Month: July 2022

Has Anna Wintour Lost Her Touch?

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Let me be clear — I’m a middle aged CIS white male living in oblivion in the middle of nowhere. No need to listen to me on anything, much less Anna Wintour.

Boring

But as someone who has aspirations to be a fashion photographer (one day) I do keep less-than-casual tabs on the front cover of Vogue Magazine. The last year or so, I’ve noticed how…blah…the magazine’s front covers have become, especially in the context of British Vogue.

I really like this one.

British Vogue continues to give us the feminine spectacle we have come to assume is standard with a Vogue cover. Some of the British Vogue covers really are great and make your eyes light up with joy when you see them. American Vogue covers, meanwhile, are rather drab in comparison.

What the what?

Anyway, Anna Wintour is now 72 years old and, logically, she would retire and let the editor of British Vogue take over. But we all know that’s not how the real world works. Wintour remains a very powerful icon in the fashion industry and she is a spry 72, so she could probably keep her vise grip on American Vogue for at least another decade.

Or she could fired, which would be one of the most shocking events in modern magazine publishing if it happened.

Regardless, no one listens to me. I suppose if there’s a coup and the editor of British Vogue takes over the flagship Conde Nast magazine that my long-time celebrity crush Alexa Chung would have a new, an unexpected “in” with American Vogue. British Vogue seems to really like Ms. Chung.

America’s ‘Bogus’ Problem

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

About once a month, I have a conversation with one of my Traditionalists relatives about politics. I’ve grown more and more reluctant to have these conversations because they’re Red and I’m Blue and anytime there’s any type of dispute over the facts, we can’t agree on what the fucking facts are!

Call it the “Bogus” Problem.

Whenever I point out cold hard facts — like Trump lied at least 30,000 times as POTUS and maybe Obama’s 1 (!) line about being able to keep your health insurance if you liked it wasn’t quite as bad as is being made out I get the “bogus” response.

The idea that Trump is a fucking liar, someone who lies far, far, far more than Obama is something that doesn’t work with the context of the Traditionalist media narrative, so, it’s “bogus.” When you can’t agree on facts with someone you disagree with politically, you go a serious fucking problem on your hands.

Such inability to agree on facts if they don’t fit your media narrative is extremely corrosive to the point that you either turn into a fascist autocracy or you have a civil war. At the moment, at least, it seems as if we’re just going to slouch into autocracy.

I will truly be flabbergasted if there is any sort of civil war in the United States. The center-Left just doesn’t have it in them to put up such a fight. But time will tell, I suppose.

Facebook Has Ossified

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I was one of the first people to use Facebook when it left the confines of universities. Now, of course, eventually I got “zuccked” when my ranting against Trump grew too virulent.

Facebook is in trouble.

Flash forward and we find ourselves in an interesting situation. But for many billions of dollars, Facebook would be in deep, deep trouble. Facebook has always been a utility that served a social purpose. And, yet, we find ourselves in a situation where Facebook is very popular — among Olds like me.

Young people, meanwhile, have migrated towards things like Tik-Tok.

With that in mind, Facebook is working on becoming more like Tik-Tok — whatever that means.

And, yet, I would suggest that Facebook may be doomed. It’s doomed because it has a vested interest in staying pretty much like what it is now. It can only change so much. If they do too much of a change, then they risk the alienated of Olds who, by definition, don’t like change.

In a sense, Facebook faces a Blockbuster problem, where their legacy business is so powerful that they just can’t innovate like buying Netflix or go into streaming. But they do have many, many billions of dollars and they can always just buy or innovate their way out of things.

But it definitely seems as though Facebook faces gradual, then fast decline. Of course, it’s possible that Facebook’s parent company Meta is going to take things to the next level by cornering the metaverse market. That’s a very real possibility. That is, at least, what Zuck is hoping for.

Blue States Face A Choice: Bend A Knee To Red States — Or Leave The Union

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

It is easy to fall into the trap of thinking because, as CNN recently noted Red States are building a “nation within a nation” that if push came to shove they would be the ones to start a Second American Civil War.

But this is just silly. It’s for more logical to believe that making a Red State “nation within a nation” is nothing more than a middle step to taking over the entire country by forcing Blue States to “bend a knee” to Trumplandia. And that’s when Blue States face the choice of autocracy or civil war.

And, at the moment, I think all 50 states are going to live under the yoke of Trumplandia. Rather than putting up any sort of fight, or serving divorce papers on Red States and leaving the Union, Blue States will simply shrug. Now, of course, just like in Russia, there might be pretty big protests, but, lulz, the protests don’t really work there and they won’t work here, either.

Republicans are going to get everything they want and then some. Voting will be so ineffectual as to be rendered moot. And that will be that. About a million wealthy, well educated liberals — think typical Crooked Media audience — will leave the country until the autocrat makes it damn near impossible for that to happy anymore.

Form follows function.

I suppose there are any number of ways such hysterical, dystopian “terribly negative” scenarios might be punted down the road, but the macro trends definitely seem to indicate that is not going to be the case.

Or we have a civil war.

And some pretty shocking twists will have to happen for Blues to show the courage to do such a thing. So, get out the country. America is just about on her knees to MAGA tyranny.

Taylor Swift Is So Frustrating

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Taylor Swift’s appeal, of course, is she’s sort of a white liberal woman’s Every Woman. They can imbue on Tay-Tay all their man hating and woke cancel culture mob dreams. Tay-Tay is a “safe space” for women who on one hand hate on men and on the other marry the exact type of guy you would expect them to marry — a stable guy who will provide.

As a non-typical Tay-Tay fan, I find Swift very frustrating. She has all this potential, and yet, she squanders it on fan service. It’s rather rare for her to think outside the box and do something honestly provocative. And when she does do such a thing, it’s because she’s mad. The last time she did it, she was mad at Kanye.

Anyway, I really like Tay-Tay and I wish her the best. But it sure would be nice if she would shock her fans and, say, put out a rock album. And / or be in a movie where she showed a little bit more skin than they expected.

And, yet, she definitely has a vested interest in being the Neil Diamond of modern liberal white women. Why mess with something that’s not broken?

Excuse the rant. I’m drunk and in a very bad mood.

Of Short Stories

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

When I first started working on these novels, the general consensus from a number of people in my life was, “Oh, why don’t you just write short stories instead?”

This meaning, of course, that the both thought I wasn’t up to write a novel in the first place and they didn’t want to hear about me writing a novel all the time without finished product that they could read then dismiss as bad.

Fuck those people, by the way.

Anyway, I have long said that this rather idyllic situation I have been could not last. And I was right. I’ve learned that there is potential sunset to my halcyon writing days and I have to start acting accordingly.

Now, as an aside, I need to manage my expectations with these projected 6 novels I’m developing and writing. I have want to write them because I have a story to tell, not because I think I’m going to somehow magically become rich and famous by selling them.

But if I start working on short stories it will be specifically and exclusively because I’m desperate for cash. I have a lot — A LOT — of little notions floating around in my mind and now that I know how *I* develop and write a story, it’s easy for me to use the toolkit I’ve developed over the last few years for the far smaller project of writing a short story.

Anyway, the key take away is I’m not getting any younger. I’m of an age where dying of a heart attack like Stieg Larsson is a real danger. So, throw in a sudden urgent need for ready cash and it sure would be nice to finish a short story or three and try to sell them in the near term.

Yet my main focus will continue to be these six novels I’m trying to write.

Dr. Tony Fauci — Lightening Rod

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Man, do my Traditionalist relatives fucking hate Dr. Tony Fauci. The only person they loath more is Hillary Clinton. They have come to imbue him with everything they hate about the modern world and how if they could only make liberals go away we could all accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior.

They fucking hate the man’s guts.

But why? What about him has made Dr. Fauci such a political hot potato?

Well, I think some of it comes from his refusal to bend a knee to ding Donald Trump. And, then, smelling blood in the water, the fucking cocksuckers of the Right wing echo chamber decided to throw everything they could at Fauci in hopes that he might resign so he could be replaced with some MAGA toady who would suck Trump’s cock instead of making sure Americans were safe.

Remember, it was difficult for Trump to fire Fauci outright because he’s a civil servant and, as such, is protected. But Trump, in his second term, plans to use his “Schedule F” idea to clear the way to firing as many as 50,000 civil servants because, fuck you lib.

I keep telling my Traditionalist relatives to calm the fuck down. I tell them to put the pitchforks away, they’re going to get everything they want if they just wait. Republicans and, as such, fascists, are ascendant and we’re all going to have to start making some pretty big choices about what it means to live in A Very American Autocracy.

Proving my point, Dr. Fauci has announced his retirement pretty soon and that STILL isn’t enough for Republicans. I’m beginning to worry that the fucking cocksuckers of Fox News want physical harm to happen to Dr. Fauci. Fuck, those fuckers — especially Jesse Waters — can eat shit.

Excuse me. I’m in a bad mood.

Anyway, pour one out for Dr. Fauci. Things are bleak in the US at the moment, an only getting worse by the moment. The moment Republicans gain control of any sort again we’re going to lurch into autocratic fascism. If you have the means, leave the country.

Fascism Is Popular

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

One of the many things that Blue Check liberals on Twitter are oblivious about is how popular fascism is in the United States. I would estimate that about 48% of the American population wants fascism. There’s a spectrum to that support, of course. Some people don’t really know what it is that they want, but they are white and Christian and they think the “woke cancel culture mob” is trying to force everyone to be gay.

So, they vote Republican like their life depended on it.

And, while I’m well aware that all this sounds hysterical to Republicans who note people like me have been calling Republicans “fascists” since at least Barry Goldwater, it’s not people like me who are so sure that the United States “isn’t a democracy, it’s a constitutional republic.”

Now, America’s shift into autocratic fascism is complicated by a number of things. One is, the whole thing is the result of pretty prosaic macro trends that are difficult for the average person who isn’t a political junky to get a clear grasp on or to even care about. Also, there is the issue of race, which will effect how close to Nazi Germany we get. And, lastly, the United States is so big and diverse that it’s a least possible that when the transition to fascism is at its weakest — probably around late 2024, early 2025 — that we will have a civil war when Blue States serve divorce papers on Red States.

But for that to happen, a lot of things would have to go wrong for MAGA New Right fascists. One, Trump would have to run again and be such an idiot that he says “the quiet part out loud” the point that Blue States decide they have no choice but to leave the Union. And, at the same time, some sort of Blue leadership would have to suddenly pop out of the woodwork. All I can think of at the moment is Liz Cheney, but she’ not even a Blue.

So, it definitely seems as though the United States will become an autocratic, fascist state the moment a Republican is POTUS again. Nothing will change at first, then, gradually a panoply of extremely unpopular Republican policies will be inacted…and the general public will suddenly realize that voting is moot, meaningless.

But at least we won’t have the woke cancel culture mob to worry about? Is that something we’re supposed to be happy about when I’m in an ICE camp twiddling my thumbs while I wait to get shot in the head for calling President DeSantis a cocksucker?

Well, At Least My Storytelling Is Getting Better

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Here I am, writing yet another iteration of what I hope to be the first novel in a six novel project. I can feel my writing and storytelling getting better. This has happened after several years and many hundreds of thousands of words.

But, finally, I feel as though I’m approaching the storytelling ability that I have long wanted. It’s taken a long, long, long time. I’m feeling pretty good. I still have a shit ton of work ahead of me.

It will be interesting to see how much longer I have before I can wrap up this first novel and start to query. At the moment, I feel that I’ll be querying probably in fall 2023.

But, we’ll see. We still have a long ways to go and a short time to get there.

Yet More Eerie Tik-Tok Shenanigans

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

So, a few days ago, I watched at YouTube vide of Christy Brinkley on the Howard Stern show where she talked about why she was never nude on film. I didn’t think anything more about this until I started thinking about her daughter with Billy Joel, Alexa Ray Joel.

I thought about how she obviously has gotten a lot of work done, probably because she had a chip on her shoulder about the iconic nature of her mother’s beauty.

So, today, there I was obsessively using Tik-Tok when I was pushed a video that dealt with this specific issue. It was as if Tik-Tok peered directly into my mind, made note of my stray thought about Alexa Ray Joel’s changing appearance and decided to push me a video about that subject.

Now, I suppose the case could be made that Tik-Tok is extremely intrusive and it noticed that I saw the YouTube video and it was THAT, not any sort of mind reading that caused me to get pushed the video.

This would be the logical explanation, but for the fact that this type of shit happens all the time. In fact, there is sometimes a nuance to whatever potential mind reading might be going on.

But, I’m not prepared to say, for sure, that Tik-Tok or Big Tech for that matter, has the technology to read our minds. Definitely something to think about. Because the other option — that a combination of being very aggressive searching into my apps and algorithms gives Tik-Tok, a Chinese company, the ability to figure out what’s going on in my mind.