Amid The Pronouns, Much Annoyance

A left-leaning management consultant recently asked his left-leaning Twitter followers for their thoughts on the insufficiently left-leaning working class. The replies - from self-declared socialists, Guardian readers, “woke remainers,” and assorted “social justice advocates” - are, shall we say, of a type, but may nonetheless be of interest. 

Via Damian Counsell, who adds, “If you want to know why the Conservatives have an 80-seat majority…”

Also, open thread. 

Comments

[David]

One of the more thoughtful replies.

[David]

Previously.

One of these.

[TimT]

'The servant who dreamed of being promoted to butler'.

So many leftist characterisations of their opponents these days seem to resort to naive pop-culture-influenced anachronisms. That particular Twitter Wit probably has nothing more sophisticated in mind than a particular episode of Downton Abbey.

[David]

Well, I suppose if your political persona is in large part driven by social positioning and an assertion of status - as floating above the peasantry, while very much pretending otherwise - then you’re pretty much painted into a corner. It’s a thread you mustn’t pull at, lest comedy ensue.

[Stephanie Richer]

Well, I suppose if your political persona is in large part driven by social positioning ...

Which is why I always feel a sense of discomfort visiting Washington DC - I sense the vibe of people desperately wanting to be important in the political structure.

And since it is an open thread, I believe I see the next Theranos in the making: https://althouse.blogspot.com/2021/10/prince-harrys-mental-health-start-up.html

For $249 a month (not annually), Prince Harry and Mark Zuckerberg will cure what ails ye.

[David]

[ Rummages in archives. ]

Ah, there we go.

[Horace Dunn]

Ah, there we go.

That expresses the attitude of such people very pithily.

It's also interesting to note that the very same people will go on to say, to the rest of the world, "Come and live here. It's fabulous!"

And they're supposed to be the intelligent ones.

[Lancastrian Oik]

Brendan O'Neill in fine form.

[David]

the very same people will go on to say, to the rest of the world, “Come and live here. It’s fabulous!”

There is, I think, an asymmetry of incoherence and insincerity. Sincere opinions can be wrong, of course, but the incidence of pretension and bad faith isn’t, I think, evenly distributed across the political map. If certain views, or professed views – say, regarding immigration, lawful and otherwise - are deemed high-status, one may be inclined to mouth them, loudly and repeatedly, and with ever greater convolution, regardless of whether they’re sincere or jar with other clearly expressed preferences.

See, for instance, Simon Schama Syndrome.

[Captain Nemo]

Via Damian Counsell, who adds, “If you want to know why the Conservatives have an 80-seat majority…”

I saw this coming a long time ago. Back in 2018, I wrote the following on this blog:

I can't help feeling that all the Tories need to do in the next general election is print leaflets showing the various remarks made by people like that* who are members/supporters of the Labour Party, and distribute them in their traditional strongholds in the north. I'd bet money on them winning a landslide. Yes, the current Tories are weak and useless, but in their favour they don't actually appear to hate vast swathes of the electorate and view them as an enemy to be destroyed.

*Not the person above, but someone else making similar sentiments. Post in question can be found in the comments here: https://davidthompson.typepad.com/davidthompson/2018/02/elsewhere-263.html

The sneering classes have evidently learned nothing since.

[Farnsworth M Muldoon]

[ Rummages in archives. ]

[Insert country here] is awful, you people are scum

Vote [Insert any leftist party here]

(Offer does not apply to China, Cuba, Venezuela, and North Korea)

[Farnsworth M Muldoon]

I believe I see the next Theranos in the making:

Prince Harry joined the company this year and has been on paternity leave after the birth of his daughter Lilibet."

I am confused. Since he has no job, does "paternity leave" from that mean he is actually going to do something, not that "Chief Impact Officer" is a real job either.

[Karl]

Also, open thread.

Well, as seen on a Breitbart comment thread:

Q: "Why do leftists hate Ivermectin?"

A: "It kills parasites"

[Karl]

the next Theranos in the making

I'm not sure. Theranos was over-valued on the basis of the useful service it might theoretically provide to its customers. Which customers would be actively harmed by the company's failure to follow through.

Whereas the fund to help your BettersUp is over-valued as a result of its being used to funnel slush money into the pockets of undeserving royals. Its customers would actually benefit from the company's failure to provide the service. But since that service consists of talking to someone on the phone, that seems unlikely.

[Captain Nemo]

He has They/Them pronoun earrings, you know:

https://twitter.com/jordxnbennett/status/1447164876636438531

[Mike D]

See, for instance, Simon Schama Syndrome.

You couldn't make it up.

[David]

You couldn’t make it up.

I believe the term is revealed preference.

[David]

You couldn’t make it up.

Incidentally, when championing rapid and massive immigration and its alleged social benefits, Mr Schama often uses the word parochial, generally to disparage those who disagree. And yet his own caricature of dissenters itself suggests a certain narrowness and lack of familiarity – not least with the lives and neighbourhoods on which his virtue would be inflicted, albeit from a safe distance.

[Sam Duncan]

“So many leftist characterisations of their opponents these days seem to resort to naive pop-culture-influenced anachronisms.”

See also the utterly predictable screenshot of that unfunny That Was the Week That Was sketch.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: the only people you ever hear talking about “class“ are those who claim to hate the very idea. My grandfather used to laugh himself hoarse at the recollection of a childhood friend telling him he was one of “the boss class” because he'd worked his way up from nothing to factory manager.

[Sam Duncan]

And now I come to think of it, that's what comes to mind when I see someone calling himself a “working-class Tory”.

[pst314]

For $249 a month (not annually), Prince Harry and Mark Zuckerberg will cure what ails ye.

Harry is already quiet wealthy (about $50 million, according to a fast internet search) so this grift cannot be excused as a desire to cease being poor.

From Wikipedia: "In June 2019, the Duke was present at the launch of Made by Sport, a charity coalition set to raise money to boost sport in disadvantaged communities. In his statement, he lent his support to the charity by arguing that its role in bringing sport into the life of disadvantaged people would save 'hundreds of millions of pounds' towards treating the issues among young people."

That sounds suspiciously like the Midnight Basketball scam that was/is so popular in America.

[pst314]

Restaurants and coffee: How common is it for restaurants to serve decaf to patrons requesting regular, or regular to patrons requesting decaf? Presumably because the staff cannot be bothered to keep too pots going?

[David]

Also from Damian.

[anon a mouse]

"set to raise money to boost sport in disadvantaged communities"

Skools, not so much. But hey, an NBA figure is a far, far better goal than say, a productive human being...

[WTP]

From They/them pronoun earrings

HEAVEN IS NOT AND WILL NEVER BE a queer venue. I’m appalled.

Sure, but when certain religious groups say that ...

[ComputerLabRat]

Restaurants and coffee: How common is it for restaurants to serve decaf to patrons requesting regular, or regular to patrons requesting decaf? Presumably because the staff cannot be bothered to keep too pots going?

Having been a waitress in American dining establishments, I'll take a stab at answering. In the morning, when the coffee demand is high, there are multiple pots going. They may all be regular, and the rare decaf order will be instant coffee, but usually there is a sorry lone small pot dedicated to decaf. Towards evening, the demand for decaf is higher, and if the staff is not going to do both, it's going to be all decaf, to be on the safe side. I've run out of regular at times, and served decaf someone who wanted regular, but never the other way round.

[pst314]

ComputerLabRat: Thank you. I haven't worked in a restaurant since my teens, and that was a fast food joint. I have occasionally wondered about this, which is one of the reasons that I try to bring bottled coffee on long road trips where alertness may be important. The question was brought back to mind by a discussion elsewhere of difficulties encountered by people with food allergies etc.

[ComputerLabRat]

pst314: I should caveat my response with where I worked - mostly fine-dining establishments, and in FL, so the very elderly were the chief customers. For most of them, getting an unexpected jolt of caffeine too late in the day was far worse than not getting any at all (along the lines of your food allergy discussion). The savvy ones who had asked for regular would insist that it be regular, and in those cases, if I was out, I would tell them a fresh pot was brewing and it would be a little. Usually they didn't mind waiting to get their fix.

Lately I have been taking long road trips, and I frequent truck stops almost exclusively on those journeys, for fuel, food, and coffee. I would guess the coffee there is caffeinated if it says it is, truckers and travelers being their chief customers, in need of the buzz, and who would complain if they didn't get it. The coffee is actually pretty good at those big truck stops (in the south anyways).

[ccscientist]

I had to laugh at the "nonbinary" person who had to pick a line to stand in "men" or "women". How dare the world not be 100% psychic!! And what does nonbinary even mean? They can't make up their minds? How can anyone guess about that? I think "it" would be more appropriate.

[David]

He has They/Them pronoun earrings, you know

I think we’ll give that one a post of its own. Comments that-a-way.

[ComputerLabRat]

I had to laugh at the "nonbinary" person who had to pick a line to stand in "men" or "women".

In the comments on that thread, some would point out that there are two human sexes, and that the the entrance lines were being frisked by bouncers, so females may not want to be frisked by, or to frisk, males. Then the very next comment would be "there are more than two genders!".

Whatever happened to Follow Teh Science(tm)! Believe in Science! Gender may be a social construct, but sex is biological. Good grief there completely different internal organs and different gametes produced by each sex. There is far more difference inside and out between males and females than there are between the races, and yet you can't be trans-race no matter how hard you believe. Nor, apparently, can you be trans-weight - anorexics have body dysphoria as real as any of the transgender crowd, but no one is rushing to give them diet pills or perform bariatric surgery on them.

[pst314]

Lately I have been taking long road trips, and I frequent truck stops almost exclusively on those journeys, for fuel, food, and coffee...

I think you are right: They pay careful attention to what their customers want and need.

[Steve E]

The left-leaning are fond of telling you what you can and cannot be, think, believe. My neighbour--an "of-a-type" limousine leftie--told me you can't be fiscally conservative and socially liberal. So I told her you can't be a Real Socialist™ if your husband is the CFO of Pepsi Canada and you're a part time hospital worker.

Needless to say we had very few interactions after that.

[ComputerLabRat]

My neighbour--an "of-a-type" limousine leftie--told me you can't be fiscally conservative and socially liberal. So I told her you can't be a Real Socialist™ if your husband is the CFO of Pepsi Canada and you're a part time hospital worker.

Ha! Good one!

Seriously - CFO of Big Corporation just screams Evil Capitalist. How can she sleep at night? Or maybe she believes in what's-it-called - was linked at this here fine establishment not too long ago - Full Luxury Communism or some such. That still doesn't square the circle though. How can she (and others like her) have so much when others have so little?

[Steve E]

How can she (and others like her) have so much when others have so little?

Their brains are an irony free zone.

[Baceseras]

pst314: old "Born Loser" daily strip:

Brutus: "I'll have a turkey sandwich."
Waitress: "We're outta turkey."
Brutus: [sigh] "All right, then I'll have a chicken sandwich."
Waitress: "Sheez, if we had chicken would I of toldja we're outta turkey?"

[Baceseras]

open thread / open question

Where does the deliberate misspelling of the ("teh") come from? What does it mean?

O.k., two questions.

[pst314]

Where does the deliberate misspelling of the ("teh") come from? What does it mean?

It originated as a typo, and somehow became popular. Decades ago. Shrug.

[Farnsworth M Muldoon]

...somehow became popular...

As 1337 speak but co-opted by normal people usually to imply snark as in "ZOMG! Teh Patriarchy!"

[Squires]

Chief Impact Officer

How many impact tools do they have that they need an officer in charge of them?

[pst314]

Officer to receive impacts? Sort of like a flak catcher?

[Daniel Ream]

and you're a part time hospital worker

I have a number of friends whose wives perform some sort of function at Joe Brant, and every time they try to use said status to lecture the rest of us peons about the Chinese Lung AIDS I amuse myself by reciting the litany of various medical disasters its staff are responsible for, including the time the ER nurses damn near killed me by allowing me to bleed out unattended.

My ex-wife used to nanny for wealthy families like the one you've described, and every single one of them gave her the same instruction: if there's a medical emergency, do not take the children to Joe Brant; drive the extra 15 minutes to St. Joseph's in the next city over.

[Baceseras]

It originated as a typo, and somehow became popular.

I love this sentence. I'm starting a collection of uses of "somehow" as the pivot point in an explanation, on the formula: Obscurity obscurity obscurity /somehow/ clarity. There must be a hundred.

Decades ago. Shrug.

That sounds right. I feel I've been shrugging about it just that long, and only now got around to asking.

by normal people usually to imply snark

Yes, I guess I sensed the snark implication. But I hoped (and I don't know why I hoped this) that there was something more to it too.

[TomJ]

How many impact tools do they have that they need an officer in charge of them?

Several officers, to need a chief one.

[TomJ]

I love this sentence. I'm starting a collection of uses of "somehow" as the pivot point in an explanation, on the formula: Obscurity obscurity obscurity /somehow/ clarity. There must be a hundred.

A radio comedy I listened to where the comedian was describing various films and his reactions to them used the wonderful elision to get to his description of the scenes he wanted to talk about, "...because of some plot".

[asiaseen]

misspelling of the>/i>

In my case it is usually a matter of dyslexic fingers.

Ah! maybe a band name?

[asiaseen]

I did say my fingers are dyslexic and now I can't escape. I apologise on their behalf and will send them to the correction booth forthwith.

[pst314]

[heroically attempts to fix the italics.]I'm starting a collection of uses of "somehow" as the pivot point in an explanation

In my case "somehow" was shorthand for "I don't immediately remember, so I'll just offer what I do know and omit the rest."

[David]

[heroically attempts to fix the italics.]

[ Slides free straw along bar. ]

[pst314]

[ fondles straw ]

[pst314]

Hail to Thee Straws, wearers of lips.
Good, kind, noble and blessed Straws.
Which came to us from Chaos,
To lighten our hearts and uplift our drinks.
O Straws, which have nourished mankind since the dawn of civilization,
Ultimate cylinders, surrounders of fluid,
Hail, Wondrous, battered Buskins!
We adore Thee.
We worship Thee in the fulness of thy Strawness!
O Archetypal drinkgear!
Supreme notion of Straws.
What would we do without Thee?
Wet our beards, soak our shirts, have our bitters go flat.
Protect us, Thy worshippers, good and blessed Drinkgear!

[ComputerLabRat]

It originated as a typo, and somehow became popular. ...
...As 1337 speak

I think this was a crossover from computer geek/early Internet culture.

Probably was originally a typo in a post on one of the old message/bulletin boards, got added to the leet-speak lexicon, and propagated from there.

[Thomas Joyce]

[ Slides free straw along bar. ]

Is it a properly functional plastic straw or an all too soon unusably sodden paper one?

[David]

Is it a properly functional plastic straw or an all too soon unusably sodden paper one?

Wool.

[David]

They were heavily discounted.

[asiaseen]

They were heavily discounted

Baa baa black sheep
Have you any straws?
Yes Sir, no Sir
Too many of the bloody things

[pst314]

Wool.

That explains why all the drinks taste of lanolin.

[Cloudbuster]

One of the replies: "My ex described himself as Working Class when we met, I found this to be untrue. His parents had been raised working class but he hadn’t as his parents had done v well. He then once called me a “council estate retard” in an argument about housework, and voted Tory. Lovely guy Thumbs up"

Is it uncharitable of me to wonder if she really was a "council estate retard?"