This site represents things that I, Matt Dragon, though worthy of posting to the internet to be publicly consumed
from age 18-27. Many of those things were, and are, wrong. I used words here at the time I hadn't bothered to educate
myself about the harms of. The fact they were more widely used then doesn't absolve my use of them. Many of my
opinions reek of what I now understand to be white male privilege.
But I'm not going to take those posts or this site down. For one because it wouldn't matter, the internet is forever
and people would still be able to find it. But also because it's important to acknowledge that people should and do
change over time. Merely changing doesn't reverse the wrongs or forgive us of what we said or did before. But the
actions we take in response to those personal changes should be evaluated to see if they can offset at least some of
the harms we caused. I no longer believe people are beyond redemption if they put in the work and the communities
their prior words or acts hurt decide to accept their help going forward.
Taking this down entirely wouldn't address the harms nor hold me accountable. So instead I'm adding this note and
asking people to evaluate for themselves if they think that 2021 Matt has done enough to offset 2010 Matt. To be honest,
these were not my worst takes. Around this time I also stated less publicly that when people run from the police they
should hit them with their cars to catch them. If you run you must have done something, right? I had an argument with
someone about how no one who wasn't guilty would ever confess to a crime. (Sorry random dude in MegaBYTES)
Obviously those takes were bad, uninformed, and I was wrong for voicing then at the time.
I share them because I feel they represent how easy it was to feel empowered as a white male teenager and young
adult despite knowing almost nothing. I share them because I think they represent the rock bottom of my opinions and show how much someone's thoughts can
change when you simply seek out first hand knowledge and then listen.
Those are just terrible opinions I can remember right now. I'm sure there were others. I haven't exhaustively
read all the posts here so there may be similar or worse things I said here. But today, I'm writing letters to
the editor about the need for civilian oversight over jails and the police and advocating for the police to be
taken out of traffic enforcement. I'm speaking at County Commissioners meetings about civilian jail oversight
and the need for accountability. I'm constantly trying to unlearn my bad habits and challenge my initial responses
to things. Not because the world has changed but because I have learned to listen. Because people took the risk,
the time, and the emotional effort to share and luckily I realized I needed to hear them.
So I leave this up, with this now lengthy disclaimer to try to push folks reading my bad takes to also learn to listen,
and to be explicit, not always and only listen to white dudes like me. Where I'm at now, I'm trying to lift other voices.
Folks actually experiencing the struggles I have ideas about trying to lessen or solve. Folks who's opinions I trust not
because they have degrees or status, but because they're talking about their community, their friends, their family, their life, their struggles.
For some of my later posts elsewhere, I chose to channel Dennis Miller when naming that blog. That
decision didn't age any better than he did. He's now a racist bigot or at least he is publicly, maybe he always was. He's probably beyond
redemption at this point. Andrew Gutmann is probably beyond
redemption too, but it's honestly not my decision. I think people definitely can change, and they can change for better or for worse.
My whiteness and maleness have given me all the second, third, and fourth chances anyone could ever ask for. It's up to me to prove I've
changed for the better. Hopefully this is a step in that direction.
posted 12/10/2007 17:36:53 by matt
flesch-kincaid: 57, grade level: 9
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while, dumber than a monkey, might give you a relative sense, if you wanted to get a hard monetary figure you could go with $873,786.94 of stupid(thanks paul). i hope i come up clean when the satellites scan me, i'd had to the cia visiting me in my sleep.
posted 11/27/2007 11:02:39 by matt
flesch-kincaid: 40, grade level: 12
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the windows vista + office 2007 combination represents the largest jump in overall cpu and memory footprint ever recorded on the windows platform. not only is the new combination "fatter" than previous versions, it's also a great deal slower on comparable hardware.
and of course searching for "nvelocity .get_Item(" yields tons of useful pages including "i'm trying to access an indexer on a nvelocity template with no success".... really?!?! an indexer?!?! is that what the kids are calling it these days? here's a tip for syntax faq entries.... use every possibly example of wrong syntax you can think of when documenting the right syntax. hashtable, idictionary, dictionary, dictionary entry, item, any of those words could have found me that damn page a lot sooner. hopefully this post finds it's way into someone's google results and makes them only waste 5 minutes.
posted 08/27/2007 19:20:07 by matt
flesch-kincaid: -25, grade level: 18
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thanks, kyle, for destroying my faith in humanity:
actually i take that back, that's insulting to the people competing in the special olympics... i'm guessing she went backstage, pumped her fist in the air, screamed "nailed it!" and then slapped "the iraq" high-five.
posted 08/09/2007 22:19:34 by matt
flesch-kincaid: 63, grade level: 6
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sure barry you didn't use steroids, the record isn't tainted, it was a magical gnome that allowed you to hit as many homers when you were 36 to 40 as you did when you were 29.
you don't need the legend to pick out barry's line, the only one that's even close to his is *shock* slamming sammy's. maybe it's the lack of steroids talking but i sure think the record is tainted. i give aaron props for refusing to show up for such a fraud.
posted 07/12/2007 09:04:21 by matt
flesch-kincaid: 74, grade level: 6
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in the economist they detail the gas usage of the US vs. the rest of the world. in 2003 we used more gas than the next 20 countries combined.
what can i say, we love gas. personally i like to go buy a gallon each day, and just pour it on the ground. sometimes i throw it up in the air and run through like a sprinkler, but mostly i just water trees and flowers with it.
posted 05/22/2007 08:34:53 by matt
flesch-kincaid: 41, grade level: 13
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msnbc's highly un-scientific poll is showing 88% of those polled think bush should be impeached. but with votes approaching 500,000 even if you account for the fact that people sampled in an internet poll, are largely middle to upper class, intelligent, and educated, that's still a very telling number. sure someone could have deleted their cookie and voted again 100,000 times, but even impeachment has 84% support.
posted 05/21/2007 18:31:45 by matt
flesch-kincaid: 38, grade level: 15
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my angry email to nbc sports about pulling a "heidi" by cutting away from the series deciding overtime hockey game this weekend to show the 1 hour and 20 minute pre-show for the preakness: (they even called them out on sportscenter: espn 1, nbc sports 0)
I was shocked to see that you would cut away from sudden death, overtime, series ending overtime to start your absurdly over-hyped, drawn out, incredible overkill of one hour and 5 minute pre-show for a 2 minute race. Certainly people watch the race, which even as I write this is still 20 minutes away, but how incredibly overinflated are your egos that you think that what America wants to watch is your 1 hour of boring, stuffy commentators talking about the condition of dirt, and how horses are "feeling" rather than the deciding game in one of the most exciting sports in North America. Not only the deciding game, but the sudden death overtime period of that game, where Buffalo had to win or their season was over. Since you were hopefully watching your own programming this afternoon, Ottawa won, and therefore is in their first Stanley Cup Final ever. How many of your commentators are reaching the pinnacle of their careers this Saturday afternoon? How many of the horses running today can claim that they've invigorated their city, captivated their fans? How many people will be talking about the Preakness over the next 2 weeks, compared to talking about the Stanley Cup Finals? How many people will still be talking about freaking Barbaro (by the way, a touching tribute, good thing you found the time to reschedule it) in 4 years, compared to how many will be talking about Crosby, Ovechkin, Malkin, and the Staal brothers? Pushing your coverage to VS doesn't absolve what you did, a lot of people that receive NBC don't get VS and in fact, I'd bet that horse racing "fans" are decidedly wealthier than hockey fans, and therefore maybe next year you should push your pre-show to VS, and let the live coverage of the actual "SPORT" stay on NBC. I hope the NHL moves to another network, you've proven you have no business being the national face of the NHL. Good luck riding your horses into the sunset.
Here's a little hint, what are 20-30 year old males interested in? Not pasty white guys talking about dirt. Not horses running in circles. Their interested in hitting, goal scoring, great saves, and the energy that playoff hockey brings. Not that I was watching your coverage of todays game, I was busy watching lacrosse on FSNY, all those ad dollars down the drain for you I suppose. Next time you have an hour to blow, instead of a tribute to Barbaro "a nations horse" or some guy talking about how wet some dirt is, maybe you should spend it on another sport that rich 18-24 males like to watch, lacrosse. After disrespecting one of my favorite sports, I'll personally be making a point of never buying something advertised during your programming. Hopefully NBC sports won't ever carry lacrosse games though, I'd hate to have the coverage cut away to the pre-show for a synchronized fishing event at a season changing moment in the game.
While I'd be amazed if any of you bothered to respond, I'd love to hear your reasoning for the decision. I may not be a powerful network executive, but I can tell you for sure if I was, I wouldn't make the same mistake you did.
posted 05/16/2007 17:18:32 by matt
flesch-kincaid: 38, grade level: 12
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so microsoft has made the claim to anyone who will listen that open source software violates 235 microsoft patents. they say that something must be done by the open source developers or users to pay royalties for using these pieces of microsoft ip. sun responded by directly attacking microsoft for it's openly hostile attitude toward open source. sun's ceo and president jonathan schwartz pulls out all the stops with great statements including in essence, we decided to innovate, not litigate. touché.
posted 05/16/2007 12:19:32 by matt
flesch-kincaid: 62, grade level: 8
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i'd love to see pbs run a real sesame street episode about tcp and maybe throw in net neutrality. i'd love to hear snuffy's thoughts on telcos trying to ruin the internet.
posted 05/03/2007 17:05:58 by matt
flesch-kincaid: 60, grade level: 10
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so yes, as kyle points out, the magical number, has gotten covered by the prestigious new york times. i love when they stray outside their comfort zone, and cover news they know nothing about. way to go, nambla, what genius gave the thumbs up to those lawsuits? oh and the irony and recursion of a story about digg, in the new york times, being dugg, and the times' website has a link to digg stories, wow, my head hurts. and just in case you need some extra beaters
posted 04/30/2007 13:07:36 by matt
flesch-kincaid: 59, grade level: 6
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from this game (now edited). original post at signal vs. noise
btw, when was the last time a football or hockey or lacrosse player missed a game for a strained muscle, blister, or hang nail, etc? maybe baseball and basketball players need to suck it up a little.
posted 04/12/2007 11:28:53 by matt
flesch-kincaid: 32, grade level: 12
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you'll notice i've added the blog advisory system to the bottom of the navigation. apparently the current state of the web site is in asshat territory, maybe i should tone down my aggressive language.
posted 04/01/2007 12:49:34 by matt
flesch-kincaid: 58, grade level: 7
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by setting browser.search.openintab = true, you can cut down on the open a new tab, search for something on google routine. i never typically want to replace the current page with what i'm googling, so this should come in handy.
posted 03/31/2007 15:06:15 by matt
flesch-kincaid: 54, grade level: 10
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so i have wanted to redesign the layout for a while, and i finally got some time to do it. in doing so i found 4 reasons to be reminded why i hate ie:
1. if you're reading in ie the whole page is left aligned instead of centered. i've fixed this in the past, but really i don't care any more. ie users: if you want the things to look right when browsing the web get firefox
2. it doesn't display things correctly without extra un-necessary code because ms refused to implement w3c standards. ie displays this:
instead of this:
3. more standards support, or lack there of, but i don't think any amount of extra code will save this:
instead of this:
4. sometimes ie is just on crack, plain and simple:
in case you couldn't guess, there shouldn't be a second "udios" randomly injected at the bottom of the page, on it's own line. go ahead, check the source, there's nothing there to make ie do this. so if you're reading this in ie, do yourself and every person who's ever put up a web site a favor and go download firefox. your computer will thank you, web designers will thank you, microsoft won't thank you, spyware, malware, and virus writers definitely won't thank you, but most importantly after about 10 seconds, you'll thank yourself.
posted 03/28/2007 10:42:38 by matt
flesch-kincaid: 40, grade level: 12
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1. changing john mccain's stance on gay marriage because his staff is dumb enough to steal your images
2. aqua teen hunger force's carl has a myspace page this itself is great for several reasons: 1. the user name for the "official" carl myspace page linked to from the official aqua teen website is "therealcarl2" 2. it takes horrendous myspace background text color combos to a whole new level 3. i must assume that it is targeted at mocking myspace and everyone who uses it, especially those with unreadable pages, and i love the fact that the aqua teen guys are willing to rip on a possibly sizable portion of their fan base so openly 4. maybe the bush administration will declare that carl's myspace page emboldens the the mooninite terrorists.
posted 03/26/2007 20:23:42 by matt
flesch-kincaid: 49, grade level: 14
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when i went to check when the train was running to get back into nyc from nj i noticed this odd paradox:
i think my personal favorite is the weekday april 1st, but that's just me.
posted 02/27/2007 19:48:22 by matt
flesch-kincaid: 59, grade level: 10
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here's the plan, i'm going to hire unemployed retirees to sit in parking lots all throughout maryland and sell these:
first off there's an infinite demand for these bumper stickers in maryland, second no one will think the retiree put it there, so they won't get beat up like i would if i sold it myself. give them a cut and just sit back and watch the funds role in.
follow up idea: also sell these to the people who's car has the other sticker on it and need to cover it up with something:
once again, key aspect, most people won't punch an old lady in the face.. old men... maybe, that's why we bulk them up with wii first.
posted 02/05/2007 16:55:02 by matt
flesch-kincaid: 29, grade level: 15
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joe pointed out that the ny times is running a hard hitting and in-depth positively cracked out article about this year's crop of super bowl ads. the article, entitled, "Pardon me sir could you watch my child while I go score some more crack?" "Super Bowl Ads of Cartoonish Violence, Perhaps Reflecting Toll of War" pulls out all the stops when explaining how obvious it was that all the commericals were thinly veiled commentaries about bush's playing cowboys and indians in the sandbox the war in iraq.
there are some really choice quotes in this article:
oh the horrible violence:
In another Bud Light spot, face-slapping replaced fist-bumping as the cool way for people to show affection for one another.
about k-fed's commercial:
The same gag, turned inside out, accounted for one of the funniest spots, a Nationwide Financial commercial by TM Advertising, also owned by Interpublic. The spot began with the singer Kevin Federline...
wait, wait, stop right there, yes you read it right, the new york fucking times just printed the words kevin federline. that's it, i'm moving to canada. i'm amazed they didn't call him k-fed.
about a commercial in which a robot gets fired and commits suicide, only to wake up from a dream as it sinks into the water:
The best of the batch was a commercial for General Motors by Deutsch, part of the Interpublic Group of Companies, in which a factory robot “obsessed about quality” imagined the dire outcome of making a mistake.
yeah too bad all those damn war commercials couldn't have been as happy and upbeat as the robot killing itself.
prudential's rather simple commercial:
The problem with the spot, created internally at Prudential, was that whenever the announcer said, “a rock” — invoking the Prudential logo, the rock of Gibraltar — it sounded as if he were saying, yes, “Iraq.”
actually i kept hearing "a rock," maybe it's because i don't have that constant din of the 20 other crazy person voices talking in my head.
oh, and since when has the times been l33t enough to have a digg this story button?
posted 02/02/2007 12:29:51 by matt
flesch-kincaid: 50, grade level: 13
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roto-rooter's pimped out john contest all i can say is freaking sweet, the only way this could be better is if it was built into a recliner like homer's was.
posted 01/26/2007 15:49:44 by matt
flesch-kincaid: 36, grade level: 13
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so googling for "miserable failure" no longer returns our douchebag, miserable failure, war mongering, illiterate, idiot of a president. which is probably good for whoever follows him, as they wouldn't want to be associated with such things. i would have respected google a lot more if they had left this one in when removing the rest of the googlebombs, at least until right before january 2009.
posted 01/09/2007 12:36:10 by matt
flesch-kincaid: 48, grade level: 16
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i missed this when it originally aired, but this was right after jon stewart was on crossfire, and it's great. it shows how smart and funny he is even when working without a script: part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6