one thing i’m really glad that the third season is making clear is that david, like… sucks. like i feel like there was a popular perception before that david is a sort of mistreated sweetheart which has never Really been true but this season in particular is making it very evident that david is a very small petty spiteful person who really only thinks about himself
and idk that’s really been true this whole time right? like david is a selfish person who doesn’t think about others (using carol as a therapist despite her objections, such as that not being her job) and i think more importantly he’s Obsessed with the idea he has of himself and how other people see him. he allows brad to waste his day on the nazi bracket not Really because he wants to actually do the right thing (the right thing is to ban misogynists, pedophiles And nazis, not fight over which is the least okay) but because brad is playing on david’s desire to be perceived as a good progressive person and to Feel Like a good progressive person regardless of the actual impact of his actions. that’s also how poppy gets him to follow her in her vendetta against brad— he doesn’t have any actual objections to what brad Wants, but he wants to be a cool boss who “backs creative.”
for me though the really big one is the way he breaks up with the widow he was dating— he asks her to move in with him and she says no, which is a pretty clear signal that he’s moving too fast for her. but instead of listening to her, david immediately proposes, because it’s what he wants to do and what fits his narrative of himself (he’s sweet, he’s vulnerable, he wants to be loved, he’s a big tough wolf showing his vulnerable underbelly as you sometimes have to, whatever the story was that day) and that’s more important than his partner’s comfort. and she dumps him. obviously. because that’s stupid. like david does not get left because people are cruel or because he’s weird or whatever people don’t like david because he is an unpleasant person to be around. which imo is more interesting than softboy david LMAO that is a grown man. anyway this isn’t like a serious post i’m just glad we’re seeing more of that control freak self centred completely un-self-aware undercurrent on the Surface this season