some british comedy

Mitchell and Webb. I think they have a show called “That Mitchell and Webb look”.

Some of it is pretty good. Been youtubing them and also things by “Armstrong and Miller” another british comedy duo.

This is good:

(There are some fucking great comments on that clip. Almost entirely composed by reactionary idiots, several composed by Christians (a particular brand of reactionary idiot) and a few by junkies.)

Woops… that’s gotta suck.

Were we supposed to… like… provide solidarity or something?

Four and a half years – he’s coming out a fucked up kid. Can’t remember his name.

Bluetooth

As an early birthday gift my father bought me a flashy new laptop. It comes with, as is probably standard now, bluetooth. Something which I have had no contact with before. I googled it for ideas on how I might actually benefit from this technology but found nothing I wasn’t aware of; nothing that didn’t require me having at least one more piece of bluetoothised technology.

I did, however, discover that the technology is named after the son of Gorm and king of Denmark from 950 or 958 to 985 or 986, Harald Bluetooth Gormson. His major achievements seem to have been bringing Christianity to Denmark and building the Jelling Stones. The stones honoured his parents in a traditional pagan fashion but was actually one of the first big official gestures to Christianity and an attempt to ease it into the Danish culture.

I didn’t find anything suggesting why Bluetooth technology would be associated with this king of Denmark and nothing about Harald Bluetooth that stood-out as analogous, similar or representative of the technology. Maybe Bluetooth is coming in the form of traditional network technologies, especially Wi-Fi, but is actually heralding a new era of… something. Social control maybe. Who cares? technology is cool. Check out my computer, LOSERRRS!

Latest post deleted

Pending trials and such.

What with gutless people like cvbxcvcb commenting on this blog…

Advice of Princess Mob taken.

I’ll put it up again later.

political correctness – some shitty notes, now let’s move on

 

Clearly, I can say what I want, and until somebody does something, it doesn’t matter. Of course, were I to rally a neo-nazi riot with my wily words, it’d matter.
Political correctness can be considered a Left movement, an attempt to influence action through the control of speech (and originally also the control of action, in good ol’ soviet russia, where being ‘correct’ in following the Party’s political line became increasingly necessary). There is merit in the theory that monitoring speech can help to reduce intolerance, violence; discriminatory language can validate intolerant behaviour, thought etc.

Oops! Unfortunately, this control of language is generally achieved by the silencing of speech in the form of censorship by: state intervention; threat of state intervention/violence, fines, imprisonment; or cultural ostracisation. Oh, dear. That sounds yucky!

Political correctness is a very specific cultural phenomenon. Commonly, the people likely to be politically incorrect are uneducated or somehow not a part of the western middle class and/or educated society – they might be povos and/or just not whities.

These people, it would appear to me, are just the people whose voice is lacking, whose voice needs to be heard, who need the influence of speech to promote action that can better their living conditions, that can act as resistance.

You fucking hippie!

Further, political correctness is exactly what is likely to prevent my discussion on queer culture, expression, values and representation. There is a funny politically correct loophole that means one can criticise the culture of a minority if they are a part of it, or rather, if they can be a part of it and are the right minority. I have got away with some criticism, fucking men as I do, but can’t avoid my opposite-gender-fucking-’privileges’. I can accept this to some degree – I am not an independent observer and it is important to recognise my privilege and my place in relation to minorities and class – but I like to think that I have something to say about gay culture, sexuality and gender relations that is valuable to the Left. However, what I have to say can only sometimes be PC.

You poof!

Maybe I should read something, some day.

Back to the grind that is my study. Woe is me.

search engine results

“pictures of fat people”
“quotes from druggies”
“akin sari”
“you know you’re a boyfriend” x2 (times two!? is this something i don’t get?)
Druggies in 1950s
wwsd
safeway petrol richmond
hammer and sickle
Dr Katz extra jail
“coffee for lunch”
nazis on speed
“nazis on speed’
monash queers *

*someone typed in monash queers today, and someone clicked on the wholefoods wordpress tag… and my little blog stats thing spiked quite significantly. Someone (singular) had a good follow of the links to my latest four posts, even though they didn’t all have comments. Which seems illogical to me. Guess there’s just some net-gadget i’m missing out on out there.

I’m glad. But – partly just because I haven’t smoked much for a while, and this evening had a few cones and spiffs and I’m moderately more paranoid that usual – this also makes me scared. Being on lists and blogs means you come home fucked off your face and play on the computer for a few hours and then you become afraid to go into your room where the eeeemails and cooomments are. Ok… it happens even when i’ve been sober. I mean, you say the word “hippie” a couple of times, with no real content…

I’ll also find it’s difficult to end sentances – in two senses, that I just ramble on for a little while until I nod off for a bit and come back with some wacky punctiation and continue with the sentance; and in that I let my mind wonder off and I just pretend to. I’ve been playing video games again.

Queer Lounge Debates

Last semester there was a big fight between two groups over the use of the Queer Lounge at Monash. I was asked to help, so I wrote the below text, showing preference for side of the more political “rad-fems” and using mostly rhetoric common to Autonomous Departments. (Couldn’t indent my paragraphs, so they all have asterisks instead of ‘tab’ spaces.)

For a good (better) analysis of the situation, including addressing the left and others’ apparent need for the institution and the use of ’safe space’ rhetoric so commonly resorted to (including in my article below) see ‘Women’s Autonomous Organising, Queer room safety and the Post-VSU Student Union‘ on Barking Coins.

*

A Move Towards Autonomy

03/04/07

* In an attempt to address gender-imbalance and diminishing autonomy within the Monash Queer Collective, Tuesdays are now queer-wom*n only. This move is a natural step in an autonomous movement and one I wholeheartedly support.

* Autonomy means freedom from external authority. Autonomous groups have organized in dynamic collectives with the continuous struggle to remain autonomous – to organize free from state law, societal repression etc. Autonomous collectives are supposed to be dynamic so as to be able to address the inevitable influences of external law and custom. A space for political discussion free from external authority works to subvert social-relations in broader spheres. This ‘safe-space’ has been achieved, in the majority of cases, with exclusory and restrictive internal policy.

* In this case the Collective is responsible for the management of the Queer Lounge. This space is intended to be a safe, autonomous space – free from the external influences that may corrupt the movement. In an attempt to achieve this goal the Queer Lounge is ‘queer-only’.

* Exclusory policies such as this have long been recognized as necessary to create an inclusive environment – both in the Collective and within the group’s sphere of influence. To create an atmosphere of openness and a venue for the voice of queer students the existing social relations must be answered with the creation of a space free of its influence. Similarly, to exert an influence (on social-relations, public policy, the MSA, etc) proportional to the needs of queer students on campus, an autonomous arena is necessary to counter external social relations.

* The particular social relations that are generally considered the greatest threat to queer autonomy are hetero-normative, prejudiced ideologies from traditionalist, conservative and/or religious backgrounds. These are inescapably linked with the patriarchal structure of society – that Queer movements intrinsically challenge – and will influence the make-up of the active collective unless it is dynamic and responds accordingly.
* One method used to counteract the patriarchal influences on the queer autonomy in movement was to exclude non-queer students from the space and from organization. The next logical step was to adopt an affirmative-action approach to committee make-up.
* However, for a number of years queer students have struggled to achieve an autonomous space in the face of a growing apathy of empowered queer men towards a relatively disempowered queer wom*n’s movement. Having achieved many goals towards autonomy, the Monash Queer Collective has become stagnant, un-dynamic and self-compromising in the face of external authority and so is losing a battle it may not be aware of.

* Despite the label “autonomous” the Collective has continued to reflect liberal attitudes to societal structure. These attitudes permeate popular culture and society and view ‘equality’ as being the treatment individuals equally, regardless of their circumstance – for example: no special treatment for queers regardless of their needs and oppressed situation. This ideology is deeply rooted in social-relations allowing sexism, racism and queerphobia free reign without critical opposition (to reflect upon the situation of an oppressed group is – in a liberal ideology – to treat that group differently, unfairly, discriminatorily).
* However, the Queer Collective is fundamentally anti-liberal in nature, radical and discriminatory in that it excludes heterosexual identifying students. To allow liberalism any part in collective organising is to undermine its autonomy.

* Without actively generating autonomy and expelling patriarchal social relations the safe-space is useless. The resultant space replays social relations of the external world and so cannot be called autonomous (or safe).
* The struggle for the inclusion of wom*n in the queer space and therefore in queer collective organising on campus has been one of bitter defeat and is symptomatic of a dying autonomy.
* A non-liberal approach towards the inclusion of wom*n has been put forward. It is, like the group’s other policies that work towards inclusion, exclusory in nature: involving a wom*n’s-only day every Tuesday. I fully support this proposition as a small but significant step towards an effective autonomous space.

Media

It’s amusing.

See here for fantastic(al) article about Akın Sari, that “schizophrenic Rastafarian with a bipolar disorder”. I wonder if he can sue, given his court stuff isn’t over. I wonder if he can sue Wholefoods Collective.

See here for more brilliant examples of tabloid politics.