Who are you afraid of more? A few terrorists half a world away? Or an all-encompassing police state?
Giving Up a Little Freedom
Ted Rall
Ted Rall is a syndicated political cartoonist for Andrews McMeel Syndication and WhoWhatWhy.org and Counterpoint. He is a contributor to Centerclip and co-host of "The Final Countdown" talk show on Radio Sputnik. He is a graphic novelist and author of many books of art and prose, and an occasional war correspondent. He is, recently, the author of the graphic novel "2024: Revisited."
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Geez Ted – I’m scared of most people. They are so quick to convict and hurt others that it amazes me! Yeah, I saw the documentary done years ago about “shocking” people, but I am absolutely floored by amount of hate expressed on the Internet to almost any “slight” or mistake a person may make. Look at what happened to you, huh? A single cartoon or two attacking a sacred cow and you are blacklisted! What a load of crap, huh?. In some ways, the Internet is a horrible mistake, allowing people to hide behind a keyboard and screen has allowed their real animosity to show itself. Maybe it is true? That ‘people are no damn good’? (can anyone remember what film this phrase came from?)
Fear is of course an incredibly powerful motivator. And with good evolutionary reason! It’s a vital survival tool. But irrational, disproportionate fear causes us to make mistakes. Which is why proper evaluation of threats is essential to survival. And yeah, that thing you said about being blacklisted…though that’s more a function of a moribund political system. When political systems are collapsing, they become especially resistant to criticism, which merely hastens their eventual demise.
I am ahead of you by 10 hours here where I live. That is why I saw that cartoon that could have been another 9/11 wives thing, and I am real glad you deleted it. The world as it is today does not allow much past political correctness, and many have found this out to their sadness. I feel real sorry for Paula Deen, because she is probably just an “old cracker” that thinks that speaking truthfully is still OK – but it’s snot, because anything you say “can and will be used against you” nowadays. I still use the n-word, because it correctly describes ignorant and rascist black people, and that’s what they use for themselves when they act that way. The “idea” that a word can never be used by one race is an afront to intelligence. When I hear people say it can never be used, I want to shout it out! Ted – you’all is an white-assed animal cracker trying to infuse intelligence into an misunderstanding audience!
Safety and security are an illusion….so we’re sacrificing freedoms for nothing. Besides, as long as Americans get to cling to their religion and guns, they’ll willfully sacrifice everything else.
Don’t you just love the inspector lying on the floor, looking up her skirt?
😀
All NYC subway riders are unwilling guinea pigs today, Dorme bene.
Your site is working much better now Ted, Thanks! :^)
“Nigger” doesn’t describe racist black people, it describes black people, and if a non-black person uses it for this purpose, it makes that person a racist asshole. Period. Black people use it amongst themselves because there is no power disparity. When someone who isn’t black uses it, there is an implicit disparity in power. That word determined who gets raped without prosecution, who gets murdered without consequence, and who gets their labor stolen for the rest of their lives.
If rikster is not black and okay with being told that “I hope someone rapes your mother to death,” then he or she would be in the ballpark with what it’s like to be called “nigger.”
Dean got shat on because our culture doesn’t let us go after truly powerful individuals when they commit racist acts, only the low-hanging fruit — rich people without serious political connections. Dean doesn’t deserve shit. She doesn’t even deserve to be brought up.
«Little ol’ [you]» scares me, Ted – people in Pakistan (it’s been 40 years since I stayed in Peshawar and Lahore) much less so….
Henri