Not a Dirty Hippie

David Roberts at Grist has a great rant on the right’s obsession with the 60s and how “serious” people stake out the middle ground between demonstrably wrong and demonstrably right and think they’re “serious.” We all seem to understand when members of some professions stake out "hero" stories of themselves that then shape how they view and describe the world, but we rarely recognize that pundits and wonks also have their self-image invested in the stances they take. To my mind, there are far too many bloggers on "our side" who adopt the "serious" approach and then decide what their views will be and how they will present them. The Drums and Sullivans and all the "serious" folk at Washington Monthly fit this perfectly, as do the E. Kleins and Yglesiases. Would have been nice to have seen them included in the rant, but there's probably a limit on spew any one man can produce. A terrific piece.