Jeffool

You’d think either party would want the chance to talk about their candidate for an extra few months. But maybe they’re worried familiarity breeds contempt.

It’s how “slam” can mean “to say something negative” and yet everyone complains about it too. I don’t have a strong opinion on how valid complaints on either use are, but I see them as comparable.

I think it’s like when people use “scheme”. In the US it has heavy tones of nefarious intent, but it’s still used a lot because some people just don’t think of it that way. (Be it from UK influence or whatever.)

That’s a pretty great quote, thanks.

I think there’s a difference between trying to actively quash public opinion and trying to preemptive self-censorship so others don’t think YOU support something, just because you let the opinion exist on your site. I think this is mostly the latter.

I’m not saying this is good or better, mind you. Preemptive self-censorship just means the people/structure aren’t healthy enough to withstand the pressure they fear, or just fear it unreasonably. People in those positions are often chosen/supported exactly because they’ll toe a line.

It’s a problem. I’m just saying it’s a slightly different problem. Maybe less malicious, more insidious and wide ranging. Maybe.

Not “lost” as in “misplaced”, but “lost” as in “missed the opportunity to bring it in, in the future”.

Maybe! But here’s a 45m video that looks at who he was before, and it ain’t all roses. https://youtu.be/28M_zkoAGQM

When Trump was running the first time for the 2016 election he got a lot of attention for using that word. I remember an NPR host saying how he’d used it before in a similar context that Trump did (a political loss), but at the same time he was regretful about it. I don’t remember the details but actually let me search…

Neal Conan. I’m fairly certain I remember him talking about it on the radio, was why this rang a bell for me. But apparently he even wrote an op Ed about it: https://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-1223-conan-schlonged-20151223-story.html

Conan used it literally once in a political context and regretted it as you can read above. And he seems to have vaguely meant it in a way you might say “wow, they got fucked” as you might say about someone being cheated, or “fucked up” for beaten up. Like ruined in some way, not with a literal sexual meaning, just a vague association because of the word itself.

Not that this makes it any more couth or anything; feel how you want to feel about it. Clearly saying “they got fucked” still has that same vulgar sound, so we avoid it in polite conversation, so I imagined a word that sounds so vulgar would probably be avoided by a high profile politician, as given people feel weird about it. And it happened twice.

I just think it’s interesting that it’s come up again. Language is weird.

Sure it sucks, but it can’t be a surprise anymore.

The username @X was also taken from a user. Same with @Music, who if I recall correctly, was a fan of Musk and was even subscribing to Twitter at the time. They even continued to do what @Music was doing with music recommendations, so it was barely a rebrand. It was basically just hijacking the work someone else put into establishing their social media presence.

I know this is the politics community so forgive me for saying “this comment aside,” but we really need to figure out a cheaper and cleaner way to desalinate seawater.