Catty Culture

[cthulu2016]

Cattiness is one of our many corrosive cultural policing mechanisms. The nail that sticks out will be hammered down. God help anyone who does anything overly interesting.

And it is 100% "mean girls." The difference between daring fashion-forward and bizarre cluelessness is 90% who is doing the wearing.

I do not think anyone, anywhere is actually gouging their eyes out over seeing Katy Perry's ballot endorsement dress. It's a stage costume, and pretty low-key by that standard.

But TMZ showing something that millions of people want to see because it's attractive has this obligatory, "I don't want to see it because I want to see it. I want to see it in my role as cultural police-person... my necessary research on how dreadful everyone else is."

Any doubt over who Katy Perry is voting for this November was erased when she stepped on stage wearing arguably the MOST HIDEOUS political fashion statement EVER!

Read more: http://www.tmz.com/videos/0_mmk2ib66/#ixzz2AQBm943V

Since Katy Perry's flattering vinyl ballot dress came along the same day a man got the Romney logo tattooed on his face for $5,000 it is safe to say the ballot dress was not the most hideous political fashion statement of the afternoon, let alone ever.

[LiberalLoner]

1. I think we need to have a conversation about this as a nation.

Not just cattiness about fashion, but a pervasive lack of "niceness" that is corroding our culture. An increase in meanness, cruelty, self-centeredness, and a lack of empathy. I've read stories here on DU about the growing lack of empathy in our culture, and I can see it and most importantly FEEL it in our culture, every day.

People act so shocked and "man-dying-of-thirst-and-you-give-him-water" when I go out of my way to be pleasant and warm. That tells me I am not the only one out there seeing and feeling this and maybe not liking it very much.

I can't help but think the level of meanness has risen the further right-wing our country has gone.

I had a morbid fascination with the rise of the third Reich and the concentration camps and the Holocaust. I couldn't stop reading about it and thinking about it as a preteen and then teenager. Even today, I still read articles, go to the museum in DC, watch movies, and I visited Dachau once.

There are things about our culture that seem to me to echo the culture that led to the rise of the Nazis. Everyone always says that's hyperbole but it's not if it's just an accurate description of what is happening now.

[Surya Gayatri]

7. Here are some more neo-fascist echos of 1930s Germany to be found in 21st century America:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1251&pid=179138

[LiberalLoner]

8. Wow, great reading, thank you! And you know, among the Officers Corp of the Army and Air Force,

there is a big push about how "Europe" is dying because of low birthrate and Muslims are breeding faster and will win.

There was a neo-nazi screed sent out by an AF Major General my husband worked for, required reading for his underlings, which basically suggested the solution was to end education for women (that will raise the birthrate), and of course outlaw all contraception as well as abortions.

It didn't say anything about letting brown people have access to contraception to lower their birthrate but maybe it would be selectively enforced to force a higher birthrate among white women?

I was horrified and shocked when my husband forwarded that editorial to me. The idea that the leadership of the military would feel free to push neo-nazi stuff openly....scary stuff.

[Surya Gayatri]

9. You're welcome, LL. You know, this is the most politically dangerous and disturbing era

I've ever lived through, and I'm 67.

These people are relentless, deranged zealots. They will stop at nothing and answer to no-one, except their plutocrat overlords.

I hate and fear them--and some of them are part of my own family. Sexist, mysogynistic, racist, selfish misanthropic throwbacks.

I hope that your husband's AF Major General was demoted and drummed out of the military for his illegal political proselytizing.

I live in Europe and there is a similar neo-nazi revival here (preaching the same racist rationale you spoke of).

Fortunately though, most Europeans, being only two generations on from the Nazi conflagration of WWII, are far less susceptible to the siren song of the fascist message.

[LiberalLoner]

10. I feel the same way about this being the most dangerous era I've lived through - I'm 51.

I had the honor of talking to a woman once (during the GW era) who had been a young girl in the 1930's in Germany and lived through the war. She came to the U.S. after the war as a bride.

I was afraid to even ask her - afraid of bringing up bad memories, afraid of offending her. But I couldn't help myself, my need to know was so great. I asked her if - looking at the current climate in the U.S. - we should be afraid.

She understood immediately what I was getting at. Looking at me with great seriousness, and measuring the impact of her words on my fave, she said, "you should be VERY afraid."

That chilled me to the bone more than anything else I have seen or heard about neo-fascism, before or since.

The MG retired with full honors, was never called out on what he did. That kind of thing is rife within the military now. The younger soldiers, the people who are enlisted now or the junior officers - are probably more pro-D than pro-R Or at least closely divided. The senior leadership? Just about pure neo-con.

[Surya Gayatri]

11. Interesting but sobering encounter with one of the "wise" ones...

The old adage that "those who ignore history are condemned to repeat it" comes to mind.

As for that wing-nut Major General retiring on full pension--just think, you have the privelege of paying for his RW ass to be on retirement. Your tax dollar at work!

[HappyMe]

2. Good grief!

Catty is right. She has plenty of other things to wear after the concert. The moron with the tattoo is stuck with it.

[GoCubsGo]

3. To be expected from TMZ

Their whole crappy site is nothing but snarky stories about celebrities. Quite frankly, I think THEY are what is "MOST HIDEOUS".

[maryellen99]

4. and Harvey Levin is a Log Cabin Repuke

He is always criticizing Obama on his show and on his twitter feed

[ablamj]

5. Not hideous

I like the dress and she looks great in it!

[Care Acutely]

6. I see only one thing wrong with this dress.

Mitt should have been placed on the ass side of the fabric.