Topic: 2012: The Mayans Warned Us Of Stupid Elections (Read 91452 times)

Mongrel · « **Reply #700 on:** March 30, 2012, 07:36:55 AM »

Man, why didn't I just post the obvious:

Blazing Saddles: "The sheriff is a ..."

EDIT: Actually this scene fits better

Blazing Saddles Can't you see

James Edward Smith · « **Reply #701 on:** March 30, 2012, 11:50:58 AM »

Clearly he was about to say "nicotine addict".

What I find so interesting about this is that for such a slip up to occur, it suggests that he's been saying "Government Nigger" either very frequently, or very recently before this speech. I can't think of why else he would almost say Nigger. I assume he stopped saying it because he realized this speech was being filmed. It conjures up an image in my mind of him either saying this term a lot to supporters or hearing it a lot from them. Either way I think it speaks strongly to the sort of people who would go to one of his rallies which is a lot more interesting to me than just the fact that he almost said it.

I know that Rick Santorum is a stupid ass hole, he didn't need to do this to prove that to me. We've all known that for a long time and Dan Savage got his name wrecked and all that. But knowing how racist a lot of his supporters are is sort of new information for me, as naive as that may make me.

Shinra · « **Reply #702 on:** March 30, 2012, 01:25:43 PM »

the big tell to me that he was going to say 'nigger' is the awkward stuttering. it's like you can hear him putting on the verbal brakes.

A² · « **Reply #703 on:** March 30, 2012, 01:55:21 PM »

Behind the scenes, Santorum's campaign staff is calling their families going "Yeah, I'll be home early."

NexAdruin · « **Reply #704 on:** March 30, 2012, 03:47:22 PM »

Quote from: Demosprite on March 30, 2012, 01:55:21 PM

Behind the scenes, Santorum's campaign staff is calling their families going "Yeah, I'll be home early."

They should have been saying this a long time ago. How the fuck has Santorum even made it this far? This isn't even the first time he caught himself saying something racist on camera (or am I misremembering the video of someone saying "bla- people on welfare?").

What the hell is a government nigger anyway. I've never heard this term before. A black person on welfare? A black person who supports welfare?

Thad · « **Reply #705 on:** March 30, 2012, 04:56:46 PM »

Yeah, about the only thing you can say to give him the benefit of the doubt is that the phrase doesn't actually make any sense.

Guardian says,

Quote from: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2012/mar/30/rick-santorum-slip-n-word

What word beginning with "nig-" comes naturally after government? It has been suggested he was trying to say "-nik", as in peacenik or beatnik. That is possible. Or perhaps, it was some non-specific verbal tic: a random vowel-consonent flub.

I guess "nig" sorta resembles "ment" and it could have been the world's most unfortunate stammer. (Try saying them both out loud and pay attention to where and how your tongue moves.)

(EDIT TO ADD: "Anti-war" matches "peacenik"; has he ever used that word?)

But, one, we already know the dude's a bigot -- it's kind of his thing -- and two, he's already done the "try to course correct mid-word" thing with a word that sounded a hell of a lot like "black". And three, the "no one running for public office could ever be stupid enough to say that out loud" defense doesn't really apply to a guy who recently said "I don't care what the unemployment rate is going to be."

Ultimately, it's fucking baffling, he's probably got plausible deniability, and it's not like he was ever going to be the nominee anyway.

I think really the upshot is going to be a pretty amazing Larry Wilmore bit on Monday's Daily Show.

Shinra · « **Reply #706 on:** March 30, 2012, 05:38:56 PM »

Quote

Ultimately, it's fucking baffling, he's probably got plausible deniability, and it's not like he was ever going to be the nominee anyway.

n-no! santorum still has a chance! h-h-he can do it!

come on, people. Santorum vs Obama in a debate would have been the single greatest moment of our lives.

François · « **Reply #707 on:** March 30, 2012, 05:56:28 PM »

Obama wouldn't even need to say a single word. He'd just have to practice his horrified face beforehand, and then silently put it on for every second of his allotted time. Maybe every once in a while he could shake his head in mock disbelief.

Brentai · « **Reply #708 on:** March 30, 2012, 05:57:09 PM »

Eh, once Trump revealed that he was just joking the whole time I lost all interest in the entertainment value of this election.

Shinra · « **Reply #709 on:** March 30, 2012, 05:58:51 PM »

Trump revealed he was joking because he was doing so poorly in the polls that it was hurting the value of his stocks. I think if he'd really believed he could have won he'd have carried all the way to the convention.

Mongrel · « **Reply #710 on:** March 30, 2012, 07:30:35 PM »

Re: "Government Nigger". It has been offered by way of explanation that this is some kind of deliberate conflation of I HATE BIG GOVERNMENT with "House Nigger".

Which would imply that the term has currency and has been used before, among A Certain Kind of People. It's not really something he would have coined on the spot.

Disposable Ninja · « **Reply #711 on:** March 30, 2012, 08:42:18 PM »

I'm really curious why I haven't heard anything about Santorum's gaffe on the televised news, especially the liberal shows like Rachel Maddow or Bill Maher. You'd think they'd be all over this.

Mongrel · « **Reply #712 on:** March 30, 2012, 09:00:30 PM »

Maybe everyone's just afraid and are waiting to see who'll run it first. I know it seems pretty obvious what happened, but it's still not confirmed in a certifiably indisputable way* and "SANTORUM POSSIBLY ALMOST CALLED OBAMA A NIGGER" is a fairly dangerous headline to run with.

*_{Logically, if called out on it, he can easily get someone with a dictionary and a way with words to give him a plausible out, then claim he was going to say X, but realized "how it would have sounded" and corrected himself. Then he can play victim, yelling at the newsperson's "dirty mind" or whatever saying how this is a perfect example of their willing to jump on him. All while winking to those people who really do want to hear him say the whole word.}

Brentai · « **Reply #713 on:** March 30, 2012, 10:40:34 PM »

Quote

The way Barack Obama sees America, as a broken country, that was unfair, unjust, discriminatory, and still is in large part today - as he gives speeches about the 99 versus the 1 and income inequality, and the ability and the desire to redistribute wealth. Did you hear him talk about any opportunity to divide America along either class or race or ethnic-- whatever it is. He takes the opportunity to separate us, to remind us of our differences. Because that's how he sees America. Not as e pluribus unum, not as "out of many, one", but a country that is broken, that needs to be unified by a powerful government, that makes everybody get the same, because then, it's fair. That is Barack Obama's vision for America. That is why he proposes the bills he proposes. That is why he whispered, off-camera - he thought - saying, "Just give me a little space. We'll take care of this... after the election." We know. We know the candidate Barack Obama, what he was like. The anti-war government nig-- uh, ff, the uh, America was... a source for division around the world, that what we were doing was wrong, that we needed to pull out, that we needed to pull back.

I really want people to stop just focusing on the fact that he said a bad word. Look at the context here.

He depicts Barack Obama as a man who sees this country as one with deep divisions between people that need to be healed. He then argues that these divisions between people form the basis of what makes this country great, and that a desire to give people equal dignity gives rise to evil behavior.

And then he says that we know what Barack Obama is like. We know that he's a nigger.

I don't think I can really put into words how I feel about this. I think, in my entire life, I've never been closer to understanding how a man like Barack Obama, or any other person who has been denied the dignity and respect that he has legitimately earned, must feel. Every day, every second, every moment of all of their entire lives.

I don't know how you just go and heal something like that, to make it better. I hope to God that Barack Obama can at least find some small way.

Büge · « **Reply #714 on:** March 31, 2012, 05:29:25 AM »

Thad · « **Reply #715 on:** March 31, 2012, 08:14:50 AM »

Quote from: Brentai on March 30, 2012, 05:57:09 PM

Eh, once Trump revealed that he was just joking the whole time I lost all interest in the entertainment value of this election.

Never mind the entertainment value; as I've said, Santorum getting the nomination would destroy the fundamentalists' sway over the Republican Party for the next 3 elections. Whereas Obama defeating Romney just convinces them they're right. (With the caveat that I think they'll lose seats on this birth control nonsense and that'll stymie them too -- but not nearly as much as if Romney won the general and not nearly as much as if Santorum got clobbered in it.)

Quote from: Mongrel on March 30, 2012, 09:00:30 PM

Maybe everyone's just afraid and are waiting to see who'll run it first. I know it seems pretty obvious what happened, but it's still not confirmed in a certifiably indisputable way* and "SANTORUM POSSIBLY ALMOST CALLED OBAMA A NIGGER" is a fairly dangerous headline to run with.

*_{Logically, if called out on it, he can easily get someone with a dictionary and a way with words to give him a plausible out, then claim he was going to say X, but realized "how it would have sounded" and corrected himself. Then he can play victim, yelling at the newsperson's "dirty mind" or whatever saying how this is a perfect example of their willing to jump on him. All while winking to those people who really do want to hear him say the whole word.}

Probably.

I certainly think Maher and Maddow are likely to make hay with this, they're just trying to make sure they've got their strategies lined up and are ready for whatever the Santorum camp/Fox News will hit back with. They don't want to make people feel SORRY for Poor Little Ricky by having the Elite Liberal Media pickin' on him. (Well, actually, maybe they DO -- see above --; they just want to make sure he doesn't have an out.)

Joxam · « **Reply #716 on:** March 31, 2012, 09:57:22 AM »

For my money what shocked me the most about the entire thing is just how fucking racist someone has to be to say that word LIKE he said it. He used it where any other word would do. Even the most racist assholes I know make sure they reserve that word for yelling it at someone like its a fucking sword or something. They don't just use it in everyday conversation with the same weight they would any other word. How the fuck racist do you have to be...

Thad · « **Reply #717 on:** April 04, 2012, 11:26:41 AM »

Well, with the MSM finally apparently acknowledging that Santorum is a carnival sideshow and Romney is going to be a nominee, it appears that the campaign is beginning in earnest.

And it appears that Romney's trying to paint Obama as having some sort of hidden agenda.

Now, that'll win over the conspiracy nuts that already hate Obama. And it might make some people nervous on the grounds that yes most of us have noticed at this point that Obama's way better at high-minded rhetoric than actual concrete policy.

But I don't think it's going to hurt Obama as much as the flip-flopper characterization is going to hurt Romney.

Brentai · « **Reply #718 on:** April 05, 2012, 09:43:22 AM »

And the Stupid Election is off in earnest. First up: Romney claiming that Obama "spent too many years at Harvard." Romney spent more years at Harvard than Obama.

The look on Drew Faust's face when he realizes this is making Harvard grads look like morons.

Brentai · « **Reply #719 on:** April 05, 2012, 01:55:47 PM »

Second round: The GOP's "war on caterpillars".

Now this is clearly making a mountain out of a speck of dust, and I'm not afraid to say it. The insane leftists who are pitching a fit about this are making actual, extremely important violations of womens' rights that much easier to dismiss on the grounds of "fuck, you guys ALWAYS complain about pointless bullshit."

But at the same time, why are GOP speakers so fucking terrible at keeping their damn feet out of their maws? Can't the guy have used "war on fairies", "war on puppies" or any other number of obvious phrases that would have made much more sense in context and wasn't vaguely offensive to a large group of people who were already unsettled? Like... how much special effort does it take to screw up like that?

If the plan really was to make liberals look ridiculous, well, mission accomplished I guess, but it also made YOU look like you can't orate your way out of an Iowa post-caucus rally.

News:

Author Topic: 2012: The Mayans Warned Us Of Stupid Elections (Read 91452 times)