Depress 14 (Depressing Shit to Avoid series)

I recommend you see part 1 of my Depressing Shit series and read my original disclaimer here; now here's installment 14.

I'm only telling you about these things for your own good. Unless you have the problem of too much happiness and too little awareness of bad things, AVOID! AVOID!
 

Movies

The Good Lie
(Sudanese war orphans)
 
J. Edgar
(no likable characters; makes me think about how much I would have hated to be him; unpleasant overall)
 
Miss Evers' Boys
(Tuskegee syphilis experiment, racism. Could be under TV category, too, 'cause it was made for TV)

My Zinc Bed
(alcoholism, AA. Also a book!)

Sometimes In April
(Rwandan genocide)

Things We Lost In The Fire
(a "touching look at loss, addiction and recovery." Blech.)

This Is Where I Leave You
(Is this depressing? I have a feeling it might be. HBO calls it a comedy. I suspect otherwise.)

Yesterday
(AIDS in Africa. Did I already mention this 1? Still a bummer.)

Music

Neil Young, ‘On the Beach’
Read Dangerous Minds' post on "Neil Young’s ultra-depressing 1974 album ‘On the Beach’" here:
http://dangerousminds.net/comments/dance_troupe_interprets_neil_youngs_ultra_depressing_1974_album_on_the_beac?utm_source=Dangerous+Minds+newsletter&utm_campaign=f693fb8aa8-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_ecada8d328-f693fb8aa8-65858297

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Civil War Two, Part 1

by Randall Collins

Giveaway ends May 24, 2018.

See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter Giveaway

More depressing stuff: Read Part 2 here.
And here's Part 3.
And Part 4! Are you depressed yet?!
Part 5
Part 6
Part 7
Part 8
Part 9
Part 10
Part 11
Part 12 
Part 13


As always, I welcome your suggestions for More Depressing Shit. Please comment, and I'll include any good suggestions in a future update.

Use Your Powers For Good (For Those Who Love to Argue)

I love to argue.

But sometimes I just wanna go home.

Have you seen the internet? My, but people love to argue.

But I also like to DO stuff.

I want to support all marginalized people. But some of the arguments on the internet, like one I skimmed recently among lesbians and trans activists on a Facebook page [which I'd link here, except that it's disappeared] yesterday, make me sad because it's hard to see how it helps any good cause rather than harming it.

I could read and read... or I could just stop reading and start singing to myself to get the arguing out of my head. You could call that privilege, that I don't have to argue or pay attention to arguments all the time.

Do you/your social category have big problems? Undoubtedly. Are your problems bigger or more important than other people's problems? Impossible to say. They are to you, of course. "All suffering, however multiplied, is always individual," said Gandhi, possibly. (I read it somewhere and am having trouble finding the original quote.)

Do you have the right to be offended? Yes, at anything and at any time, and neither I nor anyone else has the right to tell you you shouldn't be offended at something. Maybe I don't think you should, maybe I think you're annoying, but that doesn't matter. Getting offended is free, free, free.

But what is the point of all the arguing? Changing minds is important, yes. But berating potential allies for your cause, people who may have some very major enemies in common with you-- e.g.,  THE PATRIARCHY!-- can be massively counter-productive. It's beneficial to limit your arguing to what is actually doing good, I think, which, though it sounds good, is also hard to determine.

But I'd offer everyone fighting for a cause this simple-ish advice: Take at least some of the time and energy you could spend arguing with potential allies and spend it on taking REAL action in the real world to benefit actual people. Fighting online may feel righteous, but there's a good chance a lot of the effect will NEVER result in any positive change for the people you claim to champion. Like real transwomen suffering real violence out there.

Let's lessen the arguing and try to DO SOMETHING.



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 Napoleon Never Slept: How Great Leaders Leverage Social Energy  

 Micro-sociological secrets of charismatic leaders from Jesus to Steve Jobs

E-book now available at Maren.ink and Amazon

Too Many White People

[Note: This may also be funny with white actors.]

A: Don't you want to go to the beach?

B: No... I'm kind of "white peopled"-out for today.

A: What are you talking about? We haven't seen any white people today.

A: Yeah... but I know they're there.