Wednesday, April 27, 2016

Christian Schneider - Stupid M@th@rf$ck$r

By Jeff Simpson

For a time everyone respected and was sad to hear the news that Prince had passed.

 Apr 21Wow. Growing up in the 80s, the music of Prince was a big deal. What a shock!
Christian Schneider


Politicians went crazy with tweets after Prince's untimely death Thursday, but Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker did it best.

 Apr 21Dearly beloved. We are gathered here today. To get through this thing called life...

Seriously, USA Today called out Scott Walker as being brilliant for plagiarizing Prince's lyrics on the day Prince died.   Not to mention that a quick search of twitter and you see too many tweets to count with the same thing.

 Apr 21Dearly beloved, we are gathered here to get through this thing called life. And if the elevator ever brings you down


Apparently Scott Walker says the same things everyone else is saying but he says it best!    I wonder if Paul Singer has ordered his fathead of Scott Walker for his office wall yet or not?

Speaking of fatheads. Christian Schneider has had enough.

See while everyone jumped on the bandwagon of a private phenom who kept to himself, a funny thing happened along the way.  We found out that Prince was such a private person, that he had actually been giving to and supporting many causes without feeling the need to broadcast it.

Prince supported Black Lives Matter.  He also forced InStyle Magazine to hire a black woman to interview him in 2000. sent money to the family of Trayvon Martin, paid for solar panels for people tp put on their houses in the poorer areas of Oakland(double whammy, minorities and alternative energy), helped start the #Yeswecode, was a forty year Union member and strong supporter of the working class, made a point to elevate and mentor women in music.

The stories are endless and still trickling out, including one more I want to share.  A few years ago, the great drummer from Madison, Clyde Stubblefield, was diagnosed with bladder cancer and like most musicians was without insurance.  While his friends held some fundraisers for him(remember we have a coffee can healthcare system in America), it was Prince who heard about it and stepped up and paid the $80,000 bill that Mr. Stubblefield still owed.   Most of these stories being told now were done with the condition of anonymity.    That is who Prince Rogers Nelsen was.  

All of these stories coming out has made our friends on the far right very uncomfortable.  How can someone with Prince's resources dedicate his life to helping the poor, the working class, women and minorites instead of chasing every single dollar he could?   How could he do acts of kindness and not brag about it?   How could there be more to the person than the tiny talented recluse we see pop up on rare occassions?

That kind of human spirit and giving character is what leads to stories like this from Christian Schneider.    Schneider is employed by the Bradley Foundation and on loan to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, as the person they call when they need to get ahead of a stroy or change a narrative.   Mr. Schneider desperately tries here and fails as miserably as New Coke.

Good grief. First of all, there's a 95% chance none of you mourning Prince's death had listened to anything he recorded in the past quarter of a century. When he played at halftime of the Super Bowl in 2007, you said to yourself, "Hey, he used to be great!"
 And no, Prince did not make you the person you are today. You know no more about sex or life or the color purple than if he had never existed. If you learned about "compassion" from a guy who reportedly didn't allow employees to look at him in the eyes, perhaps some counseling is in order. (The only lasting effect Prince had on preteen boys in 1984 was forcing them to daydream about the feminine wonders to be found in Lake Minnetonka.)
 But the compulsion to grieve so publicly is simply too much for people today to resist. It's almost as if there is some government bureau taking note of who expressed sadness over Prince's passing and who didn't. It's not like saying "so sad Prince died!" on Twitter goes into your compassion bank, to be cashed in at a later date. You won't be on trial, and the judge says, "Well, he did steal that car and ram it into that hospital for puppies, but then again, he also seemed pretty shaken up about Bowie's death."

I could point out that social media is part of community and when some people grieve, they need community to help them.  However I am certain that it would go right over Mr. Schneiders head(unless it had a check attached).

 “Supporting people in grief means being with them in their pain and sorrow and taking our cues from them and what they need. It’s not helpful, logical or useful to pass judgment, and in fact, I think it’s precisely that judgment that often causes grievers the most pain.”

The reality is Schneider does not care of you grieve, how you grieve or that the great and talented Prince is no longer with us. Schneider's task was to try and diminish his legacy and get you to not look under the surface to who Prince was.  

The more we admire and hold up people who use their celebrity and gifts to help mankind, the more their silly version of "I built this and no one helped me" or the "drag yourself up by your bootstraps" and other just as ridiculous memes of the far right wing are becoming.  

In the age of information, the goal of certain people is to make sure you are not privy to certain information.  It is unfortunate that the largest newspaper/media outlet in our state allows that to happen and gives him a forum of faux credibility.

If you want to read a truly great and comprehensive eulogy of Prince I recommend this one.

Here is Prince's iconic performance at the half time of the 2007 Super Bowl! 






7 comments:

  1. Wow. That's a new low even for Alec, er I mean Schneider.

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  2. Thanks for sharing that. I refuse to read anything with his name attached as I also turn off Sykes if I hear his voice!

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  3. Walker's first Tweet wasn't even grammatical. Prince's music didn't grow up in the '80s.

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  4. Not a dime to that paper as long as Bradley hack Chrissy Schneider pulls a paycheck from them. Milwaukee media GOP-peganda needs to be nuked, especially after proving how out of touch it was by going all-in for the Joke Formerly Known as Ted Cruz.

    And I can never argue with a playing of "Sexy M.F" Great tune

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  5. Read Schneider's piece this morning and fired off an email immediately. What a presumptuous, insensitive ass this guy is! Disgusted that Milwaukee's one major newspaper prints such right wing dreck.

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  6. Read Schneider's piece this morning and fired off an email immediately. What a presumptuous, insensitive ass this guy is! Disgusted that Milwaukee's one major newspaper prints such right wing dreck.

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