i’d say a better way to render my claim is that actual conservative republicans are an abstraction to them whereas liberals and democrats are real and frequently encountered.

March 14, 2026 - 15:38 UTC

14
0
846
this same phenomenon also explains much of certain progressive's naivety when it comes to "how Democrats lost the white working class" or "both parties are the same"
1
0
113
Yeah, growing up going frequently to a gym/social club which was a major union hangout spot gave me a nice snapshot into the evolving state of the old white ethnic union working class voting block and, *ooh boy* there are reasons why they flipped and it's not the fun ones.
2
0
76
Obviously I cannot speak regarding your colleagues at The Times, but your claim is absolutely valid about my formerly left, now Trump-supporting friends in NYC.
0
0
7
Yep. Same principle whereby people tend to hate health insurance lawyers and the people who answer the phones, rather than the executives who actually make company policy.
0
0
14
Evidenced by the periodic "we travelled to Bumpkinville to find out what regular people think about the upcoming election" journalism.
0
0
8
And as someone who has lived and still works among your typical exurban/rural Republican these writers have no idea how depraved and evil the median Trump supporter is.
0
0
4
Some of us live work and play among them every day so like it’s gotta be nice to just be drowning in normie libs your whole life.
0
0
16
I read this as "liberals I know in person often make me feel dumb about my dumb ideas regularly where fantasy conservatives I don't have to interact with always agree with me."
1
0
226
See also: Chuck Schumer and his imaginary friend family.
1
0
54
Or an urbane, friendly, one-off eccentric who isn't actually representative of suburbanites, small-city/small-town, or rural Republicans?
0
0
1
This seems pretty uncontroversial, no?
1
0
36
Thoughts do not need to be controversial to be worth having and sharing.
1
0
22
I'd add that there's an element of trying to prove you're the smart kid by being unconventional and going against the grain. If you're surrounded by liberals, how do you do that? Write another article about how trump is a lying pos? It's borne from contrarianism masquerading as insight.
0
0
6
Couldn't these pundits maybe go attend a Monmouth County board meeting or something? About an hour from 620 Eighth Ave. Surely there's MAGAs in many counties surrounding Manhattan!
3
0
20
What I mean is, not that many opinion writers do anything akin to reporting any more. Bouie does, and The Moustache of Understanding at least gives the appearance of talking to cab drivers, which is a form of reporting, I guess.
But there's a lot of "this cocktail party represents middle America" 🤔.
0
0
19
1
0
40
If they wanted to know, sure
0
0
7
You shared on one of your takes a strange ironic distance that people have in how they experience politics as something afar and purely on their screens.
0
0
4
This is a really good point. Going to a political event or even a party in New York and you will meet a ton of ignorant and annoying liberals and none of the opposite! It’s much more visceral.
1
0
32
Yes, as someone who lives in Ohio, the conservative columnists' understanding of rural republicanism is entirely divorced from the things they actually care about.
1
0
50
I also think it's worth pointing out that these people often do not consciously view their role within their ecosystem as conservatives and much more as outre contrarians. IMO it's why there's so much resentment for Bluesky, because it drained the pool in which they swim.
1
0
94
Jesse Singal, within a liberal space, is a contrarian who is just asking questions about trans kids. Jesse Singal without a liberal ecosystem to float through, and generate content off, of is just another weirdo obsessed with the genitals of teenagers, and he knows that.
1
1
110