September 10, 2019

"The President is a white supremacist, and white nationalist domestic terrorism is at an all-time high in America, but sure, let’s totally celebrate one of the whitest shows in the history of white America..."

"... with an extended interactive experience that allows you to pretend that one of the country’s most diverse cities in America is actually all white, and also get a photo op with … a recreated set of the fictional coffee shop with a couch that was only ever available for said six friends to sit?...  Like a bajillion other people, I watched the show off and on throughout its 10-season run, and I even liked some of the episodes, appreciated the chemistry of the cast, thought the writing was strong, and found moments of its comedic timing to be absolutely impeccable."

I'm reading "Why 'Friends' Is The Wrong Show To Celebrate In The Trump Era" by Rebecca Carroll (in Gothamist)(via Instapundit), and I've got to stop and be irked that Carroll didn't link to anything at "moments of its comedic timing [are] absolutely impeccable." Come on! It's got to be the way David Schwimmer says "paste" in the line "They're still not coming on man and the lotion and the powder have made a paste!"



Notice that the leather pants are black. Ross attempts to overlay his whiteness with black skin — a kind of blackface (or, more accurately, blackleg). He becomes emotionally overwrought in what can now be understood as a sort of racial panic. He is not a black man and yet he has presented himself within blackness. He calls another white man who directs him, disastrously, into whiteness — white lotion and white powder. But the lotion and the powder have made a paste!

He is stuck — pasted! — within whiteness, like the show itself, endlessly, hopelessly white!!

I can't imagine how I'd feel if writing racial critique stuff was actually my job. It would be very hard to keep a grip — maybe paste would help — on what is serious and what is ridiculous. I went back to Gothamist to figure out if Rebecca Carroll is someone who got educated in racial studies and is therefore somewhat forced to write essays like "Why 'Friends' Is The Wrong Show To Celebrate In The Trump Era." And here's the ad Gothamist had for me:

168 comments:

gilbar said...

and white nationalist domestic terrorism is at an all-time high in America,

I'm Pretty Sure, that; by What Ever standard you care to use.... White nationalist domestic terrorism Peaked in the mid '60's. Several HUNDRED THOUSAND Americans KILLED
Hard to pass That all-time high.

Thank GOD that there were men like Sam Grant, Billie Sherman, and Phil Sheridan to lead us out of those terrible days

Skipper said...

Wouldn't it be fun to be a fly on the wall of this crazy's therapist's office?

Sebastian said...

So, progs, what has Trump said or done that makes him a "white supremacist"?

Rocketeer said...

How do people who think this way, who view EVERYTHING in the world through this lens, make it through the day? That's not rhetorical - I really wonder.

CJinPA said...

If you haven't caught on yet: "racism" is being swapped for "white supremacy" wherever possible. Because all groups can be racist, the word is not useful in politics. Only white folks can be white supremacists, and of them, only the Bad Whites.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Yay leftwing bullshit!

Lucid-Ideas said...

You can't deny that 'race' appears to be a trend right now. But trends change, and in America they change quite quickly, and at a growing geometric rate I might add.

Am I alone in wondering what these people will look like in 10, 20, 30 years whenever the bottom comes out of the tub on this trend?

I mean, it's already quite pathetic. What is the terminal velocity on pitiable-ness?

Scary...

Bay Area Guy said...

Rachel & Ross are white supremacists!

Shouting Thomas said...

Why is everybody so bitchy?

We're living thru a golden era of economic boom, zero unemployment, massive consumer surplus, eating till you're so fat you can't walk and incredible technological and medical innovation.

Most of the trouble in this world is caused by people wanting to feel important, T.S. Eliot.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

I do love that innocent Hillarywoodlanders are now considered racist... because white skin.
All the actors are probably dedicated loyal democrats.

Not good enough!

CJinPA said...

"Rocketeer said...
How do people who think this way, who view EVERYTHING in the world through this lens, make it through the day? That's not rhetorical - I really wonder."

It's political. If you think of it that way, that they're just functioning as political operatives, it makes sense. Which means they don't really have to believe what they're doing. Shaping narratives is what they're paid to do.

Fernandinande said...

She a mulatto.

henry said...

my eyes are rolling like in a Looney Toons slot machine eyes sequence.

Mattman26 said...

On a more important point: Joey is the best.

Freder Frederson said...

White nationalist domestic terrorism Peaked in the mid '60's. Several HUNDRED THOUSAND Americans KILLED

I'm confused. Are you saying that the Confederacy was indeed a terrorist state? Then why do you defend all the memorials to it?

The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...

A classic piece of needling the zeitgeist, Althouse. They’re totally going to stand you against a wall.

traditionalguy said...

The propaganda for white skin guilt is as absurd today as it always has been. It is only code for hating the USA and the Brits like the Mexicans pointing out evil Gringos and Japs pointingout evil Gaigin. The new factor is that since George Soros and Hussein Obama did their dirty work the enemy propaganda that seeks to defeat the USA has had Official Government Approval.

robother said...

"White nationalist domestic terrorism is at an all-time high in America." I guess getting lynched by the KKK between 1870-1930 was nothing compared to having a full-time job and being forced to watch Friends.

Fernandinande said...

And here's the ad Gothamist had for me:

Should the mulatto authorette wear striped pants?

NotWhoIUsedtoBe said...

All time high?

More than the 1960s?

More than the 1870s?

Do we have to entertain obvious lies?

mccullough said...

Sounds like the writer is a What’s Happening fan. That was The Black Friends.

Beasts of England said...

’The President is a white supremacist...’

Skip an entire article using these six simple words!

gilbar said...

Freder Frederson said...
I'm confused. Are you saying that the Confederacy was indeed a terrorist state? Then why do you defend all the memorials to it?


you ARE Confused! I'm gilbar; i'm from Iowa, and i'm Proud of my 3 Great Great Grandfathers that SHOT at the people those memorials represent. You've NEVER heard Me defending those Traitors

Kevin said...

let’s totally celebrate one of the whitest shows in the history of white America...

I thought this was going to be about the Brady Bunch.

Michael K said...

Most of the trouble in this world is caused by people wanting to feel important, T.S. Eliot.

What we have here is a lack of important causes. The Vietnam War was a valuable cause because you could raise hell and break windows and feel virtuous. Then it ended and the NVA acted as expected by everybody but the left.

Now what ? Global Warming ! An ideal cause because it is impossible to alter. Also, the fears are projected way into the future. It will be a good cause for decades. You don't have to worry about a solution appearing. When polio was cured,"The March of Dimes" had a crisis. Now what ? The dog had caught the car it was chasing. What next ?

A Triumph ! Birth Defects ! A new cause that will never be solved and forced us find a new cause ! Global Warming is just that sort of cause.

gilbar said...

Here Freder, let me diagram it for you, to aid you in your confusion

Democrats==Slave Holders==Confederate Traitors==Terrorists
See the original problem? It's on the left side of that equation (naturally)
Get rid of those, and you get rid of america's problems

tim maguire said...

Hate-clicks pay the bills just like any other kind.

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

This weird anti-white fetish that progressives have is starting to annoy me. Even KKK members are less focused on race and class than these marxist mobies and their juvenile urge to turn journ-o-lism into emo art. In fact I saw an article yesterday about a black clues musician who meets with white supremacists to try and disrupt their worldview and convert them to normalcy. For this, Antifa protested outside his event and called him a white supremacist. Just like they are calling the Easy Rollins author Mosely one, despite the fact he's black.

These people are insane. That they reveal their diseased souls in print and glory in it really bothers me. Please please bring back the loony bin and put these people where they can't hurt themselves and America.

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

Uh, "black clues musician" should be "Black Blues musician" and I regret the errors.

Rick said...

White nationalist domestic terrorism is at an all time high? So lynching just wasn't that big a deal after all?

What a pack of fools.

tim maguire said...

gilbar said...
Here Freder, let me diagram it for you


Freder is a troll. Don't make the mistake of thinking he actually gives a crap about anything he posts about or the person he purports to be responding to.

Leland said...

Heck, when Obama was linked to a domestic terrorist, the guy actually served time for setting off bombs, yet was welcome in Obama's home.

Fernandinande said...

like you rich old fat pasty ones...

I'm not rich.

Rick said...

Freder Frederson said...
I'm confused.


You're not confused. You're so excited over the opportunity to attack people you hate you can't keep your assholeness from leaking out.

Nonapod said...

Like a bajillion other people, I watched the show off and on throughout its 10-season run, and I even liked some of the episodes, appreciated the chemistry of the cast, thought the writing was strong, and found moments of its comedic timing to be absolutely impeccable

The younger Millenial/Gen Z love of Friends is an interesting phenomenon to me. That people who were either super young or weren't even alive when the show first aired have such a love for it somehow feels a little sad to me.

I believe I watched the first 2 or 3 episodes of Friends when it first hit the airwaves sometime in the early 90s and I never watched it again. I vaguely remember I thought it was just OK at the time, but in fairness I had other interests beyond TV back then. Given so little exposure to it such a long time ago I can't honestly comment about it's writing or the chemistry of the cast or comedic timing.

But it's pretty obvious that this writer enjoys the show and is feeling guilty over liking something so clearly irreverent in what they imagine to be such a serious time. This is another example of the absurdly puritanical viewpoints of the Church of Social Justice. You mustn't enjoy things too much, especially things created by and about good looking white people. It is sinful. You must only enjoy content that is officially Woke.

Kevin said...

Step 1: Find out what Americans like.

Step 2: Point out that most Americans are white.

Step 3: Tear it down as racist and loved by white supremacists.

Step 4: Repeat.

bagoh20 said...

There should be outrage - outrage that the Reconstruction ruining, Jim Crow creating, anti-civil rights voting, KKK making, party of slavery is still around. And come on Black people! Look at the history of the party you vote for. How the hell do you do that? How do you shame the memory of your ancestors who gave so much so that you could live in the greatest country in the world. The party that freed them, fought to make them whole voting citizens is right here, still trying to free you from the Democrats who want you under their thumb. Stand up for yourself, and be part of what your terribly wronged ancestors wanted and deserved, - freedom! The freedom they wanted was specifically freedom from Democrats - the party of slavery, then and now.

Francisco D said...

I love these kinds of articles. They point out the intellectual vacuousness of the New Left better than I could ever hope to do.

Wait! This op-ed is not from the Babylon Bee, is it?

Char Char Binks, Esq. said...

Maybe we shouldn't watch TV at all, or use anything else invented by whites.

Seeing Red said...

This is just whacked out thinking. Who knew who would be president when the 25th anniversary rolled around? So what?

Tina Trent said...

The stories mostly write themselves:

Man Cursing Trump and Blasting Gospel Music Smashes Charging Bull Statue With Banjo.

bagoh20 said...

Racism must be a universal constant. It seems to always be there, manifest in some people with a desire to hate others based on skin color. The more race matters to you, the more racist you are, period.

rehajm said...

White nationalist domestic terrorism propaganda is at an all-time high in America. We need Obama's voters to reject Trump despite all the great economic things he's done for blacks and minorities. We haven't figured out yet how we're going to reconcile this with the sour old white woman who faked her ethnic heritage to get ahead we're running but we'll worry about that later.

Kevin said...

Thank God the Brady Bunch was filmed "In Color" and proudly marketed as such.

That's probably what moved them down the list a bit.

Qwinn said...

To believe that everyone and everything is racist only requires two things:

1) Awareness of one's own significant racism, and
2) An unshakable belief that you are better than those other people.

Beasts of England said...

Great point, rehajm - a white woman faking another racial identity for personal gain has to be peak white nationalism.

bagoh20 said...

It seems that voting for the first Black President must have backfired. Like most people, I actually thought it would help, but in hindsight, we should have known better. We still needed to have a Black President, but we should not have expected it to change hate-filled hearts. Like life, hatred ah, finds a way.

wendybar said...

I don't think they realize how ridiculous they sound....and ARE to even think this way.

Anonymous said...

I can't imagine how I'd feel if writing racial critique stuff was actually my job. It would be very hard to keep a grip — maybe paste would help — on what is serious and what is ridiculous. I went back to Gothamist to figure out if Rebecca Carroll is someone who got educated in racial studies and is therefore somewhat forced to write essays like "Why 'Friends' Is The Wrong Show To Celebrate In The Trump Era."

Well uh, yeah. Is there anything in this "professional PoC" genre that isn't ridiculous? There's nothing interesting about the content of yet another "racial critique" article produced by some intellectually sub-mediocre navel-gazing neurotic. Why are people still even bothering to engage with this "white privilege" and "white supremacist" crap? Still puzzled about what such crude, transparent, propaganda is trying to say?

Of mildly more interest is "who's paying to pump out this crap, and why".

NCMoss said...

I was able to get through Ms Carroll's dismal piece by imagining a laugh track and a slide whistle at the good parts like, "I’m still relatively aghast at how the only black and brown people seem to be the folks selling coffee and danishes.." wheeeoh!

Bushman of the Kohlrabi said...

I've calculated the numbers on "black nationalist domestic terrorism" and have determined it's at an all time high. Everyone I don't like should be held responsible.

Shouting Thomas said...

I thought Althouse was fed up with the Trump obsession.

rcocean said...

Friends don't let Friends watch Friends.

rcocean said...

If Trump is a white supremacist, than 47% of the USA is "white supremacist"
Perhaps we should start calling Ms. Carroll an anti-american traitor.

Bushman of the Kohlrabi said...

Still puzzled about what such crude, transparent, propaganda is trying to say?


Orange man bad?

rcocean said...

For some reason the Center-right is always supposed to take all these insults and not fight back. We're the ones always concerned about "the country holding together" etc. where as the liberal/left just keeps up the hate, in every way possible. Even when discussing TV shows.

Tina Trent said...

"Who's paying to pump out this crap?"

Why, you are. Gothamist is part of the NYC public radio station. So you pay for it with your tax dollars.

Mazeltov.

rcocean said...

A bet a lot of white undergrads love to take "Racial Studies". And hope they meet a tall, dark, handsome man.

Bobber Fleck said...

Don't worry, it's going to be all white.

Leland said...

This tells me the writer's life is miserable as they are just lashing out at fantastic demons. It also tells me the three guys on the show must have not harassed their coworkers or that would be the article. Still, I didn't watch the show then (I didn't watch any show then as I went through the 90s mostly without a TV by choice) and I'm not interested now.

Anonymous said...

Bushman to me: "Still puzzled about what such crude, transparent, propaganda is trying to say?"

Orange man bad?


White man bad.

Or, slightly more on point, "die whitey die".

Shouting Thomas said...

@Fen

Althouse is the proprietor of a weblog.

She’s not your mommy.

Deal with your mommy issues elsewhere.

Ann Althouse said...

Okay, Fen, you're on the permanent shit list now. Everything you post will be deleted. I am no longer reading anything under your name.

As it says above the compose box: "If you see that your comments are always deleted, get a clue and find somewhere else to write. Once you've fallen into the always-deleted category, there is no way to get back out, and to continue to try to comment is to harass me."

Ann Althouse said...

Let's get back on topic. Please comment on the original post.

Kevin said...

Please comment on the original post.

I think this comes under the tag, "What's Racist Today?"

Because those in power are using charges of racism as their primary weapon to remain in power.

Kevin said...

it won't be long until water is racist.

A. It's colorless.

B. A lot of people of color can't swim.

Seeing Red said...

When someone tells you they intend to kill you, believe them.

traditionalguy said...

Friends are the best of the shows. The different personalities are all realistic and are all accepted for what they are. That is Tolerance on display. So this writer who tolerates absolutely nothing wants that witness removed.

Once written, twice... said...

Ann, it is embarrassing how you are constantly creating these “us white people are the real victims” posts. But I guess you need to feed your Althouse Hillbillies their red meat or otherwise they will stray from your porch.

Kevin said...

Notice that the leather pants are black. Ross attempts to overlay his whiteness with black skin — a kind of blackface (or, more accurately, blackleg). He becomes emotionally overwrought in what can now be understood as a sort of racial panic. He is not a black man and yet he has presented himself within blackness. He calls another white man who directs him, disastrously, into whiteness — white lotion and white powder. But the lotion and the powder have made a paste!

There is only one thing left for Ross to do.

Run for governor of Virginia as a Democrat.

doctrev said...

Letting a truly ludicrous black woman yell that Friends is a white supremacist broadcast is hilarious, mainly because it doesn't affect me in any way. I can quote entire Seinfeld skits years after realizing that those people were all truly irredeemable psychopaths, yet I might be able to remember about five episodes of Friends. But the show clearly means a lot to white women, especially suburban white women, so maybe they'll be pressured into the usual racial grievance mongering. Or maybe they'll not only vote for Trump, but become so intolerant Andrew Anglin tells them to chill. There might be a white supremacist somewhere with a more vicious and obsessive personality than the average American woman after being spurned, but I certainly wouldn't want to meet him.

What I find interesting is how many intellectuals insist on discussing the febrile imaginings of people who don't even rise to the terribly low standard of affirmative action. Blog commenters are often more impressive than credentialed writers, and I'm struck by how many times I end up reading commenters more than the blogs themselves. We don't have to put up with Rebecca Carroll's insane nagging, and mockery is really the only way to address their complete lack of talent or authority to order around the American nation.

Kevin said...

I'm reading "Why 'Friends' Is The Wrong Show To Celebrate In The Trump Era" by Rebecca Carroll (in Gothamist)

It's not really the show that's wrong. It's the Trump Era that makes it so.

The message is: If you like your Friends, you can keep your Friends. But only if you vote Trump our of office.

Otherwise we're going to stand here in the supermarket of life throwing a tantrum!

Not an oldster. said...
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Kevin said...

Imagine you loved the show so much you got your hair cut like Rachel.

Then you realized how difficult it was for POC to get that hairstyle.

You should spend your entire life atoning for something like that.

And you'd probably never really come close.

Roughcoat said...
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doctrev said...

I'd argue that drama is MORE likely in Friends threads than anywhere else, Not an Oldster. Epic hits like Friends and Undertale attract large communities, and more importantly they tend to attract large SUB-communities like furries, Internet spergs, and women who regard their clique's views on the show to be Concrete, Certain Dogma. And in every Internet community, you get outsized personalities who may enter conflict. There are ways to cool down even raging flame wars, but I'm not being paid enough to get involved.

Kevin said...

Jesus Fen.

When everybody says you're drunk, sit down.

Fernandinande said...

I will now happily copy everything I post here to repost 10 times over every time you delete it.

Then you're an asshole. This isn't your blog.

Bruce Hayden said...

It is getting bad. But it shouldn’t be unexpected. We know that this is the official pivot from Trump Russian conspiracy, after that blew up at the Mueller Report and Congressional hearing, to racism. A bunch of almost lily white leftist swine and media operatives creating a constant drumbeat that Trump and his Deplorables are racists, and enforcing it with their almost lily white Anti First Amendment (AntiFA) fascist thug brown shirts.

Of course, almost everyone here knows which is the racist party, and has been for two hundred years. The party founded by slave owners, that went to war to preserve Black slavery, fought Reconstruction, imposed Jim Crow, with AntiFA’s predecessors, the KKK, reimposed segregation of the federal government, opposed the Civil Rights Acts of the 1960s, and then destroyed the Black family through welfare dependency. These are the people calling Trump and his Deplorables White Racists. Must not have any mirrors in their houses.

n.n said...

Diversity and political congruence (PC). Rabid diversity including color supremacy. We should probably stop their progress before they start lynching people... persons rationalized by social justice (i.e. appeal to empathy).

Fen said...
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Kevin said...

If only Joey and Chandler had a Malcolm X poster in their apartment, all of this could have been avoided.

Fen said...
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Roughcoat said...

Someone call a cab for Fen. And a father-figure.

Dust Bunny Queen said...

I've never seen the TV show Friends. From what I can glean (not garner) from the reviews and clips that are on YouTube, it seems to me just vacuous and kind of stupid story about people that I would avoid IRL. Like the Big Bang Theory, which I also have only seen a couple of episodes. The laugh track is obnoxious and the characters just seem ridiculously stupid.

However, if everyone else likes it, and finds it funny...that's cool.

How is is a symbol of whiteness or racism seems to be pretty much a big stretch. However, everything is racist today it seems so....whatever.

Anonymous said...

Fen, the niche for the resident touchy, self-absorbed bitch who's always generously instructing AA on how to improve her style, her content, and herself, is already filled.

Fen said...
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Fen said...
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Michael said...

How long, Oh Lord, must we suffer this plague of idiots?

(Referring to the Gothamist article....initially.)

Fen said...
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Fen said...
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stever said...

If HRC had been elected, the Democrats long history of racial wrongs would continue to be ignored. Its as if Trump created it, and promotes it.

Sadly many people aren't being real or honest.

Fen said...
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Fen said...
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Fen said...
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Fen said...
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Fernandinande said...

My Mom would kick me out of the basement if I posted like that.

Nonapod said...

Blog commenters are often more impressive than credentialed writers, and I'm struck by how many times I end up reading commenters more than the blogs themselves. We don't have to put up with Rebecca Carroll's insane nagging, and mockery is really the only way to address their complete lack of talent or authority to order around the American nation.

I really find that many blog commenters here and elsewhere are far more insightful than the vast majority of TV pundits and professional political opinion writers for newspapers and news websites. It's remarkable how evidently low the standards of quality are for political commentary in the professional media.

Bay Area Guy said...

Darn, I like Fen.

But I don't understand or agree with attacks on Althouse. She's the fairest, most even-handed, most insightful moderator in the blogosphere.

Back to the issue:

There's a lotta Chinese In China.

There's a lotta Mexicans in Mexico.

There's a lotta whites in America.

Anyone confused by this is pretty stupid. It's just demography.

Char Char Binks, Esq. said...

"Hillbillies" is slur used by Blacks when they don't want to come out and call wypipo "honkies". Know the code. Those people also tend to lack the acuity to distinguish between a Rockefeller and a Kentucky coal miner -- they all have guilty white privilege, and they're all hillbillies, to iggners.

Francisco D said...

Fen,

Your ranting is turning people off. No one is reading those posts.

Chill.

Rick said...

The younger Millenial/Gen Z love of Friends is an interesting phenomenon to me. That people who were either super young or weren't even alive when the show first aired have such a love for it somehow feels a little sad to me.

Maybe it's the first show they've ever seen that wasn't specifically designed to push a left wing political message so they don't have to spend every second searching for the thoughtcrimes they'll be quizzed on later. Who knew such a thing existed?

Ken B said...

I have seen a number of good blogs go down the tubes over the years because the same thing keeps happening. The owner enforces the rules only against his critics. Fen needs to cool down, but Fen is not the only pest, nor the worst pest.

mockturtle said...

Goodbye, Fen. I always enjoyed your posts, although I think you are out of line here. But I also believe Ken B @10:25 is right.

Ken B said...

Nonapod 10:19
I sometimes wonder if those low standards are actually high standards. It is not easy to relentlessly deny or ignore the obvious every time you speak, without giving the faintest hint through your face or voice or body language that you understand. It’s like actors who play idiots on TV shows, Ted Baxter for instance. That is hard to do so perfectly.

Bill Peschel said...

The answer to "how long will they keep this up" is "forever."

They have to fan racial hatred because they -- by that I mean Democrats, pseudo-Republicans, the media and other institutions -- have nothing else.

The unelected have been exposed as hacks and they want to keep their jobs. So they have to fight back as Google / Facebook / Twitter / YouTube keep silencing unwelcome voices.

Once we're silenced, their voices will widen the echo chamber they live in.

That's why we have to fight back. Talk back to these idiots who want to divide us and keep them from their rightful roles as the aristocracy.

Fen said...
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doctrev said...
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jaydub said...

Seeing racists and/or white supremacists in every social or political transaction and then jacking up the hate to 11 has got to be the most exhausting and depressing existence. I don't know how these leftist swines keep from committing suppuku.

Ralph L said...

Was Ross always such a wuss?
It was ludicrous that the pants would be stuck at his knees.

Imagine if Ben Carson had won some early primaries in 2016.

Does anyone else remember the Benny Hill interview in leather pants on a leather sofa?

Roughcoat said...

Is he gone yet?

The Crack Emcee said...

Once Phoebe and the girls made Ross apologise to a cat (for suggesting it wasn't her reincarnated mom) I was as done with it as the rest of NewAge.

Fen said...
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I Callahan said...
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Amadeus 48 said...

We went to the new William Blake exhibit at the Tate Britain today.
Ta-nahisi Coates has fried brains on several continents
Out of thousands of images of the human body in the exhibit, the curators managed to accuse Blake of exploiting the black body because once, when he was relatively young, he took a job illustrating a book about a slave revolt in Suriname. There are probably a thousand images of white bodies in the exhibit, but no notes claiming that Blake exploited the white body.
Needless to say, Blake was a visionary (perhaps to the point of hallucinations) radical and was deeply opposed to slavery.
This white supremacy/racism stuff is nonsense of the first order.

gerry said...

You're so excited over the opportunity to attack people you hate you can't keep your assholedness from leaking out.

Leaky assholedness may be caused by frequent penetration of the asshole with large objects, or with frequent, vigorous, penetrating sexual activity.

JaimeRoberto said...

Saying that Friends represents white people strikes me as a microaggression. I can't stand that show.

gerry said...

For some reason the Center-right is always supposed to take all these insults and not fight back. We're the ones always concerned about "the country holding together" etc. where as the liberal/left just keeps up the hate, in every way possible. Even when discussing TV shows.

It REALLY pissed progs off when the white people they'd been hating for so long finally got uppity enough to vote their own interests.

Now they are campaigning to get even more Trump.

Tomcc said...

I had to look this up:
Gothamist is a website about New York City news, arts and events, and food, brought to you by New York Public Radio.
I know nothing about that to which she's referring, so I assume that she's sharpening her skills in order to attract a job offer from the NYT. Proving her bona fides.

Ann Althouse said...

"Once Phoebe and the girls made Ross apologise to a cat (for suggesting it wasn't her reincarnated mom) I was as done with it as the rest of NewAge."

Glad to see you, Crack. I do think you're making a mistake here. Phoebe is a comic character, who believes many things that the audience isn't expected or encouraged to believe. In this episode, Phoebe is grieving for her mother and she latches onto a cat, imagining reincarnation. What's real is the grief and the hope, and that's what Ross is responding to. It's about caring and relationships and that's what we're encouraged to believe in.

With the cat as a comic device, we see Phoebe working through her feelings and letting go of her dead mother.

Ross takes a stand for rationality: "You can’t tell me you actually believe that there’s a woman inside that cat!" And then later when a lost-cat poster shows there's a real little girl who lost the cat, everyone realizes the little girl's interest must prevail. It's Ross who has to tell Phoebe about the little girl. Phoebe says the cat "choose to find me" and "I have to respect her decision." Ross says: "Enough is enough… I am sorry that you feel guilty or whatever about spending time with your new mom, but this is not your old mom. This is a cat! Okay, Julio the cat! Not mom! Cat!"

Phoebe says Ross has never lost a parent and doesn't "know what it feels like when one of them comes back.... I believe this is my mother. Even if I’m wrong, who cares? Just be a friend. Okay? Be supportive." That's what the show is about: being a friend.

Ross says he's sorry that he doesn't know what else to say. Rachel, the mediator, says that he could "say you’re sorry to her mom." Phoebe accepts that solution. And Ross gives his friend what she needs. He talks to the cat: "Sorry, about what I said. It was insensitive of me to say that you were just a cat. When clearly you are also the reincarnated spirit, of my friend’s mother." He says what he knows is wrong, because he understands that it will work, and he has reached the deeper level of rationality— the reality of other people's feelings.

Yancey Ward said...

If I picked out 4 white people living in Manhattan at random and watched their non-work lives for one year, how many black friends would I observe them interacting with? And, for me, this wouldn't be an entirely hypothetical question as I have 2 college friends who live in Manhattan in the same area that Friends is set in.

Ralph L said...

We don't know if rhhardin's romcom formula works when a mother/cat is substituted for the girl. A manly man would have apologized directly, then abused her for robbing a child of her pet. Or the other way 'round.

Sam L. said...

Just ONE of the many TV shows I've never watched.

William said...

I have watched a fair number of Friends' shows. I think the problem is that there's no product placement for political correctness. As I remember, there was one character's mother or father who had a sex change operation. It was played for laughs. There were no surrounding plot points about how unfairly the transgendered are treated. Unforgivable. It is incumbent on sitcoms to instruct us in how be be better and more tolerant people, i.e. someone whom the writer approves of.....It's getting so that the absence of political correctness is treated as being politically incorrect. The reboot of Friends would need a gay couple, a mixed race couple, and a cis white couple who will be appreciably dumber than the other couples.

Skippy Tisdale said...

"I think this comes under the tag, "What's Racist Today?""

IMHO, "Today in Racism" rolls of the tongue better.

Michael K said...

Just ONE of the many TV shows I've never watched.

I finally began to watch a series show back in the 90s. It was Northern Exposure and the office girls said I had to see it. I watched a few episodes and they cancelled it.

It was pretty good although it started to get weird the last season. The writers usually run out of ideas.

Rory said...

"That was The Black Friends."

Living Single was the black Friends, and not a bad sitcom.

Friends has become a target because it's the most popular streaming show even though it's been out of production for 15 years. The woke folks have to level it so that woke shows don't look quite so pathetic standing next to it.

Qwinn said...

Everything Ann just said to Crack re: that cat episode just made me want to agree with Crack more.

Qwinn said...

If your "working out your feelings" and "dealing with your grief" over a dead parent involves imagining your dead parent's spirit is inhabiting a cat and forcing a friend to lie to spare those feelings, and progress you may feel you made in "dealing with your grief" is false and illusory. You clearly haven't worked out anything dealing with reality, you've just escaped it. And all her "Friends" did by encouraging Phoebe's mental illness is harm her. Pretty much exactly what liberals are doing to transgenders, in fact.

Bruce Hayden said...

“I finally began to watch a series show back in the 90s. It was Northern Exposure and the office girls said I had to see it. I watched a few episodes and they cancelled it.

It was pretty good although it started to get weird the last season. The writers usually run out of ideas.”

Really did like it. Inner city Jewish doctor fresh out and paying off his medical school debt by practicing family medicine in rural Alaska. The ultimate problem was that he started to acclimate.

gilbar said...

It was pretty good although it started to get weird the last season. The writers usually run out of ideas.”
THIS is the advantage of the mexican telenovela concept of tv shows.
An american show goes on and on, with no end; as long as its rating hold up.
A mexican telenovela goes for ONE YEAR (5 days a week, so the equivalent of 4-5 years for us)
Since THEY KNOW the show WILL end, every episode works TO THAT END.
When they reach it: It's DONE! Then, the next Tuesday, a new show starts.

If Friends had KNOWN that they would be done in 5 years; The show would have ended the first time that Ross and Rachel admitted that they were in lovey love love. The END
Few american shows can keep the writing going for more than 3 years; because they HAVE to Avoid the WHOLE POINT of the show (what ever that would be), because they can NEVER reach that, or they'd be out of story. In telenovelas; That's the WHOLE POINT

If Big Bang Theory was a telelnovela, it would have ended THE First Time Penny admitted that she loved Shorty. Instead; they got together, broke up, got together, got married, didn't have kids, then had kids. COME ON PEOPLE! WE DON'T HAVE ALL DAY!!

Bay Area Guy said...

I never got into Friends. Thought it was boring, a bit superficial, even though I was kinda sorta the same age as those characters at the time. (Is that possible? Friends's first episode - 25 years ago!).

Compared to today -- Friends is practically like a tv version of Citizen Kane. There is so much woke crap on TV, ya can't even watch it. Today, Friends would be banned or boycotted for not being woke enough, and for perpetuating racial stereotypes.

Rory said...

"If Friends had KNOWN that they would be done in 5 years;"

Shelley Long has been pilloried for years because she left Cheers after five years in pursuit of a movie career that disappointed. By leaving, though, she left Sam and Diane as the only on again/off again sitcom couple that wasn't wrecked by endless twists and turns of plot.

SeanF said...

Nonapod: The younger Millenial/Gen Z love of Friends is an interesting phenomenon to me. That people who were either super young or weren't even alive when the show first aired have such a love for it somehow feels a little sad to me.

I believe I watched the first 2 or 3 episodes of Friends when it first hit the airwaves sometime in the early 90s and I never watched it again. I vaguely remember I thought it was just OK at the time, but in fairness I had other interests beyond TV back then.


This younger generation had the advantage (so to speak) of being exposed to clips of the show from the entire run before deciding whether or not to invest in watching the whole thing. They didn't have to watch the first few episodes and try to guess if it was going to end up being worth their while or not based solely on that.

Darkisland said...


"The President is a white supremacist, and white nationalist domestic terrorism is at an all-time high in America, but sure, let’s totally celebrate one of the whitest shows in the history of white America..."

I think "white supremacist" would be pretty much synonymous with "racist". Earlier I asked for some examples of how PDJT is a racist. I've been asking that question since he announced and people started throwing it at him. I never get an answer. Closest I've gotten is that he wanted to ban a small percentage of the world's muslims, the so-called "Muslim ban", that he has said bad things about some Mexicans or that he is trying to control Mexican and central American illegal immigration.

Mexicans, central Americans and Muslims are not races. I guess one could make an argument that banning some of them is evidence of white supremacy but it seems a pretty slender reed.

Anyway, my question about how PDJT is racist seems to have gotten hit by the banhammer. Doesn't seem like it was offtopic given the first words in the post headline but it's not my decision.

So let me repharase the question, how is PDJT a white supremacist? I just don't see it myself. All I see is constant repetition asserting that he is.

Anyone have an explanation of how he is a white supremacist and/or racist?

John Henry

Seeing Red said...

Northern Exposure when they flung the piano. That was a fun series.

Seeing Red said...

Catapulted the piano.

John henry said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Michael K said...

Anyone have an explanation of how he is a white supremacist and/or racist?

The people making that accusation consider white people to be smarter and that is unfair.

It has nothing to do with what white people think.

todd galle said...

My wife and I were married in 89, and had kids by the early 90s, and not much money. These sit-coms, Friends, Seinfeld, Northern Exp, and the David Lynch thing sailed us along for quite a while. I don't think we imparted any racial component to any of it, easy relaxation for a young mother, and the plots weren't so convoluted I couldn't continue my reading. The present always wants to malign the past it seems, based on today's leftist values. If they're looking for something to complain about, look at 'Good Times', but that was on Carter's watch, so hush.

PM said...

The absence of gays in The Honeymooners makes METV unwatchable.

Gospace said...

bagoh20 said...
Racism must be a universal constant. It seems to always be there, manifest in some people with a desire to hate others based on skin color. The more race matters to you, the more racist you are, period.


Lot of truth there. In the USA the average white, on an average day, doesn’t think about race or skin color at all. Of course, it’s also only in the USA that you have this amorphous group of people lumped together as white. In Great Britain there are Welsh, English, Scottish, Irish, and even Cornish and a few others. None of them are French and don’t dare mistake any one of them for Greek. Spain is falling apart because different groups of Spanish (which we in the USA can’t tell apart) apparently dislike each other. And there really aren’t any Belgians, there are Flemish and Walloons But any one of them sets foot in the USA and the race baiters declare them white.

Blacks in the USA have a similar problem. In Africa, every Black is a member of a tribe - and American Blacks don’t fit in. And Jamaicans I am led to understand when they immigrate hate to be lumped in with American Blacks who they look down upon.

And after posting this, I’ll go the rest of today without thinking about race or skin color at all, unless I come back to read more comments.

Darkisland said...

Blogger Gospace said...

And Jamaicans I am led to understand when they immigrate hate to be lumped in with American Blacks who they look down upon.

Not just Jamaicans but pretty much all blacks who did not come to the US as slaves. Blacks from Africa, Haiti, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico other Caribbean islands. Doesn't much matter whether they are English speaking or not. Other than Puerto Ricans, who got sucked into the same welfare plantation as blacks, they do much better economically, educationally and culturally than African-American blacks.

This is even though they have extremely brutal slavery (compared to just really brutal American slavery) in their backgrounds. Almost all blacks who came from the Caribbean. Many who came from Africa though a much smaller percentage.

John Henry

tcrosse said...

Trump needs a wise-cracking Black sidekick. After all, white people in pharmaceutical commercials always have Black friends. Just so long as he doesn't play it like Rochester.

Martin said...

It must really suck to be Rebecca Carroll--so stupid, living in an unreal dystopia that only exists in her mind and the minds of a handful of other people who suffer from borderline personality disorder, unable to enjoy anything because everything causes political offense. I can't even imagine what it must be like to be her.

I hope she finds the help she needs.

Michael said...

Darkisland:

Easy. Assuming you are White how many times have you awakened to lament that you were not born black. Does any White person? Any? Ergo White Supremacy. If you are in favor of a country with borders you morph into a White Nationalist. The language has adapted to insure that you, not just DT, are all of these bad things. And it is rude to point out that Mexicans and Muslims are not a race. Racist.

Bruce Hayden said...

“If Friends had KNOWN that they would be done in 5 years; The show would have ended the first time that Ross and Rachel admitted that they were in lovey love love. The END”

For a lot of them, it is the sexual tension. It’s over when the main actors all get married to each other. We are binging right now on Castle, but we know that when Beckett and Castle finally get married, it is al but over.

Amazingly, soap operas in this country run for decades. I think that some of them are into the third generation of characters. And they routinely replace characters by having them go off to take over the business in Europe or even die, and when they come back, months or years later, they have a different actor(ess) playing the part. The way that they can keep things going despite them marrying each other all the time is that, as my partner claims, they change sex partners as often as the rest of us change our underwear, and marriages almost as quickly. The main characters have enough money that they can go to work when they want to, can have sex in the idle of the day if they want to, and then scoot off to Europe for Fashion Week on their private jets.

Sebastian said...

"Ann, it is embarrassing how you are constantly creating these “us white people are the real victims” posts."

"Ann"! Don't be embarrassing! Get with the program! Submit to your progressive superiors! Understand that you, too, are racist! Yes, you, "Ann"! You can't hide. But you can do penance: don't do white, agree with POCs, vote prog. Otherwise, you remain embarrassing, and racist, and way too white.

Rory said...

"Just so long as he doesn't play it like Rochester."

Rochester was brutal to Benny.

Rabel said...

Althouse said:

"I went back to Gothamist to figure out if Rebecca Carroll is someone who got educated in racial studies and is therefore somewhat forced to write essays like "Why 'Friends' Is The Wrong Show To Celebrate In The Trump Era."

Here it is.

Rebecca's life story in her own words.

She's lived a life of mistreatment by the white people who adopted her and the racist bastards at New York Magazine, Vanity Fair, The New York Times Magazine, Esquire and Elle who could not see the brilliance behind her sort-of Black face.

It's a sad, sad testimony to the hopelessness Africans have faced in this wretched land since it origin way back in 1619.

Also, Fen, you're bothering me. Go away.

tcrosse said...

Heil Boris!

Narr said...

I'm DEFINITELY a white Supremacist! Nobody will ever top Diana and gals, y'all.

Narr
How about those Fraser boys, now?

ccscientist said...

the only logic in calling Trump a white supremacist is that he doesn't want open borders and it is brown people who are pouring across the southern border QED. But that is a false equivalence. Enforcing our border laws is the exact same thing every other country does. Try to just walk into any country and see what happens--kick you out they will. Put you in jail they might.
It is also interesting that it is even harder to prove you are not a white supremacist than it is that you aren't a racist.

h said...

Replying to Gospace and Darkisland at (about) 2:30 pm. I am intrigued with this point of view, and don't necessarily disagree. But I have two questions: (1) Jamaicans (or blacks from the West Indies generally) were also brought to the Americas as slaves. So why have their experiences (Colin Powell, for example) been so much better than 20th/21st century "blacks in the US" who are descended from slaves who were brought to the US? (2) Why is Obama (who is not descended from anyone who was a slave in the Americas) regarded as an "authentic African American"? related to question (2): in my local sci/tech selective public high school, the valedictorian or salutatorian or other highly awarded graduating students are often students with Nigerian names.

MadisonMan said...

Because Ross' predicament could never happen to a black dude? Is that the argument I can infer?
It seems like Carroll is viewing things completely through a peculiar lens.

Ralph L said...

h, I think one answer to (1) is that we get their most energetic, ambitious, and/or intelligent citizens.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Birkel said...

To understand this article, you need to know two facts:

More than 22% support for Trump from blacks.
More than 45% support for Trump from latinos.

Steven said...

"The President is a white supremacist, and white nationalist domestic terrorism is at an all-time high in America,"

Yeah, sure, when it comes to making piles of corpses, the First (1870s) and Third (1950s/60s) Klans have nothing on a couple of random lunatics.

Gunner said...

Drop little Becky in Mogadishu and I bet she would sound like a bigger white supremacist than David Duke.

john said...

gaga

Kirk Parker said...

"We still needed to have a Black President"

The heck we did! Rather, we need to have a President. Full stop. The sooner we stop pushing people into classes, the better.

I would have gladly voted for Colin Powell over whoever the eventual D candidate was, but NOT because he was black.