December 4, 2016

"Assignment: Someone, please make an 'it gets better' video for liberals who are depressed about Trump."

Writes John over at Facebook.

He gets a lot of negative reactions.

I react to that:
Does the reaction to John's idea reveal that the original "It gets better" videos were shallow and propagandistic? If people are very unhappy right now about their current circumstances, should those who don't even know them swoop in and sincerely assure them that "It gets better"? John's idea could be seen as a proposal for a comic riff that not only annoys Trump haters but that also portrays the original project as banal and insulting.

40 comments:

Clyde said...

A lot of Gloomy Guses over there. I think four years from now, the thing that those people will be most surprised about will be that their darkest predictions didn't come to pass. They won't be living in concentration camps, their free speech won't be throttled, the world won't have ended in a Trumpocalypse. Their cognitive dissonance probably won't allow them to see that, though. If things aren't sufficiently bad for them, they'll hallucinate worse things up to fill the gap.

Rusty said...

I'm just curious as to what they think trump is going to do. Make the rivers run backwards? Dim the sun? My wifes favorite, " This is a monumental setback for womens rights!"
My reponse'"You mean women are finally going to have to take responsibility for their decisions?"
Yes. I stir the pot even at home.
The couch is in fact very comfortable to sleep on.

HT said...

This may not qualify, but it's not like "the left" is not making fun of themselves:

[big empty parking lot]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VnzRFyOMD4U


the [liberl] bubble
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vKOb-kmOgpI

MayBee said...

Ann Althouse Well, maybe one suicide will be prevented by this project too. People do seem strangely sad in a personal way. Since the current situation actually is political and not your individual predicament -- indeed much of the sadness seems to be on behalf of the problems of others — a good talking-to might help people see the absurdity of being depressed as if it is your personal problem.
==================

I liked this comment of yours.

I also agreed with the woman who said people seem to want to be depressed and afraid.

HT said...

Do you think that people wanted to be afraid when Obama was elected?

Mike Sylwester said...

Here's something for liberals to keep in mind:

When Jimmy Carter lost the 1980 election, he was succeeded by Ronald Reagan for eight years and then by George Bush for four years. During those 12 years of Republican Presidency, five justices were appointed to the US Supreme Court.

Larry J said...

How about something like this: "It gets better when you grow the fuck up and live your life like an adult regardless of who is in the White House. "

Mike Sylwester said...

When Jimmy Carter lost the 1980 election, he was succeeded by Ronald Reagan for eight years and then by George Bush for four years. During those 12 years of Republican Presidency, five justices were appointed to the US Supreme Court.

And two of them still are serving on the Court now in 2016.

GWash said...

so far not so much better... the China kerfluffle is just the beginning of the gang that couldn't shoot straight foreign policy.. where's my tax on carrier importing air conditioners after moving the majority of the plant to mexico?... indiana tax payers pockets a little lighter today thanks to the gruesome twosome... things WILL get better, if we survive the learning curve... so far i give them all a D-..

Michael The Magnificent said...

Oh, I'm more inclined to tell lefty friends that if they really believe that Trump is Hitler, that they should:

1) Go radio silent! Stop posting your anti-Trump screeds on Facebook and Twitter. Most certainly don't be posting your current location on Foursquare. Don't make it so easy for "them" to find you and catch you!

2) If you are, well, you know, (and even if you aren't) take down those rainbow flags, lose that lisp and those fem-ish mannerisms.

3) Invest in some Goo Gone and get those lefty bumper stickers off of your Prius's bumper.

4) Start building secret rooms in your politically-moderate neighbor's basements and attics so you and your lefty friends will have somewhere to hide once the borders are closed. Which brings us to...

5) Get out of the country while you can! Soon the borders will be closed, and dissenters, non-whites, non cis-gendered and non-heterosexuals will be rounded up to "work camps" or so you keep telling me.

It won't get better! It will only get worse, much much worse! Run! Flee! Soon they'll start building work camps in Wyoming where you will be forced to work the fracking wells. Grab your shit and get out while you still can!

Unless, of course, you know that Trump isn't Hitler, in which case carry on, which we all know is what you will do.

Biff said...

Aren't the "It Gets Better" videos the anti-bullying videos produced by Dan Savage, a guy who has a reputation for bullying people with whom he nominally disagrees?

Bob Ellison said...

The general rule is that the power of government should never be deployed in favor of an individual business or industry. The Carrier deal looks like crony capitalism, as Sarah Palin observed.

Michael The Magnificent said...

Oh, and if you're going to flee the country, don't go to Canada; Trump will be annexing Canada, like Hitler annexed Austria and the Sudetenland.

If you are going to flee, go to Mexico. Hitler, I mean Trump, would never annex a country full of brown people. Vaya con Gaia, amigas!

Big Mike said...

Oh, I agree with the appropriately named "Michael the Magnificent." Run, little snowflakes, run. Run to Cuba. Run to Haiti. Run south to Mexico. But run while you still can! Ru-u-u-u-n!

mikee said...

"John's idea could be seen as...."
Therein lies the problem. The intent of the speaker is abolished in favor of the reaction of the listener, destroying the agency of the speaker entirely.

That anyone's idea "could be seen as" something vile by any person so inclined is an illegitimate argument against that idea, as the intent of the speaker should be given primacy in any discussion of meaning of the words spoken.

Stupid, malignant listeners don't get a heckler's veto.

mccullough said...

I want to see Trump as the subject of one of those Humans of New York posts.

rehajm said...

Yes, it really should be a 'It Doesn't Get Better' video since the only way it gets better for these hurting folks is for lefties to be in charge and implementing leftie polices, especially the ones that feels like stomping on the right.

Sam L. said...

The lefties are mentally incapable.

n.n said...

Quite mad. Obama turned the soil. Trump will plant the seeds. Teamwork.

The dawn sees the daisies grow to bloom in the daylight.

Seeing Red said...

Children.

Rusty you can tell your wife from me, a female, if she really wants to know who is setting back women's rights, look in the mirror.

These 3rd wavers are a horrendous embarrassment.

DKWalser said...

The couch is in fact very comfortable to sleep on.

Early in our marriage my wife suggested (strongly) that I sleep on the couch. I told her the bed was ours, not hers or mine. Neither of us had to sleep in it, but neither had the right to kick the other out of it. 30+ years later, we're still married and neither of us have had to spend the night on the couch.

rehajm said...

The proper term to apply is inconsolable.

Perhaps you may assuage the grief which is yours through ritual? Solidarity singing or packaging shipments of vitamins to Ruth Bader Ginsburg, perhaps?

damikesc said...

It's amazing that these same assholes expect us to feel for them. I didn't notice their concern for me when Obama won.

bgates said...

Why not an update on this? Call it "From 49 to 51 with love". I'm sure it would be greeted as warmly as the original was.

bgates said...

The Carrier deal looks like crony capitalism, as Sarah Palin observed.

While I agree with you and her, we're living in a country where that argument loses.

Still, I wonder what the press thinks they're accomplishing by pointing out former Two Minute Hate targets who criticize Trump for one thing or the other. Who in the dwindling circle of people who listen to the press would be convinced by anything Sarah Palin said?

Sydney said...

I was despondent when Obama got elected the first time. It was for personal reasons, though. Didn't sleep well for two years as I tried to decide the best action to take to save my livelihood from the Democrat majority's healthcare "reforms." Everything I feared came true - and then some. I was less despondent the second time he was elected. By then it was too late to stop the changes and I resigned myself to the fact that my profession will never be what it once was. Also that I should ignore government and politics as much as possible. Still glad Trump won, though. Maybe something can be salvaged. Hillary would have been the end of independent medical practice, I'm pretty sure. Everyone expected her to do something like tie licenses to government program participation, as some states have tried to do.

Biff said...

bgates said...While I agree with you and her, we're living in a country where that argument loses.

Is there a country you can point to where that argument wins?

Big Mike said...

@Bob Ellison, it really isn't clear that the Carrier deal is all that bad. $7M is a lot of money but against that Indiana would be out the unemployment that it would be paying to those workers who lost their jobs (47% of the workers' salaries). Plus lost income taxes (3.3%). Plus workers who've lost their jobs don't drive to work so there goes gas tax revenue. Plus lost sales tax revenue because unemployed people can't buy as much stuff. Some folks might lose their homes, depressing property taxes. So it adds up.

n.n said...

Big Mike:

Another consideration with respect to cronyism, or virtual monopoly, is if there exists a demand for the product or service that is not or cannot be reasonably fulfilled by another provider. In any case, it remains to be seen if this treatment will be applied equally, consistently.

David said...

Good to know that Hillary "warned" Obama about the dangers of his Egypt policy.

Too bad she lacked the clout and persuasiveness to change his mind.

JAORE said...

Michael,
You ARE magnificent. I may (shamelessly) steal that concept from you.

rehajm said...

Big Mike said...
@Bob Ellison, it really isn't clear that the Carrier deal is all that bad...


Exactly. You need to account for what happens on both sides of the ledger.

GWash said...

rehajm.. if you have a moment please explain how this is anything but more smoke and mirrors?... the bar is so low for the incoming administration that backing off a pledge to tax carrier (or any other manufacturer) that exports jobs on goods coming back into the US, losing 1000+ jobs and paying carrier $7 million is seen as not that bad... where's bad ass Donald? the negotiator in chief?.. if this is an example of the type of 'huuuge winning' deals we are going to get, so much winning, i'm afraid we are going to fall further behind...

rehajm said...

if you have a moment please explain how this is anything but more smoke and mirrors?...if this is an example of the type of 'huuuge winning' deals we are going to get, so much winning, i'm afraid we are going to fall further behind...

If this is an example of future policy from President Trump we're likely in agreement it would be bad policy. A couple of points, however: Trump's not yet our president. Symbolic or not there's Americans that will still have jobs come Christmas. Also, as a nation it's dangerous shit thinking to cherry pick data points to draw conclusions rather than make an honest assessment of all the positive and negative impacts of particular choices. Big Mike provided excellent points about the impact of this particular decision. Give Trump credit or not for the Carrier decision, but how about we wait until Trump's actually in office and we've seen a few policy choices before we start bitching about how ineffective he is?

Thanks for asking...




Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

If people are very unhappy right now about their current circumstances, should those who don't even know them swoop in and sincerely assure them that "It gets better"?

Unless those people are happy to support a polarizing, divisive and hateful asshole, then yes they should.

Perhaps in your grandiloquent legal education they taught you something about the president being head of state, and not just head of government. The idea is to be someone as many Americans as possible could be proud to have in charge. Not as few as possible. He's supposed to attempt to represent everyone. That's the job. Not being a trash-talking yutz perpetually declaring bankruptcy. That was his previous (and lifelong) role.

Anonymous said...

my less than focused comment... I happen to be in Hong Kong this week. I get some amusement for writing comments on TripAdvisor also... and so one was about a mall here... Pacific Place. 4 floors of retail, and very nice - then above that, offices and other types of show spaces. Quality materials, finishes, etc. I went there because Sotheby's was located above the retailing on the 7th floor. Hey, I want to see some of that boundless contemporary art. Anyway... the 3rd and 4th floors were loaded with not only Bulgari and Swarovski, but every other name in that 1% league. You could have taken a Napoleonic cannon shot down those floors and not hit anything human. And inside the shops would be one or two very demure and actionless staff. The relative 50% dominance of those stores, and the recent extraction of a food court and other restaurant venues had left the place pretty socially sterile. Or we can just say... Dead. So.... how do you rate this place? Is it excellent?, above average, average or worse? At least, in terms of advising people - folks, as the Light Bringer often says - to go there or not? As an architectural environment with objects within it, it is of the highest class. But as a place to have connect to and gain perhaps some social lift, not so. So.... Egyptian sheet thread count? Somehow it all relates...

Scott said...

"It gets better" is what old timers in Alcoholics Anonymous tell newbies who are ending their relationship with alcohol.

Fen said...

People do seem strangely sad in a personal way.

For them, this is about more than losing an election. Their bubble was burst. Their false narratives came tumbling down. Several sacred cows were not only gored, but displayed on pikes surrounding the city walls.

They have been living in a false reality.

Fen said...

R&B: He's supposed to attempt to represent everyone. That's the job. Not being a trash-talking -

Bitter Clingers. Deplorables.

It's really too bad you weren't here for the last 8 years. Oh wait...

Fen said...

Althouse: He gets a lot of negative reactions

But of course. Over the last several years I've noticed a pattern with the Left - they work themselves into emotional frenzies over something they deliberately distorted to make sound worse, have a meltdown on social media, then turn to their friends for emotional support.

They get attention and gain Virtue Signaling points for "caring too much", and their friends get VPs for having "empathy" and "compassion".

But all that alter-reality requires alot of mental energy to create and maintain. Your son just came in and told Mrs Munchausen that her child is not going to die after all. That bastard! :)