…And They’ve Done It Again.

The latest episode of “Black Mirror”, entitled “White Bear” (S02E02), features this ominous symbol, which is first mentioned in combination with a signal that supposedly changes people into zombie-like watchers who, equipped with their smartphones, help so-called hunters take down the ones not affected by this signal. Creepy, right? This is what the symbol looks like:



Now, I have never in my life been in actual contact with Minecraft, let alone playing it, but I’m a citizen of the Internet, and as such I know what a Creeper looks like. For the record, their faces look like this:


If you’re still thinking that any similarities might be purely coincidental, by the time the first hunter arrives you might agree with me:


At this point I felt compelled to ask Minecraft Wiki what exactly it is that Creepers do (besides, well, creep up on players). Here’s what it says:
“The Creeper is a hostile mob that will ambush players and explode, causing damage to the player and the surrounding blocks and entities. Unlike Zombies and Skeletons, Creepers will not catch fire in direct sunlight, meaning they can wander around unharmed any time of the day until it is killed or despawns. However, the creepers will still be aggressive during the day. [...]“
It’s downright scary how well this description applies to the zombie-like, camera-wielding population of this week’s nightmarish episode. They don’t really explode, but hey, what do we have those hunters for.
I won’t be giving away all of the plot here (after all, some of you might not have seen it yet, and I strongly recommend it), but in a final plot twist the background story is revealed as what looks very much like Running Man rewritten by Ben Elton’s evil mind twin. And while the whole concept of who the victim is here is seemingly turned around… is it really? After all, it’s not only the judicial system that defines “victims” and “perpetrators”, and it’s not only the tabloids that distort things for us to read at the hairdressers and feed our inner rubberneckers while we’re waiting for the dye to take effect. I think this episode makes it very clear that this is about actual living people – including the ones in front of the television. Even if one reviewer is of the opinion that it is “marred” by “the incessant screaming and crying of the ‘victim’ [note the quotation marks] that engenders a longing for someone to put her out of her misery”. To me as a viewer, her pain feels very real. And no matter the circumstances, even if a person is guilty of a crime, what gives anyone the right to torture her? In the end, respawn after respawn, what remains, what returns every time without fail, is the pain, and the Creepers. All of us.

Octopuses Rule.

Redditor the_disreputable_dog posted this to r/UsernamesIllustrated. It’s her depiction of Octopuses_Rule, and I love its political implications.

ETA: Check out the_disreputable_dog’s deviantart! Composite monster animals FTW!

And again: Go Steirischer Herbst!

Even for those who don’t recognize the house from Un Lun Dun, this project seems well worth checking out. Besides, it’s running 24 hours a day, so nobody can tell me they’re just too busy. Here’s their website (all in English): Truth is concrete.

our future / not your business

capitalism kills

king.

This should be a 503.

Got up, remembered the internet blackout – but the instructions page for the blackout plugin is already blacked out. (Hah. Imagine a better dystopia. Thank you, wordpress, for making the nightmare more real, and for helping people imagine a censored internet.) Anyway, I’ll be back fiddling with my site soon – and with more info on SOPA, PIPA, and ACTA (something we Europeans should definitely be aware of).

* * * * *

Take Action!

-> STOP SOPA!
-> STOP PIPA!
-> STOP ACTA!

(Also: today I learned that, of course, ACTA too can be represented by a giant octopus.)

Arrrrrgh!

“Many sites – including the Torrent-Finder meta-search engine, the first torrent site to have its domain seized – believed they operate legally, either under US law via compliance with the DMCA or in the countries from where they are hosted or operated.
Last week’s actions changed all that, with the authorities labelling sites like Torrent-Finder “criminal” with no arrests, no trial, and to the outside world, very little due process. Indeed, the government gave no explanation at all why a search engine should appear among a list of sites offering physical counterfeit goods, other than that the entertainment industries asked for it to be there.”

These are not the criminals you are looking for.

Go Steirischer Herbst!

Today, on my way to work, I witnessed the construction of one of the first art installations for “Steirischer Herbst” (which literally means “Styrian Autumn”), an international art festival that takes place every year. On Tummelplatz (often locally referred to as “UFO-Landeplatz” – “UFO landing site” – because of the little green spotlights set in between the paving stones), this was being constructed – apparently a project about the effectiveness of art in public spaces, and, as the official website puts it, a space for “interventions intended to create public effect, a political terrain of common affairs”. Transferred into this context, even previously unpolitical quotes from pop music become politicized…

Ich bin ein Ausländer

Ever since I got back home (and back online), I’ve been wanting to say something, and now I’ve finally found a way to respond, which came to me in the shape of a persistent ear worm (that might be far from new, but sadly still highly topical).

So listen here, in the face of the FPÖ and BZÖ‘s election campaigns and the French government’s so-called immigration strategy…

And when they come to ethnically cleanse me
Will you speak out? Will you defend me?
Or laugh through a glass eye as they rape our lives
Trampled under foot by the right on the rise

(Pop Will Eat Itself – Ich bin ein Auslander)