What do you mean by "ba'al-teshuva-Christian"?
I just ran the website by some local friends and they were each like "this feels like a cult".
Liberal professor discriminates against conservative colleagues, what else is new.
I disagree completely. It totally does not feel like a cult. You need to hang out with more evangelicals.
Or, I mean, don't, please. But it seems like very run of the mill overzealous Christianity to me. Not like a cult at all.
I do mild recategorizations of people when I find out they are religious of any stripe, and big permanent angry recategorizations if they say anything I interpret as racist, antifeminist, or antidisability. I don't think I care much between background Christian and weirdo evangelical Christian.
Doesn't crossfit in general sound like a cult?
Well, yes. But so does unfogged, sort of.
But it seems like very run of the mill overzealous Christianity to me. Not like a cult at all.
The phrase "distinction without a difference" springs to mind.
If we weren't a nation whose history and culture are fundamentally intertwined with Christianty, sure. I think the salient characteristic of a cult is tension with the surrounding society, though. So now even Mormons aren't really in a cult.
If I'm understanding the literature correctly, Weirdo Christians get a -15 opinion Heretic penalty against Mainstream ones and vice versa; there's no further effect on non-Christian players. Furthermore, Weirdo Christians get the Holy War casus beli against Mainstream Christian realms.
I've made that recategorization, too, but I'm sure I've also been on the other side of it.
I'm pretty charitable with super-duper conservative people, generally. I think it will pay off when the parties start to re-align (which I think is going to happen soon). Stepping back I've begun to think that we're perhaps all a bit brainwashed by national party ideologies and that government probably ought to get much, much more local -- where the human element is clearer. As much as I like to think I'm totally convinced that I'm a social-democratic-left-libertarian because I've come to a proper understanding of the relevant political theory through careful study of John Locke, Karl Popper, and Karl Marx, the fact is that prior cultural commitments usually dominate these sorts of outlooks and my prior cultural commitments are overwhelmingly to people who vote Democrat. We've probably gotten *too* good at our post-hoc justifications for these outlooks, which is we're seeing all of these silly arguments about ideological purity.
On a completely different note, I was trying to make plans with a (recently recategorized from friend to) acquaintance of mine who is rather active in local Democratic party politics to get together for a beer after work when he 100% seriously proposed renting a hotel and getting some ecstasy and hookers. Trying to walk that friendship back now.
14.2: Yeah, living in the conservative swath of the state, many of my friends are republican to various degrees. The pullback begins with obvious hot buttons, expands to everything politics, then it's everything that brings politics to mind... and you're so busy editing that you decide that close friendship's not possible.
With Democrats like that, I guess I'd be charitable to the crazies, too.
Also, I think that living in a very large city like the one I live in requires people to make some basic and very fundamental concessions to liberalism, so the conservatives are ultimately probably less reactionary than the ones in heebieville might be.
So, either ecstasy or hookers, not both.
Heebieville is very purple, but the conservative end of it is as rabid as it is anywhere.
Nothing like some ecstasy to help you wind down after a long day at work.
On choice between "hookers and ecstasy" and "no hookers and ecstasy", Moby advises the moderate middle course.
The secret to Trump's appeal is that he revives the American dream that you can have it all -- ecstasy, hookers, and Jesus.
Wait, you said he just moved from friend to acquaintance, so when you say "walk that friendship back now" do you mean the suggestion of hookers and E promotes him back up to friend?
Just that I've recategorized him in my head as "acquaintance" but now I have to sort of progressively respond more slowly to Facebook messages without looking like I'm intentionally trying to cut him out of my life.
He had also been becoming increasingly reactionary, though, occasionally saying things like "Black Lives Matter is creating more racists with their tactics", so I'd probably have ended up drifting away from the guy even if not for the ecstasy and hookers thing.
The recategorization thing comes up in an interesting way in improv. The best improv happens when you're really open to other people, which can be difficult if you know too much about the dickish things they say online or that they're skeptical about all those racist things African Americans are always claiming happen to them. Another improviser can go from being someone I'm delighted to jump into a scene with to someone who I'm lukewarm about.
Ecstasy and a hooker named Trinity.
As someone with out there political opinions, I get it that people believe all sorts of weird stuff. In fact, it's better if they do. It wouldn't affect my opinion of them at all. Actions are far more important than opinions.
that's not exactly what happened here - finding out that someone is super-duper religious does not damage them the way finding out someone is super-duper conservative does - but it was still a shock to my system
It does for me. I mean, I'm not proud of it or anything, but it does fundamentally alter how I relate (or don't) to people. It's happened twice at work, once when it turned out a colleague was a Mormon, and once just a few months back when I got what was probably the first actually religious Christmas card I've ever received. I'd probably find it easier to deal with a super-duper conservative. Going to public school/Oxbridge prepares you for political dickishness and associated behavioural markers/norms. Not so much for sincere religiosity.
If I'm actually friends with someone, discovering religiosity changes nothing, but if I'm in the middle ground, it gives me pause. Mostly because, at this point, so much American Christianity is aggressively associated with anti-Christian beliefs that I need to know whether this person's religiosity means that they spend a lot of time at soup kitchens, or that they spend a lot of time protesting abortion clinics and/or attending Trump rallies. The categories aren't mutually exclusive, but we all only have so much time...
22:
I was thinking that the conservative end of the spectrum is probably a bit less rabid in a larger city than in Heebieville (at least given what I know about Heebieville, which is based mostly on watching my cousin becoming increasingly reactionary since moving there).
It's just a lot harder to harbor certain kinds of xenophobic feelings when you live in a larger city. That doesn't mean that there aren't racists and extreme racists, but it's harder to want to see your government do violence to Muslims when people with Middle Eastern-sounding last names make up a solid quarter of your company's IT or engineering department. Or when it would mean the closing of that wonderful fine Turkish restaurant down the street from your office.
I'm pretty religious but I spend most of my time dicking around on the internet yelling at people.
34:
I worked for a liberal (at a university) who practically forced people into the office on Saturdays regardless of their productivity and basically questioned my commitment when I asked for a raise because I was having trouble making ends meet. Now I work for a Republican who gives employees time off with no questions asked for family stuff.
I've met people who claim that very liberal senior lawyers, particularly ex-hippies, are noticeably the worst to work for and that conservative lawyers/firms are in general nicer. Personally, though, I've worked almost exclusively with politically liberal lawyers who, in general, have been relatively nice (for lawyers).
I suspect that the assholishness of lawyers transcends all political divides and that the profession attracts assholes of all races, creeds, and political viewpoints.
I have a much bigger philosophical problem with political beliefs than religious ones. I don't mind a genuine belief in a supernatural power as long as I'm not required to agree. I do mind a general disregard for fellow human beings. Super religious folks who take their religious beliefs seriously generally believe in the "don't be an asshole/let's try to help our neighbors" philosophy. Not so much heavily conservative folks.
And all the Mormons I've met who aren't on their mission have been the nicest, hardest-working people, none of whom was the least bit interested in proselytizing or even discussing their religion. Small sample size, but there it is.
I used to work at a terrifyingly rightwing small firm with both some of the nastiest and some of the nicest lawyers I've ever worked with.
The all out champion for a nightmare of a law firm partner I ever knew was as liberal as a cynical rich guy could be, but his interpersonal horribleness seemed pretty separate from his political beliefs.
38: That's not enough information for me to complete my judgment. The focus of the yelling is important.
You know what North Korea needs? More assholes. Everybody is so committed to the Dear Leader and Making North Korea Great Again that they don't see that they're the ones getting screwed by the Dear Leader. I was reading some book about NK and the only people who survived the famine were the ones who ate the neighbors dog or generally didn't give a shit what the authorities said.
41: In my IRL bubble, I'm not sure I've ever met/socially interacted* with someone whose religiosity manifested as right wing assholishness. But at least 50% of the time HS "friends" on FB indicate religiosity, rightwing assholery follows.
*work is different, and I just try like hell to keep it separate. Did I tell y'all about look at a potential addition for a handsome dentist and his SAHM wife out in the exurbs? McMansion, of course, and not only did they each drive a Buick**, but they also had a small bookshelf in the breakfast nook with Ben Carson books on it. I focused on not betraying any reaction and getting the fuck out of there.
**which is fine! I kind of like the new Buicks! But for them each to drive one seemed significant, IYKWIM
Is there a common term for the American/Western names used by Chinese people? Like, is there a better way for me to ask a Chinese client* to clarify their names? I ask because a new client who gave her name as June told me her email address is Jue_, and I wanted to clarify that it wasn't a typo. This is via text, so not exactly room for interpersonal graciousness.
*through a bit of a fluke, a significant portion of my work these days is Chinese (and sometimes Thai) clients. It started with restaurants, but now it's all sorts of projects
I understand that "What's your real name, foreigner?" is deprecated.
IME, whether senior lawyers are jerks is completely independent of their politics.
My only cow-orker called it quits last month after 5 years. I'm in mourning, I guess you'd call it, because I really liked having her around. (One of my office mates didn't feel the same way about her work, which was reason enough for her to take an offer from a friend.)
I don't actully understand what's significant about two buicks.
A distant relative got even more distant a few years ago when she sent a Christmas card update that very pointedly wished everyone a "merry Christmas" because this is still America right? She may have also worked in some snide remark about Obama but I can't remember.
My solution to this problem is to not have any friends. If everyone's in the "acquaintance" category, there's no need to ever recategorize.
Categories:
acquaintance
distant acquaintance
we'll nod if we pass by and it would be even more awkward to not acknowledge each other
I'm horrible matching faces to names
have we met?
you must be thinking of someone else
[no reply to email]
An acquaintance is just a friend whom you haven't asked to rent a hotel room and get some hookers and ecstasy with yet.
♫
I see friends shanking hands
Saying "how do you do?"
They're really saying
Let's get hookers, E, and a room
♫
shanking s/b shaking, but somehow i like it better this way.
Here's an article about black people's experience. Now let's talk about our experience.
I've recategorized you all.
No, I didn't have to!
Yours,
Dennis Green
Here in Roc island people will write their name as eg. Eric Liu. I'd ask her for her full name. Or to confirm June [Surname] if you have it.
It's just a lot harder to harbor certain kinds of xenophobic feelings when you live in a larger city.IMO that's only very conditionally true. In my experience reactionaries have become more so with increased exposure to Others (even while enjoying their restaurants). It matters a lot how authoritarian you are to start with and what kind of contacts you have. IT professionals make a very different impression than refugees living in slum conditions.
ogged wants us to do improv, and role-play being Dennis Green.
Current hatred: people whose carry one are so tall they have to be put in the overhead bins sideways so a single vag takes up all the allotted room which should be enough for 3. Recategorize such people without hesitation. The culprit is sitting next to me.
so a single vag takes up all the allotted room which should be enough for 3.
I think this may be a typo?
The recategorizing process is something I notice more with liberal acquaintances, at this point, than conservative ones. I mean, in that my expectations of people I know are likely to be highly conservative are not that high to begin with; I'll be friendly with them to a point, but I'm not surprised when there are, say, coded conversations at staff meetings about whether everybody's okay with possibly having more people of colour around because of a breakdance competition (yes, this actually happened the other day). Disappointed, sure, but not surprised.
Putatively liberal people, on the other hand, are still capable of blind-siding me. I remember the case of Larycia Hawkins coming up at another forum -- a notably liberal one -- and prompting a round of "that dimwit was plainly ignorant of College theology and should've seen it coming" commentary. I looked closer and discovered the "dimwit" in question was an award-winning and highly respected academic professional who'd issued a detailed theological defense of her actions, and eventually brought up to one of the participants in the discussion that I saw no reason to think Hawkins was guilty of any wrongdoing or any less intelligent than they were. This seemed an unremarkable observation to me, but the person in question was so appalled at the prospect of admitting this woman to a parity of intellectual function with their own that they, like, melted right the fuck down pretty much on the spot. When someone proves that invested in the supposed intellectual inferiority of a clearly brilliant and accomplished person of colour, it's not hard to connect the dots.
I have the same reaction to people who are prone to smack-talking Barack Obama's intellect or unironically describing him as "aloof." Agree or disagree with his policies, but anyone who at this point actually thinks he's stupid is basically announcing that they have an insecurity problem with acknowledging a black male intellect of obvious acuity. Likewise, I pretty much at this point take "aloof" levelled at the most approachable and down-to-Earth Presidential image I've ever seen to be a super-awkward code for "uppity."
63 OMG, I don't know whether to be horrified or proud.
I just cleared customs and immigration at the Miami airport in the company of a Costa Rican and a Venezuelan. They had a harder time getting through than they usually do, and were of the opinion that it was due to having had a Latino immigration officer working the booth. According to them, Latinos who are US citizens think they are better than other Latin Americans, because they've "made it" or whatever. The Costa Rican said this is a recurring problem, and its always better to get a "pure American" (her words) immigration officer, who usually doesn't give them any trouble.
I had not been aware this was a thing.
64: He doesn't seem aloof to me in videos, but as I understand it he's known to be aloof and distant in real life. Former girlfriends have said something like that.
I think you can be down to earth and approachable and aloof at the same time.
I guess if your wingnut co-worker thinks he's aloof, maybe it's a talking point they heard more than based on how he comes across on TV. If they deride his intellect they don't deserve any benefit of the doubt.
64: He doesn't seem aloof to me in videos, but as I understand it he's known to be aloof and distant in real life. Former girlfriends have said something like that.
I think you can be down to earth and approachable and aloof at the same time.
I guess if your wingnut co-worker thinks he's aloof, maybe it's a talking point they heard more than based on how he comes across on TV. If they deride his intellect they don't deserve any benefit of the doubt.
For the people who recategorize people who are religious, i.e. practice a religion, is it all people who are religious and go to church - like every mainline denomination and even Unitarian Universalists? Or, is it just when you find out that they don't believe in evolution?
...possibly having more people of colour around because of a breakdance competition (yes, this actually happened the other day).
Obviously conclusions. Time travel exists and racists control it. It is safe to assume that in the original time line, either Reconstruction or the civil rights movement of the 60s worked better, but this was undone by somebody who realized that even time travel couldn't change the outcome of the Civil War.
Likewise, I pretty much at this point take "aloof" levelled at the most approachable and down-to-Earth Presidential image I've ever seen to be a super-awkward code for "uppity."
That's interesting. I had been assuming that people who describe Obama as "aloof" were just suffering from a lack of real or fictional models for blackness outside entertainers and athletes. If your mental model for "blackness" is over-the-top personas of an NBA player or a Kanye West*, then of course Obama is going to seem comparatively restrained and distant. (Let's not go into the potential racism of one's comparison for Obama being those folks rather than previous Presidents.)
What's remarkable to me is that the (white) people I know in this category are often ones who have grown up in a major metropolitan area. They *could* easily have had meaningful interaction with black people, but their social and professional circles just...don't include them.**
Even more bizarrely, their social media feeds don't seem to include moments of humor, humanity, or interpersonal rapport from black people -- never mind political activism. Their socialization decisions are literally erasing huge swaths of human experience, and they don't notice.
*nb I am not casting aspersions on West's intelligence
**This is especially vivid in my mind right now because I went to a play last night where the entire audience -- and I counted every person -- was white, save for one elderly, exceptionally formal black man who has spent a lifetime working in highly white environments.
Hrm, I was of the impression that Obama is unusually introverted for a politician at his level of success. I wouldn't call him aloof, because that has negative connotations that I don't agree with, but it's at least in the direction of an actual personality trait of Obama, right?
Kind of. What I'm thinking about is all those great pictures of Obama with little kids, where he goes all goofy and playful. And they're particularly charming because he comes off as formal and dignified dealing with adults, but let a kid in a Spider-Man outfit aim an imaginary web at him, and he goes all silly.
Bill Clinton, for example, if you caught him goofing with a kid, it wouldn't have the same effect, because he doesn't have the same level of dignity to unbend from. So, aloof, maybe not, but his persona is on the formal end for a politician.
I'm pretty sure Obama will be the best former President ever.
The problem with all this re-categorizing obviously starts with categorizing and it sure sucks when you have to re-categorize somebody because you find out (s)he is of such a categorizing sort. Not a monopoly of religious and/or conservative people & not all of the latter categorize, at least not in my little personal experience.
I always heard about how introverted he was too. Which is basically a synonym for aloof, at least when it comes to interacting with strangers. And especially in comparison with our last two presidents, whose greatest skill was apparently BSing in a friendly manner with everyone they meet no matter how tired they are.
74.1 That would certainly take a lot more work than being the best President (of the last couple generations) given the existence of Carter. He'd certainly be the most charming ex-president though.
I suspect the apparent aloofness comes from a combination of introversion and the don't-ever-display-anger-or-impulsiveness rule that he uses to defuse at least some of the racist caricatures that he has to deal with as a prominent black figure in national politics. With kids he gets to relax a lot and doesn't have to worry about that kind of thing as much.
Which is basically a synonym for aloof, at least when it comes to interacting with strangers.
Wrong. Introverts can BS with strangers as well as anyone. They just find it emotionally exhausting to do so. If Obama were genuinely an introvert I very much doubt he'd have chosen to go into politics seeking elected office. He'd have lined himself up to be some cabinet member whose job is mostly committee work.
I had been assuming that people who describe Obama as "aloof" were just suffering from a lack of real or fictional models for blackness outside entertainers and athletes.
Right. Which I guess is a more concrete description of how perception of "uppity-ness" works: black people outside of certain very prescribed roles and types, especially if they possess a dignified or intellectual personality, come across to the kind of mind that can't permit blackness outside of those specific roles as arrogant, impertinent, insolent, or "aloof."
Obama is certainly an example of this. His entire leadership and communication style is recognizably -- and adeptly -- personable, relaxed, intimate and "regular guy." He can pull off joking about himself as Daniel Day Lewis or checking himself out in a mirror with an ease that only someone like Clinton could have replicated. His White House is if anything over-communicative, a constant stream of glad-handing and oratory as only the Internet age could enable. Forget about what he may or may not be like at a personal level, in terms of image-management and public engagement "aloof" is visibly a hundred and eighty degrees from this style of engagement and politics... and yet everybody tells you they know a guy who knows another guy who knows that appearances to the contrary, he's really "introverted." That's exactly why it says "code for 'uppity'" to me.
(It helps that as a Canuck in the years up until Trudeau laid the proverbial smackdown on the Conservative Party machine, I had a home-grown example of genuinely aloof governance to contrast Obama with, which made all the talk of Obama's "aloofness" look even crazier.)
Latinos who are US citizens think they are better than other Latin Americans
There are a lot of interesting tensions among Latinos (who obviously aren't one homogenous group). For instance, Puerto Ricans (who become US citizens at birth) have a reputation for being snobby, looking down on other Latinos. Of course, many Puerto Ricans also move to New York, and New Yorkers famously think themselves better than everyone else. So it's possible there's more than one factor at play here.
There's also long been tension between Cuban immigrants and non-Cuban Latinos, because Cubans benefit from a much more generous immigration policy. But more recently, the resentment has grown as (a) Cubans are crossing into places like Texas and (b) Cubans are coming in higher numbers ahead of an expected change in the pro-Cuban immigration policy coinciding with warming US-Cuba relations. Article here:
"We make everyone from Central America wait in line, while the Cubans walk in even though they are not refugees," said Gabriel Lopez, a Mexican-American Navy veteran who is president of the group of veterans. "We are saying, don't open the borders to Cubans and give them instant benefits while we have American veterans living on the streets."
Introverts can BS with strangers as well as anyone. They just find it emotionally exhausting to do so.
This is certainly true. The internet really helped.
According to them, Latinos who are US citizens think they are better than other Latin Americans, because they've "made it" or whatever. The Costa Rican said this is a recurring problem, and its always better to get a "pure American" (her words) immigration officer, who usually doesn't give them any trouble.
There may also be a different working environment for such officers - I could imagine supervisors scrutinizing them in their treatment of other Latinos much more closely, with favoritism being a default suspicion never laid on non-Latinos.
all those great pictures of Obama with little kids, where he goes all goofy and playful.
Indeed. I had a reclassification moment recently when a reliably liberal (but goes to church weekly, voting for Clinton over Sanders) friend stated that black people can't be goofy. Because their circumstances and history are so fraught, so they're just not free to be goofy. He said this sympathetically, but nonetheless stated it categorically: black people may be funny in a strained or sarcastic way, but they don't or can't do goofy, he said.
I could only boggle. I began searching around in my data banks, as it were, for examples of black goofiness. (My first thought was actually Bill Cosby as Fat Albert, actually, but that's best left aside.)
64: I pretty much at this point take "aloof" levelled at the most approachable and down-to-Earth Presidential image I've ever seen to be a super-awkward code for "uppity."
Sweetheart, you and I may find Obama approachable and down-to-Earth, but that's because we're intellectuals. Pardon the term, but you know what I mean. Obama is first and foremost an intellectual, and a lot of people respond negatively to that: I'm honestly not sure the rejection is entirely about his race.
I sort of thought this had been made clear by various purveyors of the "aloof" complaint: it's part of the charge that he's an elitist, and that's been leveled at white and black politicians alike.
Well. The "aloof" complaint from the Republicans is certainly in part that he doesn't treat their insane and delusional views with the respect they mistakenly imagine they deserve. But I mean, Obama's a wonk and a gladhander in probably about the same measures that the Big Dog was in his heyday (arguably with higher "scores" on both stats, but still basically a similar type of politician), so it's like watching people try to describe Bill Clinton as "aloof" would have been, except nobody tried that because it obviously would have made no sense, and I don't exactly think it's on account of his having gone to Harvard instead of Yale.
I'd see the racial thing cutting similarly to Castock but maybe slightly differently -- part of the reason Obama was able to be the first black President is that he does project a fundamental image of calm dignity. Presumably because there is way less room, in general, for black professionals to be goofy or casual. The Sidney Poitier effect. Though this is an area in which I think Obama actually being President for 8 years has had a positive effect because even mildly racist white people have definitionally seen the more goofy side of him as well. "Aloof" is just a complaint from the same people who would see him as sullying the dignity of the office if he was less self-contained.
IF OBAMA IS ALOOF AMERICA NEEDS MORE LOOFS LIKE HIM.
63: it's even worse when someone else on the plane has a vag that's eight miles wide.
Nah, I don't see Obama as aloof. He has toms of contact with other people's feelings. Nor is he by any means less than brilliant.
That means of course, since he understands and feels people's problems and pain, that his policies, on the economy, Libya Yemen Syria, show him to be profoundly and radically evil.
Although the lesser evil.
Hey folks how many children do I get to kill and you still love me?
Fuckers.
0-6, depending on who the children are and the surrounding circumstances.
85: Obama's a wonk and a gladhander in probably about the same measures that the Big Dog was in his heyday (arguably with higher "scores" on both stats, but still basically a similar type of politician) ... so it's like watching people try to describe Bill Clinton as "aloof" would have been
Weird! I never saw Bill Clinton as a wonk or an intellectual. He's from freaking Arkansas. I don't at all see Obama as a gladhander, except to the extent that all politicians must kiss the babies and such.
To be clear: of course a great deal of the resistance to Obama is racially motivated.
I never saw Bill Clinton as a wonk or an intellectual. He's from freaking Arkansas
All us Southrons are born stupid, even Rhodes scholars.
Black goofiness is something that the rich white dudes who run our media deliberately try to hide from us when in fact black people are goofy as fuck.
I've missed you, bob. Wait... no, I haven't.
92: Weird! I never saw Bill Clinton as a wonk or an intellectual. He's from freaking Arkansas.
He was a Rhodes scholar who went to Oxford. It's never surprised me that Obama trusts him on the stump with detailed and thorough defenses of White House policy... though granted, he did have that whole Good Ole Boy narrative available to slot into.
Well, now that Obama has paved the way, we can have Cedric the Entertainer as President.
95: though granted, he did have that whole Good Ole Boy narrative available to slot into.
Right, that's what I always registered.
94 is making me fuss, because yo, I had that friend who was telling me to my face that black people just aren't goofy: how do you respond to that? Do you say, "Oh yes they are" or do you say "What are you talking about" or do you observe that well, goofiness is a good thing from time to time .. or what?
100: Uh?
er, uh, is that supposed to be goofy? I don't get it.
I think the sense of goofiness in play here is something like what Chris Elliott does.
when in fact black people are goofy as fuck.
All of them all of the time?
Some off them all of the time?
All of them some of the time?
Fuck that shit.
er, uh, is that supposed to be goofy? I don't get it.
How can you not get that?
102: Well, if "supplies, motherfucker" doesn't tickle your goofiness gland then I just don't know? It's all good, though.
103: He means Goofy as fuck. We are all constantly morphing into Goofy, the Disney character, when just out of eyesight. It's one of the incredibly fun perks of blackness that we don't tell you about.
Yeah, yeah, I know. What I'm getting at is that if rich white dudes hadn't been just about 100% in charge of signing the paychecks for black artists, people wouldn't say stupid shit like parsimon's recently re-categorized acquaintance did. We'd almost certainly see a lot less of the violently angry black person trope that makes suburban white people feel justified in calling the cops on some black kids playing outside and probably a lot more playful goofiness in its place. Probably a lot more family-oriented stuff. Probably quite a bit less N-word, too.
How can you not get that?
I'm sorry. I couldn't get past the "motherfucker". I will try again.
Nope, still don't get what's goofy about that.
It's okay. I'm sure I'm not quite following.
110: See, parsimon, the first clip is from an actual television show (Dexter, I think), where the character said, "Surprise, motherfucker!" And then all the other clips are not from a television show but rather are (goofy!) jokes riffing off that first clip. (Crossposted to standpipe's blog.)
73: What I love about those pictures is how completely at ease he seems to be around the kids. It strikes me as very hard to fake, because faking goofiness is hard to pull off.
I'd describe Obama not as aloof, but as a high self-monitor type; understandable for a black guy with presidential ambitions! It's not like the public is going to cut him any slack.
black people are goofy as fuck
Hovertext.
Has anyone else met these "if-not-Bernie-Trump" blowhards in real life? My god, the fucking privilege it takes to say something like "the system is so broken it needs to be burned to the ground, so I'm voting for Trump". I was told this in full seriousness by a guy who makes $220k a year at age 28. He was at a loss when I asked him to explain precisely in which ways the system had harmed him and also admitted that a Trump administration would probably not harm him either. He's like a kid resetting a PlayStation or something.
116 meant as a reflection on recategorizing someone from "compassionate but well-off Bernie supporting technocrat who believes in social democracy" to "well-off authoritarian who thinks this is all for his amusement".
116: The ones voting Trump because they apparently think they're heightening the contradictions or something scare me the most. But I expect most of it is probably blowhardiness, of a species similar to those exoduses to Canada if the other guy wins that we keep hearing about but that never materialize. Or, perhaps, similar to the Clinton voters in the much more bitter '08 primaries who were supposedly going to spurn Obama for all the dirty sexist tricks he was supposed to have played on their candidate. They're certainly not exhibiting any kind of attitude that Bernie's endorsed.
115 made me laugh when I wasn't expecting to. Thanks.
117 to 15.2 So now you're definitely not going for the hookers and e dealio.
Different guy, though it wouldn't surprise me all that much if hookers and E guy turned out be into this line of thinking, but he works at a hardware store or something, so all he'd have going for him in Trumplandia is being a white male.
Strangely timely: http://exiledonline.com/reagan%E2%80%99s-cheshire-snarl/
100: I had to wait until my kids were out of the room, but it was worth it. It was "some fries, motherfucker" that got me.
123: It took me a while to realize that one of them is just a gratuitous spoiler for the Hunger Games, which cracked me up for some reason.
Hookers and E is like pairing white wine with steak. Hookers are to be paired with cocaine. Ecstasy is for chicks you pick up at the rave.
Duh, that's why we aren't friends anymore. Someone who takes E with hookers simply has no taste for the finer things.
100 is Kobe-worthy. I'm going to be chuckling all day.
Good night, motherfucker.
I'm picking up a bagel from my favorite Jewish deli on the way to work tomorrow. They have this great cream cheese spread with chives, motherfucker.
125 made me laugh. Other pairings: Alcohol is for ill-advised hookups with a friend. Pot is for friends with benefits. Acid is for confusedly humping a giant paisley lizard with a voice strikingly like your SO.
As for that specific guy, we might say that the system is broken because he's doing so well. But for him to say that himself would be tautological.
I do know a guy who's said that if Bernie doesn't win the nomination, he won't vote for Hillary in the general. I think he's planning on not voting, though, rather than supporting Donald. (I hope you all appreciate my commitment to parity in the use of first or last names, people.)