Winston Churchill was well known for his quick wit and cutting insults. He said of the French stuffed shirt Charles de Gaulle that he looked like a "female llama who has been surprised in the bath." One Churchillian insult that was likely said, not by Churchill, but rather by another English Lord named E.F. Smith goes something like this:
Lady Aster quipped that if she was married to him to put poison in his tea.
“Madam, if I were married to you, I’d drink it.”
If Churchill or Smith offered such insults today, London bobbies might come calling.
In England and Wales, the Public Order Act of 1986 made "insulting words or behavior" illegal. An Oxford man called a police horse “gay” and the copper on the horse’s back arrested the insulter. Today, you can call a horse a "homo." Being gay is no longer considered an insult.
In Scotland and Ireland, you’d best not insult or “hurt the feelings” of the easily offended. You’ll be subject to arrest.
In Germany, J.D. Vance offered a cautionary tale to the assembled group of statesmen about speech that might hurt the feelings of some but is necessary for Europe and its position in Western culture.
“If you are afraid of the voices, the opinions, and the conscience that guide your very own people, there is nothing America can do for you...”
“[O]ld entrenched interests hiding behind ugly Soviet-era words like misinformation and disinformation.”
It was a reminder that NATO was founded as a bulwark against the post-war threat from the East where thugs like Stalin and Beria were the living version of Orwell’s dystopian nightmare. Where speech was monitored and wrongspeak was punished.
Without the least bit of irony in words or forethought, with the point flying over his head at 30,000 feet, Germany’s defense minister Boris Pistorius called Vance’s speech “not acceptable.”
A few days before Vance spoke in Munich, actors gathered in London for BAFTA. BAFTA is the British version of the Academy Awards. And much like the Academy Awards, BAFTA hands out trophies to actors and the host is obligated to insult Donald Trump.
The host of the show was a Scot named David Tennant. Tennant (famous for playing the 10th iteration of "Doctor Who") managed to label Trump, Nosferatu, Beetlejuice and Feather McGraw. Those high-humor labels moved the actor audience to clap so hard they resembled North Korean generals greeting Dear Leader.
Out in front was the Trump-hating clapping seals was Mark Hamill. He frequently loses his mind on social media, and at BAFTA, he lost pants.
Mark Hamill's pants fall down and he tries to play it off.
— Script Trooper (@ScriptTrooper) February 18, 2025
🤣🤣🤣pic.twitter.com/mnHzgmbk9S
Unintentionally hilarious and a fitting metaphor of the left losing their dignity.
Back in Germany, where one can end up in jail for posting “wrongthink” cartoons (I think I’d best stay out of Germany), middling intellect Mark Ruffalo was at a movie premiere. Ruffalo plays a villainous world-ending “fascist” tyrant in a SciFi "dark comedy" called Mickey 17. The tyrant’s followers are red-hat-wearing dolts. Creative.
The character is “an amalgamation of every petty dictator that we’ve seen over the last, you know, century, all rolled into one. Add a little bit of, you know, Christian nationalism... and you have [Trump].” said Ruffalo.
The New York Times’ reviewer claimed that the film is the “first proper Trump Era 2.0 movie." Meaning it’s the first movie that mocks and insults Trump and everyone who voted for him.
[T]he film arrives amid the wreckage caused by the second Trump administration.
Its villains exhibit stupidity and destructive evil in equal measure, resulting in a tale in which the very notion of checks and balances is the ultimate rebellion. That something so bare-minimum arises as heroic is both aspirational and punishingly depressing, in a political moment where the United States and its institutions feel like they’re being stripped for parts.
In New York, during SNL’s 50th anniversary show, Tom Hanks played a racist MAGA-hat-wearing dolt.
In LA, Ben Stiller is afraid.
Ben Stiller says he feels afraid because there “can be retribution from the government if you say something wrong.”
— Paul A. Szypula 🇺🇸 (@Bubblebathgirl) February 15, 2025
The projection here is just ridiculous.
Democrats persecuted wrongthink for four years under Biden.@BenStiller is a complete hypocrite.pic.twitter.com/EVK8lybBBe
Stiller is worried that his cohort of Trump-hating actors will be targets of Trump. Black helicopters are not landing on his lawn. Stiller is safe. Ruffalo is safe. Hamill is safe. No concentration camp for Rachel Maddow.
Their act is lazy and old. Trump Era 2.0 is, indeed, leaving wreckage but not the kind that actors, celebrities or barely literate TV pundits claim. He is destroying their talking points.
There is no “Constitutional crisis.” Most Americans aren’t buying their silly narrative. However, I do want them to continue making their "black helicopter" predictions. By and large, America is hearing it, but America is no longer buy it.
Mark Hamill, the sky isn't falling - it's just your pants.
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