Snowflakes. Groomers. Cucks.

For years the MAGA movement has approached politics the way a bully would approach a schoolyard, sparring with labels so nasty, they seemed expressly chosen to appeal to the kind of people who stuffed nerds in lockers in sixth grade. And for years Democrats, abiding by the mantra to go high, not low, have responded by trying to be the adults in the room: defending themselves with facts, with context, with earnest explanations that nobody remembers (if they defend themselves at all).

The problem is that taking the high road only works if politics is a sport played mainly by people who act like grown-ups, which it is not. And also: Facts and context don’t make for particularly sticky messaging.

Enter: Weird.

Over the past two weeks, as “Brat” and coconut memes have taken over the internet and Kamala Harris inches closer to Donald Trump in the polls, the Democrats have finally gone low, deploying a bit of verbal jujitsu so delightfully petty it might just work.

    • krashmo@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      If winning an election requires dumbing things down for the idiots to the point that nuance and substance disappears then maybe America is a failed experiment. Either way, you’re obviously not participating in good faith here.

    • Zaktor@sopuli.xyz
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      4 months ago

      I do a lot of complaining about the Democrats and their offputting tactics, but I’m having a hard time believing you’re actually engaging with any of this in good faith and simply bothered by the unfriendly responses.

      These complaints just seem like repeating slogans rather than engaging with the actual failings of the Democratic party because the idea that they have no policy beside “Orange Man Bad” is just obviously untrue. Plenty of real criticisms, but that one’s just nonsense. Add to that that the “Orange Man Bad” refrain originated with and is primarily in use by conservatives and this whole thread just doesn’t pass the sniff test.

        • Zaktor@sopuli.xyz
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          4 months ago

          And here is the predictable moving of the goalposts. Now the bar isn’t that Democrats have no economic policy, it’s that the primary policies weren’t grand enough. Except in the primary that elected Joe Biden the major topics of discussion were just as grand and the super moderate who won still greatly increased anti-trust enforcement and canceled student debt. The most salient difference being the Democrats had a weak super majority in 2009 and the slimmest possible majority in 2021.

          But anyway. Why do you use 4chan alt-right slogans as the core of your complaint, fellow leftist?

            • Zaktor@sopuli.xyz
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              4 months ago

              It’s a simple question dude. Why do you use those terms? You chose them. I didn’t put them in your mouth. They’re specific words from a years-old /pol / the_donald meme. Because you sound like a channer cosplaying rather than anyone actually immersed in the critiques of the Democratic party by the skeptical left. Plenty of true believers around. They make better arguments and use their own memes.