९ नोव्हेंबर, २०२३

On the occasion of Nikki Haley's calling Vivek Ramaswamy "scum," I look into the history of "scum" in my archive.

1. October 23, 2019 — blogged here — Trump called his antagonists "human scum":

2. On October 24, 2019, I wrote "Troubled by Trump's use of the phrase 'human scum,' I decided to trace its usage, over the years..." This post traces the use of the phrase "human scum" in the NYT archive, beginning in 1897. I note: "The epithet rarely appeared until 2003, when it began coming up repeatedly in statements from the North Korean government. The first person called 'human scum' by the North Koreans was John Bolton."

2. In December 2017, according to The Daily Beast, Facebook was banning women who call men "scum" (because it, supposedly, "classifies white men as a protected group"). I wrote: "I don't support what Facebook is doing, but I do think the use of the word 'scum' warrants a historical note on 'SCUM' — The Society for Cutting Up Men. The author of 'The SCUM Manifesto,' Valerie Solanas, wasn't joking....'The Manifesto argues that SCUM [a revolutionary vanguard of women] should employ sabotage and direct action tactics... "If SCUM ever marches, it will be over the President's stupid, sickening face; if SCUM ever strikes, it will be in the dark with a six-inch blade."'" Solanas became famous for shooting Andy Warhol.

3. On December 11, 2020, I blogged about a Wisconsin State Journal headline "Sen. Ron Johnson called 'delusional scum' for considering challenge to election." I asked "why is the fact that somebody hurled one particular epithet the subject of a headline? If the insult-hurler isn't important enough to name in the headline, why put one nasty insult in a headline?"

4. Back in January 2015, I blogged the immortal words of John McCain: "Get outta here you lowlife scum!"


5. On May 24, 2022, I happened to revisit Hunter S. Thompson’s 1994 obituary of Richard Nixon. Thompson wrote: "Some people will say that words like scum and rotten are wrong for Objective journalism — which is true, but they miss the point. It was the built-in blind spots of the Objective rules and dogma that allowed Nixon to slither into the White House in the first place. … You had to get Subjective to see Nixon clearly, and the shock of recognition was often painful."

३० टिप्पण्या:

rhhardin म्हणाले...

Scumbag is a used condom.

wild chicken म्हणाले...

BTW "I Shot Andy Warhol" is a fun movie. I think Solanas did say later she wasn't entirely serious with the manifesto. Maybe it was a plea bargain thing.

Got the NY radfems in an uproar though.

Dave Begley म्हणाले...

Nikki Haley is the scum.

She's been bribed by the military-industrial complex. She'd get us into WW3 in record time.

n.n म्हणाले...

He has questionable financial progress from a failed drug trial, and she is apparently a diversitist of feminist hue.

Gusty Winds म्हणाले...

Haley wants to ban Tik-Tok. From what I understand she criticized Ramaswamy for having a Tik-Tok account. He simply pointed out so did Haley's daughter. Why does that make him scum?

You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye. - Matthew 7:5.

Kakistocracy म्हणाले...

Heels, scum, and calling a Jew a nazi. What a rich and memorable policy discussion.

Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves म्हणाले...

Trump tells people to not vote for him.

Odd way to win.

Maynard म्हणाले...

Why does a certain commenter suddenly reappear when the term "scum" is the subject of the thread?

Kevin म्हणाले...

Obi-Wan: "Mos Eisley spaceport. You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy."

stlcdr म्हणाले...

When I see scum, I always think of SCUMM.

Joe Smith म्हणाले...

McCain calling people scum.

That's rich.

Burn in hell, John...

Bob Boyd म्हणाले...

I'm just scum!

rehajm म्हणाले...

Remember in the last few election cycles when the name calling was reason to disqualify a candidate for President?

traditionalguy म्हणाले...

Scum was the #1 worst curse word for an enemy that we could use in polite company. Now days General Patton’s vocabulary is common

traditionalguy म्हणाले...

Scum was the #1 worst curse word for an enemy that we could use in polite company. Now days General Patton’s vocabulary is common

Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves म्हणाले...

Trump's words turn people away. His base cheer.
It's beyond bizarre.

Trump is not corrupt - like Biden or even Hillary -
But his entire persona is a giant turn off. Again - his loyal base refuse to understand that his win in 2016 was a fluke. It will never happen again.

Bob Boyd म्हणाले...

From the Deplorables basket to the scum bucket. The darling of the GOPe goes Hillary one better.
At least Hillary was talking about the opposition party.

Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves म्हणाले...

I believe Vivek was clumsily referring to that Canadian Nazi-hug who runs Canadian - the Northern Castro and the comedian who runs Ukraine... gave a give Nazi salute to a Known Nazi - and the media yawned.

I was surprised no one mentioned that the democrats hand out our tax dollars to Ukraine, and most of that money does not go to the war effort.
it goes to big pay checks to the bureaucrats in Zelinski's regime. Ukraine has and remains a very corrupt nation. Not give Putin a pass here - he is a thug... but there is a reason Biden was in charge of Ukraine while he was VP.

Narr म्हणाले...

That McCain-Code Pink thing escaped me at the time, and when I clicked through it took me a moment to realize what the context was.

It was also before I became a regular here, and it was interesting to see who was commenting, and how (and how!).

In American politics nowadays, better than scum is a high bar.

Michael म्हणाले...

Nixon was a far better President than any Democrat since, if not necessarily a better man. The same will probably be true of Trump - and for quite some time.

Gusty Winds म्हणाले...

11/9/23, 11:57 AM
Blogger I stand w Isreal. Leftists, Mullahs, Hamas-Palistinian terrorists can suck it said...

Again - his loyal base refuse to understand that his win in 2016 was a fluke. It will never happen again.

2016 was a surprise, not a fluke. The only reason it was a surprise was because of our "Hillary has a 98% chance of winning" corrupt media. We all know Trump won again in 2020, but was ousted via voter fraud. That's two in a row. 2016 was a surprise because it was an honest vote and an honest count. They were unprepared. Arrogance blinded them.

If the vote is clean, Trump can win again. But, I'm sure the Uniparty has some COVID/BLM Riots/Absentee voter fraud tricks up its sleeve...so we'll see.

If they thought Trump was so easy to beat, they wouldn't be trying to put him in jail, destroy his business empire, or keep him off ballots via corrupt court cases [Colorado].

Howard म्हणाले...

We like scum in waste management because it's easy to skim off and destroy.

Ampersand म्हणाले...

Our vocabulary of vituperation is exhausting itself.

The suggestion that the deity has selected someone for eternal punishment, and that they are "goddamned", was once the ultimate attack. Then, God took sick and seems to have died.

Once upon a time, words suggesting homosexual conduct were fighting words. Now, it's not that there's anything wrong with that.

Words disparaging someone by making creative conjunctive use of heterosexual sex acts were once considered shocking and outrageous. Now, ho-hum, welcome to junior high.

It used to be a powerful insult to say that your mother was a dog (and you were a SOB), or that someone had sex with their mother. Now, I see "motherfucker" emblazoned on t-shirts and blaring from car stereos.

Even the all purpose term "asshole" has lost its power to condemn as we have come to recognize that it's only a sphincter with bad PR, laboring mightily to do a tough and necessary job.

So we are left with weak sauce like scum, "extraneous matter or impurities risen to or formed on the surface of a liquid often as a foul filmy covering". Really. Most Starbucks lattes have scum on the surface, and it tastes pretty good.

We have lost consensus on bad words because we've lost consensus on bad acts. The only things we agree on (necrophilia?, cannibalism?, bad art?) don't give rise to the kind of punchy, put them in their place, insults that we so dearly need. As a strong believer in having strong beliefs, I plan to devote the rest of my life to this problem.

rcocean म्हणाले...

Thanks for posting this. Its fun to look back at all these previous posts.

Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves म्हणाले...

"never Trump" the one phrase that tells people to F off and go elsewhere.

Only Trump has a strategy to tell voters to F off.

Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves म्हणाले...

Trudeau & Zelenskyy recenlty give a WWII Nazi standing ovation. That is what Vivek was referring to.

This happened - and Vivek and some other people on earth - noticed. The hack D press? Jack Squat, as usual.


Justin Trudeau apologizes after Nazi veteran honoured in parliament

Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves म्हणाले...

holy cow - I need to fix a bit:

I believe Vivek was clumsily referring to that Canadian Nazi-hugger - Trudeau - the Northern Castro, and the comedian who runs Ukraine... who both gave a juicy Nazi salute to a Known WWII Nazi - and the media yawned.

Narr म्हणाले...

So we're agreed that John Bolton is human scum?

Bunkypotatohead म्हणाले...

Blogger Narr said...
So we're agreed that John Bolton is human scum?


Well, you're half right.

Narr म्हणाले...

"Well, you're half right."

But which half?