An Alien Presence
Ned Resnikoff, senior editor of the leftwing publication ThinkProgress, encounters a tradesman:
So far, so good.
We seem to have taken a leap, a bold one.
Er, okay, then.
Inevitably, Mr Resnikoff goes on to confess his “privilege” as a white man, specifically,
Yes, I know. Everyone remember where we parked.
At risk of being controversial, I suspect our editor’s um, sensitivities predate his encounter with a “perfectly nice” plumber who quietly gets on with the job.
Ah. Apparently, Mr Resnikoff’s peaking-in-the-red neuroticism is all your fault, half of America.
Update, via the comments:
Mags adds,
One of the things that’s grimly funny is that Mr Resnikoff doubtless imagines himself as the one who’s enlightened, sophisticated and not at all prejudiced. And yet he veers towards hysteria based on nothing whatsoever beyond the race and presumed social class of a polite, visiting plumber.
And note that the plumber’s reticence on political matters – i.e., his professionalism and good manners – is viewed by Resnikoff as suspect.
Not one of us.
And this, lest we forget, is the kind of effete meltdown that Mr Resnikoff felt important to share publicly with his peers, in order to establish his ‘progressive’ credentials.
If I may paraphrase the dynamic: “I feared that, despite his civility and professionalism, this broad-shouldered prole might at any moment sense my disdain for his kind, rise up in a rage, and then strangle me with his big, unmoisturised hands.”
Yes, I exaggerate, though not by much.
It would, I suspect, be interesting to hear the plumber’s account of his visit.
“I have no real reason to believe he was a Trump supporter or an anti-Semite, but in my uncertainty I couldn’t shake the sense of potential danger. I was rattled for some time after he left… Even if Trump is gone in four years, I don’t expect to ever reclaim that feeling of security. That’s just one more thing you voted for, if you voted for him.”
⊙_ʘ
He was a perfectly nice guy and a consummate professional. But he was also a middle-aged white man with a southern accent who seemed unperturbed by [the election] news.
I can’t help thinking the ‘but’ is doing an awful lot of work in that sentence.
⊙_ʘ
Yes, Mr Resnikoff seems to be shifting blame for his own comical paranoia and unworldliness.
I kinda those days back when all the village idiots weren’t connected to each other via the series of lightspeed internet communication tubes.
Well, at least “Donald Trump and supporters” seems to have replaced “global warming” as the primary source of the neurotic left’s self-absorbed fretting. It makes a nice change.
That’s just one more thing you voted for, if you voted for him
I wish I was a Yank so I could have voted for that too…
Mr. Resnikoff reminds me of a quote by Theodor Adorno, directed, I think, at Weimar Germany:
“A German is someone who cannot tell a lie without believing it himself.”
And mostly likely, also, many a denizen of ThinkProgress.
No Trump (nor Hillary) fan I, but I don’t view a stranger in a MAGA hat as some sort of demon, much less a good natured plumber who is helping me with my pipes. ThinkProgress is swallowing its own propaganda, and once consumed it is a sort of paranoiac poison.
Is it just me, or are we seeing more of these breathless, my-eyes-glaze-over “Gorillas in Mist” articles in which some left-wing loon tries to explain blue collar America to the rest of the world? Good grief it’s getting wearisome.
And then this same guy will, without the slightest sense of irony, unfailingly condemn others for “profiling.”
I think The Unperturbed sounds even cooler than being a Deplorable.
Is it just me, or are we seeing more of these breathless, my-eyes-glaze-over “Gorillas in Mist” articles in which…
Probably, but it’s hardly new. It’s already been the subject of satire.
Good Lord. Well, this guy had better set up a screening process for plumbers, so that only a plumber who voted the RIGHT way will ever tend to his pipes. Better vet all the service personnel in his life, and that means interviewing the waitresses at that adorable retro diner he goes to, too.
Quint&Jessel,
How on Earth he got inside the cozy left-liberal bubble is a complete mystery.
Great merciful Zeus! What if there are more??? {o.O}
I had a removalist over to my house to help me with my new fridge. He was a perfectly nice guy and a consummate professional. But he was a young, Arab man with a beard who spoke limited English and who seemed unperturbed by news regarding terrorist attacks. And while I had him in my house I couldn’t stop thinking about whether he was a terrorist and women hater, whether he knew I was a woman, and how that knowledge might change the interaction we were having inside my own home.
Yep, that’s real normal.
He ought to be relieved, it could have been a lot worse. This quietly simmering maniac could have been installing vinyl flooring – a well known racist trigger substance. Only recently ‘The Guardian’ published a searing study on the link between faux-marble laminates and fascist psychopathy.
It’s like an odd distaff version of Dorothy Parker’s Who Goes Nazi, only the work of a moron and paranoiac.
How on Earth he got inside the cozy left-liberal bubble is a complete mystery.
Tells us how comprehensive the bubble normally is. Yes, this guy is a melodramatic fool, but even the mere possibility of a single person breaching the bubble a single time was at least notable to him. He normally goes all day, every day, meeting only like minds.
And as we all know, like-minded groups can so easily turn into pissing matches that make them a little more extreme each day….
This is what happens when you convince yourself that you are part of the majority and then find out that actually you are just a nastly minority.
I think The Unperturbed sounds even cooler than being a Deplorable.
One of the things that’s grimly funny is that Mr Resnikoff doubtless imagines himself as the one who’s enlightened, sophisticated and not at all prejudiced. And yet he veers towards hysteria based on nothing whatsoever except the race and presumed social class of a visiting plumber. And note that the plumber’s reticence on political matters – i.e., his professionalism and good manners – is viewed by Resnikoff as suspect.
I’m having trouble with the “anti-Semite” label. Aren’t we all supposed to be Zionist neocons? It would be nice if they could at least keep the slanders straight.
Wait, expecting them to stay straight is probably homophobic.
I know, I know, the correction booth…
And remember, this is the kind of effete meltdown that Ms Resnikoff felt important to share publicly with his peers, if only to establish his ‘progressive’ credentials.
Of course, now I’m itching to hear the plumber’s account of his visit.
I thought Frasier was a sitcom.
In case anybody else is wondering the same thing: the communist that Elaine dates on Seinfeld is Ned Isakoff.
So it would appear this isn’t satire.
Of course, now I’m itching to hear the plumber’s account of his visit.
Not a chance.
I had a plumber over to my apartment to fix a clogged drain. He was a perfectly nice guy and a consummate professional.
Ask any plumber about a memorable clogged drain, and then wait for the stare into infinity, followed by Well, if the check didn’t bounce, howinthehell ‘m I gonna remember one clogged drain from another?
ThinkProgress is swallowing its own propaganda, and once consumed it is a sort of paranoiac poison.
It’s hard to tell where role-play ends and conviction begins, but yes, the ‘progressive’ narrative does appear to leave one unmoored from reality.
in my uncertainty I couldn’t shake the sense of potential danger. I was rattled for some time after he left… Even if Trump is gone in four years, I don’t expect to ever reclaim that feeling of security. That’s just one more thing you voted for, if you voted for him.
Translation: It’s your fault I’m a basket case.
Translation: It’s your fault I’m a basket case.
Certainly, there’s an odd undertone, not entirely unlike the theatrical paranoia of many feminists. In this case, the dynamic is sort of, “I feared that, despite his civility and professionalism, this broad-shouldered prole might at any moment sense my disdain for his kind, rise up in a rage, and then strangle me with his big, unmoisturised hands.”
Yes, I’m exaggerating, but not by much.
This just has to be satire. Beautifully presented & all, but still satire. Doesn’t it ?
I’ve always found people in the Southern States to be extremely polite and welcoming, but leftists have spent so many decades demonising them as rednecked, sister shagging, inbred, bigoted, hate-fuelled morons that they actually believe their own propaganda.
Some of the comments above (not to mention the article itself) had me laughing out loud. My only concerns, when I call someone to fix something, are that (a) s/he arrives more or less on time, (b) the problem gets solved, and (c) the charge is reasonable. I couldn’t care less about their sex/ethnicity/religion/politics — I’m not viewing them as a potential life-partner. In turn, I’m sure their sole concern about me is that I pay promptly. Please, let’s keep life simple!
Lisboeta’s being calm and rational. We must chase her from the village.
A footnote from Instapundit:
The Doug Laycock article can be found here.
Speaking of ideological bubbles, Berkeley, California has had its first murder of the year. It’s a famously leftist college town, so things are never “normal”, but here, even the reporting is a bit weird.
They?
From the Doug Laycock article, linked above:
As he says, the encounter could have been “a wonderful story about the best of America: two strangers who disagree on practically everything, ignoring differences of politics, sex, and social and economic class, cooperating in the wilderness to solve a serious problem faced by only one of them.” Instead, in the mind of Professor Brown, it became something very different.
In other news a real world sighting of the legendary Ouroboros:
Many thousands of women are expected to converge on the nation’s capital for the Women’s March on Washington the day after Donald J. Trump’s inauguration. Jennifer Willis no longer plans to be one of them.
Why could this be?
Ms. Willis, a 50-year-old wedding minister from South Carolina, had looked forward to taking her daughters to the march. Then she read a post on the Facebook page for the march that made her feel unwelcome because she is white.
The post, written by a black activist from Brooklyn who is a march volunteer, advised “white allies” to listen more and talk less. It also chided those who, it said, were only now waking up to racism because of the election.
“You don’t just get to join because now you’re scared, too,” read the post. “I was born scared.”
Oh.
In response, a New Jersey woman wrote: “I’m starting to feel not very welcome in this endeavor.”
Interesting, but revealing, that the original writer felt strongly enough to write a post about how terrified he was, but not strongly enough to insist that the ‘potentially dangerous’ man left.
Obviously his plumbing is more important than his morals.
What possesses liberals to share so many of their own unfortunate pathologies?
To me, Little Ned’s post should be titled “I’m 30 and I Still Wet My Pants.” Or “Mommy, Did That Scary Person Leave Yet?”
I’d be embarrassed for this twerp weakling, except I know, as a true leftist apparatchik, he’d be at our throats in an instant if he thought he had the upper hand. So in fact, I’m kinda happy hearing him whine and cower like a five-year-old.
Carry on, Little Ned, carry on!
Interesting, but revealing, that the original writer felt strongly enough to write a post about how terrified he was, but not strongly enough to insist that the ‘potentially dangerous’ man left.
Ah, but the pantomime of being distressed is what grants Mr Resnikoff his all-important victim status, and is what, in the eyes of his peers, makes him virtuous by default. At what point the hyperbolical role-play becomes actual paranoia, I couldn’t say. But even the role-play, the chronic dishonesty, is halfway to madness.
However heroic the working class may be in the abstract, its members are a perpetual disappointment to many academics. They do not believe what academics believe,
‘The University of Maryland is hosting a lecture series in which professors will claim that Donald Trump’s victory is a direct result of “spiritual depravity” and “a commitment to white supremacy” among the working class.’
http://www.campusreform.org/?ID=8614
Heh. I was just about to highlight that.
Good lord.
Growing up, my favorite ‘uncle’ wasn’t actually a relation, but he was vastly preferred to the actual brothers of my father. His being Jewish was just another different religion, like the Catholic family across the street. People went to different churches, that’s all.
Nice, avuncular guy, children (like me) just liked him from the start.
And, it turned out, he carried a rifle in the US Army from D-day +2 all the way to Berlin. And never said a word about it.
Uncle Norm was what you called an ‘all-round great guy’. Or a ‘mensch’, if you were Jewish.
What Uncle Norm would have to say about Ned Resnikoff I can only imagine.
10 Hours of Walking in NYC as a Black Trump Voter
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZPapHk0kjk
He was a perfectly nice guy and a consummate professional. But he was also a middle-aged white man with a southern accent who seemed unperturbed by [the election] news.
“Othering” doesn’t count when lefties do it.
“Othering” doesn’t count when lefties do it.
Again, it’s those conveniently non-reciprocal principles.
Plumbers who show up for jobs visibly perturbed by political events probably don’t stay in business very long, so…
More Clown Quarter completely impartial events:
Dear all,
With apologies for cross-posting, please find below details of our Screen Seminars at Glasgow events for the coming semester. These will all take place in Gilmorehill Halls at the University of Glasgow
5.30pm Monday 23 January: Public Symposium: Trump and Television
Speakers
Dr Zoe Colley (Dundee): ‘From Nixon to Trump: Historical Trends in Presidential Campaigns’
Dr Michael Higgins (Strathclyde): ‘The Donald: a guide to Pseudo-politics in America’
Dr Lisa W. Kelly (Glasgow): ‘CEO of Me, Inc.’: Trump, Reality TV and Entrepreneurs of the Self’
James Nixon (Glasgow): ‘Comedy’s Trump Problem’
I think we can all guess the tone of the evening.
Plumbers. Well, I used to be one. All worn out these days. Probably not so much the physical end. More like attempting to explain the mechanics to the betters.
Probably should write a book. Cowboy poetry. Illustrated, for the wayward.
It would involve installing custom closets for forlorn housewives with a small fortune in shoes. And clogged pipes.
And glaring at the children. Those damned kids are the future, no?
Cheaper, faster, better. Best to veer off and pay no more attention than should be reaquired.
Of course, that is a hell of a deal. If stuff stayed fixed, that would upset managed markets.
Posted by: Dr Cromarty
Their psychic powers are strong indeed, to understand all of American politics and the support base of Trump so deeply, never having been outside lefty bubbles in another country. Or they’ve just made a long string of witless assumptions based on fetid US media coverage, either or.
Couldn’t possibly be a rejection of the change from above model of “benevolent oppression”, oh no. What those rubes need, gosh darn it, is still more control because they’re just so fuckin’ stupid, too stupid to take correction.
And glaring at the children. Those damned kids are the future, no?
Our children are our future.
In his book Excellent Sheep, William Deresiewicz shared an anecdote about his plumber, which originally appeared in this article:
Deresiewicz, to be fair, isn’t a fainting-couch leftist, and as evidenced here, is well aware of the bubble a Yale professor inhabits. But this genre — white-collar professionals struggling to comprehend these strange blue-collar creatures in their midst — has great comedic potential. (See also: the surge of elite media attention paid to J.D. Vance’s memoir, Hillbilly Elegy. Nothing at all against Vance, but it’s clear that a significant amount of the attention is due to the elite amazement that one of “those” people has learned to enter their culture and communicate with them in their language.)