Utopia Hard!

and other ideas.

[comfortingnightvale]

This now, this us, we can cope with that. We can do this together, you and I.

Welcome to Night Vale, Episode 12, “The Candidate” (via comfortingnightvale)

@utopianerd <3

(via phdbff)

#wordsofweirdwisdom

[utopianerd-blog]

Why Triumph’s “Trump Focus Group” makes you so uncomfortable

It took me several hours to figure out why Triumph the Insult Comic Dog’s recent “Trump Focus Group” left me feeling so ashamed of my laughter. It was a laughter accompanied by “oh my god”-type exclamations. Really? Racist white folk would actually be on board with making Mexicans wear shock collars, and deporting them through clandestine port-a-potties placed outside Home Depots? You might have felt while watching this a similar discomfort that was hard to put your finger on. Here, I submit, are some reasons why.

First of all, the premise is a cheap one that plays with a dangerous precedent: “laugh at these uneducated white folk as we goad them into saying absurdly racist things.” "Goading” is the key term: these people wouldn't have come up with all this on their own. They may have a lot of unexamined racist beliefs, which are their own form of violence, but those unexamined beliefs were not yet at such a shocking fever pitch. During the video, Triumph and his actors created a social dynamic—in part appealing to the authority of a white male actor—where they made such racist things not just acceptable but encouraged by a group leader. I’m no sociologist, but it seems to me that kind of manipulation is what makes for genocides, genocides that might start with making someone wear a special accessory, for example. Triumph is basically using genocidal rallying language and tactics to make jokes. 

Second, satire generally should “punch up.” As a genre of humor, satire is at its best when pointing out the follies of the powerful. Good satire points out how elites abuse their power, and hopefully contributes to a chorus of voices that incite positive change. Perhaps the worst recent example of bad satire “punching down” is Charlie Hebdo’s racist depictions of Muslims in its so-called satirical cartoons. Encouraging people—even educated, anti-racist folk—to laugh at other disempowered groups just reinforces class, ethnic, and racial divisions, and entrenches radical beliefs further. This is exactly what Triumph’s bizarre form of satire (or, maybe more accurately satire used for the purposes of insult—I’m not a humor expert) is doing here. And I’m supposed to laugh.

Two wrongs don’t make a right. At some level we have to acknowledge the reasons these people are so racist in the first place—it’s been learned from powerful people who have sought to manipulate them into thinking people of color are responsible for their own lack of opportunities. I don’t think the solution is further manipulation.

What is to come of these people in this video? Yes, racists deserve to be called out and even shamed in many cases. But are these people learning anything from this incident? Will it incite their own come-to-Jesus moment, or make them become more entrenched in their beliefs? I don’t like the risk of the latter. 

And the truly young people in this video—that to me seems really tragic. When I was that age I was only beginning to think for myself beyond the privilege of my white-middle-class-Christian family values. The two young women in the video will hopefully have plenty of opportunities to figure out just how messed up their racial beliefs are, but this would straight up put me into therapy if I were them. And that one younger woman whose face looked truly terrified—what if she had been encouraged to speak her thoughts behind that look? Or maybe she did, and it didn’t make it to the video we see.

I know, this is an *Insult* Comedy Dog. Why have I got myself so worked up over something that is arguably meant to make you uncomfortable? Because I’m upset at being manipulated into laughing at people who are themselves being manipulated, I guess. No matter how reprehensible I might find them as humans.

[comicbooklibrariansupreme]

According to legend, (and a 1976 DC Comics calendar) July 22nd is the day when Aquaman, Batman, The Flash, Green Lantern, Martian Manhunter, Superman, and Wonder Woman first organized the Justice League of America in order to more effectively resolve those situations they would be unable to handle individually.  Their first adversary was Starro the Conqueror in Brave and the Bold #28 (March 1960), written by Gardner Fox and penciled by Mike Sekowsky.  Since then, The Justice League of America has fought such foes as Amazo, Darkseid, Felix Faust, The Injustice League, The Key, The Royal Flush Gang, the Shaggy Man, and many more.

Over the years, the roster of the Justice League has grown to include such other superhero luminaries as Green Arrow, The Atom, Hawkman, Black Canary, Red Tornado, Zatanna, and Firestorm.  They’ve disbanded, re-formed, and re-branded several times, for a time becoming just the Justice League, then Justice League International, then splitting into Justice League America and Justice League Europe (with a short-lived Justice League Antarctica), and then the JLA.  Currently, they have resumed referring to themselves as The Justice League of America, and have welcomed new members Cyborg, (a reformed) Lex Luthor, and Shazam. To celebrate this anniversary of the “Dawn of Justice”, here are a few select Justice League issues from the DuGarm Collection at the University of Iowa Special Collections:

Justice League of America v.1 #48 (December 1966), art by Mike Sekowsky and Murphy Anderson

Justice League of America v.1 #144 (July 1977), art by Dick Dillin and Frank McLaughlin

Justice League of America v.1 #99 (June 1972), art by Nick Cardy

Justice League of America v.1 #150 (January 1978), art by Rich Buckler

Justice League of America v.1 #105 (May 1973), art by Dick Giordano

Justice League of America v.1 #200 (March 1982), back and front cover by George Perez

Justice League of America v.1 #184 (November 1980), art by George Perez

Justice League America #65 (August 1992), art by Dan Jurgens and Rick Burchett

Justice League: Generation Lost #1 (July 2010), art by Tony Harris

[hevelincollection]

Justice League of Antarctica?!? 

[phdbff]

@utopianerd

[utopianerd-blog]

Antarctica is such an interesting place to imagine an otherwise. And it is a centuries old tradition

[phdbff]

If anyone ever tells you that fandom isn’t important, or doesn’t understand that it is a deeply meaningful experience and important community of support, just remind them that in the 1950s, science fiction/fantasy veterans worked alongside famous writers, raising money and acquiring donations to send science fiction books and magazines to fellow fans serving in the military abroad. 

Found in: The Eaton Fanzine Collection 342, Box 18 Folder 2. Program for the Fifth Anniversary Fanvet Convention, by the Fantasy Veterans Association: April 17, 1955. Cover, Page 3, and Page 5.

[utopianerd-blog]

Fandom as utopian/intentional community for those not quite fitting into the mainstream. In this case, for veterans of WWII

[uispeccoll]

New acquisition from @uicb grad Thomas Helmers. 

With dinosaurs!

[phdbff]

@utopianerd >> !!!!

[utopianerd-blog]

Dinosaurs are dead. Long live the dinosaurs!

[utopianerd-blog]

This evening’s back porch reading is the recently translated, French utopian/sf novel, _Discovery of the Austral Continent by a Flying Man_ (1781), featuring pre-Darwinian evolutionary theory and people flying on mechanical wings. The first edition is going to be in the Eaton Collection’s upcoming _500 Years of Utopia_ exhibit.

You can find scans of the fantastic drawings here: http://bibliodyssey.blogspot.com/2007/03/flight-to-antipodes.html?m=1 @phdbff

[phdbff]

Anyone care to join me in a Star Trek caption contest from 1972? Prize: More vintage Trek posts! 😉

Grup, 1972, vol. 1 no. 1, edited by Carrie Peak. Page 55. Found in: Collection 342, Eaton Fanzine Collection, Box 199, Folder 2

[utopianerd-blog]

8. "Why is it whirling around?" 

9. "You have a lot to learn about Vulcan anatomy." 

10. "No really, call McCoy!"