2023

Thanksgiving is traditionally one of the slowest days on DCUM as users are travelling, spending time with family, or, like me, spending a great deal of time cooking. Since I took yesterday off from this blog, I'll review the most active threads of the last two days. Both days, as expected, had much less traffic than normal days. The Gaza war thread was back at the top of the most active list, but with barely more than 100 posts a day, the thread is a shadow of what it once was, previously receiving more than 900 posts a day. The second most active thread, the one about Covid lockdowns, was also one I've previously covered. The third most active thread, and the first one I will discuss today, is mostly a repeated topic even though the thread itself is new. Titled, "Come here if your in laws do weird crap at thanksgiving." and posted in the "Family Relationships" forum, the original poster claims that her father-in-law flosses his teeth at the table. Based on the original poster's example, I assume that this thread was meant to highlight strange idiosyncrasies, but it almost immediately turned into a general complaint thread, mostly about mothers-in-law. One of the first examples — a mother-in-law who attempted to divide a rotisserie chicken with her bare hands, was not considered by everyone to be strange behavior and caused a long-running argument between posters. Disagreement about whether the mother-in-law was wrong was still continuing 13 pages later. Another example, serving ham slices rolled around a dill pickle and cream cheese, was also not seen as weird by all posters and actually inspired several posters to try it. Frankly, most of these posts could have gone into the "petty vents" thread that I discussed earlier this week because none of them really amounted to much. Another example that was not universally received as being weird, but rather funny by most who responded, involved a long-delayed wedding gift. Apparently, the poster's sister-in-law went down in her basement and retrieved a wedding gift that had been meant for the poster's husband's first marriage 30 years ago. The poster, in her own words, "pitched a fit" and made her sister-in-law take it back. Several posters wanted to know what the gift was, a question that could not be answered since the gift was not opened. Moreover, it later turned out that this happened last Thanksgiving, not even this year. I didn't realize that serving Thanksgiving buffet style is the current trend (at least according to this thread), but a number of the "weird" behaviors involved how food was served for the holiday meal with mother-in-laws often being found out of sync.

Today's post is going to be a little different. One reason for that is because almost half of the most active threads yesterday were on the topic of the decision by the US Supreme Court to prohibit race as a factor in college and university admissions. The most active thread of the bunch on this topic, as well as being the most active thread of the day and already the fourth most active thread of the last 30 days was titled, "US Supreme Court Rules Against Affirmative Action in College Admissions" and posted in the "College and University Discussion" forum. This thread is already 73 pages long and has almost 1,000 posts. All in less than 24 hours. The second was titled, "SCOTUS outlaws race as college admissions factor" and posted in the "Political Discussion" forum. In comparison, this thread is positively subdued at only 42 pages and less than 600 posts. Mind you, that would be enough for the most active thread of the week most times. Several posters reported these threads expecting that I would want to lock one rather than have duplicate threads. But, I was afraid that mixing the Political and College forum users might have an impact similar to that of of crossing the proton streams in Ghostbusters. I couldn't take that risk. When there are events like this court decision that spur incredibly active threads, some posters fear their posts will be lost in the mix and, instead of joining an existing thread, start new ones. The more clever among them will try to find an unique spin because I will lock or delete an obvious duplicate. One such thread was posted in the "Private & Independent Schools" forum and titled, "Won't the AA ruling be particularly bad for private school URMs?" Similarly, another thread was posted in the "College and University Discussion" forum titled, "So what is changing? Questions about SC affirmative action decision". I didn't actually know about the last two until just now or I might have locked them. I haven't read any of these threads, other than a few posts that were reported. We have been preparing for weeks for this Court decision expecting this type of reaction on DCUM and assuming that we would be inundated by reports and basically have to devote ourselves fulltime to moderating the threads. However, there have been very few reports and for the most part we ended up ignoring the threads. They likely could benefit from some supervision, but the threads are simply moving too quickly to keep up.

Yesterday's most active thread was the "Karen" thread that I discussed yesterday. So, I'll skip that one and start with the next most active thread which was titled, "I cannot believe there are still people out there spanking their children..." and posted in the "Elementary School-Aged Kids" forum. The original poster says that she saw in another thread that some parents still spank their kids and she is "floored". Spanking is a perenial topic that is always divisive. As in this thread, there are posters who believe that spanking is necessary to create discipline. As one of the first posters to respond writes, "It's pretty obvious your kids are the ones disrupting everyone else, OP." Such posters attribute a host of negative behaviors to children who are not spanked. In response, posters with views similar to those of the original poster argue that discipline is possible without spanking. "You do know you can discipline without hitting right?", says one such poster. In between are posters such as one who writes, "I think a swat on the butt is no big deal. Spanking with an eye to hurt is a different animal." Basically, these three positions are stated and restated throughout the thread, along with a large helping of stories about posters' own experiences growing up. Several posters seem to take a perverse pride in having been spanked when they were young. Some posters also discuss laws against spanking that exist in other countries and suggest that spanking is a barbaric and unenlightened practice. Others blame a host of today's problems on a decline in spanking. One of the more bizarre exchanges I stumbled across involved the American Academy of Pediatrics' recommendation not to spank. A poster argued that this recommendation is not valid because the organization is silent about the practice of "cry it out" which the poster apparently also considers abusive. This left me pondering whether there are people out there who support spanking but find CIO too barbaric. However, it turns out that the poster in question actually opposes spanking. She just has a bone to pick with the AAP and apparently believes that criticizing the organization is more important than acknowledging a policy position with which she agrees. Another argument made in the thread is that far worse things happen to children than spanking so, it is implied, spanking is not worth the concern. I imagine such posters refusing to fix flat tires on their cars because other cars have blown their engines or been totaled in wrecks.

The most active thread yesterday was titled, "Is Karen considered a racial slur?" and posted in the "Off-Topic" forum. The original poster says that her high school-aged daughter told her about a discussion at school in which a student was corrected by a teacher for using the term "Karen" because the teacher viewed the term as a racial slur. The original poster does not view "Karen" as a slur and asks whether this is a common interpretation. There are a number of issues to consider here. One is that there is no universally agreed upon definition of "Karen". Wikipedia defines "Karen" as "a middle-class white woman perceived as entitled or demanding beyond the scope of what is normal." Dictionary.com's definition is slightly different saying "Karen" refers to "an obnoxious, angry, entitled, and often racist middle-aged white woman who uses her privilege to get her way or police other people’s behaviors." When I first encountered "Karen" as a meme rather than a first name, I remember it differing somewhat from both of those definitions. "Karen" was a middle-aged, perhaps middle class, White woman with a bob haircut who wanted to speak to the manager. I always found this a bit bewildering because I was always taught that, if you were not satisfied with the service being provided, you should speak to the manager. In fact, I have spoken to a great many managers in my lifetime. So, what was the problem here? Eventually, the meaning of "Karen" morphed to describe a White woman who uses her racial privilege to harm or otherwise disadvantage others, especially Black men. However, I have seen posters on DCUM use "Karen" to mean any number of things. To some extent, it has simply become a substitute for the word "bitch". "Karen" as a name and in its original connotation as a meme is closely associated with white women. As such, there is no denying its racial and gender implications. Therefore, many consider it to be a racist and sexist pejorative. Several of those responding in this thread argue that "Karen" is used to silence women, particularly White women. An interesting discussion could probably be held on the relationship of race, gender, and privilege and how those things relate to the term "Karen". In its most common usage, "Karen" assumes that White women have racial privilege which they exploit, frequently against Black men. White women, on the other hand, often see themselves not as privileged, but rather suffering from gender discrimination that encumbers them with a host of disadvantages. As such, "Karen" is simply a misogynistic effort to discourage women from standing up for or asserting themselves. Another thing to consider is the difference between how the term many have been meant when used and how it was interpreted. Someone may very well call someone a "Karen" due to the individual's overly-entitled behavior. But, this could easily be perceived as criticism resulting from the individual's race and gender. For this reason, while I think the idea behind "Karen" can be useful, in actual practice, "Karen" is not the appropriate term for it. It would be great to have a term to refer to overly-entitled, self-absorbed, self unaware, obnoxious folks of whatever race or gender. But, instead of "Karen", I propose "Elon".

Yesterday the thread about the Asian American student who was rejected by several top colleges continued to lead the most active list. Again, since I've already written about the thread, I'll start with the next one. That thread was titled, "Protest at Mundo on P street" and posted in the "DC Public and Public Charter Schools" forum. Mundo Verde is a District of Columbia public charter school that has a bilingual, experiential, "green" curriculum. As such, it checks a lot of boxes for progressive families who are interested in social responsibility and has been one of the more popular schools among DCUM posters. While schools like Mundo Verde have developed fan clubs in the forum, they have also inspired groups of detractors. Neither side tends to be shy about voicing opinions. This thread is specifically about protests that have been held by 3rd grade families at one of Mundo Verde's two campuses. Based on what I have read in the thread, the third grade has suffered from teacher attrition and had poor academic outcomes. Caregivers are protesting in support of a list of demands including that two adult teachers be provided for third graders, specific goals for teaching math and ELA, and other items. Many posters lament the dismal experience these children appear to have experienced and sympathize with the families. Some posters use the thread as an opportunity to air long-held grudges against Mundo Verde. On the other hand, many posters emphasize that the protests are limited to a single campus and the complaints do not reflect conditions at the second campus where, posters insist, students and families are very happy. Some posters go further and claim the protest only reflects dissatisfaction with a single grade and not the entire campus. Eventually, the thread turned into a wide-ranging debate involving a host of issues including public vs public charter school rivalry, competition between Mundo Verde and various other schools, and the role of the Public Charter School Board.

As has been my habit, I skipped this blog over the weekend so today I'll look at the most active threads since my last post on Friday. The most active thread during that period was titled, "Lock him up indictment FL" and posted in the "Political Discussion" forum. This thread is about the indictment of former President Donald Trump on federal charges related to government documents that he took from the White House and kept illegally in his Mar-a-lago residence. The thread is 46 pages and, therefore, too long for me to read completely or provide much in the way of a summary. Suffice it to say that there are significant differences of opinion between Trump critics and Trump supporters. The first group was overjoyed with many posters repeating Trump's frequent demand with regard to Hillary Clinton to "lock her up". This expression, which is mocked in the thread's title, appears to have come back to haunt the former president. Trump's fans, on the other hand, also referenced Clinton, arguing that the failure to prosecute her displayed a double standard. While there is probably nothing that will break through the cloaks of ignorance in which these posters are determined to ensconce themselves, there are significant differences between the cases. As Secretary of State, Clinton established a private email server at the advice of predecessors. Investigations later showed that a very small number of the emails sent to the server contained classified information. However, investigators did not find evidence that Clinton had intentionally or willfully mishandled classified information. In addition, investigators could find no evidence that the server had been compromised by adversaries. Moreover, Clinton made no effort to maintain possession of the classified information once it was discovered. Similarly, a researcher discovered classified documents that had been inadvertently included among documents donated by then Vice President Joe Biden to the University of Pennsylvania. These documents were immediately returned to the government. Subsequent searches by Biden's lawyers discovered classified documents stored in other locations and they were also returned. In Trump's case, his possession of classified documents was discovered fairly quickly and efforts made to have them returned. Trump not only failed to comply, but — according to the indictment — actually obstructed the effort to return the documents. So, whereas the cases of Clinton and Biden involved the inadvertent mishandling of classified information which they cooperated to return, Trump's case involves the failure to comply and actual obstruction of efforts by the Government to regain possession of the documents. It is highly likely that had Trump cooperated instead of obstructing the retrieval of the documents, things would not have come to this.

The two most active threads yesterday were threads that I've already discussed so I'll skip them. As a topic, discussion of air quality easily overwhelmed everything yesterday with threads on various aspects of DC's smoke-filled air popping up in nearly every forum. One of those titled, "Red air quality, are you limiting activity?" and posted in the "Off-Topic" forum, was yesterday's third most active thread. The original poster said that she had moved a meeting that had been planned for outdoors to the inside and was debating about what to do about her kids' swim team in the evening. In many ways, yesterday's reaction to the poor air quality was reminiscent of the COVID pandemic, right down to debates about masks. Many posters went into full panic mode, avoiding nearly any outside exposure and making dire warnings. Others proudly bragged about having just returned from long, maskless runs outside. Posters snarked at those showing concern, implying that they were Chicken Littles. While some posters described a range of adverse reactions to the smoke including watering eyes and sore throats, others claimed to feel nothing as a result of the poor air quality. Discussion turned to related topics such as how to mitigate poor air quality by using air purifiers and who or what was responsible for the smoke. Throughout the thread posters reported about various events being cancelled, again bringing back memories of COVID shutdowns. The COVID analogy was even more explicit in several posts with their authors engaging in past arguments from COVID discussions.

Memorial Day is a traditionally slow day on DCUM but, perhaps due to yesterday's bad weather in the DC area, traffic was a bit higher than might have been expected. How did DCUMers spend the holiday? Mostly talking about the Max (nee HBO Max, nee HBO) series "Succession". That thread received over three times the number of posts as the next most active thread. But, since I've already discussed that thread, I'll start with the runner up. That thread was titled, "Most beautiful place on earth you've seen, if you're a regular person?" and posted in the "Travel Discussion" forum. The original poster asks what is the most beautiful thing others have seen while traveling as a "normal person", by which she means those not being sent as part of a job and not "professional" adventurers. I always struggle to summarize threads of this sort that consist mostly of one or more suggestions per post. Without going through and making a tally of the locations, I'm not sure that I can draw many conclusions. But, nominations ranged from Burke Lake to Phuket, Thailand and the Fjords of Norway. I did notice that one of my personal favorites, Lake Louise, was repeatedly mentioned. Bodies of water in general were popular. Some posters appear to have had trouble narrowing it down and provided fairly long lists. One wonders if there wasn't a bit of bragging going on. One poster proposed Nelson Mandala’s prison cell on Robben Island. I can imagine that being interesting, historic, and perhaps even moving, but I have a hard time thinking of it as "beautiful". This would be a good thread for those seeking inspiration for a future trip and is also good for provoking memories of places you've been fortunate enough to visit.

I take the weekend off from this blog and wavered over whether to take today off as well since it is a holiday. I've decided to go ahead but looking at the the threads I will have to cover, I'm already regretting the decision. As such, I'll keep things short today. Many of the most active threads over the past three days have already been covered and, therefore, I'll skip them. That is sort of leaving me with the junior varsity threads. The first of those was titled, "People you know that died in a freak accident. What happened?" and posted in the "Off-Topic" forum. The original poster doesn't offer much information about what she wants from this thread other than fuel for her "existential anxiety". The thread is 19 pages long so I am not going to read the whole thing. From what I can tell, however, posters have listed several usual deaths. In many cases, those deaths involved people the posters knew, others they had simply heard about second or third-hand. I see a number of clearly made-up posts with some describing scenes from movies or TV shows. This is really not my type of thread so that's all I'll say about it.