Friday, June 16, 2023

Discussing free speech, censorship, and the value of subversive humor

 *sigh*, I've been trying to keep Rammstein stuff out of here, but this is getting political again, and given I can no longer express my views properly on reddit, I figure I'd do so on here.

So...what's this about? Well, as we know, Rammstein's lead singer Till Lindemann has come under fire for alleged sexual misconduct against women who attended his concerts. The woman who started this whole crapstorm accused Rammstein of drugging her, and trying to pressure her to have sex with Till, but because she refused, Till accepted it. But there's still questions about drugging and Lindemann's conduct toward women. 

However, while other women have come forward, and are largely respected, the original accuser has come under fire as time has gone on and her claims have gotten more scrutinized. Further interviews and evidence came out from others contradicting her narrative, and it seemed more and more likely she was not drugged, she just got very drunk. However, refusing to change her mind and admit that gee, maybe she jumped the gun, she doubled down, decided to make herself a victim again, and started doing unhinged videos on her instagram about how tequila doesn't foam but it did at the concert and therefore there were date rape drugs in it. This was immediately debunked, as Lindemann who poured the shots mixed tequila with prosecco, a bubbly wine, which gave the drunk a foamy appearance. As she has dug herself further and further into a hole of disrepute, posting more and more unhinged stuff, her "it doesn't foam" video became a bit of an internet meme within the rammstein community, leading to tons of funny nicknames such as "the connossieur of foamy drinks", "the queen of foam", "the foamy one", and my personal favorite, "our lady of vilnius, the patron saint of foam." This has led to a lot of discussion on the topic at hand to devolve into crapposting about foam memes, to hilarious effect. As a purveyor of foam memes, imagine my reaction when the mods start coming in and telling us we can't do that any more because we have to take the issue more seriously and not insult the accuser because her story MIGHT be true. Now, I don't disagree fully with this mod. Some of the treatment the original accuser was getting did go a little too far, but the fact that she became the butt of our jokes was her own doing. She literally destroyed her own credibility to a point that these memes organically rose from discussions at hand. And while you could argue they were annoying and slightly disruptive, given they only occurred during slow news days on the subject mostly, they largely did not interfere with discussion. But no, apparently foam memes need to stop, because this is a serious topic and we can't insult the original accuser, blah blah blah.

Honestly, it gets ridiculous. I know there was a lot of public pressure from the other side to crack down on these memes, but honestly, I really don't think that the mods should have given in, and here's why. (Actually there's a lot of reasons). First of all, foam memes are funny. They help us make the best of this crappy accusation where our favorite musician has been metooed by the social justice mob. These memes made fun of an accuser who made blatantly false accusations, and who most reasonable people know her accusations aren't true at least to some degree. The person in question clearly is just milking the situation out for attention, and has destroyed their credibility to the point of parody. 

Second of all, there is value in this subversive humor. As I keep saying, I come from a long line of rather offensive political traditions that make use of this kind of satire. I started out being a rush limbaugh listener who wanted to own the libs. They I became a new atheist who wanted to own the conservatives. And now I gotta deal with SJWs who are quite frankly, illiberal, authoritarian, and are radical zealots who want to force their ideology on everyone, and censor anyone who doesnt agree with them. These guys are just like the fundie christians of old who basically didn't respect civil, secular society and wanted to push their opinions on everyone. They don't believe in rights and the rule of law. They're the kind of people who think 'free speech doesnt mean freedom from consequences" and its perfectly acceptable to ruin someone's life or "cancel" them because they didn't toe the line. 

Social justice ideology IS a religion. It might not have a god per se, but it does have this set of beliefs and moral values, and is the same threat to civilized western society as religious extremists are. Because their psychology is the same. And at this point, the only real answer to dealing with these people is to say NO. To tell them, when they scream offense,to deal with it. Don't give into them, not even an inch, because if you give an inch, they'll take a mile, and they'll keep pushing their ideas to terrifying extremes. 

These guys expect everyone to just believe the original accuser out of the principle to "believe all women", and think the idea of people making light of the situation in the case of an obvious false accusation by someone who is coming off more and more like a full on attention seeking mental case means that you're a "misogynist", an "incel", or a "rape apologist." None of those are my words, that's how they describe people who think similarly to me. They just expect us all to submit to their morality, and want to impose "consequences" on those who don't. And it's sad to see people caving to these guys.

I've been watching a youtuber named colonel kurtz who discusses this situation and she thinks similarly to me. She's followed other sex scandals in the celebrity gossip space like johnny depp and marilyn manson, and while I cant say anything about those cases, I do recall the accuser who accused depp got sued for defamation and lost. But according to her, the same thing that happened when those guys is now happening to till from rammstein. They want to ruin this dude's life, without any trial, and it's often not even about his actions and questions of inocence and guilt, it extends to his art. They dont like that his art features subversive themes, because, guess what, rammstein tends to push boundaries there too. They're largely a left wing band, and tend to mostly trigger rightoids with songs about gay sex, abortion, transgenderism, and just lots and lots of the "s word" in general, but in recent years we've been dealing with these radical feminists who suddenly hate this stuff too, because they think it's sexist and objectifies women. And to them I say, deal with it.Again, not an inch, and that includes rammstein no longer playing "pussy" in concerts because people think its offensive or in poor taste. If that's their attitude, that's on THEM. We shouldnt have to change for them.

Heck, subversive humor has a lot of value in society. Because if there's anything i learned from my days as a secular humanist, it's that nothing is sacred, and that nothing should be out of the realm of discussion. People like to treat things as too serious to discuss. Religious people do this with blasphemy, and tell people who engage in it, like r/atheism, that they're hateful and bad for making fun of their religion traditions. Meanwhile im over here like "lol zombie jesus day, gottem". I mean, this form of humor has multiple purposes. First, it's funny. Second, it knocks "sacred" stuff off of its pedestal, and they dont like that, and third of all, it often offers valid criticism. When i saw offensive r/atheism memes a decade ago, i kinda realized gee maybe they have a point and this stuff IS kinda stupid and irrational. It allowed me to see the world in a way that i had not considered before, and it did help me work through some stuff at the time. 

And it's the same thing with this social justice stuff and foam memes. Sexual assault accusers do not deserve to be put on pedestals where we're told we MUST believe them and cant question them. Especially when their story is false. And the memes exploit those falsehoods by making her story look dumb. Because maybe it IS dumb, and maybe she's wrong, or a liar, or both. And maybe we should be free to question these things. Maybe we shouldnt be forced to mindlessly accept doctrines people wanna force on us. And maybe, we should show the SJWs the door when they come into our communities and start trying to police us. Because again, if you give them an inch, they'll take a mile, and suddenly your free speech is GONE. I've seen it happen in too many places on reddit. That whole site is infested with the SJW mind virus, and they're systematically making it difficult for dissent to exist, and driving dissenters off of the platform altogether. And that's wrong, given when I joined reddit, it was a bastion of free speech and internet openness. 

Im not saying we should take things to extremes, mind you. I know some people back in the day cried when they removed LITERAL HATE SUBS full of extremely vile behavior, but there's a balance between that, and systematically making any offense against social justice ideology a bannable offense. And that's what im talking about here. People started pushing back against this accuser's story as it started to fall apart, and nope, can't do that. This is a serious issue guys, and you can't just make fun of an accuser who is very obviously full of BS.

And I want to emphasize, this person is very obviously full of BS. Again, multiple people have contradicted her story, the drug test doesnt support her story, and the most obvious explanation for her situation that day was SHE DRANK TOO MUCH ALCOHOL. 

I'm sorry, but when you get in front of a camera, pour straight tequila in a glass, yell IT DOESNT FOAM, and then have your narrative contadicted 5 minutes after posting it, you suddenly become the equivalent of the "jet fuel doesn't melt steel beams" guy. That's literally what you sound like to me at this point. It's not like im making fun of legit accusers. Many others have since also made accusations against till from rammstein, and while i can't say i necessarily believe their stories, i AM a lot more respectful. It's only the person who regularly puts their foot in their mouth that i start mocking when they start screaming about foamy tequila being laced with GHB. Ever hear of a tequila slammer? Yeah, that's what you had. And it foams. And you are quite frankly a nutcase.

Heck, I'll go further, this person makes me ANGRY. Because SHE is the one making a mockery of sexual assault victims. She's the one crying wolf. She's the one making a fool out of herself in pursuing this social media crusade for so long, and you know what? Every time she opens her mouth, she destroys the credibility of other victims trying to come forward. Rather than platforming them and giving them a voice, she's making sure no one takes them seriously, because her being a drama queen is ruining it for everyone else.

If you really stand for sexual assault victims, you should disown this person. Because people who cry wolf like this are people who cry fire in a movie theater. It isn't funny, and it makes actual people dealing with actual fires struggle that much more to be taken seriously. And that's a crime. 

If anyone violates my idea of freedom of speech, its people like her, because she's taking this so far that it's going into outright defamation territory. Seriously, she called till a pedo for hitting on her, when she's...24. Wtf. And she keeps accusing him of drugging her even though it's obvious that she didn't. Even I would say "yeah, it's okay if you sue this person for defamation." And that's also why im perfectly okay with making fun of her. 

So yeah, SJWs, get off your high horse. I understand where you're coming from with the believe all women sentiments, but you go about it the wrong way, and you make a mockery out of your ideas sometimes.

And yeah, that's my opinion on this.

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