* The *reason* that suburbs sprang up in the first place, and therefore commutes and the freeways necessary to enable them, is so White people (and rich enough blacks) can escape from diversity. The single passenger, privately owned, car is part and parcel of that. Anybody with money does NOT want to ride public transportation with the undesirables. Owning a car and using it to commute means no one but you can get in. And since it takes money to be able to own one, these factors keep the criminal element and just plain icky underclass OUT of tony neighborhoods.
As such, the reason Whites in the suburbs work tirelessly to keep bus and light rail stops OUT of their areas is so the riff-raff can’t hop on board and get TO them in their neighborhoods.
You get self-driving cars that just anybody can hire for a cheap price, that enables the riff-raff to get to the suburbs even *more* than buses or light rail can.
White wealthy people are NOT going to allow Any. Such. Thing.
So, the self-driving cars fad will last about five minutes, until somebody with money Notices and stands up and, as a fig leaf to their real motive of keeping undesirables out of their neighborhoods, shrilly shouts, “Self-driving cars are a danger! They can run over children walking home from school! Won’t someone think of the CHILDREN?!!!!”
* On the one hand, it’s nice for politicians to be able to speak like adults and discuss things in an intellectual manner.
On the other, in a world where blacks can say it and whites cannot, it comes across as bullying. Here the president can use a word because he’s an oppressed minority, but a white guy at a car wash would be fired for saying the same thing because he has privilege.
And there’s something unbecoming of a president cursing at all, or appearing on a podcast call WTF.
Regardless, when I hear Obama talk about race, I at least feel like I’m getting an intellectually coherent worldview, and one he actually believes in. I think that deep down, guys like Ted Cruz and Rand Paul believe that it is some combination of genetics and culture that prevents blacks from succeeding. I don’t think for a moment that they really believe that charter schools and tax breaks will equalize the races.
* A lot of people have won a Nobel Peace Prize and a lot of people have used “the N-word” on a podcast but Obama might be the only person to have done both. Jimmy Carter wouldn’t use that word and Elie Wiesel doesn’t have a podcast show, as far as I know.
* I always considered [Marc] Maron to be an underperforming Jewish psychopath. He seems to have a strong personal identification with Frank Zappa, which is the look he tries to go for. This also makes his semi-recent boinging of Frank Zappa’s daughter “Moon Unit” all the more creepy.
It’s like the abridged trailer trash version of Michael Jackson and Lisa Marie. I’ve also noticed the quality of his interviews often directly coincides with how much he believes his guest migh help his career, or if he can fuck them.
He begins most podcasts with a monologue during which he will often attempt to manipulate himself into a manic episode before welcoming his guest. Numerous times in the past, when his guest(s) have been Jewish, he’s carried on about how much more happy and comfortable he is when he’s surrounded by Jews exclusively. He has later mentioned a few times that some of his Jewish peers have told him to stop breaching that subject because it makes him sound like a negative Jewish stereotype. Marc didn’t seem to understand why.
I believe his success is owing to the fact that he began his podcast before most of his peers knew what a podcast was. He got listeners because he was the only game in town for quite a few months. That’s crucial when establishing an audience base in a new format. It’s kind of like how Tom Green cornered the market on being an asshole.
In past shows, Marin has volunteered without prompting that he is not a psychopath.
I believe that, usually, when someone volunteers a negative about themselves, it’s worth considering further.
Although it’s not like I’m gay, or anything!
