July 6, 2013
And how are you?
I am, as the kids like to say, all shades of super nifty.
After my last blog came out, there were all of three people who took issue with my dismissive summary in regards to the “Weekend Anarchist” brigade that resides within the heart of downtown PHX. and who at this time, are still bent out of shape on the topic of local business owner Cindy Dach and her misguided collaboration with the police.
[I took the position that while both sides criticisms’ were indeed truly valid, they still needed to get together and work out their issues before something much worse happened.]
Like all good and noble critics, they sharpened their digital pens, put words to tablet, and fired off their electronically launched missiles in the bravest way possible… anonymously.
Sigh…
Think David vs. Goliath.
Man vs. Nature.
Sarah Palin vs. Logic.
Donald Trump vs. Good Taste.
You get the idea.
Heck, I’m starting to think that not only can I phone it in, I might be able to send a note in Cuneiform.
When it comes to mocking, I like to think that I do my groundwork, but in regards to this situation, I haven’t had to leave my house. Figuratively and literally, they’ve been doing all the work for me, and I really can’t thank them enough. If I could only figure out how to get them to do my housework and run my errands, I’d be golden.
Ticked off fifteen year olds trapped in adults’ bodies is a much more apt description when it gets right down to brass tacks, I think. By way of example, nothing says “mature debate” like dropping a planeload of F-bombs the moment it becomes clear that your side is losing- mainly due to your inability to clearly enunciate the ideas you claim to base your life on.
Contradictions, name calling and hypocrisy is the glue that seemingly binds this argumentative philosophy together, and while on the surface it might come off as nothing more than outgrown juvenile immaturity, it does tend to have a far-reaching and un-constructive effect, that being obstruction for obstruction’s sake.
While I am a big (read HUGE) proponent of individual expression in regards to politics and personal morality, I also harbor a loathing for truly insular people, especially those who consistently assert that they’re not. To my dismay, anarchist hypocrisy runs far and deep in Phoenix, but nowhere near as bad as what gets posted on the old FaceBook.
In my opinion, nothing screams “Anarchist Utopia” than a Capitalism-based website that sells your personal data for profit. And while the bolstering argument for this particular inconsistency is the well-worn refrain of “I’m fighting the man using his own system”, I think we all know what the real underlying reason is.
I know. Not only am I an unrealistic bastard, I’m apparently incapable of truly flexible thought as well. Heads up- I also believe in the healing power of Christmas too, but that’s only because I’m in it purely for the gifts.
So… if one were to look up the definition of closed-minded, what would it say, and which one of us best fits the description given?
Your choice.
Now… does that sound like me, the guy who welcomes open and public debate regarding his written opinions, while using his real name and posting his picture for all to see? I don’t think so, but since there’s always going to be differences of opinion depending on your POV, let me support my case that they fit that mold much better than I.
Hmm. That sounds pretty cut and dried to me, and without proper context, I can’t say why K.T. and her brood feel that way. Perhaps they had a bad experience with some abusive officers, and that’s where their hatred lies, and with good reason.
A small point of order: I am not being an apologist, no matter what some people would like to claim. I’m just guilty of using my common sense. Abuses DO happen, and much more frequently than the Media cares to report. Furthermore, when they have occurred, I’ve ALWAYS believed that those corruptions of the public trust should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, and then some.
Irrational hatred without context is the best proof of being closed-minded, and if you need some more corroboration, here direct from K.T.’s unintentionally funny FaceBook thread is my newest buddy Justice, and his unique brand of Anarchist wisdom :
Excuse me for a minute… wahaha(snork)wahahaha(snork)hahahahaha!!!!
Wow. That is some severe stupidity right there, kids. And this is coming from a guy who owns the Director’s Cut of “Xanadu” and “Flash Gordon” on VHS, DVD, and Laser Disc.
Does he sincerely believe that if there were no police that somehow all that crap would cease? If so, he’s a much bigger idiot than I originally thought- and I was already giving him a huge length of rope to run with. But my angry little buddy wasn’t done yet. Rambling on, he further adds:
“I can’t think of anything I hate more than cops. Not just cops, but the authoritarian manipulative culture they protect and enforce. And the mentality it creates amongst the people, dominant, submissive, controlling manipulative relationships. I fucking hate cops.”
To quote a friend of mine: “When people go off about police as something that should be eliminated, I want to ask them if they realize how many idiots and lowlifes they know around them. Now imagine them all having loaded guns and no restrictions’. And that’s why, whether it’s a good ball game or a bad one, we need cops.”
At this point, my other favorite asinine Anarchist (AKA Ting-Ting), decides to jump into the fray, to show off both her lack of common sense and her inherent hypocrisy by adding gems of absurdity into an already preposterous mix.
First ingredient into the pot is her retort to the following fact, posted by a fellow colleague:
“The history of organized firefighting began in ancient Rome… The first Roman fire brigade of which we have any substantial history was created by Marcus Licinius Crassus. One of his most lucrative schemes took advantage of the fact that Rome had no fire department.
Crassus filled this void by creating his own brigade—500 men strong—which rushed to burning buildings at the first cry of alarm. Upon arriving at the scene, however, the fire fighters did nothing while their employer bargained over the price of their services with the distressed property owner.
If Crassus could not negotiate a satisfactory price, his men simply let the structure burn to the ground, after which he offered to purchase it for a fraction of its value.
FUCK THOSE GUYS!”
Hmmm… so as a hardcore Anarchist, she’s not: okay with patriarchal archetypes, any organized form of government, nor is she cool with cops, white men, and believes [from an earlier posted statement] that “It’s simply ideas of liberation that are being acted out to the best of ability in a racist, capitalist, imperialist patriarchal society,” yet… she’s okay with those same exact people coming to her aid if her hovel catches fire?
I thought Anarchy was all about NOT relying on an overseeing power structure to save or protect you- I guess being a hypocrite is perfectly fine if you just keep yelling loud enough that you’re not, while waving free trade signs made out of cruelty-free ink.
*[To add to the sense of fair play, I do have a copy of this thread in case you want to read the whole thing in context. Just drop me a line, and I’ll send it along.]
“They are not people when they are cops. People are people. cops are not people. Abandon yourself.
Are you saying a person’s worth only extends as far as their racist, patriarchal job? Hmm!”
“Are you familiar with a non-revisionist history of police and how they came about? Are you familiar with their role in society? Cops are a function. It’s okay to be confused. I was, too. Hope ya don’t get brutalised or kidnapped and held for ransom tonight! But you’re white, you’ll be a’ight if you fall in line.”
It’s cool- as long as you don’t hurt them or anyone else in your own perception your own conscience is clear I guess.”
Ouch. I can actually feel my brain cells killing themselves in response to this ignorant socio-babble.
So… cops are on the same abominable level as Slave owners and Nazis?
I’m guessing her “reading” consists mainly of pamphlets she has laying around the ol’ compound.
Fortunately for society, there still exists intelligent people who felt the need to challenge this misuse of DNA and take her head on. My loyal Blogiteers, I present the brilliant Ashley Naftule:
“My biological father was almost a cop. Went to the academy, did the training, passed all the tests and ended up quitting on his first week on the job. He didn’t want to do a job where he spent most of his life interacting with people who hated his guts for his uniform.
He goes on to say: “And I say that as someone who deeply DESPISES authority. But I don’t let that hate blind me to the fact that the agents of Control are still people, and that they are people first, their roles and ranks and masks second.” “There are no good cops? So what do we call the cops who don’t harass and racial profile, the cops who scoop cats out of trees and find missing children and advocate for rape victims and keep violent/sexual predators off the streets?
Would we dismiss them as being good people IN SPITE of the fact they’re cops? Because a cop is incapable of being good, so anything good they do is thus uncop-like?
Horseshit.
That’s the same kind of mentality that has people praise God when something good happens to them, and blames anything that happens to them on bad luck or the Devil. Any group of people as large and diverse as cops, even within a rigid hierarchal structure, are still going to produce some intrinsically good cops and some intrinsically rotten ones.
Much how people often revere doctors as a benevolent, selfless profession when there are plenty of greedy and callous M.D.s running around to explode that viewpoint.”
Nicely stated viewpoint, Mr. Naftule. Naturally, Ting- Ting had a brilliant rejoinder:
“There aren’t any. Everyone is racist, including cops. They get around more racists. It’s not cool to call others out on their racism. And if you don’t play along you get pushed out. Not same mentality at all. The fallacies of argumentation represented here are just… Wowza.”
I have this very strong hunch that if Lieutenant Spock ever attempted a Vulcan mind-meld with this dense suburban couch warrior, he’d come back with a description befitting an old lady’s attic- it’d be dark, scurrying with mice, and have cobwebs everywhere.
But here’s where our man Ashley really shines like a diamond- citing Ting’s earlier statement about Nazi’s, Ashley refers to Godwin’s Law, which states that as an online argument grows longer and more heated, it becomes increasingly likely that somebody will bring up Adolf Hitler or the Nazis.
That. Is. Fucking. Brilliant. Beyond. Words. But it also makes perfect sense. If you’re going to be forced to deal with absurdly ridiculous people whose minds will not be changed, why not just go full throttle and present an equally ludicrous response?
AN: “People are people, so why should it be/that you and I get along so awfully?”
AN: “Pick up the receiver/I’ll make you a believer”.
KF: “This is real fun. This is fun.” “I will try my best and more or less. I will speak from my heart.”
Cross over the street/You’re free to change your mind / Strength through diversity / Couldn’t have put it more plainly / Got to move on sometime”
The child inside your heart.”
BENEATH THE TETRIS BLOCKS, THE BEACH!”
I’m just a Capitalistic middle aged white patriarchal with a handlebar mustache and a closed mind.
Gah. I think we’ll stop there for now.
And when we come back…. I’ll finally tackle the Richard Bledsoe/Censorship issue, (I swear) open up the mind of Eric Cox to see what makes him tick, and I find out if I still can walk into Jobot without body armor.
“They defend their errors as if they were defending their inheritance.”- Edmund Burke
UPDATE!!!!!
————————————————————————————————————————————-
Ting- Ting: thanks for the note.
There’s nothing more I love than advice and/or hate mail from someone like you. And yes, I really do mean that sincerely. Since you spent at least twelve seconds to write it, let me respond in kind.
“LOL a testament to how full of yourself you are. It’s excellent. I’ve publicised your imbecility, you should have seen at least a slight increase in readership. Hahaha!”
– Yes, your four friends will add to the couple hundred I have now. Thanks. I’ll send you a loofah.
“Also, how contrived to send me this message, block me so that I could not respond and then decide to unblock later. You must be putting a lot of thought into this.”
– Actually, I didn’t block you, welcome to the land of FB glitches. Sorry if that delayed your um… response- but since I have about half a dozen ways to be contacted, it wasn’t like you couldn’t send your little rant directly to me if that was your intention.
“I’ve deduced that you must have a bit of a thing for Justice and I that a brief interaction on one FB post led to… this. I sincerely hope you realise the ludicrous nature of the entire situation.”
– Like most of your opinions, you’re pretty much dead wrong as usual. What I have for Justice and you is overall contempt, but thanks for trying to add a touch of pure romance to it. And the word is “realize”, BTW. You have spell check, please use it. It makes you look careless, otherwise.
“And, no, you did not receive any emails from my comrades. Cute trick, tho.”
– Actually, I received eight, and did lunch with two. Cute attempt at propping up your ego, though.
“I was tipped off about this, the kind of person you are, and your general fervor toward- again- this ONE interaction we had on the internetz a few weeks ago. By your- ahem- “friends.”
– And this is supposed to upset me exactly why? I know who’s in the camp and who’s not. Spirited try, I’ll give you that, but you’re hardly impressive on any level as of yet.
“Also, you blatantly misquoted me making you a liar (convenient-seeming for you that my comrade deleted the post that spurned our interaction- this over-reaching conniption via blog post- but I have a tendency to screen cap shit like that.”
– As did I. Grabbed it the day it happened. So… we’ll just let the public have their say, won’t we? And BTW, I was tipped of as well about that hilarious thread. Your intellect is truly dizzying.
“Not so good for your character and image, I’d say) and, damndamndamn, could you have found a more fallacious definition of anarchism (which you didn’t even cite the source for…)?”
– Actually, my image and character is pretty solid, but thanks for your concern. And sincere apologies for not footnoting my definition source- that’s actually a valid point. Good catch there.
“See, you’re a pretty decent writer and at one point I even thought, shit, this guy might be intelligent. But the length combined with the content of your blog post tells me that you’re in way over your head here intellectually. “
– Coming from you, I’ll take that as a compliment. And the lone opinion of someone I don’t know, like, or fear really cuts zero ice for me. Sorry, but haven’t I already established what I think of your opinions? And my sincerest apologies that reading more than two paragraphs makes your brain hurt something fierce.
“The inconsistencies in logic, blatant ignorance, and the self-involved, latently self-piteous nature of your post are astounding and deeply disappointing. You aren’t even a worthy adversary.
Pppbbttttt.
Bye, ya old racist misogynist.”
– Goodbye. It’s been a scintillating pleasure. And as a side note, being born twenty something years after I was is not an actual talent. It just means that it took a while longer for your father to get his game on. And as for the racist remark, good luck convincing people about that.
“PS: Having a liberal white feminist (which seems clear if she tolerates you- your comment about ~refraining from using a sexist and racist and just plain fucking CREEPY phrase pertaining to “Asian girl”s is all I need to know about both of you) significant other means the same thing to me and other non-morons as when white people say, “I’m not homophobic, I have gay friends!” Or “I’m not racist! I have black friends!” Lol.”
– Oh yes, attacking my GF who has way more education than you, (plus a successful career) is really going to make me mad… not. With all due respect, you’re not smart enough to turn on the lights in her office, and it speaks volumes that you would attack someone who hasn’t done a thing to you. Classy and cravenly all at the same time. I guess you can multitask after all. I stand humbly corrected.
“Bravo. You deserve a cookie and a slow clap.”
– Thanks, but I’m really more into Ding Dongs and the sound of a quiet river.
“Finding these gifs for your is far too much effort, but you get the drift.”
-Sorry. I really didn’t get that, since I don’t speak incoherently. Come again?
“PPS: TINGBAT AND FIREBRAND. You flatter me so. I am gracious for these labels you have bestowed.”
– You’re welcome. I love to give back at least a little something to the kids.
“Genuinely. I’m going to refer to you henceforth as…. Fifth Reich.”
– Actually, I’m the second, but that does sound snazzier, so let’s run with it.
“I expect a prompt response to this akin to nothing less than righteous indignation and a terribly obtuse and disgruntled deduction/invocation of Godwin’s Law.”
– On this one, I will invoke Gahan’s Law (all responses must be Depeche Mode Lyrics) instead:
– So we’re different colours/And we’re different creeds/And different people have different needs
It’s obvious you hate me/Though I’ve done nothing wrong/I never even met you/So what could I have done…
Oh wait. I proved you’re an idiot.
Sincerely,
WMR/ARTbitch