Journamalism: Yastreblyansky is annoyed by David F. Brooks writing about how capitalism is unequal-but-productive, puts us on a path to Walter Lippman’s Good Society, and so we should avoid zero-sum thinking and accept the inequities of today’s society. He is annoyed because:

• it is not a smart argument, and

• it looks as though Brooks stole it from George Gilder.

That is, it really looks as though Brooks wrote his column with George Gilder’s book open by his elbow—Lippman-Good Society-division of labor-zero sum—and did not mention Gilder at all. This does look to me to be a more serious act of intellectual theft than anything of which Claudine Gay or Neri Oxman is guilty.

David Brooks could have dropped a “As George Gilder noted…” reference. But I think it is highly likely that Brooks thought “my brand needs for me to pretend that I am smarter than I am, and Gilder won’t make any kind of fuss.”

It is very strange. Why not say: “I know I am smart, and one of the biggest ways I am smart is knowing that there are other people smarter than me on issue X, and so being willing to turn the mic over to them when it is appropriate”? Showing that you are confident enough in your smartness to choose who is worth giving credit to is real boss move. Pretending your sources and inspirations do not exist shows that you have judged yourself, and found yourself wanting:

Yastreblyansky: Of the Faking of Brooks: ‘David F. Brooks… [makes the] argument that we shouldn’t be complaining about the inequities of capitalism because capitalism is really a “positive-sum” game, as illustrated by the value-creating operations of increasing the division of labor…. Brooks start[s]… with the division of labor… move[s]… on to a… Walter Lippman quote, [and] end[s]… up with… the zero-sum model… fail[s]… to mention Gilder at all, constructs a pretense that he’s created it all himself, though he clearly got the whole thing from Gilder and doesn’t have anything to do with it himself. That’s plagiarism. He has stolen Gilder’s idea… <yastreblyansky.substack…>

Let’s see if a little note appears, saying something like: “Brooks’s argument is borrowed from George Gilder'“…