#brought on by any current event/discourse/post in particular

[raskies456]

I do think that if someone is accused of doing a thing and your initial reaction is “yeah I could believe it” that does tell you something

it’s just that the something is about your own perception of that person and not about the nature of the person themself

[fyrsteskagr]

stop excusing essek’s actions just because he’s a nice hot nerdy drow wizard

ok so I’m probably gonna get some fire for it (or maybe not, considering that I have virtually no followers and I doubt this post will get noticed at all and that’s fine, I just gotta get that rant out of my head because otherwise it will stay there and start to rot and I have enough of brain muck as it is)

thankfully I’m not on twitter so I avoid a lot of (often kinda fucking dumb, ngl) discourse but even I wasn’t immune to the general discontent a big part of the critrole community seemed to have been feeling towards the way m9 was treating essek lately

and in light of the upcoming stream and last week’s events I thought I might as well throw in my two cents

I’ve seen a lot of people getting borderline scandalized with m9′s “do we want trent or do we want essek” consideration. and it reminded me about the double standards some people in the cr community often show. first of all, how dare the mighty nine not trust my poor hot wizard bean and almost put him on the same level as trent ickythong. well, first of all, from the roleplay standpoint: it’s been like. how long. three weeks? a month? in game since they found out about what essek did. we all had like a year to process this shit and the m9 only had a few weeks that were also pretty fucking stressful and did not leave a lot of time for rumination. and we, as viewers, get a lot of extra info from the cast itself, from multiple official sources that are not the show itself. yeah y’all, we know a lot more about essek than m9 does, I think it makes perfect sense that they don’t trust him and give him a cold treatment a lot of the time??

and like. he fucking deserves it. he deserves punishment. he’s a fucking war criminal and is responsible for sacrificing many people’s lives just for his personal gain and the fact that he acts all nice and timid and is also a hot drow wizard doesn’t fucking excuse him. the whole trent or essek discussion? yeah it makes fucking sense because essek and trent are a lot more similar than a significant part of the fandom would like to admit, I feel like. the hunger for power and knowledge? check. extreme egoism? check. destroying others’ lives for personal benefit? check. the false public persona? check. going behind own nation’s back? check. why the fuck would m9 feel any better about essek in this particular situation than they do about trent ESPECIALLY SINCE IT’S BEEN LIKE THREE WEEKS SINCE THEY FOUND OUT ABOUT THE SHIT HE’S DONE?

and as for the double standards. it’s been brought up in the community multiple times (still not enough, I think), but the show’s fans are a lot quicker to forgive the not-so-good plays of the male side of the cast than they are to the female side of the cast, and I’m saying this as a dude. I’ve been a part of this community for a long time and the shit marisha used to get for playing keyleth the way she did and the shit she currently gets for playing beau the way she does does not compare in the SLIGHTEST to the shit (or oftentimes lack thereof) any male member of the cast gets, and I dunno about y’all but I think I’ve had a lot more issues with some role-playing stuff on liam’s or sam’s part.

but going further, into the fictional part of all of it. it seems to me it’s often enough to be a 1) hot 2) preferably male character to have some shit forgiven and forgotten by the community pretty quickly. essek is a perfect example of it. a thought experiment: how would you feel about essek if he was a partially bald old human fart with liver spots and wrinkles? how would you feel about trent if he was a hot drow guy with showy outfits and a white fashion pompadour? if you’d feel about them even slightly different then SOUND THE ALARMS BECAUSE THIS IS NOT FUCKING GOOD (also: remember the heat veth got when she considered making the war worse for her own personal benefit? HOW IS THE ESSEK SITUATION ANY FUCKING DIFFERENT??)

and yes. a lot comes down to the way matt plays them and the fact that one of the player characters has a backstory with trent being a big and ugly part of it. but just like trent has a certain public facade, essek has one too. most of us came to really like him for his personality but I think we often kindly disregard the fact that at least a part of it was just a practised act and not him being genuine. we’re quick to forget the shit he did because he’s lonely!! he’s awkward and nerdy!! we want him to kiss the dirt wizard!! he had dinner with the m9!!! or we jokingly throw the phrase “war criminal” around and it just doesn’t sit well with me. the anger some people feel and show when the m9 dares to doubt him doesn’t sit well with me. and people can argue for essek and for his motives, yeah. but people can also argue for trent and his motives. those two are not so fucking different. and don’t get my wrong, I despise ickythong’s ugly ass as much as anyone, and I’m not putting him on level with essek - ikithon is a fucking abuser. but I’m also - surprise - not straight not immune to the “hot nerdy drow wizard very much morally awful but also kinda cute” spiel. but I try not to forget that a pretty face and floating an inch above the ground isn’t enough to excuse some actions.

ok that’s all I guess, anyone who even noticed this post and also got to the end of it - thanks and have fun during today’s stream!!

also a small disclaimer: english is not my first language and I can barely construct sentences in my mother tongue so pardon me for any dumb mistakes

(and a big thank you to my dude @tymiantime who took the brunt of my rambling and patiently listened to my all over the place stupid ass essek vs trent rant)

[mc-critical]

Something I can never bring myself to understand is the MY fandom’s seeming obsession with *proving* Mahidevran or Hürrem as the more morally correct, more noble, more respect-worthy etc sultana. Or measuring whose actions and beliefs were the most justifiable or who suffered the most unfortunate circumstances. It seems to completely ignore the fact that most characters in the franchise, sans a small handful of characters, fall into the category of morally questionable or ambiguous. I feel like both Mahidevran and Hürrem are both victims to the same terrible circumstances and the enviornment in which they both lived and were forced to adapt to was a catalyst to a lot of their deplorable actions and beliefs. They both came to the palace as concubines with no family nor money to their names (I can’t recall if this was held consistent in the TV series for Mahidevran’s case or not but I know this is the case for her historically as well), both of them had their worth and their livelihood tied to their ability to produce princes and please the Sultan (who will take any opportunity to remind these women that they are a mere piece of property to him anytime they attempt to assert themselves in any way.) Then there’s the looming threat of the principle of fratricide that basically haunted them throughout the entirety of their motherhood. I’m in no way saying the immoral decisions they made was justifiable or somehow okay (Mahidevran killing Mehmet, Hürrem killing Mustafa, etc.) I just feel that there’s a lot of black-and-white thinking at play whenever the Mahi/Hürrem discourse comes up. What do you think?

Thank you for bringing this up, because it's probably the thing that bugs me the most about this fandom (outside of Tumblr currently). You voiced my overall thoughts into words so well!

I think these double standarts come from many places that can be both the only reasons for a person or just one of the many. In my experience, this "black or white", "all or nothing" attitude stems from the absolutist belief that people should pick sides and root for only one character (usually the protagonist) in a narrative. They're using the standard, superficial narrative roles of the protagonist and the antagonist in terms of Hürrem, thinking that for some reason the protagonist is always morally right in all she does, simply because she's the protagonist and we're supposed to unconditionally root for her. And if they don't like the protagonist, they choose root for "the other side" instead. They're better than that anyway, so of course, we should root for them!!

To be honest, the earlier seasons of the show make an attempt in justifying this assessment, with them having the narrative voice be rooted in Hürrem's favor, despite of all possible problematic actions that tell a different story altogether. MC Hürrem was given very understandable and sympathetic motivations, thorough character exploration, gradual character development and the privilege of far too obvious Plot Armor (make no mistake, every historical figure in the show has Plot Armor, but with the many attempts at her life, Hürrem's in particular, was way too glaring at points, sometimes to a ridiculous degree.) and the writers making her enemies doom themselves by their own failings, with her seemingly only enduring the "charade". (Valide's flanderization post-E38 is the most egregious example of this.) People I've encountered that are excusing Hürrem's behavior, are citing precisely the first episodes to present their arguments, often refusing to go beyond that. Mahidevran's motivations, while as nuanced as Hürrem's, don't seem as delved into in comparison at first (the origins and backstory of MC Mahidevran are shrouded in ambiguity, and while this is thematically appropriate for her character arc, as I explained here, it definetly doesn't help her case in bringing in more vocal sympathy.) and it could seem that her character is simply antagonistic to Hürrem, doesn't go anywhere and later revels in the depths of her ambition and wounded pride earlier than Hürrem began that similar development of hers. Some Mahi stans could see that probable difference of treatment in narrative and support her simply because of that, as well.

Assessing moral ambiguity isn't all that easy in the grand scheme of things, but it especially falls short when the narrative voice seemingly doesn't support it at first. But many miss that there's a very thin line between the actions and the narrative voice, that only turns into a very deep incongruity as the series progresses. I don't know, perhaps determing the moral ambiguity is indeed so complex, confusing and conflicting, since the whole story could get too complex and many might wonder who they'll root for now when everyone is so problematic. And that's a show that began as a simple soap opera, no less! Why would they even put in the effort in this case?

Not many people are used to ambiguous and questionable character development and are still trying to prove that there is one main positive characters in the show, which is why they try to make Mahidevran or Hürrem more morally right and justifiable than they actually are. They are so passionate about the debates they engage in, because this time period and MC is truly so ripe in analysis and it could be very fun to figure out where these characters come from and go through their 4-seasons long evolution in one chosen context, but by doing this, they so often miss the depth and nuance of the subject at hand and it all turns into a one-sided discourse that drives me nuts.

There is a historical context of the issue is also important to note, in my opinion. Both Mahidevran and Hürrem are historical figures and quite a bit of facts and deeds of theirs are now widely known. Most people in the fandom have opinions of them in advance or could've gained opinions of them a while after they began to watch the show. (There are also numerous fictional interpretations of the events during Süleiman's reign and the players in it, which may also play a part in the overall judgement.) Either way, the known historical facts about them (and other fictional interpretations one could've read, of course) could influence their points of view by a certain amount and use these general impressions to present them while analyzing the characters in the show. I've heard numerous arguments that this Hürrem isn't like the Hürrem the history knows about, that she isn't "their" Hürrem and what they read about her isn't depicted all that much in the show, which takes a lot away, according to them. I especially hate when they call MC Hürrem a one-dimensional "evil" caricature that only has vileness and smug about her, no conscience, no complexity whatsoever. (no, MC Hürrem isn't as simplistic and is much deeper and more nuanced. As far as fictional interpretations go, what they're describing is Hürrem in "The Sultan's Harem" from Colin Falconer, not MC Hürrem! In the MC/K franchise's terms, all they're doing is reducing her to the level of MCK Turhan Sultan, which is disrespectful to this character, to say the least. Turhan is the exact thematic contrast to Hürrem smh while Falconer's Hürrem is the most absurdly evil caricature imaginable, at least IMO, please and thank you!) Or even more unbelievably and outright hilariously, considering Hürrem's actions and the Sultanate of Women overall the downfall of the Ottoman Empire o.o and that's why Hürrem is so ruthless, so cruel, always intentionally, of course. This is plain ridiculous. Mahidevran, on the other hand, is presented by this clique as her "victim", as a completely innocent victim that had everything taken away from her. That Hürrem had stood between her and Süleiman and "ruined" their family. This take ignores every other factor of this falling out (Süleiman, that is) and a part of the nuance of Mahidevran's character. Reducing her to a simple "victim" doesn't cut it at all. Conversely, we have fans that simplify MC Mahidevran's character beyond every belief, loving the historical figure, but claiming they made her an "evil" and "stupid" bitch that cries and whines all the time. It's limiting and one-sided and even if it appears so, there are way far more layers to her character, that develop consistently throughout the narrative. The historical context of the time period itself is usually brought up in the debates, too, justifying whoever they want to justify by "It's a war, only the strongest ones survive!" or "You eat or get eaten! We should understand their time period, not judge by our contemporary times !", which is understandable and valid, but the only thing they end up doing is applying this logic only to their preferred characters when it should be applied to everyone. They try their best efforts to make one more morally right than the other, but they continually fail in the process, because the metric they judge them from is plagued by double standarts.

I wholeheartedly agree with you that excusing one of them, but not the other for most situations is wrong, because Mahidevran and Hürrem.... aren't all that different. What most people seem to miss, is that their character arcs are so contrastingly paralleling, because both of their endings were far from victorious and they got it for the exact same character reason, gained in a different way and in a different time. The persistent insistence of the fandom wanting a main character necessarily having a triumphant grand finale fails flat immediately, because there is no true victory in the franchise. They also miss the negative character development of both of them, them having to do the exact same stuff in many instances, both of them letting go of their pasts and/or former attachments, becoming vicious and ruthless in order to adapt to the circumstances, both of them had to make moves out of desperation because they felt threatened and they both protected their lives and the ones of their children at the end of the day. Heck, they're way more alike than they're different in my book. There is no morally right, no more noble here. Both of them had no qualms to do whatever it took to secure their own future and as you said, the narrative presented very neat motivations for them to do so as a whole. There is always a shade of grey and yes, who has the lighter shade of gray could be up for debate due to differing sympathies and perceptions, but that mustn't stop people to at least try looking at the "bigger picture" and try to view their characters with a bit more criticality, depth and respect.

Rooting for both conflicting sides is still seen as questionable and contradictory by some, but there really is nothing wrong with exploring their motivations without justifying them, no matter where your sympathies extend. I think it creates a more unbiased outlook on the both these characters and the themes around them and it's always awesome to see people doing that in any fandom, really.

And both Sultanas are worthy of respect, I said what I said.

[olderthannetfic]

Let’s take a break from specific fandoms to talk about:

Platform Wars

In 2020, we’re all asking what’s next after Tumblr. This is nothing new. “Is thing X killing thing Y?” is a question fandom has been asking since long before Escapade. But these panels offer comfort and insight into our current fear of change.

They’re also fucking hilarious.

So, without further ado, here are some past Escapade panels on the subject of Change Is Scary:

1997 - Effects of the Internet on Fandom & Slash (On the upside: more fans, more conventions, more excitement and a 24-hour party. On the downside: are the connections more shallow? Are the changes made to "fandom as we knew it" change what we enjoy? Do print fans have something to fear? Or is this simple another wave?)

2000 - Less is More: Gluttony & the Decline of Quality in Fanfic

2004 - Amusing Ourselves to Death (Fannish Discourse in the the Age of the Internet By sheer quantity, has the quality of our conversation declined to predominantly static?)

2004 - LiveJournal, Boon or Bane? (Has the advent of LiveJournal brought about the demise of mailing lists? Has it splintered the venue for discussion to the point where it's impossible to have meaningful conversation? Is the LJ phenomenon just one big egotrip? Come join us to discuss these and other questions.)

2007 - Is F’locked the New Black (Is the flocked post the future of fan communication? Are we returning to the dark ages of closed lists, zines under the table, and "have to know someone"? More and more LJ posts are locked, communities are closed, and groups are invitation only. Is there a way to protect our RL selves (and our fannish selves), yet share our fannish commentary and fic? How does this all look to a newbie? Where is our new comfort zone? And how do we keep track of all of this?)

2008 - The Organization for Transformative Works (The Best Thing Since Ever, or the End Of Days? The OTW is an incorporated nonprofit organization established by fans to serve the interests of fans in multiple ways, including by providing open-source archive software (and an archive), legal assistance, and various efforts to preserve the history of fanworks and fan culture.)

2011 - Delicious - Rumors of Death Greatly Exaggerated? (Delicious, fandom's favorite bookmarking site may be getting shut down (or at least sold out) by The Man. What to do?)

2016 - Fandom Is Fic: from BNF to TL;DR. (From paper through Usenet to Livejournal, text was king. On Tumblr, long text is an imposition—isn’t it? Has fic been dethroned from its place at the top of the heap and fic-writing BNFs along with it? Discuss the dirty little social dynamics of the shifting patterns of fannish value and how we define 'fandom' itself. And what of zines and zine eds?)

2017 - The Kids Are Not the Problem (In recent years, media fandom has grown enormously. It has also scattered, spreading out to new platforms and meeting spaces. You often hear talk about "the kids" vs. "the olds," Tumblr vs. LiveJournal, or the problem of recruiting and retaining new fans. In this panel, let’s try flipping that script. If kids are not the problem, how can we change and grow? What awesome things are other fans doing/trying that people at Escapade should know about? Most importantly, what strategies can we use to leave our fannish bubbles and more fully experience fandom in 2017?)

2019 - The fall of tumblr (Fans have always looked for a good place to build communities on line. Recent events with Tumblr and other platforms like Facebook are restricting our gathering places and even blocking and purging our self-made content. How are people dealing with this? Fandom will survive, but where? Come discuss the problems and options out there.)

And below the cut, a whole bunch more panels on platforms and change:

1991 - Quality Control in Zine Publication/Economics of Fandom (Who is making money in fandom? Should they be? How accountable are fans? Editors? Artists? Have you ever written an LOC?)

1993 -  Supply and Demand in Fandom (Can we have too much of a good thing? How many cons or zine is too many? Are we glutting the market?)

1994 - Changing Nature of Fannish Communication (E-mail, and virtual zines, computer video editing and morphing -- all the new toys at our disposal...)

1996 - Internet—Will it eat your brain? Or take you to the poorhouse? (Nearly everyone has or can get access to a computer and thereby the Internet and the World Wide Web. What's out there for fans? What should you look for? What might you want to watch out for? How can you protect your pocketbook at the same time?)

1997 - Net Fiction & Print Fiction (Is the very existence of net fic changing the characteristics or reducing the quantity of print fic? Are there really stylistic and/or content differences? What makes some shows predominantly produce netfic, while others happily generate both? How do the barriers of access to each affect the fan community?)

1997 - History of Fan Socialization (Was fandom really different in the "old days"? Was there a feeling of community that we're missing now? Or is that just nostalgia clouding our memories? In today's net-connected fandom, what is (or should be) different? And what elements of the past should we try and retain?)

1998 - Professionals: Is the Circuit Dead? (Or has it just moved on-line? Is Pros fandom split on the subject of the internet? Many old circuit writers don't want anything to do with the new on-line library. They have objected to having their stories retyped an sent out, even on private e-mail. Has the paper circuit given way to the on-line library?)

1998 - Netfic Formatting A: How to Print It Prettily (An instructional panel, covering the basics of formatting, macros, and other time-saving tips to get the results you want.)

1998 - Privacy and Community: Pseudonyms, Screen Names and Face-to-Face Meetings (As more and more fandom is found online, how are we adapting to the anonymity that comes with it?)

1998  - Netfic Formatting B: From Word to Web, Making Shapely Net Slash (This panel is for everyone who wants to venture into the world of online slash, but gets nervous when faced with the myriad technical difficulties. Relax, it's easier than you think. We look at stylistic conventions, how to make your work newsgroup and e-mail friendly, and the dreaded subject header alphabet soup. We'll also cover some basic info on how to make a www archive site user friendly.)

1998 - Crossing the Line (An instructional panel on how to get what you want (more stories) in a world that may be unfamiliar to you (the web for print fans, and the insular world of zines for net fans).)

1999 - Does Print Fandom Have a Future? (In the age of instant, free net fic, is print fandom a dinosaur on its way to extinction, or a promise of reasonable quality in a sea of mediocrity? What are the key differences between zines and netfic, and what are the advantages and disadvantages of each? Can the two coexist happily? )

2000 - Promoting Critique on Mailing Lists (How to promote critical discussion and attention to the mechanics of writing on email lists?)

2000 - Changing Power Dynamics in Fandom (With the decline of zine editors and growth of the Net, what's changed, and how does it affect us and our fanfic?)

2001 - Website Workshop 2 by the lady of shalott (Setting up and maintaining a fanfic archive, and in particular how to set up the Automated Archive software used by 852 Prospect and the Due South archives.) [NB: Yes, she went through a bunch of name versions before ‘astolat’.]

2002 - How to run a Fiction Archive (and Maintain Your Sanity)

2002 - Nobody Here But Us Sockpuppets (How multiple personality disorder takes on a whole new meaning in the world of mailing lists.)

2003 - Getting slash onto your PalmPilot for computer free reading

2003 - Recs Databases! Creation and Commiseration (Do you run a recs database and want to commiserate? Do you currently have a recs page and want to become database-driven? Want to talk about the relative merits of using PHP, MySQL, or Access to organize smut?)

2003 - How to Set Up and Maintain Fanfiction Archives (If you're thinking of running an archive, or already do and need some help, this is the panel for you. We'll cover everything from choosing a method of archiving, handling fandom growth, dealing with troublemakers, and just how much time, webspace and money are we talking, anyway? Come pick the archivists' brains.)

2003 - Has Escapade Run Its Course (Scuttlebut says: It's not like it used to be. My old friends don't come any more. My new friends can't get in. It's too big. It's too small. Oxnard, for god's sake? I'm getting sick and tired of the same shit year after year. Is Escapade old and tired? Does it need to be retired?)

2004 - HTML and Website Introduction (if you don't have a website and want to create one. where doyoustart'This will cover creating basic HTML pages and common webhosting options, as well as things to think about as you set iin vour first website.)

2005 - Where Have All The Good Conversations Gone? Rise & Fall of the Escapade Panel (Are people still interested in talking about the characters, plots, and themes of their shows? Has in-depth analysis of our fandoms been abandoned in favor of meta and fannish introspection? The forums for analytical discussion are disappearing as self-censorship and over-moderation increase. Can we change this? Do we want to?)

2005 - The Fannish Wiki (So we have the directorium, the directory of All Things Fannish. We visit it and it's just so cool, and we look for our fandom to see what it says... and it's not there! How to add it? What sort of info belongs there? How does a wiki work?)

2005 - I Was So Much Older Then, I'm Younger Than That Now (We've all heard about or lived through the tumultuous era when fandom moved online. But how has slash fandom, particularly slash fandom, changed since then? Are the changes the result of online fandom, or simply of a change in culture?)

2005 - Fanfic Archives (Setting up and administering fanfic archives: concepts, considerations, techniques.)

2006 - Putting your fic on the web (Basic skills for putting your fic on the web, including building your own very basic website, using LJ as a fic-site building tool, various options for labeling adult content, and using the standard upload interfaces for popular self-submit story archive software.)

2006 - Nifty Technology and the Future of Fandom (Fandom is quick to adapt to change and continues to bring fen together and to create fannish product. Fans have thrived regardless of how they communicate; via the post office, mailing lists, message boards, and Livejournal; they've pushed the frontiers of video and audio technology; and have managed to survive changes in copyright, pornography, and other laws. What are the upcoming trends and shiny new technologies on the horizon and how will fen use them to enhance fandom?)

2006 - Intermediate Webmastering (Designing your website for usability, options for restricting access to your website, making your stories easily accessed by mobile devices, and things to consider so fans can easily locale your site.)

2007 - Free Webtools and How to Take Fandom Advantage (Lots of free tools are available on the web to help the needy fan! Tools to edit pictures, make icons, write stories, share recommendations, share stories, and be fannish are becoming more available and more user friendly. Come chat about tools like del.icio.us, google docs, pxn8 audacity, itunes, the gimp, bittorrent, imeem, youtube and lll other things that you come and tell us about!)

2008 - E-book Readers (Sony PRS-505 or Amazon Kindle what's all the fuss about? Introduction to E-Ink and other mobile devices. What are the pros and cons of various devices? Where do you find e- books and fan fiction, and most importantly how do you get fan fiction formatted so you can read it on your ebook reader?)

2008 - If You Build It, Will They Come? (Roundtable on meta fannish infrastructure building strategies. bethbethbeth can talk about some of the specific challenges OTW is facing in its brave new fan territory, while oulangi can talk about why metafandom has flourished while very similar projects have failed, while we'll both discuss some of the challenges of the established meta/fannish structure of new communities, new fans, new technologies—and most of all, how do you keep the meta-fan conversation moving forward?)

2008 - Livejournal: Should Fans Take Their Business Elsewhere? (A discussion of the pros and cons of fannish communication on the various blogging entities.)

2008 - How to Find and Use Free Stuff on the Web (All kinds of free webapps are available for fic, art, icons, communication, and all sort of other fannish stuff. Come share favorite sites—we can bookmark everything we talk about on del.icio.us in real time!)

2009 - The Organization for Transformative Works (Off the ground and starting to soar! Come here about the latest developments in the OTW's projects and discuss where you'd like to see it go next.)

2010 - Is Somebody Taking Notes On This?: A Discussion of the Role of Fannish History (In honor of Escapade's 20th anniversary, let's talk about recording fannish history. What are the challenges? Is it worth doing? Can it be done in a fair way? What are we afraid of happening if we try? Is Fanlore the right vehicle for the project?)

2010 - The OTW in Its Third Year led by Elke Tanzer and Shoshanna (Okay, sure, the Organization for Transformative Works bought its own goddamn servers and hosted an archive (that hosted Yuletide) and published a journal (with a special issue on Supernatural) and saved a bunch of Geocities sites and testified at the DMCA hearings (supporting the FFF's proposed exemptions for vidders and other remix artists) and made a bunch of lolcats—but what have they done for us lately? [5] What do you want them to do?)

2010 - We Are All Naked (On The Internet Now) led by treewishes (Social networking platforms like Facebook and Twitter are conspiring with Google and your ISP to out your slash pseudonym to your RL friends, and to tell all your slash buddies your real name. Is there any way to stop the wave of facial recognition software or your oh-so-helpful friends who type your birthday into the cloud? Or is all this an inevitable consequence of evolving technology? Come on in and let's talk conspiracy theories!)

2011 - Fanlore: Are BNFs Writing Our History?, led by Sandy H (Fanlore has an official policy of 'plural points of view', but is that really happening? Have you ever looked up a kerfluffle you were involved in, and seen how your side of the battle was portrayed.' And on the other side, are we afraid of conflict, to the point that Fanlore is bland and safe?)

2011 - OTW/AO3 Wish List Conversation, led by Sandy H (Do you feel like you don't know how to get your A03 or OTW wishlist through the bureaucracy? A03 is getting better all the time, but there's a ways to go. Let's brainstorm and turn a list over at the end of the panel.)

2011 - The Reccing Crew (Recommending a fanwork is deeply woven into our culture. Are there new social mores at work when we make public recs? How has the move from letters to mailing lists to Livejournal and Delicious affected reccing? Delicious was conceived as a bookmarking site, but often operates as a recs and comments site. If it goes away, what would replace it?)

2012 - Tumblr, Twitter, and Pinboard, Oh My (and GetGlue, too!) (In the past year, the ongoing fannish diaspora has picked up speed, as more fannish activity has moved away from LiveJournal and Dreamwidth, and onto sites like Tumblr and Twitter. And then there was the Delicious implosion. Now there's GetGlue, a social network specifically for entertainment. Let's talk about navigating these sites—their strengths and weaknesses, and how to use them.)

2012 - The Kids These Days (Ever wanted to tell someone to get offa your lawn? Strangle the next person who said that? Revive a dead fandom? Joined a fandom you were 20 years "too old" (or young!) for? Did you go from Usenet to mailing lists? From zines to livejournal? Are you eyeing Tumblr and Twitter with alarm? Let's talk about weathering changes in fandom with grace—or at least a little humor.)

2013 - Privacy, Secrecy, and the Fourth Wall (The fourth wall between fans and The Powers That Be is shrinking day by day. Are the technologies we're using changing fannish etiquette {from invite-only mailing lists, to friends-locked journals, to all public all the time tumblr)? Should we run for the hills or embrace the change? Discuss!)

2013 - The What With the Where Now?! (Every time you turn around fandom is playing on a new site that has new functionality, new ways of interacting and new lingo. Join us in surveying places like tumblr, twitter and getglue.)

2014 - Tumblr: Missing Missing E (So you've just gotten the hang of Livejournal when all of a sudden fandom has jumped shipped to this new "microblogging" platform called Tumblr. What is "microblogging" anyway, and where do you even start? Join us in this tutorial/discussion on creating an account, deciphering the culture, finding fandom, and making Tumblr work for you.)

2014 - Out Of Step With the World (You have no current fandom. You can't even get Tumblr to load. What do you do when you're feeling disconnected and alienated, but you don't want to leave fandom for good? If this sounds like you, come join us to figure out some strategies for rekindling the love, making new friends, and finding your place.)

2014 - Real Fannish Community (Has AO3 ended the era of real fannish community or has it ushered in a new era of increased connectedness? Is Tumblr better or worse than the old days (and were the old days livejournal? yahoo groups? APA snail mail zine groups?)? I'm hoping for equal parts 'get off my lawn' and 'the future's so bright I gotta wear shades' debate here.)

2015 - Tumblr 102: Into Darkness. You’re here, now what? Here we talk about etiquette and xkit and making the most of your fannish tumblr experience.

2017 - Home on the Web (LJ's Russian overlords have removed HTTPS support and are moving the server activity to Russia; some say a shutdown of US services is on the horizon. Yahoo fails to make money with Tumblr. Dreamwidth is slow, and doesn't have media hosting. Email lists are a hassle. Imzy, a startup, places branding aesthetics over design usability. Where's the next place for fandom, or should we reclaim one or more of the platforms from the past?)

2018 - How to Tumblr (Like it or not (often, mostly not), tumblr is where fandom is most active right now. How do you find anything? How do you have conversations? How do you archive the bits you like best? The good news: the answers are not, "you don't; you don't; you don't." Bad news: Those aren't actually good questions for being fannish on tumblr.)

2019 - Social Network of Our Own (SNO3?) (Between FOSTA/SESTA, Article 13, Facebook's new "don't mention that sex exists" policy, and the Tumblrpocalypse, is it time for our own fannish social site? Or are Dreamwidth and Pillowfort enough?)

[insideanairport]

The Selected Works of Edward Said, 1966 – 2006

❍❍❍

Originally published as The Edward Said Reader, this is a new edition from Vintage with a preface by Maryam Said, Edward Said’s wife. It is a chunky book that has about 600 pages. The collection is selected from Said’s earliest works to his posthumously published works in 2006. Even though I have read several books by Said, reviewing this book gave me another angle to Edward Said’s great oeuvre. Said’s work had a long-lasting impact not only on a range of different academic discourses but on our current struggles for social justice. Although the publication of Orientalism can be traced as the point of origin for postcolonial discourse within the Western academy, there have been many other BIPoC postcolonial intellectuals prior to Said. From both the global south and transatlantic region, people such as Ibrahim Abu Lughod, Talal Asad, Aimé Césaire, and Frantz Fanon have contributed to the liberationist struggles of black, brown and indigenous peoples against the colonizers. And as we know, despite the invention of these theories, the European settlers have not left the colonized lands as the famous quote of Bobbi Sykes suggests: “What? Post-colonialism? Have they left?” (1)

Said’s background was in literary criticism. He taught English literature at Columbia University. He was also an accomplished piano player. At the end of his life, Said co-founded the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra with Daniel Barenboim. Together they also authored the book ”Parallels and Paradoxes: Explorations in Music and Society”, a collection of their conversations and public discussions about music. Aside from his academic career, Said was also active politically and was a member of the Palestinian National Council (PNC).

”The critical study of the politics of representation does not simply ask whether the subaltern as Gayatri Spivak famously explored, can speak, but what makes them sing.” (2)

(Selection from ‘Orientalism’ by Edward Said)

“England has to fulfill a double mission in India: one destructive, the other regenerating—the annihilation of the Asiatic society, and the laying of the material foundations of Western society in Asia.” -Karl Marx, Surveys from Exile, ed. David Fernbach (London: Pelican Books, 1973), pp. 306–7

ORIENTALISM AND ITS METHOD

The reason I connect with Said is because of his political genius, and his subtle criticism of Western left especially within the universities. After migrating to the United States and pursuing his studies, he realized that in order to open the conversation about Palestinian liberation and the struggle for self-determination, he has to undo multiple levels of complexity. The first Gordian knot that needed to be untied was the problem of representation. The Middle East similar to the rest of Asia and Africa has been interpreted and represented to the Western audiences by European Orientalists. These academics and scholars perpetuated the pre-established system of domination. The discourse of Oriental studies (which some European countries such as Finland still have) helped pave the way for representing the East to the Western population through a process of racialization. Orientalism itself as an academic discourse became attainable by the military domination over the East. As Said argues on page 74 of the book, “...Orientalism is more particularly valuable as a sign of European-Atlantic power over the Orient than it is as a veridic discourse about the Orient (which is what, in its academic or scholarly form, it claims to be). (2)

Said brought out some uncomfortable topics for the white left inside and outside universities. Certain conversations regarding culture, race, individuality, and representation was considered nothing more than divisive by the established faculty. Suddenly, the middle-class white hippies in the universities had to fight their own whiteness alongside their forefathers’ business model, conservatism or Christianity. The repetitive conversations about capitalism by white folks got complicated considering the relationship between culture and colonial expansion. Part of Said’s work was to expose the overlapping connection between the history of European Anti-Semitism and postcolonial history.

Prior to the publication of Orientalism, the claim that “…every European, in what he could say about the Orient, was consequently a racist, an imperialist, and almost totally ethnocentric”, was something close to fiction. (1) White Leftists (in most cases men) would freely talk about the East with (or without) academic expertise and subsequently represent and translate the East to the Western world.

“Orientalism” and “Culture and imperialism” clarified that European imperialism created a situation where European scientists, artists, missionaries, soldiers, and traders became part of the same system despite their differences. Said talks about the colonial figures who advanced the racialization and subjugation of colonized peoples. Some of these figures are Jewish Zionists, and some are European artists, politicians, and settlers who uphold the colonial projects.

There is a huge list of Orientalist figures which Said brought to light and investigated in his works. The bibliography of Orientalism is digitalized on Goodreads. I cherry-picked one of these racist colonial writings in order to give an example of the type of research Said was digging up. 

Here is Sir Thomas Tyrwhitt-Drake:

"The fear of the fellahin (Middle eastern agricultural laborer) that we have secret designs of re-conquering the country is a fruitful source of difficulty. This got over, remains the crass stupidity which cannot give a direct answer to a simple question, the exact object of which it does not understand; for why should a Frank wish to know the name of an insignificant wady or hill in their land?" The fellahin are all in the worst type of humanity that I have come across in the east...The fellah is totally destitute of all moral sense..." (2)

(Thomas Tyrwhitt-Drake, 1845, painted by William Barraud (1810–1850), source: Artnet)

“PALESTINE AND POLITICS OF MIDDLE EAST”

Aside from theoretical concepts we also learn a lot about the history of ethnic cleansing and atrocities that has been inflicted on the Middle East and in particular to Palestinians. We also come across many existential events such as the battle of Karameh in 1968, or the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps massacre in Lebanon which resulted in 2,062 deaths, or the events of 1948 where United Nations General Assembly Resolution 181 called for the partition of Palestine into a Jewish state and an Arab state. On page 34 of the book, after dismissing the passive idea that the colonialism of Palestine has resulted from a conflictual tragedy between two cultures/religions, Said goes to detail in explaining why the international left didn’t have much to offer Palestinians in 1967.

(Haganah fighters expel Palestinians from Haifa. May 12, 1948 -AFP/Getty Images)

Bib.

1. Smith, L.T. Decolonizing Methodologies: Research and Indigenous Peoples. London : Zed Books, 2012. 2. Said, Edward W. The Selected Works of Edward Said, 1966 - 2006. s.l. : Vintage, 2019. 0525565310. 3. Said, Edward W. Orientalism. s.l. : Vintage Books Edition, 1979.

❦❦❦ *Currently we have a media studio with a lot of expenses. We are independently critical without any state funding, and your support allows us to continue. If you like the content and want to become part of our community, please consider supporting us on Patreon or make a one-time donation through Paypal. 🙏  ❦❦❦

[meagan-marie]

Six Months at Riot Games

I’ve been up all night after reading Kotaku’s article on the company culture of Riot, and its effect on women in particular. Cecilia contacted me as a potential source, but I didn’t commit to providing my experience on the record because I was worried about the ramifications of speaking out. The discourse around this conversation and the reticence to believe the women who came forward has stunned me. I’ve been carrying around a heavy weight on my shoulders since 2014, and I feel it is finally time to let it go. I only lasted six months at Riot before resigning.

In 2014, I left a job I loved and colleagues I adored to take up a post at Riot Games in Dublin. One of their recruiters had reached out to me nearly a year prior, and while I was immensely happy at my current place of work, I had always wanted to work abroad at least once in my life. I was becoming addicted to League of Legends, Riot had a history of great community-centric initiatives, and I felt that if I turned down the opportunity, I would always ask myself, “What if?”

I was initially apprehensive, as I had been told firsthand that Riot could have a “bro” culture at times. So I did my research. I asked the recruiter directly about the mysterious “culture” of Riot, and why conforming to it was so important. I even messaged a handful of women ex-Rioters to ask about their experiences. They all confirmed that Riot could have a “frat party” type atmosphere at times, but didn’t relay stories of overt sexism or harassment.

I took the job in early 2014. I sold my car, packed up all my belongings in a shipping container, committed to a long-distance relationship with my partner, and sent my cats off for the mandatory 30 days of quarantine. I fully committed, expecting to work there for several years at the minimum.

Before I detail some of what I experienced at Riot, first, let me state the obvious. The behavior below is NOT indicative of all Riot employees. The large majority of Riot employees I’ve met have been lovely, and as evidenced above, there are many people who weren’t subject to sexist behavior and harassment. That being said, from my own experiences and that of many others speaking out this week, an unacceptable number of people – primarily, but not exclusively women – have been subject to inappropriate behavior at Riot for years. It is systemic to the company’s culture and needs to be addressed as such.  

I’ve outlined some of the most notable negative encounters with Riot staff below. These don’t account for the daily microaggressions and condescending remarks that are too numerous to detail. For transparency, being four years removed from Riot has not degraded my recollection of these events. I am drawing them directly from the eight-page resignation letter I sent to Riot in August of 2014.

Content-Warning: Sexist, racist, homophobic, and transphobic language, as well as mentions of sexual assault.

At Riot, employees are encouraged to play League before/after work, or during lunch. My very first week at the Dublin office, I heard shouting from individuals playing together, calling each other “f*ggots” repeatedly. I was unnerved, but it was my first week and I didn’t know if this was a common occurrence. I didn’t say anything at that time. Eventually, the language would escalate to “n*gger”. No one flinched, and I realized it was considered the norm. Nearly the same thing happened my first day of meetings at the Riot LA office, where two men were loudly calling each other “c*cksuckers” right outside the office of the CEOs.

Soon I began to notice gendered language regularly being used among male Rioters to insult each other. Guys would tell each other “not to be such a girl” and call one another “p*ssies” quite regularly. They would casually refer to women as “b*tches” and say that “all women were crazy.” I also overheard a group discussing how a female professional made it far in the industry, suggesting she “sucked c*ck to get to the top.

My first month at Riot we had an opportunity to talk with one of the CEOs for an office-wide AMA. We were encouraged to submit questions anonymously. I submitted something that had bothered me for some time as a League player. I wondered why – other than the child characters and Yordles – nearly all the female champions had the exact same body type. The male champions were young, old, skinny, athletic, obese, handsome, monstrous, and more – they were unique and diverse. The most prevalent characteristic of female champions at the time was sex appeal. I wanted something more. I wanted to know when we would get a female equivalent of Gragas. 

The senior staff liked the question so much that they requested I ask it live, rather than anonymously. I was apprehensive at first because I was so new, but I also understood that this was an important opportunity to directly challenge someone in a position of power who could make a change. Unfortunately, the response boiled down to “giving the players what they want”, to which I rebutted that Riot was big enough to influence player perception of what characters are cool or fun to play. I was very disappointed by the response, which felt dismissive of the issue. (As a side note, I was happy to see Riot’s efforts to diversify their female champions these past few years.)

After the meeting, I realized I had put a target on my back with some of the men in the office. I didn’t even make it to my desk before a male colleague came up and told me that “women don’t want to play unattractive champions. They want to feel beautiful.” I was stunned. A woman behind us audibly laughed at the fact that he was informing us of our gender’s gaming preferences. A few male coworkers also asked why I would like to see an “unattractive” female champion, or a plus size female champion, because “no one wants to look at that.” These were several of dozens of conversations I would have on the matter.

Things only got worse the longer I stayed at Riot. I didn’t go out with colleagues after events because strip clubs seemed to be a common destination. Asking me what age I lost my virginity at was deemed appropriate conversation during a team dinner, and employees I didn’t know prodded into how my sex life worked in a long-distance relationship.

I felt out of place in my direct team as well. Our Jira sprints were named things like “thong.” I was the only woman on that particular team, and so a senior staff member named us the “Bros and Ho”.  I immediately tried to shut that down, but it was used for weeks regardless.

Rape became a punchline to jokes quite frequently, including one instance where an employee went on for several hours about how he was going to rape his male colleague, who was his hotel roommate. He was graphic in exactly how he was going to rape his roommate, who was a new hire, and it was obvious that the individual in question was extremely uncomfortable.

While on a team outing, the same senior staff member messaged a new employee’s girlfriend on Facebook asking if she was “DTF” - shorthand for “down to f*ck”. He thought it was a funny joke. The new staffer didn’t feel comfortable challenging him, even though his girlfriend was very uncomfortable and called to ask why she was being harassed by his boss.

Then came the final straw. At a work dinner, it came up that I thought I’d been paired in a hotel room with a male Rioter. It turned out to be a typo in the name, and, as was standard, I was paired with another woman. A senior staff member proceeded to repeatedly call me sexist for not being willing to room with a man I’d never met before. At first, I thought he was kidding, but he continued to make arguments to his point. I explained why I would be more comfortable sharing a room with another woman, and told him I wasn’t enjoying the conversation and would leave if I was continued to be called sexist. The conversation continued, with him eventually saying that my unwillingness to room with a man was the same as not hiring a woman due to her gender. I left the table in the middle of dinner, unwilling to take any more after six months of such behavior. I submitted my resignation shortly after.

My biggest concern with Riot – putting my own experiences behind me – is the inappropriate and sometimes predatory behavior that some staff exhibited towards fans. I frequently pushed back against comments and scenarios like these but found I was one of the few that would speak up. Rioters are often seen as celebrities with dedicated fans, and it is easy to abuse that power. 

I regularly witnessed lewd comments about women passing by at events, discussing their level of attractiveness, whether someone would sleep with them, and guessing if they were the age of consent.  

Several times I heard male employees bragging and sharing intimate details about hooking up with players at events, including a cosplayer we worked with in an official capacity. Several male colleagues even asked me to “hook them up” with cosplayers.

When I brought up the inappropriateness of a young League cosplayer having silly-string unexpectedly sprayed across her chest during a video piece by a third party – the gag being that he had ejaculated on her – I was told I was the “comedy police”.

I overheard at least a dozen employees comment on how cosplayers only make costumes for attention and ask “is this even considered a costume?” when a very famous cosplayer recreated a scantily-clad female champion. I showed them that she was one-to-one with the splash art. They begrudgingly conceded that it was an official outfit. This is obviously highly hypocritical.

At least three times Riot Dublin employees made inappropriate comments via work email about a female cosplayer’s breasts (one they regularly worked with).

While in LA, I had a week of very successful meetings with Rioters to help get a new cosplay initiative off the ground. In a recap meeting, I expressed how happy I was that we were creating such great programming for cosplayers. The senior most staff member responded with “Who wouldn’t want to work with cosplayers? Because Boobs.”

During one event, a first-time cosplayer came to our booth crying because someone had commented negatively on her weight in relation to the character. Another coworker and I consoled her for nearly 30 minutes, and she left, feeling much better. After she left, a fellow Rioter called her a “fatass” and asked why she would try to cosplay the character she chose. I was in shock but told him how inappropriate that was to say about our fans, especially those passionate enough to make and wear costumes. Cosplayers have also been called “tr*nnies” and “attention whores” by Riot employees at events.

In meetings, I was told that we shouldn’t put cosplayers on stage to play League live, because they are mostly women, and therefore not very good at the game.

Further examples of disrespect include when I argued that we shouldn’t let a cosplayer in blackface on our stage for a parade, keeping in mind that Riot is a global company. I was repeatedly called racist by my colleagues, who tried to convince me that it was an acceptable practice and I was overreacting.

This is not a comprehensive list. These were only the very specific examples I could draw from when I drafted my resignation letter at Riot. After word got out that I quit, I was contacted by several other women from the office, asking to meet. I was told more horror stories, discovering that some of them had been physically touched, cornered in shared vehicles, and faced professional retaliation for turning down advances. They asked for advice. I told them that they needed to speak up too.

The reason I didn’t share any of this before is because I felt trapped. I am not proud of myself for staying silent. After I quit, I was stranded in Ireland with my entire life in an apartment, no job, no car, and not even a cell phone, as it was immediately taken away from me once I resigned. I needed to get back to the United States somehow. Riot was my best bet, and I worried that if I didn’t agree to their mandates or went public with anything that I’d ruin my chance of getting home. After six months of near-daily misery, I was exhausted. I signed their agreements. I needed to get out. I recognize that I put myself at legal risk by disclosing my experience now. After years of regret and the thought that these practices could still be going on today, affecting countless others who also feel alone and outgunned by a company they were once excited to be a part of,  I am willing to take that risk. I want to work towards a better and more inclusive industry and show solidarity with the other women who have come forward.  

I left Riot feeling like a failure. I felt like I wasn’t tough enough to stick it out or make a positive change at the company.  I had been very public about my new adventure in Ireland, and all I could post about the return home was an agreed upon “culture fit issues’ statement to my social channels. Friends and followers could tell that something was wrong, but I couldn’t expand further.

To be clear, not everything from my time at Riot was negative. I became good friends with several of my co-workers and loved interacting with fans. Riot is a massive company that employs thousands of people. There are going to be women at the company who’ve never experienced sexism or harassment from their colleagues. I am very happy that they have found a safe working space with their particular branches or teams. That being said, these harassment-free experiences don’t invalidate the experiences of women like myself, and the dozens of others I personally met while working at Riot, who struggled with fair and respectful treatment on a daily basis.

The in-depth article on Kotaku and outpouring of other stories from both current and ex-Rioters finally gave me the courage to speak up, despite my concerns about professional or legal ramifications. I should have done this four years ago. I tried to facilitate change while working at Riot and after my departure. I’m hoping the groundswell of voices will now finally cause real, meaningful change within one of the most influential gaming companies in the world.

Two final notes:

To the many good eggs at Riot:  I’ve seen many of your posts. I understand your frustration if you have not been witness to this type of behavior, or experienced it yourself. That being said, you can support your company and the individuals who have come forward. Your anger shouldn’t be directed at the subjects of this abuse and maltreatment, but rather the individuals who perpetuated these acts in the first place. Please keep an eye out for your peers, and hold others accountable for their actions.

To young women hoping to work in gaming: Gaming can be a tough industry, but please don’t let conversations like this drive you away from pursuing your passion. The more we dissect and discuss these situations in a public forum, the more steps we take to making the industry a more inclusive place. As tough as gaming can be, it is equally welcoming and rewarding.

[unproduciblesmackdown]

let's see those Prime Numbers for the ask meme

2) favorite albums?

well i was Ready for kesha’s album Warrior to come out in iiii think it was the end of 2012 or early 2013?? i snuck out to that tour in dc that summer also. totally solid album and it was fun to have something so fun during a totally Not Fun period lol. i was also pretty into owl city at the exact same time lmao, that’s Blatantly for when you’re depressed lol...and i also eventually saw that guy on tour when a new album came out in 2015, and that was fun too, and was Enjoying Myself a factor in the tipping point of “ah jeez i gots 2 get outta here” that i had in the next month? maybe! and uhhh i listened a lot to the phoenix te amo album. that one wasnt tied to anything at all but i have heard it So much. super short and also rock solid and relistenable. and then here we are and the bmc obcr is a gift to the world b/c a) it exists and b) Cuz It All Slaps and c) it’s so fun to either sing or dance along, or cry along if it’s the agtikbi reprise and d) lgw... and e) all the eternal, well-mixed wroland vocals

3) favorite memes?

oh god lmao idk......real earlier 10s stuff was the I Say Hey he-man meme, and the “that really rustles my jimmies” meme which was real underrated......there’s been plenty of Memes where i’ve been like “this one is funny to me Every Time” but of course now looking back on it it’s like. what’s a meme??? Vine

(skipping 5 & 11 cuz that’s the Entirety of someone else’s ask and i don’t wanna just have to scrap theirs completely and i’ll get to it next!!)

11) favorite fanarts?

you know what, there’s continuously been a ton of amazing fanart where i’m like, i’m so glad i’m seeing this, & this is Artistic Fuel, and marge simpson anime has really been just this Standout Experience lmao like......idk for as Inspiring as it is, there’s only a couple things i’ve drawn that are Directly inspired, but i just flip for it all the time and like, it’s supremely expressive and like, comics that aren’t chronological but more like a Collage Of a Moment / Concept which i think is super cool and also i love when stuff reminds me that it doesn’t have to look ~super cleaned up~ to look great.

13) favorite people you know?

oh god this one really got out of control lol i started like, talking about everyone ever from this past decade. so for Convenience i’m interpreting this as “people *i* know, but they don’t know me” so that i can cheat and say will roland, voted person of the year 2019. by extension, essential supporting crew who helped us reach this point, like john simpkins or joe iconis. leave it at that!! it’s 5am and you know i’m not lying. who knew where going “wow, This guy” in late 2018 would have so much Value.

17) a fandom you wish more people were in/you had more people to talk to about?

oof hmm.......amnesia tdd didn’t really have a “fandom” even though it obviously got a lot of attention, it’dve been fun if it had though lol. it’s tricky to answer this one cuz i always prefer like, smaller fandoms and/or finding the Niche or some other way of just like, interacting with a small corner of things, so i’m never like wow god damn wish i’d been absolutely in the thick of it with this thing. i’ve been in Corners n Niches and it’s been fine by me, really

19) a fandom that you had the best time in?

HMM lol.........marble hornets sure was fun but like, a lot of that was just the content itself and not necessarily The Fan Experience, tho i sure got a lot out of it in a ton of ways. i mean tbh that’s true of each thing i’ve really Gotten Into majorly, i go hard af and then walk out the other side with these #connections or #experiences like whoa where’d these come from lol!! but really like, overall, i’m probably having the best time right now. the “fandom” is basically just our agenda lmao but like i said i’m always having the best time when it’s a pretty niche deal, And the sheer variety of Contents n Characters to draw from here is super nice, and the fact that it’s like, oh yeah and i’m finally recognizing this should’ve-been-obvious entire Passionne i’ve had since always, and that’s great too, and like, also just having the Variety Of Live / Current Unfoldings that go down.....like, everyone havin fun with the Joe Iconis Xmas Xtrav was entirely great. and just the Engagement level is basically the best, cuz like there’s the times where maybe i’ll get a zillion notes and that’s definitely fun in its own way but i always enjoy just the way smaller amount of ppl who are Particularly Enthusiastic, and like, there’s times where like, maybe i’m *technically* in this larger circle of ppl but like, totally more of like a Tangent or peripheral to that circle or whatever lol........this feels like a really solid balance of like, being sorta in this orbit of people in a chill way, but also definitely the direct interactions Existing, which is always important lol but hasn’t always been a constant throughout my Fandom Experiences at all

23) who were you at the beginning of this decade?

2009-2010 was a real distinct year lol i was in my second year of college in the middle of my teens, when i’d hardly really been getting to Explore My Interests Freely up to that point and still wasn’t, but all of a sudden it’s like goddamn i have to figure out my major???? and i’m like, obviously in the middle of only just now Really getting to figure out my identity in this deeper and more genuine way, thanks to being lucky enough to Live On Campus and be away from home like, 2/3 of the year, but i was just like, oh god i’m in Stress Hell now all the time cuz like. i’m trying to figure out my whole thing and what my ~Career~ should be and i just have no idea but am like, trying super hard all the time lol it was not successful and i was just really stressed about it all the time. i was def quieter back then.....pretty lonely at the time, i did not get into mh and gain the presence of any Online Friends until late 2010, and i hadn’t yet been sort of accepted by a small faction of theatre people via my roommate’s connections.....i wasn’t at all Out yet, and was def In Progress of figuring it all out.....i didn’t have nearly the Self-Esteem i have now lmao, it was Not a great time and in a lot of ways ‘09-’10 was the start of a downturn into Worse Than Usual Times, though in Other ways it was definitely an upturn lol like. the latter related to stuff that was important to me / who i am, the former tied to the situations i was in and the godawful morale that resulted

29) a time when the worst case scenario happened but you pulled through?

well by the end of 2012 i had my Wrath Parent deluxe mad at me big time, AND i was stuck at home all of thee time with that (not at all hours but. every day.) it was terrible!!! tf was going on in 2013, cuz that shit was definitely like, a gross blur of a lot of indistinct misery. and then, relatedly, when it was so shitty in 2015 that i was like fantastic, i am so officially sick of this i’m outta here. i revisited some Misery Posts from that period lately for someone stranger on twitter’s project or something, and boy i was having a bad time Summer Of ‘15 lol, things not getting better at home And a job that was so shitty that it was like..................bye. lol. and then i spent a year living out of a minivan. which was real lucky in ways b/c like. infinitely better than if i had not had that minivan. and when that broke down i was also then lucky enough to have this friend who was relatively nearby who’d also been willing to just like, set me up to Not have to ask the lgbt center where that trans-friendly forest zone a couple cities over was. nothing as dramatic as it could’ve been, fortunately

31) a time you were scared?

hmmm when leaving The Parents Home overnight, that was intimidating. bit of completely jumping into the unknown there, and also like, when you spend your lifetime assuming that Someone’s Arbitrary Wrath will be uponst you always, it’s hard to shake that sense of dread and doom, like ah jeez i am really potentially bringing hell on myself here........and like i mentioned with Start Of The Decade, there was just a ton of fear there all the time lol, trying to figure out virtually overnight The Whole Of Who I Am And What I Want when i’d only just even gotten to start......also i wanna say i maybe came out in 2011?? and i sort of also felt obligated to come out to my parents also (plus i think i was giving them like, one last chance to surprise me and be decent and kind of Grow Up themselves even tho i was the like, 16 y.o.) which yknow, kids you do not have to come out to anyone at all. someone was talking the other day abt how they didn’t think lgbtq “discourse” had evolved as much as you’d hope over the past decade, but idk about that, it's only a little bit of a wildly complex topic, and for starters Online Trans “Discourse” of a decade back was wayyyyyy in a vastly different place than it is now, leaps and strides really. so the way to ~really~ do it was presented kind of more rigidly i think. anyways i did it via email and was incredibly stressed to even open the reply a couple days later lol......which ended up being really weird and vague, and then there was a phone call where no one brought it up, and the only result was increased ire and resentment :( ........and then there was still like, cops encounters! near or not-as-bad-as-they-could’ve-been vehicular collisions! but tbh generally my reaction to the latter was underwhelming, except for one particular time when i was a passenger and also tense af for the rest of the ride. that’s it for Immediate fear really lol......oh wait one time i was at this decent sized Convention Panel Event and when i’m nervous i can Only talk more (it’s possible!!) and i snuck into line for the q&a and Right when i got to the mic (intimidating) they were like oop we’re low on time, lightning round!! :’] that was obviously more just a crapton of l’anxiete

37) a fashion that fell out of style that you wish would make a resurgence?

were Gladiator sandals this decade? the strappy deals that like, went up the ankles / calves? that was in fashion for a year or two and i’m into it. i like sandals and that kind of drama

41) something you learned a lot that not a lot of other people might know about?

i don’t know that i learned way a lot of anything that’s real in-depth knowledge and niche lore.........i have learned Nothing

43) an important relationship (of any kind) you had?

i had???? lmao well either way let’s say current relationships count and like, pretty much everyone in my Sphere i value a lot! i never like, have or have had a ~close~ ring of ppl around me lol like i thought it was lucky if i talked to someone Every Day (and not at all the Usual thing) and now it’s more likely that i talk to two people every day and maybe that sounds sarcastic but it’s not at all lol. i know my social stats aren’t impressive but i so appreciate what i get to enjoy and have. and other Connections might be way more like, we are friendly acquaintances, we talk on rare occasions, we haven’t talked at all in ages, we talk but only to trade cute pics of cats, Etc etc, but i seriously do appreciate all of everyone who’s cool who i get to interact with in any way and like, be in each other’s spheres and Not just like, absolutely on nobody’s radar. also obviously soph you are here in that list in case i wasn’t implying it good enough lol it is 5am and god knows deciphering what i say at any time can be its own challenge.....ur Epic Highs and Lows of bmc 3.0 is so good lmao

[aster-azimuth]

Moon in Leo & The Journey of Venus

Artwork by @vonnart

Tonight the last quarter Moon moves in to Leo and joins her South node (eclipse point), activating the ongoing fixed grand cross between Venus, Uranus and the nodes. I wrote about this grand cross in my previous blog post, but I'd like to expand on it here. 

The Moon in Leo and this image both remind me of the strength card in the tarot. The card represents not the outer strength that you would think would be required to tame a lion, interestingly, but the inner strength and grace that is required to remain calm and collected in the face of strife and struggle. It's about strength of character. It's about learning to apply that strength to control our animal instincts like fear and aggression, in order to master our own circumstances to the best of our ability, and ultimately to shine like only Leo can do... And we do that shining when we discover just how much we are actually capable of enduring... it's always far more than our fear tells us is possible. And what is often the most difficult thing to face that we all fear? That's right. Change. Especially for the fixed signs. But change is happening and it's time to determine and embrace our individual roles in that change.

This Moon is a Last-Quarter Moon, meaning she is square the Sun, who is incidentally now just about exactly one quarter of the way through the sign of Scorpio... Squares are about what? You guessed it: Also change. Not the kind of change that happens without direct provocation (like Uranus usually brings) but the change that comes as a result of striving and struggling to create it. Change that comes from DOING something (creative & constructive, hopefully) about our discomfort. 

On a personal level (and ultimately all things Moon are personal) the square between Leo and Scorpio is about self expression. Leo doles it out freely, Scorpio does not. They are also both about self-worth, being fixed signs. Leo is concerned with outer self worth being accepted and loved by others, and Scorpio is primarily concerned with inner, self-determined self-worth. 

This theme may be present to some extent in the decisions and changes at hand, especially with Mercury and Jupiter still conjunct, and Mercury moving from a water sign to a fire sign tonight as well... Perhaps there is too much emphasis on one or the other? 

Whatever the case, the theme of change is omnipresent in the heavens at this point. The astrologer Dana Gerhardt has this to say about a Last Quarter Moon: "Squares bring stress-and a potent thrust of energy that makes necessary changes possible.... During the Last Quarter's waning square, we're prompted to find a new direction. The 'something wrong' is generally inside, the change required a mental adjustment, some shift in our thinking, our intentions, or beliefs. Rudhyar called the waxing square a 'crisis in action' and the waning square a 'crisis in consciousness.'"

And he (Rhudyar) says this of quarter moons in general: "Moon phases help us decide our wise next steps. Whatever occurs at the Quarter Moons, we're invited to see it as two forces in conflict. Something wants to move; something else resists. This tension seeks its release in change, involving struggle, or assertive and decisive action."

Now... All this talk about change may feel overwhelming to some, but this particular opportunity for change is not just massive, it's also very well-supported by two grand trine aspects happening at once:

The Moon on the North node in Leo is activating the destiny of humanity right now. (NBD) The north node deals with the evolution of the individual soul and the collective evolution we are all a part of. She is making a grand trine to Jupiter and Mercury in scorpio and to Chiron in pisces, which is also offering a profound opportunity for healing. My last post on instagram (from this morning) is about this particular aspect pattern. It's under this image:

The other two trines are being made by Pallas Athena (the principle of creative wisdom) and Juno (the principle of divine marriage commitment) to the south node, which represents our karma on a personal and collective level. The south node deals with gifts and talents we naturally have that we have a tendency to rely a bit too heavily on, but which are very valuable nonetheless. I believe this aspect pattern is indicating an opportunity to address our relationship issues from a creative angle we may have previously not thought of or overlooked... or perhaps a creative commitment to the changes we know we need to make. Whatever the case may be, the support is there, as two grand trines = a very stable support system indeed. 

Back to the changes. 

While there is likely a very personal component for this transit for many people, there is also a larger-context social change that's happening. While Jupiter has been in Scorpio the last year and some change, (excuse the pun) he has set the foundation for this slow transformation. Venus in Scorpio has sped it up and made it more personal for everyone. Both of those planets are considered "benefics" in classical astrology, meaning that they are bringers of good fortune, but in the sign of Scorpio it's not all rainbows and pots of gold. 

Scorpio quite literally *IS* transformation on a deep and profound level, and the change these two have been bringing us looks like the #metoo movement, the #blacklivesmatter movement and the exposure of the racist, homo/transphobic, mysoginistic, xenophobic, bigoted, hateful undercurrent in the blood running through the veins of this "once great" nation we call the U.S. - those are their gifts to us; They are hoping we will use them wisely. Mercury also having just transited through Scorpio has brought these conversations further to the forefront of political discourse: 

NOW is the time for us to DO SOMETHING to create the change we want to see in the world. Pluto (deep profound change through relationships) and Saturn (rules, laws, boundaries, litigation, etc) both in Capricorn are urging us to do something PRACTICAL about it, not just talk...

Now, it's worth noting that there are always multiple ways any planets position can be interpreted, and Pluto and Saturn in Cap also represent the existing paradigm in all of its might: The oppressive powers that dominate the political landscape and have for centuries: the ones fighting tooth and nail to keep their power using fear tactics and war strategy... AKA the toxic Patriarchy and all that it represents:

But to hell (Scorpio) with those guys. It's time to take real, grounded and meaningful action, because the nodes and the two retrograde planets (Venus and Uranus) are about to move in to cardinal signs, where action begins... Uranus moves in to Aries on Nov. 7th, where he spends about 4 months before going direct and heading back in to Taurus on March 6th. We can plausibly expect some pretty major events in the world stage around that time.

Back to the lion and the inner strength of conviction and determination:

What this boils down to, IMHO, is that the stars are telling us that we need to do the inner work (NOW, not whenever it's convenient) so that we can make our unique contribution to the work that needs to be done to change the outer world - in particular the old, outdated structures that our society is built on... Where do you need to build your inner strength? Where can you change your behaviors and beliefs to be in more alignment with the vision you want to create? Because NOW is the time to address that...

There's one more planet I've left out, regarding all of this change, and that's Mars: The ruler of action. Mars is in Aquarius, the sign of tearing down the old structures in order to build ones based on more freedom for the individual and the collective as a whole... That is what Mars (who rules action) wants us to focus on now. He is currently ruling Jupiter and Venus in Scorpio, and in a week Mars will also be ruling Uranus when he moves in to Aries. To me, this is evidence that this (over any of the myriad of other possible interpretations) is the one that bears the most weight in regards to this transit...

To sum it up:

The time for revolution is here, dreamers. Will you let stodgy old Saturn and mean old Pluto in Capricorn keep you bound by fear to the matrix that was set up by crusty old rich racist white dudes? Or will you tear it down to create a new world? It's yours now, Millenials... just sayin'

[speedofcattle]

Genocide, Not Apocalypse

Sometimes, I’ll admit, I write some really long essays on some really specific subjects. These essays are usually fun for me to write, but they are often for something of a niche readership and are probably of little overall importance in their content. This is not one of those essays.

The point of this essay is to put into words a simple argument for a perspective on the world I would like more people to take in the current political climate. I believe this argument might actually be of some importance because it concerns the narratives by which we understand not only our lives, but the future history of the world we live those lives in. The argument in question can be summarized quickly in the following statement: When looking to future national or global events in the world that seem to promise disastrous consequences, it is best to consider the possibility that such an event could result in a genocide, not an apocalypse.

This requires some breaking down, so I’ll start by addressing the “why should I care?” factor. Some might argue that there is no point in worrying about our narratives of the future because history is determined by things out of our control and will unfold however it was destined to regardless of what we think. This, I would argue in response, is built on a false premise that our thoughts don’t interact with the world around us. I don’t think it’s much of a stretch to claim that the thoughts we think influence our actions, which in turn influence the world. What’s more, I also don’t think it’s a stretch to claim that there are certain patterns by which we think of the world. When we discuss what we believe to have happened in the past or what might happen in the future, we are telling each other stories, or narratives, about the world. These narratives may or may not be true, but they tend to influence people’s thoughts about the world regardless of their “truth”. If narratives influence our thoughts and our thoughts indirectly influence the world, it would follow that narratives have some kind of bearing on how we conduct ourselves in the world. Thus our cultural narratives about the past and future are indeed important to keep track of if we want to feel like we have any insight into how we might end up impacting history in unexpected ways.

Having hopefully settled this point, I would now like to turn attention to a particular type of narrative that has been prominent throughout much of recorded human history: the apocalypse. Apocalypses exist in myth and religions all over the world and are currently enjoying a spike in popularity as the central events of a number of movies, TV shows and video games. The general arc of an apocalypse goes something like this: a population lives for a period of time by a set of rules and morals before somehow disgracing itself by becoming immoral; this could be accomplished by way of breaking anywhere from one rule to all rules, but a “slippery slope” is often implied (eg., if they start stealing, it’s only a matter of time before they start killing, etc.). During this period of immorality, a great change occurs seemingly in the reality of the world itself that is separated from the immoral actions of the people, though it is taken as a sign of some kind of divine dissatisfaction with the people’s immorality. At the pinnacle of the apocalyptic narrative, a great catastrophe happens and the world itself is effectively destroyed and built anew, usually by the now-explicitly-real divine being which is often some kind of metaphor for the material consequences brought on by the people’s immoral actions. The divine being, however, often also brings about a kind of “salvation” through this apocalypse: sometimes those who were good are rewarded in the new world, sometimes the whole point was that the world had become so wicked it simply needed to be destroyed in order to make life bearable again. The apocalypse thus ends with a “golden age” of restoration of the proper order of the world.

One interesting thing about the apocalypse is that it never happens - it exists almost by definition on the ending margins of history. There have been no recorded apocalypses in human history. In fact, it is largely expected that the apocalypse itself would signify the “end of history”, making it literally impossible to occur if one considers all events to happen within history. I know what you’re thinking: just because it hasn’t been observed, doesn’t mean it isn’t going to happen. That’s true, but it misses the larger point I’m trying to make here, which is this: the narrative of the apocalypse is ultimately one that denies humanity any agency in history with regard to its occurrence. When it happens, it happens regardless of what any individual or group has done to stop it; it arises out of some kind of deterministic necessity. It is an unstoppable force of divine judgement, a punishment for a humanity that has pulled too hard at its leash. In a way, it is nihilistic; nothing you do matters, just sit back, relax and enjoy your collective impending doom. So why is it such a popular narrative?

I can think of at least three possible prominent answers to this question and I’m not a big fan of any of them. The first is simple laziness; since the apocalypse is unpreventable and nothing can be done to even change its course, the individual is suddenly freed of their burden to feel responsible for anything. The interesting thing about this motivation is that it liberates both the morally-bound and the intensely immoral - the former see the impending judgement day as a chance to see all the evildoers wiped out without having to lift a finger, while the latter see it as a libertine’s fantasy in which no action can be evaluated by its consequences. But I expect more people are drawn to the apocalypse by one of these next two reasons. The first of these is a hatred for others, a desire to see some people “dragged down to your level”. In this view, the apocalypse is a kind of “equalizer”, an event in which all the world’s “heretics” will finally be punished. This is not unlike the laziness motivation for the “morally righteous”, but it is motivated more by hatred than any kind of laziness; there is a sadism at work in this perspective, a sneering at the rest of the world that seems so backwards as to be deserving only of such extreme punishment. The flipside of this view is the masochistic self-hatred; here, we find the person who admits that they feel worthless and think that the rest of humanity is no better, therefore we all deserve to die in the apocalypse.

No matter the motivation, the apocalypse remains an ideal that never actually realizes itself. This, however, does not stop its narrative from having an effect on the world in the meantime. Anyone familiar with more “extremist” religious doctrine might notice how the apocalypse is held over people’s heads as a kind of moral high ground, a threat used to scare people into conforming to a particular moral path. I would argue that the apocalypse narrative reaches far beyond the religious; the biggest sources of apocalyptic narratives in modern culture can be found in discourses on climate change and nuclear warfare. For over the last half-century, an incredible amount of fictional narratives have circulated detailing what are effectively God’s-eye-view revenge fantasies that threaten to “destroy the world” through nuclear or environmental apocalypse. It doesn’t matter if these fantasies are written and consumed by atheists or believers; their new “God” is now “nature” (or “human nature”), a kind of inevitable force equivalent to the older conception of God that exacts its vengeance on humanity for daring to overstep its boundaries.

In non-fiction media, too, the apocalyptic narrative hovers just outside the margins. It is seemingly expected that we will either blow each other up with toxic weapons that will make the whole world a barren rock, or we will push the environment past a “point of no return” at which point the ensuing climate change will re-shape the earth into some form equivalent to the post-nuclear-apocalypse waste land. To point out a specific example in politics, we need look no further than the reactions to Donald Trump’s election as US president in 2016. Granted, the suggestion that some would vote for Trump seemed, to some liberals, sin enough for humanity (or at least America) to deserve some kind of “punishment” in return. But the apocalyptic narrative goes deeper as old fears about nuclear warfare and climate change re-surfaced as more potentially “real” futures. If you stand in just the right point on the media (and social media) map and listen closely, you can hear the frequencies start to attune themselves into a monologue: “We don’t deserve the earth. We don’t deserve ‘humanity’ and ‘humanity’ doesn’t deserve to live. We [or at least the part of us that we don’t want to acknowledge as being a part of us] elected a leader that represents everything bad in the world, everything that goes against ‘nature’ - guns, oil, nuclear weapons, all the sins against our [supposedly peaceful] ‘Mother Nature’. We are unworthy, Mother. Please, Mother, make it all go away and destroy us once and for all!” After which the monologue ceases as the collective speaker collapses into a spiral of apathy and despair.

Because this is the true result, purpose, even, of the apocalyptic narrative: it is not a call to action on any issue but an empty framework that hangs over our heads threateningly. To put it simply, the apocalypse is inevitable and breeds either apathy or useless anxiety. Having established all this, one might be tempted to ask if there is an alternative framework by which we can view the world, one which might actually have the potential to inspire people to act rather than simply give up. My answer to this question is to try and re-frame the same “apocalyptic” issues from a new angle, that of genocide. Though genocides are culturally seen in a similar kind of horrific light to apocalypses, there are two big differences between them:

We have recorded historical evidence of past genocides, therefore a genocide can actually occur within history.

An apocalypse kills everyone, while genocide only kills everyone of a certain group. 

Why genocide? My first argument is that, all things considered, I believe genocide is actually a more likely outcome of the kinds of issues at hand today. Nuclear warfare would certainly be disastrous and has potential to kill off much of the population. However, while it could affect the entire world in our modern global capitalist ecosystem in which every nation is depending on others for some kind of product or sustenance, I find it unlikely that it would kill off the whole world’s population. Certainly it could make some parts of the world uninhabitable, but other parts of the world not threatened by the war could very well go on to survive and live on within their own “corners of the world”. And while I’m no climate scientist, I am aware of the fact that different climate scientists (and no, not just the ones bought out by oil companies) have different predictions about exactly what the results of climate change could be. Some expect it could end up drastically re-arranging the climate in different areas of the world, making some uninhabitable, much like the nuclear war scenario. However, as previously established, this hardly means “world destruction”, or even the destruction of humanity overall. People are fairly resilient, especially in times of hardship. They do whatever they can to survive, even if it means radically restructuring their lives in order to accommodate new changes.

Speaking of the survivors of these events, there is a particular group I’d like to call attention to that are probably going to be the most likely to survive: the rich and powerful. The rich and powerful either already have access to mass amounts of resources needed to survive or are better at procuring them than the rest of the population. It is not hard to imagine the aftermath of nuclear war or climate change quickly becoming a “survival of the fittest” in which most of the world’s underprivileged population dies off while the “strong” survive - indeed, this is practically the exact plot of the countless “post-apocalyptic” libertarian fantasies that dominate modern video game narratives. Or perhaps consequences will be a little less severe; maybe only one country will “lose” the nuclear war, or maybe it will only be the most impoverished “third world” countries that will be hit hard by climate change while the “first world” continues to live their lives as usual. The terrifying result could thus be that a genocide indeed occurs (“an entire country” or “large populations in the third world” affected still means millions dead), but the privileged nations that survive the genocide are hardly aware that it has happened. It is a “quiet” genocide, one that will mostly be attributed to some sort of “historical necessity” (see Hiroshima) or “biological consequences” (see indigenous genocide in the Americas). It is one that could happen over and over again, as long as the cause of genocide never reaches an apocalyptic scale. Arguably, such genocides are already occurring in the world at the moment.

But when a mass death/killing is labelled a “genocide”, the narrative changes so drastically as to differ radically from that of the apocalypse. Consider the holocaust of the Second World War: there is a very clear story told by the victors here in which the Nazi aggressors committed an evil act of mass murder against an underprivileged Jewish population. There are even those who will grant that some Nazis were “swept up in the current of history” and weren’t totally aware of the genocide they were committing, a position that seems to “naturalize” the killing. Dubious as this argument may be, it is mentioned to allow for the potential parallels with other kinds of modern genocide that might occur. The important conclusion to the genocide narrative (its “moral”, if you will) is that other nations recognized the genocide for what it was and stepped in to take action to prevent its further/repeated occurrence. This being said, some express regret that these nations had acted too late and already allowed millions to die, but this only goes on to highlight how important it is to make use of agency in such a situation. Because ultimately, human agency to stop a catastrophe is present in the narrative of a genocide, whereas the apocalyptic narrative distinctly lacks such a thing. The latter is nihilistic, while the former tells us it’s not too late.

An important note here: some might argue that a genocide is a horrible enough occurrence so as to violate some moral law by which no one can claim that humanity is at all “good” or “worthy of surviving”. There is sometimes a sense that even knowing of the human capacity to commit genocide is, in some sense, already the “mortal sin” that qualifies humanity for an apocalypse. There are complicated philosophical arguments about morality, existentialism and agency to be had here, but I will sidestep those with a slightly annoying response: the majority of humanity doesn’t seem to think so. Most people seem to want to keep living, and if they see problems with the world, they hold on to hope for a better world in the future. Some might call that naive; I would say such a thing hardly matters. How can it? If our history of violence isn’t enough to push everyone to mass suicidal longing, why would we expect tenuous philosophical debates to? The Second World War certainly caused a massive re-configuration of moral and existential philosophy, but humanity has continued to live past it and will continue to into the future. To me, this points towards exactly the kind of resistance I see in humanity that makes me dubious of claims that a supposedly “apocalyptic” event like nuclear war or climate change would really wipe us all out.

Having compared the two narratives, I will now return to the first claim I made. Why do I believe we should be looking at issues such as nuclear war and climate change as issues of potential genocide rather than as potential apocalypse? The simple answer is that by the nature of the narratives, a genocide is seen as something preventable, while an apocalypse is seen as something inevitable. Why does this matter? To be frank, if either of the two modern issues I have harped on in this essay turns out to be truly apocalyptic in scale, it doesn’t actually matter. An apocalypse, by definition, means that the situation was really out of our hands all along and it wouldn’t make a difference whether or not we believed we had the agency to stop it. If either, however, turns down the path of a genocide instead, then the belief that we have agency to stop this genocide is important in establishing a course of moral action. If we believe that we have no agency and misdiagnose the situation as an apocalypse, one part of the world’s population might live on in a state of apathetic malaise about the state of the world until one generation dies and a new one replaces it, while another part of the world will simply die and/or suffer in a situation that might have been preventable. If we, however, correctly understand the situation as a genocide, we have then primed ourselves with a belief in our agency to prevent it. Note here that it is not actually important whether we “really” have this agency; I am not trying to argue for the existence of free will here. Regardless of whether or not we have free will, it is not hard to believe that one’s belief in whether or not one has agency will affect how one proceeds to act accordingly. And if we really are facing potential genocide, and if we really are concerned with proceeding morally, we will need all the belief in agency we can get.

[movietvtechgeeks]

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George W. Bush has his say on Donald Trump

Previous presidents make it a point not to speak about a current president, but as Donald Trump has proven not to be a normal one, former President George W. Bush had to say something. On Thursday denounced bigotry in Trump-era American politics, warning that the rise of “nativism,” isolationism and conspiracy theories have clouded the nation’s true identity. The comments, delivered at a New York City conference hosted by the George W. Bush Institute, amounted to an indirect critique from a former Republican president who has remained largely silent during President Donald Trump’s unlikely rise to power. The 43rd president did not name Trump on Thursday, but he attacked some of the principles that define the 45th president’s political brand. The fact that a former president was sounding the alarm about American values and the United States’ role in the world at a time when Trump has unsettled allies abroad and provoked an intense political backlash at home injected his remarks with greater urgency. “We’ve seen nationalism distorted into nativism, forgotten the dynamism that immigration has always brought to America,” Bush said. “We see a fading confidence in the value of free markets and international trade, forgetting that conflict, instability, and poverty follow in the wake of protectionism. We’ve seen the return of isolation sentiments, forgetting that American security is directly threatened by the chaos and despair of distant places.” “We’ve seen our discourse degraded by casual cruelty,” he continued. “Bigotry seems emboldened. Our politics seems more vulnerable to conspiracy theories and outright fabrication.” “We need to recall and recover our own identity,” he continued. “To renew our country, we only need to remember our values.” Asked about the speech, Trump said he hadn’t seen it. The comment about identity was one of several that warned of what Bush described as troubling political trends. Bush noted Russia’s meddling in the 2016 election and declared that “the Russian government has made a project of turning Americans against each other.” “Foreign aggressions, including cyberattacks, disinformation, and financial influence, should never be downplayed or tolerated,” Bush said. Trump has expressed skepticism of Russia’s involvement. A special prosecutor is currently investigating whether Trump and his campaign associates coordinated with Moscow in the effort to sway the election. Bush is the brother of 2016 presidential hopeful Jeb Bush, the former Florida governor nicknamed, belittled and ultimately vanquished by Trump during the race for the Republican nomination. He joins a slowly growing list of prominent Republicans who have publicly defied Trump, including Republican Sens. John McCain, who delivered a similar speech this week. Sen. Bob Corker, the Tennessee Republican who has announced he’s retiring, has denounced what he termed the “adult day care center” of the Trump White House. The scene was remarkable in part because Bush has largely remained out of the political spotlight since leaving office amid low popularity in 2009 and had made a point not to criticize or second-guess his Democratic successor, Barack Obama. Just hours after Bush completed his speech, Obama also made a veiled critique of the Trump era, calling on Democrats at a New Jersey campaign event to “send a message to the world that we are rejecting a politics of division, we are rejecting a politics of fear.” That Trump’s two most recent predecessors felt liberated, or perhaps compelled, to reenter the political arena in a manner that offered an implicit criticism of him is virtually unprecedented in modern politics, historians said. Trump has been harshly critical of both Bush and Obama — calling each of them the “worst” president at one time or another — and mercilessly mocked the 43rd president’s brother, Jeb Bush, during the 2016 Republican primary. George W. Bush was taking aim at Trump’s “roiling of the traditional institutions of the country and, in particular, demeaning the office of the president by a kind of crude or vulgar bashing of opponents,” said Robert Dallek, a presidential historian and author. “I think this is Bush throwing down the gauntlet and feeling that this is a man who has gone too far,” Dallek said. The discretion former presidents traditionally afforded their successors “is now sort of fading to the past because of the belligerence of Trump.” It’s not just the former presidents. Two days ago, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), while receiving the National Constitution Center’s Liberty Medal, lambasted “half-baked, spurious nationalism” and suggested the United States was abandoning its leadership role, an approach the Vietnam War veteran and former prisoner of war called “unpatriotic.” McCain’s critique prompted Trump to warn him to “be careful” because he is prepared to “fight back.” The common thread among Bush’s and McCain’s words was a defense of the post-World War II liberal order that America helped build which supported strong security alliances, a defense of human rights and an open economic system of free trade, said Richard Fontaine, who served on the National Security Council under Bush and was a foreign policy adviser to McCain. While Republicans and Democrats have disagreed over the means to achieve such objectives, Trump has opened a direct assault on many of these ideals, Fontaine said. “The hallmark of McCain’s and Bush’s speeches was to try to re-center us on what have been, since 1945, these traditional ends,” said Fontaine, now the president of the Center for a New American Security. Before leaving office, Obama had said his goal was to remain out of the political spotlight in part to afford his successor the political space to govern, as Bush had done for him. He cautioned at the time, however, that he would speak out if he saw “core values” at risk. Since Trump took office, Obama has spoken out on occasion to defend his legacy against Trump’s attempts to repeal the Affordable Care Act, unwind U.S. participation in the Paris climate accord and impose new limits on immigration. On Thursday, Obama returned to the campaign trail, stumping for Democratic gubernatorial candidates in New Jersey and Virginia. Though he was not as dire as Bush, Obama said in New Jersey that “some of the politics we see now we thought we put that to bed. That’s folks looking 50 years back. It’s the 21st century, not the 19th century.” He also reminded his audience that “you can’t take this election or any election for granted.” Pausing a beat, he added: “I don’t know if you all noticed that.” But during the Bush event, a current Trump administration official also broke with Trump’s dismissive tone on Russian interference. Nikki Haley, Trump’s chief envoy to the United Nations, cast Russia’s efforts to influence the 2016 election as “warfare” and efforts to “sow chaos” in elections across the world. “The Russians, God bless them, they’re saying, ‘Why are Americans anti-Russian? And why have we done the sanctions?’ Well, don’t interfere in our elections and we won’t be anti-Russian,” Haley said. She added, “When a country can come and interfere in another country’s elections, that is warfare.” Facebook recently provided three congressional committees with more than 3,000 ads they had traced to a Russian internet agency and told investigators of their contents. Twitter also briefed Congress last month and handed over to Senate investigators the profile names of 201 accounts linked to Russians.

Movie TV Tech Geeks News

[ccinthecity]

Discussion Posts

Text for my guided excursions! As all posts aren’t yet finalized to complete report, here are the basic blurbs made for each.

Guided Excursion 2: Illusions

Illusions by Philip Venables at the festival of New Music Biannual was an enthralling introduction to the contemporary composition scene in London, as well as a much-needed thrust into the relevant discourse of the LGBTQ+ community to get a gauge on queer issues in British culture, only a day after the PRIDE parade, which was a display of the happier, joyous side of the culture, the celebration that was only happening because of the depoliticisation of the event, diminishing the protest to a parade. This performance was in stark contrast to that environment. Venables, who also is a part of the community, has received acclaim for his work focusing on sexuality and political themes, and this piece certainly did not fall short.    Combining the cacophonous noise of a sinfonietta, the brash ideas of avant-garde drag performer David Hoyle (known by pseudonym “Divine David”) in a stream of consciousness, and a soothing but quirky "elevator music" bossa nova, Venables delivered a hard hitting video-audio commentary into the thought of the average British Queer individual, in four movements: democracy: the role of democracy in queerness, gender: how one would begin to learn of their identity (and the struggle involved therein, of finding appropriate jargon and space to realize it), assimilation: the political influence and repression of queer culture, and revolution: against that political influence. It wasn't really made as a piece of talking to any member of the LGBT community, although there were some asides made to people who identified so—it was largely not a rant but a passionately intellectual (albeit, rather polarizing) and a little bit condescending, although comedic, statement to those who are not a part of the community, or rather opposed to it (the conservative parties, or minded individuals).   David’s dialogue was not the parameter by which the music took place—it was not speech sound, by any means: the orchestra took on the rhythmic constancy of his video, and although they augmented the speech to a point, enunciating and emphasising certain fluttered repetitions in an almost post-apocalyptic overlapping big-top sound, the ensemble too provided a possible medium by which David’s words were muffled; as his cries to action grew louder, so did they (perhaps this was an issue of the technical variety, but so is live art; so is the experience of contemporary music and the projection of one’s inferences onto a presentation or work of art). Was the orchestra his foundation? His greek chorus? Or was it the very foundation he spoke against, the people he was speaking to, cluttering the message, interpreting it and dissecting it to their needs to distribute its message to their best advantage? Regardless of the role of the orchestra at a metaphorical level, I did enjoy their physical playing as well. The conductor, Richard Baker, was a perfect fit—his movements were percussive, distinct, yet embodied a postured grace and length to movements. My favourite sections of the sinfonietta were the strings, which often had legato sostenuto passages, sliding between notes in a taffy-like manner, still elastic, but providing a canopy over which the avant-garde Hoyle pronounced his qualms, but so too had double stopping, frantic jumps. I also enjoyed the role of the piano, and although I cannot pin point my exact attraction to its part, I do remember noting its presence, and the delicate yet pronounced, intellectual tone it brought to the conversation of the instruments. Brass and winds were overwhelming, I think to me as they always are, for their kind of louder, screeching qualities, but they were the characteristic of this piece, that which pronounced the offence, the effect of the words. The percussion was minimalist but lovely, providing a rumble, the electro-static underneath the tonal parts of the piece, keeping a rhythm and stopping only to blow the whistle between movements. Some parts of the piece weren’t live, but recorded. Aside from David’s video footage, a bossa nova track (which Venables described as “elevator music”) played in the sections before the entrances of the orchestra, often highlighting moments of condescension or humour throughout. Each movement came to its own climax, but most certainly, the hardest hitting crescendo was that in the third movement, queer assimilation, when Hoyle explored the concept of human beings having to demean themselves in an act of subjugation, “to beg for the right to be themselves,”, condemning any person who directly denies others the right and the dignity (or even supports the system that upholds it) of being themselves in the first place. The music became more and more frantic, dissonant, and pleading.      In the same way that Hoyle was protesting traditional or conservative ideas of gender and identity or political control of personal expression, so was Venables against the ideas of traditional, conservative music. Music, in comparison to the other art forms of theatre, dance, creative writing, sculpture and 3D art and two dimensional fine art, is a very conservative field. As a music major, and as a dabbler in music education, unless in the field, in an area where the teachers are experienced or come from similar schools, there is often a lead by younger students and even those in the profession that more strongly and vehemently defend traditional ensembles and genres than new popular and contemporary forms of compositions. So often do we exclude or deny digital music or popular genres of their legitimacy in academia, in the profession, that we alienate ourselves from the majority of musicians today (who are amateurs or self-taught, not involved in academia, and thoroughly or even casually entrenched in more exciting, faster moving, progressive areas). Music pedagogy (and education in general) in the UK is far more progressive, and to see these kinds of themes persist to acclaim here, was encouraging, to say the least. It might be rather obvious, but to see the parallel between the conservative art form of music to its fellow forms, to conservative politics and values to a population, was personally significant. I enjoyed the composer’s commentary on this part, and his further note that some musicians prefer to look at music as just music; an aesthetic, not a political vault. However, as an art form, it exists for expression, and should be encouraged as a medium for communication of these values.    Moreover, I realized sometime during the interview and the second performance of the piece, that this was not just only a testament to gender expression as a political issue, but also an affront to what offence really meant. Of course, there was a quote from Philip that I think rang true to the audience and stood out from his interview, that "If you’re more offended by a performance than the offensive concepts, then there is an issue,”, which is certainly true. But I think the entire perception of the offensiveness and abrasive qualities of the performance, although it was dissonant and chaotic, kind of lie in the mistaken understanding of what intended offence would be. As, to some extent, the purpose of the composition was not to offend, but to speak to a larger issue, to engage. In social justice communities, and especially in the queer community, calling people out for negative or mutually detrimental behaviour is a common phenomena, essential to positive discourse. What is called “tea” or “shade” or “drag” or whatever have you is simply a nod to expecting others in your community, in your diaspora, to cease withholding toxic behaviours and opinions often instilled by assimilative systems. To correct someone, to plea for their needed involvement and awareness, acceptance, is not offence, and should not be taken so. It is a necessary part of the conversation. To be corrected, very blatantly is to be loved, to be cared for, and invited into the discussion, and although at some times it can be seen as aggressive, being as informed and as unproblematic (or, moreso aware of your problematic tendencies, privileges, and effects on your perspective) as possible is to be a proactive member of discourse on any given subject, especially in scenes of rights, and of expression. It was an abrasive performance, absolutely—to downplay the inherent anger of the LGBTQ+ community in making these remarks would be to miss the point of the piece entirely. But I hesitate to call it even potentially offensive to those who are not in immediate agreement with Hoyle or Venables.    If possible later on, I would like to hear the recorded version of the piece, if it does change from the live performance, and how that effects the interaction between the pre-recorded material featuring Hoyle and the music of the ensemble. sources and further reading: Illusions - Philip Venables & David Hoyle  (Links to an external site.) Interview with Philip Venables about Music, Violence, and Text  (Links to an external site.) This post is also available here

Guided Excursion 3: Queer Tours of London

Following the steps of three activists from different phases of LGBTQ+ expression and community development, Stuart Feather, Dan Glass, and Lyndsay Burtonshaw, we explored a series of landmarks in central London significant to the Gay Liberation Front of the 1970’s, and received an intergenerational perspective of how these places and the queer community of London thereof, have changed.

In particular, we touched on the issue of visibility and accessibility of queer spaces (the change from clandestine underground languages such as polari and covert interactions such as cottaging/cruising, to open and active resistance and pride, and current open discussions about queer spaces, as well as the political influence ie section 28 and its effect on queer expression, and the relationship between digital and physical places of connection), the extensive stigmatization of the homosexual community at length (discussing the issue of W.H. Allen's publication of a homophobic book on sex, lack of existence of Lesbian-specific spaces in general, but very little about bisexual, trans*, or others), and the history of activism and revolution in the LGBT community (which was augmented certainly by each of the guides, although Stuart was an original member of the GLF in the 70's--more discourse about PRIDE as a protest, pinkwashing, trafalgar square, interrupting fundamentalist christian conferences, and contemporary issues, standing in front of Whitehall, the home of   Theresa May, who still is relatively homophobic).

I was surprised that even in such a large city as London, LGBTQ+ community spaces do not exist in permanence--and Lesbian resources, in particular, are even less common.

Guided Excursion 4: Brick Lane

The development of Art into popular market has historically, almost always encountered a delay of interest. There are mini paradigms, so to say, of what is considered aesthetically acceptable, let alone politically acceptable to portray, which is why many of the famous artists after the classical period, members of movements that seemed to be underground and under published, received far more posthumous acclaim than when they were living—Van Gogh is a prime example, as is Vermeer, Monet, Cezanne, Manet, and countless others. Recently, the half lives of pop culture seems to have become less and less lengthy, in the interest of entertaining new art forms, and perhaps too, in the interest of catching up to the forefront of artistic movements, something that is now possible in a digital age.That chase is especially relevant in the streets of East London today, where yet another marginalised form of artistic expression, graffiti writing (and the distilled street art), faces both vehement prosecution and pointed interest. Despite the fact that the artists themselves are usually youth (and usually, men) influenced by the culture itself, already marginalized and potentially harassed for their expression (as artistic, sensitive fields are not gendered towards boys growing up; graffiti and hiphop, in a way, are reflections on the artistic cultures of men, an attempt at expression through the filter of masculinity) The off-gassed physical expression of hip-hop culture is at the crossroads of the popular market, appreciating or appropriating the works, and a system that finds it still too revolutionary to the paradigm of acceptable aesthetic and political contemporary expression.    Although graffiti and street art have both been widely appreciated elsewhere, in the states, and even on a global scale supported to a wide degree (artists like Shepherd Ferry “OBEY”, Invader, Ronzo, Banksy, etc are internationally recognised and make quite a lot of money from the overground market), the place where individuals still seek to express their original ideas in the form of the original art is restricted. In part, because of the clash between the historically socioeconomically displaced neighbourhood there, and the growth of an illustrious business district that, understandably, seeks to expand. Not by adoption of the community, but by appropriation of the popular community inter actives and gentrification of the areas surrounding. On its side is the police and local government, which still holds graffiti artists accountable for up to £2,500 or 10 years in prison (if above the age of majority) or two years for minors age 12 to 17, under section one of the criminal act of 1971, regarding criminal damage and prosecution. That being said, not all sites are illegal to tag (Star Yard is one of those grey-areas, an open gallery)—but with increased security brought on by the financial district, and more pressure, financially, for surveillance to take place, the original significance of graffiti, to tag and write where the artist wanted as a means of communication with other artists, becomes harder to do.    That is, unless you’re commissioned or sanctioned to paint a piece—which changes your status from public enemy, to public servant. Larger pieces seen down fashion street or in Eli’s yard, painted or installed by more mainstream or popular artists. A local artist might too be asked to paint a local business’ building, but when this art piece becomes a permanent installation, the form of art changes, from Graffiti, and street art, to something else.    This implies a kind of sanctity to street art that isn’t necessarily a part of the original intent of the form. Graffiti and street art are recyclable—they’re a form of communication, after all. When someone tags, it stays until someone else can cover it with theirs, in a more elaborate way (as to show respect—a simple tag or stencil that interrupts the piece might not be the best idea)—it evolves. When a piece is worn down, another artist can build on top of it. But the newfound culture of appreciation of graffiti, of interpretation and projection of meanings that might not necessarily have been intended, is a part of the popular art culture (of museum art culture) that simply seems alien to street artists. Upon encountering a piece by artist Stik, who is of some relative popularity, we were told that he’s on occasion asked to return to the particular piece to touch it up and restore it—something that is never really thought to happen. In protest, a few other artists (including the main one in silver, Sony) have tagged over it—not in disrespect to Stik, so to say, but to those that keep the art up when it’s meant to expire—the tourists that apply themselves to the culture of capitalisation and gentrification that is threatening the art form in its place.

Guided Excursion 5: Seven Sins Cabaret

Cabarets are infamous for impromptu and enthralling performance—even moreso as their roots lie in risqué and raunch characteristic of saloons, bars, and the red light district of Paris at the turn of the twentieth century.  The Café de Paris exemplified that atmosphere, embodying the lush and dark and extravagant setting that would be a vaudeville-era club owner’s take on the circles of hell.    The show opened with a vibrant introduction from the house emcee, drag performer extraordinaire, Ruby Kaye, who entered in a bedazzled priest robe, smoky eye, and glittering lips. It was clear that the performance to follow would be a company of different but all the same extravagant, agent dancers and acts that presented seductive and powerful versions of their sins. I’d been a part of theatre before, but it’s been a while since I’d partaken in Cabaret (any theatre is really an interactive experience, never just a show, but the nature of Cabaret is far more intimate).    The show spoke to so much more than a spectacle of performers—it was empowerment, ownership of sexuality, through acts that stretched the limits of what it meant to be envious, gluttonous, greedy, wrathful, lustful, sloth, or proud.    When I tagged Ruby in an instagram post, they responded “Perform, Educate, Empower!” and I think that was really the takeaway from this entire experience

Guided Excursion 6: V&A LGBTQ+ Tour

the V&A contains the largest collection of artworks in England, with pieces sourced from local artists and nationally renowned creators to individuals from its previous and current territories and commonwealths and countries beyond. Not only are there paintings and two dimensional works for aesthetic and historic value, but also culturally significant statues, sculptures, models, jewellery, metallurgy, and functional furniture, jewellery, pottery & ceramic and stoneware, and more. It comes to no surprise that there are at least a few LGBTQ+ artists works on display in the museum, and even less of a surprise that there are culturally significant works from queer activist movements. With the fiftieth anniversary of the Sexual Offences Act on the horizon, and PRIDE just behind, the Victoria and Albert museum’s housing of these works and artists has become all the more relevant.    We started in the hall that housed a variety of plaster sculptures made of moulds of the greater works in history, standing at the feet of Michelangelo’s David, and were explained the main parameters by which artworks may be considered significant LGBTQ+ works, which in brief, fall under three distinct categories:

if there are obvious homosexual or queer themes that are apparent in the work,

if the creator identifies as an LGBTQ+ individual, either openly or in historic documents, OR

if the piece has been assumed or reappropriated by the LGBTQ+ community or various movements.

David, in particular, was a representative of all three. Not only is Michelangelo regarded as a gay figure in history, but so is david, in literature.    We continued from pottery focused on queer and punk iconography, to a japanese lacquered screen made by Eileen Gray, a bisexual woman who became a part of a queer artists collective at the turn of the twentieth century in Paris, to artworks featuring imagery of Sapho (famously known for homosexuality), modern art reflective of the AIDS crisis and acceptance of homosexuals before complete decriminalisation, iconography of recent movements involving liberation of minority groups that directly intersect with the issues of LGBTQ+ movements today: the 2016 olympic refugee flag, the design of the burkini (important for the widespread acceptance of muslim women & their agency), nude heels (multi-racial representation), among others, concluding the tour in the theatre collection, surrounded by the props, costumes, and artefacts representative of a place of expression and security, that inspired and held so many queer performers in its ranks.    The tour was not the most intriguing of all the excursions, as the V&A, although filled to the brim with artworks probably rich in queer history, we only stopped to see a few—I think in part due to the pace and separation of our group, which due to the size, wasn’t the most efficient in moving, or in gathering around exhibits. It was harder to hear, and had the groups been split up, there might have been time to see more or have a more in-depth conversation about the relationship between all of the artworks pointed out, or the historic art movements that prompted their craft.

Sources & further reading

Eileen Gray http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/e/eileen-gray/ (Links to an external site.)

Michelangelo http://www.uis.edu/lgbtqa/michelangelo/ (Links to an external site.)

V&A LGBTQ tour http://www.vam.ac.uk/blog/va-faces/why-the-va-gay-and-lesbian-tour-is-essential

Guided Excursion 7: Rock N Roll Tour

The twentieth century and arrival of the new popular genre (started by the african american diaspora as those individuals began to gain and fight for community spaces in the United States) was an effective revitalization of Britain's prowess in the world of music, comparable degree of Handel in the Baroque. In years prior, especially during the romantic era, French, German, and Italian musicians came to show the essential properties of the movement, but the wave to come in the 1960's through 80's would so too redefine popular musics, and the personalities and variance of identities that would make it up. From Beatles to Bowie, Pistols to Pink Floyd, Elton John, Rolling Stones, and Queen, the Rock N Roll tour of London explored both the streets and significant sites where these icons made their mark, and the very meaning of icon as it came to be in a new century of marketing and managing, setting new standards in show-business, producing the "image" of talent. This new portrayal, subject to the press and public attention, opened doors to new venues of creative and personal expression. Living such public lives, these musicians and showmen made statements on and off the stage. Private accounts and affairs were no longer so, and everything became objective—habits, performance—relationships. Sexuality and sex appeal contributed to certainly the success of these stars in a changing, more welcoming culture, but also changed the culture itself. When an artist used this venue to express a change, especially a deviance from social norm, it would generate media, support & disdain (attention is attention) and perhaps most importantly, allow a means of identification for queer youth (punk movement especially, but present in brit rock especially), and the normalization and destigmatization of queer culture.

[mdye]

WASHINGTON ― The discussion at the Center for American Progress’ “Ideas Conference” on Tuesday stuck mostly to the conventional Democratic script. But not Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.).

Other lawmakers and policy experts gathered at Washington’s Four Seasons Hotel focused on defending the Barack Obama-era status quo against President Donald Trump’s onslaught, rather than on proposing ambitious new ideas.

Warren’s speech stood out, both for its unabashed populism and for its bold proposals for rooting out the influence of money in politics and breaking up the business monopolies.

In her scathing remarks, Warren portrayed a Washington compromised by the largesse of big corporations and the ultra-rich long before Trump came to power.

“Over the past few decades, money has fundamentally re-ordered Washington. Money slithers through Washington like a snake,” she said.

The former bankruptcy law professor and originator of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau decried the “armies of lobbyists” that blanket the capital like a “plague of locusts” to shape legislation and the corporations that “bury public servants in an avalanche of nonsense” in their efforts to undermine regulations. 

She made an equally impassioned case against the current president, arguing that Trump had brought Beltway sleaze to new heights ― and violated key campaign promises in the process.

“The president did not invent these problems but, boy, has he made them worse,” Warren said.

“The CEO of Exxon Mobil is now the secretary of state. Goldman Sachs has enough people in the White House to open up a new branch office,” she quipped, drawing laughs from the crowd. “Do you get the feeling that if Bernie Madoff weren’t in prison, that he’d be in charge of the SEC right now?”

It is time to do what Teddy Roosevelt did: pick up the antitrust stick again. The stick has collected some dust, but the laws are still on the books.Sen. Elizabeth Warren

The policy component of Warren’s remarks addressed two main issues: eradicating the corrupting influence of money in politics and breaking up the modern-day monopolies that are padding their profits while distorting the economy.

Like many other Democrats, Warren called for overturning the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision that has allowed unlimited corporate cash to flow into the electoral system, as well as amending the Constitution to prevent such a decision from ever being made again.

Warren went further though, implying she sees state- and city-level experiments with public campaign financing as a critical part of the answer to cleaning up the corruption invited by massive private donations. She also called for ending the revolving door between industry and government jobs and for reforming the regulatory process to limit corporate influence.

Some of her proposals were clearly Trump-specific, including legislation that would compel the president and vice president to place their assets in a blind trust. Presidents and vice presidents have, for decades, voluntarily sold off any active business holdings, if they had them, and ceded control over their assets to an independent trust to avoid conflicts of interest. (Although Trump has handed over day-to-day management of his business empire to two sons, he has refused to sell his business interests or place his assets in a blind trust.)

But it was Warren’s detailed indictment of corporate consolidation and proposed crackdown on modern-day trusts that made her remarks truly novel for a senator speaking at an event sponsored by the think tank mostly closely associated with Democratic Party leadership.  

“In every corner of our economy, competition is increasingly choked off,” she said. “Airlines, banking, health care, pharma, agriculture, telecom, tech — in industry after industry, a handful of giant corporations control more and more and compete less and less.”

When companies control so much market share that they no longer worry about competition, consumers are hit with higher prices, innovators cannot make it to market and workers’ wages suffer, according to Warren.

Long known for demanding that the big banks be broken up, Warren invoked the legacy of the trust-busting president, Theodore Roosevelt, in extending her call to other industries. The Justice Department, the Federal Trade Commission and state attorneys general all have the legal power to force mega-corporations to split up where there is a reasonable case that they are obstructing real competition, she said.

“It is time to do what Teddy Roosevelt did: pick up the antitrust stick again. The stick has collected some dust, but the laws are still on the books,” Warren said.

There is virtually no chance of Warren’s proposals becoming law while Republicans control the White House and Congress.

Under Democratic rule, many of her ideas would undoubtedly be a tough sell as well based on recent experience. Critics accuse Obama of doing little to curb monopoly growth during his tenure, for example. 

But Warren is keenly attuned to progressive grassroots forces, who are demanding dramatic solutions to the challenges of concentrated wealth and rising inequality. Rather than focus too closely on Trump’s personal flaws and his campaign’s possible collusion with Russia, these liberal activists believe that exposing him as a corporate shill and offering a positive vision for economic growth are the only ways to defeat the GOP at the ballot box. When Democrats regain power again, these activists will have sweeping policy plans ready to be enacted and grassroots energy backing them.  

Their proposed new path for the party is supported by some poll evidence. Forty-two percent of Americans who voted for both Obama in 2012 and Trump in 2016 believe that the policies of current congressional Democrats favor the wealthy, according to an April survey conducted by the Democratic super PAC Priorities USA. Just 21 percent of that group see Trump’s policies in an equally dim light ― so far.

In devoting her remarks to the often overlooked but hugely consequential field of antitrust policy, in particular, Warren is helping to ease ideas germinating in think tanks into the political mainstream.

For years now, lax enforcement of antitrust laws has allowed smaller numbers of companies to dominate various industries. The total value of corporate mergers and acquisitions was greater in 2015 than any previous year on record. Some two-thirds of the 900 U.S. industries tracked by The Economist are now concentrated in the hands of fewer companies than they were in 1997.

This wave of consolidation has revived interest in antitrust regulations in liberal wonk circles, urged on by former business journalist Barry C. Lynn, director of the New America Foundation’s Open Markets program.

Whether or not she achieves a fraction of her most ambitious proposals, Warren could at least expand the bounds of acceptable political discourse so that more moderate ideas seem reasonable by comparison. On Tuesday, she encouraged her listeners to count their blessings: The public institutions needed to make the government accountable to the people still exist, even if they face growing threats.

“Concentrated money and concentrated power, they influence nearly every decision made in this town,” Warren said. “But capture is not complete ― at least not yet.”

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

[mavwrekmarketing]

WASHINGTON The discussion at the Center for American Progress Ideas Conference on Tuesday stuck mostly to the conventional Democratic script. But not Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.).

Other lawmakers and policy experts gathered at Washingtons Four Seasons Hotel focused on defending the Barack Obama-era status quo against President Donald Trumps onslaught, rather than on proposing ambitious new ideas.

Warrens speech stood out, both for its unabashed populism and for its bold proposals for rooting out the influence of money in politics and breaking up the business monopolies.

In her scathing remarks, Warren portrayed a Washington compromised by the largesse of big corporations and the ultra-rich long before Trump came to power.

Over the past few decades, money has fundamentally re-ordered Washington. Money slithers through Washington like a snake, she said.

The former bankruptcy law professor and originator of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau decried the armies of lobbyists that blanket the capital like a plague of locusts to shape legislation and the corporations that bury public servants in an avalanche of nonsense in their efforts to undermine regulations.

She made an equally impassioned case against the current president, arguing that Trump had brought Beltway sleaze to new heights and violated key campaign promises in the process.

The president did not invent these problems but, boy, has he made them worse, Warren said.

The CEO of Exxon Mobil is now the secretary of state. Goldman Sachs has enough people in the White House to open up a new branch office, she quipped, drawing laughs from the crowd. Do you get the feeling that if Bernie Madoff werent in prison, that hed be in charge of the SEC right now?

It is time to do what Teddy Roosevelt did: pick up the antitrust stick again. The stick has collected some dust, but the laws are still on the books. Sen. Elizabeth Warren

The policy component of Warrens remarks addressed two main issues: eradicating the corrupting influence of money in politics and breaking up the modern-day monopolies that are padding their profits while distorting the economy.

Like many other Democrats, Warren called for overturning the Supreme Courts Citizens United decision that has allowed unlimited corporate cash to flow into the electoral system, as well as amending the Constitution to prevent such a decision from ever being made again.

Warren went further though, implying she sees state- and city-level experiments with public campaign financing as a critical part of the answer to cleaning up the corruption invited by massive private donations. She also called for ending the revolving door between industry and government jobs and for reforming the regulatory process to limit corporate influence.

Some of her proposals were clearly Trump-specific, including legislation that would compel the president and vice president to place their assets in a blind trust. Presidents and vice presidents have, for decades, voluntarily sold off any active business holdings, if they had them, and ceded control over their assets to an independent trust to avoid conflicts of interest. (Although Trump has handed over day-to-day management of his business empire to two sons, he has refused to sell his business interests or place his assets in a blind trust.)

But it was Warrens detailed indictment of corporate consolidation and proposed crackdown on modern-day trusts that made her remarks truly novel for a senator speaking at an event sponsored by the think tank most closely associated with Democratic Party leadership.

In every corner of our economy, competition is increasingly choked off, she said. Airlines, banking, health care, pharma, agriculture, telecom, tech in industry after industry, a handful of giant corporations control more and more and compete less and less.

When companies control so much market share that they no longer worry about competition, consumers are hit with higher prices, innovators cannot make it to market and workers wages suffer, according to Warren.

Long known for demanding that the big banks be broken up, Warren invoked the legacy of the trust-busting president, Theodore Roosevelt, in extending her call to other industries. The Justice Department, the Federal Trade Commission and state attorneys general all have the legal power to force mega-corporations to split up where there is a reasonable case that they are obstructing real competition, she said.

It is time to do what Teddy Roosevelt did: pick up the antitrust stick again. The stick has collected some dust, but the laws are still on the books, Warren said.

Mary Schwalm/Reuters

Warren denounced the influence of money in politics and the trend toward corporate consolidation in a passionate speech at a Center for American Progress conference.

There is virtually no chance of Warrens proposals becoming law while Republicans control the White House and Congress.

Under Democratic rule, many of her ideas would undoubtedly be a tough sell as well based on recent experience. Critics accuseObama of doing little to curb monopoly growth during his tenure, for example.

But Warren is keenly attuned to progressive grassroots forces, who are demanding dramatic solutions to the challenges of concentrated wealth and rising inequality. Rather than focus too closely on Trumps personal flaws and his campaigns possible collusion with Russia, these liberal activists believe that exposing him as a corporate shill and offering a positive vision for economic growth are the only ways to defeat the GOP at the ballot box. When Democrats regain power again, these activists will have sweeping policy plans ready to be enacted and grassroots energy backing them.

Their proposed new path for the party is supported by some poll evidence. Forty-two percent of Americans who voted for both Obama in 2012 and Trump in 2016 believe that the policies of current congressional Democrats favor the wealthy, according to an April surveyconducted by the Democratic super PAC Priorities USA. Just 21 percent of that group see Trumps policies in an equally dim light so far.

In devoting her remarks to the often overlooked but hugely consequential field of antitrust policy, in particular, Warren is helping to ease ideas germinating in think tanks into the political mainstream.

For years now, lax enforcement of antitrust laws has allowed smaller numbers of companies to dominate various industries.The total value ofcorporate mergers and acquisitions was greaterin 2015 than any previous year on record. Some two-thirds of the 900 U.S. industries tracked by The Economist are now concentrated in the hands of fewer companies than they were in 1997.

This wave of consolidation has revived interest in antitrust regulations in liberal wonk circles, urged on by former business journalist Barry C. Lynn, director of the New America Foundations Open Markets program.

Whether or not she achieves a fraction of her most ambitious proposals, Warren could at least expand the bounds of acceptable political discourse so that more moderate ideas seem reasonable by comparison. On Tuesday, she encouraged her listeners to count their blessings: The public institutions needed to make the government accountable to the people still exist, even if they face growing threats.

Concentrated money and concentrated power, they influence nearly every decision made in this town, Warren said. But capture is not complete at least not yet.

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With Indian securities exchange having a fantasy run and the economy quickly govt job developing, work opening are additionally expanding by the day in the Indian market. Work opening now exist in all segments. This is pushing up compensations and bringing about workers pulling the shots. The Middle Class populace is always expanding alongside the extra cash levels. Subsequently, new shopping centers as likewise latest jobs shopping edifices have come up in metro urban areas as well as in littler towns and urban areas. This has brought about the retail division hurling an array of employment opportunities for all segments of populace in the fields of client care, deals, fund, coordinations and different ranges. Administration keeps on being the foundation of government vacancies every association. In this manner interest for expert directors in shopping centers and downtown areas is regularly expanding and high premium is offered to individuals having the correct degree, experience and ability. Sooner rather than later, the heft govt job of activity will be in level 2 urban areas as customers of these urban areas are progressively turning out to be increasingly Rating Most government occupations in which you apply for will send you a warning via the post office after the nearby out of the latest jobs employment opening declaration. Candidates will be given a numerical score for every employment they apply for. A few variables influencing the candidates score are: resume weight, KSA survey, veteran's inclination, incapacity rating, instruction, and now and again life partner inclination. government vacancies The higher your score the better your possibility at getting the occupation, it is imperative to give all important documentation when applying for employment opportunity declarations as inability to do as such can bring about deferrals in preparing or your application not being acknowledged by any means. Additionally guarantee govt job you submit documentation for each employment declaration you wish to apply for, regardless of the possibility that the candidate framework stores your resume or KSA's. rich. To satisfy their  KSA's KSA remains latest jobs for Knowledge, Skills and Abilities; these paper explanations are habitually required when applying to government employments. These are story or exposition articulations, which are much of the time required alongside a resume when applying government vacancies for government occupations. How well a candidate can demonstrate that he or she coordinates the position's characterized KSAs figures out if that individual will be truly considered for the occupation. You will probably get a high govt job capability positioning from the data gave on your. Catchphrases and expressions must emerge and bolster your application and foundation. On the off chance that you have never composed a KSA, I would prescribe playing out a Google look for KSA essayists. While picking a potential supplier hope to check whether the KSA scholars govt job offer an assurance, turnaround time, achievement rate and in the event that they offer cases not only the cost. In spite of the fact that the cost may appear to be expensive to some the arrival on venture is something that can't be exaggerated. quick needs of employment opening, organizations and associations take the assistance of stroll in meetings. As development and target accomplishment is the trendy expression in this day and age, numerous a circumstances organizations require staff for finishing their undertakings without prior warning. At such circumstances, it latest jobs is unrealistic to sit tight for the standard enrollment procedure to finish. Stroll in-meetings help to top off the hole in government vacancies accessibility of HR, handle the setback in focus on that has been anticipated, overhaul the objective and take care of unforeseen demand in administrations and items. Stroll in-meetings are led for occupation opening in the fields of advertising and deals, generation, operations and for freshers. Customarily, daily latest jobs papers and occupation magazines were the main wellspring of looking for employment opening however now the web has opened up a plenty of chances. It is the place the business meets the worker. Online meetings, talk sessions, discourse government vacancies discussions help the business discover the individual most ideal suited for the occupation. The worker also can scan for employment govt job opportunities sitting at home and does not have to go forward and backward for the correct occupation.

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latest jobs

preparing employments recorded, it is best to survey the employment posting depiction and apply by transferring latest jobs your resume and rounding out your KSA's. administration govt job work have drawn many individuals toward getting to be government representatives. US citizenship is required for most government occupations and Employment Opportunities. Law requirement, outskirt watch, and different governments vocations, citizenship and movement administrations, transportation government vacancies security organization employments are a couple of the classes of occupations that are accessible for the legislature. Employments are accessible across the country and abroad and extra development is anticipated because of late enactment. A huge number of national government occupations are promoted on any given day. latest jobs Be that as it may, not all administration employments are publicized on their site. nstruction Requirements govt job Most employments require a partner's degree or a four  year certification in spite of the fact that with the current economy many are requiring graduate degrees or more for certain occupation opportunities. Most government employments will likewise permit you to substitute occupation involvement government vacancies notwithstanding or set up of instruction necessities, it is essential to peruse the employment declaration and present the best possible documentation as per the employment opening declaration. Military Experience In the event that you feel your military latest jobs preparing was so particular you aren't fit the bill for anything outside your picked field, you may be totally off-base. Numerous veterans are under the feeling that they don't have the capabilities for specific occupations promoted on different employment sheets frequently disregarding govt job a portion of the "backhanded preparing" the got while in the military. For instance, a veteran may have had their essential set of working responsibilities be a Computer Operator however the same number of veterans know as you advance in rank you are given extra duties to include: preparing government vacancies and overseeing subordinates. In the event that a veteran looks for "PC Operator" occupations they may pass up a great opportunity for some administrator or Rating Most government occupations in which you apply for will send you a warning via the post office after the nearby out of the employment opening declaration. Candidates will be given a numerical score for every employment government vacancies they apply for. A few variables influencing the candidates score are: resume weight, KSA survey, veteran's inclination, incapacity rating, instruction, and now and again life partner inclination. The higher your score the better your possibility at getting the occupation, it is imperative to give all important documentation when applying for employment opportunity declarations as inability to do as such can bring about deferrals in preparing or your application not being acknowledged by any means. Additionally guarantee you govt job submit documentation for each employment declaration you wish to apply for, regardless of the possibility that the candidate framework stores your resume or KSA's. The world has latest jobs really turned into a worldwide town now with expanding globalization of economies and reconciliation of worldwide markets. National limits have now turned out to be useless and pointless. This has endowment and fare back. This has prompted to improvement government vacancies of various fare advancement gatherings and zones prompting to expanded employment opportunities. With Indian securities exchange having a fantasy run and the economy quickly developing, work opening are additionally expanding by the day in the Indian market. Work opening now exist in all segments. This is pushing up compensations and bringing about workers pulling the shots. KSA's KSA remains for Knowledge, Skills and Abilities; these paper undertakings without prior warning. At such circumstances, it is unrealistic to sit tight for the standard government vacancies enrollment procedure to finish. Stroll in-meetings help to top off the hole in accessibility of HR, handle the setback in focus on that has been anticipated, overhaul the objective and take care of unforeseen demand in administrations and items. Stroll in-meetings are led for occupation opening in the fields of advertising and deals, generation, operations and for freshers. Customarily, government vacancies daily papers and occupation magazines were the main wellspring of looking for employment opening however now the web has opened up a plenty of chances. It is the place the business meets the worker. Online meetings, talk sessions, discourse discussions help the business latest jobs discover the individual most ideal suited for the occupation. The worker also can scan for employment opportunities sitting at home and does not have to go forward and backward for the govt job correct occupation. Development work opening is especially regular nowadays with excessively numerous building and infrastructural ventures government vacancies happening. Finding the correct development employment is additionally a major test as there is a lot of rivalry in the occupation showcase. Be that as it may, a development profession can be an incredible alternative nowadays on the off chance that you are up to the difficulties postured by the employment. You can start via looking on the web and select the employment that would be most appropriate as per your abilities govt job and experience. Waitlist forthcoming development work sites prompted to expanded openings for work for now's childhood government vacancies as world exchange and worldwide participation has expanded new vistas for the youthful era. They are the ones who will pick up from this circumstance. As organizations are concentrating increasingly on elements like quality and cost advantage, worldwide exchange as a vocation alternative has picked up energy. A large group of employment opportunities are govt job open in this field now for every one of those experts who know the progression of exchange and business in global markets. What's more employment opportunities likewise exist in the fields of marketing, fare advancement, coordinations, marking, latest jobs administrative and back, deals and showcasing and client cooperation because of the open entryway progression approaches of Governments. The Indian Government, for instance, now gives motivating forces to advance fares in the way of You ought to short show latest jobs a few organizations publicizing for development work opportunity and show them. Your most solid option is go for a restricted hunt when you start seeking to get more engaged outcomes forthright. Contingent upon your aptitude and mastery, you can likewise look into sites that offer open doors in your specialty territory. government vacancies It could assemble development, streets or scaffolds as every development organization has its own particular operational territory. To better your development work prospects, look into spots where you can take in the employment. On the off chance that explanations are habitually required when applying to government employments. These are story or exposition articulations, which are much of the time required alongside govt job a resume when applying for government occupations. How well a candidate can demonstrate that he or she coordinates the position's characterized KSAs figures out if that individual will be truly considered for the occupation. You will probably get a high capability positioning from the data gave government vacancies on your. Catchphrases and expressions must emerge and bolster your application and foundation. On the off chance that you have never composed a KSA, I would prescribe latest jobs playing out a Google look for KSA essayists. While picking a potential supplier hope to check whether the KSA scholars offer an assurance, turnaround time, achievement rate and in the event that they offer cases not only the cost. In spite of the fact that the cost may appear to be expensive to some the arrival on venture is something that can't be govt job exaggerated. The Middle Class populace is always expanding alongside the extra cash levels. Subsequently, new shopping centers as likewise govt job shopping edifices have come up in metro urban areas as well as in littler towns and urban areas. This has brought about the retail division hurling an array of employment opportunities for all segments of populace in the fields of client care, deals, fund, coordinations and different ranges. Administration keeps on being the foundation of every association. In this manner interest for expert directors in shopping centers and downtown government vacancies areas is regularly expanding and high premium is offered to individuals having the correct degree, experience and ability. Sooner rather than later, the heft of activity will be in level 2 urban areas as customers of these urban areas are progressively turning out to be increasingly latest jobs rich. To satisfy their quick needs of employment opening, organizations and associations take the assistance of stroll in meetings. As development and target accomplishment is the trendy expression in this day and age, numerous a circumstances govt job organizations require staff for finishing their

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government vacancies

occupations they govt job may pass up a great opportunity for some administrator or preparing employments recorded, it is best to survey the employment posting depiction and apply by transferring your resume and rounding out your KSA's.employment opportunities sitting at home and does not have to go forward and backward for the correct occupation. Development work opening is especially regular nowadays with excessively numerous building and infrastructural ventures latest jobs happening. Finding the correct development employment is additionally a major test as there is a lot of rivalry in the occupation govt job showcase. Be that as it may, a development profession can be an incredible alternative nowadays on the off chance that you are up to the difficulties postured by the employment. You can start via looking on the web and select the employment that would be most appropriate government vacancies as per your abilities and experience. Waitlist forthcoming development work sites Employment latest jobs Opportunities. Law requirement, outskirt watch, and different governments vocations, citizenship and movement administrations, transportation security organization employments are a couple of the classes of occupations that are accessible for the legislature. Employments are accessible across the country and abroad and extra government vacancies development is anticipated because of late enactment. A huge number of national government occupations are promoted on any given day. Be that as it may, not all administration employments are publicized on their site. nstruction Requirements govt job Most employments require a partner's degree or a four year certification in spite of the fact that with the current economy many are requiring graduate degrees or more for certain occupation opportunities. Most government employments will likewise permit you to substitute occupation involvement notwithstanding or set up of instruction necessities, it is essential to peruse the employment declaration and present the best latest jobs possible documentation as per the employment opening declaration. Military govt job Experience In the event that you feel your military preparing was so particular you aren't fit the bill for anything outside your picked field, you may be totally off-base. Numerous veterans are under the feeling that they don't have the capabilities for specific occupations promoted on different employment sheets frequently disregarding a portion of the government vacancies "backhanded preparing" the got while in the military. For instance, a veteran may have had their essential set of working responsibilities be a Computer Operator however the same number of veterans know as you advance in rank you are given extra duties to include: preparing and overseeing subordinates. In the event that a veteran looks for "PC Operator" only the cost. In spite of the fact that the cost may appear to be expensive to some the arrival on venture is something that can't be latest jobs exaggerated. Rating Most government occupations in which you apply for will send you a warning via the post office after the nearby out of the employment opening declaration. Candidates will be given a numerical score for every employment they apply for. A few variables influencing the candidates score are: resume weight, KSA survey, veteran's inclination, incapacity government vacancies rating, instruction, and now and again life partner inclination. The higher your score the better your possibility at getting the occupation, it is imperative to give govt job all important documentation when applying for employment opportunity declarations as inability to do as such can bring about deferrals in preparing or your application not being acknowledged by any means. Additionally guarantee you submit documentation for each employment declaration you wish to apply for, regardless of the possibility that the candidate framework stores your resume or KSA's. The world has really latest jobs turned into a worldwide town now with expanding globalization of economies and reconciliation of worldwide markets. National limits have now turned out to be useless and pointless. This has prompted to expanded openings for work for now's childhood as world exchange and worldwide participation has expanded new vistas for the youthful era. They are the ones who will pick up from this circumstance. government vacancies As organizations are concentrating increasingly on elements like quality and cost advantage, worldwide exchange as a vocation alternative has picked up energy. A large group of employment opportunities govt job are open in this field now for every one of those experts who know the progression of exchange and business in global markets. KSA's KSA latest jobs remains for Knowledge, Skills and Abilities; these paper explanations are habitually required when applying to government employments. These are story or exposition articulations, which are much of the time required alongside a resume when applying for government occupations. How well a candidate can demonstrate that he or she government vacancies coordinates the position's characterized KSAs figures out if that individual will be truly considered for the occupation. You will probably get a high capability positioning from the data gave on your. Catchphrases and expressions must emerge and bolster govt job your application and foundation. On the off chance that you have never composed a KSA, I would prescribe playing out a Google look for KSA essayists. While picking a potential supplier hope to check whether the KSA scholars offer an assurance, turnaround time, achievement rate and in the event that they offer cases not What's more employment opportunities likewise exist in the fields of marketing, fare advancement, coordinations, marking, latest jobs administrative and back, deals and showcasing and client cooperation because of the open entryway progression approaches of Governments. The Indian Government, for instance, now gives motivating forces to advance fares in govt job the way of endowment and fare back. This has prompted to improvement of various fare advancement gatherings and zones prompting to expanded employment opportunities. With Indian securities exchange having a fantasy run and the economy quickly developing, work government vacancies opening are additionally expanding by the day in the Indian market. Work opening now exist in all segments. This is pushing up compensations and bringing about workers pulling the shots. The Middle govt job Class populace is always expanding alongside the extra cash levels. Subsequently, new shopping centers as likewise shopping edifices have come up in metro urban areas as well as in littler towns and urban areas. This has brought about the retail division hurling an array of employment opportunities for all segments of populace in the fields of latest jobs client care, deals, fund, coordinations and different ranges. Administration keeps on being the foundation of every association. In this manner interest for expert directors in shopping centers and downtown areas is regularly expanding and high premium is offered to individuals having the correct degree, experience and ability. Sooner rather than later, the heft of activity will be in level 2 urban areas as customers government vacancies of these urban areas are progressively turning out to be increasingly rich. To satisfy their quick needs of employment opening, organizations and associations take the assistance of stroll in meetings. As development and target accomplishment is the trendy expression in this day and age, numerous a circumstances organizations require staff for finishing their govt job undertakings without prior warning. At such circumstances, it is unrealistic to sit tight for the standard enrollment procedure to finish. Stroll in-meetings help to top off the hole in accessibility of HR, handle the setback in focus on that has been anticipated, overhaul the objective and take care of unforeseen demand in administrations and items. Stroll in-meetings are led for occupation latest jobs opening in the fields of advertising and deals, generation, operations and for freshers. Customarily, daily papers and occupation magazines were the main wellspring of looking for employment opening however government vacancies now the web has opened up a plenty of chances. It is the place the business meets the worker. Online meetings, talk sessions, discourse discussions help the business discover the individual most ideal suited for the govt job occupation. The worker also can scan for