November 9, 2012

"We are all the other now."

A paradoxical iteration of the "We are all X (now)" trope, which I'm noticing just now, on a morning when I happened already to have deployed the "We are all X (now)" trope. (What I said was: "We are all little fucking internet douchebag pussies now." Yes, I actually said that. There was a context to it all, and yet it's startlingly truthy out of context.)

29 comments:

Anonymous said...

You're drilling down pretty deep for a guy with a stressful day job. Hard to follow without contemplation and quiet. Pardon me while I tell my Ethiopians to settle down and stop throwing shit at the Gautemalans (who are throwing it back).

Anonymous said...

I HATE mis-typing/spelling what have you. Of course that would be "Guatemalans".

YoungHegelian said...

Oh, Lord, is there another honorable concept in the history of philosophy that the critical theory bozos have debased as thoroughly as the "Other."

It starts off well enough, with the discovery of Otherness as a necessary step in the path to self-consciousness. But now Otherness been turned into a way of fixing within a discourse the speakers pissiness at not being at the level of the power hierarchy where, gosh golly, he thinks he oughtta be.

The best theatrical treatment of Otherness is, of course, right here.

Chuck said...

If whites voted based on race the way that blacks did, whites would rule with absolute majorities. Whites don't do that, of course.

2008 and 2012 featured African-Americans voting for Obama to the tune of 96 to 99 percent, with additionally increased turnout numbers. Those numbers are near absolute in reliability, because one can look at election results in places like Detroit, south Chicago, south Philadelphia, etc. No exit polling data is needed to count those numbers.

The 2010 election, with no Obama on any ballot, saw a substantial falloff for Democrats across the board. (The 2010 election results, while instructive, may be reflective of more than mere racial trends; particularly with Congressional districts already racially-gerrymandered to comply with Sections 2 and 5 of the Voting Rights Act.)

Meanwhile, exit polling numbers for 2008 and 2012 suggest that Obama suffered no decline in white voting based on race. Obama got approximately as many white votes as other Democratic presidential candidates in comparable years; hovering around 40%.

YoungHegelian said...

I think blogger just burped!

One of my comments, which I really doubt the Professor would have reason to delete, just disappeared after appearing in the thread!

And I've gotten two conflicting edits errors.

Ann Althouse said...

@YoungH Thanks for prompting me to check the spam. There was other stuff there too.

Conserve Liberty said...

I'm just going to come right out and say it.

YOU are the other. Always have been. Always will be.

Until Wednesday I was actually pretty open minded about giving people who aren't "like" me an opportunity to have the success I have enjoyed, the freedom, the joy, the comforts, without having to sacrifice the things that makes them them different from me.

Today - I'm not giving you anything. You want what I have? Kiss my white ass. I earned this and I'm going to keep it. You get nothing. NOTHING. Oyu want in the system - you want my support, participation, agreement - my vote in Congress?

Won't happen. Ever. NO. You had that opportunity and you blew it.

Unless you embrace the culture that made this country what it is. Not the one that might make this country what you think it should be.

Eric the Fruit Bat said...

We are the other people.

You're the other people, too.

Found a way to get to you.

campy said...

Today - I'm not giving you anything. You want what I have? Kiss my white ass. I earned this and I'm going to keep it. You get nothing. NOTHING. Oyu want in the system - you want my support, participation, agreement - my vote in Congress?

Oh really? The people you're shouting at are done asking. They've got the power now to take anything you have.

Including your vote.

mccullough said...

We've been little internet douchebag pussies for awhile now. Even before you started blogging.

coketown said...

Um. Didn't I write this exact fucking thing in the post about racist Halloween costumes? I think I did!

coketown said...

Except David Simon's articulation is stupid. He isn't saying the other is abolished. He isn't even saying we are all others. He's saying the former others are now us and the former us is now the other. The entire excerpt supplanted the former others with whites. In fact, his whole post is about how conservatives are the others. Who's the agent in every hypothetical he mentioned? Who, allegedly, speaks against racial minorities? Who is, allegedly, stopping wives, daughters, lovers, from controlling their own bodies? To him: conservatives! They are the others!

So his point is that conservatives need to assimilate into the broader political culture of liberalism. Rather than minorities assimilating into the broader political culture of America. He's just replacing one Other for anOther. It's reverse racism. Reverse bigotry. Reverse idiocy.

My point was wholly different. Gosh.

Anonymous said...

I've met the Other and as a person of color - pink- I'm voting straight race from here on out.

Sorun said...

"They've got the power now to take anything you have."

Check out the map on Drudge. The white males have a lot. You better get started with all of that taking. It's going to be a big job.

NorthOfTheOneOhOne said...

So his point is that conservatives need to assimilate into the broader political culture of liberalism.

So when the Hell did this become something new? I've been hearing this from liberals for the last 35 years!

coketown said...

So when the Hell did this become something new? I've been hearing this from liberals for the last 35 years!

I said his statement was idiotic. Not new. Progressivism has been regressive since the 70s. Have the had a new idea since?

Conserve Liberty said...

Oh really? The people you're shouting at are done asking. They've got the power now to take anything you have.

Which action are you going to tax? Whatever it is I'll just stop doing it. Then you won't get any. Think about it.

If you think you're going to tax something that I just HAVE - well you'll need to tax the same thing that YOU have (or want to have) also.

Real Estate? Personal Property? Those get taxed for just sitting there. Figure out how to tax me without taxing yourself too. Everything else is a transaction tax - so I'll just stop transacting.

Bring it on. Who's the Other now?

campy said...

so I'll just stop transacting.

Funny, I seem to remember reading something about a new law that mandates transactions.

Let me just see if I can find it ...

Writ Small said...

Californians.

Rusty said...

We are all little fucking internet douchebag pussies now." Yes, I actually said that.


I love it when you talk dirty to me.


Lem the artificially intelligent said...

There was other stuff there too.

Arabic guy has no trouble boarding the plane but the Lemster here gets bumped off all the time.

Blogger sucks.

Chip Ahoy said...

I view you all as slaves with slave-mentality.

I have an owner-mentality and now I just don't respect anybody. I've never been this sad. I go around my business in sadness among slaves and I try really try not to see a straight up slave and say, "hi" (Sparticus) "howzitgoing?" (shine my shoes, Bitch) "what floor?" (is your little slave apartment? Do slave things in there? Cast your slave vote?)

I never listened to a whole speech from our first ever gay bottom slave president because the slave/bondage thing is just so irritating, the ear drum splitting sibilant S's, the lady hands gesticulating the same pedantic motions over and over without contributing anything to the verbalized portion which is vapid to begin with so naturally can't watch a whole speech either, but even so the snippets they run so frequently to drive their points before I can lift a remote to shut that dumbass the hell up, are like ear drills complete with the inflection, an arrogance that flips off the listener. Five more days with two vocalized karate chops on the single syllable "days" yells the word in a higher pitch with two karate chops, the arrogance in that inflection, the dismissiveness in that, and they keep playing it, fuels my hatred, his voice throws coals and fresh air onto a burn and hatred flares because I know I'm hearing the voice of the enemy within and over half of you are slaves without a clue you voted serfdom for all.

And the thing that makes me want to call off appointments, to not see anyone at all, to just sit here and cry, and not even try for anything at all now you showed me you really celebrate serfdom for everyone around and you will never ever come out of it.

It also makes me understand my own family who I never really understood either. They're serfs too. I didn't realize that until now. I thought they were owners. They're not. They have the mentality of the slaves in the little cabins between the big house and the barn, tucked in there nice and safe, looking a little like fishing cabins except smaller and more grim. But I should be more open to gay people and read the bottom of the statue of liberty. I guess I don't understand slaves well enough, I don't get you at all. Oh. Sparticus! Whatevs. Get my groceries, will ya? Try not to break anything.



Chip Ahoy said...

This is really kind of amazing. Now that I'm working my way through this darkness, the sadness of knowing you're slaves, that I'll leave this country worse off than when I was born here, the interesting people all dead, you're going to be a lot easier to control. The evil portion of my thinking that's always flying around is thinking up ways to control you. Every single interaction I have with people an evil portion of my mind flies around the edges informing me how to manipulate this little slave. It's what owner mentalities do automatically when they encounter slave mentalities. I thought I was living among owners but I was shown in a flash that I'm not. Over half of you really are mental slaves.

goddamnit now i'm sad again.

son of bitch.

You're not creative enough. Just not. I know people so creative their creativity falls off their fingertips and money comes flying out of the corners of the room and sticks on them. Silly people making little clay animals. Enjoying life and joys to be around but actually I don't see these people around either anymore they're probably all fat now.

omg

I just realized. on no.

AIDS killed creativity in this country and now all that's left is 51% slaves. That was the creative portion that tipped the scales. I just now this moment realized that and now I'm REALLY sad. I don't see that creative portion anymore because it's gone. That explains why I'm not seeing it anymore it's gone.

Man oh man oh man people dropping like flies was bad enough but now I see they were holding up you uncreative dumbasses and now only the angry mean-hearted money envious people uncreative people show through outshine everything else and voted for bondage I am so fucking sad now I can't stand it.

Scott said...

"Hold your head up high, and blow your brains out!"
--Jimmy Pop of Bloodhound Gang

Scott said...

I'm toying with the idea of going Galtish and moving to someplace where I would be less of the Other. Phoenix Arizona and Dallas Texas are high on the list.

test said...

Scott said...
I'm toying with the idea of going Galtish and moving to someplace where I would be less of the Other. Phoenix Arizona and Dallas Texas are high on the list.


Both great cities I've lived in. Phoenix has better Mexican food and winter weather, but it hits 120 several days a year. If you can't take that pick Dallas.

Scott said...

Thanks Marshal.

Conserve Liberty said...

so I'll just stop transacting.

Funny, I seem to remember reading something about a new law that mandates transactions.

Let me just see if I can find it ...

When I was young the kind of thing I propose was called Civil Disobedience. Its practioners were sometimes called Refuseniks.

Boy - I sure am going to enjoy turning these tables.

campy said...

Boy - I sure am going to enjoy turning these tables.

That's the spirit! Maybe you'll get a good novel out of your gulag experience.