I have a young friend who sent me a picture of a Swedish woman in 1985 hitting a neo-Nazi with her purse.
The subject line of the email? Susan, is this you?
No, but that can be arranged.
Thanks to Brenda for the heads up.
As JJ’s readers know, I was strongly opposed to Hillary Clinton’s candidacy for president. I won’t rehash the reasons because I don’t have the energy now to re-litigate the fiasco of 2016. I will say, though, that this political position cost me friendships, got me kicked out of progressive discussion groups, and pissed off long time friends and allies. What surprised me, though, in no small measure, was the vitriol that my opinion generated. I was called a misogynist and a lot worse. The anger just jumped out from the screen of my laptop and was acid in people’s voices. From strangers I kind of got it; but from friends I had known for years, I was gobsmacked at the anger and hatred.
I guess I was naive, but my opinion, based completely on simple facts and strategy I believed would win the election, was dismissed because I am a white guy. It didn’t matter that I was ultimately proved correct. It didn’t matter than many others felt the same way. What mattered in the eyes of many was that, because I’m a white male, I was automatically disqualified from deserving an opinion. Those who know me well KNOW that I’m not any of the things of which I was accused and that I often write about social justice, equality, and diversity in our society. In this particular case, though, simple genetics took away my right to free speech and free association.
Today, Frank Bruni wrote about the same subject. He spoke about how our college campuses and other organizations have become forums for the aggrieved where opinions are automatically qualified or disqualified by the sex, race, religious affiliation or social standing of the speaker. Now, before you start screaming at me, I (and Frank Bruni) certainly acknowledge the reality of racial and sexual privilege. There’s no question that it exists and is pervasive in many cultures including ours. However, that fact doesn’t automatically disqualify the opinions of those people because of those unchangeables. As Bruni put it, often people’s response is, “Speaking as an X, I am offended that you claim B.” That’s unfair, especially when you know the person speaking.
Can the “privileged” KNOW the plight of the oppressed by personal experience? Certainly not, especially without sincere effort to learn about that plight. However, does a person’s genetics, ethnic origin, education and place of residence permanently disqualify that person from deserving an opinion? Of course not, and that’s the point, isn’t it? Mutual respect of others is the key to exchanging opinions. We are endangering that exchange by this growing gap that we profess to be closing. Sometimes we have to take off the colored glasses that we all wear to actually communicate with one another. And, we have to avoid personal character assassination, especially over who we support politically, and more especially of those we know well but with whom we have a disagreement.
There are people with whom I agree on 99.9% of issues. But I no longer talk with, or associate with them because of that .1% disagreement. That’s just stupid, and doesn’t help anyone.
Have a look at these marchers from their Unite the Right protest last night in Charlottesville, Virginia:
Am I the only one who finds it mildly amusing that hundreds of White Nationalists are marching carrying Tiki torches made in Asia and sold by gigantic big box stores that destroy American middle class jobs?
#tikituffguys
Virginia is holding a civil war this morning? White Nationalist are fighting over the removal of a Robert E Lee statue. Did we hear from the President? The Vice President? The Attorney General?
Nope.
The only person in the White House we have heard from so far this morning is the FLOTUS.
Thank you, Melania.
The publishers of The Guardian asked professional writers how they think Trump would rewrite the words on the Statue of Liberty since Stephen Miller informed us those words weren’t always there.
Thanks to Craig for the heads up.
Trump hit a new milestone yesterday, which is still climbing at a rapid pace – he’s now spent 50 days on vacation at his golf resorts in 202 days of infesting the White House. That’s 25% of his time playing golf and hanging out with sycophants. Let’s compare the vacation records of recent presidents:
Barack Obama – 217 vacation days – 7%
George W. Bush – 553 vacation days – 19%
So – The Tweeter in Chief who now holds the record for percent of time on vacation since they started keeping track relentlessly hounded President Obama about golf and vacations while lying that he would never have time for golf. He’s now on record pace as the laziest president in US history as well as the biggest liar.
For the record, the next closest to Trump for vacation time was FDR at 22%. Of course, that was 7 decades ago when travel wasn’t so easy.