"Weird" is good when you want to be weird; "weird" is bad when you don't want to be weird.
I have a couple of friends doing their best to frame Democrats as weird by using examples that are...weird. IOW, they are using examples of things THEY don't like, but when people like me come along and say "Yep, we are like that!" it takes the wind completely out of their sails.
Great newsletter! Love your take on weird, Beth. I’ve been trying to wrap my brain around the nuances of this word, and your examples help.
Mary Jo, your party sounds so fun! I have a hard time planning parties for myself, because I don’t want people to feel obligated to attend, but your epic party is motivating me to plan one when I turn 40 in a few years!
I think the reason weird is hitting is that for too long now the extremes (and you’re right to include aspects of the Left as well as MAGA) have moved farther and farther away from what most of us subscribe to, and we are left feeling uncomfortable in a way we didn’t have words for. Tracking women’s periods? Claiming that schools put cat litter in bathrooms? How is this politics in 2024? So when Walz used the word “weird” he gave permission to take a step back. Yeah, it’s othering in a way, but I don’t think it was especially mean-spirited. It was a fever break in party identity that we didn’t know we wanted. Back in the day Republicans used to talk about the Silent Majority. I think, at least initially, when Walz said things were weird he framed a new Silent Majority that a lot of people were quick to grasp. As time goes on it will be overused and abused, but the chord it struck initially was something real.
And Mary Jo, that is a wonderful story! Happy Birthday!!!
Just love how you break things down and apart, Beth! Whether the newsletter or podcast, you and the whole PP team challenge me to expand my thinking. Wonderful piece.
I appreciate this newsletter today because it really irks me. And I think that’s what this podcast, newsletter, and community provides. Not annoyance. But a variety of perspectives and opinions that don’t always align with mine. So in that sense is good for me to hear them. Is a great place to learn “the way of the #nuance”. “Keep it nuanced y’all” has been my favorite tag line. I love it in my mind, but my heart sometimes is “nope”.
I have no problem with “weird” as a descriptor in the context Walz said it, as an opposite of normal. I consider even mild because I think that POS is a better descriptor, or at least the modern convention weird af.
In the other, more rational hand, “weird” is dehumanizing insofar it’s reductive of a person to a label. But even more so because it “otherize” them. When we concibe someone as “other” is the beginning of a bad road to take.
Therefore, I should have more issue with “weird”. And it was this irksome newsletter that I didn’t even finished (yet) that reminded me of that. Thank you Ms. Silvers for annoying some sense into me.
First of all, Beth, I love today's newsletter from you more, I think, than any other PP newsletter. Well written with great examples. Applause, applause applause.
Second, Mary Jo's prom party is epic. That it not a word I usually use, but there's no other way to describe it! I love it! I wish my husband liked to dance, because I would totally do this. Of course I still could, but it would make him so uncomfortable that I would be uncomfortable. (I'm not even talking about asking him to learn a dance - just the music would get to him, even as I loved it.)
"Weird" is good when you want to be weird; "weird" is bad when you don't want to be weird.
I have a couple of friends doing their best to frame Democrats as weird by using examples that are...weird. IOW, they are using examples of things THEY don't like, but when people like me come along and say "Yep, we are like that!" it takes the wind completely out of their sails.
Great newsletter! Love your take on weird, Beth. I’ve been trying to wrap my brain around the nuances of this word, and your examples help.
Mary Jo, your party sounds so fun! I have a hard time planning parties for myself, because I don’t want people to feel obligated to attend, but your epic party is motivating me to plan one when I turn 40 in a few years!
I think the reason weird is hitting is that for too long now the extremes (and you’re right to include aspects of the Left as well as MAGA) have moved farther and farther away from what most of us subscribe to, and we are left feeling uncomfortable in a way we didn’t have words for. Tracking women’s periods? Claiming that schools put cat litter in bathrooms? How is this politics in 2024? So when Walz used the word “weird” he gave permission to take a step back. Yeah, it’s othering in a way, but I don’t think it was especially mean-spirited. It was a fever break in party identity that we didn’t know we wanted. Back in the day Republicans used to talk about the Silent Majority. I think, at least initially, when Walz said things were weird he framed a new Silent Majority that a lot of people were quick to grasp. As time goes on it will be overused and abused, but the chord it struck initially was something real.
And Mary Jo, that is a wonderful story! Happy Birthday!!!
I. Love. This. Weird. Post. So. Much!!!! Thanks for the nuance Beth!!!!
Mary Jo~your party sounds amazing. Good job going for it!
YES, SARAH & BETH 2024 MERCH!
Just love how you break things down and apart, Beth! Whether the newsletter or podcast, you and the whole PP team challenge me to expand my thinking. Wonderful piece.
I loved this newsletter Beth! And delighted to know that you also love Avenue Q! :-)
I appreciate this newsletter today because it really irks me. And I think that’s what this podcast, newsletter, and community provides. Not annoyance. But a variety of perspectives and opinions that don’t always align with mine. So in that sense is good for me to hear them. Is a great place to learn “the way of the #nuance”. “Keep it nuanced y’all” has been my favorite tag line. I love it in my mind, but my heart sometimes is “nope”.
I have no problem with “weird” as a descriptor in the context Walz said it, as an opposite of normal. I consider even mild because I think that POS is a better descriptor, or at least the modern convention weird af.
In the other, more rational hand, “weird” is dehumanizing insofar it’s reductive of a person to a label. But even more so because it “otherize” them. When we concibe someone as “other” is the beginning of a bad road to take.
Therefore, I should have more issue with “weird”. And it was this irksome newsletter that I didn’t even finished (yet) that reminded me of that. Thank you Ms. Silvers for annoying some sense into me.
First of all, Beth, I love today's newsletter from you more, I think, than any other PP newsletter. Well written with great examples. Applause, applause applause.
Second, Mary Jo's prom party is epic. That it not a word I usually use, but there's no other way to describe it! I love it! I wish my husband liked to dance, because I would totally do this. Of course I still could, but it would make him so uncomfortable that I would be uncomfortable. (I'm not even talking about asking him to learn a dance - just the music would get to him, even as I loved it.)
Thanks for a great newsletter!