Open Thread for Non-Personal Stuff, 5/16 Triumphant Hedgehog Edition

I’m so glad that the only books I read from Marvel are Ms Marvel and Squirrel Girl.

http://www.searchdiscovery.com/images/blog/2015/08/You-Have-Chosen-Wisely.jpg

@katz, I only grabbed Ms Marvel after I’d seen you and a few other people talking it up. So, thanks!

Remember, this glorious 25th of May, to always fight for truth, justice, reasonably priced love, and a hard boiled egg.

@Scildfreja re: work
Hear, hear!

(I’m porting this one over from the other thread, especially since it overlaps with Scildfrejas discussion somewhat)

@WWTH

I think it’s not so much a matter of not being able to understand the difference between debt and deficit and more a matter of not bothering to understand. They hear government spending = bad so much that they hear either word and assume it’s equally bad. They know they don’t like it. No nuance necessary.

Well, there’s always that. In the face of egregious amounts of bad faith (very good phrasing there, Sinkable John), no amount of explaining can prevail. If someone can’t understand your explanation, then you need to find a better way to explain it. If someone won’t understand, then there’s not really much you can do.

@Alan Robertshaw

There’s seems to be quite a lot in common with the UK and US experiences. Over here it used to be a traditional view that the Tories were good on the economy and Labour were good with public services (this was often reflected in the voting pattern “Tories in the general election, Labour in local elections)

That’s something I’ve never understood, actually: How the living hell conservatives ever got the reputation for being good on the economy. They’re fucking catastrophic for the economy, every time they get power; when was the last time the Tories got the folks on the Clapham bus a job or a rise or a benefits increase or anything but a sneer and a kick in the teeth? Where does the idea come from that public services aren’t a part of the economy? What the hell does the Clapham rider think the damn economy is anyway? (These are not rhetorical questions. I genuinely do not know the answers, and they drive me up the walls)

That changed a bit with “New Labour” and Tony Blair. He stuck in a chancellor (the guy who runs our economy) who tried to re-establish a bit of confidence on economics. So there was lots of harping on about ‘prudence’ and fiscal responsibility.

AAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I just can’t even with people who talk about austerity and fiscal responsibility in the same breath. Would it kill these assholes to learn at least the basics of macroeconomics before they start dicking around with the system?

All fascinating stuff. Could fill reams and reams with this. But back to our initial thing about communication, that still is a big problem for the left here and progressives generally. Great at speaking to the choir and people who take an active interest in politics, less so at engaging “the man (or woman) on the Clapham omnibus”*

It’s not hard, as long as you’ve got a platform that’s worth a half dram of stale rat piss. Legal equality for marginalized groups is great, but a) it doesn’t actually help a whole lot when your equal rights include the right to sleep under a bridge with the rest of the homeless, and b) when your platform consists of ‘rights for minorities’ and ‘kick the poor in the teeth’, it’s easy for the right to paint it as ‘special rights/handouts for [insert slur here]’. The Left’s platform should include simple, easy to understand lines like “We want to hire you at a good wage”, and “Why let Comcast gouge you? A vote for us is a vote for civic fiber, 25 Mb/s, and free to your door!”, or perhaps “Dreaming of telling your boss where to shove this job? Do you and your friends have a business you’re dreaming of starting? Our business incubator program offers 0 interest loans, and five years of accounting and legal assistance through the SBA!” All of this and more are totally doable on an economic front in absolutely any industrialized nation; only the political will is missing.

So… you reckon Thiel is gonna say “Hail Hydra” very soon?

Considering the article suggest Richie Rich did it because of ol’ Drumpf, I’m pretty sure he’s been doing that for a while now.

Rich, white republican, Hydra, same difference honestly.

Oh, I googled him, and his Wikipedia page states he’s German-American and cofounded PayPal so, like, double that probability.

Well, the German-American doesn’t mean anything but “venture capitalist” and shit.

Handsome “These Pretzels Suck” Jack:
It probably won’t surprise you that Thiel has some really disgusting opinions about women and their rights? (As in, fuck those rights.)

Let me link to a Gawker article, just to drive this thing home regarding why his actions are weeeeeebit problematic: http://gawker.com/5231390/facebook-backer-wishes-women-couldnt-vote

Yeah, I thought it was something like that. But, I have seen someone who I don’t think was trolling say the same thing. I’ve also seen someone who genuinely seems to hate cis folk, writing “down with cis <3" on a knife and also claims that trans folk are better than cis folk, and that cis people should be beaten. This person doesn't *seem* like a troll, either. Of course, I realize that cis folk are more privileged and are such are the oppressors of trans folk by definition, but I don't much care for the encouragement of violence. They're probably just trying to prove a point by reversing transphobic violence, but it seems a bit…off to me.

I didn't know how to write this comment without it coming off as playing Devil's advocate/generally being a fuckboy, so please tell me if I said something problematic. Also, I don’t want to start drama by bringing anyone into this and if I feel it’s going to start any, I’d like to drop any discussion this post may lead to.

Let me link to a Gawker article, just to drive this thing home regarding why his actions are weeeeeebit problematic: http://gawker.com/5231390/facebook-backer-wishes-women-couldnt-vote

I hope he realizes that men also have the option and use said option to not vote for shit that will just benefit rich assholes like him, right? And that women also have and use the option to vote for benefits for rich assholes, right?

I mean, I know these guys don’t really think things out, but, I mean, they can try, right?

@ FrickleFrackle

No group of people consists only of good souls who only use well thought out arguments. Sometimes people have suffered greatly in their lives and feel justified in inflicting pain on others, however thin the justification that they can find. Sometimes people are just assholes.

I did quickly glance at the history of body piercing on Wikipedia. Apparently ear piercings were common all over in the ancient world, lip and tongue piercing in Africa and the Americas and nipple piercing in Rome. So, I guess no one can claim it’s appropriation for whitey to have pierced ears and nips.

Now you can raise all sorts of rebuttals to that, but it is a brilliant piece of rhetoric. Why has no one come up with an equally punchy saying for an alternative point of view?

I think it’s because the left is a coalition, so there’s hardly ever a single statement that encompasses what everyone thinks. Like there’s a faction of progressives who would say “It’s class warfare, stupid,” but the rest of us would be going “Um, it’s a lot of other things too…”

The white nationalists quite enjoyed the Angry Birds Movie.

Hi everyone, I hope you all are doing well. I came back from New Mexico to pick up my two toddler nephews to take care of them for about a month while their parents are on vacation and boy, they sure are a handful.

Freckle frackle
Yeah, I been seeing people complain about those too. And even dreadlocks and hijabs. I also been seeing pictures of people wearing black lines under their eyes and Asian women in ‘ganguro’ styles and people are complaining they’re wearing ‘blackface’

I’m totally against cultural appropriation and such but this is going way too far or maybe they’re just straw SJWs, I don’t know.