October, 2016 archive
The Saturation Point 0
The only Constitutional amendment we need is one limiting the length of political campaigns, as they are limited in the UK.
Trumpling Truth 0
Bill Leuders marvels at the Republican Fantasy Land. A snippet; do read the rest:
The Trump backer, Allan Thiel, complains “people aren’t being taught history anymore” and “they’ve dumbed everybody down.” As if to prove the point, he elaborates, “Our country has never had any problems for the last 200 years. We’ve never had a problem with guns or racism until the last eight years.”
The article continues, “To simply grade the accuracy of Thiel’s statements misses the point, because Thiel’s beliefs do matter. They show up in double digits in national polls and belong to a reality shared by many Trump supporters.”
(snip)
No, what we as a nation must do is insist that truth matters.
In related news, a while ago, Chauncey Devega released a podcast–I’m just getting around to it–in which he interviews Nicholas Stargardt, an Australian historian who teaches at Oxford. Devega starts the interview asking how the American politics appear from across the Big Pond. “Crazy,” is the answer.
Stargardt goes on to state that even the craziest European politician would not try to swim in the fact-free, falsehood infested pond in which the Republican Party and its followers splash. Follow the link and listen; the interview starts at approximately the 15-minute mark.
Toll of the Tarheel Potty Police, Reprise 0
Heh.
The Roanoke Times has endorsed N. C. Governor McCrory for a second term because, as they say in the editorial, he’s been good for the economy–Virginia’s economy (follow the link for the full article).
Honest to Pete, you can’t make this stuff up.
Via Joe My God.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Another gun achieves the gunnularity and fires itself.*
Misty Michelle Flowers, 38, who works as a deputy at the Lincoln County Courthouse, was showing the weapon to friends at her home on Loop Road when the gun fired and went through a wall striking the girl in the next room.
Ammosexuals just have to flaunt it.
________________
*It’s called “grammar,” folks, and it matters.
Trumpling the Women 0
At the Boston Review, Kate Manne explores the relationship between sexism and misogyny as manifested in Donald Trump and his supporters. She argues that misogyny can be thought of as the enforcement mechanism for sexism: sexism is believing that women belong “in their place,” which is inherently inferior to and servile to men, while misogyny is a means of putting and keeping them there if they dare step foot beyond their prescribed bounds.
It is a long and thoughtful piece that warrants your attention. Here’s a bit.
But his misogyny is, for better or worse, strictly limited. This is because of a striking and alarming limitation of Trump generally: he seems to lack a superego, or even the ability to mimic one. This explains both his remarkable shamelessness and the non-moralistic quality of his misogyny. It isn’t moralistic because Trump isn’t either. His normative words are simplistic and aesthetic terms of praise: “best,” “beautiful,” “great,” and “winning,” are some of his favorites. When he tries to engage in moral talk, he becomes uncharacteristically flummoxed.
