September 9, 2017

"Master Persuader rising. If he runs, he wins. And it won't be luck."

Says Scott Adams.

Talking about Kid Rock:



Rock's rant reminded me of the discussion we had 3 days about "the psychology behind people actually enjoying it when others curse."

More from Adams about Rock in this long "periscope." At one point, Adams goes beyond predicting that Rock will win the Senate seat to imagining him winning the presidency.

Something I've been thinking lately is that we are on a trajectory of weirdness, and it should not seem abnormal that Trump won the presidency, but a natural outgrowth of Obama's having won. The abnormal is normal and we want more of it. Kid Rock — with the swearing, the tough get-a-job right-wingery,  the stage show, the guitar chords and video background — enters at a point where it makes sense to predict we are going.

49 comments:

gspencer said...

“Climate change is very real,” [Stabenow] confessed as she embraced cap and trade’s massive tax increase on Michigan industry [remember she's a Democrat; of course she'll tax anyone at the drop of the old hat] — at the same time claiming, against all the evidence, that it would not lead to an increase in manufacturing costs or energy prices. “Global warming creates volatility. I feel it [global warming] when I’m flying."
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2009/08/11/global-warming-creates-volatility-i-feel-it-when-i%E2%80%99m-flying/

She can feel global warming when she's flying! One of the towering intellects in the Senate.

Kid Rock, you're a shoe-in.

Gahrie said...

It's sad that the idea that people should be self reliant is considered Rightwing instead of commonsense.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

Why not run a mountain goat? Or a salamander?

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

It's sad that the idea that people should be self reliant is considered Rightwing instead of commonsense.

And the idea that someone needs to get paid $174,000 annually from the federal government just to tell people this, and how lazy they apparently must be otherwise, is fucking nonsense. Do something useful for the pay, FFS. Go pay someone else out of your own pocket if you need them to tell you how lazy people are, if it's that important to you.

Will Cate said...

He would be the anti-Al Franken.

The Antifranken.

Paco Wové said...

The era of President Dwayne Elizondo Mountain Dew Herbert Camacho slouches towards us, waiting to be born.

Sebastian said...

"a natural outgrowth of Obama's having won" He did show anyone could win, regardless of relevant skill or experience. He did show the left has no affection for the actual country anymore; since they just don't care, neither will the people who despise them.

Lance said...

Bush, Obama and Trump are all on that weirdness trajectory. Remember W had only just completed his first term as Texas governor before "exploring" his presidential bid. Like Obama, he had no prior political or business successes to speak of, so he didn't. He ran entirely on his father's name and political network.

tim in vermont said...

She can feel global warming when she's flying! One of the towering intellects in the Senate.

Kid Rock, you're a shoe-in.


Yeah, because being an utter imbecile has always been a barrier to getting elected.

Ann Althouse said...

"Bush, Obama and Trump are all on that weirdness trajectory."

I think the weirdness trajectory has been in effect my entire life, beginning with the election of Eisenhower in 1952. Each election is distinctively weirder. What happened in 1960 was attributed to television. People went for the handsome young man with a story of WWII heroism. LBJ was weird. Nixon. Carter, the smiling peanut farmer. Then Reagan, the actor. HW Bush made some sense. Bill Clinton. HW's son. Obama excited us, being a "first" and seeming like our cool boyfriend. We shouldn't be so surprised at Trump. America doesn't want a boringly competent President. We never do.

Joe said...

I think Adams is massively overselling his "master persuader" thesis, in part due to confirmation bias, but more due to not factoring in just how badly the Democrats are destroying their own chances. For example, I believe Trump won in spite of himself because of Hillary Clinton, who was one of the worse candidates to ever run for the presidency from a major party.

Ann Althouse said...

"Kid Rock, you're a shoe-in."

I don't know what kind of shoes Kid Rock wears but for a hat, he puts on a fedora backwards.

Unknown said...

As Raoul Duke once famously said, "When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro."

I get a feeling we're going to be facing a lot of "pro" in the years to come.

buwaya said...

If you can run a mountain goat, or salamander, and everything continues working, then that is a sign that, maybe, you dont need all these chieftains over you.

Both Belgium and Spain recently went for, respectively, 22 months and 10 months without a national government, that is, without an executive.

Ken B said...

Why would he be the anti Franken? Because he's funny?

tcrosse said...

We shouldn't be so surprised at Trump. America doesn't want a boringly competent President. We never do.

Unfortunately for us, in 2016 that person was not on the ballot.

Bob Ellison said...

He has rhythm, music, and language. He should learn to tame his language, but otherwise he has it.

cf said...

Haha, the antiFranken.

What a relief to dream that word, like my mama's sweet lemonade ice tea on a hot Texas day.

The antiFranken!

You win in my book, Will Kate.

rcocean said...

Ford, Nixon and LBJ made sense. Former VPs, Senators or HR Minority leader.

Carter was a peanut farmer, but Reagan was the 2 term Governor of the Nations largest state. Clinton was odd, an 12 year Gov of Arkansas by way of Yale, with a hard left-wing wife. There's no way a serial adulterer, and draft dodger like Bill would've been elected prior to 1992, with end of the Cold war and the boomers taking over.

Bush Jnr. and Obama were oddballs, neither was qualified for POTUS, and paved the way for Trump. I'm firmly convinced that a lot of Dumbo Republicans voted for Bush-II in 2000 because they thought he was Bush I. Yeah, they're that stupid.

Unknown said...

Mr Obama may have been a first, or cool, or any number of other things, but he was a machine candidate, was he not? He was picked by his party, as was Hillary this last time around. The proverbial smoke filled room is alive and well in the Dem party.

rcocean said...

Carter and Reagan were elected because the "Establishment" had shown itself corrupt and incompetent. Unfortunately, once Reagan put the country on the right track, the dummies went back to voting for the establishment. Which led to Bill Clinton which led to Bush II and Obama, and now we finally get Obama.

If the Establishment doesn't listen to the American people we will get Kid Rock.

rcocean said...

What's astounding is the rock solid stupidity of a large portion of the American electorate.

45% wanted Hoover in 1932
55% wanted FDR in 1944
45% wanted Carter in 1980
40% wanted Bush I in 1992
50% wanted Al Gore in 2000
50% wanted Hillary in 2016.

rcocean said...

Everyone knows that if Obama had been all white, instead of 1/2 half, we would never have heard of him. Nothing wrong with that. We wouldn't have heard of Hillary or Bush II if they hadn't been related to previous presidents.

3MartiniLunch said...

'President Donald Mother F***ing Trump!'

I know I'm supposed to clutch my pearls at the sound of such crude language, but I'm sorry, I really want that on a bumper sticker.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

If you can run a mountain goat, or salamander, and everything continues working, then that is a sign that, maybe, you dont need all these chieftains over you.

Anarchy. The underappreciated option. How obvious. Not sure why it wasn't raised before.

Lord help anyone who thinks he'd be better represented by Robert James Ritchie. BTW, do you feel that the sex tape of him and Scott Stapp was a good representation of you, his eager would-be constituent?

Mark Daniels said...

Kid Rock is the candidate for a culture that values celebrity and hearing what we want to hear over achievement and dealing with what we need to hear.

Mountain Maven said...

This is more Trump. I'd vote for kid Rock over Stabenow all day long. Is what you do when the republic is at stake.
That said, there are some better looking GOP candidates on the ballot.

Achilles said...

Anarchy. The underappreciated option. How obvious. Not sure why it wasn't raised before.

Oh noes! Someone proposed small government and freedom! Quick break out the anarchy straw man! If they keep pushing blather about Somalia because that's all we got on the left.

Lord help anyone who thinks he'd be better represented by Robert James Ritchie. BTW, do you feel that the sex tape of him and Scott Stapp was a good representation of you, his eager would-be constituent?

Consensual sex on video tape! The horror! You are just jealous because you don't have Billy's rapes on tape. Nothing like being the party of rape. Democrats are the best.

etbass said...

Is there some correlation of the wierdness trajectory with the 19th amendment?

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

You about done yet with your straw men, Aquiles?

What's it like as an Oregonian whose politics are always fucked at the state and national level opining on the idiotic nobody that is rap-rock white trash dipshit Kid Rock as your new celebrity salvation - for a politics that has nothing to offer anyone who isn't kissing the dick of billionaires, some of whom are so insecure that they have to resort to comb-over pompadours?

I get it. You envision a nation of nothing more than fellow trailer park-dwelling wild game hunters, and just need a laurel branch to don onto your nobody's empty head. Your talents in life include murder and drugs and you can't believe that a powerful nation would need anything more than these pursuits - that comprise the entirety of your tiny life - in order to function.

You want no government, you got it. You're already living in the middle of nowhere. No government anywhere has need of any of the few things in life that you've actually got. So quit your bitching and get out of the way of the much grander nation that you hate so much.

etbass said...

Sorry, that was probably rh's line, but haven't seen him tonight.

madAsHell said...

He really needs to cut his hair, and lose the screwy hat.

Howard said...

What a breath of fresh air. Most GOPers stir up the base with racist dog whistles about welfare queens and deadbeat dads. Nobody in their right mind would think poor people are the problem with the world.

Instead, Mr. Rock goes for the jugular with a brave anti-establishment populist angle by condemning the biggest government cheese parasites: the military industrial complex, the domestic surveillance technology complex and the big bank fiat money printing complex.

H. L. Mencken was an optimist.

Yancey Ward said...

It would be worth it just have Chuck spend the next 11 months telling us all the ways Rock can't win the primary, then follow that up with 3 months of him telling us Rock can't win the general election. And when Rock wins in a landslide, Chuck will tell us that it was because life-long Republicans like him held their nose and voted for him.

Yancey Ward said...

As for why it turns weird- that is easy- there is growing faction in the US that can see the country's institutions are rotting from the inside out. Candidates like Trump and Rock are the first real reaction to that growing realization. We live in interesting times.

Amichel said...

If celebrity candidates like Kid Rock or Donald Trump are the wave of the future, I think the Democratic party has an advantage. The vast majority of well-known hollywood actors are already liberal or leftist. How long until we see Senator Clooney, or President Hanks?

Will Cate said...

Ken B said...
Why would he be the anti Franken? Because he's funny?


Precisely. He would be both the political and personality negation of Mr. Franken.

RichAndSceptical said...

Both Kid Rock and to a lesser degree Trump, are saying FU to the uniparty. Almost impossible for a liberal to do that as government control is synonymous with the left.

Paco Wové said...

"a culture that values ... achievement and dealing with what we need to hear."

If you know of such a culture, please fill us in on details.

Anonymous said...

Paco: The era of President Dwayne Elizondo Mountain Dew Herbert Camacho slouches towards us, waiting to be born.

I think you're wrong, Paco. That era slouched in, sat down, and kicked back in the La-Z-Boy a while ago. Not sure of the precise moment, but it's here, not a-comin'.

We were just too dumbed-down to notice.

sane_voter said...

I look forward to Kid Rock running. It will be entertaining. Debating Debbie, he asks her "So you feel global warming when you fly? GMAFB!"

Anonymous said...

Mark Daniels: Kid Rock is the candidate for a culture that values celebrity and hearing what we want to hear over achievement and dealing with what we need to hear.

But everyone thinks that it's the other guy who's voting for the candidate who's telling him what he wants to hear. Just like everyone's sure he knows what it is we need to hear.

"Celebrity" candidates are what an incoherent, disintegrating mass culture necessarily produces. Obama was as much a "celebrity" candidate as Kid Rock or Trump. Failed "establishment" candidates these days are no more serious or substantial than "celebrity" candidates.

TML said...

Why would anyone who LOVED Al Franken becoming a Senator say Kid Rock wouldn't be just as good/effective/solid as a Senator?

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

"Something I've been thinking lately is that we are on a trajectory of weirdness, and it should not seem abnormal that Trump won the presidency, but a natural outgrowth of Obama's having won. The abnormal is normal and we want more of it"

Yes. I was thinking of a tweet asking does the Trump election diminish Obama's first blackman presidency? I hesitated because of the obvious possible misinterpretation that I'm a racist or something.

gbarto said...

If I still lived in Michigan I'd vote for him. Of course I'd vote for a rabid squirrel if it were running against Stabenow.

David Smith said...

I can't honestly think of Kid Rock or Donald Trump as being all that weirder than the sorts of people who sat in the House, Senate or White House since the '60s (or is it since the Civil War?) that are pushed as being more "mainstream" or "legitimate." Most of them were more boring, but less weird? What can be weirder than wanting to move to Washington and sell out for the rush of pushing your fellow man around?

Mark O said...

After Obama, anything goes.

Hammond X. Gritzkofe said...

It is increasingly becoming evident that "career public servants" do not well serve the public. Their primary skill is in job preservation.

Why not vote for _________. Kaint git much worse then what we got.

'TreHammer said...

...winning a Senate seat just might put a kink into his touring and recording schedules...