28 Comments
User's avatar
Renae's avatar

I love it. I think using such a "schoolyard" taunt against them helps de-legitimize their positions and helps folks realize that we shouldn't be regarding them as serious adults with serious policies. They're not, they're just weird.

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Vicki's avatar

I really find it humorous that they are so bothered by being called weird. It gives me a little bit of joy.

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Michelle Glogovac's avatar

I'm thinking that "weird" is too nice of a word to describe Trump and his followers. Questioning MVP's ethnicity once again takes things to a new level that is downright racist. The funny, not funny, thing is that Trump and team will take more offense to being called weird than they will be to being called racist!

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Emily Amick's avatar

I don’t think anyone is suggesting that weird is the only word to use to describe Trump. Or that we should never discuss what he says.

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Nyia's avatar

Hi! I sent you my book receipt and have emailed multiple times. Still don’t have access to locked posts. I unsubscribed to emails since I check Substack every day. Idk if that explains it

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Amanda Finn's avatar

While I agree, the benefits of using "weird" or other less serious arguments is that they can't mock you for taking things too seriously or being "hysterical". Sucks that we have to worry about that.

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Sarah's avatar

Love the “Fart and walk away” strategy. 😂🙌🏼

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Amanda Gutowski's avatar

This is what I came to comment on! 😂🤩

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Jonathon Wurth's avatar

It's funny that a mild insult is more powerful (at least in the moment) than ringing the alarm bell. I don't know why we (humans) are like this. Sometimes the truth is too strong, too distasteful to take in. But a diluted truth sticks in popular thought. (See Stranger Things, season 2, episode 5, "Dig Dug")

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LG's avatar

The point about the milquetoast messaging from Democrats is so spot on. I hope Dem leadership remembers the excitement and grassroots support of Harris for years to come.

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Candace's avatar

Totally agree with you! Kamala’s comms team in particular is saying what so many of us have been thinking.

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Lexi's avatar

I think it’s really important that we target this messaging specifically at MAGA republicans. If we push it too broadly, it could alienate those more moderate swing voters that we are going to need because of the electoral college (ugh).

It will absolutely be super effective if we keep it laser focused because what they are doing and saying IS weird. It is not normal and this is a message that fights against complacency and THAT is how we win this.

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Francie Likis's avatar

I have liked the weird messaging but agree with this point about focused use. I read an article last night, which of course I can’t find at the moment, that we need to be careful this doesn’t backfire by becoming the 2024 version of deplorables.

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Lea's avatar

This is interesting because to me weird isn’t even close to deplorable. Weird is just…weird. Deplorable is negative from the second you say it there’s no spin on it. Weird is ambiguous, it’s a word most people use regularly. But your discussion has given me something to ponder!

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Celisia Stanton's avatar

I actually think the "weird" rhetoric works really well at not alienating moderate swing voters because the comment is so targeted at Trump, his ideas, and his remade Republican party. I think lots of moderate voters that would swing already feel uncomfortable with Trump's rhetoric and Walz's comment helps put language to that discomfort.

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Lexi's avatar

I agree! That’s why I was saying it needs to remain targeted at Trump and those in his orbit, not just “republicans”. Some swing voters may feel like dems are calling them weird if they’ve ever aligned with any part of any republican platform.

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Candace's avatar

I haven’t laughed out loud at a ton of political commentary lately, but I let out a Kamala-like guffaw at the fart and walk away line 😂.

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Stacey's avatar

Getting angry at trump only fuels his rage that his side then sees as justified, but making fun of him and laughing at him is what he truly cannot tolerate

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Pam Johnston's avatar

I love the "weird" thing because it can't be disproven. If you claim "I am NOT weird", you're already admitting that someone thinks you are. It's the Soap Opera Principle of Dialogue in action: if you have to tell people that it's true, then it isn't. If it were, you'd never need to say it.

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Elizabeth Killen's avatar

This is such a fun article! Thank you! Weird is working!

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Becky Shanks's avatar

hysterical! thanks for the laugh, and for the record…. i’m rubber. you’re glue. whatever you say bounces

off of me and sticks to you.

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Veronica's avatar

Maybe the best sentence you’ve ever written?

“Weird is kind of a fart and walk away.”

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Eileen Paliakas's avatar

Love this! “This is the type of reasoning that has gotten us milquetoast messaging from Democrats for the last 30 years while absolute chaos cream has risen to the top of the Republican party.” Chaos cream 😄

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Lea's avatar

As a weirdo from the way back, it makes me giggle every time. So innocent yet so on point (do we say in point anymore or no?).

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Jill's avatar
Aug 1Edited

Weird can be taken in different ways, for example a major US city can pride itself on being weird. It can be good and bad, but if it's cringe and bad, It's certainly noticeable. I don't mind them being called out as weird, it's applicable in the not cool sense of the meaning. I think about the rhetoric Trump uses a lot, calling people names, and the bizarre things he says and projects (often that in actuality define him more). He often acts like the school bully who never grew up or grew out of that bullying phase. And a lot of the spins I see put out in the Republican circles, it truly feels a majority of them live in some vast fictional narrative they've created and are projecting onto everyone, and yes that feels truly weird in the cringe sense, but it goes well beyond that too, to downright alarming with some it. I truly wish for a reprieve from their fictional narrative projections.

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