I was in a retail store, waiting in a long line with only two cashiers on duty. After an interminable period of not moving, I put down the hand cart I was carrying because it was fairly heavy as was starting to stretch my arm. The aisle was narrow, but I was observing the six-feet social distancing rule still in place, and I was not expecting any trouble from the couple that was in front of me engaged in animated conversation. Suddenly the man of the couplet decided he had something else to do, and without looking where he was going just turned around and bull-rushed past me, knocking over the hand cart and crushing a few items underfoot.
Now, I was annoyed by the fact the line wasn’t moving and I had places to go and things to do too, but if I decide to make a move elsewhere on the fly, at I would at least be aware of my surroundings and make sure there were no “obstacles” in my way (like other people), especially if it means inconveniencing someone else or causing destruction. My immediate reaction was to tell this person “Will you watch out!” His reaction was merely to acknowledge that something was in his way, and then to be annoyed that someone was miffed by what he had done: so what, what was the big deal? His wife, who was still in line, reiterated his “point”—if anything was crushed, just go get another one, as if anyone was going in the growing line was going to “save” my place.
Frustrated by their unapologeticness about what had just occurred, trying to turn it around on me, I started to say “You guys” and then was cut off by both demanding to know what I meant by “you guys.” Momentarily confused by the question I wondered “What?” Note I did not say “you people”; when someone uses the word “guys” it is just an informal and normally inoffensive term to apply to either sex. But this situation was not “normal,” because these two people were black, as was almost everyone else in that line.
They thought they “had” me, but not quite. I asked the man “Ok, so what do you want me to call you?” This time, I had them. They were stumped by question, and not receiving an answer I observed that I was “sick” of people who are always trying to a make a race issue out of everything. The man then made the usual of threat of taking this “discussion” outside so that he lay a beating on me; his wife told him to just go because I was being “anal.” I’m the one who is being “anal” I asked, before observing aloud that “this your answer to everything, just beat on someone.” Everything went quiet after that. Nobody else had said anything at all; it was just taking a deep breath and stepping back like the Colorado Rockies organization was forced to do, withdrawing a statement the other day which announced its “disgust” at racial slurs by a fan at a black Miami Marlins player, admitting upon further investigation that the offending fan was actually just trying to get the attention of the Rockies’ mascot, “Dinger.” I mean, if “Dinger” sounds too much like the “N” word, then they should change it.
Now, I am not unmindful of “anger” that dwells inside of some people; Ralph Ellison begins his novel Invisible Man with the black narrator imagining himself beating an anonymous white man on the street simply because he feels his humanity is not being recognized, and thus he is “invisible” in eyes of most white people. But that is simply not true today, and if anyone whose humanness is “invisible” these days, it is anyone who is or looks “Mexican,” which is the reason why these people felt they had a “right” to abuse me.
People like me recognize hypocrisy and ignorance more than most. I was told when I was old enough to remember that I was like “everyone else” in the almost all-white neighborhoods and schools I existed in. I believed my parents (my natural father I never knew, but he did leave his "mark" on me), but eventually you wonder why nobody was interested in being my “friend” after they reached “puberty” because, you know, I wasn’t suitable company in anyone’s “social class.” But perhaps in a way being by myself all the time actually helped me survive this world of illusion. When I joined the Army and encountered all these people who were not white at close quarters for the first time in my life, I just kept my social distance from everyone, because that was easy for me to do, and so it wasn’t easy to make accusations against me. Of course, there were some people who took my social distancing “personal,” but I remember one person telling someone else that I was “OK” because I was “everyone’s friend,” when of course he was just being “ironic.”
Things have changed a lot since I was kid; society was more ordered in the “natural” way things. But times change, and just about everyone is full of shit these days, and power is sometimes put in the hands of people who misuse and abuse it. Being a “loner” also helps when dealing with females with “attitude,” since it allows me not to deal with them at all. Of course, I don’t deal with men all that much either; I’d just rather write and watch movies. Unfortunately there are times when I have no choice but to interact, especially with people who as children were taught “stranger danger”—and especially adults who as white children were taught to “beware” of people who did not look like them: they were “BAD.”
Of course in this country there is nothing that can get a man into trouble faster than any accusation that has something to do with s-e-x. Unlike, say, murder, robbery, drug-dealing etc., there is no “trial” to determine guilt or innocence, let alone a presumption of innocence. The only “evidence” required is someone’s “word” that they were “offended,” and today it is so easy of offend people in this country, because they want and are looking to be offended.
While there is a “feminist” movement in Europe, the level of “wokeness” is limited by the fact that unlike in this country, people really don’t have a problem with sexuality. For example, Europeans are more comfortable with public nudity, at least in places where it is “acceptable,” like public parks and beaches; it has nothing to do with “sex,” it is just people feeling more “comfortable” in the buff. That obviously is not the case in this country. When I was in the Army way back when, I “qualified” to join a select group from the brigade to participate in a live fire exercise on the Greek island of Crete (out of the 13 “teams,” mine was the only one to receive a “go” rating when it was over, which at least made the lieutenant happy). For “fun” we went hiking in the Samaria Gorge, because previous groups had been “bored” with trips to the Minoan ruins, which is what I would have preferred to do.
We also had time to visit the
beaches with their clear blue Mediterranean water—and the other “sights.” I
have to say that Americans can act so stupid, but whose fault is that really,
coming from a country where sexuality and the body is something that must be
hidden from view—and for many women in the “woke” and “MeToo” era, there is no
“pleasure” to be had in it, because it’s a “crime” against their “dignity,” or
whatever. Hell, you can get into trouble
just by making the first “move” if the woman chooses to be “offended” by it. There have been many female heads-of-state in Europe, so one may presume that a society that isn't caught up in anti-sex gender "wokeness" hasn't harmed their ability to advance the "natural" way, not the "shaming" way.
The relative lack of “wokeness” in Europe—the German women gymnastics team at the 2020 Olympics is an exception, although perhaps they need to redesign their full-body leotards given the fact they helped them win exactly 0 medals—can be explained by such “disturbing” realities such as the fact that "puritanism" never took hold there; it was just "deported" to the American colonies. Thus in Europe, prostitution is legal and regulated; in the Netherlands, it is a storefront operation that hardly anyone notices anymore, just like the use of cannabis. Over here in this new “woke” period, women who engage in the sex trade are always portrayed as “victims.” In Europe, clubs and bars in some places don’t just have rest rooms, but “sex rooms,” where young adults who still live with their parents can find a place to engage in their natural proclivities without being "scolded" or "shamed."
I’ve already talked about the hypocrisy of “woke” Seattle, where they have statues of nude male figures (including one some accuse of promoting “pedophilia”), while that of the female form is banned. In Europe, nudity is not generally viewed in sexual terms, especially in the north; some people just feel more “comfortable” without any clothes in settings that don’t require it. Nudity is allowed on network television after a certain hours (nudity is not uncommon in British “adult” dramas—those scenes were just “cut” when shown on PBS). Thus in Europe nudity has been “desexualized”; in this country, nudity is not “normal,” but only something that occurs only in the context of “sex.” Even in American movies, the simple acts of taking a shower or changing clothes is meant to “titillate,” because that is how Americans have been “programmed” to treat sex and nudity—not as a “natural” function of living. In this day and age of radicalized gender politics, it is something that is programmed in people to see as a “danger” or a threat to their “self-worth.”
I have to deal with the ignorance of people every day whose “wokeness” is of a limited, self-obsessed variety, from people who are too dumb to see someone who is a college-educated male who served in the military, not some sex-fiend, drug dealer or car-prowler. Women especially; I can’t tell you how many times in my current night job when some female tenant who never saw me before (and vice versa) just randomly shows up, and then the next day I am told that they have to move me to another location—not because of anything I had done, but because I made the woman “nervous” by just being there—and its always because of the paranoid stereotypes concerning males of my supposed “ethnicity.”
Life is short, so why bother with such people? Of course it is easy for someone like myself who is “wired” differently than others. I have never shared living accommodations with another human being since I left school, haven’t interacted with anyone I felt any particular “personal” need for, and have no stomach for “drama.” I just spend my time writing and indulging in my large film collection. Thus I have the freedom to say what I want because my personal experiences tell me it is true, and because nobody can accuse me of having done something to their person that “offends” them. That’s how I deal with this “woke” world: just stay away from “woke” people.
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