I think the main reason the “weird” approach works is simply because it is true. They are weird.
And the reason why it hurts Trump so much is exactly that truth hurts.
I mean it’s not like it was untrue to call him a rapist or wannabe dictator
The words we’ve been using before – fascists, neonazis, dictators – oddly enough seem to make Republicans laugh at Democrats because we make them sound scary/we sound scared. Calling them weird trivializes them, and reduces them to barely under creepy uncle status. Calling them weird stings because they think themselves the epitome of normal – they think they’re the “real” Americans, not the aberrant ones.
Silent? They never shut the fuck up.
The silent majority is neither of those things.
Because it is simple and understandable.
Because it renders their grievances in the petty light they need to be seen in.
Because it hits a nerve for them.
Because it disempowers and dismisses them.
Because it’s not overtly combative.
But really really because it is true.
It works because they’re fascists.
One of the main pillars of every fascist movement is “we’re the only normal ones”. It’s how they justify othering, persecuting, and abusing everyone who’s not a cishet white fascist Christian, preferably male.
To a fascist, anyone who’s not “normal” is one of the OTHERS and thus scary and evil and needs to be suppressed and hidden away, if not violently eradicated.
Small note
It’s how they justify othering, persecuting, and abusing everyone who’s not a cishet white fascist Christian, preferably male.
This is incorrect
It’s how they justify othering, persecuting, and abusing everyone who’s not like them
You can have Fascism in any circle. “Communist” Occupied China is an example of non-white Fascism. And you could point to some military groups in Africa as well
You can have Fascism in any circle. “Communist” Occupied China is an example of non-white Fascism. And you could point to some military groups in Africa as well
I know. The part you quoted was in a separate paragraph because it was specifically about the American Fascist Party rather than fascists in general.
Other examples include Modi’s fascist Hindunationalism and Netanyahu’s fascist apartheid state where the favored religion is Judaism.
where the favored religion is Judaism
This is not how Apartheid works in the West Bank. Zionism may be dependant on Judaism, but that’s not the dividing line.
It is ethnic apartheid between ethnic Jews / white westerners and Arabs. Religion has little to do with what is actually enforced. there are tons of secular Jews. There are evangelical Christian settlements in the West Bank too.
It’s about denying rights to Arabs living in Palestine.
Incorrect. Fascism is specifically a white right wing phenomenon.
You can have similar methods in other authoritarian and totalitarian systems. But while they’re certainly equally despicable, that does not make them fascism.
This was the least educated comment you’ve made today
I highly suggest looking into a political literacy class
I assume you’ve gone through my comment history to confidently make that assertion?
Scan the Wikipedia page on fascism. Read a bit more into the citations. Then tell me again how uneducated my comment really was.
Why would I go through your comment history to make an assertion of one comment that I was replying to?
If you don’t know any of my other comments, how can you confidently state that this was ‘the least educated comment’ I made that day?
Because i respect you
Weird works for some people as it allows them to express disdain without getting violent
I can’t wait for the killing blow of when Harris is accused of being weird, hopefully by Trump himself, and she responds by saying of course she’s weird, everyone is a bit weird.
That’s the normal response to being accused of being weird. The weird response is to get defensive and start slinging school yard comebacks, because in the back of your mind you know your weird is using furniture to masturbate or to have sexual thoughts about your own children.
He already did a “no u”.
It cuts because republicans are groomers and “weird” is what teenage girls call guys they don’t like.
Being called weird is what happens when your plan of statutory rape fails.
Why do bullies get mad when you start fighting back? It’s a gawd damned “mystery!”
I think the secret is it’s just one word that everyone knows. Democrats have a bad tendency to over-explain: “This book makes these 57 points and if you cross reference with these charts and apply this formula you’ll see….” Meanwhile, Trump will just say “what a loser.” Maybe Democrats are finally learning to keep it simple.
Yes people should want to make informed decisions, but maybe part of effective campaigning these days is accepting they don’t.
It’s fallout from the devolution of our educational system. And, well, generational lead poisoning. And I guess we’ll find out what microplastics do to our brains in the coming decades too.
Anyways, it’s frustrating that talking points have to be “dumbed down” to such an extreme degree, but at the end of the day, I’m glad that the Harris campaign is being pragmatic about doing what they have to do with their messaging to actually reach low-info/low intelligence voters.
“Weird” reverses and intervenes at the crucial point of transmission of that idea. No, it says, the appeals by the right to supposed family values (anti-trans bigotry; restricting no-fault divorce; slashing public school funding; hatred of immigrants) are not normal. They aren’t fundamental American values that the liberal elites have somehow derailed. They are, instead, deeply strange. And “we” (a new silent majority that Walz invokes in his use of “weird”) are tired of it.
This sums it up pretty nicely.
It works because they’re fucking weird! There’s normal people who are Republican voters but the Republican Party is basically all weird people. If a motherfucker dresses like he’s in a barbershop quartet in high school or college, you know damn good and well what party they’re going to support (musical theater kids excluded, obviously). It’s not normal to call in the genital inspector and demand to see a youth sports participant’s crotch because they whooped your daughter in U-11 soccer. Ted Cruz is a Republican and he’s the weirdest person on Earth.
And that’s doubly true nowadays where you have to know extended lore from the Fox News extended universe to know what the fuck they’re even talking about.
Edit: And who the fuck makes Christmas cards where their whole family is holding guns? Plenty people treasure the second amendment and send normal fucking Christmas cards.
Betraying one’s country is really fucking weird.
Why aren’t there rolls of stickers on Amazon of pictures of Republicans with the word “weird” under them to stick on gas pumps?
Probably because liberals are less likely to vandalize people’s property, and buy a roll of stickers. You could probably make more money on large format stickers individually.
I absolutely wouldn’t want to vandalize someone’s property however, had a conservative already put a sticker there I wouldn’t feel bad at all about covering it up.
Vandalize someone’s property
Just to make sure I understand
Vandalize = stick a removable sticker to something
Someone = an oil company
Property = infrastructure to dispense oil to be burned and pumped into the atmosphere
Honestly, I don’t think stickers go nearly far enough. Bomb an oil pipeline instead.
Yeah that won’t kill anybody. F*** over society and raise the prices for 99% of people. That seems like a perfectly well thought-out plan /s
How are you any less weird? You support Zionism, just like many Republicans. You are SO WEIRD! Why aren’t there rolls of stickers like that for you, @JustZ@lemmy.world, and for all the other genocide deniers?
Soooo, I kind of got déjà vu reading this article because … Six days ago I “foresaw” the relevance of “weird.” Comment thread here (I think) or just check out post my post history.
The author brings up a ton of specific points I called out, including using similar words like “flip” the script and referencing how “basket of deplorables” was too directed. Were we all thinking sbout “weird” in this context six days ago already? If not… I am weirded out, y’all.
“Deplorables” and alot of other seemingly insulting, derogatory things could be worn as a badge of honor by that group. For people who pride themselves on being conservative and the representatives of “normality”, “Weird” isn’t something you can easily call yourself, you’re not weird, you’re the normal one, it’s society that’s weird for being so permissive. And then just being called “weird” is hard to defend against because everyone has some weird thing about themselves, just existing as a human being is a weird experience.
Weird isn’t bad, weird is just normal, it’s just life, but in their eyes, weird IS bad, it’s probably a part of themselves that they themselves know is wrong. I think alot of the blatant lies they tell the world aren’t just for other people, part of it is for themselves too, to make the weirdness of fascism go down a bit easier, to make it seem like they’re supporting it for justifiable reasons.
i maintain that this is because Kendrick Lamar thoroughly undermined Drake earlier this summer with a similar approach
