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Taika Waititi Embarrasses Himself On Twitter Regarding Protests
- Thread starter Lone
- Start date
no, you can only go into one battle at a time. life is a random encounter JRPG
The curse of the twitter checkmark, makes them somehow think their opinion matters more.
User Banned (2 Weeks): Dismissive commentary over multiple posts in a sensitive thread
engaging in meaningless one on one battles, or mutitasking with meaningless ones is just that, meaningless.
You are not getting any XP or loot here.
I think the sentiment being expressed is a common one yet it's dangerous to the efforts and cause. It deserves to be criticized no matter who it's coming from
As an outsider, I honestly don't get the outrage.
I'm all for burning down police stations and the rioting, seriously, but I don't condone the looting. How is this controversial? He has a point, doesn't he?
I don't want to invalidate the protests, fuck no, go and fuck shit up, they bloody deserve it, but if your ONLY goal is to go make use of the situation to steal a TV, you're only devaluing the entire cause, no?
I'm all for burning down police stations and the rioting, seriously, but I don't condone the looting. How is this controversial? He has a point, doesn't he?
I don't want to invalidate the protests, fuck no, go and fuck shit up, they bloody deserve it, but if your ONLY goal is to go make use of the situation to steal a TV, you're only devaluing the entire cause, no?
Anyone wanna explain why Killer Mike's speech was bad now?
I'm serious, just considering it was praised by many as good, he's from Atlanta and somehow socially involved, too.
I'm serious, just considering it was praised by many as good, he's from Atlanta and somehow socially involved, too.
In Defense of Looting
This is a 2014 Ferguson era article but I think the critiques and defenses are mostly unchanged. https://thenewinquiry.com/in-defense-of-looting/ And posted this in another thread yesterday but:
www.resetera.com
I don't really have any expectations for celebrities to make meaningful political statements, especially when we're talking about actual material conditions and state-sanctioned violence and not just flowery gestures about representation and diversity.
I've seen a similar sentiment to this from a bunch of people here in NZ. They don't really understand the situation until being shown/explained. Taika kinda fucked up here, but he doesn't seem like the type to shut himself off from reason.
Yep, hes been like that for a long time which is why I think its unproductive for people to just be smart asses toward him instead of providing information.
I saw the thread right after I posted my reply here. I still don't agree.In Defense of Looting
This is a 2014 Ferguson era article but I think the critiques and defenses are mostly unchanged. https://thenewinquiry.com/in-defense-of-looting/ And posted this in another thread yesterday but:
This is basically supporting theft, like literally "why not take stuff for free when you can".
My father (we're minorities where we live btw) owns a small restaurant and has run it for over 20 years now and supported our entire family with it. COVID hit us HARD, to the point where if it wasn't for the government reliefs it would have risked my parents' entire livelihood.
Just as a hypothetical, if we lived in the US, I sure as hell don't want anyone to come in and loot the little bit of money he makes over the course of a day. How is that controversial? And how can you support that?
Again - go and fuck shit up, but how does looting in particular help anyone? The article didn't make that clear. It does mention that some people might need to loot to survive, which, fair enough, alright, but by doing so it imo just perpetrates a simplistic idea that all business owners are evil corporatists. I know a lot of minority-owned little stores, bars, and restaurants through my father and they just as hell aren't. Hell, my father actively employs refugees for some side work to help them get on their feet.
European here, I wouldn't mind some explanation.
George Floyd has two kids without a Daddy. Two days ago his 6 year old wasn't even in the know regarding her Daddy's murder. I'm not sure she's been notified since but that's besides the point. I know that this isn't a big deal since this country jerks off to the stereotype of deadbeat black dad's. But...
Forgive me if I'm not batting an eye for material goods we will likely replace in time. Forgive me if the collective trauma of the people who get dicked over by America the most are finally being seen and not just by a bunch of performative woke assholes. No one actively wants businesses harmed, people didn't suddenly just wake up and want to burn shit, why am I still explaining this? But we don't want POC murdered for nothing, at least I've heard... This week alone I've seen more energy and effort put into pearl clutching over TV sets and Target than Ahmaud Aubrey's cold blooded murder from some people... Please just tell us you don't think these lives are as important as you let on. It makes life easier for everyone. Fuck your nuance-- it doesn't apply here. When it comes to the value of a human-- there is no grey area. You either believe it has value or you don't.
Those people still have a life-- a chance to turn things around. You know when that door is shut completely? When you're murdered. But it's cool, when you act this way you indirectly say that those lives that were lost didn't matter... Ahmaud and George couldn't have possibly contributed to capital the same way those businesses have so they're disposable. Congratulations, you got the cop mindset.
Y'all got peace and graciousness for years. Kap got blackballed and you have families hugging racist that killed their son/brother.
For fucking years y'all got that. Miss me with that bullshit.
Forgive me if I'm not batting an eye for material goods we will likely replace in time. Forgive me if the collective trauma of the people who get dicked over by America the most are finally being seen and not just by a bunch of performative woke assholes. No one actively wants businesses harmed, people didn't suddenly just wake up and want to burn shit, why am I still explaining this? But we don't want POC murdered for nothing, at least I've heard... This week alone I've seen more energy and effort put into pearl clutching over TV sets and Target than Ahmaud Aubrey's cold blooded murder from some people... Please just tell us you don't think these lives are as important as you let on. It makes life easier for everyone. Fuck your nuance-- it doesn't apply here. When it comes to the value of a human-- there is no grey area. You either believe it has value or you don't.
Those people still have a life-- a chance to turn things around. You know when that door is shut completely? When you're murdered. But it's cool, when you act this way you indirectly say that those lives that were lost didn't matter... Ahmaud and George couldn't have possibly contributed to capital the same way those businesses have so they're disposable. Congratulations, you got the cop mindset.
Y'all got peace and graciousness for years. Kap got blackballed and you have families hugging racist that killed their son/brother.
For fucking years y'all got that. Miss me with that bullshit.
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Looting is a temper tantrum. The power structures that be don't value the lives of Black people. It treats us as excess population meant to constantly be occupied and controlled by the police state no different from a military occupation. What the power structures do care about is private property. Looting is an understandable tactic when you are made aware of that context. It demands the that power structure no longer ignore your plight and that you will be seen and heard. It's not a tactic that should be relied but in lack of little organization and when tensions rising due to years and years of injustice it's easy to understand even if you may not condone.
This is fucking weird folks. Taika is a sound guy. He makes sure that on every set he's on, there is a large proportion of black and indigenous crew. He has *in his contract with fucking Disney* that every movie he works on provides opportunities for black and indigenous youth. Internships. Mentoring. The guy is a fucking Maori. He's a fucking ally. So he made a slightly tone-deaf tweet. Let's save the vitriol for the cunts who actually deserve it, eh? Peace.
This is too dramatic. He made an actually bad tweet and he is being criticized for it. No one is taking away what he's done before this and no one is dumping him in the trash. We're allowed to talk about this shit.
Now this I can get behind, thanks.
Even then, I would argue that it's morally more sensible to then only target the actual big corporations (Target, Best Buy, whatever else there is in the US) as opposed to the little mum and pop shop trying to get by. And even then - just trying to play devil's advocate - Hong Kong (from what I know mind you) seems to riot without any looting either.
In any case - what you just explained seems so inherently American to me it's hard to comprehend.
To me it seems he's saying pretty much the same that Biden did. "But burning down communities and needless destruction is not. Violence that endangers lives is not. Violence that guts and shutters businesses that serve the community is not. The act of protesting should never be allowed to overshadow the reason we protest. It should not drive people away from the just cause that protest is meant to advance." But here we are dragging a brown dude, who's influence stays at directing fine films. Biden is an old white dude who's going to be the next (awful) president, which unfortunately is the best case scenario compared to the possible alternative. I guess people don't want to call out the guy they're going to vote for.
Edit: I don't think there's even a thread for the official Biden statement? But we have a thread for a celebrity tweet.
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Given the context of every other tweet he's posted over the last few days, this is what I had assumed as well. Not necessarily just white folks or he likely would have said it but it's clear he's critiquing those who are opportunists (like the fact Jake Paul is apparently out there) as opposed to protestors who then loot, hence the quotation marks.
I just interpreted it as referring to stuff like this
https://www.resetera.com/threads/jake-paul-looting-during-protests-in-la.216471/#post-35499396
but as usual, twitter isn't the most effective way of communicating, so who can say for sure.
https://www.resetera.com/threads/jake-paul-looting-during-protests-in-la.216471/#post-35499396
but as usual, twitter isn't the most effective way of communicating, so who can say for sure.
I don't think Hong Kong managed to not loot at all I would like some citation on that.
That said the Hong Kong protest were way more organized and even pretty well funded than whats happening currently in major cities right now in the US. They are the result of pent up frustrations building up for years boiling over with the murder of George Floyd. People are fucking tired and they are throwing a temper tantrum which does sometimes come in the form of looting.
Like I said with a lack of organizing and a lost of hope that the system will listen to you this is always going to be the result. The main thing you should be taking away from what I'm telling you is that the conditions that leads to people feeling like they have to start rioting and looting to be heard is what should actually be drawing your contempt not the rioting in and of itself.
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Nobody said Taika was some horrible person.
All I said was he embarrassed himself, and in the eyes of plenty of black people (check the replies) including myself, he did.
If we can't hold people accountable, how can we teach them?
All I said was he embarrassed himself, and in the eyes of plenty of black people (check the replies) including myself, he did.
If we can't hold people accountable, how can we teach them?
Come on, have some sympathy. That was a very heartbreaking message from him.
You were right, though a cursory Google search showed me that protestors didn't take kindly to people looting and were generally condemning the practice.
Just to be clear, I'm in no way against the rioting, if anything I'd be keen to join. But this is what I was saying - the structures in place leading to these outcomes seem very much American to me. With all due respect, your system seems fucked, you're overdue for a revolution.
Well, most people didn't.
Except this is baseless nonsense and most evidence points to the opposite?
This thread is about a bad tweet he made, not you pretending to be an insider who knows him.
That doesn't seem like the case.
Such as? I hope you're not referring to Hip hop because that's an international community with unity at the forefront of its ideals.
This is what I came to say.
It's not what should be focused on but it IS being focused on cause it's an easy way to change the narrative.
As for Taika, IDK if he's doing the reg ass "BuT LoOTinG is BAD, wHy YoU DoInG BAD THING iF yOu WAnT GOOD THING???" or if he's talking about the white instigators ... either way this aint what's important.
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I know people who know him and have worked with him
and no I'm not referring to hip hop
One more thing about Hong Kong I wanna say is that it's different when you're organized and the organization itself is saying "hey looting is no longer tactically viable for us let's not do it" than it is when you're not. Also its pretty different in the case of complete outsiders that don't have a stake-ship in your cause wags their fingers at you in the most reductive and inflammatory way possible in the case here.
But yes America has deeply rooted problems. The police in this country are used to address those problems with violence. Issues of poverty, homelessness, hunger all sorts of societal ills cause by the excesses of Capital are not solved by redistribution of wealth to areas that need it in the form of social goods. We instead throw the Police at the problem and with that comes violence oppression and abuse. It's why the governor of New York can cut medical funding, close hospitals, and cut school funding while giving the police billions of dollars. Austerity and it's consequences is handled with a gun and badge
I'm in no way trying to defend him, but unless you spill the tea and stop being unnecessarily cryptic, your posts don't matter.
FWIW I have actually worked on movie sets. Not with Taika that is, but judging a director's attitude on set to their real life persona is just an amateur move. Film is easily one of the most high stress industries I know of and everyone is kind of a dick because whatever you're doing, you're an hour behind schedule. This doesn't apply to everything of course, commercial sets are actually quite chill, but this has been my experience.
Fair play. Appreciate the elaborate responses, more often than not you get dismissed for asking legitimate questions.
But yeah. American police seems so fucked. Like, I've read that it only takes about 6 months to become a police officer. Where I live it's between 2 to 3 YEARS and it shows. Jesus.
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Then be specific if you know people who know and or have worked with him? Also calling out another minority like that you're going to have to explain yourself there.
Zero has done this before. There was a thread about a good tweet that Taika made a few months back and Zero came in to attack him without giving any context and people called them out on it.
Turned into the same "my uncle works at Nintendo" thing which is irresponsible and adds little to any conversation.
I've worked on sets too and know what you're referring to, but not the case here (haven't heard anything about Hollywood stuff, strictly NZ related). The worst behavior I've heard from him has been off set. Although, a commercial set was also one of the stories I've heard.
Like I'm not spilling specifics that's not mine to share (especially from people still working in the industry), but I've heard enough to maintain he's an asshole.
So what the fuck does "young Maori have borrowed things" mean, and what does it have to do with Taika?
DM me if you want, I don't want to post it publicly but I do realize it was a douchey thing to post without context
you can choose to believe me or not. It's been done about other people of influence on here before. If mods want to confirm things more specifically like they would an insider (which I'm not claiming to be, but just so they know I'm not BSing) they can feel free but I have no problem throwing out that he's an asshole.
Then you need to realize that it's perfectly valid for people to doubt you.