In an age of rage, it is often difficult to stand out in the mob as so many pander to the perpetually irate. However, New York Times columnist Jamelle Bouie has found a way to win the race to the bottom. In a posting on Bluesky, Bouie mocked the account of the addiction of the mother of Vice President J.D. Vance, saying that she should have sold her son for drugs.
Bouie used Bluesky (the digital safe zone for the viewpoint intolerant on the left) to post one of the most reprehensible attacks on Vance. Bouie wrote that “this is a wicked man who knows he is being wicked and does it anyway.” That is hardly notable on today’s rage scale. However, he then decided to use the painful addiction history of Beverly Aikins against her son: “No wonder his mom tried to sell him for Percocets. [I] can’t imagine a parent who wouldn’t sell little JD for percocet if they knew he would turn out like this.’
Vance wrote a celebrated bestseller, “Hillbilly Elegy,” about his difficult childhood with a mother who became addicted to pain medication and eventually found herself stealing drugs from her patients. It was a tragic account of how addiction tore their family apart, but also a tale of redemption: “I knew that a mother could love her son despite the grip of addiction. I knew that my family loved me, even when they struggled to take care of themselves.”
In April of last year, Vance celebrated his mother’s decade of sobriety.
As I discuss in my new book “Rage and the Republic,” a common element to past radical movements has been the dehumanization of political opponents. In calling others “Gestapo,” “fascists,” and “Nazis,” you achieve a certain license to say and do things that you would ordinarily never say or do. By stripping them of any humanity or right to empathy, you are free to discard the limitations of decency and civility.
Rage is itself a type of drug. It is addictive and, while they never admit it, they like it.
Bouie shows the lack of self-awareness in his hateful posts, objecting that “this is a wicked man who knows he is being wicked and does it anyway.” It is the ultimate example of transference; a self-description ascribed to those you hate.
On his New York Times bio, Bouie insists that “I come from a left-leaning, social democratic perspective, but I strive for honesty, fairness and good faith in my writing.” He adds that “I abide by the same rigorous ethical standards as all Times journalists.”
If using Vance’s tragic childhood and his mother’s addiction is an example of the “fairness and good faith” of the New York Times, it is a chilling prospect.
In his book, Vance observes that the children of broken and impoverished homes often give up hope, as he did: “Psychologists call it “learned helplessness” when a person believes, as I did during my youth, that the choices I made had no effect on the outcomes in my life.”
He found that choices do matter in shaping your life. We all make such choices, as did Bouie in becoming another voice of rage and the New York Times in giving him a platform to amplify his views.
It is the same choice that the Times makes in barring a U.S. senator and firing editors for exposing readers to alternative viewpoints while publishing those who advocate repression or rationalize political violence. To the obvious appeal of its readers, the paper now peddles in hate to feed a national addiction.
In the end, Vance and his mother have overcome far greater challenges than this vicious columnist or the hatefest at Bluesky. From adversity, they found a strength and a bond that has inspired many who are struggling with such addictions and poverty.
It is clear who is “wicked” in these postings. Perhaps it is even strangely edifying and self-condemning. As Victor Hugo observed, “the wicked envy and hate; it is their way of admiring.”
The sad thing is that this is the future of “journalism”. The Times decided to go all in with the leftist garbage and they ended up doing better with subscriptions because people want confirmation news, not actual news. the WAPO didn’t endorse Harris last election and the left, their own readers, called for boycotts and the paper lost hundred of thousands of subscribers.
The good news is that this may not be true for free news outlets as we see CNN tank, MSNBS fail and the networks struggle as well. Plus they are learning that there are lots of non-liberals watching TV too as they learn by the failures of Kimmel, the Daily Show, Colbert et al and the success of Gutfeld and Fox News.
Democrat 1850’s President James Buchanan “The Constitution . . . expressly recognizes the right to hold slaves as property in states where slavery exists. This, then, is not a question of general morality, affecting the consciences of men, but it is a question of constitutional law. . . . The southern states have rights guaranteed to them, and these rights I am determined to maintain, come weal, come woe.”
Democrat the party of NO MORALS…just greedy and hate!
I believe the Democrat Party is committing TREASON by helping illegals
2 Civil Wars are 2 too many. The Democrat Party needs to be abolished by ALL MEANS!
Intolerant racists and bigots like Bouie are given a platform by propaganda organs like the New York Times. She is a disgusting, sorry excuse for a human being.
He is a disgusting, sorry excuse for a human being.
Democrats happily murder Drug Addicts, import illegals to commit crime, push hatred to increase suicide, release criminals for MORE Crime
all while they STEAL EVER MORE MONEY!
If you vote Democrats at this point you are EVIL! Like voting National Socialists in Germany in the 1930’s
Some people realize it early on, others later in life but I am glad that Turley is finally starting to see that the Left is sub-human garbage.
More of the famous leftist love and tolerance we keep hearing about. Just waiting for the first s@@tlib to justify this and call anyone who objects a ‘nazi’.
antonio
There is NO ONE more hate filled, greedy, selfish, lying, cheating, violent, racist, hypocrite than a democrat
And they PROVE IT EVERYDAY!
Time to DEFUND them, their cities, states, non-profits, colleges and public unions!
The NYT hasn’t had intelligent commentary or opinion for decades which is why I stopped reading it. This guy is just one more example of the DEI morons that they now employ and call writers. What a slap in the face to those who came before them and built the Times into a respected news source. They were the genuine article this guy is a not.
The NYT hasn’t had intelligent commentary or opinion for decades … and yet you still read them daily? Lot of work just to conger up your comment. can’t be all that bad if you’re reading them daily.
Funny how rightists continually attack the NYT, doing so you give them more impact and visibility. It draws the MAGAotts so that they go into overdrive and spew their incipient venom until they drop from exhaustion. Then the next article by Turley gets them pumped up again and the cycle starts over, day after day.
The NYT hasn’t had intelligent commentary or opinion for decades … and yet you still read them daily?
What part of “which is why I stopped reading it” did you not understand?
The Democrat Party denied that blacks were human. Now they are denying the status of humanity to Republicans and conservatives. Plus ca change, plus ca meme chose.
Why don’t you just do the quote in English. Not impressed.
I long for the day one of the best voices exposing fascism says something like: “But there are fascists in America. They’re the ones calling themselves ‘anti-fascists,’ who scream ‘shame’ at law enforcement, who incite political, assassination, including of the pres., who demand the right to kill their babies, the homeless, mutilate children, flood the country w/ murderers and rapists, want to have one party govt., who want to protect our enemies, praise and fund terrorism, and so forth. You can call them fascists, bc they are. And they are the real leaders of the Democrat party – my party.
It’s a fantasy. But I hope to read that one day.
Oh look, one of the perpetually irate.
The New York Slimes. “All the news that fits, we print”
Idiot
Even criminal organizations understand boundaries. They operate with lines, codes, and an internal sense of honor, however warped. What is striking here is the absence of even that restraint. This is not ideology or conviction at work, but a vacuum of character, where no line exists that cannot be crossed if it serves the moment. When cruelty replaces principle entirely, it is not radicalism. It is moral emptiness.
Even criminal organizations understand boundaries. Really, like Tren de Aragua?
Well Olly, cat got your tongue?
Jamelle, is that even a name? “Jamelle! Ohhh… Jamelle!” No wonder the guy (?) has these “strike out against anyone” anger issues.
“The leftists envy and hate; it is their way of admiring.” There, fixed it for you, Victor.
I am sure we all know someone, perhaps many someones, who have let this kind of hate consume them. They cannot be reasoned with. All we can do is to gently try and nudge them back to sanity and objectivity. And if they are loved ones, pray for them.
Consume. Like yourself on this blog.
speaking of the devil……
Oh look, there’s an adult in the room. With a brain of a child.
Oh look, the parasite has awoken.
This is not just crude rhetoric. It is a standards failure. Using a parent’s addiction and a child’s vulnerability as political ammunition is not argument, satire, or critique. It is dehumanization, and once that line is crossed, anything becomes permissible because empathy has been deliberately discarded.
Free speech protects the right to speak, not the obligation of institutions to elevate cruelty. When a paper that claims fairness and good faith rewards this behavior, it signals that rage now substitutes for judgment. That is not ideological disagreement. It is cultural decay.
What BS.
Why not post something that would add to the discussion. Venting your hate is similar to the child who screams for attention but has nothing to say.
Oh, Venting your hate is similar to the child who screams …. just like you?
Why not post something that would add to the discussion. Um… why don’t you? Good luck with that.
Olly, I was going to write a comment but I cannot improve on what you said. I only wish Bouie was a lone individual. Unfortunately, he is only one of many, some of whom post on this blog, who not only have abandoned any sense of decency but also now have a platform from which to infect others.
Back in the day I used to subscribe to the Sunday NYT. It was their wheelbarrow edition, so huge it needed a wheelbarrow to bring it in the door. Now every edition is of the wheelbarrow variety, but more like the wheelbarrow following the horses in a circus parade.
Yes! Spot on, Dr. Turley! Thank you!
“…the perpetually irate…”
Spot on, Prof. Turley.
Think this is apropos this morning: Hate has no home here. And yet you and your patriot comrades here are “…the perpetually irate…” scream for the blood of liberals., wish them ill, that you and others here expound. Every day, 365.
Commie.
They reap what they sow.
So, you’re screaming for liberal blood?
Mary, your response please.