#hatred

ramil_rodaje@diasp.org

https://vimeo.com/ondemand/feelsgoodman

Feels Good Man

Feels Good Man

When indie comic character Pepe the Frog becomes an unwitting icon of hate, his creator fights to bring Pepe back from the darkness. A Frankenstein-meets-Alice in Wonderland journey of an artist battling to regain control of his creation.

What happens when an innocent character created in an artist’s early adulthood morphs into a widely recognizable symbol of hatred only a decade later? This is the issue that underground comic book artist Matt Furie must grapple with as he seeks to reclaim his character, Pepe the Frog, from the grip of the Alt-Right.

In the early 2000s, San Francisco based artist Matt Furie shared his comic Boy’s Club on the internet via MySpace. The series followed a group of anthropomorphic post-college friends and their misadventures. Among them was Pepe the Frog, a peaceful, laid-back character. Managing to catch on as a popular meme, Furie initially found Pepe’s status funny and scoffed at the idea of enforcing his legal copyright. That opinion drastically changed as the tenor of Pepe’s use online took a sinister turn.

After a bizarre series of events, the factions of the internet that heavily imprinted on Pepe went to the extreme lengths of “ironic” bigotry to keep him under their control. In doing so, Pepe became widely recognized as a hate symbol, even gaining official recognition from the Anti-Defamation league as such. Now thoroughly wrenched from his original context, Pepe helped indoctrinate wide swaths of internet denizens to the philosophies of the then-burgeoning Alt-Right movement, helping to set the stage for the contentious 2016 election and its ultimate outcome.

The film takes viewers on a wild journey through various corners of the internet to show how far one’s creation can get away from their original intention and explores the power of symbols and iconography. If the genie cannot be put back in the bottle, can it at least be transformed into something else? Various artists, psychologists, lawyers, and internet culture analysts also share their perspective on this iconic cartoon frog.

With trippy Furie-esque animations, Feels Good Man puts forward a message of hope and positivity to combat a constant cycle of cynicism and hatred.

#FeelsGoodMan #documentary #film #animation #art #PepeTheFrog #cartoon #frog #politics #alt-right #hate #hatred #symbols #iconography #internet #MattFurie #AdamJones #GiorgiAngelini #ReadyFictions #GiantPictures #docu-films

steelnomad@diasp.org

Ukrainian Pacifists: War is a crime against humanity

On April 17, 2022, Ukrainian pacifists adopted a statement reposted here...

Ukrainian Pacifist Movement is gravely concerned about the active burning of bridges for a #peaceful #resolution of #conflict between #Russia and #Ukraine on both sides and signals of intentions to continue the #bloodshed indefinitely to achieve some sovereign ambitions.

We condemn the #Russian decision to invade Ukraine on 24 February 2022, which led to a fatal escalation and thousands of deaths, reiterating our #condemnation of the reciprocal #violations of the #ceasefire envisaged in Minsk agreements by Russian and #Ukrainian combatants in #Donbas prior to the escalation of Russian #aggression.

We condemn the mutual labeling of parties to the conflict as Nazi-alike enemies and #war criminals, stuffed into legislation, reinforced by the official #propaganda of extreme and irreconcilable #hostility. We believe that the law should build #peace, not incite war; and #history should give us examples how people can return to peaceful life, not excuses for continuing the war. We insist that accountability for crimes must be established by an independent and competent judicial body in due process of law, in result of unbiased and impartial investigation, especially in the most serious crimes, such as #genocide. We emphasize that the tragic consequences of military brutality must not be used to incite #hatred and justify new #atrocities, on the contrary, such #tragedies should cool the fighting spirit and encourage a persistent search for the most bloodless ways to end the war.

We condemn military actions on both sides, the hostilities which harm civilians. We insist that all shooting should be stopped, all sides should honor the memory of killed people and, after due grief, calmly and honestly commit to peace talks.

We condemn statements on the Russian side about the intention to achieve certain goals by military means if they cannot be achieved through #negotiations.

We condemn statements on the Ukrainian side that continuation of peace talks depends on winning the best negotiating positions at the battlefield.

We condemn the unwillingness of both sides to cease fire during the peace talks.

We condemn the practice of forcing #civilians to conduct military service, to perform military tasks and to support the army against the will of peaceful people in Russia and Ukraine. We insist that such practices, especially during hostilities, grossly violate the principle of distinction between militaries and civilians in international #humanitarian law. Any forms of contempt for the human right to conscientious objection to military service are unacceptable.

We condemn all military support provided by Russia and NATO countries for militant radicals in Ukraine provoking further escalation of the military #conflict.

We call on all peace-loving people in Ukraine and around the world to remain peace-loving people in all circumstances and to help others to be peace-loving people, to collect and disseminate knowledge about peaceful and #nonviolent way of life, to tell the #truth that unites peace-loving people, to #resist evil and #injustice without #violence, and debunk myths about necessary, beneficial, inevitable, and just war. We don’t call for any particular action now to ensure that peace plans will not be targeted by hatred and attacks of #militarists, but we are confident that #pacifists of the world have a good imagination and experience of practical realization of their best dreams. Our actions should be guided by hope for a peaceful and happy future, and not by fears. Let our peace work bring closer the future from dreams.

War is a crime against humanity. Therefore, we are determined not to support any kind of war and to strive for the removal of all causes of war.”

#CODay #peace #antiwar #pacifist #pacifism #ConscientiousObjectors #ConscientiousObjection

wist@diasp.org

A quotation by Gordon, Peter E.

[Fascism] imagines the masses not as a pluralistic citizenry but as a primal horde whose power can be awakened by playing upon atavistic feelings of hatred and belonging. Its chosen leader must exhibit strength: his refusal to compromise and readiness to attack are seen as signs of tough-mindedness, while any concern for constitutionality or the rule of law are disdained as signs of weakness. The most powerful myth, however, is that of the embattled collective. Critics are branded as traitors, while those who do not fit the criteria for inclusion are vilified as outsiders, terrorists, and criminals.

Peter E, Gordon (b. 1966) American intellectual historian

“Why Historical Analogy Matters,” New York Review of Books (7 Jan 2020)

#quotation #quote #aggression #belonging #collective #criticism #determination #fascism #hatred #leader #rule-of-law #tribalism

More notes and sourcing on WIST: https://wist.info/gordon-peter-e/48799/

hipstre@diasp.org

I am a #broken person and I have wanted to die for twenty five years. I am fundamentally #worthless. People will say that my "#negativity" is what is causing this. Which is a pointless fucking thing to say. Whatever the reason is, it doesn't matter. I am a worthless sack of #shit. I should never have been born. I have never been #happy. Everything truly gets worse year after year. I was unable to make a life worth living thirty years ago, when I was young, and I have only gotten weaker, dumber, less confident, more of a burden. The only merciful thing that can happen is if I get killed. I want it to be #painless. I cannot remember the last time I looked forward to anything. I spend the entirety of every day avoiding as many people as possible. I used to like people, but I have been in a #relationship that has taught me to truly, truly fucking hate things that I "#love". It makes no sense. Nothing makes sense. Everything is turning me into a horrible #monster day by day, and there's not a goddamn thing I can do about it. I don't even want to do anything about it. Seeing "#happy" people fucking disgusts me. Seeing #miserable people disgusts me. I have nothing but #hatred and #contempt for all of you. I don't know why I haven't killed myself. Things come up and I just go on automatic. Then something happens and I am back here. What the fuck happened in the last month (or however long it's been since I've written a #suicidenote on here) that changed anything? Nothing. It's been awful. It's been an absolutely awful month that was worse than the month before. Actually it wasn't. It was not as bad. But everything is falling apart. I hate being alive.

I went to the #dentist. I need a lot of work done. I don't see the point of it. I don't want to spend $50,000 on my teeth and then blow my fucking brains out. So my teeth get worse and worse. I had kidney stones. They hurt like hell. My bitch of a "partner" spent the entire time in the Emergency Room bitching about how this wasn't even one of the five worst things that happened to her in the last year and a half. She is an unbelievably selfish bitch in many ways. In other ways, she enables me to be the disgusting, worthless sack of human fucking garbage that I am. I deserve someone as fucking atrocious as she is. I fucking hate her. I fucking hate her so fucking much. She disgusts me. Everything disgusts me. I want #aliens to read this and take #pity on me and #vaporize me instantly in my #sleep. But it never happens. The only way out is through or over a wall of #pain that I am too #lazy to break down or climb over. So I just #persist, making everyone's life worse. If you've read this far, which you shouldn't have, I have made your life worse. You need to listen to all the feel good therapeutic #bullshit that tells you to eliminate negative people from your life. I am one of them. I am getting worse and worse. I cannot even believe that I am a worse person than I was a year ago. But here I am, getting worse and worse.

pamoyka@diasp.org

Don't get me wrong!

I am absolutely in favor of all the hoopla around #Covid-19.

In fact, I absolutely love the #lockdowns, the trampling of human rights, suspension of constitutions, wholesale slaughter of small business. Love em or hate em, but the mega-corps and their puppet govs have almost flawlessly leveraged a rather lame opportunity to implement a doctrine of terror. #Society is fracturing from within. People are afraid of each other. #Hatred is off the scale.

You might think that sucks. And maybe it does for you. But not for me!

I'm rich!

I don't need to work. although I do (in entertainment), for fun, and because I get an excuse to meet celebs. I giggled myself sick when I looked at my investment account statement. Hey, don't go thinking borders, ritualistic testing, isolating, home arrest and tracking apply when one flies private. And wow, flying is such a pleasure now. No more, "we're 27 for takeoff, behind that 747-400" choking on enough unburned kerosene to pickle a horse. Nope, it's just taxi to the button and we're off to some tropical paradise.

This covid (I don't even know what to call it, and I don't really care: charade, cover-up for some major ooops, economic reset, sociological experiment, alien invasion, bad cold, zombie apocalypse, or total cluster-fu*k) is also incredibly good for the planet! I have clients in tropical paradise, which I absolutely must visit... you know, vid-chat is so plebeian (and eavesdroppable), and seeing the reefs recover, the beaches empty, roads and abandoned resorts and hotels growing over, is heartwarming.

Whether intentional or not, the rich (I mean, those a lot richer than me) can't really get any richer. What they have been doing is extending debt to keep their production/wealth growing with the promise of "pay me later, cuz I know you can't pay me now." It's been an effective business model, but it's gotten to the point that there is no way in hell that debt means anything or has value, because it's impossible to pay it off. There's just not that much money in the known universe. So what happens? Scuze me: happened! Money became worthless, while real things haven't. Producing real tangible things means paying people with money, which is worthless, so who cares? To do something, to something real, like a resource which isn't worthless and costs the producer money, to produce something nobody needs, wants, or can afford, thus, making it and the tangible resource that went into it worthless.

What it comes down to is: it is cheaper to pay you with worthless money to sit at home and watch TV. It may just save the planet, too. Leaving it all uncrowded and fresh and green for people like me who can afford it. Something about bread and circuses comes to mind from a horribly boring history class in uni. As much as they try to make you hate your existence for needing the dole to live another day, don't let it get you. Government hand-outs are subsistence based to make you hate your life. Really, money is pretty much worthless and it wouldn't cost govs much of anything to shovel it out, except for a dangerous erosion of your self loathing, fear, paranoia and compliance. So, it's about keeping you fed, quiet, compliant, cowed in fear, and watching NetFlix. Yes, yes, yesssss, I know. The more you do, the happier the planet, and the richer my clients (and me).

Covid-19, no matter what you call it, it's just a win-win opportunity that keeps on giving!