I really cannot stress how important it is to pay attention right now and hold people accountable.
It was a Nazi salute.
He knew it was.
People knew it was.
People still cheered.
Keep yourselves safe. Keep your families safe. Especially if you’re any kind of brown.
They decide who’s legal.
"Welp, if all this comes true. I'll apologize in four years."
No, You won't.
On the off-chance you actually try? It's hard to apologize to corpses.
In Forty, you'll be the same ones saying "I just don't know how it all happened!" "I wish I knew whose fault this is!"
Hopefully everyone made it through the holidays intact. The next two weeks are gonna drag for many people with reason to be afraid. Quick Tips for it and beyond:
1. It's gonna be hard, but we can get through this.
2. Don't Comply in Advance.
3. Be Kind. Even when its hard. Maybe ESPECIALLY then.
Daásitche Báalaanmaapbaaaliinneetiseek
(Merry Christmas!)
Today, I hope you can at least rest. You deserve a day of rest and kindness!
I hope you're where you want to be, (today, not in life. I'm too millenial for THAT Sentiment) with people you enjoy.
If you're not, I hope you spend the day doing something that makes you happy!
Tomorrow means what you want. Like Today! Fill that meaning with joy if you can. For me! As a treat!
Despite the fact that it very much is not, if you listen to any racialized person.
What's a Solution?
Best I've seen is the "Stupid Defense". Put on cow-in-headlights eyes and ask "Why's that funny?" and make them explain it. Potentially ask, "Isn't that racist?"
It's the culmination of decades of work. Graying out photos that are available in colour. Constantly using Past-Tense language in history books.
(Any Native practice as ALWAYS talked about as if it's an extinct artifact from a bygone age.)
It's created and fortified the idea that racism is past.
That's racist” and “you're racist” are fundamentally different statements. People are complicated and good people can have bad opinions. Sometimes just momentary blunders.
“That’s racist”, means I believe you're worth the following conversation.
I don't bother telling someone “You’re racist.”
Kahée! Almost time to rock and roll!
Watched the new 1923 trailer. It reminds me of why it took me so long to watch the series. Roughly a third of the show centers on a native character, but she didn't appear but for a few seconds in the trailer.
Wanna guess who is only in the trailer for literally 2 or 3 seconds again?
(I was very fond of Red Shoes!)
I've been writing a lot of mystery and horror stories lately, and I've been playing a lot with recursive narratives, but I also find joy in telling simple stories well!
Yes! It reminds me of the conflation of "Protagonist" with "Good Guy".
Although, by making a character a protagonist, the framing is that we should be empathizing with a character. One of my biggest issues with "Killers of the Flower Moon" is how they framed a villain as the protagonist.
Apparently, if you refer to the Muskrat as "Elonia" or the First Lady, you get booted off X.
Apparently, Free Speech isn't so absolute when you're making fun of Mummy's Special Little Boy! XD
It's not that these tropes don't show up at all in other cultures and story formats. But they show up MUCH MUCH Less!
Usually, heroes have to earn the title.
Even with special births, it's viewed as an obligation to live up to. Not a privilege to enjoy.
It's a little different when they DO have to Earn it. But in those cases, they're normally not called Chosen Ones!
It ties back to the MC Syndrome because many people feel they're Special so their actions are justified.
We become Chosen Ones for our own reasons and use stories as justification.
Or Coincidence of Place.
Too Often, they didn't have to DO anything to be Chosen. They didn't have to demonstrate Competence, or Virtue. They just had to Exist, or Be in the Right Place at the Right time. Or be Picked by a higher power, because Reasons. (Often Because "Fate")
Meanwhile, the Chosen One narrative is a related issue.
Too often, the Chosen One isn't Chosen, but Born. They are "chosen" because they were the son of god. They were born because of midichlorians. They were bitten by a radioactive spider.
No Choice in it. Just accident of birth.
(This is partially a tangent I have of "Why should we do anything if we're just playing out something that was destined to happen?" If I am sitting here, acting out a part that was already pre-written, then nothing I do ultimately matters.
But that's neither here nor there.)
Fate is such a copout. Same with destiny. Especially when paired with our societal view of Bootstraps and Personal Accountability. "This was fated to happen!" "It was just Destiny" "God Has a Plan!"
All of it is so contradictory to the idea of personal agency. ("If you're poor it's your fault!")
The MC Syndrome comes as a part of how our society is so individualistic. "Get yours and fuck the other guy!" doesn't lead to much community building, (likely by design).
A lot of our stories encourage this. We're very reliant on "Fate" and "The Chosen One", both of which are tropes I LOATHE!
Ancient Aliens answer too often was "Well, the white folk in Europe didn't know how to do this, so there's no way these brown folk could have figured it out! I mean, come on! You know why!"
That's a trope practically as old as stories themselves. "That inferior groups Heathen Gods helped them!"
Looking at stories from other cultures, you have different formats and different act structures, each of which have their own pros and cons. But, especially in America, we view Europe as the "Proper" way of things and anything else as "lesser".
(It's a big reason Ancient Aliens was so popular.)
Well, the reason it's easy to write is because it's so familiar. We've been told it's either the only, or the best way to tell a story.
It's very Eurocentric.
You Reap what you Sew.
These words have sow much meaning right now. There are enough meanings that you could practically so them together.
It's like the "old" saying goes: Metaphors are good. Malaphors are better. Malaprops piled on top of each other make word nerds eyes bleed :D
That's really cool! It reminds me a little of Glass Town, a fantasy world that the Bronte sisters created and maintained basically through their entire lives.
One of the things I do for fun is just to write little vignettes about comic characters from Bystanders' perspectives.
Wazzzzzzzzzuuuupp???!!
Bored? Know a millennial?
Pass the time by seeing how many of these phrases cause your Millennial friends to activate like sleeper agents!
Let's Get Down to Business.
Are Y'all Ready for this?
Ain't No Lie
Do I believe its the same person? Eh, different angles and grainy photographs play havoc with perception.
Do I believe that they used less than ethical surveillance software to grab this dude? Definitely.
youtu.be/ORp3q1Oaezw?...
A great hook, decent message and just the right amount of showmanship.
I do indeed! She was already getting called a far left lunatic, she should have just embraced it. Would have gotten her far more traction than the whole “nothing comes to mind” middle ground that worked out So Well for her.