The Cable Gamer has noted before that Lawrence O'Donnell, the new 8 pm host for MSNBC, replacing the extremely unlamented Keith Olbermann--has in the past called himself a "socialist." And not just any kind of socialist, but an "extreme left" socialist. As he said on MSNBC last year:
I am not a liberal who is so afraid of the word that I had to change my name to progressive. Liberals amuse me. I am a socialist. I live to the extreme left, the extreme left of you mere liberals.
OK, fair enough. Everyone is entitled to be a leftwinger if they wish--especially at MSNBC, where leftism is built into the business model. And we can even say that O'Donnell is entitled to his condescending tone to liberals--he is a left-wing socialist, who finds liberals merely "amusing."
But if Larry--oops, I mean Lawrence--is such a big socialist, how come he buys his socks, for $88 a pair at a snooty Manhattan store called Seize Sur Vingt? And gives interviews, detailing his sartorial choices, to the likes of Women's Wear Daily? (See screengrab above from the fashion bible article.) As WWD's Alexandra Steigrad observes, no doubt thrilling her posh readership, O’Donnell appeared for his interview "clad in a black suit, light blue shirt and charcoal textured silk tie by Dolce & Gabbana, Tod’s loafers and Seize sur Vingt socks."
For those not up on O'Donnell's level, Seize Sur Vingt is a store--the French words mean "16 over 20," and refers to a good score on a test--that gets a nice plug, along with other pricey brands, such as Tod's loafers and Dolce & Gabbana neckties in Steigrad's puffy WWD profile. Since TCG had never heard of Seize Sur Vingt, she looked it up: Here's some info about it, tucked away on Prince Street in the ultra-trendy SoHo district, courtesy of Google:
In other words, OK, O'Donnell might be a leftwing socialist, but to the chattering classes, he's their kind of socialist, the kind who uses left-wing ideology as a way of putting down ordinary Americans, as opposed to lifting them up. New York, Boston, and San Francisco are full of those kind of leftists, who use their intellectual and cultural hauteur--in spite of their professed ideology, they always seem to have plenty of money--to lord it over everyone who isn't as smart as they are, or at least as they claim to be. You know, like, say, Arianna Huffington, Donny Deutsch, and so many others who lurk around MSNBC.
But what about those $88 socks? As noted, WWD reports that O'Donnell buys his socks at Seize Sur Vingt. Well, here's what those socks cost, on the website: $88 a pair, not including shipping. The screengrab is hard to see, but trust me, the socks cost $88 for a pair. Of course, they are cashmere, so obviously a must-have. Right, Mr. and Mrs. America?
Indeed, in addition to selling socks at 100 times what you would pay at Wal-Mart--where 10 pairs of socks cost just $90--Seize Sur Vingt is quite the hip place. And hip is expensive. It costs a lot to be a good liberal.
Why Seize Sur Vingt even has its own art film on the site, from Noritoshi, whom the TCG had also never heard of, but who is obviously expensive. TCG is not on up on Noritoshi's level, but she was lucky enough to be able to enjoy Noritoshi's posings, and you can to, in the form screengrab:
So there you have it, folks. Everytime you see Comrade O'Donnell on TV talking about how the Democrats and the left are fighting for ordinary people, and how the Republicans and the right are fighting for the rich, just remember this to yourself about O'Donnell--he's the guy wearing the $88 socks.
