Our friend Dime brought up an interesting point in his post on Iconography which has a parallel in terminology. Obama was very much a leader to his people (Alinskyites, Kenyans, Islamists, crackpots), whereas Trump is not regarded as a leader by those of us who nonetheless support him. The two sides have very different ideas of how government should run, what it should do, and how it should relate to society and the individual. Leftists want a leader — rightists want a representative.
We like us some Trump because he is like us, because he literally represents us. He is not better than we are, not smarter, not chosen except by we schlubs, and does not claim any right to lead an ignorant mass where it otherwise does not want to to go.
One of the things that bothered me in debating leftist shills at Ricochet was the casual insult “leader” in many of those conversations. We were those who “followed Trump”, we bore abuse about our “leader”, as if we had somehow hitched our wagon to a strongman’s cause. It was either a deliberate attempt to belittle, or a complete lack of understanding the entire difference between the political goals of the right an of the left. Either way, it was damning.
Many of us are not interested in a secular messiah, a social leader, or a political solon. Trump the schlub will do just fine, thank you.
Iconography and Terminology
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“These are not the Droids you are looking for.” (In my best Alec Guinness voice.)
TKC will understand.
TKC does not understand! TKC feels a Rodney Dangerfield moment coming on.
TKC,
At the 1:27 mark.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=b5wfPlgKFh8
That Dime, always with the posts…
TKC, I thought I had covered my tracks by using the Russians to hack into your account and write that post but I was found out.
“One of the things that bothered me in debating leftist shills at Ricochet was the casual insult “leader” in many of those conversations. We were those who “followed Trump”, we bore abuse about our “leader”, as if we had somehow hitched our wagon to a strongman’s cause. ”
One of the many annoying things about the Snob Conservatives, or SnobCons. The Bill Buckley jock sniffers. People with significant reading and little experience. I prefer people with both.
What bothered me was how little practical knowledge these people had. They made the easy mistake of thinking understanding theory is equivalent to actually doing things. These people think milk comes from stores and don’t like the smell of farms.
The other thing that was annoying was not their different views but their unwillingness to ever debate. It was the lowest form of name calling and in no way intellectually challenging.
“Leftists want a leader — rightists want a representative.”
So perfectly expressed.
“And this: One of the many annoying things about the Snob Conservatives, or SnobCons. The Bill Buckley jock sniffers. People with significant reading and little experience. I prefer people with both.”
You said it. If I read one more Socratic quote by people who spend most of their time boasting of their Hume, Kant, Aquinas, Locke, or Spinoza street creds without ever earning a dime on their own or even developing a portfolio, I’ll scream.
Anyone can read a book (I am an English major, so I know this) but let’s hear you discuss some real world facts and stats. Better yet, go make some serious donuts like the Donald and deal with the delightful politics of a labor union!
“It was either a deliberate attempt to belittle, or a complete lack of understanding the entire difference between the political goals of the right an of the left.”
I’m going with both. One of the weird things about the bad place was how little so many people there understood politics, on any level. They were very often casually contemptuous and nasty to other people at the site who disagreed with them, which never set off alarms bells ringing in their pointy heads about how to win friends or influence people.
This was a fascinating microcosm of how the gop itself operated, by the way. That is, lecture people about your steely principles which you abandon any time anyone with political connections is threatened by them, then pour contempt on the voters when we don’t go along with this shinola.
What sticks in my head was the mockery of Trump because he was playing politics. He would say something controversial, which would win him a primary or two, gathering an enormous amount of free media attention in the process- and he would then get mocked with snide comments that “he fights.”
I saw that a lot. I used to tell people there that the game being played was politics- but I still don’t think anyone ever understood that.
Shrug. The can now enjoy their befuddlement without me, which no doubt suits all of us better.
What sticks in my head was the mockery of Trump …
Yeah well I had to listen to my primary care physician today (I stupidly wore my #45 sweatshirt because it was cold) sneer at the “bad weave” of the “buffoon” this “sorry country” elected. I sighed and simply asked for my allergy prescription so I could leave.
People from all walks of life are really on edge right now and I don’t see that coming to an end anytime soon. Obama and his Alinskyites did an impressive job opiating the masses during their eight years of reign with plenty of help from the Pravda Press.
Поздравляю вас, товарищ !
Tell your doc to grow a pair!
Liz, did not tell us the sex of her doctor. He might be a she. Or she might be a he.
Поздравляю вас, товарищ
This means “I congratulate you, comrade.”
I know it does, Dime. I was being somewhat facetious; after all, they’ve won the battle and we haven’t.
Or “salute you”, depending on how one thinks the pozdrav was given.
But the key word, centime, was “tovarish”.
“Tovarish” is translated loosely as “stout comrade.” These people exist in the Western world today and that was most explicitly my point.
Remember when a certain Paris-based journalist said Trump was a fool for not believing what the “intelligence community” was telling him? Today, when the electronics ban was announced by both the US and UK (and Canada was said to be considering), she tweeted out that by following the lead of the “intelligence community,” Trump had, of course, screwed up.
Her actual tweet says, and this is a direct quote, “Can’t this administration refrain from fucking *anything* up?”
In this new way of thinking, angering journalists is the ultimate sign of incompetence. Not planes blowing up, mind you. That she can obviously live with.
EJ, are you saying she should Go Fund herself?
Don’t worry it is probably a clerical error, right?
*