Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

People are complicated. Love is not.

This isn’t Democrats spending madly. This is government catching up.

Republicans do not pay their debts.

Is it irresponsible to speculate? It is irresponsible not to.

Second rate reporter says what?

He imagines himself as The Big Bad, Who Is Universally Feared… instead of The Big Jagoff, Who Is Universally Mocked.

Seems like a complicated subject, have you tried yelling at it?

“Jesus paying for the sins of everyone is an insult to those who paid for their own sins.”

Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.

Not all heroes wear capes.

Wow, you are pre-disappointed. How surprising.

JFC, are there no editors left at that goddamn rag?

with the Kraken taking a plea, the Cheese stands alone.

Conservatism: there are some people the law protects but does not bind and others who the law binds but does not protect.

Imperialist aggressors must be defeated, or the whole world loses.

We’re not going back!

When someone says they “love freedom”, rest assured they don’t mean yours.

‘Museums aren’t America’s attic for its racist shit.’

Polls are now a reliable indicator of what corporate Republicans want us to think.

Some judge needs to shut this circus down soon.

A consequence of cucumbers

In short, I come down firmly on all sides of the issue.

They were going to turn on one another at some point. It was inevitable.

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Not a big fucking deal

Not a big fucking deal

by | 54 Comments

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I was afraid this (via) would devolve into “White people drive like this, deedeedeedee, black people drive like this, DOO DOO DOO DOO“, but it was actually quite interesting. I could have lived without the reading-level analysis part (because they were all almost exactly the same, so it’s Saletan-style “edgy” without actually saying anything), but at some level I think this explains why there where will never be very many non-white people in anything like the Tea Party:

In the course of researching this article and, in particular, comparing white guys to black guys, a handy shortcut occurred to me:

If you’re trying to figure out if white dudes like something, put fucking in the middle, and say it out loud. If it sounds totally badass, white dudes probably love it. Let’s see this principle in practice:

I think you can say “small fucking government” or “second fucking amendment” but you can’t say “unemployment fucking benefits” or “health fucking care”.

Update. And here’s another perspective on race that is very popular with McMegan’s readers.

Reader Interactions

54Comments

  2. 2.

    Steve

    Thing is, does “Van fucking Halen” sound badass to anyone other than white guys? As a white guy, I have no idea. Sounds like kind of a circular test.

    Somewhat on topic, here’s a cutting bit of racial analysis from one of Megan McArdle’s commentors. “14 people liked this” as of last count.

  7. 7.

    Mark

    Okcupid has the best analytics blog on the face of the planet. I love it, even if I have a Droid, which means I have fewer sexual partners than iPhone users.

  11. 11.

    Jager

    I like Harley “fucking” Davidsons and Alicia “fucking” Keys, am I totally “fucking” fucked or what?

  12. 12.

    DougJ

    @The Other Chuck:

    White guys love Sam Jackson, though.

    Not sure what to make of Elton John, he fits in the category of Dashboard Fucking Confessional and The Avett Fucking Brothers.

  13. 13.

    John Bird

    I think you’ve hit on something here, but it may have more to do with what sort of things are considered “masculine” and active by American media consensus (guns, guitars, rugged individualism, being white) and what sort of things are considered “feminine” and passive (health care, soul music, collective responsibility, being black).

  15. 15.

    gocart mozart

    Is ‘Balloon Juice’ code for an anti-semitic slur?
    I had to share this self pawnage. Scroll down to the kid with the Sasquatch is Real sign.
    http://americanpowerblog.blogspot.com/2010/09/anti-american-anti-israel-scenes-from.html

    Then turning around, I saw this kid yacking it up for the crowd, obviously having a blast with this ugly Jew-hating sign. And what does that mean, “SASQUATCH ISRAEL”? This is a play on the “legitimacy myth” of Israel’s existence. As there’s of course a “Sasquatch myth,” it’s worth noting the implied comparison: that Israel is also an ape-like beast existing only in historical folklore. Absent legitimacy, Israel has “no right to exist.” This kid’s sign is but one more example of eliminationist anti-Semitism. And look at how overjoyed he is in boasting this hatred. Creepy:

    He responds to mockery at http://www.sadlyno.com/ thusly:

    That said, the towering intellects at Sadly No! are all too ready to point out any discrepancies, throwing in a little snide dig at the “Juses” for good measure: “Don Douglas Hearts Juses.” Yes, I do.
    But that begs the question: The brilliant leading lights at Sadly No! don’t?
    Actually, I’m not surprised.
    Leftists hate moral clarity. And they hate Israel. We don’t need a Sasquatch myth to figure that out. So, a hearty F*** You to the lot of you, assholes.
    Posted by Donald Douglas at 2:00 PM

  19. 19.

    Hiram Taine

    Harley fucking Davidson sounds like either a gay one night stand or a hostile corporate takeover.

    Back when I was in the chrome plating biz we called them Harley Furguson tractorcycles, they haven’t changed much in the thirty plus years since that time. The Honda I’ve had all that time will run away and fucking hide from most of all the new Harleys that easily cost ten times as much.

    Quick quiz, what is the most commonly tattooed corporate logo on the fucking planet?

  21. 21.

    The Other Chuck

    @DougJ:

    Ahh I was misreading the list, thinking it was “only white people sound cool with `fucking’ as a middle name”, like it was some sort of redneck thing. Indeed, as long as he’s not working for George Fucking Lucas (an easy name to say when it’s with actual scorn and not badassery), Jackson does have crossover appeal.

  23. 23.

    beltane

    I’m white but I didn’t match up with the things white people are supposed to like. Maybe growing up in Manhattan made me more of an Indian/Asian/Latina.

  25. 25.

    DougJ

    @beltane:

    No golf, no Tom Clancy! I feel the same way, except for Lebowski which I do love. And I do like “Beautiful Girls”, got go give it up for that one.

  27. 27.

    Tim F.

    I stand corrected. “Van fucking Halen” turns up over two thousand Google hits. “John fucking Coltrane” turns up just under one k, but “Ice fucking T” returns just one hundred sixty.

    Meanwhile “Herbie fucking Hancock” returns just almost seven hundred. Hells yeah.

  29. 29.

    beltane

    @DougJ: Golf must die!! Do people still young enough to have an interest in relationships read Tom Clancy? I thought was for the old folks.

    Yes to Led Zeppelin, no to Van Halen.

  31. 31.

    ruemara

    If I pay a buck a piece, will white people resist the urge to philosophize about black vs white culture? Ok, 25¢, I’m between paychecks but, you know, I will pay you to not write about this. I’m begging here. I promise not to write about mystifying whiteness, like fluffernutter sandwiches and walking barefoot outside. And tractor pulls. 10 years in the country, & I still don’t get it. Just write live and let live articles, kthxbai.

  35. 35.

    arguingwithsignposts

    N.W. Fucking A.
    Rage Against the Fucking Machine
    De Fucking Vo
    They Might Be Fucking Giants
    Tracy Fucking Chapman
    B.B. Fucking King
    Robert Fucking Johnson
    Gillian Fucking Welch
    Jimi Fucking Hendrix
    Arrested Fucking Development
    Geto Fucking Boys

    Hey, this is fucking fun!

  37. 37.

    catclub

    Albert Fucking Einstein?
    Leonardo Fucking Davinci?
    Johann Fucking Sebastian Bach?
    Sheik Ibn Fucking Saud?
    Claude Fucking Monet?

    No, it is just the appeal of saying fucking.

  44. 44.

    Vince CA

    I can’t remember if it was John McWhorter or Steve Pinker where I read this, but the swear-word-in-the-middle is a pretty well understood linguistic phenomenon. It has to occur right before the accented syllable, or it doesn’t work. E.G.

    GOOD: Pennsly-fcuking-vania
    BAD: Penn-fcuking-slyvania

    It’s the reason why Health-fcuking-care doesn’t work. Healthcare–when said as a single word–is accented on the first syllable. So it would have to be Fcuking-healthcare, which totally works.

    Also, as I white guy, I’ve been to a Van Halen concert. I slept through it, but that was b/c it was high school and I was white and nerdy and really, really tired from all my extracurriculars and AP classes. Van-Fcuking-Halen, thank you for the great nap!

  49. 49.

    LanceThruster

    @Vince CA: Saw them play backyard parties back in the day and had the same fucking reaction.

    Led Zep concerts were one big sleeping pill for me. Got free tix for three different tours and was in an intense chemically induced altered state for two of them and was still bored to tears.

    Typical impression after the band segued back into the tun from yet another extended multiple solo jam (“Wah?! I thought they finished this song an hour ago.”)

  51. 51.

    Nathanael

    New FUCKING Deal!
    Great FUCKING Society!
    Safety FUCKING Net!
    High-Speed FUCKING Rail!
    Civil FUCKING Rights!

    The Democratic FUCKING Party!

    Huh. Maybe progressives are suffering from messaging mistakes in appealing to white men these days. Wonder if this would help.

  52. 52.

    Vince CA

    @LanceThruster and @different church-lady:

    It was 1998-1999, I don’t know who was in the band then. I just remember it being really loud and droning. My buddies had a really good time and I meant it when I say thanks for the nap. I actually slept a lot at concerts, good or bad, as it was sort of a way for me to catch up on sleep in a way that didn’t piss off my teachers (who accused me of being narcoleptic) and didn’t piss off my peers (who accused me of not being very much fun).

  53. 53.

    cynickal

    @Chuck Butcher:

    Maybe, but I see a lot of Honda fucking Goldwings cruising down the road past broken-down Harley fucking Davison waiting to be trucked back to the mechanic.

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