And Now You Know What "Death Of The Author" Means And Why It Does Not Apply.

With the current news about the antisemitic fuckhead known as Kanye West trending, I have been seeing people say "death of the author" in response to if it's alright to continue listening to his music

Let me be brutally clear: death of the author does not mean what you think it means

"Death Of The Author" specifically is in reference to the theory that a creator can not put meaning behind work, but instead only create something through THEIR EXPERIENCES AND BIASES (this is important) and let the audience put meaning onto it themselves, because art is subjective.

So when you create something, you are putting pieces of yourself into the work you create, since humans are silly creatures who tend to think within the scope of their own life and experiences. He has put pieces of his rotten way of thinking into everything he has touched, and unfortunately he makes money off every single click or stream of his music. When you support his music, even the old stuff, you are literally giving money to the things he's saying. Past and present.

Death Of The Author is NOT

Enjoying things regardless of who made them

Ignoring the implications within a creative work simply because you like it and do not want to feel bad about liking it

Completely disregarding entire communities of people who's very existences are at risk just so you don't have to acknowledge your own inner problems such as racism, ableism, homophobia, etc

"But Weems," I hear you cry, "Kanye wasn't saying these things when he made this music!"

No you're right, he wasn't always mentally unstable and quite literally spewing Nazi rhetoric openly, but for the past decade, he's been getting to this point and he ABSOLUTELY has been showing signs of megalomaniac tendencies ("I told you who I am! A God!").

Again, if you're giving him any attention right now through his music, you're literally paying him to continue to act like this. Even if you pirate it or have had it for awhile, that includes you types before you say "but what about-"

Honestly I don't think his music is even worth potentially labeling yourself a Nazi-sympathizer.

And now you know what "Death Of The Author" means and why it does not apply.

So start correcting people and shutting down the idea that we can still consume products or creative works made by people who want to commit genocide when their bigotry is literally engraved into the work they've put out.

Support your local Jewish and Romani creators.

Have a nice day

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2 years ago

here's some advice for people new to tumblr i haven't seen around our parts yet... a very, very common current scam on this site to get some money out of folks is as follows:

You receive a message like the below, asking for a signal boost for a donation post pinned on their page; this is almost always for a pet.

You check their page and it all looks legit. They have an icon/pfp, a bunch of reblogs rather than an empty blog, the pinned post has candid cat/dog/etc photos that look convincing, and there's a link to a normal looking gofundme in a lot of cases, with similarly realistic photos. They didn't even ask you to publish the ask specifically, they just want you to consider reblogging.

…but if you scroll down far enough, it turns out there's only like a week worth of random reblogs, no real other posts and no interaction with anyone else on the site. Which isn't in and of itself an issue- everyone joins Tumblr at SOME point- but maybe a red flag?

Inevitably, when you reverse image search the pet photos, they were nabbed off instagram or facebook or twitter or something. It's a scam.

I was getting 2-3 of these a week at one point, and all of them were convincing, probably because I doubt any of them were bots. this is a really common scam but not nearly as easily spotted as obviously automated phishing attempts; don't publish or donate to these. they're hoping your sense of sympathy, generosity and even guilt will override your suspicion at a rando asking you for money. delete 'em.

i just bring this up because i'm seeing a couple people in tf fandom getting these asks and going 'hey, signal boost!!!'' and while it's a very kind impulse... yeah, it's overwhelmingly scams, folks. sorry.

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gendhb

1 year ago

just a reminder - do NOT boycott streaming services or not watch new things. the unions have not called for one for a reason. for one, it affects residual payments, which as minimal as those currently are, actors are still getting them during this time, and for two, studios will use lack of viewership as an excuse to cancel shows because you are showing them there is no demand. it deeply affects the industry the writers and actors stand to come back to once the strike is over

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gendhb

2 years ago

Reposting this because I’m seeing people not having realized this is a thing.

FTF will be available for free in the US after the west coast slot finishes airing. If you don’t have cable you can watch it on YT for free

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gendhb

2 years ago

sorry, but kanye shouldn’t have to verbally confirm to everyone that “yes, i literally am a for-real nazi” for people to get the message.

it shouldn’t have been allowed to get this far in terms of public platforming. we knew he was a nazi. we didn’t need to give him constant platforming for two months in order for him to “explain himself”. when someone espouses antisemitic conspiracy, BHI extremist beliefs, and holocaust denial/revisionism, they are a nazi.

if kanye hadn’t literally labeled himself a nazi, there would still be millions of people arguing that he isn’t one— despite the fact that he believes almost every core tenet of modern nazism.

the only thing this platforming has succeeded in is spreading antisemitic conspiracy theories to a whole new audience (not to mention dragging nick fuentes and milo yiannopoulos back into the mainstream). the level of normalization and indifference towards these kinds of beliefs on public platforms is terrifying.

this is what happens when people are too scared to call a spade, a spade.

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