Topic: The Nummifcation of Political Culture

[Pandora]

Ace has a rant

Adam Carolla had a rant.

.... His rant was about what he called our culture's hard turn to the "nummy." To childish tastes.

Everyone likes sweets, of course. But he was getting at the idea of reversion to the juvenile. That adults, rather than simply attaining the taste for actual coffee, and you know, drinking coffee, were instead reverting to their Childhood Palates of insisting that all things be "nummy."

That they be very sweet, and even very cute. "Moccachino." That's cute, isn't it?

And what adults had historically done, he said, was embrace adult tastes. Cigars taste good to an adult cigar smoker because he has cultivated that taste. Oysters don't taste good to a kid; oysters taste good to an adult who has cultivated a taste for oysters. Cognac isn't good because it's sweet. Cognac is good because we have embraced adulthood and trained ourselves to embrace more sophisticated tastes.

... Now when he was on this rant, I thought he was full of sh*t and just being annoyed because Being Annoyed is how Adam Carolla makes his rent.

... But looking at the White House's new "Adorable Care Act" Cute Overload animal pictures, and the continue rise of BuzzFeed, despite, you know, everyone knowing it's a big of a joke, I now appreciate there was a deeper level to his rant about the problem of Numminess in America.

... We are indeed becoming a more childlike people. We are more and more shirking the expected obligations of adulthood, such as marriage and procreation, and even more basically, we're rejecting the obligation of adults to actually think, in terms of numbers, and of best outcomes, and so forth.

... Why boycott Barilla? Do we really support a world in which every utterance, act, thought, belief, or gesture must be pre-cleared with the 100-million-strong leftist Committee of the Whole before we dare it?

We don't think about things like that. We think in terms of Nummy. Barilla is being Non-Nummy towards Gays, who are themselves très Nummy. Ergo, to be One with the Nummy, one must spit up soft little pieces of half-digested pablum, like a collicky baby, and then one can take satisfaction in Thinking Nummy Thoughts.

RTWT

[IronDioPriest]

Adam Carolla is a foul-mouthed crank, and when he used to co-host the "Love Line" radio show with Dr. Drew Pinsky, he demonstrated that he is a pervert as well.

But he's definitely come out in the last few years as an anti-Leftist. Insofar as he can reach a younger audience in skewering the Leftists and the evil culture they would force upon us, I welcome him as an ally. He is, though, an easy target for accusations of hypocrisy when he goes after them, because it could be said that many aspects of what he does and has done contribute to that which he rails against.

[AlanS]

I've never heard of him. But then again, I don't get out much.

[ToddF]

The infantalization of America isn't a new concept.  I've been onboard for years.

[whimsicalmamapig]

I think this "nummification" is just part of a bigger "Peter Pan" syndrome in the western world.  besides being able to live in your mother's basement and get health care from her until you are 26, now a team of psychologists in Britain are declaring that you really don't become an adult until you are 25.

In medieval Europe, you were an adult by 16... granted you may only have a life span of 35 years so you really couldn't afford to be that unproductive for more than 2/3s of your life. Now with the potential of 100 years, 25 is reasonable as long as you have the means (ie the government) to lay around a gaze at your navel until the age of 25. besides, there aren't any jobs for you anyway.

maybe we could get some diaper manufactures to provide sizes that fit up to 25 year olds so the little dears can stay attached to their video games without bathroom breaks...

How about all the nutrition you could need in one convenient pop tart for breakfast and hot pockets for lunch and dinner, both easily available to "pop into the combination refrigerator/microwave/computer center," again so the game need not be interrupted by the need to feed.

Heck, you can get the latest version of Sym City and live your ideal, perfectly flavored life without ever leaving the sofa in the basement

sorry for the rant.... just had to get it out

[LadyVirginia]

Oh, one of my favorite subjects!

We talked about this before.  I've mentioned my grandfather finished school at 14 and went to work.  I think Libertas had an uncle that got on the boat at 13. I've told the story to my kids of Abe Lincoln at age 12 being left with his sister in the big, scary woods for TWO years while dad went back east to find a wife.

Now here's the thing my daughter is a historian and she tells me that until the last 75-100 years or so in this country families lived together.  Just looking at my family history I can see it.  If someone was having a rough time they might live with aunt and uncle until he was back on his feet. But he was expected to get it together--there's was no government check coming and aunt and uncle might be willing to supply the roof and dinner but that was it. If the land and opportunity looked good in Indiana, everyone packed up in Pennsylvania and set up  new farms in Indiana. Which makes sense because together they could protect themselves better. There were unmarried women in my family who lived with their sibling's family. Those who weren't so fortunate to have family worked as maids or nannies.

I have no problem with kids living at home.  But that presupposes that the kids are adults.  Many adults today (and I mean even those on their own with families) are stuck being about 15 years old.  That's when you get the inkling you're an adult (you're got a drivers permit!)but you still have the safety net of mom and dad.  So it's like you get to do all the cool adult things without any consequences or responsibilities. They are still 15 years acting like what a 15 year old thinks being an adult is.  It's sooooo frustrating to deal with these kinds of people! They think a satisfying life is having yummy coffee and the same car everyone else has. They look adult so everyone assumes they are adults.  But they have no sense of work as a way to build a satisfying life. In fact work is yucky--the less you have to do the more special you must be.  There's no sense of work as elevating a person.

[Glock32]

I find this new assertion that one can remain on their parents' health insurance until the age of 26 particularly telling. 26 also happens to be the average age of an American serviceman during WWII. So in the 21st Century nanny state, one is still a "child" for health insurance purposes at age 26, yet during WWII the soldiers storming the Normandy beaches were on average 26 year old "children".

[Dan]

Anyone seen those commercials for "vita-gummies" for "adults"?
I feel like punching those soft-assed middle-aged weenies right in their goofy smiles.

[Glock32]

Just look at how your average grown-ass man dresses nowadays. Perpetual adolescence. You'll really notice when you happen to watch an old movie or see photos from the pre-Boomer era. Men wore hats and ties, women wore hats too. It was a much more formal culture overall.

I'm not against keeping things casual, everything has its place. But now you just see a bunch of men in their 40s wearing cargo shorts and flip flops and you can tell that's what they wear on a regular basis.

[oldcoastie6468]

I've never heard of him. But then again, I don't get out much.

Me, either. I do get out and about though.

[Pandora]

Anyone seen those commercials for "vita-gummies" for "adults"?
I feel like punching those soft-assed middle-aged weenies right in their goofy smiles.

I agree on the punching, but ....

.... as I always have had trouble taking pills -- hair-trigger gag reflex -- I'm glad for the palatable chewables.

[IronDioPriest]

I give my lil one gummy vitamins. I tried one once. They're nummy.
 

[Libertas]

Nummification?   

[LadyVirginia]

Anyone seen those commercials for "vita-gummies" for "adults"?
I feel like punching those soft-assed middle-aged weenies right in their goofy smiles.

I agree on the punching, but ....

.... as I always have had trouble taking pills -- hair-trigger gag reflex -- I'm glad for the palatable chewables.

I hadn't thought about it that way. One of my kids has a small throat and a crazy gag reflex and we've struggled with pills especially since she has allergies.  She recently went to the ER for an allergic reaction and the doc tried to get her to swallow a pill as her throat was swelling. Ended up having to crush it for her.

[Eupher]

One of the more hysterical shows that Adam Carolla did (along with Jimmy Kimmel) was to create and run "The Man Show."


Completely and totally politically incorrect, sexist to a "T" and unapologetically over the top, this was a show that you had to see to believe.


Appearances

[Glock32]

"Girls jumping on trampolines"....that was such a great show.  I knew people in college who could down a beer just like The Fox did.

[Pandora]

Anyone seen those commercials for "vita-gummies" for "adults"?
I feel like punching those soft-assed middle-aged weenies right in their goofy smiles.

I agree on the punching, but ....

.... as I always have had trouble taking pills -- hair-trigger gag reflex -- I'm glad for the palatable chewables.

I hadn't thought about it that way. One of my kids has a small throat and a crazy gag reflex and we've struggled with pills especially since she has allergies.  She recently went to the ER for an allergic reaction and the doc tried to get her to swallow a pill as her throat was swelling. Ended up having to crush it for her.

Blecchhh.  Been there, done that, gagged on the taste.

I have to take capsules everyday now, which are a bit easier than pills.  I take them with cool, not cold, water, bend my head just a bit and let them float to the back of my mouth (capsules will do that), then swallow.  It not always 100% gag-proof, but better than nothing.

[LadyVirginia]

Anyone seen those commercials for "vita-gummies" for "adults"?
I feel like punching those soft-assed middle-aged weenies right in their goofy smiles.

I agree on the punching, but ....

.... as I always have had trouble taking pills -- hair-trigger gag reflex -- I'm glad for the palatable chewables.

I hadn't thought about it that way. One of my kids has a small throat and a crazy gag reflex and we've struggled with pills especially since she has allergies.  She recently went to the ER for an allergic reaction and the doc tried to get her to swallow a pill as her throat was swelling. Ended up having to crush it for her.

Blecchhh.  Been there, done that, gagged on the taste.

I have to take capsules everyday now, which are a bit easier than pills.  I take them with cool, not cold, water, bend my head just a bit and let them float to the back of my mouth (capsules will do that), then swallow.  It not always 100% gag-proof, but better than nothing.

She hasn't mastered capsules yet.  Recently read something like 40% of adults can't swallow pills.  That made her feel better.  She has one pill she takes everyday and it requires something strong like orange juice as a chaser in order for her to take it crushed.

[Glock32]

I used to have trouble downing pills when I was a kid, and was at the age of just transitioning from the syrupy liquid "kid's medicine" to the adult stuff. I would break the pills in half, which sometimes made it worse if the pill had been coated with shellac because now you have a broken end that isn't slick anymore and likes to stick to nothing more than the back of one's throat.

One trick I found is that if you put the pill in your mouth, take in a sufficient amount of water and then rapidly swish everything around you can swallow the whole thing without really noticing the pill. The turbulence of the water somehow made the pill go down without its usual tendency to stick on something.

Of course, that was when I was 12. I got used to taking pills pretty soon and never had any more problems.

[LadyVirginia]

I used to have trouble downing pills when I was a kid, and was at the age of just transitioning from the syrupy liquid "kid's medicine" to the adult stuff. I would break the pills in half, which sometimes made it worse if the pill had been coated with shellac because now you have a broken end that isn't slick anymore and likes to stick to nothing more than the back of one's throat.

One trick I found is that if you put the pill in your mouth, take in a sufficient amount of water and then rapidly swish everything around you can swallow the whole thing without really noticing the pill. The turbulence of the water somehow made the pill go down without its usual tendency to stick on something.

Of course, that was when I was 12. I got used to taking pills pretty soon and never had any more problems.

I'll mention that to my daughter.