2660 Sometimes To Violence.

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Right now basically everyone is competing over who is the most oppressed in the world. It’s a social currency, and many people are obsessed with pointing out who is more put upon. I bring this up in anticipation of an argument I expect I’ll have to have at some point in the comments. Jessica is complaining about being extremely competent and some number of people will think that is a very privileged position to be in. Fine. So what? Each person is given what they are given and have to live the life they live. The circumstances and happenstances of your birth don’t invalidate the difficulties you have in navigating your life. Of the two people sitting on that fictional bench Jo is the more disadvantaged, but she’s hearing out Jessica’s plight because she cares. She isn’t throwing her circumstances in her face in an attempt to minimize Jessica’s experience. Being sentient is a struggle. We awaken into a world we don’t choose and are expected to just figure things the fuck out. It is horrifying. We’re given no explanation. We just come into being and are burdened with the knowledge of ignorance. Jess has heard Jo’s trials and now Jo will hear hers. There are times when complaints need to simply be heard and not judged, or weighed against the struggles of others. The core of what this entire scene is about is Jess saying “I am having trouble being what I am.” The correct response to that statement is not “Well at least you aren’t something else.” It’s not helpful. “Well she should be grateful.” “You can be grateful and still struggle.”
Sometimes it’s okay for things to just be about what they are about.
You don’t need to bring in outside stuff.
Help someone be what they are, because at the end of it all they’ll still be what they are.

I don’t know how cohesive all of that was. I decided to just let it spill out of my head without a lot of analysis. I’m all the characters in this comic to one degree or another. Everything from Jo’s insight to Reggie’s arrogance is me interacting with myself. All of the contrary experiences I’ve had creating different selves to argue with. All, ultimately, in an attempt to understand what the point of being alive at all is. With a potentially vain hope that in doing so as a narrative I will help others face their journey through this miserable, amazing, existence we’ve been forced into. At least some of it must be worthwhile to some of you, so I can’t be completely wrong in my attempt.

I think sometimes people forget that I am just a person too.

45 Comments

And correct teachers?

When the teachers are teaching wrong order of things, or make mistakes; as humans are wont to do; the smart(ass) student may offer corrections to teachers. Often teachers hate that, regardless of how good or bad they are.

I do not support age-based testing/materials honestly. Just test the students the highest they can, and teach them what they want to learn that they’re lacking in. I was held back 1 year because of a move in the middle of the school year and the curriculums weren’t the same between the two districts; and teachers suggested I be put in “Talented and gifted” group but it was just so they didn’t have to deal with a student who really should have been 1 or 2 grades higher.

Yeah, it happens.
I was that way in school, book-smart but people-dumb. I was the kid who wouldd usually ace all their tests, but hated participating in class or doing homework. It was all just stuff I already knew, or stuff I grasped so easily that it just bored me.
I’d answer questions, eventually even if they weren’t directed at me, because I hated waiting for an eternity of um’s and uh’s while they tried to catch up to what I felt should’ve been easy to them. My classmates hated me because they felt I made them look bad, my teachers I was being disrespectful, and I hated them for not just seeing things the way I did.
Between that, and moving schools every year, and… other things; I made very few friends, and a lot of people who really couldn’t stand my existance.

Same. Schools are really only designed for ONE type of kid. If you’re too smart or learn too quickly, you fail in school because school punishes you for that.

Wow, if I didn’t know better, I would think that you were observing my life. My childhood was similar, except I didn’t answer questions aimed at others, and I didn’t get into too many fights. My boredom fighting method was usually reading ahead in the textbook, which was good until about two months into the school year, after that it was reading paperbacks hidden behind the textbook. I had one dickhead of a teacher in junior high school that I took great pleasure in correcting when he was wrong.

If a teacher cannot stand being corrected when they are wrong, then they should NOT BE A TEACHER.

There are many, many, MANY, people who should not be teachers who have been teachers for decades.

Amen to that.
I knew a guy who was- an English-grammar teacher, + a basketball coach, at 1 of my schools.

IMO, He wasn’t helpful to the students, at all!

I think he just became a teacher to: 1] try to stay- [“as cool as he was”, in college + high school], + to order/push people around.
He was always arguing with the kids for no reason, + trying to find ways to insult them.
(Nice power plays, little, d***head teacher.)
IMO, he was a waste as a teacher.
[If I’m not making it clear, + sometimes I do not-I [hated] the way this guy did his teaching job].
Whichever. Later days.

One of my childrens’ teachers would tell them the she would sometimes do something wrong deliberately to test whether tHey noticed. When that happened, the students were supposed to interrupt and point it out. So doing, she gave them responsibility and respect, and she also covered herself for inadvertent mistakes.

When I was a teacher (at university level) and student corrected me, I would thank them. If the correction was public (like in class) I would thank them publicly.

Yeah, I knew did that too when I was young. The teachers would then find a question that they figured neither I, nor anyone else in the class could answer. Most of the times, they were wrong, but, when they DID trip me up, they got the biggest grin on their faces, but they ALSO would explain why I was wrong. So it was only a slight dent to my ego. And, yeah, I was a bit arrogant about what I knew. Being a polymath with an almost eidetic memory does tend to go to one’s head, so yeah, I deserved it.

But heck, I was only in the second grade at the time..!

I once had a student ask for clarification on the concept we were learning
The teacher responded by proceeding to restate in the exact same words and phrasing the very thing she had just said

Needless to say this didn’t clear up any confusion, so the student asked again. After the third iteration me and another student took it upon ourselves to reiterate the concept in a different manner that actually addressed the initial confusion.

It’s not something I’d expect to happen in elementary so much, but students correcting teachers can absolutely happen, and likely does all the time

First world problems are still problems, just because somebody else has it worse, doesn’t mean you can’t also have it bad. Everyone has struggles, and there is no real point in comparing them other than to take out your anger on someone who has done nothing to deserve it. “Life sucks and then we die.” (I don’t recall who I’m quoting with that line, lol) That is true for just about everybody, our circumstances are unfair, some people are born with more, others are born with less, some people are born to a society that mistreats them for existing for one reason or another, some people are mistreated for what they have, others are mistreated for what they lack. Very few people have lives without any struggle. Life being unfair doesn’t excuse us being unfair to each other, and your struggles don’t justify you being a jerk to somebody else who’s just going through their own struggles. Life is hard enough all on it’s own, there’s no need to go out of your way to make it harder for somebody else. Everything is easier for everybody if we just support one another and be there when we’re needed, so why not just empathize?

Society itself needs to change to show that empathy is NOT something that should be dismissed as “cringe” or “weak”. The alternative is classic war grooming which has honestly gone on far enough.

Funny, because I feel like the problem is that empathy is OVER-emphasized and that it’s become the problem. It’s about feelings; someone FEELS bad so something must be wrong. We all need love, but real love requires tough love too–there are times to listen and hear what someone has to say, and just accept it, and then there are times to metaphorically smack someone on the head and tell them to stop it with the pity-party. Ironically, it’s this hyper-focus on feelings that led to the arms race Jackie refered to; folks are all trying to be the most miserable so they can get the most empathy, instead of reserving empathy for people who deserve it. It’s like when movies try to give backstories to villains so we see they really aren’t so bad, but the writers apparently have forgotten the absolute piles of bodies the villain has created.

Oh, I’m well aware of the difference between proper empathy and pity hunting with the latter being genuinely selfish to build a sense of hubris. My point is that the former shouldn’t be disregarded altogether because there are those who would brush off one’s genuine feelings and concern for the purposes of creating “strong” people. People do have feelings but it’s how they express them under the circumstances that determines whether or not they’re worth being emphatic towards.

And don’t get me started with the whole “sympathetic villain” trope that’s become permeated in the zeitgeist of comic book fans today. It’s become a genuine point of contention that stresses on whether superheroes have a right to be superheroes if they’re expected to do away with due process for the sake of a Machevaellian type of justification. It’s genuinely the reason why I don’t watch the MCU.

Reggie wore glasses!

Sorta glad he got rid of them, which is unusual for me as I like glasses. They are really nice eyes.

/comics1/1346-all-the-deals

I can see where you’re coming from. The head shape is similar. Which fits, given Reggie’s propensity to act childish.

Aw crap. Well at least the fans here corrected my goof.

I saw today’s last panel and got a flashback to that comic I linked to.

I like this. Just putting in a small, positive comment, because feelings are hard and art is hard and I like this :)

No doubt you know this, but I’m answering in full for whoever else may read it.

“many people are obsessed with pointing out who is more put upon.”

Yeah, whataboutism is a rhetorical device that is intended to make the target sound bad. It’s a fallacy however, and what matters is what we can do that is *within* our ability. This includes respecting our own limits and needs.

An answer to it is to focus on (and point out) what we can and are doing. This will highlight that the accuser themself is doing nothing. And if that’s insufficient, call them out explicitly.

It’s worth listening carefully to “what about” because it’s not always an argument to cease trying or an accusation of neglect. Asking “what about” can also simply be a request meaning, “can we help with “. That’s when it’s a good time to review, figure out which type of “what about” is being asked, and then either be ok with asserting one’s boundaries, or if one wants to and is able, tackling the next issue.

It is ok to have an eye on our boundaries and to assert them honestly. Most of us are just trying to survive and be kind to those around us. There is a loud and vocal minority who revel in cruelty, but it is important to remember that they *are* the minority.

Love thy neighbor, but also love thyself. Because you deserve to be loved, and to feel loved, just because you’re you. (Paraphrased from Mr Fred Rogers)

I don’t think he’s really talking about people being cruel. Not deliberately, anyway. It’s people who only see and process certain kinds of problems, who think there is a “ranking system” and that people can only seek help from those above them (aka, their life is less bad) while they can only give to those below them. So the lower you are, the less you have to give and more you receive, incentivizing everyone to makes themselves out to be as miserable as possible.

My words- Vicki (sp?), has made a similar reveal about: [I was DIFFERENT as a kid, in school, + so my brother defended me from the creeps, + defended me in bouts that involved- fists, and violence].

So…, both Ed, AND Reggie, charged in to help their sisters, when their childhood kids were resulting to violent acts.

Huh. If Reggie + Ed ever talked about this [thing in common, from their childhoods]- it might make them bond together, + make them into some kind of friends.
[Well, maybe not [best] friends, but they could become, the “Buford and Baljeet”, type of friends. :D
Those are cool, tougher-than-steel arms, on Ed, by the way! :D

Ed the Sailor Man.

Hee, hee, hee!

(Singing):
I gives ’em a lickin’, ’cause I am Ed Lincoln!
I’m Eddy, The SAILOR MAN! (toot, toot!)
:)

Part of me feels like, without Ed, Jess would have wound up a super-villain–she’s an attractive genius who also understands how to manipulate people, who was bullied and ostracized for her gifts. Yes, I’m being hyperbolic, but still.

I haven’t seen much discourse about privilege in recent years (tho that might be thanks to me curating my twitter feed better over time), but I always felt like I was watching miscommunications whenever I did come across them back in the olden times of circa 2015

They’d either come up in the context of
1) right-leaning types complaining about being told to check their privilege and effectively treating it as a relative privation fallacy. I’ve never actually encountered this occurring, but I figure it’s implemented by a lot of young activists that get really invested in fighting for progress but are blind to inter-sectionality and complexity
2) people getting frustrated with unrealistic and unhelpful bootstrap advice, and pointing out advantages that the advice giver has and isn’t aware of that can make them say something as stupid as “well you could own a house if you stopped buying a coffee everyday”

Like heck, even in this instance, Jessica may have privilege resulting from being smart, but she’s also a woman in a rural town, so there’s elements that will cancel each other out.

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