US Democrats have spent recent days trying out a relatively new attack line on Donald Trump: that he is weird. The tactic is almost certainly calibrated to resonate with young and independent voters who, polls show, are moving from marked disinterest in the now-dropped matchup between Joe Biden and his presidential predecessor to engagement in the 100-day contest between Trump and Kamala Harris.
In a press release Thursday, vice-president and presumptive Democratic nominee Kamala Harris issued a list of the main takeaways of what Trump had given the American people. “Is Donald Trump OK?” the X message said. The seventh of nine entries was: “Trump is old and quite weird?”
At a fundraising event in Massachusetts on Saturday, Harris tried out the line again, describing what Trump and running mate JD Vance had been saying about her as “just plain weird”.
“I mean that’s the box you put that in,” Harris said after Trump had called her “a bum” the previous day and Vance disparaged her in 2021 as a “childless cat (lady)”.
It evolved from one to the other. It’s like the brain developed their ability for double think as a response to the constant bombardment of cognitive dissonance. So instead of paying attention to that little ping of “hey, wait a second,” and having to make a semi-consciuos choice to ignore it, their brains straight up skip that part in order to reduce psychic pain.
It’s kind of insane just how on the money Orwell was.
I remember every time I’d read 1984 after the first, I would get to the part where he has that long, dry, treatise on the power of language as a means of control, and I used to dread it (skipped it usually after the first read through). It always seemed boring and just completely far-fetched. Yeah the whole world-building aspect of doublespeak and doublethink was great, but surely humans aren’t that susceptible to being controlled through language…
Welp. About that…
it’s not just words they’re trying to eliminate, but also everything else that someone can use as a form of expression. ever notice how republicans generally dress the same, act the same, etc-- there’s a strictly defined idealized image of the “true american man (or woman–nothing in between)” they adhere to, and anything that doesn’t look like that is implied to be “other.” one of THEM, not one of US.
republicans push for sameness, another concept used as a core feature of society from another dystopian book (The Giver).
Absolutely. Another Hallmark of fascism.
It’s like they’ve been using Eco’s Ur-Fascism as a guidebook and checklist rather than a warning/description.
Btw if anyone hasn’t read the (very short, like 8 page PDF it’s worth it trust me) essay “Ur-Fascism” by Umberto Eco, you really should. Hey look here’s a PDF of it: https://sites.evergreen.edu/politicalshakespeares/wp-content/uploads/sites/226/2015/12/Eco-urfascism.pdf
Only takes a few minutes, but just does an amazing job outlining what fascism is (with first hand accounts of growing up in fascist Italy), why it’s a nebulous concept that is hard to pin down, then does the impossible by pinning it down using 14 “defining features” of fascism, and wow are they eye opening…
Things were different min 1995, and Eco believed that it wasn’t possible to form a coherent government around all 14 because they can be at odds with one another at times. According to Eco, only one of said features is needed in order to consider a state (or person, etc.).
Again, as Eco could not have foreseen, turns out you can go for the high score of 14/14. Unfortunately. Then again, I’m not sure I would ever say that the fascism of maga is “coherent”. But that’s just another plus for them. But seriously, go read it
Anyway here’s the link to the PDF again. It’s a must-read: https://sites.evergreen.edu/politicalshakespeares/wp-content/uploads/sites/226/2015/12/Eco-urfascism.pdf