Tea at Trianon: Who Will Love the Weird Girls?

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Saturday, August 17, 2024

Who Will Love the Weird Girls?

From Bethel McGrew at Further Up:

The word “weird” has, for some reason, become the word of this election season. Know Your Meme tells me it started with Tim Walz, the rather…odd man Kamala Harris has now chosen as her running mate. Many of the memes have been directed at Trump’s running mate, J. D. Vance (I will not explain the “couch meme,” if you’ve been spared). You may ask how this has sprung up around a rather bland white guy with a lovely wife and cute kids, until you say it out loud and realize that’s precisely the point. In one particularly unsavory Dem campaign ad, a bunch of sweaty white men leer at the camera while posing as MAGA Republicans who want to patrol your bedrooms. Eww! Weird!
In response, some have suggested that conservatives should take the gloves off. Oh, you’re calling us weird? Right then, what about…insert a Pride parade of degenerates here. They seem to want attention, after all. Oblige them!
One particular clip has been making the rounds, from a Kamala rally where an admirably poker-faced interviewer decided to ask the attendees some questions. Two young women explain that they’re voting for Kamala because they’re afraid Trump wouldn’t allow them to “be themselves.” One girl, a pig-tailed redhead in a crop-top bustier, looks ready for Madonna’s Celebration Tour—face full of piercings, eyes caked in mascara, long fake talons. The other girl, alarmingly thin and pale, with jagged black hair and glasses, describes herself as “a trans man” who’s also gay. In her own words, “I don’t want to lose my rights,” and from what she’s heard, “Trump’s America doesn’t want me to look like this.” Both women reveal that they’ve had abortions. The redhead tells us she was underage at the time, making pregnancy impossible, or so she was told. She’s also very…and here she waves at her face, not quite finding the right word, until her friend grins and supplies “alternative.” She’s also concerned that if Trump won, this would no longer be possible. By the by, her dad is very pro-Trump. (Read more.)