conuly | In other, somewhat less distressing news

AdBlock has updated so it's no longer usable the way I want to use it. Ugh.

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The Usenet Deep Space Nine recapper who helped inspire modern TV criticism

Dark is divine: What colour are Indian gods and goddesses?

People Are Screaming After This Guy Mistakenly Thought The Women's March Was Cheering Him

A Year Ago, They Marched. Now a Record Number of Women Are Running for Office

Post-work: the radical idea of a world without jobs

The Brazilian man who lives in a sandcastle (Video)

Passing: I have to fight the battle on two fronts: gender and disability.

Too Much Music: A Failed Experiment In Dedicated Listening

The fabulous story of North Korea’s fabric made of stone

Mike Pence visits Middle East but US role as peace broker may be over

Before 'Roe v. Wade,' The Women of 'Jane' Provided Abortions For The Women Of Chicago

In The Midst Of #MeToo, What Type Of Man Do You Want To Be?

Cardinal rebukes pope over Chile 'slander' comments on abuse

How Do You Rebuild Your Life After Leaving A Polygamous Sect?

Forget About Siri and Alexa — When It Comes to Voice Identification, the “NSA Reigns Supreme”

A Child Abuse Prediction Model Fails Poor Families

Striking Florida Prisoners Thrown in Solitary Confinement, Activists Say

American Democracy Is an Easy Target

Poor minorities left behind in Indian cities boom

Putin cast as national saviour ahead of Russia election

The White House Has A New Voicemail Following The Government Shutdown And It's...Something (This isn't normal either fyi.)

The Good War: How America’s infatuation with World War II has eroded our conscience (That's a must read. I was immediately reminded of sholio's post about how our culture has more or less forgotten Vietnam. And while I was googling for that I found the next two links, so I guess this is a four-fer?)

Why Don’t Americans Know What Really Happened in Vietnam? Instead of confronting the truth, we scrubbed the record clean—and we’re still paying for it in Afghanistan and Iraq today.

The Vietnam War, as Seen by the Victors

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

senmut

uBlock Origin is the ad blocker I use. Works nicely.

From:

orcofnewyork

I second it! As of now uBlock Origin is the best blocker I have used.

From:

orcofnewyork

The Good War was an excellent read, thank you for the share!

From:

acelightning

I remember the Vietnam War. I remember my male age-mates trying to avoid the draft, or failing to avoid the draft and coming home damaged in mind (like my then-boyfriend) and/or body... or coming home covered with a flag. I remember the nightly news on TV, filled with film and photos of Vietnamese people, often children, being rendered homeless, suffering horrible injuries, and experiencing unimaginably inhuman treatment at the hands of Americans who had been sent there (often against their will, of course) to "free" them. I remember marching in the street, chanting slogans and singing protest songs. I remember the astonishment we felt when our marching and singing ended the war, and forced a sitting President to resign before he could be impeached.

From:

jesse_the_k

I’ve had fab luck with AdGuard, if uBlock fails you. You can right-click an offending item that slips through to add it to the block list—very handy for the "turn off Adblock" messages.

From:

rhoda_rants

Oooh, I've written about the changing face of music fandom before! More specifically, how I feel oddly left out of it, but not in a bad way. Because I am one of those weird kids who still listen to entire albums, and read lyric sheets, and read the liner notes. Every single time.

Here's a rant I wrote awhile back after I read a book that made me realize how few people do that these days: https://rhoda-rants.dreamwidth.org/187775.html

From:

isis

Thanks for this info, from someone else who relies on ABP!

From:

conuly

Thanks.

From:

conuly

Thanks.

From:

conuly

Will do.

From:

conuly

Maybe it'll happen again.

From:

greghousesgf

I found the "Passing" article interesting, I have what's sometimes called an invisible disability, plus I'm a cis woman who gets called "sir" all the damn time and it really makes me angry.

From:

wpadmirer

As someone who was alive during Vietnam, protested it at the time, and have many friends who served there, I'm appalled by the flag-waving, neo-patriotism bullshit that pushes us into wars that are needless.

I was against the wars in the Middle East, and we have no business in Afghanistan, but I know that many in my age group have forgotten what happened.

The dumbshits.

From:

acelightning

I can still sing just as loud as I did fifty years ago!

From:

nodrog

In The Midst Of #MeToo, What Type Of Man Do You Want To Be?

Fluent in at least one other language, is a good start.

¡Bienvenido a México!

Bienvenue au Canada!

Добро пожаловать в Россию!

Failing that, at least be close to the border and ready to expatriate yourself at no notice. Remember, there is no statute of limitations. Something that happened in 1983 (Dustin Hoffman) - or 1974 (James Levine) - can hit you now. Nor is there any trial, or due process of any kind.

Only a torch-lit mob chanting slogans.

When You Can’t Throw All Men Into The Ocean
And Start Over, What CAN You Do?

This society is broken, abusive, patriarchal trash—and not just
in little pockets or in dark alleys and frat parties.

- Linked to in that very article. Need more be said?

Edited Date: 2018-01-22 06:43 pm (UTC)

From:

larryhammer

I recently switched to this, and so far it's been working well.

From:

nodrog

These are the game-players and pathological liars of The Pentagon Papers,
where an entire generation of smart, strong, skilled, loyal American
soldiers were simply wasted by Washington policy wonks who were not
interested in winning the war, but only in what would look good on their
resumés. These are the evil clowns who decided that the best response to
9-11-01 was to invade Iraq (!) and to do so in the most ham-fisted idiotic
way possible. Now they're going to fill a new crop of body bags and VA
wards… and as always, lie about why it happened.

“And the beat goes on…”

The Pentagon Papers is truly worth reading. Ol’ Bob MacNamara knew and admitted that there was no way to “win” in SE Asia; what they were doing was entirely for, and I quote, “domestic policy.” As the saying went, “Don’t knock it - it’s the only war we’ve got.”

From:

nodrog

https://conuly.dreamwidth.org/2643623.html?thread=25897383#cmt25897383

From:

conuly

There's blood on his hands, then.

From:

nodrog

I can say - not as a patriotic bromide, but with full knowledge of the
necessary metaphysical, epistemological, ethical, political and esthetic
roots - that the United States of America is the greatest, the noblest and,
in its original founding principles, the only moral country in the history
of the world.

- Ayn Rand

Its government, however, ain't no such a thing. Beyond the framework of necessary laws, coining of money and so forth, everything the United States achieved, that caused them to “sit bestride the world like a Colossus,” was achieved away from and in spite of Federal bureaucrats.

“For every action there is an equal and opposite government program.” - Joe-Bob Briggs

From:

acelightning

I read The Pentagon Papers when it first came out. I'm completely aware of the type of "leadership" that believes the US has to always be in a war of some kind, because otherwise how would the voters know who the "enemy" is?

This is just one of the many, many things that have been taken for granted for so long that very few people even think there's anything wrong with them. All such things - malignant monotheism, racism, casual sexual abuse, the two-party system, even capitalism itself, just to name a few - need to be changed... but how in the name of humanity are we going to accomplish that?

From:

wpadmirer

I own THE PENTAGON PAPERS and have read it, plus I read the releases at the time. It's disgusting that powerful, wealthy people use American lives as fodder to pad their bank accounts and resumes.

Cheney made a fortune off the Iraq War.

From:

nodrog

… And why is the attempted “cure” for these ills always, always horribly worse than the disease?

“A strong conviction that something must be done is the parent of many bad measures.” - Daniel Webster

How's your learning curve?

Why did men die of hunger, for six thousand years?

Why did they walk, and carry goods and other men on their backs, for six thousand years, and suddenly,
in one century, only on a sixth of this earth's surface, they make steamships, railroads, motors,
airplanes, and now are flying around the earth in its utmost heights of air?

Why did families live six thousand years in floorless hovels, without windows or chimneys, then, in
eighty years and only in these United States, they are taking floors, chimneys, glass windows for
granted, and regarding electric lights, porcelain toilets, and window screens as minimum necessities?

Why did workers walk barefoot, in rags, with lousy hair and unwashed teeth, and workingmen wear no
pants, for six thousand years, and here--in less than a century--silk stockings, lip sticks, permanent
waves, sweaters, overcoats, shaving cream, safety razors. It's incredible.

For thousands of years, human beings use their energies in unsuccessful efforts to get wretched
shelter and meager food. Then on one small part of the earth, a few men use their energies so
effectively that three generations create a completely new world.

What explains this?

In 1943, Rose Wilder Lane sought to highlight the difference it made in America that the individual
was permitted freedom from government authority. The Americans broke from the idea that dominated all
over human history that they must depend on some overarching authority in government to grant them
well being, and thus when good happens, we owe ever more to the powers that be.

The one idea that this is not the case, that human beings have within themselves the capacity to make
their own way, she wrote, created the most glorious civilization in world history. Her passion was to
help others see the cause: not authority but individual initiative and action.

She traced out this idea to provide sketches of history from the ancient world to the mid-20th
century, believing that she had discovered the answer to what transformed the world from a dark,
miserable, sickly, and dangerous place to one where humans thrive and create. She further condemned
all political trends of her time from Fascism, to Communism, to the New Deal…

Her prose is stark and strong, the product of decades of experience in attempting to get readers to
listen, and succeeding…

Her love of America has nothing to do with the jingoism we know all too well. It is a love of
individualism, experimentation, risk, entrepreneurship, creativity, reward, and the inspiration that
comes with building a new civilization itself. What a hymn to our history she writes!

And note the date. This was written in wartime. There were censorship rules at the time, things you
could and couldn’t say. What might she have written about war authoritarianism that she did not dare
to write? I think we can imagine. In fact, you can read between the lines. She saw America betraying
its history, principles, and destiny. And what would she write today?

http://www.liwfrontiergirl.com/discovery.pdf

Most people who say, “This will change your mind,” really mean, “Give me your mind.” If you read this - or even skim it! - you'll see the difference: It's your mind, even if you've been told otherwise.

From:

conuly

Tangent, Rose Wilder Lane was a horrible person and raging narcissist.

From:

conuly

Mass revolution? But I can't guarantee things will be better. Different, maybe.

From:

conuly

that the United States of America is the greatest, the noblest and, in its original founding principles, the only moral country in the history of the world.

If you overlook the slavery which was explicitly protected in the Constitution, maybe. And the fact that a non-zero number of our Founding Fathers actively participated in genocide.

From:

nodrog

a non-zero number of our Founding Fathers

Interesting. Name two.

(Andrew Jackson doesn't count as a Founding Father; he was ten years old at the time.)

UTA: Then perhaps you could tell me where these exploits are mentioned in the US Constitution - which is the actual subject of discussion - or how they affected it. If it's important enough to mention as a counter-argument, you should be able to say how…

Edited Date: 2018-02-02 07:24 pm (UTC)

From:

nodrog

Ad hominem (Latin for "to the man" or "to the person"[1]), short for argumentum ad
hominem, is a fallacious argumentative strategy whereby an argument is rebutted by attacking the
character, motive, or other attribute of the person making the argument, or persons associated with
the argument, rather than attacking the substance of the argument itself[2]…

- Wikipedia

Was that your best shot?

From:

conuly

She was a pathological liar. She might be right, but I'm not gonna wade through her BS to figure it out.

From:

conuly

George Washington, Village Destroyer. That's one, a non-zero number. And many of the other prominent ones, such as Jefferson (that's two) were whole-heartedly for warfare or forced removal to help white people.

When the actions of our young nation involved slavery (enshrined in the Constitution, something you haven't addressed) and genocide and forced relocations, it's hard to say that it has any claims towards superior morality. Actions, as they say, speak louder than words.

Given that one of the few things Ayn Rand and I see eye to eye on is that racism is bad, you'd think she'd condemn those actions.

From:

acelightning

Well, "#MeToo" is having a profound effect, over a very short time, towards uprooting toxic attitudes - attitudes that have been so deeply ingrained in our culture for so long that most people (especially men!) hardly even thought about them as anything but "that's just the way things are". Gotta start somewhere!

From:

conuly

Let's see if it has a long-term effect. I'm worried about the backlash.

From:

acelightning

I'm surprised I haven't heard of any backlash yet. I suspect that at least some of that is due to the original point of #MeToo - that there really is strength in numbers.