This virus would actually just go away if everyone would wear masks for the next four weeks. And keep proper social distancing. So simple. so effective. It’s criminal malfeasance that the president won’t promote this idea. 2020 is hindsight (think about it).
I actually have bigger fish to fry--my wife had a knee replacement on June 22nd, and it broke the next day, had to have a second surgery and now she is bed ridden--PT is coming today, oh boy, more pain. But she got a new kidney last June, and so is immunosuppressed--so the virus is the last thing we need around here. So the news from the outside world is of secondary importance.
@Gnarly I hope to see you next year at SPAH. I wish you both good health and fast healing.
@Pluto Thanks for the great link!
I almost did not post again to this thread and will likely regret doing so. I do not want to feed into ongoing political strife on this forum. I think I need to bring my part in this thread to a clear ending. I will not post again on this thread.
I stand by my earlier statement that political dispute here is not good for the forum. In the course of this thread some members were smacked down by others based on their different views on politics and morality. Slurs were attributed through inference. Also, apparently "the time for civility in this debate has passed." No need to say more...
Despite that, I think it is worth posting the following link. Recently there was a widespread story covered on multiple news outlets that relates to my post about media outlets having abandoned attempts at objectivity.
I hope you will each form your own opinion about this letter rather than adopt that of any media outlet. This letter and your response might be considered a political Rorschach test worthy of your reflection.
I will continue to post here on threads related to blues harp, harmonica in general, blues, and gear. I will not post on political threads as I do not see the interaction as productive with regard to the forum or myself. I have observed that attempts to engage in honest discussions on political topics in online settings only brings distress and triggers a chain of recrimination.
I hope those forum members who hold differing political views from many here will continue to post about harmonica, blues, and gear threads and not give up on the core mission of this forum.
Political viewpoints should not be a factor in participation in this forum. ----------
Doug S.
Last Edited by dougharps on Jul 15, 2020 1:00 PM
>>This letter and your response might be considered a political Rorschach test worthy of your reflection.
You could equally say the same thing for anyone posting that letter.
The NYT is a schizoid media outlet, like the BBC. They're either speaking truth to power or sucking up to them as hard as they can. At least you know what you get with Faux news (though even they have a couple of rational talking heads for "balance" to the extreme RWNJ propaganda)
>>I hope you will each form your own opinion about this letter rather than adopt that of any media outlet.
Weiss's professional career and voice was via "the media". What makes their opinion/bitching more valid now they are "cancelled" than anyone else's still in the "media"? Is the rest of the "media" now irrelevant?
"The professionally cancelled pundit is a genre of primarily center-right contrarian who makes their living by deliberately provoking outrage online, and then claiming that the outrage directed at them is evidence of an intolerant left run amok."
"Cancel Culture" is a funny term too. I often wonder what people like James Baldwin would have made of it.
Music is a form of emotional communication (Noodle jazz, generative computer squiggle muzak, & other navel gazing sound atmospherics excepted).
The blues, as has been pointed out endlessly, was born from the fiery crucible of racial & political exploitation. That is still relevant now as it was in the Blues Juke's of the Delta in the 1930's, and stretching back to the proto blues before that (400 years according to JB).
@Komuso: Thanks. Very well put. And that's a very well-written, sober article that you linked to at https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/jul/15/bari-weiss-new-york-times-resignation-cancel-culture I'm not one hundred percent on board with all of that, but it's waaay more serious take than this now supposedly infamous Bari Weiss 'resignation" letter that's making the rounds. A number of friends have forwarded it to me. It's odd that @dougharps would advise us not to pay attention to all this social media hogwash and then use as a "Rorschach Test" a bizarre public resignation letter from someone who has made a huge part of their career attempting "hot takes" and "controversy" on social media and whose allies(and it seems future business partners) wallow in the kind of social media sophistry and Strawman and non-nuanced arguments that seem to be almost patented by the center-right at this point. I don't do social media but I'm well-read enough on the parties involved to kinda understand flailing about from attention seekers when I see them. Would Willian F. Buckley and/or William Safire have been so...wounded and unfocused on the real issues? I don't agree with most of their politics....but I think not. We have a unique—at least in my lifetime— situation at the moment...so...viva Woody Guthrie!
Last Edited by tomaxe on Jul 15, 2020 8:55 PM
There are some smart and well read members on this forum and i have enjoyed reading all the posts above. Yeah i know there has to be "forum rules" and all but an occasional change of subject is quite refreshing imo,after all some of us have been on here talking about harmonica for years.To me it's a little bit like a backyard BBQ with a bunch of people. Here in NZ we are coming up to an Election and the BBQ chat is in full swing. Actually even though we have a 'left' wing and a 'right' option, in the States they would both be considered as left wing.LOL. Thanks Nacoran(and the boss) for allowing the discussion.
"Political viewpoints should not be a factor in participation in this forum."
As a culture we have been drifting far apart in recent decades. In fact maybe we have always been splintered. The difference I see is that this new tribal mindset has been brought into the highest office in the land, and trickled back down the chain. Honest representation of the facts is to me a thing of the past. Media is like an orgy of factoids presented however the originator of a story sees fit to further a particular view. Some may remember Huntley and Brinkley, Cronkite, Murrow, and others. Those people presented the facts and kept their personal lives and views out of the picture. That was true objective reporting, which seems to have died a quiet death in recent years. Every day and seemingly every hour, contradictory news stories appear in the 24/7 news cycle. This guy good, no he bad, mask/no mask, cure/no cure, ad infinitum. Jane and Joe average in this era have no touchstone to the real truth any more. We see certain people taking liberties outside the law to the highest levels and they are not called to task or if they are they use their power to do more harm. This stretches back some decades but has become a phenomenon that is public and toxic.
We may well be a doomed society at this point. This nation has never been perfect but in recent years the crazies have begun running the asylum. If you have some freaky agenda you may well get a lot of attention and even a following while most of the usual average Janes and Joes are somehow left with the bills coming due and an empty wallet.
I'd much rather see a return to a more objective focus, on blues, and harmonica. I took up music as a balm for my aching soul many years ago, and at its best that's exactly all it needs to be. I know where blues came from, I've read all about it and seen some first hand examples. Nate and Adam have kept things on a pretty even keel here but the weight of opposing opinion can gut this forum like it has many others I've seen. I don't expect the folks with extreme opinions on differing sides to listen or try and tone it down any but that's my request. I have been here since early on and I showed up looking for a well moderated on-topic joint to hang out with my peers. That's been the case for the most part even if we've disagreed here and there. If the debate is no longer healthy it will lose its validity and the forum becomes another battleground of non-music or harp related topics.
So like Doug and some others I'm exiting this thread and others like it now and in future. It's not worth the time it takes to stay involved in a Gordian knot. Back to basics. I hope! ---------- Music and travel destroy prejudice.
In addition to promoting a well crafted & clever song by some musicians I enjoy, my intent when initiating this post was to stimulate debate on this crazy year. I’m quite pleased that I succeeded. Thanks Nacoran for your tolerance!
And thanks to all of you who let us hear your point-of-view. Regardless of your position on the political spectrum, we all have a chance to be heard again, very meaningfully, on November 3rd (unless you live in a state or locale that suppresses the vote, 15th amendment notwithstanding.)
We all need to exercise that right because .... 2020 is Hindsight.
https://www.2020ishindsight.net/
And FFS, please wear a mask and don’t share yer air. Adios.
Last Edited by Sundancer on Jul 16, 2020 12:20 PM
