Marilyn Monroe Reads
display of a link in this facility does not indicate approval of content ~ richard anderson ~ dr xu ~ what is more important ~ Miss Army Recruiting of 1962 ~ Rex Tillerson Is Wrecking the State Department ~ 10 year old killed ~ Was America Founded to Be Secular? ~ Judge writes letter of support to jurors in Yanez trial ~ What Google Searches Reveal About Who We Really Are (It’s As Weird As You Think) ~ Sports Page ~ 101 shot, 14 fatally, in July 4 weekend gun violence across Chicago ~ Mom accused of killing family bows during bizarre court appearance ~ Voices from the Battle for Mosul ~ Cobb County hostage suspect told us by phone he didn’t want to hurt anyone ~ Hostage suspect served in the Marines for four years ~ Marilyn Monroe Reads Joyce’s Ulysses at the Playground (1955) ~ Can we *please* stop asking if Jews are white?: a ten trillionth blog-attempt at explaining antisemitism @chamblee54 this post did not tell me very much, other than the fact that people still use blogspot ~ Church Point woman arrested in officer-involved shooting that killed burglary suspect ~ These Blackface-Wearing, N-Word-Spewing Culture Vultures Would Like to Teach Your Kids About Hip-Hop ~ The Painful and Liberating Practice of Facing My Own Racism ~ Ending Racism Take Action Enter your email to receive tools to help dismantle racism with meditation. ~ Family and Friends Of Dejuan Guillory Are Stunned After He Was Killed In An Officer Involved Shooting ~ Ville Platte Deputy Kills Father of Three on Outing with Girlfriend ~ Is clinical depression impossible to think your way out of? ~ Charlie Brown, former owner reminisce on Backstreet’s wild Atlanta ride Queer Up Your Inbox Sign up for our weekly e-newsletter for all the best and most vital LGBT Georgia news, interviews and photo galleries of the week. ~ Why you should always ‘Like’ your own Facebook posts ~ Social Media Hacker Warning Please tell all the contacts in your messenger list not to accept Jayden K. Smith friendship request. He is a hacker and has the system connected to your Facebook account. If one of your contacts accepts it, you will also be hacked, so make sure that all your friends know it. Thanks. Forwarded as received. Hold your finger down on the message. At the bottom in the middle it will say forward. Hit that then click on the names of those in your list and it will send to them ~ Only if the gasoline in his vehicle came from a muslim country. ~ This is an ad, for a business at 2069 Cheshire Bridge Road. In the Seventies it was a lesbian club called the Sports Page. Today it is the Heretic. ~ You are blocked from following @tariqnasheed and viewing @tariqnasheed’s Tweets. ~ @NeinQuarterly I saw the best drafts of my generation. Destroyed. By hitting Tweet. ~ Before the sports page, it was Molly Malones Chowder House, aka Molly Cologne’s Powder House. It was, briefly, a drag queen show bar called Timbers around 1978. The complex on the other side of the creek, with the Dominoes, used to be a Putt Putt golf course. My mother saw a bumper sticker, that said “I play putt putt” and for some reason thought that was hilarious. ~ If the lips are moving, or the fingers are hitting a keyboard, then the result is questionable. ~ The 2nd amendment guarantees the right to bare arms. ~ Jon Ossoff lost because he was a weak candidate. I don’t believe your story about voter suppression. ~ Greg Palast: How Racist Voter Suppression Could Cost Jon Ossoff the Georgia Election That video was not believable. It was heavy on the rhetoric, and shifty with the facts. While there may have been GOP monkey business in this *race*, I don’t believe the election was decided by Jim Crow. The racism obsessed, SJW slant of this report hurts the credibility. If I had a written transcript, I could track down some of the so called facts. Except for one thing: this miserable election is over, and I am beyond tired of thinking about it. ~ Who was the Democratic Party genius that chose Jon Ossoff to be the big money candidate in #GA06 ? ~ Part of the trouble with videos is difficulty in fact checking. Is the Korean organization even in the 6th district? Maybe there were other problems that led them to be shut down. I could go on and on. The story of the missing voter applications is another one that I have not seen documentation of. ~ @ChrchCurmudgeon Funerals can be times of deep grief and sadness, but my pastor would like mine to be a celebration. ~ @ErnestPassion The people that motivate with anger, hate and jealousy have no sense of shame. ~ Thank You I don’t accept friend requests from strangers anyway. I have been receiving messages about “Jayden K. Smith.” That is a flakey fake name. ~ pictures for this monday morning detachment from reality are from The Library of Congress. ~ selah
Four Short Poems
Four short poems recently appeared on this blog. They have been combined into one longer piece. These sixteen lines will be performed, possibly tonight at Java Monkey. If you are near downtown Decatur, then you are encouraged to attend. Admission is always free, but buying refreshments, and tipping the servers, is well thought of.
Here are the four poems. This is the order they are presented in below. Euphemism, #MyDragNameWouldBe, White Trash Tinkle and Super Duper.
Euphemism is based on Every British swear word has been officially ranked in order of offensiveness. #MyDragNameWouldBe is a twitter hashtag. White Trash Tinkle, a collections of compliments, was found in the Racial Slur Database. Last but not least, Super Duper is based on the hinky construction known as Ablaut Reduplication. This is pronounced AB lout REE doo pla kay shun. You should never use a word you do not know how to pronounce, or spell.
Rhyme Zone was used to make the lines go together. Poetic license was used. However, Poetic Licence Shoes were not worn. Pictures today are from The Library of Congress.
bloody arse cow pussy crap ginger, helen highwater orphelia weiner
damn git g-d jesus christ minger, jackie ossoff cilla stack misty meaner
blue eye devil betty crocker, fiddle faddle jibber jabber
becky bubba crisco cracker, super duper pitter patter
dickhead tit munter bloodclaat clunge, tanya obama pattie bourgeoisie
cock dick fanny flaps punani plunge, sofonda peters miss carry tokee
yogurt yuppie yaku winkle, wishy washy hokey pokey
whiskey tango white trash tinkle, razzle dazzle boogie woogie
sod-off arsehole bitch knob molochs, mike hunt queefer sutherland lady macdeath
bint balls bullshit bugger bollucks, camille toe ginger vitus diane breath
big nose cabbage confederate, tittle tattle dilly dally
buffy clampett degenerate, kitty catty shilly shally
pissed off bellend son of a bitch, oliver clozoff sue pository
bastard beef curtains beaver snitch, whore moans jamaica depository
lily munster elvis fruitcake, teenie weenie ping pong sing song
ofay opie paleface pancake, bingo bango bongo ding dong
The Revenge Of Samuel Clemens
Mark Twain left earth to take care of itself on April 21, 1910. Now that 100 years have passed, his uncensored autobiography is about to be published. As True Slant tells the tale, Reports of Mark Twain’s resurrection are greatly exaggerated.
Samuel Clemens is an icon of americana, his books a staple of high school english. The clever sayings of Mr. Twain are quoted to this day. On his death in 1910, President William H. Taft said “Mark Twain gave real intellectual enjoyment to millions, and his works will continue to give such pleasure to millions yet to come. He never wrote a line that a father could not read to a daughter.”
The White House predecessor of Mr. Taft was Teddy Roosevelt. Mr. Roosevelt became famous as a result of what Mr. Twain called “the iniquitous Cuban-Spanish War”. When the newly conquered Philippines did not greet the Americans as liberators, a brutal little war broke out. There were reports of massacres of women and children by American troops. This conflict led Mr. Twain to write The War Prayer, which would not be published until after he was dead. (Teddy Roosevelt became President after the murder of William McKinley. Some people speculate the Mark Twain was involved in the death of President McKinley. There used to be some youtube videos with more information, but they have been taken down. )
The truth is, Mark Twain was a rascal, with many sharp opinions about religion, big business, and war. As Henry L. Mencken wrote “Instead of being a mere entertainer of the mob, he was…a destructive satirist of the utmost pungency and relentlessness, and the most bitter critic of American platitude and delusion, whether social, political or religious, that ever lived.” His present day image of Colonel Sanders, played by Grandpa Walton, is far from the mark.
But then, Grandpa Walton is not what many think. He was played by Will Geer, whose birth name was William Aughe Ghere . Mr. Geer, a member of the Communist Party, organized a violent dock workers strike in San Francisco. The co organizer of that strike was Mr. Geer’s boyfriend, Harry Hay.
Getting back to Mark Twain, it seems like some people don’t like to have their heroes tarnished by reality. True Slant wrote a feature that is the basis of this post. (The text part anyway. The pictures are from The Library of Congress . HT to dangerous minds. ) It seems like when the True Slant author, Mark Dery, posted a link to his article on Facebook, Chaos ensued.
Weekend Update: Apparently, some Bronze-Age bible troll reported my Facebook link to this essay as “abusive,” presumably because Twain was an atheist and Huckleberry Finn, one of the most banned books in a nation that stinks to heaven of god-bothering, is the devil’s handiwork. Now, due to Facebook’s guilty-until-proven-innocent logic—a rule of thumb that wins the Idi Amin Dada Award for enlightened online governance—I’m unable to repost. Anything. Whether you like Twain or my work or not, I hope you’ll consider reposting a link to this page on your Facebook page as a way of saying you support free speech. If that sounds like product placement, mea culpa maxima.) YET ANOTHER UPDATE: Facebook appears to have repealed its ban on my links, at least for the moment, restoring the link to this article. Heartfelt thanks to all who stood with me in free-speech solidarity by reposting a link to this essay on their FB pages. Twain would be proud of you!
In the sandbox epic Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance , a philosophical ramble detours on the concept of mythos over logos. The concept is that people, when presented with information that disproves there illusion, will continue to believe in the illusion. This would seem to be the case here. The inspiring story of Mark Twain is threatened by the reality of the writers last work. (Actually, this autobiography was dictated to a stenographer, rather than written.) People would rather feel warm and fuzzy about a myth, than read the truths of the mythmaker.
This is a repost. A few things have happened since 2010. Autobiography of Mark Twain has seen three volumes released. 13% of the Volume One comments on Amazon are one star. True/Slant has been purchased by Forbes, and links for this article no longer work. A new edition of Huckleberry Finn has been issued, with America’s favorite dirty word deleted.
Cis
The prefix cis- is being used to mean the opposite of trans. This is a gender thing. A cismale is a man who uses the factory equipment. A transman is someone who does things differently. There are various forms of this, which is a bit too complicated for social media discussion. Fecesbook Facebook, famously fallacy friendly, is not a good medium for subtle discussion. This is a repost.
Before we get started, it should be noted that cis- serves a valid purpose. The only objection here is to the word itself. It has a weird sound, and can be confusing. Perhaps an alternative would be to say birth gender. If you are were born male, and live in compliance with the gender assigned at birth, then you are a birth male, as opposed to a trans male.
Today’s drama started out with a post by Kat Blaque. Mx. Blaque is self described as “Illustration, Animator, Youtuber” on twitter, and “Children’s Illustrator, Thrift Store Addict and Opinion Vlogger” on facebook. The comment: “People who don’t like the word “cis” are annoying because they pretend it’s made up when it’s a prefix commonly used in science. but whatever. Ya’ll some children.”
Luther Mckinnon This comment is transplaining. I don’t like cis- because the s sound is tough to make for many people. Also, cis- sounds like cissy. Kat Blaque Butch up mary.
There were comments. Most of them had to do with “sounds like cissy.” The objection is not because of “emasculation.” The simple truth is that a cissy (or sissy) is a man who does not conform to gender standards. In other words, he does not act like a man. A cismale is someone who does conform to gender standards. Cissy sounds a lot like cismale, and yet they mean dramatically different things.
The language g-ds have spoken. The opposite of trans- is cis-. Any man who does not conform to this language standard is less of a man than one who does. To have standards of masculinity applied to using a prefix denoting the opposite of trans…this is weird.
Luther Mckinnon So, we make a difference this time. The business of using the cis prefix if fairly new. We can get into ableism issues here if you like. It is interesting that I made the comment about the s sound first. The part about similarity to cissy was second. The first comment was ignored. The incidental second comment was jumped on by the “woke”masses. There is also a bit of confusion here. A cissy is basically a non gender conforming male. Cis- means conforming to the gender assigned at birth. I see a contradiction there. Kat BlaqueI have a lisp and I can say cis just find. Butch up. Samantha Nicholson I like “cis” it sounds very scientific and using it makes me sound smart! “Prefix commonly used in science.” This is news to a lot of people, with the possible exception of the Cisco Kid. Crosswordsolver.org has a list of words starting in cis. One familiar item is cistern, the opposite of a dry garden. Other commonly used words include cisalpine, cislunar, cismontane, Cissoid, Cistothorus, Cistothorus palustris, and Cistus ladanum.
One more person made a comment. Cianán Russell Luther, sit down. Seriously. I know you- SIT DOWN. Luther Mckinnon Who? This post has gone on long enough. It is time for the pictures, from “The Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library”.
Which Carl Jung Archetype Best Describes You?
Which Carl Jung Archetype Best Describes You? A well meaning facebook friend posted the initial link. PG knew there would be other quizzes. It might be fun to take a few, and compare the results. PG knew little about Carl Jung ( CARL YOUng,) and even less about the archetypes. If nothing else, it is a good excuse for text to go between the pictures. These images are from The Library of Congress.
Mydailyquizz starts off with a blue faced woman. She is having a bad hair day. The quiz is nine questions, with multiple choice answers. There are a couple of innovations. For the “Would you rather…” question, “Other/None of these” is an option. For the traditional “Is the glass half empty or half full,” you can choose “Who drank the other half?” You are then asked which of the seven wonders of the world you want to visit, despite the fact that only one still stands.
PG gave honest answers. “You’re the trickster! Jung identified this archetype in gods like Hermes in Greek mythology, Loki in Norse mythology, and Mercury in Roman mythology. Like these mischievous gods, you’re quick, witty, cunning, and elusive….” PG passed on the option of taking another quiz, Can You Pass The Psychopath Test?
Playbuzz is the top result on google. Their quiz is identical to the facebook version. PG played along, and chose the opposite of his honest answers. “You’re the explorer! According to Jung we can find this archetype in many myths and fairy tales. You’re a restless nomad, always full of wanderlust. You see life as one big adventure and you’re always planning your next move. This archetype thirsts…”
Apost has another copy of the bad hair lady quiz. Is “The Plagiarist” one of the archetypes? PG chose the last answer for every question. “You’re the ruler! Jung identified this archetype in many myths. Think of Zeus, “Father of the gods”. You’re a control freak that desires success and order…”
Jungian Archetype Test is a new test, from Psychologist World. It is thirty six statements, which you rank from strongly agree to strongly disagree. The statements were probably used in other evaluations. Two examples are “I feel sorry for people in a worse situation than myself” and “Friends often turn to me for advice.” You are given both a “Self,” and a “Persona,” archetype. For PG, in both cases, it was “The Innocent Child.”
Sun Gazing was the last time PG took the bad hair lady quiz. It was offered by five other times on the google first page. For the last archetype assignment, PG chose the first multiple choice answer listed. “You’re the sage! According to Carl Jung, the sage represents wisdom and the search for truth. You are wise beyond your years, patient and a deep thinker. You’re driven by a thirst for knowledge. One of your greatest fears is being ignorant, misled, or duped. …”
Which Jungian Archetype Are You? is an original quiz. It is fourteen multiple choice questions. One example is “Finish this sentence: I’m most driven to fulfill the needs of my: Ego, Soul, Self.” PG is not certain what the difference is. The imaginative questions reaches its peak with “You’re in the midst of cave exploring when you come across a fire-breathing dragon. What do you do?” PG would “Deny it exists.” Is it the cave, the dragon, or PG, that does not exist?
“You Got: The Innocent The promise of the Innocent is that life need not be hard. They are the spontaneous, trusting child. The Innocent fears abandonment and seeks safety. Their greatest strength is the trust and optimism that endears them to others and so gain help and support on their quest. Their main danger is that they may be blind to their obvious weaknesses or perhaps deny them. They can also become dependent on others to fulfill their heroic tasks.”
What Is More Important?
There is an old saying: what goes around comes around. When you sow the wind, you reap the whirlwind. The toes you step on today are connected to the ass you kiss tomorrow. My karma ran over your dogma. OK, so there is more than one saying. The bottom line is, when your government messes with another country, there is going to be an invoice from the bank of retribution. The balance due is usually much larger than the principal.
In the region of the planet designated Afghanistan, there is no good place to get started. This country had the misfortune to be across the border from the Soviet Union. Thirty one years ago, the commies were the evil empire, that must be destroyed at all costs. These accounts are just now coming due, with interest attached. This is a repost.
The passage below was originally posted in tomdispatch. This is a fine facility , that deserves your readership and $upport.
It should by now be generally accepted that the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan on Christmas Eve 1979 was deliberately provoked by the United States. In his memoir published in 1996, the former CIA director Robert Gates made it clear that the American intelligence services began to aid the mujahidin guerrillas not after the Soviet invasion, but six months before it. In an interview two years later with Le Nouvel Observateur, President Carter’s national security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski proudly confirmed Gates’ assertion.
Brzezinski: “According to the official version of history, CIA aid to the mujahidin began during 1980, that’s to say, after the Soviet army invaded Afghanistan. But the reality, kept secret until now, is completely different: on 3 July 1979 President Carter signed the first directive for secret aid to the opponents of the pro-Soviet regime in Kabul. And on the same day, I wrote a note to the president in which I explained that in my opinion this aid would lead to a Soviet military intervention.”
Nouvel Observateur asked whether he in any way regretted these actions. Brzezinski: “Regret what? The secret operation was an excellent idea. It drew the Russians into the Afghan trap and you want me to regret it? On the day that the Soviets officially crossed the border, I wrote to President Carter, saying, in essence: ‘We now have the opportunity of giving to the USSR its Vietnam War.'”
Nouvel Observateur: “And neither do you regret having supported Islamic fundamentalism, which has given arms and advice to future terrorists?” Brzezinski: “What is more important in world history? The Taliban or the collapse of the Soviet empire? Some agitated Muslims or the liberation of Central Europe and the end of the Cold War?”
On September 11, 2001, the United States was lured into the Afghan trap. Osama Bin Ladin does not regret it. The women and children dying in Pakistan might have a different opinion. Pictures today are from “The Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library”.
July 3, 1981
July 3, 1981, was another day before a holiday. The new President, Ronald Reagan, was recovering from gunshot wounds. There was talk of an era of conservatism, with possibly severe repression.
There was an article in the New York Times. RARE CANCER SEEN IN 41 HOMOSEXUALS. “Doctors in New York and California have diagnosed among homosexual men 41 cases of a rare and often rapidly fatal form of cancer. Eight of the victims died less than 24 months after the diagnosis…”
This was the media debut of AIDS. It would not have that name for a while. Almost nobody thought, on that summer day, just how bad AIDS would be. In five years it was obvious how serious AIDS was.
PG was on another trip to the west coast. It was becoming obvious that this would be a vacation, rather than a relocation. He was riding a bicycle, with a milk carton overloaded with camping gear. Some kids told him to get saddle bags, and carry the weight lower. If you have the weight on top, you would lose control coming down a big hill. PG did not listen to the kids.
On July 4, PG left Patrick’s Point state park, about 300 miles north of San Francisco. Coming down the first hill on highway 101, the bike shook, shook harder, and flipped on its side. PG was thrown off. The front wheel was bent beyond repair. PG gathered his gear, left the bike behind, and got a ride into the nearest town.
PG got a bus ticket to Seattle. That city was in an economic downturn, with less than half a page of help wanted ads. PG found a auto delivery service, and got a VW bug going to Oak Ridge, TN. In a few days he was in Atlanta. A few days later, a temp agency came up with a job as a driver for a blueprint company. PG worked for that company, in one form or another, for the next 24 years.
As for the gay men with Kaposi’s Sarcoma … in all probability, the patients mentioned in that article were all dead within a year. AIDS has become a dominating story in our time. At its worst, it was claiming 50,000 lives a year. With the advent of wonder drugs, the death toll has been greatly reduced. The impact of AIDS on American life cannot be adequately described. This is a repost.
Pictures today are from “The Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library”.
Criticize White Privilege
display of a link on this page does not indicate approval of content ~ your ride with James ~ safety pin box ~ So You Wanna Be An Ally ~ the silence of the lambs ~ New Jersey College Fires Black Professor After She Went On Fox News To Criticize White Privilege ~ ‘HELP! I Lost My Passport!’ A Short Guide on What to Do ~ Chick-fil-A President Dan Cathy – “We Don’t Like The Blacks Either” ~ Seven Tips From Ernest Hemingway on How to Write Fiction ~ Lectureporn: The Vulgar Art of Liberal Narcissism ~ Columbus Pride festival coordinator resigns after protest incident ~ Franz Kafka Agonized, Too, Over Writer’s Block: “Tried to Write, Virtually Useless;” “Complete Standstill. Unending Torments” (1915) ~ @admiralmpj America, do you see the toxic power of racism? A bill with a 17% approval rating might pass, just to erase the legacy of a Black President. @chamblee54 AHCA would result in making campaign donors major $$$ as usual talk about race is a handy distraction you fell for it @admiralmpj Right. You caught me. Never mind that I’ve been watching America all my life, and RWers like you for the last decade. @chamblee54 “RWers like you”…..all you know about me is that i disagreed with you one time on twitter @admiralmpj Hmm. I feel safe with my assumption: ~ The Problem With Writing About Florida ~ Media is wrong forensically about death of Philando Castile ~ The Best Podcasts of 2017 (So Far) ~ Diamond Reynolds, girlfriend of Philando Castile, accused of assault with a hammer ~ 74 seconds first four episodes ~ Where You From, Honey? ~ Suspect accused of killing Vietnam vet helping niece move surrenders ~ Fake News ~ Suspect shot, killed after trying to run deputies over with car ~ Controversial ‘Comfort Woman’ statue unveiled in Brookhaven ~ Health Disparities in Drug- and Alcohol-Use Disorders: A 12-Year Longitudinal Study of Youths After Detention ~ A racist stereotype is shattered: Study finds white youth are more likely to abuse hard drugs than black youth The study was conducted over the course of 12 years and interviewed 1,829 youth (1,172 males and 657 females between the ages of 10 to 18) who were detained at Cook County Juvenile Temporary Detention Center in Chicago between 1995 and 1998. ~ Olivia de Havilland sues FX over ‘Feud’ ~ A Columbia Professor’s Critique of Campus Politics ~ Maher scorches Republicans who condemn ‘President-what-the-f*ck’s’ tweets but still vote with him ~ Why white allies take up emotional space: its codependence ~ talk about race ~ russia talk ~ nra ~ Officers fatally shoot woman in Denver following Littleton carjacking, chase ~ 1 killed in 2 separate officer-involved shootings in Colorado Friday evening ~ Short Story Award For New Writers – Summer! ~ Despite Internal Turmoil, Klan Groups Persist ~ Chris Christie You go to twitter. The top trending subject is Chris Christie. He was photographed at a state beach, that is closed, due to a budget crisis. His spokesman said “He did not get any sun, He had a baseball hat on.” ~ Massachusetts Constitution of 1780, PT. 1 Part the First. A Declaration of the Rights of the Inhabitants of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. ~ broflake, poem titled america, is djt a communist, excrescence , 58 gender, eskimo brothers, bob beckel , ablaut reduplication , ~ The giant teddy bear in the corner was the wisest voice in the room. ~ #sjwprivilege it IS my business ~ #FakeFireworksFacts they’re made of faeries who turned evil and so had to be ground up in to firework dust ~ Many people say Andy Warhol was the person who erased the line between art and marketing. Is the Trump Presidency the result? ~ it is better to say shit or fuck when angry than to say G-d or Jesus ~ @RectorSun All told, 9 people were shot Thursday in Baltimore, 2 fatally. Latest was 39-yr-old man wounded in 900 blk E. Patapsco Ave about 11:05 PM. @michaelianblack At some point, it might be worth discussing whether or not the NRA is a terrorist organization. ~ @realDonaldTrump Watched low rated @Morning_Joe for first time in long time. FAKE NEWS. He called me to stop a National Enquirer article. I said no! Bad show ~ Crime and killings in Chicago have reached such epidemic proportions that I am sending in Federal help. 1714 shootings in Chicago this year! ~ If Republican Senators are unable to pass what they are working on now, they should immediately REPEAL, and then REPLACE at a later date! ~ I think this also applies to discussions of sensitive subjects, like race relations, religion, and politics. It is easy to be a hypocrite here, so lets just say it is a goal to aim for, and I don’t always make it. ~ If you want to know who your Jungle Book spirit animal is, you can always google the question. Someone else is usually doing a similar quiz. It can be fun to do several, and compare results. ~ @thehill Lewandowski: Trump is the “Hemingway of Twitter” @chamblee54 baby president for sale never worn ~ This quote is from the Massachusetts Constitution of 1780, Article VII. While Mr. Adams may have played a role in writing this, it is not certain that he deserves sole credit. In 1780, the war for Independence was still being fought. It is not certain whether an established government would have said this. There is a sentence not included in this meme… “Therefore the people alone have an incontestible, unalienable, and indefeasible right to institute government; and to reform, alter, or totally change the same, when their protection, safety, prosperity and happiness require it.” I imagine Mr. Adams would have taken a dim view of an attempt to “totally change the same” while he was President. ~ pictures for this gratuitous waste of the reader’s time are from The Library of Congress. ~ selah
Fighting Racism With Clickbait
A link keeps turning up on facebook. It is for an item, 18 Things White People Should Know/Do Before Discussing Racism. It was posted at The Frisky | Celebrity Gossip, Relationship Advice, Beauty and Fashion Tips. The facility has a series of suggested posts at the top of the page. The first one you see is BLOWJOB TECHNIQUES YOU NEED TO TRY.
18 Things is supposed to be educational. PG was encouraged to read the piece two weeks ago, and found it lacking. The link today was from a combination facebook friend/ facebook unfriend. Maybe 18 Things deserves another look.
18 Things is garbage. Take a look at number one. “1. It is uncomfortable to talk about racism. It is more uncomfortable to live it.” You would never know this from the number of people who seem to enjoy talking about racism. The louder you talk, the more passion you display, the more truth your words have. What is uncomfortable is to quit talking, and listen.
But then, maybe the idea is for everyone to talk at once. Here is item 16: “16. Silence does nothing. Blank stares and silence do not further this difficult but necessary conversation.” If you are going to listen to someone, it is very helpful to keep your mouth shut.
“2. “Colorblindness” is a cop-out. The statements “but I don’t see color” or “I never care about color” do not help to build a case against systemic racism. Try being the only White person in an environment. You will notice color then.” This is a curious paragraph. Sentence one has little to do with sentences two, three, and four.
Sentences three and four are connected. The author assumes that the PWOC reading this piece has never been the only pale face in an environment. Actually, it is probably more common to be the only white person in the room, than to be the only black person in a room full of whites.
“3. Oprah’s success does not mean the end of racism. The singular success of a Black man or woman (i.e. Oprah, or Tiger Woods, or President Obama) is never a valid argument against the existence of racism. By this logic, the success of Frederick Douglass or Amanda America Dickson during the 19th century would be grounds for disproving slavery.”
Has anyone ever said that the success of Oprah Winfrey is the end of racism? Do you have a link for that? Ok, and even if they did say that, it would be wildly untrue. But it gets better. If you agree with this statement that very few people have made, that is like saying that the success of Frederick Douglass disproves slavery. This is ridiculous.
The rest of the piece is little better. Items 4, 5, 9, 14, and 15, can be summed up with the five words … there is racism in America. You are encouraged to use google to educate yourself. This can go in different directions. Maybe you could google “logical fallacy,” or “critical thinking.”
This feature should not be taken as denying the existence of race problems in America. (The words racism/racist are problematic.) People should be treated with kindness and respect. Opportunities should be available to all people. The police should not target racially defined populations. Celebrities should not say tacky things.
The question arises, though. What value do articles like 18 Things have? Do they inform people who need to learn? Are they preaching to the choir? (Frisky has a header ad for Red Bull. Do articles like this sell power energy drinks?)
There are other possibilities. Do articles like 18 Things trivialize racial problems? Maybe the constant promotion of nonsense like 18 Things will lead people to believe that there really isn’t a race problem in America. People who uncritically praise articles like this are doing more harm than good. Those who claim to educate should be held to some sort of standard. Posting nonsense on the internet is not the same thing as working for equality and justice.
This is a repost. Pictures are from The Library of Congress.
Chamblee54 
leave a comment