Month: January 2021

• Singer-actress Demi Lovato has declared that she will be going to the studio in response to the ‘assault on democracy’ on January 6th.
• Fellow musician Ariel Pink attended the protests that Lovato opposed.
• Although these musicians support opposing causes, they have found common ground by getting ruthlessly roasted on social media.

It’s been a bizarre few days for America. Rioters breached the Capitol Building. Ariel Pink showed up for the ‘protests.’ Nancy Pelosi and others want to invoke the 25th Amendment.  But none of that matters now. Demi Lovato is going to make every assaulter on democracy pay…by hitting the studio.

Demi Lovato Gets in Her Feelings — And Twitter Can’t Handle It

Just like Ariel Pink, Demi Lovato really thinks she’s doing the right thing.

Like many Americans, dare I say most Americans, Lovato is upset about the Capitol Riots. How could Trump encourage his following into lawlessness? How could the police just let those insurgents break into the Capitol Building? Wasn’t Donald Trump the man who’s been pumping law and order?

Armed with the best weapons she has, Demi Lovato has decided to do something about it.

She’s getting back into the studio to ‘work on something special’ after the recent ‘assault on democracy.’

Check out her full, glorious tweet below:

I mean, do we really need to invoke the 25th amendment? Does Facebook really even need to ban Donald Trump? Does anything else need to be done when the former child star from the Mickey Mouse Club is back in the studio?!

Apparently, yes, things still need to be done. And first on the agenda, according to Twitter users far and wide, is to tease Demi Lovato relentlessly.

Check out some of these hilarious reactions:

 

One Twitter user likened Demi’s self-image to a superhero:

demi lovato running to the studio after today’s events pic.twitter.com/Tby1q1BCMv

— 🦭 (@elonbanks) January 7, 2021

 

Another Twitter user offered this cringeworthy take:

Demi Lovato in the studio working on something special after today’s assault on democracy. pic.twitter.com/0Ov8Ok0flL

— bash 🧜🏽‍♂️ (@bash0929) January 7, 2021

The ridicule could go on and on and on. But luckily, Demi Lovato wasn’t the only musician who took a hit over the last few days.

Ariel Pink Takes a Different Route to the Same Destination

At least Demi Lovato was on the side of democracy. Fellow musician, and outspoken Trump supporter, Ariel Pink was actually at the protests. Although he did his best to convince us that he wasn’t part of the violent mob, does it really matter?

Is there really any difference between supporting the man that incites the riots and actually participating in the riots?

And is there any difference between people’s reaction to Ariel Pink’s actions and Demi Lovato’s declaration? Apparently, not much.

Check out these hilarious digs:

One big difference, as you might imagine, is that some of Ariel Pink’s detractors weren’t nearly as playful.

What can we learn from these two ‘celebrities’?

Are Lovato & Pink More Similar Than They Appear?

Demi Lovato is getting roasted because she’s making such a monumental, terrible moment about herself. Nobody likes it when people insert themselves into a tragedy.

But at least she’s trying to bring awareness to the cause.

Ariel Pink is also bringing awareness to a cause; it just seems like he may have gone to some QAnon meetings at which he had extra helpings of the Kool-Aid, first.

Regardless, during such a pivotal moment in our nation’s history, people don’t want to be force-fed opinions from musical artists. And those who insist may be subject to ridicule.

Disclaimer: The opinions in this article do not necessarily reflect the views of CCN.com.

• After rocketing to all-time highs over the past month, Bitcoin had its first major pullback.
• The media is already coming out calling this a bear market, and bears are calling it a bubble.
• It’s a familiar script that’s been repeated in the cryptosphere ad nauseam. Is now the time to believe it?

Bitcoin plummeted. If you’ve been in the crypto market for even as little as one year, you know that’s business as usual.

Bitcoin shoots up, then it drops. Then it usually shoots up again, then it drops. The naysayers come out in chorus with each dip, saying it’s a bubble, a crash, and a terrible investment.

If you’re new to the crypto game, get used to this refrain.

Bitcoin Loses 20% of Its Value (Again)

It’s been a volatile week in the world, and the world of cryptocurrency. According to CoinMarketCap, the flagship cryptocurrency has gone from an all-time high of over $41,000 to under $31,000 in a span of four days.

The monthly chart? It doesn’t look a whole lot better:

As defined by Investopedia, a bear market occurs when a market declines by 20% or more. This decline is usually accompanied by “widespread pessimism and negative investor sentiment.”

Bitcoin has recently lost 20% of its value. And there is no shortage of Bitcoin naysayers, even when the asset is skyrocketing. So when CNN says the asset is in a bear market, it’s technically not wrong.

But if you’re not new to Bitcoin or the crypto market, you know this feels like a wild statement.

After all, Bitcoin lost nearly 20% of its value several times during this bull run.

At the beginning of September, it dropped from $12k to $10k in less than a week.

On November 24th, 2020, Bitcoin went from roughly $19,200 to roughly $16,700 in a span of two days.

Three days after that, it topped its previous all-time high. And now it’s worth over $35,000, and the media is calling it a bear market.

Is This Really a Bear Market?

As we said, there are plenty of people ready to demonize Bitcoin at every chance they get. When it’s experiencing a steep dip, that’s usually when they get the loudest.

Long-time Bitcoin cynic Peter Schiff took to Twitter to feed the flames:

Michael Harnett, the chief investment strategist at Bank of America Securities, said Bitcoin appears to be “the mother of all bubbles.”

Really, Michael? I thought the mother of all bubbles was in 2017, back when The Atlantic called Bitcoin “the most obvious bubble ever.”

In June 2020, Peter Schiff said everyone holding Bitcoin should’ve sold it during the height of that ‘bubble’ because Bitcoin “won’t even come close” to an all-time high in 2020. It shattered its all-time high in December 2020.

I would try to throw shade on the cryptocurrency if I, too, were as wrong as Peter Schiff.

While the recent charts might look precarious, let’s pull back and look at where we’re at in the long run.

2017 may have been a bubble, but there haven’t been too many bubbles in history that popped, then reinflated, then ballooned past the previous highs.

And there haven’t been too many ‘bear markets’ that aren’t even visible within a massive bull market.

What the Others Are Saying

Crypto vets all across Twitter are laughing at CNN’s assertion. They’ve been through it, and they know that we aren’t yet in a real crypto bear market.

No one is denying the volatility of Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies. But it’s precisely because of this volatility that we can’t just start saying that Bitcoin is in a ‘bear market.’

If it keeps dropping below its 2017 highs, then maybe we can start the bear talk. But until that happens, let’s call this what it is: a dip, a pullback, and a correction. Anything more than that is hyperbole.

Disclaimer: The opinions in this article do not necessarily reflect the views of CCN.com.

• Upon her recent return to her talk show, Ellen DeGeneres detailed her COVID-19 experience.
• She claimed that “everyone around me ran away.” But people have run from Ellen in the past, probably because she’s been nasty to them.
• Internet personality Trisha Paytas recently revealed that she wasn’t allowed to touch Ellen, or even look her in the eye, during her appearance on the show in 2010.

Ellen DeGeneres is ahead of the curve. According to YouTube personality Trisha Paytas, Ellen has been social distancing from people—at least the ones beneath her—for at least a decade.

So when DeGeneres contracted the infectious virus COVID-19, it was probably just business as usual.

Ellen DeGeneres Details Her COVID-19 Experience

Ellen made her triumphant return to her show today after a month-long absence. On December 10th, the TV host informed her Twitter following that she tested positive for the virus.

Thankfully, she made it through the ordeal safely, claiming her main symptom was back pain.

Check out her full monologue below:

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LYJcUC44Tnk?feature=oembed&w=900&h=506]

Ellen said that she learned of her diagnosis while she was preparing to film the show. She said that she got the news while she was in hair and makeup, and “everyone around me ran away.” She added, “it’s funny, people just really get scared, and they ran.”

That is funny.

It’s especially hilarious when you consider what one of her former guests said about her on a podcast just a few days before.

Trisha Paytas Doesn’t Hold Back

Trisha Paytas appeared on The Ellen DeGeneres show back in 2010. She was part of an audience talent segment, in which she read from Ellen DeGeneres’ book, fast.

Yes, her talent was to read quickly.

Kudos to Ellen DeGeneres for feigning excitement. Check out the clip below:

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1cBT6Rz6MI?feature=oembed&w=900&h=506]

Ellen’s reaction must have really been put on when you hear what her guests went through prior to filming. During an episode of the podcast H3, Paytas described her experience.

And she was disappointed.

Paytas bluntly called Ellen a “b*%h.”

She further describes her experience:

When all that stuff started coming out [about Ellen], I was like, that makes sense because she was so awful. Literally, would not talk. They tell you… ‘don’t look in her eyes, don’t touch her.’

Yikes.

Paytas isn’t the only guest who felt this way. YouTube star Nikki de Jager was also disappointed by her welcome to the show.

An Australian radio show host was also told that “you don’t talk to her, you don’t approach her, you don’t look at her” when he shot a segment with her.

And let’s not even mention the countless other allegations of dismal behavior brought up against DeGeneres, including a toxic workplace for employees.

That’s why show employees and producers left her show en masse in 2020.

Will She Ever Learn?

Needless to say, the irony was thick during Ellen’s latest monologue. As she said that people ran away from her, it’s clear that people have wanted to run away from her for quite some time.

She claimed she quarantined, but that obviously isn’t the first time she’s tried to distance herself from people. Ellen has done everything but keep a clear wall of plastic between her and the peons she allows into her presence.

Of course, she’s more than happy to paste on a smile and rub shoulders with people who rank next to or above her in the Hollywood pecking order.

But anyone below her seems to be a burden.

It’s that stereotypical shallowness that so many Hollywood get caught up in. It wouldn’t be so bad if Ellen didn’t portray herself as such a joyous, innocent person. And we could even stomach that if she gave us a proper apology.

But we’re still waiting. Maybe that’s because a ‘proper apology’ includes looking us in the eye.

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect the views of CCN.com.

• Joe Biden was inaugurated as the 46th president of the United States on Wednesday.
• While much of the nation rejoiced, many QAnon supporters were dismayed as their vision of a Democratic reckoning did not materialize.
• It’s an easy time to mock these conspiracy theorists but letting these people back into our lives is far more important.

QAnon believers have been left holding the bag.

After years of build-up for a reckoning against the Evil Elite, it was all supposed to come to a head by January 20, 2021.

But it didn’t.

In fact, quite the opposite happened. Trump incited a violent mob of ‘patriots,’ but he quickly lost his nerve and issued a round of apologies. The hero in the eyes of so many QAnon believers, denounced those patriots, gave up his baseless fight against election fraud, and left the White House with his tail tucked firmly beneath his legs.

The conspiracy theorists who built so much hope in these message board scriptures are now forced to reconcile with reality.

They’ve ruined relationships, they’ve ruined lives, and at the very least, they’ve ruined their reputations. It’s easy to ridicule these people, but let’s take a moment to consider the benefits of welcoming them back to the real world.

Check out this video detailing the confused reactions from QAnon supporters:

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VypJ9ntnJps?feature=oembed&w=900&h=506]

QAnon Believers Are Devastated

The media has widely covered the current state of confusion amongst the die-hard QAnon fans since President Joe Biden was inaugurated yesterday. These fans stuck with Trump after he lost the election, fully buying into the theory that it was rigged. They got so worked up that many of them stormed the U.S. Capitol Building. Some even lost their lives.

Many of them probably thought it was worth it, as they still believed that on January 20th, these satanic pedophiles that run the world would be exposed and executed by their hero, Donald Trump.

And when none of that happened, they didn’t know what to do.

According to MarketWatch, one QAnon believer took to a popular Q channel on Telegram to say:

I am so scared right now, I really feel nothing is going to happen now. I’m just devastated.

BBC quoted another Telegram user as saying they wanted to “throw up,” and they were  “so sick of all the disinformation and false hope.”

“It’s done and we were played,” said another.

Ron Watkins helped give QAnon a platform on the message board 8kun; some even theorized he was the mythical “Q” character. Now he’s moving on to ‘new projects.’

And They Should Be Crushed

Of course, it’s a crushing moment for these die-hard believers. Not only was their entire worldview dismantled, but many of them sacrificed important relationships to ‘the movement.’

They had become so invested in the story that was fed to them on the internet that they were willing to turn their backs on their families.

One Texas protestor, Guy Reffitt, threatened to shoot his children if they told police that he was involved in the Capitol riots. He was arrested and charged with obstruction of justice and unlawful entry into a restricted building.

One protestor was killed in the riots. She was a QAnon supporter who tweeted out the QAnon slogan “WWG1WGA” before attending the rallies:

The family estrangement associated with these radical conspiracy theories has been well documented. These people invested their lives into a lie. And while they may have acted in absurd ways, it’s time to let them back in, if they’re willing.

Why We Should Forgive QAnon Supporters

It’s tempting to kick these people while they’re down, or at the very least, to make fun of them. They were so confident that they right that some might feel like it’s their duty to highlight their mistakes.

But it’s not worth it. At best, you get a few minutes of redemption. Maybe you get some retweets if that’s what you’re into. But people believed in QAnon because they didn’t have much hope. They literally had to scan the internet for something, anything, to bring some purpose into their lives.

Professor Danagal Young told NPR that people who believe in conspiracies like QAnon are looking to belong to a group identity more than they’re seeking information:

Because these belief systems are not about the information within them, but about the identity and the emotions that are appealed to through them, the only thing that can actually combat them effectively are loving, trusting, emotional connections.

According to MarketWatch, white supremacist groups are already trying to recruit disillusioned QAnon supporters.

Watch this video explaining the similarities between QAnon and Neo-Nazism:

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L4DkztDjlak?feature=oembed&w=900&h=506]

If these people remain shunned by their friends and families, then it’s not a far stretch to imagine them joining one of these other, even more dangerous extremist groups.

Young recommends an approach of compassion:

Come at them with unconditional love, as hard as that is, reminding them of the preexisting bonds that you have.

These people feel lost and maligned, and we shouldn’t keep them in the shadows by mocking them or shunning them. We should all do our best to welcome them back into the light.

Even if QAnon is crumbling, some of its sayings still apply–most notably, “where we go one, we go all” (WWG1WGA).

Disclaimer: The opinions in this article do not necessarily reflect the views of CCN.com.

• Actor Armie Hammer is embroiled in controversy after vulgar, cannibalistic texts he sent were shared online.
• Numerous exes of the actor have come out to testify about his kinks, quirks, and scary behaviors.
• While his behavior sounds disturbing and manipulative, what exactly do we think shaming will accomplish?

Armie Hammer is into some vulgar stuff—nobody denies that.

The Social Network actor is simmering in scrutiny after his sexual tendencies were exposed to the public. And considering his appetite for pain, who knows—maybe he’s actually enjoying it.

Nonetheless, as the media and the general public try to dissect this man’s sexual life, we should ask ourselves what we’re trying to accomplish, and just like Armie Hammer should’ve considered: is there a line that we shouldn’t cross?

Armie Hammer Gets Fully Exposed

Armie Hammer is easy to hate. He’s a handsome, successful, highly privileged white man in 2021. And he looks like he just walked out of a starring role in American Psycho.

So, naturally, when people began revealing his twisted sexual tendencies, it was easy for the critics to pile on.

It all started earlier this month when texts, allegedly from Hammer, were leaked online. In them, he wrote things such as “I’m 100% a cannibal” and “I need to drink your blood.”

He responded to the claims by stepping away from filming Shotgun Wedding with Jennifer Lopez and releasing this statement:

I’m not responding to these bulls**t claims, but in light of the vicious and spurious online attacks against me, I cannot in good conscience now leave my children for four months to shoot a film in the Dominican Republic. Lionsgate is supporting me in this, and I’m grateful to them for that.

The Exes Come Forward

Then his ex-lovers came out. Courtney Vucekovich claimed Armie Hammer said he wanted to break her rib and “barbecue and eat it.”

Yikes.

She described him as some sort of emotional vampire who manipulated and drained her and called him one of the “most broken” people she’s ever met.

Another ex claimed he “went too far a lot of the time,” but she agreed to the fantasies because she “didn’t want to let him down.” She even said he had mannequins in his basement that used to practice rope play.

The general vibe these women give off is that they felt highly uncomfortable, even unsafe, but they were charmed, captivated, or manipulated by Hammer.

And he’s faced a whirlwind of scrutiny from the media and social media users since these stories broke.

This man clearly appears to be engaging in questionable behaviors, and his kinks are creepy, to say the least. As a society, it’s okay to find his behaviors unacceptable but is shame the best tool to treat people who are clearly stuck in a dark place?

The Origin of Cannibalism Fantasies

Rolling Stone published a revealing story about Armie Hammer and his sexual kinks. Author EJ Dickson interviewed dominatrix Empress Wu, who’s well-versed in the world of cannibalism fantasies.

Wu said there’s no typical way to enact a cannibalism scene because it’s ‘extremely unrealistic.’ She describes the psychology behind such acts:

When you really think about it, desire is about the craving to assimilate an other. When you are so f*$#ing into that person you need to have them or be owned by them or be entangled in a specific way, cannibalism as a fetish really highlights or fulfills this sense of wanting to be close to someone and the futility that it’ll never fully happen.

If Wu is right, then Hammer is essentially craving a closeness that he cannot attain through normal interaction. He’s not craving actual human flesh.

This inability to feel closeness healthily echoes the idea that he’s a ‘broken’ person.

What Do We Do With People Like Armie Hammer?

Hammer was raised in wealth, a result of the financial success of his grandfather, oil tycoon Armand Hammer. And despite the temptation to feel zero sympathies for ‘rich kids,’ they are nonetheless more likely to be ‘troubled.’

Suniya Luthar, a psychology professor at Arizona State University, wrote that children of the affluent are becoming “increasingly troubled, reckless and self-destructive.”

That doesn’t excuse Hammer’s behavior. As Wu notes, she takes little issue with his cannibalism fetish, but she’s more concerned with possible consent violations.

Several exes claimed they found themselves engaging in acts they weren’t comfortable with. While exes like Paige Lorenze admitted to ‘consenting,’ Hammer should’ve been checking in with these women to make sure they were comfortable with the extreme acts he was requesting.

Check out this take on the situation:

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ozgVmXd1kcs?feature=oembed&w=900&h=506]

His behavior should be called out and corrected. But is mass shaming going to fix anything? Mike Tyson, of all people, has shown us the power of redemption.

William and Mary Law School published an article concluding that shaming does little to reduce unwanted behaviors. Hammer might be acting out because he’s craving closeness, so how, exactly, will ostracizing him from society help?

I’m not suggesting we put on our kid gloves and ask Armie Hammer if he’s okay with the way we’re treating him. He made people feel unsafe that behavior needs to be corrected. But it’s worth asking if shaming will actually protect future victims or if it will just satisfy our own bloodlust.

Disclaimer: The opinions in this article do not necessarily reflect the views of CCN.com.