I Fucking Hate Ernesto

So, no one was really available on the phone, so I've resorted to ranting via blog. Sorry.

To catch everyone (all three of you) up, Ernest is the Graduate Teacher in my Holocaust class. Basically he leads a discussion every Friday morning at 8. I FUCKING HATE HIM. Like, I hate him so much it is ridiculous.

REASONS WHY I HATE ERNESTO

1. I hate Ernesto because his discussions are a colossal waste of time. Discussion section is all I have on Fridays, and it's also the earliest class of the week. Thus, every Friday I drag myself out of bed after about four hours' sleep (for an explanation, see the blog before this), shower, dress, and go all the way across campus. FOR NOTHING. The "conversations" are terrible. They consist largely of Ernesto asking broad and ultimately unintelligible questions. After about a minute of silence, Ernesto will answer these questions himself, although the answer is only loosely connected to the question. Or, we have a "we love everyone" discussion in which random people give their profound insights into the latest book. Examples: "I think that this book is hard to understand. I mean, she doesn't, like, say things...like...directly. It's like...poetry...and stuff." "I think the author's purpose is to tell us that the Holocaust is really bad." Today we went off on an Ernesto-led tangent about the American government. Ernesto claims that he is doing research into the PATRIOT Act (which is interesting, because at the beginning of the course, he was researching Latin American trauma literature). He then asked the class, "Do you guys know what the PATRIOT Act is?" One girl raised her hand and said, "Yeah, it's an act that basically gives the government total control." To which Ernesto replied, "Yeah." Now, as you should know, I am quite possibly the LAST PERSON ON EARTH that would EVER defend the Bush Administration, but I wanted to punch the bitch in the face. That is NOT what the PATRIOT Act does. It does a lot of things, but declares martial law it does not. Then Ernesto said that he plans to bring in some scholarly articles that talk about how America is now a fascist state. A friend of PATRIOT Girl's (it's clear why they get along) said:

   "To a certain extent, that's totally not an opinion, though. I mean, fascism is believing in an idea and pushing it on others. It's like today, how we're going into Middle Eastern countries on really questionable premises, all in an attempt to eradicate the Islamic race."

   That was a direct quote. I was so appalled by it that I wrote it down in my notes. First, that is totally not what fascism is. Fascism really describes an authoritarian, nationalist, right-wing government. It in no way applies imperialistic tendencies. Second, and perhaps most disturbingly, ISLAM IS NOT A MOTHERFUCKING RACE, FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THAT IS HOLY. Is America fascist? A little bit, yeah. But Islam is still not a race.
2. I hate Ernesto because arbitrarily grades the quizzes. I got a nine out of sixteen on the first quiz in the class. Now, mathematically that is an F, but in ErnestoLand, it's actually a B-. Of course, although I got a nine, he wrote "8=C+" on the top of my paper. Hmm...2+3+2+2=9. Not eight. He had no reason for the grade he gave me, either. The page was literally blank except for the grade. When I asked him to discuss the quiz with me...
3. I hate Ernesto because ERNESTO FUCKING STOOD ME UP AT HIS FUCKING OFFICE HOURS. TWICE.
   
4. I hate Ernesto because he gave me an 86% on my paper because he clearly doesn't understand anything at all about grammar, or the Holocaust. First off, he docked me some points for not using MLA format on quotes longer than four lines. I did indeed have a four-line quote. But it was indented properly. The quote next to which Ernesto attempted to edify me was actually only two-and-a-half lines. He said repeatedly that I "needed to make my sentences clearer." For example, "In studying the Holocaust, Italian chemist Primo Levi's memoir Survival in Auschwitz is frequently billed as an "objective" account of his experience, and of the whole machinery of the Holocaust itself." Ernesto underlined the word Holocaust and wrote, "You mean the Nazi regime." In fact, I did not mean the Nazi regime. I meant the machinery of the Holocaust itself. I know how hard it is to swallow, that I said what I meant, but on my honor, I swear that I did.

In short, I FUCKING HATE ERNESTO. On Tuesday I'm going to go and talk to the professor of the course and try my damnedest to get him sacked. I pay that bastard. I PAY HIM.