Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Putting aside our relentless self-interest because the moral imperative is crystal clear.

It could be worse. Vance could have said “post-menopausal sows.” Waiting for that audiotape to surface.

A sufficient plurality of insane, greedy people can tank any democratic system ever devised, apparently.

Usually wrong but never in doubt

The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.

Republicans firmly believe having an abortion is a very personal, very private decision between a woman and J.D. Vance.

If senate republicans had any shame, they’d die of it.

Republicans don’t want a speaker to lead them; they want a hostage.

Reality always lies in wait for … Democrats.

The Supreme Court is corrupt. Democrats must win in November and force court reform.

Ah, the different things are different argument.

Innocent people don’t delay justice.

It looks like winning debates is a black job!

Republican obstruction dressed up as bipartisanship. Again.

Conservatism: there are people the law protects but does not bind and others who the law binds but does not protect.

We’ve had enough carrots to last a lifetime. break out the sticks.

There’s always a light at the end of the frog.

Bad news for Ron DeSantis is great news for America.

Donald Trump, welcome to your everything, everywhere, all at once.

Be a traveling stable for those who can’t find room at the inn.

Yeah, with this crowd one never knows.

This fight is for everything.

Some judge needs to shut this circus down soon.

Impressively dumb. Congratulations.

You are here: Home / Elections 2024 / Tuesday Evening Open Thread: WEIRD!

Tuesday Evening Open Thread: WEIRD!

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Someone on social media explained that there’s Good Weird, which us happy weirdos embrace — and there’s Creepy Weird, which is pretty much the entire GOP platform right now. I have another whole post of Repubs failing to rebut the Creepy Weird label, but I’ll save that for a time when fewer readers are liable to be eating dinner…

(H/t Mousebumples for this thread)

Forgive me if someone else has said this; I’ve been offline for most of the day.

The genius of Harris coming out and calling the GOP out for being weird is that it will have a hydraulic effect on pretty much the entire ecosystem. People always lamented that the media kept treating Republicans …

— National Security Counselors 🕵 (@natlseccnslrs.bsky.social) Jul 28, 2024 at 11:05 PM

like they were just part of the system and should be dealt with in good faith, but it’s not entirely the media’s fault there because the Dem politicos were doing the same damn thing. Political reporters often take their cues about where the Overton window is from the people on the opposite side, …

and basically what goes through their minds (or more likely their editors’ minds) is “if the dems are treating this like just another policy disagreement, then we should too.” So when the Dems come out and say, man, you’re just $%^&ing weird, this isn’t politics as usual, that frees up the …

political media to be less bothsidesy.

Think of it like a trial. A trial is an adversarial process. The judge often won’t come down hard on a lawyer if the opposing lawyer doesn’t ask them to. It’s not their place. So replace “judge” with “media” and “opposing lawyer” with “opposing party” and …
this makes sense. As long as the Dems didn’t treat the Republicans like a bunch of weirdos who don’t deserve to be treated like peers who happen to have different opinions, the media wouldn’t either.

But now that that has changed, I expect you’ll see a lot more reporters follow suit.

And to a degree that explains the total meltdown that this has caused in the GOP. Yes a lot of them are so thin-skinned they’re practically translucent and so they’re reacting from a completely emotional place, but the more intelligent ones see what is coming down the pike & it’s not great, Bob.


… Republicans have been trying out angles of attack on Harris—a perfectly milquetoast liberal with a nice family and a big laugh and an occasional kookiness and who can be attacked much more effectively from the left than from the right, something they can’t take advantage of—and all their angles of attack have been extremely fucking weird. And, this is crucial: Dems have pointed out just how weird they are…

A serious person doesn’t support a ban on pornography, or say that women shouldn’t get divorced just because they’re unhappy, or oppose abortion in cases of rape and incest. But then, a serious person isn’t recommended for the second-highest position in government by the most powerful grotesques of Silicon Valley: litigious vampire Peter Thiel, SPAC grifter Chamath Palihapitiya, even dumber Jason Calacanis David Sacks, and the most divorced man alive, Elon Musk, all of whom pushed Vance on Donald Trump. Vance—Yale Law, venture capitalist, obsessed with sex other people are having—resembles so many other vat-grown Thiel projects that have crashed and burned in previous elections upon voters getting the barest look at them and their values; Blake Masters really thought he could win over normal people by filming himself firing a gun in the desert and portraying his opponent, a literal astronaut, as a soyjak. (If you are not online enough to know what that is: Congratulations. The modern GOP’s problem is that it’s unsettlingly online.)

Is it any wonder, then, that when someone made up out of whole cloth a joke that Vance fucked a couch, everyone believed it?

People have had enough of this shit. Too many years of Donald Trump and Trump-enthralled Republicans lying and bullying their way to power, and targeting the most vulnerable to score points among their base of freaks and perverts. The When they go low, we go high counterstrategy of the Hillary Clinton era has been abandoned. It was not effective, and it was not satisfying. Now, when they say and do weird shit, Democrats simply point out, Hey, that’s real weird…

It’s weird to be so obsessed with genitals, who has them, and what they do with them. It’s weird to the point of fetishistic to be so concerned with people “breeding” to avoid being “replaced.” It is fundamentally weird to care so much about what other people do when it doesn’t affect you at all. Nobody wants to be around people like that, and we should say it…

But the most effective aspect of the Dems’ You’re weird strategy is that it is an initiative. For my entire life, the Democrats have been passive campaigners, easily drawn into Republican framing of issues. It has been a mug’s gambit to get suckered into arguments over where exactly means testing should begin, rather than rejecting it altogether. “Late-term abortion” is a Conservative phrase that when engaged with and adopted by Democrats, shifts the Overton window for Republicans to push for a 15-week abortion ban, which is functionally a full abortion ban. This doesn’t work. You can’t engage them on their terms, and let them dictate the conversation. The Dems’ latest stratagem has the usefulness of both staying on the offensive, and immediately dismissing attempts to change the subject. No, you’re weird, I’m not going to get into that with you.

The people crave normalcy. They want elected officials who are recognizable as human beings, with normal human interests and emotions. They want to occasionally go entire days without thinking about the President. Demonstrating that you hear and agree with them, giving them voice by pointing out the sheer weirdness of Republicans, isn’t just good politics. It’s basic humanity. It’s not weird at all that it’s working so well.



But they keep giving us new material!

Reader Interactions

207Comments

  1. 1.

    rikyrah

    THEY are weird

    They are creepy

    They want all control of women’s bodies.

    Want to control the lives of LBGTQIA+ people

    Their inability to ‘ live and let live’

    They want to repeal the 20th Century

    And, yes, we need to fight back against that shyt.

     

    WE ARE NOT GOING BACK

  6. 6.

    Scout211

    Take it from a Communications expert.

    Democrats are applying the label with gusto in interviews and online, notably to Vance’s comments on abortion and his previous suggestion that political leaders who didn’t have biological children “don’t really have a direct stake” in the country.

    The “weird” message appears to have given Democrats a narrative advantage that they rarely had when President Joe Biden was still running for reelection. Trump’s campaign, which so often shapes political discussions with the former president’s pronouncements, has spent days trying to flip the script by highlighting things about Democrats it says are weird.

    “I don’t know who came up with the message, but I salute them,” said David Karpf, a strategic communication professor at George Washington University.

    Karpf said labeling Republican comments as “weird” is the sort of concise take that resonates quickly with Harris supporters. Plus, Karpf noted, “it frustrates opponents, leading them to further amplify it through off-balance responses.”

     

    And as we have talked about in the comments, it started with Kamala Harris herself:

    But Harris’ own characterization of Trump as “weird” may date back even further. In his 2021 book, political reporter Edward-Isaac Dovere wrote that Harris reportedly gathered with aides in 2018 to prepare for her own presidential bid.

    As staff aimed to prepare her for how she’d react if, during a debate, Trump stood over her as he did Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton in 2016, Harris reportedly quipped, “‘I’d turn around and say, ‘Why are you being so weird? What’s wrong with you?’”

  7. 7.

    lowtechcyclist

    If Republican leaders don’t enjoy being called weird, creepy, and controlling, they could try not being weird, creepy, and controlling.

    Sorry Hillary, but they wouldn’t be able to manage it, no matter how hard they try.  It’s just who and what they are.

    Their only hope is to repent and be saved – and of course a large % of them believe they already did that early in life, so that kinda stands in their way.

  8. 8.

    PJ

    If you think the media is going to start depicting Republican statements and policies and behaviors as they actually are in the context of American culture and history (i.e., weird and disturbing and fascist), I have several bridges that I would love to sell you at very special prices.

  10. 10.

    zhena gogolia

    Harris also came up with my favorite catchphrase, “Dude gotta go,” which I have on a T-shirt but haven’t been able to wear since Jan. 2021.

  11. 11.

    Ocotillo

    I know this really got going with Walz saying they are/were weird but didn’t “W” actually say after T’s inauguration speech, “that was some weird sh*t”

  12. 12.

    JoyceH

    I saw a Walz clip I liked, he said something like “and we’re not afraid of them. We’re a little creeped out but not afraid.” That really busts their bubble – if their opponents are afraid of them, they’ll just be proud of it. But creeping folks out is nothing to brag about. And on a related note, Trump just recently called the Second Gentleman a “rotten Jew.”  Creeeepy.

  18. 18.

    David 🐝KHive🐝 Koch

    Arthur Schlesinger used to describe Ike during the 50s as “the bland leading the bland”

    Today, we have the weird leading the weirder

  22. 22.

    TBone

    It is fundamentally weird to care so much about what other people do when it doesn’t affect you at all. Nobody wants to be around people like that, and we should say it…

    This is an aspect of living in a small town that really gets to me.  Coming from an urban area, I was accustomed to neighbors and others minding their own business on a regular basis, a lot more than those in my current area do.

  23. 23.

    bbleh

    It’s so UNFAIR to call them out for being weird and creepy!!

    When Mister Trump is in charge, we won’t ALLOW any of THAT kind of talk!

    Program an AI as a below-average 3rd-grader, and it could write Republican talking points.

  25. 25.

    KatKapCC

    Someone on social media explained that there’s Good Weird, which us happy weirdos embrace — and there’s Creepy Weird, which is pretty much the entire GOP platform right now.

    We’re weird like Weird Al. They…are not.

  26. 26.

    Omnes Omnibus

    There is weird as in eccentric and they will safely play with your kids and their imaginary friends for hours, and then there is weird as in check his basement for bodies and don’t leave your children with them for any reason.

  28. 28.

    lowtechcyclist

    @JoyceH:

    I saw a Walz clip I liked, he said something like “and we’re not afraid of them. We’re a little creeped out but not afraid.” That really busts their bubble – if their opponents are afraid of them, they’ll just be proud of it. But creeping folks out is nothing to brag about. And on a related note, Trump just recently called the Second Gentleman a “rotten Jew.” Creeeepy.

    Yes, ‘creepy’ is the right escalation here. First, so many of their obsessions are genuinely creepy.  Second, while there are contexts where ‘weird’ is a positive, there are no such contexts for ‘creepy.’  It’s always a bad thing.

    And just for the record, Trump is a creepy, disgusting goy.

  29. 29.

    lamh47

    So true…and you hear some of it already.  If I hear anyone else talk about a “honeymoon” phase…chile..its been almost 3 weeks now right?  Maybe the Olympics is a bit of a distraction, but even then, the time difference doesn’t really allow for as much of a distraction as it could.

    @drvolts

    I hope that everyone is clear-eyed about the fact that the extraordinary burst of enthusiasm & unity around Harris grinds against every instinct of the US political press. They are not going to sit back & let it continue organically. Brace yourselves for immense backlash.
    https://x.com/drvolts/status/1818341534389223484

    @drvolts

    Watch for the headlines — first a trickle then a flood — that use the tell-tale NYT passive voice: questions are “being raised,” the honeymoon “is ending,” Democratic “insiders” are “increasingly concerned,” etc. Building a narrative while denying any agency in it. Watch.

    @drvolts

    I’ll admit, I was surprised by the party’s ability to pull off this transition so smoothly, with such good vibes. The political media was surprised too. It’s on its back foot, unsure of how to penetrate it & start fomenting infighting. But they’ll figure something out.

  30. 30.

    cmorenc

    @TBone: John Prine wrote a terrific song “In a Town this Size” that lyrically nails it about the smothering lack of “mind your own business” in small-town life, the opening line of which is: “In a town this size…there’s no place to hide” – he recorded it in a wonderful duet with Iris DeMint.

  31. 31.

    David 🐝KHive🐝 Koch

     This whole “they’re weird” argument from the Democrats is dumb & juvenile.

    the hit dogs are hollering¹

  32. 32.

    Wapiti

    @TBone: My mother was happy to leave her small town behind. She’d say that if she visited a friend, and mentioned that she was going to see another friend, the second friend would have been told before she could walk the 3 or 4 blocks.

  33. 33.

    Suzanne

    It is fundamentally weird to care so much about what other people do when it doesn’t affect you at all.

    Yes this. It is weird and gross to invite yourself to someone’s private life in your mind. It is antisocial.

  35. 35.

    lamh47

    @lamh47: Another thing you see them do is invite more MAGA/GOP folks on camera.  I see they dragged out Lindsey Graham on CNN…whatever.

  40. 40.

    Jacel

    Now I want to hear Andy Serkis reciting the tweets of Golum J. Trump (as seen on the bird website).

  41. 41.

    Tenar Arha

    Creeps and busybodies. They’re the creepiest and worst of your neighborhood HOA-type sticklers.

  42. 42.

    craigie

    This is a presidential election, not a high school prom queen contest

    Sadly, I have always believed the opposite. People may believe that they are engaging on the issues, but for most people Presidential elections are a vibe-based activity.

  45. 45.

    The Kropenhagen Interpretation

    @lamh47: Watch for the headlines — first a trickle then a flood — that use the tell-tale NYT passive voice: questions are “being raised,” the honeymoon “is ending,” Democratic “insiders” are “increasingly concerned,” etc. Building a narrative while denying any agency in it. Watch.

    It’ll be fine. Just as long as we don’t jump all over ourselves to agree with the media portrayal this time.

  46. 46.

    Snarki, child of Loki

    @lamh47: ”

    Another thing you see them do is invite more MAGA/GOP folks on camera.  I see they dragged out Lindsey Graham on CNN…whatever.”

    PRO TIP: have the furniture in the Green Room professionally cleaned and disinfected afterwards.

  47. 47.

    delphinium

    Hey Andy, happy belated birthday to you (apparently you were born yesterday). Trump and the GOP are all about personal attacks and their voters are fine with that, so get out of here with this nonsense.

    Andy@plainly_andy

    i think voters all like to think of themselves as making “informed” decisions about policy, against personal attacks…

     

  48. 48.

    lamh47

    Kamala Harris is very good in one on one interviews and townhall interviews.

    Folks are coming to realize that they missed alot of great things about her on the stump.

    Here she is talking about chump’s border wall on with Trevor Noah back in 2020 during her first campaign for President:

    Kamala Harris on Her 2020 Presidential Campaign and Trump’s Vanity Wall |

    It starts at about the 6:04 mark.  When she says “they don’t care about that wall…” I said “THANK YOU!” like she was speaking directly to me…LOL.

    The entire interview is good for a re-watch.

  49. 49.

    Lochnessmom

    @PJ:  Everything is the way it is, until suddenly it isn’t that way anymore.  Too much fatalism does the job for them.

  50. 50.

    Sean

    If I hear anyone else talk about a “honeymoon” phase…chile..its been almost 3 weeks now right?

    @lamh47: It has been 9 days since Joe stepped down. Not 3 weeks. No shade for feeling like it was 3 weeks.

  53. 53.

    delphinium

    @twbrandt: Yeah, don’t agree with them politically but they have been hitting Trump pretty hard with their ads which is fantastic.

  54. 54.

    SomeRandomGuy

    @PJ: If you think the media is going to start depicting Republican statements and policies and behaviors as they actually are in the context of American culture and history (i.e., weird and disturbing and fascist), I have several bridges that I would love to sell you at very special prices.

    If you think the media won’t have just as much fun roasting a Republican as a Democrat, I have a Quayle you can hunt. Maybe Sarah Palin can lend you the gun from her reality show.

  55. 55.

    TBone

    @cmorenc: thank you, I’ma look for that to blast out when I’m feeling disturbed 🤣 in a petty tit-for-tat next time I hear the leaf blower going on a windy day with nothing of substance on the ground to blow.  Maga neighbor drives me to distraction with that shit, just about every day.

  56. 56.

    MCA1

    Susquehanna U poll of likely voters in PA out today:  Harris up 4.  You love to see it.

    This has been the most amazing 10 days of a presidential campaign I can remember.  Knock on wood but it feels like some sort of spell has been broken or a fog lifted with Biden stepping aside, and folks are like “Yeah, I hadn’t realized how tired I was of these people.  Wait, we can end all this?  We can be done with that f’ing guy, finally?  LET’S DO IT, THEN!”

    On the “weird” topic, I don’t want it retired, and there’s plenty more mileage to it, but I do think it would be good to pivot/escalate to “creepy” or “What’s wrong with these guys?” and then start pointing out authoritarian tendencies or something, so as not to allow Republicans time to recover.  By the time they figure out a counter-message, Democrats should be on to something else.  Keep landing blows from different directions for another 3 months.  It won’t let the press keep up and figure out a way to blunt the effect this sort of thing is having, either.

    Side note: at some point I would also like to see a widely placed set of ads along the lines of “When we say “We’re not going back” we mean we’re not going back to this:” and then a barrage of the dumbest and most deranged and heartless shit Trump said and did as POTUS.  Tie it up with “Remember how terrible he was as president?  Let’s not go there again.”  Because a lot of the undecideds either never paid enough attention to realize what a horror show the Trump administration was, or they’re like goldfish and have forgotten.

  58. 58.

    BeautifulPlumage

    @twbrandt: and this one got under his skin…he was complaining that FOX was allowing LP and George Conway to run ads. *snicker*

    Haven’t seen the Conway ad, and I don’t send either of them money, but they do know how to twist the knife.

  62. 62.

    KatKapCC

    @lamh47: What’s really weird — and kind of telling — to me about people using “honeymoon phase” in this way is the implication that after the honeymoon, everything sucks. Like, sure, you love your new spouse on the honeymoon. But then you get home and it’s like UGH THIS PERSON FOREVER? Because that’s how it seems most Republicans, especially men, think about marriage. Most of them hate women, but they marry them so they can get regular sex (because most of them also do not believe a wife has the right to say no) and spread their loser genes and have dinner made for them and whatever. But they don’t like their wives as people. So to them, yeah, after the honeymoon, they’re back to being grumpy, pissed off losers stuck with their “ball and chain”. They can’t conceive of how it works for others, where the honeymoon is only the beginning of a happy and beautiful life with the person you love and admire.

    When I think of “honeymoon” regarding Harris, I think of it as, to borrow a phrase, the beginning of a beautiful friendship, not as the last gasp of enjoyment before all hell sets in.

  63. 63.

    cain

    @lamh47:

    The thing is – the entire thing is predictable. They’ve been using the same playbook for 30 years – lazy fuckers. We keep falling for it because we can’t bring ourselves not to approach this differently so we just keep doing the same thing.

    That ends this year.

  64. 64.

    Martin

    I’ve been thinking about the ‘weird’ thing, because it’s both popular and out of character, and I kind of wonder where it came from. Maybe it was just Walz riffing.

    I didn’t think it’d bother Trump to be called weird, and I still don’t, but it might have a bigger impact in other areas. I’m reminded of a few things:

    1. One way the alt right recruits members is by finding young white men in communities whose interests let them feel sort of marginalized and where liberals don’t critique their interests and then driving a wedge between them and the left so that the comfort and lack of judgement from the community becomes more important than aligning with the left, which is how Star Wars fandoms turn into a bunch of fasicsts. The key motivation in there is that someone who is self conscious about their interests being weird stays anchored in this community where it’s normal. They’re more afraid of being called weird than they are about being a fascist. Pointing out that being or associating with a fascist is weird might actually work pretty well.
    2. This is reinforced by how conservatives talk about politics as a set of affects rather than policies and morality. This is JD Vances ‘Democrats are lonely cat ladies’. He’s not arguing Democrats have bad policies or are immoral, just that being one makes you lonely, and you don’t want to be lonely or to associate with people who are lonely, right? Democrats don’t do this. We sometimes declare them to be a threat, etc. but we don’t do the affect thing, and here we are doing it. What’s worked so far is that nobody has called conservatives weird, just Trump and Vance, and leaves out there ‘why are you associating with these weird people’. (I think targeting the electorate is always bad politics.)
    3. Pretty much everything in the GOP right now is about defining the national culture, what is acceptable and what is not. And you see this in social media energy – when conservatives kind of take over a platform and all of their edgy shit suddenly looks normal within the ranks because it’s become dominant. And then the KHive gets activated and they take over and now the edgy stuff makes you look like the people who think Cybertrucks are cool when the rest of us have declared definitively, no, they aren’t. ‘Weird’ is a way of not saying someone is bad – it doesn’t question their morals or their motives, it just says they’re out of step with culture. If the term doesn’t take off, that doesn’t happen. But if it’s getting repeated on late night and becomes memeable, well… And the GOP cares about culture more than anything. The policies are just a way of enforcing it. The policies aren’t the goal, they’re the stick.
  67. 67.

    cain

    @Snarki, child of Loki: and we should lean into tiktok, instagram, and youtube influencers.

    The messaging of ‘thats weird’ – bring clips. Those online influencers would eat it up. You’d also bypass the “serious media” and it will piss them off even more. Especially, if it is working and people are getting the content.

    Only people above the age of 54 actually watches TV I think. (I haven’t watched cable in 20 years)

  68. 68.

    Betty Cracker

    I laid down to try to take a nap a while ago because I’m exhausted and feeling sick, but an idiot who lives down the road decided Tuesday evening was a good time to unholster his expensive penis substitute and fire off multiple rounds. Fucking weirdos! Why can’t they just jerk off like normal people?

  72. 72.

    SomeRandomGuy

    It is fundamentally weird to care so much about what other people do when it doesn’t affect you at all. Nobody wants to be around people like that, and we should say it…

    Um. “Prove to me you’re 100% NT, without saying you’re NT, in under two sentences.

    I don’t want to harsh on this bit, but I saw it quoted, and there’s nothing more fundamentally HUMAN than howling in laughter over a shared joke about anything – including something other people do that doesn’t affect the laughter-infused, at all.

    Now, what’s *weird* is making up shit like “and drag shows! Drag shows are just like trans people being their horrible trans selves! DRAG SHOWS SEXUALIZE CHILDREN!!!”

    *THAT* is weird.

    Thinking windmills are ugly is normal; thinking windmills might cause cancer, *that* is weird.

    Thinking “doctors just said disinfectants work on surfaces! I bet those dumb old doctors haven’t thought about using DISINFECTANTS on the HUMAN BODY!” is weird.

    There’s *NOTHING* more normally human than saying “wow, you’re WEIRD, weirdo,” whether the difference has any effect or not.

    So don’t just look for disagreement and nastiness – look for the weirdness, like “if you’re not Quiverfull, you’re dooming the America that gave birth to the Confederacy.” Damn shame I consider that statement to be valueless, or I’d be glad I’m childless.

    (Never could have children, but dooming the America that gave birth to THE CONFEDERACY is cool as anything. Let’s make the America that wouldn’t THINK of committing treason in defense of brutal torture and murder of people who look ‘different’ from us.)

  74. 74.

    KatKapCC

    @lamh47: Good ad. I only wish that over the part about Trump blocking fund to stop human trafficking, they’d used a pic of him with Epstein.

  76. 76.

    Seonachan

    @cmorenc: There’s also the Tom Waits song “Hold On”, which has the line, “They hung a sign up in our town, says ‘If you live it up, you won’t live it down'”

  77. 77.

    cain

    @Martin:

    1. This is reinforced by how conservatives talk about politics as a set of affects rather than policies and morality. This is JD Vances ‘Democrats are lonely cat ladies’. He’s not arguing Democrats have bad policies or are immoral, just that being one makes you lonely, and you don’t want to be lonely or to associate with people who are lonely, right? Democrats don’t do this. We sometimes declare them to be a threat, etc. but we don’t do the affect thing, and here we are doing it. What’s worked so far is that nobody has called conservatives weird, just Trump and Vance, and leaves out there ‘why are you associating with these weird people’. (I think targeting the electorate is always bad politics.)

    I don’t know, those people are pretty weird – wearing stuff on their ear, wearing diapers, the amount of photos out there – they truly look weird.

    The media seems to be completely ill-equipped to deal with this. They are not used to the Dems behaving this way (it’s weird! :D) but the conservatives are squawking and the media is trying to do their tsk tsk thing. But I’m done listening to their verbal pestilence.

  78. 78.

    cain

    One thing about the ‘weirdo’ thing is that conservatives thinks that liberals have no sense of humor. That it’s all outrage all the time. Well no duh, all they are proposing would flip this country on its ear so of course we’re howling. But this is showing something else and it’s hard to attack it without looking even more weird yourself.

  79. 79.

    SomeRandomGuy

    @Martin: I didn’t think it’d bother Trump to be called weird, and I still don’t

    It should be noted that Trump is constantly afraid of being laughed at.

  81. 81.

    K-Mo

    @MCA1: One thing I like about the “weird” angle is that is gives us a chance to introduce Kamala (and soon a VP) as regular folk who are good at governing stuff.   They laugh? Yeah that’s what regular folks do.  They dance?  Regular stuff.  Making tough calls on a variety of difficult issues?  Solid and normal.  Abortion rights, gun control, and debt relief?  Mainstream stuff.  Let’s be normal again.

  82. 82.

    BR

    @Martin: ​
    It seems it’s been in the air. It wasn’t just Walz, though he may have helped reignite it. Apparently Harris wanted to use it against Trump ~5 years ago.

  85. 85.

    Scout211

    @Martin: kind of wonder where it came from

    See my #6

    But Harris’ own characterization of Trump as “weird” may date back even further. In his 2021 book, political reporter Edward-Isaac Dovere wrote that Harris reportedly gathered with aides in 2018 to prepare for her own presidential bid.

     

    As staff aimed to prepare her for how she’d react if, during a debate, Trump stood over her as he did Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton in 2016, Harris reportedly quipped, “‘I’d turn around and say, ‘Why are you being so weird? What’s wrong with you?’”

  86. 86.

    Jackie

    @lamh47: That’s a good ad, too.

    Thank goodness for the internet and cable news – I live in a blue state and will never see these ads – even though I’m in MAGA country – otherwise. There’s not enough MAGAts to turn WA red, so running those ads here would be a waste of resources better spent in battleground states.

  88. 88.

    Martin

    @lamh47: Uh, it’s been 8 days, not 3 weeks. A lots happened in 8 days.

    We have been through these bursts of enthusiasm before and fallen on our faces. Now that we’re getting into the organizing phase of this I’m feeling a bit better about it. I’m kind of shocked we’re still getting huge zoom calls – wasn’t expecting that. Dems were in a pretty bad hole 3 weeks ago, so there was a lot of negative energy to release into enthusiasm, but I’m going to hold judgement until the work is getting done.

    I don’t completely agree with the assertion that the press seeks to quash the enthusiasm. In 2008 they loved that story because it was easy to write and we gobbled that shit up – they got the clicks they wanted. And the media doesn’t like to cut across popular trends. If this gets the kind of energy we had in 2008, they’re going to ride it rather than fight it. Sure there were plenty of hits on the campaign – but not really on the organizing/enthusiasm part. There was never going to not be a ‘Can Obama really win’ article out there. Same here.

  90. 90.

    The Kropenhagen Interpretation

    @SatanicPanic: oh my god, Trump is gonna be piiiiissed

    Trump will just continue to assert that he has the biggest crowds ever and always growing.  This is what happens when you can’t count past your fingers.

  91. 91.

    Gvg

    @JoyceH: his son in law is a Jew. His daughter converted. Some of his grandchildren are Jews. Never seemed to bother him to hang around with anti-semites. I didn’t understand them either.

  94. 94.

    JoyceH

    Both MSNBC and CNN are carrying Kamala’s rally speech live. Kinda nice to see one of us get the Trump treatment.

  95. 95.

    MCA1

    @K-Mo: When do the “MANA” hats ship?  I’d also be down with a t-shirt that read: Kind And Mighty And Laughing America or something along those lines.

  96. 96.

    stinger

    @schrodingers_cat:

    Its true about India’s RWNJs also. The RW movement is ebbing.

    Would the “weird” label work against them? (If you’ve already answered this in the next 90 comments, which I have yet to read, never mind!)

  98. 98.

    Martin

    @cain: Yeah, I don’t blame the media for struggling. Democrats really don’t do politics this way. The rapid response from the campaign has been very interesting too. Instead of strident as it was under Biden it’s dismissive – like, look at this dumb shit.

    I have to think about this, because the rapid response is working the ref. Normies don’t read that shit, only the media does, and being dismissive is kind of calling the media out for not doing their job – for not reporting on Trumps actions or ideas as the obvious lunacy that it is.

    The weird thing, the couch fucking thing, is designed to reach normies through culture – social media, late night hosts, etc. John Stewart and John Oliver have already featured it, as has Colbert. By contrast Harris’s first ad about herself is serious and urgent.

    It’s only been a week, so you can’t really conclude much but it looks like a strategy. I’m not seeing the piece yet about how to motivate apathetic voters. There’s more Project 2025 energy from outside the campaign but I don’t see a strategy around it yet. Still early.

  99. 99.

    japa21

    @Martin: ​
      The enthusiasm actually seems to be growing. And one of the good things about her getting it going now, is that there really isn’t enough time for the enthusiasm to die. There will be a new push post convention which will carry her into September and October. Meanwhile I would expect the enthusiasm on the other side, which isn’t high right now, to actually dissipate even more.

  101. 101.

    Old Dan and Little Ann

    Elon Musk just tweeted that if anyone calls a drumph supporter weird on his platform will be punished.

  102. 102.

    Quinerly

    Damn, she’s good. Kamala live in Atlanta. I haven’t felt like this since the run up to 2008.

    Yes, We Kam!!!!

  104. 104.

    Omnes Omnibus

    When we get tired of “weird,” I propose “joyless freaks” as a replacement.

  105. 105.

    Ksmiami

    Late to this but these fucking weirdos should just mind their own fucking business. Seriously they can fuck off.

  108. 108.

    SomeRandomGuy

    @Betty Cracker: Fucking weirdos! Why can’t they just jerk off like normal people?

    Because normal people don’t need a couch.

    More seriously, because in Trump_is_Jesus_Land, you need to make a big change to your life if you want to be A BLESSED HOLY CHRISTIAN who will be RAPTURED before the TRIBULATION, and, as you know, Jesus said to help the poor and needy, be kind to the sick and imprisoned, and to love that which is good with all your heart and spirit, and to love your neighbor as yourself, so: you have to stop jerking off (or at least getting caught).

    For bonus points, you can brag that you and your son are checking out each others’ porn collection.

    (Yes, some Christians think God will take them all up to heaven. That’s why I have a bumper sticker, “In case of the rapture, driver will be carless.” All good cars go to heaven. What? I never had a dog.)

    Anyway: sorry about the noise. I stopped being a Christian years ago, when they insisted I had to believe Jesus only purpose in dying was the redemption for humanity’s sins. God was so bloodthirsty, only blood could cure the taint, they say, and I say “bullshit, that doesn’t even make any *SENSE*”

    That’s weird, but it’s not the right kind of weird. That said: the bit about masturbation being the one and only sin people avoid? *THAT* is a goldmine of weird.

    “And, like a goldmine, there’s been a lot of toxic spew regarding masturbation, but, remember, to a Republican, if you murder hundreds of people with toxic waste, baby Jesus is fine, so long as you don’t pull your pud.Oh, heeeeey… is THAT why “puddin’fingers DeSantis” dropped out, they found it was pud, not pudding?

    But you’d probably say something cool, or funny, instead.

  115. 115.

    Quinerly

    @SomeRandomGuy:

    I am laying odds before this is over, Trump loses total control, slips, and uses the n word.

    We know he has been wanting to. We know he has in the past.

  116. 116.

    KatKapCC

    @Gvg: Jared is a shanda and nothing more. Ivanka…well, she supposedly did an Orthodox conversion but she doesn’t cover her hair or adhere to any of the usual modesty standards for clothing (elbows, knees, and collarbones covered). And there are a LOT of people who are perfectly fine to pal around with both Jews and neo-Nazis. The former give them cover for the latter.

  120. 120.

    Quinerly

    “You got something to say, Donald, say it to my face.”

    **********

    I love her.

  122. 122.

    lamh47

    HARRIS: “Donald, I do hope you’ll reconsider to meet me on the debate stage because as the saying goes, if you’ve got something to say, say it to my face!”

  123. 123.

    Martin

    @japa21: Yeah, but 2016 was a fair bit of enthusiasm that didn’t turn into a lot of work. And we lost. Stay hungry.

  125. 125.

    Scout211

    @Quinerly: You got something to say, Donald, say it to my face.”

    That was the best line of the night, but she was on fire the whole time.  It brought tears to my eyes, she was just that great.

  128. 128.

    Gretchen

    Conservatives are mad that this lady, a former kindergarten teacher, was on the white lady call doing her teacher character, telling people she won’t let them be unkind to others. Rod Dreher says this video will make him crawl over glass to vote for Trump. https://www.tiktok.com/@mrs.frazzled/video/7392784633596759338

    Kindergarten teacher telling Uncle Norm that it’s not his problem if he sees a man wearing nail polish and she has a Miller Lite and pictures of motorcycles for him to color until he can be kind.

  131. 131.

    4D*hiker

     
    Re: Vance’s “weirdness”

    The two overwhelming psychological drives in Vance seem to be his ambition and personal insecurities, each in service of the other for a common goal: convincing himself that he is indeed worthy and superior. But now his ambitions have propelled him into rarified strata where his insecurities will probably undermine his ambitions.

    I don’t judge him for having ambitions; most politicians are driven by personal ambitions. Where Vance is vulnerable……are his insecurities. His insecurities are almost surely whispering relentlessly to him that he DOESN’T BELONG in that rarified atmosphere. The most effective weapon against Vance (and probably Trump), cold-blooded though it may be, is to aim for the soft underbelly of his insecurities, including using humor. The couch meme and the “weird” angle are good examples of this. Gov. Beshear employed another effective tactic successfully when he stated about Vance: “He ain’t from here.”——subtext: he doesn’t belong. Yep, he doesn’t belong and he knows it. He’s a sell out. He would do anything—-pander to anything—-for the chance to quiet those voices. Tragic and pitiful, really.

    The Politics of Personal Destruction. Trump has wantonly and effectively used it for 9 years. He and the GOP should not pretend to be outraged that Trump’s own weapons are being used against them now. They ARE weird and have been getting weirder with every political cycle.

  132. 132.

    Scout211

    Another good thing, Kamala Harris laughed her signature laugh in the speech and it was perfect.

  134. 134.

    SomeRandomGuy

    @MCA1: On the “weird” topic, I don’t want it retired, and there’s plenty more mileage to it, but I do think it would be good to pivot/escalate to “creepy” or “What’s wrong with these guys?” and then start pointing out authoritarian tendencies or something, so as not to allow Republicans time to recover.

    The thing about authoritarianism is, there’s a built in seriousness to authoritarians that you can’t let them put on display. You don’t let them come out in their nice, freshly pressed Brown Shirts and explain “people sometimes need a firm hand.”

    You say “but y’all are armed, and screaming about books about PENGUINS. Seriously: who gets out their guns to scream about PENGUINS? AT a fucking SCHOOL BOARD MEETING?”

    (NB: do we care whether or not someone actually got out their guns to scream about penguins at a school board meeting? No – we make them defend, or deny – focus is now on “gun+ school board meeting = sounds reasonable to the gun nut.” I don’t care that it’s not true – I care that Republicans will defend it as sharply as Democrats will defend appropriate care for gender dysphoria – only, the Republicans will be on the “you’re explaining, so you’re losing” side.)

  137. 137.

    Bupalos

    I’m the first one to worry about the systemic effects of defining citizens out of the democratic game by defining their preferences as morally unacceptable, something folks here do resort to pretty frequently. BUT

    I say go ahead and roll with “WTF is up with you fucking weirdos?” I mean, maybe I’d lean into the word “creepy” over “weird,” but in general I do think it’s time to call attention to the reality that a movement that is trying to roll as a majority is in fact a minority, and on the issues that it actually wants to implement through governance… a really small minority. A fucking creepy minority.

    Eyes on the prize here though… the goal is not further polarization, which actually serves Trump and is how he won in ’16. It’s an attempt to wedge some of the folks that are culturally finlandized to these creepy mofo’s like Vance and Trump off of that weak commitment. “This feels kind of weird, you sure about these couchfuckers?” We do have to be careful not to get into the range that brought in the very effective “deplorable” backlash. Remember who you’re trying to move. As long as we keep that goal in mind, I think it’s great. Don’t call voters weird, call these couchfucking bilionaire-vampire-clients weird. The best ammo here that isn’t currently being deployed is how Trump wants to “date” Ivanka.

  140. 140.

    The Kropenhagen Interpretation

    All this talk about Thomas Friedman this morning. It occurred to me I don’t know what he looks like.

    Every time I tried to conjure an image in my head, that image was Cliff Clavin.

  142. 142.

    divF

    @cain: Fifty-some years for me and Madame divF, and we still walk down the street together holding hands. The neighbors find this, well, weird, but in a good way.

  143. 143.

    rivers

    @Martin: Speaking as someone who knocked on doors for Hillary in Pennsylvania, I saw a lot of work being done. It wasn’t that we didn’t work for her campaign – but  that the Russians were working for his.

  146. 146.

    Bupalos

    @The Kropenhagen Interpretation: Not an option for us. When we destabilize the ecosystem of truth, and boost the idea that there is no discernible truth…we serve the ends of the post-truthers. Spreading misinformation empowers Trump and Elon even when the misinformation itself seems to harm them.

  150. 150.

    TBone

    Jiminy Cricket!  Digby goes into exactly how weird the tech bros are getting – a lot of info I didn’t know.

    https://digbysblog.net/2024/07/30/you-want-weird-buckle-up/

    Among many other new-to-me creepy things listed in the article:

    This story by @davetroy goes deep into the weird collection of ideas called TESCREAL. Many of these tech guys backing Trump have been working on this project for a long, long time.

    https://washingtonspectator.org/understanding-tescreal-silicon-valleys-rightward-turn/

    I think I saw TESCREAL mentioned somewhere once before but forgot about it in the news cycle of the past month.

  151. 151.

    eldorado

    a large set of the public immediately grasps exactly what ‘weird’ means when applied to the creepy fucks that the right wing noise machine selects for

    everyone is sick to death of hearing from these motherfuckers who are so deeply weird and finding out the clapback is both a: instinctively right and b: super effective feels like a tipping point

  152. 152.

    The Kropenhagen Interpretation

    @Bupalos: One of the hardest things I had to learn growing up, no one gives two shits what the truth is as anything more than post hoc rationalization.

    Frankly, I don’t see the problem with insinuations of couch fornication or demagoguing some rich asshole who, no matter what he said or didn’t about blocking accounts, is arbitrary and malicious in the way he blocks accounts.

    If this was a voting public that cares about facts, we wouldn’t be throwing away 3 and 1/2 years of solid work in the top seat for a 20 minute failure of telegenicity.

  157. 157.

    Nettoyeur

    @TBone:  I am an MIT grad and a PhD in engineering, so I know a lot about geeks etc. The antisocial tech bros were weird sociopathic dweebs even when they were in undergrad STEM school. They then got obscenely rich, and people started treating them like philosopher kings and social lions….instead of the weird dweebs they still are.

  158. 158.

    Dan B

    @Scout211: My feeling hearing Walz describe all the things the GOP wanted to do like take away school lunches from hungry kids and prohibit your freedom to decide about what can be done to your body and finish with, “That’s just weird.” was great.  And – it was delivered by the guy, white, middle aged, from rural Minnesota, retired military, former football coach, etc.  He was the person who the MSM would least expect to call conservatives, even extreme conservatives “weird”.  He’s the perfect messenger.

    Pete’s great but he’s gay and intellectual.  He’s gotta be liberal or he’d be outta the tribe.  Walz is the straight white guy who can do what Harris would be called “shrill” for saying.

  160. 160.

    cain

    @Martin:

    I think the difference is that the media has been bought by oligarchs – washington post, sinclair, cnn, etc.

  162. 162.

    Bupalos

    @The Kropenhagen Interpretation: we wouldn’t be throwing away 3 and 1/2 years of solid work in the top seat for a 20 minute failure of telegenicity

    Not going to respond to this part, just going to file as exhibit #211 that the supposed “victory lap” is… um… of complex origin.

    But for the rest, I think you’re functionally wrong. Democracy can’t fight on the grounds of post-truth. There’s nothing wrong with the “couchfucker” meme as long as someone doesn’t literally try to establish that Vance fucks couches. It has to be admitted as an unsubstantial route to a deeper truth – that Vance is so far outside the concerns and experience of citizens that it’s not unreasonable to also suppose he may have other desires that make absolutely no human sense. It’s a wise metaphor.

  165. 165.

    The Kropenhagen Interpretation

    @Bupalos: Sorry, just took many memories from back in my 20s when I read several newspapers and knew what officials were doing in exorbitant detail.

    When it comes to disagreements, even if I could prove my superior grasp of facts, people don’t budge.  As much as I would love for it to be otherwise, facts don’t move opinion.

  167. 167.

    Bupalos

    I hope someone with more rhetorical ability than me and who is connected to the campaign can forge the link between the way elected Republicans are being fucking weird –and — a sense that the particular way in which they are weird is both freaky in it’s own right and really “un-American.” Like the way they are being weird is trying to stamp out individuality, stamp out the expansion of freedom and creativity and return us to a mythical past when stay-at-home moms were happy and not drugged and unhappy…..and that is just… horribly un-American. Horribly fake. Like the least free, least American, least “real” thing you could do.

    But has potential entanglements with this “let’s call them weird” thing if we don’t do it right.

  168. 168.

    Dan B

    @Gretchen: Thanks for this TikTok.  Ms. Kindergarten teacher strongly implies that being angry about someone else’s choices, that don’t directly affect him is “weird” and until he learns his lesson he’ll fail kindergarten.  That you haven’t grown up is the next phase of “weird”.  Weird Toddlers!  Weird Babies!?

  169. 169.

    Bupalos

    @The Kropenhagen Interpretation: I agree facts don’t necessarily move opinion. It’s nonetheless important to stand up for the idea of a difference between fact and fiction. We will lose badly if we give up the idea that underlying reality matters.

    Vance probably has never written about fucking couches. Nonetheless, it makes sense that someone like him might be more attracted to couches than to other humans, given the other commitments he is apparently willing to make..

  170. 170.

    206inKY

    I had a meeting today with an incredibly dumb 23 y/o, unspeakably dumb, like possibly unaware that Congress exists. It was not a political conversation, but I would have put hard money down that she was a non-voter.

    Then out of the blue she asks, “Have you heard of Trump’s Project 2025? It sounds scary.” This stuff is breaking through.

  171. 171.

    MazeDancer

    Not sure why there is no thread for the VP’s Atlanta Rally. But here’s a link to a YouTube video. It was spectacular.

    You need to fast forward to her speech if that’s what you want. But the warm-up acts are mighty fine, too.

    And the VP read Donald for the wimpy little boy he is, encouraging him to show up for the debate, with what will now be immortal words, “If you got something to say, Donald, say it to my face”.

    Crowd goes wild.

  172. 172.

    Bupalos

    @206inKY: Oh yeah this freaked me out. I’m a HS softball coach and at an event recently the girls were passing around 2025 on their phones. I’ve never heard an explicitly political word out of this crew my whole time coaching. I have no idea how this broke through but it did. And just to underline it I’m a HS coach in exurbia. Most of these kids were raised at least Trump-curious.

    Unfortunately (this was before Biden withdrawing) the majority reaction was “I’m leaving the country…” I felt the sense of inevitability they felt. They didn’t think they controlled it at all. I’m wondering if now that has changed. But no more events for 3 weeks. I’m dying to know.

  173. 173.

    Dan B

    @Bupalos: Another thing I love about Walz’ “weird” is that it’s not too strong.  I personally believe that the far right is filled with monsters who want to do evil but “weird” implies they’re simply off.  You can get better if you’re just a weirdo.  If you’re a monster and called one by lie-brals then it’s time to lock and load.  Walz brands them as ineffectual and in need of looking in the mirror and growing (a pair) up.

  174. 174.

    The Kropenhagen Interpretation

    @Bupalos: Vance probably has never written about fucking couches. Nonetheless, it makes sense that someone like him might be more attracted to couches than to other humans, given the other commitments he is apparently willing to make..

    Sensing some slippage in your principled stand, there.

    How about we break it down to standards? Insisting on strict adherence to probable facts is one of the media’s main weapons against Democrats in the context of no such standard existing for Republicans.

    If it rings true, if it’s true enough, that’s good enough until your talking about the most granular details of policy.  Elon is a menace and is happy to ban liberals and leftists from his platform for sketchy reasons.  This is known. I’m not saying politicians should pick up this line of attack, but having it bounce around chat forums doesn’t seem so harmful.

  175. 175.

    Bupalos

    @The Kropenhagen Interpretation: Oh I don’t really disagree. The line I’m drawing is simply that we shouldn’t actively embrace misinformation. The media environment is such that this isn’t that important a distinction. If you see slippage it’s just because you ascribed something that I didn’t intend originally. We can run with “couchfucker” in a way that is our own and more effective than those actively destabilizing the ecosystem of truth. We can talk about couchfuckers without having to say “believe me, this guy literally fucks couches…” I do think it matters that we don’t cross that line. There is a lot of value back on our side of the line that people neglect in their dissappointment. Truth matters. Not always. But often enough.

    Their way is dumb, and has the strength of being dumb. But dumb doesn’t actually win for us in the end, we can’t have that.

  176. 176.

    Bupalos

    @Dan B: That’s interesting. I’m going to think about the strategic space that “weird” provides for some of our enemies to retreat.

  177. 177.

    Slightly_peeved

    My theory on the value of “Weird” is that it addresses the big issue with policy-based arguments against the Republicans: that Republican policy is so bugfuck crazy that  people don’t believe they proposed it or intend to implement it. The logical approach of “no, here’s their policy document, they really do mean it” isn’t working, because it’s not addressing the idea that don’t really mean it. So in parallel with attacking their policies, pointing out that these people are creepy weirdos counters this belief. Yes, normal people wouldn’t  *really* monitor the interstate travel of pregnant women – but the current crop of Republicans are the kind of creeps who would.

  178. 178.

    Dave

    @The Kropenhagen Interpretation: And regarding Musk he publicly claimed to be a free speech absolutist and then he pulls crap like that.

    What we don’t need to be doing is diving into the weeds of if free speech absolutist means in the constitutional sense or philosophically or whatever something liberals historically love to do.

    What we need to focus on if we are taking about him is that he is a miserable little creep who self-radicalized and cultivated his worst impulses when he dove with gusto into th le Internet’s cesspool.

    And you don’t want that guy making decisions for you or in charge of important things. You want GOP politicians to be viewed as both creepy little weirdos themselves and the tools of even creepier weirdos. 

    It helps that it’s basically true that any legitimate issues they have are simply swamped by the obsessive uncomfortable weirdness of their shared fever dream and that whatever normalish politicians they do have are by and large tools of the this.

    It’s not denying truth or treating it as no more legitimate than anything else it’s recognizing that things like policy can only occur when you aren’t dealing with the current fever dream that passes as a shared reality amongst the GOP

  180. 180.

    Wilson Heath

    Re: Blake Masters, I had recently seen the formulation that people would believe that JD Vance would make a woman out of a couch and that Blake Masters would make a couch out of a woman.

  181. 181.

    Dan B

    @Bupalos: Everything I’ve seen of Gov. Walz seems to reflect what he learned about teaching geography to young, partly whacked out, minds, taking a small football team to State Championship, leading a National Guard.  He seems to know what to say to push people in the right direction.  He knows which nudges use minimal energy whole keeping every part on track.  I don’t believe he’ll ever use “couchfucker”.  There’s something else he’ll recognize that will change our view of Vance and alter Vance’s image of himself.

    I look forward to it.  I love when Pete does it and what I’ve noticed about Walz’ approach.

  182. 182.

    The Kropenhagen Interpretation

    @Dave: What we don’t need to be doing is diving into the weeds of if free speech absolutist means in the constitutional sense or philosophically or whatever something liberals historically love to do.

    What we need to focus on if we are taking about him is that he is a miserable little creep who self-radicalized and cultivated his worst impulses when he dove with gusto into th le Internet’s cesspool.

    And you don’t want that guy making decisions for you or in charge of important things. You want GOP politicians to be viewed as both creepy little weirdos themselves and the tools of even creepier weirdos.

    All this, precisely.

  183. 183.

    wjca

    @Martin: I didn’t think it’d bother Trump to be called weird, and I still don’t,

    I looks from here like it is bothering him.  A lot.  Possibly because he realizes he’s being laughed at (which punches all his insecurity buttons).

    Just for the record, I think the rest of you comment here is spot on.  Which I mention only because of our earlier extensive divergences of opinion.  :-)

  185. 185.

    206inKY

    @TBone: I assumed this article slipped into fiction when it reached Tucker Carlson’s advocacy of testicle tanning, clicked on the link, and holy shit it’s true. How did this manage to avoid a news cycle of mockery? Were we distracted by something in 2022? How does Tucker Carlson still have a job? This is the weirdest fucking thing I’ve ever seen.

    https://x.com/NikkiMcR/status/1515130557675581442

  187. 187.

    Slightly_peeved

    @Dan B:

    I think the audience that “weird” is pitched at are going to dismiss “evil monsters” as Democrats demonising Republicans even if in this case the Republicans are demons. “Weird” is a defensible beachhead for stronger attacks on what a second (and third and fourth) Trump term would look like.

    It’s using the techniques hucksters use, except to convince people of something that is provably true. Start with the broad truisms that everyone can agree with (having your son monitor your porn use is messed up) before you push the hard stuff (The Republicans are using the handmaid’s tale and 1984 as instruction manuals)

  190. 190.

    PJ

    @Lochnessmom: I’m not saying we shouldn’t attack Republicans with everything we’ve got and everything that works, just that the media likes Trump and Republicans a lot more than they like Democrats, and wants them to win.

  191. 191.

    Martin

    @rivers: Well, Clinton campaign reoprted 90K volunteers. Not nothing, sure. Harris is at what, 170K now pledged? Obama campaign reported 2.2 million.

    My guess is the Obama number was campaign + supporting orgs so not apples-apples, but my point is the work is a LOT of work.

  192. 192.

    Martin

    @cain: So what are you going to do about it?

    So, it was the Russians and the media. Should I pack up and leave the country? Throw up my arms?

    Stop making excuses, guys. Politics isn’t fair. You fight until you win. That’s all there is to it.

  193. 193.

    K-Mo

    @Slightly_peeved: One other aspect is that it counteracts the Republican pattern of reaching out to a bunch of fringe elements through spokespeople and other signifiers.  When Katie Britt does her tradwife thing, instead of just noting how they are reaching some people, we want the press to say, that was an exotic pitch that is a turn off for regular folks.  Same with the Opus Dei folks, the 3 percenters, the Qanon kooks, the cat-haters, etc.  Harness their innate intolerance against each other.

  195. 195.

    Bill Arnold

    @Bupalos:

    There’s nothing wrong with the “couchfucker” meme

    Couch-fucker is a direct translation of the LBJ pig-fucker story to current social media spreading memes at high speed, with anonymous players.
    OK as a spectacular and funny warning shot but it should not become a lazy habit; I agree.
    More fact-based anti-R ratfucking would be good, though, and the Rs are a target-rich sub-population.

  197. 197.

    phdesmond

    thought i would share my research here.

    three days ago i thought to do a Google Boolean search.

    it’s an AND search for the two terms:  “JD Vance” “weird”

    here’s what i’ve got so far:
    7/28
    About 32,800,000 results
    7/29
    About 35,600,000 results
    7/30
    About 53,000,000 results

  198. 198.

    linnen

    That thread from @natlseccnslrs.bsky.social‬ lost me at “political reporters can now be less both sides.” The FTFNYT’s editorial board just excreted a column about how “America Deserves Better Campaigns From Both Sides” on top of Friedman’s concern trolling. The continuing narration of “Nutritious Meals vs Arsenic & Tire-Rims; Decisions, Decisions …” with added “How Dare You Expect Our Reporters to Point Out the ‘Arsenic’ in the ‘Tire-Rims!'”

    Along those lines, newspapers are NOT the legal system, and they are doubly NOT the Judge that has to wait for one side to object to the other sides’ mis-conduct. “May it Please Your Honorable Journalistic Self that the opposing side/counsel has just dropped trou, made a mess in the middle of the press room floor, and is now flinging the results all over the walls” is abject nonsense. Not to mention “Pinch” Sulzberger Jr’s pronouncement that newspapers are supposed to follow polls as the reason why “SHARK WEEK”, I mean “HER EMAILS!” …cough, let me try again…, the reason why “BIDEN IS OLD” trumps every other story of political interest that might rate higher

  200. 200.

    steve g

    Vivek made a nice try, but failed anyway. “Win on policy if you can, but cut the crap please.” The thing is the GOP policies are weird. Tariffs are ancient history stuff and are out of place in a world where global supply chain analysis is a thing. It’s weird to think the county sheriff should make decisions about obstetric medical care. Abandoning NATO and the old WWII alliances is a weird and un-American idea. The GOP is weird people and weird policies all in one.

  201. 201.

    steve g

    Also the GOP is like a broken record. They have picked the same candidate for president three times in a row. The last time they ran someone else was Mitt Romney in 2012. That is weird too.

  202. 202.

    StringOnAStick

    @The Lodger: I’m in Bend and I pointed and laughed at a jacked up pickup with a big flag flying as he cruised by me in a parking lot.  He sure snapped his scrawny  30 year old incel neck trying to get a better look at me, a 66year old white woman in Chacos and shorts, laughing at him!

  205. 205.

    mardam

    So, why when Dems say Repubs are “weird” it’ juvenile and not what they should be doing, but when Repubs call Dems “crazy” or “evil” or “failed” it’s…what? That’s OK?

    Fuck them. Hit dogs holler, and all that.

  207. 207.

    schrodingers_cat

    I just had an epiphany. NYT politics desk (and most of our MSM)’s main function is not to deliver news but to tone police and concern troll the  the Democratic party. Keep them in line and well behaved.

    Ds are the party of women and minorities, the media helps the white patriarchy keep them in line.

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