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LasciviousApemantus t1_j06misv wrote

Reply to comment by ArrestDeathSantis in Adam Sandler wins the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor by ZylonBane

Have you read his "who is a republic" speech? Honestly its one of the most beautiful inspiring pieces of american writing i have ever read.

If you think N***** Jim was racist then you probably don't understand satire. Its like saying Orwell was a Stalinist or Kafka advocated senseless bureaucracy. The whole point is to skewer the ideology through its satirical portrayal. I mean, by no means was he "politically correct" even for his time. xD But the guy was a champion of liberty and justice for all 100%.

I mean just listen to this excerpt:

"--This Republic's life is not in peril. The nation has sold its honor for a phrase. It has swung itself loose from its safe anchorage and is drifting, its helm is in pirate hands. The stupid phrase needed help, and it got another one: "Even if the war be wrong we are in it and must fight it out: we cannot retire from it without dishonor." Why, not even a burglar could have said it better. We cannot withdraw from this sordid raid because to grant peace to those little people on their terms--independence--would dishonor us.--"

Straight up championing filipino independence and civils rights when no one else would. Speaking the truth with a sharp tongue thats still even more relevant today than it was then. Anyone who shits on Mark Twain has clearly never read Mark Twain.

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ArrestDeathSantis t1_j089fxf wrote

I agree with you, that's exactly what I mean when I say that it's missing the point.

Even when he's being "racially insensitive", he's not doing it to promote a bigoted ideology or as an easy way to fame like modern right wing comedians are doing, he's doing it for the exact opposite.

It's like being mad at Schindler for making Jews work in his factory, basically.

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NURGLICHE t1_j0krihd wrote

Taking jobs away from hard working free people!

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Sad_Butterscotch9057 t1_j092fee wrote

I firmly believe that 'Huckleberry Finn' wasn't banned for racist language: that was the excuse to ban it for teaching youth to make their own ethical choices in rebellion against an unjust society.

I was raised in a staunchly Catholic home, but it was a scene in Huckleberry Finn that helped free me from 'the Church': Huck decides that if freeing Jim would send him to hell (as he was taught) he'd far rather the company in hell.

"It was a close place. I took . . . up [the letter I’d written to Miss Watson], and held it in my hand. I was a-trembling, because I’d got to decide, forever, betwixt two things, and I knowed it. I studied a minute, sort of holding my breath, and then says to myself: “All right then, I’ll go to hell”—and tore it up. It was awful thoughts and awful words, but they was said. And I let them stay said; and never thought no more about reforming."

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LasciviousApemantus t1_j0bgyyo wrote

Its kind of a theme in Twains writing. That doing the right thing often comes at the cost of doing the wrong thing in the eyes of the public.

This passage is straight up burned into my brain. I think about it so often and it kind of informs my whole moral philosophy: "Every man must speak, and it is a solemn and weighty responsibility not to lightly be flung aside at the bullying of the pulpit, press, or the empty catch phrases of politicians. You cannot shirk this and be a man. To decide against your convictions is to be an unqualified and inexcusable traitor both to yourself and to your country, let men label you as they may. If you alone of all the nation shall decide one way and that way be the right way according to your convictions of what is right, hold your head high, you have nothing to be ashamed of."

Like god damn dude. Still gives me chills every time i read it. Like its not just a responsibility to fight for what you think is right but also to not fool yourself and fight for a cause you know deep down isn't right and convince yourself that it is. So many people harbor insincere causes or bear flags for a false sense of justice and false sense of morality either because its easy or because it benefits them but he's straight up saying that they're cowards for taking the easy way out. And that real truth and real justice is never the easy road, it's the path less traveled and it takes real courage and conviction to walk that path alone.

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Sad_Butterscotch9057 t1_j0blu27 wrote

Absolutely correct, although it's worth it to reexamine one's convictions, conventional or otherwise.

Also Thoreau:

"Any man more right than his neighbors constitutes a majority of one already."

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andre6682 t1_j08mlmj wrote

well, people are often stupid, like a few centuries ago, when they misinterpreted macchiavellis il principe as an instruction for dictatorships, ignoring the essence of his discorsi as his magnum opus, while the former was just the things he saw were happening and not what he liked, but thought of empirical facts (or at least what he percieved)

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LasciviousApemantus t1_j0bhbdn wrote

I feel like il principe was more a guide on how to navigate a fucked up world that has to operate like this rather than advocating for a world that does operate like that. More pragmatism than nihilism.

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88leo t1_j09pjgw wrote

Its only an insult and completely derogatory now because it was the commonly used adjective at that time. At that time it was just the word used.

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LasciviousApemantus t1_j0b1plg wrote

Yeah theres a lot of stuff that falls into the "euphemistic cycle" where words develop a negative association and are replaced by euphemisms that in turn develop a negative association and are replaced by further euphemisms through a linguistic process called pejoration.

Its Karen's Maxim: All words are doomed to become offensive given enough exposure to time, resentment and sheer boredom.

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88leo t1_j0f78uh wrote

He said N*** Jim to make sure people knew he was referring to a black man, not to be insulting in a sarcastic way, and when you look at it that way he actually may have moved the meaning of the word from a commonly used neutral word to a negative.

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