I hope you had excellent Chinese Claire - though I find the thought of vegetarian Chinese a bit baffling. Also, I love when you have these "l'etat c'est moi" moments on GC. Adds flair.
For anyone interested, Walter Russell Mead publishes a fascinating set of posts about Christmas (the holiday’s origins, meanings, etc.) every year. He’s been doing it for over a decade and he posts one essay for each day of the 12 days of Christmas. He revises it a bit every year and it’s a real treat to read. It appears at Providence Magazine and can be found here.
Both my parents are very progressive which makes them borderline woke in my opinion. But the only one who’s an authentic no-holds-barred wokeist is my sister. And I’m afraid that if I hear her make one remark about the suffering of Palestinians, I will explode. So I’m hiding in my room. Though her boyfriend is Jewish, I’m not counting on that mitigating her wokeness, and I’m also inclined to think that if he’s dating my sister, he must not be a very pro-Israel Jew either. At any rate, I actually have no idea what my sister thinks about the Gaza War. We’re two years apart, but we have nothing in common and never talk. I’m just afraid of finding out and exploding. My dad’s progressivism on the subject has caused me no small amount of moral disgust, fracturing my relationship with him a little as well. Last time I spoke with him he rose fiercely to defend the Palestinian activism, denying my equivalence of antizionism to antisemitism, insisting they were not the same thing. But not being a full wokeist, my dad phonily claims to support Israel and uphold their “right to defend” themselves, a phrase I hate because its passivity implies that Israel shouldn’t wage the offensive war that it must. And my dad gets hung up about the civilian toll. He hates Netanyahu of course which he allows to fog his moral clarity. And most despicably, being a progressive he accuses me of lacking “nuance” all the time. My mom similarly is a progressive who weirdly can laugh at the absurdity of the LGBT acronym bemoan that the supreme court is somehow going to outlaw abortion. She talks as if racism is also no less prevalent today than it was in the 60s. And she thinks that if I have a problem with wokeness, it means I’m resisting what she thinks is progress. She even said recently “I don’t know what’s wrong with being woke. What’s the problem with being awake?” But strangely my mom is a hawk on the Israel situation. She thinks Israel has to eradicate Hamas no matter what. My sister is absolutely the worst, but I’m not sure who’s more unpleasant to talk about the world with sometimes, my mom or my dad. What really strikes me about having a very progressive family is how morally righteous you can be while also being so ignorant of practical reality, and having no self-awareness about how ignorant and arrogant you are. I gape and marvel in amazement at this.
On Substack in the comments, I just don’t bother with paragraphs, because though it does look better, I don’t think it’s necessary. I’m not trying to write a book in the comments. As long as people can follow my line of argument, it’s fine. I don’t care if it looks like a screed. It can look like that anyway even with paragraphs on my blog with my fondness for polemic.
I think I try too hard for brevity. Turned down a chance to discuss the metaphysics of morality the other day, just because Comments were not the right format.
You may as well just throw yourself into it and stop trying to be a perfectionist. The comments are for communicating and acquiring information. As long as your terms and syntax are clear to your interlocutor, it doesn’t matter how it looks. Substance > form.
Board games are pretty much a guarantee when I visit my parents. "Carcassonne" is a tile-based game that I left at their home after they enjoyed a few games over a weekend. And it doesn't require too much concentration, so cocktails are encouraged.
I would feel safer hiding. I always get blamed for whatever arguments start, because I’m a guy I think, and my parents’ sympathize with my sister’s pseudo-empathic woke talking points, and perhaps because I’m the older and smarter one, there is this unspoken unconscious burden they put on me not to hurt her which is infuriating to me how they enable and reinforce my sister’s narcissism by infantilizing her in this sense and villifying me. Regardless of the fact that my sister is woke which means she’s hurt by just about everything, and mainly she’s wrong. But most people like my parents don’t esteem matters of principle like right and wrong over the social concern to keep things civil and pleasant. I don’t know why people aren’t like us Claire. And I don’t what anyone can live for besides the thrill of the acquisition of knowledge and the joy of moral evaluation. Why do people have such a low disposition for abstract thought? I don’t know how you live like that where keeping things pleasant is of the utmost importance. The world is a very unpleasant place and there is so much joy in confronting and engaging with unpleasantness. Wokeness is insufferable. I will not suffer it.
Why would you "explode" because someone disagrees with you? I presume none of you are well situated in any influential government nor media outlet, so your opinions on things, just like mine, are of no real consequence. Family is more important than politics, man.
They’re in their early sixties. Sis and bf just showed up. So far so good. I haven’t exploded yet. I feel tempted to rip into the beer but it’s only 1 o’clock.
Happy New Year Claire! Let’s hope 2024 will be better than 2023 was.
Note that your link to the Musée d’Orsay doesn’t work, which is too bad because it’s the best art museum in the world. Whenever I visit, one of my favorite paintings to look at is not one of the really famous ones.
I really like “The Corner of the Table” by Henri Fantin-Latour. First exhibited in 1872 it shows several French poets (Paul Verlaine, Arthur Rimbaud, Léon Valade, Ernest d'Hervilly, Camille Pelletan and a few others posing at a Parisian table. Next time you’re there it’s worth a visit. See,
When I hit the link it’s says “invalid URL.” No matter; have a great holiday. If you ever get to the Musée d’Orsay, check out the painting I mentioned. I think you’ll like it.
The link works for me, as well. The problem you describe, WigWag, tends to be a 'handshake' failure. Try Claire's link again but with a different browser. If it works, you have your answer. Return to your preferred browser, empty its cache, and try again. Bet it works this time! :-)
The redirection through artsandculture.com is failing, producing only an uninformative "404" error from Google. Unclear where this process is breaking. This is, I think, where the substack chain is intended to reach -- select the display for the Musée d'Orsay:
Did you ever reveal your prediction for Newcomb’s Paradox?
No! I forgot!
My prediction was you'd split 50-50. I was wrong.
I hope you had excellent Chinese Claire - though I find the thought of vegetarian Chinese a bit baffling. Also, I love when you have these "l'etat c'est moi" moments on GC. Adds flair.
For anyone interested, Walter Russell Mead publishes a fascinating set of posts about Christmas (the holiday’s origins, meanings, etc.) every year. He’s been doing it for over a decade and he posts one essay for each day of the 12 days of Christmas. He revises it a bit every year and it’s a real treat to read. It appears at Providence Magazine and can be found here.
https://providencemag.com/2023/12/the-fourteen-posts-of-christmas-2023-2024-edition/
You don’t need to be Christian to find these essays rewarding, informative and a pleasure to study.
Also worth reading at this time of year, Adam Garfinkle’s essay, “A Jew’s Guide to New Year’s Eve.” See,
https://www.the-american-interest.com/2019/12/31/a-jews-guide-to-new-years-eve-3/
Claire included the Falun Dafa and snubbed the atheists!? Consider this my official protest!
Get a load of this royal nonsense:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IRJxJro3Qro
It's completely inoffensive! What's your objection? I only listened, I didn't watch, but I couldn't see a thing wrong with it.
I need to escape my family, particularly my woke sister.
Oooh! We'll play a game involving your sister. What's her woke obsession? Is she the only one in your family who's woke?
I’m taking advantage of these fortuitous circumstances by reading about Pierre Bayle and his “dictionary” right now.
Both my parents are very progressive which makes them borderline woke in my opinion. But the only one who’s an authentic no-holds-barred wokeist is my sister. And I’m afraid that if I hear her make one remark about the suffering of Palestinians, I will explode. So I’m hiding in my room. Though her boyfriend is Jewish, I’m not counting on that mitigating her wokeness, and I’m also inclined to think that if he’s dating my sister, he must not be a very pro-Israel Jew either. At any rate, I actually have no idea what my sister thinks about the Gaza War. We’re two years apart, but we have nothing in common and never talk. I’m just afraid of finding out and exploding. My dad’s progressivism on the subject has caused me no small amount of moral disgust, fracturing my relationship with him a little as well. Last time I spoke with him he rose fiercely to defend the Palestinian activism, denying my equivalence of antizionism to antisemitism, insisting they were not the same thing. But not being a full wokeist, my dad phonily claims to support Israel and uphold their “right to defend” themselves, a phrase I hate because its passivity implies that Israel shouldn’t wage the offensive war that it must. And my dad gets hung up about the civilian toll. He hates Netanyahu of course which he allows to fog his moral clarity. And most despicably, being a progressive he accuses me of lacking “nuance” all the time. My mom similarly is a progressive who weirdly can laugh at the absurdity of the LGBT acronym bemoan that the supreme court is somehow going to outlaw abortion. She talks as if racism is also no less prevalent today than it was in the 60s. And she thinks that if I have a problem with wokeness, it means I’m resisting what she thinks is progress. She even said recently “I don’t know what’s wrong with being woke. What’s the problem with being awake?” But strangely my mom is a hawk on the Israel situation. She thinks Israel has to eradicate Hamas no matter what. My sister is absolutely the worst, but I’m not sure who’s more unpleasant to talk about the world with sometimes, my mom or my dad. What really strikes me about having a very progressive family is how morally righteous you can be while also being so ignorant of practical reality, and having no self-awareness about how ignorant and arrogant you are. I gape and marvel in amazement at this.
You have my sympathy. Your writing always shows what your mood is, because you abandon all paragraph breaks when you're on a roll.
On Substack in the comments, I just don’t bother with paragraphs, because though it does look better, I don’t think it’s necessary. I’m not trying to write a book in the comments. As long as people can follow my line of argument, it’s fine. I don’t care if it looks like a screed. It can look like that anyway even with paragraphs on my blog with my fondness for polemic.
I think I try too hard for brevity. Turned down a chance to discuss the metaphysics of morality the other day, just because Comments were not the right format.
And I love a line break.
Apparently.
You may as well just throw yourself into it and stop trying to be a perfectionist. The comments are for communicating and acquiring information. As long as your terms and syntax are clear to your interlocutor, it doesn’t matter how it looks. Substance > form.
Maybe you should try playing Scrabble with them, or Trivial Pursuit, and not talk about politics?
Board games are pretty much a guarantee when I visit my parents. "Carcassonne" is a tile-based game that I left at their home after they enjoyed a few games over a weekend. And it doesn't require too much concentration, so cocktails are encouraged.
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/822/carcassonne
I would feel safer hiding. I always get blamed for whatever arguments start, because I’m a guy I think, and my parents’ sympathize with my sister’s pseudo-empathic woke talking points, and perhaps because I’m the older and smarter one, there is this unspoken unconscious burden they put on me not to hurt her which is infuriating to me how they enable and reinforce my sister’s narcissism by infantilizing her in this sense and villifying me. Regardless of the fact that my sister is woke which means she’s hurt by just about everything, and mainly she’s wrong. But most people like my parents don’t esteem matters of principle like right and wrong over the social concern to keep things civil and pleasant. I don’t know why people aren’t like us Claire. And I don’t what anyone can live for besides the thrill of the acquisition of knowledge and the joy of moral evaluation. Why do people have such a low disposition for abstract thought? I don’t know how you live like that where keeping things pleasant is of the utmost importance. The world is a very unpleasant place and there is so much joy in confronting and engaging with unpleasantness. Wokeness is insufferable. I will not suffer it.
Why would you "explode" because someone disagrees with you? I presume none of you are well situated in any influential government nor media outlet, so your opinions on things, just like mine, are of no real consequence. Family is more important than politics, man.
Can I ask how old are your parents?
They’re in their early sixties. Sis and bf just showed up. So far so good. I haven’t exploded yet. I feel tempted to rip into the beer but it’s only 1 o’clock.
Happy New Year Claire! Let’s hope 2024 will be better than 2023 was.
Note that your link to the Musée d’Orsay doesn’t work, which is too bad because it’s the best art museum in the world. Whenever I visit, one of my favorite paintings to look at is not one of the really famous ones.
I really like “The Corner of the Table” by Henri Fantin-Latour. First exhibited in 1872 it shows several French poets (Paul Verlaine, Arthur Rimbaud, Léon Valade, Ernest d'Hervilly, Camille Pelletan and a few others posing at a Parisian table. Next time you’re there it’s worth a visit. See,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Corner_of_the_Table
It does too work! At least, it works for me--what happens when you click on it?
When I hit the link it’s says “invalid URL.” No matter; have a great holiday. If you ever get to the Musée d’Orsay, check out the painting I mentioned. I think you’ll like it.
The link works for me, as well. The problem you describe, WigWag, tends to be a 'handshake' failure. Try Claire's link again but with a different browser. If it works, you have your answer. Return to your preferred browser, empty its cache, and try again. Bet it works this time! :-)
I don't get it: What happens when other people try it?
Works fine for me.
The redirection through artsandculture.com is failing, producing only an uninformative "404" error from Google. Unclear where this process is breaking. This is, I think, where the substack chain is intended to reach -- select the display for the Musée d'Orsay:
https://artsandculture.google.com/story/10-museums-you-can-explore-right-here-right-now/igKSKBBnEBSGKg
Worked for me.
Opened fine for me. (Left click, opened a new tab automatically)