"If you’re reading this I know you don’t want to be stuck taking swings at the fascist movement like a child who can’t quite reach the piñata." Exactly. Great sentence. Mockery of these dangerous clowns is justly deserved, but it was tried during the election, and it was not enough. More is required.
That's exactly what the DNC wants you to do. God forbid you actually hold them accountable for quality policy and the possibility of good governance. Dummy.
They want you doing anything but holding them accountable to good governance. Your energy is best spent on creating a list of best policy practices, acceptable nominees and rewriting the platform. Everything else is ancillary and superfluous. You're a fool and getting the government you deserve. You're losing elections on the consistent basis Criminal enterprise claims to be a political party. Meaning, you are partners in that global crime syndicate. You're suffering from the illusion of choice.
You're starting to catch on. Now just apply the same logic to the "other party" in the US who has the exact same funders and exact same corporate interests and the "more criminal party".
One dresses up in blue and presents a good cop, the other dresses up in red and screams at you to admit you're guilty of something you haven't done.
I guess you forgot you were with two cops in the first place. Welcome to capitalism in the heart of imperialism.
I've known that Ralph Nader was correct, before Ralph Nader. Your narrative about capitalism and imperialism is ridiculously our "rape and pillage" macro economic model is the definition of imperialism. Having nothing to do with Capitalism....I'll be right back
Capitalism & Imperialism & Colonialism are the three pieces that make up the puzzle of the modern work's woes.
I can't help you understand something you don't want to understand even when all the billionaries and philosophers and scientific materialistic agree and you don't.
But clearly everyone else must be wrong except the random dude you formed a parasocial relationship with. 🙄
Reactivity does not tend to serve power building; strategy does - if everyone can focus on organzing unions or coalitions (tenant, worker, coops, etc) in all shapes and forms with the goal of having their contracts in place to expire May 1st, 2028, we can heed the call from UAW prez Shawn Fain to collectively evade Taft Hartley and get a gen strike. A suggested collective demand? Universal health care. In the meantime it’d be great to get some folks who love free speech to amend Section 230 which causes all public forums to become diseased and abusive but, I digress.
This is the same problem that I have with people mocking RFK jr, or really anybody else who has been public about it, for their history of drug addiction. In addition to insults not being the most effective form of resistance, I simply don't understand why people would choose this particular feature to insult when there are so many other detestable elements to his persona.
I don't know if I agree with the sentiment in this piece. If there's anything Trump's victory has taught us it's that Americans prefer someone who says in public what they say in private. If anything I think the left needs to be more aggressive than they are. If Kamala had gotten on stage at any point and said 'bring your forks and knives, we're eating the rich tonight' she would have destroyed him then and there.
Doesn't matter if she's cringy or crass, it just matters that the electorate feels like she's 'saying what we're all thinking', no matter how icky that feels to more soft sensibilities. In fact it might have worked to her advantage - watching Elon throw a bitch fit and censor people on his own platform for calling him Elonia isn't a good look.
I think your point is a bit misguided - I want to just remind people that while Trump gained 2.5 million votes since 2020 (fascism gains popularity when capitalism is in crisis), Harris lost 7 million votes compared to Joe Biden.
Harris is NOT a part of the left - her whole campaign was focuses on playing the "Republican from 20 years ago" role. She's a capitalist and zionist at heart. I like that you say the Left should be more aggressive in their rhetoric, but we can do that without reaching for bigoted and harmful language that will turn people away more than bring them in.
I get what you're saying and I don't think you're wrong - but at the same time playing nice and staying on topic hasn't really worked either. Obviously I'm not advocating for us to sling slurs around, but that the same time I think the people that the left would lose by mudslinging need to be brought to understand that we're trying to antagonize them *on purpose* to get them to slip up and diminish themselves in the eyes of the public. If anything it says more about them than it does us, it displays that they're thin skinned and puts their bigoted attitude on display by their response.
We're at the point in this thing that DJT can throw out 'presidential immunity' like pocket sand in order to send armed murderers at anyone he pleases whenever he wants, the least we can do is hit them with invective that *works*. The gloves have to come off at some point.
Thanks for replying! 💜 Oh, I must've misunderstood you! That's my bad. I absolutely agree, we do need to be more agressive and loud in our criticism to get our opponents angry and build ourselves up to unconvinced people. I've got no love for people who want/expect me or anyone else to play nice with the opeessors.
I should've specified that my specific problem with mudslinging is *when* (not always) it ends up bigoted, like the example with Joshua gave. Calling Elon "Elonia" may be effective, yes, but it is inherently bigoted and I've got no tolerance for that, ever. No leftist should. We can take off the gloves in plenty of ways ("eat the rich" or "ACAB" being perfect examples!) without resorting to internal or external bigotry. We're the creatives and we're angry, so let's show them some true vitriol, not whatever trash fascists put in front of us as low-hanging fruit to hurl!
The way I read it, the article wasn't about crassness, but rather where said crassness is being directed.
I think we should be even more crass! We gotta take our high falutin' theory and boil it down into something pithy we can drop into conversations with my family and friends.
This was so many of my thoughts when I heard the "bleach blonde, bad built butch body". It made my skin crawl because I knew, that other people were gonna be hit by that. Thank you for this.
This: "Normalizing the casual mocking of trans people, the degradation of women that’s inherent in using feminization as an insult, the throwing of queer folks under the bus that comes with mocking men in this way helps the right."
Thanks so much for pointing this out.
I'm reminded of 2018, when homophobia was used to insult Trump, and specifically his supposed ties with Putin.
I wrote about it here at the time, and sent it to my liberal friends, asking them to please tamp it the F down already.
The beginning was great. The observations about the go-to tools of punching down - in a society trained by its owners to do that. Great stuff.
However, when we get to this: "systemically take on the power of the super-rich, the organizing of white supremacists and transphobes, the deadly deportation machine, and any organization that would terrorize our communities." ...
What does that MEAN?
What, exactly, is "take on the power"?
By what action, process - or even words?
You instructed what words to not-use, but this vague "systematically take on the power" is ... vacuous.
There's no link, e.g. to the writings of Carlos Marighellas - or reference to the recent biographical movie about him - or to Malcolm, or King - or ... what, exactly to DO.
Good hook - but the end seemed not to go somewhere. Unless I'm just missing it.
Remove the big and dark money along with barriers to accessing the ballot. Fuck if we don't do that to start with there's no path to restoring this intended Republic
Money is the problem for sure. I don't think "money out of politics" is the solution - or even possible - if we continue to maintain the status of money as the god of our culture. The challenge we face is no less than a society finding a new god.
We have to do away with the constant campaign complex, in its entirety. Given they have 132 billion dollar war chest just from this cycle, it might be a heavy lift......
I don't like the taxpayer funded model but I'm wide open to a payment and kind. Mandatory media access with real and substitute debates with policy topics subject. A different relative policy sector in the next debate. No manipulation of candidates. Like allowing Bernie in after he cost the DNC $50 million in the previous cycle. Only purpose was splitting progressive with Elizabeth. Having a deadline for being in the primary at all. The Democratic Party primary of 2020 is the perfect example of what we need to completely do away with. Bloomberg entered the day Elizabeth Warren was leading in the polls. Joe Biden came off the porch swing to stop her from winning. None of that would be a possibility in a legitimate primary.
Implement a legitimate party platform and demand allegiance to it by candidates. You know, basic things that honest brokers do.
I actually think travel, media time and all of the correspondence ancillaries are the only contributions that should be allowed .
The money thing is a more or less straightforward policy to correct it. I'm afraid the ballot access is far more intentionally complicated.
Fear mongering and self-victimization is what reactive individuals often do to secure power, it's harmful to both themselves, others and the entire process.
Instead, I urge individuals to contact their ELECTED representatives requesting 1) a living minimum wage for 18+ adults 2) affordable single-payer healthcare 3) ending deficit spending for Israeli weapons 4) No nuclear war spending for Ukraine. I've asked this of my Rep repeatedly and he ignored the issues and the Democrats LOST.
After the disaster election, I'm finished with the DNC demanding my support yet ignoring my pleas for common sense. I donated to the Sanders campaign until I found that the money was going to the establishment DNC. So, I've been edging away from the Republican-like Democratic party for nearly a decade. The corporate and professional management direction they have taken is repugnant to actually representing the voters that I KNOW. At the rate my party has run to the right, they will be imitating team tRump by the end of his term. This Democratic/Republican tag team is just as fake as the WWF Smackdown.
Thank you, Joshua. Our eagerness to bash the opposition, as opposed to focused on the goal of good governancehas lead us here. (A 3rd world outhouse) Possibly the worst real world consequence of tribalism.
I would like to offer a correction, and an absolute method of ending the dynamic of lifetime criminals immersing themselves in our federal government.
Elon Musk can be no higher than the third richest person in the world. Putin easily has at least 500 billion, his boss, one Semion Mogilevich, well over US$1 trillion. Some estimates up to 2 trillion.
That's who's handing him liquid assets to give campaigns $1 million a day for the last 150 days. He does a lot of transactions in Rubles.
Secondly, we must remove the big and dark money along with barriers to accessing the ballot or there is no path to restoring this intended constitutional republic. That is how we fix administration current upcoming syndicate. Notice, the supposed opposition to the lifetime criminals is an exactly demanding good governance either. or facilitating the republic with its policy proposals.
Just like the climate catastrophe, we could change this very quickly if we bothered to acquire the knowledge and actually did something about it other than bitch on Tweeter.
Such a wonderful read, as always, JP. Humor is such a dynamic tool, and I appreciate your calling attention to the need to use it to punch up, rather than down or even sideways. I would like to share something I wrote about my observation of humor and power as an outsider in Portugal, especially as it relates to sentiments about immigrants and wounded national pride. In it, I've linked to other's insightful pieces about the uses of humor. Hopefully this contributes value to the conversation!
I can't stress enough how much we all need to learn from the masters how to "punch up" to counter those who perpetuate systemic inequalities. No one does it better than the extaordinary Robert Reich with his Inequality Media YouTube shorts, like the brilliant parody in his latest Coffee Klatch:
This really speaks to what we've been challenging in our political server recently - especially as it pertains to ableist language.
Ableism is incredibly ingrained in our daily words from the simplest things ("I'm going crazy") to active insults ("you're delusional" or "he's a sociopath") that stigmatize people with mental illnesses that need *help*, not to be oppressed. Calling a poltician crazy or a sociopath doesn't help unconvince the people who voted for them, just like you said.
Tackle bigotry in your language, friends! When you weed out the easy insults the fascists give you to hurl like tomatoes, it forces you to think more critically and connect with people to get your point across. And THAT is our strength! ❤️ 💜
The "Elonia" moniker captures the impression of many that Trump is fonder of Elon than he is of Melania. At that Thanksgiving dinner table, Elon sat next to Trump and they were gleeful together. Melania was two seats away and neither included her. So, I think the term expresses something real. It's not just a misogynistic insult. How else would you express this in one word?
Maybe we don't need to express it in one word, but a few tries could be parasite, leech, etc. It may express something "real", but why are we emphasizing that instead of the bigger problem Joshua emphasizes - affluent Americans that are collectively using their power to hurt people?
"If you’re reading this I know you don’t want to be stuck taking swings at the fascist movement like a child who can’t quite reach the piñata." Exactly. Great sentence. Mockery of these dangerous clowns is justly deserved, but it was tried during the election, and it was not enough. More is required.
That's exactly what the DNC wants you to do. God forbid you actually hold them accountable for quality policy and the possibility of good governance. Dummy.
I highly doubt the DNC wants us to do anything but wait 4 years and do nothing.
I'll stick to my organizing and fighting back, thanks.
Bashing the doors and actions of the GOP has nothing to do with holding the Democratic Party accountable to good governance on their part.
Can you believe I had to say that to a opposed adult? Fuck
They want you doing anything but holding them accountable to good governance. Your energy is best spent on creating a list of best policy practices, acceptable nominees and rewriting the platform. Everything else is ancillary and superfluous. You're a fool and getting the government you deserve. You're losing elections on the consistent basis Criminal enterprise claims to be a political party. Meaning, you are partners in that global crime syndicate. You're suffering from the illusion of choice.
You're starting to catch on. Now just apply the same logic to the "other party" in the US who has the exact same funders and exact same corporate interests and the "more criminal party".
One dresses up in blue and presents a good cop, the other dresses up in red and screams at you to admit you're guilty of something you haven't done.
I guess you forgot you were with two cops in the first place. Welcome to capitalism in the heart of imperialism.
I've known that Ralph Nader was correct, before Ralph Nader. Your narrative about capitalism and imperialism is ridiculously our "rape and pillage" macro economic model is the definition of imperialism. Having nothing to do with Capitalism....I'll be right back
It has everything to do with capitalism.
Capitalism & Imperialism & Colonialism are the three pieces that make up the puzzle of the modern work's woes.
I can't help you understand something you don't want to understand even when all the billionaries and philosophers and scientific materialistic agree and you don't.
But clearly everyone else must be wrong except the random dude you formed a parasocial relationship with. 🙄
Reactivity does not tend to serve power building; strategy does - if everyone can focus on organzing unions or coalitions (tenant, worker, coops, etc) in all shapes and forms with the goal of having their contracts in place to expire May 1st, 2028, we can heed the call from UAW prez Shawn Fain to collectively evade Taft Hartley and get a gen strike. A suggested collective demand? Universal health care. In the meantime it’d be great to get some folks who love free speech to amend Section 230 which causes all public forums to become diseased and abusive but, I digress.
What is section “ 230 of the ?”
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2020/12/section-230-good-actually
This article explains it super well! Hope you’re having a nice week gathering with loved ones or with yourself in ways that nourish you 💗
https://www.wired.com/story/the-one-internet-hack-that-could-save-everything-section-230/
Thank you for this concrete actionable step!!!!!
The Master's Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master's House- Audre Lorde
This is the same problem that I have with people mocking RFK jr, or really anybody else who has been public about it, for their history of drug addiction. In addition to insults not being the most effective form of resistance, I simply don't understand why people would choose this particular feature to insult when there are so many other detestable elements to his persona.
I don't know if I agree with the sentiment in this piece. If there's anything Trump's victory has taught us it's that Americans prefer someone who says in public what they say in private. If anything I think the left needs to be more aggressive than they are. If Kamala had gotten on stage at any point and said 'bring your forks and knives, we're eating the rich tonight' she would have destroyed him then and there.
Doesn't matter if she's cringy or crass, it just matters that the electorate feels like she's 'saying what we're all thinking', no matter how icky that feels to more soft sensibilities. In fact it might have worked to her advantage - watching Elon throw a bitch fit and censor people on his own platform for calling him Elonia isn't a good look.
I think your point is a bit misguided - I want to just remind people that while Trump gained 2.5 million votes since 2020 (fascism gains popularity when capitalism is in crisis), Harris lost 7 million votes compared to Joe Biden.
Harris is NOT a part of the left - her whole campaign was focuses on playing the "Republican from 20 years ago" role. She's a capitalist and zionist at heart. I like that you say the Left should be more aggressive in their rhetoric, but we can do that without reaching for bigoted and harmful language that will turn people away more than bring them in.
I get what you're saying and I don't think you're wrong - but at the same time playing nice and staying on topic hasn't really worked either. Obviously I'm not advocating for us to sling slurs around, but that the same time I think the people that the left would lose by mudslinging need to be brought to understand that we're trying to antagonize them *on purpose* to get them to slip up and diminish themselves in the eyes of the public. If anything it says more about them than it does us, it displays that they're thin skinned and puts their bigoted attitude on display by their response.
We're at the point in this thing that DJT can throw out 'presidential immunity' like pocket sand in order to send armed murderers at anyone he pleases whenever he wants, the least we can do is hit them with invective that *works*. The gloves have to come off at some point.
Thanks for replying! 💜 Oh, I must've misunderstood you! That's my bad. I absolutely agree, we do need to be more agressive and loud in our criticism to get our opponents angry and build ourselves up to unconvinced people. I've got no love for people who want/expect me or anyone else to play nice with the opeessors.
I should've specified that my specific problem with mudslinging is *when* (not always) it ends up bigoted, like the example with Joshua gave. Calling Elon "Elonia" may be effective, yes, but it is inherently bigoted and I've got no tolerance for that, ever. No leftist should. We can take off the gloves in plenty of ways ("eat the rich" or "ACAB" being perfect examples!) without resorting to internal or external bigotry. We're the creatives and we're angry, so let's show them some true vitriol, not whatever trash fascists put in front of us as low-hanging fruit to hurl!
The way I read it, the article wasn't about crassness, but rather where said crassness is being directed.
I think we should be even more crass! We gotta take our high falutin' theory and boil it down into something pithy we can drop into conversations with my family and friends.
This was so many of my thoughts when I heard the "bleach blonde, bad built butch body". It made my skin crawl because I knew, that other people were gonna be hit by that. Thank you for this.
This: "Normalizing the casual mocking of trans people, the degradation of women that’s inherent in using feminization as an insult, the throwing of queer folks under the bus that comes with mocking men in this way helps the right."
Thanks so much for pointing this out.
I'm reminded of 2018, when homophobia was used to insult Trump, and specifically his supposed ties with Putin.
I wrote about it here at the time, and sent it to my liberal friends, asking them to please tamp it the F down already.
https://macskamoksha.com/2018/07/homophobia-in-the-service-of-anti-trumpism-is-still-homophobic-even-when-the-new-york-times-does-it
The beginning was great. The observations about the go-to tools of punching down - in a society trained by its owners to do that. Great stuff.
However, when we get to this: "systemically take on the power of the super-rich, the organizing of white supremacists and transphobes, the deadly deportation machine, and any organization that would terrorize our communities." ...
What does that MEAN?
What, exactly, is "take on the power"?
By what action, process - or even words?
You instructed what words to not-use, but this vague "systematically take on the power" is ... vacuous.
There's no link, e.g. to the writings of Carlos Marighellas - or reference to the recent biographical movie about him - or to Malcolm, or King - or ... what, exactly to DO.
Good hook - but the end seemed not to go somewhere. Unless I'm just missing it.
Remove the big and dark money along with barriers to accessing the ballot. Fuck if we don't do that to start with there's no path to restoring this intended Republic
Money is the problem for sure. I don't think "money out of politics" is the solution - or even possible - if we continue to maintain the status of money as the god of our culture. The challenge we face is no less than a society finding a new god.
We have to do away with the constant campaign complex, in its entirety. Given they have 132 billion dollar war chest just from this cycle, it might be a heavy lift......
Extremely well put and sadly accurate.
I don't like the taxpayer funded model but I'm wide open to a payment and kind. Mandatory media access with real and substitute debates with policy topics subject. A different relative policy sector in the next debate. No manipulation of candidates. Like allowing Bernie in after he cost the DNC $50 million in the previous cycle. Only purpose was splitting progressive with Elizabeth. Having a deadline for being in the primary at all. The Democratic Party primary of 2020 is the perfect example of what we need to completely do away with. Bloomberg entered the day Elizabeth Warren was leading in the polls. Joe Biden came off the porch swing to stop her from winning. None of that would be a possibility in a legitimate primary.
Implement a legitimate party platform and demand allegiance to it by candidates. You know, basic things that honest brokers do.
I actually think travel, media time and all of the correspondence ancillaries are the only contributions that should be allowed .
The money thing is a more or less straightforward policy to correct it. I'm afraid the ballot access is far more intentionally complicated.
Fear mongering and self-victimization is what reactive individuals often do to secure power, it's harmful to both themselves, others and the entire process.
Instead, I urge individuals to contact their ELECTED representatives requesting 1) a living minimum wage for 18+ adults 2) affordable single-payer healthcare 3) ending deficit spending for Israeli weapons 4) No nuclear war spending for Ukraine. I've asked this of my Rep repeatedly and he ignored the issues and the Democrats LOST.
After the disaster election, I'm finished with the DNC demanding my support yet ignoring my pleas for common sense. I donated to the Sanders campaign until I found that the money was going to the establishment DNC. So, I've been edging away from the Republican-like Democratic party for nearly a decade. The corporate and professional management direction they have taken is repugnant to actually representing the voters that I KNOW. At the rate my party has run to the right, they will be imitating team tRump by the end of his term. This Democratic/Republican tag team is just as fake as the WWF Smackdown.
Thank you, Joshua. Our eagerness to bash the opposition, as opposed to focused on the goal of good governancehas lead us here. (A 3rd world outhouse) Possibly the worst real world consequence of tribalism.
I would like to offer a correction, and an absolute method of ending the dynamic of lifetime criminals immersing themselves in our federal government.
Elon Musk can be no higher than the third richest person in the world. Putin easily has at least 500 billion, his boss, one Semion Mogilevich, well over US$1 trillion. Some estimates up to 2 trillion.
That's who's handing him liquid assets to give campaigns $1 million a day for the last 150 days. He does a lot of transactions in Rubles.
Secondly, we must remove the big and dark money along with barriers to accessing the ballot or there is no path to restoring this intended constitutional republic. That is how we fix administration current upcoming syndicate. Notice, the supposed opposition to the lifetime criminals is an exactly demanding good governance either. or facilitating the republic with its policy proposals.
Just like the climate catastrophe, we could change this very quickly if we bothered to acquire the knowledge and actually did something about it other than bitch on Tweeter.
Such a wonderful read, as always, JP. Humor is such a dynamic tool, and I appreciate your calling attention to the need to use it to punch up, rather than down or even sideways. I would like to share something I wrote about my observation of humor and power as an outsider in Portugal, especially as it relates to sentiments about immigrants and wounded national pride. In it, I've linked to other's insightful pieces about the uses of humor. Hopefully this contributes value to the conversation!
https://open.substack.com/pub/jdgoulet/p/laughs-in-portuguese?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=10bxpq
Well, this was both a scold AND eminently unhelpful.
"Organize" ?
I can't stress enough how much we all need to learn from the masters how to "punch up" to counter those who perpetuate systemic inequalities. No one does it better than the extaordinary Robert Reich with his Inequality Media YouTube shorts, like the brilliant parody in his latest Coffee Klatch:
https://youtu.be/aKMwCEqNEFw?si=ls_PJ1XtRh_5AV9o
This really speaks to what we've been challenging in our political server recently - especially as it pertains to ableist language.
Ableism is incredibly ingrained in our daily words from the simplest things ("I'm going crazy") to active insults ("you're delusional" or "he's a sociopath") that stigmatize people with mental illnesses that need *help*, not to be oppressed. Calling a poltician crazy or a sociopath doesn't help unconvince the people who voted for them, just like you said.
Tackle bigotry in your language, friends! When you weed out the easy insults the fascists give you to hurl like tomatoes, it forces you to think more critically and connect with people to get your point across. And THAT is our strength! ❤️ 💜
Excellent point! I look forward to reading more about how to do this. Punching down makes no sense.
The "Elonia" moniker captures the impression of many that Trump is fonder of Elon than he is of Melania. At that Thanksgiving dinner table, Elon sat next to Trump and they were gleeful together. Melania was two seats away and neither included her. So, I think the term expresses something real. It's not just a misogynistic insult. How else would you express this in one word?
Maybe we don't need to express it in one word, but a few tries could be parasite, leech, etc. It may express something "real", but why are we emphasizing that instead of the bigger problem Joshua emphasizes - affluent Americans that are collectively using their power to hurt people?