#he knows 5 buzzwords and thats it

[galacticgarlic]

i think if i took a shot every time jd vance said "open border" or "illegal aliens" in the VP debate, i'd die

[newhologram]

Well, someone discovered the keywords "toxic masculinity" and suddenly EVERYTHING is "toxic masculinity". Like doing mechanics work? Thats toxic masculinity. Like having brews with the lads and being a little loud? Toxic masculinity. Etc etc etc. When -everything- stereotypically "manly" is considered bad, i have no problems understanding why men kill themselves. Hell, i've considered it myself. I dont know about other men, but i myself dont really like being very expressive about emotions.

Hell, often i'm not even very emotional at all? But all the extremist stuff against oldtimey "manlyness" stuff is hurtful, when like... Rowdy heavyduty stuff is what you've grown up with, and actually like, and then theres a lot of "progressive" people saying its wrong, it makes me not want to be around that kind of people.

But then again, i'm in norway, masculinity here is not what it is in america! The machoculture was never the same here as over there, so might be that the "sides" of the argument over there will both be seen as extreme over here.

So, there’s a necessary distinction here that I’m going to try to clarify: There are bad voices in virtually every community who are not yet capable of nuanced thinking (everything is black or white), so everything is taken from “thing is bad” to an unhealthy, unrealistic, and troublesome extreme of “all things like this thing are bad”. Masculinity is not inherently toxic. Masculinity is just an energetic expression, just like femininity. We all have our own unique expression of these energies in us. I mean, I’m a small sparkle fairy type but think about all my fav shows: mostly big fucking burly dudes beating the shit out of each other for 50 episodes straight. I love warrior races, I love fight scenes, I live for that stuff. But people with this naive black and white view of things will absolutely grab it and jump to, “all masculinity is toxic.”

Just like how other topics such as “queercoding villains is bad” go to the extreme of “any villain being even the slightest bit gay is homophobic and therefore villains should only be straight, if a villain is queer they are obviously being written by a cishet who thinks gay people are literally evil”, which is hilariously untrue and does not fix anything. It actually creates more problems when it turns actual queer people who love villains and identify strongly with the challenges they may face in their particular story into place-holder piñatas for so-called internet activists to crucify in order to appear max woke.

We see this behavior in almost every fandom and community. If they can’t yell at anyone higher up the ladder, their target becomes the very people they claim to be defending/protecting because they are an easier target. They very much grab those buzzwords and weaponize them against the most vulnerable. See: the belief that menhera is Bad and Problematic because it romanticizes/appropriates mental illness, when most people who get into that subculture are literally ill themselves. All we get out of this childish perspective is people yelling at mentally ill teens online for daring to express their darkness in a cute way. 

In the case of toxic masculinity and the movement to change how society damages men, the target again becomes the very people they claim to want to help free from the toxicity. We get memes about how “weak” a man is for being terrified of being seen walking his girlfriend’s chihuahua, or holding her purse, or stepping foot into a skincare shop. Which is... obviously, not helping. It doesn’t address the problem, but makes fun of men for being victim to that problem. We’re trying to prevent this thing where men get so, so scared of being perceived a certain way that these things cause them a lot of mental and emotional anguish, to the point that when their health suffers, they do not talk about it. I’ve heard so many times of stories about men dying from suicide and no one knew anything was wrong, because he made very sure not to let it show. This is the problem we’re trying to fight when we say, hey, it’s okay to need help. It’s okay to be struggling. It’s okay to be vulnerable. The idea that you can’t be your glorious beefy lumberjack self, and also need to cry sometimes, is harmful. The idea that tears and emotions and mental health issues are weak (and only feminine) is harmful. 

Unfortunately a lot of people in various movements do not yet have the ability to distinguish context and nuance, so they file anything that looks like the bad thing as only the bad thing. Toxic masculinity is something that hurts guys, for the very reason being discussed: men are not often allowed to show the slightest bit if they’re struggling, if they do they get hell for it, which makes the problem even worse. They are often not allowed to be themselves. It starts young. If a 5 year old boy wants to watch Frozen, he’s ridiculed for wanting to watch a “girl movie”. That might not seem traumatic, but seeds planted at that young age grow into thorny, painful weeds by the time they become adult men. That’s what we want to help facilitate the healing of, that’s what we want to change by creating a safer environment where actual harmful, toxic masculinity isn’t something embedded into how we socialize boys. 

[amarccage-blog]

Thoughts on the Pewdiepie, Rowling and WSJ debacle

What a past couple weeks, huh?

So we got J.K Rowling a woman who wrote some of the most critically acclaimed and best selling children’s books of all time. Her books have sold over 400 million copies worldwide and the first and thus far the only person to become a billionaire as an author. Harry potter as a brand is worth 25 billion when all is said and done. So it is more than a bit depressing to me to see someone like J.K Rowling tweeting stuff such as,

Of course, are Pewdiepie fans buying into this narrative that the press is putting forward? Of course not and nor should they. Pewdiepie’s latest videos addressing the controversy each have over 5 million views, which each having over  750,000 likes and it will probably be more than that

His fans are standing by him, which they should, why? Because the case that the media has made against him is absolutely false.  Its old media attacking new media. it’s something that is totally old and needs to be recycled, lashing out something against something that is rather fresh and new. Pewdiepie is their worst nightmare. This is one guy with no masters or accolades to account for, who is basically only accountable to himself. He is making boatloads of money by giving people content that is being created solely by his own passion.

It’s really confusing because this is someone J.K rowling should be applauding as a self-made creator and praising him for his accomplishments. Nevertheless, she’s calling him a fascist because a corrupt media has assured her that he is a bad guy.

Its funny you would think someone like J.K Rowling who wrote a character like Rita skeeter, A CHARACTER that satirizes just how sensationalist and unconcerned with truth the press really is, would be more skeptical of the media. This is not the case, she just accepts the outright lie of pewdiepie being a fascist who hates Jews. what an alarming lack skepticism from such an influential figure, especially from someone who has every tool in her disposal to see through this nonsense.

I love J.K Rowling Harry potter series and i read it several times. but this greatly diminishes my respect for her as a person when she is just willing to label someone a fascist because he made some jokes that the press took out of context for a series of hit pieces that are completely baseless and are really just outright lies designed to deceive the gullible. J.K Rowling doesn’t have the excuse of being gullible and i for one think she should look into this matter and apologize because pewdiepie is no more of a fascist than she is and she should acknowledge that.

I’m saying all of that as someone who doesn’t really care for pewdiepie. when i heard that he was doing antisemitic jokes on his channel, i didn’t instantly that was false. I investigated. I looked at the jokes. I looked at the pewdiepie fanbase’s reaction. i looked at what other youtubers were saying.about the situation. This all took less than 15 minutes for me to realize that this story was totally bogus! This was nothing more than a hitpiece designed to make one of the blandest most inoffensive youtubers seem like he’s dangerous.

I could careless about piediepie’s content. I think it’s boring. I think it’s pandering. The content strikes me as too safe. But three Wall street journal douches by the names, Rolfe Winkler, Jack Nicas, and Ben Fritz, decided to take pewdiepie’s track record and spin it into OMG, a jew-hating monster! All of this propagated by a media that is completely lost its touch.

J.K Rowling has zero reason to be envious towards pewdiepie success because her success is farther beyond his than his is beyond mine. She’s out there calling him a fascist on twitter. What is the reason for hating this guy? To her, pewdiepie is bottom of the barrel to her in terms of popularity! Yet she was just willing to see an article about what a demonic person he is and blast on twitter, without question! J.K rowling is wayyyy smarter than that! She should be held to a higher standard.

Upon thinking about it however, I can’t necessarily blame the media that much for their part because that behavior is so ingrained in their business model at this point. J.K rowling has no invested interest in any of this. For her to take the megaphone of her twitter and use it against some bland, unoriginal (my opinion) youtuber for daring to make some slightly offensive jokes is just beyond the pale insane and its a misuse of influence.that should immediately be called out. There is no reason for this whatsoever, it’s just meanness for the sake of being mean. When did J.K Rowling turn into Draco Malfoy?

I don’t really care for the term “bully” because i think it’s an overused buzzword. But when someone with a huge media social presence is attacking someone smaller than they are for no reason whatsoever and assists in spreading vicious lies about a person, who has never done them any wrong, that’s bullying. This is bullying without a benefit of a clear motive. Is J.K rowling so brutally anti-fascist that she will attack anyone that the media points, regardless of whether the claim is true? I guess I have my answer.

And thats sad. I know J.K rowling is very intellectual. For some reason, however, she decided to stop using it. Maybe she feel she’s ascended to a level of celebrity where dudiligence and research no longer apply to her. maybe she feels that if she states something to be true, that it is true but she has said it.Maybe she’s become blinded by her own arrogance and ego.

This is inexcusable. J.K Rowling really does need to apoligize. Look into this case, realize your error, and apologize. No one wants to see a J.K Rowling that reads Rita Skeeter as the gospal truth and bullies people like a slitheren for telling off-colored jokes.

Again, I’m being honest about my thoughts on pewdiepie. I’m not going to treat the guy like a hero just because he was a victim of some bad press. I am not a fan of his content but you know what, i admire his success. He obviously earned what he has and I think he deserves all the accolades that he gets. Again, however he’s not gonna get any praise from me. His contents just not my cup of tea.

Its very obvious as to why the media is attacking pewdiepie. It’s because he is a threat to their business model. They don’t want you watching independent media. We hear the moaning, the rise of alternative media, the rise of fake news. These people moaning, can’t even cover the content of a youtuber that anyone can go watch but I’m supposed to trust you in covering politics? Ironically, their attack of pewdiepie highlights exactly what mainstream media is irrelevant.because truth doesn’t matter to them. That doesn’t mean alternative media is any better of course.

Do you know who has more credibility? Pewdiepie! He doesn’t talk about news but he is a youtube entertainer who garners millions a view per day.

Being butthurt about pewdiepie’s success is not a good reason to lie about him. It is quite, in fact, reprehensible.