmy and condescending West coast elitist writes a deliberate hit piece on the fact that Conservatives/Republicans have manners, therefore are empty headed sheeple. I will say that I paid to subscribe to The Free Press because everyone is free to have an opinion or belief. Thank you for bringing me back to earth with the knowledge that some folks are irredeemable and can only feel good as they punch down on those poor folks in Arkansas and Iowa because they believe they are superior.
Going forward I will choose not to read this author unless I need to be reminded what nice educated folks like him really think of me and mine.
This might be the best illustration I've seen in recent times of the classic straw man technique of argument and the fallacy it can support. Lost to those who employ it is that it typically converts no one.
Not great writing in my opinion. I also have the impression that after he committed to this, he got very worried about his liberal pals reading it. Hence the condescending remarks about Republican's kids being docile, the "fascism comes from above" remark, and how the hick kids can't do simple arithmetic either.
“The idea that any college kid with even a fraction of my neuroses should have any kind of power is frightening.”
What Ben and the millions of Lefties frightened at the power of the grown children who attend and teach at universities haven’t figured out is that the Left are the ones who relinquished this power to them. They created the monster.
The administrations intended to be in charge at these colleges have cravenly kowtowed to the ridiculous demands of self absorbed emotionally underdeveloped students who require safe spaces, pronoun adherence and trigger warnings to safely shepherd them through their perilous young lives.
Ben seemed genuinely astonished at the respect and politeness he was shown from the kids and their parents he approached (I assume with some trepidation) in Arkansas. When children are taught to respect boundaries of acceptable behavior this is what you get. When not you get the stupidity that occurs on college campuses every day.
Maybe some day Ben and others will learn to reciprocate that respect instead of seeing them through a plexiglass window in their natural habitat.
And along with their leftist yard signs they spew their slogans until that six figure job they were getting at that prestigious law firm says...nope, we don't want you! They backpedal and say... that's not what I meant! Ha
Thank you - though I found the source article mildly funny, your rebuttal took the residual bad taste out of my mouth. At least he recognized that he didn't know enough in his 20s - maybe a few more decades will teach him what he doesn't know now.
I went to BYU. Guess what? Many of our faculty had Harvard PhDs, and in the core science curriculum we even studied…Natural Selection and Evolutionary Psychology (gasp!)
It’s always puzzled me why so many automatically assume a university in a more conservative environment must not teach anything of substance. After leaving Utah and going to graduate school, I would sometimes hear similar comments about my home state or its people during lectures, from faculty who probably never even realized that one of those rubes they were laughing at was sitting in the classroom in front of them.
I’m very comfortable with differing, reasoned opinions. However,I am so tired of this author’s condescension and backhanded sense of superiority that I hope never to see anything he has produced again. Any chance of that, Bari?
Nearly every author from L.A. is identical in tone.
This attitude is pervasive across the whole West Coast, to the degree that I've encountered Californians traveling in other countries, spewing offensive far-left opinions and anti-conservatism, without the slightest clue that outside of California people actually have different opinions.
I disagree; he is making jokes. Lighten up; be less sensitive. I say this as a lifelong conservative living in a red area of a red state. The world would be better if we could laugh at ourselves and not immediately be offended.
I actually agree with you. I am not offended because I don’t really care what he thinks. I do not find this to be a microtrauma or an unsafe space or any such thing. However, I have never found condescension a particularly funny paradigm, but that might just be me. I’m tired of seeing his work, which isn’t funny (IMO) and boorish. I like clever (no matter what side of the continuum) but his work is about as clever as a woopee cushion. Again, just IMO.
Well said JACK. I am in a boat a little different. I live in a very blue district and am an absolute minority. Yet I am very prepared to laugh at my own side.
Perhaps he's joking. I don't know. That's one of the problems with communications in our society today. Every time you see some outrageous and inflammatory statement said in jest, I can guarantee that you'll find someone saying almost the identical thing in complete seriousness and sincerity.
Ben simply isn’t that smart… which is why Bari shouldn’t have him write for this publication. He confuses having a certain political orientation with intelligence. All the while, his conclusion filled article relies, predictably, on emotional content.
I like him. You may not have seen his videos, but they are funny. I wouldn't read too much into the "condescension." He's actually got a good sense of humor; something severely lacking on the left. Hopefully we see a lot more of him. We need people like this to help save the country.
I agree with you, his articles and videos are always light-hearted and amusing. I actually find his tone to be self-deprecating rather than condescending. We need more of him, not less.
Someone who was 21 in 2006 is still a snot-nosed child, especially these days when people in their 30s unashamedly live with their mothers and dads. I don't care to read anything else from this guy until after he hits 50.
William, I think Bari is very well aware of this author's smug style, which is why she employs him. She wants to see the very comments that are on this thread today - stirring the pot, as it were. And at the same time, telling everyone here she will publish any article she wishes, regardless of the majority political leanings of her audience.
Lee, I truly hope you’re wrong. I love the fact that I never know what I’m going to be confronted with in TFP. I love having to rethink my position when faced with a well-reasoned opinion for the opposite. I just don’t like making fun of people. Any people, regardless of what they believe. It seems one of the worst attributes a person can have. Condescension and superiority are not ingredients for intelligent commentary, even intelligent satire. I would hope that Bari can tell the difference. Challenge my opinions, tell me I’m wrong, point out my errors in logic or interpretation . . . but do it intelligently and with dignity, even if humorous. And, most of all, be nice.
Well, if you're commenting on how well the writer did in his satire or humour, I agree. He's heavy handed and a bit much on the self serving side. He's attempting to make light of everything, including himself - he's just not good enough at it. I think Bari realizes his shortcomings but keeps him here for the responses he elicits.
I agree. I am just now recognizing this writer, from an unrelated piece a couple months ago. Arrogance seeps through. It drips with smugness. Now I can cross "Ben Kawaller" off my FP reading list. Bari, you deserve better.
Agree. This article was a list of insulting anecdotes that tried to pass off snark as legitimate cultural commentary. Bari's subscribers expect a lot more.
News Flash, Ben! Just because you saw an adult slapping a child does NOT equate to knuckle-dragging conservatism! What about your vaunted Liberal, Progressive cities where children are used as drug mules? Also, where fatherless homes produce sociopathic children who think nothing of randomly shooting people who cross their gang-related associations? You, my friend, are BLIND to your own prejudice! And, in addition, in the South we ALWAYS address each other as "Sir", and "Ma'am". It is the culture! And whether Black or White, we give people the benefit of the doubt! Get a clue, and try moving further south and learn about REALITY, instead of spouting those "liberal" and "progressive" BULLSHIT ideas that you hold!
That's the most extreme case, but what's far more prevalent is that his side sexualizes small children, allows them to get addicted to mind-altering drugs, feeds them social media addiction and anxiety, gives them piss-poor education and then ropes the deranged teenagers into Marxist activism.
But Republican fathers cause physical pain that heals within moments! The horror!
I used to have this cartoonish sort of view of conservatives, having grown up with liberal parents, selecting a career path dominated by left of center women, then living in a progressive town where everyone had yard signs. Now I am a moderate living in a conservative town sending my children to a charter school attended by overwhelmingly conservative families.
Living among them, I now have a much more realistic view of conservatives and I find my previous views embarrassing. My children are well behaved, and they refer to adults with an honorific (Mr./Miss/Mrs.). I did not do this as a child of liberal parents, but I am glad my kids do. Contrast that to my lefty brother who teaches his children to call all adults by their first name, including aunts and uncles, sans any honorific. There is a real difference there. But conservative parents struggle with setting limits on screen time, and there are many kids who act out at our school. There is a lot of complexity once you are looking at a group as a member rather than as an outsider (like the writer).
The real differences come down not to indiscriminate respect for authority and docility (LOL conservatives are not docile, and they like to say they “raise lions, not sheep”) but worldview and authoritative parenting style (which liberal parents can implement). Additionally, conservatives are aware of the institutional rot and try not to put their children into environments that clash with their beliefs (if possible, not always of course). Personally, I will not be paying for my kids to attend any of the elite schools. We will be highly selective about where we send them (if anywhere at all).
Respecting adults is an act of humility. It states that a kid doesn’t know what he doesn’t yet know. When he is a peer, in age at least, he can turn to the familiar. A culture that makes the assumption that youth have the answers is already in full retreat.
I would not want to stack the 20 year old me up against the 60 year old me in making any prudent and well-reasoned judgments. And I would never look at another human being with snarky condescension, any more than using racial or sexual stereotypes. I thought we had put that behind us a free and open society. Apparently the Left sees power in disparaging those whom they regard as less intelligent and worldly. The ultimate “kill shot” for irrelevancy.
Daydreamer. That is a mouthful yet I can identify with a great deal of what you said. My upbringing was similar. However I am now right of center in an extremely left of center area. My kids are now in their 20s, and when they were younger, I was just about the only parent in the area who insisted on being called Mr..
Ben spent a few days, or maybe a summer, in a “Red state” and draws some pretty sweeping conclusions. He’s like the Margaret Meade of politics living in the wild to write his thesis notes?
Ben, GK Chesterton succinctly explained the difference between conservatives and liberals. Liberals see a fence and want to tear it down for “progress”. Conservatives see a fence and wonder why it was put up in the first place before they think of tearing it down.
I suspect evolutionary biology will go over better at BYU (they do it fact teach it there) than any idea against today's leftist orthodoxy will at the secular seminaries that many other schools have become.
What a smug, pompous asshat. I'm especially impressed by the way he fantasizes he can read the minds of millions of people he's never met and about whom he knows nothing except that he loathes them. I like the variety of thought that I can find on The Free Press but in Ben Kawaller, I see no evidence of any thought at all.
"The point is, all it took was one species-fluid middle schooler for this father to yank his entire family out of society."
I am not as sure as Kawaller that home schooled children live "outside of society". Having hired exceptional engineers and having talked with home schooled adults, my prior understanding about home schooling (similar to the feeling expressed in the article) changed. I guess there is a spectrum of academic competency and social interaction in home schooled children. However, it would not surprise me if the overall academic competency and social skills in the home schooled population is better than in the public education sector. But this is from a perspective of ignorance since my opinion is based on just a few data points.
"In a town outside of Little Rock I witnessed a grown man slap a two-year-old for playing with her food"
It turns my stomach when I observe adults hitting and screaming at children. In my experience such behavior is deviant, unnecessary, and unproductive. However, assigning these behaviors to "Republicans" is disingenuous and a provably false assertion. Both Republican and Democrat political adherents are equally susceptible to these behaviors. Parenting is hard and absent proper role models, children suffer (no matter parent political perspective).
I would also point out that 1 instance of capital punishment is not necessarily evidence of a pattern. Every parent has reached the end of their rope and behaved in ways they may later regret.
Wow. This is shockingly biased. It puts people in boxes. I know that not all democrats are the same and not all republicans are the same. It is shocking that this person sees all republicans as God fearing rednecks that abuse their children to get them to conform. People are people. There are minorities in both political parties and religious people in both political parties. There are definitely fascists in both fringe groups - the left and the right. It is time for the middle majority of this country to begin to see that we are all the same and stop categorizing one another.
I'm a liberal who raised kids to young adulthood. They have excellent manners and are big-hearted people who may protest but don't get violent and wouldn't ever stop traffic on roads, bridges or tunnels. They know the world doesn't revolve around them.
Not all liberal parents raise jerks for kids. And my kids can think critically: they feel for the citizens of Gaza while understanding that Israel MUST destroy Hamas and that Hamas are the monsters here.
William, I am a center-right conservative who sees many “condescending, smug and offensive” pieces from people who share most of my values. Unfortunately, the left doesn’t have a monopoly on jerks. Attitudes like Mr. Kawaller exhibits, whether from the left or right, are guaranteed to pull us further apart and will eventually destroy our nation. I am glad for the opportunity to read pieces like this from Mr. Kawaller, because they remind me that we all have a lot of work ahead of us if we have any hope of rescuing our country from the abyss.
But I would agree that no red state is anywhere near as biased, ignorant or unilateral as the West Coast.
In Seattle, it was perfectly normal to hear statements like, "Republicans are all racist." The West Coast is the beating heart of bigotry and hate in this country.
I dunno...look through these comments. We have several right leaners that regularly paint with a super broad brush against left leaners. Often with hateful vitriol.
They exist everywhere. I do IT for several small town PDs...I have heard some pretty heavy paint brushing. And I know quite a few left leaning folks that never even mention this kind of stuff.
Not saying left and right are equal right now. Just that I don't think either side holds the title of highly rational and evenhanded.
WRONG - you are actually ascribing some thought, personal philosophy and possible reasoning to this inveterate arrogance- it's really just utter, social cravenness. They want acceptance desperately in their social circle and this is how to fit in. No fitting, no status. No friends. No acceptance. It's being in the Elite segment of society - the smarter, better people- the better educated, the morally superior, the more open minded and tolerant- blah blah blah. They actually believe this stuff- while becoming the most screwed up, Orwellian people on the planet. No sense of irony or history either. Welcome to the left.
Or as they used to say in my grandparents' day - The Better Class of People.
Republicans are the sort of people who try to maintain standards and manners. They suffer at times from that as the Left misinterprets that as passive.
Standards, manners. And courtesy. Sadly missing in the mindset of progressives. Simply look at how many people were either OK or ambivalent about Kaepernick not standing for the national anthem.
Do you mean published on The FP, or just generally? It's definitely out there. Honestly, I'm not sure if I've seen a comment section on a TFP article yet that hasn't had at least a handful of people generalizing with smug, angry or condescending language about what they perceive as broad failures among "leftists" or "dems" or "libs." When I'm feeling charitable I assume in most cases they are trying to be funny, just as the author here is, but it's uncomfortable for me to read. A virtue of The FP for me is that it can help me get better at living in that discomfort.
I can't top what William has said here. I assume the author is trying to merge satire with real opinion, but implying that Republican kids are "docile" because they are probably beaten as toddlers is "West Coast Liberal Superiority Complex" at its best. Authors like this are why Trump continues to poll ahead. They simply refuse to take conservatives seriously without trying to demean them to make themselves feel better.
Wow! Your arrogance and smugness is astounding! You took roughly half the population of the country, put us in a box, and declared us child abusing, uneducated, backwater rubes. Congratulations on being such an intelligent and elegant writer. Prior to this lowbrow article, I actually enjoyed some of your musings. You have managed to eliminate any respect I had for you, but at least you have your self serving ego to keep you company. It must be great to be so wonderful that you can discount anyone with a different viewpoint as inferior.
I recall a TV anniversary retrospective some time back about the shootings on the Kent State campus. They interviewed some random old alum guy who was there for reasons I don't remember but were unrelated to the anniversary. He was asked if he'd participated in the protests that day.
"I was an engineering student. I was in my room doing my homework. I didn't have time for that stuff." So the moral is that challenging curricula promotes better outcomes. Put another way, dilution of the rigor of college has facilitated distraction and rebellious behavior. Grade inflation likely goes hand in hand.
An old friend taught at DePaul. He lamented that he had to get the Dean's approval to actually fail a student. No approval or scrutiny involved to hand out an A. This was in the 1980s. I suspect little has changed. Meanwhile, kids can't write, can't compute, can't function in a group with shared responsibility.
This grade inflation dates back to the ‘60s, when failing a student meant that he (always a “he” back then) would get drafted and sent to Vietnam. By the time I got to my liberal eastern university in the early ‘70s, the inflated grading system was already firmly entrenched. However, I did manage to get a C from a woman who taught 20th century British literature. I suspected that my grade might end up lower after the day when she made it a point to tell the entire class every bit of her far-left political beliefs while looking at me. That also happened to be the day I showed up in my fatigue uniform with my airborne jump wings and Ranger tab because I didn’t have time to change. In today’s terminology, I guess my presence triggered her.
While he was property reviled in the movie, the Jack Nicholson character in A Few Good Men did utter one line that resonated: "You can pick up a rifle and stand a post." This was part of the "freedom you enjoy that I and others like me provide" speech.
Sometimes only firsthand experience can change a person. A friend (economist) studied under a Fulbright grant in the interior of China. He went there as a devout believer in centrally planned economies. After multiple run ins with the very broadly empowered local authorities who took a dislike to him, he came back a changed man. He was in some small town without telephones, just a telegraph office, and the locals confiscated his passport. He figured he was doomed until someone from the Embassy in Beijing showed up to check on him. It seems they'd had this experience before.
I got a C on a paper from a grad student teaching English 101 when I didn’t parrot back her interpretation of king lear. And when I asked her why I got a C she started crying because I challenged her. Can’t remember what I got in the overall class.
I can see her being one of those old white women who stand in the street protesting for Gaza, otherwise alone and embittered.
There should be something like the "7 stages of grief" but for being red-pilled. The tone of this article is one I often see Leftists take when they finally move past the denial stage and start waking up to the insanity around them: one of painfully forced glibness. Your comment about the homeschooled child being unable to compute 12 minus 9 is especially revealing about your continued arrogant condescension of conservatives, particularly when you consider how our public schools, dominated by Leftists, are producing high school graduates who can barely read, write, or do basic arithmetic.
Oh and conservatives aren't docile. That would be the Leftists who all have the same signs in their yards, shout the same slogans, and whose opinions on any given issue you know already just by reading the latest NYT headline. They think exactly what they are told to think, and consider themselves intellectually superior for doing so.
I wish I could 'like' this comment 10,000 times.
I often try to ask folks like Ben to please tell me exactly what they want. I never get an answer. I have railed about the consequences of confirmity for over a decade. We are now reaping the whirlwind . As for intellectual superiority, if you refuse to debate , you are neither intellectual nor superior
They want to feel special while doing nothing to earn it, to continue refusing to contribute to society by adhering to the norms that created it, while continuing to benefit from it and mocking those who make that possible
I sometimes think that they want exactly what they are getting. And that is where their dissonance comes from. They are getting what they want...which is making them miserable. And it often takes a lot for a person to admit being wrong, so many of them don't get over that hump of "What I want, is the problem not who is doing it or how it is being carried out."
Great point.
Also, I think some of it is that they didn’t think past the initial ideas to see where such ideas would lead to— and are embarrassed by being taken in by slogans and one-dimensional thinking.
Agreed. Basically once you become heavily invested in an idea or belief, it becomes harder to change track and admit fault. This is definitely not just a think left leaning people fall into. But I do think they may be more prone to it simply because, by nature, conservatives are less likely to push for change in the first place. So they are leaning on things that usually have a history or working, even if those things also have flaws.
you nailed it
You are so incredibly precise.
Traditions typically exist for good reason. One such tradition is honor thy father and mother. To put it bluntly, children don't know squat. (Kawaller admits this when he describes his chagrin at reading his own thoughts from 18 years ago). Any society which places them in positions of power deserves what it gets.
Sounds like his arrogance has been mildly blunted in the last 18 years. Some humble pie might be a nice taste treat.
Perhaps. Tough to tell how much of this was satirical - but he still sounds plenty arrogant.
Honor thy father and mother is far more than tradition. It is the 5th Commandment given to all people, by God Almighty, in Exodus Chapter 20.
They want what most people want. Money and power.
For years in America, such things were bestowed on people because of merit and talent (with some longstanding nepotism, per usual). Unfortunately, meritorious skill (e.g. readin' writin' 'rithmatic) and behavior (work ethic, rule following, selflessness, family, fidelity, honor) aren't distributed equally across all "cultures" or individually within said cultures.
Which means that some people got more than others. Which in their mind is unacceptable.
Basically the two-party duopoly thinks the same, just reversed.
Republicans like to get rich in order to accumulate power (See Bush/Romney/Cheney families). Democrats aspire to power in order to get rich (See Obama/Clinton/Biden/Pelosi families).
My feeling is that all DNC and RNC dues-paying members who believe in "our democracy" and "norms" deserve to be entered into a Shirley Jackson Lottery, and they might start living differently.
The author clearly won that lottery; this entire comment section is brickbats!
It feels like when we were little in the back of the car, "When will we be there?" "...exactly what they want" I wonder that, too. What will it look like with no bell-shaped curves? A Rembrandt with no contrast? E.E. Cummings with proper format? Joyce with no run-on sentences? Where is "there?"
It's pretty simple Ben. You are a nerdy sort, not physically confident, and as a young man, you are full of hormones that make you want to fight. This stage has to be passed through, same as the terrible twos. If you were a more self-confident physical sort, you would play football, baseball, basketball, or something else and socialize your aggression.
The academy is where young men (mostly) that are smart enough to spar intellectually (or just be obnoxious assholes) go in order to win a place there. It is every man for himself though, which is why the academic political environment (like the newsroom) can be so backstabbing. Sports, on the other hand, teach group cohesiveness.
I think the difference today is that young people are raised in a milieu of word-salad associations and get through school without having to really do much that is actually hard that forces them to think. Here we are Ben.
Excellent comment. This whole essay was just mean spirited and nasty. He’s usually funny. Here he’s just mean
I thought it was funny
I was saying boo-urns
This will never, ever stop being a perfect rejoinder.
I thought it was funny too.
Even though I agree with many of the assessments here in the comment section, still made me laugh. And these days, I’ll take it.
Indeed. The word he's looking for is not docile. It's kind. Aldo mannered & well-behaved. But not docile.
He obv doesn’t know the difference.
Condescension: galactic
I'm glad this comment - and many others below - are "liked" more than the article itself.
I'm not sure how to characterize this article. The best I can think of is to analogize it with "damning by faint praise." Conservatives are great, they're so docile and compliant. Say, "yes, sir/no, sir" and make me feel like a general. Homeschool for ridiculous reasons and can't do math. I suppose condescending is the word.
Is that what is called “being ratioed?”
Conservatives are compliant until you piss them off.
Actually it was a fairly cheesy LA style look at me I'm so ironically humorous bs piece. Just accept the Your Kids Ate SO POLITE for the losers they fundamentally are.
yep-Twelve minus nine equals...something...but at least these kids are polite! That line ruined the entire essay for me. What a jerk.
Definitely wasn’t funny if that was its point. The essay was humorous though
I found it condescending not humorous.
I found it condescending AND humorous. One more than the other.
I love all these leftists who speaking of "fighting" while never having gotten into an actual fight in their lives. But from the comments and actions I see - including the dad trying to get across the Brooklyn Bridge to his daughter when it was blocked by braying brats agitating for the baby killers of Hamas - this is going to change. Soon.
Well said.
I will add my two cents.
I am polite "Sir" until some smarmy and condescending West coast elitist writes a deliberate hit piece on the fact that Conservatives/Republicans have manners, therefore are empty headed sheeple. I will say that I paid to subscribe to The Free Press because everyone is free to have an opinion or belief. Thank you for bringing me back to earth with the knowledge that some folks are irredeemable and can only feel good as they punch down on those poor folks in Arkansas and Iowa because they believe they are superior.
Going forward I will choose not to read this author unless I need to be reminded what nice educated folks like him really think of me and mine.
Except, they only think they’re punching down, while their targets’ manners effectively reveal the aim.
This might be the best illustration I've seen in recent times of the classic straw man technique of argument and the fallacy it can support. Lost to those who employ it is that it typically converts no one.
I think you’d need to have an actual argument to try to convert someone.
He says he’s not going to explore why leftist students are lunatics. He’s also not going to suggest where professors should go after leaving.
He’s writing to hear himself talk and clearly enjoying it. God knows who else is.
Not great writing in my opinion. I also have the impression that after he committed to this, he got very worried about his liberal pals reading it. Hence the condescending remarks about Republican's kids being docile, the "fascism comes from above" remark, and how the hick kids can't do simple arithmetic either.
“The idea that any college kid with even a fraction of my neuroses should have any kind of power is frightening.”
What Ben and the millions of Lefties frightened at the power of the grown children who attend and teach at universities haven’t figured out is that the Left are the ones who relinquished this power to them. They created the monster.
The administrations intended to be in charge at these colleges have cravenly kowtowed to the ridiculous demands of self absorbed emotionally underdeveloped students who require safe spaces, pronoun adherence and trigger warnings to safely shepherd them through their perilous young lives.
Ben seemed genuinely astonished at the respect and politeness he was shown from the kids and their parents he approached (I assume with some trepidation) in Arkansas. When children are taught to respect boundaries of acceptable behavior this is what you get. When not you get the stupidity that occurs on college campuses every day.
Maybe some day Ben and others will learn to reciprocate that respect instead of seeing them through a plexiglass window in their natural habitat.
And along with their leftist yard signs they spew their slogans until that six figure job they were getting at that prestigious law firm says...nope, we don't want you! They backpedal and say... that's not what I meant! Ha
Those docile conservatives who keep getting removed from school board meetings?
Thank you - though I found the source article mildly funny, your rebuttal took the residual bad taste out of my mouth. At least he recognized that he didn't know enough in his 20s - maybe a few more decades will teach him what he doesn't know now.
I went to BYU. Guess what? Many of our faculty had Harvard PhDs, and in the core science curriculum we even studied…Natural Selection and Evolutionary Psychology (gasp!)
It’s always puzzled me why so many automatically assume a university in a more conservative environment must not teach anything of substance. After leaving Utah and going to graduate school, I would sometimes hear similar comments about my home state or its people during lectures, from faculty who probably never even realized that one of those rubes they were laughing at was sitting in the classroom in front of them.
Exactly! I wish I would have written this. My temper got to me…
I’m very comfortable with differing, reasoned opinions. However,I am so tired of this author’s condescension and backhanded sense of superiority that I hope never to see anything he has produced again. Any chance of that, Bari?
Nearly every author from L.A. is identical in tone.
This attitude is pervasive across the whole West Coast, to the degree that I've encountered Californians traveling in other countries, spewing offensive far-left opinions and anti-conservatism, without the slightest clue that outside of California people actually have different opinions.
Hey! Not all of us! 😄
I disagree; he is making jokes. Lighten up; be less sensitive. I say this as a lifelong conservative living in a red area of a red state. The world would be better if we could laugh at ourselves and not immediately be offended.
I actually agree with you. I am not offended because I don’t really care what he thinks. I do not find this to be a microtrauma or an unsafe space or any such thing. However, I have never found condescension a particularly funny paradigm, but that might just be me. I’m tired of seeing his work, which isn’t funny (IMO) and boorish. I like clever (no matter what side of the continuum) but his work is about as clever as a woopee cushion. Again, just IMO.
OTOH, it would be pretty funny to follow him into a working-class bar and time how longs it takes him to get his ass kicked.
Well said JACK. I am in a boat a little different. I live in a very blue district and am an absolute minority. Yet I am very prepared to laugh at my own side.
Not funny though. Rubbish, actually. I'd like the 2 min of my life back.
Perhaps he's joking. I don't know. That's one of the problems with communications in our society today. Every time you see some outrageous and inflammatory statement said in jest, I can guarantee that you'll find someone saying almost the identical thing in complete seriousness and sincerity.
I too found it condescending. Yet the beauty of The Free Press is the openness to print many differing opinions.
I wish I could like this 1000 times!
Ben simply isn’t that smart… which is why Bari shouldn’t have him write for this publication. He confuses having a certain political orientation with intelligence. All the while, his conclusion filled article relies, predictably, on emotional content.
Not righteous, merely self-righteous
I like him. You may not have seen his videos, but they are funny. I wouldn't read too much into the "condescension." He's actually got a good sense of humor; something severely lacking on the left. Hopefully we see a lot more of him. We need people like this to help save the country.
I agree with you, his articles and videos are always light-hearted and amusing. I actually find his tone to be self-deprecating rather than condescending. We need more of him, not less.
Hopefully in another 18 years, he’ll re-read and adjust...
Someone who was 21 in 2006 is still a snot-nosed child, especially these days when people in their 30s unashamedly live with their mothers and dads. I don't care to read anything else from this guy until after he hits 50.
His superiority and belief in his righteousness is now just tiring.
William, I think Bari is very well aware of this author's smug style, which is why she employs him. She wants to see the very comments that are on this thread today - stirring the pot, as it were. And at the same time, telling everyone here she will publish any article she wishes, regardless of the majority political leanings of her audience.
Lee, I truly hope you’re wrong. I love the fact that I never know what I’m going to be confronted with in TFP. I love having to rethink my position when faced with a well-reasoned opinion for the opposite. I just don’t like making fun of people. Any people, regardless of what they believe. It seems one of the worst attributes a person can have. Condescension and superiority are not ingredients for intelligent commentary, even intelligent satire. I would hope that Bari can tell the difference. Challenge my opinions, tell me I’m wrong, point out my errors in logic or interpretation . . . but do it intelligently and with dignity, even if humorous. And, most of all, be nice.
Well, if you're commenting on how well the writer did in his satire or humour, I agree. He's heavy handed and a bit much on the self serving side. He's attempting to make light of everything, including himself - he's just not good enough at it. I think Bari realizes his shortcomings but keeps him here for the responses he elicits.
I agree. I am just now recognizing this writer, from an unrelated piece a couple months ago. Arrogance seeps through. It drips with smugness. Now I can cross "Ben Kawaller" off my FP reading list. Bari, you deserve better.
Yup
Was he paid to write this article?
Agree. This article was a list of insulting anecdotes that tried to pass off snark as legitimate cultural commentary. Bari's subscribers expect a lot more.
Y'all must definitely not read Bari's wife's TGIF emails then...
You must not read the comments section of Bari's Wife's TGIF emails then ;)
Haha, I don't! I get it in my email. I hope people are calling her out on the idiocy.
I find it to be a mix of 50% discussion, 30% textual eye rolling at Nellie, and 20% people saying how it is their favorite thing in the world.
Also because he has zero substance to contribute
Yes!
News Flash, Ben! Just because you saw an adult slapping a child does NOT equate to knuckle-dragging conservatism! What about your vaunted Liberal, Progressive cities where children are used as drug mules? Also, where fatherless homes produce sociopathic children who think nothing of randomly shooting people who cross their gang-related associations? You, my friend, are BLIND to your own prejudice! And, in addition, in the South we ALWAYS address each other as "Sir", and "Ma'am". It is the culture! And whether Black or White, we give people the benefit of the doubt! Get a clue, and try moving further south and learn about REALITY, instead of spouting those "liberal" and "progressive" BULLSHIT ideas that you hold!
His side cuts kids genitals off.
That's the most extreme case, but what's far more prevalent is that his side sexualizes small children, allows them to get addicted to mind-altering drugs, feeds them social media addiction and anxiety, gives them piss-poor education and then ropes the deranged teenagers into Marxist activism.
But Republican fathers cause physical pain that heals within moments! The horror!
And sticks scissors in the back of full grown infants skulls.
I was going to add that... Shows just how blind the left is.
Well said Robert.
I used to have this cartoonish sort of view of conservatives, having grown up with liberal parents, selecting a career path dominated by left of center women, then living in a progressive town where everyone had yard signs. Now I am a moderate living in a conservative town sending my children to a charter school attended by overwhelmingly conservative families.
Living among them, I now have a much more realistic view of conservatives and I find my previous views embarrassing. My children are well behaved, and they refer to adults with an honorific (Mr./Miss/Mrs.). I did not do this as a child of liberal parents, but I am glad my kids do. Contrast that to my lefty brother who teaches his children to call all adults by their first name, including aunts and uncles, sans any honorific. There is a real difference there. But conservative parents struggle with setting limits on screen time, and there are many kids who act out at our school. There is a lot of complexity once you are looking at a group as a member rather than as an outsider (like the writer).
The real differences come down not to indiscriminate respect for authority and docility (LOL conservatives are not docile, and they like to say they “raise lions, not sheep”) but worldview and authoritative parenting style (which liberal parents can implement). Additionally, conservatives are aware of the institutional rot and try not to put their children into environments that clash with their beliefs (if possible, not always of course). Personally, I will not be paying for my kids to attend any of the elite schools. We will be highly selective about where we send them (if anywhere at all).
Respecting adults is an act of humility. It states that a kid doesn’t know what he doesn’t yet know. When he is a peer, in age at least, he can turn to the familiar. A culture that makes the assumption that youth have the answers is already in full retreat.
I would not want to stack the 20 year old me up against the 60 year old me in making any prudent and well-reasoned judgments. And I would never look at another human being with snarky condescension, any more than using racial or sexual stereotypes. I thought we had put that behind us a free and open society. Apparently the Left sees power in disparaging those whom they regard as less intelligent and worldly. The ultimate “kill shot” for irrelevancy.
Daydreamer. That is a mouthful yet I can identify with a great deal of what you said. My upbringing was similar. However I am now right of center in an extremely left of center area. My kids are now in their 20s, and when they were younger, I was just about the only parent in the area who insisted on being called Mr..
Ben spent a few days, or maybe a summer, in a “Red state” and draws some pretty sweeping conclusions. He’s like the Margaret Meade of politics living in the wild to write his thesis notes?
Ben, GK Chesterton succinctly explained the difference between conservatives and liberals. Liberals see a fence and want to tear it down for “progress”. Conservatives see a fence and wonder why it was put up in the first place before they think of tearing it down.
It’s as simple as that.
I suspect evolutionary biology will go over better at BYU (they do it fact teach it there) than any idea against today's leftist orthodoxy will at the secular seminaries that many other schools have become.
Love that fence and anecdote Philly.
What a smug, pompous asshat. I'm especially impressed by the way he fantasizes he can read the minds of millions of people he's never met and about whom he knows nothing except that he loathes them. I like the variety of thought that I can find on The Free Press but in Ben Kawaller, I see no evidence of any thought at all.
I will henceforth consider ALL articles written by Mr. Kawaller as suspect! He seems to lack the self-awareness of his own bias.
"The point is, all it took was one species-fluid middle schooler for this father to yank his entire family out of society."
I am not as sure as Kawaller that home schooled children live "outside of society". Having hired exceptional engineers and having talked with home schooled adults, my prior understanding about home schooling (similar to the feeling expressed in the article) changed. I guess there is a spectrum of academic competency and social interaction in home schooled children. However, it would not surprise me if the overall academic competency and social skills in the home schooled population is better than in the public education sector. But this is from a perspective of ignorance since my opinion is based on just a few data points.
"In a town outside of Little Rock I witnessed a grown man slap a two-year-old for playing with her food"
It turns my stomach when I observe adults hitting and screaming at children. In my experience such behavior is deviant, unnecessary, and unproductive. However, assigning these behaviors to "Republicans" is disingenuous and a provably false assertion. Both Republican and Democrat political adherents are equally susceptible to these behaviors. Parenting is hard and absent proper role models, children suffer (no matter parent political perspective).
I would also point out that 1 instance of capital punishment is not necessarily evidence of a pattern. Every parent has reached the end of their rope and behaved in ways they may later regret.
Corporal? But I agree.
Um, yeah. Any parents implementing capital punishment are over the edge and belong in prison…or on the end of a rope.
Wow. This is shockingly biased. It puts people in boxes. I know that not all democrats are the same and not all republicans are the same. It is shocking that this person sees all republicans as God fearing rednecks that abuse their children to get them to conform. People are people. There are minorities in both political parties and religious people in both political parties. There are definitely fascists in both fringe groups - the left and the right. It is time for the middle majority of this country to begin to see that we are all the same and stop categorizing one another.
I'm a liberal who raised kids to young adulthood. They have excellent manners and are big-hearted people who may protest but don't get violent and wouldn't ever stop traffic on roads, bridges or tunnels. They know the world doesn't revolve around them.
Not all liberal parents raise jerks for kids. And my kids can think critically: they feel for the citizens of Gaza while understanding that Israel MUST destroy Hamas and that Hamas are the monsters here.
Mr Kawaller's condescension toward conservative parents isn't helpful.
Sarah. I wish all liberals raised their kids the way you did and are as common sense minded as you are. A tip of the cap to you.
I think in general there are more similarities than differences between moderates of both sides.
Pointless drivel. I expect better from TFP. At least a point. Whatever the author was aiming for, he missed.
I’m curious - why do we not see similar condescending, smug and offensive pieces directed toward the Left from the Right? It’s an actual question.
Because truth hurts?
Honestly, what sort of idiots post lawn signs proclaiming their staggering virtue?
William, I am a center-right conservative who sees many “condescending, smug and offensive” pieces from people who share most of my values. Unfortunately, the left doesn’t have a monopoly on jerks. Attitudes like Mr. Kawaller exhibits, whether from the left or right, are guaranteed to pull us further apart and will eventually destroy our nation. I am glad for the opportunity to read pieces like this from Mr. Kawaller, because they remind me that we all have a lot of work ahead of us if we have any hope of rescuing our country from the abyss.
Wow...very rare to see someone trying to bring together rather than shout "death to the morons on the other side". Good for you!
You’re so docile and obedient. 😅
Ben Shapiro has you covered.
But I would agree that no red state is anywhere near as biased, ignorant or unilateral as the West Coast.
In Seattle, it was perfectly normal to hear statements like, "Republicans are all racist." The West Coast is the beating heart of bigotry and hate in this country.
I dunno...look through these comments. We have several right leaners that regularly paint with a super broad brush against left leaners. Often with hateful vitriol.
Such personalities are in every comments section, but I'm referring to people in public company.
They exist everywhere. I do IT for several small town PDs...I have heard some pretty heavy paint brushing. And I know quite a few left leaning folks that never even mention this kind of stuff.
Not saying left and right are equal right now. Just that I don't think either side holds the title of highly rational and evenhanded.
WRONG - you are actually ascribing some thought, personal philosophy and possible reasoning to this inveterate arrogance- it's really just utter, social cravenness. They want acceptance desperately in their social circle and this is how to fit in. No fitting, no status. No friends. No acceptance. It's being in the Elite segment of society - the smarter, better people- the better educated, the morally superior, the more open minded and tolerant- blah blah blah. They actually believe this stuff- while becoming the most screwed up, Orwellian people on the planet. No sense of irony or history either. Welcome to the left.
Or as they used to say in my grandparents' day - The Better Class of People.
Republicans are the sort of people who try to maintain standards and manners. They suffer at times from that as the Left misinterprets that as passive.
Standards, manners. And courtesy. Sadly missing in the mindset of progressives. Simply look at how many people were either OK or ambivalent about Kaepernick not standing for the national anthem.
Do you mean published on The FP, or just generally? It's definitely out there. Honestly, I'm not sure if I've seen a comment section on a TFP article yet that hasn't had at least a handful of people generalizing with smug, angry or condescending language about what they perceive as broad failures among "leftists" or "dems" or "libs." When I'm feeling charitable I assume in most cases they are trying to be funny, just as the author here is, but it's uncomfortable for me to read. A virtue of The FP for me is that it can help me get better at living in that discomfort.
I can't top what William has said here. I assume the author is trying to merge satire with real opinion, but implying that Republican kids are "docile" because they are probably beaten as toddlers is "West Coast Liberal Superiority Complex" at its best. Authors like this are why Trump continues to poll ahead. They simply refuse to take conservatives seriously without trying to demean them to make themselves feel better.
Dear Mr. Kawaller,
Wow! Your arrogance and smugness is astounding! You took roughly half the population of the country, put us in a box, and declared us child abusing, uneducated, backwater rubes. Congratulations on being such an intelligent and elegant writer. Prior to this lowbrow article, I actually enjoyed some of your musings. You have managed to eliminate any respect I had for you, but at least you have your self serving ego to keep you company. It must be great to be so wonderful that you can discount anyone with a different viewpoint as inferior.
I recall a TV anniversary retrospective some time back about the shootings on the Kent State campus. They interviewed some random old alum guy who was there for reasons I don't remember but were unrelated to the anniversary. He was asked if he'd participated in the protests that day.
"I was an engineering student. I was in my room doing my homework. I didn't have time for that stuff." So the moral is that challenging curricula promotes better outcomes. Put another way, dilution of the rigor of college has facilitated distraction and rebellious behavior. Grade inflation likely goes hand in hand.
An old friend taught at DePaul. He lamented that he had to get the Dean's approval to actually fail a student. No approval or scrutiny involved to hand out an A. This was in the 1980s. I suspect little has changed. Meanwhile, kids can't write, can't compute, can't function in a group with shared responsibility.
This grade inflation dates back to the ‘60s, when failing a student meant that he (always a “he” back then) would get drafted and sent to Vietnam. By the time I got to my liberal eastern university in the early ‘70s, the inflated grading system was already firmly entrenched. However, I did manage to get a C from a woman who taught 20th century British literature. I suspected that my grade might end up lower after the day when she made it a point to tell the entire class every bit of her far-left political beliefs while looking at me. That also happened to be the day I showed up in my fatigue uniform with my airborne jump wings and Ranger tab because I didn’t have time to change. In today’s terminology, I guess my presence triggered her.
While he was property reviled in the movie, the Jack Nicholson character in A Few Good Men did utter one line that resonated: "You can pick up a rifle and stand a post." This was part of the "freedom you enjoy that I and others like me provide" speech.
Sometimes only firsthand experience can change a person. A friend (economist) studied under a Fulbright grant in the interior of China. He went there as a devout believer in centrally planned economies. After multiple run ins with the very broadly empowered local authorities who took a dislike to him, he came back a changed man. He was in some small town without telephones, just a telegraph office, and the locals confiscated his passport. He figured he was doomed until someone from the Embassy in Beijing showed up to check on him. It seems they'd had this experience before.
I got a C on a paper from a grad student teaching English 101 when I didn’t parrot back her interpretation of king lear. And when I asked her why I got a C she started crying because I challenged her. Can’t remember what I got in the overall class.
I can see her being one of those old white women who stand in the street protesting for Gaza, otherwise alone and embittered.
What color do you think is her PR cruiser? 😆
It’s an essay, but it also could use some data. Sweeping conclusions with anecdotes make a nice story, but are not persuasive.
Data? That's so twentieth century! Labeling and name calling is so much easier and fun.