#fuck confederate sympathizers

[dontmean2bepoliticalbut]

[becomethebooks]

On season 6 of Gilmore Girls and I'm so sick of Rory I love seeing her miserable, stupid bitch

[navree]

1883 has this recurring thing of “guys don’t you feel bad that the confederate main character has ptsd” and the thing is, no i do not. i think if any confederates had ptsd then they got off easy because my ideal scenario would have been that all confederates be dead. because they were confederates.

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

South Carolina will close state offices on Tuesday to mark Confederate Memorial Day.

The observation of the holiday is every year on May 10. South Carolina is among a handful of states in the South with such an official holiday. State offices in Alabama and Mississippi closed down for their Confederate Memorial Days late last month.

South Carolina chose May 10 because it is the day when Confederate Gen. Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson died in 1863 after he was wounded by his own troops and the day Union soldiers captured fleeing Confederate President Jefferson Davis in Georgia in 1865.

A bill that would allow state employees to take the Juneteenth holiday or any other day instead of Confederate Memorial Day unanimously passed the South Carolina Senate in March but is stuck in a House committee and will likely die when the session ends Thursday.

The bill began as a proposal to add the Juneteenth celebration on June 19 as a new state holiday. But instead of adding a 14th holiday, the bill would create a holiday that state employees could take any time they want.

It wasn’t immediately clear from the language of the bill whether state officers would have remained closed on Confederate Memorial Day like they do currently or of they could end up closed on Juneteenth.

The General Assembly will meet as normal on Tuesday.

Former Congressman and current Democratic candidate for Governor, Joe Cunningham, renewed his call for an end to the state holiday known as Confederate Memorial Day and replace it with Election Day.

Cunningham said he first proposed removing Confederate Memorial Day in 2021, shortly after launching his gubernatorial campaign.

"This is another example of how our state continues to live in the past. It’s embarrassing. When I’m governor, we’re going to end Confederate Memorial Day and make Election Day a state holiday instead."

The state of South Carolina has officially observed Confederate Memorial Day since 2000, when the legislature added it to the state calendar as a compromise after South Carolina became the last state in the country to observe Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, according to Cunningham's release on Tuesday.

Cunningham said he would fight to end the observance of Confederate Memorial Day, replacing it as a state holiday with Election Day.

[miss-spookhead]

the gator tillman tag here is so funny like why tf are you guys so surprised that he’s written as a confederate sympathizer and not an uwu loserboy angel with daddy issues. hes a fucking cop in rural minnesota.

[satansapostle6]

Kids | Rodrick Heffley

Spotify Playlist Link

Rodrick Heffley becomes obsessed when he finally meets his thirty-five year old band mate, Bill Walter’s, younger sister.

Warnings: Mature themes/language. Drug use. Sexual content. Violence.

“Heartbeat”

“The Angel From My Nightmare”

There was a war going on in Rodrick Heffley’s head. An even bigger one than usual. He nearly drank maple syrup at breakfast that Friday morning.

“Are you okay, Rodrick?” Greg asked him. “You seem even more stupid than usual. Which is saying something.”

“Shut up, you little butt muncher!” he snapped, throwing a grape at his younger brother.

“Rodrick, sweetie, be nice,” Susan Heffley frowned as she sat down for breakfast with the boys, feeding Manny. “But Greg’s right, you seem irritable. Is there something on your mind?”

“No, Mom,” he huffed impatiently.

“Is it that girl you were seeing? Bill’s sister?” his mother assumed.

“No, Mom! It’s nothing,” Rodrick insisted.

The truth was, he hadn’t spoken to, or even looked in the same direction of, Sara for weeks.

“She didn’t try to go too fast with you, did she?” Susan asked in a panic she had created herself.

“Mom!” Rodrick exclaimed, appalled.

“Susan…”

Frank wasn’t of much help. And neither was Greg, who just laughed.

“You know, I knew girls like her in high school. Developed too early, started making mistakes with boys…” the woman trailed off, adjusting her glasses as she shuddered at the thought.

“Ugh, why is everyone being so weird?!” Rodrick groaned, earning looks from everyone at the table.

He got up, completely abandoning the food despite his hunger.

“I’m out of here!” he announced dramatically as his father just widened his eyes, returning to that morning’s paper.

Rodrick angrily grabbed his backpack, which was practically empty, running out to the van as he sped off to school, so distracted he nearly hit a parked car on the way out of their neighborhood.

“Fuck!” Rodrick yelled within the safety of his van as he arrived at the high school. “I’m starving,” he realized.

Meanwhile, Sara wasn’t having a great start to her day, either.

“Sara Walter.”

Sara reluctantly stood up in her home room class, walking up to her ancient history teacher’s desk as she waited for him to hand her her test back.

“Hmm. Sara Walter… You wouldn’t happen to be related to a student I had a while back, would you?” Mr. Emerson thought aloud. “Bill Walter?”

“Yes. I am,” she crossed her arms, not in the mood for conversation, let alone polite conversation.

“Huh. I can certainly see the resemblance,” the man chuckled at his own joke, gesturing to her dark makeup and shaggy blonde hair through laughter. “Bill Walter. Wow. What a throwback… Did he ever mention me?”

“Yes,” she responded.

“Oh really? What did he have to say?” the man asked her with a burning curiosity.

“That you’re a Confederate sympathizer, and you smell like an onion farted,” Sara recalled perfectly. “May I have my text back, please?”

She watched as his face fell.

“Yes, I suppose, here it is,” Mr. Emerson said in embarrassment.

She grabbed the test, slumping back down in her seat as she sighed at the C-. Not her finest work, but certainly not her worst, either.

“Girl, are you okay?” Lauren Do asked quietly. “You seem like you hate this class more than usual.”

“I’m fine,” she sighed. “I finally have a Friday off, but my mom wants me to take Connor to a birthday party, at the roller rink.”

“Oh. I’ll come with you,” the girl volunteered. “We can stand off to the side and people-watch.”

“Thanks,” Sara nodded appreciatively, “That sounds like about all I can handle. Not like I have too many plans as of late, anyway.”

“Whatever happened to you and Rodrick?” Lauren asked her. “You two looked so hot together.”

“Rodrick’s… nothing,” Sara concluded coldly.

“Ew, what a dumbass,” her best friend said in disgust.

“Tell him, not me.”

Later that day, at lunch, Sara and Lauren sat out in the courtyard together, as Sara decided to spend her time drawing her friend as a pinup. It was entertaining, and it took her mind off the gaping void.

Sara sat on the cement with her knees up to her chest, drawing frustratedly as she occasionally looked around her at the world, hating it every time. She eventually looked up, facing the exit out of the school, as three all-too-familiar guys came walking out. She looked down quickly, returning to her drawing as she spotted Rodrick. Luckily, they hadn’t made eye contact.

But, unfortunately, it seemed Lauren and Sara were so far off to the side, they hadn’t noticed either of them as they walked past, having a loud conversation amongst themselves.

“You should ask Vicky to the prom,” Ben laughed as he teased Chris.

“No way. I’m not tying myself down to anyone. Especially not Vicky,” Chris Merkle scoffed.

Ben nodded approvingly. “Girlfriends are overrated as fuck, dude. Why have one girl sometimes, when you can have all the girls, all the time?”

“Hell yeah, man,” Rodrick ad-libbed emptily.

Chris just shook his head at him, amused by his stupidity. Sara did the same thing, but for another reason. She felt she couldn’t have expected anything else; why would Rodrick Heffley, of all people, have the balls to be the contrarian in a group of teenage boys convinced that monogamy was the stupidest human invention?

*****

Later that day, Rodrick and the other boys picked up their band mate to hang out at the dirty part of the park, smoking different things together where no one else liked to go.

“Yo, Rod,” Bill said, coughing on the joint he was sharing with Chris.

Rodrick turned to look at him, enjoying a cigarette by himself.

“Wanna go to the store?” he asked. “I want some chips.”

“Yeah,” Rodrick nodded, as both of them stood.

“Get me an Arizona!” Ben called.

“Me too!” Chris said as he took the joint. “And barbecue chips!”

Rodrick and Bill walked off towards the grocery store down the street.

“Want some?” Rodrick asked, offering him the cigarette.

“Yeah. Thanks,” Bill nodded, taking a quick drag before handing it back. “Yo. What’s going on with you and my sister?” he asked suddenly.

Rodrick winced at the topic, looking at him awkwardly. “Nothing.”

“Nah, not nothing,” Bill insisted, wheezing through his cotton mouth, “You and Sara haven’t talked in like forever. Both of you avoid each other when she takes me home from practice, and you change the topic when I bring her up.”

He just stared at his older band mate, not used to hearing him think so coherently.

“Dude, I’m not an idiot,” Bill said as Rodrick tried not to laugh at the irony. “I notice things.”

But he still didn’t say anything. He couldn’t think of anything.

“Look, not to be that guy,” he said readily, “But I thought you and my sister were crazy about each other. The chemistry was, like, unreal. Did the date go bad? Did one of you do something?”

“No, no,” Rodrick said automatically, feeling bad, “Nothing like that…”

“Then, what happened?” Bill questioned. “Why won’t you talk to Sara? I thought you liked her.”

“I do,” Rodrick promised, seeing the way this genuinely bothered Bill, “I do like her.”

“Then why the cold shoulder?” Bill asked. “Is it you, is it her, is it both of you…? I can’t even tell.”

“It—It’s me,” Rodrick Heffley sighed.

“Why?” Bill asked him.

“I don’t know, I just… Me? A girlfriend?” Rodrick thought, “It just doesn’t sound right.”

“Why not, man? You’re a catch!” his friend encouraged him.

“No, it’s not that…”

“Then what is it?” Bill asked.

He sighed, trying to explain. “I don’t know, man. It’s just… What if it doesn’t work out? What if I’m just better off being single, playing the field?” he wondered.

“Oh, because you got so many better options?” Bill pointed out.

Rodrick just frowned, not finding the response helpful.

“Okay, sorry, but you kinda deserved that one, man! You’re an idiot if you think a girl like Sara’s not something you should take the chance on!” he cried. “I mean, I know I’m her brother and all, but she’s a good person! You don’t meet girls like her all the time.”

“But weren’t you the one who told me being in a band gets you girls whether you’re on or offstage?” Rodrick questioned, not understanding his logic.

Bill just sighed guiltily, realizing his mistake.

“Alright. Yes. I did say that… But there’s more to life than sex, and fame. As awesome as they feel, at least when you’re young.”

“Yeah! They do feel awesome,” Rodrick scoffed, “They feel… really good! And I don’t know if I’m old enough to give them up, you know?!”

“You know you still get sex when you have a girlfriend, right?” Bill asked. “I mean. If you’re doing it right.”

“That’s not what I mean!” Rodrick exclaimed. “I just mean… I don’t know if I should’ve told her I want a relationship! What i’d I don’t wanna give up random sex just yet, you know? Like, I’m Rodrick! I’m young, and I’m crazy, and I’m in my prime!”

“You’re in high school, and let’s face it, you’re kind of a fucking loser,” Bill snapped.

Rodrick just gave him a wounded look, frustrated with the way the conversation was going.

“Okay, that was mean, I’m sorry. I apologize,” Bill conceded.

He tried to find a middle ground, but nothing seemed to be working so far.

“Alright, look, here’s the deal, man. You know I’ve been with Becky a while, and you know things weren’t always so good,” he reminded him. “Things were real rocky in the beginning.”

“What happened?��� the younger guy asked.

“Me happened. When Becky and I first started going out, I was kinda like you. I wasn’t convinced I should give up ‘playing the field’,” Bill admitted. “I was back and forth, hot and cold… And I played around. I’m not proud of it, but that’s what happened. It really fucked things up. I didn’t think she’d still wanna be with me.”

Rodrick nodded sympathetically, taking in everything his band mate had to say.

“So, why’d you stay together?” he wondered.

“Well… When she found out, I realized I fucked up. I felt like shit. I knew I fucked over a good girl, and I wished so bad I could go back, and fix it. But I couldn’t,” he confessed, seeming distraught still. “I broke her heart, and it killed me inside.”

“I, uh…” Rodrick thought for a moment, finding the affinity he shared for him profound. “I think I know what you mean.”

“Look, I don’t wanna be a Debbie Downer,” Bill said awkwardly, “But… I know you’re young, and you’re cool, and you think taking a chance on somebody is a huge risk… But sometimes, so is passing up the chance,” he concluded.

“So you’re saying… I should take the chance with Sara?” Rodrick asked.

“No, man! Are you even listening?!” Bill sighed, as he just stood there looking lost. “No. I’m saying… you should think about Sara, and how you really feel about her. And, if it’s good enough for you to take the chance, then you should take the chance,” he finished.

“Oh. That’s even better,” Rodrick remarked. “Fuck. You’re a genius.”

“I have my moments,” Bill shrugged.

“Fuck, I gotta win her back!” Rodrick realized, starting to panic. “What should I do?!”

“What are you good at?” Bill asked him.

“Uh, we’re in a band?!” he cried.

“Oh. Right. There you go,” Bill nodded quickly.

“What’s a good way to apologize?” Rodrick thought out loud. “Where’s Sara gonna be tonight? Does she have work?”

“No, she’s taking our brother to the roller rink.”

“The roller rink! Perfect!” Rodrick snapped, pointing a finger at his band mate. “I got it!”

Once they returned with snacks, Rodrick determined it was a good time to pitch his idea to the others. They were more than excited, so the plan was set in stone. The boys took the next few hours before Sara would be arriving at the roller rink to prepare.

When they finished practicing one of their covers and loaded everything into the van, all Rodrick could think about on the drive was Sara, and the way he’d stupidly ignored her for the past week.

“What the fuck was I thinking?!” Rodrick yelled as he frantically ran a red light. “I’ll never get another girl like Sara! I can barely get a girl like Sara now!”

“I don’t know, man,” Chris murmured nervously, “But can you watch the road?! Like, at least a little?!”

Rodrick slowly breathed in as he raced them to the roller rink, praying the public display would be enough.

-

10 Things I Hate About You

[qqueenofhades]

Genuine question: Why do people think the Civil War was about state's rights and not slavery? Like have people just not read the Cornerstone speech? Alexander Stephens really said "our new government['s] foundations are laid, its cornerstone rests, upon the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery—subordination to the superior race—is his natural and normal condition." So are we just going to ignore the Vice President of the confederacy or...

Because they're racist, but they're dimly aware that outright saying that you're racist is usually regarded as a bad thing, plus they don't really think they are either racist or wrong to be racist if indeed they are (you can't prove it!), and have twisted themselves into rhetorical knots to come up with a more palatable-sounding reason. They ignore not just the actual texts and speeches and well-attested statements of the Confederate government and sympathizers themselves, but eagerly accept the subsequent 150 years of "Lost Cause" mythologizing that endlessly mourned the supposedly vicious "Yankee" destruction of the "gentle and gentlemanly" or "chivalric" white Southern way of life.

Nor have they ever gotten over it, moved on, accepted national or civic responsibility like the Germans with the Nazis post-WWII, or tried to develop a political strategy that doesn't involve punishing black people for not letting them just subjugate and murder them like the good old days. See the screaming over statues of Confederate generals getting torn down: it's attacking our history!!! Okay, but a) when have you ever cared about that, and b) I'm pretty sure that the "history" you guys actually mean is your glorious alternate-reality white-supremacist fantasy where the innocent South never did anything wrong and was just standing up for States' Rights (to practice slavery). Like freedom! Which is American as apple pie! WHY DO YOU HATE AMERICAN FREEDOM, JOYLESS COMMUNIST BASTARD?!?!

Anyway. Yet again, my salty ragesnark is getting away from me, and I should once more limit my use of the blue hellsite for the evening, but I've spent this so-called Independence Day in a nonstop fog of anger. When you have mass shootings at Fourth of July parades (please, Ted Cruz, tell me how the problem was that there weren't enough doors on an open-air street) since THAT is the new American norm, Proud Boys and Patriot Front marching in major cities, a theocratic fascist SCOTUS ruling that women aren't people, and all the other fucking bullshit happening in this country because white racists have been allowed to get away with their toxic shit since its founding, it's really hard to feel like this day genuinely means anything to anyone anymore, or that it will do so again in the foreseeable future. Ugh.

[tubapun]

Man I keep thinking about Boo Brothers. Like the film has a lot of good artwork and characters and dialog at times!! But the whole conceit is that it takes place on a Plantation, which makes all those points moot!!

And it's not like it's integral to the plot structure!! You could have the exact same inheritance plot take place anywhere else with a different house and a dead relative who isn't implicitly a Confederate soldier!! And it would be a better film for it!!

And even if you just haaaad to have those elements, all you'd have to do is change the characters react to the place!! Don't make em enthusiastic about it and scared of ghosts!! Make Shaggy disgusted, determined to get the inheritance only so he can donate it/so some other family member he hates for still being a confederate sympathizer can't get their hands on it!! Like that would at least make the whole conceit feel less like you're saying he's cool with his family having had a FUCKING PLANTATION

[mitochondriaandbunnies]

While doing other things, I’m half-watching a 60′s cowboy show that I have deeply, deeply mixed feelings about-- under the cut for length and for my unstructured babbling about racism in 60′s TV.

As with many 60′s cowboy shows, it asks you to sympathize with a character who was once a confederate soldier and plantation owner... but also one of the main characters is the literal first ever Black lead in a western, and he’s really fantastic? And the whole premise is that they team up as bounty hunters, which is an exceptionally uncomfortable concept, but they also don’t exactly just hand-wave their partnership as easy or comfortable, either? It’s a very odd mixture of 60′s “racism can be solved easily through contact between races” naivete, total obliviousness to the rancidity of its concept, and very earnest attempts to punch above its weight emotionally and thematically.

Like. Frankly, the central “former slave and former confederate become partners” conceit damns the entire show from conception. It *wants* to be a treatise on how even the worst kind of racist can change (and therefore YOU, WHITE VIEWER AT HOME IN 1968, CAN *TOO*), but how well it succeeds at that kind of depends on whether one can believe the main white character in any way at all deserves an opportunity at redemption. (Is it better to believe anyone can change and attempt to atone, or are some things-- like owning a fucking person-- sins so abhorrent that the only absolution is death? Or, to put it differently-- is there a good reason to tell this story and not a story about someone who wasn’t a confederate?)

Both of the lead actors are excellent, and you do genuinely get the sense they felt they were doing something really positive. They have excellent chemistry (which... in and of itself is kind of. Hmm. Should they have excellent chemistry??) The writing is surprisingly thoughtful and consistently willing to bluntly address racism without perpetuating it (and doesn’t shy away from pointing out that the main white character is still racist because he lives in a racist society even though he likes the main Black character and has chosen to change and learn to be a decent person.) The episode I’m currently watching gets into how the “states’ rights” clause in the Emancipation Proclamation kneecapped any so-called countrywide emancipation, and has a long and serious conversation between two former slaves about how things have and haven’t changed for Black people in the United States. They connect over shared traditions, their mutual attraction is treated as beautiful and important, they’re given the bulk of the plot and important dialogue in the episode, and their romance is treated with gravitas. The lead actress in the episode has a whole speech about how it’s incredibly difficult to learn how to be a whole person when your life hasn’t ever belonged to you before. I can’t think of a lot of other shows from 1968 that did that...?

And yet! I can see why this has never been released on home media, and why it was cancelled after one season. It’s a fascinating piece of television history, but not really a show I can heartily recommend.

[theirtheretheyre]

Least favorite flag. Go

OKAY here are several bc i cant pick lol. also, i have talked about some of these before, so im just gonna repeat what i said in those posts

saint pierre and miquelon's local flag (have discussed this one before)

theyre a french territory, so their official national flag is just the french flag, but this is their local flag. the ship is supposed to be of the ship that the first european guy sailed to the island on. the three squares on the left are flags of the places that most of the people there come from. from top to bottom, they are basque county (spain), brittany, and normandy. theres a lot going on here. i dont like it. they need to calm down, and make it less confusing and coplicated.

side note i hate the french flag not necessarily because it's bad, but on the principle of i hate the french

all of the liberian county flags

for real who fucking designed these. how did enough people think "yea these are acceptable" here is a link to a reddit post of someone attempting to redesign them. not all of them are great still, but most are better

the maryland state flag (ive talked about this before too)

i know it was ranked as one of the best state flags, but i honestly hate it. theres so much going on here, and some confederate symbolism, which is an immediate no from me. the crossland banner (the red and white parts) was used by confederate sympathizers in baltimore. also still not my least favorite flag (alabama takes that) (also -- every state flag thats just a SOB [seal on a bedsheet] is awful)

the st. eustatius flag

okay so. ive seen someone call this one good, which is wrong. its hideous.

(pls continue sending me asks about flags)

[dontmean2bepoliticalbut]

[oscill4te]

.

I look too much into movies and bad at interpretting things soooooooo forgive me if im yknow. Way off the mark

but that scene where scarlett and red were fighting and he tries to get her drunk and i think its even implied he sa'd her... bc she was pregnant after that scene where he forcefully carried her up to her room and he said "i wanted to hurt you the way you hurt me". That scene before she fell down the stairs yknow. Thats the vibe i got. I already hated him but thats where my brain went "Okay. I keep teetering back and forth but now I fucking hate this guy."

He constantly others Scarlet by saying "you're not like (insert stereotype of how women should be here) and demeans her character, saying she is "just like him". And when their child Bonnie died, he wouldn't even let Scarlet come in to grieve for her daughter. Hes always violent and throwing things in the movie. Hes controlling as hell.

Im supposed to sympathize with a man like that? Maybe its bc his behavior reminded me so much of a person who hurt me and that made me criticize too harshly but idk. I asked my aunt abt it and she didnt really see my take, but listened anyways. She thinks he was meant to be a sympathetic rogue character yknow

Im all about shitty characters and I understand its possible to like flawed characters but I dont understand how people can sympathize and see Red as "humorous" character "Who is good deep down and truly loves Scarlett" after all he did imo. Idk. I really hate him. He was posessive and obsessive. Thats not love. Don't get me wrong, I am a sucker for toxic and abusive relationships in fiction but to imply hes "the one" for scarlett? Idk.... she deserves better

Anywayzzz. The bond between scarlet and melanie.... deeper and truer than anything red coulda offered Scarlett.. js......... i loved every scene with Melanie and scarlet. I love how at first she resented Melanie and later came to see how true of a friend she was.

Writing all this bc my memory sucks and i know im gonna forget a lot within a few days but yeah... i love scarlet maybe its bc i dont watch many movies and dont see many strong headed female protagonists (partially due to the fact that!! I never expand my bubble and watch movies or read books) but yeah idc i love her a lot as a character. Shes brusque and a bit impish, manipulative at times but I love her for her free spirit. and the outfits she wore were so pretty

I have an OC named Scarlet who is vry fem and i wanna draw her in some of the dresses scarlett from the movie wore

well. I still liked it bc scarlet as a character (and many others), the cinematography, the beautiful outfits n scenery and will throw my modern, irrelevant, maybe not well-informed or messy opinion at it.

And yeah i know this movie is from the 1940s and of course has its many flaws such as racist depictions of black characters (considering the time... yeah.), sympathizing w the confederates, showing the plantation owners as treating slaves "kindly" and "as family". (you and I very well know... that just was not the truth) & ofc the manyy issues I said about Red Butler.....

I should watch more movies and take adderal bc wow. Adderal helped me focus deeply and made me realize movies aren't boring at all, not even the old ones! its just my attention span lol... maybe I wanna do more than just watch cartoons... maybe its time to explore more films from all time periods and all around the world

[sideburndanny]

Related the Nikki Haley controversy (if only tangentially):

Something I find interesting to think about is how Donald Trump may have unintentionally killed the Lost Cause of the South myth's acceptance among the general public.

I remember for quite some time before Trump got elected, the "uhm AKSHULLY it was about StAtEs RiGhTs" argument was commonly believed and accepted not just by confederate sympathizers, but also by genuine leftists or scholars who otherwise showed no conservative views.

I think it's because treating a historic conflict as even-handed and lacking clear-cut good guys or bad guys just sounded "right" to these people, like a nuanced and morally grey point of view sounded more intellectually honest — and therefore likely to be true — than the more black-and-white alternative of "one side was bad and the other tried to stop them." I don't doubt that fear of offending southerners who respond poorly to any criticism of their "homeland" or "heritage" played a part as well.

Then Trump became President and said some stupid shit like, "nobody knows why the Civil War happened" and then everyone agreed to do away with the niceties and just flat-out say "it was about slavery you fucking moron."

[marlowe1-blog]

"A Good Man is Hard to Find" (Flannery O'Connor The Complete Stories)

Fuck this Racist Ofay

Remember how I was planning on reviewing all the Flannery O'Connor stories the same way that I am reviewing all the John Cheever stories (even toward the end when he's making less sense)? Remember how the first two stories got a reaction of "is this story racist or is it about racists? If it's just about racists, why am I supposed to sympathize with a man who is freaking out because his daughter in NYC is living next to N-----s?

I even saw a reaction saying that "Geraniums" is actually a critique of racism. Bullshit. It's about an old racist who is having a bad day and has to deal with the world moving on and he can't even get a damn view of a flower from the building across the street. It's like the later story where the old general is wheeled out for his daughter's graduation in a Confederate uniform only O'Connor keeps referencing the Coke machine. Like get it? Coca-Cola is becoming more important to these people than their great Southern heritage.

Oddly enough, I searched for Flannery O'Connor on Facebook because I remember someone I know saying that he hated Flannery O'Connor. What I did not remember was that I had posted an article entitled "Why is Flannery O'Connor getting canceled?" and the friend (Shai Rishon who is a pretty cool rabbi) said that he hated Flannery O'Connor and I said "Even A Good Man is Hard to Find?"

I was arguing that Flannery O'Connor has racism in her stories and might have been racism but a lot of her stories are really good so we can still read them and it's fine.

That impression was from reading the book A Good Man is Hard to Find in college. Let me revise that impression with my impression from trying to read the complete stories, including the six that she turned in for the University of Iowa writing program.

Flannery O'Connor is a racist bitch. Her stories were all racist. I can't keep reading stories asking me to sympathize with old racist Southerners who won't stop saying N----- or pickaninny (which is definitely a slur but might be ok to write out in just regular essays.)

Reading "A Good Man is Hard to Find" as a first O'Connor story is an experience of reading a sick and twisted horror story from the perspective of a very stupid old lady who is trying to talk "The Misfit" out of his murderous ways even after he's shot the rest of her family. Reading the story in the context of bullshit like Geranium (oh poor old racist has to live next to black people) and The Barber (dumb nominally liberal guy isn't a N---- lover but he doesn't like the 1940s version of Trump but he can't argue that in a barbershop full of racists who keep referring to the one black kid in the place as being in complete agreement with them (remember the Chris Rock routine about how there's no one quite as racist as old black people, because they will be all smiles when the white people are around but as soon as it's just black people they won't stop going on about white motherfuckers? Well, it's actually prejudice since racism is a system of white supremacy but yeah, one is pretty certain that George is cussing these crackers out behind their back. Only O'Connor doesn't give him a voice)

In that context, Grandma in "A Good Man is Hard to Find" is another old cracker who has to point out a black kid just minding his own business and call him a N---- because that adds color.

So by the time Grandma's cat causes an accident (is the cat ok? The father threw the cat at a tree) I'm done with these people. The Misfit getting his people to take out first the father and son and then the mother and daughter while Grandma is talking about redemption or some shit isn't tragic or horrifying. It's fucking hilarious.

This was not O'Connor's intention. I don't really care about her intention but I'm quite sure it was some shit about Catholic guilt and sin and martyrdom.

But honestly, I don't give a shit. Seriously fuck these characters and fuck O'Connor.

[stephenjaymorrisblog]

From Mahsa Amini to Tyre Nichols

(Spontaneous Combustion Opposed to Preplanned Demolition)

Stephen Jay Morris

1/28/2023

©Scientific Morality

What burns my asshole is that the Conservatives might all be vindicated for the January 6, 2020 coup d’etat. “How?” you ask. When the rocks start flying and the buildings start burning, the Right-wing media will show footage of the riots. Maybe, they’ll even throw in some stock footage of the Chicago riots of 1968. The stupid ass viewers won’t know the difference! At that point, the January 6th rioters will look like patriots.

If protesters practice refractory Zen and employ passive resistance, or even civil disobedience, the general public just might sympathize with them. However, Right-wing provocateurs, dressed up like Antifa in black ski masks, will simultaneously infiltrate the marches. They’ll do their vandal shit and encourage violence against the cops. This actually happened during the George Floyd rebellion some time back.

So, what was the big alibi for January 6th? That it was infiltrated by Antifa and it was their fault! Thank Buddha, this was a laughable fantasy! After the public rejected this idiotic premise, they blamed FBI agents. Can this Right-wing tactic work again? Hell, yeah, it could!

The Islamic State of Iran is as big as the State of Idaho. When Mahsa Amini got murdered by Iran's morality police, that entire country erupted into demonstrations. It was like Paris in 1968, when the students united with the workers in a general strike. And, alas, like with all outbursts of public outrage, nothing was resolved. The only way democracy can replace dictatorships is through revolution. Definitely not the Neo-Liberals’ delusion of America invading Iran, handing them a democratic country, and then drilling for oil.

A handful of Confederate soldiers were black slaves. This can be verified historically. There were also black slave hunters who, when a slave escaped, they’d hunt them down and capture them. They’d return them to the plantation, where the White masters would have the black slave hunter whip the black escapee until he bled to death.

What does this have to do with Tyre Nichols? Everything! When White cops kill a Black man, they get assigned paid leave, only to return to a handsome raise and promotion. When Black cops kill a Black suspect, they are immediately suspended without pay. I’ve since heard that they all got fired. What they did was a racist act: They killed Tyre under orders of the White police captain...allegedly.

Now, we will see angry protests and it will all be labeled “woke.” Woke is the new epithet for the 20’s; the new N-word. “Another woke riot!” What a fucking confabulation!

So, solutions? I know my solutions are not inerrant, but it’s a dirty job and somebody’s got to do it. Instead of having a civil temper tantrum, how about an assiduous revolution? How about taking steps in transforming a corrupt society? Now, I am not talking about robbing a bank to finance the revolution. Armed struggle? That is the last resort. I am talking about strategies to outsmart a nuclear-powered republic. Remember: the enemy has the weapons; we have the numbers. Maybe we can smash the state through a bloodless revolution. It’s not impossible. Gandhi almost did it in India. Martin Luther King, Jr. tried to use nonviolent resistance and it almost worked. Why not do the same?

When the cops beat the shit out of you and people witness it on social media, sympathy will go towards you. It is a bigger sacrifice to endure excruciating pain than to die for the revolution. Look at how the optics of the crucifixion has lasted for thousands of years. If Jesus would have used an A-R 15 and shot a fusillade of bullets at Roman soldiers, the whole point of the gospel of Christ would have been mute. When cops used high-powered fire hoses and German Shepherds to attack civil rights activists, it had greater impact upon the public than Black Panthers posing with rifles.

What’s going to happen in the immediate future? These protests will be heated and then fade away. Maybe by the time the time you read this, it will all have come to pass.

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

Gary Chambers, a U.S. Senate candidate in Louisiana who went viral last month for smoking a blunt in a campaign ad, burned a Confederate flag while decrying restrictive voting laws in his latest video released on Wednesday.

In a one-minute video titled "Scars and Bars," Chambers is seen wearing a camo jacket as he pins a Confederate flag on a clothesline and ignites it with a lighter - right after he cites the famous Declaration of Independence line "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal."

As the flag burns, the Louisiana Democrat argues that inequality lingers and "remnants of the Confederacy remain" in the South. The candidate mentions gerrymandered districts and restrictive voting laws as "byproducts" of the Confederacy.

"The attacks against Black people, our right to vote and participate in this democracy, are methodical," he said. "Our system isn't broken. It's designed to do exactly what it's doing, which is producing measurable inequity."

According to the Brennan Center, 19 states passed 34 restrictive voting laws in response to a conservative push to tighten up elections following former President Trump's false claims that the 2020 election was stolen.

Earlier this year, Congressional Democrats attempted to push through a voting rights package to address the restrictive voting laws but failed to secure enough votes in the Senate.

Chambers is running to unseat Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) in the upcoming midterm election. He gained national attention last month with the release of a campaign ad in which he puffs on a blunt while arguing for the legalization of cannabis, the criminalization of which disproportionately affects Black people.

The candidate is a co-founder of a media outlet called The Rouge Collection and ran unsuccessfully for a U.S. House seat last year in Louisiana.

In Wednesday's video, Chambers mentioned other issues that affect Black Americans, including access to health care, which has been highlighted during the pandemic, as minorities have had higher rates of severe illness and death from COVID-19.

Chambers said 1 in 9 Black Americans do not have health insurance and 1 in 3 Black children live in poverty.

"It's time to burn what remains of the Confederacy down," he said in the video. "I do believe the South will rise again, but this time it will be on our terms."