https://x.com/Sassafrass_84/status/1818709222936264767
Democrats say they're the party of free-thinking non-conformists, but they're the opposite. They demand greater censorship. They weaponize the courts. And now they're promoting closed-minded conformity and obedience to authority in their mean-girl war on "weirdness."
Democrats’ War On “Weird" Exposes Party's Authoritarian Turn
Liberals have lost sight of the difference between "strange" and "harmful"
Who are the weird ones? (Opening ceremony to the Olympics.)
You may have noticed that Democrats have been successfully labeling various statements and positions by Republicans in general and Vice Presidential candidate JD Vance in particular as “weird.” In response, Republicans have pointed out all the things about the Democrats that are weird. If both parties agree on anything, it’s that being weird is bad.
But that’s surprising because until recently, it seemed like Democrats and liberals were all about celebrating weirdness, which is really just another word for “strange,” or being a nonconformist.
For over a quarter century, the liberal city of Austin has had “Keep Austin Weird” as its unofficial and then official slogan. And Apple’s “Think Different” advertising campaign remains iconic for celebrating society’s nonconforming rebels, all of whom were somewhat weird and some of whom were very weird.
Celebrating weirdness has been at the center of liberal pop culture for decades. The liberal TV show Portlandia gently teased but also celebrated the weirdness of Portland. Hugely popular movies, from Breakfast Club to School of Rock and Booksmart, are all about recognizing the importance of strange and weird characters and showing how they really aren’t so strange and weird after all.
The chorus of one of the best songs of the 1990s is “Creep” by the uber-liberal band Radiohead: “I’m a creep, I’m a weirdo / What the hell am I doing here?/I don’t belong here.” The hero of most teen dramas isn’t the popular kid; it’s the weird kid who refuses to conform and even goes on to save the world.
Now, it’s true that most people fantasize more about being cultural rebels than actually being rebels. We love watching movies about nonconformists, but most of us don’t want to be nonconformists. The social consequences are simply too high. We might alienate family, friends, and colleagues.
But for seven decades since World War II, the Democrats have been the party most open to the weird and nonconformist, and it’s been the Republicans who have been the party of normality and conformity. Conservative culture traditionally doesn’t celebrate weirdness; it mostly celebrates order and conformity, from making your bed and going to work to getting married and raising children.
The problem for Democrats is that they have lost the ability to distinguish between what’s weird and what’s harmful. The problem with the trans movement is that it’s harmful, not simply that it’s weird. Giving drugs and performing surgeries to children, adolescents, and vulnerable adults in an effort to change their sex isn’t just weird, it’s harmful. And enabling addicts and the untreated mentally ill to camp, use drugs, and die on sidewalks isn’t just weird, it’s harmful.
Worse, when anyone criticizes Democrats for hurting people, whether on trans, homeless, or other issues, they turn around and accuse their critics of being weird for being concerned.
Today, Democrats are labeling things weird in the same way that some conservative Republicans have labeled things “deviant” since the 1950s. But calling something deviant or weird is simply points out that it is outside the norm, not why it’s wrong.
Consider that the Democrats’ main line of attack on JD Vance is for his statements in support of people having children. And yet his policies to financially incentivize parents to have children are hugely popular, including with Democrats, and thus, by definition, not weird at all.
As such, Democrats are making a fundamentally authoritarian attack on Republicans. In calling Republicans weird, Democrats are emphasizing not that they think Republican policies hurt women, children, and the environment, which is the traditional Democratic message, but rather that Republicans are outside the norm. Republicans like Vance, Democrats are saying, hold fringe, deviant, and strange views.
And it’s proven to be an extremely powerful line of attack, leaving Republicans to protest that Democrats are even weirder than they are, thereby accepting the Democrats’ framing of Republicans as weird and weirdness as bad.
So what’s going on here, exactly? How did Democrats go from being the party of nonconforming, rule-breaking, and weirdness to the party of conformity, rule-following, and enforcing norms in the blink of an eye? And why does the accusation appear to be working when, in so many other situations, weirdness sells?
