Random Ramblings of a Random Man

Stephen, 32, He/Him, Sci-Fi/Horror Nerd (among many other things), Would Like to Write Just One Damn Story, Grumpy Lefty, etc.

[ethanrayne]

I am absolutely dead serious about reporting anyone who spouts bullshit about voting doing nothing. Because I REMEMBER why we have the option to report for election interference on tumblr, and it wasn't someone lying about polling locations or lying about voting dates.

It was because there was an actual coordinated psyop attack made up ENTIRELY of people posting what looked like perfectly normal voter opinions about not believing in the system, not liking how the democrats' policies, not thinking those policies were Far Left enough, and not wanting to support the democrats- and then ENCOURAGING OTHERS TO NOT VOTE OR VOTE THIRD PARTY.

I have been on tumblr this WHOLE TIME and SEEN THIS SHIT, you do not get to tell me I'm being paranoid or "McCarthyist" (wtf) for reacting to THE ACTUAL SITUATION I HAVE SEEN FIRSTHAND.

Report the psyops and the propaganda. Vote blue. Do not buy into their bullshit.

And don't forget how we got here: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/2056305120961783

[rhea-ewing]

The 2016 psyop sucked me in hard and directly contributed to a breakdown I had in 2017. I remember getting an email from Tumblr that was a list of blogs I had interacted with that turned out to be fake Russian accounts deliberately running election interference and sowing despair and defeatism. There were over a hundred.

They exploited my desire to listen to people more marginalized than myself (disabled folks and black folks in particular) and my desire to be critical of authority. I spent months looking at these accounts, trying to hold space for what I thought was the anger of real people.

All the while that was time and energy I DIDN'T spend listening to and meaningfully engaging with marginalized people in my own community. It was time and energy I didn't spend campaigning for Clinton, because I felt embarrassed and worried about being ostracized from leftist spaces. It was energy that could have been put towards coalition building, towards studying actual policy, towards literally anything other than feeling increasingly powerless and defeated!

I still voted. I even managed to get myself out for an afternoon of door to door volunteer campaigning, even though my heart wasn't really in it and it showed.

I am seeing the same tactics again this year. The same defeatism, cynicism, and the same insidious use of disabled and Black people as a shield while simultaneously undermining the work of real people in those communities-- aiming towards a political project to further harm and kill the very people they're pretending to be. The same tactics of screenshots and memes.

It makes me furious.

Yes, paranoia in leftist spaces sucks and there needs to be disagreement for healthy discussion. This is not disagreement or good faith discussion among people trying to make the world less shitty. It makes my skin crawl.

[digsdigsdigs]

Repeating my COVID surge PSA: there is a major surge underway in many places right now. In the US, estimates are that we're seeing higher covid levels than 90% of the pandemic, with 1 in 35 people currently infected, so eg a gathering of 20 people has a 45% chance of having an infectious person present (source, posted 12/18/23 so they're already a couple days old and expected to rise through early January). It's common for people to be infectious without/before becoming symptomatic, and rapid tests miss a lot of cases.

You can protect yourself and your loved ones by declining invites for overly risky situations, wearing a well fitting high quality mask when you're sharing air with others (kn-94, N95), and following the People's CDC safer indoor gathering guide as much as you can

[boo-cool-robot]

These will probably not come in time for Christmas, but Metrix tests are home NAAT tests that are considerably more accurate than rapids (but not quite as accurate as PCRs). They cost $25 each, require a reader, and take half an hour to run, so not as easy or affordable as rapids, but I like these for special occasions now that it's very difficult to get an affordable PCR test in the U.S.

[wilwheaton]

Y'all, it isn't on the national news, but check your local news and local community groups. There's a MASSIVE Covid surge happening right now. Please mask up when you're out and in public spaces. I really don't want you to get sick.

[ad-wills]

[catmask]

i think its really funny when people say they don't like political media and just want something 'cozy' and 'discourse free' then the media theyre talking about is like. miyazaki movies. or the moomins

[catmask]

tove jansson and hayao miyazaki were probably the farthest from being apolitical you can be in children's animated media it's just that you saw cute artwork and a pleasant setting/aesthetic and decided to put no further thought into the story you were engaging with

[catmask]

youre right but i think people are going to kill us for you sayng it

[milf-adjacent]

"Back during the pandemic" "when covid was still a thing"

Covid is killing over 1000 Americans each week. Covid is the 3rd leading cause of death in the US. Covid is still spreading and mutating. Only 16% of Americans have gotten their boosters in a "vaccine only" strategy to fight the disease (that doesn't work because vaccinated people can and do catch and spread covid). Covid is still a very real threat to you and those you love. Stop talking about it in the past tense. Stop living a lie. It's not 2019. You'll never live in a "post covid" world. Our wishes for "normal" have destroyed any chance of a true end to the pandemic unless we act. Mask up and stop the spread if you really want to past-tense covid.

[neil-gaiman]

I got COVID early in October and had to close down my life and recover. Yesterday afternoon i walked to my local drugstore and got this year's vaccine (I'd already had a flu vaccine late in October).

I'll be on a big stage in front of 1500 people on Monday and Tuesday, being Charles Dickens, and won't be able to wear a mask. I hope enough of the audience each night masks up to help stop the events becoming spreaders.

[ionlands]

One minute behind the scenes of “Akira” (1988)

[sheikonfleek]

“You need to believe in things that aren’t true. How else can they become” - Hogfather, Terry Pratchett

[captainlordauditor]

it’s seasonal lads

[captainlordauditor]

IT’S SEASONAL AGAIN LADS

[terrible-tentacle-theatre]

‘Tis the season so I’ll reblog my absolute favorite Terry Pratchett quote ever

Happy holidays folks

[otatma]

welp

[variablejabberwocky]

#The wisdom#The kind that sits on your chest heavily#And you don’t so much get over it as you learn to keep existing with its weight

[extraordinary-heroes]

Artist Showcase: Daniel Warren Johnson (Here There Be Giants)

[lemontongues]

shoutout to slow growers, late bloomers, people whose plans got derailed by circumstances beyond their control or their own choices, people who never had a plan to begin with, people who have had to start over when theyre too old to feel like theyre supposed to be where they are, people who cant pretend theyre built for the environment theyre in, and everyone who's not living the life they thought they would. im proud of you for making it this far and i hope you keep going until youre happy ♡

[daenerysstormreborn]

With the hbomberguy plagiarism video on fire right now I want to share my favorite example of egregious plagiarism.

I’m a marine biologist. Currently getting my PhD. I’ve done a lot of scholarly writing. Many classes I took as an undergraduate had big writing components. I took limnology at one point as an elective. This course had one such big writing assignment.

The professor told us a story. He said he once got a student paper that absolutely blew him away. It was way beyond what he’d expected from the class. This was before we had online tools to check for plagiarism. The paper impressed him so much that he brought it home to show it to his wife. She began reading it and then set it down, looked at him, and said, “Dan, you wrote this.”

This student was dumb enough to not only copy a published paper verbatim, but to copy a paper published by the professor of the class.

AND HE NEARLY GOT AWAY WITH IT.

[storybookprincess]

if i can impart any one piece of wisdom to y’all, it’s to, whenever possible, assume good intentions

assume people are trying their best, want to be good and treat others well, and that when their behavior doesn’t align with those goals, it’s because of outside factors that are pushing them to their limit

it’s hard to do, it doesn’t always come naturally, but it’s worth it

[storybookprincess]

before anyone jumps in with an “op has clearly never worked in the service industry,” i work in a public facing library job

i have a patron who is mean as a snake. won’t respond when you greet her, barks orders at you, and is generally nasty

i couldn’t stand her & dreaded the moment she walked in the door, until i stopped one day & went “wow, to walk around feeling unhappy enough to treat people so horribly every day. what a difficult way to live.”

and so my tactics changed. i made a point to be extra kind & friendly to her. she changed her hair color one day & when i complimented her on it, she was very caught off guard & said “oh, thank you. my whole life i’ve thought i was ugly.”

now we’re at the point where she shows me pictures of watercolor paintings she made & says hi when she walks in the door. she’s not my favorite patron, but she’s perfectly okay. most unpleasant people aren’t inherently rotten, they’re just unhappy & coping with it poorly

assume people are always doing their best, even if their best happens to fall a bit short. assume good intentions

[menlove-archive]

[takes u all gently by the hand] conspiracy theories, misinformation, and reactionary posts are just as dangerous when they are about something you agree with. even more so, actually. be careful not to spread something just bc you think it SHOULD be correct to further your stance on something. that does not make it true.

[kes-geiszler]

also!! its okay to admit u were wrong and accidentally shared misinformation! sometimes shit slips through the net! we're humans, being bombarded with info on the daily. things are going to slip through, especially if it's something you're more easily going to believe (ie if it aligns with pre existing ideas). u can make mistakes, and u can fix those mistakes!

[dcmcboxers]

My shout-out to queer youtubers

Hbombs list was great but obviously not comprehensive. I watch a lot of video essayists and wanted to give a little love to the smaller channels that fall under the radar. Please feel free to add to this list!

let's talk about stuff/Sarah Zedig

If you've seen Jesse Gender's videos on the Matrix movies you may already be familiar with Sarah. She does excellent film and culture analysis with a lot of great conversations on paratext and outside influence in engaging with text. Her video on Tunic is one of my favorites.

Pamphleteer

No one makes videos like hers, which has the side effect making them a bit hard to describe. I will link one of my favorites which describes the disconnected temporality of being older when you discover you're queer.

Turbo Queer

Really really under watched channel. Skylar covers a lot of topics from video games, to anarchist history and modern events, to autistic life, to current politics. For a fun one check out her video on the SpongeBob strike episode.

Kaz Rowe

Kaz does a fantastic job examining modern myths and manufactured history primarily pertaining to western Europe, Victorian & Edwardian England, and 1800-1900s US. And of course, talking about historical queerness in all its ambiguities and evolutions. I highly recommend their video on Weimar Germany.

drapetomania

drapetomania interrogates the politics of low class and high class art and entertainment from a queer and Black perspective. Their art history videos alone cover many angles of white supremacist history I haven't seen anyone else discuss and I'm very excited to see more from them. They are also a very under viewed channel that more people should see!

I am error

Evelynn's channel primarily discusses video games in a presentation style and voice most similar to Action Button reviews. There's something just a bit more personal here though. I hesitate to say cozy since that word has a bit of an infantilizing connotation, maybe comforting is closer. She puts an immense amount of thought and empathy into the experience of playing video games and the personal narratives we build with them.

Swolesome

For more transmasc perspectives there's Swolesome. He has a lot of interesting insights into the more traditionally masculine and "broish" communities like fitness as well as commentary on recent trans issues.

Shonalika

Music, disability, and aggressively non-binary. Their video on gender presentation in heavy metal was really insightful. I would also check out the video "Why I Wear Gloves" for more insight on invisible disabilities.

Vivian Strange

Vivian delights in being a bit of a contrarian- something I really appreciate. She's probably going to challenge you and you're probably going to disagree at times, which is what makes her channel so important. Her video on Marquis De Sade is powerful and a must watch (if you can stomach the subject material, although I would encourage you to try). I haven't seen her most recent video on Saw yet but I am extremely excited to.

[henrykathman]

Yooo as someone lucky enough to work with her, I second the recommendation for Sarah, who you can follow at @hms-no-fun/

I would also want to throw a couple of other queer YouTubers onto the pile. (In Alphabetical Order)

Adequate Emily

Emily produces a lot of great videos reviewing and analyzing different films. Some are from a queer theory perspective, others tap into more historical examples. My current favorite video from her is about the 1970 antifascist masterpiece The Conformist.

Anansi's Library

R. Anansi discusses several topics relating to history, literature, and political theory. In addition to their essays, they also sometimes do spoken word poetry, which is pretty cool. I would recommend their video discussing the rhetoric behind the idea of "Protect Women"

Aranock

@aranock is someone else I've been lucky to work with. Lots of their videos offer an interesting perspective on the queer experience, including a video called Queer Relativity that is pretty cool, though my favorite is still their video discussing Midnight Mass.

La Femme Fictionale

Sam's videos explore different subjects from an Acesexual perspective, which is something you don't see as much in the video essay space. Her most recent video discussing the Boleyn girls will be interesting for anyone who enjoys Six or any other historical media relating to Henry VIII.

Laura Crone

You may have seen her videos about Riley Sager or REPO! but Laura's vids offer an interesting mixture of film and music theory, theology and literature. There are too many of her vids to choose from, but her most recent video about Ghost is an absolute banger that needs way more views.

LauraKBuzz

Laura is an extremely talented writer, editor, and accessibility activist who was the first out trans person I followed online thanks to my favorite podcast podquisition, Her videos on the games industry and accessibility come recommended to anyone who is interested in making gaming more inclusive. She also edited a book called Gender Euphoria, which is a collection of stories by trans, non-binary, and intersex writers sharing positive experiences of the Non-Cis experience. If you are interested in hearing about the queer experience in a way that doesn't fixate on queer suffering, this is a pretty good read.

Offbeat Kiki

@offbeatkiki is one of the best people discussing animation on YouTube right now. As someone who is also known for discussing cartoons online, it is nice whenever you can find other creators who tries to take a more constructive perspective on the medium. Case in point, they made a video about the 1992 Tom and Jerry Movie that presented a poignant perspective on a film that I absolutely despised and dismissed growing up.

Rantasmo

When it comes to Queer video essayists, it is shocking that people don't mention Rantasmo as one of the earliest voices in this space, as they were doing Queer analysis all the way back in the days of Channel Awesome. His videos were some of my first exposure to queer culture growing up and were vital in helping to develop my perspective today.

Transparency

I've recommended @transparencyboo's videos a number of times before, and have even received help from Kiki of @marsmombestmom in my remaster of my Moomin video, but I want to once again remind you to go watch Transparency, you cowards. They produce multi hour retrospectives on different video games and likewise make some of the most underrated gaming videos online right now with great art, stellar writing, and insightful analysis. My current favorite is their video is their two and a half hour retrospective on the Star Fox series that you should check out.

Videokind

Primarily hosted by @mattjcrowley, Videokind produce some of the best essays discussing film online. Not only is Matt an extremely talented writer, he's also such a genuinely nice guy. I absolutely recommend you watch their most recent video, which is a total evisceration of The Whale and the ways Brendan Fraser's great performance masks the vile implications of that garbage movie.

Wensleydale Cheddar

I'm a little biased on this one cause I co-host the podcast Podcastmon Adventures with them, but Wensleydale produces amazing podcasts discussing World Trigger and other manga. We are currently working our way through the Pokémon Adventures manga, and I especially love the expertise and care they put into everything they do. Well worth a follow!

[aranock]

Honoured to be on such a lovely list of wonderful creators. Go watch all of their stuff!

[wolfnanaki]

The swiftness and brutality of Hbomberguy’s complete evisceration of James Somerton’s career cannot be overstated.

[aranock]

I havent talked about this publicly much, neither has afaik my cowriter Jessie Gender or most of the women effected, but James Somerton attacked a lot of queer women creators in ways that mirror how he treated the woman who noticed his plagiarism. Lied repeatedly, then when caught lied some more. Here is just one example:

And I want it noted that when he started going after Jessie, it was after being on what seemed like friendly terms and she had tried to help him.

He made up shit about how he was the victim of harassment campaigns so his aggressively sexist fanbase would go out to attack to "protect him". As someone who deals with Jessies held for review comments, I've deleted some heinous shit that this guy incited.

Also the threatening to involve police thing, which he did multiple times btw, was horrible even if he was lying. Calling police on trans women is just extremely dangerous, threatening to do so is trying to threaten someone with that violence.

To be honest my one critique(its a nitpick if Im honest and I am only speaking for myself) of HBombs video is that he didn't mention any of this despite being very aware of it because Kat acknowledged it when it was happening.

Though I also understand how it would be very strongly off topic of the plagiarism stuff and am happy that he mentioned James being a transphobic sexist asshole in his videos, and this is not a criticism of him or Kat it just might have been nice to see that included as neither Jessie or I felt very comfy speaking up about what all happened at the time due to the various drama people who dedicate a lot of their life to harassing us.

With that all said, there is something extremely relieving about knowing this sexist crumpled muppet of a plagiarist is losing his platform over the lies he built it with. I hope he never gets to harass queer people again.

The guy clearly hated women, and hated trans people.

Anyway heres a few examples of the types of comments we got, these are the "nice ones". Jessie and I dont tend to screenshot the particularly upsetting stuff but I dug through our old messages to find these.

I also wanna be clear that everything in this post is just my perspective I dont speak for Jessie and I didnt discuss this with her which is why I am keeping this all to discussing public statements.

[scifiseries]

This is an actual cruise ship operating in Tokyo (The Himiko) designed by the famous Manga artist Leiji Matsumoto.

[obsessedbyneon]

Saint Louis Union Station mall, 1985. Interior. Scans from 'Shopping Centers & Malls'.

Scan

[thetreetopinn]

Sources for Somerton's Plagiarism from Hbomberguy's Video (as much as I could get)

I went back through Harry's video, focused entirely on the sources James Somerton pulled from in the hopes of creating as much of a comprehensive list as I could--though my Google-Fu is not very strong. I did however find something I thought was forever lost and that made me very happy--specifically the magazine Midlands Zone containing the column by Steven Spinks that Harry poignantly used as an illustration of gay erasure... while Somerton uses it to sound like HE is waxing remorseful about the very subject.

This is not a complete list, I'm sure. For one thing, I was only able to attempt to pull sources that Harry himself mentioned in the video. Surely there's so very much more out there. I expect there to be a great deal more internet archeology to unearth just how much writing and culture Somerton has stolen like he's the British Museum of Natural History but for gay people.

- - - - -

Harry's list of mentioned youtubers:

Alexander Avila - https://www.youtube.com/@alexander_avila Matt Baume - https://www.youtube.com/@MattBaume Khadija Mbowe - https://www.youtube.com/@KhadijaMbowe Lady Emily - https://www.youtube.com/@LadyEmilyPresents Shanspeare - https://www.youtube.com/@Shanspeare RickiHirsch - https://www.youtube.com/@RickiHirsch VerilyBitchie - https://www.youtube.com/@verilybitchie

Harry created a convenient playlist of videos by these and other people he wants to bring to everyone's attention.

Please give them your support.

- - - - -

Midlands Zone Magazine - Column by Steven Spinks

After a great deal of searching, I found an archive of the "Midlands Zone" magazine, where you can read through past issues dating all the way back to February 2014. I have also found the issue from which Somerton took Spinks' poignant discussion of gay erasure: Overall archive Specific Issue - Pages 16-17

It will not allow you to download it, but you can read it exactly as it appeared in print form.

- - - - -

My best effort to find the exact book or article Somerton lifted from to be able to get attention to the original writers

Tinker Bells and Evil Queens By Sean Griffin

The Celluloid Closet By Vito Russo Wikipedia article about the book Wikipedia article about the documentary My weak google-fu could not find where you can access the book or documentary. Check your local municipal or university library for book or documentary, or if you know a good source for one or both, please reblog with it added

Camp and the Gay Sensibility By Jack Babuscio

The Groundbreaking Queerness of Disney's Mulan By Jes Tom Personal site with links to social media accounts

Why Rebel Without a Cause was a milestone for gay rights By Peter Howell

Why "The Craft" is still the best Halloween coming out movie By Andrew Park

Opinion: From facehuggers to phallic tails, is 'Alien' one of the queerest films ever? By Dani Leever

Women and Queerness in Horror: Jennifer's Body By Zoe Fortier

[Pride 2019] We Have Such Sights to Show You: Hellraiser and the Spectrum of Queerness By Alejandra Gonzalez

Revealing the Hellbound Heart of Clive Barker's 'Hellraiser' By Colin Arason

Queering James Cameron's Aliens (1986) By Bart Bishop

Demeter and Persephone in space: transformation, femininity, and myth in the 'Alien' films By David Greven

Fears of a millennial masculinity: Scream's queer killers By David Greven (Scholarly site, unable to access original work, offers a way to request a full copy of the text in PDF)

Queer Subtext in Stephen King's It - Part 1: 'Reddie' Character Analysis By Rachel Brands Rachel is the very unfortunate lady who found out she was being stolen from because she supported Somerton through Patreon and saw one of his videos early with her writing--lacking any form of citation or credit

How 'It: Chapter Two' Leaves Richie Tozier Behind By Joelle Monique

When Horror Becomes Strength: Queer Armor in Stephen King's 'IT' By Alex London

Why Queer People Love Witchcraft By Amanda Kohr

'The Favourite' Queers The Past And The Present By Giorgi Plys-Garzotto

(Wuko) Crush (Mako x Wu) By MoonFlower on YouTube

5 Terrible Movies With Awesome Hidden Meanings By J.F. Sargent

The Radicalization of Sexuality: The Queer Casae of Jeffrey Dahmer By Ian Barnard

Netflix's 'Dahmer' backlash highlights ethical issues in the platform's obsession with true crime By Shivani Dubey

The Possible Disturbing Dissonance Between Hajime Isayama's Beliefs and Attack on Titan's Themes Original Article by "Seldom Musings" (Author has made all posts not related to Attack On Titan private and has retired from the blog)

Everyone Loves Attack on Titan. So Why Does Everyone Hate Attack on Titan? By Gita Jackson

- - - - -

The following people are otherwise named in the video. There are no direct citations of articles or books by them in said video. I am unable to guarantee that I have identified the correct individual.

Darren Elliott-Smith Michaela Barton David Church Claire Sisco King Amanda Howell Jessica Roy

- - - - -

Telos announced and cancelled a film likely based on this book: The Final Girl Support Group - By Grady Hendrix

- - - - -

I refrained from including certain sources.

First off only focusing on Somerton's work.

Secondly not including anything that might be visible enough to not require amplifying their voice (I cannot speak for all of those I have found links to, but journalism is frequently a thankless job).

Thirdly any source that is of a nature that is antithetical to the very existence of the queer community, such as the right-leaning source that didn't make it into Somerton's video, but Harry was able to identify as a source he had considered using.

If you feel I have missed a mentioned source--or you know of a source from material that was not covered in Harry's video--please do not hesitate to reblog with added details.

- - - - -

Please share this information far and wide, and please add to it if you find more material that can be positively identified and linked to the creator/writer.

[ladyknightthebrave]

He at least stole the title if not the concept for 'It Comes At Night' for one of his films he never made, called 'She Comes At Night.'

'It Comes At Night' was a 2017 horror flick starring Joel Edgarton