Donald Trump has risen to the top of the Republican primaries by speaking candidly about his prejudices against immigrants and others. Now the Republican Party has him using code, like resurrecting Richard Nixon’s old “silent majority.”
The Trump Code
Ted Rall
Ted Rall is a syndicated political cartoonist for Andrews McMeel Syndication and WhoWhatWhy.org and Counterpoint. He is a contributor to Centerclip and co-host of "The Final Countdown" talk show on Radio Sputnik. He is a graphic novelist and author of many books of art and prose, and an occasional war correspondent. He is, recently, the author of the graphic novel "2024: Revisited."
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ayup.
I’ve often thought about writing a republican to human dictionary.
“Inner City” => Black
“Family Values” => Homophobia and/or barefoot & pregnant
“Right to work” => union busting
“Defense” => Offence
“Deregulate” => Pollute
“Entrepreneurs” => Koch Bros
“Freedom of Religion” => Government support for Christianity
“Free Speech” => money talks
“Tax Cuts” => Tax cuts for the rich
“Freedom of the press” => Firing cartoonists who won’t toe the line
CrazyH,
Excellent!
And please note, many of these “terms” come up in newspapers all the time. So much for the much-vaunted “lib’ral bias.”
Thanks! 😉
If we ever had a liberal media, it vanished soon after Nixon went down.
I remember the rockin’ radio stations during ‘nam. The DJs were all about peace, love & groovy, speaking out against the war, etc. Contrast that to Iraq, the same damn stations were all about supporting the troops (AKA “supporting the war”) and liberating Iraq (AKA “looting & pillaging”) sometimes even the same DJs.
It’s easy Ted – you want to keep your job? Sell out, man. Everybody else has.
Yes, I remember that. Specifically, the second day of the Gulf War in 1991. Never again was an anti-war protest mentioned on commercial rock radio in the United States.
Progressive to English dictionary:
Urban youths: black teens
Diversity: nonwhite
Anti-racist: anti-white
Oppressor: white man
Victim: woman
Immigrant: nonwhite
Undocumented worker: illegal alien
Single mothers: failures
LBGTQXYZ: homosexuals
Feminist: Marxist
Bigot: traditional man
This is fun! And easy. You want to talk about codes? The Left? Get real! I could go all day but have shit to do.
Jackass to English translation
Aw, CH, don’t feel ronery! You have intelligent friends here!
whi-i-i-iff
«I could go all day but have shit to do.» I fear, «Jack Heart», that you misspoke – surely you meant to say that you «could go on all day» ? But that you have shit to do is beyond doubt ; perhaps you might want to consider dumping a tad less on these threads ?…
Henri
And yet, Democrats NEVER speak in code to their Kool-aide drinkers? Say like, “Standing by the only democracy in the Middle East” = Technologically sponsoring an ethnically annihilating genocide against all non-white, non-Jewish Palestinians in Historic Palestine
.
https://sites.google.com/site/palestiniangenocide/
http://www.juancole.com/2014/08/committing-genocide-palestinians.html
https://electronicintifada.net/
Democrats are just Republicans with a slightly different cultural emphasis.
DanD
Israel is the elephant in the room, absolutely. But it’s also political suicide in this country do to anything other than to pretend that they’re the victims.
Kinda like overpopulation: it’s the root cause of most of our problems, and it will just get worse. Yet not one, single, candidate will dare say anything because it would destroy their chances of getting elected.
Abortion, the pill, delaying marriage, emphasizing women’s education etc. have done wonders to control Western White populations without the hassle of restrictive statutes a la China. It’s the way of the Cultural Marxist. Why use force when you can use propaganda?
Trump is among the only honest American politicians.
These politicians are an evil bunch, but Trump speaks from his true nature while all the other zombies, lizard people, and cannibals try to look like the non-psycho people you’d meet every day.
Bush once spoke truthfully when he repeated publicly that his job, as it had to have been described to him, was to “catapult the propaganda.”
For clarification: Trump speaks from his true EVIL nature.
Bush is unusual among modern politicians in that he somehow managed to become POTUS without ever really wanting the job very much. His great ambition in life was to own a baseball team.
Don’t be so sure Trump believes everything he says. He is a master of persuasion and image.
One would hope that liberals could see that large amounts of immigration and “free trade” deals are not good for the American working class. But that would seem to be a fruitless hope.
None of them mean much of what they say.
Take Obama for example.
Anyone who has been paying attention doesn’t need a laundry list.
But if you have been and don’t know what I’m talking about, you’re hopelessly thick.
You said, “Trump speaks from his true nature.” Somehow I took that to mean you were saying he believes what he says. How thick I am indeed…
“None of them mean much of what they say,” does not mean that “any of them mean ALL of what they say.”
But much of what Trump says is in conformity with the rapacious nature of other Rs and Ds, who dare not use the explicit language that Trump uses.
Trumps language is refreshingly free from self-censorship and coding, hence his popularity among those feeling burdened by PC.
Hate to be that guy, but there’s no N in SEMIOTICS.
Query: If “hard working Americans” is code for “white people”, then what is the code for “hard working Americans”? Or do we think the very idea is non-existent somehow?
“I know that when you say ‘hard-working Americans’ you really mean ‘white people’ ” as a concept has a self-reference problem if you ask me, because the implication is that in the eye of the beholder of the term, that’s what it means, too, otherwise they wouldn’t know the code, of course.
This is not to suggest that Republicans don’t use those words in code as indicated, but when someone who isn’t a Republican uses the term to mean that code, even though it’s an accusation against Republicans, it’s as if an admission that everyone knows what this means, which implies some truth to the idea.
I deny that’s what the words “hard-working Americans” means, and therefore I deny the code other people use for its meaning as “white people” as well, otherwise I think I’m implying in some that the code has some from of validity, and I deny that it does.
Once again, it is demonstrated that the only race not allowed a sense of community or any protection of its culture and values…is whites. This is a dark hour in which so many whites feel more community with people who are in America illegally than they do with the white poor who are citizens.
The Republicans must use symbols because…wait for it…the liberal zeitgeist won’t allow non-PC honesty. If the media were not liberal…codes would be unnecessary. You guys love logic, right?
Yo Ted, I don’t know where you want to draw the line, but somebody is posting actual White Power talking points in your blog comments now. “It’s a dark day for white people” and shit.
Dang, if only I were black! Then I’d be in the clear. I *hate* being white. We’re bad people!
@drooling zomibes – unfortunately, it’s a regular poster. It swallows the stupidest RW propaganda imaginable and regurgitates it here. It’s constantly whining about how hard it is to be a white male in a society dominated by white males. It will insult everyone wholesale then throw an amazing temper tantrum should anyone respond in kind.
But then, that’s how it responds even if you politely point out the logical inconsistencies in the arguments it’s regurgitated. The last thing that you can expect is for it to defend its talking points in a rational manner: it doesn’t understand them in the first place.
It’s obvious that it’s a troll in the purest sense – it posts solely for the thrill of another human being acknowledging its existence. One assumes that it can’t get that acknowledgement in real life. Even our usual wingnut posters ignore it most of the time – I think they’re embarrassed to be associated with it.
The good news is that its misogyny will keep it from reproducing. A better man than me would pity it, for it is truly a pathetic little loser.
Stand by for temper tantrum in 3 … 2 … 1 …
All who reply to me here are civil, excepting yourself. Of course, I post because I have no doubt many of you have little experience of conservatives beyond sporadic contact with a few rednecks, viewing of establishment Republicans, and the nutjob evangelists that the media loves to shame. Echo chambers are not limited to Fox News. And I post for the lurkers.
So much of human behavior can be explained by psychological projection. It’s disconcerting you read so much rage into my comments. Then again, maybe I should be angry. Plenty to get angry over.
You’re on your way out, CH. This century belongs to me and my generation. Perhaps that has something to do with your anger issues. A life of regrets perhaps.
P.S. Women, young and old, love my benevolent sexism. 🙂
@Jack – if I might give you a little editorial advice – the condescending tone doesn’t work when you’re spouting easily-disproven nonsense.
I get notifications when people post on threads I’m watching. I grabbed your last 25 posts prior to this exchange. Then I sat down and counted. Links are below if you’d like to fact check me. (I only spent about ten minutes on it, wouldn’t surprise me if I missed one)
21 of 25 posts of yours were uncivil in one way or another – insulting, degrading, mocking, racist or sexist. The only ones that weren’t were where you were supporting Ted. That means that 100% of your other posts were ‘uncivl’ – what was that you said about trolls? They post to incite negative reactions? By your own definition then, you are a troll. (which comes as a surprise to no one but yourself.)
You said everyone but me treats you civilly? Not so – you had two other people respond in that time. One called you a troll, one called you a white supremacist. The overwhelming majority ignore you as I should do.
You replied directly to my posts ten times – 40% of your posts are directed at me. I’m flattered, really – but each & every one of them was insulting to me. In contrast, I replied to you only three times, each time responding to your personally-insulting post. It never ceases to amaze me how you whine incessantly about me being rude to poor little you – when you are rude to me much more often, and are usually the one to initiate the slappy fight.
Lastly, you recently asked “who appointed you teacher?” – to that I respond, “you did.” Ever since the spanking above, you have bent over backwards trying to respond in a more civil manner. I must have taught you something, eh? God knows *somebody* needs to teach you manners.
raw data:
http://rall.com/comic/the-trump-code#comment-34900
http://rall.com/comic/the-trump-code#comment-34880
http://rall.com/comic/the-trump-code#comment-34879
http://rall.com/comic/the-trump-code#comment-34874
http://rall.com/comic/the-trump-code#comment-34870
http://rall.com/comic/the-trump-code#comment-34868
http://rall.com/comic/the-trump-code#comment-34867
http://rall.com/2015/08/26/here-are-some-of-my-lapd-cartoons-for-the-la-times#comment-34821
http://rall.com/comic/comedy-time#comment-34799
http://rall.com/comic/comedy-time#comment-34798
http://rall.com/comic/comedy-time#comment-34797
http://rall.com/2015/08/13/hillary-doesnt-care-about-abortion#comment-34666
http://rall.com/2015/08/13/hillary-doesnt-care-about-abortion#comment-34665
http://rall.com/2015/08/13/hillary-doesnt-care-about-abortion#comment-34664
http://rall.com/2015/07/22/heres-the-real-reason-why-some-americans-hate-iran-nuclear-deal#comment-34465
http://rall.com/2015/07/15/the-donald-trump-paradox#comment-34423
http://rall.com/2015/07/16/on-tokenism-in-politics#comment-34422
http://rall.com/2015/08/13/hillary-doesnt-care-about-abortion#comment-34650
http://rall.com/2015/08/13/hillary-doesnt-care-about-abortion#comment-34649
http://rall.com/2015/08/13/hillary-doesnt-care-about-abortion#comment-34648
http://rall.com/2015/08/13/hillary-doesnt-care-about-abortion#comment-34647
http://rall.com/2015/08/13/hillary-doesnt-care-about-abortion#comment-34646
http://rall.com/2015/08/13/hillary-doesnt-care-about-abortion#comment-34645
http://rall.com/comic/the-lapd-told-the-la-times-to-fire-me-part-3-of-3#comment-34644
http://rall.com/2015/08/05/woman-shout-cop#comment-34607
Ted, do Republican campaign managers really read Chomsky, Foucault, and Derrida ? Wow !…
Henri