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Pitchfork © 2010
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Freely quote with attribution

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Do not foresee a moment, a battling; foresee two years and more, a
warring.  Pitchfork

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Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.

English proverb

Well.  Maybe words will hurt ‘fork, too, but not like sticks and stones.  Your broken heart bleeds metaphorically. Your broken head bleeds all over you.  Think about it.  OK?

Everybody sums up, groups, maps. 

• Do you tell your kid, “Little Darling, oh, look at each and every one of those deciduous and conifer species, the latter of which are at least 30% long needle pines approaching terminal growth, and see how the three major hardwood species in these natural environs are predominantly represented?” 

• Nope, you do not. 

• “Hey, kid, see the forest.”

Everybody sums up, groups, maps. 

• Those bankers

• Lefties are weird

• Fascist

• Which syndrome you got? 

• Alcoholic, eh? 

• Another fat guy 

• That babe’s got boo-t-t-e-e-e 

• Gotta be I-talian

• Racist 

• Bigot

• Queer

• Liberal

• Token

Q:  True or false:  Isn’t it that each one of us is superior to someone else somehow or another, or at least, thinks so?  Come on, now.

A:  Yes, true and false.  We were created equal bodily, and we, each of us, will be equally worn away of body.  That’s it for equal in terms of outcomes; however, American 'equal' was intended to persist in the interim of a lifetime for natural rights, which natural rights do not include, among others: 
 

• Don’t ask, don’t tell if I’m a U. S. citizen

• I work for government so I don’t have to do what you have to do

• I work for government so you must do as I say

• I work for government somehow or another which somehow or another makes me a member of the elite, political, ruling class and, left out that you be, makes you furshur, furevur stoopid

• This was your national park

• Black Panthers can do whatever, 'cause they're still pissed about that 40 acres and a mule thingy

• Of course, it’s on you and your tab to encourage folks to not work

• Even though all the contemporary Jacobins doing-in their own and others we’re told are Muslims, it’s still a bad thing to call ‘em extremists, so maybe we’ll just call ‘em Islamists or maybe folks who might could look kinda like us just sorta different, suntanned darker?  But, furshur, they’re not us.

• From government, you cannot only not get what you want, but also you cannot get what you need, even when the law says so of want and need

• Everybody owes me

To be clear, this American 'equal' thing means civil equality, as in like rules, like road map.  This American 'equal' thing does not me outcome equality, as in like rules, like road trip.  The former is what got America started.  The latter is where America's been going with increasing rapidity for a long time.  The former is honorable.  The latter sets governing upon governed.

Somewhere between perfection and relativism lays the realm of Is.  Past relativism lays secular wasteland.  Past perfection lays more perfection.

In the realm of Is, Pitchfork’s OK with affairs of the heart that can be hurt by words alone.  That hurt is, was, and will be.  You love well; you hurt.  You hate well, you don’t hurt.  You hate and you may be anxious, frustrated, but not hurt so much, if at all.

It’s the stick and stones biz that takes ‘fork’s attention, his summing up, his mapping, his grouping.  What were once upon a time sticks and stones in jolly old England have come a long way babe to include among other not-niceties:  expandable baton; full-auto 9s; and stuff that really goes boom from ammonium nitrate-diesel fuel cocktails to plastique.  

‘Is’ lacks the perfection of a pinhead’s checklist of grouping: mutual exclusivity; collective exhaustivity; abstractive levels; and horizontal and vertical congruence.  Perfection’s for later, on the other side of Is. 

Do you reckon Ibn-ibn or Juan-Juan or Big Bo or whoever will hang with their sticks and stones while you run the pinhead’s checklist?  No.  You sum up, group, map, discern, distinguish, and then decide whether these guys are gonna break your bones.  Fight or flee, discriminate or despair, jackboot or jack back, gotta do or get it done to you.

The Land of Is is not relative.  As the ‘fork is known to have said and written . . .

Living is personal and so is living no more.

Pitchfork 

Is lays between ‘fork’s own alpha and omega.  Whose bones are they, anyway?

Now to the word game.  Bigot = intolerant.  Everybody can be intolerant of something or other, right?  Muslims appear intolerant of infidels, that is, most of them intolerant of most of us.  Folks could become intolerant of token leaders, even when those same folks hired ‘em for token’s sake.  Savers and investors might well develop intolerance for valueless currency.

To the 'fork, bigotry is a smarmy synonym of discernment and discretion.  It doesn’t seem like an emotionally loaded appellation, even though some folks load it up for others to cringe and shy.  Bigotry’s more like a human condition, wouldn’t you say?  Like sweating, gullible, principled, hungry, and horny.  Bigotry resounds in Howard Beales’ "I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore!!"?

Racist/racism has become another matter.  Racism (didn’t used to be thusly defined, but is now)=racially superior bigotry, immoral bigotry.  

So, in the ‘fork’s catechism of contemporary confusions, a racist’s gotta be a bigot, but a bigot can get along standalone.  Bigots without esteem-burdens populate the Land of Is.  Racists are, in ‘fork’s take, harder to spot for the pervasion of superior/inferior motives; racists are relativists – for their better and your worse.  Bigots are moralists – about good and evil – for hurt, sure; for broken bones, you bet.

Now, bigots can be better-worse expressive; however, those expressions are about consequence.  That is, they’re not about motive.  For racists, better-worse means motive. 

Good-bad and superior-inferior are not the same, unless you’re an observant Muslim – that’s the only requisite exception bigtime that ‘fork can reckon.  There could be other proselytizing theocracies to count in, though none, ‘fork figures, might could be so intolerant and violent at its core and in all its time.  Other ideologues can shade the good-bad/superior-inferior, but the systemic obligation seems not there, as with Islam.

What’s odd?  Better-worse motives extend way, way past race – politics, ethnicity, intellect, religion, residence, citizenship, dress, dress size, income, work, dependence on government, hair, hair-do, hair color, mental weaknesses, physical weaknesses, gene pools, your kid’s league play, eye color, flower gardens, bread makers, lips, teeth braces, furniture and fixtures, sports teams, entertainers, booze, entertainment, cars, boats, planes, silverware, residence, neighborhood, heirloom seed stash, concealed carry, shoes, pets, and what-all, more, more, and more.

So, people are bigots.  It’s in the nature to sort existence.

So, people are ‘ists’ chock full of ‘isms’.  It's tough to be just a bigot when you've got the 'ist' and 'ism' thingies goin' on, don't you know?  It’s in the nature to subordinate existence.

‘Fork’s not saying racism is good or better.  Racism’s bad or worse.  Racism is for real . . . sometimes . . . but fades in the haze of soulless sophistry and sound bites.  Racist/racism’s been sufficiently abused as to connote a crass cliché or egregious epithet.

‘Fork’s asking what’s it with race that’s not with the others, at least some of ‘em?  Surely, some of the other motive-driven bigotries gotta be as interpersonally destructive as race.  No, not bread makers, you ninny.  But how about faith, citizenship, work, neighborhood?  Broken heart, broken family, broken marriage, broken bank account, broken head?  Each destruction tolls.  You rank ‘em.  Add your own.  Go on.
 

Was ignorance blissful?  We sum up, we group, and we map to survive.  Bigotry leads with consequence - good and evil.  Racism and its 'ism' buddies lead with motive.  Both are human conditions in the land of Is.  Like design's parents construction and art, bigotry serves and the 'ism's satisfy.

It just might could be that the American psyche never got over The War Of Northern Aggression, still believes that fight was about black slavery, and is supposed to shamefully shudder some when a ration of race is raked from the ignominy of ignorance.

So what?  The racist barrage is opportunistic, playing historical histrionics.

So Pitchfork also thinks that most of the racist-name-calling is reflexive, like the pot calling the kettle black; a perversion of personality; all about superiority, sycophancy, and shed shame. 

• Do you think it’s ok to name-call al Qaida racist for doing-in Africans when al Qaida’s doing-in any infidel near whom it can lay explosives?  Racist, racist, who’s got the racist?

• Do you think that it’s ok to name-call Black Panthers racist when the U. S. Department of Justice let’s ‘em threaten access to an election polling place?  Racist, racist, who’s got the racist?

• Do you think that it’s ok to name-call Arizonans racists for defending not only their state sovereignty, but also the sovereignty of their own bones?  Racist, racist, who’s got the racist?

Most of the next times you witness ‘racist’ mouthed, hold up your mind’s eye looking glass to that likeness, and see the moron in the mirror.