When I first heard about this, I did sit on the story for a bit. I was laughing so hard, that after going to bed, I actually dreamt that I was laughing.
Suppose that you had a service that almost no one would accept for free. Then, someone had the idea of charging money for it. Such a plan would make about as much business sense as lighting a pile of money on fire. But so it was when CNN had the idea to make their own subscription-based streaming service, by the name of CNN+.
When you think of CNN’s typical audience, you’d imagine that they’d be about as warm to the idea of subscription-based streaming services as they would be towards cryptocurrencies, exercise, and thinking for themselves.
So, how do you imagine CNN+ is doing? If you imagine that they’ll be shuttering the platform by the end of this month, you won’t be disappointed. But then, your boomer dad probably wasn’t disappointed either, in spite of all the nostalgia he might be feeling about the days in which corporate news outlets provided people with their center for viewpoints that were considered societally acceptable.
But gone are the days when most adults turned to the television as their only source of information, like a hamster to a feeder. People today are using the internet, where the likes of CNN is surrounded by information sources and commentary that people would much rather prefer, such as one-man studios with larger followings than corporate news outlets that have been around for decades.
I don’t feel bad for CNN, at all. It’s been a long time since they’ve ditched all pretense of impartiality in favor of pandering to the drones with their political ideology of choice. CNN is much of the reason why most people don’t trust corporate news outlets, and though they call themselves “the most trusted name in news”, the opposite is true.
Though it doesn’t help them that they ran with a defamatory story against the Covington kids. The Dershowitz defamation case didn’t make them look good, either. Then there’s CNN’s defamatory story about Joe Rogan. Kyle Rittenhouse might have a case for defamation, too.
Perhaps the most compelling reason to watch CNN is for the potential for drama when it comes to any high-profile, politically-charged story. But even then, you’d have to wade through piles and piles of bullshit. And for what? Just to say that you got to see another story that contributed to CNN’s decline as it aired? I’d rather preserve my sanity and hear about it secondhand from my peers.
Nothing says that CNN is packed with witless toadies quite like one of them suggesting that people might want a subscription-based CNN news outlet, and them pushing it all the way to market without them realizing that it might be a bad idea. Maybe they could take that same innovative instinct and use it to develop an armpit-flavored breath mint.
NOTE: As of this notice (22 Apr 2022), there is still uncertainty as to Gonzalo Lira’s status, whether he is alive and unharmed. This post may be edited at a future time.
It looks like we’ve come to the point that news media outlets have decided that it’s acceptable to engage in behavior that is harmful to their political opponents, as exemplified in Washington Post’s recent doxxing of the people behind the Twitter account, Libs of TikTok.
As bad as that was, it seems as though The Daily Beast’s Mark Hay has done The Washington Post one worse: he’s slandered a YouTuber as being a pro-Putin shill while he was in Ukraine, putting him at risk of being abducted, tortured, and put to death by a group of Nazis that the left has no problem with, the Azov Battalion.
Which was apparently what happened.
The Daily Beast’s Mark Hay has unlocked a grisly achievement: he has killed with his keyboard. Though considering just how his hit-piece drags Lira across rusty nails, and considering the voluminous mountain of bullshit that Mark Hay produces, it’s hard to imagine that he feels anything about it. Mark Hay had hate in his heart, and it so happens that he was able to find a place, The Daily Beast, that was willing to pay him to express it.
The name Gonzalo Lira might not be as familiar to you as his YouTube handle, Coach Red Pill. Which is a name I’ve heard, because it was only six months ago that I wrote up an article criticizing him for encouraging people to leave their home countries in an effort to avoid what he saw as a coming conflict.
That was months prior to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. And yeah, I’m aware of the optics involved, and how well that article aged in just a short time.
There is a possibility that Lira may still be alive, which is something that I’d prefer. Not just to spite the jackasses that say he was stupid and that he deserved it (he was not and did not), and not just to deny the shitweasel that is Mark Hay the pleasure of knowing that his writing has shed blood, but because he’s a human being, as deserving of life as the rest of us.
Between Lira and Hay, Gonzalo Lira delivered better journalism, without question. While Lira may have been a bit eccentric, it still remains that he delivered us coverage right from the scene. This is in stark contrast to Hay, who sits his ass down in front of a glowing screen and proceeds to destroy.
Now go on, news media. Continue writing glowing pieces about how your killers are so much better than Putin’s killers.
MSNBS is in a race to herp every last derp that’s available on the market, and to that end, they are now attempting to establish a connection between Neo-Nazis and the fitness world.
If the corporate mainstream information media was infiltrated by Russian or Chinese agents out to demoralize the western world by degrading its moral values, they would have to work pretty hard to achieve better results. Yuri Bezmenov, eat your heart out!
Before getting started, I wanted to point out that the author of MSNBC’s article was Cynthia Miller-Idriss, and the following is a few of her recent offerings:
Obviously, she’s got a chip on her shoulder about Nazis. Either that, or she feels the need to virtue-signal now that the left is actively supporting Neo-Nazis in Ukraine. If you sit in a cubicle for 8 hours a day, doing little except trying to find anything wrong with what actually productive people are doing in an attempt to justify your existence to your supervisor, and you’re worried that you might actually be useless, you can feel better knowing that people like Cynthia Miller-Idriss are out there, getting paid to write stupid defamatory bullshit about the far-right being Neo-Nazis for MSNBS. But your workplace is probably still better off without you.
If you were in the mood to destroy something beautiful, you’d be disappointed to learn that it was Cynthia Miller-Idriss that wandered into our sights, instead. Still, this is going to be one satisfying take-down. Let’s get into it!
It appears the far right has taken advantage of pandemic at-home fitness trends to expand its decade-plus radicalization of physical mixed martial arts (MMA) and combat sports spaces.
As much as I like me some video games, there’s a problem when the left wants to lock you in your home with nothing else to do. As it turns out, Cynthia takes issue with the people who used the pandemic lockdown as an opportunity to get in shape. As we all know, the left is all about bOdY pOsItIvItY, which used to mean exercising and eating well, but now means consuming food and consuming media as one’s paunch oozes down past their genitals.
Cynthia wanted you to get fat! How dare you go against her wishes by developing yourself, instead!
Earlier this month, researchers reported that a network of online “fascist fitness” chat groups on the encrypted platform Telegram are recruiting and radicalizing young men with neo-Nazi and white supremacist extremist ideologies. Initially lured with health tips and strategies for positive physical changes, new recruits are later invited to closed chat groups where far-right content is shared.
It’s obvious the game that Cynthia is playing. She could start out by saying that not all fitness buffs are Neo-Nazis, and that the problem is only with the ones whose political leanings tend them towards the National Socialist German Workers Party. Later on in the article, Cynthia has this to say:
Fitness of course is a staple and a hobby for many people, for whom it is enjoyable and rewarding for brain health and overall well-being. Physical fitness channels dopamine, adrenalin and serotonin in ways that literally feel good.
Why would Cynthia wait until the second-to-last paragraph to suggest that the problem is not with all fitness buffs, if her intention is not to write something to pander to the so-called “body-positivity” crowd? The fact is, Cynthia has an audience, and a financial incentive to tear down those who would put the effort into bettering themselves.
Let me tell you why I diet and exercise: There’s no telling when my own stamina or physical prowess might be an important factor in saving or protecting myself or the people close to me. What’s more, anyone who might attempt to threaten me or the people near me would be far more likely to reconsider if it were evident that I’d be able to overcome or overtake them. Also, women smile at me when I’m in public. There’s that.
When it comes down to it, physical fitness is the most obvious outward sign of one’s virtues, as it demonstrates a person’s ability to live disciplined and committed to a routine. What’s more, because the body is interconnected in a network of fibers and fluids, sinews and synapses, nutrients and neurons, when the body is in optimal shape, a person is more likely to be mentally sound, as the brain is connected to the same healthy network.
If a person is lazy, they’ll just direct their energy into excuses, such as using Cynthia’s article to virtue-signal about not being a Nazi. If you’d rather not diet or exercise, that’s your choice. But don’t try to drag other people down.
Physical fitness has always been central to the far right. In “Mein Kampf,” Hitler fixated on boxing and jujitsu, believing they could help him create an army of millions whose aggressive spirit and impeccably trained bodies, combined with “fanatical love of the fatherland,” would do more for the German nation than any “mediocre” tactical weapons training.
Here’s one weird fact about Hitler: he was a military leader. And here’s a bonus fact: most heads of state in the history of mankind were also military leaders. And here’s one more, because facts are so much more fun when there’s an arbitrary third example: military leaders tend to prefer that their armed forces be capable. Yeah, I know! Shocker! But it gets weirder: the U.S. Armed Forces still insist on the rigors of basic training! Coincidence? Or deliberate connection to Nazi extremism?
The article then goes on to explain how Neo-Nazis have recruited in fitness facilities in Ukraine, Canada, France, and even the United States. This is no surprise, considering that extremists of all kinds have successfully increased their numbers by recruiting people through their hobbies. Much like a how a bunch of weird freaks attempted to recruit children into sexual perversion using Splatoon 2’s lobby feature (links to Kotaku, activating ad-blocking software is advised before following that link).
BARF.
Just so you know, Cynthia Miller-Idriss is interested in reaching out to “at-risk” youths, which I suspect means anyone outside of the lock-step her own political ideology mandates:
For those of us working to find better pathways to reach at-risk youth, understanding the ways that far-right groups recruit and socialize youth — in ways that go well beyond rhetoric and ideas — is crucial. It’s critical that leaders, including parents, physical trainers, gym owners, coaches and others in the fitness world understand how online grooming and recruitment can intersect with spaces that we generally think of as promoting health and well-being. The realm of online fitness now provides a new and ever-expanding market for reaching and radicalizing young men; and it requires our targeted focus and resources to try and stop the cycle.
The intended takeaway from that closing paragraph is that it’s time to expand the witch-hunt to include fitness centers. Excluding Planet Fitness, which is too busy filling the faces of gullible cretins on “free pizza days” to turn out people who are actually physically fit. Leftists like Cynthia Miller-Idriss have a habit of splitting the world in two, and consistent with their pattern of warring against any form of virtue that’s been rigorously tested against eons of human history, they’re willing to “other” those whose self-betterment includes physical fitness.
Like any cult that destroys the minds of anyone who adheres to it, leftism discourages the pursuit of anything outside of itself, and exists solely for the benefit of its own leadership. If anyone dares to take on any activity that they deem haram, they’re willing to destroy them by calling them any name they possibly could, no matter how inflammatory, and no matter how dubious the alleged connection. Except when it comes to calling people pedophiles, they seem to be hesitant about that, for some reason.
People really need to stop consuming legacy news media. The pundits of old mainly exist to prey on old people and those who’d have no idea what their opinions were without the assistance of a punk rocker or some other influencer that’s clearly in the pocket of the establishment.
As one reads an article that attempts to make a connection between a community that exists for self-betterment and the worst pariahs (that the left is supporting in Ukraine), a few questions come up: To what end was the article written? Is it really possible for it to actually be as cynical as it appears to be?
Does MSNBS really view the work of Cynthia Miller-Idriss as being representative of a professional progressive publication?
Jussie Smollett, the failed actor who attempted a hate crime hoax to bolster his career and attempt to defame Trump supporters, has just been sentenced to five months of jail.
Did he get off way too easy? Definitely. Was the leniency a product of his celebrity status? It’s likely. Yet, it’s great to know that we live in a world where backbiters have a chance of tasting a portion of what they deserve.
Apparently, the system was pissed at something different from what the rest of us were. While we were upset at a deliberate attempt to paint a huge portion of the electorate in a defamatory light, all while attempting to benefit from the attention, what got the system riled up was the resources spent in pursuit of a frivolous and false accusation. He was ordered to pay over $120,000 in restitution to the city of Chicago, and a $25,000 fine.
It seems the moral of the story is, if you want the legal system to give a care about defamation, you have to demonstrate that it matters to their bottom line. Sure, it’s a shitty moral, but at least a lying piece of work is getting locked up.
I suspect that he’s not going to the real thing, but to celebrity jail, where he gets to while away his time in relative comfort, with substantial amenities, and near-limitless entertainment, all while his basic needs are met. So, perhaps his real punishment in the long-term would be the hit to his own reputation.
That aside, most people are not celebrities. So, this story is still a valid warning to false accusers everywhere. Some famous guy didn’t get away with it, so they might not get away with it, either.
Let’s hear it for actual journalism! As reported by Daily Mail, an undercover reporter for Project Veritas has caught FDA executive Christopher Cole on hidden camera admitting to plans for annual shots for Covid-19, saying that they’d be a “recurring fountain of revenue”, and that president Biden himself has financial incentives for pushing the vaccine.
What makes this matter particularly amusing is that the reporter disguised herself as a romantic interest, going on a date with Christopher Cole, wherein he admitted to the scheme.
It’s because of this, it’s possible that his confession actually isn’t true. It’s possible that he’s just another douchebag out to get his rooster warmed, and like many such people, he was willing to bullshit to make himself look more connected and influential than he actually is.
However, if true, this is yet another indication of a merger between corporation and state, where wealth is continually extracted from the population in the form of mandated and continual purchases of products and services, or in the cases where the products and services appear free, they are subsidized with taxpayer money, which is another form of wealth extraction.
Remember that when the Affordable Care Act was concocted, the intention was to mandate many millions of people to get health insurance. While insurance can be a great thing, the insurance industry has long since become yet another way to legally steal. If you’ve ever been in a car accident, you know that getting an insurance company to honor a claim that is explicitly covered under their policy is far more stressful than the accident itself.
Christopher Cole apparently didn’t like that his confession was obtained undercover, saying “You videotaped me talking with someone on a date – didn’t tell me anything, didn’t say it was being videotaped,”
Apparently, Christopher Cole thinks it would be more fair if his role in the merger of corporation and state were to remain under wraps, so that he may continue abusing his position in a regulatory agency to extract wealth using pharmaceutical companies that the very same agency is supposed to be regulating, while at the same time accepting kickbacks from those same pharmaceutical companies.
Either that, or he was bullshitting a woman in an effort to get his dick wet. In either case, it’s bad optics. But from what I’ve seen from the video below, he seems totally serious:
If Biden is somehow involved, the whole scheme is likely to turn to shit, anyway.
A common position of the Malthusian is that overpopulation is resulting in an overconsumption of resources, which may result in humanity endangering itself. Professing this motivation, the Malthusian feels justified in making actions that prohibit procreation among human beings, in an effort to keep human numbers in check. To this end, they encourage people to live single.
However, it’s easy to see that people living single actually consume more resources than if a male-female couple were to share the same dwelling space.
This should be simple to comprehend when you look at the resources consumed by couples, as opposed to what they’d consume if they were to live independently.
In terms of dwelling space, two people living single would require more space overall, as they would live in different homes, each with different sinks, refrigerators, air conditioners, and bathroom facilities. On the other hand, a couple would share all these facilities. Couples would easily use up half as much living space.
Next, let’s consider utilities. In the summer time, when people are uncomfortably hot, two people living single would air condition two different living spaces, whereas a cohabiting man and woman would only need to air condition one living space. Thus, the consumption of electricity would easily be halved when couples live together, and the electrical grid would be far less stressed.
Then, there’s winter time, when people get uncomfortably cold. A person with a one-bedroom flat in the northeast United States can easily spend as much as $200 a month keeping their place warm in the winter. However, a couple wouldn’t face the same hardship, as they’d share the utility expense, and their situation would be better still for the warmth the couple would provide one another.
When it comes to transportation, matters are less clear. I’ve seen couples that manage by sharing one automobile, but this isn’t always desirable for every situation. However, when people live by themselves, they each require their own transportation, which in many cases means many single people needing their own cars. This gets more significant as the result is the consumption of more fossil fuels, as well as ethanol, which is largely derived from corn. This is more significant as concerns agriculture and landmass when you consider that most corn grown in the United States is not for consumption as food, but for conversion to fuel.
As one considers all this, it’s plain to see who makes a killing off of Malthusianism: Real estate interests, utility companies, and oil barons.
If more people are living independently of other human beings, that means more people spending more on products and services than if they were to share these things with other human beings. Real estate companies profit when more people are buying homes and apartments for themselves than if they were to cohabit. Utility companies maximize the number of spending customers when each potential customer is spending for themselves, rather than sharing the benefit with another person. Oil barons profit huge when demand is increased, and this happens when more people are fueling more cars, rather than sharing cars with partners.
From this, we see that the product of Malthusianism is reduced living space, resources being depleted, and the environment being destroyed. Which is, of course, the exact opposite of what many of their own sincere believers may have wanted. But for the ones that really benefit from the ideology, it means dying rich while fucking over the entire world for successive generations.
All while pretending that the opposite is happening.
The Lord of the Rings: Rings of Power takes aim. But will it be a miss?
The trailer for The Lord of the Rings: Rings of Power has aired during the Super Bowl. Embedded below is the trailer, in case you haven’t seen it, and are interested:
People had thoughts, which largely had to do with whether The Lord of the Rings (LotR) would become yet another victim of corporate entities milking franchises for money with little regard for the established material, while at the same time using it to virtue signal, and subsequently using intersectionality as a high horse in the event that the fans point out its shortcomings. Similar to what’s happened with the Star Wars sequel trilogy.
Among the answers to the trailer is the following quote, attributed to J.R.R. Tolkien, and presented in different languages:
“Evil cannot create anything new, they can only corrupt and ruin what good forces have invented or made.”
While this is presented as a quote from J.R.R. Tolkien, the quote actually came from TV Tropes’ page, Evil Is Sterile, where it is used to describe an apparent philosophy to the worldbuilding of LotR.
While the quote is misattributed, I find it thought-provoking, as it brings to mind the apparent adversarial relationship between creativity and the forces of evil.
It’s long been thought that the opposite of life is death. However, this is not the case. Death is what occurs at the terminal point of an individual organism’s life. In nature, organisms do not adapt to have perpetual, permanently self-sustained lives. Their lives are of a span that takes them to the point that they’d be most likely to procreate, then perform whatever actions are necessary to ensure the success of their progeny.
In reality, the opposite of life is destruction. It’s not just the opposite of life, it’s the opposite of creativity.
As life continues onwards, organisms develop in increasingly complex, creative ways that suggests a certain guidance that is not accidental. As one considers this, one can appreciate that the Christian religion teaches that God made humanity in His own image. Of all the terrestrial creatures that we’ve yet discovered, humans are the most creative.
Standing in opposition to creativity is the forces of wickedness, which tend to destruction. The forces of destruction have an adversarial relationship to anything creative in any form, and the closer that one’s mind is to the core of wickedness, the more absolute that one is in their determination to destroy.
I have no reservation in calling those who I take issue with by their virtues: they are evil. Those who are evil hate creativity, hate creation, hate freedom to create, hate planning, hate procreating, hate expression, and even hate all forms of art, literature, music, and any other form of expression that doesn’t fit their own narrow band of preferences. But if their tendency towards evil were to be taken to its natural conclusion, they’d eventually want to destroy those, too.
The forces of evil are seldom completely evil. Their thirst for destruction does clash with their own self-preservation. The fact is, evil is able to survive for a time, by simply imitating what’s been proven to be effective, as far as they can perceive its benefit to themselves.
Sam: Don’t orcs eat, and don’t they drink? Or do they just live on foul air and poison? Frodo: No, they eat and drink, Sam. The Shadow that bred them can only mock; it cannot make: not real, new things of its own. I don’t think it gave life to the orcs, it only ruined and twisted them, and if they are to live at all, they have to live like other living creatures.
Sam and Frodo, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
While all living things imitate to an extent, the forces of evil are disproportionately reliant on it, for their own lack of capacity to create, and inflexibility of mind to adapt.
“I don’t care that they stole my idea… I care that they don’t have any of their own.”
Nikola Tesla
If you’ve been following this blog for a while, you might have gotten the idea that I tend to favor the creative when it comes to disputes over sensibilities. I’m a Freedom-of-Expression kind of guy. A world where expression is not stifled is the kind of environment where humanity can be allowed to develop to it’s fullest.
Creativity does have its enemies, however. And they’re evident in what they do. It’s easy to think of examples off the top of my head, but I think they’ll be evident to most people if they were to take a moment to think of them in terms of what they accomplish.
A lot of people out there have their concerns about Rings of Power, which is coming to Amazon Prime Video. I agree that when intersectionality is ram-rodded into a creative work it jeopardizes the quality of the work.
But as I see it, there’s another problem: To a hammer, everything looks like a nail. There are people out there whose minds are so trained to see intersectionality poisoning their entertainment, that they’ll take even the slightest sign of intersectionality as a sign that a work is turning into a dumpster fire.
While intersectionality is problematic, not every apparent virtue-signal of diversity and inclusion is a deliberate move in the culture war.
Is it the case for Rings of Power? It’s kinda looking like it. But if Middle Earth ends up disappointing fans, there are other fantasies out there. Perhaps, if you feel inclined, you can express your own creativity, and share a fantasy of your own with the world.
“My apologies, Captain Slavin. I forgot not everyone is able to appreciate art as I do.”
The Coronavirus epidemic, and especially the lockdowns that came along with it, really didn’t tickle. People were ordered to remain in their homes, which really sucked for those of us who wanted to make a living. People were ordered to wear masks in public, which really sucked for people who like fresh air.
Making matters worse was the riots caused by BLM, colloquially referred to as Burn Loot Murder, which really sucked for those who wanted to avoid violence and property damage.
While that already sounds like a kick in the teeth, it gets even better when you understand that part of the intention behind the Covid-19 relief concerned “the increased potential for violence in underserved and disproportionately impacted communities.”
So naturally, a Democrat that received funds that were intended to help deal with violent crime under the pretense of Covid relief had allocated those funds to a bunch of violent terrorist extremists operating under the pretense of racial justice.
There comes a point where it’s no longer fitting to call someone “incompetent”, because it’s much more apparent that there’s malice involved. What else does one attribute to Pritzker’s use of the Covid-19 relief funds, which is like receiving the gasoline needed to fuel his family’s automobile, but instead throwing the same gasoline directly into a housefire?
Apparently, the Coronavirus Apocalypse is over, because governors can now afford to spend Covid-relief funds on stupid bullshit.
As surprising as it may seem, George Soros, who has long been viewed as a sort of boogeyman by the political right, is surprisingly candid when it comes to the threat posed by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
If you’ve been following my writing, you know that my viewpoints don’t always align with Soros. I actually view many of the conspiracy theories revolving around him as ridiculous, because they are. Soros is a donor to various left-wing causes, and is only different from most such donors for the concentrated attention that he specifically has garnered. He’s probably actually enjoying it.
Soros has just joined the growing list of influential individuals who are critical of the CCP. While his perspective may be different from that of many of us, considering that he views matters from the perspective of a wealthy and highly-successful investor, that doesn’t mean that his views aren’t valid.
The fact is, the CCP is a huge threat to the culture and freedoms of peoples around the world, and using their wealth, the CCP has succeeded in purchasing influence from prominent and unprincipled individuals. The CCP is currently engaged in the jailing of political dissidents, not to mention the genocide of Uighurs within their borders. In spite of this, the 2022 Winter Olympic games is scheduled to commence within their borders this Friday.
I know I might seem like I’m laboring the point, but when a fascistic regime is committing a literal genocide that is recognized as such by the international community, the same regime should face harsh consequences, rather than be rewarded with the honor of hosting the flipping Olympic games.
It bears pointing out that the CCP is not even the legitimate government of China. The government of Taiwan is China’s legitimate government. There was once a civil war over the land of China. The communists succeeded in taking the mainland, but China’s legitimate government remained in Taiwan. When you understand this, you understand why the CCP obsesses over the island of Taiwan.
Because Taiwan is geographically close to China, one may wonder why the CCP doesn’t just take it. For one thing, Taiwan is protected by it’s own highly-advanced armed forces. What’s more, Taiwan is protected by a pact between the United States and Japan, who agree that in the event that Taiwan is attacked by the CCP, both countries would repel the attempted invasion. The CCP likes to pretend that such a pact doesn’t exist.
Currently, the CCP is working around-the-clock to undermine worldwide stability for its own benefit. This includes engaging in psyops in an effort to erode the cultures of rival countries. Personally, it wouldn’t surprise me if the woke or gender-confusion movements were a product of Chinese psyops, considering that the CCP strongly encourages traditional masculinity among its men.
The CCP has been behind the Confucius Institute, which has been undergoing changes in branding in an effort to evade detection. The Confucius Institute is so zealous, that it actively monitors Chinese students attending American colleges, and in some cases attempting to discourage them from participating too heavily in American culture.
If one is going to take opposition to the CCP to its conclusion, then a person is going to come to be at odds with the Biden administration at some point along the way. After all, the Biden family has had a considerable investment in a CCP company, which they did as bad a job of keeping secret as they did with Hunter Biden’s drug-induced escapades. Even now, the Biden administration prefers to punch down at Russia, a large country with an economy the size of the state of New York, because Russia’s activities threaten the Biden family’s investments in Ukraine.
If trends are to change for the better, the western world needs to make drastic changes, fast. As far as this goes, there’s reason to be optimistic, as the CCP’s threat has escalated to the point that an influential individual like George Soros is speaking up about them.
Even if you’re not fond of the guy, it can still be appreciated that he’s speaking up about a threat that’s been doing a terrible job at masking its malice as of late.
G4’s attempted return didn’t go so well, as shortly after the brand’s relaunch, hostess Froskurinn went on a tirade about sexism in response to a viewer’s comment.
It’s a bit of a dirty secret among content creators that once you’re big enough, you don’t interact with the audience. Mainly because of stuff like this.
Back when G4 was at its height, it was actually considered a respectable outlet by gamers. I didn’t pay it much mind, considering that I preferred to use the internet to hear the opinions of my peers, rather than have journalists attempt to tell me what they are. But I did have an IRL friend that was into G4, so it was something that I heard of. I didn’t care or notice when they were gone, however. Life goes on.
When commenters were going on about how they didn’t find Froskurinn as attractive as a previous host, this clearly got under her skin, which led up to the explosion. Personally, I suspect that the comments were troll comments. If so, she handled them the wrong way.
When you’re being trolled, you’re not supposed to let them know they’re getting to you, as the usual point of trolling is to get a reaction. An angry outburst was the exact opposite of how Froskurinn should have handled it, as it’s giving the trolls what they want. When Chris-chan was being trolled, it got to the point that trolls suspected that they were being trolled right back, because he consistently handled the matter poorly, often by completely flipping out.
Right now, G4’s ratings are plunging. And I don’t feel bad for them. Attacking your own fans is a bad strategy for content creators. While one might bring up the co-hosts, and how they might not sincerely hold Froskurinn’s views, the fact is, they were right there, clapping like trained seals, playing along to try to avoid being a pariah in the eyes of a dominant feminist, and they found themselves in that position because of a failure to gatekeep.
This matter conveniently comes up just as I’m hearing chatter about how journalists want to try to bring back GamerGate. Why would they want that? Because journalism is in the gutter, clicks are down, people don’t trust them, and they want that enraged engagement that they got from the GamerGate days.
But it’s not going to work, and here’s why: GamerGate was a precursor to the woke movement that’s been around for a while. It may not have been the main catalyst, but it played a huge foundational role. The fact is, GamerGate already happened, and the woke debacle is still ongoing, and has progressed to the point that people are getting sick of it, and is getting public pushback. If another GamerGate were to happen now, it would just be considered another element of the woke movement that people are already sick of.
Trying to bring back GamerGate now would be like trying to ignite an engine that’s already running, and on the brink of failure.
Right now, journalism is in a shitty state. At this point, few people trust them, and journalists are attempting to hang on to viewership with a steady stream of outrage-porn to keep the few they have left interested. That, and they have old people who remember way back when news was their only outlet for information.
They pursued the quick-and-easy, waving off the price that they’d have to pay in the long-term. Now, the time has come for them to pay the price. Naturally, they don’t want to pay it.
The moral of the story is, gatekeep as though your business depends on it. Once someone from one of the many flavors of woke get in, they have a knack for hijacking your brand, and making everything about themselves. Once it gets to that point, it gets hard to remove them in a way that avoids causing more damage.
I wasn’t interested in G4 back in the day, and I’m still not. And if they’re going to lash out at their viewers and go woke, they’re just going to end up with attention that they don’t want. Maybe they’ll go as far as to say that they’ve fallen while on a moral high-ground, as a cynic’s quest typically ends.
Those who die on the hill of their choice, still die.
Magnetricity 