{"id":65037,"date":"2017-11-09T11:00:59","date_gmt":"2017-11-09T17:00:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=65037"},"modified":"2017-11-07T22:00:37","modified_gmt":"2017-11-08T04:00:37","slug":"stage-iv-pauline-kael-syndrome","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=65037","title":{"rendered":"Stage IV Pauline Kael Syndrome"},"content":{"rendered":"

Katha Pollitt is sort of a gender affirmative action project; Big Leftymedia has Jonathan Chait, so the need a female version (pardon the redundancy).<\/p>\n

She never disappoints, which is another way of saying if you have any hope that our coastal elite can be salvaged, she disappoints intensely.<\/p>\n

In this case, Pollitt “writes” about the rage that’s been buiding in her since…well, that day last November:<\/p>\n

Unlike my friend\u2019s, my life has changed a lot in the year since Trump was elected. Not materially, except for the fact that my stepson and daughter-in-law moved to Canada partly because, as non-citizens, they worried for their futures here in the US.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Er, right.\u00a0\u00a0That’s\u00a0<\/em>why they moved.\u00a0 Not to be rid of their ninny mother in law. Nosirreebob.<\/p>\n

I mean psychologically. I sometimes feel like I\u2019m a different person now. I\u2019m fidgety and irritable and have trouble concentrating.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I have little doubt that the affliction is real; she hands out straight lines like after-dinner mints; either she’s so addled by her rage, or so secure in never being challenged by her audience:<\/p>\n

My work seems trivial: Given what we are facing, what difference does one more\u00a0Nation<\/em>\u00a0column<\/a>\u00a0make? I might as well be an ancient Egyptian scribe logging production figures for cat mummies.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Katha:\u00a0 your work\u00a0is\u00a0<\/em>trivial.\u00a0 Even when your guy was in power, you were a joyless scold who served only to fluff your social class’s sense of self-importance.<\/p>\n

Today, you are the same thing, plus depression born of unrequited entitlement.\u00a0 Mazel tov.<\/p>\n

In the old days, the days before Trump, it bothered me that so many people loved things I thought were stupid. Now I just think, Go ahead, enjoy yourself. Maybe your Batman DVDs will comfort you when we\u2019re wandering around in the ashen hellscape of whatever apocalypse Trump will bring down upon us.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Katha:\u00a0 Sylvia Plath called.\u00a0 She told you to buck up and quit being such a downer.<\/p>\n

But the main difference is that I hate people now. Well, not all people, of course. Just people who voted for Trump.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Of course\u00a0<\/em>you hate people “now”, Katha.<\/p>\n

People who do their own \u201cresearch\u201d on the Internet and discover there that President Obama is a Muslim and Michelle Obama is a man. People who use the n-word and can\u2019t even spell it right, because\u2014have you noticed?\u2014Trump supporters can\u2019t spell. Well-off people who only care about lowering their taxes. People who said they couldn\u2019t vote for Hillary because of her emails. Excuse me, sir or madam, can you explain to me what an email server even is?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The real question, Katha, is can you?<\/p>\n

No.\u00a0 You can’t.<\/p>\n

If you want to see example 25,695 on why Trump\/Pence are going to win re-election in 2020, look no further.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Katha Pollitt is sort of a gender affirmative action project; Big Leftymedia has Jonathan Chait, so the need a female version (pardon the redundancy). She never disappoints, which is another way of saying if you have any hope that our coastal elite can be salvaged, she disappoints intensely. In this case, Pollitt “writes” about the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[326,321,368],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-65037","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-big-alt-media","category-big-left","category-trump-derangement"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65037","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=65037"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65037\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":65038,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65037\/revisions\/65038"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=65037"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=65037"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=65037"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}