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August 18

How insulting is "weird"?

I'm Australian. I observe that the insult de jour from Democrats about Republicans is "weird". But how insulting is that really in US English? It would be a pretty soft insult here. HiLo48 (talk) 03:33, 18 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Likewise here in the USA. But since Trump has both repeated and scorned it, it must be bothersome to him in some weird way. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 04:38, 18 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

There's no general answer to this question, but I imagine in that sense it's like any other Anglophone context. In this particular campaign, it's a bit more insulting through osmosis from the surrounding political context. Remsense ‥ 🥥 04:49, 18 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

HiLo48 -- In Keep Austin Weird it's kind of a positive. The recent political usage derives from a throwaway line in the Kamala Harris campaign's reaction to a Trump appearance at Turning Point USA. There were 4 or 5 bullet points, and Trump being old and quite weird was one of them. It was only after there was strong reaction to that (from both Trump supporters and Trump opponents) that it became a thing. But of course, debating whether you want to be electrocuted or eaten by a shark, and paying tribute to the "late great Hannibal Lecter" are not at all weird! AnonMoos (talk) 05:33, 18 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

The shark thing deserves some discussion but alas, we don’t have a psychology noticeboard. Viriditas (talk) 21:14, 18 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

It’s a super interesting question. If you want to go down the rabbit hole of possible meanings, search Reddit, as it’s been discussed to death there. I’m not exactly sure what the answer is, but my reading of it is that it’s a sly insult in the Midwestern vernacular, and for whatever reason, Trump took great offense to it. Listening to Walz talk about it in some length has me feeling that he touched a nerve with the conservative mind in a very personal manner that most of us cannot begin to understand. Walz’s main point is that the GOP is really out of touch with average Americans, and he drives this home with the term. Viriditas (talk) 07:30, 18 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I don't think it really has anything to do with regional variance—remember, Walz wasn't the first to get on it. I think it's just that it's so plain (compared to typical technocratic rhetoric), dismissive, and smug—and at least for some people, seems to hit a nerve as a comprehensive personality critique. Remsense ‥ 诉 07:34, 18 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

There was a similarly dismissive comment that Harris made, possibly in her first public statement after Biden withdrew from the race: That, as a former prosecutor, "I know his type." Consigning Trump to "a type" probably stung as well. But it didn't become a catchphrase, so far. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 12:57, 18 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Apologies for the confusion. Your explanation is partly correct, however, the theory is that for a word like "weird" to take off as a meme, it needed the cultural language of the Midwest, which is known for using simple terms in a genuine way. George Washington University Professor David Karpf: "Two weeks ago, delivering that line about Donald Trump and J.D. Vance just being plain weird wouldn’t resonate, but because the 'Midwestern dad governor' said that, he can deliver that line and have it land really well."[1] I argue that this is directly related to elements of Minnesota nice, whether you accept that idea as real or imagined, where such language has a "polite friendliness, an aversion to open confrontation, [and] a tendency toward understatement". This kind of open attack using polite words resonates very strongly with most Americans, as we often wish we could take things down a notch and return to some semblance of civil society. Walz does just this with the word "weird", and I argue that it was only possible as a Midwestern thang. Californians can't do it, Texans can't do it, and people from New York don't even have it in them. Viriditas (talk) 23:09, 18 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Ah, that scans a bit more—I'm not sure I would need to involve anything regionalist to my theory, but there's certainly arguments to be made. Hard to keep the discussion to merely language and not punditry here, but suffice it to say I don't necessary agree with Karpf's thesis, as I think there are plenty of personalities that could sell it. Remsense ‥ 诉 23:11, 18 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I would agree with you if I had not seen Walz's video where he talks about it. It was one of the most compelling videos by a politician that I have ever seen. If he was selling a used car, I would have bought it right then and there, with the undercoat. There's a powerful sense of persuasive speech going on here, and I think you could miss it if you weren't looking for it. Viriditas (talk) 23:14, 18 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Most Americans would find it just as mild as you. HOWEVER, the hardcore MAGA contingent is so tied up in their self-image as the true "normal" that it seems to hurt them quite a bit. -- User:Khajidha (talk) (contributions) 08:25, 18 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

So to summarize, it's dependent on context, and also, weirdness lies largely in the eye of the beholder... 惑乱 Wakuran (talk) 18:28, 18 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]