#toxic seminar

[toxicseminar]

An additional quote we found interesting in Max Liboiron’s “Pollution is Colonialism is on page 30, and reads, “ Modesty means you don’t talk about your accomplishments so that you don’t elevate yourself over others. Humility means that you are connected to others, and it is the recognition that you cannot do anything without these many others, from the people watching your dogs, your kids, and your students so you can go to conferences, to the people who ensure that your water pipes and garbage cans and Internet work as intended,” (Liboiron 30). 

This quote continues the idea that specificity in language is important and that two words that might commonly be conflated are in important ways different from each other. Humility entails vulnerability and trust, which separates it from modesty. 

Liboiron, Max. “Pollution is Colonialism”. Durham: Duke University Press, 2021. 

[toxicseminar]

Alex Jones' Gay Frogs Rant

Alex Jones’ Gay Frogs Conspiracy, also known as the Gay Bomb Rant, refers to a viral segment of InfoWars in which host Alex Jones claims that water is being poisoned with chemicals that are “making the friggin’ frogs gay.”

This week’s readings also made me think of this - it was seen as a comedic meme from 2016-2018, that Alex Jones, the host of Infowars, was violently angry that there were chemicals in the water turning frogs gay, but the readings this week have highlighted how a slightly different version of this sentiment is held by environmentalists who would never see themselves politically or ideologically aligned with Alex Jones.