9/26/2023 0 Comments Garbage dumpster fire![]() Just when you think a pile of shit couldn’t get it worse, light it up! Things are only ever getting worse! This is what Alex Balk and Father Time have taught me. That’s how language works! This phrase in particular reveals a fun way to intensify: take something that’s bad (trash) and make it worse (set it on fire). The Internet is full of viral verbal tics like this, just like any other grouping of humans all talking to each other in close quarters in a tiny box. A quick search of my inbox reveals the phrase “hot garbage” (or worse, “hot garb”) was big in 2013-15. Maybe every year has its variation on a theme. ![]() Silvia Killingsworth, The Awl & The Hairpin Bigger than a garbage fire, it’s not as pro-active as “burn it all down”-it’s more nihilistic, but also vaguely apocalyptic-slash- Escape From New York. It’s less visceral and more print-friendly/decorous than “shit show,” but still has an aromatic (it stinks!) quality while it also conveys a sense of futile hopelessness-a fire you DON‘T want to extinguish, because there’s no point. It’s such an evocative, visual, damn near cinematic term. It had whatever je ne sais quoi separates memes that make it and memes that vanish. It stuck, and it stuck hard, like shit to shoes. ![]() Google analytics for “dumpster fire” show a massive spike in its use starting around the time Donald Trump slimed his way down that Trump Tower escalator and into our hearts. The third and latest is when I saw the phrase “dumpster fire.” Unlike my first two loves, “dumpster fire” has not cost me anything in alimony, child support, or emotional labor. The second when I saw my round bundle of joy Colby right as he was born. Unfortunately that term has been used in the past to sometimes describe our sports teams here in Minnesota. I have heard the term “dumpster fire” used in different scenarios to describe something that may be perceived as being worthless but yet dangerous. Kevin Fox, Deputy Fire Chief, Minnetonka, Minnesota Fire and Emergency Management Department It all comes back to the partisan press and William Randolph Dumpster Fire. And like a lot of these inside jokes on Twitter, it was funny the first 100 times i saw it and then it was like: Guys. And then someone on Twitter had the gif of the dumpster fire as well, which became a thing. And I had never heard the term before at all. I remember seeing it in 2015 for the first time. I can’t tell for sure what inspired the question but I think it had to do with Ben Carson saying that gun control called the Holocaust and having no idea what the debt limit is. The first time I was conscious of the term seems to have been October of last year, based on a gchat I have asking Philip Bump where the hell it came from. And, much like an uncontrolled blaze, it’s not slowing down. In the last 16 months, “dumpster fire” has become inextricably associated with the upcoming election, quickly cycling from colorful descriptor to witless meme to lazy cliché. Prior to the 2016 presidential campaign, the phrase “dumpster fire” most often described a metal bin full of flaming trash. But if you read a description of the degree to which things have been bad in the world of politics lately, you’re likely to see two words: dumpster fire. Things are bad everywhere, always, and forever. Ask fans of the Minnesota Twins, who suck and will suck for the rest of most humans’ natural lives. Ask fans of the Chicago White Sox, who had to witness their crosstown rivals win the World Series in an obnoxiously heartwarming manner. Ask comedy fans, who lost Gene Wilder and Gary Shandling. Ask sports fans, who lost Muhammad Ali and Pat Summitt. Ask fans of fashion, who lost Bill Cunningham. Ask conservatives, who lost both Antonin Scalia and Phyllis Schlafly. ![]() Ask fans of music, who lost Prince and David Bowie.
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