BASED SAFETY
Hello kids, how are you? We’re still in lockdown, more or less. Can you believe that? I was at an art opening/party yesterday with my homies, and no one was wearing masks. It was spectacular to be out drinking with cool people again, and not holed in my apartment wondering what happened to my life, shitposting to give my existence a false sense of meaning. Perhaps, these escalating acts of small resistance — the refusal to wear masks, the refusal to be entrapped, the refusal to take Fauci seriously — are the most important political actions that we could be taking at this bleak moment. On that thought, I was thrilled to see the bold English people take to the streets to directly protest the repressive and nonsensical lockdown measures that their country has forced upon them. Lockdowns are the most direct and immediate violation of our bourgeois rights in our lifetime, are they not? They must be opposed. Predictably, the UK lockdown protests were blacked out in the media. I’m surprised CNN didn’t call the protestors right wing fascists for their efforts. Seems like something Don Lemon would say, no?
The courageous journalist Aris Roussinos has a new show on Unherd’s Youtube channel, and spends its first episode at King Arthur’s birthplace of Cornwall, which is currently occupied by John Mappin, a shadowy aristocrat who is both a scientologist and “Q-pilled.” Despite his eccentricities and however psyop-fried he might be, Mappin actually makes a good point at the center of all the muck: “When you suppress free speech, free speech goes underground.” Very impressed by the format structure of this Deep Rex podcast, which has guests on to discuss their favorite works of art. Check out this episode with friend of SP Samuel Rubberwindow. Barrett makes his written word debut on Mónica’s Covidian Aesthetics; Barrett explains an “Omnicringe” that goes beyond a mere cringe. You know what it is. You do.
Speaking of cringe, Morbid Books publisher Lev Parker writes about the new t-shirts released by the UK-based punk(ish) band Meatraffle, that demand we both listen to Meatraffle and OBEY our bourgeois state by STAYING INSIDE. Parker identifies the tendencies that make “radical” artists such useful little propaganda cucks for the status quo. Literary critic Alex Perez chronicles the rise of the new literary bad boys for im1776; but can the vice signaling of a writer like Delicious Tacos truly revive a transgressive tendency in contemporary literature (personally, not so sure)? The last remaining based commies at Communia critique the black nationalist tendency of Black Lives Matter (an ideological two-step that pushes the class interests of the black petty bourgeoise, but still has to make rhetorical appeals to its lumpen base, ie “abolish the police”) and examine how racialist ideologies are used to divide and discipline working class people and provide moral laundering for American imperialism. A terrific, clarifying article.
My best gal pal Sandra Soliman, aka Bimbo Ubermensch, joins me for a video chat on System of Systems to discuss the filmmakers Guy Maddin, Pedro Almodovar, and Sam Peckinpah. Finally, Numéro Berlin posts my interview with Anna and Dasha of Red Scare on its website. The interview transpired last fall. I remember that I was enduring a bout of insomnia that week, and walked away from the interview thinking I’d royally fucked it up somehow. But, it seems to hold up.
CRINGE PROPAGANDA
A sex worker goes to her therapist and tells him that she might be autistic. The therapist tells the sex worker that she’s fine, and not autistic. The sex worker decides that the therapist must be sexist/ableist, and declares herself to be, in fact, autistic. She then brands herself as an “autistic sex worker” on OnlyFans; predictably, a bunch of perverts online become even hornier for her than they were before. The now autistic sex worker makes a fuck load of money. She writes this article for The Huffington Post about her experience (evidently, the website will literally publish anything so long as it’s written by a. a woman and b. someone who is mentally unwell). This might be transcendentally cringe. From a certain perspective, it’s a tremendous piece of surrealist literary art. From another perspective, it’s simply the death of civilization.
An excerpt from Stephanie Phillips’ book about Solange complains about cultural appropriation in indie rock, positing that Solange is important because she “naturally” makes the music that those bands (Vampire Weekend, Dirty Projectors) only, whatever, appropriate. All of this mediocrity makes my head spin. Race science and music criticism intertwined. Another week, another Zero Books cringe. In this one, Doug dissects his previous week’s video (with Chris Cutrone) with Marxoid explainer C. Derrick Varn. Doug is still having trouble reconciling the left that is in his head with the left that is in our material reality. Poor guy.
Woke neocon columnist Charles Blow writes an article that he’s written before (a lot) and that he’ll surely write again (a lot): “Amurriccaaaa isssss RAyyCISssSSSssSSSSS!” Hyperallergic profiles woke muralist Judy Baca; check out the mural shown at the top of the page, depicting a sign that reads: “Fight Fascism at Home and Abroad!” The imperialism embedded in American activism is less subtle by the day. VICE justifies Biden’s travel ban on India, which is particularly ironic given how upset they were about travel bans in the not too distant past. Alex N. Press, the feeble minded soc dem, claims that Biden is very amenable to labor policy. Jacobin can’t even make an effort to seem like they are politically different than the NY Times or Washington Post anymore. They’re exhausted, one can only grift for so long. Keep your third eye open over these next few months, the fog is lifting, baby!
Happy shitposting!
Illustration by Adam Lehrer
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