I'm not a stickler about proper usage of the English language (mote, log, own eye, etc.), but still, the decline of the word "disinterested" represents a decline in moral as well as literary standards:
Hopes Frustrated, Many Latinos Reject the Ballot Box Altogether
By JACKIE CALMES MARCH 30, 2014
Lizeth Chacon of Aurora, Colo., who signs up Latinos to vote, reports growing disinterest in registration.
AURORA, Colo. — As the weather warms, Lizeth Chacon is anticipating a new season of registering Latino voters — yet dreading experiences like one late last year, when she came upon a skate park full of older teenagers.
“I thought, ‘The perfect age! They’re turning 18,’ ” said Ms. Chacon, just 26 herself, born in Mexico and now the lead organizer at Rights for All People, a local immigrant organizing group. But among the roughly 50 people she approached in this increasingly diverse city east of Denver, “not a single person” was interested in her pitch, including those already old enough to vote: “They were like, ‘Why? Why would I bother to vote?’ ”
Man for man, Mexicans are not the most formidable political opponents a party can have.
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So immigration reform is motivated by cheap labor instead of votes. Cheap labor versus cheap votes
I'm with the Mexican guys.
I can't see any point in voting either, although I do. (Well, not always.)
We have government by lawyer.
How many state referendums voted down gay marriage?
So immigration reform is motivated by cheap labor instead of votes.
Why not racial/ethnic and class animus? It's something the *entire* elite can get behind.
I've always wanted to do a discussion of disappearing words with my HS students, particularly those that had some philosophical heft. "Disinterestedness" has been at the top of the list.
But don't worry. There are 50 billion laws out there which means they eventually will be registered to vote even if they don't want to, and they'll probably vote Democrat all their lives even if they never vote.
ZOMG GREAT HISPANIC TIDAL WAVE LOL! Salsa is outselling ketchup! (Small print: This gringo bought 50 bottles of salsa and six of ketchup last year. Ketchup is thick, salsa is now.)
ZOMG GREAT HISPANIC TIDAL WAVE LOL! Univision shows beat ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, CW! (Small print: New Univision programming in the summer beats the English speaking nets' summer reruns, and only among the under 25 demographic, not exactly the one Madison Avenue really covets.)
Wonder where the money for these professional agitators and 'activists' really comes from. It's doubtful that it's self-funded by Hispanics. Their website seems a little too slick and packaged. It looks to be a leftist front to radicalize Hispanics using what they think is an issue dear to them as a vehicle.
If Hispanics are leery of getting involved in politics then that shouldn't be surprising. Politics in their home countries are crooked and brutal. It hasn't done them any good. They may sense that someone else is trying to use them for other, more opaque, reasons.
The question is nonetheless relevant. Why vote? What is it good for?
I love the phrase "increasingly diverse." I live in an increasingly diverse neighborhood. Everyone here knows that means decreasingly white.
Here in California, Latinos vote in far fewer numbers than their percentage of the population would suggest they should. Especially in the Central Valley.
Their disinterest in voting doesn't matter quite as much as it should. Their presence in the census means that they still get a congressional district just like you, no matter how few know how to read, bother to vote, or are even here legally. Some congressional districts have turnout 3-4 times higher than others, thanks to these rotten boroughs.
1. Using disinterest when you mean uninterested: As an English teacher, I run into this all the time, but it is rather telling when the NY TIMES lets it slip past.....
2. Lizeth Chacon: Hey, another White Hispanic out trying to organize her Mestizo brethren.
3. Which leads us to the third topic: Mestizo/Amerind Hispanic apathy.White Hispanic Miss Chacon is out trying to organize that much heralded Hispanic tsunami that is going to re-shape the political order in Anglo America ....Only she swiftly slams into a barrier composed of pure Mestizo inertia.
"They were like, 'Why? Why would I bother to vote?' "
Sounds like they've already figured out, in 18 years, what most gullible white people still haven't learned after 70.
Tell 'em it's free power.
I'm not a stickler about proper usag...but still, the decline of the word "disinterested" represents a decline...
No kidding. That mis-use is downright illiterate. I'd almost rather believe that it's part of a deliberate Orwellian campaign to destroy thought by destroying the ability to make distinctions, than that writers and editors at a paper-of-record really are such piss-poor writers.
The federal government has so aggressively enforced existing immigration laws that one national Hispanic leader recently nicknamed the president “deporter in chief”...
Obviously, the administration is guilty of cultural imperialism in trying to impose simplistic and alien Anglo notions of law-abidingness on Hispanics. What is needed is sensitivity toward their long and rich cultural traditions, which evince a far more subtle and flexible understanding of "law".
(Ha. If only that statement were true in the first place.)
“There’s a sense from some people that there’s nowhere to turn, and I’m afraid they’re just going to be frozen in frustration,” said Lisa Duran... [emph added]
Have they tried "south"?
Back in the 70's the Ca legislature had not even one Latino(Hispanic)member. To remedy this a district was carved out at the next redistricting in East San Jose. The district was overwheming Latino. The legislators even had a candidate picked out, a local grocer. But after the district was formed 7 Latinos jumped in seeking the seat. Eventually all but two(and the grocer)were persuaded not to run. With the Latino vote divided and WITH THE LOW TURNOUT the one Anglo in the race won. He served 4 terms(this was before term limits) and after that he wife ran and won twice. I think this district now has a Latino legislator but twenty years later than planned. Even if the Latino vote had not been divided the LOW TURNOUT AMONG LATINO VOTERS would have has this result.
The author's name sounds English/Norman, so they can't accuse you of racism this time.
"Man for man, Mexicans are not the most formidable political opponents a party can have."
unless, of course, there were over 100 million of them, right on your border, and invading.
california gone forever in only 20 years. i'd say, that's quite formidable. no US presidential candidate, from either party, will ever have to campaign in california ever again. the election results are known 4 years ahead of time, every time.
so mexican teenagers are not interested in voting. wouldn't that make them...the same as all other teenagers? come back in 10 years and see how they vote. and how many new mexicans they have made.
Lizeth Chacon of Aurora, Colo., who signs up Latinos to vote
I wonder what would happen if someone tried to sign up just Whites to vote.
Anyway, so after coming to the US she has set herself the goal of trying to turn it into the country she left.
That seems weird.
If the Democrats can get them registered, their ballots will be cast. If the Hispanics are too lazy to vote the Democratic machine will fill out their ballots on their behalf.
What, this Times reporter is uninterested in the big Aurora news story—that of the repeat DUI illegal alien/driver who just killed a teenager?
"So immigration reform is motivated by cheap labor instead of votes. Cheap labor versus cheap votes" - 8% of the electorate is 8% of American voters they don't have to listen to.
Our President is also "disinterested" in voting, that is to say he is indifferent to the democratically expressed will of the people when it comes to enforcing the borders.
“They were like, ‘Why? Why would I bother to vote?’ ”
Makes perfect sense to me. Why bother to vote when politicians of both parties are pandering to your interests as hard as they can already. What more could you ask for?
BTW, along with being apathetic about voting, Hispanics are apathetic about Obamacare. Weren't they the main group the whole thing was aimed at?
WASHINGTON — The nation's largest minority group risks being left behind by President Barack Obama's health care overhaul.
They cam to America to live off the white man.
Maybe they realize that messing with the white man's culture will only give them Mexico Norte.
"So immigration reform is motivated by cheap labor instead of votes. Cheap labor versus cheap votes"
You seriously didn't know this? The Republicans' masters want the cheap labor and the Democrats want the cheap votes.
I don't see why a WN/citizenist/nationalist has any regard for big business at this point.
I was just thinking today how uninterested low-IQ people are in voting or politics generally. The whole subject practically offends them. They're insecure and can't keep up with the issues or names.
Why on earth would you want such people deciding the future of the country.
Don't get me started on the "brighter" ones who think they're up on politics but can't be bothered with state or local. "I'm a big-picture guy" one told me.
I would have thought that capturing the difference between dis and un-interested is the kind of signature moment an editor dreams about, like my dog dreaming about lame squirrels.
Grey Enlightenment: There are a lot of mexican american so there are lots of mexican american voters even if their overall voting rate is low.
Also increasing the number of of mexican american voters increases both parties pandering to them which decreases white voting rate. So it may be that with those two effects together it's essentially the same as if mexican americans voted at the same rate as whites.
Grey Enlightenment: There are a lot of mexican american so there are lots of mexican american voters even if their overall voting rate is low.
Also increasing the number of of mexican american voters increases both parties pandering to them which decreases white voting rate. So it may be that with those two effects together it's essentially the same as if mexican americans voted at the same rate as whites.
These Mexicans are clearly Caplanite libertarians who have grasped the infinitesimally low marginal utility of voting.
So the GOP strategy ought to be to entice Latinos already in the US to move to red states?
If the Mexican youths aren't interested in voting that means the Mexican youths, contrary to the leftist line, don't feel oppressed. Things are pretty damned good for them in gringoland, all BS to the contrary notwithstanding.
Who's rioting in Albequerque? (and why did the guy need to leave his shack?)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/10735297/Riot-police-clash-with-Albuquerque-protesters-after-officers-kill-homeless-man.html
What a strange, strange exotic place New York is.
Imagine being born in Manhattan and raised there. You're only meaningful contact with nature is Central Park!
And there are generations that have passed that way. Born in Manhattan, died and Manhattan, having children and grandchildren in Manhattan!
The emasculation, the twisted sense of human desires and instincts! The elevation of symbols, technique, numbers, words, and money to absolute reality. My God, my God!
OT, has anyone seen Albertosaurus (Pat)? It seems like forever since I've seen one of his cogent comments.
I hope he hasn't been the victim of some terrible BSDM accident!
Here's an idea that doesn't seem to get enough attention: many hispanics in America live in what amounts to a parallel society within a society, culturally speaking. This basic fact may seem so obvious as to hardly merit a mention, but the implications are deep, and fascinating. How do ideas and mores get pushed in modern America? Primarily, through the media, and also the schools. What are these institutions all about? Cultural Marxism 24/7, of course. Thanks to the language barrier, and the related cultural barrier, many hispanics are less hooked into these institutions than are longer-standing Americans, and hence less assimilated into the latest tenets and minutia of the church of cultural Marxism. They may intuitively know that their host nation is weak, but they cannot be fully whipped up into activism and intellectual radicalism, as their handlers would like. Sure, Unavision gives them a good dose of grievance mongering, and democrats will bus as many of them as they can into the voting booths, but the assimilation only goes so far. On top of all this, for many hispanics, literacy, even in Spanish, is an issue, and as Steve has repeatedly pointed out, hispanic culture is not reading culture, anyways. That's another set of circumstances that partially shields hispanics from the full-on monte of PC propaganda and university-sponsored brainwashing. What's remarkable is that some Hispanic immigrants don't even speak Spanish, but indigenous languages instead, leaving them further culturally isolated, further down the totem pole, so to speak (this set, for now, may not be likely to attain citizenship and vote, but mere residence is enough to affect culture, and they ain't affecting much). Another thing to consider: hispanics tend to live amongst other hispanics, in hispanic communities. Their day-to-day world is, again, largely experienced in a parallel society within a society, with little interaction with "respectable" society.
Considering the environment of institutionally ensconced cultural Marxism in America today, perhaps it's a good thing indeed that we haven't fully assimilated these newest denizens from south of the border. Lower rates of political participation amongst them is probably the best thing for which we can hope.
Not Mexican-Americans. Just Mexicans. Here of all places there's no need for pretense.
I'm as much a stickler for correct usage as anyone, but I'd bet that good and pragmatic writers like Twain would agree with me that the disinterested/uninterested distinction is useless overkill. 'Dis' should impart the same meaning before 'interested' that it does before 'affected'. 'Impartial' is a much better word for fair or evenhanded. By the way, in a Who/Whom society you English teachers are obsolete anyway.
Yeah, it's been like forever since I've read his highly intelligent and entirely fictional comments. I enjoy reading about all 73 careers he's had in his 47 or 58 or 75 or 93 years on this earth.
By the way, in a Who/Whom society you English teachers are obsolete anyway.
I know you're driving at something else, but I'll at least mention that I'm a chemistry teacher, but I still expect proper English in my room, and I find odd ways of making other subjects part of my class.
Even in his prime that supposed master of English William F. Buckley had a tenuous grasp of this distinction.
(eg in the Chomsky debate he says "uninterested" before correcting himself to say "disinterested"...of course he may have been especially flustered on that day as Chomsky just brutalized Buckley on the latter's own television show).
I’m with anon from 5:07 and Rohan Swee.
Lamenting the loss of ‘disinterested’ is more than just lexicographical nostalgia. The concept of the disinterested observer has been mocked by the postmodernists for so long now that aiming at such an ideal has ‘progressed’ from merely risible to almost inconceivable.
Kicking aside the sad remains of western rationality and rule of law just clears the way for Who? Whom?.
"Even in his prime that supposed master of English William F. Buckley had a tenuous grasp of this distinction.
(eg in the Chomsky debate he says "uninterested" before correcting himself to say "disinterested"...of course he may have been especially flustered on that day as Chomsky just brutalized Buckley on the latter's own television show)."
Buckley has a history of butchering words. Perhaps his greatest influence is his use of "oxymoron" for "contradiction."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxymoron
+1 on its being purposeful. NYT wouldn't want to say that a "good" group such as Mexicans is *uninterested* in a "good" thing such as voting.
The only place I read the Times is here.
"I'm as much a stickler for correct usage as anyone, but I'd bet that good and pragmatic writers like Twain would agree with me that the disinterested/uninterested distinction is useless overkill. 'Dis' should impart the same meaning before 'interested' that it does before 'affected'. 'Impartial' is a much better word for fair or evenhanded. By the way, in a Who/Whom society you English teachers are obsolete anyway."
No. The absurdity of thinking the two words are interchangeable is easily shown. Consider the headline: 'Single mothers disinterested in welfare debate.'
Gilbert P
Also, your example is pathetic. It makes no sense. Has anyone ever used the word 'affected' to mean the opposite of 'disaffected'?
Gilbert P
In one sense, the less latinos vote, the more powerful latino politicians will become. Just by being here, they create rotten districts and therefore safe seats for latino pols. And the fewer actual voters that a politican has to appeal to, the easier and cheaper it is for him to win reelection.
At some point in the future, these kids will be registered voters, and some one will do their voting.
Blacks who moved from the south to Chicago found that they did not have to sit all day to become a voter. The precinct captain would register them and do their voting. They didn't have to even go to the polling booth to vote straight democratic. It would be done for them. Chicago was truly the promised land!
Steve, now you know why your father-in-law was driven from Austin.
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