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moominmuppetSady Doyle is taking on rape apologism in the progressive movement head on, and risking her own well-being and mental health to do it. Please read what she's writing.
On targeting Michael Moore:
When you have a man who has built his career on the presumption that silence in the face of confrontation equals guilt, that refusal to engage with an angry political opponent equals guilt, that refusal to engage publicly equals guilt, a man whose job is essentially walking up to people and demanding that they talk to him in public, and you have a tool on the Internet that allows you to talk to that very man, and that man behaves irresponsibly and oppressively, in a way that betrays the principles of the entire movement he claims to speak for, and he says things that are blatantly untrue in public, so that it is very easy to ascertain that he is either not in possession of the facts or lying about them — when that man, in short, behaves in a way that makes you want to engage him publicly, and the Internet has given you the capability to engage him publicly, so that this man has no option but to (a) respond, or (b) fall into the silence=guilt equation he’s built his very career on? You have a way for people to effectively participate in activism on the Internet, my friends. And, as previously stated, people will participate. Lots of them. (Sady's also doing direct protest, in true Michael Moore style, in front of Moore's building, asking him to come out and discuss the issues)
I suspect most of you have already heard about this, but for those who haven’t, you guys, Sady Doyle made Keith Olbermann cry, and he fucking well deserved it.
On Olbermann's response:
Except that it wasn’t a frenzy. It was a protest. Olbermann had no problem with describing the notoriously unruly Anonymous as “online activists,” and yet, when online activists who happened to be feminists took issue with him, well… they’d gone FRENZIED! They were like sharks in the salty sea water of Twitter, thrashing and chomping at Keith Olbermann’s tender, online flesh!
Why I’m On Board With #mooreandme
10 days in Sweden: the full allegations against Julian Assange
Personally, I'm very fond of Olbermann, despite his bombast, and even have an old-school affection for Moore. Roger and Me was about the town I was living in at the time. Moore went to my high school. He was my first sense of connection to activism work in some ways (Sady's comments about watching Roger and Me really resonated for me). Although they've both disappointed me in various ways over the years, I still expect better of them than this. I think we should all expect better of them.
Speaking of expecting better of people, I caught a good portion of Ricky Gervais' new stand-up special last night. He's brilliant comedically, but the 20 minutes or so of nothing but fat jokes, somehow excused or justified by him being an ex-fatty, just made me livid. It's cheap and lazy, and not the least bit edgy, to take aim at folks who are already the butt of harrassment. The power in comedy is aiming up, not down, the social ladder. It's in revealing truth, not reinforcing inaccurate bullshit that everyone already believes. Here's some of what I found on the topic when I looked today:
Ricky Gervais' fat blast
Ricky Gervais Continues To Break My Heart
Drop Dead Diva, Fat-Positive Television, And Ricky Gervais (Again)
I actually posted a closely related link the other day:
He was a bully. He still is, whether he realises it or not. The Comedy of Hate going back to Sam Kinison, Jerry Sadowitz, Dennis Leary and of course Hicks was fuelled by frustration at a stupid world, screaming out the anger and turning it into hilarity. It was the old ‘if you don’t laugh, you cry’ maxim. Boyle is the comedy of complacency, of finding the weak and knocking them to the ground, inviting the audience to stand in that corridor and laugh at their flailing bodies. It’s not tearing down sacred cows. It’s kicking people who are already on the floor. It’s easy. Not offensive, just futile.
Jesus was left-wing -- This is all a big "Duh!" in my opinion, and very closely reflects my beliefs growing up very religious. There's no question those same basic values inform how I continue to interpret the world, despite no longer being religious (my biggest issue with Christianity, aside from the existence of God, is evangelism, which I see as absolutely central to the Gospels, and also absolutely problematic and squicky).
Related: Jesus vs Jeezus
Scientists on Sunday said they had discovered a bouquet of proteins that play a critical role in the development of more than 130 brain diseases.
New York Senator Renews Hope for 9/11 Bill
Doctor Who Christmas Promo, and also shark-jumping (or flying)
U.S. Rep. Patrick Murphy: An Iraq war veteran who led the charge to strike down "don't ask, don't tell," Murphy said its demise aligned national policy with soldiers' battlefield concerns.
"When I served in Iraq, the men I served with didn't care who you were writing home to," Murphy said. "They cared how you handled your assault rifle. They cared about whether you could kick down a door and whether you could do your job so you could all come home alive."
Scientists have speculated that Saturn’s moon Titan has ice volcanoes. After two flybys of Cassini-Huygens over the moon, the satellite’s observations appear to confirm that suspicion.
...
As an ice volcano, Sotra Facula might produce liquid water in its lava. UV sunlight interacting with methane, nitrogen, or other compounds in the atmosphere may give off tholins. The water-tholin reactions might be able to produce some of the building blocks for lifeforms.
Romance among the D&D-playing chimp researchers
North America and the Pelican
Body Impolitic: Photo of the Week (this one is actually SFW)
ONTD_F's discussion post on feminism and online activism (with assorted links)
Moore: Sicko NOT banned in Cuba
Cablegate game gives points for summarizing, tagging Wikileaks cables
Glenn Greenwald: Joe Biden v. Joe Biden on WikiLeaks
Yelping at Saints (and astronomer explains halos)
Gunmen kill mother protesting over slain daughter
Former Conservative MP Ann Widdecombe has criticised the ‘coming out’ of deputy speaker of the House of Commons, Nigel Evans. She said that being gay “is not an issue” and said that MPs should not disclose details of their private lives.
On targeting Michael Moore:
When you have a man who has built his career on the presumption that silence in the face of confrontation equals guilt, that refusal to engage with an angry political opponent equals guilt, that refusal to engage publicly equals guilt, a man whose job is essentially walking up to people and demanding that they talk to him in public, and you have a tool on the Internet that allows you to talk to that very man, and that man behaves irresponsibly and oppressively, in a way that betrays the principles of the entire movement he claims to speak for, and he says things that are blatantly untrue in public, so that it is very easy to ascertain that he is either not in possession of the facts or lying about them — when that man, in short, behaves in a way that makes you want to engage him publicly, and the Internet has given you the capability to engage him publicly, so that this man has no option but to (a) respond, or (b) fall into the silence=guilt equation he’s built his very career on? You have a way for people to effectively participate in activism on the Internet, my friends. And, as previously stated, people will participate. Lots of them. (Sady's also doing direct protest, in true Michael Moore style, in front of Moore's building, asking him to come out and discuss the issues)
I suspect most of you have already heard about this, but for those who haven’t, you guys, Sady Doyle made Keith Olbermann cry, and he fucking well deserved it.
On Olbermann's response:
Except that it wasn’t a frenzy. It was a protest. Olbermann had no problem with describing the notoriously unruly Anonymous as “online activists,” and yet, when online activists who happened to be feminists took issue with him, well… they’d gone FRENZIED! They were like sharks in the salty sea water of Twitter, thrashing and chomping at Keith Olbermann’s tender, online flesh!
Why I’m On Board With #mooreandme
10 days in Sweden: the full allegations against Julian Assange
Personally, I'm very fond of Olbermann, despite his bombast, and even have an old-school affection for Moore. Roger and Me was about the town I was living in at the time. Moore went to my high school. He was my first sense of connection to activism work in some ways (Sady's comments about watching Roger and Me really resonated for me). Although they've both disappointed me in various ways over the years, I still expect better of them than this. I think we should all expect better of them.
Speaking of expecting better of people, I caught a good portion of Ricky Gervais' new stand-up special last night. He's brilliant comedically, but the 20 minutes or so of nothing but fat jokes, somehow excused or justified by him being an ex-fatty, just made me livid. It's cheap and lazy, and not the least bit edgy, to take aim at folks who are already the butt of harrassment. The power in comedy is aiming up, not down, the social ladder. It's in revealing truth, not reinforcing inaccurate bullshit that everyone already believes. Here's some of what I found on the topic when I looked today:
Ricky Gervais' fat blast
Ricky Gervais Continues To Break My Heart
Drop Dead Diva, Fat-Positive Television, And Ricky Gervais (Again)
I actually posted a closely related link the other day:
He was a bully. He still is, whether he realises it or not. The Comedy of Hate going back to Sam Kinison, Jerry Sadowitz, Dennis Leary and of course Hicks was fuelled by frustration at a stupid world, screaming out the anger and turning it into hilarity. It was the old ‘if you don’t laugh, you cry’ maxim. Boyle is the comedy of complacency, of finding the weak and knocking them to the ground, inviting the audience to stand in that corridor and laugh at their flailing bodies. It’s not tearing down sacred cows. It’s kicking people who are already on the floor. It’s easy. Not offensive, just futile.
Jesus was left-wing -- This is all a big "Duh!" in my opinion, and very closely reflects my beliefs growing up very religious. There's no question those same basic values inform how I continue to interpret the world, despite no longer being religious (my biggest issue with Christianity, aside from the existence of God, is evangelism, which I see as absolutely central to the Gospels, and also absolutely problematic and squicky).
Related: Jesus vs Jeezus
Scientists on Sunday said they had discovered a bouquet of proteins that play a critical role in the development of more than 130 brain diseases.
New York Senator Renews Hope for 9/11 Bill
Doctor Who Christmas Promo, and also shark-jumping (or flying)
U.S. Rep. Patrick Murphy: An Iraq war veteran who led the charge to strike down "don't ask, don't tell," Murphy said its demise aligned national policy with soldiers' battlefield concerns.
"When I served in Iraq, the men I served with didn't care who you were writing home to," Murphy said. "They cared how you handled your assault rifle. They cared about whether you could kick down a door and whether you could do your job so you could all come home alive."
Scientists have speculated that Saturn’s moon Titan has ice volcanoes. After two flybys of Cassini-Huygens over the moon, the satellite’s observations appear to confirm that suspicion.
...
As an ice volcano, Sotra Facula might produce liquid water in its lava. UV sunlight interacting with methane, nitrogen, or other compounds in the atmosphere may give off tholins. The water-tholin reactions might be able to produce some of the building blocks for lifeforms.
Romance among the D&D-playing chimp researchers
North America and the Pelican
Body Impolitic: Photo of the Week (this one is actually SFW)
ONTD_F's discussion post on feminism and online activism (with assorted links)
Moore: Sicko NOT banned in Cuba
Cablegate game gives points for summarizing, tagging Wikileaks cables
Glenn Greenwald: Joe Biden v. Joe Biden on WikiLeaks
Yelping at Saints (and astronomer explains halos)
Gunmen kill mother protesting over slain daughter
Former Conservative MP Ann Widdecombe has criticised the ‘coming out’ of deputy speaker of the House of Commons, Nigel Evans. She said that being gay “is not an issue” and said that MPs should not disclose details of their private lives.
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no subject
Date: 2010-12-20 01:44 am (UTC)Jesus was a flaming hippie liberal. We know this... too bad the fundamentalists can't figure it out.
no subject
Date: 2010-12-20 03:44 am (UTC)Indeed. And don't even get me started on the Prosperity Gospel bullshit...
no subject
Date: 2010-12-23 09:06 pm (UTC)Should Olbermann or Moore be making light of accusations? No. But until a court says otherwise, Julian Assange is not a rapist.
no subject
Date: 2010-12-23 09:33 pm (UTC)