# NEW Stupid Republican Idea of the Day (Part 3) **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [July 4, 2023, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-3/986588 "2023-07-04T21:42:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 481
**Author:** ![Zoobi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/13edae/32.png) [@Zoobi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zoobi)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2025, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-3/986588/9601 "2025-01-12T16:58:55Z")
It’s “woke”. Republicans think it’s all a performance of virtue signalling and taking money and resources from able bodied white folk. ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2025, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-3/986588/9602 "2025-01-12T17:04:31Z")
You left out ‘male’ unless it is assumed for ‘folk.’ ---
**Author:** ![Horatius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/horatius/32/3572_2.png) [@Horatius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatius)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2025, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-3/986588/9603 "2025-01-12T17:17:30Z")
> [@Spoons](#): > > But if I’m in the market for a car and you have one but don’t want to sell it, then no legitimate negotiation is possible. You cannot bully anybody into selling their car. You can, if you’re a barbarian. Trump’s “negotiations” with Canada, Greenland and Panama is the equivalent of “Sell me your car or I’ll burn it!” With normal people, such a threat wouldn’t work, because of the police and whatnot. But with Trump, he knows he’s above the law, and so will absolutely burn your car if you don’t sell it to him. Either way, you end up without a car. Might as well try to at least get some money for it first. ---
**Author:** ![LurkMeister](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3da27b/32.png) [@LurkMeister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LurkMeister)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2025, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-3/986588/9604 "2025-01-12T17:22:41Z")
I sense an implication that having someone standing to the side doing ASL interpretation detracts from the seriousness of the press conferences. Note the phrase “wild human gesticulators”, which makes it sound like the ASL interpreter is leaping about waving their arms, instead of just standing off to the side. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2025, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-3/986588/9605 "2025-01-12T17:53:44Z")
Funny thing is, when I see some sort of proceedings that includes an ASL interpreter, it makes me take it a lot more seriously. Nobody ever has an ASL interpreter unless it’s Serious Business. ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2025, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-3/986588/9606 "2025-01-12T18:49:32Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > And what’s supposed to be the problem with having an ASL interpreter, anyway? All that “hand waving” is distracting from what the Republicans are doing. They don’t like the competition. Because one person in stage hand waving is enough. Hand waving is the Republican apologists’ job. More seriously, they think the ASL is there to make them look foolish. “What possible use is ASL when captioning is more accurate and thorough?” Of course, they have probably never actually tried closed captioning, especially on live events. * * * I’ve seen scripted shows where the captioning varied drastically from the vocals. And real time closed captioning is a joke. First, by necessity, it lags the speakers. That makes following who said what a bit tricky. Second, sometimes the captioner doesn’t hear clearly and just puts “garbled” or elipses or just omits it. Because they often get far enough behind they have to just jump ahead and omit sections of talk. And that doesn’t even consider when the captioning doesn’t display right on the screen, so parts are cut by display. Whereas ASL is a flowing language of its own for real time conversing, so it’s easier to keep up with the speaker. Plus, an interpreter can make better judgements on paraphrasing or what to omit. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2025, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-3/986588/9607 "2025-01-12T18:58:09Z")
> [@Horatius](#): > > You can, if you’re a barbarian. Trump’s “negotiations” with Canada, Greenland and Panama is the equivalent of “Sell me your car or I’ll burn it!” With normal people, such a threat wouldn’t work, because of the police and whatnot. But with Trump, he knows he’s above the law, and so will absolutely burn your car if you don’t sell it to him. I think there’s a little more to it than that. When someone tries to buy your car, or bully you into selling it, the natural assumption is that they want the car. And we would intereact with them on that basis. That’s not Trump, at least not this time. Trump doesn’t want Canada, Greenland, and Panama. He doesn’t have the organizational skills to integrate new territory into the United States. He hasn’t thought about what the consequences would be. Canada (if a single state) would be bigger than California, and would shift the U.S. significantly to the left, politically. Even in Trumpworld it doesn’t make sense. He’s been bragging how much money his tariffs will bring in to balance the federal budget. If Canada becomes part of the U.S., they won’t be paying tariffs. Annexing them would cost us hundreds of billions. Trump doesn’t want those territories, he wants people talking about what a strong president he’ll be. In some sense, Trump is a master negotiator; he’s just not negotiating for what we all think he should be. He doesn’t want to create buildings, or teach people about real estate, or make steaks, or neckties, or whatever. As part of his negotiations, he convinces people he wants those things. He has convinced his followers that he’ll negotiate for the strength and security of the U.S. Trump negotiates for the greater glory of Trump, and at that he has been a master. ---
**Author:** ![mnemosyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c4cdca/32.png) [@mnemosyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mnemosyne)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2025, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-3/986588/9608 "2025-01-12T20:17:47Z")
A former coworker’s wife does closed captioning, and does do live transcripts. She also does live _translation_ from English to French, though she doesn’t do the opposite It’s incredibly intense and exhausting; they work as a team in 15 minute rotations because there’s no way to maintain the speed longer than that and keep the accuracy. They use shorthand and special programs (I’m assuming also AI nowadays but I don’t know) but there was a time when they had to listen, translate/interpret and type full words and sentences. ---
**Author:** ![Zoobi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/13edae/32.png) [@Zoobi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zoobi)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2025, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-3/986588/9609 "2025-01-12T20:46:49Z")
Republicans have always wanted to roll back the Americans with Disabilities Act. They just need to convince Trump to do it. ---
**Author:** ![wguy123](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wguy123/32/3161_2.png) [@wguy123](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wguy123)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2025, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-3/986588/9610 "2025-01-12T21:29:28Z")
I just listened to an episode of Malcolm Gladwell’s podcast, Revisionist History, about the John Birch Society. I’ve very lightly known of the JBS, but not enough to say what they were really about. Holy shit! JBS = MAGA! Far right, conspiracy theory ridden nutjobs and it is what modern Republicans have become. I need to learn more about this. > **[John Birch vs. the PTA | Revisionist History](https://www.pushkin.fm/podcasts/revisionist-history/john-birch-vs-the-pta)** > > In the 1960s, a right-wing organization called the John Birch Society rose to fame in America for their anti-communist campaigns. They tried to take over the Parent-Teacher Association. The battle between the two tells us a lot about American... ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2025, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-3/986588/9611 "2025-01-13T00:52:54Z")
> [@wguy123](#): > > I just listened to an episode of Malcolm Gladwell’s podcast, Revisionist History, about the John Birch Society. I’ve very lightly known of the JBS, but not enough to say what they were really about. Holy shit! JBS = MAGA! Bob Dylan’s got you covered. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/AylFqdxRMwE/hqdefault.jpg "Bob Dylan, "Talkin' John Birch Paranoid Blues" (1962)") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AylFqdxRMwE) ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2025, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-3/986588/9612 "2025-01-13T02:00:44Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > And what’s supposed to be the problem with having an ASL interpreter, anyway? The cult doesn’t understand it. That’s the one and only reason they’re against anything good, decent, or intelligent. If they don’t understand it, then it’s automatically bad. And, hoowee, there are quite many things they do not understand. Also, I’m not ruling out the possibility the cultists think ASL is English anyway and thus it’s not necessary to have an ASL interpreter (or, as the cultists would type it, “interpreter”) in the first place. ---
**Author:** ![EddyTeddyFreddy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eddyteddyfreddy/32/18796_2.png) [@EddyTeddyFreddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EddyTeddyFreddy)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2025, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-3/986588/9613 "2025-01-13T03:21:26Z")
> [@mnemosyne](#): > > A former coworker’s wife does closed captioning, and does do live transcripts. She also does live _translation_ from English to French, though she doesn’t do the opposite > > It’s incredibly intense and exhausting; they work as a team in 15 minute rotations because there’s no way to maintain the speed longer than that and keep the accuracy. They use shorthand and special programs (I’m assuming also AI nowadays but I don’t know) but there was a time when they had to listen, translate/interpret and type full words and sentences. These days court reporters and closed caption writers normally use computerized shorthand machines that translate their keystrokes in realtime to words. They don’t type full words the way we’re doing here; their keyboard has fewer letters than a standard typewriter, and they can combine letters in one stroke to get one of the “missing” letters, also write an entire word or even phrase with one stroke when that’s preprogrammed into the software they use. [Wikipedia has a comprehensive explanation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stenotype) for how they do it. I know about it because I’ve studied stenography and for decades have proofread rough drafts of trials, hearings, and pretrial depositions for court reporters. I liken what they do to a combination of concert pianist and simultaneous translator. ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2025, 5:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-3/986588/9614 "2025-01-13T05:16:33Z")
> [@Monty](#): > > The cult doesn’t understand it. > > That’s the one and only reason they’re against anything good, decent, or intelligent. If they don’t understand it, then it’s automatically bad. That’s part of it but I think here it’s the expectation that if they cannot understand what’s being said then _of course_ they’re the ones being talked about and in a negative way. As if they’re worth being talked about at all. ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2025, 5:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-3/986588/9615 "2025-01-13T05:22:08Z")
Granted, but that’s likely the case for audible languages. I’m not convinced they believe Sign Languages are, in fact, languages in the first place. ---
**Author:** ![WOOKINPANUBv.2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wookinpanubv.2/32/3260_2.png) [@WOOKINPANUBv.2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WOOKINPANUBv.2)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2025, 5:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-3/986588/9616 "2025-01-13T05:45:23Z")
This is no doubt a stupid question, but are there no deaf folk among the maggots magats? Before this insanity and division were the law of the land, did these people not have hearing impaired children? Same with all the entitlement programs they want to scrap. Do none of them remember a life before Trump slithered onto the scene? ---
**Author:** ![Folacin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/folacin/32/3195_2.png) [@Folacin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Folacin)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2025, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-3/986588/9617 "2025-01-13T14:55:18Z")
Likely no more than the population at large, so odds are they don’t personally know anyone who uses ASL to communicate (I don’t, for instance, and I’m certainly average). And I think it’s pretty well established that conservatives have an empathy deficit - they are only motivated to fix things if they affect someone they know. ---
**Author:** ![Mijin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mijin/32/9369_2.png) [@Mijin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mijin)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2025, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-3/986588/9618 "2025-01-13T15:24:30Z")
Also note that there are Trump supporters who are immigrants, trans, muslim etc. It’s a cult, and true believers already have to dismiss reality so how hard is it to equivocate with “They don’t mean immigrants _like me_” or something, and wait until the attacks are on some other group that they can join in with. (Of course when the shit actually hits the fan, they may well see the situation more clearly but it will be way too late then) ---
**Author:** ![Horatius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/horatius/32/3572_2.png) [@Horatius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatius)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2025, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-3/986588/9619 "2025-01-13T15:47:47Z")
> [@WOOKINPANUBv.2](#): > > This is no doubt a stupid question, but are there no deaf folk among the maggots magats? Before this insanity and division were the law of the land, did these people not have hearing impaired children? Those that do are either sidelined, along with the Latinos and Blacks for Trump, or are suffering from The Shirley Exception. Trump isn’t going to take away the perfectly cromulent programs **my** deaf kid uses, he’ll only target those wasteful, “woke” programs! Surely there will be an exception! > **[The Shirley Exception](https://vocal.media/theSwamp/the-shirley-exception)** > > Why People Don't Fight Bad Laws ---
**Author:** ![dasmoocher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/dbc845/32.png) [@dasmoocher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dasmoocher)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2025, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-3/986588/9620 "2025-01-13T15:58:53Z")
Overheard this morning. MAGA: “There’s a new virus coming. China is engineering a virus to kill white people.” 2nd guy: “What?” MAGA: “Oh, yeah. This gain-of-function thing. They want to take over the world and they have to get rid of white people first.” WTF? Where do these people get their “information”? Gain-of-function research is a thing in virology, but how do you target “white” people? Some Gain-of-function background: [Gain-of-Function Research: Balancing Science and Security](https://magazine.publichealth.jhu.edu/2023/gain-function-research-balancing-science-and-security) _Gain-of-function research can help science get ahead of potential threats—but is it too much of a risk?_ > At the height of the 2014–15 flu season, [Andy Pekosz](https://publichealth.jhu.edu/faculty/1972/andrew-stanley-pekosz) had to shut down his influenza virus research. The professor of [Molecular Microbiology and Immunology](https://publichealth.jhu.edu/departments/molecular-microbiology-and-immunology) was experimenting with the seasonal flu virus to understand how it might evolve to outsmart the vaccine. The premise was simple: Let a flu virus evolve in the lab until it acquires mutations to evade the vaccine—and then use that information to design better vaccines. > > But in late 2014, the NIH froze funding for research that involved tinkering with influenza, MERS, and SARS after a research group created a version of a bat coronavirus that could infect mice and humans. The study sparked public outcry. Scientists claimed the research would lead to better vaccines and treatments for coronavirus, but concern that the virus could escape the lab and cause a pandemic trumped the potential benefits. ([The study](https://www.nature.com/articles/nm.3985) was ultimately allowed to continue and was published in 2015.) > > This kind of experiment is known as “gain-of-function” research—a term coined in 2011 after two groups of scientists showed they could modify the bird flu to infect ferrets. The 2014 bat coronavirus studies reignited the debate and spurred the U.S. government to impose a moratorium on the research. Around 20 projects, including Pekosz’s, were paused as the NIH spent the next three years debating how to make the research safer. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-3/986588.md?page=480) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-3/986588.md?page=482)