Good point… and yeah, I think you’re right about the murder at the beginning… So yeah, deeply problematic issues in his work, no doubt. I think one way to think about his work is as a critique and love letter to Americana, in all it’s complexity? For whatever that is worth…
10 Likes
Absolutely my reading too. It’s an uncanny, dreamlike 1950s, which I interpreted as a comment on that era’s American Dream, and on nostalgic memories of it-- a vision of the life good Muricans were supposed to want and to try to live, but also a way of life that called for attempted burial of its dark sides.
Yep. And the protagonist boy’s sexual desire is another invader of sorts, a thing to be kept hidden (in a closet, ha).
Makes sense to me.
13 Likes
11 Likes
Rep. Harriet Hageman (R-WY) said President Donald Trump was right to rename the Gulf of Mexico the “Gulf of America” because, she said, Mexico has been polluting the gulf’s water near San Diego.
San Diego, of course, does not touch the Gulf of Mexico, but the Pacific Ocean, which is about 1,500 miles away.
“I think another reason why we should change this to the Gulf of America versus the Gulf of Mexico is, for over 40 years, the country of Mexico has been dumping raw sewage into the area near San Diego, California,” the lawmaker said. “That’s another reason we need to retake and claim ownership of this area.”
Edited to add, this is Wyoming’s choice over Liz Cheney.
23 Likes
The “trend” (are they not called challenges anymore?) is sticking metal objects into the Chromebook charging port until it shorts and starts a fire. Our local news had a headline without much content, but it looks like there are a bunch of articles from the last couple of days.
21 Likes
seriously, WTF?
edit: ok. RTFA. causing disruption and evacuating schools seems to be the “what”.
har fucking har. class dismissed.
17 Likes
I’d guess a lot of it is plain pyromania. Sometimes we even grow out of it. A little.
15 Likes
Got an email from the kid’s school district. They did call it a “challenge.” But maybe some people are trying to move way from that framing. Because it’s not a challenge, just foolish.
Gratified the kid was all “whaaa?! That is so stupid!”
18 Likes
I suspect that more kids actually do say “nah” to these tik-tok challenges… Maybe one or two kids do it, but kids are often much smarter than adults give them credit for.
I’ve been wondering just how many of these things that pop up now and again are just social panics, like stranger danger or Satanic panic or punk panic…
18 Likes
I was watching some video essay about TikTok “trends” – I think it might have been by Strange Aeons – that suggested that the media will start talking about “new social media trends” when there are around 2 or 3 known instances of a thing happening. So really this could be one idiot, one copycat, and a lot of reposts, and then suddenly “the kids these days”.
18 Likes
Yeah, sounds right… and maybe Strange Aeons? Sounds like something they’d cover…
11 Likes
Lots of stupidity in there, (like how all of NASA, and even all of science itself, is Satanic and evil because a couple of people in the early days of NASA openly followed non-Christian religions), but the one that really broke me:
Here’s my bone to pick with Matt Walsh, we have a long-running beef on the topic of NASA and the Moon landings, because he thinks they happened, and, listen, when the guys did it it was fake and gay. […] homies were on the moon making phone calls [laughs] before the time of cell phones, like “hey, what’s up, Prez?”
It’s like claiming nobody could possibly have listened to music before the 1980s because the CD hadn’t been invented yet. And yet millions of people actually follow this person and trust her opinion on, well… anything.
18 Likes
12 Likes
If you or anyone you know feels even slightly inclined to think that same way, please watch this series of videos that shows how to transmit voice, data and video from the Moon.
8 Likes
You just gave me a flashback, because one of those admirers turns out to be Stephen A Smith:
Apparently, 
told Smith that he should run for the Democratic nomination in 2028 - which was one of the dumbest things I’ve ever heard, and Reese Waters covered it. 
7 Likes
“My dear, you look ravashing tonight.”
Oh, right, spelling is woke.
6 Likes
