The Privilege of Selfishness

Sitting safely behind your computer screen, pissed about someone sitting for an anthem, while simultaneously supporting the vote to block refugees from other countries who are just trying to escape terrorists and war…

The epitome of American and white privilege.

The other day a friend posted about an alleged Bureau of Land Management decision to slaughter over 65000 wild horses to make more room for cattle. Whether or not this is true, what struck a nerve for me (that is putting it waaaaay lightly) was the person who commented on the post bitching about how our government should be spending money to save those horses “instead of the Muslim scumbags” coming over from Syria, because the horses “actually deserve it.”

Let that sink in for a moment.

America, a “proud Christian nation.”  Does the previous comment sound like something you’d want to be associated with as an American?  Does it sound very “Christian?”  Disgusting, is what it is.  I love animals, I do, but clearly this person’s love for animals is not as strong as their hate for other people.

How very progressive…Nope. No problem here.

Bear with me, because I am coming back around to Koepernick.  You may not like how he protested, but it’s his right as an American and he isn’t hurting anyone.  I wish the same Americans pissed about a man sitting during a frickin’ song, signing petitions to get the player kicked off the team, put half as much energy into speaking out against the George Zimmermans and the Brock Turners of this nation.  Maybe some of them do, but for most of them, I doubt it.  And the rest of us who can see past our own fucking noses can’t even speak out against the Zimmermans and Turners for you without having to hear all the apologist ( and at its core, racist/sexist ) victim blaming and being called “libtards” or some other equally uninspired epithet.  The bottom line is Americans are becoming selfish (or maybe they are just more vocal about being selfish now that they have that great orange baboon’s ass for a mascot.)

photo source Union Thugs

You may not like how Koepernick protested, and that’s your right… but it’s his right, as an American, to do it, and he isn’t hurting anyone.  Unlike Brock Turner or George Zimmerman.

I suggest you people (you know who the fuck you are, because even you don’t believe your pseudo-patriotism, deep down) get your priorities straight and get your fucking head on straight.   People need to stop acting like America is the only civilized nation, the only “great” nation, because to others outside looking in, we look like a bunch of gun-toting bullies.

I’m not gonna lie.  I love the idea of America, what it represents, but right now, we are moving farther away from that ideal, not closer, and it’s only when we defend the rights of those fundamentally different from us that we realize that ideal.

Related Links:
The American Reality Vs. The American Ideal

 

*As always, please feel free to comment, but please peep the comment policy. 😉

 

 

Miss America the Beautiful…and Dumb

When I stepped next door to talk to the neighbor for a moment last night, I happened to catch a few minutes of what I can only assume was the swim suit portion of the Miss America competition.  A few minutes was all I needed.  Aside from frustrating me on a personal level, I was rather disgusted to note that aside from hair color and skin color, every contestant looked the same to me.  Not only is this the standard of “beauty” to which our women are being held, apparently there is only one type of beautiful woman.  Tall, slender, young, with long hair.

There is no room for curvy women, athletic women, women over 30, women with visible tattoos or stretch marks from having children, or women with short hair.

Now before you ardent pageant supporters and perfect tens protest and peg me as another bitter, overweight housewife, or something else you all deem equally unappealing, I know you all want to act like the Miss America is about “tradition” and “integrity” and all those other glorious phrases. The very first line on the Miss America website under “Miss America History” is this:

“Miss America represents the highest ideals. She is a real combination of beauty, grace, and intelligence, artistic and refined. She is a type which the American Girl might well emulate.”

But let’s call a spade a spade.  This is…a joke.

I mean, let me get this straight.  These young women, whose age and body type represent but a small fraction of the women living in America, are supposed to be my role models?

They could be a quiz on alllooksame.com…  except, does Miss America even allow Asians, or is that a little too much diversity? EAT A DAMN SANDWICH!

~sigh~ But let’s get real.  This won’t change anytime soon, because despite their claims to elevated global and intellectual awareness, the Miss America pageants are nothing but beauty pageant masquerading as an American tradition.  I confess myself disappointed.

As to the claims that this competition is a combination of ideals of “beauty, grace, and intelligence,” I leave you with some of the dumbest things contestants have ever said:

Response to why 1/5 Americans can’t locate the U.S. on a map: “I personally believe that U.S. Americans are unable to do so because, uh, some people out there in our nation don’t have maps and, uh, I believe that our, uh, education like such as in, uh, South Africa and, uh, the Iraq and everywhere like such as, and I believe that they should, uh, our education over here in the U.S. should help the U.S., uh, should help South Africa and should help Iraq and the Asian countries, so we will be able to build up our future for our children.”

At Miss World American 1992: “We are truly the land of the great. From the rock shores of… Hawaii… to the beautiful sandy beaches of… Hawaii… America is our home.”

Question: Would you rather be more smart, or more beautiful? “Well, I’d rather choose to be beautiful, um because, to be beautiful it’s natural. But being smart you can learn… you can learn, um a lot of things… a lot of things from the experience… you can learn from a lot of things being smart.” *You’ll note on the above quote that even the question is stupid…

Should the U.S. have universal health care as a right of citizenship? “I think this is an issue of integrity regardless of which end of the political spectrum that I stand on. I was raised in a family to know right from wrong and politics, whether or not you fall in the middle, the left or the right its an issue of integrity, no matter what your opinion is, and I say that with the utmost conviction.”  *Spoken like a true politician…

Explain the Confucius quote “Learning without thought is labor lost”:“Good evening, Panama. Confucius was one of whom invented confusion and that’s why, uhh… One of the most ancient, he was one of the Chinese…. Japanese who were one of the most ancient. Thank you.” *Oh, sweet bleeding Jesus…I mean, sweet Confuscius!

I rest my case.