In one of the most memorable scenes in "Pulp Fiction,” a film replete with memorable scenes, a Los Angeles gangster, Marsellus Wallace, turns the tables on a man who has kidnapped and abused him. He’s going to get a couple of friends to go to work on his assailant "with a pair of pliers and a blow torch,” he says, and ensure that he spends "the rest of his short life in agonizing pain.” In short, he’s going to "get medieval” on him.
There has been an awful lot of "getting medieval” in the world recently. The "12-day war” between Israel and Iran was all about the most modern weapons of mass destruction humanity has devised. Yet it was frequently discussed in a language that is more resonant of the Middle Ages than the scientific laboratory.
Consider Donald Trump’s "rage tweet” in reply to the Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez ("stupid AOC”) and her suggestion that the president should be impeached for authorizing the bombing of Iran without congressional approval. Or Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar, who gets called "the mouse.” Former U.S. President Joe Biden is "Sleepy Joe.” Sen. Chuck Schumer is "Cryin’ Chuck” or "Our Great Palestinian Senator.”
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