pretty sure the best thing you can do is help the people who need to be heard get heard and not draw attention to yourself or be performative in your support [as a presumably white person]. i think painting your arm black would generally be perceived as performative and trying to steal the spotlight from those much more deserving. be like the white dude at the 1968 olympics: help create the space and then get out of the way.

The scale of sensitivity has changed.

Back then, if a white dude beat up a black dude for being black, people would just say some shit about it and move on.

Today, name calling can land you in jail.

What qualifies as terrible has a lower threshold in today's social psyche.

As racism becomes rarer and milder, any remaining form sticks out that much more, and is that much more offensive.

(Same with violence. We're in the safest time in human history, but people are more worried about kidnappings and shootings than ever)

Basically, it's all relative.

I had a coworker that said to me 'this place is really racist', and I asked why. He said 'because nobody says hi to me as I walk down the hall'. My response was 'So? I never say hi to anybody'. So, I started forcing myself to say hi to people, just to maintain appearances. Otherwise, I'd just be going about my day minding my own business, and people could be getting the wrong impression.

-scheherazade

Just goes to show that greatness knows no cultural boundaries.

I understand that it's theoretically possible to not like Bohemian Rhapsody, but I can't understand why you would want to live your life in such a joyless fashion. That song is just so much fun.

Still, it'd be interesting to get a similar aged white dude to listen to a hip hop classic ("Nuthin' but a g thang" maybe?) and see if there's a comparable reaction.

Just to be clear, the officer who made the remark (Carri Weber) was not the one giving the seminar.

The presenter (in the red shirt) gives the statistic.
Angry White Dude questions it.
Weber remarks about privilege.
Angry White Dude gets annoyed.

How were you able to ascertain that race played no part in him being pulled over and then charged after being assaulted by a white corrections officer Bob?
Just curious.
If it were a clean shaven white dude (and not a hooligan as you are apt to describe him) the same age I have my doubts it would have played out the same way.
He said he was on his way to a friends house not racing up and down the road but in your mind you already know more than what was stated.
I think race age and sex and connections are too many times the factors whether we want them to be or not.
Not positive race was an issue but it may have been a factor.

Sometimes I feel like people have to expend a lot of effort to miss the point so well...

OH&S - We had a MSDS for Spray and Wipe in the office which required us to use gloves and a facemask. Ordinary surface cleaner. And it was enforced... This is what he is talking about. Taking what started as a good idea and going way too fucking far with it.

PC - You kinda prove the point right off the bat with "straight white dude". You're discriminating. You feel justified in doing so because white males are so fucking awful to everyone on the planet (it's true, I heard a feminist say so..), but it doesn't change the fact that it's discrimination. You're either politically correct all the time or you're a hypocrite. I happen to support your right to discriminate, but take issue with hypocrisy.

Smoking - Missing the point, the government makes it socially unacceptable, removes the places where you can do it, but leaves it as legal and runs up the cost to astronomical levels to keep the revenue rolling in. It's an innately contradictory position.

The bit on Ireland was more a commentary on the Irish than smoking...

And of course smokers are one of the few groups within society that almost no one will stand up to defend. Very easy to be non-PC and discriminate against (gotta let all those uptight PC dickheads vent their spleen somewhere I guess... =)

As much as I love Steve Hughes, and as much as I hate taking a comedy bit seriously, he's pretty much wrong about every single point in this video.

Oppressive health and safety? Oh please can we return to when employers could order me to endanger my life just for a paycheck.

PC? Been down this road a million times, but it's really easy for a straight white dude to talk about not being offended.

Smoking? I give zero fucks if you want to smoke, just don't do it around me. Oh, and I was in Ireland when they banned smoking in pubs. It was fucking great, and yeah, it encouraged a bunch of people to quit.

Anyway, as I said, it's a comedy bit and it's funny. Just don't go actually believing it.

really? This just feels kinda stupid.

Lone guy rises up to overthrow dictator is stretching believability at the best of times, but in the US? Er, they tried that and even with Trump as President, the feds tend to not be enthusiastic about that kinda thing.

Also, the reason Far Cry 3 worked so well (at least for the first half) was that Vaas was such a great character (Michael Mando is one of the best actors working today).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ai3Maj9IZQ

But hey, at least it makes a change from white dude saves the ethnics with local magic!!

Offensive jokes are hilarious. I mean, if it offends bitches, niggers or fags, who gives a fuck?

I mean, people joke about white dudes all the time and you don't hear them complaining, unless they're Jews or some shit.

It almost like the most powerful demographic in history is less easily offended because they haven't endured centuries of oppression! Nah, that's ridiculous...

Here's the thing, you want to make a joke about rape or slavery or whatever, provided you are not explicitly advocating violence, I will defend your right to make that joke.

And I will defend my right to say you're a fucking asshole for making it.

No, this isn't ok.

Sure, it's fine for Stephen. He's a rich white dude.

It's a bit harder to "not think about politics" when you're being deported just because of your religion or ethnicity.

It's harder to "enjoy life" when you're a woman who's being denied an abortion.

And it'll be fucking difficult to ignore all this bullshit when climate change burns the world in a few decades (years?).

Um......but one person's 'mistake' is wrongly verbally attacking a student over something she's absolutely wrong about and is none of her business anyway, and taking her ignorant outrage to the level of assault and battery repeatedly against multiple parties.
The other person's 'mistake' is wearing a hairstyle you don't like.
And it's the SECOND person you wanted to lambast and deride, while completely ignoring the former?

Can you not see how ridiculous that looks to those not sharing your minority, prejudiced view on white guys with dreads (that view apparently born from you attending too many Phish concerts)?

I think the only outrage came from you. No one is calling for her head, or saying she needs to be taught a lesson, or is even all that upset about it, they're simply stating the likely outcome(s) of being caught on video acting that way....in fact the person you snidely replied to actually said he felt sorry for her because of the likely terrible outcome for her, not that she needs to be taught a lesson.
It was you that started the 'white dudes with dreads are the lamest of lame' and 'hope there's a nice view on your high horse' kind of insulting outraged smugness. If someone disagreeing with you and saying so is picking up 'pitchforks', boy howdy are you in the wrong place. ;-)

White dudes with dreads are the lamest of lames.

And this video as some sort of spark of outrage is hilarious. That dude was insanely obnoxious.

College kids getting in arguments: OMG INTERNET GOTTA TEACH SOMEONE A LESSON!!!!!!!

It almost sounds like he is suggesting to keep an open mind and learn about other cultures, religions & mythology in order to understand those perspectives; and overall to be humble to the mystery: that we do not know.

In my opinion some of his opinions were a little contradictory - he doesn't believe in any sort of god or gods, but it seems that a wiser statement would be that he doesn't know, which would correspond with the "I don't believe in atheists" theme.

Furthermore, I honestly don't think that those who (in Hedges' words), "do not explore the religious impulse" are inhuman. Even if someone never explores it in their lifetime. In my opinion - the late bloomers who have disconnected themselves from all inclination of organized religion or spirituality, to find it on their own later in life might have a few more advantages than those that did not disconnect themselves from it at some point.

My personal preference is that I do believe in god because I want to believe in god. Whether it's a metaphor, completely abstract energy, a point in spacetime, a massive intelligent energy field that existed long before the big-bang, a life-force found only on Earth or the Milky Way or a fucking super mega alien technological consciousness program experiment or even a microscopic white dude flying on a microscopic magic carpet or all of the above and none of the above. I just believe even though my version of whatever creation/god is, is completely unidentifiable, it's everything and it's nothing.

@newtboy
i think it was the whole-black man racing like crazy to deliver a cold beverage to a rich white dude,and then apologizing for being late.

So much good stuff here. Please unkill this @eric3579.

I've said here before that 99% of the time when someone complains about "PC gone mad", they're a middle-aged straight white dude that can't understand why they can't call people fags, niggers or bitches anymore. And most of them don't even understand they're being a dick. As far as they're concerned they genuinely believe they're just "telling it like it is".

I'm going to let the late, insanely great, Iain Banks have the last word here:

'Political correctness is what right-wing bigots call what everybody else calls being polite ... Like everybody else, I have my own definitions of what is what, and I would never seek to deny that a few stupid people can take a perfectly good idea too far, but I stand by my contention that political correctness is more sinned against than sinning.'