#or genuinely believe Trump cares for a single human being outside himself

[ipwarn]

Holy fuck I should delete twitter. Unfortunately, the sole reason I still use it is for Broadway news. And I have yet to find a place that matches it. I set up a Bluesky account and would happily move myself over there but nobody is using it.

Please god can there be a mass migration now? Bluesky looks exactly how Twitter used to look. And it's not run by a pathetic incel like Elon Musk.

[theheavymetalmama]

And now, some Unpopular Opinions!

Because at this point, why the hell not?

Iron Man was better than The Dark Knight

I am in no way, shape, or form suggesting that The Dark Knight is a bad movie. Far from it, in fact. It’s a damn good movie with some fantastic performances, a gripping story, and some of the best written characters and dialogue in the history of movie making. So is Iron Man the better movie? For one, it’s not so stuck up its’ own ass about its’ message. The Dark Knight is a lot of things and one of them is pretentious as fuck, come off as less of a love letter to Batman and more of a method of the director Chris Nolan showing how much he has nothing but contempt for superheroes and comic books in general. Iron Man, in contrast, embraces it and has fun with the idea of a guy who builds a mech suit and fights bad guys. There’s also the question of influence, and that right there is no contest. The Dark Knight influenced Batman; Iron Man influenced the entire movie industry.

Final Fantasy XV was a massive disappointment

I kind of feel bad for dunking on this game considering they just cancelled the last of the DLC. Then again the last of the DLC was going to expand on Lady “Show Up and Blow Up” Lunafreya and Aranea “I’m here and now I’m not” Highwind’s stories and now we’re not getting them and I’m still bitter as fuck for the director’s pathetic excuse for why a girl couldn’t attend the coming of age road trip, so all bet’s are off! Okay, the ladies getting shafted aside, there is a lot to like about Final Fantasy XV, but was it worth the tedious development time? No way in hell. The game looks good but like many open world games feels mostly lifeless and empty, and of the four main characters only one of them is likable and isn’t even playable in the game’s vanilla form. The story is a broken mess that requires other forms of media to fully grasp (dick fucking move there, Squeenix) and the summons coming at random times serves as more of an annoyance than anything, especially since they always seem to show up except during times when and where they’d be useful. It also doesn’t say good things about a company’s management when a game can sell millions of copies in record time as well as do gangbusters on downloadable content and then still manage to lose over 30 million dollars.

And for the record, let it be known that Noctis is far and away the whiniest and most emo protagonist in Final Fantasy history, which is saying something considering this is a series where one such protagonist’s entire character is being so jaded and world weary to the point that his name is the sound a crying baby makes, and he doesn’t whine and complain as much as Noctis does.

Just because you’re a cop or a soldier, that doesn’t automatically make you a good person

I’m in favor of police and law enforcement and even though I believe our military budget makes Caligula himself look frugal in comparison I do support our troops. Having said that, being a cop or a trooper doesn’t mean jack shit if the person under the uniform is a complete and utter scumbag, which happens more often than many care to admit. In fact some people, many people, become cops and soldiers not to protect and serve or out of a sense of honor and duty, but simply because they like making others miserable and want to do it for a living. There’s a reason songs about fighting the law and unflattering depictions of authority figures date back as far as authority figures have been a thing. Respect is earned, not given.

‘White Nationalist’ and ‘Nazi’ are the same things

Calling a Nazi a white nationalist is like calling somebody who abuses their spouse a rough lover. Stop beating around the bush and tell it like it is. Also, don’t debate Nazis, punch them. Punch them as hard as you fucking can. If they punch you back, punch them again, and again, and again until they either run away (which most of them do) or stop moving. Trust me, nobody is going to miss them. That goes double for the alt right. Oh, and speaking of which...

Far Cry 5 chickened out

As somebody who grew up in a dead gold mining community that was mostly Catholic, when the first trailer for Far Cry 5 came out I was stoked as hell for the chance to gun down religious fanatics and skinheads in a place in rural America that didn’t look all that different. Then the game came out and it was abundantly clear to anybody that something somewhere in the game was changed at the last minute. Some have argued that it was their intention from the get go, others claimed they didn’t want to alienate their core demographic. It doesn’t say nice things about your core demographic if you’re worried about depictions of white supremacist cultists scaring them away, but okay, fine. Then make a game that takes place during the decline of the Ku Klux Klan, or in a post World War II Europe where you hunt Nazi war criminals, or failing that make something akin to Black Dynamite or a wacky 70′s Kung Fu movie where everything is purposefully over the top and exaggerated, I don’t care! All your other games have you gunning down hordes of brown people, let people like me and my husband kill some skinheads god damn it!

If you still support Donald Trump after all the vile and abhorrent things he’s done, you’re a bad person

There’s no beating around the bush on this one. I don’t blame people who were swooned by this conman thinking he’d genuinely make a good president and have since regretted their decision. I have nothing but sympathy for them. No, I’m talking about the people who STILL trip over themselves to defend this vile, homophobic, delusions, misogynist, narcissistic bigot. Like when he called Nazis “very fine people,” or is still pushing for a stupid wall along our border that will be bested by two extension ladders and a pair of tin snips. The travel ban, the rollback on regulations that kept food insecure people fed, kids dying in his fucking concentration camps, yeah, no. He’s a treasonous scumbag who deserves to be locked in an 8x8 cell until he rots, and if you still support him then you can claim the top bunk.

Climate change is real and coal can fuck off

Coal is dead. Let it lay down and rot. What, coal is your only source of income in the area you live in? Then move somewhere else! You think I would have left my hometown if there were any opportunities other than timber, fishing, and tourist traps? Sorry, but the longer we stay in the past with coal the lesser we can look forward to a future where a planet can sustain human life. If we want our planet to live then coal needs to die.

No, the left isn’t “just as bad” as the right

This is a fucking gas lighting farce that immediately falls apart when put under scrutiny. Are there extremists and crazies on the left? Of course there are, but they’re entirely different beasts as those found on the right. The left is more of a “eat enough kale and you can talk to dolphins” or “sleep with crystals under your bed and you can see the future” kinds of crazy, whereas the right is more of the “kill all the queers and let the brown babies starve” kind of crazy. Oh, and to each and every single person who said “Clinton is just as bad as Trump,” y’all can cover your reproductive organs in honey and stick them in a mason jar filled with live bullet ants and tarantula hawks, you ignorant scare mongering shitheels!

“Captain Marvel doesn’t smile!”

So what? She’s a space Navy Seal, not a boy scout like Captain America or Superman; she’s not supposed to smile.

No, the ‘alt left’ doesn’t exist and Antifa aren’t the same as Nazis

Are Antifa breaking the law? Yes. Should they be held accountable for their actions? Yes. Are people who want to kill Nazis exactly the same as people who want to exterminate the Jews and subjugate anybody who isn’t white while wiping other people’s culture off the face of the Earth under an authoritarian rule? Hell to the no and “Antifa is just as bad as the Nazis” is right up there with “Vaccinations cause autism” and “the Earth is flat” on the scale of “If you believe this, you are STUPID.” If Nazis and white supremacists went unopposed they’d go around raping and murdering Jews and non whites until there were absolutely none of them left. You know Antifa would be doing if there weren’t any Nazis around? Sitting in their crappy apartments smoking weed, sipping craft beer, eating pizza, and laughing their asses off at 20 year old Saturday Night Live skits. Ooooooh, scary! Yes, Antifa are assaulting people and destroying public property and yes they should be held accountable for their actions. But I’m not going to pretend, even hypothetically, that Nazi apologist scumbags like Tucker Carlson having his door banged on or actual Nazis like Richard Spencer getting punched in the face is on the same playing field as babies being put in cages, innocent black people being murdered by cops, or Jews being put into ovens, you fucks!

New She Ra is better than Old She Ra and 80′s cartoons in general

If you don’t like the new She Ra and prefer the old one, fine, you do you, but don’t act like the original is “So much better” because it isn’t at all. The villains were jokes, the animation was beyond cheap, the characters all looked the same, there were stupid talking animal sidekicks, and the story went nowhere really fucking fast outside of “Bad guys are doing bad guy stuff, our heroes must stop them” because they were commercials to sell toys. Nothing more, nothing less. If the new She Ra isn’t your bag then that’s all well and good, but don’t be a stupid asshole about it, talking about how it wasn’t featured at PowerCon like it’s a big fucking deal when only sad dorks like us give a shit about conventions, or whine about how you’re being oppressed and censored because a 16 year old isn’t rocking 44DD’s, or talk about “CalArts style” like that’s a real goddamn thing. Oh yeah, and speaking of which...

“CalArts style” is not a thing

Shut the fuck up, no it isn’t. It’s a stupid, meaningless buzzword hurled at people who never fucking went to CalArts in the first place. If you’re perplexed as to why modern cartoons all look like Steven Universe, the simple fact is that cartoons are made predominantly for children and shows are made to be aesthetically pleasing to them. With shows like Adventure Time, Regular Show, Steven Universe, Star vs the Forces of Evil, and Gravity Falls being soaring success stories while shows like Young Justice, new GI Joe, and 2011 Thundercats ambitious failures, it’s obvious that formal abstractionist non angularity is in while aspirational human physical fitness is out, and a big reason the latter was even a thing in the first place is because they were toy commercials first and there were only so many variations on plastic molds to form the fucking action figures and because it was the 80′s and Arnold was the biggest star at the time.

“Star Wars: the Last Jedi” is a good movie and fanboys can eat bantha poodoo

I’ve heard all the reasons for why The Last Jedi is a bad movie and they’re all either stupid nitpicky bullshit or meaningless fanboy gripes. I could write an entire essay debunking those reasons point for point, like how the reason Holdo didn’t tell Poe a damn thing because no admiral would ever a tell a lowly grunt anything about their plan, especially after being demoted for being a hotheaded little fuckup. Or that Rey being related to Obi Wan or any previous Star Wars character didn’t happen because that would have been stupid and the definition of predictable. Or that the reason Akbar didn’t do the suicide run is because he’s a meme that the general audience doesn’t give a shit about and that there’s no way in Hell that the Mouse would allow a character named “Akbar” to do a suicide run. Or that Kylo Ren not being an intimidating villain is the whole point and that you’re supposed to hate him because he’s a petulant Darth Vader wannabe and a snake to boot. Or that the effectiveness of said suicide run, where Snoke came from, or the state of the Resistance by the end of the movie, or that any other so called ‘plot hole’ doesn’t matter because this is a movie about space wizards for children and paying obsessive attention to meaningless and pedantic details is exactly how we end up with stupid subplots in the Beauty and the Beast remake and Metropolis and Gotham City being across the river from each other! But the biggest one is Luke wasn’t portrayed as some Jedi Clint Eastwood (why fanboys want that eludes me; the EU did that a few times and they were all terrible) and that him exiling himself doesn’t make any sense.

Sorry, but no, Luke running off to a far and unreachable island makes perfect sense. For one, it’s kind of a thing that disgraced Jedi do, and for two, Star Wars is a fairy tale in space. All of the characters draw inspiration from characters and archetypes from fairy tales and fables of old, and the one Luke Skywalker resembles most (largely by design) is King Arthur. Think about it. Common boy who doesn’t know who his real parents are, meets an old wizard, gets a legendary sword, discovers he’s of noble lineage, tags along with a few colorful characters, goes on a quest that’s bigger than him and the life he knew, hits a few bumps down the road, and then eventually he saves the kingdom by overthrowing his father who once was a great man and a hero but gave in to power and corruption and became a dark reflection of his former self.

You will never unsee that. 

Oh yeah, and remember how things turned out for King Arthur in the end? He started a whole new kingdom, he had a few good years, he grew arrogant, things started to fall apart, and suddenly he and everything he worked to build up were undone overnight by a younger, more vindictive relative. Disgraced, Arthur was whisked away to an unreachable island deep rooted in his own legend and mythology where he remained until Britain had fallen to darkness and needed him again. Now of course Britain as we know it has yet to see such a thing (we’ll see how Brexit turns out) but Luke did exactly that. And no, sorry fanboys, but The Last Jedi wasn’t a failure in any sense of the word. It grossed over a billion dollars, received critical praise, the DVDs and BluRays sold like hotcakes, and was adored by kids, teenagers, and young adults, the primary audience that Star Wars is for in the first place. And I don’t give a shit what the audience score on RT says, because for one aggregate sites are a blight on film criticism and we went from this;

“Batman v Superman and Suicide Squad are AMAZING, Rotten Tomatoes is biased and paid off by Disney!”

To this...

“Star Wars: the Last Jedi is TERRIBLE, Rotten Tomatoes says so!”

In just over a year. To say nothing of the fact that what you’re currently saying about The Last Jedi was also said about The Empire Strikes, and like ‘Empire’ twenty years from now people will look back on the fanboy outrage and say “Wow, what a bunch of babies.” And before the inevitable response...

“But Solo bombed because of The Last Jedi!” 

Nooooo, Solo bombed because it came out right between Infinity War and Deadpool 2, was rife with development issues since day one of production, it was aimed overwhelmingly at fanboys obsessed with Star Wars deep lore answering questions that the general audience doesn’t give a shit about, nobody was even interested in the thing until the Lego Movie guys were signed on for a hot second, moviegoers aren’t currently hurting for cocky space cowboys...

...and because of the simple fact that it’s a solo movie about Han Solo...and it’s not 1995 and Harrison Ford isn’t in it. See, fanboys don’t realize that just because nerd and geek bullshit is mainstream now doesn’t mean that everyone is now a fanboy deep rooted in everything from where the characters are from to where they’re going, because when people say “I love Star Wars and Han Solo is my favorite character” what the vast majority of them mean is “Those movies with the space wizards and the laser swords are a lot of fun and Harrison Ford is a great movie star.” That’s it. That’s extent of why people like Han Solo. Sad dorks like us may care about stuff like where and when he got the Falcon, how he met Chewie, where the dice came from and all of that and more, but the general audience just wants to see Harrison Ford do cool shit in space. That’s it. To say nothing of the fact that nobody was even interested in the spinoffs in the first place. When Disney announced that they were making episodes 7,8, and 9 everyone went “Oh Hell yes, sign me up!” Then when they followed up with that they were also making spinoff movies about stuff that happened off screen or between movies the same audience was like “Oh...well that’s neat, I guess.”

And no, that stupid fanboy boycott had nothing to do with. Even the dude who started that petition to strike TLJ from canon admitted that he was in a bad place and that he was being stupid and angry, and I can promise you that all the shrieking dorks on Youtube are the buzzing of flies to Disney. If that crowd had any box office and movie making decision influence whatsoever, the next spinoff we’d see a trailer for would be “My Twi’lek Waifu: a Star Wars Story.”

PewDiePie is the worst thing to happen to video games this side of the gaming crash of 83 and he needs to fuck off

Yes, you read that right, and I don’t say that lightly. All sorts of terrible things have happened in the gaming industry since the gaming crash of 83. The console wars, the Atari Jaguar, the Philips CDi, Jack Thompson, the death of the Dreamcast, WoW, an entire console generation packed to the gills with homogenous gray and brown shooters with protagonists who all looked the fucking same, GamerGate, microtransactions, DLC abuse, the death of Maxis, an increasingly toxic fandom, “women are too hard to animate,” the degradation of E3 from a showcase of the biggest and bestest in gaming to a corporately sponsored circlejerk of self congratulatory backslapping and so much, much more.

I don’t care how much PewDiePie gives to charity, or how many fans he has, or how many people think he’s just the greatest, because he’s not. He’s an embarrassing, stupid asshole who constantly gets busted for making stupid racist jokes and by extension making his fans and everyone who has even the vaguest ties to the word ‘gamer’ look like stupid, racist assholes. He’s a corporate ass sucking apologist who gives exposure to anti Semites and racist wastes of space to his audience of mostly 10 to 15 year old boys, and he’s more terminally obnoxious than an Adderall addicted Pomeranian. 

The day he posted his first video of him overreacting to a jump scare while making loud screeching noises on top of edgy rape jokes was the day the progress of “gaming as an art form” was shot between the eyes, placed in a box that was then filled with concrete, and thrown into the ocean. He’s a dumbass man child that’s making all of us look bad and he needs to take his millions worth of corporate sponsorships and fuck off forever into some dark, lonely corner of the Internet where he’ll never be seen or heard from again until an inevitable meltdown that lands him on an episode of Down the Rabbit Hole.

And that concludes this post. I’ll give my final thoughts tomorrow, and on Saturday I’m closing this account forever.

[lovecrimers]

In honor of the100th episode of Supernatural Misha has worked on (He’s worked on 100, only acted in 99 though) - I decided to share with you guys, 100 reasons that I love @mishacollins as a sort of tribute/celebration to him. He’s done so much to change my life and I just wanted to put my love for him out into the universe. I also made this into a twitter thread which can be found HERE.

1.) He gives me strength to get up and get through my day whether he knows it or not. 2.) He cares about his fans & constantly strives to show just how much. 3.) He cares about minorities that the struggles we face daily. 4.) He cares about the LGBTQ+ community & has gone to far length to prove just how much. 5.) He cares about mental health & the issues that affect those of us who suffer because of our MH issues. 6.) He cares about disadvantaged youths and wants to give them an equal playing field (Free high school, etc) 7.) He cares about disadvantaged groups in general & proves it daily through his work with Random Acts. 8.) He cares about lonely Senior citizens & tried to brighten an otherwise lonely day for them (Valentines Day). 9.) He funded Random Acts - a registered 501(c)(3) charity on his own because he's the change he wants to see. 10.) He constantly runs charity events throughout RA & gets his fans excited to donate & put good out into the world. 11.) He runs GISHWHES - the biggest scavenger hunt in the world and most of proceeds from that go to charity too. 12.) His scavenger hunt often encourages others to commit random acts of charity towards strangers. 13.) He cares about the state of our country and how the political turmoil affects the everyday citizen. 14.) He is extremely invested in politics and is not afraid to speak his voice on things that offend him. 15.) He fights for the people. Not just his people, or my people - but all people. 16.) When he makes mistakes, he owns up to them and apologizes even when he doesn't have to. 17.) He is active on social media and gives us (his fans) peeks into his daily life, which he knows we always want more of. 18.) He is a general friendly person who goes out of his way to be an angel to everyone he meets. 19.) The money from his Castiel photo ops at conventions goes to charity. 20.) Growing up, he experienced the struggle of poverty & goes out of his way to level the playing field for others in that situation. 21.) He's EXTREMELY humble about his accomplishments and doesn't brag about his good deeds. 22.) To date, he's still shocked and made to blush when fans express how he has changed their lives. 23.) He wears safety pins when he can, to let people know he is an ally and will protect people who need protection. 24.) He's a published poet and has a way with words that speaks to millions. 25.) He is EXTREMELY intelligent and uses his ideas and intelligence for nothing but GOOD. 26.) He is an amazingly talented actor & with that talent has become one of the most loved characters on Supernatural. 27.) He plays himself on Supernatural (an angel) 28.) He engages his fans, even going as far as answering questions other actors refuse to. 29.) He's selflessly shared extremely personal stories of his struggle at conventions in front of large crowds. 30.) He supports intersectional feminism. 31.) He supports nasty women and acknowledges the world needs us and has talked publicly about it 32.) Even though shippers are historically snubbed in the SPN fandom, he gives us a voice. 33.) He's gone as far as to physically "Ship" Destiel and that warms the cockles of my heart. 34.) He married his high school sweetheart. 35.) His relationship with his wife is absolutely beautiful and a goal for anyone with a significant other. 36.) The love he has for his wife is visible whenever he talks about her, he softens up and smiles. 37.) He supports his wife's business endeavors no matter what they may be & defends her accomplishments. 38.) He & Vicki renewed their vows dressed in drag at an Albertsons and that in itself is amazing. 39.) He takes the time to maintain his beautiful marriage & goes on spiritual retreats with his wife. 40.) His family in itself is pure and goals for anyone with a family. 41.) He's a busy man but still takes time to be a great father to his kids and it shows. 42.) He gives us access to his time with his kids sometimes and it never fails to put a smile on my face. 43.) He brings his kids to conventions sometimes and it's adorable - there's NOBODY who doesn't love it when he does that. 44.) There are tons of instances where he has been seen comforting distressed fans on his own free will. 45.) He encourages fans to say hi to him if we see him out and about. 46.) He takes fans out to do fun things during his meet n greets, something which no other actor does. 47.) He has publicly stated he appreciates fanworks whether it be art, fanfic, crafts etc. 48.) He built his own house, proving he loves to see the fruits of his effort. 49.) He built most of the furniture in his house further proving he's a hard worker. 50.) He interned at the White House during the Clinton administration 51.) He made the engagement ring he proposed to Vicki with. 52.) He invited fans to join him during his bike ride for E4K this year. 53.) He teaches his kids about healthy eating while teaching them HOW to cook. 54.) He ran over 50 miles for charity & anyone who's ever even ran 1 mile knows how brutal that must have been. 55.) In 2011, he was named TV’s “Best Non-Human” by TV Guide which proves he's actually an angel. 56.) His smile is singlehandedly the most beautifully infectious smile I have ever laid eyes upon. 57.) He looks good in literally anything. 58.) When I'm feeling crappy about life, I just look at pictures of him and I instantly feel better. 59.) His charity is in partnership with a crisis support group that has helped thousands of people like me during hard times. 60.) He's not afraid to be emotional publicly and has even publicly cried before over issues that matter to him. 61.) His hard work and dedication inspire me to want to reach MY own goals. 62.) Seeing everything he's accomplished makes me not want to give up. 63.) His sense of humor is brilliant and truly funny. 64.) He's not afraid to make himself the butt of a joke and that kind of humor is extremely attractive. 65.) His humility (that I touched on earlier) transcends into everything he does whether it be his job, family or charity. 66.) He directly helps his fans - ex of which can be helping w/homework, sending them autograph replacements etc. 67.) He has posted his phone number publicly with the sole purpose to have conversations with fans. 68.) He truly regrets working on a movie about sexual assault & openly discourages people from watching it so we don't get triggered. 69.) He steps out of his comfort zone sometimes to face issues in the fandom that no other actor wants to. 70.) He takes the time away from his family to come to conventions for his fans even when he's extremely tired. 71.) His smile lights up any room. 72.) He very clearly says "fuck you" to gender norms & constantly does things like paint his nails. 73.) He encourages people to vote, even if it's not for his candidate. 74.) He acknowledges the importance of white people being allies to minorities. 75.) He is extremely humble about his incredible good looks. 76.) He takes the winning gishwhes team on a vacation with him every year. 77.) He has been known to talk about very personal issues that resonate with fans during his meet n greets. 78.) He is nice to literally everyone (I'm serious, even to the people he dislikes: note, trump) 79.) This is kind of unrelated toa lot of the other reasons but he's THICC HAVE YOU SEEN HIS THIGHS? wow. 80.) He's an anchor for a lot of people who constantly struggle with depression (such as myself) and he guides us back to a good state of mind. 81.) He's interested in the environment and he proved that during E4K this yr by bringing a geologist to talk to us about the terrain. 82.) His interactive gishwhes competitions inspire people to think outside the box. 83.) He's simply beautiful like have you SEEN a picture of him? 84.) Everything he does is to better this world and community. 85.) He is the purest person I have ever come across in my life and I've come across quite a few people. 86.) His smiles are always genuine, you can tell by the way his eyes crinkle. 87.) He has struggled so much in his life and even then, came out successful. He is GOALS for all of us. 88.) He understands the reality behind a lot of these online "challenges" such as the ALS challenge & truly cares about the causes. 89.) He is extremely work oriented and has been known to stay on set way beyond what he was supposed to to film & perfect his scenes. 90.) His voice is pretty much the single most incredibly beautiful thing I have ever been graced with the opportunity to hear. 91.) He cares about orphans, refugees & homelessness. 92.) I truly believe that he loves each and every single one of his fans. 93.) He's an imaginative goofball & that shows through with the items he has for gishwhes every year. 94.) He was the best thing to ever happen to me. 95.) This man is the epitome is what one should strive to be when it comes to their attitude, life & personality 96.) Whenever there's a tragedy in a foreign country, he tries to tweet his support in their native language. 97.) He continually shows he cares about the fans that go through struggles and need support. 98.) When I first found out about his past, I promised myself I'd stop self injuring & make something out of my life. I am now clean of self injury and have been for a while. 99.) He unknowingly helped save me from one of the worst depressive periods of my 26 yr old life where everything seemed bleak & hopeless. 100.) His love for life saved MY life when I was hellbent on ending it last year and I will be eternally grateful to him for that.

So yeah, if you ever want to even begin to question my love for Misha Collins- don’t. I will love him fiercely until my dying breath.

Congrats on the milestone, Misha. We love you.

[singtheskyandfightlikehell]

alright i know i made my post about biden a little while ago, but i feel another rant coming on so my apologies to mobile users if the readmores still don’t work properly...

i’m gonna talk about “vote blue no matter who” for a little bit

there are people who have explained what i’m about to explain before, but i feel like ranting & also chances are the people who don’t understand this probably don’t listen to those sorts of sources (not that they’re likely to be on my blog either lmao i know how few people read these)

the very concept of “vote blue no matter who” is fundamentally dangerous to democracy and the progressive cause

if we surrender our right to demand things of politicians in return for our votes, we have surrendered the value of our votes. Mitt Romney is clearly positioning himself to run as a democrat in the near future. Would you vote for him if he “turns blue” without changing a single of his policies? Would you have voted for Bloomberg? What if Bezos decides to run one day? Or Musk? Would you vote for them over Trump?

You shouldn’t.

Is Biden better than Trump? Yes. It’s not that hard. I’m better than trump, you’re better than trump, we’re all better than trump, let’s hold hands around a campfire about it or something.

Voting doesn’t grant power by allowing us to choose our leaders. How many of you have said or thought “well, I didn’t really want biden” or (and for how many elections has this been true?) “we need to vote for the lesser of two evils”. If voting means anything at all, it is supposed to be a way to force politicians to earn support. in that infamous interview biden did with charlemagne the god, besides just his “you ain’t black” comment, he also responded to the question “do you take the black vote for granted” by saying that of course black people will vote for him. Saying that we as voters don’t care what they as politicians do, as long as it’s better than someone else, is an end to democracy. your voice does not matter. the ruling class can decide who they want in charge and then simply find someone worse than that person and you will fall over yourself to support them.

if only louis xvi had had a trump to point to and say “but i’m better than him”, maybe he’d have kept his head. it’s a convincing argument after all. the best manipulations are rooted entirely in the truth.

of course biden is better. of course the country will be more stable under biden. but the world will never be a good place until capitalism is eradicated and biden will never do that. america wasn’t a good country before trump, and it won’t be a good country after.

now if you genuinely support biden’s policies, that’s one thing. i disagree with you. if, in particular, your primary concern is not having to hear about atrocities on the news nonstop, i don’t even respect you. if you think the obama administration did everything it could to help people, I definitely don’t trust your judgement or your compassion for the lives of indigenous people and those living in countries the US doesn’t like.

but to openly admit to the ruling class that you forfeit your right to demand anything but the slimmest margin of decency from a president (regardless of your actual voting intentions) is the final nail in the pointlessness of voting

of course i’ll still do it. i’m still in the zone of uncertainty as to whether it’s better for a government to pretend to give its citizens rights or openly acknowledge its stranglehold on power, so i will continue to play into the imaginary power voting gives me because maybe it is better than all-out war (or maybe it’s simply prolonging the inevitable)

but for fuck’s sake, i need people to understand how deep the fear-mongering and propaganda and oligarchy runs. those in power will stop at nothing to retain their power. do not turn to them for progress. working class solidarity is the only strength we have, do not let them convince you otherwise.

also, stop treating politicians like celebrities. you should have solid policy opinions and then support the politicians whose actions most closely support your preferred policies, not pick a candidate and then match your beliefs to whatever they say. trying real hard here to wrap my mind around the liberals who keep saying bernie supporters should do whatever bernie does like ??? my political ideals and identity have nothing to do with what bernie chooses to do, he simply was the closest candidate to my preferences and now that he’s no longer running his opinions outside of his position as a senator mean nothing to me

one last thing: while policy is incredibly important, words are just words. the only evidence of biden’s policies i will consider are the things he has already done. his promises mean nothing to me. if he wins (and manages to take the presidency without trump starting a civil war), i’ll judge his presidency by what he actually achieves. perhaps i’ll be pleasantly surprised. in some ways, i’m even rooting for u biden guys that believe in that healthcare plan that was going around a few days ago. hopefully, he’ll actually achieve a little good in some areas, even if i have no hope for him with regards to, say, damaging businesses’ potential profits to support indigenous communities or holding the US military accountable for human rights violations or abolishing prisons. anyway. shut the fuck up about him being the most progressive candidate until he actually enacts real progressive change.

[bloodfromtherock-blog]

AMERICAN WOMEN “VOTE”: #MeToo

Daniel Hutchens October 18, 2017

The October 9 NY Times piece from Lena Dunham (who created and starred in HBO’s Girls, among other accomplishments) is a powerful indictment of sexism in corporate Hollywood. It focuses on the Harvey Weinstein scandal, of course, describing him as “the most powerful man in Hollywood to be revealed as a predator,” but Dunham also points out the problem is pervasive.



I wasn’t at first sure I agreed with Dunham’s pointed question, “So why the deafening silence, particularly from the industry’s men, when one of our own is outed as having a nasty taste for humiliating and traumatizing women?” I’ve certainly heard plenty of denouncements coming from the likes of George Clooney, Ben Affleck, Leonardo DiCaprio, Michael Keaton, etc., not to mention Quentin Tarantino, who has been described as Weinstein’s “close friend and longtime collaborator,” and said he was “stunned and heartbroken about the revelations.”



But Dunham’s piece ran back on October 9, and of course I have to defer to her experience and direct access to these situations. I’m a distant onlooker at best.



And we can arguably take any of these announcements with a grain of salt. As well as statements coming from some Hollywood women. Are they simply trying to protect their own images or appear politically correct? What do we make of Meryl Streep’s released statement that she personally found Weinstein “exasperating but respectful with me in our working relationship, and with many others with whom he worked professionally…I did not know about these other offenses”. She also called his behavior “inexcusable” and praised “the intrepid women who raised their voices to expose this abuse.”



Or Glenn Close, whose statement said, “for many years, I have been aware of the vague rumors that Harvey Weinstein had a pattern of behaving inappropriately around women. Harvey has always been decent to me, but now that the rumors are being substantiated, I feel angry and darkly sad.”



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The sad truth is, sexism, assault and harassment have always been part of our national fabric, and the situation is likely the same in most every part of the world. In America, the list of powerful men who have been called out for sexually inappropriate behavior (at best) is always growing, and it’s certainly not confined to Hollywood: In the entertainment industry we can list Weinstein, Bill Cosby, R. Kelly, Mel Gibson, Roman Polanski, and Woody Allen. In the political realm, we’ve all heard the stories about Bill Clinton, Clarence Thomas, and of course Donald Trump. Then we have “news” personalities such as Roger Ailes and Bill O’Reilly. Athletes on this ugly list include Kobe Bryant, Adam “Pacman” Jones, Adrian Peterson, Ray Rice, and Ben Roethlisberger.



These lists I’m including are just samplings, of course, and could go on to be much longer. But the point is, this is an American problem. The current #MeToo movement, wherein women speak up about sexual or physical abuse or harassment, is important and courageous, and should be applauded and encouraged by all of us, men and women alike. The problem needs to be recognized and confronted.



But another sad truth is, there’s likely not one single female anywhere in America who can’t honestly say “Me Too.” This in no way indicates that every American male is an abuser, but it does mean that at one point or another, every female is going to encounter abuse in some form. It’s the same principle as racism: every white American isn’t hateful or racist, but every black American is bound to encounter racism somewhere, sometime in this country. (Other minorities too, of course, as well as homosexuals, Muslims and various other religions, and, well…you name it.)



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I was raised by women. My mother, my aunts and sisters were my primary caregivers. My father lived in the same house as me until his death when I was sixteen, but he was emotionally absent, probably a silent alcoholic, and simply didn’t have much input into my day to day care, discipline or instruction. I got music from him: he was a fearsome boogie-woogie piano player, and gave me my first guitar. I don’t discount those gifts, and I also understand he came from a far worse situation: his own father had apparently been savagely abusive, to the point that my father ran away from home when he was a teenager, to avoid “killing him.” 



But women made me who I am, on every emotional and social level. I’ve always related to women, genuinely enjoy their company and find them to be fascinating, if often mysterious. If I’ve ever been guilty of any type of “insensitivity”, it’s simply that I openly adored women, and at times sought their attention, which certainly led to my not being in the most stable long-term relationships at various points in my life. I will say I’ve remained dear friends with my past girlfriends and my ex-wife, so maybe that counts for something.



I’m also a member (grudgingly at times) of the music industry, which like just about every other American place of business, has a deeply ingrained male-dominant history. But in the same way that music tends to be “color blind”, I’ve often seen decent and equal treatment of female musicians, sound crew, roadies etc. I think many musicians have experienced their fair share of “outsider” status, and maybe that helps us relate to others who may feel the same way. That doesn’t mean discrimination never happens, though, and it’s important for all of us to stay aware.



And certainly, in terms of the “business” part of music specifically, women are often subjected to stereotypical expectations about physical appearance and behavior. And that flat-out stinks, and yes, I have to recognize my part in that system. 



We all have to examine our demons and our tendencies to stereotype or take certain situations for granted. “Born Into This” (our circumstances as Americans and simply as human beings), Charles Bukowski used to say. He’s been a hugely influential writer for me, but he was certainly not exemplary in his behavior toward women.



One of my favorite filmmakers has always been Woody Allen, and when the disturbing stories arose that Allen was dating Soon-Yi Previn, the adopted daughter of his then-romantic-companion Mia Farrow back in the early ‘90s, it was tough for me as a fan to reconcile. Allen’s behavior back then can generously be described as questionable as best, despite the old chestnut that “the heart wants what it wants,” and Previn’s adamant defense of Allen’s behavior. (As of this writing, the two have now been married twenty years, so make of that what you will.)



Other nasty allegations against Allen came out eventually, mainly from another of Farrow’s adopted daughters, Dylan, who accused Allen of touching her inappropriately when she was seven years old. But Dylan’s (also adopted) brother, Moses Farrow, has always strongly defended Woody, and accused Mia Farrow of brain-washing: “My mother drummed it into me to hate my father for tearing apart the family and molesting my sister…I see now that this was a vengeful way to pay him back for falling in love with Soon-Yi…My mother demanded obedience and I was often hit as a child.” Moses also insisted that his sister Dylan had been “coached” by Mia Farrow to make accusations against Woody Allen.



It’s hard to sort these things out from afar, but I think on some level I was always hoping Allen was innocent. I truly loved his films, and I think it was hard for me to think the worst of him. I’ve also long believed in the classic D.H. Lawrence adage, “Never trust the artist. Trust the tale.” Meaning, all humans are flawed in one way or another, but this doesn’t subtract from artistic accomplishments, which in one sense can be looked on as the better angels of our natures. Of course, Lawrence has been accused of being something of a misogynist himself at times. As has the undeniable master Pablo Picasso, who told us, “Art is a lie that makes us realize the truth.”

But regarding Woody Allen, I had to eventually admit my relationship to his films had become at least slightly tarnished. Particularly his 1979 masterpiece, Manhattan, in which the 40-something character played by Allen dates a high school girl, played by Mariel Hemingway. (Again, going all confessional, I’ve had relationships of my own where the woman was a good deal younger, including my 10-year marriage. But the particulars in the movie, the position of male power and the high-school-age girl, just don’t sit right.) Hemingway later wrote that in her real life, Allen “had a kind of crush on me,” and invited her to travel to Paris with him. Her parents somehow agreed to this plan, but she spoke up for herself and told Allen, “I’m not going to get my own room, am I? I can’t go to Paris with you.” After hearing these stories, it’s impossible for me to be charmed by Manhattan in quite the same way. 



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My point here, again, is that these details of sexism and oppression are so woven into our culture, it’s impossible to point the finger at one particular industry or individual. Harvey Weinstein has certainly been outed as a major predator, but his removal alone won’t solve the problem. The problem runs way deeper, and in fact the problem is rooted in Us.



In much the same way that the election of Donald Trump is rooted in Us. His campaign was certainly hateful and corrupt, and we’re still waiting to find out the full extent of Russian tampering. But the fact that someone like Trump ever got anywhere near the presidency, after his open contempt of women, his referring to them as “dogs”, “pigs”, “housekeepers”, “slobs”, etc., his pending lawsuits and accusations of sexual misconduct and assault (and in fact his 75 active lawsuits, including the massive scam which was Trump University, which was settled out of court for $25 million 20 days after the election)…his comment that it’s “okay” to refer to his own daughter as a “piece of ass”, his “pussy grabbing” statement, etc. …we have to blame ourselves as a society for allowing an openly woman-hating piece of shit like Trump into our White House.



Which matters, in the context of this “Me Too” conversation. Trump is a poster boy for sexual harassment and disrespect toward women. Not to mention the fact that his legislation is strongly contemptuous toward females. He passed an executive order allowing employers to deny birth control to women on their health care plans, based on the ludicrous notion of “religious objection.” He has also delayed proposed increases in overtime which would have directly aided single mothers, slashed support for military caregivers, blocked pay transparency which prevented gender pay disparity, undid the Fair Pay and Safe Workplace Executive Order, so it’s now easier for federal contractors with chronic violations of sex discrimination and other employment laws to keep getting federal funding. Nothing in the Trump budget includes a serious commitment to any form of paid family and medical leave…on and on.



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Probably the most important thing in my world, the best contribution I can make to solving these problems we’re talking about, is how I raise my children. I have a daughter, Amberly, who’s 10 years old. She actually cried the day Donald Trump was elected (and no, I don’t force my politics on her. I actively teach my children to think for themselves, and in fact her Mom and grandparents were strongly anti-Hillary. But Amberly had been engaged in political conversations with other kids at her school, and she was pretty excited at the prospect of America electing a woman president, and was bitterly disappointed when Trump instead was elected.)



I try to tell Amberly every day how much I love her, how smart and amazing she is, and how can she accomplish anything in the world she sets her mind to. But these aren’t just fatherly pats-on-the-back, they’re rock-solid truths, to which any of my friends who have met Amberly can attest.



I try to do the same with my equally-amazing son, and I’m determined to be there for him, in a way my father wasn’t, and maybe couldn’t be, for me. In the Read This Music book I’ve been working on for years, I wrote a piece to my boy, Zac. Here’s an excerpt:



“Always treat women with respect. Never be one of those two-faced guys who talk nicely to a girl’s face, then get all vulgar and nasty about her when she leaves the room…Remember your Grandma Frankie and your Mom and your Sister are all women too! And every girl you’ll ever meet will be someone’s daughter, sister, mother…treat them well.”

So those are my thoughts about these problems we’re all talking about these days. I think my kids are gonna grow up to be alright, mainly just because they’re two of the coolest people I’ve ever met. I’m proud of them, and even though I’ve worked plenty hard for 30 plus years on my songs and stories, Amberly and Zac are the best I’ve got. The best I’ll leave behind. And they give me a hope for our collective future that I otherwise have a tough time seeing, watching what’s happening in our world right now. It’s probably important we all try to find that brighter edge, that glint of possibility. 



Be kind to each other out there.



(Following are links to Lena Dunham’s article about Weinstein, and another great NY Times article she wrote about Trump’s war on birth control.)




https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/09/opinion/harvey-weinstein-lena-dunham-silence-.html




https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/09/opinion/lena-dunham-losing-birth-control-could-mean-a-life-of-pain.html

[addcrazy-blog]

New Post has been published on Add Crazy

New Post has been published on https://addcrazy.com/training-is-the-antidote-to-lack-of-expertise/

Training is the antidote to lack of expertise

I like the poorly knowledgeable!” — Donald Trump

“Suppose! It ain’t illegal yet.” — Funkadelic

It’s time we talked about the maximum consequential political divide in this united states of America.

That divide isn’t among liberals and conservatives. As an alternative, it’s miles among the ignorant and the informed, among the ones who have records and may extrapolate from it and people who do no longer and can’t. There is an Education gap among left and proper, and it poses a grave risk to our country wide destiny.

This gap has been empirically established. A 2015 Pew Research Center have a look at, as an instance, found that best 24 percentage of American citizens with postgraduate degrees and 29 percent of these with university degrees perceive as continuously or in the main conservative. The corresponding numbers for liberals had been 54 and forty-four, with the relaxation not identifying strongly with both ideologies.

However, the empirical proof is superfluous. The truth has been apparent since the information-starved likes of Michele Bachmann, Sarah Palin and Louie Gohmert first has become stars of the political right. It has been obvious for the reason that Stephen Colbert determined it important to coin the word “truthiness.”

Now, but, that lack of awareness has reached the highest stages of bank governance. Did The Tremendous Trumpkin surely sign a government order without knowing what turned into in it? Did he without a doubt reportedly ought to ask what Vladimir Putin was speaking approximately whilst the Russian president brought up an hands-control treaty in a telephone name? Is his Twitter feed really a snowstorm of embarrassing misspellings? became there actually a misspelling in his legitimate inauguration poster? Did his Training Branch — repeat: his Schooling Department — certainly misspell “W.E.B. Du Bois” after which, misspell its apology? Did he in reality praise Frederick Douglass, stone cold useless for the reason that 1895, as “an instance of somebody who’s performed an exquisite task and is getting recognized more and more?”

  I’m aware of the capability for coming off like a snob or a bully in performing to attain people for the loss of Education. For what it’s well worth, my mother lacked Training; she had approximately seven years of formal schooling — par for the path for a black female in Thirties Mississippi. The woman had a reverence for information, though. She became never e-book smart, But she was one of the wisest human beings I’ve ever recognized.

So I’m here not to mock individuals who lack statistics, However, to lament those who fail to price it. We’re requested, implicitly, time and again, to believe that failure equals authenticity.

Interim, a brand new poll says that a third of us don’t understand that the Low-cost Care Act and “Obamacare” are one and the same. And Jennifer Williams, an editor at Vox.Com, these days received a word from a reader who was “upset with your information,” and suggested, “coaching human beings an appropriate records” — all whilst talking about how we went to warfare “with Saudi Arabia” after Sept. 11.

That’s no longer “true” — or humorous. No, it’s horrifying. See, those people vote. They make decisions. Indeed, certainly one of their choices is inside the White House.

The want to repair American Education couldn’t be greater stark or pressing. We have to wrench our nearby faculty forums free of partisan political hackery and redouble our efforts to educate our kids not what, However how to Suppose. The sector isn’t always developing much less complex or tough whilst we dither approximately, literally pretending lack of knowledge is bliss.

With apologies to The United Negro college Fund: A rustic is likewise a terrible thing to waste.

A Liberal Schooling is The Great Defense Towards Cults

My dad usually praised the Education he obtained at Lake Woodland university and Loyola College and Loyola Regulation faculty.

He stated to me on many activities, “Gary, nothing beats a very good, liberal arts history due to the fact you discover ways to Assume for yourself!”

The other day as I was looking at collegiate web sites, I came about upon Occidental college’s home page.

It’s said purpose, which I paraphrase here, is to help college students to:

(1) Assume significantly;

(2) Specific themselves genuinely; and

(3) Are searching for out multiple viewpoints.

at the same time as I would upload some things to this list, such as an appreciation of the arts, I consider it sums up what a well-rounded citizen should do, not simplest to reap a meaningful existence, However, to contribute and to perpetuate democratic values.

greater important, if someone is educated to do these items, he or she can probably be able to face up to falling prey to infinite “cults,” to political extremism, and to abusive groups and people.

I was researching cults, and I found a checklist of their traits.

Amongst different matters, cults:

(1) Revere a single individual exceptionally others, a founder or a frontrunner of some type. (Assume: Jim Jones and the Jonestown Kool-Aid mass suicide debacle.)

(2) Govern cautiously the creation of outside information into the institution. One point of view is systematically repeated to the exclusion of all others.

(3) Punish doubters or folks that stray from doctrinal purity.

(4) Try and be “all matters to anyone.”

(5) Repudiate at least a number of the surrounding society’s desires, which include the incomes of fabric goods, abundance, and cash.

If you have received a liberal Schooling, both via attending university or through some other way inclusive of considerable reading, you’ve got been inoculated to withstand the trap of cults, whether or not you are aware of it or not.

You’re probably to doubt the prevalence of one man or woman over all others, particularly if he or his minions compel you to do so. Having studied the greats, the ancients, and the Excellent thinkers, you realize that there are highbrow giants, but the mouthpiece that leads the cult isn’t always one among them.

You Are looking for many viewpoints, as Occidental’s catalog mentions. And if you consider you’ve got located bedrock truth, a voice interior of you usually reserves the proper to convey this into doubt, now or within the future. You are probably to change your critiques several times throughout your days, eschewing dogmatism, and this isn’t always handiest regular for a thinking individual, But proper.

You recognize the enemy of motive, the one who would forestall debate, squelch competing views, and punish unfastened thinkers, is the enemy of mankind. The antidote for unpopular or unpleasant speech is not repression, But expression; greater speech, extra dialogue, an open airing of views.

You appreciate that credibility is commonly difficulty-unique. A health care provider, irrespective of how finely skilled and professional, isn’t any extra authoritative about other subjects then you’re. His opinion about philosophy, morality, politics, commercial enterprise, or another human endeavor could be very probably of no price to anyone, consisting of himself. if you’re a skilled mind, you don’t confer power to him in areas that are inappropriate to his one place of information and experience.

You believe you studied that a person who persistently devalues what society values, and what you value, has a non-public hassle with the one’s dreams, and that trouble might not be yours, or be something you have to adopt as your personal. Preferred George S. Patton found that in case you pay attention to someone who constantly criticizes something it is also a revelation of that man or woman’s primary weakness.

A liberal Education is not a panacea because the liberally educated would be the first to confess.

However, it truly beats lack of awareness and those that would deny others their freedom.

Dr. Gary S. Goodman is the First-class-selling author of 12 books and extra than 1000 articles. A common expert commentator on radio and Tv, he’s quoted in outstanding publications together with The Wall Avenue Magazine and commercial enterprise Week. President of Clientrelations.Com and Customersatisfaction.Com, his seminars, and education applications have sponsored the world over and he is a pinnacle-rated faculty member at more than forty universities, along with UC Berkeley and UCLA. Gary brings over decades of control and consulting experience to the desk, with the Quality educational credentials in the speak and training industry. A Ph.D. From the Annenberg faculty For Conversation at USC, an MBA from the Peter F. Drucker school of management, and a J.D. diploma from Loyola, his clients include several Fortune 1000 organizations and a hit own family owned and operated corporations.

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