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By David Futrelle
A little musical open thread to discuss the amazing news! No Trump fans, trolls, or Don Jr sockpuppets allowed.
You might have to turn up the volume on this one:
This is a no troll, no Trump fan, no Donnie Jr sockpuppet thread. Emailing David now. I’m usually a fan of using trolls as chew toys rather than banning, but this troll has no entertainment value.
I’m impressed the troll wrote that long a comment with that much capitalization and punctuation when they were clearly typing one-handed.
The only entertainment this troll gives me is that his avatar is a picture of Trump. Since I have the Make America Kittens Again extension, I get to see even more adorable kitten pics besides the ones that PaganReader gives us.
ETA: I love that they named the black kitty Angel, even though in general I’m not the biggest fan of that name.
My mom’s cat was originally named Demon. She changed it. Demon could not describe him less. He’s sweet, affectionate and kind of timid. I don’t know what anyone was thinking naming him that.
So…if someone raped one of these guys, would he also shrug it off as a miscommunication?
@WWTH
All I see is a blue quilt.
The only thing slightly interesting about the troll’s little splat is his using “TRVMP” instead of a U. Stylings of a roman emperor. I mean, sweet maple moses, guy. If you don’t want to be called fascists, maybe don’t go with the “emperor of the guys who actually came up with the fascia” look. It sorta gives the game away!
@WWTH,
How exactly are you getting a Trump avatar (to replace with a kitten) off this troll? All I’m getting is the usual Gravatar/Wordpress quilt block on this guy.
ETA: ninja’d by Ooglyboggles. O.o
( 😀 )
I think a new nickname for Agent Orange, the Fanta Menace, &c. ought to be Tervump, which is how I assume you pronounce that.
To the pudding-brain who wrote that: Your god is the least popular president in recent memory. Fewer voted for him than for “Crooked” Hillary. (IN B4 the blood-soaked county map showing that if land could vote, Tervump would have won in a landslide.) He has no mandate from the people. He’s unfit to lead a Boy Scout troop, much less a nuclear state. He gets to coast through life on his ass, having everything handed to him; why, I wager he hasn’t done an hour of physical labour in his life. Yet he and his goons (or his masters? for when he’s not a conniving villain, he’s an idiot who makes Dubya look competent) are in a position where they can harm people who have it bad enough already.
I’m a straight, cis-gender white male, so I have it pretty easy, and if you wrote something like that, then you probably are too. It is our humanitarian duty to make life at least a little easier for those who can’t do it themselves, who have it harder than we. But you are a pudding-brain, so you’d bungle it irretrievably, as your fellow Dump-worshippers who aren’t malicious already have.
People can see how disastrous this regime is, was, and shall ever be. As compelling a case for misanthropy as you lot make, I have just enough faith in humanity to see it arrest the progress of this disaster, and maybe even reverse it.
Having said all that, I command you in the name of the gods to depart hence and retreat to your “safe space”!
@Redsilkphoenix: Jetpack Vixen, Agent of the FemiNest Collective; Keeper of a Hell Toupee, and all-around Intergalactic Meanie
Mua ha ha ha ha ha! Cat plant away!
I see the vast blight-wing enstupidation has reached even here, in a non-troll thread.
People who study history are condemned to watch people repeat it.
“Miscommunication” is basically a convenient way for the disciplinary committee to avoid explicitly saying she was asking for it, and back up their decision with pseudoscientific bullshit based on the work of someone who conveniently happens to have a Ph.D. and tenure.
Huh. The avatar is a different kitten/s every time I refresh the page. That can only mean it’s the MAKA extension. Can avatars change based on the browser you’re viewing it on? I’m viewing with Chrome.
Look at this smoky little fella
@wwth
I’m on mobile Chrome and all I see is a standard quilt block. At least you’re seeing kittens
That “miscommunication” shit if it were actually true, would make a stronger case that men’s behavior should be regulated. Not women’s. If men truly become incapable of interpreting that a woman is not consenting after he’s been drinking, doesn’t that mean that men shouldn’t be allowed to drink? Or if they are drinking they should have escorts and a curfew to make sure they don’t indulge their apparently inherent rape instincts?
I’m not sure how that theory explains away all the men who don’t rape women after they’ve been drinking. Or how it explains female rapists or male on male rape. It’s a shit hypothesis on so many levels.
That’s a really unique looking kitten. He looks tuxedo in the front, tabby in the back. I don’t think I’ve ever seen that before. So cute!
@History Nerd,
Tangential quibble: Tannen actually claims that the differences she describes between masculine and feminine communication styles are learned and not innate; they’re a result of gender-differentiated socialization. The rest of your points about Tannen being an apologist for abusive masculine behavior are right on.
I think I’ve seen one that’s tuxedo on the right, and something different on the left. Might have been shopped, but looked neat anyway.
The Trump fan has banned. As Chief Manatee, I decree it.
Just kidding. David got back to me.
@weirwoodtreehugger: chief manatee
Incoming Truckload of FREEZE PEACH
Kewl! That means once it defrosts, I can get out my canning recipes and make some peach jams and things! 😀
Great idea!
(Or isn’t that what you meant? 🙁 )
😉
@Scildfreja Unnyðnes
So… I was married to a guy like that (still am, but long story) and it became HELL ON EARTH. My theory: my ex wasn’t prepared for hard work of parenting and jumped both feet into the world of ‘male led households’ in the sense of a lion and his pride – where the woman does all the work, including bringing home the antelope. Yes, he changed diapers, but little else and became more and more insistent on ‘traditional roles’ while still insisting on me working and bringing in money. This alongside all the other racism and creeping homophobia and such like in the alt-right. He is now a Trump supporter.
so please stick with your friend – her life is hard and probably getting harder.
WWTH,
At the very least men shouldn’t be allowed to have sex with women without explicit and affirmative consent. You could call it “affirmative consent standard” or something like that.
(Yes, I know the rape apologists are specifically trying to overturn recently adopted ACS policies in colleges, together with the recent trend of taking rape accusations generally seriously. They seem hell bent on conflating these two things, probably because the former is a formal policy with a formal name, while the latter is easier to attack rhetorically.)
RE TRVMP IS GONNA GETCHA…
What exactly is he going to get me? An ice cream? A book of poetry? A round tuit? Don’t leave me hanging here, I’m intrigued!
Slightly OT:
I was reading a novel by John Crowley at the weekend, called ‘Little, Big, or, the Fairies’ Parliament’, and was struck by the resemblance between the villain of the piece, a charismatic US president who is either the reincarnation of Barbarossa or imbued with his spirit, and the current squatter in your White House.
A quick quote from Wikipedia below, contains spoilers:
At this juncture, Russell Eigenblick, a charismatic but secretive politician rises in popularity and becomes the President. He advocates civil war but against what or who, is unclear. He is secretly opposed by a covert group of wealthy businessmen and politicians called the Noisy Bridge Rod and Gun Club. They are working with the mage Ariel Hawksquill, a distant relation of the Drinkwater family. Hawksquill identifies Eigenblick as the re-awakened Holy Roman Emperor Frederick Barbarossa and she divines that he has been called from sleep in order to protect Faerie. Although Eigenblick has not realized it, his enemy is mankind, who have systematically, though unknowingly, driven the fairies deeper and deeper into hiding.
Is this the possible explanation for Trump? He is in fact a secret agent, not of the Russians, but the Unseelie Court, here to undermine democracy to such an extent that civilisation breaks down and the Fey can recolonise the new wilderness that results?
(It’s not a bad book, ‘Little, Big’, but I found it hard going at the start – others may have a different opinion.)
@DanHolme
I absolutely loved Little, Big, but actually more at the beginning when its hard to pin down what is odd! For those who haven’t read it, its starts off as a normal novel set in a country house, just with slight supernatural overtones. As the setting of the story gradually expands to bigger cities and wider politics the magic realist elements increase until by the end of the novel cause, effect and normal plot has disappeared and the real world has dissolved into Faeryland. I read it a few years back, so was reading different allusions into it but I didn’t read Eigenblick as a Trumpian character. Trump isn’t actually intelligent or charismatic for a start!
@ imaginary petal
Yes, I’m reading the news voraciously, like a soap or a terrible comedy, and then you realise this is actually having a terrible terrible and long-lasting effect on the world. Politicians in other parliamentary democracies like Britain and Australia are clumsily trying Trump tricks of abandoning spin for flat out lying, refusing any accountability etc. as they realise that shame is no longer a brake and scandal has become impossible. And worst and most damaging of all, democracy is being discredited as an institution to strive for, even if it was never perfectly realised. Putin can face dissenters at home and ask what’s the point of fighting for more democracy.