She's lucky she didn't try that with me. This old guy shares the view of Jimmy Porter in Look Back In Anger: "Go ahead. Hit me. But don't think I harbor any chivalric notions. You hit me, I'll knock you across the room."
Tuesday, December 28, 2021
Oh, good …
… Federal Charges Filed After ‘Karen’ Punches Another Passenger on Delta Flight.
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A "Karen", though, is someone who acts out racism, usually by calling authorities or demanding ID from a black person. It all started with the Central Park Karen
ReplyDeleteThat duly noted, I stay clear of using the term. I have a great friend Karen who is far from such a racist character.
Rus, you may as well give up trying to confine the word's meaning to its earliest attested use. People gave it wider application, as they have always done, just by using it. Boomer, chauvinist, neanderthal, etc., etc., are spoken of subjects who don't fit the "original meaning" of those words. "Karen" has gone the same way: it now means any obnoxious self-appointed hall monitor type, male or female.
Delete(And like you, I don't use the term: I too have a friend named Karen, smart and funny and not at all wack.)
In the case of the racist, the common meaning, the "hallway monitor" is in the wrong. In the case of reporting someone who is breaking federal law on an airplane, the "hallway monitor" would be in the right. It's good to have such "Karens" around. The word is supposed to be an insult.
DeleteThe politics in this situation is interesting. The guy was breaking federal law. It seems that he wants to place himself in the same category as black person who is a victim of racism by calling the "hallway monitor" a Karen. That's pretty sad. The misusage of the term itself is ignorant, which makes the user doubly ignorant.
Not misusage, it's a common colloquial expression. "Buttinski" could as appropriately describe her; it means the same thing, but "Karen" being more up-to-date still has the sting of freshness: so it more than describes, it taunts. Buttinskis set themselves up for taunting, and must bear it or get out of the butting-in business. Whatever "federal law" (if any) was being contravened, it either was or deserved to be treated as a dead letter. Then if an authorized official wants to make a federal case out of it, we have clarification. The buttinski just muddies the water.
DeleteSo, you have a covidiot who is not masking up, breaking the law, someone who ought to be reported. Someone does so, and that person is supposedly taunted by being mis-called a Karen? Is this a secret gang code, to misuse Karen for covidiot purposes?
DeleteIf I see you picking someone's pocket, do I become a Karen for reporting it? How about if you are pissing on the floor? Robbing a bank? Suddenly we have become prisoners who are not supposed to be rats, turning in another prisoner for having cigarettes hidden, or worse? Is this some secret society honor among covidiots? Will there be leather jackets and special colors to wear too? Does the term Karen really mean an outsider law abider -- but only when it comes to masks?
But there is further and more important insidiousness, than a law breaker trying to save face by "taunting" an informant with an ignorant use of Karen term.
Let's say that the woman on the plane addressed the law breaker, telling him he should mask up, which he should. And let's say she does it politely, or even firmly, no assault intended. She then tells the steward or stewardess, and asks, "Would you tell this man to mask up, please?"
Now, let's say that the de-masked man is a black man, "de-masked" because he could not have boarded without wearing the mask. He then "taunts" the woman with being a Karen, just as he had planned if anyone "dare" speak to him about his bold and offensive behavior.
What do we make of this? In this context, he would be accusing her of being racist against him. The meaning immediately shifts from an ignorant remark coming from a white guy, to an accusatory actual taunt coming from a black guy. Same words.
No, if the guy is white, he cannot be making out like he is being racistly monitored by a real Karen. That's pathetic.
Rus, I'm afraid you're flying too far with this little incident. I only checked in to comment on the use of the word "Karen" -- not a misuse, as you keep calling it; the word was correctly used. Just as a matter of personal taste, I prefer not to use that word; but I recognize its meaning, and I have no objection to others using it.
DeleteThe other matters you get into -- your racism, secret codes, prison grifting, and whatever else -- it sounds like you're spoofing paranoid discourse, but I don't find it funny, sorry. If, on the other hand, you really are that paranoid, I only regret that I don't know you well enough to say something that will bring you relief, not set you off further. I'll kibbitz no more on this topic, this thread; but if I can say it without offense, I'll keep you in my prayers.
You fold, then. Not sure where paranoia entered the discussion for you, or being funny. I was neither.
DeleteYour matter of racism, as you put it -- our matter of racism enters the discussion, because of the racism that original and true Karens display. That's what they do.
Anyone who misuses the term for someone who tries to get a lawbreaker to stop breaking the law, is pathetic. The term immediately flips when it's not a white person saying it. It's pathetic. Now, different from being paranoid, we are to imagine that all the anti-maskers are singing blues songs and rising up from being downtrodden, like "Nobody knows the trouble I've seen." "Swing low, sweet chariot." And, "I've been to the mountaintop." Poor anti-maskers. Poor poor anti-maskers. Why, Lord, have Thou forsaken them?
Oh, I am sorry, you want the term Karen to mean a taunt against someone who turns in a lawbreaker. Who else would want such a change in definition?
Just to follow up, I looked into other stories about this, and Patricia Cornwall's victim was an older white guy, but who was eating. He was not breaking federal law. Cornwall acted like a real "Karen", making up an offense that was not real, but her victim was light-skinned so she does not fulfill the necessity of being racially motivated in her attack -- unless she recognized him as Polish or something, and she hates Poles or Slavs.
DeleteTo join in the conversation about the Conniption Patricia, I suppose we can call her, the violence against scientists is crazy: ‘I hope you die’: how the COVID pandemic unleashed attacks on scientists. And so is the attacks on politicians: Boston's New Mayor Michelle Wu Bombarded With Racist Messages Over Vaccine Mandate
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