I don't know why Leavitt responded like that. If I hadn't read what she said, I would have assumed Trump shared the video because of the material that took up the first 97% of the video. Look at it here. It's somber technical material about tampering with voting machines in the 2020 election. I would have assumed that he never even saw the discordant image of the Obamas as apes that is spliced in at the very end, in the last 2 seconds.
I would have speculated that some sneaky person spliced that image in to trick Trump supporters into passing the video along unwittingly and becoming targets for accusations of racism.
Who sticks around for the full 62 seconds? Well, maybe some people do, and then when the Obama image pops up, they probably think What is this bullshit? It doesn't belong. Who put this here? Those people probably don't share the video. Those who share probably didn't watch until the end, and I would suspect that the sharers, those dupes, were prominent enough that eventually Trump saw it and shared it, shared it without watching to the very end, just assuming it was more of the usual stolen-election stuff.
But Leavitt's defense undercuts my assumption. She's just: Ooh, it's a meme. Don't you know memes? As if the existence of the full-scale "Lion King" video — a very stupid video — justifies cutting out one offensive image and pasting it in anywhere.
Leavitt is not Trump, and maybe she tosses off whatever notion she comes up with and she had no idea what went on in Trump's mind. Maybe my assumption is closer to the truth. I don't know. But I do think that if my assumption is wrong it's a better story than what Leavitt came up with.
ADDED: Who spliced in the offensive image? I've speculated that it could be a Trump opponent setting people up for an accusation of racism. But it could be a Trump supporter seeing it as a way to draw new attention to the old question whether the 2020 election was stolen. A very stupid way, but stupid people are out there.
UPDATE: Trump has taken the video down, quite appropriately. The "very stupid video" link still works.
Posts
285 comments:
«Oldest ‹Older 201 – 285 of 285Beasts (I use Beasts as a friendly short hand, happy to go back to the full title if it matters to you)--
You write in response to chat GPT's and my argument: "When you make excuses for a subset of the population based upon their race then you deny their agency and humanity, i.e., you’ve deemed them as weaker and less capable than other races."
I don't see how that reasoning responds to the argument I adopted. Nothing in what I posted made any express excuses for anyone. As I read it, your argument seems to have left out some premises. Your first premise is that although there was racism in the past, we now view all races as equal. Second, if all races are equal, then none need or deserve special protection from race based insults, and to suggest that they do so implicitly denies that they are not equally capable and hence is racist. Have I got your argument right?
If that's right, my main reaction is that history shows that all victories against racism are contingent and need defending, and that some forms of racism run very deep and keep resurfacing. Assimilated Jews in Western Europe in the 1930s thought that following their emancipation, achievement of civic equality, and many successes within their home countries, systemic racism against Jews no longer posed a threat to them. Many non Jews believed the same. So I ask you,, when Hitler described them as vermin during his rise to power, was the right response to label that dangerous racism or was it demeaning to the Jews to do so because it implied they were not capable of looking out for themselves? Pretty clear, isn't it, that despite all the formal trappings of equality, denouncing what Hitler said as racist and dangerous would not have been demeaning to the Jews in those settings, and that it would have been right and courageous to say so.
You may say African Americans are different, but compared to 1930s Jews in Europe, their accession to full civil rights is more recent, and they are only 163 years from slavery--a state that the Jews escaped ca. 1000 BCE. Do you really mean, then, to say that calling out the use of racial tropes with a vile history of complicity in slavery and Jim Crow is demeaning to African Americans, rather than supportive of their continued recognition as free and equal? Sounds a bit crazy to me. What have I got wrong?
"You can't maintain the same standards because you are a dishonest racist."
Achilles, you might want to consider the possibility that poor Igna just can't quite keep up with the rest of us. She pores over the e-mails from Fearless Leader, and even consults a quorum of AI slop-bots, but it's all just too much for her. Our hostess would probably say that Igna is "stupid", but I think that's kind of rude. Let's just say, that on the Fourth of July, when Igna goes to watch the fireworks, she'll be sitting on a nice blanket on the grass, waiting. And then behind her, she hears this big "Boom"! So she turns around to see what it could be. But there's nothing there. Just some trees. So finally, she turns back around. And everyone is talking about the wonderful fireworks. But Igna didn't see anything!
My apologies, Drago/Vance said he asked Gemini AI, not Grok, so here it is Gemini’s answer. . . . There is no specific, widely quoted statement found where "Inga" explicitly refused to condemn the photo . . . .
No "specific," "widely quoted," and "explicit[]" refusal. Hm. That's, uh . . . that's a *lot* of rather specific qualifiers, there.
You posted the partial answer -- after reading that, I'd really like to see the actual question asked of Gemini.
""I just spoke directly with President Trump regarding the offensive Obama ape video that circulated online," Burns wrote. "The President assured me clearly and unequivocally that he did not post it. He understands the painful and racist history in America of depicting African Americans as apes, a tactic long used by white supremacists to demean Black intelligence and humanity. He knows this is wrong, offensive, and unacceptable."
So ... some unidentified staffer is, without consultation, posting bizarre rants in the name of the President of the United States and forwarding videos they do not completely watch.
Seems like the public should be told who is speaking with the Presidents official account lest this random person start a war
Yawn.
If everything's racist, nothing is.
Not surprised to the see the apologists out in force ... and no one else.
Nobody's apologizing. We simply don't fucking care.
Context is important. Several years ago, a Danish fighter called Mike Tyson a "monkey" and American media immediately called the Dane a racist. But in Denmark, calling someone a "monkey" -- specifically "monkey cat" -- is a very mild insult that means "little jerk."
Ann Althouse said...
"Trump needs to be more careful. Trump's handlers need to aid Trump in being more careful."
And *Leavitt* needs to be more careful. Don't just say the first bullshit that comes to mind. If you're going to MAKE UP reasons, then you have to go on to defend those reasons. The better explanation of what happened became harder to push after she interposed her memes-r-fun notion.
Of course Ann wants to play along. She has been shitting on white men her whole life.
All the smart people know that White Men are the only people who can be racists.
"Which one of these two events will get the most airtime on the television news tonight?"
Regardless of issue, the left always goes with the lie, even when they don't have to. It's their thing.
’Do you really mean, then, to say that calling out the use of racial tropes with a vile history of complicity in slavery and Jim Crow is demeaning to African Americans, rather than supportive of their continued recognition as free and equal?’
I understand your argument, but still reject it, so yes. One can’t simultaneously argue equality while pleading special circumstances or privileges. I find that demeaning to anyone, individually or collectively. I appreciate the responses…
I'm still waiting for the airtime on the unprecedented, unimaginable drop in crime over the last year. This is actually important to the people of the country, and is good for us all. Well, maybe not all. If you got the TDS, it's just gonna cause a flare up.
Who wants to hear more about chimpanzees?
Beasts of england google it
Chimps are smarter than the average democrat
@Achilles: why aim your criticisms at our side? How is that helpful. We need every Trump supporter. Peachy defends Trump 99.999999% of the time. You really think it’s worth the .000001% of the time you 2 disagree, to become all emotional about the disagreement? She was a DeSantis supporter and now she’s a Trump supporter. All’s well that ends well.
’Beasts of england google it’
I’m a Binger myself, narc… :)
’Seems like the public should be told who is speaking with the Presidents official account lest this random person start a war’
I hate it when social media posts start wars. Yikes!!
As far as shitting on white men . . . turn around is fair play. You shit on white women all the time.
"Seems like the public should be told who is speaking with the Presidents official account ..."
***cough***Autopen***cough***
But that's different, I'm sure.
BTW, if DeSantis had won, I would be defending him too. My problem with DeSantis was that he was like Trump 2016. A bit naive about what he was going to be facing.
Wait till they get the launch codes
Eva Marie… was Nash the victim of the old chimp that was given prescription drugs? SSRIs maybe?
Going by the interest on this story, as opposed to the Epstein stories, Race trumps Sex, at least in this here blog. #cantstopcommenting
Iman you are right. Xanax, shortly before the attack. Not by vet’s recommendation but by the owner’s (not Nash) decision.
So this video probably has little to do with Trump, and definitely doesn't make the case being made about him, which is obvious to anyone who knows his history.
Regardless, the discussion is worth having about race and racist slurs.
The racism of the past needs to be resolved and worked past at some point. We shouldn't camouflage the real racism happening now with old worn out versions that true equality empowers people to ignore as what they are: anachronisms . I don't think it serves any decent people with fair motivations to pretend they are outraged by things they would ignore if it hurt their political side, or to do so because you fear being labeled by people not wanting to move on. I know it gives some people intoxicating power, but depending on that is pretty lame if you consider yourself a full equal.
I wish we could let it all go. Representing someone as an ape should mean the same thing regardless of their race. I know it doesn't to a lot of people, but it would be a better world if it did, not a more racist one. I can say honestly that it does mean the same to me regardless of race, because I don't see blacks as any closer to it than anybody else. It's not 1911. If we want to get past racism, we need to stop giving it such power. That means dropping a weapon for some, and that's hard, but that's the direction toward true equality. You know real equality when you see it. When you are with people of a different race, and you can insult them, laugh about it and get it done back at you without offence. It brings you closer.
Mark said...
...
What's your defense of Leavitt and Trump here? All I get is crickets.
Apology? Defense? In the immortal words of JD Vance, for what? Democrats and other riff-raff scum have been hiding the Obama clowns behind their skin color, and we, the normal people of the United States, have effing HAD it. If those two clowns have skins to thin for politics then they should have stayed back in Chicago.
now why is tim scott, basenghi on things that matter, like judicial nomination but outraged!! about this,
What I don't understand is why none of the racist commentators here will own their racism. After all, you are all anonymous. Don't be such pussys.
Well of course, we are all racists by the standards of the Radical Left, including you I assume. It's like original sin in the Bible. We've internalized the constant racial abuse from the Left and come to terms with what it really is. Being called a racist now is merely a liberal's expression of religious piety, akin to renouncing the Devil and all his works during the sacrament of Holy Baptism. It has no other meaning any more. It can be ignored with tranquil detachment if you don't belong to the Church of Git Whitey.
honestly, you would think he was on a milk carton, they almost never say anything of substance,
I remember a party we had with about 30 people mostly in their 20s and 30s with us in our 60s, different races, gay, lesbian, Jews, gentile and all different backgrounds . We were all sitting outside in a circle around a fire and someone insulted their gay friend, and they they insulted a black couple, and then he insulted the lesbians, and they the Germans, and Jews, and the Boomers, and it was hilarious. Just about the funniest thing I ever experienced and nobody was offended. It went on for about an hour with a hundred insults, and nobody was spared, and nobody got angry or hurt. We fell in love that night, as a group of friends, and we still all get together and the insults still come.
We had a party a few weeks back and my step daughter-in-law is a Muslim and her friend is a Jew, and they were arguing Palestine. It got heated, and they agreed on almost nothing, but it ended up in hugs and acceptance of difference. It always does. One Exception is two brothers in their 60s, one is MAGA and one is TDS. That one never resolves, which is why we mostly avoid politics.
All these comments about a video we can't even see any more. I just went to look at it to see how outrageous it is, but Presto ! It's gone. So the only thing left to see is all the teeth-gnashing. I'm not reading through all of the comments, but they seem to be similar to the one comment that I made, which is that
Progressives sure do like to sling around the 'Racist !' pejoratives which a lot of us find funny, considering how indelibly racist they are, in a provable, demonstrable way, starting with their passion for making Affirmative Action eternal instead of a temporary corrective action that has served its purpose (which is not the same as their quietly-held purpose).
rhhardin said...
"The reason that you can't portray blacks as apes is that everybody has to pretend that they don't notice that blacks resemble apes in facial structure, when in fact they do. In particular blacks notice it and you don't want them thinking anybody else notices.
It's like why you can't discuss average black IQ. It's a pretend not to notice thing."
**************
Oh, so "we" can't discuss IQ, an abstract social concept ,because "they" won't let us discuss blacks' facial structures.? And what bout the niggling detail that almost all African blacks have pink or reddish skin???
There is one thing we can all agree on: IT'S FRIDAY!!!
The issue seems to be less about Trump, which this video is only circumstantial evidence of Diversity amidst a mountain to the contrary, but rather Leavitt's weakly generated response in context to a handmade controversy. Meanwhile, black lives matter, unincorporated, anew, which is hardly aped by the usual gorillas in the mist.
I wonder if NYT gets easily confused, and the putz Achilles calls me a coward? If Achilles wants to go the Candace Owens and Tucker Carlson route of calling out people on the right for not going along with every stupid idea she spouts, go ahead. I’ll just skip continue to skip him like I do Mark.
I don't know anybody that looks like an ape, with the exception of George Burns, and the dumbest people I know are white, but that's just anecdotal.
I never saw an ape with a sharp pants crease, but I did see a jackass like that, and it fooled some people.
good grief, are we still on that silly ditz, actually shes much worse than that
but it's funny how issues of war and peace, economic development and public safety, and yes ballot security
matter less then this kerfluffle,
30 odd years of Affirmative Action? Try 50.
try 55 years, but obama cared about little, except fundamentally transforming a country, that welcomed him and gave him every advantage, and still he was resentful
I'll accept my racism of not caring much about a cartoon if you accept your racism of thinking Blacks are too dumb to get an ID.
Do we have a deal?
If calling the obamas out on being evil people is racist, then sign me up.
after 10 years of constant hate coming from the Democrats, and the trolls on this board, I'm over this nonsense .
The left invented racism, and uses it at every opportunity. Anyone missing that point is doing so deliberately , like most of the trolls on this blog.
The left owns the KKK, Jim Crow, white person hate, and hate in general.
At this point, I wish trump would be more open about what assholes you people on the left are....
Aggie said...
All these comments about a video we can't even see any more.
That’s what I thought, I posted an article yesterday about an illegal immigrant killing 4 people and maybe 5 other people said anything about it.
I think the charges of racism flung at Republicans amped up after the death of Robert Byrd in 2010. Democrat Byrd had been the longest serving member of Congress in US history. He was also a former member of the KKK, first as a Kleagle and then as Exalted Cyclops. Held in great esteem by the Democrat Party. While he was alive Democrats felt a little vulnerable, after his death - all brakes were off.
"I posted an article yesterday about an illegal immigrant killing 4 people and maybe 5 other people said anything about it."
I read about it elsewhere. What can you say about something like this that happens far too frequently? If illegal aliens were promptly sent back home, it (as well as any number of other tragedies like rapes and murders) would never have happened.
But preventing that (sending the illegals home, not the rapes and murders) is the hill Democrats have chosen to take their stand on and they're certainly not eager to shine any light on that. Better (in their minds) to ignore the deaths and continue to shout "RACISSSSST!!!!" at the top of their lungs as a diversion.
jim5301 said...
"Whether something - a book, cartoon, etc. - is racist is an objective test. Whether it was created by a black person is not relevant.
What I don't understand is why none of the racist commentators here will own their racism. After all, you are all anonymous. Don't be such pussys."
When did stupid become a race, jimmy numbers?
Eva Marie said...
@Achilles: why aim your criticisms at our side? How is that helpful. We need every Trump supporter. Peachy defends Trump 99.999999% of the time. You really think it’s worth the .000001% of the time you 2 disagree, to become all emotional about the disagreement? She was a DeSantis supporter and now she’s a Trump supporter. All’s well that ends well.
Why aim my criticism at people who routinely called me a Trumptard and a Putin Puppet?
I was banned from Powerline Blog because I supported everyone but Mitt Romney.
These people are so desperate to be acceptable to democrats that they purposely nominate obvious losers like Romney, Bush, Desantis etc.
They are too dense to understand even if they act nice and nominate a beautiful person like Mitt Romney the Democrats will still call him racist murderer Hitler.
They are too stupid to understand the game and they are pretentious assholes while they do it.
Eva Marie said...
As far as shitting on white men . . . turn around is fair play. You shit on white women all the time.
LOL!
White women in the United States are the most coddled pampered supported people in the history of the world.
No group of people has been given more unearned wealth and affirmation in the history of the world.
You are just mad that this gets pointed out.
lololol I’m obviously no Marco Rubio. Let the insults fly.
"The issue seems to be less about Trump ....".
Actually, it is about nothing except Trump. Trump posted a short but convincing video about election irregularities. The Lefties managed to make it go away. By shouting their mantra - RACIST-RACIST-RACIST!
Keep saying it - There's no place like RACIST! There's no place like RACIST!
But it will be back.
Michelle as a guerilla.
Probably already posted but I didn't read all the comments. I'm stupid enough already without the additional input.
It is very important for Anglo whites and 1619 blacks to stick together. We've been on this continent together for 400 years. A shotgun marriage, true, but a marriage nonetheless. Democrats since the inception of their party have been trying to keep blacks and working-class whites from making common cause. We should avoid helping the D's in that splittism. Instead we should encourage 1619 blacks to recognize they have nothing in common with postmodern immigrants, to include Africans and Caribbeans.
Having said all that, I don't think Trump should apologize for accidentally including the ape blip, which was barely above the threshold for subliminal advertising. An apology would only make things worse. CC, JSM
Hey, remember when I wondered, what chimps would do if they had guns?
Jupiter, guilty as charged.
Q's point about flak over the target is spot on. The defensiveness of 250+ comments is proof that this was an attempted expansion of the Overton window way of the limits of common decency.
“White women in the United States are the most coddled pampered supported people in the history of the world.
No group of people has been given more unearned wealth and affirmation in the history of the world.”
This is true for men as well. All these guys living with their parents who will inherit houses that are now worth a small fortune.
You’re born in the US - you’ve won the lottery.
Having said that in my personal life I know 1 guy, early 40s, living at home. I know 1 woman who works with her husband but then spends so much that they can never get ahead. Other than those 2 all the guys and all the gals are hardworking people. (He’s hard working too - just not on his own.) I read about the kind of people you mention, I just don’t know any in real life. And the videos we see and the articles - I don’t think they’re representative. I really do think the purpose is to keep dividing us into groups.
And I don’t think regular human beings want us to be divided.
Now it’s true that TDS has affected several families I know of. That really is a factor that I see. But it affects men and women both (from my personal experience).
Whether it’s appearing 38,000 times in the Epstein files or posting a video of the Obamas as apes, Trump is testing the limits of presidential norms. The White House has lost the country.
If you can insult your pals - and they look at you and bust out laughing, and you do the same when then insult you - you got yourself some real friends.
Now - that said- showing love and gratitude is also important. (of course)
the fact that all the leftists are treating this like the second coming of hitler, an atomic bomb exploded in their instacart, ans someone smeared a booger on the windshields == yeah another day ending in Y.
Trump doesn't need to do this crap - it's immature and ends up as a dick stepping move and a gift to the corrupt haters who already hate him.
there is a lame video out there with all the various a-holes on the left - their heads on the top of various animals of the Lion King. Lame- but harmless.
Come on Trump - do better.
As far as the RACIST! - BS - WELL just the other day one of the many Walzian leftist insane anti-Ice self-deputized creeps actually screamed at a Black ICE agent and called him a N***er.
Peachy said...
there is a lame video out there with all the various a-holes on the left - their heads on the top of various animals of the Lion King. Lame- but harmless.
Come on Trump - do better.
Mitt Romney put his dog on top of a car.
These losers were all sad he was such a meany.
The accusers are the one's making the racist connection between an ape and an African American. By being the first to see that link, they are projecting a stereotype they hold in their own mind. If you find the comparison too close for comfort only when it involves a black man then you not only view black people through the lens of that stereotype, you view other races as superior.
Let's not be coy OF COURSE a stand-alone editorial cartoon during the Segregation Era depicting a black man as an ape could reasonably be judged as racist. But that is not this, and it's dishonest to clutch those pearls in faux outrage.
Here's a simple test. Imagine you run a Zoo and as a advertising gimmick you want to portray your animal handlers in costumes according to the niche they manage. Dr Mary J. Wilson (the first African-American to be Senior Zoo Keeper, BTW) is your "Ape Zookeeper", she works specifically with great apes. She also happens to be black. Are you going to make an exception and NOT let her dress as as a Gorilla? When children (who say the darndest things) ask why she's not in costume, will they infer from the awkwardly phrased answers that she's at risk of being deemed subhuman because she's black?
Racism is Evil. The Right takes that evil so seriously that they are horrified when they are accused of racism, going so far as to denounce and cancel their own over the slightest hint of it (ie. The Talk by Derbyshire). OTH, the Left treats accusations of racism as a PROP, as a cheap shot to shut down debate. And it's not even their cross to bear - blacks are the ones who suffered from slavery, segregation and discrimination. If any shame or payback is warranted, THEY are the ones with the right to administer it. But that "justice" has been squandered by white liberals who appropriated the oppression blacks endured, diminishing the power behind the charge of racism to punish strangers on the internet for disagreeing with them. They've turned it into a joke, normalizing racism - because if everything is racist then nothing. They are the reason accusations of racism are no longer taken seriously.
Which brings us back to the stereotype of blacks "going ape"'. Implying poor impulse control? The charge of racism is a powerful weapon, the use of which African-Americans paid for over generations, being subjected to the worst cruelties humans could imagine. And you're using THEIR weapon to land cheap shots on the internet, to score a dopamine? As a former Marine I have an eye for discipline. And I'm astonished that they haven't beaten you to death with their bare hands.
If racism is evil, so are accusations of racism made in bad faith. It's disgraceful. Worse though is that these race-mongers are so corrupted that they aren't even aware they should be ashamed. They've gone so far off the the Path that they can no longer remember there was a Path. Unfortunately, that puts us in Old Yeller territory - they will tear us apart if they are not put down. Maybe 30% could be institutionalized as an alternative to bloodshed. Jumpstart construction of mental wards and tighten the standard for good mental health? I don't know, there are a hundred ways that could go pear-shaped. What I DO know is that we can't share this country with people who celebrate our murder.
I've been to the Promised Land. For 6 years I lived in a world where the color of your skin was no more relevant than the color of your hair (Oohrah Marine Corps). That path is open to America, but these people will have to be left behind. Just like the Neanderthals.
Howard said...
Q's point about flak over the target is spot on. The defensiveness of 250+ comments is proof that this was an attempted expansion of the Overton window way of the limits of common decency.
Remember when we got rodeo clowns fired and sent them to re-education camp?
Good times good times...
"Trump doesn't need to do this crap - it's immature and ends up as a dick stepping move and a gift to the corrupt haters who already hate him."
This right here is why the Right loses. Imagine coaching a basketball team with two noticeable stats
1) They haven't won a single game all season
2) Not a single player has fouled out.
Even an amateur YMCA Coach (no offense, I was one) can see the problem: they're not going for the ball.
We have a lot of room for improvement. Several problems to address. Overplaying our hand isn't one of them. I can almost recall a political aphorism (ugh is it from Alinsky?) about staying on the attack, if for no other reason than to overcome inertia.
You want to be critical, that's cool. Impotence and Treachery, thy name is GOP. Let's start there.
"Trump needs to give 2020 a rest"
The Marxists are playtesting how to overthrow the Republic and enslave us. Sure, let's give them infinite respawns.
The Right loses for all sorts of reasons. None of them include me.
I show up to vote.
First Trump lies about who posted the racist video - you know the answer, as we all do, that Trump puts up his Truth postings late at night, and under any circumstances, he didn't have to leave it on Truth Social for 12 hours. As for all the claims about vote fraud, 60 judges asked for proof and received none. And even the Republicans who ran the Georgia elections recorded his illegal ask for just 11780 votes. Votes were recounted 3 times and incidently, the Georgia Governor received 40,000 more party votes in state than Trump did.
Fulton County vote counts were fine and but now he has illegally seized records and voting machines which will cause all sorts of problems because no one can trust Keystone Kash to protect them. Bullshit reported here that more votes were recorded in the the county than registered voters is pure stupidity. Fulton's mostly black voters had actual votes totalling only 66% of registered voters.
Women are not Diverse, they are not bloc acts. They are as diverse as men, equal in rights, and complementary in Nature. Principles matter.
Principals matter is an axiomatic truth of the equal and independent dignity of human life that we do not deny for light, casual, and convenient causes. #HateLovesAbortion
"What I don't understand is why none of the racist commentators here will own their racism. After all, you are all anonymous."
Ah Hastings, have I not counseled you on several occasions to nourish the little grey cells? No mon ami, rasoir d'Occam. Have you ever known a racist who wouldn't indulge his racism under the shield of anonymity? Your questioned answered itself yet still you are... quelle est l'expression.. propelled into the air by your own petard.
"The Right loses for all sorts of reasons. None of them include me. I show up to vote."
You are worth your weight in gold. How about running for office? Something local?
"Votes were recounted 3 times..."
Recounting doesn't detect fraudulent votes.
Fen, you are an Agatha Christie fan. She’s the best.
Here we go gain with the “60 judges” nonsense. Most of those cases were tossed on technicalities like “standing.” The judges never looked at the evidence.
Eva Marie said...
'Fen, you are an Agatha Christie fan. She’s the best."
Guilty as charged. And agreed, she is. Hercule Poirot taught me that French snobbishness is actually their cope for not being Belgian. Haha
"The defensiveness of 250+ comments is proof that- "
Howard: "Trump's post was an attempted expansion of the Overton window way of the limits of common decency."
Also Howard: "Defending Trump is proof of that"
I hope you didn't plagiarize but... it sounds so familiar. Where have I - ah yes, John Hathorne of Salem, Massachusetts: "Be warned, denying you engaged in witchcraft is evidence you are a witch!"
Or maybe it was de Morillo in Seville? "You have rendered yourself guilty of heresy by challenging the Church's pronouncement that you are a Heretic!"
I'm sorry I can't be more precise. I'm still trying to process the absurdity of a Leftist lecturing us on "common decency" while the dirt from Charlie Kirk's grave still stains his shoes.
Jupiter, quilty as charged.
"We've internalized the constant racial abuse from the Left and come to terms with what it really is. It has no other meaning any more. It can be ignored with tranquil detachment if you don't belong to the Church of Git Whitey."
I'm with you except for that last bit. The Left falsely accuses us of being racists and nazis to tag us as subhuman monsters for their mentally ill brownshirts to murder. They accuse us of inhumanity to justify treating us inhumanely. And now Transgender Ideology (of all things) has elevated what could once be safely dismissed into a lethal threat. It's so bizarre that I missed it.
July 2013. The African-American community had a legitimate grievance over police brutality, despite the Martin, Brown and Garner hoaxes. But before they got two steps off the curb to launch their civil rights march, the movement was hijacked by Marxists. That's wasn't unexpected, other than mass starvation, it's what Marxists excel at. But then came news reports of a bizarre alliance - white effeminate boys were marching with BLM, even participating in the rioting. I knew that transgender ideology had Marxist roots in Critical Theory but the African American community's view on homosexuality is almost... hostile. While most black men maintain that only the "bottom" (the one who is penetrated during sex) is engaging in homosexuality, the ones doing the penetration are as discrete as a closeted conservative and their submissive white boys in drag are treated with contempt in public, regarded as freaks. To be seen with them as your wingmen on national television? BLM leadership must have gone to great lengths to maintain trans involvement and prevent the mass beatdowns that such a disgrace would normally have provoked. This was on par with Sydney Sweeney walking through the Hood at 2am in nothing but thigh-high stilettos and emerging unmolested. Someone had to be running some serious interference to make it possible. The result was Professor Marxism presenting TransDaughter to society, like some perverse recreation of a debutante ball... with Rainbow Dildo Monkey as DJ.
Couldn't figure out why it was so important to them until I began to encounter transwomen bullying people online over preferred pronouns. They were demanding people deny reality and edit their perception - training the mind to lie to itself and view a dude in a skirt as a woman. This is how you get people to not only parrot "we've always been at war with East Asia" but to actually mean it. It gives them immunity to history, to consequences It's just as vital to maintaining their hold as the secret police, show trials, and control of production.
The Star Trek Next Generation series actually covered the psychology of this tactic when Picard is tortured to declare he sees 5 lights when there are only 4 lights present. The interrogator doesn't care how many lights there are, it's trivial by design - "why subject yourself to endless torture? We will give you a life of luxury, full of intellectual pursuits, gourmet food, any woman you desire. All you have to do is this one neat trick. Just tell me you see five lights. What difference will it make if you submit to my will on such a trivial matter?" The reason this "trivial" matter is of such importance to the interrogator is that if you submit, he gets his foot in the door TO YOUR MIND. And that's all he needs to turn you and control you, it's just a matter of time. Mate in four moves. You'll believe 2+2=5 by Friday. And testify against your own children by year's end. Orwell didn't write Nineteen Eighty-Four to jump scare us for the LOLs, he was warning future generations about a weapon of terrible purpose - if the Control Freaks can force you to believe something that your own eyes tell you is false, they own your mind completely.
Today, about 30% of the Left is in the margins of mental health. Liberal Women are sacrificing careers in nursing because they couldn't resist going on TikTok to encourage their peers to inject Police with a paralyzing agent. What an abomination, to even consider doing such to thing to someone who was injured while enforcing the law ON OUR BEHALF. Although I suppose Honorable Mention goes to the pearl clutching Democrats on this very thread - how many of you have left your party in disgust? Two leftists have died in service to a mass delusion cosplaying Schindler's List. The spouse of one actually asked why ICE was using real bullets. Yesterday, the people who accuse us of being nazis taught themselves to look at a dude in a skirt and see a woman. It's all rather silly... until you discover that today, they are editing their perception of reality to see a guy in a business suit as Gestapo. So, sure - shrug off the false accusations of racism, the demonization and dehumanization. But don't ignore it completely. It may soon become necessary to react pre-emptively and with disproportionate force. If you're not wired that way, I understand, it's okay - brush up on your First Aid instead, refresh support networks, consider Logistics. And don't divulge your political affiliations unless it absolutely necessary. We may be about to revisit the Madness of Salem. Except it won't be little girls in self-induced convulsions screaming "Witch! Witch!". This time around, the mass hysteria will be fueled by delusional adults who have artfully weaponized victimhood, pointing at you and screeching "Nazi! Nazi!"
Think I'm being a bit dramatic? Okay, I'm fine with that. Hopefully my analysis is wrong. But at least now it's in the back of your mind, which means if (God forbid) this comes to pass, you won't be caught flat-footed. And that may be the difference that keeps you and your loved ones alive. You can buy me drinks later, I'll be watching C-beams glitter near Tannhauser Gate.
Kakistocracy said...
"There’s a complementary psychological mechanism at work that might be even more insidious: the illusion of perceived control."
Woof. Are you free this weekend? [googly eyes] We need to make a baby.
"Just believing they could make it stop was enough. Americans still believe they have that button."
I have a similar theory that maintains the 2nd Amendment is an illusion. Because the Right uses a light switch metaphor to pretend the only options are Do Nothing and Fire Everything, as if they can't imagine anything in between. It's a cope that gives them permission to Do Nothing because the "only" alternative is a Civil War that will quickly spin out of control. How convenient for the Right who lacked the will to flip the switch to begin with.
"Elections. The 25th Amendment. Congressional oversight. Judicial review. ...they believe the system still has that self-correcting mechanism built in. But someone has quietly disconnected the wiring behind it."
I use the metaphor of driving while thinking you have a spare tire when you don't. It's worse than simply not having one...
"People don’t just fail to notice the deviance accumulating. They actively permit it because they believe they still have agency they no longer functionally possess."
...because you think you have insurance, a fall back if you get a flat. If you had known the spare was missing, you would have driven more carefully, you wouldn't have gone off road, etc.
Stephen said...
1. Virtually no one here on the right, including Althouse-
And right out the gate, Stephen Ireland It's Mine! stumbles and crashes through the railing. Oh dear... I think...yes I see bone poking out. .. uhm FREE ICE CREAM FOR ALL BOYS AND GIRLS at the front desk HURRY BEFORE WE RUN OUT! Parents, Mercy will arrive on station in 5 minutes... Poor poor Stephen
The version of the video I saw had the offending view at the beginning. Did not check what was posted on Truth Social.
Fen said,
"I have a similar theory that maintains the 2nd Amendment is an illusion. Because the Right uses a light switch metaphor to pretend the only options are Do Nothing and Fire Everything, as if they can't imagine anything in between. It's a cope that gives them permission to Do Nothing because the "only" alternative is a Civil War that will quickly spin out of control. How convenient for the Right who lacked the will to flip the switch to begin with."
There is a third reason. More subtle reason. Is that all we need to do is own them. That alone is a deterrent.
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