The Cookout

[Czharcus]

I think you are seeing it quite one-sided from a gay man's perspective / point of view, which I can understand. And to me the tone of the post is sort of on the defensive as the subject may be a bit personal for you.

Now I'm a Black woman and if you were to swap out "Industry Baby" with something like "WAP", the argument could be made that "WAP" is not really a threat and that it shows Black women in a way that not all Black women want to see themselves or believe themselves to be. I don't subscribe to the tired idea that all Black women are able to offer to the world is sex and being pieces of meat to be shown and thrown around. It reenforces negative stereotypes such as all Black women are freaky, sluts, hoes, baby mamas, love to twerk, etc. It's "Self-degradation" disguised as "Female Empowerment." And "Industry Baby" is "Self-degradation" disguised as as a form of Black LGBT "empowerment."

I think you hit on a good point. Industry Baby is not objectively a non-threat. Simultaneously, it is not objectively a threat. Objectively, no one knows if or how much it is a threat or non-threat. Because of that and how easily the opposition to it backfires and becomes yet another weapon against us leading to more suffering, I do not find it useful to treat it as a threat. It does not appear productive to me. If anything, we're probably just spinning our wheels in the mud.

I just know many of the ideas surrounding its supposed effects aren't logical or based on evidence. That means it's coming from unquestioned beliefs/illusions.

The ideas that "Industry Baby" and "WAP" are not empowerment but self degradation are not objectively true. The effects that we believe they are having on the world are not objectively true. We're making it up from cherry picked information and ideas that have formed our unquestioned beliefs.

Of course, we can choose to fight these things out in the world, but ultimately we are fighting our beliefs about them so our methods couldn't possibly yield our desired result (but then again, we could make up that they did just as easily as we did, the problem).

If they are threats to you then that is true for you, bottom line. I think it is more helpful to us to investigate many of our beliefs, especially the ones we think are definitely true.

 

[ART]

Czharcus

I will say that these trolling entertainment tools, including the Black ones, and their shenanigans are child's play in comparison to what is now on the horizon and how Black people are being openly attacked both domestically in the states and worldwide. The anti-Black genocidal crisis is bigger than the temporary Ukrainian crisis and mere entertainment.

Our main, if not sole focus needs to be on the current and ongoing collective attacks against Black people and our interests such as reparations because they are using media, war, laws, etc as direct and indirect attacks against us. Bigger fish need to be caught, fried, and dealt with and enough of us need to be on code before everything else can fall into place.

 

[Czharcus]

Czharcus

I will say that these trolling entertainment tools, including the Black ones, and their shenanigans are child's play in comparison to what is now on the horizon and how Black people are being openly attacked both domestically in the states and worldwide. The anti-Black genocidal crisis is bigger than the temporary Ukrainian crisis and mere entertainment.

Our main, if not sole focus needs to be on the current and ongoing collective attacks against Black people and our interests such as reparations because they are using media, war, laws, etc as direct and indirect attacks against us. Bigger fish need to be caught, fried, and dealt with and enough of us need to be on code before everything else can fall into place.

Agreed and that's why I echoed a previous sentiment in my last comment:

I think it is more helpful to us to investigate many of our beliefs, especially the ones we think are definitely true.

We grossly underestimate how distorted our vision actually is. We grossly underestimate the effects of our unquestioned beliefs. If you have some about "WAP" or "Industry Baby" that cause you to mistake illusion for truth, then you have them in every other area of your life as well.

Self inquiry is the way to getting on code. It is the biggest fish.

 

[Redd*Blitz]

I don’t want to hear this. I remember him standing up for Black American actors on twitter and I want that to be my last memory of him. Now it’s him in lace.

<<Smh/Lol>> It's tough to accept, I know, but at the end of the day, he's still an actor who's on a mission to conveniently say and do anything for relevancy, land more movie and/or TV roles, and to push some agenda as set up and orchestrated by the PTBs of Hollyweird.

 

[Harbinger]

I think you hit on a good point. Industry Baby is not objectively a non-threat. Simultaneously, it is not objectively a threat. Objectively, no one knows if or how much it is a threat or non-threat. Because of that and how easily the opposition to it backfires and becomes yet another weapon against us leading to more suffering, I do not find it useful to treat it as a threat. It does not appear productive to me. If anything, we're probably just spinning our wheels in the mud.

I just know many of the ideas surrounding its supposed effects aren't logical or based on evidence. That means it's coming from unquestioned beliefs/illusions.

The ideas that "Industry Baby" and "WAP" are not empowerment but self degradation are not objectively true. The effects that we believe they are having on the world are not objectively true. We're making it up from cherry picked information and ideas that have formed our unquestioned beliefs.

Of course, we can choose to fight these things out in the world, but ultimately we are fighting our beliefs about them so our methods couldn't possibly yield our desired result (but then again, we could make up that they did just as easily as we did, the problem).

If they are threats to you then that is true for you, bottom line. I think it is more helpful to us to investigate many of our beliefs, especially the ones we think are definitely true.

If it’s made up why do white people who release it not make a White alternaative? They appropriate everything else except for WAP? Probably because it is psychologically detrimental and they don’t want that in their culture.

 

[Sapphire]

They always make our people out to be freakshows in Hollywood. Like mentioned, Dave said they always put our men in dresses. Wonder why that is... If you are black and want to be part of Hollywood you NEED to have your guard up at all times and never take a role that pushes you into some alphabet nonsense.

 

[Czharcus]

If it’s made up why do white people who release it not make a White alternaative? They appropriate everything else except for WAP? Probably because it is psychologically detrimental and they don’t want that in their culture.

Because they can't. Because they are likely thinking it is psychologically detrimental as well but just because they think it, just because they attack us with these "Industry Baby's" and "WAP's" don't mean they're actually having a negative effect. Our minds and how it responds to reality (and vice versa) is far more complex than we think.

We think we have it all figured out, 1 + 1 = 2, because we work backwards and/or cherry pick information. The equation is actually 57631287597 + 89643715894 = 2 and we pull out the 1's because we want to believe only those numbers together equal 2. We simplify an infinitely complex equation down to something we can understand because we need to feel like we have it all figured out. And that need causes us to give our power away or see it where it doesn't exist.

White Supremacy doesn't actually have any power, we just believe it does and so it does. Their agendas don't inherently hold any power over us but we believe they do so they do.