Comments on: It turns out they really, deep down, are just assholes… https://habitablezone.com/2019/09/17/it-turns-out-they-really-deep-down-are-just-assholes/ Tue, 07 Apr 2026 19:18:10 -0700 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: RL https://habitablezone.com/2019/09/17/it-turns-out-they-really-deep-down-are-just-assholes/#comment-43690 RL Fri, 20 Sep 2019 18:46:02 +0000 https://habitablezone.com/?p=78347#comment-43690 They usually are too stupid to realize just how wrong they are. This stupidity leads to overconfidence, which, in turn, leads them to expose just how vile and bigoted their true personalities really are. It will hopefully come back to bite them. I have no illusions of anonymity here. They usually are too stupid to realize just how wrong they are.

This stupidity leads to overconfidence, which, in turn, leads them to expose just how vile and bigoted their true personalities really are.

It will hopefully come back to bite them.

I have no illusions of anonymity here.

]]> By: BuckGalaxy https://habitablezone.com/2019/09/17/it-turns-out-they-really-deep-down-are-just-assholes/#comment-43689 BuckGalaxy Fri, 20 Sep 2019 17:53:42 +0000 https://habitablezone.com/?p=78347#comment-43689 I like to relax sometimes by playing auto racing games online. The race forums usually have anywhere from a few to 30 players in a given race. The hardcore Trump supporters feel very liberated in this environment to be themselves since they are behind a screen. Between their praise of Trump and his wall are constant racial slurs against Mexicans, blacks and Asians. "N" words, the full range of hispanic slur words, making fun of asian people's names, etc. The ignorance is off the chart. I mute them when they start in and if I'm the host of the race I kick them out. It is a true reflection of what this POS has done to our country that his idiot supporters feel so emboldened to spew their racist bullshit. I like to relax sometimes by playing auto racing games online. The race forums usually have anywhere from a few to 30 players in a given race. The hardcore Trump supporters feel very liberated in this environment to be themselves since they are behind a screen. Between their praise of Trump and his wall are constant racial slurs against Mexicans, blacks and Asians. “N” words, the full range of hispanic slur words, making fun of asian people’s names, etc. The ignorance is off the chart. I mute them when they start in and if I’m the host of the race I kick them out. It is a true reflection of what this POS has done to our country that his idiot supporters feel so emboldened to spew their racist bullshit.

]]> By: ER https://habitablezone.com/2019/09/17/it-turns-out-they-really-deep-down-are-just-assholes/#comment-43663 ER Wed, 18 Sep 2019 02:17:30 +0000 https://habitablezone.com/?p=78347#comment-43663 It was first identified by Hunter S Thompson and explored in this article in <em>The Nation</em> by Susan McWilliams, although no one had yet given it a name. Here is a reprint of my original post, and I highly recommend you link to Ms McWilliams' article. Knowing what we know now, it makes for chilling reading. <strong>This Political Theorist Predicted the Rise of Trumpism. His Name Was Hunter S. Thompson. by ER June 25, 2018 11:04 am </strong> https://www.thenation.com/article/this-political-theorist-predicted-the-rise-of-trumpism-his-name-was-hunter-s-thompson/ <blockquote>In Hell’s Angels, the gonzo journalist wrote about left-behind people motivated only by “an ethic of total retaliation.” Sound familiar? By Susan McWilliams It has been 50 years since Hunter S. Thompson published the definitive book on motorcycle guys: Hell’s Angels: The Strange and Terrible Saga of the Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs. It grew out of a piece first published in The Nation one year earlier… Even so, I was surprised, when I finally picked it up a few years ago, by how prophetic Thompson is and how eerily he anticipates 21st-century American politics. This year, when people asked me what I thought of the election, I kept telling them to read Hell’s Angels. Most people read Hell’s Angels for the lurid stories of sex and drugs. But that misses the point entirely. What’s truly shocking about reading the book today is how well Thompson foresaw the retaliatory, right-wing politics that now goes by the name of Trumpism. After following the motorcycle guys around for months, Thompson concluded that the most striking thing about them was not their hedonism but their “ethic of total retaliation” against a technologically advanced and economically changing America in which they felt they’d been counted out and left behind. Thompson saw the appeal of that retaliatory ethic. He claimed that a small part of every human being longs to burn it all down, especially when faced with great and impersonal powers that seem hostile to your very existence. In the United States, a place of ever greater and more impersonal powers, the ethic of total retaliation was likely to catch on. </blockquote> Wait till Susan reads “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas”. Ms McWilliams is definitely on to something. You will certainly profit by taking the time and reading the rest of her article, linked to above. And “Hell’s Angels” is definitely back on my reading list again. This isn’t just a book about bikers. Dr Thompson isn’t necessarily fun to read, he comes across as crazy, hallucinogenic, self-indulgent, and irreverent simply on general principles. But periodically in his writing you stumble on the occasional passage of extraordinary lucidity and insight. Its like he’s spitting in your face to distract you from the fact he’s slipping a shiny gold coin into your pocket. Its like he knows you won’t realize its there until you get ready to go to bed that evening. It was first identified by Hunter S Thompson and explored in this article in The Nation by Susan McWilliams, although no one had yet given it a name. Here is a reprint of my original post, and I highly recommend you link to Ms McWilliams’ article. Knowing what we know now, it makes for chilling reading.

This Political Theorist Predicted the Rise of Trumpism. His Name Was Hunter S. Thompson. by ER June 25, 2018 11:04 am

https://www.thenation.com/article/this-political-theorist-predicted-the-rise-of-trumpism-his-name-was-hunter-s-thompson/

In Hell’s Angels, the gonzo journalist wrote about left-behind people motivated only by “an ethic of total retaliation.” Sound familiar? By Susan McWilliams

It has been 50 years since Hunter S. Thompson published the definitive book on motorcycle guys: Hell’s Angels: The Strange and Terrible Saga of the Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs. It grew out of a piece first published in The Nation one year earlier…

Even so, I was surprised, when I finally picked it up a few years ago, by how prophetic Thompson is and how eerily he anticipates 21st-century American politics. This year, when people asked me what I thought of the election, I kept telling them to read Hell’s Angels.

Most people read Hell’s Angels for the lurid stories of sex and drugs. But that misses the point entirely. What’s truly shocking about reading the book today is how well Thompson foresaw the retaliatory, right-wing politics that now goes by the name of Trumpism. After following the motorcycle guys around for months, Thompson concluded that the most striking thing about them was not their hedonism but their “ethic of total retaliation” against a technologically advanced and economically changing America in which they felt they’d been counted out and left behind. Thompson saw the appeal of that retaliatory ethic. He claimed that a small part of every human being longs to burn it all down, especially when faced with great and impersonal powers that seem hostile to your very existence. In the United States, a place of ever greater and more impersonal powers, the ethic of total retaliation was likely to catch on.

Wait till Susan reads “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas”.

Ms McWilliams is definitely on to something. You will certainly profit by taking the time and reading the rest of her article, linked to above. And “Hell’s Angels” is definitely back on my reading list again. This isn’t just a book about bikers.

Dr Thompson isn’t necessarily fun to read, he comes across as crazy, hallucinogenic, self-indulgent, and irreverent simply on general principles. But periodically in his writing you stumble on the occasional passage of extraordinary lucidity and insight. Its like he’s spitting in your face to distract you from the fact he’s slipping a shiny gold coin into your pocket.

Its like he knows you won’t realize its there until you get ready to go to bed that evening.

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