"One answer is that the town's elected officials thought that the project served a public purpose and that the various subsidies and favors were worth the price. But they may or may not have thought this"
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Kinsley’s sentence is a small masterpiece of institutional side-eye: it begins with the tidy civics-class alibi for public subsidies, then yanks the rug out with a shrug. “One answer is” signals that the official story is already just one narrative among several, not the truth. The first clause lays out the familiar redevelopment catechism - “public purpose,” “worth the price,” the language officials use when a deal needs moral varnish. Then comes the kicker: “But they may or may not have thought this.” It’s deadpan, almost lazy on the surface, and that’s why it stings. The line implies the real engine of policy isn’t belief or deliberation; it’s convenience, pressure, and the practiced ability to sound persuaded after the fact.
The intent is to puncture the mythology that elected officials act from coherent public-spirited reasoning, especially in the context of subsidies, abatements, and sweetheart “economic development” packages. Kinsley doesn’t accuse anyone of corruption outright; he does something more effective. He suggests that sincerity itself is optional in local governance, that the official rationale can be a costume donned for the press release and the meeting minutes. By admitting the possibility that they didn’t even believe their own justification, he exposes how public language gets weaponized to launder private benefit.
It works because it’s structurally a bait-and-switch: the reader is invited to settle into the comforting logic of democratic stewardship, then forced to confront the emptiness behind the rhetoric. Cynicism, here, isn’t a mood. It’s an X-ray.
The intent is to puncture the mythology that elected officials act from coherent public-spirited reasoning, especially in the context of subsidies, abatements, and sweetheart “economic development” packages. Kinsley doesn’t accuse anyone of corruption outright; he does something more effective. He suggests that sincerity itself is optional in local governance, that the official rationale can be a costume donned for the press release and the meeting minutes. By admitting the possibility that they didn’t even believe their own justification, he exposes how public language gets weaponized to launder private benefit.
It works because it’s structurally a bait-and-switch: the reader is invited to settle into the comforting logic of democratic stewardship, then forced to confront the emptiness behind the rhetoric. Cynicism, here, isn’t a mood. It’s an X-ray.
Quote Details
| Topic | Decision-Making |
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