There are many villains in Gerard Bush and Christopher Renzs feature debut Antebellum, but none quite as vivid as Jena Malones nefarious plantation owner Elizabeth. A nasty piece of work in her own right, the character also emblematizes the forces of oppression that power the films narrative. Built upon a consciously convoluted timeline, complete with editing misdirection and a chopped-up storyline, Antebellum follows Janelle Mone as both successful modern author Veronica Henley and antebellum-era slave Eden, presenting the wholly different experiences of two Black women, until the film mashes them together in unpredictable ways.

Suffice to say that Veronica and Eden intersect (to get into deeper detail would spoil the film), and while they are bonded by a litany of shared problems, none feel as immediate as the evil Elizabeth. Its the kind of role that seems scary for a performer: Not only is shesuch a monster, but Antebellum also doesnt shy from inserting that monster into the current culture. The racist ideology of a late-18th century plantation mistress is here and now, and as terrifying as ever.

For Malone, who has been acting since she was a child and has resisted easy classifications as a performer, any fear is only a good thing. Ive never been the type of person to be really scared of characters that arent easy to bring to life, I guess, is the nicest way [to put it], Malone said in a recent interview with IndieWire. That whole spectrum of villain-hood, things that are not easy to like, not easy to understand, those things never terrified me.

Malone said she regards fear as existing on its own spectrum. On the larger end of the spectrum of fear, it sort of renders you immobile, it can debilitate your choices, and you dont really have much room to move, she said. The actress prefers to live where things are more exciting than scary, where she can really dig into her characters, which is how she felt about Antebellum.

I felt some weird obligation to step in there and be like, Now, lets just wait. Hold your horses. Lets see who this person is. Yes, theyre a villain, but lets see what motivates them. Lets see what scares them, lets see how generational trauma affects them as well,' the actress said. They interest me more than anything, because I feel like theres some sort of public duty of understanding those types of stories, because I think that they get pushed to the side of just, Well, thats a villain.'

She said it wasnt difficult to find inspiration for Elizabeth. Malone said that Renz and Bush gave her a few names of women that exist today that live in the sort of alt-right world of whatever, and I just started watching some interviews and getting to know more of their ideology. While she didnt cite her inspirations by name, she admits that she didnt have to get too far with it.

I found that every one minute I watched or read about, it became an amplification, and I felt like I had watched something for 10 hours, Malone said. I didnt do too much intense research, because oddly, you dont really have to research that type of person to be aware of who they are, because me, as a 35-year-old cis white woman has been affected by that type of person my entire life.

The filmmakers, Malone said, also outfitted her with nonfiction books about slave owners, but she boned up on her history by watching classic films about the era, including Gone with the Wind. Antebellum DP Pedro Luque Briozzo even shot portions of the film using lenses from Victor Flemings 1939 epic, itself recently the subject of controversy involving its depiction of slavery.

Re-watching really old films pre-sort of any giant social justice movement, but particularly since #MeToo its very hard for me now, Malone said. Its a completely different lens. So when I watched Gone with the Wind, I couldnt believe how racist and wildly sexist it was. It was a hard time.

She continued, I dont think I fully finished it, but I did sit with it, because I was like, I want to know about these sweeping shots that theyre talking about. Its shot incredibly, theres a lot of really beautiful things, theres some really beautiful acting. I understand it was a feat for its time, but it doesnt make it any less hard to watch, because of the championing of oppression that youre witnessing.

Malone said she also interrogated her personal experience and her own familys history to further craft Elizabeth. For her, it wasnt just necessary for the role, but for the greater reckoning that is taking hold in Hollywood and beyond.

If Im not using my generational knowledge of oppression, to be able to paint this portrait, my personal experience with that, then I might have been hired for the wrong reason, Malone said. I felt like it was important to bring that sort of personal understanding of it, because this is what we should be doing now. I need to portray my grandparents, my grandmother, and my great-great grandmother. Its going to be a lot of hard work, work thats not going to feel very nice, but its really necessary to break the cycle of systemic oppression and also generational trauma.

Lionsgate

A movie like Antebellum, she said, speaks to that need, and she hopes that audiences will be open to its messages. Whats interesting is the Black experience has never changed; its just our white awareness which is shifting, Malone said. Its really amazing to be presenting a film where white awareness is changing. The villain is a white supremacist. Youre openly cheering for harm to come to said white supremacist: Its that type of popcorn movie.

She expects that the film might be difficult for some white audiences, though not necessarily for the reasons most would expect upon hearing its plotline. Beyond its blunt messaging about the legacy of racism in Amerca, Antebellum offers another perspective on the Black experience that many white viewers might not be used to seeing on screen.

This is a hard film to kind of watch for white people, she said. Not like in like a, Oh, be fragile with me type of way, but I just dont think that people are used to seeing these types of characters. And to be fair, weve never really been given the opportunity to see the fullness of Black experience, just what it is to be Black and thriving. Janelle Mones character is so beautiful, and we get to see her home life and her love life and work life balance, having a career and girlfriends and sexuality. Theres nothing that this character doesnt get, which I think is really rare.

The film was set for a pre-pandemic theatrical release before Lionsgate moved it to premium VOD.Malone isnt worried that Antebellum wont find an audience.

The experience of seeing a film [in a theater] is so cool, but I just think that for me, the films that Ive been most touched by were never the films that [I saw in a theater], they were always the ones that I found in a closet, or rented at Blockbuster, or just found somehow, she said. Nothings perfect, so Im not too concerned. I feel like the shelf life of a film is eternal. It comes out, and people see it or not, but it lives on this golden shelf of filmmaking, and then anyone at anytime at any place can watch it.

Malone admits that telling people Im playing a white supremacist inevitably sparks a reaction, but she fixes on the power that can come from the film.

People would be like, Are you scared? Are you okay?' she said. That was kind of when I let the fear get into my throat a little bit, but now we are in this sort of amazing reckoning, this awakening, and there couldnt be a better time for this film to come out. Im not afraid at all.

Lionsgate will release Antebellum on VOD on Friday, September 18.

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Antebellum: Jena Malone Used the Alt-Right and Gone with the Wind to Inspire Her White Supremacist Villain - IndieWire

The British Hand has one deeply ineloquent goal: To get rid of Islam and those little BLM f---ers.

Using Instagram and Telegram, a multi-platform messaging service where secret chats are protected by end-to-end encryption and self-destruct timers, the neo-Nazi group has been able to spread their message and make threats, like a recent plan, shared with its more than 1,000 followers, to attack the Dover coast where every Muslim and refugee has been given safety.

Their poster boys are Anders Breivik, who murdered 77 people in Norway in 2011, and Brenton Tarrant, who last year massacred 51 worshippers at mosques in New Zealand. One member has even named his pet hamster after Tarrant.

Because the leader of the British Hand, I should have said, is 15 years old.

Instagram may have shut down this Derby schoolboys account at the weekend, but the British Hands official account has been shut down before, only to pop up again in different guises.

Theres a growing appetitefor online neo-Nazi hate, you see, and - according to a new report by anti-fascism campaigners, Hope Not Hate - many of those being groomed for the white supremacist cause are as young as 12. The reports revelations are shocking, but not surprising. Why is that? Is it because over the past year, weve seen a growing number of similar cases in the news?

The 17-year-old boy jailed back in January after being found guilty of planning a neo-Nazi terrorist attack in Durham; 23-year-old Alice Cutter, from West Yorkshire, jailed in June after posing for a Miss Hitler competition run by the banned group, National Action; the 13-year-old who casually told another Telegram group that he wanted gays to kill themselves.

After all, we know that these neo-Nazi groups overlap with similar online organisations using the same secret language to promote hate against the LGBT community and women.

We know that hate breeds hate. Or is it because many parents have secretly glimpsed a watered-down version of that hate and intolerance in their own children?

Because of the generation of baby Breitbarts - named after the online alt-Right news network that helped propel co-founder Steve Bannon into Donald Trumps White House - that is rising up against a censorship they feel has been imposed upon them at school, college and university, where PC dogma now often threatens to eclipse traditional subjects; at home, with their ferociously liberal parents; and in a mainstream media that seems to want them to admit their unconscious bias and atone for the sin of being born white and privileged by self-flagellating ad infinitum?

Clamp your hand over someones mouth every time they speak, and what finally emerges is a howl of rage. Ive been privy to some of those whispered conversations among parents, and heard mothers and fathers express their horror at the casual racisms and sexisms that are suddenly deemed acceptable both in verbal and online chats among the young.

Pick them up on it, and youre branded an SJW (social justice warrior), says one mother. Because that, for them, is now an insult.

Through her work discussing gender equality, sexual violence and consent in British schools, the feminist author Laura Bates says she has started to experience fierce and angry resistance over the past two years from boys. Especially white ones, she wrote earlier this month; they claimed they were the real victims in society, refusing to believe accusations of rape from women, repeating false statistics, and refusing to accept the facts. They already knew, she points out, that feminazis are out to destroy men.

These vicious baby Breitbart ideologies arent excusable, but they are explainable, and as a knee-jerk reaction to the illiberal liberalism the young as well as the old have felt increasingly imprisoned by, this is all depressingly predictable.

For years, I have derided woke culture in this column and with friends, because the idea that Baby, Its Cold Outside promotes date rape, that non-Chinese people shouldnt be allowed to cook Chinese food and that being obese is healthy was laughable to me. But over the past few months the laughter has stopped. The readers who write to me dont see any humour in the word women being banned and replaced by people who menstruate.

None of my friends were amused by news reports earlier this month that a cheese shop in Paris was vandalised by militant vegan activists, who spray-painted the words farmers = rapists across its window. These extreme, intolerant stances arent funny, but dangerous.

Theyre the reason Trump is not only in office but, at a rally in Nevada on Saturday, assured his supporters that he would negotiate a third term in the White House in 2024 because hes entitled to it. Theyre the reason extreme Right-wing hate is springing up like poisonous weeds online, and young people are seeing value in that poison.

Theyre also the reason Helen Pluckrose and James Lindsays brilliant new book, Cynical Theories: How Activist Scholarship Made Everything About Race, Gender and Identity and Why This Harms Everybody, became an immediate bestseller when it was published in the US last month.

Because by arguing that bad ideas cannot be defeated by being repressed, but instead need to be engaged and defeated within the marketplace of ideas, so that they may die a natural death and be rightly recognised as defunct, the authors have summed up everything thats wrong with extreme wokery. Its just another brand of hate.

Read Celia Walden every Monday at telegraph.co.uk, from 7pm

Continue reading here:

Is 'wokism' creating an army of alt-Right teens? If so, the results will be terrifying - Telegraph.co.uk

The Proud Boys, an alt-right group, will potentially hold a rally in West Philadelphia this weekend, drawing concerns from the area's City Councilwoman and triggering planned counter-protests.

A digital flyer circulating online is advertising that the "Philadelphia Proud Boys" will gather at Clark Park at 43rd Street and Baltimore Avenue at 1 p.m. on Saturday. There is no contact information listed on the flyer.

The group, according to the digital flyer, called on All Patriots to gather in the belly of the beat to demand an end to Antifa Terrorism."

The flyer contained no phone numbers, emails or other contact information. The Philadelphia Proud Boys group did not immediately return an email seeking comment.

Councilwoman Jamie Gauthier, who represents District 3 where the park is located, said in a tweet that her office has received a high volume of calls for a rally in Clark Park on Saturday being promoted by a known white nationalist hate group, but did not mention the group.

Gauthier said the group selected the location and time in order to maximize tensions and create a spectacle. She condemned the unnamed organization and its "plans to bring this outright hatred to West Philly.

Guathier called on residents in her district to remain safe and peaceful.

Responding to this hate group with force only gives them legitimacy and power, Guathier said.

City spokeswoman Kelly Cofrancisco said the Kenney administration is aware of the gathering.

The Philadelphia police will provide additional officers from its civil affairs unit and other resources to the area in "preparation for possible protest activity," Cofrancisco said.

The Proud Boys are self-described Western chauvinists group and identified as a general hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Although the group denies any connection to the racist alt-right, they regularly spout white nationalist memes, maintain affiliations with known extremists, and are known for anti-Muslim and misogynistic rhetoric, according to the Souther Poverty Law Center.

Antifa is described as a broad, community-based movement composed of individuals organizing against racial and economic injustice by the Southern Poverty Law Center. Those who identify as Antifa represent a large spectrum of the political left.

Counter-protests are planned to confront the potential Proud Boys rally, says Daryle Lamont Jenkins, founder of the anti-facist organization One Peoples Project.

Jenkins said he was helping to organize a counter-rally made up of West Philadelphia residents and self-identified members of antifa, short for anti-fascist, on Saturday.

Jenkins, of New Brunswick, New Jersey, said counter-protesters were looking to peacefully protest and speak out against the hate-mongering of the Proud Boys and hate politics.

I dont think theyre going to get the fight that they want because no one wants that fight in their neighborhood, Jenkins said. Nobody thats coming to this rally is looking for that.

Additional unaffiliated groups and organizations were expected to join Saturdays counter-protests too, Jenkins said.

Its gotten bigger than us which is what we expected, Jenkins said, adding, This neighborhood is a cross-section of Philadelphia, to be honest, and theyre all coming out.

The Food Trust pushed back the hours of its weekly farmers market at Clark Park on Saturday to 9 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. "in anticipation of a known hate groups planned rally," according to a social media posting from the nonprofit.

The park has served as the monthly location for the Uhuru Flea Market for more than a dozen years. Uhurus fall book fair also was planned for Saturday, but was relocated due to the novel coronavirus pandemic.

Tiffany Murphy, coordinator for Uhuru Flea Markets, said she heard about the potential rally and believed it was a scare tactic aimed at intimidating the Black community.

Theyre putting themselves forth with the hope that we, as the Black community, will not continue to organize, will not continue to speak against oppression, will not continue to speak against inequities, Murphy said. But it's just not going to happen.

Jenkins said members of the Philadelphia Proud Boys were advertising this months rally on social media and online messaging boards for the past two weeks but questioned whether that the Proud Boys will actually show up.

Jenkins noted another group calling itself Italian American Patriots has reportedly planned to hold a rally at Clark Park around 11 a.m. before the anticipated Proud Boys gathering. He was not sure if the groups were affiliated.

The Proud Boys have been spotted at rallies in Philadelphia in recent months. A group of self-identified Proud Boys mingled with Philadelphia police officers inside the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 5s headquarters after a visit from Vice President Mike Pence, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer. The police union maintained it had not invited them.

Continued here:

Proud Boys reportedly planning rally in West Philadelphia this weekend - The Philadelphia Tribune

All of which goes to show just how powerful invisible poster shorthand can be the design choices, colour schemes and typefaces that make us subliminally categorise a film as something we might like, or not, long before we discover anything about it. The design of the Cuties image invokes those grim pre-pubescent beauty pageants, but also contemporary dance films such as the Step Up series, in which the dancers physicality and, lets be honest, bodies are a major part of the draw.

These in turn hark back to the promotional imagery for 1980s classics such as Dirty Dancing, Flashdance and Footloose: its a way of stirring up a certain longstanding craving in prospective viewers, and then suggesting this new film can satisfy it. (Again, you can see where the yuck sensation comes from.) There are similar trends all over the marketplace: orange and blue colour schemes for stylish action films; large, red, jolly fonts for wacky lowbrow comedies; couples leaning against each other for rom-coms with a battle-of-the-sexes element; two people on a bench for a twist-of-fate romance; a hero (or anti-hero) with his back turned to the camera for blockbuster grit; and so on.

In early 2013, Peter Stricklands experimental horror film Berberian Sound Studio was released on DVD and Blu-ray with two different covers. One was on the Artificial Eye arthouse label, which reflected the tone of the film perfectly with unsettling, Man Ray-like imagery of star Toby Joness head being deconstructed to reveal a staring woman inside. The other was for Asda, which positioned it as a kind of Saw knock-off: a black and white image of a screaming girl, no sign of Jones at all beyond a pair of disembodied eyes, the title in a blood-splattered industrial carnage-style font, and the tagline Terror inhabits the scream.

Original post:

What the Cuties controversy teaches Hollywood - get the poster right - Telegraph.co.uk

For four years, my family has been great friends with the family next door. Their kids are the same age as ours, I became close with the mother, our husbands even work together. But during quarantine, my friend started sharing conspiracy theories about the trafficking of children. She believes PizzaGate is real and that Hollywood celebrities sacrifice children to drink their blood. Ive tried to explain the alt-right origins of QAnon falsehoods. Still, in every conversation, she says something like, I wont shop at Wayfair. They traffic children inside storage units. Ive asked her nicely to stop talking about conspiracy theories with me, but she wont. How do we move on from this?

FRIEND

For years, Ive advised readers to talk it out. Whether its the mundane absence of a thank-you note or the highly charged presence of a Confederate flag, a calm and humble approach one friend to another is nearly always worth it. We may not persuade anyone in this dangerous age of so-called alternative facts, but were truly sunk when we stop trying.

You say youve tried (and failed) to disabuse your friend about QAnon and its lurid stories of blood lust and child trafficking. So, try listening. Ask her to walk you through the proof of her allegations. Perhaps you can help her see (gently) that she believes these dangerous lies because she wants to not because she has any evidence for them.

Now, Ill be the first to admit that persuading your friend is unlikely; the ideas she has clung to reflect a distinct lack of interest in seeking out factual information. And youre not in charge of her beliefs. If you dont make progress with her (or with her husband, if that feels appropriate), back away from the friendship for now. Trying to salvage a relationship is worth it. Battering your head against a brick wall is not.

Before the pandemic, we had a housekeeper come to our apartment twice a month. Weve continued to pay her because it felt cruel to cut her income while ours stayed the same. But now it seems as if Ill be working remotely for good. To burn off nervous energy, I clean the apartment every day. Its never been cleaner! And I would feel uncomfortable having the housekeeper here, while I work and my kids go to school remotely. At what point should I stop paying her?

DAD

Ive been touched (and surprised, frankly) by the many readers whove reported paying their housekeepers, landscapers and babysitters through the pandemic, even though they were unable to work. (Youd be surprised, too, if you got as many letters as I do from people who fume about splitting checks when the other guy orders an extra glass of wine.)

I applaud your generosity. Going forward, give your housekeeper plenty of notice if she believes shes coming back to work for you. Call her and tell her youre planning to clean your apartment yourself, but you dont want to leave her in the lurch. Depending on her workload and your relationship, consider paying her for another month or two while she tries to replace your gig.

I write short stories. Many of them are personal and based on real-life experiences. Ive been publishing in literary journals for over a decade, confident that 99 percent of my acquaintances will never read a word. But now, a collection of my stories is being published as a book. The publisher has excerpted a revealing story about an ex on the books web page. This increases the chance that my ex and others will become aware of what Ive written. Should I give the people involved a heads up?

ANONYMOUS

Congratulations on your book! If I understand correctly, youve been publishing fictionalized memoir for years and have no regrets about it. If youre like many writers, in fact, your work is urgent and important to you. So, who cares if the books web page makes it (slightly) more likely to be seen by those whove inspired you?

Writing is your art! Youre welcome to show advance copies to anyone you like. But if you havent for the last 10 years, why start now? Do you think Anna Wintours former assistant gave her a heads up before she published The Devil Wears Prada?

Is it OK to tell white people they are not native? I follow the Twitter account of a white woman who calls herself a native Oaklander. But it is the Ohlone people who are native to Oakland, and this woman claims no ties to the Ohlone. Wouldnt it be better to say, born and raised in Oakland, without the appropriation?

MEGAN

Being careful about the words we use to describe racial and ethnic groups is important. The term Native American became popular in the 20th century; Native and Indigenous have also grown in usage and should be deployed according to a persons or groups preferences.

Lowercase native, a centuries-old descriptor of people or plants that hail from a particular place, only refers to geography. So while I understand what youre saying, I think there are bigger battles to fight.

For help with your awkward situation, send a question to SocialQ@nytimes.com, to Philip Galanes on Facebook or @SocialQPhilip on Twitter.

Originally posted here:

What Can I Say to the QAnon Mom Next Door? - The New York Times

Just as the global death toll from COVID-19 reached 250,000 at the start of May this year, a short film emerged that has since been called the first true hit conspiracy video of the COVID-19 era. Titled Plandemic, it featured a lengthy interview with the discredited scientist Judy Mikovits, who falsely argued that the COVID death tolls were being exaggerated to pave the way for a large-scale vaccination programme.

Allegedly orchestrated by big pharma companies in conjunction with Bill Gates, this scheme would supposedly kill millions in the name of generating profit. The video was removed from Facebook and YouTube where it had been shared, but not before it was watched an estimated 8 million times.

The perceived danger of an eventual vaccination programme has been one of the most concerning and far-reaching of coronavirus conspiracy narratives. But it has also been linked to attempts by the far right to exploit the pandemic to promote its extreme ideology.

Similar conspiracies are prevalent within far-right social media circles, but many of them degenerate into overt antisemitism, with claims the virus is a hoax engineered by Jewish elites intent on implementing a vaccine either for profit or to eradicate the white race. One journalist warned that the Plandemic video may be the first step in introducing new audiences into the depths of the far-right abyss.

By playing on peoples health fears in such ways, the far right is hoping to normalise its views and make those of the political mainstream seem inadequate when it comes to explaining or resolving the crisis. And its possible that the pandemic may be increasing public awareness of and even participation in extremist discourse.

A recent report from the United Nations Security Council warns that extreme right-wing groups and individuals in the US have sought to exploit the pandemic to radicalize, recruit, and inspire plots and attacks. This sentiment is echoed in a note from the Council of the European Union, which warns that it is highly likely right-wing extremists are now capitalising on the corona crisis more than on any other issue. It adds that this focus may have led to an expansion in target selection, with sites like hospitals being viewed as legitimate targets for large-scale attacks.

The far rights focus on coronavirus has been reflected across social media. One recent report showed that between January and April 2020, hundreds of thousands of far-right posts about coronavirus were made to public Facebook groups. Meanwhile, conspiratorial narratives relating to elites a staple of far-right discourse steadily increased from mid-March.

Similarly, far-right groups on the encrypted messaging app Telegram have set up a range of channels dedicated specifically to the discussion of coronavirus, often amplifying disinformation. In March, Telegram channels associated with white supremacy and racism attracted an influx of over 6,000 users, with one channel, dedicated to the discussion of coronavirus, growing its user base by 800%.

One of the key ways the far right is doing this is by taking advantage of the staggering extent of misinformation and conspiracy theories surrounding the virus. The plandemic narrative is one example, but there has also been a significant rise in social media activity relating to the QAnon conspiracy movement, which has also amplified misinformation about the pandemic.

A number of these conspiracies have also been influential within the Reopen movement, which advocates for the lifting of lockdown restrictions. This momentum has been harnessed by some far-right actors, particularly the Proud Boys, an alt-right, pro-west fraternal organisation.

This group has historically attempted to market itself towards the Republican mainstream on platforms such as Facebook by deliberately avoiding the use of overtly racist symbols. Now a number of Proud Boys have been spotted taking part in anti-lockdown protests, with the groups president, Enrique Tarrio, framing the Florida protests as the point where the battle for the 2020 election starts. This suggests he is using the protests as a propaganda opportunity for his movement.

Indeed, the spirit of the protests accords closely with narratives being propagated by some more overtly extreme facets of the right, suggesting the Reopen movement has presented an opportunity to popularise extreme anti-state messaging. For example, one alt-right figure used his Telegram channel to paint the lockdown measures as a power grab by the state, and an orchestrated attempt to ensure citizens particularly men - remain slaves to society and the government.

Perhaps one of the most concerning groups that appears to have been buoyed by similar narratives is the boogaloo movement, a loose online network of radical firearms activists that has been linked to several violent incidents across the US. It unites a wide variety of people, some of whom have attempted to associate with Black Lives Matter, and others with neo-Nazism, with a commitment to preserving their right to bear arms and a shared desire to incite a civil war in order to overthrow the government.

In place of a rigid political philosophy, the movements disparate followers are instead bound by in-jokes and memes. But some supporters have also demonstrated a propensity for violence, with several incidents this year leading to arrests, and three alleged followers now facing terrorism charges.

This activity has been matched by numerous online posts referring to insurrectional violence relating to the coronavirus. And unrest related to pandemic restrictions appears to have significantly boosted the profile of the movement.

Research has shown that the conspiracy theory that the US government is using the pandemic to restrict American citizens freedoms has been central in influencing calls for a civil war. Some Boogaloo supporters also believe that the pandemic and subsequent lockdown have helped raise awareness of their civil war narrative amongst wider populations.

The pandemic has certainly been fertile ground for far-right messaging, helping give new platforms to activists and movements. While it is impossible to predict the long-term effects of these events, the potential for the crisis to spread some elements of far-right ideology to more mainstream audiences cannot be ignored. Shifting those people away from these ideas may be as difficult as tackling the virus itself.

View post:

Coronavirus and conspiracies: how the far right is exploiting the pandemic - The Conversation UK

We Must Stand Against Ignorance

Dear Editor,

It is with much dismay that I came to Town Hall last Thursday to be greeted by an angry group of protesters without masks led by Diana Ploss, a member of Our Fellow America First Patriots and supporter of alt right groups. She and her followers occupied two corners of the four way stop intersection with a larger group of anti-racism protesters near their site. Diana Ploss may be remembered as the conservative WSMN radio talk show host and staunch backer of T in the White House, who lost her job a mere two days after posting a video of herself spewing racist comments at a group of predominantly Hispanic workers right outside her now-former workplace in Nashua, N.H. After receiving over 12,000 petition signatures, WSMN fired Ploss stating We at WSMN value freedom of speech, freedom of expression and assembly, and We will not tolerate discrimination, racism or hatred.

Ploss and her followers have decided to make Winthrop their home every Thursday from 2 4 p.m. at the Town Hall intersection after leaving a protest against Gov. Charlie Bakers at his home in Swampscott. This protest seems to be against the Covid-19 restrictions enacted to keep Massachusetts residents safe and healthy; a concept alien to the alt-right.

I am asking for a statement and show of support against this group by our town officials and residents. We must display a major show of support for the brave students, town residents and visitors who displayed signs, gave chants and clearly projected the message Hate Has No Home Here while wearing masks and following social distancing guidelines. We ask that you show up on Thursday to clearly send the message that we reject racism and all of its ugly ramifications. Bring a sign and spread the word to citizens of Winthrop who clearly want to unify, not divide. Silence is complicity. We can do more, we will do more.

Sylvia & Maxwell Whiting

On the Demonstration

Dear Editor,

Many residents witnessed Diana Ploss of Our Fellow America First Patriots at Metcalf Square (Town Hall) on Thursday, Sept. 3. She and her colleagues came, without masks and did not social distance, to spread their message of fear, division and hate. Winthrop Police intervention was needed to contain the Ploss group from physical engagement with the Winthrop Black Lives Matter group.

Ploss is the former far right radio talk host of WSMN, Nashua, NH , who video taped herself shouting at a group of primarily Hispanic landscapers telling them to speak English.

I am suggesting not to show up for any Ploss Thursdays. She and her group continue to come to Metcalf Square. Do not provide the audience Ploss and her group so crave.

Some of us thought that presenting 3-4 times the number of peaceful counter demonstrators bearing Hate Has No Home Here would send a message to Ploss to stay out of Winthrop. However, it appears she will be back.

It is my opinion to ignore any future Ploss staging to fan her flames of hate, racism, and division. Absence and silence can be deafening. Winthrop Police are needed elsewhere to serve and protect.

If you have concerns about human rights in town call 617-846-1852;1034 or email contact person Denise Quist at [emailprotected]

Donna Segreti Reilly

No On Mail in Voting

Dear Editor,

Mail in voting is a really bad idea. It opens the door for massive and easy ballot tampering. In spite of specious reassurances that mail in voting is simple and accurate the facts are far different.

-Franklin, Ma discovers 3000 uncounted votes that the Town Clerk locked in her vault this past week. Town Clerk resigns.

-Plymouth, MA: 800 ballots were mishandled in May

-Paterson, NJ: 3190 election ballots were rejected, about 19% of the mail-in ballots for the May 12 election in Paterson

-Virginia: Half a million incorrect absentee ballot applications sent out In 2018

-Nevada: Election Officials announce that 63,000 names in its voter registration records were found to be inactive 2019

-California reports it is trying to remove over 5 million inactive voters from its records.

-NY primary in June 2020 resulted in massive problems and it took months to count ballots. According to NY Democrat Suraj Patel, 30% of the mail-in votes were likely rejected.

-People are even reporting their pets or deceased relatives are receiving ballots

-Multiple criminal convictions for voter fraud including a man in NH just being arrested for voting twice in the same election; one time as a man and one time as a woman!

Now they are trying to desensitize us to the fact that we may not have results for weeks or months after Election Day! This is unacceptable! Election Day voting has worked pretty good for hundreds of years, and we know on election night who the winners and losers are.

We are all now accustomed safely dealing with any presumed Covid concerns. Lets not pull this country farther apart by feuding over election logistics, ballot handling shenanigans and questionable election outcomes. No mail in voting assures free and fair elections!

Respectfully,

Paul Caruccio- Chairman WRTC

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Letters to the Editor - Winthrop Transcript

Hari Kunzru lives in Brooklyn with his wife, the novelist Katie Kitamura, and their two small children. He received a 1.25m advance for his first novel, The Impressionist (2002), while Booker Prize-winning novelist Aravind Adiga recently said: The book I wish Id written? Whatever Hari Kunzru is publishing next.

Life, then, appears to have been relatively kind to Kunzru. So why did he feel the need to delve into the cesspit of the alt-right for his latest novel, Red Pill? I wanted to write a book about privacy and surveillance initially, then I got a residency in Berlin, he says. I was in Wannsee, which is a sleepy suburb. Theres a lake and its not the hipster Berlin of Mitte or Kreuzberg. It was the middle of winter, so it was kind of bleak, dead.

On the other side of the lake, visible from my desk, was the Wannsee Conference house, where they plotted the Final Solution. It became clear I had to set something in Berlin, then it got wrapped up with the alt-right. Ive been online since 1992 and Ive always dug around in the subcultures of the internet. Ive developed this understanding of the intellectual currents of the extreme right, which you wouldnt do unless you were a hobbyist lurker in these spaces.

Why was he lurking there?

I always felt like it was an early warning system, says Kunzru. If I paid attention to what was coming from that direction, I would know about it in time and I would have some ability to respond to it and protect myself or my family. Ive always been, I guess, a mildly paranoid person.

Like Kunzru, after receiving a prestigious writing fellowship, the unnamed narrator of Red Pill arrives in Wannsee from New York. The fictional character struggles to accomplish anything, however. He doesnt work on the book he has proposed to write but instead masturbates, takes long walks, talks to the cleaner and binge-watches Blue Lives, a violent cop show with which he gradually becomes obsessed.

At a party, he meets the creator of Blue Lives and begins to suspect that this man is red-pilling his viewers turning them toward a nihilistic, alt-rightworldview.

Can Kunzru explain what red pill means?

It comes from the film The Matrix, where Keanu Reeves is offered a choice between a blue pill and a red pill. If he takes the blue pill, everything will remain the same, but if he takes the red pill, he will see the world as it really is.

The idea of the red pill is that the scales will fall from your eyes and, more recently, that became a metaphor among the far right. Essentially, its the idea of someone having a new and very, very bleak view of the world presented to them, as though they are Alice falling down the rabbit hole.

Men worry that if they show their emotions, women will go: Oh no, youre awful, incompetent and useless

The narrator who falls down the rabbit hole in Red Pill shares many details of Kunzrus biography he is a writer with an English mother and an Indian father who studied at Columbia University before taking up a residency at a Berlin academic institution. Is Kunzru just messing with the reader by including all of this?

I wasnt trying to be particularly tricksy, he says. I was flirting with trying an auto-fictional thing but then Im not really wired up for that. It was just the simplest solution to a set of problems, to give him the furniture of my biography.

In spite of its humour, Red Pill is a depressing book, not least because the narrator considers suicide.

Im sorry! says Kunzru, laughing. Im always sorting something for myself, partly, when Im writing a book and I cant deny that Ive been in quite a bad place for a few years. The world has been drifting into a terrible future and one of my ways of dealing with that is to write this novel.

Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments by Saidiya Hartman

It is fantastic, really amazing. Shes a historian and its non-fiction, but shes using a very daring literary mode.

Ive got a little pile, as we all have. Im going to read a Clarice Lispector novel, I cant remember which one Ive decided on.

Does he not feel any responsibility to give the reader a good time?

For me, humour and bleakness exist very close together.

The plot of Red Pill is reliant on the narrator being unable to return home to his wife from Berlin, even though remaining there is clearly making him ill.

He is so ashamed and I wanted to go into this aspect of masculinity, which is about bottling things up. I think this is a true thing about straight relationships: men worry that if they show women their emotions, women will say: Oh no, youre awful, you are incompetent and useless! I want a man who can actually deal.

In doing that, men underestimate womens understanding and tolerance, because women are used to dealing with each other as human beings rather than as these kind of Greek statues that men believe they have to be all the time.

Red Pill is out now (Scribner, 14.99)

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Hari Kunzru on his new novel Red Pill: 'The world has been drifting into a terrible future' - iNews

Before 2020, drawing a connection betweenGone with the Wind and the alt-right would seem flimsy at best. But not only did that already happen in our headlines, its happening in Gerard Bush and Christopher Renzs horror filmAntebellum. The upcoming psychological horror thriller from the first-time feature directors imagines a world where the pre-Civil War South and the present are intertwined. And the ones bringing those worlds together areJena Malone andJack Hustons characters Elizabeth and Captain Jasper, respectively. The unquestionable villains of the film, Elizabeth and Jasper are both a representation of the Antebellum South and current-day white supremacist movements like the alt-right, both of which Malone and Huston drew inspiration from while getting into the roles.

It felt so important [to show] the crumbling facade of how racist and backwards Gone with the Wind really is, and just allowing that film to sort of be regurgitated into this higher, more elevated like a completely different purpose, Malone told /Film in a Zoom interview ahead of the VOD release of Antebellum.

This is a magnifying glass on our history, and we need to own up to it, we need to face it, and we need to talk about it, added Huston.

Read our interview with Jena Malone and Jack Huston below.

When the two of you when you first read the script by Gerard Bush and Christopher Renz, what was your reaction?

Malone: Well as an audience member, I was blown away because they were able to sort of pull the proverbial rug out from underneath me on a continual basis. As a mother, I felt like my heart was sort of getting pulled out and examined. I felt like there was a lot of cathartic wound work like simultaneously trying to understand social justice, why uplifting the Black experience was really incredible. And just beyond anything I felt like it felt so important [to show] the crumbling facade of how racist and backwards Gone with the Wind really is, and just allowing that film to sort of be regurgitated into this higher, more elevated like a completely different purpose. I mean the fact that they also even reformatted the lenses that Gone with the Wind was shot on, thats what this film was shot on. I mean, everything was so purposeful. And first time directors, I have a soft spot for. To see their vision coming to life, and how they learn that vernacular, its really cool.

Huston: Its so true. Its one of those scripts you read, and youre sort of bowled over because youre not expecting it. Its unexpected every time and it truly deeply affected me. I had a pretty, pretty overwhelming reaction. And then when I got on the phone with Gerard, I sort of got very emotional, and then got very serious and went through all these different stages. But then it was a very easy decision. It was a very hard, and a very easy decision; hard because you knew you had to embody somebody who was sort of the amalgamation of all of the worst nightmares of our history, of who we are and what weve done. But at the same time, the responsibility far outweighed that, because we were telling a story that was so important. People might say that the movie is very shocking, is very brutal, is very harsh. But you know the scariest part was when I read accounts of slaves, of the conditions they lived in, of the things that happened to certain people. I mean, we couldnt even put half of the things in the movie, and thats whats scary. This is a magnifying glass on our history, and we need to own up to it, we need to face it, and we need to talk about it. You know, voice, one people.

You guys of course play the villains of the piece, and we cant talk about your characters without talking about how they reflect on current-day movements and the troubling resurgence in racism that has risen to the surface since the 2016 election. Can you guys talk about that and the parallel that was drawn with your characters?

Malone: Whats interesting about that is the literal historical lines between pre-police brutality, even pre-police, was slave catchers. I mean, this was a real thing, this was what preceded our modern-day police department. And before that, what was before slave catcher? An enslaved person catcher. It was the slave owner. The enslaved person owner, that was the person who had full jurisdiction over the dehumanization of another physical body. Basically, the torture, the trauma, the great rituals built around their humiliation. I mean, thats how the country was founded. Its deeply built into every invisible legislative government, every rule. Even just within the history books that will be taught, that would have been taught to my son, had he entered first grade, it would have been the same sight type of erasing whitewashed history. But its so beautiful, seeing how we can wake up from that, because it is a delusion, its like the white supremacy delusion. Its an indoctrination. There is change and there is movement out of that. And I think that what this film bridges so beautifully is the sort of deep ties between history and the present, and how those are the things that need to be examined for new roads to be built.

Huston: I think when I read it I knew this was going to be an important film. I just didnt know quite so how important this film was going to be. Its amazing how that sort of transpired. And that, first, going through the pandemic then obviously George Floyd leading to the mass protests, and you know, injustice that has been delivered for hundreds of years. And its come to a boiling point. And this film embodies that message, and that feeling that enough hate, you know, enough. You know, anger, hatred, this bigotry, this systemic racism that sort of surrounds us in our courts, in our schools, at work, police, healthcare, everywhere we look, this exists. Its present. Its the pas,t its present, and it will be the future. And its sometimes it takes art art can be a platform for expression and art is free to express. And this, in its truest sense is that; it does tie beauty and horror, its painting a very honest, truthful, and bleak picture of the world we live in and the world that we will continue to live in unless we start discussing this crap.

So there have been a lot of films that, like Get Out for example, which this film has all sorts of ties to, that speak to that the Black Lives Matter movement and issues of racism that are resurging. What do you think Antebellum specifically adds to the conversation?

Malone: I think its that bridge work that maybe I was talking about before about bridges lead you towards something, and it sort of helps you understand the journey of how you got there and why were there and how much hard work, it was necessary to build something between the two. And I think that no film has really ever addressed how deeply. We are still living in a lot of ways, in the sort of Antebellum South, and how there was the delusion, and sort of self-protection system that was built at that time its the same system that were using today. So I think that its a hard thing to comprehend, because you want to trust, you want to believe, you want to think that your vote matters and, you know, you vote in great politicians and its going to change things. But really its the structure that has to change. And I think that how this film, through entertainment and almost this sort of superhero story of this Black woman, can get us there is just incredible. You know, Ive never seen a film like it. And I think thats why its just so important that its seen right now, and thats why were putting it out into your phones, and into your computers, and in your televisions and, you know, homemade projectors that youve taped on the wall, because if its not seen right now, this was the moment that it was made for. Its the time, and Im really excited to see it enter into the collective.

Huston: Yeah, I mean Jena said it best. Other films have addressed racism, but they havent addressed our past and shone a light in such a way. And theres a great line that when we read the script, the first thing was a quote from William Faulkner, which I think opens the film, which said the past is not dead, its not even past. I think those words have never felt so true. Isnt that amazing? That were 400 years on right now and were sitting here talking, looking out of our windows and seeing the outcry around the world. Im just sort of stunned and baffled, and confused and confounded that this is the world today. This is the world we live in. And we need a movie to show history. And do we want to be on the right or wrong side of it?

***

Antebellum hits VOD on September 18, 2020.

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'Antebellum' Villains Jena Malone and Jack Huston on Drawing Inspiration From 'Gone With the Wind' and the Alt-Right [Interview] - /FILM

A Waterford priest has criticised as selfish the behaviour of Catholics who demand Communion on the tongue despite Covid-19 restrictions.

Fr Liam Power, former communications officer with the diocese of Waterford and Lismore, said such people did not seem to respect the danger this represented to others and were a cause of very serious embarrassment for priests, many of whom are elderly.

While the number making such demands was not huge, reports were fairly consistent from parishes across the country, he said. It was also the case that people involved were not open to negotiation.

Fr Power referred to an incident in a Waterford church recently.

One member of the congregation crossed from one section of the church, climbing over a barrier separating the two pods of 50, and then demanded Holy Communion on the tongue.

The priest refused.

It was an embarrassing situation as the congregation witnessed this stand-off during a most sacred moment of the service. When challenged afterwards, the person refuted the constitutionality of the Covid-19 regulations, inferring that the right to religious liberty was being undermined.

A similar incident happened involving an elderly priest with underlying health issues. He too refused.

In neither of these incidents was any concern shown by the protesters for the health and safety of others. Priests and other communicants could have been exposed to Covid infection, Fr Power said.

More generally, he referred to the aggression of such people and their growth across the Catholic world, with a seeming determination to undermine Vatican II and remove Pope Francis. Its the first time in my lifetime I ever heard of a campaign to remove a Pope from within the Church. Its very unsettling for Catholics, he said.

He agreed with those who felt that attention given to such ultra-right groups by Church authorities in Ireland as elsewhere was now reaping a bitter whirlwind.

Fr Power recalled how, when Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin attended Eid celebrations in Croke Park last July, he was met with screaming protestors, his car surrounded and banged on, and people shouting traitor and other abuse.

There was also the recent torrent of abuse hurled at Fr Stephen Farragher, parish priest of Ballyhaunis in Co Mayo, during protests at his decision to allow two members of the Muslim community to say the final blessing and prayer at a Sunday ceremony in the church.

The blessing was planned to show solidarity with frontline workers and to pray for the eradication of Covid-19.

It was the case that such people also oppose vaccines and refuse to wear masks and they wantonly contravene other HSE guidelines, he said.

Their toxic politico-religious cocktail was symptomatic of what is happening on a more global level, particularly in the USA.

Extreme alt-right media groups claiming total fidelity to the Catholic church (such as Church Militant, Lifesite News, Breitbart and the most influential of all Catholic media, EWTN), are unabashedly partisan in their support for extreme right wing politics, Fr Power said.

Where Irelands Catholic bishops were concerned, Fr Power felt that in their attempt to accommodate the alt-right Catholics the hierarchy need to appreciate the political implications of extreme views which, in my opinion, serve to undermine the pontificate of Pope Francis.

There must be limits to appeasement.

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Catholics demanding Communion on the tongue a threat to public health, says priest - The Irish Times

Tesa Aragones is the new chief marketing officer of Discord.

Tesa Aragones is hoping to use her past experience fostering communities in the photography and fitness worlds to now do the same for Discords growing social network.

Aragones, who left her role as the chief marketing officer of VSCO to become the new CMO of Discord last week, is now leading marketing for the San Francisco-based platform that allows people to chat in private conversations using video and chat features. And while its long known for being used by gamers since its founding in 2015, that categorization is quickly changingespecially during the current era of social distancing.

Building community within a platform is something Aragones is familiar with, having created Nikes digital training community along with the brands first iPhone app and winning a variety of patents for various projects. And at VSCO, she focused her efforts on the apps aesthetically minded photographers and videographers.

One of the things that I find so intriguing about the brand is that its youthful like a VSCO, but it also gets a lot of energy from youth-culture in the same way that Nike does, she says. But I really connected with the mission around creating belonging. I love brands that have strong communities, and as a storyteller, some of the best brand storytelling is always inspired by the people that we serve. So when you have a brand (like Discord) that has so much community, Im really looking forward to digging into that.

Discordwhich announced a $100-million fundraising in June and is now valued at $3.5 billionhas continued to grow in terms of users and usage. The company says it now has more than 100 million monthly active users, with people spending 4 billion minutes in conversations each day across 6.7 million communities. While the San Francisco-based firm has long been known as a place for gamers to communicate with each other, the company has been trying to scale and diversify. Much of the momentum has been this year, especially as people look for new ways to communicate with friends and family during the pandemic. According to Aragones, Discords user base has grown by about 50% since February, and the company now says 30% of people use the platform for reasons other than gaming. (Of total users, 76% are outside of North America.)

The company is also looking to continue to clean up its history of being a place for hate. After its founding in 2015, the company became known for its alt-right users when white supremacists used the platform to orchestrate a summer of protests in Charlottesville, Virginia. It also saw the number of user complaints over various abuse and policy violations double during the first half of 2020, according to Discords most recent transparency report. To help address the issue, more than 15% of Discords 250 employees now work on issues related to increasing trust and safety. The company also recently hired its first chief legal officer.

Discord isnt the only new social network with audio as a key component. Others include Clubhouse, which has a closed membership model popular with the venture capital crowd. Twitter has also been testing audio tweets, but so far usage on that platform hasnt gained too much traction.

The new funding should help fuel Discords growth and allow it to invest more in marketing initiatives. Right now, there are 30 people on the marketing team, and it plans to hire more. But first, Aragones says she wants to spend time talking to the platforms millions of communities and users to see what trends might emerge.

The consumers, they define it as how they want to interact with us, she says. So what a college kid might say about how Discord is helping them to connect to their community may be different than creators. I feel like this is an exciting time for innovation. Weve been raising funds to feed into whats next for our consumers and what theyre interested in.

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After Building Community At Nike And VSCO, Discords New CMO Wants To Help More Than Just Gamers Connect During Isolation - Forbes

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Shipping as an industry, as vital part of global economy, wasnt ever under such a threat of catastrophic proportions. Highly effective, cheap and affordable shipping is soon to become extinct, to be replaced with highly monopolized, ineffective and very, very costly shipping, which will dramatically boost costs of everything, from power to food and consumer goods, and therefore, reduce living standards of all the people all around the world.Heres the major, basic, principal difference between us Climate Change deniers; pandemic deniers; NWO agenda deniers; nationalists; alt-right or whatever; and them all the scum which collude with globalist agenda, be this scum shipping elite, or trash scientists, or whoring medics, or useful idiots. We unlike them, dont scare others with oncoming disasters false prophecies (based on trash science), dont demand immediate actions in forms of more bans, more restrictions, less consumption, worse food, unaffordable electricity, unaffordable natural food like meat or dairy, bigger taxes, heavier fines and stricter penalties We dont want new sustainable green normal, habitable for elites only. Our goal is quite the opposite maximum deregulation of everything, everywhere, on all levels; curbing corrupt governments already unlimited power; dismantling of all or nearly all, international bodies, starting with UN, and thoroughful investigation of all their activities, past and present. We dont need funds, grants, and billionaire suckers charities we dont need any financing on public account or whoever account. We dont need NGOs, foundations, alliances on the contrary, we want shipping to be disinfected from existing ones. We want freedom of speech and discussions, were against censorship, were against the dictatorship of legislative and law enforcement bodies, puppets of globalist elites, were against monopolies in any form, from multinational shipping giants to trade unions and media.In unbelievably short time, in months, global economy, be it freed from globalists New World Order and uncontrolled governments, will thrive, providing us with much higher living standards, and most importantly, making us free.We want people to wake up, to look around, to stop drugging themselves by mainstream poison. I know that many people agree with me, but why stay silent? You want to make your opinions and thoughts public? You want to speak out against scumbags, whore ruining shipping? Im not just open to it, Im eager for your opinion. I earn enough money to live on, and to run MB. I dont ask for financial support, Im asking for another kind of support for opinions, analysis, facts, figures, statistics. Youre afraid of consequences? You dont have to be, it will be anonymous if you want to. Invite, involve like-minded people you know, and there are many of them. Ill publish it all.Voice yourself, openly or anonymously, Im waiting for honest industry insiders, sick of whats going on joint the fight!

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Shipping insiders invited to join the fight - Maritime Bulletin

If you took a look at U.S. social media today, you would think that voting is the most important thing anyone will do in their entire lives at this pivotal, hyper-political moment in our nations history. People are out on the street, protesting for racial justice the abolishment of policing and the criminal justice systems that fuel the preschool to prison pipeline even while military and police forces continuously use violence against them. While support for the Black Lives Matter protests continue to drop from where it was over the summer, those protests did more to change the incarceration systems in this country than years of voting and legislation ever did. At this moment, how am I a person both sides target as a voting demographic supposed to have faith in voting when I see more change happening on the streets than from the ballot box?

Despite the change occurring due to months of protests, there is only one consistent message from the pro-Biden media today, vote against Trump like your life depends on it. I open Snapchat, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and everywhere they ask me what is your plan to vote? Are you registered to vote? Who will you vote for? Where do you live? All to help you get registered to vote and decide how, when, and where to vote, and who to vote for.

Via Instagram

Via Snapchat

Via Facebook Via Twitter. New explore section on Twitter dedicated to U.S. election information.

Why ask me these questions? Why, now, more than ever, do you want me to vote? Why do you want young people to vote, now, more than ever? Why is it only now that social media companies are so concerned with election interference? Is it because they finally found their moral purpose, or, more likely, is it because of the man in the Oval Office? Both Facebook and Twitter both faced accusations of actively promoting or not adequately addressing misleading, damaging, or dangerous information on their platforms. However, they now promise to more completely address these concerns, angering Trump and other conservative voices. These platforms are now a part of a narrative that equates voting to an act of rebellion as if everyone who is against Trump is a part of the same group.

However, these social media sites, apps, etc. know young people can decide an election, and they know we hate Donald Trump almost universally. They simply wonder if we love Joe Biden enough or they want to convince us to. Joe Biden, the man whose presidency will work more like a bookmark than a hand turning the page to a new chapter of U.S. history.

Voting for Joe Biden for me, a white upper-class woman who experiences no infringement on her right to vote is not a rebellious act, it is a multiple-choice test. For other parts of this country, in communities of color, particularly Black and Indigenous communities, voting looks more like the recent Belarusian election than a fair and democratic process. Consider what happened to Stacey Abrams in 2018. Going even further back in recent history, Trump stole the election in 2016, and Russia helped him do it. Russian propaganda won the U.S. 2016 Presidential election, not Donald Trump he is an illegitimate president.

Two political parties, two choices, every four years, that system is breaking in front of our eyes, a system easily manipulated by Russian bots. It is simply not an equitable system anymore, it cannot speak for enough people, and it is way too vulnerable. If you want to convince me that this election is critical, that voting is essential, prove it. I am convinced it will not matter this time around.

Simply put, Joe Biden does not care about me, a progressive. We know how to drive this country forward, not him; while we have our feet on the gas he is more than happy to sit in neutral. Voting for Joe Biden, for me, is like voting for a blank vision board. At least Trump has a plan, though that plan would take the U.S. back to the 1960s. I am trying to say that my vote does not matter because I do not have a candidate to vote for. I only have one to vote against since Trumps behavior and actions throughout his life personally disgust me as a human being. However, I do not want to be a person that votes against someone and for nothing.

Theoretically, the people could vote Trump out in this election. All of his potential and devious plans for his second term as President could come to a halt though, theoretically, he could still run again. Still, what will change under Joe Biden? Joe Biden is not some change-maker that the Democratic Party tries to sell him as, any benefits that come out of his presidency will be minimal; aside from the fact that if Joe Biden is president, then Donald Trump is not President, and that is objectively a good thing.

However, to call this moment, right now, the most consequential election of our time is absurd. Bidens presidency will not stop the alt-right rise in U.S. politics, nor will it stop the momentum of progressives. His presidency will not bring about racial justice, or further progress on LGBTQ2IA+ rights. He wants to fund the police, not defund the criminal justice systems, and he does not utter a single word about trans rights.

He claims to have a climate plan, but that is more of a potential to save the U.S. economy plan than a plan he believes in. Warrens campaign estimated that an investment in green technology today could potentially help the U.S. be the leader in what could put $10,000,000,000 into the economy. That plan would mitigate national debt and put the U.S. on the right path towards a greener future, tackling two birds with one stone, proverbially. Joe Biden is not pro Green New Deal, he simply thinks it could help him improve the economy during his term. It is not an accident that he started listening to progressive voices in the climate movement right as the economic effects of COVID-19 became a painful reality.

What I would need from Joe Biden is for him to apologize, sincerely and competently, for his past remarks, votes, and actions. I would need him to truly want the system to change, to actively tell us to go to the streets and demand change. In him, I would need to see someone who knows that the power of a march, of a protest, is just as powerful as the vote, if not more so.

Change is necessary, but change will not come simply through voting, and Joe Biden is not looking towards the future people like me want. Nothing will make the next four years any different unless there is a massive systemic reform, a call to action that puts millions of bodies in Washington, D.C. The Civil Rights movements and the suffrage movements, throughout history, and around the world, prove that theory.

The fact is that the most pivotal election of my life is years away, if not decades. I am okay with that. No one can convince me this is the election that changes my life given the disconnect between politicians, and the people whose interests they should make more of an effort to align with. Is it fear? Anger? Uncertainty? Panic? that drives people to believe that this election will change things? Is it those same emotions that keep politicians so disconnected from the people they serve? I have no answers, yet, only questions.

Until I stop having questions, I will be unable to answer why this election is so momentous. Trump is friends with autocrats globally, and, as a Senator, Joe Biden also made friends with segregationists. Remember the 1994 crime bill he helped create? If you look at the effects in the modern world, the United States now has a mass incarceration crisis that disproportionately affects people of color, primarily Black and Indigenous communities. There are more people in prison in the U.S. than any other nation per capita. That is why I have no faith this election will change anything. I have no faith in the importance of this election that is solely about voting against the other side, as politics has conducted itself for decades now. So I will save my strength for the election that counts. Thanks for all your efforts, your words, your strength, but I cannot find a reason to have any right now. I will be writing on blank space towards true change, what I call a rally on white paper, if you need me.

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I Have No Faith In The Next President, Whomever He Will Be - The Pavlovic Today

Spoilers for Antebellum

On July 1, on his podcast, The Ben Shapiro Show, the right-wing political commentator launched into a tirade against Jordan Peeles critically acclaimed 2017 horror film Get Out. Shapiro said, It's unbelievable to me this movie really was not perceived as how racist it is -- the movie Get Out is really about this, right. The idea of Get Out is a Black man, who's being treated incredibly well by a White family and then, of course, it turns out to be a horror story about them attempting to capture his body and then turn him into a white person on the inside. Right? They literally want to take his body and then take their white souls and put them in his Black body to take control of his body. Right?

Shapiro added, This notion that Whiteness is the threat because Whiteness only exists in opposition to Blackness -- the only thing that brings White people together is being in opposition to Black people -- it's quite a linguistic twist. But this is the way that we are going to divide the country and make the country worse and worse. That is the direction in which we are moving.

Shapiros ideas seemingly reject the notion there isnt a pan-White identity. These ideas are spouted by many from the alt-right to fabricate victimization of whiteness and to weaponize that victimization. And in an increasingly racially-polarized America, it is ideas like these -- rather than the alleged viewpoints they criticize -- that make for a more dangerous future. Unfortunately, Peeles Get Out will not be the only film that received a so-called critique of this nature.

Antebellum, written and directed by Gerard Bush and Christopher Renz in their feature directorial debuts, will face similar comments. The psychological horror-thriller film follows Veronica Henley (Janelle Mone), a successful and prominent Black author, feminist, and activist. Henley is outspoken on topics as sensitive as patriarchy, class, and race. And because of her outspokenness, she is abducted and placed into a horrifying reality where she and other African Americans are forced to work and live as slaves on a Southern plantation on the eve of the Civil War.

The horror is surreal. Henley and other Black men and women are tortured, killed, and raped by White Confederate impersonators as if things were still in the past. Henley finally escapes from this Kafkaesque nightmare. But not before she has to pay with the lives of her friends and not before she is compelled to take up arms and slaughter her captors.

Releasing just barely more than a month before the U.S. Presidential elections, and at the center of a countrywide protest against systemic racism, White nationalism, Confederate iconography, and police brutality, Antebellum is undoubtedly going to ignite more conversations. But as can be predicted, many will attempt to hijack these conversations with rhetoric similar to what Shapiro presented. And he too will undoubtedly be one of those trying to hijack it.

Antebellum presents a hyperbolic idea of what racism feels like in the modern-day, by actually taking it back to slavery. And that is an idea that will offend many, and make many more uncomfortable enough that they would resort to offense-taking as a coping mechanism. But it is important to not let those voices drown out what the bigger picture is. It is important to remember why the movie is important and what it is trying to tell -- racism is real to Black men and women and in one way or the other, it always takes them back to where it all started for them.

Antebellum is available on-demand starting September 18. A theatrical release is still planned for international audiences.

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Antebellum: It is vital the far-right not be allowed to hijack the movie to weaponize White victimization - MEAWW

Hundreds of armed right-wingers, including skinheads and self-proclaimed militias, traveled to the battlefield in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, on July 4 to confront antifa protesters burning American flags.

But when they got to the historic battlefield, there were no antifa members to be found. The gun-toting counterprotesters who descended upon Gettysburg to confront antifa, and use force if necessary, had been duped by an online hoax.

What happened on Independence Day showed how easy it is to leverage fear of antifa a loosely affiliated group of left-wing anti-fascist activists with no leader and create the potential for violence in the process.

Now, months later, President Donald Trump and his allies are tapping into the same angry, fearful sentiments ahead of Election Day and normalizing the possibility of violence surrounding the 2020 election.

In an interview with the Fox News host Jeanine Pirro on Saturday, Trump even hinted he would invoke the Insurrection Act to violently crack down on any post-election rioting and suggested to Pirro he would deploy federal forces "very quickly" if necessary. It's part of a concerted strategy from Trump to build up the narrative that the nation will break down in factional violence if he isn't reelected.

For months, Trump has been hitting his supporters with a constant barrage of unfounded racist warnings about a group he terms "ANTIFA THUGS" invading suburbs across the US if former Vice President Joe Biden wins the presidential election.

Despite Trump's efforts to paint antifa as a major threat, there's scant evidence to back that up. Antifa is not an organized group and has not been designated a terrorist organization by the federal government.

But painting antifa as a visceral threat has become a central piece of Trump's "law-and-order" messaging. Trump has attempted to turn the Black Lives Matter movement and its affiliated groups into a monolith, portraying them as anti-American anarchists determined to tear the country apart.

Various alt-right groups at the Gettysburg battlefield to defend it from a rumored confederate-flag burning on July 1, 2017. The rumor turned out to be false. Andrew Lichtenstein/ Corbis via Getty Images

Last month, a caravan of Trump supporters drove into Portland, Oregon, to confront Black Lives Matter protesters who've been engaged in perhaps the most sustained demonstrations the country has seen this year.

There were reports of caravan members firing paintballs and using pepper spray on the protesters. Aaron "Jay" Danielson, who was affiliated with the right-wing group Patriot Prayer, was ultimately shot and killed amid the clashes.

It was evident that the presence of the Trump supporters in the city exacerbated the situation. But instead of calling for calm and condemning violence on all sides, Trump praised his supporters as "GREAT PATRIOTS," while decrying the anti-racism protesters.

More recently, the president appeared to condone extrajudicial killings of left-wing activists.

During his interview with Pirro over the weekend, Trump applauded police for fatally shooting Michael Forest Reinoehl, an antifa supporter who was suspected of killing Danielson. Police shot Reinoehl without warning or attempting to arrest him first, according to a witness, and he did not appear to be armed.

But Trump praised the actions of the officers.

"This guy was a violent criminal, and the US Marshals killed him. And I'll tell you something that's the way it has to be. There has to be retribution," Trump said to Pirro.

Trump was widely criticized in June, including by former Defense Secretary James Mattis, after law enforcement tear-gassed peaceful protesters outside the White House to clear a path for the president to take a photo at a nearby church.

Last month, Trump defended Kyle Rittenhouse, the 17-year-old accused of shooting three people at a Black Lives Matter protest last month in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Two of the people shot died, and Rittenhouse has been charged with first-degree intentional homicide.

Conservative pundits have embraced Rittenhouse, who went to Kenosha wielding a firearm as a self-styled militia member, as a paragon of self-defense. Adopting this dubious narrative, the president in late August suggested Rittenhouse would've been "killed" had he not opened fire.

"He was trying to get away from them, I guess, it looks like," Trump said of Rittenhouse. "I guess he was in very big trouble. He probably would have been killed."

Amid all this, Trump has perpetuated the unfounded assertion that mail-in voting will lead to widespread voter fraud. In Washington, Democrats have repeatedly called for expanded access to mail-in voting because of concerns over the coronavirus pandemic.

Trump, who is behind Biden in the national polls, has repeatedly suggested without evidence this would lead to a rigged election. The president is actively attempting to undermine the legitimacy of the election and setting the stage to reject the results if he ultimately loses.

"The Democrats are trying to rig this election because it's the only way they are going to win," Trump told supporters at a rally in Nevada on Saturday.

Trump leaves the stage after speaking at a campaign event at Xtreme Manufacturing on September 13 in Henderson, Nevada. Ethan Miller/Getty Images

Voter fraud in the US is extremely rare, and voting experts have maintained that mail-in voting is extremely safe and secure. Not to mention, Trump has voted by mail in recent elections and will vote as an absentee (virtually the same thing) in November.

But as Trump pushes this unsubstantiated narrative about mail-in voting, his allies are urging him to take extreme measures if things don't go the president's way on November 3.

Roger Stone, Trump's longtime friend and adviser, last week called into the conspiracy-theory site InfoWars and condoned Trump employing "martial law" to stay in office and detain prominent Democratic figures, including the Clintons, if he loses.

The paranoid rhetoric and conspiracy theories regarding the election are also coming from other members of the Trump administration.

In his speech at the Republican National Convention, Vice President Mike Pence said to voters: "You will not be safe in Joe Biden's America."

And Michael Caputo, a Department of Health and Human Services spokesperson, recently went on a 26-minute rant on Facebook in which he issued warnings of an armed insurrection by left-wing groups after the election.

"There are hit squads being trained all over this country," Caputo said in his rant, first reported by The New York Times.

"When Donald Trump refuses to stand down at the inauguration, the shooting will begin," he added. "If you carry guns, buy ammunition, ladies and gentlemen, because it's going to be hard to get."

Caputo, who also worked on Trump's 2016 campaign, on Wednesday announced he was taking 60 days of medical leave.

For months, experts have expressed serious concern that Trump's relentless disinformation campaign has fostered a tumultuous political climate that could easily spark violence on and after Election Day.

"There is already significant chatter about the possibility for a Civil War and armed civil unrest in the event Trump loses his reelection bid, but single-actor and small-cell violent acts would be more likely," J.J. MacNab, a fellow at the George Washington University's Program on Extremism, told members of the US House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Intelligence and Counterterrorism in July.

The Transition Integrity Project, a bipartisan organization founded last year, brought together a group of more than 100 experts in June to simulate what might transpire after November 3.

In a report summarizing the conclusions drawn from the exercises, the group said: "Voting fraud is virtually non-existent, but Trump lies about it to create a narrative designed to politically mobilize his base and to create the basis for contesting the results should he lose. The potential for violent conflict is high, particularly since Trump encourages his supporters to take up arms."

The report also stressed that Trump would likely put his self-preservation ahead of a peaceful transfer of power, should Biden win in November.

"A landslide for Joe Biden resulted in a relatively orderly transfer of power. Every other scenario we looked at involved street-level violence and political crisis," Rosa Brooks, a law professor at Georgetown University and cofounder of the Transition Integrity Project, said of the group's findings in The Washington Post.

The former UK ambassador in Washington Kim Darroch told The Guardian the US felt "very volatile" and that there appeared to be a "genuine risk" of post-election violence.

"All of us have watched Portland and Kenosha, and it feels like a genuine risk. That 17-year-old who shot the demonstrators and the reaction in alt-right circles is really scary," Darroch said. "Whoever wins, you just hope that people will accept the result and take it calmly, though I couldn't say I'm certain that will be the case."

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Trump is normalizing the possibility of violence in the 2020 election - Business Insider - Business Insider

The former UK ambassador in Washington, Kim Darroch, has warned of a genuine risk of violence in the aftermath of a close-run US election in November.

Darroch noted that although Joe Biden is maintaining a significant lead nationwide, the margins in some battleground states are shrinking, and he suggested pollsters could be systematically undercounting Donald Trump supporters.

Im not sure the pollsters really know how to count Trump voters, Darroch said in an interview.

He pointed to the recent violence in Portland, Oregon, and Kenosha, Wisconsin, in the wake of police shooting of unarmed Black Americans, and the case of Kyle Rittenhouse, a fervent police supporter facing homicide charges after a shooting incident in Kenosha that left two people dead and a third seriously injured. Rittenhouse has since been hailed as a vigilante hero by the far right.

The crescendo of violence as the 3 November vote looms raises the stakes of a close and disputed election, Darroch said.

Its probably much closer on the ground in the battleground states than it seems from the polls, Darroch told the Guardian.

Postal voting is clearly going to play a big part in this election, and it feels to me like the Trump campaign are building this up, especially if its close, to declare it rigged or invalid, the former ambassador, now Lord Darroch of Kew, said.

If Biden wins, there is a question whether the Trump base will really support or accept that as the outcome. Equally, if it looks like postal votes have been undercounted or there is serious voter suppression you worry about the other side of the argument, he added. It feels very volatile.

Asked about the risk of violence on the streets, Darroch said: I think its there. All of us have watched Portland and Kenosha, and it feels like a genuine risk. That 17-year-old who shot the demonstrators and the reaction in alt-right circles is really scary.

Whoever wins, you just hope that people will accept the result and take it calmly, though I couldnt say Im certain that will be the case, he said.

He also pointed to the threat of a repeat of Russian interference in the 2016 election. But he is sceptical about suspicions that Vladimir Putin has a secret source of leverage on Trump.

For me, the likeliest theory is that [the Kremlin] really didnt want Hillary Clinton as president: anyone but her. They knew her well from her time as secretary of state and hadnt liked what they had seen, the former ambassador said.

In part, [they intervened] because they could. Putins formative years had been in the KGB. He knew what they could do, and believed in using their skills and capabilities. Once a KGB man, always a KGB man.

Darroch stressed the threat posed by persistent malign Russian influence in western societies.

If systematically repeated in future elections around the world, it might discredit democracy for a generation, he said.

Darroch resigned as ambassador to the US in July last year, after his reporting on the early stages of the Trump era was leaked to the press, in which he highlighted the turmoil inside the administration.

As seen from here, we really dont believe that this administration is going to become substantially more normal; less dysfunctional, less unpredictable, less faction-riven, less diplomatically clumsy and inept, he reported in the summer of 2017.

He has described his experiences and the circumstances surrounding his ouster in a memoir, Collateral Damage, published this week in the UK and next month in the US.

One of the leaked documents was a letter which had very limited circulation in Whitehall, but a year-long police investigation has not led to an arrest.

That letter should have been on very, very few files, Darroch said. How many it is for the police to say, and as far as I know they are still continuing their investigations.

Darroch said his three leading theories was that the leaker was someone outraged a British ambassador could be privately critical of a US president, or felt Darroch was not sufficiently pro-Brexit, or who was involved in an intricate plot to try to influence the choice of his successor. In the end the post did not go to a political appointee, as many had suspected, but to another career diplomat, Karen Pierce, who was at the time the UKs permanent representative at the UN.

I would just be fascinated at the motivation behind it, Darroch said. So if the person responsible was nailed and it was possible for me to talk to them, I would just want to say: Why did you do it?

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The US feels very volatile: former ambassador warns of election violence - The Guardian

Richard JenkinsIllustration by Joo Fazenda

Rhode Island and Delaware are the tiniest states, but theyve had big claims to fame lately. Delaware, of course, has Joe Biden, whos been campaigning from his home, in Wilmington. And Rhode Island managed to upstage all the other states during the virtual roll call at the Democratic National Convention, thanks to a mysterious man in black holding up a plate of calamari. The Calamari Ninja, as some people called himhes John Bordieri, the executive chef of Iggys Boardwalk Lobster and Clam Bar, in Warwickmay now be the most famous person living in Rhode Island. His competition, not counting natives whove moved away (Viola Davis, the Farrelly brothers) or celebrities with vacation homes there (Taylor Swift, Jay Leno), includes the character actor Richard Jenkins, who has lived in the state for the past fifty years.

I am not the most famous person in Rhode Island, by far, Jenkins said the other day, as he and his wife, Sharon, took a drive around Providence. He named the former Providence mayor Buddy Cianci and the former U.S. senator Claiborne Pell (both deceased) and the pro golfers Billy Andrade and Brad Faxon (eh). From behind the wheel, Sharon brought up the actor turned alt-right troll James Woods, who has several houses in Rhode Island. Is it me? Jenkins asked himself. Thats a depressing thought.

Jenkins, who is seventy-three, with the unassuming air of an assistant bank manager, is famous in a very Rhode Island way: hes appeared in more than eighty films, but, even with two Oscar nominations, for The Visitor and The Shape of Water, and an Emmy win, for Olive Kitteridge, he tends to slip under peoples radars. They say, What have I seen you in? You go, I have no idea what youve seen, Jenkins said. I had a woman tap me on the shoulder on an airplane and say, Have you ever been on The Bob Newhart Show? Because you look just like him. I turned around and said, Are you asking me if I am Bob Newhart, or are you saying you have to look like him to be on his show?

The couple moved to Providence in 1970, when Jenkins got an apprenticeship at the Trinity Repertory Company. Back then, he said, Providence was a burned-out mill town. He grew up in DeKalb, Illinois, the son of a dentist. Before starting his acting career, he made pizzas, detasselled corn, and drove a laundry truck for a company run by JohnC. Reillys dad. (The two actors didnt realize the connection until they played a father and son, in Step Brothers.) We figured wed be here a year, maybe two, Jenkins recalled. Instead, he became a Trinity company member. For a time, he commuted to New York for auditions. That was back when the Amtrak was about a four-and-a-half-hour train ride, if you were lucky, he said, bringing to mind Bidens Amtrak years in the Senate. I would go for an audition, and Id have two lines, like, Freeze! Its the police! And Id leave.

From Sharons Volvo, he pointed out low-key landmarks: the Providence Art Club, the first Baptist church in America. He didnt begin his movie career until well into his thirties, with roles including Woody Allens doctor in Hannah and Her Sisters and a newspaper editor in The Witches of Eastwick.

This month, he appears in Andrew Cohns The Last Shift, as an aging fast-food worker, and in Miranda Julys Kajillionaire, as the patriarch of a family of small-time scammers. (Theyre just awful at it, he said. They cant make two nickels.) He wore a bushy beard, which hed grown for an upcoming Guillermo del Toro film, Nightmare Alley. Production shut down in mid-March, but he had two days of shooting left, so hed been stuck with the beard during the whole pandemic. I cant wait to shave it off, he said, a sentiment for which Sharon expressed approval.

In quarantine, Jenkins has been playing (socially distanced) golf and puttering at home. Its like the movie Marty: What do you feel like doing tonight? I dont know, what do you feel like doing tonight? he said. Yesterday was our fifty-first anniversary, and we drove down to Narragansett. Theres a place called Aunt Carries, but if youre from Rhode Island its Ahnt Carries. Its this great seafood restaurant

When you say seafood, it sounds fancy, Sharon said. Its chowder and clam cakes.

You can sit indoors, because all the windows are open and the sea breeze is blowing, Jenkins continued. The beard has made him all the more anonymous, even in Rhode Island; sometimes, to Sharons dismay, he cant even get them a table at a restaurant. When Tom McCarthy cast me in The Visitor, he said, I want somebody who could walk down the streets of New York and not have people stop. As soon as he said that, a guy walked by and went, Hey! Love your work! He laughed. Its pretty civilized. Im just a guy whos an actor who lives in Providence.

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Is Richard Jenkins the Most Famous Person in Rhode Island? - The New Yorker