tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-43535627483200422102024-03-06T12:02:52.075-08:00The Anti-Matt Walsh BlogDemonstrating that all Matt Walsh Blog discussions are based on insults and mischaracterizations of opposing points of view. My comments are in red.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00665542944467061185noreply@blogger.comBlogger60125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4353562748320042210.post-3210724090310584542014-08-21T15:09:00.001-07:002014-08-21T17:44:59.475-07:00You don't know what happened to Michael Brown, so stop pretending that you do<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">Actually, Matt, we do know what happened to Michael Brown.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">1. He was unarmed.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">2. He was shot about 6 times.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">3. He died.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">Those are verifiable facts. <b>And that is all we need to know</b>. We don't need to wait for the results of an investigation to see if anyone is vindicated. There is no vindication for shooting an unarmed man. If the police officer truly felt threatened, what he should have done is called for back up and then waited in his car. <i>There was absolutely no reason to get out of the car and start shooting at an unarmed man</i>. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;"><b>Michael Brown was shot twice as many times as <i>all of the shots fired by all of the British police in the <a href="http://www.pri.org/stories/2014-08-18/how-many-times-british-cops-fired-guns-all-last-year-3">entire year of 2013</a></i></b>.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">The second police homicide victim in the Ferguson area, Kajieme Powell, was shot <i style="font-weight: bold;">4 times</i> the number of shots fired by all British police in a single year - <b>12 times</b>. If you watch the recording of the incident on youtube, you can hear the witnesses, clearly disturbed, asking, "Why did they shoot him? Why didn't they just tase him or something?" He was mentally disturbed. See, the police also do not have a good track record with people who have various disabilities - mental illness, blindness, deafness, etc. (In fact, another mentally ill woman was shot and killed by police shortly after Michael's Brown's death because she was carrying a drill that looked like a gun.)</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;"><i>This is all the information we need. That is, if we do not want to live in a society where police play the role of judge, jury, and executioner, able to carry out the death penalty at their personal will without any due process nor any accountability. </i></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">Other countries are able to maintain order without the very high police homicide rate that we have in the U.S., so we know it is possible. And, we know it is possible because, when a <i>white guy</i> in the Ferguson area assaults two cops and breaks one of the officer's hands, they manage to arrest him <a href="http://www.kmov.com/news/crime/Police-Suspect-hides-in-womans-basement-assaults-officers-271009211.html">without murdering him</a>. Go figure.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">There are a few other things we know. We know that the residents of Ferguson have been complaining of police harassment for a while. We know there are records of racist statements made by area cops. We know the cops were violating the constitution by arresting journalists and prohibiting the right to assemble (even in a church). We know that they used their weapons inappropriately and threatened protesters. We know that the police provided false information in the Kalieme Powell case (and we know they have provided false information countless other times to cover their backs). We know that the Ferguson police department had a flawed record-keeping system for years, with complaints against officers not noted anywhere in their files (nor did the police chief have any idea how to go about finding them.) We know that an innocent man (sharing his name with someone else) was beaten by the Ferguson police and charged for bleeding on their uniforms. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">Police work is very important, so it wouldn't hurt to have some systemic overhaul - reform the training process, stop sending military equipment to the police, create a better accountability system, for example.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">Based on your general attitudes toward government and abuses of power, Matt, I would think you would be concerned about such large violations of the constitution. Additionally, you always claim to uphold the inherent value of life, so I would think you'd be in favor of finding other ways to do police work that don't involve killing a lot of people. But I guess, since it overwhelmingly affects people who you think aren't like you, you're not going to ardently defend the constitution or the inherent value of life in this case.</span><br />
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<b>Matt Walsh writes:</b><br />
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I don’t know what happened to Michael Brown.</div>
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Maybe something conclusive — solid, physical evidence, pointing in one direction or another — will come out within 15 minutes of this post’s publication. Maybe it will take another week. Maybe it will be a month. Maybe we’ll never know for sure.</div>
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I don’t know when we’ll know, or if we’ll know, or what we’ll know when we know if we ever know.</div>
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I don’t know.</div>
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But I do know this: it doesn’t much matter anymore.</div>
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Sure, it <em style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 16px; font: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">matters </em>in the actual sense. It matters to God. It matters to honest people. It matters to mature adults who just want the truth, and who don’t show up at crime scenes with pom-poms and popcorn, rooting for one side or another to “win.” It matters to the rational, the reasonable, the thoughtful.</div>
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Whatever the case, they <em style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 16px; font: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">make</em> it, and then eventually they drop it and move on to the next ratings stunt.<br />
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<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Open Sans', arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-weight: 500; line-height: 22px;">But that is a dwindling breed. As it rapidly fades into the ether, we are left with a society populated by frauds who simply don’t care about the truth at all. It’s almost pathological at this point. They don’t hate the truth, necessarily, they just don’t see it as a particularly compelling issue. They cast their die before the facts are known, and stick by their wagers in spite of whatever information comes to light. They play their assigned role in the Great Narrative, and they never, ever, under any circumstance, stray from the script. All of this, of course, perpetuated by a media that establishes its storyline and then “reports” only on events consistent with the plot. Sometimes they make complicated situations simple, and sometimes they make simple situations complicated.</span></b></div>
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So that’s why, to many people, it doesn’t matter what actually happened to Michael Brown. This isn’t about Michael Brown anymore. It never was, really. It’s about a narrative — a story — and Michael Brown is useful so long as he serves it.</div>
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Does anyone think the protestors will go home and apologize if the officer is vindicated by the evidence? Will MSNBC retract every reckless conjecture and misleading statement? Will Al Sharpton shout “my bad,” and head home, never again to descend like a despicable vulture whenever news cameras and racial tensions meet? Will the looters return their stolen merchandise? Will the Twitter prognosticators tweet out their mea culpas? Will social media be flooded with humbled and humiliated concessions?</div>
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If Christ Himself spoke from the heavens and contradicted the established mainstream narrative, is there any way that any of these things would happen as a result?</div>
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No, definitely not. They’d just accuse Jesus of getting His facts from Fox News.</div>
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But maybe those who’ve rushed to judgment will finally, for once, get to puff up their chests and tell us that they told us so. Maybe they’ll be proven right. Maybe. I don’t know.</div>
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I’m willing to say I don’t know, even if it robs me of the opportunity to brag that “I was right from the beginning.”</div>
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The problem is that there’s little risk in being rash and reckless. These days, nobody remembers anything that happened before yesterday, nor dwells on anything once it stops trending on Twitter. Therefore, you can be wrong a hundred times a day, you can prophesy and proclaim and accuse, you can do it all without a modicum of reason or integrity, and you will never be held accountable for it. Your credibility is only ever damaged when you stray from the Established Truth, but not when you stray from the Actual Truth.</div>
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So this probably won’t do any good, but I’d like to try to break through this wall of false certainty. It’s not that I want to convince you to take a different side; I just want to convince you that you shouldn’t be on anyone’s side right now. I can only prove that nothing’s been proven. I can only show that not enough has been shown. Do what you will with the information — or rather the <em style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 16px; font: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">lack</em> of information — but you must at least consider this:</div>
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- <strong style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; font: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Michael Brown was <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2014/08/18/autopsy-michael-brown-shot-six-times-twice-in-the-head/" style="-webkit-transition-delay: initial; -webkit-transition-duration: 0.2s; -webkit-transition-property: all; -webkit-transition-timing-function: ease-out; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #26a9e1; font-size: 16px; font: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">shot six times</a>, twice in the head.</strong> Much is being made of the fact that the officer hit him with six bullets, but there is nothing that can be immediately gleaned from this. Despite what you’ve been told, six shots are not automatically “excessive.” It’s particularly relevant in this case to note that Brown was shot in the arm several times, and that <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/US/michael-brown-shot-times-autopsy-shows/story?id=25017247" style="-webkit-transition-delay: initial; -webkit-transition-duration: 0.2s; -webkit-transition-property: all; -webkit-transition-timing-function: ease-out; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #26a9e1; font-size: 16px; font: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">the first five wounds were survivable</a>. This could mean that the cop riddled an innocent man with bullets, or it could mean that the cop was shooting at an aggressive, charging suspect, and he had to keep shooting until the suspect went down.</div>
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Police are trained to shoot<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/times-square-shooting-why-police-shoot-to-kill-2012-8" style="-webkit-transition-delay: initial; -webkit-transition-duration: 0.2s; -webkit-transition-property: all; -webkit-transition-timing-function: ease-out; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #26a9e1; font-size: 16px; font: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> “center mass,” </a>which means they shoot until the threat is neutralized. Sometimes this takes two shots, sometimes six, sometimes ten, sometimes more. Sometimes they go overboard, but nobody with firearm experience would tell you that there’s any clear bullet limit; a number that, when reached, immediately renders each subsequent bullet “excessive.”</div>
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Really, what’s the thought process here? If (notice, “IF”) Brown was on the attack, are we now saying that the cop should have fired a predetermined “reasonable” quantity of bullets, and then, if the suspect was still coming after him, he should have holstered his gun and ran for the hills, all in the name of meeting the media’s bullet quota?</div>
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This isn’t Hollywood. You can’t take everyone down with one shot.</div>
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The number of bullets only matters if certain circumstances are in play; specifically, the circumstance where Brown was surrendering. But if Brown was surrendering then it doesn’t matter if he was shot once or a dozen times, the officer would be guilty of murder. Either way, harping on the number of bullets inflames emotions and does nothing to enlighten or clarify.</div>
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<strong style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; font: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">- Michael Brown was unarmed. </strong>This is relevant, but it doesn’t conclusively tell us anything. The way people are carrying on, you’d think there’s never a time when an unarmed man could pose a lethal threat to an armed man. Leftwing blogs have spent all week telling us that unarmed people are shot by police officers on a relatively frequent basis. They’re right, but they’re wrong when they try to paint this dynamic in a cartoonish, simplistic, “cops are always bad and racist, and suspects are always good and innocent” light. There are many reasons why a law enforcement officer might have cause to shoot an unarmed man — the first being the rather obvious fact that cops don’t always <em style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 16px; font: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">know </em>that the unarmed man is an unarmed man.</div>
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Are we really now suggesting that police officers should wait until they’re shot at to shoot back? What sort of maniac would ever become a cop if he had to adhere to those regulations? Being a police officer can be dangerous work; I, for one, don’t think it ought to be suicidal.</div>
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Another convincing reason to shoot an unarmed man might be when the man in question is about the size of a professional offensive lineman. Michael Brown was 6’4″ and close to 300 pounds, which makes him only a bit smaller than the <a href="http://www.sbnation.com/nfl/2014/2/20/5426884/nfl-combine-2014-offensive-line-weigh-in-results-greg-robinson" style="-webkit-transition-delay: initial; -webkit-transition-duration: 0.2s; -webkit-transition-property: all; -webkit-transition-timing-function: ease-out; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #26a9e1; font-size: 16px; font: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">average guard or tackle </a>at this year’s NFL scouting combine.</div>
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Have you ever been physically assaulted by a 300 pound man? I haven’t, but I’m willing to believe that the experience could be fatal.</div>
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Now, if Brown was shot with his hands up, or if Brown was shot while fleeing, then his size is of no consequence. But it’s hard to believe that so many people truly think his size was of no consequence <em style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 16px; font: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">even if he was attempting to attack the officer</em>.</div>
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There’s another point that must be raised here: nobody has any right to physically assault another human being, including a cop. Moreover, nobody, including a cop, has any responsibility to get pummeled or throttled by an assailant. If you try to harm an armed man or woman, you might get shot. This is not cruelty. This is self-preservation, and it is just. Again, we don’t know that Brown showed any hostility at all. If he didn’t, then Officer Wilson should be charged and tried. But I’m disturbed by the amount of people who seem to believe that, even if Brown did attack, he didn’t “deserve” to get shot.</div>
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It’s not about what the assailants deserve. It’s about what the assailed deserve. And they deserve to protect themselves. IF Brown had already assaulted the officer and tried to steal his gun, and IF the officer pointed his gun at Brown and yelled at him to freeze, and IF Brown ignored that command and rushed towards the officer, <a href="http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2014/08/18/cnn-now-reporting-potential-bombshell-in-ferguson-shooting-regarding-what-alleged-friend-of-officer-darren-wilson-told-theblazes-dana-loesch-on-air/" style="-webkit-transition-delay: initial; -webkit-transition-duration: 0.2s; -webkit-transition-property: all; -webkit-transition-timing-function: ease-out; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #26a9e1; font-size: 16px; font: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">as an alleged friend of Officer Wilson claims</a>, then <em style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 16px; font: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">of course </em>the officer would be justified in using lethal force. What else would he do? Quickly put his gun away, grab a taser, and wait for the charging, gigantic individual to be close enough to hopefully subdue? That’s just not how it works, it’s not what any sane law enforcement officer would do, and it isn’t what you would do, either.</div>
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<strong style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; font: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">- There are eye witnesses.</strong> This is important, but it’s not as clear cut as some would like it to be.</div>
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Our primary witness is Dorian Johnson, Brown’s friend, and, as we later discovered, suspected accomplice in the robbery that occurred minutes earlier (more on that later). Even before looking at the autopsy report, we can already use rational thought to discern a few things about Johnson’s account: 1) Apart from the officer and Brown himself, Johnson had the best view of the whole ordeal. This makes his account very important. 2) He is going to be (understandably) biased. His friend was killed. Not only was his friend killed, but, according to some versions of the event, Johnson was also involved in the altercation with the cop. 3) He claims that Officer Wilson grabbed Brown by the throat from inside his cruiser. It’s incredible to think that Wilson would try to subdue a 6’4″ man in that fashion. It’s certainly unlike any police procedure I’ve ever heard of.</div>
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There is at least one detail in Johnson’s account that we now know to be inaccurate. Johnson claimed that <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/in-ferguson-three-minutes--and-two-lives-forever-changed/2014/08/16/f28f5bc0-2588-11e4-8593-da634b334390_story.html" style="-webkit-transition-delay: initial; -webkit-transition-duration: 0.2s; -webkit-transition-property: all; -webkit-transition-timing-function: ease-out; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #26a9e1; font-size: 16px; font: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Brown was shot in the back</a>. The private autopsy commission by Brown’s family shows that all of the bullets <a href="http://dailycaller.com/2014/08/17/none-in-the-back-brown-autopsy-shows-he-was-shot-in-the-front-of-the-body/" style="-webkit-transition-delay: initial; -webkit-transition-duration: 0.2s; -webkit-transition-property: all; -webkit-transition-timing-function: ease-out; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #26a9e1; font-size: 16px; font: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">entered through the front of the body</a>, and none hit him in the back. The county’s report <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2014/08/18/county-investigation-michael-brown-was-shot-from-the-front-had-marijuana-in-his-system/" style="-webkit-transition-delay: initial; -webkit-transition-duration: 0.2s; -webkit-transition-property: all; -webkit-transition-timing-function: ease-out; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #26a9e1; font-size: 16px; font: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">says the same</a>.</div>
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Brown’s family says one of the wounds to the arm could still indicate that Brown was shot from behind. This is possible, I suppose, but it’s hardly the confirmation you’d expect after a week of being told that Brown was shot and killed while running away.</div>
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The other narrative is that Brown was shot with his hands up. The bullet wounds don’t shed any light on that, one way or another:</div>
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Another witness<a href="http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/st-louis-official-reporters-arrested-ferguson-michael-brown" style="-webkit-transition-delay: initial; -webkit-transition-duration: 0.2s; -webkit-transition-property: all; -webkit-transition-timing-function: ease-out; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #26a9e1; font-size: 16px; font: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> also claims </a>that Brown was shot from behind, but her story contradicts the <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/us/2014/08/18/youtube-video-captures-purported-witness-backing-police-version-in-ferguson/" style="-webkit-transition-delay: initial; -webkit-transition-duration: 0.2s; -webkit-transition-property: all; -webkit-transition-timing-function: ease-out; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #26a9e1; font-size: 16px; font: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">unseen man in a YouTube video</a>, who can be heard recounting the event moments after it occurred. He seems to suggest that Brown turned and charged at Officer Wilson, and was shot in the process. <em style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 16px; font: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">“The next thing I know, he comes back towards them. The police had his guns drawn on him.”</em></div>
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Eye witnesses are notoriously unreliable, even more so amidst a politically and ideologically fueled mass media frenzy.</div>
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<strong style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; font: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">- Michael Brown allegedly committed a “strong arm robbery” moments prior to his fatal encounter with police.</strong> Despite the near-unanimous consent of pundits and social media “experts,” <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/volokh-conspiracy/wp/2014/08/18/why-michael-browns-robbery-would-be-admissible-at-a-federal-criminal-trial/" style="-webkit-transition-delay: initial; -webkit-transition-duration: 0.2s; -webkit-transition-property: all; -webkit-transition-timing-function: ease-out; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #26a9e1; font-size: 16px; font: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">this fact does matter</a>.</div>
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You’ve probably heard people insist that “just because Brown stole some cigars doesn’t mean he should have been shot.” This is a classic example of a straw man argument. <em style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 16px; font: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Nobody is saying</em> that the revelation of Brown’s cigar-heist somehow makes this shooting justified. That is not the point. That’s not the argument.</div>
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The point is that Brown didn’t just “shoplift,” like many dishonest folks have claimed. He walked into a convenience store, brazenly grabbed merchandise from the counter, and then, when confronted, grabbed an old man by the shirt collar and pushed him to the side:</div>
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This isn’t some teenager sneaking a pack of gum into the pockets of his cargo shorts. This is a blatant act of completely unnecessary and unwarranted hostility. Grabbing a little old guy by the neck and shoving him aside? How can any honest person pretend that such an act doesn’t indicate a bit of a bully streak (to say the least)?</div>
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If Brown was willing to walk into a store and push an old man around <em style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 16px; font: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">for no reason</em> it lends credibility to the notion that, perhaps, he might have picked a fight with a cop.</div>
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It doesn’t prove anything, but it does add another dimension to the situation. A dimension that no thinking person would ignore. I’d say his very recent history of vicious behavior is much more relevant than even the fact that Brown had <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2014/08/18/county-investigation-michael-brown-was-shot-from-the-front-had-marijuana-in-his-system/" style="-webkit-transition-delay: initial; -webkit-transition-duration: 0.2s; -webkit-transition-property: all; -webkit-transition-timing-function: ease-out; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #26a9e1; font-size: 16px; font: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">marijuana in his system</a> at the time of the incident.</div>
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I ask you this: what if Officer Wilson had pushed around a black teen earlier in the day? Actually, forget earlier in the day, what if video surfaced of him picking on a black kid a year or more before? Do you think all of these people crying “character assassination” would still be singing the same tune?</div>
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Of course not. Nor should they.</div>
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You don’t generally saunter into the one stop down the street, smack the clerk around just for the hell of it, and then carry on with your day being an otherwise gentle and affable fellow.</div>
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But what do I know?</div>
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Not much.</div>
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I don’t know. You don’t know.</div>
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Maybe the officer is a cold blooded killer. Maybe he gunned down a teenager in the middle of the street, in broad daylight, while the innocent kid had his hands up and shouted “don’t shoot.” Maybe this cop decided to throw his entire life away because he was angry, or racist, or insane. That seems implausible, but then it seems implausible that anyone would come charging at a police officer while the officer is pointing a gun right at him. Both extreme ends of this scenario just sound unlikely, but not impossible.</div>
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So maybe the truth is in between. Maybe Brown attacked the cop and went for his gun, but then retreated, and maybe the cop panicked and started firing, and maybe Brown got angry and turned around and charged at him, and maybe he was shot and disabled, but the cop kept shooting. Or maybe the officer instigated the entire altercation. Or maybe the officer just asked him to get out of the street and Brown decided to be a tough guy. Or maybe none of these hypotheticals are true.</div>
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Maybe the Officer is a murderer, or maybe he’s a good man whose life is now ruined through no fault of his own. Or maybe he’s a good man but an incompetent police office who lost control and overreacted. Maybe Brown was a good man who was viciously gunned down in his prime. Or maybe he was a hostile bully who thought he could assault a cop and walk away unscathed. Or maybe he was a good man who sometimes did stupid things, and this whole situation just got out of control.</div>
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Maybe, I don’t know.</div>
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Are you confused yet?</div>
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I hope so, because that’s the point.</div>
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You don’t know, and even what you think you know you don’t really know.</div>
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And one day, when we do know, you can come back here and tell me that you always knew, and that I should have known.</div>
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I’m sure a lot of people will do just that.</div>
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But, then again, I don’t know.</div>
</span></b></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00665542944467061185noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4353562748320042210.post-5376876793435736792014-08-14T05:24:00.001-07:002014-08-14T05:56:22.279-07:00Robin Williams didn't die from a disease, he died from a choice<span style="color: red;">While Matt Walsh has found a way to profit madly off of Robin William's death and his unresearched thoughts about suicide, I thought I would share some more accurate information about suicide: <a href="http://www.cdc.gov/features/preventingsuicide/">http://www.cdc.gov/features/preventingsuicide/</a></span><br />
<span style="color: red;"></span><br />
<span style="color: red;">"</span><span style="color: red;">Too often, victims are blamed and their families and friends are left stigmatized. As a result, people do not communicate openly about suicide. Thus, an important public health problem is left shrouded in secrecy, which limits the amount of information available to those working to prevent suicidal behavior."</span><br />
<span style="color: red;"></span><br />
<span style="color: red;">Also, I find it interesting to read people who otherwise generally accept Matt's worldview respond critically to his posts - <a href="http://www.pastorjd.com/eng/suicide-and-choice-an-open-letter-to-matt-walsh/">like this pastor who has been struggling with depression</a>.</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00665542944467061185noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4353562748320042210.post-51279059459152289562014-08-13T06:00:00.000-07:002014-08-14T10:43:44.192-07:00Police officers aren't the only ones destroying the black community<span style="color: red;">Yes. In this post Matt argues that it's all black people's fault. They just have this inexplicable urge to kill themselves. In order to make this argument, Matt has to ignore all historical and present-day context and treat "the black community" has some isolated unit, existing independently of the rest of society.</span><br />
<span style="color: red;"></span><br />
<span style="color: black;"><strong>Matt writes:</strong></span><br />
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I keep hearing that “violence erupted” in Ferguson, Missouri after a <a href="http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/violence-breaks-out-near-site-of-vigil-for-teen-killed/article_f9d627dc-e3c8-5bde-b2ab-7f0a3d36a083.html"><span style="color: #26a9e1;">police officer shot an unarmed black man</span></a>. This headline is a bit misleading, seeing as how Ferguson is one of the most dangerous, crime-ridden towns in America, so violence is already in a perpetual state of “eruption.”<br />
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The facts of this case are still unclear, which, of course, hasn’t stopped anyone from jumping to definitive conclusions on the matter. All we know is that two men allegedly attacked a police officer, and at least one of them ended up dead. The police chief says <a href="http://news.stlpublicradio.org/post/police-chief-gives-first-details-fatal-ferguson-police-shooting"><span style="color: #26a9e1;">they assaulted the officer</span></a> while he was getting out of his car, and that a struggle over the officer’s firearm ensued. Some eye witnesses claim that Mike Brown, the man killed in the altercation, had his hands up and was surrendering when the officer callously gunned him down.<br />
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These eye witnesses could be painting an accurate portrait of the incident, or they could be mistaken, or they could be lying. Or, as is almost always the case, there is a bit of all of these factors at work. I don’t know. I’d prefer to let the dust settle and all of the facts come to light before I make any proclamations about the exact nature of the event. This is a radical and unprecedented approach, I realize, but I’ve always been a trailblazer. <span style="color: red;">Matt, that is not your approach at all. If you think you wait until you have some facts before making proclamations, I would recommend going back and reading everything you have written up to this point. Sorry dude. Facts are not your forte. </span> I like to call my strategy “don’t be a reckless, ignorant, hysterical instigator who immediately diagnoses a situation based on whatever overarching political narrative you subscribe to, and then reaffirms those assumptions by quickly ingesting an assortment of Tweets and half-cocked headlines from notoriously ideological news outlets,” or the DBRIHIWIDSBWOPNYSTRTAQIATHCHFNINO method, for short.<br />
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Still, there are a few general issues that have sprung forth from the looting and mayhem, and I’d like to address them each individually:<br />
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1) Hating all cops because some of them are abusive isn’t any more justifiable than hating all black people because some of them protested an officer involved shooting by burning down their own neighborhood. <span style="color: red;">Okay, so we start with your favorite fallacy: mischaracterizing other people's arguments. Just because any sort of hatred might be directed at "the police" in general does <em>not</em> mean the people in question hate <em>all</em> cops, <em>individually</em>. People who protest against racial biases in the criminal justice system are actually quite good at understanding the systemic, structural nature of these problems. What they hate is the <strong><span style="background-color: white; color: magenta; font-size: x-large;">SYSTEM</span></strong>. I know that you are not accustomed to such a way of thinking, Matt. You tend to ignore systems completely and direct your hate toward individuals, like Obama (who apparently operates in a bureaucratic, structural vacuum). And yes, it is possible for a person to acknowledge the systemic nature of a problem while simultaneously experiencing it, physically, mentally, viscerally, in particular encounters with individual representatives of the system - and, moreover, to have these experiences without harboring some generalized-but-individual hate (that is the complexity of the relationship between individual attitudes/experiences and social structures).</span><br />
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I’m as critical as anyone when police officers take advantage of their power. I think some cops are arrogant jerks and I think law enforcement, in general, is becoming overly militarized. I’m also a huge proponent of civil liberties and a passionate defender of the 4th amendment.<br />
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That said, a just and civilized society needs laws, and laws need to be enforced, and police officers are entrusted with that noble and necessary task. If a thorough investigation reveals this particular officer to be guilty of murder, by all means arrest and prosecute him. But whether he is or isn’t, only a ridiculous fool would use this incident, or an incident like it, to disparage all police officers everywhere. <span style="color: red;">But a wise person would use this incident to critique a <strong>system<em>.</em></strong></span><br />
<br />
Enter Mark Lamont Hill, who <a href="http://twitchy.com/2014/08/11/marc-lamont-hill-police-are-domestic-terrorists-who-kill-black-men-all-the-time/"><span style="color: #26a9e1;">took to Twitter</span></a> to share this insight:<br />
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“A Black man in America is killed every 28 hours by police or vigilantes. THAT, not rioting, is domestic terrorism…”<br />
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His numbers might be accurate <span style="color: red;">"but I'm certainly not going to take the time to research this issue" - Matt</span>, but what sort of lunatic or liar would interpret them this way? <span style="color: red;">Your second-favorite fallacy: Everyone who disagrees with me is a lunatic or a li....*sighhhhh* I'm getting tired of this.... </span>Every time a black man is killed by a cop he is the victim of terrorism? So cops either shouldn’t try to stop black men from committing crimes, or they should, but if they meet lethal resistance they should run away or surrender and die? <span style="color: red;">So many wrong things here. Where do I start?</span><br />
<span style="color: red;"></span><br />
<span style="color: red;">First of all, that is a STAGGERING statistic. The fact that you don't take even a second to research or consider it certainly shows a lack of empathy and interest in other people's experiences.</span><br />
<span style="color: red;"></span><br />
<span style="color: red;">Second, according to some definitions of terrorism, it is using violence to intimidate. Then, yes, one could consider the <strong>systematic</strong> use of violence against an entire group of people to be an act of terrorism. But it ultimately doesn't matter how you define a particular word like "terrorism" (which is always defined differently by different people according to their own aims). The point is that it is <strong>wrong</strong> and unconstitutional. Black people are targets of police activity, violent or not, in numbers that are very disproportionate and not justified in any way by reality. For example:</span><br />
<span style="color: red;"></span><br />
<span style="color: red;">"Blacks make up 65% of Ferguson's population, yet they accounted for 93% of arrests after traffic stops, 92% of searches and 80% of traffic stops in the city last year, according to a racial profiling report by the Missouri attorney general.</span><br />
<span style="color: red;"></span><br />
<span style="color: red;">Blacks in Ferguson are twice as likely as whites to be stopped by police even though police find contraband for 34% of whites stopped, versus 22% of blacks, said Scott Decker, a criminologist on a team contracted by the attorney general's office to compile the data." -<a href="http://www.latimes.com/nation/nationnow/la-na-nn-michael-brown-ferguson-missouri-shooting-20140811-story.html">source</a></span><br />
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<span style="color: red;">Which brings me to point 3 - your worst assumption: that if black people are killed, they must <em>deserve</em> it. They are definitely committing crimes and using lethal force to resist arrest. What was that again about having facts before you say stuff? That incorrect assumption bears many similarities with the "rape myth" - that causes people to ask female rape victims what they were wearing or what they were doing, because certainly they must have done something to "deserve" it.</span><br />
<span style="color: red;"></span><br />
<span style="color: red;">The fact of the matter is that black people have been subject to systematic violence and murder for all of American history. We had slavery, then lynchings, and police brutality that continues to this very day. Things that are <strong>systemic</strong> always have a history. There is a lot of historical continuity in systems. If you look at the historical relationship between the criminal justice system and African Americans you will see that continuity, which is the continuity of racism.</span><br />
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Such an enormous dose of idiocy in that statement, but it’s a notion echoed by many people across the country. <span style="color: red;">"I can comfortably say that the statements black people make about their own experiences are idiotic, because I understand their experiences so much better than they do." -Matt</span> The news about Mike Brown’s death prompted a tidal wave of “f**k the police” sentiments from black and white liberals alike.<br />
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Meanwhile, let any one of these cop hating cowards find themselves in a precarious spot, and watch how quickly they dial 911. <br />
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Criticize bad cops all you want, but police do important work under immense stress and pressure. Why is it that we are supposed to “understand” and empathize with looters and rioters, but we can’t give even the slightest bit of slack to men and women who put themselves in harm’s way to keep peace and order in our society?<br />
<br />
Why are we quick to listen to the plight of the carjacker and the drug dealer, so willing to put their behavior in “context,” yet we fail miserably to comprehend the fact that cops — particularly cops in high crime areas — are dealing with domestic abusers, addicts, thieves, murderers, pimps, and the various other dregs of humanity on a daily basis? <span style="color: red;">being taught to dehumanize people who commit crimes in that way - step 1 in creating a problem of police brutality!</span> This might take a toll on your psyche after awhile; perhaps make you jaded, cynical, even bitter. I know it would to me, and I know the police who manage to be decent in spite of it all deserve an immense amount of respect.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: red;">Matt, you are completely ignoring the specifics of the situation in Ferguson. The reason people in Ferguson are angry with the police is because of the regular harassment that they endure at the hands of that police force. Is that not a problem? Can we not investigate it? Or must we sweep it under the rug, because we live in a simplistic world where acknowledging specific problems with a police force means that we must hate all police everywhere and see no value in the law enforcement whatsoever?</span><br />
<span style="color: red;"></span><br />
<span style="color: red;">Plus, I could turn the tables on you. Why is it that you go through great lengths to defend the police, or pretty much anyone in a position of relative power who does something offensive or upsetting, yet you condemn the reactions of some members of an oppressed group of people without feeling any need to understand, acknowledge, or condemn the oppression itself?</span><br />
<br />
It’s childish and absurd to hate all police. Yes, cops might have a contentious rapport with people in the inner city, but that’s because they are law enforcers, and inner cities have more than their fair share of law breakers. <span style="color: red;">So do suburbs and majority-white communities. They are just not targeted in the same proportion and "white collar criminals" are treated differently. When your explanation of "a contentious rapport" is "but that's because they are law enforcers" - then are you suggesting that inappropriate and racially biased actions of the police have <em>nothing </em>to do with it? Black people are just making it all up?</span> Why do we pin this strained relationship squarely on the police and never spread the blame to people who choose to commit crimes? <span style="color: red;">"Why are we not blaming more things on black people?" -Matt</span><br />
<span style="color: red;"></span><br />
<span style="color: red;">I repeat: many victims of police harassment and violence <strong><em>are not committing crimes</em></strong>. Of course, if you believe that there is something inherently criminal about black people, that may be hard to swallow.</span><br />
<br />
We can hold cops responsible for their mistakes without descending into this sort of juvenile, anarchist madness. <span style="color: red;">Talking about a history of systemic violence directed at an entire group of people is juvenile? Sorry. I'll stick to adult conversations, like why elementary school graduations are stupid. </span> A healthy and rational society respects both the law and those entrusted with upholding it.<br />
<br />
I wonder: do the people who seem to oppose the very existence of police officers <span style="color: red;">who are those people?</span> have a plan B option? We get rid of cops… and then what? Have you guys thought this through at all? <span style="color: red;">Yeah, your imaginary opponents sure don't think long term.</span><br />
<span style="color: red;"></span><br />
<span style="color: red;">The actual protestors are not calling for the abolition of the police force. They are asking for a police force that represents the racial demographics of Ferguson, and less police harassment. So radical!</span><br />
<br />
I didn’t think so.<br />
<br />
2) Only one thing causes looting: the greed and selfishness of the people doing the looting.<br />
<br />
I’ve seen a lot of people today insist that we ought not concentrate on the folks stealing, vandalizing, and setting fires over in Ferguson. We should instead discuss what “caused” it.<br />
<br />
Ok, let’s do that. They are human beings with free will who chose to commit evil because it suits their own ends. That’s what caused it. Period. No need for further analysis.<br />
<br />
Stealing from innocent citizens and setting fires to cars and gas stations — these are not political statements. These are acts of savagery. <br />
<br />
<span style="color: red;">Looting might not be productive or ultimately helpful. Yet, this is something that is an even broader universal than a human universal. If you are mean and mistreat an animal - say, a cat - it will lash out at you. It might start behaving in destructive ways. Same goes for humans. If you oppress and mistreat them, they tend to react. In the scope of the entire world and human history, looting stores and destroying property is an extremely mild reaction to oppression.</span><br />
<span style="color: red;"></span><br />
<span style="color: red;">Your reaction to this situation is analogous to seeing a victim of child abuse and saying, "Yeah, sure, she has a black eye and she says her father hits her, but I don't have all the 'facts' yet. I mean, sure I have seen her father lose his temper in other situations, and it is possible that he abuses his daughter, but he seems like a decent guy and we should remember that she can be a difficult child to deal with. Why are you so critical of her father, but make excuses for her misbehavior at school? If she misbehaves at school, that is her problem; child abuse has absolutely nothing to do with it."</span><br />
<br />
Some people have actually tried to compare the Ferguson riots to the <a href="http://twitchy.com/2014/08/11/are-ferguson-riots-comparable-to-the-boston-tea-party-all-these-people-think-so/"><span style="color: #26a9e1;">Boston Tea Party</span></a>.<br />
<br />
Hmmm. Let’s see. On one hand, we have the Sons of Liberty dumping tea into the Boston Harbor as a specific protest against the Tea Act, while on the other you have a violent mob grabbing handfuls of cheap wine and cigarettes from the local QuickTrip as a protest against something that was not at all related to anything they’re doing.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: red;">Keep in mind that the Americans ultimately took up arms and violently fought against the government. Once again, looting is a pretty mild reaction to oppression.</span><br />
<br />
Sorry, I’m just not seeing the resemblance.<br />
<br />
Until the investigation is complete, we still don’t know if the shooting was justified. But we don’t need any investigation to know that this certainly wasn’t:<br />
<br />
<a href="http://i7ihxhmvf855rr1qui4ol2j.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/image3.jpg"><img alt="image" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-4261" src="http://i7ihxhmvf855rr1qui4ol2j.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/image3.jpg" height="768" width="1024" /></a><br />
<br />
<span style="color: red;">1. A cop kills an unarmed teen. Matt: "Wait, wait, let me get all the facts before making any conclusions. But in the meantime, let me make lots of conclusions about how black people, and not the police, are responsible for their own distress."</span><br />
<span style="color: red;"></span><br />
<span style="color: red;">2. A kid loots a drug store. Matt: "I do not need any facts or context to unequivocally <em>condemn this act</em>!"</span><br />
<span style="color: red;"></span><br />
<span style="color: red;">By the way, I can't help but notice that you're making a big deal about the looting, but not the use of tear gas, pepper spray, and rubber bullets against protestors, in some cases on their own front lawns.</span><br />
<br />
3) The best solutions to any community’s problems can be found within. <span style="color: red;">I.e. "I HATE CONTEXT. PLEASE STOP TRYING TO MAKE ME THINK ABOUT CONTEXT!"</span><br />
<span style="color: red;"></span><br />
<span style="color: red;">Just to take one example of an "external" force (I use quotes because, once again, Matt is assuming "the black community" is some discreet, isolated unit): the prison-industrial complex. As a result of our drug laws and the huge racial bias that exists at all levels of the criminal justice system, we are imprisoning an unbelievable proportion of black people. We have the highest incarceration rate in the world. Our prison population comprises <strong><em>about a quarter of the WORLD'S prisoners</em></strong>. That is incredible! Blacks and Latinos are very disproportionately represented in that population, even though drug use is equal in all races (and once again, the prosecution of minor drug offenses and mandatory minimum sentencing is largely responsible for this huge prison population). Also, majority-black cities have <strong><em>the same crime rate</em></strong> as majority-white cities. <em>If anything should tell you that this is not a "black" problem, that should be it!</em> I should mention that this not only affects men. The incarceration rate for women has been growing at a much higher rate than men.</span><br />
<span style="color: red;"></span><br />
<span style="color: red;">The people in prison are not always guilty of a crime, however. For one thing, there are <a href="http://criminaldefenseassociates.com/drug-conspiracy/">conspiracy charges</a>. So, say your nephew uses your apartment or your car to make a drug deal without your permission... you can be charged with a crime. Other times, people are pressured to give names of people involved in drug crimes in order to get shorter sentences. If they are innocent and don't know who is involved, they may give false information to save their own butts. So, other innocent people are charged because someone has given their name under pressure. Innocent people are <em>then</em> pressured to plead guilty because they could possibly face very lengthy sentences otherwise (and keep in mind, these people are aware of the racial biases that exist, and don't necessarily expect justice to be on their side).</span><br />
<span style="color: red;"></span><br />
<span style="color: red;">Furthermore, this is occurring in the context of large-scale prison privatization. Private prison companies have been making lots of money off of our unprecedented incarceration rates. And, they purposefully try to keep recidivism rates high (we have quite high recidivism rates) because... more business for them!</span><br />
<span style="color: red;"></span><br />
<span style="color: red;">We could also look at this in historical context. We could go back to the years immediately following the eradication of slavery and see how the prison system was used very obviously and intentionally to recreate a black slave labor force, which was leased out to former slave owners. And then we can see the role that police harassment and the targeting of black people has played in maintaining a racial cast system.</span><br />
<span style="color: red;"></span><br />
<span style="color: red;">Getting caught in the cross-hairs of the prison system has many negative long term consequences that destroy communities. For one thing, it tears apart families. Children grow up without their mothers or fathers. With all of the associated fines and fees and limited employment options that follow, it creates insurmountable financial hardship. That is only compounded when one's access to the social safety net - for example, public housing - is taken away. Then of course, there are the many psychological effects of spending time in a prison.</span><br />
<span style="color: red;"></span><br />
I know it’s frustrating when annoying right wingers like myself always rain on the cop-hating, death-to-whitey parade to point out how black kids are, by and large, under attack from other black kids, and the black community is in a tragic state of self-destruction. <span style="color: red;">No, it's not frustrating. It is uninformed, unsupported by facts, neglectful of many important realities (see above, about the prison-industrial complex), and very, very racist.</span><br />
<br />
But we wouldn’t need to do that if the Mike Brown and Trayvon Martin kinds of incidents weren’t immediately seized upon to prove a universal narrative of black victimhood. <span style="color: red;">No Matt. See, when something bad and unconstitutional happens with great frequency, we call that a "problem." And when we see individual instances of the problem, we discuss it so that we can make things better.</span><br />
<br />
You want to simply discuss Mike Brown? Fine. Wait until the facts are in and the smoke has cleared (literally) and we can talk about Mike Brown. But liberals aren’t interested in making this a narrow and specific conversation. They want to make Mike Brown into another casualty of White America’s war on black teens. <span style="color: red;">It is kind of amusing that a person who regularly takes emails written by ranting weirdos and holds them as representative of something larger (the true nature of liberals) is so put off by people trying to address a larger issue with what is a <strong>legitimately</strong> representative event.</span><br />
<br />
It’s in response to that kind of nonsense that one must introduce a few other items for consideration. If this is to become a debate about the plight of black Americans (and I’m not the one who turned it into that) then the debate will be utterly useless if it doesn’t begin and end with the sad reality that 70 percent of black kids are born to unwed mothers.<br />
<br />
Over 60 percent of black children grow up in homes without fathers. <span style="color: red;">Yes, because many of the fathers are locked away, by means of a racially-biased justice process, in our for-profit prisons.</span><br />
<br />
Black people are killed by other black people much more frequently than by cops. <span style="color: red;">And w</span><span style="color: red;">hite people are killed by other white people much more frequently than by cops. What does any of this have to do with whether cops killing people of a certain race in disproportionate and staggering numbers is a problem that must be addressed?</span><br />
<br />
Black babies are murdered in the womb at such a pace that now, in cities like New York, a black child has a better chance at being aborted than born.<br />
<br />
Everyone knows these statistics. They come as no surprise to anyone. Yet, still, we always hear about how the black community is being held down and oppressed, as if black men don’t willfully choose to abandon their children, and black parents haven’t decided themselves to exterminate an entire generation of their own. <span style="color: red;">Racist. </span><br />
<br />
The real problems are ignored, the people who mention them shunned, and instead we wait for an officer to kill a black teenager <span style="color: red;">look again at the statistics; no one has to wait</span> so we can pretend that such incidents are the primary reason why the black community struggles in this nation.<br />
<br />
And, even worse, pathetic white sycophants play along, too afraid to speak up and say, “hey, if black fathers simply stayed home and raised their own children, a lot of these issues would go away.”<br />
But their silence is rooted in indifference, not kindness. They don’t care about black Americans, they care about proving a point.<br />
<br />
The pattern will continue and nothing will get better, until we learn to be honest about things.<br />
Hopefully that day comes soon, but I’m not holding my breath.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: red;">[Update: Just for reference, <a href="http://time.com/3111474/rand-paul-ferguson-police/">here</a> is an example of a more responsible conservative response to this situation.]</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00665542944467061185noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4353562748320042210.post-79936784730634319022014-08-11T12:41:00.000-07:002014-08-12T05:35:34.147-07:00I'm spoiled and lazy but Walmart should pay me more money anyway!<span style="color: red;">My work volume has steadily increased and Matt Walsh has continued to harp on the same topics, so I could gleefully ignore him for a while. However, I just checked in and saw a post I could pretty briefly respond to. So here goes. First, a few general thoughts.</span><br />
<span style="color: red;"></span><br />
<span style="color: red;">Matt continues to display his ignorance on a number of issues: the job market, the economy in general, and human sociality. The most peculiar thing, though, is his inconsistent attitude toward corporations. When he is railing against liberals, Matt hates corporations and says that everything liberals do helps corporations. Liberals and corporations are in cahoots. When Matt considers the needs of the working class, on the other hand, corporations are great! Matt, without any reservation or any sense of irony, proclaims his admiration for Walmart and asserts his confidence that they give everyone a fair chance. (Oddly enough, he doesn't even seem to have a problem with small businesses being thwarted.)</span><br />
<span style="color: red;"></span><br />
<span style="color: red;">Of course, Matt, as far as I know, has never worked for Walmart and probably has no idea what it is like to work for Walmart. I also have never worked for Walmart, so I lack some key knowledge, but I know and/or have spoken to people who have worked for Walmart. I even met a couple of garment workers from a factory in Bangladesh that supplies Walmart. From the U.S. side, there are documented cases (and law suits) of Walmart not paying employees for all the hours they have worked. And what I heard from the Bangladeshi workers - their grievances included, among many things, not having enough break time/time off to poop! Matt should at the very least think twice before he sings Walmart's praises and assumes their success is not in any way ill-gained.</span><br />
<span style="color: red;"></span><br />
<span style="color: red;">To compound this ignorance, Matt also uses his traditional tactic of taking an email that is in no way representative of anything, and using it as if it is somehow representative of something.</span><br />
<span style="color: red;"></span><br />
<span style="color: red;">To (perhaps repetitively) address some of the areas of ignorance mentioned above, I have pasted an excerpt from his post below, with my comments.</span><br />
<br />
<br />
<strong>Matt Walsh writes:</strong><br />
<br />
I went to Monster.com and did a bit of research for you. <a href="http://jobsearch.monster.com/search/?where=united-states"><span style="color: #26a9e1;">My very focused </span></a>search for any job, in any category, anywhere in the US, yielded a veritable buffet of employment options. <span style="color: red;">That's not how job searching works...</span><br />
<span style="color: red;"></span><br />
<span style="color: red;">By the way, Matt, did you realize that every job that is posted is not necessarily available? See, some employers (like my previous employer) post jobs for "market research" purposes just to see what kind of applicants they get (experience, salary requirements) - for example, when creating a new position for an employee promotion. Other times, there is an opening, but it is filled internally, and external candidates never stood a chance to begin with. Or the job went to someone with prior connections to the organization.</span><br />
<br />
From the first page alone I can see that they’re hiring production supervisors in Iowa, general sales associates in California, tire salesmen in Ohio, and maintenance workers in Florida, among other things. So that’s at least four jobs right there. <span style="color: red;">Those jobs require different skill sets, which a single individual presumably would not possess. You are not any closer to determining what jobs are available for "Bob."</span><br />
<span style="color: red;"></span><br />
<span style="color: red;">Also, here's another fun fact. Did you realize that in a tough economy most of the applicants for a position may have qualifications that far exceed the minimum requirements. (From my last job search, when I used sites that kept statistics on the other applicants, there were people with PhDs and at least a decade of experience applying for jobs that asked for a bachelor's and 3 years experience.) So, even if you just narrow the jobs down to those that meet your skill set and background, the pool of jobs that you stand any chance of getting will probably be much narrower still.</span><br />
<br />
I did a little more digging and found <a href="http://www.economicmodeling.com/2013/09/05/interactive-map-detailing-growth-of-top-industries-in-100-most-populous-u-s-metros/"><span style="color: #26a9e1;">this interactive map </span></a>detailing the fastest growing industries in the nation’s most populous metro areas. Have you thought about Salt Lake? Beautiful city, gorgeous landscapes, low cost of living, and they’ve got job growth coming out the wazoo (to use a very technical economic term).<br />
<br />
Forbes.com has an interesting write-up on US industries with the <a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/sageworks/2014/04/28/the-fastest-growing-industries-over-the-last-year/"><span style="color: #26a9e1;">most job growth </span></a>in the past year. Have you thought about getting into the wholesale lumber supply game? <span style="color: red;">Yes. That sounds like a great idea. Just pick the industry that at this particular moment as the greatest job growth. No need to think long term.</span><br />
<br />
Bob, have you even paid attention to what’s happening in North Dakota? They have so many jobs over there, they can hardly give them away fast enough. <span style="color: red;">And Matt, do you know what <em>kinds </em>jobs they are? Have you been paying attention to the stories about the long commutes and dismal work conditions?</span> Just this past March they stood up and said, <a href="http://money.cnn.com/2014/03/18/pf/north-dakota-jobs/"><span style="color: #26a9e1;">“Attention, America. We have 20,000 unfilled jobs out here. Who wants one? You can have two, if you like. Anyone want two? Two jobs a piece. Anyone?”</span></a><br />
<br />
<span style="color: red;">Matt you keep making this assumption (in previous posts, too) that people can just move anywhere in the country to get a job. I guess if people have close ties to their families, that's not important? If "Bob" has a girlfriend whom he plans to marry... he should just leave her for a job? I'm surprised that someone who always claims that nothing is more important than family would not have any problem with economic forces that break up families and communities. Are our social bonds not the most important aspect of humanity, and the very thing that has allowed for the incredible adaptations and achievements of our species? Should we now value perceived economic imperatives over social bonds and a sense of community and place?</span><br />
<span style="color: red;"></span><br />
<span style="color: red;">How willing would <em>you</em> be to move to North Dakota right now, Matt?</span><br />
<br />
You might not like the average salary of a Walmart employee, but you should check out the <a href="http://money.cnn.com/2012/05/10/news/economy/oil_workers/"><span style="color: #26a9e1;">average salary of an oil rig worker</span></a>. <span style="color: red;">Once again, Matt, you should check out the work conditions of the average oil rig worker. </span>I’m talking about 100 grand, dude. Yeah, it’s physically demanding, but you’re a young guy, aren’t you? <span style="color: red;">Says the guy who writes blogs and begs for handouts for a living.</span> Go let off some steam, drill some oil, and make some serious bank.<br />
<br />
Get it together, Bob. The world is your oyster. If I was single, childless, and working low level retail in a shopping mall somewhere, you better believe I’d blow this popsicle stand and go wherever the opportunities are. <span style="color: red;">But you were single, childless, and working low level jobs... and you did <strong>not</strong> do what you are telling Bob to do. You stayed on the East Coast, went through a series of radio jobs (I've read unconfirmed speculation that you were fired from all of them), and now you are literally asking your readers to subsidize your blogging with donations. It's easy to tell people how to live; harder to live out your own advice. </span> Seriously, Bob, what are you doing? This is no way to live. Sleep walking through your Walmart shifts then coming home and trolling bloggers on the internet while you stew in jealousy and whisper curses at phantom rich people? <span style="color: red;">You don't believe rich people exist?</span> You’re better than that. I’m glad that you want to get married, but I’m pretty sure your girlfriend wants a man who has a slightly more comprehensive five year plan. <span style="color: red;">She probably does not want him to get an oil rig job in North Dakota either.</span><br />
<br />
I don’t know about Walmart’s devious exploitation of these tax loopholes, and I don’t care. <span style="color: red;">That's right. You only care about the exploitative things that corporations do when it allows you to yell at liberals. </span> <a href="https://www.nationalpriorities.org/budget-basics/federal-budget-101/revenues/"><span style="color: #26a9e1;">The government collects about 3.5 trillion dollars a year in taxes</span></a>, so excuse me if I don’t stay awake at night worrying that they’re losing a few bucks here and there. At some point we have to elect people who can figure out how to run a country on, oh, I don’t know, say a cool trillion or so. If we don’t then we will continue on this unsustainable path until our glorious American empire collapses into rubble, like so many before it. When that happens, I can guarantee you that historians 500 years from now will not look back on the ancient USA and say that we were ultimately undone by “tax loopholes.” <br />
<span style="color: red;"></span><br />
<span style="color: red;">Matt: "I really think we need to get our finances under control, because otherwise American society will collapse... but I don't know anything or care anything about tax loopholes." Solid, Matt.</span><br />
<span style="color: red;"></span><br />
<span style="color: red;">When it comes to the collapse of societies/empires, you know what pretty much always does them in? Unsustainable growth, debt crises, and rampant inequality. (Yes, warfare plays into this, as the military/warfare is intimately connected to debt/currency and center/periphery style imperial exploitation and unsustainable growth.) In a nutshell: systems of exploitation of the many by the few, which ultimately disrupt the entire social order. So guess what - tax loopholes are very much part of the systems of exploitation and inequality that <em>can</em> threaten a society. </span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00665542944467061185noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4353562748320042210.post-71344766534344758342014-07-23T09:06:00.001-07:002014-07-23T09:06:51.382-07:00Putting Money Where My Mouth Is<span style="color: red;">This week Matt Walsh continues his preoccupation with Michael Sam (which I have already written about <a href="http://antimattwalsh.blogspot.com/2014/05/this-is-my-homophobic-rant-against.html">here</a>). Meanwhile, we can take action to help refugee children by <a href="http://www.supportkind.org/en/donate">donating a little money</a> for their legal representation. (I know I have said that I am not necessarily trying to advance any particular platform on this blog, which is still true... but, having immigrant/refugee experience in my recent family history, this is one thing that really means a lot to me, so I would appreciate your support.)</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00665542944467061185noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4353562748320042210.post-69121660275166585502014-07-16T06:15:00.001-07:002014-07-16T06:15:14.593-07:00Matt Walsh versus the Pope<span style="color: red;">I couldn't help but think of Matt Walsh when I heard the report that Pope Francis <a href="http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/immigration-border-crisis/pope-says-children-u-s-border-must-be-welcomed-protected-n156106">commented on the refugee crisis</a> and said that the children should be "welcomed and protected." See, Matt is a devout Catholic, and he also has advocated deporting the refugee children who are being threatened with murder by gangs. Either Matt is going to ignore the Pope's words (I think this is the most likely scenario) or I get to enjoy the mental gymnastics he is going to have to pull off to reconcile his politics with his religion.</span><br />
<span style="color: red;"></span><br />
<span style="color: red;"><a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/09/24/us-pope-refugees-idUSBRE98N0CT20130924">Here</a> is some more information about what the Pope has said in the past about immigration, refugees, and racism.</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00665542944467061185noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4353562748320042210.post-10089214243131101072014-07-15T08:35:00.004-07:002014-07-16T05:24:02.670-07:00Barack Obama doesn't care about black people<span style="color: red;">If Matt Walsh isn't going to write new material, he could at least do us the favor of doing <em>something </em>differently. The very first sentence - "Enough of this, already." - and the deja vu is already kicking in. Plus, in terms of writing style, this is one of Matt's worst. More angry thesaurus soup.</span><br />
<span style="color: red;"></span><br />
<span style="color: red;">Once again, I wouldn't even respond to this post, given that he didn't write anything new and he was barely coherent. However, there was something so particularly odious about this post that I can't help but respond. A few weeks ago I wondered whether Matt was taking some of the criticism to heart; now I seriously doubt it.</span><br />
<span style="color: red;"></span><br />
<span style="color: red;">(Sorry about my tone, by the way. Reading stuff like that makes me a bit cranky. I'll try to keep myself in line.)</span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: red;">To start, everything that I said previously about the echo chamber was demonstrated very well in this post. Matt relies on the same network of conservative media sources that he always does. In fact, when I tried to get more information about a couple of his claims I could pretty much <em>only</em> find references that came from these sources. To take one example: the Nebraska parade float. When I google searched information related to the DOJ investigating this incident, I was bombarded with results from sources like The New American**, the Washington Times and Breitbart. The only sources from outside the echo chamber that I found came, interestingly, from RT.com (a Russian television network) and <a href="http://thedailybanter.com/2014/07/conservative-media-freaks-justice-dept-investigation-anti-obama-parade-float/">this</a> (which actually seems to be more helpful than the information Matt provides).</span><br />
<span style="color: red;"></span><br />
<span style="color: red;">Matt also repeats the same disinformation related to the current refugee crisis (he doesn't learn!). He says that impoverished people in the U.S. are "living in the same squalid conditions" - which, given the fact that, for example, there is more violence currently in El Salvador than there was in Iraq at the height of the war - is demonstrably false. Matt says, "</span><span style="color: red;">Wealthy, upper class, Ivy League politicians can welcome these illegals with open arms because they are insulated from the economic and cultural destruction that is wrought.</span><span style="color: red;">" Actually, many of the Salvadorans have been migrating to Washington D.C., which happens to be one of the most highly educated, wealthy, and politician-dense areas in the country. Furthermore, I must say, I live in an area that is a target destination for Central American migrants - I interact with them on a regular basis - and I have not seen any economic or cultural destruction. I see/hear things in Spanish, and yet, <em>somehow</em> I have managed to survive, dear me.</span><br />
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<span style="color: red;">Now, Matt reveals something very interesting when he says "cultural destruction." Back when certain biological and social scientists demolished the scientific basis for racism, and when various constitutional and legal provisions prohibited some overt forms of racism, people with well-known white supremacist goals began using the term "culture" in place of "race." In debates about immigration, people who had, in other circumstances, spoken about demographic changes and the racial composition of America started talking about "cultural destruction." Now, the ironic thing is, Matt is a Catholic who often writes about how America is a Christian nation and how secularism is destroying society and culture, and many people from Central America are devout Catholics. That definitely leads one to question how much Matt is <em>really</em> concerned about <em>culture</em> when he speaks of "cultural destruction." It also leads one to wonder how much he really believes in the "inherent value of life" when he is so willing to send masses of children back to their imminent deaths (pro-life, indeed)....</span><br />
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<span style="color: red;">Matt repeats the very false claim that Obama "refuses to protect our border" - when, in fact, the border is more secure than it has ever been, the number of undocumented immigrants is still below its peak in 2007, and Obama wants to expedite the deportation of refugee children. Finally, Matt once again says that undocumented immigrants form a voting block, although there is no evidence to support that claim.</span><br />
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<span style="color: red;">As I mentioned before, this is one area where Matt could do a lot to educate himself. He could read about the history of U.S. conquests and military interventions in the very parts of the world where the migrations are coming from (and he could read about this same dynamic of conquered/occupied regions and migrations throughout all of human history). He could learn about how poverty and violence has stemmed from U.S. financial and military support of brutal dictatorships in this region (often to protect the interests of U.S. multinational corporations like United Fruit). He could become a little more acquainted with the School of the Americas (who recently tried to rebrand itself with a new, ungodly long name). He could read about the failed domestic policies, combined with the actions of U.S.-supported Nicaraguan drug-dealing contras, that played a role in the rise of crack and gangs in L.A. Then he could read about how deportations themselves helped to internationalize the L.A. gangs - to bring them to Central America where they are causing the unprecedented violence, which is responsible for the flood of refugees, not just at U.S. borders, but in other countries as well.</span><br />
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<span style="color: red;">But really, in this post, Matt is just using the refugee crisis to make an ill-conceived attempt at race-baiting. He makes a spurious argument that we cannot address the needs of refugee children and African Americans at the same time, thus continuing a long American tradition of pitting marginalized groups against each other (the good 'ol Divide and Conquer). This claim is even harder to swallow given the fact that he opposes virtually every practical step that could make life better for many African Americans. He thinks businesses should be free to discriminate and, somehow believing that there aren't enough intelligent, hardworking African Americans to create demographically representative college populations, and also by necessity assuming that competitive admissions processes don't turn away many, many qualified applicants, he accuses affirmative action programs of setting African Americans back by allowing "unworthy" applicants into college. The one accurate statement that Matt makes in his entire post is, "Yes, racism is still alive in this country." Well, if racism is still alive, then one would expect prominent figures, such as the president of the United States, to talk about a major social problem that extends into so many areas of American life. Unless, I suppose, one thinks racism is a trivial, unimportant matter. Since any mention of race, no matter how delayed, modest, or impotent, by Obama sends Matt into fits of rage, it must be the latter. </span><br />
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<span style="color: red;">In fact, the whole story that inspired this post - some remarks about race by Eric Holder - is a product of the distortion mill that operates inside the echo chamber. The interview covered a wide range of topics and, at the moment Holder made the comment in question, was being asked about calls for impeachment directed at both him and the president, and the Tea Party had also been mentioned. That is when he said: </span><span style="color: red;">"There's a certain racial component to this for some people. <em>I don’t think this is the thing that is a main driver</em>, but for some there's a racial animus" (emphasis mine). If you have admitted that racism is still alive, then how you can deny that this is true? Yes, surely much of the hatred that is directed at Obama is a product of the extreme partisanship that has been plaguing our politics. I remember most of these same people expressing similar amounts of rage and saying pretty much exactly the same things about Bill Clinton. But, it is also clear that, as Holder said, for <em>some people </em>racism is a <em>component</em> of this rage. The Tea Party had been mentioned. So... Exhibit A.</span><br />
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<span style="color: red;">What Holder said was factually correct.</span><br />
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<span style="color: red;">However, other than suggesting it is a terrible atrocity whenever Obama or Holder makes a comment about race, the main point of Matt's post was that black people do not know what is best for them. Have no fear, black people, Matt is here to tell you exactly how you are wrong and what sorts of policies you should support. You don't have to thank him, but if you want to, he is soliciting handouts on his website. It is hard work plagiarizing yourself two times a week, so he deserves it. .... What's that? Oh, don't worry, when white people get handouts <em>somehow</em> it doesn't cause dependency, drug addiction, teen pregnancy, and the degradation of their race. Funny how things work, huh.</span><br />
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<span style="color: red;">Other than the obvious, there is something very troubling here that I have addressed before and I would like to expand on a bit. Namely, directing all of one's rage at a particular individual does not make much sense and it is not helpful. To sustain this attitude, one must ignore all of the institutional structures and channels of funding that act as influential forces in policy-making and enforcement. There is a lot of continuity between presidencies, as a matter of fact. There are plenty of things I am not happy about that the Obama administration has presided over; however, many of these things were put into place under the Bush administration and had their roots in the Clinton years and beyond. (I should also mention that my list of grievances is based more on empirical evidence and facts than Matt's at times baffling list. Stoking race riots in Florida? Really?) Blaming individual presidents is futile. It obscures too much and aggravates political polarization.</span><br />
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<span style="color: red;">Matt repeats his peculiar claim that there is some sort of covert fraternity between progressives and elites (he often suggests they are one and the same). Based on previous posts, it seems this elite includes owners of large corporations and the political establishment (like Obama). One can only sustain such a narrative by making a complete break with reality (which Matt, inside his echo chamber, obviously has done). How does Matt explain the fact that many self-identified progressives are not so happy with Obama? (The fact that there is a LOT of diversity among the group of people who might be labeled "progressive" is another matter.) To take an example of someone who has recently gotten a lot of attention: Glenn Greenwald. Glenn Greenwald is a progressive journalist (associated with Snowden leaks) who is a harsh critic of president Obama. Matt says that progressives polices "always benefit the elitist class." How does Matt explain progressive calls to raise the minimum wage and opposition to these calls by corporate elites like Walmart (as well as Matt Walsh himself, who finds himself supporting corporations in these instances)? How does Matt explain many progressives' desire to raise taxes on higher income brackets, frustration with the Citizens United Supreme Court ruling, and support of regulations of banks and corporations? Does Matt actually believe that <strong><em>no</em> </strong>elites support Republican politicians or conservative causes? How does he honestly sustain this narrative?</span><br />
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<span style="color: red;">The reality is pretty complex. See, elites are not a homogenous group. They have different, and often competing, interests. (Frequently, what is profitable for one person comes at the direct expense of another person.) They have different ideas about what is best for themselves and for society. Consequently, elites support different ideologies and different causes. Sometimes this is done in a straightforward manner, and other times elites use the resources of a certain organization or network of organizations to opportunistically further their own agenda. The last few decades have seen a huge rise in networks of think-tanks and allied foundations and media outlets. Having grown within the structure of the U.S. two-party system, these networks have tended to amplify, and are in many ways responsible for, the concomitant intensification of political polarization. However, even among these networks, there is more diversity than a simple partisan binary. <em>Nearly every political ideology that exists in this country has some source of elite funding and support.</em></span><br />
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<span style="color: red;">Furthermore, this is a large part of the context in which policy-making and enforcement occurs. Often the results of these processes are a product of the competition among the various channels of moneyed interests. To say it is a "compromise" is not even quite accurate - because there is constant re-negotiation and contestation. However, this does shed quite a bit of light on the amount of continuity between different presidencies. The same channels of influence remain in place.</span><br />
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<span style="color: red;">Barack Obama is one person. He will come and go, and the system will live on.</span><br />
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<span style="color: red;">There really is no logical, rational reason for Matt to hate Obama to the extent that he does. It just makes him sound not very thoughtful, and quite a bit rabid. Here is my message to Matt: </span><br />
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<span style="color: red;">Matt, the signature characteristic of propaganda-driven worldviews is their simplicity. The time to worry about your grasp of reality is when everything is seen as simple and dichotomous, black-and-white, good-and-evil. Elite secular progressives vs. Wholesome conservative Christian regular Joes. When you can divide people into two camps and associate everything bad in society with the opposing camp. When your most extreme hatreds are directed at individuals and groups of people (conceived as homogenous entities) rather than broader systems or structures.</span><br />
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<span style="color: red;">Maybe black people aren't the ones being "duped" and drinking the Kool-Aid, Matt.</span><br />
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<span style="color: red;">_____________________</span><br />
<span style="color: red;">**P.S. I was going to mention something about The New American being the publication of the John Birch Society, a group who, in the 1960s, said that the Civil Rights Movement was a communist conspiracy.</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00665542944467061185noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4353562748320042210.post-56840112746743481952014-07-10T10:24:00.003-07:002014-07-10T10:40:54.443-07:00I'll check my white male privilege right after you check your arrogant liberal assumptions<span style="color: red;">I am not sure how Matt doesn't get bored writing the same posts over and over again, but I certainly don't have that patience. I've already responded to the arguments in his latest post, so I will refer you <a href="http://antimattwalsh.blogspot.com/2014/05/why-do-white-men-have-any-right-to-give.html">there</a> rather than repeat myself.</span><br />
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<span style="color: red;">Now, I wouldn't necessarily even respond to this post at all, given that I have already, except that I wanted to expand a little bit on my main points, which were: 1) Privilege is not an all-or-nothing phenomenon; 2) Privilege is not equivalent to being wealthy or having only pleasant, enjoyable experiences; 3) There are different kinds of privilege; and 4) Privilege relates to structural inequalities, institutional biases, and social hierarchies.</span><br />
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<span style="color: red;">Matt, if you really come from an impoverished social stratum, then certainly that is an aspect in which you are not privileged. I don't know enough about your background to confirm whether that is the case, however. You have mentioned some years of struggle, but going through some financial rough times in itself does not necessarily place a person in a lower social class. My parents did not have much money most of the time when I was growing up (in fact, if I recall correctly a record I saw, one year their combined gross income was $6). But, due to various sorts of privilege my parents had on the basis of some personal characteristics and cultural capital, the system was not stacked against us and we always knew we could get by in the end. My parents had enough optimism to buy a house in an area that they couldn't afford at the time so that I could attend a good school. I can say the same about my adult life, which has had its share of financial struggle (I've never been well off financially), but always in a context of cultural capital, social support, and institutional privileges that has prevented me from losing all hope or fearing too much.</span><br />
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<span style="color: red;">Anyway, the point is, regardless of your income or your social class, there are many aspects of your life in which you <strong>are</strong> privileged. </span><br />
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<span style="color: red;">Privilege is being fully absorbed in your very narrow concerns when you have the opportunity to learn about other things. Privilege is sitting in your Starbucks, making your living by writing the same few unresearched thoughts over and over again, and not having to worry about the people who grew the beans in your coffee or, if you added sugar, the people who toiled in sweltering heat in the sugar cane fields. Not having to worry about the people who risked their lives in mines or worked in inhumane sweatshop conditions to provide the raw materials for your computer, your phone, and your clothes. If you do ever think about these people, it is clear you do not think these things are as worthy of discussion or attention as Beyoncé's music, boys who wear My Little Pony Backpacks, or media coverage of twitter comments about a Coca Cola ad.</span><br />
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<span style="color: red;">Privilege is being able to say things like this: <br /><span style="color: black;">Can you name me one particular right or immunity that I possess and you do not? What is one specific and tangible benefit that white males universally enjoy, while all other people are deprived of it?</span><br /></span><span style="color: red;">Well, Matt, I would venture to guess that you have not been racially profiled by the police. How many times have you been stopped and frisked? When you went to the jewelry store to buy your wife's wedding ring, was there any possibility that a security guard would apprehend you and assume you were a thief, based purely on the color of your skin? Have you received a predatory loan from a bank that was targeting people with your skin color? In fact, in addition to your own financial resources, was most of the wealth generated by your parents and grandparents and great-grandparents extracted by people of a different race through fraudulent real estate practices, bad loans, price gauging, and wage inequalities? Are you afraid that rich people are suddenly going to start moving into your neighborhood because they are now interested in its history, and price you out of your home? Are people very opinionated about how you wear your hair, and do people of other races come up and pet it, like you're an animal?</span><br />
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<span style="color: red;">How many hours, on average, are you detained when you fly on an airplane or cross a border? If you were to take a short trip to Canada, do you think that, upon re-entering the United States, you would be forced to strip naked and answer humiliating questions on the sole basis that you are a Christian? When you write things on the internet that reveal anti-government sentiments, should you be as worried that government agencies are spying on you as a Muslim who expresses similar views? (Given the revelation that the FBI found "<a href="https://firstlook.org/theintercept/article/2014/07/09/under-surveillance/">Mohammed Raghead</a>" a fitting sample target name in an instructional template for surveillance... certainly the answer should be "no.") Do people create conspiracy theories about the President of U.S. secretly affiliating with your religion - because they believe that being a member of your religion is the worst, most evil thing possible?</span><br />
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<span style="color: red;">How often do people ask you where you are from, or assume that you aren't American? Do people think that you came here illegally, for the purpose of obtaining food stamps? Has anyone assumed you don't know how to speak English?</span><br />
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<span style="color: red;">Did your mother start measuring your waist when you were 10 years old? In sixth grade, did you start having nightmares that all the kids in your class revealed, contrary to your own perceptions, that you were actually fat? When you sat at the lunch table with your male friends, did half of them not eat anything? Did you watch your male friends hold on to cars in the school parking lot to steady themselves, or see their hair fall out, or learn about health problems resulting from under-eating? How many times have you gone the whole day without eating? How many times have you forced yourself to throw up after meals?</span><br />
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<span style="color: red;">How often have you been inappropriately touched or subject to sexual comments by bosses or professors after having achieved something that you were proud of? How many times have you been groped on buses or trains? You mention that men are victims of sexual assault too. True. Let's put aside the fact that these victims are disproportionately people of color, gay, impoverished, in prison, or otherwise marginalized. When you reported your rape, were you asked what you were wearing? Do frequently have the thought, "Is this person going to try to rape me?" Are you constantly subject to stories, real or fake, that prime you to live in constant fear of assault, even in the grocery store parking lot in broad daylight, if you don't get into your car correctly or look into the back seat first or have your keys in your fist?</span><br />
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<span style="color: red;">How long is the list of simple, everyday things you have been told that you cannot do on the basis of your gender (e.g. go camping, mow the lawn, grill a hamburger)? When you are happily carrying things around, do people interfere and try to take the load from you about 90% of the time because they assume you are weak? When you were one of two males in your math course, did your professor/teacher, upon passing the very first tests back, say, "I didn't expect you to do well!" - when you had given him no reason to have any expectations about your performance whatsoever? Have you been passed up for a job opportunity that was given to someone of a different gender with less education and experience? Have you ever, in an effort to get a coworker to address an important issue, had to put on a "damsel in distress" show, complete with tears, because the only circumstance in which he would listen to you was if he was if he felt he was in some way "rescuing" you?</span><br />
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<span style="color: red;">Do you have to worry about what will happen to you, your wife, or your kids if someone has an accident or medical crisis, because the state in which you reside does not recognize your marriage? Do people constantly tell you that your feelings toward your wife are not natural? Do people publicly suggest that your love for your wife is exactly equivalent to someone's love for a horse, and do they suspect you of being a pedophile?</span><br />
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<span style="color: red;">Yeah, you're right. I can't even think of one benefit that you enjoy on the basis of being white or straight or male. You got me. </span><span style="color: red;">I'm sure if I were to broaden my perspective to what being white, straight, and male means globally, I would find no evidence of any advantage there either.</span><br />
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<span style="color: red;">There's another point I want to make. You commonly misinterpret criticisms as meaning, "you can't have an opinion that is different than mine." Listen, Matt. I have people of quite different political/religious persuasions who are close to me, who play an important role in my life. We are able to have discussions without calling each other fascists. We are able to expand areas of agreement and get to the roots of our disagreement. I interact with people who have the same religious and/or political positions as you, Matt. I know that it is possible to be conservative, Christian, libertarian... whatever labels you want to use, and still maintain a commitment to facts, evidence, and sound logic. <em>That is the big difference</em>.</span><br />
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<span style="color: red;">You have inserted yourself into this network of media - television, print, online - that reinforces mythical narratives about the world. Not all conservatives buy into this. Not all Christians buy into this. However, this network, which acts as an echo chamber of made-up facts, has institutional and corporate support (more on that in a second), and like a spreading weed, is taking over more and more spaces of public discourse. What I'm talking about here is not just different perspectives or different interpretations of facts. This is an utterly fabricated reality. It is a world where Obama is a secret Muslim socialist, where Hitler implemented stricter gun control laws, where people on food stamps regularly eat caviar, where undocumented immigrants are voting in significant numbers, where (judging by one of your most recent posts, which was totally devoid of accurate information) undocumented immigrants are primarily coming from Mexico in search of government handouts and there are no laws whatsoever to protect migrant children - oh yeah, and the border is not enforced!, and there is some conspiracy involving academia, corporations, and the government.</span><br />
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<span style="color: red;">The ironic thing is that, while there seems to be some part of you that has populist leanings... in the end, the media complex in which you have embedded yourself is supported and funded by some of the political and corporate figures who have a vested interest in maintaining a certain status quo. So, by uncritically accepting their narrative and repeating their sound bites over and over again - in fact, to make your living by parroting this misinformation - you are availing yourself of social hierarchy and structural inequality. You are making your living, essentially, as a mouthpiece for particular political and corporate elites.</span><br />
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<span style="color: red;">Here's the thing, Matt. You are self-employed. Your blog is your living. <em>You actually have the opportunity to do research on the issues that you care about, and make some sort of positive, productive contribution with your work.</em> But you do not. You write about the same four or five topics over and over again. Roughly:</span><br />
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<span style="color: red;">1. Anything related to sex</span><br />
<span style="color: red;">2. Anything related to women</span><br />
<span style="color: red;">3. Relationship advice</span><br />
<span style="color: red;">(so far, not much different from a women's magazine)</span><br />
<span style="color: red;">4. Reasons why Liberal Secular Progressive Feminists are fascists who are somehow suppressing your freedom of speech</span><br />
<span style="color: red;">5. Reasons why schools and government agencies are bad.</span><br />
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<span style="color: red;">You bring up conflict diamonds <em>only as</em> a device to demonstrate that Liberals are hypocritical in a post that is really about pornography (#1 in the list above). You bring up victims of gun violence <em>only as</em> a platform to criticize feminists or liberals who support policies (gun control) that you oppose (#4). You make an off-handed statement about having compassion for child migrants, only to say that they should all be deported on account of the law (or, what you erroneously perceive the law to be), without taking any time whatsoever to ponder who these children are - like, give them real faces (see below) - what they are trying to escape, what they might have to suffer if they go back, and what laws exist to protect them.</span><br />
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<span style="color: red;">Matt, there is more for you to think about and research than other people's sexual behaviors. I know that it can be fun and titillating to think and write about sex all the time, finding the perfect provocative photos to insert in the right places, but there is a bigger world out there. Some people have things to worry about that do not relate to sex or liberal-fascist bogeymen! </span><br />
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<span style="color: red;">What have you done to educate yourself about the <a href="http://upperbunkiesunite.wordpress.com/">prison-industrial complex</a> - its growth and astonishing scale, <a href="http://newjimcrow.com/">the racial biases that exist at all levels</a>, and its destruction of the communities and families of people of color? Are you able to identify the 3 major alliances in the Middle East, describe their relationship to the United States, and explain how these alliances have been shifting the past few years? Do you know why Somalia is so unstable, or what the U.S. support of warlords and foreign interventions has to do with the rise of Al-Shabaab? What kind of attention are you paying to what is currently happening in Gaza? Have you spent any time reading about the potential consequences of the Trans-Pacific Partnership? Or the impact of the War on Drugs in South and Central America as well as the U.S.?</span><br />
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<span style="color: red;">I don't mean to sound like a know-it-all - like I am trying to one-up you. Certainly we all have holes in our knowledge (and I don't assume that my knowledge is perfect or that you are necessarily completely ignorant about all these topics). I am simply suggesting that there are many other topics worthy of consideration, which yes, would require research. You know... like, actual <em>work</em>.</span><br />
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<span style="color: red;">So, when people ask you to check your privilege, they are NOT saying, "have the same opinion as me." They are saying, "Do some reading outside of the echo chamber. Obtain more knowledge. Listen to the experiences of other people. Be humble. Don't act like you have all the answers to everything."</span><br />
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<span style="color: red;">____________________________________________</span><br />
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<span style="color: red;">Now I am going to quickly nit-pick a few things that Matt said toward the end, as a case in point (re: Matt should spend more time obtaining knowledge about the things he writes about).</span><br />
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<br />Please use real words when you write to me. I like Dr. Seuss, too, but I think adult conversations require actual language. “Cisgender” is not a real word. <span style="color: red;">It is a series of phonemes (distinguishable units of sound) that has a specific meaning that is mutually understood by a group of people; therefore, it is a word.</span> As far as I can tell, it was just <a href="http://www.princeton.edu/~achaney/tmve/wiki100k/docs/Cisgender.html"><span style="color: #26a9e1;">invented by some guy on the internet </span></a>back in 1995. <span style="color: red;">Because, anytime we can trace the origin of a word, it is not a "real" word. </span>I know all words have to start somewhere, but when they’re born in a chatroom because a transsexual activist wanted to come up with a label that would normalize his behavior, I can’t help but balk. <span style="color: red;">So then, what exactly are the legitimate conditions and parameters for creating new words, Matt, Arbiter of Language? Matt obviously thinks it is acceptable for him, a shock-jock blogger, to make up words in his blog posts (although I must admit, I find it entertaining every time he uses the word "neoliberal," thinking he made it up, having no idea what it actually means in common usage).</span><br />
<span style="color: red;"></span><br />
<span style="color: red;">Having studied linguistics a bit, I find it particularly annoying when Matt makes all these arguments on linguistically dubious premises.</span><br />
<span> </span><span></span><span></span>Also, Kira, how dare you call me a man in the first place? The funny thing about ‘cisgender’ is that you automatically contradict yourself the moment you use it to describe anyone. If gender is fluid, and if, in this progressive utopia, ‘male’ and ‘female’ are but select options on a three-dimensional spectrum which allows all of us to be male, female, neither, both, or some mixture, then you cannot ever confidently identify another human being by their gender. I never <em>told </em>you that I identify by the gender assigned to me at birth, so, by your own convictions, only a reactionary Neanderthal would be so primitive as to hoist that identity upon me.<br />
<br />
And even if I did tell you, at one point, that I identify as male and that I was born a male, how do you know that I haven’t since expanded my understanding of my own gender expression (or whatever)?<br />
<span style="color: red;">It is true that everyone is not required to identify with a particular label or fit themselves into a particular category. However, given the fact that you adamantly deny that transgender is even a real <em>thing</em>, anyone is probably safe in assuming that you do not identify as transgender. Based on your general attitude in all of your posts, anyone would also probably be pretty safe in assuming you have not expanded your understanding of anything.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: red;"><br /><br />
<span style="color: black;">White males are responsible for slavery? So the Egyptians, the Mayans, the Chinese, the Indians, the Arabs — these were all white civilizations, were they? And the Africans who both owned and sold slaves, they were also white? OK, then I guess the good news for us white folk is that we can now take credit for the pyramids and algebra. After all, if you’re going to hang the sins of <em>every </em>civilization around our necks, we should at least get to claim their achievements as well.</span><br />
<span style="color: black;"></span><br />
<span style="color: black;">Or you could put down the gender books, pick up a history book, and realize that you’d be very hard pressed to find a form of evil unique to the white man. Our history is stained by violence and tyranny, but so is the history of all people, from Central America, to Africa, to China and beyond.</span><br />
<span style="color: black;"></span><br />
<span style="color: black;">By the way, the Europeans and the Americans were among the first to abolish the terrible institution, while some countries in Africa and the Middle East have yet to come on board the abolition bandwagon. Maybe you should go talk to them.</span><br />
<span style="color: red;">When it comes to telling people to pick up history books, you would benefit greatly from taking your own advice. Now, you could easily just make the point that anyone is, in theory, capable of doing terrible things if they have the power to do so, and that there is nothing inherent to <em>whiteness</em> per se (which is not a concrete biological object) that explains slavery in the Americas. You didn't need to add all this distorted, unhelpful information. Because, in doing so, you conflate very different things (and create a pseudo-evolutionary "white savior" narrative). The word "slavery" applies to different phenomena. Different forms of slavery have existed and been abolished in different eras. The slavery that existed in the Americas was qualitatively - and quantitatively! - different than the forms of slavery that existed prior. And yes, Europeans and Americans abolished this particular form of slavery... because they happened to be the ones who created and had control over it. When you talk about currently existing slavery in other parts of the world (actually, <a href="http://money.cnn.com/2013/11/21/news/economy/human-trafficking-slave/">it still exists in the U.S.</a> as well) a lot of it is tied to economic structures that are ultimately driven by the interests of... you guessed it... Europeans and Americans.</span><br />
<br />Oh by the way, if you want to read Matt's post without giving him clicks... <a href="http://www.donotlink.com/n29">here you go</a>.</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00665542944467061185noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4353562748320042210.post-12032434699979250232014-06-30T06:32:00.002-07:002014-06-30T06:32:37.317-07:00I'm on vacation<span style="color: red;">If anyone needs a cathartic release upon reading any upcoming Matt Walsh posts, feel free to use the comment thread below to summarize/critique any of his arguments.</span><br />
<span style="color: red;"></span><br />
<span style="color: red;">Have a fun and safe holiday.</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00665542944467061185noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4353562748320042210.post-18717988459023850632014-06-27T13:37:00.001-07:002014-06-30T07:05:14.998-07:00Isn't it mean and hateful to deport illegal immigrants?<strong><span style="color: black;">Matt Walsh writes:</span></strong><br />
Dear confused Americans who advocate for open borders,<br />
<br />
I’m reaching out with a vain hope that I can help you understand the illegal immigration issue in America. You may have heard that it’s a complicated and controversial matter. <br />
<br />
It’s not.<br />
<br />
It’s easy.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: red;">Ahh, we start out with all the Matt Walsh Classics. "Anyone who disagrees with me is confused." And, "Social issues are not complex, they're simple as pie!"</span><br />
<br />
See, there are some topics here in the US that are unavoidably complex and therefore naturally contentious. Topics where right and wrong might be difficult to discern. <em>Breaking Bad</em> vs. <em>The Wire</em>, for instance. Scholars and philosophers have spent years contemplating this dilemma, and none have come close to shedding any light upon it.<br />
<br />
Illegal immigration, however, is not that sort of topic.<br />
<br />
Illegal immigration is simple. Not simple to handle after decades of non-existent immigration enforcement, but simple to analyze. We have borders in this country. We have laws. <span style="color: red;">Some of which may overlap in their application, some of which are open to interpretation, and some of which may conflict with each other. For example, there are asylum laws (including a recent law pertaining to children signed by none other than George W. Bush), by which the children coming up from Central America must be allowed to stay. (It is, by the way, the Leftist Dictator Obama who wants to deport the children and further secure the border.) We pick and choose how we want to enforce our laws. If someone is a white Cuban, then they can have asylum. If, however, they are a black Haitian... buh-bye.</span> We must enforce those laws and those borders. If someone comes here in a manner not consistent with our laws, we must send them home. If your first act as a would-be citizen is to defy our laws, you cannot be a citizen.<br />
<br />
Simple. Obvious. <span style="color: red;">To someone who has no knowledge of all of the myriad laws, or the social realities, sure, it's simple.</span><br />
<br />
Every nation in existence has borders <span style="color: red;">well, using the technical definition of 'nation' that is not true at all; if you mean "state" then it is true, but that is only because the particularities of the historical development and geo-political/economic functioning of the state makes it, tautologically, part of the definition; if we are more general and talk about "society" then once again, you are wrong</span> and laws, and every nation, save ours, generally goes about enforcing both. <span style="color: red;">You honestly think the U.S. doesn't protect its border? Someone needs to get you a newspaper... </span> Mexico fortifies its southern border and has no patience or mercy for trespassers. If other countries don’t enforce their laws and borders, it’s most likely because they lack the resources and capabilities. <span style="color: red;">Borders and migrations is a really hot topic in several of the social sciences right now.... TL:DR - borders are never enforced consistently, and it is the cracks, fissures, and failures in these programs that reveal more about the nature of the state than the laws themselves.</span><br />
<br />
But here in this country we have a unique situation. We are able, but unwilling. <span style="color: red;">So the proliferation of military equipment and drones on both of our borders, to you, equates to "unwilling"?</span> Indeed, we may be the first nation in the history of humanity that actually has to argue over the basic concept of having and maintaining a border. <span style="color: red;">Borders are always changing and contested (I will use the opportunity as an excuse to share a <a href="http://vimeo.com/89394659">cool video</a>). But you must be mistaken, dear Matt. No one is arguing about doing away with borders entirely. People are discussing changes to and applications of laws. I know you don't like it when things get complicated, but sometimes you could save yourself a lot of energy by listening to the debates before you get all upset.</span> Now we are dealing with a flood of third world <span style="color: red;">(read: non-white)</span> illegals <span style="color: red;">- but first world illegals would be okay? Interestingly enough, some of my family came here illegally, but because they're white and from Europe, no one seems to care</span>, prompting politicians and citizens alike to throw up their hands and say,<em> “Well, I guess our choice to not enforce the border proves that the very concept of a border is obsolete. We have no other option but to become an amorphous blob of a geographical territory, virtually indistinguishable from the nations surrounding it!”</em> <span style="color: red;">Exactly who said that? More of Matt Walsh Favorites: constructing a hypothetical quote that no one actually said - i.e., putting words into people's mouth - in order to falsely portray the opposing views.</span><br />
<em></em><br />
It’s really all quite insane. So I’ve decided to compile this helpful FAQ to answer most of the questions and objections commonly raised by people who don’t understand why America should have laws and borders: <span style="color: red;">Oh gee whiz, thanks Matt!</span><br />
<br />
<strong><em>-Isn’t it mean and hateful to deport illegal immigrants?</em></strong><br />
<strong><em></em></strong><br />
Great question. No. <br />
<br />
I can only speak for myself, I suppose, but I’d guess that many anti-illegal immigration folks echo my sentiments: I don’t hate illegals. I don’t even fault them for trying to sneak across the border. <span style="color: red;">You just falsely assume that they are all Mexican, and that they are contributing nothing to society and engorging themselves on government welfare, and committing acts of voter fraud.</span><br />
<span style="color: red;"></span><br />
<span style="color: red;">By the way, Mexican immigration has, in fact, been declining. The current influx is composed largely of children from Central America... coming from countries that the U.S. has repeatedly destabilized throughout the past decades through its support of coups, militias, dictatorships, and the way it wages the War on Drugs. And by the way, where does the demand come from that ultimately fuels this whole drug problem? You guessed it. *big finger pointing back at U.S.* Ultimately, we have, in fact, created the very conditions that are causing all these children to suffer. Don't we have any responsibility for our actions?</span><br />
<br />
Despite popular perceptions, immigration enforcement is nothing personal. If I lived in Mexico <span style="color: red;">(immigrants = Mexicans, check!)</span>, I’d sure want to leave. <span style="color: red;">Mexico suckz guyz. Who could possibly want to live in that god forsaken place.</span> Some in the hordes <span style="color: red;">ouch! what were you trying to argue again? That you're not hateful or racist or something?</span> might be unsavory characters, but many are, in fact, searching for a better life. I get it. I sympathize. <span style="color: red;">Yeah, given that you just called them "hordes," I'm not sure you really do.</span> But a man’s pure intent does not erase the law, nor does it negate the necessity of things like borders and organized, lawful immigration procedures. <br />
<br />
A boy in the city might rob a liquor store because he honestly believes it’s the only way to help his mother pay the grocery bills. The fact that he committed this crime under duress and out of concern for his family may very well minimize his moral guilt. I’m sure that when he gets to those pearly gates, God will look upon him with great mercy and compassion. <span style="color: red;">But in the meantime, let's throw his ass in jail just to make him suffer some more!</span><br />
<br />
Now, does that mean that we should erase the laws against robbing liquor stores? Is the liquor store owner now a bully and a fanatic if he takes measures to stop future robberies, even if those robberies are also at the hands of kids in similar situations? Should the police reward the young man by letting him keep the money he stole? <span style="color: red;">Ohh, I see. You think everything boils down to laws, and nothing else. How cute. See, we have this thing called "sentencing" which takes into account the circumstances in which the crime was committed in determining what the outcome will be. Among those circumstances is age, and - believe it or not! - children are treated differently than adults!</span><br />
<span style="color: red;"></span><br />
<span style="color: red;">As a society, we have the power to choose how we want to arrange our systems and rules, and even to <strong>make laws</strong> and - gasp! - <strong>change laws</strong>. Laws are not immutable objects handed down to us by God. So, we might decide in the above example that the store owner gets her (I'm changing her gender now; I know you like that) money back. But we might also decide that the boy should not be punished. It's a possibility. Maybe we even use it as an opportunity to examine whether we are really functioning well as a society if a young boy has no other option than to rob a store?</span><br />
<span style="color: red;"></span><br />
<span style="color: red;">By the way, have you read Les Miserables? ...Oh, no reason.</span><br />
<br />
No, no, and no. <br />
<br />
Why? Because, for one thing, that would be anarchy. For another, robbery is still objectively wrong. For still another, store owners deserve protection from the law. <span style="color: red;">But apparently children don't need protection?</span> Without it, there can be no stores, and then we’ll all end up like the kid with the gun. <span style="color: red;">Wait.. what? I really hope you write a philosophical treatise someday. I promise you I will read it, eagerly.</span><br />
<span style="color: red;"></span><br />
<span style="color: red;">Ack, my amusement is overtaking my annoyance.</span><br />
<br />
<strong><em>-Isn’t immigration enforcement a right wing conspiracy? <span style="color: red;">Once again... who says this?</span></em></strong><br />
<strong><em></em></strong><br />
Interesting thought. But, as a member, I can assure you: the right wing in America can’t conspire to do anything. It couldn’t even conspire to win an election after four years of one of the most incompetent and disastrous presidencies in American history. I’ve been at the conspiracy meetings. Trust me, you have nothing to worry about. Half of the right wing conspiracy is still nestled close to Mitch McConnell’s bosom, smiling peacefully as he sings them to sleep at night. They are no threat to you. <span style="color: red;">Yes, it would be really silly to construe the views of a particular political party or movement as a conspiracy. You, for one, would never do that.</span><br />
<br />
No, this is not a right wing thing. This is a common sense thing. A country cannot exist without a border, and a border cannot exist without laws, and the laws cannot exist without enforcement. It’s very logical. <br />
<br />
The true conspiracy <span style="color: red;">nevermind</span> is among those who oppose immigration enforcement. That camp can be easily divided into two factions (with plenty of crossover):<br />
<br />
1) Corporations. <br />
<br />
One of the greatest and most easily debunked myths in modern politics is the one about left wingers hating ‘greedy corporations.’ In truth, their social agenda relies on the strong arm unethical tactics of those corporations, and immigration is a perfect example. <span style="color: red;">"Left wingers" = one, homogenous group; and "corporations" = one, homogenous group. </span><br />
<br />
Big businesses love illegal immigration because it affords them undocumented slave labor. I used to live in southern Delaware. Do you know what southern Delaware is famous for? Nothing, really. Besides a thing they do ever year where they launch pumpkins from catapults for three days straight. But if it was to be known for something else, it would be illegal immigration. Southern Delaware is overrun by illegals because it’s also overrun by corporate chicken farms.<br />
<br />
Coincidence? Probably not. <br />
<br />
<span style="color: red;">And all the corporations that are getting in on the booming border-enforcement business, complete with all its expensive, military-grade technology? Non-existent, apparently.</span><br />
<br />
2) Democrat politicians.<br />
<br />
Sorry, not just Democrat politicians. I should say Democrat politicians and stupid, self destructive Republican politicians (a large group, to be sure). <br />
<br />
Democrats own the Latino immigrant vote because they’re really good at identity politics, while Republicans are really bad at politics in general. They actively recruit illegal immigrants and fight voter ID laws because that’s how they win elections. Pretty simple. Illegals aren’t people to them <span style="color: red;">but they are <strong>totally</strong> seen as people by those who refer to them only, always as "illegals"</span>, they’re voters. <span style="color: red;">Umm... yeah. We've been through this before. You have no proof that undocumented workers are voting in significant numbers... or insignificant numbers. </span>And, in the minds of politicians, there’s a profound difference between those two creatures.<br />
<br />
<strong><em>-But what about the children? <span style="color: red;">Cue a misplaced abortion analogy in 3, 2...</span></em></strong><br />
<strong><em></em></strong><br />
Yes, the children. It’s always funny (in a morbid, nauseating kind of way) when progressives pull the “THINK OF THE CHILDREN” card. Apparently, in their view, it’s immoral to refuse children entry into the United States, as long as they’re attempting to enter through the southern border. However, if they wish to enter through their mother’s birth canal (a southern border of its own, you might say), we can not only refuse them, but suck their brains out of their skulls and incinerate them for fuel. <br />
Perhaps we should think of babies as ‘birth immigrants’ and then they’d be protected from murder with the same fervor that we protect born children from being put on a bus and brought back to their families in their home countries. <br />
<br />
I feel great compassion for these kids, but the law can’t be put to the side for them. <span style="color: red;">Well, since you brought up abortion... abortion is legal. If you asked me to support changes to abortion laws, could I say, "I have great compassion for fetuses, but the law can't be put to the side for them." Would you accept that argument?</span> Besides, maybe they’re better off elsewhere. We don’t exactly treat children with humanity and respect in this country. <span style="color: red;">Okay, but if they think they are better off here than in their home country where they are, say, being targeted by gangs.... then your argument is? </span><br />
<br />
Maybe we should concentrate on granting human rights to our own kids before we worry about granting citizenship to kids across the globe. <span style="color: red;">How are these mutually exclusive? And what does concentrating "on granting human rights to our own kids" entail? Just curious, because you seem to be opposed to measures that ensure they have enough to eat, and places to live.</span><br />
<span style="color: red;"></span><br />
<span style="color: red;">I'm not buying your claim that you feel any compassion for these children. Not only have you not expressed much concern about all the children living in poverty and food insecure households in this country - and not only do you support policies that are detrimental to these children - but you have made clear in your radio days that you are much more concerned about changing demographics and what you termed the decline of "Anglo culture" than you are the well being of immigrant children. Be honest, Matt. Your interest in this topic is driven by your fears about race.</span><br />
<br />
<strong><em>-America is a nation of immigrants!</em></strong><br />
<strong><em></em></strong><br />
Sure. And?<br />
<br />
Most nations are nations of migrants. Very few people, no matter where they live, can trace their ancestry all the way back through the millennia to the very location where they currently reside. Humanity spread and pioneered and settled across the world. <span style="color: red;">And then have continued to move around and intermix with each other. Constantly.</span> Most of us can follow our roots and find, buried somewhere deep, a nomadic heritage.<br />
<br />
So what?<br />
<br />
As far as America is concerned, immigrants came from all over. They settled here legally. <span style="color: red;">According to their own laws. They may have broken a couple of Native American laws....or a lot.</span> They forged a life. <br />
<br />
Things were different then. Notably, there weren’t as many people here. <span style="color: red;">Especially after we gave them small pox blankets and then forcibly removed them.</span> How is it that we hear so much about this mythical global overpopulation, but America is still viewed as the one place that can fit an infinite number of people? Of course, overpopulation is a ridiculous lie, so the problem with illegal immigration isn’t one of a lack of space. It’s more a lack of jobs, a lack of money, a lack of resources. <span style="color: red;">But you believe in the free market, right? In fact, you don't believe employers should be subject to any laws regarding discrimination or minimum wages. So, it is okay for the government to impede the freedom of the labor market? That is the one time where government interference is beneficial to society? (Just curious how you reconcile your beliefs.)</span><br />
<br />
Not to mention, back in the old days, immigrants came here and helped tame the wild land. They pioneered. They dug in and did their part to build our once-great civilization. Illegal immigrants of modern times, on the other hand, are often coaxed over with Spanish language food stamp advertisements and visions of free education and free health care. <span style="color: red;">Gee, I wonder why anyone would ever suggest that fears about immigration are tied to attitudes about race?</span><br />
<span style="color: red;"></span><br />
<span style="color: red;">Once again, knowledge. Accurate information. Undocumented workers are extremely productive - they are precisely the ones "taming the wild land" (I believe you mentioned something about farms in Delaware?) and doing work that we would never want to do. I was born in and grew up near a city that is the paragon of urban decay. Aside from the small downtown area, and the neighborhood directly abutting a university, the one area that is well kept up also happens to be the area where most of the undocumented workers reside. They are renovating buildings and creating green spaces (where things actually grow!) - stuff that the city is not able to do. You can <em>believe</em> that undocumented immigrants are not contributing anything, but (as I always say) that doesn't make it true.</span><br />
<span style="color: red;"></span><br />
<span style="color: red;">Furthermore, I also know from my involvement in another city, also home to many undocumented immigrants, that they are largely <em>not</em> benefiting from our meager social safety net. You have no evidence that people are coming here for food stamps and free health care. You say this, because it is racially coded and gets people upset.</span><br />
<br />
Our great great grandparents came to make this country. Many illegals of today come to use it. <span style="color: red;">No evidence to support this.</span><br />
<span style="color: red;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: red;">By the way, are the only two options having roots in the country that go back several generations, and coming here illegally? I guess I don't fit into this scheme.</span><br />
<br />
I understand their desire to do so. I don’t fault them. But there is a big difference between then and now. A <em>big</em> difference. <br />
<br />
<strong><em>-Isn’t it unfair to expect immigrants to navigate our immigration process? </em></strong><br />
<strong><em></em></strong><br />
Unfair? Isn’t it unfair to let them skip the immigration process while millions of others went through it?<br />
<br />
Isn’t it unfair that legal citizens get treated like Osama bin Laden at the airport? Isn’t it unfair that the NSA has unfettered access to our phone records and Internet activity? Isn’t it unfair that you can’t even get your license renewed without producing five forms of ID, a vial of blood, and a stool sample? Isn’t it unfair that you are documented, tracked, counted, and monitored everywhere you go, all the time? Isn’t it unfair that it requires less identification to cross the southern border than buy cough syrup at Walgreens? <span style="color: red;">You keep bringing up cough syrup at Walgreens, haha. I suspect there is a story there. Anyway, unless the Walgreens pharmacy has suddenly found itself in possession of lots of weapons and military equipment, I am going to say: not an accurate comparison.</span><br />
<br />
Yes, all of these things are unfair. Which means the immigration process <em>isn’t</em> unfair, because it’s very consistent with what the rest of us are dealing with on a daily basis. <span style="color: red;">Let me recap your argument for you: "Lots of things are unfair. Which means our immigration process is not unfair, because lots of things are unfair." Nice logical analysis there!</span><br />
<br />
Now, tell me that the bureaucracy is out of control and everything is more complicated and less efficient because of it, and I’ll agree. Tell me that we need to cut down the government and force it to handle its essential functions with speed and competency, and I’ll agree. Tell me that this should happen with our immigration process, and I’ll agree but insist that we start the streamlining process elsewhere. <span style="color: red;">I can see your dilemma: "Ah! I support small government, but border enforcement requires larger government!" And your conclusion is: "Well, it is okay to let the government grow in this area, because we should start cutting it down somewhere else." That's precisely why I had 2 doughnuts and a piece of cake today (that part is actually true, sadly): because I need to start my weight loss with exercise, so why not eat cake in the meantime?</span><br />
<br />
In the mean time, open borders aren’t the answer. <br />
<br />
Open borders are never the answer. Unless the question is, <em>“what’s the quickest way to bankrupt the country and ensure Democratic victories in every election from now until our society collapses and we turn into a lawless hell hole like Mexico?” </em><span style="color: red;">Just in case you forgot that Mexico is a <em>terrible, terrible place</em>. </span><br />
<span style="color: red;">________________________________________</span><br />
<span style="color: red;"></span><br />
<span style="color: red;">UPDATE: I wanted to do a recap at the end when I initially posted this, but didn't have time. So here it is.</span><br />
<span style="color: red;"></span><br />
<span style="color: red;">I generally expect Matt to make uninformed statements, but this just might be his record! His post is based on complete ignorance of where the immigrants are coming from, why they are coming, what laws are applicable, how borders are being enforced, what options are being considered, and what is actually being debated right now. In other words: every single thing pertaining this issue, he seems to have absolutely no accurate knowledge of.</span><br />
<span style="color: red;"></span><br />
<span style="color: red;">However, we do get another glimpse into the fabricated world that Matt lives in. In this world, the border is not being enforced at all. It is not being militarized. In fact, the central issue is <em>whether</em> we should enforce the border <em>at all</em>. Pretty much all the immigrants are coming from Mexico in search of welfare, and those who are undocumented are lazy, do no work, and commit acts of voter fraud when they get here. Mexico is hell on earth. There is nothing good about Mexico. The political left in is cahoots with corporations and the government. And it is impossible to change laws or take into account particular circumstances in their application, even when the lives of children are at stake. (</span><span style="color: red;">Children are nice and all, but I'm pretty sure we have a law that says we should leave them to be hunted down by gangs... so, oh well.)</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00665542944467061185noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4353562748320042210.post-66840298567984951532014-06-17T13:57:00.003-07:002014-06-18T05:57:14.053-07:00Satan is a liberal<span style="color: red;">Most of this post involves a discussion of what Jesus would think about things today. We had this discussion not too long ago, so I am just going to focus on a couple of paragraphs that I think represent the primary way in which Matt Walsh contributes to the erosion of public discourse.</span><br />
<span style="color: red;"></span><br />
<strong><span style="color: black;">Matt Walsh writes:</span></strong><br />
<br />
So, I think we need to clarify that modern American liberalism, or ‘progressivism,’ is a particular ideology informed by the social, political, religious, and sexual philosophies of guys like Machiavelli, Kant, Nietzsche, Freud, and Marx — the ‘pillars of unbelief,’ as Peter Kreeft calls them. Contemporary Western liberalism — with its defense of abortion, gay ‘marriage,’ relativism, forced wealth redistribution, pornography, massive government, and its attacks on the family, faith, life, and liberty — is truly a unique abomination.<br /><span style="color: red;">Dude, I appreciate the fact that you are reading, but you really need to find yourself some better sources of information. I had a bit of a giggle fit after reading the first sentence. I don't know who Peter Kreeft is, but he either has no knowledge of any of those figures, or he is willfully misleading his readers. The only one who could potentially, in any logical way, be connected to any strand of progressivism is Marx (most progressives, however, are not remotely Marxist). But... Nietzsche??? That is HI-larious. Nietzsche favors the aristocracy and despises the masses; he upholds notions of racial superiority; and he believes women represent the very worst traits of humanity. In fact, Nietzsche is in many ways the exact opposite of Marx. How they can be lumped together as the pillars of anything I do not understand. (Epistemologically, Nietzsche is also in direct conflict with Kant... though I suppose if I were to start listing all the ways this list is nonsensical, it would take me a while...)</span><br />
<span style="color: red;"></span><br />
<span style="color: red;">As for the rest of the paragraph, here is the problem, Matt. You are seeing liberalism, or progressivism, as one homogenous thing. But it isn't. Just to pick from your list of issues - views on pornography vary widely, as do beliefs about the exact role and most effective mechanisms of the welfare state (or what you misleading dub "forced wealth redistribution"). Relativism? First, there are several different types of relativism. Second, the meaning of these types of relativism vary and are shaped by internal academic debates in particular academic disciplines - thus, cannot be understood apart from very specific contexts - and in a number of cases are associated with the conservative positions in the discipline rather than the more progressive views. I have found that conservative religious apologists use the term "relativism" in an extremely inaccurate, intentionally misleading way to set up false oppositional points of view. This has been a bonanza for them, it seems. However, there is definite diversity among liberals and progressives in their epistemological and cultural reasoning.</span><br />
<span style="color: red;"></span><br />
<span style="color: red;">A large number of people who identify as liberal or progressive are Christian. And also every other religion, and non-religion. Some reliably support foreign intervention, while others reliably do not. As I mentioned before, views on the role of the federal government vary widely. Some are rich, some are poor, some are educated, some buy too easily into conspiracy theories. Some are even racist, or sexist, or homophobic.</span><br />
<span style="color: red;"></span><br />
<span style="color: red;">The arguments you are making about liberals are as ridiculous as if some liberal blogger lumped together David Duke, C.S. Lewis, Van Mises, William F. Buckley Jr., and the Project for a New American Century as the cornerstones of modern conservativism. It makes no sense. Many different and incompatible things fall under the umbrella of modern conservativism just as many different and incompatible things fall under the umbrella of modern liberalism.</span><br />
<span style="color: red;"></span><br />
<span style="color: red;">Creating a simplistic Us vs. Them dichotomy is neither helpful nor accurate. This is why people are justified in saying that you are divisive. And uninformed.</span><br />
<span style="color: black;"><br />
....<br />
<br />
Jesus was not a liberal.<br />
<br />
Lucifer, on the other hand, probably fits the bill.<br />
<br />
After all, modern liberalism is nothing if it isn’t the worship of self. It is an ideology that places self fulfillment, pleasure, and convenience above everything. Liberalism bows to no one but its own reflection (and foreign bureaucrats, in the case of Barack Obama). Liberals believe that our personal desires are the ultimate arbiter, which is why life can be destroyed and institutions like marriage twisted and obliterated, all to serve the one god: self.</span><br />
<span style="color: red;">I threw this in here to make one point. Actually, "worship of the self" is a principle most closely aligned with the very philosophies/movements with which you identify (or have in the past). For example, as someone who has supported the tea party, surely you must know that Ayn Rand - whose entire doctrine was based on worship of the self - is one of the most revered thinkers of that movement. The legacy of valorization of self-interest is seen most prominently in libertarian thinking, not progressivism.</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00665542944467061185noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4353562748320042210.post-46503795242116365062014-06-12T08:24:00.002-07:002014-06-12T08:25:32.676-07:00We can't end "rape culture" if we don't end hook-up culture<span style="color: red;">My first reaction after reading this post was immense relief. </span><br />
<span style="color: red;"></span><br />
<span style="color: red;">I was hoping for another blissful day without any new Matt Walsh posts, when my facebook wall brought to my attention a post on the subject of rape. "Nooooooo!!!!!" I thought, disheartened, as I realized what I had to face today. Yet I dutifully read the post.</span><br />
<span style="color: red;"></span><br />
<span style="color: red;">I was mainly relieved because there are a lot of offensive things that Matt <em>could</em> have said, that he fortunately did not. Yes, there were a couple statements here and there that I took issue with, but for the most part, it seemed he decided to forgo some of the overt sexism that is his forte. It almost seemed as if he were making some effort to take to heart the criticisms of his usually insulting, aggressive tone. If that is the case, he still has some work to do, to be sure, and I cannot so easily overlook many of the hostile attitudes he has habitually expressed toward women. Still, I will take any evidence of progress that I can get.</span><br />
<span style="color: red;"></span><br />
<span style="color: red;">The main problem with this post is that Matt, unsurprisingly, does not seem to understand what rape really is. He talks about hedonism, people doing whatever they feel like, and gives a nod to the concept of consent. His discussion of rape is focused not just on college rape, but drunken frat house rape more specifically. He says that it is difficult to draw a clear line at the point where drunkenness makes consent impossible.</span><br />
<span style="color: red;"></span><br />
<span style="color: red;">At the heart of all of this is the stubborn idea that rape has something to do with pleasure - the enjoyment of sex for its own sake. Case in point: Matt's solution to the rape problem is to promote the ideal of sex within the context of love, commitment, and marriage (a higher standard, Matt says, than consent alone). This is where Matt misses the mark. Hedonism is not the cause of rape culture, and a discussion of hedonism and chastity has no role in its solution.</span><br />
<span style="color: red;"></span><br />
<span style="color: red;"><strong>Rape is not about pleasure; it is about power.<em> </em></strong>This is true whether the victim is female or male. That is why victims of rape <em>do</em> tend to be members of marginalized groups (women, racial/ethnic minorities, members of the LGBT community, people living in poverty, prisoners, etc.) more often than not. That is also why rape has so reliably been used as a weapon of war throughout history - perpetrated by those who are seeking domination (physically, politically, economically, culturally).</span><br />
<span style="color: red;"></span><br />
<span style="color: red;">I do not deny that it is hurtful to men and women when they are unclear or misled about a person's motives for having sex with them. I also do not disagree that there are other dangerous consequences of having sex, especially when intoxication is involved. This need not "complicate" our understanding of rape. The reason why the drunken frat party rape scenario is, unequivocally, rape, is the <em>context of power relations</em> in which it occurs. It is a rather persistent untruth that this is merely a matter of young women getting really drunk and then yelling "rape" as soon as they sober up and regret their behavior. <strong>This is not what it is about</strong>. When we have so many regularly leaked emails and texts from fraternity members making comments about peeing on women, calling women derogatory names, making racist and homophobic remarks, <em>and also</em> teaching their "brothers" how to get unwilling women drunk so that they can have sex with them... well then, we have a glimpse at the way in which a certain type of privilege is being invoked and defended through a nexus of rhetoric about race, gender, and sexual orientation, and furthermore, we see alcohol-induced sex with women used as an intentional strategy to enact that privilege. In short: these frat boys aren't just "hooking up" because it feels good; they are intentionally coercing women to have sex with them in order to achieve status and prove their manhood within their fraternity. <strong>Or more crudely: they are doing it to satisfy their frat brothers, not their own penises.</strong></span><br />
<span style="color: red;"></span><br />
<span style="color: red;">Matt is right, that telling men to stop rape is not enough to stop rape. Ending rape requires the very difficult, revolutionary, and complex work of confronting privilege and the structures of power that are embedded in our society. We need to tell boys that they do not need to live up to anyone's expectations of what a man should be, and that they do not need to be violent, aggressive, dominant, or superior in any way to have worth as human beings. We also need to step up our efforts at confronting racism and other forms of discrimination. We need to get rid of all hierarchical orderings of human beings that value people differently based on who they are. Unfortunately, while I will take him at his word that he wants to stop rape, Matt <em>does</em> contribute to rape culture when he labels as "fascist" anyone who tries to do any of the things I just outlined, when he defends racists and homophobes, and when he praises people like Tal Fortgang who further entrench privilege and derail productive discussions by denying that privilege exists.</span><br />
<span style="color: red;"></span><br />
<strong><span style="color: black;">Matt Walsh writes:</span></strong><br />
<br />
Miss Nevada, as you may have heard, recently made an extraordinarily <a href="http://twitchy.com/2014/06/09/rape-culture-wins-feminist-freakout-after-miss-nevada-dares-suggest-self-defense-training-for-women"><span style="color: #26a9e1;">controversial remark</span></a> about the sexual assault epidemic on college campuses. Shocking liberal feminists everywhere, she cruelly and maliciously encouraged young women to protect themselves and practice self-defense.<br />
<br />
The nerve of that woman.<br />
<br />
I mentioned something on Twitter about all of this absurdity, and I’ve now spent the last day or so fielding helpful emails informing me why self-defense is not an acceptable way to curb rape. I agree, of course, that it isn’t the <em>only</em> solution. I just disagree with the idea that anything at all can be accomplished by writing ‘Don’t Rape’ on a sign and posting it in the hallway.<br />
<br />
But I’m told my understanding of the issue is woefully shallow and one-dimensional. Here’s one message from a woman who tried to set me straight:<br />
<br />
<strong><em>“Matt, I don’t blame you for misunderstanding the rape epidemic. You’ve never had to live through it so you can’t be expected to really get it. Rape is not just something that happens in dark alleys. There isn’t always a scary stranger with a knife or a gun involved. Sexual assaults on college campuses frequently happen when women go out to parties to have a good time, have some drinks, and wake up the next morning to find out that they had sex the night before. These women are every bit the victims of rape. They were too intoxicated to consent (or maybe they were passed out completely) and the man took advantage. Rapes on college campuses usually happen in this environment. The woman CAN’T defend herself. She’s barely even conscience [sic]. This is where MEN have to be taught that it’s only OK to have sex with a woman when she can consent. She CAN’T consent when she’s too inebriated to even know which way is up. ” </em></strong><br />
<strong><em></em></strong><br />
I’ve heard this line of reasoning quite a bit. Anti-rape activists have gone to great lengths to illustrate and define the precise moment when a drunk person passes the threshold from drunk-person-consenting-to-sex to drunk-person-unable-to-consent-to-sex-even-if-they-consent-to-sex.<br />
<br />
Safer Campus (Students Active For Ending Rape) tried to <a href="http://www.safercampus.org/blog/2010/07/when-drunk-sex-clearly-is-rape-and-more-thoughts-on-alcohol-and-consent/"><span style="color: #26a9e1;">spell this out on their website</span></a>, explaining that there is a “spectrum of intoxication” and that consent must not only be affirmative, but “enthusiastic.”<br />
<br />
Most rational people understand and agree that it is definitely rape when a conscious person decides to have sex with an unconscious person, but now we’re calling something rape if it doesn’t have the appropriate level of enthusiasm?<br />
<br />
An <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/james-r-marsh/why-college-drunk-sex-rap_b_5352121.html"><span style="color: #26a9e1;">article on the Huffington Post</span></a> takes it a step further. In bold italics it exclaims: “<em><strong>Drunk people cannot give consent</strong></em>.” By this logic, of course, all drunk sex is rape. Only this particular article, like most articles on the subject, places the ‘rapist’ label squarely on the shoulders of the man.<br />
The obvious question: if both are drunk, and both are unable to consent, but then both have sex, why is the man the only rapist in the transaction?<br />
<br />
And if drunk consent is not consent, then what <em>is</em> consent? You might tell me that consent is affirmative, enthusiastic, and sober, but how do you account for the other exigent circumstances that might lead someone to give sober, affirmative, enthusiastic consent despite their internal hesitations?<br />
<br />
What about the woman who has sex with her boyfriend because she believes (perhaps accurately) that he’ll leave if she doesn’t? What about the man who has sex with a woman, thinking that this will be the beginning of a long and meaningful relationship, only to find out that he’s just a rebound from her last fling? What about the woman who goes out looking for sex with a man, but only to fill the void left inside her after years of abuse and abandonment at home? What about the man who has sex with a woman because he believes it will make her love him, or the woman who has sex with a man under the same mistaken belief? What about the woman who is guilted into sex? What about the man having sex with a woman who only wants him for his money? What about a person, man or woman, who has sex with any other person, but wouldn’t have done it had they known the other’s intentions and motivations?<br />
<br />
Are these people all victims of rape? They are either consenting under duress or consenting to a particular kind of sex, or to sex for a certain reason, not realizing that the other person has different designs. All of these people end up feeling lost, confused, hurt, broken.<br />
<br />
If drunk sex is rape, then these must fit the bill as well. They are all quite different from the image of a woman being physically attacked and manhandled by a violent assailant, but under the broader definition of rape, these examples (and many more) must be included.<br />
<br />
And maybe they should be. Maybe rape is even more common than the most radical progressive feminist could possibly imagine.<br />
<br />
Or maybe it doesn’t matter what word you use to describe it. There’s something wrong with it. It isn’t good. It isn’t healthy. We can all see that.<br />
<br />
We seem to realize that it can be hazardous when men and women get together in frat houses and dorm rooms and purposefully drink until their judgment is several stages beyond impaired. We seem to realize that sex in the ‘hookup culture’ comes with a lot of heartache and regret. Despite our best efforts to pretend otherwise, we know that sex is something serious and profound. It’s also joyful and pleasurable, but in a way much deeper than the joy and pleasure you derive from playing video games or watching NetFlix.<br />
<br />
We know that sex should be treated with a certain level of respect, only we’re afraid to fully embrace what that means. We know that the hypersexual environment on a college campus is extremely problematic, only we refuse to really inspect the problem.<br />
<br />
The only rule, the only standard, that we’re allowed to place on sex these days is ‘consent.’ But we find that ‘consent’ is not enough. A woman can consent on some level and still be left feeling used and exploited. That’s not her imagination. She <em>was</em> used and exploited. And contrary to popular belief, men can and often do feel the same way after a one night ‘hook up.’<br />
<br />
There was consent, at least to some degree, but it wasn’t enough. Consent is not enough. Telling a man to ‘get consent’ before he has sex is <em>not enough</em>. If he is to have sex with a woman, and have it in a way that respects her humanity and protects her dignity and his own, he needs to look for more than permission. If we really want to stop the hurt and pain that many of these people feel — whether you want to call them rape victims or not — we must have the courage to deal with all of the dimensions of sex.<br />
<br />
“Do what you want, as long as you have consent.” <em>This is not good enough</em>. This is not a code to live by; it’s a compromise, half-baked and watered down. If this is all we teach our kids when it comes to sexuality, we can be sure that they will still wield sex like a weapon. They will still be predators. They might get their consent, or they might not, but the results will often be the same either way.<br />
<br />
If we really want to fight rape, if we really want to protect our kids, if we really want to beat back the ‘rape culture,’ then we have to come up with a standard that goes beyond consent. We have to introduce some other guidelines: <strong>love, commitment, marriage, openness to life.</strong><br />
<strong></strong><br />
There is no grey area here. If your sex is an act of love and commitment; and if it is taking place within sacrament of marriage; and if both parties are prepared to embrace the life that may very well be created as a result of the act, then you can be sure that no rape is happening. You can be sure that there will be no regret. You can be sure that the sex is healthy and beautiful.<br />
<br />
Now, that isn’t to say that rape can’t happen in marriage. But if ALL of these parameters are met — especially the first one, love – then we need not call in a team of scientists to formulate a precise consent-spectrum. Rape is never an act of love and commitment. Therefore, sex that is both loving and committed is never rape.<br />
<br />
I don’t know much, but I know that.<br />
<br />
So why isn’t this our message? Rather than fight over the exact equation whereby a person can determine whether their nameless inebriated partner is consenting consensually or consenting non-consensually, why don’t we make it easier on both of them? If you do not love this person, and if you are not committed to them, and if you are not married, then don’t have sex with them.<br />
<br />
Simple.<br />
<br />
I believe anyone who says they want to fight against rape. It’s a worthy cause, and I certainly am not looking to discourage anyone from joining the struggle. But I think many of them are too invested in their progressive hedonistic dogma to take these convictions to their logical conclusions. They want to ‘end rape,’ but then they make sure to stipulate: <em>“Hey, it’s still totally cool to go out, get plastered, and hook up with random strangers! Give yourself to people who have no regard for you, and treat them with no regard in return! It’s all good! You’ll have a blast! Just make sure to get consent!”</em><br />
<em></em><br />
That last sentence loses much of its weight when contrasted against the first part of the message, doesn’t it? Your ‘consent’ speech is futile if it isn’t grounded in anything. If we tell men that it’s OK to use women like they’re nothing more than masturbatory aides — and that is indeed all that’s happening in the hook-up culture – then we will end up with men who do just that.<br />
<br />
I don’t mock or deride anyone who urges men (and women) to ‘get consent,’ but many of them would mock and deride me for urging people to have sex only with the one they love. It doesn’t make sense. I am talking about a standard that <em>always includes</em> consent, but then goes beyond it and reaches for something even better. The ‘get consent’ crowd asks only for the bare minimum, and then rejects those who come up with a strategy that more effectively achieves their desired results.<br />
<br />
The fight against rape has to involve more than some paltry little sermon about consent. We need to use words like ‘love’ and ‘commitment’ and ‘marriage.’ This won’t end rape entirely, but it’s the only message that will make a difference.<br />
<br />
A long time ago St. Augustine said: “Love, and do what you will.” If you want a slogan that will teach people not to rape, that’s it. And it’s certainly more powerful than today’s version: “Get consent, and have sex with whoever.”Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00665542944467061185noreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4353562748320042210.post-6749307739339825582014-06-06T17:49:00.003-07:002014-06-06T18:01:42.225-07:00This person is planning to kill me in order to teach me that I shouldn't be mean and hateful<strong>Matt Walsh writes:</strong><br />
<strong><br /></strong>
To my leftwing friends:<br />
<br />
Last night, someone sent me an email threatening to murder me because they disagree with my opinions. It read, in part: <br />
<br />
<em>“F*ck you… I will find a way to kill you. Make no god d*mn mistake, you filth.” </em><br />
<br />
Concise. Eloquent. And now on file with the state police.<br />
<br />
After I reported the threat to law enforcement, I didn’t pay it much mind. But then, a few minutes ago, I received this message from someone else:<br />
<br />
<em>“Matt, you are so filled with hate in everything you write. You are part of the reason why conservative teabaggers in this country are nothing but hate mongers and bigots. Do you want to know why I’m a “liberal”? </em><strong><em>Because liberals know how to make a point without being hateful and spiteful</em></strong>.”(Emphasis mine).<br />
<br />
I laughed quite heartily when I read that. Perfect timing. Mere hours after someone called me ‘filth’ and announced their plan to end my existence all because of my beliefs, I’m informed that these are precisely the people who ‘know how to make a point without being hateful and spiteful.’ <span style="color: red;">Granted, you didn't provide much context, but how do you know the author of the first message was liberal? Why not, say, a transgender conservative (upset about your last post)? Your baseline assumption seems to be that everyone who doesn't think exactly like you represents one homogenous group - Liberal Tyrants, Secular Progressives, or whatever you feel like calling them on any given day.</span><br />
<br />
At first I dismissed this claim and concluded, as I often do, that the person who said it couldn’t possibly be serious. Does he really not notice the hate and hostility pouring like sewage out of his own ideological camp? Does he really think that hate is somehow a ‘conservative’ thing? No, I thought. Nobody is that oblivious.<br />
<br />
But the more I reflected upon it the more I realized that I have to stop looking through the prism of rationality. <span style="color: red;">No, that is not your problem at all. If the prism of rationality were a real, tangible object, I'd be the first one to take up a collection for you so you could get yourself one of those.</span> Many people in this country have bought into the propaganda that paints us cultural non-conformists <span style="color: red;">(cultural non-conformist = one who repeats all the carefully crafted sound bites of the most well-funded and well-organized media-industrial complex)</span> as hateful bigots. <span style="color: red;">[Hey everyone, I've got an idea! Matt Walsh drinking game! One shot every time he uses the word bigot. Guaranteed to get you drunk enough to be able to read one of Matt's posts.]</span> They’ve had this notion instilled in them, and it is only reinforced by virtually everything they see and hear from their teachers, the media, their pop culture idols, their parents, and their president.<br />
<br />
So I’ve decided that maybe it’s time I address the misunderstanding head-on. I think we need to have a dialogue <span style="color: red;">[In Matt Walsh's mind, the word dialogue = ranting on my blog]</span>, as politicians like to say, about this thing known as ‘hate.’<br />
<br />
Our society is obsessed with the term. Every idea you oppose is ‘hateful,’ every person who expresses it is ‘full of hate,’ every time someone hurts your feelings or makes you uncomfortable they must be dismissed as hateful haters who want to spread hate and hatefulness all over the world.<br />
<span style="color: red;">I know, like I'm always reading this Matt Walsh blog and he's always talking about how feminists hate all men, and how Secular Progressives hate Christians. </span>Every morning I sift through dozens of messages informing me that I am a hateful monster who hates gays, minorities, endangered species, trees, flowers, puppies, jelly beans, and dolphins. It’s fortunate that they take the time to tell me this about myself, because otherwise I’d go through life generally believing myself when myself tells myself that I don’t harbor even the faintest hint of hatred for any of these groups. I guess I do hate women, though, as is evidenced by a thorough investigation of my Twitter account:<br />
<br />
<span style="color: red;">Yeah, we just throw around this word "hate" and apply it to such diverse, and obviously non-hateful sentiments as:</span><br />
<span style="color: red;"></span><br />
<span style="color: red;">"<span style="color: black;"><span style="color: red;">It’s this propensity — this constant, relentless, soul-sucking cynicism — that will forever make the purity of their [feminists'] motives appear, at best, dubious.</span> </span></span><span style="color: red;">"</span><br />
<span style="color: red;"><span style="color: black;"></span><br />
</span><span style="color: red;">"That’s why the white liberal man is such a difficult creature to tolerate."<br />
<br />
"Christian-hating liberal fascists have once again demonstrated their 'tolerance.'"<br />
<br />
"They have no interest in listening to a bunch of politically correct, bigoted, mewing, leftwing carnival barkers. Still, the leftwing fascists get their way... They are not progressive — there is no ‘progress’ in their ideology. They are fascists. They follow the same playbook as many of the 20th century’s most prolific tyrants."<br />
<br />
"I’m waiting for Sharpton to boycott himself for the crime of being Sharpton — i.e. just an overall lying, shameless, despicable, crook."</span><br />
<span style="color: red;"></span><br />
<span style="color: red;">"Dear gay rights militants, dear progressive tyrants, dear liberal fascists... In the name of ‘fighting for the freedom to love,’ you’ve utilized hate. For the sake of ‘tolerance,’ you’ve wielded bigotry... You fancy yourselves the ideological descendants of civil rights pioneers, but these tactics put you in the same vein as book burners and Puritan witch hunters."</span><br />
<span style="color: red;"></span><br />
<span style="color: red;"><br /><span style="color: red;">
"Ms. Sandberg tells the harrowing tale of being labeled as bossy by a teacher in ninth grade. She says this experience damaged her emotionally and caused her immense grief. Poor <span style="color: red;">thing. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333;"><span style="color: red;">A very tragic incident, no doubt, but one thought occurs to me: what if the teacher called her bossy because she was pompous, arrogant, and pushy?"</span></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333;"><span style="color: red;"></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333;"><span style="color: red;">"How do you wade into our societal pool and find employees who aren’t thin skinned, self-entitled narcissists? "</span></span><br />
<span style="color: black;"><br />
</span>Why on earth would anyone accuse you of being hateful, Matt? It's like you're just sitting there singing Kumbaya.</span><br />
<span style="color: red;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: red;">(By the way, it's kind of interesting to do a survey of how many of your post titles include the word "hate")</span><br />
<br />
Case closed.<br />
<br />
The ‘you’re hateful’ schtick really kicked into overdrive the past couple of days, after I published that post<a href="http://themattwalshblog.com/2014/06/03/this-poor-child-is-confused-not-transgendered/"><span style="color: #26a9e1;"> explaining why I don’t think a six-year-old girl should be told she’s a boy</span></a>. When I wrote it, I felt driven by concern for both the child and the truth, but it’s once again been explained to me that, no, I was actually motivated by hatred.<br />
<br />
Some guy who goes by the name ‘Naked Pastor’ wrote a <a href="http://nakedpastor.com/2014/06/matt-walsh-and-how-to-be-condescendingly-judgmental/"><span style="color: #26a9e1;">blog post </span></a>on the subject, calling me the ‘equivalent of the Taliban.’ He even he drew this pretty picture:<br />
<br />
<a href="http://i7ihxhmvf855rr1qui4ol2j.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/matt-walsh.jpg"><img alt="matt-walsh" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-3912" src="http://i7ihxhmvf855rr1qui4ol2j.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/matt-walsh.jpg" height="550" width="550" /></a><br />
<br />
I am a terrorist. A violent terrorist who plans to blow up the world. I’m a dangerous, dangerous, hateful man. <span style="color: red;">[Complains the man who called gay rights activists "Puritan witch hunters."]</span><br />
<br />
Now, before we get into defining hatred, let’s go over some legitimate examples. Here’s a quick peek at excerpts from a few more emails I received, mostly reacting to my opinion that toddlers can’t be ‘transgendered’:<br />
<br />
<em>“Matt, f*ck you. I seriously hope you die.”</em><br />
<em></em><br />
<em>F*ck you and your entire website you f*cking douche. I have known I am transgender for a long time… You are very sick in the head and I hope you rot in hell. I will pray Lucifer himself finds you. </em><br />
<em></em><br />
<em>“Hey f*ck you. Die. That’s all.”</em><br />
<em><br />
“You’re a f*cking bigot piece of shit…”<br />
<br />
“I’ve decided that I’m going to block any friend who reposts your trash on Facebook. You are the worst human being on the planet and the world would be better if you weren’t part of it.”<br />
<br />
“Dear Matt, you’re horrible. Kill yourself.”<br />
<br />
“Oh, like you don’t already know you’re a piece of sh*t. F*ck you.”<br />
<br />
“Matt, I saw a Tweet that said you’re a flaming bag of dogsh*t on the doorstep of the internet. I thought it was great but kind of insulting to dog sh*t.”<br />
<br />
“Matt, shut the f*ck up with your hate and homophobia. You are the biggest assh*le I’ve ever seen. Go crawl into a f*cking hole somewhere and die.”</em> <br />
<em>“Anytime someone retweets or shares your posts I die a little inside. Your like a cancer on the internet. You’re an embarrassment bro. Seriously, you’re the worst.”</em><br />
<em></em><br />
Look, see? Hatred.<br />
<br />
Loathing, despising, detesting, hating.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: red;">Yeah, there's a lot of hatred on the internet. I mean, just look at the things your supporters say to people who disagree with you on the comment threads! I don't often look at the comments, but I have seen your fans wishing death and cancer on other people.</span><br />
<br />
Not just hatred of my ideas or my actions, but hatred of me personally. A boiling, ungodly rage. A yearning to see me burn in Hell for all eternity. Malicious feelings targeted at me, the human being. A desire to see me dead, hurt, dehumanized. A wish to kill me because of my ideology.<br />
<br />
Hatred. Let me assure you that it is a huge problem in the liberal ranks. I experience it everyday. Before you spend another minute lamenting the perceived ‘hatred’ of conservative bloggers and media personalities, I suggest you look into your own souls. <span style="color: red;">Okay, Matt, and before you spend another minute lamenting about the hatred of, apparently, every liberal that exists, I suggest you look into <em>your</em> own soul. </span> I have seen and felt the cold, stinging hatred that lives there, and it is surely the nastiest and most brutal sort. <span style="color: red;">It is these sort of topics that always engender the most obvious hypocrisy. "No! It is YOU liberals who are hateful, not me. In fact, I have seen the cold, stinging hatred that <em>lives in your souls</em>, and it is <em>surely the nastiest and most brutal sort</em>. I, on the other hand, always try to see the best in people."</span><br />
<br />
But what about me? Do I have hate of my own? Yes, I do. Sometimes we <em>should</em> feel hatred. It’s just that progressive hatred is often the wrong kind. <span style="color: red;">Ahhh, I see. You admit your own hatred, but it's okay because it's the <em>right</em> kind of hatred.</span> Your hatred is for<em> individuals</em>, whereas mine is for certain <em>actions and ideas</em>. <span style="color: red;">Um, no. You can just go back and reference a few of the quotes I pulled from you above. You reserve your hatred for individuals. For the woman who wrote the blog about Stay At Home Moms, for Obama (lotsss of hatred for Obama), for a whole list of celebrities, etc. You attack feminists and liberals and gay rights activists <em>personally</em> - you say they are <em>inherent liars who are incapable of telling the truth</em>, you say they are evil and murderous. That is hatred of people, not merely hatred of actions and ideas.</span><br />
<span style="color: red;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: red;">Interestingly, your tone has been criticized by <a href="http://www.breadforbeggars.com/2014/05/16/the-gospel-and-tone/">fellow conservative Christians</a>. If you read the blog post I just linked to, you can even see how it is possible for a conservative Christian to not sound hateful.</span><br />
<br />
Perhaps this is the root of our massive communication failure. I’ve noticed that many liberals don’t understand how it’s feasible to detest an action without detesting the actor, or how one can possibly hate an idea without hating (and wanting to punish or censor or kill) the person who articulated it. They laugh hysterically when a Christian suggests that it’s possible to condemn the homosexual act without hating the homosexual person. I’ve attempted to make this clarification so many times, and, on every occasion, I’m told that such a distinction is impossible. Hate what a person does, hate the person. It’s that simple. <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">Perhaps in this case, people are arguing that homosexuality is more than just "what a person does." </span><br />
<br />
Progressives are so insistent on this point <em>because this is how they operate</em>. They make no delineation between the individual and the action, and they project that thought process onto everyone else.<br />
You hate my beliefs, so you hate me. I hate certain beliefs and actions, so you assume I hate the people behind those beliefs and actions. Only, if you asked me, and if you were open to the answer, you’d find that your assumptions are baseless. <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">I think you may have missed the opportunity for open dialog when you started calling everyone who disagrees with you fascists.</span><br />
<br />
I hate attacks on marriage, on the family, on my faith, on liberty, on truth, on reason, on the constitution, but I don’t hate the attackers. I hate what they stand for, I hate their agenda, I hate their lies, but I do not hate the individuals. I don’t hate the person who wants to kill me, or the myriad of people who send me anonymous messages wishing sickness and suffering upon me and my family. I harbor no ill will for them at all. <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">Right...</span> I don’t even hate the guy who compared me to a flaming bag of dog sh*t on the doorstep of the internet, but mostly because that one was kind of funny. <br />
<br />
The point is, I don’t hate these people. I want them to be successful and happy. I want them to be healed of the psychological and spiritual affliction that causes them to be so lost, confused, and consumed by horrible feelings of animosity towards strangers they’ve never met. <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">Fine, let's set aside the word "hate" for a minute. It is precisely the patronizing, demeaning tone that you exhibit here - very disingenuously saying you want these people to be successful and happy, and then simultaneously commenting on their "psychological and spiritual affliction" and deeming them "so lost, confused, and consumed by horrible feelings of animosity..." </span><br />
<br />
Sometimes I get very angry at the legions of progressive nihilists who stand as staunch advocates for some of the greatest evils mankind has ever witnessed (like abortion, for instance), but beyond anger I always feel pity. <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">Patronizing</span> I believe that you’ll destroy yourself with your philosophy before you destroy anyone else, and I sincerely wish for you to avoid that fate.<br />
<br />
If I truly think that my views are correct, and that the rejection of neo-liberal <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">haha! I love it! Using words without having any clue as to their meaning</span> cultural dogma will lead you to greater joy and fulfillment in life, ultimately bringing you out of the darkness and into the light of truth, why would I try to help you in that process if I hated you? <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">Patronizing!</span><br />
<br />
I wouldn’t. I’d let you drown and die. I’d watch and relish the sight.<br />
<br />
That’s how a hateful person would handle the situation. He’d keep his opinions to himself. He wouldn’t bother. <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">Okay, Matt, then you should appreciate it when people try to "save" you.</span> He’d let society run headfirst over the cliff, and he wouldn’t care as long as he personally remains standing at the top. The real hateful conservatives and Christians are the ones who say nothing. They see the same truth that I do, and that so many others do, yet they have no interest in opening anyone else’s eyes to it. In fact, they are examples of something worse than hate: indifference.<br />
<br />
That is, truly, the worst of all things. Even hatred for individuals is preferable to indifference towards them. Hate, at least, is <em>something</em>. It’s a feeling. It’s fiery and passionate and energetic. A person who hates deeply can easily become a person who loves deeply. They have the raw material, it’s just being misused and misdirected. An indifferent person, on the other hand, lacks the depth and interest to feel either way about anything. So, if you get upset at any of us, get upset at those of us who think we know the truth yet are too lazy and selfish to speak up and share it. <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">So then... you appreciate the people who say mean things to you more than those who don't bother to contact you at all? Somehow I doubt that.</span><br />
<br />
Indeed, just because someone voices a disagreement with you doesn’t mean they hate you. Often, it means the exact opposite. <br />
<br />
If, on the other hand, they call you a piece of trash, or wish for your imminent demise, or plan to personally bring about your imminent demise, then you’ll know that they do hate you. But if you’re looking for that kind of hate, you can find plenty of it on your end of the ideological spectrum. Trust me. <br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">I'm having so much trouble following your train of thought right now. This is what I've got: Hatred is better than indifference because it shows some feeling. But saying mean things constitutes hate and hate is bad. </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">Yup, still confused.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">Or maybe you meant it this way: When I am hateful, it is okay because I am showing that I care. When other people are hateful to me, however, that is bad.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">______________________________________________</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">One time Matt wrote a blog post about how the liberal media manufactures controversies to get clicks or views, or whatever marker of success they are after. I pointed out that this is true of all popular media, liberal or conservative. I felt it was unfair and divisive to characterize it as a "liberal" thing. Same goes for this post. Hatred on the internet is, unfortunately, not uncommon. It is also not partisan. You cannot, without willfully deceiving yourself, characterize it is a liberal thing, or a conservative thing, or a libertarian thing, or a tea party thing, or a feminist thing, or a socialist thing, or anything else.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">If you are troubled by internet hate, the <i>worst</i> way you can respond is by attributing it to a single group of people and further exacerbating divisions. I don't know if there is a good way to respond... maybe, for starters, if you run a successful blog you could call out your own supporters when they exhibit this type of hate. They are more likely to listen to you, after all. Some self-reflection would not hurt, either. Make sure you are not part of the problem.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">WARNING: SELF REFLECTION TO FOLLOW (potentially not interesting)</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">Now, I know that I am not immune from this hypocrisy trap. I think about it all the time. However, I started this blog as a form of personal catharsis and I only have a handful of readers. From what I can tell based on the comments I've received, the people who look at my blog just want something to make them feel like "I'm not the only person who doesn't like Matt Walsh's blog posts." Thankfully, my comment threads are not filled with people saying all sorts of unflattering things about conservatives or religious people. That would definitely make me feel uncomfortable. Furthermore, if I ever had the type of following that Matt does, I would do something more productive than commenting on the posts of some mediocre shock-jock blogger.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">While I try to mirror Matt's tone for rhetorical effect (like I am conversing with him), and I am sure I have crossed the line at points, I try very hard not to generalize and attack entire groups of people (say, conservatives). I attempt to distinguish between Matt's particular remarks, or the particular strand of conservative or religious ideology that he is drawing upon, from conservatism or Christianity more generally. I will keep trying.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">Initially, I also did not want to ever attack Matt as a person. I wanted to find some way to understand him. I changed my mind when I started reading more of his posts and digging into his career in radio. Based on everything I have seen and heard, there is no doubt in my mind that he is racist (and sexist and homophobic). He has said a number of other things to make me believe that he is probably not a person of good character. Of course, this is the internet and I do not know him. Certainly, I do not wish him any harm and would never send him any threatening messages. If I wished anything, maybe it would be that people would finally get tired of him and he would have to become a productive member of society. I will still even try to refrain from personally attacking him and <b>I do not hate him</b>. But I definitely do not like him and I don't feel bad about anyone calling him hateful or stupid or ignorant. That is, in my opinion, more valid than calling an <i>entire group</i> of people hateful or stupid or ignorant, as Matt often does.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">I could even dispense with the word "hate" as Matt wishes, and still complain that, by calling anyone who disagrees with him a fascist, he is certainly helping to destroy public discourse.</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00665542944467061185noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4353562748320042210.post-11595099047696605832014-06-05T16:42:00.004-07:002014-06-05T18:49:04.489-07:00This poor child is confused, not 'transgendered.'<span style="color: red;">You may <em>think</em> you want the whole post pasted below for context. Trust me, though; no, you do not. Maybe it's that his overwrought writing style is increasingly grating on my nerves, but I think that, in terms of the actual content, much of what he wrote was pretty vacuous and doesn't really even provide any meaningful context. Yes, we all know that he thinks the notion of a person being transgender is ridiculous (just look at the title of the post) and that this is another sign of the downfall of society. So, unless you are interested in reading a list of every negative word that Matt could find in his thesaurus, I don't think you want to subject yourself to most of the post.</span><br />
<span style="color: red;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: red;">Somewhere in there Matt does make a couple of points that are worth considering. I will focus on these paragraphs.</span><br />
<br />
<strong>Matt Walsh writes:</strong><br />
<strong></strong><br />
It’s interesting, when you think about it. If a girl declares that she’s a lesbian, progressives would tell us that this identity cannot be modified. <span style="color: red;">Actually, no, not quite. <em>Identity</em> can always be modified. A progressive might tell you that she cannot simply "pray away" her attractions to women, but that is another matter entirely.</span> It is ingrained in her soul and nothing can ever alter it. Her sexual preference is immutable. Her sex <span style="color: red;">we're actually talking about gender here</span>, however? Fluid. Subject to change. And what if she ‘becomes a boy’ and still finds herself attracted to girls? By their standards, she’s just turned herself straight. But isn’t that impossible? So is she still gay? But if she’s still gay then she’s still a woman, which means she’s not a man, which means your sex can’t be changed. <span style="color: red;">It must take some effort to get yourself so confused by something that is simple and straightforward! Let me break it down for you, Matt. This person chooses to identify as a boy (and therefore, should be referred to as "he"). He is attracted to women. He has always been attracted to women (well, as long as he's felt attractions of any kind). He is straight. He did not change his attractions; they stayed the same. The end.</span><br />
<span style="color: red;"></span><br />
Any of this making sense? <span style="color: red;">Stop feigning an inability to distinguish identity and cultural labels (e.g. lesbian) from personal/biological realities (e.g. attraction to women) and then yes, as a matter of fact, lots of sense.</span><br />
<br />
Hello? <br />
<br />
Anyone? <span style="color: red;">Ohh, I'm sorry. I forgot you can't hear anyone who disagrees with you.</span><br />
<br />
Indeed, the moment you wade into liberal “gender theory” you will be violently assaulted by a gauntlet of glaring contradictions. <span style="color: red;">[</span><span style="color: red;">Which is not nearly as uncomfortable as being violently assaulted by a gauntlet of extreme and awkward language use.]</span><br />
<br />
They tell us in one breath that it’s OK for boys to like pink and girls to like blue, and we should stop expecting our sons to play sports and our daughters to play with dolls. These are just social norms, they say. We should not subscribe to such archaic notions. But suddenly they proceed to derail their own narrative when they next inform you that a girl liking blue and a boy playing with dolls might actually be a sign that the girl is a boy and the boy is a girl.<br />
<br />
Wait.<br />
<br />
<strong>Are colors and toys and sports irrelevant things that have been arbitrarily assigned to certain genders by an oppressive society, or is the color pink so connected with the female identity that a female’s aversion to it is an indication that she isn’t really a female?</strong><br />
<br />
<span style="color: red;">Okay, finally you have gotten to your one valid question. Although, before proceeding, I should point out that the same question could be posed to you Matt. If colors and toys and sports are natural and immutable markers of biological difference, as you insist, then when some people have an aversion to the norms of their gender or do not fit gender stereotypes, does that mean they are really not that gender? (I believe I have asked you that question before.) Or would you say that any girl who doesn't like dolls and the color pink is just "confused"? (I guess that would fit with your general tendency to always see females as confused.... and dishonest.)</span><br />
<span style="color: red;"></span><br />
<span style="color: red;">Anyway, to answer your question. IF we lived in a society where such constructions of gender did not exist (if we saw everyone as individuals and allowed them to pursue their own interests and aesthetics) then to a large extent, yes, the transgender identity would for many of its subcategories not be necessary. We do not live in such a world (in fact, as I noted before, thanks largely to its utility for marketing, more and more of what we produce and consume is markedly gendered rather than gender-neutral). Gender is very much a social reality, even if not a biological reality. (The same thing goes for race: although there's no biological basis for race, it is most certainly socially real.)</span><br />
<span style="color: red;"></span><br />
<span style="color: red;">However, in a hypothetical gender-less world, one could still imagine the existence of transsexual individuals who might want to transform themselves anatomically in order to feel comfortable with their biological sex. This has not been uncommon cross-culturally and historically (many people, I believe, are familiar with hijras, for example). Then of course, you must account for all the variety of the intersex individuals.</span><br />
<span style="color: red;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: red;">Notions of transgender/transsexuality have, whether you like it or not, reproduced themselves across time and space. This seems to indicate that the concept of 'transgender' speaks to some enduring, universal features of the complex interplay between the factors determining biological sex and cultural gender norms. It is more than just "confusion" or a sign of the decay of Western society.</span><br />
<span style="color: red;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: red;">If Ryland wants to be called "he" and dress like a boy - and if his parents treat him as a boy because it was deemed by professionals to be beneficial to his mental health - so what? Is that really going to be the thing that destroys our society? (And not, say, the quarter of American children who live in food insecure households?)</span><br />
<br />
Who’s really enforcing gender roles and social norms here? I’d say it’s the people who call a girl transgender if she’d rather join a baseball league than the ballet. <span style="color: red;">That is not why they call Ryland transgender.</span><br />
<br />
Ryland showed signs of being transgender because she didn’t like girly toys and she didn’t like to wear dresses. My first thought is that maybe she’s a girl who just doesn’t like girly toys or dresses. But apparently girly toys and dresses are so important to the female identity that you lose the identity when you reject the toys and dresses. <span style="color: red;">That is not the reason why he is transgender. He specifically insisted that he was a boy, and it was not until the parents received professional assistance and guidance that he was identified as transgender.</span><br />
<span style="color: red;"></span><br />
<span style="color: red;">By the way, using the wrong pronouns is extremely hurtful to transgender people. Though I suppose that knowledge would probably only egg you on...</span><br />
<br />
The YouTube video displays photos of Ryland in cowboy outfits and Spider-Man costumes, while the text on the screen explains: “Ryland began to show an aversion to anything feminine.”<br />
<br />
Hold on. Who says cowboys and superheroes are masculine? <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">Society. We've been through this before.</span> Who says a girl can’t be Spider-Man for Halloween? <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">I don't know, maybe the same man who said he wouldn't let his son wear a My Little Pony backpack to school?</span> I thought liberals would be the first ones in line to condemn any idea that a girl has to be a boy if she likes things that society commonly associates with boys. <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">The definition of transgender <b>is not</b> liking things that society commonly associates with the opposite gender.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;"><br /></span>
In fairness, I should mention that Ryland’s ‘true identity’ didn’t just reveal itself through her taste in toys and clothes. <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">Oh so suddenly (after misleading your readers for multiple paragraphs) you are aware of this. </span>She came out and said she was a boy. <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">Ok, by your own admission, there is more to this than just that he "didn't like girly toys and dresses." </span>She said it when she was two-years-old. She made fantastic and nonsensical claims about being something other than what she really is — much like, for instance, every single other toddler in the history of the world. <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">Except that the professionals who evaluated Ryland decided that he was not making "fantastic and nonsensical claims" like every other toddler. The professionals that his parents consulted determined that this was different than, say, a toddler proclaiming she is an astronaut.</span><br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">Yes, Ryland is very young - <i>was</i> very young when he started making statements about his gender. But young children receive very strong messages about gender and are confronted with a world totally organized around gender binaries from the time they exit the womb. You might not <i>think</i> that a child that young should have any understanding of gender, or their own sense of gender identity, but the evidence seems to demonstrate that you are wrong.</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00665542944467061185noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4353562748320042210.post-31631018377267480132014-05-27T11:07:00.001-07:002014-05-27T11:36:08.698-07:00I think we should stop giving these mass murderers exactly what they want <strong>Matt Walsh writes:</strong><br />
<br />
I won’t put his picture on here or link to his stupid YouTube videos. I won’t give you excerpts from his “manifesto” or tell you about his boring, predictable biography. <br />
<br />
It doesn’t matter, anyway. You’ve seen it everywhere by now. This man-child wanted to be famous, and now he is. He wanted to captivate the nation with his tedious, pitiful ramblings, and how he has. He wanted to be sexually desired, <a href="http://www.infowars.com/in-death-girls-and-boys-swoon-over-santa-barbara-mass-murderer/">and his rampage has even accomplished that</a>. He <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/us/2014/05/25/authorities-detail-moments-terror-in-california-shooting-rampage/">killed</a> six people just to get attention, and the media is happy to oblige. <span style="color: red;">What evidence do you have that he wanted to be famous, or that he killed "just to get attention"? From what I've read, it seems he was driven more by a thirst for revenge.</span><br />
<br />
Indeed, whenever some depraved narcissist tries to elevate his lonely, meandering existence to mythological status, all he has to do is record a couple of videos and then go out and slaughter a few innocent civilians. Every time, the message we send is clear: OK. We will give you exactly what you wanted. We will plaster your face all over the news and our Facebook pages. We will talk about you incessantly for weeks. Your name will be known, while your victims remain nameless.<br />
<br />
Why do we find evil so incredibly fascinating, when, in truth, it is one-dimensional and mundane? It wreaks havoc and causes great tragedy, but that does not make it some sort of cinematic, awe-inspiring thing. <span style="color: red;">But it does wonders for your stats when you blog about it.</span><br />
<span style="color: red;"></span><br />
But I suppose it’s useless to complain about it. Humanity has always seen something intriguing and mysterious in the banality of evil. That’s how it lures you in. That’s how it catches you, converts you, empties you out and turns you into nothing. And when you finally implode and disintegrate, everyone will stare slack-jawed and riveted. Your nothingness will seem so damned interesting to us.<br />
<br />
So I will try not to contribute to The Coward’s legend <span style="color: red;">you say, after writing 5 paragraphs about him</span> as I make just a few points in light of his murder spree in Santa Barbara:<br />
<br />
<strong> First, if you immediately attempt to use the mass killing of innocent people to score ideological points, you are demonstrating many of the same characteristics as the mass murderer himself. You are displaying the same kind of detachment, selfishness, callousness, manipulativeness, and lack of compassion, integrity, and empathy that ultimately drives people to do these terrible things. </strong><br />
<br />
<span style="color: red;">There you have it, folks. Trying to understand the broader societal dynamics that contribute to mass killings (something that is far from a human universal), in an effort to prevent future killings, puts you on the same level as the people who actually commit the killings. </span><br />
<span style="color: red;"></span><br />
<span style="color: red;">Matt, I know you have never been one for understanding, education, and research, but seesh, is that not a bit extreme?</span><br />
<span style="color: red;"></span><br />
<span style="color: red;">You might be interested to know that one of the victims' fathers has said, <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/father-of-victim-in-santa-barbara-shootings-to-politicians-i-dont-care-about-your-sympathy/2014/05/27/8a030d10-e5ad-11e3-a86b-362fd5443d19_story.html?hpid=z1">"</a></span><span style="color: red;"><a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/father-of-victim-in-santa-barbara-shootings-to-politicians-i-dont-care-about-your-sympathy/2014/05/27/8a030d10-e5ad-11e3-a86b-362fd5443d19_story.html?hpid=z1">I don’t care about your sympathy. I don’t give a s--- that you feel sorry for me."</a> And what does he want? What does he go on to discuss (still in the immediate aftermath of the shooting)? Gun control!</span><br />
<span style="color: red;"></span><br />
<span style="color: red;">At any rate, Matt, despite what you say above, I do not doubt that you will take advantage of the opportunity to "immediately attempt to use the mass killing of innocent people to score ideological points" if it means you can say nasty things about feminists and argue against gun control. Ideology away!</span><br />
<br />
Calm down. Get a grip. Go away. The bodies aren’t even in the ground yet. Shut up with your inane hash tags and your sickening, smarmy “See? I told ya so!” victory laps. It’s gross. It’s disturbing. People are dead and you’re coming up with cute Twitter slogans? Have we all completely lost our minds?<br />
<br />
<span style="color: red;">Yes, now is the time to be thoughtful, reflective, and post inflammatory rants on our blog sites. (Gotta pay the bills!)</span><br />
<br />
It’s true that The Coward apparently hated women. He also hated men, his family, himself, and all of humanity <span style="color: red;">granted, I haven't read many stories about this so there are plenty of things I could have missed... but are you <em>sure</em> he hated his family and all of humanity? Do you have evidence to back that statement up?</span>. He lamented his lack of sexual experience in a series of YouTube videos and said he wanted to kill women to exact vengeance upon them for not sleeping with him. Ultimately, he murdered three women, three men, and himself. <br />
<br />
That’s all it took for the liberal feminists to pounce. They trotted out their #YesAllWomen <a href="http://time.com/114043/yesallwomen-hashtag-santa-barbara-shooting/">hashtag</a> and declared The Coward to be a “symptom” of a larger issue. He’s an example of something all women have experienced, they say. <em>See? SEE? LOOK AT US. FORGET THE VICTIMS. ALL OF OUR FEMINIST TALKING POINTS ARE VINDICATED!</em><br />
<em></em><br />
<span style="color: red;">HOW DARE THEY THINK ABOUT LARGER ISSUES! Clearly the most productive and helpful thing to do is... well, 1) Write an angry blog post about all the poopy-pants people you disagree with; and 2) Cry a lot and do nothing to make our society better.</span><br />
<span style="color: red;"></span><br />
<span style="color: red;">See, once again, maybe this is a case where your particular social position entails a certain limitation to the type of knowledge you have (though you could easily overcome that limitation by being empathetic and learning from the experiences of others, and all that stuff you hate so much). Maybe so many women are saying this is a symptom of a larger issue because they have heard the exact same statements that the killer made uttered by other men time and time again. Maybe they haven't been in a mass shooting, but maybe it is scary when someone they have rejected starts stalking them or harassing them. Or maybe they don't like being dressed down by guys whenever they decide they don't want to go on any more dates with them. Maybe it is hurtful to be called a "bitch" when they try to be honest about the fact that they're not interested. </span><br />
<span style="color: red;"></span><br />
<span style="color: red;">And maybe, Matt, <em>you, </em>in your eagerness to show everyone how terrible feminists are, are forgetting all the victims of a type of violence that occurs with regular frequency but does not usually generate the same types of headlines as mass shootings. In fact, it is these same ideas (that women "owe" men something; that men are entitled to women and their bodies; that women are not people with their own thoughts, feelings, attractions, and preferences, but merely objects of male desire) that fuel <a href="http://www.unwomen.org/en/what-we-do/ending-violence-against-women/facts-and-figures.">violence against women at such a startlingly high rate</a>. <strong>Are these victims not important? Do they not count?</strong></span><br />
<em></em><br />
They said he’s nothing but a product of a misogynistic culture. “<a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/may/24/elliot-rodgers-california-shooting-mental-health-misogyny">Misogyny kills</a>,” they said. Not “evil kills,” or “hate kills,” or “this particular individual kills” — just misogyny. <span style="color: red;">Well, if you actually looked at the stats, you might understand.</span><br />
<br />
The deranged psycho in California can’t just be a deranged psycho in California. He has to be a point. An example. A case study. A platform. We can’t weep for the lost and grieve with their families <span style="color: red;">like you <em>would</em> be doing, if there weren't so many darn feminists to get so angry about!</span> — we have to argue about the War on Women, as if this lunatic somehow exemplifies and illustrates the universal misogynistic feelings of all men everywhere.<br />
<br />
I have to wonder whether the Eternal Victims who’ve used this tragedy to advance their feminist agenda ACTUALLY think that most or all or many men share even one shred of one crumb of one iota of this maniac’s views about women. <span style="color: red;">If you actually took a second to listen to what they are saying, then you would hear that their concern stems from the fact that, as I have already mentioned, <em>they do hear the exact same statements made by other men on a regular basis</em>, and the fact that sexual assault and harassment occurs at an alarming rate.</span> Do they hate men so much <span style="color: red;">sigghhhhh.... [legitimate concerns enter into Matt's distortion mill of a brain and come out as "they hate men" or they think it "exemplifies and illustrates the universal misogynistic feelings of all men everywhere]</span> that they’ve convinced themselves we’re all one step away from murdering sorority sisters, or are they callously pretending they believe it because it makes for great propaganda (and it gives them something to do on a lazy Memorial Day weekend)? <span style="color: red;">And Matt: do you really believe that feminists hate all men or are conniving, would-be-world-dominators? Or are you callously writing these things in your blog because it makes for great click-generating propaganda and a good source of revenue on a lazy holiday weekend?</span><br />
<br />
Sadly, I think the latter might be closer to the truth.<br />
<br />
Most appallingly, I saw dozens of women on Twitter using this event as an opportunity to complain about the ‘sexism’ they’ve personally suffered <span style="color: red;">we can all agree, </span><span style="color: red;">it is so much more noble to use this event as an opportunity to complain about feminists (while making money! Weee!) </span> — like allegedly <span style="color: red;">(women are notorious liars)</span> not getting paid as much as their male coworkers, or being criticized for their skimpy attire. Suddenly, fashion and salary issues are put in the same category as cold-blooded murder. Truly, the narcissism and tone deafness of many in our society never ceases to amaze me. <span style="color: red;">And Matt, are you not aware of all the sexual violence that occurs on a regular basis, or do you not put it in the same category as cold-blooded murder? Truly, your narcissism and tone deafness never ceases to amaze me.</span><br />
<br />
A woman told me today that the point is this: he’s an awful man, and “awful men cause harm to all women at some point.”<br />
<br />
Alright, sure, but I think this is a better way of putting it: awful people cause harm to all people at some point. This story no more ‘says something’ about men, than Andrea Yates or Aileen Wuornos or Jodi Arias say something about women. One lone mass killer doesn’t prove anything about a man’s nature anymore than your neighbor’s cheating wife proves something about a woman’s nature.<br />
<br />
Besides, for every act of violence and cowardice a man perpetrates, a dozen men commit acts of courage and kindness. But you’ll notice that those men never get thrown on stage for examination. Liberal feminists never give them credit <span style="color: red;">evidence?</span>, or point to their virtues <span style="color: red;">evidence?</span>, or turn their valor into encouraging and supportive hash tags. If anything, they’ll find a reason to turn even the heroes into villains <span style="color: red;">evidence?</span>. It’s this propensity — this constant, relentless, soul-sucking cynicism — that will forever make the purity of their motives appear, at best, dubious. <br />
<span style="color: red;"></span><br />
<span style="color: red;">Yes, Matt. There is no better way to respond to an act of hate than by saying lots of really hateful things about an entire group of people.</span><br />
<br />
<strong>Second, and in the same vein: this has nothing to do with gun control.</strong> <span style="color: red;">And now follows a quick summary of every tired, clichéd argument against gun control. At least it really is quick.</span><br />
<br />
The Coward killed three people with a gun and three with a knife. He shot several more, and injured several others with his vehicle. If this proves anything, it proves that murderous people will use any tool at their disposal to carry out their violent fantasies. <br />
<br />
He left ten crime scenes in his wake, and committed dozens of crimes in the process. None of these laws prevented the massacre, because laws can do very little in the face of men who care not for the law nor their own safety.<br />
<br />
<em>Third, let’s not allow all of the talk about sexism, gun control and mental illness to distract from one simple fact: this man chose to do what he did. Selfishness lies at the root of his crime, just as it lies at the root of all evil. </em><br />
<em></em><br />
I know I’ve referred to him as a “psycho” and a “maniac,” but please understand those words to be reflections of my modest vocabulary, not literal descriptions of the killer’s mental state. <br />
<br />
He was not delusional. He understood what he was doing. He knew it was wrong, which is why he made efforts to conceal his plans. This was a coldly calculated mission to slaughter innocent people and gain worldwide fame. Nothing about its planning or execution leads me to believe that he should be let off the hook by these assumptions that he was somehow too “ill” to comprehend his own actions. <br />
<br />
It makes us feel better to reject the existence of evil and consider all maliciousness and brutality to be mere symptoms of mental diseases. This way, tragic events like these become easier to manage, easier to understand, and easier to cure. <br />
<br />
<span style="color: red;">Matt Superhero Psychologist doesn't need research or knowledge of any kind to accurately know everyone's mental states!</span><br />
<br />
But the truth is more difficult. The truth is that, sometimes, perfectly sane and rational people do terribly violent and sickening things.<br />
<br />
Now, I suppose all evil is, in some ways, insane. It’s insane because it’s self-destructive, and to destroy one’s self is about the most unnatural thing one can do. Yet this insanity is self-imposed. We dive in, and sink gradually into it. We can choose to swim back to the surface at anytime. It is of our own accord that we plunge deeper and deeper. <br />
<br />
So I don’t think this guy was insane in the sense of being the victim of some unfortunate psychological phenomenon. I think he was a rational human being committing evil acts because he chose to commit evil acts. <br />
<br />
For the record, I do think there are prevalent attitudes and beliefs in our culture that contribute to fueling situations like this. We are a godless, materialistic, death-obsessed society, and there’s no doubt that hatred and fear will grow more rapidly in such an environment. But that does not make The Coward a “product” of anything. Not of society, not of misogyny, not of mental illness, nor video games, nor Hollywood. He is (was) a human being, and humans are dynamic, powerful creatures with free will and the ability to choose right over wrong. We are not products. We are not puppets. We’ve done what we’ve done because that is the path we have chosen. <br />
<br />
This individual chose his path.<br />
<br />
That’s his story — the story of The Coward and his cowardly crime. <br />
<br />
And I think that’s all that needs to be said about him.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: red;">So, there's nothing we can do about this because it is caused by evil people. Well, maybe our godless society is somewhat responsible (damn you, feminists!). But no, not really.</span><br />
<span style="color: red;"></span><br />
<span style="color: red;">___________________________________________</span><br />
<span style="color: red;"></span><br />
<span style="color: red;">Recap of Matt Walsh argument:</span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: red;">Matt says we shouldn't give the killer more attention, and proceeds to write a blog post that contains many more paragraphs devoted to the killer than to the victims. He briefly mentions something about weeping and crying for the victims, but seems to be much more upset about what feminists are doing. He says we should not use the incident to further ideological agendas, and spends a vast majority of the post complaining about feminists and gun control laws - and, I don't doubt (though I'm not brave enough to look this time), spurring his followers to do the same in the comment section.</span><br />
<span style="color: red;"></span><br />
<span style="color: red;">Many women heard the words spoken and written by the killer and recognized them as the words uttered by so many other men who have committed acts of violence and harassment against them. They sought to bring attention to this issue, which continues to produce many female victims. Matt, under the pretense of showing concern for victims, ironically tells the people who have been or are more likely than him to be victims of sexual violence that their efforts are "inane," "sickening, smarmy," and "gross." He berates them for their "narcissism and tone deafness" (oh, irony), their "</span><span style="color: red;">relentless, soul-sucking cynicism," and their dubious motives.</span><br />
<span style="color: red;"></span><br />
<span style="color: red;">But feminists should also thank Matt for so clearly demonstrating the hateful attitudes that women have to put up with on a regular basis.</span><br />
<span style="color: red;"></span><br />
<span style="color: red;">If Matt really felt that the killer should not receive any attention and that the tragedy should not be used as an ideological platform, then Matt would not have written about it. At all.</span><br />
<span style="color: red;"></span><br />
<span style="color: red;">Let's not kid ourselves. Matt's more interested in making money off of hate.</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00665542944467061185noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4353562748320042210.post-78601749386344743382014-05-27T11:06:00.002-07:002014-05-27T11:19:35.169-07:00I hate porn because I hate child abuse and sex slavery<span style="color: red;">Just one point that I want to make. While I don't disagree with the overall sentiment and accusations Matt levels at the porn industry, nevertheless, it strikes me how he is not even capable of critiquing exploitation without simultaneously expressing negative attitudes toward women (shocking, I know!). He says women do porn because they want the attention (he can't conceive of economic reasons, or of their hopes that, given the large volume of porn on the internet, people they know won't ever see it). These women are not even bothered at all by bullying. Well then, why do they want to do it? They are defective human beings! Specifically, they are "psychologically and spiritually tormented." Interestingly, when a guy kills a bunch of people on his college campus (see next post), Matt rejects psychological reasoning. He says mass murderers (men) are rational individuals making purposeful decisions, and we should not discuss their mental health. But when a woman stars in a porn video, there is no end to the psychological and mental defects that Matt is willing to diagnose her with.</span><br />
<span style="color: red;"></span><br />
<span style="color: red;">Once again, I looked at the comments, and you can see Matt's attitudes toward women bearing its fruit in the fan base he is establishing:</span><br />
<span style="color: red;"></span><br />
"While on the face of it your comments are valid, it’s not so cut & dried. I spent the first decade or more of my marriage in sexual torment because my wife had zero interest & would just lay there & actually prevent herself from getting aroused (ie lubrication was mandatory).<br />
<br />
Obviously the sex was horrible most of the time & I was deeply hurt & became very bitter.<br />
Furthermore, she tended to come unglued during that time of the month which didn’t help matters.<br />
Masturbation was a way to get some satisfaction & I turned to porn to make it really satisfying.<br />
Another decade later & I view porn in spurts as I have no desire for my wife. Sometimes I’ll go weeks without because my desire is is just generally getting less but I have essentially been conditioned that my wife isn’t the person to have good sex with.<br />
<br />
If I had the choice to have it different, I would. I feel bad at times when I view it & would want to be hot for my wife but my point is that porn is sometimes the resultant of & not the cause of marital issues.<br />
<br />
A man has needs & those needs are strong so if his wife chooses to not care, he makes his choices right or wrong-some sleep around on their wife & others go the porn route, however wives aren’t blameless either."<br />
<br />
<span style="color: red;">Bravo, Matt. I see you are keeping yourself in good company.</span><br />
<span style="color: red;"></span><br />
<strong></strong><br />
<strong>Matt Walsh writes:</strong><br />
<br />
I bought a diamond ring for my wife.<br />
<br />
I saw it at the store, I didn’t think I could afford it but the woman behind the counter told me it was on sale. She said they had to discount it because most customers are refusing to buy it. <br />
<br />
<em>“Why?”</em> I asked. <br />
<br />
<em>“Well, because it’s a blood diamond. It was mined in a conflict zone and sold to fund the activities of a brutal warlord. It was probably extracted out of the ground by child slaves. There’s probably a lot of misery, death, rape, and suffering that brought this diamond from a mine in Africa to a jewelery store in Baltimore.”</em><br />
<em></em><br />
I was disgusted. I passionately oppose child slavery and violent African warlords, I insisted to myself.<br />
<br />
But… Then again… Man, that diamond sure is pretty. And it’s cheap! So affordable! See how it sparkles! <br />
<br />
Anyway, it looks really nice on my wife’s hand. Don’t judge me. I don’t endorse or condone all of those bad things; I just chose to potentially help fund them because I enjoy the fruits harvested from those bad things. <br />
<br />
Make sense? <br />
<br />
Are you convinced? <br />
<br />
Me neither. <br />
<br />
Honestly, I’m trying to trick you. I wanted to get you on board with the basic premise that we should not knowingly contribute to or condone brutality, rape, and exploitation, even if we enjoy whatever sparkly, attractive pleasures these atrocities might produce.<br />
<br />
I wanted you to shake your head in dismay over my callous disregard for these injustices, so that the momentum might keep you shaking your head when I change the subject to a different kind of blood diamond: pornography.<br />
<br />
Let me say upfront that I am biased. I hate porn.<br />
<br />
I’m a man in modern society, and I still hate pornography. I don’t hate it because I’m some sort of morally righteous saint (far from it); I hate it because I understand it. I hate it because I’m honest with myself about it. <br />
<br />
Believe me, I’d prefer not to hate it. I’d rather live in the convenient reality that pornography apologists so unconvincingly attempt to construct — the one where porn is just an innocent bit of fun, and our porn habits exist in some kind of vacuum, completely separate from all of the dark, seedy, repulsive things that fuel the industry.<br />
<br />
That’s a fun world. An easy world. A world that requires less energy and thought. I wish that world was more than a fantasy or a rationalization — but it isn’t.<br />
<br />
Here on Earth, the situation is more complex and challenging. Here on Earth, we have to deal with stories like <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/05/22/alyssa-funke-suicide-porn_n_5373138.html">this</a>. <br />
<br />
Alyssa Funke was a 19-year-old college student. She recently appeared in a porn, and she even more recently hanged herself.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://i7ihxhmvf855rr1qui4ol2j.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/image18.jpg"><img alt="image" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-3788" src="http://i7ihxhmvf855rr1qui4ol2j.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/image18.jpg" height="970" width="970" /></a> <br />
<br />
The media has concentrated their coverage on the fact that Funke was ‘cyber bullied’ after she was ‘outed’ as a porn star. Of course, saying someone has been outed as an internet porn star is like saying I’ve been outed as a blogger. My site gets millions of views. I have my picture at the top. I make money from this website. Obviously, I want people to see it. If I didn’t, I wouldn’t have the picture, I wouldn’t have the site, I wouldn’t have the ads. I’d just keep my opinions to myself, or between myself and those closest to me.<br />
<br />
If you don’t want your sexual escapades to be widely known, you probably wouldn’t have them filmed and put on the World Wide Web. The Huffington Post article on this incident breathlessly insists that people who appear in porn often value their ‘privacy.’ <br />
<br />
Needless to say, a ridiculous claim. <br />
<br />
Indeed, privacy is precisely what you <em>don’t</em> want when you star in a porn. The real question is: why? What drives a person to publicly display such intimate things? What compels them to seek attention in this manner? <br />
<br />
Police say that none of the ‘bullying’ messages and Tweets even rose to the level of illegal harassment. Funke herself actually took to Twitter to brag of her newfound fame shortly before she committed suicide. <br />
<br />
The ‘bullied to the point of suicide’ narrative doesn’t seem to hold up. <br />
<br />
But the media runs with it because they’re too cowardly and too dense to get to the heart of the matter. Alyssa Funke tragically took her own life for the same reason anyone does: because she hated herself. <br />
<br />
And she appeared in a porn for the same reason.<br />
<br />
It’s not that porn stars kill themselves when other people notice that they’re porn stars. It’s that porn stars are psychologically and spiritually tormented, which is why they’re porn stars in the first place. <br />
<br />
This is obvious. We all understand this, even if we pretend otherwise. When you watch porn, you are watching desperate people resort to desperate and unhealthy measures. You are literally taking pleasure in their pain. Alyssa Funke was a self-destructive, depressed college student. If you viewed her porn, you viewed a cry for help from a suicidal young woman. Not so fun and innocent anymore, is it?<br />
<br />
We jump through many hoops to get around this unavoidable reality. That’s why John Millward, a blogger and amateur porn-researcher, was received with much fanfare last year when he published a <a href="http://www.livescience.com/27428-truth-about-porn-stars.html">study</a> which determined that porn stars only choose that profession because they “like to have sex.” Spectacular deductions, professor, but could there be more to the story? I like to have sex, too, but I don’t do it on camera for millions of strangers to watch. How do you explain that disparity?<br />
<br />
Millward also says that the “stereotype” about porn actors and actresses often having a background of abuse and family turmoil is a “myth.” <br />
<br />
How did he prove this? By asking them. He debunked the myth by using self-reported data from people who clearly desire to dispel the notion that their industry is kept running by mopping up and exploiting the shattered remains of abused and disordered men and women. <br />
<br />
His scientific process consisted of this:<br />
<br />
John Millward: “Hey, porn industry, does your business deserve any of the troubling stigmas attached to it?”<br />
<br />
Porn industry: “Nope.”<br />
<br />
John Millward: “Eureka! Myth debunked!”<br />
<br />
Interestingly enough, when you ask someone who has left the business and is no longer financially dependent upon its success, you’ll hear a drastically different <a href="http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/10/24/ex-porn-star-reveals-the-horrors-of-working-in-the-sex-industry/">story</a>.<br />
<br />
Admittedly, it’s hard to conduct an accurate and honest study of porn and porn stars, because any such study would require the accurate and honest participation of the people currently invested in protecting the reputation and fortune of a multi-billion dollar business. <br />
<br />
We can, however, turn to psychological science and begin to come to a few basic conclusions. <br />
It is a well established fact that people who engage in risky sexual behavior often had a childhood rife with sexual, physical and emotional abuse. If you want to see one study among the thousands that demonstrates this link, click <a href="https://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/journals/3320601.html">here</a>.<br />
<br />
We also know that starring in porn videos constitutes risky sexual behavior. Just ask the porn star who <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/19/porn-hiv-penis-bleeding_n_3944401.html">contracted</a> HIV by having sex with a bleeding, HIV-positive man.<br />
<br />
It doesn’t take a detective to connect these dots. There is no ‘myth’ associating broken homes and abuse with porn and prostitution. This is a self-evident, scientifically supported fact.<br />
<br />
Pornography, like prostitution (and they’re really the exact same thing), relies on child abuse. Period. Without abuse and neglect, these industries wouldn’t have hardly any workforce at all. And we’re not talking solely about an indirect reliance on child abuse, either. <br />
<br />
Child pornography is a multi-billion dollar cash cow. Porn viewers will tell you that they would never seek out child porn, yet they can’t explain how, precisely, they ensure that the participants in the sex acts they searched for on Google are all: A) of age, and B) engaging in this activity in a fully consensual manner. <br />
<br />
There’s no way to be sure that the woman is a woman and not a 14-year-old child, and that she’s there of her own accord, and not because of drugs, or because she’s a victim of the massively expansive global sex trade. <br />
<br />
Even if you were sure, it still wouldn’t be right. But you’re not. You know that you are not. And this point ought to weigh heavy on your mind. Why is it that Americans are concerned that their sneakers might have been stitched together by a 12-year-old in China, yet so unconcerned that the ‘consensual sex act’ they’re viewing online might actually be a very nonconsensual act of child rape?<br />
<br />
The impossibility of discerning between children, and adults and consensual and nonconsensual, should be enough to convince any man (or woman) to try to fight the urge to sift through all of that filth and muck in search of respectable masturbation material. <br />
<br />
Or, if not that, then the fact that even consensual porn isn’t really consensual, as the whole industry thrives on abuse and desperation. <br />
<br />
Or, if not that, then the fact that most children are first exposed to porn at the age of 11. Considering that porn <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/men/thinking-man/10441027/How-porn-is-rewiring-our-brains.html">rewires</a> your brain and changes how you view sexuality and romantic relationships, exposure at such a young age has a devastating impact that we haven’t even begun to understand. <br />
<br />
Or, if not that, then the fact that porn causes great <a href="http://yourbrainonporn.com/physiological-and-psychological-effects-modern-day-pornography-2013">damage</a> to current and future relationships. It grooms men to be adulterers, as evidenced by “cheating wives” being one of the <a href="http://healthland.time.com/2011/05/19/mind-reading-the-researchers-who-analyzed-all-the-porn-on-the-internet/">top</a> porn search terms in the world.<br />
<br />
Or, if not that, then whatever other reason, of the thousands of reasons, that speaks to you when that quiet voice in your head tells you that porn is immoral and shameful.<br />
<br />
We’re told to reject that voice, but I think it deserves a fair hearing for once. <br />
<br />
That voice — our conscience — tells us that we should hate porn. <br />
<br />
We should hate it because we hate abuse, rape, and exploitation. <br />
<br />
We should hate it because women like Alyssa Funke need help — not a million wide-eyed, gawking, drooling voyeurs, just out to have an ‘innocent’ and ‘fun’ time on the Internet. Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00665542944467061185noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4353562748320042210.post-76244306026114988692014-05-23T09:01:00.001-07:002014-05-23T09:01:57.811-07:00Congratulations, graduates: you’ve done exactly what you’re expected and legally required to do!<span style="color: red;">I started this blog because writing these responses is somewhat cathartic for me when I must be subjected to these links on my facebook newsfeed. If someone is already in the mindset to be enamored of Matt Walsh, I know there is nothing I can write to convince them otherwise. However, I will say it has been nice to see a few comments from other people, similarly frustrated by the assaults on their newsfeeds, who appreciate my responses. You are very welcome! Nevertheless, it can be time-consuming and just reading through an entire Matt Walsh blog post is often... not enjoyable. So, when he writes a post that is more silly than offensive, and doesn't require much comment from me, so much the better, for those reasons and more.</span><br />
<span style="color: red;"></span><br />
<span style="color: red;">This time Matt chose to focus his culture warrior energies on the extremely important and urgent matter of graduation ceremonies. I took a gander at the comments (something I am rarely brave enough to do), and it seems that the limitations to his argument were so obvious that even many of his fans were able to point them out. They did my work for me! Hurray!</span><br />
<span style="color: red;"></span><br />
<span style="color: red;">To summarize:</span><br />
<span style="color: red;"></span><br />
<span style="color: red;">First of all, in keeping with Matt's tendency to discount the importance of social institutions (even of society/community in general), Matt cannot seem to comprehend the function of rites of passage. Why celebrate a milestone if it is something that everyone attains? If it doesn't make you "special," why bother recognizing it? If that is the case, a</span><span style="color: red;">s one of the commenters pointed out, we may as well do away with birthday parties too.</span><br />
<span style="color: red;"></span><br />
<span style="color: red;">Second, Matt presumes that making it through school does not require hard work or endurance of any kind (including, as some commenters pointed out, putting up with social pressures and bullying)... OR, that hard work and endurance do not deserve to be recognized. If the latter, then Matt is essentially valuing accomplishment over effort. There is something to be said for both. Accomplishment is great, but some people are naturally inclined to achieve things more easily than others. Do we not value hard work and perseverance as well?</span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: red;">Third, </span> <span style="color: red;">Matt sees the celebration of something that he, personally, views as meaningless as a symptom of the broader societal decay that he is so concerned about. Without any evidence whatsoever to back him up, he claims that kids are now raised "amidst </span><span style="color: red;">constant preening, fawning, coddling, pampering, and congratulating" and that this will result in their ability to cope with life as adults, a dependency on recognition and flattery, and possibly even psychological issues like depression. In addition to the fact that he is declaring things to be true without doing any research, it is also unclear whether he thinks <em>today's</em> 23-year-olds are the maladaptive products of such an upbringing, or whether he is merely speculating about what will happen to the children currently being raised under these supposed conditions.</span><br />
<span style="color: red;"></span><br />
<span style="color: red;">Finally, I think it is clear to everyone that Matt doesn't like graduation ceremonies because everything related to education sends him into a rage. However, I doubt he would have any problem with any of his readers clicking on the ads for graduation party supplies on his website so that he can tap into that ad revenue.</span><br />
<span style="color: red;"></span><br />
<strong><span style="color: black;">Matt Walsh writes:</span></strong><br />
<strong></strong><br />
America, listen, we need to talk.<br />
<br />
I know we can’t agree on very much these days, but we should still be able to find <em>some</em> common ground <em>somewhere</em>.<br />
<br />
May I suggest a starting point?<br />
<br />
Graduation ceremonies. Specifically, graduation ceremonies for kids who aren’t actually graduating from anything at all.<br />
<br />
Yesterday, one of my Facebook friends sent out a mass invitation to a “graduation party” for her son. I don’t know her, but clicked on it anyway. I was immediately impressed. A picture of her young child accompanied the description of the festivities. “Wow,” I thought. “That kid looks like he’s 11-years-old! If he’s graduating at that age, the little guy definitely deserves a party!”<br />
<br />
And that’s when I noticed, to my sorrow, the words “elementary school.”<br />
<br />
This was not, apparently, an occasion to celebrate a child so gifted and determined that he managed to complete 12 years of coursework before his 12th birthday, but rather an opportunity to pat a kid on the back for making the expected, required, and terribly non-momentous transition from 5th to 6th grade.<br />
<br />
An elementary school graduation party; which, I assume, follows an elementary school graduation ceremony; which likely comes a few years after the kindergarten graduation ceremony; which is preceded by the pre-school graduation ceremony; which is the first in a long line of ceremonies, including the middle school graduation ceremony and the high school graduation ceremony. Before legal adulthood, these kids will be the subject of more ceremonial adulation than Medal of Honor recipients, despite the fact that their “accomplishments” don’t quite rise to that same lofty level.<br />
<br />
Might I remind everyone that kids are compelled to finish school? A ten-year-old literally <em>can’t</em> do anything <em>but</em> make it to sixth grade. It’s required by law. You might as well throw me a party for wearing pants when I went to the post office this morning. Sure, a kid can be held back a grade, but eventually everyone will be pushed through the various stages of social promotion, because ‘no child’ can be ‘left behind.’<br />
<br />
We raise our children amidst constant preening, fawning, coddling, pampering, and congratulating, and then scratch our heads and wonder why they eventually enter adulthood so entirely unprepared for the rigors and challenges of the real world.<br />
<br />
<em>“What?! I showed up to my job on time for a whole year, completed the minimum amount of work required, and performed at an overall standard, to slightly substandard, level — yet nobody’s handing me a ribbon or giving a lengthy speech heralding my many achievement?! Unacceptable! I’ve been bullied! I quit!”</em><br />
<em></em><br />
We get them hooked on recognition and flattery at the age of three, and by the time they’re 23 they’ve become full-blown addicts. They develop a dependency on attention and affirmation, and can’t handle living in a universe that doesn’t stop to give them a cookie every time they complete some minor, routine task. This attention-seeking, “hey, notice me!” mentality can lead them down a dark path towards resentment, jealousy, depression, and Snapchat accounts.<br />
<br />
And here I thought we’d reached the pinnacle of narcissistic absurdity back with the invention of the tee ball trophy. A <em>trophy</em>. For <em>tee ball</em>. I mean, have you ever seen tee ball in action?<br />
<br />
It’s madness.<br />
<br />
Kids running every which way. Players switching sides in the middle of the contest. The batter swings, misses, hits the tee, runs to second, the second baseman doesn’t see him because he’s too busy eating grass or making sand castles, the runner moves back to first, then cuts across the field to third, suddenly the first baseman runs home while the catcher heads to the dugout for a juice box. Then a whistle is blown, everyone applauds, and one of the moms hands out snacks.<br />
<br />
There is no score. Nobody wins. Nobody loses. Nothing happens. There are no rules. There is no point. And everyone gets a trophy.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://i7ihxhmvf855rr1qui4ol2j.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/image15.jpg"><img alt="image" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-3769" height="903" src="http://i7ihxhmvf855rr1qui4ol2j.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/image15.jpg" width="903" /></a><br />
<br />
A TROPHY. FOR TEE BALL.<br />
<br />
It’s pretty bad, but this graduation nonsense is worse. To think of the two concepts together — to consider the scenario where a child attends his t-ball trophy ceremony a few weeks before his kindergarten graduation party — well, it’s more than I can stomach.<br />
<br />
The whole charade is dishonest, really. We’re lying to these poor kids. Worse still, we’re diluting their real achievements (should they ever have any) by sounding the trumpet and sprinkling the confetti every time they tie their own shoes.<br />
<br />
What happens when they actually <em>earn</em> the confetti and the trumpets? What happens when they cure male pattern baldness or rescue a baby moose from a wildfire or something? Our words of appreciation will be muted and muffled, as their ears still ring from the 87 parades we threw for them between the ages of four and fourteen.<br />
<br />
What a tragedy.<br />
<br />
But, I admit that I’m biased. This is all coming from the guy who even dislikes high school graduation ceremonies. Maybe I’m just a curdmugeon. Or maybe I don’t like them because they’re way too long, and my family can never leave early because our graduates are always at the end of the alphabet. Or maybe I’ve noticed that the pomp and circumstance all feeds into the faulty notion that you’ve somehow accomplished something just because you completed the steps you were mandated to complete.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://i7ihxhmvf855rr1qui4ol2j.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/image16.jpg"><img alt="image" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-3770" height="598" src="http://i7ihxhmvf855rr1qui4ol2j.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/image16.jpg" width="800" /></a><br />
<br />
At the end of every high school graduation ceremony — staggering and gasping for breath after having spent 7 hours sitting on crowded bleachers listening to the principal mispronounce a lengthy list of names I don’t recognize — I feel like Tom Hanks in <em>Saving Private Ryan</em>.<br />
<br />
Shot in the gut, bleeding to death, he looked up at Matt Damon and muttered, “<em>earn this</em>.” The point being that Private Ryan hadn’t actually done anything to earn the enormous amount of effort and sacrifice these other men assumed on his behalf. Similarly, high school graduates haven’t necessarily done anything to earn the steady stream of praise and adulation they’ve received throughout their childhood, culminating in this bloated, overlong pageant. They haven’t earned it, but now they can officially begin the task of paying off that debt (right after they go to the bank and take on another massive debt to help pay for college).<br />
<br />
If I was ever asked to give a high school commencement address (which seems unlikely at this point), that would be my entire speech:<br />
<br />
<em>Graduates,</em><br />
<em></em><br />
<em>Earn this.</em><em></em><br />
<em>Thank you for your time.</em><br />
<br />
It would be the shortest, and therefore greatest, high school graduation speech ever delivered.<br />
And if I was somehow asked to give the keynote address at an elementary school graduation, I imagine it would go something like this:<br />
<br />
<em>Kids who are still seven years from being graduates,</em><br />
<em></em><br />
<em>Take off those silly robes and go do your chores.</em><em></em><br />
<em>Thank you for your time.</em><br />
<br />
Succinct. Timely. Educational. It would be a fantastic speech for such a fantastically useless event.<br />
So, needless to say, I declined the invitation.<br />
<br />
OK, fine, I clicked “maybe.”<br />
<br />
They’ll have free food — it’s not ALL bad.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00665542944467061185noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4353562748320042210.post-59936377872605955372014-05-22T12:20:00.003-07:002014-05-22T12:21:25.256-07:00Matt Walsh is too lazy to come up with his own ideas.<span style="color: red;">When I saw that Matt Walsh, in his latest post about Chelsea Manning, erroneously claimed she was receiving "special attention" and "fast-tracked" for treatment - and knowing of course, that Matt merely regurgitates the arguments of ideologues - I was curious where he got this bit of misinformation. Pretty quickly, I discovered the obvious (and only possible) </span><a href="http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Peace/2014/05/16/Obama-s-VA-Fast-Tracks-Expensive-Sex-Change-For-Convicted-Traitor-Bradley-Manning-At-Same-Time-Vets-Die-on-Phony-Waiting-Lists"><span style="color: #0b5394;">source</span></a><span style="color: red;">: Breitbart (known for journalistic integrity... *eyeroll*). However, what I didn't realize I would find was that <em>Matt lifted the entire <strong>idea</strong> for his post from Breitbart.</em> He acts like that VA-Manning comparison just came to him, but really he was getting his daily dose of brainwashing from Breitbart, picked an article, and added in some ill-placed and incoherent ranting about the government and the stupidity of the American public. Based on how little he changed Breitbart's wording, I would say this even borders on plagiarism. </span><br />
<span style="color: red;"></span><br />
<span style="color: red;">(But Matt has better things to do with his time than construct original ideas and arguments. There are a lot of food service workers who need to be told that they aren't working hard enough, after all.)</span><br />
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00665542944467061185noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4353562748320042210.post-39722911210167890592014-05-21T12:04:00.001-07:002014-05-22T12:28:05.073-07:00Veterans are dying, but at least this criminal still gets his sex change <span style="color: red;">Like usual I have added all my comments in red. However, I got the urge to <u>underline</u> all of the text from Matt's original post that is <u>factually incorrect</u>. I did this conservatively, and did not include any statements that were merely misguided, misleading, unsupported, or just plain odd (that would cover most of the rest of his post).</span><br />
<span style="color: red;"></span><br />
<strong><span style="color: black;">Matt Walsh writes:</span></strong><br />
<br />
Government is always political. Every agency, every department, every office. They’re all driven by politics. Always. Every time. <span style="color: red;">You love that word "always" don't you? </span><br />
<br />
There might be a few diamonds in the muck who really are interested in achieving the betterment of society, but they will either be drowned and obscured in a deep sea of clumsy self-interest, or eventually convinced to sell their souls for the sake of preserving their cushy — and often useless — jobs and <span style="color: black;"><u>lavish pension plans</u></span>. That’s because the government does not exist to better society. We have celebrity doctors, Burger King’s new <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/leisure/2014/05/20/burger-king-ditches-have-it-your-way-slogan/">inspirational</a> corporate marketing campaign, and self-help gurus for that. <span style="color: red;">I don't know how to respond, because I don't even know what point you're trying to make here.</span><br />
<br />
Government exists to perpetuate itself, like bacteria or the aliens from <em>Independence Day</em>. This is why the political wheel always gets the oil while the important things are left outside to rust. <span style="color: red;">Really? I didn't realize the government was an organism that existed independently of a whole bunch of people with different aims and views. </span><br />
<br />
Maybe one day it will be politically advantageous for our politicians to do their jobs — but right now we have a voting base which is largely bored by mundane matters like taking care of our veterans and balancing the budget. We don’t want a president who performs his constitutional duties and manages his subordinates efficiently. <span style="color: red;">So, the government sucks. And so do most of the people who live in this country. Man, we don't have much going for us. Is there anything in this country that doesn't suck? (Except, of course, for you and anyone who agrees with everything you say.)</span><br />
<br />
YAWN. Totally un-sexy. <span style="color: red;">Ohh, okay. Now I understand your blog. You believe people are bored by substance and reason, and you have to make a living, after all.</span><br />
<br />
No, we want him to create massive healthcare entitlement programs, attack his political enemies every time he opens his mouth, appear on late night comedy shows, and chime in whenever a professional athlete comes out of the closet. <span style="color: red;">This is an odd list. Making partisan statements, making appearances on various entertainment media, commenting on the random goings-on of the country - those are traditional "ceremonial" duties of an American president. Healthcare reform is a policy initiative... which is kind of exactly the sort of substantive thing you would expect a president to do, whether you agree with it or not.</span><br />
<br />
That’s the sort of government that many people in this nation prefer, so that’s the sort of government we have. <span style="color: red;">Are you actually trying to make the argument that the government we have is the government that most people prefer? Have you looked at opinion polls? Anyway, if that were true, isn't that pretty much what "by the people, for the people" - i.e. the essence of democracy - is all about? On the other hand, you made it very clear in one of your most recent posts (in which you said you would be elated if most people didn't vote) that you're not such a huge fan of democracy. I'm guessing theocracy is more your style. </span> And that creates exactly the kind of cultural atmosphere where veterans in need of critical health care can be <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2014/05/16/politics/va-scandal/">left to die</a> on secret waiting lists, as an Army private and convicted felon gets <span style="color: black;"><u>fast tracked for “sex reassignment treatment.”</u> </span><span style="color: red;">[UPDATE: </span><span style="color: red;">When figuring out where this bit of misinformation came from, I discovered that Matt lifted the entire idea for this post from a <a href="http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Peace/2014/05/16/Obama-s-VA-Fast-Tracks-Expensive-Sex-Change-For-Convicted-Traitor-Bradley-Manning-At-Same-Time-Vets-Die-on-Phony-Waiting-Lists">Breitbart piece</a>. (Which, of course, he does not cite as the inspiration for this post.) Such a paragon of integrity....]</span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: red;">I'm soooo confused. Your unparalleled logic must be too much for me. You are saying that the government is focusing on Manning's treatment (actually, not true; the media is) because the government, in an effort to perpetuate itself, only does what people want it to do. So everyone is really concerned about Manning getting treatment and the government is responding to those concerns. But also, as you argue in a previous post, the country is predominantly comprised of conservative Christians who are not so concerned about transgender issues.</span><br />
<br />
<a href="http://i7ihxhmvf855rr1qui4ol2j.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/image12.jpg"><img alt="image" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-3728" src="http://i7ihxhmvf855rr1qui4ol2j.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/image12.jpg" height="473" width="606" /></a><br />
<br />
We know that over 40 veterans died after being neglected at a hospital in Phoenix — but this goes much deeper, and is a problem much wider, than that terrible statistic indicates. <span style="color: red;">Well, actually, it is still unclear at the moment how much deeper and wider it goes. The latest <a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20140515-714194.html">reports</a> I've seen indicate the media may have, to the contrary, overblown that statistic.</span> <span style="color: black;"><u>In fact, veterans have been saying for years that the VA healthcare system is completely and totally broken, but nobody listened.</u></span> <span style="color: red;">Most veterans have rated the VA system favorably, as a matter of fact. Its patient satisfaction ratings are higher than other health systems. Also, I know of at least one case (supposed non-diagnosis or reversal of diagnosis of PTSD and brain injury) where the media distorted the issue at hand; it seems some of the media also might have it out for the VA system. Plus, you have to factor in the fact that Congress (pressured by citizens like you who object to government spending) has failed to provide adequate funding for VA health care, and the system, through no fault of its own, may no doubt be strained by all these recent wars.... </span> Politicians spewed their platitudes and moved on to more urgent concerns, such as building a soccer field for Guantanamo Bay detainees. <br />
<br />
This isn’t an issue that’ll get a lot of pop in the polls, one way or another, so they didn’t waste their time on it. <span style="color: red;">But hormone therapy issues definitely get people to the polls, obvs.</span><br />
<br />
But, finally, the stories of corruption, incompetence, abuse, neglect, and general disarray in the VA system have made it, briefly, to the headlines. The reports still aren’t afforded the same press as the “news” about Beyonce’s sister smacking Jay-Z in the face, but you take what you can get at this point. <span style="color: red;">Okay, I'll add that to my list. The government sucks. The American people suck. The media sucks. Oh, I also know from a previous post that you think Beyoncé sucks. (I like how her name is autocorrected to insert the accent.)</span><br />
<br />
Now, there’s plenty of angles to analyze on the VA scandal, but I think this one deserves a close inspection: <u>Bradley</u> <span style="color: red;">Chelsea </span>Manning, a convicted criminal<span style="color: red;">**</span>, was <span style="color: black;"><u>given special attention</u></span> from the Pentagon, and will now likely be <a href="http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/pentagon-oks-chelsea-manning-transfer-gender-treatment-n104916">transferred</a> to a civilian prison where <u>he</u> <span style="color: red;">she </span>can receive “treatment” for <u>his</u> <span style="color: red;">her </span>“Gender Dysphoria.” Meanwhile, veterans and free citizens of the United States have waited for years, even until death, for legitimate medical treatment of life threatening physical ailments.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: red;">**First of all, I find it ironic that you keep calling Manning a criminal when the crime with which she was convicted was whistleblowing - i.e. making transparent things the government did - and this is after you spent so much of your post ranting about how much you hate the government. So, the government sucks. And people who expose the government also suck.</span><br />
<span style="color: red;"></span><br />
<span style="color: red;">It is also worth pointing out that if Manning received any "special treatment" it was not the good kind. Like, being forced to spend the night naked, standing up (not allowed to sleep) during her pre-trial detention. Or, having to go through a military trial rather than civilian trial, which is not appropriate for a whistleblowing case, with all the lack of transparency that entails.</span><br />
<span style="color: red;"></span><br />
<span style="color: red;">In fact, Chelsea did not get "special attention" from the Pentagon. By law, as upheld by numerous court decisions, prisoners are required to receive treatment for various conditions, of which Gender Dysphoria is one. So, this is nothing special. This is normal prison procedure. Hormonal therapy was deemed by the court to be more cost-effective than dealing with all the potential effects of leaving it untreated.</span><br />
<br />
Never mind the fact that “Gender Dysphoria” is a <u>disease</u> only recently invented and added to the Diagnostic and Statical Manual of Mental Disorders after years of <span style="color: black;"><u>political pressure from anti-science left wingers</u></span>. <span style="color: red;">Good point. Since older diseases are more legitimate, I take bilious fever much more seriously than AIDS. In fact, I refuse to believe MERS even exists. </span>Never mind that, <span style="color: black;"><u>without a salient scientific or medical reason to do so</u></span>, the <span style="color: black;"><u>focus was shifted from treating the psychological delusions which lead a person to believe that they ought to be something other than what they unequivocally and biologically are</u></span>, to treating the “distress” that stems from being a man “stuck in a woman’s body,” or vice versa. Now, rather than offer someone intense psychological and spiritual counseling to help them accept who they are, we give them hormones and mutilate their genitals to help them feel better about not accepting who they are. <br />
<br />
<span style="color: red;">Sighhh.. I'm getting kind of tired, what with my real jobs and all, but I guess I have to give you another science lesson. Biological sex is complex and determined by a variety of interacting chromosomal, genetic, hormonal, anatomical and environmental factors. According to <a href="http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&frm=1&source=web&cd=5&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CFQQFjAE&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.jhse.ua.es%2Fjhse%2Farticle%2Fdownload%2F151%2F245&ei=ht18U4GUK4visATMpYHwCw&usg=AFQjCNFJmC5mf7BVGz5OthsBLoDD3rx7yA&sig2=ApA_0EhiyQbrRq5SNDSQ3Q">these scientists</a> (in relation to gender verification in sports), "Sexual boundaries are not so defined and separated in two classes (male and female) as the society and sports institutions generally intend, being present a wide range of intermediate sexual conditions which have to be taken into account." Just at the chromosomal level, variations other than the common XX and XY types account for about 1-2% of the population. Just for comparison, redheads also comprise about 2% of the population (yet, we don't exclude redheads from what we consider normal human variation). Then there are all the other determinants of biological sex (I find <a href="http://media.hhmi.org/biointeractive/click/gendertest/gendertest.html">this</a> to be a fun, interactive educational website). </span><br />
<span style="color: red;"></span><br />
<span style="color: red;">So, biological sex is much more complex and variable than we commonly understand it to be. Then you have gender, which is the cultural meanings attributed to biological sex (e.g. associating long hair, dresses, beauty products, and the color pink with women, and violence, sports, cars, and darker colors with men.) I have gone through this a number of times now, and it's getting old, so I will be brief. Gender varies cross-culturally. It also has varied historically. No link has been found between culturally-ascribed gender differences and biological traits. Sometimes I run across dubious claims about testosterone, but you must be wary of those. Testosterone is notoriously difficult to study, from a behavioral standpoint, and the only scientifically valid studies that have been conducted (all on birds), which I have read, have been inconclusive. Based on the cultural and historical evidence, there is no reason to believe that gender is anything more than a cultural phenomenon. </span><br />
<span style="color: red;"></span><br />
<span style="color: red;">Given all of that, it makes sense that a certain number of people will possess a whole bunch of natural inclinations that are in direct conflict with culturally prescribed gender stereotypes. It runs a little deeper than can adequately be solved by counseling and telling them to "get over it." If this causes the type of distress that leads to depression, anxiety, and suicide (it does), what's the big deal with giving them inexpensive hormone pills? Or calling them by their preferred names and pronouns? Must we insist on making their lives miserable just because it doesn't fit into our unresearched opinion of how the world should work?</span><br />
<span style="color: red;"></span><br />
<span style="color: red;">For more information about sex and gender, you can consult my favorite field, <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=DfEWAAAAQBAJ&pg=PT176&lpg=PT176&dq=biological+sex+binary+chromosomes+hormones+gonads+genitalia&source=bl&ots=CouwYgOGuG&sig=rHGXB8HTfCuQF5_53qPhb9G0uUo&hl=en&sa=X&ei=Orh8U7CoDYrksATGyIDoAw&ved=0CEkQ6AEwBA#v=onepage&q&f=false">anthropology</a>.</span><br />
<br />
Never mind that. And never mind the smarmy sycophants who mock anyone who questions any part of Darwinian evolutionary theory, yet fall silent, or even join in, when the progressive chorus starts singing about how a man’s biological sex can be “changed” by giving him magic pills and cutting off his penis. <span style="color: red;">Well, that's because a person's sex can, in fact, be changed through medical means. What does Darwinian evolution have to with this? Are you concerned that there are no means by which transgender people can have children (there are), or that the human population isn't increasing fast enough?</span><br />
<br />
Never mind all of that. And never mind the quacks who take advantage of sick people by charging them <span style="color: black;"><u>exorbitant sums of money</u></span> <span style="color: red;">hormonal therapy is inexpensive </span>to deform themselves in pursuit of a goal that is, in every sense, <span style="color: black;"><u>literally unattainable</u></span>. <br />
<br />
Never mind that. And never mind the fact that <u>Bradley</u> <span style="color: red;">Chelsea </span>Manning’s “treatment” will come on the taxpayer’s dime. <span style="color: red;">It's an insignificant amount of money, and it's not any different than any other prisoner's health care.</span> And never mind that Pentagon officials claim it would be “cruel and unusual punishment” to refuse to play along with Manning’s unfortunate <span style="color: black;"><u>hallucinations</u></span>. <span style="color: red;">It is considered cruel and unusual to deny medical treatment to prisoners. Medical professionals have deemed treatment for transgender individuals to be necessary, so take it up with them.</span><br />
<br />
Never mind, also, that we’ve reached a point where “transgendered” folks get to be included under the civil rights banner, further proving how little respect progressives have for the historical plight of black Americans. <span style="color: red;">Man, you have no problem trying to manipulate the feelings of your African American readers, do you? Fortunately, I would assume most of them are smarter than that. You have never made any attempt to hide your utter lack of concern for the historical plight of black Americans. Or their current plight.</span> <span style="color: black;"><u>And never mind that saying you “identify as a woman” when you’re actually a man is exactly like saying you identity as a tomato or a kangaroo when you actually are neither a tomato nor a kangaroo.</u></span> <span style="color: red;">Nope. Not even close to being the same thing.</span><br />
<br />
And never mind every whining, insufferable bully who comments under this post to tell me I’m a bigot for making a series of <span style="color: black;"><u>unassailable, scientifically accurate statements</u></span>. <span style="color: red;">(In Matt's mind, "unassailable, scientifically accurate statements" = "things I believe are true, but have never bothered to confirm against any scientific research.")</span><br />
<br />
And never mind the fool who Tweeted me to say this about the <u>Bradley</u> <span style="color: red;">Chelsea </span>Manning/VA scandal dichotomy: <br />
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<br />
And never mind the despair that sets in when you realize that we are languishing away in a world where <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-27480178">news</a> reports can include sentences like this:<em> “Pte Manning has been diagnosed by military doctors with gender dysphoria, the sense of one’s gender being at odds with the sex assigned at birth.” </em><span style="color: red;">GASP! NO! You mean to tell me that a NEWS report said that Manning was diagnosed by doctors with a condition, and then it defined the condition she had been diagnosed with!?! The news is out of control!</span><br />
<br />
Assigned at birth? ASSIGNED? So now my sex is some superfluous identifier handed down to me by an outside agency at the moment I emerged from my mother’s birth canal? <br />
<br />
Man, when the doctors say “it’s a girl,” I always thought they were merely observing biological traits. But, it turns out, they were <em>assigning</em> biological traits. I guess I can see why doctors sometimes have a God Complex. <br />
<br />
But never mind that.<br />
<br />
The point, here, is one of priorities. <u><span style="color: black;">It’s been known for years — decades, even — that veterans frequently waste away on waiting lists while do-nothing bureaucrats forge documents and cover their tracks.</span></u> Yet nothing was done about it. Nothing. But the first criminal military man who grew out his hair and told the world he’s a she automatically <span style="color: black;"><u>received the undivided attention of the top brass at the Pentagon</u></span>. <span style="color: red;">As always, just saying things doesn't make them true.</span><br />
<br />
Haven’t these pencil pushing cultural Marxists in our government done enough to our troops? They use them, abuse them, send them all over the world for dubious reasons, wielding them like pawns in a global chess match. And then when they get home, battered and broken, their plight is ignored while a cross dressing convict takes center stage. <span style="color: red;">I was going to laugh at your use of the term "cultural Marxists" to describe our government, but then found out that the term is specifically used by Christian conservatives to label anything that they perceive to be in conflict with their conservative, Christian values. (That's actually the scary part; the fact that you spend your day mindlessly repeating the catchphrases of other conservative Christians indicates that, for some of the crazier things you say, there might be other people saying that crazy stuff!) Anyway, I am quite familiar with what cultural Marxism really is, and it has nothing to do with our government. I especially like how you call them cultural Marxists (people who critique power relationships, including those related to the U.S. military) and then immediately go on to complain about how they send the military all over the place.</span><br />
<span style="color: red;"></span><br />
<span style="color: red;">I'm still confused about what you are really upset about here. The government sucks. The American people suck. The media sucks. Sending people all over the world to fight wars on spurious grounds sucks. But also, people who expose what is really going on in these wars also suck.</span><br />
<br />
Our politicians and our president are using our troops like lab rats in the social experimentation lab. They repealed Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, they’re working towards putting women on the front lines, and now transgenders are the next group to get <span style="color: black;"><u>special treatment</u></span> from the sociopaths running this country. None of these things make our military safer and none make it easier for them to do their jobs. That’s because the mission and the man will both gladly be sacrificed on the altar of the Church of Liberalism. <span style="color: red;">So, you still have not managed to explain, at all, how this terrible liberal elite managed to wrest control of every American institution and maintain power, despite the fact that most Americans are conservative Christians and despite the fact that they need corporate money and backing to be elected. Interesting world you live in....</span><br />
<br />
It’s disgusting.<br />
<br />
This whole thing disgust me.<br />
<br />
Every day, I think “things can’t get any crazier,” but then every day this country makes a liar out of me. <span style="color: red;">I'll agree with you. The world, <em>as you see it</em>, really can't get any crazier.</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00665542944467061185noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4353562748320042210.post-24307874031750298162014-05-20T19:58:00.000-07:002014-05-22T07:34:06.567-07:00Quick! Someone raise the minimum wage before this man starves to death! <strong>Matt Walsh writes:</strong><br />
<br />
Someone alert Feed the Children. Jeff, who messaged me this week, is fighting to survive:<br />
<br />
<em>Matt Walsh…. I first started following you when I read your post defending customer service representatives. You also wrote something blasting people who don’t tip, and then last week you wrote criticizing customers who talk on their phones while they’re in the check out aisle. I’m in a the customer service industry so I greatly appreciated these writings. I read them and thought, hey, this guy is on our side. But then last week I saw you Tweet a sarcastic slam against people fighting for a higher minimum wage.</em><br />
<em></em><br />
<em>I went back to see what else you’d said on the subject and discovered a lot of ignorance and hate directed at low wage workers. I realized you’re just a fraud and a liar. You pretend to fight for working class people and to be a “voice of the people” and all that bull sh*t, but then you have a problem with giving us a living wage. I know you’ve never been in our shoes as a big shot wannabe famous blogger, but let me tell you what it’s like to try and live on the poverty level minimum wage. I graduated college a year ago. There were NO JOBS to be found (which you’d know if you had a real job in the first place). Eventually I ended up at a fast food place making minimum wage.</em><br />
<em></em><br />
<em>I want to start a family, get married, have kids, buy a home, buy a more reliable car, do all the things people in America should be able to do. But I can’t. I can barely to pay my bills as it is. I’m stuck and I’m struggling. The movement to raise the minimum wage to 15 dollars an hour would at least allow me to move into my own place and start a life.<br />
</em> <br />
<em><br /></em>
<em>One day maybe I can make money sitting around typing hateful sh*t all day and basically being an assh*le for a living, but right now I don’t have that luxury like you. That’s why I need the minimum wage to be something I can at least survive on. That’s what ALL Americans deserve. If there’s ever a strike or rally in my town, I’ll be there. I’ll be there because of people like you. Or maybe you’d prefer it if all the people serving you food and waiting on you hand and foot just went home and starved to death. I guess that’s what it means to be Christian, right Matt?</em><br />
<em></em><br />
-Jeff.<br />
<br />
Dear Jeff,<br />
<br />
Yes, I’ve certainly only ever lived in luxury. I used to go to sleep in my one bedroom apartment and smile about my privileged existence while I listened to the drug addicts down stairs yell at each other until 3 AM. Sometimes I’d even laugh with radiant joy about my stress-free life, as I cooked some Ramen Noodles while watching the roaches crawl across the counter.<br />
<br />
And, when I couldn’t afford to pay the cable, or to turn on the heat or the air conditioning, and when I spent weeks at a time eating nothing but gas station hot dogs and peanut butter sandwiches, and when I worked two or three jobs at once, never had any vacations, rarely had a weekend off, and when I paid for gas with quarters, and started selling my few possessions on Craiglist so that I could afford rent for the month, and when sat alone at nights in my rundown pad staring at the wall in silence, I used to thank God that I didn’t have as hard a life as you, Jeff.<br />
<br />
Now, here’s the funny thing: even then, I didn’t whine, and I never waved my arms around and screamed about how I was on the verge of starvation.<br />
<br />
I mean, really. For goodness sake, man, get a grip. <br />
<br />
‘Starve to death’?<br />
<br />
Is that a common workplace hazard over at McDonalds? <span style="color: red;">About <a href="http://www.ers.usda.gov/publications/err-economic-research-report/err155.aspx">15% of American households are food insecure</a>, and I would have to assume that there are some McDonald's workers in there. Anyway, Jeff did not say that he, himself, was starving to death. He said that he cannot afford to start a family. Read his letter again.</span> Are you finding that your co-workers often collapse on the floor and whither away from malnutrition? <br />
<br />
<em>“Hey, where’s Steve today? He didn’t show up for his shift.”</em><br />
<em></em><br />
<em>“Oh, Steve starved to death last night. He’ll be out for a while.”</em><br />
<em></em><br />
Is that a conversation that often takes place in your break room? <br />
<br />
It is beyond embarrassing that we live in a country where someone would spend tens of thousands of dollars on a college education <span style="color: red;">often this comes in the form of onerous loans</span>, and then move back in with his parents and complain that he is in a fight for his very survival. <span style="color: red;">But it's not "beyond embarrassing" that we live in a country where so many people with college degrees cannot find anything better than a minimum wage job? In fact, <a href="http://www.bls.gov/cps/minwage2012tbls.htm">nearly 1/5 (18%) of workers 16 and older with minimum wage jobs have at least a bachelor's degree</a> (and if you subtract those aged 16-21, who are not old enough for a college degree, the percentage would be even higher). Given your contempt for anyone who has decided to pursue a college degree, I am sure you will assert that they are not trying hard enough. I have personally known too many hardworking college classmates who had to resort to minimum wage jobs when they graduated to believe that is true. You cannot deny the fact that our economy sucks. <em>We have a real jobs problem</em>. You can't fault someone for getting a college degree (it does provide a better chance of getting past minimum wage, after all), and you can't blame someone if they can't find a decent paying job when they graduate. Personally, I am a hardworking person who has always had at least 2 jobs at once. However, I have been working for years to attain a position and salary level that matches my education, and I am not even close. It is not for lack of trying.</span><br />
<br />
No, Jeff, your survival is not at stake. Sure, one day you’ll die, but I can guarantee that ‘minimum wage’ won’t make it on the autopsy report under ’cause of death.’ <span style="color: red;">Having spent time in the lower income brackets, surely you can't be ignorant of all the major health problems that result from poverty? (see <a href="http://www.epi.org/blog/raising-minimum-wage-improve-public-health/">this</a> and <a href="http://www.irp.wisc.edu/research/health.htm">this</a>) By definition, a living wage is the amount of money people require to meet their most basic needs (food, clothing, shelter, medical care). Minimum wage is currently far below a living wage, so <em>by definition</em> it is not enough to meet a human being's most basic survival needs. But, who am I to tell you that you can't make light of this situation all you want...</span><br />
<br />
So I’d recommend that you stop worrying about how you’ll die, and start worrying about how you’re living. <span style="color: red;">That is exactly what Jeff is worried about. He's talking about getting a house and starting a family.</span><br />
<br />
You want a better life, and I don’t blame you. You want more money, and I don’t blame you. The question before you, Jeff, is how to best achieve those results. <span style="color: red;">So you just spent all this time responding to a claim that Jeff never made about dying, mocking him for his concerns, and acting like being poor isn't such a big deal... and it is not until now that we get to the point where Jeff started. Yes, the question is how can people like Jeff, and people worse off than Jeff (who say, are unable to live with their parents), have a better life? Jeff is saying that raising the minimum will help. He is saying that people who have jobs should <em>at the very least</em> be able to afford their most basic survival needs. <em>At the least</em>. Furthermore, Jeff's claim is supported by the fact that the very situation of living in poverty <em>itself</em> is a barrier to economic mobility. For example, applying for jobs requires money and other resources (reliable transportation, time off work, computing/printing for resumes, nice clothes for the interview, etc.). It is easier to find your way into a better paying job if you have some free time and vacation time, don't have major health issues to worry about, can be somewhat flexible about where you live, have a stable and safe living environment, don't have to worry about how you're going to get to work, and (this is key) already have some relevant job experience in that area.</span><br />
<span style="color: red;"></span><br />
<span style="color: red;">Jeff also points out that you are an anomaly - in fact, you are extremely lucky to be supporting yourself with a blog. EXTREMELY lucky. That is <em>all</em> you owe your success to: pure dumb luck. </span><br />
<span style="color: red;"></span><br />
<span style="color: red;">But I can only assume that, despite all of this, you are still going to council minimum wage workers to just "work harder" or something like that...</span><br />
<br />
As far as I can tell, you have two options:<br />
<br />
1) Continue to use your time surfing the Internet, and writing angry emails to bloggers, and organizing minimum wage protests <span style="color: red;">I believe he said he would join a protest if he found one, not organize it</span>, and sobbing about your tragic lot in life. <span style="color: red;">He was not sobbing about his tragic lot in life. He was saying that he did not appreciate your ignorant posts about these topics.</span> Sit in idle and wait for the government to come along, lift you on its shoulders, and carry you into a paradise of mediocrity. <span style="color: red;">He also did not say anything about the government. He is working, and he is living with his parents.</span> Hope that the law will magically make it possible for entry level burger flippers to afford homes, and cars, and other things that most of us had to actually earn. <span style="color: red;">Wouldn't the concept of "earning" encompass flipping burgers for wages? If he made his money through work, on what basis do you say he hasn't earned it? And once again, given the prevalence of low-skill service-sector jobs in comparison to skilled work, and all the other economic factors that ensure that <em>many adults will have to take these low-skill jobs <strong>no matter what</strong></em>, why is it so unreasonable for a working adult to suggest they should be able to afford a home and a car (especially when both are necessary for work)? Is that really so much to ask? Are you really <em>that</em> resentful about a person wanting a place to live and a means of getting to work?</span><br />
<br />
2) Get over yourself. Stop complaining. Stop treading water and start swimming. <span style="color: red;">And if you apply your approach for getting out of poverty to your children's swim lessons, you will have a couple of dead children. </span> Decide what you want out of life and go chase it. Make sacrifices. Take risks. Move out of town for a new opportunity, or out of state, or out of the hemisphere, if that’s what’s necessary. Realize that there are other jobs out there, but you have to be willing to do them <span style="color: red;">uh, if he is working a minimum wage job, I don't think his "willingness" is the issue here</span>, and first you have to be willing to pursue them. Stop insisting that there are ‘no jobs,’ and pay attention to all of the people somehow finding these openings that you claim don’t exist anywhere in the known galaxy. <span style="color: red;">And remain completely oblivious to the real economic conditions that show it is, in fact, objectively, hard to get a job.</span> Stop seeing yourself as entitled to the American Dream <span style="color: red;">he just wants a home and a family</span> just because you bought a fancy college education <span style="color: red;">man, you are <em>really</em> resentful of his education</span>, and have now spent one measly year in the job market. Stop belittling other people’s accomplishments <span style="color: red;">...like, getting a college degree?</span>, especially when you haven’t yet accomplished much yourself <span style="color: red;">(apply this bit of advice to yourself Matt)</span>. Stop looking for sympathy. Start looking for a path up the mountain — however treacherous, however dangerous, however hard — and get to climbing. <br />
<br />
Those are your choices, friend. <br />
<br />
As usual, one is easy, but the other is right. <br />
<br />
Jeff, I think you should also know that you’re begging for your own firing when you talk about a 15 dollar minimum wage. <span style="color: red;">Yup, asking for a raise is definitely grounds for being fired.</span> You aren’t making 15 bucks an hour pushing buttons and frying potatoes because your labor isn’t worth that kind of money. <span style="color: red;">Actually, if that is how much money is required to make that labor possible - to secure the basic needs for life - then labor is, objectively, worth at least that much. If you are not even paying someone the full cost of what it takes them to make that labor available to you in the first place, you are ripping them off.</span> You’re doing something that most people could do, which means your employer doesn’t have to shell out big bucks <span style="color: red;">(the very minimum that a person needs for basic survival = "big bucks"??)</span> to attract highly skilled candidates to do it. If they <em>were</em> forced to shell out big bucks, they’d either become much more discerning about who they employ, or they’d simply cut to the chase and automate your entire profession. <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">Matt, you know what else most people could do? Word-vomit all their unresearched thoughts about stuff and/or repeat cliched partisan talking points (which for you are pretty much indistinguishable things) on a daily basis. From my past experience working in the food service industry, I would say flipping burgers requires more mental and physical skills (responding with grace to cranky customers, doing mental math when customers give you change after you have already entered the amount in, standing on your feet for 8 hours, scrubbing toilets, figuring out why equipment isn't working, lifting stuff) than your blogging masterpieces require. </span><br />
<br />
See, in the mean world of reality, we are forced to confront the fact that when the government comes in with its Hammer of Economic Justice and starts bludgeoning business owners over the head <span style="color: red;">see, </span><span style="color: red;">if your own earnings were to be reflective of your writing skills, I might actually consider giving you less than a living wage... smh</span>, demanding that all of their lowest skilled workers be given an across-the-board raise, there are real trade-offs that must occur. Even the Congressional Budget Office <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2014/02/minimum-wage-hike-could-cost-of-500k-jobs-cbo-reports/">predicts</a> that half a million jobs will be lost if the federal minimum wage is raised to $10.10.<br />
<br />
If you care to pay a few dollars to purchase <a href="http://www.nber.org/papers/w18681">this </a>180 page study, you’ll find that two leading researchers conducted a thorough investigation and discovered that the vast majority of the most reliable empirical evidence <span style="color: red;">("the vast majority of the most reliable empirical evidence" - HAHAHA. I would love to see what happened if I put that phrase in a research paper.)</span> points to a direct causal link between job loss and minimum wage hikes.<br />
<br />
Of course, your fellow minimum wage proponents are quick to assert that “most of the studies” somehow “prove” otherwise. Next, they’ll probably tell you about a 1994 study out of New Jersey that actually revealed an INCREASE in employment as a result of a minimum wage hike. What they won’t tell you is that these psychotic claims have been thoroughly <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2011/09/16/opinion/saltsman-minimum-wage/">debunked</a>.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: red;">Listen, Matt. You can pretend that you are capable of parsing and evaluating the minutiae of research design and statistical methodologies that the economists on both sides of this argument are quibbling over. However, I think it's pretty obvious that you cannot. Frankly, I would bet you didn't even read that 180 page study. I doubt you were even able to fully comprehend the abstract. What you are doing (and what anyone is capable of doing) is Google searching and picking out the results that you agree with. </span><br />
<span style="color: red;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">Another thing that you <i>can</i> do is look at the big picture - the reality that is more obviously visible. To start, let's do some geographic comparison. If you compare the minimum wage (WG) and unemployment rates (UE) in other countries, you will see there is no strong correlation between the two, which undermines any notion that there is any "direct causal link" between them. Furthermore, if there is a pattern, it's not what you would expect if MW had such a direct, significant impact on employment (this is especially visible if you look within regions). I pulled a bunch of random countries and pasted below (I tried to select countries on the opposite extremes of MW, with a few in the middle; also MW is in U.S. dollars).</span><br />
<span style="color: red;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: red;">Kenya MW $0.25 UE 42%</span><br />
<span style="color: red;">Tajikistan MW $0.30 UE 60%</span><br />
<span style="color: red;">Swaziland MW $0.33 UE 40.6%</span><br />
<span style="color: red;">Senegal MW $0.36 UE 48%</span><br />
<span style="color: red;">Nepal MW $0.45 UE 46%</span><br />
<span style="color: red;">Mozambique MW $0.51 UE 60%</span><br />
<span style="color: red;">Armenia MW $0.65 UE 17.3%</span><br />
<span style="color: red;">Mongolia MW $0.82 UE 12.2%</span><br />
<span style="color: red;">Turkmenistan MW $0.89 UE 70%</span><br />
<span style="color: red;">Morocco MW $0.92 UE 10%</span><br />
<span style="color: red;">Syria MW $1.02 UE 18%</span><br />
<span style="color: red;">Jordan MW $1.29 UE 11.9%</span><br />
<span style="color: red;">Serbia MW $1.31 UE 20.1%</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">Macedonia MW $1.32 UE 28.6%</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">Dominica MW $1.48 UE 23%</span><br />
<span style="color: red;">Costa Rica MW $1.85 UE 7.8%</span><br />
<span style="color: red;">Libya MW $2.06 UE 13%</span><br />
<span style="color: red;">Poland MW $2.07 UE 9.7%</span><br />
<span style="color: red;">Slovakia MW $2.59 UE 13.9%</span><br />
<span style="color: red;">Turkey MW $3.05 UE 9.8%</span><br />
<span style="color: red;">Venezuela MW $3.30 UE 5.6%</span><br />
<span style="color: red;">Saudi Arabia MW $3.85 UE 12.1%</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: red;">Israel MW $5.99 UE 5.9%</span><br />
<span style="color: red;">U.S. MW $7.25 UE 6.3%</span><br />
<span style="color: red;">Japan MW $8.32 UE 3.9%</span><br />
<span style="color: red;">UK MW $10.02 UE 6.8%</span><br />
<span style="color: red;">Netherlands MW $10.99 UE 7.3%</span><br />
<span style="color: red;">San Marino MW $11.49 UE 7.0%</span><br />
<span style="color: red;">New Zealand MW $11.59 UE 6.0%</span><br />
<span style="color: red;">Belgium MW $11.69 UE 8.5%</span><br />
<span style="color: red;">France MW $12.22 UE 10.4%</span><br />
<span style="color: red;">Monaco MW $12.83 UE 0.0%</span><br />
<span style="color: red;">Luxembourg MW $14.24 UE 6.1%</span><br />
<span style="color: red;">Australia MW $16.88 UE 5.8%</span><br />
<span style="color: red;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: red;">We can also look historically. In the post-WW2 era, the two troughs of lowest unemployment occurred in 1969 and 2000. The year 1969 followed a decade of strong union activity and minimum wage increases. If you look at inflation-adjusted minimum wage graphs, you will see that minimum wage reached its peak at around/over $10.00/hr in the mid-to-late 60s, and that was also the strongest the American economy has been in the post-WW2 period. Likewise, the 2000 trough occurred at the end of a decline in unemployment that began with a couple of large minimum wage hikes in 1996 and 1997.</span><br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">Finally, I have already questioned the claim that employers are forced to lay people off to save money when wages increase (I even did some calculations for you to show how it is possible to still be really profitable while paying a living wage.) You are letting people with more money than they could ever spend in their lifetimes convince you that they <i>just wouldn't have enough incentive to run a business</i> if they paid their workers sufficient money to live on. They even spend gobs of that more-money-than-they-could-ever-spend to commission studies showing that it's true. But you don't have to believe them, Matt. In fact, if you look at graphs of inequality, it is pretty obvious. As these people make more money, inequality increases and the economy becomes more unstable. They don't need to pay their workers lower wages so that they can stay in business. They need to pay them less money so that they can be more insanely wealthy <i>even if</i> it harms the economy (less purchasing power/lower demand) in the long run. Look <a href="http://www.cbpp.org/cms/?fa=view&id=3629">here</a> and pay special attention to figures 3 and 5 - particularly to what happens to the concentration of wealth prior to the economic collapses of 1929 and 2008. In fact, you can find similar graphs of this data in many other places.</span><br />
<span style="color: red;"></span><br />
<span style="color: red;">People with lots of money use all the resources at their disposal to convince everyone else that <em>anything</em> that might challenge the status quo (raise taxes, raise minimum wage, etc.) will make it impossible for businesses to stay afloat and, hence, destroy society. And many people believe them because they don't understand how the economy works and many of their sources of information are ultimately influenced, directly or indirectly, by those people with money. However, if one looks historically, it is pretty easy to see that wealth does not trickle down, that all the things that are "favorable to business" at the direct expense of everyone else just increase inequality and economic instability, and that significantly "lowering the burden" of regulations and taxes has culminated, twice in the last century, in major economic crises. The period of strongest economic growth saw increased taxes on the highest brackets and increases in minimum wage.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">Like always, though, there is a broader issue that I am more concerned about. Say you are right and a minimum wage hike will directly increase unemployment. You are okay with that? You're willing to accept that? Do you see absolutely nothing wrong with a society that is structured to force a choice between paying lots of people less money than they require to live, or leaving lots of people without any jobs at all? Is that really the best system we can come up with? And must our highest priority really be some abstract concept of "growth" (without any apparent ultimate goal or limit) and a personified, sanctified "market" that we believe acts independently of real people making real choices? Personally, I willingly pay more for things when I know that the people who made them received higher wages. Are not other people capable of making the same decisions? Do we really want to make our model of a human being the cold, calculating individual who cares about nothing more than personal gain? Or can we build our society with the standard and expectation that human beings are moral creatures who make decisions based on what they believe is ethical and in other people's best interest as well? We act like consumers and CEOs "can't help" but make choices that sacrifice the lives of many people in order to maximize their savings and profits. We talk as if it were all mechanized and beyond anyone's control. Don't you, Matt, as a Christian, believe that we can all act better than that? Are there not things we can value more highly than maximized profits and the latest iPhone? Like... the lives of other human beings?</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">Or is it only <i>before</i> they're born that you care about the lives of human beings?</span><br />
<br />
But this is all academic. <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">It's actually getting kind of funny, how often you think you are being "academic."</span> It doesn’t matter to you. <span style="color: red;">Says the one who makes fun of college graduates, to the person who went to college.</span><br />
<br />
Put it aside, and go do something with your life. <span style="color: red;">And, working is.... not doing something with your life?</span><br />
<br />
I’m sure you have skills that a lot of people don’t have — that’s why I encourage you to forget about the minimum wage and dedicate all of your available time and energy towards finding a spot in a field that allows you to utilize them. <span style="color: red;">Matt... what could you possibly know about finding a spot to use skills from a college education? You say it because it sounds good, but you have never done it. You worked low-paying jobs just like Jeff (though you criticize him for it). Then you happened to get really lucky when lots of people started reading your blog. So much for <em>your</em> thoughts on the matter. Let's look at what another young man named Matt Walsh once (in March of 2014) had to say: "<span style="color: red;">Can't find a cushy, high paying job with competitive benefits and three weeks paid vacation every year? Join the club, your Highness. Now go flip a burger, dig a ditch, mop a floor. Something. ANYTHING." [Either Matt Walsh has multiple personalities, or he just expresses whatever opinions happen to suit his purposes at the moment.]</span> </span> You’re correct that everyone is worth more than nine bucks an hour, but that doesn’t mean that everyone is worth more than nine bucks an hour while performing a task that a child could just as easily perform. <span style="color: red;">So if those are the only jobs available to a person... it's their fault? They should accept less than what they're worth because society is giving them less than what they're worth?</span><br />
<span style="color: red;"></span><br />
Albert Einstein was a moderately gifted dude, but if he rose from the grave, knocked on my door, and asked for a job washing my windows, I’d still only pay him the going rate for residential window washers. <span style="color: red;">That's not the point. The point is that, if Einstein doesn't have many options available at the moment but is nevertheless working and contributing <em>something</em> to society, he should be able to afford basic necessities.</span> Einstein was valuable when he was doing that thing which only Einstein could do (unlocking secrets of the universe, styling his hair to give it that ‘just electrocuted’ look, etc.) but he’d be equally as cheap and expendable <span style="color: red;">ouch</span> as the next guy when doing things that anyone could do. <br />
<br />
Jeff, even though you hurt my feeling <span style="color: red;">awww... so you do have one feeling? What is that feeling, anger or resentment?</span> and said mean things about me, I still want you to succeed in life. I want you to find that spot where you can blossom. I want you to be The Einstein of something. <br />
But, until then, I regret to inform you that you are being paid exactly what you deserve. <br />
<br />
Sincerely,<br />
<br />
MattAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00665542944467061185noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4353562748320042210.post-20566514549778573282014-05-15T19:59:00.002-07:002014-05-16T12:24:42.470-07:00The problem with voter ID laws is that they don’t make it hard enough to vote<strong>Matt Walsh writes:</strong><br />
<br />
It’s everyone’s favorite form of irony – the one where you reveal your own prejudice by calling someone else prejudiced.<br />
<br />
It usually looks like this:<br />
<br />
<strong>Person A:</strong> <em>“Man, I really dislike it when people murder their pet hamsters!”</em><br />
<em></em><br />
<strong>Person B:</strong> <em>“Hey! Why do you hate Australians?”</em><br />
<em></em><br />
In this realistic example, Person A has expressed a general anti-hamster-killing sentiment, which Person B interprets as a verbal assault on the people of Australia. In so doing, Person B has exposed his own disturbing belief that Aussies are particularly inclined to slaughter innocent hamsters, which makes any anti-hamster-murder statement a direct attack against anyone of Australian descent. <span style="color: red;">You may make light of the fact that your examples always tend to be so far removed from reality as to be nonsensical... yet it demonstrates how little you value historical and social context in analyzing these discussions.</span><br />
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Next thing you know, we can’t even make laws to protect hamsters because the legislation would be seen as discriminatory against a group of people who, if you asked them, probably aren’t particularly pleased about being unfairly associated with the mass genocide of domesticated rodents. That is until, after a while, even Australians begin to believe that crushing hamsters must be an integral part of their heritage and culture, as everyone else keeps insisting is the case.<br />
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This is all just an unnecessarily bizarre way of illustrating how progressives tend to argue their point. They take some illegal, illogical, unethical, or morally repugnant act, and confidently declare that act to be universally sacred amongst an entire racial, ethnic, or gender group — often to the protest of many in the group itself. Suddenly, those who disagree with their ideas are automatically in disagreement with the very existence of whatever demographic progressives have deemed as inherently opposed to decency and virtue. <span style="color: red;">Nope, I'm pretty sure that is not what they argue. Try again.</span><br />
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Hence, for example, if you argue in favor of protecting the unborn, you are ‘against women,’ even though many women are pro-life. <span style="color: red;">No, specifically what those people say is you are "against women's right to choose." Regardless of whether you agree with it, there is more to that whole argument than just simply assuming most women are pro-choice or that all women get abortions.</span> You can’t argue in favor of protecting the border without being ‘anti-Hispanic,’ even though many Hispanics understand the importance of immigration laws (which is why they have very strict ones in their own countries). <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">Usually the response to that argument has more to do with how deportation tears families apart and stuff, but whatever. On another note</span><span style="color: red;">, it's funny how often I mention the undocumented immigrants in my family in response to anti-immigrant comments, and get the reply, "That's okay. They're not Mexican." Seriously. I believe that a certain number of people who are in a big tizzy about immigrants are motivated by ideas about racial purity <em>only because</em> I have heard so many people be very explicit about it. And also, because it contradicts the free market ideology (which necessitates a free labor market) that conservative-minded people generally tend to support. And because their fears seem to be unrelated to any evidence whatsoever - for example, their fears seem not to be allayed by the fact that immigration from Mexico has been dropping precipitously. Also, if you're going to bring up what many Latinos think about immigration, you should look at their views about <em>American</em> immigration laws; because then you'll see that many of them are, in fact, on the same side as the Progressives you abhor. </span> If you criticize the Welfare State you are racist against blacks, even though many black people have never been on welfare. <span style="color: red;">In this example, what I generally hear argued is facts and stats about why welfare is important. It is when <em>opponents</em> of welfare, all on their own accord without any prompting (much like the supporters of harsh immigration laws) invoke racial imagery and stereotypes, that other people start to think they are racist. Once again, it is <em>only because</em> opponents of welfare often (though by no means always) make racist comments <em>while</em> they are attacking welfare, that other people believe their concerns about welfare are <em>racially motivated</em>.</span><br />
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It is an ugly and derogatory picture they paint. In the Progressive World, women are inherently interested in killing their children <span style="color: red;">no!</span>, Hispanics are genetically predisposed towards open border anarchism <span style="color: red;">no!</span>, and black people are naturally dependent upon the redistributive schemes of white liberal politicians. <span style="color: red;">Are you kidding me? Do you ever really listen to anyone who doesn't share your political views? (I know, I know, I have to keep reminding myself that you are saying extreme and idiotic things to get page views and to make money...)</span><br />
<br />
This is not my view — this is their view. <span style="color: red;">No. In fact, if it's likely to be <em>anyone's</em> view at all, it would be extremely racist/sexist people who wouldn't even pretend to be liberal.</span> It’s belittling, dishonest, demeaning, and, most of all, bigoted. That’s why the white liberal man is such a difficult creature to tolerate. He sits atop his perch, feeling quite proud and magnanimous in his position as White Savior to these women who can’t be expected to refrain from killing their children, and these ethnic minorities who can’t be expected to follow the law or take care of themselves or get into college on their own merits. <span style="color: red;">So, in your view, these Progressives are white men? No significant number of women and people of color? Because if women and people of color make up a good number of the Liberals you are attacking (people who make certain types of arguments about abortion, immigration, and welfare) then that would kind of undermine your claim that it is all some sort of bigoted White Savoir thing, right?</span><br />
<br />
Now, with this in mind, we understand why racist white liberals have decreed that black people don’t know how to obtain a driver’s license, and anyone who thinks a driver’s license ought to be required for voting must be involved in a nefarious conspiracy to suppress the black vote. <span style="color: red;">[And, in Matt Walsh's mind, opposition to voter ID laws is purely the agenda of white liberals, and not at all something that many black people are opposed to, for the exact same reasons.] Actually, Matt, I do not believe that any voter ID opponent ever at any point has argued that black people don't know how to obtain a driver's license. In fact, to them, it seems the <em>cause</em> of this reality is irrelevant. What is relevant is the <strong>fact</strong> that the people impacted would very disproportionately be the very same people whose votes were suppressed throughout American history by a variety (some blatant, some more subtle) of means.</span><br />
<br />
Voter ID laws are racist, they <a href="http://www.policymic.com/articles/71947/virginia-s-racist-voter-id-law-is-a-chilling-step-towards-jim-crow-america">claim</a>. To ask people to produce a photo identification before voting is a ‘step toward Jim Crow laws.’<br />
<br />
They’ve made this enormously stupid argument so many times, that even guys like <a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2014/05/rand-paul-voter-id-comments-106665.html">Rand Paul </a>have been scared away from protecting the integrity of the voting process. We wouldn’t want to “offend,” he says.<br />
<br />
The anti-Voter ID folks will point out that a minority person – particularly a minority woman – is statistically less likely to have an ID than a white dude. This might be true, but it’s irrelevant. Whatever the requirement, in whatever situation, there’s always going to be some group statistically less likely to meet it. By progressive logic, every requirement is therefore prejudiced and ethnocentric<br />
<br />
<span style="color: red;">No, you are absolutely wrong. This where history and social context (those things that you so love to ignore) come into play. People deem requirements prejudiced only when there is tons of evidence that they reflect the continuation of a long history of barring said group from some social institution, or some aspect of civil society. Like, when the requirements are not necessary, and there has been more than a hundred years of different sorts of requirements being enacted that affect that <em>same group of people</em>, for the express purpose of disenfranchising them, and when formerly that group of people was treated as sub-human and barred by law from participating in most facets of society.</span><br />
.<br />
Your grandmother is statistically more likely to drive the speed limit than I am, but that doesn’t mean speed limit laws are an evil plot against me. <span style="color: red;">Because there are no historical or social circumstances to suggest that anyone systematically benefits from giving you (and you in particular) speeding tickets. Sorry Matt, your examples are consistently terrible.</span><br />
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Now, if there ever were a law that assigned a DIFFERENT speed limit to me, or a different speed limit to 27-year-old middle class white dudes in general, then I’d have a case. But, as it stands, we all are under the same tyrannical thumb of the same tyrannical speed limits, which means, by definition, they don’t discriminate. <br />
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Of course, this is a difficult concept for many to understand because we live in a country that views equality under the law as some kind of reverse psychology ploy. <span style="color: red;">What does this statement even mean?</span> That’s why we end up with people who support things like Affirmative Action, and don’t support things like protecting against voter fraud.<br />
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<span style="color: red;">Listen. The reason why some people might not be so concerned about protecting against voter fraud is because <em>it so rarely happens</em>! It is so statistically insignificant that there is no conceivable reason why anyone should get that passionate about it, if not for other motives.</span><br />
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I suppose this all academic <span style="color: red;">I don't know why you are so concerned that things you discuss might be academic</span>, as I’m not convinced that the People Without ID category actually exists. I don’t care what the polling data tells me. I simply can’t understand how anyone between the ages of 18 and approximately 112 could possibly function in modern society without a form of photo identification. This certainly isn’t a positive dynamic, but it’s the reality nonetheless. <span style="color: red;">[Matt Walsh argument: they don't exist! No they do exist; it's reality.]</span> <span style="color: red;">See, going back to that previous conversation about Why Do People Complain About Me Commenting On Certain Subjects? - this is an instance where you, as a white man with a particular background, seriously lack the knowledge necessary to make any insightful comments on this topic. Oh, you can't understand why anyone wouldn't have an ID? Well, that must mean that there could be no valid reason for this reality. Let's call it a day. No need to understand the perspectives of the type of people who might be or are in this situation. They are clearly worthless vermin who don't deserve a voice anyway. </span><br />
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Instead of worrying that an adult without an ID will be barred from voting, let’s worry about the fact that this is an adult who can’t legally drive, buy a car, rent a car, rent an apartment, buy a house, get on an airplane, get married, purchase a gun, purchase alcohol, purchase cigarettes, pick up a prescription<span style="color: red;"> you do not need an ID to pick up a prescription</span>, purchase cough medicine at the supermarket, apply for a job <span style="color: red;">you do not need an ID to apply for a job</span>, apply for food stamps, open a bank account, purchase automobile insurance <span style="color: red;">you do not need an ID to purchase car insurance</span>, or do any number of other things that most adults do on a daily basis. <span style="color: red;">Unfortunately, worrying about this would entail contemplating the devastating impact that poverty has on people's lives, having compassion on poor people, and seeking systemic changes to combat poverty (the last of which, I know, you are utterly against).</span><br />
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If we’re going to start cutting back on ID requirements, let’s first stop asking the potbellied, balding, bearded fellow to show his license for a pack of Coors, before we worry about relieving the burden from the Latino guy with a thick accent who has to so unjustly prove he’s a legal citizen before participating in our elections. <span style="color: red;">See Matt - <em>you're</em> the one randomly bringing racial stereotypes into this conversation (thus, legitimizing any accusations concerning your attitudes about race). Who says that the very few cases of voter fraud are committed by undocumented Latino immigrants (who, by the way, have very thick accents)? Perhaps that's your fantasy (or fear). <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/decision2012/selling-votes-is-common-type-of-election-fraud/2012/10/01/f8f5045a-071d-11e2-81ba-ffe35a7b6542_story.html">This</a> is the reality.</span><br />
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But that’s not to say that I support voter ID because I’m worried about voter fraud. <span style="color: red;">Based on the evidence (e.g. see link above) you have no reason to be worried about voter fraud.</span> I mean, I am worried about voter fraud, but that isn’t the primary reason I stand in favor. I’m in favor of voter ID because it takes a small, insignificant measure of effort to obtain an ID, and I believe that voting should probably involve a small, insignificant measure of effort. <span style="color: red;">Doesn't taking time off work and driving to the local elementary school represent a small, insignificant amount of effort? Why do we need to add on other things? And why specifically an ID? It really doesn't take that much effort to buy a slinky, so if effort is what really counts, why don't we make slinkies a requirement for voting?</span><br />
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In fact, if I had my way, you’d need to produce much more than a license to vote. You’d have to pass an elementary level civics test and then identify by name, at the very least, the Secretary of State, the Vice President, and the Speaker of the House. Next you’d be quizzed on a few current events. Finally, all votes would be cast in essay form. You’d be asked for your choice, and then 6 sentences explaining why you made that choice. There would be no wrong answer, as long as you have an answer. People who cannot even articulate the reasoning behind their vote don’t deserve to vote in the first place. <span style="color: red;">You assume that people who are not literate, or even those who cannot express themselves well in writing, are necessarily incapable of understanding important things about the world they live in, and what changes are necessary to improve it. Following Emancipation most African Americans were illiterate, but they sure as heck were aware of the social/political environment.</span><br />
<span style="color: red;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: red;">Also, who gets to determine what these standards are? Because if I were setting standards (not that I agree with this practice at all) you would not be able to vote, Matt. Your inability to logically order your thoughts, your propensity to mindlessly parrot partisan talking points without really listening to all sides of the debate, your lack of knowledge concerning significant chunks of American history and society (e.g. the Civil Rights Movement), and your lack of practical knowledge (what is needed to get a prescription filled or fill out a job application) would render you not fit to contribute to important decision-making.</span><br />
<br />
I imagine these easy tests would disqualify about half of the people who show up on election day, sending our voter turnout numbers plummeting into the basement. And that, my friends, would be a wonderful day in the Republic. <span style="color: red;">I will just let this paragraph stand for itself, without comment.</span><br />
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See, we worry about “voter fraud,” when “voter ignorance” and “voter apathy” and “voter just showed up to get an ‘I voted’ sticker” are much greater threats to the integrity of our democratic process. <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">Wait, so now you are arguing that voter fraud really isn't that big of a deal? I'm confused. (By the way, do you know anyone who has gone to vote only to get a sticker, or are you making that up?)</span><br />
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The system isn’t rigged. It doesn’t have to be. The Powers That Be know that, you, the Rare Informed Voter, are a disastrous threat to their dominion over us. They WOULD rig the voting system if Informed Voters were the only ones turning out. But that isn’t the case. Instead, they drown your vote in a sea of obliviousness by towing in truckloads of nincompoops, who pour into the polling places and proudly push random buttons, rendering your thoughtful, knowledge-based votes moot. <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;"> Actually, The Powers That Be who set up the election process were <i>terrified</i> of the "lowly masses," and created the electoral college as a safeguard. But more importantly, if these are your real beliefs, I am having a hard time understanding your view of society. So, first of all, most people are stupid. Humans are, on the whole, stupid. (Nevermind the feats of collective ingenuity that allowed humans to adapt to virtually every environment on earth...) But also, stupid people just so happen to vote all alike, and exactly in alignment with the interests of the elites, so the elites can sit pretty. Therefore, stupid people should not be allowed to vote. But if stupid people didn't vote, the elites would just rig the system anyway.</span><br />
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We act as though voting is this Mystical Rite in which we all must partake; the health of our nation rests on our ability to shovel as many warm bodies into the voting booth as possible. The reality, of course, is the exact opposite. Voting is a tool, not a sacrament. We use it to select the people who will pass laws and make important decisions. There’s nothing inherently virtuous about taking part in that task just for the sake of it. Take part if you have something useful and constructive to contribute. Otherwise, stay home, for the good of the nation.<br />
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Voting is also not an insoluble constitutional right. The constitution guarantees, as well it should, that you can’t be denied the vote based on race or gender, but it never says anything about being denied based on lack of effort or understanding. After all, many states disqualify people from voting, or restrict their voting rights, for other reasons. Notably, in many places ex-cons are either permanently barred, or temporarily prohibited, from voting. <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">Yeah, that's a racial issue as well - one that has already been taken up by civil rights activists.</span><br />
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Maybe, in a sane society, we’d stop indiscriminately eliminating the voting rights of felons, and start discriminately eliminating the voting rights of fools. <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">Well, we tried eliminating the reproductive rights of fools (via forced sterilization) but it turned out that we defined "fools" as black, Native American, Puerto Rican, and poor.</span><br />
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But these are pipe dreams, I realize. <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">Thank God.</span><br />
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Our politicians would never go for a plan like this. <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">You really think politicians are the ultimate powers here? Who do you think gives them the buttloads of money that they need to win elections?</span><br />
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They have a vested interest in encouraging people who don’t understand the process to participate in the process. Ignorance is the most trusty tool of their trade.<br />
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Pretty soon, I imagine, you won’t even have to leave your house to vote. It will be so easy and accessible, you can simply walk outside and shout a name into the heavens. An NSA satellite will detect and tabulate your selection. But maybe even that’s too much to ask of our fellow citizens. Perhaps, one day, we can shuffle to the window in our pajamas and let out an unintelligible grunt, and the NSA satellites will interpret our mutterings for us.<br />
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It will be perfect. One hundred percent voter participation. Zero percent voter comprehension or effort.<br />
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And the best part is that nobody will have to show an ID.<br />
_____________________________<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">So, here's a recap if you need one. Matt Walsh attempts to address the views of Progressives concerning voter ID laws (via their response to the arguments of those who support the laws - because, of course, Progressives have thoughts only <i>in reaction to</i> conservative beliefs; they have no cognitive framework of their own). However, Matt completely neglects to address any of the <b>real arguments</b> that are frequently made by those who oppose the laws (namely, the infrequency of voter fraud, the history of trying to suppress the black vote). Instead, Matt Walsh says that people who oppose voter ID laws are white men who think that black people are too inept to get IDs. And also, most people are really stupid, so really we should prevent a majority of people in this country from voting. </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">Democracy!</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00665542944467061185noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4353562748320042210.post-62893632519217738232014-05-12T09:16:00.002-07:002014-05-12T10:01:11.130-07:00This is my homophobic rant against Michael Sam <span style="color: red;">In this post, Matt Walsh is upset by all the attention Michael Sam is getting. Now, while I myself am no fan of gratuitous use of the word "hero" and I generally don't believe professional sports is worthy of all the attention it receives, I would like to once again point out how Matt Walsh displays his total ignorance of The Gay Agenda (sorry, couldn't resist).</span><br />
<span style="color: red;"></span><br />
<span style="color: red;">One of Matt's main points is that, if gay rights activists' mantra is that their sexuality is "nobody's business" then they should not be allowed to publicly discuss any matters pertaining to the LGBT community. Now, as it turns out, I am not aware of any such mantra. Maybe a couple decades ago, back in the era of Don't Ask Don't Tell, when the most pressing concerning of many gay individuals was to avoid punishment for their sexual orientation (where the existence of anti-sodomy laws could very well be met with cries of, "stay out of my bedroom!"). However, with many of these more immediate threats removed, the gay rights movement has come to focus primarily on its long-term goal of achieving equal rights under the law. Equal rights. That is the "gay agenda" (and the "black agenda" and the "female agenda"). </span><br />
<span style="color: red;"></span><br />
<span style="color: red;">(And by the way, since the wounds from the DADT/Anti-Sodomy/Free-to-Discriminate period are still very fresh, that might make it more understandable why people find some reason to celebrate when gay women and men break new barriers.)</span><br />
<span style="color: red;"></span><br />
<span style="color: red;">So no, supporters of gay rights are not saying "stay out of my business." That is what Matt would like them to want (the Don't Ask Don't Tell era was probably very convenient and comfortable for people like Matt). What gay rights advocates are clearly asking for now is the ability to be treated equally under the law; to have normal relationships without facing any sort of discrimination or harassment. So demanding, I know.</span><br />
<span style="color: red;"></span><br />
<span style="color: red;">Part of what a normal relationship entails, in addition to certain legal rights (to marry, to adopt, etc.), is that you do not have to hide your relationship from the public. Straight couples clearly do not feel the need to keep their own relationships private. Matt Walsh loves blogging about his wife. Spouses of politicians are pretty much <em>required</em> to appear in front of the camera and be a significant part of the whole PR apparatus. Nothing about American culture holds relationships as a private matter.</span><br />
<span style="color: red;"></span><br />
<span style="color: red;">Now, of course, part of the problem is that Matt Walsh seems to conflate "relationship" with "sex" when it comes to same-gender couples. Can he not conceive of the possibility of two people of the same gender having a relationship that is based on something more than sex? Yes, it is true, we (well, most of us, hopefully) don't want to hear about the sex life of Michael Sam or any other gay person - as much as we don't need to hear about straight couple's sex lives - but that doesn't mean we have a problem with the visibility of their <em>relationships</em>.</span><br />
<span style="color: red;"></span><br />
<span style="color: red;">As to the assertions about Sam's qualifications and how other matters (e.g. Tebow) have been handled, I cannot make any comments owing to my complete ignorance about football. Yet, Matt does make one other primary claim that I can address. In fact, he seems obsessed with this idea and has blogged about it before. He thinks that the gay rights movement is trying to control speech and has somehow commandeered the media and Hollywood any other institution that might aid in that goal. He feels like homophobic (or, in Matt's point of view, "traditional" or "orthodox") Christians are not able to freely expressed their views. They are bullied into silence.</span><br />
<span style="color: red;"></span><br />
<span style="color: red;">I will just remind Matt that, despite all the public outcry against Phil Robertson's homophobic remarks, the show remained on the air, it remained popular, its merchandise remained in stores, the family still appears on the covers of magazines, and they recently made an appearance at the White House Correspondents Dinner. So much for being "under attack"!</span><br />
<span style="color: red;"></span><br />
<span style="color: red;">And of course, Matt is still free to write blog posts that are not supportive of gay rights, and he gets many page views and many adulatory comments. He doesn't seem to feel "threatened" enough to curtail his own speech. </span><br />
<span style="color: red;"></span><br />
<span style="color: red;">And then, as Matt notes himself in a post a few days ago, you have the wildly popular conservative media like Fox News and talk radio shows (which are certainly not getting all excited and celebratory about Michael Sam). I wonder how Matt is able to reconcile these conflicting thoughts: a) that liberals control the media and stifle the free speech of conservatives; and b) conservative media are so much more popular than liberal media, as reflective of the views of the general American population.</span><br />
<span style="color: red;"></span><br />
<span style="color: red;">But I have another question for Matt. Surely, after all that he has written, he is just as aware as I am that the amount of media attention a given story receives is not in any proportion to its importance? Where are the stories about the conflict in the Central African Republic, the violence spilling into Lebanon from Syria, the potential consequences of the Trans-Pacific Partnership? (This is not, of course, to say that discussions about race, gender, and sexual orientation are unimportant, but these topics are woefully mishandled by the media in a way that generally does not lend itself to thoughtful reflection.) I do not sit around getting upset when particular stories receive a lot of attention. I do not whine and rant, like Matt does. I expect it, and then I supplement my news intake with other sources of information. I just do not understand Matt's <strong>outrage</strong> when the media focuses on a particular story that he deems to be trivial. Shouldn't his ire be directed at the corporations that run the media and make profit (and therefore superficial entertainment) the driving force of its content? Or would that conflict too much with his extreme (though certainly at times conflicted) <em>laissez faire</em> ideology? </span><br />
<span style="color: red;"></span><br />
<span style="color: red;">Is it just easier for him, in order to maintain some semblance of ideological consistency, to blame the all-powerful gay rights activists?</span><br />
<span style="color: red;"></span><br />
<br />
<strong>Matt Walsh writes:</strong><br />
<br />
Let’s just cut to the chase. We’ve all read this script before. <br />
<br />
If you do anything less than fall to your knees weeping tears of jubilation that a man who is sexually attracted to men was picked to play a game for a living — you’re a homophobe.<br />
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It doesn’t really matter <em>why</em> you aren’t joining in the celebration, or why you aren’t using words like ‘historic’ and ‘revolutionary’ to describe a scenario where a homosexual fellow plays a sport with some other fellows, and is paid handsomely and applauded loudly for doing so. <br />
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It doesn’t matter what reasoning you provide, or what sort of logic you employ, when attempting to explain why Michael Sam’s likeness shouldn’t necessarily be etched into Mount Rushmore just because he took it upon himself to alert the media of his sexual habits a few months before being selected in the 7th round of the NFL Draft. <br />
<br />
It doesn’t matter what you say when trying to articulate why the President of the United States of America probably doesn’t need to release an official White House statement to congratulate someone for being gay and athletic. <br />
<br />
It doesn’t matter. None of it matters. Nothing is acceptable but complete and total adherence to the prevailing cultural dogma. You are only allowed to think a certain way about these kinds of things. Any thought, or statement, or phrase, or utterance that deviates from the zeitgeist by even the slightest degree will earn you the label of homophobic bigot, and that’s just all there is to it. <br />
<br />
So, while I’m not a bigot, and while I’m not ‘homophobic,’ and while I generally carry about my day very much unconcerned with the sexual proclivities of football players from Missouri, I nonetheless feel the need to be a voice of reason amidst this whole spectacularly ridiculous charade. Therefore, I will be called a bigot, because that’s how America has been trained to react to anyone who questions popular opinion.<br />
<br />
So be it. <br />
<br />
I don’t care. <br />
<br />
I really don’t. <br />
<br />
I’m not celebrating Michael Sam, I don’t think anything historic occurred at any point during the NFL Draft (besides the fact that the Raiders actually made a few good decisions), I find this spectacle to be rather embarrassing, I question the motivations of everyone involved, including Michael Sam, and I’ll give you several reasons why:<br />
<br />
1) You don’t get to have it both ways. You can tell me that your sexuality is nobody’s business — what you do in your bedroom is between you and whoever you do it with — and I’ll agree. I’ve never taken it upon myself to approach a group of strangers and survey them about their carnal propensities. In my life, I’ve probably had thousands of conversations with thousands of different people. Of those thousands, I can safely say that not once have I begun the exchange by saying, <em>“Hello, my name is Matt. Do you sleep with people of the same gender?” </em><br />
<br />
Seriously, that’s never happened. OK, maybe I can’t say never, but rarely. The point is, I <em>usually</em> don’t grab strangers by their shirt collars and demand that they paint me a vivid portrait of their erotic activities. <br />
<br />
Your sexuality is none of my business, right? Yes. Fine. Sounds good to me. <br />
<br />
But this “none of my business” shtick is a two way street, friend. What exactly does it mean for a thing to be “none of my business” when you’re holding a press conference and proclaiming it to the entire world? <br />
<br />
<em>“Hey, this is personal, man. That’s why I’m throwing a parade, alerting the media, issuing a press release, having t-shirts printed, and booking an interview on 20/20.” </em><br />
<em></em><br />
<strong>Personal business.</strong> You keep using that phrase. I don’t think it means what you think it means. <br />
Michael Sam, apparently, ‘came out’ to his teammates a year ago. By all accounts, they took it well, nobody really cared, and everything continued on as normal. Sam wasn’t hiding in fear and he wasn’t being forced to suppress or disguise anything. But then, mere months before the draft, he decided to declare himself to ESPN and the New York Times.<br />
<br />
I remember seeing this headline back in February: “<a href="http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap2000000324603/article/michael-sam-nfl-draft-prospect-announces-hes-gay"><span style="color: #26a9e1;">Michael Sam Announces He’s Gay</span></a>”<br />
<br />
My first thought: OK, was anybody asking?<br />
<br />
The man pursued national media outlets and, without being provoked or solicited, ‘announced’ his sexual desires to the nation. Why? Because it’s none of our business? Because we should feel nothing and have no opinion on the matter? <br />
<br />
No, of course not. We are supposed to feel something, and we are supposed to have an opinion, but they must be the <em>right</em> feelings and the <em>right</em> opinions. <br />
<br />
That’s the point here. <br />
<br />
If you simply wish to be accepted, perhaps you’d discuss these private details with those closest to you. If you wish to be celebrated, you throw yourself a party and call the press. <br />
<br />
Michael Sam chose the latter.<br />
<br />
2) I don’t know Michael Sam. I know more about Michael Sam than I need to, but I don’t know him as a man. He might be brave, for all I know. Maybe he’s rescued kittens from burning buildings, maybe he’s jumped in front of bullets. I’m not saying that he’s not a hero, but I am saying that telling the world about his sex life sure doesn’t make him one. Ellen Page, Jason Collins, Michael Sam — all of these people were greeted by applause and adulation from all across the country. They were hoisted up and canonized by pop culture, most of mainstream society, most major corporations, most of the media, most of academia, most of our politicians, and the President of the United States of America. Their ‘announcements’ instantly ensured them a protected status and, particularly in the case of Collins and Sam, a fame and cultural relevance they would not have otherwise achieved. The criticisms will come from the fringes, and those critics will be drowned out and beaten back by a shouting, venomous mob of dogmatic progressive zealots. <br />
<br />
Liberal blogs made much ado about the few random <a href="http://deadspin.com/ugly-america-responds-to-michael-sam-kissing-a-man-on-e-1574591627"><span style="color: #26a9e1;">Tweets </span></a>they could find from people expressing disgust about Sam kissing his boyfriend. What these instigators won’t mention is that, in order to get to the ‘bad people,’ they had to wade through thousands of Twitter users falling over themselves in a competition to see who could use the most glowing adjectives to describe watching two men smooch on Sportscenter.<br />
<br />
There’s nothing brave about any of this. You can’t measure a man’s bravery by his ability to endure high-fives and congratulations from millions of fawning fans. <br />
<br />
And heroic? <br />
<br />
To call this heroic is to obliterate the meaning of the word. I’m sure Sam will hear some taunts and jeers, but the people taunting and jeering will be swiftly and immediately punished. He also won’t encounter anywhere near the level of accepted mockery and derision that another well known football player faced, which brings us to…<br />
<br />
3) Plenty of people have already said it, but it’s true that many of the Michael Sam cheerleaders are hypocrites of the lowest sort. Say what you will about Tim Tebow; one thing you can’t deny is that the dude was told loudly, harshly, and frequently, to ‘keep his religion to himself.’ Football isn’t a place for religion, they said. <br />
<br />
But football <em>is</em> a place for sexual identity discussions? <br />
<br />
Other NFL players, like <a href="http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2011/11/21/jake-plummer-wishes-tim-tebow-would-cut-down-on-the-religion-talk/"><span style="color: #26a9e1;">Jake Plummer</span></a>, said they wished Tebow would “shut up” with the Jesus talk. To my knowledge, Plummer was never fined or even chastised for making those statements. Most people just nodded their head in agreement. <br />
<br />
Will players who tell Sam to “shut up” with the gay talk be treated as leniently? I guess that question has already been answered. One Miami Dolphin sent out a two word <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/Sports/dolphin-twitter-trouble/story?id=23670999"><span style="color: #26a9e1;">disparaging</span></a> Tweet when ESPN spent 26 hours airing footage of the now famous same-sex kiss. The offender has since been fined and banned from the team until he undergoes <a href="http://www.breitbart.com/Breitbart-Sports/2014/05/11/Dolphins-Fine-Send-Player-to-Educational-Training-for-Negative-Tweets-About-Michael-Sam"><span style="color: #26a9e1;">‘educational training.’ </span></a> Ex-NFLer Derrick Ward expressed his view that ESPN shouldn’t have aired the kiss, and now people are threatening to <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2014/05/12/us/michael-sam-nfl-kiss-reaction/"><span style="color: #26a9e1;">kill him</span></a> because of it.<br />
<br />
The double standard is so obvious, so inevitable, and so common that I’m bored with pointing it out. Tell Tebow to stop praising his Lord and Savior, and the country will laugh and cheer along, but tell Sam to stop trying to turn his sex life into international headlines, and you’ll be bound, gagged, and tossed into a river.<br />
<br />
4) Media hacks have already begun conjuring up a controversy over the fact that it <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nfl/columnist/bell/2014/05/10/michael-sam-nfl-draft-rams/8950709/"><span style="color: #26a9e1;">‘took so long’</span></a> for Sam to be drafted. <br />
<br />
They’re furrowing their brows and inquiring as to why Saint Michael Sam didn’t get taken off the board until the very end of the last round. Could it be homophobia, they wonder? <br />
<br />
Perhaps, or could it be that Sam is a small, slow, middling prospect who might not be good enough to even make the squad? Could it be that he’s exactly the type of player who often goes undrafted every single year? Could it be that he’s a below average talent? <br />
<br />
With that said, it certainly wouldn’t surprise me if some teams were scared away by the media circus that follows him. That’s a funny thing about football teams — they’re worried about winning football games, not becoming champions for liberal social change. Michael Sam chose to call attention to his sex life. He chose to whip up a media frenzy. That choice guaranteed him a spot on a roster, if only for political reasons. But it also guaranteed that he would be a distraction to whatever team he ultimately joined.<br />
<br />
This is all a joke, only it’s not even funny anymore. <br />
<br />
As I type this, I see that Michael Sam has already started starring in <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C75q_7TVmCk#t=32"><span style="color: #26a9e1;">ads</span></a>, making him, I’m assuming, the first 7th round pick to ever get an endorsement deal before training camp even starts. <br />
<br />
In the Visa spot, Sam insists that he only wants to be judged for what he does on the field. <br />
<br />
A fine sentiment, but one that would have been easily accomplished had he not gone to great lengths to be applauded for what he does in the bedroom.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00665542944467061185noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4353562748320042210.post-45382995065544167992014-05-09T13:04:00.000-07:002014-05-09T18:25:30.008-07:00Christian-hating liberal fascists have once again demonstrated their ‘tolerance’<span style="color: red;">This may be hard to believe, considering the topic and tone of this blog, but I would really like to find some semblance of rationality in Matt Walsh's worldview. After all, the reason <em>why</em> I am troubled by the state of public discourse, the reason <em>why</em> I continue to believe that dissecting the premises and logical construction of arguments might help to achieve more productive conversation, is only because of the fundamental faith I have in all human beings. Whenever people display deep-seated ignorance, irrationality, or hatred, I get no pleasure out of it.</span><br />
<span style="color: red;"></span><br />
<span style="color: red;">That is why I so often wonder whether Matt Walsh is purposefully being so illogical and inconsistent because he is trying to say the emotionally-saturated things that get him clicks and money. I am still trying to figure this out. This post, is no exception.</span><br />
<span style="color: red;"></span><br />
<span style="color: red;">...starting with his liberal use of the word "fascism." He seems to use it so very seriously. But surely he would have some historical understanding of what fascism is? Something more accurate than that lame-o, not-completely-correct dictionary definition he presents? (Likewise... does he have any remote idea of who Stalin is, what Stalin did, and what it means to be Stalinist? And how is it possible to be simultaneously fascist and Stalinist??) According to Matt's usage, fascism means: when private businesses freely make decisions based on freely expressed public opinion.</span><br />
<span style="color: red;"></span><br />
<span style="color: red;">(In the title of the blog post, Matt also calls his opponents "Christian-hating." This is despite the fact that many, many Christians are opposed to homophobia, and I have personally heard Christians denounce the HGTV show.)</span><br />
<span style="color: red;"></span><br />
<span style="color: red;">Matt is adamant that private business should have the freedom to do whatever they want, make whatever decisions they want - even if that means discriminating against people by race or sexual orientation, or not paying their employees enough to feed themselves. But if they purge themselves of prominent figures who have inspired some sort of public outrage (e.g. by saying something racist or homophobic), then Matt isn't such a big fan of the decisions of these private businesses. So, it seems like businesses should have the freedom to do whatever they want, so long as what they do supports racism/homophobia, and <em>never</em> when they oppose racism/homophobia.</span><br />
<span style="color: red;"></span><br />
<span style="color: red;">Matt's conception of free speech is similarly peculiar. He says that it is more than a legal matter. Since when did any "right" become anything more than a legal matter? The law is the only force of socially-sanctioned coercion that exists, so it would be impossible for a right to be anything more than a right by law. What other force of coercion could we use to ensure that people only respond to any speech whatsoever with "welcome and celebration." (I have to believe that even Matt Walsh thinks that is the stupidest sentence he has sever written.) By what force could we suppress people's opposition to and criticism of other people's speech? (And by the way, for those taking notes: Matt defines fascism as suppression of opposition and criticism - and then he goes on to say that opposition to and criticism of certain speech (say, homophobic remarks) should be suppressed - AND he is the one who so frequently calls <em>other people</em> fascist).</span><br />
<span style="color: red;"></span><br />
<span style="color: red;">Another inconsistency: his attitude about reality tv. Usually he says there is nothing worthwhile about reality tv. But somehow, without ever seeing an episode of this show, he deems it "wholesome." (This reminds me of the time that Matt praised Phil Robertson for his wholesome "Christian values" immediately after Robertson said that black people were better off segregated. ...But then again, Matt just gets sooo irked when people who say incredibly racist things face any sort of criticism; in his world, criticism would be promptly suppressed and racists would be welcomed and celebrated.)</span><br />
<span style="color: red;"></span><br />
<span style="color: red;">Matt Walsh claims that the backlash is solely the creation of a few liberal websites, and does not reflect the attitudes of the majority of the population. He cites the popularity of his blog and conservative talk radio as evidence. He very conveniently ignores all the opinion polling, which shows the opposite to be true. (And if my facebook newsfeed is any indication, the opposition to this HGTV show was more widespread than "just a few websites.") Matt also makes it seem like popular liberal media sources do not exist (how does Matt account for the popularity of things like the Huffington Post, or the Daily Show/Colbert Report/?). But to answer Matt's question - why are conservative media outlets more successful usually? - I can turn his own arguments against him. Precisely because the elites are by and large <em>conservative</em> - and have worked to fund and organize comprehensively integrated conservative propaganda machines (which media like the Fox News Channel, in distinction to other long-standing reputable conservative sources, arguably is) - are the conservative media so successful. You have an insanely wealthy business man, with a very explicit political agenda, putting together this media juggernaut; you have people from the Republican party actually working behind the scenes <em>and</em> prominently on camera; you have integration from similarly-well-funded conservative think-tanks; and you have all the many hangers-on, like Matt Walsh, who regularly consume and then regurgitate the talking points. And then add in all the anger and hyperbole and false narratives that prey off of people's worst fears.... and you have a recipe for success.</span><br />
<span style="color: red;"></span><br />
<span style="color: red;">One of the most laughable and obviously false claims was that this "liberal elite" also controls the White House and most of the government (and also the media, even though Matt argues that no one looks at liberal media). I can tell you, at the very least, as someone who is extremely familiar with the views of a variety of people in academia (and yes, there is variety) the agenda and outlook of the White House/government could not possibly be more divergent from that of liberal academics. Liberal academics do not support much of anything that the U.S. government does. In fact, it is extreme right-wing figures (especially neoconservatives) that have most prominently shaped the course of U.S. policy in the past decade or so, and it is certainly conservative (often neoliberal) perspectives that are hegemonic in all government institutions.</span><br />
<span style="color: red;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: red;">It baffles me that Matt, if he is being honest, can truly see the country as being ruled by some liberal elite. By what means does this elite acquire and maintain power? Does Matt deny all of the influence that corporations and their cadre of lobbyists have? Does he suppose that corporations belong to this liberal elite? Are Shell and Exxon tree-hugging environmentalist hippies? Is Walmart a warrior of the proletariat?</span><br />
<span style="color: red;"></span><br />
<span style="color: red;">One thing I agree with: there are some pretty hypocritical people in Hollywood who continue to applaud Woody Allen. Yet, there are many liberal, progressive voices simultaneously criticizing him AND Hollywood. (More evidence that it is not one, unified, homogeneous liberal elite.)</span><br />
<span style="color: red;"></span><br />
<span style="color: red;">Finally, I suggest you familiarize yourself a little bit more with history and anthropology before making sweeping statements about the views of marriage that "the majority of human civilization holds and has held throughout history." (Hint: you're wrong.)</span><br />
<span style="color: red;"></span><br />
<span style="color: black;"><strong>Matt Walsh writes:</strong></span><br />
<br />
They’re at it again.<br />
<br />
The Fascist assault on speech continues.<br />
<br />
This time, HGTV has decided to <a href="http://www.examiner.com/article/hgtv-cancels-show-featuring-conservative-christian-activists-liberals-applaud"><span style="color: #26a9e1;">drop</span></a> a planned reality show starring two brothers named Jason and David Benham. The show would have centered around the Benhams fixing up dilapidated houses for families in need. A worthy cause, a wholesome idea, a show that might do some good in the world. But it had to be shutdown because deep, dark secrets have been revealed about the dastardly Benham brothers.<br />
<br />
What are those secrets?<br />
<br />
Well, it isn’t really a secret at all – the Benham brothers are outspoken Christians.<br />
<br />
To give you an idea of some of the ‘horrible’ things these men have said, here’s an excerpt from a radio interview with David Benham:<br />
<br />
<em>“We don’t realize that, okay, if 87 percent of Americans are Christians and yet we have abortion on demand, we have no-fault divorce, we have pornography and perversion, we have a homosexuality and its agenda that is attacking the nation, we have adultery. We even have allowed demonic ideologies to take our universities and our public school systems while the church sits silent and just builds big churches.”</em><br />
<br />
Not only is he 100 percent correct in everything that he said, but he helpfully exposed one of the great ironies of our time: if you mention the ‘gay agenda,’ the gay agenda will prove there is no gay agenda by having you fired for mentioning the gay agenda.<br />
<br />
But HGTV knew about the Benham’s views when they were hired. HGTV hired outspoken Christians, and then fired outspoken Christians when a liberal blog said, <em>“hey, those guys are outspoken Christians, please fire them because we’re spineless, malingering wimps and their opinions make us feel all sad and icky inside.”</em><br />
<em></em><br />
The network happily and immediately complied.<br />
<br />
This is the same channel that thinks it’s appropriate to use an American flag as a <a href="http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/the-lookout/hgtv-american-flag-tablecloth-135533173.html"><span style="color: #26a9e1;">tablecloth</span></a>, but apparently they draw the line of decency at faithful Christians helping people fix their houses.<br />
The Benham Brothers are, by all appearances, good and decent men. They are adamantly <a href="http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/hgtv-cancels-reality-tv-show-after-left-wingers-expose-stars-pro-life-pro-f"><span style="color: #26a9e1;">pro-life, </span></a>they are open about their faith, and they hold the same view of marriage that the majority of human civilization holds and has held throughout history. Incidentally, that’s even the same view that Barack Obama professed, up until a couple of years ago, when he suddenly changed his mind because he wanted GLAAD to pat him on his head and give him a cookie.<br />
<br />
You’ll hear the media try to spin this as a decision made after <a href="https://tv.yahoo.com/news/hgtv-cancels-pilot-anti-gay-hosts-following-fan-205000195.html"><span style="color: #26a9e1;">‘fan backlash</span></a>.’ But no such backlash existed. This show hadn’t even aired yet. Unless you are a <em>very</em> dedicated viewer of Home and Garden network, you probably aren’t closely tracking what pilots they plan to launch in 5 month. The 17 fans of HGTV didn’t even have an opportunity to be upset about a show where Christian men build houses for poor people. No, this ‘backlash’ came mostly from one liberal, anti-free speech site called “Right Wing Watch.” I won’t link to it here. I know they would love to have some of my web traffic, but I’d rather not oblige.<br />
<br />
Suffice it to say that a handful of extreme leftwing propaganda sites — ones that nobody reads and nobody cares about — put pressure on HGTV to cancel a show because the hosts of the show are Christian. HGTV gave into their demands without even the slightest hesitation.<br />
<br />
This is how it works now.<br />
<br />
And this is why I feel it necessary to remind you:<br />
<br />
Forget what the polls say. Forget what the media tells you. Forget Hollywood. Forget Twitter trends. Forget the politicians, the interest groups, the lobbyists. Forget all of it. They lie. What they project is a distortion, an illusion, a mirage. <em>We are not what they make us out to be. America is not the country they want it to be.</em><br />
<em></em><br />
The truth — the TRUTH — is that America is still mostly Christian, and most Christians disapprove of killing babies, and strongly believe that the institution of marriage cannot be changed, altered, and modified to make room for modern ideological fads.<br />
<br />
These are the convictions of the <em>majority</em>. There are more of us than there are of them. How else do you think I got 40 million hits on this blog in the span of just a few months? I’m not some kind of brilliant writer or fascinating character. I’m just a schlub with a keyboard. My ‘secret formula’ is that I try to give voice to the many.<br />
<br />
Why do you think that only conservative talk radio shows are successful? Why is that the liberal cable news channels can’t seem to get any viewers?<br />
<br />
Because most people don’t want to hear it. They don’t want to be lied to. They have no interest in listening to a bunch of politically correct, bigoted, mewing, leftwing carnival barkers. Still, the leftwing fascists get their way — like they got their way with HGTV, and with Mozilla, and briefly with Duck Dynasty, etc – because, although they are outnumbered, they are the Elite. They are academia, the media, Hollywood. They control the White House and much of the government. They have power, and worse than their power, they have no ethical standards. They will not argue with you; they will just shut you down. They will not engage you; they will destroy you. They are afraid of opposing ideas, so they lash out with vitriol and hatred. They are not progressive — there is no ‘progress’ in their ideology. They are fascists. They follow the same playbook as many of the 20th century’s most prolific tyrants.<br />
<br />
Fascists.<br />
<br />
I call them Fascists because that is what they are, by definition.<br />
<br />
Fascism: <em><span id="hotword"><span class="hwc" id="hotword">a</span> <span class="hwc" id="hotword">governmental</span> <span class="hwc" id="hotword">system</span> <span class="hwc" id="hotword">led</span> <span class="hwc" id="hotword">by</span> <span class="hwc" id="hotword">a</span> <span class="hwc onclk" id="hotword">dictator</span> <span class="hwc" id="hotword">having</span> <span class="hwc" id="hotword">complete</span> <span class="hwc" id="hotword">power,</span> <span class="hwc" id="hotword">forcibly</span> <span class="hwc" id="hotword">suppressing</span> <span class="hwc" id="hotword">opposition</span> <span class="hwc" id="hotword">and</span> <span class="hwc" id="hotword">criticism,</span> <span class="hwc" id="hotword">regimenting</span> <span class="hwc" id="hotword">all</span> <span class="hwc" id="hotword">industry,</span> commerce</span><span id="hotword">, <span class="hwc" id="hotword">etc.</span></span></em><br />
<em><span class="hwc"></span></em><br />
<strong>Forcibly suppressing opposition and criticism. </strong><br />
<strong></strong><br />
That’s how they operate. And so often they win, because so often the rest of us cower in corners, afraid of the scorn, the mockery, the ridicule, the loss of money and reputation that these slave driving Stalinists might bring upon us.<br />
<br />
They tell us that ‘free speech’ is not at issue, because it isn’t the government shutting down the Benham brothers, or Brendan Eich, or whoever else. But free speech, as they well know, is more than just a matter of legality. It’s a principle. It’s the belief that, in a free country, men and women should be able to express their ideas, and that expression should be welcomed and celebrated. The First Amendment is meaningless if we observe it only by the letter and not the spirit (and we don’t even observe it by the letter – just ask the florists and photographers being legally forced to sell their services for gay weddings).<br />
<br />
If we really wanted to punish the film and TV industry for employing disreputable characters, I’m not sure why we’d start with a couple of dudes who want to renovate old homes, instead of going after, say, Woody Allen. Woody Allen is a crusty old liberal, alleged child rapist, pervert who married his own adopted daughter. And he’s beloved in pop culture. Nobody boycotts his movies, or the production company, or the theaters that show his films.<br />
<br />
Roman Polanski drugged and raped a child and then fled the country to avoid prosecution. He’s also a darling of movie critics and the Hollywood liberal elite.<br />
<br />
Eddie Murphy likes to troll street corners for transvestite hookers, yet he still gets roles in children’s movies.<br />
<br />
Several women have accused Bill Clinton of rape — not just affairs, rape — but he’s a hero to the left.<br />
<br />
Sean Penn, Michael Moore, and Oliver Stone were BFFs with Hugo Chavez, a murderous socialist tyrant. But they never seem to get the Benham brothers or Brendan Eich treatment.<br />
<br />
Mike Tyson was actually convicted of rape, but that certainly doesn’t mean he can’t get hilarious and quirky cameos in big budget Hollywood comedies.<br />
<br />
The point is, you turn on the TV or crank up the Pandora and you’re going to be watching or listening to a stream of deviants, junkies, rapists, pedophiles, adulterers, and crooks, yet we don’t bat an eye until someone quotes the Bible or endorses traditional marriage.<br />
<br />
Amidst a sea of perversity and violence, the only thing the fascists seek to punish is the reasonable expression of Christian beliefs.<br />
<br />
In a country of filth, the only thing you can’t be is pro-life and pro-marriage.<br />
<br />
Enough of this, already.<br />
<br />
It’s time to stop playing nice with these people.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00665542944467061185noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4353562748320042210.post-78813560535735621662014-05-04T12:33:00.001-07:002014-07-10T06:00:22.763-07:00Why do WHITE MEN have any right to give their WHITE MAN opinions about non-WHITE MAN issues?<br />
<b>Matt Walsh writes:</b>
<br />
<br />
Hey, propagators of Identity Politics.
<br />
<br />
Let’s talk about this:
<br />
<br />
<span style="border-width: 0px; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><em style="border-width: 0px; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><b>“You’re a [specific demographic category] so you can’t have an opinion about [whatever contentious issue]!”</b></em></span>
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Here’s the thing about that statement. It’s bigoted, cowardly, foolish, and small-minded. <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">Man, for someone who doesn't like it when Liberal Secular Progressives use words like bigoted and racist, you sure are a fan of using them yourself.</span></div>
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So let’s stop saying it, OK?</div>
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Please, continue to debate and discuss and argue, but this is not an argument. It’s the opposite of an argument. It’s a rhetorical black hole that sucks all of the intelligence and purpose out of a conversation, leaving only some dried up shell of a pointless back and forth where we are reduced to competing over who can sob the loudest and play the highest quantity of Victim Cards™.</div>
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It’s revolting, really.</div>
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Of course, we all know that the blank is only ever filled in with “white man.” It is assuredly not socially acceptable to tell any group, other than white men, that their opinions don’t count.</div>
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Don’t you hear yourself? Do you know how stupid that sounds? How frivolous? How bigoted?</div>
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This is bigotry of the worst sort – so extreme that it bars an entire group of human beings from participating in a conversation, merely based on the boxes they check on a census form.</div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">Yup, definitely the <b>worst sort</b> of bigotry. Much worse than enslaving people, lynching people, raping people, forcibly sterilizing people, refusing hospital service to people, segregating people in the worst neighborhoods, barring people from better quality schools, barring people from higher paying jobs, propagating ideas about a group of people being less intelligent/uglier/less virtuous/less than human, or literally restricting people from all available means of making their voices publicly heard. Yes, telling white men that they *shouldn't* talk about ____ is without a doubt THE WORST thing that has ever happened to a group of people, ever.</span></div>
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Bigotry so naked, so blatant, that it completely disregards another person’s point of view because of physical and physiological factors out of their control.</div>
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Enough, already.</div>
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Defend your concepts, if you can. Make your point. Argue your position. Defeat your opponents on the Battlefield of Ideas. Be ruthless, if you want. Be aggressive and unrelenting. I’m fine with that. I respect it. I like it.</div>
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But if this is all you’ve got — this <em style="border-width: 0px; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">“wahhh, you’re a white man talking about non-white man things”</em> garbage — then go home and let the big boys and girls speak. Come back when you have something constructive to contribute.<em style="border-width: 0px; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> </em></div>
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You don’t need me to illustrate this, I know. Still, I feel compelled to give you some real life examples, if only because I’ve been fielding an inordinate number of these sorts of comments in the past week. That’s probably due to the fact that, in the last 10 days of so, I’ve written about affirmative action, Donald Sterling, abortion, and feminism. I’ve given my opinion on these topics — or rather my WHITE MAN opinion, from my WHITE MAN brain, which produces WHITE MAN ideas, based on my WHITE MAN experiences.</div>
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And we all know that the universal WHITE MAN experience is that of wealth, privilege, and luxury. Just ask this kid:</div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">This would be a GREAT point.... if privilege equaled wealth. But it does not. Wealth is only one dimension of privilege, and one can have privilege of various sorts without being remotely wealthy. (For example, the privilege of being able to proclaim things like, "private businesses should have the right to discriminate" without having to consider the degrading, life-altering consequences that one might personally have to endure.)</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">By the way, good work. Pitting poor whites against people of color has had a very interesting role in American history.</span></div>
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Here is only a small sample based on a cursory search through my blog and Facebook comment section, and my email inbox. <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">Riiiight. Like I didn't see you begging your readers for a screen shot of one of the comments below (which had been deleted) so that you could add it to your trove of the Most Extreme Comments That Can Later Be Used As Representative Samples.</span> From Sterling to abortion to feminism to affirmative action policies, this is how many of you in the Identity Police Squad chose to respond to my points:</div>
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<em style="border-width: 0px; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border-width: 0px; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><b>Matt,</b></span></em><br />
<em style="border-width: 0px; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><b><span style="border-width: 0px; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> It’s hard to take seriously the blog of a white male when it comes to racial issues in the same way it was difficult to take seriously your blog on feminism, since you have never been a woman… </span><span style="border-width: 0px; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">You’re posts are narrow minded and don’t allow for thoughtful conversation.</span></b></em></div>
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<span style="border-width: 0px; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><b>-One Crazy Adoption Story</b></span></div>
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<em style="border-width: 0px; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border-width: 0px; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><b>Matt… is nothing more than an angry, privileged, cis-gendered white man who has an incredibly slanted view of the world.</b></span></em></div>
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<span style="border-width: 0px; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><b>-ColdCaseFanatic</b></span></div>
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<span style="border-width: 0px; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;"><b>Note: this person is not saying you can't express your opinions. This person is saying that you are angry and have a slanted view of the world. (Arguably correct.)</b></span></span></div>
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<em style="border-width: 0px; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border-width: 0px; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><b><br /></b></span></em></div>
<div style="border-width: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<em style="border-width: 0px; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border-width: 0px; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><b>Explain this to me. Why do you think that you – a MAN – have any place commenting on this issue?</b></span></em></div>
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<em style="border-width: 0px; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border-width: 0px; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><b><br /></b></span></em></div>
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<span style="border-width: 0px; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><b>-Vanessa</b></span></div>
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<span style="border-width: 0px; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
<div style="border-width: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="border-width: 0px; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
<div style="border-width: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<em style="border-width: 0px; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border-width: 0px; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><b>Sorry, men have no place giving opinions about feminism.</b></span></em></div>
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<em style="border-width: 0px; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border-width: 0px; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><b><br /></b></span></em></div>
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<span style="border-width: 0px; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><b>-Stacy</b></span></div>
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<span style="border-width: 0px; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
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<span style="border-width: 0px; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
<div style="border-width: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<em style="border-width: 0px; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border-width: 0px; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><b>I am white also and my experience with being discriminated against is the same as yours…zero</b></span></em></div>
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<em style="border-width: 0px; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border-width: 0px; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><b><br /></b></span></em></div>
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<span style="border-width: 0px; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><b>-Steve</b></span></div>
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<span style="border-width: 0px; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
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<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">Note: this person is not saying that you can't express your opinions. This person is saying that, as a white person, you have not had the experience of racial discrimination that people of color have had. (Arguably correct.)</span></b></div>
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<span style="border-width: 0px; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
<div style="border-width: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="border-width: 0px; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
<div style="border-width: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<em style="border-width: 0px; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border-width: 0px; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><b>I think you definitely don’t know what feminism actually is… And, as a white man you really have no right to comment on the reproductive rights of women.</b></span></em></div>
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<em style="border-width: 0px; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border-width: 0px; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><b><br /></b></span></em></div>
<div style="border-width: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="border-width: 0px; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><b>-Stevie</b></span></div>
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<span style="border-width: 0px; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
<div style="border-width: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="border-width: 0px; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
<div style="border-width: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<em style="border-width: 0px; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border-width: 0px; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><b>I have to say that I really take offense to a man making any comments at all about feminism.</b></span></em></div>
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<em style="border-width: 0px; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border-width: 0px; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><b><br /></b></span></em></div>
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<span style="border-width: 0px; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><b>-Erin</b></span></div>
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<span style="border-width: 0px; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
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<span style="border-width: 0px; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
<div style="border-width: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<em style="border-width: 0px; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border-width: 0px; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><b>Another white man with opinions on things he shouldn’t be speaking on.</b></span></em></div>
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<em style="border-width: 0px; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border-width: 0px; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><b><br /></b></span></em></div>
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<span style="border-width: 0px; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><b>-Michelle</b></span></div>
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<span style="border-width: 0px; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
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<span style="border-width: 0px; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
<div style="border-width: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<em style="border-width: 0px; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border-width: 0px; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="UFICommentBody" style="border-width: 0px; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><b>All from a white person perspective. It kills me the denial you are in. Let’s continue to make excuses. Have no idea what’s it like to be a minority in this country. Lol wow.</b></span></span></em></div>
<div style="border-width: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<em style="border-width: 0px; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border-width: 0px; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="UFICommentBody" style="border-width: 0px; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><b><br /></b></span></span></em></div>
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<span style="border-width: 0px; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><b>-Jade</b></span></div>
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<span style="border-width: 0px; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
<div style="border-width: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="border-width: 0px; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;"><b>Note: this person is not saying that you can't express your opinions. This person is saying that your views reflect the perspective of a white person and that you lack understanding of what it is like to be a person of color. (Arguably correct.)</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="border-width: 0px; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
<div style="border-width: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<em style="border-width: 0px; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border-width: 0px; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><b><br /></b></span></em></div>
<div style="border-width: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<em style="border-width: 0px; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border-width: 0px; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><b>Frankly, I’m tired of hearing this topic discussed by privileged white men.</b></span></em></div>
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<em style="border-width: 0px; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border-width: 0px; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><b><br /></b></span></em></div>
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<span style="border-width: 0px; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><b>-Jeremy</b></span></div>
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<span style="border-width: 0px; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
<div style="border-width: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="border-width: 0px; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;"><b>Note: this person is not saying that you can't express your opinions. This person is saying that he is saturated, to the point of exhaustion, with the views of white men on that particular topic.</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="border-width: 0px; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;"><b><br /></b></span></span></div>
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<span style="border-width: 0px; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
<div style="border-width: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<em style="border-width: 0px; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border-width: 0px; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><b>Shut up, man. No really, MAN. YOU. ARE. A. MAN. How could you have ANY idea about reproductive issues?</b></span></em></div>
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<em style="border-width: 0px; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border-width: 0px; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><b><br /></b></span></em></div>
<div style="border-width: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="border-width: 0px; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><b>-Sandy</b></span></div>
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<span style="border-width: 0px; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
<div style="border-width: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="border-width: 0px; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
<div style="border-width: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<em style="border-width: 0px; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border-width: 0px; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><b>Instead of a law against abortion how bout a law against white men rambling on about abortion?</b></span></em></div>
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<em style="border-width: 0px; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border-width: 0px; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><b><br /></b></span></em></div>
<div style="border-width: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="border-width: 0px; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><b>-CL</b></span></div>
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<span style="border-width: 0px; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
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<span style="border-width: 0px; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
<div style="border-width: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="border-width: 0px; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><em style="border-width: 0px; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><b>Why do you think that you, as a privileged white Christian male, have any right even talk about a topic like this?</b></em></span></div>
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<span style="border-width: 0px; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><em style="border-width: 0px; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><b><br /></b></em></span></div>
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<span style="border-width: 0px; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><b>-Alyssa</b></span></div>
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<span style="border-width: 0px; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
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<span style="border-width: 0px; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
<div style="border-width: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<em style="border-width: 0px; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border-width: 0px; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><b>Nice, another White Christian Man who thinks he should talk about women’s issues. Awesome!</b></span></em></div>
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<em style="border-width: 0px; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border-width: 0px; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><b><br /></b></span></em></div>
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<span style="border-width: 0px; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><b>-Sam</b></span></div>
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Sometimes the Identity Politics bigots will take the short hand approach and simply point out my race or gender, without adding any kind of context at all:</div>
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<br /></div>
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<em style="border-width: 0px; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border-width: 0px; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><b>This is written by a man obviously!</b></span></em></div>
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<em style="border-width: 0px; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border-width: 0px; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><b><br /></b></span></em></div>
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<span style="border-width: 0px; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><b>-Amy</b></span></div>
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<span style="border-width: 0px; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
<div style="border-width: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="border-width: 0px; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
<div style="border-width: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<em style="border-width: 0px; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border-width: 0px; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><b>Says a man.</b></span></em></div>
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<em style="border-width: 0px; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border-width: 0px; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><b><br /></b></span></em></div>
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<span style="border-width: 0px; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><b>-Sara</b></span></div>
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<span style="border-width: 0px; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
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<span style="border-width: 0px; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
<div style="border-width: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<em style="border-width: 0px; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border-width: 0px; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><b>Shut up. You’re a white man. That’s all.</b></span></em></div>
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<em style="border-width: 0px; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border-width: 0px; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><b><br /></b></span></em></div>
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<span style="border-width: 0px; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><b>-Frank</b></span></div>
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It comes in handy, actually.</div>
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<br /></div>
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If ever I suffer from the delusion that maybe I’m a black woman, or a Latino man, or a Chinese transvestite, or an orange kangaroo, all I need do is check my comment section.</div>
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<br /></div>
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“Nope, says here I’m a white man. Whew. Thanks, guys!”</div>
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<br /></div>
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Sometimes the Identity Politics bigots are a little more open about their bigotry: <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">Wow, going for the twice-in-sentence use of the word bigot now. Impressive!</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<em style="border-width: 0px; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border-width: 0px; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="UFICommentBody" style="border-width: 0px; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><b>Matt Walsh, u are a stupid, priveledged, out of touch, honky, broke ass, racists, bigoted, money worshipping, white penis from hell. Are u located in Florida or Texas?? Do u have any followers that aren’t tea sucking old white men or their useless housewives??</b></span></span></em></div>
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<span style="border-width: 0px; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><b>-Aimee</b></span></div>
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<em style="border-width: 0px; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border-width: 0px; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><b>Matt I hope you realize that your a racist white male bigot piece of sh*t who should shut about about everything and die of cancer. <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size-adjust: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font: inherit;"><img alt=":)" class="wp-smiley" src="http://themattwalshblog.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif" style="border-width: 0px; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" /></span></b></span></em></div>
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<span style="border-width: 0px; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><b> -Ron</b></span></div>
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I shouldn’t have to explain what’s wrong with this “logic,” but I will. I want it to be clear that I’m not fed up with it because it hurts my White Man Feelings and makes me shed Privileged White Christian Tears; I’m fed up with it because it’s just so incredibly dumb.</div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">And as we all know from children, saying you have a problem with something because it is <i>soo dumb</i> never means that you are just upset about not getting your way all of the time.</span></div>
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The whole thing is built on an infinite tower of false premises <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">speaking of things that sound so incredibly dumb</span>, but for brevity’s sake, we’ll look at only the two of them:</div>
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<span style="border-width: 0px; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border-width: 0px; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><i style="font-weight: bold;">False Premise #1: You need to be a member of an Approved Victim Group<span style="border-width: 0px; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border-width: 0px; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">™</span></span> in order to objectively evaluate a topic relating to an Approved Victim Group<span style="border-width: 0px; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border-width: 0px; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">™</span></span>.</i> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">Enough with the TMs! It was not even funny the first time. (Somehow I have suddenly become more offended by your writing style than the content, haha.)</span></span></span></div>
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Alright, here’s the problem:<br />
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If a personal and emotional tie to an issue makes you more likely to ascertain and identify the truth in it, then our court system needs to be drastically reworked. Most people would consider it a grave injustice if a man was on trial for murder and the prosecution stacked the jury box with the families of murder victims. Or if someone was charged with vehicle theft and his fate was to be decided by a jury of people who just had their car stolen last week.<br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">Actually this is a great example. But in order to see how it sheds light on who currently "has a voice" in this country, it is necessary to set aside the unrealistic hypothetical (jury full of family members) and consider what actually occurs in the courtroom. It is a reality in our justice system that there are imbalances in the way that juries are chosen; in particular, people of color get kicked off of juries much more easily, and non-white defendants all too often find themselves facing a jury stacked with white people. (And then, so <i>coincidentally</i>, people of color find themselves convicted of the same crimes at higher rates than their white counterparts.)</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">Is it a "grave injustice" to suggest that white people have too much input into how people of color are treated by the criminal justice system? Is it "bigoted" to propose that people of color should have the same opportunity to serve on juries and bring their own perspectives to the decision-making process? Is it even unreasonable to suggest that a person of the same racial/ethnic/socioeconomic background as the defendant might have something to add to the deliberation in the way of more detailed knowledge about certain circumstances the defendant might have faced (e.g. how well police officers tend to follow constitutional/legal procedure when they are dealing with young, black men)?</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">What many of your detractors are saying is that they are already very familiar with white people's perspectives and are growing tired of hearing mostly or only white people's perspectives. Historically, white men <i>have</i> physically barred other people from positions where their voices might be prominently heard, and to this day, we have disparities in key institutionalized roles where particular views have influence and/or consequence, such as political leadership, religious leadership, scientific leadership, "hard news" reporting, and jury membership, to name a few. When your detractors say, "Ugh, not another white man opinion," what they are saying (using the jury metaphor) is: "Ugh, not another white person on the jury. Let's get a couple people of color on this jury!"</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">You may think this attitude is "bigoted" but you must admit that no one is silencing you. Your blog continues, lots of people read it, advertisers use it, and you make money off of it. You are not being harmed, and your views are reaching lots and lots of people. The worst that happens to you is that people disagree with you or say mean things to you. If you can't even handle some unkind words by the notoriously passionate population of people who comment on blogs, then I can't even imagine how you would deal with your voice being <i>actually silenced</i> by the mechanisms that have been employed against women, people of color, poor people, etc.</span><br />
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We understand that, in many cases, emotional closeness to a subject is more likely to bias you than some degree of emotional detachment might. In the Justice System, we don’t lock people away (or at least we shouldn’t) based on feelings. We don’t (or at least we shouldn’t) find them guilty with our emotions. We find them guilty (or at least we should) with facts and evidence. <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">Your assumption here is that being white/male = emotional detachment. In fact, if you read any of your own blog posts about race, or any of your white readers' comments on these issues, it is clear that white/male people have their fair share of emotional investment in these topics. (Also portraying women and minorities as emotional in contrast to the rational, emotionless white man has a long history in American public discourse; sometimes it is interesting to think about the historical legacies that your arguments are unintentionally drawing upon.)</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">In any case, the reason why one might want to give particular consideration to, say, the views of a black person on an issue concerning black people, has nothing to do with emotion or subjectivity. It has to do with the knowledge a person will have by virtue of being in a certain position. For instance, I would most certainly give more weight to a homeless person's description of what being homeless is like than I would to someone who has never been homeless. Not because the homeless person has more "emotional attachment" to the issue, but simply because the homeless person has so much more detailed, first-hand knowledge.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">AND, one can even value the first-hand knowledge of people intimately involved with an issue <i>at the same time</i> that one looks at statistics and other facts. These are not mutually exclusive.</span><br />
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Similarly, if the topic at hand is whether abortion should be legal, or whether affirmative action should exist, or whether racist NBA owners should be treated like Hitler Incarnate, what we need to do is find the truth. And we find the truth largely with logic, with reason, with facts, with evidence – not solely with our feelings, however earnest and sincere. I’m not saying that emotions have no role, and I’m certainly not arguing for the reverse where women have no say in an abortion conversation, and black people have no say in an affirmative action conversation. <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">Oh, well, thank you, in your infinite wisdom and authority, for clarifying that women have <i>some</i> say about women's issues and black people have <i>some</i> say in racial issues. Very benevolent of you.</span><br />
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I think personal experience can give someone a valuable insight and add an important dimension to the debate, but personal experience is, by no means, a trump card. And it is, by no means, the most important factor in a discussion of this nature. <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">Yes. There is, once again, statistics and research, but you don't have much regard for those either. You go with whatever you <i>feel</i> to be true. Without any access to first-hand knowledge, and without reference to other empirical evidence, that is where your understanding falls short, and that is what makes your arguments less convincing for some people.</span><br />
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The victim’s family will be heard from in the trial, as they should be. The judge will take them into account during sentencing, and the jury might be swayed by their story. But only a maniac would think that the victim’s family should BE the judge and jury. That is a recipe for tyranny, and any hope of objectivity will be obliterated, by design.<br />
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When I took to Twitter to ponder why people think that white men can’t have opinions on ‘race issues’ and ‘women’s issues,’ I got this reply:</div>
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<b>You can. You just don't know what it's like. Your authority on those subjects are NIL.</b></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">What better way to perfectly encapsulate the Identity Politics mindset? You have to ‘know what it’s like’ in order to be an ‘authority’ on a subject. Therefore, a woman who’s had an abortion is a greater authority on the reasons why abortion should be legal than, say, a biologist or a doctor or a constitutional scholar.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">Actually, the woman above is right. You have no authority on these subjects. <i>No one has authority on these subjects</i>. That is why we should all listen to each other and learn from one another - especially allowing more room for voices that have typically been silenced. However, the very fact that you continue to frame this issue as a question of <i>authority </i>(who does or does not have authority to speak on these topics) shows that you approach these things using the language and conceptual tools of the powers-that-be. It is entirely possible to learn from research and statistics and personal experiences, and to understand how different personal experiences provide different kinds of and different amounts of knowledge about issues and how certain experiences may necessarily be limited, without turning it into a game of <i>who can validly give voice to an all-ecompassing experience, such that other voices are not necessary</i>?</span></span></div>
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Whoever can claim the closest emotional connection automatically gets to be right. It’s that simple. <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">Nope. I don't think you understand at all.</span><br />
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It’s that stupid.<br />
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Can you imagine if the Identity Police existed back in Aristotle’s day? He was a privileged man, so I suppose his insights were invalid. <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">Yes, and this is a great example, because the social and historical dimensions of race and gender in Aristotle's day were <i>exactly the same</i> as today!</span><br />
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“Hey Aristotle, shut up with your Ethics, man. You don’t know what it’s like!” <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">How did you get here, and what does it have to do with anything you've been talking about?</span><br />
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<span style="border-width: 0px; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border-width: 0px; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><b><i>False Premise #2: White men have never been, never could be, and never will be victims of discrimination and prejudice, and they’ve all been propped up by the phantom hand of ‘privilege.’</i></b></span></span></div>
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There’s really no need to dissect this nonsense, mainly because, as we’ve already established, it doesn’t matter. It’s not true, but even if it were true, that wouldn’t make a white man’s views any less worthy of consideration.<br />
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In any case, the premise is self defeating. It contradicts itself. You’re being prejudiced against white men by saying they can’t have an opinion about a subject, and then justifying the prejudice by claiming that they’ve never felt prejudice. The minute you play that card, you lose it — even though you never really had it. <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">It depends on how you understand the word "prejudice." As the word is commonly used today, it refers to a fundamentally unequal social relationship. It refers to the ideological dimension of an institutionalized system of oppression and inequality. It refers to all the attitudes and beliefs that support structures that place certain people, based on physical characteristics they have no control over, at the bottom rungs of society, and limits their full participation <i style="font-weight: 500;">in</i> society. <b>Social context makes all the difference</b>. When a woman tells you, Matt Walsh, that you can't have an opinion about women's issues, you are still free to continue blogging and making money off of it (as you have been). Heck, you can even make her comment the subject of one of the blog posts that you financially benefit from. She has not limited you in any way. However, women, people of color, etc. have actually been physically barred from speaking publicly and sharing their experiences. And, although those physical constraints have mainly (if only symbolically) been removed today, when you, Matt Walsh, are contributing to the general consensus that women can't handle certain kinds of work, or that affirmative action is bigotry, you are lending real, vocal support to actual, physically-existing mechanisms that disadvantage people based on gender or race. So, your words, based on the existing institutional structures that they support, can have real negative consequences in a way that the woman telling you "you shouldn't talk about this" cannot.</span><br />
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OK, this is getting confusing. <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">Well, if it's confusing you, that would be a good time for you to stop talking for a minute and listen to what other people have to say.</span><br />
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The point is: all people have been discriminated against in some way or another, and we’ve all felt prejudice in some way or another. Only some of us, however, have studied an issue like abortion for well over a decade, read mounds of literature about it, formed our thoughts and ideas very carefully, written about it many times, and meditated on it seriously, only to be told that none of it counts because we don’t have a vagina.<br />
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That’s a form of prejudice I have felt, along with the form I feel whenever I mention in a post that I’m Catholic and then get bombarded with people bitterly mocking my faith, making jokes about pedophilia, and telling me I’m going to burn in hell. Considering that my faith is more important to me than anything on the planet, this is bigotry that strikes right at the core of my being.<br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">Once again, there is a big difference between experiencing <i>criticism</i> or <i>ridicule</i> and experiencing prejudice/bigotry. Both might end up making a person feel pretty icky, but only the latter is backed up by and entwined in a context of institutionalized social stratification - a whole host of mechanisms, built in to the fabric of society, that severely limit certain people's lives and mobility based on the (often unspoken or sometimes unconscious) premise that those people are not as "worthy" or somehow inherently <i>less than</i> everyone else. That is why, in the fullest meaning of the word "prejudice" only certain people, by virtue of their social position, are capable of experiencing prejudice. The more generic sense of the term (a non-specificed bias of any kind toward any group of people or person) is universal, yes, but not as insidious as the type of prejudice that has societal force behind it and the capability of limiting a person or group's wellbeing emotionally <i>and materially</i>.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">There is a difference between a slave telling her master, "You are cruel and violent," and the master saying to the slave, "You are more like a wild animal than a human being." And both of these situations are entirely different from a scenario with two people who are not subject to any forces of domination, with no broader structure of inequality shaping their relationship, telling each other "I don't like you." If you can't distinguish among these situations and comprehend how social context matters... I don't know if I can help you..</span><br />
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Or the kind I feel whenever someone wishes cancer on me, or tells me to kill myself, or just generally goes to great lengths to viciously insult me, my family, my appearance, my religion, my education, and my beliefs. This happens on a daily basis, and I dare say that, in fact, I’ve had more cancer and suicide wishes thrown at me than the vast majority of everyone reading this — black, white, male, or female.</div>
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I’m not really complaining. This comes with the territory, and I know I could escape these attacks if I just learned to shut up and go with the flow. But that’s not ever going to happen, and so the attacks will never stop.<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;"> Yeah, people on the internet say rotten things under the cover anonymity. You chose to write a blog and enable comments, thus exposing yourself purposely to the craziness of the internet. None of the people who make these comments have any capability of giving you cancer or changing your beliefs or altering the course of your life in any way. They're not going to deny you jobs or housing or educational opportunities based on personal characteristics that you can't change. This is not equivalent to racial prejudice or gender discrimination. This is you knowingly jumping in to the rough-and-tumble of the internet. (And by the way, financially gaining from it.)</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;"><br /></span></div>
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I get it. I’m prepared.<br />
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I only bring this up so that you’ll understand that bigotry and prejudice take many forms. It’s quite possible that I have not experienced the sort of prejudice you’ve experienced, and it’s just as possible that you have not experienced the sort that I’ve experienced. I guess that makes us ‘even,’ and so our ideological disagreements will, tragically, have to be settled with reason and logic, not emotionalism and self-victimization.<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;"> See, this is where it would be helpful for you to pay some attention, have some regard, for the experiences of people of different colors and genders. Then you would understand that your experiences of "prejudice" are <i>not</i> at all equivalent to theirs, and you are in no way <i>even</i>. When you have been detained at the airport for 4 hours, roughed up by the police for no reason, been subject to constant sexual comments in public, or grown up in a broken, resource-less community with no hope of escape... then we can start to talk about "even."</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">And really, if you would like to make things even, would it not be better to focus on combating all the things that hold other people down, rather than obsessing over your own injuries and woes?</span><br />
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The notion of White Man Privilege™ <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">seriously please. stop. with. the. TMs. </span>has already been masterfully handled by <a href="http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2014/04/30/going-viral-princeton-university-students-bold-response-after-allegedly-being-told-repeatedly-to-check-your-privilege/" style="-webkit-transition-delay: initial; -webkit-transition-duration: 0.2s; -webkit-transition-property: all; -webkit-transition-timing-function: ease-out; border-width: 0px; color: rgb(0, 51, 153) !important; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">this</a> white dude at Princeton <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">of course; no one better to give the definitive answer on privilege than a white dude at one of the most elite college in America</span>, so I don’t think I need to extrapolate much further. I’ll only augment his points by urging you to think twice before you inform a stranger about the supposed advantages he’s enjoyed. <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">How did strangers come in to this?</span><br />
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For all you know, he could be like that boy pictured above, and maybe he grew up in a place like this:<br />
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<a href="http://themattwalshblog.files.wordpress.com/2014/05/photopovertyappalachia-600x401.jpg" style="-webkit-transition-delay: initial; -webkit-transition-duration: 0.2s; -webkit-transition-property: all; -webkit-transition-timing-function: ease-out; border-width: 0px; color: rgb(0, 51, 153) !important; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><img alt="PHOTOPovertyAppalachia-600x401" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-3147" src="http://themattwalshblog.files.wordpress.com/2014/05/photopovertyappalachia-600x401.jpg" height="401" style="border-width: 0px; display: block; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 5px 15px 15px 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" width="600" /></a></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">I think we've been through this. Privilege isn't an all-or-nothing phenomenon, and it is <i>not equivalent to wealth.</i></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">A wealthy black guy is still far more likely to be followed by a security guard in a jewelry store than any kind of white guy, poor or rich.</span><br />
<br />
And maybe he came from somewhere like Eastern Kentucky, or anywhere in the Appalachian region, where most of the people are very, very poor and very, very white.<br />
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Or maybe he’s Jewish and his ancestors suffered through the holocaust.<br />
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Or maybe he’s a survivor of abuse, and neglect, and hardships you can’t possibly fathom. <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">None of these things relate to privilege, which is a manifestation of social structure.</span><br />
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Or maybe he struggles with things — deeper things — mental and emotional and spiritual afflictions that would make you crumble into a little ball if you had to carry the weight for even one second. <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">See above about relevance.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">Just because you recognize that certain people have particular kinds of privilege and other people don't, that does not mean you cannot have compassion on the former, even sympathize with many of the pains and hardships they endure. </span><br />
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Maybe.<br />
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Or maybe not.<br />
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Do you know? Do you know these things before you postulate about his ‘privilege’? <br />
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It makes it all the more disgusting that this ‘privilege’ idiocy frequently oozes out of college campuses, where, so often, college students living the high life on daddy’s dime <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red; font-weight: 500;">or, crushing student debt</span> go around preaching to people in the real world <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red; font-weight: 500;">and college is a fantasy world? </span>about how easy our white man lives must be. Some of these presumptuous loudmouths have never even paid a bill or worked a job, and there they stand, telling the rest of us about our privilege. <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">Oh I see. So, you're upset about people with a certain kind of <b>privilege</b> (wealth, education) making all sorts of assertions about you and your life, and you seem to think they don't have any <b>right to talk</b> about these things because they have not <b>been in your shoes</b> - they have never experienced life as a working/middle class person, and so somehow that makes it harder for you to <b>take them seriously</b>. This is not at all in complete contradiction to all of your previous arguments....</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">See how easy it is to start making judgements about entire groups of people and telling them they shouldn't be talking about a particular issue? Oh no, only Liberals do that...</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">But maybe it was so easy for you to do the very thing you criticize because deep down you understand. Somewhere, from a class perspective, you understand that a wealthy person's thoughts about poor/working/middle class people should be considered differently than a poor/working/middle class person's opinion.</span><br />
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I should also mention that, obviously, white men are sometimes the ones saying that white men shouldn’t talk about ‘reproductive rights’ and ‘racial issues.’ I think these pitiful types devolve into such a sorry state through a potent mixture of self-hatred and white guilt — but mainly cowardice. They’re more than happy to display their empathy by refusing to form an opinion about the most pressing cultural issues of our time. And if they get a woman pregnant, they’re more than happy to ‘leave the decision up to her,’ which is a really nice way of saying that they’re more than happy to ‘put the entire burden of the situation on her shoulders, so that they can carry on living like immature little boys and still sleep well at night.’<br />
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It’s gross.<br />
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The whole thing is just gross.<br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">Yeah, when people say, "we should be quiet for a minute and listen to other people's perspectives" it's just <i>soo gross</i>!! We should all talk really loudly and ignore what everyone else has to say.</span><br />
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So, let’s stop it, OK?<br />
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But, then, it’s easy for me to say that. I’m a white man.</div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Open Sans', arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-weight: 500; line-height: 22px;"><span style="border-width: 0px; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; outline-width: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></span></span><br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00665542944467061185noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4353562748320042210.post-86988823033642694412014-04-30T12:12:00.003-07:002014-04-30T12:12:53.556-07:00Here are 13 things for little kids to worry about instead of college and test preparation<span style="color: red;">One general comment: the only problem I have with Matt's post below is that I do believe he is finding extreme examples and attempting to present them as the norm (or, evidence of a trend toward a new norm). Now, I could recount my own public school experience, which was not so long ago as to make it completely irrelevant (I could explain, for example, how my school projects involved costumes and art and role play, and how one of them inspired a long term interest in American folk music). However, I have more recent exposure to public education. My line of work brings me into frequent contact with public schools and students from elementary to high school age.</span><br />
<span style="color: red;"></span><br />
<span style="color: red;">While I certainly do not deny that many people have negative experiences in school (though, there are arguably many reasons for this that go beyond school itself) I do not consider the examples that Matt presents as representative of the reality as I see it on a daily basis. In particular, as technology is used to provide more interactive experiences for students, especially in the context of what were once typically austere situations, I see students having <em>fun</em> doing things like taking a test. So, there are definite moves in the opposite direction.</span><br />
<span style="color: red;"></span><br />
<span style="color: red;">I also do not believe that most elementary school students are as concerned about college as Peter is. Heck, most of the <em>high school juniors and seniors</em> I work with are not that concerned about college. They have no problem choosing a night of fun over SAT practice problems. If we are experiencing an epidemic of children taking school and college too seriously... .I have not witnessed it, at all. When I was a junior, I had no idea what college I wanted to go to, and that is still the case for many of the high school students I work with today. College is important, yes, but it is not dominating their life by any means. Students are thinking about many other things: dating, sports, movies, books, dating... </span><br />
<span style="color: red;"></span><br />
<span style="color: red;">On a regular basis, students of all ages tell me how much they love learning about history or psychology. They tell me about a book they just read for school that they really liked. Yes, there are subjects they don't like (usually it tends to be math), and they don't like getting up early everyday, but overall they have things to look forward to and subjects that they are inspired to learn more about.</span><br />
<span style="color: red;"></span><br />
<span style="color: red;">I do not know of ANYONE of any political stripe who thinks that children should focus on college and give up interest in art, writing, and imaginative play. So, opinions about public education aside, Matt is not advocating anything controversial. But, owing to his own agenda, it is clear that he is going to focus on the examples, no matter how extreme, that paint public education in a negative light.</span><br />
<span style="color: red;"></span><br />
<strong>Matt Walsh writes:</strong><br />
<br />
Since I wrote about homeschooling last week, I’ve been fielding tons of email messages from people sharing their public education horror stories.<br />
<br />
This one jumped out at me because it seems to echo the <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2014/04/kindergarten-show-cancelled-so-kids-can-focus-on-college-prep/" sl-processed="1">news</a> about an elementary school that canceled its kindergarten play so that the kindergartens could focus on college preparation. I don’t know that this woman’s kid goes to that school (she didn’t mention it, so I assume he doesn’t), but she is dealing with a similar problem.<br />
<br />
Honestly, I hesitated to share this with you because, to me, in my little bubble of innocence and naivety, this is almost too horrendous to believe. A kid in FIRST GRADE already giving up his hobbies and passions because he’s concerned about what his college application will look like?<br />
<br />
Is it that bad out there? I guess it is. At least, this seems to be an indication:<br />
<br />
<br />
<em>Dear Matt,</em><br />
<br />
<em>I read your post about home schooling and decided to finally email you, even if I’m not expecting a response. My son, Peter, is in first grade in a public school. Recently, with a combination of Common Core and just bad educational strategies on the part of the school, my kiddo seems to have lost his interest and motivation. I don’t blame his teachers but I blame the system, as you pointed out. He used to love to learn and read, but now he comes home stressed out and anxious. He is reduced to tears when he’s doing his homework! The math work is INSANE! I don’t think I had the amount of tests and homework that he has even when I was in COLLEGE!</em><br />
<em></em><br />
<em>I’m writing to you because my heart was broken last week when my son, who has always been very creative, playful, and loved arts and crafts, came home and announced that he doesn’t want to draw or play with Legos anymore. I asked him why and he said that it’s a waste of time. When I asked him why it’s a waste of time, he said it won’t help him get into college! I’m not kidding! Yesterday he told me he “hates school more than anything.” I told him that school is good because it’s where you go to learn. He literally responded that he “hates learning.”</em><br />
<em></em><br />
<em>This is crazy! I feel like the school is crushing my poor kid’s spirit and now he doesn’t even want to draw or do arts and crafts with mom anymore. It’s all about testing and grades and “useful knowledge”, and I’m afraid that his childhood is being taken from him. I don’t know why I’m writing this to you. I just enjoy your opinion, and the funny thing is that my son likes you, too. He hears mom and dad talk about your blog at the dinner table, so now “Mr. Matt” has become kind of a mythological hero to him, lol. I showed him the picture of you trying to kill a spider and he laughed his head off!</em><br />
<em></em><br />
<em>What do you think about this, Matt? I just want to know your perspective.</em><br />
<em></em><br />
<em>Sincerely,</em><br />
<em></em><br />
<em>Anne</em><br />
<br />
<br />
Dear Anne,<br />
<br />
I think you chose the right words. If I’m a hero, it’s only in a mythological sense. In the real world, I’m noticeably lacking any heroic qualities at all. Still, I appreciate that you’ve opened up to me about your issue with your son. You know that I’m a homeschool proponent, so the first thing that comes to mind is that maybe you should consider other options outside of public school.<br />
<br />
Of course, I don’t know your situation, so I can’t make that judgment call. It isn’t my business, anyway.<br />
<br />
I thought that I’d write an email back to you, ranting about how kids are having their creativity and zest for life sucked out of them, but I changed my mind. I’ve ranted plenty on that subject, and I’m sure I’ll rant again in the future.<br />
<br />
Right now, I’d like to address Peter directly, if you don’t mind. I wrote him a letter, and I’m hoping you’ll read it to him, or help him read it.<br />
<br />
Here it is:<br />
<br />
<br />
<strong>Hi Peter,</strong><br />
<br />
<strong>It’s Mr. Matt. I’m really worried, because your mom tells me that you think it’s a waste of time to draw pictures and play with Legos. I’m sad that you feel that way, because I bet you could draw an awesome picture of a dinosaur or a spaceship, but now the world will never get to see it.</strong><br />
<strong></strong><br />
<strong>Here’s the question, though: </strong><br />
<strong></strong><br />
<strong>Can you draw a picture of a dinosaur IN a spaceship? Check out the doodle I sketched this morning:</strong><br />
<strong></strong><br />
<a href="http://themattwalshblog.files.wordpress.com/2014/04/photo-1.jpg" sl-processed="1"><img alt="photo (1)" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-3124" src="http://themattwalshblog.files.wordpress.com/2014/04/photo-1.jpg?w=640" /></a><br />
<strong></strong><br />
<strong>OK, maybe that looks more like a big hat with a picture of a lizard on it, but I tried my best.</strong><br />
<strong>I’ll admit that a few people in the history of the world have made cooler pictures. Has your mom told you about the Sistine Chapel? Look at this:</strong><br />
<br />
<a href="http://themattwalshblog.files.wordpress.com/2014/04/sistina-interno.jpg" sl-processed="1"><img alt="Sistina-interno" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-3125" src="http://themattwalshblog.files.wordpress.com/2014/04/sistina-interno.jpg?w=640" /></a><br />
<strong></strong><br />
<strong>A guy named Michelangelo painted those pictures on the ceiling 500 years ago. It took him FOUR YEARS to paint all of them. If arts and crafts are a waste of time, then Michelangelo wasted A LOT of it.</strong><br />
<strong></strong><br />
<strong>Your mom also tells me that you hate learning. That’s too bad, Peter, because I love to learn, and I bet there are tons of things you’d love to learn about, too.</strong><br />
<strong></strong><br />
<strong>Did you know that there’s a type of cat called a cheetah, and it can run as fast as a car or a motorcycle?</strong><br />
<strong></strong><br />
<strong>Did you know that the temperature on the Sun is 27 MILLION degrees?</strong><br />
<br />
<strong>Did you know that your brain is smarter and more powerful than every computer on the planet?</strong><br />
<br />
<strong>These are really exciting facts. My life is more fun and enjoyable because I know them. This is what happens when you learn. You discover more about the world and yourself. Learning is like going on a journey over an ocean, or through a jungle, except you can do it in your home or at school.</strong><br />
<strong></strong><br />
<strong>There are a bunch of things I haven’t learned yet, but I hope I will one day. For example, I’ve always wanted to know why people yawn, or why it’s impossible to tickle yourself. Maybe you can find those things out and teach me about them. Or maybe nobody knows, and you can be the first person to ever answer the question.</strong><br />
<br />
<strong>Also, can you figure out what this weird animal is supposed to be:</strong><br />
<br />
<a href="http://themattwalshblog.files.wordpress.com/2014/04/untitled-57.png" sl-processed="1"><img alt="untitled (57)" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-3126" src="http://themattwalshblog.files.wordpress.com/2014/04/untitled-57.png?w=640" /></a><br />
<strong></strong><br />
<strong>I think it lives in the rainforest, but I’m not sure. I need help investigating this mystery.</strong><br />
<strong></strong><br />
<strong>See, I’m not even in school or college, but I’m always trying to feed my brain and increase my understanding of the world around me.</strong><br />
<br />
<strong>You should learn, and draw, and paint, and read, and play with Legos, Peter. I still play with Legos. You wouldn’t believe the huge tower I built last week. It literally touched the ceiling. </strong><br />
<strong></strong><br />
<strong>Seriously.</strong><br />
<strong></strong><br />
<strong>Don’t worry about college and grown up stuff right now. You’ve got more important things to do. Things like:</strong><br />
<br />
<strong>-Running outside</strong><br />
<strong>-Rolling down a grassy hill</strong><br />
<strong>-Using your imagination</strong><br />
<strong>-Jumping through a sprinkler</strong><br />
<strong>-Jumping in a puddle</strong><br />
<strong>-Jumping on the couch (don’t tell your mom)</strong><br />
<strong>-Deciding what you’ll say if aliens land and you’re the first person to make contact with them. (I already decided what I’ll say. I’ll probably just tell them “hello,” and then I’ll ask them if they want some iced tea.)</strong><br />
<strong>-Painting and drawing pictures</strong><br />
<strong>-Writing poems and stories</strong><br />
<strong>-Reading books</strong><br />
<strong>-Playing games</strong><br />
<strong>-Daydreaming</strong><br />
<strong>-Eating ice cream</strong><br />
<strong></strong><br />
<strong>That’s at least 13 things that you should definitely fit into your schedule, especially playing, reading, and daydreaming. And ice cream, obviously.</strong><br />
<br />
<strong>My kids are just babies, but I hope they’re as artistic and creative as you one day. It’s a great power — a superpower — to be able to dream things in your head and then put them on paper.</strong><br />
<strong></strong><br />
<strong>Sometimes it’s fun to dream something in your head, and just keep it there, and revisit your dream from time to time. It’s like you’re building a new world for yourself, out of nothing but your mind and your imagination.</strong><br />
<br />
<strong>I have a homework assignment for you: think of a story. Just make up a story. Any story at all. You don’t have to tell anyone, or write it down, or do anything with it. Just think of it. That’s all. Put yourself in your story — pretend you’re the main character. Think about it, just for the sake of thinking about it. </strong><br />
<br />
<strong>That’s the assignment.</strong><br />
<br />
<strong>When I was a kid, I liked to think that I was a time traveling ninja.</strong><br />
<strong></strong><br />
<strong>Actually, I still like to imagine that I’m a time traveling ninja.</strong><br />
<strong></strong><br />
<strong>My wife doesn’t enjoy it when I wear my ninja costume to the grocery store, or to dinner at her mother’s house, but I’m not sure why.</strong><br />
<strong></strong><br />
<strong>Anyway, I hope you continue to play, and draw, and learn, Peter. You’re a kid, and that’s your job right now.</strong><br />
<br />
<strong>Sincerely,</strong><br />
<strong></strong><br />
<strong>Mr. Matt</strong><br />
<strong></strong><br />
<strong>P.S. I know what you’re thinking, but just because I’m afraid of spiders doesn’t mean I can’t be a ninja.</strong>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00665542944467061185noreply@blogger.com2