Twitter Dunks On NYT Columnist Suggesting "The Age Of Coddling Is Over" For Millennials

Conservative New York Times opinion columnist David Brooks has never been known for his relatable hot takes, and several times a year it seems he'll publish a piece that provides Twitter a day's worth of mockery.

Today, Brooks published an op-ed titled "The Age Of Coddling Is Over", which, by most readers, was deemed pretty bad. Brooks' piece, a relatively standard Boomer diatribe about how parents have been overprotective of children and caused them to be unprepared for the real world, ticked off enough people that his name trended on Twitter.

Though Brooks' piece doesn't specifically mention Millennials, all the hallmarks of a "These Dang Kids"-style post are there. There's an absurd anecdote about overprotective parenting:

"…parents are now more likely to accommodate their child’s fears: accompanying a 9-year-old to the toilet because he’s afraid to be alone, preparing different food for a child because she won’t eat what everyone else eats."

There are rosy-eyed callbacks to "the way things were":

"I’m reminded of Dr. Albert Schweitzer’s 1931 memoir. When hiring doctors for his hospital in the African jungle, he wrote, he never hired anyone who thought he was doing something grand and heroic. The only doctors who would last are those who thought what they were doing was as ordinary and necessary as doing the dishes."

Unsourced complaints about schools banning contact sports and boosting grades:

"Meanwhile, schools ban dodge ball and inflate grades. Since 2005 the average G.P.A. in affluent high schools has risen from about 2.75 to 3.0 so everybody can feel affirmed."

Twitter found Brooks' opinion amidst a global pandemic that has forced unemployment in America to skyrocket to over 22 million people a bit, shall we say, ill-timed.

I’m 36. I’ve had a job since I was 12 (soccer ref/concession stand).This is my 3rd recession. I guess what I’m saying is FUCK OFF, David Brooks. Seriously, @nytimes, reel it in. pic.twitter.com/zclUeN1CJF

— Stephanie Streit (@smstreit) April 17, 2020

Student debt is 1.6 trillion The number of homeless students in public schools has increased 70% in the past decade More millennial households are in poverty than those of any other generationDavid Brooks is a millionaire pic.twitter.com/JsRBKflA1x

— Thea Riofrancos (@triofrancos) April 17, 2020

I can’t think of a better example of coddling than the fact that David Brooks still has a column pic.twitter.com/SGexF4AOZE

— Allison Kilkenny (@allisonkilkenny) April 17, 2020

If David Brooks hates millennials so much then why did he marry one

— Ken Klippenstein (@kenklippenstein) April 17, 2020

What people like David Brooks are really doing when they glorify hardship and resilience is trying to retcon their egregious indifference to human suffering as some kind of virtue instead of the grievous moral failing it really is. Don't fall for it.

— jamie 🌹 (@euthyphro) April 17, 2020

Millennials, raised in austerity, low wages and zero benefits, amidst collapsing infrastructure, and are now experiencing their third “once in a lifetime financial crash.” And Boomer David Brooks serves up the most Boomer headline ever. pic.twitter.com/uq7otm6OK8

— 🌹 Clark wants Joe Biden to draw a clock (@Clarknt67) April 17, 2020

On behalf of all millennials, thank you David Brooks, not for your piece, but for providing a day's worth of entertainment.