I said at some point that the goal is to work harder or smarter than the guy behind you. It’s true that we do need waitresses, and if a person is happy being a waitress for their whole life, I’ll try not to make a judgment call, but they don’t have to be if they don’t want to be.

The difference between the TV view and my perception is the difference between saying that the poor are too stupid to do anything right and saying that the poor are people who have not (to this point in their lives) managed to outshine others for a better position. It has to do with competition, and right now they’re behind. It doesn’t have any barring on their intelligence, or even their ability. At any given time there are people who are living in poverty while going to school, or building a skill set that’s going to ensure their success later on.

The TV makes it seem like poverty is something that happens to dummies, and all the idiots watching these dummies on TV can feel superior to them and think that they don’t have to continue to work hard to try to be better. It creates a false sense of job security.

I also don’t blame people whose lives suck for not wanting to eat cheap oatmeal (your suggestion) or barley soup (a suggestion that crops up every time anyone has this discussion–just make a huge pot of bean soup and eat it for every meal!) for every meal every day of the week.

To Marina: The entire nature of our economic system means that not everyone can get an education. Not everyone can get a good job. There are only a certain amount of good jobs to get. Sometimes the five bucks an hour job is the only one there is. Our society is not one in which everyone can succeed, regardless of how hard they work or how educated they are. We need waitresses and janitors and cashiers and gas station attendants and factory workers to, you know, make the world fucking run, and those are not occupations that pay well, but sometimes those are the only jobs available. There are not an endless amount of well-paying jobs that everybody could have if only they got off their lazy asses and went to school.

Re: Wonder Woman, I kind of hate the new backstory, because why the hell would you get rid of her being raised by Amazons in a matriarchy? That’s what makes her so awesome! I can see how her not living up to what you think she should be as a product of that society would be disappointing, but that backstory itself is what so many people find inspiring about her, including you. I agree with you that the new outfit sucks, though–her old outfit is so iconic. Batman and Superman have both gotten costume redesigns over the years, but they’ve never been reduced to just wearing pants and a t-shirt, basically. They got to keep their iconic superhero images, and it pisses me off that WW doesn’t get to.

Cunnilingus very very good, racial profiling very very bad.

To add to what you were saying about illegal immigrants being afraid of cops, even if you’re a citizen and you’re of color and you witness a crime, you’re *still* not going to want to call the cops because you’re going to end up getting interrogated for an hour about your right to be in this country, just because you were a good fucking Samaritan. I agree with you–this policy, both in Arizona and the check in your neighborhood, isn’t about citizenship. It’s about making people who don’t fit other (racist) people’s idea of “American”, regardless of their citizenship, feel unsafe and unwelcome. So just know, I care. The police force in YOUR country is making you feel unsafe because of your race and where you live, and that is not fucking okay.

Re: the banality of evil and what you’re saying about how shit like this doesn’t happen in America–I think that actually plays into the first part. Because this is America! Things like this don’t happen here! So that deportation must be legal, that imprisonment must be justified, that papers check must only be targeting criminals, etc. etc. etc.

It’s possible that you recorded this a few days ago, but for what it’s worth, the blogosphere *and* journalists are reacting against the Arizona law, Obama has denounced it and the White House is looking for grounds to challenge it, an Arizona sheriff has refused to obey the law and it’s likely that other law enforcement officials will follow. So people are aware and are actively fighting against it there. As for what happened to you, yeah, I had no idea it was happening until you posted about in on Facebook, and I’m sure a lot of other people didn’t, either. See again the above paragraph, “shit like that doesn’t happen here and so this must be a one time thing/totally justified/etc.” which I’m sure is why people reacted the way they did in your comments. I immediately connected it to the Arizona law, though, and with your additional details about your neighborhood being primarily Mexican, it absolutely sounds like law enforcement taking advantage of racial profiling being legalized in other states to do some over here.