Deep in the Heart of Racism

So I found a picture of a map of skin color by region.

I thought it was a really cool map. And then I saw this comment:

Which, I do agree that racism is awful, but is it really based on skin color caused by melanin? Is racism actually the bias of one skin color over another, or is that a side effect of something bigger? If all people had the same color of skin, would racism cease to exist?

You might say, "Of course it's more than just skin color. It's called RACism, which means it's the preference of one race over another, and there are many things that make up a race: skin color, region, culture, language, etc." Which is true, but the bias of a skin color is so closely associated with racism that it's practically accepted to be the same thing. 

People say, "You hate them because they're black! or because they're white!", but you don't really hear African or European. Yes, you do hear Hispanic and Asian, but I think that is because it's weird to call someone yellow or brown. Not socially weird, just like it literally sounds weird. Like calling someone orange or pink. 

I think skin color gets too much attention for racism. I don't think the main reason the Europeans decimated the Native Americans or enslaved the Africans was because they looked a bit different. Yes, it was definitely to get richer, but I think the way they rationalized was telling themselves that because their culture was so different it was worse. And I think that is what is really the basis for racism: culture difference.

If you look at African tribes, both now and in the past, there is a lot of tribal fighting. And it's not just turf wars, it's basically small scale civil wars. And, I'm not an expert, but I'd imagine a big reason for these civil wars is hatred of the other peoples based on their differences. Looking at this chart, the skin color of most Africans is very similar, so it doesn't really make sense that that would be the basis for racism.

Anyway, that's basically all I had to say. Probably obvious to most people, but I figured I'd write about it.

White men marrying black women? Disgraceful!

Speaking of others complaining (in my last chasmatic post, obviously), let's switch it over to something more fun: Society changing for the worse.

Gay marriage is the hot topic of our era, so I figured I should take a swing at that. If you're asking me, I'm for it. I believe that "All men are created equal" and that "All people are endowed with a certain set of inalienable rights" includes the right to marry whomever you so desire.

Yes, it's not biblical or moral, but is being an asshole on the list of morally correct things?

For this post, let's assume there are no morals. Nothing is absolutely right or wrong, nothing is relatively right or wrong. Let's just look at it from more of an unbiased approach (obviously it won't be unbiased, but it's close, so shut up.)

Things in society change (fashion, morals, recreation, whatever), but the behavior of society doesn't.

Now: People discriminate against sexual orientation, and rebuke their parents for being racists.
50 years ago: People discriminate against race, and rebuke their parents for being sexists.
100 years ago: People discriminate against sex, and rebuke their parents for owning slaves.

Do you see where I'm going with this? Do you think society is any worse off now than it was 50 or 100 years ago? Because, if so, we should take away all rights of people who aren't European men.

No, of course you don't want to do that, because it would be stupid. So why is it any different now? In 50 years, our kids will look back on us like we were morons.

So stop being so goddamn homophobic and let men marry men and women marry women. I highly doubt it will affect your life at all, and it will make them much, much happier.





Bottom note: Yes, I understand the irony in complaining about people complaining. Shut up.

Forget the future; Let's live in the past.

I hate all articles/blogs/vlogs/rants/broadcasts/smoke signals that complain about how "this generation is so much more [negative adjective] than the last one." Most of the time that isn't true. Unless you're talking about something there is actual data on like amount of hours spent working or amount of people with cancer, it's probably just bullshit.

Most of the time the rant starts off "Kids these days are so [adjective]. Back in my day, blah blah blah." Yes, I know, not all of the people making these claims are 80 year old men yelling at people to get off their lawn, but their claims usually sound pretty similar. It's always about how people are so much more of something or so much less of something than they remember people being some time ago.

This isn't people changing, it's just you not remembering correctly. You probably don't remember people being that way either because A. It was a while ago and you don't remember it too accurately, or B. You were younger and didn't notice things like that.

The most famous of this type of rant is "This generation is so much lazier than my generation."
1. You raised this generation. It your fucking job to make it productive and useful.
2. Your generation was most likely just as lazy when you were as old as this generation is. The fact that you have to work now and they don't is probably what you're mistaking to be laziness. The other reason might be that when you were their age was a long time ago, and you don't quite remember it as it really was.

So stop complaining. If your generation made it through life, the next generation will as well. Just because technology might be a little different, doesn't mean society has gotten any worse.

You Only Live As Much As You Want To

I found a great comic somewhere about how we can live more than once. If you're to lazy to click the link and read the 15 panel comic, then I'll sum it up for you:

It's often said that mastering something takes about 7 years. If you live to be 88, after age 11 you have 11 opportunities to master something different. Each time you master one thing, that is one life. With each new thing mastered comes new experiences, new people, new sights, which is like living a different life each time. This means you aren't limited to just one life. You can live over and over and over again.

I've been thinking about this a lot lately, and I really like it. I don't want to do one thing for the rest of my life. I want to be one of those people you hear about who worked on fishing boats and drove trains and piloted planes and a whole list of other odd and interesting things.

My big problem with college is it kinda limits what you can do. No, it doesn't actually set any boundaries of the jobs you can work, but it does psychologically. You study in one field for quite a while, just so you can work in that field for even longer. You're basically convincing yourself that you will work in that field for the rest of your life. And I don't like that.

Now, I'm not saying it's bad to do one thing for 50 years. If you love your job and still want to work there; great. Do that. I'm just saying I don't want to do one thing forever. Even hobbies aren't enough to fill my wanderlust.

Top bottom note: If you haven't heard of Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal, you should definitely check it out. It's a hilarious webcomic that I quite enjoy.

Bottom bottom note: I don't know why I keep basically apologizing for what I say toward the end of my chasms. I really don't care if I offend you. Maybe I do care what you think, but I tell myself I don't. Hmmm. That's a puzzler.

Student Counsel

Disclaimer: In this article, like in everything else, I will assume I know everything about the subject at hand. Get over it. Also, this is all just my theory. I literally came up with it 10 minutes before writing this.

Student council (stuco, for those of you who aren't hip, aka me) isn't as great as everyone in student council thinks. Now, I'm not saying that the people in stuco don't do anything, or that stuco is a waste of time, it isn't. Stuco does a lot for their school, but it's mostly just labor work.

Stuco kinda ruins the people who are in it. The people who run for student council are hard workers who believe that they are good leaders who can do something for their school. But the problem is (at least with private schools; not sure about public ones) the people in stuco are only allowed to make small decisions. They get to decide what to wear on spirit days, but there are still so many restrictions its not even funny. You have to wear a shirt, it can't be sleeveless, and shorts have to be so long.

People in students council are basically low grade brain washed. I'm not gonna say how much this brain washing affects the people after high school because I honestly don't know. I'm going to say it does affect them enough to be a problem. The people in stuco are told they are able to make big decisions for their fellow students, and that they should lead them well. But then the staff of the school restricts their authority. The staff doesn't let stuco decide what the students are allowed to do, they just give them a small list to choose from.

My theory is that this is ruining our future leaders. The people in stuco believe they should be leaders, and usually run for leadership positions after school. But the schools are giving the stuco members a false belief of what leadership is. They're telling the students that if you are a leader, you can't control full scale what people can and can't do; you only get a small amount of control. This means that the students in the future might not make the decisions they should, just because they don't believe they have the power to. This means only people cunning enough to realize how much power they have will use it to their full extent. I believe this is why dictators and leaders who rose to power aren't necessarily smart, but are more clever.

I'm not saying the schools are wrong for limiting what stuco gets to do, if they didn't, schools would be in anarchy basically. I'm just saying that they shouldn't hype up what stuco is. Schools shouldn't label student council members as the leaders of their grade, but more as the labor force driving the school forward. Yes, it doesn't sound as appealing or heroic, but it is more realistic.

Let's Uninvent the Wheel

I'm not sure what the big deal is about wheels. Everyone thinks they're the bee's knees. But I don't think they're so great. Yes, they get you places with less effort than walking, but that's only on flat land. Anything other than that, and wheels are basically a waste of time. 

You don't ever hear people say "Yes! Now I can finally be in a wheelchair!" Why? Because wheelchairs are a burden. If you have to go uphill, it's so much work it's not even funny. And even a single step can make a building wheelchair inaccessible. 

Animals don't have wheels for legs for a good reason. Nature is not wheelchair friendly. The ground is very rough, and often not hard enough for wheels to sit on; they sink in. 

Legs are where it's at. (Yes, wings are really sweet, but you have to build your whole body around them. Birds often have the same shape, while mammals, reptiles, and amphibians come in all sorts of different shapes and sizes.) Legs can accommodate for almost all terrains. Mountains, deserts, forests, beaches, you name it. Legs can take you anywhere. Plus, each joint of a leg only has to move about 110 degrees, while a wheel has to move 360n degrees.

So I say screw wheels. I want to see cars walking around.






THIS AD BROUGHT TO YOU BY THE ANTI-WHEEL ADMINISTRATION of AMERICA.

The Bully Police are a bit One-sided

Let's make one thing clear: There is more than one degree of bullying; I'm going to address three. I believe everyone experiences in some form all three.

The first degree is the most harmless degree, but still I hear it get a bad rap. This type of bullying most people wouldn't even call bullying just because it has little to no effect on anyone. It's when you make fun of your friends' hair cut or fashion sense. You both laugh at the joke, and no one's feelings are hurt. Even with this type of bullying clearly being a form of affection, I still hear people call it harmful and practically attempt to get it banned from society. I don't understand it. I'm all for this type of bullying, and frequently use it.

The second degree is kinda fifty-fifty. It can be harmful, it just depends on who is the receiving end. It's when you insult the people you don't really know or with whom you aren't friends. You probably don't mean to make them sad or angry or ruin their day, you just dislike something about them and decided you should tell them. I personally don't have a problem with this, but I understand why people would. People can say practically anything to me and I brush it off relatively easily, so I don't care when people insult me. But I know not all people are like me, and tend to take insults to heart, so I understand why people lecture that insulting others is wrong and shouldn't be a part of our lives.

The third degree is the most dickish degree. This is the type of stuff you hear about on anti-cyber bullying commercials. It's the type of shit that makes people so depressed that they kill themselves. Obviously I doubt most people intend for the recipients to commit suicide, but they're none the less assholes. It's the type of bullying where people comment shit like "Look at this fag" or "Go kill yourself" or whatever. And I know you hear about anti-bullying campaigns like this all the time, but that's only because comments like this show up all the time. "It's just a joke. They're overreacting." Yeah, it might be a joke to you, but not everyone has your sense of humor. The Internet isn't your clique at school or work where everyone understands every inside joke you have or every little mannerism you have. A lot of people might make jokes like that, but that doesn't mean everyone understands it's a joke. So, unless you know the person you're making the comment to will take it light-heartedly, just shut the hell up.

And now let's look at the part of the anti-bully campaign you never hear about.

If you're the one receiving comments like any of the ones above, do not take it personally. If you don't know the person making the comment, you should not care what it says. If it's a compliment, great. Let it feed your ego. But if it's anything derisive, don't let it bother you. If they say what you made or what you did sucked, don't stop doing that thing, but keep doing it. 1. You'll get better at it, and 2. They probably won't comment the same thing twice, so the problem is gone. People are way too sensitive, and it's ridiculous. No, I'm not saying this generation is more sensitive than the last; no, I'm not saying that we should all become racist, homophobic assholes. I'm just saying don't pick a fight over every little thing. Not all battles need to be won; not all conflicts need to be duked out. Just let it go.

So yes, there are assholes on the Internet who need to learn to shut up, but you also have to realize that, like the Lernaean Hydra, for everyone one jerk that learns to be quiet, two will come to take his place, so learn to accept that there will be people who say stuff you won't like, and just ignore it.

Well, that was my rant for the day. Thanks for listening.

Shit that was a long chasmatic post.

Years suck

Years are pretty much the worst thing ever. They are just one day off being perfect. Let's analyze:
     
        1. The amount of days in a month changes from month to month.
         
        2. There aren't exactly 52 weeks; 52 1/7 weeks in fact.
         
        3. There are 4 seasons, but 365 isn't divisible by 4, so the number of days in each season isn't even.

        4. 365 is 73 x 5
              That means, to have an even amount of days in each month, you'd have to have either 73 months with 5 days, of 5 months with 73 days. Both suck.
         
        5. 364 is 2^2 x 7 x 13
              Which would mean 52 weeks of 7 days, 13 months of 28 days, and 4 seasons of 13 weeks. Yes, you have an extra day left over, but how hard is that to squeeze in? Just add it to the end of the year or something. Even with that day left over, this system is still much neater than it is now.









Bottom note: I'm thinking of calling this a chasm. No specific reason, I just enjoy the word. Not absolutely set on it, yet. We'll see.

Introduction

[Fresh Prince Theme] Here's a little story all about how I got a blog: I wanted to start a blog, so I did.

Why I got a blog: 

I figured a blog was like an extended version of Twitter, I use Twitter a lot, so I got a blog. Simple.

What this blog will be about: 

Literally anything that comes to my mind. If I find it interesting, it will probably end up on my blog. If you don't like that, don't read my blog. But that doesn't really matter since no one will read this anyway.

Side note: I hate the word 'blog'. Hate it. It disgusts me. I'll probably think of another word to replace it, but for now I will call it "Big Twitter".

Also, shouldn't this be a bottom note, since its at the bottom of the post, not the side? Just a thought.