Get the Ricochet app
Ricochet will work fine in a browser on your mobile devices, but for the best experience please download our app.
Powerline’s Scott Johnson quoted Barack Obama from his speech at the DNC last night. See if you notice the same thing I did:
Well, we have a broader idea of freedom. We believe in the freedom to provide for your family if you’re willing to work hard. The freedom to breathe clean air and drink clean water and send your kids to school without worrying if they’ll come home. We believe that true freedom gives each of us the right to make decisions about our own life, how we worship, what our family looks like, how many kids we have, who we marry. And we believe that freedom requires us to recognize that other people have the freedom to make choices that are different than ours. That’s okay.
When I read that, I had two thoughts:
1) That’s a good political speech. Very inspiring.
2) What on earth is he talking about?
I have a lot of friends in Sweden, so I have my Google Translate set on "Swedish to English," to help me understand Facebook posts etc. So I switched it over to "Democrat to Reality," to help me understand Mr. Obama. I fed his speech in, phrase by phrase, and this is what it came up with (remember, Google Translate is not perfect, but I think it got pretty close):
Well, we have a broader idea of freedom.
We’re communists.
We believe in the freedom to provide for your family if you’re willing to work hard.
We believe in forcefully confiscating the property of those who are willing to work hard, so that people who don’t work can get everything for free.
The freedom to breathe clean air and drink clean water.
We believe in somehow convincing people that they don’t have clean air and clean water, and the only way to get them is to vote Democrat.
The freedom to send your kids to school without worrying if they’ll come home.
We believe in using teachers’ unions and other Democrat operatives to destroy our schools, and then convincing people that it’s the Republicans’ fault.
We believe that true freedom gives each of us the right to make decisions about our own life, how we worship, what our family looks like, how many kids we have, who we marry.
** Google Translate crashes – I have to do a hard reboot on my PC – I shut down all other applications, and try again: **
We believe that Communism allows us to marry black Muslim trans-sexual furries and kill our children.
And we believe that freedom requires us to recognize that other people have the freedom to make choices that are different than ours.
And we believe that Communism requires everyone to pretend to believe absolutely everything that we pretend to believe.
That’s okay.
If you disagree with Democrats, you’re evil.
Again, Google Translate sometimes misses shades of meaning or subtleties of language. And translating ideas from Democrat to Reality is inherently difficult, of course.
But there are very few people who are fluent in Democrat who are also aware of Reality. So this is the best we can do.
I wonder what would have happened if Mr. Obama had goofed up and said what he actually meant? Would Democrat voters across America have applauded, like they did for his intentionally deceptive steaming pile of catchphrases?
There is a mobile abortion trailer parked outside the Democrat Convention Hall in Chicago. It is booked solid. Mothers are getting abortions on site, apparently to emphasize how important abortions are to Democrats.
Suppose they decided that even that was too subtle. Suppose, during prime-time coverage, they brought a pregnant mother on stage and an abortionist killed her baby on live TV. They could pipe the Doppler over the sound system, so everyone could hear the heartbeat stop.
Would they applaud?
Some would, I suppose. But I suspect that most Democrat voters would turn their heads and cover their ears, unable to come to terms with what they are supporting. They take similar approaches to immigration, Democrat urban leadership, drug legalization, educational policies, defunding the police, homeless initiatives, and many other elements of Democrat dogma. They turn their heads and cover their ears.
Mr. Obama used extremely vague language for the same reason they didn’t perform an abortion on stage. What he’s proposing is horrifying. And he knows it. So do his supporters. And they will continue to support it only as long as they don’t have to look directly at it. They don’t want to kill their own children. They don’t want to live on the South Side of Chicago. They don’t want homeless heroin addicts camping out on their driveway. They don’t want their kids in Democrat-controlled schools.
The purpose of the Republican Convention is to tell American citizens what they believe in.
The purpose of the Democrat Convention is to conceal what they believe in, giving their supporters plausible deniability so they can vote Democrat without being haunted in their dreams by images of dead babies and dystopian cities.
I’m trying to imagine being a Democrat in that Convention hall. I’m trying to imagine applauding somebody for lying to me – being thankful that they didn’t come right out and say just how horrifying my beliefs really are. Imagine smiling for the camera after actively participating in your own willful deceit.
I just can’t imagine.
Around half of American voters are going to vote Democrat in November.
Absolutely amazing. I just can't imagine.
Discussion (60)
To read this bio, please join Ricochet.
This is part of the five to ten point assistance the partisan media gives to Democrats. They are willing to go along with the concealment plan to get their team in power. A neutral press would dig a bit with one or two follow-up questions, asking for specifics about their plans. An adversarial press would tear the plan apart, as we see when they interview Republicans.
I think it's John Ashbrook with the Ruthless Podcast who has opined that the press only goes after other Democrats if it's in service for a different Democrat.
To read this bio, please join Ricochet.
Your G translation is spot on . However , it cheats . It knows that what ever a democrat says it is the exact opposite . G gets no credit for having the teachers correction form .
To read this bio, please join Ricochet.
Trump campaign people through the RNC have done some translating of their own. I can’t explain the intensity of the almost 5o% anymore than I can explain the vicious intensity of the “abortion any time til they are 21 I guess” mostly women crowd in NH.
kamala2024policies.com
Open link
To read this bio, please join Ricochet.
I read this post and my mind was flooded with thoughts, some of them coherent. I can’t blame that on alcohol. It was a single glass of excellent Chianti after a leisurely late lunch. One thing that came to my mind was the political test that I encountered years ago. It was a grid. The X axis was the standard liberal vs conservative scoring. The Y axis was “authoritarian” to “libertarian”. I knew before taking the test where I’d score: Conservative with libertarian tendencies. I gave the test to some co-workers who considered themselves to be libertarian. All scored as I expected as borderline authoritarian nanny-state liberals and all claimed the test was invalid. I couldn’t decide if they were completely lacking in self-awareness or had just confused “libertarian” with “I want the state to protect me when I do anything stupid.”
The next was the importance of intelligence on political/economic beliefs and actions. The person in question is undoubtedly intelligent; he didn’t get the Stanford Ph. D. in mechanical engineering by being stupid. However, he was concerned that the company stock had lost value. I pointed out that since the company matched his 401K contributions in company stock, he was effectively buying the stock. A 60% match, dollar-for-dollar on the first $8K of his contribution. The oldest rule is “Buy low; sell high”. He was a new-hire and not an old fart like I was. I wanted the stock to be higher in about ten years when I would be cashing in, but he wanted it higher then while he was buying because it made him feel better about the company. Emotion over reason?
Finally, I had read a book by David Berlinski where he talked briefly about the basis of morality. I had been listening to a standard Bay Area liberal and asked if he believed in absolute moral judgements. Of course not, and he was an atheist as well. So, taking a cue from Berlinski, I asked him the basis of his judgements. He started by saying, “We have evolved . . . “That’s all I needed. Pushed on the subject, he had nothing but personal likes and dislikes.
So, the DNC participants? Lacking in self-awareness. Driven by emotion. No belief in moral absolutes, just what they like/dislike. And the government will step in like a wise parent to make it all better.
To read this bio, please join Ricochet.
My translator came out with this:
We believe in the freedom to provide for your family if you’re willing to work hard.
--Living wage/higher minimum wage/labor unions
The freedom to breathe clean air and drink clean water and send your kids to school without worrying if they’ll come home.
--Ban fossil fuels; confiscate guns
We believe that true freedom gives each of us the right to make decisions about our own life, how we worship, what our family looks like, how many kids we have, who we marry.
--Abortion and cross-dressing; paganism; transing the kids; more abortion; same sex/plural marriage
And we believe that freedom requires us to recognize that other people have the freedom to make choices that are different than ours.
--Celebrate perversity
You're seeing five of 60 comments. Sign in, or join for just $5 per month, to read them all and add your own.