Rebranding Trump and his slavish devotees as “weird” seems to me to be the messaging that Democrats have been searching for — for almost a decade now. But it’s important to note that this concept of “weird” does not mean “non-conformist.”
That’s how the Trumpians signify what’s “weird” in their strange world. They’ve attempted to reply to Democrats’ accusations of their weirdness by pointing out the liberals are accepting of, for example, trans people, and gay people. In one case, a self-described “MAGA ex-con deplorable” with 186,000 Twitter followers posted a picture of Ella Emhoff, Kamala Harris’s stepdaughter, wearing a slightly goofy orange knit cap, as if that were evidence of Democrats’ own weirdness.
None of that is what Democrats are talking about when they use the “weird” label, in the context of labeling Trump et. al. Instead, they’re just highlighting how off-the-wall their ideas are, as they continually come up with new ways to hurt and repress people.
They’re exhausting. Their weirdness is tiresome beyond belief. By calling them “weird” what we’re really communicating is that we just want these people to go away — don’t you?
Trump is Weird and Racist: What Are We Saying When We Say That?