The other night I was watching "Everybody Loves Raymond."
Yes, I watch "Everybody Loves Raymond." I actually enjoy the show quite a bit, along with other stalwarts of white comedy like "Frasier", "That 70s Show", "Seinfeld" and "Friends." I may be a Raving Black Lunatic, but my sense of humor is of mixed ancestry.
Anyway, I'm watching the show and it's the episode where the family travels to Italy. In that episode, Raymond initially pouts about the entire trip, before finally being won over by Italy's Old World charm. At one point he exclaims that it's so great that everything in Italy is so old in comparison to America where everything feels like it was built yesterday.
That made me pause.
It's not that it's untrue. Many countries in Europe, at least those that weren't decimated by wars, have some pretty ancient structures. What made me pause was the idea that America is a "new" nation.
In some respects, there is obvious truth in that sentiment. America was only established as a country well after most European nations had taken turns being worldwide empires, and long after China, the Middle East and certain countries in Africa had staked a claim to the center of the world.
But, there is a long history in this country. True, this land's original inhabitants didn't build sprawling cities or conquer the known world, but they left behind monuments and artifacts that show they were here. They clearly had developed societies that took a much different approach to life than their counterparts to the North and South. Knowing this, it felt like what Raymond was saying was that "American history that matters is so young."
That makes me sad. I'm saddened that so many people discount those societies that didn't create their greatness on the backs of slaves and other forced labor. I'm sad that so many are willing to ignore the conditions that allowed "civilization" to proper in favor of glorifying what was built. And, ultimately, I'm sad that so many people have decided that the accomplishments of the largely brown people who inhabited this land before white folks even knew it existed don't matter at all.
I don't love that at all.
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Tuesday, July 12, 2011
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
These People
I didn't think it was possible, but it is getting worse.
I wrote the above-linked blog back when I first started doing this site, and sadly, I think it's even more true today. Blame it on the internet, on free time, on Fox News or on genetic drift, but it cannot be denied that despite the surfeit of information available at their fingertips, people seem to be hellbent on being aggressively misinformed and stupid.
Aggressively.
See, "aggressively" is the key word there. It's acceptable to be misinformed. We all are about some things. It's ok to be stupid. We have all been stupid at one point or another. It's entirely different to embrace these two states of being, and actively work to convert the rest of the world. Once you've started doing that, you've crossed the line into Moron Land. (Sidenote: Did you know that back in the 19th Century when intelligence tests first became popular, they actually characterized people as "imbeciles", "morons" and "idiots" as scientific classifications. Not sure what that says about science and people.)
Way too many people are crossing the line these days. They repeat easily verifiable lies, they refuse to admit that what they've repeated are lies, and they actively protest that their preferred lies should be given preference over the obvious truth. It's like some sort of Bizarro World where it doesn't matter what the facts are, it only matters who has the power to impose their views on the most people.
Then again, that's not really a Bizarro World, that's just the world. It's always been like this in a way. The more I read, the more I see that logic and reason have always been in short supply, regardless of what the people in a certain time believed. I see that what was once hailed as cutting edge science was really a mixture of prejudice and contradictions dressed up in pretty charts. And it actually makes me wonder how much we've progressed today.
In 50 years will all the sacred truths of my generation be lambasted as obvious idiocy? Will our crude attempts at "science" be seen as the babbling and dabblings of the daft? I don't know. But I do know that listening to the idiocy of today is slowing raising my blood pressure to the danger zone. Everyday it is a constant struggle not to be overwhelmed by the type of rage that leads to extended tirades and possible violence.
These people are working my nerves.
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I wrote the above-linked blog back when I first started doing this site, and sadly, I think it's even more true today. Blame it on the internet, on free time, on Fox News or on genetic drift, but it cannot be denied that despite the surfeit of information available at their fingertips, people seem to be hellbent on being aggressively misinformed and stupid.
Aggressively.
See, "aggressively" is the key word there. It's acceptable to be misinformed. We all are about some things. It's ok to be stupid. We have all been stupid at one point or another. It's entirely different to embrace these two states of being, and actively work to convert the rest of the world. Once you've started doing that, you've crossed the line into Moron Land. (Sidenote: Did you know that back in the 19th Century when intelligence tests first became popular, they actually characterized people as "imbeciles", "morons" and "idiots" as scientific classifications. Not sure what that says about science and people.)
Way too many people are crossing the line these days. They repeat easily verifiable lies, they refuse to admit that what they've repeated are lies, and they actively protest that their preferred lies should be given preference over the obvious truth. It's like some sort of Bizarro World where it doesn't matter what the facts are, it only matters who has the power to impose their views on the most people.
Then again, that's not really a Bizarro World, that's just the world. It's always been like this in a way. The more I read, the more I see that logic and reason have always been in short supply, regardless of what the people in a certain time believed. I see that what was once hailed as cutting edge science was really a mixture of prejudice and contradictions dressed up in pretty charts. And it actually makes me wonder how much we've progressed today.
In 50 years will all the sacred truths of my generation be lambasted as obvious idiocy? Will our crude attempts at "science" be seen as the babbling and dabblings of the daft? I don't know. But I do know that listening to the idiocy of today is slowing raising my blood pressure to the danger zone. Everyday it is a constant struggle not to be overwhelmed by the type of rage that leads to extended tirades and possible violence.
These people are working my nerves.
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Thursday, June 30, 2011
Call Me Richard
So the President is "kind of a dick."
Tell us how you really feel Mark.
It's not a surprise that folks would think that the president's attempt to throw down the gauntlet for Republicans was a tad forceful. Since the president typically prefers to be subdued and non-confrontational, it makes it a bit jarring when he speaks the unvarnished truth.
Everybody knows that if Republicans want spending cuts, they should be willing to eliminate the pet benefits of their key donors that actually drive up the country's debt. Everybody also knows that it's hypocritical to complain about "handouts" for seniors, while protecting handouts for billion dollar corporations. But people were still surprised that Obama would lay things out so clearly, and do it without his usual flowery words.
I guess Mark Halperin was more surprised than most.
After reading about what led up to the comment, I can see that it was, in fact, an attempt to be funny that got beamed out to a public audience that was never supposed to see it. It wasn't a case of a random white guy becoming so enraged at an uppity black president that he had to put him in his place. Instead, dude was just trying to be cute.
Epic Fail.
It's funny though, why would you choose to compare the President to a penis while taping a national television show? It's cool if you refer to President Obama in that manner in private, hell I know I've said worse about Dubya. But, why choose to make those comments in the studio, and why choose to call him a dick because he just spoke to truth that everybody knows. What exactly is dickish about that?
There is something else behind this whole debacle. It was a brief peek behind the curtain at what certain folks believe is the proper way this president should conduct himself, even as they bash him for being too mild. He can't win this battle over his image, mainly because there are almost no black people who can win.
That's why I tend to tell them all to go suck my Richard.
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Tell us how you really feel Mark.
It's not a surprise that folks would think that the president's attempt to throw down the gauntlet for Republicans was a tad forceful. Since the president typically prefers to be subdued and non-confrontational, it makes it a bit jarring when he speaks the unvarnished truth.
Everybody knows that if Republicans want spending cuts, they should be willing to eliminate the pet benefits of their key donors that actually drive up the country's debt. Everybody also knows that it's hypocritical to complain about "handouts" for seniors, while protecting handouts for billion dollar corporations. But people were still surprised that Obama would lay things out so clearly, and do it without his usual flowery words.
I guess Mark Halperin was more surprised than most.
After reading about what led up to the comment, I can see that it was, in fact, an attempt to be funny that got beamed out to a public audience that was never supposed to see it. It wasn't a case of a random white guy becoming so enraged at an uppity black president that he had to put him in his place. Instead, dude was just trying to be cute.
Epic Fail.
It's funny though, why would you choose to compare the President to a penis while taping a national television show? It's cool if you refer to President Obama in that manner in private, hell I know I've said worse about Dubya. But, why choose to make those comments in the studio, and why choose to call him a dick because he just spoke to truth that everybody knows. What exactly is dickish about that?
There is something else behind this whole debacle. It was a brief peek behind the curtain at what certain folks believe is the proper way this president should conduct himself, even as they bash him for being too mild. He can't win this battle over his image, mainly because there are almost no black people who can win.
That's why I tend to tell them all to go suck my Richard.
Share
Thursday, June 23, 2011
Casualties of War
Every day they are there.
Shuffling, meandering and struggling, they move from place to place. Grimaces adorn their passive faces, defeat rests calmly between their shoulder blades.They have lost their battle, they wait for the end of the war.
Clad in ill-fitting or filthy cloth, they have become as invisible as the cracks in the sidewalk. Just like those cracks, whose amazing control over the spines of mother's is spoken about in whispers, they are avoided. Legion is their name, and like the damned hell spawn who share that moniker fear and loathing typically follow in their footsteps
These once mighty beings have been felled, and many cannot imagine them in any other state. Never to become more, doomed to eventually be less they are the scraps clinging desperately to the bottom of the barrel in fear of the unknown beyond the current confines of their lives.
This is a war. Make no mistake that the battle rages constantly upon boulevards and courts, drives and lanes. Beneath glowing streetlights and hidden in dank alleys, battles miniature in size but not ferocity are fought daily.
We only see the casualties
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Shuffling, meandering and struggling, they move from place to place. Grimaces adorn their passive faces, defeat rests calmly between their shoulder blades.They have lost their battle, they wait for the end of the war.
Clad in ill-fitting or filthy cloth, they have become as invisible as the cracks in the sidewalk. Just like those cracks, whose amazing control over the spines of mother's is spoken about in whispers, they are avoided. Legion is their name, and like the damned hell spawn who share that moniker fear and loathing typically follow in their footsteps
These once mighty beings have been felled, and many cannot imagine them in any other state. Never to become more, doomed to eventually be less they are the scraps clinging desperately to the bottom of the barrel in fear of the unknown beyond the current confines of their lives.
This is a war. Make no mistake that the battle rages constantly upon boulevards and courts, drives and lanes. Beneath glowing streetlights and hidden in dank alleys, battles miniature in size but not ferocity are fought daily.
We only see the casualties
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