Sometimes you *really* want to Read The Whole Thing, first…
For the uncultured folk who still don’t know what gagging is. pic.twitter.com/syJ4Y4oP65
— Renee (@PettyLupone) September 9, 2023
It’s still wild to me to see her be VP after years of defending her.
Proud of her. Proud of us.
— Renee (@PettyLupone) September 9, 2023
I know and I love that for them ??
— Renee (@PettyLupone) September 9, 2023
It's NOT new.
And just bc you haven't heard of something doesn't mean it doesn't exist.
The word has literally been around since the late 80s and EVERYONE was using it.— Cj (@Jenaine77) September 9, 2023
It’s a good thing I like to learn new things, because social media will never stop introducing me to them.
——
Speaking of social media, a report from The GOP Trial Trail (of slime):
New photos are emerging showing the crowd at an Iowa football game flipping off Trump as he waved from behind glass. pic.twitter.com/XXykfgthJa
— No Lie with Brian Tyler Cohen (@NoLieWithBTC) September 9, 2023
Iowa State is now my favorite team. pic.twitter.com/gN1HOWPkLf
— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) September 10, 2023
I’m saving this image for future use:
Donald Trump booed loudly by the crowd while entering a college football stadium in Iowa. pic.twitter.com/5k0d8w4HP2
— Republicans against Trump (@RpsAgainstTrump) September 9, 2023
Ron DeSaster was also present, and his (on)crack political team released a revoltingly transphobic ad for the big event (seriously: multiple trigger warnings).
enlarge https://t.co/gAfEotbIb2 pic.twitter.com/oU7SVcy5Ps
— Ben Sharpe (@iamsharpe) September 9, 2023
So, basically everywhere the advance men for Trump and Desantis could control at the Iowa State game there were cheers and every place they couldn’t people were booing and flipping birds.
— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) September 10, 2023
Also-ran (over):
Vivek Ramaswamy gets a warm greeting from a fan giving him a one-finger salute at the Iowa – Iowa State game. pic.twitter.com/T04YQtBs7L
— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) September 9, 2023
(More at Filipkowski’s twitter feed.)
Baud
Biden daps.
Harris causes gagging.
AL is bringing youth culture to us old farts.
Baud
I guess there still a couple of white dudes left in Iowa who respect their country.
Baud
Yes it does.
p.a.
I-woke-a? 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
Baud
@p.a.:
Haha. Like.
RSA
According to slang.net,
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@Baud: Doesn’t mean I’m ever going to try to use those words in a sentence. I know I’m old.
If you like Kamala and also like Mindy Kaling , and who doesn’t, I highly recommend searching for the video where they cook together. Cutest thing ever.
Baud
@RSA:
Any connection to the “gag me with a spoon” Valley speak?
eversor
huh i thought gaggin refered to the sex act
Baud
@eversor:
Probably does. Most English words have a sexual meaning too.
Marmot
That was so sick that I gagged — literally!
Dorothy A. Winsor
I’m impressed by the Iowa flip offs. I used to teach at ISU, and I wouldn’t have expected it. Was the game in Ames or Iowa City? That would make a difference
ETA: The people in the red and yellow are ISU fans anyway. So go them!
Betty Cracker
Ugh, the DeSantis ad is so grotesque! He’s right back on the anti-woke, pro-trans-harassment train, and I hope it blows up in his ugly face. I also hope all three of his kids eventually come out as queer, find the strength to tell their shitty parents to fuck off, and go on to lead happy, fulfilled lives in supportive communities that survive their father’s disastrous terms as Florida’s worst governor.
Suzanne
@Baud: OMG YES. “Gag me with a spoon” is what I thought of, immediately.
lowtechcyclist
@Baud:
I at least sorta knew about ‘dap’ after Barack and Michelle did what the RWNJs called a ‘terrorist fist bump’ in public. (I think that might’ve been at the 2008 Democratic convention, but not positive.)
But ‘gagging’ being a good thing just seems so wrong.
I mean, unless you’re into that as a kink, but that’s different.
bjacques
Audio leak of L Brent Bozell Quartus phone call after his Jan 6 conviction:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=noJo-bJ5V8A&pp=ygUXaSdtIGluIGphaWwgd2FzIG5vdCB3YXM%3D
eversor
@Betty Cracker:
I’m interested to see if his marriage survives his failed presdential run.
Justjames
“Iowa nice.”
Iowa, nice.
sab
@Baud: That’s my reference point and the kids can’t change it
ETA I was around in the eighties and nobody I knew was using “gagging” as a good thing.
OzarkHillbilly
First off, Cj, Ruth said it was a new one to her. 2nd of all, I’ve been around since the late 50s and knew that word early in my prepubescent life, but at 65 yo I have never heard it used in that way before. So, ftr, everyone was NOT using it in that way.
I really despise people who try to come off as smarter than others, but instead only parade their own ignorance.
Ken
Any of the reports say how many Iowa college football games Trump, DeSantis, or Ramaswamy attended before this? I’m guessing 1, 0, and 0 respectively, and the 1 is just because Trump has campaigned in Iowa before.
I’ll also guess 0, 0, 0 as their future attendance — same as their number of future visits to the Iowa state fair.
Frankensteinbeck
I do not understand. There are people who don’t know the word ‘gagging’ in its non-slang use? It means to retch, dry heaves that aren’t quite vomiting.
I didn’t know it has a positive slang use. Neat. Apparently not new, but more coming back around again?
Percysowner
From an article in Raw Story
I mean, a lot of people think Biden is too old, but REPULSED? I’m repulsed by Trump, but his supporters would be repulsed by anyone BUT Trump so what is the point of this? Other than to hammer Biden from the “liberal” side.
rikyrah
Good Morning Everyone 😊😊😊
lowtechcyclist
Good morning!
In about an hour, I’m taking the kiddo to his first behind-the-wheel driving lesson. Glad someone else is teaching him, not me.
NotMax
Howzabout an interlude of music and footwork?
“Sorry, ma’m, the rest of your dress hasn’t arrived in time.”
:)
Frankensteinbeck
@Baud:
”Gag me with a spoon” is an expression of disgust, the non-slang version of the word.
@Percysowner:
I am absolutely repulsed at the thought of a Biden-Trump rematch. Trump is filth I wanted to be rid of, and the stress of him even having a chance of winning may kill me. It has zero to do with not wanting Biden to run. Biden is great.
As always, give them a fact and pundits will misunderstand it.
p.a.
“Dog” is now a positive, at least in sports terminology. “She/he is a dog”= he/she is tough, gritty.
I think it still remains negative in work environs. “I got stuck with that dog Tuberville on the project.”
Steeplejack
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
The game was in Ames. (Thank you, newly installed Alexa!)
Another Scott
@Frankensteinbeck: I still have to do a double-take when “sick” is used as a synonym for “amazing” – e.g. “Sick burn, dude!” (though “dude” is probably up there with “hep” these days).
My man! That was a pandemic performance!
In my day, we used pig-latin when we wanted to talk and keep our discussion kinda private. I assume this jargon is a variation on that.
And it’s maybe a reason why RWNJs get upset by people speaking a language they cannot understand – it brings back memories of childhood when they thought others in the cool group were talking about them behind their back.
[/get-off-my-lawn]
Cheers,
Scott.
Steeplejack
@rikyrah:
Good morning! 🙏
Kay
@Betty Cracker:
It’s interesting they’re sticking with it. They must have polling that says it resonates with GOP primary voters but so far it hasn’t helped DeSantis a bit. Maybe DeSantis is just completely captured by Christopher Rufo?
Frankensteinbeck
@Another Scott:
Naah. That’s just anger that the world is no longer catering exclusively to them, that groups they consider lesser are part of the definition of normal now.
Ken
I frequently cringe when watching TV shows from the 50s through 70s, at the efforts of the writers and actors to capture the “hep, with-it” jargon of the young people of the time.
Baud
@rikyrah:
Good morning.
Betty Cracker
@OzarkHillbilly: Yeah, I don’t know what preceded it, but in the presented context, that reaction seemed overly harsh and condescending to me too.
@Frankensteinbeck: Same! I think a similar distortion occurs with polls that purport to assess if people think democracy is in danger or if the country is on the right track. My answers might mirror the MAGA chodes’ but for the opposite reasons.
Kay
@Betty Cracker:
Since they all used anti woke in the 2022 general election, maybe in DeSantis’ tiny little siloed world running on anti woke is moving toward the center? I bet that’s it. It’s not for the base – it’s supposed to pick up supporters outside the base. I haven’t seen any evidence it does that either.
Mousebumples
Believe it or not, it was @ Iowa state (so in Ames). But it’s not everyone flipping them off. I think Iowa is safely red in 2024, but still 55/45, so there is still a significant Democratic contingent.
Plus, drunk people at football games probably means lower inhibitons to flipping off people in public. Then again, it’s not something I usually do, but if I was around this crowd of candidates… My tendency may change even without alcohol…
Honus
@Betty Cracker: that ad is like a late night grindhouse trailer. DeSantis actually thinks it will make people want to vote for him?
BellyCat
My sense is that the high school “cool group(s)” were largely the “ go along to get along” folks. Fast forward to today, probably more often than not MAGAs. YMMV
mrmoshpotato
@Baud:
@Suzanne: I’ll see your “Gag me with a spoon.” and raise you a “Fuck me gently with a chainsaw.”
Frankensteinbeck
@Kay:
What else has he got? Besides, and I think this is important, students from when he taught school say he really is a hardcore bigot. He stressed in classes how slavery was good for blacks and they thought he was nuts. So, he’ll easily revert to his beliefs and the cruelty he enjoys. He’s not faking this.
Baud
@Kay:
What does he have besides “woke”?
Shalimar
It is certainly possible to change the main meaning of a word, but it still looks really dumb until that new usage is accepted. There are plenty of words to reflect what she meant without trying to make “gagging” a positive. I don’t see the point.
BellyCat
@Baud: Racism and cruelty.
Lacuna Synecdoche
Suddenly wondering just how many things I’ve misinterpreted since the early 1990’s.
Baud
@BellyCat:
Let me clarify, what else does he have that distinguishes him from the rest of the field?
Betty Cracker
@Kay: The only semi-logical reason I can think of to return to that loser message is if the campaign brain trust thinks it resonates with Iowa evangelicals and are consumed with short-term thinking now, i.e., win Iowa or die.
Anonymous At Work
Iowans seeking to redeem their state. Still deserves to be bumped from #1 in primaries and corn doesn’t deserve the subsidies it gets, though. But does their part to shift the argument.
mrmoshpotato
@Another Scott:
So it unnecessarily killed millions of people?
Matt McIrvin
@p.a.: I’m still getting used to “GOAT” meaning “Greatest Of All Time,” a sports thing that has been around for a long time. In my childhood “the goat” was a scapegoat.
Baud
If Iowa is even close, we’re winning in a landslide.
Spanky
Am I the only one who sees that guy flipping off Trump and thinks that’s what Cole would look like from the back?
Also re that Kamala video, the SS guy in the foreground completes it.
eversor
@Frankensteinbeck:
I’m born in the 80s and how I learned the good version of gagging was a massive deep blow job that caused a gag reflex and that was the sign of a good blow job. It still holds that meaning. Put it in a porn site and watch what happens.
However hanging around with the wrong crowd gagging got slapped on to other things as a mark of it being really good like a blow job. Most of the people I know that still use the term to describe non sex acts are gay and they are saying it’s as a good as a blow job where someone chokes on it.
But then again I know a lot of slang where someone says something and my age generation just looks at each other and snickers.
Another Scott
@Betty Cracker:
The floor-polish/dessert-topping question phrasing has to be intentional. I’m reminded of the exit polling that “voters ranked ‘moral values’ as ‘the ONE’ most important” question in the W/Kerry race in 2004. Of course, the pollsters thought it was meaningful and not slanted at all.
Grr…,
Scott.
Spanky
@Baud: A noun
, a verb, and “woke”.BellyCat
@Baud: Fair point. Hmmm… RBF (Resting Bitch Face)? But that’s not exactly right. How ‘bout RCF (Resting Constipation Face)?
mrmoshpotato
@Matt McIrvin: “He’s gonna eat the goat?!”
-Lex (Jurassic Park)
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Steeplejack: My condo was a couple of blocks from that stadium. Game-goers used to park in front of my building. Not that I would ever be in Ames during a game day. From Th night to M night, I was in Waterloo where Mr DAW lived.
Matt McIrvin
@Another Scott: The ACA was unpopular because disapproval was split between people who thought it did too much and people who thought it didn’t do enough. Democratic politics requires compromise (compromise policies, compromise candidates) and compromises are always going to displease people in that way, so an up-or-down poll can always frame them as doomed.
Brachiator
@Percysowner:
This nonsense makes me gag, and not in a good way.
This is some weird narrative driven by the political media. Last week I listened to a morning radio talk show host express exactly this thought, that a Trump Biden rematch was bad. Thing is, except for his remark that Biden was old, he didn’t give a single explanation for his opinion. You were left hanging with the idea that the candidates should be new faces just because Americans crave novelty, and that obviously there was something wrong about both men, although the guy couldn’t put it into words.
And obviously there is a huge amount of false equivalence at play here as well. Trump is beset with his flurry of Indictments. But Biden? It doesn’t seem to matter that he is an incumbent president who has done a good job.
And of course none of the supporting crew on the radio program challenged the guy on this or asked him to clarify his statement.
I expect that this crap will continue and become a staple of dishonest op-ed pieces.
Cameron
@Betty Cracker: But there’s so much more to him! Like bringing corruption into what supposedly is an office dedicated to affordable housing (which, as we all know, is nowhere to be found in Florida).
https://dianeravitch.net/2023/09/09/florida/
Baud
@Brachiator:
It’s the 2016 playbook. Both Hillary and Trump are unpopular!
I notice the media this time aren’t discussing Biden’s personal likeability, like they did with the woman.
ETA: The goal is to increase the number of our voters who decide to sit out.
lowtechcyclist
@Betty Cracker:
Given that Ted Cruz won Iowa in 2016 and Mike Huckabee won it in 2008, even a win by DeSantis there would mean his campaign was just barely alive. Losing in Iowa after putting serious effort into it would effectively end his campaign. Not that it’s very alive now, of course.
Lacuna Synecdoche
@Honus:
If he’s running it on Fox/NMax/OANN, then I’m not sure he’s wrong.
Steeplejack
So last night I installed my Amazon Echo Pop and got Alexa up and running. Amazingly easy, and sort of scary, like being absorbed into the Borg. Got SiriusXM linked in, and I have been listening to that and gingerly checking out other features—such as answering Balloon Juice trivia questions.
Bat signal for JAFD, who was asking a few months ago about “satellite radio” and possible replacements for his aging AM/FM radio. I think the $40 Pop or the $50 Echo Dot would be an ideal replacement, if he(?) has wi-fi in his apartment. I just checked, and I was able to listen to his two favorite stations, WBGO (jazz) and WQXR (classical), just by telling Alexa “Listen to [station].” And—something I was pleased to discover last night—you can tell Alexa to turn off the music in 30 minutes or whatever, which is nice for going to sleep.
I don’t know about other devices, but the Pop allegedly doesn’t start “listening” (recording) until you say “Alexa.” And there is a button on the unit that turns the microphone on and off.
lowtechcyclist
@Anonymous At Work:
They’d have to have one first.
lowtechcyclist
@Matt McIrvin:
Me too! I remember the “Peanuts” special where Charlie Brown is trying to talk himself into stealing home, and telling himself he can either be the hero, or be the goat.
Princess
Those Twitter posts at the top are why I came to hate Twitter and hope it dies fast. Why crap on people who like the same VP you like because they don’t know your slang? What coalition does that build? Saying a word is “new on me” is not accusing it of being “new.” It’s just saying you haven’t heard it before. Sheesh people.
Betty Cracker
@lowtechcyclist: Good point about the predictive powers of previous Iowa GOP contests, but given Trump’s double-digit dominance everywhere (including Florida!), DeSantis has to win there to puncture the Orange One’s aura of inevitability.
At least, that’s what I would tell Team Ron if they hired me as a campaign consultant. Oh wait — no — I’d advise them to fling themselves into the nearest conflagration and perish therein!
Baud
@Matt McIrvin:
@lowtechcyclist:
I pronounce it GO-AT. Help me make the mental distinction.
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
Make sure you get paid first!
OzarkHillbilly
.Today in GOP: DeSantis backs Florida surgeon general in urging residents against new Covid vaccines
Democrats say deaths will follow false claim by Dr Joseph Ladapo that new boosters were not tested on humans
New Mexico officials call for governor’s impeachment after firearms restriction
But but but how ever will all the pansy assed republican men defend their precious little tykes from the drag queens trying to groom them?
Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg
@Percysowner:
The Venn diagrams of polled Dems repulsed by Biden and 2016’s Stein/Write-In/Stay Home Anybody-but-Hillary dirtbag left voters is likely a perfect circle.
AWOL
I know. Most of them are shits. But unsurprisingly, human turd David Wells is a full anti-woke fascist.
A retired NYC cop who used to do security for the Yankee Stadium locker rooms once gave me some inadvertent insight on him a few years ago.
Unrelated, so tired of sporting events being Nurenberg Rallies.
Yankees legend David Wells slams ‘woke’ culture in rant against Nike, Bud Light, MLB – The Athletic
lowtechcyclist
@Baud:
I’ve never pronounced it, or heard it pronounced. I’ve seen it often online, but not in meatspace.
Baud
@p.a.:
I think “dog” in English generally has been used in both positive and negative ways for a long time.
Daoud bin Daoud
@p.a.: calling someone a bulldog has always been a compliment – strength, determination persistence.
lowtechcyclist
@eversor:
That seems (to me, anyway) like an awfully assholish thing for a guy (ETA: or anyone else with a penis) to do to someone who’s being nice enough to give them a blowjob.
Baud
@AWOL:
And they complain about liberal athletes talking about politics instead of playing the game.
Another Scott
@lowtechcyclist: My mom had a 1970 Pontiac GTO for a while. Delorean and the other bigwigs at Pontiac in the mid-60s wanted people to call it the Tiger.
Lots of people called it the Goat:
Kinda post-hoc, but it’s fun. I think Goat was mostly a scrambling of the GTO letters. The “greatest of all time” stuff was applied to the car later.
Cheers,
Scott.
lowtechcyclist
@Baud:
And both usages doggedly persist.
Eduardo
@eversor: it does, too
Brachiator
@Baud:
Back then, pundits could at least point to polls measuring favorability numbers for Trump and Clinton. The assertion that voters would prefer theoretical candidates to Trump and Biden is political hocus pocus.
You could even say that this dubious claim that voters don’t want Biden to run is a clumsy attempt to neutralize his likeability.
Who knows. But it’s too early for this to be a thing. People are not thinking about elections. Hell, we haven’t even slogged through another GOP debate.
This whole thing is as stupid as some pundit asserting that “Voters think that Baud should sit out 2024.”
kalakal
Gagging has been a slang word in the UK since at least the 60s. Means to really, really want something, usually sex
“He/She/They were gagging for it”
It’s a pretty common term
AWOL
@Baud: On the good side, there’s Mark Cahna, who was ecstatic the Mets celebrated Gay Pride Month every day in June. He’s now with the Brewers. Mets are sorta Left (owner rims Chris Christie and is a thief). Yankees are Hitler.
“The Athletic” is disgusting—once Wells went crackpot, who gives a fuck what he thinks or what he says about anything? The reporters should have just turned their backs on him. But I wouldn’t expect decency from a NYT-owned rag.
Baud
@kalakal:
Gagging for shagging!
Baud
@Brachiator:
They want me to play spoiler, but I’m True Blue, baby!
bbleh
@Frankensteinbeck: yup
@Brachiator: @Baud: it already IS a staple of BOTH op-ed pieces AND “hard news.” They take simple polling results (“do you approve or disapprove?”) that they can fit into their narrative (“both sides unpopular!”) and run with it. And their reasons for doing so are well known: maintaining readership, maintaining access, gun-shyness about being accused of a “liberal bias” (which they will be anyway), blah blah blah. (I don’t agree that they are trying to drive turnout down; I think they’re just trying to put out a story that’s superficially “even-handed.”) And yes, ’twill be thus right up to the election.
What they never do is dig down into the INTENSITY of people’s dissatisfaction or the reasons for it. And that’s where I think both the media and a lot of Dems miss the story. Trump is a multiply-indicted, divisive, out-loud-and-proud Ugly American con man. People who “disapprove” of him mostly HATE him, plus a sprinkling of disaffected Republicans who likely will simply not vote for President rather than vote for Biden. Biden is an utterly inoffensive, unusually successful President who happens to be 80 years old (far older than Trump’s youthful 77), who is criticized for his age because there’s almost nothing else to shoot at. People who “disapprove” of him are either Republican cultists who will never vote for a Dem (perhaps 25-30% of the population) or those who idly think “yeah, might be better if he weren’t so old, and I’d like lower gas prices” plus a tiny sprinkling of hard-left fanatics. That is, people “disapprove” of Biden for comparatively minor reasons and not very strongly, whereas people “disapprove” of Trump for very many very good reasons and deeply so. And no matter how hard the MSM beat on the “old” thing, I expect the comparative “disapproval” numbers — particularly Biden’s — to change materially when people start paying attention to the race between two actual candidates (ie about a year from now, sigh).
tobie
@Frankensteinbeck: DeSantis taught high school??? I did not know that. Trying to be the tough guy in the room is never a good thing with adolescents. I hope they laughed him out of the school.
Daoud bin Daoud
@Frankensteinbeck: plenty of people have the same cruel and violent instincts, but Ronbot 1.0 gives off a Terminator/Dalek vibe unique to himself. (I’m convinced DeathSentence has trouble stopping himself from constantly chanting Exterminate! Exterminate!)
eversor
@lowtechcyclist:
It’s evidently a two way kink. Not my kink but I’m aware of it. I’m not going to kink shame! I’ve heard of a lot of sex acts that go clear into spitting out your beer level and I have every reason to think the person describing them had actually engaged in it. The stunt with a basket being the one that made me laugh the most.
kalakal
Where slang originates – obligatory
https://youtu.be/hOSYiT2iG08?feature=shared
Baud
@bbleh:
If Biden were polling 20 points ahead right now, the media wouldn’t worry about being fair. They would portray Biden as the presumptive winner and start focusing on how his policies and governance goes too far or not far enough.
Hillary got some of that too, when people assumed no what white American would vote in Trump.
CliosFanBoy
@Baud:
but then she says that “everyone” was using it.
Um, if everyone were using it, he would have heard of it. Using “gagging” in a positive sense is new to me too.
RSA
On second read: What a weird overreaction, along with a lack of reading comprehension.
Another Scott
@bbleh: @Baud:
The BBC just loves American political polling. They were beating the drum for a while after the big indictments came down (I haven’t checked recently) that “TIFG is MORE POPULAR after the indictments!!!11” and how it meant he could start measuring the drapes in the Oval Office again and how Biden and the Democrats are DOOOOOOOOMED and OMG how can someone so popular be prosecuted as a jury will never convict him, and all the rest.
It’s so tiresome.
All the grandchildren of carnival barkers and snake oil salesmen apparently went into political push-polling.
Grr…,
Scott.
Baud
@CliosFanBoy:
@RSA:
I agree with the general consensus here that the critic was being a jerk.
Geminid
@OzarkHillbilly: Howdy Doody, the traveling Watusi bull, got a writeup in last Sunday’s Washington Post. Howdy Doodie lives with with Mabel, a longhorned steer, and six bison on a farm with his friend, retired machinist Lee Meyer and his wife.
When Meyer proposed rigging a Crown Victoria to accomodate Howdy Doodie, his granddaughter was sceptical:
Now that Meyer and Howdie Doodie are known worldwide, the granddaughter isn’t about to let fame go to Paw Paw’s head:
CliosFanBoy
@Another Scott:
I think it was from trying to pronounce “GTO.” As for the greatest, I think Camaro, Mustang, and Charger fans would disagree.
I’ve got a ’76 Camaro. When I bought it ten years ago, I found pieces of a toy P-51 stuffed wayyyy under the driver’s seat (the previous owner had kids).
So yes, I found the remains of a Mustang in the belly of my Camaro.
Jackie
Don’t anyone tell TIFG! Let that be our secret! We’ll know he’s complementing someone he thinks he’s insulting 😉🤭
kalakal
The only good thing about DeShithead is he’s so bad at campaigning. That ad gives him a General Ripper vibe. A lunatic obsessed with a delusion.
What’s frightening is how hate filled that man is. There is never anything positive in his messages, it’s nothing but spite and resentment
hueyplong
There are many things to be mad about. Finding out I have missed knowing a particular slang usage in conversations to which I was not a party feels like an item I can just shrug off and decline to add to the Outrage List. The same is true of a snippy slang-related takedown of fellow olds by some random (rando?) influencer.
Gin & Tonic
Many years ago somebody at the NY Post stuck in a satirical(?) headline after a Carter speech: “Mush From the Wimp.” It was actually printed and ran, until somebody caught it and changed it. I was thinking of that as the TV played in the background this morning (my dear wife likes to have it on) and Antony Blinken furiously tap-danced around Jake Tapper’s surprisingly probing questions about the G20 statement, Ukraine, Musk and Starlink. When at one point Blinken said “I can’t speak to that” Tapper retorted with “it’s not that you can’t speak to it, you won’t speak to it.”
A more craven performance is difficult to imagine.
CliosFanBoy
@Baud:
I agree. I read it as rather snippy.
CliosFanBoy
@kalakal:
Like Stephen Miller, the fact that he’s married with kids tells you a LOT about how hate-filled the man’s wife is as well. Who the hell else would ever look at DeFascist and think “Yeah, I want me some of that. Yum.”???!!!???
brantl
@Steeplejack: It just has to think you said “Alexa”. It has reacted multiple times to other words, in my experience.
Tony G
Well, apparently football fans in Iowa are not REAL AMERICANS. They really should show more respect to that pampered, stupid, psychopathic felon.
Kristine
@Suzanne: That variation of gagging is the ‘feeling sick’ one that some of us are more familiar with.
Scout211
I know we are all tired of hearing about Elon’s X, but here’s more:
Elon Musk’s social media site X sues California over the state’s content moderation law
. . .
Steeplejack
@brantl:
LOL. Mine just reacted to “Alexis” but not to “Alex” or “Alexandra.” It did react to “Alexovitch.” I think it wants a hard hit on the -lex.
Baud
@Scout211:
The Texas law which regulates social media a lot more than that is currently before the Supreme Court.
Geminid
@Betty Cracker: One potential outcome of the Iowa caucuses is that Trump wins but is held below 50%. If then he wins New Hampshire by a only a plurality, his campaign might be in trouble. He still might not have a rival capable of putting him away, though.
The worst scenerio for Republicans may be the one in which Trump stumbles into the convention with a delegate majority based on a series of plurality and low-majority wins, with a lot of hard feelings created along the way.
eversor
@brantl:
This is true. Alexa should be the trigger word, and that can be changed, but it’s not the case. Alexa has called the cops on people, ordered random crap from Amazon at times, and much more. We have two (which considering I had to issue a warning not to enable anything voice activated during work from home due to client data concerns it’s funny that work gave me one). In multiple cases Alexa has reacted to the TV while streaming things or my computer/Nintendo Switch while playing games or talking to the family.
Don’t trust it. Or Amazon, apple, google, and Microsoft for that matter on these things. It’s a great alarm and cooking timer though.
SiubhanDuinne
@Spanky:
Also re that Kamala video, the SS guy in the foreground completes it.
Yes, he made me smile too.
BTW, I love seeing Kamala in vivid, crayon-box colours. She has too few opportunities these days to break out the brights, and I think she must welcome them. Remember that fabulous coat she bought herself at a boutique on the 2020 campaign trail?
trollhattan
Anticipating the “Florida, where gag goes to die” campaign by Tuesday.
Soprano2
@AWOL: I get mad every time they say “Now please rise for the singing of “God Bless America”. I’m not required to stand up for that religious song! It’s a relic of Bud Selig that they still do this. I’ve seen people put their hand over their heart like it’s the national anthem! It’s a nice song in the right context, but this isn’t that.
Kay
@CliosFanBoy:
My middle son and his friend who owns a Charger brought it over for me to drive because I had never driven a really fast car and they thought I would enjoy it. It is fun and I didn’t get it up to near how fast it can go. They then made fun of me because apparently the Charger is the “rapper” muscle car and I’m an old lady so they find that amusing :)
smith
@RSA:
This is just another way of saying, “OK, Boomer,” without saying, “OK, Boomer.”
(“OK, Boomer” is still a thing, right?)
AM in NC
@eversor: Imma guess the good blow job caused by forcing someone to gag is only good from one perspective. Yes?
Salty Sam .
@OzarkHillbilly: Nice take-down OH. My thoughts exactly.
I mean, I love learning a new word usage, but not if you’re gonna be snotty about it.
What’s that? You’ve never heard “snotty” used that way? Let me old-splain it to you…
OverTwistWillie
Big rivalry game. A good chunk of the student body and alums are from urban archipelagoes. Regional brain drains and all that.
So results are consistent with a bunch of drunk Chicago suburban assholes.
trollhattan
@smith:
Judges will also accept “OK Karen.”
Have filed under “thing that exists” and will forget by Monday.
dm
new meaning for “fierce” in both explanations of “gagging”-as-positive for me, too.
moonbat
The whole purpose of slang is to subvert the expected meanings of words and create something new.
You’d think as many people who are self reporting as “old” here would have figured that out by now.
And the drag, voguish, gay community has been pumping new (and very cool!) slang into the American vernacular with a fire hose since forever.
So “gagging” , while I have never used the word that way, doesn’t surprise this oldster at all. And, as usual, folks on Xitter need to relax!
Other MJS
Love to see this. The more Trump gets triggered, the more likely he is to do stupid shit that will help land him in the slammer.
Dangerman
That kinda looks like Cole from the back with that double barrel salute; any chance he was in Iowa for a game?
Matt McIrvin
@Baud: Because of the way American politics currently functions, “both sides are bad” arguments favor the right. The right is the party of anti-politics, anti-government, anti-system. In the extreme, they can even make the argument that you should support right-wing politicians because they suck. “Do you want to rely on government to do everything for you?”
I think one of the reasons our self-identified far left can fall into “so left it’s right” behavior is that they identify with that anti-system energy. The pro-Trump leftists of 2016 sensed that he was the guy who was trying to destroy the government.
LiminalOwl
@lowtechcyclist: There are a lot of glassbowls out there. Some of whom don’t even wait for consent on the blowjob.
Yarrow
@kalakal: Is there a difference between “gagging at” vs “gagging for”? To me ‘gagging at’ suggests it’s negative, whereas ‘gagging for’ is more positive. If someone said, “He/She/They were gagging at it” that would sound to me like whatever it was made them sick.
It’s clear gagging has multiple meanings so context is essential. In this case unless you’re familiar with the person tweeting it’s hard to know if they meant it in a positive or negative way.
Baud
@Matt McIrvin:
Agree. Dobbs and other fascist governmental actions may change that attitude though.
But over the long term liberals need to learn to become comfortable with obtaining and exercising political power. Too many still want to identify with the protestor.
Dangerman
Also, throw his fat ass in jail; he won’t be going to Gen Pop. House arrest won’t solve shit.
Josie
@Kay:
I find that having sons makes me sort of immune to having fun made of me. It rolls right off.
RandomMonster
Yeah, EVERYONE in my closed subculture in-crowd was using it.
Yarrow
@Kay: In my experience Charger drivers are total dickwads on the road. If someone is going too fast, cutting people off, weaving in and out of lanes on the freeway, peeling off at a stoplight, they’re driving a Charger. I avoid them as much as possible.
BMW drivers are dicks but not in a “I’m going to drive so fast I wreck my car and yours” kind of way. Tesla drivers can be assholes in the “I own the road” kind of way. But Charger drivers are dangerous for everyone. It would be much better if most of the Charger drivers were mature women. But no.
oldgold
I think of gag as a running joke. Part of the physically violent language of humor- gag, punch line, slapstick etc.
narya
@CliosFanBoy: My brother’s first car was a ’69 Camaro. It was trash when he got it; he rebuilt it. (He’s a mechanic.) Whenever I rode in it, I felt like I should have a pack of cigarettes rolled up in my t-shirt sleeve.
eversor
@CliosFanBoy:
Culture issues trump (joke intended) everything except for those with enough money they don’t have to care about them.
The funny thing about Miller managing to land a hot chick is all the rage from the right that conservative men can’t get dates. Also the illusion that women only date and marry men for money and power.
That gripe hit it’s peak during the Trump era around the DC dating scene. If you scratch beneath the surface though it shows a hilarious under issue. DC has more women than men, as do most large cities. So really men get to pick and choose or just “fish with dynamite” and pick the best one that surfaces. As long as you are fairly good looking and have a reasonable enough job. But the razor in the apple for conservatives is that most of the women are liberal and want nothing to do with conservatives and as such are completely off the market.
So inherently conservative men are fighting over a smaller pool of women in the dating game and thus money and power mean everything. Where liberal men are fishing in a huge ocean of options and can date around and pick choose.
The relationship horrors they keep screaming about do exist but only in their own circles. Which is why you get leading Christian thought leaders like Douthat and Dreher arguing for the redistribution of sex to solve the issue, and only half in jest.
OzarkHillbilly
HA! She’s a pistol!
Also I heard that MawMaw is none too happy about the bull, says that with what he has spent on Howdie Doodie she could have had a whole new kitchen.
sdhays
@Ken:
Seeing “cringe” used as a verb made me surprisingly happy. I guess it’s been a while. Thank you.
OzarkHillbilly
@Tony G: ftr, he’s not a felon yet. That joy remains to come.
AWOL
@Soprano2: Even funnier, it’s a Tin Pan Alley song by Irving Berlin. I never stand. And fuck the Military Whore of the Game. Pathetic tools for fascism.
When the Yankees ask for online feedback, I give it to them. Of course, we all know of the famous lawsuit a guy won against the Steinbrenner Hitlerites when he was forced to stand for that silly song and not take a 7th-inning piss.
I go to a lot of sporting events because many are affordable compared to opera, theatre, and concerts. But the open militarism, evangelism, and general fascism of most athletes is making a sports-future for me moot.
FastEdD
@Another Scott: It could be because from 1965-1967 there already was a car called a Tiger. It was the Sunbeam Tiger, a small British car based on the mild mannered Sunbeam Alpine, except that Ken Miles and Carroll Shelby figured out how cram a Ford V8 under the hood. My Dad owned one and we would race it on weekends and he’d let me drive it to high school. I could beat a GTO any day, because the Tiger weighed half as much. GTO stood for Gran Turissimo Obligato, which DeLorean thought sounded cool, but Americans didn’t understand what it meant any more than they understood where LeMans was. Now back to our regular non-automotive programming!
sdhays
@Matt McIrvin: Yeah, it has taken me a very long time to remember what it’s supposed to mean. And when I do, I think it’s stupid (now) because now just about everything has been called a “GOAT”, so it’s all just very silly. But I’m not someone who likes to always talk in superlatives.
Anyway, could I trouble you to please get off my lawn?
narya
@Soprano2: Sitting right next to you . . .
Geminid
@Matt McIrvin: I’ve come to “peg” some of the “far left” people in terms of a two-axis graph, one axis being right/left and the other establishment/anti-establishment.
If I was really interested in this framing, I might take my piece of 1/4 inch graph paper and roll it into a tube so the left anti-establishent quadrant met the right anti-establishment one. A four-color pen would make for a really snazzy graph! But I’m pretty lazy.
Still, a simple left/right axis leaves a lot out.
Jackie
On MTP, Gaven Newsom said if DiFi leaves the Senate before her term is up he’ll appoint an interim replacement – not someone who’s declared to be running for her seat in ‘24. This is what I thought he might do. Of course there’s no guarantee the interim senator wouldn’t change their mind and decide to run.
S Cerevisiae
Back in high school my friend had an old GTO with a 6 pack carb and said that GTO stands for Gas, Tires, and Oil because it burns up all 3. That was a badass car.
But we all called them Goats.
trollhattan
@Yarrow:
Back in the…’70s? Moon Zappa had America saying “gag me with a spoon.”
Ladyraxterinok
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
I checked on the location—the game was in Ames
My ex (was prof of physics at ISU until he retired years ago) and my son (works in ag school at ISU) got to live through the mess tfg visit made in the town
kalakal
@Yarrow: Good point. In the UK. Gagging at is usually negative eg
“I gagged at the smell ”
Gagging for is usually positive
“I’m gagging for a drink” – classic comment on a really hot day when you come inside with a dry throat
“Gagging for it” where it is nearly always sex .
I guess a comedian could describe his routine as gagging, never heard it used that way
Other than that there’s gagging as retching, heaving etc or putting a gag on someone. Legally there are “gagging orders” where you’re not allowed to disclose information. The press loves that meaning “Whistleblower gagged by govt” etc
Uncle Cosmo
Just FTR, that image will be forever associated with Jim Croce and a far more classic car:
Scout211
In an Interview on NBC Governor Newsom ended speculation. If DiFi steps down, he will appoint an interim senator and not one of the current declared candidates.
ETA: or what Jackie posted.
sdhays
@tobie: He reportedly went to high school parties. I’ll bet that was fun.
Miss Bianca
@Baud: Is it just me, or does that one guy in the red shirt flipping off DT look like Cole from the back?
Maybe it’s just the expressed attitude I’m vibing on.
@Spanky: got to it first, didn’t ya? So it wasn’t just me!
smith
@Geminid: A lot of the “far left” also seems to be very attracted to authoritarianism, although, like the Goobers, they’d like you believe in their passionate devotion to individual liberty. It’s the leftish version of “freedumb.” The world would obviously be so much better if they could just make all the rules for you and compel you to obey them.
kalakal
@sdhays: My favourite use of the word cringe was by Aussies in the 60s. They described Aussie politicians and cultural leaders as having a “pre-emptive cringe” towards the UK. They’re a bit more robust these days 😄
oatler
Jonathan Karl has a senator on to defend Biden’s Faltering Campaign. Karl actually catches himself saying “Democrat pol–Democratic policy…”
Kay
@Yarrow:
Oh, that’s funny. I look for them now and I have noticed them but only going in the left lane passing me – no especially obnoxious behavior. We went out to an access road that surrounds the fairgrounds to drive it so I didn’t have to worry about other cars. It’s empty except for “fair week”.
I get why people like driving them – it’s fun but I would never buy one – I drive a sedate (used) sedan.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Ladyraxterinok: Lordy, the game would have made traffic bad enough
Kelly
@lowtechcyclist: One of my fondest memories of my dad is when we drove into our rain slick pasture so he could teach me to handle a skid.
bbleh
@Baud: Nor would they stop with the old thing — “Americans Prefer Biden, But Can He Handle The Stress? “– plus “Four More Years Of Hunter Biden?” etc. Seems like they feel like their highest calling is to “yes, but” successful Democrats and “yes, but” calamitously incompetent Republicans.
Whatever. Tigers, stripes, etc. Soldier on.
laura
@trollhattan: That would be the 80’s- the time of my fleeting youth. I’m so very jealous that you went to school with Lynda Barry and hope you’ll fill in some of the where/when. She’s one of my lifetime crushes😍
Villago Delenda Est
On VP Harris having a good time: The racist misogynist scum of the right will be racist misogynists.
Chief Oshkosh
@Spanky:
Busted!
Villago Delenda Est
@oatler: Jonathan Karl is a waste of skin.
eversor
@Yarrow:
You should come out to my hood. It’s different here. The signs to watch out for drivers is it’s going to be a Honda (usually a Civic), Nissan, or a Toyota. Typically will have a spoiler, lighting, glass pack, and half naked anime women stickers on the side.* Commically nobody driving that is going to be white (there are rare exceptions) so this one isn’t on us. They think everything they are doing is fast and the furious. Shit like Mercedes, BMW, and others is flat out old white boring person stuff.
My neighbor is one of these types. But he upped the game by hanging Guatemalan flags in each one and also strapping Guy Fawkes masks to the head rests. Not that it’s a bad thing he also owns a crotch rocket (Japanese racing bike since this is a slang thread) and I used to own one back in my Navy days so I’ve gone out to the track with him and done the “ways young men die” a few times. He also brings over amazing food from time to time and like me works in IT. He comes to game nights to play Street Fighter with us.
It is highly funny to walk out in the parking lot where it’s all Acura, Lexus, BMW, Mercedes, Audio, Volvo, and then blame three spaces of anime land. He’s very liberal but hates electric cars because they don’t come in manual and that’s his jam. Which while dumb, we are going to be stuck with gas powered cars for a bit and he’s willing to drive a manual in a Civic, fuel efficient car this aint the F-150 stunt, more power to him. It’s also a fun car! He let me drive it and man is it fun. I wouldn’t buy one. But if driving and modding it makes him happy more power to him.
*99% of these are not problem drivers. But there are groups of them that love to drive on the highways and speed at odd hours and they really suck. Though I shouldn’t talk smack I used to ride a crotch rocket and had to get told at one point i95 does not mean go over 95mph.
Villago Delenda Est
@Yarrow: Little Old Ladies from Pasadena?
Kay
More on how Clarence Thomas is bought and paid for and riddled with conflicts of interest on that court:
Harlan Crow also funds the anti woke grift – he funds Bari Weiss’ fake university and fake newspaper and God knows how may other full time anti woke crusaders.
Thomas really has to resign for that cout to retain any credibility. This situation is untenable. He’s a paid far Right lobbyist in a robe. You can do all the “reform” you want – he’s a crook and he’ll remain a crook after “reforms”.
Eunicecycle
@Steeplejack: my six-year-old twin grandchildren found out Alexa will play fart noises if you ask.
WaterGirl
@Gin & Tonic: Regardless of how Blinken and Biden feel about Starlink Boy and what he did / is doing in Ukraine, they are kind of stuck with him for the moment.
What would you have Blinken say publicly?
Villago Delenda Est
@Gin & Tonic: Blinken was craven, or Tapper was craven? Because Tapper is (along with Chuckles the Toddler) the poster boy for nuking the Village from orbit.
smith
@Kay: The signs are that they are going to resist any “reforms,” much less reforms. We really need to figure out a way to deal with a bought-and-paid-for Supreme Court. It’s the ultimate in corruption.
WaterGirl
@Villago Delenda Est: I wondered the same thing!
Alison Rose
Like everything else the DeSantis campaign puts out, it feels like a fucking parody made by The Onion. Also, LOL forever at the “we must defend the purity and wonder and goodness of beauty pageants so only BIOLOGICAL WOMEN can be judged on how well they adhere to an insanely narrow and largely unattainable beauty standard!!!”
Maxim
Re the exchange in the OP re gagging: I’m guessing that the “snippy” response was triggered by the phrasing of the other tweet. There is a tendency, especially among privileged folks, to discount other people’s lived experience because it is not their own. “That hasn’t happened to me, so I don’t think it happens.” The tweet might not have intended that meaning, and the respondent might have overreacted; but if they’ve encountered a lot of that kind of attitude, I can see how it might push their buttons.
Villago Delenda Est
@smith: There are methods to resolving the problems created by the billionaire parasites, the Federalist Society, and the GQp, but they fall outside of the civic framework of the Constitution and have loads of potential of unintended consequences.
SFAW
As an old, I realize that I am no longer aware of all Intertubez tradishuns. But ” ‘gagging’ has been universally used for 50 [sic] years” is a crock of shit. And what the fuck does “that performance was so FIERCE!!!!! that I’m literally gagging” (per the hipsplainer) even mean?
Might as well just say “Woke! Wokeity-wokeity-woke! WOKE!!!!!!!!!” for all the value it adds to the discussion.
Effing ridiculous.
Alison Rose
@Maxim: Also, she got a lot of nasty, hateful, racist responses, so it might have been that she was rubbed a little raw and came off a bit stronger than intended.
And I think it’s important to note here, as was done in that thread, that “gagging” in this usage has been common among Black and/or queer folks for a long time, so people who aren’t in those circles saying “well I’ve never heard it used that way” isn’t really relevant. There’s a way to say it more like “Huh, interesting, I learned something new” or whatever.
Maxim
@Alison Rose: Exactly.
Gin & Tonic
@Villago Delenda Est: Blinken. Tapper actually asked good questions.
Alison Rose
@SFAW: Okay, but every generation has its own slang that previous ones won’t recognize. I’m sure when you were young, there were terms you and your friends used that your parents didn’t know or didn’t like. It happens all the time. Just because something was created by a younger generation doesn’t make it valueless.
Brachiator
@bbleh:
Very true. The polls don’t register intensity of feeling. Good point. And this early on, the polls don’t say anything significant about voter intention.
The primaries will begin to tell what might really be significant. But the media has to report on something now, even if there is nothing to report about.
Gin & Tonic
@WaterGirl: If I were Blinken, I would say “If Mr Musk is communicating with the russian government on the terms of use of a resource that the US government is purchasing from him, that seems like a clear Logan Act violation.”
You’ll note that I am not Blinken.
ETA: Watch the Blinken/Tapper segment yourself.
ETAA: Of course, DougJ nails it in one:
OzarkHillbilly
“[Venus and Serena] are the reason why I have this trophy today, to be honest,” she said. “They have allowed me to believe in this dream growing up.”
-Coco Gauff.
RSA
I think you’re right; that would have been an improvement, still.
Eolirin
@AM in NC: For the people into this, no, it’s not. And they’re not necessarily being forced to gag by the other person.
Betty Cracker
@Kay: Having read the texts she wrote when trying to overthrow the government and heard rare snippets of her speaking, my impression is Ginni Thomas is dumber than a bag of hammers. That doesn’t mean she hasn’t been instrumental in Leo’s plot and doesn’t aspire to lead a movement, of course — plenty of stupid people scheme and have grandiose dreams.
Eolirin
Can we not tone police pissed off black people who are dealing with rampant racism in immediate proximity to them being too snippy for the old white people on this blog’s tastes please?
Y’all may as well be complaining about how uppity she is.
Baud
@Eolirin:
I don’t know the full context of the tweets related to that post, but I’ll tone police anyone.
Eolirin
@Baud: Okay, can you start with yourself and tone police your tone policing of angry minorities?
Salty Sam .
That may be one of the greatest things I’ve read in a long time!
Baud
@Eolirin:
Anyone means anyone. No group of people is exempt from all standards. That way leads to the Republican mindset.
I’m happy to consider real facts about actual context, but I’m not going to invent context to to avoid interpretating an apparent overreaction as an overreaction.
Betty Cracker
@Eolirin:
Your hot takes aren’t usually steaming loads of horseshit, but this one is.
Eolirin
@Baud: The context is very clear if you click through and was included in my ask. You’re being a dick.
And don’t strawman me with “all standards”. Not fucking asking for that.
The second hand sniping at someone who isn’t here in a situation in which they’re actively being exposed to extremely ugly bullshit is extremely gross.
We’re not part of that Twitter conversation and have no business commenting on how a person in their situation should be responding.
Baud
@Eolirin:
I didn’t click through and I don’t see where you asked me to.
ETA: not a straw man. You claimed someone couldn’t be criticized for what they said. That’s a blanket exemption.
Bill Arnold
@Kelly:
In the Northeast, and elsewhere with snow, a classic approach is to take the learner to a big empty (or mostly empty) snow-covered parking lot to practice steering control in slick conditions, with random braking and turning. If private, the owners sometimes didn’t like it, but they weren’t generally there.
Kay
@Betty Cracker:
I wonder if ultra sophisticated political media will take it more seriously because it’s Politico (inside the clique) instead of Propublica (outside the clique).
UncleEbeneezer
Hmmm, strange how Trump (who is a big tennis fan) has NOT congratulated Coco…I wonder why…
Baud
@UncleEbeneezer:
Did W?
wjca
I get lots of pushback, but I persist in thinking that the reason that Biden’s “approval” rating are so low is exactly this. Disapproval voiced by those who wish he was more liberal. Even though he got thru a lot of quite liberal legislation that someone more vocally liberal never could have.
Eolirin
@Baud: No it fucking isn’t.
I’m going to repeat what I said, maybe actually read it.
“Can we not tone police pissed off black people who are dealing with rampant racism in immediate proximity to them being too snippy”
You can see that I’m not inventing that context by clicking though.
And since you didn’t, maybe don’t make assumptions about what’s going on.
That isn’t a call to ignore everything a person might say!
Alison Rose
@Baud: I don’t think it’s “she can’t be criticized at all”, but if you look at the thread (if X will let you, I don’t know what the hell it’s up to these days for non-accounts), she mentions getting a bunch of racist replies. So maybe, as I said above, she was a little agitated by that and it meant that her answer to the one person above came off harsher than she likely meant it to. I think every one of us on this here blog can understand the situation of the words you type sounding ruder when read by someone else than they did in your head.
Baud
@Eolirin:
@Alison Rose:
I’m not on X and can’t see the whole thread. I will take you at your word that the context validates the tweeter’s attitude. But the idea that no one should have an opinion based on what snippets the front pagers post here is unrealistic. Perhaps instead of criticizing the critics, those who can see the whole context can explain it to those who can’t, or don’t want to click through.
Omnes Omnibus
@Eolirin: redacted
Alison Rose
@Baud: That’s totally fair, and a few of us did try to offer that context. I do think it’s not hard to imagine that “Black lady says a thing on the internet” led to “racists got mad and gross”. She could have tweeted “The weather is nice today” and some shithead would’ve told her something like “it’s even nicer when you STAND UP FOR THE ANTHEM ARGLE BARGLE”.
Eolirin
@Alison Rose: Honestly, even beyond that, there are times where people are entitled to be harsh, even when the other side doesn’t deserve it.
The ask for people dealing with bullshit to always be even tempered and polite is fundamentally, depending on context, racist, misogynstic, or ableist; you’re not allowing people to be angry if they’re interacting with a “well meaning” person, no matter how they may be feeling. It’s a super human demand. Almost no one can do it consistently. It doesn’t matter that the person they’re expressing anger towards doesn’t deserve it, almost everyone that’s pissed off or hurt expresses that hurt towards people who don’t deserve it.
And it’s not a fucking coincidence that these conversations where a bunch of a people pile on without even considering context are almost entirely targeted at minority voices.
The comment was not that egregious. It doesn’t even rise to the level of vitriol we regularly treat each other with on this blog. That so many people felt the need to weigh in on it is gross.
Baud
@Alison Rose:
Sure, racists hop on anything. Doesn’t mean the everyone else needs to stay quiet.
@Eolirin:
We fundamentally disagree on this.
Eolirin
@Baud: I’m not making that ask either. I’m asking y’all to maybe think through whether there may be more context to things just a little before judging minority voices because I guarantee there’s more going on with them than what you need to deal with on an ongoing basis.
Slow your roll. That’s all.
Miss Bianca
@Eolirin: So, you’re tone-policing the tone-policing. Got it.
Eunicecycle
@Salty Sam .: full service blog and all!
Baud
@Eolirin:
First of all, I didn’t even look at the identity of the tweeter. In fact, the only reason I realized it was a she is because other commenters here mentioned her gender.
Second, I’m not sure how slow I need to go. I’m always happy to have my view enlightened with new information, but I’m not always going to wait for it.
WaterGirl
@Gin & Tonic:
Thanks, that does seem like calling him out publicly would be satisfying. Hopefully they are saying that, and more, directly to Musk! Musk needs to be read the riot act, but perhaps not publicly where Musk’s gigantic ego would cause him to do something that would hurt Ukraine even more.
Speaking of Ukraine, my head nearly exploded when I read about the UN negotiating with Putin. Yes, definitely, let’s reward the genocidal dictator for his destruction.
RAVEN
@Another Scott: Know what a “Donk” is? How about a “slab”?
Eolirin
@Baud: Does her profile pic not load for you because of Musk fuckery either? If it doesn’t I apologize
And like, it’s fine to not wait in forming or expressing that judgment, but accept that if there’s something in the full context, and you haven’t or can’t access that context, some people, including me, may get pissy about it in response.
WaterGirl
@UncleEbeneezer: I don’t follow tennis and i have never seen a photo of Coco or even heard of her until yesterday. Or maybe Friday.
Still, I’ll take recision for $600 – does she, perhaps, have a darker tint to her skin?
Baud
@Eolirin:
My default setting is to block tweets, which means I only see some text and no images. Sometimes I turn that off but I often just read the body and don’t pay attention to the tweeter or their photo.
WaterGirl
@Eolirin: I think it’s fair to say that one can have an opinion after skimming a tweet and we are definitely not required to click through to see the profile of someone who at first glance appears to be snippy.
Why would I care enough to learn more about someone who seems snippy when they didn’t need to be?
I had no idea the person was black until you outright stated it.
I agree with the person who suggested that it would be helpful for someone who has the bigger picture provides context without accusing most of us here of thinking a black person is uppity, when we had no idea of her race.
The Lodger
@Matt McIrvin: It’s still hard for me to hear “GOAT” without thinking of the non-prize in the Monty Hall paradox.
Eolirin
@Baud: Okay, you couldn’t possibly have been responsive to the issue I’m raising under those circumstances.
But I also wasn’t trying to single you out either. Her image is right next to her post for anyone who can see it as an embed.
Eolirin
@WaterGirl: Do you also have tweets not showing? Her face is right there for me. I apologize if it’s not like that for all of you. Given how it displays to me, it’s nearly impossible to miss, which is why I’m so touchy about it.
It did not occur to me that you might not be able to see that.
And this happens a lot, all over the place, in exactly this kind of way so it’s very triggering.
Omnes Omnibus
@Eolirin:
Context can be a bitch.
Eolirin
@Omnes Omnibus: I’m happy to admit that I overreacted, at least for some of the people here, due to Twitter being broken.
I think the larger point still stands though.
Matt McIrvin
@Baud: The difference is really unaccountable, personalist, strongly hierarchical power, vs. law-bound and accountable and collective power. Just smash everything and you have a situation ripe for strongman rule.
Eolirin
@WaterGirl: Though also: why the hell is anyone even commenting on some random on Twitter’s mildly snippy behavior when they aren’t here to see it. What purpose does that even serve?
Omnes Omnibus
@Eolirin: What purpose does 99% of blog commenting serve? It’s a Sunday morning and not everyone gardens.
Eolirin
@Omnes Omnibus: We’re usually not engaged in quite that level of petty high school-esque behind the back gossip.
Citizen Alan
@eversor: My real name is too similar to alexa for me to ever want to use it. Would it be possible for me to change the activation name to something like Alfred or dobby?
Eolirin
@Citizen Alan: You can change the wake word to Computer, at the very least. There are a few other options I can’t recall. I think Amazon may be one of them.
de
@OzarkHillbilly:
I had the same reaction, the person said that it was new to them, explicitly not claiming the term was new, just that they hadn’t heard of it. The reaction claims everyone was using the term, well, no, in the 80s I lived in NYC and San Francisco, and I never heard this term gagging used this way. It’s new to me too.
Citizen Alan
@Soprano2: It should be the national anthem though. It’s easier to sing, it doesn’t have any racial baggage, and the tune was actually written by an American. And a Jewish immigrant to boot!
Omnes Omnibus
@Eolirin: You’re not that new here.
WaterGirl
@Eolirin: This is what I saw.
That little circle is so small – I didn’t even look at it. Of course, I tune out advertising too. I’m reading a tweet from someone that seems like a jerk, that I’m likely not going to think about again, ever, why would I look for what they look like? I thought that was a snippy response and moved on, and never would have thought of it again if it weren’t for the uproar here.
The one thing that BJ teaches me all the time – we are not all the same. We aren’t all the same in how we read the site. Some come in through the front page. I never do that. Some regularly read and comment from the phone, that would make me crazy.
It’s the same for twitter. Some people immediately apparently jump to the profile of the tweeter. I have to be really interested in someone to do that. If someone links to a tweet in the post itself or in a comment, I don’t want to have to do homework to figure out who the tweeter is.
If someone wants to share someone’s take on something with a tweet, I think it’s nice if they tell us who who the hell Joe Johnson is, and why I should care about what they had to say about some current event. Is he a good guy, so I am supposed to be able to tell that what he wrote was snark? But mostly I have no idea, but there’s not enough time in the day for me to want to chase down someone’s profile in order to interpret what they wrote.
I guess what I’m saying is that I think it’s unrealistic to expect people to chase down background on someone in order to be able to respond to a tweet.
I don’t at all mean to be picking on you, just trying to share my perspective since it seems you were quite offended by some of the hot takes about the tweet.
WaterGirl
@Eolirin: sharing our hot takes, even on things that don’t always matter a whole lot, surely that is part of the BJ experience?
Eolirin
@Omnes Omnibus: We’re petty in other much less annoying to me ways, usually.
UncleEbeneezer
@WaterGirl: Bingo!!! Coco is young, Black and outspoken on social justice issues. She’s also extremely confident and has said from the beginning that she could beat anyone in the game when she’s playing well. It’s always been true but we all know how white people react to that sort of statement from black athletes.
Eolirin
@WaterGirl: It’s a little gross when it’s minor things about normal people who aren’t here, so can’t explain or defend themselves.
It’s more than a little gross when it’s minority voices that only ever seem to get pile ons for being angry. That’s not a here thing, mind. More of an everywhere thing.
Like, I was pissed by it and possibly unreasonably so, and my wording was harsher than it needed to be because of it, but because we’re actually able to talk to each other, we can come to an understanding about why and make the necessary adjustments or come to understanding with each other.
It’s just mean sniping when it’s at someone who isn’t here. I’m not entirely sure what we’re reinforcing as a community by engaging in it, but it feels like something bad.
RAVEN
@Omnes Omnibus: Fuck the Packers!!!!
Omnes Omnibus
@RAVEN:
The Bears still suck!
UncleEbeneezer
@Citizen Alan: Make the National Them the Battle Hymn of the Republic. It’s an Abolitionist song about John Brown. Then watch as Red States have to decide whether to ban the National Anthem and the singing of “Glory, glory hallelujah” in schools…
raven
@Omnes Omnibus: I bought the YouTube TV all games package so I can see for myself!
Yarrow
@eversor:
Oh, we’ve got those too. Usually young Asian or Latino men. But they’ve put money into their cars so, unlike the Charger drivers, they don’t want to wreck them. They may race them at weekends and drive a little crazy on the roads but they’re not total dickwads. The Charger drivers are the ones who acts like assholes but also don’t know what their cars can do so hurt others.
The crotch rocket guys ride at night in groups. I was coming home about 10pm last night and almost hit one of them going by me in the right lane as I was changing lanes into that lane to exit the freeway. I was probably doing 70; he was probably going at least 95. Where there’s one there’s more, so I had to wait for them to get out of the way. They’re dangerous and loud as hell as they go by. Can hear them for miles. At least they’re moving so fast the noise doesn’t last long.
wjca
It’s worth noting that the Packers, unlike virtually every other major sports franchise, are owned by the a broad cross section of their community. They are NOT owned by some noxious twit with more money than he knows what to do with. Which he made in something completely unrelated to the sport.
Ken
Wait, wasn’t that their 2016 convention?
SFAW
@Alison Rose:
That’s nice. One of the attempted points is that the idea that “gagging” — used as described above — is nigh-universal is horseshit. It ain’t like “sketchy” (as used by The Kids These Days); it’s more like some slang used only by Activision/Pong fanatics who think everyone is hep to their jive. Its ubiquity may change in the future, but pretending that it currently is — while demeaning those who just ain’t as kewl — is silly.
Yes, I am fully aware that there are expressions the Youngs use of which I am unaware; did I say they were valueless? No, it was Renee’s dumbass snark that set me off.
raven
@wjca: Who gives a fuck,they suck!
Another Scott
@RAVEN: Nope. […] Interesting.
Nope. […] Interesting.
I was surprised how quickly the spinners went out of style. 32-inch spinners.
“I like big butts rims!”
Cheers,
Scott.
raven
@Another Scott: Those chariot jobs on the slabs a wild!
Steeplejack
@Eunicecycle:
Good to know! I’ve been checking out various rain and white-noise sounds. The best so far is the thunderstorm sound from Sound Jar. Nice “storm” level (gentle) and variations in distant thunder sounds.
Steeplejack
@Kay:
I saw that earlier. Heidi Przybyla has been doing some great work lately. She had another Clarence Thomas scooplet a couple of months ago. Real journalism!
She used to be on Morning Joe (and maybe some other MSNBC shows) in the “working journalist” slot, but then she suddenly disappeared. Dunno what that was about. Jacqueline Alemany of the Post is their regular go-to now.
Steeplejack
@Citizen Alan:
You can change Alexa’s “wake word” to Amazon, Computer, Echo or Ziggy. Might be an option to add others, but I didn’t explore that far. (Seems like I saw something about “Hey, Santa” for part of the year.)
evodevo
@Kristine:
Yep…I remember the phrase “gag a maggot” from my youth…
Behilliker
people stopped using “gagging” a long time ago and it was never that big. This person just heard it for the first time yesterday and is trying to be a cool mom on the internet using slang and emojis or something.
JAFD
@Steeplejack: Thanks !
Steeplejack
@JAFD:
Glad you saw that!