Ten Things I Learned During a Decade in D.C.: Death Race 2012: GQ on Politics: GQ

Ten Things I Learned During a Decade in D.C.: Death Race 2012: GQ on Politics: GQ: 6. The politico-media culture is obsessed with The Meta-Narrative, as if Baudrillard is enjoying a neo-American reconnaissance. When something happens, it is often much easier to place it into the context of a metaphor that captures something simpler to understand, often by applying a level of analysis that takes the thing out of its real context and Meta-izeses it. When Rush Limbaugh says something, the debate often turns on the people who have written about what he said; their motives and judgments are questioned more than his; somehow it becomes more important to ask "Why David Axelrod isn't slamming Bill Maher for calling Sarah Palin the C-word" than it is to keep Limbaugh's original action under a microscope. I think this happens because it's easier to question someone's motives by accusing them of tribal bias than it is to question their judgment, which treats them as the human beings they are.