S08.E14: Asian Americans

[PrincessPurrsALot]

Main topic: Asian Americans

Also:  Free beer for Covid, UK and Brazil Covid response; Hot vacc Summer; Jollibee, the world's most fuckable bee

Original air date 2021.06.06

[paigow]

Super Spreader Soccer!!! 

[Annber03]

Get down with your bad self, bee. Dance away :D. 

"Hip hip hooray, the White Man is on Top!" Wow. Really just laying it all out there, aren't they? 

And that story about the men who survived the Titanic being barred from coming here. Good lord. Yeah, see, these are the kinds of stories we should learn about sooner. I'd never heard that part of the story until now. There's been so much talk over the years about the class issues in that tragedy, but this racial discrimination should be part of the story, too. 

I have heard the story of Vincent Chin. Not in school, unfortunately, but I recall seeing it on some true crime show once. Leave it to late night comedy shows and true crime series to teach us things we should be learning in school. 

I really appreciated John going into the history of the "model minority" stereotype, and all the negative baggage that comes with that. I'd always been curious how that got started, so it was good to get that backstory. The "human dignity" comment was spot on, too-of course America would see their patronizing attitude towards Asians as a positive thing because they're getting material benefits from it. Fits right in with the long-held attitude about what constitutes achieving the American Dream-it's all about material possessions and wealth, homes, cars, ability to afford to go to top-end schools, etc. Nothing about what that kind of achievement would mean emotionally, spiritually, or mentally for people. 

"They don't spend time on petty bullshit." Excuse me? Kindly fuck off, dude. 

As for the pandemic, gee, why am I not even remotely surprised that Bolsenaro is totally botching his response? Gosh, who knew that having shitty people in power would lead to complete and total ineptness in terms of dealing with serious issues like a pandemic, or any of the other crises the world's faced in recent years? The fact people want him impeached is encouraging, so, yeah, if they're able to hold him to account for his actions, by all means, go for it. 

And yes, anything our country can do to work with other countries to try and get this pandemic under control, let's keep at it. 

[swanpride]

For context: This guy in the segment about the UK, that is a former advisor to Boris Johnson, whose position in the government was extremely controversial, because he was an unelected advisor with supposedly a lot of power. Last year he was involved in a scandal when he was tested positive for Covid and decided the right reaction to this was driving to the country with his family and visiting a castle on the birthday of his wife. When this became known, his excuse for the trip was, that he needed to "check his eyesight" before driving back to London (yeah, really). 

In short, everything he said needs to be taken with a grain of salt and the main reason why his testimony was believed now that he turned against Johnson (who threw him out towards the end of last year),  is because what he said is right in line with what most people suspected anyway. He is also one of the supposed masterminds of Brexit. 

 

Yeah, Brazil has been f... up the Covid response from the get go. And it is pretty likely that the last dangerous strain will come from Brazil too, because it can be running free there, in a mix of vaccinated and not vaccinated people. 

Btw, African American is a term which has the same problem, because it makes a huge difference if your history is one of Slavery, or if your parents (or you yourself) simply immigrated from one of the various African states which just like the Asian ones are very diverse in history and culture. 

 

 

[Annber03]

15 minutes ago, swanpride said:

Last year he was involved in a scandal when he was tested positive for Covid and decided the right reaction to this was driving to the country with his family and visiting a castle on the birthday of his wife. When this became known, his excuse for the trip was, that he needed to "check his eyesight" before driving back to London (yeah, really). 

Oh, I think I heard a bit about some scandal of that sort, but I wasn't sure of all the details. 

Wow. That...is a special kind of incredibly stupid, right there. 

Quote

In short, everything he said needs to be taken with a grain of salt and the main reason why his testimony was believed now that he turned against Johnson (who threw him out towards the end of last year),  is because what he said is right in line with what most people suspected anyway. 

Sounds a lot like some of the politicians here who are now speaking out against the previous administration, despite similar blunders and bad actions. And yeah, you agree with their criticisms in and of themselves, but you're also sitting here going, "Gosh, way to finally catch up with the rest of us." It's very disingenuous, indeed. 

[JustHereForFood]

4 hours ago, Annber03 said:

Sounds a lot like some of the politicians here who are now speaking out against the previous administration, despite similar blunders and bad actions. And yeah, you agree with their criticisms in and of themselves, but you're also sitting here going, "Gosh, way to finally catch up with the rest of us." It's very disingenuous, indeed. 

It shows that for some people the handling of pandemic is a political issue rather than medical and they will say whatever they think is the popular position at the moment. I also noticed that some people on youtube were applauding Piers Morgan when he criticized the government's handling of pandemic, because he was apparently so enlightened he could see past his political preference! GTFO!

The story of that murder and the judge's ruling was horrific. They are not the type of people you send to jail?!!! I guess murderers would stand out among all the recreational drug users and people jailed for resisting arrest when they were bullied by policemen.

Was this the first time that John was without the mask in opening credits, or did I miss it before? The last I remember he still had it on.

WTF is a Hot wax summer?

[Jediknight]

My goodness, you could feel John's anger and rage when talking about "model minority."

[angora]

3 hours ago, JustHereForFood said:

The story of that murder and the judge's ruling was horrific. They are not the type of people you send to jail?!!! I guess murderers would stand out among all the recreational drug users and people jailed for resisting arrest when they were bullied by policemen.

They didn't mention it in the segment, but the judge also said, "You don't make the punishment fit the crime; you make the punishment fit the criminal." Despicable.

That PSA about Japanese Americans getting travel money from the government after their WWII incarceration was also nauseating. "It's a helping hand from Uncle Sam!" GTFO.

I appreciate that John really dug into the different circumstances of Asians who came to America pre-/post-1965 or as refugees and highlighted the importance of disaggregating data. I loved the analogy he used about looking at the median income of the Hemsworth brothers.

[swanpride]

4 hours ago, JustHereForFood said:

WTF is a Hot wax summer?

Isn't it a "hot vax summer"? I thought this was some silly wordplay nobody is really using but some people are immediately getting offended about? I was kind of missing the context...

But regarding context I know: Yeah, Cummings is pretty much like all the Trump guys who eventually turned against Trump, though in his case the assumption is that Johnson was more his puppet than the other way around until the puppet decided that he didn't need his "expertise" anymore. The difference is that what was shown in the show was actually an official hearing which was conducted. Not that it will change a lot. 

[kittykat]

From what I'm gathering Cummings is Britains equivalent to Steve Bannon.

I'm glad to see that there is a large response to impeach Bolso.  He got in on a xenophobic platform and everyone is paying the price.  At this rate they're on track to surpass our death rate.

[Lantern7]

Hearing John talk about how stupid it was to smash cars, this is where my mind went:

But yeah, beating up a sentient car over money? Much better. Thanks, John!

On 6/6/2021 at 11:51 PM, Annber03 said:

"They don't spend time on petty bullshit." Excuse me? Kindly fuck off, dude. 

Was that Joe Rogan? I think people tell him to fuck off twenty times a day, minimum.

On 6/7/2021 at 10:20 AM, angora said:

That PSA about Japanese Americans getting travel money from the government after their WWII incarceration was also nauseating. "It's a helping hand from Uncle Sam!" GTFO.

Right? Notice the narrator didn't say where that other hand had been doing. The sheer audacity. DAMN.

[swanpride]

11 hours ago, kittykat said:

From what I'm gathering Cummings is Britains equivalent to Steve Bannon.

Not quite, since Cummings never had some strange show but "prided" himself to work (supposedly) in the background. I guess the equivalent to Steve Bannon would be Farage (the guy shown the last time they addressed something british in the show), except that Farage was never officially part of Johnson's inner circle.