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Justin T. Thurn's avatar

This reminds me of Chris Hedges, and others, remarking that folk like Stephen Colbert killed satire by focusing on personal foibles and judging character rather than what you've elsewhere termed bread and butter issues. The satire-killers use humour to obscure rather than reveal. They end up doing the deadcatting on behalf of their chosen political messiah, and maintain dopamine levels of supporters by slamming the "other" in superficial ways.

Also, where, in your estimation, does ratfucking rank compared to deadcatting?

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James Macleod's avatar

As the term was originally coined, it’s just another involvement in frathouse politics, so I’d say they sit quite comfortably side by side.

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Sue Dhillon's avatar

Loved this piece. And this whole cat thing is taking on a life of its own here in the states with all of us cat ladies being thrown under the bus. It's a very good distraction from the real issues that are plaguing the nation.

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James Macleod's avatar

I’m glad you enjoyed it. If you liked that, you’ll probably also like (although less Cats) Madness Elevated:

https://open.substack.com/pub/jamesmacleod/p/madness-elevated-how-the-unhinged?r=8kg59&utm_medium=ios

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Sue Dhillon's avatar

I did like it. I will absolutely check it out. Thank you for sharing.

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