The GOP is now the Party of Post-Modernist Deconstruction of Language

Last updated on: November 26, 2019 at 12:50 am by Mark Shea

The GOP is now the Party of Post-Modernist Deconstruction of Language 2019-11-14T23:51:27-07:00 Mark Shea

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It has really been astonishing to me, who 20 years ago assumed (and was taught by conservatives to expect) that it was just a matter of time till the Damn Libruls finally carried the day and drained language of all meaning. Over and over I was warned (and warned others) that conservatives–and especially Catholic ones–were the bastions against all the deconstructionist nonsense in the academy which insisted that language has no objective meaning and that “truth” was simply a mask on the face of Power.

Again and again, I was taught and believed that language was not an infinitely malleable thing, that (in the words of Rush Limbaugh) “words mean things.”

Again and again, it was dinned into me by conservative Christians that, unlike libs, we believed as conservatives and as Christians in “personal responsibility”.

Now? Good Catholic Kelltyanne Conway jabbers about “alternative facts”.

The MAGA cult of Trump defenders talks like Pontius Pilate to say literally anything to make truth meaningless:

>@RepMarkMeadows just said this: "Everyone has their own impression of what truth is."

— John Bresnahan (@BresPolitico) November 13, 2019

And most exquisite of all, this absurd argument is made to remove all responsibility for anything ever from a man Shapiro nonetheless demands should continue to be given the greatest political responsibility in the world for our safety, prosperity, and security:

Ben Shapiro, offering a very odd legal defense, says Trump didn't commit a crime because he's not capable of intent pic.twitter.com/8O5iQtqc4M

— Jason Campbell (@JasonSCampbell) November 13, 2019

Deacon Steven Greydanus summarizes this desperately stupid argument this way:

“I mean yeah it *would* be impeachable if it were *intentional* but is Trump *really* capable of ‘intending’ to do anything at all, in any meaningful sense of the word? Or is he a purely irrational id monster who just *wants* things with the same level of culpability as an opossum? I think we all know the answer.”

That the Party of Personal Responsibility (not to mention MAGA Christians) not only tolerates, but doggedly doubles down on the idiotic argument, “Trump should continue in office because he is an impulsive animal wholly enslaved to appetite and unable to make a rational judgment to save his miserable soul” is proof (if any were needed) that not just Trump, but the entire party and the whole Right Wing Lie Machine and religious court prophets–Christian and Jewish–dedicated to his defense needs to be utterly rejected as the liars they are. The degradation of language inflicted by the Cult of Trump makes the insults done it by Bill Clinton pale in comparison.

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