Election 2016

[bart]

The trouble is, it’s easier than ever for a person to cruise through life without meeting anyone who disagrees with them. It’s this intellectual vacuum which piqued the interest of Matt Motyl, a psychologist from Illinois University, Chicago. A few years ago, he began attending political events and religious services to strike up conversation with people he wouldn’t usually meet.

“I’d come back to my predominantly liberal social circle and try to explain that the other side isn’t ignorant or malevolent,” he says. He faced harsh rebukes for his open-mindedness, including accusations of treachery.

This happened to me during a conversation about Colombia's peace deal with the revolutionary armed forces, and the (well-deserved IMO) skepticism towards the specifics of the deal. Kind of startling.

I am very interested to read your thoughts on the FARC deal.

[Jorge]

The trouble is, it’s easier than ever for a person to cruise through life without meeting anyone who disagrees with them. It’s this intellectual vacuum which piqued the interest of Matt Motyl, a psychologist from Illinois University, Chicago. A few years ago, he began attending political events and religious services to strike up conversation with people he wouldn’t usually meet.

“I’d come back to my predominantly liberal social circle and try to explain that the other side isn’t ignorant or malevolent,” he says. He faced harsh rebukes for his open-mindedness, including accusations of treachery.

This happened to me during a conversation about Colombia's peace deal with the revolutionary armed forces, and the (well-deserved IMO) skepticism towards the specifics of the deal. Kind of startling.

I am very interested to read your thoughts on the FARC deal.

It is bad

[malice]

I hope one day America is ready for a REAL black president. The kind who wears saggy pants, speaks in indecipherable ebonics, and lives in abject squalor.

Kiss my ass, jorge. I'm completely serious when I state Obama is about as white a black man as any typical American could ask for as president. You didn't elect this man , and weren't even raised in the US. You come from a wealthy upbringing, had the benefit of a superior education, and are a well seasoned traveller to boot. If you care to try this elitist for shame on mary for having such non-post racial world view crap next time, do me a favor and live in Boston or upstate New York for a good 20 years first and get some idea of the actual differentiation in class structure that's imposed on people here, and how it's drawn down the exact same lines as skin color and cultural biases.

And in fact, fuck off in the meantime.

[Jorge]

I'm completely serious when I state Obama is about as white a black man as any typical American could ask for as president.

If you want to say that Obama presents himself as a well-scrubbed, articulate, "acceptable" version of blackness and that makes the racially-charged vitriol thrown his way all the more baffling, I can sort of get behind that. Asserting that he's "just nominally black" because he doesn't conform to your (a white woman's) idea of true blackness is... weird.

[bart]

If there's one place I'd recommend someone live to get a true idea of the complex racial experience of 21st century America, it would be Upstate New York.

[bune]

Socialism never took root in America because the poor see themselves not as an exploited proletariat but as temporarily embarrassed millionaires.

There's a lot of truth in this

Disputed[edit]
Socialism never took root in America because the poor see themselves not as an exploited proletariat, but as temporarily embarrassed millionaires. As quoted in A Short History of Progress (2004) by Ronald Wright.[1] This has since been cited as a direct quote by some, but the remark may simply be a paraphrase, as no quotation marks appear around the statement and no earlier publication of this phrasing has been located.

I like this bit from Slaughterhouse-Five better:

“America is the wealthiest nation on Earth, but its people are mainly poor, and poor Americans are urged to hate themselves. To quote the American humorist Kin Hubbard, 'It ain’t no disgrace to be poor, but it might as well be.' It is in fact a crime for an American to be poor, even though America is a nation of poor. Every other nation has folk traditions of men who were poor but extremely wise and virtuous, and therefore more estimable than anyone with power and gold. No such tales are told by the American poor. They mock themselves and glorify their betters. The meanest eating or drinking establishment, owned by a man who is himself poor, is very likely to have a sign on its wall asking this cruel question: 'if you’re so smart, why ain’t you rich?' There will also be an American flag no larger than a child’s hand – glued to a lollipop stick and flying from the cash register.

Americans, like human beings everywhere, believe many things that are obviously untrue. Their most destructive untruth is that it is very easy for any American to make money. They will not acknowledge how in fact hard money is to come by, and, therefore, those who have no money blame and blame and blame themselves. This inward blame has been a treasure for the rich and powerful, who have had to do less for their poor, publicly and privately, than any other ruling class since, say Napoleonic times. Many novelties have come from America. The most startling of these, a thing without precedent, is a mass of undignified poor. They do not love one another because they do not love themselves.”

[bart]

Few excerpts can rival that one for sheer bullshit levels.

[BurtReynolds]

poor people disgust me.

[BurtReynolds]

Few excerpts can rival that one for sheer bullshit levels.

yeah, it's complete nonsense. America romanticizes and deifies being poor or working class like no other society on Earth. the more ghetto or redneck, the more heroic.

And the rich are loathed. Especially Doug. That fucking guy...

[Bi_3]

Few excerpts can rival that one for sheer bullshit levels.

yeah, it's complete nonsense. America romanticizes and deifies being poor or working class like no other society on Earth. the more ghetto or redneck, the more heroic.

Yes, but that is usually in the context of them escaping the shackles of poverty.

[bune]

I hope one day America is ready for a REAL black president. The kind who wears saggy pants, speaks in indecipherable ebonics, and lives in abject squalor.

Kiss my ass, jorge. I'm completely serious when I state Obama is about as white a black man as any typical American could ask for as president. You didn't elect this man , and weren't even raised in the US. You come from a wealthy upbringing, had the benefit of a superior education, and are a well seasoned traveller to boot. If you care to try this elitist for shame on mary for having such non-post racial world view crap next time, do me a favor and live in Boston or upstate New York for a good 20 years first and get some idea of the actual differentiation in class structure that's imposed on people here, and how it's drawn down the exact same lines as skin color and cultural biases.

And in fact, fuck off in the meantime.

And come on with that quote. Have you not read the book? It's a fever dream.

[malice]

If there's one place I'd recommend someone live to get a true idea of the complex racial experience of 21st century America, it would be Upstate New York.

You can fuck off too, bart

[E.H. Ruddock]

poor people disgust me.

*starts kickstarter*

[ABNorman]

poor people disgust me.

*starts kickstarter*

"We're going to create our own country, with cash overflowing in rivers, and YOU can help!"

[bart]

If there's one place I'd recommend someone live to get a true idea of the complex racial experience of 21st century America, it would be Upstate New York.

You can fuck off too, bart

But hey, what would I know about it. I'm from Baltimore.

[BurtReynolds]

Few excerpts can rival that one for sheer bullshit levels.

yeah, it's complete nonsense. America romanticizes and deifies being poor or working class like no other society on Earth. the more ghetto or redneck, the more heroic.

Yes, but that is usually in the context of them escaping the shackles of poverty.

eh sometimes, but it's more often about sticking it to the man/corporation/government and about how great being poor really is and how poor people are really the best people.

But being poor fucking sucks, and poor people are just as bad as everyone else.

[BurtReynolds]

poor people disgust me.

*starts kickstarter*

Poor people are useless to me! They won't buy shit.

[Bi_3]

If there's one place I'd recommend someone live to get a true idea of the complex racial experience of 21st century America, it would be Upstate New York.

You can fuck off too, bart

But hey, what would I know about it. I'm from Baltimore.

[E.H. Ruddock]

If there's one place I'd recommend someone live to get a true idea of the complex racial experience of 21st century America, it would be Upstate New York.

You can fuck off too, bart

But hey, what would I know about it. I'm from Baltimore.

yeah that Shula's 2 in Inner Harbor used to make a mean buffalo chicken sandwich. But they closed so

[Strat]

Being white is fun as hell