MISCmedia for 1/12/01
People You're Not Better Than

A LITTLE OVER A MONTH AGO, this virtual space contained a listing of certain groups of people who might consider themselves to be intrinsically superior to you, but who are not. (Go ahead and read it now if you haven't; we'll wait for you.)

This, in contrast, is a listing of groups of people you might consider yourself to be intrinsically superior to, but which you are not.

Here, therefore and with no further ado, are People You're Not Better Than:

• TV viewers.

• Residents of small towns who didn't move there from a bigger city.

• Adherents of religions other than yours.

• Members of races other than yours.

• Members of genders other than yours.

• People who shop at Wal-Mart.

• People who shop at non-coop grocery stores.

• People who listen to radio stations not affiliated with NPR.

• People who listen to ocuntry music (and not just that hipster-acceptable "alt.country" either).

• Fans of major sports teams.

• People who shop at thrift stores out of necessity, not fashion.

• Reader's Digest subscribers.

• People without college degrees.

• People with college degrees in purely vocational fields.

• People who don't have their own websites.

• People who don't have home computers.

• People who don't have homes.

• People whose drugs of choice (including non-chemical highs) are different from yours.

• Non-users.

• Julia Roberts fans.

• Carnivores.

• Clients of traditional western medicine.

• Non-car owners.

• Domestic-car owners.

• People who lived in White Center prior to 1998.

• People who live in the midwest or the south.

• People who wear polyester non-ironically.

• People who go, or have gone, to public schools.

• Romance novel readers.

• People younger than you.

• Athletes, brainiacs, and goody-two-shoeses.

• Cheerleaders, beauty queens, and models.

• Other females who have more sexual partners than you, or who simply look or act "cheap."

• Other males who look or act less "macho" than you.

• Heterosexuals.

• That co-worker who seems to actually enjoy that shit job you share.

• Grunt-level employees of the farming, timber, manufacturing, transportation, and food-service industries.

• Men with pot bellies.

• Women with implants.

• Fast- and processed-food eaters.

• Bud Light drinkers.

• People who look, act, or talk too weird.

• People who look, act, or talk too "normal."

MONDAY: Imagining, in a little more detail, a successor paper to the Seattle Union Record.

ELSEWHERE:

• Proof that the Web brings back everything great from pop-cult history--a tribute to the greatest achievement of post-1950 radio, Monitor! (Think of it as NPR without the Volvo-snob attitude problem)....
• Free the haggis smugglers!...

RECENT HIGHLIGHTS:

• Parts one, and two of a remembrance at some people, buildings, and institutions that are gone or going at this time.
• Parts one, two, and three of a look at the possible next-big-thing in pop-cult genre repositionings, Christian smut.
• A new arts magazine just for wealthy patrons.
• No, the WTO protests shouldn't just be remembered as a self-promotion exercise.
• What you might expect on this site during the new year.
• What's Insville and Outski for 2001.
• Parts one, two, three, and four of 'A Dot-Com Christmas Carol.'
• Some of the biggest local spectacles of 2000.
• Point, click, organize.
• One man's favorite videos and worst job.
• Scott McCloud's Reinventing Comics-- or is he?
• Lars von Trier's dander in the dark.
• Smart black people on TV-- something you've gotta pay extra for.
• A parable in how not to deal with a new boss.
• Parts one and two of a guest columnist's memoir of growing up with fetish-influenced TV sitcoms.
• The next MISCmedia book, a photographic tour of our formerly-fair city.
• Remembering the Japanese economic threat.
• Remembering the good old days of computer nerddom.
• A guest columnist tries to not get arrested.
• Parts one, two, and three of our WTO-anniversary piece.

ARCHIVES:

• 2001, 2000, 1999, 1998, 1997, 1996, 1995, and 1986-94 columns
• Reviews of literature & art, nonfiction & culture criticism, movies & videos, and music & noise
• Longer articles and essays
• The origin and future of MISCmedia