On Trump as Weird

Now that Tim Walz is the pick to be Kamala Harris’ running mate, the label “weird” is going to be getting even more attention. He is the one whose reference to Donald Trump as weird got so much attention and sparked the current movement.

I have seen a lot of mixed reactions, as well as some amusing memes, related to the topic of Donald Trump as “weird.” Most of the negative reaction has come from people like me, the nerds, the geeks, the ones who have been labeled as weird our whole lives and have embraced it as a label we’re willing to wear with pride. That’s why some of us are unhappy to share the label with an individual that we find to be the antithesis of all we stand for. “Keep Portland Weird” is not an expression of support for the Republican presidential candidate.

I think that is why the label has proven so effective, eliciting such a strong reaction from Trump. Trump is a bully, part of that group that imagines that they are the “cool” kids. Coolness of course just means that people respect and want to emulate you. We nerds and geeks achieve amazing things, inventing the devices and writing the songs and stories that everyone decides they can’t live without. That happens precisely because we don’t follow the crowd into sameness. We chart new courses.

As an aside, on my recent trip to Australia, I did a lot of things that are expressions of my nerdy geeky weirdness. One of them was making an appearance at Sci-Fi Church in Sydney (actually Gordon-Pymble Uniting Church in a suburb). We wore various cosplay and sang “Soon I’m Gonna Be a Jedi” by Weird (there’s that word again) Al Yankovich. I think our rendition, accompanied by a ukulele-playing song leader wearing Princess Leia earmuffs was better than the original. We geeked out about our faith as well as our fandoms, and explored the connections between the two. One of the things that the minister, Rev. Karen Mitchell-Lambert, got us to do was to create our own beatitudes. One that I came up with went something like this:

Blessed are those who imagine other worlds, for they will transform the world they live in

The weirdness of geeks and nerds does not always lead us in positive directions, but the ability to imagine and explore possibilities is crucial to making any kind of positive impact on the world. Influence without imagination won’t take us anywhere we haven’t already been.

Bullies know that imagination and creativity are threateningly unstable. They thus opt for the other way to achieve a measure of influence and feigned respect for a time, which is to threaten people. That ultimately fake and fleeting “coolness” is what bullies thrive on, and one of the ways they seize power is by labeling others.

One effective way of undermining this strategy is to wear the label as a badge of honor. The other is to find a way to turn it back on the bully. There’s nothing that a bully finds more disturbing than to be a victim of the kind of attack they use against others.

That’s why calling Donald Trump “weird” gets under his skin so effectively. It is why it might be worth continuing to use the label even if you have serious reservations in doing so, as I do.

Yet as someone who is not just a geek but a Christian, I also want to urge caution. Jesus used labels. He knew that calling opponents “actors” and “whitewashed tombs” would get a rise. The word translated “hypocrites” means actors, and it wasn’t widely used as an insult before Jesus adopted it. Why did he do so? Presumably it conveyed succinctly that they were giving a performance but it didn’t show who they really were. Like a whitewashed tomb, they were pristine white on the outside and full of death and decay on the inside. I suspect that Jesus used the label so often because he discovered, as Tim Walz did with “weird,” that his opponents couldn’t stand being labeled that way.

Yet Jesus also teaches us to not repay evil with evil, and that’s something we have to keep in mind. Labeling someone as weirds is a tactic a bully might use. Turning it back on the bully is appropriate. Yet when one turns the weapons of oppressors back on them, there is always a risk that we might go too far, and cross the line that turns us from victims into being bullies ourselves.

As a Lutheran, I am sure that Walz is aware of both the teaching of Jesus about how we treat enemies, and Jesus’ powerful and effective use of creative insults. Finding ways to keep the balance is crucial if we are to defeat evil by exposing its true colors, while resisting becoming the evil that we seek to combat.

Here is Walz explaining why the label can be effective, taking away the perceived power from a bully.

I’m glad that geeks have done things like bring Doctor Who into the picture. If you know the episode, the 2005 Christmas special “The Christmas Invasion,” then you’ll get the meaning of this reworked scene.

How do you feel about calling Donald Trump “weird”? Is this an effective way to handle a bully? Why or why not? Please do share your thoughts about this and related topic in the comments section below!