Burrito Boy

Nah, I was pointing out that the people involved here are much closer to being actual Nazis​. No insult intended. I don't throw the word around casually. Generally the people I describe as racist, fascist or Nazi are pretty close to the genuine article*.

 

(*though I'd note that racial biases and prejudices are better thought of as a spectrum(0-255) than as a binary construct(1 or 0).)

Okay. Sorry for jumping to conclusions again.

Personally, I would set the spectrum at 0-500, but otherwise I think we're good here.

I think the appearance of actual ​neo-nazis, white supremacists, etc. affords a wonderful opportunity for those on the right to create that separation and make that distinction--"We don't support those guys, those guys are a-holes and we're not white supremacists, etc." That's an easy layup. Thus far, unfortunately, the current president has failed to seize that opportunity, while plenty of Republican pols have, including Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz.

Is your emphasis on the word actual a sarcastic reference to my saying "actual Nazis" in a previous post? I used that phrase because you used the word Nazi in your earlier post, not the term Neo-Nazi. I assumed you were using the word the way it's used so often recently--as a slur against anybody with opposing views. It seems like everybody is a Nazi these days. There are soup Nazis, grammar Nazis, and so on. Then you have people calling the president Hitler. George Bush is Hitler. Barack Obama is Hitler. Donald Trump is Hitler. The words Nazi and Hitler have been thrown around so much in recent years that they're losing their meaning and belittling the enormity of what the Nazis did. Which is why I made the distinction between "Nazis" as the word is commonly used and "actual Nazis". It was stupid of me not to realize Neo-Nazis were also involved when the KKK was present and I apologize for assuming that you were using the word Nazi simply as a pejorative. However, if you were making a sly attempt at insulting me, I'd appreciate it if you would stop.

Sure, but to put things in perspective, they're much smaller and less overtly violent and eliminationist than their melanin-deficient counterparts.

They may not have the same history that the KKK has...

Even the Nazis are not as unique as many people assume. Their industrial approach to genocide was certainly unprecedented; but if you look at the even greater numbers of their own people the Stalinist regime in the Soviet Union murdered at roughly the same time, and the methods they used, there's a lot that's comparable.

 

The Twentieth Century set a new high (or low) for the efficient application of mass barbarism.

I thought about that after I posted. Not only about Stalin but also Pol Pot.

Fair, but Black Lives Matter is not a black supremacist group by any stretch of the imagination.

I never said that they are. I simply stated that black supremacist groups exist.

I can agree that actual Nazis were their own special category. The Holocaust qualifies them for that. I will not put white supremacists in a special category when there are also black supremacist groups. They may not have the same history that the KKK has but the ideology is similar. Racism is not exclusive to whites.

When you're going through a crisis, I stay on the phone with you for hours, listening to you and giving you advice. When I'm having a hard time you "let me go so I can keep processing what I'm processing". Why are we still friends?

I can't even wrap my head around what's going on in Charlottesville.

 

We freak out when ISIS does these things overseas, and then we turn around we do them to each other here in America.

 

There just aren't words for how sad that is.

The fact that we do these things to each other is a good point. Both sides have their problems. When I read comments on Facebook (Yeah, I know I should never read the comments.), it isn't just liberals talking trash about conservatives or just conservatives talking trash about liberals. People on both sides throw around insults like "snowflake" and several people think that the childish misspelling of Trump and Obama's names is clever. And neither side is innocent of violence. We all know the history of the KKK. Their legacy is a brutal one of lynching and murder. Then, as Michael Hopcroft mentioned, you have people shooting at Black Lives Matter protesters. On the other hand, you have Black Lives Matter protesters chanting that they want dead cops and the ambush and murder of five police officers during a BLM protest in Dallas. And you have Antifa calling for violence against Trump suporters. As DShomshak said, it's become hard to tell which side is which.

Which song do you think is more popular?

I call dibs on Captain Caveman.

Damn. Beat me to it.

Brain

Clemenstein

("Oh My Darling, Clementine" and Frankenstein)

Babatar

(Babar crossed with Avatar.)

I tried to get into both of those shows and they were terrible. One episode of each was more than enough for me.

One of the greatest comforts in life is knowing that all those hours of listening to Hendrix weren't wasted. He didn't mean to take up all my sweet time. He'll give it right back to me one of these days.

She lost me at Robocop

[Pedantic nerd]Robocop is a cyborg. [/Pedantic nerd]

I hate all robots in Science Fiction Television and Movies with the exceptions of Lexi Doig and Brandy Ledford in Andromeda.

Even Bender? Even Marvin? Even Wall-E? Even Robby? Even Gort? Even Johnny Five?

(I could do this all day but I'll stop now for the sake of everyone's sanity.)

I can't believe I just defended Al Gore! But since I was defending his right to free speech and not what he actually says, I can sleep easy tonight.

Courtesy of autocorrect: Dalmatian Alley.

"One good thing about having a bad hip is that I kind of walk like John Wayne now."

I went dumpster diving today and salvaged a few hundred feet of barbed wire.

Robert Jordan? Wheel of Time?

 

No thank you.

High five!

Hmmm. We've agreed on a couple of things lately. Could it be that we were separated at birth? Could our rivalry be... sibling rivalry?

I think Isaac Asimov and Arthur C. Clarke are hacks. I've only read one Asimov short story that I liked--"The Bicentennial Man"--and one Asimov novel that I liked--The Caves of Steel. I haven't read anything by Clarke that I enjoyed. In fact, 2061: Odyssey Three is on my list of worst books ever because Clarke takes some amazing ideas and makes them dull and boring.

More recently, I don't get the hype surrounding Neil Gaiman. I loved the movie Stardust so I decided to read the book. I got two or three pages in before the stilted writing style overwhelmed me and I had to run to the bathroom to puke. Seems to me that he's another writer with great ideas and poor execution.

Abstinence is the only way of making sure you don't get infected by this show.

Clay