How I know you hate the Mojave bull shark.

[Nuclear Unicorn]

The plight of the Mojave bull shark is pretty dire. I think it's fair to say there aren't many left in the world.

But you decided to get together with your friends and watch the season premiere of Big Bang Theory. You know, the one where Leonard and Penny are having uncertainties about their relationship. You weren't hurting anybody but neither were you bringing awareness to the Mojave bull shark.

So I came into your house. I just walked in the door, marched right up to your TV, changed the station and made you watch a half-hour documentary about the endangered bull sharks of the Mojave desert.

You even offered me some of your guacamole and chips but it was the kind with the peas in it.

But now your friends are blasting me on social media as if I was somehow out-of-line. Excuse me for not living up to your expectations, Mr. "We were watching this other show." It's obvious the kind of people you hang out with. Just like it's obvious how little regard you have for this important issue.

Stop being such a hater, hater.

[Hoppy]

1. What Fa Duck?

[MADem]

2. Ugh. I know you think you're being clever, but I think you're coming off as flippant and tone-deaf.

Unarmed People of Color Killed by Police, 1999-2014

http://gawker.com/unarmed-people-of-color-killed-by-police-1999-2014-1666672349

Open this link, look at those faces, and then tell me about your shark.

smh.

[elias49]

3. Good heavens!

The world is a big place. Multitasking is the new rage. Did you miss the memo?

[MADem]

4. Maybe you can explain what that means. I'm not getting your point.

elias49
3. Good heavens!
View profile
The world is a big place. Multitasking is the new rage. Did you miss the memo?

[elias49]

5. Oh well.

[MADem]

6. I guess you're not going to explain what you meant, then? nt

[elias49]

7. Nice collage anyway. nt

[MADem]

8. It's a collage of dead people. Click on the link and you'll see their stories. nt

[cyberswede]

35. god.

How on earth are the photos of dead human beings "nice?" You should consider a self-delete.

[WillowTree]

10. I could be wrong, but I think what was meant........

.......is that people can, in fact, care about more than one thing at a time. We can care about many things and still engage in a bit of unrelated relaxation/entertainment without diluting our concern about other, vastly more important things.

Or, another way to put it might be: Chill already.

Hope this helps.

[MADem]

11. I think the OP was a dismissive allegory mocking the real urgency/angst of the #BLM protesters.

That's what I think.

And then I think at least one poster thought it was worthy of a little dismissive "humor." I put the scare quotes around "humor" for a reason.

If I'm wrong, I'd love to be corrected. My requests for clarification were met with mumble-junk.

But when I get "nice collage" when I post a link memorializing all the black people killed for no damn reason in 2014, I don't hold out much hope for substantive conversation.

I don't think juxtaposing the real concerns of #BLM with snark about sharks is a very smooth move.

It's stuff like this thread that alienates.

[WillowTree]

14. I wasn't talking about the OP.

I was thinking more along the lines that that was what elias49's reference to multitasking was about.

[MADem]

17. This whole thread is a trainwreck.

That poster said "Nice collage" in response to a post about all the people killed last year.

[WillowTree]

19. So you weren't really interested in the explanation you asked for more than once.

Got it. Have a wonderful evening.

[MADem]

20. No--as you can see, I asked for an explanation and never got one.

Unless you are a sock of the posters who didn't answer me--and FWIW I do not think you are--you can't give me an answer. You might be well meaning, but you can't crawl inside their heads.

I get the sense that the posts are mocking. I get the impression that the OP compares the extinction of his bull sharks to black people getting murdered and I wanted some clarification on that, and never got it.

I just don't think that's terribly helpful.

[Nuclear Unicorn]

22. Not dismissive of the fact the polic are out of control. I have made plenty of posts about the

soul-crushing injustice of what is going on.

[MADem]

23. I am sorry, I don't see any "soul crushing injustice" in your OP.

It sounds like you're comparing kids like Mike Brown and Trayvon Martin to bull sharks. The OP sounds snide and dismissive and as if you're making fun of #BLM.

If that wasn't your intent, fine, and if that's not what you meant, I will believe you--but that's what it comes across like to me. I don't say that to be mean, I say it to tell you how you are being perceived by me.

[Nuclear Unicorn]

25. BLM is not the end-all, be-all expression of outrage over what has been happening.

[MADem]

26. I'm not getting anywhere, here. Let me ask you directly, then.

Are you comparing "bull sharks" to murdered young people like Trayvon Martin and Mike Brown?

That IS what your OP sounds like.

[Nuclear Unicorn]

29. I'm comparing a legitimate, worthy and important cause to bull sharks.

Take your pick as to which cause that might be.

[MADem]

30. I asked you a direct question. You are not giving me a direct answer.

I really don't want to play twenty questions.

I just want to know if you were comparing sharks to black people who have been killed in this post:

Nuclear Unicorn (16,526 posts)

How I know you hate the Mojave bull shark.

The plight of the Mojave bull shark is pretty dire. I think it's fair to say there aren't many left in the world.

But you decided to get together with your friends and watch the season premiere of Big Bang Theory. You know, the one where Leonard and Penny are having uncertainties about their relationship. You weren't hurting anybody but neither were you bringing awareness to the Mojave bull shark.

So I came into your house. I just walked in the door, marched right up to your TV, changed the station and made you watch a half-hour documentary about the endangered bull sharks of the Mojave desert.

You even offered me some of your guacamole and chips but it was the kind with the peas in it.

But now your friends are blasting me on social media as if I was somehow out-of-line. Excuse me for not living up to your expectations, Mr. "We were watching this other show." It's obvious the kind of people you hang out with. Just like it's obvious how little regard you have for this important issue.

Stop being such a hater, hater.

[Nuclear Unicorn]

31. There is no one particular cause I'm speaking to.

[LanternWaste]

42. Your evasion is indicative of a person cowering behind implication

Your evasion is certainly indicative of a person cowering behind implication rather than illustrating the courage of their own convictions.

(space provided below to rationalize it as something else...)

[Nuclear Unicorn]

43. I know many would find it convenient if they could pin #BLM to the OP but the fact remains

#BLM is not the first cause with which the tactics were found questionable and it most definitely not be the last. I promise you, in 6 months the OP will be just as valid even though the cause du jour will have moved on.

[KittyWampus]

28. And a politician giving a canned stump speech in public isn't friends sitting watching tv

[hfojvt]

32. I find it odd

that people think a kid like Mike Brown is a good symbol of an injustice.

How many are still either unaware or in denial of the DOJ report?

[MADem]

34. Seriously? You think he deserved to DIE, and his body left on the street for four and a half hours?

For his family and friends to see, to watch the blood ooze out of his body and run down the road?

I "find it odd" that you could say this:

hfojvt
32. I find it odd
View profile
that people think a kid like Mike Brown is a good symbol of an injustice.

How many are still either unaware or in denial of the DOJ report?

smh

[hfojvt]

40. so I can put you in the denial column?

"i. The Shootings Were Not Objectively Unreasonable Uses of Force Under 18
U.S.C. § 242

ii. Wilson Did Not Willfully Violate Brown’s Constitutional Right to Be Free from Unreasonable Force "

http://www.justice.gov/sites/default/files/opa/press-releases/attachments/2015/03/04/doj_report_on_shooting_of_michael_brown_1.pdf

That comes from Eric Holder's DOJ under the Obama Presidency.

And left in the street? No, doubtless he should have been moved after about two minutes so people could scream about how the cops destroyed the crime scene to erase evidence of the crime.

It's too bad that he died, but it's too bad that he decided to attack a cop.

[MADem]

41. You can put me in the "Bad cop, idiotic escalation, unnecessary death, brutal and disrespectful

handling of the remains of the young man" column.

[hfojvt]

44. denial by any other name

is still a very large river.

Unnecessary escalation?

Like when the kid turn around and ran towards the cop?

smh

[MADem]

45. Yeah? Well you have a very nice day. Mike Brown did not have to die--bad policing killed him. nt

[hfojvt]

47. yeah, sorry

that last reply was not productive at all.

My position, my view, sorta backed up by DOJ is that Mike Brown's own bad actions and bad choices were what killed him.

I try to put myself in each person's shoes. First, put myself in Mike's shoes. Which is very tough. I cannot ever see myself doing the things he did. Right away he either seems like a bad person, or a good person doing bad things. How can anybody deny the bad things? He attacked a person who was armed. That's what got him killed.

Then I put myself in Wilson's shoes. I can easily see myself shooting a large person who is attacking me. Damned straight. Don't want to get killed, then don't attack me.

Again, my own view is that it is okay for the police to shoot some people, even black people, even unarmed people. Not everything the police do is good, but not everything they do is bad either. You mix the good with the bad and that seems very irrational to me. Especially if you tell a dishonest half story, like that link with the pictures did with Mike Brown. That tends to invalidate all of the other pictures there.

[BKH70041]

9. Don't be so surprised.

What you did was the right thing.

White supremacist liberals hate the Mojave bull shark. Somebody needed to make them aware that's how they are viewed by the Mojave bull shark, even if they claim they're in solidarity.

[Adrahil]

12. Ya know what this forum needs?

Another "it's all about ME" snarky reference to BLM. Never enough of those.

[KamaAina]

13. Huh? The Mojave bull shark is our civic mascot!

[LiberalElite]

15. Good grief. This is about as

incoherent as UTUSN's which got a hide.

[hifiguy]

16. Sorry, I thought s/he was talking about the Mud Shark

I can't think of a link that wouldn't get me in trouble, but google "Zappa Mud Shark"

[cyberswede]

36. Well, it's destined to take it's place in your mythology.

[zappaman]

18. UNREC.

[petronius]

21. I can believe in the existence of a Mojave bull shark, but

guacamole with peas? That's right outta the Twilight Zone...

[edhopper]

24. or more accurately

you are watching a documentary on growing income gap and the plight of the working poor and you come into the house and insist that I watch the thing about the shark and you won't let us watch anything else, no matter how important the subject.
More like that.

[KittyWampus]

27. More like watching Big Bang Theory in the town square not in someone's house….

and the organizer was a POLITICIAN…. who was only doing it cause he wanted votes not because he's your friend.

[struggle4progress]

33. The frickin Mojave bull shark is the reason nobody surfs anymore at Zabriskie Point

[hunter]

37. Are your guns safe or ought I be concerned?

I've always been most dangerous or run away coward without guns.

[DaGoogler21]

38. I know your trying to be entertainingly foolish but there actually is potential for odd fish in the west now.

Looks at what our EPA has allowed to happen to rivers of the Navajo Nation this past week.

[Starry Messenger]

39. Yeah, this is about your level.

[Blue_Tires]

46. lalz