Is there a difference between saying, “Moishe Rabinowitz is a stupid fucker” and saying “all Jews are stupid fuckers”? The answer is obvious.
So what is the point of the idiotic commercial that keeps being aired and that says “Trump called women dogs, bimbos, and fat pigs”? He never said that all women are any of these things. His insults were always personal.
My point is not to defend Trump, obviously. I’m simply worried that all attacks on him so far miss the mark very badly. It’s time somebody found a way to discredit Trump effectively.
Clarissa's Blog 
The difference is that those insults are gendered. If he’d said “Rosie O’Donnell is a stupid fucker,” that would be like calling Moishe Rabinowitz a stupid fucker. But that string of invective was more like calling Moishe a crooked yid. Nor would calling Moishe (or Chris Christie for instance) a fat pig be the same as using this kind of language about a woman–there’s sexual innuendo involved; it’s evaluating women’s value on a fuckability scale. “Fat pig” when directed at a woman means “shut up, no one wants to have sex with you,” just as “bimbo” means “shut up, you don’t have a brain, only a body.”
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What’s gendered about “dog” and “fat pig”? Men are called these things all the time. As for “bimbo”, it’s not even an insult, just a statement of fact. I use it for brainless, easily purchased men and women. But it’s true that it’s easier for women to offer themselves up for consumption because male bodies are not valued and are not in demand.
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If you don’t see what’s gendered about “dog” and “fat pig” it’s because you didn’t go to middle school in the US.
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Before we begin to compete in terms of our mastery of the English language, I will require to see a list of publications and an approximate number of eager readers. 🙂 🙂
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Concerning mastery of the English language, surely you know that “I will require to see” is rather bizarre grammar, right (an infinitive as direct object in English??).
Did you slip that phrasing in deliberately to see if any grammar Nazis would catch it? 🙂
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“The difference is that those insults are gendered”
So?
“But that string of invective was more like calling Moishe a crooked yid”
That’s a distinction without a difference.
“the same as using this kind of language about a woman–there’s sexual innuendo involved”
That should not be a consideration.
The quickest way to discredit Trump is to make him speak about the issues, but no one wants to do that (and done wrongly could actually strengthen him instead).
Another weakness is register. He’s mastered American plainspeak but I’ve yet to here him say anything in the presidential register that politicians at that level need to master.
Make him give a serious political speech rather than rabble-rousing stump speeches and people might notice there’s something wrong.
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Everybody, of course, can read anything they want into any text but I’ve heard men referred to as dogs and pigs a lot more often than women.
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What do you mean “that should not be a consideration”? The point is what is taken into account, not what should be.
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What do you mean “that should not be a consideration”?
It means “That is trivial and should be of no concern to adults.”
Monitoring, policing or censoring gendered language does not make gendered language go away, it makes it stronger.
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Understanding what’s going on, though, is always useful.
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Absolutely, I’m always in favor of understanding. And there is a real… sexual marketplace aspect to the Trump package (so to speak) that is worthy of analysis.
But putting it out in an ad is not going to help defuse him.
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And there is a real… sexual marketplace aspect to the Trump package (so to speak) that is worthy of analysis.
I’ve seen Reddit comments to the effect they want to be him when they grow up and they imagine he’d be a great beer drinking companion and wing man. “He bangs chicks who are much younger and hotter than him” seems to also be a very popular theme along with “he’s a bro”.
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Hey, I saw ultra conservative websites where men engaged in erotic fantasies about the manliness of. . .Putin. they collected his topless photos, etc. It’s especially hilarious that they see as deeply manly a fellow who is 5’4 and has had more Botox pumped into him than half of Hollywood.
Compared to Putin, one can almost see Trump as maybe almost kind of manly.
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Besides, the ad appeals to the standard of virtue that doesn’t exist. Who hasn’t referred to Rosie O’Donnell as fat? Who hasn’t called Trump’s wife a bimbo? That we don’t do this in public conversations and reserve these comments to the private realm only proves Trump right about political correctness.
I don’t know what Trump said about Diana but I doubt it’s any worse than the epithets I’ve used over the years to describe her, her husband, her children, and her husband’s mistress. And who hasn’t? Are there many people who don’t badmouth public figures? Isn’t that the reason why public figures exist?
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I don’t know what Trump said about Diana
In the ad ““She had the height. She had the beauty. She was crazy—but these are minor details”
It’s not really terrible but it will really hit women who over identified with ANY part of Princess Diana’s story, who watched her wedding live and/or watched her funeral live. Something like: She married too young, before she knew who she was to a “catch” who turned out not to love her at all and had a mistress on the side and who wanted and needed her to keep quiet for the sake of the kids, the monarchy, whatever. She had eating disorders driven by her insecurity and her need to look young and stay beautiful. and her marriage and her husband drove her crazy. She was in an unhappy marriage suffering for so long and she finally got free, to be her own woman, and then she had a shot at being happy when her life was tragically cut short in a car accident being hounded by paparazzi who wanted to devour her.
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Most negative ads are not to turn out people but to depress turnout for the other side. I just don’t see this ad doing it for Trump fans. The men don’t care but the women will tell themselves it’s not about them. It’s supposedly aimed at men or people with “daughters, sisters, wives” (because people tend to shrug off insults to themselves but get angry about their relations) but it’s really aimed at women of a certain age.
The only woman who is specified is Princess Di, Lifetime Movie Princess of Wales. Women below a certain age have no idea who she is and aren’t going to identify with the tragic story of marrying in the 20th century while stuck in the 19th.
Bimbos is a female gendered insult that’s so rarely used against men that people tend to specify “male bimbos” or “himbos”. Clarissa’s usage is atypical.
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That’s precisely what I’m saying. People will be upset with negative comments about Rosie O’Donnell if they like her. But I don’t see anyone but Melissa McEwan say, “He said that Rosie is fat in order to insult me as a woman.”
There are candidates in this campaign who want to prohibit abortion even if it kills a woman not to have it. And we are expected to be outraged that Trump called an obviously fat woman fat?
I don’t believe that these ads will be successful.
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My Trump attack ad would be examples of presidential eloquence (or famous things said by presidents)
“Ask not what your country can do for you…
“The only thing we have to fear…
“A day that will live in infamy….”
Juxtaposed with Trumpisms that make him seem inarticulate and incapable of he necessary gravitas of the office.
I don’t know if it would work but it does expose a potential weakness. I have trouble listening to him for more than a minute because he sounds inarticulate and oafish.
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This is an interesting idea. He does have a tendency to ramble, forgetting to finish sentences and going off on wild tangents a propos of nothing in particular.
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Inarticulateness and lack of gravitas?
If you want to demoralize Trump supporters, you make them believe he despises them and is playing them for suckers. You make them believe he’s a bully who will bully them . You make them believe he is a LOSER and that he is faking it like an overmortgaged asshole in a leased car that’s about to get repossessed. Remember Bobby Knight only lost his coaching job after he had a losing streak. All the tolerance people had for his bullying ways evaporated because he became a bullying loser. Rahm Emanuel will see his political career die the moment he loses an election for similar reasons.
I have no idea how to do this.
Donald Trump’s Volunteer Contract Forbids All Criticism of Him For Life I wonder if that contract is a hoax. I can tell you I was never asked to sign a similar contract or anything like it to volunteer for Obama or for Election Protection.
If the dude is so wonderful why would he need a non disparagement clause and a non compete for FREE labor? What’s he afraid of, really? Someone might change their mind about him?
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Yes, I think it will absolutely help to portray him as a loser. He disintegrates whenever he’s not number 1. When Cruz beat him in an early primary (Iowa, was it?), he looked like a beaten dog.
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The general election campaign of the republican nominee has begun. This is going to be quite the shitshow.
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Imagine the moral and intellectual caliber of the supporters of this character. And these are the people we are supposed to feel sorry for.
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I don’t imagine. 🙂
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Just met a young couple from the States trying to pay for groceries in my local Toronto supermarket with American money.
http://shawglobalnews.files.wordpress.com/2016/03/trumphilldawg.jpg?quality=70&strip=all&strip=all
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http://www.pbs.org/newshour/episode/pbs-newshour-full-episode-march-15-2016/
PBS ran a heartwarming story about a non-political family who has been so captivated by Trump that they’ve spent countless hours volunteering for him.
Unfortunately, they buried the lede.
FYI, ’88’ is neo-nazi code for Heil Hitler (H being the 8th letter of the alphabet).
More here:
http://gawker.com/pbs-news-story-on-first-time-trump-voters-prominently-f-1765284316
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“I’m only 28! My child was born in 1988!” -some excuse probably.
Consider that confederate flag tattoos are often not allowed in the military, let alone this Neo-Nazi symbology.
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I’m speechless.
Who knew there were so many of these freaks running around.
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People are free to feel superior to and ridicule Trump voters all they want — but that smug superiority isn’t going to get votes for Hillary. The Democrats could lose big time in November, if they can’t give the majority of voters a reason to vote for their own very dislikable candidate.
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You’re of course, speaking as a dispassionate observer, aren’t you? Not like you’d ever vote for Trump, right? Just solid election analysis, coming from the same person who was so sure Rubio would be the next president.
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I want to remind everybody that I said Rubio was hopeless from the start. I’m rarely wrong in my analysis.
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Likable, dislikable – what is this, a pageant for 12 – year-olds?
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If you don’t think being likable is an important factor in U.S. Presidential elections, you don’t understand American voters all that well.
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Yes, people are idiots. But let’s not stoop to their level.
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Oh, I really don’t like anybody all that well — I always vote according to ideology, period.
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That’s the best way. Voting for personality is very silly.
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