# Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (her brilliant retort to Yoho) **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [July 24, 2020, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-her-brilliant-retort-to-yoho/916220 "2020-07-24T14:56:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![eenerms](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/cdc98d/32.png) [@eenerms](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eenerms)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2020, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-her-brilliant-retort-to-yoho/916220/81 "2020-07-25T00:58:34Z")
Sigh. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Bravo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_bravo/32/493_2.png) [@Johnny\_Bravo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Bravo)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2020, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-her-brilliant-retort-to-yoho/916220/82 "2020-07-25T00:59:49Z")
> [@SlackerInc](#): > > Just me, I guess “I’m glad \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ isn’t around to see this” is a common expression and does not translate to “I’m glad \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ died young.” So yes, just you. ---
**Author:** ![SlackerInc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slackerinc/32/275_2.png) [@SlackerInc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlackerInc)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2020, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-her-brilliant-retort-to-yoho/916220/83 "2020-07-25T01:00:58Z")
Okay, I’m not glad my dad’s dead, but she’s glad hers is. Got it. ETA: AOC’s words, and sentences, have meanings. Just like Yoho’s do. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2020, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-her-brilliant-retort-to-yoho/916220/84 "2020-07-25T01:02:35Z")
We could discuss Slacker’s misinterpretation, but I’d rather talk about AOC, because what she said is way more interesting. Maybe let Slacker’s tangent drop? It’s a great speech, and one more sign that she’s a brilliant politician. I hope that some folks heard it and maybe pause before being misogynist assholes in quite the same way next time. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2020, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-her-brilliant-retort-to-yoho/916220/85 "2020-07-25T01:04:32Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > I hope that some folks heard it and maybe pause before being misogynist assholes in quite the same way next time. Only to ensure that the wrong people don’t overhear. ---
**Author:** ![bobot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobot/32/21622_2.png) [@bobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobot)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2020, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-her-brilliant-retort-to-yoho/916220/86 "2020-07-25T01:05:08Z")
> [@SlackerInc](#): > > Still not any better IMO. My dad also died young, and thereby missed out on seeing some bad things happen to me. I don’t think that’s a worthwhile tradeoff! I’d rather he still be around. Just me, I guess? Yeah, she wasn’t talking about you. ---
**Author:** ![SlackerInc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slackerinc/32/275_2.png) [@SlackerInc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlackerInc)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2020, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-her-brilliant-retort-to-yoho/916220/87 "2020-07-25T01:08:38Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > Slacker’s misinterpretation It’s not a misinterpretation. It’s the literal meaning of her words: “It’s a good thing my dad’s dead, because if he were alive, he would have heard this asshole call me a ‘fucking bitch’, and that’s clearly worse than his being dead and therefore not hearing it.” There is no other way to interpret what she said. The fact that other people have said similar things in the past does not make it any better, any more than it makes Yoho’s “I have a wife and daughters” schtick better that many other clowns have said the same thing ad nauseam. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2020, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-her-brilliant-retort-to-yoho/916220/88 "2020-07-25T01:10:49Z")
Right. You got me. I’m totallly happy my grandfather’s dead, simply because I’m glad I know exactly how he’d feel about Trump and the state of the country right now. That isn’t just a figure of speech, I’m really, really joyful about it. 🙄 (Surely you know the meaning of “figure of speech”?) ---
**Author:** ![SlackerInc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slackerinc/32/275_2.png) [@SlackerInc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlackerInc)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2020, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-her-brilliant-retort-to-yoho/916220/89 "2020-07-25T01:13:05Z")
Surely you know that figures of speech can be hurtful? If my wife died and my daughter (in, say, 2034 when she’ll be AOC’s age) said something like this on national TV, I’d be appalled. ETA: This was presumably a pre-written speech. She or someone on her staff should have caught this. Or if it was off the cuff, she should have said “wait, that came out wrong…what I mean is” etc. Or released something on Twitter later, at least. ---
**Author:** ![BippityBoppityBoo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bippityboppityboo/32/5745_2.png) [@BippityBoppityBoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BippityBoppityBoo)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2020, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-her-brilliant-retort-to-yoho/916220/90 "2020-07-25T01:25:50Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > of a sudden attack of prudism You are minimizing the offensiveness of his attack by labeling it as ‘prudish’. None of it’s offense is because it is sexual-in fact there is no sexual content (‘fucking’ here is for shock value and emphasis). It is offensive that he assumed he could demean and devalue her because she was a woman. Misogyny is malignant bigotry by another name. It, BTW, is also a form of systemic and institutionalized bigotry, but let’s not hijack the thread. ---
**Author:** ![BippityBoppityBoo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bippityboppityboo/32/5745_2.png) [@BippityBoppityBoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BippityBoppityBoo)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2020, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-her-brilliant-retort-to-yoho/916220/91 "2020-07-25T01:30:48Z")
> [@QuickSilver](#): > > Attorney, accountant, doctor… who can tell the difference. I thought that was ‘doctor, lawyer, CPA’? ---
**Author:** ![Munch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/munch/32/5281_2.png) [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2020, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-her-brilliant-retort-to-yoho/916220/92 "2020-07-25T01:49:46Z")
No, it’s “person, woman, man, camera, tv.” ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2020, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-her-brilliant-retort-to-yoho/916220/93 "2020-07-25T01:54:15Z")
> [@SlackerInc](#): > > Surely you know that figures of speech can be hurtful? If my wife died and my daughter (in, say, 2034 when she’ll be AOC’s age) said something like this on national TV, I’d be appalled. > > ETA: This was presumably a pre-written speech. She or someone on her staff should have caught this. Or if it was off the cuff, she should have said “wait, that came out wrong…what I mean is” etc. _You_ are not her. _You_ are not her mother. You do not even know if your take on the hurtfulness of the expression is the norm. Your appallment (or whatever the nominal term) is yours. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2020, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-her-brilliant-retort-to-yoho/916220/94 "2020-07-25T01:54:50Z")
I’m not labeling his attack as prudish, I’m saying the media is running around crying “He said a bad word”. This was a story about the relationship of poverty and unemployment to rising crime rates but apparently that’s not really important to anybody. ---
**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2020, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-her-brilliant-retort-to-yoho/916220/95 "2020-07-25T01:55:00Z")
Kinda have to wonder how many posts she’d throw up if she manages to get a good nap! ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2020, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-her-brilliant-retort-to-yoho/916220/96 "2020-07-25T01:59:38Z")
> [@SlackerInc](#): > > This was presumably a pre-written speech. She or someone on her staff should have caught this. Or if it was off the cuff, she should have said “wait, that came out wrong…what I mean is” etc. Or released something on Twitter later, at least. There was no gaffe to catch-you are pretty much alone on this one…unless this was glommed off of some right wing website that creates fake crises like this one. ---
**Author:** ![BippityBoppityBoo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bippityboppityboo/32/5745_2.png) [@BippityBoppityBoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BippityBoppityBoo)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2020, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-her-brilliant-retort-to-yoho/916220/97 "2020-07-25T02:02:35Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > This was a story about the relationship of poverty and unemployment to rising crime rates but apparently that’s not really important to anybody. As eenerms says…”sigh”. ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2020, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-her-brilliant-retort-to-yoho/916220/98 "2020-07-25T02:09:08Z")
Oh, and for certain, applauding someone doing/saying what needed to be is not some grand act of allyship. It just **is** applauding someone doing/saying what needed to be. But when someone tells you she’s tired and that’s not enough and that we sound like we’re patting ourselves on the back, just listen. > [@BippityBoppityBoo](#): > > You are minimizing the offensiveness of his attack by labeling it as ‘prudish’. None of it’s offense is because it is sexual-in fact there is no sexual content (‘fucking’ here is for shock value and emphasis). It is offensive that he assumed he could demean and devalue her because she was a woman. Misogyny is malignant bigotry by another name. It, BTW, is also a form of systemic and institutionalized bigotry, but let’s not hijack the thread > [@TriPolar](#): > > I’m not labeling his attack as prudish, I’m saying the media is running around crying “He said a bad word”. OK, sure, THAT much is true – the media focus in many cases has been salacious, treating the profane misogynistic expression as if it were merely a matter of some sort of classroom conduct code violation, rather than on what that says about the environment and frame of mind from which Yoho was coming when _ **he** _ “went there” in his rage fit. ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2020, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-her-brilliant-retort-to-yoho/916220/99 "2020-07-25T02:34:55Z")
> [@SlackerInc](#): > > It’s not a misinterpretation. It’s the literal meaning of her words: It’s a very common idiom. Taking it literally as if it were not an idiom is indeed a misinterpretation. > [@TriPolar](#): > > He used the words ‘fucking bitch’, but not directly to her, he was just heard by someone else who is being rude by repeating the words not meant to be heard. > [@Whack-a-Mole](#): > > it does not seem Yoho was being circumspect and quietly in a private conversation that someone eavesdropped on and than ran to the press. It wouldn’t make it OK if he had been. Calling women misogynist names when you think only men can hear you is no better than calling black people racist names if you think only white people can hear you. If a public representative is in the habit of doing so, the press ought to let their constituents know about it. ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2020, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-her-brilliant-retort-to-yoho/916220/100 "2020-07-25T02:42:11Z")
The few times I’ve heard AOC she has seemed very well spoken. She’s an attractive politician. But it’s sad she had to make this speech at all. I’m not a huge fan of identity politics and find the progressive agenda plus-minus. She put him in his place. I’m glad of that, I guess. But it’s far short of a brilliant speech, like the Gettysburg Address or a Churchill morale booster. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-her-brilliant-retort-to-yoho/916220.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-her-brilliant-retort-to-yoho/916220.md?page=6)