It doesn't matter if you're black or white

[dbcooper]

Google banned Gab from the Play Store.

https://www.city-journal.org/html/first ... 15401.html

[Jennifer]

The dichotomy between "Christopher Cantwell, the Captain Badass of the Vice documentary" and "Christopher Cantwell, the sobbing Nazi a day or two later" is a freakin' textbook-perfect example of how these people can't see any flaws in themselves, yet magnify any flaws in their opponents.

CAPTAIN BADASS CANTWELL: "I’m not even saying we’re nonviolent .... We’re not ‘nonviolent.’ We’ll fuckin’ kill these people if we have to."

SOBBING NAZI CANTWELL: ""I'm watching CNN talk about this as a violent, white nationalist protest. We are trying to make this peaceful. We are trying to be law-abiding. And our enemies will not stop. What options do we have left?"

[Highway]

I think that magnification of flaws was evident from that asswipe's description of Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, and Tamir Rice as "acting like savages" and therefore deserving of being killed early on in the Vice video. It's totally a "We were just innocently swinging our fists here, and people get mad at us when other people's noses get in the way! It's not fair!"

[Jennifer]

I think that magnification of flaws was evident from that asswipe's description of Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, and Tamir Rice as "acting like savages" and therefore deserving of being killed early on in the Vice video. It's totally a "We were just innocently swinging our fists here, and people get mad at us when other people's noses get in the way! It's not fair!"

Definitely. But that one self-evidently contradictory (well, self-evident to all except Cantwell and his fellow travelers) is just such a facepalmingly perfect example of what I was saying to Fyodor yesterday-- the closet you can get to understanding these people i to realize "They seriously believe 'I can say or do whatever I want and that's fine, but ANYBODY who annoys me -- even to tell me 'Knock it off, asshole' -- is brutally victimizing me'." Not true "solipsism" in the sense of believing "I am the only real person here; everyone else is just an illusion," but solipsism's first cousin -- "My rights, and desires, are the only ones that matter; anyone else's are oppressing me." (And, thus, why they blame a nefarious conspiracy of Jews for everything they dislike -- it's not that black Americans, or women, or similary shat-upon groups had legit reasons to be genuinely tired of the way they/we were treated by society; it's that those dastardly Jews maliciously used 'em as a cudgel to make life suck for white American men.)

[fyodor]

The dichotomy between "Christopher Cantwell, the Captain Badass of the Vice documentary" and "Christopher Cantwell, the sobbing Nazi a day or two later" is a freakin' textbook-perfect example of how these people can't see any flaws in themselves, yet magnify any flaws in their opponents.

CAPTAIN BADASS CANTWELL: "I’m not even saying we’re nonviolent .... We’re not ‘nonviolent.’ We’ll fuckin’ kill these people if we have to."

SOBBING NAZI CANTWELL: ""I'm watching CNN talk about this as a violent, white nationalist protest. We are trying to make this peaceful. We are trying to be law-abiding. And our enemies will not stop. What options do we have left?"

It's all PR, and playing the victim well can pay off. Well, and so does playing the all-powerful tough guy.... The tricks a good director can pull off!!

[Jennifer]

The dichotomy between "Christopher Cantwell, the Captain Badass of the Vice documentary" and "Christopher Cantwell, the sobbing Nazi a day or two later" is a freakin' textbook-perfect example of how these people can't see any flaws in themselves, yet magnify any flaws in their opponents.

CAPTAIN BADASS CANTWELL: "I’m not even saying we’re nonviolent .... We’re not ‘nonviolent.’ We’ll fuckin’ kill these people if we have to."

SOBBING NAZI CANTWELL: ""I'm watching CNN talk about this as a violent, white nationalist protest. We are trying to make this peaceful. We are trying to be law-abiding. And our enemies will not stop. What options do we have left?"

It's all PR, and playing the victim well can pay off. Well, and so does playing the all-powerful tough guy.... The tricks a good director can pull off!!

Sure, but the thing is, I don't think he's simply playing the victim; I think he sincerely believes he is the victim. The idea that his "enemies" might have legitimate, rational reasons to feel the way they do about him does not compute. Nor does the idea that maybe, just maybe, he might've been the instigator in at least some of his "enemies" dislike of him.

Some time ago I posted a link to a university's online archive of German totalitarian propaganda, both Nazi and East German Communist -- the thing about the Nazi stuff is that, of course, at no point do they say "Yeah, we're evil bigoted bastards hurting Jews for no good reason"; the gist of the Nazi argument is that they're acting in self-defense. The Jews started it, the Jews are attacking us, we are peaceful people who only want to live our lives but the Jews won't allow this.

[fyodor]

The dichotomy between "Christopher Cantwell, the Captain Badass of the Vice documentary" and "Christopher Cantwell, the sobbing Nazi a day or two later" is a freakin' textbook-perfect example of how these people can't see any flaws in themselves, yet magnify any flaws in their opponents.

CAPTAIN BADASS CANTWELL: "I’m not even saying we’re nonviolent .... We’re not ‘nonviolent.’ We’ll fuckin’ kill these people if we have to."

SOBBING NAZI CANTWELL: ""I'm watching CNN talk about this as a violent, white nationalist protest. We are trying to make this peaceful. We are trying to be law-abiding. And our enemies will not stop. What options do we have left?"

It's all PR, and playing the victim well can pay off. Well, and so does playing the all-powerful tough guy.... The tricks a good director can pull off!!

Sure, but the thing is, I don't think he's simply playing the victim; I think he sincerely believes he is the victim. [/i].

No doubt. I've long said that the best salesman is the one who sells himself. An actor who knows he's an actor doesn't have the cognitive dissonance of having to explain why he acts the way he does, in a play or whatever. And actually, I doubt there's a person alive who doesn't exhibit some sort of inconsistency in his ideas or behavior that's only visible to others. Hardly surprising that the cray folk take it to an extreme. i guess my point is that it's the PR payoff that motivates both behaviors. The "director" is the part of the brain that actually can make almost anyone oblivious to their own inconsistencies to one degree or another. And to their need to be playing these "roles", both for themselves and others. We all do it and we all need some sort of PR. Most of us don't act it out on a national stage, or to such ridiculous ends and extremes. I'd also say it's really worse and more important that these behaviors might possibly be effective than that the behavor believes in his own behavior, contradictions notwithstanding. I think the latter is actually fairly par for the course. But to be clear, I'm not taking issue at all with your pointing out the contradiction. I was only making light of it while also maybe putting it in what I think is a useful perspective, FWIW. Naturally we're an echo chamber on the overall point, but I sure don't mind you or anyone highlighting all ridiculous and stupid aspects of those... THAT.

[nicole]

In case anyone didn't get to enjoy this shitshow last night

[dhex]

i feel like i joined twitter at the best possible time. it is tremendously, like...reinforcing o' the stereotypes? it's the opposite of humanism.

[dbcooper]

I mostly follow goofs who post things like pictures of the Dice Man. Outrage twitter is fun, but only in small doses.

[dhex]

our country's id is basically "nuh uhhh!" on a feedback loop.

more ketamine or less? i am not sure and john lily is dead and dolphins are rapists and we are all alone.

[nicole]

Well, this is definitely not going to make things worse: http://foreignpolicy.com/2017/10/06/the ... xtremists/

ETA:

As white supremacists prepared to descend on Charlottesville, Virginia, in August, the FBI warned about a new movement that was violent, growing, and racially motivated. Only it wasn’t white supremacists; it was “black identity extremists.”

Amid a rancorous debate over whether the Trump administration has downplayed the threat posed by white supremacist groups, the FBI’s counterterrorism division has declared that black identity extremists pose a growing threat of premeditated violence against law enforcement.

“The FBI assesses it is very likely Black Identity Extremist (BIE) perceptions of police brutality against African Americans spurred an increase in premeditated, retaliatory lethal violence against law enforcement and will very likely serve as justification for such violence,” reads the report, marked for official use only and obtained by Foreign Policy.

[nicole]

[Jennifer]

Huh, so the "like and share this post if you're a good person who cares about important things!" trend has metastasized out of Facebook and into Twitter. Nice.

[Andrew]

People like her and guys from the alt right were made for each other.

[Warren]

LOL. So, you're not really virtuous unless you virtue signal in the officially recognized manner.

[Pham Nuwen]

LOL. So, you're not really virtuous unless you virtue signal in the officially recognized manner.

Wasn't that always the idea?

[Warren]

LOL. So, you're not really virtuous unless you virtue signal in the officially recognized manner.

Wasn't that always the idea?

Now with more meta.

[nicole]

Philadelphia city council thinks it should be illegal to put up Plexiglas at a c-store counter.

It's called the 'Stop and Go' bill and is being offered by City Councilwoman Cindy Bass.

"Right now, the Plexiglas has to come down," she said.

She says she wants to put some controls on these small stores that, from her point of view, sell booze, very little food and are a source of trouble for her district.

“We want to make sure that there isn't this sort of indignity, in my opinion, to serving food through a Plexiglas only in certain neighborhoods,” Councilwoman Bass said.

http://www.fox29.com/news/politics/cont ... -committee

[JasonL]

That, right there, is why I hate liberals.

[Jennifer]

How the fuck can such a thing even be LEGAL? I know, there is no explicit constitutional right to have a window of any type, whether made of ordinary or bulletproof glass, but ... WTF? Wouldn't there be some law against, I dunno, singling out one type of business? How would this be any different from forbidding a business from using locks (which could make people think "What, you don't trust us? You think we're thieves?")

[nicole]

Big interactive story today in the NYT about how "Rich white boys stay rich. Black boys don't."

Looking at the first static charts, the side-by-side comparing black/white boys and black/white girls...is it just me or does it seem like the main takeaway is more like "white men do really well" rather than "there's a racial gap among men but not among women"? Like...the women are doing slightly better than the black men, but not that much. It's the white men who are the outliers.

[Jennifer]

The former Rachel Dolezal, now Nkechi Diallo, is facing felony theft/ welfare fraud charges for collecting food stamps while claiming a monthly income of only $500 in child support -- without mentioning the $84,000 she made in two years, between sales of her book, sales of her art, and speaking engagements.

http://www.khq.com/story/38272892/first ... fare-fraud

[Aresen]

The former Rachel Dolezal, now Nkechi Diallo, is facing felony theft/ welfare fraud charges for collecting food stamps while claiming a monthly income of only $500 in child support -- without mentioning the $84,000 she made in two years, between sales of her book, sales of her art, and speaking engagements.

http://www.khq.com/story/38272892/first ... fare-fraud

I am sure the DSM-5 has a name for this, but I'll go with 'con artist.'

[Jennifer]

The former Rachel Dolezal, now Nkechi Diallo, is facing felony theft/ welfare fraud charges for collecting food stamps while claiming a monthly income of only $500 in child support -- without mentioning the $84,000 she made in two years, between sales of her book, sales of her art, and speaking engagements.

http://www.khq.com/story/38272892/first ... fare-fraud

I am sure the DSM-5 has a name for this, but I'll go with 'con artist.'

Incompetent con artist.

I have this -- um, friend -- who worked for tips in college and did not necessarily report every last dollar on her taxes. But she did make sure to claim enough to cover actual trackable expenses plus whatever she put in the fucking bank. She never tried claiming any welfare benefits, either.