HOW WE GOT HERE: We've been called away from our desk!

THURSDAY, JUNE 30, 2022

Will post this afternoon: Rather thoroughly, Tuesday's "new arrival on the front" has replaced the overthrow of Roe v. Wade as the "topic of general conversation."

(We're quoting Chekhov on the subject.)

We plan to complete our series on the overthrow of Roe—more specifically, on the question of how we got to this place. That said, we've been called away from our desk this morning on a mission of national import.

We expect to post this afternoon on the more current topic of conversation. As you may have noticed, novelization is everywhere, along with selective presentation of fact.

As we've often noted in recent years, these are anthropology lessons. According to major disconsolate experts, the pleasures of anthropology are pretty much all we have left!


27 comments:

  1. This reminds me of SnowflakeFest 2021, when Republicans threw a childish temper tantrum in public, just because black peoples votes counted in the 2020 Presidential election.

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    1. This would make a good pop-out greeting card I'm thinking, maybe one of those that plays audio upon opening.

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    2. You can look at Trump's entire presidency as one long temper tantrum because black and white people together put a black man into the White House. Trump's signature accomplishments, aside from a tax cut for the wealthy and letting too many people die of covid, was to undo whatever Obama did during his two terms.

      Note how the right is talking about undoing Brown v Bd of Education and rolling back the scant progress made implementing the post-Civil War amendments to the Constitution, esp voting rights. @9:15 is not joking when he reminds us of the agenda of the Republican/White Supremacist Party.

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  2. "According to major disconsolate experts, the pleasures of anthropology are pretty much all we have left!"

    Actually, over the past two weeks, we've had a huge helping of the truth. Somerby deals in lies these days (disconsolate anthropologist experts in caves, missions of national import) but, like other Republicans, he doesn't what to hear about what happened on 1/6.

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    1. The juvenile idea that his reference to disconsolate anthropologist experts is a "lie" is ridiculous on its face and completely undermines anyone's (if there is anyone left) ability to take your comments seriously.

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    2. If I read you right, you are saying that no one will take me seriously if I don't laugh at Somerby's supposedly non-serious remarks, instead of seriously considering what purpose they serve in his essays?

      Maybe you find Somerby's nonsense cute and charming. To me these are lies and they further his disinformation. There are no anthropologists, expert or otherwise, endorsing anything he says in this blog, and he says a lot of ignorant and incorrect things about human behavior. In particular, anthropologists do not support what he says about narrative, and they are upbeat about humanity, not disconsolate. But these remarks ARE anti-intellectual, they mock the concept of expertise, they lend a humorous veneer to the idea that Somerby's own remarks can be fact-checked against what anthropologists (and psychologists and political scientists and journalism experts) say on the subject. Somerby makes some huge howlers whenever he talks about the social sciences and no imaginary anthropologists can save him from that.

      Obviously, Somerby has no missions of national import. He may have an occasional gig but otherwise he is retired because he is now in his mid-70s. Of course, he may be meeting with whoever gives him his Republican marching orders.

      If you cannot evaluate someone's arguments without these sorts of anti-intellectual, self-serving embellishments, that is your problem. Somerby buries his intentions beneath a heap of this chaff and it is distracting at best and at worst serves his political aims, which are to spread conservative memes and aid the Republican noise machine.

      But you go ahead and laugh at this crap. You are clearly Somerby's audience.

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    3. 10:16,

      I am an anthropologist from the future. And yes, my family and I do huddle in a cave since we have no furniture due to continuing supply chain issues.

      I resent your disbelief in my existence and find you to be, quite frankly, a future-anthropologist-phobe.

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  3. "Charlie Sykes: “How did Trump himself see this? He obsesses about appearances, and she was an attractive, poised, and compelling witness. To use Trump’s own term, she looked like she was from ‘central casting,’ and she made for great television. Which is why TrumpWorld absolutely, positively will work feverishly to discredit her testimony. Which, of course, is already underway.”

    And what did we get from Somerby yesterday? We got a string of remarks about Hutchinson's preternatural calmness and composure:

    "...a remarkably composed young woman... "

    "That said, Hutchinson was remarkably calm and composed as she offered yesterday's testimony..."

    "At this point, we'll offer a personal reaction to Hutchinson's testimony. We were greatly impressed, as we sometimes are, to see the way some people who are so young will sometimes emerge with so much capability and with so much composure."

    "We thought of Collins as we watched the preternaturally composed Hutchinson testifying..."

    "Hutchinson is, and was, extremely impressive." (Somerby says this twice.)

    "We'll suggest that a hint might be found in Cassidy Hutchinson's brilliant performance at yesterday afternoon's hearing." (Note the word "performance," as if she were an actress and not an employee telling what she saw and heard happen.)

    And this is the way Somerby follows Trump's lead by focusing on Hutchinson's demeanor, her appearance, and not the substance of her testimony. And this is how conservative talking points find their way into Somerby's daily rants. She is enacting a "brilliant performance" not telling the truth as she experienced it. But Somerby doesn't believe in truth. It is only narrative to him and that means he can bend the story any way he wants to tell it, much like Trump does. He can even tell us he is liberal, but this is not what liberals are talking about after Hutchinson's testimony.

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    1. 9:52… very nice job. You do leave out Bob’s odd attempt (by normal person standards) to tar her because, and yet, She was once part of Trump World. Suddenly being one of the people who just didn’t see things the way we do didn’t count for much.

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    2. Hutchinson was the lone witness in a nationally televised hearing. For large portions of the broadcast, the camera was close up on her and her alone. Like it or not, there was a performative aspect to her testimony.

      While Somerby didn’t say directly, when someone repeatedly says how impressed they were with a witness, it’s a pretty good sign they found the witness to be truthful.

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  4. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  5. Cassie Smollett's perjury has imploded and Democrats failed to distract anyone from their Biden misery with the January 6th dust-up, Roe is overturned, and the right to defend yourself with a gun on your person is reaffirmed. Crazy Trump delivered the goods.

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    1. “Dust up” nicely defines your sense of national loyalty, scum bag.

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    2. National loyalty means defeating Democrats.

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    3. Thanks. How are things in Moscow? Sorry you can’t get McDonald’s anymore.

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    4. "...and Democrats failed to distract anyone from their Biden misery..."

      It doesn't matter, as long as their dead voters remain loyal.

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    5. 10:08,
      Alas, pregnant women aren't going to die from ectopic pregnancy without rat-fuckers, like 9:58.

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    6. Delivered the goods?
      Trump tried to gaslight a viral pandemic, as if it was some common political reporter for the New York Times.
      You just know Republican voters would string him up for the deaths of 100s of thousands of American citizens, if it wasn't for the fact he hates black people so much.

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    7. You're not being fair to Trump. He had Jared look carefully at the growing deaths from the pandemic and Jared, after exhaustive research, concluded that most of the deaths were happening in blue states. So Trump conclude, who gives a fuck for them anyway.

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    8. I've seen this "ectopic pregnancy" concern repeated but every state allows abortion for ectopic pregnancy so it's giving Republicans an easy path to defending the ruling.

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    9. because, as we all know, repugnicants are strong advocates of "tort reform", or so I have heard my entire life

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    10. Doctors are already afraid of being dragged into courts but no doctor is going to be fearful of a procedure that can be proven with 100% certainty by diagnostic tests. If a doctor expresses a fear about being prosecuted for treating ectopic pregnancy he is lying for political reasons.

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    11. I am glad you're so sanguine about it all.

      Currently, the restrictive abortion laws that have passed in certain states do not outright ban abortions for ectopic pregnancies.

      Though abortion restriction bills contain carve-outs for lifesaving care to the mother — which technically includes ectopic pregnancies — the vague language regarding what is and isn’t legal could confuse healthcare professionals and cause them to delay care out of fear of being prosecuted, according to experts.

      Any delay in treatment for an ectopic pregnancy can be dangerous.

      If an ectopic pregnancy has ruptured, the pregnant person needs care immediately because they could start bleeding and lose up to 2 liters up blood very quickly.

      In Texas’ anti-abortion legislation that ended abortion after 6 weeks, there are exceptions for ectopic pregnancies.

      But an NPR report found there’s still confusion around who is able to use the medication typically prescribed for certain ectopic pregnancies — methotrexate — since the state prohibits its use for abortions.

      “It is just insane how the language can be very, very difficult to navigate,” said Gupta.

      According to Dr. Cindy Duke, a dual board certified virologist and OB-GYN, says abortion legislation that could impact ectopic pregnancies reveals that people do not understand what constitutes a pregnancy.

      “It is not a termination of pregnancy. It is literally a situation where someone’s life is at risk in a context where there will never be a viable baby,” Duke said.

      All this confusion about what constitutes an abortion, and who can get one, may increase the barriers to reproductive healthcare and further contribute to health equity issues.

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    12. Though abortion restriction bills contain carve-outs for lifesaving care to the mother — which technically includes ectopic pregnancies — the vague language regarding what is and isn’t legal could confuse healthcare professionals and cause them to delay care out of fear of being prosecuted, according to experts.”

      Sure.

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    13. I'm willing to bet Cecelia, like every other adult American, is much more experienced with doctors than she is with Republican voters who aren't bigots.

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  6. A sure to be overlooked bit from Trump was when he berated her attempts to clean up after his food mess. “she didn’t HAVE to clean it up.” He fumed. Such a gesture as She was making to help, one fears, is now beyond the comprehension of the typical Republican.

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