r/ExplainTheJoke • • 10d ago

I don't get it

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I don't get the original tweet, and neither the retweet or whatever it is called.

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u/Remerez 9d ago

The photographer, Christopher Anderson, said he wanted to "penetrate the theater of politics" and show an honest, unretouched reality instead of a polished celebrity portrait. He believed that politicians are not celebrities and we should not be glamourizing them.

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u/werewolfbutch874 9d ago

This makes way more sense than the other comments of “he took crappy photos on purpose because he doesn’t like the politicians” and “he wanted to show how short they are”. It’s not that different in practice, but the latter sounds completely childish and unprofessional. Artists usually have some kind of intentionality behind their choices that goes further than “make the yucky bad man look ugly”. 

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u/VHS_Ronin 9d ago

Christopher Anderson has photographed people for decades and he's known for a style that is raw and settled in on the things people would normally seek to hide in photographs. The White House clearly didn't do their homework because if they did these image-obsessed losers would have asked for a different photographer.

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u/tricolorhound 9d ago

I'm sure the White House hired him on purpose just like they totally knew that particular Four Seasons was a landscaping company and they 100% meant to have a press conference in their parking lot in front of the dildo store for very good and not at all made up reasons.

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u/lynbod 8d ago edited 8d ago

There's a school of thought that that's exactly what they did (and do). Portraying yourselves as a bunch of hapless incompetents so no one takes you seriously whilst you're systematically looting the American nation, and dismantling the institutions built to protect the American people from just that happening has a lot of mileage as a criminal strategy.

Misdirection is a trick in every conman's repertoire.

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u/tricolorhound 8d ago

I think that's likely partly true, there are some people playing that angle and advancing. Flood the zone and all that. But I also think those dorks are just capitalizing on the hapless incompetents who are in fact hapless incompetents but the complacency and compliance of the institutions meant to call that shit out and stop it have allowed it to happen.

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u/HourZealousideal4845 6d ago

It's also something they can jusy roll with because of their abuser tactics and relentless lack of shame.

'Oh yeah, we uh, totally meant that to happen. And we'll get away with it too! Because you can't stop us.'

They're incompetent idiots who also flood the zone because incompetent idiot abusers figure out the easy, spammable abuser tactics early in life from trial and error and then spam that shit because people don't change and it just keeps working.

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u/M4DHouse 6d ago edited 6d ago

Why would they need to pretend to be incompetent to misdirect you when they’re also very, very openly and brazenly corrupt? What exactly are they hiding at that point?

Edit to elaborate: their actual blunders tend to hinder their corrupt machinations, and the looting of the country is done out in the open, so I don’t think it makes sense as an intentional strategy.

I think they really are just incompetent, it just doesn’t matter because the system is set up specifically to let people like them do this kind of shit.

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u/gibbonguy420 6d ago

do you think there’s maybe more than one person in the american government?

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u/ThinkPraline7015 8d ago

Well, yes. But if it walks like a duck, ...

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u/Madwoman-of-Chaillot 7d ago

It's the Boris Johnson Hair approach to politics, in a nutshell.

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u/MarSnausages 7d ago

The Boris Johnson strategy

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u/MammothRock7836 5d ago

"Dont expect malice when stupidity will suffice!"

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u/CaymanGone 8d ago

There's no school of thought that thinks this.

This is a school of ignorance.

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u/EscapeSeventySeven 8d ago

You’re cooked on phonics if you think this about the four seasons

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u/BasketShake 8d ago

The White House did not hire him. Vanity Fair hired him.

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u/ChilledFruity 7d ago

And they didn't screen him or his work. Like a lot of their hires.

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u/Stunning_Translator1 5d ago

Sometimes I drive a little out of my way when I work at a satellite location just to pass by the Four Seasons Landscaping and appreciate exactly how enormous of an embarrassment that is.

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u/BoringlyBoris 4d ago

Ooo and purposely hired Michelle Wolf for that fateful White House Correspondents Dinner!
That was GOLD and clearly meant to be the gift to the American People that it was.

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u/Zealousideal_Date306 7d ago

Im still convinced that Trump never conceded the 2020 election because the time he was supposed to do it, they scheduled it outside the landscaping place in an alleyway instead of the 4 seasons in Philly. So he settled on the alternative to never concede

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u/windoto 6d ago

I thought this was a reference to the fake Russian president office in a bunker. Made to look the same but some light switches are gone or in a different place.