Paul Ryan AND Michelle Obama can both smooch my little white derriere. Link is from Jason Macias courtesy of Christina Rosander I get the point of this video, they bring on two leftist talking heads who want to play the connect-the-dots game on calling out racist subtext, then try to trap them with a similar statement they believe to be attributed to the same source, but instead comes from Mrs. President herself. Great, youve managed to dupe two people with a seemingly transparent goof, a gotcha moment where now theyre forced to either admit that Paul Ryan isnt racist or Michelle Obama IS. This is one of the most irresponsible and idiotic moments Ive ever seen on Bill Maher, and as a progressive-minded person who usually agrees with his sensibility (note: usually), I think this is just a moment of self-destructive, shoddy political wrangling for a Youtube soundbite. It forces some rhetorical idea that one or the other is being racist, based on presuppositions of racism in the Republican party and a strange reluctance to believe that Democrats cant be, but it doesnt ever pose the question: Is Michelle Obama wrong? Was what she said blatantly dismissive, baseless, and borderline thoughtless? Racist? Nah. Its more a commentary on culture, as was Paul Ryans. The fact that the demographic being addressed is largely Latino and black in many neighborhoods is tangential to the fact that the people theyre talking about live in poverty. The inclusion of a lack of fathers, a stereotype certainly attributed to black families, is brought up by the guest, not Ryan himself. Yes, Paul Ryan is a backwards, self-obsessed fundamentalist whackjob who promotes regressive political discourse and has absolutely zero understanding of womens rights (love the interlacing of men getting jobs! as a premise for his argument). But is this statement itself racist? Nope, its just really, really stupid. Are kids growing up in a culture of disillusionment, pock-marked with a lack of valuable jobs with career potential, with real earning potential? Are they given educations that will actually provide skills for a future? Frankly, Bill Maher, Michelle Obama, Paul Ryan, and these guests should be embarassed that theyre even addressing the video games being played, the lack of interest (or opportunity) for gainful employment, and start discussing whats actually wrong: Weve sold an entire countrys manufacturing industry overseas. We have swaths of hollowed out factory husks in hundreds of miles of areas we winkingly call The Rust Belt. Our strongest corporations that do produce in America are generally also international companies. Perhaps thats how this world functions best, but weve replaced our countrys job infrastructure with service-based jobs, cashier register jockeys, telemarketing reps, customer service desks, and retail work. Weve eroded any trade skill education in our basic curriculum, so we have millions of people with no marketable skills that cant feed their families on part-time McDonalds paychecks, were slashing social welfare programs, and weve all but given up on education reform, passing the buck in an idiotic witchhunt for teachers in the form of NCLB, Common Core, all these terrible methodologies of assessment for a barely-quantifiable field of progress. Arts, mechanics, electronics, economics, home ec, workshop, all these basic skills for daily life, maintenance, trade skill employment, weve just pissed away to focus on the basics necessities. Weve done this to generation after generation, weakening our candidates for trade skills, management, and business ownership, elevated continuing education costs through the roof, crashed the world economy so that college loans are no longer affordable, outsourced much of the career paths that those college graduates are looking for, and now we want to point fingers at children playing video games, at islands of poverty and a complete lack of education in the abandoned carcasses of our cities. We took the value of work, the gift of creating and crafting and building and doing SOMETHING real with their lives, and we blame them for not buying into the system anymore. What the hell, kid? Just go get a job at McDonalds! Are you too good for McDonalds??? YES. The answer is YES. And these damn people get paid to continue bouncing that ball across the words on the screen, saying nothing, doing nothing, helping nobody. Our countrys most recent Nobelists have said, without any hesitation, that the American presence in those lists of prize winners is going to dwindle and disappear for lack of a field of candidates, because weve eradicated our ability to produce them on par with China, India, etc. Were silently watching the middle class decay, and these shitheels have the nerve to spend their time, their ability to reach the masses and affect any sort of dissemination of awareness or political truth to fling apologist drivel at each other, trying to out the violators of whatever political direction the compass is pointing, and its miserably sad to see someone like Bill Maher fomenting that. I dont get it anymore. Is anyone actually trying to do something? Is there a politician or talking head or expert or activist on the national level who is doing ANYTHING to improve this country or propose real solutions?
Posted on: Sat, 29 Mar 2014 16:43:40 +0000
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