Keeping It Real

I’m in L.A. because I want to be on Instagram… The people who work nine-to-five, that is not me… I’m twenty fucking thousand dollars in debt from college… I am not work material. I will never be work material… I could never work a normal job.

Via Instapundit, a peep-hole into an alien subculture.

I’m not a hateful person. I’m a Sagittarius.

Also, open thread.

Comments

[David]

Question asked, answered.

Via Julia.

[Mike]

I’m not a hateful person. I’m a Sagittarius.

What did I just watch?

[Hopp Singg]

Sadly, nothing in the article indicates her politics, so we'll never know.

[David]

What did I just watch?

It’s not really my, er, milieu, but from what I can make out, when not “coming up with ideas for social media,” i.e., choosing what to wear for her next photograph of herself, or bragging about her Gucci bag and dismissing people as “fake,” Ms Taylor is also a rapper.

Now excuse me while I drop some beats.

[David]

Sadly, nothing in the article indicates her politics,

I doubt the self-absorption leaves room for much else.

[Hopp Singg]

Well of course she's a rapper. She hasn't actually been convicted of anything.

If she had, she'd be an aspiring rapper.

[David]

So far as I can tell – and it’s quite hard to care - Ms Taylor’s crisis-inducing loss of Instagram access was at least partly a result of referring to a friend’s girlfriend as ‘ghetto trash’ or a ‘hood rat’ or something to that effect. The aforementioned keeping it real.

It’s quite a thing, though, to see an overindulged young woman mimic what I suppose might be called rap-slag culture, resulting in an inadvertent parody of what is, it seems to me, already an inadvertent parody. It’s terribly postmodern.

[Connor]

The Instagram influencer...

Let me stop you right there.

[David]

On the upside, it makes blogging seem almost respectable.

[David]

It’s all happy-clappy and inclusive until it turns, as it must, into a woker-than-thou shakedown.

[svh]

On the upside, it makes blogging seem almost respectable.

Almost.

[Tim Newman]

It’s all happy-clappy and inclusive until it turns, as it must, into a woker-than-thou shakedown.

I knew you'd be onto that in a flash. :)

[David]

I knew you’d be onto that in a flash. :)

Er, if you don’t mind, I’m trying to project an air of inscrutable mystique.

[Steve]

Sadly, her account was deleted in error. But at least we've learned about the type of person she is.

https://www.thisisinsider.com/controversial-influencers-instagram-account-deleted-in-error-2019-4

[Jen]

"Jessy Taylor, public figure"

[[+]]

rap-slag culture

Band name.

[Tim Newman]

She said she liked the UK because she believes people there are less judgmental and that's where her bigger fanbase is.

Good luck with that.

Also, she said, "guys are hotter there."

I couldn't possibly comment.

[David]

She said she liked the UK because she believes people there are less judgmental

Interesting theory.

[Tim Newman]

More seriously - and I appreciate I'm probably on the wrong blog to start a comment like that - I think a lot of Twitter superstars are going to wake up one day and find the platform either gone or busy removing them or their followers from it. Like this hussy with the Instagram account, you can spend years building up a profile and have it yanked on the whim of some panicked employee of the hosting company. And that's before the government starts putting its beak in with regulations of this industry. Did Miss Hussy pay tax on the $500k she reportedly earned?

The one advantage blogs have, while not getting anywhere near the reach and influence of a Twitter account, is you actually own it. Bloggers should play the long game because when the tech-tonic plates shift, we might be the last ones standing.

[David]

Like this hussy with the Instagram account, you can spend years building up a profile...

You’d think there were only so many ways you could photograph your own arse.

[Adam]

$20,000 in college debt? Did she quit after one term?

[WTP]

Every article about this that I saw previously, she appeared rather skanky but not such that I understood wtf this was about. Your link, however does have the bikini shots. She has big boobs. Now I understand.

[David]

She has big boobs. Now I understand.

I’m a stickler for context.

[Joan]

"I felt like it was a homicide," she said. "I called the police actually and told them about this, and they said you can't compare a murder to this, and I was like, no, that's exactly what it felt like."

Totally balanced individual then.

[Bill de Haan]

I think "media influencer" is this year's "community organizer".

Basically, finding a job title for people who haven't actually had jobs.

Sadly, nothing in the article indicates her politics, so we'll never know.

On the off chance this statement was not sarcasm, I'll point out that the subject in question is concurrently complaining that her account was targetted by "haters" for no reason, and refusing to discuss her "streams of racist comments" at the same time.

That type of behaviour is the hallmark of the SJW (social justice warrior) type, which defines her political leanings fairly easily.

[David]

Totally balanced individual then.

I quite like the juxtaposition of Ms Taylor’s woes with the item immediately below it, which at present is What If the Most Powerful Nuclear Bomb Exploded in Space?

In terms of drama, it’s almost equivalent.

[Farnswoth M Muldoon]

Claims to make 500 large over three years, but sill has 25 in college debt. Pick one.

I think "media influencer" is this year's "community organizer".

Except for the very few that actually have any knowledge of fashion, music, or whatever, and are capable of actually influencing someone else, it is this year's "peep show girl". "Send me a money and you can see my bewbs". I think they are also supposed to be easy on the eyes, which this one isn't.

Begone e-THOT.

What If the Most Powerful Nuclear Bomb Exploded in Space?

This, only bigger.

[Clam]

I’m twenty fucking thousand dollars in debt from college…

And so she buys a Gucci bag.

[Farnsworth M Muldoon]

What could possibly go wrong when you are this Woke™ ?

[Farnsworth M Muldoon]

Well, it says also open thread...

If you like your bicycle seat, you can keep your bicycle seat.

Turbulence will be interesting, though.

[David]

This just in:

Please update your files and lifestyles accordingly.

[Tom]

Please update your files and lifestyles accordingly.

Why did no one tell me until now? Does it have any cool uniforms or flags?

I might try telling my wife she's a fascist dictator but I'll think I'll leave it 'til after we've seen the first episode of GoT.

[David]

Mixed messages.

[David]

think I’ll leave it ‘til after we’ve seen the first episode of GoT.

No spoilers. Viewing this evening.

[David]

Also, for those interested in such things, Bosch season five begins on Friday 19th.

[Tim Newman]

No spoilers. Viewing this evening.

There are tits.

[David]

There are tits.

[ Faints with indignation. ]

[Roberto]

Except for the very few that actually have any knowledge of fashion, music, or whatever, and are capable of actually influencing someone else...

The venerable It Girl market has been deregulated, with media executives no longer being the starmakers. So much the better for opportunity and diversity. And yeah, most of them will end up with no more followers than any moderately attractive young woman on social media, and with no takers for their curated ranges of branded tchotchkes.

[Daniel Ream]

I think "media influencer" is this year's "community organizer".

As I've told rather a lot of millenials - all girls - cosplay is a not a career. YouTube busking is not a career. It's an expensive hobby that you might be able to recoup some of the costs on if people like your stuff.

It's as bad as the 90's, when I had to keep telling young geeks that 'game designer' wasn't a career either.

[Eddy]

European Christians have nothing to be proud of or to want to pass on to their descendants. If they don't have any descendants, so much the better - they can be replaced by people who aren't the cancer of human history. Theirs is a shameful legacy of crusades and and inquisitions.

Tearing down monuments is what the good people are doing deliberately these days. So why get upset over an old church burning down? What goes up in its place can be more representative of the French people of the 21st century, an important proportion of whom have no roots connecting them to medieval Paris.

If this wasn't an accident, and the saboteurs were youknowwhatms, the media and the authorities will go all out to stop the story coming out, with the kind of censorship that hasn't been seen since WW2. It'll be the coverup of the century, and it won't even be necessary. There's no backlash waiting to happen. If the French can take a priest's throat being slit at the altar, what's a little property damage?

[David]

If this wasn’t an accident,

Officials said the fire, which started at the 850-year-old Gothic building around 7pm local time, could be linked to renovation works being carried out at the cathedral. French media reports, citing police sources, added that the fire started by accident.

Here.

[Farnsworth M Muldoon]

...added that the fire started by accident.

I'll withhold judgement, not that I expect the truth given the rash of recent French mysterious church and cathedral fires which are all apparently spontaneous combustion events.

Regardless, as much as the fire is terrible, Monte Cassino before and after, and Monte Cassino now. Same with the Cologne cathedral, and countless other historical buildings that got damaged in WWII.

I understand why Coventry cathedral wasn't rebuilt, but Notre Dame can be rebuilt as long as the French want to, and don't turn it into some bland mess like the contraption at the site of the World Trade Center.

[WTP]

According to Ace (translation I think) “Some good news: All the works of art have been saved. The treasures of the cathedral are intact, the crown of thorns, the saints
scacrements”

Which I think would indicate that renovations were going on and quite possibly fire was a concern. I’m no authority on French or maybe Parisian regulation but my money would be on more likely a failure of the permitting or regulatory process that failed to prevent a failure by those actually doing the work. Not necessarily fair to blame the government but if the government has significantly burdensome regulations that still fail...well nobody’s perfect. Some people just think they are. Sad either way.

Here in central Florida we had a 2000 year old tree get burned down when some skank bogarted her joint. Or so one of her stories went.

[Pogonip]

Glad to hear the relics and art were saved.

[Richard Cranium]

Theirs is a shameful legacy of crusades and and inquisitions.

I'm not fond of the French, but that's a bit much.

[pst314]

I'm not fond of the French, but that's a bit much.

That Eddy person might have been attempting sarcasm. If so, it was clumsy and ill-suited to the moment.

[Farnsworth M Muldoon]

...but that's a bit much.

I'm hoping he was being sarcastic.

[Farnsworth M Muldoon]

Fire is apparently out and the bell towers and basic structure are saved.

Macron (for whatever that is worth) says it will be rebuilt.

[Steve E]

I’m no authority on French or maybe Parisian regulation but my money would be on more likely a failure of the permitting or regulatory process that failed to prevent a failure by those actually doing the work.

I wouldn't be surprised. Most jobs in France are union controlled. Extended breaks, lunches, and vacations are the rule. You don't work overtime unless it has been pre-cleared and booked. When your shift is over you're expected to leave. It wouldn't be surprising to see an end/beginning of shift issue crop up and create potential safety issues. (To be clear, I'm not saying that's what happened.)

My friend runs a pharma sales/marketing group in France and while they're not unionized, he says many of them treat their jobs as if they were.

All the same, it sounds like the emergency teams did an incredible job bringing the fire under control. They are to be commended.

[Bill de Haan]

It's as bad as the 90's, when I had to keep telling young geeks that 'game designer' wasn't a career either.

Actually, that's what I was thinking of, as I read the first part of your comment. And yes, game designer is a career, a very real one. As is game developer.

Game player, however, is not a career choice. I knew quite a number of twenty somethings in the 1990s who jumped into the video game meat grinder, saw them work 12-16 hour days for weeks on end, and usually for very low pay, but with the promise of riches "once it sells a million copies".

I would say that 95% or more of them dropped out within two years. There's a difference between playing a game for enjoyment, and playing it looking for bugs, filling in bug and performance reports, and playing the same level thirty different times, on twenty different PCs, with fifteen different video cards, over and over and over again.

The attraction usually wore off within a month. And then they started complaining it was too much like work. Well, that's why they call it work.

The most common complaint was that after playing video games all day, the last thing they wanted to do once they got home was play another one...

[TimT]

The one advantage blogs have, while not getting anywhere near the reach and influence of a Twitter account, is you actually own it. Bloggers should play the long game because when the tech-tonic plates shift, we might be the last ones standing.

I love my little blog, though I haven't been using it much of late. Twitter is a fundamentally silly medium.

[TimT]

My brother messages me about the Notre Dame fire: "Looks like the hunchback finally snapped."

It's terrible news. But built culture is fundamentally transient: all that is left of the built culture of Ancient Greece is a few ruins. And how many treasures of history went up in events like the Great Fire of London?

Of more value is the intangible cultural inheritance of these civilisations. It's hard to burn all the Victor Hugo novels in the world. Socrates is still a household name, a cliche almost, almost three millennia after being put to death.

[Pogonip]

We need a happy story today:

https://abcnews.go.com/International/oil-rig-workers-rescue-dog-137-miles-off/story?id=62404935&cid=clicksource_4380645_null_card_hed

[WTP]

"It's hard to burn all the Victor Hugo novels in the world. "

Well maybe not ALL of them...I keeed, I keeeed.

[Sam Duncan]

“Same with the Cologne cathedral, and countless other historical buildings that got damaged in WWII.”

Also, more recently and similarly, Windsor Castle and the south transept of York Minster. Amazingly, both of those were restored within five years. As long as there's the money and the will, it can be done.

If I were the people in charge (as far as I understand it, it's owned by the City of Paris with the church simply a tenant), I'd be on the phone to the Palace and the Dioscese of York first thing for pointers. The Frauenkirche in Dresden, too.

[TimT]

"Also, more recently and similarly, Windsor Castle and the south transept of York Minster. Amazingly, both of those were restored within five years. As long as there's the money and the will, it can be done."

Actually, it reminded me in a strange way of a current kafuffle over the Christchurch cathedral.

After the catastrophic earthquake of 2011, in which the Cathedral basically fell apart, the city and the NZ government pledged funds to restore the Cathedral, which formed a special part of the Christchurch city centre. Works have been underway for a while.

In spite of the largely secular nature of NZ, I hadn't heard a peep in opposition.... until a few weeks ago, when after the brutal murder of Muslims in several Christchurch mosques, apparently progressives began calling for the cathedral rebuild to be halted in favour of some multi-faith centre.

It is kind of gobsmackingly callous, this - to call for the restoration work being performed after one national disaster to be dumped in favour of a different restoration work for a more recent national disaster.

[Chester Draws]

In spite of the largely secular nature of NZ, I hadn't heard a peep in opposition

Then you missed the court cases, the countless hearings, the synods and the bellowings of various politicians. It's been a saga of recrimination right from the get go.

The thing is that the Anglican church really didn't want it. It was expensive to rebuild and maintain, and unsuited to good services. To many of us here a pastiche "European" building doesn't say New Zealand anyway. It says "British colony" and while that's what we were, many of us don't see why we have to waste millions to in favour of that -- just as I wouldn't expect an ex-Communist country to waste money rebuilding Communist era relics that collapsed.

It was the secular types who most wanted it rebuilt, not the church. Many liked its presence in the square, and it wasn't their problem that it was expensive and unsuitable. Eventually a new bishop was brought in who supported the rebuild.

But opposition there was, and plenty of it.

[pst314]

apparently progressives began calling for the cathedral rebuild to be halted in favour of some multi-faith centre.

They were just waiting for the right tragedy to make such a callous move acceptable.

[Uncle Mikey]

As a Saggitarius, I find us to be extremely hateful

[Chester Draws]

Any calls for a multi-faith centre have been very minor. They've not been in the sites I read.

In the modern world there are "calls" for all sorts of things. Sometimes no more than one person with a social media megaphone.

It's not like it can happen, which they'd know if they were people of any faith. Who funds a "multifaith" centre, when committed to an actual faith?

The only one I know of is the Christian denominations sharing sites in Israel. And that's not without major issues.

[Captain Nemo]

Nothing to see here, just your usual severely educated individual, showing just how severely educated they are:

https://twitter.com/LibraryJournal/status/1118232615847329802

[Daniel Ream]

game designer is a career, a very real one. As is game developer.

Tabletop game designer. But never mind that; video game designer wasn't a career in the 1990s either. Like professional sports, a small number of people made good money doing it but most either went broke or got out.

[TimT]

Interesting background, thanks Chester.

The Christian focus ought to be on the church that Christ formed - a society of the faithful - and not on the church as it is often mistaken for in general society, a building or group of buildings.

Still, there is something to be said for preserving one's past and the heritage of one's past. And the cathedral is a symbol of a time when church and state cooperated, as opposed to today, when any such cooperation is likely to be met with bitching and bickering from the usual sorts.

[Hal]

. . . . a symbol of a time when church and state cooperated, as opposed to today . . .

. . . except, of course, for, oh, Russia, lesseee, Saudi Arabia , . . . oh, Iran . . . . where aside from being quite current examples, all of these also providing utterly luminous examples of the great joys of having
one's government linked to some totally random faith . . .

[TimT]

Separation of church and state is a sound concept, but it ought not to rule out cooperation. If the paranoia of the progressive left about the involvement of church-in-state was accurate, the UK - which has the Anglican church written into the laws of the land - would never have been a functioning democracy. Nor would the US, NZ or Australia.

[Hal]

Separation of church and state is a sound concept, but it ought not to rule out cooperation.

Quite.