Are we at war with Marvin Minsky?

Oct 17, 2009 12:03

I know I've been AFIA for a long while, but has Minsky been gunning for fandom lately? I barely know who he is in mundane matters - some computer guy, right? - and I have no idea if he's jumped on the "Denounce Skiffy As Nekulturny" bandwagon - so many have, but I don't recall hearing anything outrageous about him. Did I miss the declaration of war ( Read more... )

plutocracy, economics, history, hegemony, racism, politics, intersectionality, sexism, society, fandom, religion

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Comments 48

nancylebov October 17 2009, 16:32:55 UTC
Minor nitpick: Minsky *likes* science fiction, it seems to be the only fiction he reads. Now, he likes it because it isn't about that boring people stuff (a point of view I have some sympathy with, though less as the years go on), but he's definitely not attacking it.

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Always read the footnotes... bellatrys October 17 2009, 19:09:42 UTC
I guess you didn't read the footnote before leaping into the dominance games with both feet, eh?

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Re: Always read the footnotes... nancylebov October 18 2009, 22:31:03 UTC
I did think I was rather less frightened lately, but I didn't realize I was coming that strong.

In any case, apologies for not reading your footnote.

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bellatrys October 19 2009, 09:55:00 UTC
Apology accepted.

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voxwoman October 17 2009, 17:35:51 UTC
the spearhead blog made me laugh. Yeah, Bonnie Hammer is "feminizing" the Sci-
Fi channel... by putting on MORE WRESTLING!

I was sooo happy when that happened - I called all the girls in my quilt guild and we sit around the TV, knitting doilies and drinking our tea in tiny china cups, while we watch ECW. (do I *need* a sarcasm tag here?)

As for the original Battlestar Galactica - some channel or other was rerunning it, and it was so cheezy it was completely unwatchable. Original Trek was always so much better (and that's got a huge camp value to it now).

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If Bonnie Hammer at SaiFai Chan'l bellatrys October 17 2009, 18:04:10 UTC
*really* wanted to "feminize" it, there would be way more shirtless Ben Browder. And other fandom favorite hunks. And more shows like Farscape, not less. Wrestling is not an adequate substitute for angsty soulful dudes getting rescued by kick-ass warrior women on a regular basis. IMO.

(I only saw a few bits and pieces of BG back in the day (1978), but was not impressed then - the dudes were duds as far as I was concerned and there wasn't any female chara who could hold a candle to a certain Senator...)

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Re: If Bonnie Hammer at SaiFai Chan'l voxwoman October 17 2009, 18:15:37 UTC
I could have sworn it was older than that - because I can't believe I watched the series in college (we must have been REALLY hard up for SF on television in those days). The only thing that I thought was cool was that they killed Jane Seymor at the end of the pilot and I thought "wow, they are killing off main characters. Anything could happen!" Except that it quickly became apparent that was the exception.

The women on that show were completely forgettable window dressing. There wasn't an Uhura or even a Nurse Chapel among them.

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violaswamp October 18 2009, 04:20:26 UTC
The original Battlestar was awful. I caught an episode of it once because my TV guide didn't specify that it wasn't the remake, and my god, it was bad.

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Nicely put fledgist October 17 2009, 17:46:57 UTC
This is a very thoughtful piece. Thank you.

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Thanks - of course bellatrys October 17 2009, 19:28:11 UTC
as soon as I posted it (I had to run downtown - literally - before the bank closed) I realized that there were all kinds of points I should have made or made more sharply, but at least I got the gist of it down without it taking me ages and never getting finished. It's part of the same loop of spurious "rationality" that gets used to justify whatever the hell businessmen happen to be doing on the grounds that they must be doing it *because* it's good business sense, that they're incapable of being influenced by bigotry because *nobody* would ever forfeit profits based on something as *unreasoning* as prejudice - similar to what Jennifer at Hathor Legacy has explored, the thing where successful movies with female stars or non-white heroes get called anomalous events, to justify not doing more of them ( ... )

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Re: Thanks - of course fledgist October 17 2009, 19:45:18 UTC
Mill wasn't all that progressive. He thought that women would mostly choose to be wives and mothers if they had the freedom to chose, and that free blacks would mostly choose to work on plantations (plus they needed benevolent white liberals like himself to guide them). Still, for his time he counts as one of the really good guys.

You should see the blank looks I get when I ask students if they've chosen heterosexuality (after I've been told that homosexuality is a "choice" and I tell them I don't recall choosing to be straight). Prejudice is a powerful thing.

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Re: Thanks - of course droolfangrrl October 17 2009, 19:52:45 UTC

lyorn October 17 2009, 23:15:24 UTC
got a new icon out of this...

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bellatrys October 17 2009, 23:30:51 UTC
See icon...

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lyorn October 17 2009, 23:56:27 UTC
There's a bunch of them for up for grabs here: http://pharaoh-katt.livejournal.com/82759.html

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violaswamp October 18 2009, 04:18:00 UTC
the "separate" strands of Conservativism versus Racism/ Sexism/ Militarism/ Christianism turn out almost inevitably to be just one strand, like a moebius strip.

Well put. That's exactly it.

I think the reason why moderate-to-liberal people believe that fiscal conservatism is separate from, and not nearly as bad as, social conservatism is that they don't realize that fiscal conservatism usually just means "fuck the poor." There are plenty of fiscal conservatives who don't actually *say* "fuck the poor". They say, "High taxes are bad for the economy," or "higher minimum wage leads to unemployment," or "government is far less efficient than private charity at providing vital services to low-income people." Some of them are even sincere when they say this and don't actually want to fuck the poor. These are the ones who end up defecting from the Republican Party and dissociating themselves from social conservatives, the ones who don't go on supporting the Anti-Sex League ( ... )

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Or... bellatrys October 18 2009, 12:52:22 UTC
Some of them are even sincere when they say this and don't actually want to fuck the poor. These are the ones who end up defecting from the Republican Party and dissociating themselves from social conservatives, the ones who don't go on supporting the Anti-Sex League.They keep on pulling that R lever year after year and get all butthurt when people call them stupid and acting counter to their own professed interests, because they have no reverse gear due to hubris / are too intellectually timorous to examine their own assumptions and shout "BY GOLLY WE'VE BEEN HAD! WHERE'S MY PITCHFORK?" and feel that it's terribly, terribly unfair to lump them in with the nekulturny and/or Puritans who just *happen* to be voting Republican too ( ... )

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Re: Or... violaswamp October 18 2009, 18:27:10 UTC
I have no sympathy or respect for the ones who actually do pull the R lever. I was referring to those who don't, who either left the party or never joined and now vote against Republicans.

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Yeah, that's what I was getting at in the next post, bellatrys October 18 2009, 21:17:51 UTC
where if you realize that you don't actually *have* one or more of those slats, the Xenophobia/Mammon/SexSquick sides, to your psyche, you realize that there's no way you can fit in, that you've just been fooling yourself that there's a place for you in the movement ( ... )

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