cfadvan

People seem to easily forget the American government reaction to the civil rights movement, anti-Vietnam War movement, and so much more. Violence, coercion, intimidation and breaking its own laws without consequence are the American modus operandi. How did fire-hosing, beating, jailing and murdering black people not prove this? How about tear gas and dogs being let loose on protesting students? The conduct of the FBI during the Red Scare? Iran Contra?

How about what Snowden revealed? Torture after 9-11?

A little time passes and people get back to calling anyone who thinks that a militarize police force isn’t a good thing un-American and kooky.

I think they wear it to protect their skin from the sun first and foremost, and the choice of fabric is then designed to alllow for good air circulation and evaporation. At least, that’s the point during the day, but it’s worth remembering that it can and does get damned cold at night, and the same garment works well then too. From a purely physical standpoint, If the sweat is evaporating from your skin, it is that action which moves heat, not the length of time the liquid stays on your skin. It’s a matter of the enthalpy of evaporation, so a high rate of evaporation can only be a good thing. A good light fabric to protect you from sunstroke and dust, breathable to allow for (ideally moderate) perspiration to evaporate rather than drench the fabric, and then the whole thing works to keep you warm at night. If you’re constantly on the move, it’s pretty efficient!

To be totally fair, FTL implies time travel, and even sub-light (but hefty fractions of light) lead to staggering time dilation effects. None of this is ever touched in most sci-fi and certainly not Star Trek. Everyone is sipping around at high multiples of lightspeed, yet no one ever remarks that they constantly arrive before they leave. They use impulse drives to go at high fractions of c, yet they never return to an Earth many thousands of years in their subjective future.

It’s a great series, but it’s not hard sci-fi, just a great storytelling mechanic.

But... why? If this isn’t peak “because we fucking can, that’s why,” then what is?

I think you haven’t kept track of the discussion or are intentionally arguing in a very narrow manner to nitpick. I’m not interested.

Were having this discussion on an international forum, online. People are making blanket statements about language without a scrap of distinction as to background or locale, just “white” and “black” and little else. Further back in this thread appears the phrase, Thanks for your assumption that I am an American, I am not.

So yes, the context I’m examining was very much on the table.

D.A.R.V.O.

Deny

Accuse

Reverse Victim and Offender

It’s a playbook that’s as old as people, and sadly it works, especially when there’s a significant power asymmetry at play.

That didn't happen.

And if it did, it wasn't that bad.

And if it was, that's not a big deal.

And if it is, that's not my fault.

And if it was, I didn't mean it.

And if I did...

You deserved it.

All of this is usually applied to narcissists, psychopaths and sociopaths, but it works equally well for immoral corporations.

Americans really do think they own not only the world, but the language too, don’t they? I’m not arguing for the wisdom of insulting people, it’s just that it’s so arrogant to assume that one group in one country can declare a word belongs to them. A word that same group has spread as a part of popular culture through tv, music and so on through the rest of the world.

Just amazing. And this from a country full of people who can’t even pick out most other countries on a map, even the ones they’ve bombed. A country that apparently thinks some Palestinian, East Indian, Russian, Japanese, etc kid rapping along to a popular song is using “forbidden” words. I think Americans should worry less about their empty words, and more about their actions which the rest of the world judges them by.

For what it’s worth, I don’t think a lot of Americans are racist or not because of some words. I do think it’s a racist country because of their prison system, shooting and strangling unarmed black men, the systemic racial poverty, the Birther conspiracy, and who they go to war for and against. No amount of careful wording will change that.

The problem is that like “Black people” the phrase “White people” is meaningless. Plenty of people who Americans would lump together as “blacks” were never enslaved ( or had ancestors enslaved). Plenty of people Americans would lump together has “whites” had nothing to do with the slave trade. I’m of Russian descent for example, and no one in my admittedly very white family tree enslaved anyone of African descent.

The whole world doesn’t have to answer to the crimes of Americans, Western Europe, and West Africa. That’s (presumably) your baggage, not mine. By contrast my ancestors have a lot to answer for where Tatars are concerned, and yet you fellow “white” person, had nothing to do with it.

This may come as a shock, but neither group is really cohesive and homogenous, and therefore each present a multitude of opinions on the topic ranging from permissive to prohibitive.