celetellephellular device malfunction
Hey, woo, dreamhost is green!
Also, first I was going to write about this, then just now I started to write about how I wasn't going to write about this, but now, looking at it, I think I am going to write about this. By which I mean, this.
Glenn Greenwald is fast becoming my hero. He was posting over at Salon's War Room many months ago, and I remember thinking Who the hell is this guy, Where did this guy come from, How did he get to be so awesome, and I wonder if he would come have some coffee with me. Now he's got his own blog, and he averages one thoughtful, beautifully logical, extensively quoting, substantial post a day, with an average of about one update as well.
In the midst of an excellent post about how Harvey Mansfield, in his clear intellectual prose, lays out precisely what's so frightening about the neocons and their Leader, comes this quote (with Greenwald speaking about and then quoting Mansfield):
And, urf. That is the sound of my brain being socked in the gut.
Did you ever get one of those dinosaur gumballs out of a machine at the mall when you were a kid and put the whole thing in your mouth, and find, once it's in there, that you had no leverage of any kind to be able to actually chew it? And then you could feel all that excess saliva start to pool at the corners of your mouth and wanted to lick it away, but there was the dinosaur gumball?
That's kind of what that statement does to my brain.
"Now that women are equal, they should be able to accept being told that they aren't, quite."
Urf.
Okay. So what you do at this point is take the gigantic gumball out of your mouth and try to break it up. It's slimy, it's gross, but it's better than the alternatives.
I mean, okay, first: yes, this is patently ridiculous. Now that we've agreed that you're smart, you should be able to take the truth that you're stupid. Now that we've agreed that I'm faithful, you should be able to handle hearing that I've slept around for the last 32 years. Now that you're beautiful, you should be able to accept being told that you aren't, quite.
Interesting, I think, how my first two parodies added the speaker "I," when he just says "now that women are equal." Which I guess means "now that we've pretended to agree that women are equal." Which means "I've never believed that women are equal, even though I've tolerated patiently and pleasantly the suggestion that they are since, like, the '70s."
I don't think I need to go over the points that women aren't, on average, as strong as men, muscle-wise, but maybe women's bodies are good enough at harboring and expelling new members of the species that we're still around. Which requires physical strength in a different but pretty important way than men's ability to bench press stuff.
The thing that really just gets me about this is that I know people who think like this. I know people who think that feminists claim that women are just as physically strong as men, even though they're not and we all just have to pretend to agree. It's just so simplistic and frustrating.
It's hard to believe that this guy is going around, not only writing and publishing this stuff, but thinking it. And Greenwald's point that it's great that he's doing so, because it makes clear the pure and true idiocy of the neocons, also pretty much applies to what he's doing for the sexists.
Also, first I was going to write about this, then just now I started to write about how I wasn't going to write about this, but now, looking at it, I think I am going to write about this. By which I mean, this.
Glenn Greenwald is fast becoming my hero. He was posting over at Salon's War Room many months ago, and I remember thinking Who the hell is this guy, Where did this guy come from, How did he get to be so awesome, and I wonder if he would come have some coffee with me. Now he's got his own blog, and he averages one thoughtful, beautifully logical, extensively quoting, substantial post a day, with an average of about one update as well.
In the midst of an excellent post about how Harvey Mansfield, in his clear intellectual prose, lays out precisely what's so frightening about the neocons and their Leader, comes this quote (with Greenwald speaking about and then quoting Mansfield):
He has a career-long obsession with the glories of tyrannical power as embodied by Machiavelli's Prince, which is his model for how America ought to be governed. And last year, he wrote a book called Manliness in which "he urges men, and especially women, to understand and accept manliness" -- which means that "women are the weaker sex," "women's bodies are made to attract and to please men" and "now that women are equal, they should be able to accept being told that they aren't, quite." Publisher's Weekly called it a "juvenile screed."
And, urf. That is the sound of my brain being socked in the gut.
Did you ever get one of those dinosaur gumballs out of a machine at the mall when you were a kid and put the whole thing in your mouth, and find, once it's in there, that you had no leverage of any kind to be able to actually chew it? And then you could feel all that excess saliva start to pool at the corners of your mouth and wanted to lick it away, but there was the dinosaur gumball?
That's kind of what that statement does to my brain.
"Now that women are equal, they should be able to accept being told that they aren't, quite."
Urf.
Okay. So what you do at this point is take the gigantic gumball out of your mouth and try to break it up. It's slimy, it's gross, but it's better than the alternatives.
I mean, okay, first: yes, this is patently ridiculous. Now that we've agreed that you're smart, you should be able to take the truth that you're stupid. Now that we've agreed that I'm faithful, you should be able to handle hearing that I've slept around for the last 32 years. Now that you're beautiful, you should be able to accept being told that you aren't, quite.
Interesting, I think, how my first two parodies added the speaker "I," when he just says "now that women are equal." Which I guess means "now that we've pretended to agree that women are equal." Which means "I've never believed that women are equal, even though I've tolerated patiently and pleasantly the suggestion that they are since, like, the '70s."
I don't think I need to go over the points that women aren't, on average, as strong as men, muscle-wise, but maybe women's bodies are good enough at harboring and expelling new members of the species that we're still around. Which requires physical strength in a different but pretty important way than men's ability to bench press stuff.
The thing that really just gets me about this is that I know people who think like this. I know people who think that feminists claim that women are just as physically strong as men, even though they're not and we all just have to pretend to agree. It's just so simplistic and frustrating.
It's hard to believe that this guy is going around, not only writing and publishing this stuff, but thinking it. And Greenwald's point that it's great that he's doing so, because it makes clear the pure and true idiocy of the neocons, also pretty much applies to what he's doing for the sexists.
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