his employer.

We have one big tribal conflict, and policy fights are just proxy battles as each side tries to establish moral superiority. But just as the tribal mentality has been turned on, it can be turned off. Then and only then can we go back to normal politics and take reasonable measures to keep our children safe.

Yes, Mr. David Brooks, who has never in his entire professional life had the first fu*king clue about what goes on out here in the Real World, nonetheless has some very definite ideas about how we who do live in the Real World should be conducting our gun control debate. Specifically, that we as a nation cannot lift one fu*king finger to stop mass shootings until the paranoid madness of America's NRA thugs and ammosexual ghouls is heeded -- humbly and respectfully -- by everyone else.

I'm not kidding:

Because then apparently, God Almighty will pass a fu*king miracle the likes of which has never happened before in American history when a fanatical minority held the majority hostage:

Here is another true thing: Within living memory, there has never been any conflict over any public policy where Mr. Brooks has not warned the Left that our only reasonable course of action was to cave, capitulate or otherwise cede ground to the madmen who run his Republican Party. And as a matter of historical fact, there has never been any case of concession or capitulation to the madmen who run Mr. Brooks' Republican Party which was not immediately followed by those same madmen taking even more hostages and demanding even greater concessions.

But of course, those hostages are never anyone that Mr. Brooks actually knows.

The families whose health care Mr. Brooks' Republican Party wants to strip away are no one Mr. Brooks knows.

Robbing poor senior citizens of fuel assistance won't kill any old people of Mr. Brooks' acquaintance.

Shredding the social safety net to pay for Mr. Brooks' tax cuts will not inconvenience anyone in Mr. Brooks' social circle.

The kids who were slaughtered at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School were not Mr. Brooks' kids.

So you can certainly be appalled by Mr. Brooks' column today -- I know I am -- but no one has any business being shocked by it.

Mr. Brooks has spent his entire adult life clawing his way to a position of professional respectability and privilege which permits him the luxury of not having to give a shit about the actual life and death struggles of the poor and the elderly and the kids who live here in the Real World. And the way he gets to keep that very valuable seat in Beltway Elysium is by continuing to feed his cloistered, plutocrat patrons the happy horseshit they wish to believe. By reducing the very real misery and ruin which Mr. Brooks' Republican Party visits on real people in the Real World every day to fairy tales about the faraway yammering of tribes of equally unreasonable Red and Blue peasants:

The discussions reveal other sensitivities. Some Blues didn’t want to enter a venue that had a “Don’t Tread on Me” flag on the wall. To Reds that was a neutral flag from American history, but to Blues it carried all sorts of nasty associations. Reds were offended by the lawn signs that said, “Hate Has No Home Here.” The implication: Hate has no home in my house, but it does in yours.

In another exercise, Reds and Blues ask each other honest, nonleading questions. Blues may ask Reds, “Name a safety-net program you can support.” Reds may ask Blues, “How do you balance having a heart with keeping health care costs under control?”

Here is one last true thing: Mr. Brooks will go right on gliding over as many dead and suffering Americans as it takes to keep his place in the clouds until his employers kick him out. So how does one go about getting the Sulzberger Family to take some action? Any action at all?

Well, as of this writing, Mr. Brooks has been trending on Twitter all day because of the sheer perversity of today's column, and he is being eviscerated on social media and in the blogosphere.
Examples include:

From Splinter News: David Brooks: Please 'Show Respect to Gun Owners' During This Difficult Time

From Brother Charlie Pierce: Our 'National Gun Conversation' Is Now the Worst of American Discourse

Media Matters: David Brooks needs to shut up

This Space Reserved For Yastreblyansky

All of which is right and good, but none of which will make the slightest difference because Mr. Brooks is protected from on high. And Mr,. Brooks will go right on being immune to the forces of both merit and morality as long as he keeps delivering that sweet, sweet Both Side Are To Blame (But Mostly Liberals) sugar to his premium clientele.

In fact, according to Mr. David Brooks, the only way to finally get the Sulzberger Family to pass common-sense restrictions on David Brooks' morally bankrupt columns is to listen to David Brooks.

To really listen to him. Humbly and respectfully. Decade after fu*king decade.

To stop shaming David Brooks.

To stop calling David Brooks potty-mouth names.

To stop pointing out that he lies flagrantly and constantly in order to prop up his morally bankrupt cult of Both Siderism.

Then and only then will David Brooks lead the way to common sense restrictions on David Brooks' toxic bullsh*t.

Wait, where have we seen this movie before?

Oh yeah...