[PEN-L:33421] Too much PC

[andie nachgeborenen <andie_nachgeborenen@xxxxxxxxx>]

My last word in this humorless bout of PC.
Californians are fairly strange as much of the rest of
the country and the World sees it. In fact, as many
Californians see it. Nathaniel West, a Communist
writer and a Californian by adoption himself whose
savagely anti-California book The Day of the Locusts,
was my citation for the loose marbles expression, was
fairly clear eyed about that. It's not racist to say
this, that's just a fucking stupid, ignorant, and
offensive thing, to say, and debases the charge of
racism. It's like using fascist for every opinion to
the right of your own. "Californian" is not a race.
Neither is "marbles." Brecht, another Commie, thought
hell must be like Los Angeles.

It's also not "ableist" or bigotry against the
mentally ill to use the expression "loose marbles,"
which, Sabri, has the general implication of being a
bit odd in the head. As I've explained before, I think
it's nuts to go ballistic over the colloquial use of
"insane" and similar terms as if they were the
equivalent of racial epithets; it goes without saying
that the mentally ill oughtn't be abused or
discriminated against--though the matter is complex;
while it would be wrong and contemptible and illegal
to reject a job applicant, say, merely because she's a
woman or African-American, it is not obvious that it
is similarly wrong (and the legalities are complex) to
do it because she's bipolar or schizophrenic. Those
conditions can affect one's performance. That's the
nature of mental illness. Be that as it may, "loose
marblesa," and even the colloquial "crazy" or "nuts"
as applied to Californias doesn't suggest mental
illness, just wierdness. And Doyle, while I share your
Guthriesque affection for the the odd and peculiar,
they are not a revolutionary class.

And yes, Californians are loose marbles. My sister
told me that she knew she was really in California
when the following occurred. Shortly after she moved
to LA, she stopped at a store counter and handed over
the ticket for the parking garage. She said, I need
validation. The girl (boo hiss, jks used the "g"
word!) behind the counter looked deeply into her eyes,
and taking her hand, said, You're a wonderful person
and the world is a better place because you're in it.
That wouldn't happen in Chicago.

I'm not going to argue the point, but I won't be
slandered as a bigot. except maybe as an
anti-Californian bigot. Or maybe, as old Nothern
Californianer myself, as an anti-Southern Cal. bigot.
As we used to say up in Monterey, They steal our
water.

jks

there are racist overtones in
> the charge that California
> is where the loose marbles end up.  Which may not be
> what JKS was implying,
> but is what sets me off when I read about anyone
> accusing California as the
> end point for 'loose marbles'.  Saying this is where
> the loose marbles end
> up is an attack on working class people of all kinds
> (including Turkish
> people) who come here.  And a key component of that
> phrase, 'loose marbles',
> is the racism that shapes U.S. society which readily
> denigrates people who
> migrate to find work.  And the metaphor of 'loose
> marbles' also implies to
> many people that California is where 'nuts' go.
> That is a very common slur
> against California as a location.

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