Welcome to the 21st issue of Lazy Desperado! Thank you for reading, and thank you even more if you are a subscriber! This issue we take a look at blatant media censorship in the United States regarding Palestine and celebrities using parasocial relationships through social media to thrive even after they told a teenager to commit suicide. Fun stuff!
I’ve been putting myself through a mental ringer of wondering, “What’s wrong with me?”
I can’t finish tasks, I often forget to eat on time, I zone out without even thinking about it multiple times a day and I find it hard to follow through with projects. I just finished reading a book for the first time in over a year and almost cried because I didn’t know when I would be able to do that again.
So after forgetting assignments for work more often than usual, forgetting favors my fiancée would ask of me seconds after the fact and feeling uninterested in any video longer than 15 minutes, I decided to talk to my therapist about it. The thing is, this took me more than a year to admit to myself. I find little joy in long tasks and often feel scared by them. It doesn’t mean I don’t complete them (eventually), but rather that the task itself makes my skin crawl the longer I spend on it.
What kept me from confronting the (strong) possibility that I have an attention disorder is the stigma, particularly online, that comes with those disorders. I think, “this is permanent and there’s no way I can overcome that,” which is false as well as dismissive of anyone with an attention disorder or otherwise. I didn’t want my life to change, even though my life has been affected by this lack of attention for years. I didn’t want to confront that I was the issue with everything wrong with my life, even though that is an extremely melodramatic thought to have about not being able to hold a conversation for more than five minutes.
Mental health disorders or diagnoses don’t need to be treated like a brand or life sentence, but a form of information that can help you make your own decisions for your personal comfort and health. The Mental Hellth newsletter had an excellent article about how mental health diagnoses’ relationship with the internet can be used to create self-limiting microidentities, the kind of thought process that made me resist specific help I needed.
Feeling off about something? Always felt like you were different but can’t put your finger on why? Look into it, but don’t see one TikTok or relatable tweet and go off to the races; find the professional opinions in-person and take it slow. Watch a TED Talk about it or communities discussing the topic in a serious, non-social media dependent platform. Like, you know, a book.
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Gaming gets political, for (almost) 24 hours
Unless you somehow live under a rock or were literally born yesterday, the consistent terroristic attacks against Palestine by the Israeli Defense Force since the 1940s have been taking over the news cycle again, sparking conversations like, “is fighting back bad?” and “Is it antisemitic to hate a state that doesn’t represent every member of the religion?”, all of which give me a serious case of brain worms due to the bad faith nature of IDF defenders. Then this conversation crossed over into video games, which I was not expecting.
IGN, possibly the most popular gaming news website, posted a message of support for the citizens of Palestine during the ongoing bombings along with a link to donate to charities supporting Palestinians. The response was more surprised than anything, as most American news organizations had only called the attacks a mutual conflict, blamed Palestine and refused to support a particular party. IGN was recognizing the truth, without American funding of the IDF (and vice versa) clouding their statement.
At least until management made them take it down and the Israel branch of IGN condemned the statement.
Although we are still receiving more conflicting information on the matter, allegedly none-executive editorial staff had no input on whether or not the post would be taken down. Ziff Davis and J2 Global, owners of IGN, were directly blamed for this decision by the employees and Chief Content Officer Peer Schneider confirmed it. They were caught overstepping editorial and silencing their own editorial department all to stay neutral on United States funded genocide.
This was recently challenged by the Chief Content Officer of IGN admitting that the decision to pull the post was solely his. I personally do not believe the COO, who is also an editorial employee, would backtrack on his initial finger-point to Ziff Davis and J2 Global, owners of IGN. This pins all responsibility on editorial and causes the editorial staff to question themselves, and the public to question their integrity as an organization.
Censorship is not just happening in places like China and North Korea, and it’d be foolish for any American to think their media is any less susceptible to propaganda, neutrality on war, and misdirection. I have not seen a single news broadcaster call the attacks a genocide, nor condemn the IDF.
Celebrities, local politicians and others who don’t want to offend our country’s decision to fund the IDF, for the sake of their own pockets, go out of their way to wish a basic sense of peace between the IDF and Palestine without acknowledging the civilian homes and work buildings the IDF is bombing while calling it “mowing the grass.” If you even dare to defend Palestine or condemn the IDF you are called an antisemite, no context needed. Critical thinking about this issue has been replaced with fear and silence in mainstream media.
It’s both-sides-ism taken to the absolute extreme, which we keep seeing as the 2020s progress. For those still trying to get the truth out, you will do it. Things can always change. But, for now, be very particular and wary of your news outlets and how much they are not willing to say.
I wish the employees of IGN a good fight as their employer tries to turn them on each other. Journalistic integrity is important, but free speech in general and the rights of people matter more.
GAB (Grown Ass Bully)
I don’t have much to say here since it involves Chrissy Teigen and I don’t know much about her besides that she is mean on Twitter and rich. Long story short, ten years ago she bullied a teenage girl, Courtney Stodden, who was being sexually groomed by a much, much older man. Teigen even went as far as to tell Stodden to kill herself in Twitter DMs, and tried to brush it off with a thread of vague apologies to a person she blocked on the fucking platform.
Not much else to say but that parasocial relationships with celebrities are bullshit and shouldn’t be encouraged. Chrissy Teigen isn’t anyone online’s friend, at all. I would give her the benefit of the doubt if she was a teenager when this happened, but Teigen was a grown 25-year-old woman at the time so there is no excuse to be made. Don’t get attached to celebrities and don’t feel the need to take apologies to someone you saw literally tell a child to take their own life.
Read the article about Stodden’s recovery from abuse, and the other adult celebrities that outwardly bullied her below.
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Solid as always!!