"I know I am native to Jerusalem, not because Jabotinsky said so, but because I am. I know that Zionists have colonized Palestine without the need to cite Herzl. I know this because I live it, because the ruins of countless depopulated villages provide the material evidence of calculated ethnic cleansing. When we as Palestinians speak about this ongoing and ignored ethnic cleansing—which is inherent to Zionist ideology, by the way—we are at best passionate and at worst angry and hateful. But in reality, we are just reliable narrators. I say we are reliable narrators not because we’re Palestinians. It’s not on an identitarian basis that we must be given, or must take, the authority to narrate. But history tells us that those who have oppressed, who have monopolized and institutionalized violence, will not tell the truth, let alone hold themselves accountable."
- it's just ads again
- it's always just ads why does anyone pretend this is an award show
In light of the whole James Somerton situation I still want to reiterate the importance of everyone having the right to post the little half-baked rambles that come to their heads. The problem with James Somerton wasn't so much that he "lacked rigor" or "didn't put in enough effort" so much as he completely underperformed in comparison to the authority he presented himself as, and propped up his image as a serious scholar by stealing passages from people who actually had done the work. Academic rigor and hard work are not in themselves obligatory, but honesty is. My posts all sound like first drafts because they fucking are, and yet you all get plenty of meaning and value out of them.
I'm deeply frustrated by the possibility that a lot of people's takeaway from the HBomberGuy video is gonna be "you have to be this educated and this hardworking or you should just shut up" when like, no, plenty of video essayists got their start as low effort vloggers. Low effort posting is not a sin. Demanding money while peddling fraudulent products is. If you're not literally faking your work and qualifications? You're fine.
so, a week after patreon abruptly permabanned hundreds of fetish accounts (with no warning & despite not violating patreon's tos) i'm now seeing a prominent 18+ artist getting his patreon frozen with no explanation at all as to what triggered it, or directive as to what he can do to recover his primary source of income. (link to tweet)
when the alarms started ringing on patreon's crackdown against fetish art, this is the slippery slope we were warning you about. dovegraveyard's work is not particularly niche in terms of content - he does primarily m/m pornography, rendered in watercolor. it is nothing more 'extreme' than you might find in any off-the-rack adult magazine. the fetishists and sex workers were, as they always are, the canaries in the coal mine, and in absence of patreon providing any real explanation as to why they have spontaneously frozen this account i seriously believe the noose is about to tighten further on all adult content, not just the kink.
not trying to be an alarmist or a doomer, but if you have a patreon you should be setting up some type of mailing list to keep in contact with your supporters, today. if your account ends up being targeted, it will be magnitudes harder to reorganize on a new platform without some way to inform subscribers what happened and where they can find you.
finally, if you are so inclined, i highly recommend pledging to dove as he attempts to rebuild on subscribestar. his art seriously kicks ass and he is just the latest in a long string of artists i deeply care about who have been casualties of patreon's dogshit staff shooting itself in the foot to please payment processors.