Continuing this from the thread in !chapotraphouse@hexbear.net Have the Democrats finally hit on a good messaging strategy in calling Trump "weird?"
Original Post by @Philosoraptor@hexbear.net
Inspired by this post and the fact that I'm seeing a lot of regular libs start to coverage on "these guys are weird little freaks" as a messaging policy, which really seems to be bringing out the
in the far right. It's working much better for them than all of Biden's attempts to portray Trump as some kind of existential threat to
.
This is interesting, and only surprising in the sense that it is surprising to see the Democrats do something kind of effective for once. Fascists thrive on being seen as cool, powerful, and dangerous; those aesthetics are central to the brand. Every time Biden gave a big speech about how the future of democracy was on the line in the election, it played into that aesthetic. Every time CNN calls January 6 a "coup attempt," it plays into that aesthetic.
Calling these people weird little freaks with weird dumb ideas and weird creepy fixations does not play into that aesthetic. It breaks the illusion that all the freaks at the RNC wearing bandages on their ears are actually normal and represent normal people. They aren't, and they don't. This is yet another thing that the left has known for some time now, but that libs seem to maybe be catching on to: taking these idiots seriously empowers them. Actually realizing that and using it is one of the smarter things that the Dems have done in a while.
Also, we've been calling conservatives weird for years now, it's just that mainstream democrats are finally taking the opening that republicans have been giving them.
Throughout the Obama years and through the 2016 election, democrats kept casting the increasing extremism of the republicans as an aberration and often openly pleaded that the "fever" would "break." But the fever never broke, the republicans have only gotten more and more right, in ways that are increasingly alien to mainstream society. It was only a matter of time before democrats changed their tune and finally harped on the obvious.
Republicans ultimately have no one to blame but themselves. They embraced Trump, who is deeply weird. They talk about children's genitals all the time and accuse their opponents of being satanic pedophiles. They got rid of Roe. They've nominated JD Vance. They got so locked in to their conservative media bubble and their little mental conservative world that they lost touch with normality.
Also, we've been calling conservatives weird for years now, it's just that mainstream democrats are finally taking the opening that republicans have been giving them.
Absolutely. The same people seizing on this right now were screaming at us for not treating The Threat To Democracy with the decorum it deserved just a month ago. Most leftists have been on the "these guys are weird little freaks" train for years now.
Definitely, this is exactly what they should've done in 2016 but couldn't because they decided to anoint their own weird candidate
The problem is conversational kamala harris is also deeply weird
I saw a thing on CNN the other day about what people in China are saying about her and they nicknamed her "Sister Ha Ha" and were comparing her to president lisa simpson lmao
https://www.cnn.com/2024/07/26/politics/video/kamala-harris-china-social-media-ripley-ebof-digvid
I think them seizing this rhetorical strategy also preemptively defangs the Republicans trying to call her weird too; it would seem weak and uncreative to just repeat the same attack. I don't think it was done intentionally with that in mind--they're not that clever--but it is a nice side effect for them.
I don’t know about that. Democrats screeched about everyone being Russian bots for years, then suddenly reactionaries started calling them NPCs and suddenly there were 500 articles about how the meme was offensive and dehumanizing. They’re both weird NPCs but democrats reacted to it more strongly by crying whereas conservatives just started calling themselves russian bots for fun lol
It's true that we shouldn't underestimate their ability to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. They're very, very good at that.
To be fair, liberals are very bad at retaining fervor and defending victory. We’ll see how it plays out here. They are lucky that popular culture is being defined by Kendrick’s beef against a weird canadian guy.
You: You weird nerd.
Republicans: [deflects with shield]
Me (a weird nerd): OW
weird nerd (derogatory) versus weird nerd (affectionate)
alternately, weirdo who is a nerd versus nerd who is a weirdo
It's effective because Democrats never believed in "Republicans are a threat to Democracy/America". If they actually believed that they wouldn't be so happy to work with them.
"Republicans are weird", in contrast, is honest.
Judging from the reactions I'm seeing on twitter and conservative media, It's very clearly gotten under conservatives' skin.
they have discovered what the "dirtbag left" was saying in 2016 while they were all still doing "when they go low we go high!"
as someone that has stepped in both worlds i've come to realize something
libertarians, aka the "dirtbag right" are like the underground counter-culture for the right and stuff they kick around in weird forums eventually peculates up to mainstream right wing strategy (i saw this pre-2015)
meanwhile the dirtbag left may be the same thing for dems and libs.
both sides hate these respective counter-cultures but simultaneously see them as the dangerous "cool kids" despite their burning hatred for them
The thing is that terminally online fascist porn addled culture developed by 15-40 year olds on 4chan and similar sites and accounts eventually bleed into mainstream conservative culture too. Whereas “the dirtbag left” seems to only penetrate into other terminally online spaces.
It works because most Republican communication now relies on like 10 layers of preexisting outrage lore, and only really has power if you are way too plugged in to the internet.
Think about how the conservative influencers always love to just post a picture of a random short haired/fat woman or skinny bespectacled man and go "THIS is the Biden Admin's/Video Game Company's appointee to so and so," egging on their dog-brained mouth breathers to accuse said person of being trans/soy/ran through/alone with cats whatever. Does any normal mature and non-insecure person engage with the greater world in this way? Does real human interaction ever really unfold so in line with arbitrary preconceptions, or are these chuds just dredging up half-remembered tropes from movies, advertising, and TV shows pretending they can pregame real human interaction?
No, you can only understand the right's weird taxonomy of humankind if you do not interact with humankind healthily or regularly, and are a social maladapt who cannot have conversations with anyone without first sizing them up and seeing if you will have enough canned lines for bluffing your normalcy through a conversation with them.
Do you remember at the middle school dance when there was that group of guys/girls who stood in the corner not dancing because they were scared to venture off and join the crowd, but were talking especially loudly at each other so that eavesdroppers might presume they were cool? Do you remember people like this talking shit about their peers who were self-affirmed enough to unironically have a good time being silly, or scoping for a more outcast group to pick on?
That is what conservative culture is now, antisocial, resentful, sexually-anxious middle school brained losers who haven't developed the social graces to improvise through life, people who bluff as the in-group by using self-serious/dehumanizing language to slander and bring down other people minding their own business. They are just finally being called out for being the sauceless pretenders who were being excluded all along for good reason, beneath this facade of normalcy and superiority they affected by doing their own excluding.
That is what conservative culture is now, antisocial, resentful, sexually-anxious middle school brained losers who haven't developed the social graces to improvise through life, people who bluff as the in-group by using self-serious/dehumanizing language to slander and bring down other people minding their own business.
What’s especially funny about this is that conservative women are also repulsed by this. Their online dating services fail, although this may be due to women in general being less present on dating apps and conservatives probably finding dates in churches and shit. But the fact remains, so many conservative men would never in a million years reveal to their wives or girlfriends their albums of wojak comics or incel beliefs because everyone knows it makes you a loser.
If a conservative woman tries to participate in these online cultures, they will either be harassed by their own men, accused of being trans, or “accepted” as long as they allow themselves to be sexualized and used as a punching bag.
Yep, if you check out the Twitter account @Cruffalo it is all about how red pill/incel stuff is ruining Christian/right wing men. And she's a straight up Christian conservative.
I think they stumbled onto vance. (it would have also worked with pence tbh). Trump needed a straight guy/gal for his comedic act, instead of a freak guy
(can he fire the guy btw? is this some legal thingy?)
But presumably those laws flow from republican locals customs, because rnc and dnc are private corporations, so i would think its something like local rncs submit lists to some electoral thingy? Or is it like real laws on the books of state, which mention convention (a gathering of people) of party as ultimate deadline of that party's candidate?
after reading some more, yeah its state patchwork of local rnc + actually electors can say fuck it. (eg the substitution could be even later, after ballots are printed, with implicit understanding for electors (who are rnc guys and gals) what that ballot means, still might land in supreme court, but they'll toss it out 9-0)
Conservatives have always been weird.
But yes, as silly as it is, this will get under theor skin a bit because they see themselves as the normal ones.
It is pretty lame that this is the best Dems can to though
It’s a strategy of ostracization rather than the previous strategy of horror, which is a breath of fresh air given that these nerds have been shown to get off on being seen as a threat.
Othering chuds is particularly effective because they see the idea of normality as a holy grail that all must strictly abide by, but they think everyone secretly agrees with them and that they are the silent majority so thus they are normal no matter what they do and so they can project an inane amount of bravado and assumption of knowing the lore, because they genuinely believe everything they talk about is a serious issue that average-Joe Americans actually are entirely locked-in about.
It’s literally just not taking the ideas as valid and shutting down the conversation because you don’t think that people would take it seriously if you don’t lend it the credibility of discussion. It’s PPB laundered through 50 think tanks to best suit the Dem platform. If nothing else, it is refreshing that liberals don’t start immediately yelling at you for being ‘uncouth’ with chuds by swinging back.
I would call this a rare W but this is literally just them remembering that they have to do politics and not just respond to what is pushed onto them
Weird doesn't come off as elitist.
That right there is the key, I think. Great analysis. Even "deplorable" was the kind of thing that plays into the image of being powerful and dangerous. "Weird" is very pedestrian.
Anderson Cooper also hit her with this in the 2016 debates, which, I can't imagine a question like this being asked regarding calling republicans "weird".
Anderson Cooper: (01:15:07)
Secretary Clinton, your two minutes is up. I want to follow up on something that Donald Trump actually said to you. A comment you made last month. You said that half of Donald Trump’s supporters are “deplorables, racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamophobic.” You later said you regretted saying half. You didn’t express regret for using the term deplorables. To Mr. Carter’s question, how can you unite a country if you’ve written off tens of millions of Americans?I mean, damn. Like, how do you even recover from something like this? I think this usage of "Weird" really tosses a smoke cloud up. Whereas, obviously for worse, Clinton called it as she saw it, or at least, said what people were "thinking". The problem though, is people will not be self-reflective and respond to that saying "You know what Secretary Clinton, I think you are right, I think I do have sexist, racist, homophobic, xenophobic and Islamophobic tendencies".
Tell someone they're "Weird" though? What do you even say: "I'm not weird, what are you talking about?". I don't know that I've ever seen someone fully recover from being called "Weird" in a context where most other people agree with the notion that they are weird. Which is, I think, where things are at. Like I said, this works within the Republican social circle too because people will deflect in the "I think they're talking about YOU Jeb" way.
"You guys are all weird"
"Don't lump me in with those weirdos, I'm the normal one"
"Sure thing, whatever you say 🙄"It's nebulous, it's pedestrian as you say, it’s colloquial. You can see them on the back foot, the way people on Fox News are so annoyed with it. They're not mad, they are just, annoyed. It doesn't have the same energy.
It brings back the memories of being a kid and being yourself, only for your crush to see you and say “you’re weird” with a puzzled look on their face, before running away without any further context or elaboration, and never interacting with you again
:yea:
It doesn't help that they're responding like this (CW: transphobia and general grossness):
Show
Conceptualizing, drawing, and posting this shit is fucking weird, and I can't imagine it playing at all with someone who isn't totally brain poisoned by the internet. The more they make this kind of thing the centerpiece of their campaign, the worse things will go for them, I think.
tried this strategy once, and everyone just recoiled from him. Trump has won in spite of this tendency among his followers, but they seem to have decided now that it was because of it.The amount of very specific details in that picture is really telling on themselves
Easy comeback to that one: "only an extremely weird person would post that image"
I like the shit and piss detail in the bed. Totally normal thing to make people get on your side.
Personally I find these drawings and other 4chan drawings funny because of how weird they are. Like, you are trying to offend me, but you sat down and took 20+ minutes drawing some racist caricature shitting and cumming or some blonde wojak being gang banged by caricatures of black guys lol. They have a whole 4chan esque board specifically for wojaks (soyjak party). This is the behavior of weird people lol
Show
It is absolutely unhinged behavior. The fact that they think it's a good way to score points in public discussion is like exhibit fucking A in what people mean when they say the far right is weird. Like, we have a lot of weird, insular meme culture here, but I don't see a lot of Hexbears or leftists in general trying to use those weirdo things out in public to sway public opinion.
Honestly most chuds I've seen seem greatly offended about being called out for being psycho weird creepy incels.
Yes I'll give this one to dems, it's effective. The right is getting pissed because it hits home
psycho weird creepy incels.
It’s pretty great that the unironic worshippers of Patrick Bateman worship a rich loser who has to fantasize about grotesque violence just because he’s simply boring and weird in real life lol
"weird" 
