After nearly a decade of being forced to take Trump seriously, Democrats increasingly call BS on the whole charade
Sure, Donald Trump is a threat to democracy — a would-be dictator on day one who has called for terminating the U.S. Constitution so he can hold onto power even after losing a free and fair election. But while draped in the rhetoric of populism, Trump and his MAGA movement are not actually popular; the man himself has never won more votes than the person he ran against, a majority of Americans twice rejecting him and his off-putting cult of personality. That he was ever president is more or less because a few thousand swing voters in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania thought it would be fun.
President Joe Biden won in 2020 largely by promising to a return to normalcy and baseline competency. In 2024, Democrats are making a similar argument but more forcibly: They’re pointing, laughing and dismissing Trump and his circus as a total freak show to which we can’t return.
Democrats gonna be the party of traditional values i guess.
Yes. The US has always had a disconnect between what they say they believe and what they actually do. So, it’s up to progressives to align what the government does to what it professes to believe.
Supporting trans kids and making abortions legal, safe, and accessible both fall in line with “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness”. The Founders never said anything against abortion or trans kids. You can’t even find anything in the Bible about that! Conservatives just took their bigoted ideas and slapped a “traditional values” label on them.
The only problem I have is I’m weird and I think weird is cool, I like weird people and I love towns that have a motto that is like keep Portland weird. I celebrate weird, but I guess it’s time to normalize the weird I’ve been supporting and ostracize the truly weird
Weird is neutral on it’s own, it’s context and tone and stuff that gives it positive and negative weight
Weird as in countercultural is cool. Weird as in talking about wanting to date your daughter is not so cool.
That’s disgusting, not “weird”.
It’s also weird. Normal people don’t want to date their daughter.
No, it’s not “also weird”. Use a more descriptive word. We can’t have one word be equally applicable to people that are slightly awkward and people that want to groom their children. Blindly grouping them together normalizes the latter and demonizes the former.
Also, “Normal” is a term used to make people feel othered. Consider what normal has excluded in the past (race, sexuality, gender, etc) and how disgusting we see that was now. Again, there are better words to use that don’t contribute (intentionally or not) to binding truly vile behavior to benign characteristics.
It is also weird. Weird is a pretty broad and neutral term. It encompasses quirky and creepy.
I find it so odd you’re strongly against the concept of normal while so gung ho about keeping weird as a thing. Weird is used just as much for othering.
I’m aware as you use it repeatedly for exactly that. I’m also aware that many people embrace their weirdness to take the power back from bullies and bigots. They should get to keep that without worrying about the term becoming a synonym for pedophile or fascist.
The kind of weird you embrace isn’t the kind of weird he is. He’d hate it even worse if we said he was your kind of weird. When he’s gone we can make weird great again.
“Don’t worry, we’re only gonna do this shitty thing for a little bit, we swear!” That’s not a reassurance, it’s just an excuse.
Calling out the weirdness of an objectively weird (and creepy, and megalomaniac, and venal, and abusive and dangerous) old man, who’s weird by choice and despite all his privileges, isn’t shitty.
It’s the hope that his brand of weirdness becomes irrelevant and forgotten that I was referring to, not saying there would ever be a time to stop naming it what it is, or feeling obliged to make excuses for it.
It absolutely is shitty. You’re not “calling out” trump & co. for some objective characteristic - you’re lumping everyone that’s ever been derided for being “weird”, bullied, and generally othered in with them for cheap political points. Your excuse that it’s only temporary is a hollow promise I expect even you don’t believe. The damage is to more than just one person, and that doesn’t get undone as soon as you decide you’ve had your fun and go home.
You are overthinking this and make it about you. This is meant to get under their skin because they are weird and cannot handle the phrase.
We expect you to not be so easily irked and intelligent enough to realize wat the spiel is here…
Weird is a loaded phrase. It was a gamble to see if it can track but in this way, against Trump, its working. I agree it was always my preference to be weird then be cool when I was young but this isn’t that kind of weird.
To someone who is conformist being “weird” is the worst thing. If you aren’t being weird is a badge of honor and people wear it proudly. This is why it works so well right now.
This is also the tactic employed in major hiphop feud Kdot v. Drake
How’d it work out for the weird guy with rumors of pedophilia who is hated by the majority of people who worked with him?
I find it quite strange that “old and weird” seems to work better than “corrupt and criminal”.
It’s because it’s a fascist movement.
Fascism is organized around a strong leader who supposedly embodies the values of the movement. A fascist leader isn’t a leader who’s thoughtful and fair, they’re strong, determined, filled with righteous anger, etc.
Corrupt and criminal can be twisted into those characteristics. It’s not “corruption”, it’s taking advantage of suckers. Something you have to be clever and ruthless to do. It’s not “criminal”, it’s ignoring laws meant for lesser people.
On the other hand, a fascist leader’s image isn’t compatible with weakness and strangeness. Fascism is all about claiming the national identity is under threat by “others”, immigrants, intellectuals, homosexuals, etc. The fascist leader needs to be seen to embody all that’s good and right about the true national spirit. But, if they’re seen as weak and weird, that’s not something anybody wants to associate with.
To add to that I’d like to quote Ian Danskin (aka Inuendo Studios) from his guest lecture about Gamergate at UC Merced:
Bob Altemeyer has this survey he uses to study authoritarianism. He divides respondents into people with low, average, and high authoritarian sentiments, and then tells them what the survey has measured and asks, “what score do you think is best to have: low, average, or high?”
People with low authoritarian sentiments say it’s best to be low. People with average authoritarian sentiments also say it’s best to be low. But people with high authoritarian sentiments? They say it’s best to be average. Altemeyer finds, across all his research, that reactionaries want to aggress, but only if it is socially acceptable. They want to know they are the in-group and be told who the out-group is. They don’t particularly care who the out-group is, Altemeyer finds they’ll aggress against any group an authority figure points to, even, if they don’t notice it, a group that contains them. They just have to believe the in-group is the norm.
Great quote. It explains why they’re especially sensitive to the idea that their position is not normal.
exactly. In the next paragraph Ian even has some examples of how that works in modern day American conservative political culture:
Reactionary politics is rebellion against things they dislike getting normalized, because they know, if they are normalized, they will have to accept them. Because the thing they care about most is being normal.
This is why the echo chamber, this is why Fox News, this is why the Far Right insists they are the “silent majority.” This is why they artificially inflate their numbers. This is why they insist facts are “biased.” They have to maintain the image that what are, in material terms, fringe beliefs are, in fact, held by the majority. This is why getting mocked by Stephen Colbert was such a blow to GamerGate. It makes it harder to believe the world at large agrees with them.
This is why, if you’re trying to change the world for the better, it’s pointless to ask their permission. Because, if you change the world around them, they will adapt even faster than you will.
Honestly the whole talk is worth a listen. It’s depressing because, well, it’s about gamergate but it explains so much (and it’s probably one of the parts of his alt right playbook series of video essays getting shared the least on social media
Yeah, that’s really interesting. I think on the left there’s more acceptance for being weird. In fact, I think that’s one of the things the left fights for: the freedom to not be normal. If you’re not hurting anybody, then nobody should care what you do.
This is probably what has led to the MAGA people being so deeply weird. The right is used to their neighbours policing them and keeping them from drifting too far from normal. The left generally doesn’t care too much about normal. So, when the MAGA movement made the Republican base so weird, their neighbours were caught up in it, so they weren’t criticizing the drift away from normal. The democrats didn’t really care so much about the lack of “normality”, but were instead focused on all the actual bad shit, like refusing to confirm Supreme Court justices, banning muslims from entering the US, etc. So, now pointing out how far from normal they’ve drifted is really having an effect.
You have to love the irony of the far right considering themselves the “silent” anything.
It was creepy how many times they said the words “strong” and “strength” during the Republican convention. They worship strength. Might makes right.
Its really fascinating. Their image is to embody what is “normal”, “natural”, “right”. They’re bullies, claiming they’re better than everyone else, and using those differences to push that superiority.
It turns out the most effective method to combat bullies is to… bully them. Point out how abormal, unnatural, and inferior they are. Its such a core element of their existence that they fall apart without it.
I’m not proud of it. But also, I’m not crying about it.
It’s not even necessarily bullying them back, it’s more refusing to be bullied.
Beating up a bully can be an effective strategy, but it’s risky, you might lose the fight. And, since it’s a fight they want it’s one they probably think they can win.
Laughing at a bully is attacking them where they’re weak. It’s defusing the fight by making people not want to back them, and by doing that making them want to retreat.
I see it more as calling out that the emperor wears no clothes. Don’t play by their rules. Expose the farce!
The media have been complicit in this. Treating Trump like a serious candidate helped him win the election.
Yeah, the whole thing about a coup attempt and trying to overthrow our democracy wasn’t landing… but “old and weird” is somehow catching on?
Probably for 2 reasons:
-
quote “all politicians are corrupt and criminal” so this tactic doesn’t land (look at the dem sensor from NJ)
-
few people know convicted felons but they do know “old and weird” people, so they can better draw personal parallels
(look at the dem sensor from NJ)
The one that we’re forcing out, yes. Not as fast as we got rid of Anthony Weiner, but they’re out.
The worst Dems have at the federal level might be Pelosi making stock trades. You know, like half of congress, but for some reason only she (rightly) gets attention for it. Maybe we should include more people than just Pelosi in that conversation.
Yeah, the nj guy is getting replaced with andy kim who is infinitely better.
I think the “weird” attribution has a way of infecting his supporters as well.
If you support a criminal, that doesn’t necessarily make you a criminal. If you support a corrupt politician, that doesn’t make you a corrupt politician.
But if you support somebody weird? Well that makes you weird. Trump’s weirdness infects you. It’s the cheese touch of politics.
For a decade now there has been a certain crowd who considers Trump’s criminality and general disregard for truth to be cool in a “gangster” way. Gangsters are leaders.
Weirdos, not so much.
Some were weirdos but they were the creative types of weirdos, not old pervert and couch fucker type of weirdos.
I feel old for remembering the cheese touch… that book was out in elementary school
A decent number of people also know people who got railroaded into bullshit legal problems.
Yes, that’s probably how it is - pretty sad tho.
It’s also a plausible way out. Someone can convince themself that Trump was not as old and weird 10 years ago, so they did not make a mistake voting for him then
-
We need David Tenant to go on some social media platform and say to the world, “Doesn’t Ex-President Trump look tired?”
The whole schtick the right wing is selling is trying to claim that they are the normal Americans.
When you point out that it is weird as hell to worship a reality TV star while wearing diapers and fake ear bandages, they are forced to look in a mirror and realize that actually, no, they are not the normal ones.
I think at least some of it is because republicans already call democrats corrupt and criminal. When the dems come back and make the same accusations it just looks like bickering. Ideally the substance of such claims would matter but current political discourse in the US prioritizes sound bites and quips
And they’re not even being real about it.
“You know there’s something wrong with people when they talk about freedom — freedom to be in your bedroom, freedom to be in your exam room, freedom to tell your kids what they can read,” Walz said. “That stuff is weird. They come across as weird. They seem obsessed with this.”
And buttigieg: “Republicans, including Fox News anchors, “will take a look at Donald Trump and say he’s perfectly fine, even though he seemed unable to tell the difference between Nikki Haley and Nancy Pelosi; even though he’s rambling about electrocuting sharks and Hannibal Lecter; even though he’s clearly older and stranger than he was when America got to know him,” Buttigieg said. “They say he’s strong as an ox, leaps tall buildings in a single bound. We don’t have that kind of warped reality on our side.”
I actually felt a strange sort of relief when I opened this article and saw the headline. But after reading it…that’s it? Why can’t they come out and talk like real-ass people? We get it, you’re professional politicians that are soooo smart. But level with people, for fucks sake.
Just in the middle of a typical dem speech, even if it’s scripted, go “off script” like:
[…]and…I mean. Maybe this isn’t ‘proper,’ but forget proper for a minute…what the hell is wrong with trump? And Vance, for that matter. Why are we all pretending this is normal? That what they say and do is normal? These aren’t normal people. They’re…weird. Really weird. And frankly—they’re just hateful assholes. We can’t let these freaks have any real power again. We remember last time, right? It was horrifying for a lot of people. Good people were being threatened for who they are. Forget that. We can’t let these weird, sad, wannabe fascists take power. Give a wannabe fascist any power, and they’re not “wannabe” anymore. They can just be fascists. And with this corrupt Supreme Court? We would be in deep shit. I get it, we outside of the freak show that is the far right, have our differences. Those to the left of us don’t think we do enough. Those to the right of us think we do too much. But, no matter what, we aren’t those freaks. And right now, that is the most important thing. Keeping wannabe dictators and bonafide weirdos away from the adult’s table. We want to do more for everyone. And keeping trump and Vance and all of the equally strange and hateful Republican grifters and con artists away from the real levers of power will allow us to do more. So…let’s try to keep this asylum from falling to the inmates.
I mean, I don’t actually believe they want to do more for everyone and I know they’d never, ever acknowledge that there are people to the left of them with valid ideas, but if they’re gonna play politics, play fuckin smarter. Let people see you’re a person too.
Democrats have just decided that “decorum” and appearances are still somehow the way to go. Be fuckin real with people. Don’t give us the form letter politician shit. That is obviously where we’re at as a country. The sooner they learn that the better chance they’ll have.
i think corrupt and criminal works in messaging toward independents; old and weird works against republicans.
I think it’s because for so long they’ve relied on Democrats/people on the left (I say that because it’s not just in the US, it’s become the right-wing tactic all over the place) being serious and arguing in good faith, IE: they’ll just say the wildest shit that’s blatantly untrue, and people on the left tend to bust out the facts and links to long explanations of why that’s false, and they just counter it with more nonsense until their opponents get tired and quit, then they proclaim victory. But if you just go “you’re weird, fuck you” and then refuse to follow up on it they kind of don’t know what to do with it.
Also, the amount it’s pissing them off means it’s working, everyone keep doing it!
Hmm, I wonder if commenting that in that strange Lemmy place c/conservative would have the same effect lmao
Ugh, what a weird and creepy place that is
But if you just go “you’re weird, fuck you” and then refuse to follow up on it they kind of don’t know what to do with it.
Well, if it were that easy, the right would’ve been beaten a long time ago. If Kamala ever gets a chance to debate Trump (spoiler: he will never debate her) she isn’t going to just respond to everything he says with some variation of “you’re weird; fuck you”.
arguing in good
I specifically remember Trevor Noah having an opening monologue to the Daily Show some time just prior to or after Trump having taken office about this exact topic. Essentially he was saying it allowed Trump to control the narrative. Every time he lied, the left leaning media would be off digging up facts and statistics to come back and says “ah ha ya! Look at this!” But by the time they get back to respond, he’s gone off and changed the topic and made another blatantly false condemnation of some group of people. And so the cycle repeats itself.
Noah’s proposed solution was the same as a child having a tantrum: ignore them. When things go wrong, make it clear why it’s a result of his policies or rhetoric. Stop playing politics like you’re playing them with a competent adult. You’re not.
Yeah it’s a bit like dealing with the school bully I think. They want to make people flustered and upset because it makes them feel big and gets them attention. But if you give them even a little bit of their own medicine they can’t handle it at all.
And they’re not even being real about it.
“You know there’s something wrong with people when they talk about freedom — freedom to be in your bedroom, freedom to be in your exam room, freedom to tell your kids what they can read,” Walz said. “That stuff is weird. They come across as weird. They seem obsessed with this.”
And buttigieg: “Republicans, including Fox News anchors, “will take a look at Donald Trump and say he’s perfectly fine, even though he seemed unable to tell the difference between Nikki Haley and Nancy Pelosi; even though he’s rambling about electrocuting sharks and Hannibal Lecter; even though he’s clearly older and stranger than he was when America got to know him,” Buttigieg said. “They say he’s strong as an ox, leaps tall buildings in a single bound. We don’t have that kind of warped reality on our side.”
I actually felt a strange sort of relief when I opened this article and saw the headline. But after reading it…that’s it? Why can’t they come out and talk like real-ass people? We get it, you’re professional politicians that are soooo smart. But level with people, for fucks sake.
Just in the middle of a typical dem speech, even if it’s scripted, go “off script” like:
[…]and…I mean. Maybe this isn’t ‘proper,’ but forget proper for a minute…what the hell is wrong with trump? And Vance, for that matter. Why are we all pretending this is normal? That what they say and do is normal? These aren’t normal people. They’re…weird. Really weird. And frankly—they’re just hateful assholes. We can’t let these freaks have any real power again. We remember last time, right? It was horrifying for a lot of people. Good people were being threatened for who they are. Forget that. We can’t let these weird, sad wannabe fascists take power. Give a wannabe fascist any power, and they’re not “wannabe” anymore. They can just be fascists. And with this corrupt Supreme Court? We would be in deep shit. I get it, we outside of the freak show that is the far right, have our differences. Those to the left of us don’t think we do enough. Those to the right of us think we do too much. But, no matter what, we aren’t those freaks. And right now, that is the most important thing. Keeping wannabe dictators and bonafide weirdos away from the adult’s table. We want to do more for everyone. And keeping trump and Vance and all of the equally strange and hateful Republican grifters and con artists will allow us to do more. So…let’s try to keep this asylum from falling to the inmates.
Democrats have just decided that “decorum” and appearances are still somehow the way to go. Be fuckin real with people. Don’t give us the form letter politician shit. That is obviously where we’re at as a country. The sooner they learn that the better chance they’ll have.
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Beep boop. This action was performed automatically. If you dont like me then please block me.💔
If you have any questions or comments about me, you can make a post to LW Support lemmy community.Y’all know the story of Hitler coming into power? Right?
Trump is not a normal opponent who one should (or can) engage in a high-minded debate about tariffs and industrial policy. He’s a clown: scary, but often sad and ultimately a joke.
This is exactly what most German people thought about Hitler, and why they thought he could never come to power. Fascism is weird, but also weirdly appealing to a very determined and violent subset of people, and they’ll do what it takes to coerce others to go along. You’re right we shouldn’t be too confident that sanity will naturally win.
This is exactly what most German people thought about Hitler, and why they thought he could never come to power.
I mean, I bring up Hitler, but this is also exactly what people thought about Trump first time around too.
Fascism is weird, but also weirdly appealing to a very determined and violent subset of people
Some people crave a King. They want to be ruled. That’s the structure that makes sense to their brain.
promising to a return to normalcy and baseline competency.
Here’s the thing. Biden hails from an era of politics where one would absolutely get lit up by the media for breaking decorum.
It’s been a slow decline for some time, but the Republicans along with
their propaganda outletFox News have slowly changed the country’s thermostat on this over the last few decades. Much like wearing a winter parka in the summer heat, maintaining complete and total political decorum in this climate is no longer a boon, it’s a handicap. We all saw Biden take one heck of a beating, while taking the high road and never really taking the (rage) bait to hit back in quite the same way. But while that approach is performing on virtue, the optics are one of a punching bag in the eyes of many crucial voters.So tactics have been changed, and boy have they ever.
What I appreciate about this approach is that it’s actually very light-handed, considering all that could be done. It also looks downright polite compared to how much right-wing media has run with hyperbole and even outright fabrication. Yet running on the rather casual sounding observation of “old and weird” is generating actual results. It’s also refreshing to loudly point out what we were all baffled about from the get-go: “Don’t they know? I mean, they’re seeing the same stuff we are, right?”
I welcome this new shift to “bless your heart” politics.
I welcome this new shift to “bless your heart” politics.
This is the equivalent of pointing out grammatical errors in an others logically sound argument. This is not a positive development, it is a sign that things are continuing to get worse.
It is, in fact, not at all the equivalent of that. Get your lab equipment tested.
logically sound argument
Not even a little. Trump is wrong about what the problems are, and proposes “solutions” to the non-problems that we know will make them worse.
Plus, he’s old and weird, and he running mate might be young-ish, but double-weird instead.
Let me rephrase this.
This is like pointing out grammatical errors in both a logical/illogical argument.
You are either the person going ‘neener neener you misspelled a word’ to a person with a sound argument, or you’re stooping to the level of an idiot to defeat an idiot.
If you cannot recognize why both are bad, I am not going to explain it to you.
Problem is you are pretending like the illogical argument didnt sit in office for 4 years.
No, I’m not, you’re reading into what I’ve said and think you’ve got me because you don’t understand what I’m (and by association, you’re) talking about.
I’m sorry if you cant recognize the ridiculous strawman argument you put up, I’m not going to explain it to you.
Not a strawman lil guy, you just can’t read. Actually, the only strawman placed is the one you propped up.
Fascists don’t get civil debate. They get mocked, beaten, and ignored. If you don’t understand why I call people that are involved with Project 2025 “weird”, I’m not going to explain it to you, again.
The death of civil discourse, ladies and gentleman. Propagated by people who think they’re doing the right thing. The same people who are responsible for the complete lack of civil discourse online, who would have thought?
I don’t know who thinks “weird” is some kind of effective attack. IMO just happens to coincide with the wave of feel-good associated with Biden stepping aside and Harris stepping up. Personally I find it pretty lame. stick with dishing back what the republicans threw at Biden - trump is old, he can’t form coherent sentences, question his health, and show everyone he wants a hereditary dictatorship that subjugates women and fellates the ultra wealthy so the US can be just another shitty kleptocracy.
I hate this messaging because I’m proudly weird. It’s a rhetorical step towards ostracizing and othering those who are different. I think this is a really bad move that can and will backfire, especially when the opponent is fascism.
Weird is just anything you aren’t used to. Kamala is “weird” to trump supporters who aren’t used to seeing women or POCs in positions of power. Compared to every president before her, she stands out as a lot weirder than Trump.
“You’re weird!” Is a really bad strategy. Queer and weird were once synonyms, and mostly still are. Don’t disenfranchise your base.
I’m feeling the same way. Using “weird” to attack anyone is just shallow and mean, and isn’t going to resonate well with people that grew up being dismissed as weird. It’s a bullying tactic that politicians should be above.
Yes, “creepy” would have been way more accurate to describe these guys anyway.
Hey! Some of us proudly identify as creepy over here!
Sorry, I forgot about Radiohead.
They’re going for laughter, not disgust. Authoritarians hate being laughed at.
I can get behind that. Total creeps.
I think it’s part of a larger reframing of the conversation. You’re right, it used to be that queer and weird were synonymous, but why should it be?
Queer should be normal. Trans should be normal. Black and Brown and Asian and Native should all be normal. Fucked up right wing ideologies should not be normal.
And the only way we get there is by acting like we already are. You reframe the narrative. You move “normal” to where it should be instead of where it is. You bring all the people who used to be the “weirdos” and outsiders into the tent, and you leave the bigoted xenophobes standing outside in the rain.
Queer is the new normal. Bigot is the new weird. That’s a world I’m down for living in.
This I can almost get behind, except that “weird” has a lot of queer and diverse and non-white connotations/baggage that can’t be ignored.
A white-on-the-inside coconut may not see it immediately if she was raised in a California context. That word didn’t just fall out of a tree, and it exists within the context of all the uses that came before hers.
Sure, we can reframe what behavior is acceptable vs not, but “weird” does not mean and has never meant “unacceptable”. Weird Al is generally considered to be acceptable. “That’s weird” is usually quoted as the fundamental driving statement of advances in science. Rejecting weirdness is fundamentally antithetical to progress, and carries with it baggage of rejecting solid portions of the democratic party’s base.
I think there’s more than enough specific context to how the term is being used here that I feel confident in saying the risks you’re imagining don’t really exist.
I’m openly bisexual and married to a trans woman, and also a massive nerd, and I really don’t feel threatened by this. Words can have different meanings depending on their context. Gay can mean homosexual, and gay can also mean happy. Idiot can be a term of abuse or a term of affection. Weird can be cool, or it can be creepy. Language is just like that.
You’re weird. I’m weird. We both know that weird is where it’s at, and the worst thing either of us could aspire to be is “normal”.
This strategy is about rattling folks whose identity is still external rather than internal. Introspection surrounding the idea of “weirdness” is the goal.
The expectation to conform to a set of principles foisted upon you by superiors is the idea that we’re fighting against. The people who support that way of thinking want wealth consolidation, conformity, and all others in cages. Weird is a dang battle cry in the face of something so oppressively ordinary.
Sorry but linking it to “queer” is just completely ridiculous. Nobody is calling them queer and nobody is hearing them being called weird as being called queer.
Weird and queer are clear synonyms.
No matter what, it’s making fun of someone for being different and diverse.
It’s functionally extremely similar, the only difference is that some parts of the lgbt community have claimed queer as their own.
Language matters.
If you think calling those freaks weird is somehow an insult to gay people, that’s your problem because that’s fucking idiotic. Sorry but there’s really nothing else to say.
He is weird, though. It’s a different kind of weird from mine, but still weird.
Sure, but everybody’s weird. That’s why it doesn’t work as an insult unless you are anti-diversity.
Fortunately it’s being used against the anti-diversity side.
… which is precisely why it’s an excellent tactic to give pause to your average American.
There are subtleties of language that depend on context. I think most people understand that this line of attack refers to malignant weirdness as opposed to quirky or outside-the-mainstream weirdness.
For example, the GOP’s obsession with micromanaging women’s bodies is fucking weird. From context, you can probably see that I mean it is sinister, strange, and gross.
Then call him malignant. Weird is a word that has mostly positive connotations and it sounds like she’s complimenting him when quotes are taken out of context and put into a headline.
“Weird” is incredibly effective in this context because thinking of themselves as “Normal” is really, really important to right wingers, and especially to the MAGA cult. Just look at how often they use terms like “silent majority”. Being the norm, the baseline, the average, that’s essential to their understanding of who they are. Meanwhile the liberals and leftists and Democrats are the kookie weirdo freaks who want to destroy their decent, simple, God fearing way of life. That normality is exactly what they think conservatives are conserving. So the idea that their “Normal” is a myth undercuts their entire way of thinking.
Interesting perspective. My exposure to MAGA folks has tended to be from edgelords who take pride that they aren’t “normies” and that they are different from the mass of “sheeple”.
I suppose it depends on whether you associate MAGA with the alt-right or with traditional conservatives. Both are important voting blocks for trump. I don’t know many traditional conservatives that haven’t jumped on the centrist neoliberal bandwagon.
I associate a desire for “normalcy” and a rejection of those who have “weird” opinions with the aging neoliberals in my life. They often use attacks on the “weird” to resist progressive and inclusive actions that don’t fit within their neoliberal boomer mindset. The non-centrists reject normality and embrace weird and unusual ways of approaching the problems in our country, at least in my social exposure. It’s one of the ways that I’ve seen both extremes differ from the center. The difference between the left and right extremes are just the brand and direction of deviation from the crumbling and untenable centrist positions. One side celebrates weirdness and diversity, the other celebrates what they think makes them superior to normal, and therefore worthy of surviving the genocide they advocate for.
It’s also a word stupid people are going to have to look up, and it’s easily disregarded as just being against them because they’re republicans (how they feel about Democrats) and not because their beliefs are fucking weird and creepy.
I like the weird messaging as a weird dude, because it’s pretty clear it’s being used because it makes them feel like they’re not in the in-group anymore. You can see by how badly they react how effective the message is, and changing messaging just when something starts working just makes you look incompetent or like you’re trying to sabotage your own message. The Democrats already have enough of that kind of baggage, they don’t need to shoot themselves in the foot right now…
Then call him malignant
Too clinical. Sorry, but “weird” hits harder for a bigger portion of the electorate.
Weird is a word that has mostly positive connotations
Not to everyone, and not in every context.
Gross! Now that’s a good second word. Creepy is another.
Trump and MAGAs are weird, creepy, and gross.
"We should choose the moral high ground against people who would exploit us taking the moral high ground. 🤡
It’s not about taking the moral high ground against them, it’s about not disenfranchising and alienating large portions of her base so she can win, and it’s about not using an attack that frankly is more applicable to her candidacy than to his.
She’s the weird one! That’s why I’m voting for her! Trump is just more of the dark side of America that has always been present. Nothing weird about him. Plenty weird and unique and novel and different about Kamala. I’m voting for the weird candidate.
Trump is just more of the dark side of America that has always been present. Nothing weird about him.
Are you fucking kidding me? Dude walked into beauty pageant dressing rooms while they were changing - that’s fucking weird
Dude wants to roll back rights for large segments of the population - that’s fucking weird
Dude talked about wanting to have sex with his daughter - that’s really fucking weird.
I could go on, but don’t pretend the demented diaper shitting fucknugget is “normal”. There’s a reason trump was so effective in 2016, because he was fucking weird and fired up a lot of the weird ass cracks of the internet without exposing his weirdness to the population at large.
America may have had a dark side, but there’s a reason it’s called ‘the dark sode’ - they’re fucking weird.
All of that behavior is problematic, but not “weird” in the context of people in power throughout American/world history.
It frankly is normal. That’s why he has such a large base. That’s why he’s dangerous. That’s why our whole country needs to face its alarmingly common dark tendencies.
She’s the weird one!
Is she really, though? I think she’s refreshingly normal. She only seems weird because we’re used to politicians who don’t laugh, who aren’t relatable. Her views are majoritarian views. Her views are views that the majority supports.
I guess it’s all relative. It’s a sad indictment of our political system that it’s “weird” to have a presidential candidate who’s a likable human being with ideas that most people can get behind.
I somewhat agree with you, which is why I refer to them as old convicted felon and couch fucker. It doesn’t have a great ring to it but seems accurate
Being weird is not an insult to us, we wear that hat with pride. But our weird behavior falls on one side of the “normalcy range”, the quirky, the funny, the confidently different, the queer side.
There is another side of “weird”, the side of creepy weird, the side of child predators, the side of tikki-torch nazis, the side of whatever the couch fuck is wrong with J.D. Vance. And they don’t wear that hat with pride, they wish they were normal or think of themselves as normal.
To the ones who hate us, who can’t stand our confident weirdness, and to the ones who are on the wrong side of weirdness, it’s an insult. That’s why we can be proudly weird, while they start foaming at the mouth at the mere implication that they might not be “normal”. That’s why this attack lands, they are the anti-queer, the anti-weird and pointing out that Trump behaves outside the accepted range of “normal” behavior (just in the opposite direction of our weird) is an effective attack.
Yeah, trying to overthrow the government and create a theocratic dictatorship, run by a probable amoral atheist felon who is functionally illiterate is pretty weird. Life in general has just been weird for the past 10 years now, but I feel like a large part of it is caused by Republicans in general enabling weird shit to happen.
I don’t know if Republicans hate it as much as we just love it.
They absolutely baller move right now would be to STOP saying it.
Let it sit there and don’t say it again. Move on to something else for a bit.
Let them get all frothed about it but never refer to it again.
Otherwise they’re going to regroup and have a response… stopping now means they waste their energy
Lol, found trumps account.
Haha… oh man. You MONSTER …
I tested it on the chuds in my fantasy football chat, and they lost their minds. It works.
Keep up the good work
I wonder why? I don’t think Kamala supporters would freak out if you called her “weird”.
Because fundamentally right wingers a build their identity around the idea that they are normal.
Progressives? We’re generally pretty OK with being weird. Being different. Being unusual. But right wingers are pathologically obsessed with the idea of being normal. The idea of being weird scares then more than anything else.
Im glad they finally found something that sticks but sometimes I wish Kendrick just came out one time to call Trump a certified pedophile. Id laugh so hard I’d piss myself and possibly even someone else.
“they not like us” [photo of Trump and Clinton with Epstein]
Well then maybe they should stop being such weirdos.
Positively tame. Some people like weirdos yknow
Fox & Friends host Brian Killamead is trying to spin it as, “aren’t we all a little weird? What’s normal anyway?”
don’t be orange
don’t not be not orange
Yeah thats why i say hes not weird just mean and nasty
“aren’t we all a little weird? What’s normal anyway?”
Weird tack for people who are against (checks notes) anybody who isn’t white, straight, and Christian.
Not those kind
should be worth noting that the only people who said “weird” was a pejorative were republicans, though.
Yeah, that’s why “no you” doesn’t work here. I know I’m a weirdo. I like being a weirdo and hanging out with other weirdos. You call me a weirdo and I’m like, “Yeah, cool.”
But group identity is everything to a conservative. Conservatism, as it has been said, depends on an in-group and an out-group. “Weird” could only ever be a pejorative to the conservative who really needs to conform and not be weird. A person who accepts the diversity of humanity doesn’t need everyone to be the same, so weirdness isn’t really all that weird. When the in-group is weird, it’s not an insult.
