Snowflakes. Groomers. Cucks.
For years the MAGA movement has approached politics the way a bully would approach a schoolyard, sparring with labels so nasty, they seemed expressly chosen to appeal to the kind of people who stuffed nerds in lockers in sixth grade. And for years Democrats, abiding by the mantra to go high, not low, have responded by trying to be the adults in the room: defending themselves with facts, with context, with earnest explanations that nobody remembers (if they defend themselves at all).
The problem is that taking the high road only works if politics is a sport played mainly by people who act like grown-ups, which it is not. And also: Facts and context don’t make for particularly sticky messaging.
Enter: Weird.
Over the past two weeks, as “Brat” and coconut memes have taken over the internet and Kamala Harris inches closer to Donald Trump in the polls, the Democrats have finally gone low, deploying a bit of verbal jujitsu so delightfully petty it might just work.
It is, in fact, bad to sell classified documents that you stash in your bathroom and jeopardize the safety of all Americans. It is, in fact, bad to rape people. It is, in fact, bad to ignore scientists during a global pandemic. It is, in fact, bad to raise taxes on the working class while cutting taxes for billionaires. It is, in fact, bad to be racist. It is, in fact, bad to pay illegal hush money bribes to protect a campaign. It is, in fact, bad to say that democracy will end after you gain power.
I could do this all day.
Would you say that any of the things I listed are good? Or are you just going to not address facts and reality?
I’ve always found this “criticism” pretty funny.
I get the point of it is to be absurdly reductive, and to insinuate a reflexive, unthinking mindset where it doesn’t matter what Trump does; the response will always be, “Orange Man Bad”. Use of the “orange man bad” criticism ends up being more of an indictment of those who wield it though than it is of his critics. It’s not like there’s a failure to elaborate the specifics of each of his misdeeds. The information is out there and widely available to anyone who cares to take a look. That being the case, when specifics are given and Trump supporters or other malcontents dismiss it as “orange man bad” they are really displaying that they don’t care to see why the complaint exists. It’s a tactic of ignoring a legitimate problem, and hand waving it away under the pretense that there’s nothing behind it. It’s lazy and/or willful ignorance.
Beyond that, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a Trump critic unironically use that phrase. If you’d like to see it though, here you go. Ultimately, this “criticism” fails to take into account that yeah, actually “orange man bad”. Like, that’s the legitimate reality of the situation. Trump is awful and he provides near endless examples of that. The guy is genuinely, unambiguously bad.
Neolibs have no policy objectives that differ from the republicans on non-social issues
That’s just blatantly untrue. I don’t see any Dem calling for disbanding the Department of Education. Stances on environmental protection are also starkly different between the two parties. Voting rights protections, abortion rights, access to medical treatment for transgendered people, funding of and access to Medicaid and food programs… how many more do you want?
I’m undecided as to whether you’re a troll or just an unfiltered idiot. I am sure that there’s not a third possibility though.
