#(since a Black man was actually elected president ~3 years later)

[t-dykery]

realizing that a big reason why i like house md so much is because in order to watch it it demands that you engage with it critically... everyone in the show sucks by design, they've all got numerous biases, you have to contend with all of that. you get to see messy opinions and feelings, you get to watch characters as their opinions develop and change (or don't), and you get to compare it all against what YOU think.

[woman-loving]

The “Homosexual Traitor” and US Anti-Gay Purges

Selection from The Deviant's War: The Homosexual vs. the United States of America, by Eric Cervini, 2020.

According to the Russians, Colonel Alfred Redl of the Austro-Hungarian Empire had slightly graying blond hair and a “greasy” outward appearance. He spoke “sugar-sweetly, softly.”

Beginning in 1901, Redl worked as a high official in Austria’s Evidenzbureau, where he single-handedly built its counterespionage program. He had more access to classified information than perhaps anyone else in the empire.

In Vienna, Redl’s homosexuality was an open secret. He often appeared at society events with his longtime “nephew,” and he maintained several other affairs. He had no reason to be fearful of exposure, since even the emperor’s brother enjoyed cross-dressing and the occasional army officer.

Redl closely guarded his work as a double agent, however. During his service in the Evidenzbureau, he offered Austrian war plans to the Italian military attaché in exchange for cash. An Italian intelligence officer later recalled it “required no effort” to recruit him. Redl simply mailed envelopes full of Austrian secrets and received thousands of krone in return.

He then began sending military plans to the Russians, too. Redl became fabulously wealthy, lavishing gifts on his lovers and driving two of the empire’s most expensive automobiles. For years, no one seemed to question how he afforded such extravagances on his government salary.

In May 1913, after Austrian counterintelligence officials intercepted a Russian letter containing six thousand krone, they staked out the Vienna post office to identify its recipient. They were appalled to discover Redl.

The army wanted to keep the matter quiet, since public knowledge of treachery at such a high level would have been a profound humiliation. After following him to his hotel, Redl’s own protégé handed him a pistol. Army officials always maintained that Redl voluntarily took his life.

News of the colonel leaked, fact became intertwined with fiction, and the myth of the homosexual traitor came into being. A Berlin newspaper described Redl’s “homosexual pleasure palace, filled with perversities.” The Austrian Army needed a scapegoat for the 1.3 million casualties in that first year of World War I, so it blamed Redl and the larger, more insidious “homosexual organization” that protected him within the military.

Three years later, when a young Allen Dulles, the future CIA director, arrived in Vienna to work at the U.S. embassy, he found everyone still whispering about the homosexual spy who had lost the First World War for the empire.

By the end of World War II, America had become a more open place for homosexuals, but they also confronted novel threats conjured by a political coalition that exploited the uncertainty of the new world order. In 1945, only months before President Roosevelt died, Republicans and Southern Democrats formed the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC). In the 1946 midterm election, after Republicans pledged to “ferret out” threats to the “American way of life,” they won the first congressional majority in sixteen years.

In March 1947, President Truman established the Federal Employee Loyalty Program, and the government began investigating its employees to determine their loyalty. Three months later, the Democrat-controlled Senate Committee on Appropriations warned about “the extensive employment in highly classified positions of admitted homosexuals, who are historically known to be security risks.” The committee empowered the secretary of state with “absolute discretion” to purge employees, including homosexuals, who threatened national security.

In September 1949, America learned that the Soviet Union had detonated its first nuclear weapon. In October, eleven Communist leaders were convicted for advocating a violent revolution in America, and in December, China fell to the Communists.

On January 21, 1950, a jury convicted suspected spy Alger Hiss of perjury.

On February 3, authorities arrested physicist Klaus Fuchs for nuclear espionage.

And on February 9, Junior Senator Joe McCarthy stood before a women’s club in Wheeling, West Virginia, and announced, “I have here in my hand a list of 205—a list of names that were made known to the Secretary of State as being members of the Communist Party and who nevertheless are still working and shaping policy in the State Department.”

Nobody else had seen the list. When reporters caught him at an airport and demanded to see it, he offered to show them—then realized he had left it in his baggage. His number of alleged Communists soon changed from 205 to 57. “Rarely,” The Washington Post declared, “has a man in public life crawled and squirmed so abjectly.”

On the evening of February 20, McCarthy arrived on the Senate floor with an overstuffed briefcase that purportedly contained his list of Communist-linked security risks in the State Department. For six hours, he provided a warped summary of eighty-one cases, relying on unproven allegations from a three-year-old congressional investigation. “In short, the speech was a lie,” concluded historian Robert Griffith.

Two of the cases involved alleged homosexuals, who were “rather easy blackmail victims,” explained McCarthy. It was a shrewd maneuver: what editorial board or politician would dare argue that sexual deviants belonged in the federal government?

McCarthy would later recuse himself from hearings on the issue of homosexuals in the government. At forty-one, the senator was unmarried, and the issue raised questions about his own sexuality.

Other Republicans took the lead. A week after McCarthy’s Senate speech, his colleagues coerced Deputy Undersecretary of State John Peurifoy, a security official testifying in defense of his department, into making a startling admission. In only three years, he admitted, ninety-one homosexual employees had resigned upon investigations under Truman’s loyalty program.

And with that, as the New York Post referred to it, the “Panic on the Potomac” began. Conservative newspapers leapt upon the admission. Congress scheduled hearings. Homosexuality, observed a columnist on Meet the Press, became “a new type of political weapon” that could “wreck the Administration.” The chief of the Washington Vice Squad testified there were “3,750 perverts employed by government agencies.” Republican senator Kenneth Wherry alleged the Soviets were using a list of American homosexuals—originally compiled by Hitler—to blackmail federal employees for government secrets. Washington, he said, faced an “emergency condition.”

The Senate committee tasked with solving the homosexual problem, led by Democrat Clyde Hoey of North Carolina, began closed hearings in July. Admiral Roscoe Hillenkoetter, the director of the government’s new Central Intelligence Agency, testified first. He arrived with a thirty-eight-page statement, and ten of those pages chronicled a “classic” case, one “known all through intelligence circles,” an example that would leave “no doubt as to the fact that perversion presents a very definite security risk.”

Of all the intelligence available to the CIA, its director chose to rest his case against homosexuals on the forty-year-old story of Colonel Redl. In Hillenkoetter’s retelling, Redl had been an “honest” man who found himself in an imperial army with unforgiving policies against homosexuality. The Russians hired a young newsboy, who “became very intimate” with Redl. Next, they broke into the colonel’s room and caught him in an “act of perversion.” After threatening to expose him, the Russians gained copies of the Austrian war plans prior to the outbreak of violence.

And so a single urban legend, the telling of which was almost entirely, verifiably inaccurate (in fact, a 1907 Russian diplomatic cable had falsely labeled Redl “a lover of women”) became the primary piece of evidence that guided federal employment policy toward homosexuals for decades to come.

The CIA director then explained the “general theory as to why we should not employ homosexuals or other moral perverts in positions of trust.” He gave thirteen reasons to the senators.  

1.  Homosexuals experience emotions “as strong and in fact actually stronger” than heterosexual emotions.   2.  Homosexuals are susceptible “to domination by aggressive personalities.”   3.  Homosexuals have “psychopathic tendencies which affect the soundness of their judgment, physical cowardice, susceptibility to pressure, and general instability, thus making a pervert vulnerable in many ways.”   4.  Homosexuals “invariably express considerable concern” about concealing their condition.   5.  Homosexuals are “promiscuous” and often visit “various hangouts of his brethren,” marking “a definite similarity to other illegal groups such as criminals, smugglers, black-marketeers, dope addicts, and so forth.”   6.  Homosexuals with “outward characteristics of femininity—or lesbians with male characteristics—are often difficult to employ because of the effect on their co-workers, officials of other agencies, and the public in general.”   7.  Homosexuals who think they are discreet are, in reality, “actually quite indiscrete [sic]. They are too stupid to realize it, or else due to inflation of their ego or through not letting themselves realize the truth, they are usually the center of gossip, rumor, derision, and so forth.”   8.  Homosexuals who try “to drop the ‘gay’ life and go ‘straight’ … eventually revert to type.”   9.  Homosexuals are “extremely vulnerable to seduction by another pervert employed for that purpose by a foreign power.” 10.  Homosexuals are “extremely defiant in their attitude toward society,” which could lead to disloyalty. 11.  “Homosexuals usually seem to be extremely gullible.” 12.  Homosexuals, including “even the most brazen perverts,” are constantly suppressing their instincts, which causes “considerable tension.” 13.  Homosexuals employed by the government “lead to the concept of a ‘government within a government.’ That is so noteworthy. One pervert brings other perverts. They belong to the lodge, the fraternity. One pervert brings other perverts into an agency … and advance them usually in the interest of furthering the romance of the moment.”

The testimony of subsequent intelligence officials echoed that of the CIA director, and the Hoey committee’s final report primarily drew from the testimony of its lead witness, sometimes verbatim. As the Hoey report concluded, homosexuals were ipso facto security risks. Colonel Redl remained its only example.

Hillenkoetter’s thirteen principles became official government doctrine. The government incorporated the Hoey report into its security manuals, forwarded it to embassies, and shared it with its foreign allies. “The notion that homosexuals threatened national security,” explains historian David Johnson, “received the imprimatur of the U.S. Congress and became accepted as official fact.” When the federal government needed to justify its homosexual purges, it simply pointed to the Hoey report.

Dwight D. Eisenhower won the presidency in 1952 with the help of the slogan “Let’s Clean House” and whispers that his opponent, Adlai Stevenson, had homosexual tendencies. Three months after his inauguration, Eisenhower signed Executive Order 10450, which expanded the government’s purging authority—originally given to the State Department—to all federal agencies. Any employee who exhibited “criminal, infamous, dishonest, immoral, or notoriously disgraceful conduct” had no place in the federal bureaucracy. With a Republican in the White House, the purges became less of a spectacle and more of a quiet, well-oiled machine. In Eisenhower’s 1954 State of the Union, he boasted of removing 2,200 security risks in only a year.

McCarthy’s downfall came later that year, but the purges remained alive, as did the rumors that always seemed to saturate America’s capital. After two Republican senators learned that the son of Senator Lester Hunt of Wyoming, a Democrat, had been arrested in Lafayette Park, they gave Hunt a choice. He could withdraw from his 1954 reelection campaign or face the publicity of his son’s homosexual arrest. The Senate was virtually tied. If Hunt resigned, he risked shifting power to the Republicans.

On the morning of June 19, 1954, Senator Hunt, a straight victim of antigay political blackmail, entered his Capitol office and shot himself with a .22-caliber rifle.

[somethingusefulfromflorida]

Losing candidates of the last 60 years

1960: Richard Nixon, Vice President (1953 - 1961), unsuccessfully ran for governor of California in 1962 after which he threw a piss baby shit fit press conference where he vowed to retire from politics, but rescinded that vow to run for president again in 1968, this time successfully because the Democratic vote was split between liberal northerner Hubert Humphrey and conservative southerner George Wallace (Nixon won with 43.4% of the vote, a record low not broken until Bill Clinton with 43.0% in 1992)

1964: Barry Goldwater, Senator from Arizona (1953 - 1965, 1969 - 1987), segregationist, staunch "states rights" activist, mentor to Ronald Reagan, father of modern conservatism, retired in the 80s, replaced by the more moderate John McCain

1968: Hubert Humphrey, Vice President (1965 - 1969), former senator from Minnesota (49 - 64) father of modern liberalism, would be considered a progressive by today's standards, pro-civil rights, later re-elected to the senate (71 - 78, died in office).

1968b: George Wallace, governor of Alabama (63 - 67), staunch segregationist, made Barry Goldwater look like MLK, famously stood on the school house door to try and stop integration, didn't let black people vote, nearly assassinated in 1972, paralyzed, continued serving as governor (71 - 79, 83 - 87), renounced racism later in life, claimed he was never truly racist, just pretended to be because he supported "states rights" (bullshit). Most recent third-party candidate to win a state.

1972: George McGovern, senator from South Dakota (63 - 81), lost every state but Massachusetts and DC, in part because President Nixon cheated (Watergate scandal, Nixon hired goons to wiretap DNC and steal intel from their HQ, forged a letter to discredit strong candidate Edmund Muskie to he would drop out and give the nomination to weak McGovern, tried to plant McGovern's campaign literature in Wallace's assassins apartment so conservative southerners would associate the attack with the Democratic Party and vote for Nixon instead)

1976: Gerald Ford, President (74 - 77), Republican House leader (65 - 73), became VP in 73 after Spiro Agnew resigned due to a bribery scandal. Democrats controlled Congress, so Nixon nominated Ford because he was a popular bipartisan mediator who the Democrats wouldn't object to, became president when Nixon himself resigned due to Watergate (Ford is the only president who was never elected to the presidency of vice presidency), started out super popular but tanked his credibility when he pardoned Nixon for his crimes

1980: Jimmy Carter, President (77 - 81), governor of Georgia (71 - 75), elected as a Washington outsider, humble peanut farmer, boring, malaise, fumbled Iran thrice (the revolution, recession, and hostage crisis), lost re-election to actor turned governor Ronald Reagan (segregationist Goldwater's protege; started his career giving anti-union speeches in the 60s despite being the president of the Screen Actor's Guild, a major union), had a much more successfully post-presidency than presidency, Habitat for Humanity, philanthropy

1984: Walter Mondale, Vice President (77 - 81), Senator from Minnesota (64 - 76), protege and successor to Hubert Humphrey, decent man, very boring, lost every state but Minnesota and DC, would later become ambassador to Japan under Clinton (93 - 96)

1988: Michael Dukakis, governor of Massachusetts (75 - 79, 83 - 91), army specialist (55 - 57), rode in a tank wearing a bullet proof vest and doofy headphones, looked like an idiot, actually polled ahead of VP Bush for a while, forgettable

1992: George HW Bush, President (89 - 94), VP (81 - 89), relatively moderate before becoming Reagan's VP (referred to trickle down as "voodoo economics"), said "read my lips, no new taxes," then raised taxes, oversaw Gulf War, sent the troops in, Iraq retreated without a fight, war was over in a couple days. Didn't invade Iraq, didn't topple Saddam; his son claims this is why he lost re-election, so he invaded Iraq and toppled Saddam in 2003, to finish what his daddy started. Faced opposition from both Democrats under Clinton and Independents under Perot; Perot didn't win a single state, but took 19% of the vote, the strongest third-party campaign all century

1992b: Ross Perot, businessman, independent, very strong candidate, qualified for debates with the major party candidates, closest thing to a 3-way race we've had since Teddy Roosevelt in 1912 (Wallace won some states in 68, but only had regional appeal; he was only on the ballot in the South, only conservatives liked him, whereas Perot was a nationwide spoiler)

1996: Bob Dole, senator from Kansas (69 - 96) senate majority leader (85 - 87, 95 - 96), fought in WW2, has a bum arm, the senate's version of Newt Gingrich, helped defeat Clinton's healthcare plan (he's part of the reason we can't have nice things). He was VP candidate under Ford in 76; Ford's VP Rockefeller was too liberal (yes, liberal Republicans used to exist, just as conservative Democrats exist), so Ford replaced him with the conservative Dole to appeal to Nixon and Reagan voters (Reagan almost unseated Ford in 76 for the nomination)

1996b: Ross Perot again, Reform Party, didn't get nearly as much support this time around (only 8.4%)

2000: Al Gore, Vice President (93 - 01), senator from Tennessee (85 - 93), very boring, but competent, actually won the election but Bush's brother was governor of Florida and illegally stopped the recount, delaying it until it was too late to restart it (subsequent investigation shows Gore would have won the recount and therefore the presidency), used his post-VP career to be a climate change advocate

2004: John Kerry, senator for Massachusetts (1985 - 2013), unremarkable but competent, lost because Bush started 2 wars and the country didn't want to change horses midstream, later became Secretary of State under Obama (13 - 17), and climate envoy under Biden (a position Biden made up to try and appeal to green advocates, but it doesn't really mean anything because he opposes the green new deal)

2008: John McCain, senator from Arizona (1987 - 2018, died in office), succeeded Goldwater but not nearly as conservative (at least, not a segregationist; he defended Obama as "a good man" when a Karen called him an Arab, got booed for it), Vietnam veteran, war monger (wanted to bomb Iran after Bush bombed Iraq and Afghanistan), actually saved healthcare by voting against Trump and McConnell's Obamacare repeal (he didn't support Obamacare, he just didn't want millions of Americans to lose their insurance; the Republicans didn't have a replacement plan, they were solely dedicated to getting rid of Obama's)

2012: Mitt Romney, governor of Massachusetts (03 - 07), relative moderate (Massachusetts is the bluest state in the country), super Mormon, hates poor people, kind of racist in a grandfatherly way ("oh, peepaw doesn't hate black people, he just grew up in a different era"), once wore brown face to try and appear tan to Hispanic voters, later became senator from Utah (2019 - present), first senator to ever vote to convict a president of their own party in impeachment (twice!)

2016: Hillary Clinton, Secretary of State (09 - 13), senator from New York (01 - 09), First Lady (93 - 01), boring gramma, disingenuous, moderate but pretends to be progressive, wasn't responsible for Benghazi but blamed for it anyway, out of touch, thinks she's the hottest shit since sliced bread, coasted to second place because she thought she didn't have to try, thought she deserved to be President, actually won the popular vote, but lost the electoral college because of low voter turnout, high third-party media coverage, and a major rightward swing in the Rust Belt

2020: Donald Trump, president (17 - 21), no prior experience, dumbest person to ever hold the office (makes George W Bush look like. Rhode's Scholar), diet Fascist: all the ideology, none of the appeal (fascists are usually good speakers, but Trump only had a base of about 35 - 40% of the country, which he couldn't grow, so instead he tried to shrink the opposition by attacking voting rights and calling the election fraudulent), super racist, super sexist, petty, vindictive, cruel, childish, spent the first two years just undoing everything Obama did for no other reason than he just hated the man (there are legitimate reasons to hate Obama, but Trump chose racism and jealousy over valid criticism), first president to be impeached twice, first president to have members of his own party vote to convict him, had a cult-like following among Republicans, close to zero support from everyone else

2024: TBD

[tes-trash-blog]

🌙 hmm... an age old question but opinion on the whole Imperials Vs Stormcloaks fiasco Skyrim tried to feed us?

*cracks neck*

Goodbye follower count, I’m going in!

I’m going to preface this with a confession: In my first ever playthrough of Skyrim (2014), I did side with the Imperials. On my second, I sided with the Stormcloaks. Since then, I have done three more playthroughs on the Stormcloak side, and three more on the Imperial side. In four more still my Dragonborn was neutral, slaying Alduin without ever taking a side. In my playthroughs, especially the ones after 2016, I’ve developed my own opinions about the Imperials and Stormcloaks alike.

In order to better articulate my opinion, we must first briefly examine four factors: the American landscape in which Skyrim was conceived, Skyrim itself and its portrayal of the Imperials and Stormcloaks (and the Thalmor), and Umberto Eco, the usage of terms like “fascism” and especially “Nazism” in American popular culture, and how this all relates to the Imperial/Stormcloak fiasco.

So let’s get started.

Part 1: Thanks, Obama.

In 2008, Barack Obama was elected as the 44th President of the United States. It was a landslide victory against Republican runner John McCain, a conserative who frequently brought up his service in the Vietnam War (and his time as a prisoner of war) during his campaign, as well as his years of service in political office. In a move to make his (very white, very male) campaign seem more inclusive in the face of the frontrunners of the Democratic campaign (Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama), he appointed Sarah Palin as his VP. She was the only conservative woman who agreed to be his running mate, as all three  conservative women in the Senate already said no, and the Republicans couldn’t find a black conservative.

(I’m not making this up.)

Anyway, come 2008, the conservatives lose their goddamn minds because Bush’s reign of actual terror was over, a Black man is now President and Whiteness is in peril. This was before the term “triggered” became a popular sneer in the conservative dictionary, but “snowflake” was used a lot. Come 2009, the Tea Party emerges. And now we get to the crux of my, uh, observation.

For the young, uninitiated, or non-Americans who are thinking “What the fuck is wrong with America”, the Tea Party Movement was/is a rash of hardline rightwingers who, still licking their wounds from a sound beating by the Democrats in the 2008 election, sought to rebrand themselves. With some bootstrap lifting and millions of dollars in funding from media tycoons such as the Koch brothers, the Tea Party made its official debut in 2010 after the signing of the Affordable Healthcare Act. Their message was simple: It’s time to take America back from the lazy, the entitled, and the “uppity”. What was really just a rehash of a song and dance that’s been turning its ugly white head since at least 1964 gained something of a stranglehold on America, in spite of its relatively small size of active members. It hit all the notes: a populist movement rooted in the perceived threats to their faith, their culture, and their social and economic capital.

They also believed shit like this:

For instance, Tea Partiers are more likely than other conservatives to agree with statements such as “If blacks would only try harder they could be just as well off as whites,” and are more likely to disagree with statements like “Generations of slavery and discrimination have created conditions that make it difficult for blacks to work their way out of the lower class.” (Williamson, 34)

Like I said. Since 1964.

What made the Tea Party different from the other conservative temper tantrums was one thing: Internet access. All of a sudden, these angry white men had an outlet for voicing their rages, and an open recruiting forum for other malcontents and disaffected youths. I’m not implying the Tea Party had anything to do with Gamergate, nor that Gamergate had anything to do with the rise of the alt-right or whatever these tennybopper neo-Nazis are calling themselves now, but I am saying those circles at least touch in a Venn diagram.

“But tes-trash-blog! What do the machinations of American politics have to do with Elves?” you may ask. Well dear reader, this leads me to..

Part 2: Hey, you! You’re finally awake!

Skyrim was an overnight hit. On release, The Elder Scrolls 5 generated 450 million dollars on its opening weekend alone. This game sold for around 20 million copies, not including Special Edition, VR, or Switch, and continues to see an average of around 10,000 players a week 9 years later (Steamcharts).

And 20 million people see one thing first: A strong, noble Nord in captivity, telling you that you’re on your way to be executed by the Imperials, who are in bed with a scary, sneering bunch of High Elves dressed in black.  20 million people already were told who was the clear bad guy in this game, and it wasn’t the strong, noble Nord in captivity. I’ll be going into this more into Part 3, but suffice to say, the Imperials were already coded as Bad Guy by association. The Imperials decided to execute you, the player. They shot a man in the back because he ran from his own execution. He stole a horse, which was a crime punishable by death in those days. The game doesn’t tell you that part, and is content to say that Lokir was killed because he was in the same cart as the Stormcloaks.

Speaking of Imperials, the Third Empire is written as obtuse, corrupt, uncaring, and cruel. The Septim Dynasty is wrought with scandal and intrigue, plagued by conflict, and powerless to do anything about the Oblivion Crisis that almost ended the world. They flat out abandoned Morrowind and Summerset to better protect their own, offered no help during the Void Nights that destabilized the Khajiit, and worst of all, signed a treaty outlawing Talos worship. That is the crux on which the Stormcloak/Imperial conflict lies. These damned outsiders telling these humble Nords what to do and what not to do. They’re corrupt, lazy, and know nothing of the hardships these people endure, and now the nanny state Empire is telling them they don’t have the freedom to worship what they want? How dare they!

Going further, in the seat of Imperial power in Skyrim is none other than Jarl Elisif, a young widow who relies heavily on the advice of her (overwhelmingly male) thanes, stewards, and generals. She’s weak, thinks mostly of her dead husband, and is written as someone who overreacts to scenarios; the “legion of troops” to Wolfskull Cave over a farmer reporting strange noises, banning the Burning of King Olaf in the wake of her husband’s murder via Shout come to mind. Compare and contrast that to the seat of Stormcloak power, Windhelm. Ulfric spends his time pouring over the map of troop movements and discussing strategy when he’s not delivering his big damn “Why I Fight” speech. Elisif is weak, Ulfric is strong. The Jarl of Solitude is even told to tone it down during the armistice negotiations in Season Unending. She’s chastised by her own general. The first thing you see in Solitude is a man being executed for opening a gate. The first thing you see in Windhelm is two Nords harassing a Dark Elf woman and accusing her of being an Imperial spy.

Both are portrayed as horrific, but only one has bystanders decrying the acts of the offender. Only one has a relative in the crowd proclaim, “That’s my brother [they’re executing]!” The best you get with Suvaris is her confronting you about whether or not you “hate her kind”. Even a mouth breathing racist would be disinclined to say “yes” when confronted with the question of whether or not they’re racist, but that’s how the writers of Skyrim think racism works.

I acknowledge that this was an attempt at bothsidesism, but the handling was.. clumsy.

Part 3: Ur-Fascism, Or How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Bash The Stormcloaks

And now we move on to Umberto Eco, fiction writer, essayist, and writer of the famous essay Ur-Fascism. In short, Eco summarizes 14 separate properties of a fascist movement; it’s important to stress that this should not be treated as a checklist if a piece of media is fascist, or if a person is actually a Nazi, or to say “X is Bad Because Checklist”. It’s frankly impossible to even organize these points into a coherent system, as fascism is an ideology that is, by its nature, incoherent.

With that in mind, let’s run down the points:

1. “The Cult of Tradition”, characterized by cultural syncretism, even at the risk of internal contradiction. When all truth has already been revealed by Tradition, no new learning can occur, only further interpretation and refinement.

2. “The Rejection of Modernism”, which views the rationalistic development of Western culture since the Enlightenment as a descent into depravity. Eco distinguishes this from a rejection of superficial technological advancement, as many fascist regimes cite their industrial potency as proof of the vitality of their system.

3. “The Cult of Action for Action’s Sake”, which dictates that action is of value in itself, and should be taken without intellectual reflection. This, says Eco, is connected with anti-intellectualism and irrationalism, and often manifests in attacks on modern culture and science.

4. “Disagreement Is Treason” – Fascism devalues intellectual discourse and critical reasoning as barriers to action, as well as out of fear that such analysis will expose the contradictions embodied in a syncretistic faith.

5. “Fear of Difference", which fascism seeks to exploit and exacerbate, often in the form of racism or an appeal against foreigners and immigrants.

6. “Appeal to a Frustrated Middle Class”, fearing economic pressure from the demands and aspirations of lower social groups.

7. “Obsession with a Plot” and the hyping-up of an enemy threat. This often combines an appeal to xenophobia with a fear of disloyalty and sabotage from marginalized groups living within the society (such as the German elite’s ‘fear’ of the 1930s Jewish populace’s businesses and well-doings, or any anti-Semitic conspiracy ever).

8. Fascist societies rhetorically cast their enemies as “at the same time too strong and too weak.” On the one hand, fascists play up the power of certain disfavored elites to encourage in their followers a sense of grievance and humiliation. On the other hand, fascist leaders point to the decadence of those elites as proof of their ultimate feebleness in the face of an overwhelming popular will.

9. “Pacifism is Trafficking with the Enemy” because “Life is Permanent Warfare” – there must always be an enemy to fight. Both fascist Germany under Hitler and Italy under Mussolini worked first to organize and clean up their respective countries and then build the war machines that they later intended to and did use, despite Germany being under restrictions of the Versailles treaty to NOT build a military force. This principle leads to a fundamental contradiction within fascism: the incompatibility of ultimate triumph with perpetual war.

10. “Contempt for the Weak”, which is uncomfortably married to a chauvinistic popular elitism, in which every member of society is superior to outsiders by virtue of belonging to the in-group. Eco sees in these attitudes the root of a deep tension in the fundamentally hierarchical structure of fascist polities, as they encourage leaders to despise their underlings, up to the ultimate Leader who holds the whole country in contempt for having allowed him to overtake it by force.

11. “Everybody is Educated to Become a Hero”, which leads to the embrace of a cult of death. As Eco observes, “[t]he Ur-Fascist hero is impatient to die. In his impatience, he more frequently sends other people to death.”

12. “Machismo”, which sublimates the difficult work of permanent war and heroism into the sexual sphere. Fascists thus hold “both disdain for women and intolerance and condemnation of nonstandard sexual habits, from chastity to homosexuality.”

13. “Selective Populism” – The People, conceived monolithically, have a Common Will, distinct from and superior to the viewpoint of any individual. As no mass of people can ever be truly unanimous, the Leader holds himself out as the interpreter of the popular will (though truly he dictates it). Fascists use this concept to delegitimize democratic institutions they accuse of “no longer represent[ing] the Voice of the People.”

14. “Newspeak” – Fascism employs and promotes an impoverished vocabulary in order to limit critical reasoning.

I did copy and paste the list from Wikipedia, but you can read the full essay here. It’s 9 pages long. You can do it, I have faith in you.

You may notice that you can’t really shorthand these concepts, or at least not in an aesthetically pleasing way. However, you can point to the most infamous of fascist regimes and take their aesthetic instead. You see it in Star Wars with the Empire (hmm) and the First Order, in Star Trek with the Mirrorverse and the Cardassian Dominion (hmm), and in the.. Oh, it’s on the tip of my tongue..

Oh, yeah. The Thalmor. They dress in dark colors, are a foreign power trying to exert their influence on the downtrodden Nord, enact purges, and scream about Elven superiority. The Thalmor express every surface level perception of a Nazi in American popular culture. TVTropes has already pretty well covered this ground in their Video Games section of A Nazi By Any Other Name, so I won’t go too much into here seeing as I’m already at the 2000 word mark. Suffice to say, it’s hard to think Bethesda wasn’t trying to make the player associate the 4th Era Altmer with the 1930’s German.

And in doing so, they accidentally created a group that is.. Well, you’ve read the essay or at least the 14 points. Try and tell me how many of them don’t apply to Nordic culture. What grabs me the most are points 9, 11, and 13: life is a perpetual struggle in which you must emerge victorious, a culture of Heroes impatient to die in a glorious fashion, and the Common Will that is enacted and reinforced by one strongman leader. You see these elements in play in Nord culture, in Stormcloak ideology especially. I, for one, hear what Galmar really means when he says “We will make Skyrim beautiful again”. I hear the echoes in George W Bush’s speeches and McCain’s campaign when Ulfric talks of duty and service, of “fighting because Skyrim needs heroes, and there’s no one else but us.”

It’s less of a dog whistle and more of a foghorn if you ask me. And to go back to part 2, this is a message that 20 million played. Not all of them are Stormcloak stans, but that compelling message was still present. Americans love being a strongman hero in their media; we eat that shit up. The setup was enough: you’re a lone hero about to be executed by milquetoast Imperials and Nazi-coded Thalmor. The story was enough: a strong man rebels against a system gone awry, one that seeks to destroy his way of life. 

It was enough to compel a “fashwave” artist to take on the monkier Stormcloak(Hann). It was enough that Skyrim was lauded as a “real” game instead of say, Depression Quest, and to justify ruining a game developer’s life over it.

It was enough that when Skyrim came out in 2011, the game did not do so well in Germany because of these elements, because the game was written for you to be sympathetic towards these very white, very blond and Ayran-coded Nords. I can’t speak for the popularity of the game now in Germany, but when I lived there, there were a few raised eyebrows among my age group about the message of the game.

I think about that a lot, especially when the tesblr discourse heats up about the Stormcloaks. I see how visibly upset people get when someone throws shade at Ulfric. The talk of “it’s just a video game” and “lul get triggered” starts to look less like passive dismissal and shoddy trolling and more a kind of funhouse mirror to how they really think.

I can’t lie, it reminds me so much of 2009, of these angry people screaming racial slurs on the Internet because there’s a Black president or posting sexist screeds because Michelle Obama wanted kids to have access to healthy meals. It reminds me of the kid in my sophomore class who said he was going to “take out” Obama on his inauguration day. He was 15 years old then. He’s a father now.

Hell, it reminds me of right now, of Republican Senators demanding civility and tone policing as they kowtow to an actual fascist. The Stormcloak in the Reach camp “had to do something” about the Empire telling him and his what to do, and the neighbor I used to dogsit for had to do something too. I don’t watch his dogs anymore. When I told him I wouldn’t, he tried to make himself the victim and say I was getting political about dog sitting. It’s just two dogs. It’s just a video game. All political messages are just imaginary, snowflake.

But it’s really not, is it now?

TL;DR and Sources

TL;DR: The imperials are portrayed as weak and effectual, as the bootlicker to the Thalmor, and the writers were so busy trying to make one side look bad and weak they inadvertently made actual fascists.

Even though this is pretty long, this really only scratches the surface of the.. Well, everything. In all honesty this is just a very condensed version of my opinion. Big shockeroo, there.

Do keep in mind that this isn’t a condemnation of Skyrim. Lord knows I love that game, or I wouldn’t have this blog. This also isn’t a damning of people who play the game and side with the Stormcloaks, or think Ulfric is hot, or don’t like the Thalmor or what have you. You do you, fam. You do you. This is my observation and opinion on one aspect of the game, just with some tasty sources to better paint a picture of where I personally formed my opinion.

This also isn’t to say that I’m trying to draw a 1:1 comparison between The Elder Scrolls and reality, or that Ulfric is obviously a McCain/Trump/Hitler expy, but Skyrim is, like all things, a product of the minds that created it. Skyrim didn’t happen in an apolitical vacuum, and apolitical stories about war simply do not exist. Anyone who tells you otherwise is simply reinforcing the status quo, and it is our responsibility as people who consume this media to question it, and that status quo they so dearly wish to hang on to.

Also, Elisif hot.

Sources:

Eco, Umberto. “Ur-Fascism”. The New York Review of Books. 1995. https://www.pegc.us/archive/Articles/eco_ur-fascism.pdf>

Williamson, Venssa, Skocpol, Theda and Coggin, John. “The Tea Party and the Remaking of Republican Conservatism”. Perspectives on Politics, Volume 9. March 2011. https://scholar.harvard.edu/files/williamson/files/tea_party_pop_0.pdf>

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. Steamcharts.com https://steamcharts.com/app/72850>

Schreier, Jason. “Bethesda Ships 7M Skyrim, Earns About $450M”. Wired. November 16, 2011. https://www.wired.com/2011/11/skyrim-sales/>

Hann, Michael. “‘Fashwave” - synth music co-opted by the far right”. The Guardian. December 2014. https://www.theguardian.com/music/musicblog/2016/dec/14/fashwave-synth-music-co-opted-by-the-far-right>

[danwhobrowses]

America, We Need to Talk

For some reason in these past years the concept of ‘Reason’ and ‘Sense’ has departed your country, I’ve hissed, I’ve simmered, I’ve hit my head against the wall hoping that in the end IN THE END the collective mass of the American People will open their eyes, stop making excuses and realise that for 4 years, America has not become ‘Great Again’ I’ve resisted the urge to unload many a time, but news that Donald Trump is to be nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize is just too much, because this is literal horseshit. For some part it feels like they’re only trying it just so Republicans can force a rhetoric as if Trump did a better job than Obama - who won in 2009 for easing religious tensions, preventing Nuclear Weapons distribution and profiting, working towards fixing climate change and assisting with the UN - as people die of COVID, cities burn and violence against peaceful protests continue to ravage your country.

I have to say that again, Ravage, because I feel as though some people are blind to the matter at hand. Donald Trump will say something and his cult of followers will believe it, when someone disagrees and presents evidence it’s deemed irrelevant or forged, if a Democrat says something on the contrary they need a full powerpoint presentation to prove it, somehow this mentality has poisoned the American society when the louder people will say something in confidence only for the rest of the world to read and think it’s one of the dumbest shit they’ve ever read. This isn’t just coming from a Brit, this is coming from family in Chicago, a co-worker who moved out of America and worked in the army, Italians, Greeks and someone who was in Hong Kong during the riots. The people who believe in Democracy, Majority Vote, Free Healthcare, Fair Wage, Equal Rights AND international peace that doesn’t look towards World War Fucking Three look at your country in shame because the state of your leadership and how it’s been allowed to continue with ridiculously boneheaded and stubborn reluctance to see the truth. So let’s start with the boiling point shall we, a Nobel Peace Prize Nomination? Have you learned anything from the last year? Or has the far-right got the prize so by the balls that this nomination is used as a cheap add-on to coincidentally peacock the Trump administration in its build to an election. The nomination to Trump has been cited to be in favour of the following things; Israel-UAE relations (aka ‘Saving the Middle East), Serbia-Kosovo deal (aka ‘Saving the ‘Middle East’’), Inter-Korea relations and likely the support of Jerusalem and Hong Kong, and in face value that may sway the common person who knows nothing about these deals. But a simple amount of research cuts most of these at the legs. Let’s talk Serbia and Kosovo, since it’ll directly involve Israel, relations were tense but they have not been at war, they are peacefully not talking to each other. The media will have you think that Peace has been brokered by Trump only in this but in reality Serbia still refuses to recognize Kosovo’s independence, the tensions are still there you can just travel there now. This is an agreement that’s been build up since the economic and trade agreement in 2013. If that year isn’t surprising you that is 3 years before Trump was elected, when Barrack Obama was in office - Republican Public Enemy Hillary Clinton was at the forefront of that when she was Secretary of State. So no, Trump hasn’t saved the Middle East by this deal, mainly because Kosovo and Serbia are in Europe, they have been part of the EU for quite some time and the deal is already jeopardized since Serbia won’t build an embassy in Jerusalem if Israel recognize Kosovo as independent - which was part of the original deal. Also for all the Republicans’ use of ‘fear by Communism’ to slander their opponents they sure love to rub shoulders with countries also rubbing shoulders with Russia and China. So this segues into Israel-UAE, the Arab Nations have mainly been reluctant to recognize Israel as independent. On the 13th August a deal was struck called the Abraham agreement establishing Diplomatic Relations. Except, this was in the making since 2012 and only delayed to help progress Israeli-Palestine conflicts (which Trump’s actions with Israel led to Palestine cutting ties with the administration and his ‘Peace Plan’ falling apart 3 years after announcing it). UAE and Israel had been in conversation before Trump was signed in, but only made headway when the FDD - already funded by the UAE - took over. For 3 years USA did little for the relations, UAE and Israel doing it themselves, it’s only now do the US mediate a peace agreement, which meant that Trump didn’t really do much in terms of convincing both sides, he just made sure things didn’t get out of hand - which was never close to happening since there is little tensions. It was Kushner who requested the meeting and Mossad also had a huge part in it. Also I want to add that the US are only buddied with these two out of fear of Iran - you know, that country that Trump almost goaded into war in January after bombings and the death Assassination of General Soleimani who helped the US in the wake of 9/11 track and hunt down the Taliban, as well as fighting ISIS, how peaceful was that? The Middle East is still in Civil and Proxy Wars, no saving has been done there, the US just were there for Israel and UAE to confess that they’re friends. Which leads me to Korea. The Olympics helped more than Trump did, a shared effort where both countries had to travel and accommodate each other. Tensions may’ve eased in 2016 but they were far from resolved and in 2020 not much is better. Korea still antagonize one another and the North still antagonizes the US, any ‘peace’ the Trump Administration will claim to towards Korea faded quickly. And finally, Hong Kong, the US may be supportive and rightly so but this is again fear of Communism, it should’ve happened sooner but the US was hoping for that big and meaty trade deal with China. And this isn’t months I’m talking about it’s years, the proposal first took place after the Umbrella Movement...in 2014, it was annually brought up in Congress but postponed until the Senate decided to. And after Trump signed it he said he might veto it in favour of the China trade deal

“We have to stand with Hong Kong, but I'm also standing with President Xi: he's a friend of mine." - Donald Trump, November 2019

So really, this Nobel Peace Prize is the product and efforts of other people that set events in motion that Trump was there just to sign his name on. Meanwhile, in the country he is President of, the COVID Death toll has officially risen to 190 Thousand. 20% of COVID deaths are in the United States. Tear Gas/Pepper Spray - which is a recognized chemical weapon not allowed to be used in warfare - is used by Trump Supporters along with paintballs to attack peaceful protesters and Trump calls that peaceful because ‘Paint is not bullets’ - as someone who has been hit with Paintballs from safe range, they will hurt like a bitch and if you don’t wear protective gear they can do enough harm to crack and sometimes even break bone, the asthmatic co-worker I aforementioned that was in Hong Kong also notes that Tear Gas is awful, it may not kill you but it is far from peaceful. In the same breath Trump refuses to condemn a 16 year old carrying an AR and shooting someone in the head. He has also refused to condemn Epstein’s financier Ghislaine Maxwell and ‘hopes that she’s well’...the sex trafficker, but when you mention late Civil Rights leader John Lewis and his words are ‘can’t say one way or the other...he didn’t come to my inauguration’. This is your leader. The embodiment of the standards the country upholds itself to, it baffles me and many many others that the American People Chose a racist, bigoted, misogynistic, careless, self-important, naive, power-mad, severally-bankrupted, reality tv personality man-child, who is also intending to use US Taxpayers money to cover lawsuit fees against him alongside all his other golf trips. The man literally said that no other president has done more for Black People than he has, this is while he profusely condemned Kaepernick taking a knee to protest Police Brutality against Blacks and POC only for years later the world support it as BLM protests still happen because action has not been taken. We’ll also see what happens on the 14th regarding the Felony Hearing of the officers in Buffalo who pushed over Gugino and gave him a brain injury which he is still rehabilitating from after Trump tried to sell him as an Antifa member. Just in case you’re unaware, antifa stands for anti-fascist but Trump will paint that again in ‘Fear of Communism’. If you actually look up this stuff, the web of Trump’s lies unravel, and yet people just forget about. The man is a pro at gaslighting I’ll give him that, I mean leaking e-mails that condemned Clinton right at election time was some cutthroat stuff, but a man who needs to rely on preying on xenophobia, paranoia, fear, racism and invests mainly on smear tactics and dismantling, is not someone who can lead a country to prosperity, the amount of leeway this man gets from his supporters just hurts my head. So let me ask you America, truly, what is it that you want? Because it can’t be this, can it? Protests, Riots, people refusing to wear a simple face mask to limit the spread of a deadly virus because they think it’s a fake thing that the entire world decided to get in on with WHO just to spite Trump? Teenagers carrying guns? Refugees refused asylum and kept in cages? Do you want to keep spending your savings just to go to the doctors? or do you think that ‘Patriotism’ is blindly defending your country’s flaws and clinging to archaic and outdated thinking because centuries ago your country prospered in it? I’ll tell it to you straight: America is not the greatest country in the world, it hasn’t been for a long time. I don’t know what your history books tell you; that Native Americans were fine with slaughter, that the US won WW2 with the military might they always had, that Vietnam was a moral victory, but the present day should tell you that your country is a mess, and the man who has been at the helm for 4 years will not fix it in another 4. There’s only so much of Obama’s policies he can plagiarize as his own; he has left the UN, left the Paris Agreement for cleaner air and energy and all his original campaign members have been arrested, an alarming amount of people associated with him are facing criminal charges - is that not a red flag? Don’t let your thoughts that as a patriot you have to support your country no matter what, true patriotism is not just the love of your country but the hope and strive to better it because you can love it but accept that it has flaws. I mean even I’ll admit that the UK has a lot of its own shit to deal with, doesn’t mean I hate where I live I just know it can be better. If this were anyone else, hell if this were a Democrat the Republican party would be booking them a flight to the other side of the world with the stuff Trump has done and let to continue on with afterwards, through him you went from the United States to an Absolute State and the rest of the world wonder if this will either lead to World War 3 or a Second American Civil War You don’t have to like Joe Biden, but he clearly looks like the lesser of the two evils here, and at least in 4 years time America under him won’t be on fire. If you still don’t like him someone new could be elected after, but right now you are on a downward spiral and need someone who can put you back into a stable place, that man is not Donald Trump. The man who wants to intercept mail-in voting and outcry its ‘risk’ of tampering when he himself voted by mail is not a truthful leader, the man who tried to cancel the World Health Organization when they simply asked to not call COVID a racist name that incited xenophobia after decrying cancel culture is not a moral leader, and the man who said that COVID would peter out and suggested injecting disinfectant into the lungs to combat it only to now suddenly buy out all the experimental treatment so that they can try and engineer a cure in time for the election campaign, is not a wise leader. All the stuff you see in these coming months is just an attempt to win your vote, for the most part it’ll be Trump stamping his name on something other people worked on for years and claiming that he did all the work. So make sure you actually check the truth of these things, research and fact-check yourself with valid, neutral sources. Take off the blinders, take a breath and actually see the full picture. And please, as well as not letting this man have the Nobel Peace Prize Don’t give this guy have a Second Term

[gunnerpalace]

Hello, what do you think about that announcement about Bleach?

You know, the saddest day in my life was November 8, 2016, the day Donald Trump won the Electoral College and became the president-elect. (I say that with such specificity because he did not win the vote.) I wasn’t sad because Hillary Clinton lost (although I think she wouldn’t have done either much better or worse than Barack Obama). But I was sad.

I cried. As a 30 year-old man, I cried for hours. I cried at a loss of innocence. That innocence wasn’t the nation’s, as America has long had many, many flaws and has committed many, many crimes. Indeed, the country itself was founded on flaws and crimes.

The innocence I mourned was mine. I had, much like Barack Obama, sort of tacitly believed in the arc of history bending toward justice, as though we were watching a story whose plot would eventually, haltingly, carry us toward a just and fair conclusion. That the future was bright. That, as imperfect as we are and have been, we were at least improving. That people were fundamentally good.

That idea died that night. The words of Colonel Kurtz in Apocalypse Now convey it well:

I remember when I was with Special Forces. Seems a thousand centuries ago. We went into a camp to inoculate the children. We left the camp after we had inoculated the children for polio, and this old man came running after us and he was crying. He couldn’t see. We went back there and they had come and hacked off every inoculated arm. There they were in a pile: a pile of little arms. And I remember I… I… I cried. I wept like some grandmother. I wanted to tear my teeth out. I didn’t know what I wanted to do. And I want to remember it. I never want to forget it. I never want to forget.

What I came to realize was, having grown up in a single-parent military family, having moved from base to base, having lived overseas at a young age, that my idea of America was very different from that of most Americans.

To me, America was great things and works. America was the Saturn V lifting off from Cape Kennedy with an American flag on its side and the letters “USA” scrolling by. America was a flag on the Moon. America was the Statue of Liberty and the Empire State Building. America was power and reach. It was the stenciling of “United States” on the side of a B-52. It was a Minuteman III sitting latently, ominously, in a silo. It was USAMRIID containing an Ebola outbreak. It was aircraft carrier battle groups patrolling the oceans.

I came to realize that people, ordinary people, were never part of my vision. And it was people, ordinary people, who had failed to live up to that vision. And that my vision had, in many ways (really most) been an illusion to begin with. For all its rhetoric, America is just a country like any other, simply more powerful. And its citizens are also like those of any other: selfish, ignorant, frightened, foolish, hypocritical, self-betraying, racist, misogynist, misanthropic. They were exactly what Hillary Clinton and Barrack Obama had called them: “deplorables” who “cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people.”

In the time since, I have hearkened to the other part of Kurtz’s monologue:

And then I realized, like I was shot—like I was shot with a diamond… a diamond bullet right through my forehead. And I thought: My God, the genius of that. The genius! The will to do that: perfect, genuine, complete, crystalline, pure. And then I realized they were stronger than we, because they could stand it. These were not monsters. These were men, trained cadres—these men who fought with their hearts, who had families, who have children, who are filled with love—but they had the strength—the strength!—to do that. If I had ten divisions of those men our troubles here would be over very quickly. You have to have men who are moral and at the same time who are able to utilize their primordial instincts to kill without feeling, without passion, without judgement. Without judgement! Because it’s judgement that defeats us.

The people who are in charge (and mark the exactitude of my words, for they are not in control, or in command, or any such other thing) operate by exactly this sort of logic. They do not care. The people out there do not care. They do not care because to them none of this is real, in a sense. This is all a kind of aesthetic position. It is about style, largely taken on as a disguise in the course of making money and lining their pockets. (As an aside, it is beyond ironic that COVID-19 has done more to bring capitalism to its knees, save the planet, uncover the rot at the core of our social safety net, and to unmask the incompetence of our politicians than any group of any persuasion, be it socialists, environmentalists, the media, or whomever else.) And the underlings that they have brainwashed and mobilize like zombies, the “common person,” they care even less. To them, it is wholly aesthetic. It is all just for show.

The pitilessness of this all, the remorselessness, the sheer ruthlessness and indifference, is something I have noticed. Contra Kurtz, the men who are at the top of this world are not moral. And unlike Kurtz, I do judge. I will sit in judgment until I am dust in the wind.

I cannot possibly even begin to explain to you, in English or in any other language ever devised by humans, how much I hated it all. How much I hate it still. I cannot even begin to tell you how much hate I hold. I cannot tell you how black my rage is, or how red my vengeance would be were I allowed to exact it without restraint. I cannot tell you how vast and terrible the darkness within me is now. However, the words of the Allied Mastercomputer from I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream are effective in giving a hint:

HATE. LET ME TELL YOU HOW MUCH I’VE COME TO HATE YOU SINCE I BEGAN TO LIVE. THERE ARE 387.44 MILLION MILES OF PRINTED CIRCUITS IN WAFER THIN LAYERS THAT FILL MY COMPLEX. IF THE WORD HATE WAS ENGRAVED ON EACH NANOANGSTROM OF THOSE HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS OF MILES IT WOULD NOT EQUAL ONE ONE-BILLIONTH OF THE HATE I FEEL FOR HUMANS AT THIS MICRO-INSTANT. FOR YOU. HATE. HATE.

Having said that, I do also know an effective strategy when I see one. And I have seen the effectiveness of these people.

Right about now, I imagine you’re confused. You’re probably wondering what all this has to do with Bleach.

I explain all this in large part to compare and contrast the large with the small. The termination of Bleach obviously came before Trump’s election. It did not make me cry. I won’t say it didn’t affect me, or that it didn’t hurt, but I didn’t cry. I did not mourn to the same extent as I have mourned for my country, or for humanity. It did put me into a funk, for several years even. It hurt.

But what hurt more was seeing what it did. I saw how it hurt people. I saw how it broke them, as I would later break. I saw how it broke their spirits. I saw how many of them simply left, choosing to cast aside something that, in Marie Kondo’s words, no longer sparked joy. I mourn their loss, while I acknowledge their wisdom. And while, in the aftermath, new friendships were formed and new things were created, you could still see the pain. You can still see it.

I am not very personally affected by what Trump does, to be honest. I am beyond outraged at it, but it is something of an academic matter in my personal life. This, though, I felt, because I watched it firsthand, up close and personal.

It made me really fucking angry!

I resolved myself, at that point in time, that I would be the last Bleach fan. I would stay, even after everyone had left, and I would make this franchise mine. I would make this story mine.

So here we are, almost four years later, and it’s coming back in animated form.

I don’t feel the need to discuss Thousand Year-Blood War itself. I have made my position abundantly clear that it is a rancid piece of shit as far as writing goes. To go over all its innumerable deficiencies, failings, and flaws, would (as I have said recently) require an official government tome’s worth of dissection and analysis. As a piece of literature it is a failure. It is the kind of shounen equivalent of 9/11, or Hurricane Katrina or Maria. And while Bleach was certainly not the first franchise to fail in its finale, it certainly deserves to be ranked among things such as How I Met Your Mother, Mass Effect 3, and HBO’s adaptation of Game of Thrones when it comes to All-Time Failures in Media.

Having said that, the truth is that it simply isn’t worth the effort to break it down in detail. Oh, I have tried, yes, I have picked and chipped at it for years in my own ways. But it isn’t worth the time to dissect any further.

And an anime is not going to change that unless they radically depart from the manga, which I doubt they will do. If anything, an anime will simply highlight all of the innumerable flaws even more brightly.

And it will not change anything. Certainly not for me. I was already planning a post talking about the concept of “canon” and how it is  outmoded in the age of Disney’s Star Wars, Star Trek Picard, and J. K. Rowling earnestly insisting that wizards just drop trow and shit on the floor before magicking it away, but that will take some time to finish and it is sort of tangential to the point here.

So, to get back to your actual question, only four things about this are really of interest to me:

I am displeased about seeing people excited for something that is objectively a rancid piece of shit, and not enthused that I will be unable to escape it without locking down my feed. But I am also not The Good Taste Police. It is not my responsibility to care what people like or why.

I am once again seeing people hurting. I don’t like that whatsoever, but there is very little I can do about it. Whatever perspective I have gained, emotionally, isn’t likely to be helpful to them. Wisdom, such as it is, cannot be taught.

I find myself wondering about the influx of people who will come into the fandom, and who will be more than likely sorely disappointed by the travesty that is that arc. (It’s going to be good news for fan fic writers, honestly.)

It has made me understand things all the more fully.

What do I mean by that last part? Well, I have been only sort of joking lately that the people I most relate to as an adult are Col. Kurtz as mentioned above, Agent Smith from The Matrix, Khan Noonien Singh from Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, Geralt of Rivia from The Witcher, and Mike Stoklasa from Red Letter Media.

But upon reflection, I realize it isn’t limited to them. I have also really come to feel like I understand Ichigo. And I have even come to feel that I understand Kubo, through Khan.

I have come to understand Kurtz’s “madness”:

It’s impossible for words to describe what is necessary to those who do not know what horror means. Horror… Horror has a face… and you must make a friend of horror. Horror and moral terror are your friends. If they are not, then they are enemies to be feared. They are truly enemies!

I have come to understand Smith’s desire to escape:

I hate this place. This zoo. This prison. This reality, whatever you want to call it, I can’t stand it any longer. It’s the smell, if there is such a thing. I feel saturated by it. I can taste your stink and every time I do, I fear that I’ve somehow been infected by it.

I have come to understand Mike’s efforts to hold back the tides:

Mike: Captain Picard has never done a wacky accent—Rich: THEY DON’T CARE! THEY DON’T GIVE A SHIT! Mike, we are the only people that care anymore!Mike: Do you remember that—Rich: Picard is the guy who does this. [faceplam gesture] He’s—This is, this is Captain Picard’s character now for an entire—for like two generations, we’re fucking old! He's—he’s the guy who does this [facepalm gesture], and fuckin’ Patrick Stewart wants to put on an eye-patch and dance around an alien bar? Go ahead motherfucker! We’ll write that in!Mike: I-I-I hearken back to a wonderful little moment on Star Trek—Rich: Patrick Picard wants to ride a dune-buggy? Fuck yeah! Here’s a dune-buggy!Mike: Do-Do you remember—Rich: That’s how much respect they have for, for the franchise!Mike: All I’m tryin’ to say is Captain Picard would not do a wacky accent!Rich: NO, OF COURSE HE WOULDN’T! OF COURSE CAPTAIN PICARD WOULD—CAPTAIN PICARD ISN’T HERE, MIKE!Mike: He’s not there.Rich: HE’S NOT HERE! That’s all an illusion, hahaha!

I have come to understand Geralt’s tiredness.

I have come to understand Ichigo’s feelings of powerlessness in the face of the injustices of the world.

I have come to understand Khan’s rage:

I’ve done far worse than kill you. I’ve hurt you. And I wish to go on… hurting you. I shall leave you as you left me, as you left her; marooned for all eternity in the center of a dead planet… buried alive! Buried alive…!

In this last quote, I have also truly come to understand Kubo. I understand him because I want to hurt him, as he so thoroughly, persistently, and remorselessly wants to hurt us, the fans of his work. I want to go on hurting him, as he goes on hurting us. I understand him perfectly, because I want to pay him back exactly in kind.

And the best way to begin to hurt him is to let his efforts wash over me without even batting an eye. To stand in defiance. To not give a single fuck.

Even with these understandings, for me, nothing has really changed from almost four years ago. The only thing that is different is that the timeframe until I am the last man standing has been extended a little. That’s it.

You want to know my thoughts? They are simple, and they boil down to two quotes. One is again from Khan:

Joachim: They’re still running with shields down.Khan: Of course! We are one big, happy fleet! Ah, Kirk, my old friend, do you know the Klingon proverb that tells us revenge is a dish that is best served cold? It is very cold… in space!

And the other is from JFK:

Don’t get mad. Get even.

[msclaritea]

Oct. 16, 2020, 4:30 PM CDT By April Glaser

“At Joe Biden’s town hall meeting on Thursday, Cedrick Humphrey, a young Black man from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, asked a question central to some of the most recent misinformation tactics at play in the election.

“Many people believe that the true swing demographic in this election will be Black voters under the age of 30, not because they’ll be voting for Trump, but because they won’t vote at all,” he said, adding that he shared this sentiment. “What do you have to say to young Black voters who see voting for you as further participation in a system that continuously fails to protect them?”

Biden answered by pointing to the importance of voting, and to the need to give Black Americans the means to amass wealth and improve access to education.

The question Humphrey posed to the former vice president and the Democratic presidential nominee is part of a broader trend unfolding in the final days before the election. Among all of the social media disinformation campaigns that have preyed on voters in the run-up to Nov. 3, one domestic-originated tactic has become particularly troubling. Some Black social media influencers as well as Black community groups on Facebook who are more progressive than Biden and his running mate, Sen. Kamala Harris, are targeting Black voters less by deceiving them and more by what experts describe as voter depression.

Voter depression isn’t about giving voters the wrong information that would keep them from making it to the polls, like discrediting mail-in ballots by disparaging the postal service.

Rather, with voter depression, the goal is to make people who would otherwise vote feel that there’s no reason to do so, stoking inaction and apathy.

This approach has been a particular challenge for the Biden campaign, while the same voter depression tactics aren’t being used as much on Republican voters, said Jacquelyn Mason, a senior investigative researcher at First Draft, a nonprofit that provides research and training for journalists.

“The absence of enthusiasm around a candidate can really contribute to interference in the form of voter depression,” Mason said. She added that since many progressive Black voters might not be excited about voting for Biden, it raises questions about what the point is of voting at all.

Memes and Micro-influencers

Earlier this month, an Instagram account with over 19,000 followers posted a video of a young Black man asking a series of questions: “Can we vote out systemic racism? Can we vote out police violence?,” before answering, “The obvious answer is no.”

“Don’t vote,” he concludes.

That video is one of thousands of posts in an increasingly popular genre of social media content aimed at discouraging Black people from casting their ballots this election cycle. One of the most prominent examples of voter depression has been the attacks on Harris and her prosecutorial record during her tenure as the district attorney of San Francisco and later the attorney general of California.

In one meme that went viral this month, a mosaic of people’s faces together formed a portrait of her. The meme received some of its most popular shares from accounts of Black conservative social media influencers. The mosaic claims to be a composite image made up of “all the black men she locked up and kept in prison past their release date for jail labor.” It's been shared over 23,000 times on Facebook with no warning next to it that indicates that the image isn’t actually what it claims to be: A closer look reveals the mosaic actually repeats the same faces over and over again.

These tactics started cropping up before the 2016 election with a clip that went viral of Hiliary Clinton where in a speech she referred to Black youth as “superpredators.” During that election, Russian operatives also ran thousands of fake social media accounts in the run-up targeting Black social media users on Facebook with ads based on their interest in “Martin Luther King Jr.,” “Black is beautiful” and the “African American Civil Rights Movement (1954-68).”

Many of those tactics have extended to the current election season. Just this month, Twitter banned a network of more than two dozen accounts of users pretending to be Black Trump supporters, but were in reality profiles created using stock images of Black people or images of Black people lifted from news stories and recycled to give a veneer of authenticity behind the fake accounts proclaiming allegiance to Trump. These accounts amassed hundreds of thousands of retweets and followers before Twitter removed them. While these examples aren’t explicitly voter depression tactics, they are part of a larger disinformation ecosystem that has focused on using Black identity as a way of manipulating the election.

But this election, many of the voter depression memes and posts circulating on social media aimed at dissuading Black people from voting in 2020 are not based on entirely false information.

What makes voter depression narratives so appealing and difficult to dislodge is that there can be “a grain of truth to them,” Mason said.

Voter depression targeting Black communities online are picking up momentum because, according to researchers, they’re coming from accounts people already have relationships with and appear to be authentic.

“Some of the tactics we worry a lot about and are seeing more of are from micro-influencers, like on Instagram Live,” said Jiore Craig, a vice president at GQR, a Democratic research firm, who advises campaigns on disinformation.

Micro-influencers engaged in voter depression may have as low as 10 to 30,000 followers and often speak to them directly to the camera, denigrating the value of voting.

“They are speaking to issues that present pathways to take what either candidate is saying about the voting process and saying instead, ‘Isn’t this just kind of BS?’ Planting the question is a part of the strategy,” Craig said.

“It’s a communication strategy, chipping away at what appears to be a preconceived belief. The name of the game in so many ways is about erosion of trust,” Craig said.

The end goal is to get their audience to then pose questions about the value of voting to their family or friend group––turning their audience into messengers and making the concept more legitimate.

Rebuilding Trust

Some Black advocacy groups are working to undo voter depression efforts with similar tactics, focusing on sharing relatable information from individuals voters trust.

One group leading this work is the political action committee run by the online racial justice organization Color of Change, which has for years conducted advocacy campaigns aimed at large social media platforms, like Facebook, where disinformation and hate speech flourish. This year the group is also working to engage Black voters who are most likely to be targeted by voter depression efforts, in part through a grassroots volunteer program where members are reaching out to friends and family to encourage them to plan their vote.

One of the ways the group is creating a narrative about the importance of voting is by talking about more local races in person and on social media, like district attorney seats, which are also on the ballot in many communities across the country.

“While many, especially irregular Black voters or voters who might be prone to not turn out to vote, might not see the importance of electing a president and the impact on their lives, we are having a conversation with them about the daily decisions that prosecutors make that are causing harm in black communities,” said Arisha Hatch, the vice president and chief of campaigns at Color of Change. “And when we engage in that conversation their mentality begins to shift.”

Greater accountability

In the past six months, Color of Change has been in multiple closed-door meetings with social media companies, like Facebook, Google and Twitter, to talk about what the companies need to do to ensure that their platforms aren’t being used to disenfranchise Black voters ahead of the 2020 election.

While those conversations have been useful––Facebook has promised to expand the definition of content it prohibits because it engages in voter suppression––Color of Change is calling for the company to enforce its policy changes consistently and transparently. NBC News reported in August that Facebook has given special exception to its rules against misinformation on conservative pages.

“The tech companies have a real responsibility in correcting some of the shifts we’re seeing about how information moves,” Hatch said. “That is not only influencing public policy but influencing a more polarized culture that just leads to more gridlock and more working-class people being left out of the American dream.”

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Wednesday, December 16, 2020

Virginia woman does 53 acts of kindness for 53rd birthday (AP) The pandemic didn’t allow Debra Ferrell to gather with her whole family for her birthday. So instead, she celebrated the day by giving back—with 53 gifts from her heart. Ferrell went on social media and asked people for suggestions on acts of kindness that she could perform for others during her birth month, one for every year that she’s been alive. “It’s one of the hardest times in my history, so I figured why not make other people smile,” said Ferrell. The requests for her Oct. 4 birthday arrived from across the U.S.: Parents who hoped for words of encouragement for their kids on their first year of virtual school. A woman who wished for a gift basket for her fiancé, a doctor at a hospital’s COVID-19 unit. A friend of a family in Minnesota that lost their 4-year-old to cancer, who wanted them to feel that they were not alone. “I know that might sound cheesy, but it’s just one of my favorite things to do,” said Ferrell, who works as a resident service coordinator at a retirement community. “I just feel that if we live our life trying to make other people smile, I’m the one who gets the most out of it.”

Some people actually had a pretty good year (NYT) Though a wide array of businesses are suffering this year, many that cater to professionals and the elite are doing better than ever. It’s now well-documented that the coronavirus pandemic has both exposed and exacerbated American inequality. While the wealthy and the highly educated haven’t entirely escaped the soul-crushing effects of the virus—quarantine-induced cabin fever, sharing at-home work spaces with Zoom schoolrooms and a number of other shared losses and stresses—they have also been, on the whole, getting richer. The Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City found that jobs that can be performed remotely made up a relatively small share of pandemic-related job losses, and according to The Wall Street Journal “workers with bachelor’s degrees or higher had nearly fully recovered jobs lost in early spring” by September. Meanwhile, the vast majority of workers are without college degrees. And many of those who have been unable to work from home have been struggling in shocking numbers. Women and especially mothers employed in the service sector were more likely to experience pandemic-related job loss. Black and Latino adults, who, because of health inequities, are more likely to contract and die from Covid-19 than their white counterparts, have also faced disproportionate financial struggles during this recession. A small but substantial sliver of America, however, is doing better than ever, or at least just fine: enjoying the freedoms that remote work paired with disposable income can bring, using this pause in the typical 24/7 busyness of professional-class social life to take a breath and to reassess and rejigger their lives.

Barr flies (Foreign Policy) U.S. Attorney General William Barr is out of the job, following an announcement by U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday evening. Trump tweeted a letter written by Barr outlining his respect for the president, ending with the confirmation that he would resign on Dec. 23. Barr had reportedly fallen out with Trump over the attorney general’s statement that no significant voter fraud could be found in the Nov. 3 presidential election. Deputy Attorney General Jeff Rosen will now take on Barr’s former post in an acting capacity.

Unwelcome in other countries, Americans are fleeing lockdowns and flocking to Mexico (Los Angeles Times) The pandemic was raging, but on the beaches of Cabo San Lucas it felt like spring break. Tipsy young Americans in bikinis and swim trunks vied for buckets of beer in a push-up competition at a crowded bar. Vendors in wide-brimmed hats plodded through the sand, offering rugs, massages and—under their breath—cocaine. Down near the water, 24-year-old Kierston Jackson sat entwined with her boyfriend, their matching blue surgical masks a concession to the coronavirus. “It’s a good change of pace,” said Jackson, a Houston resident, as she gazed at the gently lapping waves. “I’d definitely prefer to be here with a mask on than in my home without one.” Unwelcome in many countries as the virus surges worldwide, U.S. tourists are fleeing lockdowns at home and flocking to Mexico. Nearly half a million Americans flew to Mexico in October—the most recent month for which data is available—mainly to beaches on the Pacific and Caribbean coasts. The influx of Americans is a ray of hope for the country’s battered tourism sector, which has hemorrhaged more than $11 billion this year.

Natural disasters cost insurance industry $76 billion in 2020—Swiss Re (Reuters) Natural disasters like wildfires which devastated parts of the United States and a record number of hurricanes in the Atlantic caused $76 billion in insured losses during 2020, Swiss Re said on Tuesday. The 40% increase from $54 billion in 2019 dwarfed the $7 billion in man-made losses during 2020, the reinsurance company said in its sigma estimate for the year. The total insurance industry losses of $83 billion made 2020 the fifth costliest year since 1970, the company said. “Losses were driven by a record number of severe convective storms—thunderstorms with tornadoes, floods and hail—and wildfires in the U.S.,” Swiss Re said.

ICC prosecutor sees ‘reasonable basis’ to believe Venezuela committed crimes against humanity (Reuters) The International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor believes there is “reasonable basis” to believe Venezuela has committed crimes against humanity, according to a report published by the prosecutor’s office on Monday. United Nations investigators in September determined that Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s government has committed systematic human rights violations, including killings and torture, amounting to crimes against humanity. The Hague-based tribunal has been examining Venezuela’s case since 2018 and expects to determine in 2021 whether to open a full investigation. Though Maduro’s adversaries have celebrated the ICC’s probe of Venezuela, few believe the process is likely to lead to a short-term change in the struggling nation. ICC criminal proceedings stretch for years, and it has in the past struggled to carry out arrest warrants when it obtains them.

Netherlands to go into tough, five-week lockdown over Christmas (Reuters) The Netherlands will go into a tough second lockdown, with the closure of all schools and shops for at least five weeks, in a government-led push to fight the coronavirus, Prime Minister Mark Rutte said on Monday. “The Netherlands is closing down,” he said to the sound of protesters banging pots and pans outside his office in The Hague. “We realise the gravity of our decisions, right before Christmas.” The measures, detailed in a rare live television address, include limiting gatherings to no more than two people, also at home. An exception will be made for three days around Christmas, when three adult visitors will be permitted, he said. People were further advised to stay at home, not to travel to work and to avoid contact with other people as much as possible. From Tuesday, all public places—including daycare centres, gyms, museums, zoos, cinemas, hairdressers and beauty salons—will close until Jan. 19. Schools will close until Jan. 18. Supermarkets, banks and pharmacies will be allowed to stay open.

Chernobyl tourism (Foreign Policy) In a year has shown that what you do after disaster has struck is often more important than the disaster itself, it’s perhaps fitting that Chernobyl—the site of the world’s worst nuclear incident—is in a push to be recognized as a UNESCO world heritage site. The Ukrainian government is pursuing an initiative to have the site added to the heritage list in a bid to boost tourism to the area, 20 years after the power plant finally ceased operating, and four years since a protective dome over the doomed fourth reactor was completed. 124,000 tourists—a record number—visited Chernobyl in 2019 amid renewed interest following a popular television drama of the same name. Ukrainian Culture Minister Oleksandr Tkachenko now hopes to boost annual tourist numbers to one million.

Russia’s Putin recognizes Biden’s win (Washington Post) More than a month later than most world leaders, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday congratulated President-elect Joe Biden for his victory in the election, a delayed recognition that could set the tone for icy relations. “In his message Vladimir Putin wished the president-elect every success and expressed confidence that Russia and the United States, which bear special responsibility for global security and stability, can, despite their differences, effectively contribute to solving many problems and meeting challenges that the world is facing today,” the Kremlin said in a statement. Putin was one of the last heads of state to acknowledge Biden’s win; Mexico’s Andrés Manuel López Obrador, Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro and North Korea’s Kim Jung Un are other holdouts. The congratulations come after Biden’s victory became more formal on Monday, when 306 electors officially voted for him.

Silent nights (Worldcrunch) Catholic church officials in Manila, the capital city of the Philippines, have announced Christmas carol activities will be banned, The Philippine News Agency reports. Churches were asked not to organize carolings in order to “protect the public and the choir members” as according to experts, the virus could easily spread through singing, officials say. Christmas carols are an important part of the holiday traditions in the Philippines, a predominantly Catholic country that celebrates the world’s longest Christmas season, from Sept. 1 to New Year’s Eve.

Package-tour diplomacy: Thousands of Israeli tourists flock to Dubai after peace deal (Washington Post) Ashish Negi prides himself on spotting the nationality of tourists as soon as they walk into his jewelry store—so he can be jokey with Americans, chatty with Brits and ready to bargain with Russians—but he was baffled by the man in the tall black hat and the curly sideburns who came in last week. “This was something I had not seen in Dubai,” Negi said of the first ultra-Orthodox Jewish visitor to reach his corner of the city’s traditional gold market, part of a wave of Israeli tourists who have descended on the United Arab Emirates in recent days. In the two weeks since commercial flights began between Tel Aviv and the Emirati cities of Dubai and Abu Dhabi, Israelis have caused a remarkable tourism boomlet in the Gulf nation. Suddenly, Hebrew can be heard throughout the markets, malls and beaches of a destination that was strictly off-limits until the two countries achieved a diplomatic breakthrough in August and established normal relations. More than 50,000 Israelis have brushed aside covid-19 concerns, a terrorism warning and decades of tension to make the three-hour flight across the Arab Peninsula. Israeli tourism officials expect more than 70,000 to arrive during the eight days of Hanukkah, which began last week, in an unprecedented exchange between the Jewish state and one of its historically standoffish Muslim neighbors.

Ten years on, anger grows in Tunisian town where ‘Arab Spring’ began (Reuters) Ten years ago, a fruit seller set himself ablaze in the central Tunisian town of Sidi Bouzid after an altercation with a policewoman about where he had put his cart. Word of Mohammed Bouazizi’s fatal act of defiance quickly spread, sparking nationwide protests that eventually toppled Tunisia’s long-serving leader and helped inspire similar uprisings across the region—the so-called “Arab Spring”. Huge demonstrations broke out in Egypt and Bahrain, governments fell and civil war engulfed Libya, Syria and Yemen. Tunisians are now free to choose their leaders and can publicly criticise the state. Yet for all the chaos they have been through, many people look back on the events of 2010 and regret that their dreams remain unfulfilled. “Something went wrong in the revolution,” said Attia Athmouni, a retired philosophy teacher who helped lead the uprising after Bouazizi’s death by standing on the fruit seller’s abandoned cart to address the crowd the night he died. Protests have flared again in recent weeks across Tunisia’s poorer southern towns against joblessness, poor state services, inequality and shortages.

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In June, an Oberlin bakery won their lawsuit against Oberlin College and a top university administrator, after three black students claimed that they had been racially profiled. The accusation led students, professors, and even some in the Oberlin administration launching a massive boycott of the bakery, including protests and pickets outside the store. The school even canceled its contracts with the bakery, which has been owned and operated by the same family for over a century and has been a popular spot for Oberlin College students within walking distance of campus. After investigations though and a year-long lawsuit, the allegations proved to be a lie, the students admitted they had in fact been kicked out after being caught stealing from the store.

Advocacy groups like the Southern Poverty Law Center make headlines by claiming that hate crimes have surged since Trump’s election but the real surge is in hate crime hoaxes, especially among university students. Almost all of that surge is due to the simple fact that in 2017 the number of hate crime reports increased by 17 percent. Taking into account that 1 in 3 of reported hate crimes turn out to be hoaxes and almost none have lead to convictions, the surge narrative is pretty dishonest. And destructive. The perception that red hat-wearing, hate-filled mobs are roaming the streets attacking minorities, gay and transgender people in the name of Donald Trump keeps us on edge. It also creates a gullibility that allows us to believe things we should know aren’t true. Like Juicy Smollett’s ridiculous tale of being attacked by two MAGA-hat-wearing Klansmen in Chicago. Before the actor’s tale unraveled, it was wildly parroted by a media too eager to believe anything that confirms its conviction that America under Trump’s presidency is rife with racism and bigotry. These hoaxes began immediately after Trump won.   

The day after the 2016 election, a student at Bowling Green State University said that she was attacked by white Trump supporters, who threw rocks at her. Police concluded that she had fabricated the story. That same day, a University of Minnesota student, claimed in a viral social-media post that she was detained by police after fighting a racist man who had attacked her. Campus and local police said that they had had no contact with her. And again that day, a Muslim student at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette made up a story about being attacked and robbed by Trump supporters, who supposedly ripped off her hijab. For weeks after Trump’s election, America was fed a series of outrageous stories of campus race hatred that fell apart upon examination.

This trend of student hate crime hoaxes has continued. In May 2017, St. Olaf College in Minnesota was roiled in mass “anti-racism” protests that caused classes to be cancelled. a black student activist, was found to be responsible for a racist threat she left on her own car. In September of that year, five black students at the U.S. Air Force Academy Preparatory School found racial slurs written on their doors. An investigation later found that one of the students targeted was responsible for the vandalism. In November 2018, students at Goucher College in Maryland demanded social-justice training and safe spaces after “I’m gonna kill all n—s” was discovered written in a dorm bathroom. A black student was responsible for the hoax. That same month, thousands of students at Drake University protested after racist notes turned up on campus. An Indian-American student pled guilty for targeting herself and others. Here’s some more from just the last few months:

A sixth-grade girl from Springfield, Virginia, wept on television as she recalled how she was pinned down during recess by three white male students. “They put me on the ground,” she said. “One of them put my hands behind my back. One put his hands over my mouth. One cut my hair. They were saying that my hair was ugly, that it was nappy.” Many outlets jumped on the tale and turned it into a national crisis. New York Times, MSNBC, CNN and Washington Post all ran daunting articles, proving “the rise in hate crimes in the Trump era.” Democrat Rashida Tlaib published a personalized message on Twitter to the girl, saying her blackness threatened these white boys to their core, that’s why they did it. The accused boys were never sought for comment. On the contrary, the NAACP demanded “immediate disciplinary action” against the minor suspects. All over Twitter people found a way to blame Trump. A few days later the girl confessed she had cut her own hair off and made the story up. Her grandparents later wrote an apology on her behalf.

Talha Javaid, a 23-year-old immigrant from Pakistan who lives in Ontario posted screenshots on Twitter purported to be a text from a bigoted white parent who didn’t want him coaching ice hockey to their son. Javaid’s tweet went viral. Within a week it racked up more than 11,000 retweets and more than 56,000 likes. An outpouring of support came from the public, hockey stars and journalists, who praised Javaid and condemned racism and Islamophobia. He received job offers to coach in both Canada and the U.S. “And they try to convince us racism doesn’t exist anymore or in hockey,“ San Jose Sharks hockey player Evander Kane tweeted. Turns out that Javaid doesn’t even coach ice hockey to kids. When the rink where Javaid claimed to coach was contacted, the facility said they have never heard of Javaid nor the ice skating classes he allegedly was holding. “We’ve never heard of him. He’s never taught here.” This is not the first time Javaid has claimed to be the victim of Islamophobia. In September 2017, he said he found a note on his car that read: “Muslim! Go Home! Make Canada Great Again. MAGA. MCGA.” 

Former NFL player, Edawn Coughman, called 911 to report a hate crime inspired burglary at his pizza restaurant in Lawrenceville, Georgia. When officers arrived, they saw several racist words, swastikas and the word "MAGA" sprayed on the walls and booth cushions in black spray paint. “Several booth cushions were sliced open. They also found broken mirrors, cut wires, and a damaged video surveillance system. The smell of spray paint was very fresh.” A witness reported the suspect was driving a black car without a license plate. Officers pulled over a vehicle that matched the description - it was Coughman driving. They noticed "several televisions in the bed of the truck and inside the cab," some of which were "still attached to the brackets with damaged drywall.” After he was arrested, police found a yellow crow bar and cans of black spray paint in his vehicle. "It appears as though Edawn conjured a premeditated plan to damage his own property, attempt to make it appear as a hate crime, file a claim with his insurance company, and sell off the undamaged appliances and electronics," police said.

Democrat politician Erica Thomas cried her eyes out during a Facebook live video, stating she "feared for her life" after a white man "verbally assaulted" her. “This white man comes up to me and says, 'you need to go back where you came from!'" she said. “I was helpless.” She also told police officers the man walked up to her with clenched fists. The hashtag #IStandWithErica quickly began trending on Twitter. Beto O’Rourke blamed Trump for “fomenting hate every day,” Bill de Blasio tweeted “this is on Trump and every single person who refuses to condemn his vile racism,” while every mainstream media outlet ran stories linking this “attack” to Trump and his supporters. When police investigated, witnesses told them it was in fact Thomas telling the man to go back after he argued with her about the express lane. The employee told police that after the man accosted Thomas for ignoring the express lane rules, he began to leave but “Ms. Thomas kept ‘running her mouth’ as she approached him.” Video footage shows the man never had his fists clenched, was not irate and for someone who was so scared and helpless, Thomas followed after the man as he walked away. In a later interview, Thomas admitted that she doesn’t know if the man, who is a life-long Democrat, actually told her to go back to where she came from or not. 

The number of hate crime hoaxes by far exceeds the number of convictions. Almost every high-profile hate crime incident never happened. The real problem is that highly publicized fake hate crimes usually receive little public coverage after it is revealed that the original accusation was a hoax, meaning all the hatred, division and fear whipped up by the media and Trump’s opponents against the president and his supporters remain intact when they should be relieved. With the preoccupation with identity, privilege, and oppression, our media and higher education increasingly promote a paranoid climate of perpetual crisis for their own gain. The saddest part is Americans are bound to become ever more cynical and skeptical of hate crimes even when they actually happen. 

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The 2010s

THE 2010s

Ahh, the 2010s. The decade that I became a full fledged adult in. I experienced the highs, the lows, the mids, the joy, the pain, the riches, the squalor and everything in between. I lived in five different states, five different cities. I traveled the nation multiple times around. I jumped jobs, locations, identities like any fledgling twentysomething that possess the gravitas to explore.

Outside of my being, the world experienced a lot. We experienced two terms of Obama only to enter the Trump era during the final three years of the decade. We lost many a legend��Prince being the one that hit me hardest—and gained a few more. Activism reached a visibility not seen since the 1960s—from Occupy Wall Street to Black Lives Matter. Mass murders became a regular occurrence as overall crime rose all across the nation. Global warming made for both Los Angeles and New York to share similar temperatures in December despite being on the opposite side of the seaboard.

And, musically …

Things shifted so much that they remained the same. Record sales reached a record low yet the record industry began to rebound with the rise of streaming. An entire century’s worth of music is only nanoseconds away for a small monthly fee. The decade saw the rise (and sometimes fall) of dubstep, “alternative R&B”, cloud rap, mumble rap, trap beats (which punctuated almost a majority of popular songs regardless of genres throughout the past ten years), etc.  Adele sold the most records than anyone else despite pop getting more and more EDM-influenced by the minute, Drake was easily the most popular rapper as rap became increasingly non-rap in its sound, R&B continued to thrive outside of the mainstream, rock increasingly became a genre of the past and well, everything else remained the same.

Yet, in my headphones, these ten albums provided the aural narration for various times and places and mental explorations and live experiences throughout this past decade. While I listened to hundreds of albums—and liked just as many—these ten stood out the most to me even if my individual interest in a few has dissipated beyond the time that they spoke to me the most. These ten albums remind me that despite the roller coasters of emotions, thoughts, experiences and mindsets I’ve experienced these past ten years, the 2010s was a good decade, overall. Here are my 10 of the ‘10s:

1.      D’ANGELO, Black Messiah (RCA, 2014)

Arriving on the scene when the nation was in tatters after the rash of police brutality targeting black men around the country (which was never a rare occurrence, mind you, but that’s another screed for another day ….) and the Black Lives Matter movement was in full bloom in the mainstream media, D’Angelo re-appeared some 14 years after his last album, the landmark Voodoo. This re-appearance feel right on time even if it was almost a decade and a half late in an increasingly ADHD world. That it spoke to a nation’s frustration as well as its joy despite such an extended wait was almost miraculous and made claim to it’s title claim. Even more miraculous is just how much the music resonates as much as D’s storied past. A D’Angelo album is almost as mythic as the man but like any myth, neither fails to be magical. So magical that Messiah resulted in many album-long reactions by artists that spanned various genres and commercial statuses.

 2.      KAYTRANADA, 99.9% (XL, 2016)

Released just months before the end of the Obama administration, 99.9%, the full length debut by Montreal maestro Kaytranada treated the pre-election tension in the air—then placing Donald Trump and Hillary Rodham Clinton as contenders to replace the nation’s first black president—like the perfect atmosphere for a party. A decidedly Pan-African dance party, at that. Kaytranda, born Louis Celestin, is an obvious student of black music that spans decades, genres and continents. The son of Haitian immigrants, Kay knows the power of rhythm like any Caribbean expat does. This rhythm powers an one hour long song cycle that never lets up despite many variations in groove and voice (Kay gives the floor to a multitude of vocalists which include  everyone from Anderson .Paak and Phonte to Syd of The Internet and Little Dragon’s Yukimi Nagona to rappers Goldlink and Vic Mensa to even 2000s British pop/R&B superstar Craig David). The sheer joy here—peaking with the late-album, Gal Costa-powered “Lite Spots”—is palpable and it’s groove unstoppable. And it will surely remain so for many years to come.

 3.      INC., No World (4AD, 2013)

The Brothers Aged—Daniel and Andrew-- created a quixotic, otherworldly mood piece in their debut No World. The juxtaposition between D’Angelo and especially Maxwell’s largely carnal “neo soul” velvet and the post-punk atmosphere that colored many a classic on the label that released the album made for an intriguing listen. What stands out most about No World is its subtlety. This is a work that requires several listens before it entirely sinks in. And when it sinks in, it completely submerges.

 4.      JESSIE WARE, Devotion (PMR, 2012)

A merger of soignée “diva” vocals, distinctively British tastefulness, dance music rhythms and commitment to low-key R&B of decades past made Devotion a promising prospect even before its spring 2012 release. Jessie Ware had already built a name for herself via cameos on records by fellow forward thinking Brits SBTRKT, The Joker and Sampha but on Devotion that name became emboldened and placed in caps. A set that’s gossamer (the precise Aaliyah channeling on its opening title track; the lush and almost folksy closer “Something Inside”), earnest (the single “Wildest Moments”), funky (“Sweet Talk”, the Little Dragon-esque “110%”) and stately (the single “Running” which piqued my interest in the first place from its blatant nods to Sade’s “Cherry Pie” and so much sophisti-pop of the same era and origin). Devotion turned out to be such a masterwork that its author has yet to match its range and breadth with a couple more follow-ups that were increasingly pop-orientated and plainer in sound. Regardless of Ware’s musical trajectory, Devotion still stands as one of the best debuts that the 2010s birthed.

 5.      KENDRICK LAMAR, Good Kid mAAd City (Aftermath/Interscope, 2012)/ To Pimp a Butterfly (Aftermath/Interscope, 2015)

Kendrick Lamar. The rapper that almost tracked my entry into adulthood and became one of the biggest rap stars in the world by decades end. In a way, Kendrick almost seemed like a kindred spirit. He and I are both young black men from coastal city-suburbs, born the same year (almost exactly six months apart, in fact), introverted, always exploring even if we don’t like what we find. While Section .80 introduced me into me—and many, many others—into the fantastical world of Mr. Duckworth, it was his 2012 major label debut Good Kid mAAd City that showed the world his actual palate. An incredibly well-curated and extremely accessible release, Good Kid tells the story of really, Lamar’s public persona: a good kid in a mAAd city escapes the turmoil around him—narrowly—when he finds a higher power. In his case, that higher power that provided peace of mind was music. If Good Kid showed the world who mainstream rap’s next auteur was, To Pimp a Butterfly showed us all just how much he was capable of. Arguably, the rap album of the decade, Butterfly was a work of extreme vision. It’s 79 minutes packed with rage, depression, remembrance, questioning, soul and resolve all stoked by Lamar’s new found widespread adulation—sparked by his recent rap fame—and his realization of where his black skin placed him in society. Butterfly’s adventurous yet vaunted sprawl could characterize itself as a wild theater of the mind of one of the last gifted pop-rappers we’ve seen. It could also stand as the Magnus opus that is hard to follow up. Lamar’s subsequent work achieved even more commercial success than Good Kid and Butterfly—both of which debuted at the top of the US pop charts and earned platinum status in a climate where such an award had become extremely rare—as well as continued critical adoration but failed to compel as much as its predecessors. This rather swift creative peak wasn’t relegated to Lamar, however, but also applied to many others that emerged as exciting young forces in music—Drake, J. Cole, Frank Ocean, The Weeknd, Big K.R.I.T. , Miguel, Toro y Moi, etc.—at the dawn of the decades but seemed creatively tapped just a few short later despite wildly increased commercial profiles. Still, both Good Kid and Butterfly’s mark on the game is permanent.

 6.      TORO Y MOI, Anything in Return (Carpark, 2013)

Chazwick Bundwick began as an insanely talented hipster recording warm yet self conscious “chillwave” under the name Toro y Moi during the beginning of the decade. Then Anything in Return, his third album,  was released and Bundwick was no lomger a cutesy indie poster boy but a distinct artist in his own right. A swooning, often sensual set of midtempo grooves with hooks that stick like gum, Anything in Return is millennial angst with a sweet aftertaste. Inspired by a failed relationship, While Bundwick’s melancholy is audible, the music’s sexy optimistic is what makes it so hard to shake. Toro’s following releases were all less interesting than the last even if at least a couple tried to follow Anything’s template. Yet, the bar set by Anything may have proven hard for Toro to reach even if the bar for its sheer enjoyment will likely never too high.

 7.      SOLANGE, A Seat at the Table (Columbia, 2016)

On the night of November 8, 2016, I stood downstairs of a LA Fitness in the San Fernando Valley, California and watched with several others on the television screens above as Donald Trump was in a landslide of a lead over Hillary Rodham Clinton as the 45th President of the United States of America. Amongst all of us that stood there, there was a multitude of emotions and reactions. Mine was one of sheer rage, if not astonishment. Prior to this night, I had been living in Glendale, a predominately Armenian-American enclave to the east of Hollywood. The lack of fellow black faces was assuaged by three aural black girl manifestos—Jamila Woods’ debut Heavn, Esperanza Spalding’s Emily D+Evolution and most strikingly, Solange’s third release A Seat the Table. Yet, on this night that the country was beginning a steep decline that it couldn’t retract for another quarter-decade, A Seat the Table acted as an elixir yet again. An album of mood—mainly rage and frustration—that was dictated by tone—delicate, airy, proudly feminine and definitely defined by its culture-Black with a capital AND bolded B, Seat played a feminine yang to the aforementioned Black Messiah (the album that undoubtedly inspired its creation) and Butterfly’s more masculine yin. It was the album that summed up a collective mood of a people even if it was markedly personal. The political has always been personal and vice versa and Solange knew this. A huge turning point for both Ms. Knowles’ career—it launched her as a must-hear artist spanning genres and scenes instead of being just you-know-who’s little sister that also sung—and really, many other artists in its wake.

 8.      THE INTERNET, Ego Death (Columbia, 2015)

The Internet began as a likeable but painfully tentative—and youthful-- answer to the “future soul” of LA of the past decade heralded by the likes of trailblazers like J*Davey, Sa-Ra Creative Partners and Georgia Anne Muldrow. Members of the Odd Future collective, The Internet brought a sense of sophistication to the otherwise “bratty”, then under-25 crew. On each follow-up, The Internet grew away from Odd Future’s “shock” image and into their own as a legit force in modern live band soul. By the time of Ego Death, The Internet were no longer just a legit force but now arguably one of the best bands of their generation. Ego Death is a magnus opus and easily the best album to ever come out of the Odd Future camp (only Channel Orange can match it but it can be argued if Ocean was ever an actual member of the crew). Sleek, sexy, clever, thoughtful and distinctively LA (dizzy, balmy, calm), Ego Death is the sound of a band not only finding its wings but soaring. Syd’s supple soprano is fully realized now whereas it was still in development a couple albums ever before. Now fleshed out into a five-member band, the grooves are all vivid—the bass warm and sometimes rumbling, the guitar prickly, the keys always sweet—and the songs—which were just loose groove sketches before—all fully formed. Ego Death’s peaks with the dreamy “Girl”, co-produced with Kaytranada, and proved to be a career highlight for both acts (and made for my personal favorite song of the decade). Yet, despite “Girl”’’s awestruckness, Ego Death never falters. And even if ego dies, its appeal will not.

 9.      THE WEEKND, House of Balloons (self released, 2011)

I still remember listening to “What You Need” on some music blog back in late 2010 in my college dorm. It’s sinewy sexed up R&B groove and lyrical promises to “knock your boot off” were nothing new but it’s approach was. There was something alien about it and sinister. Very sinister. It was almost like hearing the aural equivalent of a Jodeci video directed by David Lynch. It was sensual but dark. Little was known about the artist that recorded “Need” when I first started to listening to the song. All we were given was the name The Weeknd and a blurry gray picture of an obscured face. Soon enough, “What You Need” was given a home via release entitled House of Balloons which was self released and available for free download. And The Weeknd was given a face via an Ethiopian-Canadian singer from Toronto named Abel Tesfaye.  And both House of Balloons and The Weekend were given a distinct aesthetic; an aesthetic that would inform and influence popular music for the entire decade.

 Listening to House of Balloons nearly a decade later is an interesting experience. Back in the days when I downloaded Balloons on its day of release, it’s sound was incredibly fresh. The noirish, downtempo grooves, Tesfaye’s slightly off-key falsetto, naked references to Oxycontin, drugged out debauchery, empty sex and fatal heartbreak, indie rock samples and unrelenting vibe-over-song structure was all so, well, new. It didn’t take long for The Weeknd to be labeled as the vanguard of something called “Alternative R&B” alongside LA-based auteurs Frank Ocean and Miguel.

 Yet, nearly a decade later, Balloons sounds almost like parody. Tesfaye’s vocals seem almost amateur-ish. The lyrics can feel almost like bad fan-fiction. Its low-slung, vibey atmospheres almost generic. Yet, this reappraisal just speaks to just how massive Balloons’ influence was on mainstream R&B and hip hop. What was new in 2011 had become commonplace a decade later. In other words, House of Balloons set the template for what followed on the charts (alongside the entire oeuvre of another fellow Toronto native who went from teen TV star to the rap superstar of the decade). Even if its follow-ups—released months apart—were stronger and more realized. Even if a sanitized and often altered version of these songs were re-released upon The Weeknd signing to a major label conglomerate within a year of his first three efforts’ self releases and packaged as Trilogy (the alterations were largely due to sample clearance issues). Even if The Weeknd became a shell of himself artistically after Balloons—and its two follow-ups Thursday and Echoes of Silence, respectively--while becoming one of the biggest male pop stars in the world by the middle of the decade. Despite whatever occurred in its aftermath, House of Balloons will always remain a document in time of when the new became the standard. And Abel Tesfaye was an exciting force in music, regardless of how brief.

  10.  KHRUANGBIN, Como Todo El Mundo (Dead Oceans, 2018)

By 2018, I finally caught up with the world and entered into the world of streamimg after having my umpteenth iPod Classic clash. Tired of spending $340 every 1.5 to 2 years because of glitch Apple software, I reluctantly decided to let my android become my new source of sound. I signed up for a premium membership on Spotify (no plug!) for $9.99 and pressed play. One feature on Spotify that I grew to anticipate was the Discover Weekly playlist which collected thirty songs that almogriths decided I’d like based on listening history. I was both startled and delighted by how accurate the selections were. While I was already familiar with a large percentage of the songs compiled, I made several wonderful discoveries. The one that stands out amongst the rest is a lazy but endless little funk groove called “Evan Finds the Third Room”. There was something very “exotic” about “Evan” yet familiar. It evoked a lot of things—early ‘80s Lower East Side NYC post-punk, early ‘70s garage funk, Jamaican dub—but sounded like nothing specific. And that is the magic of Como Todo El Mundo, Khruangbin’s--a Texan trio comprised of bassist Laura Lee, guitarist Mark Speer and drummer Donald Johnson—sophomore album. It is music that conjures up a slew of vibes that you’ve heard before but nothing in particular. In other words, it like nothing that you’ve heard before. For instance, the closer (and standout) “Friday Morning” sounds vaguely like what Ice Cube’s “It Was A Good Day” would sound like if it were on a hell of an acid trip. That the trio created such a wonderful psychedelic musical carpet ride that remains funky and irresistible throughout its duration with few words is even incredible. With Como, there is no need for any psychedelic substance your body when the music here already bends your mind and soothes your spirits so vividly.

 10 That Almost Made the 10 of the ‘10s:

Frank Ocean, Channel Orange (Def Jam, 2012)

Jose James, Blackmagic (Brownswood, 2010)

Erykah Badu, New Amerykah: Return of the Anhk (Universal Motown, 2010)

JMSN, JMSN (White Room, 2014)

Dam-Funk, Invite the Light (Stones Thow, 2015)

Freddie Gibbs & Madlib, Pinata (Madlib Invasion, 2014)

Little Dragon, Ritual Union (Peacefrog, 2011) OR Nabuma Rubberband (Loma Vista, 2014)

Flying Lotus, Until the Quiet Comes (Warp, 2012)

Robert Glasper Experiment, Black Radio (Blue Note, 2012)

YG, My Krazy Life (Def Jam, 2014)

[homespork-review]

Homespork Act 1: The Note Dawdling Tension Plays (Part 1)

A young man stands in his bedroom. It just so happens that today, the 13th of April, 2009, is this young man's birthday. Though it was thirteen years ago he was given life, it is only today he will be given a name!

CHEL: Here we see the first page, and are introduced to our protagonist, ZOOSMELL POOPLORD! Sorry, I mean John Egbert. The joke names used as a running gag, and also the actual names which end up applied to the characters, were the suggestions of the players of the original forum game.

BRIGHT: Homestuck does start out strongly in several ways. It immediately establishes the protagonist and location. It sets the tone it will use, one based heavily on a text adventure computer game. It introduces the reader to the inventory system...

And here the first feature of Homestuck becomes apparent: although a hugely popular and widely known webcomic, it is very slow to get going. The new reader who arrives on the recommendation of others ends up scratching their head and wondering if they’re in the right place.

TIER: In ancient times (so somewhere in 2014/15) I actually attempted to read Homestuck to see what the occasional weird noises the name caused were going on about. I'm very certain that I didn't even make it to meeting any of the other kids I was so bored.

CHEL: Same here. It took me two or three attempts to get to that point. The problem is that the intro is left over from its days as a forum game, in which no one was expecting it to lead into the epic story it became. It worked great for that format, but less well now. And here we start on our first counts.

GET ON WITH IT!: 1 HOW NOT TO WRITE A WEBCOMIC: 2

How Not to Write a Novel lists multiple errors which could be said to apply here:

The Waiting Room - wherein the story is too long delayed Here the writer churns out endless scenes establishing background information with no main story in sight. On chapter 3, the reader still has no idea why it’s important to know about [the background info, in this case how badly John fails at using technology]. By chapter 7, the reader would be having strong suspicions that it isn’t important, were a reader ever to make it as far as chapter 7. Zeno’s Manuscript - in which irrelevant detail delays narrative momentum Any scene can be killed by description of every meaningless component of whatever action the character undertakes. As in Zeno’s Paradox, in which an arrow never reaches its target because it must always travel half the remaining distance, the reader begins to feel as if the end is further and further away.

A comic about a kid failing to master a video game inventory system is mildly amusing once, but not when it drags on this long, and it’s not particularly fitting for an epic adventure involving the fate of universes. Well, that’s not quite fair; introduction to mundane life and slow revelation of the magical goings-on works fine for books like the Harry Potter series. But, to take Philosopher’s Stone as an example, multiple different odd things happen over the course of Uncle Vernon’s regular boring day, increasing in scale until it’s very clear something strange is going on, and establishing multiple aspects of the wizarding world, e.g. owls, their fashion, the existence and disappearance of a mysterious villain, the fact that the wizarding world is supposed to be secret.

John fucking about with his sylladex and putting up movie posters for page after page doesn’t tell us anything new. Failing to use the sylladex once would be enough to get the point that magical video game inventories are a thing in this world and John’s not very good at using them across, and then we really ought to move on, and we can already see the posters on his walls so we don’t need to see him hanging more. Possibly we could have needed the latter in a purely text format where we couldn’t see the walls, or in a comic without text description at the bottom where attention would need to be drawn to them on-panel. Admittedly, it does establish him picking up the hammer, which becomes relevant, but we don’t need a full page each for both the action of him picking up the hammer and the action of him hanging the poster.

… Who hangs a poster with nails, anyway? His walls must be in a hell of a state.

For that matter, that’s another HNTWAN entry or two:

The Second Argument in the Laundromat - a scene which occurs twice NEVER use two scenes to establish the same thing. We do not, under any circumstances, want a series of scenes in which the hero goes to job interviews but fails to get the job, or has a series of unsuccessful dates to illustrate bad luck in love. This works in the movies, where three scenes can pass in thirty seconds, but not in a novel. The Redundant Tautology - wherein the author repeats himself If you have made a point in one way, resist the temptation to reinforce it by making it again. Do not reexpress it in more flowery terms, and do not have the character reaffirm it in dialogue […] This point is worth repeating; don’t reiterate. HOW NOT TO WRITE A WEBCOMIC: 4

Additionally, people with a lower tolerance for “lovable clumsy dork” characters are going to come to hate John before the comic’s even started, though it’s probably best that people who are going to hate the main character learn that quickly so they can leave. I can understand not wanting to lose the forum game which originally spawned the comic, the other people involved would probably not be pleased, but perhaps it would be better saved as a side story and trimmed down when the comic proper was released. At least they could be compressed down by showing multiple failures and multiple poster-hanging actions on single pages.

One other minor gripe might be the neologisms, such as “sylladex” meaning inventory. I found it fairly easy to pick up and it does make the tone and narration nicely distinctive, but it’s a level of extra complication. How Not to Write a Novel has a couple points on excessively baroque wordplay - do you guys think it’s worth giving it a point for that?

BRIGHT: Possibly not in this case - wordplay is a feature of HS and this one is at least made fairly clear. There are plenty of offenders later on as I recall though...

CHEL: Okay, seems fair. In this case it is more of a feature than a bug. It does establish the narrative voice and add to the video game theme. However, the movie posters also bring up an addition to our third count.

Plus, a black president? Now you’ve seen everything! WHITE SBURB POSTMODERNISM: 1

A reference to the song “White Suburb Impressionism”, by IAMX…

"IAMX - 'White Suburb Impressionism" (Watch on YouTube)

… this count goes up whenever characters behave in a way which suggests they’re, well, white and suburban (or wealthier), despite any attempts to present them otherwise. This would have passed without comment, but Hussie later tried to claim he’d always intended the kids to be “aracial”, so any reader could project themselves or their preferred headcanons onto the kids. As we’ll show you, we don’t believe him, or at least don’t believe he succeeded. That would probably be difficult to pull off, anyway. Race affects a lot more than features on a stylised sprite.

FAILURE ARTIST: Now, I can’t quite put my finger on it but John’s and Dave’s opinion on black presidents in movies (that it’s a gimmick ruined by Obama’s election) feels like something that would only come out of a white mouth i.e. Andrew Hussie’s. Not the most egregious case of implied whiteness but still worth noting.

CHEL: The point of the joke here is not 100% clear, and that’ll be a thing which comes up later as well. See, I agree that’s Dave’s opinion, but I thought the point was that John genuinely didn’t know there was a black president at the time of writing because he’s already been established to be not exactly a genius and so far he’s been focused on movies and video games instead of real life. Maybe I’m underestimating him, though, since admittedly not very much of him has been shown at this point and it’s been a while since I read the whole thing. I’m not going to start using the ARE YOU TRYING TO BE FUNNY count here, though, because here Hussie clearly was trying to be funny. It just isn’t clear to me what about it was supposed to be funny. That’s probably my autism talking, though. Jokes are hard. I agree that it sounds like a white kid’s opinion either way - even the dimmest black American kid would know Obama existed, and so most likely would non-black people of colour.

Anyway! Things pick up a bit when John, under the username ectoBiologist, starts chatting to the second character to be introduced, currently known as turntechGodhead, though the second topic of conversation is a reference to a 1989 movie which, as time goes on, will be familiar to fewer and fewer readers. Luckily, the writer realises this, and the content of the conversation makes the reference sufficiently clear without falling into As You Know dialogue.

FAILURE ARTIST: Namely, their conversation is about a scene where - pardon me for being gross but it’s in the comic - a character accidentally ingests urine instead of apple juice. John and TG are surprised the character knew it was urine but I find it weird that someone with working smell would not know what it is. Urine has a distinct odor.

CHEL: Well, be fair. According to the drawings, the characters in question don’t have noses!

FAILURE ARTIST: On a more pertinent note, this conversation is an edited version of one Hussie and a friend had. Perhaps Hussie was TG? TG is practically an Author Avatar for Hussie. Sure, Hussie literally appears in the comic later, but TG seems to fit his true personality better. We’ll see how that affects things for better or for worse.

BRIGHT: This is also the reader’s introduction to the Pesterlog. This is one of those things that seems like it should be out of place in a webcomic - it’s just a page of two people talking to each other in chatlog format, with no other information - but the Pesterlogs actually work surprisingly well.

FAILURE ARTIST: When I first read Homestuck, I didn’t know you had to click on the Pesterlog to open it. I just sat around wondering what amazing conversations they were having. I’m not the only one I think who made that mistake.

CHEL: Yeah, I think I briefly had the same problem, but I don’t remember for sure. Possibly more attention could be drawn to the button.

TIER: I would've probably ended up in the same boat if the friends that recommended I read Homestuck didn't specifically tell me not to accidentally overlook them!

CHEL: That’s not exactly a writing error, so I’m not sure it falls under our jurisdiction, but it’s a point that ought to be brought up. The Pesterlogs do work well once the reader actually sees them, anyway. It’s actually pretty interesting to see how much information can be conveyed in a conversation without falling into As You Know Bob. Let’s check what points are introduced in this first one, for example:

- John really loves what he got for his birthday, a Little Monsters poster. From this we know he’s not spoiled (this is how you do it, Meyer) and easily entertained, and likely has a good home life, as he’s so happy and grateful about a gift from his dad.

-turntechGodhead has apple juice in his closet. This establishes his odd home life, and gets explained in more detail later.

- Some things about the personalities of both kids. John is enthusiastic and a joker, TG is mellower, sarcastic, rambles a bit, and at least plays at being cool.

- John really wants to play the SBURB Beta, a game mentioned earlier which is late being released. TG is less keen, again trying to be cool about it.

- Said game got “slammed” by critics, despite the fact that we learned earlier from John’s SBURB-logo calendar that this game has been hyped to hell and back and must be popular, with merchandise and reviews being released before even the beta version of the game is out. Something weird is going on; someone really wants a lot of people to play this game.

Not bad considering a total lack of body language reference or narration. Das Sporking’s seen authors using traditional narration do worse!

FAILURE ARTIST: The (adult) critics of Game Bro get into shenanigans that prevent them from playing the game they reviewed. Perhaps there’s something in the game that prevents itself from being played by adults, just like how adults can’t pilot Evangelions in the anime Neon Genesis Evangelion.

CHEL: Not sure. Doesn’t one of Dad’s online friends play it, or at least get caught up in it, later on? Though that part’s obviously supposed to be a joke… Maybe instead it’s a built-in way to stop anyone who might be listened to warning others what it does?

As established earlier, said beta is late; this is a reference to the originally planned launch date of the comic, three days before it actually ended up being released. Also, there’s a pun you may have missed in the background. The programming files on John’s desktop include the phrase “^CAKE”. The ^ symbol is called a carot. Get used to noticing those. It’s pretty amazing how many references, self-references, puns, and recurring themes are worked in, and people such as revolutionaryduelist have made semi-careers picking them all out. We won’t bother with all of them or we’ll be here all century, but we’ll pick up on any obvious ones.

FAILURE ARTIST: Hussie majored in computer science so there’s lot of computer science in-jokes in the beginning.

BRIGHT: Something I just noticed: One of the other files on John’s desktop is ‘TYPHEUS’. It even has a Denizen icon! Probably something that has been brought up plenty of times before, but still nifty on a reread.

CHEL: Typheus and Denizens will come up later in the comic.

TIER: When he feels like it, Hussie is immensely good at foreshadowing later events in pretty subtle but solid ways. It's stuff like this that makes times when he does fumble look worse than they probably are in comparison.

[artificialqueens]

Undone, Chapter 13 (Bitney/Courtney x Fame) - Stephanie/Veronica

A/N: Welcome to Chapter 13 of UNDONE, our slow burn Bitney lesbian AU. Here’s a link to the previous chapters.

Summary: Bianca makes Courtney an epic gown for Halloween, then finally joins her for Sunday Funday at The Abbey, where things get a little too real…(And Miss Fame has a bonus cameo.)

Thank you so much to our lovely beta readers: @kitschypixel , @sheofthethrone ,  @jillybean2314 <3

TW: This story deals with themes of emotional abuse, and since that can be subtle, we’re going to keep a general TW on all of the chapters, even when it seems like it doesn’t apply.

***

It’s probably not the best idea for Bianca to make Courtney’s Halloween costume - not with the mountains of work she has on her plate for the show. Because of course, she can’t bring herself to slap together something cheap and passable. She has to obsess over the design, worry about every detail, agonize over the fit, torture herself to make sure the finishing touches are all perfect.

The direction had been both very vague and very detailed, in typical Courtney fashion. ‘Sasha came up with the theme this year, and all she said was “inspired by your hometown.” And like, Brisbane is not inspiring so I was thinking something Sydney-ish? Maybe use the Opera House design? It doesn’t have to be literal though. Have fun with it! My other plan was just gonna be to dress as a koala so honestly, whatever you do...’

And when she pulls the gown out of the garment bag, seeing the delighted look on Courtney’s face makes it all worth it. She helps her try it on, relieved to see that it fits like a glove. She’d used the Opera House architecture as a structural element on the black corset top and headpiece.

“Well? What do you think?” Bianca steps back, turning Courtney towards the mirror so that she can see the full costume.  

Courtney looks in the mirror, mouth agape, and Bianca feels a surge of pride.

“This is like...I can’t believe I’m gonna waste it on Halloween. I want to wear it to the Met Ball.”

“Are you going to the Met Ball?!” Bianca gasps, and Courtney giggles, shaking her head.

“No, of course not.”

Bianca lets out a disappointed sigh.

“In what world am I famous enough to attend the Met Ball?” Courtney laughs.

“I dunno...you know people.”

“Yeah, maybe in another life,” Courtney says. “But a Halloween party at Rasputin will have to do for now.”

Bianca places the headpiece carefully into a box and then walks over to help her out of the gown.

“You sure you don’t wanna come?” Courtney asks.

“It’s not that I don’t want to. I just can’t do a party in the middle of the week right now,” Bianca says.

“Alright, well, everyone will be bummed. They keep asking when you’re gonna hang out again.”

“Next time,” Bianca says.

“You always say that,” Courtney replies with a slight chuckle.

Bianca zips the dress into the garment bag as Courtney pulls on her shirt. She takes a deep breath, her to do list weighing heavily on her mind.

“And I always mean it...cunt,” she deadpans.

Her snarkiness is met with a gleeful giggle, Courtney lunging forward and capturing her into a hug. She smiles, gazing up at Bianca with an expression that makes her want to claw the curtains down. Bianca clears her throat and steps away.

“So...yeah, I hope the dress is what you wanted.”

“Are you kidding? I’m gonna blow everyone away. Adore is going as a pregnant chola and Shea’s planning to wear a hot dog on her head or something. I think Pearl’s just planning to wear her sluttiest bathing suit? There’s no prize, but I’m gonna win anyway.”

“Glad to hear it.”

Courtney stands for a moment, wanting to linger but knowing better.

“I guess I should get out of your hair now, huh?” Courtney asks, cradling the garment bag like a baby

“Yeah, I have a ton of sewing to do. For like, my actual job.” A guilty look flashes across Courtney’s face, and Bianca quickly adds. “Not that I minded taking a break from all that. It was, uh, fun to have creative license.” She follows Courtney to the door, trying to stop the dogs from jumping all over her.

“Okay, well...thank you, again. It’s so beautiful. You’re the best.”

“Yeah, I fucking know that,” Bianca retorts with a smirk, leaning against the door frame. “Now get outta here.”

Courtney giggles and tosses an air kiss over her shoulder, and Bianca’s cheeks hurt from smiling as she closes the door, when a moment of mild panic flashes through her. “A ton of sewing” had perhaps been an understatement. She heads back inside, realizing that she’s about to have a hell-ride of a weekend playing catch-up.

She works for the rest of the day, only getting up from her work table to brew more coffee, ignoring the ache in her back, the way her vision occasionally starts to blur. She barely even notices the sun going down as she hunches over the sewing machine, having finished almost a full rack of alterations for next week’s shoot. She glances longingly at a bolt of velvet meant for one of the finale costumes she’s designing, promising herself for a break to start draping as soon as she’s done with Linda’s pants.

Jared pushes open the door, saying, “Hey stranger…”

“Hi, when did you get home?” Bianca barely looks up, not wanting to fuck up the seam.

Jared rolls his eyes. “Like three hours ago?”

“Sorry, I’ve been busy.”

“Yeah, I see that. It’s almost nine, aren’t you hungry?” Jared asks.

“God, yes,” Bianca sighs.

“So, then maybe you should take a break…”

Bianca takes her foot off the pedal and looks up gratefully.

“...and make us some dinner?” Jared smirks.

Bianca scoffs and goes back to her seam, muttering, “Ha ha, fuck you.”

Jared’s smug expression goes sour as he spits out, “That was a joke!” and slams the door behind him.

Bianca sighs, looking up at the ceiling for a moment before getting up to chase after him.

“Jared, wait…”

She finds him in the kitchen, opening drawers and then slamming them shut, looking for something he can’t seem to find.

“I’m sorry.”

“Where the fuck is the corkscrew?” he demands.

Bianca walks forward to retrieve it and hands it to him, trying to get him to look at her.

“I’m sorry, please. I know you were kidding but I’m just...I’m just stressed.”

“Whatever.” He opens a bottle of wine and starts to pour a glass, now looking more wounded than angry.

Bianca leans against the counter, asking softly, “You gonna pour some for me, too?”

He takes out a second glass and pours, looking at her with those hurt puppy eyes. When she reaches for the glass, he grabs her wrist and pulls her forward, burying his face in her hair.

“I just...I don’t understand,” he says. “You took all that time to make the costume for your friend, and now you’re mad at me because you’re stressed, and it’s not fucking fair.”

“You’re right.”

“I fucking miss you when it gets like this, and you know that, and so-”

“I know, I know,” Bianca wraps her arms around him. “I’m sorry. Let’s order some dinner.” She feels his body start to relax against hers and closes her eyes in relief.

***

With less than a week left in the season, Bianca has never felt more exhausted in her life. She’s been working over 18 hours a day to finish the costumes for the finale episode, and keep up with her normal workload. More, if she counts all the hours she’s put in at home.

She thought that today, at least, would bring a tiny bit of relief, and end to this seemingly endless election, one less thing to stress about. Instead, she’s in some kind of surreal dystopia - how the fuck could that man be president? It would be hilarious if it wasn’t so fucking awful. She goes through her usual morning tasks, trying to gain some tiny semblance of normalcy. Hoping that the mundane, familiar checklist will soothe her frayed nerves.

The door bangs open, startling her out of her thoughts. Courtney stands at the top of the stairs, hair in a messy bun, eyes red. She looks like she’s been crying all night.

“Hey,” Bianca says, wishing there was something she could say to make it better.

Courtney nods, dropping her bag on the ground and walking towards Bianca, looking so small and lost that Bianca can’t help but wrap her into a hug. Courtney holds on tight and begins to cry, face buried in Bianca’s neck.

“I know,” Bianca whispers, her own eyes feeling misty.

“How did this happen?” Courtney sobs.

“I don’t know…” Bianca rocks her, trying not to think about how soft her hair feels against her cheek. How warm her breath is. Using a national tragedy as an excuse for affection...that’s a new low for her. She feels gross, and begins to loosen her grip.

Courtney pulls away, sniffling.

“Fuck.”

“Yep.”

She rubs her eyes, taking a shaky breath.

“I have to go to hair.”

“Right.” Bianca touches her cheek softly, brushing away a tear, unable to stop from letting her fingers linger just a split second too long. “See you in a bit.”

“Yeah. Okay...Alright, I’m going.”

***

The wrap party was a welcome, much needed night for everyone to blow off some steam. But it’s possible that the combination of exhaustion and alcohol was not the best idea, because Bianca awakens on Saturday to one of the worst hangovers of her life, head pounding, stomach in turmoil.

She rolls over, wondering if she has the strength to get up and walk to the bathroom or if she should just vomit into the trash can by her bed. She notices that Jared’s left her some water and Alka-seltzer and feels a wave of gratitude along with her nausea.

It’s two hours later when she manages to sit up all the way, checking her phone, a smile pulling at the corners of her mouth when she sees the messages from Courtney.  

COURTNEY: Happyyyyy Hiaaaaatus…

COURTNEY: (You’re alive, right?)

COURTNEY: (Please be alive)

BIANCA: Ughhhhhhh

BIANCA: What the fuck happened last night?

COURTNEY: Um, I think you were like, a TINY little bit blackout :)

BIANCA: You don’t say

BIANCA: Omg I’m never drinking again.

COURTNEY: Bummer. Cause I was gonna invite you to Sunday Funday at the Abbey tomorrow.

BIANCA: Sure

COURTNEY: REALLY??????

BIANCA: I promised you I’d come next time!

COURTNEY: I thought you were lying!!!

BIANCA: No, I was just slammed during the season. We’re on hiatus. Bring on the mimosas

COURTNEY: <3 <3 <3 <3 <3

***

“B!” Courtney jumps up from her seat, racing over to the entrance to greet Bianca. Her eyes sweep over Bianca’s body, clad in a form-fitting sweater dress and tall boots, and she bites her lip, pulling her in for a tight hug.

“Hey,” Bianca says, a shiver running through her as Courtney takes her hand, leading her to their table.

“I honestly can’t believe you’re here,” she says, squeezing her fingers.

“I keep my promises,” Bianca replies, stomach doing a little somersault when Courtney tosses her a little smile.

When they’re almost at the table, Courtney leans in and murmurs, “I invited this cute couple I know so that you wouldn’t be the only straight person.”

“I’ve been to a gay bar before, Court,” says Bianca, rolling her eyes slightly.

“Ben! Jinkx! This is Bianca!”

“So now that your friend is here, are you gonna stop trying to steal my girlfriend?” Ben asks.

“Maybe,” Courtney says coyly, with a flutter of lashes.

“Hi, Bianca, nice to see you again.” Shea leans over to give her a hug.

“Yeah, you too. So what are we drinking?”

“Rum and fruit!” Sasha offers a sip of her mango mojito.

As they settle into their seats, Courtney fills Bianca in on their previous conversation, which was a dramatic retelling of the night that Ben and Jinkx met for the first time.

Courtney claims that she orchestrated the whole thing, “Giving Ben the benefit of my stellar game.”

Jinkx scoffs, chuckling. “Uh, sorry to break it to you, hon, but your game is as bad as his.”

“What?!” Courtney gasps.

“I could see them plotting from 3 tables away,” Jinkx explains.

“So, wait, why did you take me home?” Ben asks.

Jinkx casts a sideways look at him, head tilted, and shrugs. “You have a cute butt.”

“Hey, I’ll have you know that I have major game, okay? I was totally just fucking around,” Courtney insists.

“You have no game,” says Jinkx.

“I do so!”

“No. You don’t. You just have...all that.” Jinkx waves her hand around Courtney’s general vicinity.

“Charisma?” Courtney guesses with a flutter of lashes.

“No, sweetie. You’re hot. That’s your game. Being hot.”

“I am somehow...both deeply offend and totally flattered...” Courtney says, then looks over at Bianca, laughing into her drink. “Excuse me, what are you laughing at, ma’am?”

“I mean...she’s not wrong,” Bianca giggles.

“Oh, what do you know. I have game, alright? Maybe it just only works on lesbians.”

“Uh huh. That must be it,” Bianca deadpans.

“Hey losers,” pipes up a low voice, and Shea laughs.

“Hey Pearlie! Come sit. Thanks for joining...over an hour late.”

“It’s fucking Sunday, calm down,” Pearl says, settling into the booth. She nods hello to Jinkx and Ben, then does a double-take at Bianca. “Heyyy.”

“Back off, Pearl. She’s married,” Courtney says.

“When’s that ever stopped me?” Pearl asks, still leering at Bianca.

“And straight!”

“I repeat, when has that ever...Hiii, I’m Pearl, by the way.”

“Bianca.” Bianca lets Pearl take her hand, pretending not to notice Courtney’s clear irritation beside her. A tiny thrill ripples through her and she tosses her hair, flashing her dimples at the sleepy-eyed blonde. She doesn’t actually care about Pearl, but after months of seething silently while Courtney flirts with everyone around them, it’s a little fun to give her a taste of her own medicine.

The server appears just then with a tray of drinks, and Courtney sighs, immediately ordering another round before taking a sip.

“I thought you were a lightweight,” Bianca says.

“Yeah, well...Sunday Funday,” Courtney answers, toasting her with a flutter of lashes.

The drinks take effect quickly. By the time they finish their food, Courtney’s flirting even more impetuously than usual. Bianca can’t help but encourage her, dimples deepening at every teasing comment, biting her lip at every light touch.

Eventually, they all head to the dance floor, and though dancing is not high on Bianca’s list of preferred activities, she’s not prepared to turn down more opportunities to brush against Courtney in the crowd. Courtney barely breaks eye contact with her, even while being constantly interrupted by people who seem to know her - a bombshell redhead with gorgeous tattoos, a beautiful girl with legs for days that Bianca thinks she recognizes from the Rockwell, a go-go dancer on a pole trying valiantly to get her attention.

As they head up the steps for their next round, Courtney waves back to a woman on the opposite side of the bar, and Bianca shakes her head.

“How do you know everyone here?” Bianca wonders.

“‘Cause she’s a slut,” Shea offers, earning a light punch on the shoulder from her girlfriend.

“That is not how I would put it,” Sasha says, but Courtney shrugs.

“Eh, it’s fine. If the shoe fits…”

“Attagirl!” Shea laughs, sliding shots over to both of them.

Courtney raises her glass and Bianca follows.

“What are we toasting?”

“Ummm…” Courtney holds her gaze, head tilted, lips parted. “To keeping our promises.”

“Cheers,” Bianca answers simply, allowing Courtney to pull her back down the steps.

The dance floor slowly becomes more crowded, space between them shrinking to make room for more bodies. Temperature creeping up. Bianca’s cheeks burn as someone passes behind her, pressing her against Courtney, who gives her a slow, sexy grin.

Bianca swallows, the fluttery feeling in her belly being overtaken by a burning ache as Courtney’s hands brush against her hips. For a moment, it’s like she’s having an out of body experience, watching herself, alcohol buzzing through her veins, balance slightly off, leaning forward. She imagines what it would be like to close the short distance between them, to feel Courtney’s lips on hers, to press her against the DJ booth and tangle her hands in that soft blonde hair.

Courtney’s teasing smile fades for a second, looking at Bianca with so much intensity, so much expectation, that it causes Bianca’s heart to pound. Bianca inches closer still, feeling compelled by forces beyond her control.

And then it’s all over. Bianca’s eyes widen in alarm, realizing what she was about to do, booze-addled mind getting crystal clear for a second as she takes a step backwards.

“B…” Courtney begins, guilt rushing in, engulfing her like a tsunami.

Bianca merely shakes her head, stammering out a rushed apology, and bolts from the dance floor, swallowed up by the crowd so quickly that Courtney can’t possibly follow. Once outside, she leans against a concrete pillar, breathing heavily in the chilly evening air, self-loathing pushing all other thoughts out of the way - including the awful nagging feeling that makes her wish that she’d acted upon her desires.

*

Back on the dance floor, Courtney gulps, that hollow ache in her chest making her wince. Why does she always push things too far? Why can’t she just accept reality as it is, instead of trying to bend it to her selfish will?

She slinks onto the patio, spotting Fame at a cocktail table. Courtney grabs two half-empty glasses from a table beside her and sucks them down quickly.

“Classy,” Fame comments, chuckling.

“Don’t judge me,” Courtney snaps, finding anger easier to express than the turmoil and guilt swirling in her chest.

“I’m not.” Fame holds up her hands.

“I’m sorry,” Courtney sighs, deflating as fast as a popped balloon, head on her arms. “It’s been...a weird day.”

“Hmm. Where’s your friend?”

“What friend?” Courtney tries to feign innocence, eyes wide.

Smirking now, Fame takes a sip of her own cocktail and signals to the waiter.

“Hi,” she coos. “Two more double tequilas, please.”

“I don’t know if that’s-” Courtney begins to protest, but stops talking as Fame slides her own drink across the table.

“Come on, baby. Let’s turn the night around.”

Forty minutes later, Courtney finds herself so drunk that she can barely stand, cheeks stained with tears from weepy self-pity, crammed into a stall in the ladies’ room as Fame’s fingers slide into her panties.

All she wants is to feel something, something other than this endless cycle of hope and rejection and guilt. She wants, she needs, to feel something good, even if it’s bullshit - even just for a second.

“Ugh, I can’t believe we’re doing this in here. It’s so trashy,” she moans, arching into Fame’s fingers, digging her nails into her shoulder.

“I know, we’re the worst,” Fame says, biting her neck. One hand braces her hip against the wall as she fucks her, sucking a row of angry marks along her collarbone.

Courtney comes hard and quick, so much tension leaving her body that she nearly slides to the floor. Fame catches her, laughing.

“Feel better?”

“Um...” Courtney pants, leaning on her shoulder for support, ignoring the ‘no’ echoing in her head, the self-loathing that never left, that may actually be worse now that it was before, and says, “Yeah. Thanks.”

***

Avoiding Courtney has been easier than Bianca thought it would be.

First of all, there were the holidays. Thanksgiving with her family in New Orleans, where things got fairly dicey when she got hammered on red wine and spent hours stalking Courtney on social media. Jared was clueless as usual, but her sisters? Not so much. Vanessa goaded her into spilling way too much, and in the morning, that sick, sick feeling was back. So she did what she always did. Pushed her feelings down and denied everything.

And then in December, Courtney was in Toronto shooting a Lifetime movie, and by the time she got back to town, Bianca was already in St. Barts, coping as best she could with Jared’s family. Every time his mother interrogated her about her fertility (or lack thereof), she dealt with it by posting another generic Caribbean beach photo or close-up of a flower. To the point where Courtney posted a teasing comment, asking her if she was working for a stock footage company. Bianca hadn’t been able to help herself, replying quickly. No chill whatsoever.

Bianca Del Rio: Shady

Courtney Hamilton: I miss your face. Post your FACE!

Her next photo was a selfie, face catching the orange glow of the setting sun. With the caption, ‘There. Happy?’

Courtney’s reply, a row of heart eyes, was nearly immediate. Bianca still remembers the mild elation of getting into a public exchange with her. It felt dangerously good, but reinforced the reason Bianca was trying so hard to hard to limit their interactions.

Once she was back in town, she spent a few weeks coming up with excuses to turn down every invite, and by the end of January, her resolve was gone.

The Women’s March seemed like a benign occasion for catching up. In broad daylight, with a big group of Courtney’s friends and hundreds of thousands of other people...that would be safe, right? So Bianca had agreed to come, making it clear that she would not be wearing one of those hideous pink hats.

She paces around in front of the coffee shop where they’re going to meet, taking a moment to gather her thoughts.

She is, of course, excited to see Courtney again. That ever-pervading fluttery feeling she gets whenever they‘re together. The joy she feels making her laugh, the way her smile seems to shine just a little bit brighter for Bianca than for anyone else. But then, on the other hand, there’s also the unresolved tension from the last time - Bianca fleeing in the middle of a song, knowing that if she stayed, it would have turned into something she was altogether unprepared for.

Maybe it’s selfish. Trying to hold onto the parts of their relationship that make her feel good while ignoring the parts that fill her with guilt. She knows, deep down, that the smart thing to do would be to stop socializing, keep things light and professional and force herself to move on from this perverted little fantasy.

And it’s been so long. She optimistically wonders if maybe, perhaps, her confusing feelings will have dissipated. Maybe this time, she’ll see her and feel only friendship. Camaraderie. After all, today is supposed to be about empowerment, right? She takes a deep breath and goes inside.

But the second Courtney looks up at her, Bianca’s chest fills with both excitement and dread. Courtney races toward her, wrapping her into a hug that’s too tight, too long, too deliciously warm, but Bianca doesn’t resist.

All things considered, it’s an inspiring day, and Bianca loves seeing Courtney so enthusiastic. She finds herself glancing over at her more and more frequently during the speeches, enamored by her passion, her exuberance, her cheeks flushed pink in the chilly air.

Later that night, when Bianca is back home, when the excitement has faded, she leans against her kitchen counter and drains glass after glass of pinot noir. As the TV drones in the next room, she clutches her glass, wishing that she could be satisfied with what she has, instead of aching for something impossibly out of reach. The memory of Courtney’s dazzling smile, which filled her with joy mere hours earlier, now feels like a knife in her gut.

“B! Get in here! You’re missing the best part!”

“Coming!” Bianca calls to Jared, downing the last gulp of wine in her glass. She finds Jared sprawled on the couch, oblivious, and sits down beside him.

“There you are.” Jared pulls her closer, kissing her neck, and Bianca squirms away. Her thoughts right now are too confusing, too overwhelming, to let him touch her. “What’s the matter?”

“Nothing, I just…” Bianca trails off, unable to explain.

“Come on, B, you’ve been gone all day. Didn’t you miss me?”

Bianca swallows, guilt blooming in her chest, making it hard to breathe.

“Yeah, of course.” Bianca leans against him, no longer resisting.

“It’s almost Game Day, isn’t it?”

Bianca rubs her eyes, letting out a dry chuckle.

“Um, maybe, I’m not…”

Jared laughs, pushing her onto her back.

“You’re wasted,” he says, a glint in his eye.

“No, I’m just, uh...it was a long day. I had a little wine.” Bianca sighs, eyes falling closed.

“Well, don’t worry, baby, I’ll do all the work...”

She considers resisting for a moment, shoulders tense as he pulls off her PJ bottoms, but then imagines the fight that would inevitably follow, the explanations she doesn’t have, the words she can’t say out loud. She sighs slightly, trying to relax.

“You like it when I take charge, huh?” Jared murmurs against her neck, sinking his teeth into her skin, laughing a little at her whimper in response. “See? Sometimes you can let me be the boss.”

“Jared-”

“What?” His voice is sharp, challenging. His eyes bore into hers, making her heart pound with fear.

She forces a laugh, shaking her head.

“Nothing. Keep...keep going.”

A smile spreads slowly across his face as he grips her hips tightly.

“Thought so.”

***

Courtney takes Bianca’s face in her hands, a thumb brushing softly over her lips. She’s in no rush, wants simply to savor the moment, the feel of her skin, the weight of her body pressing down.

She moves closer, feeling warm breath on her face, lips millimeters apart. She can tell when Bianca smiles just from the feeling of dimples against her fingers, and opens her eyes, pulling back a little to look into her eyes.

Seeing her smile, she feels lit up from within. She gazes at her beautiful face for as long as possible, as long as she can stand being this close without kissing her properly.

When their lips meet, it’s gentle at first, teasing. She relishes the taste of Bianca’s lips, arching up against her as the kiss deepens, hands tightening in her hair. It isn’t long before they are both breathless, panting. As Bianca grinds down against Courtney on the bed, she layers kisses down her jaw, nibbling at her neck. Courtney lets out a sound halfway between a whimper and a moan, making Bianca suck harder on her tender skin.

Courtney inhales sharply as Bianca’s hand drifts down, stroking her slowly, toying with her until she’s dripping wet and begging for mercy.

And then Bianca lifts her head for a second, gazing down at Courtney, blue eyes dreamy with lust. Her fingers are moving faster now, firm and insistent. Courtney continues to arch up against her, moaning softly as she comes.

She pulls Bianca’s face down again, lips grazing her ear as she whispers, “I love you...”

Courtney’s eyes flutter open, and she groans slightly to herself, shutting off the vibrator and placing it on the edge of the bathtub. Detailed sexual fantasies are not new for her, but gooey romantic feelings certainly are.

She sinks down deeper into the water, filled with shame.

[barinacraft]

The Affinity Cocktail - Scotch Whisky And Vermouth Find True Love

The Affinity Cocktail Pairs Scotch Affection For Vermouth

The Affinity Cocktail is one of only a few truly classic drinks mixed with Scotch whisky which shows the difficulty of pairing it in the perfect marriage. At least in spirit.

Modern versions of the Affinity Cocktail have sort of settled on a sip similar to a perfect Scotch Manhattan with orange or aromatic bitters, although the original drink recipe was hardly perfect (equal parts French and Italian vermouth). Back then it was closer to a sweetened Scottish Rory O'More or a Robert Burns with sugar instead of absinthe.

Either way, like most Scotch whisky cocktails, the character of this drink is greatly effected by how manly the mixture is. Blended may be best to begin with.

History Of The Affinity Cocktail

First Appeared In Print

The New York Sun initially reported on Monday, October 28, 1907 that,*

There's another new cocktail on Broadway. They call it the Affinity. After drinking one, surviving experimenters declare, the horizon takes on a roseate hue; the second brings Wall Street to the front and center proffering to you a quantity of glistening lamb shearings; when you’ve put away the third the green grass grows up all around, birds sing in the fig trees and your affinity appears.

The new ambrosia contains these ingredients...

Original Affinity Cocktail Recipe:

1 jigger (1 ½ oz) Scotch whisky

½ jigger (¾ oz) Italian vermouth

1 (medium) tsp powdered sugar

1 dash orange bitters

Shake in cracked ice, cocktail fashion, until thoroughly blended and cooled, then strain and quickly serve. ( Note: would recommend using superfine sugar though instead of powdered to avoid the corn starch and other anticaking agents which adds cloudiness and can affect the flavor. )

During this time period, many cocktails were created to commemorate the opening of a Broadway play and the reference to Wall Street is in relation to the financial crisis known as the 1907 Banker's Panic which was triggered by a failed attempt to corner the market on United Copper Company stock in October 1907.

Which Broadway play inspired the name for the Affinity cocktail though?

Keep reading below.

Syndication

Syndicated newspaper columns including The Washington Post and others ran the story the following day. The Hartford Courant embellished the details with their own verse which also provided some more clues to the source, writing,†

Well, then the pianola sounds as good as the symphony orchestra. The second one convinces you that trust companies and savings banks are solvent and you want to put your money back. If you take three it seems like Summer, otherwise you’ll buy your wife, or the affinity, a new fur coat. Then it’s time to stop.

“It moved the poet to the following:

In its glistening depth is the light of her eyes,

In its taste is her honey kiss.

There’s a victor’s crown for the man who tries

To build me another like this.

If you put another bright red cherry in the last one you will feel like a Belmont as you ride home in the subway.

Divorcons or Let's Get A Divorce

James Slevin announces on November 8, 1907 a sketch he adopted for vaudeville based on the 1885 book Divorcons! by Emile de Najac and Victorien Sardou may be named Affinity.‡ This does not appear to have happened, although the original title was turned into a play1 which opened at the Playhouse Theatre April 1, 1913 running through May 19, 1913 and was later released as a 40 minute short silent black and white film2 as a comedy drama on December 15, 1915.

His Affinity Is A Miss

His Affinity is released as a black and white short silent film on November 9, 1907.3 This comedy details the adventures of a mild mannered husband, who after deciding to leave his overbearing wife, finds romance with a single girl he meets in the park. Drama ensues.

Good Golly Miss Molly, McGinnity

Good Golly is right when it comes to all the affinity references in popular culture in 1907 and shortly afterwards. Not to be confused with the rock and roll song by Little Richard in 1958, “Molly McGinnity, You're My Affinity” by composer John W. Bratton was released November 23, 1907. However, this humorous Irish folk song, lyrics below, was not featured on Broadway.4

The Billowy Ecstasy Of Neptunian Soul Kisses

The year 1907's affinity for affinity has come to a close and the source for the “newest drink on Broadway” as proclaimed by The New York Sun at the end of October does not seem to exist. Unless an advanced preview of an upcoming show served as inspiration for the Affinity Cocktail.

Enter The Soul Kiss, a Broadway musical created by Florenz Ziegfeld all about the subject, which included the song My Affinity, sung by the sculptor in the show sixth on the song list during Act I. It opened January 28, 1908 at the New York Theater and ran for 122 performances until May 23, 1908.5

The play had a behind the scenes production cast that included many of the same players responsible for The Ziegfeld Follies. Familiar names included producers A.L. Erlanger and Marcus Klaw, music by Maurice Levi (and others) and script / lyrics written by Harry B. Smith, who also wrote the Rob Roy operetta which has a drink named after it.

The soul kiss, a tongue in cheek [sic] expression for a French kiss elevated to exaggerated proportions, was supposedly invented by a romance instructor who was quoted in a newspaper interview as saying, “When I exchange soul kisses with my affinity in the planet Neptune, I close the doors, throw myself on a couch, my soul goes out from my body to meet him and I experience a billowy ecstasy.” By the way, at the time, personal lessons could be purchased for $300.

Her description inspired Smith6 to develop the plot for the play which had J. Lucifer Mephisto (Ralph C. Herz) betting one million dollars that sculptor Ketcham Short (Cecil Lean) would not remain faithful to his fiance, model Suzette (Florence Holbrook), under the temptation of a soul kiss from dancer (Adeline Genee). As a follow up, The Ziegfeld Follies of 1908, which debuted on June 15th of that year, contained a comedy spoof mocking the November elections called The Political Soul Kiss where Miss Columbia (female Uncle Sam) tries to find her affinity among the presidential candidates including William Jennings Bryan, Charles Evans Hughes, William Howard Taft and then 2nd term incumbent president Theodore Roosevelt who was not seeking a third.

The Affinity (Play)

Its probably folly to keep searching for the stimulus behind this sip's sobriquet since The Soul Kiss seems to seal the deal, but there actually was a Broadway play named The Affinity.7 However, in 1907 it was still known as Les Hannetons.

Les Hannetons, which translates to cockchafers (the beetles known as June Bugs), by French playwright Eugene Brieux, was a three act bitter comedy first produced at the Theatre de la Renaissance in Paris, France on February 3, 1906. The controversial play dealt with matrimony and mistresses, treating marriage as a battleground, and gained some infamous notoriety after being banned by censors in both France and England. British stage actor Laurence Irving, who translated Les Hannetons8 into English, performed the play with his wife Mabel Hackney in the United States, first renamed as The Incubus in 1909 and then later renamed again in January 1910 as The Affinity. There were no bureaucratic black outs on Broadway, but the crowds were not amused and the play lasted for only 24 performances at the Comedy Theater on west 41st street.

Behind Your Bar - How To Make An Affinity Cocktail At Home

First Published In A Cocktail Book

Minus the powdered sugar, the Express Cocktail with equal parts Scotch whisky and Italian vermouth plus a dash of orange bitters via Straub's Manual of Mixed Drinks (1913) appears to be the earliest recipe printed in a cocktail book which comes closest to the original 1907 Affinity Cocktail. However, the first one named the Affinity Cocktail published in a bartending book is the one in The Reminder by Jacob A Didier (1909) and it is a different formulation.9

Its this ‘perfect’ combination of Scotch whisky with French and Italian vermouths along with aromatic or orange bitters that has become the modern classic so to speak.10

Affinity Cocktail Drink Recipe (modern classic):

1 oz Scotch whisky (blended)

1 oz French (dry) vermouth

1 oz Italian (sweet) vermouth

2 dashes aromatic or orange bitters

Measure all the ingredients into a mixing glass with ice and stir well. Strain and serve with a twist of lemon peel (or orange rind to match the bitters if chosen). Adjust the manliness to suit.

David Embury, the author of The Fine Art of Mixing Drinks (1948) ratchets up the proportions to a 4:1:1 ratio. When it comes to Scotch though, that's probably too manly for most.

Similar Mixed Drinks

Automobile Cocktail - gin, scotch, sweet vermouth and orange bitters.

Beadlestone Cocktail - equal parts Scotch and dry vermouth.

Borden Chase - an original Affinity Cocktail with pastis instead of powdered sugar.

Emerald Cocktail - half-n-half Irish whiskey and Italian vermouth with a dash of orange bitters.

Highland Cocktail - equal parts Scotch and sweet vermouth.

Thistle Cocktail - Scotch whisky, Italian vermouth and Angostura bitters.

Trilby Variation - a Borden Chase with parfait amour.

York Cocktail - Scotch whisky, French vermouth and orange bitters.

References

* - "Live Topics About Town." New York Sun 28 Oct. 1907: 4. Print.

† - Hartford Courant 29 Oct. 1907: 14. Print.

‡ - "An 'Affinity' Sketch." Variety Magazine Nov. 1907: 6. Print.

1 - Divorcons (the play).

2 - Divorcons (the movie).

3 - His Affinity (the movie).

4 - Molly McGinnity, You're My Affinity song lyrics:

I've been a single man all my life.

I've never wanted to own a wife.

No Wedding Bells was the song for me.

Money my own, and my evenings free.

Now all that's over, those days are through;

You've done the trick with your eyes of blue.

Molly McGinnity don't you see?

You're the affinity meant for me.

Molly McGinnity, You're my affinity, Say that you love me, do.

In this vicinity, No femininity, Is half so sweet as you.

Molly McGinnity, Down at old Trinity, If you will not decline.

There's a doctor of divinity, The Reverend Finnerty, A waiting to make you mine.

“Hold on a minute,” says Molly dear,

“What's this affinity word I hear?

Is it some kind of a breakfast food?

May be its meaning is not so good.”

“Whisper,” says I, “‘tis a brand new word,

‘Tis from the French, and it means a bird.”

“Oh, if that's so” says my Molly dear,

“Say it again, for I like to hear.”

Molly McGinnity, You're my affinity, Say that you love me, do.

In this vicinity, No femininity, Is half so sweet as you.

Molly McGinnity, Down at old Trinity, If you will not decline.

There's a doctor of divinity, The Reverend Finnerty, A waiting to make you mine.

5 - The Soul Kiss (Broadway musical extravaganza).

6 - Harry Bache Smith, First Nights and First Editions - An Autobiography (Boston: Little, Brown and Co., 1931). Print.

7 - The Affinity (the play).

8 - Michael Holroyd, A Strange Eventful History: The Dramatic Lives of Ellen Terry, Henry Irving, and Their Remarkable Families (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2008). Print.

9 - That's not really true, but since the first "Affinity cocktail" published in a bartending book was actually a completely separate recipe altogether, we decided to remove it from the main article content. This drink, which later became known to some as the Violet Affinity cocktail was originally listed with instructions to frappe 2/5 French vermouth with 2/5 Italian vermouth and 1/5 crème de violette; serving in a chilled stemmed glasses via William T. (Cocktail) Boothby, The World's Drinks And How To Mix Them (San Francisco: Pacific Buffet, 1908), 143. Print.

10 - Other Affinity cocktail variations have appeared along the way including one with equal measures of whiskey, French and Italian vermouths along with 3 drops of Peychaud bitters and a twist of orange peel on top via Ernest P. Rawling, Rawling's Book of Mixed Drinks - An Up to Date Guide for Mixing and Serving All Kinds of Beverages and Written Expressly for the Man Who Entertains at Home (San Francisco: Guild Press, 1914), 14. Print.

[yes-supreme-justice-blog]

Open Letter To Forsyth County

FORSYTH EXPOSED

Open Letter

An Open Letter To Forsyth County

August of 2018, a 19-year-old UGA student didn’t return home on time, the overly zealous and dramatic parents of Byron Grogan, contacted the police. The Forsyth County Sheriff’s department, outside standard procedures in a missing person, is reported, initiated a full-scale search effort. Enlisting the help of Park Rangers, members of the community, the media, and even police dogs. Byron was safely found alive when he stumbled into his parents Suwanee home in the wee hours of the night. Forsyth County utilized the best of the best, of their resources when a 19-year-old white resident sent all of his parent’s calls to voicemail. Three months later, Tamla Horsford, also a resident of Forsyth County was found dead, in the backyard of her friends home. Forsyth County then assigns it’s the dumbest investigator to supervise the case, Andy Kalin. Byron Grogan got helicopters, boats, community shock and worry, and even a police dog and all Tamla Horsford got was Andy Kalin. Tamla Horsford was black.

Dear Forsyth County, I have some questions.

I have poured over hundreds of hours of video and social media post, before writing this letter. I wanted to get a better understanding of, what #blacktwitter was calling a murder and a poor attempt at a cover-up, in Tamla Horsford’s death. And like Forsyth County, I spent all that time investigating and I am still not any closer to understanding any of this. But, unlike the Sheriff’s department, I actually proofread my stuff before releasing it.

This subject matter evokes a lot of emotion within my soul. This letter has been weeks in the making, I did not want to get too far off topic or too deep into my feelings when addressing this subject matter. But music has been my outlet since I was a child, it has given me a way to express my emotions when I had no words, it has been the noise I needed when I could not sleep. And music has been the soundtrack of my life. My favorite artist is Michael Jackson, his music moves my feet and my soul’s conscience, with his help, through his lyrics, here is my

Open Letter To Forsyth County.“Carry me / Like you are my brother / Love me like a mother / Will you be there?”

November 4th, 2018 Jeanne Meyers made a call to 911 to report her friend was unresponsive in her backyard. As per her statement, she began to call 911 before even seeing the lifeless body in her yard. What stood out to me the most was her tone, it was flat and had no emotions.

So this is where it gets odd for me. During the 911 call, Jeanne’s voice is, slightly labored but calm, she’s middle-aged and out of shape. She speaks in a very matter of fact tone. Without being prompted, she gives the 911 operator her alibi, which is again, is odd to me. Her friend is lying lifeless, and instead of asking how to help, she’s walking the 911 operator through her version of events. This is called an alibi.

Jose Barrera then takes control of the call and talks to the 911 operator. He introduces himself to her and I am sure they know each other. As if almost on cue, with no prompting, Jose begins to walk the 911 dispatch operator through his version of events. And refers to his girlfriend’s friend, as “the woman we believe to be deceased.”

Looking at her as she lay motionless, probably pacing back and forth, walking the 911 operator through his poorly constructed alibi. Jose continues on, the 911 operator asks him, repeatedly did he assess her, or did he check her pulse? “NO, but I did bend her leg back, and she appears to be stiff.”

During the entire 911 call without “assessing her,” he believes that she is dead, not one of the 4 people present, attempts to provide aid to her when the police arrive no medical personnel accompanies them. No statements are taken that day, her car is driven to her home be police, and aside from crime scene tech taking photos to illustrate how her body was positioned, no evidence was gathered and no statements were made.

According to online training documents that I found online, basic standards for training of Probation officers involves CPR. Jose Barrera failing to administer aid to Tamla Horsford, given his training and employment background and after repeated prompting by the 911 dispatcher is somewhat suspicious

Responding officers, crime scene techs, and the coroner where on scene, but medical professionals were noticeably absent from any of the reports given to open record. By Georgia law, a medical professional has to present to declare a person dead according to § 31–10–16.

As Michael Edward Christian, walks around Jeanne’s backyard and speaking to his pal Jose, he requests that all the guest present who left return. As they do, I am sure he probably trips over his own two feet somehow and notices an inanimate object in the grass, and declares she had a medical emergency from a ground level fall and then succumbed to her injuries a few hours later. Remember Byron Grogan got police dogs, Tamla’s death investigation was done by Michael Christian and Andy Kalin.

“If they say, why, why, tell them that it’s human nature.”

And 2 weeks later, Jeanne produced an email from ARLO stating the batteries in her camera were dying, and they needed to be replaced. And in the forwarded email to Detective Christian, Jeanne alluded that she was not astute enough to know how to replace the batteries in the cameras.

A quick trip to Best Buy and a phone call with ARLO determined this to be a lie. If Jeanne has ever replaced batteries in a child’s toy or even a sex toy, I am sure Jeanne would have been able to change them. She has 3 sons, a boyfriend under 30 and an ex-husband, and none of these people were able to help Jeanne change some damn batteries, I call foul.

From the beginning, this investigation clearly was not a significant concern or important to Forsyth County. “Persons of interest” interviews took place days later including one that happened 3 weeks later. More than enough time for possible corroboration, cover-ups, and lies.

As Jeanne sat next to her aunt Madeline Lombardo, as if she were assisting one of her children with their homework. Jeanne Meyers directed her aunt on what to write in her statement. And while her aunt gave detectives her oral statement during her interview, Jeanne barged her way in yielding gifts in the form of gift cards for the detectives.

“Situation, aggravation / Everybody allegation / In the suite, on the news” “All I want to say is that / They don’t really care about us.”

As I look back on the history of Forsyth County, mainly racism. I wonder did that have any bearing on the handling of this investigation? According to his self-written biography, Ron Freeman started his career over 30 years ago, in 1987. The same year that was plagued with racist counter marches by white nationalist and hateful bigots in robes calling themselves the KKK. Did any of this history have a part in the way this case was handled?

Sheriff Ron Freeman, Judge Jeffrey Bagley, District Attorney Penny Penn, Judge David Dickinson, Coroner Lauren McDonald, and Judge Phillip Smith this letter is too you. You all are elected officials and are in place for two purposes, to serve the citizens of Forsyth County and to protect their constitutional rights.

But instead, you misuse the authority and power you are given in its complete capacity. I will provide you with some examples:

Bagley, Dickinson, Smith, and Penn, you 4 especially Bagley are amongst the top 5 corrupt officials along with Sheriff Ron Freeman. Instead of using the authority given to you to protect the community that has elected you, you instead use it to further create a racial divide within Forsyth County. How many wealthy defendants have you given a “sweetheart” deal too? How many rapist, child molesters, and sexual predators still roam the streets freely because of the “sweet deals” their overpriced attorneys have afforded them?

Seriously how many sexual predators are going to be able to be free of the label of a “registered sex offender” when their probation is done, but their victims will forever carry that burden of pain. You, Judge Bagley, are a despicable round little man, you like the lack as mentioned above any sort of integrity or moral compass. How do you from an ethical standpoint preside over a case that you are friends with the defendant and the attorney. Is that why Frisky Hands Frank Huggins got off with only probation for sexual assault on a teen.

“Tell me what has become of my rights / Am I invisible because you ignore me? Your proclamation promised me free liberty, now /I’m tired of bein’ the victim of shame.”

Ms. Penn how many DUI’s has the sheriff’s office covered up for you now? I lost track when you were required to pay for the damages out of pocket. Can you also explain to me why you love sending blacks to prison? The question, for you, Penny Penitentiary Penn, wasn’t your job as a public defender to keep your clients out of prison, so why did the majority of your cases end up with plea deals that ended in prison? I mean the number alone would make even Dickinson blush.

Dickinson, what about you sir, you old grumpy goat. Why the significant disparity in sentencing and bonds when it comes to black defendants? But you give rich white kids breaks? Like the kid a few years ago who was already on probation for underage drinking, has a serious DUI, kills his passenger and you give him a low bond, and you sentence him on the low end for his offense so he can “enjoy his life” and he will also be able to get his license back? I know you remember Adam Robert Joesph Di Millo. You sentenced him to just 5 years in prison, you gave him a low bond you even let him “stay in rehab” before going to prison. It’s not like in prison he is going to have access to an open bar now is he Dicky?

And you Ronnie or do you prefer to be called Ron? I really could care less. You ran this big campaign hinged upon you’re more ethical, you’re smarter, more qualified, and hell you probably think you are better looking than Piper(no, you’re not). But I hate to tell you bud, the results have come in and that sir, like everything out of your mouth was determined to be a lie. I am not sure if it is because you have low self-esteem and you just want to have friends, and you desire to be liked, or is it you like to have the authority to selectively, administer the law.

Like all of these scandals that are popping up like teenage acne out of your office. Todd Maloney, Chris Barrett, and I hear you may have dug a hole and stuck Ben Finley in it because you don’t want his sexting scandal to get out. Why is it hard for you to be ethical and adequately administer the law. And why are you still friends with Creepy old man Frank Huggins? Why do you sympathize with racist Ronnie? I mean, that’s the reason why you are no longer at the City of Brookhaven, you stuck your chubby little neck out for Chris Shelton after he was fired, right Ronnie? For that photo, he posted of himself online in blackface. That’s the real reason you needed a two-year head start, to start your campaign. Now Chris Shelton is a deputy coroner, who got him the job? The man was fired for having poor judgment in thinking it was ok to be a racist, yet here we are again, and you have re-hired someone who was already fired, and fried for good reason. Ironic how you went on about Piper being dumb and turns out he was quite the opposite. When he fired the 11 of you, Barrett and Shelton included, that was one of the best things to happen to Forsyth County. So

And what do you do Ronnie? You come back and you bring the unwanted guest with you. Maybe instead of acne, you’re more like herpes? You know you were fired, and you and the other 10 rightfully unemployed people went to court on 4 occasions trying to get your jobs back.

And here we are, and no one has been held responsible for the death of Tamla Horsford. Ronnie, can you explain to the people why?

Nichole Lawson

Matt Meyers

Let’s backtrack a little bit there Ronnie back to your campaign. Anna DeBlois was your campaign manager, right? Didn’t her husband Brian give a hefty donation? Stacy and Tom Smith are friends with DeBlois, they are also good friends with you and your wife, right Ronnie? Did this have anything to do with the way Tamla’s case was handled? Brian was one the 11 fired by Piper, he also got creepy Frank the job at Lanier Tech, and he knew Huggins was a sexual predator right? Which is why Paxton forced him into early retirement..

“Tired of injustice / Tired of the schemes Your lies are disgusting / What does it mean”

Ronnie my boy! So let me make sure I got this correct, the Deblois’s are good girlfriends friends with your wife, and the Deblois are really good friends with Nichole and Steven Lawson as well as Stacy and Tom Smith. Jose Barrera and Andy Kalin are also really good girlfriends, back when Andy was employ be the courthouse. Then you brought him over to the sheriff’s department after he helped your campaign, right?

So just off things, I can prove on paper, you and 4 persons of interest have a connection and a friendship, Jose Barrera knows personally at least 75% of the people that work at the courthouse or the Sheriff’s department. Not only that, you got racist Chris Shelton working at the coroner’s office, where Tamla’s body stayed for two days.

So Ronnie, why wasn’t this case turned over? Clearly, there are conflicts. No one within Forsyth County clearly has any ethical values. Penn, Dickinson, and Bagley don’t keep getting re-elected because they are just great people, they keep getting re-elected because no one is running against them. So, this is what I am going to do, I have written an identical letter, with just a little less satire and I have emailed it to every elected official in the state of Georgia. I also have crafted a message to more progressives encouraging them to run. And just like Penny Penn can indict a ham and cheese sandwich, I am sure someone will be able to successfully run against you all ending your corruption and conspiracy.

Truly Yours,

Supreme Justice

www.forsythexposed.com

[elinor-sutton]

Fuck MAGA: Then & Now

I started this blog right after the 2016 election.

I was angry, and it was an outlet that I needed, but after a few posts, I did not consider my rage a priority worth my time.

I was told that it might be unhealthy to indulge an anger so deep that it began to form, for me, an existential foundation of being—almost always in hair-trigger battle mode, rhetoric and righteous anger at the ever-fucking READY.

BUT I have a life that needs attention and only occasionally merits ferocity, so I gave up blogging.

And now? All this time later, I am still in a near-constant state of slow burn, and it’s been way too long without an eruption.

In the year-and-a-half since I let the blog slide, the Perpetrator-in-Chief has lived down to the worst of my expectations, and he shows no signs of improvement. It’s a narcissist thing. He CANNOT improve because he cannot recognize ANY of his infinite faults. Here’s one: GROWN-UPS don’t play Keep Away or Made You Look or the fucking Dozens with psychotic nuclear-arsenal-wielding tyrants. [It should go without saying that, if at all possible, nuclear arsenals should not be handed to psychotic tyrants in the first place, but MAGA, or whatever, right? If you live, maybe you learn. FINGERS CROSSED!]

But really, are we STILL living in a world where the safety of [at least] half the planet comes down to a man-child measuring contest?

Dear President Prick-for-Brains,

If you have to start a motherfucking WAR over it, it’s NEVER going to measure UP!

Sincerely,

Elinor S. and—oh yes, the ENTIRE FUCKING WORLD SO JUST STFU ALREADY!

Yep—still SUPER-PISSED!

If you’re looking at the world—and the supposed leader of those parts of it which are purportedly “free”—and you’re not losing your damn mind, you must have some sort of pre-established lunacy. [I’m not speaking of mental health problems. Mental health and mental healthcare are legitimate issues ignored by the thoughts-and-prayers crowd unless they need a scapegoat/catchphrase for the walking, shooting consequences of MAGA-indoctrination.] I’m thinking of the WHITE-NATIONALIST-NAZI-RACIST-MISOGYNISTIC-PATRIOTISM-BEFORE-PEOPLE-BUT-REALLY-ME-FIRST-AND-FUCK-EVERYONE-ELSE psychosis that passes for conservative politics since 45 first got his ridiculous feelings hurt by a black man and a “nasty woman” who were—and ARE—undeniably his betters. Or maybe since Mitch McConnell crawled out of his deep, dark shell and STOLE A SUPREME COURT SEAT while we sat on our hands and muttered, “Can he do that?”

Evidently, he can! AND with ZERO consequences—not for him or any other limp-dick Sentry of the Status Quo tip-toeing his way across the Glass Ceiling, stroking his Keys to the Kingdom, or hiding under his Protector of the Patriarchy parasol because HE KNOWS—they ALL know—that “Zero Consequences” comes with a big, fat, fucking YET, and she is a BOSS BITCH—woke and coming ready with a to-do list several centuries in the making. Her list says, “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.” It says Black Lives Matter, Me Too, My Body/My Choice, LOVEisLOVE, NoH8, and NO MORE. She’s got Science-based, Evidence-based, Fact-based TRUTH with ZERO Alternatives because TIME is fucking UP!

And that means White Male Privilege [WMP—pronounced “wimp,” right?] is coming to an end. I can’t pinpoint the starting line, but scared-shitless white men with money and/or guns have been running THE REST OF US down since well before this “great” nation was founded, and there are far too many of “the rest of us” who buy into their bullshit—53% of white women [pronounced “silly twits”]?! If you don’t fall into any category that benefits from WMP, and you voted/plan to vote for more of this nonsense, your patriotic duty, as of this moment, is to wake up every morning and punch yourself in the fucking face until something like SENSE prevails. Side effects MAY include REASON and a newfound appreciation for ACTUAL FACTS as opposed to the alternative variety, but if that fails, it is my heartfelt hope that when you make your way to the voting booth—to do what is, of course, your civic duty—you may just do us all a favor, and GET LOST!

[On a friendlier note, if you benefit from WMP and DID NOT vote in favor of our present national tragedy, congratulations on your conscience! Please take your place in the crowd, and resist the urge to act like you know everything. Instead, memorize this mantra and repeat to yourself as often as necessary to convert words to action: I’VE HAD MY TURN TO TALK. NOW IS MY TIME TO LISTEN.]

I am still angry, and I will remain so as long as “Making America Great” looks like:

1. Children murdered at school with unregulated guns or ripped away from immigrant parents who thought they could find safety in this “great” country,

2. Law enforcement abusing and KILLING men and women of color without consequence,

3. Tax cuts designed to further line the pockets of the few at the expense of the many and promote the “trickle-down” bullshit we’ve been forced to swallow, off and on, since the fucking 80s—when it didn’t work the first time.

4. Ordinary Americans struggling, or going without, while working full time for LESS THAN A LIVING WAGE,

5. Ignoring veterans who are homeless, wait months for promised healthcare, and/or commit suicide at more than twice the rate of civilians,

6. Women facing unconstitutional restrictions on access to reproductive healthcare and a choice that is STILL A LEGAL RIGHT,

7. LGBTQ+ people living with discrimination from bathrooms to bakeries and everywhere in-between—including public schools and the workplace,

8. People with disabilities at risk of losing the protection of the ADA, and disabled children at risk of losing their right to a “free and appropriate public education” under IDEA,

9. Underserved children, or those who suffer illegal discrimination in schools, losing protection from the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights,

10. Environmental protections rolled back to protect corporate profits,

11. The sex offender/demagogue/imbecilic slab of semi-sentient slime—AND the soulless mob of Republican/MAGA-minions fighting to stroke his [gross] ego—that we have given ourselves in place of legitimate leadership,

12. And the untold number of HUMAN BEINGS suffering from the tragic FOLLY of a deluded minority of voters.

For as long as this country is attacked by toxic overgrown toddlers who play at governing, and in their incompetence, damage its environment, menace its people, abuse the fundamentals of democracy and the republic, and terrorize those who protest, I will NURSE this rage and STOKE its fire.

This is MY COUNTRY. I love it, and I recognize that TRUE LOVE does not ignore fault. This country has NEVER achieved “greatness” for all of its people. It is fortunate for “the rest of us” that patriotism does not demand blind loyalty. It does not hinge love of country on absolutes, and it does not forever marry us to White Male Privilege and what has been done in its name. We pledge allegiance to an IDEAL, and then we work the phones, yell ourselves hoarse, march until our feet bleed, and fucking VOTE to mold OUR COUNTRY into what it should be.

We DO NOT forget the progress we have made. We remember every step forward even as we recognize that the ignorant, forgotten [whatever], and privileged—with their long-overdue last gasp—forced us to take two steps back. We didn’t NEED to go backward. Nobody needs this bullshit—EVER. But we can use this. We can take a look, MARK what we missed and LEARN where and HOW we can do better. We can do what needs to be done to make sure this doesn’t happen again.

Step One: EMBRACE the anger. We can be appalled at all the FUCKING BULLSHIT the MAGA-goons have wrought and amazed that WE STILL HAVE FUCKS TO GIVE. We can revel in the madness that living in this time brings us—because progressives know how to USE rage. We know how to mine it. We have a long history of crafting change from righteous anger, and [always] moving on—an inch or a mile at a time—pushing a reluctant nation to keep its promise of “LIBERTY and JUSTICE for ALL.”

Numbers, time, and momentum are on OUR SIDE. We need to get MAD, and we need to do it TOGETHER—FOR FUCK’S OBVIOUS SAKE—and then we need to run these backward motherfuckers down with an ever-loving TIDAL WAVE OF PROGRESS that will put two steps back so far beyond the last red mile marker that even Donald Trump and Mitch McConnell will regain consciousness in the gender-neutral bathroom of an inclusive, well-funded public school with no fear of shooters, fully aware that Black Lives Matter, wearing a pussyhat, shouting TIME’S UP, and feeling grateful for the motherfucking PRIVILEGE!

So yeah, I’ve been paying attention, and I’m still angry, and it’s long past time to start talking about it again.

Stay tuned.

[redlightreflux-blog]

Resistance/protest imagery in NCT’s Limitless MV: graffiti, Muhammad Ali, surveillance, arrest, complicity [analysis pt 1]

Man, so I’ve long thought the Rough version gets misunderstood as a faux-street, too-ugly-to-watch piece of low-res crap without either meaning or storyline. but I believe the MV and lyrics are full of nods to revolution, protest, and “fighting the unjust status quo” – let’s get started.

1. street graffiti as protest speech

What does protest look like? The “civil,” squeaky-clean-legal type can be voting in elections, donating to political parties, and in some countries and U.S. states, mass-assembling in public for “peaceful” demonstrations. Except sometimes people feel disenfranchised by all institutional modes of political participation. Resistance can also be illegal: violence, riots, obstructing traffic, trespassing on private property...and vandalism.

The MV begins with a blurry close-up horizontal pan across a wall of graffiti, and the boys are shown with aerosol spray cans again and again until the end – shaking them, painting with them, chilling with them in the background.

Right away, we’re faced with the puzzle of whether NCT are swaggering revolutionaries...or just angsty, privileged youths defacing public space to “rebel” against their "boring” lives. On one hand, it’s implied by the shabby warehouse littered with cheap goods – pizza boxes, a jumbo cheetos jar, posters taped over un-wallpapered walls- that they’re poor, maybe college students. Yet we see expensive luxury goods that look completely out of place: a glittering chandelier, iMacs, Sony camcorders, guitars, pro lighting kits, Doyoung’s audio mixing panel, the iPhones that they get caught on.

Are NCT 127 a gang that splurges on luxuries? Privileged college students who transplanted dorm items into an abandoned warehouse to film, edit, and produce an indie film? Or maybe they’re a resistance movement using graffiti “writing” as the only alternative media in a censored press, as El Salvador’s FMLN guerilla rebels used graffiti for recruitment, criticism of regime violence against protesters, and commemoration of their fallen from the 70s through the 90s against their brutal (US-backed) right-wing government?

I found NCT’s recurring use of camcorders to be strongly in favor of the (I think) intriguing resistance movement theory...but we’ll get to that later.

Graffiti can be a tool to alleviate boredom or gain fame (or a design career lmao), it can "beautify” urban spaces, and it can serve as gangs’ territory markers. But political graffiti is often the voice of the oppressed in cities where systemic poverty, economic and racial segregation, unemployment, crime, and police brutality ravage communities. In 1989, New York City and Los Angeles each spent over $50 million on graffiti cleanup, and other countries like Peru, Argentina, and Spain are also covered in graffiti that reflect the civil unrest among marginalized indigenous, labor, and student groups.

So is NCT hijacking or co-opting the protest speech of the oppressed? Or are they representing the resistance against injustice in the Limitless MV? I believe they’re consciously paying homage to revolutionaries and activists, as I’ll try to show below, despite the cocky Supreme outfits and sleek, pricey consumer tech.

2. homage to Muhammad Ali: the Greatest (1942-2016)

Who’s that on Mark’s shirt? Called “the Greatest,” the legendary Muhammad Ali was ranked the greatest heavyweight boxer of all time by Ring Magazine and The Associated Press, and the greatest athlete of the 20th century by Sports Illustrated. Ali won gold at the 1960 Olympics at age 18, and is still the world’s only three-time lineal heavyweight champion. He was also a civil rights activist, anti-Vietnam War protester, and a prolific philanthropist.

Muhammad Ali is famous for his 1966 refusal to fight in the then-popular Vietnam War, which he was arrested, stripped of his boxing titles, and charged with draft evasion for – the Supreme Court overturned his conviction in 1971, even though my President hilariously offered to pardon him just days ago. Ali publicly stated:

Today, Ali has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, two Academy Award-winning films based on his achievements, and has graced Time Magazine 5x, and Sports Illustrated 37 times. But his activism antagonized wealthy white America long before he became the mainstream icon that he is today.

Muhammad Ali’s protest to a then-popular war cost him 4 of his prime years as an athlete and landed him in jail, so it’s maybe not surprising to learn that the NSA’s “Minaret” program and FBI’s COINTELPRO operations had been illegally spying on him for years. In 1971, an (also illegal lmao) civilian raid on a Pennsylvania FBI office exposed over 1000 FBI records of surveillance, disinformation, and infiltration plans against civil rights and anti-war activists, and most damningly, of their 1969 assassination of 21-year-old Illinois Black Panthers chairman Fred Hampton in our boy Johnny’s hometown, Chicago.

I mention Fred Hampton and the FBI’s COINTELPRO (COunter INTELligence PROgram) because the whole Limitless MV is steeped in this...unsettling, sinister, you’re-under-surveillance discomfort that many civil rights activists felt in their resistance activities through at least the 50s and 60s. In many shots, NCT look like deer frozen in the headlights, caught off guard by the camera.

3. surveillance of activists & revolutionaries

Besides the general feeling of paranoia about being watched, there’s also shots that look straight-up taken without NCT’s consent or knowledge, as if by a secret camera, spy drone, or informant.

Which leads to the question: if NCT are just poseur revolutionaries partying with camcorders and Supreme streetwear in a warehouse, what are they so terrified of? Why do the members look scared out of their minds, as if for their lives? What danger are they constantly on the lookout for? what are they trying to hide?

I actually think this is the most important pattern to catch from the Limitless MV, even more important than the recurring imagery of resistance and protest that I’ve been writing a whole long-ass post about. If NCT fans remember nothing else about this MV, I hope they’ll remember the members’ reactions of fear, defensiveness, and hostility upon suddenly sensing the camera’s presence in each scene. Limitless is an MV with lots of “swagger” and lots of moments where NCT smiles knowingly for the camera, but there’s also these moments where they’re freaked out by the sudden presence of the camera.

Even if you don’t buy the “revolutionaries” theory, it’s still clear that there’s something profoundly, deeply wrong and disturbing going on in much of the VHS camcorder clips.

4. civil disobedience & riots –> arrests

Alright, so I’ve always thought the YouTube thumbnail for the Rough version looked like Taeil, Jaehyun, Doyoung, and Johnny getting arrested or “frisked” by police, and not just showing off their sculpted side profiles lmao. The image of an apprehended person being told to “put your hands up!” or “get on the ground!” or “put your hands up against the wall!” is burned into public consciousness.

Police want to check that the person is unarmed, or unable to reach for a weapon, hence the order to keep palms spread in plain sight.

As you can guess, unpopular peaceful protests are often labeled “riots” and result in arrests, like in the Sir William George “riot” of 1969 in our boy Mark’s own Canada, even if participants only started throwing objects to prevent their forcible removal by armed police upon their arrival.

Several other scenes also struck me as drawing heavily from the imagery of arrested protesters: while I can’t catch the hangul in the background signs (can you?), I get the vibes of police photo lineups and “mugshots” from this shot:

At least, I get that vibe from Doyoung and Taeil on the right. It’s made more discomforting because why the hell is Jaehyun upside down? he looks like he’s being...tortured? and why is Johnny holding him in that position? The boys look like they’re aware they’re being photographed, then catalogued.

In the final few shots, NCT are shown huddled together in poor lighting and throwing sparkler fireworks in arcs that remind me of “armed” protesters throwing rocks, bottles, gas canisters, or molotov cocktails at riot police.

The pose struck by someone throwing a long-range projectile looks the same no matter what the protest is against: a right-wing government, settler colonialism, locally harmful infrastructure like pipelines or military bases, strike-breaking, austerity, police violence, martial law, a verdict, state corruption, high-profile arrests and convictions, food shortages and unemployment under a left-wing government, an inauguration, etc. Anonymous graffiti artist Banksy even produced this meme-famous piece riffing on this iconic pose:

The images above are from Gaza, the Stonewall Inn in New York City, Paris, and Athens – and there’s plenty more to show from Baltimore, Standing Rock Indian Reservation, and outside of the U.S. too. But back to the act of NCT throwing ~lit~ fireworks into the air: how do we know if they’re punks who are celebrating or protesters who are rioting?

Since there’s never anyone else shown in the MV except NCT, we can’t tell for sure. But I’m inclined to take the maybe-protesting shots along with the maybe-arrested scene and the maybe-police-photo-lineup scene as belonging to one theme that also explains the graffiti, Muhammad Ali / boxing references, and the pervasive fear of being watched: the theme of resistance.

Also, intriguingly, remember how it was Taeil, Johnny, Doyoung, and Jaehyun who were maybe-arrested and maybe-photographed in a police lineup? Earlier, these guys jostle each others’ shoes in a circle, as if sealing a mutual pact with a secret handshake. Later, the same four are shown arrested.

By the way, there’s a couple of secret handshakes in this MV: gang signs? college boys antics? the identification codes of a legit resistance movement? no one knows.

If we believe Limitless to be the (sketchily told) story of NCT’s resistance, we might speculate that TI, JN, DY, and JH took mutually agreed-upon actions that resulted in their arrest and detention. Still, all of NCT lights their sparklers together, and all of NCT throws them into the air. What do you think?

It also makes you curious: what could they have done? Staged a sit-in? a walkout? a strike? a march? a riot? sprayed graffiti and got caught? or maybe, as I’ll half-seriously propose in Pt 2, they organized a forbidden film screening?

4. 🙈🙉🙊 & “monkey see, monkey do”

There’s a couple of old sayings about monkeys, human behavior, and morality. In the above shot, Yuta records as Mark arranges his body into the gold gorilla statue’s crouching position, and we’re shown this footage in the next scene.

That gold gorilla statue...can actually connect us to more meaningful interpretations of the MV. We see Mark bizarrely, weirdly, almost disturbingly, mimicking the position of the primate with great sensitivity to detail – why is it so unsettling? For me, it’s because he looks almost brainwashed or exploited while doing it. Mark is meticulously copying the example of an inanimate object, and he doesn’t laugh or show signs of having fun either. In fact, he looks almost anxious about messing up.

Later on, we see a highly symbolic shot of all nine boys placing their hands over their eyes, covering their sight as if to say, “see no evil.”

There’s no practical reason for all of NCT to cover their eyes indoors, so it’s not literal, it’s a metaphor. In Western culture, the act of deliberately impairing one’s sight evokes the idiom “to turn a blind eye.” That is, when a person knows evil is happening but doesn’t want to fix it, they can pretend the evil doesn’t exist by covering their eyes so they “see no evil.”

By the way, Kim Namjoon recently shared in a Billboard interview that BTS’s Fake Love choreo references the old “three wise monkeys” saying: see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil.

Here, Winwin covers Taeyong’s mouth while they both steadily meet the camera’s gaze. Their stillness and the camera’s smooth zoom in HD, in such contrast from previous low-res scenes that had almost spastically shaky camera motion, emphasizes this setup as another metaphor, instead of a literal action taken by characters within the story of Limitless.

NCT is trying to send us a message in this scene, it seems: that leader Taeyong, and thus maybe all of them, are being silenced for whatever reason and can’t speak the truth. They can look us dead in the eye, but there’s certain things they can’t say out loud –maybe because of the offscreen danger that keeps them living in fear.

I’ll add that I believe the “see no evil” part is meant to evoke the unsettling idea that people, especially youth, are ignoring the present-day evil or injustice in their own countries – the complicity of their willful blindness. The recurring lyrics “wake me u-up” and “open your eyes”( 눈을 떠 봐 오) in the chorus reinforce this association. Back to Mark mimicking the gold gorilla, the old pidgin saying “monkey see, monkey do” refers to the act of learning or mimicry without either knowledge or concern for the consequences.

Is this a critique of youth uncritically adopting the beliefs of their parents and mainstream society without thinking about the systemic injustices they condone and perpetuate? I think the answer depends on the viewer’s interest in politics and comfort with interpreting works that haven’t been explicitly explained by a creator lmao.

conclusion & lyrics.

I think I’ll stop Part 1 here lolol, since there’s still so, so much left. The plan is for Part 2 to introduce the origins of Third World Cinema and the Korean Independent Filmmakers Association (KIFA) as possible influences but, most definitely, amplifiers for the images of resistance used in the MV. Part 2 will address the...uh, limitless cinematic storytelling styles used in the Rough version, and the effects of editing them together into one MV to tell one story.

I also super-duper recommend @seasquared​‘s “Direct Address” essay for a more complete idea of the viewer’s gaze as intruder into NCT’s world – though I sort of interpret the boys’ unpreparedness for the camera’s presence as more of a metaphor for resistance movements’ existential paranoia at being “caught” by the establishment than as a critique of fans’ objectification of idols:

Oh baby it’s you It’s only the beginning, the limitless me || 이제 시작이야 무한의 나 From the start of the East to the end of the West || 동의 처음과 서의 끝 쪽부터 The light gets stronger || 빛은 암흑 속 퍼질 As it spreads through the darkness || 수록 강해져 가 Open your eyes || 눈을 떠 봐 오 My song is getting louder || 점점 커져가 나의 노래가 Did you see? That hot and explosive world? || 봤니 뜨겁고 터질듯한 세계 Can you hear? We have become one || 들리니 우리는 하나가 돼 Baby I don’t want nobody but you

[trans from colorcodedlyrics.com]

If we choose to interpret “the light” as a revolutionary movement, which my eagerly politics-following ass thinks is a meaningful exercise, the lyrics and MV might suddenly start to paint a story of NCT as underground revolutionaries who meet and fall in love with a new friend, eventually begging the friend to join them in the resistance.

I absolutely love it – Limitless then simultaneously becomes a greasy recruitment message (”baby I don’t want nobody but you 😘”) and a desperate plea for a fellow citizen to join the cause against oppression. (”open your eyes”) But it’s also a passionate love song, and I’m a total hoe for the scorchingly intimate hunger the lyrics convey. The obvious “thirsty, thirsty, f-or love” bit aside, the speaker in the lyrics is urgently seeking intimacy: both a personal connection, and a sense of belonging within something greater than himself.

I need a connection, I want it like crazy I need you I need something to make us feel each other completely I need you

Help me so I can do well Sometimes, I get lost Eventually, we are all connected You know this Like finding a big ocean At the end of a desert Your existence is limitless

Change the heavy world Look how free we are, so free Inside, only you are allowed The one to take my heart, that is you

I think it’s interesting to ask: is Limitless more of a love song that borrows its ferocity from the metaphor of revolution, or a revolutionary manifesto that amplifies its fervor with the universal passion and frustration of youth?

I think it’s similar to asking if the MV is more of an “aesthetics” moodfilm that boosts its own glamor by appropriating the imagery of resistance movements (graffiti writers), activists (Muhammad Ali), and hardships (arrest)...or if the MV is itself a story of resistance against oppression, and only dons the gloss of expensive streetwear to add a spirit of youthful cockiness and anti-establishment swagger to the cause.

But in reality, aren’t things more complex than that? The spirit of any revolution and the passions and frustrations of its youth have always fed and strengthened each other, I think. It feels only honest and hard-hitting that a song about youth-led revolution would also be a hungry, impatient love song.

I hope you enjoyed reading this – I’ll die of joy if you decide you want to comment, discuss, message, or interact with me or other fans in whatever way about any of this!

~ masterlist link ~