R-word.org - Change the conversation...
Thursday, February 04, 2010
R-word.org - Change the conversation...
First of all, you're going to elicit comparisons of 'retarded' to 'nigger' by using 'r-word', and that's fucking stupid. Let's get that out of the way right up front. People are sort of mean to people with mental disabilities. They enslaved 40 million africans and lynched them up through the 1960s.
Anyway, I read a pretty good discussion of why it's not OK to call things that are lame 'gay'. The idea is, there's not enough separation between the new and old meanings of the word yet. Like, 'gay' still means homosexual, so when I use it to mean 'lame', there's this implication happening because it's totally reasonable to think I might mean 'homosexual'. OK.
Then the author goes on to say that this is also why it's not OK to use 'retarded' to mean 'dumb'. Here, unfortunately, I can't get on board.
For one thing -- and again, I don't want to be mean here, but it is what it is -- mental retardation (as it is referred to less and less frequently) actually does refer to a condition in which IQ is less than 70. So there's no double meaning here -- if I call someone retarded, I mean they're acting like they have an IQ below 70, more or less.
The second problem is that 'less and less frequently' -- neither doctors nor intellectually developmentally disabled individuals are going to refer to an actual ID individual (or themselves) as 'retarded'. The only people calling anyone 'retarded' are people making fun of someone for being dumb -- so again, there's none of the confusion around this word that there is around 'gay'.
So the word isn't a confusing word -- if you hear it in the context of 'fucking retarded', what you're really hearing is 'fucking dumb', and not ' fucking having an intellectual developmental disability'. Not every time, but 99 times out of 100, and as words go, that's pretty good. The word's not the problem.
As to whether we should be making fun of people for saying stupid things, yes. Yes we should. I don't know how much more simply we can put that one. If people say dumb things, you should tell them they're saying dumb things. If you don't have anything true to say, don't say anything at all.
posted by henry |
2/04/2010 02:49:00 PM|
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My Baby? My Baby Seems So Smart But I’m Also Scared About My Baby | The Awl
Monday, February 01, 2010
My Baby? My Baby Seems So Smart But I’m Also Scared About My Baby | The Awl
Exaaaaaaaaaactly.
posted by henry |
2/01/2010 03:59:00 PM|
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3 Reasons the iPad is Crap
Friday, January 29, 2010
These are deal-killers on their own, and put together, they're like, a triple-deal-killer of death:
- No camera. Come on. The one is so freaking obvious. Skyping with mom and dad is like, half the use I get out of my netbook.
- No flash. Done.
- What do all existing computers, typewriters, terminals, televisions, and video game consoles have in common? Their input devices are largely horizontal, while their viewing devices are vertical. Unless you have this thing propped up on your legs with knees bent -- which is fine, but not always the best option -- you can't type on it and look at it at the same time. Phones are an exception because you type with your thumbs.
Like I said, done. There's all these apologists coming out of the woodwork talking about how I don't get it because it's not supposed to be a computer and shit, but these are three basic, UI-based fatal flaws in this device. Even if you don't mind that it's closed and doesn't multitask -- which you fucking SHOULD -- there's 3 things that, even given those limitations, don't make sense.
And you can fix #1 & 2, but you can never fix 3. It works for a phone because we type with our thumbs, but it is never, ever going to be comfortable to type on a flat surface while you're sitting because YOUR HANDS ARE LOWER THAN YOUR EYES, so this is either pointed at the ceiling (for your hands) or at your face (because that's where your eyes are.
Also, the 'Apple wants to ween us from flash' thing is see-through and disingenuous: they don't like anyone else's proprietary software which is fine, but it's not like they're doing us a favor. They're just fighting for market share.
Re: the camera, maybe they fix that, but given that this as a Skype tablet would almost have made me overlook #2 & 3, leaving it out on V.1 was LAAAAAAAAME.
In closing, this thing is awesome, but I won't buy one because it doesn't do things I place value on any better than things I already own. It's not a gamechanger in any sense, and also, it's twice the price of a netbook.
posted by henry |
1/29/2010 12:04:00 PM|
(1) comments
Campaigning and Me
Friday, January 22, 2010
I think that all TV commercials about politics are full of lies and aimed at dummies. So, new rule in light of the fact that we're going to see lots more of them:
I will never vote for anyone who runs a TV commercial. I'll never vote for a referendum if its supporters run a TV commercial.
I won't vote against these things, either, but if there's two candidates and one runs a commercial, I'm voting for the other person. And if they both run commercials, I won't vote.
I know, I know -- if they don't run commercials, they won't win. That's the problem. And I'm not going to be party to it.
Obviously, this is all just my general non-voting impulse, cloaked in a totally valid objection to the process. I'm not voting one way or another, but add this to the list of methods for justifying the non-action. Voting can't hurt me, and it's demeaning and paternalistic. So screw it.
posted by henry |
1/22/2010 10:56:00 AM|
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Newspapers
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Once a month or so, some idiot old newspaper sports writer writes something retarded, so I send him an email full of f-bombs because I know the f-word makes old people cry.
Generally, I don't write to people who are just wrong, I write to people who denigrate stuff just because it's on the internet, or who condescend to the medium. Amazingly, this happens all the time, even though these farts are writing on the internet themselves. No sense of hypocrisy whatsoever.
Today was Murray Chass, and it occurred to me that I can't wait for newspaper sports sections to fold, but that they probably wouldn't do so until the entire newspaper failed, and honestly, I don't care. I'm sure there are things I'd miss, but no one's bothering to make them clear to me. Like, the Boston Globe? Fuck it. The New York Times? Who cares?
I hate the news. Like, it doesn't fucking matter in the volume that we produce and consume it. The news that matters could be covered in like, 800 words a day, with maybe 500 words on actionable news along the lines of 'I-95 is a clusterfuck, and bring in the shit on your porch because it's going to be windy, and there's a vote on repaving Forest Ave. tonight.' There's way too much fucking bullshit, and I don't care if it goes away.
At best you are left with an amusing bit of trivia, good for trading in cocktail party chatter or solving a crossword puzzle, but nothing more.
This is Neil Postman on the news, and he's right. Don't talk to me about democracy or whatever, because no one fucking reads anymore so reporting doesn't help. But newspapers? Holy shit, screw newspapers.
posted by henry |
1/21/2010 11:37:00 AM|
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