Eli,

I’ve never watched “The Wire,” so I’m agnostic on the show itself, but after attempting to read The Atlantic’s recent interview with David Simon (I say “attempt” because I had to put it down I found it so insufferable), I’ll have to second your assessment of the show’s creator as a self-righteous, pompous, leftist blowhard. The point at which I stopped reading is this sophomoric rant, in which Simon comes across as a lefty college freshman who’s just discovered Ariel Dorfman.

To Simon, The Wire is about “the very simple idea that, in this postmodern world of ours, human beings—all of us—are worth less. We’re worth less every day, despite the fact that some of us are achieving more and more. It’s the triumph of capitalism. Whether you’re a corner boy in West Baltimore, or a cop who knows his beat, or an Eastern European brought here for sex, your life is worth less. It’s the triumph of capitalism over human value. This country has embraced the idea that this is a viable domestic policy. It is. It’s viable for the few. But I don’t live in Westwood, L.A., or on the Upper West Side of New York. I live in Baltimore.”

I had friends in college who would babble on like this. From a student, it can be amusing. From a grown man, it’s embarrassing.