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galen  ·  3239 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: America's struggle  ·  

I'm very sorry to hear about your annoyance. I'll be sure to tell my black music teacher to just stop mentioning it when she's stopped by the police, who are--in spite of the lack of any justification--just making sure she owns her car, fucking monthly. I'll be sure to tell the 406 victims identified by an AP investigation as having lost 24,000 acres of land valued at tens of millions of dollars to just stop agitating for any kind of reparations now that I know a non-American is annoyed by it. I'll definitely tell the one in three American black men who are incarcerated at some point in their lifetime that it's all their fault, that it has nothing to do with institutional racism, with our history of--and the reemergence of--segregation, with the systematic disenfranchisement and theft of property weighing upon the black American population thanks to years of white antagonism. They can just shut up, because they're annoying the non-Americans.

E: The point is not that it's impossible for black Americans to succeed through "hard work and determination" and whatever other bullshit white people think goes into our success. That's an absurd strawman constructed primarily by racists. The point is that fighting to success is substantially more difficult and (N.B.) sometimes impossible for black Americans thanks to circumstances imposed by white Americans.

galen  ·  3282 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Bernie Sanders For President  ·  

Donated! God, if he won the nomination, it'd be the most significant political event of my lifetime. Bernie 2016!

galen  ·  3296 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Congressional Deal Reached on Fast-Track Authority for Obama on Trade Pact  ·  

Muted!

I shall wear it as a badge of honor. Quatrarius

galen  ·  3392 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Hubski! Happy New Year! I sang you Auld Lang Syne. Not well. Anyone feel like joining in?  ·  

I joined in! Finally got over the flu.

http://vocaroo.com/i/s0yj6Jr4D4LT

galen  ·  3414 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: School Segregation, the Continuing Tragedy of Ferguson  ·  
galen  ·  3526 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: The 123 Worst Musicians Of All Time  ·  

If you don't mind a lot of reading (or mind it less than Ira's voice), transcripts of every episode are available on thisamericanlife.org. Just FYI

galen  ·  3550 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: An ideological memoir with minimal decorations  ·  

1. That's fair, although a.) correlation =/= causation with regard to the increase in poverty, and b.) the basic income is a totally different kind of welfare, not just an expansion of existing welfare, so I'm not sure it's totally fair to extrapolate what will happen based on our past experience with welfare.

2. I'm not sure I understand, what does paternalistic coercion have to do with rejecting equality? For me the point of paternalistic coercion is to allow (through some at least semi-democratic system) people as a whole to encourage themselves and each other to do things they know are good for them but often can't muster the internal motivation to do. For more explanation, I'd suggest reading Sarah Conly's "Against Autonomy".

galen  ·  3555 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Bill Hicks - It's Just A Ride  ·  
galen  ·  3575 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Child believed to be cured of HIV shows signs of infenction again.  ·  

Damn, that's really disappointing. I guess the good news is that it's still progress - keeping a child virus-free for 2 years is awesome.