Tuesday, May 13, 2008

A clarification.

Wrt the "open letter" post. Perhaps I did not communicate my thesis as well as I might have done. Let me try to explain more clearly and succinctly:

I HATE CAPITAL P ELECTORAL POLITICS, I REALLY FUCKING HATE THIS PRIMARY SEASON, AND MOSTLY RIGHT NOW I HATE YOU ALL. -flaps hand irritably in general direction of irritating people-

'K?

I don't actually hate Hillary. I don't -know- Hillary. That's kind of, you know, the point. She's not my bestest buddy. She's not gonna get me a job or a girlfriend or a golden ticket through the glass ceiling to the top of the heap. She's not my fairy feminist godmother, gonna wave a wand and make my (for I am, indeed, Every Woman) life all better. NONE of the candidates are. We know this, as nice sensible rational non-sheeple, kee-rect?

I mean, this is why, when I go to read a nice, sensible person who's very concerned about the impending crypto-fundie-fascism of the "Obamabots" (yes, I'm sure they're really terrible TOO, I don't CARE, I didn't even mean to look THIS far, and Tom? so gonna KICK YOUR ASS for making me look)--she has this list, right, wherein she says,

The seeds of the new progressive blogosphere

A list is taking shape of those political bloggers who are either pro-Hillary or at least fair in their coverage of the candidates — in other words, bloggers who aren’t raving Clinton-hating Obamabots. Versions of this emerging blogroll are popping up here and there; the one below is cobbled together from lists at Tennessee Guerilla Women, The Hillary 1000, and a couple of other places.

Why does this list matter? It’s not merely a question of knowing where to go for misogyny-free political commentary. These are the seeds of a new progressive blogosphere in the making. The Obamabots are poisoning the original netroots, transforming what used to be an arena for progressive politics into nothing more than a rabid, mindless He-Man Woman-Haters club. The Democratic Party — or at least the high-visibility Obamabot segment — is morphing into the Young Republicans: all the misogyny and callowness and ignorance and blind hero-worship of the old GOP, but with a self-congratulatory aura of imaginary cool to make the YouTube generation feel at home.

And where does that leave the women of America?


...so, I click at random on a link from the list, right, and this is what I immediately run into:

http://alwaysforhillary.blogspot.com/


This is my blog on campaigning for and supporting Hillary Clinton for President! I firmly believe she is the most intelligent, qualified, and experienced "person" running and the fact she is a woman is just icing on the cake!

Wednesday, May 7, 2008
I'M SEETHING!!!! I'M ANGRY!!!!

Last night, Hillary won Indiana where Obama won North Carolina. Indiana was a state his campaign predicted they would win by at least 7 points. Well, because Hillary only won Indiana by 2 points, the pundits and media have AGAIN COUNTED HILLARY OUT AND LEFT HER FOR DEAD!!!! They are saying the nomination is over and Obama will be the nominee. He may well turn out to be the nominee, but this is at least the 4th or 5th time throughout this campaign, that Hillary's political demise has been delivered!!! Today George McGovern who supported Hillary early on in the campaign, for him both Bill and Hillary campaigned for him for president in the 70's, has now called on Hillary PUBLICLY TO GET OUT OF THE RACE and he has switched his support to Obama!!! I am SO ANGRY; I AM SEETHING!!!!!

Hillary is the most admirable woman in the world!!! As this campaign has progressed, my admiration and love for her as deepened day by day, month by month. After being counted out time after time, she STILL GETS UP EVERY DAY and goes out there and campaigns. This is a woman who has again lent her campaign another $6 million so she can be competitive with Obama!! Doesn't the fact she has loaned her campaign over $11 million already, and is willing to give more, SHOW HOW PASSIONATE SHE IS TO HELP THIS COUNTRY?????

I just made by upteenth call to the DNC. I told them how ANGRY I was; how I was SEETHING!!! I said Hillary won Indiana last night and all I'm hearing is how she should get out of the race; the race is over, "she's toast", etc. I told them that I had said all along that I WOULD NEVER VOTE FOR OBAMA BUT THAT I WOULD WRITE IN HILLARY'S NAME, but I have gone one step further. I am SO ANGRY that I have decided if Hillary does not get the nomination which she deserves and has earned, I WILL VOTE FOR MC CAIN!!!!! And that goes against everything I believe in, but at least I RESPECT MC CAIN! I DO NOT RESPECT OBAMA!!! I DO NOT TRUST OBAMA!!!! I THINK OBAMA WOULD BE TERRIBLY DANGEROUS FOR THIS COUNTRY!!!

In both states last night, 50% of Hillary's supporters said THEY WOULD NOT VOTE FOR OBAMA!!! They will either vote for McCain or not vote at all. I am not giving up yet. Hillary is a FIGHTER and she might still have some tricks up her sleeve. I PRAY SHE WILL STILL WIN THIS NOMINATION. I want to vote for the person I believe in!! I want to vote for the person who will be great for this country!!! I want to vote for the person who will be a GREAT PRESIDENT!!! I WANT TO VOTE FOR HILLARY CLINTON!!!!!!!!!!!


***

I'm not sure, but I think she's saying that she's for Hillary, there.

"Where does this leave the women of America?"

Well, I can't speak for the rest of 'em, but THIS woman is left rolling her eyes so hard they've fallen down the back of me.

Jesus fuck, can't these people indulge their passions in something -healthy-, like, I don't know, Harry Potter fandom or something? This person is 55? and she sounds like a rabid Harmonian (no, don't ask me how I even know about this shit, really).

ZOMG BILLARY 4EVER!!!ELEVENTYBEEP!!...

I mean, I -was- going to say something a bit more in-depth about, well...back to Violet, because there's some shit to unpack that I find interesting, here:

Well, first of all, she links to this endorsement of Obama, with the following accompanying photo:



And, well, yeah, that is rather creepy. At minimum: seriously naff. Vote for Obama and Thomas Kincade will give us all a unicorn? What? And as the first commenter notes:

The only problem with the picture you have of Obama is that he is not walking on top of the water.

So, Violet has some commentary, and some of it I do agree with, in fact, this bit:

Barack Obama is not a creep or a vicious little man. He is, however, a canny politician, and not even a particularly honest one. He’s a product of the Chicago machine, and he’s played as dirty as anybody. His whole career, going back to the moment he graduated from Harvard Law, has been focused on one thing: his own advancement. The elaborate advertising campaign that’s selling him to the gullible masses as some kind of savior is just that — an advertising campaign.


Agreed. He's a canny politician, for better or for worse. It's looking increasingly like he just might be even cannier than Hillary, and this is why, in fact, he's edging her out. It may or may not be that he's the better candidate. Me, I still think in a number of ways it's a coin-toss. Depends on the issue, what time of day you ask me, and how arsed I can be to actually go know what the fuck I'm talking about.

As for "not particularly honest:" well, again, haven't been following the play by play much this time so can't really comment, but I will say with some rather glibly cynical confidence that "___ is not a particularly honest politician" is a truism on the level of "the Atlantic is not a particularly dry ocean."

What I -do- think is

a) either one of them is way WAY better than McCain, and I still will vote for whoever actually wins the nomination, assuming this ever fucking ends

b) neither one is exactly ideal and both have made me :headdesk: a number of times

c) actually? a little canninesss and charisma are not, perhaps, such bad things, in a politician. I mean to say, it'd be a refreshing change from our current dumbass arrogant motherfuckers, who simply rode as far as they could on nepotism and deluded arrogance and Rovian levels of dirty fuckery, and simply -bludgeoned- the rest of their way, Vogon-like, as far as they could go, domestically -and- internationally; and, well, check out the results. "We're soaking in it."

Hell, it's why I supported Clinton's husband in the damn first place. Rather eerily similar mix of personal charm, either inspiring or nauseatingly saccharine, depending on your purview, appeals to "hope," apparent genuine better-than-the-other-guyness and disappointing sellouts; and, yep, canny, even oleaginous, as all fuck, no doubt. It's what made him good at what he did, see, in large part: charm and canniness HELP when you're trying to persuade people to pass your bill or put down the large nuclear weapon. It -can- be used to get people to drink the Koolaid or join the Hitlerjugend too, yes. But it doesn't have to be. And without it, well, basically...you're Ralph Nader.

There was, for me, with Bill, a tipping point where I just couldn't muster up any enthusiasm anymore--this was well into his actual tenure--but I never had any illusions that he was, y'know, Holy Savior On A White Unicorn. And if anyone -really- did, to the point of actual -worship-, well...more fool they, I suppose.

That said, though, well: okay. We're not just rolling our eyes at this pic, apparently, we're supposed to, what, see this kind of generic poli-fanboy kitsch as a threat to humanist democracy, because:

Obamamania gives liberals the opportunity to surrender to the same mindless hero-worship as Republicans. That’s really the deal. George W. Bush is, in actuality, a creep. A vicious little man. But he was marketed as a Man of Honor, a Man of God — and people fell for it. Because they wanted to, because they were ripe for that kind of pseudo-religious surrender.

...We are a nation of consumers, of believers, of dupes. Maybe we don’t deserve democracy anymore.


You know, there's more to say about the not-so-subtext--there's an actual texty quote I had to this effect, by someone else of similar politics, elsewhere--about this tendency about let's say a certain demographic of people, I think more on the more or less "traditional" left, perhaps, to look at anything smacking of actual religion/faith with deep suspicion, how it ALL must be scary fundieism; and how indeed this fear of fundamentalist demagoguery ties into the mistrust of, well, again, charisma.

But it's more than my frazzled attention span can manage at the moment, it's a longer post than I've already got here anyway. Besides, the conclusion I'm stumbling toward, i.e. actually "the spirit," let's say very generally, is a GOOD thing, a HUMAN thing, and if the left doesn't acknowledge this um...well, what -are- we talking about? appeal to faith, hope and charity? theatre and spectacle and ritual and all things associated with religion as well as humbug? the wisdom of crowds?...but rather insists we must do away with it altogether, well, THAT'S when you get your Hitlers and other false prophets. It's not a question of needing to believe so and so really IS the Messiah; you're right, literally putting that on any human being IS a bad thing, that's what fundamentalism IS, the over-literalization of all...this; it is however a question of, no, we're -not- all just-the-facts-ma'am, it's not how we're built, and it's better to work with it consciously than rail about what stupid unevolved sheep we all are...something like that.

...anyway, well, let's just say the -philosophical- tone I was gonna take with -that- post, which is indeed a separate post I think, much less "why yes, having faith in -something-, especially one's fellow human critter, is a -good- thing in a leader and a political movement," sits rather uneasily with my current mood of FUCK ALL Y'ALL, YOU'RE ALL TERMINALLY ANNOYING MYOPIC BASTARD PEOPLE AND I HATE YOU SO BAD.

It'll pass.

Anyway.

So let's just take this thesis of Violet's on its face for now, okay, that Obama-Kitsch-person is a representative of all that's bad and scary about THEM, you know, the Obama people, and we must turn to the sane sober -smart- people who are NOT prone to mindless worship to save us from ourselves, i.e...the Hillary supporters.

Like this person.

Hillary is the most admirable woman in the world!!! As this campaign has progressed, my admiration and love for her as deepened day by day, month by month. After being counted out time after time, she STILL GETS UP EVERY DAY and goes out there and campaigns. This is a woman who has again lent her campaign another $6 million so she can be competitive with Obama!! Doesn't the fact she has loaned her campaign over $11 million already, and is willing to give more, SHOW HOW PASSIONATE SHE IS TO HELP THIS COUNTRY?????


Well. Okay then!! I'm convinced!! Sign me up for my full quota of exclamation points!!!!! -thumbs up-

Did I mention the part about oh GOD will the LOT of you SHUT THE FUCK UP ALREADY? I may have, once or twice.

And finally, here's the part which really fucks me off, okay:

These people who are all like, nnnghh rrrggghhh HILLARY (or OBAMA I suppose, someone must be doing this somewhere, NO don't show me) OR BUST n i'll VOTE FOR THE REPUBLICAN or stay home and BITE MY PILLOW! ?

are, in many cases the VERY SAME PEOPLE who four years ago (remember?) were all like,

ZOMG BUSH CAN'T WIN AGAIN IT'S THE END OF THE WORLD THE LAST LATE CHANCE FUCK YOU YOU NADER FUCKERS FOR RUINING EVERYTHING IF HE DOES WIN OMG HE DID WIN O DESPAIR DESPAIR WE'RE ALL DOOOOOOOMED FOREVERRRRRRRRRRRRRRR it's the end of democracy and Western Civ and puppies and EVERYTHING.

Remember this?

And you know? I kind of bought it, for a while. Maybe I was right to, even. I mean, we DO live on a Hellmouth, more or less; we just kind of, what, get used to it? Something. Fuck knows there are a bunch of people in the Middle East who are a lot more dead than they probably would've been if someone who wasn't totally in bed with the neocons, the theocons, and their daddies' pals in the Awl Bidness had been in office. (Which is not to say that there still wouldn't have been a body count; yes, I am well aware Bill Clinton was not exactly a bomb-free gift to the Iraqis or a bunch of other people either, yes) Plus a bunch of other -specifics- that I'm too lazy and shallow to get into at the moment, but hey join the club there. And fuck knows Nader sucks, yes.

And yet. So now, though, here we are again, four years later, and YEAH, for a lot of people the world DID end, same as it always has cause garsh, there's more to U.S. policy and politics and well LIFE than you imagined, Horatio, and more people in the world, too, but well never mind;

But fact is, the world still continues to turn, more or less, against all odds, and now oh look just in time for election season (which I KNOW some of these same people screaming about their primary candidate now were swearing upndown we'd never have one again at ALL after '04), it's yet ANOTHER fucking crisis.

No, the world won't even probably end as such if McCain wins either, or not -just- BECAUSE McCain wins instead of the Democrat. Although I DO think it'll be pretty bad for a lot of people in ways that it wouldn't be otherwise, yes, and I plan to write more about this henceforth. And no, it won't be all roses for everyone if either HRC or Obama wins either. Absolutely.

But. Here's the point: whom do you imagine is most going to feel the immediate impact of the -actual policies- enacted by the -actual whoever is voted in, o flag-waving peanut gallery? You? I wonder. Because, well, four years after the last OMG THE SKY IS FALLING, well, here you all are again, more or less, gearing up for the NEXT test match, threatening imminent doom and/or hara-kiri if your candidate doesn't WIN DAMMIT, all sound and fury and signifying not a whole fuck of a lot, quite frankly.

Which leads one, finally, to the question:

Why get all het up over the CANDIDATES so much more than the ISSUES? (whatever they were again?)

Well...it's more fun and it's sexier, and fuck knows it's -hard work- to pay attention to the issues. Hey, guilty as charged right here.

But for the love of little plastic baubles, do NOT try to sell me YOUR political fandom as the ONE TRUE SHIP while at the same time handwringing about all those OTHER terrible people who just don't -understand- what's at stake here, unlike you, o enlightened, -serious- person.

As for this?

Maybe we don’t deserve democracy anymore.

Speak for your damn self. And, piss off with the damn Twilight of Western Civ elegies, T.S. Eloise, I -hate- that shit. Include me out with your -we-, and don't tell me what I -deserve-.

I don't know -what- "we," or even I, deserve, to be perfectly honest. I know what I -want-, but that may not be what I -deserve-. And to some degree, well, karma will wreak its justice, and them's the breaks.

What I -can- control, however, is whether or not I continue to hurt my brain by tuning into this crap.

I don't -think- I deserve it (glares at Tom). I know I don't -want- to.

So, I...won't.

Off to cultivate my garden, or some goddam thing, at least till the next outrage I get caught up in (checks watch)

***

ETA: Let me be a little clearer about one last thing, also. I am not actually saying she should drop out before the last few primary state elections straggle to the end, no. Not at this late date. That would not be reasonable.

What I AM saying is, the suggestions that at the end of those, even if she's in the red in delegates, superdelegates, AND money, she's still gonna plug away at Michigan and Florida and maybe fuck me dead even run as an independent after the nomination (no, I don't think she'd go that far, but there WAS fucking Lieberman, not the same I know, but...)

Again. The last. fucking. thing. anyone wants. is to have a prolonged drag out fight. over a technicality. in FLORIDA.

Please, God? Please? PLEEEASSSEEEEE

41 comments:

Anonymous said...

I forget who it was who said, "Democracy is the theory that the people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard".

belledame222 said...

Yeah, but the thing is, it's like, YOU/THEY are all mindless sheep because you can't see things MY WAY, most of the time? certainly with this particular bullshit.

and it's like: y'know, well if one feels that way, okay, but then don't turn around and go how so and so really CARES and is the REAL Voice of Democracy, because you've just made it clear that you have contempt for the, what is it now? 'bots? sheeple? suckers? Um...what's wrong with this picture?

billie said...

i can't for the life of me figure out why anyone thinks voting for president matters a tinker's dam anyway- the people don't directly elect the president. the electoral college does. congress matters- as does the presidential race- because those are the people making obscene profits from the iraq war- they are the ones taking gifts from the corporate lobbyists- and they make our laws. contrary to the bush/cheney method of signing statements. i happen to have landed as an obama supporter because he was like my 4th choice. i won't vote for clinton on principle- but if i don't vote for her- i won't vote for anyone. i will withhold. it won't matter in the grander scheme of things because i am from new york. i have effectively checked out of the election process and all of the hoopla until november.

belledame222 said...

I think it matters at least somewhat; but it is difficult to tease out the actually relevant shit from the Monday morning quarterbacking.

I mean, this is the thing, right? You'd think it was so deathly important because of what these people will DO; but then you remember, oh wait, people get into fights unto the death over their favorite sports team and all kinds of shit that has -nothing at stake except the symbolism and the game itself.-

Anonymous said...

It's a bit over the top to be sure with the potus candidate camp wars. I was hoping you'd take a shot at the Haka posts that reclusiveleftist posted. You've been on fire with spotting trouble with stuff like that.

belledame222 said...

hey, welcome, rosalba.

I started to look at the haka thing and my brain dribbled out my ears, I'm afraid. and I was already overdoing it with the caps here anyway, and it was getting long. but, well, yeah, there is that, too, isn't there. aiyieeeeeeeee

Anonymous said...

I love you.

that is all.

CrackerLilo said...

I think I understand well enough. :-)

That painting--eeewwwwwww, embarrassing. I never expected much from Obama besides "a few ticks smarter and less embarrassing that GWB," so I wasn't at all disappointed to learn that he is, you know, a politician. Also, I think he and Michelle won't steal furnishings out of the White House that aren't theirs when they leave.

If Hillary's "the most admirable woman in the world!!!!!", may I and mine always be horrible.

Don't worry. Convention's in June. Maybe the Democrats will warm up to my steel cage wrestling for the nomination idea by then. :-)

belledame222 said...

It WOULD be more entertaining. But so wait, what's August 25th then?

SunflowerP said...

That "alwaysforhillary" bit - if she hadn't specified, I'd have wondered which Hillary. (I seem to recall Ms Duff spells her name with one L, but I could easily be mistaken.)

Sunflower

belledame222 said...

-snort- sadly, yes.

Anonymous said...

I think it's less that many people on the left in the US are deathly afraid of anything possibly resembling religion, and more of the same tribalism that tends to make religion dangerous in the first place. They've identified themselves with characteristics x, y, and z, anyone who doesn't have all three is a potential enemy. Certainly doesn't help that the MSM propagates idiotic stereotypes of what is politically left (and to a lesser extent politically right).

belledame222 said...

Well--that's the more nuanced take on it, yes, and one I'd more likely agree with. There is a fair amount of knee-jerk anti-religious sentiment, though. Besides which, well, per that other post, there's this sort of...anti "charisma," which is not limited to anti-religion and in fact is sometimes also voiced by your more sober/disapproving sort of religious person as well.

It's complicated, though. Like I said: I can't really do it all justice at the moment, it'll take some teasing out.

belledame222 said...

I guess what I'd say to what you call "tribalism:" there's this book I'm reading at the moment called "The Fundamentalist Mind," which I also can't do justice at the moment, but has as its basic thesis--well, a couple of things, including a biopsych delving into how the fundamentalist mindset comes about. More to the point here, though, it makes the case that the real problem isn't the -content- of the beliefs, it's the over-literalization of the dogma, the black and white thinking, which is -not- limited to religion as such.

Which you may think is obvious, but there are a number of people that are pretty firmly convinced that it's the supernatural element that's the problem, or the main problem.

Which is a problem among the really hardline such people in recognizing when some other doctrine has become fundamentalist. More to the point of what I was getting at here, I think that it tends to lead a lot of people to write off and/or mistrust the religious left. They forget that MLK was a preacher. Which is not to say that anyone -here- is the next MLK, just: it's not a coincidence that he was a preacher, or that the power and organziation of his movement came in large part from the churches.

belledame222 said...

but I mean, well, again, per tribalism: the two examples I was using here, right? Why is embarrassingly twee Obama-walks-on-water guy -scarier- than embarrassingly twee "Hillary is the most admirable woman in the WORLD!!" woman? I mean, yes, obviously, you can just say, well, the person who's saying so is very partisan herownself and that's enough;

fact is, though, the person who's saying that (VS, not the alwaysforHillary person) is, well, among other things, fond of the Twistyism "godbag," and...I don't want to make it all about her, okay, but I know enough about where she's coming from that I think a good part of why she's suspicious of Obama is the religious appeal. (I am deliberately putting aside the "haka" business and what -else- I know of her purview from past encounters, because, I just don't wanna right now). Point being, there is in fact a fair amount of that about.

meanwhile of course he's being painted among a lot of devout churchgoers as a scary Moslem; and there's the race-baiting and the "too foreign" baiting and so on; so, yeah, work cut out, here.

Anonymous said...

I think we're pretty much in agreement (though I don't think I'm as good at articulating my ideas as you, ah well).

Yeah, it really *usually* isn't the content of people's religious (and otherwise) beliefs that are the problem, but more the tendency of some people to identify themselves with (err...that's probably not the term I was looking for) that belief to the extent that even the merest possibility that some part of that belief isn't factually correct becomes a threat to them as a person instead of a part of their belief that isn't supported by fact. And from that they then do whatever they deem necessary to prevent the...uhh...deconstruction (?) of their beliefs/them as a person.

For religious people this takes the unfortunate form of repressive fundamentalist societies which follow the proscriptions of their chosen religion to the letter. In the case of the members of political left in the US that we're talking about it takes the form of really...weirdly out of place seeming idol worship (like the wacky Obama/Hillary boosters) and weirdly jingoistic paranoia (like the radfem blogger who got me started looking further into the divisions in the feminist community which I had previously been blissfully ignorant of, but oh thank goodness was there to enlighten me by being full of crazy and calling Joss Whedon a serial rapist :rolleyes:...but that's a tangent)

Uh...anyway, yeah, pretty much I agree with you.

Anonymous said...

Though that Obama pic is HAWT111

belledame222 said...

oh yah, the Joss Whedon is a rapist person, she's, well, that was truly special, that one...

belledame222 said...

-snort- yeah, and the pony's not bad either.

Anonymous said...

I think it's actually a unicorn.
-snicker-

belledame222 said...

ah yes. well, it's perfectly lovely, regardless.

Fidelbogen said...

"Certainly doesn't help that the MSM propagates idiotic stereotypes of what is politically left (and to a lesser extent politically right)."

Sigh! If only it were so simple. Unfortunately, now that we are living in the cyberspace info-age, we get our reality in an a more unfiltered form, straight from the pump! Meaning, that people speak directly in their own voices, which quickly blows away the stereotypifications because you can plainly & directly SEE just EXACTLY what they are, with examples repeated ad infinitum -- or at least to the limit of your search capacity!

And. . surprise, surprise! That is when you learn precisely how much TRUTH those stereotypes really DO CONTAIN! So really, are the stereotypes "idiotic" by reason of inherent untruthfulness, or by reason of depicting people as idiots?? A subtle distinction, to be sure, yet worthy to be borne in mind.

(My theory is, that stereotypes represent the ding-an-sich of the zeitgeist at any given point in history -- the ruling stylistic template, as it were! And no sooner do you smash the old ones than the new ones emerge from the wreckage, to put reality on lockdown in a new way that is equally. . . stereotypical!)

Kristen said...

I think I will personally go out and strangle any feminist* dem who votes for McCain.

McCain is campaigning on a platform of overturning Roe v. Wade.

So these feminists are going to hand over all the progress that was made in the last 50 years because their pissed that their pet candidate didn't get the nom?

Infuriating.

*I guess if you're one of those - I don't care about abortion rights, I won't blame you...on second thought...maybe I should just go and strangle them too...on principle.

belledame222 said...

McCain is campaigning on a platform of overturning Roe v. Wade.

And Obama has a 100% rating by NARAL, voted against the partial-birth abortion thing and the minors-crossing-state-lines bill, among others, but hey, details.

Anonymous said...

NARAL endorsed Obama today, another sign the race is settled.

belledame222 said...

ouch. that's gotta burn.

Anonymous said...

My theory is, that stereotypes represent the ding-an-sich of the zeitgeist at any given point in history -- the ruling stylistic template, as it were!

Explain.

belledame222 said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
belledame222 said...

"never mind."

thought you were quoting R Mildred there.

whereas NOW it totally makes sense, of course.

uh...yeah. *blinks at it*

Anonymous said...

I just checked Fidelbogen's blog. I think he might have been pulling our plonkers.

CrackerLilo said...

Damn it, I was just trying to "speed up time" again, like I always do when things get unpleasant. *blush*

But at least there will be no more primaries after June, and I get a couple more months to convince the DNC of the virtues of my idea!

The gynecologist comment--HA! :-D

Anonymous said...

Totally agree with your post. I find I have burned out on not just the primary, but the blogosphere in general. So much more heat than light most everywhere.

At least here, you provide a provocative balance of both. Plus I love your take on most things – and that you're far from predictable. I have to actually read you to know what you think.

Thanks for sharing your crazy smart thoughts with us.

SunflowerP said...

Ohma:

"like the radfem blogger who got me started looking further into the divisions in the feminist community which I had previously been blissfully ignorant of, but oh thank goodness was there to enlighten me by being full of crazy and calling Joss Whedon a serial rapist :rolleyes:"

If it makes you feel any better, she doesn't really demarcate a serious internal fracture point; she's pretty widely known as a FemiCrazy. I suspect even the radder-than-thou militants don't take her seriously - it helps, with that contingent, to actually get what Dworkin was saying, and she doesn't.

But, yeah, there are divisions, some of them ideological divergences, some of them territorial pissing contests.

Sunflower

belledame222 said...

db11--thanks. :)

belledame222 said...

kh: yeah, apparently there is some more wailing and gnashing of teeth at feministe and such, which I can't really go look at at the moment.

also, Edwards endorsed him. yeah, I think it's all over but the shouting.

And it's like, look, if it's a question of pride or not fucking off the people who WANTED TO VOTE FOR HILLARY DAMMIT, okay, no problem, stay the course through the last few primaries in June.

But it'd be really nice for everyone if she could, you know, between the lines of "no really, I'm not beaten," kinda switch over from attacking him to going after McCain, or at least being a bit more y'know positive, since he's already clearly acting as though he's in the general.

Also--so, apparently, even if they go ahead and count Michigan and Florida, the numbers still can't possibly add up.

Which, I guess then the question is, how much noise is gonna be made over this. I mean, on the one hand, it seems kind of silly if it's just a gesture, but if it's an important one, fine, whatever, I'd think Obama would go along with it also.

If it'd possibly be a tipover of her into the winning numbers, well, it'd be worth going to the mat for from -her- perspective, although it'd suck for pretty much everyone else because it'd mean the whole thing was FUBAR as the days and weeks and months ticked on. But, it sounds like there's no way it can be.

So, I am -hoping- at this point that all the noise about "yeah! she should run as an independent!" is mostly impotent fangirl/boi wankage, because, well, she'd be a plonker of such proportions as to make Lieberman and Nader rolled into one look like pikers. and that please Maud it'll roll to a stop in the next few weeks and we can transition into getting ON with the real show, here.

belledame222 said...

...not that i would attempt to convince the Faithful, of course. jay-suss.

http://hillarysvoice.reclusiveleftist.com/2008/05/07/why-i-will-not-vote-for-obama-even-if-hes-the-nominee-and-why-you-shouldnt-either/

"Imagine" a world where blatant racism was okay? Which world is it that these people are actually living in? and, okay, even assuming that all this is on the level: somehow, we're supposed to buy that Obama winning will be SO MUCH WORSE for women than ANYTHING the Democratic party did that it's even worth risking McCain, you know, it's not like there was any sexism BEFORE...

"so there!"

Give me a fucking BREAK.

Renegade Evolution said...

i don't want to vote for anyone at this point. Sick of it, I am, and I voted for Obama in the primary here (Mr. E voted for Clinton, so, yeah, but...)

i think I am going to write in Jesse Ventura.

belledame222 said...

dude, o.k. just, I don't think he's/protest vote's really gonna help with the whole reproductive freedom thing or any of the rest of it either. just sayin'. do what thou wilt and all.

Anonymous said...

The picture of Obama is hilarious!
I am just getting into your blog, don't know how I found ya, but I like your style.
Peace,
Black Missouri
(yeah, there are black people in missouri *shock*)

belledame222 said...

Hey, welcome BM, and thanks.

Anonymous said...

production Take a piece of me