#and if they call for a boycott I shall

[kaiyonohime]

Wait, final season?  There are plans for a third season?

If the writers strike continues past the release of season 2 of Good Omens, should we hold off watching it? I’m still a little fuzzy on if watching new shows on streaming services is okay or not. Some have said it’s ok, others have said only watch old things, and others have said drop the steaming services.

NObody is asking anyone to boycott anything yet. If there is a call for a boycott, everyone will know. For know, one way to help pay the people the strike is affecting is to watch the things they made.

It gives us more leverage with Amazon to end the strike if Good Omens is hugely successful, because then they might want the final season. If nobody watches it, it's harder to get them to want to end the strike to make more. (My opinion.)

[yutasbellybuttonpiercing]

i'm going to start it here as well.

unfollow riize, boycott sm, unfollow sm official accounts, do not interact with sm official posts, do not stream sm artists' songs, sign the petition, spread the hashtags, and if you really desperately need to buy merchandise, do so secondhand.

sm stocks have been dropping, as well as riize following numbers, this is getting bigger and bigger.

and it's not only about seunghan at this point. this could make a huge difference in the entire kpop industry in terms of harassment, bullying and artist mistreatment.

seunghan was bullied out of riize by antis who call themselves ot6 briize, they sent a thousand funeral wreaths, that were adorned with hateful messages, demands for seunghan to leave the group, and threats of bullying him until he would end his life, to be aligned in front of the sm building for him to see. seunghan had to walk by them, and alone at that, as if attending his own funeral. this is cruel, and i honestly have no words at this point.

sm is known to mistreat their artists, to ignore sasaengs and bullying online (we've seen it with renjun recently), and that is exactly why we need to act. yes this is for seunghan, we want justice for seunghan, but this could have happened to your idol too, and it still can. by removing seunghan from the group, sm showed these bullies that no matter what, as long they are loud and cruel enough, they can destroy any idols life they want.

all he did was have a girlfriend and smoked pre debut, he didn't do anything wrong, yet other, actual criminals, (who shall remain unnamed, i think you all know who i'm referring to) did not receive anything like seunghan did for simply living his life.

i'm on my knees and begging you. please participate in the boycott. please please please.

[misshorrorotaku]

people used to be able to boycott entire transit systems…. nowadays ask someone to boycott mcdonalds or starbucks and here they go talking about how “it’s my comfort food!” “it’s hard to break out of coffee habits!!” “but it’s close to where i live!!”

Like seriously there is soo many mom and pop shops that need support and are sooo much better then StarBucks and McDonalds! You just have to look hard.

There is no excuses to keep funding genocide.

Boycott!

Permanent ceasefire!

From the river to the sea Palestine shall be free!

How could boycotting anything stop a foreign war we aren't a major player in? It seems like an empty gesture meant to make you feel like you're doing something whilst not actually doing anything to help. The Palestinian people also have not asked for boycotts or anything. So why do you think it's gonna help?

And a permanent ceasefire has been rejected by Hamas. Just as they have over and over for decades. How do you suggest a permanent ceasefire happen when the Palestinian governments do not want one?

This statement is actually a call to genocide and the actual translation is "from the water to the water, Palestine will remain Arab."

[eretzyisrael]

by Corey Walker

Arguing that anti-Zionist activists are part of a long tradition of “freedom fighters” and “liberators,” Hill implored the US federal government to revoke all economic and diplomatic assistance to Israel, including support at the United Nations Security Council. He also argued that defeating Zionism is a necessary stepping stone on the path to ultimately dismantling capitalism.

“Stop it! Tell the truth! Stand up for freedom!” he said. “Do the work of liberation! Until Palestine is free, until Sudan is free, until Congo is free, until Haiti is free, not one single one of us free! Free Palestine, from the river to the Motherf—king sea!” Hill said, triumphantly pumping a balled fist in the air. 

“From the River to the Sea, Palestine shall be free” — a popular slogan among anti-Israel activists — has been widely interpreted as a call for the destruction of the Jewish state, which is located between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea.

The Algemeiner asked the panelists why there was no mention of Oct. 7 or Hamas when discussing the causes of the ongoing war in Gaza. The outlet also asked whether the panelists believe Hamas should surrender in exchange for the sake of preserving Palestinian life.

“I feel like we have this reflexive take in American media politics where we have to say, ‘What about Hamas?'” Hill said in response in a mocking tone, adding that invoking the terrorist group is “unnecessary” and “excessive.”

“Hamas hasn’t surrendered because they’re still under brutal occupation. Hamas hasn’t surrendered because Israel has never given the Palestinian people one minute, one moment of self-determination, freedom, or liberation,” Hill said. 

“And so, when you talk about Hamas, when you talk about Oct. 7, you [should] also talk about Oct. 6. Because, history didn’t start on Oct. 7,” he continued.

Hill went on to say that although it is against his “moral code” to maim, rape, and slaughter thousands innocent civilians or abduct hundreds of innocent bystanders, as Hamas-led Palestinian terrorists did on Oct. 7, he believes that it is not his “job to tell people how to liberate themselves.”

“The question presumes, and it is undergirded by a kind of orientalist, white supremacist idea that Palestinians are these unyielding, barbaric, uncivilized, premodern people that are incapable of negotiation.”

The academic then defended Hamas as a “democratically-elected organization that has been systematically undermined.” He urged the audience not to talk about Hamas “like they’re some irrational crazy people,” arguing that the Islamist group’s actions are motivated by a “backdrop of Israeli settler-states that sexually abuse people, that steal land, that kill people.”

“Let’s have a real conversation about Hamas, not the neoliberal, dishonest, orientalist conversation about Hamas,” Hill concluded. 

Hill has a long history of peddling anti-Israel narratives and calling for explicit violence against the Jewish state. In 2018, Hill was fired from his position as a CNN contributor for calling for “free Palestine from the river to the sea,” a phrase which according to critics implies a genocide or mass expulsion of Jews from Israel. He has also voiced support for the boycott, divestment, and sanctions movement (BDS), an initiative which seeks to isolate Israel from the international community as the first step toward its eventual destruction. The pundit additionally praised antisemitic Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan — a hate preacher who has referred to Jews as “termites” and called Nazi leader Adolph Hitler “a very great man.” In 2019, Hill skewered mainstream media outlets as “Zionist” organizations, a nod to the antisemitic conspiracy theory notion that Jews control the media. The progressive activist also pushed an unsubstantiated claim that Israel is “poisoning” Palestinian drinking water.

Following the panel, The Algemeiner was pulled aside by a pair of individuals connected to the event and grilled about the publication’s position on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and whether it supported “black solidarity with the Palestinian community.”

[pluckyredhead]

"Barry is a character who was consciously designed to fit the zeitgeist of America and specifically the comics industry of the mid-1950s in the immediate aftermath of the Comics Code Authority (ask me about my theory on this!)" - here I am, asking (for real, I know next to nothing about Barry so I would be interested to hear more if you want to elaborate)

Yessss I would love to elaborate!

So apologies if this is stuff you already know, but the first Flash was Jay Garrick, who debuted in 1940, during what's called the Golden Age of Comics. There's no universal agreement on what the exact date range is for the Golden Age (or Silver, Bronze, etc.), but a range you'll often see is 1938 (the debut of Superman) to 1955.

However, with superhero comics, when we say Golden Age, we're really mostly talking about World War II, because after the war, superheroes became much less popular. At the time, monthly comics included lots of genres, like crime, horror, romance, humor, war, Westerns, sci-fi, etc., and crime and horror in particular became increasingly popular in the postwar years. Some of them also became increasingly violent, sexy, and edgy, in part to retain the audience of returning GIs from overseas, who had read comics to remind them of home during the war.

However, the primary audience for comics was children. Children who could easily buy a comic for a dime and read it without parental supervision. Children who could be turned into juvenile delinquents by reading comic books!

There was a massive backlash against comics in the late 40s and early 50s, led by parents and other "moral authorities" (teachers, librarians, churches) who thought comics were bad for kids. Most of you reading this will have seen similar parental backlash against whatever the target of the moment is: gangster movies, crooners, rock 'n' roll, rap, heavy metal, video games, Dungeons and Dragons, Harry Potter. (I'm not talking about JKR's wretched transphobia here but the fear in the late 90s that Harry Potter would turn kids into Satanists or whatever.)

There were boycotts. There were bonfires where all the kids in town would have to bring all their comics to be burned. There was Seduction of the Innocent, a book by psychologist Frederic Wertham where he claimed to have proven that comics turned kids into juvenile delinquents (he hadn't). Many people left the industry for good, and a lot of them later talked about those days with genuine trauma. I highly recommend the book The Ten-Cent Plague: The Great Comic Book Scare and How It Changed America for more on this, but it's fascinating, and necessary reading for those of y'all on this webbed site who think we need to bring back the Hays Code and its ilk.

This all culminated in Senate hearings in 1954 to determine whether comics were harmful to children. (Fun fact: these hearings began on the same day as the McCarthy hearings. Political repression and artistic repression always go hand in hand.) In the aftermath of these hearings, the comic book industry created the Comics Code Authority, because that way they could self-regulate instead of being regulated by the government.

The Comics Code was a list of what could and could not be in comics. It was mostly what you'd expect - no sex or violence - but also a lot of conservative 1950s censorship. Like: "Policemen, judges, government officials, and respected institutions shall never be presented in such a way as to create disrespect for established authority." That's...pretty totalitarian.

Comic book publishers would submit comics for approval to the CCA. If they passed, the comic would be published with a seal on the cover saying "Approved by the CCA." They didn't need the seal to publish, but if they didn't have the seal, most vendors wouldn't sell the comic. So most of them pretty much had to comply.

So what does this all have to do with Barry Allen?

As I said earlier, superheroes fell in popularity after WWII, and many books were canceled. Jay Garrick's last Golden Age appearance was in 1951, and he hung on longer than most. But after the CCA, the landscape of comics had changed, and DC decided to see if they couldn't make the superhero work in this brave new world.

So in 1956 they took the idea of the Flash - guy who runs fast - and changed everything else about him. The new Flash was named Barry Allen, and he was a police scientist with a snazzy new costume. He was an immediate hit, DC went on to revamp a number of other characters in similar fashion, and a new era was born. Literally: many scholars date the start of the Silver Age of Comics to Barry's debut.

It's worth noting, I think, that DC was staunchly behind the creation of the CCA. Their stock in trade was superheroes, who were mostly considered harmless. But the backlash against comics and the creation of the CCA seriously harmed a lot of their competitors, and eventually put the ultra-popular EC Comics, who specialized in horror and crime, out of business.

I'm not saying DC had Barry in mind already when they supported the formation of the CCA. But they saw that the field had been cleared and there was an opportunity to bring their main genre back to the forefront. And then they created a squeaky clean, incredibly white guy from the Midwest. Who is a scientist, because 1950s kids need to be inspired to go into science so that we can beat those Ruskies to the moon! But who is also a cop, because kids need to respect law and order, or else. (This was also an era in which former vigilantes Superman and Batman were officially deputized by their respective local police forces.)

None of this means that Barry is a bad character, or that his Silver Age comics aren't good, because they are actually extremely innovative and very fun. But it does mean that he was created as essentially copaganda for children during an era of intense political conservatism in the US and deep fear in the comic book industry. He worked well in the 50s and 60s (DC in the 60s was basically still living in the 50s, which is why everyone older than 10 switched to Marvel) but increasingly less well as the world around him changed, and DC's attempts to modernize him in the 70s and early 80s (killing off Iris so that he could be a swingin' bachelor living in...wait for it...an apartment building!!!) were just kind of embarrassing. Barry's death in Crisis on Infinite Earths is the most noble death I've ever read in comics, but it was also a mercy killing.

I think Barry could be updated for the 21st century in a way that is true to his roots but doesn't make him feel like a relic or a jerk. But so far, DC hasn't really bothered? Instead we get moments like Barry declaring that Hal is the only JLAer who really gets him because "we're both cops" or arresting a Black 12-year-old for graffiti-ing an already destroyed building. Oof, friends. Oof.

In conclusion, Barry was designed for major cultural and industry-wide changes of the mid-1950s but that was 70 years ago and the man desperately needs a makeover that is not putting on his nephew's personality like an ill-fitting suit and saying "How do you do, fellow kids?" The end.

[determinedorca]

If you support Isreal, Zionism and the beyond horrific genocide of Palestine and its people I want you nowhere near me, my blogs or any of my social medias. You are not welcome here and you will be blocked if I find you. The acts of genocide are barbaric. There is no excuse for what they have done. 75 years of genocide, occupation and apartheid. There is no excuse or justification for the hell Palestine is being put through.

This isn't a war, this is a genocide.

In the past few months through social media I have seen the mutilated and charred bodies of women, men, children. Seen the bombs come down and annihilate on home and anything in their paths. Seen innocent civilians get shot at during the four day "cease fire" if you can even call it that. I have seen Isreal tell the people of Palestine to move to the safe zones time and time again only for them to immediately target the "safe zones".

Just today I saw multiple videos of tanks following people displaced from their homes. Imagine being displaced from your home as it gets shelled, your family murdered, having the constant gunfire and explosions of bombs, having to stare down the barrel of a military tank pointed at you.

I cannot get the video of the two girls on a roof of their home that was targeted by a bomb look down and scream in agony as they see their father burning in the fires below out of my mind. I can't get the sounds of people screaming in terror out of my head.

Everyday I see people traumatised and crushed by a ruthless genocide, children starving and wounded. Dying. They aren't numbers. They are people. The people won't forget what Israel, The UK, The US and other governments who support Israel have done. The people won't forget the governments compliance and part. We won't forget.

Every day on TikTok I like, favourite and repost as much content of what's going on as I can.

Do not let this die out like it's some trend. This is a genocide, not a trend. Do not treat Palestine and it's people like they are gone for they aren't. Continue protesting, continue to boycott, continue to like share and also save content. There is very obvious censorship from most media platforms on this, it's important that we continue to show and spread what is happening.

You don't need Starbucks, you don't need Macdonalds, you don't need some sodding Stanley cup. Hit those who fund the genocide where it hurts, in the pockets. Boycotting is effective and it does work. Even if a company stops supporting them, let their pockets bleed and do not support them. They will try continuously to get your money back by offering discounts, prizes, exclusive items, even some of the restaurants increasing the quality of their food but do not let them get a penny out of you.

I stand with the people of Palestine.

From the river to the sea Palestine shall be free.

[rainbowcafelgbtqcenter]

Boycott Hogwarts Legacy

For those who aren't aware, Hogwards Legacy, an upcoming AAA title is being released this Friday, February 10th. Please consider joining your transgender siblings in boycotting its release - while you can separate the art from the artist in many situations, there are times when those artists, like JK Rowling and Kanye West, actively contribute to hate, violence, and anti-transgender legislation and it is simply not possible to separate art from the artist. Supporting Hogwarts Legacy during its release WILL back JK Rowling's beliefs and go directly towards her funding anti-transgender movements harming trans people in the United Kingdom.

Within the last month alone, JK Rowling has tweeted the following to her 14 million followers:

Describing trans women as men with "penises, male pattern baldness, and" r*pists, deserving to be forced into male-only UK prisons 1/30/2023

Stating it's "cruel, degrading," "torture" for cis women to share spaces with trans women 1/29/2023

"Deeply amused by those telling me I've lost their admiration due to the disrespect I show violent, duplicitous r*pists [ie. normal, everyday trans people]. I shall file your lost admiration carefully in the box where I keep my missing f*cks." 1/28/2023

Criticized gender-affirming care and puberty blockers for trans people 1/27/2023

Told a trans broadcaster to prove her woman-ness 1/22/2023

Advocated for hate speech and anti-trans protest 1/22/2023

Called UK politicians cowards for siding with trans people 1/11/2023

Your nostalgia does not justify trans trauma.

"But it looks so good!"

The game may look good because it's a well-polished AAA game, but the story itself has STRONG anti-Semitic themes - as the protagonist, you're tasked with stopping a goblin uprising and goblins of the wizarding world have been well-established as stand-ins for Jewish people. JK Rowling heavily based goblins in Hogwarts on Jewish stereotypes created by Nazis - Rowling has intentionally characterized her goblins as having big noses, working in banks, and known for being greedy. It's not a coincidence. Hogwarts Legacy has you play on the oppressors' side and prevent a literal slave uprising.

Don't buy it.

The people who worked on Hogwarts Legacy have already been paid - your purchase during its initial release isn't saving some starving artist, it funds JKR and makes her and her followers believe her views have value. Simply do not buy the game - don't donate a certain portion to trans charities and /then/ buy Hogwarts Legacy. By buying the game, you justify anti-trans laws and hatred - JK Rowling believes that her wizarding world is so amazing, so well-written that people will always support her no matter how anti-trans and anti-Semitic she is. Prove her wrong.

Don't stream it.

During the boycott, don't create or consume content supporting it. Creators on Twitch are already planning to boycott a mandated advert for Hogwarts Legacy that will play during ALL streams - even during trans and Jewish streams. The better content about Hogwarts Legacy does, the more people will purchase the game during the boycott.

Play alternatives.

There are PLENTY of other magic worlds to lose yourself in that don't fuel anti-trans hate and violence, like:

Witchy Life Story

Cozy Grove

Sun Haven

Potion Permit

Wylde Flowers

Potion Craft

Little Witch In The Woods

Ikenfell

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

Slay The Spire

Tell Me Why

Songs of Glimmerwick

Wizard 101

Lawmage Academy

Elden Ring

Dragon Age: Inquisition

Spiritfarer

Witchbrook

Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen

Switchcraft

Wizard of Legend

Potionomics

Hades

Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

[rosietrace]

〈 アイドル! 〉Vault Track — Solo Sensation

〈 天才的なアイドル様!! 〉

「↺ 概要 ↻」— 「 ↺ Overview/Synopsis! ↻ 」

❐ With the idol scene on the rise, Night Raven Entertainment found it opportunistic to promote their new and improved idol group; (Co)-Connect! Though the group has a lot to go about, the members are still in need of dire improvement before they can truly shine alongside their peers.

Fortunately, NRE found the perfect mentor for the job; The ex member of Poisoner — and long-time solo sensation — Shōri.

[ Apologies for any out of character moments ]

[ Reblogs > Likes ]

──ㅇ─────↻ ◁ II ▷ ↺───ㅇ────

「 2 Weeks before the release of “Ditto” 」

“Shōri!”

“Shōri, look here!”

“Shōri, is it true that you're replacing Koral Larrane as the opening act for the ‘Nonsense’ tour?”

Behind her sunglasses, Victoria had narrowed her eyes.

Behind her, Noriko was keeping the paparazzi — more specifically the reporters — at bay. That, at least, is something she is thankful for.

“Good news,” her secretary — H.T. (The initials of her full name) — walked beside her. “You're number one on the Spotify billboard charts.”

“And what of them?” Victoria questioned. The them being the idol group she left to pursue a solo career; Poisoner.

H.T. checked her tablet, and then answered, “Fifth in the charts.”

“Excellent,” Victoria declared a bit before her entrance to NRE was blocked by a sea of reporters.

“Shōri,” one of them held a microphone to her lips. “What do you have to say now that your latest single has stayed number one on the charts after three weeks?”

A polite smile graced her features. “I'm incredibly grateful,” she said, her composure — her posture — rivaling that of royalty.

“‘NOIR’ has been a very enjoyable project of mine. In both production and songwriting, dare I say that it's quickly become one of my favorite songs as of late.”

She and the reporter shared a collective chuckle. But before said reporter, or anyone else for that matter, could ask her more questions — Noriko took matters into his own hands and cleared the path to the entrance.

“I could inform security to disperse the press once we enter,” Noriko suggested. Behind their sunglasses (one that matched hers), Victoria could tell that they were worried.

She let out a sigh. “I believe that would be necessary,” she replied, the automatic doors to NRE opening before her.

“I'll go inform security on your behalf,” in less than a minute, Victoria's secretary drifted further into the building. Likely to do what Noriko had suggested for her boss’ sake.

Noriko stepped in front of her, extending a hand. “Shall we?” He said, head nodding to the elevator behind him.

Wanting nothing more than to return to her apartment, she took their hand in less than a heartbeat.

“We shall.”

•↻°─────────°↺•

Well, very quickly, Victoria's mood had soured. Mostly because of Crowley, but that's honestly not that surprising.

She didn't even have time to relax for a bit once she got to her apartment, apparently. Almost immediately, Crowley had placed a phone call and demanded that Victoria go to his office as soon as possible.

Now, Victoria was almost convinced that Crowley was going to call it quits on her career as an idol. Given the number of accusations made about her, the numerous boycotts caused by fans who once loved her for Poisoner, and her not-so-subtle bad blood with a former colleague; She wouldn't have been all that surprised if he fired her.

But nope. That wasn't the case, like, at all.

“So, let me get this straight,” Victoria leaned against her chair, her eyes squinted at Crowley, the pretentious CEO that he was.

“You,” she pointed at Crowley, “Want me to become a mentor?”

“That is what I said, yes,” Crowley nodded in confirmation.

Noriko scrunched their nose, but Victoria was the one to rip their thoughts out of their head.

“Why?” her face twisted in disbelief.

Crowley let out a long breath. “I believe you to be the best candidate, Shard,” he stated, his voice uncharacteristically stern. “All I ask of you is to be the personal mentor to the Ramshackle division’s newest unit.”

“With all due respect, sir, my lady has no obligation to accept such a request,” Noriko's voice was low, easily registerable, and equally as stern. They kept their hands behind their back, to hide their clenched fists.

“Watch your tongue, Dolion,” Crowley warned, his attention turning back to Victoria in less than a millisecond. “And you will accept.”

“What happens if I don't?”

“I don't think you want to hear the answer to that, my dear.”

“I feel obligated to say I do want to hear it, sir,” Victoria remarked, feeling tempted to grind her teeth together.

Crowley raised his chin, his expression cold and unfeeling. “I'll bring an end to your contract if you don't accept.”

Noriko's eyes widened. “That sounds a bit excessive-”

“Silence, Nori,” Victoria commanded, and Noriko obeyed without a second thought. Reading between the lines, she began seeing through Crowley's threat.

It certainly isn't an empty threat, he's more than capable of firing me, her thoughts seemed to be running as fast as a rollercoaster. However….

It became obvious to her; Crowley was bluffing. And once she figured it out, it didn't take long for Noriko to figure it out as well.

No way in hell would he fire me, she may have been a little overconfident in such an assumption, but Victoria felt like she had a right to feel that way. After all, I'm one of his biggest money-making machines…

Clicking her tongue, Victoria uncrossed her legs, adjusting her position in the chair. “I see,” of course she did. She saw through it all, every bluff, every detail.

“But why me, specifically?” as always, Victoria made sure to bring up the important questions.

Crowley huffed, but at least felt polite enough to give her the response she'd willingly force out of him.

“You seem to be the best candidate for this particular group,” oh? “You've been working with the company for longer than most others. And, aside from that, your experience in the industry is something (Co)-Connect can use as an example.”

She was intrigued to say the least. She'll have to look into it a bit more, naturally. Take it into consideration, almost certainly.

Placing her hands on Crowley's desk, Victoria got up from her chair, guided by Noriko out of his office.

Crowley got up as well, ready to stop her.

“Shard-”

“Our discussion has ended, sir.”

Victoria gave Crowley one last look, right as the doors slammed shut in front of them.

“However, be certain that I will take your offer into consideration.”

〈 Bonus 〉

User ‘caecuscaptures’, an anonymous Twitter/X account dedicated to posting photos of Shōri and her bodyguard, Noriko Dolion.

──ㅇ─────↻ ◁ II ▷ ↺───ㅇ────

〈 Taglist 〉

(Co)-Connect

@starry-night-rose • @jasdiary • @authoruio • @fumikomiyasaki • @sakuramidnight15

Others

@geminiiviolets • @terrovaniadorm / @celiica • @twistedsongstressofstarz / @absolutelyobsessedkiya • @twsted-princess

──ㅇ─────↻ ◁ II ▷ ↺───ㅇ────

[khalidistan]

A letter to diasporic Muslims and South Asians

Stop defanging your language at a time when unconditional support is needed for Palestine

To all the Muslims hand-wringing about Hamas, swearing you’re “one of the good ones,” and crafting your Instagram story calling for ceasefire and peace: let’s break this down, shall we? I’ll cover some of the most common liberal refrains that ultimately detract from how monumental this moment is and how revolutionary we need to be. Stop self-censoring and defanging your language pre-emptively in a time when unconditional support is needed for Palestine.

Full text under the cut.

“Why haven’t Palestinians tried non-violent means?”

They have. And they were brutally slaughtered. During the Great March of Return in 2018-2019, non-violent Palestinians protested along the fence separating Gaza from Israel. They were met with Israeli soldiers firing bullets with intent to kill or severely disable Palestinians (if you’re interested in disability politics and Palestine, I highly recommend Right to Maim by Jasbir Puar, who if you know me by now I am a super-fan of her and her work).

Palestinians both mainland and diasporic have also organized for “boycott, divestment, and sanctions” (BDS), a similarly non-violent method of protest, which have been met with doxxing, death threats, and blacklists.

“I stand with Palestinians, not Hamas”

Okay, but Palestinians elected Hamas in 2006. And when they did, Israel and the West used armed force to overthrow the election results.

Hamas’s attacks are not inexplicable or random. The resistance cannot be understood without the preceding decades of Israeli aggression, brutality, and land theft. The violence did not begin on October 7, 2023. It began 75 years before, with the occupation and dispossession of Palestine to Israeli settlers. But Western propaganda will make haste to manufacture consent. They will feed you lies and remind you that those brown people deserve massacring because they are “animals” and “savages” and “terrorists.” Every resistance force that has ever existed has been labeled “terroristic.”

“Revolution is not a dinner party. The resistance fighters in Hamas and other factions will be labeled ‘terrorists’ regardless of what they do. All their lives they have endured the settler-colonial terror that is zionism. When these guerrillas strike back at the foot soldiers of colonialism—the euro-settler masses stealing Palestinian land—they are denounced for targeting ‘innocent civilians.’ Settlers are not innocent, they are invaders.” —Lal Morich Bari and Third World PAISA

Is it not unfettered violence to steal homes that have belonged to Palestinians for generations? Is it not terroristic to hold 2.2 million Palestinians hostage, unable to move freely and without surveillance? Is it not diabolically evil to uproot and burn down native olive trees, cut off water and electricity, and bomb any convoy that attempts to bring food or health aid?

“It’s clear that the international community and the Western world has no problem with violence. Only a problem with the perpetrators of that violence,” says Mohammed el-Kurd.

The same people who want you to call Hamas “terrorists” are the ones for whom violence is quotidian, abetted, and entirely acceptable.

The delegitimization of Hamas comes down to colonial logic. The violence of Hamas will always be illegitimate because the violence of the colonized will always be uncivilized and backwards, while the colonizer can make a claim to “civility”, to “freedom” and “reason” —via onapittance on Twitter

Hamas, and the rest of armed Palestinian resistance, are the only ones keeping Palestine from being obliterated off the face of the earth. And it is not our place to criticize how the oppressed resist their colonizers. Palestinians can and should and will revolt the way they see fit. Where Hamas uses hang-gliders and garage-made rockets, Israel uses its billions of U.S. dollars in military training and weaponry to obliterate Palestinian life as they know it.

“If history is our guide, it clearly records that nothing of any great value has ever changed hands without a struggle, or at least a show of, or threat of, violence. Men simply don’t surrender what they think of as their privilege and property except by force. History itself is economically motivated class struggle.” —George Jackson

“But if I endorse these things, I’ll be subject to violence.”

Israel itself does not discriminate between Hamas and Palestinians in its ruthless bloodshed. Israel has targeted children’s hospitals, vehicles traveling along “safe routes” supposedly “protected” by Israel, and has self-proclaimed that they have no intents of precision, only mass destruction.

“the ‘condemning hamas’ ‘distinguishing hamas from palestinians’ is actually politically useless when the zionist state apparatus, for the past week, made no attempt to discriminate when mass spreading the most white supremacist tropes to manufacture consent for genocide.” —Joshua Briond

Your mild, tempered words will not save you from the indiscriminate, sweeping violence of your nation-state. We are already witnessing post-9/11 levels of mass hysteria and unbridled violence.

We bear witness to the violent, tragic murder of Wadea Al-Fayoume, a six-year-old boy in Chicago, and the critical injury of his mother Hanaan Shahin, at the hands of their landlord in Chicago. He stabbed Al-Fayoume to death, screaming “you Muslims must die!” In Michigan, a man was intercepted for a threat of terrorism, asking on social media if anyone wants to “go to Dearborn & hunt Palestinians.”

These threats are not exclusive to those who are visibly Muslim and Palestinian. The beating of America’s war-drum necessitates a nebulous definition of the enemy, which means all people who are politically brown are subject to violence. This means South Asians, Sikhs, Hindus, Arabs, and anyone who is perceived to fit that schema. On October 15, a Sikh teenager was assaulted on a New York City bus, in which the assailant attempted to tear off the young man’s turban and punched him repeatedly.

“Fine, Khalid. I get it. So now what? I’m feeling hopeless. Nothing I say or do matters.”

As non-Palestinians, it is not our place to lose hope, when Palestinians stand against the Israeli killing machine with unshakeable, unwavering love for their land and their people. They sustain hope against every odd. We must stand in solidarity with them, in our faith, in our actions, in our engagement with the movable masses.

Actionable solidarity can look like many things. Organizations like Democratic Socialists of America are running virtual phone-banks to call U.S. representatives urging them to halt funding to Israel. Cities across the world are organizing protests, teach-ins, seminars, and relevant film screenings. Consider reading websites like Decolonize Palestine and following Subhi Taha and Mohammed el-Kurd for succinct geopolitical analyses in video format. Connect with like-minded friends and family to organize locally, whether that looks like a debrief session, a vigil, a reading group. The information is overwhelming, yes, but so is the suffocating genocide of Palestinians. The least we can do to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with our siblings is to swallow our pride and approach learning with curiosity and humility.

By giving in to despair, we’d reject the immeasurable gift Palestinians remind us of every day: that in the face of overwhelming, unfathomable odds, if we struggle, we might just win. The Palestinian people are unbreakable, and their resistance inspires me every single day. They continue forward, surviving, with a fraction of comfort and necessities that we have. It is our revolutionary, moral responsibility to embrace hope and not succumb to nihilism.

[raamitsu-personal]

seeing this and now I’m genuinely upset and disappointed with bts as the “biggest” korean boy group in the world because I read from armys (mind you) the fact that this man enlisted in the military last month, and today he wrote “boycott” on his IG story even though it lasted for 30 minutes (the length of time is still plenty) - due to the ⭐️ bucks collaboration with his group. this man took a risk and made his stance clear with the fact that he didn’t want that shit. now I wonder what’s stopping bts to do this, when in fact they were the loudest when it comes to calling out hypocrisy, irony, discrimination, capitalism and et cetera??? this feels like being deceived through their lies and two-faced all over again and again, I am very upset with their silence.

now I hope this little act of bravery becomes a slap in armys’ face for the fact that they could have done such impactful actions rather than constantly reporting accounts for speaking up about genocide and silencing the Palestinians’ fans. majority of armys and bts should feel equivalently ashamed of themselves. truly the biggest yet the most useless community ever. sooner or later, these two’s loud silence over an ongoing genocide shall be dealt with heavily.

aside from bts, other kpop groups are also deeply complicit in the mass massacre that’s happening in Palestine and it is in fact so equally disappointing as well. maybe it’s true that all those dirty, bloody money seem to satisfy them more than an act of humanity towards those who needs help the most. they need to touch grass asap.

free palestine, now and forever. fuck these cowardices.

[girlactionfigure]

[News Story] 10:15am A Successful Operation - Lessons Learned Another time can talk about Israel’s current policy on Gaza, what’s right and wrong about it, but for now I want to focus on what we accomplished and what we exposed in this round of fighting in Operation Shield and Arrow. Speaking of which, I first want to point this out from 2 Melachim 19:32, as people were wondering why they didn't call it Operation Bow and Arrow, since it started on Lag B'Omer. "Assuredly, thus said the LORD concerning the king of Assyria: He shall not enter this city: He shall not shoot an  arrow  at it, Or advance upon it with a  shield, Or pile up a siege mound against it." That happened to be the Perek Yomi on the day the campaign started, in Project 929 – so either someone’s been learning their Tanach, or God has a funny sense of humor, or both. The most obvious accomplishment was the successful policy/strategy change of returning to targeted assassinations of senior terrorists – but this time with reduced concern for collateral damage relative to the increased value of the target and the threat to Israel. It can’t be overstated how important a change in both strategy and policy this is. With the Biden administration exerting so little influence in the Middle East these days and Biden’s ongoing boycott of Netanyahu, that might have been what allowed this to happen and caused a permanent loosening of the reins. Perhaps this is a next step towards being prepared to indiscriminately carpet bomb the enemy in response to them attempting to carpet bomb us. One can hope. While Islamic Jihad found itself in the position of having no choice but to replace their senior commanders every few hours in the midst of a war – or surrender, Israel sent an unequivocal message to Hamas that they’re going to have to start living in bunkers by themselves, like Hassan Nasrallah does, and even that won’t save them. We proved that Israel can find their terrorist leaders, no matter where they’re hiding. Like whack-a-mole, we might have to wait a bit, but we’ll get them. You can bet they’re scared. We exposed another Hamas weakness. Hamas was pushing hard for Islamic Jihad (who take orders from Iran) to accept the ceasefire. Why? Because Gaza was running out of fuel for their generators. And Hamas, when not in a war that they initiate, is now concerned about maintaining order and control on a day-to-day basis, and that includes keeping the electricity running. More confirmed leverage to us during conflict and non-conflict periods. Israel recently sold the David’s Sling anti-missile system to Finland for $345 million USD. David’s Sling has now been combat-tested and proved to be successful in real-world conditions. It’s value just jumped, and we have Iran and Islamic Jihad to thank for that. Some problems with Iron Dome were discovered and fixed.  Unfortunately, an elderly woman was killed when a (regular) rocket got through from the many hundreds of rockets shot at us, and a Gazan man working in Israel was killed by shrapnel from an Islamic Jihad rocket. It is clear we need the Iron Beam laser system up and running already for when the big war happens. And even the IAF pilots, which you have to admit, not everyone was 100% sure we could still trust and rely on, came through in the end. And that was also an important message sent to our enemies who definitely thought our pilots couldn’t be relied on anymore. We presumably learned more about the Iranian missiles they shot at us. While there was much criticism about letting Aviv Gefen run a live concert with tens of thousands of people in Tel Aviv while missiles were being launched at Tel Aviv… let’s face it, Israel was able to permit a live concert in Tel Aviv with tens of thousands of participants while rockets were literally being launched at Tel Aviv. Think about that for a moment and what that means. The last question is, are there lessons here for our upcoming battle with Hamas? In some ways it will just be a matter of scale when it comes to the number of missiles and their range. Though in other ways, Hamas is more serious, and they surely have other tactics and strategies in place that Islamic Jihad doesn’t – including underwater units which we didn’t see at all in this operation, drones, terror tunnels, fire balloons, anti-aircraft and anti-tank missiles, tank-traps, other stuff we can’t predict, and most seriously, a more established terror network in Judea and Samaria, so we would find ourselves simultaneously fighting on a second front. But on that last point, while it wasn’t discussed that much, the IDF was simultaneously running successful operations in Judea and Samaria during this operation and killed a number of terrorists there too, so our side clearly recognizes the linkage and has been preparing for it.

The Muqata

[findingnemosworld]

You know what's disgusting? Apparently Melissa Barrera was fired from Scream 7 because she shared on Twitter a book by a non-Zionist Jewish scholar who talked about how Israel for years has been a colonialist and imperialist state and how the U.S.-backed media only shows Israel's view of things. Instead Noah Schnapp is still in Stranger Things even though he said Zionism is sexy.

The film's producer accused her of being anti-Semitic, promoting hate speech, making false accusations of genocide and even distorting the Holocaust. Melissa took to her instagram and gave a strong message: "I also come from a colonized country (Mexico)…. Palestine must be free. They tried to bury us, but they don't know we are seeds." Melissa's fans in Mexico have shown all their support for the actress and have called for a boycott of the movie when it is released.

it's been known since day one that the big heads in hollywood control and brainwash actors by using media to dehumanize the oppressed and victimize the oppressors, its been like this for ages ( even in my country libya, we are labeled as barbarians ... rude, extremist etc )

same goes for palestine, iraq ... and every country, the western media and leaders as a whole thrive on chaos, and division.

I've seen Melissa's work, she's an incredible girl and down to earth from her interviews, unfortunately hollywood doesn't want that, they want sheep that will promote their z*onist propaganda, I bet you that Noah doesn't know a damn thing about what is actually going on, ( he's merely a puppet being moved accordingly and as long as he's getting money, he doesn't give a shit )

Now do I think she will be blacklisted, ( hard to decide but we shall see ) but from what I've seen, genuine actors and artists begin to fade away from the public eye or be blacklisted by the film and music industry when they start to free themselves from the toxic waste that is hollywood.

Case in point, Kanye West ( I don't necessarily like him but some of the stuff he says is spot on )

Melissa is a real one, she knows what oppression is, she's done her research unlike other actors and artists.

[belltaviasbff]

some of y’all are going back to criticising qatar now that the wc is over so can we just go over something pls

criticise the human rights violations that happened in qatar PLEASE by all MEANS. it’s horrifying and disgusting and should be called out.

but i know this same energy wasn’t brought for literally any other country with a worse track record than qatar. what about when england - the biggest coloniser in basically the whole WORLD - hosted the olympics. israel. ISRAEL partaking in eurovision and hosting it?? russia and whatever they hosted bc i can’t even remember?? i ain’t even gonna say a word about china lol but none of u did either so it’s fine!

believe me no one’s gonna say a word when america - the PEAK of morality shall we aggressively sarcastically say - hosts the wc next time. and you same people would’ve sat there with your mouths shut. some of y’all can’t be serious because when a country hosts something you don’t go and find every single bad thing they’ve ever done and bring it to light.

don’t bring these double standards into my house cause i know for a fact some people are still angry that an arab, muslim country has arguably pulled off the best world cup to exist.

it’s important to make issues known. i know some people genuinely criticise qatar out of care for the issues they’re bringing up, as they should. i could never defend the things the country is being accused of. but i also recognise that people are using this as an opportunity for some deep rooted anti arab/muslim feelings to come out. and it doesn’t sit well with me sorry.

if you’re criticising qatar with all of this in mind and you’re ready to call on boycotts for north america’s world cup and criticise all the past events in other countries mentioned then absolutely go ahead im with you 🫡

[archaeocommunologist]

are you dumb or are you stupid. go look at the plot of the game. two things can be true at once idiot the idf is bad AND the game is literally just blood libel MADE BY A NEONAZI (leavitt).

I'm neither dumb nor stupid. As far as I can tell, Leavitt is not a neo-Nazi, he's just a right-wing shithead. The plot of the game is reminiscent of antisemitic tropes, I agree, but to call it "Blood Libel: the Game" or to compare it to the Protocols of the Elders of Zion is, frankly, hysterically overblown. It's published by Warner Bros., for god's sake. Are you really trying to tell me that the C-suite of fucking Warner Brothers is so captured by neo-Nazis that they were willing to publish something as extreme as what you're describing? Don't make me laugh.

There is a certain subset of fandom-brained Tumblr users that have a, shall we say, expansive view of what constitutes antisemitism in media. We saw it with Dracula Daily, where there were several 10,000+ note posts asserting that the concept of vampires itself was inherently antisemitic. That's just not true, despite there being elements of antisemitic caricature in Stoker's work.

Similarly with Rowling and her goblins. The goblins do recapitulate antisemitic tropes and they contain elements of antisemitic caricature. But that's not because Rowling is a secret antisemite, it's because she is a bad and un-reflective writer who regurgitated a portion of the antisemitism that is endemic to our media environment. She also does not support slavery, despite seeming to do so in her work.

Look, don't buy the game, I don't care. But it doesn't fucking matter. It's just another little culture war for the left-adjacent fandomized twitterati. Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised to discover that some of this outrage is actually part of their marketing strategy. Have fun with your pretend boycott!

[quietborderline]

There is so much misinformation spreading like wildfire on EVERY SIDE of this issue and I'm going to lose my mind I swear to god... 🙃

Don't just believe things you read on the internet. No matter what. No matter who says it. Always get the facts from the source(s).

IF YOU HAVE QUESTIONS ABOUT THE SAG-AFTRA STRIKE:

Their Official Website: www.sagaftra.org The Official Strike Website: www.sagaftrastrike.org E-mail: sagaftrastrike@sagaftra.org Phone Number: 877-8-STRIKE (877-878-7453)

E-mail specifically for Influencers: Influencer@sagaftra.org

There are several FAQ's on both websites. You can read the official Strike Notice pdf here.

If you are now or if you have plans to ever join SAG-AFTRA (and/or any of the 4 A's even maybe) then you should ABSOLUTELY DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH AND ASK YOUR OWN QUESTIONS!

If you do or plan to make money from your content, you should absolutely do your own research and ask your own questions.

If you do not have plans to do any of those things, nor do you ever make money from any of your content, etc. then it's not about you.

If you are just an average fan having fun, it is not about you.

If you actually have a platform, if your team winning GISH would have triggered the Shatner clause, maybe you want to consider it more.

But at that point only you can choose how you support the strike.

No one has called for a boycott or anything like that. Cancelling your streaming subscriptions, not watching movies and shows, etc. does not help the strike/strikers. In fact it does the exact opposite.

JUST LISTEN TO WHAT THE ORGANIZERS ARE SAYING TO DO.

You can stand in picket lines or join rallies with those striking.

You can post your support on social media.

If you're able to, you can donate to the Emergency Financial Assistance and Disaster Relief fund via the SAG-AFTRA foundation.

There is also the MPTF or the Entertainment Community Fund (which helps people in all the affected industries/unions/etc.)

You can keep an eye out for updates on the website and official social media. You can tell everyone who will listen to also do these things!!

Meanwhile, everyone just be cool and kind to each other. Please.

This too shall pass. <3

[talkingpointsusa]

Of Rubes and Rubins; Debunking the December 13th 2023 Episode of the Rubin Report.

After how furiously I reacted to Matt Walshes episode on Wednesday, I figured we should take a break from the current crop of talking heads we feature on this blog and talk about a new person, and that new person is Dave Rubin.

For those who don't know Dave Rubin, Dave was formerly a member of the Young Turks before leaving and starting his own show. Since then he has been a massive source of embarrassment to himself and others. From basically begging Ben Shapiro to go to the anniversary party for him and his husband and then being shocked when he realized that this new crowd he is hanging out with is deeply homophobic to giving us galaxy brained quotes like "Authoritarian's love authoritarianism." Dave is both a source of amusement and frustration to myself and others.

I truly believe that Dave Rubin is a pure grifter. While people like Matt Walsh and Charlie Kirk seem to be true believers, Dave here basically did a complete 180 on his political views overnight. Coincidentally that 180 happened to be when he got a truckload of money from the Koch Brothers (Source; The American Prospect, Why Should We Care About Faux Free-Speech Warriors? Because the Koch Brothers Are Paying Their Bills).

He tried his hand at making money off of the left but when that didn't work he decided to become a right-wing grifter. I don't like calling people liars and con-men but in Dave's case it is blatantly obvious.

On the 13th, Dave was also talking about Dana White saying the right should end the Bud Light boycott. There is no way his take could be worse than the dreck Matt Walsh was throwing up on the 13th....right?

I guess we shall see. Let's get into it, shall we?

Transphobia Warning. God, I hate how many times I have had to write that so far;

2:38: "But what you don't wanna do is snatch victory away, you don't wanna snatch defeat from the jaws of victory."

Dave Rubin: Master orator. I'm sure he was quite proud of that one.

If you saw my right-wing figures tier list and wondered why I put Dave Rubin under "accidental comedy", this is why. This kind of thing happens a lot on Dave's show.

2:55: "As you guys know, a couple months back Dylan Mulvaney, this dude who puts on a dress and it's unclear if he or she had all the surgeries, doesn't even matter. Calls himself uhh, well wait. He's Dylan Mulvaney, he calls himself what? What's the girls name?"

Here we have Dave struggling to understand somebodies identity. Starting off strong here.

If you are transgender you don't legally have to change your name, that should be obvious. It's your identity and your body so it's your choice at the end of the day. Dylan has decided that she is keeping the name Dylan and that's perfectly fine, her choice at the end of the day and really as long as she's happy it's a good choice.

What I find hilarious about this clip is that I don't think Dave realizes how dumb this comment makes him long. The right has been talking about this person for months and you're just now realizing that Dylan kept her birth name?

Dave gives some more "backstory" for the boycott, don't care, we've talked about why it happened what feels like a million times. He then plays the Dana White/Tucker Carlson Bud Light clip. As said previously, this is fully because Dana was given so much money by the company that it would be unreasonable from a business standpoint for him to not take the deal. Anyway, all of that isn't important. What is important is Dave's hot take on the situation. Let's listen (or in your case read).

7:36: "Now look, regardless if you are a patriot, super patriot, or a regular patriot, or a half a patriot, nobody should be drinking gallons of Bud Light. You shouldn't be drinking a ton of beer in general."

Dana wasn't literally saying you should be drinking gallons of Bud Light, he was just saying you should be drinking it again if you are participating in the boycott.

Also, let's unpack the levels of "patriot" here. I guess half a patriot is someone who is a Trump supporter but isn't fully into the cult of Trump. But what I am confused about is how does one graduate from a regular patriot to a super patriot? I guess the guys who stormed the Capitol were super patriots in this hierarchy, I'm not sure.

Man, we're only seven minutes in and this is already really dumb.

8:16: "He keeps saying that Bud Light is more in line with your values but he never lays out what that means, how is Bud Light more in line with your values than these other companies?"

Well, as Dave later astutely points out, it's completely for the money. Golly, imagine changing all your values over money. I wonder who would do that, eh Dave?!

8:31: "But in essence what he's saying is 'Bud Light gave us a shit ton of money.'"

As I hinted at earlier, Dave Rubin has absolutely zero right to criticize somebody for selling out their beliefs for cash for the reasons I explained above. The absolute lack of self-awareness is astonishing.

Dave then plays another clip of Dana explaining why he went with Bud Light. Dana makes some claims about the charitable things Bud Light has done. It's absolutely still about the money but Dave decides to "engage with this argument" and gives what might be one of the dumbest takes of the year.

11:57: "Alright, so they employ 65,000 people and you don't want those people to suffer. Of course you don't. Actually, when the Bud Light boycott happened we played a video of a guy who was just like a local distributor in a store saying 'Hey, nobodies buying Bud Light anymore, my job is in trouble.' Of course you have sympathy for those people for sure but there's tons of other beer companies."

So what Dave is essentially saying here is that 65,000 people will be out of a job if Bud Light goes under because the right is throwing a tantrum over an Instagram post, but that's A-OK because "they'll just get a job somewhere else."

WHAT?!

Does Dave not realize how hard it is to get a job in todays market is, let alone the mental toll being laid off causes?! These employees have families to feed and bills to pay. The effects of being laid off can destroys somebodies life. They can lead to people not being able to afford healthcare and even basic things like food for your children. To just flippantly say that they should "just get a job somewhere else" is completely ignoring, well, reality!

12:37: "Also the idea that you shouldn't boycott a company because they have a lot of employees, the government has a lot of employees. So something is not good, inherently, because it has a lot of employees."

First of all, that's an apples to oranges comparison because you can't boycott the government! Comparing a private corporation to the government is insanely stupid!

Secondly, I am not anti-boycott but the boycott has to be for a good reason. "I didn't like an Instagram post because it had a trans person in it" isn't a good reason to boycott a company and put those jobs on the line. If the company is doing something objectively bad than you can boycott them.

13:51: "I mean, look at the stories that we've told you in the past couple of days about Harvard and Penn and what you see happening all over the whole world right now in terms of the wrong ideas getting into institutions and what that does."

Putting aside the Harvard and UPenn stuff, which we already touched on before and probably will again when it's more relevant, I would like to point out that Dave Rubin is gay.

I normally wouldn't point to somebodies sexuality and say that it should inform their political beliefs, but in this case I feel like it's justified because a couple decades ago people would have been saying that Dave marrying who he wants to marry was one of those "wrong ideas."

This, in my opinion, makes his lack of empathy towards transgender people more stunning and disgusting. Dave, of all people we have covered on this blog so far, should know the most about what it's like to be othered because of your sexuality. So the fact that he's willingly spouting hateful rhetoric against transgender people for money is all the more disgraceful.

14:10: "I was at Busch Gardens when I was a kid. Saw the clydesdales, great horses. I don't want them to suffer but that's not a reason to drink Bud Light."

If Dave wasn't talking out of his ass he would know that Anheuser-Busch hasn't had anything to do with Busch Gardens since 2009. It's currently owned by SeaWorld.

14:23: "Or perhaps what Dana could have done is say 'Ok, you know what? You guys are offer-' Like, they must have offered him a crazy amount of money, I have no idea. At one point it said they were gonna triple their marketing budget. Let's say they offered him 50 million bucks, I don't know what the number is, I'm completely making that out of thin air. He could have said to them 'Alright, you want me to put my reputation on the line. I'll take your cash, that's pretty good and I can do good things with that cash and build my brand and all that stuff and everything else. But your gonna have to apologize first.'"

Again, Dave Rubin; master orator.

If Dana did that, InBev realistically would have said no to the deal and found another sponsor who was more willing to play by their rules. Like I said when I covered Matt Walsh's response to this, InBev's best move is to ride this out and wait for these guys to get distracted by some new culture war related nonsense. If they apologize they will have pissed off the LGBTQ community, well everyone in that community except for Dave, and the left as a whole. They would have an even worse fallout to deal with.

15:19: "So I will remind you in just a moment about what Bud Light actually did and then we're gonna connect it to a bunch of wider stuff because this is much bigger than just about crappy beer that I used to drink upside-down from a keg when I was in college because I was a pretty cool dude."

You aren't anymore and I would pay to see you do a keg stand on your show.

And I'll say it again, it was one bloody Instagram post and it wasn't even on the Bud Light account, it was on Dylan's. The only broader issue that conservatives have with this is "I hate trans people."

17:06: "And I promise you people, if Gravity Defyer offers a sponsorship to Dylan Mulvaney I will not work for them. And if I came in here and suddenly I was like 'Oh, I like Dylan Mulvaney, isn't he and or she wonderful in her Gravity Defyer shoes?' And I was doing that, you might think 'Dave, how much did they pay you to say that?'"

Awww, look at you pretending to have principals. That would be almost as crazy as you being a relatively progressive commentator for most of your career and then all of a sudden, coincidentally around the time the Koch Brothers started paying you, you became a hardcore conservative. And you know what would be really dumb? If the only explanation you gave for this sudden dramatic change in ideals was "the left became too left-wing".

I personally think Michael Knowles is painfully disingenuous and smarmy which is part of why I really don't like listening to him, but Dave Rubin takes disingenuous to new extremes.

Dave then plays a clip of the VP of marketing at Bud Light explaining the decision for the ad.

19:05: "Frat guys drink beer. You know who doesn't really drink beer? Trans women!"

Dave is wrong yet again. As a matter of fact, alcohol abuse is pretty common among trans women specifically. This is an awful fact and it is probably in part due to the attitude of hatred around their sexuality that people like Dave Rubin have exploited for money and views. However, we are here to talk about the the claim being made here that "trans people don't drink" which is completely false.

Now let's look at the other group he's mentioned, people in college.

What he was saying was absolutely true back in the day, but not so much anymore. For the past two decades the trend (source, Cleveland Clinic) of alcohol consumption amongst young adults in college has been going downwards with 30% of college students saying they don't drink beer, wine, or spirits in 2018.

So from that standpoint, college students are starting to drink less and transwomen are starting to drink more.

19:13: "Trans women, whatever that is even, is such a tiny, a ridiculously tiny percentage of the population that to market to them would be insane."

They weren't just marketing to transwomen specifically. If the broader LGBTQ population, which when you factor all of them in becomes a way larger chunk of the population, were to see trans representation in an ad they might be more inclined to buy from that brand.

19:38: "When you're out on a date. If the girl, your sitting at the bar, you order something and then the girl, I mean before this whole Bud Light thing, if the girl said 'I'll have a Bud Light' what would you have thought of that girl? Red flag right?"

Or "Oh, she likes Bud Light. Ok."

Like, who cares what your partners drink of choice is? As long as they like it and it isn't a danger to themself and others it doesn't matter at all!

19:55: "But, like, it's not for girls."

This show is so dumb. Sure, females aren't Bud Lights target market, but who cares if a female likes Bud Light or not?

That's like a twelve year old telling his little sister that she can't play with his action figure because "It's not for girls". Man, this is so dumb.

20:03: "You see how I'm connecting this to everything else. Once woke gets into the system, whether it's Harvard (and) the next thing you know they're calling for genocide of Jews. Whether it's Bud Light and instead of marketing to frat guys they're trying to get chicks to drink their shitty beer. It destroys absolutely everything."

Protestors calling for an end to the war in the Middle East aren't calling for the genocide of Jews but that's beside the point. Also, I have asked this before but what the hell even is wokeness?!

What is important is that Dave Rubin thinks that a company *GASP* expanding their advertising to try and appeal to an untapped market will lead to the literal end of society! Even if we use his argument this is stupid for a massive reason. How is a company trying to expand to different markets even comparable to calling for genocide?!

Dave then plays the ad and the clip of Kid Rock shooting Bud Light cans. Once the clips end, it becomes time once again for more of Dave's ever so brilliant insights.

22:15: "But there's something interesting going on here. As Brock just mentioned, just what was it? Two weeks ago? When Trump walked out at a UFC event with Dana White and Tucker Carlson, Kid Rock was with him too. So there's this strange thing where these people are sort of taking every side of everything."

I feel like Dave is coming to terms with the fact that everyone else on the right is as much of a money hungry grifter as he is.

Dave decides to give us his take on the satanic statue in Iowa. Again, this was last week Wednesday so this was before the mural was decapitated. He plays the clip of Ron DeSantis saying that the Satanic Temple got their tax exemption during the Trump Administration. He doesn't really have a take on it, just boring crap of him saying so much without saying anything. Dave plays another clip of Ron DeSantis, he's apparently a DeSantis guy. Considering he lives in Florida, this makes sense. Considering that he's gay and DeSantis is a giant homophobe who claims that Trump was too sympathetic to LGBTQ+ people, this makes no sense. Then he delivers this gem.

30:09: "Everyone with their head on straight knows that Florida is now the model for whatever America can be if America's gonna succeed."

Bahahaha. If Florida is the model for an ideal America, that country is doomed. Florida has had 28 mass shootings this month and accounts for nearly 12% of all mass shootings in the states.

Florida is also the third most dangerous state for violent crime, with 2,087 homicides being reported so far this year.

Florida's track record with LGBTQ+ people and passing anti-LGBTQ+ legislation is so bad that the Human Rights Campaign issued a travel advisory to Florida.

So yeah, if Florida is the model for a successful America you'd get an extremely bigoted nation with a shit-ton of violent crime...which to be fair is the trajectory that America is headed down.

Dave plays another DeSantis clip. Whatever.

32:13: "Intrinsically, telling the truth is the right thing to do."

I agree, too bad this is coming from a guy who is being paid to lie about everything.

Dave then talks about Ukraine funding and border security. There have been a record number of migrants heading into the US and the Republicans have refused to approve more foreign aid unless Biden does something about the border. Essentially, the Republicans want to make it harder for migrants and refugees to get in if they fear persecution in their home countries (New York Times).

34:18: "What does Ukraine funding have to do with defending our border?"

They are two entirely separate issues and the only reason they are being equated here is because the right is making that an issue. Nobody on the left is saying "defending Ukraine is defending our borders".

Also, for a guy who is super pro-Israel, Dave really shouldn't be defending this. The Republicans are withholding aid to Israel as well!

34:22: "If we cannot defend our border why should we be giving money to Ukraine?"

Same argument can be made for Israel. Also, because multiple innocent Ukrainians lives are on the line due to Russia's invasion. They need our help.

36:23: "We don't know who the good guys and bad guys are."

Hmmm, we've got the military superpower that is invading a tiny country and has committed multiple war crimes and the country that is being invaded. Man, it's so hard to figure out who the good guys and bad guys are.

36:31: "By the way, I would say that's starkly different than whats going on with Israel and Gaza because there's a very clear win there which is the toppling of Hamas."

There is also a very clear win in Ukraine and that is Russia stopping the invasion and withdrawing their troops from Ukrainian land.

38:15: "How about we deal with problems related to prices of food and things of that nature?"

Again, this appeals to Israel funding as well. Plus, Israel is a nation that is way more powerful than Ukraine without American funding so an argument can be made that funding should be slowed for Israel and more focused on Ukraine if you want money to deal with problems in America.

Also, the Republicans haven't provided an effective solution to inflation.

Dave then talks about the colleges a bit more, and then drops this gem.

42:08: "I'm just not hiring college grads anymore. If you do not go to college, if you have virtually no education, we want you here at the Rubin Report."

Can't make that up. I would imagine that college graduates aren't banging down Dave Rubin's door as most of them will realize within five minutes of a show how flimsy everything he says is.

And with that, the show ends. What a fitting note.

Conclusion:

So, what have we learnt today? Well, Dave Rubin thinks 65,000 people being fired over one ad is fine and he just generally doesn't have a clue what he is talking about. Since I wrote this on Sunday, the next episode will probably cover how one of these guys responded to the senate gay sex video, might even do multiple of these guys Monday shows just to get an idea of the full spectrum of reactionary's reacting.

Cheers and I'll see you in the next one!