Knew a Nigerian and a Chinese kid in grad school. The Chinese guy would demand the Nigerian restore his stolen television. The Nigerian would reply that he'd do so as soon as the Chinese kid finished his laundry.
Then they'd laugh and crack a beer.
That is the way. Not this prickly, fragile offense taking.
Scratch any Lefty and you’ll find someone who utterly hates themselves. People who hate themselves really despise those who don’t - those who enjoy life. “Misery loves company” is the absolute driving factor for all Lefty behavior.
Just wanted to chime in as someone who grew up in Queens, NYC, which was diverse before it was cool: my friends and i wd spend all day every day cracking the same dumb ethnic jokes to each other—the greeks for being hairy and inventing sodomy, the latinos for goya beans and loud salsa, the indians for curry and dots on foreheads, the italians for the mafia and their wife-beaters etc etc—and then we'd spend the weekends sleeping over each other's houses and trying to get w each other's sisters...and we're all still close decades later.
light raillery is an excellent social lubricant and also a way for people from different cultures and places to bond.
Worked in an office in Brooklyn, early ‘80s. Diversity, before it had that name, was the norm. We were not kid kids, but young adults, all in our 20s except one “senior” at 40!
The moment was integral to one of raillery (good word!) in the break room. In the midst of laughter I looked around and with great affection pointed out that here we were, a Mick, a Spic, a Jew, a WASP, a WOP, a Greek and a Chink - and yes, I used the derogatory terms. Out loud! Gasp! It was a moment of appreciation shared by all.
Our lesbian co-worker was not present but I related it to her at some point. Same appreciation.
I’m friends to this day with 4 out of the 7 still alive. (I’m the 8th.)
What a blessing to have a basis of comparison.
Lots of trauma to heal around here, folks that don’t even recognize yet they’ve been traumatized. Hell, we’ve all been traumatized in different ways.
Laughter is such great medicine; self deprecation a window to discovery.
really one of the great blessings of growing up in a place w multiple tribes is the simple realization that we are all the same. different cultures and histories, different languages and food, but underneath the same humans w the same needs and fears.
When you spend even a little time with the well-known one on one, which I have, you quickly realize, as you say, all humans. Some of them troubled, though you’d never know it from public personas.
Yep, we are all the same. Even the misled and blind in the current play.
In the healing phase, if you put me in charge (!!😂😂) the mantra would be the golden rule, Do unto others...
'Dancing in the streets' could also be such an anthem, as it celebrates impromptu dancing all over the world. Maybe the willing embrace of sheer spontaneous communal joy is the antidote to the tyranny of the miserable and the vindictive, like light drives away vampires.
Oooo... Calling out around the world! You’ve - - struck a chord there. Spontaneous joy. Yes! Sooo right: light -lightness of heart vs fear; joy; brother-sisterhood - *this* is the communal spirit that will energize US and dry up “their” energy supply.
*edit: Note to introvert self: put that sh!t away. Folks may look at you funny for bursting into song on the sidewalk but if you get it right (so get it right!) they won’t forget. The seed will have been planted.
An excellent thought! This could be a powerful weapon against tyranny. A song to sing, voices lifted in unison all over the world, partaking in and creating the power of music to dispel the evil and joyless miasma they have spellcast over the world and the minds of humanity.
An immensely wealthy computer salesman walks into a bar, and announces to all the patrons he'll offer them free medicine to cure their ills. They all agree. Then, half of them fall over dead.
An Irishman was asked if he was Jewish. He became offended. "Jewish?" he declared, "I've only had fhifteen points a Guinnish, dye think I can't hoult me dhrink?!"
I remember the first time I saw the rejoinder to “I’m not interested in politics” be “that’s just your privilege!”
I don’t want boxes, but I think it’s okay to keep redrawing the circle so that dishonorable killjoys find themselves outside of it, repeatedly, and they can either posse up on the outskirts or rejoin polite society.
fortunately, there is nothing like watching becky from vassar explain to minorities about how they do not understand their own lives and need her to tell them how oppressed and needful of help they are to rapidly reveal this for the "no true scottsman" fallacy underpinning prejudicial mascotism that it is.
and don't knock boxes until you try them. 200 million cats can't be wrong.
The council in our little township is trying to pass a bylaw that dictates what kind of boxes we can rent to cats to stay in overnight. The newly created licensing fees and intrusive inspections are supposedly a value-added feature, not a penalty. Marxism makes for lousy entertainment.
This is the nickel-and-diming that is destroying us culturally and economically, much more than stupid taxation which is still stupid. Last time there was a depression, people could at least sell apples out of carts and take in washing and lodgers. I owned, for a time, the most beautiful boat; a 37 ft Sam Crocker motor sailer built in 1939. I still weep to think of the trim in the cabin. And that was built *during* the depression.
Yep. I learned something about myself a few years ago, or realized it, finally. I am a slow processor. I might *think* I have an opinion or know what I think about something right away, but I really don't. My first reactions are often totally different from my conclusions. I have to sleep on everything, sometimes for weeks, or months, or, as the cat says, forever, because I just won't ever have the data and my feeling in my gut is not specific to the problem but only to my conduct relative to it (the childhood vax stuff ends up here for me - I still don't find anything truly conclusive and I don't even care anymore).
In our culture, being fast with the answer is equated with being smart, so I thought maybe I just wasn't. But, if I can sit with it, I DO get a lot of real depth and traction.
So, if someone hits me with that, I can either snark out with "look, pal, MY truth is that I process slowly so you are being a neuro-bigot," or, I can just say, which I do, "It takes me a long time to assimilate and digest information and I take that time." So there.
Forcing, or demanding, or formulating the statement or question is such a way that an immediate response is required is of course an artefact of TV and radio media, since shows where a question is asked and the other party responds with "Hm, let me get back to you in November on that one" doesn't really draw viewers.
It is sad that academia and schools haven't been able to counteract this, but have instead egged it on the last three generations so that the normal now is akin to what Orwell called "duckspeak".
A tutor I had taught us to think about messages (politicial or otherwise, media especially) as someone trying to sell us something. That's the way I approach it - as if someone demanding a rapid response is an out-of-breath dude offering me to buy "his" car, "only $500 cash in hand, don't mind the window or the screwdriver in the ignition, it was busted in an accident, honest".
In my case, the specific situation was about joining the majority of the faculty in what I can only describe as a two-minute hate-session when the Sweden Democrats gained their first seats in parliament, over a decade ago. It was a blatant "either you're with us or you're an enemy"-situation, which I loathe when it obviously isn't that kind of situation.
Good on you for setting an example by not letting others force you into picking sides!
My husband will say that’s the difference between men and women. We can each go to the supermarket for a quart of milk. He’ll be back in 10 minutes. I’ll be back in an hour and would have read every milk carton to assist in my decision.
I vote for snark. Though I see the value in being polite and thoughtful. Maybe snark in response to the more vicious bite. ...My inner a**hole showing... I don’t really get a vote anyway so nothing lost throwing in. 😬 (I have the same sort of long processing time, so I identify.)
Some 30-ish years ago, the wife and I sometimes went to an anarchist café in the town we lived in back then.
There's a swedish pastry used to be called Negerbollar, literally "Negro Balls", made from cocoa and butter and coffee and oat flakes, and the sticky mass was formed into balls and rolled in pearl sugar. Easy to make, a classic made in many-a kindergarten and pre-school as an introdution to baking. Itwas named almost a century ago, simply because negro meant black. It had nothing to do with the race-angle until the 1990s.
So anyway, sometimes reds would also visit the café since there's always been an pverlap between reds and anarchists, especially cosindering various sub-cultures. And they would invariably whine about the "racist pastries" while ignoring the "finnish sticks" (a different pastry) and other ehtnically named things.
The fun part: on of the guys working at the anarchist café was an adoptee from somewhere in Africa, black as midnight in a coal mine he was. So he used to pop out if he heard the whining and ask: "What's wrong with my balls? Don't you like my balls?!"
That he did so in thick regional dialect only had to the hilarity.
Stereotypes are for wallowing in and laughing about - don't remember which american said this, but it's oh so true:
"If I can't crack jokes and have a laugh, then F*ck! your revolution!"
Yep. I hang out with a group of Philly Eye-talians. They make fun of my "cultured" Southern accent. I simply tell them that they may deduct 100 IQ points, but I will get them all back...😉
Accents are such a great way to emphasise difference yet belonging!
Swedish stereotypes, which we use to make fun of one another:
Southern Sweden (called Scania): deep and throaty with lots of diphthongs. West coast: mouth opened wide sideways and not like a yawn, very tonal and rythmic cadence. Middle inland: whining, almost buzzing and tonal. East Coast/Stockholm: nasal to the point of self-parody, also high-pitched. Middle Sweden: sing-song like rythm and almost no audible space between words. Lappland/Sami regions: who knows? Those guys have their own language, which sounds like they make it up as they go along, just to put one over on you. Northern swedish: (silence) - those people make finns seem talkative.
I remember students at university going on a semester abroad when we were doing the english language being told where they weren't allowed to go - Scotland, Australia, the Southern States of the US, and Wales. "Too heavy dialects, not proper Queen's english" our tutors said. Reedonkeylous.
I moved from California to Texas three years ago, am in my mid 60’s, and my goal is to learn the Texas Southern drawl. It’s a challenge at this age but I’m determined.
I can’t remember the first part of this joke, but when I was in high school, it was popular. I am half-Italian and the population of our school included Italians, Polish, Slovak and Irish - both students and teachers.
So the last part of the joke that I remember had to do with a set of Italian tires, something like:
“Dey go in the rain, dey go in the snow, and when they go flat, dey go ... wop, wop, wop, wop!”
I recall Joe Garagiola talking about he and Yogi Berra growing up on "Dago Hill" in St. Louis. Lots of Italians there, but it was the name they themselves called it.
I forget when it happened or who did it, but someone said the word "niggardly" (means stingy) & they wanted to lynch him... I'll have to see if I can find who it was & when...
D.C. Mayor Anthony A. Williams said yesterday that he will rehire a former top aide who resigned last month because some city employees were offended that the aide used the word "niggardly" in describing how he would have to manage a fund's tight budget.
The mayor said that an internal review had "confirmed for me that Mr. Howard did use the word 'niggardly,' but did not use a racial epithet" during a Jan. 15 discussion with two employees of the Office of the Public Advocate. "Niggardly" means miserly and has no racial connotation.
The debate over whether “niggardly” is a racially offensive word hit academe Monday, when a black student at the University of Wisconsin at Madison objected to a professor’s use of the term in the classroom.
The student, Amelia Rideau, related the incident before the university’s Faculty Senate Monday, when she urged professors to maintain a strict speech code on the campus.
Niggardly is defined as stingy, and though it sounds similar to “nigger,” the two words share no etymological link.
When I was a young man, or more probably, an old boy, I worked side by side with an older black man. Not just any black man, but one who had changed his "slave" name to an African name and talked about white oppression and black power to me. Once, early in our relationship, I said, "Boy, we got a lot of work to get done today." and he went off on me for calling him "boy". But I stood my ground and said where I came from it was just an expression like "man" or even "damn" and it had nothing to do with him personally. I told him he was just going to have to get over it, that I would think about changing my language but it wouldn't happen overnight. And we began to talk about racial issues. And continued to talk for years. And race became a source of humor to us. We told racist jokes to each other about whites and blacks. We came to understand each other's viewpoint. We admitted we were wrong about some things and right about others. And we became friends, fast friends, and I still look up to him to this day. He taught me a lot about being a man, my own father deserting me in my youth. I wonder if we could become friends today.
Yes, I commented before but I started thinking and remembering: When I worked in our local high school, there were two good friends who passed each other on the stairwell. One was Egyptian, the other's mother was Asian. As they passed, instead of saying 'hi', the one called out "Chink!" and the other in return "Sand nigger!". And everyone laughed. No gasps, no running to the principal, no curling into the fetal position. It was their way of saying "You're my friend, you get me, you won't be offended." Those kids taught me something.
Staying on the Chinese theme: I was talking to a younger guy at uni a while back. I didn’t know him that well just a little, enough for a chat. Anyways ... so I had a new mobile phone and I was telling him how I was getting all these calls. “Yeah I’m getting these strange prerecorded calls at all hours, it’s all in Chinese.” And I proceeded to imitate the language “cha Ching bong wah ahh king tow.” He just turned white and told me I was a racist and we never spoke again.
I always start jib jabbering in fake Chinese back at them. They will play along for about two minutes and then hang up. I must have said something bad.
I agree, but for many, there are consequences when you "just take it back."
You get persecuted or kicked out of college, sent to diversity training at work, canceled from Twitter, etc. Not easy nowadays. Especially for young people. So, yes, take it back. But expect consequences, and be ready to endure.
Yes, there will be consequences. I, myself, had to retire from my job because I refused to take the jab - at least I had the option to retire but I would have left regardless of the consequences because of my convictions. What is needed is courage, determination and the ability to pick yourself up after you fall.
My father was a drunk and a fiend...I hated my father. Actually that's not true. But to the point of this story, he worked as a mechanic and one day (this would have been the early 70s I guess) one of his friends, who was from the local band of Indians (as he called them and I believe they called themselves at the time), came in the shop to buy some tires. He asked the price and my dad said that if he brought beaver skins to the height of the stack of tires he could have the tires. That was the humour they shared. My dad was half Pole and half Ukrainian - a bohunk.
I also recall "Hunky Bill's" pierogi maker (at Expo '86) taking a shellacking because of the name. My dad laughed. Different times.
I love the “offensive” story. At first you caught me off guard. I thought, geez Kat you will be in real trouble here for such a racist (one of the worst and overused words in our language) story.
But yes...once again you are spot on! Thanks for making me think a little this am.
at the end of the day, proscribing these words is what gives them so much power.
"we may not speak it, so it must be powerful and dreadful"
but reducing it to commonality, humor, and "retaking it" for ourselves is how that potency dissolves.
it takes a power sized by the semantic overlords who rule by subverting and co-opting language and returns it to the community. this is not some open invitation to be jerks, but simply a retaking for ourselves the right to decide or mores and norms.
bonding by acknowledging differences and showing that you don't care and still share commonality and friendship is the real pluralism.
"you can never understand me because intersectionalis" is both racist and alienating.
"we may not speak it, so it must be powerful and dreadful"
Conjures up an image of a coven of Satanists in black robes, dancing round a pentacle and chanting in grim tones "N.......,N.......,N......!" to bring earthly powers and riches to themselves and hex their enemies.
Knew a Nigerian and a Chinese kid in grad school. The Chinese guy would demand the Nigerian restore his stolen television. The Nigerian would reply that he'd do so as soon as the Chinese kid finished his laundry.
Then they'd laugh and crack a beer.
That is the way. Not this prickly, fragile offense taking.
consider the embedded bet in elevating offense to status:
even if you win and climb to the top of the greasy pole of aggrievement hierarchy: you will still be perpetually offended and aggrieved.
if that is "victory" you are playing a stupid game.
So true! This is why the woke are so miserable.
and, sadly, why they so enjoy spreading that misery around.
To quote my late mother, “Misery loves company.”
misery is really called manipulation. some kids, mother-in-laws, coworkers are masters of it.
Agreed. Affected misery is a means of causing people to run around in a highly distressed state trying to appease you.
Scratch any Lefty and you’ll find someone who utterly hates themselves. People who hate themselves really despise those who don’t - those who enjoy life. “Misery loves company” is the absolute driving factor for all Lefty behavior.
The woke are just totally self absorbed people who have projected their egos on to a cause.
😊
All the more reason to point at them and laugh.
When prue leith (GBBO) mentions using cricket flour in baking and the need to eat crickets, I can assure you woke ain’t going away.
I think that the newly formed "Save the crickets" organisation should boycott and loudly protest every program and retail outlet selling this product.
Orthoptera lives matter.
FTW.
Ha ha ha ha ha!
The new saying will be “you couldn’t hear crickets”..meaning “i’m so stuffed”
They’re welcome to eat all the bugs they can stomach.
Lab-created meat? They have yet to achieve the milestone of recreating McDonalds pink slime.
Stupid is as stupid does.
Just wanted to chime in as someone who grew up in Queens, NYC, which was diverse before it was cool: my friends and i wd spend all day every day cracking the same dumb ethnic jokes to each other—the greeks for being hairy and inventing sodomy, the latinos for goya beans and loud salsa, the indians for curry and dots on foreheads, the italians for the mafia and their wife-beaters etc etc—and then we'd spend the weekends sleeping over each other's houses and trying to get w each other's sisters...and we're all still close decades later.
light raillery is an excellent social lubricant and also a way for people from different cultures and places to bond.
Brings to mind a memory, a moment.
Worked in an office in Brooklyn, early ‘80s. Diversity, before it had that name, was the norm. We were not kid kids, but young adults, all in our 20s except one “senior” at 40!
The moment was integral to one of raillery (good word!) in the break room. In the midst of laughter I looked around and with great affection pointed out that here we were, a Mick, a Spic, a Jew, a WASP, a WOP, a Greek and a Chink - and yes, I used the derogatory terms. Out loud! Gasp! It was a moment of appreciation shared by all.
Our lesbian co-worker was not present but I related it to her at some point. Same appreciation.
I’m friends to this day with 4 out of the 7 still alive. (I’m the 8th.)
What a blessing to have a basis of comparison.
Lots of trauma to heal around here, folks that don’t even recognize yet they’ve been traumatized. Hell, we’ve all been traumatized in different ways.
Laughter is such great medicine; self deprecation a window to discovery.
really one of the great blessings of growing up in a place w multiple tribes is the simple realization that we are all the same. different cultures and histories, different languages and food, but underneath the same humans w the same needs and fears.
Clay feet.
Every. one. of us.
When people name drop I roll my eyes.
When you spend even a little time with the well-known one on one, which I have, you quickly realize, as you say, all humans. Some of them troubled, though you’d never know it from public personas.
Yep, we are all the same. Even the misled and blind in the current play.
In the healing phase, if you put me in charge (!!😂😂) the mantra would be the golden rule, Do unto others...
It's common in friendships between men. Many women simply can't deal with it.
yeah, 'takin the piss' (as the Brits put it) seems to be a very male thing
ROFL!:) Thank you, John Carter!!!
That's funny! ❤️❤️
Love the handle
Thank you for building one of the funniest, freest, and most inspiring speakeasies on the Substack block, el gato.
This one’s for you:
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LOMO_eSGcU4
Thank you for that clip. Dear God it's been awhile since we've had that much fun. Brought tears to my eyes. Time to get back to it.
Amen! I'm so tired of the put downs if you just act silly. What's wrong so with silly?!
🎊🙌
It brought (very unexpected) tears to my eyes too!
What a fantastic crowd scene! This is what we need to restore our commonality. Thank you for sharing. It made me smile and cry. A potent blend.
Aww, so happy you enjoyed it, and agreed!
Music. Powerful glue.
How to “weaponize” - in a unifying, commonality building spirit.
Hm. A worldwide known tune - NOT “Imagine” (no countries = one government, highly suspect). The very same Twist and Shout? Shake it up! baby. -?
I dunno. An adopted upbeat theme song that brought peoples together would be a splinter in their eye though, wouldn’t it?
'Dancing in the streets' could also be such an anthem, as it celebrates impromptu dancing all over the world. Maybe the willing embrace of sheer spontaneous communal joy is the antidote to the tyranny of the miserable and the vindictive, like light drives away vampires.
Oooo... Calling out around the world! You’ve - - struck a chord there. Spontaneous joy. Yes! Sooo right: light -lightness of heart vs fear; joy; brother-sisterhood - *this* is the communal spirit that will energize US and dry up “their” energy supply.
*edit: Note to introvert self: put that sh!t away. Folks may look at you funny for bursting into song on the sidewalk but if you get it right (so get it right!) they won’t forget. The seed will have been planted.
Love it! @Throgmorton!!
An excellent thought! This could be a powerful weapon against tyranny. A song to sing, voices lifted in unison all over the world, partaking in and creating the power of music to dispel the evil and joyless miasma they have spellcast over the world and the minds of humanity.
I'm so glad to have been a part of THIS generation and not today's.
Thank-you and God bless you, Margaret Anna Alice for that clip. You have made my day! I sure wish I had that DVD. 😊
Delighted to hear that, Bandit!
It looks like the DVD is only $4.99 (blu-ray’s only $6.99!) at Amazon right now:
• https://smile.amazon.com/Ferris-Buellers-Day-Matthew-Broderick/dp/B01M0O5DI4/
Here in the UK, older style comedy would probably get you jailed today.
So here's one that would hopefully get the current batch of do gooders, to self immolate.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qK_KhzQEjoQ
This will get you jailed today. Amazed it is on youtube.... blazing saddles...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sAELs42aZt4
Benny Hill. Loved that show so much!
Holy smokes!! I've just remembered what fun is!!!! HUGE THANK YOU.
My absolute delight! 😎
How sad I am that my daughter will never know the world I lived in.
Wow! 35 years ago, and no freaks in sight.
Awesome!
Try one from Over Here:
An Englishman, an Irishman, and a Scotsman walk into a pub.
The barman says, "Is this a joke?"
horse walks into a bar.
bartender asks: "why the long face?"
(also works with jacinda adern)
Man has plastic surgery, goes into a pub.
Barman says, "Why the wrong face?"
Chinaman has plastic surgery, goes into a pub......
Why the wong face?
...no...wrong...
A string walks into a bar. The bartender says "Hey, can't you read!? The sign out side says we refuse to serve strings".
The string thinks about this, exits the bar and lays down on the sidewalk and rolls around and around until he's just a scraped up, knotted mess.
He goes back onto the bar, sits down and orders a beer.
The bartender says "Hey ain'tchoo that string I just kicked out?"
To which the string simply replies....
"Frayed Knot"
🤣🤣🤣
i’m in stitches 😁
that's a stingstring
🤣
To paraphrase Joe Biden “ Jacinda is a pony faced dog soldier!”
or AOC
AOC's pronouns are Hee/Haw. She has a face for chewing carrots.
Horse with plastic surgery walks into a Japanese bar.
Bartender says, "Why the wrong face?"
A bunch of grad students are milling around the office late one morning.
A Japanese student comes in and asks one of them, "You want to go to lunch?"
The student replies, "What the hell is runch?"
This is immediately followed by a simulated Samurai death blow straight to the heart from the Japanese student.
They all go to lunch at the Indian Buffet.
A pair of jumper cables walk into a bar. The bartender says, "You're not allowed in here anymore. I'm tired of you going around starting stuff."
cat walks into a bar.
bartender says "wow, now you guys are really milking this joke template."
A termite walks into a bar. He says, "Hey, where's the bar tender?"
An immensely wealthy computer salesman walks into a bar, and announces to all the patrons he'll offer them free medicine to cure their ills. They all agree. Then, half of them fall over dead.
Just say Bill Gates of Hell. You don't need to beat around the bush. 😉😊😋
An Irishman walks out of a bar.
I worked with an Irish man in SF who called jokes like that racist. Too sad.
I was called racist by my cousin-in-law, who lives in Texas, because I said black people don't look their age. 😳🙄🤪
In the words of several black people I knew or still know...
"Black don't crack."
(and i'm envious of that!)
Me, too! All of the black women I've known, that ever mentioned age, were VERY proud of the fact that, "Black don't crack."
Good one! 😂 Add "sober" and the joke will kill!
An Irishman was asked if he was Jewish. He became offended. "Jewish?" he declared, "I've only had fhifteen points a Guinnish, dye think I can't hoult me dhrink?!"
The barman says, "Anyone hurt? The door's over here."
Cute! Thanks for the smile! 😊
Meow mix goodness. Offense is taken. Never given. All of this is only possible where social capital is measured in victimhood.
I remember the first time I saw the rejoinder to “I’m not interested in politics” be “that’s just your privilege!”
I don’t want boxes, but I think it’s okay to keep redrawing the circle so that dishonorable killjoys find themselves outside of it, repeatedly, and they can either posse up on the outskirts or rejoin polite society.
yeah, that one is the doozie.
fortunately, there is nothing like watching becky from vassar explain to minorities about how they do not understand their own lives and need her to tell them how oppressed and needful of help they are to rapidly reveal this for the "no true scottsman" fallacy underpinning prejudicial mascotism that it is.
and don't knock boxes until you try them. 200 million cats can't be wrong.
The council in our little township is trying to pass a bylaw that dictates what kind of boxes we can rent to cats to stay in overnight. The newly created licensing fees and intrusive inspections are supposedly a value-added feature, not a penalty. Marxism makes for lousy entertainment.
This is the nickel-and-diming that is destroying us culturally and economically, much more than stupid taxation which is still stupid. Last time there was a depression, people could at least sell apples out of carts and take in washing and lodgers. I owned, for a time, the most beautiful boat; a 37 ft Sam Crocker motor sailer built in 1939. I still weep to think of the trim in the cabin. And that was built *during* the depression.
It's authoritarianism. They got a great big taste of it during covid, and now they are addicted to it.
The sensation of coercing people makes them feel alive. Sick.
Large paper bags are fun, too.
They are all totally wrong about being able to catch that red dot on the wall, though.
So far...
Fair, fair.
Have you experienced (or is "been exposed to" more correct?) this one:
"Not choosing a side is choosing a side!"
Yep. I learned something about myself a few years ago, or realized it, finally. I am a slow processor. I might *think* I have an opinion or know what I think about something right away, but I really don't. My first reactions are often totally different from my conclusions. I have to sleep on everything, sometimes for weeks, or months, or, as the cat says, forever, because I just won't ever have the data and my feeling in my gut is not specific to the problem but only to my conduct relative to it (the childhood vax stuff ends up here for me - I still don't find anything truly conclusive and I don't even care anymore).
In our culture, being fast with the answer is equated with being smart, so I thought maybe I just wasn't. But, if I can sit with it, I DO get a lot of real depth and traction.
So, if someone hits me with that, I can either snark out with "look, pal, MY truth is that I process slowly so you are being a neuro-bigot," or, I can just say, which I do, "It takes me a long time to assimilate and digest information and I take that time." So there.
Forcing, or demanding, or formulating the statement or question is such a way that an immediate response is required is of course an artefact of TV and radio media, since shows where a question is asked and the other party responds with "Hm, let me get back to you in November on that one" doesn't really draw viewers.
It is sad that academia and schools haven't been able to counteract this, but have instead egged it on the last three generations so that the normal now is akin to what Orwell called "duckspeak".
A tutor I had taught us to think about messages (politicial or otherwise, media especially) as someone trying to sell us something. That's the way I approach it - as if someone demanding a rapid response is an out-of-breath dude offering me to buy "his" car, "only $500 cash in hand, don't mind the window or the screwdriver in the ignition, it was busted in an accident, honest".
In my case, the specific situation was about joining the majority of the faculty in what I can only describe as a two-minute hate-session when the Sweden Democrats gained their first seats in parliament, over a decade ago. It was a blatant "either you're with us or you're an enemy"-situation, which I loathe when it obviously isn't that kind of situation.
Good on you for setting an example by not letting others force you into picking sides!
Edited for spelling.
Developing convictions takes time and deep processing. Unfortunately many in these times do not value or respect that process.
My husband will say that’s the difference between men and women. We can each go to the supermarket for a quart of milk. He’ll be back in 10 minutes. I’ll be back in an hour and would have read every milk carton to assist in my decision.
I vote for snark. Though I see the value in being polite and thoughtful. Maybe snark in response to the more vicious bite. ...My inner a**hole showing... I don’t really get a vote anyway so nothing lost throwing in. 😬 (I have the same sort of long processing time, so I identify.)
I’m at least thinking it:)
Points for that. And for speaking your truth. I might never o’ known that about you ;)
TY, Gato, for addressing the elephant in the room.
I've been "over" the offended generation(s) for years. Now, I pray they'll get over themselves, so the rest of us can live our lives.
Some 30-ish years ago, the wife and I sometimes went to an anarchist café in the town we lived in back then.
There's a swedish pastry used to be called Negerbollar, literally "Negro Balls", made from cocoa and butter and coffee and oat flakes, and the sticky mass was formed into balls and rolled in pearl sugar. Easy to make, a classic made in many-a kindergarten and pre-school as an introdution to baking. Itwas named almost a century ago, simply because negro meant black. It had nothing to do with the race-angle until the 1990s.
So anyway, sometimes reds would also visit the café since there's always been an pverlap between reds and anarchists, especially cosindering various sub-cultures. And they would invariably whine about the "racist pastries" while ignoring the "finnish sticks" (a different pastry) and other ehtnically named things.
The fun part: on of the guys working at the anarchist café was an adoptee from somewhere in Africa, black as midnight in a coal mine he was. So he used to pop out if he heard the whining and ask: "What's wrong with my balls? Don't you like my balls?!"
That he did so in thick regional dialect only had to the hilarity.
Stereotypes are for wallowing in and laughing about - don't remember which american said this, but it's oh so true:
"If I can't crack jokes and have a laugh, then F*ck! your revolution!"
Yep. I hang out with a group of Philly Eye-talians. They make fun of my "cultured" Southern accent. I simply tell them that they may deduct 100 IQ points, but I will get them all back...😉
Accents are such a great way to emphasise difference yet belonging!
Swedish stereotypes, which we use to make fun of one another:
Southern Sweden (called Scania): deep and throaty with lots of diphthongs. West coast: mouth opened wide sideways and not like a yawn, very tonal and rythmic cadence. Middle inland: whining, almost buzzing and tonal. East Coast/Stockholm: nasal to the point of self-parody, also high-pitched. Middle Sweden: sing-song like rythm and almost no audible space between words. Lappland/Sami regions: who knows? Those guys have their own language, which sounds like they make it up as they go along, just to put one over on you. Northern swedish: (silence) - those people make finns seem talkative.
I remember students at university going on a semester abroad when we were doing the english language being told where they weren't allowed to go - Scotland, Australia, the Southern States of the US, and Wales. "Too heavy dialects, not proper Queen's english" our tutors said. Reedonkeylous.
I moved from California to Texas three years ago, am in my mid 60’s, and my goal is to learn the Texas Southern drawl. It’s a challenge at this age but I’m determined.
Welcome refugee!!! just add ya'll & bless ya'll's heart to every sentence & you'll be fine... and don't vote for beto...
A lot of people don’t know what the acronym WOP stands for.
When I was a kid I would hear it all the time along with Pollack, Chink, Spic, etc. It was never said in a hateful way, however.
I can’t remember the first part of this joke, but when I was in high school, it was popular. I am half-Italian and the population of our school included Italians, Polish, Slovak and Irish - both students and teachers.
So the last part of the joke that I remember had to do with a set of Italian tires, something like:
“Dey go in the rain, dey go in the snow, and when they go flat, dey go ... wop, wop, wop, wop!”
I recall Joe Garagiola talking about he and Yogi Berra growing up on "Dago Hill" in St. Louis. Lots of Italians there, but it was the name they themselves called it.
You ought to hear what my buddies call each other. I am offended for them 🤓
I forget when it happened or who did it, but someone said the word "niggardly" (means stingy) & they wanted to lynch him... I'll have to see if I can find who it was & when...
https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/local/longterm/williams/williams020499.htm
D.C. Mayor Anthony A. Williams said yesterday that he will rehire a former top aide who resigned last month because some city employees were offended that the aide used the word "niggardly" in describing how he would have to manage a fund's tight budget.
The mayor said that an internal review had "confirmed for me that Mr. Howard did use the word 'niggardly,' but did not use a racial epithet" during a Jan. 15 discussion with two employees of the Office of the Public Advocate. "Niggardly" means miserly and has no racial connotation.
https://www.chronicle.com/article/u-of-wisconsin-student-complains-about-professors-use-of-niggardly/
The debate over whether “niggardly” is a racially offensive word hit academe Monday, when a black student at the University of Wisconsin at Madison objected to a professor’s use of the term in the classroom.
The student, Amelia Rideau, related the incident before the university’s Faculty Senate Monday, when she urged professors to maintain a strict speech code on the campus.
Niggardly is defined as stingy, and though it sounds similar to “nigger,” the two words share no etymological link.
Sherrod Brown (Senator from Ohio) was one. Pretty sure there have been several.
When I was a young man, or more probably, an old boy, I worked side by side with an older black man. Not just any black man, but one who had changed his "slave" name to an African name and talked about white oppression and black power to me. Once, early in our relationship, I said, "Boy, we got a lot of work to get done today." and he went off on me for calling him "boy". But I stood my ground and said where I came from it was just an expression like "man" or even "damn" and it had nothing to do with him personally. I told him he was just going to have to get over it, that I would think about changing my language but it wouldn't happen overnight. And we began to talk about racial issues. And continued to talk for years. And race became a source of humor to us. We told racist jokes to each other about whites and blacks. We came to understand each other's viewpoint. We admitted we were wrong about some things and right about others. And we became friends, fast friends, and I still look up to him to this day. He taught me a lot about being a man, my own father deserting me in my youth. I wonder if we could become friends today.
Yes, I commented before but I started thinking and remembering: When I worked in our local high school, there were two good friends who passed each other on the stairwell. One was Egyptian, the other's mother was Asian. As they passed, instead of saying 'hi', the one called out "Chink!" and the other in return "Sand nigger!". And everyone laughed. No gasps, no running to the principal, no curling into the fetal position. It was their way of saying "You're my friend, you get me, you won't be offended." Those kids taught me something.
Absolutely agree...no jokes and no conversation without fear of hurting someone about something, somewhere, sometime...whatever...we must find joy!
My husband and I started a routine...he says ha. I say ha,ha. He says ha, ha, ha. You get the idea...works. Seven is when the real laughter begins!
Staying on the Chinese theme: I was talking to a younger guy at uni a while back. I didn’t know him that well just a little, enough for a chat. Anyways ... so I had a new mobile phone and I was telling him how I was getting all these calls. “Yeah I’m getting these strange prerecorded calls at all hours, it’s all in Chinese.” And I proceeded to imitate the language “cha Ching bong wah ahh king tow.” He just turned white and told me I was a racist and we never spoke again.
I just give those guys my credit card number and they don't call anymore.
😂 I swore I was going to do some work today. 😂😆
Smart move! I’ll have to try that.
see, that is sad.
I get those calls from China as well, always music in the back ground.
Weird
I always start jib jabbering in fake Chinese back at them. They will play along for about two minutes and then hang up. I must have said something bad.
They will hang up a lot more quickly if you mention Tianamen Square.
A surprising number of them are psyops and information gathering from the CCP.
They're mostly casting wide phishing nets for Chinese nationals or their relatives abroad.
That makes sense as the CCP is opening police stations in other countries, notably Canada and Ireland to police all ethnic Chinese.
Dang! I am still laughing. I would have paid for a recording of the encounter. 😂😂😂
Replacing antidepressants with laughter could cost the pharmaceutical industry billions.
I agree, but for many, there are consequences when you "just take it back."
You get persecuted or kicked out of college, sent to diversity training at work, canceled from Twitter, etc. Not easy nowadays. Especially for young people. So, yes, take it back. But expect consequences, and be ready to endure.
Yes, there will be consequences. I, myself, had to retire from my job because I refused to take the jab - at least I had the option to retire but I would have left regardless of the consequences because of my convictions. What is needed is courage, determination and the ability to pick yourself up after you fall.
Same exact thing right here. https://shethinksliberty.substack.com/p/about-me
My father was a drunk and a fiend...I hated my father. Actually that's not true. But to the point of this story, he worked as a mechanic and one day (this would have been the early 70s I guess) one of his friends, who was from the local band of Indians (as he called them and I believe they called themselves at the time), came in the shop to buy some tires. He asked the price and my dad said that if he brought beaver skins to the height of the stack of tires he could have the tires. That was the humour they shared. My dad was half Pole and half Ukrainian - a bohunk.
I also recall "Hunky Bill's" pierogi maker (at Expo '86) taking a shellacking because of the name. My dad laughed. Different times.
Hilarious! 😂😂😂
I love the “offensive” story. At first you caught me off guard. I thought, geez Kat you will be in real trouble here for such a racist (one of the worst and overused words in our language) story.
But yes...once again you are spot on! Thanks for making me think a little this am.
at the end of the day, proscribing these words is what gives them so much power.
"we may not speak it, so it must be powerful and dreadful"
but reducing it to commonality, humor, and "retaking it" for ourselves is how that potency dissolves.
it takes a power sized by the semantic overlords who rule by subverting and co-opting language and returns it to the community. this is not some open invitation to be jerks, but simply a retaking for ourselves the right to decide or mores and norms.
bonding by acknowledging differences and showing that you don't care and still share commonality and friendship is the real pluralism.
"you can never understand me because intersectionalis" is both racist and alienating.
If you can't speak, in time you cease to think.
If you don't think, you become a mindless automaton.
Which is what [they] want us to become. Serfs in their utopian machine.
Control the language, you control the proles.
Become ungovernable.
"we may not speak it, so it must be powerful and dreadful"
Conjures up an image of a coven of Satanists in black robes, dancing round a pentacle and chanting in grim tones "N.......,N.......,N......!" to bring earthly powers and riches to themselves and hex their enemies.