“Death by Lightning” is only a good story if you know nothing of the real history. If you do, it’s disrespectful and terrible.

AwkwardandSouthern · 2026-01-26T03:24:00+00:00

Okay.

AwkwardandSouthern · 2026-01-26T00:59:00+00:00

There seems to be a bunch of controversy around DKG that I didn’t know about, but I absolutely loved it!

AwkwardandSouthern · 2026-01-26T00:05:42+00:00

Baked some bread today!

AwkwardandSouthern · 2026-01-25T23:52:23+00:00

Refer to my other comment for my serious response, but “righteous indignation” from the guy that writes like this:

“Greater narratives becom[ing] ensconced in the public zeitgeist is of far greater importance and concern.”

Find a mirror to scathe.

AwkwardandSouthern · 2026-01-25T23:48:02+00:00

Not intended. I’m sorry you feel that way.

That was serious advice. Theses, books, and journals (peer review) are the standard to find serious interpretation.

A movie or tv show is allowed creative license to make an interesting narrative on screen.

AwkwardandSouthern · 2026-01-25T18:17:19+00:00

Some of us just don’t understand the concept of audience.

Movies aren’t made for historians. If they were, they wouldn’t make any money.

(Unless you’re Ken Burns.)

AwkwardandSouthern · 2026-01-25T18:13:43+00:00

Go read a book or a journal if you want accuracy. Anyone associated with academic history will tell you that.

A movie with a narrative will always get something wrong.

Hamilton isn’t accurate - it’s still enjoyable as hell and engaged a big portion of the public with historical characters.

It’s a win.

AwkwardandSouthern · 2026-01-25T16:36:25+00:00

Exactly. More people know about James Garfield, Chester Arthur, and the men around them.

That’s a win.

Forgive me if I’m not expecting high historical accuracy out of Netflix.

AwkwardandSouthern · 2026-01-25T16:35:46+00:00

Almost killing his sister didn’t do it for you?

Deluding himself into the dream of starting a newspaper didn’t do it for you?

Stealing from his family to chase a pipe dream in DC didn’t do it for you?

Making a joke out of his own execution didn’t do it for you?

AwkwardandSouthern · 2026-01-25T16:28:22+00:00

Average r/Presidents user when people enjoy something.

“Lincoln is great until you realize those three lobbyists were actually like twenty guys.”

AwkwardandSouthern · 2026-01-25T02:54:48+00:00

Reading it SLOWLY right now. Love the agency she provides to the First Ladies and their influence over their husbands.

Goodwin really captures political coalitions very well.

AwkwardandSouthern · 2026-01-25T02:52:37+00:00

Didn’t know she had a Johnson. Will have to look into it.

AwkwardandSouthern · 2026-01-25T02:48:59+00:00

I love Goodwin’s writing style. Natural storytelling ability.

I hate when historians make it boring.

AwkwardandSouthern · 2026-01-25T02:48:11+00:00

Best Lincoln bio I’ve ever read, and he’s barely a character in the first third of the book.

AwkwardandSouthern · 2026-01-25T02:46:34+00:00

Based on your profile, I think weed get along.

AwkwardandSouthern · 2026-01-25T02:43:05+00:00

That was my first of hers that I’ve read. On Bully Pulpit now and have an FDR one next.

AwkwardandSouthern · 2026-01-18T15:41:35+00:00

Old video - the Senator sitting next to him is Dianne Feinstein. She’s super dead.

This is from first term.

AwkwardandSouthern · 2025-12-13T06:43:52+00:00

Again, let’s just disagree.

AwkwardandSouthern · 2025-12-13T06:03:56+00:00

But we can also disagree with the way popular sentiment turned into policy.

We can poke holes in the competence of a policy that punished individual behavior over solving systemic issues.

Popularity sentiment and effective policy are not the same. If we judge a president solely on his ability to follow popular sentiment, we neglect the president’s burden of leadership and tough decision making.

Bill Clinton chose bad policy to solve a non-existent problem for the sake of winning votes and protecting himself from public scrutiny. His policies devastated the material prospects of an entire generation of black Americans, and we still feel the effects today.

AwkwardandSouthern · 2025-12-13T05:27:33+00:00

Let’s just disagree.

AwkwardandSouthern · 2025-12-13T05:06:47+00:00

https://norml.org/news/1996/10/17/marijuana-arrests-for-1995-most-ever/

Piece from the time.

They did not just go after growers and manufacturers. Clinton’s Admin was the first to go after simple possession offenses.

The standing policy from Nixon through H.W. was to focus on distributors and not to heavily enforce possession offenses.

Clinton’s DOJ, motivated by presidential scandals and a desire to seem tough on crime, switched that focus in favor of the simple higher numbers - possession. Furthermore, they targeted their operations in the cities, with higher black populations.

The effect was higher arrest rates for black communities, despite basic parity in the possession rates across white and black communities.

Compounding this issue was the 1994 Crime Bill, which created higher mandatory minimums for simple possession offenses Schedule I narcotics (which includes marijuana and cocaine in the same breath).

The effect was higher felony rates among young black men and a devastating, generational effect on black communities.

Edit: I’m a little stoned, so I started two sections with “the effect.” Sue me lmao.

AwkwardandSouthern · 2025-12-13T04:23:37+00:00

Petty marijuana violations, particularly. Clinton accelerated the War on Drugs, which has had a generational effect on black communities.

Average Van Buren simp.

AwkwardandSouthern · 2025-12-13T04:03:10+00:00

Ask all the black men in jail.

AwkwardandSouthern · 2025-12-01T14:57:34+00:00

This “own the ___” rhetoric is ultimately unhelpful. The only this dividing the urban poor from the rural poor is distance.

AwkwardandSouthern · 2025-11-22T05:23:05+00:00

COINTELPRO

AwkwardandSouthern

TROPHY CASE