The "Prank" and Liberal Delusionism

[dgs49]

We are told that Governor Romney, when in high school, led a group of vigilantes to brutally attack and deface a homosexual classmate - crime for which he would be criminally and civilly liable if done today.

What priceless delusionism.

Ignoring for a moment the abject desperation of a news outlet that would release this "blockbuster" story at just this moment in the Presidential campaign, and assuming the worst case - that Romney was the ring leader (which is by no means clear),...

At the time in question, the "victim" had recently bleached his hair blonde. In the preppy atmosphere of this boarding school, this was the sort of thing that was sure to bring about a significant negative response from his classmates. And anyone who has actually lived through high school knows that high school kids vigorously enforce the social norms and mercilessly mock anyone who deviates, even slightly. Who has gone through high school and not been made fun of because of a haircut that wasn't quite right, or a garment, or a pair of shoes that wasn't exactly what the other kids were wearing? This is how high school kids behave.

And it is magnified in a boarding school, where the kids literally live together - not just go to school. It is not at all uncommon for a kid to get beat up for a serious deviation from the norms of the moment.

Cutting a kid's hair seems like a very brutal thing to do now, but consider the outcome of this literally harmless prank. The "victim" would have been forced to get a shorter haircut - maybe even a crewcut, to hide the cutting that was done. BUT SHORT HAIR AND CREWCUTS WERE IN STYLE AT THE TIME, ESPECIALLY IN A PREP SCHOOL! This was NO BIG DEAL! Under these circumstances, if a kid had called his father to whine about this, his father would have told him to "grow up and deal with it."

And as for "knowing" that the kid was homosexual, that is total bullshit. In 1965 the idea that a kid in your school was queer was something that was joked about, but was never seriously considered. I went to an all-boys Catholic H.S., and we barely believed that homosexuals existed. A few of my classmates subsequently "came out," and it was shocking to us. We had no idea, although now looking back there were indications we might have picked up if we were looking for them. But we weren't.

But honestly, if a kid came out as gay at that time in an all-boys high school, he would have had to leave the school. His treatment by the other students would have been intolerable.

This non-story is just one in what promises to be a long lineup of bullshit stories that the MSM will be dredging up to support the re-election of the disaster in the White House. Thank Murdock for Fox News.

[Big RR]

If what you say is true, why didn't Romney just come out and say that instead of claiming he didn't remember?

[Scooter]

I hope the Romney campaign takes exactly the tack Dave has just done, trying to cast doubt on the veracity of an incident that has five independent witnesses. That approach will be sure to keep this on page one for weeks.

Look, people do stupid things in high school, sometimes even nasty things. Romney could have just taken it head on and said, "Yeah, there are things I did as a teenager that I'm not proud of , and I wish the adult me could go back and make the teenage me take five seconds to think of what it must have been like to be that kid, blah, blah, blah" and he could have turned the incident into a teachable moment about school bullying and put himself on the right side of an issue that has been at top of mind for a lot of people lately.

Instead we got, "I don't remember doing it...and if I did it, it didn't happen that way...and if it did I'm sorry...but even if I did do it, it didn't happen for that reason...did I mention I don't remember doing it..." and he had all the credibility of Pinocchio.

As I said in the other thread, it's never about what happened, it's about the attempt to cover it up.

[Big RR]

Exactly.

[Jarlaxle]

If what you say is true, why didn't Romney just come out and say that instead of claiming he didn't remember?

Maybe because...he DIDN'T remember one incident from 40 years ago!

[Scooter]

Because there were so many like it? Because that would be the only reason he wouldn't remember an incident that five people who were there could independently recount with complete consistency.

[Lord Jim]

I haven't followed this story all that closely, (to be honest, from what I do know, it seems to me that the impact of this on the election will be pretty close to zero...my initial reaction was, "Gee, if after all their digging, the best the press can come up with on Romney in terms of skeletons in the closet is a high school bullying incident from 47 years ago, it doesn't look like we're going to see any devastating surprises in this campaign... )

Have the other folks who've come forward said that they picked on this kid specifically because they thought he was gay?

[Scooter]

Yes.

ETA -

it seems to me that the impact of this on the election will be pretty close to zero

I would have said so too, if Romney hadn't decided to put so much energy into denying it, now going so far as looking up old classmates and asking them to counter the accusations made against him, none of whom, thus far, have been forthcoming.

[Crackpot]

It looks another vicious blow to Romneys credibility by his worst political enemy....

himself.

[Long Run]

Agree with Scooter's comments, but by November this is a non-issue because the national political attention span for big issues is about a week, and for something like this is about a day. The election will be about perceived competence and vision for leading us out the mess, not who wins the likeability contest (though that never hurts).

Does make you wonder if the Obama campaign has a treasure trove of Romney as jerk stories that will be "discovered" one at a time every few weeks to try to cement in voters minds (most of all independent voters) that that is the real Romney.

[Guinevere]

Oh that's the real Romney, LR --- there are scads of stories floating around Massachusetts.

I agree with Scooter -- it is not the underlying issue so much as how Romney handles it. After all, if candidates are going to be scrutinized for every mistake they made when they were teenagers, no one is going to be left willing to run for office. But, for god's sake, just say what you remember and let it go. Then its a non-story.

[Big RR]

Come on Jarl, I might forget a class I took or what I had for dinner 40 years ago, but doing this to another student? Never. Unless I did it so many times that it became as forgettable as what I ate for dinner. This is not a minor incident but a serious assault on another human being. IMHO, if he actually forgot it, I would think even less of him than I do now (and I don't hold him in particularly high esteem as it is).

[Joe Guy]

If Romney really doesn't remember being involved with a group that forcefully cut off someone's hair 40 or so years ago, he either has serious memory problems or that incident was minor compared to other disgusting things he did and does remember.

But I think the truth is that he actually believes that by saying he doesn't remember doing it, his supporters will accept that and make excuses for him - which is exactly what they are doing - and that's all that he needs to do in his world.

[Scooter]

Fox News has managed to get one of the sisters of the victim to say she has "no knowledge" of the incident. She would have had to have been telepathic to have known about it, since it happened when she was no longer living in the family home.

But in trying to defend him, they managed to do nothing but ensure the story stays alive for another news cycle.

[Crackpot]

You think they want Romney in the WH? He'd be a huge drain on their ratings

[Gob]

"I don't remember holding another kid down and cutting his hair off," and the rest of the world laughs and is a little embarrassed for the man, but then remembers that people will be voting for him and his magic underpants to be president of the USA, and all the "fun and games" that that could provide for the rest of us...

[rubato]

delusionism
- no dictionary results

I guess if you have nothing to say you can always invent new words to say nothing with.


yrs,
rubato

[dales]

[rubato]

Goodness, two people, and both of them with nothing of intellectual merit to boast of, have made the same neologism.

How unimpressive.

yrs,
rubato

[Grim Reaper]

Ignoring for a moment the abject desperation of a news outlet that would release this "blockbuster" story at just this moment in the Presidential campaign

Compared to the abject desperation by Republicans that our current President might not be a natively born American you mean?

Cutting a kid's hair seems like a very brutal thing to do now, but consider the outcome of this literally harmless prank. The "victim" would have been forced to get a shorter haircut - maybe even a crewcut, to hide the cutting that was done. BUT SHORT HAIR AND CREWCUTS WERE IN STYLE AT THE TIME, ESPECIALLY IN A PREP SCHOOL! This was NO BIG DEAL! Under these circumstances, if a kid had called his father to whine about this, his father would have told him to "grow up and deal with it."

And this is just utter insanity and shows a complete lack of human empathy. Bullying is anything but harmless and the psychological effects don't just go away when told to "deal with it".