National Geographic photographers are metal as fuck
What do you know of the blood, sweat and toil of a theatrical production? Of the dedication of the men and the women in the noblest profession of them all? How could you know, you talentless fools who spew vitriol on the creative efforts of others because because you lack the ability to create yourselves!
Theatre of Blood (1973) dir. Douglas Hickox
“I summon the vampires! I summon the werewolves!”
VIY | Вий (1967)
dir. Georgiy Kropachyov & Konstantin Ershov
Elon’s new blue-check subscription service was a massive flop, and the sudden removal of nearly half a million blue-checks suddenly made it crystal clear to Twitter’s user base that the blue-check club going forward was going to be populated almost entirely by right-wing weirdos. There would be no hanging out with Stephen King or LeBron James; your fellow blue-checks would instead be a few notorious racists and jokes from (checks notes) influential wag “catturd.”
In fact, by so clearly labeling the worst of Twitter’s worst people, it spurred a genius #BlockTheBlue backlash, in which people gleefully banned the blue-check trolls that now populated the top of every single prominent Twitter thread (like those of actual celebrities announcing their refusal to pay for what was now a worthless mark).
The visible unpopularity of the program wasn’t just embarrassing for Musk. It’s an existential threat to the program’s viability. Musk sold the subscription service as a way to become one of the site’s Important People without merit; if all the Important People didn’t just stay off the program, but mocked it, only the most diehard of Musk loyalists would be eager to sign up for that.
As the collapse of the program became self-evident, third parties had already begun working on automated #BlockTheBlue plugins that would systematically block all checkmarks. So Musk immediately set out to salvage the reputation and very existence of the $8 club—by forcing Important People to be in it whether they liked it or not. And by “immediately,” we mean “by afternoon.”
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Elon Musk’s Twitter Blue is a verified disaster I was one of Twitter’s early adopters. I was one of those accounts they suggested you follow when it started to get big. I went from a few thousand followers to a hundred thousand in a matter of days, and was at 3 million when I closed my account. I left Twitter long before Musk took over, but I kept the account to protect it and the branding it comes with from bad people. Last year, before Musk bought it, I posted a couple of tweets to let those three million accounts know that my memoir had been published. It seemed silly not to. I turned replies off, and just let it be an announcement. Then Musk took over, and I watched Twitter turn into 4Chan. When it started to become 8Chan, I deleted my entire archive, unfollowed everyone except family, and then made my account private. I figure I still need to protect the username. I don’t look at my account, but someone told me the check was gone. (Oh, I was one of the earliest verified users, too). I was thrilled. I didn’t want anyone to think I gave that bozo my money. Then the same person told me the check was back, shortly after I think all decent people had concluded that blue check = red flag (or red hat). So I signed back into my account and updated my bio to make sure nobody ever thinks I gave that dumbass any of my money. I know I’m not alone. That check mark is now toxic, and I’m not the only longtime verified user who doesn’t want anything to do with it. I wonder if someone more famous than me, with more at stake, makes noise about the implied endorsement / affiliation the blue check now carries with it, and the brand damage that comes with it? (via wilwheaton) |
On this day, 26 April 1909, California became the second state in the US to pass a eugenics law, enabling the state to forcibly sterilise convicted criminals, and people considered “feeble-minded”.
The California law was even stricter than that introduced in Indiana, as rather than just sterilising people, the law enabled the state to castrate men and remove women’s ovaries, both permanently sterilising them and causing a host of other issues.
People with mental illness, people who had been convicted of more than three crimes, people with sexually-transmitted diseases, or people who supposedly exhibited “sexual or moral perversions”, could be sterilised under the act. These “perversions” included women who had sex without being married. The act was passed unanimously by the state assembly, and had only one dissenting vote in the senate.
In the subsequent decade the law was amended to focus more on sterilising mentally ill people rather than castrating prisoners.
The eugenicist movement in the US inspired the German Nazi party, who invited US eugenicists to local conferences, where information about California’s law was circulated.
While the defeat of the Nazis at the end of World War II caused widespread revulsion at the idea of eugenics, which had previously been popular in the West, California continued to forcibly sterilise and castrate people up to the 1960s. Protests also began against the eugenics programme in the 1950s and 60s, often involving Black and Mexican participants.
In total, the state of California sterilised at least 20,108 people – more than any other state. People of Mexican origin made up around 8% of those sterilised, and while Black people only made up 1% of California’s population, they accounted for 4% of those who were sterilised.
Eventually, California repealed the law in 1979, but it continued to sterilise some women in prison without their consent.
More: https://stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/11261/california-eugenics-law https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=615531520620067&set=a.602588028581083&type=3
<3 I stand 100% with Zooey Zephyr and with her supporters against the disease of fascism that is the Republicunt party and its worthless and brainless supporters <3
