Shit that Pissed me Off – 6/2/17

Men’s Rights Asshats Comparing a Women’s Only Showing of Wonder Woman to Segregation

Meanwhile in Texas, the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema has announced they will be holding a women only showing of Wonder Woman on opening weekend.  This idea was so popular, they had to add an extra showing almost immediately.

Now, you might wonder why it would be a problem to hold a women’s only showing of the first mainstream super hero film featuring a woman as the protagonist.  Especially when the movie is going to be showing on several thousand screens across the country and there are, currently, two showings that will not allow dudes.

The problem, several guys tell us, is discrimination!  In fact, they say, a man who has publicly announced he is purchasing a ticket to this showing is basically fighting the same fight as Rosa Parks.

For those of you who don’t know who Rosa Parks is, let me assure you that you know only slightly less than these pigs.

So let’s consider a few ways in which this is not segregation.

First, of course, this is a private entity and they can do whatever the fuck they want.  More importantly, though, this is not a “separate but equal” situation where the “separate” showing is notably inferior.  Guys can go to any other showing of Wonder Woman and see the same film. They are not being told that if a woman wants to watch the movie, they will have to give up their seat.  They are not being sent to screening rooms with inferior projectors or seats.

They will get the exact same experience.  Except, I guess, there won’t be hundreds of women in the theater.

Is this guy thinking as the only man in a room full of women, he has some sort of chance?

Another way in which this is not segregation is men are not a marginalized class of citizen.  Men have all the power.  If you wanted to understand what it feels like to be marginalized, you entitled fuck face, you would need to consider a situation in which there were two showings of Wonder Woman that men were permitted to attend.  Further, you would need to assume that women could buy tickets to every other showing but even if those showings did not sell out, men would not be allowed in the theater.  Further, you would need to assume that if a woman wanted your seat in one of the two men’s only showings, she could have it and you wouldn’t get your money back.

That is being marginalized.  You just don’t get to go to two fucking screenings of a movie.

Also, your men’s right’s hero is not anything like Rosa Parks because he’s not a tired black woman who just wanted to be able to sit down after a long day of work.  He’s not running the risk of being put in jail and/or beaten for violating the law.  At most, he’s going to be ejected from the theater and not given a refund.  Unless he gets petulant.  At which point, he could possibly be forcibly ejected.  To compare this privileged buffoon to Rosa Parks is to identify yourself as an unthinking jackass more concerned with your own imagined needs than you are with other people’s very real rights.

LeBron James Gets to Remind the Rest of us About Racism

If you aren’t into sports, you are probably still aware of LeBron James.  He is, by most accounts, the best basketball player in the Universe. He touches a basketball and it never washes itself again.  Hoops literally bend closer to the ground just to have the honor of allowing him to score.

He’s pretty good at what he does.

And he has legions of devoted fans.

James’ house was vandalized last week.  Someone spray painted the n-word on his gate.  It was a classless act by a classless person.  And it served as a reminder that one of the richest, most popular black men in America is not free from racism.

He was asked about it and gave an eloquent response in which he observed that, no matter how successful you are, being black in America isn’t easy.  It should be a wake up call to every white person in America.

To at least one e-mailer on a local radio show, however, it was not.  The e-mailer basically said “James is rich because of his god-given talent.  I, a white male, have to work hard every day just to get by. Don’t tell me how hard it is to be black, LeBron James.”

I work hard too, mister rich-basketball-players-should-never-complain asshole.  But that wasn’t what James was talking about you tone deaf idiot.

He was talking about all the black people who aren’t him.  He was saying that if the most recognized black man on the planet can be the victim of a hate crime, imagine how hard it is for every other black man in America who isn’t LeBron James!

LeBron James is a lucky man.  To his credit, he seems well aware of that fact.

At the same time, at least one fucker on a local radio show used the opportunity James provided him to complain about how rich people don’t understand the rest of us.  I’ll bet that guy voted for Trump and doesn’t even understand why that makes him a hypocrite.

Hey – Speaking of Trump – It’s Time for Trump Corner!

I should be nice to our President (Fuck that noise) this week, right?  I mean he handed the comedy community “covfefe” and even managed to poke fun at himself (after deleting the original tweet) for the gaffe.  It was a rare moment of levity in a Presidency (dammit) that is, to this point, marked by a complete lack of a sense of humor.

However, Trump followed up his late night typo (apparently he doesn’t use auto correct) by backing out of the Paris climate change accord.

On the one hand, we all knew he was going to do this.  It was a campaign promise and while Trump is an asshole who made a whole lot of asshole campaign promises, I give him some grudging credit for keeping them. Every single fucking one of them.  Like an idiot savant.

His announcement that the US was backing out of the non binding accord was filled with facts that sound scary but really aren’t.  For instance, he pointed out that America was expected to contribute three billion dollars to impoverished nations to aid them in reducing emissions.  He talked about that like it is a lot of money.

And to folks like you and me, it is.

However, it represents .0075% of our 2016 federal budget.  And it was not expected to be paid out over a single year.  And yeah, I know, we are operating at a deficit.

Last year’s deficit was 586 billion.  The Paris accord agreement was .005% of the deficit for a single year but, again, we weren’t going to be spending $3 billion a year.  We were going to be spending $3 billion total.

Maybe if I use this cliche, it will make more sense.

Trump talked like that $3 billion number was a huge hardship but in reality, we are talking about less than a nickel per American over ten years.  I’m pretty sure I’ll find that many pennies on the ground in the next ten years.

He also mentioned that if all the parts of the Paris agreement are complied with 100%, global temperatures will only go down a fraction of a degree Celsius by 2100.

That is true.  And it doesn’t sound like much.

Let us consider, however, that if we don’t do anything, temperatures are expected to rise by one tenth of a degree Celsius (on average) every decade until well past the year 2100.  Possibly more.

So if we move the needle backwards even a little bit, that is a big deal.

He’s taking a number that sounds huge ($3 billion) and comparing it to a number that sounds small (less than 1 degree Celsius) and he’s well aware that when we compare the two we’ll think “fuck that – why spend that much to achieve that little?”

Trump’s point about the minimal reduction in global temperatures is a smokescreen anyway because he doesn’t give a fuck if the temperature goes up.  He isn’t going to come up with some plan to help improve the environment while he’s in office.  He’s going to pretend he’s helping to make sure coal workers keep their jobs.  Even if it would be better for everyone (even them) if we were looking at what we do when coal is no longer a viable option.

And that’s awesome for coal workers.  For a while. Problem is, it doesn’t solve the long term problems that face the entire world.

He doesn’t care about the entire world, though.  He cares about America and what must be the invisible shield that protects the rest of the world from us not giving a fuck about climate change.

In reality, he probably only cares about making sure the weather is nice when he goes golfing.  What’s the big deal if the oceans rise?  It just means a few extra water hazards, right?