Tuesday, July 30, 2024

Professional Left Podcast Episode 824: Weird


"Methought I heard a voice cry, 'Sleep no more! Macbeth does murder sleep!" -- Bill Shakespeare, Macbeth, 2.2


The Professional Left Podcast with Driftglass and Blue Gal

Ep 824: Weird

July 30, 2024

A deep dive into the word "weird," from Shakespeare's "weird sisters" in The Scottish Play alllll the way to JD Vance and the Republican tone police, who really don't like us calling their entire QAnon Trump-humping cult of grifting, "weird." 

More at proleftpod.com.

Links for this episode:

The three weird sisters:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnc0pOjr1qY

Judi Densch Plays Lady Macbeth, 1979: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2xHlngY6Bgk

Blue Gal's knitting podcast!  https://www.youtube.com/@flangum

Our podcast YouTube Channel:  https://www.youtube.com/@ProfessionalLeft

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4 comments:

Jon Sitzman said...

Okay it looks like the old comment posting environment is back... did I hallucinate the "new" one?

ANYWAY. Thanks as always for the cast. For humor value, file this under, "Yes, this idiot actually said that:"

Jesse Watters: "And I heard the scientists say the other day that when a man votes for a woman, he actually transitions into a woman."

AYMFKMRN. I swear to Dog. These people. Even if it was intended to be a joke (which I suspect), it hardfails AS A JOKE. It's not just a bad joke, it's a STUPID one.

"Weird" is landing because it spotlights how whacked-out these people are, but it really falls far short of the facts. They're not just weird - they're nuts.

Shamelessly quoting myself from a NoMo comment thread:

>>> Web search for "authoritarian personality characteristics," and you're likely to get at least one hit for "Conventionalism," which is usually described as "Rigid adherence to conventional, middle-class values." That's the surface level, sure, but there's a deeper layer: the premise of Conventionalism is: "We conservatives are the normal, everyday Americans (or whatever nationality). Anyone who isn't like us is (wait for it) weird."

The reason this "weird" messaging attack is landing hard and working well is that it - successfully - inverts this false pseudo-dialectic. It shows conservatives as fucking weird, which they are. Obsessing about sex, women's bodies (and bodily autonomy), the right of an average citizen to own a 20mm anti-material rifle, all the other crazytalk - no, dude, really, that shit is fucking weird.


As always, thanks for all you do.

(Apologies if this posts twice - the comment window is being wei... ahem. It's being strange.)

Dave Pickering said...

I'm looking forward to your post about the MAGA-hatted Sneetches and the Trump-off machine in a few months.

ILabbey said...

The Wall Street Journal was listening. Apparently they recently posted on the etymology of "weird."

Robt said...

Witches have always used < "the LEFT ear of a giant" for the special spells they cook up at the Salem Heritage foundations local office.
For cover, they claim witch hunters eat babies.