Also, we've been calling conservatives weird for years now, it's just that mainstream democrats are finally taking the opening that republicans have been giving them.

Throughout the Obama years and through the 2016 election, democrats kept casting the increasing extremism of the republicans as an aberration and often openly pleaded that the "fever" would "break." But the fever never broke, the republicans have only gotten more and more right, in ways that are increasingly alien to mainstream society. It was only a matter of time before democrats changed their tune and finally harped on the obvious.

Republicans ultimately have no one to blame but themselves. They embraced Trump, who is deeply weird. They talk about children's genitals all the time and accuse their opponents of being satanic pedophiles. They got rid of Roe. They've nominated JD Vance. They got so locked in to their conservative media bubble and their little mental conservative world that they lost touch with normality.

Definitely, this is exactly what they should've done in 2016 but couldn't because they decided to anoint their own weird candidate

Judging from the reactions I'm seeing on twitter and conservative media, It's very clearly gotten under conservatives' skin.

You: You weird nerd.

Republicans: [deflects with shield]

Me (a weird nerd): OW

they have discovered what the "dirtbag left" was saying in 2016 while they were all still doing "when they go low we go high!"

It works because most Republican communication now relies on like 10 layers of preexisting outrage lore, and only really has power if you are way too plugged in to the internet.

Think about how the conservative influencers always love to just post a picture of a random short haired/fat woman or skinny bespectacled man and go "THIS is the Biden Admin's/Video Game Company's appointee to so and so," egging on their dog-brained mouth breathers to accuse said person of being trans/soy/ran through/alone with cats whatever. Does any normal mature and non-insecure person engage with the greater world in this way? Does real human interaction ever really unfold so in line with arbitrary preconceptions, or are these chuds just dredging up half-remembered tropes from movies, advertising, and TV shows pretending they can pregame real human interaction?

No, you can only understand the right's weird taxonomy of humankind if you do not interact with humankind healthily or regularly, and are a social maladapt who cannot have conversations with anyone without first sizing them up and seeing if you will have enough canned lines for bluffing your normalcy through a conversation with them.

Do you remember at the middle school dance when there was that group of guys/girls who stood in the corner not dancing because they were scared to venture off and join the crowd, but were talking especially loudly at each other so that eavesdroppers might presume they were cool? Do you remember people like this talking shit about their peers who were self-affirmed enough to unironically have a good time being silly, or scoping for a more outcast group to pick on?

That is what conservative culture is now, antisocial, resentful, sexually-anxious middle school brained losers who haven't developed the social graces to improvise through life, people who bluff as the in-group by using self-serious/dehumanizing language to slander and bring down other people minding their own business. They are just finally being called out for being the sauceless pretenders who were being excluded all along for good reason, beneath this facade of normalcy and superiority they affected by doing their own excluding.

I think they stumbled onto vance. (it would have also worked with pence tbh). Trump needed a straight guy/gal for his comedic act, instead of a freak guy

(can he fire the guy btw? is this some legal thingy?)

It’s a strategy of ostracization rather than the previous strategy of horror, which is a breath of fresh air given that these nerds have been shown to get off on being seen as a threat.

Othering chuds is particularly effective because they see the idea of normality as a holy grail that all must strictly abide by, but they think everyone secretly agrees with them and that they are the silent majority so thus they are normal no matter what they do and so they can project an inane amount of bravado and assumption of knowing the lore, because they genuinely believe everything they talk about is a serious issue that average-Joe Americans actually are entirely locked-in about.

It’s literally just not taking the ideas as valid and shutting down the conversation because you don’t think that people would take it seriously if you don’t lend it the credibility of discussion. It’s PPB laundered through 50 think tanks to best suit the Dem platform. If nothing else, it is refreshing that liberals don’t start immediately yelling at you for being ‘uncouth’ with chuds by swinging back.

I would call this a rare W but this is literally just them remembering that they have to do politics and not just respond to what is pushed onto them

Conservatives have always been weird.

But yes, as silly as it is, this will get under theor skin a bit because they see themselves as the normal ones.

It is pretty lame that this is the best Dems can to though

@Philosoraptor@hexbear.net

Weird doesn't come off as elitist.

That right there is the key, I think. Great analysis. Even "deplorable" was the kind of thing that plays into the image of being powerful and dangerous. "Weird" is very pedestrian.

Anderson Cooper also hit her with this in the 2016 debates, which, I can't imagine a question like this being asked regarding calling republicans "weird".

Anderson Cooper: (01:15:07)
Secretary Clinton, your two minutes is up. I want to follow up on something that Donald Trump actually said to you. A comment you made last month. You said that half of Donald Trump’s supporters are “deplorables, racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamophobic.” You later said you regretted saying half. You didn’t express regret for using the term deplorables. To Mr. Carter’s question, how can you unite a country if you’ve written off tens of millions of Americans?

I mean, damn. Like, how do you even recover from something like this? I think this usage of "Weird" really tosses a smoke cloud up. Whereas, obviously for worse, Clinton called it as she saw it, or at least, said what people were "thinking". The problem though, is people will not be self-reflective and respond to that saying "You know what Secretary Clinton, I think you are right, I think I do have sexist, racist, homophobic, xenophobic and Islamophobic tendencies".

Tell someone they're "Weird" though? What do you even say: "I'm not weird, what are you talking about?". I don't know that I've ever seen someone fully recover from being called "Weird" in a context where most other people agree with the notion that they are weird. Which is, I think, where things are at. Like I said, this works within the Republican social circle too because people will deflect in the "I think they're talking about YOU Jeb" way.

"You guys are all weird"
"Don't lump me in with those weirdos, I'm the normal one"
"Sure thing, whatever you say 🙄"

It's nebulous, it's pedestrian as you say, it’s colloquial. You can see them on the back foot, the way people on Fox News are so annoyed with it. They're not mad, they are just, annoyed. It doesn't have the same energy.

Democrats have two main bases of support: the bourgeoisie and liberal white women. Saying eww to their opponents is their greatest strength.

It doesn't help that they're responding like this (CW: transphobia and general grossness):

Conceptualizing, drawing, and posting this shit is fucking weird, and I can't imagine it playing at all with someone who isn't totally brain poisoned by the internet. The more they make this kind of thing the centerpiece of their campaign, the worse things will go for them, I think. tried this strategy once, and everyone just recoiled from him. Trump has won in spite of this tendency among his followers, but they seem to have decided now that it was because of it.

Honestly most chuds I've seen seem greatly offended about being called out for being psycho weird creepy incels.

Yes I'll give this one to dems, it's effective. The right is getting pissed because it hits home

Possibly I've seen a bunch of clips recently where the Dems have come off as normal. Some guy was like "the republicans are the reason your uncle is so weird at thanksgiving now" and Andy Beshear being like "The republicans just seem to want to be really cruel to children for some reason" (when talking about trans kids).

I think it's lightning in a bottle. JD Vance is just incredibly unlikeable and Kamala Harris, for all her faults, is no where near the weirdo. It also helps that Bernie Sanders and AOC and anyone with the progressive except Rashida Tlaib label have thoroughly debased themselves that words *Medicare for All *have gone extinct. There is no national politician who is willing to stress Kamala in a way that makes her weirdness pop out.

JD Vance is just genuinely unlikeable. The guy is the neckbeard incel vibes with billionaire pals.

Yeah, I think it's a pretty effective strategy. Republicans are incredibly strange, JD Vance especially so. Simply calling that out is pretty powerful imo. I don't think they can just say weird until election day, but as a part of their messaging, yes.

Finally, I feel like the real left has been doing this for years. It's like 90% of the way Chapo talks about these rightwing freaks.

If the republicans respond as they have, and continue to be outraged by it, then it’s good messaging. If all they say is something to the effect of, “That’s seriously the best you’ve got?” Then it’s bad messaging.

So to answer your question, so far it has proven to be good messaging.

it's a good word. everybody knows what it means, but it's very broad. it's fun to say and even kinda sounds like its meaning if you drag it a little.

• "The cat's being weird."
• "I just got this weird email."

for a while, when I wanted to invite close friends over to get high, have some drinks or just hang out with no plan, I would say, "Wanna stop by and get weird?"

it got a laugh more than half the time. great fuckin word.

conservatives thrive off of using normalcy as a bludgeon. turning it against them should terrify them

Who originated the "normal whites" theory? This will seriously work on normal white voters. And even kinda-normal whites.

Ahh @Philosoraptor@hexbear.net I was just typing up a response to you but deleted in when I saw the post had been removed. I was just trying to make the point that I think the best response for Trump would probably be to focus on policy. Kamala does seem more "with it" but she's mostly just running on vibes right now, the reality is that she was second-in-command to the least popular (?) presidential administration in history that was Weekend at Bernie's-ing a dementia patient for four years. 2016 Trump could probably exploit this but I don't know if 2024 Trump has it in him.

Guys, nobody has won jack shit as of right now

When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro.

It's better than Dark Brandon

The word weird has an extremely old history dating back basically to proto-Indo-European. Can’t wait for the DNC to ruin it.

Maybe. But there's a 75% chance it backfires and gets turns into a "clown world" thing. Remember when Hilary invented the term "fake news"? and a 90% chance it dies out in a week or two. Couch fucking might have staying power though, like Boot edge edge and the dogs.

no, it's shallow as fuck and fucking juvenile and stupid.

no wonder liberals love it so much.

Once again, the democrats are either late to the game or took the idea elsewhere. The Trillbillies were literally just calling Trump and the GOP “weird” the entire podcast this week lol