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kny111 · 4 years

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I’m Living Under Government Watchlist for doing ProBlack + BLM work

I’m not sure many of you know this and with what I’ve seen I doubt this will get attention considering how deeply sabotaged tumblr has become. But I’ve been doing activism for about as long as we’ve been yelling things like “HandsOffAssattaShakur“ to protesting what I thought was religious corruption when we did so against scientology to #OccupyWallstreet. I’ve been protesting and doing activism online and offline depending on my mental and physical health which has limited me as time goes by. It’s finally got me burnt out, not from the protesting and activism, but from those whose job in the past and present been to sabotage and destabilize Black lead/ Poc led movements. I’m in a continuation of this. Don’t let my lack of energy in speaking out fool you into thinking I gave up. I have just gotten worn out by them.

The things they’ve done to my mind and body while in this area since moving. They’ve been surveilling me since before I could even remember. Every single day that goes by they’ll have some way of making their presence on my health in a debilitating way. They’ll mess with the internet, phone, my contacts, infiltrate them, infiltrate my family, they’ve messed with the job search process and made difficult for me to enter any job without said job making some offhanded comments showing their solidarity to the corrupted country I protest. They’ve had people I trusted right here on tumblr infiltrated my circles of friends and myself and make it very well known that they feel beyond reproach.

This has all been in coordination with the NYPD and other government agents of defense. They’ll make themselves present in just about any space I try to go. From the forest, parks, to just a simple walks outside. I basically was lead into an area of Manhattan that is mad pro-cop, pro-surveillence capitalism, pro-militarized. Any time I make blog posts or whatever that don’t put em in a good light I get some kind of mental or physical health debilitating action against me like they’ll have mad loud noises at timed intervals like what the agent upstairs does all the time which messes with my breathing due to social anxiety and depression. They’ve had cars roll dangerously close to me, whether im biking or not. They’ll have people walk mad close to me during social distancing measures. I know it be them because they tend to use sensitive information they got through surveillancing me all day and night. Like fam I could be trying to take a piss in peace at like 3am and they’ll still be bumping away and making all types of sound to give the impression that they’re always watching. And they are. And I think the fact that those UFO/UAP objects appeared on my 17th (11/10/2004) birthday added to their obsession with me. The other fact that I ended painting a similar craft under the context of destroying colonialism I believe gave the government more understanding on what they’re really here about. I think that being the end of these oppressive regimes that have made so much out of us. I don’t want to sound superstitious but since then I’ve felt a connection with those UAPs that I only learned to name recently. I no longer think it’s coincidental that about a month or so AFTER I painted those native, queer sisters dancing to bring forth help from their future descendants, the navy posts those videos of the UAP that become well known. They’ve never done that, and yet just a few weeks after I painted this, not only does the gallery I exhibited this in Harlem catches fire unexpectedly, but these things become a topic of discussion in ways we’ve never seen before. I think them UAPs are here for our freedom. But that’s for another post. Too much to unpack into this. I’m just letting yall know what they know of me. So now imagine. This nigga aka me, tied to UFO, fortelling the future (I know what I sound like, but believe me, I can definitely tell the future) AAAND fighting for black lives? Of course they gone be on my ass like a probe. In fact, I think one night they even broke into our apartment (not the first time they do so) and did things against my will as I slept since I woke up feeling violated. Waking up with strange markings and having objects in the crib go missing. But I’ll leave that there. There’s so little ya’ll know about what they’re doing to BLM activists. So much I’ve omitted from here for my own sanity and to process things. This has caused my body a lot of debilitating stress down to my breathing having been shortened. I’m lucky if I have the will power to eat more than 2 meals. I don’t even bike anymore. I can barely run anymore. I can barely speak like I used to anymore. They stole so much more from me than they’ll ever imagine. Even saying all this to yall, whomever listening, feels pointless. Why? because they’re very good at making it seem, even if and when it aint true, that your people don’t fuck with you no more except for those they deem acceptable. As you figured, this would have anyone under 24/7 watch. The government be lookin at me and them UAP and the lands and non government natives as a force they don’t wanna reckon with, so they’ve put a lot out to shrink me as they do to so many of us who choose to fight for the rest who can’t. And this has all been while trying to raises my baby Quinn with my partner. So we’re all dealing with the state and federal terrorists in one way or another. If they not trying physically fuck with me, they’ll be running psych warfare on me, shit thatll have me doubting myself despite the facts. Luckily a nigga still bout that scientific literacy so it’s helped me a lot in spotting them and trying to keep some semblance of a distance. But again because of what I’m tied to: bday 111, UAP/UFO, native resistance and the spirits of the land and those this country murdered for white supremacist ventures, predicting/ESP type of abilities on the daily while telling them how useless their surveillence capitalist tools are knowing we can do this has likely mad them other me, dehumanize me and made me feel less human. Since then I’ve noticed they’ve been limiting my posts and activities on just about any site that has favored white supremacy, neocolonialism and capitalism in some way or another. They’ll mess with my facebook feed, who my posts get seen by, they’ll mess with my IG, they’ll mess with my tumblr especially. Basically any way they can limit who I may say this to and wear me out from even speaking about this and bringing yall hope like that. And remember, the information that they share amongst themselves as surveillance capitalist is the same information hub/database that infiltrated white supremacists and antiblack/antibrown folks in governments tend to us and share with their own hateful ass people. With this in mind, I really think they look at me as some would be leader to those movements since I’m queer and nonbinary so not as easy to trick into the outdated oppresive politics they try to have me on. Since I haven’t shown interest in being with them in any real way and have stuck to my activism and abolishing these systems they’ve continue to in a way torture me. Through sounds, denial of physical services, or when I go out to eat in places that have ties to law enforcement or government agencies, they’ll mess with my food, just about anything you need they’ll fuck with. What would that do to you if you experienced that? Hence why my bloggin changed a bit, not as attached due to energy fatigue and their constant harrassment and obsession with me. Many times, even with the fact that I may be linked to those UAP in some special way I still be feelin like dyin to not be around em anymore.

To add to what I said on how corporate own websites like tumblr have joined them; After having spent a good amount of time blocking my posts and blaming their algorithm. From blocking drawings of normalizing fatness to pro LGBTQ and Black Lives Matter posts like the Eric Garner videos I uploaded. For a few months now I’ve noticed my scinerds blog has been inaccessible, in a way sabotaging my communication with yall. And they would fix my blog posts by limiting who sees my posts, so now most if not all of my posts on this website and few others have been. When I try to use it I’m not allowed, but I’m still able to reblog, so I’ve been reblogging there less science and more activism as a way to protest the racist, white supremacist of tumblr. Be they black or not, they still acting the same. I’m mostly posting this for a future people who understand me and believe me. I get the sense that this post will also be sabotaged or muted in some way. Thanks for reading, in case we don’t link.

#blm #black lives matter

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trashthebreadburnthecircus-blog · 5 years

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002. Better Progressive Living via Content (?)

Let's look at three options for how we can consume content and what, if any, effect it might have out in the real world:

1. You consume content, and other than possibly provoking some thought or discussion, you interact with it purely on a consumption level.

2. Content presents a progressive worldview which acts as a precursor to action in the real world.

3. Conversely to #2, Content can be used to subtly reinforce the most base kind of idiotic thinking, which is then used in the real world to do harm.

And of course there are more than these three options for people's interactions with The Lord Thy God Content. I'm using a few points to try and figure out if there are some larger conclusions to be had! So get off your high horse and stop being so goddamn judge-y. In this post, I'll address those first two items, because the third one needs a bit more unpacking (also, I've thought about item #3 more. I hope my rigorous and consistent methodology keeps you coming back).

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Let's start with option #1, which is how entertainment has mostly been framed since television was called “the idiot box.” This simplistic analysis isn't totally without merit though, right? I mean, how many times have you been out in the world with people just sitting there transfixed to their phones? How many times have you yourself been at home transfixed to your phone (or your tablet or computer or whatever)? As previously mentioned, the house of worship for the religion of Content is wherever you can access it.

The knockoff effect that I'm putting forth is simply this: that ease of access makes us lazy, and it reduces our empathy to boot (MUCH more about that in a future post). What's more fun and entertaining? Watching people fight for what's right in a make-believe-though-it's-about-current-politics-wink-wink scenario where the chances are they will succeed after 13 episodes? Or going out and fighting for what's right in the real world, for some indeterminate amount of time, in which you may or may not win, and on top of that your boss is being an asshole and your partner is probably thinking about breaking up with you and how much longer are your savings going to allow you to keep fighting the good fight and oh fuck why is the dog barking?

Depress people's wages, make them more stressed out, make the need to escape ever-increasing, and then give them 500+ options of shit to watch that will cover the gamut of their emotions. Boom, done. The God Content has got you covered. Just sit back, because consumption is the only action needed.

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But can it be that Content can actually get people up off their ass? Instead of keeping us planted in our seats, is it possible Content might do the flip? Some examples are instructive in this regard.

The first and main example that comes to mind was actually the impetus for this post. Specifically, I was thinking about The Handmaid's Tale. The show and the book are almost two different takes – the show could be considered an expanded universe that was originally set up in the book. And throughout the show, as you watch it, you can see that “oh, this is an analog to what could happen (or is beginning to happen) in the near future based on what is happening now” type thing. Because now, we have women dressed as handmaids popping up in real life, protesting legislation that would further reduce the already marginalized rights of women.

Which got me to thinking – were these women already going to protest? Has protesting become some version of FOMO in these modern times, in which a person can feel like they are missing out on social action as much as they are missing out on the never-ending vacation of their favorite IG celebrity? (And if it is: GOOD!). Did the show encourage their activism? (And a devils' advocate question: has anyone changed their belief system after watching THT that wasn't onboard with those politics in the first place?) Because here's the thing – by the simple act of doing a handmaid cosplay, these women are able to convey a whole system of complex thoughts regarding the potential subjugation of women and the current (and possible future) effects of the patriarchy.

Another example, slightly further back, is Anonymous. It seems like a real long time ago, but it's just been over a decade. The Guy Fawkes V for Vendetta mask became a symbol of a fight against a totally, very chill, this-is-definitely-not-a-business “religion” named Scientology, which, from all accounts, treats anyone who wants to leave in a exceedingly respectful manner that isn't at all unhinged or dangerous or scary in any kind of way. Again, a singular object from popular entertainment is transformed into something else, a shorthand script that can encapsulate larger ideas and communicate them immediately between like minds.

And while those two examples are of a type of cosplay used in direct action (and I'm not using that terminology to denigrate it – if that's what gets people going to fight against what Colin of Slice Harvester would call our Sick Fuckin Society, hell, cosplay it up), there's a whole other discussion of using media (or more precisely, a media delivery service) for the good, and that is in organizing. From the Arab Spring to Occupy Wall Street to Black Lives Matter to the current protests in Hong Kong, there is proof, time and again, that social media networks, as fucked up and myopic and self-serving as they can be, have the potential to be used to marshal people for the forces of progress.

And I don't mean to shortchange any of those examples of mass protest, but they have been written about and dissected by many others in much deeper and thorough ways. I bring all the examples up to return to option #2 – there are ways in which popular entertainment and social networks, whether they mean to or not, can and have given people the power or the courage or whatever they need to stand up against the bullshit. Will this happen more in the future? There's so much wrong with the world. If Content can push someone in a positive direction, do we accept that, hoping that it's the beginning of a person's awakening?

And what happens when or if Content pushes them in the other direction? You'll have to wait until the next post to find out–

#bread #circuses #content #entertainment #protest #the handmaids tale #v for vendetta #project chanology #arab spring #occupy wall street #black lives matter #hong kong protests #writing

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punchlinesf · 5 years

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Catching Up with Dan Cummins

Dan Cummins has a one hour Comedy Central special along with many other television appearances such as Conan, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Last Comic Standing and more. Those are hefty credits that yield some serious street cred. Credits that the majority of working stand up comics will never see in their lifetime. However, in the grand scheme of things, how much do these ultimately matter in the pursuit of your dreams? I got to chat with the hilarious and hardworking Dan Cummins about his lengthy career in comedy and his upcoming shows at Punch Line San Francisco. Ronn Vigh: We initially met in 2003 when we both competed in the San Francisco International Comedy Competition. That competition is considered a big milestone for up and coming comics. Do you remember anything significant about that week or period of time in your career? Dan Cummins: I remember the first night that the competition was in San Francisco pretty well. I’d never been in SF before but I knew about its comedic history. I felt so out of place and that I had so much to prove. I didn’t want to be seen as some hacky tavern comic from Spokane, Washington. I remember coming into the competition with a HUGE chip on my shoulder. RV: Wow. Well, I was a really green comic myself at the time but for what it’s worth, I remember you being really nice to me. So, how has your point of view or style of comedy evolved since then? DC: Life has changed so much for me since then. I was still a long ways from making a living as a comic back then. It was all still just a big, beautiful, chaotic experiment. Such a big gamble. Every show felt so important. Like my (hopefully future) career depended on it. Now, after having literally thousands of shows under my belt and after making a living in comedy for over 15 years, I’m a lot more at peace with it. I feel like I have less to prove and I think I’m funnier on stage because of that. Back then, I was a joke guy because I was too afraid to commit to a longer form story. I was too worried about bombing. Now, if I feel like it’s entertaining, I’ll tell a ten minute story. I also feel like I have a lot more to say now. I’ve lived a lot more life. I feel more confident in my opinions and perspective than I did in 2003 and confidence in what you’re saying is so important to good storytelling. I’d like to think I’ve come a long way since then and hopefully, I’ve also retained a decent amount of the childlike wonder for the world I had back when I was 26 years old. RV: I've known many comics who set a list of goals to accomplish by a certain time in their careers. Were you one of those guys? DC: I did make a lot of specific goals. Most of them early on. “Get on this late show, get this type of comedy special, sell this kind of [TV] show!” I’ve been lucky -- I’ve hit most of them (never could sell a show though). The last five to ten years my goals have gotten more artistic. I just want to get more skilled at doing whatever you would call my style of comedy, and reach more and more people who enjoy it, and have those people come out to shows so I can keep doing what I’ve devoted my life too. That’s really my only stand-up goal at this point. RV: I was a flight attendant and in that field they always say being a flight attendant is a lifestyle, not a career. I feel even more that way about stand up, especially for those who do the road so often like yourself. Did you ever have a "Why am I doing this? I should just quit now” moment? DC: I totally get that. Yes -- this life is a long ways from your average nine-to-five job. You’re living in hotels and working clubs and bars all over the world. I’ve thought about quitting many times. I thought about quitting after tough road gigs early on where I had driven eight plus hours to perform for less than 20 people who all seemed to hate me, and I didn’t make enough money to even pay for the gas it took to the make it to the gig. I thought about quitting when my Comedy Central hour special came out in 2010 and no one in America seemed to give a fuck about it enough to buy tickets. I was performing in Grand Rapids, Michigan a week after it aired in front of 30 people who’d never heard of me. I thought about quitting back in 2016 when my album was number one on the iTunes Comedy chart for several weeks in a row, I’d just killed it on The Tonight Show, and I was performing, again, in front of 30 or so people who had never heard of me (this time in Kansas City). I thought, “This is the BEST I can do and it still doesn’t matter!” I’d put out five albums of my best stuff at that point and it just didn’t seem to be getting me anywhere.

RV: The last time I saw you was a few years ago and you were thrilled about returning with your family to your home state of Idaho. Has this helped, hindered, or presented any unexpected challenges for you as a working comic? DC: Idaho has been really good to me. It’s a little harder to get places because of where I’m living but I’ no longer distracted by all the entertainment possibilities of Los Angeles. I’ve gone back to focusing more on stand-up than I was for a while. Also, a lot of exposure has come via Pandora and my podcast Timesuck. I’m actually selling the most tickets to shows of my career by far. I’m working the best clubs in the country and many of the shows are sold out. I never thought that would happen after moving back to Idaho. It’s been incredible! RV: Tell me more about your podcast. DC: Timesuck has been a wild ride! It’s a deep dive on one subject a week and episodes come out Monday at Noon, PST. Episodes can be about anything interesting: criminals, historical figures, cults, current events, social issues, conspiracies, cryptozoology, the paranormal, etc. You learn a lot about one subject a week (me and the team I now have research the hell out of this stuff) and you get to laugh while you learn. I work hard to add a lot of humor to the narratives. We also have an online community that has become pretty interesting as well. It’s grown out of people who are intensely curious about he world around them and willing to question their beliefs wanting to meet other people who feel the same way. Our private Facebook group has close to 10,000 members and many have become friends with one another. Romantic relationships have formed out of the group. There have been some engagements! RV: In early 2017, you were nice enough to give me a guest spot on your show in Arizona. In the green room you spoke passionately about Timesuck as it just started a few months prior. In what ways has the podcast evolved and exceeded your expectations? DC: The podcast has exceeded my expectations in every way. It has evolved into this interesting humanitarian group. Listeners send care packages to and raise money for other listeners in need. They send in emails saying listening to the show has strengthened relationships with their spouses, siblings, parents and more -- giving them inside jokes to share and subjects to talk about. This past week we had an email from someone who found the courage to leave an actual cult they’d been in for years after listening to various episodes about cults I’ve done (Jonestown, Heaven’s Gate, Scientology, Order of the Solar Temple, The Branch Davidians, etc) We’ve had listeners write and say that Timesuck literally saved their life -- that they were suicidal but then became hopeful towards humanity again listening to the podcast. I never expected any of that. Not in a million years. I’m so excited to see where it goes from here! And you can always have a guest spot. You’re a funny guy! RV: Thanks. That’s all I needed to hear. Interview is over. So, does anything you uncover in the podcast wind up working it's way into your stand up?

DC: That’s just started to happen! I told a random story about having a sexual experience with a banana in high school. Yup, a banana. Fans went nuts laughing about it and teasing me. So I decided to tell the whole story on stage (after fans brought bananas to some shows and people started showing up wearing banana shirts) and now it’s one of my favorite new standup pieces. It is RIDICULOUS! RV: Can you give us a sneak peek of what topic you will be covering when you do the podcast live from the Punch Line? DC: Yes! I’ll be telling the tale of the Ant Hill Kids. A French Canadian cult mainly based in Quebec between 1977 and 1989, led by a psychopath named Roch Theriault. He was BRUTAL. It’s amazing what cult members endured at his hands and still chose to follow him. It’s a fascinating study in manipulation and I tell some of the darkest jokes I’ve ever written during this tale. It’s not for the squeamish! RV: What is your most favorite and least favorite thing about San Francisco? DC: My favorite thing about San Francisco is how smart the crowds are. They want good, intelligent comedy. They don’t need to be spoon fed. My least favorite is that San Francisco crowds can be REALLY sensitive. Too sensitive. They can take the social justice warrior ethos -- which is great -- and become a little too serious for their own good. It’s a comedy show, not a protest. Lighten the fuck up and laugh. Life’s too short to be pissed all the time...and this is coming from a pretty angry comic! RV: Well said! It’s always great to see you back at the Punch Line!

DC: I’m looking forward to some Punch Line shows! I truly do love coming to San Francisco. I have so many great memories of shows there over the years. It’s a home away from home and I look forward to it every year. Dan Cummins: The Happy Murder Tour at Punch Line San Francisco, May 1 - 4. Prices and show times vary. TimeSuck Live Podcast w/ Dan Cummins, May 4, 4PM. Tickets are $20 in advance. Tickets can be purchased at punchlinecomedyclub.com

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rolandfontana · 5 years

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The Man Who Murdered the Sixties

It’s been a half-century since Charles Manson and his loopy minions conspired to commit a series of murders that still fascinate and flabbergast the world.

Manson, who died in prison in 2017, would savor the attention he continues to attract, including in this summer’s Quentin Tarantino film (“Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood”) and several new books, including my own.

In March 1967, at age 32, Manson was a fresh federal parolee who stumbled into San Francisco as American ingenues in peasant dresses and bellbottoms—runaways, hitchhikers, and lost souls—were streaming in for the Summer of Love. His timing was impeccable. The patchouli-scented sexual revolution created a perfect petri dish for his predation.

Using prison-honed talents as a con man and middling skills as a guitarist and singer-songwriter, Manson soon began building a cult of as many as 35 young hippies, three-quarters of them women.

He would spin campfire lectures for his stoner clan featuring Psych 101 dogma about projection and reflection. He basted their brains in a mix of Jesus Freakiness, Dale Carnegie hucksterisms, Norman Vincent Peale’s sunny-sided platitudes (“You are perfect!”), and the buggy self-help triangulations and “dynamics” of his prison-library Scientology.

Charles Manson. courtesy Oxygen

They believed he was a godly mystic.

The writer David Dalton nailed Manson in eight words: “if Christ came back as a con man.” Joe Mozingo of The Los Angeles Times said, “He was a scab mite who bit at the perfect time and place.”

Using the playbook of pimps and cult patriarchs, he isolated troubled young women from their past lives and controlled their bodies and minds. He was the Wizard of Oz for libertines, and he as much as told them so.

Susan Atkins, who became one of Manson’s most prolific killers, said Manson often mocked his own followers’ blind faith.’

“He said, ‘I have tricked you into doing what I want you to…It’s like I’ve got a bunch of slaves around me,” she told a grand jury in December 1969, after her arrest.

The Enigma of Charles Manson

Manson was an enigma on many levels.

The “Manson Women” Photo courtesy Oxygen

He was a racist and sexist imbued with the old-timey sensibilities of an Appalachian upbringing. He preached female subservience and racial segregation, and his young followers lapped it up in the midst of a flowering civil rights movement and on the cusp of modern women’s liberation.

Many were willing to kill for nothing more than Manson’s validation.

“You can convince anybody of anything if you just push it at them all of the time,” Manson once said, “…especially if they have no other information to draw their opinions from.”

Just 29 months after Manson began assembling his naifs into a communal Family, these “heartless, bloodthirsty robots…sent out from the fires of hell,” as a prosecutor would describe them, carried out a series of proving-ground murders in Los Angeles over four weeks in the summer of ‘69 that still has a place of prominence in America’s storied pantheon of crime spectacles.

The primary motive was money to allow the Family to finance a retreat to California’s Death Valley to ride out the race war that Manson predicted was coming.

The first victim, the Family’s good friend Gary Hinman, was Killed on July 27. Two weeks later, on Aug. 9 and 10, Manson followers killed the pregnant actress Sharon Tate, coffee heiress Abigail Folger, Leno and Rosemary LaBianca, and five others in acts of casual savagery that remain a peerless mashup of celebrity, sex, cult groupthink, and bloodlust.

Police outside 10050 Cielo Drive in Hollywood where the blood-splattered bodies of Sharon Tate and her four friends were found. Photo by George via Flickr

“It had to be done,” one of the killers, Leslie Van Houten, explained after her arrest. “For the whole world’s karma to be completed, we had to do this.”

Writer Dalton, who covered Manson for Rolling Stone, called him “the perfect storm” for 1969.

“It was the conflation of mystical thinking, radical politics, drugs, and all these runaway kids fused together,” Dalton told me.

“The world seemed to be in death spiral of violence, and we thought the whole hippie riot was about to begin to save use all. We were going to take over and everything would be cool. In fact, the opposite was happening, embodied by Charlie Manson.”

The implausible Manson story cannot be separated from the context of its era, as some Americans were asking essential questions about what their country ought to be.

The half-decade of 1965 to 1970 saw ghetto riots, the emergence of a vibrant new psychedelic culture, shocking political murders, riveting space exploration, escalation of the war in Vietnam, and burgeoning protests of the same.

Two months alone in the summer of 1969 brought an extraordinary series of events. On June 28, a police morals-squad raid on the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in New York’s Greenwich Village, touched off three days of rioting—and ignited the gay rights movement. On July 18, Ted Kennedy, surviving male heir to the American political tragi-dynasty, fled the scene of a fatal car wreck on Chappaquiddick Island, Mass. On July 20, the world watched on TV as Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin took their stiff, bouncing strolls through moondust.

Among the viewers was a small group of friends and kin gathered at the home of Sharon Tate. Twenty days later, on Aug. 9—50 years ago today—four members of the same group would be savagely murdered by Manson’s second kill team. A week after that, more than 400,000 peopled endured organizational bedlam to attend the Woodstock Festival, 100 miles north of New York City. That same weekend, Hurricane Camille pounded ashore on the Gulf Coast, east of New Orleans at Pass Christian, Miss., killing 256 people.

The Sixties created Manson, and his crimes were an exclamation point to a turbulent decade.

A ‘Child of the ‘30s’

But as he liked to say, “I am a child of the ’30s, not the ’60s.”

He was born to a prostitute mother and drive-by father in 1934 and raised by relatives in Kentucky, Ohio and West Virginia coal country. He became a chronic juvenile delinquent who flailed his way through a Dickensian childhood. A tiny boy who grew into an elfin but sinewy man, he was locked up in reform school, jail or prison for all but a few years of his life from age 13 to the grave.

He spoke or wrote a million words about his life and crimes—in court, in letters, in media interviews. He bleated many excuses for his wasted life, almost always beginning with a lack of parenting and proper education.

Manson often played crazy, but that was a studied tactic. As Vincent Bugliosi, his prosecutor and biographer, told Time magazine before he died in 2015.

“His moral values were completely twisted and warped, but let’s not confuse that with insanity. He was crazy in the way that Hitler was crazy…So he’s not crazy. He’s an evil, sophisticated con man.”

Manson preached a homespun version of liberation theology—the freedom to be you. But a switch was flipped in the fall of 1968, when the Beatles released their White Album.

Manson convinced his followers that the world’s most famous band was sending him direct messages in the lyrics, including those of “Helter Skelter.” He imagined that Paul McCartney’s song presaged a race war that would induce the Family to retreat to a desert hideout, then emerge heroically and install Manson as a world leader and master breeder.

Manson recast his horny young stoners into a classic apocalyptic cult, prepping for end times. Growing impatient for the race war, Manson decided to “show blackie how to do it” by committing a series of murders and leaving clues meant to implicate the Black Panthers, that era’s subject of America’s ever-changing moral panic.

The starry-eyed plan was a failure on every level.

Before Manson “got on his “Helter Skelter” trip,” according to Paul Watkins, another follower, “it was all about fucking.”

Five former members of the Family, all senior citizens now, are still imprisoned, 50 years along: Leslie Van Houten, Patricia Krenwinkel, Charles Watson, Bobby Beausoleil and Bruce Davis.

Manson follower Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme was imprisoned for the attempted assassination of President Gerald Ford. Photo via YouTube

Many others have died, including Watkins and Susan Atkins.

Most renounced Manson long ago, although Lynette (Squeaky) Fromme, an early acolyte who served 34 years in prison for a 1975 assassination attempt on President Gerald Ford, self-published an autobiography last year that was largely dedicated to minimizing Manson’s culpability.

Atkins, who once seemed to enjoy her public profile as an illustrious sexpot murderess, had a personal reckoning before her death from brain cancer in 2009.

“In hindsight,” Atkins wrote in her memoir, “I’ve come to believe the most prominent character trait Charles Manson displays is that of a manipulator. Not a guru, not a metaphysic, not a philosopher, not an environmentalist, not a sociologist or social activist, and not even a murderer.

David Krajicek

“His long-term behavior is one predominantly of a practiced manipulator.”

She called him “a liar, a con artist, a physical abuser of women and children, a psychological and emotional abuser of human beings, a thief, a dope pusher, a kidnaper, a child stealer, a pimp, a rapist, and a child molester. I can attest to all of these things with my own eyes.

“And he was all of these things before he was a murderer.”

This essay is adapted from David J. Krajicek’s new book, Charles Manson: The Man Behind the Murders that Shook Hollywood (Arcturus).

The Man Who Murdered the Sixties syndicated from https://immigrationattorneyto.wordpress.com/

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zeroviraluniverse-blog · 7 years

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11 Incredible Stephen Hawking Quotes

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11 Incredible Stephen Hawking Quotes

The great filmmaker Albert Maysles once explained the power of nonfiction moviemaking by saying, “When you see somebody on the screen in a documentary, you’re really engaged with a person going through real life experiences, so for that period of time, as you watch the film, you are, in effect, in the shoes of another individual. What a privilege to have that experience.”

A privilege, yes, and a privilege that’s outsized for us today. We now have access to thousands of documentaries online, allowing us all kinds of shapes and sizes of shoes to step into. To extend our personal knowledge of human experience. Thousands of little empathy machines. Small windows into lives that aren’t our own.

Here are 25 of the best documentaries that you can stream right now.

1. 13TH (2016)

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Following the breakout prestige of Selma, Ava DuVernay constructed an exploration of the criminalization of black individuals in the United States, crafting a throughline from slavery to the modern private prison boom. Eschewing an overdramatized style, DuVernay calmly, patiently lays out facts and figures that will drop your jaw only until you start clenching it.

Where to watch it: Netflix

2. AILEEN: LIFE AND DEATH OF A SERIAL KILLER (2003)

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For those only familiar with Aileen Wuornos through Charlize Theron’s portrayal in Monster, Nick Broomfield’s documentary offers a considered portrait of the human being behind the murderer. In his first film about Wuornos, The Selling of a Serial Killer, Broomfield considered her as a victim of abuse and betrayal, with her image commodified. In this follow-up, he takes us all the way to the day of her execution, wondering how anyone would think she was of sound mind.

Where to watch it: Netflix and Amazon Prime

3. ABACUS: SMALL ENOUGH TO JAIL (2017)

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“Too big to fail” entered the lexicon following 2008’s bursting housing bubble, but while the world’s largest banks skated through, Abacus Federal Savings Bank was deemed small enough to prosecute. Steve James (of Hoop Dreams fame) has crafted an intimate, Oscar-nominated look at the Chinatown bank that became the only financial institution to face criminal charges in the wake of the subprime mortgage crisis, starting at the family level before zooming out to the community and country.

Where to watch it: Amazon Prime

4. BEING ELMO (2011)

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Narrated by Whoopi Goldberg, puppeteer Kevin Clash shares his childhood growing up in Baltimore and the road to a career as a furry red monster on Sesame Street. It’s a delightful peek behind the curtain to see how magic is made, featuring interviews with legends like Frank Oz and Kermit Love. Pairs well with I Am Big Bird: The Caroll Spinney Story (which is available to rent on Amazon).

Where to watch it: Netflix

5. BEST OF ENEMIES (2015)

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Both quaint and prescient, the televised debates between William F. Buckley Jr. and Gore Vidal during the 1968 Republican National Convention show us a midpoint between idealized civic discussion and the worst instincts of modern punditry. This sly documentary explains the force of this rivalry, its ironic popularity as televised circus, and the aftermath of all the clever insults.

Where to watch it: Netflix

6. CALIFORNIA TYPEWRITER (2017)

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A bright palate cleanser that shouldn’t be overlooked just because it isn’t emotionally devastating. The success of this film is its ability to transfer other people’s obsessions to the viewer. Tom Hanks, John Mayer, historians, collectors, and repairmen all share their abiding love for the click-clack of a device that defies obsolescence. You may crave a Smith Corona when it’s all over.

Where to watch it: Amazon Prime

7. CAMERAPERSON (2016)

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Patience is rewarded in this thoughtful, dazzling cinematic quilt of footage collected from 25 years of Kirsten Johnson’s career as a cinematographer. Her lens takes us to Brooklyn for boxing, Bosnia for post-war life, Nigeria for midwifery, and more.

Where to watch it: Amazon Prime

8. CARTEL LAND (2015)

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Raw and fearsome, Matthew Heineman’s documentary puts you in the boots on the ground of the Mexican Drug War. This gripping look at Arizona Border Recon and the Autodefensas of Michoacán shows what happens when governments fail citizens who are in the line of fire.

Where to watch it: Netflix and Amazon Prime

9. CASTING JONBENET (2017)

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This isn’t the documentary you’d expect it to be. Kitty Green took an experimental approach that’s less about rehashing the true crime sensationalism of the headline-owning murder of a child beauty queen and more about how many stories can be contained in a single story. Green auditioned actors from JonBenét Ramsey’s hometown and, in the process of making several dramatizations, interviewed them about what it was like living in the area during the 1996 investigations (and what they think really happened).

Where to watch it: Netflix

10. CAVE OF FORGOTTEN DREAMS (2011)

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There��s nothing like hanging out with Werner Herzog in an ancient cave. Herzog filmed in the Chauvet Cave in southern France to document the oldest known human-painted images, which is fortunate for us because the cave isn’t open to the public. It’s a wondrous nature documentary about us.

Where to watch it: Netflix

11. CITY OF GHOSTS (2017)

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Another brutal hit from Matthew Heineman, this documentary carries the audience into the Syrian conflict through the eyes of citizen journalist collective Raqqa Is Being Slaughtered Silently, which both reports on war news and acts as a counter to propaganda efforts from Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). Some documentaries are interesting, but this one is also necessary.

Where to watch it: Amazon Prime

12. DARK DAYS (2000)

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Before Humans of New York there was Dark Days. This delicate, funny, mournful project is a true blend of reality and art. Marc Singer made it after befriending and living among the squatter community living in the Freedom Tunnel section of the New York City subway. Despite never making a movie before, he decided that shining a light on these homeless neighbors would be the best way to help them.

Where to watch it: Amazon Prime

13. EXIT THROUGH THE GIFT SHOP (2010)

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Covered in spray paint and questionable facial hair decisions, this documentary displays the transformation of Thierry Guetta from clothing shop owner to celebrated street artist, but since Banksy directed it, it’ll never shake the question of its authenticity. Real doc? Elaborate prank? Entertaining either way.

Where to watch it: Netflix

14. GAGA: FIVE FOOT TWO (2017)

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It’s incredibly honest. As much as an inside look into the life of a global pop superstar can be. Lady Gaga (real name Stefani Germanotta) spends a healthy amount of the movie standing around without makeup, waxing wise and humorously before jumping face-first into her work and fanbase. The film focuses on her time crafting her Joanne album and her Super Bowl halftime show, but they could make one of these every few years without it getting stale because Gaga is a tower of magnetism.

Where to watch it: Netflix

15. THE INTERRUPTERS (2012)

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In the middle of gang violence in Chicago, CeaseFire attempts to use members’ direct experiences to ward off new brutalities. Dubbed “violence interrupters,” Ameena Matthews, Cobe Williams, and Eddie Bocanegra are at the heart of this vital film about ending community violence by employing disease-control strategies, and the Herculean task of reversing systemic criminal activity without losing sight of the humanity of the people affected.

Where to watch it: Amazon Prime

16. JIRO DREAMS OF SUSHI (2012)

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Let’s hope that this meditative, sumptuous documentary never leaves Netflix’s shores. The portrait of then-85-year-old Sukiyabashi Jiro’s quest for unattainable perfection is both food porn and a somber-sweet consideration of the satisfaction and disquiet of becoming the best in the world at something and, somehow, striving for better.

Where to watch it: Netflix

17. JOSHUA: TEENAGER VS SUPERPOWER (2017)

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When someone tells you it can’t be done, show them this. The simple title both celebrates and belies the smallness of one person fighting a system. Joe Piscatella’s doc follows the explosive growth of the Hong Kong protest movement engaged by teen activist Joshua Wong when the Chinese government refused to act on its promise of granting autonomy to the region, and it is a dose of pure inspiration.

Where to watch it: Netflix

18. THE LOOK OF SILENCE (2014)

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Joshua Oppenheimer and Anonymous’s sequel to the Oscar-nominated The Act of Killing features an Indonesian man whose brother was murdered during the 1965 purge of Communists talking to his brother’s killers while literally checking their vision. His bravery and composure are astonishing, as is the insight into the many rationalities unrepentant men use to shield their psyches from their own heinous acts. A peerless piece of investigative art.

Where to watch it: Netflix

19. MY SCIENTOLOGY MOVIE (2017)

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An absurdist rabbit chase and a deliberate provocation, writer/star Louis Theroux’s punk documentary poked the bear of the infamous religion in order to get access to it. They auditioned young actors to recreate real-life events described by ex-members, got denounced by the church, and even got into a “Who’s On First”-style argument with a member (“You tell him to turn the camera off then I’ll tell him to turn the camera off!”). Serious subject matter by way of Borat.

Where to watch it: Netflix

20. THE NIGHTMARE (2015)

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This documentary by Rodney Ascher should be seen by everyone and somehow be banned from being seen. Not content to profile people suffering from sleep paralysis—the condition where you can’t move or speak while falling asleep or awakening, yeah—Ascher riffs on the hallucinations that sometimes accompany the ailment. As if being frozen weren’t enough. The result is a true story that’s just as effective as a horror film.

Where to watch it: Netflix

21. PUMPING IRON (1977)

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A landmark docudrama about the Mr. Olympia competition, this is the film that launched a wannabe actor from Austria into the public conscious. Arnold Schwarzenegger is brash and beautiful in this celebration of body perfection which finds a balance between joy and the teeth-gritting agony of endurance. Great back then, it’s now a fascinating artifact of the soon-to-be action star/politician.

Where to watch it: Netflix

22. STOLEN SEAS (2013)

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Constructed using real audio and found footage of the 2008 hostage negotiation aboard a Danish shipping vessel, filmmaker Thymaya Payne’s film isn’t content to simply shine a light on the horrific reality of a Somali pirate attack; it strikes to build a contextual understanding of what these attacks mean for the rest of the world. For all of us.

Where to watch it: Amazon Prime

23. STORIES WE TELL (2013)

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An absolute personal stunner, actress Sarah Polley directed this docudrama about the scariest thing you can reveal to the world: your family. It’s an emotional, gamut-spanning search for identity that requires reconciling conflicting views about your parents and digging through buried secrets. Polley bringing them into full view, for all of us to see, is a selfless act that resulted in an outstanding piece of art.

Where to watch it: Amazon Prime

24. THE THIN BLUE LINE (1988)

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A modern classic of nonfiction storytelling. Through archival footage, interviews, and reenactments, documentary royalty Errol Morris used this film to argue the innocence of a man destined for lethal injection. It tells the story of Randall Dale Adams, who was sentenced to death for killing a police officer in 1976, despite evidence that the real killer—a minor at the time—had committed the crime. A must-see for fans of Making a Murderer.

Where to watch it: Netflix

25. TIG (2015)

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When you get diagnosed with cancer, the natural thing is to perform a stand-up act about it the same day, right? Comedian Tig Notaro became famous overnight when her set confronting her same-day diagnosis went viral, and this documentary from Kristina Goolsby and Ashley York focuses on the year that followed. A rocky year that deals with death, a new career chapter, a new relationship, and possibly a new child. It’s okay to laugh through the tears.

Where to watch it: Netflix

#11 #Hawking #incredible #Quotes #Stephen #Facts

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psycho-cybernaut-blog · 8 years

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New Media, New Liberty

The internet allows people to come together and manifest a common goal. It also allows for individuals to express whatever they want, wherever they want. Compared to old media, we have transgressed geographical boundaries and through hyper speed connection, we can share them easily. The old media didn’t do that; newspapers and TV’s were controlled by an organization, filtered through groups of people. As of right now, we possess the ability to express any of our ideas while being able to access an endless sea of knowledge. However, with this freedom comes a responsibility so high that the government doesn’t fully trust the public with. With the altruistic, free sharing of data to the people using new media, there comes an unjust, overseeing power that forbids the freedom of many.

What differentiates new media from old media is the logic. According to Lev Manovich in “The Language of New Media”, Manovich defines new media as “post-industrial”, with logic of “individual customization, rather than mass standardization” (Manovich, 30). With the mass integration of diverse ideas in a space so localized that’s it fits into your pocket-sized phone, our ability to translate and transform our own opinions onto something internationally accessible becomes much more possible. For example, it’s a lot more difficult to personally customize a channel on TV, but it’s a lot easier to create your own YouTube channel. Before new media, people got their outside, current information was from reading the news and watching TV. Both broadcast information to a wide audience, but now the tide has turned where the public are the owners of the information they themselves want to broadcast.

In new media, programming has become a popular tool for inventors alike. Programming gives the people the tools to recreate ideas and inspirations and express them online, similar to how Aaron Schwartz used Rich Site Summary (RSS) as a tool to enable online publishers to syndicate their data automatically, and led to the invention of the popular social media network Reddit. By tinkering with new technology, especially the internet, people can take a bigger part in building the world. This is how cyberspace came to be what it is today – full of individual ideas synthesized with others to invent new ones. The internet can work as a creative outlet; everybody has a channel – like a blog or a Facebook page – whereas old media has only TV channels. In this sense, everyone is allowed to speak, it just becomes a question of who gets heard, and who becomes silenced.

The internet is a humongous library condensed online. It allows us to get public access to public domains. But in the beginning, “confidential” information that was in court trials were so hard-to-access and expensive. For example, Pacer.gov was an open-access website that had interesting information, but entering was pretty pricey. At the time, there was debate whether information like that should be given freely to the people or “owned” by those in power. Controversy over what information should be public or private is still an ongoing dispute between public domains like social media and private ones such as the National Security Agency, NSA for short.

The NSA got a foothold on the people privacy’s after the 9/11 attacks. Although the NSA claims they are doing it for the safety of the American people, there are some boundaries they cross that are not constitutionally acceptable. A recent, major story was broadcasted where information that the NSA was spying on millions in the U.S was leaked out by Edward Snowden, former NSA agent. This is done through linkability – the ability for the government to link up people’s data in their daily lives. For example, if someone swipes their debit card at the train, the government can link up all of the data that the debit card has been through. Essentially, the government can track where they go, what they buy, even who they hang out with by comparing it to other people with similar travel patterns. By linking up multiple sources of data, the government can condense it into “metadata” which are a list of facts that may not necessarily be true but can still be used evidence in a trial one is convicted in. This gives the NSA an incentive to investigate almost anyone, no matter how minuscule the relation is. Snowden explains that before the internet was inspected by the NSA, people would freely express themselves. Afterwards, growing terror of being surveilled caused the imprisonment of many people’s curiosity. Now, it can be the imprisonment of people with the justification of them being a possible terrorist. Once Snowden exposed the injustice, people became more mindful of the privacy way they were battling in. People began to realize that what people used to call liberty and freedom is what people now call privacy. So, if the people’s privacy is endangered, then the people’s liberty are also at stake.

In another case, the FBI targeted young Aaron Schwartz when he was found tinkering with MIT’s data to access Jstor.com’s information network, which was described as unnecessarily expensive at the time. Aaron saw this as injustice: sharing knowledge was a moral imperative. Those who have access to exclusive information, like a college student’s paid database, are privileged and should share it to those who are in need of knowledge such as people in Third World countries. Yet, Aaron was still indicted with multiple charges even though he did not do anything with the data he discovered. It was the government’s need to make an example out of Aaron – to show to all the other hackers. That was the real incentive, not breaking the law.

However, with the power of the internet, people can create changes to this unjust system. Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), an act proposed to attack copyright infringement by enforcing censorship, was at war with the American people. Demand Progress, an anti-SOPA campaign led by Aaron, unexpectedly overrode the SOPA act. At first, many of the supporters did not actually believe it would work, but once it started getting momentum, the possibility was greater. In just a few days, congressmen and senators switched to be anti-SOPA as many major websites blacked out to prove that SOPA was unnecessary censorship. As a result, freedom of speech for the people won over the government’s radical proposal for censorship. This is a prime example of how powerful the internet really is in demanding and inspiring change, and that the internet is not a force to be underestimated with.

Although Aaron and Snowden may seem like the 1%, the war between privacy of the individual and the “protection” is driven especially by the average internet user. For instance, the large hacktivist group Anonymous, originated on the image board 4chan, helped support Tunisia citizens fight during the riots by providing them dial-up internet when there was a total wipe out of their country’s internet. Yet, people in Anonymous were still targeted by the FBI for protesting in trivial matters such as the possibly cult teachings of the Church of Scientology.

As Aaron said in Guerilla Open Access Manifesto, “Information is power, but just like power, people want to keep it to themselves.”. The war continues for the fight for the people right to privacy, information, and ultimately for democracy. Living in the U.S. many citizens fear what will happen to their data, metadata, and essentially their pursuit of happiness if censorship stands in the way. Although widely spread apart, U.S. citizens stand together on the same ground for individual expression using new media as their creative outlet and tool for moral innovations.

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letsblogwithallisha-blog · 8 years

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Spread the word, they will silence us no more!

Now in the age of digital, social platforms have become a feeding ground for activist group to expand their memberships and spread their messages. Prior to the emergence of social media, activist groups relied on funding from supporters to pay for traditional media to get their message out there. Social media and digital communities have provided these groups with an inexpensive way to get their cause known (Joyce 2010).

Image: frandeblakker 2010, Don’t worry we’re from the internet

Looking at the hacker group ‘Anonymous Group’ back in 2008 when they began protests against the religious cult ‘Scientology’ you can see how social media created a world movement. Group participants in the United States used Social Media to spread the word through a video call ‘call to action (2008)’ about their plans to protest outside the Scientology Churches around the world in an attempt to prevent the church from being able to silence those speaking out against Scientology. The word quickly spread and ‘Anonymous’ members from all around the world came out in major cities to join the protest. This is just one example of how the digital age has united people from across the globe with similar views (Ramadge 2009). Check out the original video posted by Anonymous below.

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ChurchOfScientology, Call to Action 2008

Now we’ve seen how hactivism works to help spread the word and create a larger movement, let’s take a look at how it can also hinder someone’s cause. The word slactivism evolved in circa 2014 when extensive research showed that charities who promoted their causes online were more likely to be causing financial damage to themselves then if they were to seek funding through traditional channels (Youmans 2012). The reason for this is because those who ‘like’ or sign a partition through campaigns run on social media are usually only voicing their support and believe they have done enough to help the charity without need to assist any further. In fact research has shown that social supporters are the least likely to provide financial assistance to charity groups (DNews 2013).

The recent ’22 push-ups in 22 days challenge that swept across social media trying to raise awareness of veterans suffering from PTSD (Post traumatic stress disorder). Whilst it spread over the internet very quickly, it has done little to actually help support our war veterans suffering from PTSD. They reason this challenge failed to help was because there was no cause highlighted in the posts of where donations could be made to support the cause or to reach out to those who are suffering with PTSD to offer assistance (Ross 2016).

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DNew, Your ‘Like’ Doesn’t Help Charities, It’s Just Slactivism 2016.

So where do we go from here? I believe there is a place for charities and activist groups to spread their word on social media but plenty of thought needs to go in how they go about using it to get their messages across.

References

ChurchOfScientology 2008, Call to action, YouTube, viewed 7 January 2017, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YrkchXCzY70>.

DNews 2013, Your ‘like’ Doesn’t Help Charities, It’s Just Slactivism, YouTube, viewed 23 January 2016, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=efVFiLigmbc&t=90s>.

Joyce, M 2010, Digital Activism Decoded: The New Mechanics of Change, New York International Debate Education Association, P101- 102.

Ramadge, A 2009, Scientology protests start across Australia, news.com.au, viewed 7 January 2016, <http://www.news.com.au/technology/scientology-protests-start-across-australia/news-story/b698d892df907188cffe7f1843294d4e>.

Image

frandeblakker 2010, Don’t worry we’re from the internet, viewed 7 January 2017, <https://frankdebakker.wordpress.com/tag/blog/>.

#mda20009 #activism #slactivism

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