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 joke about 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.”
They perfectly and accurately represent what is called “a godless society.” “Lord Of The Flies” works. They will settle for nothing less.
I just want to be there when Jamelle Bouie accidentally runs into J. D. Vance in a public place… or an ally out back.
Bouie will be sobbing uncontrollably, right before passing out from the pain.
“It is the ultimate example of transference; a self-description ascribed to those you hate.” (JT)
I think he means projection, which is the defense mechanism of attributing to others negative evaluations of one’s self.
Transference is attributing to others evaluations one has about another person, e.g., being overly suspicious of a romantic partner because a prior one cheated on you.
Jamelle Bouie, a left wing punk who would freak if someone demeaned his mother as he did JD’s. That’s why I really love leftist’s, known for being open minded, tolerant, eager to hear everyone’s point of view and standing for fairness.
Stick it u filthy animal
Idiot leftist thinks he can tell a private bar owner which halftime show to play in his bar. Why are leftists such morons?
https://x.com/nicksortor/status/2020921671356432679
A brewery in Colorado was subjected to similar woke abuse lately. Their response to the mob should be standard procedure from now on. GTFO.
https://www.facebook.com/WonderlandBrewingCo/posts/let-me-say-this-plainly-and-without-apologywonderland-was-built-to-serve-beer-bu/1497013152425084/
I copy the entire text below for the record, since google tends to bury.
Their response:
Wonderland Brewing Company
February 1 at 1:10 PM
Let me say this plainly, and without apology.
Wonderland was built to serve beer, build community, and give working people a place to sit down together — not to submit weekly ideological homework to whichever outrage committee happens to be loudest online.
The fact that a brewery posting Ice Ice Baby and saying “we’re open” can trigger organized outrage tells you everything you need to know about where parts of our culture are right now.
This was never about a song.
It was never about a post.
And it was certainly never about beer.
It is about control — control of speech, tone, humor, and ultimately, whether small businesses are allowed to exist without first seeking permission from people who have never built anything themselves.
Here is the pattern, and everyone honest knows it:
Facts are optional.
Context is inconvenient.
Outrage is mandatory.
If an event fits the narrative — amplify it.
If facts later complicate the narrative — ignore them.
If someone refuses to apologize for something that isn’t wrong — escalate.
And now we are apparently at the point where Vanilla Ice is being treated like contraband.
Somewhere, I assume, a task force is currently reviewing whether the Macarena has problematic structural elements.
Let’s also clear something else up.
Wonderland has never been a political organization.
It has never existed to serve one party, one movement, or one ideology.
It exists to serve customers.
To employ people.
To create something real.
Beer has a history older than any political movement currently arguing on social media.
Beer belongs to workers.
To soldiers.
To builders.
To farmers.
To people who disagree with each other and still share a table.
The idea that a brewery must now pass a political purity test before it can pour a pint is not progress.
It is performance activism dressed up as morality.
And here is the uncomfortable truth for the outrage crowd:
If Wonderland had posted the “correct” message, it would not have been enough.
Because this is not about standards.
It is about submission.
There will always be a new rule.
A new offense.
A new demand to bend the knee.
We are not interested in playing that game.
Wonderland is open for people who like beer.
For people who work hard.
For people who can laugh.
For people who understand that disagreement is not violence and that memes are not policy statements.
If that offends you, you are free to drink somewhere else.
That is how free societies work.
And if posting a 1990s rap song is now considered an act of rebellion…
Then I suppose history will record that the Culture Wars were briefly fought — and lost — to Vanilla Ice.
Wonderland is open.
The tanks are full.
The lights are on.
And we are not apologizing for existing.
—-Brian Budman
Former Partner
The world was not built by mobs. It was improved by people who got up early and made something.
Fantastic response/screed by Brian Budman on behalf of Wonderland Brewing (even if his last name makes it seem like he should be drinking pale yellow fizz instead – sorry, couldn’t resist the zinger).
Really. Disgusting is the only word. I don’t now how anyone could embrace this kind of hate, even to prove a point, without being severely mentally ill. The modern left are no longer simply a regime, I do believe they have graduated to the status of, ‘cult’. Cults require people to believe and do all kinds of atrocious things in the name of and out of loyalty to the cult, and often, to the cult’s bottom line.
No sane, compassionate human could ever write the tripe addressed in this piece.
Hitler and his henchmen tried to convince the world that it was they who were under threat and therefore they had to kill millions of innocents, shooting unarmed, helpless fathers holding their children (standing in 20 feet of corpses, slain in neat little rows, to shoot them and their children in their heads.
Our sick radical leftists howl with joy
No cruelty too big or too small.
Yeah, and only liberals hate…
. Trump is meeting with republican governors. Get those states up and running with jobs. Import talent when needed as smart immigration. Pour every effort and resource into those states via governors’ cooperation. Farmers and ranchers import if needed, building and manufacturing etc. Dem states can flounder as they wish, protests, drugs, whatever.
Forget the left states, move forward. I’ve turned off all MSM. Conservative news can focus on the progress without a word about the junk states. The west coastline will require military force to reclaim as a caveat, National security risk area.
..how do people like Bouie even get employed to be reporters allowed to write at that level? Did the NY Times go to an insane asylum and pick the most depressing soul there they could find and say.. ‘right.. you will be perfect as a political commentator for a major newspaper like us!’
When I first encountered Bouie’s work, he was a downy-cheeked intern for lefty WaPo blogger Greg Sargent. That turned out to be a highpoint. It used to be possible to leave feedback for him on Twitter. Now you have to be one of his bluesky sycophants.
Hus Sunday column is typical. The lowlight was his claim that Trump targeted blue cities for deportations, leaving Texas and Florida alone. Apparently ignorant that one in four ICE arrests last year took place in Texas.
The same way the academics who hate conservatives get hired: the organizations deliberately search them out. It can not be accidental.
Well, Bouie has a right to his opinion as ugly as it is. To me this is another signal how far the media has fallen with such juvenile behavior. I cannot imagine Walter Conkrite is not rolling over in his grave out of sheer embarrassment.
You are a relic. Stay quiet.
And you are a biased idiot! It’s the “relics” that fought and died for your freedom so go screw yourself! You are too biased to listen to history and know who made it so you have the freedoms you now enjoy!
nah, Walter Cronkite was also a fake news purveyor. America was much more innocent then.
Bouie has no shame at all.
Nor do the commenters here who insult and threaten.
Unlike yourself.
It is sad that political discourse has devolved into nasty, nasty garbage rather than whether ideas are good or bad. I can be just as nasty as Jamelle Bouie and bring his mother into the nasty discussion, but I am not that kind of person although I will say it is hard to imagine his mother being proud to call him “son”.
Your last sentence says much about you. You parroted Bouie’s opinion. Not like Bouie……BS!
It say s nothing about him. Stop projecting.
Is “joking” that Vice President Vance’s mother should have sold him to feed her addiction dissimilar to “joking” that Obongo and Mike look like monkeys?
I don’t perceive the delta.
The wild seesawing—one minute these UNprincipled-socialist-dems defend crude jokes and praise the ugliness of “free speech,” and the next minute they are morally outraged at the ugliness of free-speech when it matches their bravado—is dislodging their brain stems.
“the ugliness of “free speech,”… WTF?
That’s understandable, you are not capable of such discernment.
This groupthink hate/intolerance is the hallmark of the Left , the Democrat party & brand of today. They are collectively in a rush to imprison us with their cherry picked version of failed marxism and the lies they spew in their ignoble quest to conquer common sense and morality is legion. They wear their fabricated morality of hate like a halo , but an angel they never will be.
This groupthink hate/intolerance is the hallmark of the Left … wait a second, have you read the comments here? Death threats etc…
Thank Allah for conservatives.
Recall when conservatives stood up when a gay man was beaten to a pulp?
Neither do I because it never happened. A seriously hateful bunch, the conservatives.
Oh, you mean like you stood up for Laken, you disgusting, stupid hypocrite.