Archive for February, 2021


The Arts!: Hitchhiker

Filed under: The Arts — Leave a comment
February 20, 2021

Hitchhiker is an electronic artist based in South Korea who make enthralling and captivating digital music and accompanying music videoes.


In before the covid jokes, check the upload date of his vids, he has been donning the futuristic silver hazmat suit since forever. I really like ” Nada”, a Spanish song that uses an AR emoji (I like that these are showing up in music videos, it is another portent of creativity). The visuals are super cool to me

 

The surprising part to me is that he is with SM Entertainment, which I usually noted for their fairly cookie cutter idols (yes, they have groups like SHINee but still, the selection is very ctrl+c, ctrl+v in general). I didn’t think they would pick artists that are super different from the “SM Ent. Model” but hey, here we are. Actually, Hitchhiker pairs with another SM Ent. artist [name] for the song “Sugar”



I like the simplicity of this vid – could possibly be because it was shot during the pandemic and S. Korea is strict (rightfully so, no one wants to be the US) with their restrictions – but the dynamic camera angles and performances of the two artists makes it all worth it

I really recommend checking out Hitchhiker’s other works!

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The Co-Opting of Black History Month Or “A racist that posts a black square is still a racist”

Filed under: Race — Leave a comment
February 12, 2021

Ah, it is Black History Month. The wonderful time of year where White people pretend they don’t participate, facilitate or have anything to do with racism of any sort because they posted a black square back in the summer and an MLK Jr quote recently for the selfish sake of virtue signaling/moral grandstanding. It’s less about actually amplifying Black voices, it’s more about amplifying themselves while they use Black folks as a pedestal to stand on (so, business as usual, basically). It’s pretty obvious because by the end of the month, they’re no less prejudiced than when the month started. And they go back to drowning out Black voices unless it’s Black pain, misery or trauma – then they try to put a price tag on it or chat about it to chalk up some awards. Basically, the ye olde White Man’s Burden concept, but the 2020/2021 Edition. I usually like Black History Month – for me. Instead, it gets hijacked by “well-meaning” (read: self-serving) White people. Which makes me dislike looking at anything to do with Black History Month more and more. I just want to engage in Black history in peace.

What many look like right now

Here is one very good example – Google:

Google likes to pretend they care about Black voices and Black people. For example, the bottom of Chrome would have little tickers that makes them look like they want you to learn about Black people, history, culture and more. Even the Youtube logo is something in reference to Black folks everyday. Then there’s the lip service note they posted back during the summer [link] from Google’s current CEO Sundar Pichai (inb4 “He’s not White!” You’re right, he’s is a South East Asian man – funny though that Non-Black PoC love being anti-Black or ignoring anti-Black issues … even when talking about Black issues). There’s other things Google has done since the summer that is basically lip service touring meant to make Google look good, not improve the Terrible Plight of the Modern Negro, as they no doubt see it:

“Google to launch internal anti-racism training programs by early 2021” (HR Drive)

“Black Googler Creates Anti-Racism Resource Guide for All” (Colorlines)

“You can’t be anti-poverty without being anti-racist” (Google Fiber)

Google says it will hire more black workers at senior levels (Fortune)

There are more and other examples but we would be here all day if I were to list all of Google’s racist shortcomings. I remember when I was younger and Google showed a video of what is it like to work at Google when I was in school (back when Google was just starting to become important) and everyone was White – except for the security team, which was all Black. (By the by, that’s usually a pretty good sign a company or place of work is pretty prejudiced, when Black folks are always in security and janitorial (and usually contractual) positions – no matter how many “anti-racism” efforts they say they have. Ditto with Brown folks being put in these positions as well.) So Google’s bias is pretty deep seated. For a super quick overview, just watch Watch Dogs 2 version “Noogle”. The basic by-line of Google for Black workers is “Just because you’re finally in the door doesn’t mean we won’t look for endless ways to shove you back out of it”.

Here is Google being more honest than they think:

Google ouster of top AI researcher Timnit Gebru draws sharp new scrutiny of how it treats Black employees  (USA Today)

#SiliconValleySoWhite: Black Facebook and Google employees speak out on big tech racism (USA Today)

Second top Black female Google employee says she was recently ousted (NBC News)

Diversity, HBCU Recruiter Allegedly Fired At Google Over Her Baltimore Accent (HBCU Buzz)

That last one is pretty important to me: I’m a Black Baltimorean with an extensive background in tech (I even previously worked at NIST Library and my mask is self modded with fans and a voice amplifier). I always knew this was how Google was so I’m not surprised that they would go as far as say an accent was a disability. These issues also sprang up since the summer but have been forever long standing. Nice to know that I could rebuild a Hadron Colider in my basement and I still wouldn’t be allowed in simply because I have a regional accent. I wonder what Pichai’s accent is to get to the CEO position – super aggravating Valley accent? The kind that makes you sound like an extra from Clueless? Nice to know Google are worried about accents, because that’s somehow super important to technology, where most of it is text based. I hope they can one day explain how spoken regional accents affects the act of sitting down and writing code and how dialect is a disability. And wait, Google doesn’t like hiring or keeping people with actual disabilities? Do job interviews at Google include speech tests to see how you pronounce “Arduino”? Funny, despite my accent, the robots and inventions I build still run and my 3D printer works fine. And I have actual disabilities, none of which are the dialect I was born in.

Google likes to present itself as a forward-thinking company but they’re just as bad as all the others. They just dress it up as “oh, it’s just no big deal”. That’s why it is always weird when they support young Black projects – it’s not like they would hire any of those kids later or want to keep them.

They’re not the only company that acts like this – there’s Facebook, Twitter, Electronic Arts (especially as it pertains to The Sims series), Twitch, etc etc. They all have long, marked histories of being very anti-Black, even when they say they are standing beside Black folks. Nah, not really, they’re just grandstanding to make themselves look better and make money. It’s also part of why they rush to donate to Black places when Black focused tragedies occur, I mean, it worked for Harvey Weinstein when he donated to feminist and pro-women projects to cover up that he’s a serial rapist.  Didn’t change the fact that he’s a serial rapist, he just kept donating and harming women. These companies posting squares and donating doesn’t change the fact they participate in harming and undermining Black people, whether individually or as a group. For example, Facebook likes reprimanding Black users who speak out about anti-Black issues or simply vent that dealing with racism sucks. It’s been a long standing problem.

For those going “That’s Instagram, not Facebook” – guess who owns Instagram?

And these are large companies, not individuals – which is what companies, big and small, are made of. If non-Black people want to participate in Black History Month, do it quietly. No point in pretending there isn’t a prejudiced bone in their body by basically showing the “nice” version of it everywhere they can. Besides, they’re already showing it by waiting for a single month in a year to get out all their performative allyship. You can tout Black people you want to tout any time of the year, even when we’re not being brutally murdered in 4k definition or in a special designated month.

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The Stupid – It Burns

Filed under: Pagan Life — Leave a comment
February 5, 2021

First of all, check out my second guest feature on Burn Out Brighter podcast! I talk about dating using virtual reality. Check it out, give it a listen!

For the first time, I have had to ban someone from the Black Witch discord. (Yes, there is a discord).

Usually I don’t have to do that but let’s review because I feel like this is a very important thing to note because what got them kicked is a culmination of issues.

This person is new to occultism and witchery, that part is quite obvious. I don’t mind new-ness but I they kept posting stuff that basically boiled down to “New Agey bullsh*t” and/or conspiracy theories.

This is Example 1. It was posted in the “Mental Health” channel of the BW server – the “Mental Health” channel is for actual mental health discussion, not bs internet methods that do literally nothing to abate genuine mental illnesses but work wonders in making your wallet skinnier.

Detox baths recipes provided by the internet do not solve actual mental health illnesses directly. They’re nice ways to spend a Saturday night but they don’t get rid of actual depression disorders, anxiety disorders or more severe mental health disorders the same way internet-instructed detox baths do not solve diseases by themselves. I sincerely despise these methods because they keep people with genuine disorders from getting help like a lavender bath is going to cure anxiety, no leg-work, no effort.

Also, instead of her providing a direct link from the Medium (which can be a sus source by itself from time to time because anyone can write for Medium), it’s a google link, the kind provided when you copy the link from the search page and not the page itself.

The “Mental Health” channel has interactions from her because when she was banned from the server, it took everything she said in the General section – but upon reviewing the “Mental Health” channel, it turns out that she herself would like to delete her less-than-savory messages, which would leave a look of “I’m just asking questions” instead of “I’m just asking questions – and getting mad when I don’t get answers I want. Which is a lot.” I still have my replies to them, though.

What it also showed in the Mental Health channel is the frequency of her posting questions she can literally research herself.

The short list –

~Is there a metaphysical basis to mental illness? (Dec 24, 2020)
~Whats zeldism (Dec 29, 2020)
~Is there suggestions for learning to express yourself more. (Jan 5, 2021)
~Any basis for yoni pearls? (Jan 5, 2021)
~Anything to do with what happened today? (Jan 6, 2021)
~Serious question guys, is there a connection between conspiracy theories concerning spiritually and current events? For instance, those in the entertainment industry becoming luciferian to become successful? (Jan 8, 2021)
~Is there a metaphysical foundation for transgenderism? Are they really born in the wrong body? (Jan 8, 2021)
~Whats Palo mayombe (Jan 8, 2021)

Notice the back-to-back nature of her questions in a little over 10 days. And the fact that each of these questions can be solved with a search bar and perhaps a Tumblr account. She thought yoni pearls worked (they don’t, anyone telling you otherwise is both an idiot and/or attempting to separate you from your money. The vagina is self-cleaning and self-sufficient, learn actual women’s health, not the “internalized misogyny” edition). There’s also the doozy about “transgenderism”, which is just … all…

Here is the convo in question:

I spent a good chunk of time staring at my screen like this:

This is why I do not “slow-walk” everyone about everything.

I don’t mind new people being new or asking derp questions but it would appear her issue with me is that I was picking apart these posts and turning down a lot of her questions and requests. Here are a couple good examples:

([“that can be offered”*]) The original question of hers was that she wanted to know if anyone could give her a protection spell. She since deleted the original question a while after having this exchange with me

I never provide spell support and I don’t allow it on my channel, either. If you don’t know what you’re doing, you’re most likely dabbling or in need of more practice. I never do it on my blog, not gonna do it on my server. Plus, if I have to slow-walk people through stuff that can be easily searched such as the experiences of a trans person, do you know how much pain-staking bullsh*t I would have to go through to explain how to do a spell? If you don’t know what you’re doing, abstain or learn more. If you are allergic to doing leg work and your own research, modern Christianity is for you. You just sit there, regurgitate on people who do not want or share your perspective and fuss out anyone who disagrees. Actually, any version of any faith that espouses not thinking for yourself would be a perfect fit for her.

Another example is this:

I am not a fan of social media posts like these. If it is a bunch of emotion, I tend not to listen. Folks can post whatever they like on their social media, it is their page (assuming it is not problematic), but if you’re going to repost this stuff in my channel, I’m going to treat it as I see fit. It is trivial to me. Now, it looks like that she’s agreeing with me by the end. That’s because she happily snipped out all the other parts she had said that definitely expressed she was not. To old school folks on the internet, this is called a “dirty delete”. Especially since she would accuse me of “narrative making” and gaslighting later on (and guess what? That’s gone, too). It is really easy to accuse people of stuff like this when you literally frame the things you say to make it look like you said it from the start. That, everyone, is actual narrative making and gas-lighting. If you don’t like what you say or think it will frame you in a bad light in a conversation, don’t simply delete everything you say and then accuse everyone of misconstruing your words and intentions.

Here is another example, which shows two things: A ) An example of a “dirty delete” and B ) An example of her literally thinking I know everything (I know a lot, yeah, but not everything – plus, I can always be wrong, this is why it is never good to only have one source of info) – that is going to be relevant later:

Note the fact I said “Pic is part lopped off” – and there is no pic above. If I never said anything, it would have looked like a straight and clean conversation.

It should surprise literally no one but I don’t change how I am on the blog when I am on the Discord. If something looks like bunk, I’m going to point it out. When in metaphysics and occultism, asking questions is good – heavily suggested, even. Or else you wind up dusting smoldering sage on everything, obsessing over Mercury retrogrades and calling it witchcraft. If you want a faith or practice where you are spoon fed all the time and critical thinking is discouraged, again try modern Christianity. It may sound like I am railing on them a lot but these have been my and the experiences of others. Closed-mindedness, rampant prejudice and the occasional decent person (that is generally disregarded or considered abnormal). Paganism is no different from any other faith but if you’re going into witchcraft or Paganism, thinking for yourself and exercising logic is key. Does spoon-feeding happen in the craft and in Paganism? Yep but it’s not pressured upon in the same way.

Things started taking a left turn because, welp, she got tired of me always shooting down everything she says. This is in the General channel, thus all gone but I still have my replies and such. Basically, she wondered why I wouldn’t let any of her presented ideas “marinate” – despite the fact that her presented ideas are bad, conspiracy ridden or really should not be given a whit of thought.  In come the accusations that I am a “know it all”, a “pseudo intellectual”, “pseudo elitist”, etc. Despite the fact I have asked on different occasions some variation of “I don’t know, what does your research say?”

This quip was snipped by another member of the server:

Now, it is true, I do have trauma disorders so triggers are a real thing for me but being exposed to bullsh*t isn’t a trigger, at all. She’s been pretty emotional throughout it all (even going as far as doing dirty deletes to mask her bigger outbursts) and I usually ask pretty plain questions or say pretty plain things. She would accuse everyone else of projecting but that’s basically all she does. She would accuse everyone else of manipulation, but that’s basically all she does. She accuses others of being emotional and she can barely keep a lid on good and proper.

The funny part is that also, she would say the server is empty and no one is there because of my “meanness” but out came another person on the server to respond to the snip made above. Yeah, she was not a fan of that and went straight into “everyone is ganging up on me!” Oh great, first she says no one is in the server and the second someone rears their head, it’s unfairness all around because no one is taking her side.

Because a cornered rat will jump, she did exactly that by trying to play the “okay, what is your opinion to me?” card to the other member and I. Really bad idea, everyone. I literally do not like this level of cattiness from anyone of any gender. If you don’t care what someone’s opinion is, then leave quietly. I am probably being Old Lady Black Witch but I have encountered this a lot with younger folks, usually girls more than boys but encountered it all the same. Maybe they’re new to the world of “you’re not always right and this is not Twitter”, where the loudest idiot reigns superior, but I can’t stress enough how moronic this is. All she has done since jump is literally nag for my opinion, submit one dumb question after another after another for days on end – and she wonders what my or other members’ opinions mean to her? Quite a lot, given all the questions she would endlessly ask. Young folks, this is what stupid looks like. Try not to be stupid. This is what childish looks like, do not be childish. If you don’t know something, that’s fine. If you want to act tough while knowing nothing, good gods, please consult the picture below:

Look! Bunnies!

It’s not cool or defiant, it’s embarrassing for you. Just take the L quietly. No one likes dealing with whiny kids, my dear whippersnappers. Learn to control your emotions, at least.

She tried to say that she wasn’t unhappy in the server, just irritated. She asked “point out where I say I’m unhappy”. Ooooh, cool trick, given she likes to delete unsavory stuff behind herself to spin a different image. I still compiled things she said in complete copypasta style:

There would be replies from her between those remarks of mine but they’re all gone. Partly because she’s been booted from the server. But you can see from the quotes I pulled that all she is top at is bursting into fireworks because no one has been agreeing with her. And she got wrong the fact of “If i want a discussion or post a meme I’ll do that … Because none of you in this server are in no position to do so”. She already posted that she’s gonna do whatever she wants whenever she wants in my server because “it’s my party and I can cry if I want to” logic.

I already wrote about that to her earlier:

Thought I never would quote Mr. Grace in “Are You Being Served” but hey, I totally did!

It’s true folks. My server, my rules. It’s a pretty stupid question to ask the owner of the server why their perspective matter when that should already be heavily implied given they run the server. Plus, she seemed to really care about my perspective for days on end when it came to posting those memes and questions. Why switch up now?

Usually in my server I allow for pretty free discussion – as long as it is not prejudiced or problematic. As you can see, I do allow some wiggle room for stupid because you never know where someone’s knowledge level is at but definitely do not pair stupidity with defiance – that is a bad combo. How do you know it’s a bad combo? Because may I remind everyone yet again what happened to her:

She got the boot. I guess she really couldn’t do whatever she wanted in a server she literally did not run or own. Oh, how surprising.

Here’s the thing, I like when ppl ask questions but here’s the other thing: I’m not going to do all the leg work for you. You can’t fall to pieces when people aren’t slow-walking you through your own thoughts.

For folks who think I was being to rough or tough, here is a triangle of debate that could help determine things:

I even could fill out my favorite Derailment Bingo board the longer she talked: I almost got bingo:

And that’s all, folks!

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