WEIRD

I'm an avid follower of the PBS show "Otherwords," in which sociolinguist Dr Erica Brozovsky presents interesting observations on language*. In a recent episode dealing with the universality of how we communicate with infants ("Infant-Directed Speech (IDS)," not "baby talk"), I learned a new expression: WEIRD. In the context of the linguistic discussion, it stands for the types of countries in which most IDS research has been conducted - Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic, but it occurs to me that it has quite a broader meaning nowadays.

You may recall that Minnesota governor and former Vice-Presidential candidate Tim Walz stirred up a lot of controversy when he described many of Der Furor and many of his top appointees and ardent followers as “weird” during the 2024 presidential campaign … Western they might be, Industrialized perhaps, Educated more or less, Democratic (with a small d) certainly not, and Rich hardly (except for the top tier of multi-billionaires in administration positions). Of course, Mr Walz was not using the term in the linguistic research sense, but weird surely applies to much of what passes for serious and responsible government in today's United States. And yes, in true Der Furor-ish fashion, it needs to be in ALL CAPS.

It's WEIRD that Der Furor is hammering Canada, our nearest neighbor and closest ally, with huge tariffs, despite having negotiated his own trade agreement to replace the former North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA (that would be the US-Canada-Mexico Agreement - USMCA) during his first term.

It's WEIRD that Der Furor has ordered the Department of Defense (not War) to scale back joint military exercises with South Korea because those exercises are "insulting" to North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un ... who is supplying supplies and troops to Russia for its aggression against Ukraine and has developed a deadly, if small**, arsenal of nuclear weapons.

It's WEIRD that Der Furor is going all-out to cripple the renewable energy sector, at the same time that his war of choice against Iran is wreaking havoc on energy markets and sending the price of gasoline, diesel, and heating oil soaring for Americans and others.

It's WEIRD that Der Furor's regime has rolled back laws and policies that have protected the environment and addressed the cascading effects of climate change.

It's WEIRD that Der Furor and his spokesweasels consistently deny the obvious, clearly-visible reality of the affordability crisis that faces everyday Americans.

It's WEIRD that a crackpot conspiracy theorist with no medical background whatsoever has implemented policies that make Americans less healthy and have led to outbreaks of viral diseases once thought to have been conquered (like measles) and food-borne illnesses once kept in check by government food inspections that have been scaled back or eliminated. 

It's WEIRD that Republicans line up to ignore and justify the complete disappearance of a sitting senator (that would be Mitch McConnell), who has not been seen in public or heard - in person or in a recording - since February of this year.

It's WEIRD that Der Furor's closest aide appears to be a 35-year-old woman with no qualifications other than slavish devotion, who has been joined at the hip to him in the most sensitive of meetings despite having no security clearances***.

It's WEIRD that more presidential time and public money is being spent on vanity projects (the begoldening of the Gilded House, the construction of a gigantic ballroom nobody else seems to think is needed, the construction of a useless and garish "triumphal arch," and the renaming of the Kennedy Center, among many other things).

It's WEIRD that we have a president whose idea of oratory is built around exaggeration, rage, avoidance of reality, and childish insults, yet is persuasive to the MAGA world.

I could go on, but you get the idea.

Have a good day and be sure to inform yourself before you vote in the midterms and the 2028 presidential election. Our nation has grown weird enough ... don't let us make the same mistakes again.

More thoughts coming.

Bilbo

* For those of you new to this blog, I have a bachelor's degree in Linguistics from Penn State University. I also have a masters in International Relations from Troy State University. Neither of these makes me an expert on anything, but I like to think I'm reasonably well educated, at least on some things.

** But how large does it need to be to represent a threat in the hands of a bizarre dictator?

*** I was repeatedly investigated, re-investigated, and polygraphed throughout my 43-year career in the Air Force and as a contractor in sensitive positions. I guess the difference is that I was a run-of-the-mill, average-looking male worker bee and not a cute blonde sycophantic hanger-on to a person with the authority to wink at the rules everyone else has to follow.