#excoriation flag

[radiomogai]

[PT: BFRB flags. end PT]

BFRB Flags

Note: For context regarding these flags, please click here.

BFRB Flag

BFRB: Body-focused repetitive behavior (BFRB) is a general term for a group of related disorders that includes hair pulling, skin picking, and nail biting and more. These behaviors are not habits or tics; rather, they are complex disorders that cause people to repeatedly touch their hair and body in ways that result in physical damage.

Trichotillomania Flag

Trichotillomania: causes people to pull out the hair from their scalp, eyelashes, eyebrows, and other parts of the body resulting in noticeable bald patches.

Dermatillomania Flag

Dermatillomania/Excoriation: causes people to repetitively touch, rub, scratch, pick at, or dig into their skin, resulting in skin discoloration, scarring, and even severe tissue damage 

[whipplefilter]

Tonight, I am thinking about 8 times NASCAR reminded me that the needle can be moved, even in spaces that often feel like the very bottom of the barrel:

1. NASCAR rejecting advertisements that feature assault-style weapons, in response to staggering gun violence and mass shooting events in the United States

2. NASCAR explicitly including in its rulebook their employees' right to protest/kneel during the National Anthem

3. NASCAR banning the Confederate flag, even as its culture looooves flags and often thinks it loves the Confederacy

4. Tyler Reddick being repeatedly and very publicly outspoken in support of the Black Lives Matter movement, against Trump's excoriation of it, and naming the role of systemic racism as such (even though RCR made him delete some of it/pulled media appearances)

5. RPM running Bubba Wallace's sponsorship-free #BlackLivesMatter car, as well as JGR and Denny Hamlin's FedEx/National Civil Rights Museum car, coupled with Hamlin's explicit narration of the message and wherefores

6. Joey Logano speaking publicly about his hesitations about the COVID vaccine, and sharing his information-gathering and process that led to him coming around and getting the vaccine--an expression of intellectual humility while also modeling the process for others.

7. YAAASCAR, which is simultaneously just rainbow capitalism but also not, because nothing on this earth is more baldly capitalism incarnate than NASCAR, and in the context of the culture loops back around to being real and important.

8. Samantha Busch being diplomatically but undeniably cold about having to spend time with JD Vance and his opinions on reproductive rights/IVF.

[ingravinoveritas]

i honestly think it was just a stupid joke, maybe for attention but like isnt that the point of instagram? idk just my own not very strong opinion

You're absolutely right, it could just be a stupid joke. I am well aware that I sometimes read a lot into things or unintentionally misread things, so I fully appreciate you saying this. The thing is, though, that she continued with this on Twitter as well:

So from my perspective, that makes it seem like less of an Instagram thing and more of an Anna thing. As does the fact that she has a longtime pattern of making posts like this when he is trending/when something Michael has been part of gains a lot of positive attention. (Contrast that with, for example, the negative reviews of The Way, and how she never said another word about it or in support of him once the backlash happened in response to the show.)

The other thing I keep thinking of is how vastly different the reaction would be if Michael was the one saying or doing any of this. If he'd posted a selfie of him wearing a "Who the F*ck is Anna Lundberg?" t-shirt. The feeling I have is that people's reactions to that would be very different, regardless of whether it is a reference to an episode title or something else from a TV show. Or if he tweeted "She's very grateful to have me to keep her grounded," it seems almost a certainty that it would come across as patronizing or condescending and he would be excoriated for it.

And then what also comes to mind is Michael on the Assembly saying that he cries every day. Again, I feel like, under any other circumstances, we would say that someone who is in a relationship and cries every day is a potential red flag, or at least something that seems concerning. But because Michael is a man, it seems like his feelings are more easily dismissed, and I'm genuinely confused as to why.

All that said, I do want to be clear and again emphasize that what I am reacting to is not just this one Insta story in isolation, but everything that she has been saying and posting for the last several years. It's the very fact that it keeps happening that is a problem, more so than any one individual post or comment by itself. So hopefully that makes sense and better explains where I am coming from, and I appreciate hearing the opinions of others as well...

[ausetkmt]

Biden condemns white Supremacy at site of church shooting in South Carolina

CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) — Courting Black voters he needs to win reelection, President Joe Biden on Monday denounced the “poison” of white supremacy in America, declaring at the site of a deadly racist church shooting in South Carolina that such ideology has no place in America, “not today, tomorrow or ever.”

Biden spoke from the pulpit of Mother Emanuel AME Church, where in 2015 nine Black parishioners were shot to death by the white stranger they had invited to join their Bible study. The Democratic president’s speech followed his blunt remarks last Friday on the eve of the anniversary of the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol, in which he excoriated former President Donald Trump for “glorifying” rather than condemning political violence.

At Mother Emanuel, Biden said “the word of God was pierced by bullets of hate, of rage, propelled not just by gunpowder, but by a poison, a poison that has for too long haunted this nation.”

That’s “white supremacy,” he said, the view by some whites that they are superior to other races. “It is a poison, throughout our history, that’s ripped this nation apart. This has no place in America. Not today, tomorrow or ever.”

It was a grim way to kick off a presidential campaign, particularly for someone known for his unfailing optimism and belief that American achievements are limitless. But it’s a reflection of the emphasis Biden and his campaign are placing on energizing Black voters amid deepening concerns among Democrats that the president could lose support from this critical constituency heading into the election.

Biden’s campaign advisers and aides hope the visit lays out the stakes of the race in unequivocal terms three years after the cultural saturation of Trump’s words and actions while he was president. It’s a contrast they hope will be paramount to voters in 2024.

AP AUDIO: Biden condemns white supremacy in a campaign speech at a SC church where Black people were killed.

AP correspondent Jennifer King reports.

Biden also used his second major campaign event of the year to thank the state’s Black voters. After an endorsement by Democratic Rep. Jim Clyburn, one of the highest-ranking African Americans in the U.S. House, the state made Biden the winner of its Democratic presidential primary in 2020. That, in turn, set him on a path to become the party’s nominee and defeat Trump to win the presidency.

“I owe you,” he said.

Biden was briefly interrupted when several people upset over by his staunch support for Israel in its war against Hamas called out that if he really cared about lives lost he would call for a cease-fire in Gaza to help innocent Palestinians who are being killed under Israel’s bombardment. The chants of “cease-fire now” were drowned out by audience members chanting “four more years.”

The president also swiped at Republican presidential candidates Nikki Haley, a former governor of South Carolina, and Trump, without naming either one.

Haley was governor at the time of the shooting and gained national attention for her response, which included signing legislation into law removing the Confederate flag from the state Capitol. But she has been on the defensive recently for not explicitly naming slavery as the root cause of the Civil War when the question was posed at a campaign event. Her campaign responded Monday with a list of comments attributed to Biden that it said showed he’s racially insensitive.

Biden called it a “lie” that the war was about states’ rights. “So let me be clear, for those who don’t seem to know: Slavery was the cause of the Civil War. There’s no negotiation about that.”

Haley, speaking at a Fox News Channel town hall on Monday, pushed back that it was “offensive” for Biden to give a political speech at the church. She also raised Biden’s ties to Democratic segregationist senators early in his career.

During his successful 2020 run for the White House, Biden faced criticism from fellow Democratic contenders for alluding to his work with Sens. James Eastland of Mississippi and Herman Talmadge of Georgia while trying to make a point about lost civility in national politics.

“I don’t need someone who palled around with segregationists in the ‘70s and has said racist comments all the way through his career lecturing me or anyone in South Carolina about what it means to have racism, slavery, or anything related to the Civil War,” Haley said.

On more current events, Biden noted the scores of failed attempts by Trump in the courts to overturn the 2020 election in an attempt to hold onto power, as well as the former president’s embrace of the deadly Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol.

“Let me say what others cannot: We must reject political violence in America. Always, not sometimes. Always. It’s never appropriate,” Biden said. He said “losers are taught to concede when they lose. And he’s a loser,” meaning Trump.

It was June 17, 2015, when a 21-year-old white man walked into the church and, intending to ignite a race war, shot and killed nine Black parishioners and wounded one more. Biden was vice president when he attended the memorial service in Charleston.

Biden’s aides and allies say the shootings are among the critical moments when the nation’s political divide started to sharpen and crack. Though Trump, the current Republican presidential front-runner, was not in office at the time and has called the shooting “horrible,” Biden is seeking to tie Trump’s current rhetoric to such violence.

Two years after the attack, as the “Unite The Right” gathering of white nationalists in Charlottesville, Virginia, erupted in violent clashes with counterprotesters. Trump said merely that “there is blame on both sides.”

Biden and his aides argue it’s all part of the same problem: Trump refused to condemn the actions of the white nationalists at that gathering. He’s repeatedly used rhetoric once used by Adolf Hitler to argue that immigrants entering the U.S. illegally are “poisoning the blood of our country,” yet insisted he had no idea that one of the world’s most reviled and infamous figures had used similar words.

And Trump continues to repeat his false claims that he won the 2020 election, as well as his assertion that the Capitol rioters were patriotic and those serving prison time are “hostages.”

At Mother Emanuel, Biden revisited themes from the Jan. 6 anniversary speech he delivered Friday.

Biden has repeatedly suggested that democracy itself is on the ballot, asking whether it is still “America’s sacred cause.”

Trump, who faces 91 criminal charges stemming from his efforts to overturn his loss to Biden and three other felony cases, argues that Biden and other top Democrats are themselves seeking to undermine democracy by using the legal system to thwart the campaign of Biden’s chief rival.

South Carolina is the first official Democratic nominating contest where Biden wants another strong showing.

In an interview with The Associated Press before Biden’s appearance, Malcolm Graham, a brother of Charleston church victim Cynthia Graham-Hurd, said the threat of racism and hate-fueled violence is part of a needed national conversation about race and American democracy.

“Racism, hatred and discrimination continue to be the Achilles’ heel of America, of our nation,” said Graham, a city councilman in Charlotte, North Carolina. “Certainly, what happened to the Emanual Nine years ago is a visible example of that. What happened in Buffalo, years later, where people were killed under similar circumstances, shows that racism and discrimination are still real and it’s even in our politics.”

After the speech, Biden met privately with religious leaders and family members and survivors of the church shooting. He also dropped in at Hannibal’s Kitchen, a soul food restaurant, to shake hands.

Later Monday, Biden flew to Dallas to make a brief stop at a memorial service for Eddie Bernice Johnson, the influential former Texas congresswoman who died on New Year’s Eve. Johnson was 89.

Biden said in a statement last week that he and Johnson had worked together during her 30 years in Congress and he was grateful for her friendship and partnership.

[zigdirty]

Want to add to the insanity, @gayahithwen?

The US isn’t just lacking in safe public places for some people, like the guy from the article; it’s also sorely lacking in affordable and safe childcare on such a large scale that the details (from @ralfmaximus) about people dropping off their kids isn’t even unique to Disney. It applies to ANY theme park that is enclosed, has that type of all-you-can-eat style pass, and has personnel at every exit, in basically every state. Six Flags and local water and theme parks, any of them that had a weekly, monthly, or annual pass were often cheaper for families as childcare than actual childcare. Especially for larger families, they’d equip the oldest with money for food (since often these parks have buckets of food or other giant portion size options like whole pizzas or family-style wings, etc.), which is much cheaper than individual meals, as long as they bought the bulk food. The kids could get food, child care, AND potentially some shelter all day every day that the park was open. That’s just normal in the US at this point. In fact, it’s so common that they’ll run summer specials appealing only to younger kids even when older kids (high school age) also regularly go to these parks over summer. The goal is to entice the younger kids to come for a special event and then the parents realize they can send them there all the time with little worry!

During the pandemic, a teacher was publicly excoriated for saying that schools weren’t free daycare. She was calling out all the horrible parents that were trying to peer pressure local officials into reopening schools faster than they should.

Parents and politicians were outraged and this teacher was publicly shamed and fired. It was a whole big thing. All because some state and local officials were actually considering reopening schools BEFORE the dangers of Covid had passed. Why, you ask? Many working parents couldn’t afford child care and couldn’t get away from their kids. School was literally just a way for parents to get their children away from them (while still being supervised so they didn’t hurt or kill themselves). There were some essential worker parents who genuinely needed childcare while they were at work, but those parents often were pushing for government subsidies of childcare costs for home care so their kids didn’t have to leave the house.

The US is so absurdly broken, I’m actually amazed it still works at all at this point. Truly.

There's no one's wisdom that's less valuable than this

[beardedmrbean]

Nike, the NBA, and star player LeBron James have remained silent on China's increasing hostility toward the LGBTQ community, most recently when one of the country's most prestigious universities cracked down on students displaying LGBTQ flags.

Fox News reached out to Nike, the NBA and Upland Workshop – an advisory company founded and led by James’ spokesman and advisor Adam Mendelsohn - for comment on the crackdown but did not receive a response.

The silence comes after two students at China's Tsinghua University were reprimanded for distributing LGBTQ rainbow flags, according to a report in Bloomberg. The students were given official warnings and were prohibited from receiving scholarships and awards for six months, with the school warning that further violations could result in the students facing more serious penalties such as losing eligibility for civil service and state-owned-enterprise jobs.

News of the punishment for the students went viral on Chinese social media, but the posts were quickly deleted on China's tightly-controlled internet. The incident was just the latest in China's apparent crackdown on the gay community in the country, with Chinese President Xi Jinping pushing for a more conservative approach to gender and sexual identity.

ENES KANTER EXCORIATES THE NBA, NIKE FOR NOT STANDING UP TO 'BIG BOSS' CHINA: 'BIGGEST HYPOCRITE COMPANIES'

"This incident is the latest example of university authorities increasingly constraining space for LGBT advocacy and expression – even when it is mild and lowkey," Darius Longarino, a senior fellow at Yale Law School’s Paul Tsai China Center, told Bloomberg.

James and the NBA have been vocal on a host of political and social issues in recent years, but have mostly turned a blind eye to Communist China's behavior on gender, sexual identity, and human rights abuses. Critics have largely panned the NBA and Nike in recent years over their ties to China, with the country representing a large new market audience for the professional basketball league and source of cheap labor for the shoe giant.

Former Houston Rockets General Manager Daryl Morey, who currently works as the president of basketball operations of the Philadelphia 76ers, sparked controversy in 2019 when he took to Twitter to defend protesters in Hong Kong, encouraging followers to "fight for freedom" and "stand with Hong Kong" during China's crackdown in the independent administrative region.

The tweet, which was quickly deleted, created backlash in China and caused the NBA to lose valuable sponsorship dollars, even drawing a rebuke from James at the time.

"We all talk about this freedom of speech, yes, we all do have freedom of speech. But at times, there are ramifications for the negative that can happen when you’re not thinking about others and you’re only thinking about yourself," James said at the time. "I don’t want to get into a word or sentence feud with... with Daryl Morey. But I believe he wasn’t educated on the situation at hand and he spoke."

[themogaidragon]

helloooo!! Can you do a trichotillomania (hair pulling disorder) flag and/or a dermatillomania (skin picking disorder) flag? Sorry if this is annoying but maybe tag/TW the post, hearing abt them can trigger urges for ppl with the disorder/s :] thank u!!! <3

Trichotillomania Pride Flag

PT: Trichotillomania Pride Flag /END PT

Trichotillomania (TTM), also known as hair-pulling disorder or compulsive hair pulling, is a mental disorder characterized by a long-term urge that results in the pulling out of one's own hair. This occurs to such a degree that hair loss can be seen.

Dermatillomania Pride Flag

PT: Dermatillomania Pride Flag /END PT

Dermatillomania, also known as excoriation disorder, is a mental disorder on the obsessive-compulsive spectrum that is characterized by the repeated urge or impulse to pick at one's own skin to the extent that either psychological or physical damage is caused.

Flags designed by me. I used the already existing pride flags of bfrb, dermatillomania and trichotillomania as inspiration. The colors and design are inspired by it.

[birdgirlamp]

Alright I feel like I need to point out this sharp contrast that sure as heck bothers me.

In English class, twice now we’ve had to discuss “femininity” as it pertains to a book where the woman runs out on her family (A Doll’s House and The Awakening). The discussion is immediately driven to “can she be a woman and a ‘bad mother’? How dare she abandon her family to pursue her passions or find herself? Does this negate her femininity?”

These debates always bothered me. Why are we only discussing women as they pertain to others, rather than on their own merits? And those leading questions always felt like they were pushing us to shame the female character in question. That she was selfish, or thoughtless, or shirking her responsibility. That when the mutually exclusive choice came up about either her own well-being or her family’s, she needed to endure anything, and that the onus was on her for their support.

Of course that always pivoted back to pitying her poor children. Naturally. People would argue, “A parent leaving is traumatic, regardless of her circumstances! She’s the primary caretaker! Whatever will they do without her?”

This brings me Our Flag Means Death, as 90% of my thoughts inexorably have led for the past three weeks of heartbreak and no news. xD Notably, Stede abandons his family in cold blood. No one seems particularly perturbed by this. He seems more haunted and guilty about his decision than any of the audience members. In fact, when he finally caves and returns to them, *that’s* when he is excoriated by audience members for leaving somewhere where he was happy and could find himself to return to what he perceived as his familial duties. The narrative itself reinforces that while well-intentioned, his return was the wrong choice and allows him to return to pirating with closure in tow.

Of course, in no way am I suggesting that Stede should have stayed out of guilt, or that the audience should have attacked him more so we could have parity in discussions. What I am saying, is that a show that explores masculinity is positive and open about the protagonist’s self discovery and gives him lenience for his circumstances whereas books showcasing femininity, rather than celebrating her individuality, tie her identity to her familial duties and, at least in terms of our discussion of them, encourage judgement and viewing the situations from the viewpoints of others for the purpose of demonizing her.

[deborahdeshoftim5779]

A crime that the world is keen to forget. But we will not let them.

This horrifying picture, and the many other horrifying images from October 7, stands as the final judgement of Palestinian society. It proves beyond any doubt that Palestinian society is a society of barbarians, drunk on the most despicable and inhuman ideology since the Nazis.

The claim that Palestinian society is oppressed with a desire for social justice is nothing more than the hallucination of Western intellectuals and fraudulent "social justice" activists who refuse to even investigate the ideas of the people they claim to support and know so well.

In reality, these self-deceiving useful idiots were astonished by the scale of Palestinian savagery towards the Israelis on October 7. This left some of the most cowardly, yet principled, intellectuals in a quandary. They knew these crimes deserved the most stringent condemnation.

Yet those around them were celebrating the carnage before the blood had even dried in the streets. If they went with their conscience, they would be excoriated. But they struggled to accept that such evil, from burning children alive to spitting on Shani Louk's half-naked body, could be acceptable.

Many chose therefore to keep their head down and remain silent.

Meanwhile, as further proof of the malign nature of Palestinian society, Jews around the world experienced a wave of hatred and violence even before Israel set foot in Gaza. In Sydney, a largely Arab and/or Muslim crowd shouted, "Gas the Jews!" in response to Sydney opera house lighting up with the Israeli flag to commemorate the victims of October 7.

In London, crowds (again, often Arab and/or Muslim) chased after "Zionists", but soon let slip that they were actually after Jews. In the United States, pro-Palestinian thugs on university campuses created such an atmosphere of intimidation that Jews were afraid to wear visibly Jewish items in public.

(I was working with a university in the United Kingdom around a month after the attacks, and staff were powerless in the face of pro-Palestinian intimidation, which they foolishly believed was just passionate and understandable reactions to the war in Gaza, while acknowledging that Jewish students were too afraid to stay in dormitories.)

The people who love claiming that they are 'fighting racism' did nothing to protect the Jews from this wave of genocidal hatred. They had already made clear that they sided with the Nazi disciples of Hamas, whether by immediately blaming Palestinian crimes against humanity on Israel, by ignoring the plight of Israel's hostages, ignoring or denying widespread evidence of mass rape published by Palestinians themselves online, celebrating the terror attacks as an act of "fighting for freedom", refusing to describe the attacks as terrorism, proudly posting or wearing pictures of Hamas parachutes used to invade Israel, and much more.

Jews on the political left quickly realised that their so-called allies wanted them dead and rejoiced with the murderers. It was a horrifying awakening.

Then we had the pseudo-moralists, who couldn't wait to deflect attention away from Palestinian crimes against humanity and onto Israel's war in Gaza. It wasn't long before they drummed up a campaign of hysteria, slander, and blood libel against the Jewish State for lawful self-defence against terrorists that had publicly promised to repeat October 7 again and again.

It wasn't long before cowardly politicians, though knowing full well that the evidence didn't support the claims of the crowds in the streets, decided to put pressure on Israel to stand down, rather than demanding that Hamas surrender and release hostages. Rather than calling for Hamas' assets to be frozen in order to cripple the terrorist group. Rather than confronting Iran for its funding of terrorism and implementing condign punishments if it continued attacking both Israel and other nations like the U.S. the U.K., and Denmark.

And of course, that beacon of moral confusion, the United Nations, along with with the politicised ICJ, and the ICC, realised they could get away with criminalising Israel's leaders if they could also be seen to punish Hamas terrorists as well. These nations, that were always sluggish when it came to punishing real criminals, like the Russian invaders in Ukraine and the anti-female terrorists of Iran, suddenly moved with alacrity to condemn Israel's fight against Hamas and falsely accuse Israel of endangering the entire civilian population, when Hamas was clearly guilty of this.

As of today, Karim Khan, of the ICC, is still pushing for arrest warrants against Israel's Prime Minister and Defence Minister despite not having heard all the legal arguments in advance and despite a total lack of lawful jurisdiction against Israel, which has a legal system that can investigate alleged war crimes. As of the last few days, legal challengers have provided evidence that Khan's assertions are unfounded, based on information he clearly didn't consider or didn't want to consider before requesting these warrants.

All of this--and more-- is worse than Orwellian. It is, as British journalist Melanie Phillips stated, a combination of Soviet disinformation backed by Nazi propaganda. It is the clearest proof of how hatred of Jews galvanises the Palestinians, the Muslim world, and even the Western world, which claims to have learned from the Holocaust. So we see clearly why the Jews have been singled out for a standard that nobody else is subjected to; why crimes against Jews turn into crimes by Jews; how the anti-Jewish criminals are sanitised as "freedom fighters" and the Israelis dying to defend their land are maligned as purveyors of genocide.

The best response to this shameful betrayal of civilisation is to support Israel's victory against the forces of evil. But those of us who have put our necks on the line to defend Israel should never back down. Never allow the world to forget October 7. Bring it up at every opportunity. Remind them of how Palestinian civilians joined in the carnage, including the burning of Israeli homes with civilians inside, the abuse of hostages brought into Gaza, and the desecration of the bodies of victims, such as the Palestinian men who removed almost all of Shani Louk's clothing and sat on her body, and the Palestinian civilians who cheered and spat on her body as she was paraded through Gaza.

Never let them forget it.

These pro-Palestinian enablers lied to the civilised world. They told us these people just had a valid complaint. They told us the Israelis were brutal and unprincipled.

None of this was true. The Palestinians they were supporting were the brutal and unprincipled ones, the savages whose crimes left Israeli first responders in a state of total shock as they struggled to identify victims' remains and had to prepare bodies as best they could for burial.

It was the Israelis who had the valid complaint: that their right to live in peace in their lawful and ancestral homeland was being attacked by Palestinians intent on murdering the Jews and stealing their land.

October 7 revealed the truth about the Palestinians and the nature of their society.

We will not forget. And we will not let anyone else forget it, either.

[dustedmagazine]

Speed Plans — Statues of God (Iron Lung)

Statues Of God (LUNGS-222) by SPEED PLANS

There’s nothing particularly reverent about Statues of God, the new record from Speed Plans (unless it’s the nods to Black Flag — check out the references to “Nervous Breakdown” in the opening riff of “Redemption” and the title of “I Can Decide”). The Pittsburgh band seems a lot more interested in tearing things down, or just generally tearing things up. Speed Plan’s name is a good deal more apt; you 16 songs in 12 minutes, a blistering dose of lo-fi, slashing hardcore, always teetering on the brink of chaos and then deliberately, hilariously leaning over. Even the song titles careen about with abandon: “Fascist Fuck” tussles with “Jesus Christ,” “I Can’t Read” doubles down on “Forced to Think.” It’s a mess, and it’s also a lot of fun.

The sounds are venerable, emanating from a scene with deep (Anti-Flag) and hugely significant (Aus-Rotten) roots. Recent records from Living World and White Stains indicate that Pittsburgh’s punk underground is bumping with liveliness and currency. Statues of God is less invested in bending hardcore into new shapes, moreso Speed Plans looks to get the pit churning and noses bleeding. The tunes just about demand it. During the 40 seconds that constitute “Violent and High,” vocalist Matt declaims, “Sweating on meth / Trailer park wreck / Just can’t escape.” The music does its best to break through the cheap fiberglass walls and the drug-fueled sense of decline, but surrounding circumstances seem too far gone. 

Statues of God reaches its peak of nihilistic wretchedness on “Cleveland,” which is sort of apt, as anyone who has spent some time in that Ohio city can attest (this reviewer has, and does). Over a chugging then excoriating and quickened barrage, Matt hollers, “Burned down house / Sell your body, feed your mouth… / Live like this / Treated worse than human shit.” From Pittsburgh to Cleveland, it’s a Rust Belt throwdown of post-industrial hopelessness. Not all the tunes are that full of dread; “Bald Boss” and “Outlast” articulate externally directed aggro energies. But Speed Plans is more about the vibe than the particulars of the messages, and the vibe is intense, bare knuckled and bruised up. Violent and high, for sure. 

Jonathan Shaw

[soft-boi-eli]

Ok ok! Good uhm.

Ok since body dysmorphia has been kicking my butt lately i wanted to request something with Schlatt where basically the reader Starts getting really insecure because of their body. Pushing and pulling on their stomach etc. They also start binding unsafely with like really tight bras because they can't afford a binder and they end up fucking up their ribs really bad. They end up in the hospital and a very worried Schlatt visit's them and lectures them about how they shouldn't have done that and about how worried he was. So when they get back home there is a gift on the bed, turns out Schlatt bought them a binder.

The reader would be Non-binary and afab.

Also a little message for pretty much anyone who is insecure about their body/has body dysmorphia because of their chest, don't bind unsafely. That can really fuck up your chest and make you actually being happy with your body even harder.

Hell yes. I love this idea thank you icarus! Writing has been rude to me lately and I needed inspiration. This has hit it exactly.

Pronouns:nonbinary (dont think any were actually used in this so yeah.)

Tw: AFAB reader, swearing, insecurity, mention of surgry, mention of blood, mention of hating self, pain. Again angst to fluff. It is reflecting on how I have felt about my body before because I needed to make it seem kinda real.

PSA: please dont bind safely. It's dangerous and can lead to serious health consequences. I know hating your body sucks but I dont want anyone to get hurt because they dont listen to their lungs, they dont take off their binder, or if their bras are way too fucking tight. It can and will hurt you. So please bind safely!!

Happy birth-what the fuck?!

Lately your brain was giving you more dysphoria then ever. Telling you your body was too big, your boobs were too noticable, and you hips are too feminine.

What brought this on? Someone simply said your dead name. It made your dysphoria hit you like a truck.

After that day everything went down hill. Your stopped streaming, telling your followers that you were going on a mental break, you didn't really talk to friends, your brain could put words together. And you most importantly barely texted your loving supporting boyfriend schaltt, not wanting to break down in front of him.

You never had the time or thoughts of getting a chest binder. It was your biggest mistake honestly.

Deciding against chest binders and wearing alot of tight bras to flatten you. But it didnt work. So you got tighter bras. And they did work. But you didnt read up on how to bind safely.

This lead to the predicament now. In front of your mirror you were pinching and pulling at your skin. There was too much. All you wanted to do was cut it off with scissors. But decided against it due to the fact of all the blood that you would loose.

Your chest, smaller then it was yas, was still visible after your 3rd bra. You decided to add a 4th and tighter one hoping it would completely hide your boobs.

Your body made you want to puke. It made you feel disgusting. But you never told schaltt that. Afraid that he would say that you looked as gross as you thought you did.

Only 5 minutes after the 4th bra you felt excoriating pain in your ribs. And worse of all a harsh pop. That immediately brought red flags. It hurt to breath. Your head fuzzy and light headed.

Your only reaction, to call for an ambulance. Dialing the three numbers as you whimpered in pain you held onto your lungs. "911 what's your emergency?" "I cant breathe. It hurts so bad. Please help." "Are you by yourself?" "Yes. I need help please." "Ambulance, firemen, and police are on their way. Ambulance is 2 minutes out."

You didnt know if you had 2 minutes. "They can break the door down if I dont answer." That's all you said after collapsing.

Next thing you knew your door was busted off its hinges and you saw two paramedics. They were quick to transfer you to the ambulance, cutting through the four bras that held your chest.

It help get air to your lungs but it barely helped.

"We have a collapsed lung. ETA 2 minutes." The paramedic back there with you spoke to the walkie talkie.

Collapsed lung? Was that the harsh pop? God, was the bras that bad of an idea? All that was going through your mind was how you possibly could get worse. The instant you got into the trauma bay was way worse. With no time to numb you and your O2 stats dropping they had to cut between your ribs and shove a tube right next to your left lung. Draining air and excess blood blocking your lung from inflating. And before you knew it you were off to emergency surgery for getting a shard of bone out of your chest cavity.

The last thing you remember was counting down and falling asleep.

When you woke up your boyfriend was next to your bed, hands engulfing one of yours.

It looked like he had been crying before falling asleep on one of your legs. Taking your free hand through his hair you smiled lightly. "I'm sorry for all of this ram boy." He grunted lightly and moved his head back into your hand. His messy hair was thick and nearly matted. It made you wonder how long he's been sitting there. You loved him and felt so selfish for doing this to him.

"I cant believe I did all this and for what? To cause you and everyone pain? All because i couldnt afford a chest binder and deciding that I might as well try another way. I should have been safer huh?" You didnt expect an answer back. Just his quite snores.

"Yeah. Not really fuckin selfish more like kinda dumb. Your body doesnt show who the fuck you are (y/n). Your heart does. And your heart isnt say boy or girl. Its saying you are you. A person who uses pronouns they them. A person that love everyone and cares for their friends. A person who love me and jambo so deeply."

He took a breath.

"You normally are quite smart. Saving up for one would of been a better idea instead of doing such a stupid thing. Asking for my help. Because if I knew I would of helped. I would of found one just right for you. I would help you remember to take it off after 8 hours. Even would of found a way to make you feel more like you."

You could hear his heart break.

"But now you're here, four broken ribs, a healing lung, and stuck in the hospital for another week at least."

You felt so guilty. He was right. You should of told him. He would never have seen you like you saw yourself. He never cared about how you looked. He only cared for your heart.

Tears falling down your face you continued to massage his scalp. "I could of lost you. You are my rock. When I cant keep up my normal antics and feel like I'm at an all time low. You are there to pick me up." You had to stop the sob from coming up. "I'm just so happy youre alive." He looked up.

His red eyes were making your heart ache. "I wont do it again I promise. But I cant just ignore the feeling of dread whe. I look down and realize I present so much like a girl. I dont wa t to be one." Schaltt nodded and kissed the hand he was holding. "Then let me help you. I wont let this happen again. Just please. Come to me. Talk to me. I'm here like you are for me."

You gave a small nod.

This man knew his way to your heart. He was so sincere about this. "I will. But promise me you wont look down on me if I end up feeling like that." You just needed to make sure you knew he would never but you needed his words. "Mever sugarbabe. Never in my life have I looked down on you and never will."

God the week was long, him and the doctor explaining safe binding that you cant fully bind for at least 6-8 weeks. Schlatt telling you his reaction to finding your apartment swarmed with police and firemen and you no where to be seen.

He was practicing on saying happy birthday to you. But was cut off. "Happy birth-what the fuck?!" He was so concerned and even more so when you were in hospital.

When you did go home he helped you through the door, and watched you as you saw the small package on your couch.

Opening it you saw a chest binder. Specifically the one you were looking at. Looking over to schaltt with tears in your eyes you walked up and hugged him lightly minding the pain in your left side. This was the best gift.

The only gift you had been wanting for the past week or two. "Now you can be safe. But no binding till your doctor says so or I swear to god I will personally smite you down." You had to try so hard no to laugh or the pain would of been hell. Kissing his cheek you smiled.

"Of course schaltt. I will make sure to not wear it till I'm healed dont want to get blood on it ya know. Also it would hurt like a fucking bitch."

He chuckled and ruffled your hair. "Alright now go sit down. I'll get you some soup ya dork."

This was going to be a great time. That was until the pain fully came back. And then this is going to be a mediocre time.

Please pardon spelling errors. I havent proof read. And I am on mobile for almost all stories. But thank you so much for requesting this became something that I could write and it helped me alot. Now I might take a while for other things too and i apologize that's cause i am starting school soon. Also family issues. So yeah might take a bit. Dont know how long though. I'll try to keep them coming but if not you know I'm studying or helping my mom and grandma.

Eli out.

[glamboyl]

Slammed For Anti-Trans Tweet And Sign - Rep Greene R-GA

In the aftermath of a charged debate over the Equality Act, lawmakers on both sides have excoriated Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) for hanging an anti-trans sign outside her office and a tweet taunting Rep. Marie Newman (D-Ill.), over her transgender daughter.

Other Reps spoke out about  her tweet and hanging a sign that reads "There are TWO genders: MALE & FEMALE ...Trust The Science!"

Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) tweeted that Greene's actions represent "the hate and fame driven politics of self-promotion at all evil costs. This garbage must end, in order to #RestoreOurGOP."

Rep. Sean Casten (D-Ill.) called Greene's poster "sickening, pathetic, unimaginably cruel" and added that "this hate is exactly why" the Equality Act is necessary.

Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.) said he put up a transgender flag outside of his office in 2019 and advised Greene to "probably avoid the Rayburn building too if she doesn't want to see another 'disgusting' symbol of love and acceptance."

In an interview with CNN Thursday morning, Newman said that Greene was "welcome to her sign" but that "no one's buying it and that is not science."

Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.) wrote that Greene's "sign is incorrect because it's not what the science says," and posted a link to a Scientific American column that concludes, "The science is clear and conclusive: sex is not binary, transgender people are real." 

Following Newman's speech on the House floor, Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash). tweeted: "Thank you, @RepMarieNewman. From the mom of one trans kid to another, we will pass the #EqualityAct — for Evie, for Janak, for thousands more to be able to fully be who they are. So glad to welcome you to Congress." 

[whipplefilter]

Hi. I noticed that your favorite NASCAR driver was Kyle Larson and I wonder what your thoughts on his 2020 suspension are?

Hey there! That's a great question. I wrote a blog post about this in April 2020 that I think still mostly stands up. (Some of the information is dated/incomplete, being that it was written in April 2020. And I'm not entirely happy with the part about cancel culture, though I also thought that in 2020 and opted not to revise/elaborate, because the focus of this one essay was elsewhere.)

I've copied it below in its entirety. It's longer than your average Tumblr post (even this blog's average Tumblr post) but I don't want to excerpt it because if someone is going to read part of it, I want them to read all of it.

-------------------

April 2020

Late on Easter Sunday 2020, NASCAR driver Kyle Larson said the N-word. Yeah, that one.

He was participating in a virtual charity race, trying to get ahold of his spotter. Thinking he was speaking on a private channel, he said, “Hey, n—–.”

I don’t think his spotter was Black; it doesn’t actually matter. I haven’t watched the video, and I probably never will. From the descriptions I’ve read, which emphasize how calmly, easily, naturally he said it, my mind hears this phrase in the same tone all the bad guys in Law and Order use to discuss their crimes. It’s that casual affectation that signals to the viewer, this is normal for me.

This is normal, period.

Maybe it feels normal to many, albeit in a different way: It feels normal because of course a NASCAR driver said it. Cue eyerolls from the general public. Goddamn rednecks, etc. It’s true that NASCAR flies more Confederate flags than any other sport. In an era where President Trump has excoriated the NFL for its players’ role in protesting racial injustice in the United States, Trump happily flubbed his way through the command to start engines at the Daytona 500 this past February.

So of course a NASCAR driver said the N-word. The general progressive public sighs. They condemn the backwater left-turn-making hicks so outside of their own elevated worlds and scroll past the headline. They congratulate themselves for being nothing like him.

But Kyle Larson is not a Confederate flag-wavin’, moonshine-runnin’, good ‘ol boy racist caricature racing stock cars in 1947 in the Jim Crow South. It’s 2020. He’s a Millennial, 27 years old. He grew up a stone’s throw from California’s state capital, in a town that’s majority non-White. He is himself Japanese American. And for fuck’s sake, he got his start in NASCAR by virtue of the sport’s Drive for Diversity program, which is an initiative that has the specific goal of welcoming and developing NASCAR members from minoritized or underrepresented backgrounds.

For all these reasons and more, Kyle Larson seems an unlikely culprit when it comes to using violent racial slurs. In a sport where tempers flare hot more often than they don’t, Larson is known for being even-keeled. His is the kind of passion that manifests not in language, but in his ability to make a mistake, spin a car going 180mph in close quarters with 30-odd other cars, hold it off both inside and outside walls, and get it straight again without ever coming to a complete stop. When a competitor stole a win from him with a last-lap bump and run, much to the chagrin and fury of his fans, Larson was invigorated rather than soured by his defeat. He likes being raced hard, even if it means losing.

But he can also come across as aloof, reticent. If it’s not explicitly about racing, Larson often forces NASCAR’s journalists to work hard for their soundbite. And there’s a difference here between “about racing” and “about NASCAR”; the latter also involves the business side of the sport, the management. It involves advocacy in terms of rules, safety, driver agency. When it comes to leadership roles in NASCAR, Larson comes across as both apathetic and underprepared.

I know all of this because NASCAR is my favorite sport in all the world, and up until last Monday, Kyle Larson was my favorite NASCAR driver.

Kyle Larson is not a closet Klan member. When you think “racist,” he’s not what comes to mind. He doesn’t dream in swastikas, or wish lynching was still an acceptable spectator sport. He doesn’t post bold, capslocked white supremacist proclamations on social media. I’m willing to bet money that he’s never actually thought a Black man might be a worse racer, or a worse person, than him. He’s not that kind of racist.

But this is not a defense; it is not an absolution. There is more than one way to be racist, and the quieter forms of racism might in fact be the more powerful kind these days. They go unaccounted for; they are downplayed, normalized, and too easily forgiven.

Kyle Larson is not a closet Klan member, but Kyle Larson is still racist. He’s the kind of racist that doesn’t think enough about swastikas, lynching, or Blackness. He doesn’t have to; he’s not Black. What Larson showed when he said, “Hey, n—–” on a hot mic, globally broadcast, was not his latent hatred of Black people. He showed his unthinking disregard for the cultural weight of the term, its history–the gravity of that history. This disregard is also harmful, and it is also dangerous. Again, it may well be more dangerous than tiki torches and white hoods, because it is so much easier for people to hear about it and think, “well, is that all?”

That’s exactly what a lot of people said, eager to spring to Larson’s defense. These people also trotted out defenses so old and stale it’s as though they came straight out of the package, perfectly preserved from the mid-90s.

Things like “but Black people get to say it.”

“If it’s so bad, why is it in rap lyrics? Maybe rap is bad. (RAP IS BAD!)”

In fairness, in NASCAR it is often the mid-90s. Those were the glory days, after all. Dale Earnhardt Sr. was alive and well, still racing for his elusive Daytona 500 victory. Jeff Gordon, young Rainbow Warrior, was taking the sport by storm.

But even in this 90s NASCAR heyday, the sport’s flagbearers knew the portents of the United States’ troubled history with race. Dale Sr. famously opposed the use of the Confederate flag as a marker of Southern pride. Even as a 26-year old rookie in the year 2000, NASCAR’s crown prince, Dale Earnhardt Jr., admitted, “I feel like the weight of the Civil War is resting on my shoulders.” He was speaking in reference to the Confederate flags that fly at races, and managing the tension between his own beliefs–that the flag is a racist symbol–and his relationship to NASCAR’s fans. Perhaps it means something different to them, he reasoned. But nevertheless, it is also a tacit endorsement of a fundamentally racist Confederate state. Again, the refusal to name that history for what it was is its own form of racism.

This condemnation might be contested by the “is that all?” crowd. They bristle at the idea that racist words or symbols are still racist, still violent, even in the absence of malice or intent to harm. Countless members of the gaming community took to Twitter to defend–or at least normalize–Larson’s word. With the jaded condescension of a grizzled cowboy drinking bottom-shelf whiskey in a tired saloon, a man who’s clearly seen some shit, these gamers said: If you think that’s bad, you should hear what people say in [insert gaming situation here]. Other Twitter users even called it a “gamer word,” claiming it as part of gamer culture in an attempt to distance Larson from its roots in white supremacy.

But that’s the thing. That word doesn’t just have “roots” in white supremacy. It is and will always, unremittingly be hateful, violent, and racist. That it has become such an accepted part of gamer culture is not a shield; it is a tragedy.

Even before last Sunday, It was clear to me that gamer Larson does not see himself as the same person as game day Larson. The weekend before, when iRacing at the virtual Bristol Motor Speedway, he was black flagged and parked for intentionally wrecking a fellow competitor–something that, in a real race with real cars and real bodies on the line, he never would have done. Previously, he’d also gone wheel-to-wheel with a virtual competitor in a virtual dirt race, ultimately spinning the other car and sending it into the wall. In real life, that’s a major infraction. In a fenderless, open-wheel sprint car, that kind of move can kill someone. Despite iRacing’s hyperrealism–touted aggressively by NASCAR’s commentators–it’s clear Larson didn’t buy it (and was hardly the only one). The racing was virtual; the consequences were virtual. Nothing really mattered. Right?

But virtual racing still takes place in the real world. Your virtual car may be on a virtual track, but you’re still sitting in a real sim rig. You’re still you, flesh and blood. Your words are shaped by a real tongue, fall from real lips, and are heard by real ears on real bodies. And the N-word is still freighted by the real history of the United States. It participates in the ongoing systematic oppression of Black bodies. As do you, the real and physical body that utters it.

To suggest that it is a “gamer word” and that guys like Larson use it all the time, thoughtlessly and easily, in virtual space, only serves as further condemnation of the insidious “is that all?” forms of racism that present themselves as organic, de rigeur, normal. In this sense, Larson is a victim of the systemic racism that normalized the word, made its weight and consequences seem less than they are. But Larson is not the victim in this story. He is the perpetrator. Whatever blame we lay on our collective societal failures, individual actions also incur real and individual consequences.

Within 36 hours of the N-word leaving his mouth, Kyle Larson was suspended from NASCAR; he was banned from iRacing, the platform he’d been using when he’d uttered the slur; he lost all of his major sponsorship contracts (with Credit One Bank, McDonald’s, Clover, Lucas Oil…the list goes on); he was terminated from his relationship with Chevy; and he was fired from his race team, Chip Ganassi Racing. This translates to losses in excess of $15 million, to say nothing of the rest of his racing career. He’s only 27. He may never race in NASCAR again.

These are steep consequences. It’s not like he hurled the word at a Black person as a hateful invective, right? It’s not like he killed anyone. Plus, he was deeply, genuinely, publicly contrite and apologetic afterward. Surely these consequences seem excessive?

Yet they are nothing compared to the consequences faced by Emmett Till, who was brutally murdered in 1955 for allegedly flirting with a White woman on a dare. Within 96 hours, Emmett Till was forced into a car; he was beaten violently. He had his eye gouged out before he was shot in the head, tied to a cotton gin fan with barbed wire, and thrown into the Tallahatchie River. Emmett Till was only fourteen.

The words that left Till’s mouth were, “Bye, baby.”

Were Emmett Till alive today, he’d be around the same age as NASCAR’s legendary Richard Petty. Petty is very much alive, and very much an active part of NASCAR today. We’re not that far removed from this history, these consequences. 1955 is not that long ago. And it’s not like this kind of thing stopped with Emmett Till. Hundreds, thousands, of Black bodies have met with unjustifiable consequences in the decades since. Last year in Charlotte, North Carolina, the home of NASCAR and the metropolitan area where Kyle Larson also makes his home, 27-year old Danquirs Franklin was fatally shot by the police outside a Burger King. For only the second time in 23 years, Citizens Review Board of Charlotte ruled that contrary to the police chief’s decision, the officer was at fault in the shooting, and should be disciplined. (NB: She still wasn’t.)

If the consequences Larson shouldered seem extreme, I suspect it is because too often we are too lenient. The problem isn’t the standards to which NASCAR holds its drivers. The standards really aren’t that high.

The problem is that these standards are higher than, for instance, those to which the United States holds its President. The President and his “shithole countries,” “bad hombres,” and “Chinese virus.”

False equivalence, you say? A little. None of these epithets are the N-word, which is so powerful to say it is to spit in the face of the millions that died by it. But ask yourself this: Does it matter? If the power of this “is that all?” brand of racism is to negate violence by saying, at least it wasn’t as bad as X… Does it matter?

I said earlier that Kyle Larson’s brand of racism was defined by not thinking enough about lynching, white supremacy, or race. He seized the privilege of getting to be thoughtless about the weight of his words, because they didn’t affect him personally. It’s easy to be dismissive of him. To think, well, I’d never say that! But just as you don’t have to be a Klansman to be racist, you don’t have to say the N-word, either.

The problems with #cancelculture are many, but one of the big ones is that #cancelculture suggests that if we can just excise the “bad eggs,” then we’ve solved the problem. The woke “we” can go about our business, and the “cancelled” can rot. In reality, racism is and has always been a more pervasive force in our world than that.

Of course, it also doesn’t seem like enough to condemn the act, but not the person. It’s inadequate to say, for instance, that while Kyle Larson said a reprehensible word, he’s not a bad person. It’s true–I don’t think Kyle Larson is a bad person. But I don’t think he gets to be a “good” person by separating a word from the mouth that uttered it. Racism is and has always been a more pervasive force in our world than that, and his use of the term is a manifestation of a pattern of racial thoughtlessness. It’s not, in fact, a one-off, and it demands accountability at a deeper level. What #cancelculture does not leave room for is cultivation of this accountability.

By contrast, I believe in restorative justice. In this case, restorative justice offers an opportunity to be called in–to be invited to learn from your mistakes and do the hard work of being better. It doesn’t mean there should be no consequences, or that Larson should get to keep his lifestyle, his salary, his dream career. It means only that when I say “Kyle Larson is racist” I do not mean that from this point on, he always has to be.

As far as calling in goes, it feels like the cards are stacked against him. He doesn’t have, for instance, my own privilege of being constantly surrounded by scholars and activists thinking very deeply about race. What Larson needs to do is something that even activists and academics committed to remediating racial injustice find personally difficult. Meanwhile, Larson has a high school education, and no extra training in African American history, or critical ethnic studies. He may never have even heard that term before. His life since graduation has been marked by his quick ascent into a world that thinks in terms of asphalt and tire wear, downforce and engine heat. It thinks in money, and more money–the Fortune 500 and the glitzy spectacle of things called “The Big Machine Vodka 400 at The Brickyard, presented by Florida Georgia Line.” He is part of a world so much a picture of the failings of late capitalism, our national failure to root out gross inequality, that watching Larson’s sponsorship deals fall like dominoes can perfectly mirror the groaning tilt of the U.S. economy under global pandemic. It’s not a world well-equipped to meaningfully discuss or address systematic oppression. If it were, maybe a Drive for Diversity graduate wouldn’t be broadcasting the N-word to millions in the first place.

But then, I’d also push back on the notion that being non-White automatically makes you less predisposed to racism, or more equipped to understand it. Like Larson, I am Japanese American, and anti-Blackness is alive and well in my community, too.

In characterizing the uphill battle Larson faces, my intention is not to focus on the tragedy of the racist–to say, Okay, racism and the legacies of slavery are sad and all, but look at how hard these legacies make it for non-Black people! Anyone ever think about THAT? That’s definitely not the point of any discussion of race. But I’m a teacher. I’m part of a learning community that focuses specifically on race and ethnicity, and antiracist pedagogy. I have a PhD with a sub-speciality in critical ethnic studies. I believe that there is once instance in which the focus should be on the perpetrators of racism. That instance is when we name the racisms within ourselves. When we name them in order to admit our culpabilities, work to unlearn these cultural reflexes, and wrestle with the bald truth: For most of us, racism doesn’t just belong to someone else. It’s work we all must do. And this work is hard as hell.

I see in Larson a potential student.

Can Larson rise to the challenge? I’ll admit I’m selfishly invested in this question. I want to root for him again. But I’m not sure. Because I’ve been a fan, I know that Larson has a tendency to be dismissive of failures that arise from his mistakes. To say “whatever” when he wrecks out of an exhibition race, or to say “it’s just a video game” when someone calls him out for unsporting virtual behavior. And yeah, as a racer, you can’t take all your failures personally. Sometimes you need to brush off and move on.

The N-word is absolutely a failure to take personally. It’s also one where it seems like it might be easier to disappear, and quietly resolve to never be heard from again. To give up on the possibility of remediation and shrug, damage done. To my cautious but pleasant surprise, however, Larson hasn’t done that. Thus far, the Larson that’s shown up in the wake of his incredible, violent thoughtlessness is game day Larson: The Larson with humility, and willingness to address his failings. The Larson driven by heart and raw passion–the Larson willing to expend endless energy fighting for who he wants to be, what he wants his world to be. The Larson who revels in rising to challenges. The Kyle Larson that I root for.

He has a long way to go. I don’t know if he’ll be able to find the tools, or know what to do with them. The fact remains, the odds are stacked against him. But I want to root for him in this–more than I’ve ever rooted for him on track. I will root for him in this. I want to believe that he can do this, because I want to believe that I can do this: We can unlearn our racisms, endeavor to be always thoughtful, and commit to the work of being not only “less racist” but actively anti-racist. I want to believe that the United States (and the rest of our racist world) can do this, too.

[notsoterriblymisanthropic]

For the philosopher Steve Fuller, one of the red flags signalling the triumph of the post-truth situation was the defeat of Hillary Clinton, 'perhaps the most qualified person ever to run for the presidency', by the wildly unqualified Donald Trump. Michiko Kakutani, the esteemed journalist, likewise excoriates the Trump administration's appoint of 'unqualified judges and agency heads', as though the problem with the far right was their (often very real) incompetence. As though a competent far-right administration would not represent a far more assured doom. This reflects the spontaneous ideology of professionals, for whom education, qualifications and 'credentials' are the condition of good governance. To treat political contests as elaborate job interviews implies a consensus: we already know what the job is, and only need to work out who can do it best.

Richard Seymour, The Twittering Machine

[jeremy-ken-anderson]

Memento MMOri

I’ve now gone through the seventeen class epilogue quests in FFXIV.

These do a nice job of finishing the story in a way that I consider really kind and thoughtful of the developers. Like, you’d think - perhaps from personal experience with MMOs - that a developer of an MMO would want their story to keep you perpetually hungry for just a bit more.

There is something that seems more moral than average about a studio that designs their work with the understanding that players will someday walk away from it, and writing their story in a way that enables that decision to leave them feeling satisfied with what they got from the game.

The story goes that the original FF title tried so hard (and thus did so well) because they believed they were going under as a studio. Indeed, that this is why they named the game “Final Fantasy.” The current expansion very much exudes this feeling that it wants to be ready for the possibility that a next expansion never occurs. The next expansion exudes this feeling even more so. More and more, things are being written as if wrapping up. And the studio execs remind us, in notes and interviews and so on, that this game isn’t forever.

I think it’s an important part of what people are noticing when they talk about FFXIV as a “narrative-focused game.” It’s not just that it has a cast of interesting characters. It’s not just that the story centers Your Character instead of treating you like an expendable extra. It’s also that it is telling a story; one with a beginning, and a middle, and an ending. It is a happy ending, by and large. It is, thus far, an ending that includes room for an expansion pack to add a new story on afterward that continues onward. But it’s an ending. And...you don’t really get endings in WoW. You get “that’s all the lore you get from this dungeon/expansion.” You get deaths of major characters, sometimes with cutscenes to make it momentous. That isn’t the same thing.

There’s something about WoW, it seems to me, that is fundamentally ruled by the ideals of capitalism. And one of those ideals is infinite expansion. Most companies and even most individual ventures BY companies are designed in the hopes that they can be carried on forever. WoW very much wants to be a forever MMO, always reinventing itself, always part of the media landscape of the world. Like The Simpsons it has become enormous and like The Simpsons it has become sick as it has attempted to maintain its bulk in spite of flagging sales figures. And there is something that has felt lacking from the start, in their storytelling, owing to the fact that they didn’t want to admit it could ever come to a close. They tried to just not mention it but you feel the emptiness as keenly as if you built a house and had rooms in it that led to literally nowhere because you didn’t want to build those rooms.

But this post isn’t to excoriate WoW. Rather, I want to appreciate FFXIV. 

They’ve done something really grand, here. From the epilogues that show you as a subject of awe (several of them; I mean, you’ve killed how many demigods now; saved the world how many times?) to those where you get outfoxed, from those where your endurance in the face of so much pain is appreciated to those where the silliness of your seemingly unlimited willingness to take on menial tasks is pointed out, from those that revisit friends of the past to those that express your hopes or fears for the future...There are seventeen really excellent endings here. I take issue with a few characters’ decisions but on reflection that’s a sign of good character writing. That guy really is the kind of idiot who’d decide to do that, damn him.

[feelingbluepolitics]

"[t]rump’s unyielding push to preserve Confederate symbols and the legacy of white domination, crystallized by his harsh denunciation of the racial justice movement Friday night at Mount Rushmore, has unnerved Republicans who have long enabled him but now fear losing power and forever associating their party with his racial animus.

"Although amplifying racism and stoking culture wars have been mainstays of [t]rump’s public identity for decades, they have been particularly pronounced this summer as [trump] has reacted to the national reckoning over systemic discrimination by seeking to weaponize the anger and resentment of some white Americans for his own political gain.

..."[t]rump has left little doubt through his utterances the past few weeks that he sees himself not only as the Republican standard-bearer but as leader of a modern grievance movement animated by civic strife and marked by calls for 'white power,' the phrase chanted by one of his supporters in a video the president shared last weekend on Twitter. He later deleted the video but did not disavow its message.

..."[t]rump put his strategy to resuscitate his troubled reelection campaign by galvanizing white supporters on display Friday night under the chiseled granite gaze of four past presidents memorialized in the Black Hills of South Dakota. He celebrated Independence Day with a dystopian speech in which he excoriated racial justice protesters as 'evil' representatives of a 'new far-left fascism' whose ultimate goal is 'the end of America.'

..."'Our nation is witnessing a merciless campaign to wipe out our history, defame our heroes, erase our values, and indoctrinate our children,' Trump said to boos from a packed crowd of supporters. 'Angry mobs are trying to tear down statues of our founders, deface our most sacred memorials, and unleash a wave of violent crime in our cities.'

"Over the years, some Republicans have struggled to navigate [t]rump’s race baiting and, at times, outright racism, while others have rallied behind him. Bursts of indignation and frustration come and go but have never resulted in a complete GOP break with [trump]. [t]rump’s recent moves are again putting Republican officeholders onto risky political terrain.

"On Friday night at Mount Rushmore, Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.), a member of the party’s leadership, and other top Republicans were seen applauding as [t]rump spoke.

"[t]rump’s repeated championing of monuments, memorials and military bases honoring Confederate leaders has run up against the tide of modernity and a weary electorate that polls show overwhelmingly support the Black Lives Matter movement — a slogan that [t]rump said would be 'a symbol of hate' if painted on Fifth Avenue in New York.

"In Richmond, the former capital of the Confederacy, a massive statue of Stonewall Jackson was dismantled to the cheers of onlookers and the ringing of church bells in recent days, and even in Mississippi, the state legislature voted to remove the Confederate battle emblem from its state flag.

"On Capitol Hill, some Republicans fret — mostly privately, to avoid his wrath — that [t]rump’s fixation on racial and other cultural issues leaves their party running against the currents of change. Coupled with the coronavirus pandemic and related economic crisis, these Republicans fear he is not only seriously impairing his reelection chances but also jeopardizing the GOP Senate majority and its strength in the House.

..."[t]rump’s commentary of late has been dizzying and visceral. He has referred to the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, which originated in China, as the 'kung flu.' He has called racial justice demonstrators 'thugs.' He has attacked efforts to take down Confederate statues as an assault on 'our heritage.' And in an ominous hypothetical scenario, he described a 'very tough hombre' breaking into a young woman’s home while her husband was away.

"[t]rump’s Twitter feed, meanwhile, has become something of a crime blotter, with posts of grainy photos of suspected vandals [trump] labels anarchists and demands for lengthy prison sentences.

..."'They coddled this guy the whole time and now it’s like some rats are jumping off of the sinking ship. It’s just a little late,' Kasich said. 'It’s left this nation with a crescendo of hate not only between politicians but between citizens. . . . It started with Charlottesville and people remained silent then, and we find ourselves in this position now.'

..."[t]rump has banned travel from seven Muslim-majority countries; equivocated over the deadly 2017 white supremacist rally in Charlottesville; questioned the intelligence of basketball star LeBron James and numerous other African American figures; attacked the national anthem protests of black football players; and demanded that four Democratic congresswomen of color 'go back' to the 'crime infested places from which they came,' among other actions and episodes.

..."[t]rump’s approach has deep roots in Republican politics. Beginning with the violent opposition among some white voters to the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Richard Nixon and other Republican politicians appealed to white voters — especially in the South — with calls for 'law and order' and vows to defend states’ rights as the federal government enforced the new laws.

"The presidency of George W. Bush ushered in a period when the national party sought to grow its support among blacks and Hispanics. And following Mitt Romney’s 2012 loss to Obama, the GOP produced a so-called autopsy report arguing that the party would need to make serious inroads among minority voters to survive changing demographics.

"At the same time, however, [t]rump’s 'birther' campaign against Obama was gaining traction on the right, and he rode to victory in part on white grievance.

..."'Without white resentment, there is no rationale for [t]rump,' Belcher said. 'Without that, what reason do his supporters...have to be with [t]rump if he’s not going to be your tribal strong man? He started there and will end there.'"

The R's are racists. It does not matter that some of them understand that R's are the party serving the rich, and that racism serves them, with the base they have collected, to keep the focus on skin in preference to the vast wealth divides they have championed in this country. Tactical, or true like trump, and Jeff Sessions, and so many others, Republicon leadership is and has been racist.

Racists get fired from their jobs.

We are decades overdue to fire every Republicon in politics as the ring leaders of racism. Then we can shore up civil rights laws, and work to remove the rest of the racists in public service jobs, from police officers and DA's and judges to school administrators and teachers.

And we can tax the obscenely rich while we're at it, the Republicons' core clientele, who are the real beneficiaries of the racial divisiveness trump has laid bare.