A nice summation of what is wrong with class in the western world. Lyrics and music by John Lennon, vocals by Marilyn Manson, because Manson’s sepulchral vocals are much more suited to the bleak and sorrowful theme. The next Pigman Cometh toon is on class in Amerika, so it’s been on my mind.
Posts tagged Music
Inside Otep Shamaya’s Mind
Bring your own canary…
Two years ago my manager Michael had an online argument with an Uncle Tom called Josh Olson over his defense of Otep’s Menocide. Most of this exchange took place at Otep’s site, and on his part ended with Michael writing that Olson was a waste of time. Unfortunately, right after that Otep decided to write a comment defending the song, and by then of course we weren’t listening anymore.
As part of the process of re-posting at this site the articles that I had at Porky’s Place, I ended up at that Otep’s site and finally bumped into her comment. The fight is long over, but my tolerance for irrationality is not so I take a look at her response below. As a left winger I find it worrying that people on my own side of politics are so demonstrably illogical – one would think they could keep their inner Glenn Beck behind close doors, but alas no.
“OTEP Says:
May 31st, 2009 at 9:59 PM
Ye gods, I love this. I was hoping for a good laugh today – and I got it.”
In other words, your views are laughable because I say so, not because of any evidence I may have to present.
“You represent your side so well, Mike – a bunch of ninnies and sissies and crybabies with the intellectual capacity of a rancid sack of rodent shit.”
Note the usual “MRAs are whiners” meme, along with language that is meant to both infantilize and demean the group, as opposed to bothering to present evidence as to why we are wrong. As for  intellectual capacity, it is hard to take such criticism seriously from someone who so far has presented no actual intellectual argument, only cheap tricks.
“The song you refer to is from my first album released in 2002 and focuses on those who rape, mutilate, and intellectually enslave.”
This is quite clearly a lie, and an easy one to prove as the lyrics concentrate on men, men, and men. At this point Otep has gone from being tricky to just plain lying about the facts, rather like going from being CNN to  being FOX in the blink of a handful of words.
“So, you’re saying that you support those behaviors and that I’m wrong for denouncing them? Wow.”
I didn’t say such a thing, but let’s keep in mind that all she has to offer are ad hominems of different colors – this one seems a deep yellow. There was a time when I would have bothered to say “nay” to her accusation, but I no longer care what her ilk think.
“I also wrote a song that strongly condemns MOTHERS who murder their children (ooooh, I must hate all women too).”
Unless the song was about killing all women, as opposed to simply “condemning” a particular subset of women, it can not be compared to a song called MENOCIDE, which by its very title implies men as a group, not a subset of said group. It is not after all called, BADMENOCIDE, or SOMEMENOCIDE, and at no point do the song’s lyrics make a distinction between different subsets of men.
“But you needle-dicks don’t care about truth or facts or any of that — oh no! it would destroy the sympathy slide you mongrels ride on your way to sucking Rush Limbaugh’s sagging man-teat.”
Note the all too common attack on MRA penis size, which apart from its purely insulting intent may also be taken as a metaphor for not being manly enough. Funny how the so-called progressives fall back on traditional notions of masculinity when it suits them and eschews them when politically convenient. As for the sympathy slide, I only wish there was such a thing – maybe then we would see some real progress – as long as it didn’t lead to Limbaugh’s teat, or Jon Stewart’s for that matter. This assumption that I must somehow be a member of the right makes me wonder if she even looked at the site before commenting. On the other hand, if you want to discredit someone with the lefties at her site, there is no better way than accusing them of being a Limbaugh fan so this may simply be another lie…
“Josh is right. You are completely pathetic but in a very comedic way. You even use a video of me and my MALE band performing at OZZFEST — a festival that is dominated by testerone and machismo — to prove that I hate ALL men?”
You don’t have to like men to work with them. I’m sure there are many misogynists working with women, even when those women aren’t writing the music that’s made them stars. As for hating “all” men, there are always exceptions to the rule, but such exceptions don’t stop one from hating the group while liking or tolerating some of its members. I, for example, hate feminists but am quite fond of jerking off while looking at pictures of Naomi Wolf, though I’m not sure that’s the same thing…
“Seriously? Wow.”
No, the whole thing has been a hoax!
“The sad part is you don’t even realize the absolute, unrelenting failure of your own argument.”
Apparently neither does Otep or she would have been able to offer more than puerile insults and irrelevant statements.
“It would be easy to pity you and your poverty of spirit, but I prefer to follow Josh’s example …. and LAUGH.”
Remarkable that someone who writes songs about wiping out half the human race would accuse anyone short of a Nazi of “poverty of spirit, but hypocrisy and dishonesty are common bedfellows, especially amongst feminists.
There you have it, a nice selection of gibberish with which to while away one of those days when you’ve woken up too late to bother going out anywhere..
You know, a couple of years ago I would have relished doing such an analysis, but this time it just felt like a bit of a chore. Most likely this is because the majority of people don’t give a toss about logic, hence such an effort is largely fruitless. Indeed, a lot of people will see Otep as having won this simply because she got in most of the ad hominems, all of which makes me think I should drop any attempts at rational argument and simply stay in “mocking mode” all the time.
Caught In A Bad Romance
After months of diligently ignoring this Lady Gaga person, I finally got down to listening to her stuff and have found her to be both a delightful discovery and a bit of a worry.
Her music, which she apparently writes herself, is catchy, addictive and just plain exciting, but that alas is where Gaga’s virtues end. This horse-faced bastard daughter of Marilyn Manson and Madonna Ciccone differs from other pop tarts only in that she has some serious songwriting ability, a head full of intellectual and artistic pretensions, and hasn’t yet put out a sex tape.
Not only are the former Stefani Germanotta’s videos replete with the bacchanalia so beloved of contemporary youth, but like so many of today’s empty headed young women, little Stefani insists on telling us what she thinks, and what she thinks is pretty much the dark crap one would except from a girl who spent her school years being the class weirdo.
From glamorizing dysfunctional relationships in “Bad Romance”, to excusing female sexual dishonesty in “Poker Face” ( a song apparently inspired by Gaga’s habit of fantasizing about women while getting it on with men ) to declaring career to be more important than relationships (which of course marks her as strong and independent rather than as “commitmentphobic”) to her promotion of the worst aspects of gay culture, in Lady Gaga we have the embodiment of everything that is wrong with the modern feminist woman: a delusional sense of self-importance that makes Ted Turner look like a shrinking violet; an obsession with sex that makes Wilt Chamberlain look like a eunuch; and a fixation on external appearance that makes Donatella Versace look like Mother Teresa.
And yes, contrary to her previous statements, Little Ms Empty Vessel now identifies herself as “a little bit of a feminist” and is starting to spout a lot of unsurprising rhetoric such as claims that the video for “Bad Romance” is about “how the entertainment industry can, in a metaphorical way, simulate human trafficking — products being sold, the woman perceived as a commodity,” and whining about women in the music industry not being allowed to sing about sex!
Then there’s her AIDS charity work which of course is all about the wiminz, her claims that her sexuality is commented on because she is a woman rather than because her ass is constantly in everyone’s faces, and her supposed bisexuality, something which could previously have been seen as catering to male fantasies but which now takes on the covert separatist message of “I don’t need men.” Before you know it, little Stefani will be whining about the wage gap and opening a girls-only school in Africa!
So as Mamma Ciccone gets gnarlier and older and starts to stink up the castle, the Feminist Pop Icon crown seems about to be picked up by this little chippie, and the postmodern feminist blitherings will continue for at least another twenty years. Perhaps we’ll get lucky this time, maybe Gaga will live up to her name and go mad like Britney Spears or use her very real talent to become another Kate Bush or Patti Smith, but we all know where the smart money is and as usual it is not with the sane alternative.
No doubt there are people who will say this is all harmless, that Lady GaGa is being ironic and everyone knows it, or that pop culture doesn’t have that big an impact on kids anyway.
To the former I say that a bunch of adult music critics may see her shenanigans as irony, but that the average teenager consuming Gaga’s product can’t tell the difference between postmodern irony and warm apple pie, especially not when their hormones have just been kicked into hyper-drive.
To the latter I would say that the impact of popular culture on youth can’t be overstated. Here in Australia we have wiggers, but you know what we don’t have? We don’t have black Americans, just aboriginals and a few African immigrants. Yet we have thousands of kids in Sydney who act and talk like members of a subculture that they have only ever experienced through, you guessed it, the media.
The Jacques Derrida wannabes may be able to see different layers of meaning in GaGa’s lyrics and interviews, but the intellectuals of the world aren’t a bunch of teens looking to the media for their life’s philosophy. What the ordinary teenager sees and hears from Little Ms BlahBlah is simple – get laid, get famous, be superficial, and don’t worry about who you lie to or who you cheat on, it’s all good. And that’s a message that does nobody any favors, except maybe Lady GaGa and her bank account.
In case you have no idea who i’m talking about, here’s the video for Bad Romance. At the time of writing it has been viewed over 160 million times and that’s on YouTube alone – ignore her at your children’s peril.
Johnny Rebel Vs Otep Shamaya
Like many thinking pigs i have taken objection to a hateful little song called Menocide by a psycho man-hating radical feminist by the name of Otep Shamaya.
Recently i became aware of the existence of a rather unlikable individual who works under the name “Johnny Rebel”. Johnny’s great claim to fame is the charming ode to the black race called “Nigger Hatin’ Me”. In this song, Johnny Rebel makes quite a few objectionable statements about the black folks…
“I like sugar, and I like tea
But I don’t like niggers…no siree!
There’s two known things that’ll make me puke
And that’s a hog eatin’ slop, and a big, black spook!
You know it…cause I show it
Like a barn-yard rooster I crow it!
And the NAACP
Would sure like to get a-hold of nigger-hatin’ me!
Roses are red, and violet’s are blue
And nigger’s are black, you know that’s true
But they don’t mind, cause what the heck!
You gotta be black to get a welfare check!
And I’m broke…no joke
I ain’t got a nickel for a coke!
And I ain’t black, you see
So Uncle Sam won’t help poor nigger-hatin’ me.
Jig-A-Boo, jig-a-boo…where are you?
I’s here in the woodpile…watchin’ you
Jig-A-Boo, jig-a-boo…come out!
No! Cause I’m scared of the white man’s a-way down South
You know it!…cause I show it.
Stick your black head out and I’ll blow it!
And the NAACP
Can’t keep you away from little old nigger-hatin’ me!
Mirror, mirror…on the wall
Who is the blackest of them all?
A man named King, and there ain’t no doubt
That he’s causin’ lots of trouble with his baboon mouth.
Brewin’…he’s a doin’
It’s caused by the trouble he’s a-brewin’
And the NAACP
Can’t win if the white men stick with nigger-hatin’ me!
Hey! Mr. President! What do you say?
When are we whites gonna have our day?
The nigger’s had their’s such a long, long time
I’m white, and it’s time that I had mine!
You know it…cause I show it!
Stick your black head out and I’ll blow it!
And the NAACP
Can’t win if the white man sticks with nigger-hatin’ me!
Yes, it’s racist and offensive, but it doesn’t rise to the heights of hatred that Menocide does. Observe for example the humorous tone, and notice that the most violent thing Rebel sings is “Stick your black head out and I’ll blow it!”  and then contrast this with the serious tone and the calls to mass murder of  Otep’s Menocide …
“infectious human waste
forefather
cancer
hunter
prostate gods
killer
killer”
“a testosterone feeding drone
multiplying, multiplying hungry clones”
“Kill your masters!
Menociiide!
our time has come!!!
you’re just as weak as me
but not as strong!
just as imperfect!
but twice as flawed!”
“i’ll feel no fear or hate as i …
commit ….
Menociiide!!
(menocide!)”
“no compassion
kill your masters!
Menociiide!
kill your masters
kill your masters
kill your masters
Menociiide!”
Now, Johnny Rebel is rightly reviled by decent people on both the left and the right, yet Otep’s career not only continues to prosper but she even got invited to speak at the Democratic National Convention in 2008!
Do my piggy little eyes deceive me, or is there a grotesque liberal double standard going on here? Say hateful things about black people and we will ostracize and vilify you, but say hateful things about men and we’ll make you into a millionaire rock star and let you get up and speak in front of Obama!
Why is this do you think? I’ll tell you why – because culturally and legally men now occupy the same space occupied fifty years ago by black people, most of us just don’t know it yet.