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Why, are you afraid you might learn something? Relax, there's little risk of that ever happening.

So by now everyone is sick of the Bud Light controversy. After seeing images of Bud Light cans with a trans person on them, conservatives showed their outrage by shooting up Bud Light cans, boycotting Anheuser-Busch and sending death threats to Dylan Mulvaney. Underlying all the alarums is the phenomenon of conservative backlash. Whenever society makes progress (more rights for blacks, voting for women, gay marriage, a black president etc) there is an inevitable backlash by people who feel that nothing should have changed, and that if others gain rights, they lose them. And to some degree of course this is true; if the opinion of a black person is given as much weight as that of a white person, the weight of the white person's opinion and their influence is very slightly diluted, and their privilege is decreased by a slight amount. This has happened throughout history and is happening now. On Facebook, an otherwise-reasonable woman I know is saying that recognizing trans women harms women because then "fake" women get lumped in with "real" women and "real" woman lose power. I've asked her about a dozen times how she, personally, will be harmed by trans women, and she hasn't been able to answer other than "you're not a woman so you wouldn't understand." One of the most famous examples of this is the Wilmington Insurrection, a conservative backlash against the rise of black people into that city in the late 1890's. Black people began to prosper, getting jobs as craftsmen and businessmen. A few were even elected to government positions. This was intolerable to the rural conservative anti-black democrats of the time, who saw the biracial republican party, the party of blacks, civil rights and big-city liberals, taking over and subordinating whites to blacks. This led to a riot by those whites that did a tremendous amount of damage to the mostly-black sections of town and killed at least 14 people. Predictably this was blamed on black people. A fascinating document to come out of Wilmington just before the riot was the White Declaration of Independence, and it makes for an excellent example of the origins of conservative backlash. It is reproduced in part below. ================================== Believing that the Constitution of the United States contemplated a government to be carried on by an enlightened people; believing that its framers did not anticipate the enfranchisement of an ignorant population of African origin, and believing that those men of the state of North Carolina, who joined in framing the union did not contemplate for their descendants subjection to an inferior race. We the undersigned citizens of the city of Wilmington and county of New Hanover, do hereby declare that we will no longer be ruled and will never again be ruled, by men of African origin. . . .the time has come for the intelligent citizens of this community owning 95 percent of the property and paying taxes in proportion, to end the rule by Negroes. . . . the Negro has demonstrated by antagonizing our interests in every way, and especially by his ballot, that he is incapable of realizing that his interests are and should be identical with those of the community. . . .the giving of nearly all the employment to Negro laborers has been against the best interests of this county and city, and is sufficient reason why the city of Wilmington, with its natural advantages, has not become a city of at least 50,000 inhabitants. . . . we white men expect to live in this community peaceably; to have and provide absolute protection for our families, who shall be safe from insult or injury from all persons, whomsoever. We are prepared to treat the Negroes with justice in all matters which do not involve sacrifice of the intelligent and progressive portion of the community. But are equally prepared now and immediately to enforce what we know to be our rights. A climax was reached when the Negro paper of this city published an article so vile and slanderous that it would in most communities have resulted in a lynching [referring to an editorial saying interracial relationships were OK] and yet there is no punishment, provided by the courts, adequate for the offense. We, therefore, owe it to the people of this community and city, as protection against such license in the future, that "The Record" cease to be published and that its editor be banished from this community. ============================= The parallels to today are remarkable. The demonization and threats against blacks then, and trans people now. (i.e. "drag queens teaching your kids to be gay" vs "black rape" which is how the white supremacists referred to interracial relationships.) The statement that REAL people, not blacks, should run things - compared to the statements that only REAL women should be recognized as women. The claims that the goals of both blacks and trans people are primarily to antagonize the interests of normal people by doing things like voting, posing for pictures and existing. The demands that books (now) and newspapers (then) be banned for spreading vile and filthy concepts. The one good thing about all this is that the history of progress shows that such backlashes are the dying throes of that sort of bigotry. Almost no conservative today would voice an opinion that blacks did not deserve to vote, or that an interracial marriage was "black rape." And in time the thought of threatening to kill trans people would be similarly almost unthinkable. But sadly, as the Bud Light thing demonstrates, we have a ways to go to get there.

I wonder why I haven't heard "an armed society is a polite society" in a while......

I am to where I think we should lock down schools, surround them with high cinder block fences topped with razor wire, put armed guards and metal detectors at every entrance, and strip search every kid on arrival. Let’s make obvious what a damn farce the gun laws and culture are in America. Same at every grocery store, concert, and ball game, and especially so at car tracks. Maybe inconveniencing everyone with disrupted personal freedoms and huge tax bills at the sacrifice or more freedom and valuable services will get the point across.

Just like back in the days of the Wilmington Insurrection, when white supremacists knew that science proved blacks were inferior.

So you agree that not only are Russia the aggressors, they are committing systematic war crimes as a matter of policy. Now do you agree that Russia should, with no conditions or ifs and buts, retreat from Ukrainian territory and stop fighting this war? Again, this should be a very easy question for you to answer and it’s very telling that you have so far refused to do so.

You're the only one who actually says "ROTFLMAO" on this thread. You posted "ROTFLMAO" several times here. What you're REALLY doing, is laughing your ass off because you think Russia is winning. You're the only one laughing.

Go on, name one bio-lab location. Also its coordinates. Also provide evidence of what it's doing.

Wagner is spent. They've lost most of their 'experienced' thugs and almost all the prisoners. That was a brilliant move by Putin, by the way. Empty the prisons, send the convicts off to Ukraine where they die. The costs for running the prisons plummet. More to plunder and loot. Funny how you've been claiming that Wagner thugs are 'just about to take Bakhmut' for most of a week. Hasn't happened yet. It's really Wagner & the Russians who are being 'grindered'. You had some of your stats a bit backwards. Depending on the source, Bakhmut has seen Russian casualties between 5 and 17 times (yes, seventeen times) higher than Ukrainian. And while the Hindustan Times is an Indian 'news' source, they're a LOOOOOOONG was from an 'independent third party'. Well, actually it's RUSSIA that is sacrificing all those children. Murdering more than sacrificing, but it's the same result. However, I think it's up to UKRAINE to decide what they do. I don't think they want to try to 'seek peace' with a murderous, lying thug. Why sign an agreement for 'peace' when you KNOW that Putler is going to just tear it up and wipe his ass with it. You know, like the Budapest Memorandum. I think Ukraine has a pretty good future. Far more than what Putler wanted. He openly stated that Ukraine was going to 'cease to exist' if he won. Somehow, those sorts of statements tend to make the defender willing to fight to the last man. Far preferable to die fighting a thug who's going to kill you anyway than to 'make peace' and inevitably die. Russia, however is pretty much fucked. Nobody's going to do much business with them. India & China will buy their oil and other raw materials (at a deep discount). China will either absorb them or turn them into a vassal state (kinda like Belorus is now to Russia). Putler wanted to bring back the 'glory days' of the Russian (or Soviet) empire. He instead brought about it's death. All that has to happen for this war to end is for Russia to stop fighting. Either because they choose to stop being murderous thugs (unlikely) or because they are no longer able to. Once the spring offensive starts, thing will become a lot clearer. It's not certain, but if Ukraine can repeat what they did last fall, Russia's fate will be sealed. And you know full well why he won't suggest Russia stop fighting.

Yeah, and once we hit 13 we realized what those other plants were, and started raiding those instead

Garden and fruit tree raiding was an acceptable sport as long as you were 12 or under.

Hi Stumpy, I was just thinking about this last nite. If I were a Kiwi and wanted to come to the USA for some fun & sun, I think I might just want to revisit that idea. Maybe, if it starts to kill tourism here, someone might just change their mind(s). It is the $$$$$$$$, you know. Jerry Baumchen PS) When I was a kid ( late 40's - early 50's ) we used to run through the neighbor's back yards day & nite. No one ever got shot.

They countries involved should tell Russia they will start adhering to that agreement, after Russia starts adhering to the Budapest Memorandum.