I don't know what the REAL issue is for most people, but for me it's obviously values. Either you support democracy and oppose racism or you're a scumbag racist and a fascist. Period. I'm not interested in having a civil discussion with racists and fascists - I wish that they'd finally grow a pair, pick up their guns and start their white trash rebellion so we can easily identify and round them all up for deportation or elimination.
The Atlantic has been unable to keep up, just like other mainstream media. They are still writing and publishing like it’s the 80s (and every other decade) and white supremacy and patriarchy are only what matters. Too bad they won’t ever change until nobody reads it…but as long as there are white people (esp men) that won’t happen.
I ended my subscription 3 years ago because of that...There was enough really good writing that I held on to it for longer than I should...I stopped my subscription the same year I stopped pledging to public radio...
TOO FUCKING MUCH BOTH SIDESD BULLSHIT
I am SO done with that crap...Its fucking inexcusable at this point
There IS no 'center'
There are only ONE of two sides to be on...RIGHT or WRONG...There IS no middle ground
The biggest reason I dislike country music is my father's dislike of it from the Korean War. They played it from loudspeakers in the "Company Area" up the line nonstop. All his life, he associated it with the maimed and slaughtered buddies of his company who came back to the "Company Area," where he was the Company Clerk (like Radar O'Reilly). It took him only 40 years to talk about it.
Second reason I dislike it is that so many country songs seem to be about men wailing that their best friend drove off in their truck, with their girlfriend, and their dog, and they can't get the dog back -- forget about the girl, the truck, and the frient.
Third reason: who is the man doing all those terrible things to Crystal Gayle?
Fourth reason: Tammy Wynette "Standing by her man," even though she shouldn't.
Fifth reason: It's the music of right-wing nutballs.
Same with jazz, same with gospel music, same with spirituals, same with rock-n-roll, and same with replacing station-to-station baseball with the stolen base in the 1960s.
One thing I find that is unbelievably ridiculous is how racist white men are horrified by the idea of a black man dating a white woman, but they had no trouble raping their way down slave row to produce more labor hundreds of years ago or hiring black women for "personal services" today.
And then they stand there with a straight face and insist that Beyonce and Kerry Washington are inferior in physical beauty to Ann Coulter.
this goes right up there with that other atlantic piece where the girl whined about being Too Afraid To Write about Controversy and then it turns out she wants to blame women for drinking and getting raped and feels real bad for Brock Turner. OH and also losing your job or your followers and being publicly shamed, for rape, is worse than going to prison.
The author is spot on about the business of right-wingers thinking "free speech" means they always win and nobody ever disagrees with their ideas. Which, of course, isn't free speech at all: it's discursive tyranny, and they're down with it. If you disagree with these types, they actually seem to believe that you are diminishing and violating their First Amendment rights. But when they tell you to shut up and stop defending the rights of people whose lives they want to ruin or take away altogether, well, that is only fair and you're being very unreasonable to complain.
Ugh, I feel like I already said this because of the whole “Try that in a Small Town”, but country music has traditionally been radical. RA.DI.CAL. Socially LIBERAL. Advocating for birth control, farm aid, interracial marriage, gay marriage. Embracing their large coterie of drag performing impersonators. Singing covers of metal songs, protest songs, performing with rappers, SINGING ENDLESSLY ABOUT LEGALIZING WEED LIKE THEY WERE RASTAFARIAN. Getting banned by radio and video channels for being TOOO RADICAL. Then some pinhead dumbass comes along and blarps about traditional values and whatnot. Go fuck your hat dude.
And you know what else? Historically a lot of flyover areas that now are Trump write off states were traditionally much the SAME. They were mountain west towns that were among the first to give women the vote or legalize weed or advocate for Medicare, if you want to move north and include my own chunk of MAGA infested earth. Jackass politicians are harnessing primarily white, mostly cis het male rage over not getting ALL the cookies for themselves. Anyone else getting anything is so threatening that this group can be whipped into a frenzy about litter boxes in classrooms or nonwhite history being taught in school. There is no middle ground upon which to meet someone denying someone else a right. Unless your idea of a middle ground is that instead of telling them to go fuck their hat and kicking them in the bathing suit parts, we tell them to go fuck their hat and kick them in the shins.
To me the saddest part of this is that these people don’t even get how they’re being played. They’re having Lee Atwater’s playbook run on them every day in the most cynical way possible and they clap like seals for it.
My point EXACTLY. And in Canada it was Manitoba, close neighbour. These places didn’t always vote like this. They were firebrands and radicals. Man, we’ve fallen so far. My province was the first to have a human rights code and the CHUDS in charge of it now just announced a pre back to school no changing names and pronouns policy for under 16s which is going to be obeyed by exactly zero students but MAGA,,,11(-$(
Yes. And in any case, a fair number of Trump supporters are not exactly poor and living in ramshackle trailers or rust-bucket cars. A lot of them appear to be rather well-off and have plenty of time to engage in political grandstanding at rallies and whatnot. So the whole "Trump is the Poor Folks' Savior" line is doubleplus foolish. It seems like the kind of thing that journalists, think-tankers, and politicians rustle up so they can sound like sage moderates.
In the end, Atwater's fear of his impending (and MUCH deserved) demise lead him to convert to Catholicism and confession for his heinous sins.......SAD DAY FOR YOU ASSHAT! Do you think for one millisecond that ANYONE in the Trumpelforeskin camp has even a twinge of conscience regret? Bannon? Stone? Manafort? Rudy?
And let's not forget the biggest ball licking, ass tonguing, Josef Mengele wannabe, Miller......
Atwater died a horrible, painful, prolonged death.
....he deserved every second of it. I don't *care* whether or not he repented; the effects of his foul early policies continues to pay dividends for fascists and racists.
I am willing to consider the concerns of the Right.
Now, since the bootstraps crowd has repeatedly said how much they detest the very idea of "something for nothing", I'm sure they would be only too happy to consider a trade -- so, with that in mind, here is a list of the concerns of the Left, off the top of my head:
1. Equal Rights Amendment added to the Constitution.
2. Get rid of the Electoral College.
3. Medicare for all.
4. Pass the Voting Rights Act.
5. Expand and balance the Supreme Court.
6. Codify reproductive rights into law.
7. Codify marriage equality into law.
8. Minimum wage tied to cost of a decent living, as it was originally intended.
9. Free education through college, as it was originally intended.
10. Overturn Citizens United.
There are probably more, but that's what came to me on the spot, and anyway, lists are supposed to have 10 things.
None of these list items would be considered radical by the standards of other developed countries. None of them harm anybody. Most of them benefit all Americans, including the ones on the Right.
Now it's your turn.
Clearly and factually state the concerns of the Right. I will consider them if, and to the extent that, the Right is willing to consider the concerns I listed here.
My prediction is that anybody who raised these concerns with the Right would be ridiculed at best and lynched at worst, but I'm certainly willing to give conservatives the benefit of the doubt, and not judge them by their words and actions of the past 160 years.
Social disapproval of hateful words and actions is not PERSECUTION.
Social disapproval of hateful words and actions is CONSEQUENCES, and fairly mild consequences at that.
Nobody is stopping them from being toxic, hateful shitheads who are the cause of a lot of human misery -- fortunately or unfortunately -- but I'll be goddamn if I let them tell me I have to be HAPPY about it, too.
"accept a bit more intra-movement friction on culture issues as a consequence" always means right wing assholes get to bully others but are exempt from criticism.
This reminds me of the 10 point 'rate your pain' tool they used at the hospital ED. Cishet white guys rate their pain a 10 and are sincere. But if a woman, LGBTQ+ person or POC felt the same exact way, they'd say, "this ain't so bad".
I don't know what the REAL issue is for most people, but for me it's obviously values. Either you support democracy and oppose racism or you're a scumbag racist and a fascist. Period. I'm not interested in having a civil discussion with racists and fascists - I wish that they'd finally grow a pair, pick up their guns and start their white trash rebellion so we can easily identify and round them all up for deportation or elimination.
Nicholas Kristof is on this bullshit too. He turned into a Class-A idiot a few years back...
The Atlantic has been unable to keep up, just like other mainstream media. They are still writing and publishing like it’s the 80s (and every other decade) and white supremacy and patriarchy are only what matters. Too bad they won’t ever change until nobody reads it…but as long as there are white people (esp men) that won’t happen.
I ended my subscription 3 years ago because of that...There was enough really good writing that I held on to it for longer than I should...I stopped my subscription the same year I stopped pledging to public radio...
TOO FUCKING MUCH BOTH SIDESD BULLSHIT
I am SO done with that crap...Its fucking inexcusable at this point
There IS no 'center'
There are only ONE of two sides to be on...RIGHT or WRONG...There IS no middle ground
The biggest reason I dislike country music is my father's dislike of it from the Korean War. They played it from loudspeakers in the "Company Area" up the line nonstop. All his life, he associated it with the maimed and slaughtered buddies of his company who came back to the "Company Area," where he was the Company Clerk (like Radar O'Reilly). It took him only 40 years to talk about it.
Second reason I dislike it is that so many country songs seem to be about men wailing that their best friend drove off in their truck, with their girlfriend, and their dog, and they can't get the dog back -- forget about the girl, the truck, and the frient.
Third reason: who is the man doing all those terrible things to Crystal Gayle?
Fourth reason: Tammy Wynette "Standing by her man," even though she shouldn't.
Fifth reason: It's the music of right-wing nutballs.
Who can't relate to tales of white trash values?
Anybody whose family tree branches.
Same with jazz, same with gospel music, same with spirituals, same with rock-n-roll, and same with replacing station-to-station baseball with the stolen base in the 1960s.
One thing I find that is unbelievably ridiculous is how racist white men are horrified by the idea of a black man dating a white woman, but they had no trouble raping their way down slave row to produce more labor hundreds of years ago or hiring black women for "personal services" today.
And then they stand there with a straight face and insist that Beyonce and Kerry Washington are inferior in physical beauty to Ann Coulter.
"At times, he wonders if liberals can recognize a primal call of pain for what it is."
`
Which skips right over a very substantial Square One: What is it that conservative rural white men are in pain ABOUT?
Cops aren't kneeling on THEIR necks.
Governors aren't kidnapping THEM to another state.
The Supreme Court isn't outlawing THEIR body autonomy.
Random cranks aren't shooting THEM for having a rainbow flag, or any other flag, on their houses.
More generally:
COVID is more or less under control.
Unemployment is at its lowest point since they started keeping records.
Hell, even gas prices are down from last week, and also from where they were at this time last year.
`
What is it, exactly, that they're so "anguished" about?
They hate themselves for their bad choices, and want to ruin the planet for everyone else, just to "feel better."
No one that matters taking them seriously.
this goes right up there with that other atlantic piece where the girl whined about being Too Afraid To Write about Controversy and then it turns out she wants to blame women for drinking and getting raped and feels real bad for Brock Turner. OH and also losing your job or your followers and being publicly shamed, for rape, is worse than going to prison.
So, did Sinclair by Atlantic, or was it Thiel?
The esteemed magazine has been going downhill for years.
You forgot "fat-shaming" and "poor punching."
The author is spot on about the business of right-wingers thinking "free speech" means they always win and nobody ever disagrees with their ideas. Which, of course, isn't free speech at all: it's discursive tyranny, and they're down with it. If you disagree with these types, they actually seem to believe that you are diminishing and violating their First Amendment rights. But when they tell you to shut up and stop defending the rights of people whose lives they want to ruin or take away altogether, well, that is only fair and you're being very unreasonable to complain.
Ugh, I feel like I already said this because of the whole “Try that in a Small Town”, but country music has traditionally been radical. RA.DI.CAL. Socially LIBERAL. Advocating for birth control, farm aid, interracial marriage, gay marriage. Embracing their large coterie of drag performing impersonators. Singing covers of metal songs, protest songs, performing with rappers, SINGING ENDLESSLY ABOUT LEGALIZING WEED LIKE THEY WERE RASTAFARIAN. Getting banned by radio and video channels for being TOOO RADICAL. Then some pinhead dumbass comes along and blarps about traditional values and whatnot. Go fuck your hat dude.
And you know what else? Historically a lot of flyover areas that now are Trump write off states were traditionally much the SAME. They were mountain west towns that were among the first to give women the vote or legalize weed or advocate for Medicare, if you want to move north and include my own chunk of MAGA infested earth. Jackass politicians are harnessing primarily white, mostly cis het male rage over not getting ALL the cookies for themselves. Anyone else getting anything is so threatening that this group can be whipped into a frenzy about litter boxes in classrooms or nonwhite history being taught in school. There is no middle ground upon which to meet someone denying someone else a right. Unless your idea of a middle ground is that instead of telling them to go fuck their hat and kicking them in the bathing suit parts, we tell them to go fuck their hat and kick them in the shins.
To me the saddest part of this is that these people don’t even get how they’re being played. They’re having Lee Atwater’s playbook run on them every day in the most cynical way possible and they clap like seals for it.
Guess which state was the first to grant women the right to vote?
Go on, guess. Alright, I'll tell you. Wyoming. The epitome of mountain west. Wyoming.
My point EXACTLY. And in Canada it was Manitoba, close neighbour. These places didn’t always vote like this. They were firebrands and radicals. Man, we’ve fallen so far. My province was the first to have a human rights code and the CHUDS in charge of it now just announced a pre back to school no changing names and pronouns policy for under 16s which is going to be obeyed by exactly zero students but MAGA,,,11(-$(
Yes. And in any case, a fair number of Trump supporters are not exactly poor and living in ramshackle trailers or rust-bucket cars. A lot of them appear to be rather well-off and have plenty of time to engage in political grandstanding at rallies and whatnot. So the whole "Trump is the Poor Folks' Savior" line is doubleplus foolish. It seems like the kind of thing that journalists, think-tankers, and politicians rustle up so they can sound like sage moderates.
In the end, Atwater's fear of his impending (and MUCH deserved) demise lead him to convert to Catholicism and confession for his heinous sins.......SAD DAY FOR YOU ASSHAT! Do you think for one millisecond that ANYONE in the Trumpelforeskin camp has even a twinge of conscience regret? Bannon? Stone? Manafort? Rudy?
And let's not forget the biggest ball licking, ass tonguing, Josef Mengele wannabe, Miller......
This is MAGAT central.......
Atwater died a horrible, painful, prolonged death.
....he deserved every second of it. I don't *care* whether or not he repented; the effects of his foul early policies continues to pay dividends for fascists and racists.
Very well, Mr. Powell, I will call your bluff.
You have yourself a thought experiment, Sir.
I am willing to consider the concerns of the Right.
Now, since the bootstraps crowd has repeatedly said how much they detest the very idea of "something for nothing", I'm sure they would be only too happy to consider a trade -- so, with that in mind, here is a list of the concerns of the Left, off the top of my head:
1. Equal Rights Amendment added to the Constitution.
2. Get rid of the Electoral College.
3. Medicare for all.
4. Pass the Voting Rights Act.
5. Expand and balance the Supreme Court.
6. Codify reproductive rights into law.
7. Codify marriage equality into law.
8. Minimum wage tied to cost of a decent living, as it was originally intended.
9. Free education through college, as it was originally intended.
10. Overturn Citizens United.
There are probably more, but that's what came to me on the spot, and anyway, lists are supposed to have 10 things.
None of these list items would be considered radical by the standards of other developed countries. None of them harm anybody. Most of them benefit all Americans, including the ones on the Right.
Now it's your turn.
Clearly and factually state the concerns of the Right. I will consider them if, and to the extent that, the Right is willing to consider the concerns I listed here.
My prediction is that anybody who raised these concerns with the Right would be ridiculed at best and lynched at worst, but I'm certainly willing to give conservatives the benefit of the doubt, and not judge them by their words and actions of the past 160 years.
Do we have a deal?
the 'fuck your feelings' crowd are upset that we don't consider how they feel - quelle surprise
It was never, "Fuck your FEELINGS."
It was always, "Fuck YOUR feelings."
THEIR feelings have always been sacrosanct.
Social disapproval of hateful words and actions is not PERSECUTION.
Social disapproval of hateful words and actions is CONSEQUENCES, and fairly mild consequences at that.
Nobody is stopping them from being toxic, hateful shitheads who are the cause of a lot of human misery -- fortunately or unfortunately -- but I'll be goddamn if I let them tell me I have to be HAPPY about it, too.
"accept a bit more intra-movement friction on culture issues as a consequence" always means right wing assholes get to bully others but are exempt from criticism.
This reminds me of the 10 point 'rate your pain' tool they used at the hospital ED. Cishet white guys rate their pain a 10 and are sincere. But if a woman, LGBTQ+ person or POC felt the same exact way, they'd say, "this ain't so bad".
“I have a very smart conservative friend"
Go home, Jacob Wohl. You're drunk.
"I have a very smart conservative friend"
Go home, Jacob Wohl. You're drunk.
Jacob Wohl is particularly loathsome for his inclusion of "smart young blacks".
I wrote this dur xxing Willie Nelson's z
Farm Aid benefits and added the verse on senior citizens in 2008. On YouTube
One In The Struggle
I am a farmer, I’m trying to grow some food
Locked in a system that don’t do me no good
They think I’m beneath them, like the dirt under my nails
I am a farmer, but my farm is up for sale
I am a worker making money for my boss
When times are good he profits, when they’re bad we take the loss
We’re treated like children: supervised all day
I’d quit in a minute, if I didn’t need the pay
And the bottom line is greed and the
Bottom line is ignorance
and the bottom line is fear and the
Bottom line is power
And the bottom line is here and now
I have to realize
We’re all in this together
In the struggle to survive
We are one in the fight
To take control of our lives
We are one in the struggle,
We are one
I’m unemployed now
My job has taken flight
To some far country,
Where the workers have no rights
I’m deep in debt now
My insurance has expired
My wife is pregnant,
Some days I feel so tired
I am a refugee,
My country is at war
It’s the same old story,
The rich against the poor
And the rich get fatter on the
Lies the poor are fed
When I speak the truth,
They put a price upon my head
And the bottom line is greed and the
Bottom line is ignorance
and the bottom line is fear and the
Bottom line is power
And the bottom line is here and now
I have to realize
We’re all in this together
In the struggle to survive
We are one in the fight
To take control of our lives
We are one in the struggle,
We are one
I am a senior, living the golden years–
The pride of the drug firms, they’re playing on my fears–
And they’re mining my pockets to line their own with gold–
I am a senior, some days I feel so old
I am an Indian
I am an African
I am a woman
I am a homeless one
And the bottom line is greed and the
Bottom line is ignorance
and the bottom line is fear and the
Bottom line is power
And the bottom line is here and now
I have to realize
We’re all in this together
In the struggle to survive
We are one in the fight
To take control of our lives
We are one in the struggle,
We are one
1985