Thurday's Most Active Threads

The most active thread yesterday was one that was started back on March 17 titled, "Indictment Monday?". Posted in the "Political Discussion" forum, the original poster optimistically cited reports that former President Donald Trump might be indicted the following Monday. Of course, that didn't happen but for the next few days discussion in this thread would seesaw as the chances of a Trump indictment seemed to rise and fall. The thread started off very slow yesterday with a self-described Democrat expressing hope that Trump was not indicted in this instance, another poster sarcastically predicting an indictment "any week now", and a third poster claiming to have heard an indictment might come next week. But, at 5:30 pm, the thread went crazy, adding eleven pages of posts since that time. Most of the posts expressed jubilation about the news but a few posters cautioned that the indictment would strengthen Trump. Debates broke out over whether the Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg had acted in a politically partisan manner or was simply following the rule of law. Some posters viewed the indictment in nearly apocalyptic terms with one predicting that it would lead to a "right wing dictatorship" when Republicans inevitably retaliated, things escalated, and civil war resulted. While this case did not involve the January 6 insurrection, many posters referred to that event as justification for holding Trump legally accountable. Many posters seemed to experience considerable schadenfreude that Trump supporters who once yelled "Lock her up!" were now disparing that Trump was facing legal consequences. Some of the Republican posters questioned whether Trump could get a fair trial in heavily-Democratic New York. Others warned that red states would now start indicting Democratic politicians. If grand juries in conservative states are able to find evidence of wrong-doing by Democrats, more power to them I say.

The second most active thread yesterday was the Covenant School shooting thread that has been at the top of the most active threads list ever since the shooting. Since I've already discussed that one, I'll move to a thread that was posted in the "DC Public and Public Charter Schools" forum. Titled, "Walls racist incident", it discusses a walkout by students at The School without Walls — a Washington, DC application-only high school — that the original poster says was meant to protest racist social media posts. There is always a danger when passing on second-hand information that some details may be incorrect. This thread appears to be a case in point. To be sure, I may be committing that same error as I write this because I may not understand events correctly myself. To the best of my understanding, White members of Walls' baseball team made a video of a Black teammate. That video was then set to music using a song that was used for years by professional baseball teams, but has a racist history. To complicate things even more, there is a modern version of the song from which racist lyrics have been removed. As I understand it, no students were offended by the video or the song which is apparently popular on TikTok. However, the parent of a student who was familiar with the racist history of the song complained to the school administration and the White students were suspended. Several parents of students who attend Walls, including parents of Black students, said the walk-out was about broader issues than the video and it is not clear if the video was a significant factor or even a factor at all in the walk out. If there is one thing guaranteed to upset White people, it is false charges of racism. The prospect that students may have been suspended because of a song that neither they nor their classmates considered to be racist was appalling to some posters who immediately started suggesting law suits and other actions. Others agreed that the students may not have known the history of the song but viewed this as an educational opportunity. It is not clear if they believe suspension is necessary for that education. A few posters insisted that the students knew that they were using a racist song and expressed frustration that White people always manage to find excuses for racism. They considered this another example of that phenomenon. The fact that this might be a case in which excuses were justified had no impact on them. Moreover, these posters were irate that a thread that was supposed to be about racism was being used to generate sympathy for White students who, in these posters' minds, had committed a blatant act of racism. I realize that I am portraying the posters who believe the video to have been racist in a fairly unsympathetic light. That may well be because I am White or it could be because that's how they appear after an objective reading of the thread. Hopefully, it is the latter. Either way, it is unfortunate that the video controversy overshadowed what may have been the actual reasons for the student walkout.

The next most active thread was the Gwyneth Paltrow thread about which I've already wrote. She appears to have won the case for what it is worth. But, I'll go on to the next thread which was titled, "Isn’t the word ‘tacky’ just a classist slur?" and posted in the "Off-Topic" forum. The original poster notes that the word "tacky" is often used to describe rude behavior but she has also seen it in regard to the tastes and preferences of people who didn't grow up in exclusive communities of certain preferred regions of the US. Hence, she asks if the word is classist and should be done away with. I'll be honest and admit that I'm running a little behind on the blog post today and this issue just doesn't resonate with me. As someone who grew up in a non-exclusive community that is not in one of the preferred regions, I am probably "tacky" more often than not. Too bad. I have bigger fish to fry and I'll leave this debate to others.

The final thread at which I'll look today was posted in the "Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS)" forum and titled, "FCPS statement on NMF issue". Late last year, right-wing activist Asra Nomani created a controversy when she alleged that administrators at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology (TJ) had intentionally delayed notifying students who had been recognized as "Commended" by the National Merit Society. She claimed that this had potentially harmed students' college application prospects and scholarship opportunities. An immense amount of attention was paid to this topic and, in fact, this is the fourth thread on the subject that I have discussed. It was later found that other FCPS high schools may also have delayed distributing NMF certificaties. Therefore, FCPS hired an outside law firm to investigate this issue and a report of that investigation's findings has just been published. As discussed by the original poster in this thread, Nomani's allegations were found to be almost entirely without merit. The administrator at TJ responsible for distributing certificates was not aware that NMF had not notified students directly and, therefore, did not prioritize the process which required signifiant manual data entry and the assistance of a staff member who was on vacation. There was no intentional effort to delay notification. Moreover, the investigation found no parents or students who thought that either their college applications or scholarship chances were harmed by the delay. In fact, it appears that "Commended" status has little value and TJ students in particular have very little regard for it. The investigation required a significant investment of time and money from the school system, something the report laments. I only skimmed this thread but, from what I have read, the report likely changed few minds. Those convinced that a "woke" conspiracy intentionally delayed notification in order to harm their children remain convinced of that and the report does nothing to change their beliefs. Those who considered FCPS to be innocent of the charges see this as validation of their position. It looks like many of the same arguments from previous threads are being rehashed. Nomani's original article on this topic was full of holes and had plenty of indications that it was more partisan spin than actual substance. It should not have taken a full-fledged investigation to dismiss it. But since an investigation was conducted, hopefully her future allegations will be considered more critically.