As I said last night, for some incomprehensible reason Democrats become extremely angry when they win. My mentions on X are overflowing with nasty, abusive comments by people who came back to my old posts to express their rage. It’s a weird psychological phenomenon that I don’t fully understand.
Why people can’t be normal and feel good and magnanimous about winning is a mystery.
Now that you point it out… that is very strange. Last couple of elections, when most things went the way I voted, I breathed a big sigh of relief. I didn’t start rage-posting on liberals’ comboxes. It does kind of support the theory that D is now the party of the terminally mentally ill.
“become extremely angry when they win”
In Poland, that’s PiS, a party built on welfare handouts and dreams of revenge (against who is not always clear). They are never angrier than when they win and start dreaming of vanquishing their enemies (over half the country).
Going forward that’s a quick shorthand for which party/bloc whatever is healthier psychologically and which is more likely to build/maintain a place that’s nice to live in.
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“Why people can’t be normal and feel good and magnanimous about winning is a mystery.”
Well, I can.
But I don’t think it’s too hard to understand–sure, we’re doing some celebrating and we’re relieved that we’ve handed Satan an “L.” But there’s a lot of serious work to do–chthonic scum aren’t defeated that easily, and one can be very sure that The President of the Flies will come up with all kinds of obstacles to prevent patriotism and walking with God to prevail. So, yeah, a little grimness is bound to creep in here and there–for goodness’ sake, it’s not like giving the opposing team a high five after Little League and saying “good game.”
But feeling good and having fun and just plain being happy? Here are a few examples of terrific Left wit–also a great litmus test for Retrumplicans–if you can see the humor as well, then maybe there is a chance that you all can spend the next two years straightening up and flying right. (Note: that does not mean “become a Democrat,” necessarily–just being a sensible party that engages in intelligent debate on how to solve American problems for Americans.) But anyway, the jokes:
It’s almost like people didn’t hear about the new ballroom.
– Matt Goldich
Early returns show Talarico winning with all six genders.
– Ginny Hogan
Haley Stevens now has only one path to redemption, the path trod by many before her: Dancing with the Stars.
– Adam Strawbridge
Sex is cool but have you tried watching Republicans lose in districts they gerrymandered?
– Colleen Nichols
Two Dan Sullivans, both alike in dignity,
In fair Alaska, where we lay our scene.
– tmb_tuba
Can’t wait for next week when Mike Johnson says he hasn’t seen the results yet.
– Dan Wilbur
Husted’s behind. It’s all Trump could talk about and now he is!
– Dan Wilbur
Elon Musk just announced that the next version of Ken Paxton will fly.
– David Slider
You sons of bitches cost me $5000.
– Stonekettle
We are gonna trans your kids so bad.
– Gareth Reynolds
Yeah, the last one’s my favorite. But by all means–let’s remember to have some fun.
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Great jokes, though. I definitely enjoyed the jokes, so thank you.
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I see a glimmer of hope.
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“We are not known as…”
Now, now, don’t sell yourselves short. I mean, have you suffered through right “memes”? We’re talking about people who know nothing about setting up a joke and landing a punchline… it’s… I don’t know. Maybe you’re born with it, maybe you learn it… the right wasn’t and didn’t.
And don’t even get me started on right comic protest songs. I think there’s been one good one in the last 60 years or so–The Statler Brothers, “Whatever Happened to Randolph Scott?” That one’s funny. And maybe the right can claim Ray Stevens’ hilarious “The Streak.”
And microaggression and anti-racism workshops? An effin’ laugh riot.
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“I can be sweet and kind,” he says, and then proceeds to call you chthonic scum”
Feel the compassion!
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I notice that the insults in getting from the tolerant, progressive left on social media today tend to be very gendered, as the leftists themselves would say. It’s always, “bitch, cunt, whore, you are ugly, you are fat, you got bad hair.” “Chthonic scum” offers a nice variation on the monotony of these insults.
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“I notice that the insults…”
Absolutely–why go after gender and appearance? We’ve got Legion to attack, and they are many…(see the books of Mark and Luke).
If you prefer, Legio mihi nomen est, quia multi sumus. I swear sometimes, Trump, Vance, Hegseth, Kennedy, et al. could all wear that phrase on their matching T-shirts, and the ReTrumplicans would still say, “Well, at least I don’t have to write that report on avoiding microagressions in class [or the workplace].”
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Yes, we have already established in the past that your threshold for humiliations is a lot different than mine, and you perceive things as acceptable that I don’t. As we used to say in the USSR, socialism is a system in which you have to forget not only the concept but even the word dignity.
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“Yes, we have already established…”
Oh, humiliation-shmiliation. That’s just life, man. I don’t see a heck of a lot of difference between occasionally saying “I’m racist” and occasionally saying, “I break wind in my sleep.” I mean, it’s not the thing about which I’m most proud, but it’s what life and our body and our minds are made of.
Actually, I’m wrong there. The sleep gas, probably not much we can do about. Maybe Beano before bed? But the racism… well, maybe we can do something with that. The tricky part is losing one’s fear of the word–that urge to go into defense mode… But if they serve sandwiches and soda, I’m all in.
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Yes, that’s exactly what I’m saying. Your life is full of humiliation. Mine isn’t. This is a direct result of our different political affiliations. Repeating that humiliation is perfectly fine, and dignity is unnecessary doesn’t diminish the damage that they do to you daily. There is a direct link between this damage and your own anger that you described very vividly quite recently.
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“That’s exactly I’m saying…”
Close, but you’ve gotten cause and effect turned around. I was an undiagnosed autistic Jewish kid in California—bad enough. Then I became an undiagnosed Jewish kid in Tennessee.
Tennessee.
So, I might just have well have worn a shirt that read, “Please humiliate me with everything you’ve got.” And it was so.
Getting a slightly more acceptable point of view, choosing a party that most nearly addressed my concerns, hell, finding a job where I could accomplish a few things… all that came much later.
Still, credit where credit is due—for a casual analysis based on almost no concrete info, it wasn’t bad.
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I was a Jewish kid in the USSR. Tennessee is paradise in comparison.
Here’s the problem, though. You enjoy humiliation rituals for whatever reason. I respect your right to do that. All I want is not to be forced to participate. But your side wants to force me.
As always, this is a choice between people who simply want to be left alone and people who want to force-feed their boutique beliefs to others.
It’s hard to imagine a more humiliating ritual than the president Clarissa supports inviting Dmitriev to the WH to praise Melania today.
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The president. President Trump. He’s the scum. Okay?
And yes, compassion by all means. But there’s no “agree to disagree” on this. There simply cannot be.
He is indeed the ultimate example–the BIGGEST example–of your favorite joke, the one about Comrade what’s-his-name–it’s a joke you’ve used on me and others, and now… Now, you and other Trumpians have a big choice to make regarding a cross and your undies. And once you decide–even if it’s not “our side,” then you have something real over which we can share laughs, disagreements, and yes, compassion.
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“Yeah… a laugh riot…”
Cliff, let’s get it right, at least: “an effin’ laugh riot.”
However, let’s get to your Dead Names post and see how this is what has happened to my country in miniature.
Your post illustrates a horrible tragedy, and now there’s a seed. For many people (although I’ll be concentrating on Americans), that event becomes the Face of Trans, or at least a huge part of the Face of Trans.
And now let’s add Trump. And while we’re adding Trump, let’s visit my favorite field, the American musical.
Ever seen The Music Man, Cliff? Classic 1957 American musical–the 1962 film version best preserves the overall feel (and preserves Robert Preston’s landmark performance). Preston plays Prof. Harold Hill (not his real name), who finds himself in the summer of 1912 in the town of River City, Iowa (creator Meredith Willson’s invention, based on his own Iowa home town), and looking for a way to bilk the town as lucratively as possible. His game is selling boys’ bands–uniforms, instruments, etc., and then running off with the money.
So he must create a need for a boys’ band. And when Hill learns that the town has just gotten its first pool table installed in the billiards parlor, he’s off. The song is called “Ya Got Trouble.” And from the pool table, Hill gins up the fears of the townspeople, who in the best tradition of musical comedy, literally become a repetitive chorus: Trouble, trouble, trouble, trouble…
Kids start playing pool. Then they neglect their chores. Then their language deteriorates to using objectionable words like “swell” and “so’s your old man.” They start smoking, drinking, then betting on horse races…
Trouble, trouble, trouble, trouble….
And to bring the chorus of panic to its height, Hill breaks out the ultimate fear–the kids go to the dance at the Armory…
“Libertine men and scarlet women, and ragtime, shameless music
That’ll grab your son, your daughter with the arms of a jungle, animal instinct
Mass-staria!
Friends, the idle brain is the devil’s playground…!”
So, from a pool table to… well, your (White) sons and daughters are not only going to start dancing to Black music, but the Black kids are going to want to “dance” with your kids…
TROUBLE!
Ok, back to Trump. His combination of all-encompassing evil and rank stupidity is one I’ve commented on before, but he has a Skill. He can stoke fear to get what he wants. Donald Trump is The Music Man. (Note: reading reviews of the most recent production featuring Hugh Jackman mostly reveal a sense of “we can’t enjoy this anymore, because the Music Man is our president, and it isn’t funny.” And one big example of Trump as Music Man–trans rights.
Kids are dying… trouble, trouble… boys are in the girls’ locker rooms… trouble, trouble… male felons are raping female felons in jails… trouble, trouble…. Until we get to “You’re sending your kids to school, and the school sends your kids back to you…trans!”
And people believe it. Big crowds of people at the Trump rallies–not as big as they used to be, and certainly not as big as the Father of Lies tells us, but still pretty big. Because Trump can take fear based on a kernel of truth, and then the fear becomes the truth.
You can’t let your fear become the truth. You can’t let your fear make your decisions for you. Okay, maybe “can’t” is wrong–“shouldn’t,” perhaps. Because here’s what happens: America is not a democracy. It is not a democratic republic. It is an “anocracy.” That’s what happens when we elect the Music Man. We’ve just made a baby step in stopping this. It’s going to be rough–especially when Project 2025 gets started in January 2027… the Music Man is going to get the chorus going again, or try to: see what you voted for? Trouble, trouble, trouble…
But you and I don’t have to be in the chorus. Because God gave us a great gift. The ability to THINK.
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“Ever seen The Music Man”
Live, the movie and grew up with the soundtrack. A peerless and wonderfully inventive work of American Musical theater.
“Trump. His combination of all-encompassing evil”
You are not rational about Trump and there’s no point in discussing him with you. I’m willing to discuss his many policy failures but without the queasy over-stimulated emotion…. you actually have made him the center of your emotional life which is very unhealthy.
And you missed the point the post. Exulansic spent time in the ‘trans’ community before she wised up and realized she was just a lesbian (but not before doing serious damage to her body).
There is _no_ reason for a minor to have invasive elective surgery that sterilizes them, or sexually mutilates them or chops of healthy body parts. None. I don’t care the justification… just no, a thousand times no.
You’re the Music Man scribbling nonsense about him being the devil so that quack doctors can castrate teenage boys and sterilize teenage girls.
We got trouble! Right here, with a capital T that rhymes with P that stands for Potter.
Watch this if you have the nerve…
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Well, first let me close up the extra arse-hole and reattach the balls.
And before we hurl ever-more colorful and (possibly) hurtful insults at each other, let’s be very clear about something we do agree on.
I hate quacks. I do not believe in protecting them. They violate the first rule of medicine: premum non nocere. Medical investigative bodies and police should apprehend and punish quacks severely.
Only an adult should be able to decide to transition. I have friends with kids who would disagree with me and have acted according to those beliefs. But I think there’s just too much going on with any teen (or younger) who starts to lock into the idea that they’re in the wrong body to say definitively that transitioning is the answer. An ADULT negotiating those issues needs the smartest, most understanding, kindest, and skilled professionals to talk to before doing something that, as you pointed out, can cause a great deal of damage.
Once an adult has made that decision, they should just live their lives. What we do not need is a lot of bushwa about schools turning the kids trans. We need clear heads, and, as I said last time (before I was awarded the extra asshole and relieved of my balls), we need to think.
(Note: have seen about 20 minutes of the video–will try to catch up. Again, we have an extremely vulnerable and troubled young person–college-age, in this case–who was encouraged to make some very bad choices.)
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“I’m afraid you didn’t get…”
“Feel the love” would have been stronger, but I got the general idea. Bitter sarcasm works as a joke for people who don’t care for jokes.
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I’m sorry. I honestly can’t follow your train of thought. I was saying that I got Cliff’s joke—feel the compassion (literally what he said) v. Col. Potter totally lacks compassion (the intended message). And you’re saying…
Well, I’m not sure. You sure you are communicating with me?
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“Well, where I come from…”
So, you were being sarcastic about Cliff’s sarcasm? Or something? I may well be pathetic, but when I’m lost, I say I’m lost.
I’m lost, which perhaps was your intent. The internet is a fascinating place.
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Yes, it’s exactly how the issue is being discussed on American social media. It’s identical to what happens with discussions of Ukraine. People hear some vague rumors, get attached to them, and there is nothing you can do to pry them away from those rumors, even if you show them mountains of documented information about what really happened.
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A conservative literary critic and college professor
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