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anarchotahdigism · 3 months

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I know i say "wear a mask and riot" and "fuck a peaceful protest" but I'd had a nice long post about how digital work and advocacy is praxis (or can be) on my old account. Right now, COVID is spreading and killing thousands of people in the US alone and nearly all """radicals""""" and """""leftists"""" are philosophically no different than the fascists they claim to oppose because they are so thoroughly wedded to eugenics that they refuse to wear and enforce masking. COVID causes long COVID in 10-30% of cases so the so-called US alone may well be a majority disabled nation now due to rampant eugenics forcing the spread of COVID. Long COVID is a rotting death and makes everything an order of magnitude more difficult if you still are able to do the things you were prior. Repeated COVID infections means you're guaranteed to be immunocompromised permanently and disabled in other ways you'll likely find out the hard way. With 40% of cases being asymptomatic and most only showing severe symptoms after 2-3 infections, and many starting to drop dead after 3 to 5 infections, many people accrue damage from and spread COVID without realizing it until it is far, far too late. As a result, it's guaranteed that the ableists have disabled and killed people. They've kept disabled people like me who are high risk out of radical spaces & communities. They've abandoned solidarity for everyone but the abled, ableist middle class while focusing most of their efforts on electoralism, despite the clear and constant failures of such actions. The BLM Rebellion of 2020-2021 had significant---albeit broadly temporary--impacts on electoral politics, society, and communities because it was a constant and ongoing rebellion that was also much more disability inclusive than prior leftist movement moments. For the first time, people recognized the need for remote actions & support because while masking was at the high water mark, more abled people understood that a lot of us disabled could not and would not risk COVID but we had had skills vital to the project. Things disabled people were absolutely critical for during the BLM Rebellion: police scanner observation and transcription, evacuation coordination, event & route planning, translation services, postering, graphics art & design, self defense seminars, radio nets, mutual aid fundraising, mutual aid distribution, bail fund coordination, zine writing, mask & test distributions, contact tracing (remember this??!??!), car brigades, organizing medical supplies, teaching first aid skills, and countless other roles often organized & performed remotely. For every fighter, there are at least a dozen support roles and with some thought and effort, those roles can be aided or done digitally. Posting on its own can be praxis in that it shares information, knowledge, tactics, demonstrates that there are other radicals out there willing to do what they can, normalizes radicalism, and in some cases, regimes pay close attention to internet support.

During the height of the Jina Amini rebellion in 2022, the Iranian regime tried to cut the internet repeatedly to stifle information out of and into Iran to hinder protest coordination and outrage. It also paid extremely close attention to when the rebellion was trending and refrained from reprisals until the mass attention of the internet citizenry turned away. Posting literally helped save lives by forcing the regime to wait, buying people time to organize, prepare, and act accordingly in Iran and internationally. Personally, I will always remember and be grateful for the Palestinians who turned out across the world, but especially in occupied Palestine, for Iranians. Iran is not the only regime that will wait until posts slacken and attention wanes before massacring people. If you are disabled, if you have arrest risks, if for any reasons you don't want to be involved in a radical riot, but you want to support those who can and do, there is so much you can do year round but especially things kick off!! Any skills, resources, knowledge, or support you can organize or contribute is valuable! eSims for Gaza right now are monumental in ensuring Gazans can coordinate information, requests, record Israeli occupation war crimes & apartheid cruelty, and many disabled graphics designers are offering their services in exchange for esim donations. It's been incredible to see.

The people who are against digital activism are ableist and racist and ignorant as hell beyond that. You can make an impact and even save and change lives while homebound. Begging genociders to stop profitable genocides has never and will never work. Riots & boycotts work because they directly confront and attack power and if those actions are supported by communities, they can continue for quite some time, as we saw with the BLM uprising. Regimes do not fall because people ask regime leaders to please stop committing atrocities; they fall when the people are able to bring to bear the sum of their hopes and wrath and bring the fight to those who have been oppressing them. That requires inclusive community & an outright rejection of the regime and its systems of cooptation & recuperation.

If a revolution or movement isn't inclusive, if it excludes the disabled, the poor, the marginalized, the oppressed, it's not a revolution or movement, it's just another genocidal regime change.

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brattylikestoeat · 3 months

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Yall remember that white lesbian couple that went viral during the height of the BLM movement.

They had their adopted black son dressed like a paperboy and hugging police when cops were slaying black kids in the street.

Yeah them, they killed them kids. Put them in a car and drove off a cliff. Come to find out they were abusing the kids, not feeding them, but posting them for internet clout.

I’ll always be weary of internet families, especially white folks who adopt kids of other racial backgrounds.

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usafphantom2 · 4 months

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IMAGES: U.S. Navy and Air Force recreate iconic scene from the 1970s

Fernando Valduga By Fernando Valduga 01/13/2024 - 21:39in Military

The U.S. Navy and Air Force recently recreated a famous photo from the 1970s to highlight the national asset that is the R-2508 test field in Southern California.

The photo, which shows a Navy F-4J Phantom from the then Four Air Assessment and Test Squadron (VX-4) based on Point Mugu in formation with one of the legendary SR-71 Blackbirds flying more than Mach 3 from the USAF Air Base in Beale, was originally staged to put these two black birds together in the test range of the R-2508.

The famous photo of the F-4J "Vandy 1" flying in formation with an SR-71 in 1972. (Photo: U.S. Navy)

Referred to as "R-2508 Complex", the range extends over more than 51,700 square kilometers of special-purpose airspace, covering parts of Fresno, Inyo, Kern, Los Angeles, San Bernardino and Tulare counties. Most of the Complex is above other federally owned lands, including national parks, national forests and Bureau of Land Management (BLM) properties.

Airspace is a vital national good, crucial for the testing and development of aircraft, spacecraft and other advanced technologies, fundamental to national security. It is the largest land area of special-use airspace in the U.S., established during the height of the Cold War in 1955 as a controlled space to operate experimental aircraft and other military aircraft in tests and operational evaluations.

Most of America's world-famous "X planes" flew and were developed here. They still occupy their skies today. The area is administered and used by the China Lake Naval Air Weapons Station, the National Army Training Center in Fort Irwin and the Air Force Test Center at Edwards Air Base, all in California.

Recently, the Air Test and Evaluation Squadron 9 (VX-9), successor to the VX-4, organized a photographic flight session to celebrate the formation seen above. In doing so, it draws attention to the legacy of military aerospace testing in Southern California, to almost 70 years of multi-service cooperation in testing and evaluation, and to the value of R-2508, which is threatened by the invasion.

Well above the test range, a VX-9 F/A-18F Super Hornet encountered a U-2 Dragon Lady operated by the U.S. Air Force Life Cycle Management Center support center at Plant 42, part of the 412ª Test Wing at Edwards Air Base.

The aircraft, a contemporary of the SR-71 that remains active and the other that represents the heart of the U.S. Navy's fighter fleet, formed after completing its own separate test missions, reminding us of what the U.S. is still able to do - if it still has the will.

The F-4J "Vandy-1" or "Black Bunny" makes a low passage at high speed with another F-4 Phantom.

The Super Hornet is coated with the glossy black painting scheme that became famous for the VX-4. In U.S. Navy circles, it is said that bright black paint was applied to a VX-4 Phantom in 1969 during night tests. The radio call sign of the VX-4 squadron was "Vanderbilt" or Vandy, for short. The squadron captain's jet was known as "Vandy-1" and it was this plane that carried the black scheme.

The famous F-4J Phantom II attributed to the VX-4 portrayed after employing a drag kick during landing after a flight demonstration on NAS Pt. Mugu, California, in 1974.

It also carried the logo of what was then an American institution - Playboy magazine. In 1969, Hugh Heffner's Playboy Enterprises bought a Douglas DC-9 commercial aircraft and converted it into a large executive jet with bright black paint and its renowned rabbit logo on the tail. It was capriciously called "Big Bunny".

Not long after, several sources claim that a photo of the Vandy-1 with the rabbit logo stamped on its vertical stabilizer began to circulate in October 1971. Wags referred to the black Phantom of the VX-4 as the "Black Bunny".

Playboy owner Hugh Heffner's DC-9 lands in London.

Playboy Enterprises is said to have sent a letter to the VX-4 warning the squad that the rabbit logo on the Vandy-1 was not approved and suggested a possible legal action. But Playboy astutely added that no action would be taken if the squad used a rabbit stencil provided by the company to reflect its world-renowned trademark art.

Whether it was enacted by Heffner or another executive of the company, it was a cunning move and, subsequently, the official stencils were sent to the U.S. Navy to match Playboy's design. The rabbit was also seen in the successor to the VX-4, Vandy-1, an F-14 Tomcat and, appropriately, in a USAF SR-71 dubbed "Rapid Rabbit" that was almost shot down over Hanoi in 1972.

The VX-4 F-14-Tomcat returns to Key West Naval Air Station NAS after intense dogfight training over the Atlantic Ocean during the Cope Snapper 2002 exercise.

An SR-71 also displayed the Playboy ringy logo. (Photo: Lockheed Martin via HABU.ORG)

The Playboy logo disappeared in the early 2000s, as American society became increasingly politically correct and, in today's indisputably toxic social climate, it cannot appear in the VX-9's Super Hornet "Vandy-1".

But the feeling of pride, friendship and loyalty suggested still exists in the military flight test community. As noted, the R-2508 is fundamental to the work carried out by the organizations that use it. However, the pressure from renewable energy lobbies and the frequency spectrum (telecommunications) can jeopardise the scope of the test, such as urban/suburban growth sustained by the political power of real estate developers.

Preserving the air and land space that the R-2508 Complex offers - its bombing fields, supersonic corridors, low-altitude and high-speed maneuver areas, radar interception areas and refueling areas - is simple common sense.

It is worth highlighting the recognition of its value by the U.S. Navy, exemplified by the test framework at the China Lake Naval Air Weapons Station and VX-9. The U.S. Air Force agrees and according to Chase Kohler, head of communications of the 412ª Test Wing in Edwards, the photo session offered "offered an excellent look to show the joint collaboration that is the R-2508 air space complex".

Hopefully, the Navy, the Air Force and the Army can continue to collaborate for many decades.

Source: Forbes

Tags: Military AviationF-4 PhantomF/A-18E/F Super HornetSR-71 BlackbirdU-2 Dragon LadyUSAF - United States Air Force / U.S. Air ForceUSN - United States Navy/U.S. Navy

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Fernando Valduga

Aviation photographer and pilot since 1992, he has participated in several events and air operations, such as Cruzex, AirVenture, Dayton Airshow and FIDAE. He has works published in specialized aviation magazines in Brazil and abroad. He uses Canon equipment during his photographic work in the world of aviation.

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sabugabr · 1 year

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RRR, Black Adam and the Response of the Oppressed

OR: The Colonial Wound and how to approach Violence as a solution against the mechanisms of oppression

OR: how to get the debate right VS how to ruin it completely

Spoiler: RRR gets it right

So, I was keeping this one to myself because it's a very delicate subject, but rejoicing in RRR's recent Golden Globe nomination, I thought hell might as well talk about it.

First of all, a very important disclaimer:

I am not here, in any way, defending or endorsing any side in this debate. My personal views on violence and armed struggle and guerrilla warfare are not what I will be addressing. Armed struggle, is an extremely complex issue that is still being debated today by theorists and academics much more qualified than I am, so no.

Rather, my aim here is simply to address how this debate has been represented, and my take on this issue: media portrayals of social, historical and most importantly, decolonial debates. And recently in 2022, we've had two approaches (And yes, I am fully aware that this topic is much better covered in dozens of media that have this debate entirely as their main focus, but I am talking about superhero blockbusters here, so keep that in mind) that may seem similar, but are fundamentally completely divergent:

The Telugu movie RRR (Rise, Roar, Revolt)

And curiously, DC Film's Black Adam

No need to say, there'll be major spoilers ahead, so be warned

1. THE RESPONSE OF THE OPRESSED

Before I start, I would like to clarify as briefly as I can some terms and concepts that I consider necessary to begin to understand decolonialism and the response of the oppressed, a term that was coined in the famous quote by Jaylen Brown during the height of the BLM movement, "Do not confuse the response of the oppressed with the violence of the oppressor".

Pierre Bourdieu differentiates the violence of the oppressor into two categories:

explicit violence – in which the action of the dominant subject is visible (and therefore, in our current society, subject to questioning and legal or moral limitations)

and symbolic violence – conceptualized by Bourdieu when he addressed the issue of male domination in society and all the faces in which it presents itself – and we see it everywhere, from racial demographics in income distribution to that homophobic joke your uncle always makes.

This relationship of systematic domination can be understood as a chain, and in view of the necessary rise of awareness and consequent rupture of this chain, Audre Lorde presents the uses of anger.

By connecting the idea of symbolic power and the breaking of the domination relationship with the use of anger, we have the explosion of a natural reaction of the oppressed triggered by centuries of imprisonment in their own fear and, bringing this reality specifically to colonial relations, using anger over your own fear results in liberation. (source)

And although it wouldn't hurt to address the revolutionary terms in its most famous roots in the French Revolution and etc, here it seems more fitting to comment on Marx. And class struggle.

Briefly, Marx and Engels saw revolution as the result of organized political action by the exploited. Therefore, one can only speak of revolution when there is a rupture with the old political, social and economic order; and in its place, new standards of social relations are established whose principle is to ensure freedom and social equality among men.

This is what we mean when we talk about inverting the social order, and Marx will also use the terms infrastructure (productive forces + relations of production) and superstructure (politics, police, army, law, morals, religion, etc.).

The superstructure, for Marx, is created by the most favored and dominant class, but determined or conditioned by the infrastructure.

Therefore, the revolution would happen when the working class (and in that logic, any oppressed group) reversed the order and took control of the superstructure.

In short, this can be understood as the basis of revolutionary thinking.

Now apply this to the invasion, colonization and genocide scenario, and you'll see where I'm going here.

KKKKKKKKKKKKKK THAT'S A BIT EXTREME EXAMPLE SORRY but actually in Black Panther I the plot could very well be read through Marxist lens (and that has certainly been done), but I won't even go into that here, god forbid Wakanda Forever hahahah imagine that, anyway going back to my thread

2. ARMED STRUGGLE

A quick definition of armed struggle, which can be found in dictionaries, is armed resistance against oppressive regimes. In the armed struggle, the militants understand that the situation of society requires drastic action so that it can be modified, and for this reason they decide to take up arms and declare war on the oppressive regime. Guerrilla warfare is an example of armed struggle.

In the armed struggle, a group of militants opposed to the current regime in a given society, organize actions that can be strikes, attacks on barracks or public buildings, etc, aiming to destabilize the current power with the aim of overthrowing it and placing a different regime in its place, like a democracy, for example – in general, the armed struggle follows a leftist tendency. (source)

In Brazil, for example, the armed struggle appeared mainly as resistance to the Military Dictatorship between 1964 and 1985.

All of this goes along the idea of using violence as resistance to oppression (as already pointed out before): fire is answered with fire. In the specific scenario of the guerrilla, the French philosopher, journalist, former government official and academic Jules Régis Debray writes the controversial book Révolution Dans La Révolution, where he points out that "The main objective of a revolutionary guerrilla is the destruction of the enemy's military potential"; the enemy is stripped of it's military power (it's weapons) to ensure a greater chance of victory.

"To destroy an army you need another army.", Debray says. "Precisely because it is a mass struggle, and the most radical of all, the guerrillas need, in order to triumph militarily, to gather politically around themselves the active and organized majority, since it is the general strike and the generalized urban insurrection which will give the coup de grace to the regime and destroy its latest maneuvers - last minute coup d'état, provisional junta, elections - by extending the struggle throughout the country." (source)

Does that all ring a bell?

Sure it does.

Now, these are all historical scenarios, and nowadays the moral debates about armed struggle have become extremely more complex (as they should), and the disarmament discourse is taking more and more space in these debates. Is armed struggle the only solution? Wouldn't there be others?

But it is still a complex debate. The Brazilian rapper (and political thinker and, dare I say, philosopher) Mano Brown, a strong advocate of disarmament, staunchly defends that violence, most of the time, bounces back on the oppressed, not the oppressor.

Look at him all precious

He argues, however, that one cannot simply condemn the oppressed who react violently. Already in 2006 he presented in an interview that:

"I am in favor of disarmament, but this argument is difficult, things should be done differently […] People are coming as a class struggle, you know? Rich people don't want poor people to arm themselves and remain unarmed. And poor people don't want rich people to arm themselves and remain unarmed. Did you see the kid's argument: "How are the police allowed to carry guns while I remain unarmed? " It's kind of uneven. It's confusing." (source - translated by me)

Mano Brown is part of the Brazilian rap band Racionais formed by 4 black men from the periphery, who revamped their music after realizing that it could be used to foment violence. They front a series of social programs, and revolutionized the way peripheral music is seen and consumed. Nowadays, in 2023, Mano Brown hosts one of the biggest political interview podcasts in Brazil (having even interviewed Angela Davis), is considered one of the most active leaders of the racial struggle, and along with the other members of Racionais, has taught open classes in estate universities.

The Brazilian educator and philosopher Paulo Freire, considered one of the most notable thinkers in the history of world pedagogy, inaugurates in his book Pedagogy of the Oppressed (you can read it translated right here) the idea of the liberation pedagogy. He strongly emphasizes that liberation pedagogy is a political process that aims to awaken individuals from their oppression and generate actions for social transformation – through education.

NOW WITH ALL THAT IN MIND WE CAN FINALLY MOVE ON TO WHAT MATTERS,

3. THE MOVIES

I'm going to talk about RRR here first because it makes me happier, but for reasons of time and your patience I'm not going to extend myself so much in the analysis of this film technically, and if you want a more detailed look at the grandeur and the importance and the genius of this film, please watch any of the many videos that are now appearing on youtube on the subject (I recommend RRR: Make Movies EPIC Again, by Jared Bauer, and The Importance of RRR, by the wonderful Accented Cinema)

ONCE AGAIN ATTENTION FOR BIG, MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD

The story therefore revolves around two men: Raju, who infiltrates the British army to steal fireguns and deliver them to the people's guerrilla, and Bheem, a Gond leader who is after Mali, a child of his people who was kidnapped by the British to basically serve as a pet.

They meet under false identities, and unaware that they were both fighting for the liberation of India (through different methods), the two men form an extremely strong bond of love and friendship, which results in their struggles coalescing into an evocation of patriotic unity and popular resurgence against the colonial forces.

First of all, RRR is a fictionalized biography of two real-life Indian revolutionaries, Alluri Sitarama Raju and Komaram Bheem. So, in real life, Alluri Raju actually stole guns from the British to stage uprisings against the British Raj, and Komaram Bheem really was a Gond revolutionary leader who coined the slogan Jal, Jangal, Zameen (transl. Water, Forest, Land) wich became a call to action for Adivasis (or Scheduled Tribes) peoples.

You can see the flag in the last scenes

This "historical aspect" (in addition to the incredible, completely impossible and impossibly glorious action scenes) makes it plausible to draw parallels between RRR and Tarantino's historical revisionism films like Django Unchained (2013) and Inglourious Basterds (2009), where in all cases we see scenes of extreme violence that somehow feel justified, or cathartic, for being directed against oppressors (slave masters, Nazis, British colonizers, etc etc)

The parallels are just there.

Black Adam, on the other hand, states in its synopsis that "After nearly five thousand years of imprisonment, Black Adam, an anti-hero from the ancient city of Kahndaq, is released in modern times. His brutal tactics and righteous ways attract the attention of the Justice Society of America, who try to stop his rampage by teaching him to be more of a hero than a villain, and they all must band together to stop a force more powerful than Adam himself."

So we have a superhero story set in the present day in a fictional country on the Sinai Peninsula (that means, right there besides the Gaza Strip and the Suez Canal), occupied by a mercenary crime syndicate called Intergang, who brutally oppresses the Kahndaqi people while robbing their mineral resources. All good, all great.

But as stated in the synopsis, the film's great moral conflict revolves around whether the use of violence against mechanisms of oppression is justified or not.

Basically,

And while these two scenarios may seem similar, the approach the two films take to this debate, which, as I've said before, is EXTREMELY DELICATED, and EXTREMELY COMPLEX, is completely different. Firstly, because RRR is the only one of the two that treats it as, well, a debate.

From the beginning, RRR establishes the two characters as essentially polar opposites; Raju is fire

Look at the scenery with the european buildings in the background

Bheem is water

And here, the native, untouched forest with pure cristaline water

Bheem is the god Bhima, immovable, patient and resilient

(like water)

And Raju is the god Rama, heroic, springy and skillful

(and hot)

Bheem is the legs (the foundation) while Raju is the arms (the action)

They ✨ complement ✨ each other

And this is translated into their different approaches to the revolution: Raju with his arms policy (inherited from his guerrilla father), who operates within the system to overthrow it, and Bheem with his native philosophy, using the land, the fauna, the culture, the religion, the people themselves as agents against oppression, operating from outside the system to overthrow it.

At the beginning of the film, Raju dresses Bheem in western clothing so that he can attend a British party (which allows him to know the building and locate Mali), and at the end of the film, Bheem dresses Raju in the traditional clothing of the god Rama, and arms him not with european firearms but with a sacred bow and arrow, evoking his native homeland in what configures the real defeat of the colonizers.

Not even getting into the merits of comparing these two films technically, just talking about the discourse itself, what for me fundamentally separates RRR from Black Adam, and even Django and Inglourious Basterds, is precisely Bheem's character. It's the other way to fight (but fight nonetheless)

This does not mean that the armed struggle is delegitimized, or diminished. On the contrary, it is explained, justified (within that historical and social context) and respected. People who fought in the armed struggle, and died in the armed struggle, are honored and respected. It allows you to understand where the idea of arming the population is coming from (in a certain parallel with Mano Brown's interview that I mentioned above), but it also presents other discussions on the subject, that happened at the time, and still happens today.

And above all, as I mentioned before, the film presents and reinforces the idea of inspiration. Even if education is presented only very briefly, in a popular assembly, in the long term, the film still gives extreme focus to the importance of raising awareness among the oppressed people.

This can be clearly seen in the scene where Bheem is being tortured in a public square by the British government, and refuses to kneel.

So when the torture becomes too much to bear, he starts to sing

Now, this is the most important scene in this movie and I'll die on this hill

And then, this happens

Bheem inspires not only the population, but also Raju, who even after years of enticement by his own father, steps back on his original (armamentist) plan when he realizes that "I was under the impression that guns would bring us freedom. But Bheem inspired a whole crowd with one song"

Even though in the context of the film the "path of choice" was still violent (this still is, after all, an action superhero movie), the message of this scene is extremely metaphorical. The idea of a song (art) inspiring all people to "become a weapon" against an oppressive regime is very powerful, and it resonates deeply in anti-opression movements all over History. It is, literally, the power of the people.

Furthermore, at crucial moments in the plot, both Bheem and Raju put aside their collective struggles for the other's individual good; Unlike his father, who readily accepts the militarization of his child son for the greater good, Raju, when questioned by his guerrilla companion for abandoning 15 years of work to save Bheem, says that "I will bear it for another 25 years, but I won't sacrifice Bheem for my goal".

Bheem, here, represents not only the friendship and love between them, but, metaphorically, an entire ideal of the people. Ultimately, one can say that this film addresses the idea of "what are the limits in my revolution": I will not sacrifice the other for my revolution; the limits of my revolution must be the wellness of the other (and in our metaphorical reading here, the wellness of the people).

Parallel, the torture scene can be metaphorically read as: the only valid sacrifice is my own, never that of the other. (and I won't be commenting on the revolutionary character of ideas like martyrdom and self-sacrifice, but yes). That's what Bheem and Raju do throughout the entire film, they put the other above themselves.

And in the end, they kill the british defeat oppression together✨

Now, as I've mentioned before, yes, this movie still ends violently, yes, it still glorifies and celebrates this violence in some of the best action scenes I've seen in my whole life, yes, it is heavily patriotic and sometimes a little bit too on the nose about it, yes, and did I rejoyce in it? Yes.

But it cannot be denied that RRR at least presents a reflection not often seen in films of the genre, which is the mere existence of real debate. In addition, the film is placed in an extremely specific historical context, portraying real historical figures, real life revolutionaries, folkloric parallels, a gigantic symbolic charge, in short, a whole other deal.

Besides it, the only difference between this film and idk, Braveheart, or Star Wars, is that in this film the social and racial parallels, the guerrilla warfare and class struggle (and the colonial wound) become clearer – and perhaps this is a more responsible way of representing a revolution.

NOW, BLACK ADAM ON THE OTHER HAND KKKKKKK

As mentioned in the synopsis, the background of Black Adam is curiously similar: we have an oppressed people, we have the militia, a clear racial reference to a real-life conflict, which affects thousands of people daily, and the figure of a mythologically evocative hero with super powers who will free the people from oppression through violent means. And yes, there is debate: we have the Justice Society, which condemns Black Adam's methods and questions his use of violence, only to be proven wrong at the end of the movie.

But the "proved wrong" isn't really built, or developed (as Intergang is quickly forgotten when they all start fighting each other and then… Satan? For some reason??), and it basically boils down to this:

KKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK

And that's so funny because he actually just… killed like 3 soldiers in the second act of the movie. That's all he did.

And it gets even funnier because at some point we have a scene that genuinely makes a VERY VALID point that made me very hopeful when I was in the theater watching it

Like, this is SO VALID and she is SO RIGHT and this is such a great argument and a great debate point and then it just... goes nowhere

He just killed like 3 guys he didn't even talk to the people he just, quite literally, killed some pawn soldiers and went on to fight his own individual battles that had nothing to do with the actual opression state of the country besides them telling you that "it was bad".

The problem with Black Adam's is ac how shallow the argument is. Nothing is justified, nothing is not even debated, we just have Hawk Man going "killing is bad" and Black Adam going "yeah but I do it caused I'm disruptive like that", and even when we have this "inspire the people" moment is just... this kid with a cape doing this symbol and yes, symbols of struggle are a great tool in fighting oppression, and yes they work and they're so, so great, but this one specifically kind of just…was there?

LIKE OK THIS IS ALL GREAT but then it lead to people… fighting zombies?????

zombies ??!?!??!!!????

Like, how, seriously, how does this have to do with any of your previous state of opression? How does this change absolutely anything??? Are we going to have elections after the zombies thing, or... ?

And that, to me, is such a poor and wasteful way of representing people power that, even though I didn't take this film seriously, I couldn't help but feel mildly frustrated. Much of the recent wave of blockbuster media about decolonialism, in my opinion, has been making this same mistake, which is apparently thinking that just because a movie is made to be a blockbuster, or a superhero movie, or an action movie and easy entertainment, it cannot tackle complex topics. It cannot deepen a discussion. It can't take 10 minutes off a fight scene to establish a full dialogue. As if that would, idk, tire the audience maybe? Idk.

As if a universe of superheroes, or fantasy and action, couldn't contain a scene like this:

This scene seems so simple but it is so, so huge

Andor is perhaps an example out of the curve, because Andor is a series that makes a great effort to represent the fight against oppression in a very serious and responsible way, making it its main theme, of representing what a fascist government is,how a fascist government acts and affects all layers of a population, what is the immigrant cause, what is the armed struggle, what is it like to be a person of color in an far-right government. And it does all of this in an unprecedented way in the genre so far, indeed.

But as I said before, perhaps this should be how all media represent these themes. Because otherwise, even the best of intentions can turn against the causes you sought to defend. And ok, I know that Black Adam is "just a superhero movie" and that maybe it's unfair to demand so much from a movie that only came to propose a simple entertainment with fight scenes and jokes, and I had fun watching it indeed. I love Dwayne Jhonson we all do. But the thing is, if you're going to represent that debate, I genuinely believe it can't be done as simply, or as poorly explained, as it was in this film. A poorly presented arms discourse can become an attack on the legitimization of the armed struggle in its historical context, it can become a justification for a shootout against anti-oppression demonstrations, it can become the excuse for why a policeman mistook an umbrella for a rifle, or a piece of wood for a gun, and killed innocent (and peripheral) men.

In the best of scenarios, the intent is simply forgotten, or it's so hidden in the metaphorical layers of the work that it's easy to miss them. If that weren't the case, there wouldn't be so many racist, misogynistic, right-wing Star Wars fans, for example (just to be clear, I'm not attacking Star Wars here at all, ok, I'm just using it as an example – you'll agree with me that I've never seen any Cambridge professors attack Star Wars)

And fair is fair, Luke did explode a moon-sized military base full of millions of people and all that...

SO ANYWAY

Armamentism is an extremely serious issue, and it must be handled very, very carefully. As I mentioned before, RRR has a historical context, and an argument builded throughout the entire film; I hardly think anyone comes out of RRR, or WomanKing, wanting to pick up a gun and simply shoot someone (I hope). But the way this idea was presented in Black Adam, it is not an exaggeration to say that someone might have had this impression after watching it. At the very least, the movie took no care making sure this wasn't the case, and that for me is troubling enough.

The struggle against oppression and decolonialism are extremely important topics, and I am happy that these themes are increasingly making themselves present in more and more media works (and we have had several very good ones recently) – and Black Adam does have good ideas in the middle of the mess. But if you're going to make a film to talk about oppression, without actually commiting to approach it responsibly, why do it?

And ok, RRR does have a very imperative call to action but well, look at them, would you not answer???

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transfemlogan · 1 year

Text

EDIT: this post is old. Very old. And was very rushed because people kept asking me to post it. While it provides insight onto certain situations, like antiblackness or the lack of flashing lights for years, it doesn't fully go into depth about some of them (like DID & antisemitism) and only offers one opinion into most situations.

It's a great starting point or beginning into learning about certain situations and to begin your own questioning and analysis, but is not a """masterlist""" or a good, in-depth discussion on the things Thomas has done and contributed to.

Take everything in this post with a grain of salt. Take it with "I didn't know that, I will do more research" and if you discover the opposite of what this post is saying and disagree (or if you agree), then that is what I want to come out of this post. I do not want to you immediately take what I say at face value, even if I am/was "correct".

Okay, back to the original post:

Ok. Its been 2 days lets talk abt how thomas participates in anti-blackness, antisemitism, & ableism.

I do have links to almost everything mentioned here, but some of them I do not have. Whether that be because I am expressing an opinion other people have or because I could not find it.

Also, I have something called "aphasia". Some parts of this will be phrased wrong and/or difficult to read. (Look up aphasia I'm not explaining it here.)

If you are a person of colour and want to express your opinion about Thomas being racist, feel free. If you are jewish and want to express your opinion about Thomas being antisemitic, feel free. If you are disabled and want to express your opinion about Thomas being ableist, feel free. I am not trying to speak over anyone. I am a black disabled man talking about things Thomas has done and including my own opinions.

I do not think Thomas does any of this out of actively trying to harm people. This is not me "cancelling" him. This is not me telling you you cannot watch the series or whatever. I am explaining things he has done. You come to your own conclusion about this using critical thinking.

Here is a response by @/voxakumasbitch, along with my own addition, that provides clarity and a more critical response to this post.

Here is a response by @tsfander, that explains the misinformation & faults within the DID section of this post.

DO NOT TAG THIS POST AS FANDOM DISCOURSE.

Anti-blackness:

(note: if you, as a nonblack person, tries to tell me I am WRONG for saying this is racist and antiblack I will literally explode you with my mind. I am a black man, I know what is and is not antiblack & you cannot tell me what is and isnt. Dear god.)

Logan's vocab cards tend to be appropriation of AAVE (African-American Vernacular English), since it's based around what people assume is "internet slang" (for example, in Accepting Anxirty Part 1, Logan uses the phrase "You good, fam?" which is AAVE).

Another character of Thomas' that appropriates AAVE is Sleep, also referred to as "Remy" by fans, in his vines and shorts. This is because he is supposed to be a flamboyant gay man, but again, a lot white gay men appropriate AAVE from black gay men and queens (for example, "slay" is a term that people say came from queer culture, but it is a term that came from black queer culture).

Thomas made a Tik Tok talking about his roles in musicals. (I do not have this Tik Tok as I... do not have Tik Tok for mental health reasons and the idea of redownloading it is terrifying.) One (or multiple?) roles he talks about are ones of black characters. (I hope I don't have to explain how taking black roles in musicals is racist.)

The entire BLM Roman thing

During the height of the BLM protests back in 2020, a tumblr user (I will not say their user) drew a black Roman holding a trans flag. While this in itself is not racist, black people outside of the fandom (and in the fandom) expressed their discomfort with it. This art was later deleted, however their white mutual ended up creating art of black Roman angrily holding up his fist and it was captioned "I frantically drew this in a fit of rage." This user did not post about BLM before this, and also it's very weird to make a white character black to show your support of real black people being murdered.

Here is the post, along with an explanation of why this is racist by me (@/aleiimm) and my TSS mutual at the time (@/mvnte). Obviously, I do not condone the harrassment of this artist.

This sparked a weird """movement""" within the fandom where white fans, ignoring every black fander trying to explain how this is Racist, drew black roman holding up his fist. And because of this "movement", Thomas Sanders reblogged the original drawing, also ignoring every black fander. He later deleted this, without an apology or even a mention.

Here is a post by @/lamp-calm-sanders which explains it better.

(I do think this is a very big fandom problem, though Thomas contributes to it.)

Antisemitism:

This is specifically in relation to Janus Sanders' character being an antisemitic caricature. I have reblogged posts about this, but due to my awful tagging system, I couldn't find them.

(note: I am not jewish, this is me repeating what I have heard from jewish fans and my jewish friends outside of the fandom.)

I recommend finding actual jewish fans and their posts.

Obviously, making antisemitic caricatures is a lot more than just the traits you give the character. I think it's important to identify what was the original idea. In this case, Thomas meant to make a character based off of the "snake in the tree" from the Bible. I doubt he consciously meant to create an antisemitic caricature.

However, most antisemitism is unconscious. Most bigotry is. Just like how white people can be racist, even if they are actively trying not to— because racism spans over years and years— non-jewish people can be antisemitic unconsciously.

Janus is a greedy, selfish, lying half-snake character. There isn't a way to get around that. These traits on their own wouldn't necessarily be antisemitic, but combined they are.

Ableism:

This will the longest section.

In the ad "The Return of the Jam!", Roman refers to Logan Sanders as "Mr. Infodumper" negatively. (Janus also does this in Thomas' Among Us Patreon stream, if I remember correctly, though it is edited out of the YouTube video.)

As an autistic man, I dislike the use of this negatively, however, not every autistic person feels this way. I know autistic people who do not view this as ableist.

Virgil's crofters is named "Cranic Attack", based on on the word "panic attack". I do not have an anxiety disorder, though many people with anxiety disorders expressed their discomfort with this (and also many people said it was fine. Again. Not a monolith.)

Thomas Sanders does make an apology for this usage here (this link includes my response, @/gothybubby).

In this apology Thomas

one: claims that the term "infodump" is negative, which isn't true. The trait is not negative, but the way it is used by Roman (and Janus) is ableist.

two: claims that it is... the character's fault? "we were narratively depicting Roman to be in the wrong for saying it." Not a single character tells Roman off for this. It is not Roman's fault, he's a fictional character, it is the people AKA THOMAS who wrote the script.

And three: that Logan is going to get "vindication" for this. No one wants Logan to get VINDICATION, we want Roman to NOT be ableist.

Here is a response by now deleted user, @/suckerssides, and @/beeceit.

Here is a post by @/turneverybodyintopuppets

Dissociative Identity Disorder & systems

I do not have DID, this is, again, me repeating systems both in and out of the fandom. Also, again, lots of systems have different opinions about whether or not Sanders Sides is ableist towards systems.

I have a friend with DID who does not have Tumblr and is not in the fandom anymore who wants me to talk about this (this is also expressed in the tags of my reblog of my response to Thomas' apology).

I also have reblogged posts about this, but I couldn't find the ones I have reblogged that criticise this.

I recommend finding actual systems and their posts.

Sanders Sides closely resembles DID. Thomas talks about this in his video "Sanders Sides - BEHIND THE SCENES QNA" where he and Joan explains that they are not trying to represent DID, but a man and his singular (one) personality. Joan on their Tumblr made a post where they also talk about this (unable to find it, since their blog is deleted) and explained that they are trying to avoid using terms related to DID.

I know, for a fact, that thomas was going to make a video with systems to discuss DID and make sure to disconnect Sanders Sides from DID. This video was, obviously, never made. (I saw this being discussed in a discord by a system who was asked by Thomas to be in the video, but I am not a part of the discord anymore and I do not have this message.)

Still, it still resembles a system. People have express their discomfort with the sides having names for that reason. People have also expressed their discomfort with Thomas talking about the sides as if they are "real people" (unsure how to phrase this) since it makes it feel more like the sides being alters. For example, when Thomas made a tweet/instagram story where he stated "Logan has a new favourite book."

Here is a Youtube Video by The Entropy System that talks about Sanders Sides and DID

Here is a post by @/kiapet2 and my mutual @/aromanticpatton.

Here is a post by @/sticky7581

Flashing lights tagging

Thomas Sanders sucks as at tagging flashing lights. This is not an accidental, one-time thing. This is continous and has been a thing for years.

I need everyone to know that epilepsy and photosensitivity are serious. Seizures are serious and deadly. I have friends who have had seizures over his videos and I know fans who have bad seizures over his videos. Thomas Sanders and his team know that people have had seizures over his videos.

I have seen people say that he doesn't have to tag flashing and comparing it to trigger warnings. Trigger warnings are a different topic from flash warnings.

Thomas has struggled to tag flashing since 2018. This post by @/cisnesincorbata shows a timeline from 2018 to early 2021 of people sending asks to Thomas about it. I have also sent Thomas asks asking him to tag warnings, along with commenting it on his tweets.

Putting Others First was an episode that a lot of photosensitive people couldn't watch (I also know a lot of autistic people couldn't watch due to the noises and low hearing people couldn't understand Logan's voice). This video took almost a year to get a warning, and even then it is placed in the description, which is NOT a good place for a warning.

Thomas has gotten better at tagging, but this is still an issue that should be talked about. Forgetting is not a valid excuse when people's lives are on the line.

no TL;DR

Writing this post was the most difficult thing ever. If someone else wants to create a TL;DR, feel free, but I am currently out of spoons (look up spoon theory) and my aphasia is kicking my ass.

However, sometimes, things cannot have a TL;DR. Sometimes you have to take the time to read long ass things in order to understand. I acknowledge people have difficulty reading and comprehending things, especially if you are neurodivergent, but a lot of times this can be worked on. I am one of these people.

#i dont know what 2 tag this as . my brain stopped working #thomas sanders #i dont. really want 2 put this in the main tags but i will. i guess #sanders sides

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