Buck, buck, buck. The radical rejection of empathy itself. Is tonight’s VP debate also “rigged and unfair”. And does the ‘vibe’ slap?
Vance says most of American life and culture should be "ripped out like a tumor" and we need to "install political religion." And cites Curtis Yarvin, who's said "if Americans want to change their government, they're going to have to get over their dictator phobia."
Vance, however, tells “jokes,” where the humor’s only purpose is to camouflage the bitterness beneath. (He tried to explain his infamous dismissal of “childless cat ladies” as a “sarcastic remark” blown out of proportion by a biased press.) And even with his intended audience, his attempted quips land with a splat. At minimum, cracking a successful joke relies on an ability to read the room, a skill that’s as important for a politician on the campaign trail as it is for a comedian on open-mic night. And though Vance’s journey from rural poverty to Silicon Valley to the halls of Congress ought to make him an adept code-switcher—a scene in the movie version of his memoir Hillbilly Elegy finds him studying the right way to say the word syrup—it seems as if he’s spent so much time in the hermetically sealed world of D.C. think tanks and right-wing podcasts that he’s lost the ability to hear how he sounds to people outside it. How can you put yourself in an audience’s shoes when your politics is rooted in a radical rejection of empathy itself?
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