Name calling is for five-year-olds, it's what you do when you either have no actual argument or are intellectually incapable of formulating one. It's too easy in this age of reaction to algorithmically-determined and -generated stimuli to fall into that trap. It makes for little else than bad policy. No one who does that is worthy of a second look, much less support or votes.
Regarding weirdness and dullness, I'm reminded of self proclaimed witches who, you know, don't actually commune with Satan or commit atrocities, but are just like REALLY into reproductive freedom and against the patriarchy, man. And they just happen to dig the pagan aesthetic. It's just as fake as the so called punk rockers who remind us that racism IS NOT punk. A big part of why everything sucks is because most of what passes as discourse is just moral hectoring
Interesting essay ! To really dive into the semantics I think you can divide “weird” into two subcategories - quirky and creepy.
Everyone who claims to be weird because they think it’s cool is really claiming to be quirky - to be different in some fun/interesting way (ie. listening to indie music and pretending to be autistic)
The democrats use of the word is closer to “creepy” I think. Ie. It’s “weird” that Donald Trump likes to talk about how sexy his daughter is because that seems like the kind of thing a sex pest does.
People (and especially authoritarians) hate to be made fun of. Which is why I think “weird” is actually quite an effective attack line - especially when it’s deployed against the sex-obsessed evangelicals who are far too influential in the US’ culture war bs
Name calling is for five-year-olds, it's what you do when you either have no actual argument or are intellectually incapable of formulating one. It's too easy in this age of reaction to algorithmically-determined and -generated stimuli to fall into that trap. It makes for little else than bad policy. No one who does that is worthy of a second look, much less support or votes.
It’s an American pastime:
https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/12487/adams-vs-jefferson-birth-negative-campaigning-us
Regarding weirdness and dullness, I'm reminded of self proclaimed witches who, you know, don't actually commune with Satan or commit atrocities, but are just like REALLY into reproductive freedom and against the patriarchy, man. And they just happen to dig the pagan aesthetic. It's just as fake as the so called punk rockers who remind us that racism IS NOT punk. A big part of why everything sucks is because most of what passes as discourse is just moral hectoring
Haha, good point
Interesting essay ! To really dive into the semantics I think you can divide “weird” into two subcategories - quirky and creepy.
Everyone who claims to be weird because they think it’s cool is really claiming to be quirky - to be different in some fun/interesting way (ie. listening to indie music and pretending to be autistic)
The democrats use of the word is closer to “creepy” I think. Ie. It’s “weird” that Donald Trump likes to talk about how sexy his daughter is because that seems like the kind of thing a sex pest does.
People (and especially authoritarians) hate to be made fun of. Which is why I think “weird” is actually quite an effective attack line - especially when it’s deployed against the sex-obsessed evangelicals who are far too influential in the US’ culture war bs