It's history, stupid

White people, particularly in the US, have a well documented history of being racist.  It's true many of those things happened a long time ago and most white people aren't like that anymore, but the history is still there.  So when someone of a darker persuasion contemplates whether a random white person is racist, I'm not surprised by it.

I don't have to like it, but I get it.  There's a history of it and history colors everything.

Crime statistics clearly show that, for such a small fragment of the population, blacks commit an extraordinarily high amount of crime in the US.  I'm not talking black on black or black on anybody else crime.  I'm talking crime in general.  It's insane the amount of crime committed by black men alone.  And it's documented.  Not just by the FBI but by anybody who's ever lived or passed through the hood.  So when the police pay extra attention to the black kid with his drawers showing, I don't blame them.  I don't automatically assume they're racist.  Statistically black kids with their drawers showing commit a lot of crimes.

I don't have to like it but I get it.  It's documented history and history colors everything.

There's no getting around it.  Most illegal immigrants in the US are Hispanic.  And most of the Hispanic illegal immigrants are darker in color and don't speak English.  Historically, Mexico and portions south have been third world shit holes run by dictatorships and drug lords.  People have been fleeing these places for decades and there's no denying that the poorest of these countries (the ones most likely to flee) are the descendants of the Indigenous tribes and not the Spaniards who colonized the place.  So the refugees tend to look a certain way.  And we DO have an open border with Mexico.  And we ARE a nation of hope to people in third world shit holes the world over.  And those people WANT to come here.  Statistically those who come here illegally cross that open border with Mexico or sail from Cuba and statistically they are dark skinned Spanish speakers.  So when someone questions a dark skinned Spanish speaker's citizenship status, I don't think they're anti immigrant.  I think we have immigration laws for a reason and enforcing those laws means addressing the group who statistically breaks the laws the most.

I don't have to like it but it is history and history colors everything.

The US is a bully.  We kicked mighty Britain's ass and won our independence and we've been arrogant ever since.  It's our way or the highway.  We tell other countries what to do.  We're the only country that has military bases in other countries.  We are not a tolerant nation when it comes to our foreign policy.  And I'm including all races here.  The US interferes with other government's elections all the time.  We bomb other countries all the time.  Then have the audacity to be offended when someone attacks us back or doesn't do what we tell them to.  Americans are the ultimate hypocrites and our feelings are hurt when other countries don't like us for it.  We have no legitimate reason to be upset people don't like us.

I'm not condoning terrorism.  I'm not saying 9/11 or any other attack since then is all our fault but we have been asking for it.  You're treated how your treat others and historically the US hasn't treated others well.

I don't have to like it but it's history and history colors everything.

Before you criticise, recognize.  Stereotypes exist for a reason.  Opinions are formed based on experiences.  You can't demonize someone for allowing history to shape them.  History shapes us all.

What you can do, what we all need to do, is learn to look to the future BEFORE we look to the past.  We can't change the past but we can build a better future.  We can't live in the past, only the present, because time doesn't move backwards.  It moves forward.

What are you doing to make your present a good one and what are you doing to improve your future?

If you don't like being stereotyped, fix the issues that created the stereotype.  Do something to get black men to commit fewer crimes or fewer Hispanics to come to the US illegally.  Change US foreign policy and admit the majority of white people are not racist.

If YOU'RE not willing to make any positive changes, don't blame history.

Glass Half Empty

People are always telling me I'm too pessimistic.  I need to look on the bright side more.  Care about politics a little less and make more friends. I'd be so much happier if I was more optimistic...

Fuck them.

Pessimism is a defense mechanism used by people who've been burned so many times before that they're rightfully reluctant to take a chance on getting burned again.  Pessimism is what happens when you look honestly at the crappy world around you and understand it shouldn't be sugarcoated.

Sugarcoating bad things is why our kids are pussies.  Giving everyone a trophy instead of admitting not everyone wins is why adults now require therapy dogs when they don't like the outcome of an election.  Hope is lovely but honesty won't get you killed.

Don't get me wrong. Hope is a vital function. It keeps us from killing ourselves off.  But hope is limited. You can hope bad things won't happen but you need to understand they still will.  Don't be so hopeful and optimistic that you're blindsided by reality.

Hope for the best, plan for the worst.

Pessimism isn't depression.  It's not a mental disorder.  It's not antisocial. It's honest.

Only idiots can't appreciate honesty.

My President Was Black

Obama's run is coming to an end and now it's time to reflect on his legacy.  The failure of Obamacare.  The increase in racial divisions spurred by the far left's demonizing of white people.  Other countries liked him though- because he catered to their every whim.  Yeah the economy got better but that's not entirely due to his efforts.  That's more congress and business owners who did that.  Michelle worked hard to dictate what our kids were allowed to eat.  Hollywood loved them.  But the most important aspect of the Obama legacy?

He's black.  That's it.  He was the first black guy.

Don't get me wrong.  That has historical significance, but his entire presidency has been based on his race.  The entire 8 years has been Obama is awesome because he's black and was still able to accomplish things despite those nasty white people.  And when people disagreed with him, it wasn't because they didn't like his policies.  It was because he was black and they were racist.

That's Obama's legacy.  Look at what the black man did.

He was praised for being black.  Could do no wrong because he was black.

And he did very little to improve things for the black community, but he was our first black president so he was the best president ever anyway.

The Atlantic is heaping on the praises with a feature on Obama's awesomeness.  The title: My President Was Black.

What the fuck?  That's really all you have to say about him?  Sure, the article will probably be one long love fest, but the title says it all.  People like Obama because he's black.   He represents the black man.  That's why people like him, why they voted for him, why he'll be missed.

And they'll praise The Atlantic for praising Obama's blackness.  They will read the article because they like Obama's blackness.

And they're racist as fuck.

If Hillary had won, we'd be singing her praises because she's our first woman president.  If Romney had won, we would have sung his praises because he's our first Mormon.  If Cruz had won, he'd be our first Canadian.  But it doesn't even matter what office it is.  Whenever a person of color is elected, they're always praised for their race.  Never their qualifications.  We even elec people for other petty things.  Their gender.  They're religion. They're sexual preference.  Not their qualifications.  Because of that, we put quite a few people in power who shouldn't be.

Trump was an outsider, a business man.  People voted for him for that reason alone.  They're singing his praises for that reason alone.

If you're only voting for someone because of the historical significance of their being elected, you're wasting your vote.  Quality matters when it comes to who you allow to make decisions for you.  I voted for Obama the first time because he felt like a better option than McCain.  I didn't the second time because I'd fugured out he wasn't.  I would have voted for Sanders had Hillary not cheated during the primary because Sanders seemed to be genuinely concerned with improving life for the working class where as Hillary was shady and Trump was crazy.

I would not have voted for Sanders to have our first Jewish president.

Get it?

But Obama's legacy, like his presidency, has been reduced down to his race.  He was the first black guy and that, sadly, is all anyone seems to care about.

Thanksgiving AKA They Started It

I'm by no means a genius.  One of the hallmarks of intelligence is recognizing you don't know everything.  There are a lot of stupid people out there though and sometimes I can't help but get pissed off.

The Thanksgiving controversy is one of those things stupid people love to keep going on about.  Cuz the white man's evil, yall.  Everything is whitey's fault and don't you forget it.

But are you sure you know what really happened?

Here are the facts:  The Pilgrims fled persecution in England.  They came to the Americas.  It really sucked.  Some Natives helped them out a bit but not that much.  Then the Pilgrims built houses. The Natives got pissed off.  There was a war that lasted a really long time.  The Natives lost.

Now's the part where you call me racist and tell me to check my privilege, but all I did was tell you an accurate account.  See, there are tons of myths out there, cute stories we tell ourselves to make ourselves feel better and justify a lame holiday, but the truth is, there never was some sort of bonding experience between the Indigenous peoples of the Americas and the Europeans who settled here.  There was always tension and mistrust. That's human nature.  But the Pilgrims didn't rape and pillage their way on shore.  That's the Spanish you're thinking of and they're a whole different group.  And that's the kicker.  See the US (as in the original 13 colonies that would eventually become the US) was founded primarily by the British and Dutch.  They didn't come here to rape and pillage.  They came here to live and they didn't come here to steal land.  They didn't know it was stealing because landowner rights were different between the way it was in Europe and the way the Natives thought about it.  They simply didn't know land that didn't have anything on it could belong to someone and the two sides couldn't communicate with eachother to work something out.

The Pilgrims were fleeing persecution and they honestly were just looking for a safe place to live.  For the most part, the two sides didn't hang out.

They didn't speak the same language.  I've mentioned numerous times how important communication is.  Well it's true. Had they have been able to understand eachother, the Pilgrims would have known more about the Natives' culture.  The Natives in turn would have known why the Pilgrims were there.  There might have been some sort of truce worked out.  They could have bought land.  Instead, each side made decisions based on the limited information they had.

Yes there was a translator but he learned english after being captured by people who weren't the Pilgrims but looked enough like the Pilgrims that he could easily accuse them of being the same people.  If you think he didn't hold a grudge and some racism, you're full of it.  Even if he was a saint, he was translating two languages who are not similar in any way.  Now, knowing human nature, it's highly likely his translation skills were iffy.  So no. Neither side had the ability to effectively communicate and that's where the problem was.

The Pilgrims didn't know the Natives considered the land their property.  There was no one living on it and in Europe that meant it was free game.  When the Natives saw them building houses, they got pissed off at having squatters.

The Natives picked a fight with someone more advanced and stronger than they gave them credit for.  The fight got ugly.   It didn't stop more Europeans from coming to the New World.  It just made sure they wouldn't trust the Natives.

And let's not kid ourselves. The Americas were not some sort of Nirvana before the evil white man came.  The Native tribes warred with eachother.   Some of them even practices cannibalism.  Imagine if you with your smart phone met someone who walked around naked and ate people.  You would think they were savages too.  Don't lie.  You would think with all your technology you  were better than they were.  Don't lie.

We can debate whether or not the Pilgrims had any right to move here in the first place but that would be stupid.  Like arguing that those modern humans you claim came out of Africa had no right to leave Africa in the first place or that we have no business diversifying our neighborhoods because minorities have no right to move to white suburbs.  People move.  That's what humans do.  That's supposedly how we populated the planet.  So stop with your bullshit about invasions.  This country was not invaded.

If we had been able to communicate better, we could have bought the place.  America may be a smaller country but the war between Europeans and the Indigenous peoples would never have happened.

Hindsight is always 20/20.

Trumped

America just bitch slapped SJW nonsense  in a way no one saw coming.

Admit it.  You so thought Clinton had the election in the bag.  I mean, after all, she rigged the Democratic primary.  Obviously she would be able to rig the general election too.  And the obvious media bias in her favor, the Republicans jumping ship, every indicator was that we weren't having an election but a coronation.

Well maybe Hillary should have cooked some more spirits (see the Podesta emails for that reference) cuz she wasn't quite able to cheat her way into the White House.

The week's not even over and already Liberals have hashtagged #notmypresident.  The backlash has taken the obvious form, naturally.   Trump's victory is just proof that white people are racist and POC are oppressed.

Newsflash: it is mathematically impossible for Trump to have won without minorities voting for him.  Looking at the numbers from various outlets ranging from The Washington Post to The Telegraph (UK), I estimate that roughly 80% of blacks and 60% of Hispsnics voted for Clinton.  That means 20% of blacks and 40% of Hispanics voted for Trump.  Yes.  There are minorities who are conservative Republicans.

And as for whites, well...  After years of being demonized by the propagandists running main stream media, did you really think they would vote for the lady vowing to continue said demonization?  Of course not.  White people may be the 21st century's Jews, but unlike the Jews, they won't get on those trains without a damn good fight.

Unfortunately for Democrats, people are starting to realize just how dangerous the Social Justice Warrior is to America.  When you have hate groups like Black Lives Matter chanting that they want to kill cops and attacking anyone white who crosses their path, when you have black students demanding segregation from white students, when you change the definition of the words racism and feminism to purposely target an unpopular ethnic group or sex, when you claim all men are rapists and abuse them when they prove you wrong, when you treat the theories that promote your ideology as facts like Out Of Africa Theory but deny actual facts like crime statistics because they don't fit into your narrative, it's time for a change.  When you have a biased media that ignores the protests at Standing Rock because it hurts the interests of the fat cats who own our government or who blatantly refuse to acknowledge crimes committed by their chosen one, when you have trust issues with every single institution because time and time again you see the corruption, you demand change.

That's why Trump won.

Yes, he's bat shit crazy.  Yes, other nations including our allies hate his guts.  Yes, his election may lead to riots or, God forbid, civil war, but dammit Liberal America.  YOU'RE the reason.

You had to race bait.  You had to be insulting.  You changed the definition o equality but the people aren't buying it anymore.  Obamacare was a huge let down.  We see the propaganda masquerading as journalism for what it really is. Citizens United, lying in order to invade Iraq, trading favors for cash, it doesn't matter which political party did these things.  To so many, BOTH PARTIES ARE EQUALLY DIRTY.

And Trump represented being outside the system.  He's not, mind you, being that he's uber rich, but he was CONVINCING.  Clinton, on the other hand, thanks to her own evil dealings and Wikileaks, was as establishment as it gets.  She simply wasn't palatable to a population sick and tired of the establishment.

She lost because she really was crooked and not enough people were willing to over look that.

Don't blame the Bernie supporters or the protest voters.  Don't blame voter ID laws cuz you'd have to be pretty stupid to not have any sort of ID or the ability to get one of you are an American citizen.  And if you have to show ID to buy alcohol, why wouldn't you have to show one to vote in an election only Americans are supposed to vote in?  But I digress.

The point is, Hillary lost because we just didn't like her.  Trump won because he was the only other option.

But I'll be in my bomb shelter for the next four years anyway.

Celebrities Should Shut Up

When I was younger, I was a Trekker.  This was Next Gen.  I'm not that old.  Anyway, one of my favorite characters was Lt. Reginald Barclay.  I was shy and bullied.  So was he.  I could relate to that character.  I rooted for him.  Was joyed when he succeeded because it gave me hope that maybe I could too.  I needed to feel hope.  And then Dwight Schultz, the actor who played dear Reg, had to open his stupid mouth.  I disagreed with every horrible thing I heard.  Now I can't watch TNG if he's in it.  I can't even watch The A Team (he was in that too) because he ruined even that.  Never meet your heroes.  You'll always be disappointed.

I'm of the opinion that if you're in the business of selling yourself, your talent or your goods, it's in your best interest to remain publicly neutral.  You want as many customers as possible.  Therefore you don't risk offending or alienating any segment of the people who make your livelihood possible.  Regardless of how strongly you feel.

It's cool if you're Republican, Dwight. Just be an idiot in private.  A lot of your fans aren't neo nazi conservatives and Trek was liberal fantasy at its best anyway.  Did you not know who was watching that show?  Do you really think being anti immigrant is cool when diversity is such a big part of Trek?  Should have kept your hate to yourself.  You broke a little girl's heart.

Celebrities make the faux pas of getting too political way too much.  You don't have to like abortion to know that a lot of your fans have a different opinion.  You may want to build a wall and make Mexico pay for it, but you have to understand that some of your fans are Mexican and some may even be immigrants.  By saying people who get abortions should be stoned or all immigrants are rapists, you're OFFENDING your fans.  You need your fans. You may be racist or hate Jews, but those are career killers.

Don't be a Scott Baio or a Mel Gibson or a Beyonce or a Colin Kaepernick or an Amy Schumer.   Don't be an asshole about your opinion because that doesn't validate your opinion.  It just makes you an asshole.

I'm sick of celebrities jumping on social justice bandwagons.  The ones who wait to see what the majority opinion is before picking a side.  I'm talking to the Beyonces out there.  Come on.  She didn't really care about black lives until it was popular to do so. Until being pro black could help her career.  Kaepernick only started a protest when his boss was threatening to cut him in order to save his failing career by making himself more appealing.  Now if they cut him for being a lousy player, he can cry racism and ruin the rest of the team.  Now they wouldn't dare let him go even if he does suck.  No actual caring about black lives.  Colin was securing his future.  Ted Nugent wasn't even relevant until the Tea Party.  His actions have all been geared towards getting back in the spotlight so he can be marketable again.  At least Mel Gibson was honest enough to be a consistent asshole.

But when celebrities promote causes, we as the public need to understand why they are doing it.  It's not usually because they really care.  It's just for show and that makes them all the more evil for doing it.   It's because the appearance of caring pleases us, the fans, and they want our admiration more than to do good in the world.  More importantly, they want our money and we only give our money to celebrities we like.  That's why celebrities overwhelmingly only support causes that are popular among the majority.  You rarely see a celebrity disagree with the majority and survive.

Which is why Scott Baio and Mel Gibson and Ted Nugent and that guy from Seinfeld no one remembers the name of are no longer around career wise.  They had opinions that were unacceptable to the majority and they were stupid enough to voice them in public.  They are now black listed.   What?  You didn't really think we had free speech, did you?

In my humble opinion, you should never trust a celebrity's opinion anyway.  It's usually a lie they were told to say by their publicist.  That's why celebrities have publicists.  To say all the right things to keep the public happy.  And you should never base your opinion of something on what other people think of it regardless of how famous they are.  Famous doesn't mean right.

I'm not trying to say celebrities aren't entitled to opinions.  All humans have opnions but unless you're famous specifically for politics, you shouldn't get involved.  Think of your fans and keep it classy.  All of your fans, Beyonce.  Even the white ones.  Because with the power of celebrity comes responsibility and your responsibility is to entertain.

Not to insult.  Not to use a cause to further your career.

Never meet your idols.  They're horrible people.

Don't preach, do

It's been my personal experience that those who thump their bibles the hardest are the least Christian people you will ever meet.  Even if they know hundreds of scriptures by heart.  Even if they don't have to use the index to find the books.  Even if they know all the hymns even the really old ones.  Even if they're actively involved in church. Even if they teach Sunday school.  Even if they tithe a lot of money.  Even if they're a deacon.

See, all those things are things people do for show.  To keep up appearances because appearing to be devout is very important to a person's standing within the church. It's still fake.

Real Christians, that is people who have a close relationship with God, don't care about appearances.  They know they won't always make it to church.  They know it's ok to skip bible study.  Sometimes you think bad thoughts.  Sometimes you think about sex.  Sometimes you cuss.  Sometimes you blaspheme.  You pay what you can in tithes even if 50 cents is all you have.

You're not perfect.  God knows that.  He accepts that.  He doesn't care.

If you tried your damndest to be a good person, that's all that matters.  Not your church attendance or how many scriptures you memorized.  Church is not a building. It's not the preacher.  It's not the ritual.  The church of the bible was our relationship with God.

You can have that anywhere.  You can talk to God anywhere.   You don't need a middle man sanctioned by other middle men to be your link to God.  God is within YOU.

And that's why I don't like organized religion.  Sure, it's good to remind you about God.  Sure, it's good to make friends. But God isn't religion.  You don't need a building or preacher to walk with God.

Unless you're a faker, putting on airs to please the holy men.  God sees right through that.

A real Christian doesn't need to reference Jesus in every conversation.  They don't need to say grace at every meal or only listen to gospel. They aren't required to have a certain political leaning.  They can be pro life and still be pro choice.  They don't have to agree with homosexuality but they'll still be nice to gay people.  They don't have to believe women are inferior to men or even that a woman should marry or have kids.  They understand sometimes sex happens outside of marriage and birth control is a good thing to have. Good Christians can be liberals.

Treat others as you would have done unto you.  That's called the Golden Rule for a reason.  You show respect and love to those around you. You take care of the world and the creatures on it that the good Lord made for you.

In other words, you don't preach it because you're too busy living it.