By David Futrelle
I‘m starting a new series of posts — which may become a regular, possibly even daily, thing — called Brand New Ugly, in which I’ll highlight items in the news or in social media that seem to be emblematic of the new era of political and social ugliness we’ve fallen into.
So let’s get going with …
It’s bad enough that the Trumpian, bad-haircutted buffoon Boris Johnson is going to be the British Prime Minister. Did Quillette have to compound the damage by writing a weirdly phrenological puff piece on the man that, among other things, rhapsodized about his “Germanic” skull shape?
Calipers out, lads! Here’s the relevant passage from Toby Young’s piece “Cometh the Hour, Cometh the Man: A Profile of Boris Johnson,” describing Young’s first meeting with Johnson way back in 1983.
Later on in the piece, Young describes Johnson as “a cross between Hugh Grant and a silverback gorilla.” This is supposed to be a compliment.
H/T: Aaron Sankin on Twitter
Send tips for Brand New Ugly to dfutrelle at gmail dot com.
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Allandrel: “Anglo” is also short for “anglophone”. It gets used in that context in Quebec as well.
Wandering throught the Black Forest in lederhosen? Umm, does the Black Forest not have any blackberry vines? Stinging nettles? Thistles? Downed trees with pointy bits sticking out?
The first time I heard of Quillette was from Zach Weinersmith.
Why yes, I majored in STEM fields but also have trust issues that contribute to preventing me from forming meaningful relationships and securing employment. Why do you ask?
I know this is probably the least of the problems with that profile, but does Young not realize that the Overman is not about a physical superiority over others but a spiritual superiority over self? Obviously name dropping Nietzsche is just a dogwhistle, but that’s almost embarrassingly lazy 🙁
@Ohlmann
I actually think the UK media is fairly progressed on that point.
I remember when May first stepped up for the position vs. Andrea Leadsom I don’t recall anything making a big point of the fact the two contenders were both women. It wasn’t felt to be worthy of comment.
And when Leadsom tried to play the mothercard she was slammed for it.
Naglfar
I know there is a tendency to view this as the apocalypse and maybe I am far too naive but I just cannot see that it will really be a major catastrophe.
He will undoubtedly push for a No Deal Brexit. That may well create short term havoc, but I would be very surprised if, in the medium to long term there would be any massive difference to the lives of most Britons. (And I certainly don’t think there will be any “civil war” in NI. )
But maybe I speak to soon – I do have a vested interest in the UK coming out of the otherside of this for the better.
Either way, this Brit-Australian will be quiter on the “brit” side of my citizenship while Blithering Blustering Buffoonish BoJo is in charge.
The man will do and say anything for power so it’s disappointing he is PM.
@Moggie: the word “backstop” in your long comment about Brexit was a link, but when I followed it there was just a header, the title, and then a footer, without the article body. Disabling CSS didn’t reveal the missing article body, either.
Either the site’s broken, or it plays “keep-away” with article content if you use an adblocker or disable JS (i.e., is (intentionally) broken) in a way that disabling CSS doesn’t defeat, or it’s geoblocking non-UK viewers from reading the article text, or it’s paywalling, or something hiccuped somewhere. Regardless of the exact cause, we (or at least some of us) cannot apparently read the article text where you linked, at least not without being spammed or taking needless security risks with our devices. (Needless, as there is no technical necessity for JS to present text, or still images for that matter — though users disabling JS does make tracking them and spamming them a lot harder, which is no doubt why so many sites like to punish users who do so by gratuitously withholding stuff that could easily work without JS.)
Can you please either link to another article explaining the same topic or else give a quick précis yourself? Thank you.
OK, where the hell is the long comment I just wrote and posted here?
Looks like I’ve been put on moderation. Can’t figure why — the last big controversy to erupt here wasn’t centered around me?
Could someone please explain the logic behind doing so? And … how the hell am I supposed to get anything else done and comment here now? If I write something and send it here I must then reload, and reload, and reload until my comment appears, to confirm that it made it through intact. Normally that takes a few seconds, either appearing right away or after one “back” and “reload”. Then I can move on and do other things. But if you’ve stuck me on moderation my comments might sometimes not appear for hours, and I’m supposed to just sit here hitting “reload” every so often for that long? On the other hand, the alternative is to leave the machine unattended with unsaved data, which is an absolute and major no-no to anyone who doesn’t like having to do a ton of work over again because of a poorly-timed power failure or suchlike. Until I see that the text of my post has been received I must treat its contents as unsaved data, and be ready to resend it in case it entirely failed to go through …
Even without leaving the machine unattended, it’s a very bad idea to have data sit around unsaved for hours. Much more time in which for something unfortunate to happen.
So I’m not supposed to write anything involving significant effort until this probationary period ends? Only witty one-liners then? That greatly crimps my ability to contribute … unless the whole point is that my contributions are regarded as of questionable value at best here. 🙁
Oh my. Toby has deep-throated the boot, hasn’t he.
@Surplus
You really gotta stop assuming the site’s technical bugs are aimed at you, mate.
@Pattycakes
Nazis have been ignoring that point since day one, due to an almost certainly deliberate misunderstanding propagated by his sister after his death. Elizabeth Förster-Nietzsche being a founding member of the NSDAP, they got their bullshit direct from his legal if not intellectual heir.
(I mean, I can’t abide Nietzsche regardless, but he wasn’t a nazi.)
@Surplus
We’ve been over this many times. The site can be buggy. Just like any peice of software or technology.
@ Everybody
It’s even worse than just Johnson’s hard – Right Tory brexiteer cronies in cabinet. He’s actually made a known traitor Home Secretary. Priti Patel was caught illegally colluding with a foreign government whilst holding a junior ministerial role which she then had to resign from as a result. Patel also came out as being in favour of trying to use famine as a means of settling the Irish border question, which, given how sensitive that subject still is, confirms she’s a right POS. (Not that it would work these days, as I understand Ireland’s agriculture sector to be healthy.) She also favours reintroducing capital punishment, though that’s hardly unusual in a hard – Right Tory.
All of that notwithstanding, Johnson’s list of achievements as a politician in office are not exactly stellar, containing many cock – ups both professional and personal. So to sign off this post I’ll just say that with BoJo the Clown as ringmaster, expect a circus.
The “backstop” refers to a proposal to safeguard the economy of the border region on the island of Ireland. Typically for British politicians, who apparently have difficulty acknowledging the existence of anywhere outside the Home Counties at the best of times, they completely forgot to factor in that the UK shares a land border with another state when they kicked off this whole quixotic Brexit business. A border that is quite porous with many people living on one side and working on the other, or goods crossing it and back again– often several times– at various stages of their manufacture. Once Brexit happens and the legislative landscape begins to change on either side of the Border, things get complicated: some articles I’ve seen have predicted a hundred-fold increase in the amount of inspections on cross-border traffic. The “backstop” is an agreement, therefore, that the British government will maintain parity with EU law on food standards, etc. for some agreed period after Brexit so that the economy in the Border region & Northern Ireland generally doesn’t drop off a cliff when they leave. Which kind of defeats the purpose of Brexit because they’ll be bound to follow EU law while no longer having any say in its drafting. But it just goes to show what an ill-thought-out disaster Brexit has been since the beginning.
@Moggie yes. Frankly, people are going to die under hard Brexit, because hard Brexit is likely to mean inflation, redundancies, shortages and, if the Tories have anything to do with it, the collapse of the Brish social security system.
@everyone pretty much everything I’d say has been said, apart from: one of the big issues with the Irish backstop is what happens to the Northern Ireland peace process when a hard border screws up the Irish economy. The Troubles are about a lot of things, but one of the divisions is pro-Britain and anti-Britain. There’s a possibility the IRA kicks off again here.
Yes, the United Kingdom in his entirety might disintegrate with Jonhson and/or hard brexit.
Northern Irland will plunge again into civil war – doubly so given how dismissive of the Good Friday agreement his governement is – and that is definitely the biggest concern of the USA and the UE. Probably not enough of a concern to drop every other goal and cave to Johnson, mind you.
Scotland will likely want to get the fuck out, since they already were close to it. And the independance wales movement seem to start to be on the map just because of all thoses problems.
Republican Congressman Mike Kelly: “You know, they talk about people of color. I’m a person of color. I’m white. I’m an Anglo Saxon. People say things all the time, but I don’t get offended.” .
“With a name like Mike Kelly,” he added, “you can’t be from any place else but Ireland.”
Is there any creature on Earth stupider than a Republican Congresscritter?
@Surplus:
Sorry. I’ve tried from two different browsers (Chrome and Firefox), two different countries (UK and US, the latter using a vps I have in NY), with adblock on (uBlock Origin), and I don’t get that problem.
“You know, they talk about people of color. I’m a person of color. I’m white. I’m an Anglo Saxon. People say things all the time, but I don’t get offended.” .
“With a name like Mike Kelly,” he added, “you can’t be from any place else but Ireland.”
Is there any creature on Earth stupider than a Republican Congresscritter?
In the east of Ireland there’s definitely some Scandi heritage from Viking empire – building, especially around Dublin. Still not Anglo – Saxon though. Smh.
Depending on how things pan out which at the moment is frankly a who the hell knows situation, I think the disintegration of the UK is a distinct possibility. Even likely. And all thanks to a bunch of arrogant public schoolboys (with help from Russia).
I live in Scotland and should there be another referendum, I’ll be voting for independence.
If SI becomes a thing I suspect there’ll be a lot of English folk heading up here.
What will happen in Wales I don’t know, as the independence movement isn’t quite so organised there – although I stand to be corrected on that one.
@Moggie: Baffling. Is the text of the article reproduced anywhere else? Or something sufficiently similar? Or is Cat Mara’s capsule summary good enough, without omitting anything important, rendering the whole issue moot?
@galanx:
A Republican president?
It’s a video, actually, and @Cat Mara basically summed it up sufficiently clearly. Here’s a YouTube version from the BBC:
You know, I wouldn’t rely on the continent too much. We’re not far behind in the ugliness.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-49083488
Because it’s somehow supposed to be reassuring that this comes from someone not previously active in the recognized and not-really-watched-by-the-authorities Neonazi scene?
And, btw, by “far right” they mean the organized groups and not, you know, the actual attitude. Goes hand in hand with people still falling for the “I’m not a Nazi but…” thing. As if what makes you a Nazi were saying you were one. Sure.
@Surplus:
If it means enough to you, just copy your comment and paste it into a note or a text editor document or a word-processing document. Save that document. Submit your comment. If it’s not there 6 hours later, copy it back over and submit it again. Once a week delete all the saved documents.
Now you never have to hover or repeatedly reload or worry that your writing might be lost. It might be some work, but it’s dramatically less work than what you’re describing doing now, plus less mental overhead and psychological worry.
If you’re operating on a work computer or other computer where it would be strongly inadvisable to save your comments, you can save it to cloud storage, save it to a flash drive, or send it to yourself as an e-mail.