Will Shetterly's Blog, page 83

Because a blog without comments doesn't feel like a blog

Comments are on again.

For anyone who doesn't think the Log Cabin Republicans ended DADT

I got caught up in a Facebook discussion with a fervent neoliberal about Don't Ask, Don't Tell. Since this subject may come up again, here's an edited version of what I noted: FromLog Cabin Republicans v.United States: On September 9, 2010, Phillips ruled that the ban is unconstitutional. On October 12, Phillips issued an injunction banning the military from enforcing the policy. She

If I rebooted The Phantom

When I was a kid, I loved the Phantom. He was a weird combination of Tarzan and Batman. I loved stories about the previous generations of Phantoms. I especially loved stories about the female Phantom and pirates and the contemporary Phantom going out into the world in a hat and trenchcoat as Mr. Walker. I thought the Ghost Who Walks was a great name, and I loved the horse and dog, and I

The hierarchies for writing Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman

I shared these yesterday on Facebook, G+, and Twitter: Hierarchy for writing Superman 1. Idealistic American aware of his immigrant roots. 2. Passionate journalist. 3. Parttime hero. Hierarchy for writing Batman 1. Defender of social hierarchy. 2. Vigilante obsessed with violent property crime. 3. Playboy. Hierarchy for writing Wonder Woman 1. Egalitarian. 2. Visitor to a strange

Classism: Arthur Chu and pidgin

I often notice classism in antiracists and antisexists. The most basic form involves being mistaken for clerks or waiters: "OMG, they thought I was one of the help! It was clearly because of my race/gender/both!" Being a white guy who has worked as a clerk and who has periodically been mistaken for one, my white male privilege lets me know the people who asked me if I worked there were simply

The Communist Manifesto calls for Democracy

"...the first step in the revolution by the working class is to raise the proletariat to the position of ruling class to win the battle of democracy. The proletariat will use its political supremacy to wrest, by degree, all capital from the bourgeoisie, to centralise all instruments of production in the hands of the State, i.e., of the proletariat organised as the ruling class; and to increase

Karl Marx, Libertarian and Incrementalist

Marx was a libertarian: "We are not among those communists who are out to destroy personal liberty, who wish to turn the world into one huge barrack or into a gigantic workhouse. There certainly are some communists who, with an easy conscience, refuse to countenance personal liberty and would like to shuffle it out of the world because they consider that it is a hindrance to complete harmony.

Race reductionist idiocy of the day: Arthur Chu calls Bhaskar Sunkara a white man

Now, it's not surprising thatChu would put class low in his priorities. Asian-Americans, like Indian Americans, are more economically privileged than ethnically-Christian white Americans, thanks to coming to this country with proportionally more wealth under the immigration laws that applied at the time.

Vampire States of America #1

Pumpkinhead #1: Demons