Random Politics Thread

[Jaguar]

Unreal.

 

[Lark]

To some degree, we probably are. We all grow up steeped in the prejudices that surround us, which vary in scope and degree based on culture and circumstances. The best we can do is to try to be aware of how this colors our impressions of people, and be ready to override it with the reality of who that person is as we see them in action and get to know them.

I know it could be a bit ivory tower academic but I think people can be racialist, and honestly it doesnt matter, at least I dont think it matters.

Racism is when that racialism has power mixed in and people can then exercise partiality or oppression on the basis of that racialism.

That can be a thug who takes a dislike to you because of your skin tone and is bigger and stronger than you and willing to become violent or some CEO deciding whether or not they are that worried about their products having terrible health consequences for consumers on the basis of what market they are selling to primarily.

Anyway, I do honestly think that the majority of conflict globally is still class war, and I think it always will be. A lot of "racism for the masses" is an exercise in duping populations and diverting them from questions about the distribution of wealth. Also if you tell someone all that matters in life is their skin tone you are going to underdevelop that population, why strive for anything when you feel some sort of entitlement based on who you actually are. It works in ways to pacify populations, exercise social control, while you can keep on making money.

However, its not lost on me that there are huge legacies which, ultimately, are individuals and families, the appeal of toxic racialism can appeal to them as much as anyone else and I think it does. Its at this point that you have the racialism plus power dynamic entering into things big style. This is a thing and its a different thing, I think, to historic wealth and power built on past racism. This "contemporaneous" racism I think flares up from time to time and reflects a bunch of things, the same as left wing conflict or insight surges, like demography, maturation, even boredom stuff like that.

 

[ceecee]

White supremacist propaganda surged in 2020, report says

There were 5,125 cases of racist, anti-Semitic, anti-LGBTQ and other hateful messages spread through physical flyers, stickers, banners and posters, according to Wednesday’s report. That’s nearly double the 2,724 instances reported in 2019. Online propaganda is much harder to quantify, and it’s likely those cases reached into the millions, the anti-hate organization said.

The ADL, which was founded more than a century ago, said that last year marked the highest level of white supremacist propaganda seen in at least a decade. Its report comes as federal authorities investigate and prosecute those who stormed the U.S. Capitol in January, some of whom are accused of having ties to or expressing support for hate groups and antigovernment militias.

 

[ceecee]

How Men's Rights Leader Paul Elam Turned Being A Deadbeat Dad Into A Moneymaking Movement

Men's rights activists often cite the first time they realized it’s a woman’s world. They call these “red pill” moments, after the scene in The Matrix when the main character is faced with the decision to swallow a red pill and recognize the true nature of the world or take a blue pill and continue living a lie. For Elam, that revelation came at age 13, when his mother tried to force him to take his diarrhea medicine.

I think that sums up much of the "men's rights movement" in a nutshell.

 

[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

How Men's Rights Leader Paul Elam Turned Being A Deadbeat Dad Into A Moneymaking Movement



I think that sums up much of the "men's rights movement" in a nutshell.

He didn't want to take his diarrhea medication?

Did he not want to take Pepto Bismol because it was pink? It makes your stool look metal, though.

 

[Jaguar]

Men's rights activists often cite the first time they realized it’s a woman’s world.

Well, there's a bunch of pussies making excuses for their incompetence. Some men complain it's a woman's world and some women complain it's a man's world.
Clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right.

 

[ceecee]

On this St. Patrick's Day - just a reminder that people dying in the potato famine was a policy choice made by the English.

 

[Lexicon]

On this St. Patrick's Day - just a reminder that people dying in the potato famine was a policy choice made by the English.

Well that sure puts a damper on everyone’s flimsy excuse to guzzle green beer & act like fools.

 

[ceecee]

Well that sure puts a damper on everyone’s flimsy excuse to guzzle green beer & act like fools.

One year, back when we went out on SPD, a guy was lamenting how Irish women couldn't cook. After listening to him try to put an explanation together I said..

PEOPLE WHO HAVE EXPERIENCED FAMINE HAVE NOTHING TO COOK! NOT A LACK OF SKILL IT'S A LACK OF FOOD YOU DUMB FUCK!

So I'm ok with being Debbie Downer over here lol.

 

[Lexicon]

One year, back when we went out on SPD, a guy was lamenting how Irish women couldn't cook. After listening to him try to put an explanation together I said..

PEOPLE WHO HAVE EXPERIENCED FAMINE HAVE NOTHING TO COOK! NOT A LACK OF SKILL IT'S A LACK OF FOOD YOU DUMB FUCK!

So I'm ok with being Debbie Downer over here lol.

I wish I could’ve witnessed that.

 

[Jaguar]

Glad to see Lightfoot ordered the Chicago River green. That's the spirit, cookie.

In other news:

Lightfoot ‘disappointed’ after ineligible Trump Hotel workers get COVID-19 vaccine doses - Chicago Sun-Times

Blow that name off the building. What's in your arsenal?

 

[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

One year, back when we went out on SPD, a guy was lamenting how Irish women couldn't cook. After listening to him try to put an explanation together I said..

PEOPLE WHO HAVE EXPERIENCED FAMINE HAVE NOTHING TO COOK! NOT A LACK OF SKILL IT'S A LACK OF FOOD YOU DUMB FUCK!

So I'm ok with being Debbie Downer over here lol.

Apparently they would eat red seaweed because there was nothing else. Just seaweed. Now, I actually like nori, but I can't imagine it being the only thing to eat.

 

[Jaguar]

You're an effective speaker, Warnock. You certainly have my attention.

 

[Z Buck McFate]

Blow that name off the building. What's in your arsenal?

I'm really kinda hoping he gets convicted on criminal charges, and that there are enough clever aldermen and lawyers to argue that's enough (in addition to two impeachments) to remove his name from the building. It was like having a gigantic gold colored statue of dog shit in the middle of the city from the moment he put it there, and it's exponentially more of a vulgar eyesore now.

 

[ceecee]

I'm really kinda hoping he gets convicted on criminal charges, and that there are enough clever aldermen and lawyers to argue that's enough (in addition to two impeachments) to remove his name from the building. It was like having a gigantic gold colored statue of dog shit in the middle of the city from the moment he put it there, and it's exponentially more of a vulgar eyesore now.

Some of those places that are no longer owned by Trump org have had the names removed but I think in Chicago, that building is owned by Trump org. My husband's company insures it and he's surveyed it for the property coverage many times. He said it's about 60%, maybe more now, empty so the likelihood of them trying to sell it is probably an eventuality.

 

[ceecee]

Putting this here because it seems like a lot of people need to hear it - when people talk about the framework of whiteness, it means that we can all choose to divest or invest in it. Many people choose to invest in its very worst parts. Many white people divest from it, but not nearly enough do. That is the issue, not talking about how bad whiteness is.

 

[Z Buck McFate]

Some of those places that are no longer owned by Trump org have had the names removed but I think in Chicago, that building is owned by Trump org. My husband's company insures it and he's surveyed it for the property coverage many times. He said it's about 60%, maybe more now, empty so the likelihood of them trying to sell it is probably an eventuality.

You probably already know this, but about a year into his presidency they started advertising space there with images that Photoshop out the Trump sign. I know they've had trouble leasing that space out for a while now - that was assumed to be the reason they started marketing with the edited images.

 

[Z Buck McFate]

Putting this here because it seems like a lot of people need to hear it - when people talk about the framework of whiteness, it means that we can all choose to divest or invest in it. Many people choose to invest in its very worst parts. Many white people divest from it, but not nearly enough do. That is the issue, not talking about how bad whiteness is.

There are people who can't bear any criticism, and react with "I never do anything right, do I?!?" when presented with a single piece of feedback about how they could do better. The tiniest straw will break the back every single time, and they think the person adding the straw is the one doing it. It's one of the most exhausting human behaviors I can think of. (Because it's rarely intentionally malicious - they genuinely feel like the victim, unaware of their self-centeredness - so it merits *some* understanding ...but it's a daunting tendency to work around).

 

[Jaguar]

Framework of whiteness. Framework of whiteness? Cleanup on aisle 9. Bring Clorox. Thank you.

 

[Jaguar]

Magufuli was a vocal Covid-19 skeptic who urged Tanzanians to shun mask-wearing and denounced vaccines as a Western conspiracy, frustrating the World Health Organization.

Tanzania's Covid-skeptic leader Magufuli dies after weeks of rumors about his health

What was his attitude on the HIV virus? Ebola? I have never seen this level of insanity in my life. I have no way of knowing if Trump set off all this anti-intellectual, anti-science horse shit, or if it would have existed without him. All I know is, no one ignored HI-fucking-V. No one called it a hoax. Christ, if someone got in a car accident, people showed up wearing hazmat suits. The fear was that great. And justifiably so. If a kid got infected with HIV, they treated him like an outcast and told him he couldn't come in to school ever again. Talk about an entirely different mindset. People weren't having HIV parties and trying to get infected with HIV. It can't just be written off as a generation thing, this asshole who just died was 61.

With people this stupid at the present time, were HIV to come walking on the scene for the first time, would they be in denial with that virus too? Sadly, I think many would be.