Demons, dogs and ticks

Saturday. Eight people attempt to block traffic in front of the Socialist Party headquarters on Ferraz Street. They carry Spanish flags like superhero capes and shout the following slogan: "El Perro, Begoño, what a marriage! A tick and a demon!" Far from the Berlanga-esque context of the scene, these could be verses by Gloria Fuertes. Inscribed in reality, they confirm a level of debate in which flatulence and outbursts have more value than structured reflection. The PSOE federal committee and the PP National Congress symbolize two ways of applying, each in their own way, Noam Chomsky's maxim that political communication is a mixture of persuasion, manipulation, and propaganda. On Ser, they revive the speech of Isabel Díaz Ayuso, a virtuoso of meme rhetoric and brother-in-law oratory. And the moment when she addressed Pedro Sánchez and blurted out: "Communism is you."

This logic of reciprocal confrontation has, all things considered, certain similarities with the first running of the bulls at this year's San Fermin festival: adrenaline, testosterone, and panic. In the Hoy por Hoy talk show (they call it El Abierto , which sounds more elegant), Ignasi Guardans says the PP labels itself as centrist, when its program and style are right-wing. Estefania Molina also joins the criticism. She recalls one of the techniques of political communication, the dog whistle , which, if I understand correctly, attempts to amplify the shock wave of one's own discourse with rhetorical gems that can mobilize citizens outside the same ideological orbit. Elevated to the status of Galician messiah in exile, Alberto Núñez Feijóo caught the euphoria (where was Pablo Casado?), saying that the congress was "the founding act of a new era." And he finished it off by paraphrasing the old joke of “scare or death” with a categorical “Either Sánchez or me.”

Isabel Díaz Ayuso confirmed that she is a virtuoso of meme rhetoric.

At another conference—Barcelona en Comú—Janet Sanz also wanted to join in the uncritical organized vanity. “We are the left that doesn't steal!” she said. It's one of those truths with a relative expiration date, which questions the coalition of a government that flirts with selective disloyalty and the every-man-for-himself approach as a system of liquidation.

In the El Matí de Catalunya Ràdio talk show, David Madí has ​​just addressed the controversy surrounding the habanera song "El meu avi ." Madí states that he is repulsed by right-wing puritanism, but also by left-wing puritanism, which can degenerate into an inquisitorial use of what we call "cancellation." It is a use that sometimes—Madí doesn't say this; I do—is a sophisticated form of intransigence and stupidity.

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Any good news? President Donald Trump has launched Victory perfume, which claims virtues—victory, strength, and success—that could perfectly serve as an electoral slogan for those who treat citizens like idiots or dogs addicted to obeying their owners' whistles.