Irony Is Lost on Some People

While visiting grandkids a few months ago, my grandson asked, “What does irony mean?” It’s a little challenging to define simply. My old dictionary gives a couple of apt definitions, one verbal, one situational:

1.        A method of humorous or subtly sarcastic expression in which the intended meaning of the words used is the direct opposite of their usual sense.

2.        A combination of circumstances or a result that is the opposite of what is or might be expected or considered appropriate.

It’s better understood with examples—until you feel the sense of it. It’s like catching the meaning of a joke. You just get it.

The political world is giving us myriad examples right now.

I am not spending a lot of time watching the DNC convention. But I have come across the occasional clip, which, unfortunately, has confirmed my decision not to watch. We live in different worlds, with apparently different realities and truths. Ours is the one that relates to the real world. Theirs is something else, but it’s not truth or reality.

Mallory McMorrow

There was a clip I saw of a woman I do not recognize—she is Michigan State Senator Mallory McMorrow—scaring us with this: 

Donald Trump would be able to weaponize the Department of Justice to go after his political opponents. He could even turn the FBI into his own personal police force. That is not how it works in America. That's how it works in dictatorships.

Mallory McMorrow speaks at the DNC Convention,
screenshot from here

This was said with self-righteous indignation, without the least sense of irony. She seems to be living in a world in which the current administration has not weaponized the DOJ to go after Trump, its main political opponent, with lawfare galore. She seems unaware of the FBI raid on Mar-a-Lago, to settle a dispute between the US Archives and the former president’s right to possess his own documents.

She seems unaware that New York prosecutors trumped up (pun, but it’s still the appropriate word) charges of false business dealings—for getting loans based on something near to the worth of Mar-a-Lago, in which banks did their due diligence, gave loans, received payment with interest in full, and were willing to do business again, but somehow that is worth prosecuting a former president—if you’re a Democrat.

There are multiple others. And we might add that the Democrats twice impeached Trump, once even after he was out of office, without ever producing evidence of wrongdoing.

And we might also add that the secret service failed spectacularly to protect President Trump from an assassin’s bullet, which we can thank God only tore through his ear.

And the weaponization isn’t just against Trump; it’s against all his followers, who are declared domestic terrorists. The purpose of calling J6 an insurrection was to amplify the accusation against people who had no weapons and were asking for justice to be done at their nation’s capitol—the people’s house. Some of these “domestic terrorists” have been kept in jail for years, some without charges, or without hearings, certainly without their constitutional rights—because this administration found it useful to weaponize the DOJ against them.

Tim Walz

This was in contrast to the actual riots of 2020—notably in Minnesota, where Tim Walz was governor and refusing to deal with the looters and violent rioters. As a leader, he was an abject failure during that time.

And it was not to avoid being overly authoritarian, because that same year he imposed lockdowns, kept schools closed, and encouraged neighbors to report on neighbors who weren’t wearing masks or were interacting in public. ‘Cause that’s “how it works” in a Harris/Walz America.

Tim Walz gives acceptance speech at DNC Convention, image from here

I wasn’t acquainted with this man before a week or so ago, when he got chosen for the unelected Democrat ticket. But it hasn’t taken long to know all I need to.

Tim Walz lies:

·        Military record—stolen valor. He served in the National Guard. He was deployed to Italy once, in the war on terror, but did not fight in combat, although he has implied that he did. He was promoted to the rank of Command Sergeant Major, but that was contingent on training and follow through for qualification. He resigned before doing those things—just before his company was to be deployed, which he avoided. As a result, his retirement rank demoted him back to Master Sergeant. He has nevertheless claimed, multiple times in public, that he is a retired Command Sergeant Major. 

·        Drunk driving arrest. His story of the event differs from reality.  He was cited for driving 96 mph in a 55-mph zone. He claims he wasn’t drunk; there was just a misunderstanding because of a hearing problem he has since dealt with. Except, he was driving under the influence, and that’s more than 40 mph over the speed limit. He didn’t “hear” how fast he was going? This was in 1995, a long time ago, and as far as I know he doesn’t have another DUI arrest. Why not just say, “Yeah, that was dumb. I'm lucky I didn't hurt someone. I’ve made sure never to do that again”? He doesn’t own up to the mistake; he lies.

·        He has several lies surrounding the abortion issue.

o   The underlying accusation is that Trump is going to impose a blanket abortion ban on all the states—even though Trump accomplished returning the issue to the states by appointing Supreme Court justices who reversed Roe v. Wade, and he has no further stance than to allow the issue to remain with the states. The only way a ban could be accomplished would be by a decision to grant full life rights to embryos, and then imposing protections on that life, probably through a constitutional amendment process. Trump has no such plans or intentions.

o   The second accusation is that Trump intends to ban IVF (in vitro fertilization). Walz claims a personal stake here, in that he and his wife conceived their two children via IVF. That is not true. They used artificial insemination. The critical difference is that artificial insemination does not produce any embryos (fertilized eggs) outside the womb, which are subject to disposal of potential human life. Artificial insemination simply implants the semen within the woman, where the zygote is then formed and implanted in the uterus in the usual way. Pro-life groups do not find this controversial, as some do for IVF for its disposal of the extras. Trump doesn’t find either one problematic and is supportive of both. So Walz’s lie is doubly false.

o   The third accusation is that Trump will ban contraceptives nationwide. This is simply fearmongering. No one is crusading for any such policy, least of all Trump.

o   Let’s add here a detail about the DNC’s supposed care about women’s reproductive care. They have free abortions and vasectomies just outside the convention center. I gather this is in a mobile medical van or something. This is just more evidence that what they want to do is prevent reproduction, not protect the any right to reproduce, which certainly isn’t being curtailed. Add to this their support for euthanasia, and you might as well just admit the DNC is a death cult.

There were other ironic liars at the DNC convention.

Michelle Obama

Michelle Obama, in support of the idea of—something, not seeking wealth?—tells that her parents were suspicious of anyone who took more than they needed. That’s not took more than they had earned; it’s more than they needed. So, it’s ironic that she’s totally fine with their multi-million-dollar estate on Martha’s Vineyard, plus extravagant homes in Hawaii, DC, and Chicago. This is all from money they received, magically, on the accumulation of two years of Barack Obama’s Senator’s salary (currently $174,000/year; it was a bit less when Obama was a Senator) followed by eight years as president ($400,000/year), followed by seven years of a presidential retirement ($ unspecified, but mostly related to office space). Somehow getting $750,000 for giving a speech is not only not too much to earn; it’s not more than they need. But you, the American people, need much less, and they’ll decide what that amount is. And, by the way, if you’re not working, you’ll need more than if you’re working and earning, so you working and earning people will be supplying your excess to the nonworking. So, if that incentivizes you not to work, maybe someone ought to take that into account.

Michelle Obama speaks at the DNC Convention,
image found on Facebook

Here's a bonus MO meme:

Michelle Obama doesn't think four multi-million-dollar
mansions are more than they need, but you might
need to give up some of what you have.
Meme from Facebook.

Joe Biden

Biden was another liar. He brought up the long-used and long-debunked lies about Trump praising white supremacists—when we have the full recording and have produced it over and over, so we know what he really said, and Trump wasn’t unclear. They just lie.

And there was the one about saying soldiers were losers, which was debunked by all who were present when such a thing was supposedly said. It’s just another lie—and obviously out of character and not believable for anyone familiar with Trump.

You’d think, if he were, as they keep saying, “literally Hitler,” they could come up with something bad he’s actually done or said, instead of having to make up lies.

They keep claiming that Trump is literally Hitler, despite his successful four years in office with less authoritarianism than the previous administration—and certainly a lot less than the current one. Those Trump years were the good old days. The economy was even recovering from the COVID shutdown by the election, but that went south again quickly when Biden took office. And he didn’t even prosecute Hillary, despite the calls to “lock her up,” which would have been for good legal reasons, rather than lawfare.

Viva Frei, Canadian law vlogger, now moved to Florida to escape the Trudeau tyranny, happened to notice what gestures look like when you have the sound turned off. He happened to do that during Biden’s speech. It reminded him of something; what was it? Oh, yeah, literally Hitler. He put brief clips of them side by side. There’s definitely a resemblance in the nonverbals. (The clip comes up here.) 

Viva Frei notices similar nonverbals in these two speeches,
screenshot from here

Meme makers can apparently sense irony, which helps us laugh through some hard times. Here’s a response to the “joy” campaign slogan that makes no sense from these people:

image found on Facebook

 

Additional Ironies

They claim Donald Trump is a threat to democracy, but they are the party that manipulated Bernie Sanders out of the race in 2016, placed Joe Biden on the ticket against all odds in 2020, insisted that questioning the election was a crime (which they had of course done multiple times, notably in 2000 and 2016). These are the people who refused to allow a primary—even though they knew Joe Biden was suffering dementia and had no possibility of continuing for another four years. They kicked RFK Jr out of the party, and they’ve worked tirelessly to keep him off the ballot in many states. [As I write, there is news that RFK Jr has dropped out of the race and is endorsing Trump. I have friends who called this weeks ago, but I didn’t see it until this week.]

Then they reveal to the world, in a debate that looks like a setup, that Joe Biden is mentally incapacitated. Then, when an assassin’s bullet fails to kill off their opponent, they stage a coup and oust Joe Biden from the ticket (continuing to pretend he’s running the country) and coronate VP Kamala Harris without a single vote being cast for her. That’s their vaunted democracy—which they claim Trump would destroy. Ah, the irony.

meme found on Facebook

They claim that walls don’t work and IDs are discriminatory—but those are the very things they use to allow admittance to the DNC Convention.

Oh, and they call for defunding the police, but they hired extra police to protect them at their event. I’m not complaining; I don’t want violence to break out. I’m just pointing out the irony.

 

Kamala Harris has plans for day one. Um, she’s 3 ½ years beyond day one; what is she waiting for? This includes plans to secure the border, ironically.

image of Kamala Harris found on Facebook

Among her scarce policy proposals are these:

·        Raise corporate taxes from 21% to 28% (China’s corporate taxes are 15%-20%)

·        Raise capital gains/dividends taxes to 44.6% (China’s rate is 20%)

·        Impose a 25% tax on unrealized gains—that is, make a person pay for what they would owe if they sold capital even though they’re not selling it; in other words, they would be forced to sell the capital in order to afford to own the capital. And, if such a tax were paid and the capital goes down in value before the sale, they owners were taxed on money they never had; it’s not like the government would reimburse their tax payment. That would pretty much put an end to capital investment.

·        Impose price controls, she says to stop price gauging—yes, that’s what she said, instead of gouging, I guess. All economists (and all who have taken Econ 101) know that price controls lead to shortages and black markets.

·        Confiscate patents (OK, this was what she said during her extremely unpopular 2019 campaign, so we can assume she knows better now, right?) 

Trump tweeted this:

 The New York Post noticed the communism in her economic plan as well.

image found here

This next bit was pre-convention, but there were some “meet the people” moments at a Harris/Walz campaign stop that show the reality. There was a restaurant in, I think, Pennsylvania. They arranged for a private party at 4:00 PM. At 3:30 PM the restaurant closed down for their current patrons and escorted them out—even though they were watching sports on TV and had come there on purpose to do so. But, private parties happen. Oh well. Except, then there were busloads of “regular people” actors to fill the restaurant. And somewhere around 5:30 the Harris/Walz vehicle arrives and steps in to do their “meet the people” moment. They would have gotten away with this—except, the people that got ousted let people know what really happened. Not caring what the real people experience is what we’ve come to expect from Harris.

There was a second stop, I’m uncertain whether it was before or after the restaurant. The campaign vehicle stops at a Sheetz (I think that’s a gas station with a mini-mart), because Harris just had to have some Doritos. It was on video. It was staged, and stilted. Again, they can’t seem to come off as down-to-earth among the people—because they think of themselves as so elite that they cannot do more than badly imitate real people. They’re like AI writing.

 

OK, that’s more than enough examples. Those of us aware of the ironies pretty much just have to use humor to get through such times without going crazy.