I pit DrDeth

Sorry (not sorry), but I want to add to the praise. I was getting a little frustrated by the Huck Finn back and forth but couldn’t think of a way to say it. Your post said what I wanted to say better than I could.

The only thing I’d add is that it’s just a freaking good story. In addition to his moral points, Twain just told a really cool adventure, with bizarre characters and side quests. I may have to re-read it.

This sort of thing is why the dope is so good. Excellent post Stratocaster. LHOD is always classy too.

I’m just glad that DrDeth has brought us all together like this. Group hug.

Your mom’s always classy.

String quartet classy or Mr Peanut classy?

I don’t know if it’s fair to call this a flaw in the book. I have trouble imagining a white guy in the 19th century writing a book about racism from the perspective of an escaped slave that turns out better than Huckleberry Finn.

I don’t think it’s endorsing it, so much as its subsumed by it. It’s a good example of how a bunch of people acting with explicitly anti-racist intentions can unintentionally perpetuate a racist system. Twain was writing an anti-racist novel. Generations of teachers were moved by its message, and taught it to their students because they thought it was important. And because they’re operating in a system that was built to privilege White perspectives, those are the anti-racist views that get promoted, often to the exclusion of minority perspectives. It’s not Twain’s fault that Huckleberry Finn became the default book on American racism for so long. That’s not a flaw in the book, that’s the flaw in society the book was trying to address.

Well put.

I wonder what he would say if you told him. I think he’d probably be unhappy to hear that so little progress was made that his book is still relevant.

There it is! That’s the thread!

…this is a thread about black representation and race relations in 19th century literature, isn’t it?

Nice!

As to the actual subject of this thread - I’ll just note that he seems in general to be slipping back into old habits. Dude really needs to learn when to let things go.

Maybe it’s because I only run into him in topics related to history, military matters, or both, but I’ve never noticed an improvement in his behavior for him to slip back from in all honesty. He’s still just as childish, disingenuous, argues in bad faith, deliberately misrepresents what his ‘opponents’ have said, throws around enough strawmen to be a fire hazard, etc., etc. today as when I first ran across him.

Oh, and his record of being factually wrong more often than not hasn’t improved either.

I’m not sure why I clicked on this thread, but I’m glad I did. Definitely was not expecting that. And of course now I have to read the book!

I’ll just note here that he’s engaging in his habit of misrepresentation and then stubbornly bickering over it currently in the “Contextual Acronyms” ATMB thread, as you know since you’re in the middle of it. I particularly enjoyed the part where he explained to you that you didn’t understand what your own thread was about!

His denial of racism in old Dungeons and Dragons is just neckbearding nonsense. But his schtick in the Hamas thread, where he expresses satisfaction with indiscriminate bombings of Palestinians and calls them less than human and says “I have little sympathy of the palestinians as a whole. They made their bed, now they have to lie in it”?

That’s some truly evil shit.

I can’t believe I engaged. I’ve kept out of all the Israel threads and that’s what I fucking waded in for.

Goddamnit. I’m so fucking mad at myself.

I suppose this is a far better place to put this without needing the politeness of P&E: @DrDeth, you a sack of shit for describing Palestinians (not Hamas; Palestinian civilians caught in the crossfire who you gleefully see are being denied food, water, and electricity and would be even more gleeful to see being put to the torch ala Dresden) as inhuman.

You are a stupid sack of shit for imagining you can rewind time and rewrite what you put out there in black and white for everyone to see and now start quibbling that you only meant that you don’t view Hamas as being human now that you see what a bad look calling all Palestinians inhuman is.

Murdering civilians? No problemo. Calling someone a Karen? Beyond the pale, donchaknow.

He has his limits, though. He’s OK with starving children to death and dropping bombs on them, but would never condone exposing them to secondary smoke!

Remind him that bombs can set fire and that leads to smoke inhalation.