Category: The Resistance

Tik-Tok Can Be So Spooky Sometimes

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I don’t remember what it was, but I thought about some subject really intensely out of the blue and then, what do you know, within 24 hours I was pushed a video on Tik-Tok on that very specific topic.

Man, is that weird.

And it happens all the fucking time! Usually, it happens when I think really intensely about a specific subject briefly. But I also find some very strange — but similar — things happen as well. Like, I was getting pushed a lot of Jane Birkin videos and then the moment there were any Alexa Chung videos I got pushed those, too. I had a really weird — even for me — and intense celebrity crush on Ms. Chung for a bit there several years ago.

So, weird that Tik-Tok would know that much about me.

The question, of course, is, is this just AI I’m seeing or something far more ominous? I really have to be careful talking about the idea that Big Tech can read our minds because people think I’m fucking crazy whenever I do. The only reason why I even suggest such a thing is how often some very, very strange things happen in regards to Tik-Tok pushing me videos that seem very, very specific to what I’ve been thinking about in the last 24 hours.

You think people in America would want to band Tik-Tok just because of how close their are to the CCP, just imagine if they were close to the CCP AND they could read our minds! Wow. Just wow.

I refuse to believe that Big Tech can read our minds. But it is a very interesting thing to at least entertain. It’s all very curious.

2024: The Year of Put Up Or Shut The Fuck Up

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Jesus Christ am I tired of all this mealy mouthed, half-assed things that are going on in American politics at the moment. Smug wealthy liberals with all their fucking suck-your-own-cock podcasts already have one foot out the door with a second passport they got through their refugee grandparents.

UGH.

I would rather, in a way, we just give up and allow the fucking fascist MAGA Nazis take over than do this weird political kabuki dance whereby the absolutists on both sides get more and more angry. I hate violence, that I almost — almost — would rather we just slip peacefully into MAGA Nazi autocracy in 2024 and get it over with.

And, yet, there is also a part of me that wants to stand my political ground on a greater political sense. If MAGA Nazis want civil war, how about we have a Blue Revolution instead? And if the Second American Revolution happened in just the right way, it wouldn’t even be that violent.

You would have to knock SOME heads, obviously, but if your revolution aims were low-key enough that MIGHT be kept to a minimum. Hopefully. But I’m not advocating anything, I’m just frustrated and annoyed about how half-assed our politics are at the moment.

We have fucking MAGA Nazi fascists running roughshod over our democracy and we’re just shrugging. Donald Fucking Trump continues to be 60,000 votes in 5 swing states away from being POTUS again. And if he becomes president, that’s it, the end of American democracy as we’ve known it.

So 2024 is it — put up or fucking shut up.

Why The Hollywood Strikes May Last A Long Time

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

It seems clear to me that at some point the Hollywood suits will face an existential choice — either give up and provide concrete assurances regarding AI to the various creative labor unions, or simply wait until the whole issue is moot by technological advances.

As such, either what some people assume will happen, will happen — the strike wraps up around the middle of September or it lasts much, much longer. If the suits get the sense that they can leapfrog directly into something akin to a “Her” future by simply sitting on their hands and suffering a little bit upfront….oh boy.

It could be — maybe — that Hollywood is about to be “Moneyballed” to a point that your head will spin. We will wake up in about 18 months and some pretty basic assumptions about Hollywood will be seen as rather quaint. Everything will be AI generated in the extreme to the point that there won’t even be this thing we now call “mass media.”

Now, remember, all of this is happening in the context of a massive fucking clusterfuck may be about to happen in late 2024, early 2025 on the political front. It could be that America is going to destroy itself for a few years — gulp — and THEN, THAT will be when the “Her” future we all (hope for?) (dread?) will come about.

Or not. I have no idea. I can’t predict the future.

I could totally see things get wrapped up in a rather snap manner out of the blue and the issue of AI will be punted down the road another three years. And, yet, there is a greater-than-zero chance that ALL creatives in Hollywood are totally and completely fucked.

A Variety of Monologues About Various Things

Enjoy.

Don’t Be A Scab!

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

The older I get the more mental energy it takes to refrain from telling people to fuck off on Twitter when they give dumb hot takes. So, I posted a video about how movie “influencers” shouldn’t be scabs. And some dumbass said, “Derp, I only make $19, I’d be an acting scab in a heartbeat.”

Union!

UGH. So stupid.

I didn’t respond because it wasn’t worth it.

But just imagine you were able to leave your $19 an hour job to be a high paid scab actor. First of all, you would have to take acting classes. And if you didn’t you would, yes, maybe make a few $100,000 in “quick money” but you fucking idiot then what? Fucking cocksucker dumbass. Ugh. I’m so angry.

The next thing happens is the strike ends and not only does EVERYONE IN HOLLYWOOD HATE YOU, you never get another acting gig and you go down in history and the fucking dumbass to was a scab.

So, yeah, you fucking idiot, leave your $19 an hour day job to be a scab actor. I look forward to it.

Thinking about this has put me in a very bad mood.

But the whole reason why I even mentioned scabs in the first place wasn’t even acting scabs! It was “influencers” who suck on the teet of the movie studios on Tik-Tok who are in a gray area when it comes to movie promotion. They make some money but not THAT much money.

Anyway. Don’t be a scab.

I’m writing a novel, so lulz, I can keep writing. I do hope, however, that one day my novel will be adapted into a movie! Grin.

The Conflated, Convoluted Politics Of The Latest Mission:Impossible Movie

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I’m at a loss to describe the political goals of the “Entity” that is the bad guy in the latest Mission:Impossible movie. And I think that’s the point. The point is for the movie to be so convoluted and conflated in its political good and evil that both sides think the other side is the bad guy.

They talk about “patriots” in what is essentially the deep state of the government. So…are they talking about the Entity wanting to purge MAGA people from the government or are they talking about the Entity purging the “deep state” from the government?

It’s all very unclear.

It really could mean either one. Which, like I said, is the point.

They want everything to be so convoluted that neither side has any reason to hate the aims of the movie one way or another. It’s very noticable if you’ve paid any attention to politics in the last, I don’t know, decade.

Anyway. It’s a good movie.

Is Trump About To Be Charged Under the Insurrection Act or Nah?

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

So, ding-dong “truthed” this today.

And, yet, a little while later, he deleted it and replaced it with a new version that mentioned the Espionage Act instead of the Insurrection Act. So, which is it? Is he admitting to something new or just ranting about the usual old shit?

It’s all very curious.

I will note that we’ve entered the period of the year where Big Things happen. Between now and Labor Day, HUGE EVENTS are probably going to happen because, lulz, all the Elites are on vacation.

Anyway. It’s all something of a mystery at the moment.

Mulling Querying: The Curious Case of The ‘Comp’

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

The thing I’ve learned from Tik-Tok is I, personally, will never get published — that is, at least what the Tik-Tok people who talk about getting published tell me. I don’t know anything about how to actually go through the querying process and everyone in the publishing industry who has seems angry and bitter at the world.

But I still have hope and, since I don’t plan on self-publishing (at least the moment) I’m going to have to learn how to pull it off.

And one issue I’ve learned about when it comes to querying is rather a “duh” kind of situation — you need to know what to compare or “comp” your novel to when you write your query letter. There is a problem, of course, and that problem is I haven’t read the type of novel I’ve been working on in, oh, 15 years. So, I have to buckle down and find out what are some modern novels that are similar to The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo that I can “comp” my novel to them.

My novel is definitely not a direct 1-to-1 with The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, but that was, at least, the novel that inspired me to write a novel in the first place. (ACTUALLY, it was that novel’s sequel, The Girl Who Played With Fire that is my “textbook,” but, lulz.)

Anyway, the point is — I have a lot of reading to do. I need to buckle down and go outside my comfort zone by reading other people’s writing instead of just re-reading my own stuff over and over and over again as I edit. I have begun to think that I probably have about a year left in the writing and post-production process before I begin to query seriously.

And, in a sense, it will be poetic if I start to query in the fall of 2024, just as the USA decides if it’s an autocracy or if it wants to blow itself up.

Of Olivia Munn & A Picture Not Being 1,000 Woke Words

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

So, here is a picture that has apparently “triggered” the more “woke” amongst us:

The reason is — there aren’t enough non-white people in the picture. And, yet, Olivia Munn is there, hamming things up in a very conspicuous manner and she ain’t white.

So, I suppose the issue is — either Olivia Munn isn’t close enough to the camera to suit the “woke” people who are complaining, or these “woke” people are upset there aren’t any black people in the picture and an Amerasian person doesn’t count towards the “white liberals have to have x number of non-white friends at their dinner party not to be hypocrites” metric?

To me, the issue is not the whole suck-your-own-cock woke nature of things, but how fucking wealthy everyone in this picture is! Everyone in the picture above has GOT to be at LEAST a multi-millionaire and they live in their bubble of liberal whiteness with pretty much total disregard for us Poors.

What’s more, this picture from Kristen Bell also gives us validation of our most basic assumptions about celebrity — they really do all know each other and that’s why nepobabies control everything.

While I general believe the whole idea of “woke” is everything and nothing relative to the need of an ambitious Republican lawmaker trying to scare up votes, it’s shit like people attacking the Bell picture that really does annoy me. Should they have strategically put Munn closer to the camera to put at least one non-white person closer to the frame?

I dunno. I guess I’m not woke enough.

The Online Political State of Play For the Hollywood Strikes

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

There seem to be three major lines of attack against the two Hollywood unions that are striking by Reply Guys on Twitter.

Your Stuff Sucks Anyway
This is the “anti-woke” argument against the strikes. In essence, the argument goes that Hollywood is a bunch of woke hacks who haven’t entertained MAGA audiences for years, anyway and fuck you, lib. In fact, I’ve seen at least one fucking cocksucker MAGA person say they look forward to the day that Trump can buy up all the bankrupt Hollywood studios.

You’re Overpaid
This argument is very corrosive because it pits the vast majority of actors and writers who aren’t making much money versus the high rollers. People who make this argument don’t understand that the unions set the MINIMUMS for the profession.

You Can’t Stop AI
The last argument is, lulz, AI is coming for Hollywood anyway, just give up. I don’t quite know what to say about this one because in a way it’s right and, yet, I do believe that the looming transformation of Hollywood by AI can be mitigated and / or managed in various ways if the unions know what to demand. But make no mistake — no matter what, Hollywood is about to be “Moneyballed” in a way that it hasn’t felt since the advent of the talkies.