even more quiddities and agonies of the ruling class - a new rolling new york times thread

And that selectivity should be acknowledged

there's a range of these things i guess. if these people aspired to the wondrous life of scarlett o'hara, rhapsodizing about how much better things were back then, and never mentioned slavery (and disdained those crackpot ''historians'' with their ''credentials'' and ''interpretations) i feel it'd be pretty self-evident what's going on. all that's different here is that the period being idealized is one without de jure chattel slavery; otherwise it's the same abstraction and vanishing-away of a totally fucked up, racist classist social system. we also have one of those today, where the abstraction and vanishing away for the 1% is done for them in real time by geographically separating the ruling and the ruled (a process on which the victorians made great headway through their signature political project of neo-imperialism). so i just have to go hmmmmm and wonder what's at stake in wanting to turn back the clock 120 years but maintain this total invisibility of everything that makes their precious little life possible. they're basically just morons - very wilfull ones, again note the opening shots fired against historical knowledge - but one can be just a moron and still be dangerous. my only regret in life is that these people will never read my devastating posts on this topic but maybe we can take up a collection to train and employ a telegraph operator.

perhaps we should go back in time and stop them

Lol i'm in

On the telegraph plan that is

We should show up on their lawn in one of these:

http://www.tvandfilmprops.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/PICT5809-time-7.jpg

dressed like this

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/75/a5/92/75a592fc1b5a581bf80240379b8db7b1.jpg

xp oh I don't know, that seems a little strained. We're not talking about confederate reenactors or plantation fantasists here. Is all hipster beardery, steampunk and old-fashioned cocktail bullshit also inherently racist? Is a 50's sock-hop dance racist? There's a lot of racism today!

― on entre O.K. on sort K.O. (man alive), Friday, September 11, 2015 1:56 AM (48 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Did you read the link? It lays it out pretty clearly why this specific thing presented by these specific "neo-Victorians" in the way they present it is specifically racist.

It feels to me like the critical analysis, as true as it is, was hastily cooked up (or linked to) by a lot of commenters to justify the gleeful point-scoring vitriol that preceded it.

Yeah, I prefer the Deadspin response since they're willing to just post a longform fuuuuuuuuck you.

It lays it out pretty clearly why this specific thing presented by these specific "neo-Victorians" in the way they present it is specifically racist.

Fantasies are notoriously disengaged from any kind of reality. imo, this particular fantasy is not specifically grounded in racist longings for a time of white supremacy, even though it is deeply committed to obscuring the racist reality of that era. afaics, it is far more rooted in a willful ignorance of any part of their fantasy about Victorian history that does not satisfy their wish-fulfillment dream life.

They are blind to the worst ugliness of Victorian life for the simple reason that this is an attempt to escape from contemporary ugliness into an imaginary utopia. It's as if they were trying to live in a Medieval Times restaurant full time. Or in a Disney World setting.

The fact that they are so freaking proud of themselves for living in a dream world and strongly recommend it as a bracing tonic is evidence of how divorced from reality they are. They may be racist, but if so, it is just part and parcel of their larger idiocy.

yeah totally. i mean it's not like they just say "we're cosplayers, we like these particular old-timey things, it's this silly little hobby they have!" they're not ren-fest attendees. they advocate for...whatever they think this is they're doing. they've even accepted money from apparently shameless publishers to proselytize for this, on multiple occasions. they are evil and must be stopped.

doctor casino relentlessly OTM, cf those dickheads with their "great gatsby parties"

What is a really random era of history that I can choose to live like? Nothing glamorous, but something weird enough to get someone to write an article about it.

it's the general smell and grubbiness of the past that people never remember to replicate. Even the upper classes didn't wash that much. No double-glazing, everything drafty and horrible.

i mean, even just the surface-level cosplay aspect of this shit is all wrong

the victorian dude giving a lecture on cycling history. that must be a victorian laptop he's reading from....

http://www.thisvictorianlife.com/uploads/4/3/0/9/4309858/3447103_orig.jpg

he also writes about the history of native americans in washington state:

https://digital.lib.washington.edu/researchworks/handle/1773/4505

http://depts.washington.edu/civilr/fish-ins.htm

Do they specify whether they live in "Victorian" Washington State specifically or just the general "Victorian era"?

they say they live in a victorian seaport.

dude looks a little like HOOS imo

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/13/fashion/hobo-chic-from-the-bindle-bros-of-brooklyn.html

“You can fit any physical objects in a bindle,” Josiah said. “But bindles are really meant for your hopes and your dreams.”

THANK YOU NEW YORK TIMES

oh wait it's joke nevermind

Don't really buy "Oh they are ignoring the horrible realities of the Victorian age" cos the idle rich are privileged to ignore horrible realities in any age.

artisanal bindle bags in Williamsburg, Brooklyn

oh come on now nytimes

okay lol i was really trolled

yes, it's all a 'joke', these here bindle boyz are 'pranking' other brooklynites, identical to their own demographics and sensibilities, with their satirical business and the satirical products that they make with their own time and the satirical things that they say and do all day just for some fun at the expense of anyone who would really involve themselves in such a business for 'real', that's why they are doing this... obviously, it's satire! so satirical. the joke's on us. smao!

I like how the first buyer talked them down from $80 to $1

Don't really buy "Oh they are ignoring the horrible realities of the Victorian age" cos the idle rich are privileged to ignore horrible realities in any age.

― AdamVania (Adam Bruneau), Friday, September 11, 2015 11:34 AM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Yeah this, basically.

not quite bindle-level, but I saw this stylish lady on the E train the other day with a MacBook on her lap (Air? Pro? IDK, it was silver) and a GIGANTIC black leather tote bag, and then she just sticks the MacBook in her giant tote among a bunch of other stuff, no case or sleeve or anything, and gets off the train, and it was sort of making me think about the relationship between style and absurd impracticality.

This person put a laptop in her bag

what is your point

It was an impractically huge bag with only a tote handle and she had nothing to protect her expensive laptop

that's how it works now, especially with airs, people just don't do sleeves. i know. but that's how it is.

Also for whatever it's worth, it's really hard to find a professional looking "women's" bag that isn't a tote bag. You can, but you've got to go looking and if being fashionable is important to you, you probably will end up with a tote.

Also I stick my work laptop in my bag (sometimes a tote bag, sometimes a messenger bag) without a case. Just chuck it right the fuck in there.

¯_ツ_¯

er let's try that again

https://media.giphy.com/media/ALvdHigd2gBqw/giphy.gif

laptop sleeves are for your dad come on now man alive

my backpack has a BUILT-IN sleeve for my laptop because I am a classy individual

it's maybe quiddy to recommend at 200 buck backpack that you can only buy from a swiss website, but this thing is the best the best the best
http://www.qwstion.com/en/bags/backpack-washed-black.html
includes a sleeve for laptops

That's not my style personally but it's a pretty sharp looking backpack for sure.

quiddities and backpacks of the ruling class

no way, that thing is the nissan cube of backpacks

laptop sleeves are for your dad come on now man alive

― marcos, Friday, September 11, 2015 4:14 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah next you'll tell us your phone has a case on it

My bag, like most 21st century bags, has a laptop sleeve built in, thx.

i don't even have a bag, bro

carrying a laptop around is so 2008

Are we sure Victorian thing is not an elaborate joke?

Laptop bag thing is weird. My laptop is a work laptop and I abuse the fuck out of it basically or at least behave totally carelessly about it. Who cares?

to be fair, "the tablet is my primary work device" is so 2012