I thought Las Vegas was only dumb enough to do this “Elon badly reinvents mass transit” thing, but this makes sense given my experience of Tennessee.
Tennessee is one of the dumbest places I have ever been. It isn’t that the people are inherently stupid it is that the ideas people pass around, promote and believe are dumb as fuck there. It hurt my brain being in Tennessee and I hope to never go back.
I’d point out that in the article, the city leadership hates the idea. It’s going through anyway because the Governor and state leadership are overruling the mayor and city council.
Also, I’ve never experienced as blatant racism as in Tennessee.
Texan here: I’ve never seen or heard the kind of blatant racism that I found everywhere north and east of Tennessee’s southwest corner.
I have a hypothesis on this, though. I think that the more pervasive that anti-racist beliefs are, that the more overt a racist needs to be so that they can make sure everyone knows they’re a racist. Inversely, in a place like Texas where racism is more ingrained in society, you can be quieter and assume that you’re talking to someone with racist beliefs. Then, a sort of perverse set of manners are formed where you don’t blatantly say racist things—in fact, you gasp at bald-faced racism, clutch your pearls, and call that person uncouth.
But when you pass a series of miniature racist tests, or blow just the right dog-whistle, then you get the Southern racist’s cry of approval: “this guy gets it!”
It’s kinda like how moderately wealthy people like to flaunt their money, and make little comments around poor people to prove just how disconnected they are from reality. But then, when they’re surrounded by other rich people, it’s suddenly impolite to discuss wealth.
Interesting. It was less what people said and more me realizing why we were sitting in Pizza Hutt for 1.5 hours (my wife was dark skinned). I only figured it out when 2 other groups had come and left, and we were still waiting for a pizza.
For me, it was my neighbors when I lived in New Jersey openly saying the N-word and that “the only thing Mexicans are good for is dropping off a building.”
Tennessee is a big place. It actually also has some strongly blue areas, believe it or not. As a state, it’s not worse than Alabama or Mississippi.
I believe it, Chattanooga from what I have heard is pretty cool.
Ooof if you have to compare to Alabama or Mississipi though…
Again, the humans in those places are physically the same as anywhere, it is the ideas these places celebrate that makes them such dumb places. I don’t mean there aren’t cool people, cool people are everywhere!
The problem with meeting cool people from these places though is most people have to pick their battles and when you live in an aggressively toxic society that means accepting and normalizing the toxic things that aren’t primary to the struggle between your beliefs and the society you are trapped in.
Connecting with people from these places thus often feels like walking through a pleasant, beautiful minefield.
Chattanooga is definitely cool. And yeah, there’s a reason I left the south. And I didn’t “have to compare” TN to Alabama and Mississippi, those are just easy examples. There must be 10 states worse to live in, for the reasons you specify, than Tennessee.
The point is to emphasize a collective stupidity not jump on the bandwagon of caricaturizing individuals from certain places as dumb which unfortunately is something we are all wired to find satisfying and I despise this default capacity for individualized blame and cruelty that is within all of us.
As a result I try to annoyingly remind people in my writing that most evil is a product of architecture not individuals.
The difference between the north and south in the US is that in the south the working class don’t even have the illusion of power, thus the social architecture of the south that I despise so much must be the target of my acidic criticism since blaming working class individuals just feeds into the problem and completely eliminates the possibility of solidarity.
I thought Las Vegas was only dumb enough to do this “Elon badly reinvents mass transit” thing, but this makes sense given my experience of Tennessee.
Tennessee is one of the dumbest places I have ever been. It isn’t that the people are inherently stupid it is that the ideas people pass around, promote and believe are dumb as fuck there. It hurt my brain being in Tennessee and I hope to never go back.
I’d point out that in the article, the city leadership hates the idea. It’s going through anyway because the Governor and state leadership are overruling the mayor and city council.
This is why I don’t have a problem when big cities tell the state (or feds) to fuck off.
My family lives there, and I agree. Also, I’ve never experienced as blatant racism as in Tennessee.
Texan here: I’ve never seen or heard the kind of blatant racism that I found everywhere north and east of Tennessee’s southwest corner.
I have a hypothesis on this, though. I think that the more pervasive that anti-racist beliefs are, that the more overt a racist needs to be so that they can make sure everyone knows they’re a racist. Inversely, in a place like Texas where racism is more ingrained in society, you can be quieter and assume that you’re talking to someone with racist beliefs. Then, a sort of perverse set of manners are formed where you don’t blatantly say racist things—in fact, you gasp at bald-faced racism, clutch your pearls, and call that person uncouth.
But when you pass a series of miniature racist tests, or blow just the right dog-whistle, then you get the Southern racist’s cry of approval: “this guy gets it!”
It’s kinda like how moderately wealthy people like to flaunt their money, and make little comments around poor people to prove just how disconnected they are from reality. But then, when they’re surrounded by other rich people, it’s suddenly impolite to discuss wealth.
Interesting. It was less what people said and more me realizing why we were sitting in Pizza Hutt for 1.5 hours (my wife was dark skinned). I only figured it out when 2 other groups had come and left, and we were still waiting for a pizza.
For me, it was my neighbors when I lived in New Jersey openly saying the N-word and that “the only thing Mexicans are good for is dropping off a building.”
Oh shit
Tennessee is a big place. It actually also has some strongly blue areas, believe it or not. As a state, it’s not worse than Alabama or Mississippi.
Isn’t that about as bad as it can get?
I believe it, Chattanooga from what I have heard is pretty cool.
Ooof if you have to compare to Alabama or Mississipi though…
Again, the humans in those places are physically the same as anywhere, it is the ideas these places celebrate that makes them such dumb places. I don’t mean there aren’t cool people, cool people are everywhere!
The problem with meeting cool people from these places though is most people have to pick their battles and when you live in an aggressively toxic society that means accepting and normalizing the toxic things that aren’t primary to the struggle between your beliefs and the society you are trapped in.
Connecting with people from these places thus often feels like walking through a pleasant, beautiful minefield.
Chattanooga is definitely cool. And yeah, there’s a reason I left the south. And I didn’t “have to compare” TN to Alabama and Mississippi, those are just easy examples. There must be 10 states worse to live in, for the reasons you specify, than Tennessee.
I’m curious what you call this, if not inherently stupid?
The point is to emphasize a collective stupidity not jump on the bandwagon of caricaturizing individuals from certain places as dumb which unfortunately is something we are all wired to find satisfying and I despise this default capacity for individualized blame and cruelty that is within all of us.
As a result I try to annoyingly remind people in my writing that most evil is a product of architecture not individuals.
The difference between the north and south in the US is that in the south the working class don’t even have the illusion of power, thus the social architecture of the south that I despise so much must be the target of my acidic criticism since blaming working class individuals just feeds into the problem and completely eliminates the possibility of solidarity.