Deplorable

Deplorable is a term used to describe people who believe in hard work, a strong nuclear family, individual merit, capitalism and free enterprise, strong national borders, and wholesome moral values—in other words, utterly abhorrent ideas.

The term was first brought to the forefront of political discussion on September 9, 2016 by Hillary Clinton in her losing 2016 presidential contest against Donald Trump. Speaking at a fundraiser, Clinton described half of Trump’s supporters as a “basket of deplorables” who are “racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamophobic.”

Clinton later apologized for characterizing fully half of Trump’s supporters as “deplorable” but much like the term shitlord, the intended targets of the term deplorable ended up embracing and reappropriating it.

Origin of Deplorables

Pretty much everyone prior to, say, 2008 was deplorable.

Christopher Columbus is cancelled.

Christopher Columbus was deplorable for exploring and landing in America. America’s founding fathers were certainly deplorable, which is why statues of George Washington and Thomas Jefferson have been pulled down.

Other later presidents such as Woodrow Wilson and Theodore Roosevelt where deplorable as well and cannot be honored.

The fifties in the United States was a very deplorable period because of the rise of the heterosexual, prosperous suburban middle class cissexist family.

Scientists are deplorable for being mostly men. Whites and Asians are deplorable for being successful and hard working. Mathematics is deplorable for being hard and not easy to master. Tests are deplorable for separating students who know stuff from students who don’t.

Embracing and reappropriating deplorability

The fifties were too white,
and thus inherently deplorable.

Prior to Hillary Clinton’s speech on September 9, 2016, Deplorables didn’t know they were deplorable.

Once they were told they were deplorable, after about a nanosecond of being pissed off, Deplorables reappropriated the term, and as the faggy phrase goes, “they owned it.” So they had t-shirts and banners and signs printed up that said “proudly deplorable.”

Not surprisingly, Hillary Clinton’s stupid phrase ended up contributing to the political polarization of America and led to her loss to Trump, her political downfall, and her eventual status as a pissed-off old crone who does nothing but drink too much box wine and bitch that Orange Man Bad.

Identifying Deplorables

The basket of deplorables.

It used to be that you’d have to guess if someone was Deplorable or not, however in recent years it has become de rigueur to identify your social attitudes and opinions with glaring signifiers.

Deplorables now often wear t-shirts saying things like “TRUMP 2020: Fuck Your Feelings” or loudly proclaiming their approval of guns, alcohol, Christianity, or chasing pussy (since unapologetic cisgender heterosexuality is now a Deplorable sign of toxic masculinity).

Amusingly, people who are Stunning and Brave are frequently driven to paroxysms of rage by seeing a Deplorable wearing an iconic piece of apparel such as a MAGA hat and the Stunning and Brave will sometimes commit an act of violence to steal the hat or harm the wearer, which invariably results in criminal charges and thus, lulz.