What In The Hell Is Wrong With This Country?: December 2, 2025 Edition

TW: Transphobia.

In today's edition of “What In The Hell Is Wrong With This Country,” I give you Samantha Fulnecky.

From the Huffington Post:

““After Samantha Fulnecky, a University of Oklahoma junior, received a failing grade on an essay, she filed a report with her school alleging that she’s being discriminated against because of her religious beliefs. In response, the school put the instructor who gave her the grade on leave.

In a Thanksgiving Day post, the U of O chapter of Turning Point USA highlighted Fulnecky’s essay and her professor’s response to it. The assignment was to write a reaction to a psychology article on gender stereotypes in middle school students and how it affects their mental health.

In the paper, Fulnecky bases her argument nearly entirely around Christianity and the Bible, arguing that “Women naturally want to do womanly things because God created us with those womanly desires in our hearts.” The college junior went on to write that, “Society pushing the lie that there are multiple genders and everyone should be whatever they want to be is demonic.”

Instructor Mel Curth gave the assignment a zero for not addressing the reading. Curth, who TPUSA and other news outlets identified as trans, opened their feedback note to Fulnecky by saying that they were not deducting points because of the student’s beliefs but rather because she did not follow the assignment, contradicted herself, made offensive comments, and did not provide empirical evidence.

The post also included feedback from another instructor, who said she agreed with Curth’s grading and that “[t]his paper should not be considered as a completion of the assignment.”

But what should have been a disappointing but not uncommon outcome in an academic setting turned into a referendum on trans people, attacks on the instructor’s gender identity, and higher education.

“We should not be letting mentally ill professors around students,” TPUSA said in a lengthy post. “Clearly this professor lacks the intellectual maturity to set her own bias aside and take grading seriously. Professors like this are the very reason conservatives can’t voice their beliefs in the classroom.””

So now Professor Curth - a person who was just doing their job (and was cosigned by another professor for their assessment of the raggedy-ass paper Samantha's fragile-ass turned in) - has been placed on leave and may lose their job or be forced to apologize and give Samantha a grade that she didn't earn. All while now being endangered by TPUSA's "call out" for the foreseeable future.

This is the future so many of y'all want, isn't it? To never be challenged, to believe you're "white and right" even when you're wrong, hateful, and harmful?

Well, it's a really violent and stupid future that benefits none of us.

And "none of us" includes willfully ignorant, thin-skinned, and devout "Christian" white supremacists like Samantha.

On Genocidal Holidays, Pallor Fragility, and Willful Ignorance

I haven't wished people a "Happy Thanksgiving" for years. I don't think this federal holiday deserves well-wishes for obvious (terroristic, white supremacist, big colonizer energy) reasons. Instead, when people who celebrate the holiday wish me a Happy Thanksgiving or ask me what I'm doing for the holiday, I state that I don't observe the holiday - no extra context or nothing, because I expect most adults to get it without me spelling it out. I then mention that I hope they're celebrating this holiday with intentionality and an understanding of the historical context of the holiday and its branding.

And whew, y'all.

People of pallor do not like it when I say that. Not one bit.

You should see their reactions, y'all. They either say something like, "Well, I hope you have a Happy Thanksgiving anyway, Pharoah" with that Karen/Kevin energy with their face all contorted with derision or find a way to get away from me as soon as possible and end the conversation they initiated. And it's funny to me that they do this, because it proves that many people of pallor can only exist and operate in a space that caters to them willingly ignoring how harmful so many things in pallor culture, society, and history really are.

You know you can have some turkey on Thursday with your family while acknowledging how funky Thanksgiving as a holiday and concept really is, right? It doesn't have to take away from the meal.

You can be thankful for the blessings you have while also having the fortitude to digest and understand history and educate others on how harmful this week's festivities can be for Native and Indigenous communities and tribes.

It doesn't have to be one or the other.

Knowledge and empathy should always trump feeling cozy in ignorance.

Just sayin'.

And most of y'all's turkeys be dry anyway, so is being willfully ignorant and eatin' unmoisturized meat worth it?

On Olive Garden and White Supremacist Workplace Lunch

You wanna know a low-key bit of white supremacist workplace culture that most people don't think twice about?

When your supervisor or manager orders Olive Garden for a work lunch, when there are 85 freakin’ local restaurants making fantastic ethnocultural dishes in your area that would be better and supportive of your local economy. Hell, I guarantee you that there's a poppin' local Italian restaurant that is absolutely delicious and authentic as hell, but nope!

Olive Garden.

Olive Garden is basically the restaurant version of most people of pallor: safe, unremarkable basic b--- energy. Always talking about how we're a family while knowing we all know it's just a catchphrase (what, you forgot we work here and see how y'all act every day?). Not offensive to most people on the surface, but as you peel back the lasagna layers, you see there's more filler than substance. No evolution in who they are or what they have to offer others in decades.

No wonder it's the ultimate fallback lunch for most workplaces.

Guess that marinara sauce is more of a mirror than you probably thought.

On Clay, Louisiana, and Being Careful About Who You Choose To Represent You

TW: Mentions of sexual abuse, rape, sex trafficking, pedophilia.

The House chamber has overwhelmingly passed a bipartisan bill that would compel the Justice Department to release all its Epstein case files. The vote? 427-1. The one holdout? GOP Rep. Clay Higgins of Louisiana. Why?

He's worried about the innocent people this could hurt.

You know, the innocent people who were physically, mentally, and psychologically harmed, sexually assaulted, trafficked, and raped, who have been seeking justice for YEARS.

Oh wait - he's not talking about those innocent people, is he? Because if he were, he would've heard their pleas for justice and wouldn't have voted no.

Hey, Louisianans: I hope y'all finally take the time to make Clay feel VERY welcome when he gets back home, seeing how so many of y'all are as invested in getting these Esptein files out to the public as the rest of us, and this seems to be the only thing right now most of us are in solidarity about.

I mean, he's been voting against your best interests since y'all elected him and is a regular keynote speaker with such "wonderful organizations" as the Oath Keepers and the Three Percenters, which should truly be disqualifiers for y'all when it comes to voting for his ass. Still, nothing has seemed to push y'all to boot Clay from office, so we'll take what we can get.

Vote these horrible creatures out of office, y'all. Your vote can change your city, state, and this country for the better. It is one of the truly pivotal powers we have as the citizenry.

They ain't out here tryin' to gerrymander districts and voting maps for no reason.

On Megyn and White Apologism

TW: mentions of pedophilia, sex trafficking, harm.

"I know somebody very close to this case…Jeffrey Epstein, in this person's view, was not a pedophile…He was into the barely legal type, like he liked 15-year-old girls…He wasn’t into like 8-year-olds…There's a difference between a 15-year-old and a 5-year-old."

What you just read came out of the mouth of weak-sauce woman of pallor and faux investigative journalist Megyn Kelly. Megyn Kelly thought this morning that, after seeing the dozens of email excerpts floating around out there as well as the mountains of evidence showing that Jeffrey Epstein was a sex trafficker and pedophile, today was the day to grace the world with this horrific take on her raggedy-ass podcast.

This right here is an impeccable illustration of one of the many instances where white supremacy, as a concept, action, and movement, has always been absolutely bonkers to me.

You see, white supremacy is an exercise in apologism: whiteness traumatizes, hurts, or kills someone, then expects to be forgiven after a half-hearted apology. And when the forgiveness doesn't come because forgiveness hasn't been earned or deserved? That's when people of pallor and systems of pallor begin spinning the situation, making up excuses for why the pallor colonizer terrorism and violence someone has been on the receiving end of "isn't that bad" and pushing that we all agree with that narrative. And if you don't get on board with the narrative? Gaslighting and violence are in your future. Don't believe me?

Go and ask anyone who isn't a part of the white supremacist culture model due to their melanin or beliefs, and they'll tell you a story about how this has played out for them or someone they love. Hell, some of us could write you a whole book of our experiences.

Let's keep it 100: there is no difference between a 5-year-old girl, an 8-year-old girl, and a 15-year-old girl when we're discussing acts of sex trafficking and pedophilia. NONE. NADA. No difference. No excuse. It is all abuse of vulnerable underage people, people we are supposed to protect from predatory acts of any kind. Period. No discussion.

Anyone who thinks otherwise and tries to spin these clear facts that I keep hoping we can all agree on to protect themselves, their own best interests, the interests of wealthy people who could give two craps about them who happen to have been long-time friends with horrible human beings they deify and admire, or the person they voted for to be President of the United States is just as dangerous as those initiating these acts.

And I don't apologize for saying that because there's nothing to apologize for.

Supporting harmful and toxic behavior and trying to "rationalize" it or explain it away is vile, disgusting, and a clear and present danger to others.

And it's one of the engines that keeps white supremacy running.

And so many of y'all are literally more than willing to continue being the gasoline that keeps the old jalopy moving.