9/27/21
GABBY's DEATH SOCIAL MEDIA and UNFAIRNESS ABOUT MISSING PERSONS
Gabby Petito made headlines in the worst way possible, through her death. And since then, because of her presence on social media - specifically YouTube - as she and her boyfriend attempted to document a carefree "van" lifestyle, citizen activists and citizen sleuths have been trying to help law enforcement solve the mystery. I watched dozens of these videos, much of them repetitive without much new to say. It helps to use the filter "last hour" to make your way through some of these.
A criticism that I think is unfair is that Gabby got all the media attention because she's a blond, blue eyed White woman. While I do suspect that Black missing people might not get the same attention as White in some places, the reason this story - one of an easy half million missing people a year in the United States - grabbed our attention was:
That the couple did seek attention in the first place. Like others who document their van life hoping to gain a following and enough interest to get paid by YouTube, the couple set out to depict their travels to National Parks.
The irony of their happy together photos and the reality that there was domestic violence taking place. (The Titanic was not the only steamship that sunk but we are riveted by that story because this was the ship that was marketed as unsinkable.)
Our ability to inspect the photos and judge. I think they did have many a happy moments together. I think it's difficult to fake such happiness in photos. We are all examining photos and making judgements about what has been Photoshopped or otherwise altered, be it happy photos or UFO photos.
Perhaps the racist idea that White women are so advantaged that they don't have domestic violence issues in relationships. (I've been told to my face that I'm advantaged for being born White and I think that's ignorant. People who say such things don't know the history of an individual or that White people come from various ethnicities and cultures. It would be like thinking all Native Americans have the same ethnicity or culture.)
The knowing that if this couple had therapy or learned anger management, the outcome could have been so different.
I'm writing this a few days ahead of some of the information that will be forthcoming such as the cause of death in actuality, the timeline, and the whereabout of boyfriend Brian. At this time I'm open minded enough to think it is possible that Brian, who is being tried and convicted in the media, might not have killed his girlfriend.
C 2021 Christine Trzyna
9/26/21
9/24/21
PORTLAND STATE SOCIAL JUSTICE FACTORY : PROFESSOR PETER BOGHOSSIAN RESIGNS FROM PORTLAND STATE
LEGAL INSURRECTION : PROFESSOR PETER BOGHOSSIAN RESIGNS FROM PORTLAND STATE One of many media sites with this story, I will excerpt from his resignation letter.
EXCERPT: Students at Portland State are not being taught to think, Rather, they are being trained to mimic the moral certainty of ideologues. Faculty and administrators have abdicated the university's truth-seeking mission and instead drive intolerance of divergent beliefs and opinions. This has created a culture of offense where students are not afraid to speak openly and honestly.
*************
I have to wonder what horrors creative writing students experience in my old writing program at a UC where 20 years ago they were on the cutting edge of indoctrination. I would imagine anyone not reflecting a professors bias would have a difficult time. I have to admit that when I wrote papers or stories that leaned into "what they wanted" it was always received well. I also hate to think that characters I might design not to be subversive might be deconstructed as such.
9/22/21
THE JOY OF BLOGGING OPINION and DAILY MAIL UK - and MAIL ON LINE - AN AMERICAN REPUBLICAN BIAS and DISRESPECT OF PRESIDENT JOSEPH BIDEN , THE KARDASHIANS, HARRY AND MEGHAN (2)
About the KARDASHIAN SISTERS and their other mother, which does tie into HARRY AND MEGHAN.
You see, most of the articles in Daily Mail UK - MAIL ON LINE are desperate to go against Harry and Meghan, and that's easy because it seems like Harry and Meghan have gone against Harry and Meghan.
Applying British notions to this couple, their choice in INTERIOR DECOR AND FURNITURE has even been attacked by an opinion personality at Daily Mail UK - MAIL ON LINE. So to set the record straight, their home is a California home, a home that is in the sunshine and weather of Southern California. I don't know anyone here who wants to live in an interior that looks like it's in England, where is is mostly colder, rainier, darker, and where many people are living in housing so old and decaying it would get the wrecking ball here.
The closest to stereotypical British décor I've ever seen in Southern California is in homes where the owners like antiques and clutter their spaces with them, including paintings and art all over the walls, and the use of dark paint or wallcoverings that give a cave-like experience. Our weather is better, we spend more time outdoors and don't seem to be so home bound as those who live in the colder, rainier, and older areas of the country. There is a more casual attitude about the use of homes in general when you're tracking in sand and fine soil.
On it goes, but the thing that has taken up so much media space, that has pitted the couple against the Royal Family in the media, is that someone yet to be disclosed had the nerve to wonder what skin color their children would have.
I'm going to state the obvious. This kind of wondering is NOT in itself any evidence of bigotry, prejudice, or anti-Black or anti-White sentiment and it takes someone really looking for shit to find it in that wondering. This kind of wondering is NOT something just people with "White" skin do. This kind of wondering and acknowledgement of a range of skin colors as possible even links into why some Black people name their children to honor their skin color such as Ebony, Amber, and even Snow. And I, and just about everyone I know has wondered about the range of skin colors of the White hued Kardashian sisters children who have been begot with Black hued men. It's why people for generations have looked at newborns and declared who they look like! People don't just comment on skin color, they comment on hair, and eye color, and toes and noses. It's just curiosity and most often in it is found beauty.
Further, if we go back a bit, we learn that Princess Diana has a "person of color" in her heritage as well, that person having been born of India, so red headed, blue eyed Harry is not 100% White. In fact he has "one drop" of East Asian.
No, if there is any weirdness at all, it is the way some cultures or subcultures claim a person as theirs over "one drop." We are all amazed at the advances in DNA testing and the acknowledgement that humans over generations have traveled, collided with other cultures, and mixed up their genetics, be that by loving consensual relationships or rape. Rape being the horror it is since forever, I wonder where aspects of my own DNA came in and maybe it was the 12th century.
This curiosity about skin color was once extended to the singer-dancer Michael Jackson and his children, be they begot with the woman he married or not, and still is.
I have no idea which Royal actually SAID something that might be construed as bigotry over what was probably curiosity, but I can bet it was a common curiosity, stated or not, of them all as well as that of the public. So if I were asked, and I won't be, I would advise Harry and Meghan to drop it, to not make an International case for bigotry over it.
An example would be Prince Albert II of Monaco and his son with African born Nicole Coste, with whom he had a long romantic relationship with, they being in the news lately as their son, who appears "mixed," reaches the age of 18. Albert is not apologizing, he's recognizing. The media condemnation that is difficult and abusive is the suggestion that he only married his wife, Princess Charlene, for her biology, as someone who might look more like his mother and keep their Mediterranean heritage more on the Nordic side.
Americans understand Harry's need and Meghan's, to be independent and earn their own living, pay back their debts, and to find usefulness and happiness in their lives. The transition into Americanism is a more difficult one for Harry, who is out of his element and who was raised to not give any opinions at all. He has to suffer being made the target of insults just like our President Joseph Biden does from Daily Mail UK - MAIL ON LINE. However, dropping the use of titles while in America is the American thing to do. The British Press needs to keep the titles of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex.
There is so much need out there, who can condemn anyone who is attempting to make service to society their reason for being?
C 2021 Christine Trzyna
9/21/21
9/20/21
9/18/21
9/17/21
THE JOY OF BLOGGING OPINION and DAILY MAIL UK - and MAIL ON LINE - AN AMERICAN REPUBLICAN BIAS and DISRESPECT OF PRESIDENT JOSEPH BIDEN , THE KARDASHIANS, HARRY AND MEGHAN (1)
One of the joys of blogging is being able to express your opinion, especially as it's not the prevailing popular opinion. That said, I confessed that during Covid, I got hooked on the publication out of Great Britain called DAILY MAIL - UK, also known as MAIL ON LINE, which is full of opinions, and opinions by British people who do not even live in the Unites States about American politics. (It seems to me there is an overlap of articles but I haven't checked - it would be a never ending task.) I'm in the process of getting un-hooked by using my knowledge of the reputation of other publications to chose which ones I read on line. Also, this publication is a TABLOID, yet it's too bad, because some decent journalism and journalistic photography does get lost in the mix.
Here is how I got hooked.
I got into the important news story of Edward Snowden's disappearance into the airport in Moscow and thought the Daily Mail coverage was quite good. Prior to this I was not at all hooked on any news story.
The Daily Mail format is that it almost appears a jumble of articles, and there is a repetition of articles, so basically your eyes go over articles you might not otherwise read, searching for ones you are interested in and it works like getting caught in a maze; you loose time.
Through Covid I began checking Daily Mail repeatedly, way too much. I own this. I've never applied to be interrupted by news by any news outlet so I do not use apps or sign up to be alerted. I was compelled to interrupt my own thoughts by checking the news. At some point, I realized that my interested in Covid and all that was happening due to the disease was more important to me than Edward Snowden or the issue of us being spied upon my our government or lied upon by our government when it was about national security. Both Covid and national security are about our survival.
Lately I've realized just how biased the choice of articles and how not journalistic many of the HEADLINES at Daily Mail UK - Mail On Line are. The headlines and articles are usually uncomplimentary to President Joseph Biden, and disrespectful to start by not using the title President. To me, a country that is obsessed with titles, the publication starts their disrespect by refusing to use the person's title. This would be like calling Queen Elizabeth, Liz, Queenie, or Lilibet. For years Kate was used instead of Catherine, and to this day the Princess, who goes by Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, as married to Prince William, who goes by the Duke of Cambridge, is referred to as Kate Middleton. The press is making her earn her title long after the Royal Family did.
Is the Daily Mail UK - MAIL ON LINE referring to people incorrectly to save space? They are not. Daily Mail sometimes runs titles that pretty much tell the whole article or they used the same text beneath a picture that they use in the article so there is no space saving motive to not use titles.
There fails to be a mention in articles that read against President Joseph Biden that the Afghanistan war/problem goes back four Presidential administrations. Therefore these articles are not historically correct or making an attempt to be historically correct.
Daily Mail UK is read by many a Republican husband of Democratic friends of mine and they are the type to basically look for the cheese-cake - the sexual photos of the Kardashians and other desperate-for-attention celebrities who show off their bodies and post selfies or other photos that sometimes are porn. Church on Sunday and then the cheese-cake. There is never an equivalent photo run of males. I have no idea if males try to appear in the publication or are refused by a decision maker at the publication.
At the time that I began to loose time to Daily Mail UK - MAIL ON LINE , I didn't know who the Kardashians were. I heard of them but could not name the sisters. (Now I can and find them of interest due to their presence in pop culture, but I still have never seen any of their reality shows nor do I intend to and I'm critical of them.)
Our President, whoever it is, should be referred to as President Joseph Biden or President Biden, not Joe, not Biden, and not "Sleepy Joe" a derogatory term that the bombastic President Donald Trump started, that only belongs in quotes attributed to him. The use of this term otherwise by any media is an attack.
C 2021 Christine Trzyna
9/16/21
9/15/21
9/14/21
ONE MUST
"One must still have chaos in oneself to be able to give birth to a dancing star."
Friedrich Nietzsche