Kicking off with Britta’s hilarious explanation of analogies from the recently revived Community, RhetoricLee Speaking is all about analogies this week--the good, the bad, and the structurally sound criminally negligent.

Tiger King works the same way. It feels good because it rehearses a bunch of stereotypes you have about rednecks and drug addicts and women. Sitting around immersing yourself in misogyny and stand-your-ground entitlement and the cult of personality doesn’t feel good but it does feel good. It’s a cycle of mean-spirited perversion. But that’s not all it is.

Along the way we discuss the etymology of the word bizarre, the paradox of queer country renaissance, and the misuse of the word irony.

The problem with Trump is not that he doesn’t face facts. The problem is that he faces facts. And these are the decisions that he makes.

That said, while too much cursing may not necessarily be uncivil, it does, at a certain point, become overkill.

Plenty of people go about their days using all manner of cliches and do not turn into Adolph Eichmann. The point isn’t that banality automatically yields evil but rather that evil is not possible without the insulation from critical thought that banality provides.

We keep the rock bottom fantasy alive because it allows us to believe that if we just keep doing what we’ve always done--which is precisely avoiding practicing new ways of thinking--we will eventually fuck up badly enough that the rock bottom will arrive and that will just MAKE us run the mile or put down the bottle or call the lawyer.

My point isn’t that there’s another verb out there with magic powers; my point is that you could try other things to get different results rather than putting all of your rhetorical eggs in the “challenge” basket.

Throwing out the script continues to be a classic fantasy moment because it allows us to believe that our true intentions need not the artifice of language; our heart’s desire always finds the right words.

No one has demonstrated that better than Republican Senator Mitt Romney. Having recently been the only Republican to vote for President Trump’s impeachment, Romney has elicited an ambivalent love-hate response within many individuals across the political spectrum, including the host of this podcast.