#when I was in the UK

[dogsliampaynedoesntinstagram]

But there is I think a slightly different question - which is - does Matty Healy share that sort of economically left wing reactionary position? Is that a point of difference between Harry and Matty Healy? /

I'm the anon from this post (I hesitate to call myself TAFS podcast anon because I wouldn't say I know a lot about that podcast, and what I do know of it I find personally distasteful). I think this question is more of what I was trying to get at with my ask, though I do think your separation of worldview vs impact vs politics is a good point. Apologies in advance for a long response.

I don't actually think it's possible to tell very much about celebrities' politics in large part because we see so little of it, and it's very easy to draw incorrect conclusions from what limited data we see. The recent Matty Healy controversy is I think an interesting somewhat aberration, because he speaks about his politics and because, imo, read in the context of TAFS podcast milieu and their beliefs, and taken together with some of the things he says in the New Yorker profile, it does actually suggest a more coherent public political statement. Or at least a toying with a brand of politics, even if briefly or incoherently held, that has significant political impact.

My understanding of this brand of politics is somewhat limited (I'm mainly familiar with it from its adjacency to leftist politics and from alt-right radicalization research, so, admittedly a bit biased), but the point that I think connects to MH's statements is that they make a critique of "wokeness" as a neoliberal preoccupation with syntax and conformity disconnected from actual structures of oppression (which, I'm not altogether unsympathetic toward, but the structures of oppression they do think are real are often purely class/material with very little intersectional analysis), and they seem to find it an effective act of praxis in making that critique to be as deliberately transgressive and provocative as possible. Basically trolling the libs as praxis, with undertones of 'you getting upset about racist statements is actually undermining working class solidarity'. (And like, by the time you get to 'a good way to undermine the neoliberal order is to align with white supremacists who also hate being publicly shamed or deplatformed for being racist', you've so lost me.)

I'm also not a huge The 1975 fan (casual listener at best), so I'm relying somewhat on what I've heard from actual fans, but from what I've read TAFS podcast appearance seems to be an actual aberration and lurch towards this strain of politics that concerned some fans even pre-Taylor Swift blowup, and as you pointed out in your response, it's a very common slide from transgression to reactionary politics. The comments of Matty's that made me inclined to think there was an actual shared politics there were from the New Yorker profile, on TAFS podcast comments: "Had he baited his fans on purpose? 'A little bit,' he said. 'But it doesn’t actually matter. ... You’re either lying that you are hurt, or you’re a bit mental for being hurt. It’s just people going, ‘Oh, there’s a bad thing over there, let me get as close to it as possible so you can see how good I am.’ And I kind of want them to do that, because they’re demonstrating something so base level." That kind of thinking seems very much in line with the 'troll the libs' praxis of TAFS and Red Scare. In my opinion there's a fine, but real, line between 'backlash to these comments is overblown and often performative' and 'so therefore there's no harm in making them, and/or all backlash to these comments is illegitimate' or even 'so therefore it's GOOD to make these kind of comments to show how unserious people are when they get upset'. And I personally find that kind of politics to be actively dangerous, especially as it aligns with figures like Alex Jones and Roger Stone (and by association then white supremacist groups like the Proud Boys), so I think it's a distinction with Harry's brand of politics that's very important, especially in light of the ways that a public profile as high as Harry's or MH's can normalize certain types of politics or speech. Even unintentionally - I don't think Matty needs to necessarily hold these political beliefs deeply or even at all to have the impact of normalizing them.

In case it wasn't clear, I've mostly been talking about Matty Healy's comments on TAFS podcast, not his use of the Nazi salute. I think they've been lumped together in these conversations but I do find them categorically different. My biggest issue with both the criticism of the salute and MH's response is that I think this is just simply a complicated speech issue on which good faith positions can differ and both sides have acted like the opposite position is illegitimate and/or bad faith ('if you do a nazi salute you're always a literal nazi' vs 'in the context of a satirical critique there's no possible actual harm to using a nazi salute and criticism of it is illegitimate'). And, to dip my toes into total speculation for a brief moment, I find it entirely plausible and very much in line with the way that radicalization often occurs that the backlash MH got from the Nazi salute (and other instances mentioned in the New Yorker profile, like his BLM tweets) might have pushed him closer to that economically left wing reactionary position.

Thanks for coming back - I think this is a really interesting conversation and agree with a lot of what you say. But I think it's less likely than you do that Matty Healy is in that economically left wing reactionary position - and I'm going to try and explore why.

I think part of it is that you seem to see a lot of connection between the method (provocation and transgression) and the politics (left wing economically and socially reactionary). I see the connection as being much more conditional - and think that both can and often do exist separate from each other. For example, locally in NZ, the people who most occupy an economically left-wing politically reactionary position - don't use transgression and provocation. They would also be reasonably vigilant on avoiding racist language, for example.

Now my analysis is definitely hampered by lack of context. I don't know a lot about this type of politics. I listened to Matty Healy's episode of TAFS - just for some context. I didn't pick up anything political about it - and I'm not sure that I think that I believe that they have the politics they claim to have. So this is more a discussion of the position as you describe it and how that relates to Matty Healy.

One reason I think it's worth separating the method from the politics - is that I don't think Matty Healy is economically left-wing enough for any trip to a more reactionary politics to follow the path you outline. I think if you look at what we know about his worldview (and I emphasise that this isn't an argument that people have to take his worldview seriously or about either his actions or their impacts - just the relative importance of different issues to him) - he is much closer to being 'the libs' than anything else (there's a reason that I compare his politics to Harry Styles). He's talked much more about queer rights, women's liberation and even anti-racism than he has the redistribution of wealth. I don't think that working class solidarity is particularly important to his worldview. (And just to be clear - I think politics that build the better world must embrace both liberation struggles and working-class solidarity and there's no contradiction between the two. But if I was going to characterise Matty Healy's politics I'd say that a watered down version of liberation struggles loomed larger than a watered down version of working-class solidarity).

To turn to provocation and transgression - I agree with everything you say about their dangers as a political strategy - and that there is no shortage of examples of that (I also think it's worth noting that provocation and transgression has a long history - and while supporting fascism is a thread, it's not the only thread). But the other thing to say is that provocation and transgression have a long non-political tradition as well.

I have to preface my next thought yet again - by saying that this is not an assessment of the impact of Matty Healy's actions, or in any way a comment of what anyone should think or feel about Matty Healy's action. This is just me trying to figure out what's going on for him - and not an argument that what's going on for him has to matter for anyone else. But I don't think this was what it would look like if he was trying to make politically provocative comments. We don't actually have a clear, intentional, politically provocative comment from him.

I think you're right to single out the podcast. But the provocative action was going on the podcast in the first place, not what he actually said - where he went along with and egged on what the hosts were doing, rather than being the person making the provocation. (again to be clear - I don't think it has to matter to people's response - judging people for going along with and egging on is perfectly valid. I do think it matters when thinking about how Matty Healy engages in political provocation). Apart from that we get things like what he says before the band cuts him off - which I think are about the idea of political provocation - rather than involving him actually saying anything provocative. And then you have him doing things that actually make people angry in ways that he doesn't expect, rather than being provocative.

I do think Matty Healy is interested in provocation and transgression, and I think that is the biggest danger for his politics getting a lot worse. But I don't think provocation and transgression defines his politics at the moment.

I do think you're completely right about the risk of the process of radicalisation - and agree that there's a real risk with Matty Healy. I think I assess the risk as a little lower than you do. Partly for the reasons I've mentioned above, but also because I think he's interested in and aware of that process. But I do think there's a risk - and we won't know how high that risk is until we see how he responds to this last month. But I think it's worth saying that it's always a choice - we'll see how he chooses to respond.

[chestnutroan]

Does anybody get attached to their paint blotting tissue?

[plaguedpriest]

Ultratober Day 01 - Favorite Soundtrack

Based off of the cover for Altars of Apostasy kinda

[nightmaretour]

Okay now I've gotten myself angry again. Every time a medical professional is abusive/neglectful the overwhelming response is "Their job is so stressful and underpaid! They deal with so many rude and abusive patients, of course they're like that!!"

You know who else has stressful, underpaid jobs and deal with rude and abusive customers a lot? Retail workers. But if a retail worker started assaulting all of their customers you'd hear all about it, wouldn't you? The consequences would be enormous, and there would be an overwhelmingly negative response, even if it was exclusive to rude customers.

Now imagine this was the norm, and it was socially acceptable, encouraged even, in retail jobs to abuse and assault your customers whenever you feel like it, for any perceived sleight, just because they need to buy groceries and you have to serve them. It would be all over the news, it would be an international scandal with arrests all over the place, there would be exposés of the secret culture of abuse and assault in retail workplaces on every channel and news source with interviews with the victims. Everyone would know about it and everyone would care, because of course that's fucked up.

So why is it different when your victims are sick and rely on you to survive?

[abd-illustrates]

Another pencil n’ paper doodle from earlier this week - I feel like I say this every time I draw any of the characters from Heartless sdgsj but this might be my fave Eira I’ve drawn to date 💙❄️

[DO NOT EDIT OR REPOST TO OTHER SITES / ACCOUNTS] ♻️reblogs are lovely tho!♻️

[an-internet-introvert]

Countdown to October 19th (15/19)

DanandPhilGAMES Comeback

[satans-knitwear]

Oops I just enchanted mysELF 🧝‍♂️✨

Treat me ~ Tip Me ~ More of me

[abigail]

be nina mini flower dress

so so sweet <3

[corundumyuri]

Everytime The Captain say "Good Lord"

[vamprisms]

i love hearing about a native species being reintroduced to an environment like. haha yes bring the boys out

[starmergeddon]

"🤓👆erm, actually, that is NOT funny..."

[jakeperalta]

UK General Election — 4th July 2024 ‼️

Here's a collection of resources and information for the upcoming general election because voting is very important.

If you've never registered or have changed address since you last registered, you MUST register to vote here by 18 June

If you're unable to vote in person on the day, you can apply for a postal vote by 19 June or apply for a proxy vote by 26 June

Photo ID will be required — details here on what is accepted and how to apply for a free voter ID document if needed (deadline: 26 June)

For info on your constituency and candidates, visit whocanivotefor.co.uk

You can find an overview of any MP's voting record via theyworkforyou.com

For your consistency's vote share last election + the recommended vote to get the tories out, visit tactical.vote

If you're a student, you can register at both your home and term time address, but you can only vote at one of them!

[plaguedpriest]

dynasties & dystopia

lord give me strenght to draw clothes this detailed ever again 😭

[txttletale]

i truly had no idea about the origins of that word and would freely use it due to the prevalent use of it in gaming spaces, so thank you for talking about it and educating people. i don’t understand why the people who cling so much to a word and complain to you about it.

right? with this level of investment you'd think these people had named their son Degenerate

[s0fter-sin]

what i would give for a ghost based cod campaign. can you imagine if they pulled from the comics and had roba come back and want to get revenge against ghost for destroying his empire? the 141 slowly learning about simon riley and banding together to kill his ghost?

ghost being so certain he killed roba to set up an unreliable narrator; taking this unfathomable soldier, the nightmare of the 141, and realising he bleeds humanity. playing as ghost through flashbacks of mexico and his torture under roba but in the current time, little details break down; little inconsistencies of enemy numbers or base layout or what people look like, things that you can't be sure if you the player just missed something or if it’s really ghost seeing things that aren’t there

ghost starting to question how much of his memory is real, both what he went through with roba and what he’s currently experiencing; if it's his trauma bleeding through or if he's breaking for the last time. he doesn’t know if he can trust himself ("just make sure you can trust yourself. start there") and he has to reckon with completely trusting the 141 when he realises he can't

i need a sequence of him just losing his shit; hearing roba's voice in his head, his taunting “english” telling him he never left his compound, seeing the dead prostitute and his father laughing, always laughing, the tear of the meathook between his ribs and sting of the scorpions in his flesh, the coffin and the rotting stench of the dark and all of it culminating in ghost almost accidentally shooting soap when he tries to talk him down

whether it ends up being someone pretending to be roba or they just change it to roba still being alive, either way i need a ghost based campaign with personal stakes and character depth

[chiropteracupola]

'The Polar bear at Blair Atholl,' 2024.