The photos of the "crowds" at the tank parade remind me of when Bill Hicks would come on stage in an almost-empty club, scan the room slowly, and announce "I've had more people in bed than this" ...
When the president sends a cabinet member on TV to announce "We are using the military to liberate an American city from its elected leaders," where do you go from there. What is left to say. The idea of that being anything short of a near-universal "Wait, what the fuck is going on" moment proves how far we've backslid.
This is from 2022 but it was absolutely right. The practiced buffoonery of Trump 1, all the "just kiddings" and "seriously but not literallys" absolutely succeeded in desensitizing people who are hardly paying any attention to the harder stuff they always intended to do next. ...
The basic fallacy in chasing votes by being "tough on immigration" is that the modal American's position on the issue is "Deport the Bad ones and keep the Good ones," and they alone know who is which, and that simply does not translate into workable policy. So this kind of gestapo stuff horrifies some of the same people who cheered when Trump promised to do it. There are true sociopaths who love this, but "No, I meant only the BAD immigrants! Not my coworker/friend/neighbor!" is as likely a reaction as enthusiasm. You cannot do immigration policy that satisfies these people because what they want is nonsensical.
So by the time center-left parties fully commit to chasing the far right by "getting tough" on immigration, the backlash has already begun to build and they walk right into it. "I thought you people wanted this!" No, they want something impossible and convinced themselves they'd could have it - the "eat whatever you want AND lose weight!" of immigration policies.
It is hard to grasp but large masses of Americans are both racist/xenophobic AND not racist/xenophobic enough to applaud what Trump is doing. It's goldilocks shit, they want a level of racism/xenophobia calibrated exactly to their personal preferences, and you just can't make that policy. Don't try. ...
AP: Trump extends olive branch, invites Musk to White House cellar to taste some brand new amontillado ...
SeaTea says:
I've always felt guilty about feeling the same way. The Nazis had branding and aesthetics DOWN. Everything from daggers to weapons, to uniforms, to banners…. it all looked regal, commanding, and powerful. I love the look so much… it's a shame it has to be f-'ed up by being associated with Nazis.
I guess I could do without the "General Burkhalter" riding pants. Those looked a little silly.
http://propagander.tripod.com/hh06.jpg
Hugo says:
Same with the swastika – from Sanskrit good-luck symbol to icon of ultimate evil. Still, of all the things the Nazis harmed, that should be the least concerning.
Da Moose says:
In so righteously squashing my attempts at dialogue about this issue, you shut me up. But, others are writing about this in less acrimonious terms than you no matter what side of the argument in which they stand. (By the way, if you want readers, don't use your overintellecutalized arrogance to try to shut them up, you F'in A-hole.)
Have a nice Spring. Though you may teach, you have much to learn. And, the more arrogant you get, the less likely you are to hear. See you again in a few months.
"Buried in this ridiculous trend piece is a truth: Men are at a cross roads."
http://www.salon.com/life/gender/index.html?story=/mwt/broadsheet/2010/04/07/retrosexuals_silliness
Ed says:
What in the sam hell are you talking about?
Robert says:
Dang, Da Moose, share what you're smoking.
In other news: this doesn't surprise me. As SeaTea pointed out above, the Nazis had style. Usually real-life evil is surpassingly unglamorous – cf., Stalin, Mao, other serial killers. In an onine discussion I participated in several years ago, the question was raised – why does Hitler/Naziism provoke such a visceral reaction of revulsion and horror, while (in most sane circles) Stalin/Stalinism does not? Maybe part of it is our horror at seeing how seductive evil can look.
Also, Mike Mignola does fantastic Nazi villains in "Hellboy".
Jeremy says:
Sometimes disoriented Moose wander in from across the lake…they usually are just looking for something to eat after the first frost.
comrade x says:
The West was not directly affected by the oppression of the Stalinist regimes, whereas the Nazis invaded Western Europe, bombed the U.K.,sent their U- Boats to American waters and sunk a lot of ships within sight of our shoreline. Plus the Holocaust claimed the lives of many Jews living in Western countries as well as other people the Nazis found " undesirable".
Stalin's oppression was only understood in an abstract way by the West and never directly experienced ( though the Finns had a pretty good idea and fought their guts out to prevent becoming another Soviet Republic).
comrade x says:
Yes, the dress uniforms have a S & M flair and coolness about them, but when they put on their field uniforms the S.S. looked as dumpy and utilitarian as everyone else.
If you go past the 20th century and don't mind wearing a dress, oh sorry, tunic, its hard to beat a Roman centurion's get- up, especially when the armor has been polished.
RosaLux says:
"Fascism is the aestheticization of politics." — Walter Benjamin
RosaLux says:
And, if that's true, then the pinnacle of modern fascism would be – Sarah Palin, , who is little more than an aesthetic. A content-free media spectacle, a celebutician for a celebrity-rotten age.
Crazy for Urban Planning says:
This is somewhat unrelated: someone who was once one of Taco Bell's marketers just came to my house to sell me a vacuum cleaner. He says that of the 14,000,000 Dollars spent by Budweiser piss beer on the 2009 Super Bowl they made 47,000,000 Dollars. I'm not very good at math, but that is a 3 fold return! How stupid are we? Why does advertising work so darn well? I find people small minded and dumb. This relates to the whole Nazi Uniform because its the same idea; people see something flashy (i.e. a nice looking soldier in his uniform) and they are impressed (enough to drink Budweiser? I couldn't do that in a million years).
Shit – and Moose – I think your a dumb piece of defecation because Ed rocks.
Jimcat says:
How does Budweiser know that X dollars worth of beer were sold as a direct result of the Super Bowl ad campaign, and not any other cause?
Obvious answer: they don't. Your unemployed Taco Bell marketer turned door-to-door salesman was talking out of his ass.
Crazy for Urban Planning says:
ha!
OneMadClown says:
Crazy for Urban Planning, nobody who used to do marketing for Taco Bell tried to sell you a vacuum cleaner…BECAUSE THE KIRBY SELLS ITSELF!!! Taco Boy was only there to carry it into your house.
EJ says:
C'mon, tell us stuff we don't know. Everyone knows this.
Nancy Irving says:
It's certainly true that, say what you will about them, the Nazis had great design sense.
That swastika flag–red, white and BLACK–definitely has it over the stars and stripes, any day. (Sorry, Betsy Ross, but you were strictly an amateur!)
:)
Jim the Viking says:
Like they say, you can't spell 'class' without 'SS.'
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