90% of conservatism just boils down to being mad about having to see people who don't look like you on television. Most of everything else is downstream from that. pic.twitter.com/YwGF4DfZxV
— ShagNasty, Eastern Europe Understander (@YaBoiShagNasty) April 24, 2022
DJT Jr (who, if you click on the image, circulated the original meme) just wants a world where everyone else is a blank white male cut-out, too. A world where he’s not continually startled by people not like him… and not forever marked out from the comforting anonymity of Blank White Maleness as being DJT *Junior*, notorious #failson.
And his old man’s “gift” has always been knowing how to console his marks for their own curdled fantasies.
it’s always been this. the trump movement is insanely easy to understand. nine gazillion words in the atlantic monthly and the new yorker and the new york times.
they are bigots. they like bigotry. the like the guy that is also a bigot. easiest thing to understand. https://t.co/cxKK9zpVYE
— World Famous Art Thief (@CalmSporting) April 24, 2022
This is a perfect representation of everything that is MAGA ?? pic.twitter.com/Sd67Wx5nR9
— The Jewish Ginger Resister (@JewishResister) April 23, 2022
This is a common Republican thing and when I’ve encountered it irl they basically dissociate when you start saying things https://t.co/NnjSLkTsaD
— Centrist ??Madness (@CentristMadness) April 23, 2022
War for Ukraine Update 60: Orthodox Easter In Ukraine as the War Enters Its Third Month
Chetan Murthy
I remember a Trump rally in one of the Carolinas, early on. An Indian-American kid signs up, gets tickets, and goes. And he’s a bona fide Trump supporter (go figger). And he’s denied entry. He doesn’t understand why, really doesn’t understand why. It made the news. Heh. Poor sap. Maybe he wised-up: I hope so. But what a maroon, thinking that they’d let his kind (my kind, to be clear) into the crowd.
JoyceH
Particularly on brand is the use of the coolie hat to signify Asian.
prostratedragon
Resumed watching a fair amount of sports last year after a couple of days off, and was surprised by how much Black styles and references are used now. Been waiting for the cries of anguished outrage. Looks like we’re there.
smike
@prostratedragon:
That must’ve taken some effort.
prostratedragon
@smike: Oh god. I meant years of course. The wages of autofill.
Redshift
@Chetan Murthy: Ms. Redshift always encourages her students to vote and take an interest in public affairs. She had a student who wanted to get involved, but said he was a Republican, so she didn’t have any specific suggestions.
He was either an immigrant or first gen, fluent in Spanish, the kind of person political organizations should be eager for. He tried to ask the GOP volunteers at the polls about local meetings he could join, and they wouldn’t talk to him.
He eventually found out when and where county Republican committee meetings were and went. This is DC suburbs, not deep red, and pre-Trump. And just hanging around in the back waiting for the meeting to start, with the things he’s hearing then talk about he’s just horrified.
He became a Democrat and went to volunteer for a Dem congressperson. He came back to tell Ms. Redshift about it, because he’d really had no idea.
Bigotry has been the core of conservatism for a very long time.
Redshift
Why do I suspect the reality is she thinks reasons she doesn’t agree with don’t count?
Brachiator
@Chetan Murthy:
There are, of course, some prominent Indian American politicians and conservative media figures. And didn’t Trump appear at some big pro Modi rally during his presidency? He was loving India and Indian Americans then.
But I agree that the right wing is self-destructing on an absurd nativism.
Chetan Murthy
@Brachiator: You’re right, of course. There’s a big “Hindus for Trump” contingent, driven by Islamophobia. And I think that if this kid had been part of some recognized group like that, he’d have been admitted. But showing up all by himself, I think “what’s this brown kid doing here?” was the instant reaction of the admission control people. But whatevs: I hope he learned something and changed his ways.
Chetan Murthy
@Redshift:
I’m reminded of poor, poor Sully, learning only now that the leopards want to eat his face too, not just “those icky, icky transsexuals.” Poor Sully, so misled, so misunderstood.
montanareddog
@Redshift: I would be more interested if that lady could give 5 valid reasons to like him. The usual litany of “he cares about people like us”, “he made America respected again”, “he’s a successful businessman”, “he’s an alpha male”, et cetera, are just transparent bullshit. The post-hurricane redneck riviera woman who was mad because “he is not hurting the people he needs to be hurting” is one of the view who was honest about his appeal.
montanareddog
@montanareddog: …one of the
viewfew…eclare
@montanareddog: I remember that remark because it stunned me.
David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch
“gazillion words in the atlantic monthly and the new yorker and the new york times.”
endless repeated bullshit about “economic anxiety” and how Dump will “pivot”
bluegirlfromwyo
@Redshift: Exactly. I could give her more than 5 reasons but I’d never get past the third. She’d argue for a bit, then walk away spouting that self-righteous I ALLOW everyone their own opinions bs. (capitalized because allow is always shouted)
Soprano2
That first tweet is right; I’ve been saying since 2015 that TFG hates and fears the same people they do, and he gives them permission to hate and fear them openly. That’s it, that’s his appeal, period. Everything else is just noise and excuses.
Oh, and I could give that woman 5 reasons I don’t like TFG, probably in 10 seconds! She’s lying.
Soprano2
@eclare: I remember it because I was shocked that the reporter didn’t ask the natural follow-up question “Who should he be hurting?”, or if they did the reply didn’t make it into the article. Malpractice to let it just sit there.
debbie
That reporter for the RSBN (Right Side Broadcasting Network) is something else. What happened to journalistic integrity. //
debbie
@montanareddog:
Yep, I was stunned. Nothing sums up a Trump supporter better than that statement.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
That’s what parody is for newlit. by saying ridiculous things you force them to start thinking.
Professor Bigfoot
@Redshift: It amazes me that I must remind white people that St. Ronald Reagan ran against “welfare queens driving Cadillacs” and “strapping young bucks buying T-bones with food stamps.”
AND THEN WON A LANDSLIDE.
Conservatism is nothing more than the preservation of power for white men and giving white men a place to point at everyone else and say they’re somehow aberrant.
AND JESUS SAID SO!
Kay
Targeting Netflix is interesting. I wonder why they’re in the crosshairs?
It’s a good documentary. A huge US clothing retailer who had openly discriminatory hiring policy until they were sued in the early 2000’s. They simply wouldn’t hire black people, or asians, or Latinos to work in the public facing parts of the stores. Whiteness was so essential to their vision of the brand it didn’t matter if the stores were located in neighborhoods that are majority Asian or Latino or black. The rule was store managers had to to interview anyone, but could only hire white people unless the non white hire was assigned to work in the back of the store. This was only 20 years ago.
debbie
@Professor Bigfoot:
And the look on his face when he said those things! ?
Geminid
@Kay: Conservatives probably also find the Netflix series “Our Great National Parks” objectionable. It’s not just about “our” parks, but about those of other countries, which are called “great.” And this globalist paean to treehugging socialism is narrated by Barack Obama!
MisterDancer
@Geminid: And, of course, NetFlix announced some serious, yet not unexpected, financial issues. I was reminded in the reporting on that, that NetFlix is likely repsonsisble for a lot fo the cost inflations in Hollywood over the last few years— some great content made, but (literally and otherwise) at what cost?
On top of that, it’s looking a lot more likely that Musk is gonna get Twitter, which is dumb as hell from a financial POV — but, aside from the “put Trump back on the platform” bit, also — my gut tells me, at least — puts a lot of the left-of-center communities that organize via the service At Risk.
I don’t have a clear tie between these two events, but they feel of a piece, if you will.
TonyG
@montanareddog: A common reason that I’ve heard has been “he’s not afraid to say what he thinks”, which translates as “he’s open about his bigotry”. That’s 99.9% of his appeal to his base.
Geminid
@MisterDancer: I sometimes think of “gut reactions” as swift intuitive reasoning. Your intuition may be accurate here.
Kay
I have a theory about conservatives and objections to cultural changes. It isn’t that they want to go back to 1950. Andrew Sullivan and Bari Weiss and Glenn Greenwald don’t want to return to a time when they had fewer civil rights protections or had to remain closeted. Don Jr. doesn’t want to return to a time where it was more difficult to get divorced or where there were social sanctions for that.
They want to return to whatever the culture was when they were 20 years old.
So for Don Jr that’s 1997 and for Don Sr. it’s 1966. Find the birth date of the conservative, add 20, and that’s the point where US culture was acceptable. It’s a weird combination of nostalgia and extreme self centerdness- they are individually the center of the universe. The “norm” is when they were 2nd year college students. Everything past that is an unacceptable deviation from the norm that must be blocked and stopped.
I don’t think it will work simply because every year there is a new crop of 20 year olds and they have no yearning for 1997 and will just make their own cultural norms, but I do think “back to 1950” is misunderstanding of what this is about. Birth date plus 20.
MisterDancer
@Geminid: I’ve already ordered archives of my Twitter data on the news. I’m prepping an exit strategy that’ll hopefully let me keep an eye on the service, with minimal personal engagement/data sharing, if needed.
I’m lucky, in a way, that my Twitter is 99% read-only and re-sharing, so me pulling away won’t impact any personal or professional connections.
Brachiator
@MisterDancer:
Hmm. I am not sure that this is entirely the case. While Netflix has spent a lot on movies in the US, Apple has spent a huge amount to establish themselves as a player in the streaming market. Consumers moving from cable have led more studios to beef up their streaming products. The problem is that they are chasing a finite number of customers who have a voracious appetite for content.
On top of this, the pandemic has practically killed traditional movie going. Hollywood depended on blockbusters to help finance other movies. But the sad fact is that only a small, shrinking number of superhero movies have proven to be box office gold. The studios are struggling to break even with other films. And with continued rises in the cost of living, consumers are deciding that they don’t need every streaming service. Meanwhile, younger people are increasingly satisfied with free entertainment on social media platforms.
The funny thing is that industry reporters are not really covering this story. They instead prefer to write up about how Hollywood is bouncing back. But you have to dig hard to get a count of how many movies Hollywood has held back waiting for the pandemic to end. If the studios can’t make big profits from these movies, it will hurt investment in future productions.
Also in the past Netflix and other companies did not crack down on friends and family sharing access to an account. Tighter enforcement is not resulting in people deciding to sign up. Not a good sign.
MisterDancer
I think that makes a lot of sense as a personal theory. I think the complicating factor is their willingness to go along with other, more restrictive efforts. If they were fighting much among themselves about the “bright lines”, that would be one thing — but their broad piety to authoritarianism just breaks any idea that they really, truly believe any of that crap.
It’s just…useless, save to make them a slave to causing pain for their own misremembered glory days.
Brachiator
@Kay:
Too ingenious a theory. Conservatives want prayer in school, no abortion, and suppression of non-whites, women and gays. Transgender people would not exist. This is more than a return to the life of a twenty year old.
MisterDancer
@Brachiator: My recollection is that Apples rush to content post-dates Netflix’s efforts; Netflix was already well into creating a wide variety of original content when Apple announced their first real push, in 2017.
I’m…not certain where the pandemic’s impact shifts my argument that Netflix’s efforts ran up costs?
Kay
@Brachiator:
Don Jr just wants to go back to a time when a major clothing line could build a wildly popular brand on white supremacy – white people are better and more attractive and more desirable- and not only survive, but thrive. In the suburbs! With clothing marketed specifically to high school and college students! 1997.
Soprano2
@Kay: You may be onto something there. I’ve always thought it’s that they want to go back to a time when they felt comfortable with everything – the music was “right”, TV shows were “right”, movies were “right”. They don’t want to experience even one minute of discomfort. I always go back to something my mother told me probably 20 years ago, that she didn’t care if people were gay but she wished they’d go back in the closet so their lives weren’t so “in your face” all the time. This from a woman who told me she didn’t even know there was a such thing as homosexuals until she was 35 and read about them in a Life magazine article about the Summer of Love and San Francisco. I believe her too, because she had an extremely sheltered upbringing.
Soprano2
@MisterDancer: It will be ironic if Musk buys it for billions, and then the value promptly plummets as everyone advertisers wants flees the platform. If that happens I hope someone sees the opening and takes advantage of it. If Musk follows his “free speech” ideals, Twitter will be a real open sewer in less than 2 weeks.
Brachiator
@MisterDancer:
As an example, No Time to Die was originally scheduled for release in November 2019. Money spent on promotion was pretty much a loss. The film grossed $774 million. It needed $800 million to break even. There are at least 72 movies that have been delayed because of the pandemic. And few that have been released have been hits. That’s a lot of money left on the table. Netflix has spent about $5.2 billion on original programming. This is a fraction of the estimated $50 billion spent by all the studios.
VOR
@Soprano2: He won’t. Yes, he’s going to let TFG and some other controversial people back on because it will draw attention. Yes, that will make Twitter worse. But IMHO his primary goal will be to enact provisions which protect Elon Musk. It will be difficult or impossible to criticize Elon Musk. He’ll also create rules which allow Elon Musk to say whatever he wants, despite his shareholders, board of directors, or the SEC. These restrictions on speech will be in service of furthering the cause of free speech in the finest Orwellian doublespeak tradition.
VOR
@Soprano2: But some conservatives want to go back before The Enlightenment. Feudalism instead of democracy. Ask yourself, how many MAGAts would be okay with simply anointing TFG as King, to be succeeded by Prince Don Jr or Princess Ivanka?
Soprano2
@VOR: Pretty much all of them would be absolutely thrilled if this happened, I agree, at least at first. I’m not sure they’d stay happy, though, because movements like this tend to distill down more and more as they try to become absolutely “pure”, until few people are left who actually fit all of the parameters needed to be “pure enough”.