Don't Let the Woke Scolds Ruin Cinco de Mayo
Tacos, tequila, and sombreros are not the path to white supremacy.
Today is Cinco de Mayo, which means it's time for tacos and tequila shots—and also time for social-justice-influenced ideologues to tell us why enjoying things from other cultures is an unconscionable act of cultural appropriation.
Of course, trying to tell people not to consume delicious foods and beverages on holidays is a tough sell. This year, the woke scolds seem to have given up on that battle, and instead are focused on discouraging appropriative Cinco de Mayo costumes: sombreros, serapes, etc. BuzzFeed published one of its trademark listicles on this subject, "13 Things I'm — And I Can't Stress This Enough — Sick Of Seeing On Cinco De Mayo." The author is mostly perturbed about white people in hats.
An article from WBUR argues that cultural appropriation of ethnic garb is a form of white supremacy:
This is how white supremacy works. It always begins with the taking — an entitled grabbing of the cultural symbols of others. A sombrero? A serape? A kimono? Cornrows? They're there for the seizing. And if such snatching is questioned — if we dare confront the audacity by which it plucks what isn't its own — then there is intimidation and terror.
White supremacy grabs and grabs — lands, people, continents, culture — for both power and hollow amusement.
Suffice it to say, this is a rather backward understanding of white supremacy—an ideology that stresses differences and divisions between the races. The alt-right doesn't want white people wearing sombreros: They want Mexican people to take their clothing and food and head south. White nationalism is obsessed with keeping the white race pure—with making sure other peoples, cultures, traditions, and values do not dilute white identity. There's no better way to undermine this pernicious ideology than to engage in rampant cultural blending and borrowing.
As a practical matter, it would be impossible to disentangle distinct ethnic traditions from the blended fabric of American society. Cinco de Mayo is a Mexican holiday, but one that's primarily celebrated in the U.S. rather than Mexico. That's what happens when cultures mix: New traditions form.
Much of the outrage over cultural appropriation is confined to leftist social media enclaves and college campuses, where de-problematizing Cinco de Mayo is a frequent goal of racial justice activists. Their efforts call to mind H.L. Mencken's famous description of Puritanism as "the haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy."
To learn more about illiberal student activism pertaining to race and culture, pre-order my book, Panic Attack: Young Radicals in the Age of Trump. And to read more Reason articles in defense—and praise—of cultural appropriation check out these:
Us Silly Right-Wingers and Our Problematic Sombreros!
Lionel Shriver Doesn't Care If You Hate Her Sombrero
Screw Cultural Appropriation and Let Your Daughter (or Son!) Be Moana for Halloween
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Suffice it to say, this is a rather backward understanding of white supremacy—an ideology that stresses differences and divisions between the races.
The idea of cultural appropriation is a hot take gone viral. It took hold because there aren’t enough actual racists for the woke to get their outrage nut off on so they grabbed hold of this to turn everyone into a target.
Micro-aggressions are way worse than blowing people up or hacking them up with machetes.
White people have so much privilege. Killing a white person is punching up, but wearing a sombrero is punching down.
Just to clarify, a white person appropriating a hat is worse than a brown person hacking off a head.
You’d better be a Spanish conquistador if you’re using a Machete, otherwise that’s appropriation.
AOC is half Cortez.
Literally.
When is she gong to pay reparations to the indigenous peoples that her ancestors subjugated?
It’s absurdly amusing that the same Marxist morons who don’t believe in property rights think that culture can be owned or stolen.
How does a woked person react when you tell him the author of the Koran approapriated Mose’s biography?
Progressives have a carve out for screwing over Christians and Jews.
Just to let you know, Cinco de Mayo has zip to do with white supremacy…for your information, and don’t take it from me but from actual history. Mexicans do not celebrate Cinco de Mayo at all..the following says it best of all…the only reason we know it about it at all in the US is because some years ago, Absolut Vodka concocted an ad in celebration of this so-called holiday, a marketing team made up on one of their better days..so talk about stupid…look in a friggin’ mirror if you really want to find the definition of that….it never has been a Mexican holiday of any kind…so when you think of easily led individuals, you can only blame yourself for falling that trap…over and over again…
https://therivardreport.com/cinco-de-mayo-is-not-a-mexican-fiesta/
I first heard of Cinqo de Maio through a Corona beer commercial when I was in high school in the late 1980s. Never thought of it as a serious holiday.
That’s what makes it so frustrating. Cinco de Mayo is 100% an American celebration! Mexican-Americans in California celebrated the defeat of the French because it was feared they would help the Confederacy. It was in support of a Union victory! How is that a bad thing?
“It was in support of a Union victory! How is that a bad thing?”
Now you’ve done it, you’ve triggered the Rothbard types.
No, the idea of cultural appropriation is one of them dumbest ideas of the last 100 years. It’s not a hot take, it’s a moronic take.
Mostly the same people who were saying we should all embrace diversity 10 or 15 years ago are now saying not to embrace diversity and stop celebrating and appreciating other cultures! Fuck that. That is Tide Pod-eating level stupidity right there.
“This is what happens when the demand for racism exceeds the supply.”
According to someone here, the supply would automatically increase so racism would become cheaper.
The author is mostly perturbed about white people in hats.
Bullshit. The author is only pretending to be perturbed as a way of signaling her (and I have no idea if the author self-identifies as male or female but the author is a whiny little bitch either way so I’m going with “her”) holy and high-minded virtue. If white people weren’t “culturally appropriating” Cinco de Mayo she’d be bitching about wypipo’s lack of recognition of other cultures. Or something, anything, it doesn’t matter as long as she’s careful to display her identity as not one of “them”. And it’s pretty sad and pathetic that her identity and sense of self-worth is so wrapped up in putting other people down just so the sewer pit she inhabits feels like the mountain top.
Exactly… There are two possible scenarios here.
1)
Me: “I’m celebrating Cinco de Mayo.”
Woketarian: “STOP APPROPRIATING OTHER CULTURES YOU RACIST!”
2)
Me: “I’m not celebrating Cinco de Mayo.”
Woketarian: “SHOW SOME APPRECIATION OF OTHER CULTURES YOU RACIST!”
I disagree.
We Koch / Reason libertarians should be sensitive to all forms of white supremacy, even seemingly minor manifestations like problematic food and clothing choices. If we fail to address racism in its early stages, eventually people will progress to even more bigoted behavior, like opposing our immigration agenda.
I’m highly sensitive to it, and anytime I sense it I celebrate it.
What good is being supreme if you can’t enjoy it?
The author is one uptight and bitter kill joy.
Can you imagine what she would do if she was invited to a pot luck?
Would she complain if someone brought home made pizza and they were not Italian? For that matter, can a non-italian eat pizza?
These wokeTards are totally retarded.
“can a non-italian eat pizza? ”
Real pizza, or deep dish?
I think deep dish is ‘problematic.’ And then you have those who put pineapple and ham on the pizza. What’s with that?
That’s the least disturbing thing one can put in a pizza. Do a search for ‘Big Sausage Pizza’ videos and you will see what I’m talking about.
deep dish isn’t pizza.
You’d be remiss at such a pot-luck for not pointing out that modern “traditional” Italian food depends on tomatoes, which came from the New World to the Old World after Columbus. Pizza itself is cultural appropriation. What was Italian food like before the tomato? How far back would you have to go? The Romans depended in grain from Libya and Egypt. The Athenians depended on grain from the Caucasus. At some point it has to sink in that probably even stone age people were guilty of trading with one another and appropriating culture along the way.
I sometimes wish I knew some of these sensitive snow flakes. It would be a lot of fun harassing them with reality.
If I was unemployed like all the wokeTards, I’d like to follow one of them around and police all their actions until they starved to death, froze to death, or otherwise suffered dire consequences for the limitations they are always trying to place on others.
Potlucks are an appropriation of Native American culture, you racist shitlord!
Like Cinco de Mayo, Pizza as we know it is mostly an American thing.
The SJWs have no problem culturally appropriating Columbus Day.
The more the progs hate it the more I fight to keep Columbus Day.
I’m native Texan. My response is to tell them to fuck off. It is my culture.
Remember folks – Diversity is Our Strength!
As long as you think exactly like them.
But don’t dress like them, or style your hair like them, or eat their food, or wear their clothes.
So white nationalists and SJWs would prefer that we celebrate Cinco de Miracle Whip. Got it.
Or maybe Cinco de Vegan Mayo would be ok?
HOW DARE you even joke about misappropriating Vegan culture. That is all but sacrilegious! 🙂
Good thing you stopped at sacrilegious — otherwise you;d be culturally appropriating some (or all?) religions.
LOL. Yes, I know my boundaries. 🙂
Maybe they’re were-vegans…they only go vegan when they go to restaurants and they can exhibit their culinary wokitude
Might be. Though, (and I don’t speak for all were-vegans, I only go non-vegan flesh there isn’t vegan flesh to be consumed. It’s a last resort. Non-vegan flesh upsets my delicate constitution. Maybe it’s the gluten? Or the GMOs? 🙂
Might be. Though, (and I don’t speak for all were-vegans, I only go for non-vegan flesh there isn’t vegan flesh to be consumed. It’s a last resort. Non-vegan flesh upsets my delicate constitution. Maybe it’s the gluten? Or the GMOs? 🙂
Sacrilegious? Or sacrilicious?
‘Their efforts call to mind H.L. Mencken’s famous description of Puritanism as “the haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy.”‘
IOW, they’re appropriating Puritan Culture.
If someone gets pissed because you’re out celebrating today, tell them that you’re not celebrating a Mexican victory over the Frogs, you’re celebrating Columbus’s discovery and subjugation of Jamaica man. You always wear a sombero. Also, tell them they should join in the fun because it’s their hero Karl Marx’s birthday as well.
There’s a whole bunch of Native Americans in Cherokee, NC whose man source of income is selling headdresses, peace pipes, decorated drums, etc. to Wypipo. Of course, now days most of there wares are made in China. I’m sure their are tourist spots in Mexico that happily sell sombreros and colorful Mexican clothing as well. I know that the Mexican groceries across the street is always happy to see me. This is just another example of white (actually privileged) liberals being “offended” on behalf of other groups that don’t give a shit. These are the same people who want these same groups to “embrace their culture” and dress like their ancestors no matter how many generations they’re removed from it so they can get a cool cosmopolitan vibe walking around campus. They need to be told to FO or at least ignored.
‘Their’ can be tricky. It’s not so difficult that a sharp 3rd grader shouldn’t be able to master it.
So you can check your posts (and everyone else’s) for grammer, but you have nothing intelligent to say.
‘Grammar’ is the correct spelling. Almost as tricky as their.
I think you mean “grammar” and “they’re”
Don’t have to be all that sharp really…
English is a descriptivist language. The grammar and spelling “rules” merely describe common usage, they don’t dictate it. We’re free to speak, write and spell however we wish.
You snotty prescriptivist prick.
English is an appropriation of Latin.
Its racism and White Privilege all the way down.
English is a Germanic language that has Greek and Latin influences as a result of years of conquest and trade. ⅝
“”This is just another example of white (actually privileged) liberals being “offended” on behalf of other groups that don’t give a shit””
That’s the funny part. The liberals are basically hijacking other cultures right to determine what is worth being offended.
Cinco de Mayo was started by Mexican-Americans in California during the Civil War. It was a battle victory they could celebrate. The modern version of course was promoted by Corona as a way to sell beer. Why is it that only Europeans want people to appropriate our culture? We want so much we’ll even force it other them.
Functionally illiterate. Syntax matters.
Ooooh burn! Next do to/two/too you mental giant.
Please don’t ask me to force it other them.
You know there’s no edit function your retard?
Then you should be extra careful.
But I don’t give the fuck.
Mtrue needs more beatings until he learns his place.
verbs two
Fuck and don’t get me stated on adverbs…
How about gerunds?
I love grammar… especially the antecedents.
Could you please point out the verb in your first sentence. See, we can all play this game.
This article shows why SJWs and Racist are really one and the same thing. They want to keep different groups of people on their side of the streets. Of coarse The SJWs have added socialism with racism along with having a so called group picture of diversity their way and then force everyone on their side of the street.
Functionally illiterate. I see it’s an attempt to parrot the sentiments of other commenters, repeating words like socialism and racism, but syntax matters too.
What is your fucking problem?
Apparently socialism, racism and syntax…appears to be somewhat ok with grammar…possibly innumerate?
vrbs to
Damn them vrbs…
You should try losing your virginity.
America has become one of the largest melting pots of culture, race, and traditions in the World.
Democrats, who fought for slavery, want to make sure all the white people are separate AND equal.
Before I went to go live in Mexico, I was eating in a standard sit down Mexican themed restaurant, where the interior is meant to invoke a hacienda, the waitresses were wearing stereotypical versions of traditional Mexican dresses, and the food was all covered with cheese. My friends Chuy and his girlfriend were there, and he was explaining to me how the food in that restaurant isn’t really like this. He pointed to the tacos on his plate and said, “Mexican cooks don’t dump grated cheddar on everything. This isn’t really Mexican food”.
Chuy grew up in Mexico, identified as Mexican, and, so, technically speaking, everything he ate was Mexican food. If Mexican food isn’t food eaten by Mexicans, then what they hell are we talking about? When he ate egg rolls and General Tso’ chicken, he was eating Mexican food. He also lived in a Mexican house (mid-century modern), wore Mexican clothes (surfer shorts and t-shirts), and watched television for Mexicans (Breaking Bad). He said his kids were American! I guess they like grated cheddar on their tacos like you get at Taco Bell?
I lived in southern Mexico for almost two years. Mexican isn’t even a race. It’s a nationality. Mexico is amazingly diverse. The difference in music, cuisine, fashion, and ethnicity was amazingly diverse–not just in one part of the country but all across it. The culture (music and food for instance) of the Yucatan is so much different from that of Durango. People of the American south are far less different from people of the Pacific northwest than Mexicans from different areas are from each other. There is tremendous racial diversity in Mexico. Germans, Lebanese, Mayans, Canadians, people of African ancestry by way of Belize–not to mention the descendants of the Spanish. And that was just in Merida.
The land in the Yucatan wasn’t given to raising cattle, so dairy products and steak weren’t endemic to the local culture. Steak restaurants became something of a fad. They were all themed as “Argentinian”. The waiters would dress up like Argentinian gauchos.
When I’d get together with friends on Cinco de Mayo in San Diego, they’d joke about how the holiday wasn’t a big deal in Mexico. In Mexico, they’d joke about how big of a deal Cinco de Mayo is in Southern California. It isn’t a big deal. It never was a big deal. Government employees and school kids don’t get off for it like they might on Columbus Day. There is no true meaning of Cinco de Mayo like people refer to the proverbial true meaning of Christmas–not even in Mexico. In the U.S., it’s less of an excuse to get drunk than St. Paddy’s Day for non-Irish people. It’s actually less than that since hardly anybody in the U.S. goes out to get drunk just because it’s Cinco de Mayo.
You’re not culturally appropriating something that doesn’t even rank as an excuse to get drunk–especially not when it’s something that isn’t even that important in Mexico.
This is the work of a literate person. It brings to mind a quote from Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy. One character is describing a notorious Mexican to another. ‘He is pure Mexican.” The other interjects. “He can’t be pure Mexican. It’s like being all mongrel.”
Are you a professional internet comment critic?
Proofreader/editor/writer/teacher/translator, among other things. These days I’m doing Android apps.
Mtrue is certainly a professional douchebag, with powers of analysis on the order of an above average earwig.
There is a certain irony to harping on punctuation, or grammar, or syntax when you also quote Blood Meridian
McCarthy can do it his own way why should not everyone else
“Proofreader/editor/writer/teacher/translator, among other things.”
You left out “a-hole.”
“The other interjects. “He can’t be pure Mexican. It’s like being all mongrel.”
As you would be fond of pointing out, punctuation matters.
You’re sntencs leadin 2 teh quotations making feel bad, punctuation askew. Fixx you head?
What the fuck is your problem?
You haven’t lived till you’ve been to Octoberfest in China…
Hanukkah in Iran…
Culturally appropriating excuses to get drunk?
Trying to come up with a list. In addition to those mentioned, Cinco de Mayo (tequila) and Oktoberfest (beer)
St Patrick’s day (whiskey)
Guy Fawks day (gin)
Carnival (rum)
Purim (slivovitz)
Chinese New Year ( baijiu)
I need a longer list…
Americans will go out and get drunk just because it’s St. Patrick’s Day. Very few if any decide to go out drinking because it’s Cinco de Mayo. I’ve never heard of average Americans going out to get drunk just because it’s any of those other holidays you mentioned either.
No doubt, your local bar will try to promote the holiday with Margarita specials, what have you, but they’re mostly trying to get more drinks sold for the evening–to the same customers who would usually be there–than they would otherwise. If it weren’t for Cinco de Maio, they’d be drinking Bud Light rather than Margaritas.
Anyway, if you look at what I actually wrote, “If it ***DOESN’T EVEN*** rank as an excuse to go out and get drunk”, then it probably isn’t a cultural appropriation. In fact, if the “holiday” weren’t so easy to remember because the name of it is the date, people wouldn’t remember it at all.
Oh I agree just having a little fun.
As someone who’s part Irish, stop appropriating my drinking culture if you’re not going to start fights too.
I don’t know why that stereotype is still okay in polite society. When all the others have bitten the dust, to the point that you’re not even supposed to say “retard” anymore, it’s still okay to associate the Irish with getting drunk.
Any stereotype aimed at Northern Europeans (and their descendants) is okay.
And rural Americans. We all seem to be completely backwards, and have no clue about pop culture, at least according to Hollywood. This despite cable TV and the internet.
From my favorite old school libertarian writer.
“People are all exactly alike. There’s no such thing as a race and barely such a thing as an ethnic group. If we were dogs, we’d be the same breed. George Bush and an Australian Aborigine have fewer differences than a Lhasa apso and a toy fox terrier. A Japanese raised in Riyadh would be an Arab. A Zulu raised in New Rochelle would be an orthodontist. People are all the same, though their circumstances differ terribly.”
PJ O Rourke
That is the truth of it. Part of the similarity is that people often tend to be bigoted, shortsighted, and selfish.
I think it’s still OK because everyone knows it’s half joking at this point.
Some cultures are definitely more drinking cultures than others though. And the Irish do have a pretty good drinking culture. Hardly any more so than the English, though.
Come on now, everybody knows the Irish really are a bunch of drunken bastards! But it’s okay, I like ’em… Especially Irish chicks… Because I have a thing for redheads, with just a light sprinkling of freckles 🙂
F that. I go out and get drunk on Arbor Day.
Cinco does have a true meaning. The French defeat probably kept them from coming to the support of the Confederacy. It was a way for Mexican-Amercans in California to feel like they were making a contribution to the war.
“13 Things I’m — And I Can’t Stress This Enough — Sick Of Seeing On Cinco De Mayo.”
Te lo pasa por el culo.
(that came from Bing; I don’t speak much Spanish)
So were the Mexicans just appropriating French culture when the picked a minor victory to celebrate? As I recall (yes, I was there, because I identify as being there), we later lost the war, and were under French rule for years. In fact, it wasn’t until the ‘damn yankees’ kept looking further south than the lands they stole from those who had previously owned them that the French took the money and ran.
We celebrated Cinco de Cuatro, but I think there’s still plenty of Mexican foods and accoutrements left in town, dammit.
“There’s no better way to undermine this pernicious ideology than to engage in rampant cultural blending and borrowing.”
That’s not what they want. They’re simply attention whores. “Look at me!”
And this is what they’ve got to scream about. People wearing costumes. At least the activist of the 60s were trying to stop a war.
I wonder how many of them are single children, and whose “play” time was always scheduled by their parental units.
Chickens coming home to roost?
Funny how ya get what ya ask for, isn’t it?
I want mine covered in mole…
Dear Meso-Americans,
I’ll let you enjoy using wheels, automobiles, electricity, potable running water, sewage treatment, airplanes, modern medicine, famine-free food production, mechanized agricultural machinery, modern buildings, central heating, air conditioning and all forms of modern communication technology if you just won’t hassle me for wearing a sombrero one day a year.
Deal?
It’s no deal until you can convince the Chinese to let me use toilet paper.
THIS!
And why do they get to wear our clothing??? No more suits, button down shirts, blue jeans, shoes of any sort that aren’t moccasins or sandals, etc. I feel super oppressed or something every time I see somebody appropriating the traditional garb of my people!
Does anyone know if there is a Reasonable/Greasonable type plug in for this new hot mess of a comment section?
This really blows without…
Not that I know of. I’m not sure it’s a simple update this time either. Maybe reach out to the owner again as he was still updating it every year or so.
I suspect the owner prolly spends his time at Glibs, now.
Having the HTML tags is nice, but without something keeping track of new comments it’s almost impossible to keep up. I’m not scanning 60 comments every time I reload.
Perhaps, but he did come back and drop an update last year. This was well after the Glib split. That being said, I’m sure the update last time was much smaller. I imagine with the rework that it probably requires a full rewrite.
Hold my margarita and watch this…
Hey, it won’t let me fool you by posting a comment consisting only of spaces, so you can think it was filtered!
Sorry, no more glossing over my calls to wipe out the progressives. Gotta get rid of them at some point.
Latinx? Is that even a word? Doesn’t Latin come from the original cultural imperialists and slavers in Rome?
I think it is a woke invention to make it gender neutral since Spanish does not a neutral gender for nouns. So it is either Latino or Latina.
Latin@
I don’t know why simply “Latin” isn’t good enough if you want a non-gender specific word.
Latini?
Also, does this writer, supposedly steeped in Mexican culture, not know that sarapes are not Mexican? Why is the author, a rich, privileged, Mexican of colonialist descent, speaking for the indigenous people’s of North, Central, and South America who have been using serapes since before the author’s colonialist ancestors showed up?
Does she really think her privilege grants her the right to speak for the Navajo? The other indigenous people’s of the Southwest?
Oh, and does she know that the thing those white people are wearing aren’t actually sarapes but gabans or jurongos? Sarapes don’t have the cutout in the middle to allow it to be worn like a poncho, gabans do.
Well, so much for ‘cultural symbol’ then, eh.
Oh, and that she continually misspells ‘sarape’ is quite possibly the best part.
A ‘serape’ is *Guatemalan*. And its something that exists in Guatemala solely to be sold to tourists who don’t know that Guatemalans don’t use sarapes.
If you decide to drink a Tequila Sunrise this holiday, please be aware that is an Arizona invention. California just stole it and made it slightly worse.
It’s still a good drink though. Let’s be clear.
BUT ITS OUR DRINK AND NOT THEIRS!!!111!!
True enough.
I don’t want to understate the dastardliness of the Californian race.
This is how white supremacy works. It always begins with the taking — an entitled grabbing of the cultural symbols of others. A sombrero? A serape?
Not to mention: You can’t spell “serape” without “rape”.
So . . . um . . . is there anything good on TV tonight?
Hey, if we can’t appropriate clothing, there’s gonna be a lotta people without pants.
Where I live Cinco de Mayo is mainly an excuse for frat boys (not that they need much of one) to binge drink. I doubt if guys who wear their baseball caps on backwards have much idea of the day’s historical significance.
Yup and you can make it into a theme party which will attract more members of the opposite sex. So win all the way around.
They really should because the Mexican’s victory kept the French out of the Civil War.
First they came for Cinco de Mayo…. then Thanksgiving, pretty soon the 4th of July will be banned.
actually, Columbus Day was first
When we want to drink margaritas on Cinco de Mayo, they call it, “cultural appropriation”.
When they want to BBQ on the Fourth of July, they call it “cultural imperialism”.
They can have Columbus Day. No special food or drink and hardly anyone even gets a day off. What kind of boring holiday is that?
We should trade it in for Super Bowl Sunday which would be extended into a three day weekend. It has everything a holiday should. People get together with friends and family. There is a food tradition consisting of stuff like nachos and pizza. They drink. They ritually watch the game or at least the halftime show. Even non sports fans like it.
Shit. Stocks gonna tank next week.
https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2019/05/05/traders-brace-for-sharp-sell-off-on-trumps-tariff-threat.html
Well with unemployment low there will be plenty of jobs at amazon and Walmart for those who were planning to retire.
I only believe forecasts like that if their made by Krugman
Not a forecast. It will happen tomorrow at opening.
The unknown is what Trump will tweet.
The less unknown is what China will do.
The wonderful Alicia Keys in a New York State of Mind.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=9COePp7RCrU
The recent market rallies were about more than optimism that Trump would come to terms with the Chinese. That productivity report that came out Wednesday was fantastic. GDP numbers out of Europe are even improving. I think that might be what emboldened Trump to make this demand. Unemployment is at a 50 year low. Trump’s approval for his handling of the economy is improving even among people who disapprove of the job Trump’s doing overall. I’m sure the open will take a hit. We’ll see where we land at the end of the day. If the Chinese don’t pull out of this week’s talks by the end of trading, the market will probably improve over the course of the day.
Nobody better appropriate my joke about how making fun of sombreros is hat speech.
We need like buttons, I can’t believe they didn’t implement those in the new format.
In my experience those can ruin a forum. People start to just write for points.
+1
I like this informal points system. You can keep score at home if you feel like it.
Oddly, we had two new coworkers up from Mexico City last week to do some training on our product. Our company had a Cinco de Mayo party on Thursday. They knew what Cinco de Mayo was, but had never been to any such event. “That’s an American holiday.”
It’s not a holiday no one gets off work.
When I used to go through Tijuana, on the way to surf on the Baja, they used to sell donkey shit cigarettes to tourists. They thought selling them to Americans was funny because they thought American tourists were so stupid, they’d smoke cigarettes made of donkey shit–because they couldn’t read the packaging in Spanish. But that wasn’t why Americans were buying them. American tourists bought them as a gag gift to show their friends back home–the gag being that Mexicans are so pathetic and poor, they smoke cigarettes made of donkey shit.
Like I wrote above, Cinco de Mayo is like that. Mexicans love to believe that Americans are so stupid, they celebrate a Mexican holiday that no one in Mexico gives a shit about. in reality, Americans don’t give a shit about Cinco de Mayo either. It’s a promotion bars use to sell margaritas. When Mexico beats the U.S. in soccer, no in the U.S. gives a shit about that either. To add to the insult, we don’t really give a shit when the U.S. beats Mexico in soccer either.
I used to work in the medical records department of an acute care hospital. We interfaced with every department in the hospital, but every department seemed to treat us as if the only thing we did was whatever we did for them. No, billing office, I can’t be at your meeting with the auditor because there’s a patient who’s waiting for surgery and can’t be anesthetized until we finish this report and get it on the patient’s chart. You didn’t know we did that? No, we weren’t just being lazy. Yeah, we do a lot of things.
People I’ve talked to from Iran seemed to think that every move America has made since 1953 was about Iran. What was going on in El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua in the 1980s wasn’t because the United States wanted to take over El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, or Nicaragua–no matter what people in those countries say.
You see, we were fighting this thing called the Cold War with China, the Soviet Union, and others, and when militant groups in your country threw their lot in with our enemies, they became part of the battleground. Apart from that, nobody in the U.S. gives a shit about your country. You may have noticed that we do our best to ignore your country now that the Cold War is over. You can fuck yourself up like Venezuela did, and we’ll do our best to ignore you.
No, not everything the U.S. has done since 1823 has been about trying to keep Mexico down and the Monroe Doctrine. Why does it seem like everything that happens in Mexico is either our fault because of what we did or our fault because of what we didn’t do? The more Mexico lets us ignore them, the more we’ll ignore them. I know it’s painful to look at the huge difference between cities on one side of the border and cities on the other. If San Diego and El Paso were in Mexico, they’d look like Tijuana and Juarez.
And that’s Mexico’s fault.
When you were working in medicine it was never the fault of the patient. Your co workers often did not understand your role but you all had one end. Even billing because without them there is no money to finance the operation.
So all of them, surgery, radiology, pathology, billing, admin, hollering get me what I need. You were the circulatory system driving it. Tough job. Medical aphorism: Air goes in and out blood goes round and round.
Mexico is not at all the enemy. We can live together in peace and keep working together for mutual shared goals.
It is amazing how much attention people in the other countries pay to American politics. I would love to think we’re working together to achieve common goals. There’s a tremendous amount of resentment.
In the Delian League, the city states furthest away from Athens hardly ever complained about paying dues for Athenian protection from the Persians, etc. Right on the border of the Persian Empire, they were about as pro-Athens as you could get. On the other hand, the closer you got to Athens, the more they complained about paying their dues. Those were the city states that would cry about Athenian hegemony. It’s not fair!
Last I checked there are only three members paying for their own defense at the level they’re supposed to maintain according to NATO, and two of them are Estonia and Poland–the countries that are right up against the old Soviet Union and most afraid of being overrun by the Russians again. The U.S. is always more popular in Poland than pretty much anywhere else in Europe. In Mexico, it’s all about American Imperialism and stupid gringos.
The more things change, the more they stay the same.
Defense against whom?
That is where it gets difficult.
So the US freaks out if we do not have double offensive capability over every other nation combined.
In real estate it is always a bad investment to have the most expensive house in the neighborhood.
Russia spends less per capita on defense. Nobody is going to even think about attacking Russia even when they are forward deployed.
Mexico is not attacking the US or anyone. The better they do the better we do.
You know why they spend so much time thinking about the US?
Because we are scary, dangerous and unpredictable.
“”Defense against whom?””
Good question. Perhaps we should start to pull out of NATO until they can give us a good answer.
What really cracks me up is that La Raza people earnestly believe that if California had remained part of Mexico, Hollywood and Silicon Valley would have been Mexican creations.
Yup. It’s not the land that makes great civilizations, it’s the people, their culture, and their institutions.
There’s a Reason everywhere that the British went became a 1st world nation… It’s because they were British, and all that entailed. Australia is a giant shite hole for the most part, and has been turned into one of the nicest places on earth. The same is true of the southwest.
I seriously want to proposed that we simply trade places… Maybe every American, European, etc trades places with Africans and South Americans. They get all our infrastructure and stuff, and we just call it good.
They’ll think they’re getting the better end of the deal… Until Europe and America turn to shit within a generation or so, and magically Africa and South America become the richest and best places on earth! We’ll be secretly screwing them too, because all those tropical areas have way more awesome weather than Europe or North America!
I’m so triggered that the ghost of Roy Rogers is on my back.
in reality, Americans don’t give a shit about Cinco de Mayo either
Except for a few particularly ignorant people who are hung up on “cultural appropriation”, apparently.
Meanwhile, all the tabs at the top of the screen have been moved to the menu button on the top left. While everyone argues about cultural appropriation!
I’ve visited Mexico a few times. Went to the places the majority of American and European tourists don’t go. Ate the wonderful food. Swam in the beautiful cenotes. Talked about stuff with people who lived there. (Didn’t drink the tap water, because the people said they didn’t drink it.) Bought clothes and other stuff. Absolutely enjoyed every moment. Left there thinking… something…
Wait. I had a point…. er… oh, well, never mind. It never mattered.
Cenotes? You must have been in the Yucatan.
Been to Merida? I lived there for over a year. I’ll go back someday.
Woke scolds are the new segregationalists. Absurd.
The woke pussies don’t have the balls to eat fish cooked in lime juice on a 100F day.
Ceviche!
So is Robby saying the Frito Bandito is not settled science?
I really want to wear a sombrero and giant fake mustache one of these years… Living where I live some progtard will certainly bash me for it… Then I can tell them to fuck off, because I’m part beaner on my moms side. I will then tell them that even if I weren’t they’re fucking stupid, and anybody should be able to wear a dumb hat.