pop culture
The headline rundown: Modern popular culture topics in the realm of politics, legislation and activism.
Patreon - A Study In Pussification
Pussification: the state in which a society becomes less and less tough[i] When the comedian George Carlin used the term pussification[ii] he was referring to the introduction of Harley Davidson themed restaurants and the evidence they provided that the tough brand had sold out to the soft world of weekend motorcyclists. It was a sign that the brand was no longer about “grimy outlaws and their sweaty mamma’s” but had prettied itself up to cater for “pussy boy software designers.” He laments the downfall of the Harley Davidson brand and the promise into fraud and meaningless. There is no better word than to use to describe the recent experience of Patreon. Welcome to the world of Patreon’s pussification.
Belinda TobinPublished 6 months ago in The Swamp
Kardashians Are Removing Their Butt Implants, but Why Should Anyone Care?
Rumour has it that the Kardashian clan have finally removed their BBL's. If you've been living under a rock and don't know what that means, BBL - short for Brazilian Butt Lift - is a fat transfer operation that helps create a Kardashian-worthy bum.
Katie JglnPublished 6 months ago in The Swamp
Whose 'War On Christmas' Is It, Anyway?
I live in Canada, more specifically in ridiculously multicultural Toronto. In this city we speak over 140 languages. You don't know how exhausting it is to learn them all when you move here!
Nicole ChardenetPublished 8 months ago in The Swamp
"A Turtle on A Fence Post"
The stories title comes from one of Bill Clinton's favorite expressions: "when you see a turtle on a fence post, you know it didn't get there by itself. It doesn't belong there. You wonder who put it there". The show is inspired by fictionalized events of Hank Morris, a democratic strategist for people like: Chuck Schumer and Diane Feinstein; his time in prison at the hands of former Governor Andrew Cuomo.
robert massimiPublished 9 months ago in The Swamp
White Noise Review
Pulitzer Prize-winning Playwright Suzan-Lori Parks unleashes an earthquake in order to erase the surface and reveal what lies beneath Liberal Society.
Evie SmithPublished 10 months ago in The SwampPropaganda and the Political Cartoon
A good case can be made that the political cartoon, by its very nature, is a form of propaganda. This is not necessarily a bad thing, though propaganda as generally understood has negative connotations. René Welleck in his Theory of Literature argues that
Marco den OudenPublished 10 months ago in The Swamp
Bay of Pigs
When John F. Kennedy became President of the United States on January 20, 1961, he inherited every policy decision that Eisenhower had yet to carry out. (1) One of these was the planned invasion of Cuba to depose Fidel Castro and the 26th of July Movement. The Central Intelligence Agency had recruited and trained Cuban exiles to conduct the invasion. The operation became known as the Bay of Pigs Invasion after the point that the Cuban exiles made their landing. The planning of the invasion began with the 1959 defeat of Fulgencio Batista, the former president of Cuba. The CIA believed that the use of Cuban exiles would work because of their perceived success in the 1954 coup against President Jacobo Arbenz of Guatemala. In the 1954 coup against Arbenz, the CIA had used disgruntled Guatemalan military officers and Agency provided air support to aid in the coup. In the Bay of Pigs, there would be no such saving graces. The air and artillery support the US promised was either canceled or so delayed that Castro's forces easily repelled the invading forces. Additionally, the CIA had no understanding of the environment in which they were operating. In Guatemala, there had been differing factions to exploit within Arbenz's government. In 1961 Cuba there were no such factions left on the island. This was due to any that had opposed the 26th of July Movement fleeing the island in the wake of losing their benefactor. This meant that the invaders had no support to meet them once they arrived. This led to the spectacular failure that is now associated with the Bay of Pigs. By 1961, the CIA had grown confident enough in its abilities to conduct such an operation. However, they operated with undeserved confidence, as they had not learned how to conduct such operations in hostile nations. It is by looking at the CIA's overconfidence in their ability to pull off the Bay of Pigs Invasion that we see how Fidel Castro and the Cuban government were able to assert their sovereignty, and become a regional power despite the lopsided odds stacked against them.
Atomic HistorianPublished 11 months ago in The Swamp
Away with ‘Vulgar Influencers’! No More ‘Lapsed Morals!’
Online video games? Bad! TV talent competitions? Bad! Welcome to the new China — which kind of looks like the old China, only more so.
Hamish AlexanderPublished 12 months ago in The SwampThe Pandemic
The Ted Talk video that I watched stated that we are no longer in a health crisis. Instead, they claimed we are purely in a financial crisis now. I am torn between both of these statements because I can see both sides of it. I have a compromised immune system, which puts me in a higher risk category relating to Covid-19, therefore, of course it is still a health crisis to me. However, the pandemic lockdowns have affected my finances, just as it has many other people, so I see that side of the story as well. There is another crisis that the pandemic has caused, which is not talked about much in the media, which is the mental health struggles.
Emily OBrienPublished about a year ago in The SwampMany millennials are worse off than their parents
Millennials (born in the 1980s and mid-1990s) are followed by Generation Z (“zoomers” born in the late 1990s and early 2010s) into adulthood. These two generations are the most numerous in the world (and in the last few years, the zoomers have begun to dominate the global population). And in comparison with the previous age cohorts, they turned out to be the “losers”.
Mohamed EL DEIBPublished about a year ago in The Swamp
Why the Oscar Ratings Keep Tanking
I chose not to watch the Oscars last night. The thought of being lectured by "woke" Hollywood elites churns my stomach, and so I watched two West Coast Baseball teams duke it out on the diamond. As a Midwesterner, that's incredibly uncommon, but desperate times call for desperate measures. In fact, had Olympic Curling been on, I'd chosen that over the virtue signaling actors at the podium last night. Many Americans must feel the same as I. Last night, less than 10 million viewers tuned in, a 58% drop from last year. Sadly, those living in Hollywood's Ivory Towers fail to comprehend why we the peasants turn up their noses on the film industry's special night. For many of us, the reasons are obvious.
Why Are Natural Ethnic Features Only Trendy On White People?
For a long time now natural ethnic features have been looked down on by society, often being described as undesirable. Bipoc have faced tremendous amounts of ridicule and discrimination towards features that they were born with. Despite this, there have been two instances that stand out to me, that show society accrediting non-people of colour for their transformation of these features as a new aesthetic and standard of beauty.
Petiri IraPublished about a year ago in The Swamp
