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Guns for Kindergarteners!

I don't know if this has been mentioned on this thread before but the British comedian Sasha Baron Cohen, formerly Ali G, is bringing out a comedy show about things like guns for infants, in America, and on Channel 4. Trump, and the British newspaper, Daily Mail, don't like it. Personally, I think he is taking the mickey out of some people with some very strange beliefs. Some of it is on YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QkXeMoBPSDk
 
Thermal said:
Getting back to the OP, anyone else note that Cohen's persona said that the children were instructed in rudimentary use of mortars, as well?
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SuburbanTurkey said:
Cohen has a certain satirical genius that allows him to identify and pillory the most ridiculous faults of his targets. Based on the short clips I've seen, he has really hit the mark on these pro-gun conservatives. Many of these politicians are so well trained by the NRA contingency that the gut reaction is to support any pro-gun idea, no matter how absurd. My jaw dropped when he got all these folks to support arming 6 year olds.
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Yes, the mortar thing was hilarious. Also, Philip Van Cleave was happy to wave around the "children's guns" which included an RPG.
 
Henri McPhee said:
I don't know if this has been mentioned on this thread before but the British comedian Sasha Baron Cohen, formerly Ali G, is bringing out a comedy show about things like guns for infants, in America, and on Channel 4. Trump, and the British newspaper, Daily Mail, don't like it. Personally, I think he is taking the mickey out of some people with some very strange beliefs. Some of it is on YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QkXeMoBPSDk
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Are you kidding!? What a coincidence!
 
SuburbanTurkey said:
Cohen has a certain satirical genius that allows him to identify and pillory the most ridiculous faults of his targets. Based on the short clips I've seen, he has really hit the mark on these pro-gun conservatives. Many of these politicians are so well trained by the NRA contingency that the gut reaction is to support any pro-gun idea, no matter how absurd. My jaw dropped when he got all these folks to support arming 6 year olds.
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What I find fascinating is the vacuity of these guys. They have to process the words at some level. An interesting question would be how often they are in screensaver mode? If they are truly putting the 'mindless' in the mindless machine, is it reserved for public speaking or do they do their various jobs in mental neutral, too?
 
Thermal said:
What I find fascinating is the vacuity of these guys. They have to process the words at some level. An interesting question would be how often they are in screensaver mode? If they are truly putting the 'mindless' in the mindless machine, is it reserved for public speaking or do they do their various jobs in mental neutral, too?
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My guess would be yes. Although you'd think a politician would understand the need to weigh their words prior to speaking, the number of verbal gaffes that have been issuing from multiple members of government over the past decade or so would seem to indicate that most of them have rote answers memorized that click into their heads whenever a key word, like "gun" for instance, is brought up in conversation. It's almost Pavlovian.
 
Thermal said:
What I find fascinating is the vacuity of these guys. They have to process the words at some level. An interesting question would be how often they are in screensaver mode? If they are truly putting the 'mindless' in the mindless machine, is it reserved for public speaking or do they do their various jobs in mental neutral, too?
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That depends on their consultants and chiefs of staff. These folks maneuver in a cloud. Everything beyond what's on the agenda and talking points is a hazy mystery.

Like most managers, actually.
 
Sabrina said:
My guess would be yes. Although you'd think a politician would understand the need to weigh their words prior to speaking, the number of verbal gaffes that have been issuing from multiple members of government over the past decade or so would seem to indicate that most of them have rote answers memorized that click into their heads whenever a key word, like "gun" for instance, is brought up in conversation. It's almost Pavlovian.
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It would be enlightening to see that test taken to the extreme, to see how outlandish their responses might get.

*rereads OP*

Oh. Right.
 
SuburbanTurkey said:
Cohen has a certain satirical genius that allows him to identify and pillory the most ridiculous faults of his targets. Based on the short clips I've seen, he has really hit the mark on these pro-gun conservatives. Many of these politicians are so well trained by the NRA contingency that the gut reaction is to support any pro-gun idea, no matter how absurd. My jaw dropped when he got all these folks to support arming 6 year olds.
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3 year-olds. Not 2 year-olds, because they call it the "terrible 2s" for a reason.
 
LSSBB said:
That depends on their consultants and chiefs of staff. These folks maneuver in a cloud. Everything beyond what's on the agenda and talking points is a hazy mystery.

Like most managers, actually.
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I've always assumed that politicians are sharp negotiators, etc, and feel that you dumb it down for the masses, but that savvy observers could infer the real agenda. But this OP...there's nothing approaching human intelligence there.
 
phiwum said:
Er, I doubt that it would not lead to tragedy.

I don't doubt that it would lead to tragedy.

Yeah, yeah, I know I shouldn't be pointing out a silly typo, but I'm a weak man.
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Look, it’s an easy mistake to make. Even the American President managed to. Its kind of a double negative.
 
I frankly find SBC uncomfortable to watch. I liked him in Talladega Nights, probably because he had an intellect and improv partner who could keep up with him and Les Misérables, because he wasn't off script. That said, the people complaining, except Sanders appear to be Trump supporters so it's okay to humiliate them. There's not rule of honesty, decency or integrity that a Trump supporter rates. So as long as it's legal, it's okay.

I honestly doubt the idiot who talked about guns for toddlers thinks it's a good idea to give guns to toddlers. It's okay that the world now thinks he does though. He's a sacrifice loyal Americans should be willing to make.
 
Craig4 said:
I frankly find SBC uncomfortable to watch. I liked him in Talladega Nights, probably because he had an intellect and improv partner who could keep up with him and Les Misérables, because he wasn't off script. That said, the people complaining, except Sanders appear to be Trump supporters so it's okay to humiliate them. There's not rule of honesty, decency or integrity that a Trump supporter rates. So as long as it's legal, it's okay.

I honestly doubt the idiot who talked about guns for toddlers thinks it's a good idea to give guns to toddlers. It's okay that the world now thinks he does though. He's a sacrifice loyal Americans should be willing to make.
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I watched the first episode which opened with his Sanders interview and closed with the Kinderguardians segment. I found the whole episode pretty funny, but for different reasons.

The interview was Sanders did not make him look that bad. It was funny because you can see him becoming frustrated trying to reason with Cohen's character who plays it obtuse and irrational to the extreme. But Sanders doesn't really say anything new or outrageous, he just becomes frustrated with the idiot he is dealing with and eventually gives up on the interview. This segment was funny IMO, but not particularly relevant or revealing in a political way. Cohen doesn't bait anything out of him that he hasn't already said numerous times in other public venues.

The Kinderguardians sketch was much more political satire, mostly because the subjects readily embrace the idiocy of the strawman Cohen character. It was pretty jawdropping how uncritical these people where of a ridiculous, hyperbolic hard-line position. I thought this segment was revealing politically, in addition to being pretty funny in itself. There were a couple times in the segment where it seemed like Cohen came close to breaking his character in surprise to the reaction he was getting to the idea of arming literal toddlers.

I hope the rest of the series is as good as the first episode.
 
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Craig4 said:
https://www.cnn.com/2018/07/23/entertainment/jason-spencer-who-is-america-controversy/index.html

How, how is this possible? Okay, he's a state legislator but I bet his state party has people who can vet invitations for him.

I generally find watching people being humiliated uncomfortable which is why I've never cared for SBC. If the guy wasn't a Trump supporter, I'm not sure I could have watched the whole thing.
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How did this happen? His excuse was that he was deeply afraid after getting a threat in response to his attempt to ban burqas and swallowed the bait there hook, line, and sinker. While conservatives do react more strongly to fear, in general, this guy is somewhat indicative of how easy it is to manipulate such people and why the right-wing has been so successful in their use of that tactic.
 
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Aridas said:
How did this happen? His excuse was that he was deeply afraid after getting a threat in response to his attempt to ban burqas and swallowed the bait there hook, line, and sinker. While conservatives do react more strongly to fear, in general, this guy is somewhat indicative of how easy it is to manipulate such people and why the right-wing has been so successful in their use of that tactic.
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I love the admission that the "fear of terrorism" makes them act irrationally.

I can't argue with that.
 
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