#white supremacist awards show .

[cyarsk52-20]

Im just going to leave this here… 😊

CMA Awards 2024 viewership: 6mil Bey’s Halftime Show viewership: 27mil

[goodjohnjr]

A Boy Gets Attacked At A BET Awards Show

File:Bet-awards-trophy.jpg This dream took place during the day, and most of this dream involved me walking around a fictional city. When I was walking by a college on my way to a field by a building, I was ambushed by my former male classmate JC, who was hiding behind the side of the building closest to the field. Unfortunately for him, my awareness can be pretty good at times, so I was able…

[midnighttreasureseeking]

they are dropping the ball arent they?

When season 2 ended i was still optimistic. I was on the side of; dont appraise the day before the evening falls. I was definitly going to watch sesason 3 and was, with no evidence to the contrary present, convinced and hopefull that Louis was going to be respected and present.

But with recent behavior from AMC and the fandom I have left that conviction behind. There are many reasons for this, from those awfull AI- created Louis starter pack instagram posts which reeked of carelessness and racism to now with the snubbing of every prominent POC in this series, but especially jacob Anderson, for the critics choise awards in favour of Sam Reid.

Sam Reid is a good actor, this is true. But the snubbing sends an particular message and it is this.

Sam Reid is bettter in one episode than all three were in the entire season.

As others have pointed out it dismisses all of the incredible performances that happened in this season, from Jacob, from Delainey and from Assad. It dismisses them entirely, puts them and all their work (which has at times been praised as better in comparison to Sams, especially in the language and accent department) beneath Sams' one episode. " they just weren't good enough" is also something i find really hard to believe.

AMC is a corporation, it wants to make money, sorry for being crass but they would kill their own mother to get to where they want to be. It has made it clear that the praise the IWTV team and Jacob recieved for the effort of accuratly representing the world and experience of a black man in New Orleans in the 1910's was nice, but in the end worthless to them. They rode the high of having done diversity right and are now dropping it as it is no longer important to them. As if Louis' story does not continue. It's infuriating and the reason my optimism has ended. I'm ok with iwtv being 2 seasons. 2x8 was a fine ending and i can live with that. I have more important real life things to do anyways.

But on top of that, people in this fandom, with the annonimity of the internet have taken this moment to show their true colors. Saying Jacob Anderson would have better succes in the supporting catagory is incridibly offensive and racist. As others have also pointed out, Jacob isnt in a supportive role, he is the lead. He has been leading for two seasons and two years. He has the most screentime and the camera is never off him with exception of few scenes with for the characters of Claudia, Armand and Daniel. Is him leading somehow of eqaul value to a supportive role in comparisson to his white co-star? I could unpack that slowly, but i can also show the present: That is a white-supremacist take. White-supremacy is often subtle and subconcious to the peopole who do it, to those: take action, educate yourself.

Anyways, all of these things combined plus time and distance have left me a little jaded but mostly apprehensive if not dismissive to season three. If this show treats its characters and actors of colour like this, now that the spotlight isn't on them anymore, and the fandom enthusiasticly cheers that on, i dont want it.

TLDR: It is becoming increasingly clear that neither AMC nor a large? (definitly loud) part of the fandom actually care about the story that is being told or the team behind it. It is apparent in their treatment and consideration for their characters and employees of color that the driving force behind that lack of caring is informed by race. With instances of racism piling up thoughout the last year (and the one before, lets be honest) my enthusiasm for the show has dwindled and i'm ok with dropping it after season 2.

maybe im being cynical, but this is where im at right now.

[ericdeggans]

The Peabody Awards 2024: Learning how "Stories That Matter" is so much more than a catchy slogan

(The author with Reservation Dogs executive producer Taika Waititi, Peabody judges Hannah Giorgis and Lorraine Ali, Peabody staffer Maggie Stephens and, below, Rita Ora and Kali Reis)

Midway through the ceremony, a thunderbolt struck in the form of a passionate speech from Sir Patrick Stewart, reminding me exactly why the George Foster Peabody Awards are such a special experience for judges, winners, staffers who works on the honors and media itself.

As a former judge and chair of the board of jurors, I had traveled to Los Angeles for the first Peabody awards held in person since the COVID lockdowns of 2020. It was also the awards’ first time taking place in Los Angeles, signaling a shift from the news-centered operation of old to a more Hollywood friendly production. And it happened to be the first awards ceremony since I stepped down as chair of the jurors in 2019, rotated off the panel – as is customary - after six years of service. (I was the first African American to hold the chair's job, in fact.)

It is tough to describe what a special experience it is to be among the judges helping hand out such a prestigious honor. The first time I served, among the projects we gave prizes to were House of Cards and Scandal – two shows which heralded the rise of streaming and the impact of diversity on television. I was part of the panel which decided to hand special honors to Jon Stewart, Rita Moreno and Carol Burnett at various times, recognizing the world-shaking impact of legendary performers and satirists.

Deliberations take place over three separate weeks in different locations, with our debates centered on impact, originality, scope, quality, substance and diversity — among other considerations — always with an eye on what the bright light of a Peabody win might accomplish when trained on a deserving project.

(The Peabody judging panel during my last year in the group.)

At the end, judges must have watched/consumed every entry under consideration and we must agree unanimously. With a judging panel that ranged from world class academics to high achievers in media, expert journalists and critics and more, we bonded like rowdy siblings at a media nerd’s ideal summer camp.

(Chilling with Tony Goldwyn and Jeff Perry from Scandal during my very first Peabody awards ceremony in 2014.)

But when Sir Patrick rose in the middle of Sunday’s ceremony to speak eloquently of the amazing work on display in the acceptance speeches of winners, I realized why the Peabodys were truly special. Conceived as the electronic/broadcasting/TV equivalent of the Pulitzer Prizes, the Peabodys this evening united Hollywood favorites like FX’s The Bear and HBO’s The Last of Us with searing journalism, like the PBS NewsHour’s coverage of war in Gaza or Tennessee investigative reporter Phil Williams’ dogged exposure of a mayoral candidate’s ties to white supremacists in a tony Nashville suburb.

Ravish Kumar, the news anchor in India who serves as the centerpiece for the POV documentary While We Watched, gave a passionate speech criticizing mainstream news outlets in his home country for enabling Hindu nationalism by spreading misinformation. Ron Nyswaner, creator and showrunner for Showtime’s LGBTQ-focused limited series Fellow Travelers, talked on how “art is about trying to make people think and feel.”

And Larry Wilmore, co-creator of Black-ish and host of the late, lamented Comedy Central news satire The Nightly Show, cracked a joke on how supremely compromised Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas is kind of a dick. (Hey, everything can’t be highbrow during a three-hour show).

It occurred to me, that too many Hollywood awards shows are mostly about the star power and glamour of supremely acclaimed stars. Don’t get me wrong: it was gratifying and heartwarming to see the entire place leap to their feet for enduring icon and Career Achievement awards winner Mel Brooks, or Donald Glover presenting the Trailblazer award to his good friend Abbott Elementary star/creator Quinta Brunson or – for this Star Trek nerd anyway – the astonishing sight of watching castmembers/producers from Picard, Discovery, Enterprise and other corners of Trek gather onstage for the Institutional Award.

(The Star Trek crew, including LeVar Burton, Rebecca Romijin and Jeri Ryan, at the Peabody awards Sunday.)

But the secret sauce of the Peabodys is the way it utilizes Hollywood glamour to shine a light on quality journalism and public service programming like the micro-documentary series The Hidden Racism in New York City or PBS Frontline’s reporting on America and the Taliban or Dallas-Fort Worth NBC station KXAS’ look at how an organization of sheriffs were quietly radicalizing law enforcement officers across the state.

So, even though I’m no longer taking part in the long hours of viewing and debate required to pick these standout honorees – and it is part of the deal that every judge has to agree on every winner and finalist – I couldn’t be prouder of the selections my successors have assembled. We are all now part of a family dedicated to upholding the best in media, highlighting important work in a way almost no other modern awards ceremony can do.

(Me at this year's Peabody awards.)

See the list of Peabody winners HERE.

[fandomshatepeopleofcolor]

seeing ayo edebiri get backlash over her comments about jlo is frustrating. It's like the Rachel Zegler/Snow White discourse all over again

ok so sorry this took me a few days to get to. I have been mercifully in a bubble of my home life and work.

so for those like me that didn't know here's the full story

Like to me... its hard to really blame Ayo but I think the treatment that Ayo is MUCH worse than the treatment that Rachel Zegler got tbh. And I'll tell you why.

First of all Rachel Zegler... lets face it she's benefitting from being a light skinned latina. and it shows in a myriad of ways. Like the fact that instead of casting a darkskinned actress for Maria to update West Side Story Rachel got the part instead and she could be like twins with Natalie wood

(also trigger warning I'm very sorry but that gif of natalie wood is literally from a movie that uses the g slur in its title)

And like I know that the white supremacists have been having a field day with Rachel over some stupid comments that didn't offend anyone. But she still has a much bigger footprint in movies than Ayo does. (and Rachel's 6 years younger than Ayo so even though Ayo is an award winner she's still probably not earning as much as Rachel)

Which is frankly bullshit.

If you read the article I linked above they literally referenced Ayo's comments on JLo in a skit!!! They didn't just make her apologize they laughed at her for daring to say what lots of people say about Jlo anyways.

its the whole "oh a black woman exisiting and speaking her mind is a threat to a lightskinned woman."

Like don't get me wrong I've been a fan of Jlo's for literally decades (saw her in Selena in theaters). but I truly don't think that what Ayo said was in poor taste. Jlo's vocals are not great. and she profitted from a highly specific type of song. one that was pioneered by Mariah Carey. (the whole pairing a singer with a rapper was literally Mariah's thing but JLo got popular off of it first).

I'm just... doubly tired. First i'm tired about the fact that Ayo's success is being ruined by some 4 year old comments. Second JLo is filthy rich she sang at Biden's Inauguration. She sang at the superbowl. She does not need to be apologized to by a Black woman. You don't need to rake Ayo over the coals over this shit. but yes to answer your comparison woc are hyperscrutinized in media and white ppl get to run their mouths without consequences.

/end rant

mod ali

[kuiperoid]

Optical Illusion: Perceptions of Race and Sexuality with Right-Wing Internet Personality Nick Fuentes, Part 1

[originally posted here]

Introduction

Nick Fuentes has been a voice for online far right youth since 2017. In that time, he has been on the receiving end of many criticisms from both right and left-wing voices, not purely for his claimed ideologies, but his very identity. On one side, he is attacked as a racist, homophobic, reactionary white supremacist, while the other derides him as an anti-white, anti-family gay Mexican. Despite the initial assumption that these are contradictory claims, some of these may not be as much in opposition as one might think. While not all of these claims can be entirely verified, what is clear is that Fuentes’s consistent focus on the importance of optics plays the greatest role, as how he is perceived by others may be more important than whatever the truth is. 

Who is Nick Fuentes?

Nick Fuentes on during an episode of America First

Nicholas Joseph Fuentes was born August 18, 1998 to William “Bill” Fuentes and Lauren Chicco-Fuentes in a suburb outside of Chicago, Illinois, along with his twin sister, Melissa. He says that he was baptized Catholic, but that his parents were not overly religious. His father worked for a technological manufacturing company, providing his wife and two children with a comfortable upbringing. An indication of the ideologies he grew up with can be illustrated in Bill Fuentes’s take on restaurants, insisting that they never go to Applebee’s or Red Lobster, saying in one episode of his show because they were associated with black people, though in another stream, the reason was was because they were associated with poor people. Whichever was the case, these were two groups Fuentes was raised to not associate himself with. His high school classmates described him as a fairly normal guy who played the euphonium in marching band and was part of the school’s award-winning speech and Model UN teams, eventually serving as president of the student council. He began broadcasting conservative politics through high school radio, though his views were still typically within what were considered normal views among elected Republicans of the early 2010s.

Fuentes, center, with his fellow high school Model UN team members in 2013

Things began to change during Fuentes’s freshman year at Boston University. He has cited a variety of factors leading to this transition, namely the election of Donald Trump as president. He bought his first personal Bible and reconnected with his Catholic faith, taking a particularly traditionalist and literalist interpretation. During February 2017, he started broadcasting his show, America First with Nicholas J. Fuentes, on the Right Side Broadcasting Network. On this show, he criticized immigration, multiculturalism, and the influence of “globalists.” His increasingly extreme views were allowed to continue to be broadcasted until that August when he attended the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville. On campus, he received pushback from the students and decided to leave Boston University. Initially, he planned to transfer to Auburn University in Alabama, but ultimately decided to leave college in favor of returning home to be a full-time streamer out of his parents’ basement. 

Fuentes seen advocating for Donald Trump in 2017

Fuentes continued streaming his show, now with much less to lose. His platform would change over the years as he would be banned from YouTube, Twitch, and DLive, eventually setting up his own site, Cozy.tv, for himself as his political allies. In his view, the mainstream Republican party was too lenient. He intended to push the overton window further right until his ideals became reflective of what electable politicians could say. Across his platforms, Fuentes would espouse bigoted views against immigrants, non-white people generally, Jews, Protestants, feminists, women generally, the LGBT community, and anyone who did not fit into his narrow white Catholic nationalist view of who should represent the United States, his monologues peppered with slurs for the groups in question. He often pushed conspiracy theories, such as Holocaust denial and claiming that the media and politics were run by Jewish overlords for whom he blamed for the rampant “degeneracy” of modern society. He would often refer to himself in grandiose terms, calling himself a genius and comparing himself to Jesus and various historical dictators. Over the next few years, Fuentes would build his following, which he would refer to as the “groypers” after a Pepe the Frog meme. America First would evolve from simply the name of his show to a full-blown organization.

The “groyper” meme for which Fuentes’s followers are named

In 2019, Fuentes would lead his followers in what came to be known as the “Groyper Wars,” where he instructed his followers to disrupt events thrown by Turning Point USA. To those unfamiliar, Turning Point USA is an organization dedicated to organizing conservative college students and resisting progressive sentiment on college campuses. Fuentes took umbrage with them for their support of Israel and acceptance of non-white and LGBT conservatives. Guests at the Turning Point events included Donald Trump Jr, Ben Shapiro, and others deemed not far enough right for the groypers where they would take over Q&A sections and heckle the speakers. One incident that stands out in the memory of many is an event in which Turning Point president and founder Charlie Kirk was speaking with his guest, a gay black veteran, and the many groypers attacked the appeal to identity politics, one asking “how does anal sex help us win the culture war?” Another incident that caught the ire of mainstream conservatives everywhere is when Fuentes and several of his followers accosted Ben Shapiro, a conservative commentator whom Fuentes often clashed with on account of his being Jewish and staunchly pro-Israel, while he was with his family in public. This incident was disavowed by Meghan McCain, Nikki Haley, and many other mainstream conservatives in the media. 

Fuentes and fellow groypers as they confronted Ben Shapiro with his wife and children

With the Groyper Wars came Fuentes’s concern with optics. He told his followers in his posts leading up the events that they should be sure to be dressed in a suit and tie to look presentable. When he would later be one of the focus points of the episode of documentarian Louis Theroux’s series Forbidden America that focused on far-right online personalities, he mentioned that something he found off-putting about many of the attendees at the Unite the Right rally at Charlottesville was how “un-optical” many of them presented, making Roman salutes and whatnot. This may surprise some given his documented use of fascist talking points and slurs on his own show. However, he often presented with a veneer of irony that allowed a shadow of a doubt of his full authenticity about anything he said. 

The highpoint of America First would come when Fuentes held the first AFPAC (America First Political Action Conference). Fuentes and his associates were banned from CPAC (Conservative Political Action Conference) due to his clashes with various members. He decided to throw his own event to rival CPAC. The first was held in Washington DC while the later AFPACs were held in Florida. The first was held in February of 2020. Speakers included then-Identity Evropa leader Patrick Casey, Daily Caller editor Scott Greer, political commentator and often-declared groyper mother - despite being Filipino-American -  Michelle Malkin, and Fuentes himself. The 2021 AFPAC was briefly thought to be in limbo due to both COVID restrictions and January 6th antics, but it went on with Arizona Congressman Paul Gosar appearing as the surprise keynote speaker, despite curiously also appearing at rival event CPAC later that day. A big surprise came in 2022 when right wing political activist and provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos, with whom Fuentes had been in contact for the past few years to help coach his public appearance and served as a speaker at that year’s AFPAC, got him in contact with Georgia Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene who gave a speech opening the event. Greene was heavily criticized for appearing at a “white supremacist event,” leading her to disavow Fuentes, saying she was not aware of who he was or the nature of the event when she agreed to speak there. This disavowal was the start of a feud between Greene and Fuentes that has carried on ever since. The keynote speaker for that year was former Maricopa County, Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio, known for being tough on immigrants. Arizona Republican governor candidate Kari Lake had intended to speak, but ultimately withdrew on account of Fuentes’ support of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The 2023 AFPAC had a decided change in tone with Internet personality Nicolas “Sneako” Kenn De Balinthazy serving as the guest speaker, reflecting the near total change in the nature of the associations America First currently hold.

Fuentes with Marjorie Taylor Greene before her speech at AFPAC III in 2022

More dramatic shifts began in 2021. Fuentes and select followers attended many leadup rallies prior to the storming of the US Capitol on January 6 and were even present outside, though neither Fuentes nor any of his direct associates breached the entrance. His involvement in the event led Patrick Casey to disassociate from him and for his channel to be excised from DLive, the primary factor leading him to found Cozy.tv. The beginning of the year did not go as horribly as one may have thought. AFPAC II was still held in February as planned.  He claims his assets were seized and he was put on the no-fly list, which would be the main discussion of his 2022 America First-produced documentary, The Most Canceled Man in America. Not being able to travel by plane, Fuentes was prompted to travel by car, which led him to go on the White Boy Summer road trip of 2021 where he held meet-ups and speaking engagements. 

Fuentes and close associates at the US Capitol on January 6, 2021

However, as the year went on, questions arose. While several groypers did participate in the storming of the capital and faced legal action, Fuentes himself appeared to be let off completely free for being a supposed leader of a far-right political movement. This led to speculations that Fuentes was acting as a federal informant. Some past associates claimed his assets were not seized as long as he claimed and, specifically, former associate Jaden McNeil would later say his being banned from flying was not because of January 6th antics or being unvaccinated, but because he had previously harassed a flight attendant. One by one, various prominent members of America First would disassociate from him. Many felt that he flip-flopped on various issues. For being the leader of a movement so heavily defined by its opposition to Jewish people and Israel, it was odd for him to support proud Jewish Zionist Laura Loomer’s congressional bid in Florida. Another area was the support he held for former President Donald Trump, the basis of the identity for much of the US far-right movement, when he briefly worked for rapper Kanye West’s short-lived presidential bid, a black man who, for all of his talk about disliking the Jews, something Fuentes was now back on after Laura Loomer’s run for congress fell through, supported reparations and open borders and who dated, married, and reproduced interracially. Shortly after that came to an end for reasons that are not known for certain, it was revealed that an associate of Fuentes’s, far-right activist and Stop the Steal founder Ali Alexander (née Ali Akhbar) had solicited sex and lewd photos and videos from teenage boys, often using his connection to Fuentes as leverage. Fuentes has attempted to publicly distance himself from Alexander, but various past associates kept it alive in the discussion, in addition to claims that he was aware of Alexander’s proclivities and attempted to silence his victims. Since then, Fuentes has mainly associated with Internet personalities over more politically active types, such as Calvin Lee “LeafyIsHere” Vail Marquez, Brandt “BasedBrandt” Wiggins, the aforementioned Sneako, and, most recently, Hannah Pearl “JustPearlyThings” Davis, the last being a rare female member of the Fuentes crew. 

The Utter Latinidad of Fuentes’s Perceptions of Race and Class

Fuentes’s 23andMe results, which he broadcasted on an episode of America First in 2021

When US residents first learn about Nick Fuentes, especially in the context of him being referred to as a “white supremacist” or something similar, questions often arise about his ethnic identity, given his decidedly non-Anglo sounding surname. His ethnic makeup is fairly common knowledge: his father is half-Mexican-American and half-Irish-American while his mother is Italian-American, the part of his heritage that he typically describes himself as most closely identifying with. Fuentes did take a 23andMe test in 2021 where he published the results, disappointed to find himself at “only” seventy-nine-point-one percent European, with indigenous American and North African following as the next highest ethnic groups found in his DNA, though his fans assured him that 23andMe gave inaccurate results to “troll Nazis.” It is important to note that these ethnic DNA tests are famously unreliable of true measures and only recognize what the testee has inherited genes from, regardless of who one is related to, meaning anyone can have more or less of any given heritage from a technical standpoint and it certainly has no method of measuring the cultures one actually grew up the most affiliated with. 

The approach to Fuentes’s heritage itself differs by culture. In the US, someone who has up to a quarter of heritage from anywhere is typically still considered a member of that community, a policy going back to slavery, but has been maintained to this day. Say, if Fuentes had decided to apply for a Mexican-American scholarship when he was applying to college, he would have been considered eligible for most, with the exception of “child-of-immigrants” ones. Multiple studies have shown that job applicants in the US with names perceived as “ethnic” are often passed over for job considerations, and, even at a quarter Mexican, it is possible that this could have impacted Fuentes or his older relatives in the past on account of his surname. In Latin America, someone born in the US, even to Latin American-born parents, is typically seen as a “gringo,” let alone someone with only one set of great-grandparents born in Latin America, so Fuentes would certainly not be seen as Latino or Mexican in Mexico; he would simply be seen as someone from the United States. Obviously, having a Spanish last name is not seen as inherently “ethnic” in Latin America; Fuentes is certainly a Spanish last name over, say, an indigenous one. There is also the idea of whiteness, which his right wing detractors who find him to not be white enough or his left wing detractors trying to appeal to possible hypocrisy often make a point about. To Latinos, especially ones from Latin America, the idea that someone with Latin American heritage could not possibly be seen as white is often confusing. There are plenty of people with entirely European heritage throughout Latin America, including Mexico, where Fuentes’s paternal grandfather’s parentage derives from. In an interview with Brittany Venti (legal surname Dier), a fellow traditionalist Internet personality herself of both black and white heritage, Fuentes said that his Mexican family was “half Spanish.” It is noteworthy that most Latin American countries do not have “one quarter and it counts” approaches to race; in fact, many who would not be considered white in the US are essentially seen as white in these countries. Never mind Fuentes’s green eyes and pale skin; there are those with black hair, brown eyes, and in fact brown skin who are essentially seen as white for having simply not been raised indigenous. While colorism and other approaches to feature certainly do play a role in Latin America, in many ways, upbringing is more important than one’s specific identity, why even a child of purely indigenous Oaxacan parents born and raised in the US and engulfed in US culture is seen as more of a “gringo” in Latin America than a Mexican-born blonde and blue-eyed child of Ukrainian immigrants, a population many from the US are surprised to discover is not insignificant when they visit Mexico. 

Fuentes being interviewed by Brittany Venti as she role plays as Dr. “MILFy,” an  homage to Dr. Melfi from The Sopranos of which proudly Italian-American Fuentes claims to be a fan

It is worth noting that part of the embrace of white populations in Latin America despite them not originating there is not pure multiculturalism; in fact, some would say it is because those are the populations that the founding of many Latin American countries was determined to aspire towards. As a result, the fact that populations that are not entirely white are more likely to identify as that than indigenous or anything else speaks more of aspirational whiteness than anything else. The US census recognizes that Latinos come from different races and will often have a follow-up question for those who list themselves as Latino, asking which race they most closely identify with; the majority, even those with some amount of indigenous heritage, will list themselves as white more commonly than anything else. Curiously, many in the US who are just as Latino as Nick Fuentes but of different political leanings or simply have different goals have been known to pull out the “I’m not white, I’m Latino” when the topic of race arises. In a twist of fate, Fuentes’s identity as white and referring to the need for the country that he lives in to be majority white and run by white people makes him closer to historical Latinidad than traditional WASP whiteness of the US.

Fuentes is not the only modern example of someone with Latino heritage in the US to embrace white supremacist ideology, even some more decidedly non-white than him. One of the most recent examples is Mauricio Martinez Garcia, a thirty-three-year-old who committed a mass shooting against a mall in Allen, Texas on May 6, 2023. When the news of the shooting dropped, there was much confusion with regards to his identity. His name gave away his status as a Latino, which made his online presence, revealed shortly afterwards, disconcerting to some. He was found to be following many white supremacist and Neo-Nazi pages, in addition to incel and anti-semitic pages. Images of tattoos of swastikas and SS lightning bolts clashed against his melanated skin. This became more clear in reading his posts in which he discussed his conflicted identity as a Latino who he felt was called to help save the white race. Critics of Fuentes were quick to point out that many of his videos were found to be in Garcia’s history. Garcia did address Fuentes in a somewhat disparaging way when he discussed his conflict over reproducing. He specifically felt doing so would not be beneficial, as he would only want to do so with a white woman, but did not want “a bunch of little Nick Fuenteses running around.” Even as a sometimes follower of Fuentes’s work, Garcia viewed him as a worthless mutt.

A meme posted by Allen Mall shooter Mauricio Martinez Garcia

The accusations of anti-whiteness stand in stark contrast to some of Fuentes’s more renowned statements about keeping the US a white country and fighting off the great replacement. Examples that his conservative critics often use include his various rants complaining about white people at the airport, complaining about their obesity and lack of style. After his former associates Ethan Ralph and Jaden McNeil began to criticize him, he often referred to them, white men from working class backgrounds in the South and Midwest respectively, as “trailer trash,” which would stir up these accusations yet again. He lamented in one episode about how right-wing political figures lacked the class of their opponents, referencing the recent divorces of Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert. He would stand in opposition to more mainstream conservatives during the summer of 2023 when Virginia-based singer Oliver Anthony’s song “Rich Men North of Richmond” went viral to be praised as the voice of working class white Americans, as he would mock Anthony for his ragged appearance and the defeated, whining nature of the song. Across these comments, however, there is a factor being overlooked: classism. In none of these comments did Fuentes ever criticize these people on the basis of their whiteness the way he often does with members of other groups. If anything, his complaints were that these particular white people seemed to stem not from their whiteness, even as he commented on them being white or “a type of white person we need to see less of,” but the fact that they presented the way they did in spite of their whiteness. If anything, there was an expectation that, being white, they should be capable of achieving more and presenting more elegantly, while members of other groups were simply expected to not achieve as much or present as well to begin with. Classism is an issue that political figures in the US, especially those on the right, avoid discussing to circumvent accusations of communist sympathies and because class supposedly does not exist in the US the way that it does in other countries. There is a definite confusing manner in which politicians in the US, particularly right-wing politicians, balance the attempt to appeal to working class people with the inherent aporophobia required to participate in these political institutions. 

In that sense, Fuentes’s Latinidad is again emphasized in his perception of class. Class and classism definitely still exist in the US, but are ignored. Meanwhile, class is the basis for much of society in many Latin American countries to this day and its existence is not ignored the way it is in the United States. As a result, class is treated as something aspirational to associate with. While wealth is something seen as a good thing to achieve in the US, individuals typically want to be seen as having started at the bottom and earned it, rather than having been born into it. In this sense, it is also typical in the US for people to want to be seen as “down with the people '' and as disconnected from wealth as possible. This differs from the approach taken by many in Latin America, where, regardless of where one started in terms of class, it is important to not be associated with the lower class. People in the US generally want to appear that they started from a lower point, whereas people in Latin America often want to be seen as having started higher, with the assumption being that that is where they remained. Consider critiques of gender neutral language. At the end of the day, the prejudice against gender neutral language in any culture is typically based in homophobia and transphobia, but members of different cultures try to paint it as an appeal to class. In the US, doing so is called “elitist” and a sign of being overeducated, whereas critics in Latin America write off gender neutral language as appearing “lower class” and “uneducated.” Both of these emphasize what is seen as important in the respective cultures. For being “America First,” the America in question being the United States of America, Fuentes has clearly retained some cultural influence from his Latin American heritage. It is important to note that his father, the one he received his Mexican heritage from, was the one who instilled in him the importance of not going to restaurants like Applebees and Olive Garden. Several of Fuentes’s conservative critics have mocked him for proudly talking about how he does not work out and has never done any sort of physical labor, but to him, this is a sign of class rather than unrelatability. It is this that makes him a leader, in his mind.

A caricature of Fuentes often shared by his conservative critics, mocking his “brownness” and perceived effeminacy

The contradictions in perceptions of race exist among the groypers themselves. The movement claims to be explicitly pro-white American, yet peering among the usernames in any America First chat, it is not uncommon to see examples such as “Based Guatemalan” and “Indian Groyper.” In the discussions they have among themselves, some will occasionally admit to being “half black” or some other race seens as inferior in these circles. One commenter notably made reference to being “castizo, like Nick,” but insisted he intended to marry a white woman and “breed out” his “inferior” non-white genes. This aspirational concept of “marrying up” is common among Fuentes’s followers, even as his own statements on the subject remain indecisive. Fuentes has formally said that racially mixed individuals should just “go with their phenotype” when choosing a spouse. He has specifically stated that, for his future wife and mother of his son, he would like for her to not only be white, and preferably Italian-American at that, but have blue or green eyes to assure that they do not have brown-eyed children. The racial makeup of the groypers is often something brought up by right-wing critics as a sign that the movement is not as it seems, that white men are too smart and that America First ultimately attracts young men and boys of color because they are the only ones who could fall for Fuentes’s antics. It is true that the proportion of nonwhite groypers cannot be ignored, but it is clear that what draws most of them in is an aspirational mindset common among immigrant populations, one that these boys have taken to the extent of believing that they need to align themselves with the image white supremacy to ultimately achieve whiteness.

At the end of the day, perception is the greatest factor once again. It is easier for critics to emphasize Fuentes’s non-whiteness than to acknowledge the reality that, on a day to day basis, he is more commonly perceived as a white man. It is not uncommon to see his critics refer to him with racialized terms such as “the Mexican child,” “Spicolas,” and “chupacabra,” or spelling his surname with a Z at the end rather than an S to make it read as more ethnic. Derisive artwork made of Fuentes also typically makes him appear more “ethnic,” in addition to mocking the perceived homosexuality and effeminacy they have projected onto him, which will be discussed later. Unsurprisingly, these critics, mostly white American men without much connection to immigrant communities, are unfamiliar with the nuances of the perceptions of race and class outside of the US. They would be correct in recognizing that his Mexicanness plays a role in his perceptions of those he criticizes, but not aware of how his criticisms are more based in classism than any sort of anti-white racism.

Comments by critics of Fuentes using racially charged language

Part 2, Part 3

[medusasbush]

read in march 2023

articles (ones behind a paywall are linked through webpage archive):

articles

Reverse boundaries How good are we at respecting when someone else says 'no'?

"Slow Pleasure" in a Fast World

Should People Be Allowed to Like Things? Are we discoursing ourselves to death?

The Divine Delusion of Gender: On "Energy" and the TikTokification of Spirituality

Spiritual misogyny is flourishing on TikTok

How ‘Poker Face’s’ Stop-Motion Animation Episode Was Brought to Life

Are there too many sex scenes in movies?

Man Says BetterHelp Referred Him to Conversion Therapy Supporter

Who's Afraid of Mark Rothko?

When Everything Becomes an Event

Meet the Lipsdick: A Dick Shaped Lipstick

How Do We Define the Female Gaze in 2018?

Do Words Mean Anything Anymore?

It’s Been Over Two Decades Since We’ve Had a Non-White Best Actress Winner. Will That Change in 2023?

I'm Coming Clean about Friend Envy & You Should Too

A Friend Doesn't Have to be "Toxic" to be Bad for You

Does Anyone Mend Clothes Anymore?

The Moral Case Against Equity Language

Inspiration Is Everywhere. Literally: The "We're Not Really Strangers"-ification of social media.

Men Are Lonely. But Women Are Being Attacked: Male Loneliness is Not Women's Problem to Solve

Romance isn't Just for Dating

What is Romantic Friendship?

The Case of the Missing Perpetrator: On Mysterious Pregnancies, the Passive Voice, and Disappearing Men

Dingus of the Week: Women’s History Month

Friends and mentees remember Judy Heumann, mother of the disability rights movement

The Language of Place

One of Walgreens biggest stockholders commissioned Fearless Girl

Fine I'll admit it. I Like Titanic.

A Plan Forms in Mexico: Help Americans Get Abortions

Can Nostalgia Be Sinister?

The Stay-At-Home Girlfriend Phenomenon

A Conversation With Stay-At-Home Girlfriend & Content Creator Kendel Kay

The Soft Boy Brigade: Was He “Written By a Woman” or Is He Just Wearing Nail Polish?

The Scientific Reason You Love Watching Reruns

Take Some Pills for Your Hysteria, Lady: America's Long History of Drugging Women Up

Everybody’s a Critic. So Stop Hating Critics.

A League of Their Own Is The First Great Gay Movie-to-TV Reboot

The Bear: At Last, A Chicago Show For People Who Are Not From Chicago And Have Never Stepped Foot There

the science of giving pain

i bet she has a nice scream: in praise of X, the new novel by Davey Davis

the persistent desire: on erotic identification

leatherdyke gender technology

‘The Last of Us’ Finale: First-Person Shooter

The ‘Last of Us’ Finale Is Just as Ambiguous and Agonizing as the Game’s Indelible Ending

What Exactly Is the Point of ‘The Last of Us’?

Do We Need Another ‘Love Letter to Cinema’?

Everyone needs to grow up: Whether it’s people who mention their Hogwarts house on their Hinge profile or literal white supremacists, culture is awash with adult babies

Instagram Store Core: A Manifesto Against Avant-Basic Home Design

Who Gets Care and Who Gets to Die?

Shoppers say secondhand stores like Goodwill are getting too expensive as Gen Z makes thrifting cool

Where Does Discarded Clothing Go?

How ‘travel aesthetics’ are ruining travel for everyone

Why is everyone so obsessed with frontal lobe development?

the sinking pleasure of a bath

Love, Sex, and Disabled Women: we want to be sexy too.

“Nope” Perfectly Encapsulates My Disappointment with the Biden Administration

What really killed Jane Austen?

On (Not) Discovering Disability in the World of Jane Austen: Disabled characters are present in Austen’s novels, but largely invisible in her cinematic remakes

Nathan Lane: Robin Williams ‘Protected Me’ From Coming Out as Gay on ‘Oprah’ in 1996 Because ‘He Was a Saint’

'The Last of Us’ finale isn’t controversial, it’s correct

The Oscars are beyond repair. Let’s make something better.

The House That Mr. Mayer Built: Inside the Union-Busting Birth of the Academy Awards

‘A League of Their Own’ is based on the 1992 movie, but has an identity all its own

Black Southern food isn’t killing us:The ‘plate’ is not the real problem

In the history of hip-hop fashion, there’s no ignoring Lil’ Kim

The next first ladies of rap

books:

Wear, Repair, Repurpose: A Maker's Guide to Mending & Upcycling Clothes by Lily Fulop

[dweemeister]

“Blut Und Boden (Blood and Soil)” from BlacKkKlansman (2018) – composed by Terence Blanchard

Jazz trumpeter/composer Terence Blanchard has been a frequent collaborator with Spike Lee down the years, with his score to BlacKkKlansman perhaps the work garnering him the most notice outside of jazz and classical music circles. Blanchard has since gone on to become the first African American composer to debut an opera at the Metropolitan Opera.

In the film, Ron Stallworth (John David Washington) and fellow Detective "Flip" Zimmerman (Adam Driver) attempt to infiltrate a local branch of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) in order to prevent a planned terrorist attack. In this cue played just before the closing moments of BlacKkKlansman, Blanchard provides the clearest, emotionally moving statement of his motif for protagonist Detective Ron Stallworth (listen for the line shared between strings and electric guitar) and has shorn the motif for white supremacist/KKK Grand Wizard David Duke (Topher Grace) to a snare drum line.

The title of this cue is derived from a nineteenth century German slogan that became popular in Nazi Germany. But the true reason for the cue's title is because the film ends with footage from the 2017 United the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. The footage shows white supremacists and neo-Nazis chanting “Blut Und Boden” in promotion of their horrific ideology and the attack on counterprotesters which resulted in the murder of Heather Heyer (there is a tribute to Heyer in the penultimate frame before the end credits).

BlacKkKlansman was nominated for six Academy Awards, and won once, for Best Adapted Screenplay (Spike Lee's first competitive Oscar win, shared with Charlie Wachtel, David Rabinowitz, and Kevin Willmot). The film was also nominated for Best Film Editing, Supporting Actor (Driver), Director (Lee), Original Score (Blanchard), and Best Picture.

[blazehedgehog]

Thoughts on GOTY awards and the show and Geoff Keighley himself?

The awards are pretty pointless. It's definitely on the level of "The Oscars, but for Games." Which is to say... it feels kind of like a circle jerk. Big names tend to sweep most categories, and a lot of the picks are generally pretty obvious. Whenever the TGAs try to focus down on smaller names, like specific eSports teams, or commentators, or whatever, it's almost universally people I've never heard of, don't care about, or actively despise.

Like, one year they gave Boogie a "creator of the year" award. The dude built a career on flipping tables at card game conventions and being an ignorant clown. Like wasn't his whole thing was being so quote-unquote centrist that he said "maybe the nazis have good ideas"?

And Keighley gave that guy an award. He gave Doctor Disrespect an award! The same year Doc got the award, two other people were up for that award that advocate for legitimate accessibility causes. But he gave it to the guy who's gimmick is wearing a crummy wig and doing a bad Tom Cruise Top Gun impression.

I get the impression whoever picks those people didn't follow or weren't super aware of the nominees, because you could smell the chud on these guys from a mile away. I mean, heck, Pewdiepie was nominated twice. The guy who promoted actual white supremacists ("by accident", supposedly).

It's just a popularity contest. Always has been. I think Ludwig was the first person to get that award that I ever felt like "oh yeah I know who that is and he probably isn't a moral disaster." But even then I only know him via Jerma and only because he turned up on the Dollhouse stream.

As for Keighley himself, maybe I just have too much faith, but I feel like people are a little too mean to him. I see people throw jokes around about how he's tweaked out on coke while hosting or whatever and I could believe he's just very excited to be able to put on a show, even if that show is just a popularity contest. He has kind of forcibly positioned himself as the bastion of games journalism in a way that I'm not entirely comfortable with, but I also know enough people in and around the press to understand most readers/viewers/consumers don't "get" what really goes on inside the press and make up really weird, really mean, really dumb lies about who they think they are.

I want to believe Geoff Keighley is just a dumb puppy about video games and he loves the spotlight.

As for the concept of GOTY itself, I think engaging in a little creative criticism is healthy and learning to write and properly express one's opinions is good for the soul.

[dragoneyes618]

Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about stupidity.

Its nexus with hatred, that is.

The connection was amusingly evident last month, when when a 34-year-old woman named Ruba Almaghtheh, shouting “Free Palestine,” plowed her Chevy Impala into a building in Indianapolis associated with the “Israelite School of Universal Practical Knowledge,” a black supremacist sect whose ideology is based on animosity toward white people and, in particular, Jews.

Ms. Almaghtheh, a Muslim native of Jordan, told officers at the scene that she had been watching coverage of the war in Gaza before driving into the “Israel school” and, according to the arrest affidavit, she “decided to [crash] into the building on purpose because she observed a symbol [a star resembling a Jewish one]… on the residence…”

Nice going, Ruba!

Another contender of the Dumbest Hater prize, heretofore the “Ruba,” is Benjamin Burton Brower Jr., 30, who faces felony charges of his own after surveillance cameras at the Salvation Army church and soup kitchen in Altoona, Pennsylvania, recorded him in broad daylight taping razor blades to the hand railing at the building’s entrance.

He was fingered because, according to the Altoona Police Department, he was “shirtless during the incident and identified by a large red swastika tattoo on his chest.”

Not the brightest wolf in the lair.

Then, of course, we have the utter ignorance displayed by college students whose minds somehow permanently deleted the events of October 7 and absorbed a mindless “pro-Hamas” mush in the guise of supporting Palestinian aspirations.

Chant along with me: “From the classrooms to the quad, minds have turned to sod.”

Comedian/commentator Bill Maher well expressed the student mind-muddle at some Ivy League universities with a memorable metaphor: “If ignorance is a disease, Harvard Yard is the Wuhan wet market.”

He went on to note “how higher education has become indoctrination into a stew of bad ideas, among them the simplistic notion that the world is a binary place where everyone is either an oppressor or oppressed—in the case of Israel, oppressors being babies and bubbes.”

None of which, of course, is to say that all anti-Semites or all anti-Israel “activists” are stupid. There are plenty of high-IQ haters. But, when one notes their justifications for their prejudiced positions—wild notions and conspiracy theories, especially about Jews—and their ready acceptance of demonstrable lies as facts (and, concomitantly, their total ignoring of actual facts), the inescapable conclusion is that, stupid or not, what they spew is stupidity.

And what they often reveal is simple ignorance.

A recent survey of college students who sympathize with Palestinians showed that less than half of the students who embrace the “from the river to the sea…” slogan, which Hamas used in its 2017 “revised” charter, were able to name the river and the sea they were shouting about. (Some 10% of those surveyed, moreover, identified Yasser Arafat as the first prime minister of Israel.)

And then there is the ignorance of the definitions of the words “genocide,” “apartheid” and “terrorism.”

Genocide, as defined in 1948 by the United Nations Genocide Convention, refers to “acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group.” Considering that, from 1990 to 2022, the Palestinian population increased from 1.98 million to 5.04 million people, Israel is sure doing an uncharacteristically bad job of genocide.

There’s only one genocidal actor in the current war, and it isn’t Israel.

Apartheid was South Africa’s racist system of institutionalized segregation from 1948 to the early 1990s. The government forbade blacks from marrying non-blacks. Hospitals and beaches were segregated. Education opportunities for blacks were restricted.

Israeli law mandates, and its independent courts ensure, the equal treatment of all the country’s citizens, Arab and Jew alike. Israeli Arab citizens serve as ambassadors, legislators, journalists and academics. Not to mention that the Knesset includes an Islamist Arab political party, or that Arab citizens of Israel have been elected to every Knesset since the state’s founding.

And terrorism refers to violent actions intended to, well, instill terror, rather than to achieve a military objective. The Oklahoma City bombing in 1995 was terrorism. The al-Qaeda attacks on New York and Washington on September 11, 2001, were terrorism. The October 7 Hamas pogrom was terrorism. Israel’s current war is an attempt to prevent terrorism.

So much stupidity and ignorance. It will be hard to decide who wins the Ruba.

[rockislandadultreads]

Introducing the 2023 National Book Awards Longlists!

The National Book Foundation has officially announced the longlists for the 2023 National Book Awards! These are just a handful of the titles chosen for the nonfiction category. To see all of the titles selected, be sure to click here.

Fire Weather by John Vaillant

In May 2016, Fort McMurray, the hub of Canada’s oil industry and America’s biggest foreign supplier, was overrun by wildfire. The multi-billion-dollar disaster melted vehicles, turned entire neighborhoods into firebombs, and drove 88,000 people from their homes in a single afternoon. Through the lens of this apocalyptic conflagration—the wildfire equivalent of Hurricane Katrina—John Vaillant warns that this was not a unique event, but a shocking preview of what we must prepare for in a hotter, more flammable world.

Fire has been a partner in our evolution for hundreds of millennia, shaping culture, civilization, and, very likely, our brains. Fire has enabled us to cook our food, defend and heat our homes, and power the machines that drive our titanic economy. Yet this volatile energy source has always threatened to elude our control, and in our new age of intensifying climate change, we are seeing its destructive power unleashed in previously unimaginable ways.

With masterly prose and a cinematic eye, Vaillant takes us on a riveting journey through the intertwined histories of North America’s oil industry and the birth of climate science, to the unprecedented devastation wrought by modern forest fires, and into lives forever changed by these disasters. John Vaillant’s urgent work is a book for—and from—our new century of fire, which has only just begun.

I Saw Death Coming by Kidada E. Williams

The story of Reconstruction is often told from the perspective of the politicians, generals, and journalists whose accounts claim an outsized place in collective memory. But this pivotal era looked very different to African Americans in the South transitioning from bondage to freedom after 1865. They were besieged by a campaign of white supremacist violence that persisted through the 1880s and beyond. For too long, their lived experiences have been sidelined, impoverishing our understanding of the obstacles post–Civil War Black families faced, their inspiring determination to survive, and the physical and emotional scars they bore because of it.

In I Saw Death Coming, Kidada E. Williams offers a breakthrough account of the much-debated Reconstruction period, transporting readers into the daily existence of formerly enslaved people building hope-filled new lives. Drawing on overlooked sources and bold new readings of the archives, Williams offers a revelatory and, in some cases, minute-by-minute record of nighttime raids and Ku Klux Klan strikes. And she deploys cutting-edge scholarship on trauma to consider how the effects of these attacks would linger for decades—indeed, generations—to come.

For readers of Carol Anderson, Tiya Miles, and Clint Smith, I Saw Death Coming is an indelible and essential book that speaks to some of the most pressing questions of our times.

The Rediscovery of America by Ned Blackhawk

The most enduring feature of U.S. history is the presence of Native Americans, yet most histories focus on Europeans and their descendants. This long practice of ignoring Indigenous history is changing, however, with a new generation of scholars insisting that any full American history address the struggle, survival, and resurgence of American Indian nations. Indigenous history is essential to understanding the evolution of modern America.

Ned Blackhawk interweaves five centuries of Native and non‑Native histories, from Spanish colonial exploration to the rise of Native American self-determination in the late twentieth century. In this transformative synthesis he shows that:

• European colonization in the 1600s was never a predetermined success; • Native nations helped shape England’s crisis of empire; • the first shots of the American Revolution were prompted by Indian affairs in the interior; • California Indians targeted by federally funded militias were among the first casualties of the Civil War; • the Union victory forever recalibrated Native communities across the West; • twentieth-century reservation activists refashioned American law and policy.  

Blackhawk’s retelling of U.S. history acknowledges the enduring power, agency, and survival of Indigenous peoples, yielding a truer account of the United States and revealing anew the varied meanings of America.

King: A Life by Jonathan Eig

Vividly written and exhaustively researched, Jonathan Eig’s A Life is the first major biography in decades of the civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr.―and the first to include recently declassified FBI files. In this revelatory new portrait of the preacher and activist who shook the world, the bestselling biographer gives us an intimate view of the courageous and often emotionally troubled human being who demanded peaceful protest for his movement but was rarely at peace with himself. He casts fresh light on the King family’s origins as well as MLK’s complex relationships with his wife, father, and fellow activists. King reveals a minister wrestling with his own human frailties and dark moods, a citizen hunted by his own government, and a man determined to fight for justice even if it proved to be a fight to the death. As he follows MLK from the classroom to the pulpit to the streets of Birmingham, Selma, and Memphis, Eig dramatically re-creates the journey of a man who recast American race relations and became our only modern-day founding father―as well as the nation’s most mourned martyr.

When Crack Was King by Donovan X. Ramsey

The crack epidemic of the 1980s and 1990s is arguably the least examined crisis in American history. Beginning with the myths inspired by Reagan’s war on drugs, journalist Donovan X. Ramsey’s exacting analysis traces the path from the last triumphs of the Civil Rights Movement to the devastating realities we live with a racist criminal justice system, continued mass incarceration and gentrification, and increased police brutality.

When Crack Was King follows four individuals to give us a startling portrait of crack’s destruction and devastating Elgin Swift, an archetype of American industry and ambition and the son of a crack-addicted father who turned their home into a “crack house”; Lennie Woodley, a former crack addict and sex worker; Kurt Schmoke, the longtime mayor of Baltimore and an early advocate of decriminalization; and Shawn McCray, community activist, basketball prodigy, and a founding member of the Zoo Crew, Newark’s most legendary group of drug traffickers.

Weaving together riveting research with the voices of survivors, When Crack Was King is a crucial reevaluation of the era and a powerful argument for providing historically violated communities with the resources they deserve.

[cyarsk52-20]

very classy very mindful

[rykhafirehand]

I really hate the way the Warcraft cOmMuNiTy is shit to the story dev team in general, but what really gets to me is this fucking golden age narrative crap, like the worship of Chris Metzen and pretending like the clear optical move of him returning as an advisor (read: someone to hype up both the fans and the dev team, which he’s very good at) is somehow ‘saving’ the story and an admission that the current writing team sucks.

I was thinking recently about the Defias, and like... what the fuck. Seriously, sincerely, what the fuck was that story? In this golden age of Warcraft writing, we got... that?

For the uninitiated: the Defias were a rebel/terrorist group of dispossessed workers, spearheaded by members of the stonemasons’ guild who got screwed over by the House of Nobles refusing to pay them fairly after they rebuilt an entire bloody city. The story does show the nobles in a very bad light... but the Defias are the guys we’re sent to kill. One of the first dungeons players of classic WoW would have encountered was dedicated to them. Most of the time was spent showing how this movement of rightfully pissed-off workers was ‘going too far’, to the degree that they were shown rebuilding an old orcish vessel outfitted with enough firepower to besiege the city.

Which is already kind of iffy. But what I’ve left out of the story is that they were being manipulated by a black dragon in disguise as a noblewoman. She was playing both sides against each other, and there’s... really no solid motive behind it other than ‘it’s what black dragons do’, and I guess since she was a broodmother, she wanted a safe place to keep her whelps and figured ruling an entire kingdom would give her that chance. So, with that element in place, the story is recontextualised a bit, isn’t it? We have the greedy, haughty nobles fighting an ‘unduly’ aggressive workers’ rights movement (who incidentally show their allegiance by wearing a red bandanna), both manipulated against each other by a shadowy figure wishing to orchestrate the fall of the very European-coded kingdom for reasons that are kind of murky...

I’ve heard of that sort of conspiracy before somewhere. Hmmmmmm...

Like, okay. I’m not going to pretend this is some sort of particularly malicious decision. It’s a trope that was never questioned, despite being extremely similar to the conspiracy theory of Jewish Communism (basically that the Jews played European societies into becoming destabilised through class struggle), but like... it was still written in without much thought put into it, so I think it’s fair to award it at least one yike, if not several.

Which isn’t even the only case of a white supremacist/Nazi-adjacent trope making it into this sort of ‘classic’ period of Warcraft storytelling. I mean, there’s also the fact that humans (like, the entire species) are smaller, weaker descendants of gigantic Nordic conquerors, who were degenerated through the machinations of a corrupting magical force. Which, again, I will award one-to-several yikes to.

There’s much more weird shit that made it in, mind. These are just the ones that I’ve been thinking about recently.

[liampboyle]

She shifted in her seat and her eyes dropped briefly at the answer, but her professionalism kicked in and she returned to her overly pleasant interview demeanor in a fraction of a second. “So in that case would you define yourself as a serial killer or mass murderer?”

“Well Jenna, the definitions of those have been pretty well established since the 20th century, the only changes were reducing the number of murders required for the definition, and that’s been set at two since the mid 2020s. Giving a definition of 2 or more murders with a cooldown period between each, whereas a mass murder is multiple victims in a single incident. So I would fit the definition of a serial killer.” I gave my best award winning smile as I finished the answer. While I normally tried to keep my face as devoid of emotion as possible, people tended to find that off putting and this was one of the top five rated morning talk streams, not that viewers could truly see my face past the digital obscuration.

“Ok, so you define yourself as a serial killer, what do you think of the press calling you an avenging angel?” She was good, just flowing from one question to the next, taking everything in stride, no wonder Jenna’s show was rated so highly, even among viewers who did not approve of her body modifications to look more like an animated character’s stylization of a human woman than an actual unmodified woman. She was just very good at what she did.

“Jenna, the press may call me that but I don’t identify myself as either a serial killer or some avenging angel or vigilante. My first victim, yes, was a serial sexual offender. While that wasn’t something I sought out, it was more of a, what’s that old term, ‘happy accident.’ Anyway, once his background came out in the press the police immediately reduced the amount of resources they were putting into the death investigation. That’s when I realized that as long as my victims that society deemed predators, dangerous, or deserving, I could indulge in the urges in a way that reduced the risk to me.”

My distorted voice that came through on the remote interview, almost put the stresses on the correct words. I had only agreed to this on the condition that my voice and face be hidden, and the interview conducted remotely through a secure linking. Jenna had paused for a moment and then her beaming smile with impossibly white teeth returned, “I’m afraid that’s all the time we have for today, be sure to return tomorrow when our guest will be ….”

I shut down the link, true there was a history of people like me talking to the press while the powers that be were still looking for us. However, I wanted to ensure I didn’t make the mistakes of my historical predecessors. That’s why I picked my victims like I did, other killers, serial predators, that gang of human supremacists under fire for multiple hate crimes against the non-human population…. As long as I kept my targets to those who most of society felt deserved death only minimal resources would be expended looking for me.

I looked at the various pages I had marked in the linkings. Someone seemed to be targeting the unhoused population, killing those not in the designated camps before the police could come arrest them for being unhoused. Even the unhoused would see that as an act of mercy with the conditions of most of the containment and work camps. The various neighborhood social groups were not reporting much violent crime currently. The police social channels I had access to showed a couple domestic violence calls over the weekend, but nothing that would truly raise public outrage. Even the deaths among the unhoused were not unusual, rich assholes often went ‘game hunting’ for the unhoused since they could often get away with it. Nobody cared if you targeted those with absolutely nothing. But that seemed to be the best lead so far.

"I'm not doing this to be a hero. I'm doing it because there's something deeply broken in my head, and it makes me want to kill people, and this is the only way I can keep feeding the urge without getting arrested. The fact that my victims happen to be bad people doesn't really factor into it."

[lboogie1906]

Jemele Juanita Hill (December 21, 1975) is a sports journalist from Detroit. She worked for the Raleigh News & Observer, the Detroit Free Press, and the Orlando Sentinel. She joined ESPN in 2006 and worked in various roles until 2013 when she became host of Numbers Never Lie. The show was rebranded to His & Hers which she co-hosted with Michael Smith. They co-hosted SC6 (2017-18).

She sparked a controversy in 2017 with a series of tweets critical of President Donald Trump including describing him as a white supremacist. She was suspended for two weeks for a second violation of ESPN’s social media policy when she suggested fans of the Dallas Cowboys boycott the team’s sponsors in retaliation for Jerry Jones’ stance on players kneeling during the national anthem.

She won an Emmy Award for Outstanding News Special for The President and The People. She left her role as co-host of SC6 and joined the ESPN website, The Undefeated. She left ESPN afterward and works as a contributing writer for The Atlantic. (2020-21), she co-hosted Vice’s Cari & Jemele (Won’t) Stick to Sports.

She is the co-founder of the film and production company Lodge Freeway Media and published her autobiography Uphill: A Memoir in 2022.

She was born in Detroit. She and her mother moved to Houston and back to Detroit. She graduated from Mumford High School and Michigan State University.

She is the co-founder of a film and television production company named Lodge Freeway Media. She played herself in the National Champions. She was cast in Everything’s Gonna Be All White.

She was named Journalist of the Year by the National Association of Black Journalists, in recognition of “a distinguished body of work with extraordinary depth, scope, and significance to the people of the African Diaspora.” She was named one of Worth’s 21 Most Powerful Women in the Business of Sports. She headlined the 2022 Martin Luther King Jr. Cultural Dinner at Illinois State University. #africanhistory365 #africanexcellence

[ogcrazylizard]

Reminder of what he claims to be but isn't at all. BDSM? "Not for me." That's a lie.

Various moments and examples. Most than likely wanted something from me when I wanted to kill myself and said what he said because he still needed me alive and purely just for that.

Harsh? Yeah. Making this up? I wish I was. The end of the world. In emergency room. Sitting on a chair in the hallway. The push to get me paranoid. Then a constant yelling of "Just kill yourself." Repeatedly told in my head by DJ. As did actually try and find a way to kill myself. There's nothing around. Then I saw the elevator. I could just jump off. Get caught by a nurse. Take the needle out of my arm and walk out of the emergency room. Get home still it hasn't ended. Like I said my mom and dad cold shoulder. I intentionally grab a bottle of pills in front of them and go to the bathroom.

The yelling between the two fucktards. Award to the biggest idiot in history of man goes to Donald Moncur. Felipe has on the spectrum excuse. What's yours?

Shitty connections.

Privileges. Do not worry. Like Pennywise the clown said I sing you the bro hym, bro.

Clowns to much. I don't. Gets way too obsessed. You thought I was being obsessive. Check out DJ. You might miss him since he's on the shorter side.

Narc, narc or narc. Yes

Loyalty to what to who? Only himself.

I am more white supremacist/Nazi than white Donald DJ. Does it upset you a Mexican saw all this and you didn't. Wasted money on useless tech. Useless advice on hired advisors. I really did want to tell you all this but we never got a chance to be alone. When we were I had already gone through years of working for months. So I would forget.

Cop narc, narco, and a narcissist, or a flying monkey. Yes.

Narco stuff I have no idea. Didn't care to help you out there. I've come to accept shit happens.

I die. I die. Whatever. My whole story and my work is out there.

I'm a fucking War Boy X

I live. I die. I live again.

Do tweakers and gossipers ever stop gossiping?

From what I saw no. Fuck your lives are boring as fuck. No wonder you people are constantly in problems. Only talking about others. There a lot of solutions to your problems in a lot of stories out there.

Go and watch Godzilla Minus One. My movie of the year for 2023. Survivors guilt. Many of you need to stop this bullshit.

"You fucken coward. You were supposed to die. Because of you my children died."

Heavy shit. A change of heart in the Japanese younger generation. Not so much the older generation.

https://youtu.be/r7DqccP1Q_4?si=1-94cYpZ2SeM1IIq

You all failed as parents. No one else's fault. Not the drugs, not the dealer, not the friends, not their partner, not God, not society. You both as parents failed your child. You are leaders. It's always the leaders fault if anything goes wrong. Of course use your fucken head and know when to recognize and realize some things are out your and other people's control. Still not living your happiness starts breeding bad energy not just in you but also the feeling of resentment in your family. That attracts the universe to certain disasters since whatever is in that area is not adapting and changing.

"I rather get wounded by a friend than to get a kiss from the enemy"

https://youtu.be/ymZ0d5j-e3k?si=VJnY7Xb6anca-VUC

[Side note: Kratos powers derives of Dynosis Tragedy. Mimir and Freya here are both partially lying to Kratos. It was just an emotional outburst. To something else. Perhaps just reliving a nightmare.

Kratos did have a hand in his illness but also later in the game their connection grew stronger. When Freya shows up again they both go into a defensive stance.]

Oh yeah back to DJ.

What do you look for in a sexual partner? Can you do the same for the sexual partner.

No.

Most of my dating profile says

"chill guy here. Go with the flow. Enjoy watching and jerking off to porn." Usually a welcome surprise.

He wants someone laid back. He isn't laid. Constantly on guard. Comes and goes quick. Non pushy just means someone who he can easily manipulate.

"Open minded but comfortable with who they are sexually."

That's a bit redundant.

Sucks. That I fit all these things he looks for in a sexual partner.

Feels like he was not attracted to me. Feels super weird just sitting there. Hardly anyone ever talked to me.

Watching the time go by. Into hours. Seeing him on cam4 early on was fun. Then it just fed into my insecurities. Why does he never do any of that with me?

Then it was just me breaking down in the bathroom. Again from the start I knew he was on cam4, seen him many times with other people, knew he enjoyed fucking around. It never hurt back then.

I hate how I have these flashes of memories of what I would do if we were in a relationship. So I write. That's all i can do. Living this fantasy. Because you were my little dreamer.

The right moment was forever long ago. I say that I am gone.

This next part I had already written in my journal.

The End Pearl Jam

We never had dreams. We never made plans. We never promised to be more than friends. For we have come and gone. We, well I've changed as does everything. Whether we notice it or not. I still want to grow old. I have. I have lived well beyond my mortal years in dreams And fantasies. Always finding myself in that well of hopeless nights. Spotless/Shy Prince by Zack Bryan/Lumineers/Lizandro Corazon.

Turn on the TV (The American Dream )

Act like you don't see me (I believe in you)

Tell me everything is okay

(I believe in me I believe in us)

My mother is a saint (Mother always a sinner)

And told me if I wait (Telling me I ain't a saint)

Everything meant to be will stay

Well I'm a believer

Let me walk this road alone

Call me a sinner

Just means I'm a believer

Fuck her prayers only filled me with aggression

I pray this lonely road stays

I aint spotless neither is you

For once in my life

I'm gonna see it through

If you want spotless ill always win

I want love lover I want the lie

All this time and all these lives just for him?!

Praying our Angels would come every hopeless night

Your heart knows deeper seasons than my eyes will ever know

I'm a self destructive land slide if you want to be the hill

(Just remember where i stood)

I aint spotless neither is you

For once In my life I'm gonna see it through

If you want to stay that's fine by me

Everything meant to be is bound to stay

Remember jumping in the pool when we was fully clothed in august

We were soaking choking smoking in my old shitty apartment

Well I'm a believer

Let me walk this road alone

Call me a sinner

Just means I'm a believer

I aint spotless neither is you

For once In my life

I'm going to see it through

If you want spotless, I'll always win

You gave me your love lover you gave me the lie

I was alone you were betting on a winner

I was calling your white lie

You held everyone to their word never to your own words

I can't stop this neither can you

For once in my life I'm down to see it through

If you want spotless I'll always win

You gave me your love lover you gave me the lie

Maybe there is no mistakes.