Governor Tim Walz, the “weird” Republican leaders, and people in the United States as "WEIRD"

Governor Tim Walz of Minnesota, the nominee for Vice President on the Democratic Party ticket with current Vice President and presidential candidate Kamala Harris in the 2024 United States election, first drew significant national attention for his characterization of the leadership of the Republican Party: "These are weird people on the other side." While there are nice ways to be weird, Walz has offered the creepy examples of Republican politicians "taking books away" and being in the doctor's office. But I keep remembering anthropologist Joseph Heinrich's acronym WEIRD for "Western, educated, industrialized, rich, and democratic" people. In these terms, from a global perspective, almost everyone in the United States is "weird". (Andrew Shields, #111Words, 6 August 2024)