Overnight, Barbados became the world’s newest republic by removing Queen Elizabeth II as its head of state—and one of the new regime’s first acts was to officially declare Rihanna the island’s “national hero.” Dame Sandra Mason was sworn in as president in a historic ceremony in the capital, Bridgetown, early Tuesday. At the stroke of midnight, 396 years of the British monarchy’s reign over the island came to an end. Mason, 72, said in her inaugural presidential address: “Vessel Republic Barbados has set sail on her maiden voyage. May she weather all storms and land our country and citizens safely on the horizons and shores which are ahead of us.” Then, during the subsequent celebrations, Prime Minister Mia Mottley brought Rihanna on stage to declare her the national hero. Mottley said: “On behalf of a grateful nation, but an even prouder people, we therefore present to you, the designee, for national hero of Barbados, Ambassador Robyn Rihanna Fenty may you continue to shine like a diamond.”
They also buried the lede, heavily. Voting for herself was just one of the things she was doing using her mom’s log-in credentials, along with checking other peoples’ transcripts and other private information which she wasn’t entitled to access.
I’d add that co-opting the worst, most savage crimes of the Holocaust to describe things that are in fact benign or helpful or heroic is effectively anti-Semitic in that it trivializes the actual history. But honestly I think it’s more that these people are so divorced from reality and so limited in their ability to persuade their childish audience that making crude arguments in the most absurdly extreme terms possible is the best they can do. I can name other researchers but Fauci is probably the inventor of public epidemiology. There’s nobody better to tell people what’s happening and how they can best be safe. If you’re going to demonize him, you might as well turn it up to 11, you know? Just fucking say whatever, as long as you’re tossing the rule book out the window. No floor. There’s just no floor.
ETA After checking I see Fauci is probably formally and technically an immunologist. But I think these days he’s effectively an epidemiologist and I hereby confer an honorary certification on him so noting.
Dude seems to be a little confused about the motivations of various characters in the show. James, it’s the other guy who had that divine call. Your character recognized his confusion and self loathing.
And as I used to tell my students when we read “Civil Disobedience” the thing that makes it work is when you take the punishment. You can’t use it as a means to get out of trouble. I think that’s the way martyrdom works as well. It’s only effective if you actually get fed to the lions.
Just got done reading a long story of Boebert and Omar in WaPo. The war cry of Omar being an anti-Semitic is all over the comments, and thus Boebert is justified in harassing her.
Note that this wasn’t some off-hand remark from a random, but scripted into the talking head shows.
We know from prior experience with Fox that nothing like that happens by accident, someone had to greenlight the comparison and disseminate it to the hosts.
As even the most cursory of vetting would note that this is a Really.Bad.Idea, it’s deliberate and they deserve all the judgment for doing it.
That’s what I’m saying. It’s the best they can do. They sat down and said “What should we do for the next show?” And the answer was compare Fauci to Mengele. Of course it was deliberate. I’m not saying they get excited and carried away and say this stuff. It’s common. It’s a known, accepted stance precisely because everything they say is complete and utter bullshit, imaginary, made of whole cloth, and directed to one of the most unsophisticated audiences a technological superpower could even temporarily accept as citizens, so why not go for it? That’s my point.
