Terrible Master

Thoughts, pictures, and links from a man of little consequence.

[obstinatecondolement]

I wonder when exactly it was that Star Trek stopped being perceived as light, fluffy, not-really-legitimate sci fi that ~housewives~ liked and started being seen as serious nerd business that girls had to keep their gross cooties off. 

[keeveet-talks-deactivated201612]

Also when did the Beatles start to be remembered as rock legends rather than a silly boy band teenaged girls liked?

[schumie]

When men decided they liked them.

[startrektrashface]

this is seriously exactly how it happened. Women were actually the first rock and roll ‘critics’ because they would write in to women’s papers and magazines to share and discuss what their kids were listening to when men still thought it was trashy teeny bopper music. once it became a lucrative, mainstream genre men shoved women out of the space. Men also tend to be gatekeepers once they move into formerly female spaces - early trek fandom was incredibly open and inclusive; women would set up fan get togethers in their own houses to discuss the show or invite the actors to visit before conventions became a thing, and then were huge in organizing the first conventions - but now the stereotype of a trekkie is a nerdy white dude who scoffs derisively at casual fans and newbies with his encyclopedic and pedantic knowledge of trek

[changelinglili]

I propose we call this “mentrification”

[shiralipkin]

YES

[updatesupdatesupdates]

Useful term is useful.

[terriblemaster]

Also when did the Beatles start to be remembered as rock legends rather than a silly boy band teenaged girls liked?  I’m not even a Beatles fan but it was when Rubber Soul and Revolver came out that they started to be treated more seriously. Those early records were popular but relatively uninspired bubblegum pop. BTW, it’s okay to love bubblegum pop.  If they had just kept releasing records like “Please Please Me” or “Meet the Beatles!” they wouldn’t have the reputation they have today. ★¯\_("3)_/¯★ 

[iamdanw]

“Here are enacted all the worst facets of Queer Eye – its repulsive grovelling towards our historical oppressors; its mortifying boner for capitalism, the machine purpose-built for crushing minorities; its snivelling adoption of supposedly queer tropes for the benefit of ‘acceptance’ rather than revolution; its actual or implied misogyny; its inability to propose a valid queer universe with a new or interesting language; and its refusal to address patriarchy and masculinity as ills to be fixed or nuked. In the world of Queer Eye, it’s possible to sell off the secrets of our minority existences, all the tricks we have squirrelled away through millennia of murder and oppression, all the timeworn codes we have developed in order to embody an alternative to a grotesque mainstream culture of self-advancement and violence. It’s possible and even advisable, they believe, to maintain masculinity as it is and make adorable cosmetic changes to it, which will hopefully make the big man stop hitting us.”

— Straight Outta Crouch End: Thoughts on Queer Eye

[terriblemaster]

I Awake To The Sound of Yelling Outside My Window

It’s light outside but just barely. It’s one voice. It sounds like arabic to my dumb monolingual ass, but really I have no idea.I wait for it to pass. People yelling in New York at odd times isn’t unusual. You get used to it. They’re on their way somewhere, at this time of night it’s a usually a couple of women in their 20s yelling at each other about what Becky said to Derek about Molly at the bar last night, punctuated occasionally by the sound of trash cans smashing to the ground, their contents jangling, and laughter. The man’s voice, shouting in what sounds like arabic to me, which I realize is because he sounds like a terrorist in a movie and that’s my only frame of reference to the language, starts to fade but comes back. This person is walking up and down the street. I can’t sleep through this. I get up, put on my pants and a t-shirt, and walk outside. I don’t see him or hear him, so I wait. The street is silent. No cars, no voices, no truck engines idling at a shop for a delivery, nobody is blasting a boom box at the park at the corner, no junkies fighting over the park benches, no honking at the stoplight. Silence. Rare for my little neighborhood. And then I hear the voice again. To my left. And I walk in the voice’s direction. Half a block up the street I see him. A young man, maybe in his late 20s or early 30s. He’s wearing a graphic t-shirt, but it’s seen a few wears since the last wash, and jeans, faded blue with patches of white, out of style in the USA for two decades or more. His phone is pressed to his head and he’s yelling. He’s walking in my direction, and he’s definitely doing laps of the street outside my window. I cross the street to meet him. I’m walking straight for him but he doesn’t see me until we’re toe to toe. “Hello,” I say. “Hello,” he says. “Hey, man, it’s like 5:30 in the morning. Can you keep it down?” “I’m sorry. I just found out that my brother was killed. My brother was just killed.” “Holy shit I am so sorry.” “My name is Salah. What is your name?” He holds out his hand to shake my hand. I shake his hand. “My name is Stephen. Salah, that is terrible news. I am so sorry.” “My brother. In Yemen. He was just killed. My brother. In Yemen.” I put my hand on his shoulder and squeeze. “I am so sorry, Salah.”“You heard my voice?” I’m embarrassed now. “Yeah. I was in bed. You woke me up. I came down to find out what was happening.” “I am sorry. I will try to keep it down. That is my store.” He points behind him to the deli at the corner. “I just found out my brother was killed in Yemen. I will keep it down.” “I am so sorry,” I say again, and nod sadly at him as I turn around and walk away so he can return to his phone call.

[the-movemnt-deactivated20170912]

Artist Daniel Rarela creates “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” memes to stop people from whitewashing MLK

follow @the-movemnt

[terriblemaster]

Now seeking submissions / subscribers

Now seeking submissions and subscribers for a 4-issue quarterly zine called “deadbeat.” There will be four issues released quarterly in 2018. The first issue will be released / mailed March 15, 2018. This is an extremely limited run. Single issues are $3.50. Buy the run in advance now for $10.00. Submit / subscribe at [email protected] and include “deadbeat” in the subject PDFs of each issue will be made available for free but let’s be honest the physical thing will be cooler and you’re way more likely to read it. DEADBEAT. FICTION / NONFICTION / ESSAY / FOUND / SEQUENTIAL ART / LO-FI BW PHOTOGRAPHY PEOPLE WHO HAVE NEVER PUBLISHED ELSEWHERE DUE TO SHAME AND FEAR OF REJECTION ARE PARTICULARLY ENCOURAGED TO SUBMIT FIRST ISSUE SUBMISSION DEADLINE FEBRUARY 1, 2018 2018 ONLY AND NEVER AGAIN PLEASE SHARE THIS STATUS FAR AND WIDE DEADBEAT IS A JOKE BUT I’M NOT KIDDING

[terriblemaster]

Now seeking submissions / subscribers

Now seeking submissions and subscribers for a 4-issue quarterly zine called “deadbeat.” There will be four issues released quarterly in 2018. The first issue will be released / mailed March 15, 2018. This is an extremely limited run. Single issues are $3.50. Buy the run in advance now for $10.00. Submit / subscribe at [email protected] and include “deadbeat” in the subject PDFs of each issue will be made available for free but let’s be honest the physical thing will be cooler and you’re way more likely to read it. DEADBEAT. FICTION / NONFICTION / ESSAY / FOUND / SEQUENTIAL ART / LO-FI BW PHOTOGRAPHY PEOPLE WHO HAVE NEVER PUBLISHED ELSEWHERE DUE TO SHAME AND FEAR OF REJECTION ARE PARTICULARLY ENCOURAGED TO SUBMIT FIRST ISSUE SUBMISSION DEADLINE FEBRUARY 1, 2018 2018 ONLY AND NEVER AGAIN PLEASE SHARE THIS STATUS FAR AND WIDE DEADBEAT IS A JOKE BUT I’M NOT KIDDING

[ornithoscelidaphiliac-deactivat]

limiting thoughts are thoughts that bully us into not reaching our full potential and cause us to make decisions out of fear. they will be different for each individual and are caused by and reinforced by trauma. addressing these fears feels very vulnerable but it becomes easier to identify where our emotions are coming from once we start recognizing which thoughts are holding us hostage. 

[terriblemaster]

holy lived experience batman

[terriblemaster]

No Platform For Nazis

It's not a free speech issue and it never was; white supremacist organizations are terrorist organizations with the goal of establishing a murderous white ethnostate. Giving them a platform is irresponsible and directly contributes to violence. We don't need to wonder how this will turn out; we have significant historical precedence for atrocities committed in the name of white supremacy and those atrocities are not incidental to this ideology, atrocities are the whole point. Denying that white supremacist rhetoric and symbols carry the implicit threat of violence is to deny history itself. I've been chanting for years and I'll keep chanting it until they're gone : When you make a safe space for nazis it gets real fuckin' dangerous for everyone else.

[bellygangstaboo]

standing ovation

[terriblemaster]

This is like the cultural version of “WHERE ARE MY GLASSES?” when they’re resting on your temple.

[terriblemaster]

sweet jesus, pooh!

[sketchshark]

Here are the first few comics from a series I’ve started making about a regular toad.

[terriblemaster]

I am dead

[hilarioushumorfromouterspace]

[terriblemaster]

More people in North America have been killed by young white supremacist terrorists in the last week than muslim terrorists from every country on the ban list combined since 1975.

[editingatwork]

You know what line gets me every time I watch MAD MAX FURY ROAD? 

“Do not, my friends, become addicted to water. It will take hold of you, and you will resent its absence.”

Think about that. “Addicted to water.” It makes it sound like water is an extra luxury that people don’t need but are greedy for, something they should be able to go without, and if they are desperate for it, it’s their own fault, and not the fault of the man who has all of it, and withholds it.

Think about how the people in power tell us not to be greedy for the things we need, like healthcare, like a living wage, like the right to be free of fear and violence in our own communities. The people in power tell us not to be greedy for these things, when they themselves already enjoy them freely, and withhold them from us.

Don’t trust the narrative that tells us we’re being greedy by asking for things that we need.

Don’t trust the asshole sitting on a grassy hilltop with his hand on the spigot telling us not to be greedy for water.

[phoenix-ace]

I’ll say it before and I’ll say it again:

You cannot challenge racism, on this level, by being nice to and reaching out to white supremacists.  Their entire ideology revolves around dehumanizing us.  It just does. not. work.  

You cannot fight fascism by prioritizing the feelings of fascists and letting them think they’re safe around you.  You don’t “get them on your side”.  Because treating them kindly and respecting them, gives them your silent approval and access to those of you who are way more vulnerable than you are and who cannot afford to feel safe enough to “debate” with these monsters. 

Our humanity is not a question or a debate topic, and by giving these people a platform you legitimize their views and help spread them to a larger audience. 

[nido-is-sorry-4-everything-deac]

Then… How did it work for this guy?

[soyeahso]

They shot him in the fucking head.

[phoukanamedpookie]

Say that shit again!

They shot him in the fucking head.

They shot him in the fucking head.

They shot him in the fucking head.

They shot him in the fucking head.

[chrisdornerfanclub]

The idea that MLK was ‘nice’ to white supremacists is also just historical revisionism @kuurihaunt.

He was sent death threats. The FBI considered him dangerous. People assaulted and murdered many of his followers. White America thought he was too confrontational and not appeasing enough to the sensibilities of whites. He was considered disruptive and an “outside agitator.” He was not a beloved man. He was hated and despised.

His protests came with the risk of being brutalized or killed by police or vigilantes. He decried the white moderate for caring more about order than justice. He refused to condemn riots, ‘the language of the unheard,’ because of how violent America was to Black people. Despite their differences, Malcolm X offered him protection and self-defense. Even though he was committed to nonviolent resistance, which meant breaking the law, disrupting traffic and yes - willingly opening yourself to being brutalized, he was more complicated than you give him credit.

The United States hated him and for his troubles he was killed.

He was not the caricature of nonviolence you think he was. Read a fucking book. 

[wilwheaton]

This can not be overstated: The idea that MLK was ‘nice’ to white supremacists is also just historical revisionism @kuurihaunt.

[terriblemaster]

We Cannot Let This Be Normal

Well, I've got my first post-Trump story. Kaarin and I went to see a movie with Sam tonight. As we were leaving the theater, I was talking about the importance of resisting everything that Trump has threatened -- and everything his followers are hungry for. "We're safe here," Sam said. "Oh, I don't think we are. Do you remember what happened after September 11th? Sikhs -- mistaken for muslims -- were ripped from their cabs and beaten." A white man, a little younger than me, walked right over to us and stood next to me and said, accusatorily, "How does that happen?" "Excuse me?" "I mean, how can you tell a Sikh anyway? And pulled out of his cab? That can't happen. Come on, that will never happen." He rolled his eyes at me. "That already did happen. I'm describing well-documented events that occurred after September 11th." "Well," he balked, rolling his eyes again, "This is 2016. That was fifteen years ago." "A muslim man was just killed at the university of wisconsin." He tsked, waved it away, and said "Well the racists are sated now." The racists are sated now. Have you ever heard such a delirious insane denial in your life? Have racists ever been sated in human history? And after the validation of the election of Trump to the white house, the racists are just getting started. "I'm not having this conversation with you," I said. "Walk away." He stood there. Glaring at me. He wasn't even interested in a conversation. This was a power move. He wanted to hold me down and make me believe things that happened *didn't* and that there was nothing to worry about. That racial violence isn't even *real*. "I'm not having this conversation with you. Walk away." I repeated. He just stood there. Glaring at me. Daring me to do something. "Then we're walking away." And we did. Do not let people tell you that there is nothing to worry about or that this is normal. Having a white supremacist sexual predator in the white house with a list of enemies is not normal and there's already a great deal to be worried about. The most dangerous thing we can do is settle in and act like this is a normal election with a normal President-elect. He threatens the foundations of our safety and democracy and he is just getting warmed up. 

[terriblemaster]

Bernie Sanders was credible opposition to a loudmouthed millionaire oligarch. Trump’s actual opponent, on the other hand...