Gardens have always played a pivotal role in Judeo-Christian theology and the subsequent Western philosophy it inspired. Man was cast out of the Garden of Eden because he couldn’t control his inner Steve Jobs stan. Isaiah 51:3 promised to turn Zion’s deserts into Eden. In Voltaire’s Candide, a Turk explained to Pangloss that all of his philosophy was utter tosh and the only thing that mattered was tending to one’s garden. And depending on your political ideology , the God’s Chosen Warrior or Lucifer incarnate had returned to the Garden. There have been many iconic moments here, including John Lennon’s final live performance, the Fight of the Century with Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier, Michael Jordan’s iconic Double-Nickel Game, Marilyn Monroe singing Happy Birthday to JFK, the first Wrestlemania event, and now Donald Trump will claim he has topped them all.
The event raised the heckles of mainstream media, who fell over themselves comparing it to a Nazi rally, which is a little odd because the speakers included a Jew, a Hindu, and Black people. NYT called it a “closing carnival of grievances, misogyny and racism .” The Guardian said Trump filled MSG with “anger, vitriol and racist threats.” CNN accused Trump loyalists of spewing “racist, vulgar attacks,” and NPR complained about the “vitriol and off-colour jokes.”
The coverage highlighted the deep chasm that has appeared in the American kulturkampf, the cleavage between mainstream media that leans liberal and the more relaxed new media of Rogan podcasts and X threads. Perhaps that was epitomised by the reaction to roast comedian Tony Hinchcliffe’s Puerto Rican joke that appears to have caused a lot more outrage than his paper and stone one for Israelis and Palestinians. Hinchliffe’s Puerto Rico as a “floating island of garbage” riff wasn’t particularly original, not unlike a Weekend Update joke from SNL, but it caused great offense to Ricky Martin, Jennifer Lopez, Bad Bunny, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and a host of others who saw it a sign of the deeply racist malice of the Trump campaign . Even the audience, supposedly consisting of racists of all hues, groaned at the joke, which was bad but it was just that, a joke.
Ultimately, it boiled down to two schools of thought: those that think all jokes should be allowed and those who believe that speech perceived as racist ought to be censored. But one also wonders if there’s something behind this.
Over the course of the campaign, the Trump Team has been jumping from one ludicrous comment to another, including the “Haitians eating cats and dogs” controversy. One wonders if this is a calculated effort at reverse sea-lioning . For those who don’t know, sea-lioning refers to a type of trolling where one pursues folks with a request for evidence while maintaining civility and sincerity during the argument, which The Independent once called the “most apt description of Twitter.”
Reverse sea-lioning, on the other hand, is the debating equivalent of wrestling with swine, when one attempts to distract one’s opponents with utter nonsense to prevent them from having any meaningful discussions. The Democrats have been struggling to define Harris’ presidential campaign in direct terms, and reverse sea-lioning is an excellent way to prevent them from doing so, instead forcing them to react to the aeolian noises emanating from Team Trump.
Maybe he’s a whale psychiatrist after all.
Other top 10 stories:
Harris challenges Trump to take a ‘cognitive test’ The most shocking remarks from Trump at MSG Harris under-fire for her new ‘pastor accent’ Why Trump’s return worries global finance Neo-Nazi or no Nazi? MAGA vs Libs over Trump rally Harris supporter yells at a young girl Why Harvard professors think US needs a military democracy Can Elon Musk buy the US election? Harris reacts to ‘crude and racist rhetoric’ Why the Puerta Rican joke caused so much outrage
The event raised the heckles of mainstream media, who fell over themselves comparing it to a Nazi rally, which is a little odd because the speakers included a Jew, a Hindu, and Black people. NYT called it a “closing carnival of grievances, misogyny and racism .” The Guardian said Trump filled MSG with “anger, vitriol and racist threats.” CNN accused Trump loyalists of spewing “racist, vulgar attacks,” and NPR complained about the “vitriol and off-colour jokes.”
The coverage highlighted the deep chasm that has appeared in the American kulturkampf, the cleavage between mainstream media that leans liberal and the more relaxed new media of Rogan podcasts and X threads. Perhaps that was epitomised by the reaction to roast comedian Tony Hinchcliffe’s Puerto Rican joke that appears to have caused a lot more outrage than his paper and stone one for Israelis and Palestinians. Hinchliffe’s Puerto Rico as a “floating island of garbage” riff wasn’t particularly original, not unlike a Weekend Update joke from SNL, but it caused great offense to Ricky Martin, Jennifer Lopez, Bad Bunny, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and a host of others who saw it a sign of the deeply racist malice of the Trump campaign . Even the audience, supposedly consisting of racists of all hues, groaned at the joke, which was bad but it was just that, a joke.
Ultimately, it boiled down to two schools of thought: those that think all jokes should be allowed and those who believe that speech perceived as racist ought to be censored. But one also wonders if there’s something behind this.
Over the course of the campaign, the Trump Team has been jumping from one ludicrous comment to another, including the “Haitians eating cats and dogs” controversy. One wonders if this is a calculated effort at reverse sea-lioning . For those who don’t know, sea-lioning refers to a type of trolling where one pursues folks with a request for evidence while maintaining civility and sincerity during the argument, which The Independent once called the “most apt description of Twitter.”
Reverse sea-lioning, on the other hand, is the debating equivalent of wrestling with swine, when one attempts to distract one’s opponents with utter nonsense to prevent them from having any meaningful discussions. The Democrats have been struggling to define Harris’ presidential campaign in direct terms, and reverse sea-lioning is an excellent way to prevent them from doing so, instead forcing them to react to the aeolian noises emanating from Team Trump.
Maybe he’s a whale psychiatrist after all.
Other top 10 stories:
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