Speak of the Devil

Just yesterday I blogged about how subtle condescension is everywhere, and wouldn’t you know it, today a prominent example is in the news (embedded below).

I cannot fathom how in this political climate any candidate can even distantly skirt racial overtones like this. I wouldn’t vote for Hoekstra now if he, well, even if he promised to put a permanent US space station on the moon.

Hoekstra's running in my home state. He told WJR radio it’s “probably the best ad of the political season.”

Story➚: Pete Hoekstra’s China ad provokes accusations of racism

Video:
Pete Hoekstra's Racist Attack Ad Against Debbie Stabenow

I wrote to Mr Hoekstra. He promptly wrote back and thanked me for my support.

I'm a Republican and Michigan resident. I'm married to a Chinese immigrant. You lost my vote. The oddest part about all this isn't that you endorsed this ad, but that you are so proud of it. You won't admit your insensitivity because there simply aren't enough people shouting loud enough to matter. If you can't debate the issues without invoking racial stereotypes and fears, you don't deserve the office.

Started: 2012-02-06

Subtle Condescension Is Everywhere

Obama’s Google+ Hangout: Google Angers Potheads, President Won’t Dance a Jig, Miranda Miller, January 31, 2012➚

On the surface, you probably aren’t even aware that you’d already formed an opinion about potheads before reading this story. In fact, you probably had an opinion a long time ago.

 

This use of the term says much more about the author, Miranda Miller over at Search Engine Watch, than the group she describes. (And its acceptance says a lot about us.) Most readers will shrug at the reference if confronted by it. I’d wager most won’t even understand what the fuss is all about, even after reading this post. They will understand the substance of it; they just won’t care.

But humor me for a brief moment: The call for decriminalization or legalization of some drugs has been championed by the likes of William F Buckley, Jr. I don’t use drugs, never have, not once, but I share the same opinion.[1] With a little Googling➚, you’ll find there are many prominent people and groups with sound reasons for decriminalization; it is a thoughtful and reasonable conservative response.

Unfortunately, any group that fails to collect enough respect from enough people can be the object of tacit condescension. We read right by it because it’s endemic, just as we did racial slurs 60 years ago, or homosexual humor 30 years ago.

When you finally reach a point where you can confront condescending language even when you don’t understand why it’s offensive, then you can stop it where it’s the most painful, when it targets color and gender and sex and religion.

If you solve for the pieces, you’ll solve for the whole.

[1]
I’m also not gay but support gay rights and gay marriage. I’m not poor but support social programs that assist the poor. I’m not Jewish or Muslim but support rules that protect their freedoms, as I hope they would mine.

The saddest part at the end of an essay like this is that most folks will shake their heads and say “Criminy, now someone wants me to care about potheads’ feelings? Give me a break.”

No, there’s something even sadder: That an industry devoted to how words are processed by people and search engines know so little about words.

Started: 2012-02-02

Mayberry Challenge: You’ll feel like you’re 300 lbs tyring to run a 4-minute mile

The Challenge:

Give up traditional media for a week and listen only to WPAQ, The Voice of the Blue Ridge in Mount Airy, NC[1]➚. Listen to every bit - the preaching, the blue grass, the obituaries, the high school sports scores, the church pot luck announcements - everything. You can still get weather and news and whatnot from the web, just stay away from traditional media. (This assumes you spend most of your working day at a desk where you can do this, or have a Wi-Fi radio available.)

Then:
Turn on your local news or favorite cable outlet.

Prediction:
Your ears will get exhausted just listening and you’ll feel like you’re 300 lbs trying to run a 4-minute mile. But very soon you’ll develop this niggling appetite for more, and you’ll consume more, until you’re fat and lazy with empty facts and dull satisfying noise, and you’ll feed yourself again tomorrow, and the next day, until you again ask yourself why the hell you’re on someone else’s treadmill.

I’ve tried to give up traditional TV. I spend some time watching TV shows from my youth, like Kojak, Quincy, Bob Newhart, and I listen to books now rather than read them[2], and take in at least one OTR episode at night, maybe two if they’re short, and depend on PBS, NPR and WPRR➚ for most of my news and science. But I’m still drawn to CNN and MSNBC for news and opinion, especially as we ramp up to an election.

[1]
Mount Airy was Andy Griffith’s home town. Some of The Andy Griffith Show is based on his boyhood memories. I’ve never been there, but plan to. My Dad visited, got his hair cut at Floyd’s Barber Shop. Judging by WPAQ, the town has retained its values, despite TV Land’s attempt to turn it into a shrine.

[2]
Rework➚ by Jason Fried and starting The Exorcist➚ by William Peter Blatty (n beautiful stylist).

Started: 2012-01-18

Why Radio Doesn’t Work

That was the title of the January 30, 2012 Monday Morning Memo from Roy H. Williams, The Wizard of Ads®; he was referring to radio as an advertising medium, not as a hobby or passion.

I read his Monday Morning Memo pretty regularly. He is a wonderful writer with a Zen-like approach to what is often more hocus pocus than science.

Listen to the entire memo here.➚

Oh, and the reason(s) why radio doesn’t work?

“Bad radio ads fail because they say nothing of consequence to the listener. Good radio ads fail because they are scheduled to reach too many people with too little repetition. Radio scheduling decisions guided by a consideration of Gross Rating Points are virtually guaranteed to reach too many people with too little repetition (frequency.)” (Source➚)

Started: 2012-01-30

Streaming Coast to Coast AM During the Day from Guam

Azeliea, over at my KD8OSB blog➚ (which I stopped maintaining) said she was having trouble streaming Coast to Coast AM out of Hagåtña,[1] Guam on K-57➚, KGUM2 570AM. K-57 carries it mornings Eastern Time; it ends about noon if I recall correctly.

I’ve been spending a lot of time with WPAQ➚ in Mount Airy and it’s been a few weeks since I tried K-57, but I tried again and didn’t have any trouble.

I link directly to the K-57 stream with Chrome. Try it yourself:

http://radio.securenetsystems.net/radio_player_large.cfm?stationCallSign=KGUM2➚

However, recently, I haven’t been able to enjoy Coast to Coast in a work environment. The musical segues (called “bumps” in the industry”) are too long, too loud, and too distracting. And I can’t seem to enjoy George Knapp at all, who hosts many Sunday nights (Monday mornings if you’re streaming K-57). I miss Art Bell.

[1]
Pronounced [hə-ga:’-nyə]
ə is pronounced like the u in hut, but is not stressed; a colon after a vowel in my background indicates length. Guam is a US territory. Except for place names, K-57 sounds very much like any US radio station.

Started: 2012-01-30