Originally published at: Robin Williams perfectly breaks down the upcoming financial crisis by mocking the 2008 financial crisis | Boing Boing
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Next up in the this international game of “privatise the profits, socialise the losses”, probably next week, is Deutsche Bank. People who don’t know how chronically troubled that bank is are going to be spooked when Germany has to bail it out. I’m also expecting a lot of smaller regional banks in the U.S. to go under.
I don’t think the upcoming financial crisis will be as bad as 2008, but I’m still planning on tightening my budget where I can starting in the fall.
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When I was working in the 1990s, my boss asked me what I thought was happening financially. I said “there’s going to be a recession very soon.” Knowing that I was a Pagan, and knowledgable about some arcane and mystic stuff he asked, with a chuckle, “Is that from Nostradamus?”
“No,” I replied, “Kondratieff. It’s all about the trade cycles.”
He bore that in mind, sold the company, and he and the other directors were financially secure. He made sure the employees were financially secure too.
Now, bearing in mind that various governments have been shoring up the banks for twenty years, it’s my impression that underlying problems can no longer be ignored. We are in a repetition of the 1920s & 30s. What concerns me (not that much, as I don’t expect to be around that much longer) is what comes after. What do governments do when they’re short of cash, short of support and struggling generally?
Why, have a war, of course!
There are too many governments in this position. The lunatics at the top have been desperately ignoring the evidence for far too long, and acting only to preserve their elites. Coupled with the understanding that nobody is going to do anything about climate change, we are in for it.
A fair few individuals are tending to acquire survival skills - not so much of the huntin’, shootin’ & fishin’ sort, but foraging, cultivating vegetable patches and small amounts of livestock, spinning, weaving, knitting. These people have a better chance of survival than the elites, in my opinion. But me? I’ll be dead.
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When the Fed started raising rates they effectively said that they wanted a recesssion to happen to get ‘inflation’ under control. Inflation is bad for the very wealthy because it reduces the real value of things like mortgage bonds.
Looks like the Fed will get what they want.
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We lost a great human when we lost Robin Williams.
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I find his mimicry to be very problematic and dripping in racist tropes about stereotypical addict identity. There are much better ways to present this analogy via humor.
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Just admit you don’t understand how humor works. It is always going to include mimicry of some sort. It’s the very nature of comedy otherwise it would not draw laughter, applause and thought. I suppose there is deadpan and slapstick, but humor requires copying something. Williams is not problematic in the least here.
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I think given what Robin Williams went through in his life and his own troubles with substance abuse, he’d know a great deal about “stereotypical addict identity” personally. Forget racist tropes, this was likely stuff he was saying to his own friends up until Belushi died after a party Robin was at.
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Droll voice in my head: Can we move the recession up a bit? We’ve been hearing about it for ages. Let’s get it over with.
Sounds heavenly, but I also like the internet, angioplasty, babies and mothers who thrive, defined benefit pension plans. Fred, you are scaring me.
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Why is it ok that the default caricature of the “junky” is speaking in jive? Is the joke that rich white people are acting like poor ignorant addicts? Who is the butt of the joke? Shaming those struggling with addiction only reinforces classism. This is just the court jester teasing the king - the rich white men stroking one another - while true suffering is being used as punchlines.
I think the point that @ortolan is making is that Williams struggled with addiction during his life, and likely saw himself in such characterizations and spoke from personal experience…
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I fully see what you are saying. I just find it problematic that you found it problematic (that I really care) with him doing what he did. It was no big deal. Everyone knows Williams was no racist. He impersonated shit as he saw it. Then he bailed. It still breaks my heart.
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Do you find this “problematic”? I don’t. I’m white and all that. Comedy and opinions happen all the time.
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It is problematic in that it is the disenfranchised (albeit one highly successful member from a historically oppressed minority being propped up by the white establishment -GE-) mocking the oppressor with approval of the oppressor. Racism is a top down system (and is not the same as the term prejudice) that reinforces the idea of ‘whiteness’ as a power-over. The same as Feminist Theory that is not the same thing as ‘feminine’ even as there is cross pollination within the terminology.
Then why not just use his regular speaking voice? Since he can also be defined as ‘addict’ then why does he default to this other mannerism?
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I remember him using that voice often back in the day and I can see how it could be read as a racist stereotype. And he was accused of having racist material before it seems…
So… 
I would be interested in how his colleagues at the time viewed his work, as well… I know he was accused of stealing material (which I think he talked about with Marc Maron)… Not that I’m arguing that’d approval would be defense.
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I don’t remember, at any point in this video, Robin Williams identifying the race, gender or sexual proclivity of the person he’s portraying. Maybe it’s the viewer who projects these properties onto the subject and thus judges the act to be valid or not.
Good. You are right to be scared. Remember, paranoia is a survival trait. You just need to not let it show.
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