Outside the Asylum

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Why Don't I Care That Dr. Who is a Woman Now?
or, Am I Still a Feminist?

The other day, one of my partners and I went to see All Elite Wrestling in Jacksonville. The show itself (and why we were there) merits some attention, but what I want to focus on today is an interaction I had when we were going through security.

A young black woman (much younger than me) was checking people in. She said to me, “I love your t-shirt and I LOVE your hoodie.” I was wearing a t-shirt that has some rock and roll poster art from the sixties on it. I’m a big fan of album and poster art from those times. My shirt was originally (I think) a poster advertising a Led Zeppelin concert.

ledzep.png

In retrospect, it’s interesting that the young woman liked my Led Zeppelin t-shirt, and I wonder now if she was just responding to the design, and maybe didn’t notice that it was a Led Zeppelin t-shirt. I say this because of the reason she liked my hoodie.

My partner purchased this hoodie for me at Disney World. It’s a Dr. Who hoodie with a Tardis on the front and the words “Follow Me” placed so that when the hoodie is pulled down they land, somewhat inconveniently, right on my butt. (I suspect that may have been intentional on my honey’s part.)

“Are you a Dr. Who fan?” she asked. I admitted to it. She asked, “Have you watched them all? You know, Dr. Who is a woman now.” I said, no, that I had stopped watching some time ago, early in the tenure of the Doctor before this one; I found the last Doctor to be a real downer. I don’t remember all the rest of what was said, but I’m certain she repeated, at some point during our brief encounter, the information that Dr. Who was a woman now.

There was something pointed, something subtly emphatic, about the way in which she repeated those words, like she was dropping a code phrase or giving a Masonic sign. I have a feeling I was supposed to say “Wow! Really?” or “I know, isn’t it great?” My not giving those responses seemed to faintly puzzle her. I know my own lack of response puzzled me.

The truth is, I don’t care whether or not Dr. Who is a woman, and I’d like to know why not. In the world of public discourse, such as it is in this country and much of the English-speaking world, the answer to that is simple: I must be sexist, probably a Trump supporter who thinks pussies should be grabbed or something. But in my own mind, where things like rationality, evidence and logic at least have a seat at the table, I know that I was a feminist from the time I was a teenager.

Actually, I’ve been a feminist since I learned what the word meant. I didn’t need anyone to explain to me that women were oppressed or to reveal my oppression to me. Life with my alcoholic, abusive stepfather meant that I had figured all that out before I encountered a single Women’s Studies professor. And once I got old enough to encounter feminism as a movement, I signed on without a second thought. I have an old 59c button from back when we were protesting that a woman, on average, made 59c for every dollar a man made. I marched for abortion rights, and against rape. I walked with Take Back the Night. My mom worked at the local spouse abuse shelter. When I discovered paganism, it was through feminist authors like Starhawk and Z Budapest. My feminism affected my spirituality, my social life, and my work. It wasn’t like a commodity that I could pick up or put back down on the supermarket shelf. It had become part of me. I had become part of it.

The way that feminism permeated my work—literary criticism—makes my response, or lack thereof, to Dr. Who being a woman even stranger. I wasn’t just a feminist—I was a feminist cultural critic. I believed that politics influence the way we use language, and that, if we’re not careful, the way we use language affects and shapes our politics. A lot of my work, including my dissertation, focused on the ways that certain beliefs about women influenced the way language was used to describe female artists and writers, and that that language, in turn, influenced the way female artists and writers thought and felt about themselves, which, in turn, influenced their art. What I’m trying to get across here is that I was one of those people who scrutinize language looking for (among other things) signs of bigotry. By all rights, I should be at the front of the Resistance and shoulder-to-shoulder with every social justice warrior online.

I should be delighted that Dr. Who is a woman.

Why am I not?

I’ve only just begun to delve into this topic. I’ve been putting off writing about it because it’s hard to analyze. I can see, of course, how left-wing social justice movements have been largely taken over by the most powerful in our society and used as a kind of magic kabuki mask of morality behind which people who do insupportable things can cower. Identity politics has been turned into the moral equivalent of money-laundering for bad ideas. Want to normalize torture? No problem. Just call up the nation’s first Black president and get him to act, on camera, like torture is kinda OK, and maybe there’s something wrong with those who don’t like it. Want to normalize the idea of nuclear war with Russia and China? Send out Hillary Clinton to suggest that it’s a reasonable policy response to the United States “being hacked.”

And, of course, it works even better in reverse. Does someone have a problem with drone strikes during the Obama presidency? No problem. Say that they’re racist and they don’t like a Black man being in authority in the White House. Does someone have a problem with the idea of cutting Social Security? No problem. Just talk about how Social Security wasn’t available to Black people when it started. Somebody have a problem with constant war? They’re probably sexist Putin puppets whose real problem is Hillary running for president.

My sense is that the elite, sometime between 2010 and 2016, simply took left-wing social justice movements into the palms of their hands as easily as I’d pluck a tangerine off the tree in my front yard. Everything, including the language I used to use to talk about my experiences as a woman, has been so repurposed to serve the needs of the elite that I now no longer talk about being oppressed as a woman at all. I no longer use words in a feminist way. I think that if I heard that a woman was in trouble due to sexism or misogyny that I would come to her aid. Deeds I can manage, and I still feel the impulse to solidarity. But talking about women’s oppression with the tools at hand is simply impossible. The master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house, and these tools have got his initials embossed on every handle. If I had encountered feminism today, as a young woman in the 21st century, I doubt I would have chosen to ever be a feminist at all.

But I am a feminist, and I haven't answered the question: Why don't I care that Dr. Who is a woman?

It’s not like there’s anything intrinsically wrong with Dr. Who being a woman. To begin with, an alien race that has a habit of dying and being reborn into entirely new bodies, and can expect to do so thirteen times over a lifetime, would hardly be phased by being born a different gender once in a while. In fact, it’s odd (within the context of the story) that it’s never happened before. This isn’t stupid nonsense like “The Force is female.” There’s no reason, no story reason, to be upset by it. There should be reason to be happy. I can remember being the person who would have seen this as a small victory in a long battle against injustice, cruelty, and intellectual meanness.

What has changed?

I don’t yet have a full answer to that question, but my first attempts to get one are taking me in the direction of context. Rights for women used to be in the context of rights for humans. Getting a Black man into the Oval Office used to be in the context of rights for Black Americans—all of them, not just the upper-middle-class ones who work in politics and the media. All of these social justice movements were in the context of an enduring human civilization, and all their attempts at reform were in the context of an ongoing project to make that civilization better. Quite specifically, the benefits of civilization were to be extended ever more broadly, its errors erased, and its cruelties curtailed. To paraphrase Bobby Kennedy, the goal was “to tame the savageness of man, and make gentle the life of this world.”

If you remove the assumptions that human rights exist, that we are part of an enduring human civilization, and that our ongoing task is to improve that civilization and make it more kind, functional and just, how does that change the movements against racism and sexism? I don’t know the full answer to that yet, and I think it will take more analysis than I have room for here. How could you have a feminist victory, of any kind, if you have left behind the notion of human rights? If you haven’t left behind the notion of human rights how do you wink at torture and endless war for profit?

Thoughts?

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Dawn's Meta's picture

I remember watching Obama's transition and the people he was appointing to key policy and agency positions. One week. I knew it was wrong.

I screen-shot every one of the Obama site views of the topics people had sent in good faith as their top issues to be addressed. They were the same then as they are now: economic justice; health care for everyone; legalize cannabis; peace on earth; stop the destruction of our planet - push big for renewable wind and solar energy; hold Bush and his team accountable; put bankers in jail; many others.

Then the site went dark. At S x SW Obama IT guys were there and promised the site would be back up. Never happened.

I was at DK and knew without even having to see it that criticism would be labeled 'racist'. That will stop a reasonable critique in its tracks.

This the hijacking of our language, our culture and society. We can no longer have a rational conversation. Everything becomes ad hom.

See this essay on Tucker Carlson to witness more of the same. The general can't answer any question with reason only character attacks on his questioner.

Can we redefine how we talk about these things without the co-option? Probably not. Maybe we have to adopt the strategies of the Jilets Jaunes and the eco protest movements: light on their feet; change up tactics; move around; pick different targets for protest and somehow make sure everyone who needs to know gets to keep up.

This is difficult ground.

The redefinition of generals into 'enemy combatants' which means we are at war, justifies an assassination on foreign soil and makes citizens of any country world-wide (mondial) more vulnerable. Language is a problem every where and in every sector these days.

Thanks you for a great vignette and for posing the questions.

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18 users have voted.

A society grows great when old men plant trees in whose shade they know they shall never sit. Allegedly Greek, but more possibly fairly modern quote.

Consider helping by donating using the button in the upper left hand corner. Thank you.

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@Dawn's Meta

Do you still have the screen shots?

One of the things that blows my mind about people who still insist that elections will save us is the complete refusal to acknowledge that elections haven't changed policy--except in one direction and in one manner--for a long time. For almost forty years, the changes in policy have been almost entirely of one kind: making right-wing policies more right-wing, concentrating power more into the hands of the few who have a lot of it. For twenty-five years, that pattern has been nearly absolute, the only exception I can think of being LGBT rights.

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11 users have voted.

"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

TheOtherMaven's picture

@Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal

so of course no big deal.

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9 users have voted.

There is no justice. There can be no peace.

Dawn's Meta's picture

@Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal We should. But we will have to mine old operating systems and archives to find them. We are several generations down in software, operating systems and computers from the 2008 election. I hope we do have them as they are a glance at what has been important to most of us for quite some time.

Thank you.

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4 users have voted.

A society grows great when old men plant trees in whose shade they know they shall never sit. Allegedly Greek, but more possibly fairly modern quote.

Consider helping by donating using the button in the upper left hand corner. Thank you.

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@Dawn's Meta

The redefinition of generals into 'enemy combatants' which means we are at war, justifies an assassination on foreign soil and makes citizens of any country world-wide (mondial) more vulnerable.

It inspired former VP Al Gore to ask, "If the President can do all this, what can't he do?"

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11 users have voted.

"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

@Dawn's Meta . This says it so well:

This the hijacking of our language, our culture and society. We can no longer have a rational conversation. Everything becomes ad hom.

That little paragraph could and should be unpacked into urgently necessary treatises, be they manuscript, film, youtube analysis, explications of all sorts. This hijacking was effected deliberately and over time by professional linguists of the Frank Luntz variety who view their fellow humans as little more than lab rats and who delight in the destruction of our thinking abilities, the truncation and subjugation of human potential in service to the limitless wealth and power lusts of the sociopaths who are currently in control -- the major ones, not just their flunky political operatives (and anyone who would reflexively blame this shit on Donald Trump should be vomited off the outer edge of the universe).

They be messing with our minds, big time. We need to see it for what it is, discover how to deal with it and pass that equipping knowledge on to the children.

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8 users have voted.

Lurking in the wings is Hillary, like some terrifying bat hanging by her feet in a cavern below the DNC. A bat with theropod instincts. -- Fred Reed https://tinyurl.com/vgvuhcl

Lily O Lady's picture

@laurel

pounce whenever he sees the opportunity. And he sees so many! He’s horribly prolific and has done so much damage to the national psyche.

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7 users have voted.

"The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?" ~Orwell, "1984"

@Lily O Lady but it's not just him, not just one person; it's a highly paid industry that utilizes psychology, sociology and all forms of communication expertise to subjugate target populations via language, persuasion, propaganda and something akin to mass hypnosis. (One of the reasons we need to break up the media monopoly). But yes Frank Luntz is a particularly sociopathic individual (and Markos Moulitsas was one of his fans).

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2 users have voted.

Lurking in the wings is Hillary, like some terrifying bat hanging by her feet in a cavern below the DNC. A bat with theropod instincts. -- Fred Reed https://tinyurl.com/vgvuhcl

Dawn's Meta's picture

@laurel it as a symptom or result of the culture or need to get something different, even if it's bad.

He didn't get there by a fluke, he got there because people are disaffected.

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9 users have voted.

A society grows great when old men plant trees in whose shade they know they shall never sit. Allegedly Greek, but more possibly fairly modern quote.

Consider helping by donating using the button in the upper left hand corner. Thank you.

@Dawn's Meta . In Nov. 2016 I was surprised but relieved to see him elected instead of Her, and some of his campaign rhetoric fit in with my concerns for this country. For all the noise, regressive views and clumsiness, he had some positives, some honorable intentions. I don't think he was equipped to deal with the complexities and demands of the presidency itself, and his lack of tried and true political supporters/friends threw him back on his family. The ensuing isolation made it easy for neocons in his administration to surround him with false realities. But all along, I found the ongoing enmity of the DS toward him, most visible via the corporate media, reassuring. However, he wasn't able to uphold his own principles and now, though better than Mike Pence, he's pretty worthless to our cause. But I still believe Hillary would have been magnitudes worse. Trump bought us some time.

But even some of my closest friends remain afflicted with media-induced TDS, blaming everything that happened over the past 15-20 years on him.

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2 users have voted.

Lurking in the wings is Hillary, like some terrifying bat hanging by her feet in a cavern below the DNC. A bat with theropod instincts. -- Fred Reed https://tinyurl.com/vgvuhcl

Lookout's picture

and could revert to male again. Like you I have not watched in years, but used to enjoy the sets with drier hose and other low tech props.

Really quite a clever vehicle - regeneration - to allow for cast changes.

Here's a 10 min trailer of the new series...
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9uOaDZDT-s]

Have a good one! Finally stopped raining here and is sunny and cool this AM.

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11 users have voted.

“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@Lookout @Lookout

They only get thirteen.

EDIT: Damn! Somehow I missed a huge plot point. The other Time Lords granted the Doctor an additional set of incarnations?

I didn't even know they could do that.

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5 users have voted.

"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

Lookout's picture

@Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal

It is the real world where things are dicier.

Hope all is well with you and yours.

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7 users have voted.

“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

@Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal
in an episode from the 1980s (Tom Baker) He was given an off script save - having regenerated at least four times since then. It is somehow "canon" (reported by some writer or showrunner or BBC exec) that The Doctor has more (unlimited?) regenerations. Have no fear Who fans, Jody Whitacker will not be the last Doctor. (though the show may be cancelled again for a generation)

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6 users have voted.

On to Biden since 1973

Jen's picture

@Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal @Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal When the previous doctor (Capaldi's doctor) was getting ready to regenerate he said, "Maybe one last time." So, I do believe that Jodie's doctor will be the last - maybe. I watched the whole series again over the holidays and didn't catch that little line the first time I watched it. Smile

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3 users have voted.

Is it great yet?

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@Jen

but looks like they've left themselves an out in case they change their minds. That's OK with me; I just shocked I didn't know about it, seeing as how I thought I'd watched all of the eleventh Doctor's shows. Seems like I missed a pretty important one!

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1 user has voted.

"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

RantingRooster's picture

would have a field day with today's discourse. It's like 2 parts cognitive dissonance, 1 part pretzel logic mixed with linguistic gymnastics. Reading Chomsky's various works on human linguistics, I find I have a hard time communicating with people because they simply do not listen to what was said. It's almost as if people already have a pre-designed response to what they "think" I said or what they think I'm "trying to say", without actually listening to what I said.

Regarding Dr. Who, well I think it's about time Dr. Who regenerated as a woman. It did take a couple of episodes for me to get used to the new Dr. Who, but that happens every time the Dr. regenerates. It takes an episode or two to get "comfortable" with the new Dr..

Where's my sonic screwdriver dammit!
(edited "today" to "today's")

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12 users have voted.

C99, my refuge from an insane world. #ForceTheVote

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@RantingRooster

like I said, the series lost me on the previous Doctor, who was, it seems deliberately, a real downer.

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7 users have voted.

"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@RantingRooster

It's almost as if people already have a pre-designed response to what they "think" I said or what they think I'm "trying to say", without actually listening to what I said.

This is half of the problem. The other half is, as someone else pointed out, the substitution of logic and pretty much every other discursive strategy with the ad hominem attack.

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11 users have voted.

"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

Jen's picture

@Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal was my favorite. My problem was with his companion - Clara. I'd be a cranky ass too if I had to be around that girl all the time. The worst companion EVER! Capaldi became my favorite during his last season where Clara was not around.

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1 user has voted.

Is it great yet?

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@Jen

For me, the Doctor has to balance grim, fun, funny, caring, and detached like a plate-spinner. It's actually a difficult role, if you do it justice and don't just go around acting goofy and eccentric. A very challenging role, both to write and to perform, I would think. The twelfth Doctor seemed to decide that all that fun and "flirting" with companions and other beings was inappropriate, since lives were being lost, etc. So no more fun, very little funny, caring--yeah, maybe, but always filtered through grim, grim, grim. I guess maybe if you stuck it out that all eased up, but I'm not as passionate a Whovian as I am a Trekker. Star Trek trumps all other fandoms for me. Which brings up a whole other set of awful crap to talk about, sadly...

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1 user has voted.

"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

And resetting the meanings of issues is one of the things that keep
(as joe shickspack would opine) the mighty wurlitzer in business.
Halting attempts at the expression of true meanings.
Change challengers trying harder to direct the social compass.
Good luck.

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9 users have voted.
Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@QMS

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6 users have voted.

"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

Anja Geitz's picture

In the context of today's politics, is like buying a box of cereal with a pink breast cancer ribbon on it believing you are supporting the cure for breast cancer without realizing the rights to use the ribbon were sold to the cereal manufacturer by the organization marketing the pink ribbon symbol with only a minuscule percentage going to cancer research. But here's the real kicker, said box of cereal has ingredients that were pumped full of pesticides known to cause cancer, begging an even more cynical question. Did the cereal manufacturer purchase the rights to use the pink ribbon to steer your attention away from that, or was the pink ribbon on their pesticide leaden product merely a coincidentally colossal cosmic joke?

Good to see you CStMS, and a Happy New Year!

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19 users have voted.

There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@Anja Geitz

and thanks for bringing up the ever-present elephant in the room, capitalism. (I mean that sincerely).

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12 users have voted.

"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

My first reaction on reading you essay is that because you are a feminist I couldn't participate in this discussion because I'm male, and I am supposed to only agree and encourage from the sidelines. Everything else is mansplaining.

But science fiction has been a mainstay all my life. It was the motivation for me to keep reading when I first learned how to read. Science fiction has always contrasted humanity with the non human or "different human" society and explored what it all meant. It's why "1984" and "Brave New World" and others always seem to be relevant.

I had been looking forward to the new Doctor Who. I mean, female, why not? In the end no matter what they look like, Dr. Who is an alien. Still lots to explore there. I had gotten up to the 2nd season of the cranky one just before Jodie Whittaker when Amazon Prime lost the series to Time/Warner. Now what to do? Now it's just more costly exclusive content.

For that I blame capitalism. Of course I blame capitalism for just about everything. I mean, a society that accepted lies that a highly addictive, cancer causing, government subsidized and sanctioned product like cigarettes and other tobacco products should be accepted as a right is susceptible to any slickly packaged promotion. Today everything seems like a slickly packaged, micro targeted promotion leading us away from what matters. It's why when the media mentions feminists they talk about Hillary Clinton and Sheryl Sandberg and not Pussy Riot.

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13 users have voted.
Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@Snode

on these terms:

My first reaction on reading you essay is that because you are a feminist I couldn't participate in this discussion because I'm male, and I am supposed to only agree and encourage from the sidelines. Everything else is mansplaining.

I am a scholar. Or, at least, I was trained as one.

I neither need nor approve of conversation being subjected to such Procrustean treatment.

When men talk down to me, as they sometimes have in the past, I have no problem identifying it or distinguishing it from simple disagreement. That's because it isn't a difficult distinction to make. Many people who apparently can't make that distinction are acting in bad faith. The rest are fools who are being trained, unwittingly, to treat all conversations as a joust in which we all try to destroy each other's credibility through unfounded personal attacks.

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11 users have voted.

"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

@Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal I knew I'd mess it up. The first reaction was to avoid participating because at TOP, that is the rule for entering the discussion. Here, my second reaction was to participate, that there would be no pre packaged shutdown of conversation.

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13 users have voted.
Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@Snode

Sorry I got my dander up.

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9 users have voted.

"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@Snode

bearable?

I left after the "orient express in space" episode, which ended up being not the orient express in space at all.

I get irritated when artists tease the idea of doing things I really love and then not only fail to do them but instead hand me a crappy version of something they've said already. I already got that the Doctor (the modern one) was traumatized by war and that his behavior and habits and backstory were a commentary on war and ethics. That's all fine. I didn't need one more round of "ain't war awful," though, not at the expense of a decent story, and particularly not after teasing a union of science fiction and detective fiction, my two favorite genres, which can create absolutely wonderful stories when brought together (it's kind of my literary chocolate and peanut butter). Sometimes I get the feeling that an artist is deliberately making sure not to please me. Since the only thing I ask of them is that they please me a little bit--and they don't even have to do it by producing happy stories, I'll take a sad one if it has a reason for being--it gripes me when they seemingly set out to produce a miserable end. (I'm equally annoyed with the treatment of Amy and Rory, which not only was a downer but also managed to finally completely screw up the Weeping Angels. And that's pretty damned annoying given that inventing a whole new fabulous monster/antagonist isn't something every author can do. You'll notice that the original Moriarty isn't all that effective or scary.)

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5 users have voted.

"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

@Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal Bearable, I dunno....I couldn't understand what he was saying half the time. Dr. Who is pretty nostalgic for me . I started watching with almost the 1st Doctor when it was running on PBS way back when. I guess I just kind of accept it for what it is. I keep telling myself that at it's heart it's a children's show. Maybe it isn't, anymore.

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Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@Snode

Whose son has been doing admirable work on Gotham. Smile

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4 users have voted.

"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

Not Henry Kissinger's picture

@Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal

The writing for most of his three seasons was terrible though.

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1 user has voted.

The current working assumption appears to be that our Shroedinger's Cat system is still alive. But what if we all suspect it's not, and the real problem is we just can't bring ourselves to open the box?

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@Not Henry Kissinger

rather than actors.

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2 users have voted.

"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

My alarm clock was set three hours later than I thought!

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7 users have voted.

"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

Lily O Lady's picture

has been made inauthentic. Hell, even the word “inauthentic” seems unreal—plastic. Both the meanings of plastic, artificial and malleable. The stench of those in power has permeated the lexicon.

But words can be supported or belied by actions. Hillary supporters condemned Bernie way back at Netroots in 2015 when Black Lives Matter swarmed the stage. But later in the campaign a Black Lives Matter activist was ejected from a Clinton fundraiser for which she had bought a ticket.

I have become increasingly skeptical as time goes by. I wonder what is behind the words. What is the motivation? My capacity for BS keeps dropping.

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7 users have voted.

"The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?" ~Orwell, "1984"

to the conceptual struggles currently taking place within many if not most aware individuals that it deserves exposure beyond this excellent but small webforum. People want and need to be thinking and talking about what you've written here. There would have been a time when I'd have nagged you to submit it to publications like The New Yorker, Harpers, or The Atlantic, but I no longer trust whose side they're on and/or their fairness (The New Yorker has been spewing a lot of dangerous political b.s.). Because for all the depth and literary beauty of your essay, its subject matter sits squarely on the front lines of what we sense is turning out to be the political battle of our lifetimes.

So please consider outside submissions and maybe others could suggest additional publishers? More to say, but right now I need to take a break.

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8 users have voted.

Lurking in the wings is Hillary, like some terrifying bat hanging by her feet in a cavern below the DNC. A bat with theropod instincts. -- Fred Reed https://tinyurl.com/vgvuhcl

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@laurel

but have really no idea where to start. Some of the reasons for that you just stated. Others probably have to do with a lack of confidence.

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3 users have voted.

"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

@Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal , are notoriously hard for new writers to break into, and I have no insider information in that regard. Online publications would probably be easier. Salon.com has categories of https://www.salon.com/category/life-stories and https://www.salon.com/category/culture and though they’re not “high culture,” they’re not trashy either.

https://medium.com/ has several categories that might interest you, although I doubt that any are as culturally respectable as, say, the New Yorker, but it has been a long time since I’ve paid much attention to that world, so I really don’t know. (My undergrad was in English, but interests diverge and things change.)

A blind web search on “online publishing outlets for talented writers” turns up a whole bunch of stuff, and tweaking the terms might improve the results. And surely other commenters here would have some suggestions.

I wish I could give more info, and I hope you know your writing style is very good. If you choose to publish online, please select your pen name carefully, bearing in mind that anyone (and there are some genuine creeps out there) who can connect any of your other work to anything you’ve revealed at this site could, if they chose, present problems for you. A while back I became the target of a small group of stalkers who were able to find out where I lived, where I worked, my home and work phone numbers, and I had to make some pretty drastic changes in my personal life and online activities to continue. These are things to bear in mind. Protect yourself from the beginning unless you’re very confident that you have the inner and outer resources to handle whatever comes up.

Advice to budding writers always talks about learning to deal with rejection slips and keeping on despite obstacles. Successful writers always say that persistence is necessary. But whichever route you choose, I hope you'll go for it. Smile

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3 users have voted.

Lurking in the wings is Hillary, like some terrifying bat hanging by her feet in a cavern below the DNC. A bat with theropod instincts. -- Fred Reed https://tinyurl.com/vgvuhcl

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@laurel

News spring to mind, but I've always felt that Consortium wanted actual investigative reporting rather than mere commentary. How would I know, since I haven't asked them? I guess it doesn't help one's confidence when the publication venue in question was started by one of your personal heroes (Robert Parry).

Parry was an amazing guy who risked his life to cover Iran/Contra accurately. More recently, he discovered the arrangement between the CIA and the Reagan Administration to propagandize the American public (beginning in 1983). Here's a link to his last public writing:

https://consortiumnews.com/2019/12/29/an-apology-and-explanation-two-yea...

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0 users have voted.

"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@laurel

and medium is, indeed, a possibility.

I am going to look into it, though, truth be told, I'd prefer to start my own press. That's aways in the future, though.

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0 users have voted.

"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

TheOtherMaven's picture

You never get the same flavor twice. And it couldn't possibly matter less to all the real concerns we have.

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3 users have voted.

There is no justice. There can be no peace.

Jen's picture

@TheOtherMaven Capaldi's doctor is sunshine and rainbows compared to that statement.

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1 user has voted.

Is it great yet?

Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@Jen

And if the Tardis landed in my back yard, I'd go in a heartbeat, even if it was Capaldi's Doctor issuing the invitation. That's assuming I could take my loved ones with me, which I probably couldn't, it's usually a choice for companions, but let's blue-sky here

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1 user has voted.

"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver