Obama's new Cult of Personality Presidential Seal reminded o
ne reader of the evolution of design in Idiocracy, where the money looks like this. I suspect, though, that Obama's "Obey Giant Obama" design instincts lean more toward Totalitarian Ironic Chic than to the trailer park populism of Idiocracy's logos:My published articles are archived at iSteve.com -- Steve Sailer
I briefly had an HBO subscription earlier this year (so I could watch the John Adams minieries), and happened to see fifteen or twenty minutes of Idiocracy one night before bed. I was not very impressed, and I was decidedly unconvinced by the claim that the movie was meant to be any kind of meaningful statement on eugenics or IQ.
ReplyDeleteI find the theory that the movie's semi-suppression was due to objections by Fuddrucker's and Carl Jr.'s over the off-color versions of their trademarks much more plausible than Steve's theory that it was done for political reasons.
It wasn't just one reader thinking that way about that seal.
ReplyDeleteSince Obama seems to have learnt that he can say or do pretty much anything without repercussions if he packages it nicely in a speech, I can already imagine names and logos for all kinds of government programs he might alter or implement. Of course the branding and image will be more important than the content. Or at least completely obscure whatever he decides to mess with.
I am curious whether we will ever see the Great Seal of Obama again, or whether, like McCain's famed green wall, it will be given the hook due to catcalls from the audience. I'm hoping Obama doesn't get the word and keeps it going for a few weeks.
ReplyDeleteSomeone help out a non-Latin speaker...what is the Latin phrase above the eagle?
ReplyDelete-Vanilla Thunder
I agree with Steve that Obama's preferred style is totalitarian ironic chic, but I would still maintain that Obama's seal has at least two idiocratic features.
ReplyDeleteOne is the bad Latin motto "Vero Possumus."
A poster on Michelle Malkin's site notes:
On June 21st, 2008 at 11:00 pm, Armigerous said:
They can’t even get their Latin right….the accurate Latin idiom for ‘yes,we can’ is actually ‘certe possumus’….’certe’ being the accepted term for yes…root word for certain..not ‘vero.'
Many people have also said that the Latin motto makes them think of a North American marsupial noted for its stupidity.
The second is a website address on a Presidential seal. Having your website address on your presidential seal seems idiocratic to me.
Even more idiocratic, of course, would be to rent out the space on the seal to an advertiser, such as freecreditreport.com.
vanilla thunder asks
ReplyDeleteSomeone help out a non-Latin speaker...what is the [meaning of the] Latin phrase above the eagle?
BOW DOWN HONKEY
Seriously, it means "Truly we can" or "Yes we can" (Obama's campaign slogan).
To reply to Steve's question, the currency under Obama will certainly NOT glorify any slave-owners. Goodbye George Washington. And didn't Lincoln want 'em all shipped back to Africa? Bye Abe.
We'll instead put on the currency Rosa Parks, Emmitt Till, Harriett Tubman, Jesse Jackson, MLK, Malcolm X and Gregory Peck as Atticus Finch. And maybe Joel Spingarn as well.
Steve:
ReplyDeleteThe stark irony in the comparison of 'Idiocracy' to an Obama administration, is that this may be the most idiotic post in the history of this, a solidly better than average blog.
What's funny is that you make the assertion that Obama is leading the United States to an idioracy-like" future, when it is generally accepted that he is smarter than the president you have now.
Elbert once said; "Men are not punished for their sins but by them."
You feel that your punishment for being "controversial" is that you do not make the money Malcolm Gladwell makes. No, you don't make the money he makes because you are simply not as good. That may be nature and it may be nurture, only you can figure that out. And the degradation of your blog into the journalistic equivalent of a slapfight between fifth-grade girls is your punishment.
Drawing an allegory between the probable next presidency and a third-rate, (even by Hollywood standards) excuse for a comedic film that flopped not because of any conspiracy, but rather because, well, it sucked? You can do better.
This is fairly well established by your ongoing obsession with a few undistinguished shills such as Obama and Jeremiah Wright. We are now ensconced in what may be the worst presidency in the history of this great nation, yet you have used your increasingly well-known medium to, in essence, stick your thumbs in your ears, wiggle your fingers and say nah-nah-NEH-nah-nah. To people that you whom you consider, no, have the nerve to consider, intellectually inferior to yourself.
I read you, as do most of us, because I respect you, but, the respect is waining .
Sincerely:
Truth.
"What's funny is that you make the assertion that Obama is leading the United States to an idioracy-like" future, when it is generally accepted that he is smarter than the president you have now. "
ReplyDeleteI think the truth is that Obama has the linguistic skills that George lacks while George can do more complex numerical calculations than can the dewy eyed Marxist wonderboy. Perhaps together they'd be a genius - a great president, who knows, but definitely some sort of polymath.
I've come to think of them as two sides to the same coin, the lighter (literally not metaphorically) neocon warmongering and the darker marxist income redistributing side. There's also strange symmetry to the fact that they both have big ears.
"I read you, as do most of us, because I respect you, but, the respect is waining . "
ReplyDeleteEr, and ah, I'm not the best speller myself but "wane" has always been one of my favorite words. "Waning" is perhaps the correct spelling of the present progressive.
This reminded me of Idiocracy when I say the promos: http://tiny.cc/nlmcf
ReplyDeleteAre we really 500 years from "Ow, My Balls"? More like 5 years away...
I've read that the literal translation of "Vero Possumus" is "In Truth, We Are Able" which is far more profound than the lame "Yes, we can."
ReplyDeleteIn 1935, FDR approved the modern design for the one dollar bill featuring the reverse seal with the phrase "Novus Ordo Seclorum," meaning "New Order of the Ages" which Roosevelt viewed as being similar to his "New Deal." Might President Obama someday try to add "Vero Possumus" to our currency?
Considering the devotion of some of his supporters, maybe should have used the other phrase from the reverse seal, "Annuit Coeptis," meaning "He Has Favored Our Undertaking."
Well, I've got to agree with you on one thing, Truth: Idiocracy sucked hard. Steve, I know humor's a subjective thing, but you give this movie far too much credit because it relates to your issues.
ReplyDelete"Er, and ah, I'm not the best speller myself but "wane" has always been one of my favorite words. "Waning" is perhaps the correct spelling of the present progressive."
ReplyDeleteYet another minor spelling flamer with nothing else to offer. Why am I not surprised?
" Lawful Neutral said...
ReplyDeleteWell, I've got to agree with you on one thing, Truth: Idiocracy sucked hard. Steve, I know humor's a subjective thing, but you give this movie far too much credit because it relates to your issues."
Humor is of course subjective. I for one thought "Idiocracy" was one of the funniest movies I've seen in a dog's age - at least as funny as "Dodgeball". If for no other reason, just for that line uttered by the vending machine "Carl's Jr. - F**k You, I'm Eating" (which pretty well sums up the Carls Jr./Hardees ad campaign of a few years ago).
Perhaps Obama should adopt Handel's Messaiah as his campaign song. It fits in with his opinion of himself.
On the subject of Idiocracy y'all better leave Steve alone. Were it not for him and his underlings I would have never seen the film that I now regard as one of the best I've ever seen (for its social commentary, the rest of it did suck).
ReplyDeleteAs for The Obama... sigh.
A race realist is someone who is willing to see the plain and obvious (likely) truths regarding race and who may or may not want public policy to reflect those truths, a racIST on the other hand is one who treats people of another race differently than he treats similar people of his own race. I'm afraid, Steve, that with your insistent monomaniacal obsession with all things Obama you're showing yourself to be more than a little but racist (not that there's anything wrong with that).
I mean seriously, everything you've had to say as of late about Obama has been negative in one way or another and the exceedingly few times that you spoke of McCain it was to inform us about how he's be the smartest president in history. As you know, I'm impressed by you in a thousand ways but your racial distaste for Obama such that it colors every single thing you see about him is not one of them.
To be clear, Obama is a dirty little politician who is worth less than the vomit of a feral dog but to only pick on this piece of trash while ignoring the corrupt, adulterous flip-flopping gigolo on the other team leads me to guess at some biases of yours.
mnuez
> "Someone help out a non-Latin speaker...what is the Latin phrase above the eagle?"
ReplyDeletePossum no lie!
Why did he not choose the more authentic language for the phrase?
ReplyDelete"Si se puede'?
Is Mr. Obama sending a dog whistle to the criminal aliens and their supporters?
Truth, you are one of the dumbest internet trolls I've ever seen. You can't even keep your talking points straight in the same post:
ReplyDelete"Obama is... smarter than the president you have now....a few undistinguished shills such as Obama and Jeremiah Wright."
Any port in a storm, right? Anything to get Sailer to stop posting about Obama. Perhaps he should call for freeing the Jena Sissss, like Obama.
As for Sailer vs. Gladwell...exactly what story has Gladwell ever uncovered? Blink = "generalize, unless it's racist to do so". The Tipping Point = "things don't change, till they do."
I mean, Gladwell is the kind of leftist moron who argues that pit bulls aren't more dangerous than other dogs because "all are equal".
If you really think that Gladwell's writings are more influential or historically significant than Sailer's, you have no idea about the kinds of people that read Sailer's site. Hint: it's *very very popular* at the Broad Institute, the Center for Genomic Research at Harvard, the Clark Center at Stanford, the Center for Integrative Genomics at Berkeley, etcetera.
Why're *we* reading his site? Because Sailer is the only person on the web who understands that biological research is going to totally upend the system of lies that you -- and Gladwell, Podhoretz, Bush, Obama, etc. -- pledge fealty to on a daily basis.
Does anyone remember the ABC After School special from the early 80s called "The Wave" It was about a social expermient where a high school teacher got his students to unwittingly buy into a made-up semi-fascist political movement, involving greetings, the wearing of an armband, and the use of a "wave" as a symbol.
ReplyDeleteObama's logo reminds me of "the wave." spread the meme
Anonymous:
ReplyDeleteYes, I do remember "The Wave" afterschool special or short film!
Good call!
-Vanilla Thunder
"I would have never seen the film that I now regard as one of the best I've ever seen (for its social commentary,"
ReplyDeleteI paid 10 bucks to see that steaming piece of dog feces, thinking I would get a laugh. If I want social commentary, I'll call my mother.
"I for one thought "Idiocracy" was one of the funniest movies I've seen in a dog's age - at least as funny as "Dodgeball".
That just about says it all. I guess most of you were rolling in the aisles during "BASEKetball" also.
"Truth, you are one of the dumbest internet trolls I've ever seen."
Well, at least no one could accuse you with spending too much time on the internet.
"Any port in a storm, right? Anything to get Sailer to stop posting about Obama. Perhaps he should call for freeing the Jena Sissss, like Obama."
Obama called someone to free the Jenna Six? I must have been sick that day...No, actually I just found the link to what he said, and well, you're just an idiot:
http://my.barackobama.com/page/
community/post/scottgiordano/CWsn
What he did was reprimand the local authorities for the 'excessive charges' Of which attempted murder for a few 16 year olds kicking a kid in the head who attended a party a few hours later would probably qualify, and personally, it's not my call whether Sailer is going to stop posting about Obama or not. It's just that occasionally, a wise man takes advice; when you have a presidential race in which two major candidates are running, and you have written 189 times about one and TEN about the other, it might be a good time.
When you are in the midst of the second term of the presidency of the (widely accepted) worst, stupidest, most criminal, most corrupt presidency in the history of America and you have written about him a whopping total of EIGHT times ( that's once a year or three days worth of Obama for those of you keeping score). It's probably a good time to pull out the Q-tips because there is a lot of wax buildup there.
"you have no idea about the kinds of people that read Sailer's site. Hint: it's *very very popular* at the Broad Institute, the Center for Genomic Research at Harvard, the Clark Center at Stanford, the Center for Integrative Genomics at Berkeley, etcetera...."
I'm taking your word here that these people read this site. If they do, Woooopiee! a bunch of spoiled, constipated, pseudo-intellectual rubes who haven't worked a day in their lives. If you told me the Teaneck, NJ bowling league read it, then I'd be impressed!
Re The Wave
ReplyDeleteMovies that raise the idea of the rise of a new facism are generally regarded as a chilling warning, one that we should dwell upon.
Movies (esp of Cold War era) that raise the idea of infiltrators/body snatchers who look like us but are the bad guys are generally regarded as fairly silly and overwrought. Certainly not to be regarded as a warning, no sir.
Anyone else noticed this?
Truth,
ReplyDeleteI think Sailer is merely feeding off the bitterness of the commenters here. Almost WN-commenter = Donor.
Argent, "Ow, My Balls" was predated in Allan Steele's book, Lunar Descent, which contained a game show "Ow, That Hurts", by about 15 years.
ReplyDeleteBrutus
""I for one thought "Idiocracy" was one of the funniest movies I've seen in a dog's age - at least as funny as "Dodgeball".
ReplyDelete"Truth said.....
That just about says it all."
Yeah, I thought it was funny. What do you think is funny? You haven't displayed much sense of humor in this forum. Nor just plain sense for that matter. And anybody who refers to himself as "Truth" would seem to have an inflated opinion of himself.
"What he did was reprimand the local authorities for the 'excessive charges' Of which attempted murder for a few 16 year olds kicking a kid in the head who attended a party a few hours later would probably qualify,....."
The prosecutor in the "Jena 6" case did what prosecutors do - brought indictments against a greater crime hoping to get pleas to a lesser crime. And whose to say that kicking someone in the head isn't attempted murder? It doesn't matter if the victim attended a party later that day. If someone pulls a gun on me, aims at my head, fires and misses, I'd be perfectly able to attend a party the same day. And it would be perfectly true that my attacker is guilty of attempted murder.
"Anonymous said...
ReplyDeleteTruth,
I think Sailer is merely feeding off the bitterness of the commenters here."
You're wrong in assuming that most people who read this site and post here are white nationalists. Mostly we are not, it seems to me.
And yes, I am bitter. Aren't you? How old are you? If you're not bitter now, give it a few years.
"What do you think is funny?"
ReplyDeleteThe two funniest movies in the history of the earth
1) 'Which way is up'
2) 'In the company of men'
"And anybody who refers to himself as "Truth" would seem to have an inflated opinion of himself."
Guilty as charged!
"And whose to say that kicking someone in the head isn't attempted murder?"
G-Nice: "Yo Tee-Smove"
T-Smoove: "Holla at me dawg!"
G-Nice: "Yo, we finta-kill that white boy at school today?"
T-Smoove: "Yeah nigga, should I bring my daddy gun?"
G-Nice: "Nah nigga."
T-Smoove: "My momma knife?"
G-Nice: "Nah nigga, we just gon' kick him ta' deaf, damn you stupid!"
"
And yes, I am bitter. Aren't you?"
No, usually not.
truth ridiculed:
ReplyDeletewe just gon' kick him ta' deaf
You do know that people are kicked to death, right? You sound like you'd be right in there kicking, yourself.
you have written 189 times about one and TEN about the other
Doesn't everyone? But with the reverse valuation.
Steve represents almost the only serious balance there is on Obama. Obama is coasting an affirmative action freeway of adulation and lack of serious criticism right into the White House. Brother can't take disrespect, can he? You know how those people are - just nod and smile at them. Not Steve's attitude.
As to Bush, who doesn't slam him? Why be another face in the crowd?
Sailer was through with Bush about 5 years ago, and typed an article taking that trash out then. Most people who know anything have, in fact, written Bush off. Outside of the set that gets paid to offer safe controversy, you are among the few people still publicly jumping up and down in surprised anger at the First Moron. Move on.
I'm taking your word here that these people read this site. If they do, Woooopiee! a bunch of spoiled, constipated, pseudo-intellectual rubes who haven't worked a day in their lives. If you told me the Teaneck, NJ bowling league read it, then I'd be impressed!
What impresses people is as variable as what makes them laugh, it seems.
It's probably a good time to pull out the Q-tips because there is a lot of wax buildup there.
You told us!
Watching some freestylin' on ESPN today, I suddenly had a suspicion. Truth, are you Shaquille O'Neal?
"You sound like you'd be right in there kicking, yourself."
ReplyDeleteOh, I sound like someone who'd be arrested for assault and battery on a 16 year old?
"Obama is coasting an affirmative action freeway of adulation and lack of serious criticism right into the White House. "
Oh yes of course; we've heard 12,000,000 stories about how 'angry' (code word) his wife is, when I DIDN'T EVEN KNOW WHAT STATE CINDY MCCAIN WAS FROM, UNTIL I LOOKED IT UP ON WIKIPEDIA.
We've heard weeks of wall to wall coverage on every major print, radio, and tv news outlet about SOMETHING HIS PASTOR SAID. and a comparable amount of coverage on another pastor's COMPLETELY UNFOUNDED INSINUATION THAT HE'S A HOMOSEXUAL.
Seriously my friend, Ronald Regan was an actor in Hollywood for many years, if another gay actor had come up and said that they had slept together with no proof at all, what are the odds that it would have gotten on the nightly news?
"As to Bush, who doesn't slam him? Why be another face in the crowd?"
Oh, I don't know, because he is A SHILL FOR THE MOST DANGEROUS CRIMINAL ORGANIZATION IN THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD, AND HE'S THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. That small insignificant detail is about all I have here.
"you are among the few people still publicly jumping up and down in surprised anger at the First Moron."
He's not the 'first moron', he's the mouthpiece for for the group that is destroying the American dollar, systematically shearing us of our constitutional rights, and has murdered upward of 750,000 people in the last 8 years. If I make this one any simpler, sport, I'll have to stick to two-letter words.
Quite honestly it scares me to death that I am "among the few people still publicly jumping up and down in surprised anger at the First Moron." While the rest of you beat yourselves on the chest lauding your Ivy league degrees in Compliance, minoring in parrot-squak. And while you are giving away the country to the media-military industrial complex, you snarkilly wring your little hands about whether Obama is going to give reparations. Of course, it a total coincidence that the only black man in America related to the VP is the frontrunner for president.
If I could get one wish from a genie it would unquestionably be to make you people see how intellectually pathetic you really are, to force feed you the 'red pill' by slamming it down you fucking throats with a medieval chain mail glove and taking out a few of your god-damned teeth with it. I guess, it goes with that whole 'black impulse control' thing.
"Truth, are you Shaquille O'Neal?"
No David, I'm Paul Revere.
We've heard weeks of wall to wall coverage on every major print, radio, and tv news outlet about SOMETHING HIS PASTOR SAID. and a comparable amount of coverage on another pastor's COMPLETELY UNFOUNDED INSINUATION THAT HE'S A HOMOSEXUAL.
ReplyDeletewait, what? someone said that Obama is gay and got press coverage approaching Wright? I mean, I've got a newborn in the house, but I'm pretty sure I haven't been that out of it.
Of course, then I read further on and saw Truth go into a crazy leftist rant. Sorry, I actually had some respect for you before that post. Now I'm embarassed.
"Sideways said...
ReplyDeleteOf course, then I read further on and saw Truth go into a crazy leftist rant. Sorry, I actually had some respect for you before that post. Now I'm embarassed."
The rant you referred to ended:
"(Truth).......to force feed you the 'red pill' by slamming it down you fucking throats with a medieval chain mail glove and taking out a few of your god-damned teeth with it. I guess, it goes with that whole 'black impulse control' thing."
I think that about sums up "Truth" - a ranting cartoon clown of an angry middle-class black guy (and one who apparently thinks that "The Matrix" was profound). In future, I will simply ignore him.
truth said
ReplyDelete[I want] make you people see how intellectually pathetic you really are, to force feed you the 'red pill' by slamming it down you [sic] fucking throats with a medieval chain mail glove and taking out a few of your god-damned teeth with it.
Oh, I sound like someone who'd be arrested for assault and battery on a 16 year old?
Yes. Of course you may be a very nice and reasonable man in person, Paul Revere.
to force feed you the 'red pill' by slamming it down you fucking throats with a medieval chain mail glove and taking out a few of your god-damned teeth with it.
ReplyDeleteSteve, why do you let posts by this "Truth" character through? Semiliterate trolls should be banned (like you did with Jupiter). Certainly this guy doesn't add to the discussion.
"Semiliterate trolls should be banned (like you did with Jupiter)."
ReplyDeleteA little...communist, are we?
"I think that about sums up "Truth" - a ranting cartoon clown of an angry middle-class black guy..."
ReplyDeleteI take DEADLY offense to your calling me middle class!