My relentless quest to conquer all media channels continues unabated.
Recently, I wrote my first article for Latino Rebels, which is the premier site for Latino-centric news and insights. I hope to write many more for them.
You can read my debut by clicking here.
Or you can look at this really cool picture I created with AI called, “The Conflagration of Dreams.”
It’s your choice.
Let’s say you get an email from a total stranger who claims, among other things, that her soul once left her body, the wind talks to her (telling her that she is a ghost), and that Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia was murdered while being hunted for sport.
You would likely hit delete and check your spam-filter settings.
But you are not a seasoned journalist like the brilliant minds at Fox News.
You see, back in 2020, a deranged Minnesota woman sent an email to Fox that was full of the above gibberish and made-up “facts” that “proved” Biden had stolen the election.
This revelation comes from the Dominion lawsuit, which previously revealed that Fox anchors knowingly lied to their audience to maintain their ratings, which is a concept that I never learned in journalism school.
Also, Fox anchors hate Trump and think their viewers are morons, so I guess we have something in common.
In any case, Dominion has stated that “the alleged source of the voter-fraud claims that sparked the lawsuit is a single email from a previously unknown woman” who admits that “she conjures her theories out of nothing.”
Again, it might strike you as odd that Fox would broadcast incendiary commentary based on one email from an anonymous person who freely admits that her “now nationally prominent ideas about election fraud” are based on “hidden messages she detects in films, song lyrics she hears on the radio, and overheard conversations she hears while in line at the supermarket checkout.”
But again, you are not a Fox journalist.
They listened to this woman, who had zero qualifications and offered “a jumble of ideas that centered on ties between telepaths, the Bank of the Vatican, the NXIVM sex cult, and the 1970 film Beneath the Planet of the Apes.”
And they thought, “Seems credible.”
Of course, it is improbable that many people at Fox believed this lunatic’s email (although it would probably be disturbing to know how many did). More likely, they saw these rantings from a representative of their core audience and used it as a springboard or brainstorming tool for their coverage. After all, there was no actual evidence of voter fraud, so why not make up some bizarre shit and hope it sticks? And why not start with the psychotic assertions of a swing-state nutjob?
Hey, at least she’s not an East Coast elitist, right?
Fox has shown that it is terrified of offending its audience, so it will go to appalling lengths to keep the right-wing outrage percolating. This is the power of the Republican base.
Hey, even the few conservative leaders “who do not embrace the racism, sexism, religiosity, nihilism, and authoritarianism of the hard-core MAGA Republicans appear to believe they cannot win an election without the votes of those people, [and] so the extremists now own the party.”
Conservatives are no longer even offering the dog-whistle ideal of making the country great (again). Instead, they are clamoring for leaders who will eradicate the libs and engage in unbridled retribution.
They openly admit that their lies — so obvious to anyone who is not delusional, partisan, or idiotic — are just to appease the base.
But the base doesn’t care.
They want to believe that we can bomb Mexico, and that will end our drug problem.
They want the GOP to take “a wartime posture — even calling for a “national divorce” — to cover up “their party’s misalignment with large swaths of the United States.”
They want to see heavily edited video that implies January 6 was a pleasant stroll rather than a riot, a ploy so childish and ludicrous that one assumes even the people spouting this nonsense are incredulous.
Brief aside: there should be a word that describes a pathetic effort to convince people of obvious lies that are so absurd that even the perpetrators don’t believe it. There probably is a word in German that covers this idea, and I imagine it’s something like werheschfeltzanthursse.
Regardless, the lies don’t matter, and neither does the public admission of the lies.
Right-wingers are ready to believe anything.
Just ask that woman in Minnesota.
Better yet, don’t ask. The last thing you want is an email correspondence with her.
Have you seen the blockbuster sci-fi movie that is destined to win 47 Oscars? I’m talking about Chrono-Z: Galactic Crusade.
Here’s the synopsis:
“A ragtag team of space adventurers discovers a horrifying truth: an ancient demon race has secretly infected planets with a zombie virus, causing apocalyptic outbreaks throughout the galaxy. With no other choice but to travel through time to prevent the demons’ plan, the team embarks on a perilous mission to gather powerful artifacts and allies from different eras. But when they accidentally alter the timeline, they must race against the clock to correct their mistakes and stop the demons’ final assault on Earth. Will they be able to save the world from total destruction or will the apocalypse reign supreme?”
OK, that sounds like a pretty-kick ass movie. And here’s the poster:
Now, there is just one problem with this epic sci-fi action-adventure film. It doesn’t actually exist and never will. In fact, the premise, the title, and the poster were all created by artificial intelligence (AI).
I’ve written before about the promise and peril of AI.
Well, after playing around with ChatGPT and OpenAI, I have created about 100 artistic masterworks and devised plots for a couple of hit movies. It’s a fairly addictive activity — somewhere between a hobby and a time suck.
For example, I asked AI to outline a story that combines the following elements: ominous prophecy, gunslingers, lost love, dinosaurs, and baseball.
Here is the result:
“In a post-apocalyptic world where dinosaurs have been resurrected through advanced cloning technology, a gunslinger named Jack is haunted by an ominous prophecy that foretells the end of humanity. As he navigates a dangerous landscape filled with prehistoric creatures, Jack is reunited with his lost love, a talented baseball player named Sara. Together, they must use their unique skills to face off against a band of ruthless outlaws and unravel the mystery of the prophecy before it’s too late. But as they get closer to the truth, they discover that the key to saving humanity may lie in the one place they least expect: on the baseball diamond.”
I have to be honest. I would see that movie.
So what does the rise of AI mean for writers, painters, and other creative types?
Well, some predict that AI will take over artistic endeavors. After all, if AI can crank out a masterpiece like Chrono-Z: Galactic Crusadein minutes, what hope does a struggling screenwriter have?
But I’m more optimistic. No matter what AI can produce — and its output will only get more sophisticated with each passing day —there will always be creative voices, human voices at that, who will rise above the din of computer-generated art to offer a unique point of view.
Also, these same doomsayers insisted that Photoshop would be the end for photographers and CGI programs would make people forget how to draw. Going back further, they said word processors would destroy novelists and synthesizers would mean that no one would ever learn how to play a musical instrument again.
Yes, AI is different, but forgive me for being skeptical about the end of creativity.
Technology often enhances, rather than short-circuits, imagination. Perhaps we can use AI to inspire us and to make the creative process smoother.
At the very least, you can get kooky with your prompts and generate some crazy shit that would never have existed otherwise, such as this rendition of a cyborg heart.
How cool is that?
Let’s be honest. You have always wanted to see a ninja fight a dragon. Well, you’re in luck:
I created this image, which would surprise anyone who knows my level of artistic talent (i.e., circles and the occasional stick figure).
To continue reading this post, please click here.
Nominations for the Academy Awards were announced this week. I live in Los Angeles, so this event is all-encompassing. You can be walking down the street, and strangers will rush up to argue with you about best documentary short.
In any case, Don’t Look Up got four nominations, including best picture. That’s quite a bit of love for a movie described as “shrill,” “smug,” “bombastic,” and “propaganda.”
Damn—regardless of whether you loved or hated Don’t Look Up, it is obviously the most culturally relevant mainstream film of the year. You can tell a lot about Americans by asking them if they liked this movie.
To continue reading this post, please click here.
So I’ve recently accepted a position as the political editor for a new publication. Mano is the brainchild of my friend Hector Luis Alamo, and I’m thrilled to join him on the quest to amplify strong voices from the Latino counterculture.
You can catch my first article here. Thanks.
I had a friend in high school who thought my mom came from San Salvador. I corrected her a few times by pointing out that the mi madre’s homeland is actually El Salvador. But eventually I just gave her partial credit for at least naming the nation’s capital city.
As annoying as my friend’s misstatement was, it’s important to note that she was a teenage girl living in the pre-internet era.
What excuse do we have for paid journalists in 2019 who think El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras — three Central American countries — are more or less Mexico? Of course, I’m talking about Fox News’ infamous chyron screw-up that recently blared, “Trump cuts aid to 3 Mexican countries.”
As many people have pointed out, the perplexing statement illuminates a right-wing mindset that is more than just simplistic and laughably ignorant. It is also highly disrespectful, in that this thinking homogenizes all of Latino culture under the term “Mexican.”
Oh yeah, it’s also a bigoted ploy to dismiss all Hispanics as “a race of ‘others’who can easily be scapegoated for a whole slew of structural problems.”So I’m pretty sure that counts as racist bullshit as well.
You see, once you’ve decided that all Latinos are Mexican, it’s just an illogical, prejudicial jump or two to deduce that all Mexicans are undocumented immigrants, and that all undocumented immigrants are drug-dealing rapists and murderers.
This is all very A=B=C.
However, maybe we are being too hard on Fox News and its right-wing fan base. After all, these are people who routinely confuse opinion with fact.
We’re talking about people who believe that cutting off aid to those aforementioned “Mexican” countries will reduce immigration, when in reality, it would have the opposite effect.
We’re talking about supporters of a president who believes shutting the border is a viable strategy, when all it will do is bludgeon the American economy.
We’re talking about people who desperately, obsessively want a massive new infrastructure project (i.e., a wall built on the Mexican border — or three walls for the three separate Mexicos). But they don’t care that our existing infrastructure is collapsing, and that our country’s bridges are falling down.
We’re talking about people who are genuinely confused about why Latinos don’t vote Republican in overwhelming numbers, even as the GOP routinely demeans and threatens Latinos(or just dismisses all Hispanics as “Mexican” as Fox News did).
In short, we’re talking about people who are either not too bright or who engage in willful delusion. So maybe they can’t help but say bizarre, insulting things and then stumble around half-ass apologies.
Perhaps they deserve our sympathy.
Of course, there is one more explanation. Our country’s educational systempales in comparison to just about every other industrialized nation. So maybe people who work at Fox News just didn’t learn basic geography.
Along those lines, just in case you thought our nation’s ignorance is confined solely to Latin America, let me tell you about a recent conversation I had.
I was talking to a fellow American, and I mentioned that I had once lived in Minneapolis. She furrowed her brow and asked, “Is that anywhere near Minnesota?”
And I had no idea how to answer that.
But I should have told her that it was in Mexico.
One of the great things about being a writer is meeting your fellow scribes.
Of course, one of the bad things about being a writer is the unending quest to express your thoughts in an even semi-competent manner… and the soul-crushing drive to hit that daily word count… and the creeping feeling that we are just yelling into a void… and the futile endeavor to preserve some tiny memento of our fleeting existence… plus carpel tunnel syndrome.
OK, I guess that is actually several things. But I digress.
In any case, recently, I met up with my friend and fellow writer Hector Luis Alamo, and microphones happened to be present.
Yes, we taped an episode of his new podcast Remember the Show, in which Hector interviews writers, politicians, US Marines, stockbrokers, and well, just about anyone he finds interesting.
Somehow, I made the cut, and we talked about — among other topics — novels, Hollywood, Trump, and whether it was more likely that angels or aliens exist (come on, it’s aliens).
In any case, you can listen to our conversation here.
And be sure to subscribe to Hector’s podcast and rate his show. Thanks.
So I’ve managed to go a couple of weeks without commenting on how the president is mangling America into a twisted, charred homunculus of bigotry and hatred.
The past couple of weeks, I’ve been distracted by my hometown’s embrace of a bigot, as well as my brush with death(when all I wanted to do was go grocery shopping).
In any case, completing this trilogy of non-Trump stories, we have the sad tale of
Paramount Television President Amy Powell, who was recentlyfired “after allegedly making racially insensitive remarks in the workplace.”
Powell, who apparently “made statements about black women being angry for various reasons“ during a conference call, denies the accusations and is considering legal action.
Hey, I wasn’t there, so I don’t know what was said in this specific case.
What I do know is that Powell is the “latest exec to be fired over alleged racist remarks.”
Apparently,it is too much to ask of white corporate titans to make it through a meeting without denigrating ethnic minorities or, you know, casually dropping the n-word.
This recent trend of powerful white people getting canned over bigoted statements provokes two thoughts.
First, if this is so commonplace today, just imagine what executives said behind closed doors in previous decades, when prejudice was more overt, ethnic minorities were even less represented, and racist statements just flowed out sans social condemnation.
Second, keep in mind that ethnic minorities — especially Latinos— are still incredibly underrepresented in film and television. Is it hard to imagine why, when top execs feel they have every right to slander non-white people in open meetings? And these are so-called Hollywood liberals too.
No, it will most likely be awhile before I get to pitch my idea for a Latino-themed television show (it’s a killer, trust me). And when I do, I have to hope that the powerbroker sitting behind his desk doesn’t just sneer at me and make a dumb joke about Hispanics.
But he probably will.
Let’s face it. I long ago conquered the internet.
So as phase 2 of my unending quest to expand my media empire, I’m now appearing on the radio.
Specifically, I was on a panel discussion this week on NPR’s Colin McEnroe Show. We talked about race, privilege, and the whole idea that white people are disenfranchised (yes, that last part lent itself to high comedy).
If you missed the live show, you can catch the podcast version here.
So stay tuned, because it won’t be long before you once again hear my smooth baritone emanating from your speakers as I wax rhapsodically about ethnic rights and Orwellian threats and political oppression and other nightmarish concepts.
Of course, at that point, I’ll be pulled off the airwaves by the Trump Secret Police (Media Division) and hauled down to the Ministry of Information’s top-secret liar… and you won’t want to miss that.
