Peasant Wisdom

If a jilted ex murders the Prince of Placeland, it’s just a murder.

If a jilted ex is also a member of a rival political faction, it may be assassination.

Regular violence is a reality in many American schools — and minorities bear the brunt of it. The corporal punishment of students is legally permitted in some 19 states. In 2017, researchers estimated that, in a given school year, 589 children are corporally punished (most often struck with paddles) every day. Unsurprisingly, this violent discipline is disproportionately inflicted on students of color. Black students are twice as likely as whites to be struck in Georgia, North Carolina, Michigan, and Pennsylvania. In Maine, black children are eight times more likely to be hit than white children are. Children with disabilities also suffer a disproportionate share of this disciplinary violence. In a representative year, school authorities pinned down, tied up, or otherwise restrained 267,000 American schoolchildren, three-quarters of whom had some kind of disability; such practices have resulted in multiple fatalities. And when children are disabled, as well as black or brown, school authorities’ embrace of what the journalist David Perry has called a “culture of compliance” has translated into acts of remarkable brutality: children being beaten, handcuffed, and pepper-sprayed.

On the one hand, the logistics of all those huge military campaigns make a lot more sense once you realise that many of the great city-states were basically within walking distance of each other. In many cases, those logistics boil down to less “establish a supply train” and more “well, make sure you pack a snack”.

On the other hand, all those episodes where great heroes spend years lost in the wilderness or adrift at sea become more difficult to reconcile. It’s like… how can you possibly get that lost for that long? If you found a good-size hill to climb, you can practically see your destination from your starting point!

Regular violence is a reality in many American schools — and minorities bear the brunt of it. The corporal punishment of students is legally permitted in some 19 states. In 2017, researchers estimated that, in a given school year, 589 children are corporally punished (most often struck with paddles) every day. Unsurprisingly, this violent discipline is disproportionately inflicted on students of color. Black students are twice as likely as whites to be struck in Georgia, North Carolina, Michigan, and Pennsylvania. In Maine, black children are eight times more likely to be hit than white children are. Children with disabilities also suffer a disproportionate share of this disciplinary violence. In a representative year, school authorities pinned down, tied up, or otherwise restrained 267,000 American schoolchildren, three-quarters of whom had some kind of disability; such practices have resulted in multiple fatalities. And when children are disabled, as well as black or brown, school authorities’ embrace of what the journalist David Perry has called a “culture of compliance” has translated into acts of remarkable brutality: children being beaten, handcuffed, and pepper-sprayed.

I was like, “oh, that’s funny because it’s a reference to that sword in The Hobbit that glows in the presence of orcs. Your weapon probably doesn’t glow in the presence of orcs.”

to which she responded, “FUCK YEAH it does.”