I know. This technique is so widely used by advocacy groups, and it's so impossible to make the more nuanced point. I've been looking at posters on the train of the mothers of AIDS victims and thinking, "It's really not sociologically true that HIV touches everyone equally."
I know why they feel they have to say it, and I don't think there's an easy workaround given our society's adherence to the ideas of equality and lack of social class. But it sure is nonsensical.
And of course there are some issues where it is much more true, and it's helpful to upend people's presumptions of "That doesn't happen to anyone *I* know." Sexual assault certainly comes to mind as one of those.
Who is the one in eight in your life?
Me! I'm hungry right now. But I'm going to go get a burger and end my suffering in a few minutes. Who's up next?
Going by Google, one in eight Americans also are immigrants, will stop paying for cable in the next year, are behind on their mortgage payments, are internet addicts, and live in areas with unhealthy levels of particulates or ozone. They just never catch a break, do they?
|? (always included pro forma)
Oooh, this from Digby is good
Economic inequality and regressive taxation, while certainly welcomed by the aristocracy, are best understood as a means to their actual goal, which is simply to be aristocrats.
That shows a little confusion in the piece and post, titled by Digby "Yearning to be subjects." And there is the opening sentence:
But the most central feature of conservatism is deference: a psychologically internalized attitude on the part of the common people that the aristocracy are better people than they are.
Even the aristocrats want and need to be subjects, which means it is really about needing hierarchies and authority.
Was it Perls (or Berne) who said humans are driven by...I guess Berne...are driven by stimulus-hunger and structure-hunger? The whoever is cited on the blogosphere has a warped idea of what authority actually means. It is not only a king, it is also Samuelson the greater and Merriam-Webster. And the primacy of reason.
This could connect to the discussion of Rawls, Zizek, and liberalism over at CT, but Holbo...trailing off into spitting rage.
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Holbo is really over my head. Who wants to watch Bio-Dome?
7:Not mine.
Holbo's whole schtick is "You (Zizek and everybody but Holbo) just don't argue good enough, peasant. I don't have to listen to/read you and neither should anybody else. Your style sucks and you're ugly. And your mama.
And he is a not as-subtle-as-he-thinks apologist for Narnian political economies neo-liberalism.
The commercial has Tom Waits playing, and they say things about how hunger is a reality for too many Americans. Which is absolutely true. Then they say "One in eight Americans suffers from hunger. Who is the one in eight in your life?" Every time, I am compelled to bark "THAT'S NOT HOW DISTRIBUTIONS WORK."
I think they're saying that you should have someone like that in your life. You know, like if you live a safe and comfortable life and if even everyone you know does too, then go do a shift at the soup kitchen or sign up for a Fresh Air program or something.
I don't live up to that myself and I'm not even sure if I believe it, but it's a plausible non-crazy and non-stupid meaning of the line.
sign up for a Fresh Air program
Taking over hosting duties for Terry Gross would be a notable social good.
9: or possibly spend all your money on drugs so you can't afford food.
"One in every eight Americans suffers from hunger. If you don't know anybody who does, maybe... it's you!"
12.1: Ironically donate all your food (or food money) in the name of Pomplamoose.
9: Yay, Cyrus!
I mean: I endorse 9. Though I have no idea what the Fresh Air reference is about.
I think Cyrus is referring to the Fresh Air Fund, which AFAICT is unknown outside of NY. But they'll take hosts from other states! Open your home to a city kid for a week in the summer -- it's great fun.
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I don't think anyone has linked this site here. It collects awful and funny online dating messages. This one might be the worst imaginable.
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"THAT'S NOT HOW DISTRIBUTIONS WORK."
Well its hard to buy food when you're unemployed
I think this is a double-edged but necessary social fiction. On the one hand, the danger is that people will say, "But I don't actually know anyone suffering from x, therefore these PSA people must be full of crap," or alternately that they will mistake the much milder version of x that people they know do cope with for the more extreme form the people they don't know experience and decide that it's not such a big deal (folks do this with poverty all the time). On the other hand, if you say the more accurate thing, that the people suffering from x may not be in your comfortable-class life at all, outside of your occasional encounter with them while standing in line at the post office or the DMV, well comfortable folks have often already constructed a story for themselves about why the sufferings of such people are not their concern or are beyond their help. If you relocate the issue to the imagined community of All of Us, I think it's easier for people to engage with sympathy rather than distancing defenses.
decide that it's not such a big deal (folks do this with poverty all the time)
Speaking of which, has anyone here done or heard of this "poverty simulator" workshop?
19.
I took her to a supermarket
I don't know why
but I had to start it somewhere
so it started there
I said "pretend you've got no money"
but she just laughed
and said "oh you're so funny"
I said "Yeah
Well I can't see anyone else smiling in here
THAT'S NOT HOW DISTRIBUTIONS WORK.
Do you happen to inquire often for whom the bell tolls?
15
I think Cyrus is referring to the Fresh Air Fund, which AFAICT is unknown outside of NY. But they'll take hosts from other states! Open your home to a city kid for a week in the summer -- it's great fun.
Yes, that's what I meant. I'm glad someone got it. I don't know anyone who actually was involved in the program, but growing up in Vermont where Fresh Air Fund kids would theoretically sent, I saw the pamphlets for host families now and then.
Obviously not a perfect example of this kind of thing, but it's the second kind of volunteer-to-help-the-poor-that-anyone-can-do program that came to mind.
This one might be the worst imaginable.
And it has now scared me off from dating anyone in this fine city.
God I wish I was smart enough to participate in this conversation. But luckily, you guys are doing the heavy lifting. Why? Because you're THE BEST!
Pauly is right. We are the best. Good point, Pauly.
And it has now scared me off from dating anyone in this fine city.
I've been seeing someone from (near) that fine city, *and* I met her through a dating website. Don't give up hope!
27: Not to worry, I'm (mostly) joking.
La cucaracha! La cucaracha!
Won't you guys be my amigos?
La cucaracha! La cucaracha!
I don't know enough Spanish to know a word that rhymes with amigos!
I've been seeing someone from (near) that fine city, *and* I met her through a dating website. Don't give up hope!
Well, ok, but did she wash out all fecal matter before you met her? This is apparently the key question.
I've been seeing someone from (near) that fine city, *and* I met her through a dating website. Don't give up hope!
Wait, how are we supposed to know that you aren't a total psycho?
Distribution work by drawing power from the battery or the alternator. The change gets divided into 4, 6, or 8 parts (12 if you're a rich bastard) and then makes the gasoline go "boom."
Explaining things is hard. I'm going to sleep.