(Part 3) Top products from r/gatekeeping

> The sugar skull tradition comes from the Aztecs.

> fancy skeletons and skulls are popular in our culture because we celebrate death (per the aztecs)

Just a small correction for anyone who is perusing this thread. This is a fun just-so story that a lot of people have come to believe (many Mexicans included, unfortunately) but this is a modern, urban legend. It stems from problematic narratives invented in the 19th and 20th century regarding fatalistic views on indigeneity and mestizaje against colonialism (see: Death and the Idea of Mexico, by Claudio Lomnitz.)

I always feel it necessary as a Mexican myself to push back against this narrative (that our department of education, who absolutely knows better, continues to teach despite pushback from modern academics and scholars.)

The fact is, anthropologists and archaeologists know very little about the nature of rituals and cults in prehispanic Mesoamerica; much of what people think actually comes from 20th century political propaganda.

To quote the Mexican philosopher, Roger Bartra (who coined the concept of a post-Mexican condition, see: Blood, Ink, and Culture: Miseries and Splendors of the Post-Mexican Condition)

> The intellectual class in twentieth-century Mexico appropriated the cult of death as it was first celebrated within popular culture, making of the idea of death a symbol of nationalism: Mexicans' “indifference to death” is an invention of modern culture.

> The fact that León-portilla’s Moctezuma accepts “fatalmente” the arrival of the Spaniards suggests that León-portilla, too, finds himself inspired (or perhaps trapped) in one of mid-century Mexico’s most prominent and more labyrinthine mythologies: death itself.

In his critique of historian León-Portilla's work, he points out that after the independence from Spain (and the later civil war), the desire to connect modern Mexican society back to pre-hispanic origins was a useful political tool to create an artificial Mexican national identity out of the antiquated caste system it sought to replace.

While it's tempting to trace the narrative of the “special relationship between Mexico and death” back to the Aztec triple-alliance, it's unfortunately ahistorical & propagandistic.

If this is a topic you're interested in I highly recommend reading "Female Chauvinist Pigs" it's an easy, fun read and in some places opened my eyes to how I was perpetuating misogyny. It also hit on the 'cool girl' trope before Gillian Flynn wrote that paragraph.

Communists are good. Exhibit A. Thomas Sankara

1. He vaccinated 2.5 million children against meningitis, yellow fever and measles in a matter of weeks
   
   
2. He initiated a nation-wide literacy campaign, increasing the literacy rate from 13% in 1983 to 73% in 1987.
   
   
3. He planted over 10 million trees to prevent desertification
   
4. He built roads and a railway to tie the nation together, without foreign aid
   
   
5. He appointed females to high governmental positions, encouraged them to work, recruited them into the military, and granted pregnancy leave during education
   
   
6. He outlawed female genital mutilation, forced marriages and polygamy in support of Women’s rights
   
   
7. He sold off the government fleet of Mercedes cars and made the Renault 5 (the cheapest car sold in Burkina Faso at that time) the official service car of the ministers.
   
   
8. He reduced the salaries of all public servants, including his own, and forbade the use of government chauffeurs and 1st class airline tickets.
   
   
9. He redistributed land from the feudal landlords and gave it directly to the peasants. Wheat production rose in three years from 1700 kg per hectare to 3800 kg per hectare, making the country food self-sufficient
   
   And again
   
   
10. He opposed foreign aid, saying that “he who feeds you, controls you.”
    
    
11. He spoke in forums like the Organization of African Unity against continued neo-colonialist penetration of Africa through Western trade and finance.
    
    
12. He called for a united front of African nations to repudiate their foreign debt. He argued that the poor and exploited did not have an obligation to repay money to the rich and exploiting In Ouagadougou, Sankara converted the army’s provisioning store into a state-owned supermarket open to everyone (the first supermarket in the country).
    
    
13. H[e forced civil servants to pay one month’s salary to public projects](In Ouagadougou, Sankara converted the army's provisioning store into a state-owned supermarket open to everyone (the first supermarket in the country).)
    
    
14. He refused to use the air conditioning in his office on the grounds that such luxury was not available to anyone but a handful of Burkinabes
    
    
15. As President, he lowered his salary to $450 a month and limited his possessions to a car, four bikes, three guitars, a fridge and a broken freezer
    
    
16. A motorcyclist himself, he formed an all-women motorcycle personal guard.
    
    
17. He required public servants to wear a traditional tunic, woven from Burkinabe cotton and sewn by Burkinabe craftsmen. (The reason being to rely upon local industry and identity rather than foreign industry and identity)
    
    
18. When asked why he didn’t want his portrait hung in public places, as was the norm for other African leaders, Sankara replied “There are seven million Thomas Sankaras.”
    
    
19. An accomplished guitarist, he wrote the new national anthem himself
    
    
20. He renamed his country from the derogatory " Upper volta " to " Burkina Faso, The Land Of Upright Man"
    
    
21. His foreign policies were centred on anti-imperialism, with his government eschewing all foreign aid, pushing for odious debt reduction, nationalising all land and mineral wealth and averting the power and influence of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank.
    
    
22. Sankara's administration was the first African government to publicly recognize the AIDS epidemic as a major threat to Africa
    
    
23. Large-scale housing and infrastructure projects were also undertaken. Brick factories were created to help build houses in effort to end urban slums
    
    
24. In Ouagadougou, Sankara converted the army's provisioning store into a state-owned supermarket open to everyone (the first supermarket in the country)
    
    
    
    He led one of the most ambitious programs of sweeping reforms ever seen in Africa It sought to fundamentally reverse the structural social inequities inherited from the French colonial order.
    
    These inequities left a majority of marginalized, mostly rural, poor and women, at the bottom of society, often under the exploitation of a minority of bureaucrats, businessmen, military officers and traditional chiefs. Sankara focused the state’s limited resources on the marginalized majority in the countryside. When most African countries depended on imported food and external assistance for development, Sankara championed local production and the consumption of locally-made goods. He firmly believed that it was possible for the Burkinabè, with hard work and collective social mobilization, to solve their problems: chiefly scarce food and drinking water.
    In Sankara’s Burkina, no one was above farm work, or graveling roads–not even the president, government ministers or army officers. Intellectual and civic education were systematically integrated with military training and soldiers were required to work in local community development projects.
    
    According to Ernest Harsch, author of a recent biography of Sankara, Burkinabe built for the first time scores of schools, health centers, water reservoirs, and nearly 100 km of rail, with little or no external assistance. Total cereal production rose by 75% between 1983 and 1986. In 1984, his government, defying skepticism from the donor agencies, organized the vaccination of 2 million children in a little over two weeks. He also championed environmental conservation with tree-planting campaigns and greening projects.
    
    His informal style of leadership was in a league of its own. Harsch quotes a former aide describing Sankara as “an idealist, demanding, rigorous, an organizer.” This discipline and seriousness started with himself. He had been first among top leadership to voluntary declare his modest assets and hand over to the treasury cash and gifts received during trips. Harsch quotes family members as saying that Sankara told them not to expect any benefits from him because he is president. In fact, by the time of his death, his kids attended the same public school, his wife was reporting to the same civil servant job, and his parents lived in the same house.
    
    Sankara disdained formal pomp and banned any cult of his personality. He could be seen casually walking the streets, jogging or conspicuously slipping into the crowd at a public event. He was a rousing orator who spoke with uncommon candor and clarity and did not hesitate to publicly admit mistakes, chastise comrades or express moral objections to heads of powerful nations, even if it imperiled him. For example, he famously criticized French president François Mitterand during a state dinner for hosting the leader of Apartheid South Africa.
    
    
    Books by Sankara:
    
    We are the heirs of the world's revolution
    
    Women's liberation and the African freedom struggle
    
    Thomas Sankara Speaks
    
    A quote from the book - " Our country produces enough to feed us all. Alas, for lack of organization, we are forced to beg for food aid. It’s this aid that instills in our spirits the attitude of beggars. " -Thomas Sankara
    
    " The revolution and women’s liberation go together. We do not talk of women’s emancipation as an act of charity or because of a surge of human compassion. It is a basic necessity for the triumph of the revolution. Women hold up the other half of the sky. " - Thomas Sankara.
    
    Sankara is often referred to as "Africa's Che Guevara." Sankara gave a speech marking and honoring the 20th anniversary of Che Guevara's 9 October 1967 execution, one week before his own assassination on 15 October 1987

My other comment is likely buried so leaving these here. These are great to have on hand and are accurate and cheap (25 for $8.95 on amazon). They worked really well for early detection with both of my kids bonus: no results window that you may accidentally pee on.

Wondfo Pregnancy Test Strips, 25-count medical https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0002YIQEQ/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_llFVDbVQJBVKV

If you'd like to learn how to implement vaccines in a safe manner, I suggest this book:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1603588248/ref=cm_cr_arp_mb_bdcrb_top?ie=UTF8

He explains the problem with the current vaccine schedule and teaches you, with facts and science, how to implement vaccines in a way that is safe for your loved ones.

Isn't it true that if everyone went vegan, more of the environment would have to be converted to agriculture?

I haven't read it yet, but I believe that's a big part of this book: The Vegetarian Myth: Food, Justice, and Sustainability https://www.amazon.com/dp/1604860804/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_6y2JDbNDRNWAA

Discussion with the author I heard: [Tangentially Speaking with Christopher Ryan] 391 - Lierre Kieth (The Vegetarian Myth) #tangentiallySpeakingWithChristopherRyan
http://podplayer.net/?id=79760768 via @PodcastAddict

This was a great album; I don’t know what going to college has to do with it.

>Antidepressants are what now?

Nice riddle. I would say NOW Ginko Biloba.

Oh Lordy, I just looked and you can buy them new from Walmart, Home Depot, and Amazon. Why?! https://www.amazon.com/American-Lawn-Mower-1204-14-14-Inch/dp/B00004RA3F/

Apparently she did not self-publish and has a decent amount of sales.

https://www.amazon.com/Coraz%C3%B3n-Yesika-Salgado/dp/1945649135

https://www.amazon.com/Tesoro-Yesika-Salgado/dp/1945649232/

> Yesika Salgado is a Los Angeles based Salvadoran poet who writes about her family, her culture, her city and her brown body. She has shared her work in venues and campuses throughout the country. She is a member of the 2014, 2016 and 2017 Da Poetry Lounge Slam Team. Her work has been featured in Latina Magazine, Univision, Vibe Magazine, Huffington Post, BuzzFeed, TEDx and many other digital platforms. Yesika is the Co-founder of the Latina feminist collective Chingona Fire and an internationally recognized body positivity activist.

I'll give the uber driver the benefit of the doubt. He may have not meant it the way she took it, but you and the guy you're replying to are very dismissive of other people's accomplishments.

https://www.amazon.com/Sugar-Free-Marshmallow-Cream-Gluten/dp/B00020VHWS

Buy a valve extension hose for your spare. That way you can check and re-fill the tire without removing it from the trunk (which nobody ever wants to do, so they let the tire go flat).

Here you go mate:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000GAYQLI/ref=cm_sw_r_other_apa_3bEMybY8DT9BG

Counterpoint

https://www.amazon.com/Bullshit-Jobs-Theory-David-Graeber/dp/150114331X

When you "put money in people's pockets" by increasing the minimum wages prices go up. You also thrust the people who were already making $15 into poverty by making what was a living wage less so. If you really want to improve the lives of the poor by giving them money, obviously taking that from other working poor in the form of higher costs is the least desirable way to approach that. If you really insist on doing that, raising top marginal income taxes would be a better approach. As I have already pointed out before, in places where they have gone to a $15 minimum wage, there has been a mass exodus of qualified childcare workers to other easier jobs that now pay the same anount.who does that hurt? The working poor yet again. How is a family that needs two incomes supposed to do that when they can't afford child care anymore? How is a single mom supposed to do that at all? Before you go around calling economics cute, you might take a brief moment to read about what is already happening where this is being implemented. You are also completely ignoring the perverse incentive doubling the minimum wage has to eliminate jobs. It's not terribly hard to understand. We dont need Jetson's level technology either to eliminate a lot of minimum wage jobs. Here: I just replaced every hostess at every restaurant in the nation for less than $100 per location. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B001J7XANM/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_tI30AbT7WAS1P

Yea, the motorcycle rally. This year(2017) will be the 77th Sturgis Rally, but since 1990ish it's been really corporate and way more tame. However, in the earlier days it was quote unquote 'real' bikers. Guys in gangs, who roved around North America on their bikes doing meth/crank raping teenagers and getting people hooked on drugs.

If you've ever heard of Hunter S Thompson, he wrote a book on the biker subculture titled, 'Hell's Angels : The Stange and Terrible Saga of the Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs' before it was pussified by white collar guys who like motorcycles as a hobby. He followed them around and wrote what he saw, which for the most part showed the seedy underbelly of the 'Biker Culture'.

I'm glad it was pussified, because rape and meth aren't really things I condone. However, the guy filming this and then being pissy that a not 'real biker' is wearing a TV branded leather vest is pretty hilarious because an old school quote unquote 'real' biker would have shoved that camera so far up his ass, he'd be seeing his fillings.

There are almost no 'real' bikers anymore because it was a destructive lifestyle that didn't really lead to longevity. Turns out that being a 'fake' Biker who is also a Doctor leads to a longer life and being able to afford the upkeep of a bike. Also, they wear helmets, because they understand brain damage.

There is a graphic novel about Hunter, which covers this some as well. Couldn't find the page image.

DON'T WORRY CITIZENS!

Alice Miller, "The Drama of the Gifted Child"
> WAHHHHH! BEING SMART IS HARD!

Ta-Nehisi Coates, "Between the World and Me"
>Everyone's a little bit racist

Simone De Beauvoir, "The Ethics of Ambiguity"
>Existentialist navelgazing

Albert Camus, "The Plague"
> More existentialism, but this time people die

Brene Brown, "Daring Greatly"
>What if being some sort of cuck soyboy was actually kinda badass?

Atul Gawande, "Being Mortal"
> Killing them softly, with his loving take on the role of modern medicine in death.

Ali Rivzi, "The Atheist Muslim"
>Being an edgy teenager, but on "difficult" mode

Muhammad Yunus, "A World of Three Zeroes"
>Zero Poverty, Zero Unemployment, and Zero Net Carbon Emissions... also zero sex scenes.

ETA: short, possibly misleading synopses by someone who hasn't read these books.