Tumblr: yet more Internet crack

Last week I was strung out on Tumblr, yet another form of Internet crack. That is why I was hardly here last week. I started a Tumblr blog – it already has hundreds of posts! It was pretty easy to do:

1. Most posts are short, very short. In my case instead of being mainly thoughtful, 500-word posts like here on WordPress, most are just pictures of pretty women.
2. Most posts are copied from other Tumblr blogs. Tumblr makes that extremely easy.
3. Tumblr makes it easy to find content you like, so you are more likely to find stuff you would want to copy in the first place. More on that below.
4. Tumblr gets you hooked so you wind up spending way more time on it than you intend.

Tumblr, like WordPress or Blogger, is a blogging platform. You sign up and start blogging. But where a Blogger or WordPress blog is like a public diary or a little magazine, a Tumblr blog is more like a scrapbook – one that would seem like magic 20 years ago.

Imagine if you had a scrapbook that the whole world could see. Further imagine that every time someone copied something from it to theirs – or liked something they saw in it  – you were given a link to their scrapbook!  You would quickly find scrapbooks of those who shared your interests. In addition imagine that you would be told whenever a scrapbook you liked had new content.

Well, that is what Tumblr is.

Copying posts from other blogs to yours is called reblogging. A record of where a post has been copied and who likes it is kept in a part of the post called notes. When you “follow” another blog you get told when something new appears on it.

Not mass culture but microculture: One of the cool side effects is that in place of mainstream culture or even subculture you find yourself in a sort of microculture (my word for it). So instead of seeing posts on television shows I never watch or even singers I cannot stand, like Beyonce and Lil Wayne, I get stuff like Erykah Badu, Kelis, Edward Said and C.S. Lewis. Wow! I also get to see a sort of female beauty that is way closer to my own tastes than anything I have seen in a magazine or on television.

How you get hooked:

1. Like with YouTube you find yourself saying “just one more” and the next thing you know it is two hours later. Because most content is short and when you are done you see links to yet other related content.
2. If you follow enough blogs there is always something new coming in – of content that you will most likely find interesting.
3. When someone new reblogs a post of yours it makes you curious to look at their blog.

On the other hand, searching and commenting are terrible. Which makes it worse for the sort of writing and debate that goes on here. So I am not about to do most of my blogging there anytime soon.

– Abagond, 2010.

See also:

• Tumblr
• Abagond’s Pics – my tumblr from 2010 to 2018
• abagond etc – my tumblr since 2018
• blog
• TV Tropes
• The women I most reblogged on Tumblr in 2013
• In memoriam: Tumblr

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reading while white: this blog

Black and White Americans read this blog very differently

How to read this blog like many White Americans seem to:

1. “Whites”: Imagine the word “all” before each use of the word “whites”. This is a special rule of White American English that does not appear in any grammar book.
2. “Evil”: If “whites” and “evil” appear in the same sentence, imagine the word “uniquely” before the word “evil”. Or even “pure”. Or both.
3. “Racist”: If the words “whites” and “racist” are in the same sentence, then do not even trouble yourself with reading the rest of the post – just jump down to the comments and start acting offended. Try it! Remember, only white  nationalists and those who use the n-word can possibly be racist. All other whites are Well Meaning, Basically Good and Would Know If They Were Racist. Blacks would have no idea because they cannot read minds.
4. General statements about whites: these are racist and therefore false. Because whites are individuals, because to see colour in the first place is racist, because to make general statements about a race is stereotyping, a part of racism.
5. White is right: so Abagond must be wrong. Even if you cannot say why.
6. Abagond hates whites: This follows from #5 because what other reason could there be for him to say bad stuff about whites?
7. This is a Bash Whitey blog: which follows from #6. Abagond hates whites so much that he wants to make them to look bad or feel bad. Clearly that is his whole reason for blogging.
8. Stereotype his position.Here are some of the choices:
   • Playing the race card
   • Whining
   • Advanced Whining
   • Whites are pure evil (white devils)
   • Living in the past

   If he sounds kind of like he saying one of these then he is.  After all, Black America is capable of maybe six different opinions at once. If that.

9. He is an Ungrateful Darkie: He does not seem to know that Progress Has Been Made and that blacks in America have it so much better than in Africa. Point this out to him!
10. When he tells about a personal experience:
    1. If you or any white person you know has had the same experience then say, “It happens to whites too!” Even if you have to stretch it.
    2. Otherwise he must be making it up just to make whites look bad. What else could it be?
11. If he says something bad about whites, get upset. Take it personally. Clearly he does not know how to talk to white people, so there is no reason to take him seriously.
12. Your feelings are more important than anything in the post, even the stuff he talks about that affects 40 million Americans – if not the whole country. Or much of the English-speaking world. But what is that compared to your feelings?
13. The most important rule of all: Never ever try to understand what he is saying from his point of view. Why would you? What is the point? White is right, remember?

See also:

• More in this series:
  • reading while white: history and news
• Reading Abagond – for those who truly want to understand me
• How to argue like a white racist – for those want to argue against what I say. These will take me completely by surprise.
• How to tell if a commenter is white – the things that white commenters most commonly say
• More on some of the stuff in the post:
  • whites are individuals
  • The “not all whites” argument
  • “racist”
  • The feelings of white people
  • Abagond hates white people
  • whining
  • darkies – ungrateful and otherwise
• How to talk to white people*
• What this blog has taught me about white people

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What this blog has taught me about white people

Keeping this blog has blown my mind. White people say stuff here that they would never  say offline in my hearing.

I knew white Americans were racist – living in so-called liberal New York left no doubt in my mind about that – but I had no idea how deep their racism ran.

I used to think they just did not know any better, that they were brainwashed by a culture founded way back by slave owners; that if they woke up and saw the truth they would change.

If only.

I know that the whites who comment on this blog are not the ordinary sort. For example, most of them are race conscious for one reason or another: they are white nationalists, they live in a place where most people are black, they have black people in their family or are even married to a black person and have black children.

But that is just it: leaving aside the white nationalists as being too far gone, they if anyone should know better and yet they do not. Whites who married black or who live in black neighbourhoods do not have the excuse that most whites do: a lack of solid, first-hand knowledge of black people. And yet they are still racist, just with fewer stereotypes.

So then I saw that racism is rooted not in a lack of facts or in bad ideas, as I thought, but in their sense of self-worth.

The truth will not set them free because they are not interested in the truth. They are interested in maintaining their sad, two-bit sense of self-worth, which is partly built on feeling that they are better than black people – and anyone else who is “different”. It is like at the end of “The Bluest Eye”.

Also: They know perfectly well that blacks are getting screwed for no good reason – they have seen the ghettos, they know the numbers – but to avoid a sense of guilt they have to believe that blacks truly are just that screwed up all on their own.

They think like wife beaters:

• making themselves feel good by putting down others,
• avoiding blame for their own actions,
• listening only to their own sad, half-baked lies.

If you point out how off-base they are, they just call you names or think of a thousand and one reasons why you are wrong. Anything but taking a cold, hard, honest look at themselves. Because deep down they know the truth but are afraid to face it.

This sick, insecure frame of mind of white people seems to come from slave days when they had a relationship with black people that was nakedly abusive. They would do themselves and everyone else a world of good if they took the road to health: make right their wrongs and then base their self-worth on something good and true.

Not that I am holding my breath or anything.

See also:

• white people
• white guilt
• Reading “The Bluest Eye”
• How a wife beater thinks
• Race in New York
• growing up white
• racelessness
• How to help end racism

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Why I wrote about female beauty

It all started when I moved my blog to WordPress and wrote a post on Naomi Campbell.

I used to be on Blogger and could not tell why people were coming to my blog. With WordPress I could see which search engine keywords were bringing them here.

So I made it a practice to write a post every week on the top unsatisfied search. One week it was “beautiful black women”, another week it was “thick black women”, and so on.

As it turned out, the Web was in effect interested in what it was that I liked in black women in terms of looks. As I later found out, people have written about the inner beauty of black women but not so much about their outer beauty, not from a male point of view at least. The Web knocked and I answered.

But, of course, it is not quite as simple as just that. It never is. Ever since my mother-in-law died my marriage has been going through a very rough patch, which I have written about, though not at great length (I keep going back and forth about how personal I should get on a blog this public). Sometimes a whole month would go by without sex. The less I have sex the more I think about women. It starts to crowd out other thoughts. It is like when you are hungry, all you can think about is food. Same sort of thing.

So, given that I have a blog where I write “500 words a day on whatever I want”, the subject becomes almost unavoidable.

Another thing that comes into it is that my idea of female beauty is at odds with what the American film and fashion industries push. So sometimes I get worked up about that too. Not that I think their idea of beauty is wrong – just too narrow.

Before I had this blog I never thought much about what it is I like in a woman’s looks. There was no reason to. I just liked what I liked. It has been interesting for me to break it down. But in breaking it down and writing about it in 500-word posts, it gives some people the wrong idea. For example, that I like only thick women or condemn those who do not fit what I prefer or that I only care about looks or that I do not love my wife because she has gained weight. None of that is true.

My troubles with my wife have nothing to do with her looks. She looks fine the way she is. I still love looking at her – and more. But I did marry her in my younger days when I valued looks over character, an error in judgement that I pay for now. I should have spent less time looking into her beautiful eyes and more time thinking about why she would not honour her bets.

See also:

• thick black women
• The most beautiful black women
• Naomi Campbell
• Hey You Feministe
• female beauty
• women

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People who visit Abagond…

Not sure how they figure this stuff out, but according to Quantcast those who visit this blog are also likely to visit:

1. nigeriamovies.net 245.8x
2. racialicious.com 143.4x
3. panachereport.com 75.9x
4. forum.blackhairmedia.com 60.0x
5. blackhairmedia.com 30.0x
6. blackvoices.com 28.3x
7. videojug.com 27.0x
8. bastardly.com 26.2x
9. bp3.blogger.com 22.8x
10. nairaland.com 21.6x
11. stormfront.org 21.2x
12. springerlink.com 14.3x
13. ask.metafilter.com 13.8x
14. concreteloop.com 13.8x
15. metafilter.com 12.1x

Of these I have heard of and visited Racialicious, Black Voices, Nairaland, Stormfront and Concrete Loop. A third of the list. Maybe they are onto something.

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1 Corinthians 2: as blog post

Here is my second rewrite of 1 Corinthians 2, this time as a blog post. A much harder thing than turning Greek into English since it requires understanding what the Bible says and putting it in a way that works as a blog post, which is not how Paul wrote it back in the days before Blogger and WordPress. But since this is my first try, I will pretty much stick to the points Paul made and in the order he made them. As a start.

Corinthians: put your faith not in what people tell you but in the spirit of God.

When I visited you I was weak, I was afraid, I was shaking like a leaf. I did not have fine words, I was not up on all the latest thinking. All I had, all I knew – all I thought I should have to know – was Jesus Christ, Christ dying on the cross.

So instead of trying to persuade you with fine words and subtle points, I showed you the spirit and power of God. Because your faith should be built on that, the spirit of God, not on words, not on what people say, not on the wisdom of man.

The things we told you were based not the wisdom of man, but on what the spirit of God has showed us: a secret that has been hidden by God since the beginning of time – for us, for this moment, for our glory. That is what the Bible was talking about it when it said:

Eye hath not seen,
nor ear heard,
neither have entered into the heart of man,
the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.

Think about it: no one knows what is in a man’s heart except for that man’s spirit. In the same way, no one can possibly know what is in God’s heart except for the spirit of God.

And that spirit has been given to us.

And what we say comes from that spirit.

Now the things we say might seem utterly foolish to you. And that is just how it will seem if you look at it the way most people do. Because the only way you can understand it, the only way it can make sense, is to have the spirit of God in you.

Once you have the spirit of God you will see everything the right way. What people say will no longer matter to you. Because then, like us, you will see things from God’s point of view, not man’s point of view. Because knowing the mind of Christ is knowing the mind of God. And that is all you need.

My first observations: some would call this a translation, but for me it is too loose for that. But, come to think of it, maybe you could blog the whole Bible, or at least good stretches of it, this way. At Wal-Mart I once saw the New Testament sold as a girl’s magazine!

My second observations (December 2009): This is way easier to understand than the Bible!! But it could be made better if I made the points in a different order and lost some of the old-fashioned, King James sort of language.

See also:

• 1 Corinthians 2: my rewrite – a straight translation

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Buzzomatic Tech

Buzzomatic Tech is my fourth and latest addition to my little empire of blogs. It is built and works just like Buzzomatic, which I started last week, but it follows tech blogs and tech news instead, the part that interests me. It is just something I am trying out to see how it goes.

While it looks like I will keep up Buzzomatic as long as I can, Buzzomatic Tech might be short-lived: the Internet is bursting with this kind of news. Most likely after a few weeks of doing Buzzomatic Tech I will discover which blogs and news websites are the best and just follow them instead.

See also:

• My four blogs to date:
  1. Abagond
  2. Black Beauty of the Day
  3. Buzzomatic
  4. Buzzomatic Tech

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