Welcome to the 18th issue of Lazy Desperado! Thank you for reading (and thank you even more if you are a subscriber)!
The letter is back in full-swing because I’m ready to keep it in motion. As we all know, 2020 was rough and 2021 doesn’t look to be any less chaotic due to the fact that flipping a calendar to the next month doesn’t suddenly end political strife or violence. (Also, time isn’t real).
What I mean to say is that I reached a point of exhaustion, frustration and disappointment with the world, people I used to consider friends and myself. My work didn’t seem significant. My opinions seemed like they were flying to a void of apathy. I felt like the only sane people were my family, my girlfriend and my best friends. Why write when nothing you say matters?
I have decided that what I have to say matters.
It doesn’t matter if 20 people or 200 people read these words, they need to be put out there in some form or fashion. I can’t let the actions of other people, and their lack of empathy during a pandemic, keep me from exploring my passion for writing and connecting with you guys while I do it. Forget being beaten down by disappointment. We’re riding this thing until the wheels fall off and the engine dies.
Anyway, all of that to say that you can pay me now! Lazy Desperado will remain free but if you would like access to extra essays, exclusive livestreams, tutorials, recommendations, playlists and more, feel free to subscribe! Most of my posts will remain free but the exclusive content will begin rolling in next week! Pricing starts at $5 a month, but you can pay for a full year as well.
Issue #18 covers the hypocrisy of big tech, and their critics, the new catchphrase for Trump Republicans and we find out how someone can be on television and censored at the same time.
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Twitter, Facebook and others grow a backbone
This past week, President Donald Trump was banned from a wide range of social media sites. Trump can no longer mobilize hate groups on Twitter, collaborate with Charli D’Amelio on a TikTok themed MAGA hat and he can’t log onto Facebook to greet the legions of QAnon followers on the platform. For some reason, Trump was also banned from Pinterest but after seeing the type of people at the Capitol on Jan. 6, it’s actually a very good idea to ban the wedding planning and aesthetic-based social media platform.
This ban, which was a long time coming considering the vile calls for violence, pure disinformation and hate that come from Donald Trump’s social media platforms. Users have been stumped finding out why racists, Proud Boys, neo-Nazis and QAnon bots have been allowed to fester and connect for years, met with the same stale, apathetic response about free speech being more important than protecting users from hate speech. Jack Dorsey from Twitter, and Mark Zuckerberg have both patted themselves on the back by not only allowing Trump to post misinformation for upwards of five years, but have made a point to defend him until very recently. It literally took an insurrection by a clearly influenced militia in camo for Twitter to finally put their food down.
Meanwhile, Black women, trans women and the whole spectrum of the LGBT community are bullied and harassed online daily on all of these platforms. Fat women have their TikToks, Instagram Reels, Facebook videos and Tweets removed due to “nudity” while celebrities like Lisa Rinna get to post what are basically nudes everyday. TikTok even admitted it was on purpose. People are sent messages to kill themselves because of their genitals and Twitter rarely bans these reported accounts in the name of “free speech.” I had a friend joke around with me and because he used the word “kill” he was banned instantly.
Clearly, there are methods to block and correct hate speech, but Dorsey and Zuckerberg seem to want to take the easy way out by riding the fence and pretending someone advocating for trans rights is the same as someone with an anime avatar tweeting slurs at people: Either one can cross the line to ban land as long as the evermoving goalpost is placed just far enough that day. Until last week Twitter and Facebook were okay with fostering violent communities and turning a blind eye, and that should be the take away.
These private tech companies use free speech as a shield for them to not piss off their conservative and QAnon adjacent friends, who all complained about losing followers when QAnon bots were banned along with Trump. Conservative politicians were unapologetically whining about losing thousands of followers who were either QAnon bots or accounts deemed violent. Meghan McCain was begging to be banned after Trump was banned, her father spinning in his grave.
Suddenly, conservatives donned their free speech hats for Trump. Suddenly, tech companies were private companies with too much control. Suddenly, conservatives were being silenced (again) despite controlling the senate and the presidency. The “if it happened to him it can happen to us” rhetoric reared its two-faced head (again.). They tell us that Twitter is too big and too liberal now (again), despite the years of them letting Trump tweet stuff like this. Or this. Or this.
It had to be true. They told us on the national news with masks on that said “censored,” like the openly QAnon supporting Rep. Marjorie Taylor. They told us with their books and books and books about being canceled and the “triggered” left. Through every single form of communication besides smoke signal we have been told that conservatives are being censored. It’s openly whiny, half-assed hypocrisy.
The hypocrisy is beyond me, in case my sarcasm wasn’t sign enough of that. I haven’t heard the same complaints from Black leftists and trans activists for years because they are actually censored, shadowbanned and silenced permanently. History has shown us that. People from the Ferguson, MO, protests are still being found dead, as well as activists from protests as recent as 2020.
The same cannot be said about conservatives, and the victim complex of that mindset needs to be squashed. Tech companies have always had too much control, and as one of the millions of millennials who grew up on the internet I can tell you it doesn’t lean more conservative at all. Anyone pushing that narrative right now is using a victim complex to gain sympathy points or a centrist that thinks someone calling for the destruction of the capitol with bombs and zip ties is just as sane as someone protesting in honor of George Floyd. This, combined with the censored mask, is whiteness in full effect.
This is the time to take a stand, as was five years ago. Don’t let these QAnon people and conservatives get in your ear with their victim complex. Tech has always had too much power, and we should be aware of that without another powerful force spitting in our face and making it about them. Keep that in mind as you hear these calls of “unity” from the lie-filled mouths of politicians like Ted Cruz, who openly supported the insurrection leading up to the day of.
“Unity”
Watch some high school kids solve murders with me
I am Twitch streaming again, all year! Right now we’re working our way through DanganRonpa: Trigger Happy Havoc, one of my favorite games of all time. The visual novel is full of bright, hilarious characters, gruesome deaths, and kitschy anime schlock all wrapped into a murder mystery package! Catch me doing weird voices and laughing like a hyena at https://www.twitch.tv/superchevybiko.
Super Chevy Bros.: The boys are back and on YouTube
We also post on YouTube! Check out our YouTube channel where you can see new gameplay, video podcasts and game reviews! We’re really trying to grow the channel so please drop a like and subscribe if you can. The channel has helped me connect with video games again. Here’s some Mortal Kombat 11 gameplay I uploaded last week.
I’m treating it like art I can create, even though it’s just me goofing around and having fun. PLEASE let me know what you think, I’m editing videos all week and want to know how I’m doing!
Listen to the podcast here.
Coming soon for paid subscribers: budget production
Aaaand with subscriptions opening up I will begin publishing paid content! The first one will be a bit of a guide to how it is I edit videos, write, blog, record, and stream with mostly free equipment. This guide will also include some sources for freelance workers, advice for publishing and tips for setting up a workspace.
Anyone who subscribes, even after the post, will get the info so don’t be afraid to cough up
Thanks for reading the 18th issue! Don’t forget to get to SHARE the newsletter, RESPOND to anything you like, dislike, or have feelings about and SEND ME YOUR GUEST ARTICLES and other ways to help the disenfranchised. Stay inside, report tweets supporting the insurrection and call your local rep for literally any reason. It’s all bad now.
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