Accurate assessment. This is particularly important:
"However, my initial mistake was believing this ad was for winning over black men. This ad wasn't for us; it was for the pleasure of black male misandrists."
There's a lot of that around nowadays. Other examples include that rock-stupid "No Pressure" climate change video or pretty much everything PeTA ever did. They're not intended to persuade: they're intended for dunking, preening, and tossing raw meat to the cheap seats in their donor bases.
Ever since about four seconds into the first PETA ad I ever saw, I've alws suspected that they're a controlled opposition funded by big meatpacking companies—mostly with the goal of making the formerly-vegetarian, now-vegan movement just look ridiculous.
I’m sorry for not responding sooner, but you’re right. I can only think that it’s not a winning strategy in the context of the broader mission, but it keeps the lights on and the paychecks clearing instead of bouncing….
This is, by far, the worst run campaign I’ve ever seen. Everything they do, every decision they’ve made is wrong. The whole platform is “Trump Bad.” And even with the MSM propping Kamala up, she still manages to do or say something dumb every day.
Obama was pretty condescending, as well, IMO. Of course, I'm an old white woman but with children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren who come in a "rainbow" of various skin colors, but I don't think calling black men misogynists (covertly) is any better than what you articulated so well here.
Adam, after thinking about it I think you hit correctly the message is designed to reinforce belief and shape behavior for leftist females. A lot of these ads are to reinforce their stereotypes. And are aimed at their leftist female base and metro-sexual males of the current democratic party. While it may attempt to "shame" males or try to make them fear "rejection" by females, it also serves to "guide the behavior" of leftist females....to shun and "punish" anyone who does not surrender to leftist demands and leftist candidates. We are not to think for ourselves! We are only to surrender and give in to the Borg! Oh how they must truly hate we those of us are engaged in the resistance! And thinking for ourselves!
They've been accusing Black conservatives and/or Black GOP voters of "internalized white supremacy" for decades, so, that's exactly what they'll do—except they'll be blaming the same people both times.
Adam, in addition to making the gross error of insulting black men...I hadn't seen the, let's call it the "sex ad,"...they made a huge mistake in choosing to make "Tim Walz their male spokesman by having him go hunting, appearing on sports podcasts and working hard to frame him as a "man's man"." Tim Walz is a lot of things but the term "man's man" is not one that comes to mind when I think of him. After spending nearly 22 years on active duty as an Army officer, and serving in Airborne, Special Forces and Army Special Mission Units, I think I have a good idea about the kinds of Soldiers that inhabit the military. There is a group that I'll refer to as "do nothings," who are people who just seem to be there and they get by, often for an entire career, by doing two things which can be the path to getting to one's 20 years and retirement: Show up on time and in the correct uniform. Such "do nothings" exist in the National Guard and Army Reserve. For the "do nothings" the Reserve and National Guard are ideal locations...once a month for two days and in the summer for approximately two weeks of active duty training, they fake being Soldiers. Do that for 20 years and you can retire and when you hit 60 you'll collect a federal pension at the same amount of money as someone who served 20 years of active duty and reached the same rank. The part-time Soldier gig is particularly conducive do being a "do nothing" because you've only got to fool them for 2 days a month and then for 2-3 weeks during Summer AT (Annual Training). While there are "do nothings" on active duty the environment is not as conducive to being a "do nothing" because they see you every day and on long deployments. In addition, active military service is not just a regular job, it becomes an all encompassing part of one's life. One's job and one's life are inextricably intertwined. This is not the case in the Reserves or National Guard because it's 2 days a month and 2 weeks during Annual Training. A pretender like Walz...and we know he's a pretender on the scale of Walter Mitty...can easily hide for a career in the National Guard and make the rank of Sergeant Major. However when push comes to shove, he abandoned his troops and his unit to avoid an actual deployment to a war zone in addition to not fulfilling the requirements to actually permanently retain his promotion to Sergeant Major. His promotion was temporary and dependent on his completing requirements that weren't important enough for him because he apparently wanted to campaign for Congress more than actually be a full fledged Sergeant Major and retire as such, despite him referring to himself as such for nearly two decades. Walz is a coward who is disloyal to his troops and his unit. He put himself above his unit, his mission, his troops and his commitment. He is the worst kind of leader and a classic example of a "do nothing" that hides in the Reserves and National Guard. This is not in any way to denigrate the thousands of Reserve and National Guard Soldiers who do their duty and do it well, who put the unit, their fellow Soldiers and the nation above their personal preferences and desires. Two of several defining characteristics of military service is that it is both sacrificial and selfless. Tim Walz is the antithesis of both of those characteristics. His service was anything but selfless and sacrificial, it was conditional and self-focused. He served while it remained convenient and when it was no longer convenient, and when it was going to get very dangerous, he quit.
So Adam, you probably want to know why the diatribe about Walz. Here's why: not only are the methods of democrats to court working class white men different from those used to court black men different and insulting to them as you point out...why not appeal to black men the same way you appeal to white working class men?...but their appeal to working class white men method failed miserably because it's obvious to everyone with a room temperature IQ that Tim Walz is anything but a "man's man." How democrats can hope to win an election in which they not only insult one of their main constituencies, black men, by engaging in vile stereotyping of them, but also insult and engage in gross gaslighting of white working class men by trying to sell Tim Walz as something he clearly is not, a "man's man." They also insult white working class men by thinking they are so stupid that they won't see through this ham fisted attempt to make Tim Walz appear to be something he clearly isn't, which is both insulting and demeaning. The key takeaway is that the democrat elites, the powerbrokers, look down and sneer at both black men and white working class men, thinking both groups so stupid that they won't see through such...I'll say it again...ham fisted actions. To paraphrase what the kids today say when the truth about someone is revealed, I see you (Democrats for what you really are). They are not worthy of support from people who they clearly look down on and perhaps despise, both black men and white working class men. It's time for a change.
I agree with you that these ads are intended to harass the target group and that includes the ones aimed at white men. It is a very overt form of attempted shaming that says loud and clear “you ain’t a man unless vote for Kam”. This is the direct successor of Biden’s outrageous “you ain’t black if you don’t vote for me”, just powered by slick globohomo consultants.
That weird jive-turkey accent that Ms. Harris spontaneously drifts into and out of at rallies isn't going to do her any favors with Black people, either.
I mean. If there's one demographic group that WILL be acutely aware that Kamala Harris is both 0% ethnically African-American (Black people of Caribbean descent, like Donald Harris, are not Afirican-Americans) AND 0% culturally Aftican-American (she's a petit-bourgeois Berkeley faculty kid for gawds sake... not to mention being raised almost exclusively by her Mother, who was from India, around few if any other Black kids)... that's going to be the Black community, or more specifically the African-American community. Who KNOW that Kamala Harris is not one of them—except in the bleak, totally surface-level DEI kind of way—and who neither expect nor appreciate the pretense.
Well, more so than Kamala is (not a high bar, I realize).
Her attempts to "act African-American" are made even MORE awkward by her super straight hair—which I realize she just has because she's biracial, BUT, it's eerily reminiscent of the chemical press that Black Women would have to get if They wanted to have any chance of being hired by a corporate employer between the 1980s and ca. 2010 (which was a tool of tacit discrimination—the chemical treatments needed to straighten 4C Black hair to look like Kamala's take 4-6 salon visits and cost close to a thousand dollars, which most Black Women looking for entry-level employment through those decades could ill afford to pay).
Natural hair is the thing du jour, at least where I live, which makes all of this conflicting symbolism stand out that much more.
And a white male misandry problem and anti white racism problem and elitist bubble patronising snobbery problem and a reality disconnect problem and above all, a rich donor ass-kissing problem.
I had to look up the word “misandrist”. All of these different five dollar words to describe shades of hate. Not being a black man, I can’t relate, but Adam, you’re usually right about things. Kamala scares me to no end. What a terrifying world it would be if she gets in somehow.
Agree with "They don't need to ask what we want....." Because they don't care what you want. It's about shaming and attempting to "guilt you" into conforming. The problem is, even if you comply it's never enough for most of the left. It's like they want to intimidate you with their "rage" and "threats" which include forever withholding _________ (fill in the blank) from you. But the truth is they are never going to give that to you (i.e., acceptance, sex, affirmation, regard, appreciation, position, respect, etc.) anyway! Good thoughts, Adam. Keep them coming. Go Adam, Go!
Not sure about them feeling much guilt, Gilgamech. Maybe some of them. But the ones I've been around in last four years had no fear putting down white or black men publicly and telling us how to think and feel....or else. I think "maybe" some of them are "just now" getting a little more fearful of repercussions as they feel the pendulum is starting to swing against them. And that makes them all the more desperate to shame and guilt us back into submission lest they lose control of a large part of the population.
It is my belief, the radical left since, surprisingly the Obama administration, has been intent on using the Black community as a what instead of a who. It’s insulting. Your analysis is an extension and validation of my belief. It’s a disgrace and I am glad that Black men as yourself and Cecil Grant are aware of it and get your views out there.
Most disappointing for me is the way black intellectuals who aren’t party apparatchiks get treated - ignored, vilified or slandered. Contrast what Mark Robinson did for NC in its hour of need with how he was smeared by goodwhite democrats. The treatment of Clarence Thomas is a stain on our republic. Even the brilliant Thomas Sowell doesn’t really get his due.
Agree. Clarence Thomas, Thomas Sowell are sidelined or vilified when they are brilliant men. The left can't discuss or debate, only want to eliminate competition to their thinking by any means necessary. And kudos to Mark Robinson for quick action during hurricane damage.
Accurate assessment. This is particularly important:
"However, my initial mistake was believing this ad was for winning over black men. This ad wasn't for us; it was for the pleasure of black male misandrists."
There's a lot of that around nowadays. Other examples include that rock-stupid "No Pressure" climate change video or pretty much everything PeTA ever did. They're not intended to persuade: they're intended for dunking, preening, and tossing raw meat to the cheap seats in their donor bases.
Bingo
Ever since about four seconds into the first PETA ad I ever saw, I've alws suspected that they're a controlled opposition funded by big meatpacking companies—mostly with the goal of making the formerly-vegetarian, now-vegan movement just look ridiculous.
Interesting...
I'm genuinely surprised that the "Qu£€rs for Pαlestine" set hasn't tacked veganism onto their six-contradictory-causes-before-breakfast list yet.
Yeah but how is that a winning strategy? Are they that far up their own posteriors?
I’m sorry for not responding sooner, but you’re right. I can only think that it’s not a winning strategy in the context of the broader mission, but it keeps the lights on and the paychecks clearing instead of bouncing….
This is, by far, the worst run campaign I’ve ever seen. Everything they do, every decision they’ve made is wrong. The whole platform is “Trump Bad.” And even with the MSM propping Kamala up, she still manages to do or say something dumb every day.
Even Obama sees this isn't going so good. The more she'll talk the worse she'll do.
Obama was pretty condescending, as well, IMO. Of course, I'm an old white woman but with children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren who come in a "rainbow" of various skin colors, but I don't think calling black men misogynists (covertly) is any better than what you articulated so well here.
The thrill is gone with Obama.
Adam, after thinking about it I think you hit correctly the message is designed to reinforce belief and shape behavior for leftist females. A lot of these ads are to reinforce their stereotypes. And are aimed at their leftist female base and metro-sexual males of the current democratic party. While it may attempt to "shame" males or try to make them fear "rejection" by females, it also serves to "guide the behavior" of leftist females....to shun and "punish" anyone who does not surrender to leftist demands and leftist candidates. We are not to think for ourselves! We are only to surrender and give in to the Borg! Oh how they must truly hate we those of us are engaged in the resistance! And thinking for ourselves!
Good point but again not a winning strategy.
It's going to be interesting if Harris loses, and the Democrats try to blame it on both black men and white supremacists at the same time.
They've been accusing Black conservatives and/or Black GOP voters of "internalized white supremacy" for decades, so, that's exactly what they'll do—except they'll be blaming the same people both times.
Adam, in addition to making the gross error of insulting black men...I hadn't seen the, let's call it the "sex ad,"...they made a huge mistake in choosing to make "Tim Walz their male spokesman by having him go hunting, appearing on sports podcasts and working hard to frame him as a "man's man"." Tim Walz is a lot of things but the term "man's man" is not one that comes to mind when I think of him. After spending nearly 22 years on active duty as an Army officer, and serving in Airborne, Special Forces and Army Special Mission Units, I think I have a good idea about the kinds of Soldiers that inhabit the military. There is a group that I'll refer to as "do nothings," who are people who just seem to be there and they get by, often for an entire career, by doing two things which can be the path to getting to one's 20 years and retirement: Show up on time and in the correct uniform. Such "do nothings" exist in the National Guard and Army Reserve. For the "do nothings" the Reserve and National Guard are ideal locations...once a month for two days and in the summer for approximately two weeks of active duty training, they fake being Soldiers. Do that for 20 years and you can retire and when you hit 60 you'll collect a federal pension at the same amount of money as someone who served 20 years of active duty and reached the same rank. The part-time Soldier gig is particularly conducive do being a "do nothing" because you've only got to fool them for 2 days a month and then for 2-3 weeks during Summer AT (Annual Training). While there are "do nothings" on active duty the environment is not as conducive to being a "do nothing" because they see you every day and on long deployments. In addition, active military service is not just a regular job, it becomes an all encompassing part of one's life. One's job and one's life are inextricably intertwined. This is not the case in the Reserves or National Guard because it's 2 days a month and 2 weeks during Annual Training. A pretender like Walz...and we know he's a pretender on the scale of Walter Mitty...can easily hide for a career in the National Guard and make the rank of Sergeant Major. However when push comes to shove, he abandoned his troops and his unit to avoid an actual deployment to a war zone in addition to not fulfilling the requirements to actually permanently retain his promotion to Sergeant Major. His promotion was temporary and dependent on his completing requirements that weren't important enough for him because he apparently wanted to campaign for Congress more than actually be a full fledged Sergeant Major and retire as such, despite him referring to himself as such for nearly two decades. Walz is a coward who is disloyal to his troops and his unit. He put himself above his unit, his mission, his troops and his commitment. He is the worst kind of leader and a classic example of a "do nothing" that hides in the Reserves and National Guard. This is not in any way to denigrate the thousands of Reserve and National Guard Soldiers who do their duty and do it well, who put the unit, their fellow Soldiers and the nation above their personal preferences and desires. Two of several defining characteristics of military service is that it is both sacrificial and selfless. Tim Walz is the antithesis of both of those characteristics. His service was anything but selfless and sacrificial, it was conditional and self-focused. He served while it remained convenient and when it was no longer convenient, and when it was going to get very dangerous, he quit.
So Adam, you probably want to know why the diatribe about Walz. Here's why: not only are the methods of democrats to court working class white men different from those used to court black men different and insulting to them as you point out...why not appeal to black men the same way you appeal to white working class men?...but their appeal to working class white men method failed miserably because it's obvious to everyone with a room temperature IQ that Tim Walz is anything but a "man's man." How democrats can hope to win an election in which they not only insult one of their main constituencies, black men, by engaging in vile stereotyping of them, but also insult and engage in gross gaslighting of white working class men by trying to sell Tim Walz as something he clearly is not, a "man's man." They also insult white working class men by thinking they are so stupid that they won't see through this ham fisted attempt to make Tim Walz appear to be something he clearly isn't, which is both insulting and demeaning. The key takeaway is that the democrat elites, the powerbrokers, look down and sneer at both black men and white working class men, thinking both groups so stupid that they won't see through such...I'll say it again...ham fisted actions. To paraphrase what the kids today say when the truth about someone is revealed, I see you (Democrats for what you really are). They are not worthy of support from people who they clearly look down on and perhaps despise, both black men and white working class men. It's time for a change.
I agree with you that these ads are intended to harass the target group and that includes the ones aimed at white men. It is a very overt form of attempted shaming that says loud and clear “you ain’t a man unless vote for Kam”. This is the direct successor of Biden’s outrageous “you ain’t black if you don’t vote for me”, just powered by slick globohomo consultants.
Patronizing and paternalistic. Like many do gooders views
Infantilising adults is so insulting
The whole culture has been infantilized.
That weird jive-turkey accent that Ms. Harris spontaneously drifts into and out of at rallies isn't going to do her any favors with Black people, either.
I mean. If there's one demographic group that WILL be acutely aware that Kamala Harris is both 0% ethnically African-American (Black people of Caribbean descent, like Donald Harris, are not Afirican-Americans) AND 0% culturally Aftican-American (she's a petit-bourgeois Berkeley faculty kid for gawds sake... not to mention being raised almost exclusively by her Mother, who was from India, around few if any other Black kids)... that's going to be the Black community, or more specifically the African-American community. Who KNOW that Kamala Harris is not one of them—except in the bleak, totally surface-level DEI kind of way—and who neither expect nor appreciate the pretense.
Like, just, gurl why?
Obama wasn’t culturally black either. That was Michelle’s role.
Well, more so than Kamala is (not a high bar, I realize).
Her attempts to "act African-American" are made even MORE awkward by her super straight hair—which I realize she just has because she's biracial, BUT, it's eerily reminiscent of the chemical press that Black Women would have to get if They wanted to have any chance of being hired by a corporate employer between the 1980s and ca. 2010 (which was a tool of tacit discrimination—the chemical treatments needed to straighten 4C Black hair to look like Kamala's take 4-6 salon visits and cost close to a thousand dollars, which most Black Women looking for entry-level employment through those decades could ill afford to pay).
Natural hair is the thing du jour, at least where I live, which makes all of this conflicting symbolism stand out that much more.
And a white male misandry problem and anti white racism problem and elitist bubble patronising snobbery problem and a reality disconnect problem and above all, a rich donor ass-kissing problem.
I had to look up the word “misandrist”. All of these different five dollar words to describe shades of hate. Not being a black man, I can’t relate, but Adam, you’re usually right about things. Kamala scares me to no end. What a terrifying world it would be if she gets in somehow.
Agree with "They don't need to ask what we want....." Because they don't care what you want. It's about shaming and attempting to "guilt you" into conforming. The problem is, even if you comply it's never enough for most of the left. It's like they want to intimidate you with their "rage" and "threats" which include forever withholding _________ (fill in the blank) from you. But the truth is they are never going to give that to you (i.e., acceptance, sex, affirmation, regard, appreciation, position, respect, etc.) anyway! Good thoughts, Adam. Keep them coming. Go Adam, Go!
They actively don’t want to ask because then they might get little flutters of white guilt for TELLING you what you ought to want.
Not sure about them feeling much guilt, Gilgamech. Maybe some of them. But the ones I've been around in last four years had no fear putting down white or black men publicly and telling us how to think and feel....or else. I think "maybe" some of them are "just now" getting a little more fearful of repercussions as they feel the pendulum is starting to swing against them. And that makes them all the more desperate to shame and guilt us back into submission lest they lose control of a large part of the population.
It's not misogyny; it's policy. Her campaign is racist! Sabrinalabow.substack.com
I'll check it out. Thanks!
You're welcome
You should submit something to wrongspeak.substack.com
It is my belief, the radical left since, surprisingly the Obama administration, has been intent on using the Black community as a what instead of a who. It’s insulting. Your analysis is an extension and validation of my belief. It’s a disgrace and I am glad that Black men as yourself and Cecil Grant are aware of it and get your views out there.
This is an excellent piece. Thank you.
Thank you 😊
Most disappointing for me is the way black intellectuals who aren’t party apparatchiks get treated - ignored, vilified or slandered. Contrast what Mark Robinson did for NC in its hour of need with how he was smeared by goodwhite democrats. The treatment of Clarence Thomas is a stain on our republic. Even the brilliant Thomas Sowell doesn’t really get his due.
Agree. Clarence Thomas, Thomas Sowell are sidelined or vilified when they are brilliant men. The left can't discuss or debate, only want to eliminate competition to their thinking by any means necessary. And kudos to Mark Robinson for quick action during hurricane damage.
Her entire campaign mocks her target audience and electorate. Unserious candidate, unserious campaign.
Truly pathetic