Will Shetterly's Blog, page 16

My favorite "class reductionist" quotes

"I am human, nothing human is alien to me." —Terence the Playwright

"The world is my country, all mankind are my brethren, and to do good is my religion." —Thomas Paine

"There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus." —Paul, Galatians 3:28

"Workers of the world, unite!" Karl Marx and Frederick Engels

"We must

shared on June 18ths

Watching billboards along the road, I wondered, How many encouragements to eat does the average American see in a day, and how many did the average American see 150 years ago?

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I have an awful memory for faces, so if I know you & appear to ignore you, say hi. Or if I don't know you, say hi & pretend I know you. It's all good.

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Now that the rich favor inconspicuous consumption and diversity,

shared on June 15ths

We live in a world where it's possible to make eighty million dollars in a year. Well, a few people live in that world. Not you or me.

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Tired of articles about Einstein being racist because of what he wrote in his youth. The man of the 1920s was not the man of the 1950s.

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Humans should not go to another planet until we’ve proved we can take care of this one.

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Online, the outraged only

shared on June 13ths

I've been thinking about whether powerless people can be called part of a powerful group. Tentative conclusion: Only if you think pawns are powerful.

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If "political correctness" was just another name for politeness, social justice warriors would never complain about civility or "tone policing".

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If responding to speech with violence helped our cause, the police would not pay provocateurs to

shared on June 9ths

"If you want to know what white privilege looks like, [Meghan McCain] is a great example of it." —Joy Behar

Almost a valid example, but really, it's just princess privilege, as anyone who ever met a Black American Princess or a Jewish American Princess knows.

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I hate gofundme healthcare. I hate knowing some of the people are scammers and some are honestly desperate, and many are too proud or

shared on June 8ths

US serving sizes are ridiculous. Who would limit themselves to two tablespoons of guacamole?

Guacamole haters, shut up.

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An interesting difference between alcohol during Prohibition and marijuana where it's been illegal: the 18th Amendment was only about the “manufacture, sale and transportation of intoxicating liquors”—it was legal to drink and own alcohol, and homebrew was mostly ignored.

shared on June 7ths: free speech absolutists, wonder woman, more

No tolerance means no opportunity to learn from a mistake.

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A free speech absolutist does not believe in a right to make other people listen or to speak anywhere we want. That's an asshole.

A free speech absolutist believes adults should be free to discuss any subject in their own spaces or in common spaces without fear of punishment.

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Think carefully about the principles you support and

Three Kinds of Identity Politics: Traditional, Socialist, and Neoliberal

1. Traditional identity politics

For most of human history, identity politics were the politics of the powerful. They promoted a hierarchy that put men above women, people of their tribe above people of other tribes, and people of the ruling class above people of the working class.

Rebels and freethinkers who believed in the equality of all humans opposed them. In ancient times, these

shared on June 5ths

I'm a stranger from the internet, and I'd like to know why you don't want to engage with a talking point you've heard 1000 times before.

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There's a missing book of Genesis where Adam and Eve whine about how spoiled the kids are.

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Pride events should have an expiration date, maybe twenty-five years after a group has full legal equality.

Sorry, St. Patrick’s Day.

(Since gay folks only got

The very white, very Antifa origin of the Minneapolis riots (Expanded June 4)

Because I support the protesters and have been a critic of black bloc tactics ever since I saw them used two decades ago at a protest against the Iraq sanctions (which gave the police an excuse to move in and end the protest early), I have written this explanation for why I believe fans of antifa's black bloc tactics began the riots.

While the black organizers were calling for peaceful protests