A Broadway performance wouldn't really match it because part of why this feels so off is that UFC is a very low-brow event, while Broadway is culturally still middle-to-high-brow. Hamilton especially was mainstream enough that even Mike Pence notably went to see it in New York.
I think a more accurate hypothetical mirror that isn't a crazy thing that nobody would ever like would be something like a drag show, assuming it was one of those real vulgar ones and not the gentrified family-friendly ones, and that would also open up a clearer lane for some similar crass personal insults to be directed at Trump's family. Hard to imagine any actual presidents or current notable candidates doing that, but if there was a Dem mirror of Trump, that's how they'd do it.
Hamilton actually had a soft debut AT the White House, when Lin Manuel Miranda performed the title track at an event with Obama before he even wrote the entire musical.
Progs might go fo the drag show, but the quintessential liberal performance is a post-2015 Jordan Peele production that everyone pretends to have enjoyed.
Meet Jordan Peele. He seemed to legitimately like the Twilight Zone, and he could have still been a little political with it if , he just had just made the message a little more subtle and nuanced, but that was not the order of the day in ….a pretty over the top version of the Twilight Zone.
Also, don't say “fuck” on the Twilight Zone, it's just weird man. It's the Twilight Zone. It's like when Showtime put tits in the Outer Limits.
Now Tales from the Crypt, I want that dirty as fuck, yo.
link worked ok on my desktop (I clicked it before seeing Elisabeth K's warning). I did not remember this event, but yes, it's pretty much the opposite of the UFC fight, except that many libs are not actual fans of drag. They support drag shows on principle without turning out to see them.
This is a good argument. It makes me wonder for the first time along what axis we are trying to compare. Same impact Trump's event has on other conservatives or on liberals? Or are we going for some abstract trait matchup, e.g. incidental (as opposed to a rally) partisan appeal, politically tainted, flashy?
Jeff's joking suggestion is obviously "impact on the other party." Theatre is probably "impact on the same party." Your suggestion is close to the trait lineup, though I suspect, with no evidence of my own, no matter how often they appear in the news, that drag shows are less accepted among Dem voters than MMA is accepted among GOP voters, which is why I lean Broadway.
No it wouldn't! By using bigoted slurs (isn't that a tautology?) people can shut it down immediately for that reason. If he hadn't used the slurs (not sure what slurs he was using, but no matter, you saw them), than he would have been rejected for a dog whistle or a phobia. Or maybe just for "but trump is worse".
My point is, the argument won't go anywhere, regardless of who it's framed, because it's the message that is immediately rejected.
How fair and just of Trump to make millions off of the public office and use the federal budget as his own piggy bank, and how fortunate you are to have a champion who can really rub it in the Left’s face (because of course the Left is a distinct organization that can be distinguished from the general public).
I'm trying to think of the most recent explicitly rightwing art I enjoyed...Pixer I guess. Sometimes I enjoy things and a Prog tells me it was actually right-wing and I am wrong for enjoying it. But that feels different from knowing it was rightwing to begin with.
The equivalent in terms of a left-leaning but still broadly popular event would be basically any musical performance. If a previous administration aired a special event at the White House with Springsteen and his ilk spewing similar left wing coded tripe between songs no one would bat an eye.
I think this gets at the main issue with trying to imagine a comparison. The equivalent leftist event at the WH would have a different tone that may read as condescending but wouldn't be as blatantly mocking. But a different GOP President also wouldn't be as blatantly mocking. That we are letting Trump's event stand in for "a typical conservative President's birthday party" is recency bias with a dash of Jeff's forward looking dread of normalization.
There are positive arguments to make - I imagine - for a UFC event for the President, but conservatives are under no obligation to defend this particular mix of campaigning, incoherent targeted hate (at Obama here), and corporate sponsorship.
Agreed. The left wing version of right wing crassness is knowing condescension. Because the annoying condescending left dominates high brow culture, it wouldn’t be as in your face, blatantly low brow and vulgar.
At the same time, if Trump was a normal president (as in, less openly lawless and sloppy), and he was just a huge UFC fan, in and of itself, I would have no issue with the president hosting a sporting event of his choosing on the lawn. If he were, well, someone else, he would have invited members of the opposition party and made it non-political. Maybe had ticket sale revenue for charity.
Sure, UFC is stupid, but it’s pretty mainstream, and quite popular.
It's Trump fighting a proxy war through his MMA buddies. What I enjoyed the most was watching Elon try to enjoy the mosquitos, sweat stink and the entertainment in front of him. That facial expression was priceless.
It kind of is inconceivable. It would be pretty shocking if Biden had a celebrity guest performing at the White House who shouted that out, and they would have been embarrassedly shuffled off the stage if they did it.
I forgot about that shitshow. Montoya is such a cunt, "I was simply living my joy and my truth and existing in my body" After flashing her fake tits at an event with children! Biden did so much for progressives and all they ever did was embarrass and undermine him.
Fine column, overall, with some reasonable points expressed with humor and self-effacement (I bet it would take at least $1000 for the Tomb standup). Just a few notes: First, the event was fun, and Democrats do not do fun (or even know how to). Second, Obama certainly does not do fun, see Brutalist Chicago memorial as summary of his reign of contempt for actual citizens. Third, Fox would not have called for Obama to be killed with farm or any other implements if he had accidentally done something fun; as the rednecks say, "We hated Obama--but we did not try to assassinate him three times."
I wonder if even first-term Trump would have done this🤔 The second Trump admin feels like a bonus round for subscribers only, no more pretenses or conventional stuff. Never thought I’d miss our 45th president.
I literally LOL'd at "Lena Dunham Presents The Queering of D-Day" but didn't the Left already do this when they had the Pride day celebration in 2023 on the White House lawn, and some trans person(s) were taking topless pictures of themselves, showing their breast removal scars?
And some commenters, not myself, might steal a joke he heard decades ago and say a UFC fight is gayer than a Pride day event since the UFC fighters are wearing very small and tight shorts and gloves and are fighting over a belt and purse...
Let's be bluntly, cruelly honest here: there wouldn't be an equivalent, because the Left wouldn't have the temerity to do anything quite so shocking, interesting or, let's face it, popular* in the first place. Anything the Left would do would that wasn't the same old black-tie high-culture tediously-worthy cultural "popular**" events would be focus-grouped and consulted and sanitised to death well before anyone started building an octagon on the White House lawn. One has to grudgingly hand it to Trump; he knows full well that in the '80s frat-house Slobs vs Snobs comedy that is contemporary American politics, no matter how crude the Slobs get deep down everyone would rather be them than the Snobs, because the Slobs do crazy-but-at-the-same-time-kinda-cool stuff like this while the Snobs are too busy worrying whether or not the rod up the butt of the rod up their butt could use a rod up it's butt.
* In a "low-culture blockbuster lots of 'ordinary' people watch it" sense, not so much a "opinion poll" sense
** In a "the tastemakers and cultural elites are talking about it and seeing it so everyone else has to at least hear about it, but most people will never actually get to experience it in person and probably wouldn't if they could" sense
I'm trying to think of a neutral term for "garish" but they are all less honest. Few people's visual tastes are as poor as Trump's even if the activity is perfectly anodyne, and there's no use pretending otherwise when imagining the comparison. That said, Broadway is capable of being as garish as anything dreamed up by King Louis back in the day, so I think the equivalent would be a Tony awards style medley performance with full costume. Also, and this is important for the comparison, it would have prominently displayed corporate sponsors on the stage, probably from a grocery store coded as farm fresh and also Chase bank.
More In Common says that the politics of MMA fans are split pretty evenly. I think it's mainly the grift and the glorification of Trump that tweaked the libs. https://moreincommon.substack.com/p/making-sense-with-more-in-common-8df The sanctity of the WH is just the excuse, just as it was just the excuse for hating on Obama's tan suit.
Not that it matters, and I’m fine whether you would have liked it or not, but did you even see any of the card, Maurer? Particularly the headliner event?
A Broadway performance wouldn't really match it because part of why this feels so off is that UFC is a very low-brow event, while Broadway is culturally still middle-to-high-brow. Hamilton especially was mainstream enough that even Mike Pence notably went to see it in New York.
I think a more accurate hypothetical mirror that isn't a crazy thing that nobody would ever like would be something like a drag show, assuming it was one of those real vulgar ones and not the gentrified family-friendly ones, and that would also open up a clearer lane for some similar crass personal insults to be directed at Trump's family. Hard to imagine any actual presidents or current notable candidates doing that, but if there was a Dem mirror of Trump, that's how they'd do it.
Hamilton actually had a soft debut AT the White House, when Lin Manuel Miranda performed the title track at an event with Obama before he even wrote the entire musical.
Progs might go fo the drag show, but the quintessential liberal performance is a post-2015 Jordan Peele production that everyone pretends to have enjoyed.
Meet Jordan Peele. He seemed to legitimately like the Twilight Zone, and he could have still been a little political with it if , he just had just made the message a little more subtle and nuanced, but that was not the order of the day in ….a pretty over the top version of the Twilight Zone.
Also, don't say “fuck” on the Twilight Zone, it's just weird man. It's the Twilight Zone. It's like when Showtime put tits in the Outer Limits.
Now Tales from the Crypt, I want that dirty as fuck, yo.
I quite liked Nope.
I quite liked, "You done messed up A A ron" but that was 2012.
I quite liked, "You done messed up A A ron" but that was 2012.
Nope was post 2015, so I thought it was relevant.
Peele's fine. I didn't like Us but I don't think everyone is only pretending to enjoy his stuff.
🥱🥱🥱 It's not hypothetical at all. https://www.truthrevolt.org/news/obamas-legacy-first-drag-queen-performance-white-house
link worked ok on my desktop (I clicked it before seeing Elisabeth K's warning). I did not remember this event, but yes, it's pretty much the opposite of the UFC fight, except that many libs are not actual fans of drag. They support drag shows on principle without turning out to see them.
Do not click this link on mobile unless you want to be redirected to what looked like TikTok for camgirls.
This is a good argument. It makes me wonder for the first time along what axis we are trying to compare. Same impact Trump's event has on other conservatives or on liberals? Or are we going for some abstract trait matchup, e.g. incidental (as opposed to a rally) partisan appeal, politically tainted, flashy?
Jeff's joking suggestion is obviously "impact on the other party." Theatre is probably "impact on the same party." Your suggestion is close to the trait lineup, though I suspect, with no evidence of my own, no matter how often they appear in the news, that drag shows are less accepted among Dem voters than MMA is accepted among GOP voters, which is why I lean Broadway.
We don't have to imagine it. The Biden Admin did some pride event with a bunch of topless trans people and stuff.
The left has no problem letting its freak flag fly on the WH either.
In the future, your arguments will carry more weight and be more effective if you refrain from using bigoted slurs.
No it wouldn't! By using bigoted slurs (isn't that a tautology?) people can shut it down immediately for that reason. If he hadn't used the slurs (not sure what slurs he was using, but no matter, you saw them), than he would have been rejected for a dog whistle or a phobia. Or maybe just for "but trump is worse".
My point is, the argument won't go anywhere, regardless of who it's framed, because it's the message that is immediately rejected.
Might I suggest the distinctions:
Bigoted Slur: "Clankers can't be trusted"
Bigoted: "Androids just aren't real people so I can't trust them"
Slur: "He's the best clanker I ever fought beside"
Is that a slur? I never thought so.
An edit would be appreciated— “trans people”.
ok
Thanks. People are entitled to their opinions around here but we have to keep it respectful.
What slurs?
Another commenter pointed out the false equivalency in your comment. That "bunch of topless trans people"? Their behavior wasn't wanted, and the Biden Admin distanced itself from it, saying that those people would not be invited again: https://www.imightbewrong.org/p/what-would-the-left-wing-equivalent/comment/277250405
And, Obama defiled the inside of the White House with drag shows. Such a family man. Allow me to introduce you to Shi-Queeta-Lee: https://www.truthrevolt.org/news/obamas-legacy-first-drag-queen-performance-white-house
Videos please
It's astounding that people on the Left can think to write an article like this when they've so blatantly already done this.
The Right is never original. The Right is only ever giving the Left tastes of its own medicine.
How fair and just of Trump to make millions off of the public office and use the federal budget as his own piggy bank, and how fortunate you are to have a champion who can really rub it in the Left’s face (because of course the Left is a distinct organization that can be distinguished from the general public).
The right also does in better, in that they make sure to profit off of it when they do it.
I'm trying to think of the most recent explicitly rightwing art I enjoyed...Pixer I guess. Sometimes I enjoy things and a Prog tells me it was actually right-wing and I am wrong for enjoying it. But that feels different from knowing it was rightwing to begin with.
There is nothing remotely right wing about Disney. They are the tip of the culture war spear.
Pixar is right-wing? I mean, I could see The Incredibles as being right-wing, but that's really it.
Perhaps this is a nod to the “everything that isn’t far-left is far-right” sentiment that’s become so popular on the Left?
Brad Bird works sometimes have a touch of objectivst thought to them. https://saxonbullock.com/2015/06/13/movie-analysis-the-politics-of-tomorrowland-or-how-i-learned-to-stop-worrying-if-brad-bird-is-an-objectivist/
Jeff, don’t forget the forty-five-minute land acknowledgment that would precede The Queering of D-Day.
And another 45 minutes of them stating their pronouns and then verbally describing their appearance in case anyone blind is in the audience.
The equivalent in terms of a left-leaning but still broadly popular event would be basically any musical performance. If a previous administration aired a special event at the White House with Springsteen and his ilk spewing similar left wing coded tripe between songs no one would bat an eye.
"Michelle Obama is a man" isn't exactly coded. It's blatant.
The equivalent would be Springsteen ending his show with "Melania Trump is a hooker!"
I think this gets at the main issue with trying to imagine a comparison. The equivalent leftist event at the WH would have a different tone that may read as condescending but wouldn't be as blatantly mocking. But a different GOP President also wouldn't be as blatantly mocking. That we are letting Trump's event stand in for "a typical conservative President's birthday party" is recency bias with a dash of Jeff's forward looking dread of normalization.
There are positive arguments to make - I imagine - for a UFC event for the President, but conservatives are under no obligation to defend this particular mix of campaigning, incoherent targeted hate (at Obama here), and corporate sponsorship.
Agreed. The left wing version of right wing crassness is knowing condescension. Because the annoying condescending left dominates high brow culture, it wouldn’t be as in your face, blatantly low brow and vulgar.
At the same time, if Trump was a normal president (as in, less openly lawless and sloppy), and he was just a huge UFC fan, in and of itself, I would have no issue with the president hosting a sporting event of his choosing on the lawn. If he were, well, someone else, he would have invited members of the opposition party and made it non-political. Maybe had ticket sale revenue for charity.
Sure, UFC is stupid, but it’s pretty mainstream, and quite popular.
It's Trump fighting a proxy war through his MMA buddies. What I enjoyed the most was watching Elon try to enjoy the mosquitos, sweat stink and the entertainment in front of him. That facial expression was priceless.
How many celebrities have said Trump is a Russian asset?
I don't know any who have done so while being paid to perform at the White House.
Because the event didn't occur, not because it's inconceivable, they've said it at virtually every other event
It kind of is inconceivable. It would be pretty shocking if Biden had a celebrity guest performing at the White House who shouted that out, and they would have been embarrassedly shuffled off the stage if they did it.
You can imagine that all you want, but given the reception such statements got elsewhere it's highly unlikely it would suddenly be treated with appall
Sure. So there is no comparison at all. Thanks.
No, one is a hypothetical is all, but didn't occur isn't the same as couldn't occur
On the White House grounds? Those who have had the good sense to make sure it wasn't broadcast.
There was that Christmas tap dancing thing.
I was vaguely aware of this, and that it was his birthday, but I certainly didn't bother watching or searching out news clips.
Anyway, didn't we already have the left-wing equivalent with the trans toplessness on the White House lawn?
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-65898998
You mean those individuals who exposed themselves in public and were banned from future White House events?
I look forward to seeing Dana White banned from ever again entering the White House, too. That announcement is forthcoming, I am sure.
I forgot about that shitshow. Montoya is such a cunt, "I was simply living my joy and my truth and existing in my body" After flashing her fake tits at an event with children! Biden did so much for progressives and all they ever did was embarrass and undermine him.
Fine column, overall, with some reasonable points expressed with humor and self-effacement (I bet it would take at least $1000 for the Tomb standup). Just a few notes: First, the event was fun, and Democrats do not do fun (or even know how to). Second, Obama certainly does not do fun, see Brutalist Chicago memorial as summary of his reign of contempt for actual citizens. Third, Fox would not have called for Obama to be killed with farm or any other implements if he had accidentally done something fun; as the rednecks say, "We hated Obama--but we did not try to assassinate him three times."
Who's that motherfucker in the video?
He’s a decent up-and-coming fighter who’s heavily promoting himself by being a douche bag heel.
Well mission accomplished I guess.
He’s a tool. I love UFC fighters who have humility. This clown will soon get his face beat and a flood of schadenfreude will erupt across the land.
I wonder if even first-term Trump would have done this🤔 The second Trump admin feels like a bonus round for subscribers only, no more pretenses or conventional stuff. Never thought I’d miss our 45th president.
I literally LOL'd at "Lena Dunham Presents The Queering of D-Day" but didn't the Left already do this when they had the Pride day celebration in 2023 on the White House lawn, and some trans person(s) were taking topless pictures of themselves, showing their breast removal scars?
And some commenters, not myself, might steal a joke he heard decades ago and say a UFC fight is gayer than a Pride day event since the UFC fighters are wearing very small and tight shorts and gloves and are fighting over a belt and purse...
https://www.theatermania.com/news/review-in-slam-frank-anne-frank-gets-the-hamilton-treatment_1806777/
"The Thanksgiving press conference where the president pardons a turkey (and the turkey then proceeds to commit a triple-homicide)"
So why are you wasting time writing blog posts, when you should be pitching that movie?
Choreography by *Danny* Glover? Respectfully, I think he may be gettin' too old for this shit.
Let's be bluntly, cruelly honest here: there wouldn't be an equivalent, because the Left wouldn't have the temerity to do anything quite so shocking, interesting or, let's face it, popular* in the first place. Anything the Left would do would that wasn't the same old black-tie high-culture tediously-worthy cultural "popular**" events would be focus-grouped and consulted and sanitised to death well before anyone started building an octagon on the White House lawn. One has to grudgingly hand it to Trump; he knows full well that in the '80s frat-house Slobs vs Snobs comedy that is contemporary American politics, no matter how crude the Slobs get deep down everyone would rather be them than the Snobs, because the Slobs do crazy-but-at-the-same-time-kinda-cool stuff like this while the Snobs are too busy worrying whether or not the rod up the butt of the rod up their butt could use a rod up it's butt.
* In a "low-culture blockbuster lots of 'ordinary' people watch it" sense, not so much a "opinion poll" sense
** In a "the tastemakers and cultural elites are talking about it and seeing it so everyone else has to at least hear about it, but most people will never actually get to experience it in person and probably wouldn't if they could" sense
I'm trying to think of a neutral term for "garish" but they are all less honest. Few people's visual tastes are as poor as Trump's even if the activity is perfectly anodyne, and there's no use pretending otherwise when imagining the comparison. That said, Broadway is capable of being as garish as anything dreamed up by King Louis back in the day, so I think the equivalent would be a Tony awards style medley performance with full costume. Also, and this is important for the comparison, it would have prominently displayed corporate sponsors on the stage, probably from a grocery store coded as farm fresh and also Chase bank.
More In Common says that the politics of MMA fans are split pretty evenly. I think it's mainly the grift and the glorification of Trump that tweaked the libs. https://moreincommon.substack.com/p/making-sense-with-more-in-common-8df The sanctity of the WH is just the excuse, just as it was just the excuse for hating on Obama's tan suit.
Not that it matters, and I’m fine whether you would have liked it or not, but did you even see any of the card, Maurer? Particularly the headliner event?
Absolutely top tier.