Why are you targeting coleslaw? Have you had my grandmother’s coleslaw? IF you had, you would’ve invited her to the barbecue. #notallslaw

Look - I appreciate your patience and persistence and willingness to talk (and/or interest in engaging in Big Issue procrastination). But we’re arguing at cross purposes, and my attempt to reframe the topic isn’t working. You think progressives need to find another argument, a better way of presenting things, a new…

Agree that, practically speaking, progressives won’t win over conservatives by (a) denigrating their basic character or (b) making their ignorance grounds for dismissal. It’s also impractical to ask, e.g., Black people to patiently explain, cajole and plead with white conservatives to see their side of things while…

Awesome. Love this response. I think your theory (about anise/cabbage) is a little weird and a little wrong, but still fun to think about. I will try to eat all of these things.

There have to be better options that will last just as long. I might tunnel under a Taco Bell.

I think I do see your point; I just don’t agree. I think it’s a cart-before-the-horse argument. Do white nationalists borrow from the language of leftist identity politics as cover? Sure, but that’s just the 21st-century version of a timeless impulse to morally justify behavior that isn’t grounded in rational…

They’re built to last. We should probably start lining our underground bomb shelters w/ Neccos. Indestructible, insulating, cheerfully colored (for those long years without seeing the sun) and - in a pinch - edible.

Well, what do I know? Lots of my favorite flavors are things I used to dislike (olives, cilantro, stinky cheese). That salty licorice candy definitely got under my skin. Meanwhile tell me about the anise liqueurs and fermented cabbages in chinese, japanese, mexican, indian and thai cooking.

The curse of perpetual ambivalence: as soon as someone says they “absolutely agree” with something I wrote, I start wondering what aspect of it we’re both wrong about.

These were hard with (most murderous of all) a liquid center. Maybe that’s the Danish twist on the original (Dutch) sin? I only know about the center because the taste triggered some kind of defensive bite-down response in my brainstem. They were evil. You put it in your mouth and you were like, “Ok, huh, I’m not sure…

I think I agree, though it’s a tough one. Trump’s incompetence and pathological narcissism creates chaos which slows down the Republican agenda. Pence would be worse on that axis, because he’d be more effective. But I think Pence is preferable on a “live to fight another day” basis. Not that we’re being offered a…

Working in a research tent-camp on the savannah in Kenya (rotating menu: lentils, curried vegetables, lentils) a Danish researcher produced a tin of salted licorice candies and handed them around as a special treat for sweet-starved Westerners. Next day the dusty half-licked lozenges could be seen scattered around on…

Necco Wafers are medicine for a disease that got wiped out in the 1930s.

Can you at least admit that candy corn is a mindfuck, in that it looks like it will be awful? What says “granny bought these during the Great Sugar Shortage of ‘43" more than those little orange, yellow and white cones? I only know candy corn is good because of the many times I let rejected kernels collect at the…

This was a good post! It does not seem to have made a splash. Did anyone see it when you wrote it? (Kinja is so confusing.) This kind of breakdown of who voted for Trump and why is so important. And, almost a year later, most people on these boards still seem to prefer a simpler story that gets the racial aspect but…

What is the basis for arguing that white people organizing around whiteness are taking a cue from “progressive identity politics?” European Americans (or whatever) have been drawing race-based boundaries - socially, ethically, legally - since well before there was any organized counter-movement.

This is true.

All great points. But what about the fact that unifying around diversity is simply more complicated (and therefore harder) than unifying around homogeneity? Today’s Republicans are a self-selecting group who want to defend the existing power structure - with rich, white, straight, christian men at the top. They’ve…

All great points. But what about the fact that unifying around diversity is simply more complicated (and therefore harder) than unifying around homogeneity? Today’s Republicans are a self-selecting group who want to defend the existing power structure - with rich, white, straight, christian men at the top. They’ve…

Also fwiw - every time I post about stuff like this I read what I wrote later and think: eh, fuck that guy (meaning me. a male white feminist. even worse). I keep coming back because I think we have to find some way to rebuild our sense of solidarity or at least talk. But I find my own efforts irritating. Luckily(?)…