Inside an Abusive Relationship, Questionable Traffic Laws, Captain Planet Gone Mad, and a Couple of Lighter Stories

This entry is part [part not set] of 100 in the series Today's Tidbits

Wow… not a lot in the feed today, but of what there is a lot of it is pretty heavy.

Guess I’m making up for all that fluff the past week or so.

The most important story is an inside look at an abusive relationship. If nothing else, it should remind us all that how our minds work on the outside of such a situation isn’t at all the same as what’s going through the head of someone in the middle of the situation. We don’t have the wild emotional connection to the events, our internal defenses aren’t firing to try to compensate for the utter dissonance between what we experience and what we want–let alone everything in between.

It’s a bit rough to read, especially if you or someone you know has been in the thick of it.

There’s also an article about how D.C.’s traffic and parking laws–and how they’re enforced–appear to be much more driven by profit motive than public safety concerns. For those of us in the D.C. area who’ve ever had to drive–let alone park–in D.C., this is no surprise at all.

On an entertaining, though no less dark, side there’s the Captain Planet shorts that Funny or Die got Don Cheadle involved in a few years back. They answer the question: What if Captain Planet Was a Power Mad Super Bastard?

And, man, do they answer it well!

There’s also the Duck Tales opening done with real ducks. That should brighten things up a little… unless you’ve got at hing about ducks… in which case I really can’t help you (and I’m oh so sorry for that video of the hundreds of ducks walking down the road yesterday…)

Here’s the feed…

Dumbing Down, Questionable Relationship Awareness, Godzilla Humor, Economic Issues, Speed Cameras, and Zepplin

This entry is part [part not set] of 100 in the series Today's Tidbits

I hadn’t heard about the Macklemore thing until I saw a post about it yesterday. (He’s since apologized.)

I was left wondering if a bit part of the problem was that we’re not willing to give someone the benefit of the doubt when they say “I really didn’t know.” (Especially if no other public action we’ve ever seen indicates otherwise.)

“Everybody ought to know this one,” people say. “After all, dehumanization of the Jews nearly led to their total extermination in Europe.”

But everyone doesn’t know it.

I know this for a fact because it was one of my big gripes about Star Wars The Phantom Menace (the critter that owned Anakin and his mother: filthy, big nosed, always looking for a deal and/or a way to screw you over, talking with an obvious Semitic accent… same with the obvious Oriental stereotype at work on the Trade Federation reps). Only about half the people I talked to–and they spanned ages from a decade or more younger than me to a few years older–recognized the stereotype.

And the only reason I recognized it was because I’m interested in how minority populations have been oppressed and demonized over the years. It’s not something I ever had explicitly shown to me (though I can recall some implicit statements, usually in old jokes, which I never really got at the time I heard them).

What should really be the case is: No one should know.

No one should immediately think that a character with a big nose is a jab at the Jews. The simple fact that so many of us still immediately see that means that dehumanization is still alive and well.

It’s definitely along the lines of the “Check your privilege” stuff… where we need to remind ourselves that we’re not always aware of everything that goes on inside our own heads, let alone what forces are at work around us.

I grew up in a surprising diverse area for being in the middle of nowhere. Yet, even with all the talk of racism and prejudice on the news in the 80s and early 90s, I’d never seen it play out until, I think it was my Junior Year of high school. When a buddy of mine, who happened to be black, had his locker vandalized with racial slurs.

We were all just dumbfounded… him especially.

The world got a little less bright and shiny that day. And I know that I became much more aware of a lot of the subtle undertones in a lot of my learned interactions… in a lot of the humor that was out there… in who did and who did not interact with one another.

It was more than a few years after that when I learned more about the hunk of hometown that I lived in. One of the local long-time families was cleaning out an old barn and came across one of the original signs that used to sit at the entrance to the area I lived. It said, if I recall correctly: “No Niggers, No Jews.”

And, yet, I’d gone at least 16 or so years before I saw any of that sentiment in action. So things must change somewhat… or, at least, it’s possible to grow up right in the middle of it and not know… until it hits you square in the face.

That’s not to say that, when it becomes clear there is harm/ridicule intended, decisive action shouldn’t be taken to reprimand the perpetrator… but the first step should always be “Dude, this is how I’m seeing this… is this what you mean?” And if the answer is “Really? No!” then a wee history lesson may be in order. In another generation or two, the stereotype may fade even more.

Now, people who actively live down to the stereotypes about their culture/race/whatever… I have little sympathy for them, as they’re part of the overall problem. Possibly worse than the people what use those stereotypes against the larger group. But that’s a whole ‘nother story.