After our usual long and sometimes brutal winter, it is good to see this:
And these:
Also good to hear people talking about gardening and the flowers they will grow and the tulips and daffodils are already up.
Spring
Cancelled
In public school, way back before I was even a teenager, we had to do projects that were put on display for adults and public.
I was very keen on animal welfare, long before animal welfare was a thing.
I did a scathing project on the cruelty of the Calgary Stampede. How they put things under the saddles to make horses buck. How they nearly break calfs necks roping them. How horses often died after wagon races (sometimes during). And a whole lot of other nasty things that went on at this event.
Well, despite being a little girl, you would not believe the backlash I got. I got yelled at during the show. People threatened to destroy my display right on the spot. They even went after my family too, (though fortunately, my father was a Sergeant Major and that put an end to a lot of harassment).
For months afterwards I was name called and pooh-bahed and basically – cancelled.
Then decades later I saw an article on the cruelty of the Stampede and how animal rights activists were protesting against the event.
I had to wait a long time to be uncancelled.
What’s Next? Fahrenheit 451?
Sensitivity readers.
Who invented this scourge upon writers and readers?
These self appointed know it alls are now rewriting Agatha Christie books so people won’t be offended.
Self righteous, self imposed censors of what we write and read. Scum. Degenerates. Useless self appointed guardians of our imaginations. They rewrite Roald Dahl because we can’t hurt our precious children’s eyes with phrases like ‘fat women’. And we can’t have playful poems like Dr. Suess because obviously, we can’t decide for ourselves what is dated or hateful or just plain fun. Good Lord. Sensitivity readers – you are disgusting. You insult our intelligence to such a degree, that even a preschooler would gag.
Can this be real?
NOTE: I WANT TO BE OFFENDED, CHALLENGED, MADE TO THINK BY WHAT I READ.
That is what books are for, you idiots. They are there to make us think and formulate our own opinions of what is good and bad, right or wrong. And it is good that everyone has their own opinions and they are not yours.
I want controversial books. I want to read all flavours and colours and opinions. Don’t make my world your vanilla. Let me paint my own colours.
I want to choose what I read. And I want all the shit in those books. I don’t want to tone it down. If I am really unhappy, guess what? I JUST DON’T READ IT.
Often characters in a book are not nice people, they may be a product of the time they live in, so they say and do things that are offensive to our sensibilities of the current age. But that is what makes a villain, you idiots. That is what makes a character, a character. They are not perfect, they have good and bad points. Don’t turn imaginary characters into marshmallows. You have to read that they are racists, misogynists, whatever, to understand their perception, behaviour and actions in terms of the plot. People who lived in the 1920’s are a lot different that in the 2000’s. People of different cultures have different ways. I feel stupid even having to explain that!
This is what makes you educated, you dufus. Reading about this stuff. Gee whiz.
And let me say this, sensitivity readers – you are hypocrites, vipers, pharisees. We see people cut up, tortured, blown to bits, raped, maimed, shouted at, swore at, called racists names, humiliated, all in gory technicolour, widescreen detail in nearly every movie and television and news program produced today, and ultra violent video games that is watched by children. These are a thousand times more damaging to our psyche than the printed word. Movies are so bad, that if sensitivity watchers were a thing and got a hold of them, all you would have would be the beginning and ending credits!
And what about real life? Are you going to edit what we experience too? Are you going wade in there and make my life easier? Perhaps some soma?
What is next in this brave New World, 1984 life? First we rewrite books and history and ban what we refuse to look at. A short step to Fahrenheit 451, where we don’t just ban books, we burn them!
Eat the Poor
Why do rich people persecute the poor?
Why do they take away their benefits, pay them shit, work them to the bone and kick them to the dogs? They take away food, health, shelter and liberty.
Why do they treat seniors so deplorably? It is shocking how our elders are so disrespected and forgotten. They deny them health care or enough money for a decent life.
And women! We are losing all our rights! The handmaidens tale is not fiction.
All the things we fought so hard to wrench from these greedy bastards hands is being snatched back.
If they had their way, we would all be out on the streets, unable to buy a loaf of bread, with only the shirt on our backs.
And they just want more and more and more and more.
Look at what CEO’s make. Look at what their employees take home. Both values are obscene. Vile. Disgusting. Oh my. Look at what Mr. Weston got for being a good CEO to the shareholders lately for Loblaws. Since he successfully overinflates grocery prices so we can’t even afford a head of lettuce, saying companies should make a profit, he got a raise from 8 million to 11.4 million! Because he was, poor fellow, underpaid. Do you believe this crap?
What does it mean to be billionaire? It means you are above the law, above reproach, even above God. You don’t even pay taxes. I pay more taxes on my meager pension. And it means everyone is totally expendable. There are always replacements.
Yes, I am pissed.
I am pissed that we don’t fight back hard enough. We worship worthless, tone deaf, idiot billionaires and celebrities. We throw money at them for their substandard products and shows. We hang on their every opinion as if they are gods. We give them positions of power to rule over us and humiliate us.
We live in a slave economy. We all work and live to provide the rich with lavish lifestyles we will never ever experience, that they constantly shove in our faces.
They shamelessly flaunt their wealth. I am sick of seeing tours of some assholes ten million dollar homes on the beachfront. Reading about their Greek vacations, and five hundred million dollar yachts. The two dozen rare collectible cars they own. The Rembrandts hanging in their living rooms. This is not to show us what we can obtain, it is to keep us hungry, to keep us in our place, to keep us dirt poor and slaves to them.