west coast best coast slow roast pork toast
After a very tedious week of bad hot takes about the American election, the most obnoxious of which centered around a narrative that a majority of American voters support Trump and that's why trans people should be thrown under the bus, today California's count finally inched up to the point that it put Trump under 50% nationally. Which, if you followed 538 or other wonkish political outlets, you perhaps already anticipated might be the case 10 days ago, not that that stopped the talking heads who should know better from harping on about 15 million missing votes or how a 1-2% margin is a mandate for fascism because of the magic number 5 in front.
It reminds me of the even stupider hot take from 2016 that if you don't include California, then Trump won the popular vote, actually. Uh. Okay?
https://xkcd.com/2399/
Election results, just like the moral panic around undocumented migrants (3% of the US population, same as 25 years ago), Muslims (1.5% of the US population), trans people (1% of the US population) or trans migrants in federal prison (1% of 0.008%) involve big numbers that people are not very good at comprehending.
America is really big, and the world is much bigger again. It's worth thinking about that every time you read some outrageous story coming out of China, or Japan, or Nigeria, or wherever. No matter what the topic, if you have hundreds of millions of people to select from, you can most assuredly find at least one "Florida man" to support a narrative about how weird or freakish or terrifying a place might be.
Which is to say that i think most of the world is actually much less alarming than demagogues and propagandists would have you believe. Big numbers comfort me.
Eddie Izzard - Mass Murder
On the other hand, big numbers can be desensitizing too.
Anyway, the point is that moral panics are dumb and i am really tired of everyone who isn't fucking trans putting trans people at the center of their ignorant political debates. There's another 1% with far more political influence, and it's the 1% that holds 27% of America's wealth and owns, runs or funds a vast chunk of the media who can't seem to shut up about us.
Speaking of the media, i would like to do a television post at some point, to talk about why i dropped One Piece after hundreds of episodes, and also why my new favorite show is French. Do you like spy shows? Well then you must watch Le Bureau des légendes. But i'll get back to that at some point when i'm not at the bottom of a post which caused everyone to sigh and roll their eyes and scroll through their friends' page just that little bit faster.
It reminds me of the even stupider hot take from 2016 that if you don't include California, then Trump won the popular vote, actually. Uh. Okay?
https://xkcd.com/2399/
Election results, just like the moral panic around undocumented migrants (3% of the US population, same as 25 years ago), Muslims (1.5% of the US population), trans people (1% of the US population) or trans migrants in federal prison (1% of 0.008%) involve big numbers that people are not very good at comprehending.
America is really big, and the world is much bigger again. It's worth thinking about that every time you read some outrageous story coming out of China, or Japan, or Nigeria, or wherever. No matter what the topic, if you have hundreds of millions of people to select from, you can most assuredly find at least one "Florida man" to support a narrative about how weird or freakish or terrifying a place might be.
Which is to say that i think most of the world is actually much less alarming than demagogues and propagandists would have you believe. Big numbers comfort me.
Click to viewEddie Izzard - Mass Murder
On the other hand, big numbers can be desensitizing too.
Anyway, the point is that moral panics are dumb and i am really tired of everyone who isn't fucking trans putting trans people at the center of their ignorant political debates. There's another 1% with far more political influence, and it's the 1% that holds 27% of America's wealth and owns, runs or funds a vast chunk of the media who can't seem to shut up about us.
Speaking of the media, i would like to do a television post at some point, to talk about why i dropped One Piece after hundreds of episodes, and also why my new favorite show is French. Do you like spy shows? Well then you must watch Le Bureau des légendes. But i'll get back to that at some point when i'm not at the bottom of a post which caused everyone to sigh and roll their eyes and scroll through their friends' page just that little bit faster.