{"id":88089,"date":"2024-08-09T11:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-08-09T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=88089"},"modified":"2024-08-09T11:21:46","modified_gmt":"2024-08-09T16:21:46","slug":"melting-with-rage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=88089","title":{"rendered":"Melting With Rage"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

SCENE:\u00a0\u00a0 Mitch Berg is waiting for a coffee order before going on a road trip when Evan SCHMEISSER-JUNG, political scientist, walks into the room.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

SCHMEISSER-JUNG:\u00a0 Merg!<\/p>\n

BERG: Oh, hey, Evan.\u00a0 Long time no…<\/p>\n

SCHMEISSER-JUNG: Shut up!\u00a0\u00a0 Did you see the results of the Twins game last night?<\/p>\n

BERG: Yeah, the bullpen kinda let us down…<\/p>\n

SCHMEISSER-JUNG: Why are you melting down over the Twins?<\/p>\n

BERG:\u00a0 Er, I’m not sure I follow…<\/p>\n

SCHMEISSER-JUNG:\u00a0 I just mentioned the Twins game, and you started melting down over it.\u00a0 It’s just a baseball game.\u00a0<\/p>\n

BERG:\u00a0 Oh, great.\u00a0 This again.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

SCHMEISSER-JUNG:\u00a0\u00a0 What again?<\/p>\n

BERG:\u00a0\u00a0 Describing a perfectly emotionally neutral response – usually but not always in writing – as “Melting Down”. It’s a strawman and a deflection – trying to force me to defend a non-existent emotional state rather than arguing the actual point.\u00a0 It’s illogical, and kinda rhetorically abusive.\u00a0<\/p>\n

SCHMEISSER-JUNG:\u00a0 So you’re angry.<\/p>\n

BERG: Huh?<\/p>\n

SCHMEISSER-JUNG: You’re roiling\u00a0 <\/em>with anger!<\/p>\n

BERG: Aaaaand more of the same.<\/p>\n

SCHMEISSER-JUNG:\u00a0 Does this make you maaaaad?<\/em><\/p>\n

BERG: No.<\/p>\n

SCHMEISSER-JUNG: Tell the truth.<\/p>\n

BERG: OK, the truth: no, and try to find a new subject.\u00a0<\/p>\n

SCHMEISSER-JUNG:\u00a0 Speaking of straw men, why do you always transfer political subjects to fake people like Avery Librelle?<\/p>\n

LIBRELLE: (sitting at a high-top table drinking free water and using the wi-fi<\/em>). Beg pardon?<\/p>\n

BERG:\u00a0 See?\u00a0 Not so much a fake person as a satirical invention.\u00a0 Because sometimes satire illuminates the truth better than just butting my head into it.<\/p>\n

SCHMEISSER-JUNG:\u00a0 So you’re both melting down.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

BERG: (Audibly sighs, turns back toward the front, waiting to order, as LIBRELLE looks on, puzzled\u00a0<\/em>)<\/p>\n

SCHMEISSER-JUNG:\u00a0 More melting down.<\/p>\n

(BERG orders a large dark roast with heavy cream.\u00a0 LIBRELLE goes back to playing Wordle<\/em>) .<\/p>\n

SCHMEISSER-JUNG:\u00a0 Feel the rage.<\/p>\n

BERG:\u00a0 Exits stage R <\/em><\/p>\n

And SCENE <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SCENE:\u00a0\u00a0 Mitch Berg is waiting for a coffee order before going on a road trip when Evan SCHMEISSER-JUNG, political scientist, walks into the room.\u00a0 SCHMEISSER-JUNG:\u00a0 Merg! BERG: Oh, hey, Evan.\u00a0 Long time no… SCHMEISSER-JUNG: Shut up!\u00a0\u00a0 Did you see the results of the Twins game last night? BERG: Yeah, the bullpen kinda let us down… […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[236],"class_list":["post-88089","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blogs","tag-dramatization"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88089","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=88089"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88089\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":88109,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88089\/revisions\/88109"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=88089"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=88089"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=88089"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}