Bill Cosby's Helping To Destroy Respectability Politics

“Bill Cosby raped me. Why did it take 30 years for people to believe my story?”

Screw facts - you've got to fit everyone's believability profile: smile and be positive

Barbara Bowman's question moved me, not least because no one's fully believed my story (of my wife killing three people) for almost a decade, either - and even after it was discovered to be true.

Waiting for anyone to call us,...sane

It's a funny ha-ha question, too, since it originated in (what the rest of the planet calls) "The New World," a culture - started in The Enlightenment - where the most educated people would rather believe psychics on The Montel Williams Show, and the quackery of Dr. Oz, than approach anything close to actual research.

What you may look like after being raped a second time in the public eye

What Ms. Bowman's really asking is why society willingly chose her to be part of it's wreckage?

These three are as "happy" as the rapist, Thomas Jefferson, said they should strive for

I've railed about that here, for quite a while, as well. Mrs. Bowman's story gained credibility only because Hannibal Burris was complaining about Cosby's campaign of respectability politics - a campaign that whites have repeatedly endorsed, and tried to force on blacks, despite all the evidence proving it's a harmful lie. Whites haven't cared about that. They've liked the way the lie sounds too much to care about the truth or who gets hurt by it. That's also how they feel about The Cos, too.

These two aren't protecting or serving but no matter

Wisconsin's repeated support for Scott Walker's campaign is as fine an example of how this mentality "works" as I can find:

Whites stay happy? No problem

As long as someone's smiling, or trying to protect someone smiling, they can do no wrong - even as they're doing wrong.

Few are allowed to speak up - or taken seriously - when they want to talk about what's wrong

Almost the entire history of the west, and it's ideals, has worked this way - and some Americans will still kill you for not going along with it. Honesty is a huge problem in America: we build giant cathedrals to a crock and let the innocent starve because they didn't contribute to it.

There are few "good options" left beyond the truth

That, Ms. Bowman, is simply how Americans are,....

The NewAge

“When fascism comes to America, it will not be in brown and black shirts. It will not be with jackboots. It will be Nike sneakers and smiley shirts.”

Education Of The Good Nazis (Too Cool For Schooling)

"When we believe that our happiness is a matter of thinking the right kinds of (positive) thoughts, we become blind to the ways in which some of our unhappiness might be generated by collective forces, such as racism or sexism. Worst of all, we become callous to the lot of others,…"

NewAge Fact: America Loses Positive Attitude - It's Over

I read on Drudge we're bargaining body parts now. How much if I needed to sell an eyeball?

"Chattel slavery is alive and well today. The Germans used slave labor during the Holocaust, and though slavery is illegal everywhere, we have simply changed the name and driven it underground. Now we call it human trafficking. We have all seen the specials and heard the news reports. The poor and oppressed continue to be tricked and coerced—both physically and psychologically—into the trade as prostitutes, slave laborers, even child soldiers; but, surprisingly, it is not uncommon for poor families in rural communities to sell their children into slavery as a means of paying off debt.

On December 10, 1948, the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, making slavery and its servitude illegal in all forms. Unfortunately, it is estimated that 20-27 million people are currently living in ‘forced labor’. This does not only involve human trafficking, but the exploitation of workers who have no bargaining power and are often denied adequate living conditions—even salaries—and are often under the threat of death. What value has been placed on their lives?"

Lives? Valued? In some way other than the abstract Batkid/some faceless homeless-guy-rewarded-for-returning-a-purse kind of way? 

In America? 

Please, Dale Carnegie, I'm of no worth unless dedicated to trying win over somebody rich somehow (Pull down your pants already).

Culture, baby.

Keep this up or you're never going to have a positive attitude,...

Not Having "Daddy Issues" Is My Aid For Seeing Reality

I guess, it could go without saying, I am NOT a social scientist:

"It doesn’t take a social scientist to see that a blizzard of how-to books on “positivity” suggests its lack in everyday life. Behind the facade of smiley-faced optimism, American culture seems awash in a pervasive sadness,...."

But being able to see past the facade ain't exactly a party either,...

 ADDED - Forgot I had it waiting:

 

Why This NewAge Hallmark Card Fantasy World Fails

“Affirmation feels good. But it doesn’t prompt you to summon the resources and strategies to actually accomplish the task.”

Proudly Being A Witch Never Made Much Sense To Me

MS. LOUISE HAY (Self-Help Movement Founder):

"Happiness is choosing thoughts that make you feel good. It's really very simple."

I understand I'm probably not getting the most out of life right now, being exposed to those who don't take seriously the harm NewAge does to me and others, but - until they do - I can't think of much that's more important to pursue. To me, real people are getting hurt badly, right under our noses, when it could be stopped. Horrible crimes. But few others want to stop them, and - if nothing else - that fact's fascinating to me.

"It was an hour into the self-help session when the girl began sobbing uncontrollably. For Ali Campbell, the celebrity life coach, it was just another example of the potency of his ‘being true to yourself’ workshops. 

But for Michael Le Vell, it was the beginning of two years that threatened to rob him of his career, his family and his sanity. 

Today, The Mail on Sunday can reveal the moment that led to  the Coronation Street actor being falsely accused of raping a child – and to the life coach being questioned by police. 

It took place at the so-called ‘Glastonbury of the self-help world’, an annual conference called I Can Do It! A two-day festival of self-development, it was set up by Louise Hay, an 86-year-old American whose controversial brand of positive thinking has earned her millions of followers around the world."

Part of the issue is, today, there's no escaping it. Another - watching where the money goes - is such a potent symbol of why we've so quickly become a basket case of a country. 

Here's where a huge chunk of our change goes:

"Though you may not know it, you live in Louise Hay’s world. Are you a black man who thinks psychics are nonsense but reads the affirmations of Tavis Smiley? Hay House has a special imprint just for Smiley. Are you a TV-loathing snob who occasionally condescends to watch PBS? The pledge-drive specials that Hay House has produced for Wayne (“Inspiration: Your Ultimate Calling”) Dyer have helped raise more than $100 million for public television — they are one of PBS’s most-successful fund-raising tools."

Real people in the way, of this juggernaut of chaos, hardly stand a chance - because we're almost always alone and blind-sided:

"For Michael Le Vell, it was the beginning of two years that threatened to rob him of his career, his family and his sanity."

Meanwhile, the Boomers, etc., chant the NewAge phrase, "move on" to unburden themselves.

But also as a necessary rear-guard action.

What's done is done - and everybody will know them for who they are and what they've done.

It only follows, you know, they're expecting a reply,...

 

Somebody Called Me Real With A Capital R (I Saw Red)

Why Russians prefer alternative medicine

Judging Paranormal Claims: Group-think Is Not a Good Thing

If Your Blood Pressure Rises Listening to Adults Talk About Angels, Try Being the Sole Skeptic on the Panel

More people in the UK believe in Aliens than believe in God

Acupuncture patient makes 911 call after being left pinned and stuck in clinic

PR Director of Scientology’s Las Vegas Celebrity Center Arrested in Plot to Assassinate a Cop

Three 'Moonies' set themselves ablaze in S. Korea

Jehovah's Witness whose wife died after refusing blood transfusion is jailed for 13 years over child sex abuse covered up by religion's elders

An Unholy Alliance: Scientology Purchases Nation Of Islam For $2.3 Million, Plus A, "Cut."

Exclusive: Big Sean Talks Life Coach, The Law Of Attraction & Why He Cried On Stage In Detroit

Ecce Homo Fresco Painter Who Turned Jesus into 'Hairy Monkey' Signs Lucrative Royalties Deal

The False Promise of the Prosperity Gospel: Why I Called Out Joel Osteen and Joyce Meyer

Barbara Fredrickson’s Bestselling ‘Positivity’ Is Trashed by a New Study

3 Signs That it's Time to Get off the Self-Help Train.

“She is a Godly Woman” (Who Failed To Complete A Hit)

This tearful soul is Julia Merfeld. She's the woman we met a little while back, attempting to have an undercover cop kill her husband. She's, since, gone to trial.

Surprisingly, Jake Merfeld asked the judge to give his wife a lighter sentence, saying their children needed a mother and, “I whole-hardheartedly forgive my wife for all she has done in this act of hatred. I know that my wife is a wonderful person.” Good for him. 

The judge then gave his "wonderful” wife a minimum of five years eight months, and a maximum of 20 years, in prison. Good for the prison system:

She's brightening up the day room, I'm sure, wherever she is,...

I'm Always Looking Behind (Something's Always There)

 

 Even blogging, I'm starting to feel like I don't have much in common with others.

The hints that's true are everywhere:

“Here’s what goes through my head like a ticker-tape: What kind of leader am I? I can’t even get my own shit together. It’s hard to publicly admit that you’re failing or feeling bad – especially when the blogosphere seems to be on a frog-march of relentless positivity. Cupcakes and unicorns! Awesomesauce! Happyhappyjoyjoy!”

 

 "What kind of leader am I?" is NOT on my list of 99 Problems. 

My fucking truck is more important.

   

 Some have said, like Krishnamurti, I'm trying to start my own cult (knowingly using the charge as a gambit) but I don't know at this point what, they think, I would preach.

Disdain, maybe? 

My only true connection with Krishnamurti is knowing what beat I'm marching to:

"I maintain that truth is a pathless land, and you cannot approach it by any path whatsoever, by any religion, by any sect. That is my point of view, and I adhere to that absolutely and unconditionally. Truth, being limitless, unconditioned, unapproachable by any path whatsoever, cannot be organized; nor should any organization be formed to lead or coerce people along a particular path. ... This is no magnificent deed, because I do not want followers, and I mean this. The moment you follow someone you cease to follow Truth. I am not concerned whether you pay attention to what I say or not. I want to do a certain thing in the world and I am going to do it with unwavering concentration. I am concerning myself with only one essential thing: to set man free. I desire to free him from all cages, from all fears, and not to found religions, new sects, nor to establish new theories and new philosophies.”

 

With my spine's issues, I could certainly be Sting's "King Of Pain," but that's about it,...