A lot has been written about Rich Fierro, the man who saved countless lives in the Saturday’s Q Club massacre. But let’s not forget that it all began like this:
Fierro said he, his family and friends had gone out to see a show at the club and “have a good time.”
The whole point of MAGA is a bunch of people who aren’t having a good time, have never had a good time, and couldn’t find a good time with a map and a search party, are trying to suck us into their bad time. If you’ve ever been to Colorado Springs, my condolences: it is a place of wide streets, narrow minds and, above all, bad times. There are megachurches everywhere. Focus on Family and other haterade-dispensing “christian” organizations have found a place where their angertainment has a receptive audience. There is nothing fun about fat white guys in goatees and Oakleys, AR-15s, Stepford wives and child molesting pastors.
Drag shows are, above all, a good time. Everything about them — the costumes, the dancing, the athletics — is fun.
Going to a drag show for a good time is something “average” Americans do — it is not a niche activity. Tucker Carlson, Focus on Family and all the other haters want to turn our good times into killing floors. Fuck them. My advice is that everyone should take in a good drag show over the holidays, and tip well, because those queens work hard.
different-church-lady
You really don’t understand MAGA at all: for them, hurting others and/or seeing others hurt IS a good time.
waspuppet
It’s really remarkable how conservatives have blinded so many people to the fact that THEY are the fcking freaks.
Remember when they actually even tried to convince people that conservatism was COOL? And some people fell for it!
mrmoshpotato
MAGA trash couldn’t find their version of a good time even if it handed them a white hood and robe, and a burning cross.
The Moar You Know
This is self-evident and yet does not get said nearly often enough; it’s totally true. Every single goddamn Republican I know, ESPECIALLY my family members, looks at anything fun and says “that’s fucked and you’re fucked for enjoying it”
Their favorite thing is to sit inside and watch Fox.
The one thing they don’t want to do – and cannot do, because they’re asocial freaks – is associate with others.
Steve in the ATL
I was in Minneapolis last week (and St. Paul!) and noticed that every store and restaurant had a sign posted that guns were not allowed. It’s just pitiful that we have to do that now.
Heidi Mom
It’s like the Russian soldier who scrawled on the wall of a Ukrainian home “Who said you could have a good life?”
Lord Fartdaddy (Formerly, Mumphrey, Smedley Darlington Mingobat, et al.)
It’s true. I don’t think I’ve ever seen such wretched, miserable fucks as rhese MAGA assholes. It must be hell to live like that. No wonder they love Trump so much. He’s the most miserable, joyless fuck I’ve ever seen.
Cameron
I like the holiday suggestion – will bring it up at the Thanksgiving gig on Thursday.
karensky
Drag Bingo in Philly is so much fun. The organizers set it up years ago to raise funds for the care of people with AIDS.
Scout211
I posted an article from Buzzfeed yesterday in the comments that listed all the horrible anti-LGBTQ+ tweets from the CO-03 house member (who was narrowly re-elected this month) before she tweeted out her “thoughts and prayers” for those who were injured or died in the mass shooting in Colorado somewhere (she didn’t actually name the club). She also tried to condemn the gun violence in that tweet. Yeah, I know. The gun-toting, MAGA, anti-LGBTQ+ congressperson tried to appear sympathetic and concerned about gun violence.
I deleted the comment yesterday because I was too angry. That level of toxic hypocrisy is just too much for me sometimes. I am re-posting the link today.
Is there any hope that nearly losing her house seat will cause her to soften her anti-LGBTQ+ smears and conspiracy theories?
Yeah, I don’t think so either. :(
UncleEbeneezer
Bitter, angry, resentful, ignorant etc. This is one of the reasons that MAGA attracts so many Incels. Also the huge chip-on-shoulder you notice almost immediately when you visit rural areas. NYTimes safaris will tell you it’s because they are mad that they’ve been “left behind” or ignored, but I’ve always suspected it is mostly that they see how much fun the Cities are having and are extremely resentful. NOT ALL rural people, obviously, but a heck of a lot of them.
Baud
I’ve never been to a drag show and nothing about it really interests me, but I could say that about a great many forms of entertainment, and it doesn’t cause me any resentment.
Suzanne
This is 100% true.
I have frequently noted to myself that conservatives (which includes MAGA turds) are, like, the least funny people I have ever encountered.
A Man for All Seaonings (formerly Geeno)
Drag has been a part of entertainment for hundreds of years. There are lines in Shakespeare which are funny, but even funnier if you remember that men/boys were actually playing the female parts. It’s always been around, but now it’s suddenly supposed to be wrong and freakish.
$8 blue check mistermix
@Scout211: CO-03 is going to start the next cycle as a “toss up” and Frisch will get a shit load of money if he decides to run again. Plus, I would imagine that he will not have a primary challenger, while Boebert probably will. She’s going to have to fundraise for real campaign funds (rather than grift) and work hard to show she’s representing her district, both of which will be major challenges for her. She will not be having fun for the next two years.
catothedog
Conservatives are immersed in misery and envy. They believe in suffering as an existential need, like breathing. Nothing can fill that hole in their heart. No wealth of any kind – money, friends, art or fun – works on them.
They loath and envy anyone having a life free of misery. Hence the need to make others suffer. Everything they do is to get to a state where they are joyful and the envy of others. They don’t know how to fix themselves and to rise out of their state, so they destroy others to come out on top in comparison.
To rule in hell, rather than serve in heaven.
kindness
Tucker Carlson nightly flys into hysterics about how ‘the other’ threaten America’s very existence and the MAGA faithful reply with the best Brown Shirt cosplay they can. History is repeating itself. Knowing this, let’s not end up like they did in the Warsaw ghettos. We owe it to our kids not to.
Ramalama
Rudy Giuliani did drag at a show. Private party? Drag for me, not for thee, is the evergreen theme of the GOP.
Betty Cracker
Back when the soulless embodiment of avarice now known as Senator Rick Scott was governor of Florida, I took my then-teen and a friend to lunch at Hamburger Mary’s. It was fun. The current governor of Florida and his mouthpieces would call that child abuse, I suppose. Fuck them all.
As loathsome and horrible as Rick Scott is, Ron DeSantis is so much worse. Scott is a greedy, lying asshole with no redeeming features, but the people and things he breaks in his endless quest to hoover up money are collateral damage. DeSantis enjoys harming the most vulnerable among us.
PS: As someone noted, surely there’s a Florida drag queen somewhere who goes by Rhonda Santis.
Scout211
He has already filed to run again.
Suzanne
@The Moar You Know:
Yes.
The normal-person response to seeing someone enjoy a thing that is not your thing is to just shrug one’s shoulders and adopt an attitude of “to each their own”. But they can’t, it’s like they’re threatened by other people having a good time.
Like, if you don’t want to go to a drag show, I don’t fucking care. At all. I have gone, and I had a good time. Why do you care what I do?!
(That’s rhetorical. I know the answer is because they think they are owed esteem from me and feel resentful that they aren’t getting it.)
Salty Sam
Wife and I had a craft booth at a local “Mermaid Festival” back in September. It was a great good time- lots of costumes, dancing in the streets, and happy families.
Except for two individuals I spotted at separate times through the day. Both were older white guys wearing “Let’s Go Brandon (FJB)” hats or T-shirts. Amidst all these other happy people, they were sporting the angriest, most ill-humored looks. It was if they were thinking “Gahhh! The happiness… it BURNS!!!”
Ohio Mom
Last July we went to the Northside 4th of July parade. It’s Cincinnati’s (for lack of a better word) “hippie” neighborhood — lots of artists and LGBT residents, vegetarian restaurants, that sort of thing. Their parade is known for funny and political homemade floats.
Anyway, I looked around from our perch on the church steps at the fashion show — all kinds of people dressed in their finest red, white and blue — and for the first time ever (we have been going to this parade for decades) wondered if it was safe to be there.
The entire parade in its celebration of diversity and progressive values is a ripe target for one of those “lone wolves.”
Since then, I’ve had a few more moments like that, most recently at an event for our Democratic Representative.
Layer8Problem
@Ramalama: “Rudy Giuliani did drag at a show.”
Yeah, more than once too, almost like he was into it or something.
narya
heartbreaking and also touching: the police spokesperson (chief?) said explicitly that when talking about the victims, they were using folks’ preferred names and pronouns, and then proceeded to do so.
Montanareddog
@Betty Cracker:
If there is, I am sure she has nicer boots
Alison Rose
I’ve had a few friends over the years who were drag queens, and every person I ever met in that scene was just an absolute doll and delight. Fuck the haters.
Also too……………speaking of good times, let’s go Poland!
Cameron
@catothedog: I think that’s true of conservative plebes; conservative sugar daddies enjoy all of life’s offerings, licit and illicit. Are they happy? Who knows – is a crocodile truly happy?
rikyrah
@$8 blue check mistermix:
He should declare now, and camp out in the district. Don’t pull his foot off of her neck. She’s a clown and should be repeatedly shown as such.
rikyrah
@catothedog:
This is true. Folks just out here, wanting to live their lives and BE LEFT THE PHUCK ALONE.
It’s the part about BEING LEFT THE PHUCK ALONE
that the right doesn’t seem to understand.
Cameron
@Betty Cracker: Those sassy white boots are only good for kicking down. Mess with anybody who’s got some muscle? Hey….a man could get hurt, y’know? (And taking on Big Mouse doesn’t count – those folks know which butter their side is breaded on.)
Mike S
I became a political junky because Colorado Springs used to be a great place for kids. The population was a third of what it is now and Christians believed in what Jesus taught.
My parents had me knocking on doors for Richard Lamm and Gary Hart. I got to go to the Governors mansion in Denver for the victory party.
Suzanne
Exhibit A in the case of Conservatives Are Not Funny: the Babylon Bee misgendered Dr. Levine and now Elmo wants to have them back on the birdsite. What a shithole.
frosty
@UncleEbeneezer: Well, they’re mad because they have been left behind. They grew up in a nice place with a lot of family history and it’s been hollowed out because jobs and kids left and it’s a shell of what it used to be.
It’s been hollowed out because of conservative policies. If you read Fiona Hill’s book There Is Nothing For You Here the same thing happened in Great Britain due to Thatcher’s policies.
They have a legitimate anger. If only they would figure out the reason for it and quit voting for the people who caused it!
SNowlan
Colorado Springs is in CO 5 (Doug Lamborn). Rather than CO 3 (Boebert)…. Today my friends are talking about the fact that the El Paso county (Covers Colorado Springs) district attorney was elected in 2020 promising not to enforce Colorado’s red flag law and now someone against whom he didn’t enforce the law killed five people.
Scout211
He filed to run again in 2024 even before he conceded.
Elizabelle
@Montanareddog: LOL. Rhonda Santis, drag queen, with nicer boots. So true.
SO: Have never been to Drag Bingo, but it sounds fun.
I think maybe we should do some meetups in coming months, and add Q like clubs to our list of venues.
I rather hope that families and everyone who’s got the gay/Q community’s back visits and supports some of these establishments. And tip well.
When I heard, early on, that a combat veteran had helped subdue the gunman, I did not assume it was a hetero patron. Could have been anyone in that club, even a drag queen.
Last, I still laugh when I think of the shooter getting kicked, repeatedly, by a drag queen in heels.
Ridicule is good, and that is an ignominous end (for shooter) to his glorious mission.
frosty
I could feel the burn way over here!
Cameron
@Suzanne: Babylon Bee is supposed to be funny? Oh. It started appearing on my FB a couple of months ago, and I didn’t make much sense of it. Wasn’t interested in trying, either.
Honus
@Steve in the ATL: yep. A fellow UVA grad who was out west hiking, during a thread on the UVA football murders, sent a picture of the door to the park entrance with the “no guns” symbol and asked “do they have these in national parks in other countries?”
$8 blue check mistermix
@Scout211:
Great! It ended badly because he was nuts, but that’s how Eric Massa won NY-29. Close race in 2006 (not as close as CO-3) then he won in 2008.
Elizabelle
I thought this was kind of cool, if sad. News report from KTUL: Tulsa OK ABC station, using AP story. One victim, Daniel Aston, was raised there.
So interesting because KTUL stuck with Daniel and his family’s preferred pronouns throughout. Even when talking of his youth, when he was briefly back in dresses because of peer pressure.
Oklahoma native, ‘Master of Silly Business’ among 5 dead in Colorado shooting
rikyrah
Kenny BooYah! (@KwikWarren) tweeted at 7:05 AM on Tue, Nov 22, 2022:
As I dictate this, gas prices are magically coming down & Republicans, news media&the Christian “right” are jointly pivoting to other things to criticize Joe Biden and the Democrats about things other than gas prices and inflation. Quite the coincidence in joint messaging right?
(https://twitter.com/KwikWarren/status/1595040847854440448?t=6jeVBOHv7z_1G771CKG3-w&s=03)
zhena gogolia
@Ramalama: He did it on national television! Saturday Night Live!
OK, I misremembered — I thought this was on SNL
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yuxTxBoTsKc
Sister Golden Bear
Important clarification from the only drag queen at Club Q during the shooting:
Also: “I also want to make it clear, I don’t think Richard knew that she’s not a drag performer. But now that we know, let’s correct it.”*
But the trans woman in heels is still a warrior queen.
The distinction is especially important now, since the Christofascists are depicting all trans women as drag queens, and all drag queens as sexual predators.
*That said, there are some trans women, including me, who’ve performed drag (as well as trans men who’ve performed as drag kings).** It’s one path for exploring our gender — albeit drag is arguably it’s own gender — in what is (or at least used to be) a safe environment.
**There’s also cis gender women, and non-binary folks who perform as both drag queens and drag kings. Drag king shows are incredibly fun in their own right, especially as most kings lampoon toxic masculinity.
Sister Golden Bear
@Elizabelle:
Please make it rain. It costs a lot of money to look this cheap.
rikyrah
Erin Reed (@ErinInTheMorn) tweeted at 5:17 PM on Mon, Nov 21, 2022:
Governor Murphy of New Jersey has signed an order that will seal all name changes in to protect transgender citizens. Name Changes will no longer be open to public inspections and will be confidential. Likewise the $50 fee is waived. https://t.co/NLNMj7jd3W
(https://twitter.com/ErinInTheMorn/status/1594832483459145728?s=02)
rikyrah
MoonbeamValencia (@ValValCZ) tweeted at 10:14 AM on Mon, Nov 21, 2022:
Maybe it’s just me, but SCOTUS justices should not be giving partisan speeches, should be wined and dined by lobby groups and really should not be affiliated with any political party.
(https://twitter.com/ValValCZ/status/1594725894391795715?s=02)
UncleEbeneezer
@frosty: Well exactly. They turn away Dems who actually try to help them with healthcare, Green Energy jobs, infrastructure etc., because it’s more important to make those people (city folks, Black, LGBTQ etc.) suffer.
rikyrah
No Lie with Brian Tyler Cohen (@NoLieWithBTC) tweeted at 9:56 AM on Mon, Nov 21, 2022:
Supreme Court justice Samuel Alito gave a partisan speech attacking society for considering bans on gay marriage “bigotry.” Now the vast majority of Republicans voted against protecting marriage equality amid rising hate crimes against LGBTQ people. https://t.co/H66UCvNSOm
(https://twitter.com/NoLieWithBTC/status/1594721323422711808?s=02)
rikyrah
The ENTIRE PHUCK???
Michelle Nelson (@Jazzyminkamom) tweeted at 2:15 AM on Mon, Nov 21, 2022:
Texas lawmakers are wanting to disolve the city of Austin and turn over control to the LT. Governor
Folks this is absolutely crazy .Actually we all need to be questioning the mental health of Republicans…
Yes I am serious
(https://twitter.com/Jazzyminkamom/status/1594605488812990468?s=02)
Cameron
@rikyrah: Alito pulls this shit and then whines about how unfair critics are to him. True Mr. Bill style – “they’re going to be meeaann to me!”
rikyrah
Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) tweeted at 7:00 AM on Mon, Nov 21, 2022:
Rep. Adam Schiff to ABC on Kevin McCarthy: “I suspect he will do whatever Marjorie Taylor Greene wants him to do. He’s a very weak leader of this conference, meaning that he will adhere to the wishes of the lowest common denominator.”
(https://twitter.com/kylegriffin1/status/1594677008872652800?t=GZIWCls78L0tz9ipqk9DhQ&s=03)
UncleEbeneezer
@Sister Golden Bear: Have you read Tom & Lorenzo’s “Legendary Children?” It sounds excellent and I want to check it out sometime for a better understanding of the complicated world and history of drag/ballroom.
rikyrah
Kenny BooYah! (@KwikWarren) tweeted at 1:32 PM on Sun, Nov 20, 2022:
I foresee friction between GQP House “leadership” (McCarthy, Gym Jordan&Marjorie Three Toes) & GOP Senate “leadership” (Moscow Mitch). They’re myopic, chaos agents&he’s a savvy, strategic thinker. McConnell knows if GOP fails2do anything but revenge hearings, Dems win big in 2024
(https://twitter.com/KwikWarren/status/1594413404491579394?s=02)
cain
@Elizabelle:
What amazing supportive parents. Fuck this shooter for taking away their child from them. Fuck his grandfather for passing his hatred to this killer. Fuck these MAGA people for being the least of themselves and the least of humanity.
Sister Golden Bear
@narya: @Elizabelle: FYI, I know a lot of cisgender people refer to “preferred pronouns” (including the police statement), but we trans/non-binary folks have regular ol’ pronouns just like cisgender people do.
I.e. while “preferred pronouns” is well-intentioned, it’s also unintentionally othering — cis people have pronouns, while trans/non-binary people have “preferred pronouns.” In other words our pronouns aren’t quite as real as cis people’s.
No shade, it’s common mistake I see allies make. The more you know…
rikyrah
UH HUH
UH HUH
Melissa Murray (@ProfMMurray) tweeted at 8:37 AM on Sat, Nov 19, 2022:
The @nytimes headline really buries the lede. @jodikantor & @Jo_Becker’s reporting reveals a highly coordinated effort to influence SCOTUS justices. THAT is the story. Also, why is this breaking on SATURDAY morning, @nytimes? https://t.co/kNECT5SXhD
(https://twitter.com/ProfMMurray/status/1593976730217320448?s=02)
rikyrah
THIS….
Just A Happy Dark Brandon Disciple (@DMC0821) tweeted at 3:41 PM on Sun, Nov 20, 2022:
Y’all know folks are screaming to replace Kamala Harris and/or stop Hakeem Jeffries because if 2024 goes well for Democrats, the first two people in the line of succession for an 82-year old president will be BLACK people?
(https://twitter.com/DMC0821/status/1594445732362260484?s=02)
Old School
@rikyrah:
Following through the story about Austin:
cain
@rikyrah: Let them attempt to do it – they are pretty much declaring war on cities and the majority of the voters. They have seen this past election as a positive sign that they can do more destructive shit.
cain
@rikyrah:
What’s their problem? We had an amazing black president for 8 years!
Citizen Alan
@Cameron: The Babylon Bee is supposed to be the conservative answer to The Onion. So yes, it is painfully unfunny.
Sister Golden Bear
@rikyrah: FTFNYT downplaying the Christofascists’ efforts to overthrow democracy… this is my unshocked face.
Boris Rasputin (the evil twin)
@catothedog: I see them as Puritans with porn.
Frankensteinbeck
@Sister Golden Bear:
When I heard about the use of ‘her’ my first reaction was “Drag queens are not trans women. They’re men who dress up as women, whether they’re gay or straight, whether it’s sexual or just for amusement.” But then my second reaction was “What business is it of mine to police their pronoun use or the complexities of their identity? Anyone who wants ‘she’, I’ll call them ‘she’.”
Gender isn’t even a binary someone can be stuck on the wrong side of. It’s a vast sea with little differentiation. That fact is part of what so enrages conservatives. They want inherent differences between men and women, and… there aren’t any. Just concentrated areas in the sea.
And as my friends have demonstrated to me, it can really, really suck to be physically and socially stuck in the wrong concentration.
geg6
I’ve only ever met one transgender woman who was a nasty, angry person. But it was so poignant because I knew how tough she’d had it coming out to her very conservative family and I knew that was where the anger came from. She was a student several years ago and she ended up on an academic suspension (I would have failed out, too, if I’d been dealing with her situation). Although our campus is a welcoming place, she never found her niche. We’ve had many transgender students since and they are a joy. I can’t imagine hating any of them. I often think about that angry student and wondering what happened to her and hoping she found a community and place to let go the anger and find some joy.
The Moar You Know
@cain: weirdly enough that seems to be the problem
Baud
@rikyrah: Nice. I’d like to think Jackals have rubbed off on him.
trollhattan
@Baud: Me either, but I have been to panto where the MC traditionally is in drag, and it’s riotous fun–especially for the kids because the MC is constantly throwing candy into the audience and getting them on stage to participate.
Sister Golden Bear
@UncleEbeneezer: I haven’t heard of the book, but then again I lost interest in RuPaul’s drag race long ago. Ru has a very cramped idea of what “drag” is, and has been notably resistant to the idea that trans people and cisgender woman can do drag. (Despite a number of former RPDR participants coming out as trans as the doing the show.) Plus, like many reality TV shows, they focus on people fighting rather than the art and craft — I’ve meet one of the participants from Season 1, and the producers were really unhappy that the S1 participants all got along well.
In may be a fine book, but the documentary “Paris is Burning” would be a far better look at the historical drag and ballroom scenes.
waspuppet
… and don’t WANT to have a good time, I think it’s important to note. Feeling like a victim is much more important.
trollhattan
@rikyrah: So, they’ve gone from “We’ve herded all the Libs into Austin” to “Okay, now that we’ve finished herding the Libs, we get rid of their pen”?
Does this work?
Sister Golden Bear
@Frankensteinbeck:
FYI, it’s customary that whenever drag performers are “in face” to refer to them with whatever pronouns they associate with their drag personas. I.e. typically drag queens are referred to as “she” and drag kings are referred to as “he” — although as you’ve noted, gender is wide and varied and not all drag performers follow this convention.
Elizabelle
@rikyrah: Lowest common denominator. Low and common. Well done, Mr. Schiff.
Satire by Andy Borowitz of The New Yorker:
Elon Musk Praised by Americans Thirsting for Content from Marjorie Taylor Greene
“Now that Marjorie Taylor Greene is back on Twitter, Elon’s going to be laughing all the way to to bank,” a resident of Phoenix said.
p.a.
Some of my whackjob MAGA relatives went on a Caribbean cruise (before MAGA was a thing, but they were already that thing). The following is verbatim.
Me: “which island was your favorite?”
MAGA: “we stayed on the ship.”
Me: “ummm, it wasn’t a cruise-to-nowhere.”
MAGA: “it’s too dangerous.”
Me: “oh, how many shipmates got murdered?”
MAGA: “well, um, uhhhh…”
also too they complained about the food🤷🏻
Honus
@different-church-lady: I agree. Their idea of fun is hurting and/or offending people. Rolling coal, carrying the AR into Kroger, saying Let’s Go Brandon. I especially like the the “Fuck Your Prius” stickers on big pickups. WTF does somebody’s Prius have to do with your vehicle? It somehow hurts you that others don’t drive a giant gas hog?
Chief Oshkosh
@SNowlan:
This should be the top of every news report about the Club Q murders and terrorism.
Republicans are soft on REAL crime.
Elizabelle
@Sister Golden Bear: I just noticed that early reports from Club Q referred to “People.”
Just people. They couldn’t really sort it out into men and women, for attribution or as victims.
“People” is a step up from what the bigots were calling clubgoers.
Alison Rose
Gaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh Poland PK saved :(
Elizabelle
@Honus: We had some dolt at our farmer’s market, maybe two weeks before the midterms.
60 something white male, holding a big “Fuck Joe Biden” sign. On the path into, but outside market limits; the police made sure of that.
I think it may have reminded several shoppers to vote that week.
Overheard comments like “why is he doing that around kids?”
They’re imbeciles. And they are losing.
Alison Rose
@Elizabelle: I don’t see anything wrong with saying “people” in a case like this, because you can’t always assume someone’s gender or pronouns just based on their name or photo.
Elizabelle
@Alison Rose: That’s my point. It’s the best way to handle it.
I have no problem with that, and it makes the point of common humanity.
West of the Rockies
@waspuppet:
They’re popular in the way junior high bullies are popular. People laugh at their antics for fear if getting hit. They secretly loathe them. Maybe the bullies loath themselves.
Alison Rose
@Elizabelle: Ah ok. The way you said it was only a “step up” from what the bigots were saying sounded like you thought it wasn’t very nice.
brendancalling
@karensky: It really IS fun.
Betty
@rikyrah: Have you seen the news about the press’s hurt feelings about not being invited to the Biden wedding while Vogue got to do a photo shoot? Per Ashley Parker, backed up by Maggie, this White House is a bunch of liars.
Another Scott
@Elizabelle: Yup.
None of the RWNJ freakout about drag shows makes any sense at all. And people are getting killed because RWNJ politicians and their enablers are using it to rile up their supporters.
Some Like it Hot
Milton Berle and Bob Hope and …
Flip Wilson
This is and was mainstream entertainment for decades, from huge stars.
None of this stuff is a threat to anyone, except the monsters who insist on having power over everyone else.
Grr…,
Scott.
Matt McIrvin
@Honus: There was a time when “shock the bourgeois” was mostly a radical-left thing. (And I think the remnant of that is one of the things pulling some “left” bad boys into MAGA-land lately; their instinct is to side with whoever is freaking the squares, and if the thing that freaks the squares is bigotry, well…)
eclare
@Alison Rose: Memo is a great gk
MazeDancer
Excellent suggestion!
Matt McIrvin
@waspuppet: That keeps coming back around. The last time, the cool new conservatives were alt-right, fascist types like Richard Spencer and Curtis Yarvin. Look, he wears a leather jacket!
Baud
@Matt McIrvin:
The authentic left wing version was grounded in power differentials in society. The current manifestation is cosplay.
EarthWindFire
@p.a.: We have neighbors like this. I wonder why they didn’t rent a house on one of the many redneck rivieras in this country and make their own food? They would’ve had less to complain about.
I answered my own question, didn’t I?
misterpuff
@Layer8Problem: He did a Macy’s commercial in drag with Trump!
Alison Rose
@eclare: As much as I hate to admit it, he is indeed.
schrodingers_cat
@Baud: Same here.
And MM is right most RWNJs even of the Sangh-BJP variety can be described as killjoys who are incapable of having a good time and hate anyone who can. The only joy these sadists get is from controlling others.
Barbara
@p.a.: They stayed on the ship instead of getting into the air conditioned bus that would shuttle them to the aquarium or the nature reserve or botanical garden or whatever. I mean, that’s just hilarious.
I remind myself that Rocky Horror Picture show has been a “thing” for more than 40 years, and La Cage Aux Folles for almost as long, and the Les Ballets Trockaderos de Monte Carlo even longer. What’s different is the willingness of politicians as well as others to stoke fear and hatred, and the very evident reduced inhibition to act on those feelings.
Ocotillo
I was looking at the Book of Faces this morning and two of my BILs and their kids were displaying photos from their annual deer hunt. They are pretty MAGA and I was thinking as I read this post, well they are having a good time, not my cup of tea but they are enjoying themselves. Then it occurred to me, they chose to go and shoot some beautiful animals. SMDH
Baud
@Ocotillo:
I’m not a hunter, but apparently deer population needs to be controlled because we killed off all the wolves.
Now, big game hunters … That’s another story.
Lobo
@Ohio Mom: Marginalized groups call this, threat scanning. It is something that we have tried to get others to understand. It is part of our lives. The Green Book was an tangible expression of this. We would never wish this on others. It is stressful, which is why we often seek time with others like us. It gives us a break. It is sad that for many of the majority they have to experience it to believe it is a daily reality. Use this as a lesson to be an advocate, ally, and an accomplice. Peace.
Tony G
@different-church-lady: People for whom harming other people is the ONLY joy in life. That’s the right-wing mentality — in the U.S. now, and throughout history.
Starfish
I love how you called it “angertainment.”
I didn’t love how drag is being described as a single, monolithic thing.
Basically, the type of drag going on in Paris is Burning, a movie that I have not seen, predates a bunch of drag that happened after it.
Drag bingo probably came after that.
“RuPaul’s Drag Race” created mainstream access to drag culture. If it was not mainstream, it would have been canceled already. However, it has a broad audience in multiple countries now.
That is all different than “Drag story time” which is elaborate pretty princesses reading books to children.
Right now, drag is falling a little out of favor with the left because some people see it as mocking trans-identity.
The right wing picked the time that drag is falling out of favor with the left to attack it because they are bullies who like to pick on small groups. However, if others do not see small groups as a threat, and see them as the small groups they are, the message is not going to resonate.
Qrop Non Sequitur
They appear to have decided after Obama was elected that Hawaii isn’t a state. Nothing surprising here.
delphinium
@frosty:
Deep down they know a lot of this is their own fault, that is why they are so angry and lash out at everyone else rather than take responsibility and maybe vote differently. It is difficult for people to change, but these folks won’t even try-permanent aggrievement is all they have now.
And if they can’t have the life they feel entitled to, then no one else should be able to have a decent, happy, safe life either. Saying they have been ‘left behind’ lets them off the hook for their own actions.
Major Major Major Major
Yeah. Sigh.
brendancalling
@Elizabelle: A few blocks from my dad’s house, in a VERY family-oriented neighborhood in Philly, some MAGAGAGAGA was flying a flag reading “Fuck Joe Biden and Fuck You Too If You Voted for Him” on his porch roof—it was right next to a small sign reading “Welcome to our porch!” which made the flag all the more ludicrous.
This was right across the street from a CHURCH. The moron eventually took it down, and I hope it was because his neighbors complained.
brendancalling
@Ocotillo: Are they gonna eat ’em?
narya
@Sister Golden Bear: I appreciate that. :-) At my LGBTQ workplace, it’s pretty interchangeable (“my pronouns are . .” “My preferred pronouns are . . .” “I use these pronouns . . .”), but I totally see your point and will remember that!
Marmot
@Baud:
True, as I understand it. But as I like to remind hunters—who often genuinely care about nature—wolves kill the small and sickly. The current way, you’re left with smaller and smaller deer—there’re measurably fewer trophy-quality bucks, because genetics.
Matt McIrvin
@Ocotillo: I don’t hunt but I figure that if I eat meat (and I do), I can’t really object to hunting, done within legal licensed bounds and with proper safety precautions. It’s probably a morally superior way to get meat than modern meat farming.
I think that right-wingers actually are capable of having fun in a lot of ways. Many seem to have this undercurrent of either subcultural resentment, or aggression, or both. But I suspect that sometimes that’s the excuse they give themselves to have fun.
A lot of the attraction of hunting is just being out in nature in beautiful places. You could do that without hunting, but the fact that you’re hunting maybe makes it OK for a certain type of person.
Elizabelle
@brendancalling: Yeah, what is it about Philadelphia? A friend, who has since moved out of state, had a MAGAt house across the street.
All the militant signs and ugly slogans. And a sweet, friendly little doormat.
Photo’d it. Spied the sole occupant a few times. Why yes, he was a dumpy, middle aged white male.
My friend said he was actually a nice guy. I never had any interaction with him.
It was a yuppifying/yuppified neighborhood.
Starfish
@Marmot: Some of the population control efforts for deer and elk are so that deer and elk do not spread their diseases to other populations in other areas.
lowtechcyclist
@frosty:
The Rapture’s already happened, and they were left behind? Man, would that ever screw with their heads!
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Another Scott: Bosom Buddies with Tom Hanks
Matt McIrvin
@cain: It’s an article of faith for the red-rose left that Barack Obama was just a crappy center-right neoliberal. Shocking coincidence, I know.
NickM
I was at a work dinner with a new colleague, and making small talk I commented on all the varieties of burger on the menu, saying they all looked good. My colleague replied, “all except the impossible burger.” Oh, I said, have you tried it and don’t like it? “No”, she replied, and started in on a crazy rant about she didn’t know what was in them, and vegetarians were being hypocrites for eating things that were supposed to taste like meat, and everything is so PC now, etc. I tried to argue for a while but the craziness was impervious to argument. So I ended the conversation with “I can’t imagine caring so much about what someone else puts in their mouth”, which was a good way to end the conversation. I still look back on it and am shocked by how much vitriol she had that someone else might want to order a meatless burger. Where does that crazy anger come from – I honestly can’t fathom it.
Subsole
@rikyrah: yep.
Look at Musk. He’s gonna turn twitter into 4chan, and two hours after the last liberal leaves, Musk is gonna be over on mastodon, posting away. They always come to our spaces, never the other way round.
Know why?
They hate us because they need us. They need us because they hate us.
They define themselves as better than us. And what good is it being better than someone you never see? What good is a better life if you can’t grind someone’s face in it?
That’s the root of conservatism. Always has been. Don’t believe me? Look at the 50’s. Look at segregation.
Even when they ran all the blacks out of Whitesville, they didn’t sit in peace. They went and burned Blackton down. Because no one with a heart, brain, or soul would want to live with the kind of miserable bastards over in Whitesville who ran their neighbors off over skin color (or sexual orientation, or gender, or politics, or…), and they knew it.
That’s what folks like Jon Stewart don’t seem to get. We liberals can’t meet them halfway. If we give them the whole town, they’ll just follow us to the new one and the whole mess starts over.
Major Major Major Major
@Marmot: They’re actually reintroducing wolves to Colorado! It’s going great so far.
The gun nut welfare ranchers don’t think so, though, because the wolves like to kill the deer and they’re under the impression that this affects their hunting prospects. Every so often the wolves will take out livestock, too, but the state compensates for that.
@Subsole:
I really do think we’re just going to end up with ~2019 Twitter: Trump is there, moderation is iffy, performance is okay. Even before then it wasn’t exactly 4chan. I feel like people forget that the current/recently-former moderation regime is relatively recent.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I’m trying to remember if the fantasy that successful politics is all about righteous shouting (mostly white guys who shout– Anthony Weiner, that loudmouth from Florida (ETA: Alan Grayson), Avenanti, that guy who sounds like Larry David) preceded Obama or not
Matt McIrvin
@Major Major Major Major: The most famous person with my last name is this rancher in Washington state who has a personal vendetta against wolves and is constantly complaining about them in the papers. I assume he’s some kind of distant relative though I don’t know how.
Subsole
@frosty:
Never happen. They cut their own throats and punish everyone else for it. That implies they are, at best, too weak to self-evaluate. Too weak to admit fault. Too weak to accept responsibility. Too weak to change.
That’s what grates on me; they’re the weakest people on earth, with this preposterous swagger.
delphinium
@Matt McIrvin:
This is basically how I feel, that if you are doing it in accordance with the laws, being safe, and will actually be eating the meat (or giving it away to another family) then go ahead. Seems healthier than eating livestock kept in horrible conditions/injected with hormones, etc.
Related to this-was doing errands and heard two men who were avid duck and deer hunters say they no longer hunt due to safety concerns because of all the yahoos out there now who just want to shoot off a gun.
Nelle
@frosty: OT – What did you think of Hill’s book? I totally agreed with her thesis but thought she kept grinding it out. Lots of good parts. A heck of a lot of repetition. However, if anyone wants to have my copy, send me an email through the site and I’ll get it to you.
Matt McIrvin
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Oh, God, that notion goes back forever.
Soprano2
I would not say that conservatives don’t know how to have a good time or enjoy themselves; I would say that they enjoy different things than we do, like NASCAR races and hunting for deer and stuff like that. The problem is that they don’t want people to enjoy things that they don’t, or things that they are offended by. I don’t care that they like country music, just don’t expect me to like it. That said, I listen to a lot of it because of karaoke; it’s full of resentment that those “city folks” look down on them for their country ways, and almost angry assertions that they don’t care about that because they’re going to like what they like no matter what the “city folk” think. Thing is, I don’t care whether they do or like that stuff or not, I just want them to let me enjoy what I like in peace. That’s what they can’t do.
Marmot
About that proposed “dissolution” of Austin local government, it’s silly that crime and taxes are the supposed justifications.
The crime stats are always bullshit in these cases—but always better than 1970s-1990s stats, so no graph ever shows much of the past.
But the big cost is fucking housing, man! Taxes are a component of that, but market conditions drive it. And guess what? Austin voters just ok’d three big AISD bonds to improve our schools.
There’s no local constituency for dissolving local government, except among the wingnuts who sunk money into reactionary Jennifer Verdun for mayor. Even with two lefty candidates in the race, now headed to runoff, Verdun went nowheres.
rikyrah
Huge age gap shows up in AARP poll of Warnock-Walker runoff
Story by Chloe Folmar
A poll released on Tuesday by AARP, an interest group for those aged 50 and older, found a significant age gap in voters’ preferences in the Georgia Senate runoff election between incumbent Sen. Raphael Warnock (D) and former NFL player Herschel Walker (R).
Warnock leads Walker by 24 percentage points among voters aged 18-49, while Walker leads by nine points among voters aged 50 or older, according to the poll from AARP Georgia.
The two groups differ in their preferences by a total of 33 points. Voters are more supportive of Walker the older they are, according to the poll, which has a margin of error of 3.3 percentage points among respondents 50 and older. Respondents aged 65 or older favor Walker over Warnock by 13 points, while that lead shrinks to four percentage points among those aged 50-64.
Black voters aged 50 and up differ in preference from their age group overall, however, with Warnock holding an 83-point lead over Walker among such respondents.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/huge-age-gap-shows-up-in-aarp-poll-of-warnock-walker-runoff/ar-AA14q2CK?ocid=entnewsntp&cvid=bffea802d6a547bf8034eba63506fe68
Soprano2
@Salty Sam: I think it’s hilarious that people who wring their hands about the “filth” children are being exposed to don’t think twice about flying flags and wearing T-shirts with the word “fuck” on them.
Starfish
@NickM: Some vegetarians like that this gives them an option at places where they did not have any options before. Some vegetarians hate impossible burger because it is fake meat designed to appeal to meat eaters.
Matt McIrvin
@Starfish: I like Impossible Burgers, I think they’re pretty good. They’re not exactly health food though. And I’m not a vegetarian, just someone who likes to not eat meat sometimes.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Matt McIrvin: I’ve heard the argument for impossible meats et al is environmental rather than health. I haven’t tried one yet.
gsus
Couple of things that stood out to me: One is that one of the people killed was Richard Fierro’s daughter’s boyfriend. The whole family had gone to Q to celebrate the daughter’s birthday by attending the drag show. Either the reporters who’ve spoken to Fierro haven’t made this connection, or he’s had the remarkable restraint and discretion not to mention it.
The other is that there were a lot of apparently straight people in the club that night, including at least two of the slain, as well as the Fierros. Seems gay clubs and drag shows offer good, clean, harmless fun even for straight adults and combat vets. In fundy Colorado Springs, no less. Kinda debunks the prevailing RW narrative about drag.
Marmot
@Major Major Major Major: Yeah! I seem to recall some rancher holding up a sign (in CO? WY?) saying like, “Would you let the animal version of Saddam Hussein loose in your home?”
Back in the day, of course. Haha. Dumbasses.
Subsole
@Honus:
These people genuinely believe their testicles only exist so long as someone else is forced to look at them.
Kevin
I don’t remember where I saw the original comment but this is roughly how it breaks down:
Democrats see something they don’t like and think “ok, not for me, I won’t do that.” Republicans see something they don’t like and say “ok, not for me, you won’t do that.”
Matt McIrvin
@Subsole: Gab and Truth Social technically ARE Mastodon (last I checked). Most of the fediverse just blocks them.
And it kind of makes your point. Right-wingers could never be satisfied with just keeping those spaces; they have to destroy others.
delphinium
@Soprano2:
Right, if they don’t care what city folk think, why keep writing songs about it? I just really wonder what type of lives these people lead that they have so much free time to spend worrying/getting angry about what other people (that they don’t even know!) do. And yeah, we are out here living our lives and doing what we enjoy, not wasting our time ‘looking down’ at them, whatever that is supposed to mean.
Soprano2
@Sister Golden Bear: There was actually a person on the 1A Twitter feed who posted a comment that if there’s violence against the gay and trans community it’s because they are pushing “their pronouns”, “made-up words” (aren’t they all made up?), and acceptance of trans people down other’s throats (they really have this thing about thinking anything they don’t like is being pushed down their throat). I replied basically saying it was terrible to believe violence is justified because you don’t like the pronouns people are using, what the hell is wrong with you?
Soprano2
@Old School: Our state legislature is always trying to do things so they can run St. Louis, it’s crazy!
Matt McIrvin
@Marmot: As usual, any space they inhabit or control in any way is equated with “your home”.
Chief Oshkosh
@Marmot: Yeah, this makes sense hypothetically. But, if you’ve ever gone hunting with more than one person or on more than one occasion, you’ll find that A LOT of those guys shoot at damned near anything, including other hunters, dogs, shadows, etc. Sure if they get lucky enough to get a big buck, they’ll fill their FB pages with photos. They rarely show the outcome of day-drinking, poor trigger discipline, and low IQ that represents their more typical “kills.”
Gretchen
@Betty: yes. The press is mad at not being asked to Hunter Biden’s daughter’s wedding so they could ruin it by yelling questions about his laptop at him. What is wrong with them?
Geminid
@Major Major Major Major: I think that the coyotes that have taken the place of wolves in the east have gotten big enough to kill deer. There are still too many deer, though, and besides diseases from overcrowding they are real hazards to motorists.
So, I am all for deer hunting. They are beautiful animals, but so are cows and pigs in their own way, and I’ve paid other people to slaughter plenty of them. And outfits like Hunters for the Hungry actually do provide a lot of venison to food banks in my state. The deer are typically processed by regulated slaughter houses.
Deer have proliferated in Virginia ever since the Second World War. Their population was much reduced during the Great Depression, when food was scarce and people had plenty of time to hunt.
Now the suburbs still have good deer habitat but restricted hunting opportunities. Some of the Hunters for the Hungry groups pick up the slack by bowhunting. One such group hunts on the edges of a nice neighborhood I work in a few miles west of Charlottesville, with permission from the neighborhood association.
Soprano2
@Alison Rose: English really, really, really needs a gender neutral pronoun that refers to people for just a situation like that one.
Marmot
@Chief Oshkosh: Eee-yikes. That’s consistent with an earlier comment on serious hunters getting out because of yahoos.
But also, the deer population is measurably smaller, though I regret to say I’m too lazy now for digging out the study I read about it.
James E Powell
@$8 blue check mistermix:
If she just doesn’t talk for the next two years, she will be re-elected easily.
Tony G
@Scout211: Boebert, unfortunately, will only double down on her hate. That’s all that her lizard brain will know to do.
Marmot
@Marmot: sorry—not the population, but the actual deer.
Geminid
I generally don’t follow the stock market. I have some recently, though and I just saw that while the S&P 500 rose 11.52% in the past 5 days, Tesla stock dropped 11.59% in the same period.
Negative synergy with Twitter?
eversor
I used to live in Dupont DC aka the gay area. We lived there because it was safe for the SO and she loved it. Me, straight as straight can be, fucking a woman, in the woman part, did dress in drag and take part in the drag queen races. I don’t see the big fuss over this. Being in drag does not make one gay. Honestly I’d say half the people in the drag races are not gay! Nobody gave a flip. It was just a fucking neighborhood event and we all showed up because why the fuck not? Nobody ever asked if you were gay, straight, trans, or whatever. We all just fall over laughing as people tripped and fell all over P street and it was good fun.
We are in Arlington VA now, our neighbors are gay as hell. They crank the music and all and nobody gives a flying fuck about it. There might be a “hey, it’s 4am please like drop it” moment but nobody cares.
I do not get why these CHRISTIANS want to impose their religion on the rest of us and this is a CHRISTIAN issue. I’m ready to have that sectarian fight now. And I will never ever even under pain of death trust CHRISTIAN, let a CHRISTIAN in my home, or save the life of a CHRISTIAN. That religion has to go.
Geminid
@James E Powell: That would be very hard for Boebert to pull off. That damn woman is a motormouth if there ever was one. I happened to hear her interviewed by Sebastian Gorka one time and he could hardly get a word in edgewise.
That was actually kind of a good thing. I can’t stand that guy.
BruceFromOhio
@Lobo: I do this in any public location that has more than 5 or 6 people in my immediate line of sight. Also where the exits are located. Just a part of being in public anymore. I once bristled at metal detectors at rock shows, now I’m grateful for the security.
Chief Oshkosh
@Nelle:
I could barely get through it for the reasons you list. She’s just relentlessly dour. Plus, she tended to blame some of her difficulties on decisions that SHE made as a neophyte, newbie errors that lots of people make and that produce similar negative outcomes, no matter their background. However, I don’t doubt that many obstacles she faced and overcame were due to her gender and background.
Overall, I think that she’s courageous, a true expert in her field, and she’s been proven correct about Trump and Putin. I hope leaders continue to tap her as a resource for content and insight.
And overall the book is worth reading. Just maybe speed read it. :)
Major Major Major Major
@Geminid: Yep, nothing wrong with hunting at all!
Just make sure to avoid chronic wasting disease…
BruceFromOhio
@delphinium:
Back when TBogg had his own site, he posted an absolutely epic rant on exactly this: growing up in a time when the NRA was all about safety, hunting was a respectful and respectable sport, and how it turned ugly and dangerous when the ammosexuals took over.
cain
@geg6:
The first person I know who was transgendered was nearly 20 years ago, and she went through the operation – she wasn’t really a good person to begin with and I was hoping that afterwards she would become better – but she never did. Changing genders doesn’t always result in them being a better person – but maybe they are a more complete person.
NickM
@Starfish: I can understand both sides. It case it wasn’t clear, the person I was talking with was coming at this from the MAGA/“ban it because I don’t (even know whether I) like it” angle.
cain
@p.a.:
They must be the same kind of people you run into in other countries where they demand that everyone speak english and that the food should taste exactly like back home. It’s like they want it to be like going to another state. American tourists are sometimes the worst.
Skepticat
I’ve seen many pictures of Trudy in elaborate drag and makeup. I’ve known quite a few straight men who, especially when they were young and goofing around, thought it was a hoot and harmless fun to dress as women. Rethuglicans seem very hung up on and extremely insecure about sex, don’t they?
cain
@Lobo:
I do that sometimes.
cain
@Matt McIrvin:
Maybe he’s a self hating lycanthrope and it’s all projection? Hey it can happen!
jlowe
This has the seeds of a campaign slogan: “Don’t let them kill the fun.”
delphinium
@BruceFromOhio: Yeah, I would hope that if a family is going out hunting together that the parent would be teaching the kids about general safety, being responsible with their guns, and respecting their surroundings which would carry over into adulthood. But who knows anymore.
Martin
@Betty Cracker: This is all because we let Hamburger Mary out of California, isn’t it?
Martin
@BruceFromOhio: Nice article at The Atlantic about that.
Ruckus
@Suzanne:
“I have frequently noted to myself that conservatives (which includes MAGA turds) are, like, the least funny people I have ever encountered.”
They want their world to be just so, perfectly shitty in every measurable direction/way. Personally I think it is because of religions that tell them that people have to suffer for the sins of others. And no I’m not kidding. Their lives are like everyone else’s, shit happens, sometimes we cause it, sometimes we are just in the way, sometimes there is no reason whatsoever. Shit still happens. If you are the type of person that always has to find the reason why life always isn’t this great party, parade and great food that you’ve been promised if only you do this particular thing, this particular way, you are always going to find someone else to blame for actual life, which extremely rarely gives what you expect because it isn’t perfect, predictable and sometimes not even fun. Yes it does have it’s moments, but it also has every thing else. You have to learn to roll with the punches and the crap and the good times. I think that conservatives want life to be predictable, to be what they expect and as of course it never is, they have to hurt whomever might be to blame. And they have been told that liberals, those people who have figured all of the above out, that the world works how it wants, when it wants and we are along for a relatively very short ride so enjoy the show, don’t be an ass on a continuous basis, and actually live are the problem as to why the world doesn’t give them what they so richly do not deserve.
Elizabelle
@Martin: OMG. That is horrifying.
They have no shame. None.
delphinium
@cain:
Was doing a tour thru the Netherlands and Germany which included a group of folks from China. They did not want to try any kind of food except what they were familiar with, but at least were very polite about it and enjoyed the places we visited. Don’t know why Americans need to be rude.
narya
@Chief Oshkosh: @Marmot: @BruceFromOhio:
My source of venison hunts on a family farm, and they observe all of the safety bits absolutely religiously. But they can avoid yahoos because they own the land. (Four gotten on opening day this year, none last year on opening day; really does vary.) and yes, that TBogg rant is epic–my friend has shared it w/ multiple people who also hunt.
delphinium
@Martin:
Utterly deranged and disgusting. Would be nice if the gun industry could be taken down several pegs like cigarette manufacturers were but am guessing that it is too heavy a lift for the time being.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@delphinium: my parents went on a fancy tour of France with a group of other upper middle-aged, upper-middle-class Americans. There were a handful of people who would not stop complaining about the food– which I can barely conceive of– culminating in one guy who left the farewell dinner at I forget which fancy restaurant in Paris, went across the street to McDonald’s, then came back in and went around to make sure every table knew he had just avenged our nation against the perfidious French for… something.
Ruckus
@Sister Golden Bear:
Please make it rain. It costs a lot of money to look this cheap.
I hope it’s OK, I got a good laugh at the ending.
My sister was gay(ish), I have had some extremely great gay friends, I spoke at 2 different memorials for one of them. People are people, in all their joy, irreverence, work, humor, and every thing inbetween.
I have never understood why some people have to have everyone else as fucking miserable as them. I wish they would grow the fuck up. but then I’ve been here a while and understand that some people just can not get life and living and minding their own damn business. They need justification for being the crappy humans they are and they have no idea how to look for it internally.
delphinium
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Damn, what an idiot. Was probably still angry because France had the common sense to oppose the US invasion of Iraq.
...now I try to be amused
@delphinium:
They’re like the stereotypical Russian in this joke:
Three men who died recently are brought before the throne of God and told that they may each have one wish.
The Briton asks for an end to war.
The American asks for an end to hunger.
The Russian smiles slyly and says, “In my village, I have a neighbor who has a cow. I do not have a cow. I wish that my neighbor’s cow shall sicken and die.”
Ruckus
@BruceFromOhio:
55 yrs ago I stopped hunting. I’d only been doing it for 2 yrs when it started going downhill, becoming not about a food source but about the killing and the control for so many. I had had more than enough wanting to risk my life for so little. I imagine that some of the concept has been the concept of war as actually something we had to do to create a more perfect place. That started with Korea I believe, and got worse with Vietnam and the 20 yr war in the middle east. It seems to have been our destiny as a country for most of my almost 3/4 of a century. Now maybe I’m reading in a bit much to history, but I think this concept is worth look at from this direction.
Ocotillo
Stepped away for lunch and see my comment provoked multiple things about hunting.
I have no problem with hunting myself but it appears to be different things to different people. There are the folks who go more for the social aspect of it (deer camp, drinking and eating). Some look for trophies, others eat what they shoot.
I am an outdoorsman myself but my preference is hiking and taking in nature. I do object to the state of Texas closing the park to visitors during some points of deer season to allow hunters in.
Subsole
@delphinium:
I always chuckled at that conceit, that city folks look down on the country.
My duderino in Christ, these people live in a major metropolitan area. Do you know how much there us to DO in a city?
Ain’t no one – as in NO BODY – spending a neuron on y’all. They would have to care you exist before they could look down on you.
J R in WV
@Matt McIrvin:
I think R. Spencer was the wanna be Nazi who got sucker punched while speaking with a bullhorn on a DC street corner. He went down like a sack of potatoes, and I laughed my ass off.
He doesn’t seem to be as public any more, perhaps he realized lots of people despise him and would like to harm him seriously. Being a brazen public Nazi can be dangerous, actually.
J R in WV
@delphinium:
I used to go hunting. The last time I went with a neighbor and his in-laws who dragged a school-bus made into a camper way up into the eastern mountains. It was beautiful country, behind the Green Bank radio observatory.
Opening day I climbed way up over a low gap in a high ridge top, where deer frequently cross over to the other side of the mountain. Really beautiful country!
Suddenly some turkeys flew across the low gap, and some moron with an automatic rifle opened up on the big flying birds — totally illegal, reckless, rounds flying right over my head. I was tempted to shoot back, thought better of that, hit the dirt.
After a while I decided I was done hunting that trip and headed back to camp. There was fresh venison to fry, I volunteered to cook, everyone liked it. I went home the next day,, haven’t been hunting since. Way too dangerous.
I worked with an older guy years ago who found a guy in the woods who had been shot, he carried that man out of the woods, saved his life! I was amazed he could do it. He was retired, worked part time running an offset press for educational TV to print material for teachers to use with TV programming.
ETA: So many guys take a gallon of bourbon into the woods hunting. I’m OK with drinking after you unload the weapons and settle down in camp, but so many of them get drunk on their way into the woods to camp, and stay that way. Nothing more dangerous that a drunk in the woods with a loaded gun…
Tony G
@J R in WV: Sounds like some “responsible gun owners exercising their second amendment rights”. Morons.
Tony G
@delphinium: I’ve never understood people who take the time and money to travel to another country, and then complain about it. Why not stay home and eat at McDonald’s every day? Maybe for these people the complaining is the “fun”.
delphinium
@Tony G:
Yeah, I never understood it either. At least try some of the food and see what you like. And if you don’t like it, no need to make a stink about it-just move on and try something else.
Geminid
@J R in WV: Richard Spencer was also ruined financially in the aftermath of the Unite the Right rally. Last year a federal jury in a much delayed civil lawsuit found him and other rally organisers liable for millions in damages suffered by the people injured after the rally. But Spencer was broke before that anyway.
With his neo-nazi group “Identity Evropa,” Spencer was a leader on the “alt-Right” scene until that disastrous rally in Charlottesville. They were likely the group responsible for the Tiki Torch march the evening before.
The next day Spencer gave a speech at McIntyre Park, the site to which the city tried to move the rally. But the ACLU argued for the organizer’s right to hold the rally at the endangered statues downtown, and the dumbass federal judge agreed.
This was a terrible venue to hold such a large and volatile rally. In the event, the police declared it an unlawful gathering as it was about to begin because of the street fighting all around.
Spencer still got to speak at McIntyre Park, but I bet he wishes now that he’d gone to Myrtle Beach that weekend instead.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
having recently completed my own group trip (a very rare thing for me) with relatives, I can confirm there are such people. I am related to one, who is married to another. Ten days of steady complaints about just about everything
ETA: And in my experience, there is a certain kind of American, especially but not exclusively men, who get a great deal of sour pleasure out of running down foreign countries, especially but not exclusively France. And this was in the 90s, so long before the betrayed our erstwhile Dear Leader.
StringOnAStick
@BruceFromOhio: I still remember parts of that Tbogg story; I think the title was “I Was the NRA”. It was a really moving and enlightening blog post. He’s about my age and his experience matches mine, though I was only “hunting adjacent”. Growing up in the US west in rural areas, guns were part of the background but they were tools, not penis extenders.
I illegally carried a gun in my backpack as a field geologist after a few too many scary encounters. I quickly realized that I’d never get it out in time so I started using a knife in a sheath strapped to my calf, figuring I could get to it if I had been taken to the ground. My final conclusion was anytime I was out in the woods for work, I’d just hide when I heard people coming. That was long before it is as tribal as it is now, and I used to speak fluent Redneck as part of my job; I don’t think I could ‘pass’ anymore and that being a female working by yourself like I used to do is way too dangerous now.
The Pale Scot
@Ocotillo:
Deers are pests, unless we bring back Wolfpack’s everywhere, they will eat everything green. I’m not talking about house shrubbery. The woods I grew up in are totally bare, no owls, no hawks, because the deer have eaten everything. Because it’s NJ and the people there wont let hunters in. The whole place has a browse line. I spent my childhood wearing Patagonia shorts walking barefoot thru the woods sneaking up on the critters. Last time I was there they were all gone. No song birds, which to me in a crime
The Pale Scot
Ahyup, Which is why I don’t hunt. Fuckers show up with ARs now
I got first rifle when I was 8, all these newbies are cray cray
The Pale Scot
It’s a city thing. Once I was walking down 8th Ave at 8am in NYC, I saw a very young Mennonite girl get separated from her family by a street guy. Before I could move 4 other guys were closing in
Head on a swivel