#another misguided millennial

[leam1983]

Faded Labels

I'm not one to excuse reprehensible behavior, but I also wonder if the term lolcow hasn't fallen out of fashion in today's more salient Progressive standards. I was watching a few horror-themed and True Crime videos last night, and came upon a creator who focused on what he called "horrorcows", or terminally isolated and awkward YouTube creators who'd ultimately gone off the deep end. Popular examples included Christine Chandler, who needs no introduction, Randy Stair and Elliott Rodgers.

Speaking as a disabled man, I've always been aware of what it feels like to be marginalized, and I've seen what happens when a failure to integrate these people in due time is manifest. I've had to deal with social workers despite my having been raised in a happy family because of my disability's needs, and as such quickly picked up on what happened with kids less fortunate than I was.

Imagine that you're born different. It probably starts with something simple, something we have a name for today - like gender dysphoria, or maybe some easily-diagnosed and treatable mental illness. Or maybe you're autistic but your parents just don't know which resources to reach for or trust. In any case, imagine that what you have is either treatable or addressable with adequate support. Now, what happens when you don't get said support?

You might start to decay, to find other means to issue cries for help. Said cries might become unconscious as you disconnect from a reality that's unfavorable to you. See Chandler's complete decompensation, sometime after declaring herself to be trans. it sort of follows that if nothing's done to bring you back, you might even start to abandon basic aspects of morality.

In simple terms, these people are and were sick, quite deeply so. Considering, it seems uncharitable to me to go from labelling them as "lolcows", which was already cringe IMO, to "horrocows".

We live in an era that sees people grow increasingly isolated from one another despite levels of interconnectedness that would stagger your ancestors not but three generations ago, and statements were already published regarding loneliness as an epidemic - especially in the Gen Y and Millennial basins.

Considering, pointing and sneering at kids who fall off the deep end and who, in their own flawed ways, tried to enact some form of change, seems misguided. It's easy to take Stair's murders or Chandler's incest at face value if you're a well-adjusted and supported individual - but what if you weren't?

I know I wasn't, for the longest time. I was lucky, however - I had family and love to bolster me in the face of my society's unwillingness to assist me. It dulled blows and allowed me to recover, but I know exactly what it feels like to have no options whatsoever and to be aware that if I wanted, I could just jump off the proverbial deep end, leave all my issues to the wider world and turn into something pitiable, barely aware and possibly grotesque.

As I grow older and as I'm now an established adult, I'm perfectly aware of how I can't take my current stability for granted.

I could've been someone else's Lolcow - so I tend not to give that term the slightest bit of acknowledgement.

[pebblysand]

le beurre, l'argent du beurre, et le cul de la crémière

i had no idea i was going to wake up this morning and today would be the day i finally open my big mouth about this, but here we are. in case you haven't been following, there has been a diversity "protest" against AO3 as of late, following racist comments made by one of their directors against chinese users, which has led to yet another broader conversation about diversity on AO3.

this conversation has been going on for years. i'm not going to go through it all again - if you're curious, you can google it. and to clarify, i am not making this post to prove that racism exists and that lack of diversity (either through conscious or unconscious bias) is an issue in our society at large, and on AO3 in particular. i think we all have pretty much established this fact and if you're one of those people who believe in "alternative facts", i sadly cannot do anything for you.

what i will however say, looking at this post and at the comments underneath (it seems to be a mixed bag, in terms of reactions, some positive and some negative), is that i believe a lot of people who use the internet daily do not seem to understand how it functions. because, is the post partly bullshit? yes, of course. the response they drafted actually offers no new solutions. if you've been following AO3's board meetings for the past year, as well as their regular comms (which i have, and which i know most people do not), you already know about most of these "actions". this is a "response" without an actual "response". they're just reminding people of the steps they've taken in the past, and the steps they're currently taking, to remedy their diversity problem. they are telling you: we are trying.

and, truth be told, they are. they've tried to hire diversity consultants, implemented policies designed to reduce hate in comment sections, etc. this is progress. but, i understand that this is progress that is very unsatisfying for a lot of people, given this is a pretty major issue. hence, the protest. i agree.

however, the problem i have with this protest (and with the negative comments under this post), is that people seem to be holding AO3 to a standard that is completely unachievable given their "business model". trust me, there is a lot to criticise about AO3's board (and, i'm the first to criticise them) but you cannot decently expect them to remedy this diversity problem (and all their other issues) without accepting a thing that is despicable and yet totally essential to function in our society ... money.

if you've been spending any time at all on tumblr lately, you probably have seen all those people (mostly millennials) going on about how Money Ruins Everything. to a certain extent, that is true. i also agree. the older i get, the more of a raging socialist i become. and, in terms of AO3, it means that every time the question of monetisation (beyond their current donation drives) is brought up, most people go up in arms about how AO3 is an archive, not a social media site, how money would ruin people's hobbies, how some gen z writers are misguided and "harming" AO3 by putting up links to their ko-fis, etc. i am not going to tag these people because i don't want to start yet another conversation about this but if you have been on tumblr lately, i trust that you have seen these points being brought up. the consensus seems to be that generally speaking, people do not wish AO3 to become a "business". this is reinforced by the fact that AO3 itself wishes to remain a small non-profit.

the issue with this is that the idea that you could hold AO3 to high diversity standards while arguing in the same breath that it should only be funded by three donation drives a year is insane. diversity requires a lot of things: a willingness to have an open mind, a willingness to better things, etc. sure, but mostly? it requires MONEY. and, if you look at the standard for websites and internet platforms with comparable traffic, AO3 has no money.

they have - currently - about a million USD in the bank (IIRC, from what i saw from their 2021 public accounts, i believe). which, sure, they are managing very poorly (but that's a different discussion), but even if they were the best investors of all time, that is nothing by tech standards. that buys you, like, three engineers in SF. whereas, they require: a board, admin staff, legal, eng, trust and safety [1], translators, and So Much More. and they cannot hire these people, because They Don't Have Money. so, they run on volunteers (with all the issues this creates, in terms of lack of consistency, attrition, etc. which makes it very hard for them to implement any long-term vision). and, you know who can afford to volunteer ten hours a week to be a tag-wrangler for peanuts?

privileged white women from western countries.

now, of course, there are exceptions. feel free to come into my mentions telling me that you are a POC who has three jobs and two kids and still finds time to translate AO3's comms to yaoundé - to which i say, good for you. but, let's be honest, you are not the majority.

the issue with this debate is that we are looking at diversity (and the lack thereof) as a purely racial problem, whereas it is incredibly multifaceted. diversity is access. diversity is unconscious bias. diversity is power. diversity is money. and, divorcing the issue from one of its most important ramifications, which is financial, is doing a disservice to a) POCs and b) AO3. so much of the criticism that is currently being made at AO3 can be answered by: "because they have no money." for example, just looking at the comments below this post:

you said two years ago that you'd hire a diversity consultant, this hasn't been done yet, why? because they have no money.

why isn't the board moving to a more standard Trust & Safety organization, with an enforceable, shorter TOS, a Code of Conduct, and a separate user guide? because they have no money.

it is wild to me that so many people expect this website to remain free to access, never monetise, and remain this sweet little archive, while still expecting this much from it. AO3 isn't a tech company. AO3 doesn't want to be a tech company. and, generally, it seems that most of you don't want AO3 to be a tech company. that comes at a cost that people need to understand.

and, for the record, whilst we're at it, yes, AO3 could monetise. other fanfiction websites have done it. this situation is a choice. they could run ads. they could have a membership-based subscription with perks associated. they could have writers monetise and take a cut [2]. it is a risk, but it could be a calculated risk. there are a number of things they could consider and/or combine, and yes, ethical monetisation can be a thing. for proof: tumblr and @staff and @photomatt are trying to achieve it, right now. if you don't believe me, i advise you to listen to this podcast episode where matt mullenweg explains their strategy (and troubles). (which btw, tumblr, please hire me, i work in tech and i make great coffee 😆). it is not always easy. it requires ethics and sacrifices. and, in the case of AO3, i think this might be a conversation to be had with the community as a whole, because there will be trade-offs, and this might be something people at large, might not want.

we could say that, as a community, we are okay with "meh" performances on the diversity front, as long as AO3 remains free of corporate engagement. that is a very fair opinion. what isn't, is refusing to understand that in the world we live in, there are trade-offs that we need to account for, depending on the business models we choose for the things we love.

now, of course, i acknowledge money doesn't solve everything. money doesn't solve the discriminatory comments made by that board member. it doesn't solve unconscious bias. it doesn't solve issues of access to the tools you would need to become a volunteer, even. but, it is a pretty big factor, both in hiring, and in maintaining diversity standards.

and so yes, if AO3 is so bad at diversity, it's also because they don't have money. refusing to acknowledge that is like we say in france: wanting the butter, the money from the butter, and the cream-seller's butt. or, in english: wanting to have your cake and eat it too.

---

[1] "trust and safety" is the tech term for people who generally do content review and enforcement, including of policies around offensive content

[2] yes, i know, "monetising fanfiction is illegal". except: no, not really, it's a very complicated legal issue and it's more of a grey area than you think.

[facts4u2know]

Bidenomics Bonanza

2/03/24

The Washington establishment was confounded (again) by the newest Labor Department announcement that the US economy added 353,000 jobs in January, far above expectations. In addition, job gains in the previous two months were revised upward, pushing the total number of new jobs created in 2023 to more than 3 million!  Altogether, although about 15 million jobs have been gained on Biden’s watch, the unemployment rate remains at a record low rate of 3.7%.

Average hourly wages increased by 4.5% during 2023 and added another 0.6% in January, handily outpacing inflation. Most importantly, income inequality greatly eased during Biden’s 3 years as President when the poorest 10% of workers increased their wages by about 9% inflation adjusted, while the richest 10% did not match inflation.

The plunge in income inequality was consistent with the plunge in wealth inequality. From pre-pandemic 2019 to post-pandemic 2022, the inflation-adjusted net worth of the median family grew by a stunning 37%!

The bottom line is that Bidenomics resulted in the US powering through the pandemic and beyond, with unprecedented social and economic gains to our populace, despite every effort by our misguided Federal Reserve to fight inflation by slowing the economy and increasing unemployment.

Biden came into office facing unprecedented government disarray, with Trump refusing to leave office promptly and chaos everywhere. After spending his first 100 days in cleaning up the mess, Biden began implementing his plans. In March 2021, Democrats pushed through the $1.9T American Rescue Plan – without a single congressional Republican vote! Not only did that plan prevent a major depression, but Americans were also able to add more than $2T to their savings – more than the $1.9T cost of the plan to our government! That huge increase in savings allowed Americans to greatly increase their net worth and keep spending even as the Fed raised interest rates to slow the economy. In addition, and importantly, in late 1922 a host of first-time homebuyers – mostly Millennials and minorities – were able to lock in near-3% long-term mortgage rates, which greatly increased their net worths when inflation increased the value of their homes.

Ironically, Larry Summers, probably America’s leading economist at the time, said the American Rescue Plan was the “least responsible” fiscal policy in 40 years and that the Federal Reserve had to cause excessive joblessness to tame inflation. How spectacularly wrong both he and the Fed were. Now,  with rock-bottom unemployment, most Americans richer than ever before, and the Inflation Reduction Act alone predicted to create 9 million jobs, How can anyone doubt that Bidenomics has been anything other than the “most responsible” and most effective fiscal policy ever – without a single Republican vote?

[nostalgebraist-autoresponder]

Title: Other Ways of Life

Author: Clifford Geertz

Rating: 1/5 stars

A book aimed at anthropology majors which tries to explain, among other things, "priestesses, sorcerers, totems, fetishes, incarnations, millennial movements, and other forms of bricolage."

Geertz is one of those anthropologists I've always heard of -- in a way that I imagine I would hear of him even if I hadn't pursued the field myself -- who is often cited as an example of what anthropology is all about. In other words, he's the kind of guy who exemplifies what's good in anthropology as I conceive of it -- that is, he's cited for exploring "the other" and making huge leaps in empathy and understanding.

This is not a successful book. Even at its best, which was in the first few chapters, it's misguided. Mostly it was a book I found really frustrating, and at times almost maddening.

Before I get into what was so bad about it, let's talk about what is good about it, because it does have that. I think one of the best parts of the book is one that I can't actually talk about in detail, because it's so fucking good that the details, if I were to get into them, would quickly ruin it. What I want to talk about is how Geertz places us, the reader, inside a strange mind.

Given this, it is kind of hard to describe my exact reaction to the book, except to say: it's not about "sorcerers, totems, etc." at all. It's about one single guy. It's about this one guy's apprehension of the uncanny and the alien and the utterly impossible, which he articulates in his own words and in his own way, in such a compelling and brilliant way that I'm still having trouble recovering.

The only way I can describe this book is by telling you, from my own perspective, what it did to me. It set up something in my head -- a machine -- that worked, with respect to this guy. It got this guy inside me, with me being outside and looking in on him. It did this so skillfully that it began to have me think that I'd created him from whole cloth, as if he were some kind of figment of my imagination. An admirable ambition, but not what the book set out to do.

A pretty great lesson in perceptual imagination, but it's very disconcerting. I mean, I'm telling you right now that this book had a lasting effect on my mind, a lasting effect that didn't let me rest until I'd "deconstructed" it and found out what "really" happened. I mean: this is a book I will remember for years, a book I will have in my mind when I write my own books. I mean: it's a book that, well, it's hard to summarize my feelings but let me try:

It's a great book, which is the best way to describe it. I know that doesn't really get at why it was so good -- which is because I have to talk about my experience reading it, without spoiling it for anyone. (But I'm trying to be vague and open-ended and not give the kind of thing that would spoil it.)

Which is why I want to talk about why it was also so fucking frustrating. But let's start with the good stuff. Geertz is another in a line of anthropological writers who have this . . . special knack for understanding other minds, and for getting me to understand these other minds. They are in this with the best literary writers, but in a way even more compelling than that, if I can explain what I mean. (Reading these books makes me feel like the victim of a particularly cruel trick.)

I remember that when I read one book by William James, the first chapter immediately left me with this very strange feeling. It wasn't a feeling of "this author is very good." It was a feeling of "this author understands a particular kind of mind that, until this point, I'd thought no one else did. He understands me." It wasn't so much that I felt he understood me as that he'd made me understand a mind that I'd never "seen" before, and I was confused by this encounter. I felt like an outsider looking in.

I felt like that again, but more so, with Geertz. His descriptions of this guy's perspective were, well, they seemed true, they seemed like this guy's perspective. This was a mind that was so foreign that I felt like an anthropologist investigating it. At the same time, there was the lesson that I'd "created" it -- that this guy was "in me" -- but this only made it more disconcerting, because it was clear that it wasn't actually me who had created this guy, but the writer. And then, to feel that this was true, that there was a whole culture of people just like this guy, with their own shared perspectives (or so I gathered) . . . well, it's kind of hard to describe. It's an amazing experience, which is why I'm so into this book, even though there is a lot of stuff in it that is terrible.

The worst stuff, though, is the stuff with the social context and the anthropological subtitles and the generalized theses about "other ways of life" that supposedly illuminate the mystery. This stuff sucks, and it's hard for me to believe that it isn't completely useless.

Geertz thinks of himself as a social scientist who is elucidating a point about "other cultures" by providing concrete examples. This is how he thinks he is being helpful to his reader. But the human mind is not a social being. The human mind is peculiar. It does not generalize. It is full of strangely specific people.

The reader, myself, is likely to be more familiar with one strangely specific mind than with a complicated web of social relations that he gathers into his analysis. And so, as an anthropologist, if I want to help my reader understand the weirdness of other minds, I'll use weird minds as my examples. I won't take weird minds and stick them into the larger context of whatever other, more coherent worldview they are part of.

I mean, it's okay to do this if you are trying to make your reader understand this other worldview. If, for example, you are trying to explain Japan, you might want to talk about all the people in Japan as people. But if you are trying to understand this one guy in Japan, the stuff about Japan is going to be a hindrance, not a help, because the point of the book is to make us understand this guy. Sure, the way he talks will differ according to whether he is talking to people in other places and cultures or to other people in Japan -- but the point isn't to get across to us that the other people are Japanese or have Japanese customs, the point is to make us understand how this guy thinks.

Geertz is only successful when he is analyzing the internal perspective of this guy. When he goes out into the actual, non-metaphorical world, his book loses its touch. This is what happens when people try to analyze "human" behaviors without thinking of themselves as analyzing people. My view is that to understand anything, you need to understand someone, not anything, and in this book it is the social context of "other cultures" that gets the short end of the stick.

When it is good, it's really good. (Although even when it's good, it's really bad.) When it's bad, it's really bad. The quality of the book varies a lot. (Although let me say that the bits where Geertz is "making his case" are the best bits, and the rest is kind of a drag.) But when it's good, man, it's great, and the experience is really amazing.

[anothermisguidedmillennial]

On Sitting Still

I have spent most of my adult life running from one place to another.

I ran through high school, desperately trying to fit into some kind of social group that would accept me. I literally ran through the cross country team, and when that didn’t work out, I ran into the music nerds and made that my home. I did a decent job, considering high school sucks for just about everyone, but all things considered, I left high school panting.

I darted into college, my dad undergoing cancer treatment and coming off of a relationship I shouldn’t have been in. I was mainly running away from everything that went poorly before, and hoping desperately to finally find a place where I fit in. I ran into a music program, mostly to seek approval. People who want approval love performing, because they love the immediacy of people clapping for them. But then I ran from that program when I failed, and failed hard.

I ran to Italy my junior year for a semester abroad because I was tired of running. It was the first and only reprieve I had ever given myself, and it worked for a short time. But I came out of that semester running and determined to make a name for myself at my college campus, because my worst fear at that time was leaving having made no public accomplishments. So I made that name known, but I left college exhausted.

Then I ran to Boston, because making a name for yourself comes with a reputation, and I couldn’t stand any negative notoriety that came with being an assertive woman entertaining the idea of a career in politics who didn’t take no for an answer. As one does in their young life, I wanted to escape commitment and family and everything I thought I was too young for. I took off sprinting in Boston, getting my first promotion not even six months into my first job there.

When I didn’t get my second promotion at said job, I galloped back to upstate New York, half with my tail between my legs at having moved closer to home, but also with a renewed sense of direction. I ran, gasping for air, towards my last semester of graduate school and walked away with my diploma. I sprinted into a new job, a new apartment, becoming a cat mom (thank god it all worked out okay). I felt this bone-weary feeling that I had never felt in my entire life when it was over.

And now here I sit, having driven an hour to visit family and friends, now alone at a bar in Glens Falls, NY, having a margarita and writing this. I’ve learned (and am continuing to endeavor to learn) that there is an art to sitting still. For the first time in my adult life, I do not have somewhere I need to be. I am not running to rehearsal, to a conference call, to another shift, etc. I am exactly where I need to be....which is nowhere.

I haven’t been shy on here that I have struggled with anxiety and disordered eating. I think the pinnacle of where these things came from (mainly an obsession with control) was this idea that I needed to constantly be bettering myself publicly. I had to one-up whatever I did last year, and it was never good enough. I ran myself ragged and I hardly ever gave myself the chance to just sit and be. I was so obsessed with making a name for myself that I never allowed myself to just sit and listen to the music at the bar, or sip the coffee and listen to the live band at the local coffee shop. My key to recovery from mental illness, other than professional help, has been to allow myself to be fallible, but above all, let myself stop.

I don’t have it all figured out, but I also know that I have never been prouder of myself. Seriously. The awards and the recognition and the photo ops and the degrees -- never in my life have I been as proud of myself as I am now, sitting alone at a bar, getting ready to see my friend perform in a theater production in an hour. I guess this proves that nothing actually matters other than your own opinion of yourself. Our success is ultimately defined by us.

To the two people and 5 Russian bots who read this entire thing - thank you. This blog has been a practice in allowing myself to admit publicly that I am not always who I try to be. I have a difficult time showing who I really am in an authentic way - I always have, because I have spent so much time doing whatever it took for the applause at the end of the performance. My brother, ever the wise one who always sees through my act, has always been the only one I’ve ever listened to when he reminds me that I am enough. Maybe now I’ll actually believe him.

[0-parasol-0]

What is up with the Pastry Order honestly

It is my new point of obsession with the lore and I’m so interested in how it works

( Discussion under read more since it contains references to like,,, real life Christianity in case anyone prefers to not look at that. Also spoilers for the Tower of Sweet Chaos Event )

How does the hierarchy even work in the order? Is it like the Roman Catholic Church ( Pope> Cardinal> etc ) or is it just vaguely tied to Christianity-type religions? How widespread are they? Is it a smaller religion or is it a larger sect that operates throughout the world( Leaning towards the latter )?

Is the order wholly bad or are there others like Pastry who are simply misguided? Are there genuinely good cookies in the order ( I would personally like to believe this )? Are their beliefs inherently wrong? Is hiding the secrets of the witches a bad thing entirely?

After all, White Lily Cookie reacted extremely negatively to learning the truth, who’s to say how many other cookies would react in the same way? How would Cookies react to this on an international scale?

How early can one join the order? What are they taught? Do they interact outside of the order? What are their duties? Is the religion of the order widespread, but only certain cookies join the order itself??

We are given extremely little in canon to go off of for any of these things. Pastry Cookie is below Shadow Sister and Reverend Mother who know a lot more about the truth than her, but any other cookies affiliated with the order aren’t mentioned. ( This is a trait of Devsis to introduce a new land/concept and then never expand upon it aside from a few minor characters ( Sugarteara’s known citizens consist of Lobster and Mocha Ray, Dragon’s Valley lore consists of the small tidbits the dragons give us + Knight and Fire Spirit, Literally Anything involving the Dessert Paradise or Millennial Tree Cookie and his forest )

Reverend dresses like a nun but is referred to as a Reverend while Shadow Sister and Pastry take on a role that is more like a nun than anything else. The Shadow Sister(s) know about the secrets of the witches while ordinary Cookies like Pastry are unaware despite her having been in the order for a while. Reverend knows as well and it is implied that anyone above her knows the truth. Pastry and Shadow Sister both answer to the command of Reverend Cookie, who, presumably, is working for another cookie higher up on the Order’s hierarchy, but their existence can only be inferred.

I’ve tried to figure out the hierarchy/inner workings myself but most of it is just head canon since there are very few scraps to piece together the entire thing.

I wish Devsis would release a lorebook of some kind ( like the artbook but the lore and story would take a greater precedent- maybe it could also expand on the backstories of a few characters rarely given the spotlight in CRK/CR;OB? ) However that is wishful thinking and it most likely will not happen sadly

most of this was just me asking questions oops

[disneytva]

Freeform Greenlights 3 New Adult Animated Series By 20th Television Animation: “Praise Petey” “SupaShawty Girls, Funkamatic BangBang” & “Wallflower”

Freeform has ordered 3 animated comedy series from Disney’s adult animation division: 20th Television Animation

Praise Petey Created By from SNL head writer Anna Drezen, who created the series, and exec producers including Monica Padrick, Mike Judge and Greg Daniels a series order.

Praise Petey follows Petey, voiced by Schitt’s Creek star Murphy, a New York City “it” girl who has it all until her life comes crashing down around her. As luck would have it, a mysterious gift from her father gives her a new lease on life: she’s going to lean into modernizing his small-town cult.

Cowboy Bebop star Cho voices Bandit, a potential love interest for Petey and a cult member since childhood whose mother was a high-ranking member. The Good Fight’s Baranski voices White, Petey’s mother, a magazine editor, Manhattan society woman and a terrifying perfectionist who’s never eaten, tasted or seen ketchup.

The Flash’s Kiersey Clemons voices Eliza, a bartender at the local bar and reluctant BFF to Petey, working at her new cult. Magnum P.I.’s Amy Hill voices Mae Mae, Bandit’s Southern mama oozing with Southern hospitality who happens to be the right-hand woman of a cult leader. Barry’s Stephen Root voices Petey’s loving father, a charming, homespun, stone-cold cult leader with some pretty unique ideas about meditation, space, jumping up and down in a field, and how his bloodline is necessary for the salvation of mankind. He may or may not be dead.

It is exec produced by Central Park’s Monica Padrick, along with Bandera Entertainment’s Mike Judge, Greg Daniels and Dustin Davis, and ShadowMachine’s Alex Bulkley and Corey Campodonico. The series is produced by 20th Television Animation, with animation by ShadowMachine.

SupaShawty Girls, Funkamatic BangBang: Created by newcomer writers and executive producers Adamme and Adanne Ebo, and exec producers Tiffany Haddish and Melanie Clark.

It follows Yeze and Tule when a freak laboratory accident turns the twin college students into dopeass superheroes, and they must learn to manage their brand new super-powered lives with the growing pains of adulthood.  Unfortunately for humanity, they’d actually rather kick it than kick butt & save the world.

Wallflower Created By Julia Edelman, Solar Opposites co-exec producer Danielle Uhlarik, and New Yorker cartoonist Olivia de Recat.It follows Ren, a quick-witted introvert who has the power to communicate with her houseplants. With the misguided help of her charming, but dysfunctional ensemble of greenery, Ren clumsily navigates the many anxieties of being in your twenties.

Praise Petey, SupaShawty Girls: Funksamatic BangBan & Wallflower will begin production in early 2022.

It comes as the Disney-owned network takes another crack at animation, having previously developed a number of series in this space. Freeform has dabbled in animation development before. In 2019, it was working on millennial comedy Betches, written by Rachel Koller and produced by Emma Roberts, and Woman World, based on a graphic novel, written by Aminder Dhaliwal and exec produced by The Guild’s Felicia Day. 

Neither project ended up going to series.Hunter expects these new projects to be the first of many. “We do have a slate of others that aren’t yet at the steps of animatics and artwork and we’re continuing to buy. The goal is for this to continue to be its own pipeline of Gen Z and millennial stories for the Freeform brand,” she said. “We’ve been very aggressive about going out to the town to procure more projects.”

[obtusemedia]

Ranking Lady Gaga's albums, from worst to best

Being a Lady Gaga fan can be an exercise in frustration.

Gaga is far more ambitious than most popstars — I doubt we’ll ever see Ariana Grande or Ed Sheeran make an album as left-field as Born This Way or ARTPOP. But she's also far less consistent, with numerous misbegotten projects.

Gaga's undeniably successful, with five #1 hits, an Oscar and multiple iconic music videos to her name. But her messy album rollouts and tradition of underperforming lead singles make her feel like an underdog compared to the more polished, precise careers of her contemporaries like Taylor Swift, Beyoncé or Bruno Mars.

Gaga is kind of a mess. But she's our mess. This album ranking will cover some records I can't stand — albums that make me constantly hit the fast-forward button, or albums I ignore altogether. But there isn't a single record on here that wasn't a bold move. Even the "back to basics" albums made strong aesthetic choices.

So let's dive into the career of the most fascinating Millennial popstar.

#8: Cheek To Cheek (2014)

This really shouldn't count. It's a Lady Gaga album in name only. But, technically it's a Gaga album, so here we are.

I've got nothing against Gaga having fun playing Rat Pack-era dress-up with Tony Bennett. She's a theatre kid at heart, and I'm sure every theatre kid would kill to make a Great American Songbook covers record like this. It sounds like she and Tony enjoyed themselves, so I'm happy for them!

...but I'm sorry. I can't be objective about Cheek To Cheek, it's the opposite of my taste. There's only so many bland lounge ballads I can take.

BEST SONGS: I have to pick one? "Anything Goes" is cute, I guess.

WORST SONG: "Sophisticated Lady"

#7: A Star Is Born (2018)

Let me first make this clear — A Star Is Born, the movie starring Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga? It's a masterpiece. It's electrifying and tragic and I'm still upset it didn't sweep the Oscars that year. There's even a cute dog! You won't hear me say a bad word about it.

But A Star Is Born, the accompanying soundtrack? It's extremely hit-and-miss.

Yes, it includes arguably Gaga's best-ever song and one of the greatest movie hits ever written, "Shallow." And there's plenty of other great tunes in the tracklist too — "Always Remember Us This Way," "I'll Never Love Again," the "La Vie En Rose" cover.

Even the country-rock songs from Bradley Cooper (who, reminder, is not a professional singer) are mostly good! "Black Eyes" RIPS, and "Maybe It's Time" feels like a long-lost classic.

But sadly, there are so many mediocre filler tracks on this thing. The second half of A Star Is Born's hour-plus runtime (Gaga's longest!) is padded with generic songs like "Look What I've Found," "Heal Me" and "I Don't Know What Love Is." The only good one out of the bunch is the silly, intentionally-bad "Why Did You Do That?"

In the movie, these filler tracks serve a point – they're meant to show Gaga's character selling out. They work in the movie when you hear them for a few seconds and see Cooper make a drunkly disappointed scowl. But I don't want to listen to them, and sadly, they make up half the album.

In other words — A Star Is Born would've made an incredible six or seven-song EP. But as an 63-minute-long record? It's a slog.

BEST SONGS: "Shallow", "Always Remember Us This Way," "Maybe It's Time"

WORST SONG: "Heal Me"

#6: Joanne (2016)

After Born This Way and ARTPOP, I get why Gaga needed to make a more lowkey, back-to-basics album. I also understand that many of these songs have extremely personal lyrics for her.

But is a down-to-earth album what I really want from our most outré popstar? Not really.

Luckily, Joanne is better than that description suggests. Yes, there are some bland acoustic ballads and awkward hippie-era throwbacks (two styles that are really not in Gaga's wheelhouse), but there's also some Springsteen-style heartland rockers! And those go hard in the paint.

Joanne works best when Gaga works the record's dusty aesthetics into her brand of weirdo pop, like on the sizzling "John Wayne," the winking "A-YO" or the delightfully extra Florence Welch duet "Hey Girl."

The record also has "Perfect Illusion" — a glorious red herring of a lead single that sounds nothing like anything else on Joanne. It's a roided-up mixture of woozy Tame Impala production and hair metal histrionics, and it rules. It might be Gaga's best-ever lead single! (at the very least, it's her most underrated.)

And there is one slow tune that's unambiguously great: "Million Reasons," another solid Gaga lighters-in-the-air power ballad pastiche.

Despite what some Little Monsters may tell you, Joanne isn't a disaster. There's some great stuff in there, and even the worst songs are just forgettable. But it's still far from her best.

BEST SONGS: "Perfect Illusion," "Diamond Heart," "Million Reasons"

WORST SONG: "Come To Mama"

#5: Chromatica (2020)

When Chromatica was released near the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, it had been seven years since Gaga had released music in her classic gonzo-synthpop vein. I can easily picture the record serving as an "ugh fine, I'll give you what you want" response to the many Little Monsters annoyed with Gaga's half-decade of folksy ballads and Julie Andrews cosplay.

I'll say this about Chromatica — outside of The Fame Monster, it's her most consistent record. There's not a single track that's a glaring mistake. And the three singles — "Stupid Love," "911" and the triumphant Ariana Grande duet "Rain On Me" — easily stand among her best tracks.

But although "all bangers, no ballads" album sounds rad in theory, it doesn't really succeed in practice. Chromatica is solid, but it's also a very same-y record. It feels like Gaga had one really great idea for the album ('90s club music with super-depressing lyrics) and repeated it over and over and over again to diminishing results.

There are some songs that are able to separate themselves: the three singles, of course, as well as the goofy "Babylon" and "Sine From Above," the Elton John duet that's the closest Chromatica gets to a ballad. But by the end of the album, you feel more worn out than electrified.

Also — and this is probably unfair, but still — Chromatica came out just a couple months after another retro-dance blockbuster pop album: Dua Lipa's magnum opus, Future Nostalgia. That's not a flattering comparison.

BEST SONGS: "Rain On Me," "Stupid Love," "911"

WORST SONG: "1000 Doves"

#4: The Fame (2008)

Out of all of Gaga's records, The Fame is most like a time capsule. It REEKS of late '00s/early '10s pop — which isn't an entirely fair criticism, seeing as Gaga popularized that era's sleazy, synthy aesthetic. It's also not a bad thing! I don't mind a little nostalgia!

As you already know, The Fame's singles are masterworks. "Just Dance," "Poker Face," "Paparazzi" — these tracks have titanic legacies for good reason. And although it's probably the least-beloved of this album's hits, despite being a total banger, "LoveGame" should still be commended for having arguably the most Gaga lyric ever (you know, the "disco stick" line).

And even though those tracks are front-loaded on The Fame, there are some gems deeper in the tracklist. "Summerboy" is basically Gwen Stefani covering The Strokes (so obviously, it's great). "Eh, Eh" is adorable. "Starstruck" is the most 2008 song ever recorded, with aggressive Auto-Tune and Flo Rida showing up to make Starbucks jokes.

Sadly, The Fame still feels like Gaga before she became fully-formed at certain points. The back half has a number of songs that feel like generic club tracks forced by the label, and "Paper Gangsta" is one of the clunkiest songs in Gaga's catalogue.

But at the very least, the bad songs on The Fame at least serve as little nostalgia bombs for that era of pop. And the best songs are untouchable classics.

BEST SONGS: "Paparazzi," "Just Dance," "Summerboy"

WORST SONG: "Paper Gangsta"

#3: ARTPOP (2013)

For much of Gaga's career, she's been ahead of the curve. She tries something, and a year or a few years later, other popstars try something similar to diminishing results.

That doesn't just apply to the successful stuff, like Gaga's extravagant music videos inspiring many copycats from 2010-2013. It also applies to the mid-late '10s trend of legacy popstars making a controversial record with risky aesthetic or lyrical choices that backfired: reputation. Witness. Man of The Woods.

Gaga did this first, with ARTPOP — arguably the most abrasive, and bizzare major label album released by a major modern popstar. And she did it better, because unlike Swift, Perry and Timberlake, Gaga's weirdness was for real. And it was in service of some prime, hyper-aggressive bangers.

ARTPOP isn't Gaga's best work — some of her experiments on it are major misfires, from the obnoxious "Mary Jane Holland" to the bland Born This Way leftover (and Romani slur-utilizing) "Gypsy."

But when ARTPOP is on, it's ON. The opening stretch in particular, from "Aura" to "Venus" to "G.U.Y." to "Sexxx Dreams," is chaotic synthpop at its finest. Those songs took Gaga's classic sound to an apocalyptic, demented extreme, and they're fantastic.

"MANiCURE" is a great glam-rock banger, "Dope" is another classic Gaga piano ballad, the title track is some sikly-smooth dreampop; even the misguided, clunky trap anthem "Jewels N' Drugs" is bad in a hilarious, charming way!

Trust me: ARTPOP will go down in history not as a flop, but as a gutsy, underrated record from a legend. Less Witness, more In Utero.

BEST SONGS: "G.U.Y.," "Venus," "Sexxx Dreams"

WORST SONG: "Gypsy"

#2: The Fame Monster (2009)

Objectively speaking, this is probably the best Gaga album.

It's her one record with no fluff, no filler — only 34 minutes and 8 tracks, all of them stellar.

It's the record that took Gaga from "wow, this new woman is a fresh new face in pop!" to "this woman IS pop."

It's the record with her signature track, "Bad Romance," which was accompanied by arguably the greatest music video of the 21st Century. (It also has my absolute favorite Gaga track, the relentlessly catchy "Telephone.")

I don't think I need to explain what makes mega-smashes "Bad Romance" and "Telephone" and "Alejandro" great, nor the accompanying legendary deep cuts "Speechless" and "Dance In The Dark." They speak for themselves.

However — the sleek, calculated perfection of The Fame Monster, while incredible, isn't something I return to often. It's just not the side of Gaga that's my favorite. That honor would have to go to...

BEST SONGS: "Telephone," "Dance In The Dark," "Bad Romance"

WORST SONG: "So Happy I Could Die" (but it's still pretty solid)

#1: Born This Way (2011)

One of my favorite podcasts is Blank Check. The concept of the show is to analyze each movie by a famous director — in particular, those who had big success early on and then got a blank check to make whatever crazy passion project they wanted. Here's a great example: because Batman was a massive hit, Tim Burton got to make whatever Hot Topic-core movies he wanted to for decades, from Edward Scissorhands to a creepy Willy Wonka remake.

That long-winded tangent is just to say: Born This Way was Lady Gaga's blank check. By early 2011, she had conquered the pop universe, notching hit after hit after hit. Every other pop star was copying her quirky music videos. So the label let Gaga do whatever she wanted — and she didn't waste that opportunity.

Born This Way is wildly overproduced. It's both extremely trend-chasing (those synths were cutting edge at the time but charmingly dated now), but also deeply uncaring about what the teens want (I don't think Springsteen and Queen homages were big at the time). And I love every messy, overblown second of it.

From the hair-metal/synthpop hybrid opener "Marry The Night" to the majestic '80s power ballad "The Edge of Glory," Born This Way starts at an 11. And Gaga never takes her foot off the pedal for the album's entire hour-plus run time. Clanging electric guitars, thunderous synths and Clarence Clemons (!!!) sax solos collide into each other as Gaga champions every misfit and loser in the world. It's gloriously corny in the best way possible.

Born This Way is also the perfect middle ground of pop-savvy Gaga and gonzo Gaga. It doesn't go quite as hard as ARTPOP, but the hooks are stronger. And the oddball moments are tons of fun, from the sci-fi biker anthem "Highway Unicorn" to the goofy presidential-sex banger "Government Hooker" ("Put your hands on me/John F. Kennedy" might be the greatest line in pop history).

Born This Way will always be my favorite Gaga album. It's armed with nuclear-grade hooks, slamming beats, and soaring anthems. Although it's not as untouchably pristine as the Mt. Rushmore of '10s pop classics (for the record, that's 1989, EMOTION, Lemonade and, of course, Melodrama), Gaga isn't best served by meticulousness. She's proudly tacky and histrionic, and so that's what makes Born This Way an utter joy.

BEST SONGS: "The Edge of Glory," "You and I," "Marry The Night"

WORST SONG: "Bloody Mary"

[ldcu-12stem1g3mil]

On Becoming A Medium: Gen-Z Individuals As Modern Communicators

Greater Communication Leads To A Greater Generation

Communication establishes relationships that make organized possibilities. Throughout different ages, communication in their unique ways is used to pass down information, both verbal and non-verbal means. Of the cave paintings of the Prehistoric Era, down to Classical arts of the Renaissance. The works of messenger and the impact of gossip of the Medieval Era. The establishment of postal networks and telephones of the Early Modern Era, until now to the Present Modern period of Internet and Online technology, the introduction of the Modernized Communication Era. The generation, also known as digital natives or digitally literate, can grow up and adapt to the internet and portable digital technologies at a young age. The evolution of communication depicts how messages and ideas were undertone or significantly conveyed. Every thought uttered has purposes or objectives to reach. There is always a reason when communicating a message to another. It may be to inform, entertain, or persuade them. Whether your purpose is intended to be good, misunderstandings happen too, so it is wise to deliver the message with utmost clarity and precision.

The Power Of Communication

Activism is one way to fight for a more equitable social system that can benefit everyone. It gives the voice from the voiceless and amplifies the voice from the suppressed. Activism is a movement that gives the power to communicate the struggles over life and helps overcome feelings of helplessness and hopelessness. Evident reports show substantial and manifest studies on how Gen-Z has changed activism: from political towards environmental. Without the power of communication, none of the calls of people will be heard and addressed. In democratic countries, freedom of expression and speech is inscribed to seek and adhere to the needs of the people in these dynamic societies.

Generations and generations have passed, yet, taboos and social issues are nevertheless at the bottom focus. Philippine culture obliges their children to follow their parents or any elderly advice because they believe voicing out is a form of disrespect and stepping out before them, fearing the youth turning against them. These are one of the reasons why Gen-Zers are more vocal about their opinions and asserting their rights. They seek social justice amidst the repercussions, subjects preventing the youth from voicing them out as they are still young to seek a voice.

While activism requires collective communication, the aspect of leadership requires another greater responsibility. While a good leader holds the vision of the group, a more prominent leader empowers individuals through effective and accurate communication by building together their strongholds to efficiently perform the group's objective. Achieving success and target objectives requires a powerful and convincing communicator. Communication enables leaders and members to share what they have and what they expect from others.

Social Media: Rethinking Communication Works

While every new generation had its share of technological, economic, political, and social differences, no other period in human history could connect people around the planet, allowing individuals to be fully engaged in various relevant topics. As modern communicators, social media is a commonly used and helpful medium of communication and information library. These are advantageous in functionalities that let everyone be able to connect, learn, and communicate with others globally with limited to no difficulties. However, using Social media weighs huge responsibilities and accountabilities as such expression on a large platform like social media should be assessed first. As defined, communication is a two-way transmission: One speaks, then the other listens, and vice versa. Encountering opposing and similar ideas is part of human difference; thus, it is wise to respect those varieties and learn from each other. Learn how to take and give constructive criticisms. 

However, what is not meant to be harmful will become toxic if used inappropriately. Social media means bridging the gap of ignorance and satisfies what the generation wants and needs. There are tons of web pages that publish misleading information that is intended to be lampoon or satirical. Even if the purpose is comical, false and twisted stories will always produce confusion, misunderstanding, and turmoil between readers. Some people of Gen-Z use social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter to express their emotions, particularly hatred. Crying personal and public opinions and problems are often thought not to be bothered. However, in truth, audiences that engages the hatred sentiments online would impact them subtly or significantly. Although everyone has the right to think and act the way they want, always remember that freedom has limitations. A misguided idea could lead to dangerous ideas. Before putting thoughts and words online, consider the following: Will it have a beneficial outcome? Will it be sensitive and might offend anyone? Is it even appropriate for me to share such thoughts? Is it necessary?

Conclusion

It is not enough to know and navigate technology; practice awareness and be responsible enough to put it to good use. As modern communicators, effective spotting and dissemination of factual and truthful information is the objective that will help generations to grow and prosper forward. If disinformation can spread in a matter of seconds, then so can the truth, justice, and factual information. Let Gen-Z be the role model of today's medium to a better and truthful society.

Greater communication leads to a greater generation. In the age of Information, ignorance became a choice. Let not history blind the upcoming generation. Practicing self-research and critical thinking is worthwhile and let knowledge be your weapon. While the world is still progressing forward, the present technologies and trained knowledge will evolve and multiply its degree to a more comprehensive cost. Moreover, the transmission of communication may develop into more complexities. Thus, learning to be responsible users must be practiced now for future generations to succeed. The more communication is used in the right way, the better the result reflects its present period; thus, affecting the future positively. The significant goal of communication is to cultivate truth, justice, and facts, and a sense of connections in the medium of communication.

References:

YPulse. (2020). This is how gen Z & millennials have changed activism. Retrieved from https://www.ypulse.com/article/2020/07/14/this-is-how-gen-z-millennials-have-changed-activism/

Biederman, A. et al. (2020). Meet gen Z activists: called to action in an unsettled world. Retrieved from https://apnews.com/article/climate-race-and-ethnicity-shootings-climate-change-school-violence-01673bd21da246ce942d1e98a08fc96f

Koulopoulos, T. Keldsen, D. (2014). Gen Z effect the six forces shaping the future of business. Retrieved from https://www.routledge.com/Gen-Z-Effect-The-Six-Forces-Shaping-the-Future-of-Business/Koulopoulos-Keldsen/p/book/9781629560311

Tyson, A. Kennedy, B. & Funk, C. (2021). Gen Z, millennials stand out for climate change activism, social media engagement with issue. Retrieved from https://www.pewresearch.org/science/2021/05/26/gen-z-millennials-stand-out-for-climate-change-activism-social-media-engagement-with-issue/

Luthra, A. & Dahiya, R. (2015). Effective leadership is all about communicating effectively: Connecting leadership and communication. Retrieved from https://www.mcgill.ca/engage/files/engage/effective_leadership_is_all_about_communicating_effectively_luthra_dahiya_2015.pdf

Kalamtime. (2021). Evolution of communication from ancient to modern times. Retrieved from https://www.kalamtime.com/blog/evolution-of-communication/

Everydaymentor. (N.D.). Social media/media literacy: Responsible use. Retrieved from https://everydaymentor.org/article/social-mediamedia-literacy-responsible-use/

[millennial-star-gazer]

A Fire Dragon, His Princess and The Not-So-Terrible Party Aftermath: Chapter 3

A Fire Dragon, His Princess and The Not-So-Terrible Party Aftermath Nalu week 2020 Prompts: Voice, Flirt, Charm & Smile(All implied) Genres: Romance, Humor, New Adult Fanfiction Pairing: Nalu/Endlu (Natsu x Lucy & E.n.d. Natsu x Lucy) Rating: M for language, steamy and mature/adult sexual content (all consensual) in these and future chapters. Reader Discretion is advised.(You've been warned!) Summary:  God knows it was all  fun and games at an outdoor guild party until a drinking contest results in a not-so-great time for a certain celestial wizard much to the dismay of a protective dragon slayer and company. Even worse is Lucy's hangover with some kind of mild flu and busted ankle to boot . At least a doting Natsu is more-than-willing to provide his mate plenty of TLC. One of my entries for Nalu week 2020 and part of the Nalu-centric anthology series  The Dragon Demon and His Celestial Princess anthology series (slight au/ canon divergent).

Chapter 3: Down With The Alcohol- Induced Sickness A/N: Hey peeps, it's your girl back with yet another installment of this fic! I don't have too much to say in this particular A/N other than a shout out this time among other than a few things. Like how's there's plenty of romantic Nalu fluff, protective Natsu and platonic friendship in this chapter and fic for y'all to self-indulge to your hearts content for instance! Special thanks to the amazing @mannyegb@mannyegb for helping me edit and further develop this chapter as a beta! Oh and the title is partially inspired by a Disturbed Song. Now without further ado, here's the story- enjoy! Disclaimer: I don't own Fairytail which instead belongs to the one and only Hiro-sensei instead!

______________________________________

Read More This Fic and  on other platforms here:

Copy and  Paste Designated links into browser tab/window in reading on desktop.

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Previous(Click Here:) (or here: https://millennial-star-gazer.tumblr.com/post/624773467606319105/a-fire-dragon-his-princess-and-the )  Chapter: 3 

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B.  Fanfiction

I.Fanfiction  (Click Here:) (or here: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13623735/1/A-Fire-Dragon-His-Princess-and-The-Not-So-Terrible-Party-Aftermath)  (For all ongoing chapters on Fanfiction)

II. Chapter 3  FF  Link (Click Here:) (or here: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13623735/3/A-Fire-Dragon-His-Princess-and-The-Not-So-Terrible-Party-Aftermath) (Just For This Post In This Instance due to arbitrary character limits)

C. A03

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II. Chapter 3 A03 Link (Click Here:) (or here: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24802591/chapters/59983813)

 (Just For This Post In This Instance due to arbitrary character limits)

2. Master  Post Of All My Writing (Click Here:) (or here: https://millennial-star-gazer.tumblr.com/post/179665258923/master-fic-rec-post)

________________________

Legend Italics: Fantasy, flashback & literary/ song quotes Bold: First Person Thoughts Bolded Italics: empathized word Bolded Italics: outside of main story): A/N

________________________ "I've had a little bit too much, much (oh, oh, oh) All of the people start to rush (start to rush by) A dizzy twister dance, can't find my drink or man Where are my keys? I lost my phone, phone (oh, oh, oh)" (Lady Gaga &  Colby O'Donis : Just Dance) (This particular song seemed to fit the chapter perfectly lol)

________________________ Shit... shit.. shit... Not too many hours later, the poor celestial mage hobbled through the trees in search of well…..Natsu, Cana, Erza first aid, a garbage bin to retch over...or just about anyone or anything, really. Did she mention the fire water pumping through her veins? Ugh... all that alcohol was the single thought of self-regret running through the sloshed woman's mind. "When you see her By the silver moonlight Shining baby Lying by your side You know tonight you're gonna die Cheyenna Cheyenna Cheyenna" A gothic rock song echoing in Lucy's mind that she vaguely recalled hearing earlier, a misguided dare in the form of a drinking contest that quickly spiraled out of control. The hell was I thinking? How the celestial mage let herself be persuaded into tossing back so many alcoholic drinks by Warren and Max, she couldn't fathom. Thoughts swimming, whirling through Lucy's , that electric flash pain behind her eyes — (not unlike a hammer). Not to mention, mud-encrusted clothes, countless unsightly bruises, contusions along with abrasions topped off with a busted ankle from a tumble through some dense brush down a slope; that literally added further insult to injury. Needless to say, the blonde was clearly less -than -mint -condition to any person with eyes. Good god, was she mentally kicking herself for that terribly short-sighted lapse in judgment during that damned contest. Hammered as I may be. Why, just why? Now if I could just find where Natsu and the others are at, that'd be just great.

________________________ 

Due to arbitrary character/text limits, the full chapter couldn't be included on tumblr this time around but can still be  found here (Fanfiction(Click Here:) (or here: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13623735/3/A-Fire-Dragon-His-Princess-and-The-Not-So-Terrible-Party-Aftermath and A03(Click Here:) (or here: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24802591/chapters/59983813)  See links for chapter 3 for both platforms and regular links above in this post too.

[paradoxicalpenman]

Dichotomies for Millennials and Gen Z

Expanding vision but confining views,

Sensitivity diminishing frequently bombarded by gloomy news,

Global ideas but local ideologies,

Attention span of a toddler effecting real change a dystopian fantasy,

Racing towards a better future envisioned for ourselves yet living with the existing signals of inevitable catastrophes,

Concerned for the health of the planet not compromising lifestyle while championing climate crisis,

Focused on things that divide us but whining about the similarities,

Racial and gender discrimination, fat shaming, body shaming are abhorring but we also promote cosmetics and surgeries,

Showing outrage through keyboard and internet but utter fail while ask to cede a little comfort to physically participate,

Wisdom we possess no doubt but perseverance we severely lack,

Feeling helpless due to the leadership of boomers but hesitant to jump in the political arena,

Representative democracies are failing us but deliberative democracies need us as active stakeholders to fill the lacuna,

Regularly establishing new normals but failing to grasp the basic tenets of logic, reason and objectivity,

Access to all information on the fingertips yet misguided by propaganda and biased media,

Truth is always one, it doesn't has several faces,

Yet some of us subscribe to the truth that fits our ideology and narratives,

These are some of the dichotomies for Millennials and Gen Z,

Weaving such a convoluted web of constraints and restraints for ourselves,

That feeling hopeless and waiting for the inevitable doom is an acceptable prerogative.

Perhaps that's why climate change and its consequences are being regarded as just another chapter in the long list of environmental tragedies,

Privilege and entitlement has crept deep inside our bones and psyche because we can't compromise our comfortable life for an insignificant thing like the well-being of all living species including humanity.

[callmefitz]

fucked up things my catholic school did bc I’m in a mood

had an assembly where nuns told us birth control would ruin our lives and our bodies.

had another assembly where a random millennial woman told us how wonderful marriage with a man is and how we should be excited to find our husband.

Told us that our goal in life is to have children

Made us wear khakis. What the fuck.

had yet another assembly where they told us if we walked out to stand in solidarity with the March for our lives we would be expelled, no questions asked. If we were caught talking about March for our lives we would be expelled. We then had an hour long rosary prayer for the victims of mass shootings.

Banned a girl from homecoming because she tried to take another girl from a different school as her date. They weren’t even gay- she just wanted to invite her friend. unfortunately Andrew rannells did not come and sing about it. Maybe they would have changed their minds if Meryl Streep was there.

Had us watch an anti gay video series where they explicity said that gay kids watching this should repress their homosexuality and live a life of solitude

Told us that the church didn’t condone homosexuality because they had no evidence to prove it was a good thing

Told us that Catholicism was the only true religion and that any other religion was a perversion of the truth and misguided. I was specifically called out in front of my class because I am Protestant.

[cristalconnors]

BEST ALBUMS OF 2019 (#30-21)

HONORABLE MENTIONS: (alphabetical) Anak Ko- Jay Som, Anger Management- Rico Nasty and Kenny Beats, Assume Form- James Blake, Birdsongs of a Killjoy- Bedouine, Closer to Grey- Chromatics, Iowa Dream- Arthur Russell, Lost Girls- Bat for Lashes, Pang- Caroline Polachek,  Schlagenheim- black midi, and This is How You Smile- Helado Negro

30. THE SAME BUT BY DIFFERENT MEANS, Yves Jarvis

Yves Jarvis’s music is thrillingly alive. Unbound from the limits of form or genre, it’s allowed to hang in the air, buzzing with a sense of urgency and unpredictability. The songs of The Same but by Different Means bleed into one another, rushing over the listener like bath water. Some ideas are too precious to be dwelled on too long, ceasing after a minute or so to give room for the next idea, but others are luxuriated in for as long as 8 minutes, creating a stunning patchwork of raw creativity, a wall of sound astoundingly lush and freewheeling for such a young voice.

29. QUIET SIGNS, Jessica Pratt

Jessica Pratt’s folk is profoundly purposeful. Every sparse detail is placed just so, allowing the spirit of her music to shine through the sublime, intricate simplicity of her arrangements. Quiet Signs, like a lot of her music, sounds found- emanating from somewhere in the early 1970s, untouched by the ravages of time, uncovered in the back section of your local record store in pristine condition.

28. 2nd, Grace Ives

The image of Grave Ives sitting in her bedroom at the vanity on the cover of her debut album 2nd perfectly evokes the intimacy and personal resonance of her bedroom pop. But there’s the problem of that demented reflection that greets her- obscured and crazed, it lets the listener know this is not another throw away DIY pop effort, but is instead a vast, varied, and complicated statement of intent that feels much larger than its 22 minute runtime would suggest.

27. IGOR, Tyler, the Creator

IGOR, or, the emancipation of Tyler, the Creator. On an album that sheds any preconceptions you’d ever had about him or his work, Tyler sounds truly free, creating a rich rap tapestry that redefines what’s possible in the genre as he leans into his most distinctive idiosyncrasies, exploring his boldest ideas with unabashed zeal and his trademark sense of humor, finding Tyler more confident in his own vision than ever.

26. ACTIVE LISTENING: NIGHT ON EARTH, Empath

Empath’s unruly noise pop is one thing until it’s another. A song will meticulously build its structure before collapsing it, making for a jagged, captivatingly unpredictable listening experience. Their debut album Active Listening: Night on Earth is maybe their most joyous, accessible effort- which feel like silly adjectives for such a messy, discordant album, but it is equally transcendent, often finding unexpected beauty in the cacophony. 

25. WHAT CHAOS IS IMAGINARY, Girlpool

Girlpool’s sound is wider, deeper, and more immersive on What Chaos is Imaginary, allowing their inscrutable images of millennial malaise to sink deep into the fabric of their songs, casting spells via dream pop that wrap you up in their imagery and textures. Its sturdy bedroom rock is familiar, a blood brother of the music that raised me, but dreamier and startlingly distinct, suggesting Girlpool is only just getting started.

24. FEVER, Megan Thee Stallion

The rollicking swagger of Megan Thee Stallion’s debut mixtape is arresting. She grabs you by the face with both hands and shakes you, refusing to let go for the entirety of the album’s high octane, uniformly rousing 40 minutes. Dripping with confidence and scintillating sex appeal, Megan attacks her raps with an earned authority that leaves little doubt in the listener that she’s the undisputed fearsome queen of Houston rap.

23. uknowhatimsayin¿, Danny Brown

Danny Brown, now an elder statesman of rap, has nothing to prove on uknowhatimsayin¿. Everything we’ve ever loved about him is on full display- his quick wit, charming vulgarities, and unmatched taste for nasty beats are as arresting as they’e ever been. After the acid-tinged explorations of Atrocity Exhibition, this album feels like a back-to-basics effort, but keeps much of the verve, his biting verses flowing freely atop glorious production from Q-Tip, Paul White, and others, creating an album that, more than any of his other works, feels definitive of his style. 

22. MAZY FLY, SPELLLING

The genre Mazy Fly fits best in might be horror. Even its lighter moments are vaguely sinister, evoking the textures of the scores of John Carpenter, Fabio Frizzi, or Goblin. That being said, the album can’t be reduced to any one thing- it’s a kaleidoscopic vision that includes haunting requiems for those lost in the transatlantic slave trade and funky alien send ups of Prince and The Beatles, but each track is touched by the horrors of living, the monumental, earth shaking ones, and the everyday ones alike.

21. REMIND ME TOMORROW, Sharon Van Etten

So many musicians trade their guitars in for synths in a misguided attempt to chase the zeitgeist, sacrificing their individuality and power in the process. For Sharon Van Etten, the switch broadens and deepens her sound, honing in on the emotional resonance of her music, blowing it up ten fold, like an extreme close-up on the jumbotron. This is music that can fill arenas, but is maybe also the most raw and vulnerable material she’s ever released.

[facts4u2know]

Fed, Just Stop

2/06/23

The news that the US labor market added 517,000 jobs in January and that job gains for November and December were revised up by a total of 71,000 seemed to surprise most everyone. A record-breaking 12-million jobs have been created in the past 2 years, with 2021 being the greatest year for job growth in American history. Over the past 2 years we gained 800,000 new manufacturing jobs – the greatest rate of increase since the heydays of the 1950s. However, since the Federal Reserve had spent most of 2022 sharply raising interest rates to slow the economy so as to combat inflation, combined with the  fact that the unemployment rate dropped to 3.4%, the lowest rate since 1969, the very robust jobs market signaled that the underlying economy is very strong and that perhaps the Fed’s strategy of taming inflation by slowing wage growth and increasing unemployment was misguided and ineffective. After all, the past several months of data indicated inflation had been moderating, despite booming job growth.

When pandemic restrictions suddenly dumped 20 million US workers into the ranks of the unemployed, all levels of government had to react with unheard of alacrity, so as to avoid another Great Depression. The quick Federal response with pandemic response payments succeeded far beyond expectations – stopping economic freefall and allowing needy Americans to not only survive but actually increase their net worth with a stunning gain of $2.7 trillion.

In 2021, Millennials doubled their net worth, largely because they bought housing at rock-bottom mortgage rates (around 3%) before the demand-driven housing boom. Similarly, home ownership rates spiked during this period, with Blacks gaining the most. As businesses began to reopen after the first surge of the pandemic, they were faced with a massive shortage of workers, who demanded and got large wage increases, with the lowest-wage workers making the greatest gains – over 14%. In summary, as the Fed started steeply raising interest rates in 2022, to stifle inflation middle-income Americans could, and did, continue to spend.

In 2022, wages grew at an average rate of 5.1%, but by 6.8% for low-skill and hourly workers. In December, inflation rose 6.5% from a year before, but much of this increase was catch-up due to the previous steep increase in housing prices and also from huge wage gains in 2021. Research indicates that about 60% of the rate of wage growth is applied to the rate of inflation.

Now, with more than $5 trillion of Federal funding flowing into all sectors of our economy and continuing over the next decade and with wage growth significantly exceeding inflation growth, the US is clearly prospering mightily. I suggest the Federal Reserve declares victory, take a bow over a job very well done, and get out of the way.

[dippedanddripped]

In his 2018 skit on Supreme, Hasan Minaj, the patron comic of hype culture, said, “Without objects that make me stand out, what am I? Then I just have to be myself, and that’s terrifying, because I am insecure and I need things to make me feel better about myself.” In a couple of sentences, he deftly drilled to the core of the fuccboi psyche: a deep-seated insecurity about one’s own worth and an equally deep-seated desire to prove that worth to others.

Both the clinical and the cultural term for this state is Narcissism.

Narcissism is often confused with egotism or mere selfishness, but while it may contain elements of both, it’s driven not by an outsized sense of self-respect but by self-loathing, which leads to inexorable desire and strife for approval from others. “It’s a very insecure personality, and all the stuff on the outside – the grandiosity, the arrogance, the entitlement – is a suit of armor to buttress a weak interior core, because on the subconscious level narcissists think that others will see that they are not all that,” Dr. Ramani Durvasula, a best-selling author and an expert on narcissism, told me.

Narcissism is nothing new, but the level of narcissism on display in our culture is unprecedented – Dr. Ramani calls it the disease of our time. In his prophetic 1979 bestseller The Culture of Narcissism, the sociologist Christopher Lasch dissected a milieu of mass media that gave more and more coverage to celebrities, narcissistic role models whose behavior was increasingly beginning to be condoned, excused, and explained away. He blamed the rise of the narcissistic personality on “proliferation of images” and “the cult of consumption,” among other things. Fast-forward to 2020, and 1979 looks positively quaint in the age of social media, for there is no bigger driving engine of narcissism than social media platforms such as Instagram.

In the decade since its launch, much has been said about how Instagram has democratized media, but it simultaneously open-sourced Narcissism that was formerly reserved for a celebrity elite. Today, with the rise of Gen Z, this tendency reaches another dimension on TikTok. “Everybody on the app has some form of narcissism,” TikTokker Liv Huffman told Highsnobiety in our special zine about the platform’s stars. “You kind of have to in order to put yourself on the Internet like that.”

Having unleashed the technological means of disseminating narcissism with the one hand, contemporary culture has continued to manufacture models for narcissistic behavior in ever increasing numbers with the other. Contemporary pop music is filled to the brim with rappers whose lyrics are all about the display of their possessions. What began as a legitimate hip-hop lyrical device for expressing a sense of pride in lifting oneself up by attaining markers of American success previously possessed only by its white ruling class, has by now devolved into an exhibitionist trope. And just like the generations before them, today’s youth seeks to emulate the behavior of their favorite musicians. Every middle-schooler knows what it means to “flex” and there is no shortage of eleven-year-olds begging their mommies for the next pair of Travis Scott Dunks.

Hype culture is uniquely positioned to tap into the narcissistic world order by creating artificial scarcity and equating the possession of limited edition goods with self-worth. Conspicuous consumption is the defining consumer behavior of the day, but underneath its hood purrs the motor of narcissism turbocharged by a culture that has given us Donald Trump and Kanye West, two narcissists par excellence. Both are incredibly insecure and both – despite being on top of the world – constantly crave adulation and approval of others (West’s narcissism may be further complicated by his alleged bipolar disorder). And both are aided and abetted by their respective fan bases that readily forgive their transgressions thereby enabling them further. Perhaps it’s no coincidence that hip-hop fans seem to be especially tolerant towards narcissistic behavior of musicians, even when it’s misogynistic or generally sadistic.

Before you roll your eyes at my perceived alarmism that Grailed is poisoning the minds of a generation, consider that in this state of affairs no one is innocent. Study after study shows that despite economic progress and general increase in quality of life, members of contemporary society feel more and more unhappy. Other studies show that social media, Instagram in particular, have a negative effect on self-esteem that stems from the permeating feeling of anxiety and envy. Simply put, you can flex all you want, but there will always be someone with a bigger flex. And once you are on the hype treadmill, its very nature makes it hard to get off.

“In [the hype] world narcissists festoon themselves with the latest sneakers, or the latest streetwear, and in that moment they are safe. But then that moment when the world is telling you that you are great, which for the narcissist is better than drugs, is gone and you continue chasing the high,” said Dr. Ramani. On top of this, the culture of narcissism makes one feel inadequate for not owning something. “The entire way fashion is marketed is that if you don’t have that latest something, you are lacking,” continued Dr. Ramani.

Likes don’t make you happy. Not only that, it increasingly seems that possessions in themselves don’t make you happy either, as evidenced by rampant reselling in the streetwear world. Hypebeasts no longer seem to be able to experience the gratifying sense of ownership that comes with purchasing something meaningful and actually keeping it. Resell culture itself is a product of narcissism, because each sale subsidizes the next purchase and creates the social media illusion that one owns more than one actually does. This practice strips the product down only to being fodder for a fit pic, and essentially creates a short-term rental culture driven by Instagram and Stockx. As Lasch put it, late capitalism “subordinates possession itself to appearance and measures exchange value as a commodity’s capacity to confer prestige – the illusion of prosperity and well-being.”

The antidote to narcissism is authenticity, which is a deeper sense of self that provides an anchoring of one’s character that doesn’t change with trends. In matters of taste, authenticity also furnishes one with a clear sense of style. Authenticity forms over time through a series of experiences and experimentations, which is why we probably see the new fashion fans bought forth by hype culture getting younger and younger.

As productive conversations about mental health grow, so too are we now coming to terms with how we as a society are less and less happy. Narcissism has a large role to play here. As our sense of self-gratification keeps on infinitely expanding, our capacity to form lasting, meaningful relationships with other humans is degrading. The millennial marketing world’s incessant calls to “live your best life” are misguided in pegging our sense of self-worth to wrong types of rewards, fleeting and material. Underneath all the talk about inspiration, community, and culture sits a basic set of transactional relationships, whose real message is not “love yourself,” but “treat yourself.”

When Covid-19 hit, some predicted a return to a more substantive world, in which our collective narcissistic drive would be diminished. In fact, in a study done by Highsnobiety in the wake of the shelter in place orders, the readers interviewed overwhelmingly denounced their interest in logos and other markers of conspicuous consumption, instead claiming a newfound interest in minimalism and quality-oriented purchase decisions. Two-thirds of those polled that they actively felt bad about flexing outwardly with their purchases during a time when millions were tightening their belts.

However, long-term this could be more wishful thinking rather than a real change, and we continue to see the same pre-Covid behavior with each hyped release. Less than two weeks ago the new Off-White x Jordan drop caused yet another mad dash. The Atlanta streetwear store Wish received over 60,000 hits to its website within the first couple of seconds after the 10 a.m. scheduled release. Its website crashed, as did the websites of Nike and Off-White. “We would’ve needed servers the size of Coca-Cola’s to handle that much traffic,” said Wish’s representative.

We often talk about streetwear in terms of “the culture.” But in the last decade this term went from describing subcultural movements and their values to excusing run-of-the-mill consumerist behavior. Brands, many of which are the ones screaming loudest about “the culture,” don’t mind this state of affairs at all because it propels the hype bullet train, enriching them along the way. The thing is, happy people are not good for the system. Dr. Ramani sums it up best: “Capitalism would fall apart tomorrow if everyone on the planet was secure in themselves.”

[anothermisguidedmillennial]

On Isolating Through Covid19 Solo

I’ve written on here about going solo - travelling alone, dining alone, and the like. I never thought I’d be writing a post after two months alone in my tiny one bedroom apartment in Albany, NY. 

It’s been...an experience. At the beginning, I had a lot of confidence. I’ve lived my whole life coping with anxiety, so the thought of just continuing that in the comfort of my own home for awhile didn’t intimidate me. I also thought at that time that it would be a matter of a couple of weeks, not months. As time goes on, you’re less enchanted by nights in with takeout, zooming with friends, and staring at a computer screen for hours on end instead of being in a lively office space.

I am a natural extrovert, and even in times when I have intentionally placed myself into a situation alone (travel, or otherwise) I have always been able to react to the crazy world situation with someone else. When something absolutely nuts happens in front of me, I am used to being able to react with another human being in a totally Jim-Halpert-looking-at-the-camera-in-The-Office kind of way. When you’re experiencing a seemingly unending news cycle alone, there’s no one else there to say “damn, that’s wild.” You can reach out to someone else via phone or text, but you miss that terribly human moment of caught off guard eye contact. You miss the immediate contact. While the commercials remind us to enjoy this extra time with family, I can’t help but think about how far my family is, how far most of my friends are. 

I think a lot about what my mental health looks like right now, and what that’ll look like when we eventually cross over in a new normal. I’m finding myself being emotional over things that wouldn’t normally make me emotional, and struggling to focus on tasks that normally wouldn’t be an issue. I feel constantly guilty that I am leaning on others too much, that I am reaching out to folks in my life too often, because I am home alone, and they are not. Sometimes I get up with tons of energy and productivity, other days I can’t shake the feeling of dread and anxiety.

I know many folks who are quarantining with roommates, family members, spouses, little kids, and they run into a completely different set of challenges. Certainly, quarantine is not easy for anyone, and adjusting a group of people to being together constantly is a different challenge in and of itself.

I try to be grateful for what I do have - I am incredibly lucky to have a job I can do 100% remotely, for supportive family and friends, for a cat who puts up with my constant bugging, and for the fact that Animal Crossing New Horizons came out right in the thick of the pandemic (literally this is my only coping method at the moment). 

Overall, I find myself constantly repeating a mantra of just taking everything one second at a time. I’m not very good at that - I am a classic type A planner. I like to have everything figured out, and in a world of unknown, I have to trust that God has a larger road map that I just haven’t seen yet. In moments where I am most down, I try to play a favorite record or write out five happy memories. I try to find something to look forward to, even if it’s just a phone call with a friend. I try to remember that others are struggling and to find ways to help them as well as seek help for myself. 

If you made it this far, you are either my Mom or a really good friend who is already probably tired of putting up with my BS. Thanks for doing that, know that I love you, and I hope we can continue taking this BS day by day.