Apparently getting square dancing recognized as the state dance of most states is a racist and anti-Semitic plot devised in part by Henry Ford:
PUT YOUR TIN FOIL HATS ON, we are about to go on a VERY wild ride.
I haven't been this excited since I first found out about the incredibly strange world of quicksand porn.
— Robyn Pennacchia (@RobynElyse) December 7, 2017
Weird.
Princess
Yes, in fact, this was the most interesting thing I read today. 10/10
debbie
I never understood why we were square dancing in gym class.
RedDirtGirl
I’m taking my first forays into the twitter-verse. I Confess to being a bit trepidatious!
Feathers
Am now doubly proud to have gone through multi racial schools where the square dancing unit in gym included AfAm line dances and various European folk dances, including the hora. I still can’t hear Kool & the Gangs “Too Hot” without being dragged back in time to the seventh grade and those creepy one peice gym uniforms. Do kids still wear gym uniforms?
I thought the piece was a bit over the top in terms of hating on the square dance. There certainly was a great deal of community level dancing, basically in square formation, long before the 40s. Hadn’t really thought of it before, but what “square dancing” did was make the dancing generic “white” rather than a specific ethnicity. They were erasing Eastern European and Scandinavian identies, too. Not so much erasing, as fitting them inside the idea of whiteness.
ETA It always seemed pretty clear to me that square dance was there for something to do in the bad weather when you couldn’t go outside.
NotMax
Here’s hoping folks in Missouri, whatever their affiliation, aggressively push back against this egregious practice.
Gin & Tonic
@debbie: Neither did I.
Davebo
Thursday Nights at my old favorite Tex Mex place had at least a dozen to 20 square dancers show up. Fabulous! Youngest was 70 or so, all in full regalia drinking Margaritas and enjoying life.
If only I can do that at 70. Minus bolo tie.
sharl
I wonder if Henry Ford would have had mixed feelings about Angela Davis – yes, THAT Angela Davis – loving square dancing in her early years. The excerpt attached to this tweet is funny and stereotype-breaking:
Davebo
@RedDirtGirl: Let’s have your @handle! I’m new to it as well. Trying not to obsess but it’s difficult.
ThresherK
Starting in college, I dated several women I met square dancing. In the wilds of suburban New England, no less. The last one is now Spousal Ms ThresherK.
We have not square danced in a long time, and with her knee, little dancing of any type at all.
I can’t imagine how patriotickal the trappings of square dancing have become since 9/11.
We went on to dabble in more ballroom. However, square dancing did serve its purpose.
NotMax
Freshmen orientation activities at college included an evening of square dancing.
I’m not one into dancing of any sort* but as a one time only experience it wasn’t horrible.
*Can barely manage what might be described as rhythmic posing, plus dancing means I have to put down my drink. ;)
MomSense
@ThresherK:
I still go square dancing, contra dancing, and Scottish dancing. Now if I could find salsa dancing here, I’d really be happy.
Amaranthine RBG
Square dancing you say?
https://www.meetup.com/CapCitySquares/?_cookie-check=8MMK8GDMNL1iAm58
ThresherK
@MomSense: I hope her other knee gets replaced (first one was a year ago) so we can do that again.
At some point we found the contra dance folks were more to our liking, and the dancing easier in the technical sense.
Major Major Major Major
You’re right, that is more interesting than seven thousand comments about Al Franken.
ETA less interesting than some of the Smalltalk documentation though
Peale
I’m glad that Wisconsin seems to have gone with the polka. Even when I had to take square dance in junior high, we knew it was something done by cowboys, and there weren’t any cowboys in Wisconsin.
sharl
@RedDirtGirl: Best wishes on a useful and/or satisfying twitter experience. I love twitter myself – a little too much – but I totally understand it when others are quickly put off by it.
I’m sure it helps that I’m a guy, so – like everywhere else – I don’t get the hassles and abuse that women seem to get more often (of course your chosen twitter identity and the content of your tweets don’t have to reveal your gender or any other personal identifying information to others on twitter; only twitter hq itself might need some of that, via what registration information is required).
Should it seem necessary, I would recommend not being reluctant to use the ‘Block’ or ‘Mute’ options with troublesome accounts – your account is your place!*
I’ve seen people say of Twitter, “I can’t believe this site is free!” (though sometimes said ironically).
I’ve also seem it referred to as “the hell site”.
I have felt both of these sentiments, sometimes in close succession** (**if that’s the proper word).
*FYI/FWIW, potential advantage of using ‘Mute’ is that the account being muted doesn’t get any notice that you’ve done that. They may only start to wonder if they’re, say, 20 tweets into a long rant, then suddenly notice you are not responding, at which point they’ll often sulk off in frustration. There is a weird subset of trolls that gets off on being blocked.
But hopefully you’ll go a long way without having to face such annoying types.
Duane
@NotMax: Our governor, in office less than a year, is already out of control. He rigged the education commission board so he could fire the respected commissioner. He’ll try to install a puppet, and contnue his assault on public schools.
To no one’s surprise, he’s friends with Devoss. Like Trump, he’s a con man. Greiten’s campaign ad featured him firing an AK-47 and grinning like the sociopath he is.
Major Major Major Major
@RedDirtGirl: Good luck! Mind your blood pressure! I’m on there somewhere.
Mike J
@RedDirtGirl:
Follow John, Doug, and Cheryl. There’s a buncha people from LGM worth following.
I’d like to follow more people, but twitter insists on polluting my timeline by telling me what other people liked but didn’t retweet. I have a hard time keeping up as it is, and could follow more people if Twitter didn’t give me crap I don’t want. I want tweets or retweets from people I follow, in chronological order. That’s all. Nothing else.
Adam L Silverman
@Feathers: The hora isn’t a European folk dance.
Major Major Major Major
@Mike J:
Might have to make a custom app for that…
Nicole
Darnit; square dancing was one of the few things in gym class I could actually kind of do.
Lapassionara
@Adam L Silverman: thank you.
Mnemosyne
I’m slightly annoyed by the slam on contra dance people who use prerecorded music. When you’re meeting twice a month, live musicians get freakin’ expensive!
Not that I’m going back to my English Country Dance nights anytime soon. Sigh. And just when I was getting the hang of Mr. Beveridge’s Maggot, too.
Mnemosyne
@Adam L Silverman:
Ashkenazi aren’t from Europe?
MomSense
@ThresherK:
I hope she can dance again after she gets a new knee. I enjoy the music at the contra dances. Some of the women have fabulous costumes.
Mnemosyne
@Nicole:
When I started working on my historical novel, I discovered that there are at least a half-dozen local groups that do English country dancing, which is pretty similar. You may want to look around for contra dance or English/Scottish country dance groups in your area.
Mike J
@Feathers: One piece gym uniforms? Guessing that was for the girls.
Our gym uniforms were super hot because they were basically two t-shirts, one sewn inside the other. Easily reversible so you could play black v gold (school colors) rather than shirts v skins. But every day you were wearing two t-shirts.
Adam L Silverman
@NotMax: Something like this?
Mnemosyne
@Mike J:
We had those, too. It wasn’t as bad in Illinois since the gym would be chilly in the winter.
Adam L Silverman
This has to be seen to be believed. Holy crap this was bad!
Yarrow
Square dancing is good for people who don’t know how to dance because there’s someone there telling you what to do!
NotMax
@Mnemosyne
Would postulate more Brits like mimes than do Morris dancers.
Adam L Silverman
@Mnemosyne: They are, the hora isn’t.
Adam L Silverman
@MomSense:
And the US financed and supplied weaponry is top notch too!
Yarrow
@Adam L Silverman: Is there a summary? I can’t bring myself to watch almost ten minutes of Trump. The PBS tweet summary doesn’t sound that bad. Was there something in particular?
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Major Major Major Major: Folk still use Smalltalk?
Adam L Silverman
@Yarrow: All of it Katie!
He turned the event into a campaign pop about the veterans being back with him every year for the next 7 years in addition to this one. Then he made some screwball remark about the cry was “remember Pearl Harbor”, which it wasn’t and then he did the “I just learned that yesterday thing” and turned and asked that vet if they’d ever heard that before.
Lyrebird
@Adam L Silverman: @Feathers:
FWIW, our elementary school music book had the Tumbalalaika song (aka Shteyt a bocher) listed as a Russian song. If Feathers is John Cole’s age or older, I can believe they might have said the hora was European, too.
BlueDWarrior
To say I’m agitated right now would be an understatement.
Stupid Falcons and stupid refs and to hell with TNF. Going to be bitter about this for at least a couple of days.
Adam L Silverman
@Lyrebird: It is what it is.
Princess Leia
My dad was a square dance caller -and all of us kids danced. When I was in my late teens I was off to a dance, dressed in the big skirt and full, full petticoat that was de rigeur. This was the early 70s, so the skirt was also relatively short. Too bad for me then when my car broke down on the side of the freeway. I had to walk a mile or so to the next off ramp to get help. I am so lucky that no one ran me over as they laughed their way down the interstate. Haven’t square danced since. And now I find out it was all a plot! Sheesh.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Mnemosyne: Contra dance, is that something from Nicaragua?
Lyrebird
@Adam L Silverman: Yep.
Wish I’d taken pictures of the faces of the first several Russian exchange students I met while I was asking them about this fun song I remembered from school. They had never heard of it.
Peace all!
trollhattan
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Did a Contra dance once where Iran the other way.
amygdala
@Adam L Silverman: It’s a good thing I don’t celebrate the holiday, or you’d be permanently off my Hanukkah list, young man.
Good grief, where to start?
1) Who wrote that ahistorical, shallow wreck of a speech? Miller? As always, can someone please take his *&@! adverbs away from him? Gah.
2) Could he have walked around the desk to shake each of their hands for real, rather than reaching over the way he did?
3) Of course he had to make it all about him, but the obsession with seven more years suggests someone’s feeling a little threatened by Mueller.
Major Major Major Major
@?BillinGlendaleCA: No, don’t be ridiculous.
I decided to pick it up in my spare time.
ETA Plus it will probably get me hired on the spot by some plucky interview team should it come up, because this industry is stupid like that
Mnemosyne
@NotMax:
Morris dancing is the exact opposite of English country dancing. Here’s Mr. Beveridge’s Maggot.
NotMax
@Adam L. Silverman
On the very best of days, might be able to intermittently reach Cyril Ritchard or Peter Lorre‘s level.
;)
Tehanu
@Adam L Silverman:
Can’t watch him no matter what, and besides, the sound card on my computer is dead. Could you elaborate?
?BillinGlendaleCA
@trollhattan: Was it far away and was there a Flock of Seagulls there?
Adam L Silverman
@amygdala: I am merely the messenger.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Tehanu:
With Trump talking this is a cause for celebration.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Adam L Silverman: You know, this is Balloon Juice and we shoot the messenger.
Adam L Silverman
@Tehanu: He turned the event into a campaign pop about the veterans being back with him every year for the next 7 years in addition to this one. Then he made some screwball remark about the cry was “remember Pearl Harbor”, which it wasn’t and then he did the “I just learned that yesterday thing” and turned and asked that vet if they’d ever heard that before.
amygdala
@Adam L Silverman: Inflicting him on those guys is elder abuse!
Adam L Silverman
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Then you’re going to be very upset with me, because I’m here to report that Doug Jones’ campaign has preemptively suppressed the African American vote in Alabama!
https://www.theroot.com/a-racist-flyer-might-cost-doug-jones-the-election-becau-1821065764
More at the link!
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Adam L Silverman: Looks like the pedophile will win as expected.
Adam L Silverman
@amygdala: I’ll call Children and Family Protective Services…
Major Major Major Major
@Adam L Silverman: Eesh, yikes, that’s awful. Unfortunately, so is that article, helpfully titled “A Racist Flyer Might Cost Doug Jones the Election Because the Entire Democratic Party Is Trash.”
ETA also that tweeter is a trump-supporting russia-denying uselessface
Adam L Silverman
@?BillinGlendaleCA: I’ve been a strategic communication advisor for an Army program. This is bad!
NotMax
@Tehanu
Gorge rising enough snippet?
Adam L Silverman
@Major Major Major Major: I’m not sure you can really blame Mr. Harriot for his screed. He isn’t wrong. And he is right to be angry.
Major Major Major Major
@Adam L Silverman: I absolutely can blame him for his screed, since he wrote and signed and published it, and I take issue with some of the primary theses.
ETA: That said, he should be angry, that flyer is terrible.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Adam L Silverman: So I take it you’re really good with Powerpoint.
Yarrow
@Adam L Silverman: Oh, dear. That sounds awful. Those poor veterans. He is such an embarrassment.
Redshift
@RedDirtGirl:
I’d suggest finding stuff other than politics to get started. I feel that I like Twitter better than many people because I got on it for science-related stuff initially, so I saw “interesting discussions” first, rather than “interesting discussions plus shouting and trolling.” NASA has the best organizational social media.
I’m @Redshift42, btw.
danielx
@NotMax:
Latest celtic/irish fest this past fall, t shirt slogan: makin’ white men dance since 1494.
I would add ‘badly’ to the end of that line, actually.
Adam L Silverman
@?BillinGlendaleCA: I have the tab!
Aleta
@Mike J: I’m no expert, but I believe you can set filters to avoid everything except from people you follow. (Ads show up, but not too much.)
Mnemosyne
@Major Major Major Major:
They tend towards hyperbole at the Root.
Duane
Is Omnes aware of quicksand clown porn? If not, he should be.
Major Major Major Major
@Mnemosyne: I know, which is why I don’t usually read it.
ETA: If you want me to evaluate it as a Root article then I find it well-reasoned and temperate.
Mnemosyne
@Adam L Silverman:
I’ve seen people on this very website make the point that Obama would never have been elected if he had the same marital history as Donald Trump.
However, it may be one of those observations that only people inside the affected group are allowed to make, because it just comes across as a special kind of racist when a white guy says it.
Major Major Major Major
@Duane: I thought the same thing!
NotMax
@Duane
Or of this?
(DO NOT CLICK, Omnes.)
Adam L Silverman
@Mnemosyne: No argument here.
Yarrow
@Adam L Silverman: That’s really disappointing. I clicked through and checked the image. It must be cropped because there isn’t anything on it about Doug Jones campaign or the election or anything. Are we sure it’s from his campaign and not a ratfucking?
danielx
@NotMax:
You just had to post that, didn’t you?
I had to quit watching about 17 seconds in; I was losing the will to live.
Adam L Silverman
@Yarrow: From what’s being reported, it is from his campaign.
Mnemosyne
@Yarrow:
The frustrating part is that I can see that they didn’t consciously intend to be racist, but their giant racial blind spot caused them to end up creating something that was really, really racist. I know whar they wanted to say, but they fucked their message up, bigly.
Yutsano
@Adam L Silverman: It’s better in the original language.
sharl
@Yarrow: Others have asked about the mailer’s authenticity. The tweet below includes an image of (part of) the back of the mailer. It’s from Doug Jones’ campaign.
Adam L Silverman
@Yutsano: Grazi!
Major Major Major Major
Wow, TenguPhule and Cacti were 15.7%(!) of the Franken threads today.
I… I was curious. Don’t look at me like that.
ETA: They were the top 2 commenters by a wide margin, typical pareto distribution
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Mnemosyne:
I can’t, and being that I’m about as WASP’y and possible with parents from the south.
Steve in the ATL
@Mnemosyne: Granville Cafe was excellent—thanks for the tip
Steve in the ATL
@?BillinGlendaleCA: thought of you when I passed Target earlier. Feeling better?
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Major Major Major Major: Doesn’t surprise me, I saw lots of comments about pie.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
each?
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Steve in the ATL: Did you see the snow?
Major Major Major Major
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Total. Tengu was 11.1%.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Steve in the ATL: Nope, I was back at Target getting more drugs(cough meds).
Mnemosyne
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Like I said above, it’s a common (and true) meme I’ve seen from Black people — white men get away with shit that Black men never would, especially in politics. The Jones campaign tried to repurpose that existing meme for their campaign and only managed to create something that’s really, really racist.
I say it’s not intentionally racist because I don’t think it’s meant to stir up racist feelings against Black people. But there are a whole lot of ways to be unintentionally racist if you’re not careful, and this is Exhibit A.
ETA: And just to be clear, I’m not saying “unintentionally racist” as an excuse. I’m saying, “Wow, they created something that’s really fucking racist even though they may not have meant to. They need to apologize, pronto.”
GregB
There was a similar hyperventillating reaction to something allegedly racist done by Northam before the VA election. If anyone voted for the Confederate pederast over Jones because of that, they are idiots.
John Lewis is campaigning with him.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Mnemosyne: I understand that, it’s still prima facie bad.
bartkid
@NotMax:
What do Morris Dancers have against mimes?
;)
Major Major Major Major
@GregB:
He said he would ban sanctuary cities or something, which unlike this would actually have an effect on anybody and was legit troubling as policy.
Betty Cracker
@Major Major Major Major: LMAO!
?BillinGlendaleCA
Snow at Americana@Brand(our fancy pants mall) taken with my new phone.
Mnemosyne
@Steve in the ATL:
Strangely, I had lunch from there today — we ordered in at work. IMO they’re probably the best overall restaurant at the Americana. And the little Taiwanese (?) bakery next door is pretty good, too.
Now all you have to do is get a sandwich and some potato balls from Porto’s and you will have had the complete Glendale experience.
Mr. Kite
Isn’t this a common ratfucking modus operandi? Cooler heads and find out for real before releasing the hounds.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Mnemosyne:
Untrue, he hasn’t met me.
Mnemosyne
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
I’m not saying that it’s not horrible. I’m saying that they managed to do the exact opposite of what they intended and pissed off the very people they were trying to reach.
Duane
@Steve in the ATL: Better than the Armenian Surprise you had with Ruckus?
Mnemosyne
I’m way too excited that my special knee elevation pillow is coming tomorrow. I’m very tired of trying to keep stacks of pillows from sliding apart. I hope it works out and will make my knee more comfortable.
sharl
@Redshift: Yep, judiciousness in who you follow on Twitter is always good practice, especially when new to it.
But seeing as I’m not good at following good advice, I follow hundreds of accounts on my main feed. But I rarely go there anyway, except when I feel like browsing. Instead I use Lists. I have a lot of them, but nearly all are set to “Private”, and I only follow a few of those. I have one list which holds 30 or so of my favorite accounts, which is what I visit most.
A couple things about twitter lists:
(1.) They can be used for malicious purposes, which is why some accounts state up front that they don’t want to be included on them. For example, if you get a Notification saying “you have been added to the list Stupid Libtard Loozurs” (or whatever), that list might then be used by trolls to target you. So both as a courtesy and because I don’t want most of my lists public anyway, I set them to ‘Private’ (the default option is ‘Public’). My only public lists are (a.) for noncontroversial content, and (b.) only contain accounts who clearly want maximum visibility
(2.) I like the option “Tweets with Replies” for individual accounts – I like following conversations – and Lists don’t accommodate that option. So I use multiple tabs – (usually just) one with my favorite list, and several other tabs following individual accounts using the ‘Tweets with Replies’ option.
My twitter habit is bad enough, but at least I don’t have to live the life of professional journalists and media types who have to follow LOTS of different people at the same time. Depending on how much you get into it, you’ll find that some accounts are particularly useful as aggregators of content you like from multiple accounts, in which case following them makes things a bit less arduous.
Major Major Major Major
Sounds like.
sharl
@Major Major Major Major: Yes indeedy.
SFBayAreaGal
When I was in junior high school, social dancing was part of gym class for both boys and girls. We had to learn the fox trot, box step, swing, waltz and square dancing.
Major Major Major Major
@SFBayAreaGal: My dad made me and my brother learn the foxtrot. He quite famously insisted on it. We have never used it and mock him for this frequently.
Yarrow
@sharl: Thanks. Saw this in her Twitter feed:
Also this:
Also, this, which seems really low given the attention this election is getting.
Yarrow
Ugh. Stupid comment in moderation probably due to too many links. I’ll break it up.
@sharl: Thanks. Saw this in her Twitter feed:
Also this:
Yarrow
Also, this, which seems really low given the attention this election is getting.
sharl
@Yarrow: Yeah, I haven’t seen enough about the dynamics of Black Democratic voters in Alabama to confidently form a strong opinion. I’ve seen some comments that Doug Jones is spending too much time running on his résumé, rather than what he would do for current voter needs. If that’s true, it’s a really good point, even given the fact that Jones’ résumé is really, really good. I would hope Jones has some politically sharp Black Alabamans on his campaign staff to get some decent advice.
Joy-Ann Reid had a pretty good piece on this recently, clearly (and IMO properly) aimed at White lefty/liberal critics primed to dole out the blame in the event of a Jones loss –
………Don’t Blame Black Voters If Doug Jones Loses to Roy Moore: The Alabama Senate race is a referendum on Alabama, not on black Alabamans.
A response to your second tweet backed up the sentiment Reid found among some of the black Alabamans she talked to:
It was also noted in Reid’s piece that blacks make up only 25% of the Alabaman general electorate. They are overwhelmingly pro-Jones, and it will be awesome if they come out in huge numbers, but Alabama is soooo conservative (and white) that blacks there shouldn’t be dumped on if Jones loses.
It seems like it will be close though, which in Alabama is quite remarkable. Best to Doug Jones!
Tehanu
@Adam L Silverman: Thanks for the description and for being enough of a masochist to actually listen and watch where I just couldn’t bear to. !! Or shorter: ugh, how awful. Really, thanks for your sacrifice!
@?BillinGlendaleCA: You’re so right.
@NotMax: O.M.G.
Kathleen
@Yarrow: Thank you.My thought exactly.
Miss Bianca
@NotMax: Ahem. That’s pretty harsh.
Miss Bianca
@Mnemosyne: Well, I know plenty of people who do, or have done, both. (walks off, whistling “Flowers of Edinburgh”)