RICH

Any new member at this time is going to set off alarms when being pushy in any way.Try Subtlety.
oh well too late

Steerpike

Trader Joe's has millions of devoted customers. A misguided petition that got a measly 5,000 signatures looked, for a short while, to be about to become the tail wagging the dog such that their witty, cute marketing approach would be changed. Why not address the specific example - how can the use of "Trader Jose's" or "Trader Giotti's" be conceived as offensive? Is 'Jose' an exotic name in Mexico? Is it 'cultural appropriation' to adopt "Trader Jose" for their Hispanic foods? Plenty of immigrants signed the counter-petition claiming the use of 'localized' names was a positive for their culture. You are basically saying we have no right to an opinion because we are not a member of the affected culture?

ddsrph

My wife is the same way and it irritates me to no end. The glass is always half full with her.

kimilseung

I have no idea why you are replying to me on the issue of Trader Joe's, I don't know which bit of "not discussing the Trader Joe's issue" caused you confusion. I don't want to get drawn in to the petty bickering over your storm in a tea cup topic du jour.
You can have all the opinions you want, but you have zero opinion on someone elses sense of being offended. You can have as many opinions on how you view their offence, but if it isnt your offence, short of climbing in to their brain, and pushing a few neurons around, you are out of luck.

Steerpike

And more recently a post that claims he caused a jet to take evasive action on arrival in Chicago by launching helium balloons!

What I don't understand is - what makes a person not only do these silly, reckless things, but also, want to then brag about them! I guess the two are related . There are several people I've encountered recently who's heads I'd love to 'get inside', to try to better understand what makes them function. We have GeniB here on BE, who seems to be a pretty-much full-on conspiracy theorist (with regards, at least, to Covid-19). I met a '5G' conspiracy theorist recently in my neighborhood in AZ - she was buying into the whole 9-yards of 5G conspiracy theories ... links to Covid-19, worldwide conspiracy to suppress the dangers, etc. I guess, as I get older, and I have more time on my hands, I'm wanting to drill deeper into these things. I guess I also want to better comprehend the thinking behind the 'cancel culture' also ...

So many weirdo's, so little time ...

scrubbedexpat091

My step family is from Mexico, and that petition has been talk of the family, they by the way are 100% on Trader Joe's side on the matter.

I had never shopped at Trader Joe's and never heard of this issue until my step family started posting about it.

Maybe its time all brands be something like this: Those familiar with Canada will understand this for those not, No Name is the generic brand of Loblaws a company who owns many grocery chains in Canada. About as generic and non-offensive as you can get.

Steerpike

I suspect most immigrants are supportive of TJ's; those making this into an issue appear to be white intellectuals who are falling over themselves to 'support' a cause they don't really comprehend.

I was personally ignoring the whole 'cancel culture' saga until I heard about Andrew Sullivan getting 'cancelled'. I have heard and seen him a number of times over the years, mainly on Bill Maher's show, and always appreciated what he had to say. This article is his farewell article at the New York Magazine, which fired him recently.

https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020...xt-friday.html

A key paragraph: "In academia, a tiny fraction of professors and administrators have not yet bent the knee to the woke program — and those few left are being purged. The latest study of Harvard University faculty, for example, finds that only 1.46 percent call themselves conservative. But that’s probably higher than the proportion of journalists who call themselves conservative at the New York Times or CNN or New York Magazine. And maybe it’s worth pointing out that “conservative” in my case means that I have passionately opposed Donald J. Trump and pioneered marriage equality, that I support legalized drugs, criminal-justice reform, more redistribution of wealth, aggressive action against climate change, police reform, a realist foreign policy, and laws to protect transgender people from discrimination. I was one of the first journalists in established media to come out. I was a major and early supporter of Barack Obama. I intend to vote for Biden in November."

The good news is, he's restarting his former 'Dish' blog - something he published until 5 years ago. I believe this is it's new or temporary home - The Dish

robin1234

That can’t possibly be true! Lots of colleges and universities are avowedly right wing. Pepperdine, Liberty University just to name two. Then there are plenty of religious affiliated institutions, many of which are relatively conservative and I’m sure have a good percentage of non-woke faculty. Just anecdotally, I worked at a typically liberal north-eastern liberal arts college and plenty of the faculty were conservative ... some very conservative. Economics Dept was a hotbed of The Austrian School for instance. In fact, there are countless conservative dominated departments, schools and institutes at US universities - how could that be, if only a tiny fraction of profs haven’t yet “bent the knee?”

Lion in Winter

A short and inglorious career. They don't make 'em like they used to.

The troll type person I mean, not you. I wouldn't dare say that about you.

Steerpike

I just re-read what he wrote, and I believe the key word here is 'of' ... "The latest study of Harvard University faculty, for example, finds that only 1.46 percent call themselves conservative. " that is - a study 'about' the Harvard University faculty .. so the 1.46 % pertains only to Harvard. Don't know if that makes it any more likely to be true ...

robin1234

I agree with your interpretation, the study was just about Harvard faculty. I used to work at Harvard, and it’s a pretty liberal institution in a historically very liberal town. But my beef with Andrew Sullivan, in the piece you quoted, is that he generalizes from that Harvard study to all US faculty.

Shard

Conspiracy theory is about simplification. Those who subscribe often can't deal with the complexity the world contains, and therefore buy into a neat 'us vs them' trope. Trump being and outstanding exemplar of such behavior.

Cancel culture is pure power grab within identity politics; itself a power phenomena rooted in modern complexity. Symbiosis.

Steerpike

This thread may be the right venue for a discussion on conspiracy theories. What is the justification / rationale, do you think, for thinking the Coronavirus is a conspiracy? More specifically, why would the Washington Post (of Watergate fame - bringing down a current Presidency, in the form of Nixon), along with similar institutions like the NY Times, The Guardian, etc - suddenly stop being 'curious' and instead side with the likes of the US Government, the WHO, the CDC, and all the various governments in the world, in some massive conspiracy to mis-inform the population of the world? That's what I want to know from the likes of GenieB, and others.

Pulaski

I have never heard of a conspiracy theory with so many laughably-absurd different branches - so not just that coronvirus is a conspiracy, but that it is linked to/ caused by 5G cell phone radio frequencies, that the wearing of masks is part of a pan-global government to make "slaves" of us, that masks are "infected" with the virus and people are catching coronavirus because they are wearing masks, and that the work to create a vaccine is just a plan to inject us with microchips to track us, not to mention that the recent shortage of coinage is a plan to force people to use card payments so that the government can track our payments.

WTF, OMG WTF, all of it! WTF?!?!?!

Steerpike

Indeed!

And of course, this isn't just "WTF in America" ... it's WTF in the World

But still ... can anyone explain why the media is supposed to be complicit in these various conspiracies? Whether it's 5G or C-19, what is the reasoning for assuming the news media would 'play along'? They have such a rich and recent history of being at odds with 'authority', as evidenced by (eg) Watergate. I just wish there was a way to engage someone in such a debate, but I can't find a meaningful venue.