This piece of mine was published on Saturday but I wanted to bring it to your attention if you missed it.

The piece is a hybrid, with a standalone free portion describing the problems with the way Stewart conducts his discourse, and a paid portion addressing his specific arguments on racial discrepancies in socioeconomic factors.

Excerpt from the free part:

I will begin with some background about the show itself, before diving into the actual arguments advanced by Stewart. Andrew Sullivan has described how Stewart’s bookers bait-and-switched Sullivan, initially attaching to the end of the fishhook a promise of a one-on-one sitdown on the issue of race relations, and switching that admittedly unappealing lure to something even worse: a Bill Maher-style struggle session with two smug hard-left guests and a mob of hooting leftist nincompoops.

Place to one side the obvious observation that any self-respecting fish would turn up its nares at the initially proffered inducement. Why, what could be more alluring than the chance to talk race with Jon Stewart?

The real problem here is not that the show encapsulates why I think Jon Stewart is a smug a-hole, although it does that in a thorough and conclusive fashion. The real problem is bigger than one snide, self-righteous, unfunny “comedian” who styles himself a Deep Thinker. The real problem is that the show is a perfect example of a more widespread problem with our discourse.

Excerpt from behind the paywall:

Yet here is another fact that people do not understand: different races and ethnicities have different median ages. According to Brookings:

In 2019, the white median age was 43.7, compared to 29.8 for Latinos or Hispanics, 34.6 for Black residents, 37.5 for Asian Americans, and 20.9 for persons identifying as two or more races.

Forget race for a second. Would it seem shocking that a 43-year-old is more likely to have saved more money than a 34-year-old? Would you be appalled to learn that more 43-year-olds own homes than 34-year-olds? Then why would you be surprised to learn that in a group with a median age of 43-44, the median person has saved more money and is more likely to own a home than a median person from a group whose median age is 34-35?

. . . .

I do not suggest that age explains everything. I don’t think it does. Let’s touch the third rail, shall we?

The third rail is: culture.

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