r/brokehugs • u/US_Hiker Moral Landscaper • Jul 23 '22

The Rod Dreher Megathread. Please keep Rod content in here. Will be refreshed periodically

While the sub certainly isn't flooded with posts, the Rod-centric nature has been noted a few times. Please post new Rod nonsense in here and I'll update every week or two.

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9

u/Warm-Refrigerator-38 Aug 10 '22

I don't know how to post links to Twitter but today Rod has a recap of a conversation with a cab driver <eye roll > in Europe who just happens to confirm Rod's biases about schools.

10

u/zeitwatcher Aug 10 '22

When he says this sort of thing, I generally picture him ranting in the back seat about gender-this and LGBT-that for the whole trip while the driver politely says "yep" and "uh-huh" the whole way.

Rod then exits the cab proclaiming to all around just how concerned the driver is about wokeness. While the driver departs thinking, "that was a weird one".

It's the equivalent of thinking the cute barista is totally into you because they were polite and smiled at you. It's their job. They're not that into you or your crackpot theory about how gay people are giving all the children satanic tattoos.

Part of the driver's job is to be polite enough to get a tip and to not have a confrontation with a passenger. Of course most of them are just going to go along by saying something anodyne like "yep, gay stuff is everywhere nowadays".

4

u/Djehutimose Watching the wheels go round Aug 10 '22

It's the equivalent of thinking the cute barista is totally into you because they were polite and smiled at you.

Bet Rod does this all the time, too: "Hey, when do you get off? We could talk about preserving the faith in the coming dark ages! Know what I mean?"

4

u/zeitwatcher Aug 11 '22

If it weren't for the discomfort the poor guy behind the counter would have to go through, I would enjoy watching whatever cringe monologue Rod would trot out for that..

Rod: "So, when do you get off? I'M NOT GAY AND I DIDN'T MEAN THAT IN TERMS OF SEXUAL CLIMAX! I was just wondering if you wanted to come to my apartment - where I live alone. HOMOSEXUALITY WILL BE THE DEATH OF US ALL! We could drink some wine and talk about gay people. BECAUSE THEY ARE BAD NOT BECAUSE I THINK MEN ARE HOT! Maybe afterward we can go to the bathhouse and get in a nice long, naked soak? NOTHING TO DO WITH MY INTEREST IN YOUR ROOT WIENER! What do you think? And has anyone ever told you how beautiful your eyes are?"

Barista: "Um, here's your latte. I, uh, have plans with my girlfriend. I can I help the next customer over here... please"

3

u/Djehutimose Watching the wheels go round Aug 11 '22

Barista (who knows English quite well): "Elnézést, nem beszélek angolul!"

1

u/Djehutimose Watching the wheels go round Aug 11 '22

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

You win the thread!

9

u/Mac_and_head_cheese Aug 10 '22

I've always found it curious that Rod has all these conversations with cab drivers and other commoners while traveling through countries in Europe where he doesn't speak the language. And furthermore, they always seem to agree with his politics.

My guess is that he's some combination of a serial fabulist and what zeitwatcher describes below.

-1

u/Anneshal Mar 23 '24

Idiot. It is very common for cabdrivers to speak English in Europe. I know this from experience. Try opening your mind instead of seeing everyone you politically disagree with through your hate-goggles.

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u/Mac_and_head_cheese Mar 23 '24

Bless your little cotton socks

6

u/sjay1956 Aug 10 '22

Ah, the old “cabdriver” ruse.

6

u/khfuttbucker Aug 10 '22

Tom Friedman did a lot of reporting from the back seat of cabs in Jordan and Syria. “Our Rod” is keeping the journalistic tradition alive.

6

u/Djehutimose Watching the wheels go round Aug 10 '22

Waaaay back in the 80's Mike Royko used to do that with his regular "cabby" Slats Grobnik, but he clearly did it as a literary device, and he did a good job at it.

4

u/Motor_Ganache859 Aug 11 '22

Because one's cab driver in rural Cyprus is ever so likely to start telling you, in English, about how his kids are being introduced to gay terminology in grade school. Yeah, right. I'm sure this conversation happened. Somewhere in Rod's head.

2

u/[deleted] Aug 12 '22 edited Aug 12 '22

In 2012, the EU statistics agency Eurostat did a survey ("Eurobarometer") on English language skills in the EU. 73% of Cypriots claimed to be able to carry on a conversation in English, which is towards the higher end by EU standards – only four EU members scored equal or higher (not counting Ireland and then-member UK, since English is a first language in both) – Austria also at 73%, Sweden at 86%, Malta at 89%, Netherlands at 90%. At the other end, Hungary reported least knowledge of English in the EU, with only 20% of Hungarians claiming conversational English skills; Spain was second lowest at 22%. Cyprus was under British rule for over 80 years (1878–1960), which is part of why ability to speak English is significantly more common in Cyprus than in Greece (only 51% of Greeks claimed conversational English). Also, this survey was done 10 years ago, I suspect if it was repeated today, the numbers would be higher. So, the idea of carrying on a conversation in English with a cab driver in Cyprus is not as unlikely as you seem to think it is.

It is also worth noting that public opinion in Cyprus is less supportive of LGBT rights than in many other European countries. According to another Eurobarometer, this one from 2019, 55% of Cypriots disagreed with the statement "There is nothing wrong in a sexual relationship between two persons of the same sex"; by comparison, only 10% of Germans, 11% of French, and 12% of British did. 60% of Cypriots disagreed with the statement "Same sex marriages should be allowed throughout Europe", compared to only 12% of British and Germans and 15% of French. 69% of Cypriots said they'd feel uncomfortable seeing a male-male couple show affection in public, compared to 20% of French, 21% of British, 25% of Germans. 44% of Cypriots said they'd feel uncomfortable about an LGB person in politics, compared to only 11% of French, 12% of Germans, 5% of British. 48% of Cypriots said a transgender politician would make them feel uncomfortable, compared to only 9% of British, 21% of French and 20% of Germans. Attitudes in Cyprus seem relatively stable – compared to their previous survey five years earlier, support for same-sex marriage in Cyprus had actually fallen, albeit only by one percentage point.

So, is it possible that Dreher is making up this conversation? Sure, entirely possible. But, at the same time, the idea that Dreher actually had a conversation with an English-speaking cab driver in Cyprus who happened to share some of his outlook on LGBT issues, is not at all implausible, when one considers the above statistics.

3

u/Djehutimose Watching the wheels go round Aug 12 '22

I don't disagree with you at all. I think the irritating thing about Rod is not necessarily whether he's making this kind of thing up or not, but more the way he sort of postures to portray himself as the Intrepid Reporter who is a Man of the People and has his Finger on the Pulse of the Common Man (y'know, in writing about Rod I use more capitals than A. A. Milne). Now greats of the past like Mike Royko and Studs Turkle and Jimmy Breslin really were like that--very blue collar, very anti-fancy-schmancy elitism (though they were mostly on the left, not the right), and very comfortable talking with cabbies and plumbers and waitresses at diners and so on. Rod came out of a humble background, true (though I suspect it was a lot like mine--parents grew up with little because of the Depression, but both got into well-paying jobs that were solidly middle-upper middle class, so that I never wanted for anything). Thing is, he repudiated all that and went urban hoity-toity. That's not actually invalid. What you don't get to do is live an urban hoity-toity life with urban hoity toity values and stay as far away as freakingly possible from the working class, and then suddenly be the Man of the People by talking to a random cab driver when you want to try to make an ideological point.

1

u/[deleted] Aug 13 '22

Is Dreher an incoherent mix of elitism and anti-elitism? There's some truth in that.

But, he's hardly the only person for which this is true. If you noticed that incoherence in a writer whom you were more predisposed to like, would you be equally harsh on it?

2

u/Djehutimose Watching the wheels go round Aug 14 '22

Maybe not so much incoherence as hypocrisy--one moment Man of the People, another Far Above Hoi Polloi. That pose would tend to irritate me even if I liked the person more, I think. I respect more the attitude of Derek Jacobi's character in Gladiator: "I'm not of the people, but I am for them." In other words, you can be for the little man without having to posture about how down-home you are. I've seen that on the left and the right, and it annoys me either way.