White House decries science

screaming silently

5 Likes

So why didn’t they just say that? Every time I hear someone saying, “oh no you got it all wrong, clearly they meant this, not that” I wonder this. Trump defenders constantly use this defense.

There comes a time where if you can’t say what you mean, you shouldn’t say anything at all.

18 Likes

I am so incredibly tired of the constant explaining away of every stupid thing that comes out of these trumpers’ mouths. Hardly a day goes by that we aren’t told “He/she didn’t mean what they said. What they actually meant was…”

How I miss having leaders who are competent with the English language and don’t need every damn statement translated from trumpese to English. Good gawd, these guys make W seem like the president of Mensa.

9 Likes

It’s on purpose. Never assume the fascists speak in good faith. Never assume they don’t know they are twisting language in order to muddy every issuse they speak on.

16 Likes

Soulless, every last one of them.
The bowling ally is now a gold plated ritual chamber.

When the general sees the enemy advancing and sees defeat, he burns the village before the enemy arrives. We are the village.

-edited for tense

5 Likes

This is how I heard it. I know that the media is also trying to parse what she meant.

I feel that this confusion is deliberate. Kayleigh McEnany has a binderful of talking points and she has never gone off-script before.

8 Likes

It absolutely is. We’ve seen this exact same phenomenon before, down to the people coming out of the woodwork to wring their hands about misrepresenting this gaggle of gaslighting gangsters, as if the desire to speak truth was ever anything more to the Trumpists than a weapon to use against their enemies.

9 Likes

That’s exactly what this is. If the US can’t deal with this effectively, comparing to other nations who can is nonsense. Plague children it will be.

“[R]eality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled.” - R. Feynman.

6 Likes

Can we please start a “gravity is just a theory that THEY want you to believe” movement to get science deniers to jump off cliffs? At least that’s not contagious.

5 Likes

I seriously remember that and I remember screaming about it. I thought at the time: If we keep that shit up we are REALLY fucked.

5 Likes

Nah, as a parent of a filth beast myself, I can absolutely guarantee you that the little vectors are a horde of disease spreading plaque rats.

Currently my mantra when we do have to go out (rarely) is “KEEP YOUR MASK ON!!!” and “DON’T TOUCH YOUR FACE” and “DO NOT TOUCH ANYTHING YOU DON’T HAVE TO TOUCH” (repeat this until voice starts to go out…)

5 Likes

I agree. That interpretation felt like a valid possibility and since in the past I’ve come across many headlines that didn’t do the original statement justice, I decided to check out the original audio/video.

If you listen to it and pay attention to the later quotes (JAMA Pediatrics, “science is on our side”) another interpretation makes no sense.This is willing & eager misinterpretation of Ms McEnany’s words.

I must admit I’m not a native English speaker. Also: I love to hate Trump, but this article just doesn’t meet my minimal requirements for “ammo to use against Trump.”

4 Likes

only a theory

13 Likes

This is where modern politics always loses me.
I have zero time for public relations spin in any form.

Politicians and their agents are forever trying to sell a party or personality to me and usually cherry-picking data/facts to do so.

ANYBODY playing the cherry-picking game is treating people as objects of deceit and manipulation rather than rational and autonomous human beings who deserve an honest exchange.

Fuck 'em.

3 Likes

With the dumbing down of the school systems due to the Republicans packing school boards with the religious right, that the U.S. has lost, for generations, any hope of fostering minds like those that built NASA

Yes, this is absolutely true. And it’s been true for decades. Education (and science education, in particular) disagrees with the evangelical Christian viewpoint (god created, the world, etc) and so the reaction on the right has been to slowly erode education (and science education, in particular).

America is now well and truly fucked for decades to come.

7 Likes

Man oh man, how many shades if stupid can one be??

“Science” isn’t standing in the way of anything. “Science” is being used, in this instance, to show what will result from a specific policy action being taken.

Freakin’ morons!!!

How is this any different than “It will go away very soon”? We get these bs statements every week. It’s like chasing someone through a restaurant: they knock over a chair to slow us down and then we study that chair and remark what a silly thing to do.

They’re leaving a disaster for the incoming administration–same as last time. This time they’re making sure the nasdaq sacred cow is off limits and everyone gets a good payout before they go. The syntax is irrelevant.

4 Likes

No - spin is taking the same set of facts and seeing them in the best possible light - but you still agree on the set of facts.

This is just make shit up and hope someone buys it.

2 Likes