Recent Pop Reference

I’ve tried to say (tho it likely got lost in the thread) that I’m not threatening anything. And I absolutely might be incorrect! Maybe mockery will accomplish things.

I have indeed learned a lot! Starting with: the 2020s internet is not a great space for communication!

If you’re sure I’m a troll, probably you should block me and move on. I don’t usually post often, so you won’t miss much!

That said, thank you for taking time to reply. I have been and will continue to think about this set of interactions

On the plus side, if I have to delete my account, it will be very good for my health

Goodnight. Entirely sincerely, I hope you have an excellent evening and beyond

Thank you for your feedback. That is probably my plan going forward.

That said, I'm not entirely sure that not talking about racism will accelerate progress in solving it.

No doubt! That has been suggested before.

9) Yes, I thought I might have information he did not. (No one is omniscient.)

10) Yes, I do think so. Disagreement is inevitable, and I believe that people sharpen each other by providing honest responses.

Nah, I did -- and do. "Hey, I see what you're doing there. As a next step..." (abbreviated version; details depend where people are at on their journeys)

My commitments are not going to change. I'm not playing any game. I've known a lot of white peoples' journeys with racism: what helped them learn and things that prevented learning. I wanted to share that. I've tried to do so. Will go back to lurking now.

Ok. Thousands of life events train people to racism. Undoing all that work takes time and work. A key moment of decision is important, but usually insufficient. Training and support is usually required. Mockery can make progress more difficult. That's all I'm trying to say

Fair enough. It seemed worth chiming in, so I did. Thank you for engaging, and not simply blocking. There doesn't seem much benefit in continuing our conversation, so I will recede to my usual lurking. As I said before, thank you for the work you do, and I hope that there is victory

Mocking ineffective actions, yeah. I do that. (I see a "hate has no home here" sign, and I tend to quip (to my person, in the privacy of our car), "it just stays over sometimes.")

Mocking people trying to do things, though, is maybe a missed opportunity to recruit someone?

Transcode this logic to addiction. It's absolutely true! And it's also true that there are (usually) many things that need to happen to make that decision happen. And many things that can be done to make it more likely. Many of which are dismissed as coddling

I agree, it sucks. I wish we were further along the timeline. Myself, I don't expect anything from you.

My only point is that if you want more white people to do more, not mocking things like wearing pins is probably helpful.

"Policing" is using power to enforce behavior, I think? I have no power here. And I have no intent to enforce anything. Hence, not policing.

(It would be nice if there were a word for interactions between silence and "policing." Like, telling someone their shirt-tail is out. What's that?)

It's Bluesky? Seems like feedback is one of the standard things that happens here?

Not really. I have thick skin.

I'm just trying to provide feedback about how certain things land. Ending racism will probably need to be a team sport. I would say that coddling naive people might be a way to build the team

7) Yes, I have. I learned the difference from black writers and thinkers. Responding to corporate efforts with disdain seems right. But I'm suggesting individuals can be reached. Not all of them, but it's like people signing a petition: a great place to find more active volunteers.

8) Most, yes

4) Not policing. Offering feedback. I have no punishment powers and wouldn't use them if I did.

5) Yes, I do.

6) Not even a little bit.

Cool. Rhetorical MMA is certainly a strategy (or tactic? I never really get the distinction). Maybe it will work. I hope so, because something needs to.

Personally, I think relationship-building with misguided would-be allies might be useful. Ted Lasso kind of coaching.

1) Objectively, no doubt (tho maybe not in specific situations). But they probably felt like they were putting themselves out there. That's an opportunity to teach.

2) No doubt. Is the belief that can never change?

3) No doubt. Not saying anger, just saying patience might be productive

I mean, I'm just a white guy who was given a Coors can to chew on in his high chair. What could I possibly know about what might help other white guys become less racist?

More gently: assuming that because you know things, other people don't know things is an obstacle to learning

Yeah, I was around a lot of people in 2020 who did that (or things like it). They meant well. They wanted to help. They were incorrect about what to do. It was silly, no doubt. Mockery just makes it more likely they'll never try again, do better. Intentions + guidance will save more lives than lolz

One danger of spending time in the pits with trolls is that it can make a person treat everyone like a troll, which does not always result in the outcomes a person might actually want

Skeets make for awkward language. What I meant: mocking pin-wearing folks, who presumably felt like they were taking a risk, I believe, will make them reluctant to take any risk or do anything that might get them mocked. (Hence, counter-productive.) Not a great educational move, credentials or no

Senator Tammy Baldwin's @baldwin.senate.gov statement on the arrest of Judge Dugan (posted elsewhere):

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com Bondi declares war on the courts: "What has happened to our judiciary is beyond me ... they are deranged ... we are sending a very strong message today ... we will come after you and we will prosecute you. We will find you." LIVE FOX NEWS channel BREAKING NEWS • PAM BONDI I U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL SECOND JUDGE ARRESTED ON CHARGES RELATED TO IMMIGRATION ENFORCEMENT The Funcral of POPE FRANCIS HOSTED BY MARTHA MACCALLUM TOMORROW 3AM ET April 25, 2025 at 10:12 AM

So its an open admission the goal is fascist terrorism against the judiciary by the white house and DOJ.

Folks this is the whole ballgame and end of the republic if we do not act territory.

Your trade adviser, Peter Navarro, says 90 deals in 90 days is possible. We're now 13 days into the point from when you lifted the reciprocal, the discounted reciprocal tariffs. There's zero deals so far. Why is that? No, there's many deals. When are they going to be announced? You have to understand, I'm dealing with all the companies, very friendly countries. We're meeting with China. We're doing fine with everybody. But ultimately, l've made all the deals. Not one has been announced yet. When are you going to announce them? I've made 200 deals.

You've made 200 deals? 100%. Can you share with whom? Because the deal is a deal that I choose. View it ditterently: We are a department store, and we set the price. I meet with the companies, and then I set a fair price, what I consider to be a fair price, and they can pay it, or they don't have to pay it. They don't have to do business with the United States, but I set a tariff on countries. Some have been horrible to us. Some have been okay. Nobody's been great. Nobody's been great. Everybody took advantage of us. What I'm doing is I will, at a certain point in the not too distant future, I will set a fair price of tariffs for different countries. These are countries-some of them have made hundreds of billions of dollars, and some of them have made just a lot of money. Very few of them have made nothing because the United States was being ripped off by every, almost every country in the world, in the entire world. So I will set a price, and when I set the price, and I will set it fairly according to the statistics, and according to everything else.

I'm just curious, why don't you announce these deals that you've solidified? I would say, over the next three to four weeks, and we're finished, by the way. You're finished? We'll be finished. Oh, you will be finished in three to four weeks. I'll be finished. Now, some countries may come back and ask for an adjustment, and I'll consider that, but l'll basically be, with great knowledge, setting-ready? We're a department store, a giant department store, the biggest department store in history. Everybody wants to come in and take from us. They're going to come in and they're going to pay a price for taking our treasure, for taking our jobs, for doing all of these things. But what I'm doing with the tariffs is people are coming in, and they're building at levels you've never seen before. We have $7 trillion of new plants, factories and other things, investment coming into the United States. And if you look back at past presidents, nobody was anywhere near that. And this is in three months.

Will you call President Xi if he doesn't call you? No. You won't? Nope. Has he called you yet? Yep. When did he call you? He's called. And I don't think that's a sign of weakness on his behalf. But you would think it's a sign of weakness if you called him? I don't-I just look- Well, what did he say? If people want to-well, we all want to make deals. But I am this giant store. It's a giant, beautiful store, and everybody wants to go shopping there. And on behalf of the American people, I own the store, and I set prices, and I'll say, if you want to shop here, this is what you have to pay.

NEW: TIME publishes interview with Trump.

This is a REAL section of the transcript.

It is impossible to read this and not conclude that Trump is suffering profound, cognitive decay.

PhD Timeline xkcd.com/3081

After hitting send, I checked your bio. Impressive profile! And thank you for your work.

Doesn’t really touch the validity of my feedback though