New frontiers in sucking: Why is the Trump campaign selling plastic straws?
To be sure, the Trump administration didn't start this conservative trend of obsessive griping about even the most minor inconveniences. For decades, right-wing media has been making great hay over consumer shifts meant to protect the environment, from low-flush toilets to higher automotive fuel efficiency standards. It's always based on the same narrative, which is that no sacrifice, no matter how small, should ever be made by the aging conservative base, no matter how serious the issue at...
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
The right's bizarre plastic-straw fetish is about making a lack of empathy central to conservative identity
Why is the Donald Trump campaign so obsessed with drinking straws?
In the midst of a news cycle focused on how much Trump is centering white nationalism in his 2020 presidential campaign, there was another story that just weird enough to capture some media attention: The Trump campaign waded into the plastic vs. paper straws debate by selling $15 branded plastic straws. This was accompanied by a robust messaging push — with both Trump and his campaign manager, Brad Parscale, repeating talking points about how "Liberal paper straws don't work."
The press mostly covered this story as a kooky bit of comic relief, a matter of Trump attempting to corner the cranky old man vote. In truth, however, the straw story exposes something much darker about the kind of politics Trump and the Republican Party are peddling in the 21st century.
As I explain in my book, "Troll Nation," conservatives have given up trying to make substantive arguments, and have been reduced to a politics centered on trolling liberals. To make it worse, Trump is using this lower-level trolling to train his supporters to equate the identity of "conservative" with pettiness and selfishness, conditioning them so that their first instinct is indifference or even glee when confronted with more serious examples of Trump's depravity.
The debate over plastic straws in the U.S. really kicked off in 2015 when a group of marine biologists taped themselves handling a sea turtle with a straw deeply embedded in its nostril and blocking its airway. More than 2 million people watched the researchers remove the straw as the helpless animal bled and squirmed with pain. Reacting to the outrage, a number of corporations enacted policies aimed at reducing their use of plastic straws. Progressive politicians, locally in the U.S. and nationally in Canada, moved towards passing laws restricting "single use" plastics like straws.
Conservatives, however, reacted by doubling down on plastic straws, even making it a right-wing meme to post pictures of yourself drinking out of plastic straws.
It's not that conservatives hate sea turtles, per se. It's more that watching innocent animals suffer makes liberals cry, and making liberals cry is the central motivating force of modern conservatism. (At this point, it's almost the only one.) So contributing to the suffering of sea turtles, by osmosis, has become a conservative value.
What's telling about this is that the plastic straw isn't really a presidential issue. The disappearance of the straws in some places has largely been a matter of the market doing its invisible-hand thing, which conservatives are supposed to like — corporations choosing to shift their policies and practices, for their own reasons. When straws have become a legislative issue, it's only been on the state and local level. Realistically speaking, Trump has no power, as president, to change the accessibility levels of plastic straws at your local soda-pop dispensing establishment.
Despite this, Trump took time to rant at reporters about the issue, proving once again that his appeal to his voters has little, if anything, to do with his actual policies, most of which are economically damaging to the people who voted for him in order to troll the liberals.
This entire right-wing straw obsession normalizes and even encourages conservatives to believe that it's not just right but necessary to prioritize even the most inconsequential convenience for themselves over the suffering of others. And by "others," I'm not talking about the crying liberals who populate the fantasy lives of conservatives. I mean the sea turtles.
It's genuinely difficult, for anyone with an ounce of empathy, to watch that video of the sea turtle getting the straw removed from its nose without feeling just awful about it. So in order to achieve the all-important goal of trolling the liberals, conservatives, by necessity, must kill that part of themselves that feels compassion for an animal that, through no fault of its own, is made to suffer.
That's why this kind of apparently inconsequential trolling from conservatives should be viewed as a kind of boot camp for greater acts of emotional depravity. Learn to kill the empathy response when it comes to sea turtles, and soon you're callous enough that you can shrug off the deaths of migrant children being killed by Trump's racist policies at the border.
Practice moral indifference to the suffering of others long enough and soon you can be a Corey Lewandowski-level Jedi master of learned sociopathy, responding to a child crying at losing her mother by saying "womp womp" on national television.
To be sure, the Trump administration didn't start this conservative trend of obsessive griping about even the most minor inconveniences. For decades, right-wing media has been making great hay over consumer shifts meant to protect the environment, from low-flush toilets to higher automotive fuel efficiency standards. It's always based on the same narrative, which is that no sacrifice, no matter how small, should ever be made by the aging conservative base, no matter how serious the issue at hand.
In 2011, as Media Matters tracked at the time, there was an enormous push in conservative media to get audiences in a lather over having to use energy-efficient light bulbs that were slightly different than the ones their audience had grown up using. The differences between the newer light bulbs and older ones are inconsequential and would likely have passed without notice by the vast majority of consumers. But after a heavy push from Fox News and other outlets, suddenly much of conservative America decided it was an outrage that light bulb shapes were changing.
"Do you want to be forced to have the squiggly ones?" lamented Mike Jerrick of "Fox & Friends" at the time.
The implicit message of this media blitz was clear: The future of the planet for your children and grandchildren matters less than having light bulbs that look like the ones you remember from childhood. This selfishness is breathtaking, especially in light of the astronomical gap between the nonexistent sacrifice of changing your light bulbs and the worldwide crisis that is climate change.
Conservative media, however, frames it not in terms of compassion or concern for the environment, but as a culture-war issue. By encouraging conservatives to see plastic straws or old-fashioned light bulbs as markers of conservative American values, Republican media and politicians also encourage the idea that profound selfishness is an inextricable aspect of that conservative identity.
So really, it's not a small thing. Bit by bit, these little troll-the-liberals stunts build and reinforce the idea that there's something ennobling and necessary about killing their own capacity for compassion or concern for others. This problem has been building for some time in conservative circles, but with the Trump administration pulling stunts like selling these straws or getting the First Lady to wear a jacket that literally advertises "I really don't care," the trolling isn't just a thing. It's everything.
Tags
Who is online
43 visitors
a straw most represents POS/POTUS term in office
Because it sucks?
Now the delusional wanna-be-dictator is announcing things like this:
Our great American companies are hereby ordered to immediately start looking for an alternative to China
He truly doesn't understand that he's not an emperor - he actually thinks he can just issue commands like this.
Oh, I bet those companies are all over buying the factories and hiring the people they need RIGHT! NOW! so they can obey the Emperor's most recent order.
Are all American workers going to be immediately paid sufficient wages to be able to afford products that are totally made in the USA?
Stock market is down 500 pts today because of trumps tweet
He does realize that this is a capitalist country and he can't just order American companies to come home and carrier companies like Fed Ex to refuse delivering their goods?
Can Donald Trump "order" US companies to obey him? lol.
At the rate he is going off his rocker lately, he's not going to make it to the election in 15 months.
No, he can't.
OTOH, Xi can tell Chinese companies what to do. That's why China will win.
If I had a dollar for every lie Trump has told...
If I had a dollar for every...
Very cheap argument.
I’d buy them strictly to offend our left wing friends here and that would be satisfaction enough. A lot of California Republicans bought them because of recent state laws on the subject and it was an inexpensive way to tell our legislature and the voters who put its super majority there what they can do where the sun doesn’t shine.
China can only win if our democrats openly collude with and side with them.
Is that a new "MAGA Standard Bullet Point"?
Are you people setting up to blame the Dems for the horrific mess Trump is making of American foreign/trade relations? Are you already recognizing the catastrophic outcome that seems inevitable, now?
That's nothing to be proud of, HA. What would Jesus do?
Nowadays, wingnuts are not satisfied with doing nothing to prevent the planet burning.
Nowadays, wingnuts are PROUD to contribute to the planet burning.
The vast majority of plastics in the ocean is not coming from America. It is Americans who are developing technologies to clean up after others. The banning of plastic straws and making it illegal for restaurants to give them to customers is sheer stupidity that deserves to be mocked.
Why don’t you ask Him directly?
Lemme try to understand you... You're proudly claiming that America is depoluting... and you're condemning bans on plastic products... at the same time .
I kinda sorta see an incoherence there.
And you have tracked all the trash in the ocean and you know where it's all coming from? Most countries follow rules regarding recycling, we don't. We gave up on it 20 years ago.
So as usual, you have made a statement that is literally the exact opposite of the truth.
A great buying opportunity for Monday. Thanks for the panic!
Your cheap arguments are getting so old. At least take another like of make believe
Such a lying comment. You've already lost, just pay attention
How, exactly, do you propose that I do that? If he ever lived, he's dead now.
However, I have read words he is supposed to have said. And none of them seem to express approval of such behavior - intentionally sowing strife. They do exhort us to be good caretakers of that with which we've been entrusted.
Yet if this had happened under Obama, you would have been screeching your head off about what he was doing to the economy.
Hypocrisy is not attractive.
"Love one another".
Trump is a "fine person"....
I'm only concerned with his role as President and ya, he is a fine one.
Donald Trump is a "fine" President only in the way that the tiki torch march Nazi's were "fine people". Trump and his "fine people's" heads are so full of crap there's simply no room for brains.
You still pushing that one? He was supposedly talking about Nazi's and we are to believe antifa on the other side? It wouldn't be about the fine people on either side of the statue debate, would it?
I hate to use an exact quote, but I hope everyone gets this one right:
"Make the lie big, make it simple, keep saying it and eventually they will believe it"
Now the motto of the liberal media.
The very man the American left has come to emulate!
You wouldn't? I assume you never read Mein Kampf?
You say tactics - For the Nazis they were tactics, for the left it's "who they are." (To quote somebody else)
Trump is the only one I see using this tactic regularly.
Here is the comment in context:
REPORTER: The neo-Nazis started this thing. They showed up in Charlottesville.
TRUMP: Excuse me, they didn't put themselves down as neo-Nazis, and you had some very bad people in that group. But you also had people that were very fine people on both sides. You had people in that group – excuse me, excuse me. I saw the same pictures as you did. You had people in that group that were there to protest the taking down, of to them, a very, very important statue and the renaming of a park from Robert E. Lee to another name.
So the question was about neo-Nazi's and he replied "they didn't put themselves down as neo-Nazis, and you had some very bad people in that group. But you also had people that were very fine people on both sides." Then he continued to complain about those supporting the removal of the bigoted confederate monument as if they were the real problem, not the Nazi's who showed up to protest its removal.
So, what have we learned here? That his making that statement wasn't a lie, and he wasn't just talking about the people on "either side of the statue debate". I do find it rather sad that those defending the Nazi's and Trumps comments about them are now trying to smear their opponents with using a Nazi propaganda technique. You really don't get much lower than that. Very sad and completely shameful to watch.
You are 100% right. Making the comparison usually means the one doing the comparing has nothing left. You say they are not inherently evil. Let's look at what they have done: Example 1 Brett Kavanaugh - they viciously smeared a decent human being in front of his family and he nation. They aren't the least bid sorry about it. They are more than willing to do it again. Look at what they are doing to our democracy. They have people voting on their skin color to counter credible voters. They turn on family members and friends who don't agree with them. Tell me that is not evil?
Imagine claiming to put his comment in context and completely ignoring where Trump explained that "I'm not talking about the neo-Nazis and the white nationalists, because they should be condemned totally. "
Talk about the big lie. Have some self respect.
We all know Trump can read off the prompter about who his staff tell him to condemn, but when asked a direct question about neo-Nazi's in context, he said there were "very fine people on both sides". How is saying he said that supposed to be a lie? Are you going to tell me that wasn't him on the Access Hollywood bus bragging about grabbing women by the pussy either?
No, that wasn't a question it was a reporters biased opinion. Trump responded with the people for and against statues. We all know that there are descent people who are offended by them. There are also people who may have ancestors who fought for the Confederacy. They have a right to an opinion too. I for one thought that Robert E Lee was one o the greatest military minds in all of history. The fact that two violent extremist groups were attracted to the issue had nothing to do with Trump's statement. Trump was refering to the people who showed up to protest on either side PEACEFULLY!
So you took all that time looking for an actual reference to Nazi's and came up empty!
Here is the part the leftist media left out: The Trump remarks that the neo-Nazis and white nationalists are “rough, bad people” and “very bad people” who “ should be condemned totally .”
THE LIE WAS A LIE!
So you are admitting that you ignore what you want and twist what you want?
They have committed political suicide, barring a last minute surprise they should go down easily. As a matter of fact the IG report is all but finished and the AG is deciding on charging McCabe, so that will be in the news very soon. Things are only going to get worse for them.
BTW I know you are a good guy. You give them the benefit of simply being wrong. I'm just fed up with them.
p can read off the prompter about who his staff tell him to condemn
So, in your world, he was reading off a teleprompter at this press conference?
An honest summary of his press conference remarks in context would be "Trump believes there were some very fine people protesting the removal of the statute, but they don't include the Neo-Nazis and white supremacists, who he condemned totally."
NewsTalkers Management:
Is this what you want for this site?
It's called freedom of speech/freedom of thought
This is a privately owned site. If Management wishes to forbid outrageous posts, "freedom of whatever" is irrelevant.
Outrageous posts? Do tell. Why not consult with management?
That's not how the white supremacists and KKK members interpreted his comments.
"Thank you President Trump for your honesty & courage to tell the truth about #Charlottesville & condemn the leftist terrorists in BLM/Antifa," - David Duke
"Trump's statement was fair and down to earth. #Charlottesville could have been peaceful, if police did its job." - Richard Spencer
Go ahead, debase yourselves by defending the indefensible, invent your own interpretations to change what we all know he said and meant. I watched the first episode of "Breaking Hate" the other night and you hear white supremacist neo-Nazi's praising Trump saying he's the most right wing President in their life times and has inspired more white supremacists to stand up in support. I find it rather sad that apparently some here feel the need to defend such vile ideology with deflection and distraction and attempt to paint the other side as the bad guys even though no one on the left rammed their car into a crowd of innocents that day. The same can't be said of the protesters fighting to preserve a monument to a vile confederate piece of shit.
The Unite The Right neo Nazi white supremacist rally for that date was announced weeks in advance. Why didnt the "decent" folks who only wanted to demonstrate on behalf of the statue stay home or change their date? I suspect they were happy for the help.
I doubt it, but I know the fuckin left liked having their storm troopers out there! You know the antifa thugs who NEVER EVER get prosecuted!
At Dollar Tree you can get 50 plastic straws for a dollar. On the official Trump website they charge you $ 1.50 EACH for a Trump straw.
Suckers.
Yup. Gullible country mice handing over their hard earned money to the slimy snake oil salesman who will roll out of town with all their cash as quickly as he rolled in.
Which is different from from any other politician? They are all out for themselves.
You are just pissed Trump's campaign is turning a major profit margin on a very cheap one use item.
Hah!! I get it.
Trump sure does know which Liberal Button to push.
In the Mean Time …… Things are getting signed and accomplished in D.C..
Tax cuts, deregulation, energy independence and exportation, rebuilt national defense, progress on the border, federal judges, strong economy, religious liberty 🗽. Trump is an awesome 👏 American President.
Low unemployment …….
But Trump sucks 'cause he won't placate to the "Wimpy Snowflake Safety Pin wearers" !
That comment is comical and utter bullshit
It is now official. [Deleted]
This is stupid, but not surprising. It appeals to the mentality of those who think "rollin' coal" is cool because it pisses off people who think it's better to breathe oxygen than smoke. And yes, those people exist.
People who live for spite must be miserable human beings.
I would pity them, but what they're doing to our country is despicable.
Actually the straws are nothing. What we really intend to do to tick off the tree hugging secular progressive crowd is to re elect Trump as our President and enjoy the wine 🍷 fest served with cheese 🧀 for four more years!
I believe there's a parable about stewardship you should probably read.
Is it Opposite Day again already? The LEFT is the one with the bizarre straw fetish. For decades, no one has thought twice about straws on the Left or the Right. Now, quite suddenly, based on the sketchy research skills of a 9 year-old boy, the Left has actually created legislation OUTLAWING straws to save turtles that are in no danger.
Because some reasonable people want to point out how stupid this is, the Left accuses them of having a "fetish" and that they are "obsessed." If you have been wondering what "gaslighting" looks like, this is a great example.
A lot of the comments on this seed are just demonstrating the validity of the premise of the article. Thanks !
And your comment proves the validity of my comment. So there! Yes!
What article?
Four more years! Normalization baby!
America's Night of Broken Glass...
Did you not read the seeded article or did you not comprehend it? Clearly one is the case.
How clear is it "Really" in your mind ?
I read it and comprehended it just fine.....in my mind !
Soooo ……. which "Mind" is better ….. in your mind that is !
Or howling at the moon at night.
Nothing like someone wanting to be seen on National TV looking like an idiot.
They are just showing the world what we already knew to be true about them.
Denying AGW is wingnut dogma, but they've now gone beyond simple indifference to the planet burning.
The wingnuts are now actively promoting the destruction the planet.
A few months ago, it was artificially creating thick black smoke when overtaking a Prius, then parking pickups on charging spaces.
Let's think on this: they show pride and joy in destroying the planet.
That is... sick...