I'm curious how you know which of us did and didn't "give a shit" in the past? Many of us were involved in the civil rights struggles: speaking of "my people," Avraham Heschel marched with MLK, and many Jewish kids were part of the voter registration drives during the Freedom Summer. In my own, small way, I taught…

Of course I agree that drug policing is disparate and applied in a discriminatory manner. I would think that this is a uniform position for anyone on the Left.

Why can't both abuses of law enforcement be objectionable?

Forgive my inelegant misuse of the double negative. Put another way: Of course I think that the way Black people have been treated by police is appalling. But that's not what this article is about.

What in my remarks gave you the impression that I don't think that the way that Black people have been treated isn't appalling?

Hopefully, none of them are undercover agents.

Law enforcement in this country has gotten to the point in which it has eliminated virtually every public space in which people can act without fear of surveillance and/or arrest. It is particularly bad for young people, whose high school and other life-shaping experiences have now been robbed of their spontaneity…

Newsflash: The same back to you.

I don't get your puzzlement. Transgendered people are some of the most mistreated, abused people in our society. Why *wouldn't* a site like Jezebel address the issue?

Well, what they saw and experienced is contradictory to what I saw and experienced.

You have no idea who I am, what ethnicity I am, or anything else.

She's a massive star for about 30 seconds. I doubt anyone will know who she is or care about what she did, a few years from now.

I think your ETA is spot on. But one also has to remember that the breadth and ease of these new communications platforms also tends to magnify things, so that they give the impression of being more significant than they really are.

I was born in 1968. I was very well aware of the "conversation" going on around Vanilla Ice. He was roundly laughed at, as a joke. There was no serious conversation about racism or accusations of it, for that matter.

I agree with your hopes...and also with your skepticism. Pop music just seems to have been on nothing but an awful-slide, since roughly around the time of the Spice Girls. I remember when bands like Duran Duran and The Police were what "megastar" meant. Now? It's barely possible to even refer to what passes as…

Who's backtracking? I don't agree with you on this, and I said so. What I got in return were ad hominems and "form" objections. It's not worth making a federal case over, so I said "Ah well."

Much of this strikes me as perfectly fair. I still believe that the pile-on, with respect to as dim a bulb—and as minimal a talent—as Miley Cyrus is excessive, but your point regarding the differences in how we interpret these things now as opposed to then is well taken.

Belittling? Methinks you are a bit thinskinned.

Sorry, but I thought that the attacks on her were unfair. That someone disagrees with you doesn't mean they're "dumping" on your conversation.

If you think that Miley Cyrus's twerking is worth a sociology dissertation, knock yourself out.