thehappyspaceman

[thehappyspaceman]

Alrighty, since there's a surprisingly large number of prog fans on Tumblr, I got a question for y'all. There seems to be a lot of division about this.

[thehappyspaceman]

Thanks to all who listened to my live Dark Matter set on Rock Hits 92.3 this past Sunday! And for all those who missed it, it's now up on their site! Enjoy!

[thehappyspaceman]

The fact that I've frequently misspelled my own name is something that I will, personally, never let myself live down.

[thehappyspaceman]

I'm happy to announce that tomorrow at 7 PM EDT, I will be playing a set and giving an interview on Rock Hits 92.3 as part of their Live & Local radio show!

I'll be talking about the upcoming Dark Matter album Living for the Darkness and playing some songs from it. You can listen on 92.3 WXRK-FM in Charlottesville or https://923xrk.org/ online everywhere else! (And it will also be available to listen to afterwards, so I'll give a link once it's online.)

[thehappyspaceman]

David Gilmour and his suspiciously specific denial (1972)

[thehappyspaceman]

Dark Matter - Internet Archive Essential Music Concerts from Home

My performance for the Internet Archive's Essential Music Concerts from Home is now available online! I did a short set including my songs "Thought Police" and Light Speed."

Thanks once again to the Internet Archive for hosting me, and for all the work they do with media preservation!

[thehappyspaceman]

Dark Matter - "Piss on a Tesla"

A humorous protest song inspired by serious current events.

Download this song here!

And don't forget to support me on Patreon!

[thehappyspaceman]

On RFK Jr.'s BS (and its ties to a known hate group).

I don't usually write posts about stuff like this, but I gotta get this out of my system.

So I'm sure all of y'all by now have seen what Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has said about people with autism, as part of his anti-vax rhetoric of using "environmental factors" (vaccines) as a cause of autism. And in this, he talks about how kids' lives are ruined by autism with the following (CW: Ableism):

Now, there are many, many things wrong with this. The biggest part is that he's calling for autistic people to be institutionalized, which is... a choice. There's also the fact that he listed "paying taxes" and "holding a job" in front of the other elements of personal fulfillment, basically stating that contributing to the state is a higher priority than being able to fulfill one's own personal needs. Then there's the idea that people with autism will never do any of these things, which is... blatantly wrong, and it is incredibly, and understandably, tempting to focus on the fact that yes, there are plenty of autistic people who can hold a job, play baseball, write a poem, go out on a date, yadda yadda. We all know that. Literally two seconds of googling will debunk this. And ultimately there's little point in trying to argue with these people about these facts when they can just blatantly lie and get away with it.

But let's go back to that first one I listed, because the overall biggest issue is simply the fact that he wants autistic people in general to be institutionalized and states that they are lesser people.

This is not out of nowhere. In fact, I immediately recognized this as the language of Autism Speaks.

For those who somehow don't know, Autism Speaks is an "autism awareness" organization that notably has no people with autism on its board, has vast money mismanagement funneling company funds directly into the people at the top, and has been criticized by a huge number of people with autism. Not undeserved, either, as they've spent years and years convincing parents that having a kid with autism, of any level of functionality, is the literal worst thing in the world and will tear apart your family, break up your marriage, make your family a laughingstock, and put you thousands of dollars in debt. And by the way, this is not an exaggeration. They had a commercial that literally said as much (again, CW for ableism):

Here's the (partial) transcript for those who understandably don't want to give it views:

I am autism. I’m visible in your children, but if I can help it, I am invisible to you until it’s too late. I know where you live. And guess what? I live there too. I hover around all of you. I know no color barrier, no religion, no morality, no currency. I speak your language fluently. And with every voice I take away, I acquire yet another language. I work very quickly. I work faster than pediatric aids, cancer, and diabetes combined, and if you’re happily married, I will make sure that your marriage fails. Your money will fall into my hands, and I will bankrupt you for my own self-gain. I don’t sleep, so I make sure you don’t either. I will make it virtually impossible for your family to easily attend a temple, birthday party, or public park without a struggle, without embarrassment, without pain. You have no cure for me. Your scientists don’t have the resources, and I relish their desperation. Your neighbors are happier to pretend that I don’t exist—of course, until it’s their child. I am autism. I have no interest in right or wrong. I derive great pleasure out of your loneliness. I will fight to take away your hope. I will plot to rob you of your children and your dreams. I will make sure that every day you wake up you will cry, wondering who will take care of my child after I die? And the truth is, I am still winning, and you are scared. And you should be.

Again, there is a lot to unpack with this. First of all, it places the emphasis of the problems on the parents ("I will make sure that your marriage fails. Your money will fall into my hands") rather than the autistic kids, because the kids are viewed as less human and their problems are lesser. This continues into the line about embarrassing the parents when going out to church, birthday parties, and parks. The kids are only taken into consideration after it says "You have no cure for me… I will fight to take away your hope," and even then, it says, "I will plot to rob you of your children and your dreams." Still placing emphasis on the parent rather than on the child--what about their dreams? Not taken into consideration because they are not human. And there's also the fact that it places heavy emphasis on the lack of a cure for autism, rather than on fixing society and giving accessibility accommodations for those with autism to make their lives easier.

The other video I'd like to bring up is this interview with one of the moms from Autism Speaks, who openly admits that she had considered killing herself and her autistic daughter (if you've gotten this far, you already know CW: ableism):

She's talking about it like one might talk about killing a pet that's sick. And in her own words, the only thing preventing her from doing so was her other non-autistic child. Because only that child is seen as human. Despicable.

And okay, yeah, most of you know that Autism Speaks is garbage. (I mean, I hope you know and I don't have to tell you, but if you didn't know before now, then I urge you to stop supporting them, and to tell anyone you know who does support them to also stop.) So why am I telling you this? Because this is literally the exact same rhetoric that RFK Jr. and every anti-vaxxer has. This belief that autism is a curse, a disease. To them, it's better to have your kid die of preventable diseases than risk even the possibility of them having autism. It's all right out of the Autism Speaks playbook.

It's no coincidence that earlier this year, we got that Zachary Levi movie, The Unbreakable Boy, that suggested that the thing to help people with autism is to chuck them into a mental asylum without ever visiting them and that will make them get better. That was based on a real blog from the father of an autistic child and was funded by Autism Speaks.

I don't like throwing around the term "eugenics," because it's one of those terms that gets overused to death on the Internet, and its overuse lessens the impact of the term. But... this is, quite literally, the language of eugenics. And it's becoming important to spot stuff like this, so I wanted to throw this out there.

Yes, plenty of autistic people will hold a job, play baseball, write a poem, go out on a date, pay taxes. But those who can't do those things are also important, and their lives shouldn't have to be justified based on how much they contribute to society and how exploitable their deviation from the norm is by elites.

Anyway, I'm done with this rant now. Screw Autism Speaks, screw RFK Jr., and screw anyone who ascribes to their rhetoric. Protect autistic people.

[thehappyspaceman]

Ayo! Thanks for the 2,000 subscribers on my review channel, y'all!

I should probably do something special for the occasion, huh?

[thehappyspaceman]

"Remember when you were young / You shone like the sun / Shine on, you crazy diamond…"

My contribution to the My Past Is Not Today collab! I drew Sunset Shimmer in the style of one of my favorite album covers of all time, Wish You Were Here by Pink Floyd! (Fun fact: I was going to add a background but it took the entire length of the album itself to draw the flames. 🙃)

Sunset Shimmer, My Little Pony © Hasbro

Wish You Were Here album cover © Pink Floyd, Hipgnosis

Art © me

Feel free to support me on Patreon!

[thehappyspaceman]

30 minutes, y'all!

The Falsies - Hunnies on 20s (Live at The Camel)

PREMIERING TOMORROW AT 2 PM EDT!

The band I'm in, the Falsies, celebrate Women's History Month with a song about all the great candidates for a woman on the $20 bill! Filmed at The Camel in Richmond, VA on August 27, 2023.

You can purchase the single version here!

[thehappyspaceman]

The Falsies - Hunnies on 20s (Live at The Camel)

PREMIERING TOMORROW AT 2 PM EDT!

The band I'm in, the Falsies, celebrate Women's History Month with a song about all the great candidates for a woman on the $20 bill! Filmed at The Camel in Richmond, VA on August 27, 2023.

You can purchase the single version here!

[thehappyspaceman]

2025 mood.

The Falsies' new music video "It's Not Fun (To Have Fun)!" will be premiering today at 5 PM the Vinegar Hill Theatre as part of the Indie Short Film Festival! Tickets are available here. Be sure to watch it if you can!

[thehappyspaceman]

Music video premiere ON SATURDAY!

For anyone in the Charlottesville area this weekend, The Falsies' new music video "It's Not Fun (To Have Fun)!" will be playing at 5 PM this Saturday, March 22 at the Vinegar Hill Theatre as part of the Indie Short Film Festival organized by Ty Cooper! Tickets are available here.

"It's Not Fun (To Have Fun)!" depicts a newly sentient piece of broccoli navigating calamities and disasters while attempting to cope with the overwhelming burden of consciousness.

[thehappyspaceman]

New music festival lineup drop, so you know what that means! It's time to play:

[thehappyspaceman]

New Falsies music video drops this Saturday!

“A newly sentient piece of broccoli navigates calamities and disasters, while attempting to cope with the overwhelming burden of consciousness.”

Come see the video premiere of "It's Not Fun (To Have Fun)!" this Saturday, March 22nd at 5pm at Charlottesville's Vinegar Hill Theatre! Tickets are available here.