*Before I fully give the floor to Jason, if he needed his point proven, there was Tore this last week accusing the Holocaust survivors who made in this country of “white privilege.” Apparently if your skin is white-ish, you’re automatically privileged. Centuries of progroms, inquisitions, expulsions and suffering discrimination, but you don’t have enough of an hereditary tan, so shut up, you’re privileged. THAT, my friends, is racism, straight up, with no dilution — Sarah*
Aristocracy of Victimhood- by Jason Hobbs
I am a terrible person.
Allow me to first introduce myself: I am Jason, a conservative-leaning white, Christian, cismale heteronormative fascist. Because of my birth-gifted sexism/racism/homophobia I have very little authority with which to tell you, dear reader, about the Aristocracy of the Victim.
It’s a trend I’ve been noticing more of as late, as people are told “Check your privilege” instead of simply “shut up.” This is one of those Alinskyite tactics of language control which confers superiority of the person demanding the check while at the same time seeming ‘profound’ and ‘enlightened’. Moreover, it’s about authority and submission–the Authority of the Victim seeking the submission of the Enemy of the Week.
Allow me to explain. For the past several hundred years, the world has seen a massive shift of power. A funny little country of Odds managed to rise up against one of the great world powers, throw off the chains of an aristocracy and oppressive government and determine its own path. What’s worse, it’s been steadily growing more free, throwing out year after year, decade after decade the different trappings of hierarchy and class. People who were oppressed, who were regarded as little more than property, people who were once considered sub-human all have been given a place at the table. It’s by no means perfect but is going to continue being an on-going process of growth…unless certain folks have their say in the process.
America, quite frankly, is an abnormality. We put our dirty laundry out, we agonize over ideas, and we place the individual ahead of the state. We tell people they can rise above their assigned or born class and be greater, not in spite of their origins but because of their work. Unfortunately, throughout history this behavior has generally not been the case. Despite any claims to meritocracy, there always tended to be a ruling class defined by birth. Born to a king or a noble? Congratulations, you win at life. Born as a serf? I hope you like dirt, because you’re going to be seeing a lot of it. Look around the world. Ancient Persia, Feudal Japan, Pre-Communist Russia. Say what you will about Game of Thrones, Martin nails the worth of the serf perfectly.
Enter America, and the formula changed.
There’s one problem, however: some people have issues with all this rampant freedom going on and without the ability to slide people into their little classification boxes the world ends up too big and scary. (Where this comes from is something I’m not going to bother with; see a shrink.) This attitude tends to be prevalent in the Progressive movement–just study a moment the early Progressives of the 1900s, obsessed with superiority of race and ideals. If you don’t believe me, go ahead and look it up. I’ll be right here waiting for you. And no, I’m not going to feed you a link. Go forth and claim knowledge for yourself!
Alright, back? Great!
The question is, how does one divide people by class if it’s become a cultural and social taboo to do so? Simple! By raising up those different classes as paragons of inferiority and victimhood, you can be as condescending and judgmental as you please, but now you’re doing it because you care so very, very much about them. Thus, a form of Victimhood Aristocracy was born.
Instead of being called inferior or lesser because of your race, gender, religion or orientation, you’re now a victim. And the more of these ‘titles’ you claim for yourself, the greater your ‘authority’ to fight the ‘injustice’ which made you a victim. For example, to the progressives today, a transgendered homosexual African (Dark skin–white skin need not apply) Muslim holds an incredible amount of moral authority (not to mention mind-blowing amounts of irony)–congratulations, you are now the Duke/Duchess of Victimistan. If they speak, they are to be listened to as long as they continue to speak the proper ideology, though their various titles protect them to a point from ideological heresy accusations. Too much heresy and the condescension and hate will become overt, of course, and they will be stoned for their transgressions. Myself, on the other hand…
I am told to be silent, to “check my privilege.” If I still speak out, I am to be shunned, unless the words I use are of the correct ideology. In that case, I become a champion of the cause to be lauded…right up until I say the wrong thing. Then I’m required to pay a fine and go on an apology tour. But I digress.
The fact is, victimhood and its aristocracy of titles is nothing more than a softer form of unwitting racism, homophobia, sexism and general hate. It’s just been sugared up so it tastes better and is being used daily to carve us up back into our little segregated groups to deal with all this pesky freedom America’s been spreading.
Because if there’s one thing aristocracy and dictators hate, it’s the proles thinking they can do on their own something greater than their allotted station.
According To Hoyt 
I saw a thing yesterday where ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith addressed being called a “sell-out” and “Uncle Tom” because he had no issue with Mark Cuban’s comments. While many on the left seized onto Cuban’s comment about crossing the street if a black guy in a hoodie were coming towards him, they missed his comments about skeevy looking white guys.
Smith went on a bit of a rant, but a beautiful one, where he talked about The American Dream. He pointed out that the American dream isn’t Kobe Bryant or Jay-Z, but himself. He worked hard to get through public schools, went to a college that didn’t even have a journalism program, graduated with honors (a nice feat since he was held back a year in elementary school), got an internship that lead to a career in journalism.
He took aim at a culture that grabs hold of victimhood with pride, though he doesn’t frame it such a way.
Frankly, I look at our country, the same country that let someone like Oprah go from such poor beginnings to become one of the wealthiest people alive, and maybe it’s just me, but it’s very hard to see how this “privilege” thing really works. I mean, my business collapsed while she’s reached heights I realistically couldn’t dream of. Where’s that privilege thing at, anyways?
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Good on Mr. Smith.
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Did a bit of flaming on Twitter yesterday. Wasn’t directly this issue of “white privilege” but a related meme in the Cult of Victimhood(tm). In a flamewar on gun control and self defense issues, a GHH stated that she should not have to be responsible for defending herself, instead “men should be trained not to be rapists”.
The proverbial red tint came across my vision. I tossed back that the GHH that “men were not rapists. Rapists are rapists.” That she needed to take responsibility for her self and her perceptions. That all men are not rapists. Sociopathic criminals are not trainable.
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That line of thinking infuriates me to no end.
This is the same thinking that is trying to tell people that it’s wrong to warn women about the potential dangers. “Teach men not to rape women,” they fire back, rather than warning women how to be safe.
As a result more women will be raped. I swear, it wouldn’t surprise me to find out some of these women are involved with rapists and are trying to help create a target rich environment for their “men”. After all, that’s what they’re doing, even if it’s not by design.
everyone has a responsibility for their own well being. It’s why I don’t hit up an ATM late at night in the sketchy parts of town After all, screaming about telling people they should teach folks to not rob people isn’t really an option at that point.
I don’t wish harm on anyone, but these people need to be smacked upside their heads with a clue-by-four. Repeatedly.
They’re hurting the very people they think they’re helping.
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Those who oppose the teaching, study, and practice of counter predation strategies are objectively pro predator. But predators can try to slip in through that.
There was a #WarOnWoman post on livejournal that talked about the need for public sex ed because social conservatives would try to keep twelve year old girls from the information that would let them avoid pregnancy at that age.
My major concern there is that there are predators who go after both sexes of children, who go after them younger than twelve, and who would kill them before pregnancy has any chance to be an issue. Since counter predation strategies against being kidnapped and murdered also have some value versus pregnancy, I emotionally evaluated that argument as “Hey, let’s load kids up on the Salami Slicer, so long as female power is served’.
I inferred and deduced quite a lot about predators and counter-predation strategies between around the age of five and around ten. These seem to have helped me out with a particular person. The downside might be the anxiety that stuck with me into my twenties.
Public school curriculum is a blunt instrument. Running material intended to develop personal judgment through it is mostly good at ruining the material. My view of the ideology behind sex ed as being harmful, objectively pro predator, is not entirely due to this confounding factor.
Run my curriculum through that mangler, and you might well get ‘People who think gay marriage makes sense would load you in the Salami slicer if they felt like it.’ This can be as abusive a thing to say to a kid as ‘If your parents use drugs, they do not, can not, love you.’
A more ideal, but perhaps still harmful curriculum might be ‘be polite to everyone, friendly to no one, and have a plan to keep any one from being able to kill you as easily as they might otherwise.’
Hence, I think it very proper to leave parents a lot of discretion about educating their young children on counter predation and personal responsibility as applied to that. There are not so many children murdered that refusing to match the lesson to the student and the time would be less harmful.
I feel that there is less of a need for a delicate hand with the clue by four when other people’s children are adults. The schools won’t have taught them personal responsibility on purpose, and their parents might not have. Counter-predation sometimes requires the self mastery to say ‘Despite my desire, I will not take this pointless risk.’ There are limits to what another person can teach them as adults.
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I swear, it wouldn’t surprise me to find out some of these women are involved with rapists and are trying to help create a target rich environment for their “men”.
Am I the only one that started thinking about how women are ACTUALLY treated in liberal extremist circles?
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No, you’re really not.
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Yea– noticed it too–
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No, you’re not. Sometime read about the woman Bill Ayers forced to have sex with a black guy to “prove you aren’t racist” — seriously.
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::Shakes Head Sadly::
Makes my paranoiac idea that “straights will be forced to have sex with gays to prove they’re not homophobic” not so paranoiac.
Of course, even at my most paranoiac, I thought it would be the most kookiest gays who would try that stunt.
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Just like a modern well educated progressive country would never allow a few extreme radicals to demonize an ethnic minority, abuse and torture them, then ultimately execute six million, right?
Always keep in mind that the Germany of 1939 was a first world nation, with social and economic issues of course, but how is that so different from the here and now?
Hell, even the US put naturally born citizens in camps simply because of their ethnic origins.
The naive belief that what we know today is the natural, stable, for ever and ever way things must continue to be is wishful thinking of the worst kind, a lie of the first order in the greater scheme of things.
This odd little country of ours with its crazy notion of personal liberty and freedom runs counter to pretty much every civilization in recorded history. And sadly, it doesn’t seem to export well, so if we fail the noble experiment will likely do so as well.
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ONLY if you were in liberal circles. You’d be totally safe with my friends ;)
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I wonder how the Liberals ones would take it if I said “you must be desperate to want to have sex with me”. [Very Very Big Evil Grin]
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Eeeegh… the thing is, they do have that thing called ‘hate sex’ that they consider acceptable to do to conservative women…
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Obviously the liberal educational system failed to train them not to be rapists.
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Well, we’ve already got the soft-core (because I just can’t call them hard-core) metrosexuals who are about as feminized as you can get short of having a chromosome change, in part so they can get—dates—with vileprog females.
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Read David “I Was A Red Diaper baby” Horowitz’s autobiography Radical Son in which he describes how
Individuals are chattel to the Progs, disposable components of a class whose exploitation is justified as a tool for justifying class interests (actually, the interests of those advocating on behalf of said class; compare and contrast the lives of union leaders with those of union members.)
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It strikes me that one of the simplest ways of teaching men not to rape women would bet to arm the women.
And wouldn’t THAT idea cause a tidal-wave of pearl-clutching hysteria!
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And yet, you’re 100% correct. A few would-be rapists ending up in body bags is bound to have a certain level of deterrent.
Even the turdnuggets that don’t get that it’s wrong will get the idea that it’s really not worth the hassle. I mean, all that stalking, planning, preparation, and then BLAM! A 9mm round going through your forehead. That’s an awful lot of hassle for such jackwagons.
Unfortunately, the lefties just won’t grasp the irony in their stated positions.
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It’s not one of the simplest ways. It’s the ONLY way.
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Only if the women have the knowledge, training and will to use the gun.
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If one can’t bear to disappoint the nice man asking one into the car with a knife to begin with, a firearm isn’t all that useful.
I see self reflection and analysis as a key part of counter predation strategies.
Find the errors in one’s own thinking that others may exploit, and correct them.
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This is the “baby proof the world” mentality. The world cannot be made safe. EVER.
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But promising to make the world safe will give the Obamas and Clintons of the world what they want most: Power.
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Not in this country. In this case, our lack of organization works for us. Sort of. Without an organized opposition, they push and push and push, using the usual straw-persons of possibly male persuasion and the occasional ideological traitor as scape-ruminants. Since the individualists are – again – failing to organize (shocked, SHOCKED, I tell you), they’re going to keep pushing for their so-called utopia of equality (for me, but not for thee, as I am more equal than the other beasts) until they finally push too hard. Then the pendulum will swing back the other way, probably in blood and fire, at least in certain localities, and we get to do the whole thing over again. Yay, history!
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I’ve been getting more and more the feeling that the blood is inescapable. And I have sons. 2 and a half. And apparently a grandson. So…. I’d very much like this cup to pass us by, but I have a feeling it won’t.
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It’s too late to fix this without bloodshed.
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I agree with you. There will be bloodshed. I’m afraid that it will be bloodier than last time. Hubby says it won’t be as geographically distinct.
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The grandson is *probably* too young. The sons, as discussed, are right for it, except in a support role. The other half is … a veteran, and so all bets may well be off. Though “they’ve never done that before.” YMMV. I tend to think it’ll mostly be the big cities, but that’s me. The whole concept scares me spitless, honestly. More now that my son is breathing air.
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Also … well, but that’s neither here nor there. Keep training, friends.
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Yes. Children are bets in the future, but they also teach us fear. For me… I’ll survive. For the boys…
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Dave, I’m afraid the bloodletting will last 20 years. Or 100. Distributed, not by region, civil wars last a LONG time. Or did in history. With tech, who knows. It’s all new territory.
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Oh, yuck. I hope not. I’m guessing the tech speeds up that process, too. Shock’ll be greater, of course. Let’s hope enough of us are left standing that the great outcry is, “This is what happens when you choose collective responsibility!” rather than, “We can never let this happen again!” (a la the 20th C. War, Part I)
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Rudyard Kipling’s Macdonough’s Song seems apropos:
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I don’t think it will last 20 years. Most likely 2. 4 at the outside. See, the people who will be doing the bleeding (and the killing) are the ones that the Democrats rely on to hold any power. If the Free Stuff Army starts marching, they’ll turn the liberal bastions in the cities into warzones. And the last thing anyone thinks about in a warzone is voting. Meanwhile, the suburban and rural voters will be running from anything that remotely stinks of policies that led to the violence. Even California would turn red. Once that happens the National Guard gets sent in (if things get really bad I’d expect to see Posse Comitatus repealed and regular – MOUT trained – troops used) and puts an end to the violence.
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Jeff, when it comes “apart” it will be fast, and widespread. Cities will pretty much collapse. Several states will become wastelands. My guess is about half of Ca.,, most of North East U.S., Chi. to Detroit-maybe Buffalo corridor. We’ll lose about 30-50% of U.S. pop., and a lot of our tech.
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Oh, sweet b-jeebus. Instalanche on harmony. Stand fast.
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Does he warn you when one is coming, or do you just start to hear the sitemeter alarm start to shrill once the wave hits?
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I just saw the sitemeter alarm start to shrill. I don’t even know why THAT post!
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Walt, that’s absurd. We aren’t going to lose any tech (we didn’t lose much tech when the Roman Empire fell, and we’re far more literate and the fall isn’t going to be anywhere near as bad) and your fatality estimates are off by at least an order of magnitude. Mad Max and (jokes aside) Idiocracy aren’t documentaries. Humans are self-organizing, Americans even more so. Those with the penchant for brigandry will only survive as long as they maintain superiority in firepower. In America, that will end shortly after they get out of the city centers.
Don’t forget, we import a lot of what we like – things like computers and cars. We export a lot of what people need, specifically food. Even if the dollar collapses, we’ll be able to sell our agricultural products for something that can be used to buy imports.
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Thank you. I was about to make the same comment. “I think you’ve watched too many movies.” Even Lebanon didn’t go back to the stone age. Things don’t collapse like that. BUT the killing will be horrific and the flare ups wide spread, and the cowardly little sh*ts on the SJW side ARE going to turn to terrorism. It’s natural in them. Fortunately they likely will be as bass awkwards about it as about everything else!
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I’m not even sure the SJW’s will resort to terrorism. At least not for long. I’d like to think that we’ll realize that we’ve seen that movie before and want to part in the reboot.
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See: latest mass murdering idiot.
While I’d never, in a thousand years, DO it– I could kill way, way more than six people if I had a grudge and money. Good grief, half of his kills were his roommates!
It’s a SLIGHTLY less pathetic version of the terrorist SPLC spun up against that Family group, we just weren’t lucky enough for the pathetic one to run into someone who wasn’t so trusting before he harmed innocents.
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I had something else typed here, and I deleted it. No reason to fan the flames of some ill-informed, half-brained troll lurking in the shadows.
Suffice to say, the SJW’s don’t want to play with terrorism on the home front.
Civil war is to be avoided, opposed, blocked shifted and redirected. Not because I think we’d lose, but because it would be searing and deep.
And I know most here aren’t eager and certainly don’t advocate, but let it be said for that same lurking troll.
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I certainly am not. I have nightmares about it.
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This I know, it’s been discussed hereabouts before. For your sons, for Dave’s newborn, for all the rest, I’ll stand in opposition to war in the homeland.
And if it comes, I’ll seek to make it short, sharp and decisive, for the same reasons.
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One of the “fun” parts of writing the WIP is figuring out how do the women respond as they lose more and more of the housekeeping tech. No more robo-vacuumes for the carpet, intermittent power to the washing machines, the “last forever” fabrics start wearing out, shoes for the kids, preserving food when power is intermittent or limited (canning and dehydration vs. the freezer). The big stuff is also a major problem, but it’s been the “little” things that stood out. That seems more realistic than insta-Dark-Ages.
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TXRed, you might for anything on the social changes in Kuwait after the Iraqi’s were kicked out–and a whole lot of Pakistani servants who’d gleefully taken advantage of the fall of their employers were sent home as well. I understand a whole lot of the wives had to learn to cook and clean. It might give you some ideas.
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kilteDave, you might be right about the grandson being too young for what’s coming — IF — we assume that the combatants will only be adults, mostly in the military. I’m not so sure about that, in fact, I’m afraid that we are going to see wide-spread slaughter at some point. Hopefully not yet — I have young grandchildren (Cedar’s children). But I do think it’s coming. Children were not exempt from the Holocaust, nor were they exempt from the starvation in the Ukraine, nor the bloodshed in WWII (general, outside the concentration camps), nor from the bloodshed in Cambodia, etc., etc.. (The Twentieth Century has to have been one of the bloodiest ever in the history of the human race.)
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This will happen after I and mine are dead in the field. And I will not lie alone.
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I can’t stop them from killing me, but I can be damned sure I’ll show up at the gates of Hell with an honor guard.
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Precisely.
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Hopefully not too much near me. I live in a small city and near a very large one.
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Sarah, I have a two “daughters of my heart,” and am adopted granddaughter, so I understand. I’ve known for a while that it will come to a head. I fear for some, because they live in Crazystan lite (MA). I dream of a place that they, and any others of like thinking, can come and “shelter u0,” if they need to. I “only” need about a $300 Million jackpot. :-)
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Methinks y’all are too negative. American society will start to collapse but, before it becomes too extreme friendly neighbors will step in “to help restore order” and to protect the rights of their ethnic fellows threatened by American civil unrest. What Putin did for Crimea’s Russians he can do for Brooklyn’s. Residents of the American Southwest will enjoy the enlightened supervision of Mexico’s government, ex=pat Cubans in Florida will have their rights defended by their Cuban “parents” and Canada will perhaps extend a protective hand to the Plains and Northeastern states.
Texans, OTOH, will remain Texans.
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:-)
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Ew. Don’t make me barf.
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You remind me of a meme I just saw: http://joelsgulch.com/sometimes-you-find-this-great-image/
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Sounds like some people want to be babies their entire lives. What on earth is tempting to be a child forever? You may have no consequences but you have no choices either.
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Lack of responsibility. And no, it doesn’t make sense. I enjoy remembering all the times when someone else was in charge. But life is FAR AND AWAY more interesting and enjoyable now that I’m (more or less) running my own life.
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YES! yes, it’s more scary, too, but much more fun.
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Exactly. Plus, I got over blaming my parents for things a couple of decades ago. What’s the point? Besides, I like my parents. Also, I want them to take my kids away from me now and again.
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There are moments when I miss nap-time or summer vacation, but then I have beer with breakfast (today) or a hot fudge sundae for dinner (yesterday) and I’m glad I’m an adult.
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I guess I missed the part of my upbringing where my parents trained me to be a rapist. I think I would remember something like that.
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Then the police will be at your home shortly, since apparently not actively being taught to not rape means you’re a rapist.
I mean, if the secret to combating rape is to simply teach males not to rape…
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Weeeellllll, there’s yer problem right there! You said, “not all men,” and that’s a cue to bring up the whole “yes all women” shibboleth. I’m not sure what it means, but you’re probably “mansplaining” something, which indicates your gendernormative cisfascism (I’m still wondering if that has something to do with Gaul. I mean Alpine? Cisalpine?) and culls you out of the unwashed masses as Other and Enemy and To Be Shunned. Also, your insistence on such outmoded concepts as “personal liberty” and “personal accountability.” How noncollective of you. You meanie-meanheaded MALE person.
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I was intrigued to discover that women can be banned from comments on blogs for “mansplaining.” I guess it’s part of that gender equality stuff. Or having both and X and a Y chromosome is no longer what makes one male. (I’m so far behind on my reading . . .)
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Logic is a male tool.
and because I raised two boys “eh eh eh eh eh, I said tool.”
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Or having both and X and a Y chromosome is no longer what makes one male.
Oh, for pity’s sake. That’s been well known for 35 years now. Didn’t you get the memo that Margaret Thatcher was not a woman because she was a Conservative?
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I thought it was because her shoes, suit, and handbag matched. Oh, no, that’s what made her working class and therefore not to be listened to, sorry. You’re right. (I get my social cues so mixed up on Mondays.)
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Reminds me– one of the awesome stories I heard was a lady reporter who got to go to the Maggie Thatcher exibit, and the guy in charge realized she was a huge fan, and long story short– Lady Thatcher’s handbag smelled like any little old lady’s handbag. Humanizing and awesome at once, because– well, she was THE IRON LADY while still being a little old lady.
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I got to meet her once at a charity event. She was nice at the cocktail warm up, but when she got up to speak in her Prime Minister persona, she literally radiated power. I’ve never seen anything like it before or since. You totally missed how petite she was, because of the strength of her presence.
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Remember the bumper sticker advising “Sarah Palin is not a woman, she is a Republican”?
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I’ve been a man for 67 — almost 68 — years now. I’ve NEVER gone out of my way to rape anyone. I’ve never even THOUGHT of raping anyone. I also have a strong moral character, instilled in me when I was a child by loving parents and regular church attendance. I grew up in the OLD South, where a man was expected to treat a woman with respect and dignity, even if she proved she wasn’t worth it. Today’s “society” is sick: young people believe that they can get plastered out of their minds, lose all emotional control, and nothing bad will ever happen to them. They wear victimhood like a badge, then scream to high heaven when they’re victimized through their own misbehavior. THEN they scream it’s not their fault, and they shouldn’t have to take any responsibility for what happened. There’s a word for such people — it begins with an “i” and ends with a “t”.
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I’ve been a man for 67 — almost 68 — years now.
You’re 89 next birthday? I wouldn’t have thought it.
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PIV = Rape, ergo you’ve thought of raping some one.
THEY will redefine things to justify their anxieties rather than adjust their anxieties to comport with reality.
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This little meme, it’s popping up with increasing regularity. Had the joy of sitting through a public service announcement at the cinema where a bunch of delusional actors (including the POTUS and Veep) told me how they needed my help to stop sexual assault. ‘Cause if I just understood how it was wrong…
Red curtain of rage, oh yes. This has become a ‘walk away’ topic for me, lest I speak my mind. It’s infuriating, disgusting and so very wrong.
It also invites counters that I don’t want to see cropping up in the culture. But these blithering idiots cannot see!
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You know why the red curtain of rage descends when someone condescendingly tells you “don’t rape”?
Because you’re the type more likely to gutshot a rapist and leave it to slowly die in pain than to rape.
(Well, that’s MY reason. Yours may vary.)
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Whoa … I think you may have explained it.
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Huh. I believe you’re right.
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I quite recently saw a video on this, but I can’t remember where. I was too flabbergasted to see the Red Curtain of Blood; I just sat and watched with my mouth hanging open.
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Yeah, I couldn’t hear the whole thing over my teeth grinding. And by the time the people pretending to be Veep and POTUS showed up the screen was a little hazy…
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“ she should not have to be responsible for defending herself, instead “men should be trained not to be rapists”.”
My initial reaction to this was to sputter for several seconds. Is this woman stupid?
Rape is not about sex. It is about power and violence. It is about terror. Many rapists are sociopaths; they do not believe they are doing anything wrong. You cannot train this kind of mentality to conform to societal standards.
And, as a former L.E.O., I will state categorically that her assertion that she should not have to be responsible for defending herself is the kind of mindset that will make her a target. I sincerely hope she does not breed and reproduce.
I am reminded of this quote my sister found several years ago. Gun Control: The theory that a woman found dead in an alley, raped and strangled with her own pantyhose, is somehow morally superior to a woman explaining to police how her attacker got that fatal bullet wound.”
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One disagreement:
not JUST about sex.
I’d say that sometimes sex has nothing to do with it.
But, in some cases, it does seem clear that sex is an important aspect.
Example: pathetic murderer this week had something to do with sex, but was mostly the psychopath angle. (in my inexpert opinion, of the induced sort rather than the organic sort)
****
Just a Navy watchstander, and a mom, and someone with some basic experience with animals– it’s not right that I should defend myself from predators, but it is required.
Sure, I shouldn’t have to lock my door when I know there’s a risk of theft. But I’m a fool if I don’t– a lock stops an honest thief.
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Here’s a link to Stephen A Smith’s comments:
http://dailycaller.com/2014/05/24/stephen-a-smith-defends-mark-cubans-comments-on-bigotry-video/
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The “hate men” industry is alive and well on US campuses. One example: The “gender professors” (women who hate men) have managed to pull this off: Co-eds have one year to decide of sex was consensual or rape.
So if a co-ed goes off with her knight of the evening, frolics in the sack, but some time in the next 365 days she has regrets, BINGO! she has a rape case.
If this ridiculous idea spreads, our campuses will go from 60% female to 90% female, the other 10% being guys who don’t like girls.
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No. 100% male. Guys can be accused without doing, and not liking girls might be enough reason for a girl to accuse him.
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Yep, because saying you’re gay won’t cut it if Little Miss All That decides she wants you to not be gay for about half an hour.
If a man can be accused and declared guilty without sufficient evidence, saying “But I’m gay” will most likely be seen as a feeble attempt at hiding your truly nefarious nature!
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Yep.
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Your hypothetical transgendered homosexual African Muslim is not actually the Ruler of Victimistan, but just a puppet ruler. The SJW Elites from just the right colleges will hold him/her/it up as an EXAMPLE of victimhood, and make all the right noises about wanting “Justice” for his/her/its oppression, but in the end all that really means is they want more power for themselves, and and they will not use that power in any way to actually address the victimhood of the transgendered homosexual African Muslim. That has to be preserved, if not enhanced, since it is the basis of their power.
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In the kingdom of Victimistan, politics trump all. Were the transgendered homosexual Africian Muslim to express views contrary to the Ivy League SJW elites, they would instantly lose all status. See also Rice, Condi.
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In a less dramatic fashion, Jason Cordova and myself. Because you know, the best skin whitener is being libertarian.
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Things have worked out very well for me, so I’d never claim victimhood. The closest I’ve come to it is exasperation, though some of that has been extreme. I don’t like seeing people behave in a way that screws up the world for no intelligent reason.
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If you are a victim you are not accountable for your actions or lack of action.
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Hi Jason! Sorry. I thought this was a meeting of conservative-leaning white, Christian, cismale heteronormative fascists Anonymous. I know I’d have to join if I ever wanted an SJW to take me seriously (but why would I?)
It bothers me that my opinion is less informed because of an accident of birth. Just because I am The Man (I’m guessing I’m The Man to SJWs) means anything I say is suspect?
I have a black friend who grew up poor in the south. We’re talking no indoor plumbing poor. He was smart, worked his butt off and developed his talents. He is currently in the upper 5% of income earners. We got into a flame thread on Facebook with a bunch of SJWs about the corrosive nature of welfare. (My friend calls it The New Plantation). When the SJWs said he didn’t know what he was talking about, he mentioned his upbringing. They then had the guts to say “You’re an outlier. You don’t count.”
Maybe it’s because we’re coders and tech is mostly a meritocracy, but we think that you can go as high in this county as talent and drive will take you.
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(Not directed at you, Byron, because I know you know this. As does everyone else here, but it’s worth saying anyway.)
He counts precisely because he’s an outlier. If he weren’t an outlier, if people who go on welfare their whole lives could get themselves into the top 5% of income earners, then the “welfare is corrosive” argument would be disproven. The fact that he’s such an outlier is extremely strong evidence for the point he’s making. And they dismiss him because he’s an outlier and “doesn’t count?” Emotion has replaced reason in their heads, and that is the primary cause of America’s political troubles today. There’s nothing wrong with letting emotions inform your thinking, but these days there are WAY too many people “thinking” with their emotions instead of their brains, and not letting cold reason even touch their political philosophy.
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That’s why I say there’s no such thing as an intelligent progressive. Progressives do not think. What they call “thought” is nothing more than a concatenation of logical fallacies, unfounded assumptions, and inchoate emoting.
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The great thing about being a SJW is that no one can disprove your arguments. Show them someone who went from such poor beginnings to such wealth, and you simply argue they’re an outlier and therefore it’s irrelevant. Write about how you were dirt poor, with family bringing you groceries to keep your family fed and then through hard work made it to upper middle class and you’re told that just because YOU did it doesn’t mean anyone else can (despite having no particularly unique skill set).
It really must be nice to deflect every argument proving you wrong as an anomaly that can simply be discounted.
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Hey, that’s us! When Robert was born we stayed alive through miracles…
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Ironically, that was us shortly after my son was born. His name? Robert.
Must be something with birthing Roberts :)
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You know — Heinlein’s parents… Um…. yep. Three instances is enemy action! ;)
Something there is which hates a Robert.
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Sounds like it. :)
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Must be a regional thing. Christopher was born not long after, and four or five people we knew had sons they named Christopher in about a 9 month span. And he was in classes with up to four other Christophers in class during school.
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You can. That’s why this is still AMERICA.
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Wellsaid.
We’re supossed to be working on being collor…race…what ever blind, but it kind of hard when one side keeps dividing us into class themselves.
Something I wrote a while back:
Weak / Strong
There are Strong and Weak people in this world. I’m talking in ability and skills, i.e., we all have our strengths and weakness.
One side believes that we should help the weaker among us become stronger. This way they can compete and hold their own.
The other side believes we should place limits on and weaken the strong, so that they can’t take advantage of those weaker than them.
One side weakens the whole, and the other side strengthens the whole.
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Read this new X-men movie review by SFF author C.C. Finlay. I guarantee you it will be one of the most extraordinary reviews you’ve ever read or your money back. It was so entertaining, I wish it were 10 times as long. It’s called “New X-Men Movie, Same Old Sexism.” It is a laugh-riot complete with tear-gas and batons upside your head. Unfortunately… not on purpose.
http://ccfinlay.com/blog/new-x-men-movie-same-old.html
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The fact is, victimhood and its aristocracy of titles is nothing more than a softer form of unwitting racism, homophobia, sexism and general hate. It’s just been sugared up so it tastes better and is being used daily to carve us up back into our little segregated groups to deal with all this pesky freedom America’s been spreading.
The only quibble I’d have, I’m not sure it’s softer. Maybe more subtle. Maybe. But I think it may be harder, and more harmful, for being coated in an easy-to-swallow candy shell philosophy.
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from above
Jeff Gauch | May 25, 2014 at 8:27 pm
Don’t forget, we import a lot of what we like – things like computers and cars. We export a lot of what people need, specifically food. Even if the dollar collapses, we’ll be able to sell our agricultural products for something that can be used to buy imports.
Additionally, if the cities are the first victims, the places that Grow Stuff and Make Stuff are going to have a freer hand to do so– my relatives in Northern Cali aren’t going to be paying attention to orders to turn off their water so it can flow to the cities. Siracha will grind peppers and tell the town to burn. *silly*
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I can’t remember where I read it but someone once said “No country is more than three meals away from a revolution.” How much of an infrastructure failure would it take for cities to lose their minds? What happens if we screw with our power grid badly enough that food starts to rot and people are starving? IMAO, the perspectives of liberals is a luxury.
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From someone that has lived through an upheaval of the type under discussion:
http://shtfschool.com/about/
Sarah, I don’t want to add too your nightmares, but I think you’re being overly optimistic on peoples abillity to keep the infrastructure up and running. Being able to run/opporate something doesn’t mean you know how to fix it. Hell most of are tech isn’t even designed to be fixed anymore. It’s designed to be thrown away.
The average age of our manufacturing calls of workers was 55 as of five years ago.
No we won’t go into a dark age but think 1930 with out a strong industrial base more in line with current day Mexico.
Make plans now live the LDS example, because on time delivery only leaves us with a 3day supply of food in most US cities.
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It’s not like the infrastructure is going to fall apart overnight, and not every city is going to utterly collapse. The less progressive the city, the better it will fare. I expect we’ll still have most of the southern port cities, which means we’ll still be able to import those goods necessary to keep things going and we’ll have the refining base necessary to move goods around. The problem areas are unproductive and will soon starve themselves out.
So, if you are in a big city, have a plan to get into the countryside and a place to go. Bear in mind that you will be one of a flood of refugees who will most likely be quite unwelcome. If you are on the edge of a big city be ready for the aforementioned flood of refugees and bear in mind that most of them will simply be looking to survive, but some of them will be looking for people to prey upon. All of them are going to be fodder for demagogues, so you’ll want to keep them well away from any kind of power.
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Jeff,
Infrastructure will not just collapse it will be destroyed in the fighting between the factions and durring the food riots. How long did it take after Sandy and Katrinia to restore infastructure and that was a fully “functioning” government.
At lest a three front fight The Feds trying to keep control. Any nation that wants to come in under a UN peace keeping mision to “Keep the Peace” and any home grown fighters trying for separation.
An other good book of what a possible future might look at is Max Velocity’s “Patriot Dawn”.
Food for thought.
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There isn’t going to be any foreign invasion. Intercontinental deployment of troops is hard. The US military is really the only ones who can do it. China is beginning to take steps in that direction, but there’s a huge gap between deploying a destroyer to Africa and sustaining an infantry force (much less a mechanized force) in America. Russia has no interest in doing it. We might temporarily lose a few dozen rural miles along the southern border to the drug cartels, but the Mexicans have recently shown how effective local militias are against cartels, and Americans are fare better armed and organized than Mexican farmers.
There also aren’t going to be any inter-factional fights. Only one side of the political fissure has guns. The vileprogs might try some terrorist acts a la the Weather Underground, but they’ll suffer from the fact that Americans are far less willing to put up with that kind of crap than they were 50 years ago, and they’ll have the same projection problems that the rioters will have.
So yes, in most urban cores infrastructure will be generally destroyed, and certain areas on the fringes of some cities will see some isolated damage, but the general infrastructure networks will remain
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Jeff,
Well just have to agree to disagree.
Trying to turn over a new leaf, and I hope you are right.
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Pretty sure Seattle would be in a load of trouble. It takes a lot of work to keep our passes open, and without those you have to go down to the Oregon coast to get around to us.
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No, I’m pretty sure Seattle is pretty well rodgered. As well as Portland, LA, Chicago, Denver, basically everything north of DC and east of Pittsburgh, the remains of Detroit, etc. My personal goal is to establish and hold a redoubt on the Olympic Peninsula. I think the population density is low enough to allow support by local agriculture and imports by sea, plus we have nuclear weapons.
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There’s actually a LOT of agricultural stuff here, it’s just hard to see from Seattle. A lot of it is stuff like potatoes, too– stores really well. And the 45* angle hills are good for animals.
If folks stopped using the bedroom communities, they’d revert pretty fast as well.
Just not enough to support a population center like Seattle without the shipping flow.
The old train stuff would probably get dusted off fast, though. (Right now there’s issues with the tracks not being cleared because of politically popular stuff.)
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The logistics of military operations are significantly more complicated than many folks realize. Sustaining operations is a massive effort.
As Jeff has noted, the ability to project force across long distances, particularly separated by oceans, is a herculean task few can even begin to mount. One of the roles American forces and support services have played over the years is logistical support. We’ve got some experience and capacity no one else bothered to set-up.
So, foreign invaders hampered.
Internally, much of the military’s domestic logistics is — handled by civilians. They don’t have consistent, hardened logistical tails independent of the civilian infrastructure.
So, domestic military forces hampered.
As to civilian forces and terro-wannabes, actual infrastructure is hard to eradicate. Note, not hard to damage, just hard to eradicate. It becomes somewhat harder when your neighbors find out you want to start damaging the arteries supporting their existence and they shoot you in the head and hide the body.
Yes, civilian and terror-wish-they-weres hampered.
None of this completely eliminates the damage and set-backs of damage to key infrastructure. Or the short-term hardships which result. They do, however, argue against the descent into night, the fall of tech, the end of America — barbarism, savagery and toe fungus.
There’s also the ‘distributed system’ nature of America. And independent decision making. But that’s another comment.
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Independent decision making is harder for most people than it sounds. Most people I know would rather talk a situation to death than actually make a decision. Heck, most days I can be just as guilty. The eternal question in my house (and many others, I suspect) is “What do you want for dinner?”
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Scale, nature of the decision, and consequence.
For most people, threat clarifies things a bit. This does not, in itself, lead to good decision making, but it does cut through the dithering. Good decision making in the face of threat requires some training and preparation.
But if we’re talking about large scale difficulties, the process is going to create its own training.
For instance, people love to talk about Katrina as the grand example of what a disaster will do. Except, they leave out all the areas that weren’t NO, and they ignore the folks in NO that took definitive and positive action. They ignore the people who stepped up and organized relief efforts well in advance of the .gov. These things happened all along the coast, because those people had faced hurricane dangers in the past, and those dangers had taught them how to move forward. They also ignore that the .gov hampered the movements of folks who arrived at the Superdome to find a cluster-factory and wanted to leave.
We just aren’t (most of us) the helpless refugees in waiting they keep trying to depict.
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In the parts worst hit by Katrina — that would be in Mississippi — the recovery was actually quite rapid. The slowest recoveries occurred where government incompetence and in-fighting was permitted (encouraged) to fester. It would be quite wrong to declare that the City of New Orleans and state of Louisiana had “a fully ‘functioning’ government” except for those who define government function as sheering the sheeple.
After Sandy there are ample reports of the slowest recovery occurring in those areas where government functioned most. Like 18th Century leech-mongers, modern government’s “patients” typically revive in spite of, not because of their treatment.
One additional example was proffered on the FNC’s broadcast of The Journal Editorial Report this last weekend:
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How long did it take after Sandy and Katrinia to restore infastructure and that was a fully “functioning” government.
IIRC, the places that weren’t already screwed up by popularity-buying schemes recovered rather quickly.
It’s the ones where they couldn’t figure out to use school buses for evacuation or that flood control is important that are still being rebuilt.
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I have no idea who said it either, but they were working from outdated data.
For whatever reason, I suspect Marx, we’ve all assumed HARDSHIP causes revolution. Not true. Every revolution I know of occurs when things are getting better. yeah, the French had bad crops and were broke, but it wasn’t as bad as it had been, and it was the relatively well-off bourgeoisie that led the attack. Russians, Tzar Nicholas was NOT as oppressive, so revolution happened. EVERY time.
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Good point. What I’m talking about is a descent into savagery. Civil War and Revolution aren’t about savagery but about control of one’s political/governing future. Different causes, different end results. While winning a Civil War has varied meanings, a descent into savagery has no winners. At least not on a large scale. (All I can think of is one of my friend’s favorite quotes: What a Man does in his Own Compound is his Own Business.)
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We will be reading A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller Jr. for June.
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oooooh.
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Y’know, I should actually read that. We got assigned that in college, once’t upon a time, and I definitely skimmed enough to fake it. Think I still have my copy somewheres…
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Reblogged this on Torrent of Diapers and commented:
I’ve been saying for quite a while (and I’m sure I’m not the first to draw the conclusion), that modern progressivism, and the “white guilt” requisite for it, is simply 19th century racism packaged with MOAR FEELS. It’s the White Man’s Burden dressed in politically correct trappings.
And it’s horse shit.
No single nation, race, creed, religion or knitting club has any more monopoly on human suffering than another. Don’t believe me? Go hit the history books for a while. I’ll still be here. People have been shitty to other people since the dawn of time. Has the group you self-identify with been fucked over? I bet it has. So has mine. What’s your point?
Now of course this is when you will tell me to check my privilege, because I’m not a Person of Color (which is grammatically identical to “Colored Person,” but somehow more palatable to the modern ear)…
…Okay, I’m back. I checked it out. Didn’t find any. Didn’t find squat in the privilege bucket for being a man who likes women either. When they were handing out job promotions and fat stacks of cash for the straight white dudes I must have missed the memo. Instead I had to do what everyone else does and work my ass off to get to where I am in my life. Sucks to be me.
You’re only a victim if you let yourself be one. It’s time to end the cult of victimhood, put on the big kid pants, and get back to work.
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It’s nearly impossible to predict what a current American civil war would look like because it has never occurred in a country this large and where control of the nation’s capital doesn’t give you control of the country. Not to mention one with such a heavily armed populace and a small army that would fracture over fighting it’s own populace.
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Rome.
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Yes, but not industrial — it is unknown territory.
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With three critical matters. (1) Keeping communication working and (2) How borked food distribution gets. (3) What the military does.
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That’s why I said we’re in unknown territory.
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Completely off topic, but I just wrapped up the draft of the EOTWAWKI (sort of) book. Wheeeee! Only one more book in that series to go! *said with furtive glance over shoulder in case another new character is sneaking up on her*
And the EPUB version of the next Colplatschki book is in test at the moment.*happy dance*
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Hooray!
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:-)
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This is the kind of cap that makes my blood boil and is exactly what I’m talking about in this article.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesleadershipforum/2014/05/20/how-african-american-success-stories-undermine-sympathy-for-racial-inequalities/
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Nice post.
This White Priv stuff is a clever spin, but it’s just the same old page from the Dem pols’ playbook – divide, encourage hate and resentment, say “Vote for us, we’ll fix those S.O.B.s!” Then they get in, grow gov’t, and slice up the patronage and the spoils.
Jim Crow was one long “War on White People!” meme. “Vote for us or the n-words will take your union jobs and date your daughters!” Now they blame southerners, which is like blaming generic Germans for the Holocaust and glossing over Nazi demagogues.
George Wallace lost an election once when he got sick of stirring up hate. After the result came in, he said of his opponent: “He out-n****red me.” Never made that mistake again. Then Clinton excusing Grand Kleagle Byrd’s racism in eulogy: “He came from the hills and hollers of W.Va., and he told the people what they wanted to hear.” Yeah, what was a demagogue to do?
And it wasn’t just Dixie, Dems across the country played Jim Crow: “Look for the Union Label” meant “Made by Lily-White Fingers” till Nixon busted them open with quotas 1969-70. Talking construction unions in Baltimore, Philly, NYC, especially.
And what did we get for White Supremacy? The New Deal.
These White Priv silencers, ask them how they’re helping. Ask them how it helps to make black kids resent white classmates. Does it empower the black kids? Or are you telling them that even if they try, they can’t get ahead? Message: don’t try, be resentful, vote Dem.
Ask them how hate forwards our society.
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