Sometimes I think about the fact that The Hunt, one of the most controversial films of the past decade that was publicly condemned by Donald Trump, was directed by one of the co-creators of Homestar Runner, the least controversial media franchise in history.
Crazy stuff.
Mr. Beast allegedly being an abusive fraud who mistreats the people in his videos doesn't surprise me in the least.
Just sayin'.
Here's a general lesson in the history of media companies: they don't care about art, especially if it doesn't rake in the dough. If it does, then they pretend to care about it, and give themselves credit for its success (while, often, still screwing over the artist in every way imaginable).
Here's a more specific lesson: in 2022, Warner Bros. Discovery decided to take a tax write-off on the well-received Adult Swim series Final Space, essentially deleting it from their archives, ceasing production of future seasons and physical versions of existing seasons, and scrubbing the entire series from streaming and VOD platforms. The creator, Olan Rogers, saw years of his life and work get deleted in the name of business. Its physical versions are now long out of print, it cannot be rented on Amazon, and only recently did they allow Rogers to complete the story as a graphic novel with absurd limitations placed on its release. The Water Tower has made it incredibly clear how much they care about Final Space: they don't. So, what is to be done about a piece of copyrighted media that has been discarded by its owners?
This is where the Internet Archive comes in. High-quality rips of all three seasons are available on the Archive at no cost to anyone who wants to see them. Sweet, sweet piracy saves the day once again. Yar har fiddle dee dee.
Normally, I don't condone or practice sailing the high seas in search of media you want to experience, but in cases such as this, there is not only no choice, there is no reason for media companies to care. Warner Bros. Discovery is not making any money off of Final Space, so why should they give a damn that people are watching it for free? This applies to so many other instances. The reason Nintendo (a company famously anal-retentive about protecting their copyrights) hasn't taken any action against the fan-made English translation of Mother 3 is because they know it was their choice not to release the highly-lauded game in America. Guess what? The Mother 3 Fan Translation on the Archive too. So are millions and millions of other pieces of media, from books to concert recordings to feature films. While some of them have clearly been uploaded without the legal justification of being out of print, the Archive is nonetheless home to millions of works that otherwise would be unavailable to the public at large.
This is what makes the forced removal of over 500,000 books from the Archive at the request of a group of book publishers especially horrible. As many patrons have attested, large swaths of the removed books are out of print, or have their access severely regionally restricted. These publishers aren't trying to make money (as many have pointed out, they have struggled to make the case that their business has been meaningfully harmed), they're trying to restrict access to books they're not making much money off of anyway.
Plus, it's important to note that the Internet Archive is not just giving away free PDFs of every book in its collection. It operates ethically: it scans a book that has been legally purchased, and never lends out more digital copies than it has physical copies. You know, like every other library on Earth. Plus, they have Fair Use on their side. Digitizing a book is a transformative action, one that fundamentally changes the book's format. The law does not suggest that they are infringing on the copyright of the publishers, nor does the evidence. The publishers are engaging in what is little more than an exercise in control, trying to make the case that only they have the power to make their books available to people. I don't have to point out what is wrong with this defense, or the chilling lengths it could potentially be taken to (public libraries beware).
Additionally, the Internet Archive doesn't just serve Mister Piracy who doesn't want to pay for his books. It serves people in communities that may not have access to libraries, or whose libraries are being threatened with the removal of "indecent material" (which the right mostly uses as a blanket term for anything with a viewpoint they disagree with). Killing the Archive would limit millions' access to books and other media.
Most importantly, losing the Internet Archive will be a major blow to history. I am of the belief that any content that is covered by the First Amendment is worth preserving. The Internet Archive protects against the loss of things like TV episodes, radio transmissions, and yes, obscure, out of print books. Without those, a significant chunk of our culture and history is lost. Not only would the death of the Archive be a blow to history that has already happened, it will be a blow to the emerging history of our current time. YouTube videos, Flash games and animations, long-unsupported software, all of it is there. This is not even mentioning the over 860 billion webpages saved on the Archive's Wayback Machine. The work of the Archive is enormously important not just in keeping the past alive, but the present. As Eisenhower said of the Holocaust, "Get it all on record now--get the films, get the witnesses--because somewhere down the track of history some bastard will get up and say that this never happened." We may not be dealing with the Holocaust, but that quote is nonetheless applicable to any other time in history, including today.
We cannot allow the Archive to go away, or be threatened. When the Internet Archive begins letting go of its preserved history, that will be the beginning of the end. Currently, they are appealing the ruling. They have a group of lawyers from the wonderful Electronic Frontier Foundation representing them, and according to reports, the judges in the case are more considerate of the Archive's defense than previous judges, and a ruling is expected sometime in the next year. I hope they succeed.
Access to knowledge and media helps everyone, and when the media is lent out ethically or unavailable elsewhere, it harms no one. That is what needs to be understood more than anything.
(Update 7/25/24: randomly thought of a line that would absolutely jam in the context of the post, decided to add it)
Joe Biden's decision to drop out of the presidential race today can be viewed in a number of ways. Some may see it as an admission of defeat, that the skeleton with the launch codes knows he can't beat Epstein's orange buddy. Certainly, that is how the Trump campaign will try to paint it (just without the Epstein bit, which they conveniently forget about a lot). Some may paint it as a selfish act, trying to protect his image while throwing his party into chaos, scrambling to find a nominee. There is no denying that the Democratic party has a stressful couple of weeks ahead of it, and the timing is most certainly not ideal for a change such as this to take place.
But I see it as Biden making the best choice not just for himself, but for his country. It is in America's best interest that Donald Trump does not set foot in the Oval Office again. Joe Biden has been one of the main obstacles to that goal in this election season, and he knows that. Thus, he sees that it's time to step aside for someone who can win over swing voters, because without swing voters, there's no victory.
The choice of replacement has to be incredibly careful. Something tells me a sizeable chunk of Biden's voter base (myself included) will vote for whoever it is. But they still need to be cautious, and choose someone who can attract key demographics in swing states. Kamala Harris is a controversial choice here. For whatever reason, people seem to have a very negative opinion of her. But then again, I'm convinced that almost any younger candidate will bump up the Dems' numbers a bit (which is not unimportant, as this election will probably be won by "a bit"). It has to be a very cautious choice, but I think the Democrats have a wider pool of potential candidates than they realize.
I think that, in spite of the absolute chaos in the party this will usher in, Biden made the correct choice.
I am reminded of a quote from one of my favorite TV shows of all time, 30 Rock: "Sometimes, you gotta do the right thing, even when the wrong thing would be a whole lot easier."
This video by YouTuber Videogamedunkey is the best piece of satire I have seen so far about our age of streaming oversaturation, the era where every company thinks they desperately need to charge consumers $20 a month for their content. In this video, a guide to how you can watch King Kong vs. Godzilla (1963) spirals out of control as Dunkey ushers you through a hilarious mix of real and only-slightly-less-real examples of the insanity of the streaming era.
Some highlights:
We should gather all streaming executives into a room, force their eyes open Clockwork Orange-style, and show them this video.
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Donald Trump recently exploited the assassination attempt against himself as a meme to make fun of Joe Biden, thus proving that Republicans' calls for national unity were phony. All they wanted in calling for unity was a poll bump for their dictator, not people who disagree coming together. They still want division, and they're still hell-bent on getting it. Donald Trump would turn an attempt on his life into a reason to mock Joe Biden, forgetting that Biden responded to the shooting with good wishes, condolences, and condemnations of political violence. Some Republicans expressed a desire to lower the temperature. They haven't held up their end of the bargain.
Here's a recap of events:
Yeah. It's not equal.
Of course we should condemn political violence. What happened was a tragedy and I am glad Trump is okay. I certainly wish there was unity. But the Republicans never wanted unity, not even as they claimed it after the shooting. Unity on their side would be praising Biden's response, and making it clear they don't think Biden tried to kill Trump. Nobody has done that. Since they're not showing any willingness to lower the temperature, they shouldn't be surprised that the media is now back to calling Donald Trump a danger to democracy (which he is) and criticizing him (which he deserves).
I am fully in favor of toning down the rhetoric. But it's not fair to force Democrats to stop criticizing poor, innocent Trumpy Baby while they continue their violent threats and insults as if nothing ever happened. A lowering of the national temperature requires both sides to cool down. Only one side actually did so.
The assassination attempt was terrible. But Trump has done nothing to deserve the pity party Democrats gave him that he is now taking advantage of. So let me say this: Donald Trump is a danger to democracy and if he wins in 2024, our country is in serious jeopardy. We cannot let him win, and we must cast our ballots for Biden if we want an America where all of our fellow citizens, black or white, male or female, gay or straight, can be safe and free.
The pity party is over. Let's vote this jackass away from the White House
When I woke up yesterday morning, I wasn't optimistic about our country. When I woke up this morning, I was even less optimistic.
Yesterday a presidential candidate almost got assassinated. The bullet grazed his ear. It was a couple of inches from a new JFK. Someone in the crowd was killed and two were seriously injured. Someone tried to kill Donald Trump. I can't believe I'm typing this right now. I live in a country where an attempted assassination of a political leader just took place. We were supposed to be better than this. We're not.
I will not equivocate on my feelings about Donald Trump. The attempt on his life did not tip my scale in his favor in any way. He remains a danger, a danger who I will be voting against. But I will not condone this. I do not wish death on anyone, and Donald Trump is no exception. I hate violence, especially political violence, and especially in my own country.
I don't care what side you're on; what happened yesterday is something we should all condemn. Thankfully, most people seem to realize that. Some, unfortunately, don't. My fellow Democrats who keep making "missed it by that much" jokes can go to hell. If the attempt had succeeded, normalcy would crumble. America would be defined by two eras: before the assassination, and after. This is not to say that everything has been normal since the attempt, but at least if you open Reddit you'll see that people are still posting memes.
I worry about what this means for the future. Now that someone has tried to kill Donald Trump, some gun-nut crackpot is going to feel empowered to do the same to Joe Biden. Some gun-nut crackpot on the other side may be tempted to finish the job on Trump. I'm horrified at the possibility even as I type it. I worry that this is not the last attempt on a candidate's life we will see during this election season. Already Trump's allies are falsely claiming that Biden gave the order. The more people claim that, the more someone can justify committing violence against Biden. I see polls saying that the percentage of Americans who think violence against a political opponent is sometimes necessary has gone up. I cannot express in words how wrong that is.
On the other hand, in the aftermath of this event, I have seen unusual unity across the political aisle. Leaders, both Democrats and Republicans, have rightly condemned the shooting, commended the Secret Service for getting Trump to safety, and offered condolences to the family of the attendee who was killed. Multiple high-profile lawmakers have said that this event proves we need to tone down the demonizing rhetoric. I agree. I think that this toning-down must extend to both sides. Biden must stop the "end of democracy" rhetoric, and Trump must acknowledge that the results of the election will be fair and promise to accept them. De-escalation is the best course of action. I don't have much confidence that this is what will happen (it seems reasonable to predict that the next debate will see Trump respond to multiple questions with "I got shot"), but I can't predict the future! This is an enormous event, and perhaps a change will come! We'll have to see.
Donald Trump was shot with a weapon he has frequently championed the right to own, an AR-15. I consider myself a fairly moderate guy, but when it comes to matters of gun control, I'm about as lefty as they come. I think that the Second Amendment is an outdated relic from a time when it took several minutes to fire one shot, and I think that there is no reason for a civilian to own an assault weapon beyond having a repressed desire to kill and/or to compensate for something. The attempt on Trump's life pretty clearly demonstrates that a world in which mentally ill people have easy access to military-grade weapons is a terrible one. However, if this is what persuades the right to finally crack down on gun control, I'll be severely disappointed. I attended high school in a time where The Onion had to post the iconic "No Way to Prevent This" article multiple times. I want gun control and I want it bad, but I will be livid if we get it because a bullet grazed Trump's ear, and not because of the children who were shot in their schools.
I know this isn't very coherent. I'm just trying to gather my thoughts. Yesterday was a dark day in American history, one that is going to set the tone for the rest of the election season. I'm scared of what it spells for the future and what it says about our country. I haven't been given many reasons to be hopeful for America. What happens next is going to influence every atom of the political atmosphere going forward. Why wouldn't I need to sort through some messy thoughts?
Shortly after my posting the article condemning Trump, an incident occurred at a rally of his. Gunshots were fired and Trump was rushed offstage. He is fine, according to the Secret Service. Some new info coming in says that two people, including the shooter, are dead. I can't confirm all of this right now, I'm posting as I see it.
I've made no bones about my feelings towards Trump in the past, but this is sickening. I hate political violence towards anyone, and I completely condemn this attempt on his life. I am sickened for our country and scared for our candidates. This is a horrifying escalation of events, and I can only say that I hope he and everyone at the rally are alright.
Given the amount of takes I've seen online making fun of the "both sides are bad" idea, I felt this was worth posting.
"Both sides are equally bad" is not only a terrible take, it's downright wrong. As in false. Only one side wants to elect a convicted felon to the highest office in our government. Only one side has seen its violent, conspiratorial fringes invade the mainstream to a massive extent. Only one side stormed the Capitol when their candidate lost and caused horrific trauma to the guards on the Capitol steps. Everyone who forcibly entered the Capitol on January 6th has the blood of the four officers who committed suicide after the riot on their hands. I firmly believe that. The Republicans have become a party of insurrectionists, and have left sensible people like Mitt Romney by the wayside. Thanks to everything that has happened in their party since 2016, it will be years before I will even consider voting red.
"Both sides are bad" is the objective truth. The Republican Party being a hot bigoted mess does not make the Democratic Party a delightful assembly of sinless angels. Joe Biden is too old to be President and is not without a sketchy past (it's impossible to succeed in politics without one). The left is absolutely home to people just as dangerous and bigoted as those on the right (though unlike the right, they have yet to find a place in the mainstream). For some on the left, a desire for the Palestinian people to have peace and safety (something I certainly support) has given way to ugly expressions of antisemitism. And let's not forget Biden's recent decision to smile as his supporters chanted "lock him up," the kinds of chants he has rightfully attacked Trump for not standing up against. The fact that Trump should be locked up doesn't make it look any better for Biden.
So, now you have my two cents on the matter. I don't like Biden very much, but he gets my vote. He gets my vote because the alternative is infinitely worse. I am choosing "bad" over "evil."
Like all people who enjoy laughter, I am a great appreciator of Groucho Marx. Nobody else before or after had a sense of timing quite like him. Nobody else had a sense of words quite like him. He always seemed to know exactly what to say and exactly when to say it. His skill astounds even today. Turn on Duck Soup (1933) to see what I mean. Not only is the theme of rampant incompetence in government still relevant, but watching it today clearly shows that not even 91 years could make it any less of a great comedy.
But seeing this video reveals a different side of him. He is asked about his thoughts on blackface minstrel shows, once a popular form of entertainment that is now rightly viewed as a thoroughly racist form of entertainment. Groucho's response demonstrates the kind of attitude that I wish some comedians and comedy fans would adopt today. Sometimes the things that were acceptable in your time are offensive now, and it's a sign of being an upright human to accept that and try to be sensitive. Don't get me wrong; I love edgy, politically incorrect comedy. But I do not love comedy that punches down or demeans people. Believe it or not, there is a way to make politically incorrect comedy without being a jackass.
In today's world, comedians often push buttons for the sake of pushing buttons. Here, Groucho shows humility, and a willingness to be sensitive and adapt to new times. As his friends attest, Groucho's wit never dulled, not even as he reached the end. This story proves that the "you can't make jokes anymore" crowd is wrong. You can make jokes, they just can't be demeaning anymore. And I am immediately skeptical of anyone who aches to make demeaning jokes so bad they complain about how decent people won't let them.
