Sarion posted:

While a good call, I have a feeling such a statement would go right over most people's head. Its like trying to get idiots to realize that Iranians are Persian rather than Arab.

Sarion posted:

They aren't being racist. They're just making a joke. Based on an untrue stereotype that implies one group of people are worse than another while also subtly blaming the inferior group for the superior groups woes (terrorism and jobs).

Why are you such a bitch?

Nathilus posted:

Just because something is a joke does not make it not-racist. Here is a very racist joke, if you're so sure of your position then why don't you go and tell it around a few of your black friends.

A captain returned to America after a run on the slave routes. He entered his favorite bar, and next to him entered a gigantic negro with a beautifully blue, green, and yellow macaw on his shoulder. The captain sat down and he and the owner begin chatting. The owner looked at his wonderfully strong and healthy negro's body, then at the beauty of the macaw. "This is a wonderful specimen." He noted. "Where'd you get him?" "AWK, GOT IM IN AFRICA" the macaw replied, "ALL KINDS OF NIGGERS OVER THERE."

I laughed like hell the first time I heard that joke, more because of the shocking racism of it than the joke itself. This is not funny. This kind of joke perpetuates racism that still exists. In some parts of the south being black and having a member of a powerful white family call you "friend of the family" is still a very scary thing. It wasn't but some weeks ago that a black man got beat to death for being black in public by some random white kids.

Similar are "Difference between a jew and an apple pie" and rape jokes. Some people have been through this really bad poo poo, or had members of their families go through it. Nothing is sacred, but this is no laughing matter. These jokes can make people viscerally remember very dark times, and that's just not acceptable. Humor is meant to ease man's burden, not add to it.

Nathilus posted:

Similar are "Difference between a jew and an apple pie" and rape jokes. Some people have been through this really bad poo poo, or had members of their families go through it. Nothing is sacred, but this is no laughing matter. These jokes can make people viscerally remember very dark times, and that's just not acceptable. Humor is meant to ease man's burden, not add to it.

Nathilus posted:

Nothing is sacred, but this is no laughing matter.

Strudel Man posted:

This seems contradictory. If certain topics are 'no laughing matter,' doesn't that make them 'sacred,' as far as humor goes?

Nathilus posted:

I can make a rape joke that will be funny to a lot of people. In that sense, the subject of rape isn't sacred. You can always crack a joke about something, even if it's dire. Rape is still no laughing matter to many people though. Knowingly cracking a rape joke in front of a rape victim that is still dealing with the fallout is a really horrible thing to do, and unknowingly doing it is still extremely impolitic. You can make people laugh with your words and you can also hurt and scare them, so choose your words and your audience carefully.

Strudel Man posted:

Okay. I guess I'm still not entirely clear on what position you're staking out here - are you saying it's okay to make a rape joke, as long as it's not around someone who's been recently raped? That certain topics may not be inherently 'sacred' or 'no laughing matter,' but are simply inappropriate in certain contexts?

Sarion posted:

stereotype that implies one group of people are worse than another while also subtly blaming the inferior group for the superior groups woes (terrorism and jobs).

Phlag posted:

A very conservative friend of mine (who once said that roads and fire fighting should be privatized) got on unemployment after getting let go from his job working for the Republican National Committee. His justification was that he never liked the job, so he wanted to make them suffer by increasing the amount of money they pay for UI.

During this time, he was doing contract work for some Republican political organization, but the money was being paid to his father's LLC so he could be "unemployed" until law school started.

It's funny that the closest thing to a "welfare queen" I've ever seen was an extremely privileged and conservative 22-year-old white male who, given the choice, would have eagerly ripped the benefits he abused from those who genuinely need them.

vxskud posted:

Funny story about privatized firefighters

They used to exist, and the whole thing was a huge cluster gently caress.
You basically bought insurance from a company that owned a fire station and if your house caught on fire you had to call them.

But if they were not available you were hosed, if another company showed up they'd refuse to put out the fire unless you paid them a hefty sum on the spot.

Sometimes 2 or more companies would show up to an uninsured home and they would fight over who got to put out the fire while your house burned down.

Good Times.

vxskud posted:

Funny story about privatized firefighters

They used to exist, and the whole thing was a huge cluster gently caress.
You basically bought insurance from a company that owned a fire station and if your house caught on fire you had to call them.

But if they were not available you were hosed, if another company showed up they'd refuse to put out the fire unless you paid them a hefty sum on the spot.

Sometimes 2 or more companies would show up to an uninsured home and they would fight over who got to put out the fire while your house burned down.

Good Times.

quote:

Crassus also expanded his wealth by trading in slaves and by purchasing whole neighborhoods of Rome as they burned at drastically below market value. At the time, Rome had no formal way of battling fires and they usually were left to burn themselves out, which meant several estates and fortunes were lost in the process. Crassus employed a firefighting brigade of some five hundred men and, after he negotiated the purchase of the burning building and the surrounding estates in danger, the brigade would collapse the home that was ablaze to extinguish the fire before it could spread.

quote:

A plan for a tax that would cover rural fire protection was rejected, he said, as county officials kept pushing municipalities to opt for subscription plans.

quote:

God help us!

We can't let him be our president again. We have to heed the warnings.
Hi All:
Take time to read this letter. It is verified on Snopes. How did this happen? Can it be corrected? If not, then what?
Subject: Chilling Letter from Proctor & Gamble to Obama
Snopes confims this letter to be real
http://www.snopes.com/politics/soapbox/youscareme.asp
Note his final statement in last paragraph.

Chilling Letter from Proctor & Gamble Former Executive to Obama
Who would have thought, and yet many are thinking it.

By Lou Pritchett, Procter & Gamble

A LETTER FROM A PROCTER AND GAMBLE EXECUTIVE TO THE PRESIDENT* THE LAST SENTENCE IS THE MOST CHILLING
Lou Pritchett is one of corporate America 's true living legends- an
Acclaimed author, dynamic teacher and one of the world's highest
Rated speakers. Successful corporate executives everywhere recognize
Him as the foremost leader in change management.. Lou changed the way
America does business by creating an audacious concept that came to
Be known as "partnering." Pritchett rose from soap salesman to
Vice-President, Sales and Customer Development for Procter and
Gamble and over the course of 36 years, made corporate history.
AN OPEN LETTER TO
PRESIDENT OBAMA Dear President Obama:

You are the thirteenth President under whom I have lived and unlike
Any of the others, you truly scare me.

You scare me because after months of exposure, I know nothing about you.


You scare me because I do not know how you paid for your expensive
Ivy League education and your upscale lifestyle and housing with no
Visible signs of support.

You scare me because you did not spend the formative years of youth
Growing up in America and culturally you are not an American.

You scare me because you have never run a company or met a payroll.

You scare me because you have never had military experience, thus
Don't understand it at its core.

You scare me because you lack humility and 'class', always blaming others.

You scare me because for over half your life you have aligned
Yourself with radical extremists who hate America and you refuse to
Publicly denounce these radicals who wish to see America fail..

You scare me because you are a cheerleader for the 'blame America '
Crowd and deliver this message abroad.

You scare me because you want to change America to a European style
Country where the government sector dominates instead of the private sector.

You scare me because you want to replace our health care system
With a government controlled one.

You scare me because you prefer 'wind mills' to responsibly
Capitalizing on our own vast oil, coal and shale reserves.

You scare me because you want to kill the American capitalist goose
That lays the golden egg which provides the highest standard of
Living in the world.

You scare me because you have begun to use 'extortion' tactics
Against certain banks and corporations.

You scare me because your own political party shrinks from
Challenging you on your wild and irresponsible spending proposals.

You scare me because you will not openly listen to or even consider
Opposing points of view from intelligent people.

You scare me because you falsely believe that you are both
Omnipotent and omniscient.

You scare me because the media gives you a free pass on everything
You do.

You scare me because you demonize and want to silence the
Limbaugh's, Hannitys, O'Reillys and Becks who offer opposing,
Conservative points of view.

You scare me because you prefer controlling over governing.

Finally, you scare me because if you serve a second term I will
Probably not feel safe in writing a similar letter in 8 years.

Lou Pritchett
*
*
This letter was sent to the NY Times but they never acknowledged it.
Big surprise. Since it hit the Internet, however, it has had over
500,000 hits. Keep it going. All that is necessary for evil to succeed
Is that good men do nothing.. It's happening right now. The CHANGE is here!! 90% of Americans will forward this. WE HAVE HAD ENOUGH!

JerkyBunion posted:

You scare me because you're black

Ana Lucia Cortez posted:

I hope this isn't a repeat. I haven't seen this one posted yet.

Scary Obama!

JerkyBunion posted:

You scare me because you're black

Ana Lucia Cortez posted:

I hope this isn't a repeat. I haven't seen this one posted yet.


Scary Obama!

quote:

PLEASE MAKE A DIFFERENCE

The President of Procter & gamble appeared on the Phil Donahue Show on March 1, 1994. He announced that due to the openness of our society, he was coming out of the closet about his association with the church of Satan. He stated that a large portion of his profits from Procter & Gamble Products goes to support this satanic church. When asked by Donahue if stating this on t.v. would hurt his business, he replied, "THERE ARE NOT ENOUGH CHRISTIANS IN THE UNITED STATES TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE."

Sock on a Fish posted:

That's extra hilarious because back in the 90's conservatives were chain-lettered into believing that P&G was run by a Satanist.

http://www.snopes.com/business/alliance/procter.asp

quote:

THE PRESIDENT*

quote:

You scare me because you falsely believe that you are both
Omnipotent and omniscient.

Shimrra Jamaane posted:

pangstrom posted:

This impression is based on just a lot of informal conversations over the last couple years, but it seems "I just don't know enough about him/her" is emerging as a conservative criticism of last resort. It's not JUST a race code, either, though it's obviously tapping into "otherness" and the plausible deniability of the phrase lends it to race.

In this case it's particularly stupid because Pritchett "knows nothing about" Obama and then rattles off the list of things he knows about his motivations and innermost thoughts.

Some bigot posted:

Thinks its sad that we cant celebrate Christmas at school anymore. Now they want to stop playing OUR national anthem at morning assembly, cause it might upset some religious families. THIS IS CANADA...OUR SOLDIERS DIED UNDER OUR FLAG & ANTHEM TO FIGHT FOR OUR WAY OF LIFE! If they are so offended by the way our country was raised please feel free to go back to where u came from! ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!
We are not going to other countries and demanding to be treated as we are here in Canada, we accept your rules/laws. Yes Canada is a multi-cultural society and we are tolerant but the tolerance will run out. You have had us take the lord's prayer from schools in a country founded on CHRISTIANITY, Now you want to stop OUR National Anthem? Guess what my tolerance level is at the limit. I say we stop
allowing you to wear your "traditional clothes" this includes head pieces. No taking time out of your work day to observe your religion. If you can't agree with this then Canada is not the country for you to live, pack your bags and Buh Bye.

Huge Liability posted:

A fellow Canadian just posted this. I'm 99% sure it was originally written about America and someone just lazily replaced every instance of the word 'America' with 'Canada.' I mean, this is the first time I've ever even heard someone suggest that Canada is a Christian nation.


Do people even read this poo poo before sharing it with everyone? It'd be hilarious if it weren't so disgusting.

Zwabu posted:

The "vetting" and "I don't just know about him" stuff is irrelevant now. Dude has been president for a a few years. The whole point of the Ayers type stuff is to suggest that he might actually enact Sharia law and enslave all God fearing Americans and turn over the country to the Marxist Musim cabal, should he become president. That stuff hasn't happened.

Sarion posted:

Yeah that sounds more like an American post than Canadian. Plus, last I checked it wasn't foreigners asking for prayer to be taken out of school. Not really sure where the anthem thing comes from. I think a lot of times they just pass poo poo around on the assumption that if part of it is true like minded individuals will get all riled up and assume the rest is true.

Oh wait, that's exactly what they do.