iNow

Maybe bc that Jizz poster made THIS thread his very first post after creating an account at SFN. Maybe bc w/o ever once interacting with anyone here they were quick to assume, willfully obtuse, and intentionally misleading / misrepresentative of others. You’re asking why treat THAT obvious bad faith poster any differently from ME… the guy you’ve been enjoying online for over a decade now and who has something like 30,000 posts? Really? You’re really asking that? Sigh… And THAT, boys and girls, is why Jez and other internet cum stains like him actively post to sites like these (or setup bots and AIs to do it for them) all just to pour gasoline on to the topic dumpster fire which is racism and reparations … and why? Bc without fail it manages to split apart friends, families, and entire communities into us/them tribes blind to the humanity in those horrid putrid “others.” Because it keeps us fighting instead of fixing. Distracted… But that’s OT. Any weak fool can knock the barn down, but it takes courage and strength to build ‘em up.

Trumpism is bigger than Trump. Trump is just an avatar for their grievance. Sadly that part isn’t likely going anywhere any time soon.

And perhaps the enfranchised citizens on the Grand Jury will do just that, but until then we’ll have to wait and see. The Unity team. Yes, it’s aka the Joe Manchin / Susan Collins ticket. Sounds good in spirit, but shooting ourselves in the foot in practice (when considered in context of vote counts in narrowly gerrymandered districts themselves already being won by only 200-600 votes… the thinnest margins are the first to tear. And they know it, too… Joe, Susan, Lisa Merkowski and them all know their continued participation mostly increases the chance Trump wins a 2nd term. They want to send a message though, not a nuclear political warhead so I reckon they will turn into a pumpkin and go largely quiet nearer to August / end of summer.

I am in favor of reparations to all who have suffered systemic race based injustices in the past. I also acknowledge that blacks in the US are clearly the majority fitting this criteria and have been the majority fitting this criteria for centuries. Now, let’s spend them next 15 pages nitpicking these word choices and semantics so we can continue avoiding the discussion about what reparations should look like.

Other than by continuing to benefit from and amplify their existing gerrymandering and voter suppression efforts, you mean? Why, yes! They’re ALSO going to use AI to create deep fake videos and microtarget them into the most suspect conspiracy prone minds across social platforms to reshape the truth narrative. This generates enormous numbers of small dollar donations, themselves amplified by SuperPac megabillions of dark money flooding the zones with misinformation and FUD. Tl;dr: Make sure only the “right” people vote and dilute opponents power through widespread lies and fictions.

I don’t understand this post beyond knowing you seem to think I’m being foolish or overreacting. Will you please elaborate on why that’s your interpretation of / response to what I said? May I ask you to please highlight for me where I might find this mythical group of black people who have never been discriminated against nor suffered any injustices? I’d like to better understand how common that experience is across the larger population.

They do, they’re just not presented via the UI outside of the URL

May your time away increase the peace and enlightenment of you and all those around you. May the net suffering in the cosmos decrease as a direct result of your experience. 🕊️☮️

Sure, but sometimes diet and exercise aren’t enough by themselves to be healthy. Sometimes you also need medicine, antibiotics, a change in bandages, a warm place to sleep… yet y’all keep suggesting anyone who thinks we likely need more than just proper diet and good exercise to help heal centuries of oppression are… what, exactly? Trying to do too much? Being foolish? Paternalistic? Trying to assuage guilt? Being too woke? Missing some point? No. For me, I’m just being realistic about what constitutes a workable and feasibly implementable improvement in the lives of many millions of people who are part of families that haven’t been given a fair shake across multiple generations.

No to both, yet roughly 33% of my fellow citizens apparently feel otherwise.

Depends on how you define language. Apes, wolves, whales, elephants, squirrels, birds, even ants and bees have active communication systems.

Completely agree yet again ✌🏼

This is spot on, but I might add: They’re also potentially running for 2028 (since either Trump or Biden are both only allowed one more term)

Why not? Is there a statute of limitations about which I’m unaware? Me too, but that seems both peripheral to our discussion here AND like a good idea regardless of where we ultimately land on reparations.

We were aligned and I was right there with you until this last part. Their experience is felt every. Single. Day. Often multiple times throughout each day. See also: Cops murdering black kids at disproportionate rates, resumes with “black sounding” names being ignored and passed over by job recruiters and head hunters, being watch like a hawk by security guards at every store at the mall, at the convenience store, the bank, everywhere just for existing or driving “while black.” The experience CAN be and IS felt by people alive today in the US, and it’s worse in some places than others and isn’t limited to black folks or folks with ancestors in slavery.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_baptism#:~:text=Although the term "baptism" is,sourced water%2C called a mikva.

While this would surely be an ideal outcome, I personally classify it as extremely unrealistic and a bit pie in the sky so don't anchor myself to this as the core goal. It's a guiding lightpost, but not a destination IMO. Better. Not perfect. Now, not later. That's what's needed here... continued steps toward healing past injuries while IN PARALLEL striving toward avoidance of new injury.

Yeah. The pics pretty much confirm the space was too small for them to roll in a Xerox machine, even on very well made locking casters so phone would be easier. 😆 Pickup. Click. Done.

More likely is they photographed them with their phone and from there shared them however they saw fit far and wide in a nearly untraceable way.

Facts shmacks. He is a saint. Gods gift to humanity. Did nothing wrong. Couldn’t do anything wrong even if he wanted to. Practically Jesus himself and the justice department with their “laws” and “rules” are the devil trying to tear a good man down.

I appreciate you clarifying. Based on this, we seem to largely be on the same page, IMO. I'm not advocating a specific response at this point, only that a response is both needed and appropriate. I'm flexible on the details of how it gets implemented, but rigid on the idea that nothing should be done (if that makes sense). With that said, the more situationally specific and complex we make this, the less likely it is to get done and achieve the impact we desire, so I'm inclined to accept good enough over perfect.

I’m certain with sufficient chemistry knowledge and equipment one could identify toxins in various fungi found while foraging, but mostly this is an issue of education and apprenticeship under experts. Pictures for identification should include cap, stalk, gills, and surroundings in the field coupled with location and time of year. All mushrooms are edible, but some only once.

I’m sorry to hear you’re experiencing comprehension challenges.

I suspect nearly all of us agree that is an idealized final state, but what you and a handful of others seem to be suggesting is that dealing with this situation requires us to choose one or the the other as if they’re mutually exclusive. My and many others stance is simply that this either/or framing of the question is shortsighted and misguided since we very clearly can walk and chew bubble gum at the same time on this. We can strive toward both in parallel. It’s not either/or, it’s both/and. You continue focusing on stopping new future injuries and wounds which clearly nobody disagrees with, but that’s only half the picture. You seem to be ignoring the need to also heal existing wounds previously inflicted in the past. Stopping new cuts and sociopolitical insults is surely is a very good thing, but it it is an insufficient remedy on its own. Doing so in isolation won’t magically root out the infection and puss and rot and disease caused by existing past injuries… and (perhaps I misread you, but) you appear largely unwilling to even consider the appropriateness of healing those other existing injuries as a required parallel step… so the impasse persists due to some fictional narrative that the healing is itself adding to the injury. The systemic nature of the injustice means by definition that group members experienced it, even if they happen to have persevered and found a positive path through it. There’s a famous quote attributed to dancer Ginger Rogers saying that she had to do everything that her partner Fred Astaire did, but ‘backwards and in high heels’ and therefore with extra difficulty. The same applies here. Just because some managed to rise to the asymmetric challenges and additional burdens posed to them based solely on the melanin content of their dermal layers doesn’t mean the challenges themselves didn’t exist or weren’t embedded in thousands of often invisible ways into daily life and socioeconomic encounters (as already repeatedly highlighted and evidenced right here in this very thread). But sure. Keep us all talking in circles so we waste our time correcting your misguided impressions as a non-ally in this fight instead of spending time focusing on the real work of making things better for everyone.

Groups in this context are collections of individual people. You’re asserting a distinction without a difference. A distraction to sew doubt. A waste of bandwidth and time.