#the media says don’t circulate the manifesto

[crazybagelbitch]

“manifesto” y’all have me crying

[aniy2k]

Riot Grrrl, Kinderwhore, and White Feminism

Riot Grrrl was an underground feminist movement that began in the early 90s. It was tied to the punk music scene, radical politics and DIY. It started originally with a Zine by Tobi Vai named Jigsaw in 1988 that expressed and spread radical politics and feminism. Vail later on decided to start a band by the name Bikini Kill. 

For most ‘Styles’, people don't even bother looking at the history of where it came from originally, so why is it important? 

While part of Alternative culture is Fashion and a way to express yourself that's against societal norms, there is alot of political significance that comes with it. When talking about it, Riot Grrrl tik tok creators, and other Alternative creators, say the political significance is based on what the subcultures are. Without that, you cannot be a part of the subculture. Obviously there are alot of conservatives in the scene (As you can see from the usage of lace code) Some complain and say that it's “gatekeeping”, but in my opinion, it's honestly… not. This isn’t the same as someone taking a popular music artist, then saying “You don't know this song? Ur fake lolz”.. This is separating mindsets that Alternative people strongly believe in and instead protecting a community that is supposed to be a safe place.

The Riot Grrrl movement provided a space where women in punk music tackled the conflict of inequality and sexism, and decided to fight it, united and organized.

Kathleen Hanna, Bikini Kills lead singer, ended up writing the “Riot Grrrl Manifesto” in 1991, which is a summary of what Riot Grrrl is and what it means to be a part of it. 

Summary: 

“ BECAUSE us girls crave records and books and fanzines that speak to US that WE feel included in and can understand in our own ways.

BECAUSE we wanna make it easier for girls to see/hear each other's work so that we can share strategies and criticize-applaud each other.

BECAUSE we must take over the means of production in order to create our own meanings.

BECAUSE viewing our work as being connected to our girlfriends-politics-real lives is essential if we are gonna figure out how we are doing impacts, reflects, perpetuates, or DISRUPTS the status quo.

BECAUSE we recognize fantasies of Instant Macho Gun Revolution as impractical lies meant to keep us simply dreaming instead of becoming our dreams AND THUS seek to create revolution in our own lives every single day by envisioning and creating alternatives to the bullshit christian capitalist way of doing things.

BECAUSE we are unwilling to let our real and valid anger be diffused and/or turned against us via the internalization of sexism as witnessed in girl/girl jealousy and self defeating girltype behaviors.

BECAUSE I believe with my wholeheartmindbody that girls constitute a revolutionary soul force that can, and will change the world for real.”

I’m not personally too much of a fan of how Kathleen Hannah ended up seeming like the regular ol’ white feminist that basically put WOC in the shadows within this whole movement. While this piece is about educating about the power that the Riot Grrrl scene had within punk culture, it has many many faults. The diversity within the scene isn’t there. It seemed to be a feminst movement, but only showcased one type of girl. White girls. 

Multiple black punks from that era came out and said that they felt that the riot grrrl scene wasn't for them. Honestly? I don’t blame them. You look up Riot Grrrl on pinterest or on tumblr, you can probably count on your one hand how many POC women are showcased.. This moment for women of color is probably the epitome of White feminism in some cases. Author, Gabby Bess, adds that “The history of Riot Grrrl is inevitably written as "predominately white," glossing over the contributions of black women and other women of color”.

Just like the article from VICE states, 

“In contrast to this ironclad narrative of the white Riot Grrrl, black women did participate in the movement. Few and far between, maybe, but they participated nonetheless, and they deserve more than to be swept under a rug of whiteness--These women carved their own feminist pathways into the hardcore scene, precisely because they were rendered invisible by the Riot Grrrl movement.”

One very powerful punk from that time, Ramdasha Bikceem, made up a whole Zine when they  were 15, that illustrates the conversation of race and gender in Riot Grrrl so perfectly 

This would all result in another black punk from that time, Tamar-Kali Brown, to make her own movement called “Sista Grrrl riot”. Out of all of the information that is circulated about the Riot Grrrl scene, Sista Grrrl Riot was probably one of its least talked about movements. Tamir-Kali Brown and her bandmates brought together a community and showed people a version of themselves on a stage where they weren’t represented.

> Kinderwhore 

Kinderwhore is a very popular style within the RiotGrrrl community. A lot of people Champion Hole lead singer, Courtney Love, for this style's popularity, but actually her bandmate Kat Bjelland introduced the style first. Though, with that being said, Courtney Love definitely made Kinderwhore one of many staple styles for the Riot Grrrl Subculture. 

What is Kinderwhore exactly? One thing about styles like this one is, there isn’t a specific definition to what it is. It was a bold, punk and sophisticated subversion of the classic "girl" stereotype, with a mini-feminine dress and bold makeup. The great part of the Kinderwhore Style is that it was about power. The power of femininity. It was so much more than just a style that included small dresses and mary janes. It was taking the most “fragile” feminine image and making it into something that is punk, and that takes all of the power back. 

Another part of Riot Grrrl fashion is just a subversion of regular punk fashion. DIY, big boots, Plaid, Skirts, Spikes. 

The idea of taking every inch of femininity that men manipulate and instead using it to make them realize that they can't handle what we are, is such a powerful thing to me as a fashion lover, but also as an aspiring social activist. As the rise of social media attention of Alternative Subcultures continues, I believe the next generation of Riot Grrls are going to kick butt and be more inclusive than the 90s scene was.

ani ok.

pls give me feedback and for those who obv have more education abt this pls give me feedback as well!! i think this is super interesting and enjoyed researching this <3

[beautybranding22]

Eighty One Beauty Branding Design

But greater than that, it revealed emerging beauty branding which are threatening the incumbents. Google has so nicely established its model identification, that its very name has become a verb meaning “to search.” Though its options have advanced and expanded, its focus has remained primarily unchanged. It organizes international info and had made it accessible and helpful to everyone.

If you select to manufacture at house, you’ll clearly have to ensure your workspace is completely sterile. While the zits vanished, some mild scarring remained, so I investigated more natural fixes and eventually landed on tamanu oil. Also boasting antibacterial and hydrating properties, this oil has been utilized by girls in Polynesia for generations to help not just with zits, but additionally scars.

The more you build a rapport with customers, the extra they trust you, and the more they’ll look to you when they’re able to spend. This focus on diversity has continued for the explanation that launch in a way that feels natural and unforced. Rather than adding a mannequin of colour to their materials after years of using white fashions, they began off using models of all skin tones and by no means stopped. Their website at all times features a number of fashions to get throughout that their products are made for, and look good on, everyone.

The company likes to put memes on Twitter and bounce onto social developments. Since their target demographic is younger, this media performs well with their customers. And not being afraid to jump on a pop-culture moment gives Fenty a noncorporate feel; at times, their Shorty Award-nominated social presence is extra like a friend’s account than a brand’s. Rather than coming off as unprofessional, this video is a really deliberate choice.

Jasmine Garnsworthy is a freelance author with over eight years of experience. She's additionally the founder of fresh skincare brand, The Buff. You can see what your product will seem like with your personal artwork. I received my products, I tried them AND I nonetheless love them. I can't say sufficient nice things about ONOXA, significantly.

Without a model identity, you can’t transfer ahead along with your beauty packaging brand. Each of the three B’s builds off the other—and all three are should have’s if you'll like your cosmetics brand to thrive. Fenty, owned by Rihanna, launched simply 4 years ago with an entirely digital campaign that centered heavily on Instagram and influencer content material.

So, if you’re creating a skincare line for males, perhaps your differentiator is that your products are easy to make use of and don’t have harsh scents, whereas your mission is to make skincare more accessible to males. Or, if your company is on a mission to provide again, your differentiator is the way you make that happen. So your model identity is the collateral you utilize for branding, which is how you create your brand. Now that we’ve established that, we can start to lay the groundwork for a robust beauty model.

There’s no question that content advertising is one of the finest ways to engage your current customers and attract new ones. The rule of thumb with content marketing is to submit 4 pieces of content material that are purely entertaining or info for every one direct name to motion. This ratio ensures that prospects feel valued always. Nobody follows an organization on social media hoping to be bombarded with an endless string of sales pitches.

This good positioning helped Fenty’s sales skyrocket. After Fenty launched, their deep shades offered out across the country, and shoppers took to social media to share their pleasure at discovering foundations that matched their skin tone. We don’t just promote beauty, we sell goals, happiness, hopes, confidence or happy-go-lucky spirits. It’s a distillation of what your audience aspires to be. The colors, typeface, voice, product, packaging, and imagery must convey that aspiration and show them how to get there.

But don’t just quietly add in a product or service—celebrate the folks you are serving, and make them really feel welcomed by your brand. Consumers are looking to buy from brands whose values align with their own, now more than ever before, but few shoppers are going out of their way to learn model manifestos. The greatest approach to get your core model values throughout is to market them, and that’s precisely what Fenty has done since their 2017 launch. But while Fenty is priced as a luxury brand, they nonetheless aren’t as costly as lots of the different manufacturers selling a giant quantity of shades.

A large seventy p.c of Glossier’s on-line sales come from peer referrals. They anticipate a seamless transition between net and device-native purposes through colour, circulate, and overall quality. Unattractive and attractive packaging result in less exercise in areas of the mind answerable for reflective thought than impartial packaging. Glossieris an excellent instance of a brand that’s taken buyer input and turned it into a aggressive benefit. Design considering feels like it’s meant solely for creative thinkers, but anyone can take advantage of its straightforward process. Rich in natural Vitamin C to encourage your skin to provide natural Collagen.

For example, if you’re launching an all-natural line of products, you would possibly want to incorporate green, which individuals affiliate with nature. If you’re launching a line of prestige merchandise, you would possibly work purple into your shade palette, which is often associated with luxurious or royalty. Think of the mission assertion as the “why” behind your small business. For instance, possibly you’re decided to boost the standard for eco-conscious manufacturing and packaging within the cosmetics trade with your line of all-natural products. Funkhaus is a digital inventive company working at the intersection of design, content, programming, and technique.

The very first thing that the majority girls need when they go looking for beauty merchandise is a sense of magnificence and allure. They purchase make-up, perfume, and other beauty objects as a outcome of they want to be ok with the method in which they look. In some instances, they could even be involved about issues like natural elements, or playfulness and enjoyable. You need any influencer partnerships to push your brand forward—and a lot of that has to do with schooling.

With a mix of name strategy, visible identification, inventive and artwork path, we concentrate on holistic design solutions for magnificence that pinpoint the emotional narrative and craft compelling visible varieties. I’m forty two so I know my customers will recognize every product from Onoxa that I plan to launch March 1st! I had many companies to select from to start my skincare line however I’m so glad that I selected Onoxa to associate with. The Perfect 10 Oil Cleanser it removes makeup without leaving pores and skin dry and without moisture. Love the customer service shown by the Florida team and love that I’m able to create my own label.

A consulting retainer allows us to precisely pick up the place you and your team have left off. These are only a few concepts that may allow you to benefit from your content marketing. Beauty merchandise are massive enterprise, however you possibly can afford to be playful and private along with your advertising. 3) Create a detailed buyer personal that can assist you formulate a advertising technique. Marketing a beauty company requires some cautious planning and ingenuity.

Though they usually have smaller follower counts, their audiences are more hyper-focused and focused. Your branding is how you shape and bring your model to life. Your brand is the perception of your company that exists on the earth. If shoppers are buying based on their morals, make certain they know what your brand values are. Don’t cover them on a webpage no one visits; use them to underscore your advertising, your website copy, and everything else that comes from your model, implicitly and explicitly. On their other social platforms, Fenty speaks the language of their customers.

Once, the services or products that a company produced was the sole focus of consideration when it got here to competitors for finest model identity. But on this age of digital branding, it is shopper expertise that’s the primary battleground for winning buyer loyalty. MSLK, a design company for beauty manufacturers, understands the significance of a brand’s picture and its capability to build consumer loyalty and achieve business recognition. Our agency has experience in working with every aspect of the sweetness business from preliminary product growth, to strategic branding, to distribution, to retail and sales.

Your brand is the notion of your organization out there on the planet. In order to succeed, you want to break through the litter, grab your best customer’s consideration and present them why your product is the one they want. Connect with them on Dribbble; the global group for designers and inventive professionals.

The brand leverages social media influencers to build engagement. It has shifted extra of its media spending to online channels lately. L’Oréal has had nice success on Twitter with its #POWERON marketing campaign, an omnichannel women’s empowerment marketing campaign.

A model must create a well-defined path to shoppers with a relationship-building function. It's impossible to construct a successful brand that serves everybody. However, it’s in the most effective interest of each business to increase their brand’s attraction as far as potential to maximize revenue. Not only are they gaining valuable press for a product that hasn’t been introduced yet, but they’re also letting customers feel like a half of the method while having enjoyable at the identical time. An simply acknowledged magnificence brand benefits from exposure alone.

We’ll never budge on that,” they defined to me over the phone. To function legally, you will need to register your small business and secure enterprise insurance. Wright recommends finding an account and a lawyer early on to assist you navigate these items (there’s only so much accurate info obtainable on the internet, folks). If you’re on a finances proper now, reasonably priced platforms like LegalZoom also make it simpler to set every little thing up on-line in just a matter of minutes.

MSLK works with magnificence brands of all styles and sizes. Over the previous 20 years we've helped manufacturers grow from the bottom up, launch line extensions, rediscover their voice in a crowded market, and create totally new product categories. 3) Offer a free giveaway of a new product on your social media accounts. You can create a fun video or infographic and get people to share it in return for an entry in the contest. A magnificence firm emblem should attraction to a woman’s sense of shallowness. You should use it in all your branded material, including your website.

[ameliablues]

It’s Fake!

Technologies, you can see them everywhere and anywhere, from our homes to the outside environment that we live in, it is also being used in our everyday life. The advance technologies that we are using can be beneficial to us in positive and negative way. Yes, it is a great help for us in our daily life if we know when to use it and when to not.

 One of the advance technology that is greatly used and enjoy by the society today is the social media platform. Pictures, videos, and news, these are the things that we usually see on the different social platforms, that can give us positive and negative impact.

 Today because of the pandemic, people get there information’s about the world online and sometime we cannot avoid coming across news that we thought are factual but as it turn out, it actually is a fake news. Here are some of the fake news for Politics, Entertainment, Sports, Academe and Medical Field that made the Philippine’s online news.

Ferdinand Marcos Appeared in 1983 world Leader’s Meeting in Canada.

Duterter confirms Bongbong Marcos elected as Vice Presedent.

Congressman Marcoleta files complaints againts Justice Leonen.

The nature of the Philippine Politics is toxic where almost everyone wants to be involved, may it be the people or the even the politician themselves.  Every Politicians move are being watch and are being criticized by the people.

Liza Soberano to represent the Philippines in 70th Miss Universe.

Joy Belmonte ensures Angel Locsin will pay for community pantry mishap.

GMA News Staff accepts money from Angel Locsin.

Photo of Philippine Flag used as table cloth in SEA Games 2019

Food at the Sea Games 

Sea Games Venue 2019 CR.

Voluntary ROTC Implemented during President Cory Aquino’s Term.

San Beda Law Alumni’s Manifesto of support calls Pacquiao arrogant.

DepED announce Grade 13.

Covid-19 mRNA Vaccine cause infertility.

Anti-hypertensive medication increase risk for Covid-19.

Senate promotes Ivermectin as Covid-19 treatment.

Due to the situation of the world today, the Covid-19 Pandemic, many speculations about the vaccine and the treatment for the virus are surfacing. The Economy and Academe of the country is greatly affected making everyone adjust to the new normal that is being impost in the country. People cannot avoid panicking and are desperate leading  them to believe all or most of the things that they see and read online. The downside of this is that, even though the information’s they see or read are not scientifically proven they tend to believe and relay on it still.

 As a citizen of this country, we should be aware of what is happening to our environment and given the technology that we have today there are many ways for us to access news and events and one of them is through the internet (online).  However, because of these technologies unrealistic (fake) news are rampant on social media. Don’t allow yourself to be taken by those fake news that are circulating on social media. Learn to distinguish and identify the factual news and fake news. As what we Filipino’s say “ Wag kang Patula” that you believe everything you see and hear.

[argyrocratie]

The casino-capitalist simulation of labour society

The predominant social awareness deceives itself systematically about the actual state of the labour society: Collapsing regions are excommunicated ideologically, labour market statistics are distorted unscrupulously, and forms of impoverishment are simulated away by the media. Simulation is the central feature of crisis capitalism anyway. This is also true for the economy itself.

If – at least in the countries at the heart of the Western world – it seems that capital accumulation is possible without labour employed and that money as a pure form is able to guarantee the further valorisation of value out of itself, such appearance is owing to the simulation process going on at financial markets. As a mirror image of labour simulation by means of coercive measures imposed by the labour administration authorities, a simulation of capital valorisation developed from the speculative uncoupling of the credit system and equity market from the actual economy.

Present-time labour employed is replaced by the tapping of future-time labour that will never be employed in reality – capital accumulation taking place in some fictitious future so to speak. Monetary capital that no longer can profitably be reinvested in active assets, and is therefore unable to consume labour, has increasingly to resort to financial markets.

Even the Fordistic boom of capital valorisation in the heydays of the so-called “economic miracle” after World War II was not entirely self-sustaining. As it was impossible to finance the basic preconditions of labour society otherwise, the state turned to deficit spending to an unprecedented extent. The credit volume raised exceeded revenue from taxation by far. This means that the state pledged its future actual revenue as a collateral security. On the one hand, this way an investment opportunity for “superfluous” moneyed capital was created; it was lent to the state on interest. The state settled interest payment by raising fresh credit, thereby funnelling back the borrowed money into economic circulation.

On the other hand, this implies that social security expenditure and public spending on infrastructure was financed by way of credit. Hence, in terms of capitalist logic, an “artificial” demand was created which was not covered by productive labour power expenditure. By tapping its own future, the labour society prolonged the lifetime of the Fordistic boom beyond its actual span.

This simulative element, being in operation even in times of a seemingly intact valorisation process, came up against limiting factors in line with the amount of indebtedness of the state. “Public debt crisis” in the capitalist centres as well as in Third World countries put an end to the stimulation of economic growth by means of deficit spending and laid the foundation for the triumphant advance of neo-liberal deregulation policies. According to the liberal ideology, deregulation can only be effected in line with a sweeping reduction of the public-sector share in national product. In reality costs and expenses arising from crisis management, whether it is government spending on the repression apparatus or national expenditure for the maintenance of the simulation machinery, do compensate cost saving from deregulation and the reduction of state functions. In many states, the public-sector share even expanded as a result.

However, it was not possible to simulate the further accumulation of capital by means of deficit spending any longer. Consequently, in the eighties of last century, the additional creation of fictitious capital shifted to the equity market. No longer dividend, the share in real profit, is a matter of concern; rather it is stock price gains, the speculative increase in value of the legal title up to an astronomical magnitude, which counts. The ratio of real economy to speculative price movements turned upside down. The speculative price advance no longer anticipates real economic expansion but conversely, the bull market of fictitious net profit generation simulates a real accumulation that no longer exists.

Clinically dead, the labour idol is kept breathing artificially by means of a seemingly self-induced expansion of financial markets. Industrial corporations show profits that don’t come from operating income, i.e. the production and sale of goods – a loss-making branch of business for a long time – but from the “clever” speculation of their financial departments in stocks and currency. The revenue items shown in the budgets of public authorities are not yielded by taxation or public borrowing, but by the keen participation of fiscal administrations in the financial gambling markets. Families and one-person households whose real income from wages or salaries is dropping dramatically, keep to their spending spree habit by using stocks and prospective price gains as a collateral for consumer credits. Once again, a new form of artificial demand is created resulting in production and revenue “built upon sandy ground”.

The speculative process is a dilatory tactic to defer the global economic crisis. As the fictitious increase in the value of legal titles is only the anticipation of future labour employed (to an astronomical magnitude) that will never be employed, the lid will be taken off the objectified swindle after a certain time of incubation. The breakdown of the “emerging markets” in Asia, Latin America, and Eastern Europe was just a first foretaste. It is only a question of time until the financial markets of the capitalist centres in the US, the EU (European Union) and Japan will collapse.

These interrelations are completely distorted by the fetish-awareness of the labour society, inclusive of traditional left-wing and right-wing “critics of capitalism”. Fixated on the labour phantom, which was ennobled to be the transhistorical and positive precondition of human existence, they systematically confuse cause and effect. The speculative expansion of financial markets, which is the cause for the temporary deferment of crisis, is then just the other way around, detected to be the cause of the crisis. The “evil speculators”, they say more or less panic-stricken, will ruin the absolutely wonderful labour society by gambling away “good” money of which they have more than enough just for kicks, instead of bravely investing it in marvellous “jobs” so that a labour maniac humanity may enjoy “full employment” self-indulgently.

It is beyond them that it is by no means speculation that brought investment in real economy to a standstill, but that such investment became unprofitable as a result of the 3rd industrial revolution. The speculative take off of share prices is just a symptom of the inner dynamics. Even according to capitalist logic, this money, seemingly circulating in ever-increasing loads, is not “good” money any longer but rather “hot air” inflating the speculative bubble. Any attempt to tap this bubble by means of whatsoever tax (Tobin-tax, etc.) to divert money flows to the ostensibly “correct” and real social treadmills will most probably bring about the sudden burst of the bubble.

Instead of realising that we all become inexorably unprofitable and therefore the criterion of profitability itself, together with the immanent foundations of labour society, should be attacked as being obsolete, one indulges in demonising the “speculators”. Right-wing extremists, left-wing “subversive elements”, worthy trade unionists, Keynesian nostalgics, social theologians, TV hosts, and all the other apostles of “honest” labour unanimously cultivate such a cheap concept of an enemy. Very few of them are aware of the fact that it is only a small step from such reasoning to the re-mobilisation of the anti-Semitic paranoia. To invoke the “creative power” of national-blooded non-monetary capital to fight the “money-amassing“”Jewish-international monetary capital threatens to be the ultimate creed of the intellectually dissolute left; as it has always been the creed of the racist, anti-Semitic, and anti-American “job-creation-scheme” right.

— Manifesto against Labour by Krisis-Group (1999)

[themurphyzone]

Oneshot: Make Believe

Summary: When actors from Darkwing Duck go missing, Drake Mallard and Launchpad are beyond ecstatic to finally have a case that doesn’t just involve stopping a Beagle Boy from purse-snatching. But hero work always leads to a dangerous truth. 

Drake Mallard flopped onto his bed with a splitting headache. He’d spent two hours on a stakeout and the only action he had was just another Beagle Boy purse-snatching. That old lady should’ve been grateful, but she screamed about killer shadows returning and smacked him in the head with her purse. 

He groaned and reached for a bottle of painkillers. Seriously, what did she keep in that thing anyway? 

Rocks, bricks, and medieval torture devices? 

He’d only taken up the mantle a few weeks ago. Drake knew he shouldn’t expect results right away, but he figured there would at least be a journalist or two seeking a new and fresh story. 

He was still an unknown figure in Duckburg, so he had to brainstorm ways to boost his public image. Business transactions at McDuck Enterprises, failed revenge schemes at Glomgold Industries, and Gizmoduck dominated the local Duckburg news. He needed to take a case that would supersede all three of those things, something that would circulate through the major networks and social media alike for weeks. 

Roxanne Featherly criticized everybody she reported on, but Drake was willing to tackle negative publicity. If he could prove his own bullies wrong as a duckling, he could certainly shatter expectations all over again. 

And maybe, just maybe, he could inspire a kid to triumph against the world. 

He could be a hero. 

A sudden rumble shook the foundations of his apartment, and Drake instantly went on alert. 

“Who’s there?” he called, throwing open the door to his bedroom. “I’ll have you know, I was top of the class in Quack Fu! Beware my fists of fury, thieve!” 

But the living room only contained a couch, a TV, a table, the front half of a limousine sticking out of the wall-

“If you’re trying to kidnap me, you’re doing a very poor job! And I definitely don’t appreciate your pitiful attempt at redecoration!” Drake shouted, his fists raised in a basic defensive position. 

“AH! THERE’S A KIDNAPPER IN HERE?” someone screeched. 

“Aha! So you admit your motive!” Drake exclaimed triumphantly. In the darkness, he could only make out vague shapes. But there was a tall, muscular someone in front of him. That was an undeniable fact.  

“Have at you, fiend!” Drake yelled, rushing at the tall, blobby shape and knocking it down. He drew his fist back, but his attacker’s hat fell off, revealing bright red hair that no darkness could ever hide. 

“THE KIDNAPPER’S GOT ME! HE’S GONNA SACRIFICE ME TO THE MOLE MONSTERS!” 

“Wait, Launchpad?” Drake asked, lowering his fist. He knew that voice. He never would’ve tried the hero gig for real without it. 

“HE KNOWS MY NAME! NOW HE CAN MIND CONTROL ME WITH A MAGICAL AMULET!” 

Drake scrambled off Launchpad and turned on the lights. “Launchpad, we’re the only ones in here. There’s no kidnapper.” 

Launchpad sat up, scratching his head as he surveyed the living room, his eyes falling on the damaged wall and limo. He chuckled, scratching the back of his head sheepishly. “Oops, guess I’d better let Mr. McDee know about this. He’s not gonna like it though...so, how are you?” 

He popped the question like they just randomly saw each other in the grocery store. 

“Disregarding the whole kidnapping and crashed limo thing? I’ve been better, I guess,” Drake shrugged. “Mostly I was just hoping I could stop something bigger than a Beagle Boy purse-snatching.” 

“Stopping a theft is good,” Launchpad said earnestly. “Stealing is wrong.” 

Drake knew Launchpad was right, though sometimes the childlike honesty was a little uncomfortable. 

“I saved the purse without too much trouble, but I was smacked in the head by its owner,” Drake said. 

“Gee, that’s too bad,” Launchpad winced. “It hurts just thinking about it.” 

“Yup,” Drake sighed. He turned on the TV, quickly flipping to the news when the screen displayed a rerun of Darkwing Duck. 

Launchpad didn’t protest or comment on the switch. The circumstances under Jim Starling’s disappearance were too fresh on their minds. Through some unspoken agreement, they refused to consider the possibility of their idol’s death. 

Jim Starling. 

Drake didn’t know how to feel about him anymore. On one hand, Starling saved their lives. But on the other, Drake and Launchpad’s lives wouldn’t have needed saving if Starling hadn’t set the studio ablaze with his jealousy-induced rage. 

Drake thought he’d honored Starling by accepting the role in Boorswan’s rather...unique vision. 

But Starling just considered him a knock-off replacement. 

“Hey, Launchpad,” Drake said quietly. Launchpad’s gaze tore away from a clip of Gizmoduck accidentally beaning Roxanne Featherly with a lemon meringue pie during an interview. “You told me to honor Jim by taking up Darkwing Duck. How do you know I’m just not replacing him?”

“Cause you aren’t,” Launchpad insisted. “Let’s say you and Jim are both pilots instead of actors and you’re both working under this really important guy. Then Jim goes missing for a decade and during that time the important guy hires you to pilot him around. Then Jim comes back, you wanna meet him, then he yells in your face in a houseboat and storms off. Get the picture?”

Drake forced a smile. “Uh, yeah! Oddly specific analogies really help me get the picture. Thanks.”

Launchpad clapped him on the back so hard that Drake nearly fell off the couch. “No problemo,” he said, his attention returning to the TV. “Huh, they got a missing person case going on.” 

Drake leapt to his feet. “A missing person case?” he exclaimed, suddenly feeling wide awake. He quickly turned up the volume. 

“-actor-turned-salesman Jack Russell has been reported missing. He was last seen walking by the water cooler factory in the industrial district. The investigation is still pending.” 

A picture of Jack Russell flashed onscreen. The dog’s hair and muzzle had long turned gray, but there was no mistaking those long, floppy ears and enormous nose. 

“Is that-” Drake gasped. 

“The actor who used his background as a salesman to deliver rapid-fire marketing-based threats as the Liquidator!” Launchpad exclaimed. “Man, that’s too bad. Vanished into thin air like Jim.” 

“Like Jim,” Drake agreed. “You don’t suppose there could be a-” 

“-suspicious connection behind the disappearances!” Launchpad and Drake finished together. 

“Now that we’ve established that particular possibility, let’s head to the industrial district, partner!” Drake exclaimed. 

“Partner?” Launchpad gasped. He bounced up and down uncontrollably. 

“Sidekick doesn’t have the same ring to it,” Drake admitted. “You get the limo outta the wall, I’ll get into my costume, and together we’ll solve this mystifying mystery perpetuated by the machinations of the malicious criminal mind!” 

Launchpad’s jaw dropped open. “You’re really good at that alliteration thing!” 

Drake grinned as he disappeared into his bedroom. “Don’t wanna boast, but I was one of the best drama students in my school!” he called over his shoulder as he donned his Darkwing Duck costume for the second time that night. 

“Duckburg. A peaceful, quiet night. The moon and stars shine over the empty streets, not a soul to be seen. Yet not all are slumbering peacefully in their homes, for villains lurk somewhere in the shadows. For he is the terror that flaps in the night, the typo in the villain’s manifesto, he is Darkwing Duck!” 

The limo swerved to the side, the front bumper clipping a stop sign. Darkwing yelped and grabbed the seat with both hands, wishing he hadn’t ignored his agent’s suggestion of creating a will. 

“Great monologue!” Launchpad said, still applauding. 

“Uh, Launchpad...if you don’t mind, WE ARE ABOUT TO CRASH INTO THE BRIDGE!” 

Darkwing covered his eyes in preparation for the inevitable.

“Love the dramatic flair, especially when you say-oh no, the bridge!” 

Darkwing smacked his bill against the glove compartment as the limo’s front slammed against the concrete support beam of the bridge. His seat belt was the only thing that saved him from being flung out the window. 

Shaking his head to get rid of the dizziness, Darkwing grappled for the door latch and stumbled out, clinging to a telephone pole for support while his heart rate slowed to a less dangerous hypertensive level. 

“Oops,” Launchpad grinned sheepishly. “At least we’re at the factory now. So are you going to use your superior sleuthing abilities to catch the crook?” 

Finally recovering from his near-death experience, Darkwing straightened up. “There’s no guarantee we’ll catch the crook now, partner. But there could be some kind of clue. Signs of a struggle, a form of identification, something.” 

Launchpad tsked. “It’ll be awful hard to find a clue with all this litter lying around.” He scooped up an armful of discarded advertisements. “There a trash can around here?” 

Something small and rectangular slid out of Launchpad’s arms, landing face-up at Darkwing’s feet. A duck’s head was emblazoned across what Darkwing initially assumed to be a business card. 

But business cards didn’t normally depict masked, malicious-looking ducks. Darkwing scrutinized the card, even using a magnifying glass in case the words were written in very fine, small print. But there was no name, no address, no telephone number. 

There was nothing written on the back either. 

“Launchpad, we found a calling card,” Darkwing said as the taller duck returned from dumping the advertisements into a trash can. “I have a theory that it was purposely planted by the perpetrator.” 

Launchpad only looked at the card for ten seconds before pulling away, his shoulders hunched and his eyes uneasy. “He looks kinda like you.” 

“Well, I can see it in the beak and face, but my hat is way more stylish. Who wants to go around wearing a ragged stop sign on their heads?” Darkwing said, deliberately turning the card face-down. 

He didn’t want to look at the card for longer than necessary. Something about that smile with sharp, yellowed teeth made him nervous. He ran a hand through his cheek feathers, praying they weren’t as ragged as the picture on the card. 

“You alright, DW?” Launchpad asked. 

“I’m fine. This lead is a bust though. We should find a-wait, DW?” Darkwing asked, the nickname halting millions of questions that were currently running through his head. 

Launchpad nodded. “I want to call you something too. I mean, I know the show usually called him ‘the Darkwing’ or ‘the Masked Mallard’ or something but I can come up with something else if you want. I got it! I’ll call you the Purple Pimperbill!” 

DW didn’t have a bad ring to it. But mostly he wasn’t keen on being saddled with the second suggestion. 

“DW sounds great, LP,” Darkwing said. 

“Darkwing Duck gave me a nickname,” Launchpad breathed, collapsing in a dead faint. 

While waiting for Launchpad to wake up, Darkwing flicked through the local news on his phone. 

So far, the police had discovered nothing. It seemed like everyone was banking on Gizmoduck to rescue Jack Russell. Well, almost everyone. Roxanne Featherly was adamant that the police could handle it and Gizmoduck should keep his oversized wheel out of the way. 

For once, Darkwing was inclined to agree with her. Gizmoduck just didn’t seem like the investigating type to him. 

Another headline popped up. 

BREAKING NEWS: ESTEEMED UNIVERSITY OF DUCKBURG PROFESSOR DR. TINO CHICKPEA KIDNAPPED IN BIOLOGY LAB. CLICK TO SEE SECURITY FOOTAGE. 

Tino Chickpea. Bushroot’s actor, Darkwing recalled. His love for plants wasn’t just a trait made up by the show.

Launchpad coughed, finally coming back to the conscious world.

“Glad to see you awake,” Darkwing said, practically shoving his phone in Launchpad’s face. “We have a video lead now! Whoever our kidnapper is, he’s not smart enough to avoid getting caught on camera!”

He played the video.

The security feed didn’t have audio, but Darkwing could practically hear Dr. Chickpea gently encourage his budding sunflowers. As the professor measured water in a beaker, shards of glass scattered across the floor. A caped figure stalked towards Dr. Chickpea, who didn’t appear to notice the intruder until the very last second. His beak went wide, but the intruder knocked him out with a single blow to the head.

Launchpad rubbed his own head as if he could feel the migraine that sort of attack would inevitably cause.

The intruder slung Dr. Chickpea over his shoulder like a dead weight, then lingered by the desk for several seconds as he removed something from his pocket and shut it inside a drawer. 

With a flourish of his black cape, the intruder faced the security camera. 

Black mask. Ragged, crimson hat. Messy feathers. 

Darkwing compared the face on the card to the criminal in the video. It was a perfect match.  

The intruder laughed directly into the security camera lens. Though Darkwing couldn’t hear it, he was pretty sure living bodies weren’t supposed to contort like that. 

Finally, the intruder sauntered offscreen with Dr. Chickpea in tow. 

The video was over. 

“He left the calling card here, Launchpad,” Darkwing said, pushing down the uneasy feeling in his stomach. “And deliberately planted evidence among Dr. Chickpea’s beloved plants.” 

“I thought he put it in a drawer,” Launchpad said. 

“They’re in the same room. It still counts,” Darkwing replied. He struck a heroic, confident pose to rid himself of his previous misgivings. A kidnapper that had successfully nabbed two former Darkwing Duck actors was running rampant and needed to be stopped after all. “We should get to that bio lab. To the limo, partner! We’re going to the University of Duckburg!” 

“Alright! I haven’t been to that place since I accidentally crashed the Sunchaser into the field by the Fine Arts building!” Launchpad exclaimed. 

It normally took half an hour to reach the university from the industrial district, but Launchpad’s driving shortened the journey by fifteen minutes. Though Darkwing held a great preference to not bumping into curbs with every turn of the wheel, he had to admit that Launchpad saved plenty of time. 

As Launchpad pulled into an alley to avoid parking next to the police cars surrounding the street in front of the university, Darkwing searched for a layout of the campus online. He found a color-coded map that would suit their purposes tonight. 

Much to his surprise, the biology building wasn’t far from the giant archway in front of them that marked the university’s entrance. That would greatly simplify the investigation. 

Now it was just a matter of sneaking past the police officers. 

“Here’s the plan, LP,” Darkwing said, snapping his fingers in front of Launchpad’s face when his expression glazed over from the nickname. “We’ll work on your fainting habit after this case is wrapped up, but our main priority is getting past those officers.” 

“Or we could just ask them for information,” Launchpad said. 

Darkwing shook his head. “While that would be our simplest option, I’m not a recognizable public figure yet. They’d probably just mistake us for costumed partygoers.” 

“Too bad you’re not Gizmoduck levels of recognizable yet, huh?” Launchpad asked. 

“And what does that mechanical menace have that I don’t?” Darkwing muttered, painfully aware of how Gizmoduck content had a tendency to circulate around social media. Sure, most of the videos consisted of suit malfunctions, but the recognition levels were the part that counted. 

Launchpad pointed to the university. “The police’s attention for one thing.”

“Huh?” Darkwing peeked out of the alley, concealing his beak with his cape so the bright color didn’t give away their hiding place. 

Sure, Gizmoduck was the self-proclaimed superhero of Duckburg and finding a kidnapper naturally came with the territory, but that didn’t mean Darkwing was pleased to see him. The mechanical menace’s beak flapped multiple times as if he was speaking a mile a minute. Several of the officers held pens and paper out, which Gizmoduck quickly signed before trying to get back on topic. 

One of the officers pinched the edge of Gizmoduck’s beak and gently shook it, much to his embarrassment. 

Darkwing didn’t like Gizmoduck, but he knew this was their best opportunity to sneak past the officers. 

And seeing Gizmoduck being treated like a little boy was comedy gold. Too bad his phone camera didn’t capture videos from this distance. 

Darkwing and Launchpad crept out of the alley, ducking behind a police car for cover. 

“M’maaa...ma’am I must ask that you focus on the question please,” Gizmoduck declared. “Did the kidnapper leave any fingerprints or other forms of evidence behind?”

“Are you sure you aren’t wearing yourself thin?” a brown-feathered officer asked. She looked torn between wanting to hug Gizmoduck and maintaining a certain professional distance. 

“He doesn’t look good,” Launchpad whispered. 

“How can you tell? You can’t even see his expression,” Darkwing said. 

Launchpad shrugged. “He’s been busy lately. Hasn’t been around his lab much either.”

Darkwing blinked at him. Launchpad was more well-connected than he realized. 

“As fascinating as Gizmoduck’s personal life is, we should really be going,” Darkwing said. 

After a quick check to make sure Gizmoduck and the officers hadn’t spotted them, Darkwing and Launchpad made their way across the street and ducked behind a thick bush before finally sprinting to the archway, where a support column blocked them from the officers’ line of sight. 

“Oh man, that was awesome!” Launchpad exclaimed. “Only thing we need is a musical accompaniment!” 

“Smooth jazz on saxophone would’ve been so perfect,” Darkwing said. “I’m definitely the saxophone type. Smooth, classy, magnetic.” 

“Yeah, I can see that,” Launchpad said. “What kind of instrument do you think I’d have?” 

Darkwing thought for a moment. “Cymbals. Or some kind of percussion. I don’t know, cymbals crash, you crash, I think it fits.” 

“We should put wheels on cymbals,” Launchpad mused. “Then you’d get twice the crashiness.” 

They headed to the biology building, which had a helpful ‘Biology Hall’ label attached to the doorway. Darkwing stopped Launchpad before he could enter.

“Let’s look around the perimeter first,” Darkwing said. “There was shattered glass in that security footage, so there’s likely a broken window used as a point of entry.” 

Launchpad nodded. “Exactly like the thirtieth episode!” 

“Yes, precisely,” Darkwing agreed. “And once we’ve located the broken window, it’s a simple matter of finding whatever the kidnapper left behind!” 

“Let’s do this!” Launchpad exclaimed as they rounded the corner. 

“That’s the spirit!” Darkwing shouted. 

Turned out there were a lot of broken windows. 

“Maybe I should look into the next few labs,” Launchpad said. “Your feet aren’t looking so good.”

Launchpad’s feet were covered so the glass shards didn’t affect him much, but Darkwing wished he had the foresight to bring boots along.

“Working through the pain!” Darkwing grunted, though every step felt like a million pins were digging deeply into his lacerated feet. “Just give me a few minutes and I’ll be fine. Boost me into that window on the end! I have a feeling this could be it!” 

Launchpad bent over, allowing Darkwing to climb onto his back and reach the last window. The glass had been entirely knocked out of the pane, the sparkling shards scattered all over the lab. Darkwing pushed off the wall with his hands, heaving his lower body through the window. 

Darkwing dusted himself off, then helped Launchpad through the window. 

“Whoa,” Launchpad said in awe. “Tino Chickpea sure loved his plants.” 

It looked as though the professor had turned his lab into a miniature greenhouse. Shrubs and saplings lined the entire back wall, while flowerpots rested on the tables. The cabinets were full of fertilizer, seeds, and water. 

The artificial sunlight lamps hanging above the flora made it possible to see without the use of a flashlight. 

Darkwing avoided the shards as best he could, though he was pretty sure the smaller crystals were still burrowing their way into his foot. There was a desk in the middle of the room, directly in the line of the security camera. A sink had been built into it, the kind that students normally used in science labs. 

A shattered beaker laid on the floor, the glass surrounded by a puddle of water. 

“Aha! So this is the lab where Dr. Chickpea was unceremoniously abducted by our avaricious avian,” Darkwing said, heading straight to the drawer where the kidnapper had purposely left something behind. 

The middle drawer contained a black recording device. 

They were trying to leave a message. 

“That’s weird. I thought criminals wanted to get away with their misdeeds,” Launchpad said. 

“So did I,” Darkwing admitted. 

Instead of keeping his kidnappings under the radar, it seemed as though the masked villain enjoyed being in the open. 

Darkwing hit the play button, hoping the tape would explain some sort of motive behind the kidnappings. 

A guttural sound came out of the recording device, followed by harsh, gravelly laughter. Darkwing tried to turn the volume down, but the laughter only seemed to get louder. 

“I am the screeching fingernail on the chalkboard of justice! I am the devastating blight on the potato field of peace and goodwill! I AM NEGADUCK!” 

Darkwing and Launchpad backed up from the recording device as if it had been possessed by the devil himself. 

The voice spat out every good value as if they were nothing more than a disgusting, grimy stain in a twisted perversion of Darkwing Duck’s triumphant introduction.

“Hello, Dipwing Dork. We haven’t been properly introduced, have we?” the voice crooned, every word oozing like deadly, acidic honey. “But I’ve been watching you, and you think you’re oh-so-noble letting my...no, your lackey feel like he’s helping. Newsflash, dimwit. He belongs to me. You stole him. I’ll take him from you. I’ll take everything from you that you stole from me!”

“I didn’t steal anything from this...Negaduck guy,” Darkwing said, picking up the recording device. He’d heard enough. He prepared to throw it out the window, but a tingle ran up his arm and evolved into a painful shock that made him drop the device on his foot. 

“Nuh-uh-uh. I’m not finished yet. Just one last order of business. I have two actors. You may have noticed something they share in common. And like any collector, I’m not satisfied until I have them all. Maybe I can even score a few...exclusives. Oh, I believe I mentioned this device was set to self-destruct once the recording’s done?” 

Launchpad barely managed to grab Drake and take cover behind the desk in time as the device exploded, creating a huge hole where the window used to be. Thankfully, Dr. Chickpea’s plants were unscathed. 

“I’ve never heard of him,” Launchpad said. 

And Launchpad regularly associated with a family who faced down practically every type of villain in existence. 

“A newcomer to the scene then,” Darkwing said, struggling to his feet. The pain was flaring up again, but he ignored it. “Jack Russell and Tino Chickpea played two members of the Fearsome Four. Negaduck’s going after the last two. We have no choice but to emerge victorious against this vile villain.” 

“Dan Rattigan and Michael Bill,” Launchpad supplied. “The actors for Megavolt and Quackerjack. They run a toy store downtown. Been there a few times with the triplets. They’re a big help when I faint in there.” 

“Given the current time, it’s more likely they’re at home,” Darkwing said. “And unless a headline breaks about them being kidnapped, we have no way to reach them.” 

“Actually, they’d be in the toy store tonight,” Launchpad said, pulling up a picture of a video game console on his phone. “It’s the midnight release of the Gigashark X. It’s been superhyped up lately. Louie’s been trying to get Mr. McDee to buy him one, but Mr. McDee isn’t budging.” 

Darkwing checked the recent news on his phone, but there was nothing to indicate that Dan Rattigan and Michael Bill had been kidnapped. 

Since Negaduck was deliberately leaving evidence of his criminal activity behind, he probably wouldn’t care much about kidnapping the former actors in front of an audience either. 

If anything, the recording raised more questions than answers. 

“Alright, let’s get to that toy store,” Darkwing said. “And please try to resist fainting this time.”

“Sure thing, DW,” Launchpad agreed. 

After some debate, Darkwing and Launchpad decided to leave through the front entrance so they didn’t have to deal with the glass. Then the door burst open. 

“LEAF-ING SO SOON, THIEVES?” 

Darkwing and Launchpad instinctively put their hands up as Gizmoduck rolled into the lab, shining a spotlight on them as if they were a pair of criminals.

“Mistaken for a kidnapper by a guy who can’t even make a pun worthy of a Saturday morning cartoon,” Darkwing muttered. 

“Believe me, I’d love to be more creative with those,” Gizmoduck sighed. 

Launchpad waved. “Hi, Fen-” 

Gizmoduck broke into a coughing fit. 

“Uh, guy I don’t know whose name definitely doesn’t end with ‘ton’!” Launchpad corrected himself hastily. “Man, that was close.” 

“Launchpad!” Gizmoduck groaned. “You’re as bad as M’ah...Officer Cabrera. Hold on, why are you even here? And with the criminal too!” 

“I’m helping DW on the missing actor case,” Launchpad replied. “It’s been really cool so far. It’s just like being on the Darkwing Duck show!” 

“And if you watched the security footage, you’d know that the kidnapper’s costume is similar yet different than mine,” Darkwing added. 

“So did you use your super-cool telepathic abilities to find us?” Launchpad asked. 

“My suit can track heat signatures,” Gizmoduck said. “I don’t have telepathy.” 

While the chance meeting was nice and all, Darkwing knew they really needed to get back to the case. He clapped his hands, getting Launchpad and Gizmoduck’s attention. “Yeah, great to meet you. If you don’t mind, Launchpad and I will be heading to a toy store now,” he said, insistently tugging on Launchpad’s arm.

Unfortunately, Launchpad was too heavy for him to move. “I know! We should team up!” Launchpad exclaimed. His arm snaked around Darkwing’s shoulders, and he managed to get Gizmoduck tucked under his other arm for a group hug. 

Darkwing tilted his head slightly so Launchpad didn’t accidentally choke him, and Gizmoduck’s beak opened in surprise as he wobbled unsteadily on his wheel. 

“We’re gonna be like one of those buddy cop shows where they don’t mesh well at first but through a series of mutual understandings we come together and save the day!” Launchpad exclaimed, pulling their heads closer to his chest. “To the toy store!” 

“To the toy store!” Gizmoduck shouted. “Wait, why are we headed to the toy store?” 

“We’ll fill you in,” Darkwing said as he tried to wriggle out of Launchpad’s iron grip. 

Gizmoduck was terrible at the whole secret identity thing. Even if Launchpad hadn’t slipped up and called him ‘Fenton’, Darkwing would still know that Gizmoduck’s M’ma was on the police force.

Because his armor was too large to fit in the limo, Gizmoduck had gone back to his alter ego, Fenton Crackshell-Cabrera, for the time being. Fenton added Darkwing Duck to an alarmingly large list of people who already knew his secret identity. 

The Gizmoduck armor was currently inside a large duffel bag, stowed safely in the back. It seemed like an incredibly cumbersome way of keeping the costume nearby. 

Darkwing explained everything they knew about the case, and Launchpad interjected a few times to compare an event to something that happened on the Darkwing Duck series. 

“I think the components of the recording device were already prone to overheating,” Fenton said after Darkwing summarized the important points of Negaduck’s message. “Though under normal circumstances, it would be a few sparks here and there or a small flame that would easily be put out. This Negaduck guy likely added a small time bomb that would go off after a certain amount of time when the play button is pushed. Too bad it couldn’t be salvaged. I know someone who could’ve examined the parts for us.” 

Darkwing didn’t care much about the science behind the recording device though. It exploded. That was all he needed to know. 

“Fenton, you’re one of the best scientists I’ve ever met. Sure you could have done it too,” Launchpad said. 

Fenton blushed. “Uh...I don’t know about that. I get the basic concepts and stuff, but I don’t really have, say, advanced knowledge of electronics. That’s more of Gandra’s thing.” 

“He’s an official employee under Mr. McDee,” Launchpad said. “Scientist superhero is a pretty good job title.” 

Darkwing raised an eyebrow. “So he just sends you out whenever he needs some superhero-ing done?” 

Fenton shook his head. “I’ll admit I had a brief stunt as...well, a sell-out superhero under Mark Beaks for lack of a better term...but I could never work like that again. Deciding who doesn’t get saved or not saved based on an app? It was terrible. And I still barely know what I’m doing half the time. I repeat puns like three times in the course of a single confrontation. I still pie people in the face by accident. I’m not sure how half the contraptions on the armor work.” 

“Don’t worry, you’ll figure it out,” Launchpad said. “Gyro and Mr. McDee and the kids and I think you’re amazing. You already have a strong moral code as a hero. You’ve got this.” 

Fenton smiled. “Thanks, Launchpad. Still, I’m glad you guys are helping me with this kidnapping. It’s been kinda tiring lately.” 

“We should do an interview together. You can promote me as Duckburg’s newest hero, and I can give you a few pointers in managing your fame,” Darkwing said. 

“I’ll keep that in mind,” Fenton laughed. 

Teenagers and young adults lined the sidewalk leading up to the toy store, complaining loudly when the employee only let ten in at a time. It seemed like every teenager in Duckburg was here. So far, everything looked normal and there was no sign of a black-masked duck anywhere. 

“From what you told me, I just assumed Negaduck already kidnapped the former actors,” Fenton said as Launchpad parked behind a delivery truck. The hood ornament of the limo crunched against the back bumper. “But that doesn’t seem to be the case here.” 

“We might have time. If we can get to Dan Rattigan and Michael Bill now, we might be able to take them to a secure location and rescue the other two actors,” Darkwing said. 

“McDuck Manor would be our best safe zone,” Fenton suggested. 

“Launchpad can drive them there,” Darkwing said. “You and I will find Jack Russell and Tino Chickpea and apprehend Negaduck.” 

Launchpad grinned. “Alright! I get to drive two actors from my favorite show!” 

“Sounds like a plan to me,” Fenton said. “Got any ideas on how we’re getting in though?” 

“Easy. Name brand recognition,” Darkwing said. 

Launchpad and Fenton stared at him blankly. Darkwing couldn’t be the only one in their group who was willing to take advantage of fame, right?

“Starting to see why all those posts trend about Gizmoduck on social media. You should really get a PR manager for that,” Darkwing suggested. “Just roll up as Gizmoduck. The employee will let you in cause you’re famous, and me and Launchpad too by association.” 

Fenton frowned. “I don’t like taking advantage of being well-known like this. And you’re a little too excited about fame by association.” 

Okay, maybe he also wanted to try negotiating a cut of the toy sales by using his connection to Gizmoduck. But hey, a guy had to get publicity somehow. 

“Hello there, citizen!” Gizmoduck called to the employee managing the door, who finished counting another group of ten and regarded Gizmoduck with half-lidded eyes. “Beautiful night, isn’t it?” 

“I guess,” the employee yawned. “Get back in line. Like, way over there.” 

He pointed to the end of the street, where the line only increased in size. 

“Sir, this is an important matter,” Darkwing stated. “We have it on good evidence that a crime most foul will be committed here tonight.” 

“Technically, the evidence was destroyed,” Launchpad added. 

Darkwing put a finger to his beak to hush Launchpad. The employee didn’t need to know that. 

“A kidnapper has been targeting actors from Darkwing Duck. Two of your co-workers are on his list,” Gizmoduck said. “If you’ll let us through, my associate Launchpad will drive them to a secure location while Darkwing and I catch the kidnapper once he shows up.” 

The employee rolled his eyes. “I’ve heard plenty of stories tonight. People just don’t wanna wait in line, you know? Now get to the back and I might consider letting you in when it’s your turn.” 

Darkwing marched up to him, ready to protest that lives were at stake, but broke into a hacking cough instead. Thick clouds of red smoke flooded the air like evil incarnate in a gaseous form. Gizmoduck activated several fans on his suit, but it wasn’t effective against the dense smoky dread that had pierced its way into the atmosphere. 

Confusion and panic snaked their way through the crowd. Teens tried to run, only to collide into each other. Total strangers clung onto each other for dear life. Several people rushed out of the store to see what was going on, despite Gizmoduck trying to order them back inside. 

“I AM THE BLAZING INFERNO THAT RAVAGES YOUR CITY. I AM THE VENOMOUS SNAKE THAT LURKS IN YOUR BACKYARD. I AM NEGADUCK!” 

The proclamation was followed by harsh, gravelly laughter, which terrified his audience even more. The smoke made it impossible to pinpoint Negaduck’s location. 

“My heat sensors can’t detect him!” Gizmoduck coughed. “There’s too much interference!” 

Darkwing clenched his fists and dropped into a basic defensive position. 

“I was wondering when you’d show that face I despise so much,” the voice hissed. “I was about to go rob a few banks while I waited. Blow off steam.”

Darkwing tried not to twitch. He felt something press against his back and he jumped, only to realize that it was just Launchpad covering his blind spots.

“Face it. You’re nothing more than a fanboy in a costume. A hack. A fake. How pathetic. I’d get more of a challenge out of an eroded pebble!” 

“Shows what you know. You’ll never scare me!” Darkwing said, allowing his cape to flare out. His heart hammered and threatened to jump out of his chest at any given moment. Negaduck was just another bully, he told himself. Darkwing had dealt with plenty of those. “Do you know who I am? Let me tell you, I am the terror who flaps in the ni-”

Something heavy slammed into his back before he could finish, knocking him to the ground. Gizmoduck and Launchpad cried out in warning, but Darkwing could barely hear them over the massive cacophony. 

Darkwing’s back erupted into sheer agony. Something was putting massive pressure against his spine, pinning him in place. Fingers dug into his vertebrae, threatening to sever a fragile nerve. A hand clamped down on his neck and squeezed. Darkwing could only make choked, pathetic noises while an eerie cackle rang in his ears. 

Black spots danced in Darkwing’s vision. He couldn’t yell at Launchpad and Gizmoduck to run and find help. He couldn’t make out anything except a pair of furious, insane eyes. 

The harsh laugh formed a chilling soundtrack as the darkness closed around him. 

“Unhand us at once! Michael and I need to be at the store tonight! You’ll be hearing a call from my lawyer if you don’t let us go!” 

“My plants are on a very strict water schedule!” 

“I was taking a walk to cure my insomnia! What did I do?” 

“Is this some kind of joke to you?” 

“Would. All. Of you…SHUT IT! I CAN’T HEAR MYSELF THINK WITH ALL YOUR STUPID YAKKING!”

Darkwing’s neck throbbed. His back ached. His lacerated feet stung.

He took it as a sign that he wasn’t dead.

“DW! Where’s DW?”

Launchpad.

“I’m right here!” Darkwing tried to say, but something that tasted an awful lot like spandex covered his beak, preventing him from reassuring Launchpad. 

“No pet names! Darkwing Duck doesn’t do pet names, nicknames, or any of that other junk!” 

Darkwing opened his eyes, surprised that the material covering his face wasn’t blinding him. 

Launchpad was bound to a high-backed chair, his wrists restrained by many coils of rope. Several rows of empty seats stretched out behind him. 

It was a studio audience setup, Darkwing realized. 

Four old men were strapped to the floor on a green screen. They whispered to each other in soft tones, shooting confused glances to Negaduck, who barked orders at them to shut up while he rolled a large camera into the center of the setup. 

They found the actors of the Fearsome Four, but not in the way Darkwing had hoped. He’d been thinking more along the lines of a daring rescue where he thoroughly defeated the villain and received countless requests for public appearances afterward. 

Gizmoduck wasn’t here. 

Darkwing knew Gizmoduck was either running damage control or going to McDuck Manor for help if Negaduck hadn’t gotten his slimy hands on him, but he seriously needed to hurry up. 

Negaduck pounded on a piece of sound equipment whose wheels were trapped on a piece of metal in the floor. After several minutes, he screeched so loudly that the walls shook and tore through the metal with a chainsaw. The metallic sound grated on everyone’s ears, but Negaduck didn’t listen to anyone’s pleas for mercy. 

With Negaduck distracted, Darkwing could escape, rescue Launchpad, evacuate the Fearsome Four, and save the day! Darkwing grinned, feeling the spandex crinkle against his cheeks. 

First things first, the mask that encompassed his entire head had to go. Darkwing grunted, but his hands refused to come up to his face. He could only twitch his fingers against his sides. His legs were bound too, so he couldn’t use his feet either. 

So Negaduck thought he was clever enough to restrain Darkwing Duck with a series of intricate knots, did he? Little did he know, Darkwing had some Junior Woodchuck merit badges under his belt! Tying and untying knots had been one of his specialties! 

Darkwing looked down, though the mask limited his range of motion. But he didn’t find a large rope coiled around his body. 

Instead, a gray suit covered him from his neck down. At first, Darkwing thought Negaduck had changed his clothes while he’d been unconscious and cringed at how creepy that sounded, then he felt his fingers brush against the fabric of his Darkwing Duck costume, much to his relief. 

Darkwing leaned back, taking a deep breath and tried to think of a new plan of escape. His head brushed against another piece of fabric, and he jerked forward in surprise. A red, high-collared cape covered his back. 

At least he thought it did. It was hard to tell with his limited head-turning capabilities.

The costume was vaguely familiar to him, but he couldn’t pinpoint where he’d seen it before. 

“Where are we anyway?” Launchpad asked. “I dunno, I thought I was at a toy store with DW and Gizmoduck.”

“As my biggest fan, I thought you’d appreciate seeing me in action,” Negaduck said, leaning against the metal gate that separated Launchpad from everyone else. “Had to knock you out like the hack and Feeble Four though. Can’t have you revealing my location before the big show.” 

He grinned, revealing a mouthful of sharp, yellow teeth. 

Launchpad shrugged. “Sorry, I think you confused me with someone else. I’ve never seen you before. Well, unless you count that security footage in the lab.” 

Negaduck laughed humorlessly. “That cheap camera didn’t capture my best side.” 

“What big show?” Michael shouted. “If you’ve tied us up here, the least you could do is explain why!”

Negaduck snarled in his direction, and Michael quickly hid his face. His entire body trembled, and only a brief touch from Dan managed to calm him down again. 

“Aw, Mikey,” Negaduck chuckled lowly. “You’re too impatient. I was just getting to that part. SO DON’T INTERRUPT ME WHEN I’M TALKING!” 

Negaduck’s fist collided with Michael’s head, knocking out the former TV villain instantly. Dan and Launchpad pleaded for Michael to wake up, Tino stuttered incoherently, and Jack averted his gaze and refused to speak, as if it would somehow shield him from Negaduck’s wrath. 

Darkwing threw himself forward, trying to scream Negaduck’s name to get his attention. He needed to draw his ire, get him to turn his wrath away from an innocent person, but the suit prevented him from moving more than an inch. 

Darkwing strained against the suit, but it was tightly pressed to his chest and limbs. He gasped for breath as the suit closed in around his body, constricting his movements even further. 

He’d never been claustrophobic before, but he was sure he’d be developing that fear soon enough. 

“Ah, I see our guest star is getting restless,” Negaduck drawled. “You’re all just dying to know what’s happening, aren’t you? My biggest fan, don’t you wanna know who our guest star is?” 

“I’m not sure I like this,” Launchpad admitted. 

Negaduck ignored him. “We’re on the air in one more minute. Those bumbling morons make it so easy to hijack the airwaves.” 

He sauntered in front of a camera, adjusting his ragged hat and cape. 

A green light flickered to life. 

“Attention, Duckburg! You’re bearing witness to the debut of Negaduck! And don’t even think about tuning out, because all your channels are filled with nothing but me! Not that it’s a huge competition. I’m sure you all prefer watching a grim and gritty villain than whatever passes for entertainment these days!” Negaduck laughed.

Darkwing didn’t know how Duckburg was reacting to this, but he doubted they were laughing along. 

“Years ago, a show was canceled prematurely. I was...invested in this program,” Negaduck ranted. “The idiot executives thought they could sweep it under the rug and pretend it never existed. But the joke’s on them. In just a few moments, everyone will be able to see the long-awaited season finale of Darkwing Duck!” 

“You left Michael half-dead for this?” Dan shrieked, ignoring Tino’s attempts to hush him. “A fanboy who can’t accept that a silly show ended. I can’t believe this.” 

“Believe it,” Negaduck growled. ”BECAUSE I DON’T RECALL TELLING YOU TO SPEAK!” 

Negaduck kicked Dan in the side, hurling furious diatribes about where he could stick his electronics. Dan whimpered in pain and curled into a ball to protect himself. Tino trembled violently, while Jack pursed his lips and avoided looking at Negaduck. 

Launchpad looked away, fiddling with his restraints. “So that’s why he’s got the masked evil twin and the bombs,” he said quietly. “I...I don’t wanna believe it either.” 

As Negaduck stalked towards Darkwing, something clicked in his mind. 

He knew this suit. It was in the last episode of Darkwing Duck before the series was canceled. 

Hadn’t he spent countless hours theorizing over TV Darkwing’s evil doppelganger? 

Negaduck knew the Fearsome Four actors. He was invested in the show. He knew Darkwing would investigate the kidnappings. 

And most importantly, Negaduck believed Launchpad was his biggest fan. 

Negaduck dug his hands into the fabric of the villain suit, and Darkwing shuddered as he felt sharp-tipped fingers press against his ribs. 

“You think a few very painful explosions can stop me?” Negaduck snarled. Darkwing resisted the urge to gag on his rancid breath. “Now, let’s see who you really are.” 

Darkwing had seen those blazing, madness-fueled eyes before. And just like last time, he was caught off-guard, aching, and helpless. 

The spandex mask came off with a sharp yank. Negaduck carelessly tore out several of Darkwing’s feathers along with it. 

“Jim Starling?” Darkwing asked, the name tumbling out of his mouth before he could stop it. 

For a moment, the only sound was Launchpad’s choked gasp. Darkwing was sure Launchpad had figured it out already. He just didn’t want it to be true. 

Negaduck’s hand went slack and Darkwing took several deep breaths, savoring the air he’d been deprived of. 

But it didn’t last long. 

“DON’T CALL ME THAT!” Negaduck roared, an animalistic howl escaping him. Darkwing’s vision blurred as his beak smashed against the ground. 

“YOU’RE TALKING TO NEGADUCK NOW! I’LL GROUND YOUR SKELETON INTO DUST AND BLOW IT UP WITH A MISSILE! AND THERE’LL BE FIRE! LOTS OF FIRE THAT WON’T LEAVE YOUR ASHES BEHIND!” 

Darkwing’s entire body was on fire. His muscles protested, his legs throbbed, and no matter how deeply he breathed, he couldn’t get enough air to travel to his lungs. 

But he had to get up and keep fighting. He couldn’t allow Jim...no, Negaduck... he had to think of them as different entities, to hurt four innocent people. 

Darkwing strained against the suit, finally freeing his arms and latching onto Negaduck’s ankles. Negaduck snarled, striking every part of Darkwing’s body with his feet, but Darkwing refused to let go. 

With his legs still trapped, Darkwing was relying heavily on his upper body strength. He endured Negaduck’s kicks for just a few seconds longer, then abruptly tugged on Negaduck’s ankles, knocking him to the ground. 

But his attack only fueled Negaduck’s murderous desires, and Negaduck freed his feet from Darkwing’s grasp within seconds. Darkwing’s head swam as Negaduck slammed him facefirst into a metallic strip. 

“DW!” Launchpad shouted, struggling against his bonds. “Jim, you gotta stop!” 

Negaduck glowered at Launchpad, his hand still wrapped around the back of Darkwing’s head. “The name is Negaduck!” he screamed, sharply yanking Darkwing’s head back. Darkwing made a pathetic noise as his neck ached in protest. 

“You’re still Jim Starling though,” Launchpad said calmly. He was the only person in the room who wasn’t intimidated by Negaduck’s violent inclinations. 

The crushing pressure around Darkwing’s head vanished, and he hit the ground facefirst again, but not by Negaduck’s doing. Compared to everything else he endured, it felt like he’d fallen onto a pillow. 

“You’re my fan,” Negaduck growled. “Support me.” 

But Launchpad shook his head. “Not this. Never like this.”

Negaduck took a step back, the madness in his eyes being replaced by...was that grief? 

Maybe it was the lack of oxygen talking.

In a swirl of his tattered black cape, Negaduck swept out of the room, his hasty footsteps echoing off the walls. 

It took several tries and shouted instructions from Darkwing, but Launchpad finally untied the restraints binding him to the chair. He rushed over to Darkwing, stepping behind him and lifting the high-collared red cape out of the way. 

Moments later, Darkwing heard something being unzipped as he pulled his legs free of the trap he’d been forced to wear. 

“The Darkwing Duck trivia said that Jim-” Launchpad paused, glancing to the door in worry. “-well, apparently he spent six hours stuck in the doppelganger costume cause the zipper wouldn’t work and he wouldn’t let anyone cut him free.” 

“Your production trivia knowledge comes in handy,” Darkwing said, smiling at Launchpad despite his aching beak. “Come on, let’s get these actors free.” 

Dan and Tino’s restraints came undone in a simple tug, Jack’s took a bit more effort, and Launchpad had to carefully slide Michael out while Darkwing undid the complicated knot. 

“That was Jim?” Jack asked in a small voice. His long ears hung limply as he bowed his head. “You’re sure?” 

Those were the first words he’d spoken all night.

“I’m afraid so,” Darkwing admitted. “Are you alright? I mean, I know you were kidnapped and taken here against your will...sorry, Mr. Russell. It was a dumb question.” 

“I’ve seen better. I’ll stay here and keep an eye on my friends,” Jack promised. “Jim needs to be stopped.” 

“You’ll be fine?” Darkwing asked. 

He glanced at Michael, who was still out cold. 

Jack nodded. “Don’t worry about us. Best go before Jim gets away.” 

Darkwing and Launchpad followed the trail of destruction. Overturned desks, shattered pictures, and shredded paper littered the hallway. 

Negaduck was standing in front of a large mirror that covered the far wall of the room. 

It was supposed to be a dance studio, but the floor was in need of a good polish, the ballet shoes were worn and frayed, and the mirror was cracked and distorted their reflections. 

“That’s me in there,” Negaduck murmured, reaching up to touch Darkwing’s reflection. He hunched over the bar, breathing slowly. “There I am. Adored, respected, beloved by fans.”

His voice was no longer Negaduck’s husky growl, but it wasn’t the familiar pitch of Darkwing Duck either. 

No heroic bite, no confidence, no cockiness. 

“Jim, we can help you,” Launchpad said quietly.

Darkwing braced himself in front of Launchpad, ready to lash out if Negaduck’s short fuse went off. 

Negaduck didn’t acknowledge them. 

“But it’s not real, is it? Just some stupid fantasy of a has-been who’s not even fit for a cameo. That’s what being a hero gets you. Insults and scoldings and everyone wondering why you couldn’t have a productive life even though you get injured every single day of your washed up career just to entertain them.” 

“Jim, please stop,” Darkwing whispered.

Negaduck screeched, tearing out the bar and smashing it against Darkwing’s reflection. 

“WHY COULDN’T YOU JUST LET ME BELIEVE I HAD A CHANCE?”

Jagged mirror shards splintered everywhere, leaving an empty, tattered wall behind. Negaduck clawed at the wall, shredded wallpaper falling to the ground.

This was the man he once looked up to. 

This was the man who shaped his worldview.

This was the man who gave inspired him, enabled him to fight back, and helped him through hard times. 

And now he was gone, though some part of Darkwing prayed that wasn’t the case. 

The next few minutes passed by in a blur. Darkwing couldn’t watch Gizmoduck restrain Negaduck and walk him into an armored vehicle. He couldn’t watch the paramedics aid the former actors. He couldn’t watch Scrooge McDuck order several skilled technicians to cut the hijacked airwaves and restore the normal programming. 

“You need medical attention too, DW,” Launchpad said. 

Launchpad was right, but Darkwing buried his head into the taller duck’s chest instead. 

Maybe it was selfish, but he desperately needed this. 

Drake’s hospital room had been dubbed ‘The Superhero Suite’. Launchpad had explained they treated any injuries Fenton received as Gizmoduck here. And doctor-patient confidentiality extended to secret identities as well. 

Drake had several finger-shaped bruises around his neck where Negaduck had tried to strangle him. Drake had almost forgotten what it felt like to breathe normally. And he was lucky to not have an infection on his feet from the broken glass. 

“This is so weird,” Fenton said. “I’ve never seen you without your mask before!” 

“Just don’t go calling me Drake Mallard when I’m in costume,” Drake warned. “Cause the identity thing is something you need to work on.” 

Fenton laughed. “Yeah, I get the same lecture from all the other critical people in my life. Guess people are a little more observant than they portray them in the superhero shows!” 

Drake fingered his bedsheets, trying to think about anything but a certain show. “Sure they are.”

“Ah, sorry. I forgot. I’m just gonna change the subject before I strike a sore spot, okay? I’ve got good news. Launchpad’s smoothed everything over with Mr. McDuck. He’s less angry about the blown up limo now. And I’m pretty sure the kids are throwing an ‘I’m so happy you’re not dead’ party for Launchpad.” 

“When did the limo blow up?” Drake asked. He didn’t remember that part. 

“Launchpad parked too close to the delivery truck where Negaduck was keeping his kidnapped victims,” Fenton replied. “He couldn’t get the doors open so he could throw you, Launchpad, and the two actors-turned-shopkeepers in. I guess blowing up the limo was the logical thing for him. Or he just liked explosions. Maybe both.” 

“And the actors? How are they?”

“Recovering on a floor below us,” Fenton said. “Michael needs to be observed for a while, but he’ll pull through. So will Dan. They’ll be running their shop in no time. Jack said he’d be helping Tino with some community gardening. He says nature has a calming influence on Tino.”

Drake sighed in relief, just happy that the actors would be alright. 

Fenton twisted his tie, scuffing the floor with his feet and avoiding eye contact. “Drake, I stopped by for another reason. I just wanted to...say...um, I’m sorry. Really, really sorry. From the bottom of my heart sorry. Really badly-” 

“Fenton.” 

At the sound of his name, Fenton looked up. 

“Don’t go putting this on the record, but I have no idea what I’m doing either. Nobody wrote a Superhero-ing for Dummies manual, you know,” Drake said. 

“You wanna learn together?” Fenton asked, finally smiling back. “Launchpad said you’ve got all sorts of neat moves on you. If you teach me a thing or two, I can get you a few gadgets. It’ll protect you better in the field.” 

“You drive a hard bargain, Mr. Crackshell-Cabrera. I humbly accept your offer,” Drake bowed dramatically, much to Fenton’s laughter. 

“My two superhero buddies are bonding!” an excited voice said from the doorway. “It’s everything I dreamed and more!” 

Drake coughed. Launchpad’s childlike honesty was nice at times, but it could be downright awkward too. 

“Nice to see you, Launchpad,” Fenton said, patting the chair next to him. “Things going good at the Manor?” 

Launchpad happily accepted the invitation. “Yup! Louie was upset that he missed a late night episode of Ottoman Empire. The whole taking over your TV thing, you know. Dewey and Webby clung to my legs for a whole four hours. That’s gotta be some kind of record. Huey and Della were out doing some Junior Woodchuck mother-son camping trip, so they missed out. They’ll find out soon enough, I guess. Mr. McDee says Negaduck was taken to jail and they’re gonna be setting a trial date in a few months.” 

“Negaduck won’t be in jail forever,” Fenton said. “Probably just long enough to recuperate, but he’ll be causing trouble on the streets.”

At the mention of Negaduck, the jovial atmosphere sobered. 

Drake plucked at his bedsheets. He wanted to believe Jim Starling and Negaduck were two separate people, but reality said otherwise. He couldn’t live like Negaduck, who desperately tried to relive the glory days of his acting career. 

But being a hero wasn’t something a person could make-believe. 

Jim must’ve believed in the ideals and dreams of Darkwing Duck once. He’d inspired Drake and Launchpad after all. How many other children saw him on television and adopted Darkwing Duck’s beliefs? 

“I think we should help Jim,” Launchpad said. 

“What? He tried to kill you guys a lot!” Fenton protested. “He’s selfish, egotistical, and doesn’t care who he hurts. Why would you wanna help someone like that?” 

Fenton hadn’t grown up with Darkwing Duck the way Drake and Launchpad had. And frankly, Drake thought the idea was crazy too. 

But nobody, not even Jim Starling, Negaduck, or whatever he called himself deserved to rot in their own madness. 

“Because it’s the right thing to do,” Drake replied. 

“For Jim,” Launchpad said. 

“For Jim,” Drake echoed, placing his hand over Launchpad’s. 

They looked expectantly at Fenton, who sighed in resignation. 

“I have my doubts, but you’re right. Heroes save everyone, whether they deserve it or not. Let’s do this for Jim,” Fenton said. He squeezed Launchpad’s and Drake’s hands. 

Jim Starling once showed Drake how to get back up and stand on his own two feet. He showed Drake how heroes suffered setback after setback, but it didn’t stop them from saving the day. 

It was time to return the favor. 

[leftpress]

Jasper Bernes | July 24th 2019 | Commune

Willem Van Spronsen couldn’t stand by any longer. What will the rest of us do?

An imprecise description can be as misleading as a false one. It is, for example, imprecise to say that Willem Van Spronsen was killed by police while attacking an immigration detention center in Tacoma, Washington. This was the standard account of the 69-year-old antifascist’s death offered by the news media. But don’t let that mislead you. Van Spronsen, at least, was more precise. His final act should be understood as such.

As far as we know: on July 13th, at around 4 a.m., the musician and carpenter neared the Northwest Detention Center, one of the largest Immigrations and Customs Enforcement concentration camps in the nation. In the parking lot, across the street from where over fifteen hundred migrants are jailed, he began his attempt to incinerate a fleet of ICE vehicles. With homemade incendiary devices, he tried to burn the empty buses, used to transport immigrants to and from cages and to the nearby airport for deportation. He reportedly aimed for a propane tank, too. His efforts were cut short; Tacoma police officers arrived and shot him dead. The aging anarchist expected as much. In a plainly worded final statement-cum-manifesto he wrote, “I regret that I will miss the rest of the revolution.”

He also wrote, “I have an unshakable abhorrence for injustice. That is what brings me here.”

ICE representative Shawn Fallah stated, misleadingly, “This could have resulted in the mass murder of staff and detainees housed at the facility.” Van Spronsen did not target any buildings holding immigrants or ICE staff. It’s true that he was armed, with a home-assembled AR-15, and we do not know whether he exchanged gunfire with the four Tacoma police officers who arrived on the scene; none of them were injured. (White supremacist mass murderer Dylann Roof was armed, too, when detained, unharmed by Charleston police after shooting up a black church. The cops bought him Burger King in custody.)

“Van Spronsen’s small yet absolute rebellion should be placed in this history, one that understands how the techniques of fascist terror presuppose modernity’s quotidian infrastructure and everyday bureaucracy.”

Beyond this, emphasizing Van Spronsen’s vehicular targets matters if we are to appropriately situate his dying act in the history of high-risk sabotage against fascist infrastructures and the implements of state terror.

In an obvious sense, the US deportation machine subjugates migrants through blockages both spatial and temporal—cages, razor wire, interminable waits in perilous borderlands and torturous camps. ICE jackboots wait in courthouses, they linger outside immigration offices. Necropower—the organization of life in constant proximity to death, to bare life—allows the state to hold migrants in brutal suspension. Yet ICE’s cruel operations are equally dependent on speed and movement—stealth raids, rushed deportation flights, the unimpeded circulation of the dispossessed and desperate through for-profit prisons. Cribbing from the late urbanist Paul Virilio, we might frame the battle against the fascistic deportation regime as dromological: that is, a struggle over territory, determined by movement and speed.

Immigration enforcement uses the same streets, the same highways, the same airports as the rest of us. The fact that they do so without impediment reminds us that, no, these are not our streets. “Possession of territory is not primarily about laws and contracts,” wrote Virilio, “but first and foremost a matter of movement and circulation.” Van Spronsen, it seems, understood this. He went for the buses.

As journalist and comrade Kim Kelly noted on Twitter (much to the ire of the paranoid right-wing commentariat), “History echoes. During WWII, Jewish partisans targeted Nazi infrastructure, blowing up trains, power plants, and factories. Italian partisans targeted communications links, bridges and rail tracks. In 1943, the Soviets launched Operation Rail War, derailing 1,000 Nazi trains.” The latter sabotage efforts are thought to have reduced German transportation and traffic on the Eastern Front by 40 percent. Van Spronsen’s small yet absolute rebellion should be placed in this history, one that understands how the techniques of fascist terror presuppose modernity’s quotidian infrastructure and everyday bureaucracy.

“You don’t have to burn the motherfucker down, but are you going to just stand by?” he wrote. According to the lore of defanged histories, there are bystanders and there are upstanders. But that’s not quite right; since when, in common parlance, has standing up been the opposite of standing by? The antithesis of standing by, letting something pass, is obstruction. ¡No Pasaran!, I, for one, have been too upstanding; there’s little resistance in that. You don’t, we don’t, individually, have to burn the motherfucker down; obstruction can take many forms. Only committed, collective direct action on a large scale, against the gears of the necropolitical deportation machine, could render individual extreme action unnecessary.

The opposite of standing by: activists from Never Again Action and the Cosecha Movement, who shut down the ICE headquarters in Washington, DC the same week Van Spronsen died. The protesters who swarmed JFK airport in 2017 against the Muslim ban, the cab drivers who refused to drop passengers there. The immigrant rebels of the Gilets Noirs who occupied a terminal in Paris’ Charles De Gaulle airport, in direct resistance to Air France’s role as “the official deporter of the French state.” Those who lock their doors to ICE and hide their immigrant neighbors. Those who makes the identities of agents of terror public, and their once comfortable lives intolerable. As Joshua Clover writes, of our new era of “circulation struggles”: “thoroughfare, public square, pipeline, railway, dockside, airport, border, these will be our places.”

“Terror is the realization of the law of movement,” wrote Hannah Arendt. She meant that terror makes it possible for ideologies of totalitarianism “to race freely through mankind, unhindered by any spontaneous human action.” I can’t speak to Van Spronsen’s life—that is, for his close comrades and friends. He left behind a small number of simple, hopeful, and melancholic guitar songs, his voice twanging like an E-string. In one, he prophesied: “I’d gladly pay the price that’s asked, I guess I always have. I guess I always will… I have no regrets, I’d do it all again, if this is how I land in the end.” I can’t speak to his life or his character, that’s for those who knew him to do. But as to where he landed in the end, it can at least be said: he stood in the way.

One week prior to Van Spronsen’s final act, Donald Trump basked in militaristic pomp during his Fourth of July parade. Army tanks occupied the National Mall as props, fighter jets dominated the sky. Such bellicose displays disturb because they appear like military occupations. It would be a mistake, however, to forget that these streets are already occupied; those individuals who are ushered through them against their wills—to prisons, jails and airport terminals—know this well. So too do those, hunted by ICE, who hide in homes and churches. To move in public is too dangerous. In his writing on the politics of speed, Virilio recalls the words of none other than Joseph Goebbels: “whoever can conquer the street can also conquer the State!” While Trump’s tanks stand out, the dromological battle is waged by more banal war machines: the ICE bus, unburned and ready to roll.

The post An Unshakeable Abhorrence for Injustice appeared first on Commune.

[Read More On LeftPress.org]

[transgenderteensurvivalguide]

(1) Hi, I’m not asking this question to offend anyone, this is a genuine question I have. If I offend anyone for being insensitive I am very sorry. So I've been thinking a lot of the differences between transracial vs. transgender and the more research and opinions I find on it the more I get confused. The main argument against being transracial is that a transracial person hasn't gotten the full experience of the specific gender they are identifying due to them living as birth gender. continued

(2) Like Rachel Dolezal being told she is not allowed to identify as black because she hasn’t gotten the true experience of being a black woman in America due to her living the her life as a white woman. However, can’t the same thing be said, for example, a MTF transgender person? It is undeniable that there is a specific woman experience. And for people (especially who realize they are trans late) live their lives passing as a man and don’t get this experience. (continued)(3) Being a woman is being catcalled, is being objectified, and is being paid less than their male counterparts. A MTF trans person doesn’t experience those for most of their life until they begin to live their lives true to their real selves. Why does this ‘experience’ argument work to discount transracial but doesn’t discount transgender? Again I’m very sorry for this question, I will admit myself it is very ignorant. But I just really want an answer to this and I hope I can get that.Harper says:Hi there, I’m going to assume you are asking this in good faith but to be quite honest the phrasing of some of your questions seriously makes me doubt that. Before I start, I want to clarify as Kii does in this ask that transracial is a term that actually describes someone who has been adopted by someone to a family of a different race, rather than the racist stuff Dolezal is doing.First off I’m going to address some assumptions about being a woman that you make in your question: “there is a specific woman experience” and that that experience “is being catcalled, is being objectified, and is being paid less than their male counterparts.” It’s curious to me that you claim there is an “undeniable… specific woman experience” and then only cite moments that we can see other people who are not women experience. For example, homophobic catcalling, i.e. verbal sexual harassment can and does happen to effeminate gay men on the streets; black men are a site of sexual objectification in much of media, consider pornography for example; gay men, men of colour are also paid less than their male counterparts and have been for some time historically. If you base your understanding of what makes a woman entirely on something like misogyny, you have to be open to the fact that other oppressive forces will coalesce in the same way to recreate similar experiences in similar liberation groups. You should also acknowledge that gendered discrimination doesn’t operate on a basis purely targeting women. I think you should broaden your understanding on how such forces work. I recommend reading Julia Serano’s Whipping Girl:

While often different in practice, cissexism, transphobia, and homophobia are all rooted in oppositional sexism, which is the belief that female and male are rigid, mutually exclusive categories, each possessing a unique and non overlapping set of attributes, aptitudes, abilities, and desires. Oppositional sexists attempt to punish or dismiss those of us who fall outside of gender or sexual norms because our existence threatens the idea that women and men are “opposite” sexes. This explains why bisexuals, lesbians, gays, transsexuals, and other transgender people — who may experience their genders and sexualities in very different ways — are so often confused or lumped into the same category (i.e., queer) by society at large. Our natural inclinations to be attracted to the same sex, to identify as the other sex, and/or to express ourselves in ways typically associated with the other sex blur the boundaries required to maintain the male-centered gender hierarchy that exists in our culture today.In addition to the rigid, mutually exclusive gender categories established by oppositional sexism, the other requirement for maintaining a male-centered gender hierarchy is to enforce traditional sexism — the belief that maleness and masculinity are superior to femaleness and femininity. Traditional and oppositional sexism work hand in hand to ensure that those who are masculine have power over those who are feminine, and that only those born male will be seen as authentically masculine. For the purposes of this manifesto, the word misogyny will be used to describe this tendency to dismiss and deride femaleness and femininity.

I’d also like to turn your attention to Jacob Hale’s essay Are Lesbians Women? in which he lays out a list of factors of what makes a woman. He does so in such a way where each individual item on the list is not necessary nor sufficient in order to be a woman. For example, although he lists ‘presence of breasts’ as one such condition that is often correlated with being a woman, there are plenty of women without breasts in the world: trans women without breasts, cis women who have had double mastectomies, and so on. Hale also notes that his list is not entirely exhaustive: there’s always the possibility that this list will be added to in future. I’d highly recommend you look at it if you’re after your “undeniable” “woman’s experience”.Next I’m going to look at your claim that “an MTF trans person doesn’t experience those for most of their life.” This entirely constructs a similar narrative for trans women and entirely disregards the possibility that such a person was raised by understanding and supportive parents from a young age and grew up as a girl from an early age. Whatever your argument about ‘transracial’, it’s clear that you already have a reductive understanding of womanhood and a transgender experience. Such forces and experiences that play into gender interact in ways far more complex than what you’ve detailed above. I also want to point out here that you’ve failed to describe how the arguments above apply to trans men: that is to say a trans man who transitions in his late twenties in the western world will probably experience all of what you label as the “woman experience”, and yet they are men. The argument you present is typical of the considerations ‘transracial’ arguments operate with. They are often circulated by people with a vested transmisogynistic interest as a “gotcha!” designed to portray trans women as either dangerous or ridiculous. As a result they are designed to eliminate any shred of transgender voices. What is implicit in the argument you’ve laid out is that 1. trans women aren’t women and 2. trans men are. The argument fails completely to consider how a trans person articulates their own understandings which often run contrary to the line of argument. I urge you to consider how this argument is made and what purposes it serves. Is it an honest exploration of the workings of gender and race or is there a bias or a motive driving the ‘logic’ of the argument.On to the ‘transracial’ aspect of your argument. I hope so far I have managed to draw your attention to the implicit biases given in the argument, as well as the levels of complexities you have yet to acknowledge. Much of the same can be said about how you present race in the argument.First of all, I’d like to draw your attention that considerations of being perceived as a different race is a reality faced by many white-passing people of colour and many mixed-race people who live through this daily. It is a consideration that has been often articulated and is still often articulated. If the argument was an earnest exploration of the shifting and transitory nature of the perception of people of colour in a racist society, would it not rather look at this aspect? If the argument was an honest exploration of the similarities and differences a construction of both racialised and gendered experiences, would it not center trans women of colour’s voices as they are best situated at this intersection of race and gender to experience this? Is it not suspicious that such an argument doesn’t do this? In fact, go read Franchesca Ramsey’s article on this for a black trans woman talking about it, and Riley’s arcticle, a black non-binary person who highlights:

Rachel Dolezal flat out lied about her life and her experiences, and not to protect herself, but to protect the benefits she received and the space she acquired through those lies. She lied to protect her privilege, a trait of white people and all privileged groups. Her life could have been the same had she merely remained the white woman she was. White people already devour space in Black communities as a bonus of their whiteness, but she chose to take her farce further, becoming a “Black” woman who happened to be indistinguishable from the party in power.There is no benefit to being transgender, and there is no harm, but there is every benefit and harm to a white person picking a less privileged race to join because white features are privileged in every race and identification has no effect on that.

(my emphasis added.)In addition to the points raised by Riley and Ramsey, I’d point out that the move to make a blind comparison between race and gender on the basis of “they are both experienced by people” or “they are both social constructs” “so why can’t x” is just so materially and historically off. There is no consideration in your given argument over the differences between race and gender. There is no consideration that racism was founded by a white ruling colonial class to dominate a colonised and enslaved population. Such a population had within it differently gendered and transgendered people. There is no consideration that this domination was a product of hundreds of years of a capitalism that needed a large white working class to carry out a sustained colonial project: a colonial project that is still in action across the world today. There is no consideration of the formation of gender and the nuclear family as a product of the division of labour enforced by capitalism and the ruling classes on the working classes.In effect, gender and race are two different things. They of course intersect, but the ways in which they operate are distinct and different. Reducing both down to a level that strips them of their actual effects and lived realities in order to further either a justification for a racist white woman exploiting black people or to further a ridicule and strawmanning of the transgender community is a shameful act of bigotry posing under a guise of logic and inquiry.

Check out our /tagged/transracial for more commentary. 

[filmstruck]

“Shut the F----ing Door!”: WINNEBAGO MAN (’09) NO MORE! by Jill Blake

In the late 1980s, a friend of the family had been interviewed for the 11 o’clock news. There had been a serious natural gas leak earlier that evening in a relatively dense residential and commercial neighborhood. Miraculously there was no explosion and no one was hurt. In preparing for their story, the local news interviewed many of the neighborhood’s residents for their observations. At the time, our friend owned a restaurant in that neighborhood and was affected by a power outage and detoured traffic. It was all relatively minor, but it still negatively impacted his business. After he was interviewed, our friend called to tell us to keep an eye out for him on the broadcast. Like a lot of American families, we had a VCR and a stack of VHS tapes at the ready for such occasions. We scheduled the recording and all went to bed, unaware of the hilarious goldmine we’d capture. Fast-forwarding through commercials for car dealerships and furniture stores, we finally got to our friend’s interview. He did just fine and we were thrilled for his ten seconds of minor fame. But there was another star of this segment, one that had my family rewinding and watching over and over again. Immediately after our friend’s interview, an older man with a thick Southern drawl and a few missing teeth lent his two cents on the incident saying, “Coulda blowed us all up” and awkwardly clearing his throat in front of the cameras. My parents and I doubled over, tears streaming down our faces laughing at this man. Our friend saw it, and he too thought it was hysterical. “Coulda blowed us all up” became another one of our family’s inside jokes, and with the passage of time has almost taken on a life of its own. My husband even throws it out from time to time, and recently I caught my daughter saying it with no idea of its origin. A five-second sound bite from a complete stranger is part of my family’s history and that’s both hilarious and completely bizarre.

Around this same time, in 1988, a man named Jack Rebney was filming an industrial video for the Winnebago corporation (a manufacturer of recreational vehicles). The goal of the film was to provide Winnebago dealers and salespeople with all the information and expertise they would need to successfully sell the Winnebago line. Filming in the brutal Iowa summer sun, Rebney was irritable and agitated, flubbing his lines and missing his cues. In his frustration, Rebney cursed a blue streak, sometimes directed at himself or a young intern named Tony, or sometimes just toward the universe in general. The shoot was hell, particularly for the crew, who had to endure take after take of Jack Rebney’s profane outbursts. Once the film was completed, crewmembers made tapes of Rebney’s outtakes and shared their inside joke amongst themselves, as well as with friends and family. Their joke cost Rebney his job with Winnebago and he wasn’t seen on film again.

Throughout the 1990s, low-quality copies of the tape circulated amongst college students and cult film fans. In the mid-2000s, Jack Rebney’s meltdown had made it to YouTube and became an overnight viral sensation. The first time I watched the video, I could hardly believe it was real. I immediately shared it with my close friends and family, and before long, my husband and I added Mr. Rebney’s hilarious musings to our daily rotation along with our favorite lines from WAITING FOR GUFFMAN (’96), THE BIG LEBOWSKI (’98) and RAISING ARIZONA (’87).

While Jack Rebney earned Internet fame, for whatever that’s worth, and the title “The Angriest Man in the World,” he had no earthly idea about any of it. Filmmaker Ben Steinbauer, a fan of Rebney’s from the underground VHS days, decided to seek out his foul-mouthed idol and learn more about his life, and most importantly, find out if he’s still angry, while documenting his quest in his film WINNEBAGO MAN (’10). Initially, Steinbauer is unable to find any information about Rebney or his whereabouts, or if he’s even still alive. But after hiring a private investigator, Steinbauer makes contact with Rebney, who is far from Iowa, living as a groundskeeper at a remote fishing resort in the Northern California mountains. Reluctantly agreeing to meet face-to-face, Rebney invites Steinbauer to his home to talk. This first meeting goes fairly well, although Steinbauer is disappointed to find that Rebney is kind and mellow, uttering not one single profane word. But in a phone call several days later, Rebney unleashes a colorful diatribe about the ridiculousness of the celebrity that has been unwittingly bestowed upon him along with his unflattering take on his fans. Over the course of a couple years, Steinbauer encourages Rebney to talk about his life, and fails. Rebney is really only interested in using whatever platform Steinbauer offers to him to speak about his views on the world and politics, which he has written about in a now-published manifesto titled Jousting with the Myth. Through the help of one of Rebney’s close friends, Steinbauer eventually convinces Rebney to meet his fans at a screening of his outtakes in San Francisco. Rebney is clearly touched by the sincerity of the audience’s affection for him, if a bit perplexed as to why they care in the first place. And despite living a solitary life in the middle of nowhere, seemingly by choice, it’s clear that Mr. Rebney enjoys being at the center of attention, turning on that foul-mouthed, bombastic side of his personality when the situation demands it.

I don’t necessarily consider myself a fan of Mr. Rebney’s, but as a woman who loves a good curse word, I greatly admire his colorful use of the English language. I’ve seen WINNEBAGO MAN a few times, and with each viewing I come away with a great deal of sadness. While it’s clear that Ben Steinbauer cares for Mr. Rebney, especially in the follow-ups he’s shared on the film’s official website, I can’t help but feel that the film’s original intention might have been ethically compromised. To be clear, I feel this way about other documentaries I enjoy, such as GREY GARDENS (’75) and ROGER & ME (’89). Steinbauer touches on the potential negative implications of viral content, especially on the subjects themselves, but he still pursues Rebney as a fanboy hoping for another round of angry, profanity-laden recreational vehicle salesmanship. And Steinbauer’s documentary leaves more questions than answers. When I first saw the YouTube iteration of Mr. Rebney’s outtakes, I didn’t foresee a need to know more about his life. I just assumed he was another colorful character who happened to have a particularly interesting and embarrassing moment in his life (we all have them!) captured on film. But Steinbauer’s film showed us there is a real person behind all that sweating, swearing and blustering; a man with failing eyesight who lives alone in the boonies with his dog. While I believe that Steinbauer’s original intent was more of a lark – almost like he accepted a dare to find the Angriest Man in the World – I think he changes course once he realizes there’s a real and complicated man behind the moniker. But even the few moments of sincerity in the film feel like an act for the camera, and we never really get to know Rebney after the years of Steinbauer’s persistent intrusion into his personal life.

And so, I think back to that country boy who so astutely remarked, “Coulda blowed us all up” and wonder if our little inside joke would’ve become viral had it happened during this age of social media’s many overreaching tentacles. And then I wonder what he might think of that or if he has an interesting story to tell. Then I remember how funny that moment is to my family and me and how it’s probably best left alone.

[goldfinchhoneybee]

Mass Reproduction & Technological Advances: How Technology and Dissemination is Damaging Our Society

Mass Reproduction & Technological Advances:

How Technology and Dissemination is Damaging Our Society

How have advances in print; the Gutenberg moveable type printing press, linotype, etc., and technology; computers, the Internet, Twitter, etc., assisted in dissemination; to spread (something, especially information) widely, and thus caused a downfall in general society?

Firstly, structural differentiation, the move in society from simple to complex, “creates problems of communication and control” while “mass media and other means of communication emerged in part to help resolve some of these problems.”

The Gutenberg press is an excellent example of a moment in history of structural differentiation. Its invention allowed for books to be printed at a rate never before seen in history and marked a new age of information. As stated in Mr. Abel’s book, The Gutenberg Revolution, the invention of the moveable type printing press “completely and radically restructured the trade in intellectual products and thereby, even more radically, enlisted a vastly increased number of minds recruited too the challenge of formulating more and better solutions to the ever-constant problems arising in human society.” To follow that quote up with another by philosopher and social critic Walter Benjamin, "mass reproduction contributed to human emancipation by promoting new modes of critical perception.”

These advancements should have just led to improvements and the spread of factual knowledge, growing until the day technology stepped up to the plate with computers and the Internet. The spread of ideas should have been flowing rapidly, instead the advancement came too fast and society does know how to navigate them properly.

With all this in mind, if mass media and dissemination is meant to solve the problems of communication and control, then when did we as a society move into a world where misinformation spreads rampant? When did the technological advances move past being a helpful solution to making our lives more difficult?

This question of why the rapid spread of information is no longer emancipating the population should be of great concern in our society. Especially in light of situations like the video captured of the MAGA (Make America Great Again) and other protesters in Washington DC on January 18th, 2019. The limited information available about the situation spread too quickly, assumptions and interpretation were made without all of the facts, and many people stuck their foot in their mouth by spreading untruths and accusations before they could assess the situation further.

As we have advanced through history these technological advances have occurred closer together and society has not had the time to adjust to use these technological advancements, like Twitter, more judiciously or within more stringent regulations to prevent the spread of misinformation. So print is not entirely to blame for the downfall in this situation. The printing press had its rise and fall in society and now has regulations to balance what is printed/published. “This sudden acceleration in the generation and exchange of ideas and some of the many consequences flowing therefrom… and characterizes the invention of printing simply as a historical change agent, not as a technological invention that radically transformed the evolution of the culture.” Without the adequate amount of time for society to adjust to the new technology and all that entails, is the power of newfound technology abused and how to we find guidelines to adjust without apparent set back?

Philosopher Alfred North Whitehead said that,

It is the first step in sociological wisdom, to recognize that the major advances in civilization are processes which all but wreck the societies in which they occur:—like unto an arrow in the hand of a child. The art of free society consists first in the maintenance of the symbolic code; and secondly in fearlessness of revision, to secure that the code serves those purposes which satisfy an enlightened reason. Those societies which cannot combine reverence to their symbols with freedom of revision, must ultimately decay either from anarchy, or from the slow atrophy of a life stifled by useless shadows.

Perhaps the only solution is some kind of crash so technology can be reborn to a wiser world. Society after Gutenberg’s movable type printing press was invented broke down. Most people in power at the time kept knowledge like power to keep down the citizens in ignorance, but with the printing press it was much more difficult to elites to control the production and distribution of knowledge. Then Martin Luther used that new technology to print up his manifesto and post it for everyone to see and thus created a schism in the church and led to new religions and interpretations of the Bible.

Without sufficient time in the present day to process these rapidly occurring advances in how we create and share information, our society is skipping over the reset that occurs in the face of massive information and technological change. “Not only is Internet use a new and rapidly changing social phenomenon, but the technology underlying the Internet itself is changing at the speed off Moore’s Law (Gordon More the co-founder of Intel, predicted that the number of transistors per square inch on integrated circuits would double every year). We do not know how to process the information as required by the advances. In other words, we are reading a book in which we do not understand the slang. Leading to things like ‘fake news” that we see running rampant. People are used to being able to trust any news groups, but are now learning that false information is being spread on mass and now distrust most if not all news. The solution would be some kind of societal breakdown, as suggested by Philosopher Alfred North Whitehead that leads to regulations being put into place to prevent such a situation occurring again.

This concern of how technological advances are damaging society and individuals was described in a very interesting chainsaw and chisel analogy by The New Yorker writer Tim Wu,

Imagine that two people are carving a six-foot slab of wood at the same time. One is using a hand-chisel, the other, a chainsaw. If you are interested in the future of that slab, whom would you watch?…This chainsaw/chisel logic has led some to suggest that technological evolution is more important to humanity’s near future than biological evolution; nowadays, it is not the biological chisel but the technological chainsaw that is most quickly redefining what it means to be human. The devices we use change the way we live much faster than any contest among genes. We’re the block of wood, even if,…sometimes we don’t even fully notice that we’re changing.

As stated by Elizabeth L. Eisenstein, “The ‘electronic age’ encompasses too many changes affecting communications (from radio and telephone to photocopying and computers) for any simple comparisons with the fifteenth-century to be drawn.” We need to consider how print relates to electronic media like Twitter. The regulations in place to ensure published books are reputable and do not contain spelling or grammatical errors help society in curbing slander. “It is clear [to] see print and electronic media as interacting with one another, with print maintaining its function as a reactive agent.” Perhaps Twitter should take a leaf from the publishing companies books and set up regulations to limit the amount of falsities circulating.

The more recent and rapid advances in how print is produced and distributed has been detrimental to society and have changed how society gathers information. Now with the internet and information has become more malleable and can be all over the world in a second. The kind of power is terrifying, because one sees more and more people using it to mislead, creating ‘fake news,’ and fill the void with trivial fluff, making the world shallow and careless with ideas and opinions. This in combination spreads false information and people without the tact to censor themselves to suit a situation. The world becoming less educated and more crude. With all of this in mind, one cannot say that Walter Benjamin was right in his idea of the reproduction of information emancipated the masses with knowledge. At this rate unbridled technology is watering down the information to nothing. Dismaying to say the least.

Bibliography

Abel, Richard. “The Gutenberg Revolution: A History of Print Culture.” Transaction Publishers, 2011.

Alcorn Baron, S., Eric N. Lindquist, and Eleanor F Shevlin eds. “Agent of Change: Print Culture Studies after Elizabeth L Eisenstein.” University of Massachusetts Press, 2007.

Byron Cooper, Stephen. “The Relationship Between the Printing Press & the Internet.” Chron. https://smallbusiness.chron.com/relationship-between-printing-press-internet-26566.html

Chappell, W. and Robert Bringhurst. “A Short History of the Printed Word.” Hartley & Marks Publishers Inc., 1999.

Demers, David. “History and Future of Mass Media: An Integrated Perspective.”Hampton Press, Inc., 2007.

Eisenstein, Elizabeth L. “The Printing Press as an Agent of Change.” Cambridge University Press, 2013.

Freeland, Cynthia."Digitizing and disseminating.” But is it art?. Oxford University Press, 2001.

Kraus, Don. “Pirates, the Printing Press and Global Democracy.” Huffington Post. 07/10/2014. https://www.huffingtonpost.com/don-kraus/pirates-the-printing-pres_b_5575113.html

Rosenberg, Eli. “How anonymous tweets helped ignite a national controversy over MAGA-hat teens.” Washington Post, January 22, 2019, https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2019/01/23/how-anonymous-tweets-helped-ignite-national-controversy-over-maga-hat-teens/?utm_term=.51c739040828

Whitehead, Alfred North. “Symbolism: Its Meaning and Effect.” University of Virginia Press, 1927.

Wu, Tim. “As Technology Gets Better, Will Society Get Worse?” Elements, The New Yorker, February 6, 2014, https://www.newyorker.com/tech/elements/as-technology-gets-better-will-society-get-worse.

[ki6-7-l8r]

Slacktivism For A New America!

My Lazy-Ass Slacktivism Manifesto.... July 30, 2016

How stupid are Americans really? You have a rigged DNC election and Sanders assaulted and threatened with violence both against himself and his family; and the sell-out

media and political apparatus shoving Hillary down our throats, and for most Americans, that is just OK. Most could not be bothered to put on RT, or find some decent

alternative media on You Tube or Google; which would take just a few seconds, to tell them what is actually going on. Prices are so high in relation to wages that 60% of

the US population does not have even $400 to access in an emergency. This is creating a dearth of spenders for many retailers, who are trying to create incentives to

have people max out their credit. Even this has been tapped out and many retailers are closing their doors. Private wealth, (Rich People) has outpaced economic growth to

the point that there is not enough currency in circulation to sustain the economy for much longer, because most people have no money. Some crash in immanent. There is

huge consumer debt to banks and no money to pay the banks, other than wealthy deposit holders, and this is not enough. Money only has value if anchored to an economy and

circulated as a proxy for goods and services. If everyone is poor, and there is not enough money in circulation, it becomes worthless paper and will cause a collapse.

30% of the population has dropped out of the work force, as there is little point in working if you are not paid enough to live anyway. As a response to this and to try

to end Capitalism, I propose a philosophy called "Revolution Of Slack," which I will describe:

1.Form co-ops and trade networks that barter products and services, and that keep the use of money to an absolute minimum. The less money in circulation, the less value

it has, and if nobody used money it would have no value at all. Money only has value if it is being used, and linked to goods and services; end that and money is

worthless, because it is "Fiat" money and not backed up by gold or silver or anything of real value.

2."Slacktivism:" Use computers to form on-line "anarcho-collectivist" trading networks; to meet members needs via crowd-sourced projects using "Bit coin" and other viable

virtual currencies as they come along. Do whatever you can.... If you are not using an anonymous virtual currency, or state-of-the-art IRS detection systems catch up,

make sure you pay your taxes, so you do not give them a reason to come after you for this. Using these methods you can create crowd sourced projects too, that are Art

related, Anarchist philosophies, or various kinds of media that oppose, or have nothing to with sustaining the current Capitalist system.....

3. "Slack:" By all means slack-off on the job to whatever level you can get away with, or drop out of the economy and not work at all, if you have some or *anyway* to

stay alive. I am not going to advocate that you break laws, but I really don't care if you do or not.

4. Find some more meaningful reason to live, than just living to chase dollars, even if that reason involves doing absolutely nothing...

That is all. (P.S. I have expanded the notion of Slacktivism to mean more than just clicking buttons online)

The End Of Work..... July 9, 2016

Capitalism is reaching the end of its innate workability..... The best thing that could happen would be to torpedo it for good! Here is how:

1. Barter: Money only has value as a medium of exchange. This integrates it with the productive technics of society, and creates the basis to create wealth; by keeping

prices high in relation to wages, and circulating money in excess of the GNP to create inflationary debt. The banks can thus collect interest, and can foreclose....

Using trade and barter, and forgoing money, will return goods and services traded to *actual* wealth, and turn money back into what it is, worthless paper. In this way

even on a small scale, it can ameliorate the alienation that exists between people and what they produce, which should be a creative choice.....

2. Communes: Create intentional communities that share almost everything, and drop out of society. Like #1, the severing of oneself from the political economy will

be gradual and not prefect at first. Over time though it could begin to have an effect. Limited production to immediate small localities and distribution to ones own

geographical area whenever possible; would cut back on transportation costs and mitigate pollution and strain on the environment to a considerable degree. Hydro-electric

power and clean water could be obtained by desalinization plants with turbines that will generate energy and purify ocean water to drink. This could power computer

networks and perhaps create energy for light rail transportation of people and goods.

3. Drop out of society: Right now the labor non-participation rate in the USA is 30%. We need more people to drop out of society, go on welfare/SSI disability; and make

use of the very limited and almost non-existent social programs that exist in the USA, as well as Europe. One should try to be as non-productive as possible. Get a labor

non-participation rate of 70%, that will be it for this economic system. The government to save itself, will create a state capitalist system and become the only

employer, when all production is nationalized.... This would be the first step to eventual anarcho-collectivist small scale social networks that could eventually evolve.

Capitalism cannot work without people giving it their consent with their labor and capacities. A giant work-strike across all sectors could put an end to that.

Capitalism Is A Scam Here Is Why…..

The basis of Capitalism is not too hard to understand. In the first place, you have to understand that money is not an even unit of exchange. It is a artifact to redistribute wealth.  Money in reality is just worthless paper, and the goods and services produced by society are what has real value. But a “bait and switch” occurs. Money is made into the sole “gatekeeper” for goods and services. You cannot get goods and services without money. When this happens goods and services in themselves become worthless; and money which constitutes the only means to them becomes actual wealth. Money has co-opted the value of goods and services, and has made the worthless paper that it actually is into a deviant instrument of constituted wealth. This is true.

Then the next thing you have to figure out, is the “purchasing power” of currency. In the political economy, how much of the “purchasing power” of currency is needed to pay for labor and raw materials, and how much of the purchasing power of currency makes up what Marx called: “Surplus Value.” Lets say the “Sustenance Level” of the currency is around 25%, and the “Surplus Value.” is around 75%. This means that you can charge a profit of 75% on all goods and services, and still stay in a sustainable range and not endanger the economic life of society, which is being taken care of by the afore mentioned 25%. Thus the holders of profit can allocate in this way 75% of the wealth of society, and use that wealth to buy back and own everything. Generally this is called “Wage Profit Co-efficients,” or “Disparity” but it is really more complicated.

Next you have the banks. The way they make money, is to distribute more money to society and corporations then can be matched in a society’s “Gross Domestic Product.” Since goods and services are worthless and money is everything, this means simply that corporations and society are borrowing more money than they can pay back. If the money exceeds “Gross Domestic Product” then this means that the society is borrowing money beyond its collateral or worth, and beyond its productive capacity. This in-debts the whole society and even corporations to the banks.

Once this happens the banks then tighten the flow of currency after the inflationary stage, to a deflationary cycle to make currency harder to obtain, thus increasing its value through relative scarcity. This causes the wealth that society has to  be sucked up by the banks through foreclosure and interest. And at this point interest rates can be raised to increase profit. Thus alternating cycles of inflation and recession insure that the banks keep making money.

The next question is how do corporations and banks split the 75% surplus value.

The banks get 60% through society and corporations paying back their so-called “debts” and corporations get to keep 40% of their wage/profit co-efficient or leeching of surplus value from the political economy described before, factoring in sustaining and surplus forms of purchasing power, as well as use value and surplus value in terms of socially sustainable profit. Then the workers and consumers foot the bill forever.

Thus Capitalism is a scam

https://www.ic.org/

https://www.sott.net/article/321812-Everything-you-ve-been-told-about-debt-is-wrong

https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/bob-black-the-abolition-of-work

[presssorg]

New Zealand shooter steeped attack in dark internet culture

New Zealand shooter steeped attack in dark internet culture SAN FRANCISCO — The suspected New Zealand shooter carefully modeled his attack for an internet age. He live-streamed the massacre, shouted out a popular meme slogan and published a long, rambling manifesto replete with inside jokes geared for those steeped in underground internet culture. The gunman, who carried out an attack on at least one of two mosques targeted Friday in Christchurch, posted the manifesto online using the name Brenton Tarrant. It makes him the latest alleged killer to commit mass slaughter alongside a targeted appeal to online communities that breed extremism.

A police officer escorts a man away from a mosque in central Christchurch, New Zealand, Friday, March 15, 2019. Multiple people were killed in mass shootings at two mosques full of people attending Friday prayers, as New Zealand police warned people to stay indoors as they tried to determine if more than one gunman was involved. (AP Photo/Mark Baker) Prior to killing six people in Isla Vista, California, in 2014, Elliott Rodger posted an online video and circulated a lengthy document full of grievances. He was later found to have ties to a misogynistic online group known as “incels,” or “involuntary celibates,” who sometimes call for violence against women. Last year, Robert Bowers, the man charged with killing 11 people at a Pittsburgh synagogue, posted threats on Gab, a social media site popular with white supremacists. Recruitment with and proliferation of extremist ideals is nothing new — in person or online. People who want to discuss such ideas are bound to find each other, said Daniel Byman, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institute. But whereas small groups might have once met up in real life, now people can go online and find large groups to reinforce and encourage their ideas almost instantly. People do things online that they might be hesitant to do in real life, Byman said. That can range from harmless acts, such as emailing someone you would be too intimidated to approach at a party, to sharing, building on and encouraging extremist views and violence. “It enables you to be bolder,” Byman said.

Online sleuths quickly connected the livestreamed video to posts made by the same user on 8chan, a dark corner of the web where those disaffected by mainstream social media sites often post extremist, racist and violent views. Tarrant’s manifesto spread quickly on 8chan Friday. The 74-page screed espouses white supremacist views even as it contradicts itself. Some saw similarities to the 1,500-page manifesto written by Anders Behring Breivik, a Norwegian right-wing extremist who killed 77 people in 2011. The Tarrant document seemed intended to feed the online communities he took part in, in part by “trolling” common internet themes and outlooks with ironic mockery. “Were you taught violence and extremism by video games, music, literature, cinema?” Tarrant asks himself in the essay. “Yes, Spyro the dragon 3 taught me ethno-nationalism,” he writes, seemingly sarcastically. That passage references a video game for Sony’s PlayStation console intended for children 10 and up. “Fortnite trained me to be a killer and to floss on the corpses of my enemies,” he continued, only to abruptly contradict himself in a classic trolling move: “No.” Fortnite is a popular online battle game. Mary Anne Franks, a law professor at the University of Miami and president of the Cyber Civil Rights Initiative called for greater oversight of social platforms after Tarrant’s manifesto and attack. “It’s pretty clear the person involved here was radicalized online,” she said. “The conversations in these chat rooms and message boards, with in-jokes and memes, are part of a cultivation of a certain kind of radical person in these spaces.” Still, it can be hard to pin his actions on his behaviour online, said Hannah Bloch-Webha, a law professor at Drexel University. “I don’t think society understands enough about the role of propaganda and violent speech in provoking actual violence,” she said. In a live-streamed video of his attack on two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, the shooter says “Remember, lads, subscribe to PewDiePie.” That’s a reference to Felix Kjellberg, a popular YouTuber who has faced considerable controversy of his own over videos that included anti-Semitic jokes and Nazi imagery . But again, Tarrant’s meaning wasn’t straightforward, since he was repeating a popular internet meme crafted to help PewDiePie claim the largest number of followers on YouTube. Kjellberg condemned the attack in a tweet Friday and said he was “sickened” by the use of his name. The act of livestreaming the attack was in itself a sign of how far internet culture has permeated the physical world. People regularly stream daily events now, said Byman of the Brookings Institute, including their confrontations with law enforcement. The shooter did his research, said Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, a Jewish human rights organization. “He found information online, he found validation, he found an ideology and a purpose in life that led directly to what he did,” Cooper said. Social media is at the centre of this increasing challenge, he said. Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and other sites that allow people to upload their own content have faced fierce backlash for letting violent and hate-filled posts and videos spread. The companies eventually halted the spread of the New Zealand shooting livestream Friday. But many say they were too slow, and argue the video shouldn’t have gone online in the first place. —— AP technology reporter Mae Anderson contributed to this article from New York. Published at Fri, 15 Mar 2019 22:45:40 +0000 Read the full article

[opedguy]

Massacre in New Zealand

LOS ANGELES (OnlineColumnist.com), March 15, 2019.--Massacring 49 worshipers in Christichurch, New Zealand’s Al Noor Mosque March 14, 28-year-old Brenton Tarrant [online name] proved that white nationalists are also cable of horrific terrorist acts.  In the worst shooting in New Zealand history, Tarrant planned his attack carefully, before using two assault rifles and shotgun to mow down innocent worshipers, claiming he was avenging Islamic terrorist acts occurring around the globe. Tarrant was especially inspired by the white nationalist massacre of 77 children July 22, 2011 in Norway, where Anders Behring Breivik perpetrated the worst terrorist attack in Norway’s history. “We stand in solidarity with New Zealand,” said Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan, home of the Pakistan Taliban’s routine assaults on Pakistan’s civilian population.  Khan said Tarrant’s attack was evidence of rising hostility toward Muslims around the globe.

            Since Osama bin Laden hijacked and flew jetliners into the World Trade Center Twin Toward and Pentagon Sept. 11, 2011, terrorist bloodshed has run rampant around the globe.  Khan’s correct in pointing out that most of the attacks on civilians stem from Muslims waging jihad on civilians or various Muslim sects, especially Sunni attacks on Shiite holy sites.  President Donald Trump was asked today at an Oval Office veto ceremony over his Feb. 15 emergency border declaration whether he thought this showed the rise of white nationalism.  Trump said “no” but it’s clear that the media narrative blames Trump for promoting the white nationalism, spurring psychos like Tarrant to lash out at Muslims in two New Zealand mosques.  “It is clear that this can now only be described as a terrorist attack,” said New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, calling the incident “one of New Zealand’s darkest days.”

            Calling it a terrorist attack doesn’t describe when a psychopath decides to commit mass murder, typically using semiautomatic firearms, only rarely, like white nationalist Timothy McVeigh who truck-bombed the Alfred P. Murrah Federal building April 19. 1995, killing 168 men, women and children.  Tarrant, like McVeigh, subscribes to no religious ideology like radical Islam, only develops a twisted internal logic to justify mass murder.  Tarrant left a 74-page rambling manifesto, typical of certain mass killers looking for some kind of philosophical justification for perpetrating mass violence.  New Zealand law enforcement officials said Tarrant purchased his weapons legally, part of the 1.5 million gun owners in a 5 million population.  Ardern promised that she would work with New Zealand’s parliament to tighten up the country’s gun laws allowing a lunatic like Tarrant to slip through the cracks.

            New Zealand’s tragedy has already been exploited by left wing groups claiming the rise of white nationalism has been fueled by President Donald Trump.  Heading into the 2020 election, it’s the perfect narrative to blame Trump for the New Zealand massacre or the one in Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life Synagogue Oct. 27, 2018 killing 11 worshipers.  What the two mass killings have in common is a psychopath armed to the teeth with a twisted ideology to justify the mass killing.  While it’s tempting to attribute New Zealand’s Al Noor Mosque massacre to rising anti-Islamic sentiment or Tree of Life shooting to growing anti-Semitism, the truth is sick psychopaths armed-to-the-teeth find twisted excuses for committing mass murder.  “Extremist views have absolutely no place in New Zealand,” said Ardern, saying New Zealand welcomes immigrants of all faiths as long as they abide by the law.

            U.S. government officials have a hard time accepting the fact that with so many guns in circulation, it’s hard for the police to keep lethal weapons out of the hands of the lunatic fringe. Tarrant clearly falls in that category, reading a few pages of his manifesto.  Rambling about race wars sounds reminiscent of the late Charles Manson, whose bloody rampage Aug. 8-9, 1969 also carried a manifesto calling for a race war.  Calling Trump as “symbol of white identity,” Tarrant revved up Trump’s critics, ready to blame him for every nut-job’s violence in the U.S. and around the globe. “A small group of people that have very, very serious problems,” Trump said today at his veto-signing ceremony. There are countless numbers of racists, anti-Semites and anti-Muslim types that don’t commit violence or mass murder.  Mass killers have much in common when it comes to their psychopathic personalities.

            Yesterday’s rampage shows eerie similarities to 64-year-old Stephen Paddock who barricaded himself Oct. 1, 2017 on the 14th floor of Mandalay Bay Hotel in Las Vegas, killing 58 concert goers from his suite’s window.  Police found no manifesto from Paddock or any evidence of motive, despite the fact mass shooters have much in common.  Tarrant rants-and-raves about being a fascist and racist, holding extreme views about the Second Amendment, Muslim immigration, terrorist attacks and the wealthiest one percent.  Unlike Paddock, survivors are treated to Tarrant’s perverted manifesto, giving his twisted logic for committing mass murder. Only blind rage-and-revenge can fuel the kind of rampage that left 49 victims dead in New Zealand’s Al Noor Mosque. While there’s nothing wrong with tightening up gun laws, finding out who’s the next lunatic to go ballistic is no easy task for law enforcement.

About the Author

John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He’s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.

[shirlleycoyle]

How Shadowbanning Went from a Conspiracy Theory to a Selling Point

In our current, feverish reality, it can be hard to remember that previous lifetimes were just as surreal. Two years ago, in a Congressional hallway, conspiracy titan Alex Jones really did pursue and then confront Congressman Marco Rubio, calling him a “snake,��� a “frat boy,” and a “little gangster thug.”

The cause of the altercation was both typical Jones—a stunt for attention, in front of a pliant bank of TV cameras—and something much larger. Jones was infuriated by his supposed “shadowbanning” from Big Tech platforms, and he’d come to Capitol Hill to demand answers.

“The real election meddling is by Facebook and Google and others that are shadow banning people,” Jones bellowed in the direction of those cameras. “They are outright banning people and they are blocking conservatives involved in their own First Amendment political speech.”

Jones’ pursuit of Rubio was one of several colorful incidents spanning 2018, when conservatives and the far-right alike were gripped by the fear that they were being silenced on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Ultimately, those conservative users included the president himself, who tweeted, “Twitter ‘SHADOW BANNING’ prominent Republicans. Not good. We will look into this discriminatory and illegal practice at once! Many complaints.”

In the past two years, shadowbanning has become a central part of the cosmology of the right wing. At a round of anti-trust hearings in July, Rep. Jim Jordan declared, “I’ll just cut to the chase. Big tech is out to get conservatives. That’s not a suspicion, that’s not a hunch, that’s a fact.”

But despite Jordan’s performative outrage, while it was once the conservative and far right cause du jour, shadowbanning has, more or less, come to be accepted as an immovable part of the technological landscape. And instead of merely loudly complaining, many people are, cannily, turning to something a lot more profitable. A host of alternative social media platforms that have sprung up in recent years, each promising to be the most free. Shadowbanning and supposed “silencing” at the hands of Big Tech have gone from a controversy to an integral part of the business model.

Trump’s 2018 tweet appeared to have been responding to a VICE News story, which reported that Twitter wasn’t showing several Republican congressmen, Republican Party chair Ronna McDaniel, and Donald Trump Jr.’s spokesperson in their dropdown search bar, making them less easy to immediately find and slightly limiting their reach. The intent, Twitter told VICE News at the time, wasn’t to specifically silence conservative voices, but, as a May blog post from the company put it, “combat troll-like behaviors” and make users more visible who contribute to “the healthy conversation.” (After VICE News’s report, the ability to find those prominent Republican users in a drop-down search was quickly restored.)

What constitutes “healthy conversation” is doubtless a judgment call; what’s more, Twitter’s decision fed into a paranoia already stoked by a purported “report” from Project Veritas, the conservative sting organization best known for misleadingly edited videos, which claimed that the company’s engineers conspired to silence viewpoints they didn’t agree with. “'Shadow banning' to be used to stealthily target political views,” the organization trumpeted.

Conservatives in high places took up the call: at the Congressional hearings that fall, which were broadly about how platforms like Facebook and Twitter combat disinformation and foreign influence campaigns, House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Greg Walden took time to demand that Dorsey address shadowbanning. 

Shadowbanning caught on in part because it fed into a long history of conservative suspicion, the idea that mainstream methods of communication were biased, stacked against them, unforgivably liberal. The place where that’s historically been most visible is in newspapers and news broadcasts. Fox News, of course, was founded on the idea that “fair and balanced” news was in criminally short supply. But as the Atlantic wrote in 2014, Fox News is one of a long series of conservative alternatives to mainstream news, starting with conservative newspapers like Human Events.

In 2018, the low grumble of silencing and unfairness coalesced into something far more visible, and shadowbanning became permanently enshrined as part of the conservative and far-right landscape of grievance. (It was even, at times, conflated with users who were indeed silenced on those platforms, not in secret, but outright: Milo Yiannpoulos, Alex Jones, Laura Loomer and others were loudly kicked off various platforms in 2019.)

In actuality, the only group of people who could persuasively make the case that they were being truly shadowbanned on the basis of their identity were (and are) sex workers, who say they’ve faced permanent suspensions and what they suspect is shadowbanning on Twitter, as well as their accounts being repeatedly deleted on Instagram for sharing things as anodyne as photos of their freshly painted toenails.

In 2018, most of the people who complained of being shadowbanned still had plenty of places to complain about it—their own websites, radio shows, and, in the case of Alex Jones and InfoWars, a network of secondary Twitter accounts and Facebook pages, semi-official ones whose sole purpose is to link to InfoWars stories and which remain active to this day—the idea that conservatives needed an alternative platform quickly took hold. The earliest one that ultimately took off was Gab, which launched in beta in 2016, and whose CEO Andrew Torba was kicked out of the startup accelerator Y Combinator the same year for violating its harassment policy.

Torba describes himself as a “conservative Republican Christian” who felt forced to hide his views because he worried it would be, as TechCrunch wrote at the time, “a hindrance to my career — which proved to be true.” In his telling, when he became open about his views, he was called a “racist” and a “bigot,” and ultimately kicked out of Y Combinator (which did not help fund Gab). Y Combinator, meanwhile, said that he’d been removed for speaking in a “threatening, harassing way” to other Y Combinator alumni, for instance writing in a Facebook comment, “All of you: fuck off. Take your morally superior, elitist, virtue signaling bullshit and shove it. I call it like I see it, and I helped meme a President into office, cucks.” The controversy almost certainly helped drive Gab into the spotlight: Google Trends shows that while Gab launched in August of 2016, its mentions in news skyrocketed in November,  when news of Torba’s ousting began circulating. (Discussions of the far right’s burgeoning influence, of course, also became a big topic around November of 2016 due to the presidential election, which probably also helped.)

Gab has claimed throughout its life that the network seeks to allow for truly free speech. Regardless of those lofty goals, it’s primarily become popular with Nazis and the far right, most ignominiously becoming the place where a man posted a violent manifesto before killing 11 people at a mass shooting at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh.

It soon had competition and company. The founder of CloutHub, a little known social network that launched in 2019, told a site called Just the News that he’d personally been shadowbanned on Twitter, adding, "So I have first-hand experience with big-tech censorship. I felt it was un-American and that the people needed to have a platform where they can discuss issues without big-tech silencing our voices." Brighteon, a YouTube alternative, promises “Watch documentaries the techno-fascists don't want you to know even exist.”  And now there’s Parler, which in a floridly written “Declaration of Independence,” claimed, “They manipulate their platform to hide information. They shadow ban, trick and deceive. They have become enablers, and often leaders, of the vicious cancel-culture mob who goose-step through our online communities and scream down those who dare to disagree.” Unlike Gab, however, Parler doesn’t make any pretense of being ideologically neutral, trumpeting its success at courting Republican lawmakers and other Trump allies.

In a way, though, none of these sites are really successful without Twitter or Facebook, sites that are constantly referenced and used to promote users’ moves to these other platforms, none of which seem to be able to exactly survive without the supposedly unfair ecosystem that surrounds them. (News organizations are also wholly reliant on these platforms to get anyone to see stories, and suffer similarly from opaque changes to the algorithm; the people who are shadowbanned, however, seem to see themselves as inherently special.)

The effect is that many prominent conservatives are touting their moves to Parler while continuing to tweet, like full-time Twitter user and former Congressional candidate DeAnna Lorraine, who recently wrote, “Welp Since Twitter Thought Police have began aggressively shadowbanning me lately, I’m heading over to Parler! I’m going to start posting regularly there as I need a backup platform. Follow me there! Also does anyone know of an app that auto syncs your Tweets to Parler posts?” Rep. Jim Jordan, who railed recently that Big Tech was “out to get conservatives,” invited his Twitter followers in June to join him on Parler, tweeting, “They don’t censor or shadow ban.” He continues to tweet many times a day.

To date, Parler and Gab are still battling for the ultimate prize: President Trump, who continues to use Twitter, even as he darkly rants about its unfairness. And by late June, Parler—in what will seem deeply ironic to some and like poetic justice to others—had reportedly begun banning liberal users, proving, perhaps, that the point was never about truly free and unfettered speech at all.

Follow Anna Merlan on Twitter.

How Shadowbanning Went from a Conspiracy Theory to a Selling Point syndicated from https://triviaqaweb.wordpress.com/feed/

[thesinglesjukebox]

EMINEM - DARKNESS

[2.20]

We’ve come to talk about Em again...

Alfred Soto: Good lord -- an Eminem single called "Darkness," surprised yet? The Simon and Garfunkel interpolation and sound effects come off as cheap contexualizing for the sake of a bait-and-switch in which Em unmasks himself as Stephen Paddock. With critics paying renewed attention to the complexity of his flow, it's also worth stressing that ability tethered to self-pity deserves scorn. [4]

Brad Shoup: I swear to Christ I saw the title and knew he was gonna interpolate Simon and Garfunkel. But I also knew he and Royce were making their own "Six Feet Deep," and I was way off. Turns out it's a creative-writing assignment designed to keep the grader's pen dangling forever. What do you do with something detailed so painstakingly and painfully? The parallels Em draws are clever enough linguistically. (Has any song ever flattered Genius annotators more?) But the only ones that feel legit involve substance abuse. This is a megalomaniacal idea presented bashfully -- I should be grateful he isn't trying to do voice acting -- and framed thoughtlessly. The gunshots and screams are ghoulish enough without considering how the rest of his catalog uses them as cartoon gags. A fantastically bad idea that I will be thinking about for at least as long as the song's excruciating runtime. [5]

Kylo Nocom: Em forces the audience to endure his balladry, only to reveal that they were, like, empathizing with the Las Vegas shooter the entire time! The set-up is... intriguing (to call it "well-executed" feels like making another lame pun he'd squeeze in) yet it still sucks in many ways that don't even require public moral outcry: the sound effects spoil the twist way too early, his singing burps out remnants of emo rap, the beat samples fucking Simon & Garfunkel, and I still hate the sound of this guy's voice doing anything. To write any more on this feels like losing a game that Eminem will win -- a point he makes annoyingly often and remains true. But it's a shame that something meant to be poignant from the guy comes out as weak shock humor. [3]

Julian Axelrod: In theory, I'm not mad that Eminem is still trying to pivot to Social Commentary Anthems. I guess I'd rather hear him use his platform to wrestle with knotty issues than peddle stale punchlines about killing Honey Boo Boo or whatever. But what's really frustrating is Eminem's refusal to drop his gimmicks when it matters. You can't make a song about real life survivors and reference Saturday Night Fever. You can't condemn gun violence at festivals and condemn festival-goers concerned about gun violence. And regardless of the subject matter, you cannot punctuate a belabored alcohol-as-gun metaphor by muttering "Double entendre" like a sadistic, self-satisfied SparkNotes. That's the worst part: No one outside of Eminem's stanbase will be swayed by this, and very few within it will either. When will his reign of terror end? When no one cares. [0]

Isabel Cole: Oh, fuck you: for being tacky enough to open a limp-pulsing track called "Darkness" with a phrase that's been memed into meaninglessness and then marrying it to our particular American plague so that I feel irrationally bad about dismissing it with a flippant joke. But, fine, Eminem has put on his (boring, ill-fitting) big boy clothes, so let's do this. Being a grown-up, like being an artist, means being accountable for your choices, beginning with not just the choice to rap from the perspective of a mass shooter (although it's hard to imagine a level of artistic merit or political efficacy that would justify that decision), but specifically the choice of this shooter, this tragedy. It's easy to imagine why this particular incident would call to Eminem, from the infamy of the body count to the anxiety he must feel about the possibility of a similar event striking one of his own audiences. In choosing a mass murderer who remains so enigmatic, Eminem gets to dwell in the alleged mystery of violence, emphasizing its senselessness even to those who commit it. But it's more than the scale that makes that massacre unusual (although the scale also bears on the irresponsibility of his selection: come on, dude, how can you profess concern and not see yourself laying the groundwork for some other asshole to think "if I kill enough people someone famous will write a song about me?"); the perpetrator had no known history of domestic violence, but the majority of such men do. You can't talk about American violence without talking about American misogyny, and selecting a narrative that enables you to avoid the connection between the two marks you as someone with nothing to contribute to the conversation; implicitly generalizing this genderless narrative by layering news audio clips of shooting after shooting brings it from stupid to evil, emphasizing the pervasive danger of American culture now that men are dying too. This is of course particularly galling coming from goddamn Eminem, who has profited so handsomely from the commodification of violence against women. Galling partly because it retroactively dims whatever insights on the topic he may have laid claim to: rather than the inscrutable, almost mystical lost soul portrayed here, most of these men are something more like the narrator of "Love the Way You Lie" plus a couple years on the wrong parts of Reddit. He could have chosen to bridge that gap for his long-time listeners, to make the connection between hating the bitch who ruined your life and being self-centered enough to want to watch the world burn, but he didn't. Making me wonder what exactly he thought he was rapping about all those years, if he finds this form of violence so novel. [0]

Will Rivitz: I see Lin-Manuel's done away with his orchestra's string section. [2]

Andy Hutchins: The distance between "Hi, kids! Do you like violence? / Wanna see me stick nine-inch nails through each one of my eyelids?" and a three-verse double entendre that doesn't exactly strain itself to not sympathize with one of history's most nefarious mass murderers is not as far as one should probably walk in 20 years of life. A less clever rapper would not have found as many ways firearms buttress our vernacular; a cleverer one might have made this song about that instead of a five-minute trigger warning. A wiser one wouldn't have attempted this at all: Noble though the aim may be, there is no target audience here. [3]

Will Adams: Eminem stepping into the mind of a mass shooter is not surprising. Punctuating said narrative with in media res sound effects (shower curtains! pill bottles! loading clips! screams!), turning "The Sound of Silence" into a Talkboy sample, and making this shit five and a half minutes long? That takes extra chutzpah. [2]

Katherine St Asaph: I suspect the efforts to prevent copycat shootings were doomed ages ago, if not after Columbine then definitely after Rodger. Even if every mass shooter permanently closed off his chosen inspiration to all future comers, there are still enough sprees strewn throughout history -- hell, just through this millennium -- to produce years of trauma; and even if every media outlet declined to report shooters' names or manifestos, all of that would still circulate on chans and Discords (where they probably originated anyway) that any given proto-shooter is far more likely to read than the Associated Press, and infinitely more likely to trust. It's a failure of imagination: far easier to high-mindedly decline to acknowledge shootings than to reckon with them, to dissect and understand what makes them happen and more importantly what doesn't, and thus learn how to stop them. As a certain folk duo sang, silence like a cancer grows -- which brings us to Eminem's "Sound of Silence"-sampling, presumably cautionary foray into the Vegas shooter's mind. If your average caustic millennial isn't reading the mainstream news, he's definitely not listening to Eminem in 2020, and yet "Darkness" crumples under the burden of needing to not inspire anyone. The rapping is low-energy, the rhymes distractingly stiff or goofy -- trigger/convictions, booze/snooze -- the flow lumbering and often just bad. Where Disturbed heightened "The Sound of Silence" to Game of Thrones grandeur, Em and Royce -- perhaps building on a popular mashup -- desiccates it. The arrangement is the midpoint of Alex da Kid and "Teardrop": a smothering quicksand, meant to drag listeners into inertia and keep them there. (For all the gunshots-and-cussing masculinity of this, the piano loop reminds me most of Sarah Brightman's cover of "Scarborough Fair": delicately hypnotic.) Eminem conveys neither Slim Shady's glee nor "Love the Way You Lie"'s visceral anger, nor much but a morose slog, but give him this: It is mostly impossible to imagine someone hearing "Darkness" and buying a gun. Mostly. Why, if you're aiming not to inspire, would you musically accompany the killing-spree verse by finally moving past line two of "The Sound of Silence," to where the melody gratifyingly blooms upward? The vodka bottles in the video -- the lyrics' metaphorical gun, shown in appealing product-placement close-up -- are thankfully fake prop brands -- but then why do the close-ups at all? Most tellingly, Eminem chooses one of the few shooters with no manifesto to disseminate and few known motivations. Whether that's out of a desire to avoid spreading the truly hateful shit (which would be a recent development), to avoid the issue in general, or just to play the guy with the biggest body count, it means he gets away with lines like "you'll never find a motive, truth is I have no idea" instead of engaging with the specific kind of nihilism shooters are all too happy to tell you about -- a nihilism that is, in some part, his creation. When will this end? When enough people care what "this" is. Begrudging point for the part where, after Eminem says "magazines," the video cuts to actual magazines, like the glossy paper kind: the best trolling he's done in years, specifically of the sort of gunfuckers who were already halfway through a comment about him saying "clips." I suppose it's not the bleakest way he's made people laugh. [3]

Jacob Sujin Kuppermann: At one point Eminem had the capacity to make jokes. He's way funnier here, his faux-double entendres and sampha-soundalike Simon and Garfunkel interpolation adding up to something so maudlin and obvious that it's almost impossible to listen to as serious political rap. It's not even disgusting. [0]

[Read, comment and vote on The Singles Jukebox]

[thisdaynews]

White House drafting order on tech industry 'censorship'

New Post has been published on https://thebiafrastar.com/white-house-drafting-order-on-tech-industry-censorship/

White House drafting order on tech industry 'censorship'

Social media companies, including Twitter, have denied the allegations of bias, though they say they have blocked or removed users who violate community standardspolicies. | Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

The White House is circulating drafts of a proposed executive order that would address allegations of anti-conservative bias by social media companies, according to a White House official and two other people familiar with the matter — a month after President Donald Trump pledged to explore “all regulatory and legislative solutions” on the issue.

None of the three would describe the contents of the order, which one person cautioned has already taken many different forms and remains in flux. But its existence, and the deliberations surrounding it, are evidence that the administration is taking a serious look at wielding the federal government’s power against Silicon Valley.

Story Continued Below

“If the internet is going to be presented as this egalitarian platform and most of Twitter is liberal cesspools of venom, then at least the president wants some fairness in the system,” the White House official said. “But look, we also think that social media plays a vital role. They have a vital role and an increasing responsibility to the culture that has helped make them so profitable and so prominent.”

Two other people knowledgeable about the discussions also confirmed the existence of the draft order.

None of the three people could say what penalties, if any, the order would envision for companies deemed to be censoring political viewpoints. The order, which deals with other topics besides tech bias, is still in the early drafting stages and is not expected to be issued imminently.

“The President announced at this month’s social media summit that we were going to address this and the administration is exploring all policy solutions,” a second White House official said Wednesday when asked about the draft order.

Accusations of anti-conservative bias have become a frequent rallying cry for Trump and his supporters, seizing on incidents in which tech platformslike Facebook, Twitter and Google-owned YouTube have banned people likeInfoWars founderand conspiracy theorist Alex Jonesor faced accusations of squelching posts by pro-Trump social media personalities Diamond and Silk.

The companies have denied the allegations of bias, though they say they have blocked or removed users who violate community standardspolicies. They have also faced complaints from liberal activists that they’re too slow to remove hate speech, a category that some say includes Trump’s own tweets.

The issue took center stage during a White House gathering in July in which Trump railed against censorshipin front of a roomful of online conservative activists, and directed his administration to explore all “regulatory and legislative solutions to protect free speech and the free-speech rights of all Americans.” Just this week, Trump warned that he is “watching Google very closely,” citing the case of an engineer who has claimed the company fired him for his conservative views.

But the White House effort may be complicated by skepticism in some agencies involved in the discussions about tech policy. The Republicans at the Federal Communications Commission and Federal Trade Commission have said publicly that they don’t see a role for their agencies in policing companies’ online content. The FCC and FTC have joined the Justice and Commerce departments in discussions about the potential bias crackdown.

“There’s very little in terms of direct regulation the federal government can do without congressional action, and frankly I think that’s a positive thing,” said John Morris, who handled internet policy issues at the Commerce Department’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration before leaving in May.

He added: “Although the government may be able to support and assist online platforms’ efforts to reduce hate and violence online, the government should not try to impose speech regulations on private platforms. As politicians from both sides of the political spectrum have historically urged, the government should not be in the business of regulating speech.”

One potential approach could involve using the government’s leverage over federal contractors, a tactic the Obama administration used to advance LGBT rights. A 2014 executive order prohibited federal contractors from discriminating against workers on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity.

Trump earlier this year signed an executive order meant to promote free speech on college campuses by requiring schools to agree to promote free inquiry in order to receive federal research funding — something the schools were already supposed to do.

Concerns about harmful content online following last weekend’s mass shooting in El Paso, Texas, could become part of the discussion around the draft order on tech bias. The suspected gunman has been linked to a racist manifesto that, shortly before the shooting, appeared on 8chan, a fringe website known as a hotbed of white supremacy. Online screeds tied to two other gunmen in mass shootings in California and New Zealand have also appeared on 8chan.

Trump said Monday that he wants the government to work with social media “to develop tools that can detect mass shooters before they strike,” and the White House has invited internet and technology companies for a discussion on violent online extremism with senior administration officials Friday.

The first White House official said the administration sees no conflict between demanding that online companies allow free speech while expecting them to scrutinize people for signs of violence.

“They have a role, if not a responsibility, to monitor the content on their sites to ensure that people aren’t threatened with violence or worse, and at the same time to provide a platform that protects and cherishes freedom and free speech, but at the same time does not allow it to descend into a platform for hate,” the first White House official said when asked about the draft executive order.

But the federal government’s options on combating online bias are limited by the First Amendment.Another obstacle is a provision of the 1996 Communications Decency Act, which both protects online platforms from liability for content their users post and empowers the companies to remove content without fear of liability. That provision, Section 230, has increasingly come under fire from lawmakers of both parties frustrated with tech companies’ content moderation practices.

The administration could look to NTIA, the branch of the Commerce Department that handles communications policy, but that agency lacks regulatory authority and could simply convene interested parties to explore the issues.

And while the Justice Department has announced a sweeping antitrust review of whether tech giants are harming competition or stifling innovation,antitrust cases have not traditionally been used as tools to address complaints about online speech.

The prospects are also bleak at the independent agencies, the FCC and the FTC.

Section 230 doesn’t give the FCC a regulatory hook to act on, and the Republican commissioners who lead the agency have already taken a hard line against one major government effort to regulate broadband providers’ conduct — the commission’s Obama-era net neutrality rules. And when Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg wrote an op-ed proposing the creation of “third-party bodies to set standards governing the distribution of harmful content,” Republican FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr derided it as a plea for the government to police speech.

“Outsourcing censorship to the government is not just a bad idea, it would violate the First Amendment,” tweeted Carr, who is a Trump appointee.“I’m a no.”

Conservatives have also spent decades opposing any attempt to revive the FCC’s old Fairness Doctrine, which required broadcasters to be balanced in their programming on controversial issues. “FCC bureaucrats can neither determine what is ‘fair’ nor enforce it,” the Heritage Foundation said in 1993.

Republicans at the FTC, which punishes companies for unfair or deceptive acts, also have said they don’t see a role for the agency in policing allegations of social media bias.

During an FTC oversight hearing in the Senate last year, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) argued that a tech company could be considered“actively deceptive” if it appears to be a neutral public platform and then engages in censorship. But Republican Commissioner Noah Phillips said the FTC’s antitrust and consumer protection authorities are “not authorities to police the First Amendment itself.”

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