I’d love to keep the tradition of International Down with Cis Day going, but I’m alone in this deal. Or am I? I did see one down with cis meme on my tumblr dash. It’s a variant on this new “what if we kissed” meme. Enjoy.
–
Advertisements on Freethought Blogs – we used to have
plenty but now we have none. I used to see them as ugly,
rude, generally an eyesore. That’s to say nothing of the
infections of spyware unleashed by the more dubious
links. I didn’t like them before. But now?
Feeling kind of sad. I miss seeing the clickbait titles.
Obesity panaceas and hot bible prophecies, means for the
old to become young, or at least smooth out their skin.
Losing the ads has been like losing the spice on our blogs –
simply sad. FtB is too boring now. Capitalism save us.
–
Just in case anyone’s forgotten, Chelsea Manning is still in jail, and currently in solitary confinement. The legal defense link again. When does the world stop burning? We could use a rest.
–
The ads on FtB were so vile I rarely looked at the site without adblockers myself. Now that I know they’re gone, I know I have more control over how my blog looks. What do I do here? I feel frisky. Maybe if I get more free time I’ll gussy up the joint. What would you like to see more of on my blog?
–
I guess I’ll be the first person to reference this prominently on the internet. It is really hard to find anything about the movie “Us” on the web still. I hope that doesn’t mean people are sleeping on it. One of my few quibbles about its execution is that I wanted more, and that would only be possible with a bigger budget. It’ll be harder for Peele to get the kinda budget he deserves if this one doesn’t crush at the box office like it ought to.
Anyhow. Ophelia, call the police!
–
I’m watching “Us” tonight. And I won’t stop making nagging posts about it until everyone comments here that they’ve bought tickets or made plans.
EDIT – I saw it. My work week’s starting now-ish so I don’t know if I’ll get a full review in. It was a good time.
–
When I tried to get tickets for “Us,” I could only find 7 PM showings. I assumed the theaters were, for whatever reason, giving it a limited run. However, I was very mistaken. I wasn’t aware the release date had been bumped to the 22nd, and I also wasn’t aware that it’s normal for shows to have night time showings the day before the official release. I was shopping for tickets on the 21st, so only showings were 7 or later.
That’s nice tho. I’d hate for there to be anything holding back that movie’s conquest of the universe, and I found out there isn’t. Also, it explains why the internet has been so quiet about it. The hype will happen when people start to see it.
That’s all for now. Also, see the movie, or I’ll box your ears.
EDIT TO ADD: Incidentally, this means I’m going on opening night, which I didn’t want to do. O_o
EDIT TO ADD:
–
A few important things about the Christchurch terrorism might set it apart from previous incidents of a similar nature. Obviously the scale, the number of victims. But also where in the world it happened. There are a lot of muslims in Southeast Asia and the islands there. Countries like Indonesia and Bangladesh were very quick to make statements, get involved. Tempers are heated.
White supremacist terrorists want the same thing islamist terrorists want: to spark a global fight to the death between religious / racial factions. Unfortunately, the rise of global fascism has brought a lot of people to power that agree with the aim. Christchurch is great fuel for making the west look like monsters. Nazi dickholes like Fraser Anning stump up, muslims see that. Islamist terrorists are surely using the opportunity to recruit. Sheisty governments like Indonesia and the United Snakes figure out ways to take advantage.
Seems like the internet is moving on pretty damn fast. But for those most vulnerable to being manipulated by this shit, it won’t be so easily forgotten. I don’t feel like I’m going to forget it that fast. But just the same, it’s probably time for me to stop blogging about it.
Last words from me? Condolences or eulogies? The dead have no problems. A moment of silence to think about that peace. It’s sad for the living who peer into the void, but in that place there is no pain or sadness. I’ll take a cold comfort.
–
People have been talking about how Youtube‘s reliance on traffic-driving recommendation algorithms has turned the site into an engine for extreme right wing recruitment. We’ve been talking about it, but this looks like the perfect moment to really press the issue.
The latest white supremacist terrorist name dropped a youtube goon right before killing people. It may seem venal to use a moment like this to push a political agenda, but that’s only if your brain is back in 1995 treating politics like opinions. This is life and death. Breaking this messed up machine can save your children from becoming killers, or from being killed.
Youtube. I can tell you exactly why this happened. Hate sells. It drives excitement, which drives clicks and page views and view time. So your blind robots see a neo-nazi channel and it just looks popular, looks commercially successful, and tries to send as many people that way as possible. I see less of that stuff on your front page than I used to, so I suspect you’re doing a little damage control. But it isn’t enough.
You need to de-platform these people. Anyone who talks about white genocide, about immigrants as invaders, and so on. If you can program robots to copyright block anyone who accidentally produces the wrong chord progression, you can figure out a way to block hate speech.
You built the nerd-to-nazi pipeline. It’s high time you tore it down.
–
CW: Mass murder, islamophobia
Mass murder in New Zealand. I’m really glad there isn’t anyone on the blogroll here anymore in overt denial of the reality of islamophobia. I’d like to encourage any readers that still have any question about that in their head to really really interrogate themselves about it.
You don’t have to come as far as I have, to seeing the mainstream atheist movement as a major catalyst of it, but at least see. Look at the rhetoric about islam, the way people treat it as a unique and special force for violent extremism in the world. Look at the way that makes good old boys feel the need to weapon up and take it down to the mosque. Look at the body counts and the coordination of the newest attacks and just accept the evidence of your eyes.
Islamophobia is real and it’s really fucked up that a lot of people who think of themselves as progressives still don’t accept that. The government of New Zealand is far from perfect, but at least I think they might take this as the impetus to start tackling white terrorism, whereas that wouldn’t happen over a mountain of bodies here. But it’s still a fucking grim situation.
Also be careful what pictures and videos you’re exposed to on the internet for a while because one of these terrorist shitlords filmed and distributed video of his actions, and you know damn well channers and encyclopedia dramatica types are going to be planting that shit everywhere like rickrolls.
–