Steve and Sansa like to do old-timey boxing with each other.
There are two excellent pieces on Rodney King right now!
- His daughter talks about her dad:
She remembered a father who spent Fridays crisscrossing Los Angeles and San Bernardino counties to pick up his three daughters.
On the long rides, he would map out the plans for the weekend. Sometimes, it was skiing at Mt. Baldy, surfing in Venice, a day at Raging Waters. He also liked to go to places where famous people, including black celebrities and artists, would draw attention away from him.
In school, she tried to keep her father’s identity secret. But he would show up during “Back to School” nights or cheer her from the audience during school plays. Then everybody would know that Lora was Rodney King’s daughter.
2. The brilliant Carvell Wallace:
Twenty-five years ago this week, the rest of the world found out. George Holliday’s video tape of Rodney King’s brutal beating by the LAPD was broadcast on KTLA. My mother yelled at me that they were beating this man on television. It was the most unsettling thing I had ever seen, and I dealt with it the way children do: I pretended it didn’t exist. I spent the entire day that followed feeling antsy, angry, and manic. I was bused to a high school clear on the other side of Los Angeles. I didn’t tell anyone else what I had seen. No one told anyone else what they had seen.
The horror of what was captured in the footage stayed in my body. I felt like it had happened to me. I felt like it could happen to me at any time, and therefore felt as if it was always happening to me. That’s the kind of thing it was, that was how it resonated. An image that replays in your head time and time again, working slowly on your cellular makeup until you forget, after awhile, if you watched it on television or experienced it yourself. When you turned out the lights you saw it, projected in the darkness above your head. Not really there, but never really gone. It changed you. It made you start shoplifting. It made you start smoking cigarettes. It made you switch to Bad Brains because N.W.A weren’t angry enough. It made you tag benches and throw your skateboard at buses crawling down Sunset Boulevard. It made you start huffing on the noxious and magnificent power of not giving a fuck.
This is one of the most moving and beautiful photos I’ve ever seen, and it’s disgusting that there are people using it for their gross, bigoted campaigns.
I woke up yesterday and clicked excitedly on the Ghostbusters trailer and felt totally deflated by what they did to Leslie Jones’ character (amazed that the white ladies can do !science!, because her skills are !streetsmarts!), and wondered if I was just being nitpicky, and then I got on Twitter and saw that a LOT of people felt the same sense of disappointment, and now I’m just a little bummed, and I hope the trailer is not representative of the movie.
Oh, and then this happened:
oh there are SECRET Trump voters among us:
I’m pro abortion and pro equal pay for women. I’m pro gay marriage.
I want to increase the minimum wage and I’m prepared to pay higher taxes and higher prices for groceries and fast food to cover it.
I’m pro death penalty, but against the pro gun rights lobby.
I hate the Republicans’ efforts to restrict voting rights for black people and the erosion of The Voting Rights Act, but I’m against affirmative action.
I’m very concerned about radical Muslims, and liked Donald’s idea to stop all Muslim immigration.
The Guardian’s Food in Books column takes on the jollof rice in Americanah:
She made him the kind of jollof rice he liked, flecked with bits of red and green peppers, and as he ate, fork moving from the plate to his mouth, saying, “This is pretty good,” as he always had in the past, she felt her tears and her questions gathering.
Melissa Gira Grant and Charlotte Shane in conversation:
Charlotte: Your sphere is so different from mine because you’re overtly political, you’re making critiques and publicly connecting dots that make a lot of awful people angry.
Melissa: The Shocking Truth About How Your Sex Work Story Is Already Garbage. I learned it from watching you!
Charlotte: I feel like because I’m mostly in the literary world, everyone actually treats me very gently—perhaps too gently. It’s sweet, and I know it’s coming from a good place, but it also seems entrenched in their (wrong) ideas about sex work, still. Not from paying attention to my non-memoir writing or how I am in public dialogues. Which is cantankerous, surly.
Scenes From Iconic Films Hastily Rewritten So That They Pass The Bechdel Test:
Taxi Driver
TRAVIS: Are you talkin’ to me?
JENNIFER: No, I’m talking to my friend Melinda. Hi, Melinda.
MELINDA: Hi, Jennifer.
JENNIFER: Did you see what happened in the stock market today?
MELINDA: I did. Big morning.
JENNIFER: OK, great chat. Bye, Jennifer. Bye, Travis.
As promised, our lovely Mo Moulton on The Diane Rehm Show!
Seems about right:
I CAN’T WAIT UNTIL OT YOU GUYS
I WON’T BE HERE FOR OT BECAUSE BERNIE IS COMING TO MY TINY-ASS TOWN TODAY AND MY BOSS AND MRCHOUFFE’S BOSS ARE COOL AND WE’RE GOING TO SEE HIM
AAAAAAAAAAAAAA
He was in Lawrence last night! I wasn’t up to seeing him, but it was very nice of him to stop by. HAVE A GREAT TIME!
a Kansas toastie! i live in the Bay Area now and had major FOMO when my homestate bffs were rallying with Bernie yesterday. he looked adorable campaigning on Mass St.
I’M A CLINTON SUPPORTER MYSELF BUT I’M SUPER EXCITED FOR YOUUU~
Enjoy! The first time I saw Bernie speak was a few years ago in a synagogue basement in Brookline, Mass. where he charmed the hell out of Jewish grandmothers and had the calmest response to a baseless accusation that he said something-or-other that I’ve ever seen.
I live in Vermont now, so I’ve seen him a lot this year! Always great. And apparently quite down to earth when he voted, according to an acquaintance who volunteered at his polling place this week.
Yes. That is why so many Good straight men are still Single. Women are turning Gay to get away from you. It certainly has Nothing to do with your Personality.
(Did I do the random commenter Capitals right?)
That deleted comment really brightened my morning.
I know that is why I’m queer! It has nothing to do with really liking sex with women and the emotional intimacy I share with them.
Lesbian! I should be a Lesbian!
If I was born to love women how wondrously sane I would be!
(Very catchy bridge from the off Broadway musical, I Love You, You’re Petfect Now Change.)
I really hope that “Petfect” was deliberate.
alas….not deliberate.
I mean, being queer would be better than turning into a tree, that’s for sure.
Meh. As a queer person, I look forward to my post-40-year-old tree years. Of course, as a queer tree, I won’t let some ungrateful man steal my fruit and branches and cut me down. Tree rights for the Giving Tree! Ban men!
“The early 21st Century saw the tragic and abrupt extinction of the Good straight man. Scientists attribute their sudden disappearance to a variety of factors, including: video game addiction, over-hunting, rampant lesbianism, and Noxious Personalty Disorder (NPD), an increasingly rare congenital affliction wherein one is born with the entirety of one’s head wholly inside one’s own ass. There seems to be no record of even the most half-hearted of conservation efforts to combat their dwindling numbers.”
The documentary almost writes itself!
Well, I suppose a guy with his head up his ass could be said to engaging in SOME kind of introspection.
(Or would that be enterospection?)
Anyway, it’s not the kind of introspection that would actually help.
Ahaah, enterospection.
Poor lil’ douchebro ouroboroses.
(Spellcheck tells me only one out of six of what I just wrote are words)
“Douchebro Ouroboroses” would be a great name for a riot grrrl band.
I think you’ve just coined a lasting phrase!
Like like like.
“over-hunting”
(raises hand) My bad, sorry.
Sigh. Tragedy of the commons, you know?
They were so overabundant for so many years, who could’ve seen the end coming? Now the dusty heads of Steves and Joshes mounted on garage walls are our only reminder of what once was…
I keep a stuffed specimen in my study, right next to my passenger pigeon.
Wait. I’m confused.
Is the set of “Good straight men” coextensive with the set of “Nice Guys”? Is one a subset of the other? Or do they just overlap?
And what about just plain “clueless jerks who really need to look in the mirror to find the source of their problems”?
I’m pretty sure the Venn diagram of “Good straight men” and “Nice Guys” looks like this: O
Yay! A deleted comment! And it was worth the wait!
Anyone else obsessed with the case/lang/veirs song??
I can’t stop playing it. I’d take any new Neko Case but this is an amazing team up!
Oh, thank you for calling this out! I had no idea it existed and now I’ll be excitedly listening to it on repeat all morning 😀
Thank you for sharing! And they’re touring!1!!
Thank you for pointing this out. My life needs it this morning.
YES
i love neko so much
there was a short thread about it yesterday, but really you know if they really thought Zoe Saldana was the best choice, they could have just not put her in black face. They could have just opened with a shot of some one walking up to her and saying “You’re Nina Simone” the audience would have figured it out.
Yeah…in any case, this is definitely an issue where I couldn’t make up my mind until I knew what Judd Apatow thought.
Yeah, they could. Also, having her stay in a movie called “Nina Simone” would have tipped me off, too.
Although, I liked that article that pointed out white people can use make up to play white people without the added burden of a history of blackface. Like, living with the history of racism limits people of color in so many ways and we white folk don’t have to think about.
God, I wish I could super glue the world back together.
That’s a very good point – sort of taking a page from I’m Not There, that Dylan biopic from a few years ago, with Cate Blanchett (and others) as Dylan?
Wigs also make a big difference.
In case you’re not on Twitter, Mallory posted this last night:
“at least once a month I think about how Jon Safran Foer left his wife for Natalie Portman but forgot to ask Natalie Portman first”
And my life is changed.
Male writers are such a delicate breed. Like a fern that dies if you touch it, or a bug that you try to gently brush off your arm but it just smears instead.
ugh, and now he’s apparently maybe dating Michelle Williams (the Dawson’s creek one), and on the one hand she deserves all the happiness but on the other hand I’m like girrrrrl…
WAIT what happened to her and Jason Segal?
His drinking, rumor has it (way too much of my brain acreage is devoted to celebrity gossip)
Oh NOOOOOOOO!!!
I am way too invested in that woman finding a good partner and a good co-parent because her love life has just been so tragic and I feel so sad for her and she seems so LOVELY.
haha my brother was seated at a table with Jonathan Safer Foer at a wedding several years ago (brother’s college roommate attended high school with JSF I think) and said that by the end of the meal he’d practically sprained his eyes from trying so hard and so many times not to roll them at every word coming out of JSF’s mouth.
My first reaction to the trailer for Ghostbusters was excitement, and I am still excited for some parts of it (Kate McKinnon is wonderful), but especially watching it again, the racial dynamics seem pretty fucked up. I guess I’m mostly reduced to hoping the trailer did a shitty job with the movie, and they actually cut some of that stuff. It’s a shitty place to be.
I was disappointed by the trailer honestly. I’ll probably still go see it to stick it to the MRAs who are furious about 4 women being in a movie but I was hoping for something that felt less like an SNL sketch about how funny it would be if Ghostbusters had ladies in it.
Agreed on most/all counts.
I was confused, because I thought in all the earlier talk leading up to the trailer, Leslie Jones’ character was supposed to be a historian? I hope she still is, and it’s just that the trailer is a pos.
She IS. It says “Municipal Historian” on her character poster and it’s been said elsewhere that she has a PhD in history.
That’s honestly one of the reasons I’m remaining cautiously optimistic until I actually see the movie. Still crap that it’s not mentioned in the trailer, but as long as that stays in the movie, there could be some really interesting commentary going on. AND, also bring out that not just a science field would be beneficial in a line of work such as ghostbusting.
That said, that doesn’t erase some of the other iffy stuff that I’ve seen people bring up in regards to her character, so.
(And, I’ll be honest, I felt that the trailer for Spy was lacking in a lot of ways and would have never watched it based on that alone until I was convinced to. And it turned out to be an amazing movie. So I wonder if something similar might happen here.)
I loved Spy! But you’re right, the trailer did not capture some of the best aspects of the movie. Also when I asked people if they wanted to see it I realized just how much Melissa McCarthy gets written off and it made me super sad.
Melissa McCarthy is a modern day Chris Farley without the crippling drug addiction (at least, as far as I know slash I hope this to be true). The degree to which she is underrated is a crime.
Ernie Hudson’s character was originally an Air Force major, and in the whole movie. So, you know, just being authentic with the remake!
I am disappointed. I don’t like Melissa McCarthy being the ‘sloppy fat girl’either.
But, I am still vastly excited, and I will definitely go see it anyway.
It seems to me that if the movie sticks to that, then it could have a good joke about how there are no jobs for history PhDs and so Patty joining the Ghostbusters was her seeking an outlet for her skills.
Beyond the questionable characterization of the one black character, I found the trailer just kinda… lackluster. Like, the jokes were meh. The props and costumes and ghosts were very cartoony in a way I found off-putting. I’m not gonna write the movie off entirely, but I’m not excited for it.
1. I would see this just for Kate McKinnon. 2. That doesn’t change how racist the trailer is, but I’m holding out hope for the PhD in history thing. 3. It would be awesome and correct to say MTA employees have extensive, essential knowledge for Ghostbusting (or just in general), which Leslie Jones pointed out on Twitter. 4. But that doesn’t change how racist the trailer is. Conflicted, really hope it’s terrible editing.
DittoX4, especially the first one.
This GIF is magic, and she is definitely the reason the trailer got me jazzed for this. (I was previously of the “why did it need rebooting” opinion, but hey, this looks fun so let’s do it.)
FWIW, the trailers for Fury Road did nothing to show the world how incredibly awesome and feminist and subversive it would be. They barely even included Furiosa. So I still have hope.
I want to nuzzle that puppy’s chest fluff so bad right now. The hair biting that would most likely ensue? Totally worth it.
Wow, the new dad photo is incredible. And the Irish politician Tweeting it next to the stock photo of the hetero mom kissing her kid on the lips as if the dads are the creepy image of the two… Well, that just defies parody.
“But I’m voting for Donald Trump, and I’ve convinced all my friends and family to do so as well.”
I’m hoping they are just saying that so she’ll quit harassing them about it and actually go vote for someone else…
I love this gif so much, but I have always wondered where it came from. It’s a porn, right?
I always saw it attributed to some sort of Italian Spiderman movie? or tv show?
aha I found it- http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/subcultures/italian… it’s an Australian parody of Italian movies!! Not a porno!
That makes sense! For some reason, he just looks so Australian to me.
Also, thank you for being a better detective than I am. You’re the best.
That made me think immediately of this Vox article: http://www.vox.com/2016/3/1/11127424/trump-author…
“MacWilliams studies authoritarianism — not actual dictators, but rather a psychological profile of individual voters that is characterized by a desire for order and a fear of outsiders. People who score high in authoritarianism, when they feel threatened, look for strong leaders who promise to take whatever action necessary to protect them from outsiders and prevent the changes they fear.”
I don’t know how accurate that is, but it puts into academic phrasing what so many of us have been saying about who likes Trump.
This is fully accurate among more than a dozen of my extended family members.
Here to support your comment, as well as to elicit pity.
You definitely have it.
Judd Apatow just fucking exhausts me at this point, frankly. How fucking hard is it to actually take a moment and investigate why someone might be pissed about something and try to understand?
t-minus 5 seconds before some whitey with a platform announces that “we” should “have a conversation” ignoring that that conversation has been held every 6 months for the last hundred years.
Yeah disclaimer I am whitey but still: IT DOES NOT TAKE MUCH to be aware that this is not some utterly unexamined idea.
That’s pretty hard to do when you’re a white guy. I mean, they already have all of these other pressures and problems forced on them by women and people of color. How can they possibly be expected to deal with all of it? I mean, who can handle being criticized because of their color and gender all the time? It’s not his fault he was born white and male! Why don’t people consider how tough he’s got it? GOD.
Oh my god a white guy I was talking to about Bernie Bro sexism yesterday actually said, “I’m just tired of it being men vs. women all the time.”
OH REALLY???? YOU’RE TIRED OF GENDER-BASED ANTAGONISM??? WELL GOLLY.
I’ve started avoiding things he’s involved in because I know they’re going to piss me off. Love on Netflix, for example.
I watched it and FUCKING HATED THE TWO MAIN CHARACTERS WHY JUDD WHY.
I got through one episode before I gave up. I hated the two main characters so much and nothing about the show seemed fresh or new. I can watch hateable people bumble through relationships in a more engaging fashion on Casual or You’re the Worst.
Ugh my husband is super into it and I pretty much just use the time to read trashy urban fantasy novels.
Also, it’s SUCH a weird comment from someone whose movies often have people almost literally playing themselves? I mean, he’s made TWO movies where his own wife and children play his wife and children with Paul Rudd as the dad instead of Judd Apatow.
Edit: I realize that this is like, the least important problem with this tweet, but I genuinely thought he was serious for a split second given what his movies are like.
Old-timey (fake) boxing with Sansa! That’s a new webseries I can get behind.
And now for a word from our sponsors. Last night’s debate has been brought to you by Toxic Masculinity™. Toxic Masculinity™ – Men telling other men that they need to have big dicks to matter in the world and then those men believe those other men and live their lives accordingly. Get yours today, before some other guy with a bigger dick gets it first.
Everytime I think I’ve seen or heard it all when it comes to the GOP race I am reminded that it can get so, so much worse. Could you ever imagine that presidential candidates would be comparing their dicks on the debate stage? Race to the bottom, indeed.
Metaphorically comparing dick size? Yes, 100%, isn’t a that what all political contests between men are. Literally comparing dick size? OK, that’s a little more original.
Well then, I guess we should be thankful for Trump, um, making it all explicit? Maybe?
Maybe not.
this is frankly the least repugnant direction the GOP debate could have gone
Right? I keep thinking of the Stewart Lee bit where he makes a Boris Johnson joke, then says he wrote that and then Boris Johnson said something very much like his joke, and it gets harder and harder to parody conservatives. You say something you think is extreme to illustrate the ridiculousness of their position, and then they actually say something that is pretty close to that.
Honestly as horrifying as it would be for most of us I think they should just all whip em out and measure and biggest gets to be the nominee. It would really cut through all the bullshit.
Oh, then it would be
“Mine is longest! I win!”
“Mine is long when it’s erect, and that’s more important than when it’s soft!”
“Mine has more girth, and every woman ever says that is what matters most!”
“There should be a formula taking length and width into account, and I’m sure I’d win.”
Me: **dry heaving**
Thank you so very much for that mental image. I’m going to go drink bleach.
And then they could adopt Randy Marsh’s scientific formula. Because the Republican party is now sinking to South Park levels, for reals.
#nightmarefuel
This sounds like the beginning of a revolting real person fanfic.
Oh god don’t give me any ideas. (The stress of this stupid campaign season is really wearing on my sanity)
I take it back. I take it baaaaaaaaaaaaaack!
cf. “Geez God lighten up, I was J O K I N G.” Too late, you went there. Zero forgiveness for you!
Except no one would bring up what women say or think.
Huh, I was thinking this is the only time men would take women’s opinions into account. But they would, like, just take that benign compliment a college girlfriend made about, “Oh, yeah, you totally have an awesome penis” and extrapolate all women’s opinions from that.
But my experience with straight men their relationships with their penises is really very very limited. So I would trust others on this.
Ha. That’s a fair point. It would be that one thing one woman said one time to be polite but didn’t really mean that got trotted out to make their point.
No, they all would, but they would be lying.
I actually had a dream last night that Donald Trump groped me in a crowd and I kicked him in his tiny, squishy testicles and became super famous for getting him arrested for sexual assault…
And speaking of penises, just gonna leave this link here.. .http://www.theonion.com/article/donald-trump-stares-forlornly-at-tiny-aged-penis-i-28589
That link was so revolting that it made me delightfully happy.
I was aghast when my husband told me this is what the debates have devolved into. (I can’t even watch them.) The debates should have been stopped two debates ago, when it became clear that they were just shouting matches. Either that, or the candidates should be required now to prove all their claims in debates…somebody get out the measuring tape.
There’s part of me that still can’t quite believe that happened. The Republican nominees are really comparing penis size? In a debate? On national tv?
I will admit that I was pretty amused to see my FB feed today being like “can you believe Donald Trump talked about how big his dick was?” I was just like, “Wait, he just talked about it and didn’t literally whip it out in an attempt to intimidate his own staff? Truly, politics has come a long way since LBJ…”
I love Doris Kearns Goodwin, and sometimes I watch her speak and think, “Oh, the horrors that she’s seen.”
As usual Alexandra Petri’s take on this was gold- https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/compost/wp/2…
She has been brilliant. It’s hard to write satire on stuff like this, but she does it.
Oh my god, that “Little Marco”/”Big Donald” thing actually happened. I was hoping it was a fever dream.
Actually, all of that is so close to what actually happened that I feel actual, cheeks-blushing embarrassment that I am an American citizen.
“Good God. There’s a reason men aren’t Ghostbusters any more. You lost that privilege.”
“This obsession with hands is getting out of… well, you know.”
Megyn Kelly’s unimpressed face won last night’s debate, I don’t care what anybody says. It’s such a goddamn circus, I can’t even with these assholes. Trump and Rubio just yelling in the vicinity of each other, and Ted Cruz turns to the camera all “these guys, amirite?”
If you haven’t everyone should watch NPR’s tiny desk contest winner- http://www.npr.org/sections/allsongs/2016/03/03/4…
I can’t get over how beautiful her song is.
I have chills.
God, I love this so much!
I read a couple of those Trump testimonies, but I couldn’t make it through. I couldn’t. I have too much anxiety already (I had a Trump nightmare last night and I didn’t even watch the debate.)
But that former Occupy protester who compared Trump’s rhetoric to Common Core Standards? I mean, people are being beaten as a result of Trump’s words. There is literal racist violence happening because of him. It takes a special kind of white privilege to equate that with the demise of humanities education.
I also have Trump nightmares! They are awful!
I came here precisely to complain about That Guy. You’re really going to cite _Heidegger_ to justify your bullshit accelerationist revolutionary fantasies, and make no reference at all to the millions of Americans and human beings who a presidential frontrunner has threatened, to applause.
File under: Things that make me question my career in philosophy.
Also, dude, you are 24 and you “work in a liberal arts department.” You are, at best, a graduate student TA. You aren’t a PhD professor. Stop pretending like you have revolutionary insight the rest of us mere mortals can’t see.
ETA: I recognize this comment places a lot of credibility on level of education and job status which is not fair. I will, however, still call bullshit on his “I work in higher ed and I can name drop philosophers so I am Real Smart not like you Idiots” posturing.
That Guardian piece about the Trump supporters. The fact that there is not just one but *two people* on there who legitimately think Trump is Hitler, but his presidency won’t affect them but will WAKE UP THE SHEEPLE is just. Well. If that’s not “Fuck you, I got mine,” taken to the extreme, idk what is.
Also, didn’t they LITERALLY try that with Hitler? And the result was Hitler?
Or smaller scale, with George W. Bush?
Plus, Hitler did not work out well for the Germans who didn’t like Hitler! (Or anyone, really.)
The undercurrent of racism, homophobia and misogyny masquerading as “anti-PC” is so revolting and depressing.
I am so boggled by the ~liberal-left~ professor who is so annoyed at people calling out racism and sexism that he wants to vote for Trump out of spite. And then there’s the guy who feels discriminated against for the first time in his life as a “white man” but has no awareness, and so wants to vote for Trump.
The lack of human empathy coupled with privilege blinders and outright bigotry is staggering.
Discriminated against for the first time in his life AT AGE 62.
I KNEW when I deleted that comment you’d grab it for Deleted Comments! I love being right about these things.
That deleted comment should be printed on a t-shirt.
“us Good”
“I’m very concerned about radical Muslims, and liked Donald’s idea to stop all Muslim immigration.” So…not so much a secret Trump voter as secret bigot. Thanks, bro.
I seriously saw a comment on a Dutch article to day that said. “I just don’t trust [non-white people]. Nothing racist about that” and I marveled at how succinct an encapsulation of cognitive dissonance that was.
Right, though? Like we have this perfectly just society, nothing about it is harmful for the people inside it, and the only possible harm posed to it is by outsider, evil Muslims?
How is it possible to think that? I can’t understand brushing over the deep injustices that currently exist (plus those DT would bring with him) as fundamentally insignificant compared to the slight (albeit dramatic) threat of terrorism. I’m swinging so hard between fiery rage and just being sadly tired and, man, it is the weirdest feeling.
It’s possible to think that if you live in the fog of privileged obliviousness I guess. But I think it also is just straight up racism.
I guess if you don’t see racism as a problem, America is doing pretty good as a country.
Apologies if this has already been posted (I haven’t seen it!) but I ran across a Toast-Relevant article this morning, on the costume design of Hamilton:
http://tyrannyofstyle.com/costume-design-hamilton…
You never, never have to apologize for posting Hamilton content here.
But … but … what am I, without constant, pre-emptive apologizing? A shell of a person, a half-life.
Knee-jerk “sorrys” always make me think of this. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQucWXWXp3k
I really enjoyed this!
Guys, guys, guys! Can we talk about what happened on the 100 yesterday?
Spoilers below obviously!
On one hand, the hate the showrunner is getting is a bit much. On the other hand, using basically the same storyline as Buffy to kill off your lesbian character seconds after they’ve had sex for the first time, in what world is that a great plot choice? I think I would be less bummed if they hadn’t played up the relationship so much. I follow a few of the writers on twitter, and several of them retweeted stuff from fans saying that the Clexa storyline had helped them deal with depression, suicidal thoughts, had given them hope etc. Which, considering they all knew this was going to happens seems a little rotten to me. I understand that the actress was on a different show and had to go, but playing it up like that wasn’t true, and giving interviews about how AMC had been super generous with her time, and that the guy in charge was an old friend so it wasn’t a big deal, and then a few months later being like “actually no, this was it. We knew we could never get her for more” does seem a little bit unfair give to fans all that false hope.
I follow a lot of people who were devastated by this. Especially young LGBT women. And, I’m honestly furious even though I’ve never watched the show. Because “bury your gays” is such a common trope that every time, EVERY TIME, two women start to fall in love, there’s this sense of waiting for the other shoe to drop. One of them is going to die. One of them will cheat with a man. It’s just a stunt for sweeps. We EXPECT it to happen because it always does.
They knew from the beginning they weren’t going to be able to keep this actress. So instead of coming up with another way to write out Lexa’s character or maybe even not build up the Clexa relationship at all and introduce someone else to be Clarke’s love interest, they chose this route. One that is extremely hurtful to queer women because this is one of the only stories that ever gets told about us. We don’t get to live. Our pain exists for others to consume for their own enjoyment.
(And as for hating the showrunner, he kind of deserves it. He’s indulged in some racist storytelling as well and brushed off any of that criticism and has acted kind of like a jerk about this whole Clexa thing as well. You don’t get to claim that you’re providing great representation and stories when you spend a lot of time tearing them down in incredibly hurtful ways.)
I watched Buffy as it aired, and Willow and Tara were the first lesbian couple I’d ever seen. I watched Tara die two months after my 17th birthday.
I just watched Lexa die in the exact same way two days before I turn 31. This has been going on for my entire adult life.
And you know what? The 100 is so much less important to me than Buffy was, and in a lot of ways I am more equipped to deal with this storyline emotionally. But even though I am now out, married to a woman, and living a life I wasn’t sure could exist, watching this happen again doesn’t really hurt any less.
I am 99% convinced that this is well-executed satire, mainly because the alternative is too horrible for words:
I’m a liberal-left college professor in the social sciences. I’m going to vote for Trump but I won’t tell hardly anybody.
My main reason is anger at the two-party system and the horrible presidencies of Obama and Bush. But I’m also furious at political correctness on campus and in the media.
I’m angry at forced diversity and constant, frequently unjustified complaints about racism/sexism/homophobia/lack of trans rights. I’m particularly angry at social justice warriors and my main reason to vote Trump is to see the looks on your faces when he wins.
It’s not that I like Trump. It’s that I hate those who can’t stand him. I want them to suffer the shock of knowing all their torrents of blog posts and Tumblr bitch-fests and “I just can’t …” and accusations of mansplaining didn’t actually matter. That they’re still losing. And that things are not getting better for them. They’re getting worse.
The “I won’t tell hardly anybody” is … a little odd, for me. It’s not the kind of phrasing I would expect from a “liberal-left college professor”.
Actually the whole thing reads to me more like someone who has a grudge against liberal college professors than an actual professor, but maybe I’m just being optimistic.
I do a lot of editing and if there’s one thing I’ve learned it’s that there is little to no correlation between someone’s level of education/ job title and the quality of their writing. But I would still like to believe the guy’s a fake.
Yeah, but he’s in the social sciences.
Can we all just agree that the vast majority of people who are “furious at political correctness” are really just furious about being asked to tone down their bigotry? Whenever people start railing again “PC culture” I want to run away.
It’s amazing how long you could be a self-described liberal and an obvious bigot.
FOR A PROFESSOR THEY CLEARLY DON’T UNDERSTAND WHAT “LEFT-LIBERAL” MEANS
WHAT ARE THEY A PROFESSOR OF? DOUCHEBAGS?!?
Ahem.
eta: there is probably some quality academic writing about the cultural significance of douchebags and how they relate to Western notions of femininity and cleanliness, or about the evolution of the word as an insult in the english language but whatev
“Douchebags are hygienic products. I take that as a compliment, thank you.” –from a notable text on camp (perhaps the most incisive since Sontag)
I haven’t read this article on the rise of the word douchebag in awhile, so I can’t quite remember its quality, but I definitely remember loving the description of douchebag, in both contexts, as “a useless, sexist tool.”
yeah, I definitely continue to use douchebag as an insult because it is actually harmful to vaginas
BIG HEART EYES for my fellow toasties today.
If you are furious at political correctness, “forced diversity,” and complaints about racism/sexism/homophobia/lack of trans right, you are not a liberal. I mean, FOR REAL. What is it about the liberal-left that you like? Smoking pot and being able to have a lot of judgement-free sex? That is not liberalism, that is dirtbaggery.
Oh god, I hope it’s satire. Because that comment made me want to throttle someone. “OH BOO-HOO, SO SORRY YOU CAN’T BE A BIGOTED ASSHOLE IN PUBLIC WITHOUT GETTING CALLED FOR IT ANYMORE, POOR YOU.”
From now on I’m just going straight there. As a woman of a certain age, I dont give a fuck (I give less of athe fuck than when I was punk) about how my words might make assholes feel.
(on another forum yesterday)
dude: aren’t you worried that your words are hurtful to me?
me: no.
I’m going to vote for Trump but I won’t tell hardly anybody.
You should be fired for grammatical reasons anyway.
Left-liberal professor or Opie from the Andy Griffith Show?
This one plays a little too easily into Godwin’s law
“I’m a patriotic socialist, but my strong-borders patriotism wins over my socialism if I have to choose. As Donald says, we either have a country or we don’t.”
I wonder how they would feel about a National Socialist Party?
Yeah, I mean, it’s straight-up Trumpism. Trump has never really been a libertarian-style advocate for small government. He’s all about big government, just making sure it benefits the right people. It was his business model.
Translate to, “I’ve been called out for saying asshole things, so I want to punish all of you!”
I actually hesitate to believe that this is an actual professor too. There’s no mention of the horrible scourge of trigger warnings, which seems to be the rallying cry among many other professors who I thought I once respected.
(For the record, in case my sarcasm comes across badly, I am in the hard sciences but friends with tons of social science and liberal arts profs, and have come to the semi-obvious conclusions that trigger warnings are a) not new as a concept, b) amazingly useful/kind, and c) not really intrusive at all).
Do you think this is that awful Sociology(?) professor that a regular commenter whose name I’ve forgotten was having so many problems with earlier this year?
I think it must be.
It would be nice to think so, because that would mean there was only one of them, but I doubt we’re so lucky.
I loved bighairnoheart’s rants about that guy.
“I want them to suffer…”
But like…you will probably suffer also? And all of your friends and family. And people you care about, and people you don’t’ know but who are good people. So not only will things not get better for “them”, things will not get better for YOU.
Although this person strikes me as 1000% cranky white man, so maybe things will get better for him, or at least stay the same.
*implodes into rageball, nothing but ashes left*
This is a problem with a lot of the tenets of the GOP, though — I don’t care about the rest of you, I only care about me (my money, my rights to control your uterus, etc.). No empathy for other people or understanding of an issue unless they have personally been affected by it.
I don’t doubt it for a second I’ve known about as many folks on the left as not who are super up in arms about THE SJWS. Including ones who the other ones would classify as THE SJWS.
For a whole lotta folks the 30 year mark prompts a seamless transition from radical edgy teenager who’s never gonna be an old crank like their parents to old crank mad about kids these days with their purple hair and their iphones and their weird genders and like I don’t get how you can’t see that happening to you, it’s not subtle, but they don’t.
… “I’m going to vote for Trump because I don’t like feminists”…? That’s… wow….
Too horrible for words- so horrible, you literally just can’t.
The McSweeney’s link sent me down a rabbit hole, and I found this gem: http://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/dont-worry-i-c…
“I checked the status of my white male privilege in a variety of situations.
Workplace
Joining an all-hands staff meeting a half-hour late, I immediately take control of the room through constant interruptions, derisive snorts, and loudly slurping two-dozen chilled oysters. When the meeting breaks, I am taken aside and told I have management potential. The fact that I don’t work there is never brought up.
Privilege: Intact”
Love Elliot Kalan and love this, and also it makes me want to explode because #TooReal
AHHHHHH ELLIOTT KALAN
He has my dream life. I’m excited to see what he does next.
didn’t realize that was satire ’til the last sentence.
Seriously side eyeing the British immigrant who likes Trump’s willingness to choose the borders. That was a soul-crushing piece to read.
This is a guy who’s happy he moved here because UKIP doesn’t go far enough.
Fucking awful.
CAN WE TALK ABOUT THE OCCUPIER TURN TRUMP GUY THOUGH?!
“I work in a liberal arts department. I’ve read the works of Karl Marx, Herbert Marcuse, John Stuart Mill, Friedrich Nietzsche, Plato, Judith Butler, Simone de Beauvoir, Michel Foucault and so on. I am more inclined to listen to what Slavoj Žižek or Noam Chomsky have to say about current affairs than Rachel Maddow or Bill O’Reilly. ”
“Early in 2014 I began concealing my political opinions from people, and it was shortly after this time that I began plotting to vote Republican in hopes that the party would send the country so far in the direction of complete unrestricted neoliberalism and libertarian free market superstition that Americans would come to recognize the dangers of these ideologies and eventually reject them.”
THE OUT OF CONTEXT HEIDIGGER QUOTE. etc.
Even before getting to the second paragraph, he sounds awful.
Guy In Your Philosophy 101 Section
I hate this guy with the passion of a burning supernova. “Look, I study PHILOSOPHY, which means I’m much more ENLIGHTENED about how to single-handly EXPOSE the dangers of NEOLIBERALISM to dum-dum Americans. Which means I’m voting for Trump.”
I will take my chances with the slow process of corporatization if it lets me foreclose the possibility of being enslaved within the year, thanks.
Of course he is more inclined to listen to Slavoj Žižek than Rachel Maddow.
Has anyone heard James Adomian play Slavoj Žižek on Comedy Bang Bang?
Look, I’m not saying that nobody who likes Žižek is worth listening to, but I feel confident ignoring anyone who goes out of their way to talk about liking Žižek.
Of course.
I routinely confuse Slavoj Žižek and Željko Ivanek. It’s really the only way I would find Mr. Philosophy 101 to be even remotely tolerable.
It must be weird to be so high up above everyone else that Rachel Maddow and Bill O’Reilly look equally intellectual to you.
It’s so hard to read these while rolling my eyes.
I mean, this guy is definitely everyone’s least-favorite first year grad student, and it was physically painful to read that entire statement, but I think the kicker is that say what you will about Zizek (hard pass) but Heidegger was literally a Nazi.
honestly I’m beginning to suspect someone at the Guardian thought it would be fun to write in the character of their ex
This reads like the worst Tinder profile of all time.
ALL I COULD THINK while reading the secret Trump voters piece was how voting for him isn’t even the worst thing many of these people are gonna do. I’m seriously worried about that California professor guy’s students. One day all that rage is going to make him snap.
Yeah, a guy who’s political philosophy is “people disagree with me, so I’m going to burn down the Republic just to show them” is not someone who will, you know, earn the trust of his students.
Early in 2014 I began concealing my political opinions from people, and it was shortly after this time that I began plotting to vote Republican in hopes that the party would send the country so far in the direction of complete unrestricted neoliberalism and libertarian free market superstition that Americans would come to recognize the dangers of these ideologies and eventually reject them.
GOOD PLAN. I see no possible bad outcomes.
“I will deliberately work to make the world a worse place so people will magically support my ideas to make the world a better place! My brilliant ideas like making the world a worse place so etc.”
It’s like they think of the United States as a drug addict that needs to hit rock bottom. Don’t they realize that many addicts don’t survive hitting rock bottom?
I only just discovered that accelerationism is a thing like last week and I cannot wrap my head around it.
Thanks to all the Toastrons who gave me excellent radio advice! It was so much fun talking about Downton, and the host (Indira Lakshmanan, because Diane Rehm has the flu) mentioned the Toast EVERY TIME she introduced me. I tried to remember to talk slowly but a few times I got SO EXCITED to talk about women’s rights and queer subcultures and the impact of World War I on economic policy… anyway, hurray for the hyphen Toast dot com, and for public radio.
MO YOU DID SUCH AN EXCELLENT JOB AND I WAS SO PROUD
I was SO BUMMED that i had to get to work early today and missed my usual Friday commute Diane Rehm 🙁 I’m sure you were great!
Nicole linked to the segment above!
I assumed that was a link to the livestream!
I enjoyed this & your Downton recaps so much, thank you!
I was so disappointed by the Ghostbusters trailer. One because Leslie Jones is a token and that is fucking ridiculous because LJ is AMAZING and deserves better than this! But also: where are my other women of color?! Not to say those white lady comedians aren’t hilarious, but a reboot is always a chance to do new, interesting stuff and if you want a ticket draw do Melissa McCarthy OR Kristen Wiig and then lesser-knowns who deserve fame and accolades because they’re hilarious and haven’t had the opportunity yet!
Also: the trailer wasn’t that funny 🙁
I never saw the trailer for Spy and I assume it was terrible so I’m kind of hoping that Ghostbusters will be like that? Like the trailer is making the film look dumber than it actually is? I loved Spy and Bridesmaids and they’re both smart and respectful and I just wanna believe Paul Feig et al know what they’re doing. Guess we’ll see though :s
I can absolutely believe “The movie is good but the marketing department are dickheads.”
gah the sheer number of those Trump voters who don’t seem to get that voting isn’t a statement and policy is real and affects real people. gaaaah.
I mean: “His candidacy is a happy accident that is currently ripping the soul of America apart, which is something that I think we desperately need (and deserve) at this time in our history, for better or for worse.”
“The last time we crossed paths with a Hitler and/or Hirohito, the country woke up and fought. And won! He might supply us with the shock we need in order to wake up and fight.”
“Trump is a wake up call. A president Trump could be as bad as Hitler, but if he shocks some good people in both the Republican and Democratic parties into realizing that they are ignoring legitimate concerns of a seizable minority, then let him have his four years.”
Nooo, how can you think the literal bloodshed that will happen because of this stuff will somehow be WORTH IT?
“the last time we crossed paths with a Hitler and/or Hirohito” they were running another country. Also it was during the time period when we interned the Japanese & Japanese American community and divested them of their property so maybe not the best example all around..
no no we were universally the good guys there, and literally every American got behind the war effort because we all agreed Hitler was just that bad, and we’ll do it again…just wait…
That “Trump is a wake up call” comment was the one that drove me to despair. I mean, “he might be as bad as Hitler, but I’m kind of OK with that because there’s a small chance that maybe it might turn out well in the long run.” Who thinks like that???
I do not think that Trump supporter quite grasps the fact that in the scenario he describes, Americans will be the Germans/Japanese, not the liberating Americans.
i sort of see it unspoken but tacitly implied there that of course are no liberating Americans out there now, no Soviets to take the fight back to Berlin, this time we’re gonna get it right and the Reich will endure for a thousand years!!!
one country, one people, one President
I dream horrible dreams about Trump. I have never felt such unbridled rage and fear towards another human being. My family and friends (none of whom are Trump supporters) tell me I am obsessed, but I tell them they do not see the danger of an actual Trump presidency.
I am in the same boat. I am terrified of what his racist and xenophobic rhetoric will mean for people I love.
Part of me is actually curious about what a Trump presidency looks like, and what his voters think it looks like. I mean, he can’t stick to talking points, so what happens between the state department and the UN ambassador’s office? Like, the state department would be involved in intricate diplomacy and Trump would say the direct opposite and then what? Say what you will about Obama or Bush or Clinton or whoever, but they had consistent messaging.
I know that “messaging” is so establishment and we tend trust people who are off-the-cuff, but we shouldn’t necessarily. An administration having a consistent message is really vital to, like, having a coherent conversation.
Trump said he liked the mandate provision of the ACA and then, 2 DAYS LATER, he came out with a 7-point health care plan to dismantle the mandate and completely repeal the ACA. Just…how is that governing? I’m to the point where I look at Cruz and think, “At least I know he has a clear plan. A clear plan I hate, but it’s a plan.”
cmon it’ll be fun we might get a horse Senator
I have seen the film Caligula and am having horrible flashbacks this is ALL YOUR FAULT
Terrifyingly accurate. I wonder if Caligula was orange?
I can’t even look at a picture of him.
I dreamed last night that Trump had to drop out of the race because he was a threat to national security, and I woke up so peaceful and serene and then remembered reality existed.
I need to stop reading the Trump voter article because it keeps getting worse. Like this guy who openly admits that he is voting for someone akin to Hitler.
“I believe that it is too late for a conventional cure. So, there is Drumpf. He is indeed a buffoon and a recipe for disaster. If he were to do half of the horrific things he says he would, he would be a catastrophe. He could be a blend of Hitler and Hirohito.
That’s why I would vote for him. The last time we crossed paths with a Hitler and/or Hirohito, the country woke up and fought. And won! ”
His grasp of history is making the veins in my forehead pulse. The people that voted for Hitler and kept Hirohito in power weren’t the ones who fought them it was outside forces!!!! Is his plan that he votes for Trump thereby leading to a coalition of forces to invade and demolish America leaving it to rebuild for decades under the oversight of the conquering parties?
Yeah, and it’s not like there was any collateral damage for Hitler and Hirohito taking power. And we didn’t wake up and fight either of them until Hirohito already bombed Hawaii.
“The last time we crossed paths with a Hitler and/or Hirohito, the country woke up and fought.”
Yes, Hitler bombing Pearl Harbour was a pivotal moment in US history.
Who cares about all those Jews who got killed in the Holocaust WWII was like the best war ever because America won greatest generation amiright
I was pretty pumped when I saw the Ghostbusters trailer tbh. And I get some of the criticism and agree with it but I was also disappointed by some that criticism that focused more on the style of Leslie Jones’ comedy and used that to make assumptions about the character being a stereotype. I think someone else pointed out that the character description has her as a historian, so maybe the trailer just doesn’t reflect that? Anyways, I wanna be hopeful and I will probably see it too.
The plot development I am praying for is “Leslie Jones has a PhD, was about to quit the MTA anyway because she just paid off the last student loan, while the other three Ghostbusters are still mired in debt because it’s hard to get funding for paranormal research.”
Okay, I’m getting really disturbed because that’s a little too close to my actual life.
The Other Leslie Jones
Now I’m imagining that she has a PhD in the Liberal Arts but working for the MTA pays better/is more stable and that’s why she does it.
Probably better benefits than adjunct work, because union.
Leslie Jones on twitter is super thrilled about the movie, so I’m really hoping it’s good. I think Feig’s trailers can play to the lowest common denominator, like the trailers for Spy looked kind of terrible, but I actually really enjoyed it. I think in this trailer they are trying to draw on the nostalgia of the originals so maybe making it seem like more of a straight reboot than it really is, right down to the characterizations. Kind of like the teaser was all serious business and serious music and cop cars and the national guard, and then suddenly the ghostbusters logo–like I’m hoping with the marketing they are just playing with tropes but the movie will actually end of subverting them.
YOU GUYS! I know it’s not the open thread but I’ll probably be gone by then, and I need to tell someone: there’s a great new Dutch feminist website, so I pitched them an article… and now they want to meet and maybe make it a series 😀 😀 😀
Yay! Congrats!
Whoop!
Woohoo!! Way to go!
What’s this website? I would love to take a look!
It’s called Vileine
I love that new dad photo. I also enjoy thinking about how that kid is going to gently make fun of their dad years from now for his ugly cry face (which is so sweet and so moving, every child should be welcomed with that much overwhelming joy).
A local pro hockey player tweeted a photo of himself doing the skin-to-skin thing with his brand new baby. And it was also very sweet.
I hate this narrative of “i’m a dad, i’m too masculine to take an interest in my children. it’s creepy to be physically affectionate with my offspring” I’m glad there are dads of all kinds breaking that narrative apart.
I’m glad I’m not the only one who was disappointed by the presentation of Leslie Jones’s character in the Ghostbusters trailer. I still really want to see it, though! Is that wrong? I love Leslie Jones and all the other main actors, and i do want to support more women being cast…
It’s True, if I were Single now I would be Gay just to reject the Good Straight Men. That’s exactly how it works
This is why Men need Rights. Left to choose for themselves, women are just going to turn to each other.
Was just contacted at work by someone named “Rilla” (short for Marilla, obvs.) and thinking of L.M. Montgomery fans out there in the world, finding one another and having children, just erased all the icky feelings from reading the anonymous Trump voters article.
SQUEE!
I don’t have any solid commentary on the Ghostbusters trailer, but I was amused and slightly boggled to see the thirteen thousand (!!!) downvotes, presumably provided by dudes who are shocked and appalled that the franchise has been tainted by the presence of giiiiiiiiiiirls.
Like . . . is this truly the biggest issue they are currently facing in life? Oh, to be so carefree that the reboot of an eighties movie is the only problem I have.
The screenshot comparing the relative downvote counts for Michael Bay’s TMNT nightmare to the new Ghostbusters is certainly illuminating.
Excuse me, I need to go click an up-thumb.
If Judd Apatow’s new show LOVE is any indication, Judd Apatow thinks actors should only be allowed to play Judd Apatow.
He should just circumvent all this and be like Woody Allen.
presumably without the child molestation
I have avoided the siren call of Love and am saving it for a day when I just really feel like hating something.
Deleted comment did not disappoint!
I protested a Trump rally yesterday, and it was enlightening to hear the reasons people in line were talking about for supporting Trump. Mostly the standard, he’s rich and not part of the system, and is going to take America back for them. There was one guy who referred to him as Mr. Trump, and said that he lived in a cabin in the woods, and the Donald mentioned being for guys on cabins in a speech once. Pandering, it works!
the mountain man vote is gonna swing this election I tell you
You must be in Maine…me too! I sadly was not able to protest but I was there in spirit.
While we’re sharing links, AAAAGH Matthew Goode and Matthew Rhys are gonna make a show about wine. What did we do today for the universe to give us this.
I am not a wine drinker (terrible acid reflux –> no wine for me, booo) but I will still watch the SHIT out of this show because GUUUUH. Matthews. Swoon.
So grateful for that link to the jollof rice, since I had never read that “Little Library Cafe” column before, and it’s about to become my whole life. The Guardian has the most fun, nerdy book coverage.
There’s a whole website! Good-bye, your afternoon, hello literary food: http://thelittlelibrarycafe.com/
OH MY GOSH! thank you!
You’re welcome! You had a more gracious response than I did – namely, a combination of “OH MY GOSH this is the greatest” and “whyyy didn’t *I* think of that?”
Oh oh I saved this to share with you all, even though I am terribly late to the LR party.
From The New Yorker, on the company Scalia kept:
“Like many such essays, Foster’s begins in a jocular vein—“You’re only as old as your current wife,” he writes. But then he goes on to say that while he spent his professional career practicing law, “I’ve also been pursuing my passion—killing things. I’m sure many of you have become mamby-pamby girly men and think that killing things is oh, so redneck and lower class. Well, you’ll be delighted to know that I generally go killing things with Continental royalty and English nobility, and we look down on the rednecks just like you do.”
(According to the Web site of the Order of St. Hubertus, the current grand master is His Imperial Highness Istvan von Habsburg-Lothringen, the archduke of Austria.)
Foster went on, “I am pleased to report that I’ve killed lots of elephants, lions, buffalo, leopards, kudu, deer and the last legally shot black rhinoceros, together with more than 150,000 birds of various species. When the last duck comes flying over with a sign around his neck ‘I am the last duck,’ I will shoot it.” Concluding with a political observation, Foster writes, “It also won’t surprise you that I still rail against liberals, the academic kleptocracy, Washington bureaucrats and feminazis.”
This is a real “Is this a real jerk or a clever satire” piece.
While I was reading Americanah I made jollof rice about a dozen times. It was all I wanted to eat.
there’s always so much great/important/hilarious stuff in these and i’m going to read it all but today i’m especially grateful for the jollof rice recipe; just the idea of cooking has been completely defeating me lately but i’m going to make this (and dilute/mess it up by throwing in some kidney beans for protein). v excited to have a task to focus on AND come away with something tasty!
Guys I just found out that my new bff at work who designs the awesome Hamilton mugs is old friends with Alexandra Petri! This confirms my theory that all cool people eventually converge.
I finally started watching Jessica Jones the other night (I’d been holding off until I was in a good emotional place, because of the OMGSODARK warnings), and after I finished the first episode, Donald Trump was on the tv in the living room (my roommate watches never-ending election coverage, it’s terrible). I got suddenly anxious, had to put my headphones back on with a white noise generator. Because Kilgrave is at least a fictional abusive, murderous psychopath who can make people do whatever he wants.
“I’m concerned that some US citizens have a loyalty to their own group over and above their loyalty to America, and will lobby accordingly.”
OH OH YOU MEAN LIKE HOW SOME CITIZENS HAVE MORE LOYALTY TO WALL STREET AND THEIR OWN BANK ACCOUNTS OVER AND ABOVE THEIR LOYALTY TO AMERICA?
OR LIKE HOW CERTAIN CITIZENS ARE SO LOYAL TO THE PEOPLE IN THEIR OWN GROUP THAT NO ONE HAS GONE TO JAIL FOR POISONING AN ENTIRE CITY FULL OF AMERICANS?
OR OR OR MAYBE LIKE HOW SOME CITIZENS ARE MORE LOYAL TO THEIR RELIGIOUS BELIEFS THAN TO THE AMERICAN LAW THAT GUARANTEES THEIR FELLOW AMERICANS’ RIGHTS TO NECESSARY MEDICAL PROCEDURES?
BECAUSE GEE WHIZ THAT WOULD BE AWFUL AND UNPATRIOTIC
EXCUSE ME WHILE I GO EXPLODE SOMEWHERE
AAAAUUUUGGGGHHH
For me, it was less the electoral loss and more how he's handled himself since then. When the Green nomination went to someone else in 2008, deciding to run an independent campaign did nothing to support the party he'd purported to be helping by running in 2000.
I admire his work as a consumer advocate. I just don't think it's best done in the realm of electoral politics.
*UNapologetically
If I could plaster the world with Propane Jane's tweets I would, I am SO glad you brought those up!!! It's staggering when you realize how little Bernie's campaign cares about social issues compared to his beef with Wall Street honestly…
And the biggest argument against that is the fact that Obama did not manage to undo the shit that Bush (and Clinton) unleashed, particularly in the economic sense.
Things would have been much worse, but outside gay marriage, Obamacare and the end of DADT, Obama was not able to claw back the depredations of an unleashed financial sector, increasing power of corporations, and the erosion of workers' rights.
He did extremely well with the handicaps he inherited, but who wants things to erode even more (and be even more difficult to recover from) under a Trump presidency?
Great comment, I'm sure Dietrich Bonhoeffer is applauding somewhere.