The Althouse Files: When Anti-Intellectualism Becomes Just Plain Insulting

 

So much so that even those who really, really, really want to be onboard with the circus can no longer hold their tongue. I will admit that I was already tracking this before the good Professor brought it to worldwide attention in his own style:

They’re terrible people who would happily wreck the country so long as they wound up ruling over the wreckage.

That pretty much nails it…but that shouldn’t obscure the fact that Madam Althouse was on a roll:

[Biden] was forefronting the Charlottesville “fine people” hoax. On his first day of campaigning with his running mate, he led with that. I say “he,” but I don’t really believe it’s him. I think it’s more likely that he’s a foggy-minded figurehead, and other people have decided to frame the message like that. I consider these people — whoever they are — despicable. They have chosen quite deliberately to commit to a lie that is intended to make black people feel hated and they are doing it for political gain.

As my earlier post about the tweet says, I blogged in April 2019, “If Biden does not come forward and retract [a video relying on the Charlottesville hoax] and apologize and commit himself to making amends, I consider him disqualified. He does not have the character or brain power to be President.” Now, more than a year later, Biden has done the opposite. He’s doubled down on the lie and he’s making it the centerpiece of his campaign!

He has decided to run on — his people have decided to run him on — fomenting racial division, fear, and hatred. He could have run on just not being Trump — the simple dream to make America normal again. But he has chosen an eyes-closed nightmare.

[Emphasis added]

And the golden content continued into the comments. (To reduce confusion I will genericize the various twit commenters into a more friendly sounding but still clearly twitty “G-Rob”.):

G-Rob: “Althouse: are you claiming that donald did NOT say: “very fine people on both sides”? coz he DID say that”

Althouse: I know what he said. Do you? Don’t school me on this and I’m not doing remedial teaching. Get the facts. State them here in full form. The string of words “very fine people on both sides” is out of a context. YOU state the context why don’t you? I am completely irritated by this b***s***.

and more:

Althouse: More questions for Biden: Is it good for America to use the term “white supremacists” to refer to people who don’t want to tear down the old statues of Confederate heroes? Is it impossible for people who hold that viewpoint to be fine people? Do you realize that’s what Donald Trump was talking about, that some people who hold that viewpoint might be fine people? If you don’t realize it, how can you be running for President if you’re so woefully and dangerously uninformed? If you do realize it, and you’re saying the things you’re saying, are you a fine person?

[Emphasis added]

Now just rapid fire:

Althouse: I know they are lying, doubling down on the lie they’re so committed to they can’t back out. That’s why I won’t waste my time doing the explanation.

Althouse: Trump made his comment in response to pressing questions on a Sunday morning show. There was an effort to trap him into saying something that could be used against him. It’s not something he was going out of his way to say and repeat. But what Biden and his supporters are doing with it is a DELIBERATE and REPEATED lie and it it done for the purpose of getting political power. It is cynical and actively evil to manipulate people this way. There is a stirring up of racial feelings for political ends. That is evil.

G-Rob: “Does Althouse really not see how Trump’s “very fine people” comment was racially divisive and hurtful?”

Althouse: Yes, the use of it by the Democrats has been racially divisive and hurtful — quite deliberately and deceptively.

Althouse:  [G-Rob], quoting me, you wrote: “‘It is cynical and actively evil to manipulate people this way. There is a stirring up of racial feelings for political ends. That is evil.’ And yet you don’t see as problematic when Trump does the exact same thing.”

Then when bago quoted Trump to you — ““I’m not talking about the neo-Nazis and white nationalists because they should be condemned totally. “Racism is evil, and those who cause violence in its name are criminals and thugs, including the KKK, neo-Nazis, white supremacists, and other hate groups that are repugnant to everything we hold dear as Americans.” — you switched to saying : “I doubt that Trump really believes this. He often backtracks and contradicts himself.”

From “exact same thing” to… exactly the opposite but he probably didn’t mean it.

Absolute b***s*** from you. The definition of b***s***.

(I’m sure there is more in the comments of her other post and at the Instapundit link. Those will have to wait.)

Aside from the pure entertainment value, there is value in this righteous tantrum. There is little doubt that you will soon come across a familiar someone who will throw “the ‘Charlottesville Hoax’ Hoax” turd on the table yet again. Just remember the words and passion of your crazy Aunt Althouse and just how intellectually bankrupt the G-Rob in your world really is.

You are welcome.

Good day.

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  1. Arahant Member
    Arahant
    @Arahant

    philo: You are welcome.

    Thank you.

    • #1
  2. CarolJoy, Above Top Secret Coolidge
    CarolJoy, Above Top Secret
    @CarolJoy

    Every single day I have various snippets of videos sent to me via Twitter. The theme for these videos is this one: due to the ramp up of hatred against whites, violence against whites is now mere “grief.” So therefore it  will be tolerated by mayors and governors who are Democrats.  This theme has now permeated the lower class of criminals in the African American community . These people now use this theme to allow themselves to be triggered by anything they see as “white.”

    One of these videos showed an elderly woman, if IIRC, she was pushing her walker. Anyway she was walking along in that brownstone  area of NYC, and she was going along at a very slow clip. Her status was clearly frail elderly.

    The clip then weaves back about 30 feet and shows a thug coming along, far on the inside of the sidewalk. (The elderly lady is toward the street.) He then proceeds to gallop toward her and with his arms stretched forward, shoves her as far as his 200 lb frame will allow.

    She goes skittering along the sidewalk and falls, possibly breaking a hip. The African American runs off: mission accomplished. The next day the video was re-sent, with a notice that the police were using this video to try and apprehend the perp.

    In two weeks time, I have endured watching black teenage girls assaulting a white girl, probably around age 12. They beat on her relentlessly. The white girl’s crime: sitting at a bus shelter waiting for a bus. I have seen numerous videos of older heftier African American teens pummeling younger white kids.

    And once it comes about that violence  is allowed to control a person’s soul soon means that it is not necessary to be triggered by racial differences. Perhaps the most gut wrenching of all videos I have seen displayed shows thugs beating on other African Americans who were out for some Sunday sunshine in Chicago over this past weekend.

    The mere ability for these half dozen couples to act as though they were middle class, dressed in Sunday finery, let thugs  feel it was okay to swoop down on them there  in Chicago’s south side. These vicious hoodlums then beat on several couples, and possibly several people died after such horrific beatings.

    • #2
  3. philo Member
    philo
    @philo

    An interesting theory:

    If so, expect the stool pigeon networks to be exercised all the way down to the neighborhood level.

    • #3
  4. Hoyacon Member
    Hoyacon
    @Hoyacon

    If we were rating the “big lies” from the left in order from biggest on down, would this be ahead of the Michael Brown hoax?  I’d rank it a bit below, but that’s subjective.  A “top ten” lies is worthy of a post.  I guess Russian collusion would have to be #1.

     

    • #4
  5. Fake John/Jane Galt Coolidge
    Fake John/Jane Galt
    @FakeJohnJaneGalt

    Trump is racist.  It has been said so many time by so many in authority that it is established fact.  Eventually it will be immortalized in art, movie, books, websites so it will be the accepted truth.  Trump will go down as the most racist President in the history of the country, it will be how he is remembered unless another non Democrat wins election.  It is now the Truth greater than truth.

    • #5
  6. philo Member
    philo
    @philo

    Now I see Powerline is on the case too…only with an erroneous question-mark:

    THE SLIMIEST CHARACTER IN AMERICAN POLITICS?

    But let’s not get carried away. Joe Biden (or his far-left inner circle) is as full of hate as ever. We saw this in the opening campaign salvo that Biden and Kamala Harris launched yesterday. Where did they go for an attack on President Trump? To Biden’s long-discredited lie that Trump was somehow responsible for the fact that a tiny handful of white supremacists turned out in Charlottesville several years ago. Seriously, this is apparently the best they’ve got.  …

    As Joe Biden enters the last of his twilight years, it is important to remember that he has long been a voice of hatred and a peddler of division, and remains so today.

     

    • #6
  7. tigerlily Member
    tigerlily
    @tigerlily

    Hoyacon (View Comment):

    If we were rating the “big lies” from the left in order from biggest on down, would this be ahead of the Michael Brown hoax? I’d rank it a bit below, but that’s subjective. A “top ten” lies is worthy of a post. I guess Russian collusion would have to be #1.

     

    Good question. I think the Russia Collusion is the clear #1. However, the Michael Brown “Hands Up Don’t Shoot” lie may have caused (and is still causing) more damage to society. Another I think should rate pretty highly is the “Hydroxychloroquine will kill you” myth which has to have caused some number of deaths for no reason other than to score points against Trump.

    • #7
  8. Acook Coolidge
    Acook
    @Acook

    This is the clip from Harris’s speech that I heard that boggles my mind:

    “He inherited the longest economic expansion in history from Barack Obama and Joe Biden. And then, like everything else he inherited, he ran it straight into the ground. Because of Trump’s failures of leadership, our economy has taken one of the biggest hits out of all the major industrialized nations with an unemployment rate that has tripled as of today. This is what happens when we elect a guy who just isn’t up for the job. Our country ends up in tatters, and so does our reputation around the world.”

    What planet has she been living on the last 4 years?

    • #8
  9. Arahant Member
    Arahant
    @Arahant

    Acook (View Comment):

    This is the clip from Harris’s speech that I heard that boggles my mind:

    “He inherited the longest economic expansion in history from Barack Obama and Joe Biden. And then, like everything else he inherited, he ran it straight into the ground. Because of Trump’s failures of leadership, our economy has taken one of the biggest hits out of all the major industrialized nations with an unemployment rate that has tripled as of today. This is what happens when we elect a guy who just isn’t up for the job. Our country ends up in tatters, and so does our reputation around the world.”

    What planet has she been living on the last 4 years?

    Wow!

    • #9
  10. Stina Inactive
    Stina
    @CM

    philo: He has decided to run on — his people have decided to run him on — fomenting racial division, fear, and hatred. He could have run on just not being Trump — the simple dream to make America normal again. But he has chosen an eyes-closed nightmare.

    I’m reminded of a king, two women, and a baby…

    • #10
  11. TBA Coolidge
    TBA
    @RobtGilsdorf

    Acook (View Comment):

    This is the clip from Harris’s speech that I heard that boggles my mind:

    “He inherited the longest economic expansion in history from Barack Obama and Joe Biden. And then, like everything else he inherited, he ran it straight into the ground. Because of Trump’s failures of leadership, our economy has taken one of the biggest hits out of all the major industrialized nations with an unemployment rate that has tripled as of today. This is what happens when we elect a guy who just isn’t up for the job. Our country ends up in tatters, and so does our reputation around the world.”

    What planet has she been living on the last 4 years?

    These lies are for the people who aren’t paying attention – most of them – but who are busy feeling things. 

    My confidence in my countrymen is not as strong as it once was. 

    • #11
  12. Franco Member
    Franco
    @Franco

    They are shamelessly trying to get the LIV vote. The dumb people vote. The uninformed, easily enraged vote. The herd vote. The tribal vote.

    I wish I understood this earlier.

    They don’t care what we think of them. This is a propaganda war plain and simple. The media is leading the attack. It is sword and shield. 

    For ANYONE on ‘our’ side to act as though this is still a debate, or something that has anything to do with Trump, is idiocy,  or worse, complicity.

     

    • #12
  13. Sisyphus Member
    Sisyphus
    @Sisyphus

    Hoyacon (View Comment):
    I guess Russian collusion would have to be #1.

    Seconded.

    • #13
  14. namlliT noD Member
    namlliT noD
    @DonTillman

    I’ve been following Ann Althouse for a long time.  She’s charming.

    I went to school at UW Madison before she was a law professor there.  And she lives just a few blocks west of the Engineering Campus, in a lovely little area with quaint houses.  So I smile as I recognize the locations in most of her photos.

     

    • #14
  15. Flicker Coolidge
    Flicker
    @Flicker

    Acook (View Comment):
    This is what happens when we elect a guy who just isn’t up for the job.

    How can she say this with a straight face, while encouraging the election of Biden?

    • #15
  16. namlliT noD Member
    namlliT noD
    @DonTillman

    Flicker (View Comment):

    Acook (View Comment):
    This is what happens when we elect a guy who just isn’t up for the job.

    How can she say this with a straight face, while encouraging the election of Biden?

    It’s just words.  Meaning doesn’t matter.

    If she says those words, they might move up in the polls.

    • #16
  17. Sisyphus Member
    Sisyphus
    @Sisyphus

    namlliT noD (View Comment):

    Flicker (View Comment):

    Acook (View Comment):
    This is what happens when we elect a guy who just isn’t up for the job.

    How can she say this with a straight face, while encouraging the election of Biden?

    It’s just words. Meaning doesn’t matter.

    If she says those words, they might move up in the polls.

    Incantations. Directed to the pagan goddess of elections.

    • #17
  18. Flicker Coolidge
    Flicker
    @Flicker

    namlliT noD (View Comment):

    Flicker (View Comment):

    Acook (View Comment):
    This is what happens when we elect a guy who just isn’t up for the job.

    How can she say this with a straight face, while encouraging the election of Biden?

    It’s just words. Meaning doesn’t matter.

    If she says those words, they might move up in the polls.

    Oh, I understand the tactic.  I’m asking about the underlying psychopathy.

    • #18
  19. The Reticulator Member
    The Reticulator
    @TheReticulator

    Flicker (View Comment):

    Acook (View Comment):
    This is what happens when we elect a guy who just isn’t up for the job.

    How can she say this with a straight face, while encouraging the election of Biden?

    She’s a politician, isn’t she?  

    • #19
  20. The Reticulator Member
    The Reticulator
    @TheReticulator

    Flicker (View Comment):

    namlliT noD (View Comment):

    Flicker (View Comment):

    Acook (View Comment):
    This is what happens when we elect a guy who just isn’t up for the job.

    How can she say this with a straight face, while encouraging the election of Biden?

    It’s just words. Meaning doesn’t matter.

    If she says those words, they might move up in the polls.

    Oh, I understand the tactic. I’m asking about the underlying psychopathy.

    The underlying psychopathy is winning. That’s how you win. 

    • #20
  21. MISTER BITCOIN Inactive
    MISTER BITCOIN
    @MISTERBITCOIN

    Kamala isn’t smart but she is callous, calculating, cunning, amoral and immoral.

    She will do anything to gain power.

    She is incredibly fake and everyone knows it.

    My favorite is when she compared KKK to the ‘perception’ of ICE.

    And this I learned today: 

    https://www.breitbart.com/radio/2020/08/13/peter-schweizer-kamala-harris-refused-prosecute-priests-sexual-abuse-churchs-lawyers-funded-her-campaign/

     

    • #21
  22. Fake John/Jane Galt Coolidge
    Fake John/Jane Galt
    @FakeJohnJaneGalt

    Franco (View Comment):

    They are shamelessly trying to get the LIV vote. The dumb people vote. The uninformed, easily enraged vote. The herd vote. The tribal vote.

    I wish I understood this earlier.

    They don’t care what we think of them. This is a propaganda war plain and simple. The media is leading the attack. It is sword and shield.

    For ANYONE on ‘our’ side to act as though this is still a debate, or something that has anything to do with Trump, is idiocy, or worse, complicity.

     

    I wish more people understood this earlier.  Too many on our side want to have a measured debate with a group that has no interest in debate only in winning, by anyway possible.  

    • #22
  23. The Scarecrow Thatcher
    The Scarecrow
    @TheScarecrow

    tigerlily (View Comment):
    Another I think should rate pretty highly is the “Hydroxychloroquine will kill you” myth which has to have caused some number of deaths for no reason other than to score points against Trump.

    (A bit off topic for a second, but I keep wondering this:

    I know HCQ is cheap, but it must be owned and manufactured by somebody.  If a news organization comes flat out and says this stuff will kill you, can’t the manufacturer sue them?

    Sorry, back to the OP.)

    • #23
  24. The Scarecrow Thatcher
    The Scarecrow
    @TheScarecrow

    Acook (View Comment):

    This is the clip from Harris’s speech that I heard that boggles my mind:

    “He inherited the longest economic expansion in history from Barack Obama and Joe Biden. And then, like everything else he inherited, he ran it straight into the ground. Because of Trump’s failures of leadership, our economy has taken one of the biggest hits out of all the major industrialized nations with an unemployment rate that has tripled as of today. This is what happens when we elect a guy who just isn’t up for the job. Our country ends up in tatters, and so does our reputation around the world.”

    What planet has she been living on the last 4 years?

    Exactly the question I asked when I read that.  Does this kind of tactic work – balls-out lying?

    • #24
  25. Arahant Member
    Arahant
    @Arahant

    The Scarecrow (View Comment):
    Does this kind of tactic work – balls-out lying?

    With about 40% of the population, give or take a few.

    • #25
  26. namlliT noD Member
    namlliT noD
    @DonTillman

    Arahant (View Comment):

    The Scarecrow (View Comment):
    Does this kind of tactic work – balls-out lying?

    With about 40% of the population, give or take a few.

    And when repeated sufficiently…

    • #26
  27. Franco Member
    Franco
    @Franco

    Arahant (View Comment):

    The Scarecrow (View Comment):
    Does this kind of tactic work – balls-out lying?

    With about 40% of the population, give or take a few.

    That’s what they think Trump is doing. And they think it’s very effective. They’ve been stymied despite all their efforts.

    Then again, this is another form of projection.

    It’s calculated projection:Claim your opponent is doing something you are planning to do.

    Classic Freudian projection is more akin to, someone who is inherently a thief, carefully locks up his valuables because he thinks everyone else is like him.

    Of course, politicians lie, but we used have this profession called “ journalism” to keep them from being too ridiculous.

     

    • #27
  28. Sisyphus Member
    Sisyphus
    @Sisyphus

    Franco (View Comment):

    Arahant (View Comment):

    The Scarecrow (View Comment):
    Does this kind of tactic work – balls-out lying?

    With about 40% of the population, give or take a few.

    That’s what they think Trump is doing. And they think it’s very effective. They’ve been stymied despite all their efforts.

    Then again, this is another form of projection.

    It’s calculated projection:Claim your opponent is doing something you are planning to do.

    Classic Freudian projection is more akin to, someone who is inherently a thief, carefully locks up his valuables because he thinks everyone else is like him.

    Of course, politicians lie, but we used have this profession called “ journalism” to keep them from being too ridiculous.

    It is a simple Maoist technique to neutralize criticism. If I accuse my opponent of what I am doing, their accusations of me will sound hollow and defensive even as I stand dripping in a pool of blood.

    • #28
  29. Arahant Member
    Arahant
    @Arahant

    “They think they see me, but they’re looking in a mirror.”

    • #29
  30. Rodin Member
    Rodin
    @Rodin

    Hoyacon (View Comment):

    If we were rating the “big lies” from the left in order from biggest on down, would this be ahead of the Michael Brown hoax? I’d rank it a bit below, but that’s subjective. A “top ten” lies is worthy of a post. I guess Russian collusion would have to be #1.

     

    Scott Adam’s take (I am interpreting him now) on why the “Fine People” hoax is worse than the “hands up don’t shoot” hoax, is that the latter, bad as it is, attacks a law enforcement subset of the population, while the former paints everyone who supports President Trump as a neo-nazi. If you are believed to be a “for real” neo-nazi then violence against you may be justified by the Left. That puts 65,000,000 or so at risk of physical harm. Just the other day someone drove by Adams’ home and called out that Adams was a racist. 

    • #30
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