Well, at least they didn't call him a sectional predator

July 26, 2024 6:32 AM

Marsh Family Songs: "Didn't like the way this J.D. Vance bloke (newly picked as Trump's running mate) slagged off the UK lately. Looked into him. Not great. Made a parody song inspired by ABBA called "Vance VP""
posted by valkane (172 comments total)

Regarding the whole "couchbilly" thing, what makes it so amazing is that so many people have heard that JD Vance fucks couches and responded with "yeah, that checks out." We have collectively agreed that he is the sort of person you would catch deep in a recliner.
posted by NoxAeternum at 6:48 AM on July 26 [30 favorites]

That's brilliant!
posted by Multicellular Exothermic at 6:52 AM on July 26 [2 favorites]

Sofa king great!
posted by briank at 7:07 AM on July 26 [18 favorites]

The Marsh Family is exceptional. I think journalists need to dig deep to get to the bottom of couchfuckgate. They need to ask JD at every opportunity all of the "but her emails" questions about this. "Mr. Vance, when did you stop fucking the couch?"

Also, I saw this earlier and felt it would be out of place in the KH post, but I think it's (in)appropriate here: Trump [CW: cartoon penises with real dick]
posted by chavenet at 7:26 AM on July 26 [4 favorites]

so amazing is that so many people have heard that JD Vance fucks couches and responded with "yeah, that checks out

About that....
posted by The_Vegetables at 7:28 AM on July 26 [2 favorites]

Vance served as a PR person during his time in Iraq as a Marine. Public relations.

And he “slagged off” Harris because the “only” thing she’s ever done is collect a government paycheck, while he “joined the Marines.” He did something with his life!

He ran press junkets in Iraq. All she ever did was … checks notes… be a district attorney and stuff. What a slacker collecting government checks (where do the Marines get their money for paychecks?)

The man is a perfect complement to Trump.
posted by teece303 at 7:28 AM on July 26 [23 favorites]

"More cushion for the pushin!" -- JD Vance
posted by pracowity at 7:45 AM on July 26 [13 favorites]

Here's The Atlantic being The Atlantic:

J. D. Vance Has a Point About Mountain Dew

The clip has spread widely, mostly because it seems absurd. What the heck is Vance on about, with his supposedly racist Diet Mountain Dew? But don’t underestimate the power of the Dew. By invoking this bright-yellow, hyper-caffeinated soda, Vance invoked a whole history of symbolism for white, rural America.

[...]

Vance, who graduated from Yale Law School and worked for the billionaire Peter Thiel, has built his whole political career on his supposedly populist, Appalachian roots. He knows the delight, and perhaps the shame, of which Baird speaks—It’s good; I love you guys. But more important, he understands that Mountain Dew is a symbol of Appalachia, and that Appalachia is the host of America’s white poverty, despair, and addiction: the original underclass, as The Atlantic called it just before Donald Trump was elected president.

I guess some people really can't stop stanning for J.D. Vance, speaker for the economic underclasses.
posted by RonButNotStupid at 7:47 AM on July 26 [1 favorite]

I am a little squeamish about this joke, there's no harm in masturbation, life is a rich tapestry, etc.
But I am also a childless cat lady, unburdened by the future and enjoying the spectacle.

I think the couch thing is getting so much traction because it speaks to a deeper truth about J.D. Vance: you wouldn't want to leave him unsupervised in your living room.
posted by mersen at 7:53 AM on July 26 [38 favorites]

(Also that song is great!)
posted by mersen at 7:58 AM on July 26 [1 favorite]

Since when is Mountain Dew the spirit of Appalachia? I lived with a woman from Appalachia, she never mentioned that once. Never even drank Mountain Dew.

The Atlantic has some great writers. And some absolute nonsense writers. But they tend to be very upper class.

So I can see how they would be fooled by Vance. Regular people are like Martians to some Atlantic writers, so they assume Vance is making sense to “regular people.” (Eg the plebes that are beneath them).

A counterpoint to that writer’s assertion: the MAGA zealots in the crowd definitely did not get the Mountain Dew thing. The author is making stuff up.
posted by teece303 at 7:59 AM on July 26 [4 favorites]

I love a good meme. I find the couch thing to be tiresome bullshit. Maybe this is a function of being less tied in to social media than I once was, but the second I started seeing the memes I immediately pegged it as cruel, distracting bullshit. Making up false, insulting rumors about somebody is basic middle school bullying behavior. It was dumb and gross then, and it's dumb and gross now. You don't like the guy? Me neither! He's terrible for real reasons! Why are we doing this?
posted by phooky at 8:08 AM on July 26 [13 favorites]

phooky: Well, we tried the "When they go low, we go high" strategy and that didn't work, soooooo....
posted by SansPoint at 8:11 AM on July 26 [15 favorites]

As a member of the economic underclass (and I don't have roots in Appalchia) I want to stress the JD Vance does NOT speak for me.
Also, Mt. Dew is disgusting, Diet soft drinks are disgusting, together possibly retch inducing.
Oh and one more thing, when discussing Appalachia's connection to Mt. Dew, it's important to remember the name originally related to homemade liqour.
posted by evilDoug at 8:11 AM on July 26 [6 favorites]

I find the couch thing to be tiresome bullshit.

Eh. Politics is a contact sport, and Trump and Vance have made a career out of being really terrible people, so I don’t care about it. It’s not true, but I don’t care at all if people are being mean to Vance.

It’s actually a mildly encouraging sign to see something so obviously fake gain so much traction, though, because in general for the last 3-4 elections, that only happened to non-Republican candidates.
posted by teece303 at 8:27 AM on July 26 [18 favorites]

For what it's worth, "mountain dew" was slang for "moonshine" back in the day, so there are certainly some roots back to Appalachia, but lol yeah calling it the drink of poverty is a very lazy take.
posted by constraint at 8:29 AM on July 26 [6 favorites]

I think Mountain Dew is actually the perfect drink to represent Vance. It's a multi-million dollar brand that shed its Appalachian roots (if it ever had any to begin with) in order to embrace a more extreme, impudent aesthetic and ended up embedding itself within the culture of ruthless billionaire Silicon Valley techbros.
posted by RonButNotStupid at 8:31 AM on July 26 [7 favorites]

(No offense to Diet Mountain Dew or Diet Mountain Dew drinkers)
posted by RonButNotStupid at 8:32 AM on July 26

If you're on BlueSky please be sure to look back over the past few days on John Darnielle AKA The Mountain Goats profile.
> https://bsky.app/profile/themountaingoats.bsky.social

He has been getting much joy out of this whole thing.
posted by robotmachine at 8:33 AM on July 26 [3 favorites]

Why are we doing this?

Because Vance is political mercury currently inhabiting the vessel of a sexual moralist. As has been pointed out elsewhere, he has called out Kamala Harris as unfit to serve as President for not having biological children of her own, has attacked laws protecting in vitro fertilization, and has literally signed (writing the foreword, even) onto a political agenda that wants to "bring consequences back to sex".

If he wants to be so fucking concerned about what we all do consentually behind closed doors, then he can take some fucking ribbing of his own.
posted by NoxAeternum at 8:36 AM on July 26 [38 favorites]

I don't think I was very clear about why it bugs me (and maybe it shouldn't, tbh!) but I think it comes down to this: it's an in-group meme. It's really about communicating and commiserating within our bubble, and we get to choose how we do that and what we say to each other. From that perspective it feels like we're telling on ourselves.

We should be talking about real stuff, like how he gutted a puppy immediately after escaping prison
posted by phooky at 8:59 AM on July 26 [4 favorites]

It's got perfect "Obama is a Muslim" energy. It's obviously false and ought to be irrelevant even if it were true, which makes either sort of denial ("No he didn't!" "Who cares if he did?") seem weak.

"Obama is a Muslim" is obviously worse since Obama and his supporters had a duty to Muslims not to debunk in a way that accepted the framing that being a Muslim would be bad.

Does that justify the couch jokes? No. But I it makes them feel like a face-eating leopard that Republicans let into the room.
posted by straight at 9:02 AM on July 26 [4 favorites]

We should be talking about real stuff, like how he gutted a puppy immediately after escaping prison

Don't forget that one of the other finalists for the VP nomination boasted about shooting her 14-month-old dog to death because she didn't like the way it was behaving.

The couch joke was originally presented as an hereto overlooked excerpt from Hillbilly Eulogy, and I think that's a big part of why it took off. For one, Republicans have been especially candid about telling people who they really are devoid of any self reflection whatsoever, but also there's a ton of stuff about J.D. Vance that the media conveniently overlooks while burnishing his reputation and as juvenile as the idea of him admitting to having sex with a couch is, it's perfect satire.
posted by RonButNotStupid at 9:27 AM on July 26 [4 favorites]

this is repugnicants reaping the whirlwind. lying cruelty is their BRAND. now they are getting a little taste. you love to see it.
posted by supermedusa at 10:02 AM on July 26

Kindly hang a slipcover on the doorknob when shagging the chesterfield.
posted by Hot Pastrami! at 10:14 AM on July 26 [4 favorites]

FINALLY bringing guns to a gunfight
posted by gottabefunky at 10:23 AM on July 26 [14 favorites]

For one, Republicans have been especially candid about telling people who they really are devoid of any self reflection whatsoever

This is so true.

And you know what? If Vance had actually recounted fucking a couch in his book, it wouldn’t hurt him one bit, I suspect, with MAGA voters.

It was easy to believe because, for 10 years or so now, MAGA Republicans have been saying things that would normally doom a politician’s career immediately, and the MAGA crowd shrugs. So this didn’t seem that far fetched. And Vance is a complete tool (and a fake) that everyone wants to make fun of.

The part I don’t like about it, though, is how much ammunition it gives the “liberal media” to play both sides games. See? Liberals are every bit as crazy and into conspiracies as MAGA voters. Which is most definitely not true.
posted by teece303 at 10:49 AM on July 26 [1 favorite]

Yes, but if the media wanted to cite it as a specific example of a liberal conspiracy theory, they'd have to figure out a way to talk about the whole J.D. Vance had sex with a sofa conspiracy without mentioning the part about having sex with a sofa.

One of the most infuriating things about a lot of right wing misinformation is that it's often too grotesque, offensive, or disturbing for traditional media to be comfortable even mentioning it. Lots of right wing conspiracies go unchecked because it's impossible to even reference it without offending your audience.
posted by RonButNotStupid at 11:19 AM on July 26 [7 favorites]

For what it's worth, "mountain dew" was slang for "moonshine" back in the day, so there are certainly some roots back to Appalachia

Not just Appalachia, for example the Irish folk song "The Rare Auld Mountain Dew" (the one that gets a shout-out in Fairytale of New York) is at least 150 years old.
posted by The Pluto Gangsta at 11:30 AM on July 26 [4 favorites]

JD Vance looks like he is part couch.
posted by tovarisch at 11:47 AM on July 26 [6 favorites]

So you're saying he comes by it honestly?
posted by nickmark at 11:55 AM on July 26 [4 favorites]

Did he get that couch pregnant?

No, it's a pull-out
posted by chavenet at 12:12 PM on July 26 [38 favorites]

JD Vance in More Cushion for the Pushin! Hot man-on-top Chippendale action!
posted by snuffleupagus at 1:36 PM on July 26

Somebody on Bluesky pointed out that this nonsense making it into the mainstream poses a genuine issue for the Trump/Vance campaign -- the man absolutely must not be photographed near a couch, sofa, loveseat or similar piece of furniture. That creates real restrictions on the appearances he can do!
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 1:42 PM on July 26 [21 favorites]

Not just Appalachia, for example the Irish folk song "The Rare Auld Mountain Dew" (the one that gets a shout-out in Fairytale of New York) is at least 150 years old.

The Clancy Brothers with Tommy Makem - Mountain Dew
posted by ActingTheGoat at 1:46 PM on July 26 [1 favorite]

This isn't going to do anything to the outcome of the election. But politics are miserable, tedious, and ugly. If people can have a little fun mocking a self-serious fascist, let them do it!
posted by pattern juggler at 1:49 PM on July 26 [3 favorites]

By itself, sure, but as part of a concerted effort to turn Vance and Trump into a laughingstock it could eventually influence the result. You can never be quite sure about how these things play out.
posted by Justinian at 1:52 PM on July 26 [3 favorites]

As an ABBA fan, I am displeased that they have the keyboard right there and it goes unplayed. For Dancing Queen, of all songs!
posted by The corpse in the library at 1:53 PM on July 26 [2 favorites]

Not trying to scold anyone, but this bugs the shit out of me too. There's plenty of real stuff that Vance can be criticized for.

this is repugnicants reaping the whirlwind. lying cruelty is their BRAND

I mean, yeah. Does it also need to be our brand? I don't want to be put into a position of trying to defend this the next time someone makes up lies about a candidate I like.
posted by whir at 2:05 PM on July 26 [3 favorites]

If he wants to be so fucking concerned about what we all do consentually behind closed doors, then he can take some fucking ribbing of his own.

I think it's called corduroy?
posted by tristeza at 2:15 PM on July 26 [30 favorites]

“The race was close and Johnson was getting worried. Finally he told his campaign manager to start a massive rumour campaign about his opponent’s life-long habit of enjoying carnal knowledge of his barnyard sows.

“Christ, we can’t get away with calling him a pig-fucker,” the campaign manager protested. “Nobody’s going to believe a thing like that.”

“I know,” Johnson replied. “But let’s make the sonofabitchh deny it.”

“Fear and Loathing On The Campaign Trail ’72,” Hunter S. Thompson
posted by metaphorever at 2:16 PM on July 26 [16 favorites]

Since when is Mountain Dew the spirit of Appalachia?

It's corporate sugar water trying to invoke genuine Appalachian culture. It's the J.D. Vance of beverages.
posted by ChurchHatesTucker at 3:03 PM on July 26 [6 favorites]

"Be the change you wish to find between the cushions."
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 3:04 PM on July 26 [9 favorites]

Let me hit it from the back, sofa, I won't catch a hernia
Bust off on your couch, now you got Seaman's Furniture
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 3:08 PM on July 26 [2 favorites]

For me, Vance's alleged sex act with a couch comes down, as all these things do, to a matter of consent.

Did Peter Thiel know Vance was fucking his couch?
posted by chromecow at 3:10 PM on July 26 [4 favorites]

The media crowning him Very Serious Economic Anxiety Interpreter in 2016 is worse than the internet deciding he is Couch Fucker Supremo in 2024.
posted by credulous at 3:18 PM on July 26 [4 favorites]

Why are we doing this?
posted by phooky at 8:08 AM on July 26
[7 favorites +] [⚑]

He brought it up. First edition of Hillbilly Elegy, p. 180.
(The AP did retract their correction.) also, fuck that self-righteous asshole. Trump is gonna dump him in a Scaramouchi or two anyway: guy has looser stink all over him.
posted by From Bklyn at 3:19 PM on July 26

"I just want to personally thank @JDVance for knocking me out of the position of the worst Donald Trump hire. I didn’t think it would happen but here we are and I am grateful."
posted by Aya Hirano on the Astral Plane at 3:27 PM on July 26 [16 favorites]

Editor's Note: This headline and story have been updated to reflect that there's no definitive proof Sen. J.D. Vance searched for "dolphin porn."
posted by credulous at 3:53 PM on July 26 [4 favorites]

TNR: Is J.D. Vance the Worst Vice Presidential Pick Ever?

...J.D. Vance was a reckless and stupid pick even in a blowout election. He is not only one of the greatest frauds in American politics, he is the most obvious fraud in American politics. As Election Day fast approaches and Harris mounts a forceful challenge, Trump’s regrets will only grow.

Steve Schmidt: The worst VP pick ever

I always knew it was theoretically possible that Sarah Palin would one day be eclipsed by a candidate more dishonest, fraudulen[t] and weird than her. In the way I know it is possible for aliens to arrive tomorrow, I’ve always known it was possible that one day someone as equally unfit and terrifying could emerge. I just didn’t think I’d live to see it.
...
Now, [Trump] has relieved John McCain from the record books for worst pick ever with his bearded Palin. The amazing difference is that McCain made HIS reckless decision when he was behind, facing the worst possible political environment. Trump made his pick when he was winning decisively.

posted by kirkaracha at 4:09 PM on July 26 [2 favorites]

The Vance collection at Plush Sofas

(perfectly anthropomorphic, huge eyes, gaping maw)
posted by chavenet at 4:10 PM on July 26 [8 favorites]

The electric recliners are especially shocking.
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 4:25 PM on July 26 [1 favorite]

I heard he was into La-Z-Boys
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 4:28 PM on July 26 [2 favorites]

The corduroy coverlet is ribbed for his pleasure
posted by chavenet at 4:29 PM on July 26 [2 favorites]

Regarding Mountain Dew, I am from Appalachia and my grandfather used to sing the song Good Old Mountain Dew to us
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 4:33 PM on July 26 [4 favorites]

Merch
posted by chavenet at 4:40 PM on July 26 [1 favorite]

I heard Vance's Grandmother kept all of her furniture covered in plastic
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 4:44 PM on July 26 [4 favorites]

More merch
posted by chavenet at 4:46 PM on July 26 [1 favorite]

Yes, from my recollections growing up in the Midwest in the 60s, "Mountain Dew", per the song, meant Appalachian moonshine. IIRC, early versions of Mountain Dew had "hillbilly" iconography/logos/mascots.
posted by Windopaene at 4:56 PM on July 26 [1 favorite]

I heard he was into La-Z-Boys

From Proud to La-Z-Boys, Republicans have gone from decline to recline.
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 5:00 PM on July 26 [4 favorites]

If he and the couch were married at the time, it’d be ok, right?
posted by GenjiandProust at 5:07 PM on July 26

The couch hasn't spoken up, has it? Did he pay it $130,000 for its silence?
posted by paper chromatographologist at 5:10 PM on July 26 [2 favorites]

"That boy ain't right"
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 5:14 PM on July 26

He brought it up. First edition of Hillbilly Elegy, p. 180.

I also don't think this is great, precisely because so many people (including here) seem to not understand it's all fake. And misinformation and its deleterious effect on our politics is concerning and not something I think we should be encouraging. If the joke was "this guy has the face of the couch fucker" or something along those lines, fine, it's just mean, and Vance is a fascist and I don't particularly care if people are mean to him. But blurring fact and fiction in politics generally doesn't bode well.

Another point re: Mountain Dew - Keri Leigh Merritt (historian who wrote a book called Masterless Men: Poor Whites and Slavery in the Antebellum South ) pointed on Twitter that the brand might be a red herring, it's more a way of signifying class (i.e. poor people drink soda not water).
posted by coffeecat at 5:19 PM on July 26 [4 favorites]

coffeecat: At this point with all the deliberate misinformation and disinformation the fascists have been churning out over the past decade plus, I think it’s high time we turn that weapon back on them. I’m personally tired of seeing the Democrats be the “we go high” party.

Fascists are bullies and the only way to beat a bully is to punch them square in the fucking face. That’s how I view calling Vance a couchfucker. He’s a bully and he deserves to be viewed as a couchfucker, whether he fucked a couch or not.
posted by SansPoint at 6:11 PM on July 26 [14 favorites]

The Vance collection at Plush Sofas

(perfectly anthropomorphic, huge eyes, gaping maw)

Hmmm ... those recliners are shot with footrests semi-erect... like vintage Playgirl centerfolds...
posted by Sauce Trough at 6:12 PM on July 26 [1 favorite]

pointed on Twitter that the brand might be a red herring, it's more a way of signifying class (i.e. poor people drink soda not water).

Yes, this is exactly what I thought he meant when I first heard it. But it was just painfully stupid, even to a crowd of true believers.

Here’s the part I don’t like about this:

False rumors about Vance, Musk’s X show misinfo cuts both ways

It’s now an unquestionable part of the narrative to certain media folks, now, that the left and right are exactly the same when it comes to misinformation and such. That is categorically false. But it will be repeated a lot now by supposedly neutral neutral arbiters of truth.
posted by teece303 at 6:13 PM on July 26 [2 favorites]

teece303: And if the media would have called out right wing lies over the past decade and a half the way they’re pissing and moaning about the tables being turned, I might be inclined to give a shit what some WaPo journalist thinks.

Instead they’ve been complacent in letting fascists spout hateful lies and nonsense without pushback in the name of “balance”. I’m sick of it. Spare me the self-righteousness. We have to hit these fuckers where it hurts.
posted by SansPoint at 6:21 PM on July 26 [14 favorites]

"Dem Strategists showed up with 25 bullet points on how to take down Vance and some stoned GenZ kid just said he fucked a couch and now he has to do his interviews standing up via zoom."

what a time to be alive
posted by Jacqueline at 6:21 PM on July 26 [19 favorites]

I think it’s high time we turn that weapon back on them. Fascists are bullies and the only way to beat a bully is to punch them square in the fucking face.

Sorry, you have every right to your opinion but no thanks. This is exactly the type of rhetoric I want to eliminate from any political party I support, along with deliberately lying to people if you please.
posted by whir at 6:43 PM on July 26 [5 favorites]

There is a difference between saying we must "go high" (which I'm not saying), and saying "we shouldn't endorse and spread deliberate lies, because if we live in a media ecosystem with no tether to reality, that's a dangerous world that will eventually bite us in the ass." Make fun of him for all the awful things about him that are actually true - it's not like there isn't a lot of real material to work with here.
posted by coffeecat at 6:53 PM on July 26 [3 favorites]

I don't see anyone spreading or endorsing deliberate lies. I do see plenty of people, people who have been depressed and beaten down by the erosion of their rights and being treated as second class citizens, spreading and endorsing deliberate JOKES about thin-skinned fascists who dish it out but are incapable of taking it.

And it feels good to laugh. If I can't laugh, I don't want to be part of your revolution.
posted by Orange Dinosaur Slide at 7:02 PM on July 26 [18 favorites]

Exactly Orange Dinosaur Slide! There’s a big difference between calling Vance a couchfucking dolphin pervert and the right wing disinformation machine claiming Kamala Harris is ineligible to be president. For one, calling Vance a couchfucking dolphin pervert is goddamned hilarious.
posted by SansPoint at 7:08 PM on July 26 [6 favorites]

"we shouldn't endorse and spread deliberate lies, because if we live in a media ecosystem with no tether to reality, that's a dangerous world that will eventually bite us in the ass"

everyone from all parts of the political spectrum learning to be deeply skeptical of anything they haven't personally fact-checked would be a good thing
posted by Jacqueline at 7:15 PM on July 26 [4 favorites]

Literally everyone understands that "JD Vances fucks couches!" is a joke. A joke isn't the same as a lie, I can't believe we have to make that point.

Now, seriously putting forward that he actually said he fucks couches on page whatever of his book if one knows that isn't true could be a lie and should best be avoided, but that's quibbling. The general idea that JD Vance is a couch fucking pervert who thinks about dolphins while getting his cushion freak on is not a lie, it's a joke. Are we so humorless?
posted by Justinian at 7:23 PM on July 26 [11 favorites]

Voulez-vous couch avec moi
posted by chromecow at 7:37 PM on July 26 [21 favorites]

Cntrl F "Terhune" No instances found? Oh well then let me just leave this here...
(This is satire btw, er, some people don't get that)
posted by Rufous-headed Towhee heehee at 7:42 PM on July 26 [3 favorites]

I get that it feels good to laugh, but I worry about the risk/reward balance here. If I wasn’t paying attention and didn’t know who Vance was and scrolled past this story, I would click on it because it’s an attention-getter. And then I would feel sympathy for Vance, because having to deal with a mob of Internet bullies making up crazy lies about you seems like it would suck. And then I’d be less likely to pay attention to any true story about him, or more likely to dismiss it as more crazy lies.

I’m not humorless, but the joke is for people who already know and dislike Vance. I want to avoid anything that might nudge people to feel sympathy for him. The horse is out of the barn on this, clearly, but it makes me nervous.
posted by mcdoublewide at 7:50 PM on July 26 [2 favorites]

mcdoublewide: I wouldn’t worry, especially with the new Democrat line of attack being how deeply and utterly weird the Republicans are about, well, everything. And with Vance there’s enough deeply disturbing and real shit about him going around that this only reinforces the narrative of Republicans being deeply weird about shit while Democrats just want to build infrastructure and fund schools.
posted by SansPoint at 7:55 PM on July 26 [2 favorites]

That’s exactly what I am worried about. It’s a great line of attack and there is plenty to work with. I’m scared a dumb joke will undercut that, even just a little.
posted by mcdoublewide at 8:01 PM on July 26 [2 favorites]

Literally everyone understands that "JD Vances fucks couches!" is a joke. A joke isn't the same as a lie, I can't believe we have to make that point.
FTFY

I’m glad it’s a joke. Dude can do what he wants with his, um, furniture, but putting it in his book might distract from the truly batshit stuff he’s actually said.
posted by sillyman at 8:15 PM on July 26 [1 favorite]

It's not like people have stopped finding things to slam him about. In between the couch and dolphin jokes they unearthed some audio of The Ohio senator, a known advocate for abortion restrictions, previously told a podcast in January 2022 that the wants the procedure to be "illegal nationally" and that steps should be taken to prevent women from going out of state in order to receive them.

Also, the couch stuff shows that nobody really really read Hillbilly Elegy.

Anyway, to repeat something I put in another thread:
Seen on twitter: this guy is the most normal person the republicans have nominated for vice president this century
And it's one of the "workout" photos of Paul Ryan.
posted by LostInUbe at 9:00 PM on July 26 [2 favorites]

If being mean to a fascist somehow leads to us balancing the Supreme Court, which has been and is planning to take people's rights away, and curbing right-wing influence in our country, I'm okay with that.
posted by ichomp at 9:10 PM on July 26 [11 favorites]

defending an alleged couchfucker from couchfucking allegations is peak Metafilter
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 9:32 PM on July 26 [26 favorites]

On a more positive note, I am LIVING for the freedom, opportunity, and security messaging from the Harris campaign. Reclaiming those terms and applying them to ALL Americans is A+.
posted by ichomp at 9:35 PM on July 26 [2 favorites]

I'm not upset that people are being mean to Vance. Please, be my guest. And I have a sense of humor, although maybe it could use some work because "that bro hella fucked a couch" doesn't exactly induce paroxysms of laughter in me. I object to this whole "taking up the tools of the enemy" routine where now it's ok for our side to just start making shit up because the other side has. It's just "owning the libs" with a fresh coat of paint, and I don't like it.
posted by whir at 9:43 PM on July 26 [6 favorites]

I object to this whole "taking up the tools of the enemy" routine where now it's ok for our side to just start making shit up because the other side has.

I feel similarly; it's not the strategy I would choose. HOWEVER, it's more meant to fire up the Democratic base and apathetic voters than it is to denigrate Republican voters. That is the difference between MAGA comments and this. This is not threatening political violence or wishing harm on Republicans. OTOH, GOP talking points are always putting down Dem elected AND Dem voters.
posted by ichomp at 10:02 PM on July 26

Metafilter: "[B]ut I worry."
posted by riverlife at 12:07 AM on July 27 [2 favorites]

Get in, beanplaters, we're going winning!
posted by overglow at 1:45 AM on July 27 [6 favorites]

but the joke is for people who already know and dislike Vance.

He's Donald Trump's Vice Presidential running mate. Everyone knows him and apparently everyone dislikes him.

A-and I don't think they dislike him because of his alleged furniture-based solo carnal activities. Couchfucker is, however, elegant synecdoche for all the rest that's wrong with him as a person, a politician, and especially as a potential one-bit-of-gorilla-glass away from the presidency.
posted by chavenet at 2:49 AM on July 27 [7 favorites]

I object to this whole "taking up the tools of the enemy" routine where now it's ok for our side to just start making shit up because the other side has.

I mean, making shit up about your opponent has been a feature of American politics for centuries. It's effective, and Americans respond to it. If you want that not to be the case then that's a totally reasonable position, but your next move would be to work out how to make it less effective, when there's already a media who consider it their civil responsibility to amplify misinformation (when it's Republicans doing it) and a voting bloc primed to believe it.

One could argue that the media has a responsibility to be more forceful with disinformation, but that would require them to actually know things. The American political media instead have a "savvy" style of coverage, where everything gets boiled down to horserace coverage and "how will the voters respond" which gives the appearance of being a political insider but never requires you to know anything about anything. (This is also why they can do "both sides" coverage, because actually assessing relevance of things is beyond their skillset.) It's a particularly useful tack because if anyone actually tries to talk about the issues, they can condescendingly say that what the facts are doesn't matter compared to the stuff the "savvy" reporter talks about, which has the annoying benefit of being true. If you want to defeat this, you have to hold the political coverage you pay attention to to the fire - the savvy style of American politics only works if the audience thinks it does.

Republican voters, in particular, have been marinating in an environment of disinformation for decades. It is striking how, e.g., pro-Second Amendment people, or American anti-abortion activists, simply do not have the facts on their side, but in recent years we've seen the embrace of people who don't even try to maintain a grip on reality. The literature on this is still developing, but we think that one of the things that can prompt people to reassess their environment is inducing something of a crisis of faith, and then having resources ready to help people recognise how disinformation works and how to recognise the truth. "JD Vance fucked a couch" might well help, in other words, because it can't be dismissed using the normal methods that red-state voters use to dismiss progressives, and Republicans would have to work out how to dismiss it without telling their voters what disinformation is.
posted by Merus at 6:10 AM on July 27 [16 favorites]

yeah I'm sorry if I'm "using the tools of the enemy" to have a laugh at a dangerous person over something that is a) obviously a joke and b) not punching down on anyone else but come on now

years of "going high" have done nothing to stop these people and couchfucker jokes aren't even in the same universe as the insidious disinformation campaigns the right has pushed that have done active and demonstable harm. they have made it up shit whole cloth that has made life hell for trans people, asylum seekers, ethnic and religious minorities, and threaten the fabric of democracy itself. "vance boned a chesterfield" is so far from "the tools of the enemy" that the attempt at an equivalence is absurd

these are awful times. but we have a candidate who is inspiring joy and hope in people, presenting the possibility that we can beat these bastards. maybe we can stop both-sidesing this meme and let folks have a laugh, for a change
posted by Aya Hirano on the Astral Plane at 7:04 AM on July 27 [20 favorites]

And if we can't laugh at an alleged couchfucker, we should have a bit of a laugh at people defending an alleged couchfucker from couchfucking allegations.
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 8:24 AM on July 27 [4 favorites]

We can agree to disagree. Glad you’re having a good time with it, you deserve it. Here’s to our side winning.
posted by mcdoublewide at 9:13 AM on July 27

Wait, are we worried about how joking about couchfucking will make us lose the moral high ground? We're mocking people who literally call people like me a pedophiliac child vampire. I guess if some pushback offends you, we can get JD to lend you a fainting couch.
posted by Jarcat at 9:14 AM on July 27 [17 favorites]

It's just "owning the libs" with a fresh coat of paint, and I don't like it.

they've called us all communists and socialists long enough we might as well start publicly owning them

pardon me while i roll my eyes at this latest round of pearlclutching while i mime fucking a couch.
posted by i used to be someone else at 9:54 AM on July 27 [8 favorites]

we can get JD to lend you a fainting couch

Preferably new and not pre-loved or an old banger.
posted by kirkaracha at 10:18 AM on July 27 [2 favorites]

Now I don’t really know but getting everybody enjoying or worrying about the couchhumper seems like it could all be part of the very smart guy’s distraction making plan.

Because, I hate to say it, but a lot of people, big people, lot of meat on their bones if you know what I’m saying, have been coming up to me, asking if Trump is a cannibal, if that’s what all the Hannibal Lecter talk is really about, and they’re wondering if the secret name for the ticket is actually The Cannibal and the Couchfucker.
posted by house-goblin at 10:59 AM on July 27 [3 favorites]

Hannibal's Ottoman?
posted by chavenet at 11:24 AM on July 27

Can we nickname him 'scotchguard' now?
posted by stet at 12:03 PM on July 27 [1 favorite]

Amazing nobody has referenced the Streisand effect yet ...
posted by hankmajor at 1:12 PM on July 27 [4 favorites]

in re Hannibal Lecter:

Trump’s tirade about the fictional serial killer stands apart for several reasons. First, it is exceptionally weird. Second, it is profoundly wrong on multiple levels. And third, Trump thinks it’s so smart and funny that he will not stop repeating it.
posted by chavenet at 1:40 PM on July 27 [7 favorites]

> At this point with all the deliberate misinformation and disinformation the fascists have been churning out over the past decade plus, I think it’s high time we turn that weapon back on them. I’m personally tired of seeing the Democrats be the “we go high” party.
posted by SansPoint

Yep. Give them a serious taste of their own medicine. See how they like it.

Narrator: They hate it.

>Fascists are bullies and the only way to beat a bully is to punch them square in the fucking face.
posted by SansPoint

In public. Humiliating them is the point.
posted by Pouteria at 1:55 PM on July 27 [4 favorites]

in re Hannibal Lecter:
Trump’s tirade about the fictional serial killer stands apart for several reasons. First, it is exceptionally weird. Second, it is profoundly wrong on multiple levels. And third, Trump thinks it’s so smart and funny that he will not stop repeating it.

I’m sure they mean well, but they are looking for rational explanations for a gastronomic horror. Trump is so obviously hungry for so much. Occam’s steak knife Razor pretty much goes straight to the conclusion Trump saying “Late Great Hannibal Lecter” means he found and ate some guy who he thought was Anthony Hopkins. His fear that Kamala is going to ban red meat is just another data point.

And… and… I hesitate to say the likely truth, because it’s so very horrific, but it seems obvious those camps Trump has planned are going to be feedlots.

I don’t know how the couch guy fits into this. Maybe he’s the best cook.
posted by house-goblin at 2:17 PM on July 27

Can we nickname him 'scotchguard' now?

I hope this becomes the glacé cherry moment of 2024.
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 2:31 PM on July 27

Here is the Internet Archive version of chavenet's link to the Intelligencer article on the Hannibal Lecter tirades. I had problems with the paywall.
posted by achrise at 2:37 PM on July 27 [3 favorites]

Can we nickname him 'scotchguard' now?

The lead has been taken by the sobriquet "Vladimir Futon."
posted by valkane at 6:00 PM on July 27 [9 favorites]

Since i was grumpy about forgeries in the other thread, a mea culpa here: I have solid confirmation that the paragraph about fucking a couch did in fact exist in at least one print run of the actual book. Someone dug up a copy. (One presumes it was inserted by Vance's ghostwriter or an annoyed editor, rather than being an actual confession by Vance, but there is definitely a version of this claim about Hillbilly Elegy which is not false.)
posted by adrienneleigh at 6:23 PM on July 27 [7 favorites]

ahhh twitter.....

JD Vance: Strictly Heterosectional
posted by lalochezia at 6:26 PM on July 27 [4 favorites]

from the mountain goats thread

"I will give twenty dollars to the next reporter who asks JD Vance if he's "couching the issues" in any way"
posted by lalochezia at 6:39 PM on July 27 [8 favorites]

I have solid confirmation that the paragraph about fucking a couch did in fact exist in at least one print run of the actual book. Someone dug up a copy.

Wow, did they post the excerpt anywhere? (If it's legit, will that Washington Post article about misinformation on the left be corrected? It sort of suggests -- without outright making the claim, I see now that I've looked a second time -- that the AP retracted their fact check article simply because "it would be unfair to mentally associate Vance with couches.")
posted by nobody at 7:32 PM on July 27

I've spent quite a bit of time in the last 8 years thinking about what I'd be willing to do, what morals I'd be willing to compromise, if it meant getting my country back on a track so I can feel okay with handing it down one day to my children and all the children who will inherit what we've made for them, let alone what I'd do to save my own human rights and for all those who are here right now needing something to change. Laughing at some couch-fucking jokes about an evil idiot loser? I'll do that for free with my soul unburdened.
posted by notheotherone at 9:01 PM on July 27 [7 favorites]

nobody: they posted it over on the fediverse but they're considering taking it down because even though it's a true scan, they're getting yelled at a lot about it. I'm considering reposting now that i know it's not a forgery, but i want a little more info first.
posted by adrienneleigh at 9:40 PM on July 27 [1 favorite]

The “scan” going around fedi is totally fake but I admire the creator’s commitment to the bit.
posted by mbrubeck at 9:46 PM on July 27

Trump’s tirade about the fictional serial killer stands apart for several reasons. First, it is exceptionally weird. Second, it is profoundly wrong on multiple levels. And third, Trump thinks it’s so smart and funny that he will not stop repeating it.

The Mariel boatlift is also mentioned, which is a plot point of the gangster film classic Scarface.

Trump may simply be living in a fantasy land of cinema, which comes to the surface at his rallies when he can't think of anything useful to say.
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 10:40 PM on July 27

mbrubeck: the scan i'm talking about was made by the person who physically has a copy of the book, who is a personal friend of mine and i know irl. It's not the fake one that was made by editing the ebook.
posted by adrienneleigh at 11:44 PM on July 27 [1 favorite]

I was, in fact, pointing out that one of the "scans" was a forgery (and at least one of them really is!!!!) in the earlier thread, which is why i issued a mea culpa in this one—while there are forged "scans" out there, i now have what i consider to be trustworthy confirmation that the real thing really did exist in at least one printed edition of the book (which was presumably recalled and pulped as soon as someone noticed, since it's obviously vandalism by *somebody* even if Vance is actually a couchfucker).
posted by adrienneleigh at 11:47 PM on July 27

JD Vance is getting the asshole substitute teacher treatment from a classroom of 300 million
posted by chavenet at 3:40 AM on July 28 [10 favorites]

One theory is that Trump heard the phrase "asylum seekers" and he only understands the term "asylum" in the context of "insane asylums" so that's when he fixated on Hannibal Lecter.
posted by valkane at 4:52 AM on July 28 [1 favorite]

The couch thing may be fake, but the monkey testicles thing is literally and genuinely true and also terrible.
posted by fomhar at 6:56 AM on July 28 [3 favorites]

If we're on that path, then I'm pretty sure the Hannibal thing is because Trump has eaten human flesh, but knows he can't boast about it.
posted by inpHilltr8r at 10:13 AM on July 28 [2 favorites]

Yeah, it's fake: it started as a joke and then went viral.

Reminds me of Littlefinger making up a salacious and unbelievable story about Stannis Baratheon (that his daughter's real father was Stannis's fool), saying that people are always happy to find a reason to put someone down who they think deserves to be mocked. "In my experience, the more bizarre and shocking a tale the more apt it is to be repeated." (Maybe George R. R. Martin based it on the story recounted by Hunter Thompson about LBJ.)
posted by russilwvong at 10:21 AM on July 28

it started as a joke and then went viral

A couch cover offers little protection against Sofa Transmitted Disease.
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 11:51 AM on July 28 [1 favorite]

The couch thing may be fake, but the monkey testicles thing is literally and genuinely true and also terrible.

low-hanging fruit
posted by chavenet at 12:10 PM on July 28 [1 favorite]

Not just Appalachia, for example the Irish folk song

A large number of early settlers in the Appalachians were Scots, Irish or both. They were colonised and they were colonisers, oppressors and oppressed. A lot of Appalachian music comes from them.
posted by Pallas Athena at 12:28 PM on July 28 [1 favorite]

JD Vance Won’t Escape the Couch Allegations [Vulture]
posted by chavenet at 2:04 PM on July 28 [2 favorites]

Vance should face up to the allegations. The worst thing for his PR people to do would be to build a fort.
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 6:54 PM on July 28 [4 favorites]

re: pearlclutching, that “the ends don’t justify the means!” cliché is so stuck in peoples’ heads all the time that they don’t realize that most of the time, it’s the ends that matter. like, there are means that are perfectly valid when applied to good ends, specifically because the ends are good. those selfsame means can be in fact bad when applied to bad ends specifically because the ends are bad.

the ends sometimes don’t justify the means, but more often they do.

_{this has bombastic pronouncements your been the lowercase for day}
posted by bombastic lowercase pronouncements at 7:43 AM on July 29 [4 favorites]

Chelsea Handler on Vance, Trump & the "cat ladies" thing
posted by chavenet at 7:44 AM on July 29 [3 favorites]

I'm fine with the couch thing, and the memes are funny, but Diet Mountain Dew is a step too far.
I'm drinking one now. Hope I don't have to give it up for 3 months.
(Probably not that long if Trump drops him)

And I believe this was not a DNC operation. Just some random poster. Has the campaign actually done anything? Seems like they should just leave it alone. The idea has its own legs.
Reminds me of when Al Gore supposedly said he invented the internet. He didn't actually say that, but people thought, 'sounds like something he'd say'. You look at Vance's picture and think, 'sounds about right'.
(Not that I have anything against consensual sex with a couch. I've been alive a long time and can't be absolutely sure I've never fucked the furniture)
posted by MtDewd at 8:34 AM on July 29 [3 favorites]

but Diet Mountain Dew is a step too far.

Can we hit it now, low-down and gritty?
Do you think we'll be in love forever?
Do you think we'll be in love?
posted by chavenet at 9:55 AM on July 29

All the weird scolding about "pearlclutching" or whatever would be a lot more effective if we didn't have numerous examples right here of (1) people claiming that nobody could possibly believe that Vance actually fucks couches and (2) other people apparently genuinely convinced by someone they trusted that the fake "scans" of Vance's book show that it actually contains descriptions of couchfucking. If any of the people in (2) are real then (1) is false.

Vance is a couchfucker. This is a fundamental truth about who he is as a person. It remains true even if the number of specific items of furniture he has provably engaged in sexual activity with is zero. In contrast, making up elaborate hoaxes, fiercely defending their authenticity, and then claiming that it's OK because nobody could possibly believe them anyway damages trust without achieving any gain on the plus side. It's flatly bizarre to see anyone defending this behavior.
posted by Not A Thing at 10:15 AM on July 29 [3 favorites]

Anyway.
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 12:26 PM on July 29

He gets knocked down
But he fucks a couch again
You're never going to keep him down

He fucks a chesterfield
He fucks a davenport
He fucks an ottoman
He fucks a settee

He fucks the couches that remind him
Of the good times
He fucks the couches that remind him
Of the better times
posted by kirkaracha at 3:00 PM on July 29 [8 favorites]

Vance is a couchfucker. This is a fundamental truth about who he is as a person. It remains true even if the number of specific items of furniture he has provably engaged in sexual activity with is zero.

Yes, and the bigger problem is that Vance and his couch function like garish upholstered drapes hiding the cannibal behind the curtain. Because another truth about Vance is that he is a bearded Igor to an orange Leatherface.

Because, even if he hasn’t literally ate anyone (yet), a fundamental truth about Trump is that he is a cannibal. If you don’t believe me, first picture Goya’s painting of Saturn Devouring His Son, then imagine Saturn’s face covered in bronzer and then try telling me you haven’t had a sanity punching glimpse of the very essence of Trump’s soul. A man consumed by his own appetites. The cannibal spirit of the golf course forest.

But you’re right about the hoaxes. There’s no benefit, and it’s probably damaging, to defend claims that Trump’s insatiable hunger started back in the 80s after he played a cursed version of the arcade game Sinistar.
posted by house-goblin at 5:50 PM on July 29 [2 favorites]

I'm both delighted with, and fascinated by, the way the Harris campaign's "Trump and Vance are creepy weirdos" tack is gaining traction. I'm trying to understand how this tactic works. I mean... the Democrats, the liberals, and the left wing has been battling Trumpism and rising fascism all these years, and now this is the counterattack that's sticking?

It's not that simple, of course. Trump has a long history of being a creepy weirdo and an outright monster, J.D. Vance is proving to be just about as bad, and the Democrats have unified behind a strong candidate, so the moment and the conditions are ripe for the Democrats to get the upper hand and push their advantage. In other words, people are so sick of all the Trump shit that they want to believe that his VP is a couch fucker and they're relieved and happy to rally behind someone who will confidently and unapologetically say that Trump and Vance are weirdos.

Still, I'm taking notes. Canada stands in very real danger of electing its own creepy weirdo next year, and perhaps we could take a leaf from the Democrats book and employ this technique against him. Ridicule can be an effective technique against aggregate evil, especially when it comes bundled with an effective leader and a clear and workable action plan.

I'm also fighting the urge to set up an anonymous Twitter account with the moniker Chester Field and have some fun with it.
posted by orange swan at 6:09 PM on July 29 [4 favorites]

The current Harris ad making the rounds on local television opens with her stating in clear terms that she has gone after sexual predators.

Even if not overt, I hope that kind of subtle messaging is going to start ringing with people, the more that the mainstream media try to push the rapist and his couchfucking buddy on us.
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 6:36 PM on July 29 [1 favorite]

This is a mefi norm that isn’t well signposted, but I think double small text is strongly discouraged for accessibility reasons.
posted by snuffleupagus at 8:33 PM on July 29 [1 favorite]

Like I always say, “any port in a storm.”

But a couch? Nah.

Unless it’s a Davenport.
posted by kirkaracha at 10:08 PM on July 29 [4 favorites]

I'm both delighted with, and fascinated by, the way the Harris campaign's "Trump and Vance are creepy weirdos" tack is gaining traction. I'm trying to understand how this tactic works. I mean... the Democrats, the liberals, and the left wing has been battling Trumpism and rising fascism all these years, and now this is the counterattack that's sticking?

It's not that simple, of course. Trump has a long history of being a creepy weirdo and an outright monster, J.D. Vance is proving to be just about as bad, and the Democrats have unified behind a strong candidate, so the moment and the conditions are ripe for the Democrats to get the upper hand and push their advantage.

Let's not forget that Hillary called them a "basket of deplorables" and it backfired on her because it was seen as elitist condescension. There's been a steady drumbeat of "this fucking guy is so fucking weird" on late night TV for the past eight years; and I think people know this to be true, but there's had to be a confluence of factors for it to catch fire.

1. Publishing Project 2025, which has been a total messaging gift. It's true that only a fraction of what's in these sort of policy prep documents only ever get passed into law: Biden's 2020 equivalent of Project 2025 included slavery reparations and getting AR-15s off the streets. But, Jeez, Project 2025 is a truly batshit Christmas List for Hitler Santa - deeply weird ideas like criminalizing pornography, making military officers political appointees, and tracking women traveling out of state to get reproductive care (which of course means, tracking all women who get reproductive care) - and it's written down on paper! in a PDF that anyone can download! Trump has always enjoyed a certain slipperiness by saying outrageous things and then having defenders saying, "well, he doesn't really mean that." Project 2025 took that away. There's receipts! 1000 pages of receipts!

2. A new messenger. Hillary had decades of misogyny thrown at her to blunt any wisdom or insight she could've given us. She was unfairly seen as an elitist representing a technocratic status quo that people wanted to reject. Biden's rebuttals to Trump come off as old-fashioned and very much tried to counter Trump's white supremacist nostalgia with a sort of Greatest Generation nostalgia that has limited appeal. Kamala's newness allowed her to position herself as a change candidate. Her B slogan of "We're Not Going Back" is a brilliant move to set herself up as the voice for progress and allows people to rally to her.

3. The premature victory lap of the RNC. There was a lot of opinions going around in early July as the RNC was happening where pundits saw how beatable the Republicans were. It was this full masks off cult of personality celebration -- which definitely speaks to some primal need in some humans for a charismatic savior to give them purpose -- but is also disturbing to most Americans who, at the end, define themselves as being an independent people who reject kings. The Trumpists thought they had it in the bag and allowed themselves to lose all discipline and pretense and let themselves gloat as the bullies they all knew themselves to be; and that was a big mistake.

4. a genuinely good record of Democratic accomplishment. Yes it's true that policy and details don't move people as well as vibes, but policy gets you credibility; and credibility is what allows you to call someone "weird" and have it stick. This is why the Republicans are going hard at Kamala on immigration, because they see that as a vulnerability in her accomplishments and a way to degrade her credibility. But, again, if we can keep turning that around to how immigration got stalled because Trump obstructed the work and that all he does is fuck shit up instead of gettign shit done, then it's back to him being a shitty ass dude who just does shit to satisfy his inspid ego. Which is weird.

Thomas Friedman has this pearl-clutching op-ed in the NYT now (I won't link it because dude doesn't need the clicks) where he's worried that the weird strategy will backfire for Democrats because it's going to come off as elitist and the Democrats will make independent feels humiliated for being Trump curious, and I think that it's fine to keep this in mind, but it confuses what's going on with Hillary's old 'deplorables' strategy. The thing that's weird are not the supporters, it's the edges of the policy plank that have started becoming main talking points.

It's not weird to argue for tax cuts for the wealthy. It is weird to be so fucking concerned about what people do in the privacy of their own home. It's not weird to be a religiously faithful and devout politician. It is weird to define America, a nation founded by folks who had their own good weird fringe religious ideas, as a nation with One True Faith. It is not weird to talk about men and masculinity being at a moment of crisis and trying to help people feel proud of themselves again. It is weird to encourage men to find their pride in calling others cucks, betas, and shit on others feelings to mask their own inner fragility.
posted by bl1nk at 6:30 AM on July 30 [5 favorites]

I'm both delighted with, and fascinated by, the way the Harris campaign's "Trump and Vance are creepy weirdos" tack is gaining traction. I'm trying to understand how this tactic works. I mean... the Democrats, the liberals, and the left wing has been battling Trumpism and rising fascism all these years, and now this is the counterattack that's sticking?

I think part of the genius of it is that it's very easy for disengaged and low-info voters to assess the truth of whether or not Republicans are weird for themselves. Hell, it might even be the reason they disengaged, this side's all weird and the other side's boring. Unlike a lot of attacks, you don't have to believe the messenger, you can just kinda look at them. When both sides are yelling about how the other one is an existential threat, it can be too hard to figure out who's lying and who's telling the truth, especially since Trump won last time and America isn't dead.

One of the reasons why the "basket of deplorables" comment backfired so badly is because the obvious counterattack is to flatten the context and tell your supporters "she says you're deplorable!" They can't do that for "weird", and if they try, it's going to come off as, well, weird.

It's also a proven campaign-killer - Ed Milliband and Mark Latham (back when he was Labor leader in Australia, and not the far-right misogynist he is today) both lost because they came off weird to the electorate and couldn't recover.

(also also, Trump's base desperately does not want to be seen as weird. Authoritarians do not like the idea that they're weird, they're conformists at heart and are enraged that everyone else is not conforming. If the weird thing gets through to Trump's base, and they respond the way I think they might, his campaign is over.)
posted by Merus at 7:43 AM on July 30 [5 favorites]

I'm trying to understand how this tactic works.

All I can think of is the end of that Doctor Who episode where The Doctor takes down Harriet Jones (PM, Great Britain) with six words: Don't you think she looks tired?

Which is what I think the subsequent comments answering this kind of get at, too?
posted by Snowishberlin at 8:54 AM on July 30 [2 favorites]

It's not weird to argue for tax cuts for the wealthy.

Eh, it's maybe a little bit weird. But you're right that it's not the kind of thing where you can point at the person advocating it and ask, "what's wrong with this guy?" the way you can about all the creepy culture-war bullshit.
posted by jackbishop at 10:47 AM on July 30 [2 favorites]

One of the reasons why the "basket of deplorables" comment backfired so badly is because the obvious counterattack is to flatten the context and tell your supporters "she says you're deplorable!"

See also the original "one-percenter" terminology: Following the Hollister motorcycle rally in 1947, where local cops panicked at the number of biker clubs coming to the town for the weekend and went on a spree of shutting down bars early and arresting dozens, the American Motorcyclist Association supposedly issued a statement saying that the bikers that caused the "riot" were only one-percent of the attendees. So of course these "outlaw" biker clubs adopted "1%" as a patch for their jackets, followed by the wannabes and trendhoppers.
posted by The Pluto Gangsta at 11:03 AM on July 30

Yes, the Trumpers co-opted the deplorables comment because they LOVE feeling like outsiders and rebels who are bravely swimming against the tide and/or are getting away with acting like assholes. It's like how people preen themselves on being "politically incorrect". Petty rules don't apply to them!

A successful political attack is one that the other side can't successfully invert.
posted by orange swan at 11:23 AM on July 30 [2 favorites]

That's funny about the outsiders and deplorables. I know little about how these things work, but I was reading some social media comments about how they got to feel like the ingroup: they were in on the Q thing, they were in on being deplorable, they identified with the group that was in control from 2017 - 2021. And then this 'weird' thing pops up and suddenly they are the outgroup, the deviants who were being labeled by a large number of people who live in our phones and computers and they had lost control of the narrative. That, versus being outsiders and "rebels... bravely swimming against the tide..." They are now seen as really quite ridiculous couch fuckers and couchfucker supporters. How on earth did that take and not rapist felon fraudster supporters? I know they have been doing crazy mental gymnastics to keep up both the outsider and the insider narratives at the same time, and I REALLY don't disagree with orange swan's take, I'm just adding what I read from the people in my phone.

Maybe?
posted by Snowishberlin at 1:19 PM on July 30 [1 favorite]

because, to a degree, a significant number of people believe that all politicians are corrupt felons and rapists. Bill Clinton sexually abused an intern. Bob Menendez is a Democratic senator who just got convicted of being an Egyptian spy. The Kennedys have more than a few dead women skeletons in their closets.

So, "Sure, Trump is a rapist, felon, and fraudster, but at least he's our rapist, our felon, our fraudster, and he will use all of that meanness and corruption to make those smug lib elitists sorry for how they've looked down on us."

So when you call him weird, you not only make people repulsed from being associated with him, but you also make him look weak.

This othering, for better or worse, is the same playbook that conservatives have used in depicting women candidates as annoying, or candidates of color as "not really American". "Weird" is the magical phrase that allows us to effectively other white dudes.
posted by bl1nk at 1:27 PM on July 30 [7 favorites]

bl!nk, that makes a lot of sense!
posted by Snowishberlin at 1:31 PM on July 30

Wait, what?!
posted by jenfullmoon at 8:49 PM on July 30 [1 favorite]

Vance: "I would call my wife up here to speak but then I think I’d have to sleep on the couch."
posted by kirkaracha at 10:04 PM on July 30 [1 favorite]

So much for not letting him get photographed in front of a piece of furniture lest everyone suddenly be reminded of the couch-fucking.

The obviously couldn't pass up the chance to make a cliche, misogynistic joke even if it included the word "couch" in it.
posted by RonButNotStupid at 8:11 AM on July 31

I saw it pointed out that Vance's "Richard Gere photographed in front of the gerbil cages" joke there was likely his attempt to take control of the narrative, which if so is yet more evidence that the Davenport Defiler's political acumen is...lacking.
posted by NoxAeternum at 9:31 AM on July 31

Remember When Weirdo Creep JD Vance Thought He Had Something To Say About Simone Biles?
"She can't hear you over all these clanging gold medals."
posted by kirkaracha at 2:23 PM on July 31 [2 favorites]

Okay I think I got something else about the 'weird' thing sticking after watching the dumpster fire of the NABJ... thing. It's just an attack. It's not specifically about anything any of them said, keeping them in the spotlight and the media repeating what they have said. It's a broad claim about the whole thing. It's not something they can respond to or bring up like the rapist TFG did the whole "interview." Like, every time he went on the attack about made up shit and stupid shit and whatnot, it was about something concrete (as much as a former governor AND I THINK PEDIATRIC SURGEON/MEDICAL EXPERT who apparently talked about severe baby delivery complications or whatever is concrete). But 'weird' is too abstract. And you can't bring it up without sounding really defensive--even though this is a group whose MO is half defensiveness. Like, somehow they know that the 'weird' thing is dangerous, and that responding to it is dangerous.

Again, maybe.
posted by Snowishberlin at 2:51 PM on July 31

Trump Allies Believe Kellyanne Conway Is Badmouthing JD Vance

In interviews with The Bulwark, twenty Trump campaign staffers, allies, confidants, and advisers were quick to shoot down any notion that Trump was turning his back on Vance or was displeased with him amid his rocky rollout. But more than a dozen of those sources volunteered without prompting that they believed Conway, who initially opposed the selection of Vance, was undermining him through leaks to the press expressing doubts about his readiness and the campaign’s vetting.

...a Trump confidant who spoke in recent days about Vance with the former president felt sure that the inside-the-tent attacks are “100 percent from Kellyanne.” The chatter that Conway is secretly trashing the Vance selection has reached some of the highest levels of Trump’s team, including Vance himself and Donald Trump Jr.

“He’s pissed off about it. He knows it’s her,” a confidant of Trump’s eldest son said. But a Trump family member told The Bulwark that “the family in general thinks very highly” of Conway.

posted by kirkaracha at 3:49 PM on July 31 [1 favorite]

Pretty crazy to think how incompetent the Trump team seems to be. Do you know the word "vetting". I mean sure Eagleton back in the day, but there was no internet then. Just such total incompetents. Here's hoping...

Vance is a trash fire, and everyone knows it. Think that TFG will find some excuse to say "you're fired!" and dump him. Hope that fucks up ballots and things...
posted by Windopaene at 5:34 PM on July 31 [2 favorites]

When I heard that Hillbilly Elegy, the movie, was directed by Ron Howard, I was disappointed.
Narrator's voice: Yes, he was.
Then I learned that it was released during the pandemic and made a box office of $38,000.
I checked the numbers because Trump declared the movie "became a smash hit" during his interview with NABJ.
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 12:29 PM on August 1

Transcription error? Maybe he said "smashed shit."
posted by kirkaracha at 2:07 PM on August 1

Get ready for even more JD Vance in the spotlight after shaky rollout

JD Vance is making a second pass at introducing himself to America as the Ohio senator attempts to put his uneven rollout as Donald Trump’s running mate in the rearview mirror.

Simply put, the plan to get past this stretch is more Vance, not less.

You always get a second chance to make a first impression, right?
posted by kirkaracha at 2:37 PM on August 1 [1 favorite]

International Box Office - $38,852 is Wiki's source for that figure.
posted by snuffleupagus at 2:55 PM on August 1

(seems it didn't really get much of a theatrical release, direct to Netflix)
posted by snuffleupagus at 2:56 PM on August 1

“JD Vance does not couch his hatred for women.” @KamalaHQ on X
posted by kirkaracha at 4:00 PM on August 1 [3 favorites]

“JD Vance does not couch his hatred for women.”

Aaargh, this is the second time i've seen this and it drives me fucking crazy. "To couch" is a ditransitive verb! It needs a direct object and an indirect object! You have to couch something in something!
posted by adrienneleigh at 4:27 PM on August 1 [5 favorites]

It's reflexive in his special case.
posted by snuffleupagus at 4:35 PM on August 1 [2 favorites]

Fuck around and find out..

“When JD Vance couched his opinion on our freedom, we decided that the cat ladies are striking back,” Pelosi said. Advocate.com
posted by unearthed at 5:34 PM on August 1 [2 favorites]

"To couch" is a ditransitive verb! It needs a direct object and an indirect object! You (((have to couch something in something!))

Yes, that’s why it’s funny. (I’ll show myself out.)
posted by ec2y at 10:57 PM on August 2

Would the Metafilter Moralists be more comfortable if we said he fucked like, an Eames chair or something

Would that be less gauche
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 12:29 PM on August 4 [1 favorite]

It would be more gymnastic.
posted by snuffleupagus at 4:19 PM on August 4 [2 favorites]

JD Vance has joined TikTok, with a boring video promoting hard seltzer. There are couches.
posted by the primroses were over at 5:19 PM on August 4 [1 favorite]

Some naïf has posted this free piece of furniture locally which would surely be attractive to J.D.
posted by Rumple at 9:40 AM on August 5 [1 favorite]

Flipper, a satisfying Lincoln Project ad [Youtube]

... there is one man whose superhuman flexibility is unparalleled. That man is JD Vance. Just watch as JD Vance flips on his most passionately held beliefs.
posted by Glinn at 3:56 PM on August 5 [1 favorite]

JD Vance Just Blurbed a Book Arguing That Progressives Are Subhuman (NYTimes):

The word “fascist” gets thrown around a lot in politics, but it’s hard to find a more apt one for “Unhumans,” which came out last month. The book argues that leftists don’t deserve the status of human beings — that they are, as the title says, unhumans — and that they are waging a shadow war against all that is good and decent, which will end in apocalyptic slaughter if they are not stopped. “As they are opposed to humanity itself, they place themselves outside of the category completely, in an entirely new misery-driven subdivision, the unhuman,” write Posobiec and Lisec.

posted by nobody at 6:25 AM on August 6 [2 favorites]