Sabotage with a Smile: How “Respectable” Pundits Are Groping Democracy in Broad Daylight

6 min readMay 20, 2025

By Someone Who’s Had Enough of the Bullsh*t

It starts with a smirk. A pause. A smug little soundbite like:

“It takes a heart of stone and a very dark soul to point out that this announcement is awfully convenient…”

See what he did there? That’s not journalism. That’s scented napalm. That’s a man polishing a hand grenade and calling it silverware.

Vincent Hervouët isn’t informing anyone. He’s jerking off into a microphone and calling it a press conference. His editorial “Pauvre Joe…” isn’t commentary — it’s cognitive arson dressed in a three-piece suit. It’s what you get when an opinion column has a stroke and develops a superiority complex.

This Ain’t Reporting — It’s Theater for the Cynically Constipated

Hervouët doesn’t raise his voice. No need. He knows how this game works. He’s got the tone of a funeral director who hates the deceased. Calm. Precise. Like a scalpel dipped in vinegar.

And what does he deliver?

Biden’s cancer is probably a distraction.
Biden was’t in charge — his wife was.
The U.S. government? Just a big puppet show.
The press? Co-conspirators.
And democracy? A bloated corpse being wheeled around the nursing home for show.

This is not journalism.
This is an audition tape for authoritarianism.

Vincent Hervouët Is a Symptom of a Bigger Disease

Let’s be fair. Hervouët is just the French cousin of a global disease. There’s Tucker Carlson in the U.S., Zemmour playing cosplay Mussolini, Farage haunting the UK like a stale pint. They all work the same angle:

Sound intelligent.
Say nothing provable.
Imply everything sinister.
And act shocked when democracy collapses like a lung in a knife fight.

They’re not dissenting.
They’re dry-humping despair for ratings.

Let’s Dissect the Steaming Bullsh*t in “Pauvre Joe…”

1. Weaponizing Health Like a Political Enema

“Oh look, the old man’s sick. Must be part of a conspiracy.”

Vincent paints Biden as a decomposing meat puppet run by his wife and a team of ghouls from the ’80s. Not because he has proof. But because he knows the audience loves a good “elderly puppet show” narrative. Weak president, strong woman — it’s got all the spicy misogyny and gerontophobia you need to sell breakfast radio.

It’s not just petty. It’s predictable fascist fan fiction.

2. Saying “Conspiracy” Without Saying “Conspiracy”

He drops phrases like “the gang of four” with that quiet, orgasmic tone pundits use when they’re implying treason but want legal deniability. Like an arsonist throwing matches in the forest and calling it a weather report.

“I didn’t say there’s a conspiracy. I just suggested Biden’s brain is cooked and someone else is controlling the kitchen.”

Plausible deniability? More like calculated diarrhea.

3. Turning Democracy Into a Punchline

And then he lands the killer line:

“Forget his prostate, they should’ve looked at his brain.”

Classy, right? Mock a man’s cancer while reducing the democratic process to a bad sitcom. Because nothing says “defender of the Republic” like pissing on compassion while winking at authoritarianism.

This isn’t humor. This is desensitization wrapped in snark — a masterclass in training the public to stop giving a damn.

The Real Agenda: Exhaustion, Not Persuasion

He’s not trying to win you over. He’s trying to wear you down. The modern propagandist doesn’t yell. He drips. Slowly. Repeatedly. Until you’re too tired to care, too numb to notice, too cynical to fight.

And that’s the game: not to convince, but to corrode belief itself.
Not to wake you up — but to lull you into thinking everything’s rigged, so why bother?

Should This Be a Crime?

Well, no. Not yet. But maybe it should come with a civic health warning:

“This editorial may cause loss of empathy, erosion of institutional trust, and an increased risk of fascist nostalgia.”

Because the only reason this isn’t illegal is because the law was written before bullsh*t had Wi-Fi.

We have laws against lies that kill bodies.
What about lies that kill belief?

Maybe we need:

A Public Trust Index for media the same way we have food safety grades.
A “bullsh*t meter” stamped on content.
Or just a giant neon sign that says:
“This is not journalism. This is theater for people who think the news is a scam but still want to feel smart.”

What We Really Need: Civic Hygiene

Sick of stepping in rhetorical sewage? Here’s what we clean with:

Mandatory rebuttals: You poison the air, you give someone else the mic to detoxify it.
Source transparency: If your “sources” are just the voices in your head, maybe shut up.
Media literacy everywhere: Train kids and adults to read between the lines, and smell the spin.

And most importantly:

Stop rewarding smug nihilism like it’s intellectual bravery.

It’s not brave. It’s cowardice with a vocabulary.

The Silent Kill: What People Stop Believing

The scariest part? Not what Hervouët says — but what his audience stops believing after hearing it:

That truth can be known.
That institutions can be fixed.
That public service still matters.
That politics isn’t just a meat grinder for the soul.

When those beliefs rot?
You don’t need a coup.
You get a population that’s already surrendered.

Final Thought: The Shrug That Kills

Hervouët won’t overthrow democracy.
But he might inspire a million shrugs — and that’s worse.

Because democracy doesn’t need a monster.
It only needs a population too bored to care and too cynical to try.

So don’t just get angry.
Get clear. Get loud. Get deliberate.

Because while he’s busy smirking into a microphone,
we’ve got a Republic to resuscitate.

Mic dropped. Now pick it up and use it.

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