you got me

 So, two days after this post about my intolerance of right-wingers, this comes up in my feed:

Oh, crap. 

Well, I'll try.

somebody else is going to have to do that

 Earlier this morning, I saw this video by journalist Michelle Pollino. She had been unable to find work as a journalist in LA, and went to work for a right-wing outlet. In the interview, she mentioned that she had a female partner, and the interviewer said that he had a gay child.

In the video, she argues that people in what she calls "left wing" media* were also biased (for example, they apparently didn't want to hear facts that contradicted their world view), and that we should be open to the views of people with whom we disagree.

Except the people with whom I disagree want to eliminate people like her; refuse to admit they have valid lives; presume that they are grooming children to take up their lifestyle. They refuse to admit the humanity of some people, sometimes going so far as to call for their elimination -- or killing them outright.

Somebody else is going to have to be fair to these people with whom I so vehemently disagree. I don't have the stomach for it.

---

*I'm led to believe it's NPR. I will agree their editorial opinion leans left (it's certainly not "left wing" enough for me!); their reporting, however, is fact-based.

what tiktok thinks of me

 If you go by the stuff that comes up in my "For You" page, TikTok apparently thinks I'm a lesbian socialist.

They may be right.

i'm sorry it's that complicated

 This came up in one of my feeds:

...The field that grew out of this posture argued that there was nothing simple or straightforward about the way we consume a text. It’s always a negotiation, always more complicated than anyone on the outside might assume.

The problem, then, is that some people don’t want things to be complicated. They don’t want to hear people talk about why they like things, because if they listen long enough, it will challenge neat understanding of things that are “good” and “bad” — especially when it comes to children, or teens, or women. Those groups of people aren’t often trusted to know themselves well enough to articulate why something matters. Or, when they do, we simply don’t believe them.

I'm resisting the urge here to be sarcastic about the need to listen to children, teens, and women, because, as a male white Anglo-Saxon (used to be) Protestant, people too often take me seriously when I sarcastically downplay the rights of anybody who's not white, Anglo-Saxon, and male. (I'm an out-of-the-closet atheist, so people generally know when I'm getting ironic about religious idiots [not all religious people are idiots]).

I have family members who want to get back to what they consider the good old days, when there were only two sexes, and when everybody knew their place. Well, I'm sorry the world is more complicated than you think it is. I'm sorry that what you thought was promised to you because of accidents of birth is not materializing. I'm sorry that people who once hid in the shadows, who once ate only your parents' castoffs, are now demanding rights.

The world has changed. Catch up, or be lost. If you try to hold on to the corpse of the dead past, you will be defiled.

I don't know the original citation of the quote; I got it here.

bringing back the justice jersey

 Years ago, I had this jersey made up. The template is no longer available.

About 18 months ago, I retired it, out of fear that riding with it might put fellow riders at risk.

I'm bringing it back, although I'm only going to wear it on solo rides.

In addition to voting and financial donations, we need to remind the racists, misogynists, xenophobes, and the rest of the kakistocracy that we will always resist them.

constitutional originalism

 I make no secret of, or apology for, my hatred of Antonin Scalia and other constitutional originalists.

The original Constitution of the United States legalized the ownership and sale of people by others. Originalists obviously support slavery.

facebook, and nothing is final

 In March, I went off Facebook.

But I recently heard from a person who had been very helpful to me. She wanted to hear from me, and the only way to contact her (and her preferred way) is through Facebook Messenger. So that's how I messaged her.

Also, I'm web editor for the Princeton Freewheelers. Some of our members use Facebook as a source of news about the club. My absence may be affecting club members and access to information.

And friends post useful information there. I may be isolating myself.

I've not heard that Facebook is doing any better on the misinformation issue; in fact, there are new lawsuits. More than one, apparently.

I've got to think more about this.

I might wear this shirt

 I'm not a t-shirt kind of guy, but I'd probably wear one that said,

"Your toxic freedom is destroying the world your children will inherit."

i still think they're wrong, but...

 I got to thinking this morning about the food pyramid, and how we got bamboozled by the sugar-and-grain folks a couple of decades ago, into thinking that dietary fat was the main cause of overweight and obesity. It turns out that sugar and grain are much more at fault than fat.

So if we got lied to about that, I can see why folks might have thought that we were lied to about COVID-19 and the vaccine. The science for the vaccine was better, and more easily available (and more of us know how to read it), but if you're been lied to once, you're more likely to be suspicious of stuff coming from the same source, especially if you've been otherwise fed an information diet heavy in conspiracies and suspicion.

As with so many other things, I need to think about that.

hard for me to read

 It's in English, and, except for proper names, I don't think there have been any words in it I didn't recognize, but this is the hardest book for me to read that I've seen in a long time.

It's a little about the universe, and a lot about white male privilege and protections, barriers in science to those who are NOT white and male (and how this affects the science they do), justice and injustice, sexism and sexual assault. It's hard for me to read because it shows, yet again, how deeply rooted those protections and privileges are, and the damage that we've done, and the damage that's been done for us, usually without our ever knowing about it.

I read for a bit every day. Sometimes I can only read for about ten minutes; yesterday I managed about 35.

not a political difference

I can have a political difference with a libertarian. We disagree on the proper extent of government involvement. That's a political difference.

I can't have a political difference with most conservatives. They want to deny dignity, remove protections, and (in some cases) end the lives of people with whom they disagree. This is not a political distinction; it is an ethical one. What is the point of a discussion with someone who is so ethically bankrupt?

political and cultural rants

 I've been thinking too much, and getting increasingly angry. There are a few more political rants coming.

blm

If your immediate response to "black lives matter" is "blue lives matter", do you really mean to say that blue lives are the opposite of black lives? That the only thing protecting you from being drowned in a black sea is that thin blue line?

Actually, if that's your first response, then I think it's precisely what you do mean.

more evidence of my radicalization

 OK, I've been thinking about this recently: As a civilization, we've decided that our finance/property system will be the thing on which we ground everything else; individual rights, customs, healthcare, even the most basic needs like food, shelter, and clothing will be subject to it. We will let people die to maintain the reliability of the finance/property system.

But what if we decided that life and health were the things on which we would ground everything else, and finance and property would only be allowed to be collected after everyone's needs were met? So that nobody got to be rich until everybody had, at least, enough?

And don't give me that crap about "everybody would abuse the system". That's balderdash, and you know it. Yes, there will be some that abuse the system; my wife and I have both worked in the welfare system, and we've met them. But would you? And do you really think that you're that much better than everybody else?

Or, to look at that another way: Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, Warren Buffet, Mark Zuckerberg - these guys never have to work another day. But they continue. Either they are really special (in which case we should tax them like they are really special), or that argument about "nobody would work if they didn't have to" is a canard.

In other news: I hear I'm supposed to get more conservative as I get older. That is manifestly not happening. WTF?

derogatory term i'd like to see come back into regular use

 We need to renew the lease on the term "Robber Baron".

Vanderbilt, Musk, Gould, Morgan, Zuckerberg... there's not enough difference to make any distinction.

more of my racism

 I've been listening daily to Make Me Smart with Kai & Molly. They have a feature where listeners can leave a voice message in answer to the question, "What's something you thought you knew, but later found out you were wrong about?"

I called in with this one last week

This is Jim from Central Jersey. I'm a cisgendered white male, about to retire in a couple months, and one thing I thought I knew was how far down my racism and misogyny went, and I thought I had a handle on it. But the Youtube algorithm decided to send me some Tiktoks and such about feminism and antiracism, and holy cow. Stuff I thought was inconsequential, or polite, I now see how intrusive and thoughtless I was. And I can't even always go and apologize; it's not fair to use my white-guy protections to make myself feel better, at the risk of dragging up and replaying misery for someone else. The best I can do is live with my past, and do better. Thanks for making me smart.

They didn't use it.

covid antivaxxers now touting horse de-wormer

 

So now some COVID-19 antivaxxers have decided that Ivermectin, a medication used for de-worming horses, is a better deal for prevention of the illness than the standard vaccines; you can read discussion here.

Oh, come on. 

This drug has few tests on humans, and you still think it's going to be safer than the vaccines that have been tested on humans? Vaccines that are close to full approval?

Bosh, antivaxxers. Admit it. The only reason that you refuse to take the regular vaccines, is that you were told to take them by libtards.

no bottom to my racism

 Early in the pandemic, I had an experience that brought home to me how deeply I harbor thoughtless misogyny. I'm no stranger to racism, either, as I was reminded after seeing this video:

There have been a number of responses, many disagreeing with Mr Neely and defending Heinrich Schenker. But for me, the fact that I accepted, without thought, that the default, correct "music theory" was that of German composers of the 18th century, was another sign that, no matter how hard I try to eliminate racism from my life, there are always more layers.

And are we really to say that Mozart's harmonies are more perfect than, say Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn's, or Stevie Wonder's? 

The most important American musical innovations come from the blending of all sorts and sources of music here. Dvorak, for one, according to Wikipedia, "supported the concept that African-American and Native American music should be used as a foundation for the growth of American music. He felt that through the music of Native Americans and African-Americans, Americans would find their own national style of music." So why have, apparently, no American concert composers since Gershwin even made reference to that? Why is not American symphonic music full of blues and hip hop?

"defund the police" is terrifying

 "Defund the police" is too scary to many of us.

De-militarize the police, instead.

conservatives in disarray

 Headline from US News & World Report:

"Trump's GOP Drives Out Reagan Republicans".

Hrmph.