Josh has posted
Economics is called the dismal science, but this still does not give license to be an asshole. The key trick of Trumpism, or Mercerism to be more specific, is that any claim that distorts discussion is winning the discussion. By the time one is responding that the comment is off color, pulled out of your ass, bullshit, fake, etc. the thing that should be discussed hasn’t. There is an excellent British made-for-tv movie, Toby Haynes Brexit: The Uncivil War, which should be up on US HBO next week. There is a scene where it dawns on the Remain campaign chief Craig Oliver on how this game has been played, how 3 million people who never vote have been so shell-shocked by social media that the will run to the polls to “take back control” of their destinies. Kevin Hassett is playing the same game. Obviously, losing your house, your creditworthiness, your self-esteem is bad. Why wouldn’t a Trumpster tell you it’s a good thing?
Given the long experience of the UK and US with civil society and rule of law, it’s not surprising that this puerile debasement of public discussion seems foreign to some. It certainly is for those who have spent 16 or 20 years in the public education system. But the Russians have long had a word for it: poshlost. Here are a couple efforts to translate the term:
Another notable literary treatment is Fyodor Sologub’s novel The Petty Demon. It tells the story of a provincial schoolteacher, Peredonov, notable for his complete lack of redeeming human qualities. James H. Billington said of it:
The book puts on display a Freudian treasure chest of perversions with subtlety and credibility. The name of the novel’s hero, Peredonov, became a symbol of calculating concupiscence for an entire generation… [Peredonov] seeks not the ideal world but the world of petty venality and sensualism, poshlost’. He torments his students, derives erotic satisfaction from watching them kneel to pray, and systematically befouls his apartment before leaving it as part of his generalized spite against the universe.
Richard Taruskin summarized poshlost as “highfalutin bad taste,” applying the term to a performance of the Cantata for the 20th Anniversary of the October Revolution (Prokofiev).
2 Likes
Completely OT
YouGov survey: British sarcasm 'lost on Americans’
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-46846467
“half of Americans wouldn’t be able to tell that a Briton is calling them an idiot”.
YouGov showed a number of common British phrases, including “with the greatest respect”, “I’ll bear it in mind” and “you must come for dinner”, to Britons and Americans.
“While not all the phrases show a difference in transatlantic understanding, there are some statements where many Yanks are in danger of missing the serious passive aggression we Brits employ,” YouGov said.
The starkest difference was in the phrase “with the greatest respect” - which most Britons took to mean “I think you are an idiot”, but nearly half of Americans interpreted as “I am listening to you”.
or maybe not, with greatest respect, mr Hassett, I think you are an idiot…
Did anyone tell this Rectum that all Federal Workers are NOT CONGRESSMAN!!
((Taking time off anyway)
Let me get this straight working w/o pay is better then taking days off with pay. Ok when are YOU going to start?
1 Like
Hassett ought to be told to work 6 months without pay just to see how much better off he’d be.
2 Likes
How about grounding trump’s plane and helicopter for the duration of this shut down. Also no gas money for his limo.
2 Likes
Bless Hassett’s little heart.
(Not a complement)
2 Likes
You can be clueless or even punitive about general suffering and at the same time very understanding in responding to individuals in your personal vicinity.
In fact, that describes most of my Trumpy relatives (by marriage only, thank gaud).
It’s kind of a symptom of Republucanism, in fact. They don’t change their minds about social issues until their kid or neighbor is involved, and even then it’s often compartmentalized away: “THIS abortion is absolutely necessary, not like the one Suzy Roundheels had.”
2 Likes
The quartering had an additional purpose: burying the body parts separate from each other so you couldn’t arise whole to respond to The Last Trump(et). Your head, of course, went to the palisade of pikes.
1 Like
Just another All Ass Hat No Cattle kind of guy that thinks we believe him.
2 Likes
is that any claim that distorts discussion is winning the discussion.
The Road to Unfreedom by Timothy Snyder
(random notes I made while reading)
“It was not meant to convince in a factual sense, but to guide in a narrative sense.”
Invasion is self-defense
The suppression of individual freedom in favor of national submission.
Make politics of being rather than doing - playing to the culture
“You can just say anything. Create realities.”
The denial of factuality
Women pushing empty prams.
1 Like
I’m sure he’s a very close friend and colleague of Art Laffer.
It’s almost as if the WH holds a weekly competition to see who can be the biggest asshole.
the smirk would be gone in 2 seconds.
All these clowns that are in the Trump administration are nothing but clowns. And once this President is no longer in office either by Impeachment or voted out, all these clowns will have a hard time finding meaningful employment anywhere.
I hope you’re right. Way too many of them will become commentators for some news organization or other, or senior fellows at the usual list of derp tanks, or get jobs at connected law firms.
1 Like
Kevin should look for a really good proctologist to have his head removed from is ass.
1 Like
He would be better off digging his own grave.
They can always work for a conservative think tank, the Koch Brothers or the oil industry as lobbyists. It’s practically a certainty.