There aren’t enough songs about arthropods » « I’ve successfully staggered through another long workday

Ding dong the witch is…taking a break

It’s impressive how often the rats have abandoned the SS Trump. The latest to leave is Kellyanne Conway — she’s leaving the White House to “spend more time with her family”, as is traditional. It’s hard to care much, though, just another liar leaving one grift to move on to another.

There aren’t enough songs about arthropods » « I’ve successfully staggered through another long workday

Comments

  1. fusilier says

    I came across a report (sorry, can’t remember where) that George Conway is leaving The Lincoln Project. One daughter is supposed to be asking for emancipation from her parents.

    Maybe, for once, the “more time with family” explanation is for real.

    fusilier

    James 2:24

  2. slithey tove (twas brillig (stevem)) says

    I want to think it is [ rat abandoning the sinking ship ] when she can get a golden para-chute instead of a brass trash-chute.
    Good riddance to her

  3. says

    I am on your side about Kellyanne Conway and I am so glad she is gone.

    However, calling a woman a witch is inherently misogynistic and leans into sexist tropes. Would it be possible to find a different term that isn’t steeped in treatment and labeling of women who men don’t like? It is similar to calling a person of color a Thug, even if you don’t mean it in that way, it is still leaning into white male privilege and assigning insulting terms of a minority.

    Other than that, you are awesome!

  4. nomadiq says

    Yes both parents are freaking out about their daughter. As #1 said, maybe for the first time it is about family. When I heard about that I actually felt bad for KellyAnne and George. Their family life has totally gone to shit. Compassion can (should) make you have some odd bed fellows.

  5. quotetheunquote says

    Yes, I have no use for KC at all, just another lying liar in the cabal of lying liars, but maybe her daughter will be better off without the absolute chaos that must be the Conway household.

    But come to think of it, what has Kellyanne really been doing for the Administration for the last year or so? She seems to have been largely side-lined anyway.

  7. robro says

    Both George and Kellyanne are leaving the respective political roles, and the WaPo story added:

    On Sunday, however, she [teen daughter Claudia] also tweeted that social media was “becoming way too much,” so she had decided to take “a mental health break.”

  9. Matt Cramp says

    No no, Anonymous is legion. You might be thinking of Q, except Q is most probably some 4chan mod who’s getting a cut of T-shirt sales.

    My Twitter was briefly going nuts talking about the daughter, and I wasn’t able to get an idea of what’s involved, but the fact that both are quitting their respective grifts at the same time as their daughter is apparently? alleging abuse – I suspect this is not just a rat leaving a sinking ship.

  10. daved says

    @3, please be advised that Kellyanne does, in fact, weigh the same as a duck, so PZ’s characterization of her is entirely accurate.

  11. robro says

    I just had a wonder: how long before Conway comes out with her “tell all” book about the Trump White House. This is becoming a lucrative business and she’s well positioned to produce a blockbuster.

  12. says

    #4:Actually her daughter has accused her of child abuse. So yeah, their family life has gone to shit but I don’t exactly have sympathy for her.

  15. Owlmirror says

    (Monty Python and the Holy Grail, witch & duck)
    Actually, it would take less time just to read the text of the scene:

    Sir Bedevere: There are ways of telling whether she is a witch.
    Peasant 1: Are there? Oh well, tell us.
    Sir Bedevere: Tell me. What do you do with witches?
    Peasant 1: Burn them.
    Sir Bedevere: And what do you burn, apart from witches?
    Peasant 1: More witches.
    Peasant 2: Wood.
    Sir Bedevere: Good. Now, why do witches burn?
    Peasant 3: …because they’re made of… wood?
    Sir Bedevere: Good. So how do you tell whether she is made of wood?
    Peasant 1: Build a bridge out of her.
    Sir Bedevere: But can you not also build bridges out of stone?
    Peasant 1: Oh yeah.
    Sir Bedevere: Does wood sink in water?
    Peasant 1: No, no, it floats!… It floats! Throw her into the pond!
    Sir Bedevere: No, no. What else floats in water?
    Peasant 1: Bread.
    Peasant 2: Apples.
    Peasant 3: Very small rocks.
    Peasant 1: Cider.
    Peasant 2: Gravy.
    Peasant 3: Cherries.
    Peasant 1: Mud.
    Peasant 2: Churches.
    Peasant 3: Lead! Lead!
    King Arthur: A Duck.
    Sir Bedevere: …Exactly. So, logically…
    Peasant 1: If she weighed the same as a duck… she’s made of wood.
    Sir Bedevere: And therefore…
    Peasant 2: …A witch!

  16. unclefrogy says

    not sure if there are negative words to describe people that do not have roots in sexist ethnic or racial language. Thug comes from India and the Thuggee cult of robbers and murders so it has racial and ethnic roots in english usage
    The split in the Conway family always has seemed just a little strange but everything about agent orange and his administration has seemed a little strange, Like why any off it?
    uncle frogy

  19. Owlmirror says

    Oddly enough, I was just recently thinking about Kellyanne Conway, in that she hasn’t been in the news lately, so what happened with her?

    Actually her daughter has accused her of child abuse

    I don’t see that anywhere in the posted article.

    While I realize I’m making an inference from little information myself, I understand that George Conway has been bitterly opposed to Trump since he was elected, and Kellyanne has been supporting Trump since he was elected. This has presumably led to bitter sniping between the parents, leading to a toxic home environment.

    So my inference is that the teen daughter is sick of her parents being constantly angry at each other, and wants it to stop. George and Kellyanne may been taking steps suggested by a family counselor: they each give up their respective anti-Trump and pro-Trump political careers for family peace.

  20. Owlmirror says

    OK, so there is an actual abuse claim:

    https://www.npr.org/2020/08/24/905351568/kellyanne-conway-to-leave-white-house-job-citing-family-concerns

    The news of Conway’s impending departure from the White House follows a tweet from her 15-year-old daughter, Claudia, over the weekend announcing that she was “officially pushing for emancipation.”

    In a series of tweets that followed, she said that her mother’s job had “ruined my life” and that she and her father “agree on absolutely nothing,” politically.

    “We just both happen to have common sense when it comes to our current president.”

    On Sunday, the teenager clarified in a tweet that her desire for emancipation was not about her mother’s job but “about years of childhood trauma and abuse.” She then added: “this is becoming way too much so i am taking a mental health break from social media. see y’all soon. thank you for the love and support. no hate to my parents please.”

  23. Artor says

    I’ve known a few witches, and even the worst of them is a far better person than Kellyanne Conjob, but I damn them with faint praise.

  24. unclefrogy says

    well I will admit I am not an expert on language or word history. The thing about these kinds of derogatory expressions that get negative reactions and objection from others is I think that they are mostly personal and aimed at the person. I do not see anyway around that. Is there a way to be personally insulting without being personally insulting?
    uncle frogy

  26. Azkyroth, B*Cos[F(u)]==Y says

    However, calling a woman a witch is inherently misogynistic and leans into sexist tropes. Would it be possible to find a different term that isn’t steeped in treatment and labeling of women who men don’t like? It is similar to calling a person of color a Thug, even if you don’t mean it in that way, it is still leaning into white male privilege and assigning insulting terms of a minority.

    First, I’m curious: do you always phrase these sorts of concerns as if you’re talking to kindergarteners who’ve never even heard of the issue before, (especially when directing them at people with PZ’s profile in the online social justice world)? And how does that usually play out?

    Second: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ding-Dong!_The_Witch_Is_Dead
    PZ is, here, invoking a cultural reference to a particular, well-known (like “how are we even having this conversation?” well known), distinctive memetic moment where oppressed people are celebrating the long-awaited downfall of their oppressor/enemy, not randomly selecting “witch” as a term of opprobium. If you want to argue that the baggage of “witch” as a general term of opprobrium when directed at women, which you’re correct about in isolation but which you are not the first person to ever think of, so irredeemably taint that combination of phonemes and/or letters that the reference should never be used…well, you can argue that, maybe even convincingly, but at least pay a little attention to what’s going on.

    Finally:

    Would it be possible to find a different term that isn’t steeped in treatment and labeling of women who men don’t like?

    I feel like it’s fair to ask: So what would you suggest?

    (Preview button’s not responding; hope this works.)

  27. quatguy says

    Might I propose the following, in no particular order:

    Boldfaced liar for money
    Fascist Tool
    Boldfaced liar for money
    Boldfaced liar for money

  29. Owlmirror says

    do you always phrase these sorts of concerns as if you’re talking to kindergarteners who’ve never even heard of the issue before, (especially when directing them at people with PZ’s profile in the online social justice world)?

    Raising consciousness is slow and difficult.

    Second: PZ is, here, invoking a cultural reference to a particular, well-known (like “how are we even having this conversation?” well known), distinctive memetic moment where oppressed people are celebrating the long-awaited downfall of their oppressor/enemy, not randomly selecting “witch” as a term of opprobium.

    The point of unconscious bias is that it isn’t random; it’s using a gendered term to insult a woman for being the wrong sort of woman.

    And just because it’s well-known doesn’t mean it’s not still sexist.

    Consider the well-known phrase “That’s mighty white of you”. I doubt that someone using it today would necessarily be racist — but that doesn’t mean that the phrase isn’t racist by connotation.

    If you want to argue that the baggage of “witch” as a general term of opprobrium when directed at women, which you’re correct about in isolation but which you are not the first person to ever think of, so irredeemably taint that combination of phonemes and/or letters that the reference should never be used…well, you can argue that, maybe even convincingly, but at least pay a little attention to what’s going on.

    You could follow your own advice, here.

  30. rrhain says

    She got out while the getting was good.

    She’s the last of the original Trump campaign staff who hasn’t been arrested, despite her multiple violations of the Hatch Act.