The Curse of the Cat Ladies

J D Vance has struck a nerve.  Recently I was at a town event and I was in the presence of a woman who has cats.  I know this because she was talking about her cats to anyone who would listen.  And she was looking for support from other people with cats as she talked about Fluffy or Tabby or whatever her cats were named.  But suddenly she changed gears and started getting angry about someone who had some kind of video on-line about killing cats.  I don’t know if it showed cats being killed (doubtful) or just talked about it as a thing that happens.  But she was very stirred up about this.  She got quite agitated and started swearing about it.  And then she changed gears again and started talking about J D Vance talking about childless cat ladies.  And that got her even angrier and she started swearing at him and saying you don’t mess with cat people.

Needless to say, this was very off-putting.  Seeing an adult in a public place lose control over a discussion about her cats was very unpleasant.  It’s always distasteful being witness to public displays of mental illness.  But what I realized later was that this was a form of virtue signaling.  There was a group of leftists close by and this performance was a public affirmation that disrespecting childless cat ladies will be answered by childless cat ladies flipping out in public.  It reminded me of that famous video clip of the androgynous, shapeless leftist in a yellow raincoat howling nooooooooo! at the sky after Trump’s election in 2016.  It was this primal scream therapy routine, probably more for the benefit of those watching than for any actual emotional release for the screamer.  It was validation of their point of view.

I was tempted to reason with this cat lady and inform her that what Vance was doing was just energizing his base by berating the part of the Democrat base that is most despised.  I would have further pointed out that this was a milder form of denigration compared to the Left’s demonization of straight white men and the more generic hatred of “whiteness” in general.

Luckily common sense prevented me from engaging with the crazy childless cat lady (CCCL or C³L for short).  After all she has nothing to lose.  Whiskers or Snowball or whatever her cats are called, could survive a day or two while their “mommy” was in the rubber room for observation.  Whereas, if I were incarcerated for brawling with the C³L I would embarrass Camera Girl and the other normal citizens of Dunwich who know better than to bait the insane.

And it turned out I was smart to refrain from interacting with the C³L.  Later on, that day, at the same event, I noted her sitting on a bench reading a book and every once in a while, emitting a screech or a laugh depending, I guess, on the action of the book.  I assume this was performative but still, someone who acts out like this in public must be close to some kind of mental breakdown.  I will do my best in the future to avoid any contact if possible.

There are an enormous number of highly unstable people on the Left.  After the assassination attempt on Trump, if I were J D Vance, I’d have the secret service scan the crowds at his rallies for anyone emitting very high levels of cat dander and keep them far away from his podium.  Apparently crazy childless cat ladies are very unhappy to be singled out and who knows maybe one of them is even crazier than the one I saw.  J D, it couldn’t hurt to be careful.

Update:

TomD opines:

“I love dogs but I’m partial to cats.”