#and guess what will happen in the finals if people don't vote for other countries

[alicepao13]

Boycotters: Boycott Eurovision!

Israel supporters: *vote for Israel*

Israel: *qualifies*

Boycotters:

[czolgosz]

tumblr in the 1900s simulator

🎀 basilgillgirlie

HELPPP i went to see a country girl and i SWEAR coffin looked directly at me while he was singing no. 19 😳😳😳

#im going to DIE #oh my godddd #hayden coffin tag #theatre tag

( 5 notes )

🪮 tortoiseshelllll

honestly just go ahead and block me if you're still not against the consumption of intoxicating liquors /srs

#temperance discourse

( 7 notes )

🤵‍♂️ h0ney-b0y 🔁 in-my-merry-oldsmobile Follow

💁‍♀️ soshineonharvestmoon Follow

Alright, let's settle this once and for all:

Do cylinders or discs produce the clearest sound?

‎ ‎‎ Cylinders⬜‍‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎‎‎‎‎ ‎ ‍21.2%

‎‎ ‎‎ ‎Discs🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦🟦‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎‎‎ ‎‎78.8%

‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎Final result from 18,796 votes

🐶 yourwildirishrose Follow

literally who is voting for cylinders. #discsweep

#poll results that would give thomas edison neurasthenia

( 3,419 notes )

👨 lawrenceseldens 🔁 the-thing-with-feathers86 Follow

☕ the-thing-with-feathers86 Follow

hey. everyone. TAG YOUR HOUSE OF MIRTH SPOILERS!!!!! not all of us are able to keep up with the installments, especially ppl employed at factories/others who work 10+ hour shifts

#!!! #the house of mirth #edith wharton #scribner's magazine

( 102 notes )

🌌 impastolover 🔁 le-modernisme Follow

🔘 ilythomascole-deactivated19061203

There’s NO WAY you people are still supporting H*nri M*tisse after he posted THIS

🌈 chezlesfauves Follow

does this scare you

🌈 chezlesfauves Follow

i guess so lmaooo

#i wonder if op knows about la femme au chapeau…

( 10,675 notes )

🌻 emancipation-waist-official 🔁 localhoyden Follow

🐈‍⬛ localhoyden Follow

friendly reminder that it’s perfectly ok for women and girls to wear corsets if they want to!! don't ever let anyone make you feel ashamed for it - it's your choice, you can do whatever makes you happy 💗

🌻 emancipation-waist-official

Go outside.

( 984 notes )

👰 kittybristolsgf

i know it's been less than a decade since uh. you know. but can anarchists please go back to assassinating public figures and bombing government buildings and such all the time already, i have had ENOUGH

#the latest tariff law that was passed.... wtf #(for legal reasons this is a joke) #(please don't have me electrocuted <3)

( 2 notes )

🦚 fancyfeathers

Just got my widest hat yet!! An entire owl can fit atop it!

( 51 notes )

🏓 whiffwhaffwagerer

at the marathon in st. louis!👍 what is happening

#so the original winner cheated i guess #and the actual winner had to be carried over the finish line and is currently being treated by *several* doctors #also apparently some of the competitors are missing #...i'll keep you all posted?

( 9 notes )

🧳 thatkeenmotorist 🔁 thatkeenmotorist

🧳 thatkeenmotorist

driving my motor-car 😁

🧳 thatkeenmotorist

broken chain ☹️

🧳 thatkeenmotorist

driving my motor-car 😁

🧳 thatkeenmotorist

broken belt ☹️

🧳 thatkeenmotorist

driving my motor-car 😁

🧳 thatkeenmotorist

broken chain again ☹️

( 99 notes )

💃 lilyelsieinthemerrywidow 🔁 thegreat-trainrobbery1903 Follow

💃 lilyelsieinthemerrywidow

hey um whats going on in the balkans right now 😨 do you think theres going to be a war in europe soon im nervous

🙎‍♂️ thegreat-trainrobbery1903 Follow

well, a major war caused by a crisis in the balkans has been speculated on for a while. but it'll probably only last about a year like the war of 1870, plus you don't even live near the balkans, i wouldn't worry too much

💃 lilyelsieinthemerrywidow

yeah youre probably right

#and if it did reach us it would most likely be beneficial anyway #<-prev

( 13 notes )

[mandokero-eboy]

Former country will never stop blowing up i guess

huge things happening in the politics fandom babes. Opposition coalition in Venezuela claiming now that they have secured 75% of the vote count by precinct and that they have won resoundingly with 6 million votes against Maduro's 3 million. This essentially means that there are now two conflicting electoral results. Whether the opposition can leverage this and force the government to, in any way, recognize these results remains to be seen.

I have not seen the paper trail of votes distributed by precinct they claim to have and have not been made aware of plans to make it accessible to the public (which isn't to say such plans don't exist only that I am personally uninformed of if or how they plan to make it available)

I do know something for certain: the government should also have access to those records in a more complete form and if they showed something different they wouldn't currently be so cagey about showing them. The results proclaimed by the government have, as is custom, been broadcast after an opaque process nobody actually has access to. If those results were visible through the paper records they would have shown it already. Instead Maduro has announced he'll be cutting diplomatic ties with multiple South American and Caribbean countries for questioning these results. And as I said before they also claimed The US and a bunch of former presidents who left their governments decades ago were involved in a voter fraud plot. This just doesn't seem like what you'd do if your transparent process for counting votes returned a victory in your favor.

In the meantime, violence is erupting in The Capital. There's rumors that apparently the Argentinian embassy is being attacked and people are defending it for reasons that escape me. That definitely won't blow up into a whole thing. Thankfully for me I'm hours away from Caracas. Also people are protesting really close to the presidential palace (as in, the seat of government, the actual presidential residence is a different building). Don't worry about me I'm chillin, I been here 20 years of my life and I react to the wacky ass politics here like I react to the Game of Thrones season finale.

So yea we're having a normal one don't worry about it, in other news I'm still watching Utena. Nanami laid an egg, isn't that wacky?

[discluded]

Hey, same anon that talked about BOC distancing themselves from the LGBTQ+ community. My post wasn't meant to dampen the excitement of them doing new projects with a broader audience. Just saying BOC is shitty for what they're doing. They drop the LGBTQ+ community once they want the eyes & money of homophobes. I hope MileApo's Chinese project is amazing af because they deserve it (& if BL related, it's censored as little as possible).

Thanks for clarifying! Yes, I'm just... tired of BOC right now. To me, I'm happy to throw them away with any other company that practices rainbow capitalism until it's time to stir up my ire again. My main anguish was the impression that BOC had a tight stranglehold on MileApo's potential future success by creating this ceiling with their own incompetence and we're finally free of that concern.

About whether or not it'll be BL and Chinese censorship:

First of all, I'm going to say: I'm excited either way. I don't want their work to be confined to romance, which it sounds like Man Suang will not, and while it will be lovely that queer couples are treated the same way as straight couples (In that they just sort of appear in series as leads and the primary plot is the focus while them having a relationship is background/secondary like Mabel's second season personal plot line in Only Murders), I do understand that's not the media capacity in China.

Either way, we do know they played brothers for the lolz once and it was... um, uncomfortably sexually charged.

That being said, lol this insane drama is gonna come out in China supposedly:

RIP to you if you watch, you might need brain bleach after. I'm not even sure how something like this going to pass censorship review but 😵 I guess we're see.

As far as I'm aware, I saw discussion within danmei fandom that there was potentially some loosening of the censorship rules because apparently capitalism rules all, but I can't seem to find anything about that lately so who knows. I actually saw that TGCF's drama supposedly passed censorship review last year, but it's been almost a year now and no updates.

Finally, a word about LGBTQ censorship by the CCP -- I know not everyone here lives in America or the west (thank God) but I often see comments on Tumblr and Twitter to the effect that people living under governments with human rights abuses share the same beliefs as the government. While there is definitely manipulation of public sentiment through propaganda, please remember that places with such restrictions on human rights hurt the people living in their country first and foremost. (And yes anon, I know that is not what you're saying! just my rant!!!)

The behavior of the government does not reflect the sentiment of individual citizens who live in China ( who don't get to choose their government at all lol )

Article from Feb 2022 about public outrage about the lesbian plotline in Friends being censored

A September–October 2016 survey by the Varkey Foundation found that 54% of 18–21-year-olds supported same-sex marriage in China.[124]

An online opinion poll from Phoenix Network in December 2019, which garnered close to 10 million votes, showed a 67% majority in favor of same-sex marriage in China.[46]

Again, I known anon this is not what you meant or said at all, but if I see anyone in fandom saying racist ass shit about Chinese people, I'm going to start publicly calling them out because fandom is my fun safe space and I don't need people to bring racism into my life 😊🔪

Finally, about what MileApo committed to: a full version can always air on iQiyi internationally while a sad cut version airs domestically (I think what happened with La Forte). Queer storytelling that circumvents censorship to tell the stories of queer people to a wider audience even if maybe not the full version isn't bowing to censorship - it's showing the resilience of LGBTQ people in spite of the attempts to quash out our light.

[ohc-and-the-music-tapes-archive]

Interview with Julian Koster about Neutral Milk Hotel's apel to save the Paragon Carousel. The Boston Phoenix, 30th April 2009

fragments:

Clearly, we needed to know more, so we made some calls and got him on the phone. Our brief question and answer session follows, including a deliberately vague quote about Jeff Mangum that nonetheless may strike joy into the hearts of people who wish these guys would just reunite already.

Tell us about the Paragon Carousel, and how you got interested in the efforts to preserve it. The National Trust for Historic Preservation is doing this -- they have a grant, I guess it's a million dollars that they're giving away to historic buildings in Massachusetts. They're doing it with the American Express people. But basically the National Trust for Historic Preservation does this all over the country, they give grants to special places. So there are 25 different historic places in Boston that are up for the grant. They're going to give grants to a bunch of them, I think to ten of them or several of them, but they let people vote for one that's meaningful to them, and the one that gets the most votes is guaranteed to be one of the places that gets the grant.

In terms of me -- us -- wanting to do what we can to help the carousel, I lived in Hull for a little bit, more than a year, a couple of years ago, and my grandmother's from Cambridge, so I'm up there quite a bit. That place is just one of the most special places in the world to me, I'm almost at a loss for words. I've always worried about it because those motors [on carousels] have to work really hard, and you never know when they could give out, and when they do it's extraordinarily expensive. I just want to live in a world where you can go someplace like that. You just feel like you want to do everything you can to help the things you love.

The other 24 historic places are really worthy and terrific too, and people should go to the Web site and judge for themselves. I'm going to go for the carousel personally, but I don't want it to be unfair. I want to help the whole Trust.

A clarification, then: do you live in Hull at the moment? I'm currently incredibly confused as towards where I live. [Laughs] We've been touring a lot, so I haven't been living anywhere. I'm in Athens, Georgia right now. I was just in Hull about a week ago, and I kind of dream of living there.

Are you aware of what's happening next week in Lexington? No. 

A high school is putting on a production of a play inspired by In The Aeroplane Over the Sea with help from Amanda Palmer. Oh, wow, a school play? That's great! So it's going to be high school kids acting in it?

Yeah. Wow, that's wonderful. I wish I was in Massachusetts. We're in Athens so I won't be able to go, but that's lovely. A high school play. That's great.

Final, obligatory question: How's Jeff Mangum doing? That's such a general question [laughs]. He's doing wonderfully, and is definitely doing all sorts of creative things. I think part of the reason for silence in terms of trying not to talk about creative projects for him, or involving all of us, is just that it puts so much attention on things that probably all have to happen organically by themselves. I feel bound to not say anything specific, but I think when people want to know that, what they want to know is if he's working and if he's being creative and if there will be things shared in the future, and I think all of those things can be answered in the affirmative. There's been a lot of friendship and community among all of us, especially in the last year.

[bettyg196]

My Eurovision 2024 predictions

Hi !

How are you ?

Here are my predictions for Eurovision 2024 nobody asked !

Disclaimer : I'm not clairvoyant, so most of my predictions won't come true. Also, please note that I don't mean to offend anyone in this post, I just like to guess what will happen in the next Eurovision season.

The jury system will remain the same but EBU won't bring it back in the semi-finals

The rest of the world will still have the ability to vote

They will introduce a new rule where we have to create an account to vote from the Eurovision app

38 countries will participate

In plus of Luxembourg, North Macedonia will come back

Romania will withdraw following the bad result in ESC and because of poor TV ratings

Turkey won't come back for obvious reasons

Monaco will be back... in 2025 because TV Monaco will join EBU only in 2024

A ballad will win the contest

The edition will be dominated by pop songs in English

Malmö will host

Petra Mede won't come back as a host but Måns Zelmerlöw (Sweden 2015, host in 2016) will

Farah Abadi or Sarah Dawn Finer will be the other host

Carola Häggkvist (Sweden 1983, 1991, 2006) will be involved in the contest

🇦🇱 Albania

The winner of FiK will also be chosen by the public as the representative

The entry will be a power ballad which will be revamped in English

The artist had already participated to FiK once

Will be in the same semi-final than Serbia

Will finish 11th in its SF

🇦🇲 Armenia

The country will send a woman again

The entry is an up-tempo pop song with disco influences

Will be the last song to be released

Will be a favourite of the eurofans

Will qualify but will flop in the grand final and finish in the right side of the table

🇦🇺 Australia

EBU will confirm that the country will participate to the contest during summer

Internal selection

The chosen artist has never participated to Eurovision- Australia Decides

The song will be a sad ballad

It will be popular on TikTok

🇦🇹 Austria

A male duo will be chosen

The entry will sound like a Troye Sivan song

Will not get attention from the fandom until the rehearsals

The staging will be simple but efficient

Will qualify but will finish in the bottom 5

🇦🇿 Azerbaijan

The chosen artist is famous in Turkey

The song will be an up-tempo pop song in English

Most of the songwriters are from Sweden

The staging will be similar to the Euphoria one but with dancers

Will close its semi-final

🇧🇪 Belgium

The chosen artist has participated to The Voice Belgique and was in the team of Beverly Jo Scott aka BJ Scott

The entry will sound like an Axelle Red song, but in English

Most of the songwriters are from France

Will be in the first semi-final

Will qualify

🇭🇷 Croatia

Dora 2024 will take place

A former representative will be involved as a contestant

A man will win the nf

The entry will be a sentimental ballad in English and in Croatian

Will get attention during the rehearsals

🇨🇾 Cyprus

A drama will happen during the nf

The winner of the nf will be a woman

The entry will be a pop song about love with a dancebreak

Will be high in the odds

Will be in the second semi-final again

🇨🇿 Czechia

ESCZ will take place again

A boy band will win the nf

The entry will sound like if Backstreet Boys and BTS had a baby

It will be a contender for the win

Will place at least 15th in the final

🇩🇰 Denmark

DMGP will be a weak nf as usual

The winning artist will be an Instagram model

The entry will be a bubblegum bop in English

Thomas G:son will be one of the songwriters

Will do better than expected

🇪🇪 Estonia

A former representative will be involved in Eesti Laul 2024

A band will win the nf

The entry will be a scam themed funny song in Estonian

Will be overhated by the fandom

Will be in the top 20

🇫🇮 Finland

UMK 2024 will be a good nf

An underdog act will win it

The song will be a catchy pop song in English

It will be liked by a lot of people

Will finish second last in the final

🇫🇷 France

A nf will take place (but not necessary CVQD)

Bilal Hassani will take part as a jury member

A southern man will win

The entry will sound like a 2010s French song

Will finish somewhere in the right part of the table but will get at least one "12 points"

🇬🇪 Georgia

The Voice of Georgia will be used to select the representative again

A woman will win again

The entry will be a dark edm pop song

It will cause a controversy in the country

Will compete in the first semi-final

🇩🇪 Germany

Ikke Hüftgold will be involved in the nf again

The winner of the nf will be a woman

The entry will sound similar to Flowers by Miley Cyrus and the artist will be accused of plagiarism

Will be hated by Germans and the fandom

Will finish in the bottom 5 again

🇬🇷 Greece

A Greek-German artist will be selected in internal

Greek locals will hate their representative for some reason

The entry will be a radio-friendly pop song in English and the title will be in Greek

Will compete in the second semi-final

Will NQ

🇮🇸 Iceland

Söngvakeppnin will be disappointing in terms of quality

New rule in the nf

A woman will win against the odds

The entry will sound like a song from Taylor Swift's Midnights album

Will NQ again

🇮🇪 Ireland

The nf will be a beautiful disaster

The chosen artist will be the youngest of the edition

The entry will be a pop song about a Swedish artist/band

A drama will happen after the pre-party season

Will have the weirdest staging

🇮🇱 Israel

The Rising Star will have new rules

A woman will win the nf

The entry will be dance pop song in English

A drama involving politics will happen

Will finish 17th in the final

🇮🇹 Italy

A big controversy will happen before Sanremo week

Diodato will participate in the festival

The winning artist openly supports Meloni

The song will be a modern ballad

Will finish top 10

🇱🇻 Latvia

Initially, a Supernova SF will be planned but will be ultimately cancelled for only one final

A girl band will win

The entry will be an up-tempo pop song in English

Will get attention from the pre-parties

Will qualify but end up in the bottom 5

🇱🇹 Lithuania

PiN 2024 will be an average edition

The favourite of the nf will win both the jury voting and the televoting

A member of InCulto (🇱🇹 2010) will be involved in the nf

The entry will be a slow ballad in English

Will be the only baltic country in its SF

🇱🇺 Luxembourg

A nf will take place

Any artist from any country can participate but Luxembourgers singers will be privileged

A well-known French artist will be selected

The entry will be a French chanson that will sound like a Juliette Armanet's song

Will sadly NQ

🇲🇹 Malta

MESC will be the longest nf

Matt Blxck will participate again

The winner will be a man

The entry will be a love ballad

Will compete in the second semi-final

🇲🇩 Moldova

35 artists/bands will participate to the nf's audition

A finalist will withdraw in the last minute

A female former representative will win

The entry will be a folk-pop song in Romanian and in English

Will be a borderline qualifier

🇳🇱 Netherlands

A nf will take place and almost everyone in the fandom will hate it

Between 5 and 10 acts will compete

The most disliked act will win

The entry will be a schlager in English

Will do better than expected

🇲🇰 North Macedonia

Internal selection

A male artist will be chosen

The entry will sound like a movie score

Will be cancelled by the fandom for some reason

Will do better than expected

🇳🇴 Norway

Autotune will still be allowed in MGP

Emma Steinbakken will be involved in the nf at least as a songwriter

The winner will be a woman

The entry will be a power ballad about trust

Will place somewhere in the left side of the table

🇵🇱 Poland

A nf will be planned but will be cancelled and replaced by a last minute internal selection for some reason

A male YouTuber will be chosen

The entry will be a dance pop song

Will divide the entire fandom

Will make the final thanks to the artist's fandom

🇵🇹 Portugal

A drama will happen before the reveal of FdC tracks

A fado artist will be the favourite for the win

An underdog act will win

The entry will be a folk song in Portuguese

Will be underrated by the fandom

🇸🇲 San Marino

UVPSM will be shorter than usual

Some artists from the 2023 NF season will participate

An unknown Italian artist will win

The song will be a disco-pop song in English

Will somehow become a meme

🇷🇸 Serbia

The nf will be nice overall

An eccentric artist will get attention

A woman will win

The song will be a balkan ballad in Serbian

Will be high in the odds

🇸🇮 Slovenia

Internal selection again

A female pop star will be chosen

The entry will be an up-tempo pop song in English with some words in Slovenian

Will be overhyped by the fandom

Will do worse than expected

🇪🇸 Spain

Pol Granch will be involved in the Benidorm Fest

A controversy will happen during the nf

A famous artist will win the festival

The entry will be a dark ballad in Spanish

Will finish 20th in the final

🇸🇪 Sweden

Melodifestivalen will be better than the last edition

Both Anna Bergendahl and Dotter will be involved at least as songwriters

A LGBTQ artist will win

The entry will be a pop song in English about self-love

Will finish 6th in the grand final

🇨🇭 Switzerland

A good-looking male artist will be chosen

The entry is another sad ballad, but this time about break up

Unlike the 2 previous songs, it will be more appreciated by the fandom

Sacha Jean-Baptiste will stage it

Will qualify but will flop in the final

🇺🇦 Ukraine

Vidbir will be good as usual

A female pop star will win

The entry will be a world music influenced pop song in Ukrainian and in English

A big drama will happen after the nf

Will finish 4th

🇬🇧 United Kingdom

There will be a rumor that Dido could represent the UK to make her big comeback on stage

The actual representative has worked with a British star

The entry will be a mid-tempo pop song

Will be a favourite of many fans

Will finish 16th in the final

[laforzadelvoila]

Eu postei 202 vezes em 2022

Foram 202 posts a mais do que em 2021!

9 posts criados (4%)

193 posts reblogados (96%)

Blogs que você mais reblogou:

@allthesepurplelights

@wardrobeoftime

@guysofeurovision

@eurovisionart

@cardamipratens

Eu marquei 202 posts meus em 2022

#reblog - 193 posts

#eurovision - 75 posts

#movies - 51 posts

#photos - 49 posts

#movie gifs - 47 posts

#text - 26 posts

#nature - 25 posts

#gifs - 24 posts

#thoughts - 21 posts

#landscape - 19 posts

Maior tag: 67 caracteres

#this is how i feel whenever i discover some amazing eurovision song

Meus principais posts em 2022:

#5

Jamala meeting US President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden!

• Source: Twitter •

2 notas - publicadas em 15 de dezembro de 2022

#4

Ver o post inteiro

2 notas - publicadas em 4 de dezembro de 2022

#3

I know nobody cares about my opinion, but I still want to say what I think about the Eurovision voting change ����

To begin with, I don't really like this idea, but I think maybe there's a possibility it could work.

I think my biggest fear is that great songs end up being left out of the final.

On the other hand, I know that a lot of other amazing songs have been left out of the finals in recent years because of the jury, so obviously the system as we know it had advantages and disadvantages — and obviously it will be like that next year too.

However, it is important to remember that televoting often prioritizes votes between neighboring nations, which creates a disadvantage for countries without this privilege and/or smaller nations.

There are also great songs that are ignored by the public because they are of a less mass-appealing format.

And one thing I like about the division between audience and jury is that it often promotes a kind of diversity in the competition.

Yes, I am also afraid that quality songs will lose a place in the final to joke entries.

The 2000s were dark years for Eurovision, when the contest's credibility plummeted as countries were sending out bad songs to "serve the public".

BUT, it's true that the 2000s as a whole were pretty weird indeed (okay, I was just a little kid at the time, but I know how to google it), and popular tastes changed a lot in those years.

Of course, the jury will still vote on the grand final, so I'm guessing countries will still want to submit songs they approve.

And it's true that underestimating the audience is not a good idea, sometimes the tastes of the jury/audience are very surprising.

I remember that some people said that "Eat Your Salad" would be more successful with the public, and that "In Corpore Sano" would be more successful with the jury. In the end, the opposite happened!

The taste of the public is not that bad. 😀

EBU made this decision because of the 2022 jury cheating scandal. They probably had better ways of handling this, but here we are.

(For the record, the public is also susceptible to being corrupted and it can be harder to deal with a problem involving millions of people than just a few dozen.)

So in the end, I'm apprehensive about this decision more because it's something new and we still don't know if it will work or not. I have a bad feeling, but we'll have to wait and see. 🙂

Originally posted on Twitter

2 notas - publicadas em 22 de novembro de 2022

#2

Blessing your day with a photo of Barbara Pravi wearing a shark hat!

• Source: Instagram •

3 notas - publicadas em 26 de novembro de 2022

Meu post nº 1 de 2022

All My Eurovision Winners

Here I will register my winners of all the years of Eurovision. This list will always be subject to change.

Ver o post inteiro

3 notas - publicadas em 10 de novembro de 2022

Veja a sua Retrospectiva 2022 →

[gaykarstaagforever]

The reason Hollywood and a lot of other media was anti-Nazi during WWII wasn't because we all just agreed Nazis were bad. If you look at a wide spectrum of opinions at the time, pre-Holocaust, I'd guess that like half the country was either pro-Hitler (for personal ethnic pro-German reasons), or at least kind of neutral on all this whatever European nonsense, just DON'T MAKE US DO WAR OVER THERE AGAIN.

Then Japan "involved us," and Roosevelt had an in to finally get us into the war in Europe, like he'd wanted to for awhile. Then it became a tribal America vs. Bad Guys thing, so "patriots" agreed to it on that basis alone.

And as for the anti-Nazi media, the Fed was either relying on the patriotism thing for that, directly paying for it, or using war powers to demand you make that shit...or else.

Contrary to what the movies make it look like, we weren't all die-hard fuck Hitler, we're all in this together. Us not being that is WHY the Fed needed the propaganda in the first place.

After news of the Holocaust got out, sure, a lot of people's stomachs turned. ...The ones who weren't virulently Antisemitic themselves, or still so over-awed by the "coolness" of German fascism that they started making excuses for why the Holocaust wasn't real, or "well they messed that up, but OTHERWISE...!"

My conviction, based on unscientific feelings, is probably that a solid like 30 to 40% of white Americans have consistently thought Nazis are cool, from the moment they showed up, to some degree.

And this is important to remember as overt fascism takes hold here. We haven't "fallen." This isn't a new thing. This garbage shit has ALWAYS been awesome to millions of people here. They just happened to be on the wrong side of history a bunch of times, do to a bunch of historical factors. But they're here, and they've always been here.

Plus, that little factoid that we built our liberal suburban empire on the racist exploitation of forced labor and attempted genocide. And during the War, true-blue American patriots also thought putting innocent Japanese-Americans into deadly internment camps was a sexy idea.

Racially-segregated military, anyone? There were still lynchings in the 1940s. Many Black US soldiers stayed in France, because if they came home, regardless of what they'd done, they were legally second-class citizens in half the country, mandated victims to whatever bored white people wanted to do to them.

Trump is this country's blood-soaked background simply taking center-stage again. Hate and violent selfishness are in the DNA of this country. Pretending your vote for Biden, Mr. Ignoring Genocide, is "saving" some kind of holy ancient humanitarian order is a joke at least, and grossly offensive at worst.

It wasn't "better" in the past. You just weren't there, so you don't remember how fucked it has always been.

[whatib]

Current History is the Best Reality Show

I was born in the Bronx in the 60's, I've never voted. Never really liked either side but I definitely supported Democrats since Carter was elected, then the Democrats burned my country down from 2016 to 2020. I'll never trust a Democrat for the rest of my Life. Independent Forever! Clearly there was an underlying Hate inside that cult that I never knew existed. Stupid me I guess. But I don't condone violence. These people burned my country down because they lost an election? Are you kidding me? I've watched the System since the 60's. A guy from one team wins then a guy from the other team wins. It's a checks and balances System so that neither the Far Left or the Far Right take over Forever. They hold on for 4 to 8 yrs then it bops back and forth. It's been that way since day One, and it's worked so well that it built the greatest country ever, in the history of the world. Don't give me the racist Hate speech because African Americans gave birth to Americans, and a Black American became the President of the United States of America. (don't forget I supported Democrats at that time) On election day 2008, when I saw that big old black lady waving the American flag in Washington D.C. crying tears of what you can only call Emancipation….I balled my facking eyes out for hours that night. One of the best moments in that I've lived through. It finally happened. But The Constitution has held up for over 250 years, and it will for another 250 years if Democrats get back to behaving like civilized human beings instead of sore losers. We're into the 4th year of the Biden presidency and I still don't see any Republicans burning buildings down. Why? Because Republicans abide by the rules and they know they just have to regroup and try next time, and get out and Vote. They don't want to burn their neighbor's businesses down or harm other people.(and yes they have some crazies, but Democrats have crazies too. Believe me I've watched this country's clown show for over 50 years, both sides are Facked up. you're both literally psychotic with what you believe in) Republicans just want a President they support, so they wait and they Vote. Sometimes they win, sometimes they lose. And now we're in a New World, a World full of Hate from every direction. If you say you don't like dog sh!t you'll get cancelled. It's a very wacky World. I'm just a bystander…watching this nutty World unfold…I'll tell you right now, the Alphabet people have taken over. Like I said I'm just watching this shyt happen and it's very noticeable to me that the Alphabet people now hold Powerful positions in every aspect of the World…from corporations, to small businesses, from entertainment to sports, to movies, tv, and commercials, and education and government…if you haven't noticed it, they are in Power in the United States….and why is that? Because Alphabet people only Hire More Alphabet people. An ingenious strategy and clearly it works. (hahahah I guess that's how the Traditional World also worked but now the Alphabet people picked up the skill and they're using it to their advantage) Whoever is leading them in their mission, is freaking brilliant. They have monopolized all aspects of Life in America. The "Traditional World" isn't just under siege, it's battling for survival, literally breathing it's last breath. I'm literally living through History. What's funny is that I can tune in any day that I want, to see this week's episode.

[journalbynics]

A KAKAMPINK'S REALIZATIONS

March 12, 2022

Never thought I would be invested on this elections when I purposely tried being silent during the campaign period. I only watched debates and followed them a bit on social media when we're a month away from the elections but still, I became invested. I'm one of those who felt so emotional and tears up when the results are just coming in.

It's not that I'm ungrateful for what we have in our country but it's the HOPE I saw in the eyes of passionate kakampinks rooting for VP Leni Robredo. She painted a picture of what our country could be when she's elected as the president.

As a Christian who just became spiritually alive recently, the results really dismayed me. I thought my faith was strong enough but turns out, I just never experienced and felt something this extreme to become disappointed. Maybe because it's not only my future that depends on it but the FUTURE OF THOSE IN NEED. (Yung mga nasa laylayan na nga ika nga.) The Angat Buhay Project is really great since it's like a positive 'Sana All' for every Filipino.

Because of this experience, I had the chance to reassess my character. I admit, I slightly let my emotions get the best of me at first. The SCORPIO in me literally went out AGAIN. I planned on holding a grudge to those I knew who voted for the leading candidate. I even unfriended a lot of my relatives. I don't really care because I don't actually use Facebook often and share something so I doubt if they will notice it. Maybe they will. I don't even plan on going to family events as much as before too. If they had the chance to confront me about it, I'll just simply make an excuse like really? I have no idea because I don't use facebook much since I'm busy. Lol.

The closest apologist from my family is my older sister. The middle child since I'm the youngest. We're a family of five and the rest, we're proudly kakampinks. She's married and her husband is also an apologist. We had to hide our disappointment during their stay in our house since my sister went home in our province just to vote. I'm really sad and angry on the inside because I look up to her but she disregards all the red flags on her candidate. I tried being distant to her and make excuses but then she treated us on a family dinner. It's bittersweet because I was reminded that she's the one spending on my school allowance as well. They left and that's the time we have a family talk of kakampinks expressing our dismay and anger. It's funny how we're the ones who stayed silent when it's our home at all. My parents are civil to them and I'm actually the only one who had to put an effort and fake it. Over time, I guess my hatred will fade but I'll never forget everyone who supports questionable candidates. That's for sure. Anyway, it's a relief finally talking to my dad, mom, and oldest sister who shares the same sentiments like mine. It's comforting to know that atleast, we got each other. Just sad about the only one who isn't and building her own family already. I don't wanna imagine how difficult it must be for those with majority family members as an apologist in a household. If you are, stay hopeful. You're not entirely alone.

HERE'S A POST THAT COMFORTED ME THIS MORNING BT DUBS!

As I've said, I had a difficult time processing what's happening in our country.

It came to a point when I felt my faith in God is slightly fading. I know everything has a reason and He has a PLAN for us. It's always God's will that's gonna happen. I think it's easier for me to accept the hardships I personally face but imagining those people who suffered in the past and potential people who's gonna suffer in this term is just too much for me. Even if doubts are starting to drown me, I still kept praying. I know about He's will. That He planned this. It's just one of those hard to accept situations that's testing us but I'll get pass this. As always.

So I prayed, with a heavy heart and sometimes as I teared up...

I ask for forgiveness for not completely accepting and trying to understand what's happening. I also ask for His patience on me. Because I feel like I failed Him too since I thought my relationship with Him is deep enough. But I guess it's not. I know He's the most patient and merciful God so I feel at ease too. I know I'll overcome this emotions. Besides, it's written a lot of times in the Bible that it's okay to tell Him our feelings, our desires, our cries. To share our burden with Him. With that in mind, I know this unfamiliar feelings of mine relating to politics are VALID and NATURAL.

SUMMARY OF WHAT I REALIZED THIS ELECTION WEEK:

1. I'm gratefully privileged and I care a lot too for the common good of people and our country.

2. I need to improve my character even more and manage how I react to things I can and can't control. It's always the reaction that I have the control not the situation.

3. The journalist in me is blazing again. It's good to write about things that really matter and I should continue it more consistently.

4. I should trust God's plan even more, even on national/global matters as well.

5. This is a time of realization. I really hope people who voted for the leading candidate learns too and stop being so blinded.

In conclusion, Bishop Rey has a point. Maybe God never really meant for Leni to win. Her mission was to waken us up. Because SHE REALLY DID. She won the hearts of people.

YAKAP!

[sizzlingpatrolfox]

Are u still an Army? Were u ever dedicated kpop fan voting, streaming, buying every album, light stick, merch? I was army for a brief period in 2019 but then something happened and I couldn’t associate myself with the fandom anymore. Last song that I liked was Black swan... (what’s your favorite bts songs by the way?) I still closely follow Jimin and JK tho. I met army in real life and for some reason I said I knew about BTS but I wasn’t a huge fan lol but while talking with them I realized I knew about songs, comebacks, personalities of every BTS members more than them. I just think It will be easier for me to stan them individually than as a group. J-hope made interesting NY post on IG, he sounded like it’s the end of era (of bts?!) (((«Maybe a year like the brilliant flames of a finale for both j-hope and BTS». “This is what it really means to have time just for me,” that’s how I feel now.””The midpoint between a great end and another beginning. “))) How about you?

I mean, I guess in the technical sense I am an army. I have never felt comfortable calling myself that , tho 😅 I used to be a fan of one direction too but I didn't call myself a directioner either, as well with other people I was and am a fan of. I just say "I'm a fan of BTS". I love Taylor Swift, I've loved her since 2009 but I've never called myself a swiftie. I just don't think those names are necessary.

The first couple of years after I became a fan, 2017, 2018, yes I used to vote for everything all the time. After that I stopped a little but not entirely, I mean I have voted but not as much as I did in 2018. The fandom is so big, honestly... Even if everyone voted only once, they would win. Back in 2017 people were ten times more motivated because the fandom wasn't as big as it is now and they were just breaking in the US so we needed everyone's efforts. Nowadays, they're pretty stablished I think, and the fandom is so huge, literally ten times bigger than what it was in 2017. I mean, when I became a fan they had like 5 million followers on Twitter.

I don't buy anything tho. I have bought festa 2018 and bon voyage 2 & 3 to watch on vlive+, because the economy here wasn't as bad as it is now and it was an easy process to buy. I could afford merch and albums if I wanted to, but honestly I have more important things to spend money on. Those things are really expensive here in my country. I mean, the last season's greetings is worth like one month of rent for me?? It is incredibly expensive like that to buy things that are priced in dollars.

What happened that you couldn't associate anymore with the fandom? What do you think about Jimin and Jungkook?

Last song I liked was dynamite. I love it so much. I have watched every live performance at least 5 times each. Everything that came after dynamite was a disappointment for me, especially Butter and PTD. A few weeks ago I was talking here about 2021 content and I wanted to say that it was such an underwhelming year for BTS as artists and I didn't say it because I didn't want to be a bitch so I deleted that part. But a few days after in PTD LA Jimin said how they feel they could've done more and in his end of the year message in that bangtan bomb, he also said there weren't many memorable things this year. Thanks to him for keeping it real 🙏🙏 so now I feel I can say that it was disappointing because I know I wasn't imagining things. Namjoon too kinda hinted that it wasn't especial for him either.

If I had to choose one favorite song, it would be If I Ruled the World. Naming all the songs I like apart from that, it would be a really long list. But when I think BTS, I think If I Ruled the World. 

Do you mean it will be easier for you to stan Jimin and Jungkook individually or all of the members on their own? I personally LOVE when they release solo stuff, and I think Taehyung specificially is dying to like, be a proper solo artist (actor or singer), but I don’t really have a strong opinion on them “going solo”. The idea of disbandment actually scares me and makes me sad. But I would love it if they wanted to, or did their own things alongside BTS. That would be extemely time consuming, tho. 

Someone else has asked me about Hoseok’s instagram post (maybe it was you?) and since it was New Years and all I haven’t had time to read it again. I will say what I think after I’ve read it once more, if that’s okay with you. But I don’t remember anything suspicious about it. I think tho, that the end of an era for BTS already happened, and that was 2019. I think 2020 and MOTS7 was supposed to be the end for them (some kind of an end), but covid happened and they’re kinda just hanging in there until anything regarding enlistment and touring is decided, and frankly almost everything they do nowadays is out of their hands. It seems like covid and bighit/hybe are making all the choices and some of the decisions hybe is taking, are actually about branching out from BTS and about keeping distance between BTS and the fans. For business purposes. 

[anistarrose]

Okay, here's my SparkNotes on not drawing dumb conclusions from political polls. (You could also just, like, read this article from 538, though. I pay attention to this stuff, but I don't do this for a living, unlike them.) But if you really want to hear it from me, I'm of the opinion that you need to watch out for:

First: Margin of error. As an example, a CBS/YouGov poll earlier this month said Harris was up 51% to 49% in Wisconsin. However, polls are by their nature imprecise, on account of trying to extrapolate data about an entire state or country based off a sample of... in this case, just 946 voters! And as a result, the estimated margin of error is 4%.What does that mean?

Well, in other words, Harris could be up 55% to 45%... or down 47% to 53%! Or literally anywhere in between! Polls like this are best read as saying "we think one would rather be Harris than Trump in this state right now, but we're still not that confident she'll win." Likewise, 538, a polling aggregator, currently predicts Harris winning Wisconsin... just 61 out of 100 times. Just a little better than a coin flip!

Second: The exact wording of the poll question, and general methodology. Sticking with the CBS Wisconsin poll, the exact question they asked was: "If the 2024 presidential election were being held today between Kamala Harris, the Democrat, and Donald Trump, the Republican, who would you vote for?" It's positioned as a binary choice, and relatedly, they reported 0% third party voters, nor any "unsure" respondents. I think we all know that's not the full picture of the political climate right now, right?

Now, does that make this poll completely invalid? Of course not, but its results should only be considered with the context that it's a simplified picture. Is Jill Stein going to siphon votes from disproportionately Harris? Is whoever the hell the Libertarians have this year going to siphon votes from disproportionately Trump? This poll doesn't give us information in that regard.

Third: Polls taken months out from Election Day may not reflect the final margin. This September 15th, a poll of Iowa took the politically attentive by storm, to the extent that I even saw people here on Tumblr talking about it — because it showed Trump's lead reduced to just 4 points in Iowa, whereas he'd led by 18 when Biden was in the game. A "14-point swing for Harris" is incredibly quotable stat! But most people throwing that number around don't realize... the polling firm in question, while reputable, has a long history of overestimating Democrats in September/October polls in Iowa.

The final polls from this firm have had a remarkable track record in Iowa elections, but that's frequently because they course-correct from polls in the early fall. I don't know enough about the Iowan electorate to guess why these discrepancies arise — whether it's a polling error, or if Iowans are really just more passionate about Democrats in September — but the "14-point swing" claims are putting undue faith in a single poll, taken about two months out from the election.

Last, and relatedly: extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. That evidence should involve more than a single poll, because outlier polls happen. Polls that appear to be "outliers" could be the first sign of a shocking shift... but they could also just be statistical flukes. They could even be an accurate poll, being extrapolated to a situation in which it no longer applies! For example...

...let's consider the "extraordinary claim," which I have seen in both the news and on Tumblr, that the Iowa poll foretells a Harris sweep nationwide. There have not been 14-point jumps in any swing states. Michigan, for example, went mostly from "Trump leads Biden, within the margin of error" to "Harris leads Trump, still well within the margin of error." North Carolina went from "Trump leads Biden, maybe a smidge outside of the margin of error" to "this election is basically a coin flip at the moment" (as of writing this post, September 23rd). Go play around with a tracker like 538's Election Forecast, you can see it for yourself.

Overall, remember that America is polarized as hell. Americans know who Donald Trump is, and how they feel about him, because it's been eight fucking years. Claims like "14% of voters have changed their minds about Donald Trump!" should immediately raise questions, and demand corroboration. (That "changed minds" claim is an oversimplification of what even the Iowa poll is saying, but it is a conclusion I see people draw from the Iowa poll). That's not to say surprising results should automatically be considered outliers, because that's bad science — but they need to be evaluated in context, and investigated further.

So with this knowledge, I leave you with a message. This is a post about statistics, not a debate about the ethics of voting. But I need people to understand: if a person tells you "Harris is virtually guaranteed to win the election! You should withhold your vote, or vote third-party, as a form of protest since the outcome's sealed anyway" — then either they have been misled, or they are trying to mislead you. Because no matter how much "momentum" Harris has, the outcome of this election is nowhere near sealed.

This is not a post in which I will demand you vote for a particular candidate. But if you are understandably conflicted about your vote, and considering protest voting — yet terrified of another Trump presidency, because you and people you care about would be in legitimate danger under him — then I just want to make sure you understand that Harris leading in polls is nowhere near a guarantee. Clinton led in the polls in 2016... and once again, a lot of the leftist internet has been acting as though the Democrat is guaranteed a win. Make your choice with that information at the front of your mind.

Remember the saying: there's lies, damned lies, and statistics. If you are deliberating about what to do with your vote, and people are telling you it doesn't matter? You need to do your own digging into the circumstances of your state. Check the margin of error. Check the poll wording. Check the date of the poll. And don't take any single poll as the full story.

And that's it. That's the "Being Informed About American Political Polling" cheat sheet. If you want to learn more, you can always look at polling aggregators — some, like 538, will do their own digging into the pollster's track record and potential partisan biases. You have so much information, of wildly varying quality, at your fingertips. And there's no shame in not yet knowing how to use it responsibly — but if you are eligible to vote, you should absolutely, urgently learn.

deep and profound sigh. people on this website put way too much faith in political polls

[dogsliampaynedoesntinstagram]

Sorry for another tedious anon but do you honestly think Harry thinks so deeply about things he's not particularly affected by? You seem to project a lot of your own interpretations on the motives behind Harry's actions, maybe to give yourself reasons to continue enjoying his actions. Have you ever processed your own feelings about Harry? I know you've said you don't love him but I feel like you don't want to look too closely on a lot of things because you don't want to put yourself off. Which I guess is a fair strategy for personal reasons but it's unfair to your readers who more often than not form their opinions because of your point of view or at least take your POV in consideration. You said Harry posted a video about Biden's kindness because positivity is a better motivator. In no universe do I think Harry thought that deeply about his tweet (which I doubt came from him in the first place) he has a very shallow understanding of how things work in real life judging from his lifestyle and his incoherence when talking about things that matter (arena interview). A lot of celebs are talking about biden as if he's a savior who will defeat the monster trump despite the horrible stuff that Obama administration did to other countries. It's the same as putting a black screen or singing imagine. Also you said he chose to show joy in Golden MV when he looked very emotionlessly excited. I couldn't associate any emotion to his expressions even though it looked like he tried to convey something. Same as falling and SOTT. But you seem to think he considered spreading joy to people through his music video. Do you think he sat down and talked about people suffering because of Covid and said "I wanna make a video of myself doing mundane things because it will bring joy to people"? Wouldn't an easier explanation would be from a business point of view? Something this whole era has been a great testament to?

Oh anon - why are you so worked up that someone has a different view of a celebrity to you? Why are you treating that as something that has to be examined? Perhaps most strangely - why have you had to greatly overstate what I said in order to suggest that anything but negative views of Harry are illegitimate.

I didn’t say that Harry posted a video that presented Biden as kindness because you need to give people something to vote for (I would never say ‘positvity is a better motivator).  I said that I can see that the video connected with Harry and that I think Harry’s message is better than fearmongering messages.

It’s absolutely fine that we disagree about the effectiveness of Golden.  But the idea that it’s somehow a shock that there’s a business point of view to a music video is bizzarre. There’s no contradiction between a music video having an artistic intent also being part of a marketing plan.  That is the essenece of what all music videos are.  I’m sorry if you’re shocked that pop music is a business, but that really isn’t a recent development.  

Even more bizzarre is your imaginary conversations about COVID that you think I think Harry is having.  Artistic intent isn’t some kind of charity.  I’m not suggesting that he made a joyful video as a solution to suffering.  I think he made a joyous song so he tried to make a joyous video (and whether he succeeded is a different matter).

Finally, I’d like to return to the strangest of your claims.  The idea that I somehow owe an examination of my feelings about Harry to my readers, who might be unduly influenced by something (me enjoying a music video? My hatred of kindness? I don’t even know what). Nothing that you said has any basis in reality, but even if it did what’s the worst that could happen, I could be influencing people to like a celebrity slightly more than they do otherwise.  Chill the fuck out.

[stolligaseptember]

hey, so you seem to know a lot about politics. i don't understand what the hell is going on with article 13 again? like i get it, it was voted upon but is it really going to change anything? or is it just tumblr trolls trying to get a rise out of people for nothing? wasn't it supposed to be a directive for countries?(also why everyone's biggest concern over eu banning memes?)

Okay, first of all, it’s so funny that I’m now somehow known as “the one who seems to know about politics”, seeing how I’ve been known to be very vocal about my absolute distaste for politics. But, yeah, I study law, which is basically just the aftermath of politics, so I guess I do keep kind of updated.

So yeah. Okay.

Article 13: Here we go again 🎶my, my, how can I resist ya����

Oh boy. Where do we even start with article 13.

Well, first of all, the parliament voted on reworking the directive and then voting on it again next year. The draft proposals have slowly started becoming public though, and that is most likely the reason behind people having started to freaking out again. Why people are freaking out is a pretty big question though. I’m not saying it’s most likely because of right-winged anti-EU advocates, but it’s most likely because of right-winged anti-EU advocates.

I explained the basis of a directive back in June, and attached the then-proposed draft text. And yes!! You’re very correct in it being a directive for countries! The proposal has gone through a number of votes and redrafts since then though, and this is the current form of article 13 that is being discussed;

So, the first thing here; this is still a draft. Nothing has been decided yet. Not even the final text that is going to be voted on. The directive is being discussed behind closed doors as we speak, and things may still change before the vote goes through. But for now there is nothing substantial for us to be drawing any kind of conclusions from. Pretty much anything can happen from this point out.

But, if we’ll go through the changes that has happened in the last couple of months;

First of all, the so called “bots”, that was the biggest fear concerning article 13, have been removed. This is huge news!! This is great news!!!

I explained why bots would have been such a fucking bad idea here, and in this draft they have removed the “effective content recognition technologies” aka. bots, and put in place a human review system instead. This is much more in line with the already existing copyright laws, and means that automated blocking of content will be avoided, as stated in the third paragraph.

Any complaint of copyright infringement will now go to human review instead, which will most likely end in the same situation as when my class of law students, most of which does not even have a single artistic bone in their body, discussed if a few different shades of magenta constitutes as copyright infringement or not. Copyright law is weird y’all.

The memes!! Are also so fucking safe in this draft!!!

They’ve never really been in danger though, but the parliament has gone the extra mile and clearly stated that memes, and all other transformative works as in “non-infringing works or other protectedsubject matter, including those covered byan exception or limitation to copyright”, is not part of the scope of this article and, in extension, the rest of the directive.

This covers fanart, fanfiction, edits, parodies, and just any and all transformative work you can think of. Whatever you’re thinking of and freaking out over, it’s most likely never been threatened to begin with.

And like. I get that this can seem all very scary and threatening, seeing how it deals with things that we’re all very passionate about i.e. the power struggle between copyright and transformative works, and on the very specific battle ground of the internet, which we are all very protective of and how the directive text doesn’t really give that much to go on, especially not for people not used to legalese. But what I need everyone to understand is that what the directive is aiming for, is the pirating industry. Of people taking very clearly copyrighted material and uploading it to the internet, without any own input, for public consumption, and for their own gain. This is what the directive is aiming to get a better grip on, and that is the scope the EU is giving the member states to regulate. Any and all transformative work is as safe as it’s ever been, both on and off the internet.

So no, your social media isn’t going to be shut down. No, the EU isn’t going to erase your fanworks and make you pay fines for it. And no, the EU isn’t going to ban memes, jesus christ, why would they even want to do that.

What the directive sets out to regulate is that “onlinecontent sharing service providers”, i.e. corporations such as Facebook and Youtube, have to take responsibility for the copyright infringement on their platforms. This will not in any way affect you as a user of said platform. Even if you’re such a vaguely shitty person that you upload an entire copyrighted movie in its unedited form to a video sharing platform, nothing is going to happen to you as an individual. At least not in relation to the directive, you can still be sued for copyright infringement due to your national laws, but that’s a whole other story. What the directive regulates is that it’s the platform’s obligation to give the copyright holder their fair share of the revenue, seeing how the infringement takes place on their platform. Hence the huge backlash from Youtube and the like. These huge, multi-billion companies, would suddenly have to take responsibility for the copyright infringement that takes place on their platforms on a daily basis.

And if you still think that’s unfair, then yeah, go wild, I guess.

But the hysteria that has spread across tumblr in particular, is so completely unfounded. As I’ve already stated, this is the draft of a directive, which means we really have no way of knowing how or when this is all going to fall out in the end, and copyright law is already so fucking weird, that I have a really hard time seeing how this will even make a dent in the status quo of things.

So just. Please. Calm down. This is not even anywhere near as bad as everyone is crying and screaming about it being. Unless you’re a money sucking social media platform or a political Pirate, then you probably still think this is pretty fucking bad. CoughcoughJuliaRedacoughcough.

And, as usual, this has just derailed to me babbling on without really knowing where I’m heading. But also as usual, don’t be afraid to ask me follow-up questions, and I’ll try to answer them as clearly as I can!! I also highly recommend everyone to read through the commission’s FAQs regarding the directive! Their answers can get a little technical at times though, so if you need help translating what they’re saying or just want to clear anything up, don’t be afraid to ask!

But just. Please. Please. Everyone calm down. You’re all giving me heart palpitations just thinking about this whole mess.

[jadelyn]

I am literally sick with anger.

So, for those who don't know, California is burning again. A fire sparked Thursday morning up near Chico, was 8,000 acres by midday (when I walked out of my office to go get lunch, took one breath, looked up, and went "oh shit, how close is it this time?" because of how thick the smoke was), almost 20,000 acres by that night, and as of this morning was nearing 100,000 acres. It's only about 5% contained last I looked. There are nine confirmed fatalities, 35 people missing still. The town of Paradise, population a bit under 30k, is just...gone. Like, the whole town. 90% of the structures in that town were destroyed. The fire came through so fast, people had to abandon their cars on the gridlocked streets and run for it on foot. I've heard that this is the most destructive wildfire in California history. It's Really Bad - worse even than the Sonoma fires last year.

And guess what the fucking fascist occupying the fucking White House said today?

First of all: Our forested land? More than half of it is under management of the fucking Feds, not state agencies. We don't GET to manage SHIT, you towering lump of human excrement. If mismanagement is the problem, look to your own, except that you seem to like that kind of incompetence so you'd probably praise them for it.

Second: You probably don't know this, because you haven't heard it on Fox and Friends and we all know that's your only source of education, but California is one of the 13 "net payer" states that fucking subsidizes the rest of this fucking country. On average, most states get back about $1.20 per dollar of taxes paid to the feds. This is only possible because of states like California, who actually pay MORE to you useless fucks than you send back our way. So don't you fucking dare act like you're pouring money into us out of the goodness of whatever passes for your "heart", giving you any right to judge what gets done with it. That flow goes the other fucking way.

Third: You ignorant, lying sack of assholes, shut that fucking prolapsed anus on your face masquerading as a mouth. Wildfires will always happen, to some extent, in a climate that's as dry as ours. But they've definitely gotten worse within my lifetime, and it's accelerated over the last few years, and you wanna know why? It's because of you and your fucking cronies who have gleefully driven the global climate into the ground. It's a coastal desert, sure, but our regular droughts have gotten worse and worse, rain comes later and later and stops sooner and sooner each year, setting the stage for red-flag fire conditions that take what should have been a small blaze, quickly contained, and whip it into a monstrous disaster consuming WHOLE. FUCKING. CITIES. And that? Is LITERALLY YOUR FUCKING FAULT.

I am sitting here in tears, shaking and ready to throw up from the force of my suppressed, futile, useless rage. People have DIED, you fucking cunt. A whole fucking town that was here two days ago is GONE. Just fucking gone! The whole town is gone, do you understand that? The survivors have lost EVERYTHING.

And your first response is to sit there and smugly tweet these lies and that victim-blaming horseshit? You're going to sit there and try to make this about the money? Take this opportunity to try to kick us while we're down, because you're a bitter soulless creature who can't pass up a chance to put the boots in when you see someone who's defied you in a moment of vulnerability?

I am personally going to throw the biggest fucking block party in history when you finally fall off the face of this planet. We will plaster the buildings with huge posters of your least-flattering photos and most humiliating moments. There will be an effigy that everyone is invited to come piss on. Bring your dogs, have them piss on it too! Prizes for getting your aim closest to the mouth or eyes!

And I've reblogged stuff saying this before, but it bears repeating again:

IF YOU VOTED FOR TRONALD DUMP

IF YOU SUPPORTED HIM

IF YOU LOOKED THE OTHER WAY WHILE YOUR FRIENDS SUPPORTED HIM

IF YOU "VOTED YOUR CONSCIENCE" BY STAYING HOME THAT DAY AND ALLOWING THIS TO HAPPEN

GET. THE FUCK. OUT.

Unfollow me right the fuck now. I don't care if you're a mutual since the day I started this blog. Get out. Go. I cannot sit here, smelling smoke even through my closed doors and windows, that bastard's words in front of me, and find it anywhere in my heart to forgive you for what you've caused. Even if you've changed your mind since then. That's cool, I guess, but take your shame and your changed ways somewhere else, away from me.

[mewnyan]

i feel this post so much as a filipino 😭 we don't have explicit political comedy here in the philippines since the last time our news barely scratched the surface about duterte's extrajudicial killings, an entire channel got taken off air through legal bullshit (not to mention our uh, deadliest country for journalists statistic). on the other hand, politicians in my country still need to garner some sort of celebrity status or else people would simply not give a shit about them or worse, be victims of negative propaganda by our conservative politicians. so we're in a kind of in-between state where politicians don't usually appear on shows as politicians when it isn't campaign season (if theyre not the host of the show already) but use other media streams to become more relatable to people.

it really is a complicated situation bc i too want to have the ideal of people voting according to a candidate's ability and platforms alone, disregarding how "human" or "relatable" they are, but also having to reconcile with the fact that humans will naturally be a tad bit irrational and thus vote the one they could easiest empathize with.

last year, my country elected a former dictator's son through a combination of wide scale disinformation/historical revisionism and this sort of "comedy washing" through youtube and tiktok (look how theyre goofing off in this photoshoot while wearing hoodies!). the philippine president does travel vlogs, for christ's sake. unlike his rival, who stuck to more conventional campaign methods.

sometimes i think of what would happen if philippine television was allowed this sort of political commentary the likes of british tv. i'm quite proud of filipino comedy and we do tend to be brutally honest when allowed to be, so i'm genuinely curious about how our tv personalities (particularly our queer ones) would tackle issues if there weren't as much repercussions as there are now. there's already a lot of good stuff done just from subtle jabs alone, what more if they got actual words and names in? could the opposition be finally lent a voice in our political machinery? a lot of filipinos rejoiced when john oliver covered the 2022 philippine election, and i would really like to see all that from the voice of a filipino.

but at the same time that's another media stream to worry about, when our far right politicians are all rich elites who can artificially extend their influence however they want and everything that's been said about people voting because a candidate was funny or honest (like they already did with duterte).

it really sucks imo, and i cant give an exact answer either, unless we're willing to bother a university to conduct deep research about it. i also realize that i strayed so far from anon's question too lmfao

i guess if i have to answer i'd say, "whether or not a politician is given an appearance on a comedy show, they'll find other ways to turn the tides if they have enough resources and are slimy enough. so the very least a tv person can do is to acknowledge that they're a cog in politics and act accordingly." which is honestly pretty bleak!

anyway, i will use this space to say fuck you marcos!

what are your thoughts on politicians turning up on comedy shows? i ask because i noticed recently that i've become sort of desensitized to them, like on the recent episode of the last leg when they introduced the politician it barely registered, whereas when i first saw a politician on comedy tv it was really surreal. the problem i have with it is it seems to make them more likeable (or at least make an attempt to make them more likeable), to the point where i have to regularly remind myself that while they may come across as amusing or clever, in their day to day life they're enforcing a system that lets children starve and works people to death. i spoke about this with a friend who said politicians being on comedy shows was a good thing because it humanises people we disagree with and gives us a chance to understand their motives. anyway you know a lot about both comedy and politics, so i thought i'd ask your opinion on the matter, also im curious as to what the situation is like in canada with regards to politicians going on entertainment tv.

what are your thoughts on politicians turning up on comedy shows? i ask because i noticed recently that i've become sort of desensitized to them, like on the recent episode of the last leg when they introduced the politician it barely registered, whereas when i first saw a politician on comedy tv it was really surreal. the problem i have with it is it seems to make them more likeable (or at least make an attempt to make them more likeable), to the point where i have to regularly remind myself that while they may come across as amusing or clever, in their day to day life they're enforcing a system that lets children starve and works people to death. i spoke about this with a friend who said politicians being on comedy shows was a good thing because it humanises people we disagree with and gives us a chance to understand their motives. anyway you know a lot about both comedy and politics, so i thought i'd ask your opinion on the matter, also im curious as to what the situation is like in canada with regards to politicians going on entertainment tv.

First of all, I love this message. I think it’s a very good question about a complicated issue to which I definitely don’t know the perfect answer, but it’s an important thing to think about. Honestly, this is a problem created by seeing stuff on TV and just taking it at face value, so people asking this question at all is a movement toward a solution.

It’s also lovely that you think of me as someone who knows a lot about this stuff, but I’m obviously not an expert on anything, and will defer to the many people who know more than I do about how this works. I’m definitely not an expert on British politics, as I get my news from CBC shows that cover Canadian news in detail and then give and overview of the big international stories. Besides that, most of what I know about British politics comes from comedy shows, and as a related issue to what you brought up, comedy shows should never be anyone’s primary source of news.

I also hope you’ll forgive me if I go a bit beyond the question you asked, just because it’s something I’ve been thinking about lately. How having politicians on a political comedy show is almost always bad, but more than that, just mixing politics and comedy at all can be dangerous. That’s related to what you asked me about but not exactly what you asked me about… sorry for going a bit off topic.

Okay. There is a term for what you’re talking about, which is “comedy washing”. Where someone – it can be a politician, but it doesn’t have to be – goes on a comedy show, or appears somewhere with comedians, to rehabilitate or just improve their public image. A similar concept to “sports washing”, the thing everyone’s been talking about lately because of Quatar trying to use the big soccer tournament to cleanse their reputation (obviously there are many different degrees for how bad this is – Angela Rayner appearing on The Last Leg does not mean she’s covering up responsibility for the deaths of thousands of migrant workers).

The quintessential example of this is Boris Johnson, and how he appeared on Have I Got News For You a bunch of times before he rose to political fame. Here’s an article that summarizes that issue, and does show both sides of it, including the argument that you can’t attribute his success solely to six appearances on a TV show. Which is true, of course, and I can’t say for sure how much blame they deserve. But I think there’s a compelling case that they deserve at least a bit of it.

Boris Johnson got where he is because people thought he was funny. A lot of people who voted for him will say that almost word for word – they voted for him because it seemed like it would be a laugh. Comedy shows helped Boris Johnson’s campaign every time they made him a figure of comedy – by having him on the comedy shows, or even just by making enough jokes about him.

I’ve seen a lot of people talk in the last ten or fifteen years about whether political comedy can do good, whether something like The Daily Show or Last Week Tonight succeeds in its aim of educating people about important issues and promoting good causes (again, no one should get most of their news from anything like that, not even from Last Week Tonight with my hero John Oliver, and John Oliver himself will be the first to say so). But it’s only in the last very few years that I’ve seen much talk about whether political comedy, even good and progressive political comedy, is doing harm.

My own views on that have been shifting lately and I’m not even completely sure what I think, but I believe now more than I used to that anyone who does comedy about the news has a responsibility to be careful. Because when you make fun of someone, even if it’s in a really mean way, you’re making them funny. Someone who seems funny seems palpable, and not so dangerous, and people will vote for them for a laugh. A joke about someone’s harmful policies can educate people, make an important point, or just provide catharsis to those who are hurt and angry. A joke about someone’s hair makes them funnier and therefore more electable.

I love political comedy and I don’t mean it’s always harmful, just that it can be. I want to give some credit to Nish Kumar, for how hard he’s tried to make a political comedy career while being careful of those pitfalls. It’s stuck with me that in an early episode of The Mash Report, he discussed the “Boris Johnson on the zipline” thing, but not to say, “ha ha, the guy got stuck”. Nish pointed out that the guy clearly got stuck intentionally stuck there as a publicity stunt and everyone’s falling for it. In Late Night Mash, there’s a bit in the background of the set, where it lists joke headlines, that says: “Idiots still calling him ‘Boris’.” Which is another good point. We don’t say “Kier” or “Jeremy” or “Ed”. Even on the Tory side, people don’t say “David” or “Teresa”. Boris Johnson intentionally created a situation where he’s the only politician who goes by just one name, and it’s a fairly silly name (one that he chose, because it’s not his real first name), so he’d seem more fun that the others.

That’s a whole other thing – here’s a post I made last year that has a clip of Andrew Maxwell, of all people, pointing out how the first name thing works. Calling it a “stage name”, which I think is such a good description. Boris Johnson (and other politicians – all politicians do this, Boris Johnson is just one who did it extremely well) curates his image the same way comedians do. Uses a stage name, a stage persona, his own USPs. He wants to be a comedy character, and so many comedy shows play right into that.

Of all the British comedy shows I’ve seen, The Last Leg is the most guilty of this (though I’ve never seen Have I Got News For You). They’re aware of it, too. They had Boris Johnson on as a guest in their second season, and since then, Adam Hills has taken many opportunities to tell us that just before walking onto their set, Boris Johnson looked in a mirror and then messed up his hair until he was happy that it looked bad enough. Adam points out that this means the silly appearance is a curated ruse, which is true. But I sometimes find it frustrating that he’ll say that, and then go on to make more jokes about the hair, not seeming bothered that he just told us that’s exactly what Boris Johnson wants.

Those are some things I’ve been thinking about lately with political comedy in general, and any palpable-izing effect of jokes made about someone are magnified if that person actually appears on the show. For a politician who relies on that effect, it can make a whole career. Which is why I think something as innocuous-sounding as six appearances on Have I Got News For You does deserve at least a bit of the blame it gets for Boris Johnson’s rise to fame.

Having said that, Boris Johnson was a special case, and this won’t do the same thing for every politician. I don’t think Angela Rayner is going to become Prime Minister because it was funny when she electrocuted Alex Brooker on live TV. But still, it all adds up.

I’ll admit I have a bias as well. If The Last Leg brings on a Tory, I’ll think they really shouldn’t be doing this, they’re contributing to people seeing that as the fun person on TV instead and forgetting all the bad things they do. If they bring on someone from Labour or Lib Dems, I’ll think it’s not great, due to the principle of political integrity, but it’s not that bad. When in reality, political integrity should apply across the board. In a perfectly principled world, no politician would make any public appearances, because they don’t want to gain votes based on charm or charisma. They’d all lay out their plans in some spreadsheet that’s on the internet for all to see, and people would vote according to those.

I’ll say this: I liked Sayeeda Warsi when all I knew about her was The Last Leg and Taskmaster. Until one day I decided to actually look up her voting record, and… yeah, it seems that she is, as she presents herself, much better than the rest of the current Tories. But that’s a low enough bar so being much better than them can still include a history of voting for some pretty bad stuff. Also, being a member of the House of Lords has a certain amount of inherent moral indefensibility.

The Last Leg also made me really like Nick Clegg, which is probably fine on a practical level because he wasn’t going to accomplish anything on the back of that (of me, a Canadian with no say in UK politics, watching his appearance on a show nearly ten years after it happened and long after he’d moved on from politics), but the point is that no comedy show should be making me like anyone. Nick Clegg was going along with a lot of bad stuff in a coalition government at the time, and no one’s focus should have been taken off that to laugh at Alex Brooker pressing a Bullshit button while he spoke.

Over the years, The Last Leg has also had on Ed Miliband, Jeremy Corbyn, Alastair Campbell, Jess Phillips, Mhairi Black, and Boris Johnson’s father and sister. I’ve had various reactions to all of them, as I like some of those people much better than others, but really, if principle still mattered, none of them would have been there. It’s all comedy washing, even if I think that according to my own biases, comedy washing Mhairi Black is pretty cool.

I still love The Last Leg, even though the comedy washing is one of several things I can criticize about it. And that’s mainly because, at this point, I think there are just so many worse things out there. Politicians are so far beyond integrity right now that this seems like nothing. They’re going on reality shows. They’re breaking rules right out in the open and no one cares. They don’t have to go on comedy shows to rehabilitate their image because scandals don’t bother anyone anymore anyway.

Comedy washing is so much more than this, too. It’s Elon Musk at that Dave Chappelle show. It’s Matt Hancock in the jungle. It’s Alastair Campbell facilitating war crimes and then getting a game show to make a joke out of it. For that matter, there’s an argument that my favourite TV show, The Thick of It, helped Campbell out by basing beloved character Malcolm Tucker on him. Campbell probably did get some of what he has now, the chance to appear on panel shows and things like that, because he can be marketed as “real life Malcolm Tucker”. In a perfectly principled world, no one in politics would be marketed as anything.

For a faster summary than I can make of any of this, here’s a Munya Chawawa video where the joke is that he’s playing a “posh drill rapper” called Unknown P, releasing a single called Piers Morgan. The joke there is that Unknown P, who’s an asshole, really likes Piers Morgan, because Piers Morgan is also an asshole. And here’s Piers Morgan reacting to that video, because from where he sits, it’s just fun to have the attention.

To be clear, I don’t think that means Munya Chawawa did anything wrong (I think Munya Chawawa may have never done anything wrong in his entire life, except when he tripped and dropped all those ducks on Taskmaster). It’s not a good solution to just never put anything out there because you can’t control how it will be received. Munya Chawawa has made some really sharp, informed political comedy, and he’s also made some fun and silly videos, and I don’t want him to stop just because Piers Morgan doesn’t give a shit about context. I also don’t want all political comedy to stop just because no one gives a shit about context anymore. But the more important the issue they’re taking on, the more responsibility I think comedians have to consider what effects they could have.

The situation I’ve set up as a perfectly principled world is a an impossibly high standard. Compared to that standard, everything is comedy washing. Technically, Mark Watson advertising cider is comedy washing, if we consider that alcohol causes serious societal problems and that’s a political issue. If we start with the idea of a perfectly principled world, then everything’s comedy washing, and therefore we may as well assume that nothing is. Politicians are never going to just stop appearing on television altogether.

So what this means is some compromises away from perfect integrity have to be made. The question then becomes how much compromise we’re willing to accept. Personally, in light of all the other shit going on, I can live with Angela Rayner on The Last Leg. It’s so much less bad than what other people are doing, I think it’s barely worth the energy it takes to complain about it. But it’s still not great. It’s a move I wish The Last Leg wouldn’t make.

So, those are some thoughts I have in general. To respond to your specific message (which this post hasn’t done all that much, and I’m sorry about that, it’s mostly because you happened to touch on an issue where I’m not fully sure about all my own views), I see your friend’s point about it humanizing people we disagree with. I can see why it might not seem great when I say this, but that’s exactly why I think it’s dangerous. I think we shouldn’t be seeing politicians, for better or worse, for their human qualities. We should judge them on their record. On their stated intent, and on their history of sticking to that intent.

If I disagree with a politician, it’s probably for good reasons. It’s probably because they’re doing things that are harming vulnerable people. I don’t want to “see the human side” of a person like that, and maybe have it make me ignore what they do and like them anyway. But on the other side, I shouldn’t even “see the human side” of a politician I do like, and then vote for them just because they were charming on TV. If they have a good record, let that speak for itself.

I know it’s more complicated than that, I know in many cases there’s no perfect thing for a politician to do. I know that not every politician I disagree with is automatically evil – some of them are people who also want the best for everyone, and just have different ideas from me about how to achieve that. But also, lots of them are charlatans who just want to line the pockets of their own people at the expense of everyone else. And in practice, it doesn’t matter if they’re a charlatan or a good person with a different opinion or even someone who shares my opinion. In any of those cases, they should be judged on their actions and not on their TV presence.

You asked about Canada as well, which is a good question. We don’t have quite the same thing here, as we don’t have panel shows, and the whole panel show culture, in quite the same way. Our current Prime Minister was famous before he was elected, but only because his father was Prime Minister before him (which is a whole other type of not great, but trust me, our only currently viable alternative is worse). We have lots of vapid morning shows and things like that, so lots of opportunities for politicians to go on TV and try to be human at us. But not so much in the way of things that are explicitly comedy shows.

The biggest Canadian equivalent I can think of is the Rick Mercer Report, the now-canceled CBC show hosted by Canadian comedian/national treasure Rick Mercer. He traveled over the country, did weird stunts, made jokes about the news, and interviewed people, including lots of politicians. Sometimes top-level politicians. Those politicians went on there and looked human.

Honestly, I don’t think Rick Mercer did any damage to the Canadian political system, partly because he is a national treasure who’s never done anything wrong in his life (I’m joking, kind of), and partly because, unlike UK panel shows, it was just never popular enough to permeate the Canadian public consciousness. Most people here mainly watch American media. Voter apathy’s a big problem, like it is everywhere. Most Canadians don’t know most of our own politicians, because we don’t show them off on popular entertainment programs, and too many people don’t watch the actual news.

So there is an argument for the other side. In Britain, maybe politicians on comedy shows will bring more people into noticing politics, when otherwise they just wouldn’t bother. If you add up the good done on that front and subtract the harm done by comedy washing, I genuinely have no idea where you end up. I’m sure you end up in a different spot every time, though. It’s complicated. The point is that it’s fucking complicated.

So, thanks again for the message. I genuinely apologize for getting so far away from your original question, I didn't realize I had this much to say until I started writing. I hope that something, somewhere in this giant screed, sort of gave you the answer you were looking for.

And like I said, I'm no expert. There's no reason why my thoughts on this are more valid than anyone else's, and just being engaged with thinking about this is a good thing for anyone to do. So, you know, draw your own conclusions. The main thing that matters here is someone asked me that question, and I thought about it a lot and then answered it, and hopefully other people will read this and think they’re own thoughts about it. And more importantly, hopefully this is happening out there on a bigger scale than my tiny blog. Comedy washing is one of the few ruses that can be beaten just by wanting to beat it, by being aware of the problem and choosing to think beyond what you’re shown on TV. By looking up Sayeeda Warsi’s voting record after she makes you laugh on Taskmaster. By looking up Angela Rayner’s voting record after she makes you laugh on The Last Leg, even if she’s from your preferred party and you like her. Look up everyone’s voting record, all the time, because it’s the only thing that doesn’t lie! That’s how you beat the system. That’s the one thing I’m quite sure about.

Well, one of the two things. I’m also sure that Piers Morgan can go fuck himself.