We Hunted The Mammoth
One of the most perceptive analyses of Trump and his followers was written more than two decades ago. I’m talking, of course, of Umberto Eco’s oft-discussed essay on what he calls Ur Fascism or Eternal Fascism, his attempt to set forth the central features that define Fascism. I reread it today for the umpteenth time, and was struck again by its eerie prescience.
So I took a look at the Donald Trump Pepe blog today, for the first time in a long time, and the memes on display there seem to be getting darker and cruder and more violent as election day draws closer.
Filmmaker Cassie Jaye seems to have developed a weird affinity for bigots.
First, she cozied up to some of the most hateful figures in the Men’s Rights movement during the filming of her documentary The Red Pill.
In the real world that you and I live in, the general consensus is that Hillary Clinton won last night’s debate. In the world inhabited by the alt-right and its fellow travelers, Trump crushed the evil Hillary even though she had help from a secret video screen hidden in plain sight on her lectern, possibly installed by George Soros himself.
Here, highlights from the Twitter feeds of some of the better-known alt-right Trump fans (and their fellow travelers).
Most of us like to think of ourselves as originals. But when it comes to communicating with other human beings, we’re not quite as original as we think.
When we talk, and write, we not only use words; we use a wide assortment of stock phrases that we’ve picked up along the way. Some of these phrases are basic building blocks of language, more or less essential to communication; others are, as the expression goes, worn-out clichés. Some of these clichés are so burned into our brains that we almost can’t help using them — though we sometimes apologize for it afterwards (or even before).
During a speech yesterday, the newly “unshackled” Donald Trump denounced the women who have accused him of sexual harassment and assault as “horrible people” and “horrible, horrible liars.”
But he also devoted a good deal of time to another group that he claims he’s fighting against, a conspiratorial cabal he variously labeled “the establishment,” “those who control the levers of power in Washington,” “the global special interests,” and “people that don’t have your good in mind.”
With more and more women stepping forward with stories of being sexually harassed and/or assaulted by Donald Trump, Buzzfeed has set up an email address (and a Google Doc form) to make it easy for anyone with a “Trump story” of their own to contact Buzzfeed’s reporters.
Embattled presidential candidate/sexual predator Donald Trump told the Wall Street Journal this morning that there is “zero chance” that he’ll be dropping out of the race, because “the support I’m getting is unbelievable.”
Some of the most unbelievable support is coming from a longtime fan of his known on the Internet as Heartiste — an extravagantly hateful pickup artist very familiar to readers of this blog.
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At long last, Freud’s famous question “what do women want” has been definitively answered. By some dude on Reddit.
