Castle Magus

"John Oliver explains why you've been seeing more AI-generated content online, the harm it can do, and – sadly – why it is threatening his marriage. Do you hear us, cabbage Hulk? Stay the hell away from John's cabbage wife."

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That chud claiming that most people don't enjoy the time they spend making music (as an excuse for why his AI music generator is "good")... that alone rated the "middle-finger-worthy" tag.

And I would say that all the people charging dozens to hundreds of dollars to explicitly "teach" others how to make money creating AI slop are even worse than the people creating the AI slop, except that they're the same fucking people. May they all be fucked by a sea urchin (perhaps even the same one).

In any case, it's not just silly bullshit, and it's not "just" artists having their livelihoods stolen, it's actively dangerous, as the bit about the first responders to disasters being distracted by AI dumbfuckery showed.

"And it's pretty fucking galling for the same people who spent the last decade screaming 'fake news' at any headline they didn't like to be confronted with actual fake news and suddenly being extremely open to it."

Also mentioned is the fact that people are starting to distrust real things because it might be deepfake bullshit some AI shat out, even when it actually isn't.

And the liar's dividend. (Something that Donald Trump, for one, has been benefiting from for decades, well before AI slop ever became a thing, but him claiming that real news about his bullshit is AI slop certainly doesn't help.)

"To summarize: AI slop can be somewhat lucrative for its creators, massively lucrative for the platforms that use it to drive engagement, and worryingly corrosive to the general concept of objective reality."

And at the end, spoiler alert, John Oliver unveils a real chainsaw carving, made by the guy mentioned in the video whose real life chainsaw carvings are being illegitimately replicated by AI slop, of the AI slop "purple cabbage man" that John Oliver mercilessly mocked at several points in the above embedded video (and also in the video description).

"John Oliver takes a look at the Alliance Defending Freedom – the legal organization behind several landmark Supreme Court cases, including the Dobbs case that overturned Roe v. Wade. Plus, a five-star book review of a one-star book."

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It's crazy how these shitty, hateful RWNJ organizations name themselves in the most ironically assbackwards ways.

I'll just say it again: Religion is not an opiate for the masses, it is a neurodegenerative toxin for the masses. Though I think maybe I used an inferior term and that "encephalopathic" might have been better than "neurodegenerative."

"John Oliver discusses the budget and staffing cuts being made to public health agencies in the U.S. under RFK Jr.’s new leadership, the many ways those cuts will impact all of us, and how WWII really ended. Trust us, it’s not how you think."

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(This is about RFK Jr., huh? Okay, yeah, just gonna go ahead and slip that middle-finger-worthy tag down there real quick. I'm sure it will be justified very quickly. Also, going to type this up as I watch it.)

I will give RFK Jr. only this much credit for the name AHA: it's still a better name than fucking DOGE.

RFK Jr. or anyone else in government, let alone the fucking Department of Health and Human Services, freely admitting that they're doing anything at all out of fear that they might "lose political momentum" is goddamned ghoulish. (Especially given that all of the shit stupid things they are doing are accomplishing absolutely nothing good at all but losing them political momentum. That is probably the only silver lining to come out of all this horror.)

All right, that alone justifies the inclusion of the racism, transphobia, and homophobia tags.

This video is mostly about RFK Jr., so far, but... there's Phony Stark. I mean, he's not even doing anything in that clip but just sitting there, looking stupid, and nodding along as a fellow Department of Obnoxious Memelords asshat said asinine things, but that alone would have definitely justified the middle-finger-worthy tag, even if RFK Jr.'s comments about "los[ing] political momentum" hadn't already done so.

"Shitshow is an understatement for what just happened." I'm sure that will be an evergreen statement when it comes to pretty much anything that the Trump """""administration""""" does for the next four years. (Seriously, it still has been barely more than three months so far, everyone.)

Holy shit... so yeah, okay, Indiana Senator Jim Banks just skyrocketed up my list of "biggest shitstains on the underwear of humanity in all of federal government right now." He's probably even in the top 10 now, somewhere below Donald Trump, Elon Musk, JD Vance, Mitch McConnell, Lindsey Graham, Mike Johnson, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Lauren Boebert, Gym Jordan, Kevin McCarthy, six of the nine Supreme Court Justices, and... well, okay so maybe not top 10, but at least top 20, probably.

Ah, and there's the vaccines = autism bullshit again. Kind of surprised it took around two-thirds of the video passing before they really got into that. I guess it just goes to show that RFK Jr. is a disaster in so many other ways as well.

"As a physician, I pledged to first do no harm and to speak up when I see harm being done by others. Secretary Robert Kennedy is a danger to the public's health and should resign or be fired." That about sums it up, yeah. That said, I think you could replace the "Secretary Robert Kennedy" in that second sentence with "President Donald Trump," "Vice President JD Vance," "Co-President Elon Musk" and many of the other rancid puddles of diarrhea who were appointed by Donald Trump to positions for which they were woefully (and intentionally) unsuited, as well, and it would still be 100% accurate, but yeah, RFK Jr. is the big one in this particular case.

"Dear John Oliver, kindly go pound sand" (EDIT) Just replaced the link to the actual Christian Post website with an archive.is version of it, because I don't want to direct any more traffic to that piece of shit website. (/EDIT)

Saw that dumbfuckery show up in my Google News app, which was shat out in response to a recent episode of Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, because Google wrongly believed I wanted to see worse-than-worthless dreck from a birdcage liner like The Christian Post. Needless to say, I very quickly corrected that mistaken assumption by Google. Also reported it for being "Misleading or sensational" and "Hateful or abusive" (wish now I'd also included the "Violent or repulsive" option), which was cathartic (as is this post here), though I seriously doubt Google will actually do anything about it.

(At least this Kaeley Harms has an appropriate last name, anyway, given that she absolutely "Harms" trans people, and intentionally so, by publishing hateful horseshit like that.)

"John Oliver discusses the first four weeks of Donald Trump's second term as president, the strategy behind some of the choices his administration has made and why it is indeed fuck time. You heard us: It's fuck time."

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"Who is that child?" John Oliver asks. The correct answer, which Mr. Oliver didn't state, is that the child is Elon Musk's very own little meat shield. It's one way in which Elon Musk also has a similarity to Greg Stillson, same as Trump. (EDIT) And I just learned today that the kid's so-called name is, and I shit you not, "X Æ A-Xii."[1] Poor damned kid. I don't give a shit if he's the son of ThE rIcHeSt MaN iN tHe WoRlD or whatever, he's still a poor damned kid. (/EDIT)

And yeah, that song is pretty great. (Alternative link.)

Anyway, in conclusion, to hell with Donald Trump (and Elon Musk) forever, as usual. (I fully agree with Mr. Oliver in that it really isn't the case that "we have to fuck Trump," and that's why I prefer to use "to hell with" instead of "fuck" in cases like these, nowadays. I still appreciate those who do (properly) use "fuck" in that way, though.)

(EDIT)

[1] - Apparently, his name was originally "X Æ A-12," but they had to rename him to "X Æ A-Xii," because having non-alphabetic characters in one's name is against the law in California. So... why was the "Æ" allowed to stay, then? Because there's technically no "Æ" character in the English alphabet, either. Go figure.

(/EDIT)

"John Oliver discusses Donald Trump's reelection, what happens next, and why the whole thing is – arguably – Katy Perry's fault."

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Man, invoking Mister Rogers even for a little bit feels like one of those "break glass in case of emergency" moments. Which, I guess, this whole "Trump got reelected" thing definitely is. If I had to pick one human being who is the absolute polar opposite of anything and everything Mister Rogers, it would be Donald Jackass Trump.

And yeah, this episode is a wee bit behind the times, because Matt Gaetz for Attorney General wasn't even on that pestilential chart of potential Trump picks.

In conclusion, to Donald Trump and to every one who voted for Donald Trump, I just want to give you all a very hearty, "Fuck you quite a lot!"

"John Oliver discusses the attempts made by Donald Trump and his supporters to undermine the upcoming election, what we can expect after election night, and the greatest 'I voted' sticker of all time."

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Yeah, that werewolf sticker was pretty great. Good, funny start to the video, with that.

Then... Trump. Just... Trump. *weary fucking sigh* I'll just say, yet again, that if Trump loses, it will be despite all the cheating (on his behalf, naturally), rather than because of it. Essentially, Trump saying the "other side" is cheating is just yet another example of Trumpish projection/hypocrisy/lying. This whole video was basically nothing but example after example after example of Trumpish projection/hypocrisy/lying, either by Trump himself or by people conned into believing that Dumbshit Jackass Trump somehow isn't a putrid puddle of disgusting diarrhea badly masquerading as a human being.

(EDIT) Here, at least, is some marginally good news, at least as far as that asinine, dumbfucking "hand-counting" thing in Georgia goes. (/EDIT)

"John Oliver discusses the Supreme Court, the ethically questionable gifts some of the justices receive, and an offer for Clarence Thomas that could ruin John’s life. Genuinely. You’ll see."

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Spoiler: John Oliver literally offered Clarence Thomas $1 million a year for the rest of his (or Oliver's) life, apparently out of Oliver's own personal money, not HBO money, and a new $2.4 million Prevost Marathon Motor Coach if Thomas will just, and I quote, "get the fuck off the Supreme Court." Thomas has 30 days from the airing of the episode to decide to do it. Assuming all of that is actually real and not (just) a satirical bullshit stunt for the show... holy shit. The point being, of course, that while this apparently is legal, it damn well shouldn't be. Just like all the other bribes Supreme Court justices are obviously taking.

Of course, Clarence Thomas almost assuredly will not accept this particular bribe, will remain a Supreme Court justice, will continue taking bribes from right-wing assholes, and will continue to horribly fuck over America with his blatantly RWNJ horseshit, sadly.

In any case, the whole segment (not just the bit at the end described above) is a rightfully scathing condemnation of the Supreme Court and its flagrant corruption. Fuck the (current, at least) Supreme Court.

"John Oliver discusses the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas."

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In the rare moments when John Oliver dispenses with joking about Domino's or Yoshi or Ask Jeeves or whatever, he makes a pretty good (if blatantly obvious) point, the gist of which is this: Hamas is shit, Netanyahu and the current Israeli government is shit, and decades of American meddling is shit. It's the Israeli people and the Palestinian people who mostly hate all this shit and have to deal with all this shit on a daily basis. If the shit were ever flushed away, for good, once and for all, then it could very well be possible to actually get something good accomplished, but good luck with that, because way too many shitty people are way too invested in the shit remaining unflushed.

And yeah, saying "Hamas is Gaza" or "Netanyahu is Israel" is the equivalent of saying "Trump is America" or "Putin is Russia." Think about how utterly ridiculous those latter two sound. The former two are just as ridiculous and just as false.

"All posts on r/pics and r/gifs must now be about comedian and Last Week Tonight host John Oliver after users voted."

I look forward to the inevitable upcoming episode of Last Week Tonight about this topic.

(EDIT) Except that there probably won't be any new Last Week Tonight episodes any time soon. (/EDIT)

(EDIT 2)

If there's one (and only one) thing that capitalism is "good" at, it is enshittification.

In the specific case of Reddit, it's kind of like the opposite of my old rule of thumb about websites and time, i.e. the site turning to shit despite the users, not directly because of them.[1] In this case, it's the owners who have fucked things up.

[1] - Given that too many parts of Reddit are basically just nothing but 4chan-levels of shitposting, though, the users aren't completely without blame. It's just that this particular brouhaha concerning Reddit is the fault of the owners, not the users.

(/EDIT 2)