tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24472763134384564682024-03-28T20:29:27.737-07:00You Are DumbPost-Millennial Judgment and Retribution for the Information AgeBryan Lamberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01759104382301134992noreply@blogger.comBlogger303125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2447276313438456468.post-66150731004652897912024-03-25T10:40:00.000-07:002024-03-25T10:40:33.171-07:00Vot1! Now Here’s What That Won’t Fix<p>Love to see it. Weeks of people on social media drooling in anticipation of Trump actually facing consequences, only to have those consequences reduced and delayed at the last minute. Followed by the usual exhortations to VOTE AS HARD AS YOU CAN and the explanations of why this isn’t as bad as it so obviously, clearly is.</p><p>It’s true that the “only thing” that will save us from Trump is voting in November. And obviously, I encourage that and hope it happens. But that doesn’t change the fact that it’s a shitty, stupid thing to rely on to save us from the most idiotic, obviously criminal, fascist movement in America’s history.</p><p>First, it’s craven buck-passing. Every institution in America, from Congress to the courts to the media, is passing the buck on to you to do the right thing, and if that doesn’t happen, guess who’s fault they’re going to decide it was? Yep. Yours. </p><p>But also, you know what even a 75-25 nationwide Biden/Congress landslide isn’t going to fix? It’s not going to fix? The fact that none of our institutions are even remotely up to task of dealing with any of this shit. Corruption, buck-passing, inefficiency, decades of unopposed gaming of every system in place to keep bad actors in check, none of that changes when Biden wins a second term. It’s not even going to get better.</p><p>Because fixing it would mean acknowledging that the problem exists, and even though it’s obvious to every clear-eyed outside observer how broken this shit is, everyone whose continued existence is predicated on pretending it’s not will keep pretending it’s not. And that’s not just the broken institutions, that’s also everyone who, for understandable reasons, needs to believe that the institutions aren’t THAT broken just to make it through the day. And that’s a lot of people.</p><p>So, yeah, vote, but just like the win four years ago, </p>Bryan Lamberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01759104382301134992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2447276313438456468.post-74505928173972467242024-02-08T18:57:00.000-08:002024-02-08T18:57:55.341-08:00Codifying Your Disappointmnet<p> This one’s for the young idealists.</p><p>Here’s the thing. As someone who’s political leanings cause you to vote for Democrats, there are certain issues where you have to be prepared to be perpetually disappointed. That’s part of the bargain. These issues are, in decreasing order of how disappointed you’ll be, are:</p><p></p><ol style="text-align: left;"><li>Immigration</li><li>Israel</li><li>Dropping Bombs For Freedom</li><li>Crime and Policing</li><li>Finance and Corporate Regulation</li><li>Everything Else</li></ol><div>Those are the big four. Maybe it’s decades of inculcated subservience to how they think the Old White People In An Ohio Diner feel. Maybe it’s innate to the mechanisms that put Democrats in positions of power. Kinda doesn’t matter. </div><div><br /></div><div>End of the day, the Democratic Party will always be more anti-immigrant, pro-Israeli government, pro brown-bombing, pro-cop, and pro-business than you or I want them to be. </div><div><br /></div><div>And if you’re feeling disappointed now, wait ‘til I tell you that the answer is not, and never will be, your Tulsi Gabbards, your Andrew Yangs, your Marianne Williamsons, or any of the other people who’ve staked out, at one point or another, a leftist or pseudo-leftist position during the Dem primaries and attracted the perennially disappointed with an appealing stance on one or more of the above issues.</div><div><br /></div><div>This includes Bernie Sanders.</div><div><br /></div><div>Does this suck? Absolutely. Are many of the people and group of people I listed above grifters who’ll change allegiances at the drop of a hat once one group of marks dries up? Absofuckinglutely, with the nigh-sole exception of Bernie. And that also sucks.</div><div><br /></div><div>But what it doesn’t mean is that the two parties are the same. “Both disappointing” and “equally disappointing” aren’t synonyms, for one thing. And for another thing, the “Everything Else” above covers a wide range of policies and a much wider disappointment gap between Democratic candidates and Republican ones. Like abortion. Or LGbTQIA+ rights. Or a general attitude towards racial equailty, fascism, and how many good ideas Adolf Hitler had.</div><div><br /></div><div>I’d love a different system. I’d love a viable leftist party at the presidential level. But you’re not gonna get one without a viable third party at the congressional level. And you’re not gonna get THAT without a viable third party at the state level. And you’re not gonna get THAT without a viable third party at a bunch of different local levels. </div><div><br /></div><div>If 2017-2021 proved anything, it’s that the idea that “the Dems will lose and they’ll see how bad things can get and the public will see how bad things can get and this will provide the mainstream support for the massive structural changes our society needs” is bullshit. Because it turns out that you can’t hit a point that bad without driving past “fascist dictatorship that refuses to give up power” and suddenly the structural changes you’re getting are VERY disappointing indeed.</div><div><br /></div><div>This doesn’t mean “give up on your idealism”. We’re never going to fix the Overton Window without strong voices pushing for leftist ideas and getting them out there in the public discourse. </div><div><br /></div><div>All I’m saying is that the disappointment you feel is natural and warranted, but also exists in a context that is unfortunately and repeatedly incredibly dangerous to ignore. A context that took decades to establish, is a context that won’t be turned around in a single, top-down, magical epiphany because the guy who talked about UBI got six percent.</div><p></p>Bryan Lamberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01759104382301134992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2447276313438456468.post-10744685312162528522024-01-24T12:20:00.000-08:002024-01-24T12:20:39.491-08:00Nostalgia, 2024 Edition<p> Not trying specifically to be shitty, but Jon Stewart returning to The Daily Show, and the joy with which the announcement was received, feels to me like a very reactionary sort of center-left nostalgia for the “halcyon” days of the pre-Trump 2010’s when we could still pretend one political party in America wasn’t engaged in an all-out war against every single marginalized group in the country.</p><p>I mean, maybe he’s learned his lesson and no longer thinks that if both reasonable sides just turned down the rhetoric, talked things through, and found common ground we’d reach Utopia? But the Jon Stewart Daily Show was emblematic of a particular mindset that utterly failed to see how bad things were getting until it was far too late. Going back to that is comfort food for those of us who live in the back half of the First They Came For quote.</p>Bryan Lamberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01759104382301134992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2447276313438456468.post-42522656123456646242024-01-16T06:08:00.000-08:002024-01-16T06:08:28.633-08:00The Three-Party System<p> Functionally speaking, America has three political parties, not two.</p><p>One party believes that the systems that hold up our society are fundamentally broken and crumbling around us, and need to be drastically overhauled to ensure our continued survival.</p><p>One party believes the systems that hold up our society are fine, and just need small tweaks, and for us to all agree to follow and live up to them, to ensure our continued survival.</p><p>The third party believes that the systems that hold up our society are fundamentally broken and crumbling around us, and that they can use this to increase their own money and power, whether we collectively survive or not.</p><p>Two of these parties field candidates, have positions represented in the national media, and do everything in their power to keep one of them from having a voice, either out of misguided and entrenched devotion to their belief in the system, or because the first party is the biggest threat to their gravy train.</p><p>People in that first party are constantly forced to support the second in the hopes of staving off the third long enough for the second to realize maybe the first are right.</p><p>The best thing about this framing is that it’s very easy to quickly identify which party someone is in. You don’t have to play around with stupid labels like “moderate” or “maverick” or “resistance”. </p><p>The worst thing about this framing is it reveals very quickly how outnumbered you are.</p><p><br /></p>Bryan Lamberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01759104382301134992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2447276313438456468.post-37744432502693879932024-01-12T16:18:00.000-08:002024-01-12T16:21:14.535-08:00SETTLED: Separating Problematic Artists From Their Work<p><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">You all suck at arguing, so I guess I’m going to have to settle your shit for you. Today, let’s settle “Separating Problematic Artists From Their Work”, AKA The JK Rowling Conundrum<br /></span></span></p><a name='more'></a>A lot of people are bad people. Most bad people start out bad out of the gate and never produce anything of value, and those people get jobs as cops or Fox pundits.<div><br /><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 28.9px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">But other bad people either become bad later in life, or reveal themselves to have been bad people all along later in life, after they’ve made and released a form of entertainment you enjoy. Maybe they turned out to be racist, misogynist, and anti-Semitic after you bought Lethal Weapon on DVD.</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 28.9px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 28.9px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">These days, it’s shockingly likely that someone British whose work you liked has turned out to be a raging transphobic asshole. See Graham Linehan, John Cleese, and of course, JK Rowling. So how do you handle it? Well, that depends. Do you want to be a good person or a bad person? Here’s what a good person can do.</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 28.9px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="s1"></span><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit;">First, stop contributing financial support in any way. That’s the simplest thing you can do at a problematic creator, especially one that’s both still alive and still actively engaging in the problematic behavior. Yes, that means that people who didn’t buy Hogwarts Legacy are better people that did. Don’t worry,. Your many rationalizations will keep you warm. There are, of course ways to acquire entertainment that don’t support the problematic creator, and several of them are even legal. </span></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">What if the person is dead? Well, has their estate recognized the problem and apologized for the harm the person caused during their lifetime? Do you feell like the the apology is either sincere, or sincere enough to tell you that the estate isn’t going to be using the proceeds to do more problematic shit? Congratulations! You can go buy that new adaptation of their work, the one that takes into account and changes the problematic shit and doesn’t keep it in out of “faithfulness to the original”.</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 28.9px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="s1"></span><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit;">What if the person is alive, but has apologized and stopped? That’s a judgment call. A good apology not only clearly admits to wrongdoing, but also speaks to why they did the wrong thing they did. Ideally, it should come with a promise to stop doing things related to the whole worldview that led to the bad thing in the first place. A Nazi that apologizes for being a Nazi and explains how they were raised by Nazis still needs to add “And that’s why I’m not supporting Donald Trump anymore” or it doesn’t mean shit. This is the trickiest one, but good news! It almost never happens!</span></span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 28.9px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="s1"></span><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The thorniest question is, “can I be a good person and still enjoy X’s past works that i already own, knowing what I know about them?” Absolutely! I mean, you may not be able to, of course. The behavior may well poison the older work for you, and that’s fine. If it doesn’t, though, feel free to enjoy the older work you already own or can acquire without financially supporting the creator. Just, you know. Shut up about it.</span></span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 28.9px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="s1"></span><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Especially on social media, but really, in any situation where you don’t know how the people you’re talking to or near feel about the creator, their work, or their behavior. This is just basic politeness. You know there are issues, you don’t know how people feel about the issues, so don’t fucking bring it up. On social media especially, uncritical discussion of that stuff comes across as promotion, and promoting the work of a problematic artist is encouraging people to seek it out and get it, which is second-degree financial support.</span></span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 28.9px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="s1"></span><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit;">See? It’s not that difficult. Don’t buy new stuff. Enjoy the old stuff you have, but don’t talk about it in mixed company. </span></span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 28.9px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="s1"></span><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Or, you know, just ignore all this stuff and buy whatever you wanr. But live with your decision and what it means about you and what you care about. Don’t try to convince other people that what you’re doing is more than a rationalization you’re using to keep having fun or enjoying your fried chicken sandwich. We don’t need to hear it anywhere near as mich as you desperately need to believe it. </span></span></p></div>Bryan Lamberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01759104382301134992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2447276313438456468.post-12664675688820913512024-01-03T14:28:00.000-08:002024-01-03T14:28:46.569-08:00Addendum<p>I swear to ever-loving fuck that if the Red Skull released a tape of Steve Rogers jaywalking, centrist pundits and Democrat intellectuals would have us all hailing Hydra while we all looked for a Captain America who could represent the true integrity and qualifications required for the role.</p>Bryan Lamberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01759104382301134992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2447276313438456468.post-43843718108534204202024-01-03T05:45:00.000-08:002024-01-03T05:45:57.155-08:00More Advice<p> Just a heads-up:</p><p>“When Nazis target a straight white man over plagiarism charges, I’ll root for them until he gets fired too” is not the anti-racist flex you think it is.</p>Bryan Lamberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01759104382301134992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2447276313438456468.post-38504801078992526742023-12-23T17:07:00.000-08:002023-12-23T17:07:34.320-08:00If You Don’t Do It My Way It Doesn’t Count<p>The Colorado decision to kick Trump off the ballot has brought a whole bunch of picky-ass institutionalists out frum under their rocks.</p><p>There are two things that are both true:</p><p>First, there is no wrong way to defeat Trump. Vote him out? Great. Throw his ass in jail? Great. Kick him off the ballot for being an insurrectionist? Great. Convince everyone that he smells like spoiled cottage cheese? Great.</p><p>Anyone who tells you that any of these methods are so superior to the others that the rest should be discarded has a firm belief that America is fine and its systems will work they way they learned about them in Schoolhouse Rock, and they should be jettisoned into the sun with all the other fuckheads.</p><p>That said, a second thing is ALSO true - that none of these methods are a sure thing. You can’t count on any of them, because all the systems involved - voting, criminal justice, the courts in general, and the media are broken, probably beyond repair, and if they manage to eventually barely work, like they did in 2020, we’ll all breathe a sigh of relief and our unearned, undeserved confidence in their continued value and efficacy will be renewed. </p><p>But just because you can’t count on Merrick Garland, or Robert Mueller, or Jack Smith, or various Secretaries of States to stop Trump for you, you also can’t count on the voters. So all of these things should stay on the table. All of these things should be pushed and supported - not out of a sense of hope, but because collectively, they create a continuing, ongoing narrative that Trump and the people that support him are bad people and shouldn’t be in charge of anything.</p><p>When you’re dismissive of any of it, you’re working against it, and you’ve deluded yourself into thinking you’re helping.</p><p>ADDENDUM: There are also zero unintended consequences to ANY of this that’s worse letting a dementia-addled, turd-smnellin’ Hitler fan run this place for a SECOND TIME. Stop pretending we’re playing chess when we’re in an existential bare knuckle brawl with the dumist fascists in recorded history.</p>Bryan Lamberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01759104382301134992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2447276313438456468.post-83589288781542400212023-11-25T12:31:00.000-08:002023-11-25T12:31:52.166-08:00Your Absolution For Enjoyment<p>Memo to Moral Scolds: SHUT UP AND LET ME HAVE MY NUANCED FUN.</p><p>It didn’t take long. Hours after it was reported that Derek Chauvin was seriously injured in an inmate-involved stabbing, I was being informed on social media that, well, actually, prison violence is bad and prison conditions are awful and we shouldn’t be celebrating it.<span></span></p><a name='more'></a><p></p><p>Yes, we should. There’s nothing wrong with celebrating small victories.</p><p>And this is a small victory. A very small one, but one nonetheless. Because it’s true that our judicial system and correctional system is unnecessarily vicious and cruel. And it’s true that this one bad apple prisoner is a symptom of that systemic cruelty. BUT.</p><p>That systemic cruelty is, almost exclusively, directed at the most powerless and most vulnerable members of society. If you’ve got money, authority, white skin, or all three, your odds of being subjected to that systemic cruelty drop drastically. </p><p>So, then, objectively, if that systemic cruelty were applied more equally, that would be an improvement. Not a big improvement, not a great improvement, and certainly not preferable to a system that isn’t gratuitously cruel to people at all, but better is still better.</p><p>So even if you completely ignore the irony of Chauvin having committed a crime unworthy of the death penalty, yet someone deciding to take the power into their own hands and try to administer a death penalty for that crime, I’m still going to take a little time to enjoy the small bit of nuanced pleasure that comes from the wold being an incrementally better nightmarish shithole than I thought it was.</p><p>And that doesn’t make me a bad liberal, a bad person, or “no different from them” when I do it.</p><p> </p>Bryan Lamberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01759104382301134992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2447276313438456468.post-69584951069352417612023-11-09T13:04:00.000-08:002023-11-09T13:04:21.019-08:00Good Fucking Riddance<p>When you see a post about Joe Manchin not running for re-election, remember ths.</p><p>Joe Manchin’s entire career was built around either being the reason for, or the excuse for, Democrats HAVING power without ever USING that power.</p><p>So when you see a post that is, essentially, “good fucking riddance, asshole”, that person values the second thing more than the first thing. Posts about “but.. but.. but… HIS SEAT!” are from people who value the first more than the second.</p><p>Good fucking riddance, asshole.</p>Bryan Lamberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01759104382301134992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2447276313438456468.post-32768592276549636432023-11-02T13:06:00.001-07:002023-11-02T13:06:39.724-07:00Rhetorical Analysis<p>Been seeing a lot of this this week, and I wonder if all the people on social media insisting “there must have been a tunnel under it” even realize they’re giving off big “I’m sure the officer feared for his life” energy.</p>Bryan Lamberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01759104382301134992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2447276313438456468.post-19417304702386326092023-10-28T12:32:00.001-07:002023-10-28T12:32:07.567-07:00Missing Out<p>Haven’t checked in on social media in about six hours. Sure hope everyone didn’t decide who’s solely responsible for the Gaza war and also figure out how to resolve it without me!</p>Bryan Lamberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01759104382301134992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2447276313438456468.post-68930175485560924062023-10-13T06:45:00.000-07:002023-10-13T06:45:00.006-07:00Excuses<p><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: inherit;">“They war crimed us first.:”</span></p><p><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: inherit;">“What’s your non-war-crime solution, smart guy?”</span></p><p><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: inherit;">“If they didn’t want to be war crimed they should have overthrown their government.”</span></p><p><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: inherit;">“If they didn’t want to be war crimed they should have heeded the logistically impossible warning.”</span></p><p><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: inherit;">“They created the conditions under which a war crime is the easiest solution. It’s their fault.:”</span></p><p><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: inherit;">“If they just complied, they wouldn’t be war crimed.”</span></p><p class="p3" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 28.4px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I don’t know, it kind of seems like you have a boner for war crimes. Or at least some of them.</span></p>Bryan Lamberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01759104382301134992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2447276313438456468.post-61852055035003646282023-10-11T06:58:00.003-07:002023-10-11T07:15:00.794-07:00Notes On The Current Discourse<p>This is not a commentary on the things that have happened, but something that’s important to note when perusing the discourse around the things that have happened.</p><p>For a few decades now, some of the absolute worst people in the world have been demonizing Hamas. They weren’t doing this in a good-faith attempt to warn us about how bad Hamas was and is. They were spelling it Hamas, but they were pronouncing it, to varying degrees, “Palestinians”, “Arabs”, Muslims”, and “brown people”. They were running a playbook built on disingenuousness to enhance their own power, influence, and geopolitical agendas.</p><p>The fact that they were technically correct doesn’t change this.</p><p>One of the things these people do is they take a thing that should be fine for everyone, and they poison it so that you have to qualify it. For example, you can’t just make an “OK” symbol anymore, you have to say “And I mean this in the traditional sense, not the white power sense that also now exists because white nationalists have co-opted the hand gesture.”</p><p>Similarly, the very simple, true statement “Hamas are monsters who need to be stopped” now carries with it a metric ton of extra baggage, because even now, people are using “Hamas” to mean the terrorist organization, people who voted for them 17 years ago, people who live next door to people who voted for them 17 years ago, and the children of people who lived next door to people who voted for them 17 years ago. </p><p>There’s been a lot of clumsy navigating of these waters. And a certain amount of wildly inappropriate tribalist “Bad people hate them so they must be good” splashing around in those waters too. None of that negates the fact that the waters started choppy as fuck to begin with, and how and why they got choppy in the first place.</p><p>The most common, most terrifying viewpoint I’ve been seeing on the socials in the past few days is “well, they were attacked, and now they’re at war, and when you’re at war, you have no choice but to do war crimes. That’s what war is all about.” I suppose 9/11 is 22 years old and was long overdue for a reboot. But I don’t have to like it </p>Bryan Lamberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01759104382301134992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2447276313438456468.post-5973869752956998872023-09-30T23:37:00.003-07:002023-09-30T23:41:16.575-07:00Roamin’<p>In case you were curious, I’ve been in Italy for four days and I’m still only thinking about the Roman Empire when I’m directly being confronted by it.</p>Bryan Lamberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01759104382301134992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2447276313438456468.post-40229804937857421292023-09-20T19:01:00.005-07:002023-09-20T19:01:49.963-07:00Project Whole Ass<p>As someone who was actively paying attention to and writing about James O’Keefe and Project Veritas since I first couldn’t believe anyone was taking them seriously, it’s with mixed emotions that I mark their passing, thirteen years later.</p><p>I mean, obviously, the only emotion I’m feeling hearing that they’ve shuttered is unmitigated, gloating glee. Fuck all of them. </p><p>But the fact that they lasted for thirteen years, and the amount of damage they did thanks to mainstream media and centrist Dems acting like Something Needed To Be Done about their phony fucking revelations? That shit was an absolute harbinger of our current dystopia, so fuck all of them.</p><p>And yes, “fuck all of them” “fuck all of them” can be two different emotions. </p><p>It was one of the earlier instances of blatantly weaponized optics, leveraging the knowledge that Democrats still felt like if things looked bad they had to fix it regardless of the truth, while their counterparts on the other side embarked on their current path of pushing through everything no matter how bad it looked or actually was, leading up to now where Lauren Boaebert’s real video is producing far less outrage and infinitely fewer consequences than PV’s fake videos. </p><p>So even if they’ve been completely irrelevant for years once even the slowest Chuck Todds in the media stopped biting on their bullshit, I’m glad their dead and I invite all of us to piss on their grave. </p><p><br /></p>Bryan Lamberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01759104382301134992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2447276313438456468.post-76636552100068650872023-09-20T08:11:00.001-07:002023-09-20T08:11:19.106-07:00Vision Boared<p> Was Don Jr.’s X account “hacked”?</p><p>Or is that just easier to say than “I was using my Drafts folder to do some casual manifesting and accidentally posted it when I was trying to call Kamala Harris trans”?</p>Bryan Lamberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01759104382301134992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2447276313438456468.post-70493911143451513012023-09-15T19:05:00.006-07:002023-09-15T19:05:58.952-07:00Boebert Boebert Boebert<p>All the good Boebert groping jokes already got made by the time I found out about it, but I gotta say, taken in isolation from the massive systemic problems her continued career and existence represent? Whatever statement she makes to explain the fondle-footage is going to.be the single funniest thing that happens all year.</p>Bryan Lamberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01759104382301134992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2447276313438456468.post-68488349380345500502023-09-12T10:01:00.001-07:002023-09-12T10:01:54.998-07:00Remembering 9/12<p><span style="font-family: inherit;">Gotta say, I think it’s more important to never forget September 12.</span></p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a name='more'></a></span><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: inherit;">9/12/2001 was the day we, as a nation, decided to go bugfuck insane.</span></p><p class="p3" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 28.4px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="s2"></span><br /></span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: inherit;">If that day may have affected you personally, diredctly or indirectly, that’s fine. React how you react, remember how you remember. </span></p><p class="p3" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 28.4px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="s2"></span><br /></span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: inherit;">But on a national level? We went insane with jingoism. We turned deeply unworthy people like Bush, Rumsfeld, and especially Rudy Giuliani into heroes when they absolutely did not deserve it, and we’ve been paying for it ever since.</span></p><p class="p3" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 28.4px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="s2"></span><br /></span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: inherit;">To this day, we take off our shoes to go through airport security and weirdos with power trips get little thrills every time a squeeze tube of sunscreen breaks the arbitrary three ounce limit.</span></p><p class="p3" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 28.4px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="s2"></span><br /></span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: inherit;">And obviously, our geopolitical response to it was a fucking nightmare, a tragedy compounded a thousandfold.</span></p><p class="p3" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 28.4px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="s2"></span><br /></span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: inherit;">But maybe the most toxic result? The idea that if we allow this tragedy to change our way of life in any way, we lose and someone else wins. <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Reflect on our foreign policy in the Middle East? The terrorists win. Stop shopping? The terrorists win. Question Dubya in any way? The terrorists win.</span></p><p class="p3" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 28.4px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="s2"></span><br /></span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: inherit;">Flash forward to 2020 and beyond, and that same attitude got applied in an even dumber way to COVID. We have to “live with the virus”, or… someone not us wins and we lose? But by “live with the virus”, we don’t mean taking precautions or fixing indoor air systems, because, again, someone not us would somehow win.</span></p><p class="p3" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 28.4px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="s2"></span><br /></span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: inherit;">If the past 22 years have taught me anything, it’s that we, as a nation, collectively decide how we respond to tragedies of all sizes and types. And we do so in a way that reinforces, not challenges, the status quo and the mythical version of America, because that’s what the people with the money and the power need to happen to keep their money and power. </span></p><p class="p3" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 28.4px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="s2"></span><br /></span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: inherit;">On Sep 12, 2001, we all got a lot crazier, and most of that madness has stayed with us ever since. </span></p>Bryan Lamberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01759104382301134992noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2447276313438456468.post-82805658317381420532023-08-17T08:33:00.003-07:002023-08-17T08:33:54.481-07:00Aspirational Anatomy<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjItm1yshhaXq6Yy_nsElgtqAgJtmnePOuP0eallWMvyOhytVIAVUw3GeyLIyto9Wp2wvYe1gLcpvBfTcdIVLt7IxTbtwnGXaPPz79-mGXTSmFifp0lNXAMZc2Z2_v5X1apKPbqv97AYwVcQx5m2xSbA1YVBJNscFB_fZCZX9MEgvM0NazAU-mKDEX9GTIi/s720/IMG_1475.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="547" data-original-width="720" height="243" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjItm1yshhaXq6Yy_nsElgtqAgJtmnePOuP0eallWMvyOhytVIAVUw3GeyLIyto9Wp2wvYe1gLcpvBfTcdIVLt7IxTbtwnGXaPPz79-mGXTSmFifp0lNXAMZc2Z2_v5X1apKPbqv97AYwVcQx5m2xSbA1YVBJNscFB_fZCZX9MEgvM0NazAU-mKDEX9GTIi/s320/IMG_1475.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><p><br /></p>Donald Trump trying to convince everyone he has a chin may be the most delusional thing this motherfucker has ever said. <p></p>Bryan Lamberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01759104382301134992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2447276313438456468.post-56199640593631642872023-08-13T11:23:00.000-07:002023-08-13T11:23:02.767-07:00Moral Reliativity<p>If I was a billionaire trying to play-act as a toxic male stud who gets off on beating the shit out of other men, and I did it so badly that I made another billionaire trying to play-act as a toxic male stud who gets off on beating the shit out of other men look like the reasonable good guy in the situation, I’d keep doing what I’m doing because if I had the self-awareness to realize how fucking awful I was and how much I needed to change, I wouldn’t have found myself in this situation in the first place.</p>Bryan Lamberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01759104382301134992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2447276313438456468.post-51887168142630456812023-08-07T08:10:00.003-07:002023-08-07T08:10:18.352-07:00Cardinal Sin<p> Mitch McConnell was reportedly heckled by crowds at an event this weekend, including chants of “Retire!”.</p><p>McConnell angered his supporters by violating a key tenet of Republican orthodoxy - when your brain stops working, whatever you do, KEEP SAYING THINGS.</p>Bryan Lamberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01759104382301134992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2447276313438456468.post-40701486978497967242023-08-02T15:11:00.002-07:002023-08-02T15:11:25.652-07:00Multitasker<p>I gotta say, I wouldn’t have thought Rudy Giuliani still retained the mental capacity required to multitask, but I was wrong.</p><p>Turns out he can be anti-Semitic and homophobic while at the same time grossly sexually harassing his assistant! </p><p>America’s Mayor, everybody!</p>Bryan Lamberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01759104382301134992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2447276313438456468.post-73633388049812674922023-08-01T08:14:00.001-07:002023-08-01T08:14:06.360-07:00Another Social Media Update<p>So I’m still using the recommended feeds on both Threads and Bluesky, because the following content on both is more of a trickle and the algorithmic feeds aren’t a firehose yet.</p><p>The main difference between the two is that when Threads shows me something I do not give a shit about, it’s almost always some banal attempt at manufactured engagement, or, occasionally, sports news.</p><p>When Bluesky shows me something I don’t give two shits about it’s INVARIABLY some kind of nerdy sex thing like a cartoon wolf in tight briefs with a bulging crotch. But it is at least presented genuinely as “this is a thing I made I hope you like it and/or masturbate to it”, even if I can’t seem to train its algorithm to understand “no, thank you” yet.</p>Bryan Lamberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01759104382301134992noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2447276313438456468.post-13930795418945051712023-07-31T07:32:00.007-07:002023-07-31T08:16:31.355-07:00The Stakes<p>Whether we admit it to ourselves or not, our collective interest in the Trump legal escapades is ultimately about whether or not there’s any part of the husk that is the American experiment worth saving.</p><p>His crimes are so obvious, his attempts at covering them up so insipid and blatant, that a system that ultimately fails to hold him accountable and, more importantly, punish him in such a way that it discourages others from attempting anything similar is irrevocably fucked.</p><p>It’s that “irrevocably” that’s at stake here. We already know we live in a deeply flawed and gamed system where a billionaire asshat can put a cobbled together metal X on his roof that strobes an incredibly bright light and building inspectors checking to see if this janky-ass testament to insecurity might topple to the ground in a stiff wind are simply told “no, you can’t look at it, I reject your authority over me.”</p><p>But can this system at least do the bare minimum necessary to Trump? We don’t know. We hope it can, even as the cynical part of ourselves doubt it will. But there isn’t some other line past this one where the system can still redeem itself. This is the definitive test. We find him guilty of all the things he’s obviously guilty of and punish him and, after that, make sure he somehow doesn’t become President again (and the fact that that’s even a necessary step here is shocking to even the numbest of cores) or it’s over.</p><p>Passing this test means there’s a bottom to the hole we have to crawl out of. Failing it means we just keep falling.</p>Bryan Lamberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01759104382301134992noreply@blogger.com0