Trump thinks mispronouncing Kamala Harris’ name is a good attack route.
Yea so… making fun of someone’s name is sophomoric. I’m sure some Trump folks love it but actual adults really don’t give a shit. I was even kind of annoyed years back when people were attacking Trump because of the Drumpf surname - as if half of America didn’t have their name butchered by Ellis Island.
The asshole doesn’t have any actual criticisms that will stick so he’s resorting to school yard bullying.
Not just sophomoric, as the article points out. Plain old bigoted.
“It’s one thing to mispronounce someone’s name on the first try, right? But to do it repeatedly and deliberately, it feels purposeful. It’s certainly done to make a point. It is othering, a way of saying you don’t belong here,” said Jean Sinzdak, the associate director of the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University.
“I would describe it as a racist and sexist attack on her because she’s been the vice president for three and a half years,” Sinzdak said. “It’s not hard to say her name. It’s not complicated.”
It’s a lot simpler than that for psychopaths like Trump: it’s a simple cut that’s dehumanizing. It’s an easy way to say, “You mean nothing to me, and I know this hurts you, so I will keep on hurting you as much as possible whenever I can because I can, and that gratifies me.”
It’s one of the most effective trolling behaviors there is, because, no matter how big a person you are, it will always cut a little. And it is also one of the most obvious signs that someone is a psychopath. Because they hurt someone just because they can.
You see it all the time from trolls on the Internet.
I have a very common American name, but with a very European spelling. I’m 41 fucking years old. It gets under my skin at least a little bit when I see it misspelled, regardless of how understandable it is…
Yeah, also, I know Germany is like the one “okay” group to rag on in the US because of historical reasons, but like, what’s wrong with having a German last name?
It’s not like you get to choose your ancestry.
You do, however, get to choose whether you try to be a dictator.
This is just a dog-whistle for racism, right? Barely even a dog-whistle. Making fun of a name because it’s not european is pretty blatantly racist.
That’s exactly what it is. It’s saying, “white men like me know how to really pronounce your name and you don’t.”
I’ll admit to mispronouncing her name on occasion myself, but mostly because I associate it with two other figures who did/do pronounce it Ka-MAH-luh. I have to make an effort to get it right for her. But I am making that effort. And I have little doubt that these assholes are not.
I’m kind of afraid that I’ll mispronounce it in mixed company and make someone who doesn’t know me well think I’m one of those weird Republicans or something.
I actually said it wrong in that way the other day even though I usually get it right without having to think about it too much. It happens. Once we start hearing it all the time it’ll be easy, but in the meantime it may help to think of it as being “Kamla” which comes out sounding just the same.
I have a friend I’ve had since high school with that name and with that spelling who pronounced it a different way (closer to ‘camera’), so I go there for a second sometimes without realizing it, but correct myself quickly enough.
Hey, have hoards of people tried going to Trump rallies just to blow rape whistles every time he talks?
You know, cuz he’s a rapist.
You’re right of course it’s racism, he knows his audience. But his schoolyard bully tactics always make fun of the unfamiliar, perhaps you mean Anglo sounding?
Because I’m pretty sure he would make fun of his own family name (Drumpf) if it belonged to an opponent. And I can’t imagine it would be any better if they were named Nieminen (Finish) or Svobodova (Czech) or Nikolakopoulos (Greek) etc. Same with first names.
I want her to treat this as if he is doing it on accident, and correct him like he is a little child. Really humiliate him.
Yup. Then, when he’s still mispronouncing it, pivot to him not being able to remember how to pronounce it correctly being another sign of his mental faculties failing.
All the way through this ordeal of Biden possibly, then actually, stepping down, I’ve been sort of lukewarm about the idea of Harris replacing him for one and only one reason - because I assumed that, since she’s the VP and the obvious first choice for a replacement, the Trump campaign would already have a complete hate campaign against her primed and ready to go, so could potentially catch her and the Dems flat-footed.
It’s astonishing how wrong I was.
They have been making it up as they go since 2015. There’s no real plan other than win.
All he’s doing is showing everyone how petty, spiteful, and bigoted he is - which is unintentionally honest of him.
