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submitted 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) by hohoho@lemmy.world to c/showerthoughts@lemmy.world
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[-] yesman@lemmy.world 18 points 1 month ago

Everyone assumes that Uncle Tom was a character like Sam Jackson's Stephen from "Django Unchained" or Uncle Ruckus from "Boondocks". The character in the book is nothing like this. In fact, Uncle Tom is an admirable character. How this man's name became a slur is more complicated than it first appears.

The weird part about reading "Uncle Tom's Cabin" is that its advocacy literature, and most of us don't need much convincing that slavery is bad. But we need this context to understand that Uncle Tom was created by a white woman to appeal to a white audience because it's his tragedy that is supposed to persuade the reader. Uncle Tom didn't fashion himself to please some master like Calvin Candy, he was created whole-cloth as a device to awaken empathy of white audience. It's not his character, it's his raison d'être.

[-] Rooskie91@discuss.online 5 points 1 month ago

This guy reads.

[-] AbouBenAdhem@lemmy.world 9 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Uncle Tom had his issues, but he was the opposite of hateful.

[-] Kolanaki@yiffit.net 6 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Swap Uncle Tom for Uncle Ruckus from Boondocks and it would be more accurate.

[-] sunzu2@thebrainbin.org 2 points 1 month ago

Half of the US population LARP being obedient dogs and they take any criticism of such behaviour with disdain.

This propaganda must that good when adults who don't benefit from this arrangement larp with such fevor.

Disgusting

[-] FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world -3 points 1 month ago

It's not half.

It's 99%. Well, 98% after ten million voters realized neither party was doing anything for them and opted not to skip a day's pay last election day.

[-] dragonfucker@lemmy.nz 1 points 1 month ago

So you decided living in a fascist dictatorship is the same as neoliberal capitalism, to within a day's pay's margin of error?

[-] FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world 0 points 1 month ago

It is, yes.

Try telling someone working 80-100 hours a week who still can't afford groceries that they're actually free.

[-] Zorque@lemmy.world 3 points 1 month ago

Try telling someone working 40 hours a week who can afford to go to Disney every year that they aren't.

The system is unfair, but that does not mean all unfairness is equally distributed. It also doesn't mean that all systems with unfairness are the same. Telling people that they are is lying to their face to try and justify your own inaction.

[-] FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world 2 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Telling people that they are is lying to their face

Democrats convinced 10,000,000 people that voting didn't matter by doing nothing about their economic suffering apart from spending three months of campaign time telling them to just be joyful about it. Of course those people chose a badly needed day's pay instead.

They told another chunk of people, who've watched their family, friends, and neighbors get bombed at will by Israel that they supported it by sending Israel more WMD's mid-genocide.

The liars are the people we elected to represent us who did an abominably shitty job. It's that simple. Will Republicans be better? Probably not, judging by their history, but for some reason no failure is failure enough to get people to change how they vote anymore. They just stop voting completely.

People don't want Nazism, Fascism, or genocide.

They just don't want these neoliberal Democrats.

[-] Zorque@lemmy.world 0 points 1 month ago

They clearly don't want to have any say in the matter at all.

No, the Democrats didn't do enough... but they're hardly alone in that. America is a country of "I want what I want, and fuck everything else". You can see it in the people who vote conservative against their own interest... but you can also see in the people who'd rather stay home than fight for something that's a little better instead of a lot.

No answer is perfect. And waiting for perfection to land in your lap so you can start acting on it is exactly what the GOP and Trump coalitions are capitalizing on.

The system sucks, but refusing to participate, or pretending you can change it by force, is only going to make things worse for you and everyone around you.

[-] FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world 2 points 1 month ago

No, the Democrats didn’t do enough

LOL

That's almost as bad as... "Dems aren't perfect, but."

Christ, I wish the Democratic Party had a shred of empathy left for workers. The minimum wage has been $7.25 for almost 20 years now, across two Democratic presidents who had control of Congress, and both made $100 billion-plus dollars appear out of thin air for war profiteers. The system gives these men all the power they need to make meaningful change, they just don't give a fuck about anyone who can't afford the $500,000 minimum it costs to buy a five-minute meeting at the Democratic National Convention.

Republicans stab us in the front. Democrats stab us in the back.

[-] dragonfucker@lemmy.nz -1 points 1 month ago

Drag ain't gonna do that, because it's not true, but drag is still gonna say living in a concentration camp is worse. Do you understand the concept of a bad thing being worse than another bad thing, or do you think all bad things are equally bad?

[-] FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world 0 points 1 month ago

Drag ain’t gonna do that, because it’s not true

Good.

We're getting somewhere, then.

[-] sunzu2@thebrainbin.org -1 points 1 month ago

Discussion here is about life in the US right now... You are telling people to cope, it aint so bad, we ain't Russia 🤡

na say living in a concentration camp is worse.

Ohh sorry... Jews and Nazis... The Old' reliable.

I guess since we aint Jews in nazi Germany, it ain't so bad 🤡

[-] dragonfucker@lemmy.nz 2 points 1 month ago

Trans people are GONNA BE Jews in nazi germany thanks to you people letting Trump become president

[-] sunzu2@thebrainbin.org 0 points 1 month ago

You are not saying this in good faith.

It is kinda tatseless to do this when in case there is a rela genocide going on too.

This American centric attitude is annoying.

[-] dragonfucker@lemmy.nz 1 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Drag is not an American. But drag has American friends who are going to die. And you have directly said, over the last few comments, that their lives don't matter. And that anyone who claims to care about whether they live or die is lying. Because you're a horrible person.

[-] sunzu2@thebrainbin.org -1 points 1 month ago

Make sure to DM me once these camps get set up. Thanks.

[-] TheFriar@lemm.ee 2 points 1 month ago

Why use that description of race? It’s the word used back then, but not today.

[-] finitebanjo@lemmy.world 3 points 1 month ago

I believe its being used in the same contextual format as it would the time period of Uncle Tom, similarly to how quotes work.

You shouldn't censor history.

[-] TheFriar@lemm.ee 1 points 1 month ago

No, but it’s a shower thought. If it were a quote, I wouldn’t have said anything.

[-] kjenney@lemmy.world 1 points 1 month ago

Most Americans are apparently oblivious to the state of affairs. The problem is the lack of accountability across the board. There are stupid policies of both parties. Taking away people's rights is no joke, though.

[-] finitebanjo@lemmy.world -1 points 1 month ago

Oof Ouch my both sides

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this post was submitted on 17 Nov 2024
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