38 Comments

No. (and there probably shouldn't be)

Expand full comment

Not possible; Josef Stalin was actually funny. Even around people he couldn't have shot for not laughing.

Expand full comment

Indeed. <i>Revelations</i>, for example, was written well before the onset of the Middle Ages in Europe, and there were plenty of other eschatological stories and beliefs that preceded it going all the way back to prehistory. Speculations and prophecies concerning the ultimate fate of the world and of humanity have been developed in every human society and have existed throughout history. Apocalyptic prophecies didn't originate as a reaction to the medieval Black Death pandemics. They go back to the dawn of the species.

Expand full comment

Earlier plague pandemics in Europe and the Mediterranean region were recorded by the Romans during the Classical era, well before the medieval period.

Expand full comment

The phenomenon of racism, unfortunately, is not a western invention. That can only be said about the version that we are most familiar with today, and that version is quite recent in origin. Western society and culture had existed for quite some time and was well-established long before the flavor of racism that we are concerned with today ever developed. There is nothing inherent in western civilization or culture that makes our contemporary plague of racism inevitable.

Ethnic, tribal, clan, cultural, religious, socioeconomic class, etc. based bigotry is a common human failing though and the history of human societies all over the world is replete with examples of it on both the individual and the "institutional" or societal level. "Race" as it is currently conceived is a very recently developed framework for the expression of this hoary old fashioned bigotry.

Expand full comment

"Racism is wrong. Viciously despising savage cultures is right."

Careful what you wish for, asshole ... because <i>your</i> culture is looking mighty damned savage.

Expand full comment

You mean Invasion of the Body Snatchers?

Expand full comment

He might enjoy that

Expand full comment

Yeah, you're hanging out with the bad crowd. I'm a 40yo white guy from the deep deep south, and I've never hung out with people who talk this.

Expand full comment

Well what else are we going to do with all our surplus Sidewinders and Sparrows?

Expand full comment

Nice guy, for an unrepentant sociopath with borderline megalomania.

Expand full comment

It's not just that he's a Republican -- a fact that other Repllicans can readily skate away from -- this fuckwad was DIRECTOR of the SC GOP, put there by Republican party leaders and presumably well supported by the rank and file.

The cynicism behind their "minority outreach" program is mind-boggling.

Expand full comment

I would agree if he were a run-of-the-mill racist dipshit... but we're talking about someone who was made executive director of the GOP in the state of South Carolina. The fact that they'd elevate this fucker to that position is decidely something <b>not </b> to be ignored.

Expand full comment

Anyone who has to associate with him is subject to the same confusion.

Expand full comment

At least one, later, case of self-isolation. <a href="http://www.beautifulbritain..." target="_blank">" rel="nofollow noopener" title="http://www.beautifulbritain.co.uk/htm/outandabout...">http://www.beautifulbritain...

Expand full comment

And here I always thought Donal Sutherland played the villain in the movie Outbreak. He was obviously the hero.

Expand full comment