*ahem*

[sabotabby]

Clearly, what's needed here is more gratuitous cat pictures.



"But Luna, I don't get it. Why can black hip hop artists say the N-word and white shock jocks can't? Isn't that unfair?"



"There are some things you'd say to your mom, say, if you were having an argument with her, or even just joking around, but that you'd be really offended if a complete stranger said to her."



"I don't remember my mom."

"Theoretically, if you had a mom."

"Theoretically, yeah. Because we'd have a family history and shared experiences and struggles and all that."



"And you know how sabotabby and her friends are always making anti-Semitic jokes?"

"That's kind of annoying."

"Sure it is. But that's kind of different than, say, if some goyish politician proposed rounding up all the Jews and putting them in death camps."

"It's sort of about social power."

"That's right, Marinetti. Social power and cultural context."



"But Luna, I still don't think that anyone should say the N-word! Or the B-word. Even hip hop artists! Those are horrible and demeaning words."

"I agree. But you and I are cats, and if we blunder into the complex terrain of human race and gender politics, we're probably going to look kind of silly. So it's probably best to chill out a bit and listen to what people of colour have to say. It's not like they've been silent about the issue—in fact, there's a lot of debate, particularly from feminists of colour, about language and what you can reclaim and what you can't."

"It's presumptuous to assume that the black community hasn't thought of and discussed these things."

"They have. And listening to that debate—listening first, before weighing in on what any community should or shouldn't do to combat centuries of exploitation and oppression—is a good first step for outsiders to take."

"We also shouldn't assume that all hip hop is the same, or that it's full of people talking about 'bling' and 'bitches and hoes.' Hip hop encompasses the same diversity as any other musical genre."



"That's right, Marinetti. It's terribly shortsighted to claim that hip hop artists invented racist and sexist language. Which was the point that sabotabby was trying to make in yesterday's post."

"It's really important to discuss the messages that music (and art, and literature, and TV, and movies) transmit. But we've got to approach the discussion with understanding of history and power differentials."



"Anyway, we can all agree that Imus is an asshat, right."

"Definitely."

"I'm glad we had this talk, Luna."

"Me too, Marinetti. Me too."

Comments

[hopita.livejournal.com]

Your cats have way more complex discussions than mine ever do.

[nom-de-grr.livejournal.com]

Yeah, mine usually just talk about Battlestar.

[sabotabby]

Yours do that too?

[nom-de-grr.livejournal.com]

...I just read the Imus thread in conservatism, and HOLY SMOKES starchaser57 is made of highly concentrated LULZ! The stupid are so incredibly entertaining.

[sabotabby]

Isn't she darling? She is my favourite person on conservatism, I think.

[loveitorleaveit.livejournal.com]

She sounds like my kind of gal!

[sabotabby]

Go hit on her!

[rackletang.livejournal.com]

Leave it to the kitties to make sense of it all...

[sabotabby]

Tell me that your icon is of a real brand of coffee?

[rackletang.livejournal.com]

As far as I am aware, yes. (However, I believe that one would have to travel to Asia to purchase said coffee. Original image from Engrish.com, as I am a horrible horrible leftist.) ;)

[hopita.livejournal.com]

... and I see that Marxism is "God's favored coffee!"

[sabotabby]

Isn't that true, though?

[frandroid.livejournal.com]

Because coffee is the religion of the bureaucratic masses...

[5-miles.livejournal.com]

that was awesome.

[sabotabby]

:D

[esizzle.livejournal.com]

Well, I don't have any cats, so I asked a squirrel in my neighbourhood. He said people are entitled to be included in whatever aspect of a culture they please. He said we can nuke japan and then talk about how cool swords are and watch anime. We can make jokes and use terms like "fresh off the boat" and then appreciate a good Kung Fu movie. We can support Zionism and then go to the coffee shops of the Middle East and eat with its people and their 'beautiful' culture. We can drink coffee that exploits countries through so called free trade agreements, and then travel around south America for a few months. And we can take the language of people we have treated as a lower form of life for the past 100s of years because its fun. We shouldn't feel excluded from anything or anyone - just because we have been excluding them through out history, that is no excuse.

I don't know about that squirrel though.. it's hard to tell when it is being sarcastic and it has a thing against humanity (all we feed it is garbage).

[sabotabby]

Win.

[robotar.livejournal.com]

<3

[sabotabby]

:)

[fannishnonsense]

Smart kitties!

[sabotabby]

Cute, too.

[zingerella.livejournal.com]

Well Marinetti means well, but he sometimes suffers from unexamined assumptions.

[stoneself.livejournal.com]

but he's pretty quick on the uptake...

[zingerella.livejournal.com]

It's just that his sense of entitlement can lead him to be pretty insensitive.

[stoneself.livejournal.com]

is that cat privilege?

[jvmatucha.livejournal.com]

I object to the use of cute animal pictures for the purposes of promoting and political social essays. This is clearly a case of feline exploitation!

Plus it looks like Marinetti has gained some weight. Fat cat! Uh oh! Now I'm going to hear it about size discrimination! :O

[sabotabby]

All's fair in love and propaganda.

[northbard.livejournal.com]

wow.

You guys need to have your cats on Faux News.

[sabotabby]

You think they'd have us?

[northbard.livejournal.com]

They may need to shave. I think only Geraldo is allowed whiskers...

[misfratz.livejournal.com]

Of all the posts I've read on this subject, that has to be the cutest and the fluffiest... Excellent!

[sabotabby]

Why thank you! I don't know that I have a lot new to contribute, but I do have cat photos.

[princessrugger.livejournal.com]

you broke down the politics of language via big puffy cats. I FUCKING WAY HEART YOU SO BAD.

[sabotabby]

That's the only way to do it.

[jk-fabiani.livejournal.com]

I FUCKING WAY HEART YOU SO BAD.

That's the sabotabby effect.

[sabotabby]

*blush*

[troubleinchina.livejournal.com]

"But you and I are cats, and if we blunder into the complex terrain of human race and gender politics, we're probably going to look kind of silly."

Poor kitties are much smarter than a lot of people I know. Must be frustrating not having opposable thumbs when a bunch of idiots get them.

[sabotabby]

I'm afraid of what Marinetti would do if he had opposable thumbs.

[rohmie.livejournal.com]

Perish the thought.

Unfortunately, this fellow was much funnier in the '90s and those strips are no longer on-line.

The best Cats with Hands strip had them placing little red flags everywhere and the caption:

"Cats marking their territory: The early years, before the system broke down."

[sabotabby]

I thought you meant this.

[lokilokust.livejournal.com]

this fits in quite nicely with having just finished watching godard's 'weekend.'

[sabotabby]

I've never seen Weekend. I keep hearing that it's awesome and I'd love it, but everyone says that about Godard movies.

[ironed_orchid]

Luna is a smart kitty.

[sabotabby]

She is. Except for when she provokes Marinetti into beating her up.

[terry-terrible.livejournal.com]

He's just jealous of her intellectuallism. I loved this post.

[krinndnz.livejournal.com]

Yet another "Oh my god, KITTIES!" squeal from these quarters.


Also, yes, holistic worldview, context is important, context is important all the time, not just when it's convenient (cough cough conservativism cough).


Seriously your cats are far too cute. What do they say about Derrida ?

My cat eats books

[sabotabby]

Marinetti tried to read Derrida. He came to the conclusion that even Derrida didn't know what Derrida was on about. He settled for deconstructing the spine of Specters of Marx with his claws and saying "(me)ow?" for about a week.

[lopukhov.livejournal.com]

I'm glad that even Luna and Marinetti understand.

[sabotabby]

Cats > pundits.