The last lines of a Slate piece by Jamelle Bouie called "Why Hillary Clinton Should Go Full Nerd/The Democratic front-runner should offer voters her authentic, geeky self."
We've been seeing the word "authentic" a lot lately — what with Caitlyn Jenner and Rachel Dolezal. There's this idea we seem to like that everyone has a real identity inside and that if we've got an inconsistent outward presentation of ourselves it would be wonderful for the inner being to cast off that phony shell.
But "authenticity" can be another phony shell. Unlike the headline writer, who wrote "her authentic, geeky self," Bouie had the decency to write "the most authentic move she could make." Look closely.
The most authentic move she could make. The most authentic move she could make. The most authentic move she could make.
Not much authenticity there at all. Hillary's in a predicament. What can she do? Authenticity is a good thing to have, so they say. How could she try to get some of that? What move could she possibly make? How about geekiness? What's going on in this old picture?
She's always had some of that nerdiness/geekiness.* That could be the quote-unquote real Hillary. How about a nerd-geek turn on the stage of The Theater of Authenticity?
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* Slate doesn't bother with the nerd/geek distinction.
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60 comments:
She's a transnerd.
Bouie has been in the Hillary camp for a while now. I guess he assumes she'll be the nominee and does not want to have to walk back any criticism when he has to support her against any Republican.
When writers go on about what new persona a politician should adopt, it's usually a sign that politician is doing poorly. Why would a new "nerdy" persona work on a woman who is already fixed in the voters' minds?
Obama tried the "nerdy technocrat" thing. I don't know exactly what voters want for 2016, but usually they want something different from the past 8 years.
When you are still searching for the 'right' authenticity when you are Hillary's age you are decades too late. The cake is baked.
Her inauthenticity IS her authenticity.
Maybe she could embrace that.
I am Laslo.
She is not a geek or a nerd...she is a liar and a fairly awful human being...she and her husband should just fade away...
"And so, as she reintroduces herself to the Democratic Party, and the American electorate as a whole...
WTF?
Reintroduces?
She has a decades long record of being a corrupt, lying, failure with no accomplishments other than marrying the big dog in town. She should run on that. I married the Alpha Male. Maybe she could gather all the women he's screwed, harassed and raped and have a big get together. She could explain to young ladies that the way to get ahead is to marry the future president, and then lie, smear and steal your way to the top. Go go go.
She's a chameleon. She couldn't be more fake -- adjusting attitudes, personae, accents to fit the situation. A very bitter, angry, and dishonest chameleon.
As a STEM guy, I know nerds. Hillary has never seen a slide rule and would be overwhelmed by a nice scientific calculator. This is a woman who hasn't driven a car for 19 years.
Other words come to mind, however. If you conducted a Rorschach test using an image of Hillary, you might get these responses: "loser" "phony" "pseudo-intellectual" "fascist"
I agree. In fact, Hillary! needs to do some cosplay. A sexy stormtrooper outfit would win her the nerd vote.
What Bouie would write if Trump was a Democrat:
"And so, as he reintroduces himself to the Democratic party and the American people as a whole, he should embrace his nerdiness."
"Not only is it effective—a persona perfect for a moment when Americans want solutions more than inspiration—but, after years of keeping it under wraps, it’s the most authentic move he could make."
[insert picture of Trump wearing heavy frame glasses]
The idea that Ms. Clinton, who has been a national public figure for 25 years, needs to reintroduce herself is pretty damning. Is she supposed to wear brown instead of beige?
"The secret of life is honesty and fair dealing. If you can fake that, you've got it made." (Groucho Marx.)
Hillary self-identifies as competent. We should respect that.
And what if her "authentic self" is so ugly that even Democratic voters would be repelled, is she supposed to embrace and embody that?
Everything is subordinate to "just get elected." It's all about means and ends, and how can she better present herself to meet these ends, and can she (or her staff) invent a presentation that will do that.
At best, this "authenticity" blather is all about marketing, about nudging the electorate's perception of the candidate. It's why the vacuum cleaner box says "powerful" on it: not because the product is full of power but because some anonymous marketing mouse figured people want to buy "powerful" vacuums.
That is, "authentic" (like "powerful") is an attribute of the product's marketing but has little to do with the product itself.
Why not instead just embrace how fake she is? "People--tell me what you want to be and I'll be that for you! And if you don't like that--I can change!"
People might find that refreshing. Of course, being open about your fakery is sort of un-fake. Leave it to Hillary to rip a hole in the space time continuum.
There are only 4 lights.
I was trying to explain "bathos" to my daughter as we were watching a movie, and I think a good example of it would be whenever Hillary opens her mouth."
I was thinking of that groucho quote too, or a variation of it anyway.
Why is Hillary Clinton not in jail?
Were she successfully prosecuted for the destruction of public records that she has admitted to committing, she would be barred from holding any office in the US government. It is right in the statute.
Just sayin'
Hillary! is the woman of a thousand faces - and hairdos - but underneath she has always been the same old Hillary!.
All this time we thought Hillary was a genuine phony.
Now Bouie tells us she was faking it.
Corruption and manipulation is her only authenticity.
She's too powerful, rich and ambitious to be a nerd.
She's more like my elementary school Principal scolding me for running in the hallway.
She was Ming the Merciless even before she wore that red big collar-neck outfit!
A likeable version of Hillary is out there. We just need to keep looking!
She no longer has an authentic self. She had it surgically removed years ago.
I can easily see Bouie's advice being given to Nixon. The Hillary/Nixon parallels are striking, except Nixon's contingent in the press was nowhere near as plentiful and influential as Hillary's is.
The glasses?
From the genius of Ayn Rand
...Catherine Halsey was put in charge of the children's occupational therapy, and she moved into the Home as a permanent resident. She took up her work with a fierce zeal. She spoke about it insistently to anyone who would listen. Her voice was dry and arbitrary. When she spoke, the movements of her mouth hid the two lines that had appeared recently, cut from her nostrils to her chin; people preferred her not to remove her glasses; her eyes were not good to see. She spoke belligerently about her work not being charity, but "human reclamation."
She no longer has an authentic self. She had it surgically removed years ago
No, it was a failed implant.
Reminds me of Tide detergent ad: "New and Improved!!!!".
When the only change was the lettering on the box shouting "New and Improved!!!".
The 47% will still fall for it.
She's not authentic anything - except for her love of money and power.
More about the same (Fountainhead) character: "It was her mouth that had changed most, he thought; the lips were drawn in, with only a pale edge of flesh left around the imperious line of their opening; a mouth to issue orders, he thought, but not big orders or cruel orders; just mean little ones-- about plumbing and disinfectants."
Hillary looks in that photo like a member of the Symbioses Liberation Army. This is about how she would look now without the staff to do her makeup.
That would probably be a more authentic personality but I don't know if Democrats are quite ready for that yet.
The media are desperate to force Hillary to dig out of her inner self a new Hillary - a new and improved Hillary that will delight and enrapture everyone. Whatever fake persona she can muster to fool the masses into liking her. Trouble is, she opens her mouth and she is still Hillary.
Remember how excited people were about Obama? He didn't actually win by all that much. Can anybody imagine Hillary igniting that kind of energy? I can't.
The saying used to be that Democrats "fall in love" and Republicans "fall in line."
Well now Republicans have "seventeen* gentlemen callers, seventeen! Where are we going to get enough chairs!"
And the Democrats are under orders from the big donors to "fall in line."
*OK, I don't actually know how many R candidates there are, declared and undeclared.
The "Glass Menagerie" would be a good insulting metaphor for the Republican field.
"Remember how excited people were about Obama? He didn't actually win by all that much. Can anybody imagine Hillary igniting that kind of energy? I can't."
I can't either. Her only real path is getting voters to grudgingly pull the lever for her out of disgust for Republicans. The GOP is the only thing that can put her in office, and the only thing that can stop her.
Hillary must be prepping for some fund-raising on the west coast.
A couple weeks ago she was down south speechifying with a southern accent.
The only authentic things about Hillary are her greed, her corruption, and her cluelessness as regards IT.
"The only authentic things about Hillary are her greed, her corruption, and her cluelessness as regards IT."
So, what you're saying is, the Secret Service weren't really responsible for her server security?
There's this idea we seem to like that everyone has a real identity inside and that if we've got an inconsistent outward presentation of ourselves it would be wonderful for the inner being to cast off that phony shell.
Wow. That's not what I've gotten from Jenner/Dolezal at all. What seems most apparent is basically summed up by one of her (meaning the only woman between the two of them) statement, "That’s the accurate answer from my truth."
We've been beat over the head for years by relativists that there is no objective truths and that everyone has their own truth. It's as extreme a position as claiming there's nothing but objective truth. The philosophers will have to answer the latter, but the former simply sets us up for discord and unhappiness.
Considering the possible outcomes of these two stories, one has to wonder, with transexual post-op suicide at something like 20%, what the suicide rate is for trasracialists.
The most important thing in politics is authenticity.
Once Hilary learns how to fake that, she's got it made.
"So, what you're saying is, the Secret Service weren't really responsible for her server security?"
The saddest part of that excuse is it wasn't something an out-of-touch old lady came up with on the fly, but rather a vetted, planned excuse that was gone over by advisers before she offered it up. This is the thought process of the brain trust that they want running this country.
The only thing authentic about Hilary is her graft. For the welfare state moochers that's a job qualification.
She is a bad actor who is also a bad actor.
Other than that photo, I can't think of a single indicator over Hillary!'s entire life that she's either a geek or a nerd.
What I can't figure out is whether she seeks power in order to grab money, or she seeks money in order to grab power.
"What I can't figure out is whether she seeks power in order to grab money, or she seeks money in order to grab power."
It can be both. To the extent there is anything consistent in the Clintons' politics, it is a paternalist instinct to control others--whether it is corporatist economic policies, the new Left-populism they're embracing, or the outright disdain for civil liberties and love of war that they've both been supporting for decades. Everything else is opportunism in serving those goals.
What Just Mike said.
No, geeks and nerds are not the same, and neither one has anything to do with liking Lord of the Rings, which now is basically the most popular thing ever, but people who jumped on that trend only at the instant it became hugely popular want to say they're nerds.
Geek: Socially awkward, an outcast because of intense devotion to non-mainstream interests.
Nerd: Possibly socially awkward, an outcast because of academic overachievement.
You can be both, as many are. But you cannot be a dumb nerd, or a popular geek girl. That's my strong opinion.
The only female Democratic candidate for president may have a problem with male voters in that party, judging by a new Suffolk University poll of the New Hampshire primary. The poll, which shows former secretary of state Hillary Clinton below 50 percent support and just 10 points ahead of senator Bernie Sanders, reveals an interesting detail about where Clinton is weakest among Granite State Democrats.
While Clinton does better with female Democrats—47 percent to Sanders's 28 percent—she's actually losing men to the Vermont senator. Within a relatively small sample of likely male Democratic voters in New Hampshire, Sanders wins 75, or 35 percent, while Clinton wins 69, or 32 percent. See the details of the crosstabs here.
Read more: http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2015/06/shocking_poll_for_hillary.html#ixzz3dLcUJK2o
Gee... Democrat men don't love Hillary. My goodness.
"You can be both, as many are. But you cannot be a dumb nerd, or a popular geek girl. That's my strong opinion."
I always thought of "nerd" as socially awkward, and "geek" as both obsessed and skilled in some bit of arcana (like technology, comic books, etc). Where do "dorks" and "dweebs" fit in? "Dorks" I figured were socially awkward idiots.
Geek has devolved into just a synonym for "fan" or "buff." It's fine, I'm not saying you can't say "film geek" or anything. But for the purposes of explaining the difference between a nerd and a geek and why they're not interchangeable, that's my take.
But to the ultimate topic, it doesn't seem Hillary fits the "nerd" or "geek" label by any definition. She's highly educated, and went through a very unattractive phase (though in fairness, that may have been the era, and we teenagers of the '90s can't talk much about that!) and is a bit of an introvert. Does that make her a nerd or geek? We could quibble on that, but she's better defined as an incompetent crook with a mean streak, and her husband belongs on a sex offender registry. Maybe she can embrace that! "Hi, I'm nasty and want to run your life because I'm so smart that I turned everything I touched into a disaster. I don't really like people but I want their approval. I'll try to keep my husband from sexually assaulting women, but I'm not very good at that either! And the less you ask me about how we became billionaires so quickly, the better! Elect me!"
Hillary is not a nerd - she herself has claimed she cannot work multiple messaging systems. She has no technical proficiency as a politician other than to be corrupt.
She is a geek, of the old-school sort, who worked in traveling circus side-shows, biting the heads off chickens.
Yes, she is a freak act. She is a walking heap of $100,000,000+ corruption in politics, married in name only to a serial adulterer and rapist, who claims to be supportive of the middle class and women's rights.
Bit the head off another one, Hillary, and watch the crowd go wild.
Hillary who?
FLORIDA: Clinton 47 - Rubio 44
OHIO: Kasich 47 - Clinton 40, Clinton 43 - Paul 43
PENNSYLVANIA: Rubio 44 - Clinton 43, Paul 45 - Clinton 44
June 17.
Hillary needs Trump to run a third party candidacy. He will probably run it full out anti immigration reform to guarantee that he will pull off some support from whoever gets the nomination.
Say what you want about Hillary, but she could defend that 19 year old sent away for 90 days 10 ways from 14.
Ah ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha .
Ah eh heh HA HA HA HA HA.
HA Hem.
Rorschach
The unearned hagiography of liberal candidates is one of the worst features of leftist writers. Is there documented proof that Hillary Clinton has ever even read a book? She has been in the public eye for twenty five years, and I can't recall her ever bringing one up. I've read books by people who knew the Clintons before they went to Washington -- it never came up there, either.
She got into a good law school 35 years ago. She had an unimpressive law career, a disastrous role in the health care bill, an unimpressive and brief career as a Senator, and a disastrous career as Secretary of State. If she's a nerd, find me a jock. If she's a jock, find me a nerd.
Incidentally, you know who did read lots of books as President, including quite specialized histories and biographies?
George W. Bush. Whose wife was a librarian. If you read anything by people who interacted with him, you notice it comes up a lot.
Things like this aren't secrets. Hillary is a crashing bore, but she's not a secret nerd.
I am pretty sure she read that book by Alinsky, and it seems she found all of her answers there.
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