Problematic Stuff

[Forty Two]

Young pErvin -

[Sean Hayden]

-Sean Hayden last night

[laklak]

I don't think you have to worry about that, son.

[Forty Two]

Those soy-boys not only don't want to be "manly," they want to force everyone else to think they are manly even when they are not "manly." Manly is a social construct, so it's arbitrary that manly means what we think it means. Being a great big pussy would be manly in a different culture.

[pErvinalia]

-Sean Hayden last night

[laklak]

I had to look up "soy boy". LOL. How did I miss that? It's perfect.

[Sean Hayden]

-Sean Hayden last night

He reminds me of my cousin. --what, my genes is here same as yer's

[Forty Two]

"There won't be snow in Africa this Christmastime."

"Tonight thank god it's them, instead of you!" - Bob Geldoff, Band Aid, Do They Know It's Christmas? [in Ethiopia which has been mostly Christian for going on 1700 years, when Britain was a newly freed Roman province]

[Brian Peacock]

Really? Sneering at a charity song which raised the profile of a humanitarian disaster most governments were ignoring? I guess we're supposed to infer that everyone who bought the single, attended the concerts, or donated money are idiots eh, because the lyrics are a bit crap? Tell us, which charity song has lyrics truly worthy of approbation?

[Forty Two]

Band Aid is a tool of the cisnormative patriarchal colonial privileged white culture which has changed its cancerous oppression of black and brown bodies around the world from one of overt dominion and occupation to insinuating itself as the "great white hope" fulfilling the "white man's burden" of saving the "people of color" who are incapable of saving themselves.

And, you're not helping anyone with your anti-government stance. In civilized countries, we don't need private charities, because the government is what is entrusted to help the people. Private entities only act out of avarice, greed and naked self-interest, as is the way of the so-called free market. Next you'll be saying that freedom and private action can solve some of the world's problems. Go sell that to your aristocratic and petit bourgeois friends!

And, all the people who bought the single, attended the concerts or donated money are unwitting tools of the post-colonial anglo-saxon supremacist movement.

:-)

[JimC]

Really? Sneering at a charity song which raised the profile of a humanitarian disaster most governments were ignoring? I guess we're supposed to infer that everyone who bought the single, attended the concerts, or donated money are idiots eh, because the lyrics are a bit crap? Tell us, which charity song has lyrics truly worthy of approbation?

Band Aid is a tool of the cisnormative patriarchal colonial privileged white culture which has changed its cancerous oppression of black and brown bodies around the world from one of overt dominion and occupation to insinuating itself as the "great white hope" fulfilling the "white man's burden" of saving the "people of color" who are incapable of saving themselves.

And, you're not helping anyone with your anti-government stance. In civilized countries, we don't need private charities, because the government is what is entrusted to help the people. Private entities only act out of avarice, greed and naked self-interest, as is the way of the so-called free market. Next you'll be saying that freedom and private action can solve some of the world's problems. Go sell that to your aristocratic and petit bourgeois friends!

And, all the people who bought the single, attended the concerts or donated money are unwitting tools of the post-colonial anglo-saxon supremacist movement.

:-)

One day, instead of this type of attempted humour, perhaps we might hear a reply which actually addresses the issues raised by a post. But I won't hold my breath...

[rainbow]

Being a great big pussy would be manly in a different culture.

True.

In Africa this is the case.

Trigger Warning!!!1! :

[Alan B]

I read somewhere that, strictly speaking, a lion isn't a 'pussy'.

[rainbow]

I read somewhere that, strictly speaking, a lion isn't a 'pussy'.

Probably written by some Pom, who had no idea of what they were talking about.

[Forty Two]

Really? Sneering at a charity song which raised the profile of a humanitarian disaster most governments were ignoring? I guess we're supposed to infer that everyone who bought the single, attended the concerts, or donated money are idiots eh, because the lyrics are a bit crap? Tell us, which charity song has lyrics truly worthy of approbation?

Band Aid is a tool of the cisnormative patriarchal colonial privileged white culture which has changed its cancerous oppression of black and brown bodies around the world from one of overt dominion and occupation to insinuating itself as the "great white hope" fulfilling the "white man's burden" of saving the "people of color" who are incapable of saving themselves.

And, you're not helping anyone with your anti-government stance. In civilized countries, we don't need private charities, because the government is what is entrusted to help the people. Private entities only act out of avarice, greed and naked self-interest, as is the way of the so-called free market. Next you'll be saying that freedom and private action can solve some of the world's problems. Go sell that to your aristocratic and petit bourgeois friends!

And, all the people who bought the single, attended the concerts or donated money are unwitting tools of the post-colonial anglo-saxon supremacist movement.

:-)

One day, instead of this type of attempted humour, perhaps we might hear a reply which actually addresses the issues raised by a post. But I won't hold my breath...

Alright, JimC, see if this helps. My post was a satirical rip on the Band Aid "Snow in Africa" song, where I did what certain ilk are wont to do - present classic and loved western media or cultural items as actually evil and "problematic" emblems of oppression. That's what's funny about it. It's easy with Band Aid's song, because when lyrics get that trite, it's fairly easy to Poe somebody. I mean, don't you find it even a little chuckle-worthy that one of the messages of the song is that we're to thank the all-powerful creator of the universe that other people are starving instead of you and me? That's not worth a bit of a piss take?

And what "point" was made that I need to address, JimC? That I shouldn't sneer and make politically incorrect jokes about Bob Geldoff Christmas in Africa songs? This is beyond the pale here at Ratz? I've found the topic that is over the line? Come on, JimC... do we really need to check around about other people's humor here and see if my little piss-take there was really, truly so beyond the pale that I now have to address some sort of serious point about it?

Oh, nos! Band Aid really had good intentions to help starving people in Africa! So, don't joke about how the writer of the song apparently didn't know that Ethiopia is a Christian country, so obviously they know it's Christmastime, and that thanking god someone else is suffering a calamity instead of oneself is a rather morally questionable thing to do. That's just too much. Certain things are too important and too good to be joked about. And Band Aid's "Do They Know It's Christmas," well, that's one of them.

Now, let's also "seriously" address this charity, which was ostensibly to help alleviate the famine. The famine, of course, wasn't widely publicized as being man-made. The war in Ethiopia resulted in one side napalming rebel farms to purposefully starve them. So, what did the money for the CDs all the good people bought while getting stoned and drunk at Band Aid concerts pay for? You may like to know that it went to the Ethiopian government to buy weapons from the Russians to bomb the fuck out of the rebel forces and civilians. It helped the Mengistu regime go from barely holding on to power to having among the most well-equipped military forces on the African continent.

Bob Geldoff was never shy about his photo ops, though. He liked, if you remember, being seen with Mengistu, you know, the guy he was giving the massive donations to, who was also the guy who was burning farms and engaging in forced resettlement - relief agencies estimated over 100,000 deaths from forced resettlement marches. Geldoff was apparently warned about this Megistu fella by various experts and relief agencies (e.g. Doctors Without Borders, who warned him explicitly not to send the money until infrastructure was in place to get the money to those who needed it, and Geloff ignored them).

Live Aid made a bad situation worse, donated massive monies to a brutal, genocidal dictator who intentionally murdered hundreds of thousands of people and helped create a system that would further kill more people for years to come.

Is it o.k. to fuck with and take a piss take of their song, now, JimC?