Have you ever encountered a flawless representation of something so flawed and wrong it has a kind of perfection all its own? Think Edward Bulwer-Lytton’s “Paul Clifford” for books, “Ishtar” for movies, Donald Trump for presidents.
In Thursday’s edition of the Nashville Tennessean, there appeared a guest column entitled, “Why I proudly wear my Make America Great Again hat” by a gentleman named Ryan Moore, which is the acme of… something.
Mr. Moore, credited as a “writer, social media strategist and songwriter,” hits the points you might expect from such a title: “my ancestors came here legally,” “I’m not racist,” all the greatest hits.
But Mr. Moore apparently had a dream of someday winning the Bulwer-Lytton Prize of Whitesplaining Pullquotes. The brief column contains nuggets of Trumpism ground down and refined to a purity heretofore unseen outside the laboratory. Some examples:
White men are the most hated and discriminated against group of people in the United States now. If you don’t believe that, you simply aren’t paying attention or looking at it objectively.
It is the Democrats who are obsessed with “people of color” and gender. Republicans look at people for who they are not for their gender or skin color.
And the “Again” of MAGA in no way means going back to before “all races and both sexes were equal” (so, they are now?), but to when some unspecified “things” were better.
That Mr. Moore, however reasonably he pretends to make his points, is essentially a MAGA troll, is revealed by his delight in getting a rise out of people who disagree with him:
I truly would like everyone to be civil and respectful to one another, but I must admit in one way I get a kick out of the hate I get from liberals by wearing my MAGA hat – it shows either they misunderstand or they’re just closed-minded, hateful and intolerant.
Way to pwn ‘em, Mr. Moore.
Should you wish to see the whole piece, and I’m not sure why you would, the link is here: www.tennessean.com/...