niomi

original writing, more or less. any pronouns, any topic. linktr.ee/demishi

Why do we say ACAB? It's because policing is a system of oppression. Even the nicest cop with the noblest intentions is part of that system.

ACAB – all Cops are Bastards!

Policing in the US started as a way to catch human trafficking victims (“slaves”) and return them to their abusers: The Origins of Modern Day Policing

There is NO reforming a system that began with such a nefarious purpose. This is why many of us are police abolitionists.

“Who would protect us from harm if there were no police?” Do you really feel that police protect people from harm? According to the US Supreme Court, they have no obligation to do so: Justices Rule Police Do Not Have a Constitutional Duty to Protect Someone via NYTimes

In fact, it's often the person calling for police who ends up dead: When a call to the police for help turns deadly

Police tend to target the most vulnerable folks in our communities: Half of People Killed by Police Have a Disability, Report

Police don't even try to protect children, as we saw with the Uvalde school shooting and the Parkland school shooting: Parkland shooting sheriff's deputy Scot Peterson found not guilty on all counts

But school resource officers do harm students regularly.

Police have contributed massively to the “drug war” by enforcing laws that help no one but harm many.

Police in Columbus specifically have a long record of k!lling our community members, mostly Black folks. A few to look up:

  • Andre Hill
  • Casey Goodson Jr
  • Donovan Lewis
  • Henry Green
  • Ma'Khia Bryant
  • Julius Tate
  • Tyre King

And there are so many more. These cops are shooting and killing people roughly once a month or so.

Police in Franklin County shot 13 people in 2024, killing 10. See where those cases stand via dispatch

What the Hell Is Going on at the Columbus Police Department?

In 2020 CPD “ran amok” and had a blast beating the crap out of protesters: Federal Judge Bans Tear Gas on Nonviolent Protesters in Columbus (archive)

Police also tend to have white nationalist views. This is what these protests are against, are they not?: Prevalence of white supremacists in law enforcement demands drastic change

So hopefully y'all can see how it's about much more than just protest safety, it's about recognizing the oppressive nature of policing and knowing that not only are they unsafe to be at protests, but they are unsafe to be anywhere. ACAB.

written by my friend & comrade and re-posted, thank you

It is my hope for 50501 to ally with local organizations and all working people to become a fighting mass movement against all oligarchs. For this aim I sought opinions & feedback on the 50501 event from protesters and organizers in Columbus. Here's my honest report, analysis, and suggestions.

Most frequently, I got questions about your identity, motives, specific goals and political demands. In attempt to answer their questions or at least provide some context and speculation, I have shown them debrief threads from the reddit community, and described my impressions of ohio discord discussions.* But this has not been a satisfactory answer.

*: I understand 50501 discord is meant to be a public forum. I apologize if yall regret I have reported on 50501 ohio discord discussions to my own protester affinity groups. I will respect your boundaries and stop if asked for that.

Ultimately my friends & comrades generally feel quite suspicious, which I know is quite apparent to yall. However, many attended your protest, and that participation shows some openness, albeit reluctant.

On cops

I'm worried by 50501's overall neutrality and individual receptiveness to interactions with Columbus cops. (Yall may be aware of a tiktok video of the POV individual conversing with the CPD “dialogue officers”.) Some individuals in 50501 Ohio discord engaging in internal critiques feel similarly. I urge yall to listen to them, and do not trust Columbus or any police.

Our cops fraternize with known MAGA hate groups. Remember the neo-nazis in Cinci?

neonazi banner dropped on overpass near Cincinnati, Ohio: America for the white man

LOCKLAND, Ohio (WKRC) - A new video released by the Lockland School District appears to show an Evendale police officer and a U-Haul of neo-Nazi demonstrators right next to a Lockland school, minutes before dismissal.

Also:

protestor (Hana) speaking at McKinley statue draped in banner: Columbus is not safe for black people.

I sympathize with not wanting to antagonize cops. You can still do this and also discourage your people from assuming the better of cops... or even speaking to them at all. I understand that most yall are probably new to abolitionist ideas. This may seem strange, impractical, or extreme. I worry this request won't be very convincing or won't go smoothly. But I must try.

On confronting MAGA extremists and white supremacist ideologies: These hate groups have infiltrated the cops, which is part of why it is important not to trust cops. If 50501 continues to protest, they will meet counter-protesters. I encourage you to seek guidance from experienced organizers on this. MAGA, neonazis, and supremacists are insidious and dangerous.

Yall have made peacefulness a high priority of your protests. But MAGA and neonazis will inevitably make that commitment a challenge. They'll be crybullies, provoking you then acting a victim. Even if you respond with restraint yall are vulnerable to looking bad. In my opinion, mindfully preparing for violence in self defense when necessary is preferable. Not everyone can bring themselves to do that, but some can and will— planning is better than not. Self defense is an American value and yall are meant to be entitled to it.

Otherwise, I got many suggestions for possible political demands of the 50501 movement:

Restore & protect the human rights of transgender individuals. Restore and ensure medical care, including reproductive healthcare and bodily autonomy for all. End the attacks on public health by Trump administration and MAGA. Robustly fund mitigations of harm of airborne illness, particularly bird flu.

End the genocide in Palestine, FOR REAL, FOREVER, give the land back to the Palestinians. End colonization and imperialism. End all the genocides everywhere we cannot possibly recall, Congo, Sudan, far too many. End Putin's invasion of Ukraine. Fund human lives instead of wars!

End deportations of immigrants and abolish ICE. End police brutality, de-fund the police, better yet, abolish them. No more bigoted assault from MAGA extremists, neonazis, paramilitaries & everything-ist, creepy prejudiced trolls. End assaults, sweeps, criminalizing and bulldozing the homeless. House them!

Stop SB1 and expand initiates against other bad bills. Here are a few bad bills updated in the past 30 days, via cDSA's bad bill tracker:

  • SB56: cannabis restrictions, diverts harm reduction funding
  • SB63: Prohibit use of RCV
  • SB104: Bathroom Ban
  • HR238: proposal AI/machine learning models qualify as practitioner eligible to prescribe medications
  • HB26: assistance for LEO targeting immigrants
  • HB 21: GOP Reproductive healthcare surveillance
  • HB 28: ban transgender athletes from school sports
  • HB 6: coal plant funding, connection to corrupt FirstEnergy scandal
  • HB 8: forced outing, “Parents Bill of Rights”

xpost: kolektiva.social/@niomi

TLDR: Don’t be blue MAGA, don’t go looking to get offended by random ~woke~ words like houseless.

There’s a meme going around about the terms “houseless” and “unhoused”. Yall clearly don’t know what this means so I gotta explain. Unhoused/houseless is NOT a nicer, less offensive replacement for “homeless”. We still use the word homeless, it is not offensive. It’s not just jargon of the left either, liberal and less partisan NGOs use it too.

An unhoused person is sleeping in the street or outside often. They have little to no access to running water, electricity, nor any privacy, no doors to shut.

A homeless person has some options. maybe a couch to sleep on, a non-YMCA place to shower, change or do laundry, etc. They are at risk of becoming unhoused. but typically under a roof before dark that isn’t a shelter. Homeless is not offensive. Homeless is not offensive. I have been homeless. I have not ever been houseless.

You can have a house but no home. This happens often in LGBTQ+ youth rejected by their families. They are likely to be able to (almost literally) reside in the closet of their family’s home. They’re housed but vulnerable to losing their housing for being who they are. Some shelters will attempt to return the runaway teen “home,” return them to their abusers. It’s a similar situation in domestic abuse. They are homeless, not houseless (yet?) and the places for them to flee could be so bad, maybe they should stay.

It’s also possible for the unhoused to have a home but no house. This is a helpful concept when describing abuses of government and NGO shelters. EG: the government criminalizes sleeping outside and separates families in gender segregated housing. Or they refuse to abandon their pets they cannot bring into housing. Shelters might abuse and try to convert the unhoused to religions. Or try to get them out of town so they’re less visible to rich bitches and tourists when they depend on infrastructure, table scraps, personal connections, etc in that area.

In these cases we explain the unhoused have a home they won’t leave for housing. Perhaps the home is a community or camp where they can be with their family. or a parking lot with benevolent private security who won’t summon cops. These places can be safer than shelters.

YMMV from place to place on exactly the qualities of homelessness and houselessness. This is effected by variations and local factors like weather. Regardless, houseless & homeless reflect differences in material conditions.

Again, homeless is not offensive, we are not policing language with this jargon. We don’t expect normies to know the difference between homeless and houseless. If someone does that to you rudely they are just a pedantic asshole. Or, maybe they are not an asshole, they’re somebody who made a mistake when they thought you’d care. Shitty liberal gossip about the left just loves to do this– decide some random thing they don’t understand is virtue signaling… especially when that call to virtue signal is coming from inside their house.

The irony is (in my experience): one of the few matters when liberals might actually listen somewhat, are suggestions for respectful language. Not like instead of “homeless” but more like don’t call your sportsball team the Redskins.

We could have a whole conversation where I have many suggestions on actions to take, books to read, serious working meetings, socials for less pressure than meetings, protests, research to do, serves to hand the unhoused a plate, local government interventions like public testimony…

…and please come to the meeting but don’t keep calling it a powwow. I know you mean well but that’s not cute. Just change one tiny little word, please…

That last thing is the only thing they will remember or give one shit about.

Changing some words we use, like avoiding slurs, is a bare minimum. When we do this (when we actually do it and aren’t being lied about as in the term houseless) it’s an ask to be just a bit nicer. I’m not trying to hand them unrealistic expectations to change the entire world overnight through vocabulary alone. These people themselves bring in strange expectations for small and symbolic gestures. They come in trying to manifest change, they’re only interested in making trivial changes, and make their unmet expectations our problem. Does lying and believing anything you hear about the left make you feel better about liberal impotence in the election?

The democratic party can’t turn out voters in part because their allyship is superficial. Their leadership in culture wars resembles MAGA more every day. Getting mad at random words is peak MAGA shit, STFU. For many reasons, mostly not our doing, leftists cast a bigger shadow then we are. So you might not be aware, but there’s not actually not enough of us to change the course for you! As of now, liberals have to get off their bullshit & actually help. With recruitment, this might change. Hopes and prayers 😜

December 05, 2024

ableists: we should stop drugging ADHD kids & students just for being different

me: ok, you know what's better for me than ADHD drugs actually, zoom meetings & auto captions. also uncomfortable clothing to comply with dress codes are incredibly distracting. you should allow the kids to stim, draw, play with their hands, while they listen, and do not demand they stare at you or put them on the spot with random shit tests. and a lot of research shows that schools start too early which causes too much sleep deprivation, this is harmful not only to grades but to health outcomes over their lifetime. much of the curriculum is built on this “memory bank” idea which is some Victorian shit that has been thoroughly discredited, spending too much time on route memorization for weak subjects hurts actually. there is also a lot of evidence that Bush era's No Child Left Behind is a complete disaster—

ableists: no not like that we meant train the kids with carrots and sticks like a dog

me: you were already doing that to all the kids. that doesn't work on a lot of NDs, and can cause more problems like PDA. I'm not even convinced it's good for the NTs either

ableists: well your parents did it wrong obviously

Dec 30, 2024

I know things about not fucking so people are asking me how I feel about 4B.

Unless South Korean 4B women want to offer guidance, yall interested in sex strike need your own terms. Don’t risk talking over 4B women. You can call it Lysistrata! just because I love greek names, don’t mind me.

There is indeed a relationship between toxic and horny men and me not fucking anybody in over 5 years. So people are coming to me with questions.

Fucking has never been very important to me, but I wasn’t repulsed by it at first. I was fine with doing it for someone I loved, or to brag about with my peers. Yet with post-nut clarity my sex partners realized they were pity fucked. And so in spite of having lots of great sex, they continued on their horny insecure complex. It was really tiring so I don’t do it anymore. Yall are beyond hope. Sex will not fix you!

I’d say that isn’t a sex strike, I was doing my loved ones a favor, they didn’t appreciate it, so I stopped. That is the logic of a strike though. The difference between me and you (probably) is I’m asexual. I’m not getting sexually frustrated over it. If you still want the dick on your sex strike, it’ll be difficult. People are asking me how to stop fucking men and I’m just like, if you’re asking me this question, I can’t help you much.

Nevertheless, I will try.

So I would say, things have changed for me when I stopped fucking. Not much has changed for the men attracted to me. I was fucking like 0.00005% of them who wanted it and now I’m fucking 0%.

During my life I have rejected a lot of incels. And kinda shy guys who had incel-like qualities at risk of going full incel on a bad day. Their misogyny seems accelerated by rejection.

I’ve seen men go from:

“I’m such a soft boi uwu, men are so toxic, I can’t stand to make male friends, women are so much better than men, it’s so easy to talk to you” to “all women are bitches who hate nice guys and only want big muscled alpha male Chads with giant dongs who will cheat on her” in about 5 seconds.

I mean, never mind that I’m not a woman, they are incapable of seeing me as anything else, and we’re talking about them.

It might make some intuitive sense we can flip the split by applying more rejection. I’ve seen many larval incels snatch defeat from the jaws of victory when it comes to the women in their lives. What if we can help them look at how they sabotage themselves? They want sex, they’d get more if they didn’t act like assholes, this is very logical. Like maybe sex strike will help them reflect on their behavior. There might be a few rare cases of this, but mostly this possibility isn’t real. Most of them are just ticking time bombs.

The dramatic split from love to hate that seems so real is just manipulative. They explode to punish you for saying no. It’s not a real change of heart towards you or women. In the case of exceptions, no telling if you have any effect on their internal experience.

Real strikes don’t cause any reflection on the part of the bosses. It’s a power struggle and a contract negotiation. Bosses are always better set up for battles of attrition, and so are men. This is because men on average earn more, own more, and have more institutional power. If you earn more, own more, and have more institutional power than the men in your life, and so you are more positioned to make a difference this way… stop looking at 4B and provide your spare room to a victim of domestic violence.

This is no time to worry about a few genuine nice guys falling through the cracks. When you trust a man, you aren’t making this decision for yourself, you are making it for the kids you can’t abort.

For me, there’s a window with some men, I don’t know yet if he’s just awkward or actually bad. When faced with this, I argue a lot with him. The misogynists want control. Disputing any difference of opinion, challenging his plans, refusing to fuck, he’ll get mad over being “led on”… even if you aren’t dating and promised him nothing. At that point, all cards are on the table, and rejection is easy.

But even if he can withhold impulse long enough to have polite interactions with women, she’s still likely to feel offput and unable to explain why. Yall are mostly doing the strike already if you don’t already know.

I’d love to be wrong, but I honestly don’t expect rejections to make a difference at scale. It’s infinitely better for yourself, I’d guess. But it’s different for me, I’m a no-nut life.

Hey everyone, I'm the whitest nerd you know. I've been canvassing, having all kinds of conversations with Americans on matters like: Demanding release of immigrants from prisons and demanding ceasefire and arms embargo in Palestine. I've also talked to a lot of voters in support of politicians like squad members, especially this year.

One of the major reasons I voted for Biden in 2020 was I wanted a better response to COVID. But obviously Trump is such a low bar. And despite holding my nose and continuing to vote democratic ticket— Biden now Kamala and Sherrod, etc— but I'm not happy with Biden administration. I probably won't like Harris either. I'm thinking a lot about how we can put more effective pressure on democrats to oppose genocide and war. Americans vulnerable to economic violence need relief from Green New Deal type policy. If we cannot change them more and faster than they are changing, we need more independence from them. There's a lot of work for us and this movement.

I'm not trying to bring up the ambivalence to the Biden administration and democrats only to complain. I'm just sharing where I'm at with my personal struggle. The cost of racism is so high in Ohio. I can't find a halfway decent job. I spend my time working for a better future with more good jobs. I'm trying to twist my own struggle into some kind of understanding for some reactionary white nationalists in Springfield who are also insecure about their employment opportunities. The people JD Vance are pandering to with lies and xenophobia on a national stage, a world stage. These racists who want to blame climate refugees from Haiti for their personal problems.

And the Democrats are proud of their jobs numbers! I am familiar with how many job seekers are excluded from statistics: including us who must search for a long time. It's not just the democratic administration's problem, and my personal problem, and our racist uncle's personal problem. It's a systemic problem. We can get more good jobs. But instead our leaders are creating problems and evading the truth.

Instead of giving huge handouts and tax breaks to companies like Intel that make war, We can blow the whistle on big tech investing record venture capital in “ai” while also reaching record layoffs.

We could be going after giant job listing sites and the corporations who post “ghost job” listings with no real intention of hiring anyone.

Or maybe we can go after the criminals, scammers and frauds who hack the fucking city government! and/or buy contact information from all kinds of places, every place on the internet including the pointless job applications, and to use our data in every type of way, from advertising to catfishing desperate people.

It makes me so angry that racist people in my state want to blame refugees fleeing the climate crisis. They also deny the fucking climate crisis. They deny the American history of colonialist violence and destabilization of foreign countries. They're denying our responsibility in creating death and refugees in Haiti and around the world.

Racism is so ubiquitous so total in its harms. Understanding and recognition of it is the beginning. The follow through is showing up for each other. Like working with mutual aid organizations and black organizers to serve the vulnerable and houseless in our community. and we show up by continuing our canvassing and political efforts.

We have and can make more a difference in our local government. We can pick better people and vote them up to bigger stakes. When we have to vote for politicians who suck, we need to not feel satisfied when they win. Instead we must stay organized and hound them. If they won't do right we will refuse to give up and refuse to be ignored.

Pressure from activists helped get the top of the ticket changed from Biden to Harris. it's a superficial change, but we can get more. We can can have more and get it all from the rich. So please get plugged into the work and do it, thanks.

October 06, 2024

As recently as today, Kamala has reversed her previous position and no longer supports the following:

  • Fracking ban
  • Federal job guarantee (part of Green New Deal)
  • Single-payer health care
  • Mandatory gun buybacks

Which means she resembles Biden even more since I first wrote this.

Joe's never been a great speaker. Of the 2020 Democratic primary candidates Biden is almost the worst and most uninspiring guy on stage. Biden not just unappealing in presentation. In substance he's living embodiment of the default setting for the DNC machine.

That's why Biden was on the Obama ticket. Thanks for Obamacare and gay marriage, but on many issues Obama and Biden are match made in hell. Both show talent at deporting immigrants, civilian surveillance, and waging proxy war. Democrats do much of the same fashy shit Republicans want... but sometimes Democrats are actually better at it.

  • Bush could not get Osama Bin Laden. Obama's method for finding Bin Laden was truly evil.

  • Obama's drones and intelligence are significant military upgrades for Bush's illegal wars.

  • Obama's surveillance was much more technically adept. He used it to persecute more journalists, most famously Snowden.

  • Trump's wall was stupidly conceived and a total failure. Obama was way more successful at deporting and detaining immigrants, as is Biden.

Not only are the dems better at doing war and ejecting immigrants, but few liberals give a shit while they do it. Few liberals will protest kids in cages with a democrat in the whitehouse, but the kids are still in cages. Obama said he'd close Gitmo; Yall forgot it's still around. We continue to outsource colonialism and genocide, most notably in Palestine. New Covid strains are still arriving in waves. Police funding and murder still increasing. Roe is now dead.

But what pisses Democrats off more than any of this?: poor debate performance!

He's probably not all there. But amazingly, Biden is president right fucking now. Look at him go! I have every confidence Biden's administration and whatever combination of handlers would continue to deliver us an Authentic Biden Experience, given the opportunity. They are doing so now, as you are reading. If team Regan could do it, team Biden can.

Now we have Kamala Harris... now everyone's excited. When she's so very similar to Biden politically.

Ugh.

One of their biggest points of similarity is their history of tough-on-crime campaigns. With her prosecutor experience, probably Kamala will be much more effective at helping cops do cop stuff compared to Biden. Her actual cred from working with law enforcement might help her pick up pro-cop swing voters.

“Republicans are weird” is working. I expect more smart moves like this. Congrats yall, I'm sure she will do much better in debates, I know that's what you really want. Democrats are so fucking shallow...

I still don't want Trump to win so, maybe it's just good we have a better chance he'll lose.

My partner agrees Kamala and Biden are overwhelmingly similar. He's slightly less fatalistic about the dems, so more sensitive to them, and made some good points on their potential for differences in actual policy.

Gun control: Biden has shown unambiguous disinterest in this. I do not know if she's had any victories on this front, but Kamala's rhetoric against guns is much stronger.

Abortion: She says all the same things as Biden and other democrats. But since Biden and Obama ignored their codify Roe campaign promises... there's a hope she might follow through when they did not.

That's it! If you have another one, based on their campaign promises and policy decisions, I'd truly like to know.

I was going to analyze how race effects her image, too. Trump's recent comments have made that even more relevant. I'm running out of motivation and it deserves more detailed treatment. But obviously that's a huge part of this. I don't want to deny anybody joy because possibility a black woman will be president. At the very least, this morale boost is a positive prospect.

Is the Biden Campaign Running on False Hope?

I have always thought Sanders was our best chance for beating Trump. Opposites in many ways, both are populist candidates. Trump has since re-arranged the Republicans, and Sanders paved the way for the Squad. This is a lopsided comparison, Sanders pulling dems to the left is less than the extremity of Trump's GOP. But in 2016, each (more) opposed status quo in their parties. Both reflect their constituents desire for less typical representatives from each party.

Fun fact about Sanders many have seem to forgotten: The dude was the senate's longest running independent. He joined the Democrats in 2016 only to run for president. He wasn't even a Democrat until then and this is part of why Democrats resent him and DNC worked against his run. When DNC cheerleaders are mad when some socialists don't want to vote for Biden because that's basically a vote for Trump... fuck you, Sanders in 2016 was our best chance to take votes from Trump. Don't you dare shift the blame or I'll vote Vermin Supreme out of spite.

OK so, we have well established, I am a socialist and biased for Sanders. But making an attempt to think of strategy of opposing Trump only... in a wave of populism, dems running a longtime DNC establishment insider vs Trump is a bad play.

Every general election I try to predict the result. Last time, I said Biden would pick Kamala for VP but they would lose. I still think without the COVID pandemic Biden would have lost. We'd be in the 2nd term of Trump right now.

The pandemic scared people. This fear slows the roll toward disruption. Biden's boringness looks better in these conditions. Normalizing COVID since then is just bad for everyone. But it's also another bad play for Biden. The public has very short memories and forgot Trump told yall to inject bleach.

Perpetually declining economic conditions continues to produce populism and disruption becomes inevitable. But Biden is so boring, he's the guy chosen to make Obama look more boring. (not that Obama didn't end up boring enough all by himself)

But the worst play from Democrats: They're far too optimistic. Underestimating their opponent is one of their primary flaws. Jon Stewart clowned on DNC impotence constantly during his tenure at Daily Show.

2004: Most democrats were sure Kerry would win. Bloomberg actually called it for Kerry and had to backtrack.

Dems in my life had a problem with emphasizing how stupid Bush seemed— a poor speaker and a C student. They were waiting for Bush voters to realize this. But intelligence often serves as window dressing for elitism and classism. So this backfired, dem's attitude in pop culture contributed to Bush's relatability and his wins. They still play into this with Trump, although to be fair, it gets tougher to avoid as Trump says even dumber things.

2016: Democrats didn't think Trump could win the primaries or the general. They did not re-evaluate or take him more seriously when he did win the primary. Every stupid thing Trump said, they acted like it would tank his chance.

Hilary's estimated 85% chance to win is a drastic mistake analyzed endlessly. At the time this prediction was made, I cannot take it seriously. I haven't cared for DNC cheerleader's polls analysis since Kerry.

Trump administration: Democrats were optimistic for Trump's legal problems ending his term as president. 4-8 years later, Trump's legal problems are significant, but not enough to end his running.

FYI, I am voting for Biden. Under duress, holding my nose. This isn't about convincing you not to vote Biden. It's begging the voters and DNC to stop running some of their worst options such as Biden and Hilary. (To be fair, RFK is probably worse than either) But yall can't rely on fear of Trump or Bush being shit forever. It's not sustainable.

...is a 1:6th scale doll, which means she's a 6th the size of a person. Back in the day, there used to be a popular post describing the proportions of Barbie at 1:1 scale. She'd be 7 feet tall with a waist so thin her spine would snap in half. Comments on that post shocked me. Women surprised and relieved to learn Barbie's proportions would be grotesque in flesh. They don't have to live up to the spine-shattering Barbie ideal anymore!

I couldn't believe I was reading. It's almost like you told me they cry themselves to sleep at night because they want a giant Funko pop shaped head. I knew Barbie represented an ideal of thin white feminine beauty. I don't think I understand how real this one doll in particular made that standard seem. Or did it?

So, Barbie movie.

Some time ago, I started seeing a lot of Barbie apologetic in the wild. Posts delving into its history, careerism is feminist, Barbie disrupted baby dolls! Etc. Also posts on some obviously problematic dolls, like the one with inflatable boobs. I believe I saw these posts before indie darling Gerwig announced as director of Barbie. Regardless, around the same time.

I know a lot of people also must have been looking into Barbie history to make topical social media posts anticipating the movie...but I'm conspiracy-brained and 99% sure guerilla marketing occurred to set expectations on issues for Barbie movie to respond to.

Sure, everybody wanted a fun glittery movie and nobody (nobody but me) wanted a dry lecture. but I just don't think lamp-shading of some embarrassing Barbie products gets to the heart of the issue. Why women compare themselves to a doll whose eyes are as wide as her wrists? whose clothing is at least as thick as her fingers?

When I saw the promos of Barbieland sets I really thought her tiny size was going to be plot-relevant. Because in my mind, here's the real apology for Barbie: She's a fucking doll.

I've not been a Barbie fan, but I have liked dolls. She's a fashion doll, a cheap one at that. Her waist sculpt might be grotesquely small, but a tiny and stiff outfit widens her shape. Realistically draping fabric at 1:6 scale would be expensive, delicate, unfit for children. Her rail shape compensates for stiff, thick outfits. Yes, Barbie's bust is a feminine beauty standard, but her wide shoulders and complete lack of hips are not. Barbie is more clothes hanger than humanoid. It's not fair to put standards of flesh on Barbie's plastic sculpt.

I thought a Toy Story approach would be the way to go in the movie. I wanted to see Barbie depressed and peeling stickers off her plastic accessories like Buzz Lightyear. Instead we have a character whose pink car runs on cartoon powers but no engine, and she's afraid of cellulite.

There is also a battle of the sexes going on here. Kens are totally incompetent and superficially welcomed, but underappreciated. Kens don't have their own houses, and how they live is intentionally hand-waived. Barbies are incredibly competent and (except the protagonist) unstressed by running matriarchal DEI utopia.

I think Barbieland's meant to be an inversion of the Real World, but this doesn't quite land with me. In Barbie's Real World Patriarchy, and mutiny it inspires among the Kens in Barbieland, men are totally goofy bumblers. Barbie feels threatened and self-conscious when she arrives in the Real World. But cat-calling and montages of powerful men on horses are the sum of showing Real misogyny.

Actually, a more realistic representation of misogyny is Ken's friend zone arc.

Barbies playing on the pride of Kens to manipulate them, Kens vs Kens whimsical battle scene on the beach, “I'm just Ken” dance number... Barbie trying to let Ken down in their culminating conversation, but Ken takes every show of Barbie's sympathy as an invitation to start making out...dare I say, just more depth in this conflict than Gloria wishing Depressed Barbie into existence with movie magic?

Barbie's scared of cellulite in Barbieland, but in the Real World she loves old ladies, connects to them, and recognizes their beauty. It's a great sentiment, but I don't understand the process she went through to reach it. I've seen memes expressing (what I think is) a similar sentiment that are more believable and moving...

Barbie has reverence for elderly women. But other than sitting at a bus stop or mother who stands still so their daughters can look back at them, there isn't much we're revering about them. Their traits are warmth, realness and wisdom. The movie text says Barbie, by becoming human, no longer lives forever as an ideal. But this message comes from an actual ghost. Elders and ghosts in this film are no less an ideal than Barbie. They are a different ideal, that of motherhood and confidence. They lack any personally defining character development.

So, I would say Barbie's pathos is kind of like Madonna/Whore. Gerwig & Mattel gave us Madonna/Plastic variation...and a matriarchal utopia, wrapped this in an advertisement, and called it feminism disagree if it's even feminist at all.

Lastly, the bumbling Mattel businessmen as characters are only mildly antagonistic. As viewers, we are meant to see the company as being a great sport about this. I assure you the actual Mattel corporation is for real EVIL. They do not believe this film is feminist. They are certainly not missing that Gerwig and fans think it is feminist. They are probably very happy with that contradiction and all the money it makes them.

Revised to plug this video with a relevant section on Mr. Beast The Rich Have Their Own Ethics: Effective Altruism & the Crypto Crash (ft. F1nn5ter)

I don't have a problem with Mr. Beast's video on cataracts surgery.

I had never heard of this man until recently. I watch a lot of Youtube. I had a whole time on there without getting served or noticing a Mr. Beast video. I'm asked my opinion and having no idea what to say, I did some looking into Mr. Beast. I have learned it's impossible to overstate how big he is on Youtube. He's the biggest.

Also noticed lots of complaints about Mr. Beast's mastery of spamming the algorithm. But in spite of being the biggest, I doubt the algorithm serves Mr. Beast to anyone not already watching some thematically adjacent video.

If you doubt this, think again. If you're watching, it's for you.

Philanthropy is for arbitrarily chosen benefactors. Many “free market” enthusiasts see private charity as a best path to solve social issues. And they'd be wrong. Mr. Beast may agree with me somewhat. At least, for the specific scenario of Medicare for All.

He says something like: many blind people are curable, why doesn't the government do something about this?

So I don't think he's claiming to be a real solution for the general public.

Maybe the issue is not the cataracts surgery video itself, but the big picture for Mr. Beast. I can definitely see why people have problem with his other videos. If his fans go stay within some circle on the ground in a 50 degree studio for a week and a half... all because they want a prize and senpai to notice them...yeah, it's concerning. it's culty.

It's money porn and exploitative of proles who want money and glory. Even with no participants, it exploits the audience of temporarily embarrassed millionaires.

These are fundamentally the same issues found in game-show & reality TV.

In another video, he offers to give his mother a large sum of money and comes across entirely self-serving.

When she refuses he says: “If you don't take it, I don't have a viral video.” Again, classic ethic problem of charity.

I don't think I have a problem unless the reality of the situation is incredibly destructive. IE, the salvation army has an undeserved reputation for many reasons. They will take credit when they didn't show. For needy LGBTQ people they will refuse or withhold aid to manipulate and shame. They are too pushy with their religious evangelizing. Lots of well-respected private charities are incredibly corrupt, often in worse ways.

If Mr. Beast can be self-aggrandizing but non-hostile to charity recipients, I'm cautiously ok with the motive. There are worse places to go with his ego. Maybe the cataracts video is his inclination to grow up. But he won't fix the system that built him, for sure. Capitalism will never allow the proletariat enough capital to significantly free them. These arbitrary benefactors on screen give viewers the hope senpai may pick them next, but that won't happen.

Charity encourages faith in the very small chances of upward mobility. In that light, it's hard to accept any break for any prole as anything more than a perpetuation of false hopes. But at the same time, for the thousands who can now see, good for them. The situation is contradictory and hopelessly fucked.

I think some of this has to do with resentment for influencers entirely. I'm not against influencing. Sometimes it's journalism, other times entertainment, in my case I like to see both. Some are not doing anything more important than just sharing their own life. Barring deceptive and harmful recommendations, I don't have a problem with it. Disdain for some popular vlog and their audience often seems merely reactionary.

Most Youtubers are not rich. They have day jobs, student loans, or live in somebody's basement. Mostly struggle with severe promoting I find repellent, self defeating and sad. As a group, there's no reason to resent instead of pity them.

Like other performing/arts, the public harbors a false survivorship bias. They look at rich influencers only. They should spare the rage for influencers in particular and turn it toward all rich people. Probably focus on billionaires more than millionaires, but some rage for millionaires too. Just as a treat.