{"id":1157,"date":"2009-05-19T14:52:00","date_gmt":"2009-05-19T14:52:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1157"},"modified":"2009-05-19T14:52:00","modified_gmt":"2009-05-19T14:52:00","slug":"the-new-york-times-wants-you-to-stay-helpless","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1157","title":{"rendered":"The New York Times Wants You to Stay Helpless"},"content":{"rendered":"

Don’t turn your soft, computer-tapping hands away from the keyboard and pick up a hammer. That seemed to be the message in Sunday’s New York Times<\/em>. Self-reliance is dangerous<\/em>.<\/p>\n

This woman made a mistake when replacing a toilet<\/a>. So, therefore, she should not learn from her mistake and do it right the next time. She could call a plumber instead.<\/p>\n

When in doubt, do nothing. Call the authorities.<\/p>\n

Then there is this story about a peril for urban gardeners<\/a> — lead in the soil from the days of leaded gasoline and older paints. The hazard could be real — and the article presents some fixes — but I cannot help thinking that the underlying message is “Don’t even try growing your own food.”<\/p>\n

Remember, boys and girls, the government and the official state-approved priests always know what is best for you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Don’t turn your soft, computer-tapping hands away from the keyboard and pick up a hammer. That seemed to be the message in Sunday’s New York Times. Self-reliance is dangerous. This woman made a mistake when replacing a toilet. So, therefore, she should not learn from her mistake and do it right the next time. She […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-1157","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-culture"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6xQTg-iF","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2938,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=2938","url_meta":{"origin":1157,"position":0},"title":"How to Talk with the Non-Pagan Press","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"July 27, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Lots of Pagan sites are talking about a magickal showdown with some Christian spiritual warriors over the District of Columbia. Jason Pitzl-Waters has the thoroughly hyperlinked details. Here Hecate, who helped start this particular rolling, says some valuable things about framing the issue when talking with non-Pagans. When talking to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"journalism\"","block_context":{"text":"journalism","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=journalism"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":687,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=687","url_meta":{"origin":1157,"position":1},"title":"The Da Vinci Code: A Pagan date movie","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"July 9, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"M. and I are not what you would call \"early adopters,\" other than perhaps when we bought a Jeep TJ right after they were introduced in 1997. (We still have it.) So this is not exactly a cutting-edge review of The Da Vinci Code.It is rated PG, which could just\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1287,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1287","url_meta":{"origin":1157,"position":2},"title":"Martha Coakley Sounds like a Salem Witch-Hunter","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"January 16, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"During the 1980s, real people went to real prisons on the strength of children's fantasies. Many of these were people who operated preschools and had devoted their lives to child care.The 1987-90 McMartin Preschool trial, described as the most expensive criminal trial in American history, produced no convictions--but you can\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Massachusetts\"","block_context":{"text":"Massachusetts","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=massachusetts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=chascli-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0743228405","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":9153,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=9153","url_meta":{"origin":1157,"position":3},"title":"Does Anyone “Own” the Vikings? The NY Times Wants to Know","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"March 18, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Some years ago \u2014 the late 1990s? \u2014 I had a Swedish freshman student in one of my classes. Looking over his shoulder as he was typing at his computer station, I noticed that he had a silver Mj\u00f6llnir (Thor's hammer) pendant on a thin chain around his neck. Naturally,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Asatru\"","block_context":{"text":"Asatru","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=asatru"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/hammer-maiden.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":6371,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=6371","url_meta":{"origin":1157,"position":4},"title":"This is how the [blank] see me","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"April 1, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"In the middle of working out Contemporary Pagan Studies Group sessions and co-sponsored sessions for next November's American Academy of Religion annual meeting. So far this has taken hundred of emails\u2014so it goes\u2014and a phone call this morning from Norway. Landlines still have their place. It feels so good to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"academia\"","block_context":{"text":"academia","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=academia"},"img":{"alt_text":"I copied this from a friend's Facebook feed. I don't know where it started. This is the Internetz.","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/religious-studies-cat.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":14190,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=14190","url_meta":{"origin":1157,"position":5},"title":"A Pagan Studies Scholar, the Shah of Iran, and a Return to Aryan Native Faith","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"January 12, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/DTZYCmMgVdc\/ As I write this, tens of thousands of Iranians (or let's call them Persians) are demonstrating against the government of murderous black-turbaned mullahs who let the 1979 revolution and promptly immersed Iran in wars and supporting terrorism. In many cases, this demand for a government is coupled with a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Aryans\"","block_context":{"text":"Aryans","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=aryans"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1157","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1157"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1157\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1157"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1157"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1157"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}