- cross-posted to:
- politics@lemmy.world
- cross-posted to:
- politics@lemmy.world
The event was combative from the start as Trump and three moderators from the National Association of Black Journalists sparred throughout.
Vice President Kamala Harris’ race took center stage in a combative back-and-forth exchange with former President Donald Trump during a panel discussion Wednesday at a gathering of Black journalists in Chicago.
“I did not know she was Black until a number of years ago when she happened to turn Black and now wants to be known as Black,” Trump said.
“I respect either one," he added, "but she obviously doesn’t, because she was Indian all the way, and then all of a sudden, she made a turn and she went she became Black. … Somebody should look into that too.”
It was in response to a question about the appropriateness of some Republicans saying Harris is a “DEI hire,” a term referring to workplace policies promoting “diversity, equity and inclusion.” It has increasingly been used by some on the right to discredit people of colorwith opposing political views.
a dam has been broken… the dam that was joe bidens terrible idea at running. you had millions of people resolved to picking the older guy by default because fascism. they werent voting for president, they were voting against trump.
harris has enabled a metric fuck-tonne of people to stand up and get energized for a capable human being.
at the same time trumps campaign has been squarely focused on intimidating/making fun of biden. they are hopelessly lost in re-grouping n an attempt to attack harris. lets hope it stays discombobulated
AND then theres the Weird thing, which is sticking for some reason. awesome!
Love the “weird” thing. People don’t make decisions using logic, almost always emotions are the key. Every salesman and politician knows this, though liberals seem to have missed the memo.
Democrats are finally hitting Trump voters where it hurts, right in the emotions, with not much of a way to spin it. Calling Trump a fascist rolls right off their back. “Of course libs would say that!” But “weird” resonates in some way I can’t put my finger on.
its their own level! most conservatives couldnt define fascism if their life depended on it.
but weird… weird is a term they use and understand. as you point out harris is finally speaking to them on their own simplistic, emotional level.
theres also the stronger rhetoric biden would never use like threatening to showing up to a debate alone or telling him to ‘say it to my face’.
It also helps that their attempts to redirect back mostly serve to highlight their weird preoccupations.
Things are happening like a former Trump speechwriter posting “Emmett Till was weird” on Twitter because they can’t comprehend just how unhinged and generally weird saying something like that is to a normal person.
Or they think they’re being clever flipping the script and ranting about “boys saying they’re girls is weird.” “Why do you spend so much time obsessing over what children have in their pants? That’s really weird.”
It all puts them in a bind. If they try to defend what they’re saying as normal, it’s very clear that it isn’t. If they try to deflect with what they think is weird, it just shows how detached they are from normal reality. It’s a surprisingly effective line of attack that largely neutralizes their normal gish galloping.
I’ve been enjoying the use or weird lately. I’ve had some strong personal opinions on language lately. A lot of it comes with a huge increase of new words that sort of seem abstract from it’s meaning.
I think with how rapid information can spread to large groups of people, it’s just too fast for my mind to keep up. All of a sudden I feel like I’m in a war with words and who knows which landmine of a word will get you in trouble. It causes me even more anxiety when someone comes at you with manipulative intentions in order to control the direction of the discussion.
I think weird works because it’s an almost basic word. It’s simple and descriptive. It’s not a newer, more specific word that requires a deeper understanding of a broader topic. It’s understood by more people. People with varying degrees of language knowledge including people whose native language is not English. It’s easier for more people to understand.
It’s a lot easier to understand someone is weird compared to someone being a fascist.
It’s sticking because it’s true.
Democrats don’t act like the Republican party is a threat to democracy, so their attempts to play up that line of rhetoric always fall flat.
However, Democrats are happy to work with weird people like the Republicans, making this line of attack much more impactful because it’s the first honest bit of propaganda in years.