Saturday, August 24, 2024

There Was Something Really... Off About the DNC


On Thursday, during the DNC, a fascinating thing happened. If you watched it, it likely caught your attention too. The same party that has been lambasting America, expressing its disappointment and hatred of it, accused it of being sexist, racist, homophobic, and theocratic, and cheered as its flag burned, were suddenly waving those flags. They were even chanting USA. 

You can hear the chant here. 


Oh, sorry. That was the more honest section of the DNC chanting "death to America." 

Here's the moment I was talking about. 


This didn't escape my colleague Susie Moore, who also spoke about it in her Thursday Morning Minute

It's rather bizarre watching the same party that, for years, has extolled the virtues of the Ivy League while looking down its nose at those who don't reside in the coastal bubbles and rolling its eyes at quaint concepts like patriotism and faith and family suddenly decide that attending Yale is gross, rah-rah USA and country music is the bee's knees, children are blessings, not burdens, and camo and plaid are the height of fashion. I guess somebody somewhere decided to course-correct, and rather than attempting to marginalize half the country, the Dems are suddenly going to embrace their inner deplorable and "meet their neighbors where they are." Except the weird ones. Now I'm curious as to who made that call. 

Who indeed. 

The reversal from being the party who wants to fundamentally change the country and spit on its traditional values and put up middle fingers toward anyone who embraced patriotism to suddenly waving American flags and chanting "USA" just like these patriots do was almost jarring. I was certainly confused and borderline shocked by the sudden change. 

Watching it was off-putting, like seeing a fat bearded man dance around in makeup and lingerie. It seemed wrong and out of place. It was weird and awkward. 

After thinking about why it seemed so weird to me, I realized it reminded me of the "uncanny valley." For those unfamiliar with the term, it refers to the unsettling feeling someone gets when viewing something that looks human but isn't. For instance, you've probably experienced the uncanny valley when looking at dolls that look too human but not human enough or movies featuring CGI that attempted to really nail human look and expression but fell just short, such as "The Polar Express." 

Few people at the DNC that were waving those flags and chanting USA actually meant it. It was a facade meant to fool viewers into think the Democrat Party, which has hitherto been happy to look down and even discourage shows of overt patriotism, was actually just as patriotic and in love with the country as Republicans were. They even had Adam Kinzinger get up and say that directly during his speech. 

Too bad it's just another blatant lie, as the data shows. 


Susie is likely closest to the truth with her simple question of who instructed the DNC to suddenly do that. They were being lambasted for not having an American flag in sight during the DNC. In fact, the only ones that could be seen were being burned outside in the Chicago streets just outside the convention center where the DNC was being held. 


Which means that someone near the top made a call to make the DNC look like it actually loves this country. 

As such, you got a bunch of people trying to pretend like they're American patriots who love their country, but it's clear they aren't. These are skin-walkers posing as patriots in order to lull you into a false sense of trust. It doesn't look right. In fact, it just looks wrong to the point where you feel an odd stress looking at it. 

That's why it was just — to use the Democrat's new favorite word — weird.