00:45 Tucker Carlson on the recession
12:30 Interview with Johnny Monoxide, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2ks9cLiIaA
15:00 Price of Online Fame, https://lukeford.net/blog/?p=144369
17:00 The most hated man on the internet, https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/27/entertainment/the-most-hated-man-on-the-internet-review/index.html
20:00 How Streaming Stars Pay the Price of Online Fame, https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/29/technology/twitch-stalking.html
27:25 How Can I Stop My Stalker? Please Help! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_jPkrvl0rAE
47:00 The Curse of Productivity Ft. Amouranth
Posted inAmerica|Comments Off on Cocaine as the white man’s drug (7-29-22)
From the Times today: “Stars on Twitch, the video game streaming platform, invite viewers into their homes virtually. What happens when one shows up in person?”
What happens varies from the inconvenient to the deadly.
In other words, if you want the rewards of fame, you’ll have to pay the price of fame.
If you want the rewards of playing football, you’ll have to pay the price of playing football.
If you want the rewards of belonging to an Orthodox Jewish community, you’ll have to pay the price of belonging to an Orthodox Jewish community.
I grew up a Seventh-Day Adventist and after a few years as an atheist, I converted to Orthodox Judaism. It worked out well for me but it came with a huge price. Many of the people I grew up with were appalled by my choice. Friendships that I’ve wanted to continue they wanted to discontinue. I distanced myself from people close to me even though that was not what I wanted. Life in Orthodox community comes with many requirements if you want to stay in good standing. It’s particularly difficult moving from a non-ritualistic religion (Protestantism) to a ritualistic one.
I’m not the only character in my story. When I converted to Judaism, I brought my problems with me. I have not been an unadulterated joy for others.
The main character in this Times story is Twitch streamer Kaitlyn Siragusa aka Amouranth. Here is what comes up when I Google her:
The unwanted visitor rapped on Kaitlyn Siragusa’s front door and peered through the windows of her home on the outskirts of Houston. When she did not answer, he walked around to the back of her house and jiggled a doorknob there.
He had been sending Ms. Siragusa, 28, unsettling messages for months and said online that he had sold his home and possessions in Estonia to fly halfway around the world to find her.
“I’m sorry that it took me too long to get here. It was a hell of a challenge,” said the man, captured by Ms. Siragusa’s security cameras in June. Then, speaking to his phone, which he was using to livestream the visit, he added: “But I’m here now.”
The man was one of Ms. Siragusa’s five million followers on Twitch, where she goes by Amouranth. She called the police, who eventually came and detained him. The incident was terrifying, she said, but it wasn’t the first time she had dealt with what is increasingly going hand in hand with being a high-profile streamer on Twitch: harassment and stalking…
Famed for pushing the boundaries of the platform’s rules against sexually explicit content, Ms. Siragusa can be found donning the costumes of scantily clad video game characters or bantering with her audience while doing her exercise routine.
Though Twitch discourages streamers from wearing swimwear if they are not planning to take a dip, Ms. Siragusa is able to broadcast in a bikini: She installed an inflatable hot tub in her bedroom last year…
“In livestreams, they see into your home, into your bedroom, and it feels very personal with them,” Ms. Siragusa said. “I think that is what contributes to a lot of the stalking: They feel like they know you.”
One of the prices of having five million followers is unwanted attention. Also, the way you present yourself is going to influence how people respond to you. Amourantha makes her money by selling her sex appeal, which provokes sexual frustration among the 99.999% of men who look at her but don’t get to have sex with her. If Kaitlyn left her Amourantha persona behind and concentrated her streaming on modestly explaining Shakespeare, she’d have fewer unwanted approaches from strangers.
To whom much has sex appeal been given, much is demanded.
The live streamer sells his soul. The commercially viable content producer sells his soul. He sells his life and thinking for attention, affection and money. If you don’t like the price, don’t play the game.
Amourantha tells the Times: ““I don’t know what else to do at this point, besides build a moat with crocodiles.”
Well, she could change the way she presents herself. She could change how often and how intensely she presents herself to the public. She could get married and give up livestreaming. Traditionally, women marry young and they get protected by a husband, a community and a society in exchange for conducting herself modestly. Such women rarely get stalked.
I don’t get the sense from this article that any of these women are married or belong to traditional communities.
Life in community is challenging. You have to constantly subordinate what you want to do for the sake of the community’s health. If you pay the price of community, however, you get to reap the rewards, which include increased protection.
The less modest the woman (or man), the less safe she’s going to be. The more you flaunt it, the more you risk it.
The women in this story have a business model of attracting men. They want to profit from this (emotionally, financially, and in status) and not to pay any cost.
There’s always a cost.
An easy way to minimize unwanted male attention is to not act like a whore.
Decent man usually don’t want to marry whores. The more you whore yourself out online, the less likely it is that decent people will include in their life, which means your social circle will increasingly be composed of the dangerous and dysfunctional.
Men evolved to hunt down women who broadcast that they are sexually available. That’s why traditional societies want men and women to tone things down and to be comport themselves in a way that is not going to disrupt families.
Are you tired of attracting bad people? Get in touch with your emotions. Take the high road. Don’t be a whore. Don’t take naked photos of yourself. Don’t videotape yourself having sex. Don’t appeal to people’s worst instincts to get attention.
Stalking is not something that has bothered bloggers because blogging appeals to a different audience than livestreams. Few authors and academics have stalkers.
Another character in this story is Dizzy Kitten. A Google search reveals:
Another character in this story is BrookeAB. A Google search reveals:
Another character in this story is Sweet Anita. A Google search reveals:
These pretty women played a role in their own misery. A key part of their appeal has been the notion that they’re single and ready to mingle and that’s usually a lie (even if they are single, they rarely want to mingle with fans). Porn stars would also want to put forward the image of being single to fire up their fan base but when you fire up your fan base, that comes with some dangers.
Posted inYoutube|Comments Off on NYT: How Streaming Stars Pay the Price of Online Fame
00:15 How The News Differs From Reality, https://lukeford.net/blog/?p=144347
02:45 News media redefine recession to protect Democrats
30:00 Washington DC calls out national guard to deal with illegal aliens
41:00 Interview with Johnny Monoxide, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2ks9cLiIaA
43:00 Californians and other Americans are flooding Mexico City. Some locals want them to go home, https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2022-07-27/americans-are-flooding-mexico-city-some-mexicans-want-them-to-go-home
56:20 ‘The Most Hated Man on the Internet’ tackles the fight against a ‘revenge porn’ site, https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/27/entertainment/the-most-hated-man-on-the-internet-review/index.html
1:08:00 Are strip clubs a good predictor of a recession?, https://abc7.com/are-we-in-a-recession-2022-stripper-economic-forecast-market-crash/11990763/
1:44:00 Stop Being Socially Awkward: 10 Behaviors That Make You Look Weird
Art Bell comments: RECESSION & STRIPPERS… Greg Mannarino & the WORRY TUBERS knew, so did ‘p33lers’ aka “EXOTIC DANCERS” in February 2022 VIA Adam Curry’s news site & watching tweets of str1ppers …with Care – AS G-D COMMANDS. June29 Report ABC7:
“SAN FRANCISCO — Strip club employees who talked to ABC7 News and dancers in the business say the expected post-pandemic recovery never materialized. Some strippers are predicting a recession, with many citing empty strip clubs and poor bookings as indicators of stormy economic times ahead.
“I can speak for our dancers who work for multiple agencies and in the strip clubs because they have to get enough work and they’re still not making enough money,” says Asshley, (her stage name was requested to be used to protect her family) a dancer for 10 years and co-owner of SinCal Party Entertainment, an agency that dispatches strippers to events such as bachelor and bachelorette parties.
Consumer spending makes up 70% of the U.S. economy…”It’s been bad,” says Brandon, co-owner of SinCal Party Entertainment and Asshley’s husband.
The couple has been in the adult entertainment business together for 10 years.
“Normally, as we come into spring and summer, it’s busy for bachelor and bachelorette parties,” he said. “Everybody wants to throw their parties. As the year progressed, it just hasn’t happened, it has only gotten worse. It has gotten slower, where we as business owners have had to look at other forms of revenue, trying to start other businesses just to keep ourselves afloat, let alone all of our strippers. It’s terrifying.”
Based in California, the couple manages an agency that dispatches more than 50 strippers across the state. Many of the dancers at their agency also worked at strip clubs and have reporte
“You have all these girls in the strip clubs who are used to heavy traffic, that have no traffic,” Asshley said. “So they’re reaching out to agencies hoping that our broader net and what we serve as our service area being broader that they’re going to be busier, have more work, and it is just not the case for the strip clubs and the agencies. Strippers really have taken a huge hit.”
The company saw bookings drop to 50% of pre-pandemic levels since the start of 2022.
“As an agency, we really do care about every one of our strippers, we want to see them succeed,” Brandon said. “But we also want to see them be able to provide for whatever their home life looks like. So for us to have no bookings, it’s really hard for us because we see the direct effect that it has on our strippers.”
[AMAZING ADMISSION AS TO WHAT THEY ARE !]
His wife added, “When the pandemic hit, we were still one of the only things that were open. So we were making a lot of money. But then as the economy opened up more, we just saw our business hit the ground, pretty much. We had a ton of people that needed the work, but the work was not coming in.”
[RUTHLESS BICKERING AND FIGHTING FOR SHIFTS ?]
For now, SinCal Party Entertainment is keeping its heads above water by re-inventing its business model and creating fresh revenue streams such as offering virtual parties in the metaverse.
[ODD ANSWER TO ALL PROBLEMS IN ‘GOING ONLINE BRO’ & ‘NFT’S BRO !’)
[IS THIS PART A PREDICTION OF FUTURE EMPLOYMENT ?] “We’re a family-owned business – we have a 7-year-old, a 5-year-old and a 1-year-old,” Brandon said. “And part of why we run a business is to be able to be home and to be involved with them. And the struggle of this post-pandemic, decrease in people’s spending has really affected not just us and not just other agencies but their families. You know, a lot of the competitors that we have, are similar to us and they are also family-owned businesses and they’re trying to provide for their family. And it’s just not happening.”
———-
OOF. Selling US oil to a Chinese company that hired his son was a bad look. Ukraine aid will find it’s way to US officials. Biden printing cash to stop his party doing badly in November. At least it’s all coming together.
I expect Luke might DUST OFF his clasic segments on how people define deviance (to make themselves look A+) – the un-dressor says SOME of them are doing more than that, while she is ABOUT THE ART & EROS. Which is all dross. A fight for shifts & shafts, perish the cile thought folks. + Keep it clean, this is Luke Ford’s temple and he keeps it clean. Thank you Luke for so many TOP TIER shows, even at 2 hours.
+ A listener supplied SIDE SHOW after the 2 hour break would be cherry. USER SUBMITTED CLIPZ segment even if 30 minutes. BEST OF. Apprciate the link to the news piece, too
Posted inAmerica|Comments Off on TRS Exposed (7-28-22)
At the top of WSJ.com right now is the headline, “Recession Fears Loom as U.S. Economy Contracts Again.” According to the Commerce Department, the GNP fell .9% in the second quarter. That’s the second straight quarter of GNP decline, which is the traditional and technical measure of a recession.
I wonder if we had a Republican president now, would the media have an easier time declaring that we are in a recession?
So the Commerce Department has made a statement and that dominate the news today. Were there reasons to believe months ago that we were in a recession? Well, yes. Strippers (in Manhattan particularly) were noticing in February that we were in a recession because their clientele had stopped tipping.
The verdict of a jury is a bureaucratically recognized event through administrative procedures but it is no more likely to be true than the judgment of an individual. A jury found O.J. Simpson not-guilty of murder when the evidence was overwhelming that he was guilty.
The phrase “innocent till proven guilty” is a bureaucratic procedure that is not useful for people to implement in their daily life where reality forces them to make decisions about others.
The news reminds us that tough times fall disproportionately upon the less intelligent but polite discourse does not allow one to comment publicly that stupid people usually have a more difficult time with reality. Reality shows us that different peoples have different gifts, but you can’t say this on the news.
News is a consumer product like orange juice. You make money in the news business by providing a product that meets people’s needs. Telling the truth is incidental to making money in news or in succeeding in a bureaucracy. Bureaucratic procedures are no more likely to arrive at the truth than individual insights but they will get more play in the news. For one thing, when a bureaucracy declares something, news merchants aren’t going to get sued for reporting it straight. On the other hand, they might get sued if they rely upon the insights of individuals.
A major reason the news is boring compared to what a great writer or talk show host can produce is that the news depends upon “the passage of bureaucratically recognized events through administrative procedures.”
The news is dominated by official sources. Reality is frequently unofficial but always more true than the pronouncements of bureaucracies.
What helps you better navigate a new job? The official employee handbook or the gossip you get from other people? The unofficial news often beats the official news.
Now, understanding that the news is different from reality doesn’t mean that at times the news can’t be a tool to get more clarity on reality. For example, when the news tells you the price of gold or the price of gas or who won the Cowboys game, the news tends to be accurate. Understood properly, reading the news enhances your understanding of reality. Consumed without thinking critically, however, taking in news (or any source of information) diminishes your understanding of reality.
Every individual and every institution and every piece of writing needs to be understood in its context. For example, when you read a blog post, ask who wrote this? For whom was it written? What’s the ideology of the writer? What’s his agenda? What are the incentives he faces? What is his life experience? How does he make a living? What is his social circle? From whom does he most want love and respect?
Posted inJournalism|Comments Off on How The News Differs From Reality
00:15 Regular Americans during Covid were berated to stop the spread, but protected groups aren’t berated to stop the spread, https://www.takimag.com/article/monkeypox-the-new-aids/
03:00 Nancy Pelosi’s rioters disrupting American democracy
20:40 Struggle to protect gay, bisexual men from monkeypox exposes inequities, https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2022/07/27/monkeypox-gay-men-vaccine-treatment/
24:00 Ukraine’s leader poses for Vogue magazine
39:00 Tucker Carlson on green energy
52:00 Left-wing indoctrination in public schools
58:00 Fracking Was an Extraordinary Boondoggle, https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/27/opinion/environment/energy-crisis-oil-gas-fracking.html
1:00:00 Recoding Jordan Peterson: Think again, Sunshine!, https://decoding-the-gurus.captivate.fm/episode/recoding-jordan-peterson-think-again-sunshine
1:02:00 What Happened to Jordan Peterson? https://rebelwisdom.substack.com/p/what-happened-to-jordan-peterson
1:20:00 Conservative Claims of Cultural Oppression: The Nature and Origins of Conservaphobia: https://lukeford.net/blog/?p=144168
1:30:00 Tokyo Vice: An American Reporter on the Police Beat in Japan, https://lukeford.net/blog/?p=144300
Posted inAmerica|Comments Off on Pulling a train along the Black queer underground railroad of assistance (7-27-22)
"This guy knows all the gossip, the ins and outs, the lashon hara of the Orthodox world. He’s an [expert] in... all the inner workings of the Orthodox world." (Rabbi Aaron Rakeffet-Rothkoff)
