Sophianotloren

Part 2 here!

ETA: Here’s a bunch of articles that have come out since I wrote this piece that I concur with, so some of your vitriolic comments can be spread out to all of us at once:

On Satire – a response to the Charlie Hebdo attacks
Trolls and Martyrdom: Je Ne Suis Pas Charlie
Charlie Hebdo: Understanding is the least we owe the dead
Je Ne Suis Pas Charlie: On The Charlie Hebdo Massacre And Duelling Extremisms
Charlie Hebdo: This Attack Was Nothing To Do With Free Speech — It Was About War
Charlie Hebdo Is Heroic and Racist (I disagree with heroic but I understand what they’re getting at)
No, we’re not all Charlie Hebdo, nor should we be

So, I’m generally pretty anti-censorship. I mean fuck, I just worked on a porn where we gently poked fun at the new British porn content laws by enacting all of them in a playful, consensual space. I am a big fan of art, and using humour to hopefully make people think and change their minds.

That said, I do not believe that racist, homophobic language is satire. I think it’s abusive, and I think it punches down, harshly and often. And that was exactly what sold magazines for Charlie Hebdo.

France is kinda known for racism, particularly against Muslim folks, so I find it difficult to treat a magazine where that’s their primary “hook” to not be a reflection of widespread racist, xenophobic attitudes. I couldn’t believe it when I found myself agreeing with the Catholic League on anything, but yeah- Muslims have a right to be angry.

“Stephane Charbonnier, the paper’s publisher, was killed today in the slaughter. It is too bad that he didn’t understand the role he played in his tragic death. In 2012, when asked why he insults Muslims, he said, “Muhammad isn’t sacred to me.” Had he not been so narcissistic, he may still be alive. Muhammad isn’t sacred to me, either, but it would never occur to me to deliberately insult Muslims by trashing him.” – Bill from the Catholic League

Reminder, folks- there is no such thing as “just a joke”. Humour impacts how people treat others, especially marginalized people. From that humour study I feel I quote all the time:

“By making light of the expression of prejudice, disparagement humor communicates a message of tacit approval or tolerance of discrimination against members of the targeted group. Our theory proposes that the recipient must accept the disparagement humor for a shared norm of tolerance of discrimination to actually emerge. Furthermore, our research suggests that people high in prejudice are more likely to accept disparagement humor and thus perceive a norm of tolerance of discrimination in the immediate context. Finally, people high in prejudice are likely to use the activated normative standard as a source of self-regulation, or a guide for interpreting discriminatory events encountered in that context.”

Additionally I’m really struggling with this expectation of freedom of speech not being related to “freedom from the government prosecuting you”. Freedom of speech doesn’t mean freedom from consequences, after all. And supporting a massively racist magazine’s freedom to incite hatred seems pretty fucked up. You can’t look at the shit Charlie Hebdo printed, making fun of raped girls as welfare check grabbers, or depicting black women as monkeys, and tell me that it’s “just a joke” and they were fucking martyrs of free speech, here. I hate how many people are saying “terrorists can’t kill an idea“- an idea like sexism, racism, rape culture, and xenophobia. Thank goodness those ideas can live on! Phew! Otherwise what’s a journalist to do?!?!?!

I don’t think that shooting up the Charlie Hebdo office was ethically Right with a capital R, ok? But I do think it’s understandable (and I’m not alone). I think that after extended periods of police violence, if a protester attacks a cop, that’s pretty understandable too. Do I think that’s the best way to go about things? Not really, but I think to pretend that people being abused by people in power should just turn the other cheek or as those people in power to stop abusing them is the best method is fucking absurd. THAT DIDN’T EVEN WORK FOR JESUS.

ETA: OH MY GOD READERS

Saying that I understand why a culture that is being systematically and individually mistreated and ignored by the privileged in power may eventually spawn some folks who resort to violence doesn’t mean I condone that violence! It means I can see why decades of hurt, fear, and institutionalized abuse may lead to a violent reaction. Understanding is not supporting, it simply means I can connect the dots. Can you not?!?

What I find incredibly disappointing is that on my social media, I see a bunch of white people “standing up” for the “bravery” of a racist magazine to incite hatred against people of colour. I have seen next to nothing about the bombing of the NAACP by a white man on our own soil. I see anti-Muslim protests being started in Europe, and people calling for the genocide of Muslims on Twitter, but very little attention to the number of Muslims who condemned the violence.

It just makes me think about what gets justified under “freedom of speech”- Porn WikiLeaks outing sex workers legal names putting them at serious risk, or Gamergators doxxing women and threatening to rape and murder them, often graphically, or radical feminists claiming trans women are all rapists.

Is that really the hill you want to die on?

Gross.

It makes me sick to think that the people working for Charlie Hebdo got exactly what they wanted- the public riled up into violence against Muslims.

 

Or, what I did with my Wednesday evening.

Link: the artist is Eric Brunning of Vancouver's Adorned (via JWZ)

The 32-year old Tao Liu knows the city of Hefei like his backyard. Since 2005 he’s traveled up, down and across the city in Eastern China on his motorbike reading water meters for a local utilities company. The job was tedious, exhausting and unrewarding, until he picked up a camera.

For the past 3 years Liu has used his spare time to capture intimate, witty and humorous street photos of Hefei. “I like taking photos because I can hang around on the streets and capture an image when something interested me but was neglected by others,” Liu told the Global Times. “I want to remind people of the touching moments in life.” He was interviewed after his photos went viral on China’s social network Weibo.

Liu has no formal training in photography but cites Daido Moriyama – often referred to as “the father of street photography” – as a primary influence. “I found him [to be] a very focused photographer,” says Liu in an interview with TIME. “I chose my camera based on what he uses.” Liu’s photos, intentionally or not, seem to poke fun at things like commercialization and urbanization. Liu clearly has a knack, not only for being in the right place at the right time, but for a keen eye that spots charming, serendipitous scenes amongst the hustle and bustle of everyday life. You can keep up with him and his work on Lofter. All photos courtesy the photographer. (via Time)

KERPOW!

whosthewhatnow:

thefrogman:

There is also a death for the immortal jellyfish. He is very bored.

Artwork by Chris Gugliotti [webcomic | tumblr]

I drew another thing

Online, Retail | TN, USA

(I manage a customer service department for a company that sells aftermarket automotive accessories. We needed to confirm a shipping address to ship a product to a customer because the address that the customer entered during the online checkout process wasn’t coming up as valid in our system – so we called the customer for verification.)

Customer: “Hello?”

Rep: “Yes, ma’am, this is [Rep] from [Company] and we are needing to verify your shipping address because it’s unfortunately not coming up as valid.”

Customer: “Umm, what do ya’ll have down?”

Rep: *reads off address*

Customer: “Yeah, that’s it.”

(I had already googled the zip code provided and have now figured out the problem. The customer put in the state as Iowa but, to our disbelief, the address and Zip code links her to Ohio.)

Rep: “Ma’am, according to your Zip code you’re in Ohio and not Iowa.”

Customer: “Oh, no, that can’t be right. I’ve lived in Iowa for 10 years at least. Who are you to tell me where I do and don’t live anyway? I just want my stuff shipped! THIS IS A CHRISTMAS PRESENT AND YOU WILL RUIN MY CHRISTMAS IF I DON’T GET IT!”

(We have since pulled up Google maps and located her residence to be certain. We are positive that she really lives in Ohio and not Iowa since the address is still matching our search results and at this point everyone in the office is listening since the rep has graciously put her on speaker phone.)

Rep: “Okay, ma’am, just to double check…” *proceeds to describe the customers residence to the customer*

Customer: “Wow, that’s exactly what my house looks like. Ya’ll are some smart people! Where are ya’ll located?”

Rep: “Our office is in Tennessee, and where do you live again?”

Customer: “IOWA! Gosh what is so hard to understand about that?”

Rep: “I’m sorry ma’am. We’ve got this worked out and we are shipping your package today, to Iowa.” *but really to her confirmed address in Ohio*

(The rep finished up the phone call and hung up. We shipped the package and a few days later we called to confirm that the customer received her package. She did, in Ohio according to the UPS tracking number.)

Related:
Out Of State, Out Of Mind

It is every mother’s worst nightmare to lose a child, and I have to feel Carla May Alcorn’s pain.

This is certainly not the time to take exception to the religious sentiments in her announcement. Except…

Those sentiments contributed to the misery of their daughter, Leelah Alcorn. She wasn’t just hit by a truck, she committed suicide after years of misery when her parents denied who she actually was.

She knew her parents would try to bury the truth of her death, so she scheduled her suicide note to appear on the web, so that her message couldn’t be hidden.

A parent’s worst nightmare might be the death of a child, but I should think a child’s worst nightmare would be being denied by a parent, in life and even more cruelly in death.

(via robertdafoto)

asylum-art:

Famous Musician Portraits from Their Own CDs - Mirco Pagano & Moreno De Turco

It’s very popular to create musicians portraits from vinyl records or recycled cassette tapes. This time the following portraits were created from cds. For the inauguration of First Floor Under, a pop-vanguard culture magazine, artists Mirco Pagano & Moreno De Turco  spent more than 200 hours lining up the CDs to recreate the portraits of seven world-famous musicians: Bob Marley, Elvis Presley, Jim Morrison, Jimmy Hendrix, Michael Jackson, James Brown, and Freddie Mercury. Take a look!

Wow. Very cool. But… where da women at? What, no Janis? No Nina? No Joan? No Tina? No Madonna? 

carudamon119:

ライブドアニュース ‏@livedoornews  

【ストレス発散に】通常の約6倍サイズ、超巨大エンターキー「BIG ENTER」

beeftony:

zetsubonna:

thank you so fucking much, science side of tumblr

One small correction: using cowpox to treat smallpox isn’t vaccination, it’s a similar but distinct process called inoculation. A vaccine uses a weakened, mostly dead form of the virus to let your body do some target practice. An inoculation actually infects the body with a related, but less severe form of an illness, and the antibodies developed from fighting it off also repel the more deadly disease.

Whee!

It’s been a busy fall, but we always have our notebook with us, so it’s time for our irregular feature — and everyone’s favorite LULZ — Overheard in the Art World (#OHAW).

Honestly, art world, don’t take yourself so seriously.

Man: “Look, that’s a Gaza mural.”
Woman, not paying attention and on her cell phone: “What? Gossip Girl?”
Man: “No, Gaza, like the war.”
Woman: “Oh, well, they film episodes here.”
—on Flushing Avenue, Bushwick, Brooklyn

Little boy: “This place looks like a circus.”
Father, slightly shocked: “I guess it does.”
—in the Jeff Koons retrospective at Whitney Museum of American Art

Curator: “As soon as we accept that we all just work at the service of a bunch of rich people, we will be fine with this whole ridiculous world.”
—at the opening of the third section of the High Line park

Man: “She’s just breaking stuff to make art?”
—in front of Kate Gilmore’s video work at the Site:Lab installation at ArtPrize

Man talking to friends: “She wants me to be in a piece. She asked me if I’d roll around naked in menstrual blood, and I said ‘yes.'”
—at Hyperallergic and Brooklyn Museum’s Crossing Brooklyn event at Livestream Public

“That’s a lot of ideas.”
—in the Crossing Brooklyn show at the Brooklyn Museum

“Oh look, it’s the Ferris Bueller painting.”
—at the Museum of Modern Art bookstore, looking at a children’s book about Post-Impressionist Georges Seurat

“Did you just say Koons? Best show of the year?? Okay, Jerry Saltz.”
—at Chris Ofili opening at the New Museum

Woman to man: “Time to get a Kiefer.”
—during Art Basel Miami Beach 2014 vernissage

“Is that Sheldon Adelson on his shirt?”
—at the preview of Ryan McNamara’s MEEM 4 Miami: A Story Ballet About the Internet

“I can’t remember if I wanted the sculpture or the painting.”
—at Pulse Miami 2014 art fair

“I’m not drunk enough for this.”
—at the Rubell Family Collection during the Miami Art Week 2014

“What’s the view out of Klaus [Biesenbach]’s window today?”
—at the NADA Miami 2014 art fair

“I like it because I’m tired of photograph, photograph, painting, photograph, painting, painting, painting.”
—at the NADA Miami 2014 art fair

“Is he as cute as his art?”
—at the NADA Miami 2014 art fair

“Why are there so many art shows?”
—on Collins Avenue in South Beach during Miami Art Week 2014

“If there’s people, there must be art.”
—in the Design District during Miami Art Week 2014

“Lena Dunham is related to Laurie Simmons? Omggggg my mind is blown.”
—at Sciame holiday party

“This world of ours will be so much better when we all just accept that we are catering to rich people … I just want us to be the country club I know in my heart we can be.”
—at a gallerist’s holiday brunch

“I’m just so glad Shaquille O’Neal is a curator now.”
—at Circa 188 launch party

“This art looks like it’s from a bad Miley Cyrus video. Oh wait … ”
—at a dinner party while curator flips through her Miami photos

“That new Britney video looks like a a Paweł Althamer retrospective.”
—overheard at the Artist’s Institute’s Tuesday bar night

Girl 1: “Franco’s kind of annoying, again.”
Girl 2: “I just can’t believe Franco is the guy from the art world that pissed off North Korea.”
—overheard at the Artist’s Institute’s Tuesday bar night

Woman: “Is that his art?”
Man: “No, it’s a big pile of cocaine.”
—at Dram bar in Williamsburg, Brooklyn

maggiesox:

attndotcom:

Good point, Stephen.

And that’s why I will always love this man.

BOOTSTRAPS THO RIGHT??

So I’m sitting in my office earlier today, waiting for students to hand in their final assignments, which for some include assignments on which I gave them extensions. One student, who has done barely a stitch of work all semester, rushes in with headphones on and music blasting loud enough that I can hear it. He puts his bag down and pulls out a manila pocket folder stuffed with paper. He has, he says, made up or rewritten all the work he missed or failed over the course of the semester. I’m not in the mood to argue with him about the fact that he has never once come to ask me for an extension of any kind, so I take the folder, wish him a good holiday, and put it in my bag to look at later.

Well, it’s now later, and I just finished going through his work. Aside from the fact that most of it is so late that it wouldn’t count anyway—since, as I said, he never once came to ask about an extension—and aside from the fact that (because he never bothered to pay attention) he ended up doing assignments I changed or eliminated over the course of the semester, he managed to do every single assignment incorrectly, including plagiarizing significant portions of the first page of his final paper. He even failed almost every single one of the online, untimed, open-book self-quizzes I assigned for each of the chapters that we read. And he did self-quizzes for at least three chapters I didn’t assign, and he failed those too.

The victim told police that Pastor Gaylard Williams grabbed and squeezed his genitals, and then requested that he perform oral sex.

Remote Mines in the Complex is a nostalgic art print by illustrator Zac Gorman that celebrates playing video games with friends. The art print specifically references levels and weapons from the 1997 Nintendo 64 video game GoldenEye 007. The art print is available to purchase online from Attract Mode.

3 am, a half-eaten bag of chips, a florescent glow lighting the room, 4-way split screen, and not a care in the world other than blowing up your friends.

images via Attract Mode

“These *are* the handbags you’re looking for!”

ThinkGeek has released two officially-licensed Star Wars bowling bag-style purses that are made to look like the infamous bounty hunter Boba Fett and the loyal astromech droid R2-D2. Both handbags, which come with two interior pouches and protective metal feet on bottom, are available to purchase online.

The right bag, matched to her wardrobe, would have been a fantastic addition to her ensemble. Hooked on her arm, her new purse could have not only carried Death Star plans, but also a blaster, lightsaber, droid-recall unit, plus all the pins and clips necessary to keep her hair in place (no small feat in any galaxy but particularly in one far, far away).

Perhaps too late, ThinkGeek now has a consignment of Star-Wars-themed handbags, in two different styles. Choose Boba Fett or R2-D2 (which means you can still smuggle the plans in a droid, only a more stylish version). These bags have more than enough room for you to fit whatever you need the next time you find yourself in a club, at the store, or in a scoundrel’s stock-light freighter somewhere around the ruins of Alderaan.

images via ThinkGeek

ghoulnextdoor:

 PoshFairytaleCouture on Etsy

Via a blog at Daily Kos:

San Jose police officer Phillip White has been put on leave after posting a series of death threats to protestors on his personal Twitter account.

His tweets raise at least three very disturbing questions.

1. How could an officer who makes such statements just be put on temporary leave and not fired? It will be hard for members of the community to ever feel safe around Phillip White.

2. In his mocking statements of #BlackLivesMatters and #iCantBreathe, he fails to see that these are chants from peaceful protests. Nobody saying these statements has been called violent in any city in the country. Why is he using them as an opportunity to mock and threaten the community?

3. Is it safe to assume that the sentiments expressed by Phillip White, which seem to invite violence and death and confrontation, are shared by his colleagues?

I remember after the Rodney King beating, the ACLU asked a very simple question: Who do you call when the gang wears a police uniform?

It is getting harder and harder for me to defend police, even though I know there are good cops in the world. Institutionally, however, there’s way too much of this sort of thing, and instead of being put on paid leave, law enforcement who do this sort of thing — that’s make threats, not express abhorrent opinions, which are protected speech — should be immediately fired, have their guns taken away, and be barred from ever serving in law enforcement again.

Above the decomposing corpse of the Party of Personal Responsibility, conspiratorial apparitions are constantly fizzing in and out of existence.  They bubble up from ancient, rotting Hate Radio talking points and the unquiet graves of the Southern Strategy, flare feebly to life, and then fall apart and slide feebly back into the Great Wingnut Swamp.

While these fool's fires burn, the denizens of the Great Wingnut Swamp follow them wherever they lead as zealously as any Wise Man from the East following the Star of David.  They point to each new apparition of bullshit and Fox News vapor as proof that their idiotic ideology is, in fact, the One True Faith.

And then, inevitably, it gutters out and goes away --

Report: Darren Wilson's Key Witness Lied About Everything 

In a damning new report by the Smoking Gun, a crucial witness in the grand jury deciding whether to indict former Ferguson, Mo. police officer Darren Wilson is revealed as having fabricated her eyewitness account of the altercation between Wilson and unarmed 18-year-old Michael Brown on Aug. 9. "Witness 40," identified as 45-year-old Sandra McElroy, has a documented history of racist remarks, criminal behavior, and mental illness.

-- leaving behind the same stink of racism and willful ignorance that the last dozen, collapsed wingnut conspiracies left in their wake.

But here's the thing.  The real story here is not that -- surprise! -- the Right's entire narrative and the prosecutor's entire kangaroo court hinged on the unhinged ramblings of some mentally ill liar.

The real story here is that no matter how many times the Right's ridiculous fairy tales fall apart, it has no effect whatsoever on their disposition or their worldview.

They will go right on clinging to the lie du jour like a dog hanging on to the last bone on Earth right up until it disintegrates completely.  Then they will actively seek out the next, comforting lie and fall for it just as hard,

And the next.

And the next.

And the next.

The real story is that there is no point in this cycle at which the Right ever becomes amenable to reason -- no point at which they will look in the mirror and feel a flicker of shame or a twinge of remorse.

Like old junkies, they got hooked on a steady diet of lies long ago, and unless they are forced to quit, they will go right on feeding that monkey and destroying this country until they day they die.

davescheidt

ughsocialjustice:

mickeyblowsyourmind:

moralvirus:

legalmexican:

penis-hilton:

i honestly want aliens to come and annihilate the human race

mess

Fucking special snowflakes.

don’t they know doing things like that might fuck up their body or….

please let this be a troll. This has to be a troll, right?

And now I’m sad.