Castle Magus

"Hi. You may have noticed a new crop of influencers like The Nelk Boys and Bryce Hall taking over online spaces. Today we’re looking at who these people are and how MAGA influencers garnered so much... well, influence."

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"The extremely partisan and vindictive crime president, looking to wet his thick beak as sloppily as possible, is now lording over every social media platform, which now happens to be one of the primary ways in which Americans get their information, the youth of which specifically following individual influencers, who may or may not be getting paid by political operatives working directly for that president to put out misinformation."

(My only minor quibble with that italicized quote from Cody Johnston there is that he used the world "misinformation" when he clearly should have used "disinformation.")

This is just dystopian shit. All of it.

It's frustrating and sad and horrible and disgusting that MAGA has been around long enough for there to be a "next generation" of anything related to it.

Also, I'd just like to state, yet again, that I loathe the entire concept of "influencers" in general. The only consolation for me is that I'd never heard of any of those "next generation" MAGA assholes, prior to this video. But then, there were a whole lot of mentions in this video of the current/old generation of MAGA assholes, too.

I don't have a "joe rogan" tag... hmm... not sure if even this 1:18:01 episode of Some More News that is explicitly about Joe Rogan is enough for me to bother creating a "joe rogan" tag. I mean, sure I could just plop "joe rogan" down there in the tags list and then have a "joe rogan" tag for the future, in the unlikely off-chance that I ever mention him again, but he's absolutely not worth the effort of finding and back-tagging the very rare few posts from the past in which I may have mentioned the asshat. Eh... okay, I guess I'll throw a new "joe rogan" tag on this post, for what tiny bit that is worth (even just to me, let alone anyone else).

Also, disclaimer: I have never seen anything of Joe Rogan's show myself, other than a few short clips here and there over the years of him saying stupid shit.

Anyway, on with watching the video at 2x playback speed...

...

...all right, not even five minutes in, and there's some transphobia. Off to a good start.

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Side bar: "Walmart fires 6'4" cisgender woman threatened by man who thought she was trans"

Wow. So, basically, a man came into a women's bathroom at a Walmart to harass and threaten a cisgender woman, who worked at that Walmart, because he wrongly, stupidly thought she was transgender merely because she happened to be tall, and then the woman was fired from her job at that Walmart after she reported the incident. (Ostensibly because she rEpOrTeD iT tO tHe WrOnG tYpE oF mAnAgEr... what the actual fuck ...so, then, why was the manager she did report it to not also fired for not reporting it up the chain to the, supposedly, "correct" type of manager? Probably because said manager wasn't a tall woman who "looked trans.")

And, of course, this fucking happened in goddamned Florida. That tracks.

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And now, onto the COVID disinformation part of the show...

Ah, and there's the racism... hmm, turns out Joe Rogan apparently had very different views back in 2019 or whenever, compared to now...? Gee, I wonder why? Oh, right, it's because of the Trump stuff.

And here comes the Trump-specific stuff (though that's really been an undercurrent of the entire video all along)... Joe Rogan before: "The morons had a king." Joe Rogan now: "He's real." Also, it does indeed seem really weird that Joe Rogan, who apparently hates everything to do with Jeffrey Epstein, had Donald Trump, someone who really appears to have been a close, personal friend of Jeffrey Epstein, as a guest on his show, and apparently never once mentioned Jeffrey Epstein. Go figure.

Joe Rogan didn't like Tim Walz, because Tim Walz was, supposedly, "a liar." Therefore, all in for Trump I guess????? The guy who has spouted literally multiple tens of thousands of documented lies over the past decade????? Okay, Joe Rogan. Okay.

Elon Musk? A genius? The smartest person alive? Okay, Joe Rogan. Okay.

Trump is "an outsider" and "anti-establishment" in the same way that GamerGate was "actually about ethics in video game journalism." Joe Rogan, by supporting Trump, is also no longer "anti-establishment," because Trump, like it or not, is the fucking, goddamned "establishment" now. Thanks, in part, to Joe Rogan, specifically.

Ah, and there comes the anti-abortion sentiment and the homophobia, too. Keep 'em comin', Joe. They're all just beach ball issues with no actual substance or value, amirite? *eye roll*

I'm on the tail end of Gen X, having been born in 1979 (Google/Wikipedia says Gen X was from "1965 to 1980"), and believe you me, I have absolutely not undergone a "right-wing turn." Maybe I'm just an aberration, though. *shrug*

Oh, and we're even getting just a smidge of antisemitism up in here (along with some Nazi propaganda/Hitler apologia), too. The hits just keep on comin', Joe.

So, in conclusion, while Joe Rogan isn't the absolutely worst grifter/con-man/right wing dumbshit that Some More News has done a video about, he's also obviously not the greatest dude in the world, either. I don't know... maybe Joe Rogan could be one of the rare few Trumpanzees that potentially could be shamed into changing his ways by being called a hypocrite, but I wouldn't hold my breath on that. In any case, this video has not convinced me to suddenly start watching the 6000+ hours of The Joe Rogan Experience or whatever the fuck.

(They didn't manage to get through this video without at least some dumb skits involving Katy and Warmbo. Short as they were, they were still present. *sigh*)

"Hi. Today we're looking at vice presidential candidate JD Vance's weird Nazi lie about migrants from Haiti eating pets in Springfield, Ohio, something that didn't happen and that he knows didn't happen."

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Pre-watch: How in the blue hell did they manage to get an entire hour and half worth of video out of the utterly asinine topic of Haitians allegedly eating pets, when all they needed to say is that Trump/Vance are being weird, being racist, being hateful, and, most of all, being liars?

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During watch: Seriously, keep in mind that this (i.e. JD Vance) is the man who would become POTUS should Donald Trump first, heavens forbid, become POTUS again and then second, heavens endorse, die or something. Brrr... *ugh*shiver* It would be a lateral move, at best. Vance couldn't be worse than Trump, but he almost assuredly wouldn't be better than Trump, either. Just equally terrible, but in a host of horrifying new ways. In any case, it's just one more reason in a list of by now at least a trillion reasons why Trump should never again be allowed within a million miles of the White House.

I like that they keep showing that clip from the Harris/Trump debate with Trump, stony-faced, saying the moronic lie, and Harris on the other side just laughing and gesturing in a "can you believe this lying moron?" kind of way.

"Crypto-Nazi account 'End Wokeness'" *weary goddamned sigh + facepalm leaving a slap mark on my forehead + rolling my eyes out of their sockets + shaking my head back and forth to the point of being able to fly if I only had rotors attached*

Oh, it's connected to Project 2025, too? *weary goddamned sigh + facepalm leaving a slap mark on my forehead + rolling my eyes out of their sockets + shaking my head back and forth to the point of being able to fly if I only had rotors attached*

There is, apparently, a Neo-Nazi group with the name of "Blood Tribe" that exists within the United States of America. And here I thought things couldn't possibly get even more fucked up than they already are. Nah, I'm just joshing, things can and will absolutely get way more fucked up (definitely if Trump wins, and probably even if, heavens support, Trump loses). Oh, and this "Blood Tribe" is apparently behind the racist rumors about Haitians eating pets. Wow. Imagine that. But the mere fact that an American Neo-Nazi group called "Blood Tribe" even exists at all in the year 2024 CE is mind-boggling enough. Well, maybe not so much, if one simply looks back at the past decade or so, I suppose. (By the way, this is what the founder of "Blood Tribe" looks like, apparently. Could not possibly be more stereotypical.)

So, for reference going into the latter two-thirds or so of the above embedded Some More News video, here is another Some More News video.

Cody repeating Donald Trump's own "criminal genetics" phrase with a big picture of an angry-looking Donald Trump onscreen is just... *chef's kiss.*

"Because, surely, JD knows what he's doing. He's stupid if he doesn't." Cody, Cody, Cody... stupidity and malice are not mutually exclusive.

"But it's weird for a vice president to say." Cody, JD Vance is not vice president yet, and, heavens condone, he never will be.

"Anyway, speaking of stupid Nazis." Followed by... Holy shit sudden Fucker Carlson jump scare. Welp, gotta add him to the tags now, too, I guess. *weary sigh* For reference. (Also for reference.)

*insert that Toy Story meme, with the "X" being the word "Lies," in this case*

Really appreciate that Cody keeps reminding us that JD Vance once called Donald Trump "America's Hitler" (among many other truly terrible and terribly true things he said about the former SCROTUS IMPOTUS, prior to him becoming a Trump tiny mushroom licker himself).

In conclusion, "What a piece of shit that guy is. You suck, JD. You're America's Hitler's pet. Congratulations. Go to hell, poop in your own mouth, and swallow. Oh, this just in. There's more. When you're done swallowing that poop that you pooped, poop that out and swallow that. Dipshit."

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Post-watch: Yeah, okay, I see how they managed to stretch "'Haitians eat pets' is a stupid lie told by stupid liars" into a full hour and a half video. Because it's not just about that, but also about all the stupid lies and bullshit that fed into that and led up to that. Makes sense now. Still, in the end, it really was just an hour and a half of Cody finding many different ways to say that Trump/Vance are being weird, being racist, being hateful, and, most of all, being liars.

Also, my middle fingers are pretty tired now, especially thanks to that Fucker Carlson jump scare. Instantaneous hoisting of both middle fingers has pretty much become a reflex action now, whenever that asshat appears on my screen.

Anyway, this was yet another Some More News video with no Warmbo, no finger puppets, no evil Katy, and no other pointless, distracting bullshit like that. They're on a roll right now. Heavens approve. Still a bunch of embedded-in-the-video-itself ads through which I skipped forward, as always, but meh, that'll never not be a thing anymore, apparently.

"Hi. This week, we're looking at George Soros: where he came from, how he made his money, and why the right-wing obsessively thinks he's the puppetmaster behind everything they don't like."

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Betteridge's law of headlines.

"Hi. Let's look at some of the loudest, most perpetually online GOP politicians, and see if they're actually doing things that help their constituents. Next week we'll do the Democrats!"

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I guess this video was only talking about people currently in Congress, because Donald Trump didn't dominate the entire video like he probably would have otherwise. Trump did get mentioned a few times and had a tiny bit of focus at the end, but it otherwise wasn't about him, despite the fact that he is the epitome of a "loud, celebrity politician."

Also, be warned: *weary sigh* Warmbo is in this, for some reason. And given how this episode ended, the next episode might be really skit heavy, assuming they try to have "continuity" or whatever.

<sarcastic monotone> Great. </sarcastic monotone>

"Hi. In today's episode, we analyze the accusation that THE LEFT is grooming children by injecting gender ideology into schools and putting disgusting things like rainbows on shirts. We also look at the actual definition of 'grooming' and ask ourselves what group in the U.S. appears to fit that definition."

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The exact instant Marjorie Taylor Greene appeared on my computer monitor, early in the above video, that made this post about that video eligible for the "middle-finger-worthy" tag, and thus it was tagged below. And then, Steven Crowder popped up. And then Matt Walsh. And then Tim Pool. All of this reinforced the inclusion of the "middle-finger-worthy" tag on this post. Hell, even Fucker Carlson's fugly mug appeared on my screen for a few agonizing seconds, and even though he didn't even say anything other than a single, confused-looking "yeah" in response to some of Matt Walsh's idiocy, that alone earned this post the right to be labeled with the "fucker carlson" tag as well.

Also, don't be scared, but I am about to share a huge, massive, gargantuan spoiler for the above video, so here is a glaring spoiler warning, beware... and, I know, this spoiler is so unexpected and it may come as a complete and total shock to everyone... but... it turns out that, once again, there are many among the GQP who are indeed guilty of the very thing that they're accusing their enemies of being, i.e. being groomers, in this particular case, even while in the process of accusing their enemies of being groomers. In other words, they are, yet again, projecting. In other other words, they are, yet again, being hypocritical. Gee. Golly. Willickers. Well I'll be. Aw shaw. Tsk tsk. Imagine that. Go figure.

Anyway, all kidding and blatant sarcasm aside, there was one thing that I actually was a tiny bit surprised about, and that was the complete lack of mention of either Donald Trump or Ron DeSantis. Well, I guess there was that one oblique reference to DeSantis with that "before Libs of TikTok became governor of Florida" bit, but aside from that, nothing at all.

And absolutely nothing whatsoever of value was lost.

You see, that's because Faux Noise, even when Fucker Carlson was still there, was already utterly bereft of any and all value. This is like if you had a severely overfilled-to-the-point-of-bursting septic tank, and all you did was pump out a single turd and call it a day. Sure, that turd might have been one of the biggest, stinkiest, most disgusting turds in the septic tank, but even after its removal, you're still left with a grossly overstuffed septic tank.

And here, now, is the obligatory apology to the concept of septic tanks, because septic tanks, unlike Faux Noise, actually serve a legitimate purpose in this world.

"Hi. The GOP has been in control of the House for just over two months, but all they can seem to do is promote awful legislation, hold performative investigations, and fight amongst themselves."

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So, essentially, it's pretty much what everyone with at least two brain cells to rub together expected would be the case, then.

And, of course, yet more discussion of banal GQP whinging about "wokeness" in this video.

Also, those extended clips from CPAC near the end of the video made my arms tired, due to the sustained hoisting of double middle fingers throughout the whole bit.

A post on Whatever dot Scalzi dot com.

"Hi. For Part 2, we look at how The Twitter Files don't show the kind of nefarious intent that Elon Musk hoped they would, and analyze why he bought Twitter in the first place (other than being forced to)."

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Jellico was a good captain. He was a hardass and everyone hated him at first (and, like, kind of at near the last, too), but like Cody says here, he got things done and proved himself in the end (barring a few jokes at his expense later in Lower Decks). I mean, I liked him well enough, at least, to give him a brief but favorable cameo at the end of one of my Star Trek/MLP:FiM fanfics, anyway. (Also, as I only just found out in the process of writing this post and linking to that Memory Alpha article there, apparently there have been ten more episodes of Star Trek: Prodigy released since I watched it before, and apparently Jellico shows up in that?)

Oh, right, this is also part two of that thing about Elon Musk. I'd really rather just talk/post/think about Star Trek though.

And yeah, Elon Musk is way more like Dick Jones or Vilos Cohaagen or Robert Kinsey than he is Edward Jellico.

Lastly, Dave Chappelle shared a stage with Elon Musk? If that's not an example of jumping the shark, I don't know what is. As far as I'm concerned, unless some sort of miraculous reversal happens and soon, Dave Chappelle is done. Finito.