"There’s some things’ll scare you so bad, you hurt yourself."

October 31, 2024 5:19 AM

"The fun's in the fight" is an essay by Molly Ivins (previously), published in Mother Jones in 1993.
posted by box (13 comments total)

That was a good read. Thanks!
posted by brainwane at 5:24 AM on October 31

Relevant! (Although requires the lung capacity of a sherpa)
posted by pepcorn at 5:40 AM on October 31

Ah, we need her now more than ever:

Those who think of freedom in this country as one long, broad path leading ever onward and upward are dead damned wrong. Many a time freedom has been rolled back–and always for the same sorry reason: fear.

We -- the mass of Americans -- have to stop allowing ourselves to be spooked by lies and bullshit. We have to be skeptical and to do our homework, so that we can tell when a lie is a lie...and Ivins was so good at that.
posted by wenestvedt at 5:49 AM on October 31 [10 favorites]

Molly was more quotable than the goddamn bible! From the 2nd link.:


Sometimes she skewered: President Bill Clinton was “weaker than bus station chili.” Sometimes she filleted, as when she said that if a Dallas Republican congressman’s “IQ slips any lower we’ll have to water him twice a day.” Sometimes she charbroiled: the speech ultra-conservative pundit and presidential candidate Pat Buchanan gave at the 1992 Republican Convention, Ivins wrote, “probably sounded better in the original German.”

I still miss her. Obit.
posted by lalochezia at 6:08 AM on October 31 [11 favorites]

Oh, I think of "probably sounded better in the original German" like weekly: so savage, and so precise.
posted by wenestvedt at 6:10 AM on October 31 [8 favorites]

That was the thrill of the Vance couch gag. It's hard to have fun against open fascism, particularly when the fascism has proven to be able to win. And sometimes it seems like punching down when his supporters are as much dumb, deceived, and disillusioned as evil. It can lead to nihilistic gallows humor that is definitely not in the Molly Ivins vein.
posted by rikschell at 7:08 AM on October 31 [1 favorite]

There’s some people that I miss and yet I’m almost glad they’re gone—they were spared our current timeline. But Molly, thou shouldst be living at this hour!
posted by Countess Elena at 7:49 AM on October 31 [2 favorites]

I too miss Molly Ivins. She was a national treasure.

But agree with Countess Elana that there are good folks who didn't have to live to see this shit. I think of Craig Ferguson, who didn't have to open the show with "It's a great day in America" during TFG's tenure, or where we are now...
posted by Windopaene at 8:11 AM on October 31 [1 favorite]

I was just talking to my husband last week that I miss Molly Ivins and Ann Richards so much. They represented the stubborn, smart, lefty women in Texas so very well. And the things they would have said about tfg would have been fucking fantastic! Molly Ivins could lay down a polite sick ass burn like no other.
posted by shmurley at 8:53 AM on October 31 [4 favorites]

Goddammit I miss her.
posted by adamrice at 10:05 AM on October 31 [4 favorites]

Thanks for posting, box! Great essay. I miss her, too.
posted by Bella Donna at 11:12 AM on October 31

I miss Molly so much.
posted by gentlyepigrams at 11:51 AM on October 31 [1 favorite]

“Even now the silk is tugging at the staff!”
posted by clew at 11:57 AM on October 31 [1 favorite]