Bill Maher's quote that the Dem party is now a Portlandia sketch would be apt if the people and situations in a Portlandia sketch were also defined by lack of principle, hypocrisy, lies, and off-the-charts levels of unreality within meaningful contexts.
- Comforting workers because they were traumatized by a Chik-Fil-A meal is Portlandia.
- Telling ICE to watch out for Denver moms is Portlandia.
- A NYT employee saying 2+2 doesn't always equal 4 is Portlandia.
But:
- Jen Rubin saying Republicans want to kill kids
- Joy Reid asserting that Musk and Putin own Trump
- Peter Baker saying you can't hold office if you're accused of a crime
- Gregg Gonsalves saying RFK Jr. thinks he knows better than scientists
That's not Portlandia. Portlandia is internally consistent in its worldview and weirdness.
This is something else.
This is challenging the shared human algorithms for determining reality.
This manufactures a subculture of irrationality within a universe of rational viewpoints.
A Portlandia sketch is cute and harmless and human. We're not living through Portlandia. We're watching progressives using our key institutions to indulge in motivated irrationality to arrive at conclusions they've already decided on.
Rubin is talking about people she thinks are know-nothings because, to her, they don't watch CNN or pick up the newspaper and thus they need to be told facts -- which she then describes as things Democrats gave them.
She then says that those facts need to be "pithy" -- implying they'd be too stupid to apprehend them otherwise -- and gives the example of "Republicans want to kill your kids. It's actually true. If you're gonna oppose vaccinations. If you're gonna stop breakthrough medical research. If you're gonna allow minors and all sorts of people to get semiautomatic weapons which they use to shoot up schools, well then you are responsible for kids' health and death, unfortunately."
NYT Isaac Bailey for the win: 2+2 doesn’t always equal 4. He said the quiet part out loud. Their goal is to force people to reject reality in favor of progressive pronouncements. What else could be the goal of the whole transgender nonsense?
Elissa Slotkin achieves maximum cognitive dissonance and psychological projection with her "politicizing" the military nonsense.... astonishing! And Maher is dead on with the Democratic Party becoming Portlandia........
So many things to read! Ty. Do you think these democrats have been living under a rock for the last 16 years? 24 years? I mean, the projection is incredible! Just astonishing.
There’s no question I consider her someone who is likely a Russian asset. This statement is so passive-aggressive it almost has no meaning. consider, likely. No evidence, just slander.
she is a Clinton worshipper. Clinton is the one who called Gabbard a Russian asset, because Gabbard said something less than flattering about Clinton. A couple of mean girls. That is all.
This might be from last week but is pretty funny in its own right, the NYT "fact-checked" RFK Jr. on Froot Loops, via Fox News:
"Mr. Kennedy has singled out Froot Loops as an example of a product with too many artificial ingredients, questioning why the Canadian version has fewer than the U.S. version," the Times' report read. "But he was wrong. The ingredient list is roughly the same, although Canada’s has natural colorings made from blueberries and carrots while the U.S. product contains red dye 40, yellow 5 and blue 1 as well as Butylated hydroxytoluene, or BHT, a lab-made chemical that is used 'for freshness,' according to the ingredient label."
“You have to be pithy. What do I mean by pithy? How about this, Republicans want to kill your kids. It’s actually true.”
I remember the article about Republicans having difficulty convincing voters that the Democrat policies they mention are actually real and not an exaggeration, e.g. chemical castration of minors or tax-funded gender reassignment surgery for migrants. Who is going to believe this? It's the typical condescending attitude, the voters just being too dumb to understand why the Republicans are supposedly bad. So just finding more ways to call them evil.
“Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy’s push to slash alleged government bureaucracy may begin with requiring federal workers to return to work in office full-time.”
The horror! This is a time honored way in the private sector to get people to quit. The problem really is that they won't do anything useful in office either.
“The rise of the accused to positions of power raises new questions about the future of the #MeToo movement that swept through the country and upended societal expectations in recent years.”
Is this in reference to Joe Biden or perhaps Bill Clinton?
They stealth edited that article so it doesn't look as bad. It now reads:
"He was wrong on the ingredient count, they are roughly the same. But the Canadian version does have natural colorings made from blueberries and carrots while the U.S. product contains red dye 40, yellow 5 and blue 1 as well as Butylated hydroxytoluene, or BHT, a lab-made chemical that is used 'for freshness,' according to the ingredient label."
Still sounds like the pedantic missing of the point that is a hallmark of "fact-check" articles. "RFK claimed it's raining 'cats and dogs', when in fact only water fell from the sky."
Using more natural and fewer artificial ingredients is probably not something that would be controversial to NYT writers before 2018 or before RFK Jr. entered the scene but just like they now reflexively jump to defend big pharma they now jump to defend shitty food, the messenger being more important than the message.
NYT’s Peter Baker, arguing that people should be disqualified from public office if they’re merely accused of a crime. That could potentially stop any election with anyone accusing anyone else of a transgression. Certainly this would have disqualified Biden & Harris. Trump too, which is who this piece of political assassination is aimed at. Peter Baker & the NYT live in a gilded echo chamber tower. Completely clueless about how anyone actually lives.
I always appreciate my Friday chuckles from reading your article. But this time around, I was also saddened by the linked article on the downward spiral of Scientific American. I'm a huge believer in the scientific method, and it was so disheartening to read how the magazine abandoned it in so many cases.
It's one of those example where someone takes over an institution from the inside, wears it like a skin-suit to push their own political agenda while banking on the reputation accumulated over decades.
Although I don't see that big of a problem with RFK Jr. as head of HHS.
“We should use our power as consumers to boycott X and all advertisers on X and on Fox News, mount defamation and other lawsuits against platforms that foment hate, and push for regulations (at least at the state level for now) requiring that all platforms achieve minimum standards of moderation and decency.” — Robert Reich
What a little Nazi he is. Goebbels would be proud.
"American tolerance for the unacceptable is nearly infinite."
FUCK YEAH!
GREATEST COUNTRY EVER!
America is so incredibly tolerant that it invites rich Haitian women to come here and lead our most famous university (Roxane's cousin, Claudine) based on nothing but great connections and the ability to manipulate White Guilt—and even allows them to stay rich and powerful no matter how much they fuck up.
What other country would take a program of social advancement designed for its own citizens and extend it to rich Haitians? Now that's tolerance!
If Americans are tolerant enough to sit next to Roxane Gay flying coach, we can handle anything.
I think of responses as I read, but can’t write them down fast enough before the next one hits me. The crazy reported in these articles is overwhelming.
Oh no, don't tell me the 2+2 nonsense is coming back. When that crap went wild on Social media the first time, it felt like I was in a Twilight Zone episode where everyone went crazy except me. I never saw so many people twist themselves into so many shapes.
Bill Maher's quote that the Dem party is now a Portlandia sketch would be apt if the people and situations in a Portlandia sketch were also defined by lack of principle, hypocrisy, lies, and off-the-charts levels of unreality within meaningful contexts.
- Comforting workers because they were traumatized by a Chik-Fil-A meal is Portlandia.
- Telling ICE to watch out for Denver moms is Portlandia.
- A NYT employee saying 2+2 doesn't always equal 4 is Portlandia.
But:
- Jen Rubin saying Republicans want to kill kids
- Joy Reid asserting that Musk and Putin own Trump
- Peter Baker saying you can't hold office if you're accused of a crime
- Gregg Gonsalves saying RFK Jr. thinks he knows better than scientists
That's not Portlandia. Portlandia is internally consistent in its worldview and weirdness.
This is something else.
This is challenging the shared human algorithms for determining reality.
This manufactures a subculture of irrationality within a universe of rational viewpoints.
A Portlandia sketch is cute and harmless and human. We're not living through Portlandia. We're watching progressives using our key institutions to indulge in motivated irrationality to arrive at conclusions they've already decided on.
Why is it Republicans want to kill kids? Where did that come from? Is she just a total loon?
Rubin is talking about people she thinks are know-nothings because, to her, they don't watch CNN or pick up the newspaper and thus they need to be told facts -- which she then describes as things Democrats gave them.
She then says that those facts need to be "pithy" -- implying they'd be too stupid to apprehend them otherwise -- and gives the example of "Republicans want to kill your kids. It's actually true. If you're gonna oppose vaccinations. If you're gonna stop breakthrough medical research. If you're gonna allow minors and all sorts of people to get semiautomatic weapons which they use to shoot up schools, well then you are responsible for kids' health and death, unfortunately."
Robert Reich is what fascism looks like.
Hi is the definition of what the Brits call (or used to call) a "Little Hitler"
He's a lawyer who pretends he is an economist. to prove his ignorance he does not even know what a rent seeker is.....or, that he is one.
NYT Isaac Bailey for the win: 2+2 doesn’t always equal 4. He said the quiet part out loud. Their goal is to force people to reject reality in favor of progressive pronouncements. What else could be the goal of the whole transgender nonsense?
Elissa Slotkin achieves maximum cognitive dissonance and psychological projection with her "politicizing" the military nonsense.... astonishing! And Maher is dead on with the Democratic Party becoming Portlandia........
.
Like Portlandia but even less funny.
Definitely wayyyy less funny.
Coincidentally, it’s gotten much funnier over the past couple of weeks!
So many things to read! Ty. Do you think these democrats have been living under a rock for the last 16 years? 24 years? I mean, the projection is incredible! Just astonishing.
There’s no question I consider her someone who is likely a Russian asset. This statement is so passive-aggressive it almost has no meaning. consider, likely. No evidence, just slander.
she is a Clinton worshipper. Clinton is the one who called Gabbard a Russian asset, because Gabbard said something less than flattering about Clinton. A couple of mean girls. That is all.
Same rhetoric trick like "all the hallmarks of Russian disinformation". I have no evidence but it looks like it!
This might be from last week but is pretty funny in its own right, the NYT "fact-checked" RFK Jr. on Froot Loops, via Fox News:
"Mr. Kennedy has singled out Froot Loops as an example of a product with too many artificial ingredients, questioning why the Canadian version has fewer than the U.S. version," the Times' report read. "But he was wrong. The ingredient list is roughly the same, although Canada’s has natural colorings made from blueberries and carrots while the U.S. product contains red dye 40, yellow 5 and blue 1 as well as Butylated hydroxytoluene, or BHT, a lab-made chemical that is used 'for freshness,' according to the ingredient label."
“You have to be pithy. What do I mean by pithy? How about this, Republicans want to kill your kids. It’s actually true.”
I remember the article about Republicans having difficulty convincing voters that the Democrat policies they mention are actually real and not an exaggeration, e.g. chemical castration of minors or tax-funded gender reassignment surgery for migrants. Who is going to believe this? It's the typical condescending attitude, the voters just being too dumb to understand why the Republicans are supposedly bad. So just finding more ways to call them evil.
“Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy’s push to slash alleged government bureaucracy may begin with requiring federal workers to return to work in office full-time.”
The horror! This is a time honored way in the private sector to get people to quit. The problem really is that they won't do anything useful in office either.
“The rise of the accused to positions of power raises new questions about the future of the #MeToo movement that swept through the country and upended societal expectations in recent years.”
Is this in reference to Joe Biden or perhaps Bill Clinton?
They stealth edited that article so it doesn't look as bad. It now reads:
"He was wrong on the ingredient count, they are roughly the same. But the Canadian version does have natural colorings made from blueberries and carrots while the U.S. product contains red dye 40, yellow 5 and blue 1 as well as Butylated hydroxytoluene, or BHT, a lab-made chemical that is used 'for freshness,' according to the ingredient label."
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/15/health/rfk-big-food-artificial-dyes-trump.html
Still sounds like the pedantic missing of the point that is a hallmark of "fact-check" articles. "RFK claimed it's raining 'cats and dogs', when in fact only water fell from the sky."
Using more natural and fewer artificial ingredients is probably not something that would be controversial to NYT writers before 2018 or before RFK Jr. entered the scene but just like they now reflexively jump to defend big pharma they now jump to defend shitty food, the messenger being more important than the message.
NYT’s Peter Baker, arguing that people should be disqualified from public office if they’re merely accused of a crime. That could potentially stop any election with anyone accusing anyone else of a transgression. Certainly this would have disqualified Biden & Harris. Trump too, which is who this piece of political assassination is aimed at. Peter Baker & the NYT live in a gilded echo chamber tower. Completely clueless about how anyone actually lives.
I'm hereby accusing Peter Baker of grabbing my arse. Fire him immediately.
maybe just pulling our leg?
I always appreciate my Friday chuckles from reading your article. But this time around, I was also saddened by the linked article on the downward spiral of Scientific American. I'm a huge believer in the scientific method, and it was so disheartening to read how the magazine abandoned it in so many cases.
It's one of those example where someone takes over an institution from the inside, wears it like a skin-suit to push their own political agenda while banking on the reputation accumulated over decades.
Although I don't see that big of a problem with RFK Jr. as head of HHS.
“We should use our power as consumers to boycott X and all advertisers on X and on Fox News, mount defamation and other lawsuits against platforms that foment hate, and push for regulations (at least at the state level for now) requiring that all platforms achieve minimum standards of moderation and decency.” — Robert Reich
What a little Nazi he is. Goebbels would be proud.
emphasis on "little" ...
"American tolerance for the unacceptable is nearly infinite."
FUCK YEAH!
GREATEST COUNTRY EVER!
America is so incredibly tolerant that it invites rich Haitian women to come here and lead our most famous university (Roxane's cousin, Claudine) based on nothing but great connections and the ability to manipulate White Guilt—and even allows them to stay rich and powerful no matter how much they fuck up.
What other country would take a program of social advancement designed for its own citizens and extend it to rich Haitians? Now that's tolerance!
If Americans are tolerant enough to sit next to Roxane Gay flying coach, we can handle anything.
Wasserman Schulz is a vile, cocker-spaniel looking dipshit. Tulsi Gabbard is a fantastic woman that the country needs.
I think of responses as I read, but can’t write them down fast enough before the next one hits me. The crazy reported in these articles is overwhelming.
Oh no, don't tell me the 2+2 nonsense is coming back. When that crap went wild on Social media the first time, it felt like I was in a Twilight Zone episode where everyone went crazy except me. I never saw so many people twist themselves into so many shapes.
Seitz nailed it. The pity is that once- promising potential journalists have been sucked into journalistic hell.
'traumatised by a Chick-Fil-A lunch'
If dead poultry scares you that bad, you got big problems.