chapotraphouse

I wanted to brainstorm here, and would prefer if you have overly cynical feelings about this please just move on. Just looking for some ideas to write, even if it's just for my own sanity.

I disengaged with electoral politics, years ago like many here, but now that the election is over and liberals are feeling disillusioned, it seems like it might be a good time to really drive home the failings of this system. We already see AOC and Bernie coming out and trying to absorb angry progressives back into the Democrat base. The liberal media is going to attempt to channel this energy back into the status quo.

I have no illusions of a vanguard party forming in the next 4 years, but in term of organizing, my gut feeling is this is a good time to put some energy into our communities, especially while the heat is largely off third party voters. Most liberals I talk to understand the voting system is undemocratic and that third party wasn't even a factor this time.

I was planning on creating an outline based on some of the talking points the PSL have been using, and from their latest videos it seems they are on this vibe. I want to organize the outline on contradictions and hypocrisy, and drive home the failures.

Style guide

1. Be normal
2. Highlight "facts and statistics" comparing domestic and foreign policy, imply ex. "liberals are the party of facts and science so lets compare some numbers on immigration and civilian deaths overseas". I don't expect to convince anyone that the Uyghur genocide is fake that takes too long and runs counter to too many official sources. Things on wikipedia.
3. Personal responsibility. Liberals love personal responsibility, subtly point out that Democrats constantly blame everyone else for their own failings.
4. Nepotism and "dynasties".
5. Reiterate that Trump is bad, and outline the horrific policies of all rehabilitated Republicans and remind them those are the people they were cheering for

https://subium.com/profile/ronfilipkowski.bsky.social/post/3laprupi5rc2f

The funniest part about all of this discourse is that I’m still not even sure if this post even belongs here

Wanna make a strudel or two, dunno how apples will do in the baking process though (I have never eaten them like this and am a bit afraid), maybe will look for non-apple variants

Oh, I don't have an oven yet throws the idea on the pile of adhd-born ideas

Preface: I was curious about this so I did some research. I read some rather upsetting and disgusting things. I noticed some comrades were also uninformed on this stuff so I am sharing what I have learned. I have done my best to treat this topic respectfully. Links at the bottom if you don't care to read my rambling effortpost. If, like me, your reaction to being told the dunk tank has "racist roots" was a lib'd out "yeah, but reeeeally tho?" I suggest you go read the Jim Crow Museum links and hopefully you too will be revolted by what you see and will also recognise the importance of the community name change.

I assume this has already been discussed here, since I didn't really see anyone go ???? about that aspect of the c/*_tank critique. I didn't ask for infoz or clarity on this in the midst of the recent strugglebrawl because that's not really what everyone was fighting about. But while I've been catching up on some spin-off threads discussing the recent turmoil I've seen some of my fellow uninformeds express skepticism over whether that "long ago" history was really relevant, whether anyone would really associate dunk tanks with their apparent and maybe obscure racist history, that sort of thing.

All that to say: my personal experience is totally irrelevant and my assumptions couldn't have been more wrong.

This is my current understanding:

Firstly: The genesis of the Dunk Tank WAS inextricably linked to brutal, sometimes fatal, often disfiguring and brain damaging racial violence for the entertainment of white people.

When the Dunk Tank was created in America it was part of a progressive-for-the-time reform that replaced a hugely popular game that went by several names, the only one of which I'm comfortable typing out is "African Dodger" - the aim of the game was to throw a baseball (allegedly, usually, a lighter ball than was used in actual baseball) or eggs at a black man poking his head out between some curtains.

It appears that it was not uncommon for people to bring their own heavy balls to the game to use instead. There are multiple stories sourced from newspaper articles of the time that report on local professional baseball players attending to pitch at the victim. Some assholes just threw rocks.

There are a number of upsetting stories detailing the damage done to the victims. Horrible stuff to read- the degree of physical damage to teeth, eyes, faces and heads. Multiple deaths.

The Dunk Tank did not (immediately) replace African Dodger everywhere, but where it was introduced it was more or less a stand-in for the earlier "game" trading physical violence for humiliation. It was still about doing cruel shit to black men for fun at the carnival.

African Dodger continued to be a thing until at least the 1950s, overlapping the introduction of the Dunk Tank by about 40 years. During that time, whether the white-people-do cruelty-to-black-people game was about inflicting physical damage or inflicting humiliation (dodge or dunk) depended on where you lived and whether locals were still comfortable smashing people's faces in and cracking skulls to impress their girlfriends.

Both games were a vehicle for violence, abuse and degradation of black men for sport.

If you want to subject yourself to the gory details, slurs, offensive promotional posters etc, these are my sources for this part:
https://jimcrowmuseum.ferris.edu/question/2012/october.htm
https://freedium.cfd/https://dalebrumfield.medium.com/non-lethal-lynching-f9ee5bbbfbcc (medium post, paywall bypassed)
https://ameripics.wordpress.com/2016/01/10/the-african-dodger/
https://jimcrowmuseum.ferris.edu/question/2019/september.htm

Secondly: Yes, people do still know this history and associate dunk tanks with white supremacy and racial violence. This issue is not just concern trolling / a convenient cover excuse to modify hexbear culture as I have seen suggested or implied in the wake of the happening.

School district bans dunk tanks this year, presumably because people were upset with and/or alienated by the continuation of this foul legacy into the modern age after the black victim was generally replaced with a clown.
https://www.mapleridgenews.com/community/no-more-dunk-tanks-for-maple-ridge-and-pitt-meadows-schools-7374988

2019 article about dunk tanks being phased out. It's wishy washy on whether that is because people are uncomfortable with its legacy or because people are bothered by the modern dunk tank clown heckling and insulting them to bark customers to the game, but still, this has evidently been a subject of modern mainstream discourse:
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/07/style/insult-clowns.html

2019 Jim Crow Museum website responding to a reader query about the retirement of the dunk tank from "polite society" (hah..) https://jimcrowmuseum.ferris.edu/question/2019/september.htm

2022 article about the same thing, mentions NAACP helping to ban the explicitly racial implementation of the dunk tank by the end of the 1950s: https://www.pushblack.us/news/troubling-history-dunk-tank-carnival-games

2023 blog post: https://allthatsinteresting.com/african-dodger

2024 EXCELLENT blog post, loss of urban amusement parks and carnivals as third places. Segregation in those venues etc. ctrl-f Drop the Chocolate, or a Black man in a dunk tank to jump to the part most relevant to this effortpost, with an interesting observations about the awkwardness of continuing these sorts of games while black men were dying in the trenches of WW1.
https://www.melaninbasecamp.com/trip-reports/2024/3/29/third-places-lost-to-racism-urban-amusement-parks

Random other interesting post about dunk tanks not making it into the San Fran 1915 expo. Interesting/challenging photos: http://davegilson.com/african-dip.html

Between the genocide and the Cheney's. Absolutely disgusted and saddened by this world lately.

Yes I'm glad Kamala ate shit in this election, the Democrats deserve to lose forever. I am starting to lose remaining respect for people irl who still support them and it pains me because people I love have abstracted and dismissed a genocide as an "election issue".

SAN DIEGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Arcturus Therapeutics Holdings Inc. (the “Company”, “Arcturus”, Nasdaq: ARCT), a commercial messenger RNA medicines company focused on the development of infectious disease vaccines and opportunities within liver and respiratory rare diseases, today announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued a “Study Can Proceed” notification for the Company’s Investigational New Drug (IND) application, ARCT-2304, a self-amplifying mRNA (sa-mRNA) vaccine candidate for active immunization to prevent pandemic influenza disease caused by H5N1 virus. The clinical study is funded by Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) and designed to enroll approximately 200 healthy adults in the United States.

The Phase 1 clinical trial is designed to evaluate the safety, reactogenicity, and immunogenicity of ARCT-2304 as a potential vaccine to protect against the highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza.

"Arcturus is actively engaged with the U.S. government to prepare for the next pandemic, and clearance to proceed into the clinic with our STARR® self-amplifying mRNA technology is a key step in this important process,” said Joseph Payne, President & CEO of Arcturus Therapeutics. “The Phase 1 clinical trial is designed to evaluate the safety, reactogenicity, and immunogenicity of ARCT-2304 as a potential vaccine to protect against the highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza.”

About ARCT-2304

ARCT-2304 is a sa-mRNA vaccine candidate formulated within a lipid nanoparticle (LNP). The sa-mRNA vaccine candidate is designed to make many copies of mRNA within the host cell after intramuscular injection to achieve enhanced expression of haemagglutinin (HA) and neuraminidase (NA) antigens, thereby enabling lower doses than conventional mRNA vaccines. Utilizing a mRNA-based platform for pandemic influenza vaccine development offers further options for meeting domestic vaccine manufacturing surge capacity goals. The technology may make vaccines available much sooner than egg- and cell-based technologies. The lyophilized vaccine formulation is stable in refrigerators, thereby simplifying cold-chain storage and reducing distribution risks.

The damage is done! Hundreds of thousands fell for this fucking kids analysis. This person spent a shit ton of time promoting Whitmer. No pushback from the Chapo Boys. Did they not know? Or just not care?

This MFer promoted Harris a fuck ton in terms of being electable and popular. We're better than this. What happened? Millennials wanted to be feel young by being around young folks? Or the lack of Matt letting this shit get out of hand? I really gotta know. I'm furious.

Now this scumbag is pretending they get to play both sides. Shit aint' right, but I see people embracing the lies. FUCK THIS.

I've seen so many pictures of him looking at him like he's a pest. I think it'd be funny if he gave him the finger and Elon would be sooooo butthurt.

I made a substack for this so you can send it to your libbed up friends and family. Also like/comment on the article that would be cool, im sure that helps spread it somehow

Premise: A lot of great socialist and left-leaning people have dismantled the main point of the Bidenomics argument by showing that many millions of people were left behind. This article is coming in to destroy what little remains after that - even the best case scenario is still just wrong and delusional.

In southern Gaza, people are living in indescribable suffering. Hunger threatens the lives of children and families, amid a severe shortage of food and resources. Every passing day intensifies the tragedy, leaving them facing death from hunger. They are in urgent need of support before it’s too late. https://gofund.me/1222af19

Republicans are projected to keep control of the House of Representatives, handing the party total control of Washington with former President Trump back in the White House in January.

Decision Desk HQ projected the GOP would hold the House by winning its 218th seat on Monday, the number needed for a majority in the lower chamber.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kecksburg,_Pennsylvania

Like the Republicans lean too heavily into enforcing their Christian culture war bullshit, ban GTAVI and obscenity and alienate the porn and video game-loving young dude demographic. Also Trump blows up the economy and then dies, Vance becomes president and conservatives become the lame fuddy duddy nerds that everyone hates again

Alternatively, Gen Z men have all become NoFap wahhabists and welcome the bans

thank you for your service

In case you don't get it, that's Ella Emhoff and this post is making fun of that one post of Barron Trump after Trump lost in 2020.