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About the author: Ian Chaffee is a technology and startup media relations consultant based in Los Angeles.

When Spotify signed a reported $100 million multiyear deal in 2020 for the privilege of exclusively streaming Joe Rogans popular podcast, it was only a matter of time before people started firing at the massive target the company put on its own back. Rogans lucrative all sides approach to booking guests and producing content made it easy.

Also unfortunately for Spotify, the controversy is tailor-made for generational division. The all-ages battle royale kicked off with Boomers Neil Young and Joni Mitchell utilizing that most 1960s form of mobilization and persuasionboycott and protestto try and get Spotify to deplatform Rogan. Rogan himself comes from Generation X. He comes off as an inquisitive and nonconfrontational, but also politically incorrect, slacker-wing personality involuntarily thrust into the role of culture warrior when he would rather be doing MMA, DMT, or some other acronymic pursuit. Powerful millennials Daniel Ek and Taylor Swift, despite pleas from all corners, have opted for nonintervention when either could end the business scandal of the day whenever they wanted. The Zoomers dont care and are scrolling through TikTok.

The pressure on Rogan and Spotify intensified last weekend over Rogans repeated use of a racial slur, along with a few other inflammatory statements that cannot simply be dismissed with the counterargument of context. If that isnt enough for Spotify to eat whatever money is needed to ditch Rogan, then surely the risk that other offensive material will be found in the archives of Rogans podcast or comedic output should be. The man was a stand-up comedian first, after all, a line of work that lends itself to easy cancellation (as witnessed by fellow tradeswoman Whoopi Goldberg).

Caught up in its ambitious and now possibly tragic goal of becoming, with apologies to pre-Rogan lightning rod Howard Stern, the king of all audio media, Spotifys biggest mistake was going all-in on podcasts and chasing a market it apparently didnt yet fully understand. It wasnt enough that Spotify changed how we listen to music, it had to change how we consume everything audio. Now it has flown a bit too close to the sun. It chased what must have seemed like an easy user acquisition play in the highly lucrative bro market at the cost of not only cultural blowback, but also neglect of its primary value proposition.

Maybe this is an opportunity for Spotify to reclaim that value proposition. Lost in this debate heated by the flame of its own dumpster fire is that no one, Spotify included, is talking about the companys killer feature, what made it so popular in the first place: leveraging the cloud and the information listeners put into that cloud to create a better and more specialized music-listening experience for its users.

Spotify effectively married the appeal of a voluminous (albeit often pirated) peer-to-peer music library like Napster with the mixtape culture that has been a part of music fandom back to the cassette. While artists may not have been uniformly thrilled with those streaming royalties, whatever Spotify offered was better than nothing, and the end result for the audience was like nothing they had experienced before. If someone wanted to listen to the music from the year 1975 and only 1975 (and not the band The 1975), boom, they could find at least 10 different playlists for precisely that curated by actual human beings, with interesting and unique choices made by those playlist curators.

It might have been tougher for those who virtue-signaled their way out of their Spotify Premium subscriptions over the last week or two if Spotify had shown the same attention to their music product in the last few years that it did to someone like Rogan. A user exodus combined with Spotifys inattention reduces the future potential of the kind of music discovery that made Spotify so special in the first place. It wont be easy for Spotify simply to play Facebooks game of Well, Where Else Are You Going to Go? Competitors like Apple Music are champing at the bit to pick up those cancelers. Spotify handed them a new bit of leverage in positioning themselves as the exciting new streaming-music frontier that can do right by both their artists and listeners.

I dont doubt that Spotify is seriously considering the gravity of this stress test for its platform, its disaffected staff, disappearing subscribers, and strong competitors who now smell blood in the water. But I do wonder if the company has put itself in the best position to make the necessary choice to continue surviving and thriving. That will require much more than just joining the Joe Rogan cancel parade.

Guest commentaries like this one are written by authors outside the Barrons and MarketWatch newsroom. They reflect the perspective and opinions of the authors. Submit commentary proposals and other feedback toideas@barrons.com.

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Spotify Removed Joe Rogan Episodes. It Has Strayed Far from Its Greatest Value - Barron's

It seems that the past couple of years has been dominated by this idea of being canceled. From reality stars to musicians, political figures, authors, corporate leaders, and everything in between, cancel culture is a reality for celebrities in modern times.

One offensive tweet from 8 years ago or a heated social media conversation from your teenage years could lead you to be instantly abandoned in the public eye. Or perhaps its a more recent exchange or offensive comment that has certain celebs in hot water. Just ask Chrissy Teigen, Ellen DeGeneres, or JK Rowling.

Many celebrities have paid the price for past mistakes and inappropriate comments that live forever online (thank you, Internet). Yes, their inappropriate words and offensive actions triggered these casualties of cancel culture, but what happens next?

What even is cancel culture? Is there redemption after being canceled? Can a public figure really come back from the public declaration that they are over, and how?

The phrase canceled is a buzzword taking the world by storm, reaching into virtually all industries, social media platforms, and cultural worlds. Think of it as the public saying Im done with you to a public figure or business and rejecting them personally and professionally. That might mean abandoning their work, unfollowing them on social media, and taking away their platform to be influential because of something they said or did.

This cancel culture is the phenomenon of eliminating support for these people who have done something offensive or whose ideologies are inappropriate in the public eye.

While this phenomenon is far from new people have been punishing those in positions of fame or power for decades its taken off in recent years. Social media has put the power in the hands and actions of everyday people who can now express their disapproval over behavior that they deem politically incorrect or offensive.

According to Dr. Jill McCorkel, a professor of sociology and criminology at Villanova University, cancel culture is an extension of or a contemporary evolution of a much bolder set of social processes that we can see in the form of banishment. While the methodology of cancel culture may have evolved, what remains consistent is that these steps of canceling someone are designed to reinforce the set of norms, she told the NY Post.

While being canceled might seem pretty final, its not necessarily a death wish to a persons reputation, social influence, or career. It is possible to achieve redemption after being canceled, but it is by no means a simple process or an overnight fix. For most celebrities or public figures battling the dark side of cancel culture, its a long, painful process. Just ask Chrissy Teigen. After being canceled for online bullying via insulting tweets from years ago, it took Teigen a long time and a lot of reflection and isolation just to begin to process her lousy behavior and reconcile what happens next when youre canceled.

Going outside sucks and doesnt feel right; being at home alone with my mind makes my depressed head race, Teigen wrote on her Instagram page after a long social media hiatus. Cancel club is a fascinating thing, and I have learned a whole lot. Only a few understand it, and its impossible to know till youre in it. And its hard to talk about it in that sense because obviously, you sound whiney when youve clearly done something wrong, she continued. It just sucks. There is no winning.

While it may seem as if everyone is either canceling someone else or is being canceled for inappropriate words or actions, the reality is that many Americans are truly confused by cancel culture. Many people dont fully understand what it means, and even if they do, theyre not exactly sure how they feel about the act of calling out others for poor past behavior.

In the fall of 2020, the Pew Research Center asked Americans to share if they are familiar with the term cancel culture and to explain what they think the term means in their own words.

According to their findings, 44% of Americans say they have heard at least a fair amount about the phrase, including 22% who have heard a great deal. That said, an even larger share (56%) say theyve heard nothing or not too much about it, and 38% who responded have heard nothing at all about cancel culture.

Theres also a generational divide, with most adults under 30 being very familiar with the concept. Still, only 34 percent of adults over 50 hear a great deal or fair amount about the phrase.

Clearly, cancel culture is everywhere, and its a genuine issue for celebrities who are being held accountable for their behavior in new and damaging ways. But its also causing a lot of confusion for Americans, especially older adults, who just dont quite get it.

In terms of the purpose of cancel culture, 58% of U.S. adults say that generally speaking, calling out others on social media is more likely to hold people accountable. 17% of respondents believe that calling out others can be a teaching moment that helps people learn from their mistakes and do better in the future, according to the Pew research.

So, for the million-dollar question, is there, in fact, redemption after being canceled? Experts, and the American public, seem to say yes.

If you ask Nathan Miller, founder, and CEO of MillerInk, which helps celebrities and brands navigate crisis, the key to surviving being canceled is about overcoming a large social, personal or professional cost that is imposed on you because of something youve said or done. Its important that you clearly pay for your mistakes, he suggested to CNN.

But how?

The very first step has to be a break a break from social media, from the public eye, from the toxic environments and exchanges that triggered the distasteful behavior in the first place.

A digital detox is a good place to start. Give yourself a break from public appearances, and dont open yourself up to online exchanges just yet. Dont read the insults and criticism right away. Take a step back and just breathe. Take it one day at a time.

Telling a client to drop out of the public eye for a few months isnt a bad idea. Right now, the world is moving so fast, and most people have a very short attention span, explains Ryan McCormick, Co-Founder and Media Relations Specialist at Goldman McCormick, an experienced crisis PR firm based in New York. The likelihood of a global event or national scandal eclipsing what your client had been involved in is reasonably high. Let time heal, he told CNN.

Redemption starts with an apology. You need to own up to what you did wrong, and that means more than just reciting words you dont mean it requires whole-heartedly accepting what you did wrong and saying (and truly meaning) you are sorry.

According to Lori Levine, founder and CEO of Flying Television, a company that forges partnerships between brands and celebrities, celebrities can come back from cancellation. Here in the United States, an apology tour is usually whats needed, she explained to CNN.

After taking time away from the spotlight, these public figures must re-enter the public eye explaining what they have done to work on themselves, rectify their mistakes, and explain why they feel remorseful. And they should be prepared to answer tough questions if they want to redeem themselves.

At the heart of cancel culture is the fact that the public feels betrayed by a celebritys behavior. Someone we thought we supported and whose values we believed in suddenly did something or said something to lose our trust and negate those beliefs.

Its a similar scenario when a trusted loved one does something to betray you or let you down. And as with any mistake in life, if you want to regain peoples trust, you need to be genuine. When you apologize, do it with authenticity.

Be honest about your shortcomings, where you messed up, what led you to those inexcusable actions, and how you plan to make it right and then actually make it right. Put your money where your mouth is. If your plan is to learn, grow and become educated (about whatever topic you are seemingly ignorant or confused about) so that you do not make the same mistakes, then actually embrace opportunities to learn. Reflect. Evolve. Find the silver linings.

As you take a step back, focus on your mental health and your own wellness. Only if you feel good inside and out will you be in any position to bounce back after being canceled. If you really want to right the wrongs your harsh words may have caused, you need to gain some perspective. Remember that while it seems like Americans are quick to cancel others and are eager to see others fail, our culture is even more driven by the comeback. In order to find redemption and move on, you need to do it with a renewed sense of purpose personally, professionally, and publicly.

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Cancel Culture: Is There an Opportunity for Redemption After Being Canceled? - BELatina

The world of The Real Housewives has become increasingly complicated. We have Housewives that are accused of running cults, scams, and schemes. Weve watched women of color endure racial microaggressions from their castmates on-screen. Several Real Housewives have shared problematic posts on social media, ranging from racially charged to anti-vaccine. Its a lot, and for the fans following along, its extra confusing when some cast members are punished for their behavior while others are seemingly left unscathed.

Most recently, this topic came up after The Real Housewives of Salt Lake CitynewbieJennie Nguyen was put on blast for her anti-Black Lives Matter Facebook posts that resurfaced. Although Jennie tried to blame it on her social media team, Bravo eventually fired her. However, their sluggish reaction to the controversy almost became the bigger story. It took nearly a week before they acknowledged that Jennie was a trending topic for all the wrong reasons.

For many fans, the controversy called into question how someone with such hateful content on their public Facebook page could make it through the casting process. And if Jennie got fired for her problematic posts, why is Ramona Singer still allowed to terrorize The Real Housewives of New York City? Across all of the different Housewives cities, where do they draw the line, and how will they prevent this from happening in the future?

In a recent interview with Entertainment Tonight, the head honcho of Housewives, Andy Cohen, gave a status update on all of the franchises. When talking about RHOSLCs season 3 casting shakeup, he admitted that the Housewives casting process is a work in progress.

Listen, I think that were in a time where were producing a show that is about outspoken, sometimes politically incorrect people who are speaking their mind and, you know, we have to be sensitive to issues of racism, Andy said.

And we have to look out for everybody who is not only watching, but who are also on the show, and you know, look theres, every case is different, but we wanna do the right thing, and its a work in progress, he continued.

Now, The Real Housewives has never been a show that we look to as a moral compass, but they should have always been sensitive to issues of racism. Thats not a new concept or a symptom of the 2020s. But, its refreshing to know that there is some intentional work happening behind the scenes so they can weed out some of these bad apples before they ever make it to our screens.

TELL US WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT ANDY SAYING THE REAL HOUSEWIVES CASTING IS A WORK IN PROGRESS? DO YOU THINK BRAVO SHOULD BE MORE CONSISTENT WHEN RESPONDING TO THESE ISSUES?

[Photo Credit: Bravo]

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Andy Cohen Admits Real Housewives Casting Process Is A "Work In Progress" After Jennie Nguyen Firing - Reality Tea

The issue is not whether hijab is central to Islam or not. The issue is that a law made in the seventh century cant and shouldnt be applicable in the 21st century

She is in exile today, as the name of her recent book suggests. And her unfiltered mind and politically-incorrect utterances have gotten her into trouble so many times. But Taslima Nasrin remains committed to telling what she believes is true. As the Karnatakahijabcontroversy takes the nation by storm, with politico-social position deeply divided along ideological-communal lines,Firstpostreaches out to the noted novelist and writer for her thoughts onhijab, Islam and the idea of democracy in India. Excerpts:

Whats your take on the ongoing controversy in Karnatakas Udupi district where a few girls came to a college in ahijab?

I believe an educational institution in a secular country is well within its rights to mandate secular dress codes for its students. There is nothing wrong with school/college authorities telling students to keep their religious identities at home. Schools cant be a place for religious bigotry, fundamentalism and superstitions; the principles of individual freedom, gender equality, liberalism, humanism and scientific temper must be taught there.Hijabs, niqabsandburqashave a singular aim of commodifying women as sex objects. The fact that women need to hide from men who sexually salivate at their very sight is so demeaning and this practice must stop at the earliest.

There is a large section of people who defend the girlshijabact saying that the dress is an inherent part of Islam. Whats your take?

The issue is not whether its central to Islam or not. The issue is that we are living in the 21stcentury and laws made in the seventh century cant and shouldnt be applicable now. We also need to understand that aburqaandhijabcan never be a womans choice. They are worn only when choices are taken away. Its often the family members who force their womenfolk to wearburqa/hijab. We need to understand thatburqa/hijabcan never be an integral part of a person's identity. Aburqaorhijabis akin to the chastity belt of the past; it is as humiliating as a chastity belt!

India's hijab row. PTI

Do you think the Modi government should try to bring the Uniform Civil Code?

I believe any secular state should have Uniform Civil Code in place. Why should any community in a secular state have separate personal laws? Everyone, especially Muslims, must understand that by being a part of the mainstream they can easily fight poverty, and gender and religious discrimination.

You have never shied away from saying that Islam is not compatible with modernity. What makes you take this stringent position?

Look, I grew up in a family of a staunch believer and an absolute non-believer. While my mother was a religious person, my father was an atheist. So, I had the opportunity to experience both sides, and this helped me question things that my mother would push in the name of religion. For instance, I would ask why should I study theQuranwhen I dont understand its meaning and language. Why should we be forced to learn Arabic when we have a beautiful language in Bengali? My mother would say that I should read because Allah would be happy! But then Allah would be knowing Bengali, no? Exasperated, one day my mother told me if I said anything bad about Allah, my tongue would fall off. Curious as I was as an eight-year-old girl, I locked myself in a bathroom and said something foul about Him. But my tongue didnt fall off! At the age of 12, I got hold of a translation of theQuranandHadith, and after reading them I became an atheist. And I continue to remain an atheist till date. Because I find the strands of gender disparity, fundamentalism in all religions, in different degrees of course.

Ideally, you should have been the darling of Left-liberals, but thats not the case. They, in fact, charge you with inciting people, of being unnecessarily rigid and uncompromising. How do you see this?

I am very clear about the fact that these so-called Left-liberals arent the true well-wishers of the Muslim community. If you wish Muslims well, as I do, you would never shy away from telling them the truth whether they like it or not. Todays liberals take a hypocritical position: They dont like fundamentalists, but they also dont approve of criticism of Islam. They play safe. By doing so, they accept the barbarism of all religions. For me, secularism is the complete separation of state and religion.

Another typical double-standard, especially found among Muslim intellectuals, is that while they applaud Hindus and Christians criticising their respective religions, they dont approve of the same for a Muslim. No society can be truly secular if its people are not free to critically examine their own religion.

In your recent bookExile, you mentioned in detail how you were thrown out of Kolkata. Did you ever go back to Kolkata after that?

No, I could never go back to the city I loved so much. Mamata Banerjee and communists hated each other, but when it came to Taslima Nasrin they became one: They both hated me. When Mamata became chief minister, I was hopeful that I would be back in Kolkata. Besides being someone who suffered so much at the hands of Marxists, she was a woman above all. But I was wrong. She seems to approve of the communist action against me.

***

Also Read

Karnataka hijab controversy: Indian democracy enters uncharted territory of grave danger

Opinion | On Hijab Day, the only choice is to drop the cloth for No Hijab Day

Karnataka hijab controversy: Why Modi government should seriously think about Uniform Civil Code

History will not be kind to liberals cheerleading for hijab and burqa

Udupi hijab row: A pre-planned move to stoke communal tension in Karnatakas sensitive coastal belt?

Theres a good case to ban hijab in schools, but Congress cheers orthodoxy

***

What about Bangladesh? Do you miss your place of birth? Are you hopeful of going back there ever again?

I dont see any hope of going to Bangladesh again. Like Bengal, Bangladesh has had women prime ministers for so many decades and yet they had problems with a woman who worked for gender equality faces discrimination, persecution. I am also getting pessimistic because Bangladesh has transformed into a fundamentalist country. When I was staying there, I would not see so many women wearinghijabsandburqas. Now its a normal sight. The country is very much Islamised today.

Read all the Latest News, Trending News,Cricket News, Bollywood News,India News and Entertainment News here. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

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Interview | Hijab is akin to chastity belt that turn..says Taslima Nasrin as she bats for Uniform Civil Code - Firstpost

Tista' taqra bil-Malti.

Everyone familiar with the popular Wordle game in which you have to put together a five letter word will now experience a change in the game. Until yesterday every person around the world wanted to put together the same word, but this will change.

Now that the New York Times bought this game a fortnight ago, there may be more than one solution per day, depending on which version of Wordle you play. The Times has also taken care to remove words that are considered derogatory or politically incorrect in the list of words you can cut and the list of answers.

Various sources say that if you still have the old game downloaded or have not refreshed the updated page, you will never keep up with your friends and will not compare the results. Many people who play this game on Twitter have written that you have to be careful because it is easy to lose all the fun when you realize that you will not be able to keep up with your friends because you are using a different version of the game.

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Wordle will have more than one solution every day - Newsbook

They laugh a lot, they sing a lotalmost always in harmony, given their association with church choirsand they like to eat well and, well, eat a lot. All the Fernandeses, Saldanhas, Sequeiras, DSouzas, Goviases, Albuquerques and so many more with all those distinctively Iberian last names have enriched my life since I was a child.

Our neighbourhood, lives and food would be much poorer without the Mangys. That is the somewhat politically incorrect but droll term by which Mangaloreans, primarily of Roman Catholic persuasion, refer to themselves.

Our 12-year-olds felicity with the piano and her eight-year vocal training in a wonderful choir called the Bangalore Childrens Chorus are entirely the result of the Mangalorean Roman Catholic environment around her (the other dominating influence is Muslim, which allows her to partake not just of another marvellous set of cuisines but adapt easily to that culture as well). So, A flat and D major scales may be mysterious places for us but not for her. I am tone deaf, and her mother is given to Hindi or Urdu film songs of a certain provenance, mostly the 1950s-60sgive her a tune and she can sing the entire song, whether Lata Mangeshkar or Begum Akhtar.

But the most pernicious daily influence of the Mangys is on our food, for two reasons. One, it shares great similarities with my native Goan cuisine, but because the local stores stock Mangalorean spices and ingredients, some of which are distinct, I use them a lot. Two, there are just so many Mangy home chefs around that one cannot but help be influenced by, or order from, them.

Now, we have access to a variety of home-made cuisines, from Navayath Muslim to Punjabi to Ao Naga (and our favourite Parsi baker) but my go-to home chef is a calm Mangalorean, Lisa Govias, whose daily offerings show up in my WhatsApp almost every day.

My fridge is always stocked with her long-term offerings, including chicken, beef cutlets and meatballs, and I frequently order her specials, which range from prawn biryani to roast chicken. But her best offerings are the bafatspork, chicken and muttonespecially those made in roce, which in Konkani is coconut milk, used widely by Goans, Keralites, Maharashtrians and Mangaloreans. The bafat, or baffat, is a distinctively Mangalorean (and Goan) masala with Portuguese influences, used for meat, especially pork or dukramaas. As with so many Indian cultures, each house originally made its own bafat powder in bulk with its own mix of spices. There are now various brands available; Govias uses Savitha Bafat Powder.

Like many industrious Mangaloreans, she is so much more than her bafat. She is a baker, a Reiki and Akashic healer, a counsellor. She began baking at 7, cooking for her familymore than 25, typical of the Mangaloreansin her teens, catering for 100-plus dinners by 21. Home, she says, is where her hearth is, where five burners burn every day, fuelling her home-catering business Pepper That.

Govias doesnt offer bafat as often as I would like, so I asked for her recipe.

It wasnt nearly as good, but it was a good enough substitute. You can make bafat masala at home, using your own combination of dried Kashmiri chillies, coriander seeds, cumin seeds, mustard seeds, black peppercorn, turmeric, cinnamon and cloves.

LISA GOVIAS MUTTON BAFAT ROCE CURRYServes 8

Ingredients1kg mutton, cut into medium pieces2 onions, chopped fine2 tomatoes, chopped fine2 medium-sized potatoes, cut into quarters2 slit green chillies1 tsp ginger paste1 tsp garlic pasteOne-third cup tamarind juiceJuice of 1 coconut (thin and thick milk) or 3 coconut milk powder sachets2 -3 heaped tbsp bafat powder3-4 cardamom pods3-4 cloves1-2 sticks of cinnamon2-3 tbsp coconut oilSalt to taste

MethodWash and put mutton to boil with water and salt for 30-45 minutes till tender. You can also pressure-cook it. Add the potatoes to parboil with the mutton about 10 minutes or so before it is done. In a vessel, heat oil, add in the whole spices, then saut the onions till they start turning brown. Add the ginger and garlic paste and fry well for a few minutes, add the tomatoes and let cook until they break down. Lower the heat and add the bafat masala. Fry for 30-40 seconds, then add the tamarind juice and mix well. Add the remaining water from the boiled mutton and let it come to a boil. Add the mutton and potatoes and let it boil for a few minutes.

You can now can add the thin coconut milk. If you are using the sachets, add one packet, mixed in one-third cup of warm water. Let it cook for about five minutes. Add in the sliced green chillies and salt to taste. Then add the remaining thick coconut milk or the two sachets mixed in warm water. Let it boil for a few minutes. Lastly, add a tablespoon of coconut oil and then take off the heat. Serve hot with rice as an accompaniment.

Our Daily Bread is a column on easy, inventive cooking. Samar Halarnkar is the author of The Married Mans Guide To Creative CookingAnd Other Dubious Adventures. @samar11

Also read | The magic of steaming food in a banana leaf

Originally posted here:
Mutton, music and those magnificent Mangys - Mint Lounge

Shobhaa De

One of India's most popular writers, Shobhaa De has seen it all: life as a model, a copywriter, a journalist, a socialite, a scriptwriter, a bestselling novelist and a busy mother of six children. "Politically Incorrect", which has been appearing as a column in The Times of India, carries her sharp observations on politics, society, economy and relationships. LESS ... MORE

I dont want to get into SRKs spitting controversy at Lata Mangeshkars funeralbut, at the risk of sounding flippant, I must say Shah Rukh Khan looked super hot with that low ponytail! That comment posted by a friend on Facebook made me revisit what I had dismissed as another nasty campaign orchestrated by Hate SRK troll armies. Let me clarify, I am neither a family friend of SRK, nor his PR manager, I am just a fellow Indian pained by what I see. This is not about SRK per se, it is about our double standards and collective ignorance as a people. The so-called spitting clips doing the rounds show SRK waiting patiently to pay his respects at Latajis funeral, small wreath in hand. Next, we see him offering prayers (12 seconds), palms open, as per Islamic practice. After that, he lowers his mask, bends low, gently blows air, replaces his mask, does a parikrama around the body, touches her feet, bows, joins his hands in a namaskar, before leaving. Both gestures reflect his heartfelt love for the legend who is no more.

Read full opinion on TOI+

Views expressed above are the author's own.

END OF ARTICLE

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SRK row shows how little we know about our fellow Indians - The Times of India Blog

Anti vaccine mandate protestors block the roadway leaving the Ambassador Bridge border crossing, in Windsor, Ont., on Feb. 8.GEOFF ROBINS/AFP/Getty Images

Daniel Panneton is a writer, educator and online hate researcher based in Toronto.

In their 2021 book You Are Here: A Field Guide for Navigating Polarized Speech, Conspiracy Theories, and Our Polluted Media Landscape, scholars Whitney Phillips and Ryan M. Milner use hurricanes as a metaphor to explain an important dynamic of the QAnon meta-conspiracy theory.

Similar to how a hurricane can grow by consuming smaller storms, QAnon absorbed and rerouted existing conspiratorial narratives around Pizzagate and the murder of Democratic National Committee employee Seth Rich. Although each narrative was destructive in its own right, their absorption into a larger storm produced more devastating results than they would have alone. The power of a hurricane depends in part on the shape of the landscape that it hits, and in QAnons case, the COVID-19 pandemic helped shape an environment particularly vulnerable to radicalization and social fragmentation.

The United States is not the only country where the pandemic has frayed the shared sense of community and reality; Canadians are similarly vulnerable to radicalization. As with QAnon, the recent Freedom Convoy to Ottawa demonstrates how existing economic and political concerns are converging around and being sucked into larger conspiratorial narratives. Nominally protesting against vaccine mandates, the Freedom Convoy represented a medley of real, imagined and exaggerated issues bound together by a common sense of alienation and grievance. It created a context in which mainstream and fringe concerns could meld, merge and reinforce each other, and where extreme symbols and rhetoric could be normalized by association and adjacency with legitimate issues.

Marked by threats against journalists and lawmakers, the Freedom Convoy included a motley array of Western separatists, anti-vaxxers, conspiracy theorists, antisemites, Islamophobes and other extremists. This wasnt a surprise to anyone whod been paying attention: Several of the convoy organizers have a history of white nationalist and racist activism, a fact that extremism experts such as the Canadian Anti-Hate Network emphasized repeatedly prior to the convoys arrival in Ottawa.

The Liberals should listen to their backbenchers plea to unwind COVID-19 pandemic measures

After a week of tightrope-walking, police in Ottawa must actively enforce the law

The Freedom Convoy was organized largely online, and within relevant Facebook groups there is meme after meme articulating the idea that Canada is suffering under a tyrannical government. The memes are evocative of a similar Canada is collapsing narrative that has existed for several years on the infamous 4chan, a fringe website whose cultural and political impact outweighs its relative size, and which often functions as a workshop and crucible for extremist propagandizing.

Since early 2018 there have been regular threads posted on the sites Politically Incorrect board promoting the accelerationist narrative aimed at undermining trust in existing institutions in service of societal collapse. Threads follow a similar sequence: The original poster shares images of astronomical food prices from fly-in communities or high-end grocery stores, often with comparisons to prices in other countries. Many of these images are made into memes with text such as, Canada under Trudeau. In response, other users post photographs of in-store prices from their own local stores to disprove the disinformation, often in typical online absurdist fashion alongside memes. Accusations and speculation about who is posting the fake information fly freely until people lose interest and move on to other threads. Rinse and repeat every few weeks. Repetition is key to normalization, and while a single grocery meme wont radicalize, it can contribute to a growing perception that drastic, even violent measures may be called for.

The threads have developed two functions: Spread the narrative that a collapse is imminent and promote conspiratorial speculation over who is to blame for it. Despite how often these misleading posts are disproven, such disinformation threads have been a consistent presence on 4chan for several years. They are common enough that users developed antisemitic conspiracy theories about their origins, claiming that propagandists were spreading lies to distract from imagined Jewish political machinations in Canada. The antisemitic conspiracies were then met with further antisemitism: Users posting accurate prices were accused of being part of the (made-up) Canadian Grocery Defense Force, a reference to the (very real) Jewish Internet Defense Force, implying yet again Jewish control.

There is an inherent risk in writing about hateful disinformation in a mainstream publication as it can amplify corrosive accelerationist narratives. However, when we look at existing discourse around food prices and inflation in Canada, we find that elements of the Canada is collapsing theory were already being normalized in the leadup to the Freedom Convoy.

In December, we saw a mainstream iteration of the meme on Reddit, which received a write up in the Toronto Star: A person posted a sparse grocery haul with the caption, This was $95. As with the debunking on 4chan threads, users quickly pointed out that the total had been inflated by relatively expensive items and an undisclosed delivery fee.

Elected officials have also posted similar content. Alberta Premier Jason Kenney recently tweeted photographs of empty shelves and described the situation as a crisis a move that a distribution expert said weaponized the unrepresentative images.

Although none of these examples have the same explicitly accelerationist intent as the material on 4chan, they reinforce a radicalizing narrative that is already prevalent in darker corners of the web and being normalized with troubling speed. The fact that these grievances appeared alongside other more extreme symbols at the convoy is cause for concern. The Canada is collapsing narrative has bled into the mainstream, and events such as the Freedom Convoy provide environments in which it can flourish among other conspiratorial and accelerationist theories.

Rising food costs and supply chain issues were among the legitimate issues highlighted during the protests, but panic-shopping in the early days of the pandemic demonstrated how the prospect of empty shelves can easily induce irrational behaviour. Already, right-wing extremist activity has surged and increasing numbers of Canadians are thinking conspiratorially. Trust in institutions is failing, and its vital that journalists and particularly lawmakers recognize how extremists can opportunistically redefine and hijack existing issues, and hold their peers accountable when they amplify or normalize accelerationist narratives. Failure to do so, or worse, attempting to harness and manipulate them for political gain, will only pull Canada deeper into our present quagmire.

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Opinion: The trucker convoy shows how Canadians are being sucked into larger conspiratorial narratives - The Globe and Mail

Hershey's made a major grammar mishap when they featured "she" instead of "her" in their marketing move that was noticed in a recent Twitterpost.

According to PR Newswire, Hershey's will celebrate International Women's Day on March 8 by giving out limited edition milk chocolate bars to the first 1,000 visitors at its Hershey's Chocolate World locations in Hershey, Pennsylvania, Times Square in New York City, and Las Vegas. The company encourages consumers to honor the women in their lives by "celebrating she." Twitter wasn't pleased.

Many commenters follow each other down the politically correct rabbit hole, but grammar lovers stay focused on proper English. One follower has a grammatically correct solution and tweets that the company should've gone with "Celebrate her, she deserves it." Another person, annoyed by Hershey's marketing mistake tweets, "I hope whomever botched this is really proud of sheself and/or heself," and then goes on to critique the grammar in his own tweet. Incorrect grammar or not, Hershey's has everyone talking about their chocolate bar.

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Twitter Is Calling Out Hershey's For This Unexpected Reason - Tasting Table

The content family-friendly It is relegated by some of the series that we are going to break down for you below.

In this report you will find a list of the 8 outstanding series from the HBO Max, Netflix and Amazon Prime Video platforms. They are not afraid of being politically incorrect or offending viewers.

They are series that have made black humor, the most surreal situations and total chaos their flag. Y above there is for all tastes.

You can now try Amazon Prime Video for free for one month and with no commitment to stay. On this platform you can watch series like American Gods, Hanna and Jack Ryan, as well as hundreds of exclusive movies.

In the following list you will find superhero series such as The Peacemaker or Invincible, cartoons as mythical as Rick and Morty or comic situations such as The Office.

Selection of the 8 most naughty series that you can enjoy on Netflix, Prime Video or HBO Max:

We start this list with a bang. The latest series of DC Universe from HBO Max comes with the name of The Peacemaker and it is about a spin-off of The Suicide Squad.

Created by the films director himself, James Gunnin this series John Cena puts on a costume again to play, in this case, Christopher Smith, aka The Peacemaker.

We are talking about a man who believes in peace at any price no matter how many people he has to kill to get it. This antihero faces an identity crisis as he must team up with some old acquaintances to save the world.

These elements of the argument allow to claim as a truly adult series: violence, gore, nudity, drug use, swearing, murder

On January 13, 2022, he trained on HBO Max. Enjoy it from the following link and let yourself be surprised.

Disney + continues to release news, such as its STAR channel. If you sign up for the annual subscription, you will save the equivalent of two months compared to the monthly subscription.

We continue with the superheroes. And it is that Invincible arrived at Amazon with the label of the new series based on a comic by The Walking Dead author Robert Kirkman.

We find violence as the main theme, in which the creators have not spared the least when it comes to showing it graphically and in which a parody of other superheroes with a generous amount of gore scenes.

A kid with typical day-to-day problems is our protagonist. One morning he discovers that he has inherited some long-awaited powers, so he begins to train his new abilities with his father, Omni-Man (the strongest superhero on Earth).

However, not everything is so simple. The planet they inhabit is loaded with villains willing to destroy the city every two times three. A traumatic event will completely change an entire generation.

On March 25, 2021, it arrived on Amazon Prime Video. Do not miss it and drop by the following link.

You can now try Amazon Prime Video for free for one month and with no commitment to stay. On this platform you can watch series like American Gods, Hanna and Jack Ryan, as well as hundreds of exclusive movies.

Lets tone down the amount of violence and blood a little bit and go for something different. This report could not miss one of the great comic and acid series, in turn, of history.

office focuses on Michael Scott, played by an amazing and funny Steve Carrell, who is the head of a paper company located in Pennsylvania. His personality is so characteristic that one comes to feel embarrassed to see him, but you also manage to empathize with him.

This strange boss is accompanied by his employees, who are amazed at his behavior and make fun of it more than once.

The awkward silences, the complicit looks at the camera, the joke as a resource that is in continuous loop makes this series a masterpiece. And it is that episode after episode gets you hooked and want to see more.

On March 24, 2005, this series premiered in the United States. However, and despite the fact that it is already a few years old, you can see it on Netflix. If you havent seen them yet, what are you waiting for?

The best Netflix exclusive miniseries to watch in one sitting on a weekend

Lets go with a cartoon. We already told you that there was something for all tastes. In this case we have a series by Matt Groening himself creator of The Simpsons or Futurama.

(Dis)enchantment is set in a medieval fantasy world, where the protagonist is Princess Tiabeanie (Bean), a born non-conformist, who rejects the imposed marriage to generate alliances for the kingdom, who together with her two right-hand men, Elfo and Luci, embark on a quest to get the elixir of life.

Many times it is played with black humor, social criticism, small doses of drama and a lot of hooliganismin the purest Groening style.

Has been focus of great criticism perhaps because of the high expectations that a series by this great creator can generate. However, give it a try, you have it available on Netflix.

The best series starring women from Netflix, HBO and Amazon Prime Video

Perhaps, of the entire list, it is the least known. And it is that the animated series from the creators of Gravity Falls was sneakily released on Netflix. But its really worth it.

This series was born to laugh at all the conspiracy theories that swarm with laughter when we talk about them, because here they are shown to be true.

This animated series is a satire for adults that ridicules the whole world in which nothing is what it seems. The control of the planet Earth will be in the hands of six quite strange figures and that you can see in the image that we show you.

And it is that the plot focuses on the existence of a government that acts in the shadowsdevoting himself to designing and disseminating all kinds of secret societies, cover-ups, masked orgies, making the viewer wonder how the world really works.

Well, see it through the Netflix platform.

If you like series like Friends, The Sopranos or Game of Thrones, HBO Max has these and many more in its catalog.

Happy! is a comic born from the mind of the great Grant Morrison, one of the great writers of DC. Outbreaks of hysteria, scenes of excessive violence, effects of drugs, depravity and a strong smell of whiskey is the cocktail of this great series.

As for the plot, Nick Sax is an ex-cop who is now a thug for the mob. After one of his assignments, he will suffer a heart attack because his only goal was to end his life as soon as possible based on huge amounts of alcohol and drugs.

in the ambulance will start to see Happy, a flying blue unicorn who is an imaginary friend of Hailey, a girl who has been kidnapped and who seeks Nicks help to rescue her.

The first episode is a festival of blood, violence and offal as rarely seen in a series. We can say that they put all the meat on the grill. In the following ones, they will gradually delve into the dark psyches of the main characters of Happy!.

Clear up a little and enjoy it on Netflix from the following link.

The last 10 winners of the Goya for Best Film: what are they and on what platforms can you see them

The Boys was Amazon Primes big bet and they werent wrong. This series will teach us the darker side of the most beloved superheroes.

The world in which this series takes place is based on the control of superheroes by a large corporation that is in charge of their image, product and presentations at events, in addition to receiving the treatment as authentic celebrities, since their popularity is the heavens

Superheroes who lose interest in saving the world, greedy, interested, capitalistsa satire of what the Justice League could really be like if we brought it into the real world.

Were talking about a very punk philosophy, with high-quality special effects and production design, but one that also hits the nail on the head and invites us to reflect on the present in which we live and the future we want.

Dont miss it on Amazon Prime Video.

6 comedies that are shot as false documentaries and that you can find on Netflix, HBO Max, Disney + and Filmin

Last but not least, we found a mythical cartoon series that could not be missing from this list. this series It is against everything politically correct.

Rick is the perfect definition of wacko. He is alcoholic, irresponsible, but a genius. This one, who has just moved in with his daughters house, remembers that he has a grandson named Morty and decides that he will take him on all his adventures in order to turn him into another genius and prevent him from falling into the idiocy of life. father of him

This is how both will begin to live experiences through the quite bizarre galaxies.

We find all kinds of topics: alcoholism, drugs, relationships, suicide, depression, violence and, above all, black humor. So beware of the extremely touchy.

The first season came out in 2013 and has continued until 2021 with number 5. Its next season, despite the fact that it does not yet have a date, has been confirmed. Meanwhile enjoy the rest, through the following link.

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8 hooligan series that you can find on Netflix, HBO Max and Prime Video - Then24