Kat and Phoebe discuss the death of a man on the New York City subway, and the discourse that ensued. Links: Freddie deBoer on fear: Jamelle Bouie on some key facts: https://twitter.com/jbouie/status/1655725142809387008 Elizabeth Spiers defends the honor of the subway:
Unrelated to the episode but I just got an email from Grammarly announcing their new "inclusive" suggestions, which seems like it could be an entire episode of its own.
The suggestions apparently include flagging potentially offensive stuff like "guys" (who uses bigoted language like that these days anyway, duh) and "moms and dads." In the case of the later, Grammarly states "Some readers may consider the term moms and dads non-inclusive. Different wording may acknowledge that families take many forms."
This very much seems like a feature geared more towards inclusivity-obsessed progressives than people who are actually part of non-nuclear family units. If I'm a grandma raising my deadbeat son's two kids, I suspect I would not be offended by a parenting magazine using the term "moms and dads." Similarly, if I was one of two dads in a gay relationship, I would assume the "dads" is addressing both me and my partner. I suppose the one edge case is if two nonbinary people* have kids and then decide they don't want to go by "mom" or "dad" (and then what the fuck do their children call them?!?!?) but there's nothing inclusive about remaking society to accomodate .0001% of the population.
*I know one person who is "nonbinary" online and whose kids still call him "dad" so...
Typed the basics of a Feminine Chaos episode into ChatGPT and asked it to script one. And it generated something SO close to the real thing.... (not)
[Opening music]
Kat: Welcome to Feminine Chaos, the podcast where we bring you the latest news stories that make you question the state of the world and delve into the chaos and mess of being a woman.
Phoebe: And we're your hosts, Phoebe and Kat.
Kat: I'm the one with two babies and a dog. I’m Jewish and live in Toronto of all places! I write things.
Kat: I also write things and have a dog. No babies though. But I have a spectacular ass and teach yoga.
Phoebe: So, let's get started. Hey Kat, how's it going? (No wiener jokes.)
Kat: Hey Phoebe! It's going good, just dealing with some pesky raccoons getting into my garbage cans every night in New England where I live. How about you?
Phoebe: Oh my god, Kat, that sounds like a nightmare. I can't imagine dealing with that on top of everything else. Speaking of, I was just trying to buy groceries for my two infants and my dog in Toronto and let me tell you, it was chaos.
Kat: Oh no, I can only imagine the chaos. How do you even manage to get everything you need?
Phoebe: Honestly, I don't even know. It's like a game of Tetris trying to fit everything into the cart, and then getting it all back to the car without dropping anything. And then once I get home, it's a whole other battle trying to put everything away without the dog getting into it.
Kat: It's crazy how much work goes into just feeding ourselves and our families as women, isn't it?
Phoebe: It really is. But that's just one of the many chaotic aspects and messiness of being a woman that we'll be diving into on this podcast.
Kat: That's right. From dealing with raccoons to wrangling kids and everything in between, we'll be exploring the highs and lows of navigating life as a woman.
Phoebe: Sounds great!
Kat: Today we're going to talk about the latest craze in the world of online dating. Apparently, people are now paying big bucks to get their exes back.
Phoebe: What the hell? Are people that desperate?
Kat: Apparently so. There's even a website where you can hire a "relationship consultant" to help you get your ex back.
Phoebe: You know what they say, "there's a sucker born every minute."
Kat: And there's probably a lot of them falling for this scam.
Phoebe: Speaking of scams, have you heard about the latest Instagram influencer who got exposed for faking her whole life?
Kat: Oh yeah, the one who pretended to be a millionaire but was really living in her parents' basement.
Phoebe: Yup, that's the one. I mean, how pathetic do you have to be to fake your entire life just to get some likes on social media?
Kat: Yikes. It's pretty sad. But you know what's not sad? Wiener jokes.
Phoebe: Oh god, not again.
Kat: Why did the wiener go to school?
Phoebe: I don't know, why?
Kat: To get his degree in sausage-ology!
Phoebe: groans Okay, let's move on to our next story.
Kat: Alright, this one's a good one. Apparently, a man in Florida was arrested for stealing a bulldozer and then running down Biden-Harris campaign signs.
Phoebe: What a genius. Because nothing screams "I'm a stable and rational human being" like stealing heavy machinery and destroying political signs.
Kat: And in Florida, of all places. I mean, I guess he really wanted to make a statement.
Phoebe: A statement that he's a complete moron.
Kat: Exactly.
Phoebe: Well, that's all the time we have for today, folks. Thanks for tuning in to Feminine Chaos, where we bring you the news stories that make you question the state of the world.
Kat: And make hundreds of wiener jokes.
Phoebe: Please, no more wiener jokes.
Kat: Fine, I'll save them for next time. See you all next week on Feminine Chaos!
Thank you. I ride my bike in SF, so I don’t have to worry about public transit. But I do take BART (subway) to east bay and I hate it; marijuana smoke + people smoking anything anywhere in station or on train, homeless people and their odors, young menacing punks trying to be tough. I went to LA in March- same thing. “Defund Police” was a project created by the Equity Program implemented by mayors in 100 cities + Toronto + Birmingham (England). New mayors need to abolish Equity Program.
Haven't listened to the pod yet, but I like to read the supporting material first. Phoebe, just keep in mind that Globe & Mail has a pay wall and so a limited number of your readers may be able to access that content. Thanks.
I feel like this is the first topic in quite a while on FC that I feel pretty strongly about and may even have some background to justify what thoughts I have on it. But at the same time I oddly feel the least compelled to add anything to the discussion. IDK what that says about me, but it feels peculiar. :D
On how the public should respond to public safety needs: (1) We civilians are amateurs and respond in differently random ways. The police are experts at public safety and know how to respond. (2) When crime and related activity jumped upward after “Defund” in my Upper Tenderloin SF neighborhood, my leftist friends in their armchairs inside their nicer neighborhoods rationalized that I was merely hallucinating. I called them the “R”-word and accused them of lying about my information for political reasons. No longer friends.
Unrelated to the episode but I just got an email from Grammarly announcing their new "inclusive" suggestions, which seems like it could be an entire episode of its own.
The suggestions apparently include flagging potentially offensive stuff like "guys" (who uses bigoted language like that these days anyway, duh) and "moms and dads." In the case of the later, Grammarly states "Some readers may consider the term moms and dads non-inclusive. Different wording may acknowledge that families take many forms."
This very much seems like a feature geared more towards inclusivity-obsessed progressives than people who are actually part of non-nuclear family units. If I'm a grandma raising my deadbeat son's two kids, I suspect I would not be offended by a parenting magazine using the term "moms and dads." Similarly, if I was one of two dads in a gay relationship, I would assume the "dads" is addressing both me and my partner. I suppose the one edge case is if two nonbinary people* have kids and then decide they don't want to go by "mom" or "dad" (and then what the fuck do their children call them?!?!?) but there's nothing inclusive about remaking society to accomodate .0001% of the population.
*I know one person who is "nonbinary" online and whose kids still call him "dad" so...
Typed the basics of a Feminine Chaos episode into ChatGPT and asked it to script one. And it generated something SO close to the real thing.... (not)
[Opening music]
Kat: Welcome to Feminine Chaos, the podcast where we bring you the latest news stories that make you question the state of the world and delve into the chaos and mess of being a woman.
Phoebe: And we're your hosts, Phoebe and Kat.
Kat: I'm the one with two babies and a dog. I’m Jewish and live in Toronto of all places! I write things.
Kat: I also write things and have a dog. No babies though. But I have a spectacular ass and teach yoga.
Phoebe: So, let's get started. Hey Kat, how's it going? (No wiener jokes.)
Kat: Hey Phoebe! It's going good, just dealing with some pesky raccoons getting into my garbage cans every night in New England where I live. How about you?
Phoebe: Oh my god, Kat, that sounds like a nightmare. I can't imagine dealing with that on top of everything else. Speaking of, I was just trying to buy groceries for my two infants and my dog in Toronto and let me tell you, it was chaos.
Kat: Oh no, I can only imagine the chaos. How do you even manage to get everything you need?
Phoebe: Honestly, I don't even know. It's like a game of Tetris trying to fit everything into the cart, and then getting it all back to the car without dropping anything. And then once I get home, it's a whole other battle trying to put everything away without the dog getting into it.
Kat: It's crazy how much work goes into just feeding ourselves and our families as women, isn't it?
Phoebe: It really is. But that's just one of the many chaotic aspects and messiness of being a woman that we'll be diving into on this podcast.
Kat: That's right. From dealing with raccoons to wrangling kids and everything in between, we'll be exploring the highs and lows of navigating life as a woman.
Phoebe: Sounds great!
Kat: Today we're going to talk about the latest craze in the world of online dating. Apparently, people are now paying big bucks to get their exes back.
Phoebe: What the hell? Are people that desperate?
Kat: Apparently so. There's even a website where you can hire a "relationship consultant" to help you get your ex back.
Phoebe: You know what they say, "there's a sucker born every minute."
Kat: And there's probably a lot of them falling for this scam.
Phoebe: Speaking of scams, have you heard about the latest Instagram influencer who got exposed for faking her whole life?
Kat: Oh yeah, the one who pretended to be a millionaire but was really living in her parents' basement.
Phoebe: Yup, that's the one. I mean, how pathetic do you have to be to fake your entire life just to get some likes on social media?
Kat: Yikes. It's pretty sad. But you know what's not sad? Wiener jokes.
Phoebe: Oh god, not again.
Kat: Why did the wiener go to school?
Phoebe: I don't know, why?
Kat: To get his degree in sausage-ology!
Phoebe: groans Okay, let's move on to our next story.
Kat: Alright, this one's a good one. Apparently, a man in Florida was arrested for stealing a bulldozer and then running down Biden-Harris campaign signs.
Phoebe: What a genius. Because nothing screams "I'm a stable and rational human being" like stealing heavy machinery and destroying political signs.
Kat: And in Florida, of all places. I mean, I guess he really wanted to make a statement.
Phoebe: A statement that he's a complete moron.
Kat: Exactly.
Phoebe: Well, that's all the time we have for today, folks. Thanks for tuning in to Feminine Chaos, where we bring you the news stories that make you question the state of the world.
Kat: And make hundreds of wiener jokes.
Phoebe: Please, no more wiener jokes.
Kat: Fine, I'll save them for next time. See you all next week on Feminine Chaos!
Phoebe: You bet your spectacular ass!
[Closing music]
Thank you. I ride my bike in SF, so I don’t have to worry about public transit. But I do take BART (subway) to east bay and I hate it; marijuana smoke + people smoking anything anywhere in station or on train, homeless people and their odors, young menacing punks trying to be tough. I went to LA in March- same thing. “Defund Police” was a project created by the Equity Program implemented by mayors in 100 cities + Toronto + Birmingham (England). New mayors need to abolish Equity Program.
Haven't listened to the pod yet, but I like to read the supporting material first. Phoebe, just keep in mind that Globe & Mail has a pay wall and so a limited number of your readers may be able to access that content. Thanks.
I feel like this is the first topic in quite a while on FC that I feel pretty strongly about and may even have some background to justify what thoughts I have on it. But at the same time I oddly feel the least compelled to add anything to the discussion. IDK what that says about me, but it feels peculiar. :D
On how the public should respond to public safety needs: (1) We civilians are amateurs and respond in differently random ways. The police are experts at public safety and know how to respond. (2) When crime and related activity jumped upward after “Defund” in my Upper Tenderloin SF neighborhood, my leftist friends in their armchairs inside their nicer neighborhoods rationalized that I was merely hallucinating. I called them the “R”-word and accused them of lying about my information for political reasons. No longer friends.