Comments on: Guess how many House Committee Chairs will be white men this year

By: kiptw

kiptw — Fri, 30 Nov 2012 03:01:00 +0000

A+ is the best offer I’ve had all day. Sold!

By: Dr. Chronobiologist

Dr. Chronobiologist — Fri, 30 Nov 2012 02:41:00 +0000

Fair enough, I left it as an exercise to the reader to explain the joke to themself and you get an A+.

But if anything requires explaining it’s what the inital commenter intended with his remark as I can interpret his words in multiple ways.

By: kiptw

kiptw — Fri, 30 Nov 2012 02:00:00 +0000

No reply button on the reply, so I reply to myself.

If phrased as “the percentage of white men who have walked on the Moon,” the answer is a very low percentage and requires a cumbersome footnote.

If phrased as “the percentage of those who have walked on the Moon who are white men,” the answer is 100%. No footnote.

Obviously, you pick the one that’s most impressive to you.

By: Dr. Chronobiologist

Dr. Chronobiologist — Fri, 30 Nov 2012 01:47:00 +0000

Everyone who has walked on the moon has been a white male. Not all white males have walked on the moon. As a white male I was not aware this required explanation.

By: kiptw

kiptw — Fri, 30 Nov 2012 01:25:00 +0000

If the cascade had started off phrased differently, the answer to each of the succeeding questions (presumably with similar phrasing) would have been “100%,” which seems more effective and requires less “well, but you see…” explaining after. Not your fault, of course.

By: Dr. Chronobiologist

Dr. Chronobiologist — Fri, 30 Nov 2012 00:25:00 +0000

But it’s an infinitely higher percentage than all other groups combined.

By: kiptw

kiptw — Thu, 29 Nov 2012 18:11:00 +0000

Clearly, someone wants a Congress that looks like 1954.

By: kiptw

kiptw — Thu, 29 Nov 2012 18:10:00 +0000

I think a rather low percentage of white men have walked on the Moon.

By: Antinous / Moderator

Antinous / Moderator — Thu, 29 Nov 2012 04:49:00 +0000

When you put it like that it…… well, it doesn’t actually make sense, but it has a sort of lopsided false symmetry.

By: Ashley Yakeley

Ashley Yakeley — Thu, 29 Nov 2012 04:09:00 +0000

It’s perfectly simple. Most powerful people are white men, therefore most white men are powerful people.

By: unclemike

unclemike — Thu, 29 Nov 2012 00:49:00 +0000

Thanks for the clarification. I was about to “Harrumph” myself to the fainting couch. ;-)

By: Benjamin Terry

Benjamin Terry — Thu, 29 Nov 2012 00:16:00 +0000

If anything, the internet has taught me that it is always your fault, based on your gender and skin color and the implications thereof What gender or skin color that is varies depending on the site, however.

By: Petzl

Petzl — Wed, 28 Nov 2012 22:45:00 +0000

And Rush Limbaugh wonders why we beat up white people on buses so much.

By: Antinous / Moderator

Antinous / Moderator — Wed, 28 Nov 2012 22:33:00 +0000

To be clear, you choose to have no leverage by eschewing every manifestation of it.

By: Antinous / Moderator

Antinous / Moderator — Wed, 28 Nov 2012 21:30:00 +0000

It’s called a “strategy”. Can you say “strategy”?

Edit – this wasn’t meant to be insulting to unclemike but to the millions of fucking idiots who fall for it.

By: Navin_Johnson

Navin_Johnson — Wed, 28 Nov 2012 19:58:00 +0000

“a black lunatic in Florida”

Fixed.

By: Brainspore

Brainspore — Wed, 28 Nov 2012 18:26:00 +0000

Quick, someone alert Bill O’Reilly that “traditional America” is still alive and well!

By: Sagodjur

Sagodjur — Wed, 28 Nov 2012 18:19:00 +0000

People are individuals. You can’t logically attribute characteristics to them based on perceived membership in arbitrarily defined groups.

Money is power. I have (relatively) no money. Political influence is power. I have no actual political influence. Organization is power. I’m introverted, generally asocial, and don’t have time for activism. Violence can be power. I’m a pacifist.

Social change requires asserting leverage to force those in power to comply with the wishes of those pushing for change. I have no leverage.

By: millie fink

millie fink — Wed, 28 Nov 2012 18:04:00 +0000

If you’re a white man (or a non-white man, or a white woman) and you can’t see how relatively empowered certain social categories automatically make you, there’s nothing I can do towards your edification in the space of a comment thread.

By: CLamb

CLamb — Wed, 28 Nov 2012 17:46:00 +0000

How wasteful. Inanimate chairs would be much cheaper and likely make for more comfortable seating also. Even a fine well-padded oaken chair would require much less maintenance than a white male.

By: Sagodjur

Sagodjur — Wed, 28 Nov 2012 17:17:00 +0000

I agree, but I’m not Spider-Man. Please elaborate on what actual power I have and how exactly you know that I personally have such power and the opportunity to use it.

By: millie fink

millie fink — Wed, 28 Nov 2012 17:10:00 +0000

With great power comes great responsibility, etc.

By: Sagodjur

Sagodjur — Wed, 28 Nov 2012 16:33:00 +0000

I didn’t know I was on the hook. Please elaborate.

By: millie fink

millie fink — Wed, 28 Nov 2012 16:29:00 +0000

Why? Cuz that would let you off the hook?

By: Sagodjur

Sagodjur — Wed, 28 Nov 2012 16:27:00 +0000

I think we can be more specific and note that it is old, wealthy white men.

By: millie fink

millie fink — Wed, 28 Nov 2012 15:57:00 +0000

Blame the Democrats. They replaced a black Republican in Florida with an old white guy. They also defeated a Republican woman of color in Utah with an old white guy.

They were both hard-right crazies. So blame the Tea Party, and its ilk.

By: millie fink

millie fink — Wed, 28 Nov 2012 15:51:00 +0000

Just like the song! But in a good way.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5smPcN8AoE

By: spacedoggy

spacedoggy — Wed, 28 Nov 2012 15:19:00 +0000

God damn 2 party system, I voted for Kodos!

By: chgoliz

chgoliz — Wed, 28 Nov 2012 14:56:00 +0000

Now don’t blame the Republicans. They’re still in the post-election debriefing mode, trying to determine what went wrong with their message. If only they could figure out how to convince people that they’ve learned what needs to be changed in how they conduct politics. The lessons are there, if only they could decode them.

By: Boundegar

Boundegar — Wed, 28 Nov 2012 14:46:00 +0000

Didn’t you get the memo? Democrats are to blame for every bad thing. Bush bailed out Wall Street in Obama’s 2008 Liberal Power Grab, for example.