"Joe" the Plumber
is neither a plumber nor does he make 250K a year.
Discuss.
Click the photo for "Joe" Wurzelbacher's story.
If I were not so afraid of more of Bush-esque events, I would find this purely fascinating.
As William Gibson implies by invoking Borges, this is something straight out of Baudrillard's Simulacra.
It's a map of nowhere.
It's a construct existing in no real space created to look like the stereotypical "Average Joe" who has taken the place of the Everyman in minds of many Americans. Why has this construct held so much water, gained so much ground, nurtured so many delusions? Why is it always a white man?
Because we live in a colonial society, and colonialism is necessarily racist.
I'm racist. I know I am. I am racist against myself, as well as others, because I was marinated in it. We can't help but be marinated in it...it's the sauce we're cooked in too.
It's not about being inherently devoid of bias.
It's about admitting that bias exists, even in our own hearts, and that this dominant/subjugated relationship is not the best case scenario for our country.
It's like alcoholism; we have a disease and we are always recovering.
It's about admitting that our priviledge, however small or however long it goes without our noticing, is illegitimate because it is created on the backs of farm workers, factory workers, countless other workers and that group may include some poor white guys but it also includes a whole lot of poor brown guys and gals (as Sarah Palin would call them) and yellow and red guys and gals.
To whine about his feelings being hurt when confronted with the fact that Sarah Palin has been stirring up angry, proud-to-be-racist mobs (next time she's gonna bring the torches and pitchforks too) he calls those sad, ignorant, backward people "patriotic Americans" is creating a grotesque, an image of warning and giving it legs.
Click on Simhavaktra for her actual story.
I stand by what I said. This election the votes will fall with overt and practicing racists (including the deluded who dream of becoming the Colonizer) see Albert Memmi "The colonized child is not taught his own history, but the unknown settings of his colonizer's history. The colonized become "divorced from reality" (106).
For those who are confused by that statement, it doesn't matter if Mc Cain and Palin are overtly racist. They use overt and less overt statements to stir overt racists. Using words like "terrorist" and "Obama's not an Arab, he's a decent human being." may not be exactly the same words used by the Klan, by the violent groups with whom I lived in SoCal, but it approximates.
Which raises the question, why was it not Jaime the plumber they planted at Obama's side?
Why was is not a woman, a brown man, or someone disabled?
And the answer is that Mc Cain/Palin play to the worst in all of us.
Doesn't everybody wish they could be the white man?
Isn't everyone afraid to be the losing team?
Not overtly.
But wouldn't it be better if you didn't need to worry about the color of your skin changing your fate, or the gayness of your heart, or your gonads lowering your pay scale?
The difference between the tickets is this:
Mc Cain/Palin want you to imagine that you can be the Colonizer, the preferred occupant of the American Dream.
Obama/Biden want to make it so that we don't need to fantasize about being the guy on top any more.
I do love Borges, and Baudrillard but I have no fantasy about being the oppressor, the dominator, the Colonizer. I want the oppressed, the subjugated and the Colonized to have equal access.
It is that simple.
Plus, I am beginning to suspect that John Mc Cain is really Scabbers,
Ron Weasley's familiar,
true or false?
Discuss.
Discuss.
Click the photo for "Joe" Wurzelbacher's story.
If I were not so afraid of more of Bush-esque events, I would find this purely fascinating.
As William Gibson implies by invoking Borges, this is something straight out of Baudrillard's Simulacra.
It's a map of nowhere.
It's a construct existing in no real space created to look like the stereotypical "Average Joe" who has taken the place of the Everyman in minds of many Americans. Why has this construct held so much water, gained so much ground, nurtured so many delusions? Why is it always a white man?
Because we live in a colonial society, and colonialism is necessarily racist.
I'm racist. I know I am. I am racist against myself, as well as others, because I was marinated in it. We can't help but be marinated in it...it's the sauce we're cooked in too.
It's not about being inherently devoid of bias.
It's about admitting that bias exists, even in our own hearts, and that this dominant/subjugated relationship is not the best case scenario for our country.
It's like alcoholism; we have a disease and we are always recovering.
It's about admitting that our priviledge, however small or however long it goes without our noticing, is illegitimate because it is created on the backs of farm workers, factory workers, countless other workers and that group may include some poor white guys but it also includes a whole lot of poor brown guys and gals (as Sarah Palin would call them) and yellow and red guys and gals.
To whine about his feelings being hurt when confronted with the fact that Sarah Palin has been stirring up angry, proud-to-be-racist mobs (next time she's gonna bring the torches and pitchforks too) he calls those sad, ignorant, backward people "patriotic Americans" is creating a grotesque, an image of warning and giving it legs.
Click on Simhavaktra for her actual story.
I stand by what I said. This election the votes will fall with overt and practicing racists (including the deluded who dream of becoming the Colonizer) see Albert Memmi "The colonized child is not taught his own history, but the unknown settings of his colonizer's history. The colonized become "divorced from reality" (106).
For those who are confused by that statement, it doesn't matter if Mc Cain and Palin are overtly racist. They use overt and less overt statements to stir overt racists. Using words like "terrorist" and "Obama's not an Arab, he's a decent human being." may not be exactly the same words used by the Klan, by the violent groups with whom I lived in SoCal, but it approximates.
Which raises the question, why was it not Jaime the plumber they planted at Obama's side?
Why was is not a woman, a brown man, or someone disabled?
And the answer is that Mc Cain/Palin play to the worst in all of us.
Doesn't everybody wish they could be the white man?
Isn't everyone afraid to be the losing team?
Not overtly.
But wouldn't it be better if you didn't need to worry about the color of your skin changing your fate, or the gayness of your heart, or your gonads lowering your pay scale?
The difference between the tickets is this:
Mc Cain/Palin want you to imagine that you can be the Colonizer, the preferred occupant of the American Dream.
Obama/Biden want to make it so that we don't need to fantasize about being the guy on top any more.
I do love Borges, and Baudrillard but I have no fantasy about being the oppressor, the dominator, the Colonizer. I want the oppressed, the subjugated and the Colonized to have equal access.
It is that simple.
Plus, I am beginning to suspect that John Mc Cain is really Scabbers,
Ron Weasley's familiar,
true or false?
Discuss.