June 4, 2018

"This is for all you lovers out there."



Another Pogo video. We discussed Pogo (Nick Bertke) in a post yesterday called "Not-Funnyites converge on a hipster homophobe."

I'm putting this one up because I like "Back to the Future," and I like the way this edit extracts a theme from the movie: What men do to men. That's what I'm seeing anyway. At one point — 0:47 — there's a split screen with love (on the left) getting gradually squeezed out by the hate.

I feel bad about Pogo. Yesterday, I sent a video to Meade along with the text: "you’re finding out about a talented guy who’s been around for 10 years on the day of his (social, career) execution." It's a little random to throw this on here, but this was the video I sent Meade:

22 comments:

daskol said...

optimism: “If you strike me down, I shall become more powerful than you can possibly imagine.” that's not true for most people, but Pogo, thus far, is showing verve. these two paragraphs from an article on pogo in the verge could be the distillation of single-loop shaming orthodoxy. I'd like to tell the writer: yes, but, you got the wrong guy.
shame is brutal, and there has been terrible collateral damage--there was something nicer about the old ways--but I'm not sure Pogo is a victim, at least not just yet.

It is unclear how to reconcile his statements that he wants to rile people up and also somehow never offend them. Regardless, his excuse that he is being edgy “for the sake of being edgy” — like all of his deflections — dismisses the real damage his words can do. Applauding real-world violence like the Pulse shootings isn’t edgy. It’s a step toward normalizing and even celebrating the life-threatening reality of prejudice the LGBT community must deal with.

Bertke can claim that people who know him know he’s “just being an asshole,” but it’s a throwaway excuse that cannot be taken at face value. There is no good faith discussion to be had with someone who trivializes the murders of a marginalized community. His insistence that the original video is being taken out of context is a textbook example of claiming plausible deniability, one where anyone who is frightened, hurt, or offended by his comments is simply missing a joke. Bertke does a piss-poor job convincing anyone the joke was worthwhile in the first place.

daskol said...

are we sure that Pogo is done trying to convince people? or that such convincing is impossible? this is a battle, not a one-sided execution, no matter the finality in the writer's language and tone.

Earnest Prole said...

Speaking of what men do to men, Marty's mom has got it goin' on.

daskol said...

JJ Leigh is beguiling indeed

Chris N said...

What’s rather sad to me is that the man is being punished for perceived slights against vague moral norms, which is often how our rules and punishment regarding rules tends to go. Maybe he should have committed to the joke all the way, or maybe he really thinks such thoughts and should probably keep them to himself to protect his livelihood. Podcasting, artists and the artistic process is often about finding norms and bending or breaking them. Laws often come later.

A lot of people desiring to make new rules and moral norms also desire to enforce the new rules and moral norms. Many of these people are promising liberation from the old rules often in their own self-interest, and little else. The old rules often made their lives miserable and constrained. In fact, some ‘liberators’ and the cultural impact they have as ‘cool’ and truthful leaders in thought and opinion seem more disordered, clinging, and rule-bound than that which came before. Some even tell you just how bad their ideas are and show how awful they can be. Alas, liberation is always next.

Guys like this show where many new lines are being drawn, by whom and just how. Shut your mouth is usually the message.

Ann Althouse said...

Lea Thompson.

tim maguire said...

The lesson of Trump is that Pogo would have been better off seeing it through rather than panicking and apologizing and showing weakness while placating nobody.

He should have laughed at the stupidity of the people who took his homophobia seriously. That response would have gotten him the result hew wanted.

But it's too late now.

Fernandinande said...

The attempted music brings to mind injured rodents, but I finally recognized Lloyd as the staring guy in "Cuckoo's Nest".

Ray - SoCal said...

Instapundit has a link to how the msm is now going after thought criminal families through doxing. Give the wrong opinion online, even anonymously, your family can suffer...

https://pjmedia.com/instapundit/298512/

Are Families of Those Guilty of Thought Crimes Fair Game?
https://ricochet.com/523701/families-guilty-thought-crimes-fair-game/

This is horrible.

h said...

I don't think Pogo is really a very good example of hipster homophobia. "Putin Gay Clown" might fit this: a person simultaneously making fun of over-the-top gay make-up or presentation, but also sending the message that the person is truly hip -- knows the recent Putin Gay Clown meme and also is down with making fun of Trump's friend Putin.

Ann Althouse said...

@h

It's my term, and Pogo is my first real example of it, so that makes him a perfect example.

Ann Althouse said...

Maybe we'll refine the term so that the first person it was applied to will no longer be in the category. That would be weird!

h said...

Okay, it's your term and you can define it as you wish. But it's quite a bit different from hipster racism, isn't it?

gilbar said...

going after thought criminal families

family members of someone guilty of thought crime have a responsibility to turn in that family member.
If they did not; they Also are guilty of thought crime.
Read the book, it's all in there

Heartless Aztec said...

I'm with Meade in finding out about Pogo on tne announced day of hus demise. Not my usual cup of tea but I like it. Charming almost.

daskol said...

Lol, Tina Fey is filed in the same folder as Lea Thompson and JJ Lee. And my friend Casey.

Pogo's debasement seems less because he explained, but he did not retract. He addressed the "argument"--did anyone commit suicide over this? sorry about that, if so. He called himself, 10 years ago, naive. He bemoaned the grief this has caused, mostly his own. However, he did not accept the premise of the criticism. That's progress compared to how some others have wilted under shame spotlight. Maybe it's the Aussie in him, but I cringed less at his video than at Roseanne's self-abasement.

Loren W Laurent said...

"It's my term, and Pogo is my first real example of it, so that makes him a perfect example."

From a Laslo comment in the earlier post:

"I liken it to naming a star: the people who could find and name one were generally those with the telescope necessary to do so; the internet is our new telescope, and everyone has one.

By the way: a Google of 'hipster homophobia' comes up with a 2016 Slate article: other than that, the terms 'hipster' and 'homophobia' occur in multiple articles, but not joined in synergy. So, as far as that star, Althouse was beaten to the punch by one.

However, Google shows 'era of that's not funny' has not been claimed on their horizon. Lot's of 'that's not funny' and the 'era of Trump' and 'era of fake news', but not the aforementioned synergy. But in quotation marks and capitalized -- "Era of That's Not Funny" -- Althouse is the first seven hits; the next is referencing a post of hers, and the one after that is on a Fark comments thread from March 5 of this year, but Althouse's first usage is 11/15/17 (and followed by many posts thereafter).

To paraphrase Warhol: every internet writer will be famous for fifteen minutes. But accreditation may be tricky."

-LWL

Ann Althouse said...

"Okay, it's your term and you can define it as you wish. But it's quite a bit different from hipster racism, isn't it?"

I'll have to think about that, but I agree that I coined the term with reference to hipster racism. Maybe we have different reference points about hipster racism.

Danno said...

Back to the Future was the last set of movies I attended at a movie theater. From what I hear, I am not missing a thing.

Char Char Binks, Esq. said...

Many well-known figures of the alt-right, or new right, are current or former comedians who are sickened by the Age of Nothing's Funny, so they fight back politically, or double down on the "offensiveness". Gavin McInnes, Steven Crowder, and Jesse Watters spring to mind.

There are a lot of lefties who deserve to be offended.

Bad Lieutenant said...

Ray said...
Instapundit has a link to how the msm is now going after thought criminal families through doxing. Give the wrong opinion online, even anonymously, your family can suffer...

https://pjmedia.com/instapundit/298512/

Are Families of Those Guilty of Thought Crimes Fair Game?
https://ricochet.com/523701/families-guilty-thought-crimes-fair-game/

This is horrible.
6/4/18, 8:23 AM


The thing to do, it would seem, is to dox the media. Somehow the media gets very little of the scrutiny it bestows upon others. Not good.

Marek said...

Be sure to give Trumpular a listen. From a small sample size it seems both those with TDS and those that like Trump or find his style amusing seem to think the song supports their views on Trump.