#and the 'cultural influence' section was MADDENING | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

youngboy-oldmind · 3 years

Text

IN DEPTH REVIEW- DAMN. Part I

DAMN. contains multiple narratives and thematic elements. We get Kendrick’s opinion on Fox News and American culture, his experience seeing the “good and bad” of black culture, his upbringing due to an incident with his father, him embracing being a “chosen people” according to the biblical chapter Deuteronomy, and him suffering with trying to please God and struggling with whether God is blessing him or not. All of these topics are woven in a dual-narrative where Kendrick switches between excitement and mellowness, creating a bi-polar aura from start to finish.

1. BLOOD

We get a glimpse of this back-and-forth right off the bat in the first few seconds of the intro track. Producer Bekon speaks in harmonized vocals “Is it wickedness? Is it weakness? You decide. Are we gonna live or die?”, setting the two-sided tone the album will carry throughout its runtime.

Next, we get a short story narrated by Kendrick. Over a very angelic instrumental and echoey voice, Kendrick talks about going on a walk. He encounters a woman who seems to need help looking for something that fell on the ground. Wanting to help, Kendrick goes over to the woman asks to be of assistance, saying “It seems you have lost something, I would like to help you find it”. The woman replies “Oh yes, you have lost something. You’ve lost...your life”. Then we hear a gunshot, Bekon restating “Is it wickedness”, and a clip of two anchors from Fox News criticizing Kendrick’s lyrics on “Alright” off To Pimp a Butterfly.

This is a very eerie, unsettling way to start an album. The first time I heard this album, I was genuinely shocked by the sudden gunshot. My first assumption was these songs are some sort of post-mortem reflection. Kendrick is dead and this album reflects on everything that got him to that point. And in some ways, you could argue that’s what this album represents.

There are some interpretations that the woman represents God and this a story of Kendrick being punished while trying to please God, a theme explored on the tracks “FEEL” and “FEAR”. I don’t take credit for that interpretation, but I think that’s also valid. That also fits the biblical themes explored throughout this project.

I think it’s interesting this story is told in the past tense: “I was taking a walk the other day.” If you’re reminiscing on a story of you dying, you as the narrator are some sort of ghost or angel. This further is emphasized by the echoey vocals, the choir in the background, and the strings in the background getting higher and higher.

Right at the start, this track fuels a ton of theories. No matter which interpretation makes sense, or what other interpretation you come up with, this track is very unnerving.

2. DNA

DNA takes a 100% different tone, utilizing a much more aggressive delivery and instrumental. Here, Kendrick talks about the mixture of people in his DNA, from royalty to criminals and victims of poverty/violence in America. In the second half of the track, Kendrick switches to a much more gritty instrumental. In addition, he throws in overbearing vocals to layer over his words. He also adds in another FOX News clip that criticizes hip hop music for doing more damage to young African Americans than racism. The track starts off like a praise for the honorable makeup of his DNA. But the track quickly turns negative and critical as he continues, ultimately ending on “Sex, money, murder. Our DNA”. Then, just as sudden as the track began, it suddenly ends.

“BLOOD” ended with Bekon saying “Is it wickedness?” I think that was a hint of the aggressive, wicked tone this song would take. Here, Kendrick is shamelessly disappointed, aggressive, and angry, all associated with negativity and wickedness. Also, I like the contrast between the harmonic vocals on this track and the previous track. While the previous harmonies were more angelic, these were more demonic. This adds on to the wicked tone of this track.

Besides “HUMBLE”, this is likely the most popular song from the album. I first heard this track on a Madden soundtrack several years ago. Due to the bounciness of the track, I can see how a clean version of this track fits on a sports game. But thematically, it definitely feels out of place on a EA Sports video game.

It’s also important to note this song is the second in a row to talk about a Fox News clip. Its apparent that Kendrick strongly dislikes and disagrees with Fox’s interpretation of his lyrics. It’s already abysmal to suggest hip hop music is equal or worse than racism; and Kendrick being a hip hop icon, takes it to heart that he’s being noted as a cause for worsening the black community.

I think this difficulty arises from the fact in some cases hip hop music HAS idolized depression, gang violence, and drug addiction to the point some individuals influenced by hip hop music get involved in those wrongdoings. However, hip hop is multifaceted. Not every hip hop song is related to those negative topics, and to sum all of it up in one tone is shallow. Kendrick rejects the notion that hip hop music is bad for young African Americans.

For me, 75% of the tracks could be the best, so I can’t say this song is a Top 3. But definitely a well deserved mainstream hit.

3. YAH

After the chaotic and exciting “DNA”, “YAH” is another 180 flip. This slows all the way down, feeling like a slow motion trip. Kendrick talks his awareness of constantly being under watch, whether it be by his fans, family members, FOX News, or God. And even though he knows he’s going to be scrutinized by those who watch him, he still does negative, toxic things to satisfy his urges and wants.

I think this song utilizes the “Is it weakness” aspect of the questions pondered in the intro. Instead of expressing rejection and resentment, he comes off passive and weak-willed. He talks about the section in Deuteronomy that discusses some being “cursed”. He comes off helpless and a product of an inevitable negative situation. And since he’s cursed and going to be criticized and punished no matter what, he might as well indulge.

This is another favorite of mine on this album. It’s cool to dive into the layers of this track, or just lay back and vibe to. The psychedelic production and Kendrick’s dragged vocals make the listener feel like marijuana or LSD is kicking into their system. Definitely a top 3 track production wise.

Part II Coming Soon😁

#album review #music review #hip hop review #hip hop #kendrick lamar

1 note · View note

latenightcinephile · 4 years

Text

#723: ‘A Touch of Zen’, dir. King Hu, 1971.

Some parts of this film have stuck in my mind since the first time I saw it in a university library screening room ten years ago, and others I retained from a screening at the national film festival about four years ago (before they gutted the ‘classic films’ section of their annual program). Like a lot of films, though, huge sections of it disappeared into the haze of memory, while scenes from this film retroactively merged with other wuxia films. In some respects, this isn’t surprising: A Touch of Zen is three hours long, took over two years to produce, and was originally released in two parts, so it’s hardly shocking that sections of it have evaporated. On the other hand, this is such a gorgeous film that it feels almost offensive to forget a second of it.

But it’s not an easy film to write about, and that’s part of the reason why I’m only sitting down to write about it now. As a wuxia text, it’s fascinating, but as a film it is somehow both too complex and too simple. An analogy might help, here: imagine that the first half of Kung Fu Panda remained the same, but after training Po, Master Shifu took it upon himself to defeat Tai Lung, leaving Po on the sidelines. In some ways, that’s what happens in the second half of A Touch of Zen. And it was this unusual turn of events that got me thinking about why the film behaves this way.

Chinese literature has influenced their most prominent genres, just like any other cinema culture, and as such there are significant differences between the narratives they produce and the films that are frequently made in Western countries. One narrative type fairly common in the far East that is currently almost absent from Western productions is the one that happens to be common in wuxia films - a set of stories that take place with different permutations of a core cast of characters, bringing some to the foreground at different times. Arguably, the closest contemporary American cinema has to this is the superhero genre, which definitely shares a lot of similarities. The Marvel Cinematic Universe has that rotating cast of significant characters, and entries in the franchise focus on particular characters as their protagonists.

However, what happens in A Touch of Zen is slightly different: each text in the MCU is relatively self-contained, and the events and antagonists of one film very rarely appear as significant in another. In A Touch of Zen, the protagonists of the first half are unable to defeat the villain, and it is only through allying with another figure, ‘Journey to the West’-style, that the film can conclude with the villain’s defeat. Curiously, the alliance feels more like a replacement, but that’s almost certainly due in part to the space between the original releases of the two halves of the film. A year in between makes it much more feasible mentally to make this jump between characters. That type of space is what makes a similar type of storytelling, the radio serial, function as well.

Perhaps it’s just the types of games I’ve been playing recently, but I can also trace a lineage between this type of narrative and the tenets of tabletop role-playing games. In both media, characters often fall together in goals rather than having any common history, and the narrative is usually constructed as being a series of smaller skirmishes leading to an eventual confrontation with the cause of the characters’ troubles.

It’s clear from the visual style of A Touch of Zen, as well, that this film served as an inspiration for two other films that also raised questions of Chinese expansionism, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Zhang Yimou’s Hero. In both those films, though, the wire work is developed almost to the extent of absurdity. This martial arts technique, referred to as qinggong, is at the heart of most parodies of wuxia, and later films suggest that at the heights of qinggong the laws of the physical universe no longer apply. In A Touch of Zen, though, King Hu’s focus seems to be on balance, and measuring the use of qinggong with the other tenets of martial arts. Characters here do jump over walls, spring through bamboo forests, and pass serenely through the trees, but these actions are limited to providing a moderate weightlessness to the characters. This is one of the things that makes the film feel corporeal in a way that the others I’ve mentioned don’t: masters of martial arts in Hero and Crouching Tiger have honed all their disciplines, but because qinggong can be ‘honed’ to a degree far more surreal than the others, it will always be the focus of the film’s significant images. In order to give the impression that these warriors are equally adept at everything, qinggong needs to be scaled back to more balanced levels.

As a result of this, when Abbot Hui finally emerges surrounded by his acolytes, and glides without touching the ground, accompanied by a dizzying flash of sunlight on water and wind in the trees, we are aware just how far this particular skill can be honed. Abbot Hui is far more developed in his skills than the other protagonists, but the implication of his behaviour is that these skills, taken to the extreme, are not valuable for combat. It’s a more spiritual version of the big bruiser that doesn’t get into fights because everyone knows exactly how those fights would end.

At that point, the film strikes off into a radiant display of Buddhist enlightenment doctrine, but one that is so ambiguous that no commentators have been able to agree on what precisely it means. This is what makes A Touch of Zen so powerful and so maddening: at the point that its performances and visuals fade, the narrative takes over, and at the point the narrative becomes unclear the visuals pick up this slack. At very few points are the two strongly allied, which I think might be why sections of it fade from my memory all the time - it’s those points where the harmony is strongest that the film is most memorable.

#1001 movies #king hu #a touch of zen #wuxia

9 notes · View notes

beersfromthebleachers · 5 years

Text

Play Ball! It’s time for an eSports baseball league!

Last month, another successful segment of the Electronic Entertainment Expo, or better known as E3, was held in Los Angeles. The trade event is known for its wide display of video games from industries all over the world. The three days that separate each event gives every major gaming company and studios the opportunity to display new products and games that will be featured as early as the holiday season for gamers to purchase and play. In the recent years of E3, there has also been more focus on the future of competitive play in eSports. The growing momentum of eSports is moving quickly and is about to hit its pinnacle with the amount of competition available for gamers to play in. E3 capitalized on this feature in order to bring their gaming audience up to speed on what is yet to come in the future of major competition.

The grand lobby of this year’s E3.

The transition where this meets video games that features competition for sports games are reaching a new group of audiences everywhere that brings “stat nerds” to a whole new meaning. The largest eSports competition for any major sport is association football (or often called soccer) through EA Sports’ popular title FIFA and holds, more competitions than any other sport video game on the market. Amongst the other popular brands from the EA studio, the tournaments for hockey and football were just created within this past year for NHL Hockey and Madden NFL. The studios of 2K Sports are responsible for the hit title of the same name for the NBA, and started their own league for players from different cities with NBA franchises to compete against each other. It will not be long before 2K can follow through with contributing with the variety of tournaments designed for fighting games with their partnership with WWE 2K titles. The visionaries for all of these sports video games and competitive leagues have pushed the envelope by changing the diversity of sports fans and having them contribute to the passion of each individual cultures, but there is one specific league and video game franchise being left out of this eSport movement: Sony’s MLB: The Show

The Show has been the dominating baseball game on the video market for over a decade since being introduced by Playstation in 2006. Despite the game being a major hit for the MLB, it seems to lack a major following in any competitive nature. To make matters even worse, there is no eSports league or any competition that is for MLB The Show domestically or internationally. In a time where baseball continues to be criticized for its lack of audience, the MLB could be taking advantage of this new movement of an audience by inserting their product into the eSport market.

MLB: The Show is not the only baseball game in the video game market. It is known that the MLB is not the only country that recognizes baseball as a national sport. In countries like Japan and South Korea, their leagues are just as popular and known like they are here in the US. They also have their own version of a baseball video game called Power Pros (Jikkyō Powerful Pro Yakyū). The game is designed specifically in Japan and for the NPL; however it includes the teams of leagues from KBO so that Korean baseball fans can play with their favorite teams as well. This game is designed perfectly for the Asian-baseball market, but it is not like any other sports game. In parody, the game is designed to be more of a child’s game that uses avatars that are deformed versions of the players in real life. In a game that is not taken so seriously, it is far more difficult to make eSport competition from this game series. Even more of a bigger conflict, the Asian eSport gaming community has the largest population of players that compete.

MLB: The Show, Power Pros, and RBI Baseball would be popular titles to start an eSports league for baseball.

Virtual reality has always been a dream of video game companies, and they would like it to be in almost every home like their consoles over the decades. It is only a matter of time where they are in every home and gamers all over are living life like the film Ready Player One. Even at visits to ballparks, virtual reality has made its way in some sections that feature the idea of a simulation where patrons can swing for the fences. This concept can be sold to virtual reality enhancers like for Sony’s PlayStation to improve The Show or the new competing feature of the Oculus Rift and actually make a baseball game that puts you in the same scenarios as most players. If the future of gaming is to get more interaction from players, perhaps eSports will drive the direction to include full body simulation for players to feature themselves on actual teams of playing on a simulated baseball field for competitive play. This, in a way, would eventually give players the ability to play an actual baseball game with their features to be enhanced to play as any professional athlete. This in turn could be a breaking point of actually bringing more attention to baseball, or harm it if it becomes more competitive than any professional baseball league. Of course, baseball would not be the only sport that will suffer; this concept would be possible for any professional sport that would be offered in virtual reality. Talk about an episode straight out of Black Mirror.

The popularity of the hit film Ready Player One has led video game companies to be more assertive in virtual reality.

A concept that would be able to take advantage of this situation is the Olympic Summer games that are being held in Tokyo in 2020. It will also be the return of baseball in the summer games since the sport was removed in 2008, and because Japan recognizes it as a national sport. It would be more in gracious recognition that eSports be recognized at the coming games as well. However, the International Olympic Committee due to certain regulations did not pass it in time. Instead, there will be an international gaming tournament being held in Tokyo during the same time as the Olympics. It would be more than superb if those international gamers coming to participate played the games designed for Japan. It would be more than extraordinary to have both sports collide and have the eSports christen the first international competition for a baseball videogame. In this circumstance, the tournament held would have to honor both MLB The Show and Power Pros so that there is no segregated completion restrictions on any of the players looking to compete. If this were a competition that would be a success, it would take a gaming company such as Sony to take more affirmative action to make the future of baseball gaming more diverse.

Since Sony Interactive Entertainment is responsible for making MLB The Show, it would be even more critical if they staged a model like EA’s FIFA series. If there were a better partnership between the International Baseball Federation and MLB with its player association, there would be fewer restrictions on allowing more teams to be used by a video game company in a single program. The more teams to be used would be unlimited from not only the leagues domestically, but internationally as well. What would be the grand incentive behind that would be the access to the international teams that play baseball for the World Baseball Classic. As an international pool recognizes the wider range of baseball fan ship, the chances of online and interactive gaming would also grow. If the chain of events all lead to success, the chances of making an eSports league would be structured like the 2K League and international influence of the FIFA competitions that are held in other countries. Restrictions should be broken down if this comes to a different studio to make the game. RBI Baseball is a video game fully supported by the MLB and has no limit to the amount of platforms that are accessible for gamers, it would be in their advantage to actually start on this project than Sony would have.

The sponsors behind the WBC could create a video game that would rival MLB: The Show and grow in more popularity with an eSports league internationally.

Surely, the influence of an eSports league for baseball would push the boundaries for baseball to grow even further. The benefit of learning about the variety of different leagues and players would expand the diplomacy of the game. The potential of the WBC still has a great period of time before it becomes at an even level with the popularity that is the FIFA World Cup. However, with some inspiration, an eSport competition could bring more players of nationality to represent their countries and become ambassadors of baseball on their own terms. Another opportunity that this would drive due to the idea that baseball is a game of strategy of statistics is the inspiration that would build towards fantasy baseball. The idea to build teams to win in the best statistical fashion is strategy that would go hand-in-hand with someone who is competing heavily in a baseball video game. Surely, the adaptation of multiple fantasy baseball formats for leagues domestically and internationally would build more of an international audience of baseball. The collective of everything in competition would help influence the future of baseball fans and individuals who seek to find professional work in baseball as a potential career.

With the rising popularity of eSports, it is time for a league to represent baseball in video games.

Essentially, the idea of eSport in baseball is an idea that would not only bring more fans into the sport, but is a concept that would “save baseball.” It is critical not only for the MLB to drive for a new audience outside the current one they are already catering towards, but to finding new consumers of the game on a yearly basis. Video games have always been an interaction that the younger generation are always been attracted to, and handful of big major companies have always pushed major franchises to make their product even more entertaining with interactive play. The idea of an eSport league for baseball could possibly break down obstacles that MLB and other leagues seem to be having a hard time struggling with in the current era. If the success from eSports in other league continues to gain more momentum, it would be in baseball’s favor to highly get behind immediately. The future has always been now when it comes to technology and video games has always been right beside that movement when it comes to entertainment. It is time for baseball to make that partnership with the video game world and eSports competitive play, for the love of the game.

20 notes · View notes

radishreader · 6 years

Text

Reading Women and Socialism by Sharon Smith, and it’s mostly fine, but there’s a brief turn into anti-TERFitude in Chapter 5 that I found amusing and a little bit maddening:

Somewhat unexpectedly, a reincarnated radical feminism rooted in ostensibly ‘natural’ biology has surged in influence in recent years--with a reactionary antitransgender agenda. This group of feminists issued a 2013 statement, “Forbidden Discourse; The Silencing of Feminist Criticism of ‘Gender,’ an Open Statement from 37 Radical Feminists from Five Countries,” in which they claimed to be victimized for asserting “the right of women to organize for their liberation separately from men, including M>F (male to female) transgendered people.” In the statement they conclude,

We look forward to freedom from gender. The ‘freedom for gender’ movement, whatever the intentions of its supporters, is reinforcing the culture and institutions of gender that are oppressing women. We reject the notion that this analysis is transphobic. We uphold the radical feminist principle that women are oppressed by male supremacy in both its individual and institutional forms. We continue to support the radical feminist strategy of organizing an independent powerbase and speaking the truths of our experience out of earshot of the oppressor. We hold these principles and strategies essential for advancing toward women’s liberation.

Radical feminism, which had propelled the women’s liberation movement forward in the late 1960s, was derailed by its own theoretical shortcomings. Its recent antitransgender resurgence places itself firmly outside today’s movements that seek to end LGBT oppression in all its forms.

The placement of the passage suggests she’s drawing a comparison to separatism in order to argue against it (this passage comes directly after a section on separatism). That’s an interesting choice given that “speaking the truths of our experience out of earshot of the oppressor” speaks (to me at least) of the practice of consciousness-raising, which socialist feminists like Smith have spent some time talking about (see, for example, the Chicago Women’s Liberation Union’s pamphlet Socialist Feminism).

Moreover, note the lack of an actual argument. Why exactly call this reactionary? How does this qualify as antitransgender? Smith never says, not even in a cursory attempt at an argument. It just is, prima facie.

You can read Forbidden Discourse here. Frankly, as radfem transphobia goes, it’s extremely tame. Also note the way Smith fails to address any of the specific evidence the authors of the document put forward when they are “claiming to be victimized.”

#my posts

3 notes · View notes

asianpacificbechdeltest-blog · 7 years

Photo

Silence (2016) dir. Martin Scorsese

“The legendary filmmaker’s latest follows a Jesuit priest preaching the gospel to persecuted Japanese Christians, but is far more concerned with his agony than that of the ‘other.’”

“It makes perfect sense that Martin Scorsese, who’s been obsessed with Shūsaku Endō’s 1966 novel Silence since a clergyman gave him a copy over two decades ago, should have spent the next quarter century trying to bring the Japanese Catholic author’s richly complex spiritual inquisition to the screen. And why not? On the heels of 2013’s Wolf of Wall Street, Scorsese’s long-gestating passion project follows the thematic lineage of his Last Temptation of Christ and Kundun, making it plainly essential viewing for the Scorsese faithful and those who share his keen interest in matters of personal faith.”

“But for skeptics and non-believers, the 161-minute tale of the spiritual struggle quietly raging within one white savior out of water in feudal Japan is a frustrating journey to take—and an ardent story about cultural imperialism and Western arrogance that doesn’t recognize its own.”

“The Portuguese first arrived in Japan in the middle of the 16th century, bringing guns and God along with them. Bearing gifts and preaching the gospel, the Jesuit Francis Xavier was the first European to succeed in spreading the germ of Christianity into a Buddhist and Shinto land. But when ruler Tokugawa Ieyasu reversed Japan’s stance on missionaries half a century later in order to protect the empire from encroaching Western cultural influence, the widespread eviction of foreign evangelicals and persecution of Japanese Christians forced practitioners into hiding under pain of torture or worse, birthing the Kakure Kirishitans—the “Hidden Christians.””

“It’s against this brutal climate of feudal control and religious oppression that Silence takes place, as seen through the kindly agonizing eyes of Sebastiao Rodrigues (Andrew Garfield), a young but devoted 17th century Portuguese priest. Sent from Lisbon with his fellow Jesuit Francisco Garrpe (Adam Driver) to investigate the unknown fate of their former teacher, Father Cristovao Ferreira (Liam Neeson), the Church’s “army of two” sets off on a harrowing journey into the heart of a hostile Japan, buoyed by their devotion and the unshakeable conceit that they’re on a mission from God to bring their “truth” to a country of naïve converts in need.”

“Adapting Endō’s celebrated novel with repeat collaborator Jay Cocks (The Age of Innocence, Gangs of New York), Scorsese traces its linear narrative at a languid pace that allows Garfield’s sensitive portrayal to emerge in long sections of quietude, narrating Rodrigues’s written letters back to Portugal over stunning scenes of the craggy and verdant Japanese coastline. The natural landscape of Japan comes alive through Rodrigo Prieto’s lensing as Rodrigues and Garrpe make their way onto the closed-off islands of Japan from Macau with the help of a shifty drunkard named Kichijiro (Yosuke Kubozuka), whose own crises of faith will become recurring provocations for Rodrigues’s spiritual evolution.”

“At first the frightened but determined priests find the land and poor villagers of Japan foreboding in their foreignness, and they cling to one another as they hide in dank squalor to elude discovery. They find gratification of purpose when they’re taken in and harbored by local Japanese Christians who, desperate for the ministrations of padres long gone, have adapted to worshipping in secret: carving their own icons from wood, clumsily reciting prayers learned from long-absent padres. All the while, they tell the duo, they’ve been longing for the return of the priests who can deliver Christian absolution, forgive their sins, and lead them to a paradise free of the worldly suffering they endure under the rule of a cruel and brutal Japanese overclass.”

“Scorsese’s restrained imagery immediately evokes the inherent contradictions in this interloper’s condescension, one validated by the extreme cruelties and horrors inflicted upon Japanese bodies so that they may be witnessed by the Portuguese. (He cast a Spider-Man, a Jedi, and Kylo Ren as his trio of padres and filmed in English, making the call to portray his Portuguese characters as noble Caucasian saviors with wildly differing accents but bankable faces.)”

“The film opens on a stunningly photographed inlet of steaming hot springs in winter: Neeson’s Ferreira watches helplessly as Japanese Christians are stripped down and burned with ladles of boiling water. Their screams pierce the air, but it’s Ferreira’s agony we are meant to feel—the agony of his inability to stop the torture, the suffering of his helplessness.”

“Another scene of torture is also one of Silence’s most virtuosic sequences, in which a trio of Japanese villagers, having refused to renounce their faith—to apostatize—are crucified in the rising tide of the Pacific until they expire from exhaustion. It’s one of the film’s most soul-stirring moments thanks to fine work from Japanese actor Shinya Tsukamoto, who plays the unflaggingly devout Mokichi. And yet here again, the pain is twofold: Mokichi’s dying gasps, loyal to God to the end, are validated by Rodrigues, watching helplessly from afar as he hides from the local lord’s enforcers.”

“Later, Rodrigues is imprisoned by authorities and pressured to renounce God by trampling on a likeness of Christ. He refuses, and suffers. But he is to discover there are harsher punishments than those that might be physically inflicted upon his own body. Catholic guilt gets a workout for nearly three hours onscreen in Silence, as Rodrigues and the more rigid Garrpe struggle to resolve the austerity of the teachings they’re imparting to a desperate flock with the grim suspicion that it all might be for naught.”

“Throughout Silence those silent agonies flash across Garfield’s distressed baby face, which Scorsese alternately smudges with grime to blend in with his dirt-covered parishioners, or frames in long voluminous Jesus curls to juxtapose his Christ-like glow with the wretched, imploring Japanese Christians. It’s not the plight of the Japanese that Scorsese is interested in, nor is that what the prideful Rodrigues worries over, as he longs to serve his righteous way to the Lord or die a glorious martyr’s death. As a result, Silence is a frequently dragging and exhausting meditation on spiritual fidelity that has little time for the non-white people on either side of this unholy reign of terror.”

“Like Rodrigues, Scorsese’s sense of purpose and his own self-interest lead him down a narrow path that mostly preaches to the lapsed and likeminded. A nonbeliever, on the other hand, might find Scorsese’s dogmatic obsession so taxing that it seems perfectly reasonable when the Japanese take strategic measures to expel these interlopers from their country—yes, sure, even if it means hanging innocents by the feet until the torture drives them mad or worse. If you suffer from the affliction of not caring about the soul of Silence’s hero, you too might find yourself dreadfully uninterested in the crisis he’s brought upon himself, wishing he’d just go home to Portugal and leave Japan alone.”

“Alas, along the way Rodrigues finds himself lifted and spurred on by the devotion of the secret Christians he meets, who happily sacrifice themselves to torture and death if it means earning their Jesus stripes. But ultimately his journey becomes more defined by a trio of Japanese foils who become the biggest thorns in his side: Kichijiro, the Judas to his Christ; The Interpreter, an enigmatic court-appointed translator trying to convince him to renounce his faith (Tadanobu Asano); and Inquisitor Inouye (Issei Ogata), the feudal lord in charge of the persecution of Christians whose off-putting demeanor masks a ruthlessness reflected in the name Scorsese gave him—a reminder that the Catholics themselves weren’t so innocent elsewhere in the world around the same time.”

“The combined excellence of this Japanese trio is maddening, because they bring Silence’s most provocative characters to life only to ultimately and thanklessly be used as props for Rodrigues’s own self-absorbed journey of spiritual self-discovery. Ogata, a gifted comedian, infuses Inoue with a mesmerizing duality that combats Rodrigues’s youthful egotism; he’s more deserving of a supporting actor awards push than, say, Neeson, whose presence in the film is laughably scant by comparison. Asano, one of the best Japanese actors of his generation, shines with a deceptive charm as he works his master manipulations on the stubbornly resistant priest. Kubozuka lends the traitorous Kichijiro a pitiable relatability and turns Rodrigues’ own personal Judas into a compellingly illustrative figure of questioning and utterly human faith.”

“Scorsese’s very Catholic interest in Endō’s Silence lies in the question of whether or not God forgives those who renounce Him—and how the devoted deal with the psychological torment of His silence. But he seems only to care how those questions impact his light-skinned protagonist. To that end, he stakes more investment in the spiritual agonies of his priest than he does in the native peasants who are literally dying to protect the foreign padres, without granting the Japanese Christians or their tormentors the full breadth of context and complexity that Endō wrote into his novel. Absent from the film, for example, is any exploration of the socioeconomic power structure that turned so many poor Japanese peasants toward Christian teachings that promised paradise and salvation—escape from their miserable earthly lives. Silence ignores the economics of why Western faith found a berth in Japan to begin with and breezes over the underlying cultural clash that, one untrustworthy character argues, makes it impossible for Christianity to take root in the “swamp” of Japan.”

“In his pursuit of his protagonist’s prerogative, Scorsese in effect reduces Japan to gorgeous, exotic, unforgiving scenery. (He shot it in Taiwan, where he also received partial financing.) Its people exist to serve Rodrigues’s reckoning with his own faith. The difference is crucial: Endō may have written a Western male protagonist and plopped him smack dab in the middle of a tumultuous time in Japan, but he also kept enough distance from his priest to illuminate his flaws against the bigger picture. Those nuances are seeded throughout Endō’s novel, which he himself co-adapted into a 1971 film and later, an opera. The author, both a conflicted Japanese and a conflicted Catholic, painted a portrait of a bygone Japan in flux, where missionaries found themselves in the position of reconciling their own strict doctrine with a culture they did not understand.”

“Scorsese is almost single-mindedly concerned with the salvation of Rodrigues’s soul. Is he, then, in the same rickety boat as his protagonist?”

“Compare his embellishments of the source material to the novel itself and the first film to be adapted from it, by Double Suicide filmmaker Masahiro Shinoda, five years after the book’s release. Co-written by Endō, 1971’s Chinmoku (Silence) ends with a controversial bang that leaves little ambiguity to Shinoda’s harsh view of the outsider Rodrigues, and the metaphorical consequences missionaries brought to Japan in the guise of spreading salvation. Endō, who passed away in 1996, reportedly hated the director’s ending, which hammers home its point by holding a gruesome freeze-frame on Rodrigues’s gnarled face. (For those interested, the 1971 film is available on the streaming platform FilmStruck.)”

“By comparison, Silence treats Endō’s protagonist with kid gloves as it ignores the cultural exploration that accompanies the religious one in Endō’s book—and in doing so embraces the white male perspective Scorsese brings with him. He spares Rodrigues the ignominy of Chinmoku’s ending, prizing the priest’s spiritual purity over all else, and in doing so turns Garfield’s earnestness into tedious, endless self-absorption. He also takes the liberty of giving Rodrigues a final act of grace that Endo never wrote. Is Scorsese playing God with Endō’s material, gifting Rodrigues with this last bit of ham-fisted redemption? At best it’s an indulgent affirmation that, like the whole of Silence, serves only the faithful and the questioning. At worst it’s an emotionally manipulative flourish that sends Silence off as a requiem for Rodrigues, true believer, noble victim of the cruel Japanese.”

“It’s no coincidence that Endō wrote his novel in 1966 inspired by his country’s own history and the life of the Italian Jesuit Giuseppe Chiara, a generation removed from the sharp and forced end to Japan’s own imperialist efforts. He’d converted to Catholicism at age 10 for his mother and during WWII found himself a lonely practitioner of the religion of Japan’s enemies—an outsider in his own country. Later he moved to France seeking something closer to acceptance, only to find himself the target of European racism. His book, from this thornily conflicted Japanese Catholic perspective, reflects a much richer, and much more complicated interrogation into the collision of forces that converged upon and within Japan, yielding universal questions from such a specific life.”

“By filtering Endō’s complex moral conflict into a work of spiritual tourism Scorsese selfishly works out his own questions of faith, using Endō’s text to do it—while ignoring the cultural context that makes his Japanese-ness matter. That’s far too fine a line between self-serving cinema and cinema that serves the complex crises of religion and clashing cultures that Endō wrote of. In Silence, the padre Rodrigues agonizes over the silence of a God that won’t reply to him and by extension, validate his faith and suffering. Scorsese does more than enough of that for the both of them.”

ARTICLE: Yamato, Jen. “‘Silence’: Scorsese’s Flawed, Frustrating White Savior Tries to Save Japan From Itself,” The Daily Beast. Web. 2017

#silence #silence movie #martin scorsese #andrew garfield #shusaku endo #adam driver #liam neeson #film #white savior #japan #Yosuke Kubozuka #Shinya Tsukamoto #Tadanobu Asano #Issei Ogata #jen yamato #the daily beast #question mark

54 notes · View notes

itssiennatheasian · 7 years

Text

Art History: Cubism

Welcome back to our series on art history! From the dreamy paintings of the Impressionist era, we now venture onward to the early-20th-century art movement of Cubism. Let's see how history significantly affected the art of this time.

Man in a Hammock by Albert Gleizes

Cubism: The Movement

Cubism began during the early 1900s in Paris, France. At the time, artists Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque joined forces to explore this radical style of cube-inspired painting.

But the public wasn't quite ready to let go of the past.

While most artists were still following the flowy trends of the Impressionist movement, Picasso and Braque worked tirelessly to build a philosophy around Cubism. Their work was seen as bizarre and maddening, but it only reflected their intense passion for analyzing objects, shapes, and colors.

Woman with a Fan by Jean Metzinger

Luckily, they never gave in to the naysayers, because now we have more amazing art styles like Futurism, Dada, and Art Deco as a result.

Let's learn more about this movement by looking into the minds of the world's Cubists.

Early Cubism

One of the most recognized names in art is Pablo Picasso. A Spanish painter with a passion for exploring many mediums, Picasso was fascinated with geometry during the earlier years of Cubism.

Seated Nude by Pablo Picasso

He and fellow Cubist Georges Braque took apart objects and analyzed them in terms of volume, shape, and color. They played with flat visuals that looked glaringly different from their peers, and developed paper collage work which explored three-dimensional planes.

Girl with a Mandolin by Pablo Picasso

Their work was very similar too. They both created monotone paintings of different subjects like love, music, and still life. Historians saw Cubism as a way to stamp out ambiguity. It forced the viewer to internalize the subject matter by limiting the color palette.

La Guitare by Georges Braque

At the same time as Picasso and Braque's discoveries, other artists were emerging as well.

High Cubism

High Cubism came after 1909 when artists who mostly exhibited in non-academic salons in Paris explored a similar cube-inspired style. The group wanted to emphasize research into the expression of form in opposition to the realistic colors of the Neo-Impressionist movement.

L'Escale by André Lhote

Artists at this time included André Lhote, Jean Metzinger, and Albert Gleizes. In contrast to earlier Cubists, these artists allowed the Impressionist era to influence their work. They painted vibrant geometric explorations of self-portraits and war-related themes.

Dancer in a café by Jean Metzinger

Soon the rules of art were pushed even further. The Section d'Or was a group of artists, sculptors, and critics associated with Cubism who believed that the movement was simply a continuation of the love for the golden ratio. They created abstract art with the purpose of skewing their subjects.

Paysage Cubiste by Albert Gleizes

Late Cubism

Art became even more abstract after 1914. Artists now began to emphasize overlapping planes and flat surfaces. Crystal Cubism, as it became, was created by artists who desperately needed to escape the realities of the Great War.

Soldier at a Game of Chess by Jean Metzinger

Though many artists continued to push through with Cubism, it started to decline after 1925. As a result of a shift towards more conservative values, artists dropped the bold colors and shapes for more conservative French styles. Today, it remains a major influence on modern art history.

Three Musicians by Pablo Picasso

Conclusion

Minimalism is nothing new. Artists have been adoring the simplicity of geometric shapes since way before the invention of modern design software. Though controversial at first, the art world responded to Cubism with many diverse art styles for years to come. Its wide range of culture and influence is a true testament to the evolution of art. And I hope you continue to learn more about these amazing timelines on your own.

For more amazing tales of 20th century Cubism, dive into the links below for further reading. And join me next month when we discuss the Harlem Renaissance.

Cubism: A history and an analysis

Primitivism, Cubism, Abstraction: The Early Twentieth Century

Cubism: Basic Art Series

The following sources were also included in this article:

Wikipedia: Cubism

Met Museum: Picasso

from Envato Tuts+ Design & Illustration http://ift.tt/2ym9w6W via http://ift.tt/1dVCCOJ

#Envato Tuts+ Design & Illustration

0 notes

morrisbrokaw · 5 years

Text

This is What a Feminist Looks Like

Hi. My name is Monique. I’m 5’3” with black hair and hazel eyes. I’m a bit of a sensitive soul and stubborn as a mule. I have three chickens, two dogs, and a loving, wonderful husband. Together we share finances and own a home. I struggle with body dysmorphia and am a survivor of sexual assault. I like feeling good about looking strong and I have a solid (and ever-growing) shoe collection. I double majored in English and Women’s and Gender Studies in college… and I’m also a Feminist. But does all of this—my marriage, homeownership, and personal facts—make me any less of a Feminist?

Nope. No, it does not.

According to Merriam-Webster, the definition of Feminism is as follows: “The theory of the political, economic, and social equality of the sexes” or “Organized activity on the behalf of women’s rights and interests”

So let’s backtrack for a minute. Imagine a time where civil rights, much less women’s rights, were non-existent. There was no personal or political realm as it pertained to women and people of color. There were simply possessive marital relationships and the enslavement of human beings: men of privilege had all the power.

During this period, the Abolitionist movement garnered strength and eventually the climate would reach a tipping point. By the early 1800s, many northern states had outlawed slavery, aiding the movement’s tenacity and objective. Sadly, such a measure would not absolve the states of inequity as the Civil War would be soon to follow.

Meanwhile, women were still the property of their husbands and thus lacking any kind of say or influence—regardless of their race, social status, or political involvement. Prominent female voices within the Abolitionist movement, like the Grimké sisters and Lucretia Mott, recognized the inextricable link between their efforts as anti-slavery activists and their own lack of power as women. By the 1840s, the women’s equality conversation pivoted to larger platforms, gaining speed and a title—the Women’s Rights Movement. Much of the movement’s early emphasis centered around women’s suffrage and in 1920, Congress passed the Nineteenth Amendment, which finally gave women the right to vote. It took just shy of 100 years for women to get the right to vote. And nearly 100 years-and-many-changes-later, we’re still fighting for equality in some way, shape, or form.

This lengthy backstory is to say that the Abolitionist movement laid the foundation for the Women’s Rights Movement, which in turn set the stage for the Feminism we know today. A movement’s history, or in this case Herstory, reminds us about the growth, progression, conflict, resolution, and re-emergence of systemic issues. Because Feminism has not always been called Feminism. It has gone by many names or no name at all, is sometimes (though usually) dependent on the political initiative or climate at hand. But the end goal remains the same: equal rights for all women.

Somewhere along the way, the word Feminist took on a multiplicity of meanings largely rooted in misconceptions, assumptions, or stereotypes. These apply both internally (within the movement) and outside of it, too. Meaning, that in order to be a Feminist you must epitomize a description or role assignment. Or, when someone hears that you are a Feminist, they immediately make assumptions about you. But why—why are there stipulations or qualifications? Because, can’t anyone be a Feminist if they believe in equality for women and thus advocate for equal rights?

Admittedly, that’s a rhetorical question because two things: 1. yes, anyone can be a Feminist if they believe in equal rights between the sexes and 2. I know definitively that these kinds of conditionals and stereotypes are isolating for those within and outside a movement. And not just isolating between two people—they can tear a movement apart. While studying Women’s and Gender Studies in college, I watched misbeliefs and alienations unfold in classrooms and safe spaces alike—ones that even mimicked the very Herstory we were learning about. It created hostile riffs between individuals and groups of people. In some cases, you even had Feminist-pitted-against-Feminist: that in order to be a “worthy” Feminist, you had to fulfill a series of requirements.

Even within various campus Feminists groups, I observed and participated in bickering centered around what made someone a true Feminist. I found it difficult to make progressive strides towards equality when we couldn’t even establish equal footing amongst ourselves. And the most maddening part? I was watching Herstory repeat itself: it wasn’t the first time that the Women’s Rights Movement was divided.

In 1869, the early Women’s Rights Movement was divided into two sections: one lead by Lucy Stone and the other pioneered by Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Eventually, the two would become unified in their efforts, but it certainly wasn’t overnight. Or, take Susan Brownmiller’s In Our Time: A Memoir of a Revolution as an example. Brownmiller offers a first-hand editorial perspective and walks you through the second wave of Feminism—from Betty Friedan with the National Organization of Women to the juxtaposing Shulamith Firestone with the New York Radical Women. Between the pages, you’ll find a riveting, honest, and even humorous account of the experiences, backlash, and schisms within the movement. It’s a pretty great read on the whole, so I highly recommend it. The first time I read this book was early on in my collegiate studies—I was young and filled with a fury, ready to take on The Man. But despite the book’s monumental impact, I totally failed to take note of how important it was to keep stereotypes in perspective.

Full disclosure: for a long time I subscribed to the notion that in order to be a legitimate Feminist, one had to emulate a certain set of beliefs. So I held myself to some wild expectations. Such as: 1. A “real” Feminist does not indulge in capitalist tendencies (e.g. shoe shopping) 2. A “real” Feminist does not get married (at all) 3. A “real” Feminist does not subscribe to popular culture (e.g. one does not listen to Taylor Swift) 4. A “real” Feminist does not use feminine products like tampons 5. A “real” Feminist remains angry and resentful of the fact that they are oppressed… and the list goes on. But that list for me would change. A lot. Because, what happens when you age, grow, and adapt? You change (most of the time). I distinctly remember the day that I realized I had grown out of my old standards—I believe the words I asked myself were “Am I still a Feminist if I don’t use my Diva Cup? Am I still a Feminist even though I got married to a cisgender male? And… when did I stop being so angry and self-righteous?”

Because I can be whoever I am and still be an advocate for equal rights at the same time. I didn’t need to prove myself to anyone: I was and still am a Feminist no matter what. In truth, I believe that Feminism ought to remain multi-faceted and dual-natured no matter what subset, category, or personal point of view my (or your) Feminism falls under. As Feminists, we (in the shadow and somewhat limited perspective of the movement’s founders) need to continue to adapt, grow, and react to the new sets of obstacles, systemic challenges, and privileges that we encounter. In other words, rather than let tropes or stereotypes dictate and divide us, we can embrace our differences and continue working toward the greater good of the movement. Otherwise, we run the risk of growing stagnant and get in the way of our own end goal, which is to achieve equality.

So…..at the end of the day, this is what a Feminist looks like. It looks like me, you, and my cisgender partner, too.

Image via

Monique Seitz-Davis is a writer, crazy plant lady, and snack aficionado based out of Salt Lake City, Utah. She runs uphill for fun and believes in magic.

The post This is What a Feminist Looks Like appeared first on Wit & Delight.

This is What a Feminist Looks Like published first on https://workbootsandshoes.tumblr.com/

0 notes

kbrown78 · 6 years

Text

My Thoughts: Bitterblue by Kristin Cashore

I thought I was going to really enjoy rereading this book because it was, in my opinion, the best one of the Graceling trilogy. It seems that more often than not I'm struggling with YA, particularly within the past two months. Needless to say I struggled with this book. The premise of the book is still good, a young queen working to uncover the terrible truth of her kingdom. While the premise is good, the execution falls flat. The characters were usually irritating and flat. There were also some glaring issues with the story itself, and I was generally let down by this novel.

Characters: I think what I liked about this book in the first read through is that Bitterblue wasn't like Katsa or Fire. She didn't have any special abilities, she wasn't moaning about being a female of nobility, and she wasn't a warrior. She was more intelligent and had to rely on her instincts to gain the upper hand. However, during the second read through I realized she wasn't as smart as I initially thought she was. Somehow everyone around her manages to deceive her and keep her out of the loop for a long time, and she doesn't really investigate them despite their suspicious behavior. She also struck me as a bit bratty and immature, especially for an 18 year old monarch who has been a queen for quite some time. She does have some redeemable qualities, like her deciphering abilities and she does try to be a good queen. But almost everyone within her castle tries to undermine her ability to rule, and she never does anything to fix that until the very end. Everyone else is pretty bland; Saf is crude and untrusting while Teddy is the friendly idealist, and everyone previously introduced is the exact same. I don't usually care for Kristen Cashore's characters because of how one dimensional they all are.

Relationships: Bitterblue doesn't really have any strong relationships. She still clearly loves her mother, but her mother is long dead. She's friends with almost everyone in that underground group whose name I forget, but somehow they don't trust her enough to let her help or be involved. Katsa is something of a mentor to Bittterblue, and they care about each other, but there was so little of Katsa that I can't really discuss it. There was a budding romance between between Saf and Bitterblue, but I really didn't like it. He makes it clear from the beginning that he doesn't like her, he keeps secrets from her and she lies to him (although she does a pretty crappy job of it). Then all of sudden he says he likes her and not 24 hours later, the truth is revealed, the trust broken, petty drama, the usual. The broken trust does have significant impact on their relationship though, and it never goes back to the same. In fact they don't even end up together romantically which is what's usually expected so I was glad that that didn't happen for a different ending and the fact that I just didn't like the two of them together in the first place. There was another potential love interest, but he was barley in the narrative and had his own drama going on that Bitterblue didn't get involved with. I think the characters were generally just too flat or ill suited for each other or just absent for there to be any significant relationships.

World building: I'm not even sure what to put down here. Like here's the city that the entire story takes place in, named after it's ruler. There's printing shops being burned down to hide the truth and low literacy rates, but the queen is kept unaware of this through layers of bureaucracy. Revolution is going on in other kingdoms, but that doesn't help the plot at all. There's a room where people tell stories that's only shown twice. Seriously I don't know what to say because there really isn't anything to say. Some of the imagery in this book is good, describing the architecture of the bridges and the castle, as well as some of the art inside the castle did give a distinct sense of how things look, but again the scope of the setting was very limited.

Writing: So I have two things I want to talk about in this section. One is the writing style. I hated the writing style in Graceling because it simplified everything while still trying to sound mature, and it also made everyone rather over the top and mellow dramatic. That was still the case in Bitterblue, just to a lesser extent. The other thing I want to discuss is the themes in this book, which were actually well done. Essentially Monsea is a kingdom trying to recover from Leck's legacy, because he was such a devastating ruler. At the same time, most people are still kept in the dark about what all he did, why he did it, and being kept ignorant of general “truths.” This story does a good job of showing how easy it is to control people by keeping them illiterate and destroying their culture. Also how dangerous words are because they have power. Part of how Bitterblue's advisers controlled her was implementing a policy of “forwardness” where she would forgive all past crimes because the people weren't in control of themselves. While this was just a way for the men to cover the crimes they were currently commiting, it does illustrate the delicate balance there is to recovery. Those committing the acts weren't in control of themselves, but at the same time justice needs to be delivered. What I like about this story in particular is that the evil ruler is dead, and I didn't think he was that good of a villain when he was alive, but he seems to cause just as much damage, 10 years after his death. The men Leck worked with the most are still carrying out his acts, some more willingly than others, because his influence was that strong. That's quite a terrifying legacy. I will also say that while reading this book I had this maddening sense of ignorance, which made Bitterblue more sympathetic. I’m not sure if that was intentional or not, but it did help pull me into the story.

Dislike: Well aside from the characters and minimal world building, there still remains one glaring issue that plague the entire narrative. Dell. I find it incredibly unrealistic for people in Monsea or any of the other kingdoms to not know about the Dells. Humans appear to be naturally curious and we go out and explore the unknown, no matter if it's on the ground, the sea, or the sky. That means that there is no way some wouldn't have found the passage to the Dells or crossed the mountains sooner. It's just not realistic. Leck's vision of his kingdom was relied on the fact that no one knew about the Dells so everyone thought he was crazy. When that twist is revealed it's not shocking, it's unbelievable. To add insult to injury, the people of the Dells were aware of the other kingdoms and what's going on, they just choose not to do anything until the very end. So now the egalitarian, peaceful Dells are just coming off as jerks. It's fine if they don't get involved with the turmoil happening in the other kingdoms, but they knew who Leck was and how awful he is and him clearly trying to replicate their kingdom is the cause of most of the devastation, but didn't appear until the very end for a convenience call. There are things about this book that still frustrated, but this ordeal between Monsea an the Dells just needed to be omitted from the entire narrative because of how bad it is.

Final Thoughts: Maybe if I had read the Graceling trilogy when I was 13 I would have enjoyed it since I see so many people gush about it, but reading that series as an adult just grated on my nerves. I couldn't even finish Fire, I hated it that much. I still think Bitterblue is the best of the bunch because it tried to have a little more depth to the story, but I just had too many issues with it for me to enjoy to during my second read through. I will say that I did like the cover, and all the illustrations in the book was a nice touch, but for older YA readers I wouldn't recommend this series.

#my thoughts #book review #bitterblue #kristin cashore

0 notes

sheminecrafts · 6 years

Text

The real threat to Facebook is the Kool-Aid turning sour

These kinds of leaks didn’t happen when I started reporting on Facebook eight years ago. It was a tight-knit cult convinced of its mission to connect everyone, but with the discipline of a military unit where everyone knew loose lips sink ships. Motivational posters with bold corporate slogans dotted its offices, rallying the troops. Employees were happy to be evangelists.

But then came the fake news, News Feed addiction, violence on Facebook Live, cyberbullying, abusive ad targeting, election interference and, most recently, the Cambridge Analytica app data privacy scandals. All the while, Facebook either willfully believed the worst case scenarios could never come true, was naive to their existence or calculated the benefits and growth outweighed the risks. And when finally confronted, Facebook often dragged its feet before admitting the extent of the issues.

Inside the social network’s offices, the bonds began to fray. An ethics problem metastisized into a morale problem. Slogans took on sinister second meanings. The Kool-Aid tasted different.

Some hoped they could right the ship but couldn’t. Some craved the influence and intellectual thrill of running one of humanity’s most popular inventions, but now question if that influence and their work is positive. Others surely just wanted to collect salaries, stock and resumé highlights, but lost the stomach for it.

Now the convergence of scandals has come to a head in the form of constant leaks.

The trouble tipping point

The more benign leaks merely cost Facebook a bit of competitive advantage. We’ve learned it’s building a smart speaker, a standalone VR headset and a Houseparty split-screen video chat clone.

Yet policy-focused leaks have exacerbated the backlash against Facebook, putting more pressure on the conscience of employees. As blame fell to Facebook for Trump’s election, word of Facebook prototyping a censorship tool for operating in China escaped, triggering questions about its respect for human rights and free speech. Facebook’s content rulebook got out alongside disturbing tales of the filth the company’s contracted moderators have to sift through. Its ad targeting was revealed to be able to pinpoint emotionally vulnerable teens.

In recent weeks, the leaks have accelerated to a maddening pace in the wake of Facebook’s soggy apologies regarding the Cambridge Analytica debacle. Its weak policy enforcement left the door open to exploitation of data users gave third-party apps, deepening the perception that Facebook doesn’t care about privacy.

And it all culminated with BuzzFeed publishing a leaked “growth at all costs” internal post from Facebook VP Andrew “Boz” Bosworth that substantiated people’s worst fears about the company’s disregard for user safety in pursuit of world domination. Even the ensuing internal discussion about the damage caused by leaks and how to prevent them…leaked.

But the leaks are not the disease, just the symptom. Sunken morale is the cause, and it’s dragging down the company. Former Facebook employee and Wired writer Antonio Garcia Martinez sums it up, saying this kind of vindictive, intentionally destructive leak fills Facebook’s leadership with “horror”:

The fact that some Facebooker would place their personal grudge and views above the interests of the company fills anyone on the home team with horror (in the same way that the current administration colluding with foreigners to secure a domestic victory does Americans).

— Antonio García Martínez (@antoniogm) March 30, 2018

And that sentiment was confirmed by Facebook’s VP of News Feed Adam Mosseri, who tweeted that leaks “create strong incentives to be less transparent internally and they certainly slow us down,” and will make it tougher to deal with the big problems.

I’m really worried about this. I worry it’ll make it much more difficult to step up to the challenges we face.

— Adam Mosseri (@mosseri) March 30, 2018

Those thoughts weigh heavy on Facebook’s team. A source close to several Facebook executives tells us they feel “embarrassed to work there” and are increasingly open to other job opportunities. One current employee told us to assume anything certain execs tell the media is “100% false.”

If Facebook can’t internally discuss the problems it faces without being exposed, how can it solve them?

Implosion

The consequences of Facebook’s failures are typically pegged as external hazards.

You might assume the government will finally step in and regulate Facebook. But the Honest Ads Act and other rules about ads transparency and data privacy could end up protecting Facebook by being simply a paperwork speed bump for it while making it tough for competitors to build a rival database of personal info. In our corporation-loving society, it seems unlikely that the administration would go so far as to split up Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp — one of the few feasible ways to limit the company’s power.

Users have watched Facebook make misstep after misstep over the years, but can’t help but stay glued to its feed. Even those who don’t scroll rely on it as a fundamental utility for messaging and login on other sites. Privacy and transparency are too abstract for most people to care about. Hence, first-time Facebook downloads held steady and its App Store rank actually rose in the week after the Cambridge Analytica fiasco broke. In regards to the #DeleteFacebook movement, Mark Zuckerberg himself said “I don’t think we’ve seen a meaningful number of people act on that.” And as long as they’re browsing, advertisers will keep paying Facebook to reach them.

That’s why the greatest threat of the scandal convergence comes from inside. The leaks are the canary in the noxious blue coal mine.

Can Facebook survive slowing down?

If employees wake up each day unsure whether Facebook’s mission is actually harming the world, they won’t stay. Facebook doesn’t have the same internal work culture problems as some giants like Uber. But there are plenty of other tech companies with less questionable impacts. Some are still private and offer the chance to win big on an IPO or acquisition. At the very least, those in the Bay could find somewhere to work without a spending hours a day on the traffic-snarled 101 freeway.

If they do stay, they won’t work as hard. It’s tough to build if you think you’re building a weapon. Especially if you thought you were going to be making helpful tools. The melancholy and malaise set in. People go into rest-and-vest mode, living out their days at Facebook as a sentence not an opportunity. The next killer product Facebook needs a year or two from now might never coalesce.

And if they do work hard, a culture of anxiety and paralysis will work against them. No one wants to code with their hands tied, and some would prefer a less scrutinized environment. Every decision will require endless philosophizing and risk-reduction. Product changes will be reduced to the lowest common denominator, designed not to offend or appear too tyrannical.

Source: Volkan Furuncu/Anadolu Agency + David Ramos/Getty Images

In fact, that’s partly how Facebook got into this whole mess. A leak by an anonymous former contractor led Gizmodo to report Facebook was suppressing conservative news in its Trending section. Terrified of appearing liberally biased, Facebook reportedly hesitated to take decisive action against fake news. That hands-off approach led to the post-election criticism that degraded morale and pushed the growing snowball of leaks down the mountain.

It’s still rolling.

How to stop morale’s downward momentum will be one of Facebook’s greatest tests of leadership. This isn’t a bug to be squashed. It can’t just roll back a feature update. And an apology won’t suffice. It will have to expel or reeducate the leakers and those disloyal without instilling a witch hunt’s sense of dread. Compensation may have to jump upwards to keep talent aboard like Twitter did when it was floundering. Its top brass will need to show candor and accountability without fueling more indiscretion. And it may need to make a shocking, landmark act of contrition to convince employees its capable of change.

When asked how Facebook could address the morale problem, Mosseri told me “it starts with owning our mistakes and being very clear about what we’re doing now” and noted that “it took a while to get into this place and I think it’ll take a while to work our way out.”

I think it starts with owning our mistakes and being very clear about what we’re doing now. For much of the company November 2016 was their first negative cycle, so it’s also good to share old stories. And then you have to deliver, you have to make real progress on the issues.

— Adam Mosseri (@mosseri) March 30, 2018

This isn’t about whether Facebook will disappear tomorrow, but whether it will remain unconquerable for the forseeable future.

Growth has been the driving mantra for Facebook since its inception. No matter how employees are evaluated, it’s still the underlying ethos. Facebook has poised itself as a mission-driven company. The implication was always that connecting people is good so connecting more people is better. The only question was how to grow faster.

Now Zuckerberg will have to figure out how to get Facebook to cautiously foresee the consequences of what it says and does while remaining an appealing place to work. “Move slow and think things through” just doesn’t have the same ring to it.

from iraidajzsmmwtv https://ift.tt/2J9fTjg via IFTTT

#IFTTT #iraidajzsmmwtv

0 notes

technicalsolutions88 · 6 years

Link

But then came the fake news, News Feed addiction, violence on Facebook Live, cyberbullying, abusive ad targeting, election interference, and most recently the Cambridge Analytica app data privacy scandals. All the while, Facebook either willfully believed the worst case scenarios could never come true, was naive to their existence, or calculated the benefits and growth outweighed the risks. And when finally confronted, Facebook often dragged its feet before admitting the extent of the problems.

Inside the social network’s offices, the bonds began to fray. Slogans took on sinister second meanings. The kool-aid tasted different.

Some hoped they could right the ship but couldn’t. Some craved the influence and intellectual thrill of running one of humanity’s most popular inventions, but now question if that influence and their work is positive. Others surely just wanted to collect salaries, stock, and resume highlights but lost the stomach for it.

Now the convergence of scandals has come to a head in the form of constant leaks.

The Trouble Tipping Point

The more benign leaks merely cost Facebook a bit of competitive advantage. We’ve learned it’s building a smart speaker, a standalone VR headset, and a Houseparty split-screen video chat clone.

— Antonio García Martínez (@antoniogm) March 30, 2018

And that sentiment was confirmed by Facebook’s VP of News Feed Adam Mosseri, who tweeted that leaks “create strong incentives to be less transparent internally and they certainly slow us down”, and will make it tougher to deal with the big problems.

I’m really worried about this. I worry it’ll make it much more difficult to step up to the challenges we face.

— Adam Mosseri (@mosseri) March 30, 2018

If Facebook can’t internally discuss the problems it faces without being exposed, how can it solve them?

Implosion

The consequences of Facebook’s failures are typically pegged as external hazards.

You might assume the government will finally step in and regulate Facebook. But the Honest Ads Act and other rules about ads transparency and data privacy could end up protecting Facebook by being simply a paperwork speed bump for it while making it tough for competitors to build a rival database of personal info. In our corporation-loving society, it seems unlikely that the administration would go so far as to split up Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp — one of the few feasible ways to limit the company’s power.

Users have watched Facebook go make misstep after misstep over the years, but can’t help but stay glued to its feed. Even those who don’t scroll rely on it as fundamental utility for messaging and login on other sites. Privacy and transparency are too abstract for most people to care about. Hence, first-time Facebook downloads held steady and its App Store rank actually rose in the week after the Cambridge Analytica fiasco broke. In regards to the #DeleteFacebook movement, Mark Zuckerberg himself said “I don’t think we’ve seen a meaningful number of people act on that.” And as long as they’re browsing, advertisers will keep paying Facebook to reach them.

That’s why the greatest threat of the scandal convergence comes from inside. The leaks are the canary in the noxious blue coal mine.

Can Facebook Survive Slowing Down?

Source: Volkan Furuncu/Anadolu Agency + David Ramos/Getty Images

It’s still rolling.

How to stop morale’s downward momentum will be one of Facebook’s greatest tests of leadership. This isn’t a bug to be squashed. It can’t just roll back a feature update. And an apology won’t suffice. It will have to expel or reeducate the leakers and disloyal without instilling a witchunt’s sense of dread. Compensation may have to jump upwards to keep talent aboard like Twitter did when it was floundering. Its top brass will need to show candor and accountability without fueling more indiscretion. And it may need to make a shocking, landmark act of humility to convince employees its capable of change.

This isn’t about whether Facebook will disappear tomorrow, but whether it will remain unconquerable for the forseeable future.

from Social – TechCrunch https://ift.tt/2J9fTjg Original Content From: https://techcrunch.com

#Technical Solutions #SEO #Online Earning #Youtube Marketing #Android Developer

0 notes

1nebest · 6 years

Link

These kinds of leaks didn’t happen when I started reporting on Facebook eight years ago. It was a kool-aid cult convinced of its mission to connect everyone, but with the discipline of a military unit where everyone knew loose lips sink ships. Motivational posters with bold corporate slogans dotted its offices, rallying the troops. Employees were happy to be evangelists.

Inside the social network’s offices, the bonds began to fray. Slogans took on sinister second meanings. The kool-aid tasted different.

Some hoped they could right the ship but couldn’t. Some craved the influence and intellectual thrill of running one of humanity’s most popular inventions, but now question if that influence and their work is positive. Others surely just wanted to collect salaries, stock, and resume highlights but lost the stomach for it.

Now the convergence of scandals has come to a head in the form of constant leaks.

The Trouble Tipping Point

The more benign leaks merely cost Facebook a bit of competitive advantage. We’ve learned it’s building a smart speaker, a standalone VR headset, and a Houseparty split-screen video chat clone.

— Antonio García Martínez (@antoniogm) March 30, 2018

And that sentiment was confirmed by Facebook’s VP of News Feed Adam Mosseri, who tweeted that leaks “create strong incentives to be less transparent internally and they certainly slow us down”, and will make it tougher to deal with the big problems.

I’m really worried about this. I worry it’ll make it much more difficult to step up to the challenges we face.

— Adam Mosseri (@mosseri) March 30, 2018

If Facebook can’t internally discuss the problems it faces without being exposed, how can it solve them?

Implosion

The consequences of Facebook’s failures are typically pegged as external hazards.

You might assume the government will finally step in and regulate Facebook. But the Honest Ads Act and other rules about ads transparency and data privacy could end up protecting Facebook by being simply a paperwork speed bump for it while making it tough for competitors to build a rival database of personal info. In our corporation-loving society, it seems unlikely that the administration would go so far as to split up Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp — one of the few feasible ways to limit the company’s power.

That’s why the greatest threat of the scandal convergence comes from inside. The leaks are the canary in the noxious blue coal mine.

Can Facebook Survive Slowing Down?

Source: Volkan Furuncu/Anadolu Agency + David Ramos/Getty Images

It’s still rolling.

How to stop morale’s downward momentum will be one of Facebook’s greatest tests of leadership. This isn’t a bug to be squashed. It can’t just roll back a feature update. And an apology won’t suffice. It will have to expel or reeducate the leakers and disloyal without instilling a witchunt’s sense of dread. Compensation may have to jump upwards to keep talent aboard like Twitter did when it was floundering. Its top brass will need to show candor and accountability without fueling more indiscretion. And it may need to make a shocking, landmark act of humility to convince employees its capable of change.

This isn’t about whether Facebook will disappear tomorrow, but whether it will remain unconquerable for the forseeable future.

0 notes

virtualcallers-blog · 6 years

Text

Computer Mediated Communication (CMC) Assignment-An Analysis of Islamophobia Elements on YouTube comments

Introduction

In these days, computer-mediated communication (CMC) is one of the common things to be called face-to-face (FTF) communication. People nowadays using gadgets as a tool to communicate with others across the globe. In this paper, we will discuss on YouTube site where people nowadays used it to upload their videos and posted it online which can be viewed by people anytime and anywhere without limitation. Based on this updated technology, anything can be easily accessed such as videos related to fashions, education, music, religious things and more.

YouTube is a well- known site for sharing videos globally and has been emerged since 2005. The objective of Youtube site is to create a social relationship between the viewers and the authors and it has been used by many people to share their interests such as music, fashions and daily routine as well as political thoughts. Moreover, these viewers and authors are connected through comments which enabled them to communicate or discussing on the videos. They can share their thoughts and opinions about certain issues related to the video. According to Thelwall, Sud and Vis (2011), YouTube has interesting feature in which it can connect the viewers to the current news and they can post responses and comments on the videos immediately. Thelwall, Sud and Vis (2011) also mentioned that YouTube provides social needs and it creates more personal relationship compared to other online publishing. Even though YouTube has many advantages by sharing videos, it also creates disturbance in a way it allows people to freely express their thoughts without any restriction on the choice of words used in the comments section.

Moreover, YouTube videos that were uploaded to the site received 3 billion views per day (M.Wattenhofer, R.Wattenhofer and Zhu, 2012). It has been assured that YouTube has been receiving support and attractions of many people because thousands of videos were uploaded each day. Furthermore, what makes it easily accessible and rapidly grown is due to its connections to the other social media. Users of the YouTube site were able to subscribe and share the link with other people through their social media network thus it makes YouTube recognize globally. Besides, YouTube serves as a popular social network on its own, connecting registered users through the subscription that notify subscribers of social and content updates of the described-to users ( M.Wattenhofer, R.Wattenhofer and Zhu, 2012).

This article addresses one feature of Youtube videos which is the comment section where people can freely express their opinions. A study by Madden (2007) found that from a survey done by the United States in early 2007, a total of 13% viewers had posted comments on a video and it is suggested that there is one comment in every 204 views of YouTube video (Thelwall, Sud & Vis, 2011). This article mainly focuses on the comment section that triggers and attract people to express their critics, thoughts and opinions.

3. Objective of the Study

In these recent years, the problem of Islamophobia in social media has become such a big issue. Many organizations and individuals claimed Islam to be a religion that supports terror and war. YouTube has become a place where people get a total freedom to express their hatred, anger, to insult, humiliate, threatened and other irrational actions. Thus, this study aims to analyse the elements of Islamophobia on YouTube comments in order to get a clear picture on how Muslims are viewed by the non- Muslims particularly Anti-Muslim. It is somewhat important as we can see their perception on Muslim and Islam as a whole in order to fix the image of Islam.

4. Description of Framework Analysis

The term "Islamophobia" was coined by political activists in the late 1990s, the objective was to concentrate on rhetorical function, action and attitude towards Islam and the Muslim community in the West (Mostafa Amiri, Mohammad Reza Hashemi and Javad Rezaei, 2015). Islamophobia consists of two parts: “Islam” (the religion of Muslims) and “phobia” which is defined by the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary (2005) as “a strong unreasonable fear or hatred of a particular thing” (as cited in Mostafa Amiri, Mohammad Reza Hashemi and Javad Rezaei, 2015)

The concept became popular in 1997 after Runnymede Trust established a report entitled “Islamophobia: A Challenge for Us All” which is a British race relations NGO (Mostafa Amiri, Mohammad Reza Hashemi and Javad Rezaei, 2015). The researchers stated that the definition of Islamophobia according to Runnymede Trust, consist of eight constitutive components. The eight components that define Islamophobia are:

● Islam is viewed as a monolithic bloc, static and inert to change.

● Islam is viewed as separate and other – not having any purpose or qualities in the same way as other cultures, not affected by them and not influencing them.

● Islam is viewed as inferior to the West. It is seen as barbaric, irrational, primitive and sexist.

● Islam is viewed as violent, aggressive, threatening, supporter of terrorism, engaged in ‘a clash of civilizations’.

● Islam is viewed as a political belief system and utilized for political and military advantage.

● Criticisms made of the West by Islam are dismissed.

● Hostility toward Islam is used to show discriminatory practices towards Muslims and Muslim’s exclusion from mainstream society.

● Anti-Muslim hostility is viewed as natural and common.

In this study, we want to analyse the elements of Islamophobia on the comments posted in YouTube video entitled Charlie Hebdo: Paris Terror Attack kills 12. The elements of Islamophobia are Hate Speech, Security threat, Negative denotation, Non-neutral Word and Stereotype as suggested by Imran Awan (2016); Mostafa Amiri, Mohammad Reza Hashemi and Javad Rezaei (2015); Zakaria Lemmouh (2008) and Sides and Gross (2013).

According to Yar ( 2013); Feldman et al., (2013), “Hate speech is any form of language used to depict someone in a negative fashion in regards to their race, ethnicity, gender, religion, sexual orientation or physical and mental disability which promotes hate and incites violence” (as cited in Imran Awan, 2016 ). Christopherson (2007) further mentioned that hate speech generally used as a form of harassment and intimidating the victims as well as for opportunistic crimes (as cited in Imran Awan, 2016). Meanwhile, security threat as described by Imran Awan (2016) is the utilization of visual and written material to portray Muslim as a security risk. For example, Muslim women wearing veil are regarded as security threat to the community.

Furthermore, negative denotation can be inferred as any words or statement that generally denotes Muslim as aggressive, violent and other similar connotations which demonstrate Muslims' action and behavior (Mostafa Amiri, Mohammad Reza Hashemi and Javad Rezaei, 2015). It is an attempt to portray somewhat false and harsh image of Islam and Muslim community intentionally or unconsciously. Muslims are viewed as aggressive and violent through several words like Islamist, against, warrior, Taliban, detainee, aggressor, Shiite, shot, and officer (Mostafa Amiri, Mohammad Reza Hashemi and Javad Rezaei, 2015). The next element is the non-neutral word. The categorization of non-neutral words is based on Brown’s (2000) list of closed views of Islam and Muslims and van Dijk's (1991) view that Muslims are frequently seen as a threat ( as cited in Zakaria Lemmouh, 2008). As stated by Zakaria Lemmouh (2008), the non-neutral word refers to “Words that position Muslims in a context of conflict, violence, and words that refer to Muslims in terms of groupings”. Other than that, it also includes words that have clear negative indications, for example, xenophobic, violent, terrorism, militant, rebel and radical.

The last element of Islamophobia is stereotype. According to Sides and Gross (2013), categorizing human or members of groups by assuming their characteristics are called stereotypes. It often happens to Muslims as they are perceived as terrorist, violent and murderer. Sides and Gross (2013) also mentioned in their study that most Americans assume Muslims in negative ways such as violent and threatening.

5. Research Questions

1) What are the elements of Islamophobia found in the YouTube comments?

2) What are the highest elements of Islamophobia found in YouTube comments?

6. Description of Data for Analysis

The data for the research analysis on the Islamophobia elements are taken from a YouTube video titled Charlie Hebdo: Paris Terror Attack kills 12. According to BBC News (2015), a total of twelve people were murdered, involving two police officers, eight journalists, a caretaker and a visitor. The incident happened at the Office of Charlie Hebdo, a magazine which has printed cartoons on Prophet Muhammad. The video shows the scene of the attack by the gunmen who burst into the office in the centre of Paris and then fled the scene. Since the first day of the released video, it got many reactions and comments from the citizens.

7. Significance of the Study

The findings of the study will help the researchers to uncover some other areas in the educational process that have not yet been explored. So, it will help them to come out with another theory related to Islamophobia. Besides, Ministry of Education will be guided on what should be emphasized on the syllabus of Islamic education in order to produce a knowledgeable society. By using our research as a guideline, we were able to show them on how to educate teenagers especially the students about Islam. Lastly, it might help to show the students on how to defend Islam as our religion of truth by giving them sufficient knowledge on Islamophobia. Moreover, the study on how Muslims are viewed by non-Muslims help students to differentiate the real meaning underlies on Islamophobia. It helps them to understand why non-Muslims considered Muslim as terrorists, murderer and other negative representation by providing the reasons that lead to these classifications of Islamophobia. Moreover, we are able to educate them on Islamic teaching as well as it will benefit them in their future studies.

8. Literature Review

1) Title: Polarity Trend Analysis of Public Sentiment on YouTube

Year: 2013

Author: Amar Krishna, Joseph Zambreno and Sandeep Krishnan

URL:http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.875.7976&rep=rep1&type=pdf

Framework Analysis: Positive or negative attitudes.

Research Question

RQ 1: How does the sentiment for a particular keyword (video) trend over a particular window of time?

RQ 2: How well can we forecast the users’ sentiments for the next 26 weeks following the last timestamp of each dataset? RQ 3: Are the sentiments associated with the comments a good indicator of the correlation between the web buzz and real-world events in politics, sports, etc.?

Corpus

Comments on Roger Federer’ career on YouTube video.

Findings

1) Finding initially shows that the graph of the sentiment is positive as it is the peak of Roger Federer’s career but the graph of the sentiments becomes lower because Federer didn’t win the Grand Slam in 2011.

2) By using the Weka forecasting tool, the prediction of possible sentiments in 26 weeks’ time into the future with a confidence of 95%.

3) The result shows that trends in users sentiments are well- correlated to the real world events associated with the respective keywords.

2) Title: Content Analysis: YouTube Responses to President Obama’s “Amazing Grace” Rendition.

Year: 2016

Author: Riva Brown, Mia Moody-Ramirez & David Lin

URL:

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Mia_MoodyRamirez/publication/309450351_Content_Analysis_YouTube_Responses_to_President_Obama%27s_Amazing_Grace_Rendition/links/582f6b1e08ae004f74be601d/Content-Analysis-YouTube-Responses-to-President-Obamas-Amazing-Grace-Rendition.pdf

Framework Analysis: Framing Theory

Research Questions

RQ1: What themes emerged in the YouTube comments regarding President Obama singing “Amazing Grace”?

RQ2: What was the primary tone of the YouTube comments?

Corpus

Examine the themes and tone of comments on a video posted on YouTube of President Barack Obama singing the opening refrain of “Amazing Grace.”

Findings

1) There are eight themes emerged in the YouTube comments regarding the video which is 1) Obama can sing (15.07%), 2) Why do people hate Obama? (9.91%), 3) Was his heart really in it? (13.86%), 4) Obama is a racist (13.19%), 5) Obama is tricking people (9.04%), 6) God bless America and Obama (17.35), 7) Obama is a hypocrite (15.94%), and 8) others such as foreign words and phrases (5.62%).

2) Researchers analysed the YouTube comments in terms of tone—positive, negative or neutral.

•Most comments were positive with 49 YouTube comments falling into this category.

•The number of neutral and negative comments were equal with 29 of each falling into this category.

•This study suggests some frames were dichotomous. For instance, the themes that framed President Obama as a good singer or as a hypocrite were opposite sentiments. While some citizens focused on his “inability to sing,” and framed him as tricking people, others were passionate about depicting him in a positive manner.

•This study is important as it indicates individuals had a dichotomous range of views on the president’s eulogy.

3) Title: Helpful or Harmful? An examination of viewer’s responses to Nonsuicidal self-injury videos on YouTube

Year: 2012

Author: Stephen P.Lewis Nancy, L.Micheal, J. Sornberger Alexis, E. Arbuthnott

URL: http://www.selfinjury.bctr.cornell.edu/perch/resources/helpful-or-harmful.pdf

Framework Analysis: Global characteristic of comments

Research Questions

RQ 1: Does online media will spread hopeful messages from the same peers?

RQ 2: What are the common reply in the comments section on YouTube?

Corpus

YouTube videos on self-injury and self-harm

Findings

1) The finding shows that the internet has come out as an important aspect of health issues in today’s matter.

2) The finding shows that most of the comments bring a self-disclosure by giving feedback to the video uploaded like offering words of encouragement and more

4) Title: Commenting on YouTube videos: From Guatemalan Rock to El Big Bang

Year: 2011

Author: Mike Thelwell, Pardeep Sud, Farida Vis

URL: http://www.scit.wlv.ac.uk/~cm1993/papers/CommentingYouTubePreprint.pdf

Framework Analysis: Typical characteristics of authors and comments.

Research Questions

RQ 1: What are the typical characteristics of authors of comments on YouTube videos?

RQ 2: What are the typical characteristics of comments on YouTube videos?

RQ 3: What are the key topics and factors that trigger discussions on YouTube videos?

Corpus

A large sample of YouTube video comments on various topics.

Findings

1) Youtube commenters are mostly male -gender (72.2%) and their median age were 25.

2) The length of YouTube comments is mostly short with a median of 58 out of a possible 500 characters which are about eleven (11) words per comment.

3) The topic of the video seems to be the determinant of whether it will create much discussion or not and most of the topics that bring to the discussion is on religion while topic on music and comedy videos attract few replies per comment.

5) Title: Social Interaction in YouTube Text-Based Polylogues: A study of Coherence

Year: 2012

Author: Patricia Bou-Franch, Nuria Lorenzo-Dus, Pilar Garce´ s-Conejos Blitvichh

URL: https://s3.amazonaws.com/academia.edu.documents/37293955/Bou-Franch__Lorenzo-Dus___GC_Blitvich_2012_JCMC.pdf?AWSAccessKeyId=AKIAIWOWYYGZ2Y53UL3A&Expires=1510386753&Signature=NYfYvGnTruFwkoLv%2FcdN5AV%2BC44%3D&response-content-disposition=inline%3B%20filename%3DSocial_interaction_in_YouTube_text-based.pdf

Framework Analysis: Coherence in YouTube comments

Research Questions

RQ 1: Does adjacency interferes the coherence making process?

RQ 2: What are the mechanisms that can maintain coherence in YouTube conversation/comments?

Corpus

YouTube comments on a video posted in Spanish and the topics of the videos are abortion and the domestic violence.

Findings

1) The finding shows that the adjacency does play a role to sustain the coherence in YouTube comments. Hence, it can be concluded that the conversations that happened in YouTube comments; assisted by the features that can facilitate the conversation, are far away from the incoherence.

2) The mechanism that can maintain coherence in YouTube comments is by maintaining the cohesion through the conversations or comments. It is suggested by researchers to give sufficient connection of YouTube’s posting polylogues as it can help participants to have more space for online interaction rather than incoherent comments.

9. Findings

Elements Numbers Percentage (%)

Hate Speech 19 43

Security Threat 2 4.5

Negative Denotation 11 25

Non-neutral word 3 7

Stereotype 9 20.5

TOTAL 44 100

Table 9.1

There are five elements of Islamophobia that has been used to analyse the YouTube comments. The elements are hate speech, security threat, negative denotation, non-neutral word and stereotype. Based on the analysis, all of the five Islamophobic elements are found in the corpus.

Based on the Table 9.1, the analysed data demonstrates that hate speech is the highest element used by the commenters to express their dissatisfaction towards Muslim. Examples of hate speech are “Islam shackles the weak, cowardly, ignorant”, “Muslims are evil”,” taking shitty morals”, “the sick hoax of Islam”, “deserves to be PITIED FOR THEIR IGNORANCE AND LAUGHED AT for their childish stupidity”, “GET OFF YOUR ARSE AND CONTRIBUTE TO THE COUNTRY YOU LIVE IN”, “IT IS 100% THE FAULT OF ISLAM”, and “Muslims are radicals who preach in the mosques about Islam”. The total percentage of hate speech found in the corpus was 43%.

The second highest element is negative denotations with 25%. Examples of negative denotation are “murderer of innocents”, “rapist”, “u are worshiping a pedophile”, “dirty psycho prick” , “slavetaker” and more.

Stereotype is the third highest elements found in the corpus with a total of 20.5%. Several examples on stereotypes used by commenters are “You are only muslim because you was born into it and are taught not to question it!”, “The true followers of Islam are ignorant” and “Muslims in Europe do not work”.

The total number of non-neutral word found in the corpus is 3 with the percentage of 7%. Some of the words used by the commenters are “terrorist”, “evil” and “radical”. The least percentage on Islamophobic elements was the security threat. Statements that denotes security threat are “My country has been destroyed and ruined by Islam over and over again” and “I hope that the Muslim immigration stops”.

To sum up, there are 44 sentences consist of Islamophobic elements in YouTube comments and the element of hate speech denotes a distinct number compared to other elements. Based on the percentage presented, it can be said that the feeling of hatred among Anti-Muslim towards Muslim is quite high and it gives a perception that, Muslim has negative in YouTube.

10. Discussion

YouTube is one of the most popular social media used in these recent years. Under the slogan “Broadcast Yourself”, as stated by Burgess & Green (2009), it becomes one of the important medium for users with it feature; video-sharing, (as cited in Bou-Franch & Lorenzo-Dus, 2012) to share information and talents as well as their ideas. It is because YouTube is the fastest media for news to be spread and easy to access.

However, due to its advance speed in spreading messages and news, there are people who misused this facility to promote hatred among YouTube users. It can be seen in the comment section of our selected video where most of the commenters freely expressed their hatred and views on Muslims. There were also anti-Muslim, who take this opportunity to spread Islamophobia sentiment among citizen.

This study has analysed the YouTube corpus based on five elements of Islamophobia and generally, all the elements are used by the commenters to express their critics, hatred, anger and dissatisfaction towards Muslim and Islam as a whole.

Most common elements of Islamophobia found in the corpus was hate speech. As the comments of the video discussed on a sensitive topic of religion, it leads to many comments on hate speech. According to Chakraborti & Garland (2009), hate speech promotes online prejudice to the whole world by sharing extreme views and comments of Muslims and it will give impacts on the Muslims (as cited in Imran Awan, 2016). In short, commenters tend to include hate speech in their comments to convey the perception on Muslims.

A considerable percentage of negative denotation found in the corpus somehow reflect the ways Muslim has been represented in the social media in today’s world. For example in the corpus, Muslims are depicted as pedo, rapist, necrophile, liar, thief, slave taker, the murderer of innocents and many more. It can be said that, Muslims are portrayed as inherently violent, aggressive, ignorant and other negative representation. This point is supported by Mostafa Amiri, Mohammad Reza Hashemi and Javad Rezaei (2015), in which they stated that the use of negative denotation in written form basically to spread a rather false and harsh image of Islam and Muslim communities.

Another element found in the YouTube comments is stereotype. As mentioned by Brown, Moody- Ramirez and Lin (2016), YouTube comments was one of the main keys in creating , sharing, and spreading stereotype message. Moreover, the topic of the selected video is related to religious matter thus it triggers the commenters to post various types of comments. For example, a comment taken from the video says that “Muslim in America doesn’t work’. This is the example of stereotype as the commenters blindly point Muslim as lazy without any reliable evidences. Besides that, the comments section has become a place where people can directly convey their views without any limitation and restriction

Furthermore, non-neutral word and security threat falls under the least elements found in the corpus. Non neutral word is slightly different from negative denotation as it refers to the words that position Muslim in the context of conflict and grouping (Zakaria Lemmouh, 2008). Example of non-neutral words that have been found in the corpus are ‘radical’ and ‘terrorist’. The used of these words demonstrate how they are negatively grouping Muslim. Meanwhile, there are only several comments denote commenter’s insecurity towards Muslim. It can be inferred that, only a small number of people assuming Muslims as security threat regardless of their negative perception on Islam.

Considering all the elements of Islamophobia found in the corpus, the conclusion can be drawn that majority of the comments in the Youtube video entitled Charlie Hebdo: Paris Terror Attack kills 12, reveals negative representation and false image of Muslims and Islam by Non-Muslim particularly Anti-Muslim. Youtube is one of the popular sites used by Anti-Muslim as their effective means to attack and spread critics, hatred and false image of Islam to the world. Therefore, in order to dismiss the Islamophobic sentiment, Islamic nations should unite and stand with one another to provide the true nature of Islam to the whole world via various Medias. One of them is social media particularly Youtube site, as it is widely access by people from all religions all around the world.

References

Amiri, M., Hashemi, M. R., & Rezaei, J. (2015). The Representation of Islamophobia: A Critical Discourse Analysis of Yahoo News. Indian Journal of Science and Technology, 8(28).

Awan, I. (2016). Islamophobia on social media: A qualitative analysis of the Facebook's Walls of Hate. International Journal of Cyber Criminology, 10(1), 1.

Brown, R., Moody-Ramirez, M. & Lin, D. (2016). Content Analysis: Youtube Responses to President Obama’s“Amazing Grace” Rendition. Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal, 3(10) 62-74.

Bou-Franch, P., & Lorenzo-Dus, N. (2012). Social Interaction in YouTube Text-Based Polylogues: A Study of Coherence. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 17, 501-521.

Krishna, A., Zambreno, J., & Krishnan, S. (2013, December). Polarity trend analysis of public sentiment on YouTube. In Proceedings of the 19th International Conference on Management of Data (pp. 125-128). Computer Society of India.

Lemmouh, Z. (2008). A Critical Linguistic Analysis of the Representation of Muslims in The New York Times. Journal of Language and Communication Studies. Stockholm University.

Lewis, S. P., Heath, N. L., & Sornberger, M. J. (2012). Helpful or Harmful? An Examination of Viewers’ Responses to Nonsuicidal Self-Injury Videos on YouTube. Journal of Adolescent Health, 51, 380-385.

Sides, J., & Gross, K. (2013). Stereotypes of Muslims and Support for the War on Terror. The Journal of Politics, 75(3), 583-598.

Thelwall, M., Sud, P., & Vis, F. (2011) Commenting on YouTube Videos: From Guatemalan Rock to El Big Bang. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology. John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Wattenhofer, M., Wattenhofer, R., & Zhu, Z. (2012, June). The YouTube Social Network. In ICWSM.

Appendices

Raw Data

● Can you prove to me without a doubt that islam is real? If so i will convert! You are only muslim because you was born into it and are taught not to question it!

majority of arabs are muslims, majority of TERRORIST are muslims.......

● I have every right to insult ignorance- it's called free speech. The true followers of Islam are ignorant. They are ignorant to the fact that Islam is a mythology like all religions. They are ignorant that they show how weak their emotions are when they kill people over cartoons. They are ignorant to their own fragile insecurities, which propels them to blame others for actions that they take- true Muslims are a weak and fragile people, that believe erroneously, that they show power in killing when truly they are exposing their greatest weaknesses.

● NONSENSE….any person who wants to believe the major errors in the manmade koran re embryology deserves to be PITIED FOR THEIR IGNORANCE AND LAUGHED AT for their childish stupidity mohammed was a very dirty psycho prick…a pedo/rapist/necrophile/liar/thief/slavetaker and murderer of innocents…he LOVED beheading, he stole, he raped….and you think this denotes 'good' morals??? as you show, islam shackles the weak,cowardly,ignorant….and you accept being conned and lied to IM STILL LAUGHING how you show your childish ignorance the embryology….were you created the actual and only way that every other person

● Muslims like Mohammed more than Hunan life. Muslims are evil

● IF THERE WAS NO ISLAM IN THE WORLD THIS SHIT WOULDNT HAPPEN. IT IS 100% THE FAULT OF ISLAM

● We have EVERY RIGHT to know what the dirty prick mohammed was and did, every right to see the nonsense/errors/filth in your koran, every right to know the hoax and filth of islam, and every right to care about its innocent victims,decencies,human rights…we have every right to be repulsed/sickened by what islam is,does,teaches and causes…get it?

● So you too are a pedo.rapist/necrophile/liar/thief/sicko deviant/slavetaker/murderer of innocents as in the dirty prick mohammed who screwed anything that walked, robbed people, kissed boy;s penises, and sucked his ow daughters breast…you are proud to be a deviant like the sicko you won't ever be like people with superior backbone/morals/intellect ….you accept being shackled ad lied to by the hoax of islam due to being devoid of brains, balls and a little wimp…you even support islam, support what it is,does,teaches,causes and allows re HIDEOUS human suffering,abuses,denial of human rights

● There have been 20,000 Islamic attacks since 9/11. Less than 500 Christian attacks have occurred since then. Islam is forcing European culture to change, regardless if it's already Christian. Must Muslims do support ISIS, but don't want to do the dirty work. Muslims in Europe do not work, instead, they sit on welfare, and scream "RACISM" at whomever opposes them. They are a plague.

● When will the west realise Islam is EVIL... its ok for them to live in the west take our benefits until it suits them.

● First of all don't call me dumb when you are taking shitty morals from a 1400 year old book by sandy fucking hermits who thought the world was flat. U are the one who is disgusting because u are worshiping a pedophile, Aisha aka Muhhamed wife was six or seven years old when she was married to Muhammad and nine when the marriage was consummated.

● The muslims in the west came over for a better life and the West let them with open arms, now its becoming like the 3rd world in the west? if you don't agree how we live..... LEAVE! I'm sure in the UK if we told all the benfits would stop they would stop coming here. I have friends in the job centre and was told that the muslims are the worst at not wanting to work and wait for benefits...... GET OFF YOUR ARSE AND CONTRIBUTE TO THE COUNTRY YOU LIVE IN.

● Religion should be kept within the confines of people's homes. No more places of worship, no more bearded lunatics and hijabi sociopathic women, no more halal and kosher, no more televised debates no more religious education, practice at home and leave at home end of.

● My country has been destroyed and ruined by Islam over and over again since about 1400 yrs ago and I fled to Europe cuz of Islam and some muslims fearing for my life and freedom. Now Islam is taking over Europe and the Europeans believe it's not a threat since they don't know anything about Islam and Mohammad including filthy Quran, Hadith/Sunnah nor the barbaric Sharia laws! The filthy Quran is believed to be Allahs (Gods) message and it can't be changed. Many muslims use taaqiya/kitman (permitted lie for muslims in order to protect themselves or Islam) and you might have heard or read the popular muslim deception " whoever kills an innocent, it is as if he has killed all mankind; and whoever saves a person, it is as if he has saved all mankind".

● please do keep SPEAKING OUT and exposing the sick hoax of islam for what it is…yes, muslim are so delusional/ignorant/brainwashed they think koran has no errors , hasn't been changed, and is divine LOL…when we see the major errors/nonsense/filth/barbsrity staring us all in the face, know its been man made and the book HAS BEEN CHANGED poor wimps…but its the weak,gullible islam shackles

● I love Sweden and I hope that the muslim immigration stops and that IS jihadis stops returning despite being a citizen! The crime waves increases as muslims pour into the country and some of these muslims are radicals who preach in the mosques about Islam and that's when more people starts demanding "Sharia law" courts which is inhuman and barbaric... We're loosing our valuable democracy since no one can speak out without being branded as "racist" (Islam nor muslims are a race) or hate speech which is not true in almost all cases. Still people get fined or jailed over their statements even though they provide you with facts or even polls!

0 notes

hollywoodjuliorivas · 7 years

Link

Advertisement Opinion | OP-ED CONTRIBUTOR The South Doesn’t Own Slavery By TIYA MILESSEPT. 11, 2017 Continue reading the main storyShare This Page Share Tweet Email More Save 477 Photo Credit Laura McDermott for The New York Times The violent furor that erupted this summer over the removal of Confederate monuments in several cities was a stark reminder that Americans remain trapped in the residue of slavery and racial violence. In confronting this difficult truth, our attention is naturally drawn to the South. And rightfully so: The South was the hotbed of race-based labor and sexual exploitation before and after the Civil War, and the caldron of a white supremacist ideology that sought to draw an inviolable line between whiteness and blackness, purity and contagion, precious lives and throwaway lives. As the author of three histories on slavery and race in the South, I agree that removing Confederate iconography from cities like New Orleans, Baltimore and Charlottesville, Va., is necessary and urgent. However, in our national discourse on slavery’s legacy and racism’s persistent grip, we have overlooked a crucial fact: Our history of human bondage and white supremacy is not restricted to the South. By turning the South into an island of historical injustice separate from the rest of the United States, we misunderstand the longstanding nationwide collusion that has produced white supremacist organizers in Fargo, N.D., and a president from New York City who thinks further research is needed to determine the aims of the Ku Klux Klan. Historians of the United States are continually unearthing an ugly truth: American slavery had no bounds. It penetrated every corner of this country, materially, economically and ideologically, and the unjust campaign to preserve it is embedded in our built environments, North and South, East and West. Detroit is a surprising case in point. Detroit’s legacy is one of a “free” city, a final stop on the Underground Railroad before Canada, known by the code word “Midnight.” Yet its early history is mired in a slave past. Near the start of the Revolutionary War, William and Alexander Macomb, Scots-Irish traders from New York, illegally purchased Grosse Isle from the Potawatomi people. William Macomb was the largest slaveholder in Detroit in the late 1700s. He owned at least 26 black men, women and children. He kept slaves on his Detroit River islands, which included Belle Isle (the current city park) and Grosse Isle, and right in the heart of the city, not far from where the International Underground Railroad Memorial now rises above the river view. When Macomb died, his wife, Sarah, and their sons inherited the family fortune, later becoming — along with other Detroit slaveholding families — among the first trustees of the University of Michigan. Newsletter Sign UpContinue reading the main story Sign Up for the Opinion Today Newsletter Every weekday, get thought-provoking commentary from Op-Ed columnists, the Times editorial board and contributing writers from around the world. Sign Up You agree to receive occasional updates and special offers for The New York Times's products and services. SEE SAMPLE MANAGE EMAIL PREFERENCES PRIVACY POLICY OPT OUT OR CONTACT US ANYTIME The Macomb surname and those of numerous Detroit slave sellers, slaveholders and indigenous-land thieves cover the region’s map. Men who committed crimes against humanity in their fur trade shops and private homes, on their farms, islands and Great Lakes trading vessels, are memorialized throughout the metropolis, on street signs, school buildings, town halls and county seats. The Detroit journalist Bill McGraw began a catalog of these names in his 2012 article “Slavery Is Detroit’s Big, Bad Secret” — Macomb, Campau, Beaubien, McDougall, Abbott, Brush, Cass, Hamtramck, Gouin, Meldrum, Dequindre, Beaufait, Groesbeck, Livernois, Rivard. And that’s just a start. Belle Isle, for instance, was named for Isabelle Cass, a daughter of Lewis Cass, a Detroit politician and governor of Michigan in the early 1800s. Lewis Cass, a supporter of slavery, negotiated the sale of a woman he had enslaved named Sally to a member of the Macomb family in 1818, according to his biographer, Willard Carl Klunder. The Cass family name is attached to a county in Michigan as well as one of Detroit’s best public schools, Cass Tech. Detroiters and visitors alike speak and elevate the names of these slaveholders whenever they trace their fingers across a map or walk the streets in search of the nearest Starbucks. Continue reading the main story ADVERTISEMENT Continue reading the main story Detroit is just one example of the hidden historical maps that silently shape our sense of place and community. Place names, submerged below our immediate awareness, may make us feel that slavery and racial oppression have faded into the backdrops of cities, and our history. Yet they do their cultural and political work. 477 COMMENTS The embedded racism of our streetscapes and landscapes is made perhaps more dangerous because we cannot see it upon a first glance. In Detroit and across the country, slaveholder names plastered about commemorate a social order in which elite white people exerted inexorable power over black and indigenous bodies and lives. Places named after slaveholders who sold people, raped people, chained people, beat people and orchestrated sexual pairings to further their financial ends slip off our tongues without pause or forethought. Yet these memory maps make up what the University of Michigan historian Matthew Countryman has called “moral maps” of the places that we inhabit together. It is our duty to confront our ugly history in whole cloth. Confederate monuments in the South, in all of their artistic barbarity and weighty symbolism, are but one kind of commemoration of slavery and white power among many that shape our everyday environments, influence our collective identities and silently signal what our national culture validates. While the past does not change, our interpretations of it as we gain new evidence and insight can and should. Collectively determining what we valorize in the public square is the responsibility of the people who live in these stained places now. We can and must recover them. Tiya Miles is a professor of American culture and history at the University of Michigan and the author of the forthcoming book “The Dawn of Detroit: A Chronicle of Slavery and Freedom in the City of the Straits.” Follow The New York Times Opinion section on Facebook and Twitter (@NYTopinion), and sign up for the Opinion Today newsletter. A version of this op-ed appears in print on September 11, 2017, on Page A21 of the New York edition with the headline: The South Doesn’t Own Slavery. Today's Paper|Subscribe Continue reading the main story TRENDING Irma Live Updates: Storm Pushes North, but Millions Are Without Power in Florida Isolated Amazon Tribe Members Are Reported Killed in Brazil After U.S. Compromise, Security Council Strengthens North Korea Sanctions 4 Things You Should Do About the Equifax Hack Hank Williams Jr. Is Coming Back to ‘Monday Night Football’ Maps: Tracking Hurricane Irma’s Path Over Florida Your Money: Equifax’s Instructions Are Confusing. Here’s What to Do Now. The Monster Surge That Wasn’t: Why Irma Caused Less Flooding Than Expected Hemingway’s Six-Toed Cats Ride Out Hurricane Irma in Key West Contributing Op-Ed Writer: Equifax’s Maddening Unaccountability View More Trending Stories » More in Opinion EDITORIAL 9/11: Finding Answers in Ashes 16 Years Later OP-ED CONTRIBUTOR Remembering the Disappeared PAUL KRUGMAN Conspiracies, Corruption and Climate CHARLES M. BLOW Soul Survival in Trump’s Hell Go to Home Page » SITE INDEX THE NEW YORK TIMES Site Index Navigation NEWS World U.S. Politics N.Y. Business Tech Science Health Sports Education Obituaries Today's Paper Corrections OPINION Today's Opinion Op-Ed Columnists Editorials Op-Ed Contributors Letters Sunday Review Video: Opinion ARTS Today's Arts Art & Design Books Dance Movies Music N.Y.C. Events Guide Television Theater Video: Arts LIVING Automobiles Crossword Food Education Fashion & Style Health Jobs Magazine N.Y.C. Events Guide Real Estate T Magazine Travel Weddings & Celebrations LISTINGS & MORE Reader Center Classifieds Tools & Services N.Y.C. Events Guide Multimedia Photography Video NYT Store Times Journeys Subscribe Manage My Account NYTCo SUBSCRIBE Home Delivery Gift Subscriptions Crossword Email Newsletters Alerts Corporate Subscriptions Education Rate Mobile Applications Replica Edition Site Information Navigation © 2017 The New York Times Company HomeSearchAccessibility concerns? Email us at [email protected]. We would love to hear from you.Contact UsWork With UsAdvertiseYour Ad ChoicesPrivacyTerms of ServiceTerms of Sale Site Information Navigation Site MapHelpSite FeedbackSubscriptions

0 notes

vincentvelour · 7 years

Text

Global Glance: January 30, 2017

1/30/2017

A quick look at intriguing international stories

By John Bostwick, Managing Editor, Radius

Is the US About to Play the Part of the Buffalo Bills to China’s New England Patriots?

Going into their final 2003 NFL regular-season game, the New England Patriots were 13-2, but they were hardly an NFL juggernaut. They’d failed to make the playoffs the previous year. The team they were about to play — the Buffalo Bills — had trounced them 31-0 on opening day four months earlier. And their lone championship (after the 2001 season) came in a game that could have gone either way, with a pedestrian Patriots roster that led their coach to say afterwards, “Can you believe we won the Super Bowl with this?”

In an interesting coincidence, the Patriots pasted the Buffalo Bills by the same 31-0 scoreline in the 2003 regular-season finale. Hall of Fame coach and announcer John Madden said near the end of the broadcast: “These are two teams going in different directions.”

I quote Madden from memory, but his drift was clear and he was undoubtedly prescient. Since 2003, the Patriots have won 12 of 13 AFC East championships and are favored to win their fifth Super Bowl this weekend. Meanwhile the Bills — who’d dominated the AFC for much of the previous decade — have finished above .500 only twice during that stretch, never winning more than nine games in a season.

I go into this because I live in New England and Super Bowl talk is (as usual around this time of year) rampant, and because I recalled Madden’s comment when reading about Chinese president Xi Jinping’s speech this month in Switzerland at the World Economic Forum. Xi’s speech, when read in light of President Donald Trump’s inaugural address, may signal that China is headed in a new direction, as is the US. Unfortunately for us Yanks, some feel the US is in effect about to play the part of the 2003 Bills to China’s 2003 Patriots — Trump’s “vague friendship” with Pats quarterback Tom Brady notwithstanding.

It goes without saying that the US has been an economic, military and cultural powerhouse since the Second World War. For decades, the term “leader of the free world” has been synonymous with the US presidency. This unofficial title is, of course, a sledgehammer hint as to why much of the world views the US as arrogant and selfish, a charge that can be difficult to counter given that, among other facts, Americans comprise less than five percent of the world’s population and use about 25 percent of its natural resources.

Many feel the US is in effect about to play the part of the 2003 Bills to China’s 2003 Patriots.Tweet this

Then again Americans are, according to one 2016 study cited by The Boston Globe, “by far the most charitable [citizens on Earth] — roughly twice as generous as Canadians, Spaniards and the Irish, for instance, and more than 20 times as apt to give as Germans and Italians.” The US also has a history of helping other countries. Following World War II, to take the archetypal example, the US gave nearly $13 billion (or about $130 billion in today’s currency) to devastated European nations under the Marshall Plan. Incidentally, one of the Plan’s three goals outlined to the US Congress was “the reduction of barriers which hamper trade.”

China on the other hand has been characterized lately by insularity, even as it challenges the US as the world’s leading economic power. A Guardian article explains that, domestically, President Xi has “[rooted] out unwelcome foreign influences, such as freedom of speech and western-style democracy.” This mistrust of outsiders extends to foreign businesses. As a Time article points out, “Large sections of the Chinese economy are closed off to foreign trade, its leviathan state-owned enterprises (SOEs) enjoy such preferential treatment to render competition meaningless, and … the landscape for foreign investment is deteriorating.”

China’s foreign policy record has been similarly self-serving. Here’s Thomas E. Kellogg in an article published last week in The Diplomat: “Too often, Beijing views international crises through the prism of its own self-interest, and as a result gives short shrift to the needs of the international community and the international system.”

As mentioned, these trends involving the US and China appear to be shifting. One of Donald Trump’s first acts as president was to pull out of the Trans Pacific Partnership, a deal that was strongly supported by former president Obama and that, according to Greg Ip of The Wall Street Journal, reflected “the expansive American model of free trade — rather than China’s narrower variant.”

Ip’s article was published less than two years ago but now reads like ancient history. Trump’s inaugural address proclaimed an American economic strategy that, far from being “expansive,” is now narrowly, aggressively focused on the US’s own interests. Trump proclaimed that under his leadership, “Every decision on trade, on taxes, on immigration, on foreign affairs, will be made to benefit American workers and American families.” He and his cabinet, he said, “will follow two simple rules: Buy American and hire American.” In case anyone missed the point, he added, “At the bedrock of our politics will be a total allegiance to the United States of America.”

Trump’s speech came just two days after President Xi spoke at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. By all accounts that I’ve read, Xi’s speech was a bizarre contrast to Trump’s, as the Chinese leader emphasized openness and cooperation. Fortune reports that “Xi called for ‘inclusive globalization’ and for global unity, saying ‘self-isolation will benefit no-one.’” Fortune adds that “China's cabinet issued measures to further open the economy to foreign investment, including easing limits on investment in banks and other financial institutions.”

An Economist article neatly captures the historical-political absurdity of the Davos event, which included a “fawning reception given to China’s leader” by Forum delegates that “lapped up” his speech. Remember, this is a leader that Andrew Nathan of The New York Review says “has reinstated many of the most dangerous features of Mao’s rule: personal dictatorship, enforced ideological conformity and arbitrary persecution.”

But back to Xi’s Davos speech: “Here,” the Economist article marvels, “at a time of global uncertainty and anxiety for capitalists, was the world’s most powerful communist presenting himself as a champion of globalization and open markets.” That article points out that Xi didn’t mention Trump’s name in his comments, but addressed him indirectly, saying, “No one will emerge as a winner in a trade war.” Xi also compared “protectionism to ‘locking oneself in a dark room.’”

Martin Wolf of The Financial Times provides more quotes from Xi that stand in contrast to Trump’s protectionist, America-first rhetoric. Xi, Wolf notes, argued that “blaming economic globalization for the world’s problems is inconsistent with reality” and that “globalization has powered global growth and facilitated movement of goods and capital, advances in science, technology and civilization, and interactions among people.”

Many Republicans (who tend to promote free trade) in Congress would side with Xi, not with their own president, on the subject of globalization. Wolf for one is baffled by Trump’s inward-looking trade strategy, saying, “Who would have imagined that primitive mercantilism would seize the policymaking machinery of the world’s most powerful market economy and issuer of the world’s principal reserve currency?” Wolf states unequivocally that “Mr. Xi’s vision is the right one.”

I won’t try to summarize all of Wolf’s points, but I urge you to read his article. I’m no fan of economists — who, it’s said, exist to make weathermen look good — but Wolf writes convincingly on the subject of Trump and Xi and their respective visions about globalization. And I take Wolf seriously when he writes of Trump’s economic advisors: “The frightening fact is that the people who seem closest to Mr. Trump believe things that are almost entirely false.” Wolf closes by saying that Trump’s protectionist stance will likely either undermine the global structure the US has largely created or open the door for a new hegemonic power. (That would be China in this case, not the New England Patriots.)

<![CDATA[// ><!]]>

0 notes