PandoraAwakened
PandoraAwakened's JournalNewbie wants to know best forum for posting Political/Social Satire
Hello everyone! I'm new to DU and I am just thrilled to have found an outlet so filled with both news and creative expression from like-minded people.
I am a writer, researcher, former college professor, and student of various forms of the English language. Many moons ago I had careers in marketing and advertising. I do not maintain a social media footprint (intentionally), but I am highly skilled in performing online research.
As a matter of fact, I discovered DU as a result of a recent project that required me to wade through the muck of many (too many) conservative websites cataloging particular phrases. I was struck by the number of sites I came across that lift whole sections of DU and, instead of focusing on their own articles and stories, seem to spend an inordinate amount of energy writing often juvenile and even downright infantile replies to DU threads on their own sites. This struck me as such an "against-the-ropes" defensive posturing on their part that, of course, I had to check out what they were so scared of---and so, here I am.
Anyway, I am a long-form writer, so you are not likely to see short, quippy posts from me. However, what I can contribute are serious explorations of topics I am knowledgeable and passionate about. For example, I just spent the past two days writing a political/social satire piece that I would like to post to DU. Can anyone tell me what the best forum would be to post such a story? Also, is there a maximum word or letter count that I need to be aware of?
Thanks in advance for your response.
Recognizing & Combatting "Tropes"
A "trope" is a common (and usually overused) theme or device employed in written and spoken language. Its purpose in the context of politics is to persuade, distract, and/or obfuscate from truth.
Kudos to the OP for bringing up one of the most egregious tropes of modern American political history: "Move on for the good of the country," which inevitably translates into a cornucopia of INACTION, including don't investigate, don't legislate, don't think, talk, or write about _____________ (see other replies to this post for several excellent historical examples with which you can fill-in-the blank).
I have heard it bemoaned for decades that Democrats are bad at messaging and I've unfortunately seen this to be too often true. I think one of the main reasons for this is a failure to understand language devices, such as tropes. This is both a failure to recognize when a trope is being used to frame the narrative and a failure in understanding how to combat a trope to reframe the narrative.
If you are still confused as to what I am talking about relative to the topic of this thread, let me give you a different example that should help bring this into sharp focus: There are two Republican tropes used after every mass shooting to ward off gun legislation and, indeed, to shut down all future discussion of such: The first is the "thoughts and prayers" trope, inevitably followed by the "now is not the time" trope (a variation of the "don't investigate for the good of the country" trope). Now do you understand? These are simply disingenuous rhetorical devices employed to make everyone look away. It's really that simple, and as evidenced over and over again, such tropes are highly effective.
So, how do you counter tropes? Well, thankfully, Shakespeare, one of history's greatest manipulators of the English language, provides a very clear blueprint for taking down a trope: You ridicule the hypocrisy of the trope publicly, loudly, mercilessly, unceasingly, and without apology until the trope itself is the object of derision, laughter, and scorn.
The most recent, modern example of how this works can be seen in how students nationwide have employed the "We call BS" campaign against all tropes that uphold and sustain gun violence. As evidence of the effectiveness of calling a trope onto the carpet, note that newsrooms everywhere have tapped down on their anchors' use of the "thoughts and prayers" trope lest they become memes and objects of derision themselves across the social media landscape.
So, while I can see how well-intentioned people might easily fall for the fake emotional appeal to not investigate this or that "for the good of the country," once you come to understand this for the trope that it is, one that even Shakespeare heartily mocked repeatedly, then it becomes your duty to educate and enlighten fellow Democrats about this ploy.
If a Dem is playing along with the "just move on" trope, call out the trope for what it is (and you can do this without ever mentioning the name of the hapless Dem). Make fun of and laugh at the hypocrisy of the trope repeatedly and mercilessly until they stop letting others who are just a little more clever about the use of rhetorical devices continue to play them for fools.
At that, to those who still wish to see no evil, hear no evil "for the good of the country," I CALL BS! Let the investigations begin and MAKE AMERICA LAUGH AGAIN!
Flake will always let you down.
As an unfortunate Arizona constituent of this deceptive dog-whistler, I and my fellow Arizonans laugh uproariously every time he hoodwinks Mid-America, the East Coast, and all of mainstream media into portraying him as some sort of "moderate" who might, just might, "do the right thing" just before he turns around and, as always, does the exact wrong thing. 
We in Arizona, of course, know all about the homophobic, xenophobic, and racist rants that his prepubescent son was allowed to spew across the Twittersphere for over a year before Daddy Flake finally made his white-supremacist-wannabe son stop. Flake then issued a 3-sentence "apology" that read more like, "Uh, sorry he got caught."
Same kind of "apology" when his other son was responsible for the death of about 20 dogs at Green Acre Dog Boarding down the road from me. Okay, to be fair, at least in that apology, Daddy Flake also sent his "thoughts and prayers" to the dogs' owners for the murder of their pets. (Where have we heard that line over and over again?)
Spoiler Alert: The reason Flake is not running again is because he was about to be thrown out in spectacular fashion for inept parenting and despicable governing. Now, this Kavanaugh baloney. Flake was always going to vote the creep into SCOTUS because that is what is closest to his own creepy heart.
His call for an "investigation" was always destined to be the same whitewash circus that he's used here in Arizona to cover up for his own family's atrocities. The only sure thing about Flake is that "what happens in Arizona stays in Arizona" if you're a privileged white boy...you know, like Kavanaugh, or like Flake's own sons.
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