What the Friedman NYT crowd misses about the "weird" thing is that it names an ugly irony of the far right.
They want SO MUCH for their regressive creepiness to be an enforcement of norms.
But the norms they violently try to enforce are outdated and gone and, well, WEIRD now
It's weird to joke about corrective rape.
It's weird to want to inspect kids' genitals to enforce archaic notions of gender essentialism.
It's weird to want women trapped in abusive marriages.
They WANT these things to be the norms, but they simply aren't.
The "weird" thing lands because more than anything what these people crave is conformity.
They abhor individual expression that might be read as "weird."
And yet it's that very desire for comformity and disgust at nonconformity that MAKES them weird.
And the far right is trying SO hard to "I am rubber and you are glue" us on weirdness, and it isn't working.
Not because plenty of us aren't also different from existing norms, but because we don't give a fuck.
Oh, you think that lib's purple hair is weird?
Well, guess what, no one dyes their hair purple in a desperate quest for comformist normal.
We're fine with our weird, whereas the far right just desperately wants to have their weird be a lauded, rewarded normal.
Our weird is self-acceptance of our difference.
Their weird is a desperate yearning to eradicate anyone different from their outdated, repressive notions of normal.
Which is why our naming their weirdness-- the fact that their ideal norms aren't norms at all-- terrifies them.
That's why @brooklynmarie's point-- we aren't trapped here with them, they're trapped here with us- is so important.
They're a small bunch of weirdos in a world of weird difference, trying to enforce their weird on everyone else because all the other kinds of weird scare them.
That absolute refusal to admit that they aren't actually the norm isn't just posturing, it's denial as psychological defense mechanism.
Conformity is everything to them.
Which means it is just SHATTERING when they are forced to confront the reality of their own weirdness.
And as @brainnotonyet has been saying, the next step is to drive home what exactly their brand of weirdness is: not benign LOTR cosplay or something, not even ambiguous sketchiness, but full-on creepiness.
Specifically, rapey creepiness.
They want to do things to women's bodies without our consent.
And trans people's bodies.
And kids' bodies.
And gender nonconforming bodies.
It is as rapey and creepy as a roofie in your drink.
And we say these MAGA chuds are weird in a creepy and rapey way and we (women in particular) laugh full-throatedly when we do it.
Because that is what they fear more than anything else: being named for the pathetic rapey chuds they are, & laughed at by women for that weirdness.
coincidentally:
1. https://mastodon.social/@blogdiva/112877904458084704
2. https://mastodon.social/@blogdiva/112877893850051749
TL:DR:
weird can be fun. creepy is never, EVER fun. it's mostly laughable but neve fun.
@gwensnyder our weird is individual.
Their weird is about LACK of individuality.
Yeah, I like weird. However whenever I hear it used about those rapey chuds (great phrase new to me) the context makes the phrase “weird and creepy” appear in my mind even if the word “creepy wasn’t used.
Love weird weird... don't so much like the creepy weird. Haven't seen too much weird weird in right-wingers. It's mostly creepy, projection weird.
@gwensnyder omg thank you for saying this out loud
When Texas Lt Gov Dan Patrick first went on his tear with the bathroom bills here, I couldn’t understand why no one else was calling him weird and creepy
And then the Gov and the AG started going along with it - Texas used to be this beautiful bastion of live and let live - aka respecting the fence lines of your neighbor
The original weirdos are here I’m telling you
It’s just skin-crawling to watch what they fixate on
aka WE WON'T GO BACK
@gwensnyder @geoglyphentropy this reminds me of a conversation I had with some more conservative friends of mine. We were camping, just hanging out and having fun, and one of them brought up trans rights for some reason. So I just asked why any of them even cared, because it didn’t actually affect them at all. And they got all upset and offended and tried to say the problem was that trans people keep bringing it up. So I pointed out that there were no trans people in our group, and they themselves just brought it up out of nowhere for no obvious reason, and again: why do they even care?
It was honestly the least welcome I’ve ever been made to feel with that group, with whom I’ve had very good and productive discussions on other topics like gun control and immigration. No other way to describe it than that they are just being *weird*, and do not like that being pointed out.
@josh0 @gwensnyder @geoglyphentropy
You have to wonder why some people think recognizing peoples right to exist gives them some kind of special rights?
@gwensnyder damaged. Weird, weirdo is a play grown accusation when children simply don't understand something, closely associated with then bulling.
Trump is a very 'damaged' individual, that a very damaged, disenfranchised electorate gave power to. Don't create damaged societies, then you won't elected damaged people.
@gwensnyder Remember, women are afraid that men will kill them, but men, on the other hand, are afraid that women will laugh at them.
So laugh.
Laugh loud and long.
Seize your power and let them know we all see them for the laughable fools they are.
They’re trying to kill us anyway, between trying to get rid of Roe and with project 2025, so laugh the motherfuckers out of the public sphere, and back into the shadows of shame where they belong.
The mainstream application of this corrective countermeasure is one of the few things making me optimistic about our future.
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