![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
I like to call them Billionaire Neckties.
Aug. 24th, 2024 03:04 am
(Image is of a pink guillotine, with text reading "Reward them for the world they created.")
(Image is of a pink guillotine, with text reading "Reward them for the world they created.")
Faulty logic
Jan. 29th, 2018 09:28 pmOn Tumblr, there was a post that said the following:
Original post: How could you be against free college. Like if I think about student loans for more than a few minutes I think about jumping off a cliff have some pity damn
Some jackass: Because hundreds of thousands of people have already paid for their tuition. Should they be reimbursed? It’s not fair to the people who have already paid/ are paying for college.
My comment: Well oh boy maybe I'll start killing people's pets and skinning them to make into fur coats. When people tell me to stop for the sake of the animals I haven't killed, I'll be like "I can't stop killing pets and making them into fur coats, it's not fair to the animals I've already killed and made into fur coats."
Original post: How could you be against free college. Like if I think about student loans for more than a few minutes I think about jumping off a cliff have some pity damn
Some jackass: Because hundreds of thousands of people have already paid for their tuition. Should they be reimbursed? It’s not fair to the people who have already paid/ are paying for college.
My comment: Well oh boy maybe I'll start killing people's pets and skinning them to make into fur coats. When people tell me to stop for the sake of the animals I haven't killed, I'll be like "I can't stop killing pets and making them into fur coats, it's not fair to the animals I've already killed and made into fur coats."
There can be no debate on this.
Jun. 14th, 2017 07:30 pmIf you are not an anti-capitalist, then you either have no compassion and no soul, or you are extremely ignorant about capitalism. Capitalism cannot be redeemed, cannot be reformed.
Capitalism needs the poor and the homeless to function at all, and if you think there's ever a good reason for someone to be poor or homeless, you have no bloody compassion and you deserve my contempt and the contempt of every decent human being ever.
Capitalism needs theft and exploitation of workers to function at all, and there is no possible way to change that. Increasing the minimum wage to a living wage is a nice stopgap measure, the equivalent of putting your finger in a hole in a dam to keep it from collapsing and drowning everyone for a little while. Except that's not the best metaphor, either, because dams can be replaced or refurbished, while there's nothing anyone can do to make capitalism anything other than a violent system of exploitation, oppression, and class warfare.
If you think it's a good thing, or a natural thing, for some people to steal from other people and call it being an employer, especially if they then hoard so much money that they personally have more money than a family of four could spend in two or even three entire lifetimes, then I don't like you, and I never will.
If you defend the oppressive one-percenters, if you defend capitalism, then I consider you either ignorant or immoral or both.
If you look at a poor person or a homeless person and say they deserve what they got, if you call them lazy, if you think there's ever any reason why someone should not deserve to eat and have shelter and have access to clean drinking water, then I consider you immoral and possibly even evil.
If you're in favor of defunding welfare programs that help keep struggling people alive, then you are an immoral and evil person. If you are someone who has voted to defund welfare programs, you as bad as a mass murderer and deserve to rot in prison.
If you support evicting people who don't pay for water that has continually been poisonous for years now, then please, go move to one of those communities and drink nothing but their tap water for however long it takes you to see sense and join the fight for clean drinking water.
Seriously, why are we even needing to discuss any of this? The evil of capitalism is self-evident, I don't understand how anyone can think differently than I do on this topic, and I doubt I ever will. Every individual who defends the evils of capitalism makes me lose a little more hope for humanity, and makes me gain a little more hatred for the people who are so monumentally ignorant and/or monumentally immoral. It makes me wonder how we can even be the same species.
Capitalism needs the poor and the homeless to function at all, and if you think there's ever a good reason for someone to be poor or homeless, you have no bloody compassion and you deserve my contempt and the contempt of every decent human being ever.
Capitalism needs theft and exploitation of workers to function at all, and there is no possible way to change that. Increasing the minimum wage to a living wage is a nice stopgap measure, the equivalent of putting your finger in a hole in a dam to keep it from collapsing and drowning everyone for a little while. Except that's not the best metaphor, either, because dams can be replaced or refurbished, while there's nothing anyone can do to make capitalism anything other than a violent system of exploitation, oppression, and class warfare.
If you think it's a good thing, or a natural thing, for some people to steal from other people and call it being an employer, especially if they then hoard so much money that they personally have more money than a family of four could spend in two or even three entire lifetimes, then I don't like you, and I never will.
If you defend the oppressive one-percenters, if you defend capitalism, then I consider you either ignorant or immoral or both.
If you look at a poor person or a homeless person and say they deserve what they got, if you call them lazy, if you think there's ever any reason why someone should not deserve to eat and have shelter and have access to clean drinking water, then I consider you immoral and possibly even evil.
If you're in favor of defunding welfare programs that help keep struggling people alive, then you are an immoral and evil person. If you are someone who has voted to defund welfare programs, you as bad as a mass murderer and deserve to rot in prison.
If you support evicting people who don't pay for water that has continually been poisonous for years now, then please, go move to one of those communities and drink nothing but their tap water for however long it takes you to see sense and join the fight for clean drinking water.
Seriously, why are we even needing to discuss any of this? The evil of capitalism is self-evident, I don't understand how anyone can think differently than I do on this topic, and I doubt I ever will. Every individual who defends the evils of capitalism makes me lose a little more hope for humanity, and makes me gain a little more hatred for the people who are so monumentally ignorant and/or monumentally immoral. It makes me wonder how we can even be the same species.
There's been an overwhelming amount of evidence in the past few years that black people are overwhelmingly targeted more than anyone else by the cops, their lives threatened, their communities terrorized on a daily basis, their families destroyed. It's a war zone out there; the US is waging war on its own citizens, just because of their skin color.
Anyone who can see all this evidence, and respond to it by claiming black people deserve it, or brought it on themselves, or really respond in any way other than righteous rage on behalf of these terrorized citizens, I have news for you: if you see what's happening and you feel indifferent about it or you side with the cops, know that you are my enemy. Know that you are the enemy of decency, of compassion, of kindness, of life. You are the enemy, and I pray that you will find it in you to look upon these events with compassion for the oppressed and righteous rage at the oppressors, or else you will be among those that fall when the people rise up and declare they've had enough, as surely as Marie Antoinette's lack of compassion bought her a place at the guillotine.
Anyone who can see all this evidence, and respond to it by claiming black people deserve it, or brought it on themselves, or really respond in any way other than righteous rage on behalf of these terrorized citizens, I have news for you: if you see what's happening and you feel indifferent about it or you side with the cops, know that you are my enemy. Know that you are the enemy of decency, of compassion, of kindness, of life. You are the enemy, and I pray that you will find it in you to look upon these events with compassion for the oppressed and righteous rage at the oppressors, or else you will be among those that fall when the people rise up and declare they've had enough, as surely as Marie Antoinette's lack of compassion bought her a place at the guillotine.
The complex issue of house elves
Jul. 27th, 2013 06:13 amThis was originally started as a comment about Ron's attitude toward house elves:
I don't think Ron was wrong about house elves. All the evidence of all the books is that house elves genuinely like serving humans, and don't want to be free; Dobby was a weirdo, like Hagrid said.
For a long time, I've thought that Hermione is a symbol for all the privileged people who try to talk for oppressed people without actually bothering to find out what those oppressed people actually want. I don't think house elves are meant to symbolize human slavery. House elves are not humans; their motivations, habits, wants, and needs are different from those of humans. Even freed, Dobby genuinely loves work, genuinely loves serving humans, and while he wants paying, he doesn't want much because work is almost its own reward for Dobby. And his final act is protecting his favorite human, giving his life to do so.
House elves aren't the only non-human sophonts in the Harry Potter series that have very different motivations from humans. The centaurs don't seem to care much for magic or advancing their technology beyond bows and arrows; instead, they're obsessed with star-gazing and reading the future. So is it so unusual to think that maybe house elves DO like being slaves?
Should house elves be treated better? Of course. But Hermione charges ahead thinking she knows what they want, ignoring all the evidence that contradicts her flawed reasoning. She's the perfect symbol of all that's wrong with "white savior" types both in fiction and in reality. And I don't think she ever did realize that she was doing anything wrong.
I think this series needs a sequel, where the rest of the issues remaining, like house elves, are tackled. But then, it's also kind of perfect without that.
I don't think Ron was wrong about house elves. All the evidence of all the books is that house elves genuinely like serving humans, and don't want to be free; Dobby was a weirdo, like Hagrid said.
For a long time, I've thought that Hermione is a symbol for all the privileged people who try to talk for oppressed people without actually bothering to find out what those oppressed people actually want. I don't think house elves are meant to symbolize human slavery. House elves are not humans; their motivations, habits, wants, and needs are different from those of humans. Even freed, Dobby genuinely loves work, genuinely loves serving humans, and while he wants paying, he doesn't want much because work is almost its own reward for Dobby. And his final act is protecting his favorite human, giving his life to do so.
House elves aren't the only non-human sophonts in the Harry Potter series that have very different motivations from humans. The centaurs don't seem to care much for magic or advancing their technology beyond bows and arrows; instead, they're obsessed with star-gazing and reading the future. So is it so unusual to think that maybe house elves DO like being slaves?
Should house elves be treated better? Of course. But Hermione charges ahead thinking she knows what they want, ignoring all the evidence that contradicts her flawed reasoning. She's the perfect symbol of all that's wrong with "white savior" types both in fiction and in reality. And I don't think she ever did realize that she was doing anything wrong.
I think this series needs a sequel, where the rest of the issues remaining, like house elves, are tackled. But then, it's also kind of perfect without that.
