List here. Orwell's "Animal Farm" ranks high too — at #18. Isn't it amazing that "1984" seems so continually relevant? I clicked into my Kindle, and it was the book that was already open. I'd been doing a search on a word — "fight" — after it came up in the context of re-impeaching Trump:
I note that the Trump quote [the Democrats included in the Article of Impeachment] did not make my list "The 7 most violence-inciting statements in Donald Trump's speech to the crowd on January 6th"! I thought "fight like hell" sounded too much like ordinary politics to make the list. We fight for our rights, we fight in political campaigns, we fight in court. Are we going to outlaw the word "fight"?! We'll be descending into Newspeak.
But it was this more general concept about Newspeak that was important — from the essay on Newspeak in the back of the book:
Graphic: Another angle of the person being set on fire by a Molotov cocktail thrown by antifa militants in SE Portland. Rioters try to help but don’t do much. Cops are the ones who rush in & put out the flames. Video by @BGOnTheScene. #PortlandRiotspic.twitter.com/9gNFo73Lyc
The chickens are coming home to roost in Portland as anti-police activists rally at mayor Ted Wheeler’s residence and plan to occupy it until he is forced to quit. pic.twitter.com/6Twy2kERQp
"You’re thieves! Asian people stealing black culture once again.”
A strong, black Muslim woman went inside the new Trap Tea business in Aurora, Colo. on Friday and confronted the staff. A black customer tries to defend the business & is called a racial slur by her. pic.twitter.com/uejQ6nC8cr
I had to look up "trap" in the Urban Dictionary. I see the top-voted definition is a type of anime character, but there's also a secondary meaning, a place where drugs are sold.
The slur the woman uses against the black man who intervenes is "coon": "When used by blacks its describing an uncle Rukus type character. A black person who is ignorant to white discrimination and unknowingly suffers with self hatred."
ADDED: Here's their logo, which uses a font that I would characterize as an effort to signal Asianness:
The Suburban Housewives of America must read this article. Biden will destroy your neighborhood and your American Dream. I will preserve it, and make it even better! https://t.co/1NzbR57Oe6
The argument for capitalizing "Black" is that "For many people, Black reflects a shared sense of identity and community." Now, think about "The Suburban Housewives of America." Who are these people? Women in the home-based half of a single-earner household — suburban-home-based. Is this a very large group? Is it a group with "a shared sense of identity and community"? Does Trump want to stimulate a feeling of shared identity and community within this set of people? Apparently he wants them to see themselves as a specific and specifically endangered group: Biden will destroy your neighborhood and your American Dream.
Click through to the link and see how long it takes you to figure out Biden's plot to destroy the suburban housewife dream.
I grew up with the suburban housewife dream, and I think it was destroyed long ago. It might be a good dream, worth restimulating. Let's discuss it. I've discussed it for years under my "single-earner household" tag. But I don't think Biden's vague aspirations about racial diversity in the suburbs are what could destroy what's left of the suburban housewife dream. The dream is eroded and obscured by a culture that encourages everyone to get a job and undervalues the role of the home-based partner in a single-earner household. Ironically, the phrase "suburban housewife" is part of the culture that undermines the single-earner household. It sounds like it's assigned to the woman because of her sex, and it sounds subordinate and dull.
When you read "The Suburban Housewives of America," what was your mental image? Did you picture women living in the present? If you flashed back to some housewife of the past, did she look like a fuzzy-slippered frump in "The Far Side" or like Mary Tyler Moore on "The Dick Van Dyke Show"?
ADDED: Speaking of the grouping of women into a traditional stereotype for political exploitation, there are these "moms":
I recognize a lot of the so-called “moms” as the same antifa women who dressed in black as recent as a couple days ago. They just put on a yellow shirt now for optics. Most of these people aren’t mothers & many don’t even identify as female. #PortlandRiotspic.twitter.com/UPffcao0fv
"... an announcement that comes on the same day that a Portland newspaper published a story revealing that Ngo witnessed a far-right group planning violence but never reported it. Ngo, a photographer who was until recently a sub-editor at Quillette, became a celebrity on Fox News and other pro-Trump media outlets after he was attacked by left-wing demonstrators at a Portland political rally in June. Ngo then became prominent as an opponent of political violence, with most of his criticism aimed at the left."
On Saturday, a few confrontations broke out in the park as the rally began, but the far-right groups eventually moved behind a police line and were separated from the counterprotesters by a wide gap that officers worked aggressively to maintain.... At least two of those walking with the militia members appeared to have been hit with white substances resembling milkshakes.... Officers intervened in occasional skirmishes at or near the park and seized a stun gun, bear spray, a shield, and metal and wooden poles from the protesters, the police said..... The rally itself was largely uneventful. But more fights broke out after the groups had dispersed and roved the downtown streets in smaller packs, with tense and sometimes bloody exchanges flaring up between demonstrators....
"This woman is playing the victim for political purposes because she is a state legislator. I'm a Democrat and will vote Democrat for the rest of my life, so call me whatever you want to believe. For her political purposes, make it black, white, brown, whatever. It is untrue."
I got there via Andy Ngo ("Media machine has been blowing up story of @itsericathomas, who claims a racist white man told her to 'go back where you came from.' Well, he returns during her presser to deny allegation. He says he’s a Democrat & she’s embellishing story for attention"). Erica Thomas is a member of the Georgia House of Representatives.
I really did wonder whether "quick-drying cement" is the name of a real product. It seems like a phrase that would be written on a package delivered to a Looney Tunes character. Ah, yes! Here:
So I googled the term, and I'm seeing a lot of packaging, and "quick-drying cement" doesn't seem to be the standard term. I'm seeing "fast-setting" and "rapid set." I do think "quick-drying cement" is the more comical way to put it.
I condemn assaults, including assaults with humorous-sounding objects like milkshakes (or, in the old days, pies). But let's get the facts straight. My link at the top of this post goes to "How a Dubious Claim of Cement Milkshakes in Portland Became a Right-Wing Meme/The police claimed that left-wing protesters were hurling cement drinks. There’s no evidence to back that up" at Mother Jones:
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