Legacy media, partisan media, media funded by the rich is—with notable exception—animated not by a desire to expose wrongdoing or produce useful information, but to manufacture talking points, nuggets of superficially-sounding truisms and thought memes about why politics is best left to the professionals. Most “foreign policy” reporters and pundits, especially, are motivated by the creation, repetition, and dissemination of these talking points, these thought memes, these Reasons Nothing Can Change and Nothing You Do Matters.  Don’t use the word genocide—it’s not technically accurate.  And even if it is accurate, Biden is working hard to get a ceasefire anyway. And even if he’s not actually working for a ceasefire but simply renamed a “temporary pause” a “ceasefire” and still supports the vague objective of “eliminating Hamas” no matter the carnage, he can’t actually end the war anyway even if he wants to. And even if he could end the war, it’s politically bad for him to do so. Wait, no, it’s politically unimportant.  And even if it’s not politically bad or unimportant, civilian deaths have reduced anyway, so what’s the point? Also, didn’t you hear the UN “lowered the count of women and children killed in Gaza”?  Wait, they didn’t actually do this? Okay, well it’s already out there so it doesn’t matter. It feels true, it feels like the number is too high and brown people are shifty and untrustworthy.  And even if civilian deaths haven’t gone down and the UN didn’t actually lower its count, Hamas can’t remain in power anyway. This is just a pat thing to say, right? Sounds anodyne enough?  Okay, so you want Hamas to remain in power? You’re pro-Hamas? There was a ceasefire on October 6. Terrorist, terrorist, terrorist. Free the hostages. Hostages.  Ceasefire on October 6. How can Israel have a ceasefire with terrorists? Wait, it’s happened before, over a dozen times?  Look, Biden is doing all he can to broker a ceasefire which, I know I just said was impossible, and also said he was powerless to do. Unless he does it then he’s not. Look, we can’t really impact Israel, Biden is mostly a spectator, but also it’s important he and Congress send Israel another $26 billion in weapons. What about Darfur? Haiti? Tigray? These are things, no? I just googled “war crimes going on rn” and this came up and despite never mentioning them before I think we should bring them up. But the US isn’t giving these genocidal regimes billions a year in weapons? Yes, but Hamas, Terror, Hostages, Darfur, Iran, Houthis are violating maritime law.  Shocked and horrified but what they see on their social media timelines on a daily basis, and the US’s direct role in it, there’s tremendous professional incentive in our media to come in and explain away, redirect, justify, and cast doubt on the obvious conclusion that this has to stop, that it simply cannot go on. Because it won’t stop, it’s bipartisan consensus—the powers that be decided it has to go on and there’s an election to win in November. There is thus a buyer’s market, and has been for the past seven months, for reporting and opinion pieces to explain why Nothing Can Change and Nothing You Do Matters. 

Watching Bogie and Bacall in The Big Sleep makes me think that the Hays Code was good, actually, because the two of them sitting in public, fully clothed and not touching each other while they talk about horse racing is hornier than any explicit sex scene ever could be (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JxaHqBvbzB8)

Lauren Bacall vs Diahann Carroll

I needed a break from drawing Phosphor so I decided to draw some of the other contestants! I'll maybe/probably draw some of the others later, but these three are the ones that caught my brain at the moment XD

starting wiiiith Fecto Flora from @ceoofmetagala !

I had fun drawing them! I really like drawing the Fectos, and he just looks so cute! anyway def go vote for Flora, 10/10 very adorable!

and of course I couldn't forget Sir Uther and Valfrey from @quanblovk and @gethoce ! the relation between these two amuses me greatly, and they both deserve a vote! ...maybe? everyone keeps saying not to vote uther, but I already voted for him and its just leaving me confused LMAO

Either way very nice designs, especially love Valfrey's! and good luck to everyone in the tournament! :3

@kirbyoctournament

right now it’s almost halfway through 2023, and 2024 is an election year in the US. I have started to see a growing proliferation of posts suggesting that there is no difference between the republican and democratic parties--the exact same kind of posts I saw an awful lot of before the last major election here. I am unfollowing folks who post or reblog these sort of posts, as I consider these posts to be fascist propaganda framed as leftist discourse, designed to suppress anti-fascist votes and voters. 

In the WEST BANK. NOT Gaza. I don’t see the world crying for them.

People literally calling the Public Domain a graveyard have no clue what they're talking about. Without the Public Domain, most of your beloved childhood Disney movies literally would not have been made, because they are literally based on stories that were in the Public Domain.

Please unlearn capitalistic propaganda before you go saying things like "the public domain is the graveyard of ideas". Literally the only people that benefits are giant corporations like Disney who don't want you using the Public Domain like they have been this whole damn time.

Another way all of these struggles are connected, is the way media decides to automatically exonerate the perpetrators.

It is clear as day, how corporate US media decides to be complicit in the normalization of violence by deciding how it wants to cover things. The bias is in the headlines, and these are just two specific examples.

There is no way that these companies should be getting away with this. There needs to be groups of people to hold a fire to them. If nothing is done, fascists will continue to openly define how events are perceived by the general public in media.

Sponsored genocide denial.

What stage of fucked is this exactly?

Clipping from The 15 Association's August 1985 newsletter.

I do a lil sketch everyday and back in September I dedicated the entire month to Audrey Hepburn in Roman Holiday (it was the 60th anniversary) the sketches vary in accuracy imo like some I love and some I'm like ok sure. Then I did a whole month of classic film couples in February (a struggle cause I can't draw men) so there is a bonus Greg and Audrey. I've been totally influenced by this poll as the sketches have been leaning towards hot Hollywood ladies recently

Audrey Hepburn vs Eartha Kitt

Stupid israeli propaganda

April 28, 2024 - An unintentionally funny video by a zionist propagandist shows off some good organisation and discipline at the UCLA encampment for Palestine.

Watch out for a wave of Zionist disinformation and propaganda:

A billionaire real estate tycoon in the United States is rallying support for a high-dollar media crusade to boost Israel’s image and demonise the Hamas armed group amid global pro-Palestinian solidarity protests. The media campaign — called Facts for Peace — is seeking million-dollar donations from dozens of the world’s biggest names in media, finance and technology, according to an email seen by news website Semafor. More than 50 individuals are being courted, including former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, Dell CEO Michael Dell and financier Michael Milken. They have a combined net worth of around $500bn, Semafor said. Some of the individuals, such as investor Bill Ackman, have publicly threatened to blacklist pro-Palestine students who are critical of Israel. On October 10, Ackman wrote on X, formerly Twitter, that he and other business executives wanted Ivy League universities to disclose the names of students who are part of organisations that signed open letters criticising Israeli policies in Gaza.

[...]

Facts For Peace, the media campaign launched by Sternlicht, aims to win back public favour for Israel, posting videos on its social media pages blaming Hamas for the plight of Palestinians and denying claims of Israeli rights violations. The most recent video posted on its Facebook page argues that “Israel is not an apartheid state”. This contradicts findings from Palestinian, Israeli and international rights experts, including from the United Nations, that Israel is practising apartheid through its “deeply discriminatory dual legal and political system” in the occupied territories.

To the people who follow me, you’ll recall I predicted they would suddenly release images of dead unidentified bodies and claim it was from October 7th (which they for some reason decided to not release until 45 days later? Like they could at least try and be smart about it) and I made that prediction right after Palestinians started saying that the Israelis stole Palestinian bodies. Israel certainly doesn’t disappoint when it comes to their lies and propaganda.