David Brooks of the New York Times, who has misunderstood the nature of meritocracy his whole life, proves it once again today with a ridiculous argument in his latest op-ed. Here’s the passage:

In most societies, there’s the adults’ table and there’s the kids’ table. The people who read Le Monde or the establishment organs are at the adults’ table. The jesters, the holy fools and people like Ann Coulter and Bill Maher are at the kids’ table. They’re not granted complete respectability, but they are heard because in their unguided missile manner, they sometimes say necessary things that no one else is saying.

Healthy societies, in other words, don’t suppress speech, but they do grant different standing to different sorts of people. Wise and considerate scholars are heard with high respect. Satirists are heard with bemused semirespect. Racists and anti-Semites are heard through a filter of opprobrium and disrespect. People who want to be heard attentively have to earn it through their conduct.

In Brooks’ worldview, Voltaire, Jonathan Swift, Mark Twain and Lenny Bruce are–and should be!–awarded only a modicum of respect, the children that they are for profanely speaking truth to abuses of power, whereas those who go through the motions of civility while (often) contributing less, should be rewarded more. In all fairness to Dr. IQ, it has worked for him his whole career, though I’ll bet the writing of those “holy fools” George Carlin and Terry Southern will be remembered much longer than Brooks’ scratchings.•