"Advice conservatives never give themselves," courtesy of Jen Sorensen (who levels a shocking accusation at Davy Brooks)

Jen Sorensen, Daily Kos Comics (click to enlarge)

by Ken

This strip is so wonderful that it hardly needs amplification or commentary, though I think you're going to enjoy it even more after you've read Jen's own background note (see below). And I'm going to go a step farther, extracting the pearls of conservative wisdom Jen has incorporated here, just so you can hear them in isolation, and let them rattle around your head a little. I'm also going to preempt a bit of Jen's note by revealing that, beyond the obvious starting point of the death of Sandra Bland, the formulation here and indeed the content of panels 2 through 4 are filtered through the, er, sensibility of America's Whiner, Davy Brooks.

You can, of course, go straight to the strip -- as you likely already have done. And if you want to accuse me of overexplaining the joke, I can accept that. Still, I think there's value in first hearing these dicta on their own. Feel free to adapt them mentally to the right-wing voices you cherish most.

1. You need to cut out the victim mentality.
2. You should be more respectful of authority.
3. You people are too angry. Lighten up!
4. When are you going to stop living in the past? Get over it!

Now do you see what I mean by adapting them to other right-wing voices? It really doesn't come as a great surprise to learn that the voice Jen was kind of hearing in her head was the seemingly moderate whine of our Davy B. Consider, though, how harsh, even scathing these pieces of "advice" would sound coming out of the mouth of Sean Hannity or Rush Limbaugh or Bill O'Reilly, to pick just a few examples. (I probably should have brought Noah in on this. He's a connoisseur of the kinds of diatribes I'm trying to imagine.)

Now look at the strip -- or if you already have, look at it again.

Finally, let's add Jen's own thoughts:

Some people blame Sandra Bland for escalating the situation during her traffic stop, suggesting she should have been more respectful to the barking, button-pushing officer. Funny how all this finger-wagging about manners when dealing with law enforcement didn't seem to apply when the person in question was Cliven Bundy, the freeloading rancher who put up armed resistance over paying grazing fees. Apparently rebellion is virtuous if you're a highly-armed white cowboy/militia leader/Tea Party activist/Jade Helm conspiracy theorist, but if you're a black woman who forgot to signal while changing lanes, do not even think about behaving ungraciously towards the authorities, no matter how abusive they are.

Other panels in this cartoon were somewhat inspired by a recent David Brooks column, which was written as an open letter to Ta-Nehisi Coates in response his new book. After professing what felt to me like patronizing faux humility, Brooks more or less lapsed into ye olde "why don't you stop wallowing in victimhood and pursue the American Dream?" spiel.

"Patronizing faux humility"? From our Davy? That's shocking! (Just kidding. Actually, if you look up "patronizing faux humility" in the dictionary, I think we all have a good idea whose picture you'll find there.)

"Patronizing faux humility"? From Davy Brooks? Can it be?

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