An April Brain Declutter
While I struggle to write about subscriptions and finances for my next essay, I thought I’d pivot and give myself a break by running through some hot topics that have been on my mind recently. This isn’t as formal as a “What Whitney Wants To Say” but it’s similar in that I’ll be a little more unfiltered here. Essentially if I don’t declog my brain and write without worrying about sounding witty or cohesive, I’ll get frustrated and writing will become difficult altogether. When you re-decorate your space, you need to declutter first, right? Think of this like that.
The Antisocial Network: Memes to Mayhem on Netflix made me physically ill
As a long time panel presenter and attender of Otakon especially I watched the part about the first ever 4 chan panel and I wanted to physically crawl out of my skin. What do you mean that you had nerds throwing up hate group salutes in V for Vendetta masks? How was this allowed? As a black woman I would have liked to have known about this, at least before I spent years entertaining at that same con. They’ve definitely done a good job of culture reform though so I guess I can’t be too mad (even though I’m sure these people just moved to the late night portion of Otakon, IYKYK). Anyway, at least the con is starting to smell better overall, that hard deodorant policy was much needed.
Beef, Abound
So far, this has been the month of long simmering tensions between rappers coming to a head and I’m sorry to say that I am not too good to enjoy it. I think safe, competitive rap beef is good for the sport of rap itself. It forces people to innovate their bars, do research about their opponents, and bring some energy to their music overall. What sucks is that not enough people are actually getting in the studio and addressing it on the mic as it should be addressed. They are all just doing passive aggressive tweets like high school juniors the day after homecoming. As if they’re all scared to do their actual jobs. It’s actually really pathetic and indicative of a decline in the genre overall. It sucks as someone from a time in which even annoying YouTubers used to go bar for bar.
Why don’t we have today off?
Today is Eid-ul-Fitr, a holiday that marks the end of Ramadan. Over 4 million Americans celebrate in addition to 1.9 billion people worldwide and there isn’t even motion to make this a holiday. For obvious reasons, I am more sensitive to this oversight this year as opposed to others and I can only apologize for that. These are small signs that “progress” has slowed to a snail’s pace.
On the Eclipse
I find it so pure and wholesome that so many people were able to stop their days and look up at the sky for a couple of hours. It’s a good reminder that we’re all just human. That we’re all subject to the same feelings of curiosity and wonder. It was just really heartwarming in a very corny, “look at the power of the indomitable human spirit” kind of way. How can I schedule more once in a lifetime events for us to be in awe at?
On Tiktok
I respect Tiktok and believe that it is a net positive for society. However, for me personally my Tiktok algorithm has arranged itself in a way to cause me as much anger and annoyance as humanly possible. Therefore, I hate everything about Tiktok at our current moment. Everyday I feel the app begging me to make a response video or leave a comment and now that I have a ~super serious upwardly mobile adult job~ I’m even more terrified of slipping up and becoming the person of the day. So what’s effectively happened is that I spend almost all of my time on Tiktok rolling my eyes and having no outlet. I could talk more about what I see on the app here but I refuse to torture you all like that.
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