NYT's Nicholas Kristof launches passive/aggressive attack on dead friend, then whines over lack of 'empathy'

I don't recommend that you read the New York Times op-ed page much, especially if you're not accustomed to dealing with completely bizarre thinking. For example, Rob and I enjoy the cinematic work of David Lynch, so having undergone training watching strange characters like Dennis Hopper's Frank Booth from Blue Velvet, or Killer BOB from Twin Peaks, we have some conditioning to explore the depraved minds of people like Charles Blow, Frank Bruni and Maureen Dowd.

But few experiences could prepare you for the bizarre journey that was Saturday's column by Nicholas Kristof. It's the story of his old school chum, a guy named Kevin Green, who sadly died recently at the age of 54. Green's death becomes Kristof's starting point for a weirdly passive/aggressive attack on his friend - informing us of a litany of poor choices and ill-advised behaviors, not to mention a lack of industriousness, that left his friend in poor health, in financial straits and separated from his children. We really didn't need to know all this. But we do because Kristof decided to tell us. Normally you would eulogize someone by telling stories of their finest character traits. But not here. Kristof needed to let us know all the failures in Kevin Green's life because he wanted to tell us something about Nicholas Kristof, which is: Kevin Green made all these mistakes and lived all these failures, but Nicholas Kristof did not judge him, unlike all you horrible people. Nicholas Kristof is morally superior to you. So he proceeds to tell us that his friend fathered two children out of wedlock and never married the mother. That he grew his own marijuana and got busted for it. That he couldn't hold a steady job at any point in his life. That he lived an unhealthy lifestyle and became obese, subsisting on food stamps and disability payments. That he didn't make his child support payments. We know all this about him because Kristof told us, in a column written for the purpose of chastising us for judging him. Which is funny because the only person I'm aware of who has said anything about the life Kevin Green lived is Nicholas Kristof. Oh, by the way, Kristof also makes sure you know that when his kids saw him and Green together, they were stunned to learn that Green wasn't 20 years older than him. Because Kristof looks so fantastic! Oh, one other thing: All this is presented for the ostensible purpose of teaching us that Green really died - are you ready for this? - from "income inequality". I kid you not:

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The doctors say he died at 54 of multiple organ failure, but in a deeper sense he died of inequality and a lack of good jobs. Lots of Americans would have seen Kevin -- obese with a huge gray beard, surviving on disability and food stamps -- as a moocher. They would have been harshly judgmental: Why don't you look after your health? Why did you father two kids outside of marriage? That acerbic condescension reflects one of this country's fundamental problems: an empathy gap. It reflects the delusion on the part of many affluent Americans that those like Kevin are lazy or living cushy lives. A poll release this month by the Pew Research Center found that wealthy Americans mostly agree that “poor people have it easy because they can get government benefits without doing anything in return." Lazy? Easy? Kevin used to set out with his bicycle and a little trailer to collect cans by the roadside. He would make about $20 a day.

So since Kristof brought it up, let's review what we know so far about the life of Kevin Green. For one thing, we know that he didn't think very ambitiously about career opportunities, since he apparently viewed all his job options in terms of either union or non-union labor. And when he couldn't find either, he collected cans for $20 a day, which does show that he's not lazy but also shows that he didn't think very strategically or ambitiously about how he might use his time or his talents. If nothing else, you could go and sign up as a temp with Manpower. It's not great and it's no career, but you're going to do better than $20 a day. We also know that he had a criminal record because he illegally grew marijuana, and that he lacked a driver's license because he failed to pay child support for those two kids Kristof is worried we will judge him for fathering out of wedlock. What I see here is a lifetime of poor decisions tinged with a lack of personal ambition. Now, you could speculate that maybe he came from a background where people weren't encouraged to think in terms of professional careers. But Kristof came from the same place and it didn't stop him from becoming a columnist for the New York Times. But Kristof has already reminded us in numerous ways that he was the big success story and that his friend was the big failure. I have no reason not to believe Kristof when he says Green was a big-hearted man, and his death is surely a tragedy. But what does Kristof think he's doing by laying out for all the world what a failure and a poor decision-maker his friend was? If he's trying to make the case that "inequality" is responsible for America's social and economic ills, what he actually does is demonstrate in painstaking detail why inequality exists. Two classmates. Same hometown. Same school. Same age. Ran cross country together. One works hard, makes good personal decisions and achieves success as a famous newspaper columnist. Another makes a series of poor decisions, demonstrates little ambition, and lives a tragically short life of lack and struggle. Inequality means that people are getting vastly different results in their lives. In this column, Kristof unwittingly shows us why this is: Because people are different, and some people do the right things and make smart decisions, while others do not. The only way you'll ever get the "equality" liberals seem to want is if everyone behaves in the same way. And that will never happen. As for people's lack of "empathy" for Kevin Green, first of all, how does Kristof know that? None of us had ever heard Green's story until Kristof told it to us, and he didn't exactly present us with a bunch of reasons we should empathize, which is to say we should relate personally to his situation and be able to imagine ourselves in it. He gave us a lot of reasons we should sympathize, and I would guess most who read the column did. But if you read carefully all the things Kristof thinks you might judge Green for - his self-righteous lecture against doing so notwithstanding - the one conclusion you can't help but come to is this: Nicholas Kristof didn't think much of the choices Kevin Green made, but Nicholas Kristof is very proud of himself for remaining Kevin Green's friend, and he's pretty sure you wouldn't do the same so he wants you to know he is a better person than you. Whatever you think, Nick. I hope your friend rests in peace. I really didn't need to know about all his dirty laundry, but he had a famous "friend" who writes for the New York Times and just had to tell us about it. If I was going to judge anyone here, it wouldn't be Kevin.