I tried to be nice
February 3, 2021 9:21 AM Subscribe
Noted internet person D'Angelo Wallace's latest video: INFLUENCER-19
He's so great. He deserves every dime he makes, and he works is booty off for every single one of them.
I'm glad someone somewhere was finally fined but a) people need to be arrested and prosecuted, and unfortunately at this point b) we need someone young, famous, rich, hot and without any underlying conditions or wrinkles to die of this thing so that these influencers and their audiences take it seriously.
posted by DarlingBri at 10:24 AM on February 3, 2021 [3 favorites]
I'm glad someone somewhere was finally fined but a) people need to be arrested and prosecuted, and unfortunately at this point b) we need someone young, famous, rich, hot and without any underlying conditions or wrinkles to die of this thing so that these influencers and their audiences take it seriously.
posted by DarlingBri at 10:24 AM on February 3, 2021 [3 favorites]
So, just humor this Old and riddle me this: is there any difference between "influencers" and what we knew in high school as the "cool kids"? They seem to be every bit as dreadful, just on a much larger scale.
posted by notsnot at 11:00 AM on February 3, 2021 [4 favorites]
posted by notsnot at 11:00 AM on February 3, 2021 [4 favorites]
did your cool kids have an audience of literally millions of 12 year olds hanging on their every word and action
posted by phunniemee at 11:02 AM on February 3, 2021 [8 favorites]
posted by phunniemee at 11:02 AM on February 3, 2021 [8 favorites]
Like i said, "larger scale".
But yeah, all us fifth and sixth graders wanted so badly to be like the cool eighth graders, who were, uh, shitty people.
posted by notsnot at 11:07 AM on February 3, 2021 [2 favorites]
But yeah, all us fifth and sixth graders wanted so badly to be like the cool eighth graders, who were, uh, shitty people.
posted by notsnot at 11:07 AM on February 3, 2021 [2 favorites]
They also make money off of being cool kids, so no one is really in a position to tell them they would do better to be nice.
posted by little onion at 11:27 AM on February 3, 2021
posted by little onion at 11:27 AM on February 3, 2021
every bit as dreadful, just on a much larger at scale.
posted by Rat Spatula at 11:29 AM on February 3, 2021
posted by Rat Spatula at 11:29 AM on February 3, 2021
is there any difference between "influencers" and what we knew in high school as the "cool kids"
you mean apart from the fact that the first "cool kid" he talks about is 40 years old?
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 12:02 PM on February 3, 2021 [2 favorites]
you mean apart from the fact that the first "cool kid" he talks about is 40 years old?
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 12:02 PM on February 3, 2021 [2 favorites]
It's lying all the way down. When leadership releases COVID-19 "guidelines" they aren't actually good for anything. They're arbitrary lines to make people feel better about doing things they know they shouldn't that are against all public health indications. So instead of going for COVID Zero, we get this milquetoast response where the loudest, most cruel seem to get to decide healthcare policy like, oh I don't know, lifting the stay at home order in CA despite LA ICUs being FUCKING FULL.
I'm just so tired. People look at places like New Zealand and Taiwan and they're like "oh they're islands" and it's like, no, the UK is an island and they fucked up. Vietnam is a coastal strip of land on South East Asia and they didn't fuck up. No. Our lack of competency and political will. Even Australia, who's federal government has basically sitting with its thumb up its own asshole leaving the COVID-19 response entirely to the states, has managed to handle the epidemic better than 90% of the world
Trump fucked up this pandemic badly. A sheer lack of competence and unwilling to exercise basic governance in the face of a crisis was everything we didn't need. What we also didn't need is complete clusterfuckery as we reopened the country into accelerating COVID numbers. State governors have seemed to think that Trump's nothing response to COVID-19 means we just have to fucking live with it.
We didn't do any green zones. There was no real restriction in travel to keep COVID spreading to different areas. We just let people coming in and out of the country basically at will. No enforced quarantines. No real tracking. No infrastructure ramp up. Barely a meep. Superspreader events in Florida over Spring Break? Every plane, train, and automobile out of Florida should have been turned back by every other state in the union, Trump be damned. Hell, blue states could have made their own interstate compacts and travel areas, used eminent domain to seize hotel rooms, and basically quarantine any traveler coming back for two weeks under guard.
Nope. We just have to live with it. Lucky people like me get to hunker down for 18 months, unlucky people who have to service hyposhits get to watch themselves get infected and their families get torn apart. For what? So we can dine in person at a fucking Olive Garden?
The United States is a fucking joke of a shithole.
posted by Your Childhood Pet Rock at 1:20 PM on February 3, 2021 [20 favorites]
I'm just so tired. People look at places like New Zealand and Taiwan and they're like "oh they're islands" and it's like, no, the UK is an island and they fucked up. Vietnam is a coastal strip of land on South East Asia and they didn't fuck up. No. Our lack of competency and political will. Even Australia, who's federal government has basically sitting with its thumb up its own asshole leaving the COVID-19 response entirely to the states, has managed to handle the epidemic better than 90% of the world
Trump fucked up this pandemic badly. A sheer lack of competence and unwilling to exercise basic governance in the face of a crisis was everything we didn't need. What we also didn't need is complete clusterfuckery as we reopened the country into accelerating COVID numbers. State governors have seemed to think that Trump's nothing response to COVID-19 means we just have to fucking live with it.
We didn't do any green zones. There was no real restriction in travel to keep COVID spreading to different areas. We just let people coming in and out of the country basically at will. No enforced quarantines. No real tracking. No infrastructure ramp up. Barely a meep. Superspreader events in Florida over Spring Break? Every plane, train, and automobile out of Florida should have been turned back by every other state in the union, Trump be damned. Hell, blue states could have made their own interstate compacts and travel areas, used eminent domain to seize hotel rooms, and basically quarantine any traveler coming back for two weeks under guard.
Nope. We just have to live with it. Lucky people like me get to hunker down for 18 months, unlucky people who have to service hyposhits get to watch themselves get infected and their families get torn apart. For what? So we can dine in person at a fucking Olive Garden?
The United States is a fucking joke of a shithole.
posted by Your Childhood Pet Rock at 1:20 PM on February 3, 2021 [20 favorites]
The "cool kid" analogy doesn't hold much water for me, some of these folks are more like disruptive kids who'd normally get sent to the office or out in the hall for a bit but instead they stayed in class and escalated until it became their classroom somehow.
Plus I would imagine that obstinately abstaining from such popular apps is part of the effort to be cool. Making a tiktok or what have you itself doesn't seem "cool" regardless of how good the content is? Seems like the kid at school with a million followers is still fair game to snicker at if you happened to walk past them in the hall while they do some performance to a little phone camera.
posted by GoblinHoney at 1:25 PM on February 3, 2021 [1 favorite]
Plus I would imagine that obstinately abstaining from such popular apps is part of the effort to be cool. Making a tiktok or what have you itself doesn't seem "cool" regardless of how good the content is? Seems like the kid at school with a million followers is still fair game to snicker at if you happened to walk past them in the hall while they do some performance to a little phone camera.
posted by GoblinHoney at 1:25 PM on February 3, 2021 [1 favorite]
Some people enjoy watching shitty reality-tv or following celebrity news to relax. I've always found this doesn't work for me, because the people/celebrities on these shows are entirely obnoxious and out of touch with how normal people live. But - this genre - thorough, well-produced, well-researched celebrity takedowns, is so enjoyable. I still feel a little gross because I just spent an hour learning about people I previously knew nothing about and frankly don't want to occupy space in my brain, but he did an excellent job of calling these people out on their bullshit.
posted by unid41 at 11:20 PM on February 3, 2021
posted by unid41 at 11:20 PM on February 3, 2021
I feel like the video maker is highlighting the dangers of social inequality. There's some research out there that shows that rich people have less empathy than those with less wealth, and I have to wonder if the same thing isn't true of people who get sudden fame. There are a couple of people that I used to know who emerged from an online community to became big online influencers seemingly overnight, and I saw a couple of them literally walk right past some people they knew "before they were famous" at a big gathering. At first I thought it was a snub but then as I looked closer at them I realized they were so into themselves they didn't even see other people who weren't at their level.
posted by wuwei at 9:58 AM on February 4, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by wuwei at 9:58 AM on February 4, 2021 [1 favorite]
The comments on this thread are why anyone under 30 looks at MetaFilter and says "okay, Boomer."
For all of you get-off-my-lawn-gazing about influencers, the man calling out influencers, and who's video you're watching, is an influencer.
posted by DarlingBri at 8:22 AM on February 6, 2021 [1 favorite]
For all of you get-off-my-lawn-gazing about influencers, the man calling out influencers, and who's video you're watching, is an influencer.
posted by DarlingBri at 8:22 AM on February 6, 2021 [1 favorite]
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"We are all in the same boat, weathering the same storm"
No. We. Are. Not.
Yes- we are all in the same storm - but each of us is floating separately - some have super yachts and want for nothing, others have rafts cobbled together from materials at hand and are barely staying afloat.
posted by rozcakj at 10:19 AM on February 3, 2021 [16 favorites]