Jesus taught to "love." And later Saint Paul taught "to be conformed to Christ's Image." The people who "bang their Bibles" and then terrorize or try to intimidate have not had an encounter with the "humble shepherd from Galilee, Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus came to transform our lives with love and grace in order that we may bring His compassion based on who He was and is, the Son of God into the world. These race hating, swastika writing, zieg-heil saluting clowns have no idea or identity of what it means to be a disciple of Christ!!! They are the blind leading the blind and have on clue on Christ's basic teachings i.e. Love God and Love thy Neighbor! Lets all get it right!
Thankfully they don't represent who were are as a whole, even if they are getting a bunch of attention and being giant, prominent douchebags. There's plenty of other dickheads around here too, they just don't make the news. I think that such people are distinctly in the minority.
They will fail to achieve their vision. There are very few fixed realities or truths, progress is one of them. Sure, there were times in the history of humans where things went dark, Europe's 1,000 years of darkness. But even then, in other places around the planet, in India, China, the Middle East, things were moving, transforming, shifting, upheaving. What these rednecks fail to understand is that even in spite of all their hate, in spite of all their reaction to to the transformation, their fervent hope to return things to the way they were - people are progressing. We are moving UP. And nothing they can do will stop this progress. It's inevitable, the same way its inevitable that the Earth circles around the sun. The day that happens is the day humanity ceases to exist. The thing about change is that it's not permanent, I can change the hat I am wearing, I can change my attitude and the next day I can change it again. Transformation on the other hand, is impossible to undo. People can no more undo transformation than the caterpillar that transforms into a butterfly can undo itself. Sure, it can end its own life, but it will end that life as a butterfly, not a caterpillar. Why I am writing about butterflies and caterpillars on a Sunday morning I cannot say.
Change is inevitable, but what constitutes "progress" is a matter of opinion. Reactionaries -- whether fascists, or Muslim extremists, or good ol' boy xenophobic racist rednecks -- believe society has grown corrupt and debased, and their goal is to return society to a previous better condition. To them, rolling things back IS progress.
There is nothing inevitable about progress.This is my opinion only: the human condition demands progress, it will allow nothing less. The variable is the rate at which progress occurs. Slowly, painfully, with occasional change that seeks permission. Or, in massive, transformational explosions that demand it. I think we are in an age of massive transformation myself. Your point is well-made though, we need to organize, mobilize, and take action. No question.
Even Ken Starr opted not to use her to go after Clinton, and I find that VERY telling. If she had a creditble story to tell, even without a blue dress or any sort of evidence that could lead to prosecution, Juanita Broaddrick could have been very useful to the Starr investigation. Yet he didn't use her.
I am forced to conclude that he knows something we don't, something that torpedos the rape allegations altogether. For the most part I do not like to trade in indirect arguments, but this is Ken Starr we're talking about. This is the guy who was willing to pursue a consensual* relationship to try to bring Clinton down; imagine what he could have done with credible rape allegations.
*: Our ideas about consent are more advanced these days, and we know enough to wonder how much consent there can really be when there is such a dramatic power imbalance between the people involved. But that's us looking back from our enlightened present stance. Back in 1998, Clinton and Lewinsky were entirely consensual and anyone who said otherwise was a tinfoil-hat-wearing nut.
I admit I look forward to your posts too, and noticed you seemed to be in short supply of late. Would much rather have you around, and in good condition, than not.
In other news, if you want to be classy like me, get one of these babies from Drug Mart for $1.99:
"Trump and those who came before him cannot stop progress"
I share your optimism, but would caution that we should not assume progress is inevitable. If we keep up the fight, then yes, progress will happen. But our side has been too eager to drop the ball from 2010 through 2016, and as a result we've seen a lot of backsliding. Trump happened. That wasn't the first time we've seen backsliding either; black Americans lost a lot of freedom from like 1900 to 1940.
Oregon was founded to be White People Wakanda. Slavery was outlawed from the beginning in Oregon, which sounds progressive until you realize they outlawed slavery because black people weren't allowed in the state at all, not even as property.
I am sad to say, "progressive" does not imply "not racist" any longer, if indeed it ever did. The only reliable commonality among "progressives" is economic perspective.
We can go as far back as the Reagan Democrats, hard-working union types who inexplicably abandoned the Democrats to follow whatever Reagan was promising. We assumed that, since they had previously been reliable Democrats, the problem with them couldn't be racism, but maybe it was frustration over economic conditions. Let's concede what is obvious in retrospect, now that the racial resentment is out in the open: what those Reagan Democrats liked was that he was going to crack down on welfare and other situations where, they felt, minorities were abusing the hospitality of white people. Turns out there was more racism in the Party Of FHA Redlining than we'd imagined; who knew?
But of course a lot of people didn't abandon the Democrats -- but it would be a mistake to assume they were all exempt from racism. A lot of them simply found more value in backing the Democrats than in backing the Republicans, for whatever reasons.
In 2016, 12% of the people who'd voted for Bernie in the primaries, went on to vote for Trump in the generals. They can't all have been primary ratfuckers.
Well, Ray in VT probably can't fix everything himself, so I can't fault him for that.
But #NotAllWhatever misses the point every time. A black woman was harassed out of office, and we shouldn't make like the real tragedy is that Ray in VT is uncomfortable about Vermont's racism.
Yeah, fuck Sanders. His entire shtick is making like race is a mere subset of class issues, which is to say you fix racism by attacking class, which is to say white people issues are the only issues that matter, and "minority" issues are merely the selfish demands of "special interest groups" who should be ignored for their selfishness. Fuck him. Fuck him hard with something big and rusty and drenched in lemon juice.
Jesus taught to "love." And later Saint Paul taught "to be conformed to Christ's Image." The people who "bang their Bibles" and then terrorize or try to intimidate have not had an encounter with the "humble shepherd from Galilee, Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus came to transform our lives with love and grace in order that we may bring His compassion based on who He was and is, the Son of God into the world. These race hating, swastika writing, zieg-heil saluting clowns have no idea or identity of what it means to be a disciple of Christ!!! They are the blind leading the blind and have on clue on Christ's basic teachings i.e. Love God and Love thy Neighbor! Lets all get it right!
Thankfully they don't represent who were are as a whole, even if they are getting a bunch of attention and being giant, prominent douchebags. There's plenty of other dickheads around here too, they just don't make the news. I think that such people are distinctly in the minority.
They will fail to achieve their vision. There are very few fixed realities or truths, progress is one of them. Sure, there were times in the history of humans where things went dark, Europe's 1,000 years of darkness. But even then, in other places around the planet, in India, China, the Middle East, things were moving, transforming, shifting, upheaving. What these rednecks fail to understand is that even in spite of all their hate, in spite of all their reaction to to the transformation, their fervent hope to return things to the way they were - people are progressing. We are moving UP. And nothing they can do will stop this progress. It's inevitable, the same way its inevitable that the Earth circles around the sun. The day that happens is the day humanity ceases to exist. The thing about change is that it's not permanent, I can change the hat I am wearing, I can change my attitude and the next day I can change it again. Transformation on the other hand, is impossible to undo. People can no more undo transformation than the caterpillar that transforms into a butterfly can undo itself. Sure, it can end its own life, but it will end that life as a butterfly, not a caterpillar. Why I am writing about butterflies and caterpillars on a Sunday morning I cannot say.
Change is inevitable, but what constitutes "progress" is a matter of opinion. Reactionaries -- whether fascists, or Muslim extremists, or good ol' boy xenophobic racist rednecks -- believe society has grown corrupt and debased, and their goal is to return society to a previous better condition. To them, rolling things back IS progress.
There is nothing inevitable about progress.This is my opinion only: the human condition demands progress, it will allow nothing less. The variable is the rate at which progress occurs. Slowly, painfully, with occasional change that seeks permission. Or, in massive, transformational explosions that demand it. I think we are in an age of massive transformation myself. Your point is well-made though, we need to organize, mobilize, and take action. No question.
Even Ken Starr opted not to use her to go after Clinton, and I find that VERY telling. If she had a creditble story to tell, even without a blue dress or any sort of evidence that could lead to prosecution, Juanita Broaddrick could have been very useful to the Starr investigation. Yet he didn't use her.
I am forced to conclude that he knows something we don't, something that torpedos the rape allegations altogether. For the most part I do not like to trade in indirect arguments, but this is Ken Starr we're talking about. This is the guy who was willing to pursue a consensual* relationship to try to bring Clinton down; imagine what he could have done with credible rape allegations.
*: Our ideas about consent are more advanced these days, and we know enough to wonder how much consent there can really be when there is such a dramatic power imbalance between the people involved. But that's us looking back from our enlightened present stance. Back in 1998, Clinton and Lewinsky were entirely consensual and anyone who said otherwise was a tinfoil-hat-wearing nut.
I admit I look forward to your posts too, and noticed you seemed to be in short supply of late. Would much rather have you around, and in good condition, than not.
In other news, if you want to be classy like me, get one of these babies from Drug Mart for $1.99:
https://i.ebayimg.com/image...
"Trump and those who came before him cannot stop progress"
I share your optimism, but would caution that we should not assume progress is inevitable. If we keep up the fight, then yes, progress will happen. But our side has been too eager to drop the ball from 2010 through 2016, and as a result we've seen a lot of backsliding. Trump happened. That wasn't the first time we've seen backsliding either; black Americans lost a lot of freedom from like 1900 to 1940.
There is nothing inevitable about progress.
Oregon was founded to be White People Wakanda. Slavery was outlawed from the beginning in Oregon, which sounds progressive until you realize they outlawed slavery because black people weren't allowed in the state at all, not even as property.
I am sad to say, "progressive" does not imply "not racist" any longer, if indeed it ever did. The only reliable commonality among "progressives" is economic perspective.
We can go as far back as the Reagan Democrats, hard-working union types who inexplicably abandoned the Democrats to follow whatever Reagan was promising. We assumed that, since they had previously been reliable Democrats, the problem with them couldn't be racism, but maybe it was frustration over economic conditions. Let's concede what is obvious in retrospect, now that the racial resentment is out in the open: what those Reagan Democrats liked was that he was going to crack down on welfare and other situations where, they felt, minorities were abusing the hospitality of white people. Turns out there was more racism in the Party Of FHA Redlining than we'd imagined; who knew?
But of course a lot of people didn't abandon the Democrats -- but it would be a mistake to assume they were all exempt from racism. A lot of them simply found more value in backing the Democrats than in backing the Republicans, for whatever reasons.
In 2016, 12% of the people who'd voted for Bernie in the primaries, went on to vote for Trump in the generals. They can't all have been primary ratfuckers.
Well, Ray in VT probably can't fix everything himself, so I can't fault him for that.
But #NotAllWhatever misses the point every time. A black woman was harassed out of office, and we shouldn't make like the real tragedy is that Ray in VT is uncomfortable about Vermont's racism.
Yeah, fuck Sanders. His entire shtick is making like race is a mere subset of class issues, which is to say you fix racism by attacking class, which is to say white people issues are the only issues that matter, and "minority" issues are merely the selfish demands of "special interest groups" who should be ignored for their selfishness. Fuck him. Fuck him hard with something big and rusty and drenched in lemon juice.
oops . . . gotta read those non-comments before non-commenting.
how could there possibly be any hate . . . they were all white.
hey misch...
https://uploads.disquscdn.c...
such a waste of time, we should bring back lynching.