How 'weird' became the internet's favorite political insult
www.nbcnews.com
“Weird” has quickly become one of the most effective political attacks on the internet.
  • Jo Miran@lemmy.ml
    78·
    3 months ago

    Uhhh…that’s the lamest comeback ever The word “queer” literally means “weird”.

    Republicans: “LGBTQ people are weird!”

    LGBTQ people: “Thanks.”

    • OccamsRazer@lemmy.world
      220·
      3 months ago

      I mean, did you forget that the Democrats started it? They launched a campaign to call Republicans weird in a derisive and condescending way. Democrats used it as an attack, as a negative trait, as something gross and repulsive. It doesn’t make sense to me, and I still have no idea what they were trying to accomplish with this strategy. Did they forget that a good part of their base takes pride in being weird?

      • Feathercrown@lemmy.worldEnglish
        3·
        3 months ago

        It’s effective precisely because it bothers conservatives while being 100% fine for most liberals. It’s not a contradiction, because the two groups react differently, and the people using the word know that.

      • ruse8145@lemmy.sdf.org
        11·
        3 months ago

        Difference between fun weird and fucks a couch weird. Ironically jd is an example of the exact slippery slope argument used by the bad weird type to fight gay marriage originally.

        • OccamsRazer@lemmy.world
          16·
          3 months ago

          Well the couch thing is not real of course, but also not sure what you mean about the slippery slope. I guess maybe the bad weird thing kind of makes sense though, but that’s open to interpretation and pretty relative to what you consider normal.

          • ruse8145@lemmy.sdf.org
            9·
            3 months ago

            I’ve never seen proof he didn’t fuck a couch, any more than I’ve seen proof Glenn Beck didn’t rape and murder a young girl in 1990 (look it up if you don’t know what I’m referring to, is on the wiki).

            Re slippery slope, conservatives love them: for trans rights it’s “I identify as an attack helicopter”, 20 years ago it was “what if people want to marry their pets”. No real difference in the sociopathy of those offering up the suggestion, just a new front line.

            I do agree there’s a line: there’s on one part the paradox of acceptance or whatever it’s called which is explicit. In this case we are also saying it’s weird to hold beliefs that are so out of touch with reality or the people they impact. It’s weird to care what restroom people use, especially for those of us in states that have removed the victorian stigma on all-gender shitters. It’s weird to care what sports other people play. It’s weird to make up lies about Olympic athletes in order to push your agenda of making life worse for a 12 year old in Virginia. It’s all weird.

            • OccamsRazer@lemmy.world
              18·
              3 months ago

              Path to fascism and handmaid’s tale are also slippery slopes though. I don’t think the right has a monopoly on that kind of rhetoric. The rest of that is kind of weird, though understandably can be hard to get used to for people who struggle with change. But I’m not sure I agree about sports. I think that’s a complicated topic and feel bad for women who want to be competitive in their own space. The Olympics thing is even more complicated than the usual transgender debate, but ultimately women’s sports is going to have to decide how exclusionary they are going to be. They already exclude men, so they will have to determine who else to exclude in order to protect their competition. Maybe the answer is to be less exclusive, but anyway that’s why this is a hard topic.

              You can jump to extremist rhetoric and zero sum game thinking, but I don’t think it helps anything. It’s no better than what the worst of them are doing.

                • OccamsRazer@lemmy.world
                  1·
                  3 months ago

                  I’m talking about things like pointing to extreme views and radicals on the other side as though they are examples of the norm, intentionally propagating lies, bad faith arguments etc. The sort of thing that is only about your team winning and the other team losing. Discussing ideas is much more interesting than circle jerking about how evil such and such is or intentionally spreading misinformation because you know it helps your team.

                  And yes, your examples would be the same type of thing, though I’d have to take your word for it that they happened that way.

    • Septimaeus@infosec.pub
      8·
      3 months ago

      The original connotation was fun too. Queer was typically used to refer to the uncanny, inscrutable, and arcane. A non-zero chance of danger was implied, since you could not predict what you did not understand. It’s a nice reminder that understanding dispels fear.

    • zqwzzle@lemmy.caEnglish
      18·
      3 months ago

      Good weird -> takes weird as a compliment
      Bad weird -> takes weird as an insult

  • BarqsHasBite@lemmy.world
    58·
    3 months ago

    “Casting your opposition as cringe, lame, and weird is an effective strategy,” conservative political activist Matt Walsh posted Monday on X. “It’s visceral. It moves people. The Dems are evil but not stupid.”

    How about casting your opponent as evil?

  • solomon42069@lemmy.world
    24·
    3 months ago

    I’ve always found it weird how obsessed with gay sex they are. I’m a gay man but I don’t think about gay sex as often as the average conservative. Weird.

  • morphballganon@lemmynsfw.comEnglish
    1173·
    3 months ago

    LGBTQs don’t mind being called weird though. Normal is the insult. To be normal is to be boring. Normal people don’t make history.

    Only people who strive to be normal would find weird insulting.

      • qarbone@lemmy.worldEnglish
        1·
        3 months ago

        Sounds good in theory but I’m scared of the day when Conservatives try to embrace this methodology and further normalize all their incredibly deranged dog-whistles into everyday speech

  • mipadaitu@lemmy.worldEnglish
    12·
    3 months ago

    There’s safe and fun weird, and there’s creepy and dangerous weird.

    Guess which one is which?

  • z3rOR0ne@lemmy.ml
    20·
    3 months ago

    Uh huh. I can own being weird. Can you own being a fascist? Oh you can? Well I can’t say I’m surprised.

  • ATDA@lemmy.world
    2·
    3 months ago

    Is that what they were doing because I figured that they would follow that asshole using slurs in her ads.

    Maybe she’s the exception (in public.)

  • originalfrozenbanana@lemm.ee
    14·
    3 months ago

    Different weird. Republicans are weird like Epstein or your creepy uncle your parents don’t let you be alone with. LGBTQ people can be weird like anyone else can be. It’s not the same