I disagree, although I can definitely see where you are coming from. Places like Alabama, Florida, and Mississippi are still dealing with outright racism in some areas. There was even astory I read about a town that had a white okigarchy which wouldn’t give its black resudents mayorship. The South, while seeming like it won’t change, will eventually have to. There are a lot of demographic shifts happening here that will force it to change some. Not to mention a growing labor movement, awareness of clinate change, and growing activism to address social issues that will increasingly put pressure on local and stare governments. So, yes, it will take time to correct the inertia of the status quo, but it’s possible.
cross-posted from: https://lemmy.basedcount.com/post/225838
> cross-posted from: https://lemmy.basedcount.com/post/225787
>
> > I have built an AutoMod bot for my instance, [lemmy.basedcount.com](https://lemmy.basedcount.com). The bot covers the following features:
> >
> > - **Automated removal**
> > - of **posts**, based on their _title_, _content_ or _link_
> > - of **comments**, based on their _content_
> > - configurable with either regular expressions or substrings
> > - **User whitelisting** and **exceptions for moderators** to selectively lift some or all of the aforementioned rules for certain users.
> > - Mention based **pinning** and **locking** of a post, through commands exclusively available to the mod team
> > - Discord notifications for new **registration applications** through a webhook. [only for admins]
> >
> > Naturally, the bot is completely [open source](https://github.com/ornato-t/lemmy-automoderator). I have also written a rather comprehensive (albeit long-winded) [documentation](https://github.com/ornato-t/lemmy-automoderator/wiki) and some [examples](https://github.com/ornato-t/lemmy-automoderator-examples).
> >
> > This project is mainly targeted towards admins of small instances, however anyone can spin up their own AutoMod instance for their favourite community (provided they are a moderator there).
> > The automoderator is also available as a Docker image, for ease of installation.
> >
> > Feel free to suggest any additional features that you might want to see added to this bot.
I hope this really hapoens. I’ve heard that video game development is a toxic jndustry to be in, from underpaid developers to strict dealines to meet. I really hope they will unionize!
I agree with this post you made. If the best we can do is vote into office a fairly old, out-of-tuoch president who has done a moderately decent job of running the United States, then it’s a lose-lose situation for everyone. Politics especially in the United States has become too boring and safe. We need to take a risk on Cornell West and spice the game up a bit. Else we’ll repeat the same mistakes we’ve been making for the past 50 years.
Edit; pls forgive my passion posting, whoops. Point is we need a shake up cuz stuff is going down the drain a little
# The Appropriation of "Rich Men North of Richmond"
I heard on the radio that a new viral song has shot its way to the top of the charts, called "Rich Men in Richmond", and it has already soarked a bunch of controversy, being referenced at the Republican debate last night as an "anthem of sorts", an anthem which ironically ridiculed the candidates on the stage, as the singer Oliver Anthony to point out in a public address later.
However, interestingly enough this sort of appropriation of country songs as "anthems" for the authoritarian right has happened before, with Bruce Springsteen's "Born in the USA". It was popular because of a similar economic cry for relief, at least until it got coopted by Reagan.
## Born in the USA by Springsteen
> Born down in a dead man's town
> The first kick I took was when I hit the ground
> You end up like a dog that's been beat too much
> 'Til you spend half your life just coverin' up
> Got in a little hometown jam
> So they put a rifle in my hand
> Sent me off to a foreign land
> To go and kill the yellow man
> Come back home to the refinery
> Hiring man says, "Son if it was up to me"
> Went down to see my V.A. man
> He said, "Son, don't you understand"
> Down in the shadow of the penitentiary
> Out by the gas fires of the refinery
> I'm ten years burning down the road
> Nowhere to run ain't got nowhere to go
The song is basically about a small town rural man who grows up living a rough life, which leaves him with many physical and psychological scars that he has to "spend half his life just covering up". He then was drafted to the military to go fight off in the Vietnam War. After a few years of fighting a needless war, he returns home to find a job, only to be turned away because all the jobs have dried up. Desperate to survive, he goes to the Veteran's Administration (VA) to get assistance, but is presumably turned away because the VA is underfunded, and he is eventually forced to go to prison, reduced to burning away his potential as he is used and firgitten by the same America he fought to protect.
The song is made more ironic by the fact that he echoes "Born in the USA," which implies that as an American he should be achieving the American Dream, but he definitely doesn't achieve them as his potential is wasted away in a jail cell, among the most forgotten in society.
Springsteen's song poignantly pointed out the realities of being a poor white American citizen, and this struck a chord as the song skyrocketed to popularity, so much so that Ronald Reagan mentioned him in a presidential speech, and used his song to appeal to millions of Americans to win in a landslide in 1984, using the song's appeal to white Americans and its connection to patriotism. It is still used today at some right leaning rallies as a quintessentiallu american sonf
## Rich Men North of Richmond by Anthony
> I've been sellin' my soul, workin' all day
> Overtime hours for bullshit pay
> So I can sit out here and waste my life away
> Drag back home and drown my troubles away
> It's a damn shame what the world's gotten to
> For people like me and people like you
> Wish I could just wake up and it not be true
> But it is, oh, it is
> Livin' in the new world
> With an old soul
> These rich men north of Richmond
> Lord knows they all just wanna have total control
> Wanna know what you think, wanna know what you do
> And they don't think you know, but I know that you do
> 'Cause your dollar ain't shit and it's taxed to no end
> 'Cause of rich men north of Richmond
> I wish politicians would look out for miners
> And not just minors on an island somewhere
> Lord, we got folks in the street, ain't got nothin' to eat
> And the obese milkin' welfare
> Well, God, if you're five-foot-three and you're three-hundred pounds
> Taxes ought not to pay for your bags of Fudge
Rounds
> Young men are puttin' themselves six feet in the ground
> 'Cause all this damn country does is keep on kickin' them down
Meanwhile, "Rich Men North of Richmond" has a similar theme and topic of exploitation, this time from the "rich men". Although it approaches it from a different manner, this time the enemy is more defined, namely rich people.
The chorus is a successor to Springsteen's song, being that the singer is an "old soul" living in a "new world'.
He still experiences a similar hard rural life, having to work hard long hours for "bulls\*\*\* pay", and "waste his life away".
This is because of the rich people who want to "have total control over your life" and know everything you do, extracting you for every penny you are worth.
He then goes on to slam the politicians for not looking out for rural people like them, and goes on to blame "obese people milking welfare", an obviously very offensive and stereotypical remark that actually hides a deeper truth to the pain the singer expresses. To cope with the pain, they can tend to "kick down" on other groups, like obese people, who they think are the reason why they don't have enough to survive. They perceive the whole world as against them, "kicking them down" and never giving them a chance, which can kill them in the pricess. Historically, this has been the case, as more urban areas got the economic benefit of industrialization, and rural areas have been left to fend for themselves, whether it be coal miners trying to unionize; or farmers toiling the soil, trying to compete against Big Agriculture, or small town people struggling to find jobs in rust belts.
## Comparisons and Remarks
Both Anthony's and Springsteen's songs expeess the plight of rural and poor white male Americans very well. However, they express it in different ways.
Anthony's song is a variant of Springsteen's which criticizes the current festering plight of white rural and lower class American, yet again, as it highlights the wealth inequality which leaves many families struggling to survive. It also tends to more directly address the causes of this plight, targeting the rich, politicians, and those who do not pay fairly.
This is different from Springsteen's story, which is more about the hardships and experiences of life, and more implicitly pointed the American government at that time as the enemy. It chronicles the journey of a forgotten soldier, and how their American Dream was never realized, but constantly teased in front of them.
Because of the mass emotional appeals of these country songs, they have always been targets of right-wing politicians, to make them seem like they are a part of the in group, when in reality, they use people to get and stay in office (note that both of these somgs were popular during presendential runs). So they co-opt the song and misconstrue the singer's message so as to gain support.
Sorry this hasn't been thought out too well, i just though an analysis would be interesting, please correct me if i did anything wrong.
Edit: corrected Springstein to Springsteen
Edit 2: the person in the Springsteen song was drafted, so i corrected
There might be, but as a standard mp3 is by far the most cross compatible format on any device. Plus, if you feel like it later you can just create a program to convert all the mp3 files into other formats.
I will just say it has always been an observation that degrees in humanities and the social sciences augment math and acience and help us understand ourselves and the world. We need more imagination and introspection from the liberal arts so that we can implement the ideas in real life with nore technical math and science degrees.
If you’re more interested, a YouTuber over here went over PragerU propaganda in this kids show, and I think it shows something important about how propaganda can present a certain world view as well as hide it.
Prager U For Kids: A Horrible YouTube Channel
Lol, what if out of spite we basically created a “woke” cooperative that actually sold good stuff? We’d get media for free: good press from our service and good backlash media from opponents.
This. There are A LOT of errors and fallacies which the brain makes, and oftentimes those can be used by bad actors to influence, nudge, and manipulate the person into doing something.
While I understand there is a certain level of accountability that needs to be enforced, we should keep in mind the puppetmaster whom we often do not see in the background can do more harm because they are more deeply embedded and have more implicit power that needs to be uncovered and stopped.
My favorite would probably be Super Mario Galaxy 2 OST. That game had really good music, so good I think it got nominated for an award or something. The music is nice and riveting.
i want to watch the corporations burn too. but we’re losing something we’ll never get back.
This perfectly highlights the precarious situation we are in. We have collectively decided to put A LOT of Internet history on a few centralized places that don’t really care about data as profit, and now it is coming back to bite us in the rear. We will lose a lot of history that we can never easily get back, whether it is deleted, or siloed behind a login/paywall screen.
Take, for example, Twitter burning down. It affects everyone negatively. Think of all the important conversations going on about race, gender, sexuality, and protests and movements, that will be lost to time. Think of all the artist who have posted work on there, only to discover they have to shift to a new platform literally overnight because no one can see their artwork and there is a mass exodus. Think of how good reputable news sources are becoming even more fragmented as reputable, trustworthy actors flee Twitter, turning it into a swamp of misinformation and disinformation.
Now take this scenario, and spread it across all the major sites, keeping in mind how all sites rely on each other to be useful, so damage becomes exponentially worse as more large sites decide to do restrictive policies that trap users and data within their sites. As a result, information cannot travel as freely between boundaries. Now taking into account all the damage that has been done, the Internet won’t be the frontier of possibility and community as it once was, but rather another cash cow, and medium of distribution: it will become like a more interactive version of TV.
I wish we could go back to the mid 2000s/early 2010s era of the Internet…I miss those days…
Sorry for doom ranting a little, it’s just the Internet as a concept is important to me.
English
I disagree, although I can definitely see where you are coming from. Places like Alabama, Florida, and Mississippi are still dealing with outright racism in some areas. There was even astory I read about a town that had a white okigarchy which wouldn’t give its black resudents mayorship. The South, while seeming like it won’t change, will eventually have to. There are a lot of demographic shifts happening here that will force it to change some. Not to mention a growing labor movement, awareness of clinate change, and growing activism to address social issues that will increasingly put pressure on local and stare governments. So, yes, it will take time to correct the inertia of the status quo, but it’s possible.