Clarissa's Blog

What I hate is the expression “digital natives.” The fucker who came up with it probably never meets any actual human beings. Idiot.

The way I work is I take ideas and push them to the extreme to see how far they go. I can’t imagine a person who wouldn’t be offended by something I have written here on the blog over the years. So what? I’m at the same time extremely tolerant everywhere else. People who know me will tell you that they never feel judged around me. Students invariably say they feel very comfortable and at ease in my classrooms. 

Many academics shun engaging with the public precisely because they are afraid of saying something they’ll be hounded for. Who benefits as a result? What common good is being served? A professor tweeted something some people found objectionable and his job contract was rescinded. How is that a good thing?

I wonder what people are thinking when they try to get fired a TA who might (or might not) have posted offensive crap online. The moment you make this acceptable prepare for “You said something objectionable online so here’s the door” to be the answer whenever you ask for a raise, try to unionize, criticize the administration, etc. And even if you’ve never been online in your life, how easy is it to make it look like you are the most obnoxious person on social media?

Also, if employers have the right to evaluate the morality of workers and fire them if they disapprove, how can anybody make an argument against employers who fire people for using contraception? According to this logic, an employer should be able to fire not even just for actual use but also for writing a pro-contraception tweet. 

That’s why I always say: figure out what your principles are and proceed from there. Are you in favor of expanding employers’ rights to having control over your social media activities outside of work hours? That’s what’s at stake here. 

Turns out Klara detests fruit that has been cut into pieces and prefers to hold a whole strawberry or a whole pear, even if it’s clear she’ll never finish it. Just like me! I also only eat whole fruit and vegetables and hate it when people take a perfectly good tomato and quarter it, making it uneatable.

At least, there’s something Klara has in common with me. She looks so identical to N that people laugh when they see them together and go, “Hey, I guess you won’t need a paternity test.” And with me it’s always, “Oh, so she’s yours? Is this your mommy, little girl?” And Klara, who unlike me has a great sense of humor, responds with a sly look, “No! Monkey mama!” And demonstrates her blue plastic monkey toy for people to admire the real mama. 

I have actually wondered whether this entirely unknown to me person called Tom Petty is dead or alive after all. Group emotions are infectious.

For those who read Spanish, here are some of the falsified photos from Catalonia. The worst part is that they stole the photos from 2012 protests. Those same protests nobody cared about when they happened. 

People who are in Catalonia right now say that the reports about the 892 victims of police brutality are a total lie. By last count, there are 4 people hospitalized after the clashes. The rest is all fake photos and hype. I have no idea what’s true. I’m simply retelling.

People are also saying – and that’s something I know for a fact is true – that there was real police brutality in Spain throughout the anti-austerity protests, and none of it made it into the international press. 

I bought a used book online, and it arrived in perfect condition, as advertised. Except that on page 1 there is a post-it that somebody must have used to prepare an in-class presentation on the novel. Item 1 on the Post-It says, “We only find out at the very end that Martin’s father is dead.”

Oh, thank you so much, dumbass, for killing the book for me. 

The reason why Russia is hysterically and obsessively supporting the Catalan independentists is that, in the Russians’ eyes, it all somehow legitimizes “separatists” in the Ukrainian Donbass region. But it doesn’t legitimize Chechen separatism, of course. 

Also, of course, anything that allows them to conclude that Western democracy doesn’t work is a good thing.