Gyroscopic Investing

Corto,

Following up on the "Kung Flu" debate, I'm wondering (sincerely) about the position of you and your family on the Trader Joe's ethnic branding. For example, a frozen lasagna comes under the name "Trader Giotto's", and some Chinese stir fry is sold under the name "Trader Ming's". (Of course this is now going away.) Is this an example of a bit of fun color which we now have to lose, or is this practice irredeemably racist?

Xan wrote: ↑Thu Jul 23, 2020 8:24 am Corto,

Following up on the "Kung Flu" debate, I'm wondering (sincerely) about the position of you and your family on the Trader Joe's ethnic branding. For example, a frozen lasagna comes under the name "Trader Giotto's", and some Chinese stir fry is sold under the name "Trader Ming's". (Of course this is now going away.) Is this an example of a bit of fun color which we now have to lose, or is this practice irredeemably racist?

That does not bother me or them. What bothers me is the president of the United States using those terms openly when you know there are people in this country just itching to find some reason to mess with anyone that doesn't look like them.

Cortopassi wrote: ↑Thu Jul 23, 2020 8:32 am

Xan wrote: ↑Thu Jul 23, 2020 8:24 am Corto,

Following up on the "Kung Flu" debate, I'm wondering (sincerely) about the position of you and your family on the Trader Joe's ethnic branding. For example, a frozen lasagna comes under the name "Trader Giotto's", and some Chinese stir fry is sold under the name "Trader Ming's". (Of course this is now going away.) Is this an example of a bit of fun color which we now have to lose, or is this practice irredeemably racist?

That does not bother me or them. What bothers me is the president of the United States using those terms openly when you know there are people in this country just itching to find some reason to mess with anyone that doesn't look like them.

Gosh, that sounds bad. Got any examples of people doing that based on something Trump said?

Perhaps the narrative that people are itching to cause trouble at Trump's direction is more powerful than the itch itself, if it exists at all in any significant way. What are some tell-tale signs that someone's "got the itch" and what should be done about it?

flyingpylon wrote: ↑Thu Jul 23, 2020 9:06 am

Cortopassi wrote: ↑Thu Jul 23, 2020 8:32 am

Xan wrote: ↑Thu Jul 23, 2020 8:24 am Corto,

Following up on the "Kung Flu" debate, I'm wondering (sincerely) about the position of you and your family on the Trader Joe's ethnic branding. For example, a frozen lasagna comes under the name "Trader Giotto's", and some Chinese stir fry is sold under the name "Trader Ming's". (Of course this is now going away.) Is this an example of a bit of fun color which we now have to lose, or is this practice irredeemably racist?

That does not bother me or them. What bothers me is the president of the United States using those terms openly when you know there are people in this country just itching to find some reason to mess with anyone that doesn't look like them.

Gosh, that sounds bad. Got any examples of people doing that based on something Trump said?

Perhaps the narrative that people are itching to cause trouble at Trump's direction is more powerful than the itch itself, if it exists at all in any significant way. What are some tell-tale signs that someone's "got the itch" and what should be done about it?

Tell-tell signs: Desire to control others. Tendency to react instead of proact. Desire for self-gratification, right now.

Don't touch the crank on the Jack-in-the-box. Danger!

Don't let the genie out of the bottle.

Oooops! Too late.

What to do? Know that Jesus has your back, no matter what, for those who trust His promises. Pardon me for getting all preachy, but man is evil by nature. Just look at a new born infant who desires everything to be about it from "feed me now", to "change my diapers now" or I will throw a tantrum. Just look at how many have no regard for life in the womb. Man without Jesus is a scary thing to behold as we have seen throughout history, even man who "thinks" he is with Jesus can be very scary when he gets all self-righteous, self-justifying, judgmental, instead of trusting in God to make him righteous. Man's natural desire to love self a lot more than love neighbor has dire consequences, as we are seeing. Come Lord Jesus!

flyingpylon wrote: ↑Thu Jul 23, 2020 9:06 am

Cortopassi wrote: ↑Thu Jul 23, 2020 8:32 am

Xan wrote: ↑Thu Jul 23, 2020 8:24 am Corto,

Following up on the "Kung Flu" debate, I'm wondering (sincerely) about the position of you and your family on the Trader Joe's ethnic branding. For example, a frozen lasagna comes under the name "Trader Giotto's", and some Chinese stir fry is sold under the name "Trader Ming's". (Of course this is now going away.) Is this an example of a bit of fun color which we now have to lose, or is this practice irredeemably racist?

That does not bother me or them. What bothers me is the president of the United States using those terms openly when you know there are people in this country just itching to find some reason to mess with anyone that doesn't look like them.

Gosh, that sounds bad. Got any examples of people doing that based on something Trump said?

Perhaps the narrative that people are itching to cause trouble at Trump's direction is more powerful than the itch itself, if it exists at all in any significant way. What are some tell-tale signs that someone's "got the itch" and what should be done about it?

I don't have specific examples that are "because of Trump."

Not sure if all these come through, but if you don't think Asians have been targeted since the virus started:
https://laist.com/2020/07/01/asian_amer ... idents.php
https://www.voanews.com/usa/race-americ ... -incidents
https://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/v ... t/2322091/
https://www.mercurynews.com/2020/07/01/ ... -pandemic/
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/23/us/c ... tacks.html
https://newyork.cbslocal.com/2020/03/05 ... ion-video/
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/coronaviru ... ronavirus/

Is the terminology Trump is using helpful in any way? Is it not even remotely possible these people end up being egged on to do what they do because of his words? Want to use it with your friends yucking it up over a beer, go right ahead. Doesn't bother me.

It is your right to defend his use of bullying, condescending and similar language in his speeches and tweets. I just do think a president should have a higher standard, because there are people who will take it at face value.

George W. Bush knew the right thing to do immediately after 9/11: https://news.yahoo.com/george-w-bush-st ... 54730.html

Cortopassi wrote: ↑Thu Jul 23, 2020 12:13 pm

flyingpylon wrote: ↑Thu Jul 23, 2020 9:06 am

Cortopassi wrote: ↑Thu Jul 23, 2020 8:32 am

Xan wrote: ↑Thu Jul 23, 2020 8:24 am Corto,

Following up on the "Kung Flu" debate, I'm wondering (sincerely) about the position of you and your family on the Trader Joe's ethnic branding. For example, a frozen lasagna comes under the name "Trader Giotto's", and some Chinese stir fry is sold under the name "Trader Ming's". (Of course this is now going away.) Is this an example of a bit of fun color which we now have to lose, or is this practice irredeemably racist?

That does not bother me or them. What bothers me is the president of the United States using those terms openly when you know there are people in this country just itching to find some reason to mess with anyone that doesn't look like them.

Gosh, that sounds bad. Got any examples of people doing that based on something Trump said?

Perhaps the narrative that people are itching to cause trouble at Trump's direction is more powerful than the itch itself, if it exists at all in any significant way. What are some tell-tale signs that someone's "got the itch" and what should be done about it?

I don't have specific examples that are "because of Trump."

Not sure if all these come through, but if you don't think Asians have been targeted since the virus started:
https://laist.com/2020/07/01/asian_amer ... idents.php
https://www.voanews.com/usa/race-americ ... -incidents
https://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/v ... t/2322091/
https://www.mercurynews.com/2020/07/01/ ... -pandemic/
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/23/us/c ... tacks.html
https://newyork.cbslocal.com/2020/03/05 ... ion-video/
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/coronaviru ... ronavirus/

Is the terminology Trump is using helpful in any way? Is it not even remotely possible these people end up being egged on to do what they do because of his words? Want to use it with your friends yucking it up over a beer, go right ahead. Doesn't bother me.

It is your right to defend his use of bullying, condescending and similar language in his speeches and tweets. I just do think a president should have a higher standard, because there are people who will take it at face value.

George W. Bush knew the right thing to do immediately after 9/11: https://news.yahoo.com/george-w-bush-st ... 54730.html

I wasn't claiming that Asians are never targeted. Every group is targeted for something at some point.

But I do think the narratives that Trump enables or "eggs on" people with a desire to target certain groups are generally false. They always seem to rely on stretched interpretations of words or their impact and the reading of other people's minds and motivations. Is it "remotely possible"? Sure, in a world of possibilities lots of things are remotely possible.

That's not a defense of Trump. As I've said elsewhere, I think he does himself a disservice with his style of communication at times and could probably avoid a tiny portion of the crap he has to deal with by doing better in that area. Clearly he would do better with more moderate segments of the population if he would rein some of that in.

But the point remains that many of Trump's comments would not be especially noteworthy if nobody decided to make them an issue in an effort to sow division and discord. Those narratives take on a life of their own, dominate the news cycle, and distract us all from things that should be far more important.

Agreed. We are not far off from each other.