From "We live in a golden age of cringe" by Sonny Bunch (WaPo).
Yes, we need to rediscover embarrassment.
January 27, 2021
"A lack of distancing irony is, generally, an element of cringe, whether it’s imagining Trump nailed to a cross or picturing Michelle Obama as a Jedi master."
"Sometimes the cringe is so earnest and so personal — as when one Twitter user declared that, in her fantasies, 'Pete & Chasten will have Kamala & Dougie over for weekly potlucks that Michele O. will crash with a bottle of wine & gossip' — that the offending individual literally deletes her entire account. Either way, the earnest invocation of an idealized politician being either a stacked savior or a wine-sipping bestie makes a mockery of the idea that politicians are nothing more than fellow citizens chosen for a short time to serve the public good.
Cringe reaches its apotheosis in a particular genre of bizarre video that mashes up politicians with action heroes. Consider this gem, which pastes the heads of Democrats pasted onto the bodies of the Avengers in their last-ditch effort to defeat supervillain Thanos — reimagined, of course, as Trump. Soak in the unironic iconography of it all, the transmutation of mere politicians into godlike warriors from one of the three franchises the general public recognizes.... If imagining Trump as a world-historical defender of the Constitution is bizarre and anti-democratic, so is turning the vice president and secretary of transportation into cozy sitcom characters rather than people who have been given great power and need to be held accountable for how they use it."
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53 comments:
"the idea that politicians are nothing more than fellow citizens chosen for a short time to serve the public good."
Public schooling, no doubt.
Journalists themselves seem ironically blind to the cringe in the mirror.
Either way, the earnest invocation of an idealized politician being either a stacked savior or a wine-sipping bestie makes a mockery of the idea that politicians are nothing more than fellow citizens chosen for a short time to serve the public good.
Sure, that's what makes a mockery of it. Not the way the politicians behave once give power.
Remember those videos of Trump as a pro wrestler clothes-lining CNN? That had good distancing irony, and was funny, to boot; but the leftmediaswine didn't appreciate the humor much, did they.
Well, at least a few on the Far Left get it, i.e. the latest cover for Jacobin Magazine.
And, yes, they did mean it as satire. I can imagine why you doubt, but, they did.
"A lack of distancing irony is, generally, an element of cringe, whether it’s imagining Trump nailed to a cross or picturing Michelle Obama as a Jedi master."
That's not an element of cringe. That's an element of being 9 years old. That's the matriculated maturity equivalent of the people who see the world this way.
It's also why the left can't meme.
Maybe I'm wrong, but I think most of the Trump memes are tongue in cheek.
Sensibility cringes at Irony and Schwarmerei.
No one has a sense of humor about things that are sacred to them.
As the Professor often notes when linking to a WaPo article, the top-rated comments are blasting the columnist for writing a "cringe-worthy" piece that has the audacity to criticize liberal Democrats and not just conservative Republicans.
Somebody noticed soap opera.
No one has a sense of humor about things that are sacred to them.
That's palpable nonsense. The funniest, most incisive comments I've heard about religion and God have come from observant, orthodox Catholics and Jews. Humor communicates confidence in your beliefs.
Journalists will notice anything whose noticing gets clicks.
Ethics progresses, demos-cracy is aborted, at the Twilight Fringe. Lose your Pro-Choice quasi-religion.
as when one Twitter user declared that, in her fantasies . . .
In general I think twitter will be the death of civilization, but one of its benefits has been revealing so many prominent journalists and professors as imbeciles. For example, have a look at Laurence Tribe's tweets from the past four years.
I guess in Democrat land they are all Lightworkers now.
Who actually reads this drivel?
I rarely read the entirety of these excerpts or posts.
Came to say what many know: The left can't meme.
Lucid-Ideas already said it.
But huh uh well sonny bunch, sonny bunch,
sonny bunch, sonny bunch, sonny bunch
he took a dive in the crunch, huh uh sonny bunch
h/t Carl Perkins
...and Ringo Starr...
We'd be making progress if Mitt Romney rediscovered embarrassment.
"the idea that politicians are nothing more than fellow citizens chosen for a short time to serve the public good." That's nuts. Most of them are in it for the fame, power and money.
What is this author fantasizing about? Politicians aren't superheroes. This author has crazy ideas.
https://computingforever.com/2021/01/27/the-davos-agenda-and-the-rise-of-china/
Without shame, there can be no embarrassment.
Ernest Prole:
Yep, Tribe has made a mockery of himself.
Likening politicians and politics to stories or characters from Harry Potter, Star Wars, or the Avengers etc. has always been a favorite unfavorite of mine.
Voting for Biden and Harris requires the absence of shame. Even Bernie seems to be honest, if a bit loony. Biden and Harris are both grifters.
"...That’s how many sitting Republican senators are weighing voting against Trump, according to Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.). Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) has said he will not vote for Trump and may write-in his wife, while Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) said she is “struggling” with the decision." Per Forbes.
Truly, the most ardent of Trump supporters.
why the long face?
https://dailycaller.com/2021/01/27/john-kerry-joe-biden-fossil-fuel-workers-lose-jobs-better-choice-make-solar-panels/
is everyone on the guanxi
https://thenationalpulse.com/breaking/biden-un-ambassador-spoke-at-ccp-funded-group/
Dave Begley said ""the idea that politicians are nothing more than fellow citizens chosen for a short time to serve the public good." That's nuts. Most of them are in it for the fame, power and money.
The fact they are indeed "chosen" for that role just makes the choosers look dumb (which they by and large are).
Yes, we need to rediscover embarrassment.
We haven't forgotten embarrassment, but journalism has changed such that what used to be embarrassing is no longer so. Historically journalism's core value was rational judgement, but that has been replaced with fidelity to leftism. So showing you aren't rational doesn't trigger embarrassment like it used to, especially for those who are demonstrating their core value.
An excellent article. How did it get into the wapo and how many staffers are demanding a retraction this very second?
Cringe is like taking horoscopes seriously. If you see someone do it you you feel a sudden catastrophic collapse of respect. I wonder how many marriages will break up over cringe.
Michael K, Romney donor, misreads Bernie. Bernie has become rich in the senate. His campaign bought up his book, giving him royalties. He's a grifter, just a less dedicated one than Biden.
Speaking of deletion,forgiveness,systemic racism, sexual deviance and Joe Biden, Cosby Show reruns are back.
The answer is yes
https://freebeacon.com/biden-administration/bidens-asia-policy-czar-helped-found-group-heavily-influenced-by-the-ccp/
Yes, we need to rediscover embarrassment.
Moon: Rerun was in Good Times, not the Cosby show. I guess all those African American shows look alike to you.
Rerun was a character on What’s Happening
LordSomber said...
Journalists themselves seem ironically blind to the cringe in the mirror.
They are blind to many things. I think you have to flunk a lot of subjects to drift down to that vocation.
"I think you have to flunk a lot of subjects to drift down to that vocation."
You have to fail an IQ test to fall that far.
Blogger Ken B said...
Michael K, Romney donor, misreads Bernie.
The angry Canadian assumes he knows better. Bernie has benefited much for a guy who has never held a job but, even at that, is more honest than Biden or Pelosi who is still buying stock (or options) in companies likely to benefit from the Democrat agenda.
Trump kept his promises. Biden is working his way fairly rapidly through breaking all of his.
Pence an his wife are couch surfing in Indiana so they can avoid the death threats of the Trumpsters. you cannot make this stuff up.
https://news.yahoo.com/mike-pence-wife-karen-reportedly-135455120.html
Michelle is the wookie.
“Yes, we need to rediscover embarrassment. “
Does this “we” include Althouse?
Why can’t we just acknowledge that all these people are terrible in one way or another, and that we set aside their terribleness if it advances our interests. That’s why I never particularly cared about Trump’s obnoxious tweets, and it is why Democrats conveniently ignore Biden’s dementia and graft.
Yes, we need to rediscover embarrassment.
It's the era of rubbing your face in it.
The obsessive embrace of "comic book culture" well into adulthood has not been a good thing for society.
Anyone remember all the celebrity TV pledges at the beginning of the Obama administration?
I always like to try the opposite of what is suggested. Picture Trump as a Jedi master, if you will, and put Michelle up there on the cross. I see a problem or six with that reformulation.
Therefore, I recognise there was a problem with the original formulation, as well.
Here's an idea: Don't go imagining crucifiction of people. The one old crucifiction story should be enough for the entire world, forever.
"Imagining Trump nailed to a cross or picturing Michelle Obama as a Jedi master."
Can you tell a Democrat wrote this?
Discover being embarrassed that the adulation only goes one way and the mockery only goes the other. Weird how it always works that way.
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