June 17, 2016

"Mr. Nadler, with thinning hair and an iced tea stain on his white polo shirt, was once something of a hippie, playing folk music in Central Park."

From a NYT article about this one guy, John Nadler, who happens to live in the Clinton's town, Chappaqua, but supports Donald Trump and "feels the full weight of his status as America’s loneliest supporter of Donald J. Trump."

We're told that Nadler grew up in the Bronx and "shuns the 'boootiques' of Chappaqua, but not the accent of his youth." That is, a man from the Bronx has a Bronx accent. Noted.

Nadler identifies with Trump a bit:
“He has exaggerated to compensate for people who don’t like him,” Mr. Nadler said. “I do that too.”
So this Nadler fellow... he's a human being.

From the Bronx-accented mouth of Nadler I get the news — first time I've noticed — of Donald Trump's IQ. It's 156.

Is it? I don't know but last night I had the weird experience of seeing that this professor of public policy at NYU who decided to write a ridiculously padded and nonsensical piece about me in The Washington Monthly — something about my failure to get in line and denounce Donald Trump like all decent commentators — wrote about my IQ: "Ann Althouse teaches law at the University of Wisconsin, which implies that her IQ must be above room temperature."

I was surprised to see that, because, as you know, Donald Trump has been accused of mocking the disabled, and the phrase "IQ...  above room temperature" is a reference to the mentally challenged, genuinely disabled people who are not properly the subject of humor. Moreover, IQ is a touchy subject in America, as a professor of public policy should know, and I thought decent people refrained from using IQ as their go-to basis of trashing other people. Ah, well, ironically, I'm supposed to join the Trump-hating crowd because of all the indecent things he's supposedly said.

So I identify a tad with Nadler. I'm not a Trump fan in Chappaqua, but I'm a Trump non-hater in academia.

27 comments:

Michael K said...

I hope this Mr Nadler is thinner than Jerry Nadler the Congressman or else there is little room in Chappaqua for another Trump supporter.

Vet66 said...

The so-called "elite" never misses an opportunity to trumpet their supposed brilliance against those who have differing opinions. Their smug self-importance wears thin as they bolster their own specialness demeaning others. I prefer a barbecue in flyover country with down-home folks over self-congratulatory cocktail parties in Chappaqua. I remember years ago hearing one of the elites bemoan George Bush's election by saying they didn't know how this happened since they didn't know anyone who voted for him. Talk about a cloistered existence.

rhhardin said...

Demeaning and extolling are just coloring. It's amazing that one is PC and one isn't.

Laslo Spatula said...

"So I identify a tad with Nadler. I'm not a Trump fan in Chappaqua, but I'm a Trump non-hater in academia."

First: "Tad with Nadler." Nadler. Nads. Probably could go there.

But I think the two statements above knit even closer for Althouse. She could very easily say:

'I identify a tad with Trump.'

Because I think that is a large part of the Professor's fascination in writing about Trump. Not that she supports him, but she may see a bit of herself --a non-hater in academia -- in his 'call it like I see it' approach.

Althouse lives freely in writing (I believe I am quoting her correctly), Trump lives freely in speech.

And as the previous posts show, she can receive criticism for speaking outside the norm.

I should probably allude to a Venn Diagram here, but will let others take that baton if they choose.

I am Laslo.

jaydub said...

Were Klieman's IQ on a par with AA's he probably wouldn't be a polysci professor. Either that, or he's an under achiever.

traditionalguy said...

Da Trump. He is way too smart to be trusted.

But then, he has to be compared to a team of Hillary and Huma. We again get two for the price of one. Huma is the one that has the high IQ.

ALP said...

Residing in the Pacific NW - I fear a Trump win because that means I'll be surrounded by the perpetually angry* every time I step out the door.


*Well, the even MORE perpetually angry folks....

Matt Sablan said...

"I'm a Trump non-hater"

-- That's my position. I don't like Trump, but the level of "Next Hitler" and "Literally wants to put people in internment camps" makes me uncomfortable because, yeah, I think he's a silly guy with some bad policy, but, "Literally Hitler?"

This brings me back to something I say a lot. When I disagree with people I know to the right of me, it is usually polite, or at worst, "Fine, let's never talk about that again."

Disagreeing with people to the left of me is grossly uncomfortable and gets me comments like, "I didn't think you were like that."

CatherineM said...

The NY Times. "We are quoting a real person this morning. You know he's real because he's from the Bronx and has a New Yawk accent," unlike most of elitist Manhattan.

Not too condescending.

Hagar said...

Not sure if this is off topic.

I think it is Obama who is "categorizing a whole religion" when he says we cannot mention Islam in connection with these attacks, the wars in the Middle East, or whatever.

The rest of us are capable of distinguishing between, say, the Roman Catholic Church of today and a group of nutcases that might be demanding the return of the Holy Inquisition. Or make up your own analogy; there surely are better ones.

Fernandinande said...

Is Trump exactly twice as smart as Muhammad Ali, or is he as smart as two Muhammads?

M Jordan said...

I read this article before I discovered Althouse's post on it. What really struck me was this paragraph on the Clintons:

"Along almost every stretch of this exclusive hamlet, there is a Clinton story — the injured boy whose cast was signed by Mr. Clinton, the salon on King Street that styles Mrs. Clinton’s hair, the time a little girl chased the Clinton family dog into the back of a security vehicle."

I literally laughed out loud when I read that. This is the great collection of warm, folksy tales about the wonderful Cointons? Talk about being damned by faint praise.

Sebastian said...

"I was surprised to see that" Faux surprise, right? I mean, Progs will use any racial, religious, ableist, ageist, you-name-it slurs against their critics, as they see fit. Anything goes for the cause.

GWash said...

' join the Trump-hating crowd because of all the indecent things he's supposedly said.' You're couching your term here... i don't think 'supposedly' would be correct unless you would be interpreting Trump's 'intending' meaning... there is almost unlimited video of Trump stating what most people would label as 'indecent'... your bias is showing...

Amadeus 48 said...

M Jordan--
You have to go with what you have...

Captain Drano said...

@8:54, that is unbelievable and vomit-inducing. Gad I hate the NYT, so thank you for posting that--I can only read the first few "free" articles, as the NYT makes no allowance for poor people to have access. (Not that I'd pay to read that rag even back when I had money.)

Otto said...

"...Moreover, IQ is a touchy subject in America, as a professor of public policy should know, and I thought decent people refrained from using IQ as their go-to basis of trashing other people..... "
Ann is correct. It is the big elephant in the room that no one likes to talk about, but it is a sad fact of life. It has been exasperated by technology and the present age of meritocracy. It is why one group who always claims victimization and racial bias has become the elite class in America and why another group who claims are the same has sadly been mired in poverty for the last 50 years after their supposedly great emancipation by MLK.

Roughcoat said...

Ann Althouse teaches law at the University of Wisconsin, which implies that her IQ must be above room temperature.

That's just bad writing. Boring, cliched, immature--sophomoric. He could get away with that in a high school student newspaper. But in a low-level college English composition class taught before, say, 1970, he would have received a C for it. Do colleges even offer English composition courses anymore?

I'm not a Trump fan in Chappaqua, but I'm a Trump non-hater in academia.

So noted, and appreciated. I speak as a non-Trump fan but a non-Trump hater in Cook County IL. I do, however, hate Hillary.

Ron Winkleheimer said...

@Roughcoat

That's just bad writing.

Yep, is the Washington Monthly that hard up for articles or have standards just fallen that

What am I saying! Of course standards have fallen that far.

http://www.slate.com/blogs/lexicon_valley/2014/04/11/clich_s_despite_what_orwell_and_the_washingtion_post_say_overused_phrases.html

Fernandinande said...

Ron Winkleheimer said...
@Roughcoat
That's just bad writing.
...overused_phrases...


"The Fascist octopus has sung its swan song" isn't overused, unfortunately.

Birches said...

I thought you'd realized you can mock Redneck's for low IQs, which is obviously every Trump supporter. IQ mockery is, like everything now a days, race contingent.

Phunctor said...

I never could figure out why everyone wasn't a billionaire. It must be easy if a moron like Trump can do it. Of course, it's easier still in Venezuela. Or Zimbabwe. Because Socialism Works.

Phunctor said...

there is almost unlimited video of Trump stating what most people would label as 'indecent'...

Pauline Kael was unavailable for comment.

Roy Lofquist said...

"IQ above room temperature" == "you're a poopyhead".

Ain't education great?

Dr Weevil said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

Phunctor @ 10:57: Outstanding!

Elisa Berg said...

You don't have to like Trump to vote for him.