It’s pretty good show. Most of the discussion involves social media researcher and Fordham professor Alice Marwick and Helen Lewis of the New Statesman. Those of us in the Google+ Hangout pop in briefly with comments and questions.
FWIW, I appear only briefly in the show proper, but I have a somewhat longer (and a bit more coherent) comment in the ten minute “online only” portion that immediately follows the show (and which is also on this video).
It was a somewhat strange, if educational, experience, my first appearance on TV. (The next time I get webcammed into a show, I won’t reflexively look down at the laptop while talking.) It all went by really, really quickly. Weirdly frantic behind the scenes as the producer tried to slot us all in.
The comments on the video on YouTube nicely illustrate the problem we were discussing; that is, they are a rancid pile of misogynistic shitlordery.
My favorite comment is this one from Urhoboman5 about Rebecca Watson:
At 5;30 that chick has a youtube channel. Just type in rebecca feminist and you’ll find it. Interesting how most of her videos are voted down. Sometimes as much as 80% negative because the stuff she says is pure nonsense.
That’s right. He actually thinks that the fact that her videos are targeted by downvote squads proves that she’s wrong to talk about harassment. She’s harassed by dudes who don’t like her talking about harassment so therefore it’s “nonsense” for her to talk about harassment. Brilliant.
Many leftists tend to IGNORE the misogyny and homophobia from non-whites. Black pastors speak out against gay marriage, they get ignored. Not so when the white Chick-Fil-A guy does it.
At least this leftist understands:
Bill Maher: “The worst [white US extremists] can do is, like, identify the gay Teletubby!”
Maybe you shouldn’t be posting that a couple days after a white US extremist shot up a Sikh temple, Ruby.
Oh shit, guys, remember that part where we said “misogyny and homophobia are only bad if you’re white”? We totally fucked up there!
We need to start targeting non-white people who say problematic things, because how else will we retain our self-righteousness while still getting to target non-white people?
If white leftists are ignoring the shitty things some people of color say (if that’s even true) then that’s evidence of racism against the people of color, not against whites.
Also, Bill Maher is an asshole.
So how many left wing sources regarding the black pastors’ statement did you look at, Ruby, before deciding that none of them mentioned it? I read a few criticising the pastors – I wouldn’t know what you’re talking about otherwise. As for the comparison with Chik-fil-a, are you suggesting that leftists should be boycotting conservative black churches? How does that even work?
no idiot, we just dont myopically obsess about people of color, because we’re not drooling racists
Really? Using Bill Maher as support for your argument? For serious? Epic tool, that one.
Don’t recall condoning misogyny or racism when committed by non-white folk and I’m so far left I’m Canadian!
of course ruby’s ikon of leftism is dimwitted, misogynistic, anti-science dipshit bill maher
because she’s totally uninterested in having anything interesting to say
but congratulations ruby, you found another reason to piss and moan about being persecuted by ‘the left’ without responding to any actual criticism. this is the sort of self-gratifying cowardice we’ve come to expect from you.
i repeat what i said before. there are a lot of intelligent, insightful, and creative conservatives, many of whom i adore. you’re not one of them. you’re fundamentally a stupid, self-absorbed asshole, and that’s all youll ever be.
you’ll of course ignore that, because you get off on pretending to be persecuted. sort of like an mra.
i mean, exactly like an mra.
actually, im from georgia, so im friends with a ton of wingers, and most of them are at least receptive when you tell them shit they said comes off as racist, and want to think about how they’re approaching this shit
i have never in my life met a conservative who throws a tantrum about these things so quickly as dumb pretend victim ruby hypatia
granted, most of my winger friends are also way smarter than ruby, so…
Oh wow, for some time I’ve seen a lot of antagonism that I didn’t get toward Ruby, while I never saw anything outside of insipid from her(I do generally have trouble keeping up with threads that surpass two pages). Now I finally get to see the Ruby people are so angry at. I must say, I’m sorry I doubted the Manboobz comentariat.
No. Homophobia does not get ignored when it’s perpetrated by black people.
Remember Proposition 8? After that passed, a huge deal was made over the fact that black people were more likely to have voted yes.
Nevermind that when other factors were taken into account, it turned out that race wasn’t a very good predictor of how people voted on Prop 8. Nevermind that someone’s political party, ideology, religiosity, and age each correlated to how someone voted on Prop 8 much more strongly than race. The media focused on the role that race played in determining how someone voted on Prop 8. And, as that role was rather insignificant in reality, the media exaggerated it to a huge extent.
So at least in that case, the media (yeah, even the leftists) emphasized homophobia amongst black people whilst ignoring all the other factors. Which is, you know, the opposite of what you just said.
That Maher clip is scary in how it goes from being racist but still recognisably in the stand-up comedy form to straight-out Stormfront stuff, but the audience reaction stays the same throughout :
Chibigodzilla – The tipping point with Ruby is when she started insisting that prison rape is hilarious so long as the person being raped “deserved it”, and threw a huge hissyfit absolutely refusing to back down when people told her how fucked-up that is.
Gah! Why did I watch that clip? Smug neocolonial bullshit.
Lowquacks – Holy shit, I just realized that poster behind him says “Why We Fight” and it’s the Statue of Liberty in hijab.
It’s like, he’s got the rhythm and presentation of a professional stand-up comic, so maybe that’s why the audience doesn’t pick up on it so quickly, but his “nope, Western civilization is just better” is holy shit Stormfront.
It’s also amusing (for some terrible value of “amusing”) how he transitions so smoothly between “we should treat the Gitmo prisoners like animals, who cares if they starve” to “we’re better than them because we have rule of law!”
On the other hand, proudly proclaiming that we’re better than everyone else in the world and so we can interfere with them in any way we see fit – that’s pretty much a Western value.
Until last year soliciting a crime against nature (oral or anal sex) was considered a felony by Louisiana law, and required the guilty party to sign the sex offenders register. Roughly 40% of people on the register in New Orleans are prostitutes.
Apparently old crimes were removed as of April this year, but still that is scarily recent.
Wow at the Maher clip. And I bet those countries that don’t see that it’s “better” will jusy have to be shown by them thar enlightened countries that it’s “better”, kicking and screaming if need be.
@Sir Bodsworth
Sadly, that seems to be global
Well, yeah, but we’re best at it!