by
Andrew
Harnik/Getty
Images)
It
is
difficult
for
today’s
youth
to
believe,
but
the
snarky
T-shirt
is
a
relatively
recent
innovation.
Though
they
are
now
everywhere,
until
the
late
1990s
one
almost
never
saw
another
person
wearing
a
shirt
that
read
“Stop
looking
at
my
nuts”
with
a
pair
of
the
threaded
metal
hardware
implements
pictured,
or
perhaps
one
with
a
sports
figure
on
it
and
“I
just
hope
both
teams
have
fun.”
My
personal
favorite
had
the
letters
“FU”
dressed
up
a
bit
to
look
like
an
abbreviation
for
a
university,
but
really
meant,
ya
know,
“F
you.”
One
of
the
more
popular
(and
clean)
vintage
snarky
T-shirt
options
says
“The
beatings
will
continue
until
morale
improves.”
Nobody
really
knows
where
this
slogan
came
from
(there
are
rumors
of
a
naval
origin),
but
it
kind
of
fits
perfectly
with
the
Trump
administration’s
overall
philosophy
in
the
current
moment.
I
don’t
think
I
have
to
explain
to
my
normal
readers,
but
in
case
this
gets
picked
up
by
a
news
aggregator,
let’s
be
clear.
“The
beatings
will
continue
until
morale
improves”
is
funny
because
you
obviously
can’t
force
a
group
of
people
to
improve
their
spirits
by
inflicting
violence
on
them.
It
will,
in
fact,
have
the
opposite
effect.
This
exact
counterproductive
approach
has
become
de
rigueur
across
nearly
every
facet
of
the
Trump
administration’s
policy
portfolio.
All
those
violent
ICE
raids
full
of
masked
agents
with
no
accountability
who
are
largely
targeting
nonviolent
immigrants
with
no
criminal
records
(that
is,
when
they’re
not
pummeling
journalists,
protesters,
priests,
and
innocent
bystanders)?
People
hate
them,
and
it
has
caused
voters’
views
of
ICE
in
general
to
plummet.
So
does
the
Trump
administration
walk
them
back,
tone
down
the
violence,
or
prosecute
the
worst
ICE
agents
out
there
who
are
giving
all
of
America
a
bad
name?
Nope.
Donald
Trump
thinks
there
should
be
even
more
ICE
raids,
and
that
ICE
agents
should
be
even
more
violent.
There
is
no
shortage
of
physical
beatings
rained
down
by
agents
of
this
administration,
spurred
by
Trump’s
personal
directives.
His
rhetoric
is
no
less
sparing
than
the
fists
of
his
goons,
like
when
he
recently
insinuated
that
several
Democratic
lawmakers
should
be
executed
for
the
grave
crime
of
reminding
service
members
not
to
commit
actual
crimes.
Again,
a
huge
majority
of
Americans
at
least
claim
to
be
concerned
about
this
kind
of
extreme
political
rhetoric,
which
has
not
stopped
Trump
from
doubling
down
on
it.
Perhaps
the
economic
cudgel
is
the
largest
in
Trump’s
arsenal.
We
know
higher
prices
are
among
voters’
top
priorities,
and
we
also
know
with
almost
scientific
precision
what
the
federal
government
can
do
to
address
high
prices:
keep
interest
rates
up
and
tear
down
trade
barriers.
Trump
has,
of
course,
sought
the
opposite
of
each
of
these
(he
did,
begrudgingly,
just
roll
back
tariffs
on
a
number
of
food
items,
all
while
he
“insisted”
as
Reuters
put
it,
or
“lied”
as
I
would
put
it,
that
the
United
States
has
“virtually
no
inflation”).
This
is
all
to
say
nothing
of
Trump’s
repeated
economic
assaults
on
law
firms,
educational
institutions,
and
even
entire
states
that
he
feels
have
been
critical
of
him.
Maybe
Trump
simply
does
not
care.
Perhaps
he
does
not
mind
being
reviled,
or
going
down
in
history
as
the
worst
president.
I
think
he
does
mind,
though.
Nobody
works
so
hard
to
put
on
such
a
facade,
slaps
his
name
on
so
many
things,
or
brags
so
relentlessly
without
harboring
a
compulsive
concern
about
what
other
people
think.
Trump
has
not
learned,
and
seems
incapable
of
learning,
that
he
is
not
unpopular
because
he
has
failed
to
silence
critics,
he
is
unpopular
(in
part)
because
he
tries
so
hard
to
silence
his
critics.
If
he
put
half
the
effort
he
puts
into
unsuccessful
attempts
to
control
the
narrative
into
actually
improving
the
lives
of
normal
Americans,
he
might
not
have
such
problems.
“The
beatings
will
continue
until
MAGA
improves”
appears
to
be
the
cold
reality
we
will
all
be
living
under
for
the
next
three
years.
Can’t
wait
to
see
all
the
fun
insubordination
this
leads
to.
Jonathan
Wolf
is
a
civil
litigator
and
author
of Your
Debt-Free
JD (affiliate
link).
He
has
taught
legal
writing,
written
for
a
wide
variety
of
publications,
and
made
it
both
his
business
and
his
pleasure
to
be
financially
and
scientifically
literate.
Any
views
he
expresses
are
probably
pure
gold,
but
are
nonetheless
solely
his
own
and
should
not
be
attributed
to
any
organization
with
which
he
is
affiliated.
He
wouldn’t
want
to
share
the
credit
anyway.
He
can
be
reached
at [email protected].