I'm actually glad you're dropping the Hardcore series. I get a continuous dribble of these things from a couple of conservative friends, and I just delete those mails without opening them. Reading this shit for ANY reason risks permanent brain damage and/or developing a serious substance abuse problem.
"Reading this shit for ANY reason risks permanent brain damage and/or developing a serious substance abuse problem."
Agree. They've already gamed YouTube and Facebook; now that "algorithm" is derived from the Arabic for "catapulting right-wing nonsense" we have to maintain our sanity where and when we can.
We can always just make a "This Is Hardcore" story up, because these folks live in a world so looney the most insane thing you can think of could be a real story. I first read Roy's inbox dreck title as "Fear and Bloodletter," but Fear and Blood eletter is just as nuts, and I'm not sure if he made it up or not. You can't tell what's too crazy any more, because when everything is, nothing is. (Geez, this is like Hannah Arendt for clowns.)
Meanwhile, I'll just make up my own "Fear and Bloodletter" stories: "Killing Steve: How I Got Rid of My Liberal Neighbor" or "Building Your Own Home Abattoir on a Budget". Hey, could be!
I think your first responsibility is to your own sanity, Roy, and avoiding stuff that sinks to the “Muslim Woman has Baby with Space Alien, Imposes Sharia Law on Toledo, Ohio” level is probably healthy.
We’re already living in the Upside Down where the mere fact that Bernie Sanders is a Jew doesn’t spare him from charges of antisemitism by conservatives. After all, he’s not the RIGHT KIND of Jew, e.g. he’s not all-in for the Israeli rightwing. In the Upside Down, evangelical christians are the ones who are really pro-Jewish (while they wait for the Jews to die and go to hell with the other heathens, hastening the Rapture, k thx bye) and the Jewish Left are anti-Semites.
Trumpism has been softening us up for this kind of ridiculousness for years with their blatant, rapid-fire lying. It’s meant to confuse, but it’s also a flex: we have our team so brainwashed we can say the moon is made of green cheese and at least a third of your neighbors will buy it, and there’s nothing you can do about it. I guess what I’m saying is the real world is insane enough these days and since we live in a time when the “respectable” publications are only a notch or so less batshit than Grampa’s newsletters, we all need to keep our wits about us as best we can.
It's not that the respectable pubs are more or less batshit--it's that they help bring the batshit to a wider audience and lend it an oh-so-thin veneer of credibility by reporting on it. Thus, "even the Washington Post has reported on the Comet Ping-Pong scandal!!!111"
Agree with the other posters. Besides, the hardcore stuff is so stupid, repetitive and depressing that even a columnist as skilled as Roy reaches the point where it's just not fun to write (or read) about this shit anymore.
I only read your breakdowns of the wingnut sewage outlets out of a sense of duty, similar to why you did it, I s'pose. Thank Cthulu you've taken us both off the hook.
"This Is Hardcore" has been excellent, essential, horrific and I thank you and agree that it's time for much less, for all the reasons you cite, but especially in light of your most recent column (given away for free at alicublog!) "Years and Years", which was powerful and kinda bleak, but oddly comforting, and I look forward to more of that, as well as the behind the scenes Real True Story of what takes place in the room formerly known as the Oval Office. So, good decision. Besides, if any of us is so inclined, we could bring a sample of Hardcore in the comments. Now and then. I won't be bringing anything, but I can't say I wouldn't be momentarily amused, before barfing.
Hah! I knew it! All that voluntary exposure got to you; it crushed you. Now we only have to wait for the PTSD to kick in. Tell your wife to get rid of the sharp implements and to always wear a 911 panic brooch.
It only takes a short time reading, listening and watching right-wing propaganda to grasp pretty much all the angles and arguments, the rhetorical tactics and strategies these hacks use. The best practice is a setup using definition. They define in order to prove. Definition is the weakest form of argument. Developmentally, definition is an earlier stage than analysis and interpretation, or dialectical thinking. Nasty 12-year-olds use definition to make fun of people and things. Right-wingers are basically saying liberals are bad because that's what liberal means; the intentions and goals of liberals are misguided at best and evil by definition, resulting in harm and bad conditions. Anyone who believes that has no understanding of events and history. I stopped listening to and reading right-wing media years ago. Any time I pop back in for a few minutes, I confirm nothing has changed since the 1980s.
I used to spend a lot of time on the Rightist side of the Web, but eventually I came to the conclusion that I never fully recovered from one day's before starting on the next's.
"True Women Daily." That is one weird website. When I clicked (probably downloading a half-dozen viruses in the process, including ebola and norovirus), the feature article was about Nicole Bryl who apparently paints the Trump tarts every day so they don't have to lift their hands to their insensate botoxed visages. Scanning the pics provided, I can definitely say Nicole Bryl doesn't follow the "little dab will do ya" motto of the more famous Bryl product.
I gotta admit, I've hit the pipe pretty hard more than once in an earnest attempt to "cleave to a hermetic alternate reality.
That's just human nature.
I'm not a scumbag asshole, though. Maybe that's the difference. I mean, I want to frolic in the back yard with the dogs and watch the light change as the sun moves across the sky. While I ear cookies. Toll House cookies. Those other guys want to burn a cross on some brown person's lawn, roll coal and grope their nieces (and nephews )after Fellowship.
Truth in opinion? Exactly how does one accomplish that, given that it's, you know, opinion? Are there true opinions and false opinions? Isn't opinion by definition subjective?
I'm actually glad you're dropping the Hardcore series. I get a continuous dribble of these things from a couple of conservative friends, and I just delete those mails without opening them. Reading this shit for ANY reason risks permanent brain damage and/or developing a serious substance abuse problem.
And you're far too valuable to lose to insanity!
"Reading this shit for ANY reason risks permanent brain damage and/or developing a serious substance abuse problem."
Agree. They've already gamed YouTube and Facebook; now that "algorithm" is derived from the Arabic for "catapulting right-wing nonsense" we have to maintain our sanity where and when we can.
We can always just make a "This Is Hardcore" story up, because these folks live in a world so looney the most insane thing you can think of could be a real story. I first read Roy's inbox dreck title as "Fear and Bloodletter," but Fear and Blood eletter is just as nuts, and I'm not sure if he made it up or not. You can't tell what's too crazy any more, because when everything is, nothing is. (Geez, this is like Hannah Arendt for clowns.)
Meanwhile, I'll just make up my own "Fear and Bloodletter" stories: "Killing Steve: How I Got Rid of My Liberal Neighbor" or "Building Your Own Home Abattoir on a Budget". Hey, could be!
I think your first responsibility is to your own sanity, Roy, and avoiding stuff that sinks to the “Muslim Woman has Baby with Space Alien, Imposes Sharia Law on Toledo, Ohio” level is probably healthy.
We’re already living in the Upside Down where the mere fact that Bernie Sanders is a Jew doesn’t spare him from charges of antisemitism by conservatives. After all, he’s not the RIGHT KIND of Jew, e.g. he’s not all-in for the Israeli rightwing. In the Upside Down, evangelical christians are the ones who are really pro-Jewish (while they wait for the Jews to die and go to hell with the other heathens, hastening the Rapture, k thx bye) and the Jewish Left are anti-Semites.
Trumpism has been softening us up for this kind of ridiculousness for years with their blatant, rapid-fire lying. It’s meant to confuse, but it’s also a flex: we have our team so brainwashed we can say the moon is made of green cheese and at least a third of your neighbors will buy it, and there’s nothing you can do about it. I guess what I’m saying is the real world is insane enough these days and since we live in a time when the “respectable” publications are only a notch or so less batshit than Grampa’s newsletters, we all need to keep our wits about us as best we can.
It's not that the respectable pubs are more or less batshit--it's that they help bring the batshit to a wider audience and lend it an oh-so-thin veneer of credibility by reporting on it. Thus, "even the Washington Post has reported on the Comet Ping-Pong scandal!!!111"
You truly deserve a break from that sewage!
Agree with the other posters. Besides, the hardcore stuff is so stupid, repetitive and depressing that even a columnist as skilled as Roy reaches the point where it's just not fun to write (or read) about this shit anymore.
I only read your breakdowns of the wingnut sewage outlets out of a sense of duty, similar to why you did it, I s'pose. Thank Cthulu you've taken us both off the hook.
Come the revolution, Jonathon Turley must be compelled to change his name to Jonathon Turdley.
"This Is Hardcore" has been excellent, essential, horrific and I thank you and agree that it's time for much less, for all the reasons you cite, but especially in light of your most recent column (given away for free at alicublog!) "Years and Years", which was powerful and kinda bleak, but oddly comforting, and I look forward to more of that, as well as the behind the scenes Real True Story of what takes place in the room formerly known as the Oval Office. So, good decision. Besides, if any of us is so inclined, we could bring a sample of Hardcore in the comments. Now and then. I won't be bringing anything, but I can't say I wouldn't be momentarily amused, before barfing.
Hah! I knew it! All that voluntary exposure got to you; it crushed you. Now we only have to wait for the PTSD to kick in. Tell your wife to get rid of the sharp implements and to always wear a 911 panic brooch.
I think this is a healthy decision for all concerned
It only takes a short time reading, listening and watching right-wing propaganda to grasp pretty much all the angles and arguments, the rhetorical tactics and strategies these hacks use. The best practice is a setup using definition. They define in order to prove. Definition is the weakest form of argument. Developmentally, definition is an earlier stage than analysis and interpretation, or dialectical thinking. Nasty 12-year-olds use definition to make fun of people and things. Right-wingers are basically saying liberals are bad because that's what liberal means; the intentions and goals of liberals are misguided at best and evil by definition, resulting in harm and bad conditions. Anyone who believes that has no understanding of events and history. I stopped listening to and reading right-wing media years ago. Any time I pop back in for a few minutes, I confirm nothing has changed since the 1980s.
Trump's argumentation of "I know you are but what am I?" predates even definition.
I used to spend a lot of time on the Rightist side of the Web, but eventually I came to the conclusion that I never fully recovered from one day's before starting on the next's.
Ah yes, the downward spiral... there's not enough LSD in the world for me to stick my nose in that shit anymore.
"True Women Daily." That is one weird website. When I clicked (probably downloading a half-dozen viruses in the process, including ebola and norovirus), the feature article was about Nicole Bryl who apparently paints the Trump tarts every day so they don't have to lift their hands to their insensate botoxed visages. Scanning the pics provided, I can definitely say Nicole Bryl doesn't follow the "little dab will do ya" motto of the more famous Bryl product.
And fuck auto spell! "Trump Women Daily."
Whoever programmed that garbage needs to be flogged through the fleet. If it's not spelled incorrectly, leave it the FUCK alone!
I gotta admit, I've hit the pipe pretty hard more than once in an earnest attempt to "cleave to a hermetic alternate reality.
That's just human nature.
I'm not a scumbag asshole, though. Maybe that's the difference. I mean, I want to frolic in the back yard with the dogs and watch the light change as the sun moves across the sky. While I ear cookies. Toll House cookies. Those other guys want to burn a cross on some brown person's lawn, roll coal and grope their nieces (and nephews )after Fellowship.
Truth in opinion? Exactly how does one accomplish that, given that it's, you know, opinion? Are there true opinions and false opinions? Isn't opinion by definition subjective?