Look at Em
Look At Em
Yeah, just look at em.
I've thought about this often and started to write on this subject a few times but a comment by Stillidealistic finally got me to the keyboard.
"John Boehner on Hardball...what an arse. Just seeing his smug, slimy face makes me want to kick the t.v. I wouldn't buy a used car from him."
Stilli, I have destroyed a remote with a good throw at my TV screen.
So, do A high percentage, like 99%, of despicable people really look despicable or is it just that I see them that way because of how I feel about them?
Some names to consider: Oh, and I'm sorry about the accompanying visuals but this is in the interest of science.
Don't these guys all look like either pricks or idiots, or idiotic pricks. The exceptions look like mean, evil bastards. Classify them for yourself. Bill Kristol, [Smarmy, slick faced pimp] Charles Krauthhammer [should be cast as Frankenstein's fuck-up] Paul Wolfowitze, [A prick with ears], John Boehner, [Looks like a guy Perry Mason should let hang even if he could get him off] Ol' what's his name, Mich Mac the Minority Mouse of the Senate, [A perch eyed imbecile if ever there was one], Glenn Beck, [Sorry, too close to dinner time for that one], the Smirking Chimp, [Looks like a capitalized smirking chimp], Darth Chaney, [Black holes opening into chaos where his eyes should be], dough-faced Perle, [A face like a four pound sack filled with five pounds of crap.].
The list goes on. Or is it jut my bias?
No, I think you're right, but every now and then I see someone on the teevee and I assume he's a repub because of his oily looks and he turns out to be a dem who is really great.
I do think that one's bias affects the way you see people, though. When I look at Joe Lieberman, he makes me absolutely want to gag. Same for Pat Buchanan, but both of them are just unattractive men with irritating ways of talking (I do wonder about Pat's testosterone level -- that high squeaky voice!).
Bottom line, I guess we can't judge by looks alone, but once we know that someone is a creep it's certainly ok to see them as even creepier.
October 22, 2009 7:52 PM | Reply | Permalink
It's the hair. Republican hair is a dead giveaway. ;o) ew.
October 22, 2009 10:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
I don't like making judgments about people based on their looks, but there are some people, that just as soon as I see them I take an instant dislike to them. Boehner is one of them... Maybe he's just too prissy perfect, I don't know.
Beyond that, I'm beginning to take an instant dislike to old white guys. Fortunately, I'm married, because as an old white woman, that could be problematic. :-) I think it is Congress, Wall St. and CEOs...They are all giving old white guys a bad name.
October 22, 2009 11:08 PM | Reply | Permalink
Boehner.
Harumph.
If that guy gets any more orangy-er, I think we should ask to see his birth certificate. The original.
October 23, 2009 10:10 AM | Reply | Permalink
Yes, and Michael Steele and Clarence Thomas are giving black guys a bad name.
And Phyllis Schlafly and Michelle Bachmann are giving women a bad name.
Shall I go on?
Your comment is quite ignorant though will go essentially unnoticed here.
However, by perpetuating the myth that race, gender, and age are associated with belief or creed, does no one any good and keeps us in the stone age. Unlike hitting back hard politically, these types of juvenile arguments only help your opposition because it reduces you to their level.
October 23, 2009 1:32 PM | Reply | Permalink
Your observation made me think of some lines in David Byrne's Seen and Not Seen:
October 23, 2009 9:14 AM | Reply | Permalink
Great tune!
October 23, 2009 6:10 PM | Reply | Permalink
The one who really lights my fuse just by seeing him is "Weeping Joe" Liebermann. He looks like the bastard spawn of a star-crossed dalliance between Howdy Doody's sister and Chuckie. And when he opens his mouth to talk you find him channelling Droopy Dog but without the punch lines.
Gawd, I can't stand the jackass just on looks alone. Fortunately, he does enough despicable stuff to be worthy of this degree of contempt.
October 23, 2009 10:37 AM | Reply | Permalink
Yeah, Sleepin, They justify any prejudice, or at leeast any expectation that when you see them they are about to do say something that is infuriating.
Expanding on the thought a bit, sometimes it is the voice. Kissinger's comes to mind [I didn't like his looks either] as does Buckley. Buckley's son, on the other hand, seems like a very decent guy and I don't mind hearing or seing him at all.
October 23, 2009 11:44 AM | Reply | Permalink
Shameful, stupid blog.
And anyone who rec'ed this is in the same bin.
Were someone to post something racist ("Black people don't look trustworthy"), the comments were (rightly) be condemning.
To hook any kind of judgment based on genetic appearance (and "ugly" is based on genetics) on a political board is the worse sort of juvenile crap.
October 23, 2009 12:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
Just guessing here, but I bet I could pick you out first time in a crowd from fifty yards.
October 23, 2009 1:05 PM | Reply | Permalink
Well, I guess you were happy with Ronald Reagan and his movie star good looks.
By the way, is there any substantial difference between a description like "a pr*ck with ears" and "a c*nt with bangs"?
Or is it that you fell comfortable spewing vitriol of a certain type because it is "sociably acceptable" here based on a retro-analysis of politics?
I seem to recall many upset here that the GOP negatively characterizes Pelosi (for example) based on her looks. And correctly stating that it has nothing to do with her politics.
Your characterization of "evil" based on looks is very similar to this little video which "clearly" shows that looks are, indeed, tied to politics. Make sure you watch all 2+ minutes.
Nice allies you have.
Of, more simply for someone like you, as Albert Brooks stated in Broadcast News: When the devil comes, he will be charming and nice.
October 23, 2009 1:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
"Well, I guess you were happy with Ronald Reagan and his movie star good looks."
I thought Reagan, whom I never considered a "star" in any medium, looked like an addle-brained old man.
It would not take much clear thinking to see that you had your usual knee-jerk, jerk reaction to what I wrote.
If you wish to think that my blog was completely serious then you should note that in two places I pointed out that my reaction to their looks came after I had developed an opinion about them as people.
"So, do A high percentage, like 99%, of despicable people really look despicable or is it just that I see them that way because of how I feel about them?"
Notice, I made a proposition and recognized that my conception of them as persons might be why I judged their looks as despicable. Then at the end:
"Or is it just my bias?"
It certainly may be my bias but to me they look as I described them. I can't comment on your second sentence since I have never sen you in Bangs.
October 23, 2009 2:01 PM | Reply | Permalink
Oh, so now your blog was partially a joke?
Isn't that the comments made by Glenn Beck who bothers you as well?
And by the way, "Obama isn't a Muslim... as far as I know."
You are a hypocritical scoundrel and when called out you state "I was just joking".
Do yourself (and those who rec'ed this blog) a favor: delete it.
We'll all pretend it never happened.
October 23, 2009 2:21 PM | Reply | Permalink
Trying to talk to you rationaly gets tiresome, you goofy looking prick.
October 23, 2009 2:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
Lot's of bad people look like bad people, but just as many do not. Don't judge a book by it's cover... alone.
Be that as it may, I've said it before and I'll say it again, every time I see that crook Boehner and his lying eyes I am reminded of the evil fox in Pinnochio (appropriately named J. Worthington Foulfellow, alias--Honest John) and expect him to break out suddenly in a rendition of "Hi diddle dee dee! An actor's life for me!"
October 23, 2009 12:45 PM | Reply | Permalink
Faces have stories. As people age their faces can reveal the consequences of certain mannerisms and vices. Hair and its style can reveal certain aspects too. My lack of hair (or high regulation) combined with a clean shave would lead you to believe I was a jarhead. In twenty years, when my squinting and brow-furrowing catch up to me after counting trillions of beans, an astute observor may be able to peg that I dwelt in the dungeon of accounts payable.
Or you could say I'm ugly and presume I have conservative tendencies.
In Boehner's case, my guess is that he is still doing what worked for him in the past. Tanning salons combined with a small array of rhetorically themed expressions. These have combined, along with his genetic predispositions, into a face that does not respond well to the video camera. The tan glows a jack-o-lantern hue once the makeup is applied and the lights klieg into his cheeks.
The others, well... I'll just say that Kucinich is not a typically good looking guy, but damned if that guy is the platonic expression of modern progressivism. And I hate to say it, but if he looked less like him and more photogenic, he might be more popular. Which says less about him and a lot about us.
October 23, 2009 3:46 PM | Reply | Permalink
I agree about Kucinich and about your other points as well. I was/am a Kucinich fan. I was in Iowa campaigning for Dean in the run up to 2000 because I thought he was the best candidate with a chance to win but I believed more in Kucinich' positions. I went to his caucus night party and met him in person.
I said at the time, here at TPMC as well as other places, that if Dean or Bush or any other front runner was stuck with Kucinich looks that they would be un-electable. Yes, that says something about us. His wife is a very attractive woman and the very little I have seen of her gives me the impression that she is also warm and intelligent. Good for him.
October 23, 2009 4:10 PM | Reply | Permalink
Nice flip-flop from your original point (that you judge people's intent/intellect on their looks. Or that you pretend to. Or that you sometimes pretend to when posting here. I've lost track).
Shameful, just shameful.
October 23, 2009 4:21 PM | Reply | Permalink
Oh my God, you're SO channeling my grandmother. The likeness is downright freaky. Dude, I can even hear her "tsk".
Freaky...
October 24, 2009 1:09 AM | Reply | Permalink
Lu Lu
John Edwards
I should have stuck with my gut feeling on that guy. I had read about him for about nine months before I ever saw a picture of him. He looked the part of smarmy ambulance chaser hidden under a gloss of perfect hair and rail straight teeth. I bought his populous spiel hook nail and wallet.
As for the fact that humans have been judging each other by looks/first appearances since the dawn of time: it is a foundation of our social nature, but we can/must prove our potential for cultural maturity by teaching our young to always look under the skin for truth.
I like the fact that we can have both a mostly rational and slightly comical dialog on the subject here at our TPM Cafe.
M. Paul
October 23, 2009 5:03 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yeah, you hit a sore spot with Edwards. I saw him speak in Iowa and was impressed. After Dean fell out of contention my hopes shifted to him but finally came to see that he had only one song to sing. When it was revealed that he was a creep he started to look slick and smarmy to me too.
I agree also that judging based on looks is hard wired into our human nature and I believe it has some value, but our conscious judgements based on evidence should ultimately prevail.
October 23, 2009 6:15 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'm prone to react to as person's looks. Boehner, Edwards, their faces are so perfect as for me to suspect they are contrived. Someone is very determined to create an image. Kucinich? Not spending a lot of time seeking to have the prefect look. It may be a bridge too far. {DOH!} At the end of the day, I want to hear what they have to say to confirm or discourage my initial reactions. Often the hot girls become considerably colder once they start talking, and some of the less attractive girls turn up the heat with a keen mind and quick wit. So, in response to the question that was there all the while, I have my initial reactions, but it grows from there, either with fondness or repulsion. What will matter is what they bring to the table, not what they look like just sitting there.
October 23, 2009 5:27 PM | Reply | Permalink
"Often the hot girls become considerably colder once they start talking,.."
Several of my friends have said that Sara Palin looked real nice at first but the more they saw of her, and the more they heard her, the less attractive she became. I shared that reaction.
October 23, 2009 6:20 PM | Reply | Permalink
The fame of Sarah Palin came about because she made an invigtorating speech to an angry crowd and that is all she can do, talk smack. There's nothing pretty past the sight of her, nothing at all. The game-breaker for me havingany respect for her ever was her speech when her son went off to serve in the wars. She called on the ghost of 9/11. It was perfectly clear at that time she had not the slightest idea why we were at war, but it did not prevent her from following blidly with enthusiasm, even to the point of risking the life of her son. Can't get much uglier then that.
October 24, 2009 1:19 AM | Reply | Permalink
Your last line: Me too.
October 23, 2009 9:09 PM | Reply | Permalink
I love this line too. So much, in fact, that I want to add it to my 'favorite quotes' in my bio.
Really.
October 24, 2009 1:15 AM | Reply | Permalink
“First impressions are often the truest, as we find (not infrequently) to our cost, when we have been wheedled out of them by plausible professions or studied actions. A man's look is the work of years; it is stamped on his countenance by the events of his whole life, nay, more, by the hand of nature, and it is not to be got rid of easily.”
William Hazlitt
October 23, 2009 8:08 PM | Reply | Permalink
Well Carville is no pretty picture...hahaha
But you got a point
The people you listed HAVE NO SOUL
October 24, 2009 1:05 AM | Reply | Permalink