You don’t need a PhD in Critical Race Theory to notice that a lot of the knuckleheads talking shit about Simone Biles for dropping out of the Olympics are white dudes who couldn’t do a single cartwheel to save their lives. Piers Morgan. Charlie Kirk. Ben Shapiro.
Oh, and this dude, Doug Gottlieb of Fox Sports, who seems mad that Biles’ mental health isn’t bad enough to keep her from sports altogether.
“Let’s not mislabel a mental health episode, where you don’t perform well because of the immense amount of pressure over being judged as the greatest of all time,” he declared, “and a true mental health issue where you shouldn’t be competing in sports.”
Alas, CNN’s Brianna Keilar happened to notice this trend of “ignorant white dudes talking shit about a black woman who survived sexual abuse at the hands of former team doctor Larry Nassar and went on to become the greatest gymnast ever.” In a segment on the network she tore into Morgan, Kirk, and Gottlieb for their terrible takes, noting that all of them could learn “a thing or two … about mental toughness” from Biles.
The CNN chyron read: “White male talking heads question courage of Simone Biles.” Which seems like a pretty accurate description of what was going on.
But Gottlieb is having a little fit over it.
I dunno, dude. Perhaps they used that chyron because “white male assholes question courage of Simone Biles” wouldn’t have made it past the network censors.
Note: If you decide that for some reason you need to criticize Simone Biles, this clever little decision tree on McSweeny’s will let you know if you can.
H/T — Thanks to Mediaite for covering this controversy so fully.
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Elaine wrote:
It just occurred to me that it’d be a nice match if your husband were a Navy Seal while you have the mermaid gig. Or better yet, if you were performing as a selkie instead 🙂
Regarding your autocorrect, I’ve noticed it’s often rogue but IIRC it’s relatively rarely lewd, sometimes unintentionally funny or “fitting” in a non-lewd absurdist way.
@Scildfreja
I’m still slaving away in the knowledge mines, trying to teach the next generation how to write, wage-cuck that I am. Life’s been quite good to me lately, and the switch over to teaching online has been fun; I’ve been able to mix it up with a little asynchronous learning as well as the standard webinar-style lecturing. I’ve been drawing heavily on my wife’s degree in Instructional Design, and it’s neat (rather than NEET) collaborating with her professionally, albeit unofficially.
I’m glad you’re okay; I kind of worried when you dropped off the face of the mammoth.
…and I guess opposablethumb’s Scildfreja-signal works, so yay!
@Lumipuna
i sang to him “my jolly sailor bold” while in the mermaid costume. He loved it.
@Gaebolga, I’m glad to hear you’re doing well. Online education is such a hard job! Async really helps smooth that out, I think, though it depends a lot on the learners (and the material). A mix seems best. I hope you’ve hit your groove with it, ’cause it seems like it’s going to be around to stay! Having some teamwork with Instructional Design credentials sounds like it’d be really helpful, and I imagine it’s been a lot of fun!
I’m sorry about falling off the map like that. In the interim time I’ve discovered why I do that, it’s sort of a learned behaviour I guess. I’m trying to unlearn it! which is why I’m here. Also because I saw the big S in the sky. That too.
@Elaine, that’s adorable :3
@Scildfreja!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! What a perfect and lovely surprise, and what a delight to see you here again in the very pixels! Your name has come up quite a few times in your absence, as one bunch of us or another remembers things that you have said and how you have said them, and wishes you well 🙂
Hope you are keeping well, and may your ferrets be as tame as tame can be.
? ? ? ? ? ?
@Scildfreja
Well, online learning may be here to stay in most places, but given that Florida is run by a Trumpstain with a hard-on for letting people die, I’m required to go back in the classroom starting this coming semester.
At least he can’t ban masks, though I bet he wishes he could….
Off topic, but people like our latest troll are a reminder of a good, if rarely used, argument in favor of Universal Basic Income.
There exist some people out there who are so incompetent and/or disruptive, but in a less blatant way than “spends most of their life in and out of prison”, that it would actually be more economical to pay them to not work. Not all of them are lazy, some of them actually work really hard at being leeches or screw-ups. Sure, a lot of them will constantly yammer about how they’re so superior and deserve more than mere survival wages and demand all kinds of ridiculous things, and a small number will become socially disruptive anyway because they can’t live like kings, but it’s
bettermore compassionate than exiling them to the wilderness or chopping their heads off or whatever else preindustrial cultures did. This won’t help with the wealthy scions who fail upwards, but that’s a separate issue even if those are fundamentally the same kinds of people.This is on top of all the other benefits of UBI, of course.
It is good to see you again, Scildfreja.
@Opposablethumbs, lovely to see you again! I hope the things said about me have been good! I’ve missed you all, and try to stay around again. No work, so it’s a little easier to spend more time with messages!
@Gaebolga, oof. All my best to you down in the sunshine state, it’s quite a thing. Alberta’s pretty much a disaster zone too, but we’re getting vaccines out a little better at least. I hope that you’ve got your shots and that you’ll be able to take care of yourself when you’re back in the thick of it. Masks and a six foot cattle prod!
@Snowberry, hello again <3 I’m a tentative supporter of UBI, too. I do like a way to make sure we don’t have people out there dying on the streets, ensuring people have basic homes and food and whatnot, but I rather wonder whether it’s the right mechanism for the job. The whole system’s broken, and I don’t know if that patch would fix it. That said, I’m also a dummy and would never look an improvement in the proverbial mouth! I’d vote you for world leader.
It’s lovely to see you again too, Nequam!
@Scildfreja
Thank you, he rather likes it when I sing for him.
One of the biggest effects of UBI would surely be the removal – or at least the massive alleviation – of a source of fear, that creeping, chilling, mind-numbing constant fear and insecurity that financial precariousness brings. And this in turn would enable people to work and study and take decisions without their brains being half-frozen all the time; relief from this level of stress might take a little while to kick in, but imagine what a non-petrified population might achieve! (which is probably precisely why some people are against it, of course).
UBI would be a better use of some of the world’s resources than a couple of willy-wavers playing with toy rockets any day.
@Scildfreja, defnit-ly yup! All good! 🙂
Re: UBI
As part of a bastardized Jovian Chronicles campaign I ran a few years back, I had CEGA (Earth’s governing body) running these sort of commune things that were mandatory for the population unless one could find employment that allowed one to pay taxes, at which point you could move out and fend for yourself. While I used it as a sort of fauxcialism designed to hide the autocratic nature of the state, I think that as a voluntary option, something similar could possibly work.
The basic premise was that each communal living arcology was self-sustaining and required 10 hours of assigned work per week from each inhabitant, all of which went to maintaining the arcology and tending the algae ponds and yeast farms (food supply). Obviously, a real-life version would require a lot more planing than an rpg setting, but offering sustainable collective living to those who need a place to live and a reliable source of food might work….
Scildfreja!
Good to see you, and glad the brain-ferrets are back in their enclosure for a bit.
@Snowberry : I dislike the argument because it’s somewhat insulting for people who stay on UBI involuntary. Especially the comparison with prison ; I think prison *should* be a rehabilitation facility, certainly not a place to put people too “disruptive”. Especially since a lot of people that warrant prison are actually able to work, and conversely a lot of people that have trouble fitting in the workplace are so for perfectly innocuous reasons.
I much prefer the other, numerous arguments for UBI. Like the fact it lower pressure, both on people to conform to the workplace, and on society to find a place for everyone. Or the fact it allow much more easily specific vocations that are hard to monetize, like being an ascetic monk or creating a new language. Or the fact it simplify administration by a ton, freeing people to do something else than checking recipients. Or the fact it will make people in difficulty accept help with much less shame – a current problem with social help is how a lot of recipient are too proud to accept them.
@Gaebolga
I have a detailed plan for just such a setup, minus the authoritarianism; the only holdup is getting hold of a building.
@ gaebolga
There’s an Asimov short story called No Connection. It’s about smarter than average bears. They have a social structure with elements of that. Basically, everyone does what they’re good at; but there’s also a system of compulsory ‘community’ tasks on a rota. For all the jobs people might not otherwise volunteer for.
As for non ursines, there’s some interesting studies about life in the Neolithic. It’s been worked out that, on average, people only needed to dedicate around 8-10 hours per week on basic survival. That wouldn’t have been a regular schedule of course. There’d be tasks like building homes where the labour was a bit intensive for a while. But then there would be fairly regular periods with a lot of free time. One theory for all the megalithic archaeology is it was something to keep people occupied when they’d done all the essential stuff.
@Gaebolga, oooh, that’d be just like those darn Earthers. I bet that was the USE that was responsible for that, wasn’t it? Tyrants! And stay out of the Belt if you know what’s good for you!
@contrapangloss, good to see you too <3 i’m winning, so it’s going well, yes.
@Dalillama, hi! It’s been forever <3
@Alan, you old doggerlander, of course you’re talking about neolithic archaeology, lol. Honestly I suspect you’d find that “8-10 hours per week” holds up pretty well much later than the neolithic too. Our feudal forebearers worked from pre-dawn to sundown in the same way that our grandparents walked to school uphill both ways, I reckon.
@Scildfreja
Happy to see you 🙂
Fluttershy is still best pony.
@Scildfreja:
Welcome back! Glad to hear the brain-ferrets have tired themselves out from doing the ‘weasel war dance’ for a while.
Re: UBI:
I read an article on the CBC recently that went with the idea that we should enshrine free universal public housing in Canada just like we already have universal public health care. That’s not a UBI, but it tackles more directly one of the issues that a UBI is also meant to solve. I suspect one of the bigger problems with that idea is that certain people will get the list of what housing is public housing and use that to discriminate in hiring or loan approval; I have little doubt some of that is already happening anyway.
In one of Trudeau’s multiple disappointments, he has spoken well of the idea of ‘housing as a human right’, but hasn’t really pushed for the government to actually do anything to support the idea.
@Gaebolga, Alan:
The residence I lived in while going to university was like that, actually; it was a co-operative (Waterloo Co-operative Residence Incorporated), the only permanent staff were the cooks (because that required certification) and everybody living in the dorm room parts of the residence was required to sign up for two and a half or three hours a week of jobs to keep the place running. This could include serving food at lunch/dinner, washing dishes, or mopping the floors of the common areas.
I suspect that some of the people who set this up originally were English, because the jobs like that were called ‘fags’, and everybody joining up ended up getting a quick lesson in the etymology of the word, because that was not the meaning usually associated with the word in Canada.
@Scildfreja
Welp. You’ve made my night. Good to see you again!
@Ohlmann:
I agree that it’s not a great argument for convincing people in communities like this one. But in my experience, if we want to get anything done, sometimes we need to tailor arguments to people with very different mindsets and worldviews than ours. That’s a faster way than trying to change the people. And you know that there are people out there that are going to be swayed more by economic arguments or the chance to feel superior to others than arguments about personal benefits, fairness, or “we live in a society”.
People who choose UBI or get effectively locked out of employment for bad reasons are going to be judged on the same moral level as those who are effectively locked out of employment for good reasons by some people, because that kind of bad attitude isn’t going away any time soon. Maybe not ever. Much as I hate it sometimes, working with actual humans to get important things done means appealing to their sensibilities rather than to higher principles which they may not understand or care about.
@Scildfreja:
Hi. I was a bit surprised to be acknowledged as if I was one of the regulars, but then remembered that I probably was more of one back when you were around a lot. If this isn’t a brief pass-through, then don’t be surprised if I soon disappear for months, though.
@John, hi! I’m ever so glad you’ve yet to be sunk.
@Jenora, i was actually sort of reluctant to use that metaphor because ferret war dances are so heckin’ cute. But yes they’ve settled out a bit! I feel much more myself these days. As for the UBI thing, I’m less concerned with the specific implementation of these sorts of solutions as I am the political will to get any of them done. Once we have that, the rest will flow from there.
@Threp nee Shadowplay, no no, you’ve made mine! It’s nice to see you and nice to be back
@Snowberry, even if you’re soon gone again, please know that I’m glad to have crossed paths again, and I hope you can carry those good wishes with you wherever you are going.
Glad to see you back, Scildfreja!
*has a happy Scildfreja is back*
That is all.