i can't believe i'm gonna need to say this, but not y'all shouldn't support 10/7
the murder of civilians isn't good
yes, zionism, the whole ideology that got them there is horrible. doesn't make the murder of civilians good
yes, most israelis are gonna be zionists. doesn't make the murder of civilians good
if we begin to put jews and israelis as a whole in a big "zionist" category, we become reactionaries. the humane side of the compass should not be inhumane
one thing i'm still holding onto, and gonna hold onto forever, is childhood embarrassment by the teacher
i was sad because i couldn't sit next to my friends, because "i was spending too much time with them" (genuinely her reasoning), why the FUCK did you need to yell at me for 10 minutes infront of the entire class ???
i can't believe i'm gonna need to say this, but not y'all shouldn't support 10/7
the murder of civilians isn't good
yes, zionism, the whole ideology that got them there is horrible. doesn't make the murder of civilians good
yes, most israelis are gonna be zionists. doesn't make the murder of civilians good
if we begin to put jews and israelis as a whole in a big "zionist" category, we become reactionaries. the humane side of the compass should not be inhumane
Very interesting + concise article, pertinent with how much I've seen the joke about that "sadness in his eyes you only see in east european gay porn". Warning for pretty much everything you can expect.
Exploring the influx of dominant late-capitalist aesthetics into the initially lo-fi medium of Soviet pornography—Allan Gardner
Describing the wave of Eastern European gay pornography that flooded the US market following the dissolution of the USSR, Jones said:
“They were products of a crude imperialist enterprise: cheap and nasty looking, with an atmosphere of coercion and cultural misunderstanding pervading them. Customers adored these videos, and expressed their breathless admiration whenever given the chance”
It gets pretty rough from here onward.
The Fall… opens with a short clip of a young man in profile, undressing. He looks uncomfortable, alternating between staring forward and glancing in the direction of the camera, his eyes showing a mix of discomfort and contempt. Jones’ voiceover states: “even in an unlikely place, it is possible to find traces of recent history” followed by b-roll taken from the aforementioned porn films including maps of the former USSR, market scenes, beggars and street footage. Their purpose in the aforementioned films appears to be part exoticism and part poverty fetishism, attempting to show the former glory of the Eastern nations as an emphasis on their subsequent fall. They’re an essential part of the set-up, speaking directly to what made this genre of pornography appealing to a western, primarily American, market. It’s easy to comprehend the mixture of exploitation and exoticism that made these videos popular in the US, but Jones goes further, aiming to establish a firm link between the booming Western economy and a more global, less visible form of exploitation.
The latter half of the film compounds the atmosphere of coercion, focusing specifically on the casting and screen tests of performers. The voice from behind the camera probes the subject on their sexual preferences, their motivations for being filmed:
“I’m doing it for the money”
“That’s a very good reason”
Western audiences were turned on by the idea that the performers were under some form of duress—the ostensibly straight man either consuming their sexuality through the guise of pornography, or in the case of several scenes, the performer showing visible discomfort at either the sex or the presence of the camera. The films are low budget, low production value and low brow—by intention, rather than necessity.
Jones speculates that the developing Eastern European sex industry, with the influx of Western producers and a Western market in mind, could be seen as an indicator of fertile ground for fascist ideologies—an aspersion confirmed by the global rise of far-right ideologies in tandem with the economic pressure of late-stage capitalism, a point at which more contemporary comparisons can be made.
The brief conclusion on the contemporary form of this exploitation aesthetic is also noteworthy:
In the same way that the fall of communism was exploited by the West, the financial and social insecurity of a generation living in recession, under permanent austerity, is exploited now. The aesthetics utilised in Jones’ film are still broadly present, albeit perhaps in a slightly altered form, now accompanied by a new visual language born from a culture numb to being told to “like, comment, share and subscribe”.
marxism can't be nationalistic, ESPECIALLY in the first world
yes, this is going straight to hinkle and magacommies. y'all, america was "great" when it was in the peak of its empire, when american hegemony had to be strengthened because it was contested. y'all are not communists
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