The Blind Don't Do Self-Reflection

Winter – Wk 9: What's in a Name? | "Wuhan Virus" Causes Faceless Men to Attack Asians | Robots Can't See Stoplights?! | "We Are All Animals, My Lady"

MYTHOS – What's in a Name?

Of all the great eateries in Manhattan, one of the finest was Joe Allen. The cozy restaurant was tucked away behind Broadway's theater district, just around the corner from IATSE Local One's union headquarters. (That’s the International Association of Theatrical and Stage Employees.)

Inside, the soft lighting brought out the red brick and rich hardwood. No hint of purecolor plastic in sight. Out front was a faded green awning—classic NYC—with generic white letters that read simply:

JOE ALLEN

Sadly, the founder passed away last week at age 87. But there are plenty of us left to carry on his name.

Joe Allen's restaurant came into its own back when a dive had to have character. They say the owner was quiet, but he clearly had a biting sense of humor. His bar featured a poster collection of Broadway's biggest flops. A true New Yawker, Allen reminded all the effete actors and stuck-up directors—"Look here, you fuggin' suck."

The dim venue, set just below ground, was a big draw for the theater district's black-clad tech workers. Every rigger or stagehand I know from the City, when I first met them, they said, "Hey, you're Joe Allen!"

The only time I ever ate there was on my birthday, many years ago. My companion was a Cuban guitarist—an adopted uncle of sorts—who first got me into the backstage business nearly two decades ago. I ordered steak and red wine. He had the burger. When the waiter asked for my ID, I handed it over with this expectant look on my face.

"What?" he asked.

I looked hard at the card.

"Oh, happy birthday!"

I looked harder.

"Oh, you're Joe Allen!"

I sat back, satisfied, and declared, "That's right. I'm Joe Allen, and it's my birthday. Do I get a free drink, or what?"

"Um... no."

I took my ID back without a word. The steak was alright, I guess, but I've had better.

ETHNOS – "Wuhan Virus" Causes Faceless Men to Attack Asians

If you can't trust NPR to tell the whole truth, who can you trust? Their unbiased reporters and non-partisan fact-checkers labor tirelessly to bring us, the educated public, the Who? What? When? Where? How? and most importantly, the Why? of the crises facing America.

If you don't identify the "who" or "why" of a problem, you'll never know how to address it.

Recently, a wave of anti-Asian American attacks has gained attention in the legacy media, from CNN to the New York Times. The other night, I listened to NPR's Ari Shapiro interview a dissimulating Vice reporter about the detailed information she's gathered:

ARI: Since the beginning of the coronavirus outbreak, harassment and violence against Asian Americans has grown. The racist language former President Donald Trump used to describe the pandemic's origins in China didn't help. ... [Bettina Makalintal] joins us now. ... What's been happening in these last few weeks?

BETTY: So the current conversation was kicked off by an incident on January 28. Vicha Ratanapakdee, an 84-year-old man from Thailand, was taking his routine morning walk in San Francisco when, out of nowhere, he was violently pushed to the ground by a 19-year-old attacker. As his family describes him, Vicha was nearly blind. ... And he had two young grandchildren in whose lives he was very present. His family announced he died two days later as a result of the injuries from that fall.

A few days later, on January 30, a 91-year-old Asian man in Chinatown in Oakland was forcefully pushed to the ground by an unknown attacker.

And across the country, on February 3, a 61-year-old Filipino man in Manhattan was slashed across the face by a stranger on the subway. He told a local news site that he was scared because he thought he was going to die, and nobody on the train helped him. … [T]he senior citizens in our community are being targeted and face the threat of violent racism.

To be clear, the subway attacker sliced the poor Filipino from cheek to cheek, cutting his face in half—just for the hell of it. That's not an injury you just walk off.

Given the magnitude of this persistent social problem—videos of these "random" attacks have been accumulating for over a decade—it's vital for policy-makers and a well-informed public to understand the underlying causes.

Ari and Betty pretend they think so, too:

BETTY: First and foremost, activists and community members are asking for…a national spotlight and asking for allies to come out and publicly denounce this racism and this violence that we're experiencing.

I couldn't agree more. We really do need a national spotlight. Who was behind this brutality? What is driving the hate?

ARI: I mentioned the way that former President Trump contributed to anti-Chinese rhetoric by using phrases like the "Wuhan virus." President Biden has directed federal agencies to combat racism against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders specifically. Do you think that's likely to make a difference?

...

BETTY: I think it is very important to have a president who is not actively fueling the fire on this "Chinese virus," "Wuhan virus" rhetoric, which has no doubt caused a lot of people who are racist against Asian Americans to associate the ill effects of the pandemic with Asian people in the United States in general.

Okay, right, that sort of makes sense—guilt by association is bogus—but who are the perpetrators? What evidence do we have that their hatred was directly inspired by the rhetoric of any public figure?

With no quotes from the faceless attackers—or even their names—we are left to infer their allegedly hateful motives from the race of the victims.

Self-proclaimed “affirmative action beneficiary” Viet Thanh Nguyen traces a convoluted path of cause and effect:

"Asian Americans need to locate anti-Asian violence as part of a pattern of white supremacy which also targets Black and Brown and Indigenous people. Even if perpetrators of violence are people of color, the solution is not to fall back on racist assumptions of our own but to hold the system of white supremacy responsible for dividing us."

So white people are the true culprits. Is that why NPR, Vice, CNN, and the New York Times intentionally concealed the identity these purported anti-Asian bigots?

That omission seems odd, considering the media's time-tested hate formula—"[Attacker], who is white ... [Victim], who is Black"—which they recite like a magic spell. These supposed journalists also fail to examine possible motives, other than to blame Trump for saying "China virus," and directing attention to his supporters.

It's not like the bare facts aren't already out there—at least until YouTube and the socials scrub the videos. To give credit where it’s due, America's wisest blogger (you know who) first noticed the perpetrators' names. Since we live in a surveillance state, I’ll add the publicly available video evidence—all sourced from local news affiliates.

See if you notice any patterns.

———

SAN FRANCISCO, CA

1/31/21 — Yahya Muslim (28 years-old) brutally attacks multiple Asian victims in Chinatown, including a 91 year-old man, a 60 year-old man, and a 55 year-old woman, all of whom are Asian.

———

1/28/21 — Antoine Watson (19) body-checks Vicha Ratanapakdee (84), who is Asian, ultimately killing the elderly man. Watson’s accomplice has been identified as Malaysia Goo (20).

———

10/19/20 — In a surprise turn, the owner of the Fortune Cookie Factory in Chinatown brandished his conceal-carry pistol in order to protect a couple, who are also Asian, from a black-clad assailant.

———

NEW YORK, NY

2/3/21 — Noel Quintana (61), who is Filipino, has his face cut in half on a subway by a young bully wearing red, who is still at large.

———

2/11/21 — Out beyond the Asian community, Rosa Elizabeth Galeas-Forencio (54), who is Latina, was “randomly” shoved onto the subway tracks in the Bronx—as a train approached—by a woman in yellow, still at large.

———

5/21/19 — An off-duty firefighter of unknown ethnicity “sustained a concussion and several broken teeth” after being beaten to a pulp trying to stop a gang of exuberant youths from bullying an elderly couple.

———

12/30/20 — Taxi driver Max Torgovnick (36), who is basically white, is menaced and has his vehicle battered by a 50-strong gang of urban rowdies.

———

10/2/20 — CCTV footage shows SCTV superstar Rick Moranis (67), who is Canadian, get punched out by a random attacker wearing a black “I <3 NY” hoodie:

———

SEATTLE, WA

1/7/21 — A nice old lady (56), who is white, is kicked in the face by a 19 year-old as she tries to plant flowers.

———

Great Fredrick Fair, MD

9/22/19 — John Marvin Weed (59), who is white, is beaten to death in public by teens (15 & 16) reportedly because he refused to give them a dollar.

———

GLEN BURNIE, MD

8/5/17 — With her child present, Lindsay Green, who is white, is beaten and humiliated in McDonald’s—as if having to eat at McDonald’s wasn’t bad enough.

———

MILWAUKEE, WI

9/16/20 — Young mother Ee Lee (36), who is Asian, gets gang raped and beaten to death with a stick by a half-dozen teens in broad daylight, after the young men found her relaxing on a blanket in Washington Park. So far, only Kamare Lewis (17) and Kevin T. Spencer, Jr. (15) have been arrested.

———

Wisconsin State Fair, WI

8/5/11 — Random people, who are white, get attacked by hundreds of thrill-seeking teens. 11 injured, 31 arrested.

———

MINNEAPOLIS, MN

4/2/19 — Emmanuel Aranda (24) “randomly” tosses a 5 year-old white boy off a third-floor balcony (40’ to the hard floor) in the Mall of America to satisfy an unidentified demon. The boy is still alive, but crippled.

———

The abundance of white and Latino victims being “randomly” targeted raises a serious theoretical problem: If hate crimes are driven by public rhetoric, and if similar attacks are being waged against victims who are not Asian, what becomes of the "Wuhan virus" hypothesis?

There are dozens of similar incidents going back at least a decade, all caught on tape. In hundreds more cases, forensic evidence and eye-witness reports exhibit a common pattern. It certainly fits the personal experience of anyone who's ventured out of Whitey Town.

For those of us who reject erroneous concepts like guilt by association, such knowledge does not color our view of any group as a whole. We aren't idiots, and we aren't monsters.

So why silence the truth? The assumption seems to be that an honest account will just inspire more prejudice, hate, and violence. I hate to break the bad news, but silence has not stopped the violence.

Of all people, liberals should know that self-reflection is the first step to course correction. If our leaders refuse to truthfully identify the underlying causes of brutality, whatever form it takes, our society can't reduce the outward effects.

Perhaps one day, our intellectual betters at NPR, Vice, CNN, and the New York Times will be forced to notice obvious facts, and stop insulting the public's intelligence. In case nobody told them, we already noticed.

MACHINA – Robots Can't See Stoplights?!

Technocrats want to institute autonomous vehicles as the new normal. This process begins with cars and long-haul semis driving themselves, and it ends with every vehicle imaginable being piloted by robots, including speedboats and commercial jets. Clinging to the assumption that AI can be perfected, the developers’ stated goal is to reduce all vehicular accidents to zero.

But what happens if robots can't see stoplights?

If you've ever had to complete a reCAPTCHA puzzle, you know they can't. Robots probably can't see pedestrians, either.

To protect themselves from malicious bots, many websites use reCAPTCHA as a sort of organic IQ test to weed out non-humans. If that sounds like unfair discrimination—"No Robots Allowed"—rest assured that, come the Singularity, even bots will be granted civil rights.

The reCAPTCHA process begins with a direct question: "Are you a robot?" You click the box, and the test begins. You are then asked to click on certain objects that are invisible to robots.

Apparently, the objects a robot cannot detect include stoplights, crosswalks, bicycles, motorcycles, buses, taxis, fire hydrants—you know, all the obstacles a safe driver should be able to recognize. That may explain the more hilarious accidents involving autonomous vehicles.

Yes, yes, I know—web-crawling bots and unmanned vehicles are two different animals. But it's still a funny coincidence. In any case, we might want to rethink trusting our public safety to autonomous systems.

Seriously, even a drunk taxi driver knows a stoplight when he sees it.

RELIGARE – "We Are All Animals, My Lady"

The Devil demands his due. To be fair, he really is the life of the party. You can blame him for problems you created, but no matter how much your own indulgence fucked you up, you know you liked it. It just feels good to give in to instinct, and that fucks you up even more.

In this demented age, when good is called "evil" and evil called "good," it's helpful to keep a sense of moral humility. You never know when you'll become the monster you hate, if only to survive. That's the Devil's way, and this is his time to get down.

One of my favorite movies as a kid was Legend, a 1985 fantasy directed by Ridley Scott. It was about elves and unicorns and all that fairy shit, but the demonic villain, dubbed "Darkness," had all these wicked one-liners:

"Things change, lady. The dreams of youth are the regrets of maturity."

Darkness was this huge red pro-wrestler-looking satyr, crafted from latex, with pornstar horns and wonky serpent contacts like the Devil in Roman Polanski's cornball horror film, Rosemary's Baby. Every sentence Darkness uttered slid off his tongue like some pervo proposition to a low-paid employee.

When Darkness tried to seduce the Fairy Princess in order to sacrifice the last unicorn and destroy the Light forever and ever—it’s a kid's movie, bro, that's just how shit goes—the Fairy Princess spat, "You disgust me! You're nothing but an animal."

Darkness seemed hurt at first, but then he laughed and laid down some old school evo psych:

"Hahaha... We are all animals, my lady. Most are too afraid to see it!"

At the end, when Darkness is banished by some silly metaphysics involving mirrors and sunlight, he lashes out like some shit-hammered suburban Taoist wobbling on a front lawn after getting ejected from the party for eating all the mushrooms and setting fire to the host's girlfriend:

"You think you have won! What is Light without Dark? What are you without me? I am a part of you all. You can never defeat me. We are brothers eternal!"

Sounds like some left-wing deviant berating a conservative stiff, doesn’t he? Or maybe a right-wing racist taunting an uptight liberal. I guess that all depends on which way your Id happens to be swinging.