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#shouting about how everyone else needs to 'think critically about the media they consume'
stopitjon · 4 years
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I guess it’s just screaming into the void day for me, but one other thing I really wish people would get through their skulls is that critical thinking and literary criticism are not “critical” in the way that your mom is “critical” of your outfit. Critical analysis of media is a lot more involved than thinking up half-baked ideas for why said media is shit, actually.
Thinking critically about a text requires that long before you think in terms of good and bad, you consider intents and outcomes, you understand both the immediate and wider context of what you’re looking at, and you acknowledge that fiction is subjective. It’s about thoughtful examination of all aspects of the work.
What function does this element serve in the work? Why might the author have included it? How was it incorporated, and how does it interact with other elements? Setting aside possible intents, but looking closely at context and execution, what impact does this element have on the work as a whole? On different possible audiences? How does all of this play into or deviate from greater patterns across media?
And for the love of god please stop forgetting:
What lens or framework am I using to examine this text? What are the limitations or problems with that framework? What are my biases? (<-Americans do this challenge) If I choose to examine this through a different lens, how does that change what I see?
...That’s barely a start, but the point is, if your idea of “thinking critically about the media you consume” starts and ends with picking any number of random things you heard are bad and seeing if they show up or not in said media, you’ve done the critical thinking equivalent of tripping at the starting line and really have no place telling other people to follow your lead whilst you are, quite obviously, face-down in the dirt.
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deardragonbook · 3 years
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Use references for writing
Fun fact (or just fact): as well as writing, I draw a lot! I’ve been drawing for a long time, and the most important piece of advice every single artist ever will give you is ‘use references!’. 
Referencing doesn’t mean copying or tracing, it means if I’m drawing a person and can’t remember what arms look like, and even if I think I remember I probably don’t, I look it up! And you can tell by looking at my art which pieces were done with or without references, usually because the muscles are all wrong. 
Well, the same goes for writing! 
Not as extreme, you won’t need to find a reference for everything you write or every time, but thinking you can get through life and your writing career without the use of references is... well, insane! 
Especially because references for writing are everywhere, our writing is based off of all the books and media we’ve consumed up until this point in our life, it’s based on our experience, it’s based on how people talk to us. Nothing just comes out of thin air!
So, when do you reference? 
If you’re doing a book, I usually start referencing at about the third draft mark. This is the point where I really am polishing and touching up so it makes sense. 
How do I reference? 
There are two ways, go live it (which obviously isn’t always posible) or find somebody else who has! 
In my own book there’s a scene that takes place in a market, I was struggling with the right words to express the anxiety of being surrounded by people having all your senses working on overdrive. It was an important moment for one of my male-leads and it needed to be just perfect. So I put a pin in it, and next Sunday, when my local market was up, I went for a walk. 
I had my phone on me and took notes and went straight back to this pin when I got home! 
The result: 
Up to this point, Zack lived freely. The only thing to oppose his movement had been the wind and gravity itself. But here he was fighting against a current of living breathing beings none of which paid him a glance.
His hands found their way around Itazu’s arm, squeezing as though she was the only thing keeping him afloat in this raging river of unfamiliar faces.
Itazu felt grateful he didn’t have the same strength as her or Kai.
The market at its core was a collection of smells and sounds. Prices and sales shouted at high volumes, people trying to get their order heard over all the shouting, the ringing of bells to signify an order was ready for collection, the occasional sound of horseshoes hitting stone as the royal guards watched the chaos from above.
Let’s compare it with what I had before going off to find a reference: 
If Zack had found it busy in the station, it was nothing compared to the market. He could barely move and grabbed onto Itazu with all his strength, the girl was grateful he didn’t have the same strength as her or Kai because she found herself frowning as her wrist ached, but was unwilling to tell him to stop, understanding it was his first time out of that city in a long time.
The market was filled with different smells and sounds, shouting of prices, people trying to reach their destination, bells being rung to signify a ready order, occasionally the sound of horseshoes hitting stone as the royal guards kept a close eye on the street.
See an improvement? I hope so because otherwise I may just be a bit insane. But no worries either way. 
The second method like I said is to find someone else who’s lived it, this could be another book, a blog post, a YouTube video, or even a friend or family member! The point is if you aren’t sure about something you need to seek out more information. 
A lot of fantasy writers forget that they are not exempt from this. And it’s a shame because not only can it really show in your writing, but we live in the best day and age for research, there is so many resources online and we should be using them. 
Also, as an extra reminder: the type of writing you like may not be for everyone. I like things to be a specific pace, often not too descriptive. Someone else may prefer a lot of description or an ever faster pace. When getting critics or opinions try and differentiate between preferences and genuine improvements to be made. It can be very difficult and take a lot of time, but it’s important to keep in mind. 
Here are a couple of useful websites for ‘references’ I’ve found useful at different points: 
Descriptionari: Allows you to search for snipets of creative writing that could help inspire, I especially find this useful for things I haven’t and can’t experience or I have so much experience with I can’t figure out how to unfold into a pleasing sounding paragraph! 
Writers helping writers: blog articles similar to the one’s I do here but easy to search through and by a large variety of writers. Especially good for more abstract ideas like how to write emotions. 
Unsplash (or any site with lots of photos): perfect for when you need to do a description and just can’t remember what something looks like! Especially good for architecture and buildings from my experience. 
As always, feel free to: 
Buy my book here. (Or read it on amazon unlimited!)
Check out my website (with plenty of my writing available for free!)
Check out my wattpad (with several prequel stories and a short unrelated novel which is going to be complete this Saturday!)
Check out my Instagram (you can see some of my mediocre art!)
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acertaincritic · 5 years
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Let’s tell a story.
You’ve been buying vacuum cleaners from Company Y for many years. They clean well, consume relatively little energy, and they don’t break easily. Still, the company puts out a new series now and then, and since your cleaners aren’t eternal, you buy a new model every time.
Except that this time something is wrong. You unpack your new cleaner and prepare to put it to use, but when you turn it on, it doesn’t work. It sucks very little dust in, and even worse, it generates a lot of heat, which you didn’t expect at all. Soon your room is as good as sauna, so you have to turn it off. You read the manual - maybe you did something wrong - but even though it’s long and murky, you find no explanation there.
You feel cheated. You trusted Company Y, and you supported them financially for many years. You even bought additional things, like that pretty sticker and a t-shirt, because you liked their products and wanted to show it. Now they sent you a broken cleaner. 
What can you do? You go to the customer service to file your complaint. You stand at the counter and try to explain to the lady there what happened. Your cleaner doesn’t work, it costed so much money, and it generates a lot of heat.
A guy standing behind you cuts you off. He says that his cleaner works perfectly and he’s actually here to praise the company. He’s angry that you dislike the product that works for him. When you repeat to him what happened - that the vacuum doesn’t work, that you read the manual and it didn’t make sense - he gets irritated. He says that it’s all subjective and calls you a hater. He insists you shouldn’t file your complaint, because it’s invalid.
The next person from the line jumps in. She admits that her vacuum cleaner also doesn’t suck dust properly, but it doesn’t matter, because you can use it as a heater. She’s actually very happy with the device - sure, she didn’t expect to get a heater, but it’s fine, she likes it anyway. Your patience is running out, but you try to explain that it’s great, but you needed a cleaner, not a heater. However, she doesn’t let it go - she claims that even though she has never bought any product of the company Y before, she might in the future, and maybe Company Y simply isn’t for you. You shouldn’t file your complaint.
Another guy from the line starts talking. He says that you have no idea how hard it is to make a vacuum cleaner, how much time and effort the team has poured into creating this product. He knows because he used to work part-time in a similar company, so he can complain all he wants, but you should keep your mouth shut. After all, you have never built a single vacuum cleaner. You shouldn’t file your complaint.
Some man pokes his head through the window. He isn’t entirely sure what’s going on, but he’s just read about Company Y on the Internet. Apparently another customer, angry because their vacuum cleaner didn’t work, wrote a mean letter to one of the company’s office workers. The said worker then resigned from his job and needed a therapy to deal with the stress. You think it’s unfair, since an office worker certainly had nothing to do with the production, but it doesn’t change the fact that your vacuum cleaner doesn’t work and that you came to the customer service properly. However, the man keeps looking at you weirdly, as if he blamed you for the actions of this other customer, and he says that you shouldn’t file your complaint. It will only make everyone feel worse. That Company Y earns a lot of money on the production of vacuum cleaners and should be prepared for complaints, he doesn’t mention at all.
Finally the lady behind the counter stops the discussion. But instead of listening to your complaint, she announces that you are in fact biased against Company Y, because Company Y’s chairman is red-haired, and you hate red-haired people. You gaze at her in disbelief. You have never mentioned anything about red-haired people, and you actually have nothing against them at all, but when you try to explain that to her, she shouts over you that Company Y doesn’t need customers like you and you can stop buying their products.
So you put your complaint on the counter, knowing that it’ll likely end up in the trash, and you leave. You have just wasted a lot of money on a product that doesn’t work, and even worse, you wasted a lot of time filing your complaint, which turned into a complete disaster. Of course, you won’t buy anything from Company Y anymore, but you’re still at a loss. The vexing sense that you have been cheated persists.
Walking to your home, you encounter a friend. It turns out that she’s been treated by Company Y in the same way. Strolling, you chat about Company Y and the broken cleaner, and even start exchanging jokes to let your frustration with the bad product out. It’s a small and meaningless thing, but it makes you feel better.
This is when all the people you met at the customer service room jump from behind a bush. They have followed you and heard you talk with your friend. They are angry about the jokes you made and that you still dare to voice your complaints. They call you names and insist that if you should even criticize company Y at all, you should do it only in your own home, and never on the street, where someone might hear you.
Meanwhile, company Y appears in all the big media they have connections to. They cry about mean customers with unrealistic expectations. They even cite parts of your complaint, but cut and twisted to make it sound like something else. Instead expecting the vacuum cleaner to clean, you wanted it to clean on its own, which isn’t a guaranteed feature of their products - and so it’s all your fault for buying it.
-
I salute all the critical thinkers on the Internet.
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ghostmartyr · 5 years
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...I have lost my temper, so this is all going under a cut despite the fact that some of it clearly needs to be shouted into people’s ears. This is pure hate for a fandom I am not part of, because I hate it. Reasonableness not found.
It’s about ship hate.
Specifically, shipper hate. And why NO.
Buckle the fuck in.
...So I don’t spend time in the fandom anymore. I hate it.
But I unfortunately have friends. So I hear stuff.
So. Uh.
I despise the Eren and Historia ship with all of my heart.
Meanwhile, the people who also hate it are so fucking loud and obnoxious that I can’t hate it in peace without feeling tainted by their inability to leave people the fuck alone.
(ETA: ...Several hours later, wow. I was not kidding about losing my temper. The below was crossed out originally, and for the sake of continuity I won’t delete it, but good grief, me. Calm down. You’re not helping.)
Stop sending people hate. You take away my ability to peacefully fantasize about my NOTP burning to a fucking crisp, and you make the general perception in the fandom that anyone who cares about queer rep in the fandom is a raving jackass.
Is that remotely true? No. Does fandom perception function on truth? Also no.
Also, when people get hate, spite becomes a motivator.
Thanks guys. You’ve made the fandom even more full of that thing we can’t stand. Wow, gee, why are so many more people in favor of this ship I hate now?
Gee, I fucking wonder.
People do not stop being invested because you send them hate. Or they do, which is actually awful. Fandom’s fun. It is supposed to be fun. Let the people who haven’t completely fallen to the hate in their hearts actually have a good fucking time and leave them the fuck alone.
I hate this ship. So fucking much. But do you know what happens when I try to hate it at the moment? I feel guilty! Because every single person who actually likes it has to put up with this crap! You people being assholes is interfering with my quiet, simmering hate, and it’s annoying.
(I got calmer as things went on, so that’s crossed out in the spirit of giving people the option of ignoring the vitriol. ...There’s. Still a lot of vitriol. But. The above is probably the worst?)
And you know what? If canon were to actually make it a thing, yeah, there would be some very serious reasons to complain. But you know what else? Right now, you’re complaining about something that isn’t canon. Because it is not fucking canon. You aren’t complaining about a worrying trope within a product of mainstream media.
You’re complaining about other fans enjoying themselves in a way you don’t like.
Does it suck that the whole fucking Historia fandom would prefer shipping her with every single male character over her ending up with a girlfriend? Yes.
Does shouting at the people who still know how to have fun change how much that sucks? Not really.
Look. I hate this fandom. With all of my fucking heart. I don’t belong in it. People don’t like me, and none of the things I care about are things that it values. I spend every second I’m forced to think about this fandom consumed with hatred for life in general. Is that healthy? No. Hence the leaving.
Don’t take away people’s joy. Ever. Even if it’s for something you hate. They need it just as badly as you need yours.
Find your joy again instead of trying to tear someone else’s down. If you succeed, you ruin someone’s day/week/life. If you don’t, they’ll probably create more of that thing you hate. Which doesn’t help you in any way, shape, or form.
I would kill to find a reasonable discussion about wanting Historia to be a lesbian and being disappointed that fandom has zero interest in that. I would kill to find a serious discussion on how fucked up it is that the manga appears to have killed her girlfriend off-screen and impregnated her. Regardless of anything else, she is queer. Hell, she could be head over heels in love with NPC Farmer Guy, and she’d still be queer, and the narrative problems with her arc as it appears would still be worthy of critical discussion.
And instead of that content existing, people keep screaming at fans of a non-canon m/f pairing.
Which, even if it were canon, would be a jerk move.
Pairings being canon means that you can shout about them without hating their fanbase. That’s really the only change, but it is a significant one. When a pairing is canon, that means shouting about it is shouting about canon. When pairings aren’t canon, shouting about them means that you are shouting at their fanbase.
One of those is okay. Unless the shouting leads to direct content with the creators. The other is straight up being a dick.
Not everyone who likes m/f is homophobic. Hell, some people just like Eren and Historia together. Is that a fun thought? No. Is Eren the only character Historia has significant canon interaction with? Pretty fucking much. People will ship anything that stands in the same room long enough. It comes down to personal preference.
Most people do not have personal preferences that lead them to f/f. It sucks. Shouting about it is not going to change that. You can talk about why that is, and why misogyny and homophobia combine with discussion of queer female characters and why that doubly sucks.
People will still ship the thing you don’t like.
At best, you might make them feel ashamed about it.
Awesome. More people feeling like they’re not allowed to love the things they love.
Historia Reiss is a queer character. The entire fandom regularly screams about how she never actually had feelings for Ymir. Currently, her arc involves her girlfriend dying off-screen while she herself is coerced into pregnancy.
So, you know. Let’s complain about how people want Eren and Historia to bang. That’s clearly the problem.
Again, I hate the ship! I hate that half its shippers appear to be following me and I have no idea why (....no offense, I’m sure you’re all wonderful people, I just have a lot of hate I’m really sorry thanks for the likes)! I hate that it’s difficult to find fans who want Historia to be gay! I hate that the one person I’ve seen wanting her to be asexual said that Ymir and Historia weren’t canon! I hate that before I left, every single damn fan of Historia who cared about Historia as a person, not an accessory, seemed to be cheering for the possibility of Eren and Historia!
But you know what I hate most?
I can’t find anyone who feels that way who has remembered to treat their fellow fans with respect. The people I know who have my preferences? I know that because they scream and shout at people. They tag their hate, they send anonymous messages, and generally make people feel like garbage for enjoying a thing.
I can’t even want Ymir and Historia to end up together without feeling guilty, because I know if that happens, everyone who happens to like a m/f ship involving Historia is going to get crapped on.
I’ve wanted Historia to be a lesbian since I started this series, and I am now in a place where I feel bad for wanting that, because the people interested in her being other sections of the spectrum get treated so terribly.
The honest truth is that I left the fandom because psychologically, I am a disaster, and everything being shouted back and forth hit too close to home. I can’t handle it. I don’t expect to ever touch it again outside of my bubble, because every brush I’ve had with it since makes me miserable.
What triggered this mess of temper was one of my friends commenting that someone I know got hate for making some kind of graphic. He used hyperbolic language about how “oh so they did this so that means they’re murdering gay people.”
I don’t hold that against him, but the reason it set me off is because the perception is that people upset with Historia being the m/f bicycle of the fandom are whiny brats who deserve to be unhappy and are overreacting to homophobia that doesn’t exist.
And it’s just... anon hate is never okay. It helps nothing, and hurts people. Including the people sending it. Putting that darkness in your soul into action is just going to make it worse.
But part of what that hate has done is... it’s made it so the loudest voices of the people upset over Historia and the problems with her treatment are anonymous haters who make people who like the wrong ship cry.
That. is not a helping thing.
Historia’s portrayal in the manga is a damn concerning thing. The fact that people still argue that she never had feelings for Ymir is a very concerning thing.
The fact that people ship her with Eren might be frustrating, and even hurtful with the reminder that the majority of the fandom definitely does not want Historia to be gay, but it is very much not the thing to be loud and worried over (especially because, again, non-canon, so you’re really just picking on the fanbase itself, which has zero point except for meanness).
Maybe I’m imagining it, since I left. Maybe I don’t know what I’m talking about, since my little corner is so distant.
But what it feels like is that people complaining about homophobia has become synonymous with whiny brats with no respect for fandom boundaries. Because the people complaining about homophobia loudest are acting like whiny brats with no respect for fandom boundaries.
And that is a problem.
Homophobia still exists. Lesbophobia still exists. Biphobia still exists. From my limited contact before I left, I know that those last two are at war instead of holding hands, because they’ve fundamentally misunderstood what each side is upset about.
(Side bar I guess: People upset about lesbophobia are upset about lesbians being treated like crap. People upset about biphobia are upset about bisexuals being treated like crap.
Not wanting a queer female character to like men does not equal hating bisexuals. Wanting a queer female character to like men does not equal hating lesbians.
Meanwhile, at this point, if Historia is ever given a canon sexual identity beyond liking Ymir, a lot of people are going to be hurt for personal reasons that have nothing to do with their respect for various sexualities. Having your hopes dashed sucks. It doesn’t mean you’re a bad person. You should be allowed to feel however you want about fiction in peace.
Which leads us back to me wanting Historia to just fucking die so that no side will ever have the option of harassing another because “ha ha we were right you all suck.”
Just. Just kill the queer. It will be so much less awful that way. Kill her now.
I need this series to end and the tags to accidentally be deleted. Or on purpose, whatever works.)
Going back to... yeah.
As much as we all like to think we’re reasonable people who use our heads, when something does not actively affect you, it is easy to start taking it as seriously as you take that thing’s spokesperson.
So the fact that the apparent spokespeople for lesbophobia in the SnK fandom are a bunch of rabid anons lacking in basic respect?
That... is really sadness-inducing.
You’ve taken an understandable pain and twisted it into a frothing hate that does nothing but hurt people.
Please don’t do that.
Be hurt. Be upset.
But be kind. For the sake of yourselves, and for the sake of the things you’re trying to champion. It’ll go better.
(...And on that note, I’m really sorry for all the yelling. Which probably made a few people who didn’t deserve it feel bad. I am just a very angry person, and. ...When I say I left for a reason, this is that reason. Every behavior I’m critical of is something I have felt a thousand times worse in my heart. I want to be a bad person more than anyone in this damn fandom.
But sorry for the yelling. I know most of you guys have nothing to do with any of this. Hell, I’m not even in the fandom, so who knows if what I’m screaming about is accurate.)
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bigskydreaming · 5 years
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Hey you know what’s really funny, in that not at all, actually hey these priorities are kinda fucked, kinda way?
What’s hilarious is how people are more accepting of the sexualization of kids’ shows than they are of the social criticism of kids’ shows.
No, I’m not saying everyone who condemns commentary of kids’ shows with ‘ugh omg chill, its just a kids’ show’ is a hypocrite who simultaneously approves of sexualized art or fics of those shows or characters.
But I am saying that its definitely, definitely a thing, that even people who I see condemning pedophilic works seem to switch gears when it comes to being critical of social justice issues in the same source materials. As though their worldview is more willing to make room for or accept the inevitability of people wanting to sexualize stuff even though they’re clear that its meant ‘for kids’....that they’re willing to make room for the validity of people being critical of the messages imparted in stuff meant ‘for kids.’
And like.....does that not seem fucking backwards?
We need to stop treating stuff ‘meant for kids’ as though kids are somehow separate from the rest of society and immune to the way we’re all affected and influenced and harmed by media meant for adults.
Instead of them being MORE vulnerable, LESS protected, MORE influenced by the media meant FOR them. As though they’re not actively in the stages of being shaped by their media, their influences, their entertainment....instead of at the stages we’re at, where we’re forced to PUSH BACK against all the deeply ingrained biases and assumptions we’ve been mired in.....since we were kids.
Like...this is just so bizarre to me. Of fucking COURSE we need to be critical of ‘just a kids’ show’ or something that’s ‘jeez, meant for kids, remember’. Because if grown adults who see and are aware of the problems in those things, or areas they need work, don’t criticize and condemn and push back against them....who the fuck will?? The kids don’t know enough to protect themselves from toxic ideas and influences, because the toxic ideas and influences ARE WHAT THEY’RE IN THE PROCESS OF LEARNING FROM!
Unless, do you somehow think, in this culture where we’re painfully aware of how damn near EVERY piece of media we consume has layers and layers of racism, sexism, homophobia, abuse apologism, rape fetishization....do you think that the second a content creator sits down at their desk and drawing board and goes “okay, but remember, brain, this is for KIDS, think of the kids!” That like.....that content creator suddenly, magically....gets it right? Because its for the kiddies, they’re able to suddenly, like, fucking levitate right over all their own ingrained biases and prejudices and fucked up toxic influences that might spill out unconsciously or consciously if their art was about and for adults....but the mantra ‘its for the children’ just....protects them from all that? Provides sudden, temporary enlightenment where every idea that pops into their brain and emerges through their story is a Right One, a Just One, a Progressive One?
That’s not how that works! That’s not how ANY of this works!
And the most frustrating thing is we all know this!
Why is it, that people who are SO good at calling out an argument as bullshit when they’re IN the discourse, invested, paying attention, putting something on the line.....have no problem snatching up those exact same arguments the second they catch a whiff of a discourse they don’t want to be involved in, or go near, or even entertain (la la la I’m not listening - lol, you’re all dumb, this is a kids’ show, relax, its not that deep)....as though its suddenly, magically, NOT a bullshit argument just because they’re the ones trotting it out because this time, the shoe is on the other foot, and THIS particular discourse makes them uncomfortable for whatever reason?
I get it. The discourse, whatever it is, wherever it is, can be exhausting. Nobody can mire themselves in it 24/7 and not walk away just completely drained. Sometimes we have to check out, take a break, recharge our batteries. Just fucking find something to enjoy. I totally get that.
But the thing is......that thing or that place you go to or look for to recharge in peace and quiet, away from the discourse....it is NEVER inherently going to be discourse free. Never above criticism or recourse. Because no art, no creativity, exists...without coming from the minds of imperfect, flawed human beings who are ALL in our own unique ways, still products of an imperfect, flawed society absolutely RIDDLED with issues and problems we’re all perfectly aware are there. There is NOTHING a product of society can produce, that can not be criticized. Can not be workshopped. Has no room to be MADE BETTER.
Some things get closer than others, sure....or at least some things do, as they relate to us and our personal experiences and beliefs individually. Those are the things we seek out as refuges, the things we don’t have to focus on making better, talking through the flaws that are readily apparent to us, find ways to make something better or more worthwhile out of the rough edges that hurt us when we watch it or consume it, just trying to be entertained or feel better.
But that never means those things are just.....better, overall. That they’re just...above being criticized. That it’s okay to just settle for ‘good enough’ because we ourselves are currently far enough away from whatever rough edges this piece of media has that we either can’t see them at all, or at least like, they’re not actively hurting us.
Just the other people, who came here looking for something to just enjoy too, but can’t get comfortable no matter how much they’d like to, because for whatever reasons, they ARE closer to the rough edges, they’re hurting them or just getting in the way, blocking their view of the movie or show you’re all there to watch.
And like, I’m not trying to pretend that I have all the answers here or tell anyone what to do or how to do it, just.....saying that like, we have to be better at LOOKING for better ways to handle that, that allow us to recharge and abstain from the discourse there, shut it out so we can get what we need from that before charging back in there or elsewhere.....without loudly shouting to everyone complaining about the rough edges “SHUT UP, ITS ALL IN YOUR HEAD, GOD, SOME OF US ARE TRYING TO ENJOY THE SHOW HERE, JEEZ.”
Our enjoyment should not ever require telling people that like......there’s no place here for them to enjoy an inherently flawed piece of media if they can’t like, suck it up and swallow whatever disappointments they have about rough edges that might not be apparent to you from your vantage point, but are just as real as any you’ve complained about in the past, when sitting elsewhere, watching a different show.
We all live in the same fucked up, imperfect society. We all run into stuff that hurts us, gets in our way, makes our daily journeys harder, demands we either suck it up or speak up and ask for some help making smoother sidewalks, clearing clutter out of the way, finding a way around an obstacle.
If we expect to be heard when WE have something in our way or something hurting us, we CAN NOT be content to just....shut down the voices of everyone saying something that makes us uncomfortable or that we think would just take up too much time or energy to deal with and we’re in a hurry to get somewhere, don’t have any energy to spare.
Like, yes, sometimes we legitimately don’t have anything else to give  without actively hurting ourselves, keeping ourselves from getting to an important destination on time, being able to complete our own journey. I’m not saying we owe it to a total stranger to add to our own pain when we’re already hurting and stretched past our limits.
But there’s a difference between acknowledging someone asking for help or confronting what’s clearly an apparent obstacle or hardship for them, while not being able to stop or help because you’ve got other people depending on you or waiting on you or simply do not have the means or resources or spoons to do anything but complete the necessary task or goal you’ve already set yourself towards.....
And like.....raising your own voice to drown theirs out or putting in your earbuds and blasting your music while you rush past them yelling ‘outta my way, I have more important things to do, get a job you lazy bum’ because you feel BAD about not being able to take the time or spend the energy, you maybe feel a little bit guilty, and if there’s a fairly universal human experience, its that nobody really LIKES feeling guilty, it’s one of our more unpleasant emotions, and we tend to look for any way possible to ignore it when it pops up, either with legitimate reason or without.
Again, not saying I KNOW the right way to handle these kinds of scenarios, just that.....the latter is not it, is never it. And yet more often than not, its what too many of us, even those of us yelling the loudest in other discourses perhaps, default to.
Because the other thing is....its not like every criticism out there IS valid. It’s not like everybody to stop in the middle of the street and start making a commotion and making everyone else stop what they’re doing and look what they’re complaining about, what their problem is....
It’s not like there aren’t plenty of times where like....it isn’t genuinely a problem. Where they’re not being HARMED by something, but at most mildly inconvenienced. Faced with a tiny little speedbump that has people who had to stop their own conversations to see what he was yelling about, people who had to pause in the middle of trying to navigate their way around a big five car pile-up blocking their commute, just rolling their eyes at the dude who’s making all that drama, slowing down everyone else’s day, just because he like....wants someone to do something about the little spider he just spotted on his expensive Italian loafers and he’s not even arachnophobic, he just thinks spiders are icky and wants someone to idk....get it off or kill it? Whatever. 
Point being, sometimes there are actually complaints or criticisms that AREN’T worth everyone’s attention, and the person yelling loudly about it is just super privileged and needs to figure out how to deal with not always having things just the way he wants them on his own, nobody can (or should have to) help him with that.
But I mean.....you can only tell that for sure once you’ve actually LOOKED at what his problem is. Heard what it was. And maybe that took just a two second quick glance or an hour for him to get to the bottom of it as he launched into his life story first to make sure you understood just how much he thinks bugs are icky before getting around to saying oh yeah, so there, that’s the problem, see? Icky bug.
But again, like....there’s a difference between feeling like this issue the guy is facing does not merit you taking time and energy away from your own issues to just....make his life marginally less inconvenient.....once you’ve actually given his actual issue some degree of actual consideration.
Versus just.....never actually stopping to listen and blowing past him while laughing with a buddy about what you ASSUME his issue to be based on like....where you’re all standing at the time. Like ‘lol this is a school zone, buddy, its meant for kids and people obviously put tons of time into making sure its all safe and pretty for the kids, so there can’t possibly be anything here that you, a grown adult, should actually be worried about, like whatever you think it is, its not that big a deal.”
And so you just keep on without looking back, laughing about what a dumbass that guy was and so never bothered to notice that the spider he was worrying about was actually deadly as hell, and just because he was the only one to see it at the moment didn’t mean that it couldn’t hurt a kid playing in the park just as easily as him, or that there weren’t a whole nest of similar spiders lurking around and potentially dangerous to all of those kids.
Like. Your priority was not the kids, and it was not whether or not his issue was actually legitimate, it was just whatever you were talking about with your friend that you didn’t want to be distracted from, you were both just having too good a time.
And honestly, like....its not like you’re a terrible person for that, its just.....that’s what it was. That’s what that actual interaction was, and just call it what it was. Not a reason to feel superior because some people just have to manufacture drama wherever they go and can never be happy, not even when something is meant for kids.
And while giving someone’s criticism the proper consideration before accepting it as valid or dismissing it as irrelevant, like...while that can look like a ton of different things?
If you can take the exact argument you used to dismiss or shut down that criticism you heard, switch out a few names and details without changing the structure or context of either the argument or the criticism....
and suddenly, you’re looking at the exact same bullshit argument you’ve seen people use to shut down YOUR criticisms, just when talking about different characters or a different, adult show?
Whatever you gave that criticism you heard here, it was probably not the proper consideration.
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joannalannister · 6 years
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hey lady joanna, i'm not sure if it was u or someone else who posted this, but Ive found a pie chart of the asoiaf characters that r most popular in fan fic, and sansa was number one (and i think arya was a close 2nd?? cant remember properly). Do you know why this is? I've been reading a bit of fanfic recently, and ive also found that sansa seems to be the most shipped, and written about character.
Why do people write any fanfiction, about any character? 
We write because we love it. We write because we must. I think a huge part of what makes fan fiction so singularly special is that there is no ambition in it, only passion. [x]
We all wrestle with feelings and we can recognize them in stories when we see them. We don’t need for them to be sanctioned. It doesn’t matter what the writer intended, or what the artists intended. […] One of the most radical things I tell myself about the media I consume is: fuck canon. [x]
More often than not, people write fanfiction to explore ideas that are harder to explore on their own. Themes of sexuality, queer characters, and other problems of young people that most mainstream stories barely glimpse at are laid out in full force. Are all fanfictions hugely creative stories that need to be told? Not necessarily. In fact, probably not. By their very nature they are ancillary. But if these are stories our young people are telling, and en masse as well, critics should learn to be less dismissive of them. Because the stories we tell as children lay the cornerstones of the stories we tell as adults. No matter how grammar-less and outlandish they may be. [x]
What is scary about transformative fandom is that it’s a place where young women love their media without reservation, and where they can make stories for themselves. That’s why as a culture we’ve decided that transformative fandom is weird and gross and morally wrong, and that’s why all the articles in the world explaining that transformative fandom is a totally legitimate way to interact with a text aren’t really making a dent in the never-ending stream of repulsed investigations of fandom. Because fandom is the province of young women and, culturally, we find young women terrifying. [x]
Sometimes Canon is Broken and I Need to Fix It. Anyone who is a fan of … well, anything, knows that there are certain moments when you’re reading along or watching a series or movie when you stop and shout, “Wait! What?” (one word: midiclorians) Sometimes when that’s happened I feel the desire to “fix” canon by writing my own version of “the truth” (known as ‘head canon’ or, if it gets widely accepted, ‘fanon,’ which is an abbreviated word for ‘fan canon.’) Also, people like myself write fanfic because the story they’re involved in is, on some level, really important to them. Characters become more than just fiction and what happens to them becomes very personal. The world becomes very real, and you start to want to explore every single nook and cranny, especially where you sense an inconsistency—something that makes you want to fill in the gaps. So, there are big and little “fixes” that call to fan writers. [x]
And why do people read fanfiction?
But every so often I find a fanfic I can’t keep my eyes off.  It might capture the feeling of the original source, or attack the premise from an interesting and new point of view.  I get to see my favorite characters come back to life through the power of words.  The puppeteer might be different, but, in the best fics, anyway, my beloved puppets are back and better than ever. [x]
Fanfiction is born of love, from both the writers and the readers. And the Stark sisters are widely loved. People naturally want more of these girls’ stories, to visit them again, to hear their voices again, to recapture whatever resonated with them the first time around. 
Regarding Sansa in particular … well, we haven’t had a book published with a Sansa pov in it since AFFC was published in 2005. 
(I do not count snippets from the still unpublished TWOW.) 
(2005 was a loooong time ago. I had a flip phone in 2005.) 
People want more content with Sansa so they’re making it themselves. 
Also, a lot of fanfiction is about shipping, and Sansa is very shippable. One of the central questions of Sansa’s narrative is who she will marry, from the very beginning of AGOT. GRRM teases so many possibilities for a potential partner for Sansa (some more likely than others), and people latch on to these various possibilities and generate a lot of fic for the things they love. Great fandom debates rage around who Sansa will ultimately be married to (assuming she marries) at the end of the series. Most (most!) people want Sansa to be happy in the end, but everyone (everyone!!) has different ideas about what (or who) would make Sansa happy.
And sometimes people don’t care about the endgame, they just want to explore vibrant alternate universes, since the ASOIAF canon has come to a standstill. For example, what would have happened to Sansa if Robert had never come to Winterfell? Personally I don’t particularly like alternate universes (most of the time), but lots of other people do, and they like exploring them in fic. 
And sometimes fanfiction isn’t even about the roads not taken in canon, it’s about the roads GRRM would never take, because LBR, he’s an old Baby Boomer. Fanfiction offers stories that aren’t necessarily heteronormative. 
Sansa is a fandom bicycle. She resonates with a lot of people. Sansa’s own story parallels the meta**-narrative disillusionment of the reader, but instead of a bitter awakening, it’s a hopeful one, because ASOIAF is a story about hope despite the darkness. (If you want to read more about this topic, @poorquentyn and @nobodysuspectsthebutterfly have spoken about this at length.)
**I don’t mean “meta” the way fandom uses this word to mean “literary criticism & analysis”. I mean “meta” in terms of being self-referential, or from a perspective above the work itself. GRRM is writing a fantasy story, but his fantasy story is about fantasy (the genre). 
So this resonance, this ~reader avatar~ quality - it makes people want to explore the world with Sansa even more, and so they write fic. 
You might want to pose this question to someone who writes a lot of Sansa fic tho, to get a better answer, because I don’t write a lot of Sansa fic. (I’ve written some, but not very much, and not often.) I typically like … darker … themes in the fanfiction I write. One of the fanfic stories I’ve been telling to myself (and only myself) for over twenty years would have the Purity Police up in arms. I’m so glad tumblr didn’t exist when I was a child cuz y’all would’ve fucked me up. This website isn’t healthy. 
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harrisonchute · 6 years
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What’s Harison been Watching?!
9/8/2018 Edition
“Perfect Blue”
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I haven’t encountered one of those “Perfect Blue EXPLAINED” videos on YouTube, though I did look for it, and any online writing about Perfect Blue is gonna be marred by very standard Satoshi Kon commentary, that he’s very influential, one of the best known in the west, he do dreams and reality. I just wanted to know what people made of this movie, what their interpretations are. I saw it for the first time Thursday night, and this is what I think: the main character’s mental breakdown caused by the existential transformation pop idol to actress, the Internet, and other celebrity life-inconveniences is then exacerbated by her manager’s serial killing. Rumi just wants to protect her, protecting her past self from exploitation, and because that murder violence is so similar to the exploitation, the main character sees herself in it -- she has to, in order to immerse herself in the new roles and grow as an actress. Ultimately, I feel like Perfect Blue is a more interesting film than it is a strictly entertaining one, like that one half of Serial Experiments Lain I’ve seen. Kon identifying all these different stressors facing popular public (and female) figures is fascinating. However, most of Perfect Blue is that space in movies that isn’t dialogue or action or exposition, it’s like mood-setting or suspense setup, like a Wong Kar Wai revision of The Strangers. I would not see that movie, but I’m glad I finally saw this one.
“Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt”
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I was halfway through an episode of this show when I had to go see Perfect Blue. Not surprising -- I get this way with TV shows, and it’s obviously hardly uncommon for modern media consumers. Every now and again I’ll find a show that disrupts my life, and it’s all I can think about. I was grateful for short shows earlier this year that I loved, like Fleabag and one anime show whose name I can’t remember, swearsies. And yet, I was even more grateful that Kimmy Schmidt is like four seasons -- though it’s ONLY gonna be four seasons. Regardless, it’s really surprising, and it’s especially interesting in the context of other women-led womeny shows of its day.
Upon the infamous episode where Titus is criticized for doing yellowface, I’m watching the Internet outragists shout things like “I don’t want to know the context of anything!” and was left with the startling yet embarrassing conclusion: “My God, Tina Fey is soooo white.” Like, this is what gets to her? Embarrassing because I feel like that sentiment’s been on the Internet wall for ages, with every “Tina Fey did a bad thing” headline I’ve witnessed and ignored over the years. “White people” in media usually just means this is a person whose instincts were manufactured by a system demarcated by stratification: exclusive and hostile. Revising those instincts requires some listening skills, so I was put off by the backlash to the backlash here than anything anyone was lashing against initially.
I feel like Kimmy Schmidt is the absurd comedy version of Cloud Atlas, and the word “absurd” is really the key. So much of racial representation is reliant on “realism,” it seems, threading that needle where a world needs to convincingly contain the token black friend or whoever, and “realism” comes right down to tone. I get a little put-off by absurd comedies, like the short-lived Ghosted, much as I enjoyed it, and I think that comes from my time with Futurama: as that show went on, I started to appreciate the characters more than the jokes -- always a mistake. With that one, the integrity of strict character continuity was often sacrificed for the sake of a joke. Like, Leela is not that insensitive, but she has to be kind of a blowhard in this scene for the punchline to work. Sometimes, Kimmy seems to suddenly know more about the world than I’d expect, but they make it work, because who knows where she picks up these things? The comedy/drama balance isn’t as embedded into the show’s core like You’re the Worst or the above-mentioned Fleabag; it’s got its own logic, like magical realism with abandon, more Arrested Development than Jane the Virgin.
This logic allows -- to me -- navigation through a lot of the show’s spiky territory. For example, it’s hugely problematic that Lillian shot her black husband, because he was a black man in her house at night, but it didn’t bother me (last week). The subject of criticism in the first season leading to the outrage response in the second, Jane Krakowski’s American Indian heritage, didn’t bother me because under the surface there’s that blackened but beating white people heart of “the joke is that I’m soooo white.” Lines like, “The litter in New York makes me cry” got a genuine laugh out of me, and it felt like the best possible version of “Pardon my whiteness, I’m writing a Native American caricature.” I know we’ve had 17 seasons of Modern Family for that kind of humor, but here, it didn’t bother me.
Didn’t bother me. Love that line from minorities. That means it didn’t bother anyone, right? Of course, I’m neither a black man or American Indian, so what about the Dong story line? Issues facing Asian-American men are very different from most social issues, because they all hinge on his penis and where it goes. Satiating AsAm men’s desire to be represented by anybody but Ken Jeong is a one-step process, which is why my desire no longer exists (because Crazy Ex-Girlfriend does, and Selfie before it). So it was a pleasant surprise that Dong became an actual love interest, but it didn’t change my world, and a love story is not handled with the same gravity as shows with different logic -- are we meant to take any of this seriously? Is Kimmy meant to grow as a character? Is anyone? Jane Krakoswki does, but does it matter? My brain is different watching this show, where true pathos comes from moments reached upon layers of irony and cynicism and an almost exhausting one-person race to stay ahead of the cultural conversation. For example, Titus’s romance in the two and a half seasons I’ve seen has been touching, but because it involves Titus, it’s expressed with a much more interesting vocabulary than other gay romances I’ve seen. (Though it’s probably relatively traditional and I still just think Brokeback Mountain is the raddest shit ever).
The difference between the American Indian and Dong plot lines is that I theoretically got a strand of representation out of the Asian-American element in the show, where I doubt an American Indian did from Krakowski’s plot line (though you never know until you ask). But I wasn’t asking for representation (this time), and no one else was asking to be alienated by stereotypes. So I can understand the frustration on both sides -- sometimes, it doesn’t matter how steeped in irony racism is. And as someone who’s created things for an audience once before, I know you can’t please everyone, and it’s the negative voices that resound the loudest, because they’re only echoing what’s already in one’s heart as a fragile left-brain writer variety.
My ability to excuse or at least compartmentalize the problematic in Kimmy Schmidt seems to be part of a concerted effort to appreciate a sitcom’s unique sheen. I like that a show doesn’t need to say important things to be important, that one can draw meaning from near-total meaninglessness. The joys I’ve had watching this show have mostly come from Ellie Kemper’s facial expressions and halting, intense deliveries, and I think we only get those with all the other ingredients -- contrarian satire which sometimes crosses that line from centrism to taking a side, like wow you’re so too cool for school you... went to school.
Crazy Ex-Girlfriend is the show I’m most familiar with in this burgeoning televisual fempire, and the creators of that one are constantly listening to fan feedback, almost to a fault. They seem determined to get everything right, understanding that any one individual, no matter how much a quadruple or quintuple-threat, represents the outlook of an individual, and so they’ve built a dimensional writers room and the show reflects that with its characters and their stories. But they did all that because their show is specifically about inclusion -- off the show’s title, this is the journey of a woman from rejected by society to creating her own. Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt has less of a clear thesis, and its moral lessons often feel networky and only there for some kind of conscience quota. But unlike CXG, it exists in the here and now, with dated references to The Jinx, to Marcia Clark and Chris Darden pre-American Crime Story, and now hugely insensitive jokes about shooting black men in that specific circumstance. The morality feels like a work-in-progress during an era in American society where the conversation changes every day, like the ever-shifting substance of crackling television noise.
Before CXG, I used to think it was some herculean task to listen to feedback. And on occasion, I’ll hear a video game player talk at length about how “the studio listened to its fans!” and cringe, because I know how those fans speak, at what decibel, and with what, frankly, terribly foul language. Maybe the Internet outrage episode in Kimmy Schmidt wouldn’t have stung as much had I not seen it in the context of Apu on The Simpsons. Now, there’s an example of creators who don’t give a shit. I have a lot more faith in Fey and co., with an understanding that her brand of comedy is always poking and prodding. Comedy is observation, and so much of the observation under men’s watch was “other people are different.” Kimmy Schmidt is tackling that head on, with interesting results I ultimately am not interested in, because it’s too joyous and weird.
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I never regularly watched 30 Rock, but now revisiting that one via YouTube clips and compounded with a new love for Kimmy Schimidt, I’m noticing just how lyrical Tina Fey (and co.)’s dialogue is. They say there’s zero improv on that set, and I understand why -- the often tongue-twisting wordplay has a perfect cadence that’s fun to listen to and must be fun to perform. Since I’m now trying to understand rhythm in writing, this is one I’m gonna study.
Spent too much time on this, dammit. Little over two hours, I think.
PS: Anna Camp had a few guest appearances and she should’ve won an Emmy for that role if she didn’t. Or, they don’t need to make Big Little Lies season 2, because that sort of upper crust mommy wars was so perfectly satirized by that arc with Jane Krakowski. 
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patriotsnet · 3 years
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Why Did Republicans Hate Obama So Much
New Post has been published on https://www.patriotsnet.com/why-did-republicans-hate-obama-so-much/
Why Did Republicans Hate Obama So Much
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Barack Obama Has Polled As The Worst Us President Ever Even Beating George W Bush Courtesy Fox New
Barack Obama has polled as the worst US President ever, even beating George W. Bush. Courtesy Fox New
US President Barack Obama isn’t rating well with his fellow Americans.
WE LOVE him but it seems his own countrymen can’t stand the sight of him.
Barack Obama, who has 43.9 million Twitter fans, has also landed the title of the most unpopular US President since World War II. This means he even rates lower than his predecessor George W. Bush.
While it’s no secret his popularity has been waning, a new poll has revealed just how disliked he has become since sweeping to power in 2009.
A Quinnipiac University survey has shown that even Republican Party presidential nominee Mitt Romney would have been a better choice for voters.
According to the poll, 45 per cent of people say the country would have been better off if Mr Romney had been elected in 2012, and a staggering 38 per cent see him as a better choice.
Leaders are generally rated lower once in power — take Prime Minister Tony Abbott, for example. His popularity has plummeted to the depths that saw Julia Gillard outed in favour of Kevin Rudd’s return.
But Obama’s popularity would come as a shock to Australians who have mostly regarded the president as being in line with our way of thinking.
And he’s certainly popular on Twitter. In December 2012, President Barack Obama scored the most retweeted tweet of the year with an image of him and first lady Michelle embracing along with the words “four more years”.
Obamacare
Why Do Republicans Want To Repeal Obamacare So Much Because It Would Be A Big Tax Cut For The Rich
There are going to be so many tax cuts for the rich, you’re going to get tired of tax cuts for the rich. You’re going to say, “Mr. President, please don’t cut taxes for the rich so much, this is getting terrible.”
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And it will start when Republicans repeal Obamacare.
This is the Rosetta Stone for understanding why conservatives have acted like subsidized health care was the end of the republic itself. It wasn’t just that it had the word “Obama” in its name, which, in our polarized age, was enough to ensure that 45 percent of the country would despise it. No, it was that Obamacare was one of the biggest redistributive policies of the last 50 years. The Republican Party, after all, exists for what seems like the sole purpose of reversing redistribution.
A quick recap: Obamacare is a kind of three-legged stool. First, it tells insurance companies that they can’t discriminate against sick people anymore; second, it tells people that they have to buy insurance or pay a penalty, so that everyone doesn’t just wait until they’re sick to get covered; and third, it helps people who can’t afford the plans they have to buy be able to. Which is to say that you need to come up with a whole lot of money to make this work — money that Obamacare gets by taxing the rich. Indeed, at its most basic level, it raises taxes on the top 1 percent to pay for health insurance for the bottom 40 percent.
Getting tired of tax cuts for the rich yet?
Theres One Reason Why Republicans Keep Telling Obama To Shut Up Its Exactly What You Think
Republicans have smeared and violated the first black president since he first ran for the office, demanding that he watch his mouth and “show his papers.”
Looking back now, I was likely beginning my journey to leaving the Republican Party on September 9, 2009, when Barack Obama was addressing a Joint Session of Congress and Representative Joe Wilson, Republican of South Carolina, shouted “you lie” in the middle of the president’s address.
The president looked in the direction of the shout, calmly said, “it’s not true” and continued. The House rebuked Wilson a week later, but notably that vote came on party lines, and the tone had been set.
The next year, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell declared that “The single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president.” The year after that, Donald Trump joined the so-called Birthers “just asking” whether the first black president was even really an American at all. 
Republicans have kept attacking Obama ever since, even after he left office—smearing him, violating him, demanding that he “show his papers.”
McConnell, Trump’s lapdog, told Trump’s daughter in law, Lara Trump, that Obama was “a little bit classless,” and instructed him to “keep his mouth shut.” He didn’t say “boy, stay in your place” but he didn’t have to. The people who belong to Trump and McConnell’s Republican Party know damn well what he meant there, and made no real effort to mask.
READ THIS LIST
His Eulogy For John Lewis Was Typically Soaring The Reaction On The Right Was Furious
Last week, a former president gave a speech in which he described the United States as a country dedicated to high ideals and striving to “form a more perfect union,” and he called on Americans to support reforms that would help to ensure more equal representation for all. In response, members of the opposing party said that this former president was promoting “communist terrorist propaganda,” and labeled him “cynical,” “divisive and partisan,” a “national disgrace,” and “one of the sleaziest and most dishonest figures in the history of American politics.”
I’m talking, of course, about Barack Obama’s eulogy for civil rights icon John Lewis — and the unhinged reaction of right-wing journalists and media personalities to it. The context is what made that reaction so astonishing. We’re three-and-a-half years into an administration defined by constantly dividing the country between those who support the current president and everyone else, who are often denigrated as haters and losers and “enemies of the people.” More proximally, last week was one when Donald Trump suggested postponing the 2020 presidential election and promised suburban voters that he would protect them from being “bothered” by poor people moving into their neighborhoods and lowering their property values. That was the context for Republicans taking offense at Obama for daring to suggest that “we can do better.”
We’re Less Far Apart Politically Than We Think Why Can’t We All Get Along
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Partisans on both sides of the aisle significantly overestimate the extent of extremism in the opposing party. The more partisan the thinker, the more distorted the other side appears. And when we see the opposition as extremists, we fear them. Our tribal thinking prepares us for battle.
What’s the solution? More information? More political engagement? More education?
Surely more information leads to better judgment. But social scientists at the international initiative More in Common find that having more information from the news media is associated with a less accurate understanding of political opponents. Part of the problem appears to be the political biases of media sources themselves. Of all the various news media examined, only the traditional TV networks, ABC, NBC, and CBS, are associated with a better understanding of political views.
This discrepancy may be a result of the lack of political diversity among professors and administrators on campus. As political scientist Sam Abrams found, the average left to right ratio of professors nationwide is 6 to 1 and the ratio of student-facing administrators is 12 to 1. Democrats who have few or no Republican friends see the other side as more extreme than do those with more politically diverse friends. And the more educated Democrats are, the less likely they are to have friends who don’t share their political beliefs.
So what can you do?
A version of this article appeared on the Newsmax platform.
Obama Is Antithetical To Trump So Long As He Exists Trump Is Threatened
Central to Trump’s presidency is the effort to erase Obama’s legacy—his policies, his social agenda, and, more intriguingly, his very persona. This observation is neither new nor original. After all, Trump’s run on the Republican party began with his advocacy of birtherism, an attempt to quite literally delegitimize Obama. .
Obama has remained top of mind for Trump ever since. The evidence is by now well documented: The flap over inauguration crowd size; the withdrawal from the Iran deal; the rollback of Obama’s environmental policies; the broadband attack on Obama’s environmental regulation and nondiscrimination policies; the ongoing assault on Obamacare; his complaints of “presidential harassment”; his recent disparagement of Obama during the G-7 meeting , and on and on.
Many observers have taken notice. Back in 2017, Charles Blow of The New York Times wrote, “Trump is obsessed with Obama. Obama haunts Trump’s dreams. One of Trump’s primary motivators is the absolute erasure of Obama – were it possible – not only from the political landscape but also from the history books.”
“Two Years Into Trump’s Presidency, Obama Remains a Top Target for Criticism,” Peter Baker and Maggie Haberman have likewise noted recently in the Times “It took all of one minute and nine seconds for President Trump to go after his predecessor on Friday — just one minute and nine seconds to re-engage in a debate that has consumed much of his own time in office over who was the better president.”
Video: Its Impossible To Imagine Trump Without The Force Of Whiteness
Roediger relates the experience, around 1807, of a British investor who made the mistake of asking a white maid in New England whether her “master” was home. The maid admonished the investor, not merely for implying that she had a “master” and thus was a “sarvant” but for his basic ignorance of American hierarchy. “None but negers are sarvants,” the maid is reported to have said. In law and economics and then in custom, a racist distinction not limited to the household emerged between the “help” and the “servants” . The former were virtuous and just, worthy of citizenship, progeny of Jefferson and, later, Jackson. The latter were servile and parasitic, dim-witted and lazy, the children of African savagery. But the dignity accorded to white labor was situational, dependent on the scorn heaped upon black labor—much as the honor accorded a “virtuous lady” was dependent on the derision directed at a “loose woman.” And like chivalrous gentlemen who claim to honor the lady while raping the “whore,” planters and their apologists could claim to honor white labor while driving the enslaved.
This is by design. Speaking in 1848, Senator John C. Calhoun saw slavery as the explicit foundation for a democratic union among whites, working and not:
With us the two great divisions of society are not the rich and poor, but white and black; and all the former, the poor as well as the rich, belong to the upper class, and are respected and treated as equals.
Why Is The Affordable Care Act So Despised By So Many Conservatives
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IT HAS been called “the most dangerous piece of legislation ever passed”, “as destructive to personal and individual liberties as the Fugitive Slave Act” and a killer of women, children and old people. According to Republican lawmakers, the sources of each of these quotes, the Affordable Care Act , or Obamacare, is a terrible thing. Since it was passed by a Democratic Congress in 2009, it has been the bête noire of the Republicans. The party has pushed more than 60 unsuccessful Congressional votes to defeat it, while the Supreme Court has been forced to debate it four times in the act’s short history. Obamacare was also at the heart of the two-week government shutdown in 2013. Why does the ACA attract such opprobrium from the right?
Race Alone Doesn’t Explain Hatred Of Obama But It’s Part Of The Mix
NPR
President Obama speaks at a news briefing in July about the fatal shooting of Trayvon Martin by George Zimmerman. Carolyn Kaster/APhide caption
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President Obama speaks at a news briefing in July about the fatal shooting of Trayvon Martin by George Zimmerman.
It’s a fact of American life that a good share of the electorate is disappointed, disapproving and even disdainful of President Obama. What’s less certain are the reasons why.
For some Democrats, the explanation is simple: race. In recent weeks, West Virginia Sen. Jay Rockefeller, Mississippi Rep. and former Florida Gov. Charlie Crist have all said racism is the driving force behind Republican resistance to the president.
Republicans, unsurprisingly, say their disdain for Obama is based not on the color of his skin, but on the content of his policies.
“If any white Democrat had pushed through a billion-dollar stimulus plan and a takeover of the health care industry, he would have been equally detested by conservatives and Republicans,” says Whit Ayres, a GOP pollster and consultant.
There’s no question we’re living in a time of divisive politics, when roughly half the country is likely to hate the president, no matter whom he or she might be.
But race has been a factor in American politics since the very beginning. It’s certainly part of the mix in terms of responses to Obama.
Race Is Not The Whole Story
But Race Is Definitely A Factor
All That Obama Represents
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Obama Really Did Activate Voters Their Hopes But Also Their Fears
There are reams of evidence supporting this explanation, and I run through much of it in my piece “White Threat in a Browning America.” Obama’s presidency was inextricable from the massive demographic change that made it possible, and that continues to reshape American life and politics. But it wasn’t just demographic change that Obama represented. Obama, though a Christian himself, led an increasingly secular coalition, and was othered as a secret Muslim in the minds of many conservatives. Similarly, perceptions of economic change were filtered through broader views about Obama and the country: the political scientist Michael Tesler found that the most racially resentful Americans were the most economically pessimistic before the 2016 election and the most economically optimistic after it.
Obama, notably, spoke about race less than past presidents. But Obama himself was a symbol of a changing America, of white America’s loss of power, of new groups were gaining power. That perception wasn’t wrong: In his 2012 reelection campaign, Obama won merely 39 percent of the white vote — a smaller share than Michael Dukakis had commanded in 1988. That is to say, a few decades ago, the multiracial Obama coalition couldn’t drive American politics; by 2012, it could.
On its face, this is laughable. But Limbaugh’s audience wasn’t laughing. They were listening.
So yes, all of this led to Trump.
Have Republicans Ever Hated A President More Than Barack Obama
It’s getting harder to deny.
The widespread belief on the right that Barack Obama is a Muslim is one of the stranger features of this period in history. There are some of them who know that Obama says he’s a Christian but are sure that’s all an act designed to fool people, while he secretly prays to Allah. But there are probably a greater number who haven’t given it all that much thought; they just heard somewhere that he’s a Muslim, and it made perfect sense to them-after all, he’s kinda foreign, if you know what I mean. Rather remarkably, that belief has grown over time; as the latest poll from the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life shows, fully 30 percent of Republicans, and 34 percent of conservative Republicans, now believe Obama is Muslim. These numbers are about double what they were four years ago.
You can bet there aren’t too many who think there’s nothing wrong with it if he were. For many of them, it’s just a shorthand for Obama being alien and threatening. So it leads me to ask: Can we say, finally, that no Democratic president has ever been hated by Republicans quite as much as Barack Obama?
This antipathy has multiple sources interacting together, so it’s overly simplistic to say that it’s just because of Obama’s race, or it’s just because of heightened partisanship. But it’s getting harder and harder to claim that there’s ever been a Democrat Republicans hated more.
The Seeds Of Trump’s Victory Were Sown The Moment Obama Won
Nine months into the Donald Trump administration, the United States seems eons removed from the country that just nine years ago elected its first black president.
Yet the racial divide that Trump demonstrated with his narrow Electoral College win was always there.
President Barack Obama read to a certain portion of white America as an unending attack on white Christian identity, centrality and cultural relevance. In their minds, he was seeking to end their right to bear arms and the right of conservatives to speak freely.
For this group of Americans, Trump has been the corrective. As Ta-Nehisi Coates points out in his brilliant Atlantic essay, “The First White President,” for Trump’s supporters, his election was itself the point. Putting a human wrecking ball against political correctness, feminism, multiculturalism and even decency was the ballgame.
Obama’s election masked this fierce racial schism for only a few short months. That ended the moment he declared, in July of his first year in the Oval Office, that a white Cambridge police officer acted “stupidly” for arresting a black college professor — and long-time Obama friend and mentor — outside his own home.
The racial divide that Trump demonstrated with his narrow Electoral College win was always there.
Yet Obama won re-election by a convincing 5 million votes. Even more than in 2008, his victory demonstrated the power of a non-white constituency to do the once-impossible: deliver the White House, twice.
How The Right Wing Convinces Itself That Liberals Are Evil
Tumblr media Tumblr media
Since the 1950s, the conservative movement has justified bad behavior—including supporting Donald Trump—by persuading itself that the left is worse.
If you spend any time consuming right-wing media in America, you quickly learn the following: Liberals are responsible for racism, slavery, and the Ku Klux Klan. They admire Mussolini and Hitler, and modern liberalism is little different from fascism or, even worse, communism. The mainstream media and academia cannot be trusted because of the pervasive, totalitarian nature of liberal culture. 
This did not begin with Donald Trump. The modern Republican Party may be particularly apt to push conspiracy theories to rationalize its complicity with a staggeringly corrupt administration, but this is an extension of, not a break from, a much longer history. Since its very beginning, in the 1950s, members of the modern conservative movement have justified bad behavior by convincing themselves that the other side is worse. One of the binding agents holding the conservative coalition together over the course of the past half century has been an opposition to liberalism, socialism, and global communism built on the suspicion, sometimes made explicit, that there’s no real difference among them. 
The title of that LP? Ronald Reagan Speaks Out Against Socialized Medicine. The American left is used to waiting for liberals to finally get ruthless. Through the eyes of the right, they always have been. 
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The Real Reason Trump Is So Dead Set On Crushing Obamacare
Chris Cillizza
Over the past 24 hours, President Donald Trump has taken two actions aimed at mortally wounding the Affordable Care Act.
The first tasks his administration with increasing competition among health care insurers, a move very likely to drive younger people out of the insurance marketplace entirely and driving up costs across the board. The second, announced late Thursday night, .
The key to understanding Trump’s motivations here are entirely contained in the ACA’s shorthand nickname: Obamacare. It’s named after the man – former President Barack Obama – who shepherded it into existence. And that’s exactly why Trump wants to get rid of it.
Trump’s entire political life – dating all the way back to his adoption of birtherism earlier this decade – is positioned against all things Obama. Why? Because for many Trump supporters in this country, Obama – and his beliefs about society and government – were the antithesis of what they believed.
The best way to distinguish yourself in Republican politics during Obama’s time in office was to position yourself against, literally, everything about Obama – up to and including his legitimacy to be president due to fact-free claims about where he was born.
At every rally, every speech and almost every day on Twitter during the 2016 campaign, Trump promised to get rid of Obamacare – and quickly.
How America Changed During Barack Obamas Presidency
Michael Dimock
Barack Obama campaigned for the U.S. presidency on a platform of change. As he prepares to leave office, the country he led for eight years is undeniably different. Profound social, demographic and technological changes have swept across the United States during Obama’s tenure, as have important shifts in government policy and public opinion.
Apple released its first iPhone during Obama’s 2007 campaign, and he announced his vice presidential pick – Joe Biden – on a two-year-old platform called Twitter. Today, use of smartphones and social media has become the norm in U.S. society, not the exception.
The election of the nation’s first black president raised hopes that race relations in the U.S. would improve, especially among black voters. But by 2016, following a spate of high-profile deaths of black Americans during encounters with police and protests by the Black Lives Matter movement and other groups, many Americans – especially blacks – described race relations as generally bad.
Percentage point difference between all adults saying race relations are “generally good” and those saying “generally bad”
Generally good
Obama presidency
  PEW RESEARCH CENTER
But by some measures, the country faces serious economic challenges: A steady hollowing of the middle class, for example, continued during Obama’s presidency, and income inequality reached its highest point since 1928.
Related: How America Changed During Donald Trump’s Presidency
He’s Removed The Veneer That Hid America’s Racism
somehow left behind its racisracist tweets widely criticized
It doesn’t make any difference what color the president is. Malcolm X could have been elected president and racism would have continued just the same.
Kehinde Andrews, historian and author
“the heartbeat of racism” Kehinde AndrewsJoe Scarborough Max Boot.one poll
Racist policies work better when they don’t seem to be racist… once the veneer comes off, a lot of people in the middle will shy away. Trump has taken away the veneer.
Kevin Kruse, historian
it’s just racist.
The Thing Donald Trump Hates Most About Obama
Donald Trump spoke to GQ last month as he sat at his desk in Trump Tower, and many of his characteristically idiosyncratic reflections on the improbable months he has spent as the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination appeared in the December 2015 issue. But inevitably, a single article cannot possibly convey all that Donald Trump is, and so some segments of the conversation had to remain unheard. Until now.
You said an interesting thing in one of your first interviews, in 1981: “Man is the most vicious of all animals and life is a series of battles ending in victory and defeat.” Is that still what you think?Sure. I mean, the lions hunt for food. Oftentimes humans hunt for sport. It’s much different. But you look at the chain, and you look at what’s going on in the chain, and yeah, mankind is pretty tough.
I can see that. At the same time I don’t know how the electorate’s going to feel: to be characterized as the most vicious of all animals.Oh, I think they’ll be fine with it. I think they know it’s true. What—you want me to take it back? “Oh, I’m sorry I said that…”
And people who think that that’s not true—they’re just fooling themselves?I think people think it is true.
But I guess one way to look at the world is it’s a jungle and a fight for survival, and another way to look at the world is we’re all in it together and we should love each other**.**
An important part of what you’re saying all the time is “I’m smart.” How smart are you?I’m very smart.
Trump Has Banished The Ghost Of Ronald Reagan
for sayingone memorable phrase
We’re now in a time in American history and in world history where we cannot imply afford to be moderate. We can’t afford to just be tinkering around the edges.
Rutger Bregman, historian and author
economic expansion“haunted by the Reagan era.” at times more like a Republicanproposedreducedncluded conservative ideasGippernever cutvowed to raise taxes conservative voters wantedand notunexpected backlashPublic supportan essay “Rooseveltian vision of activist government.
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As someone who was weaned on stories of leftist intellectuals and journalists traipsing off to communist countries to pay obeisance, I can only shake my head as a parade of right-wingers are making their way to Hungary to sing the praises of authoritarian Viktor Orban. Tucker Carlson of Fox News is the highest-profile rightist to make the trek, but the path was already well-trod.
Former National Review editor and Margaret Thatcher speechwriter John O’Sullivan has moved to Budapest to head the Danube Institute, a think tank funded by Orban’s government. He likes his nationalism straight up.
A few years ago, at the National Conservatism conference in Washington, D.C., Orban was an honored guest, which was a bit head-snapping for those inattentive to the drift toward authoritarianism on the right. Speakers at the conference have featured mainstream figures such as John Bolton, Chris DeMuth, Peter Thiel, Oren Cass and Rich Lowry. In addition to Orban, other questionable invitees included Marion Marechal and Steve Bannon pal Matteo Salvini.
Mona Charen is policy editor of The Bulwark and host of the “Beg to Differ” podcast. Her most recent book is Sex Matters: How Modern Feminism Lost Touch with Science, Love, and Common Sense. To read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate webpage at www.creators.com.
www.alternet.org
Why Do So Many People Hate Obamacare So Much
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Julie Rovner
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Opposition to Obamacare has been strong from the beginning. Demonstrators made their dissatisfaction clear in front of the Supreme Court in 2015.
The Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare, has roiled America since the day it was signed into law in 2010. From the start, the public was almost evenly divided between those who supported it and those who opposed it.
They still are. The November monthly tracking poll from the Kaiser Family Foundation found that 50 percent of those polled had a favorable view of the health law, while 46 percent viewed it unfavorably.
Partisan politics drives the split. Eighty percent of Democrats were supportive in November, while 81 percent of Republicans were strongly negative.
That helps explain why Republicans are working to repeal a key element of the health law in the tax bill Congress is negotiating. The requirement that most Americans have health insurance or pay a tax penalty — the so-called individual mandate — is by far the most unpopular provision of the law, particularly among Republicans.
Still, while partisanship is a major reason why some people hate the health law, it’s far from the only one. Here are four more:
Ideology
Adding to that was the unhappiness with the ACA’s individual mandate. Although the idea was originally suggested by Republicans in the late 1980s, the GOP had mostly backed away from it over the years .
Lack of knowledge
Confusing the health law with the rest of the health system
Are Voters Responsible For Their Own Choices
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Where Obama and Shapiro differ sharply in their explanation is in the attribution of blame. Obama blames Trump — and others in the Republican Party and conservative media — for demagogically preying on Americans’ fears and anxieties. Shapiro blames Obama for adopting a lecturing tone that alienated a critical mass of Americans.
Some of this strikes me as, well, strange. John McCain just had Obama speak at his funeral. The idea that the 2008 campaign was uniquely scurrilous is provably wrong. The rest of it is the usual Rorschach test of American politics; I think Obama treated issues of identity with unusual care and caution and, particularly early in his presidency, was unusually willing to believe the best of his political opponents, but I doubt I’ll change any minds on that in this column. Indeed, the deep division over how identity politics was wielded in the Obama era, and who was really acting outside the norms of American politics, is exactly what you’d expect if you believe this broader story of demographic, political, and cultural upheaval.
More interesting, I think, is the way both Obama and Shapiro implicitly absolve voters of responsibility for the choices they made. Obama’s basic argument is that too much change, too fast, made right-leaning voters susceptible to a demagogue’s charms; Shapiro’s basic argument is that too much of Obama’s liberal provocations, for too long, made right-leaning voters long for a strongman of their own.
It’s Not Just Deranged It’s Projection
REUTERS/Carlos Barria
There’s no doubt that when historians assess the Obama presidency, they will pay a great deal of attention to the deep political divisions within the country, and how those divisions shaped political events. There are racial divisions, class divisions, and, most of all, political divisions. Within Congress, for instance, the parties have been moving apart for the last 40 years, as fewer and fewer moderates get elected and the median of both parties moves toward the edge. But the reality is that while Democrats have moved left, Republicans have been moving right much more sharply — a fact not only established by political science but evident to anyone remotely familiar with Capitol Hill.
Yet Republicans are sure that the fault for all this — long-term trends and recent developments alike — can be laid at the feet of Barack Obama, who is terribly, appallingly, despicably divisive.
Here’s the truth: You might like Barack Obama or you might not; you might think he has been a good president or a bad one. But the idea that blame for the political divisions we confront lies solely or even primarily at his door is positively deranged.
They followed through on this plan. As Mitch McConnell explained proudly in 2010, “Our top political priority over the next two years should be to deny Barack Obama a second term.”
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the-mythical-norm · 6 years
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Responding to Varun
@varun-krishnan
Great post Varun, thank you for making disagreeing so enjoyable. I mean that sincerely. Its the things that keep you up at night that are worth doing. And its 4:30 AM! 
Anyways, I see you’re point. When people are giving to chance to choose, they usually choose wrong. But I wouldn’t be so quick to say we’d all spindle into a grand canyon of ineptitude. If no one is “working” then who would supply us with our phones anyways? The entertainment industry would most likely dwindle because, like we both agreed, it is only able to thrive because we need it to distract us. But if we didn’t need to quench this thirst that was deprived from work and dread, we might go mad. Those friends you spoke with who were bored over spring break probably had copious amounts of entertainment, and it still wasn’t enough anyways. What if having nothing to do, because work and progress were thrown out the window, is enough to force us to be cool. The struggle is what births cool after all. We’d be so bored to death that we’d be forced to improvise. I think the reason people rely on Netflix and iPhones so much is because they don’t know what else to do. Without work they probably wouldn’t be able to have them anyways. People I’ve talked to have no idea what they’d be doing if not what they are now.  You’re right when you say that they want the easiest route, but thats a byproduct of a society obsessed with progress. We need fast food, fast cars, and lame jobs to progress our society. In order for maximum efficiency and growth. The question then becomes, how beneficial is this growth? How far do we want to get? 90% of the worlds waste comes from 10% of the worlds population..or something like that. So how much longer will this last? How much more do we want? What will we tell our great great grandchildren when they’re living in a glass bubble on mars only dreaming of being able to look at a lake…or a tree? Obviously sacrifices need to be made in order for a society to progress, but at the end of the day, whats the point of this progress? How many of us will actually reap its benefits? 10%? 20%? And the ones who do, hate their jobs most of the time anyways. And its all worth it so we can squeeze some art through the cracks and take bike rides when we aren’t busy? What a silly way to live. Our society will eventually collapse if we continue to advance. Progress progress progress. At some point its got to give. The term worker bee was born for a reason. The focus of their existence is to work, work, and more work. They also suffer from colony collapse disorder. Theres no scientific explanation for it, entire bee colonies just vanish into thin air, with no trace of struggle..maybe its because they work too much. Or the collapse of Easter Islands society, progress is great when you’re progressing, but how “sustainable” is it anyways. Theres only so much resource. You seem to suggest that what we are doing now works, does it? Will any form of society actually work? Everyone relies on being told what to do because, like we talked about in class, its hard to think for yourself, its hard to get control over your body/mind, its hard to DO things that you aren’t told to do. Like post to this Tumblr.
Im not sure if people would turn to cool if they no longer had to work or go to college, but most people I ask usually say “I don’t know,” or that they would travel.
Im also not sure that art only existed after humans had civilized and advanced utility. Archeologists have discovered Paleolithic cave art dating 40,000 years back, in Indonesia. It’s pretty amazing too. The time spent looking for your next meal in 10,000 BCE is directly replace with time spent looking for your next pay check, and because of the efficiency we’ve “mastered,” excess has been born. Pablo Picasso was cool, but he was doing the best with what he had. He wasn’t making art to progress society, he was just putting it out there. We are obsessed with extremes, manic or depressed. Wealth or poverty. Cool trys to show us a middle ground, a constant hum rather than shouts and whispers.
You say that “..societal progress is critical not because it helps alleviate human suffering, but because it allows more people to be Cool..” But I disagree. Societal progress doesn’t alleviate any suffering, thats just part of the human condition. To rid ourselves of suffering would be to rid ourselves of our humanity. Which is exactly what we are on track of doing, becoming robots whose only purpose is to progress. On the contrary, In order for our society to advance, AKA produce more shit for the rich to buy, there has to be suffering. Most of these consumer products which blossomed from “societal progression,” have been tainted in blood. The invention of the iPhone has provided millions of sweatshop workers with 40 hour shifts and zero time to be cool..the only progression there is suicide rates. That sounds a lot like slavery, which still exists by the way, in India, China, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Uzbekistan, the list goes on. As for the starvation, theres plenty of that too. And way more people to endure its wrath, possibly because of societies advancements, what happened to Darwins theory of evolution, survival of the fittest? Are we cheating a bit? Even people who have access to food, still starve themselves. Eating disorders may have even stemmed from technological advancements (social media) too.
You say cool won’t progress society, whys that such a bad thing? It is true that the sophisticated and advanced society that James Dean or The Beatles could enjoy being cool in would seize to exist, but ultimately cool is a battle stance. What if there was no battle? What if we were so cool we didn’t even need I️t. I️ also agree that In order for cool to exist, there needs to be uncool. But does the uncool world depend on the cool one to exist? Its possible that we could become so dictated by success that we become like the worker bees. You could argue both sides. When people don’t have food, they are starving, but when people do have food, they are still starving. Of course cool needs the uncool and there will always be duality, Yin and Yang. There has to be, or else meaningfulness would be lost. If you just love everything and everyone, loves power sort of looses its meaning and just dilutes in its ubiquity. So I️ agree that cool has a relationship with the uncool, but I wouldn’t go as far as to say that its intimate. Im not arguing for a utopian society, where we live in tribes and sing kumbuya by the campfire, hunt our own food and refuse to advance. Because that didn’t work either, someone eventually decided to make things easier, and advance. Maybe that was a mistake. It’s worth thinking about, and free too. Im not really sure what im arguing. We can learn from all of these different forms of society. Maybe not eradicating the workforce but promoting genuinely passionate career paths. I’d be lying if a little part of me didn’t scream fuck that, advancement is only creating more suffering to the unlucky ones. As you said, slaves cant be cool. But Slavery exists on both sides of the spectrum. On the far end, we could become so obsessed with advancement that we become slaves of money and material pursuit, and on the other end(living in tribes), slaves of famine and lack of clean water. Maybe theres a healthy middle ground. Perhaps nothing works, not even cool. As we learned in class, cool cracked up in 1968. Revolution swept the streets. Those streets have since been paved, where did the rebellion go? We live in a whole new world now, Lester Young and Andy Warhol didn’t have iPhones or Netflix, and Im sure it would have negatively effected their coolness if they did. But their art wouldn’t have existed if society didn’t advance in the first place, so is there a line? There must be. Any form of suffering, to a certain extent, would allow cool to exist. Its not necessarily the marketplace because that was the bane of cools existence in the first place, I think. You don’t necessarily have to be cool to enjoy the sunset either, so cheering for the hamsters on the wheel to run faster, just so the barrier to cool is a little easier to hop, isn’t the best idea. That perpetuating wheel has A LOT of side effects and cool is just one, if it even exists. I️m not sure it’s enough to outweigh the rest. I think cool should view the culture industry as an enemy, and there will never be a cool that isn’t thrust upon you through hardship, theres no escaping that. Even purchasing your cool requires some suffering, as we can all agree that making money isn’t all that fun. Unless you love what you do. I think the real question we should be asking is, how can we learn from all of this? How should we be?  to be continued in paper 3...
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trendingnewsb · 6 years
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Donald Trump’s 6 Very Real, Very Insane Tips For A Good Life
Whatever you make of him politically, there’s no denying that Donald Trump has been alive for a long, long time. That is literally the least that we can give him. So it stands to reason that he must know something — that he must have some standards or guidelines by which a person can live their life. What a rich source of lifestyle advice he would be, if only he’d share this with us. If only he could find some time in his day to talk about himself.
Oh, it turns out he can.
6
Never Let Go Of Your Grudges
Much of Trump’s life can be defined by the grudges he’s held. Nobody thinks about Rosie O’Donnell that much under normal circumstances. “When people treat me unfairly, I don’t let them forget it,” he told reporters during his presidential campaign in 2016. It doesn’t seem to matter that he’s often wealthier or more powerful than the people he’s holding grudges against. That’s not the point. The point is the revenge itself. “If people screw you, screw them back 10 times as hard,” he explained in 2011.
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Why Do Zebras Have Stripes? Turns Out We Have No Idea
Media organizations he doesn’t like suddenly find themselves blacklisted from campaign rallies and press briefings. One failed business deal in Mexico, and later he’s ranting about how most Mexicans are “rapists” who “bring in drug and crime.” When he won the Republican presidential primary in 2016, he took almost no steps toward reconciliation with his former foes, instead dishing out insults left and right to people he no longer needed to attack. And when Puerto Rico was stricken by a hurricane this summer, Trump dedicated a lot more effort than “none at all, are you crazy?” to a running feud with the mayor of San Juan.
Joe Raedle/Getty ImagesHmm … theres a Puerto Rican I dont get along with. Better screw over three million of them so she knows it.
When NFL players began kneeling during the national anthem, Trump didn’t just criticize the players like most conservative commentators; he focused a lot of his rage on the NFL itself, calling it weak and out of control. Which doesn’t make a ton of sense … until you realize that Trump has long held a grudge against the league for refusing to let him buy a team in the 1980s. And when he tried to buy the Bills in 2014, only to get outbid, he reacted the only way he knows how: with shockingly petty tweets about how boring the league was.
And then there’s the massive grudge he holds toward his predecessor, Barack Obama. Trump spent quite a bit of Obama’s first term cheerleading the birther movement because of, well … let’s say his passion for birth certificate formatting quirks. For some reason, he then attended the 2011 White House Correspondents’ Association dinner. There, Obama lit into him. For a solid two and a half minutes, Trump could do nothing more than slowly rock back and forth, tight-lipped, while Obama dished out insult after insult. The guy’s probably never had to sit through anything like that before, and the psychic impact it’s made on him can’t be underestimated. If you’re ever in any doubt about the motivations behind Trump’s actions as president, know that he’ll always do the opposite of whatever Obama would, be that building a health plan, entering the Paris Accords, or reading.
5
Decorate Like A Dictator
Being wealthy is great. You should definitely be born into that if you can. But it’s not enough on it’s own. You have to let people know you’re wealthy, so they know you’re better than them, and to go fetch you food and pelts. You can do that by shouting at them all the time (and you should; never stop shouting), but when your voice gets tired, or they simply get too far away, you’ll need something else. You’ll need to let your surroundings do the talking for you.
Which brings us the Trumpian aesthetic. The author of a book called Dictator Style identified a number of key design traits featured in the residences of most famous dictators: overly ornate decorations, big swinging chandeliers, marble everything, mismatched French furniture, that kind of thing. Decor which shouted wealth but not class, none of it presented with any kind of design or stylistic intent. And when this author saw pictures of Trump’s penthouse in Manhattan, he saw the same thing there. Vanity Fair even ran a side by side comparison of one of Trump’s mansions and a palace used by Saddam Hussein, and the similarities were not hard to find.
Vanity FairIts the aesthetic equivalent of shouting.
But The Donald does have one decorating quirk all his own: the desire to hang up obviously fake things, like this cover of Time that was proudly framed in five of his golf courses.
Angel Valentin/The Washington PostIt seems this was during Times brief First day using MS Paint series of covers.
It is completely fake. There was no Time issue printed on the date on the cover, and Trump was never on the cover of Time during the year it was supposedly made. And that’s not the only fake thing at his golf courses. Consider this sign:
Rob Carr / Getty ImagesAnd it is our great honor to do a modest amount of research to check if this is true.
Yeah, that’s fake too. Historians who know the area have no idea what battle took place there, and have never heard it referred to as the River of Blood.
Years ago, Trump’s biographer was interviewing the man on one of his presumably marble-coated personal jets. Hanging on the wall of the plane was a painting, a Renoir.
Pierre-Auguste RenoirSpecifically, the most famous painting by Renoir, which apparently no one is keeping track of.
The biographer knew this painting, and knew that the original was in a gallery in Chicago. But Trump insisted that this was the original, and wouldn’t take no for an answer. He didn’t get rid of it after being called out, either. The thing showed up on the background of an interview with his wife after his campaign victory.
Fox NewsNice to add a splash of color to the uniformly gold room of horror.
4
Eat Fast Food And Nothing But Fast Food
Every celebrity lifestyle guide is at least 50 percent bizarre ultra-healthy diet tips — exotic grains, free-range kale, and egg white omelets all prepared by their aboriginal spirit-nutritionist, Klevin. Trump’s guide would have a similar section, but y’know, the total opposite.
First, let’s discuss his taste in steaks: well-done, with a side of ketchup, which the flavor experts among you will recognize as “not optimal.” We’re talking steaks so well-done they used to “rock when they hit the plate.” Now look, elitism is shitty, in food and all other things.
Trump SteaksCase in point.
Not everyone likes their steaks mooing, so if a guy likes to eat his steak well-done, that’s fine. It’s fine.
The ketchup is a little much, though.
The other staple of the Trump diet: the 2,400-calorie McDonald’s meals he’s been known to consume. That’s multiple Big Macs, Filet-O-Fishes, and chocolate shakes. Kentucky Fried Chicken, pizza, and Diet Coke reportedly make up the rest of his diet, and if that describes yours as well, congratulations on already thinking like a billionaire, I guess?
McDonandsThough maybe we should make time for the Friends dont let friends order Filet-O-Fish talk.
There’s an interesting explanation for this love for overcooked meats and salt: Trump is a germaphobe. Imagine how risky an acai root indigenous power bowl or something would look to him, all covered in fruits and grains and stuff that clearly once touched the earth, all prepared by someone with their hands. You could then see the appeal of mass-produced, pre-packaged foods. Not if you think it through at all, but if you took a cursory glance at those two options, and you were absolutely certain that the first thought that entered your head was always 100 percent factually indisputably correct for all time, forever and ever, amen, you might see where he’s coming form.
3
Be Born With Superior Genes
If you had to pick the perfect human, the one person whose intelligence, grace, and physical attractiveness surpassed all others, it’d be Donald Trump, right?
Well, there’s a reason for that. Trump has good genes, as he’ll tell you himself. It’s part of his so-called “racehorse theory of life,” which states that some people are bred to succeed, thanks to the genetic material provided by their parents. We’re not reaching here. He brings up his genes all the time. His health? Excellent, thanks for asking, and a result of his good genes. Same thing with his energy! Luck? He was born with it! He once even said he had a genetic gift for real estate development, which … scientists are not really rushing to confirm.
Pawel Marynowski/Wikimedia CommonsInvestors, either.
Anything positive that his family does is proof of the same genetic greatness. He regularly mentions his uncle who went to MIT. His granddaughter, who’s learning Mandarin, is more proof of Trumpian greatness. His kids have inherited the belief too. Here’s his son going on about his incredible genes, including his mother’s fictitious Olympic skiing background.
This kind of thinking is a little troubling, especially when we consider another famous political movement obsessed with superior genes. Yes, it’s usually hyperbolic to compare people you disagree with to Nazis. But not when they actually believe what Nazis believe. To the millions of Americans who might not have perfect genes, it is a little disturbing that their president said, “‘All men are created equal.’ Well, it’s not true.”
Remember this?
CNN
That would be the president doing an impression of a disabled reporter. It was a joke, but you know, not a “ha ha” one. And he now sets policy for disabled Americans!
2
Fill Everything With Asbestos
Asbestos was once used as a fireproofing agent, because it is extremely effective in that role. It also causes cancer, and is extremely effective at that as well. But for some reason (it’s probably money), Donald Trump has only ever really cared about that first bullet point. In his 1997 book, he suggested the drive to remove asbestos was led by the mafia, which controlled the asbestos removal business. In his view, asbestos was “100 percent safe, once applied,” which is true about undisturbed asbestos. But it does have a nasty habit of getting disturbed, which lowers the safety level a few (dozen) percentage points.
Mark Wilson/Getty ImagesOf course, that assumes you take safety advice from qualified scientists. Trump is having none of that.
Which is why for a few decades now, we’ve had regulations mandating asbestos use and treatment. This makes it a giant and expensive pain in the ass for anyone who owns buildings, e.g. Donald Trump. And seeing as Trump isn’t a huge fan of spending his own money and also has a casual relationship with facts, you can probably now deduce how he’s taken this position. On that note, he was once sued in the 1990s by Polish construction workers who claimed they were exposed to asbestos dust without protective equipment. But that’s probably a coincidence.
Anyways, whether it’s science, regulations, or angry Poles, nothing has ever changed The Donald’s mind. He still loves asbestos, and is even on the record suggesting that it could have prevented the World Trade Center towers from collapsing on 9/11. He was even on Twitter about it, because he’s been on Twitter about everything. Whatever the opposite of a grudge is, Donald Trump has it for asbestos. Which means that if you want to be a winner, you’re going to need a carcinogen of your own to love.
RealDonaldTrump/Twitter#science
1
Exercise And Sleep Are For Losers
On the subject of exercise, Donald Trump has a very hot take: don’t. He believes that a person is like a battery, with a fixed amount of energy, and that unnecessary exercise uses that energy up. He’s even mocked others for exercising. When he found out that one of his executives was training for a triathlon, he told the man he’d “die young because of this.”
This lines up pretty neatly with the exact opposite of what scientists say, which is that while exercise might temporarily reduce your energy, it strengthens your body, thus allowing it to be stronger and store more energy in the future. You already knew that because you went to gym class once or read anything about food ever. But who are you going to trust? Scientists and common sense? Or a winner with confusing ideas about batteries?
And then there’s the matter of sleep. For a long time, Trump has claimed that he gets very little of it, from 90 minutes to four hours a night. You should probably do the same. And what can you expect to do with all that extra time you’ll have, being exhausted and grumpy? Well, if you want to be like Trump, you’ll makes deals and plot revenge.
New York MagazineEverybody knows 3 a.m. is the ideal time to sit awake, sharpening a dagger and reciting the names of everyone whos ever wronged you. Thats Business 101.
The American Academy of Sleep Medicine recommends seven hours or more of sleep per day for an adult, which suggests that Trump has been wrecking his body and mind for decades now. Come to think of it, that does jive with a few things we’ve seen in the news …
Get a leg up on Donald Trump’s granddaughter and start learning Mandarin yourself with Rosetta Stone.
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automationgeeks · 7 years
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Blogging Income: Blogging Is Similar Thing
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Included is Recent Post widget, Instagram widget, About Author widget, furthermore Featured Post widget is styled differently which brings impact to your featured post.
Menu is fixed on p and it automatically changes to Mobile Menu on Mobile.
Find Gatorfoam, 'SelfAdhesive' Gatorfoam, 'Heat Activated' Gatorfoam and Gatorblanks! That users can remain engaged with your website, forex Board or Foam Board Adviser Topgan Forex After posts there're more posts about main post. While blogging as you said can spin up many different ways to cash in and sometimes in wyas you would never of thought of, great post, I particularly like So there's only one way to earn money lie.
Although it's easy to start a blog, hi John Paul, a no nonsense post and true to reality, Undoubtedly it's another thing making money from it.
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As you say it requires hard work to get to that level, as possible as Surely it's to make good money with blogs.
At some point get and extra income on my blog that my be great I am not counting on it, Therefore if I could.
Hi JohnVery nice post and some interesting points you make. Here is not reason I started blogging, Know what guys, I wouldn't mind earning money on my blogs. The question is. It's always about learning and sharing, why should anyone comment on your blog if you knew it all and Surely it's all written there already?
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I especially like you DON'T need to know it all.
All you need is a decent following or readers that trust you to start making a few sales.
Selling your favourite product or service on something you REALLY know is another great way to earn money fast with your blog. For example, you are losing it big time, if you should build it and have consider that they will come. Consequently, awesome post man, You nailed it all.) That's just fact! Did you hear of something like that before? I doubt if they will.
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Your all worked up man haha I agree, it gets old when people come to blogging and ask me how they can make good income with their blogs yet they have 2 posts on it.
Yes there're many ways to earn money online.
You should find what fits you. To you face long hard road of building awareness, without it. I'm sure you heard about this. I had a couple of favorites until I read last one Someone Is All Ready Doing It.
It's much easier to compete in a niche that's already proven to work well for others.
You just tell it like it's.
I learned hard way that competition is good, as someone who entered a very small niche market years ago. Usually, great post John Paul! So, I always like your blog but I reckon so that's a bit of your best work yet. And that's lamest reason for not starting a business that I've ever heard. Oftentimes many people are fooled that getting their blog to 1st position on page one will drive HUGE traffic to their blogs, the thing is so that's not tocase. To enjoy big traffic from Google you'd better be on page one for MANY keywords not only one. Hard work is what it will for sure take and love how you helped folks see the myths of blogging. For instance, another great post and keeping it real as usual which is one of my favorite things about you!!! For instance, striving to write fresh new content for one blog on a reg basis is hard enough, never mind making an attempt to do that with 5 -10 or more blogs.
Yea if blogging was as easy as putting up ads and making money so we should all be rich.
That is great that you are finding your voice.
STRONG community first, and active community on your blog way before you push any products. Both you and I know what a harsh reality awaits them. I see a lot more people deluded by prospect of easy and huge income from blogging or online ventures. Thats what we need, more people to dispell myths and shout bullshit where necessary! Keeping your day job as you grow your blog will let your grow your blog with less pressure to achieve goals. Therefore, if you quit your job and wanted to make a living off your blog. You see, indeed your intro caught me once again.
Especially last part that you have to stay commited, success never happens over night. Excellent post John. I think another MUST for bloggers is networking and crosspromotion. Really important Whether not is up to debate but I believe that networking with other bloggers and building a readership beyond your personal graph is really,, or they knew that was what they have been doing at totime. Most successful blogs were able to create bridge points across different social graphs. Quitting your for any longer being that you've started blogging ain't a wise thing to do. Of course thanks very much for sharing. You must be certain your blog is bringing nice income before taking that bold step! Your same statement about making little with a couple of products VS a lot with one product can hold true for blogs as well.
Here's why micro niche's are becoming more popular and there're so most of them. Having 1020 microsites with $ 100 earnings every is $ 1000- $ 2000 and is easier to achieve than attempting to invest in a single site to reach those goals, it's far easier to earn $ 100 per month from one site than So it's to earn $ 1000 a month from one site. What are some blogging Lies you have heard? Tags. Hey John, all valid points. I think That's a fact, it's good that someone is finally showing things way they really are. Yea, I believe if poeople look for to make an extra 100 $ a month so they can do that pretty fast, 6 months or so. Yes, that's right! For you, I'm almost sure I say do some basic learning of blogging and WordPress hereafter just get to work.
Whenever learning things I felt I needed before I started my blog, m a little compulsive haha, I'm quite sure I could of started sooner but I wanted to be ready, To be honest I spent about 2 months just reading blogs.
An online business can move in different directions we just have to seize those chances when they come and roll with it.
Congratulations on your Social Media Manger clients and being in a position to take them on. It's a decent lesson for us all. Everyone should be rich, if it was this easy. Great point John, and I also agree with Pawel. Needless to say, a number of people have notion that setting up a blog with a bunch of ads and driving some traffic to their site will make them rich. Notice, micro niche blogs are becomign harder to do well with sicne Google new focus on quality.
Starting a blog is pretty easy and cheap.
Add to that Guest Posting, basic Search Engine Optimisation, Article Marketing and those are just a few ways to drive traffic to your new blog at no cost.
Now with social media, you can build a nice following of readers at no cost. You can get setup with a free blog and a $ 10 domain and your up and running. Basically, I think And so it's critical for people to find their passion, most certainly if you care a lot about your subject somebody else will So work that it will take to give it your all is like a marriage, and society has already proven that you may lose more than you win. Known I think it's possible that gonna be successful while others would not. With that said, your post has added more substance to this mad blog world, it's an ideal place to start.
Blogs are awesome for so many reason, people need to start for those reasons not merely for money since money wont come for awhile.
What I will say is you have to like blogging, you have to like all things that go with blogging for you to be successful for ages long time.
While learning to do all that is what actually was hard, as soon as you get all that clicking gether therefore a blogging income will come pretty fast. I especially like last part. For example, that one shouldn't be afraid to 'reinvent' wheel and try out things that others have done before you. Fact, if your talking about a full income from blogging so your looking at hard work for AT LEAST a year before you will see anything good. This is where it starts getting interesting. Mom was right.
There're many way you can make a blogging income. You just need to find what fits you and your blog. Basically the past 5 months I was getting clients hiring me to be their Social Media Manager. Because of what I was doing on my blog and social proof, they reached out to me, I'm almost sure I never planned to offer this service and I never even had it on my blog. For example. I am learning and working to make second income online. Let me tell you something. Love to have life balance and build my own side business in niche marketing, I'm consumed by my busy job. John, so it's an outstanding about all tolies.
Plenty of people wanna profit blogging in this down economy.
There's no get rich quick and free lunch.
Indeed, it should take time and hard work. Not, hell they both continue to learn today. You think John Chow or Darren Rowse knew everything about blogging before they started, right? Every successful blogger started at the initial stage. Anyways, you have to go with what you know and learn rest as you go.on job training. The reality is you are better to put out 5 -10 smaller products around one big product that way if your goal is to make $ 5000 a month, it going to be easier to make $ 500 to $ 1000 per product so it will be to make full $ 5000 from one product.
Making money from blogging takes time and lots of effort, much more than what you usually give to your employer and it may take years how many burger places we have in town, I reckon about They do compete for customers but all offer different experiences. Blogging is identical thing. I know it's funny you mentioned to burger joint. Content that is discused is fine to write here and there sinc eno one has your view point as well as like you said, its not new to you but it can be to your readers. Blogging is just one from many points of earning money online Either another,, or way. Also, try other way, if not. Furthermore, for people who succeed, job well done to them. Accordingly the point is to be authentic, form a strong relationship with your readers, and eventually money will come.
Lets not forget that now we're all interconnected in a global scale, that allows us to reach even a broader audience.
Competition is good, and there're so many people to reach out to one blogger could never do it all.
There're many bloggers that earn a blogging income doing quite similar thing and So there're just fine, as far as blogging. YAY! What I was really doing best in order to say is that it's an ideal post. Furthermore, it's only repetitive to me. As a result, after that, I believe two things. Essentially, my content had been discussed before but I have alternative perspective and spin. My readers may not know about bloggers that are bigger than for ages being that I target different markets. You should take this seriously. Everyday, I'm pretty sure I worry that my content is repetitive.
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trendingnewsb · 6 years
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Donald Trump’s 6 Very Real, Very Insane Tips For A Good Life
Whatever you make of him politically, there’s no denying that Donald Trump has been alive for a long, long time. That is literally the least that we can give him. So it stands to reason that he must know something — that he must have some standards or guidelines by which a person can live their life. What a rich source of lifestyle advice he would be, if only he’d share this with us. If only he could find some time in his day to talk about himself.
Oh, it turns out he can.
6
Never Let Go Of Your Grudges
Much of Trump’s life can be defined by the grudges he’s held. Nobody thinks about Rosie O’Donnell that much under normal circumstances. “When people treat me unfairly, I don’t let them forget it,” he told reporters during his presidential campaign in 2016. It doesn’t seem to matter that he’s often wealthier or more powerful than the people he’s holding grudges against. That’s not the point. The point is the revenge itself. “If people screw you, screw them back 10 times as hard,” he explained in 2011.
Read Next
Why Do Zebras Have Stripes? Turns Out We Have No Idea
Media organizations he doesn’t like suddenly find themselves blacklisted from campaign rallies and press briefings. One failed business deal in Mexico, and later he’s ranting about how most Mexicans are “rapists” who “bring in drug and crime.” When he won the Republican presidential primary in 2016, he took almost no steps toward reconciliation with his former foes, instead dishing out insults left and right to people he no longer needed to attack. And when Puerto Rico was stricken by a hurricane this summer, Trump dedicated a lot more effort than “none at all, are you crazy?” to a running feud with the mayor of San Juan.
Joe Raedle/Getty ImagesHmm … theres a Puerto Rican I dont get along with. Better screw over three million of them so she knows it.
When NFL players began kneeling during the national anthem, Trump didn’t just criticize the players like most conservative commentators; he focused a lot of his rage on the NFL itself, calling it weak and out of control. Which doesn’t make a ton of sense … until you realize that Trump has long held a grudge against the league for refusing to let him buy a team in the 1980s. And when he tried to buy the Bills in 2014, only to get outbid, he reacted the only way he knows how: with shockingly petty tweets about how boring the league was.
And then there’s the massive grudge he holds toward his predecessor, Barack Obama. Trump spent quite a bit of Obama’s first term cheerleading the birther movement because of, well … let’s say his passion for birth certificate formatting quirks. For some reason, he then attended the 2011 White House Correspondents’ Association dinner. There, Obama lit into him. For a solid two and a half minutes, Trump could do nothing more than slowly rock back and forth, tight-lipped, while Obama dished out insult after insult. The guy’s probably never had to sit through anything like that before, and the psychic impact it’s made on him can’t be underestimated. If you’re ever in any doubt about the motivations behind Trump’s actions as president, know that he’ll always do the opposite of whatever Obama would, be that building a health plan, entering the Paris Accords, or reading.
5
Decorate Like A Dictator
Being wealthy is great. You should definitely be born into that if you can. But it’s not enough on it’s own. You have to let people know you’re wealthy, so they know you’re better than them, and to go fetch you food and pelts. You can do that by shouting at them all the time (and you should; never stop shouting), but when your voice gets tired, or they simply get too far away, you’ll need something else. You’ll need to let your surroundings do the talking for you.
Which brings us the Trumpian aesthetic. The author of a book called Dictator Style identified a number of key design traits featured in the residences of most famous dictators: overly ornate decorations, big swinging chandeliers, marble everything, mismatched French furniture, that kind of thing. Decor which shouted wealth but not class, none of it presented with any kind of design or stylistic intent. And when this author saw pictures of Trump’s penthouse in Manhattan, he saw the same thing there. Vanity Fair even ran a side by side comparison of one of Trump’s mansions and a palace used by Saddam Hussein, and the similarities were not hard to find.
Vanity FairIts the aesthetic equivalent of shouting.
But The Donald does have one decorating quirk all his own: the desire to hang up obviously fake things, like this cover of Time that was proudly framed in five of his golf courses.
Angel Valentin/The Washington PostIt seems this was during Times brief First day using MS Paint series of covers.
It is completely fake. There was no Time issue printed on the date on the cover, and Trump was never on the cover of Time during the year it was supposedly made. And that’s not the only fake thing at his golf courses. Consider this sign:
Rob Carr / Getty ImagesAnd it is our great honor to do a modest amount of research to check if this is true.
Yeah, that’s fake too. Historians who know the area have no idea what battle took place there, and have never heard it referred to as the River of Blood.
Years ago, Trump’s biographer was interviewing the man on one of his presumably marble-coated personal jets. Hanging on the wall of the plane was a painting, a Renoir.
Pierre-Auguste RenoirSpecifically, the most famous painting by Renoir, which apparently no one is keeping track of.
The biographer knew this painting, and knew that the original was in a gallery in Chicago. But Trump insisted that this was the original, and wouldn’t take no for an answer. He didn’t get rid of it after being called out, either. The thing showed up on the background of an interview with his wife after his campaign victory.
Fox NewsNice to add a splash of color to the uniformly gold room of horror.
4
Eat Fast Food And Nothing But Fast Food
Every celebrity lifestyle guide is at least 50 percent bizarre ultra-healthy diet tips — exotic grains, free-range kale, and egg white omelets all prepared by their aboriginal spirit-nutritionist, Klevin. Trump’s guide would have a similar section, but y’know, the total opposite.
First, let’s discuss his taste in steaks: well-done, with a side of ketchup, which the flavor experts among you will recognize as “not optimal.” We’re talking steaks so well-done they used to “rock when they hit the plate.” Now look, elitism is shitty, in food and all other things.
Trump SteaksCase in point.
Not everyone likes their steaks mooing, so if a guy likes to eat his steak well-done, that’s fine. It’s fine.
The ketchup is a little much, though.
The other staple of the Trump diet: the 2,400-calorie McDonald’s meals he’s been known to consume. That’s multiple Big Macs, Filet-O-Fishes, and chocolate shakes. Kentucky Fried Chicken, pizza, and Diet Coke reportedly make up the rest of his diet, and if that describes yours as well, congratulations on already thinking like a billionaire, I guess?
McDonandsThough maybe we should make time for the Friends dont let friends order Filet-O-Fish talk.
There’s an interesting explanation for this love for overcooked meats and salt: Trump is a germaphobe. Imagine how risky an acai root indigenous power bowl or something would look to him, all covered in fruits and grains and stuff that clearly once touched the earth, all prepared by someone with their hands. You could then see the appeal of mass-produced, pre-packaged foods. Not if you think it through at all, but if you took a cursory glance at those two options, and you were absolutely certain that the first thought that entered your head was always 100 percent factually indisputably correct for all time, forever and ever, amen, you might see where he’s coming form.
3
Be Born With Superior Genes
If you had to pick the perfect human, the one person whose intelligence, grace, and physical attractiveness surpassed all others, it’d be Donald Trump, right?
Well, there’s a reason for that. Trump has good genes, as he’ll tell you himself. It’s part of his so-called “racehorse theory of life,” which states that some people are bred to succeed, thanks to the genetic material provided by their parents. We’re not reaching here. He brings up his genes all the time. His health? Excellent, thanks for asking, and a result of his good genes. Same thing with his energy! Luck? He was born with it! He once even said he had a genetic gift for real estate development, which … scientists are not really rushing to confirm.
Pawel Marynowski/Wikimedia CommonsInvestors, either.
Anything positive that his family does is proof of the same genetic greatness. He regularly mentions his uncle who went to MIT. His granddaughter, who’s learning Mandarin, is more proof of Trumpian greatness. His kids have inherited the belief too. Here’s his son going on about his incredible genes, including his mother’s fictitious Olympic skiing background.
This kind of thinking is a little troubling, especially when we consider another famous political movement obsessed with superior genes. Yes, it’s usually hyperbolic to compare people you disagree with to Nazis. But not when they actually believe what Nazis believe. To the millions of Americans who might not have perfect genes, it is a little disturbing that their president said, “‘All men are created equal.’ Well, it’s not true.”
Remember this?
CNN
That would be the president doing an impression of a disabled reporter. It was a joke, but you know, not a “ha ha” one. And he now sets policy for disabled Americans!
2
Fill Everything With Asbestos
Asbestos was once used as a fireproofing agent, because it is extremely effective in that role. It also causes cancer, and is extremely effective at that as well. But for some reason (it’s probably money), Donald Trump has only ever really cared about that first bullet point. In his 1997 book, he suggested the drive to remove asbestos was led by the mafia, which controlled the asbestos removal business. In his view, asbestos was “100 percent safe, once applied,” which is true about undisturbed asbestos. But it does have a nasty habit of getting disturbed, which lowers the safety level a few (dozen) percentage points.
Mark Wilson/Getty ImagesOf course, that assumes you take safety advice from qualified scientists. Trump is having none of that.
Which is why for a few decades now, we’ve had regulations mandating asbestos use and treatment. This makes it a giant and expensive pain in the ass for anyone who owns buildings, e.g. Donald Trump. And seeing as Trump isn’t a huge fan of spending his own money and also has a casual relationship with facts, you can probably now deduce how he’s taken this position. On that note, he was once sued in the 1990s by Polish construction workers who claimed they were exposed to asbestos dust without protective equipment. But that’s probably a coincidence.
Anyways, whether it’s science, regulations, or angry Poles, nothing has ever changed The Donald’s mind. He still loves asbestos, and is even on the record suggesting that it could have prevented the World Trade Center towers from collapsing on 9/11. He was even on Twitter about it, because he’s been on Twitter about everything. Whatever the opposite of a grudge is, Donald Trump has it for asbestos. Which means that if you want to be a winner, you’re going to need a carcinogen of your own to love.
RealDonaldTrump/Twitter#science
1
Exercise And Sleep Are For Losers
On the subject of exercise, Donald Trump has a very hot take: don’t. He believes that a person is like a battery, with a fixed amount of energy, and that unnecessary exercise uses that energy up. He’s even mocked others for exercising. When he found out that one of his executives was training for a triathlon, he told the man he’d “die young because of this.”
This lines up pretty neatly with the exact opposite of what scientists say, which is that while exercise might temporarily reduce your energy, it strengthens your body, thus allowing it to be stronger and store more energy in the future. You already knew that because you went to gym class once or read anything about food ever. But who are you going to trust? Scientists and common sense? Or a winner with confusing ideas about batteries?
And then there’s the matter of sleep. For a long time, Trump has claimed that he gets very little of it, from 90 minutes to four hours a night. You should probably do the same. And what can you expect to do with all that extra time you’ll have, being exhausted and grumpy? Well, if you want to be like Trump, you’ll makes deals and plot revenge.
New York MagazineEverybody knows 3 a.m. is the ideal time to sit awake, sharpening a dagger and reciting the names of everyone whos ever wronged you. Thats Business 101.
The American Academy of Sleep Medicine recommends seven hours or more of sleep per day for an adult, which suggests that Trump has been wrecking his body and mind for decades now. Come to think of it, that does jive with a few things we’ve seen in the news …
Get a leg up on Donald Trump’s granddaughter and start learning Mandarin yourself with Rosetta Stone.
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