#CENSORSHIP IS NEVER A GOOD THING. IT WILL NEVER ACTUALLY FIX THE ISSUE AT HAND. IF YOU DO NOT LIKE SOMETHING DO NOT READ IT.

[sonicenvy]

An AO3 app? -- The next installment in my AO3 posting.

I'm going to preface this by telling you that I don't entirely understand the urge or need to have an app for everything, but then again, I am closer to 30 than 20, so maybe that's the difference. Moving on.

So I've seen a lot of people saying that they wish there was an AO3 app. Presumably these people read AO3 on their phones or tablets. The thing is, there is NO AO3 app. If you see an app in the App Store or the Play Store claiming to be an AO3 app, it is fake, and you should not download it.

Say it with me kids:

"ao3 does not have an app and will not have an app."

The thing is, there's a really good reason why it will never happen. If you've been on this site (tumblr) long enough you'll either remember or have heard about the great tumblr porn ban (aka the ban on "female presenting nipples"). Believe it or not there was time where the tumblr (official) policy on adult content was "go nuts, show nuts. whatever." <-- actual quote btw.

A big reason why the tumblr porn ban ever happened was because of the tumblr app, specifically, the tumblr app for iOS. Apple decided one day that they thought that the tumblr app contained too much "sensitive content" and they banned tumblr's app from the Apple App Store, until such time as tumblr took what they believed sufficient corrective action for this "issue." Apple also believed that tumblr's app was hosting CP, which they considered a violation of their TOS.

So, in response to Apple banning them from the app store (which did not effect current users of the tumblr app, only potential new tumblr users), tumblr rolled out the adult content ban, so that they could get re-instated on the App Store. Like many other new "features" and "updates" to this site, the roll out was clunky, badly done and deeply unpopular. It was easily one of the worst changes for this site, in no small part because of how clunky it was; lots of innocuous posts were incorrectly flagged, and many bloggers found their entire blogs flagged, with little recourse in the initial wake of the ban. Critically, this event saw a great many users on tumblr leave this platform for twitter. How this affected site culture is up to debate.

Why am I telling you this? Well, as I am sure you, as an AO3 user are well aware, AO3 hosts a great deal of "adult content," of many persuasions and forms. They are explicitly against censorship of any kind. The app store is NOT against all censorship. These are two conflicting values. Since AO3 (and by extension OTW) has no interest in purging content from their site on behest of a megacorp (which btw is also why they rely on donations only and don't serve advertisements), they have no interest in developing an app, given the potential for restrictions.

Besides, AO3's website is simple, clean, and mobile responsive. Why fix something that ain't broke??

But, wait, if you're the target audience I'm hoping to reach with this post, you still want an app for AO3 on your home screen!

Never fear, my app loving youngsters! There is a way for you to create an "app" icon on your iPad or iPhone's home screen for AO3 (or any other site you like really) Apologies Android users; I don't have an Android, so I can't show you something analogous to this on Android, and don't know if they have it. Ditto on Kindle Fire.

This tutorial will use both safari and Firefox*. I won't show you Chrome (derogatory) because I don't have it and don't use it.

*Side note, switching to Firefox today is a great thing that you can do for yourself. You can easily import all of your Chrome bookmarks if that's what worries you.

In Firefox:

Step 1. Visit AO3 in the Firefox browser.

Step 2. Tap the hamburger menu in the right hand side of the top ribbon to reveal the browser and page settings and options menu, and locate the "Share" option (highlighted in blue below):

Step 3. In the "share" menu popup, locate and tap the "Add to Home Screen" option (highlighted in blue below):

Step 4. Give your new "app" (secretly just a bookmark) a title. You can leave it as the default, but I suggest shortening it so that the entirety of it shows on your home screen. You can name it whatever you want.

In Safari:

Step 1. Visit AO3 in the Safari browser.

Step 2. Tap the share icon in the right hand side of the top ribbon and scroll down until you find the "Add to Home Screen" option (highlighted in green below). Tap this option.

Step 3. In the "add to home screen" pop up, type whatever name you want in the name field (highlighted in green below). You can leave it as the default, but I suggest that you change it to something shorter so it displays in full with the icon on the home screen.

Either way, you should end up with an icon on your home screen that looks like this:

This is not an "app" BUT it is an icon on your home screen. When you tap the icon, it takes you to the home page of AO3, in whatever browser you created the bookmark in. You can move it around however you'd like, just like a real app, and put it any folder you'd like.

So that's all I have for this chat.

See you again next time I get inspired to write an ao3 chat/tutorial post for newbies!

Final note, If any of my followers have Android devices or Kindle Fire devices and want to add a photo tutorial for this on those platforms to this post, please feel free to, since I don't have any devices with either of those OSes, and thus could not do that myself.

[back-and-totheleft]

“Make it for the soldiers”

The three-time Oscar winner is back with a new book—Chasing the Light: Writing, Directing, and Surviving Platoon, Midnight Express, Scarface, Salvador, and the Movie Game—and turning its pages is like entering a Stone movie. The one-time infantryman had a single condition in granting HUSTLER this Q&A: “Make it for the soldiers. You’ve got to make it interesting to them.” Movie stars are often household names, but Oliver Stone is one of the few screenwriters and directors to have a high public profile. Now he’s released a new book, and it’s a rip-roaring, rollicking read, full of tense drama and trauma. The 342-page memoir focuses on Stone’s life through the age of 40 and sheds light on what forged Hollywood’s movie maverick and makes him tick.

After the Allies liberated Paris, his father—Colonel Louis Stone, who served on General Eisenhower’s staff—met the Parisian Jacqueline Pauline Cezarine Goddet. In December 1945 they married, which Stone wryly writes was “possibly the greatest mistakes of their lives,” and sailed from France to live in New York, where Louis, a Yale graduate, resumed his Wall Street career as a stockbroker. Stone reveals how their divorce affected him and, for the first time ever, describes in detail his combat experiences in Vietnam, where he was awarded the Bronze Star and a Purple Heart. Coming under fire in Indochina’s jungles ignited an intense mistrust of government and hatred of war that actually compelled Stone to become a filmmaker. As the Chasing the Light subtitle indicates, the book zooms in on four movies and provides a behind-the-scenes peek at Stone’s maneuvering through Tinseltown’s machinations. Stone scored his first Hollywood triumphs as the screenwriter of 1978’s Midnight Express, winning an Oscar and a Golden Globe. Like his script for 1983’s Scarface, Midnight Express lampooned the so-called War on Drugs. This set the stage for Stone to tackle President Reagan’s secret war in Central America with 1986’s hard-hitting Salvador, followed later that same year by his grunt’s-eye view on the Vietnam War, the no-holds-barred Platoon. At the 1987 Academy Awards ceremony, Stone was in the rare enviable position of competing against himself in the Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen category for both Salvador and Platoon. Although he won neither, his boyhood idol Elizabeth Taylor did give Stone the Best Director Oscar for Platoon, which also won for Best Picture. The book’s curtain closes as Stone earns his sublime moment in the limelight, emerging as one of the movie industry’s most celebrated writer-directors of all time. His future body of work—1987’s Wall Street, 1991’s The Doors and JFK through 2016’s Snowden—are only mentioned in passing, if at all. An exception is 1989’s Best Picture-nominated Born on the Fourth of July, for which Stone was awarded his second Best Director Oscar, for helming this searing cinematic biopic about maimed Vietnam War vet Ron Kovic, whose relationship with Stone began during the period his memoir covers. HUSTLER interviewed Stone when he returned to Los Angeles in between trips to Europe to promote his book. In this candid conversation Stone opens up about the Vietnam War, drugs, censorship, Edward Snowden, Larry Flynt, Jackie Kennedy, his new Kennedy assassination film and so much more. HUSTLER: How did Chasing the Light come about? Did you write any of it while sheltering in place? OLIVER STONE: No. I was finishing up in that phase. I wrote it over two years. It was final draft, checking things, draft edits, around February, March… I was working on other things, documentaries and so forth. In your memoir you write about your time in Vietnam. Have you recounted those personal experiences extensively before? No. No, I haven’t. In interviews I’ve shared some of it. But no, this is all fresh material. The movies were dramatic presentations. I talk about Born on the Fourth of July and my relationship with Ron Kovic [the paralyzed Vietnam War vet portrayed by Tom Cruise in the 1989 feature]. And a lot about Platoon. Because both were written in 1976 [the year Kovic’s book was published], which falls in the period I’m covering in Chasing the Light, up to 1986. They play a significant role—the failures of those two films to get made haunted me. You were wounded twice in Vietnam—where you served with distinction as an infantryman, winning a Bronze Star and Purple Heart. So what do you think about President Trump allegedly calling dead soldiers “losers” and “suckers” and stating that military parades should exclude wounded vets? It’s a strange statement. I don’t know if he made it, but it sounds very bizarre. Obviously, I don’t agree with it. On the other hand, I don’t believe we should be over-glorifying our veterans either, because that leads to other sets of problems, which we’ve seen in the spate of recent wars. To prepare for this interview, I watched Scarface again. In your book you mention that you were probably conceived in Europe, your mom was an immigrant from France, and it struck me that Scarface is very much an immigrant’s saga. How do you view the Trump/Stephen Miller immigration and refugee policies? I abhor them. I do believe in immigration—it’s what the American way is about. This country has been built on immigration. Even in this lifetime of mine we’ve had such a new spate of immigration from different countries, Third World, Asia. It’s remarkable. In Scarface we talk about Latin Americans who are coming into Miami, some good, some bad. It’s a rich mix, and that’s what had given America its experimental nature. There’s no fixed America in my mind. It’s 250 years—it’s a constantly changing soup. Scarface, like Midnight Express, is drug-themed. Your memoir is quite candid about your own use of substances. What do you think of the War on Drugs? Who won? [Laughs.] It’s a ludicrous objective. It should not be called a “war.” Listen, I partook of drugs. I’ve been very honest about it. It started for me in Vietnam. I smoked it in the base camps, in the rear, when we came back. I smoked it to relax. I go into the reasons for it. It helped me get through that war as a human being. Very important to me. I respect it. I also talk about drug use later on in my life, like cocaine—which I don’t think worked for me at all, and I said why. So I’m on both sides of it. But I do think it’s an individual issue, of individual responsibility and education. The treatment for it is not punishment but hospitalization or medical help or psychiatric help. The War on Drugs is a waste of money, and again, it’s political. I saw that in Scarface, the birth of the Drug Enforcement [Administration]—very political, huge budgets; it’s growing every year. The Reagan war and all that—they call it a war. Everything in America is a war. But we don’t win any one of them. Have you encountered political censorship in Hollywood for your movies’ dissident politics over the years? You posit that Henry Kissinger and Alexander Haig being on MGM’s board may have affected an early effort to make Platoon. Yes. It’s been a long haul. And I emphasize the word may, because you never know when they turn it down. They never tell you, “It’s because of political reasons that we don’t want to make your film.” They never say that. They couch it in economic terms or, “This is too depressing.” “It’s blah-blah A, B or C.” You never know. In this case, it was a very easy deal for them to make. Dino De Laurentiis was behind it—as my producer he was financing the film. MGM had a distribution deal with Mr. De Laurentiis, and they didn’t live up to it. He was making very risky movies at that time, like Blue Velvet. MGM had to make a minimal investment in distribution costs, and they did not do it. Why? Well, I would assume that the president of MGM at the time, Frank Yablans, said that he had gone to the board and they had turned [Platoon] down, but I’m not sure he’s telling the truth. Because they sometimes don’t even bother to go to the board because they don’t want to take any heat. On the board, of course, were two very conservative men on Vietnam who I’d classify as war hawks. So, I mean, it became a political issue. I do believe that; I have no proof. Also, the Pentagon passed on the film, calling it completely unrealistic. This is an important issue because the movie is realistic. I was there, and I saw it on the ground. I was in four different platoons, in four different units, in three combat platoons. I served in the south and in the north and saw quite a bit of action. And I’m telling you, three things I wrote in the book, about the three lies in Vietnam, I believe apply even today to all fought wars. One is friendly fire. American soldiers get killed by their own side, by small arms fire, artillery and bombs. It’s not precision bombing. About 20 percent of the casualties, wounded and dead, comes from friendly fire. This is a very important point, because it is buried over and over again by the Pentagon in their after-action reports. Recently, the Arizona Cardinals’ Pat Tillman was killed in Afghanistan, and there was a whole mess in trying to get to the reasons for his death. Of course, that was a celebrity-type killing, but this goes on all the time in every war. In Vietnam, in the jungle, you can imagine the asymmetric aspect of it. When fire happens, you don’t even know where the fire is coming from. People are firing—you don’t know if it’s coming in or out. And various things like that are happening all the time. I believe my first wound came about through friendly fire. The second lie I talked about was killing civilians, trashing villages. Racism was really a huge factor in that. We treated the civilians mostly as enemies, as people who were supporting the enemy. [Secretary of Defense] Robert McNamara estimated three to four million Vietnamese killed. The third lie, the biggest one of all: “We’re winning the war.” We heard that lie again and again and again. It was fed to the American people. Even from the beginning, we never had a chance. In Neil Sheehan’s book A Bright Shining Lie, [Lieutenant Colonel] John Paul Vann made it really clear, in 1962 this was a hopeless situation, a hopeless war, because true patriotism was to fight for your country. This was a war, as he said, of independence that was fought against us as colonizers in the wake of the French. Inflating body counts, lying about enemy movements, CIA involvement in the war, no question about it. Misguiding the war. Often bad information, among other things, about the My Lai massacre in March 1968, when 500-plus villagers were killed in cold blood by [U.S.] units who were told that the enemy would be in the village. Not a single enemy bullet was fired in that whole day. And this was investigated by the Army itself, by an honest [lieutenant] general named [William Ray] Peers. He didn’t believe it at first. He thought it was bullshit, that the Seymour Hersh revelations were bullshit. He went in there and investigated thoroughly and came up with the conclusion. That’s what my movie I wanted to make on the My Lai massacre is about. He indicted 20-plus officers all the way up to the top of that division. He indicted the general of that division for his negligence. It’s a disgusting story. But it happens all the time in war and is covered up. Covered up for the dignity of the family, for the dignity of the death and so forth and so on. “How can you criticize the military?” You know, that horrible kind of righteousness, which prevents us from seeing what war is. Although you’re a decorated Vietnam veteran, the Pentagon denied you any support for Platoon—and, I assume, for your other Vietnam War-related movies. Yes, that’s correct. But other directors such as, say, Michael Bay, who never served in the military but who make pro-war, pro-military films, are given permission to shoot at U.S. bases, use of armed services personnel, access to high-tech equipment, etc. What do you make of this double standard? Does it violate the First Amendment? I don’t know about that, but it’s certainly a violation of morality. It’s much bigger than Michael Bay—there’s a book that came out in 2017, National Security Cinema: The Shocking New Evidence of Government Control in Hollywood by Matthew Alford and Tom Secker. James DiEugenio, who works with me, has covered this issue separately in another book, Reclaiming Parkland. These two books cover the involvement of the Pentagon in Hollywood. Alford and his coauthor talk about 800-plus films that were made with Pentagon cooperation. You’d be stunned at some of the films made. Among case studies are Pearl Harbor, Black Hawk Down—which is basically a whitewashing of the affair in Somalia—Charlie Wilson’s War, Hotel Rwanda, the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Rules of Engagement, The Terminator, 13 Days, United 93, Wag the Dog. Talks about people like Tom Clancy, of course a big military supporter, and the CIA too. TV series such as Alias, Homeland and 24—which had a tremendous effect on the American public in glorifying the CIA, making it seem like it was a backstop for our security, which is a lie too. It undermined our security. All this is much bigger than Michael Bay. In Chasing the Light you mention “surveillance” a number of times, and of course you made 2016’s Snowden. On September 2, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled that the NSA’s warrantless mass surveillance—which Edward Snowden exposed—was illegal and possibly unconstitutional. What do you think of that, and what should happen to Snowden now? [Laughs.] It’s obviously correct. Snowden should be brought back to the country. I don’t know if he should be pardoned for his wrongs—because he never did anything wrong. He should be pardoned immediately, as should [WikiLeaks’] Julian Assange. The fact is, the NSA has been breaking the law for so many years. We owe it to George Bush and that administration. That was reported on as early as around 2004, but buried by The New York Times until after the election. The Pentagon Papers was released by The Times because they hated Nixon, but I guess with Bush, they gave him a pass. Terrible. It [NSA’s bulk surveillance] has resulted in this sense of unease—you’re always monitored, we have to check our behavior, we’re under control. This is a disaster for the world. Also, other countries have responded accordingly. The World Wide Web is very dangerous. It goes back to the worst days of J. Edgar Hoover. Free speech is a recurring theme in a number of your films. How were you involved in the making of 1996’s The People vs. Larry Flynt? I was a producer. It was written by Larry Karaszewski and Scott Alexander. It was their script. Milos Forman developed it with them. I did feel that Larry Flynt had a case—he won the case [against Reverend Jerry Falwell Sr.]. I’m glad. I’m proud of the movie. After Platoon was released, you quote Jacqueline Kennedy, who wrote you and said, “Your film has changed the direction of a country’s thinking.” Your movies presented a counter-narrative to the Reagan regime’s reactionary agenda. Modesty aside, do you think that Salvador, Platoon and Born on the Fourth of July may have helped stop Reagan and Bush from turning their Contra Wars in Central America into full-fledged Vietnam-like invasions? I don’t believe that they did. What happened was the fortuitous fuckup by the CIA when Eugene Hasenfus was captured after his plane was shot down. He was a contractor—he was in Nicaragua supplying [weapons to the U.S.-backed anti-Sandinista Contras]. It leads to the larger story of Oliver North, Reagan, George Herbert [Walker] Bush and the Iran-Contra affair. That’s what stalled them. Not that it was revealed in its entirety—that’s another story, of course, that’s been buried by The Washington Post’s Katharine Graham, who has been lionized in another kind of movie. But basically that scandal at least was enough to stop the momentum of an invasion, and Reagan did not have the power, the ability, the credibility anymore after October ’86. Which of course helped Platoon too, because it came out right in that juncture, and that revived Salvador, which was rereleased. Both films had an impact, but whether that would have changed the course of Reagan without the accident with the CIA—I don’t think so. Tell us about your new film, JFK: Destiny Betrayed. It’s a four-hour documentary, and it has the facts. More facts than ever. We deal with everything that happened after—in terms of documentation—since [JFK] came out in 1991. Very interesting. Because the assassination records review board, which was created from the JFK film with the JFK [Records] Act—although it was stymied by many restrictions, it did manage to release a fair amount of documents. Not all. And in those documents there’s quite a bit of information, including, of course, Operation Northwoods, that the Pentagon was operating to undercut Cuba. What are some of the highlights you learned since 1991 about the liquidation of President Kennedy? Well, I think you have to wait for the movie. [Laughs.] But certainly the ties of [Lee Harvey] Oswald to the CIA. That’s more explicit. Certainly, the evidence. We revisit the original evidence presented by Mark Lane but with new witnesses; new characters have come forward. Many people [didn’t] talk, but they start talking after the movie in the 1990s…People talk. All these informational signals come from all directions. You explain that your book title, Chasing the Light, refers to a moviemaking term. But does it also allude to your personal quest for enlightenment? And if so, have you attained it yet? Well, I’m much older [now] than when the book ends. But certainly that is an important moment, in 1986. After wanting to achieve a dream of writing and directing since I was 22 and being rejected and defeated many times, having some success along the way, and after having almost given up at 30—finally, at the age of 40, I really had a breakthrough of major proportions, with two solid movies back to back that really convinced the world, as well as myself, that I was a writer-director. It was a core victory for me and an important fact. That sets the tone for the foundation of my character. There’s going to be changes, more detours, pushes and turns in the story, but certainly, it’s established in 1986. So your memoir ends in 1987. That means a lot of your other classics are yet to come. So, in that grand Hollywood tradition, will there be a sequel to Chasing the Light? Well, I hope so. I do hope so. I hope the book does well enough to justify it. What’s next for you? I have two documentaries. One is the JFK documentary, four hours long, that won’t be out for a year. Another one is unedited, about the future, the need for clean energy, which includes nuclear energy. It’s based on a book I bought called A Bright Future: How Some Countries Have Solved Climate Change and the Rest Can Follow, by Joshua Goldstein and a Swedish scientist, Staffan A. Qvist. I understand you’re traveling these days. I’m about to promote the book in Paris. I just came back from Italy, France and Germany… It was big in Italy—they loved me. [Laughs.] Much better than in the United States.

-Ed Rampell, Hustler, Jan 16 2021

[bigskydreaming]

(Last Anon) I write a lot of dark shit. I’ll openly admit it helps me cope with the shit Ive been through. It was advised to me by a therapist, and reading and writing it makes me feel better. The tagging system helps me avoid the things that WOULDNT make me feel better. It’s up to me to make that distinction. What level of tagging would actually make you comfortable? Do you want to stop people from writing anything noncon all together? (Idk if this sounds attacky, I don’t mean it that way)

I answered before I saw this second question, so I’ll try to make this briefer...

I’m gonna be blunt here: I’m.....not exactly side-eyeing that therapist, because its not like I’ve talked to or worked with every therapist out there lol, and I don’t know their reasoning on this subject, but I DO question whether or not there’s room in your dialogue with your therapist to expand on this and explore if there’s any kind of miscommunication or misinterpretation of WHY they suggested it might make you feel better....as well as whether or not they meant just in writing it for yourself vs writing it to share with other people online.

I say that last part because those can be very distinct things.....because ALL forms of writing, are at their core inherently just....communicating ideas. Even to ourselves.

Its why journaling is so effective for a lot of people. Its literally just us using writing to express our own ideas to ourselves, to communicate what we’re already thinking or feeling to ourselves in more...digestible ways we can more easily internalize even if we’re the only intended audience for what we write there.

And I also say this because there’s a difference between exploration and validation....and the intended results and receptions to both these things.

Like.....tbh, I’ve spent a lot of my life asking WHY, in terms of why certain of my victimizers might have done the things to me that they did. Its been a large, central question at times.....the mystery of it being something that’s bothered me to large degrees.

So in that vein, there is a certain logic to writing various dark shit in an effort to reach SOME kind of understanding, even just in my own mind. Trying to understand what they were even thinking, the WHY of it, in order to at least transform the unknown of it into something real or tangible that I could more easily refute or push back against. 

But all of that can be done in the form of writing just to myself. The second I share that writing with a wider public, many of them unknown to me, however.....it takes on a whole new dimension.

Because now I’m not just communicating my thoughts on this matter to myself.....I’m communicating it to an audience of people all with their own thoughts, priorities, lived experiences, etc. And there is ZERO guarantee, or even really a realistic expectation, that this wider audience is receiving what I’m communicating or interpreting it or whatever.....in the same vein, and for the same reasons, that I’m writing it in the first place.

So not only do I now have to factor in that while say, exploring my victimizers’ mindsets in order to make them more real and thus more realistically refuted, like....that might be my motivation for writing it to myself, and MY understanding of what I’ve written and why......but to people out there in that wider audience....I have NO idea what they’re getting out of it. People who actually ALREADY think this way could see it as validation, proof that the predatory thoughts they had were more normal and acceptable than society otherwise wanted them to think.....or other victims of similar kinds of events could accidentally use it to negatively reinforce ideas they had about THEIR victimizers’ being valid in thinking the way they did, and for doing the things they did to them.

But then I also have to now factor in the ADDITIONAL angle that is....feedback. And especially, ESPECIALLY in a fandom environment which simply does not allow for or condone negative reception to this kind of content, and will default to defending the author and any readers of the author, REGARDLESS of their motivations or intentions....over a reader who is genuinely distressed by how they received the content.

Because feedback IS validating. Plain and simple. Positive reception IS affirming, in WHATEVER we do.

So....now there’s the problem that I can’t honestly say for sure at this point if what’s making me feel better about writing this dark shit is just the writing of it itself, communicating whatever it communicates to me when I put it to paper....OR if maybe what’s making me feel better is the external validation I’m getting from readers who for their own reasons, whatever they might be, are telling me this is fantastic, I’m great at this, they want more.

And that can very easily become a trap, see....because whereas initially my writing this stuff for myself might have had some benefit....if the how and why of me doing this goes somewhere it wasn’t ever intended and becomes something else entirely....that can eventually like....overtake and REPLACE my original motivations completely.

And instead of this being something I do for a FINITE period of time, for as long as I need to in order to work through this stuff....it can become something I kinda just...dwell in, and never move past.....because the validation I’m getting from writing this specific content and how that VALIDATION makes me feel, specifically.....gives me reason enough not to...ever actually move past this stuff no matter how else it might be effecting my life or my mindsets about things.

And I’m not saying that’s what’s going on with you or going to happen with you or anything of the sort, because I flat out DO NOT KNOW your situation or your therapist or what they recommended or why.

I’m just saying....the problem with using ‘coping mechanisms’ as a catch-all defense without ever delving into the specifics of WHY this specific coping mechanism and what specifically its meant to accomplish....is there is nothing inherent in a coping mechanism that’s like.....good.

Because coping is the bare minimum, frankly.

It should never be upheld as the IDEAL.

So for instance, as a survivor of physical abuse and in terms of how that often made me feel weak or powerless....I could, feasibly, say getting into physical fights is a coping mechanism for me, as long as I win them, because they make me feel strong or powerful. I could genuinely say, despite how it sounds, punching someone on some level DOES make me feel better.

But could I actually argue this is any way ideal, healthy or sustainable in the longterm? Let alone ignore the effect is has on the people I fight, for what are essentially entirely self-serving reasons?

I’m just saying....coping isn’t always the be all and end all....and it can get away from us very quickly if we lose sight of WHY we’re doing it and to what end.

And to answer the rest of your questions.....all of this is what I want. All of the above conversation is the POINT of my frequent rants.

Because these kinds of conversations are ESSENTIAL to what fandom CLAIMS are the point of these kinds of fics and content and readerships.

These are not things that can just be assumed, or things that are one size fits all and the same for every writer and reader regardless of personal situation.

But can you honestly say that fandoms, as they exist now, are remotely open or conducive to HAVING these kinds of conversations regularly? To making the asking of THESE specific kinds of questions something people regularly do, or check in with, or consider before or during the creation or consuming of dark content.....as opposed to just taking for granted that its fine and its GOOD because fandom has been doing it this way all along and everyone who’s been a guiding influence to you in fandom has previously assured you this is fine and works and doesn’t need fixing or adjusting?

Because I don’t think they are, and THAT’S my issue, and THAT’S what I want, in answer to your other question.

Do I really want people to just stop writing dark shit altogether? At least the fetishistic kind, the kind that exploits real peoples’ real traumas for entertainment rather than be respectful of the inherent power and weight it comes with just by virtue of being what it is?

I mean, on the one hand, yes, sure. I’m not going to lie. That would be ideal.

But part of why I object so strongly to accusations of purity policing and censorship is because I DON’T view the world in terms of black and white, binary thinking.

And so on the other hand, no, this isn’t what I want, because it isn’t something I spend any time actually WANTING....because that would be a waste of time and effort, because I UNDERSTAND that that’s just not a realistic want. I’m not likely to ever see like, just a full scale abandonment of the consumer culture fad of rape culture.....and I don’t want to actually censor it because I fully believe censorship is just a band-aid slapped on a gaping chest wound....banning content does nothing to address the WANT of a type of content, and as long as that want persists, people will find a way to feed it.

So realistically, ACTIONABLY.....all I really want is this. More of these kinds of conversations, engagements. Open, frank, directness about what’s ACTUALLY going on with a lot of this content and being communicated with it, the risks inherent in it....acknowledgment of the negative impact that goes hand in hand with the positive impact you get from readers saying they like this, they enjoyed it.

And yeah, I fully admit and hope that along the way, it DOES lead to more people just stopping writing this type of content altogether.....BUT the WHY of that is important.

Because I believe this would only happen or come about because in the act of actually ASKING these questions of themselves and their work, ACTUALLY acknowledging the full scale of impact, the bad as well as the good, actually LISTENING to people who complain or criticize it instead of just dismissing them as entitled or whiny or puritans....I do think that this would inevitably lead to some people abandoning this type of content altogether.....because its just flat out not really enjoyable to them when they consider it in the context of its negative impact AS WELL as the positive.

But the thing is......THAT, yeah, I’m okay with. Because I don’t believe anyone is entitled to LIE to themselves or hide from the negative impact of their own actions or actions of those around them, just in order to preserve the entertainment value of ONE aspect of ONE personal hobby.

That, I have no shame about potentially having an influence on people in regards to, because there is literally NOTHING WRONG with asking people to be more aware of themselves and their place and impact among others, and to interact honestly and directly with their own actions, likes, and interests.

Like, there’s just not.

And I fully believe everyone really already knows that, and that’s WHY this conversation so frequently gets twisted and derailed into being about things its just not about...censorship, purity policing, fiction not being the same as reality....

None of those are the point. THIS is the point. Has always been MY point, at the very least.

Bottom line, fandom as is, expects people whose lives are directly reflective of specific types of content to make THEMSELVES smaller in fandom spaces, in order to make room and make way for the content a lot of people like.

And I fully and unapologetically believe that’s backwards.

Fic should not take priority over people. Fictional interests should not be more important to a fandom COMMUNITY than lived experiences.

Nobody has any right to ask or expect other fans to make room, object less, isolate more.....just so that other people can enjoy certain fictional content without having to do any serious examination of it and how that makes them feel.

[frizzyanya]

The Untamed Episode 42, My Commentary!

So A LOT happened this episode. We had one of the three big reveals that I’ve been waiting for! And just a lot of drama. Spoilers below, obviously.

So of course MY moved the Red Blade Master’s head when he left the chamber. No surprise there. But his wife is still there. 

WWX should press the issue of the fact that she’s not talking or looking around. She’s like a zombie. Does nobody else think that’s an issue…?

OMG SHE JUST STABBED HERSELF WITH THE DAGGER.

So f’ing horrible of MY to have her do that. Now I get why he kept her there rather than hiding her…he could make the point with everyone else around. Sadistic, but effective.

Annnnnd Saves The Day LWJ is back! MY drew his sword against WWX accusing him of causing Su’s suicide….and LWJ is like fuck all of you, you ain’t touching a hair on this man’s head. I’m a better swordsman than you and I’m hella loyal do not tempt me.

I love Saves The Day LWJ. He’s so fierce. 

Also WWX holding his hand on LWJ’s shoulder to calm him and have him step aside was chef’s kiss. Like I’m starved for physical contact myself and this show Does Not Help with that most of the time (thanks, censorship!) so just that shoulder touch has me giddy.

OH SHIT. The big reveal! They know who he is now! 

JIN LING!!!!!! OH NOOOO!!!!! He’s going to hate WWX now, cue my sobs!

Seems like MY knows about the WWX/JC golden core thing, but JC doesn’t? Or something?

Uggghhhhh this is bad, how are they going to get out of this!!

Okay, so they did, and they could run, but then there’s a giant group of people waiting outside! Yikes!

“I don’t blame you for protecting the murderer of your father and treating him as a friend” DAAAMMMNNN that’s a hell of a guilt trip if I’ve ever heard one!

Oh no, our heroes are surrounded on all sides! Why can’t LWJ just fly them away again like he did 5 seconds ago???

The mask is off, everybody freaks out. Dun dun dun.

Oh Good God. The “I already knew he was Wei Ying.” *GASP*

Because I mean we know he’s loyal, but it would have potentially been a good play to pretend not to know and protect him from the inside...or something. (I think that’s what MY was angling for there.) But LWJ is too smart and waaaay too loyal and romantic. So he has to stand up for his man. Sword drawn, would prefer to die with him than live having betrayed him and left him alone (again).

They’re casually holding hands and having this romantic reckoning in the midst of a crowd of people whO WANT TO MURDER THEM. Like I love y’all and this is sweet, but NOW IS NOT THE TIME.

Okay, and now they’re going to fight 2 v. 75 - yep, definitely a good idea. Here’s hoping the Jin clan success rate is about that of the Storm Troopers… 

Yeeeaaahhhh so the Jin Clan was no good. But seriously…….*Now* they do the fly away thing?? Why not before the fight started…?

JIN LING

DON’T TRY TO KILL HIM.

JUST DON’T.

(Side note. Why would Jin Ling call WWX Wei Ying?!???? That goes against everything I thought I knew about names.)

MOTHERFUCKING GASP. 

JIN LING ACTUALLY STABBED HIM.

WHAT THE FUCKING ALL HELL.

Blood pouring out of WWX’s mouth.

LWJ what can you do?!?

Idk but DO SOMETHING. 

And...and then he walks off and nobody tries to stab him again? But like….what even?

OMG THESE MAKEUP ARTISTS ARE KILLING IT.

LWJ supporting a weak WWX who has white lips and looks so ready to pass out. Xiao Zhan I love you and you’re doing great, keep it up bby.

Good God, blood on LWJ’s white robes like I very very can’t even.

Where’s WQ when you need her??

Oh right, DEAD.

PS I’ll never get over that.

Never.

No death since JT Yorke has hit me harder.

Is the thing LWJ is doing to WWX like a transmission of thoughts to make him remember life is worth living because of their love? Because if so, I’m Here for it.

Seriously LET WQ BE ALIVE TO FIX HIM.

But like how’d they get back to Cloud Recesses…?

They’re not exactly hiding. Will LXC get in trouble for not getting them into trouble….? Technically he’s in charge here and hosting a fugitive. (A pair of fugitives?)

So Mo Xuanyu’s last enemy is MY, fitting. We want him dead anyway, sooooo…

“What if your brother finds out?!” “I have found out already.” Love the dramatic timing there.

Well damn…..MY learned the Song of Clarity and learned one part to match some sort of demon magic, like close enough to the original not to be caught but far enough to fuck Red Blade Master up? Gotta give him some credit there…that’s some diabolical shit.

I love the secret trapped door in the library. Well damn, Lans!

Why do these guys have a “Collection of Turmoil”?? Hi-lar-ious. Hide it better next time, my friends.

[mulanxiaojie]

We were all thinking it, and finally someone had to ask: Why on earth would Disney cut Mushu? “Well, we made it 10 minutes in,” joked Mulan producer Jason Reed.

In case you missed the trailer, the headlines, and the tweets — so many tweets — the live-action Mulan will cut Mushu, leaving it bereft of the comedic energy from a dragon sidekick. The world has changed since 1998, and Disney has made a serious, more violent Mulan that’s truer to the Chinese folklore.

“Obviously Mushu is a beloved character, and one of the most memorable elements of the animated film,” Reed explained to a group of journalists huddled inside a tent on Mulan’s mountainous New Zealand set in October 2018.

“It turns out that the traditional, Chinese audience did not particularly think that that was the best interpretation of the dragon in their culture. The dragon is a sign of respect and it's a sign of strength and power, and that using it as a silly sidekick didn't play very well with a traditional Chinese audience.”

It's one of many indications that unlike with The Lion King, Disney is not going for a by-the-numbers Mulan remake.

While a classic to kids of a certain generation in the West, 1998’s Mulan flopped in China, released a year late after Disney was effectively banned for releasing the film Kundun, a film sympathetic to the Dalai Lama. On screens in Mulan’s birthplace, Hunan, the film only made $30,000 at the box office after three weeks.

You could blame the film’s late release in China, which caused some audiences to watch pirated versions months before its eventual arrival in theaters. But it's also likely that local audiences didn’t warm to the idea of Americans taking on a Chinese legend, especially one which already had multiple adaptations on film, TV, and stage.

“This is not a Chinese dragon," one Chinese moviegoer told The Baltimore Sun in 1999. "I can tell the people who designed the dragon are from America."

In that light, Disney’s resistance toward a comedic dragon sidekick in the new Mulan makes financial sense. Once chump change for Hollywood, China’s film market is set to overtake the U.S. this year. For Disney, its three biggest 2019 releases in China — Captain Marvel, The Lion King and Aladdin — accounted for more than $320 million in takings.

Despite the omission of Mushu, Reed promises the film will be funny. Just admittedly not Eddie Murphy funny.

"We have some scenes that, although they're played very real, are gonna get some very big, big laughs.”

“Take one of the greatest comedians of all time, make them a dragon, have him prance around, and give him like, two years refine the jokes — we're not gonna beat that, in terms of raw slapstick comedy,” he said.

“But we have added a couple of elements to this movie which I think really do the same thing of grounding it, bringing you into it, we have some scenes [that], although they're played very real, are gonna get some very big, big laughs.”

Other big changes are afoot as well. There aren’t any of those singalong theatrical musical numbers like “I’ll Make a Man Out of You,” “Reflection,” or “A Girl Worth Fighting For”, although Reed promises there will be “songs that you recognize and remember” in the movie.

Also gone is the cathartic scene in which Mulan cuts her hair in preparation for battle, which Reed admits he gets mocked for during meetings in China. “[It’s] actually a Western anachronism,” Reed explained. Chinese male warriors wore their hair long, and to cut Mulan’s hair would make her look more of a woman.

Nor will you see Mulan’s smart-mouth grandmother, Fa, or Li Shang in the live-action film. The latter decision has been particularly controversial, given Li Shang’s status as a bisexual icon. Reed was surprised by the backlash, but the decision was made in the light of the #MeToo movement.

“I think particularly in the time of the #MeToo movement, having a commanding officer, that is also the sexual love interest, was very uncomfortable. We didn't think it was appropriate and we thought that in a lot of ways, that it was sort of justifying behavior that we're doing everything we can to get out of our industry,” Reed explained.

Instead, the character of Li Shang will be split into two characters: Commander Tung, played by Ip Man star Donnie Yen, will serve as Mulan’s surrogate father and mentor in the film, while Chen Honghui, a role filled by New Zealander Yoson An, will be an equal to Mulan in the army and her eventual love interest.

It still leaves questions about how the queer element of the relationship between Mulan and Honghui will play out, or whether it will even be present. While homosexuality was decriminalized by China in 1997, Chinese censors are infamous for cutting out LGBTQ TV and movie scenes.

Chinese moviegoers saw no reference to Freddie Mercury’s sexuality in Bohemian Rhapsody, while Call Me By Your Name was pulled from official screenings (although it soon gathered a cult following). Disney doesn’t believe censorship will be a problem for Mulan, with Reed explaining it worked “very closely” with censors and its releasing partners in China.

“We feel that we are secure in the censorship issue, that we have our permits approved and I believe that we will continue to have a good relationship with the releasing entities in our various partners in China,” Reed claimed.

While the storyline will largely remain similar, new characters are joining the fray. A powerful shapeshifting witch, portrayed by Gong Li, will feature alongside the main antagonist Bori Khan, played by Jason Scott Lee. The story will begin with Mulan as a child, and she will have a younger sister in the film, something present in other adaptations of the folklore.

“It makes it more than just her having to take care of her father and mother, who are sort of in the role of taking care of her,” Reed said. “By adding a younger sister we thought that it added sort of a broader emotional context, and added more motivation for her, particularly for the end.”

On the monitor inside our tent, actor Yifei Liu is effortless in her swordplay. It’s no surprise she’s landed the titular role; she is Mulan. Liu battled through a tough physical audition for the role, admitting to us she couldn’t walk properly after.

“I wanted to thoroughly explore this girl,” Mulan’s director Niki Caro told Empire in February 2020.

“Because I needed a warrior, and I needed a partner. So she did this grueling audition and then we sent her straight to the physical trainer to do an equally grueling physical assessment. Weights, push-ups, pull-ups, everything. She was brilliant in the dramatic part of the audition, and in the physical part she never stopped, never faulted. I knew at the end of that day that I’d found my warrior.”

Liu has plenty of experience acting in wuxia films, a genre of martial arts films in China. Besotted, Mulan's filmmakers even pushed back production five months for Liu.

“She was doing a television show and so she wouldn't be available to a certain point, and the point when she was available was terrible weather for us,” Reed said.

Liu, who exudes confidence onscreen and is praised by her co-stars for her professionalism, is more reserved in conversation. She said she doesn’t try and think too much about how Chinese audiences will perceive her as Mulan. Nor would she be drawn on a question comparing the character of Mulan in the animated and the live action version.

“I would not really compare, because I think each creation was its own form, and I really respect that,” Liu explains. “I’m also open to Mulan’s possibilities. We tried not to fix too many things.”

For Honghui actor Yoson An, who only has a handful of credits — mostly in his home country of New Zealand and in Australia — the whole international fame thing hasn’t quite set in.

“I don't think it’s hit me yet, I don't know where it's gonna go until this movie’s released, I guess. I'm still kind of rolling with things, just one day at a time,” An said.

Admitting that he would’ve been looked over if the live-action Mulan had been a musical, An said he only picked up acting in his late teens, disillusioned with his university studies.

“When I heard that Niki [Caro] was set to direct this movie back in 2014, I was like, ‘Oh, so cool. A New Zealander is set to direct Mulan,’ and I was just walking back to get my car and I was like, ‘Wouldn't it be cool if I played the love interest?’, just like a little thought in my head, and I'm thought, ‘No, that's never gonna happen.’ And then, four years later, here I am,” he said.

"It really dispels all the classic Asian stereotypes from all the other films."

The world of Mulan is inspired by the Tang dynasty, a golden age of imperial China during which it experienced flourishing trade with foreign nations and cultural advancement. In An’s eyes, Mulan could be a major moment for Asian diaspora worldwide — although Liu’s praise for police during the Hong Kong protests last year has prompted calls for a boycott of the film.

“In this film, the cast, you see people from different kinds of cultures interacting with each other and every single character has a multi-dimensional layer for them. So it really dispels all the classic Asian stereotypes from all the other films,” he explains.

“And with what Black Panther has done for its community, and I really feel that Mulan is gonna do the same for the Asian community as a whole, taking on what Crazy Rich Asians has already done for Asian community, with the momentum it created.”

Like Crazy Rich Asians, Mulan looked far and wide for Asian actors. There’s a mixture of Asian New Zealanders, Asian Australians, Asian Americans, and of course, Chinese actors. Mulan is mostly in English, to the joy of the subtitle-averse out there, and thus all actors are aiming towards a Chinese-influenced American dialect — a goal which Reed admits has been “complicated.”

It’s no problem for An, who said he’s performed Chinese accents on screen before. Reminding us how young he is, An mentions he practiced as a kid to YouTube videos of Canadian stand-up comedian Russell Peters, who went viral a decade ago for his “Be a man! Do the right thing!” bit.

“You guys know Russell Peters? Right? As a kid, I’d watch his stuff and do exactly as he did. But that's a very comical version of the accent, it’s very different to what we’re doing,” An said.

In research for its live-action reboot, Reed and the production team went back to the original ballad and the “many, many variations” which told in China since, including several modern film and television adaptations made in China — before watching the Disney animated version again, thinking how Mulan would appeal to multiple audiences.

With the coronavirus shutting down all 70,000 of the country's theaters since Jan. 24, it's unclear — and more unlikely every day — that multiplexes will reopen in time for its planned release.

"It certainly has worldwide and global appeal, but there's no denying that this is a very important film for the Chinese market," Comscore analyst Paul Dergarabedian told The Hollywood Reporter. "It's a huge blow for Disney if it doesn't release in China." Disney president of production Sean Bailey told the publication he's "looking at it day by day."

Whenever and wherever it arrives, the hope is that Mulan will appeal to four audiences: the Asian diaspora community worldwide; women; Disney movie fans; and of course, a Chinese audience. But why would a Chinese audience watch another adaptation of Mulan? The answer lies in the hope that Disney can create something exceptional this time around.

“One of the things that was made clear to us from the very beginning was, make a Disney movie. Don't try to make the Chinese version of Mulan, because they've already made it several times, and they've already seen it,” Reed explained.

“So if you wanna make something that's going to play to the Chinese audience and be interesting to them, make the Disney version. And what that meant to us, was that we had to bring the highest level of execution, production, design, costume, hair and makeup, the cinematography.

“The people that we hire, they were hired with the expectation that we wanted awards-caliber work, and they weren't meant to think about this as a kids movie or an animated remake, or any of those things.

“Our references are David Lean and [Akira] Kurosawa — we're not looking at 101 Dalmatians.”

[dewbond-blog]

The Summer of Love: The English Dub of High School DxD

We will be jumping into the second half of season one next week with a look at the “Raiser Arc” and all it brings to the table, but this week I wanted to steer the Summer of Love into a topic that many people don’t really discuss: The English Dub, and my overall thoughts and feelings on it. There is a good, a lot of good, and some slightly not so good. So join me after the cut as we jump into our next chapter of The Summer of Love, the dub! This is another long one, so be ready!

To discuss the English Dub of High School DxD, it is important to give some backstory about English dubbing of anime in general. If you grew up in my generation, (late 90s, early 2000s)  then you are very familiar with the 4kids of era; a time in which the american company 4kids entertainment pretty much had a stranglehold on the western anime market. Simply put, they called the shots and every anime that was actually on television had to go through the 4kids “Americanizing process.” Needless to say, this was a bad thing.

Cardcaptor Sakura had it’s entire yuri/yaoi subtext removed and whole episodes removed. Dragon Ball censored and omitted world building, Yu-Gi-Oh became a “so bad it’s good” mess of a dub. Vision of Escaflowne became a shadow of it’s former self. Monster Rancher went from a 50+ episodes series to only a handful, and of course what they did to One Piece. The list just goes on and on. The 4kids era of anime was not a good time for the youthful medium, and frankly the wounds inflicted by this era are still fresh in many minds of my generation.

Things have gotten far better since then, with companies like Funimation, Sentai Filmworks and Aniplex taking over the dubbing market and delivering quality dubs of anime that are true to form and (sometimes) even superior to their Japanese counterparts. Yet despite this massive improvement there are still many who refuse to even give an English dub a chance, whether it is loyalty to the “authentic’ Japanese version, or trauma for the scars of the 4kids era.

Now how is this connected to High School DxD? Well not really that much, but I think it is important for readers to understand why people are somewhat hesitant on English dubs, despite a whole new generation growing up with them. There are old wounds that have yet to heal, and in this era where censorship is a hot button issue, I wanted to explain why.

Anyway, let’s get into the dub itself, and let’s start by talking about the cast.

The Cast

The English cast of DxD is frankly very strong, though it has been a cast that has had a few replacements. Akeno has been voiced by two different actress, as has Asia, and the while voice changes are noticeable, they thankfully don’t differ too much to make much of a difference. What I can say is that Asia and Akeno are both voiced excellently, with Asia being played with that cute innocent perfection, and Akeno with a level of sultry seductiveness that, while not on par with her Japanese seiyuu, gets the job done well.

The biggest voice change though has to be Issei himself, who was voiced by both Scott Freeman and later Josh Grelle, and while the change over in season 3 is a rather noticeable change (unlike Akeno’s voice change in the same season), with many people being initially put off by the sudden shift in voices. I can both say that they play an excellent Issei and bring a-

Wait..what’s this?

Fuck…do I have to do this? Do I really have to bring it up? REALLY?

ALRIGHT FINE…FINE..I’LL FUCKING ADDRESS IT.

In 2015. Scott Freeman, the voice actor of Issei and several other Funimation dub roles, was arrested, convicted and imprisoned for the possession of Child Pornography. Funimation rightfully and subsequently cut all ties with him and his roles current and future were replaced with new actors, hence the sudden change to Josh Grelle in season 3 and later 4.

Anyway, Issei’s work in the English dub marks the first, but not the most significant change in the DxD anime. While the script plays him true to form, Issei’s performance in the dub is markedly more “american” compared to his Japanese counterpart. While it is 100% loyal to the authentic story, there is a lot more ‘sex jokes’ and ‘western references’ that peek out from time to time. I’ll get into this when I discuss the script, but I did find it worked quite well for the story, and both voice actors are able to ‘get serious’ when the time comes, especially in season 4 when Josh Grelle gives his best performance as a harem lead, and this guy has MANY to his name.

However the biggest and frankly best change has to be Jad Saxton as Koneko Toujou, who completely re-invents the character for the English dub. In the Japanese version, Koneko is the quiet little kouhai who seems to only have one single emotion, very much in the veins of the Rei-clones that had a stranglehold the industry for years. The English dub however turns this completely on it’s head. Koneko becomes a motor-mouthed little girl who, while still holding true to the character’s spirit, adds far more to the plot and group chemistry than her Japanese counterpart. I just find Jad Saxton’s Koneko to be a far more interesting character, acting as a sort of the reality foil for Issei for many season, and still willing to call him out on his perverseness even after falling in love with him. Frankly, the difference between the two voices is astonishing, just watch this comparison clip.

The rest of the cast do a find job. Jamie Marchi as Rias is an excellent casting choice, and while I prefer the Japanese voice, Marchi’s signature voice is able to play both sides of Rias’ personality well and she only gets better as the seasons roll on. Kiba, Gasper, Xenovia and Rossweise are all again done very well, but it is only really characters listed above who are the real stand outs.

The Script

Remember how I brought up 4kids at the start of this post. Well I did also bring that up, because the English script of High School DxD does feel very much like a bit of a holdover from that era of anime dubs. There is more than a hint of the adapters putting in their own lines and having some fun with the dialogue than compared to other shows. It was clear to me that the writers were having some real fun trying to adapt this show for an English dub, and while some may grumble by only  being a 90% authentic script, the show does give us some great memorable one-liners like:

“I’m gonna make you eat those words like a kid doing the tide-pod challenge!”

“Cunt-tuckey fried chicken over there is in love with you”

“Forgive dat ass, don’t spank it!”

“Her milk-shakes are all over my yard”

Those are just some of the examples of the fun bit of humor that is injected into the series via the English dub and yes, it is not for everyone and yes, it is going to turn some of the purists off. Yet the voice actors give it their all and when the time comes for the show to “get serious” like with the Akeno break down, Asia story-line, the Issei/Rias fight, and more, those actors absolutely step up to the table and deliver excellent performances. So I can forgive them for having just a bit more fun with a show that is, again, about busty big boobed girls fawning over a perverted idiot.

What I do NOT forgive though, is the “president gaffe,” which undermines a vital and important plot point.

See, there is a very clear reason that Issei calls Rias “president throughout most of the anime’s run.” It helps show the class and social difference between the two characters and how, despite Rias falling truly deeply in love with Issei, her social status and his role as a servant make him hesitant to step up. It is only when that issue comes to a head that does Issei finally start calling Rias by her full name, and it is a great moment to cap off four seasons of development.

The dub however ignored that completely for the first four seasons and admitted that they weren’t aware of just how important it is. While they do address it in the season 4 dub, making an offhand comment that “Issei has been calling her President a lot lately” it doesn’t really fix the problem and remains an annoying nitpick for me. Is it a deal breaker? No, but it is a pretty glaring problem when looking at the series as a whole.

Final Thoughts.

Overall, the English Dub of High School DxD is a great one, and I honestly love it to death. As i said in my primer, I would have watched the series dubbed to do this event, but I wanted to be faithful to the Japanese release. The dub is still my go-to way of watching DxD and I suggest anyone to give it a show after watching a bit of the OG Japanese version. It’s not perfect, but it’s made with love and affection and doesn’t stray too far from it’s routes, but when it does what 4kids never could do to anime. It adds something without taking anything away.

[aion-rsa]

Cyberpunk 2077 Patch 1.2 Fixes Problems You Didn’t Know Existed

https://ift.tt/39mYjY8

The Cyberpunk 2077 team has revealed the full patch notes for the game’s recently released 1.2 update and all we can say is “wow.”

There’s no use trying to breakdown the entirety of this patch since it contains over 500 updates, fixes, changes, and improvements. I highly recommend that you check out the (mostly) full rundown of the update if you’ve been waiting for that massive Cyberpunk 2077 patch that will finally make the game significantly more playable. This won’t be Cyberpunk 2077‘s last update, but it feels like the first of the game’s updates that are trying to do more than just put out the biggest fires.

If you’re looking for the highlights, though, then I’ve got you covered. Here are the best, biggest, and weirdest patch notes that I’ve found in the Cyberpunk 2077 1.2 update so far.

Cyberpunk 2077 Patch 1.2 Notes: The “WTF?” Fixes

“Player can no longer cancel fall damage by performing a slide action when about to fall from greater heights.”

If you’re like me, this is one of those things that you didn’t even realize was possible in Cyberpunk 2077 but now desperately want to try. Based on some videos that I’ve seen of this technique, it’s actually possible to survive some insane falls via this method but your survival is based on the specifics of the fall itself and your mastery of the technique. Honestly, they should just turn this technique into an official in-game modification ability.

“It is no longer possible to perform Gorilla Arms finishers against civilians.”

Cyberpunk 2077‘s latest patch notes make it clear that civilians in Night City have it kind of rough. I’m not entirely sure what the basis of this particular change is, but I kind of hope that they put it in there just to give the poor people of Night City a break by not letting you beat them to death quite so easily with your mechanical fists.

“Extending the sliding ladder won’t result in player’s death if they are below it.”

I’ve never actually seen this happen in Cyberpunk 2077, but the fact that it could happen is downright hilarious. Super-powered characters being killed by tiny bumps in video games is a guilty pleasure of mine, and I love the idea of being killed simply because your character is too stubborn to move out of the way of a ladder.

“It is no longer possible to use guns near the arcades during the Raymond Chandler Evening fistfight. // You can no longer pull an Indiana Jones in El Coyote Cojo.”

Ok, I’m actually a little upset by this one. As pointed out in the patch notes, it’s actually kind of hilarious that this was possible as it plays into the player choice element of the game. You could argue that too many of these glitches add up to be more than an amusing annoyance, but I think this one might have been funny enough to leave in the game in some form.

“Fixed multiple issues during sex scenes”

CD Projekt Red doesn’t give any additional details about this patch note, but I really wish they would. Just how many issues were there in these sex scenes? I’ve heard some people say the animations used in these scenes were awkward (which is true), but I’ve also heard reports that players were falling through floors and clipping through objects during those sensual moments. I’m sure fans will waste no time telling us everything that’s different about them when this update hits.

“Kerry’s bathrobe is no longer incorrectly attached to his lower part of the body.”

I had to look this one up, and I’m glad I did. It seems that Kerry’s bathrobe suffered from this strange glitch that made the bottom of it operate independently from the rest. I have no idea what causes it, but it kind of looks like it’s accounting for the proportions of a gentleman with much wider hips. Check it out for yourself:

“Fixed incorrect censorship when playing a copy of the game from a region other than Japan while the console region is set to Japan or language to Japanese.”

This isn’t the strangest patch note, but it’s one I didn’t know about. Apparently, the Japanese version of Cyberpunk 2077 censors some of the sex scenes and a few of the more violent moments. I’m genuinely curious how many people were accidentally playing the censored version of the game due to this issue and didn’t even realize it.

“Fixed an issue where pedestrians could get teleported after being hit by a vehicle.”

I still just want to know where those civilians went from both a design and lore perspective. I’m imagining that there’s a pile of civilian bodies lying around somewhere like at the end of The Prestige.

“In The Pickup, it’s no longer possible to trigger both scenarios at the same time: a peaceful deal with Maelstrom and fighting them.”

Cyberpunk 2077 Patch 1.2 Notes: The Oddly Specific Fixes

“Fixed an issue where dumping a body in the trunk started the vehicle’s engine.”

Ok, I ran into this one several times during my Cyberpunk 2077 journey and just convinced myself that it was a feature. At the very least, I feel like Elon Musk may make a car that automatically starts when it detects a body in the trunk for the convenience of the evil billionaire with goons on the go.

“The TV in Tom’s Diner can no longer be destroyed. If a player destroyed it before this update it will now be fixed and the news will be displayed correctly to progress Playing for Time.”

I also didn’t know this was possible, but it’s hilarious to imagine a player going around and destroying every TV in town only to find that they can no longer progress through the game as a result of their actions. Honestly, who discovered this one?

“Fixed an issue that caused NPCs to trip over other NPCs too often.”

It’s the “too often” part of this one that gets me. Who determined that the amount of NPC tripping going on was well beyond the acceptable parameters for such a thing?

“Fixed a rare scenario where the painting wouldn’t appear in the drop pod in Space Oddity/Space Oddity no longer spawns multiple paintings blocking the quest’s progress.”

I love the idea of largely useless paintings causing so many problems during one of Cyberpunk 2077‘s biggest missions. You just get the feeling that this is the little problem that made the team realize what a mess Cyberpunk 2077 was at launch.

“Fixed an issue where A Like Supreme could get blocked if player rushed to the toilet to take a pill before finishing a conversation with Nancy.”

This one just brings to mind a million instances in open-world games where you realize that QA testers should consist of trolls and video game speedrunners who are able to find absolutely every little thing you can do to ruin a game.

“Car lights will no longer stay on after the car battery dies in Ghost Town.”

How far down the list was this particular problem? Either this is a sign that the team is ready to move on to more minor fixes or this problem was a particular sticking point with someone on the team.

Cyberpunk 2077 Patch 1.2 Notes: The Cat-Related Fixes

“Cat food needed to adopt Nibbles can now be bought at several food shops around Night City”

While I actually like the idea of specific items only being available in specific shops in Night City, the fact of the matter is that Nibbles doesn’t have time for such role-playing concepts. Nibbles needs food, Nibbles needs love, and Nibbles needs it on their time, not yours.

“Fixed an issue in Nocturne Op55N1 where petting the cat would play without dialogue. // V will now properly address the cat, even without Misty’s answer.”

You WILL properly address Nibbles, V. Thank you to the Cyberpunk team for fixing such a glaring omission. Clearly, this is the reason why the game was delisted from the PlayStation Store.

Read more

Games

How Elden Ring Hype Recalls Cyberpunk 2077

By Matthew Byrd

Games

Can Cyberpunk 2077 Bring Fans Back with an Apology, a Patch Roadmap, and a Multiplayer Mode?

By John Saavedra

Cyberpunk 2077 Patch 1.2 Notes: The Welcome Fixes to Strange Problems

“Fixed an issue where V could get stuck in empty buildings when exiting a vehicle parked close to a wall.”

This one happened way more often than it ever should have. This scenario is also common enough to really make you wonder how this problem escaped the testing process.

“Jackie no longer shouts ‘Nice shot!’ when V kills enemies while in stealth mode.”

Truth be told, I actually kind of love that Jackie couldn’t hide his enthusiasm during these instances, but it’s hard to deny that his piercing shouts did kind of ruin the immersion of these moments.

“Collisions will no longer fail to stream in randomly during driving, which could lead to V driving into buildings and falling out of the world.”

I get that Cyberpunk 2077 isn’t supposed to be GTA, but it sure will be nice to be able to collide with something without having to worry about disappearing into the void where those civilian bodies go.

“NPCs will no longer stay blocked on traffic lanes while in fear.”

Cyberpunk‘s poor NPCs will finally be able to move out of the middle of traffic which is good for you, good for them, and good for the city’s cleanup crew who have seen too many horrors.

“NPC hit by a car will now immediately run in panic/Added different animation variations for pedestrians running away from a vehicle.”

Some saw this problem as a sign that Night City’s NPCs just don’t care, but I think these patch notes make it clear that they wanted to run away and just didn’t have the ability to. It’s a real “have no mouth and must scream” scenario.

“V’s hands are now correctly displayed on a steering wheel while driving”

V gets a few animation fixes in this upcoming patch, but this is one of my favorites. I don’t know why it was so difficult to properly animate V using a steering wheel, but I’m glad we’re moving past the days when you’ve got to wonder what the character’s hands are supposed to be doing.

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

The post Cyberpunk 2077 Patch 1.2 Fixes Problems You Didn’t Know Existed appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/2O50Hv9

[channelnewswire-blog]

Is the far best on the increase in New Zealand?|The Spinoff

Are we missing out on the increase of the far-right? What would the symptoms of such a motion be and how could the media better cover them?Hundreds of Kiwis have promised

to march versus an odd UN migration pact today under the guise of a brand-new organisation calling itself NZ Sovereignty. The central problem emphasised by the group, whichran ads in papers the other day, worries the New Zealand government's assistance for the Worldwide Compact on Migration. Opposition to the arrangement first emerged on sites like the alt-right site Breibart andneo-Nazi site Daily Stormer which warned it would"Bring 60 Million Brown People to Europe". Can the furore over the UN pact, which explicitly draws from the " to"Criminalize Christianity, marginalize heterosexuality, demonize males and promote the LGBT program all over. The real goal is never ever"equality"however rather the marginalization and shaming of anybody who reveals any male characteristics whatsoever". In another thread, users discussed the degrees to which they would enable anti-Semitism. One member threatened to leave the group "if I see anymore publishing [...] of this zionist shows ". A 2nd retorted,"come out of the cave mate ". A third:" What is the distinction between Zionists and deep state? Imo it's same thing, really much current". Although group administrators kickedthe very first user out, other anti-Semitic posts were overlooked, consisting of a tirade about the UN being out to "damage all western countries they are our natural opponents dominated by Jews, Catholics n muslims, after the ultimate stock market crash and international disaster and American army depleted they will reveal there true colours, there Muslim armies are well and truely placed to cause optimal damage".

(Image: Facebook/Reject the UN Migration Compact)When I tried to join a group titled' Kiwis United Versus the Radical Islamification of New Zealand', a group moderator declined my application. Seeing that I was Jewish, the mediator also kindly reached out to me to notify me that there was" no room for kikes in my area. Inform ya mates to get their hook noses all set gor the lynching of the century. [...]

The showers and ovens shall be fired up again". Clearly,

the movement has yet to settle its internal anti-Semitism debate.When I consulted with NZ Sovereignty's Jesse Anderson about the planned march and his wider movement, nevertheless, he insisted it was neither racist nor conservative."We have no tolerance for bigotry, for sexism, for any of that. If we see anybody who is revealing dreadful views, we will ask to move along ", he swore. Anderson later on included, in reaction to concerns about NZ Sovereignty's political leanings, "I do not see patriotism as conservative, I do not see nationalism as conservative". Everything the motion stands for is straight out of the reactionary playbook. The conspiratorial assertions that the UN pact will result in censorship of the press or an increase of migrants stemmed on alt-right forums and news websites. The naked Islamophobia, homophobia, anti-Semitism and other despicable views are particular of the modern far-right. Protestations to the contrary deserve little in the face of self-evident facts.Conspiracy central There is, nevertheless, a section of New Zealand society that is vulnerable to the reactionary but is not yet naturally left-or right-wing. This is the second possible constituency that Spoonley sees. He calls them adherents of "new age conservative conspiracy politics. The opposition to 1080, the opposition to fluoridation, the

scepticism about vaccinations. These neighborhoods are not undoubtedly part of the constituency [of the far-right] They offer up some activists who are capable of equating their opposition to the modern state into reactionary politics."The threats here are two-fold. As account, without serious reaction from half of the political establishment. In New Zealand, meanwhile, the conventional sources of authority-- media, political leaders, the judiciary, etc-- are mostly consulting with one voice against the far-right. Donald Trump speaks throughout a post-election press conference at the White House following the midterm elections. Image: JIM WATSON/AFP/Getty Images Trust in traditional media remains high. A 2017 study by Colmar Brunton found that 7 in 8 Kiwis trust papers and radio, while just 38 %trust Facebook as a news source. If the media effectively combat reactionary propaganda and fake news-- something American outlets initially tripped up on-- trust can remain high.This requires abandoning'he-said-she-said 'journalism which allows habitual liars to spread out fallacies essentially undisputed. A great example of how to do it much better is Andrea Vance's short article for Things on the New Conservatives'most current expert, previous NZ Rugby head David Moffett. Vance keeps in mind that" To back up his viewpoints, Moffett grabs conspiracy theories he's checked out on the web. He struggles to articulate them, or convincingly defend them.

"She fact-checks each claim he makes throughout the post, such as in this exchange:"Recently, Australia had an agreement with the United States to take a few of the individuals onManus Island-- unfortunately, when they got to America they discovered that there weren't all these free hand outs and they wished to return,"he states." They've got their foot into America and they don't wish to be there due to the fact that it is too difficult. These individuals-- in a lot of the cases-- are not genuine refugees."Moffett is uncertain where he sourced this example. It has been reported that nearly 3 quarters of the refugees were rejected by the US, apparently because they were born in Muslim countries."Well, it's remained in the news,"he says."Maybe, if the mainstream media was to report some of this stuff, they would see ... you'll discover it in an Australian newspaper somewhere."Journalism is another of Moffett's bugbears. He says the'mainstream'media aren't reporting on the migration pact, or any of the other issues he's anxious about."You have to comprehend that there is something called the worldwide mass media. It is generally run by 9 business around the world and they have actually made decisions about what they desire the world to look like."Who are these nine business?" I don't understand what their names are, however you know who they are-- the Murdoch empire."Previously, Moffett had told me he first discovered of the migration pact on Sky News Australia.It's important, too, to comprehend the way coded language isdeployed. Referrals to "globalism", for example, are frequently not merely directed at the idea of open borders or open market. Rather, according to Spoonley and various civil liberties organisations,"globalists" is often a pet dog whistle for Jews, who are believed to be controlling finances, media, and other huge parts of society. The reactionary think it is Jews who motivate mass migration, apparently in an attempt to ruin Western society from the

inside.Likewise, Pepe the Frog isn't simply a safe green meme-- it's been co-opted by white supremacists according to the Anti-Defamation League. The number 1488 referrals the 14 words, a well-known white supremacist motto and"Heil

Hitler "(where the eights represent the 8 th letter of the alphabet ). Knowing these and other odd codes are essential to properly covering the far-right. In the long-lasting, New Zealand

media outlets should devote reporters to covering political extremism, as Forbes has done with reporter J.J. MacNab. the Huffington Post with Luke O'Brien, and Buzzfeed with Charlie Warzel. People who understand the methods in which right-wing

extremists interact, how they think, and what they want can produce clearer and more precise reporting than general task reporters who have little to no experience with the more arcane elements of reactionary movements.After embracing brand-new approaches of covering Trump in the age of phony news, American outlets have taken pleasure in a veritable trust renaissance. In mid-2018, a survey found a bulk of Americans had"a good deal"or"a reasonable quantity"of trust in media, for the very first time considering that Trump burst onto the scene.Whether the far-right comes about in New Zealand is not yet a foregone conclusion, but it is certainly possible. Caution is sorely needed to avoid that motion from dominating-- and today's march will show the first test for New Zealand's media and the nation at big. This material is funded entirely by"target ="_ blank"data-saferedirecturl ="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.flickelectric.co.nz/&source=gmail&ust=1538424516351000&usg=AFQjCNGdVdlTuY4m5AbEK6djAVd52uUXzw"> Flick, the electricity retailer providing New Zealanders power over their power. With both spot price and fixed cost plans offered, you can be sure you're getting true cost and real option when you sign up with Flick. Assistance us by making the switch today.

[lightnetworksblog]

How to work from Home & Manage a remote team

This past week, despite a strong desire to stay the course, we elected to postpone a company trip to Charleston to avoid unnecessary travel risks.  Many of our client meetings are actively being transitioned to video-based meetings as the inescapable news surrounding the Coronavirus – now designated a pandemic – dominates our culture.  Travel restrictions and emergency declarations around the world are translating to a massive lockdown affecting millions of people. 

We’ve struggled with the balance of messaging our ability to help with a desire not to be viewed as capitalizing upon the situation.  This post is an effort to provide some useful information in a single place, for contingency planning and preparing for the inevitable isolation protocols that will follow as the virus continues to run its natural course.

First, here’s a link to the CDC guidance for business and employers for any infectious disease protocol - https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/community/guidance-business-response.html?CDC_AA_refVal=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cdc.gov%2Fcoronavirus%2F2019-ncov%2Fspecific-groups%2Fguidance-business-response.html

Following are some of the basic building blocks to successfully pivoting to a remote work environment.  

*Each of these can be piloted quickly and brought into production in days to weeks.*

#1: Usable Broadband / High-Speed Internet 

The first thing you need to do as a business owner is survey your employees to see what kind of broadband they are using at home. In order to run business voice and video calls they're going to need plenty of bandwidth. A good standard that should provide enough horsepower is 50 Mb down, 5 Mb upload speed. If your employees aren't getting those kinds of speeds, you may consider offering to subsidize the difference to upgrade them from their current plan to 50 Mb x 5 Mb. There are some cable, best-effort fiber, and 4G Internet providers that will allow your executives and other employees to get a business-class service delivered to their residence.  We recommend having your users run a comprehensive network performance test like can be found at the following URL: https://mediatest.webex.com/#/main

If you'd like to review your options, our client managers have access to a toolset (shown below) that will tell them, what providers (and prices) are available at your employees' locations.

# 2: VPN Technology

VPN stands for virtual private network. A virtual private network (VPN) is a technology that creates a safe and encrypted connection over a less secure network, such as the Internet. Virtual Private networking is a way to extend a private network using a public network such as the Internet.  It makes use of tunneling protocols to establish a secure connection and is used broadly in Enterprises today.

VPN technology was developed to allow remote users and branch offices to access corporate applications and resources. To ensure security, the private network connection is established using an encrypted layered tunneling protocol, and VPN users use authentication methods, including passwords or certificates, to gain access to the VPN. In other applications, Internet users may secure their connections with a VPN to circumvent geo-restrictions and censorship or to connect to proxy servers to protect personal identity and location to stay anonymous on the Internet. Some websites, however, block access to known VPN technology to prevent the circumvention of their geo-restrictions, and many VPN providers have been developing strategies to get around these roadblocks.

Using VPN is legal in most of the countries. The legality of using a VPN service depends on the country and its geopolitical relations with another country as well. A reliable and secure VPN is always legal if your intended use is not for any illegal activities like to commit a fraud online, cyber theft, or in some countries to download copyrighted content.

# 3: Move Your Contact Center / Phone System to the Cloud

Roughly 25% of US Enterprises now use some sort of cloud-based communications platform. Now may be the time to finally make that jump. Many of the providers are offering flexible on-ramp contracts that have lower costs and short-term commitments.  

As more and more offices are closing due to school closings, fear of infection, or potential government mandate, this is likely the tipping point for Enterprise organizations that have been on the fence with regard to cloud-based collaboration technologies.

In the past, many on-premise phone system users cited quality issues related to running essential traffic over the Internet as a reason not to move to the cloud. Those issues can be addressed through SD-WAN technology, which fix packet loss and other factors that degrade voice and video quality.

Key features of a cloud-based collaboration system which you can leverage are: 

Video Conferencing – The importance of understanding and knowing that you have the full/ undivided attention of the person you are talking with can’t be underestimated.  If your team is forced to stay at home, having a high-definition video conferencing bridge will enable you to stay connected as a team, and to stay connected to your best clients. 

Mobile App - when you move to a cloud-based platform, every employee will be able to download an app to their iPhone or Android phone. Once installed, the app will extend the majority of the features to their mobile phone, allowing them to receive and make phone calls from their work number, to transfer calls to fellow employees, to fax, text, page and with a general IVR/ Auto-attendant route calls to your team's soft phones by department, skills, etc. 

Collaboration - using available messaging tools (i.e. Cisco Teams/ Jabber, Glip (RingCentral), Slack, 8x8, Nextiva, or Microsoft Teams), your teams will be able to communicate one-to-one, one-to-many, in a persistent chat (much like a group text that never goes away). 

CRM Integration – Cloud-based platforms were built to integrate with other cloud-based systems, especially CRMs. Many providers have already built API's into the most popular CRMs: SalesForce.com, Zoho, ZenDesk, Method CRM, MS Dynamics, Sugar CRM, Hubspot, etc. 

#4: Move the Desktop Workspace to the Cloud

One of the reasons many companies require their workforce to come into a centralized office is the specialized software required to do their jobs. Another reason is access control.  Many employers want to control who has access to what file and inside a physical office, using Active Directory, you can ensure certain file sharing rules exist within your own Local Area Network.

Desktop as a Service - this service (shown below) allows you to virtualize your employee's individual desktop computers, putting the actual computing in the cloud, and allowing your employees to "see" it through a light-weight app that mimics the PC's workspace from anywhere they need to work.

 #5: Remote File Share

When you send your workers home, it's imperative that they be able to share, collaborate on, and store files in the cloud. The most popular cloud file storage providers are:

Microsoft Office 365 - OneDrive

Google G-Suite - Google Drive

Dropbox

Box.com

For a few additional reference articles check out the following URL’s:

https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/hr-topics/employee-relations/pages/how-to-create-an-effective-teleworking-program.aspx

In the meantime, stay safe, work smart, and wash your hands for at least 20 seconds!  

[theconservativebrief]

Nearly 17,000 Google employees walked off the job yesterday as part of a massive, worldwide protest against the company’s mishandling of sexual harassment cases.

The walkout, which was organized by seven Google employees, was a response to a New York Times report on the multimillion-dollar payouts offered to high-level employees who had been accused of sexual misconduct. Some protesters carried signs that read, “Happy to quit for $90m,” a reference to the exit package Google gave Andy Rubin, the creator of Android, who was forced to leave the company in 2014 after an employee accused him of forcing her to perform oral sex on him. “What do I do at Google? I work hard every day so the company can afford $90,000,000 payouts to execs who sexually harass my coworkers,” read another.

It was also an opportunity for Google employees — who have repeatedly clashed with senior management on a number of topics, from censorship in China to the company’s role in government projects — to put forth a vision for a better, more equitable company.

“A company is nothing without its workers,” the organizers wrote in a piece for the Cut. “From the moment we start at Google, we’re told that we aren’t just employees; we’re owners. Every person who walked out today is an owner, and the owners say: Time’s up.”

Some of the employees who chose to speak with me about why they protested asked to be referred to by a pseudonym and to not specify which campus they work at, but felt that it was important to come forward. Two of the three people who agreed to speak with me are men, as are nearly 70 percent of all Google employees, according to the company’s annual diversity report.

All of them emphasized that despite enjoying their jobs, they felt responsible for creating an environment where anyone could thrive, regardless of gender, race, or ethnicity, and where no one was afraid to report harassment or assault. They also referred to past Google controversies, like the sexual harassment reported by former Google software engineer Kelly Ellis, who quit the company in 2014 because of its “sexist culture”; and the fact that internal company communications, including a video from an all-hands meeting, were leaked to the right-wing website Breitbart.

Despite the massive size of the protests and the fact that Google sanctioned the walkout, support for it wasn’t universal. One employee told me that there were “people in the company who are against the walkout” and disagree with the organizers’ demands. (It’s worth noting that James Damore, the author of an “anti-diversity” manifesto who was fired in 2017, had plenty of ideological allies at the company.) Those who did participate in the walkout, though, view it as a necessary step in the ongoing fight toward equity and transparency at one of the world’s biggest companies.

Their responses have been condensed and edited for clarity.

I’ve worked here for 11 years. I’m now a manager with around two people in my group. I have never experienced direct gender-based discrimination at Google, which I count myself lucky for. I have heard many other people’s stories, however — enough to make me sure that there’s an overall problem.

I decided to participate because I wanted the execs to get the message that this is something a lot of people care about. Whether I participated was going to be visible to the people in my office, because there are literally five women at my site at this level.

“I’ve been seeing more and more of a rift between the top-level execs and the rest of the company”

We need to end forced arbitration in case of harassment and discrimination. I would also like a real commitment to end pay and opportunity inequity. I would be okay with starting with pay, which is easier. Transparent data on gender, race, and ethnicity compensation across all levels — accessible to all Google employees — would be really nice. This is something the US Department of Labor asked Google for, and [Google claims] it’s too expensive to provide while also claiming there is no gap. That doesn’t make sense to me or a lot of other people.

I’ve been seeing more and more of a rift between the top-level execs and the rest of the company, and I’ve seen it growing slowly over time. It seems like some people are actively trying to make it worse. We have a real problem with [people] leaking internal communications, especially to right-wing sites, in a way that’s extremely divisive [and] corrosive to the idea of trust and open communication within the company, which is something that we really used to rely on. Google used to have this weekly meeting where the execs would take all kinds of hard questions from the employees, and they would field them pretty honestly and transparently. That was great. Without that kind of channel, it’s been pretty tough.

I’ve been working in the tech industry for about 20 years, and this is the most concerted effort I’ve seen by engineers in the tech sector [to address these issues]. Today was really astonishing. Frankly, there were more men than women walking out — that’s the demographics [at Google]. But it’s great to have allies.

I didn’t say anything either way to my team, because I didn’t want there to be social pressure to do it or not do it. But at 11:08, my entire team stood up simultaneously around me and I got shivers. I got up too, and we all walked out together.

I participated to show solidarity and support for my co-workers.

I’m a guy; it’s so much easier to shoot the shit with other guys, and stuff like that helps [professionally]. But I don’t think that’s what this walkout is about. This walkout dealt with things that are a lot more severe. I had heard stories regarding Kelly Ellis. That was the first Google [sexual harassment] story that broke out a few years ago.

What’s most important is getting rid of [forced] arbitration. Uber got rid of it after their big scandal, and I think Google needs to follow suit.

We need accountability, transparency, and making sure it’s easier for people to report harassment. I’ve never reported harassment, but from what I’ve heard from my friends, it is not fun. It’s scary as hell. [The person you’re reporting] might not be your boss but your boss’s boss. They have all the power over your career. If they do a shitty thing, we should be empowering employees to say, “Hey, stop that.” That’s what I think the demands are trying to cover.

I’ve heard too many stories from friends, some co-workers, about being sexually harassed or assaulted at Google, but also in other parts of the tech industry or more generally. I work with several women engineers, and I really think it’s important for them to feel safe and to actually be safe at work and in general. I don’t want these people to be in a position where they have to be constantly worrying about that sort of thing.

“I have worked with an overwhelming majority of men. That, in and of itself, leads me to think that the fact that I am male-identified and male-presenting makes things easier for me.”

I have worked with an overwhelming majority of men. That, in and of itself, leads me to think that the fact that I am male-identified and male-presenting makes things easier for me. It’s been mostly subtle things, like [women] being interrupted more often [or] ending up in all note-taking responsibilities for meetings. Sometimes managers and team members are good at trying to fix [that], but those more subtle things are not always very obvious. It’s the nature of privilege that as a man, some of these things I just don’t see and I’m just used to, unfortunately.

We need more employee representation and more ability for employees to [raise concerns with] people who are actually on their side. I think there’s not much trust in human resources to do the right thing for employees. There’s a lot of trust that they’re going to do the right thing for the company, which is sometimes the same thing, but sometimes it’s not.

I also think there’s a dearth of transparency about compensation. Several of us have asked, in the past, for the company to release salary data, so we could look at it ourselves and say, “Well, it looks like this is biased toward a particular demographic.” Management has been reluctant to do that, claiming it would put them at a competitive disadvantage, which I frankly don’t buy.

Transparency and letting employees have a seat at the table are two things that would be most impactful in letting us address these issues, not just in terms of gender but also race. I like my job, but everybody has concerns.

If you participated in the Google walkout and want to talk about your experience at the company, you can contact me by email here.

*Names have been changed.

Original Source -> Nearly 17,000 Google employees walked off the job yesterday. We spoke to 3 of them.

via The Conservative Brief

[mightbedamian]

#TMIishTuesday #54 - YouTube stop censoring us!

Hey, If you follow an LGBTQ+ YouTuber on Twitter, you're probably aware of this, but I can't stress it enough: What YouTube are doing with their "restricted mode" is plain censorship! Here's why. Hey there mighty people of the internet! And welcome to issue #54 of #TMIishTuesday - my weekly Tumblr post about what goes through my weird mind and on what you guys want to know more about. It can be something very personal, it can be something political, it can be completely pointless - but in 99.9 % of the cases, it involves opinions. And mine as well. // Last week I told you about my slightly crazy hair adventures and how they came about. Btw, I had school this week as well. One class mate is obsessed with my hair! She calls me "green hair" now, haha. The rest of my class mates don't really seem to mind. No positive, no negative feedback. Just: "What? You really did it?"- Hell yeah, I did! Surprisingly, most of my teachers like it as well. And not a single negative comment on that as well (although I'm 99 % sure my Politics teachers doesn't like it :D). Anyway, if you're curious how I look (with turquoise hair), click the link above. // Back to business: YouTube, WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING!? But okay, first things first: What is YouTube's "restricted mode"? You could call it a "family filter". It is meant to make YouTube a place that is safe for minors. It's basically Google's try to make sure parents don't freak out because "OH MY GOD! THERE ARE SO MANY VIDEOS ON THERE!" and telling them: We got your back! Probably a good majority of family filters look for certain key words in the articles, websites, or videos that they scan - and those media that use these keywords, are banned from viewing. It's how censorship in authoritarian countries works as well. So far, so not-worrying. Good intention, YouTube! There is some sh*t on your platform that, indeed, minors should not view. *cough* Sam Pepper *cough* ItsMert *cough* Leon Machére *cough* Sorry,  I'm still battling the cold. It's just not getting better! *wink* Long story short: I don't know if videos of those three channels are blocked in restricted mode (and I don't want to check. I don't want to give them even more doubtful fame). What I do know is that most videos revolving around LGBTQ+ issues are blocked. And that is just shocking! It seems that once you mention the words "gay", "lesbian" or "trans" in your video title, it won't show in restricted mode. But that's not all. Even videos that have NOTHING to do with sexuality, gender, or anything along those lines, simply get blocked in restricted mode. Tell me, YouTube: Why is a video titled "My Tattoo: I was bitten by a tiger" blocked, why a "most likely to" video by two guys, why is barely any "My Drunk Kitchen" episode viewable when Hannah barely talks about drinking - and never gets drunk. May it be because these people are gay, bi, or lesbian? YouTube, you have a whole lot of explaining to do! Oh, and why are entire channels basically blacked out? Check out Calum McSwiggan's channel in restricted mode: There's 1 - in words: ONE - video left. At least it's for a good cause: When he shaved his head in benefit of StandUpToCancer. Why, on the other hand, are there other LGBTQ+ creators that have barely any videos taken down? Why do you even think that videos on the pros and cons of the different types of top surgery, the thoughts of a trans guy before surgery and after, and the outcome of the surgery, is "potentially inappropriate content"? HOW ON EARTH could informative videos on top surgery featuring totally non-biased opinions be "potentially inappropriate content"? And why is "cross-dressing" allowed, but hangover morning thoughts, that are not at all about the hangover, are not? Why is a video titled "coming out at the scouts" perfectly fine, when most other coming out videos are not? And why is a video introducing a person on a channel titled "on party tour with the camera" blocked? Why is a video on greygender fine - and one on pronouns, while other videos on different LGBTQ+ spectrums and a discussion on how many genders there are, are not? Okay, I could name way more examples of great LGBTQ+ content creators. But I want to mention one more video: levlognog's lovely anti-hate video as a reaction to KsFreak's video "I don't want to be gay". I don't remember what exactly had happened to KsFreak and one of his friends, but in the end they pretended to be gay-married to get out of some trouble. And KsFreak made a video about that, stating how strange that felt and that he really didn't like being seen as gay and basically BASHED gays. No one seemed to notice. No YouTubers. Except levlognog. He made a very friendly, very open video about his opinion, stating that he thought KsFreak's video was offensive as hell and spoke out about the inequality in society. Take-away from his video: Be friendly. Don't judge. And don't tell others off for being themselves. This video - which, again, by no means is offensive or anything - is not viewable in restricted mode. WTF, YouTube!? What the actual f!? You better fix this! ASAP! And I don't speak out about this because I have a loss from this. I don't use restricted mode, I can view whatever content I want. But: Those, who need information on LGBTQ+ issues the most, are kids. Teenagers, who battle with their anxiety and feel that what they feel is not right. Kids, who are trans, gay, lesbian, bi, pan, etc. What these people need most is recognition. Recognition that what they are feeling is natural. That what they are feeling is nothing to be ashamed of. That what they are feeling is totally valid. In 2017 the number 1 source for teens to look for information - especially for info on topics that they haven't figured out for themselves completely and therefore would want to hide from anyone else for the moment - the number 1 source for teens to look for such information is the internet. With the second largest search engine of the internet blocking that content, that these people are so desperately looking for, we are ruining our hard-fought-for freedom of speech. We are ruining the achievements of heroes, who have battled those, who were fighting against equality. We are basically ruining our future! YouTube, STOP beta-testing in real time! You've done it so many times before. And it never worked! Don't mess around with topics like this! How do I end this? Is there even a good way to end this post? I don't know. Maybe with a shocking number: 56.3. That's the percentage of the latest videos on the LGBTQ+ channels that is blocked in restricted mode. 184 of the 327 videos blocked*. Think about that! *taking into account the last 15 uploaded of each of the 22 channels run by LGBTQ+ people that i’m subscribed to.

Before I go let me know your thoughts on YouTube's restricted mode. Do you agree with me or do I make too much of a deal of it? Tell me, I wanna know! Place a comment, tweet me, dm me, or do anything else you can think of to get to me. This week's post basically was a Queer Shoutout in itself. Hence, I will go ahead and link you all the amazing LGBTQ+ YouTubers I'm currently subscribed to (in order of me subscribing to them): - manniac (gay, German) - Troye Sivan (gay, Australian) - Ricky Dillon (asexual, American) - Connor Franta (gay, American) - Tyler Oakley (gay, American) - ItsColeslaw (bi, German) - Hannah Hart (lesbian, American) - Troye Sivan VEVO (see above) - Miles (trans man, American) - Chandler (trans man, American) - Stephan Jonas (gay, German) - Calum McSwiggan (gay, British) - Kalem Johnson (trans man, American) - Nick Camryn (trans man, American) - Ash Hardell (pan, American) - Sam Collins (trans man, American) - PrideTV (gay, German) - Weird Norwegian (gay, Norwegian) - Courtney-Jai (bi, British) - Alex Bertie (trans man, British) - anyway.tv (channel run by an LGBTQ+ community centre in Cologne, Germany)

Check them out, they are all amazing! As always: Next #TMIishTuesday next Tuesday. If you have any questions in the meantime, just ask away. Whatever you’re curious about - I don’t bite. :) Until then: Stay mighty! (And this time for real! Show your claws!) Linkage: - Calum McSwiggan - “My Tattoo: I was bitten by a tiger: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEK9xU2Uar4 - Weird Norwegian - “”Most Likely To” with Calum McSwiggan”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPG74ToU9x4 - Hannah Hart - My Drunk Kitchen playlist: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dk96M05hJx8&list=PL2EC7F45DBD9D9B1A - Calum McSwiggan: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6pzgnZ75lEnsOCLi64Vx2g - Calum McSwiggan - “Stand Up To Cancer”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQz-sV0O_ME - TheRealAlexBertie - “Surgery Worries & Hopes”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zMX4MhHBI1c - Sam Gillard for Ten Eighty magazine - “YouTube’s Restricted Mode Limiting LGBTQ+ Visibility”: http://teneightymagazine.com/2017/03/19/youtubes-restricted-mode-limiting-lgbtq-visibility/ - Connor Franta - “that time i wore a dress”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MepNVZrG2m0 - Connor Franta - “This Morning’s Hangover Thoughts”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pgXxfe9CiKE - anyway.tv - “Coming-out bei den Pfadpfindern”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iEtm6bTVdy4 - anyway.tv - “Mit der Kamera auf Partytour”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSXs9sg3Grk - Ash Hardell - “What’s...Greygender??? (ABC’s of LGBT+)”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Amt3YOkNes - Ash Hardell - “All About Pronouns (Abc’s of LGBT+)”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4NcMV5dsmgI - Ash Hardell - “Gender Fucks and Confusions (ABC’s of LGBT+”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sqO34uI4rwg - Ash Hardell - “Only Two Genders!”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KsRu5EZO2hI - levlognog - “Ich will nicht schwul sein! |KsFreak’s schlimmstes Video”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cp_KXuLVKQc Queer Shoutout: - manniac: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPFpU588dagQfGyrDuTpSzA - Troye Sivan: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWcrr8Q9INGNp-PTCLTzc8Q - Ricky Dillon: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBxs6sUSOJ3UUATAi4rp30w - Connor Franta: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCudeRz9YntRrmKBSqnHyKGQ - Tyler Oakley: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvVuqRzGVqRlmZYlTf99M_w - ItsColeslaw: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtB4Win87uHQ20iv52ZGRkQ - Hannah Hart: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJQL1Fai-9GlVunsbP4x8Pg - Troye Sivan VEVO: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnsa7fw1hZHP5qvf8zVGnvA - Miles: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7XFgbOyFBoGxssEwGvkKig - Chandler: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3HxTGAxX3Ej4Bqf8LDpRtg - Stephan Jonas: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpa3q7uuPjX7Dt9hmym_hwQ - Calum McSwiggan: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6pzgnZ75lEnsOCLi64Vx2g - Kalem Johnson: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCor-W_j3STNWc6RuiS3d5Bg - Nick Camryn: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJeMIfDZeEAMX9poCvD1-zA - Ash Hardell: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXwXB7a3cq9AERiWF4-dK9g - Sam Collins: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCySTKqYThqBbKdEtzOjFhgg - PrideTV: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCti8U9-VbM3_pPoUsgSqYDg - Weird Norwegian: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCF6M_dgiPcK8zrLRUuLeUsg - Courtney-Jai: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCy2xH40m75qpAoQb7unJTRw - Alex Bertie: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXX0iCrVQnlNvGW4gKEhHdA - anyway.tv: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_AwdVD7Hw1pjDovmAr-NHg Oh, and here’s some self-promo: - Last #TMIishTuesday: http://mightbedamian.tumblr.com/post/158402870513/tmiishtuesday-53-i-dyed-my-hair - All #TMIishTuesdays: mightbedamian.tumblr.com/tagged/tmi - More #TMIishTuesdays on LGBTQ+ topics: http://mightbedamian.tumblr.com/tagged/lgbtqplus - More #TMIishTuesday on YouTube topics: http://mightbedamian.tumblr.com/tagged/mightbeyoutube - More very cool stuff: www.twitter.com/mightbedamian - Even more very cool stuff: mightbedamian.tumblr.com