2016 elections - because it's never too early

[Eddie Teach]

Anyone who answers the question "Why would anyone vote Republican?" with "Duh! Racism!" doesn't understand them.

Sounds like a university student response.

Or Berkut/Guller/CDM.

[garbon]

Anyone who answers the question "Why would anyone vote Republican?" with "Duh! Racism!" doesn't understand them.

Sounds like a university student response.

Or Berkut/Guller/CDM.

Only one of whom falls into San Franciscan/New Yorker...well I guess two are borderline. One is taking New Yorker and applying to whole state (which I'm not sure is quite right for upstate bits) and then DGul is near but not actually in New York.

[Eddie Teach]

Not just basing this on them, but celebrities and columnists and various media sorts.

[Martinus]

The virtue signaling of the anti-Trump rioters

By Dan Hannan • 11/21/16 12:05 AM

Bewildered onlookers keep asking what the anti-Trump rioters and flag-burners hope to achieve. Their behavior has succeeded only in making many of the president-elect's opponents — including this one — less hostile to the man.

But to ask what their aim is misses the point. The protesters aren't really interested in Trump, they're interested in themselves. Their self-absorption — and this is saying something — matches that of the man they detest.

When demonstrators in New York chant, "Donald Trump go away!" they don't actually imagine that he'll go away. They are indulging in a kind of conspicuous consumption, letting everyone see that their attitudes are impeccably liberal.

Virtue signaling is competitive. When all your friends are anti-Trump, you have to go further. Shouting "go away" won't quite do, so you have to find a Trump voter on your campus and scream abuse at her. Once that behavior, too, becomes widespread, you need to up the ante further.

How about throwing something at the police? Or, if you want to let everyone see that you are in the inner sanctum of political correctness, how about going on a general rampage? That'll show all those Republicans in, er, Portland, Ore.

Student protests are nothing new, of course. Some youngsters have always chosen to flaunt their piety by ostentatiously loathing the right things. Sure, it's funny to see these self-righteous youths complain about Trump being "intolerant" or "a hater," but irony has never been the hard Left's strong suit.

There is, though, something else at work here, something quite unprecedented, namely the inability of an entire generation to handle disagreement.

A few months ago, I mused in this column about how our snowflake students would deal with the real world. A generation that demanded "trigger-warnings" and "safe spaces," I wrote, was ill-prepared for the inevitable setbacks of off-campus life. If you have been taught that asking a Hispanic student where his family is from is a form of "microaggression," how are you going to cope with the Donald's speeches about Mexican rapists?

We saw the answer in the streets of Portland. When a spoiled toddler is told, for the first time, that he is not allowed to do something, he will throw himself on the floor, drum his heals and screech. But what if he was never checked as a toddler? What if he was indulged all the way through school and college?

What if the first time he fails to get his way is when a candidate he dislikes wins the presidency? Will he not have that delayed tantrum, hurling abuse in all directions, going on interminably about how he doesn't recognize his country and feels violated and wants to emigrate (because, of course, it's all about him)?

Think of how childhood has changed over the past generation. Walking or cycling to school has become the exception rather than the rule. Play areas have become soft and safe. Dodgeball is banned, on grounds that it's too aggressive.

Listen to the way kids use the word "bullying" these days. "Turn that screen off, young man!" "Mom, stop bullying me!" From the moment they start school, children are taught that unpleasant words are a form of violence. By the time they leave college, they are convinced that the correct response to an opinion they find hurtful is to seek to silence the person expressing it.

We can argue about why it started. My pet theory is that one of the driving factors is the rise of single parenthood. The next time you're in a playground, watch the difference between mothers and fathers.

The moms, by and large, are hovering, ready to catch the kids if they slip. The dads, by contrast, are on their iPads, occasionally muttering "be careful" as their kids climb the frames. If kids are never allowed to fall, even in playgrounds, they will struggle to learn self-reliance.

I stand by the many criticisms I have made of Trump in these pages. Like the snowflake students, he is thin-skinned, able to give it out but not to take it. He wouldn't have had my vote. But he won fair and square, for Heaven's sake. Any friend to America ought now to wish him success and hope to be pleasantly surprised.

The hysterical reaction of parts of the Left over the past two weeks has served to remind us of why he won in the first place. Not that the Leftists care. Because for these angry young people, it's not him, it's them. It always is.

Dan Hannan is a British Conservative MEP.

Good piece on virtue signalling, from a guy who seems like a moderate Tory.

[The Minsky Moment]

It's funny how these New York stereotypes go by completely unquestioned, including by people who are complaining about other stereotypes.  Donald Trump for example is a New Yorker - has operating his entire career here and has both socialized and done business with a long line up of local Democrats but yet New Yorkers uniquely don't get him?? New York is a pretty big state, and the city is a pretty big city - you can find just about any kind of person with any kind of belief system here.   There are lots of evangelicals in this area.  You don't have to stray very far from the city to find hunting and gun culture either.

Not everyone around here is a postdoc NYU sociologist, a literary editor, or a brownstone mommy.

[garbon]

Not everyone around here is a postdoc NYU sociologist, a literary editor, or a brownstone mommy.

My how things have changed since I left.

[Eddie Teach]

It's funny how these New York stereotypes go by completely unquestioned, including by people who are complaining about other stereotypes.  Donald Trump for example is a New Yorker - has operating his entire career here and has both socialized and done business with a long line up of local Democrats but yet New Yorkers uniquely don't get him?? New York is a pretty big state, and the city is a pretty big city - you can find just about any kind of person with any kind of belief system here.   There are lots of evangelicals in this area.  You don't have to stray very far from the city to find hunting and gun culture either.

Not everyone around here is a postdoc NYU sociologist, a literary editor, or a brownstone mommy.

I said you don't get Republicans, didn't say anything about Trump. 

[Valmy]

Good piece on virtue signalling, from a guy who seems like a moderate Tory.

Man. Now those rather pitiful and weaksauce protests are 'riots'? Now that is hilarious. And Euros lecturing us on our protesting? Even more hilarious. Did we shut down our entire transportation system over a simple labor dispute for a few days? Please. A few people getting off their asses for a few seconds has the whole world outraged.

Those Hong Kong people have nothing on us. We walked in the streets for a few minutes two weeks ago.

[OttoVonBismarck]

It's funny how these New York stereotypes go by completely unquestioned, including by people who are complaining about other stereotypes.  Donald Trump for example is a New Yorker - has operating his entire career here and has both socialized and done business with a long line up of local Democrats but yet New Yorkers uniquely don't get him?? New York is a pretty big state, and the city is a pretty big city - you can find just about any kind of person with any kind of belief system here.   There are lots of evangelicals in this area.  You don't have to stray very far from the city to find hunting and gun culture either.

Not everyone around here is a postdoc NYU sociologist, a literary editor, or a brownstone mommy.

Right, I mean even NYC which is overwhelmingly Democrat, has hundreds of thousands of votes cast for Republicans.

Loud-mouthed xenophobes may be a minority in NYC, but Trump isn't the only one.

[Admiral Yi]

Archie Bunker lived in Queens.

[The Minsky Moment]

The virtue signaling of British Conservative MEPs

By Dan Hannan • 11/21/16 12:05 AM

Bewildered onlookers keep asking what UK conservatives who know little about the US hope to achieve. Their behavior has succeeded only in making many of Corbyn's opponents — including this one — just as hostile to him but more annoyed the UK has no good alternative either.

But to ask what their aim is misses the point. The UK conservatives aren't really interested in US anti-Trump protestors, they're interested in themselves. Their self-absorption — and this is saying something — matches that of the people they imagine they are scolding.

When UK conservatives write their tut-tutting op-eds about people they never met or know nothing about, they don't actually imagine that they'll go away. They are indulging in a kind of conspicuous consumption, letting everyone see that their attitudes are not just that of some greasy pol looking for some extra press, but to show they are thoughtful moderates.

Virtue signaling is competitive. When all your friends are in the Carlton Club, you have to go further. Waving your gin glass and tsking at the BBC feed won't quite do, so you have to find an editor with space to fill and a deadline so close that they'll print any meaningless tripe you write for them.

Politicians pronouncing gravely about things they know nothing about is nothing new, of course. Some politicans have always chosen to flaunt their piety by ostentatiously adopting a tone of pompous condescension. Sure, it's funny to see these pretentious toffs complain about random American young people as self-centered, but irony has never been the Tory Party's strong suit.

A few months ago, I mused in this column, pouring out one insulting generalization after another about large groups of people, by using lots of buzz words that seem to be getting the rounds these days about "snowflakes" , "trigger warnings" and "safe spaces"  A generation of Tory politicians that couldn't get its act together about Europe, I should have wrote, was ill-prepared for the inevitable setbacks of voter referendums. If you have been taught that responsible politics involves rolling the dice to blow up Europe just to head off some intra-party squabbling, how are you going to understand how foreigners might feel when a demented reality TV star takes over their country and tries to run it by twitter feed?

We see the answer in this editorial, that is so ridiculous, that only that funny Polish lawyer guy on the languish forum would ever link to it. When a supercilious politician is told, for the first time, that he can write whatever nonsense he wishes, he will throw himself on the page, drum out the most asinine drivel, like explaining the behavior of entire generations of millions of people based on some pat pseudo-psychological theory.

Dan Hannan is a British Conservative MYOB.

Fixed the editorial for you.

[garbon]

Archie Bunker lived in Queens.

And Staten Island exists.

[Eddie Teach]

My point wasn't that New Yorkers have never met a Republican; it's that they can be more isolated than college professors in red states, if they choose. And some of them clearly do choose.

[garbon]

You act like refusing to interact with Republicans in the South and flyover states is a bad thing.

[Eddie Teach]

 

I suppose I do.