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Assholes Gonna Asshole
Jan. 12th, 2025 10:23 amFacebook & Instagram recently decided to 86 their fact-checking apparatus and community moderation.
Being a free speech absolutist, I think this is a good thing.
Many other people do not, anticipating once restrictions are lifted, there will be a deluge of hate speech against LGBT (and now IA) individuals. Some gay people I know have closed their accounts.
I dunno.
Maybe I’m naïve, but I just don’t see it. Even in the small, remote outpost of Trumplandia where I live, support for gay rights is very strong. This is the result of the television industry, which has been “normalizing” homosexuality for some 25+ years now. In the long run, influence (art) always trumps power (politics.)
###
One of the big worries is that now that the beneficent overlords have relaxed restrictions, misinformation will abound. Exhibit 1: the speculation that’s proliferating over the causes of the LA fires! Depending on what you read, the LA fires are due to: (1) DEI measures the City of Los Angeles forced on first responders, (2) Newsom’s refusal to sign a (nonexistent) “water restoration declaration,” (3) underground tunnels that were set on fire to destroy evidence in the Sean “Diddy” Combs case, (4) political operatives seeking to wage economic warfare and deindustrialize the U.S., (5) drastic cuts to the LAFD budget— And there are tons more.
It amazes me that pundits think that just because an Internet user reads—“clicks”—on one of these stories, they instantly believe it.
I mean, maybe that’s true. But I see no proof.
And until I see that proof, anti-misinformation campaigns strike me as nanny-ism. People should be free to read whatever they want to read.
Assholes are gonna asshole. If people are so credulous about misinformation, then this speaks to an enormous failure of the education system that needs to be rectified.
If the government wants its citizens to stop believing conspiracy campaigns, it should stop conspiring—as it did, for example, for four solid years on the topic of Joe Biden’s health.
###
Of course, I use Facebook a lot.
Probably too much.
But I have a lot of pals on Facebook, connections from a life that has led me into quite divergent spheres, that I would have no way of communicating with were it not for Facebook. I like these communications, limited though they may be, and my life would be poorer without them.
It’s always smart, though, to keep any non-promotional social media interactions to under an hour a day.
Meanwhile…
Yesterday I studied for my IRS certification and watched Sean Baker’s Anora, an absolutely brilliant film that absolutely deserves to sweep whatever awards season beleaguered Hollywood manages to pull together, but probably won’t because it contains many graphic sex scenes. It’s the tale of a short-lived marriage between a Brighton Beach stripper and the son of a Russian oligarch.
Anora is the bizarro dimension Pretty Woman. And also a road trip movie. And also a (probably inadvertent) homage to Godard’s version of the French New Wave. And also a sharply observed analysis of social classes and the immigrant experience.
I wish I had time to write a 5,000 word analysis of Anora. But, hélas! I do not.
####
But I will add that Sean Baker’s The Florida Project was one of my favorite films of a few years back. It’s also a movie about a stripper—but narrated through the POV of her six-year-old daughter, a wild child who, despite her poverty & general deprivation, manages to live a happy & exuberant life in the complexes of cheap Kissimmee motels that ring the borders of Disney World.
At the end of the film, Child Protective Services takes Moonie, the six-year-old, away from her mother. This has to happen since, as the movie viewer can clearly see, despite her bounce & comparative innocence & the fact that her mother loves her, Moonie is well on her way to becoming a psychopath.
It is heartbreaking, nonetheless.
Baker is never sentimental, and this is one of his great strengths as a filmmaker.
If Anora is Godard, The Florida Project is Truffaut: Its ending is so reminiscent of Les quatre cents coups’ ending though sans the iconic freeze-frame.
Being a free speech absolutist, I think this is a good thing.
Many other people do not, anticipating once restrictions are lifted, there will be a deluge of hate speech against LGBT (and now IA) individuals. Some gay people I know have closed their accounts.
I dunno.
Maybe I’m naïve, but I just don’t see it. Even in the small, remote outpost of Trumplandia where I live, support for gay rights is very strong. This is the result of the television industry, which has been “normalizing” homosexuality for some 25+ years now. In the long run, influence (art) always trumps power (politics.)
###
One of the big worries is that now that the beneficent overlords have relaxed restrictions, misinformation will abound. Exhibit 1: the speculation that’s proliferating over the causes of the LA fires! Depending on what you read, the LA fires are due to: (1) DEI measures the City of Los Angeles forced on first responders, (2) Newsom’s refusal to sign a (nonexistent) “water restoration declaration,” (3) underground tunnels that were set on fire to destroy evidence in the Sean “Diddy” Combs case, (4) political operatives seeking to wage economic warfare and deindustrialize the U.S., (5) drastic cuts to the LAFD budget— And there are tons more.
It amazes me that pundits think that just because an Internet user reads—“clicks”—on one of these stories, they instantly believe it.
I mean, maybe that’s true. But I see no proof.
And until I see that proof, anti-misinformation campaigns strike me as nanny-ism. People should be free to read whatever they want to read.
Assholes are gonna asshole. If people are so credulous about misinformation, then this speaks to an enormous failure of the education system that needs to be rectified.
If the government wants its citizens to stop believing conspiracy campaigns, it should stop conspiring—as it did, for example, for four solid years on the topic of Joe Biden’s health.
###
Of course, I use Facebook a lot.
Probably too much.
But I have a lot of pals on Facebook, connections from a life that has led me into quite divergent spheres, that I would have no way of communicating with were it not for Facebook. I like these communications, limited though they may be, and my life would be poorer without them.
It’s always smart, though, to keep any non-promotional social media interactions to under an hour a day.
Meanwhile…
Yesterday I studied for my IRS certification and watched Sean Baker’s Anora, an absolutely brilliant film that absolutely deserves to sweep whatever awards season beleaguered Hollywood manages to pull together, but probably won’t because it contains many graphic sex scenes. It’s the tale of a short-lived marriage between a Brighton Beach stripper and the son of a Russian oligarch.
Anora is the bizarro dimension Pretty Woman. And also a road trip movie. And also a (probably inadvertent) homage to Godard’s version of the French New Wave. And also a sharply observed analysis of social classes and the immigrant experience.
I wish I had time to write a 5,000 word analysis of Anora. But, hélas! I do not.
####
But I will add that Sean Baker’s The Florida Project was one of my favorite films of a few years back. It’s also a movie about a stripper—but narrated through the POV of her six-year-old daughter, a wild child who, despite her poverty & general deprivation, manages to live a happy & exuberant life in the complexes of cheap Kissimmee motels that ring the borders of Disney World.
At the end of the film, Child Protective Services takes Moonie, the six-year-old, away from her mother. This has to happen since, as the movie viewer can clearly see, despite her bounce & comparative innocence & the fact that her mother loves her, Moonie is well on her way to becoming a psychopath.
It is heartbreaking, nonetheless.
Baker is never sentimental, and this is one of his great strengths as a filmmaker.
If Anora is Godard, The Florida Project is Truffaut: Its ending is so reminiscent of Les quatre cents coups’ ending though sans the iconic freeze-frame.
