Riri Williams: Marvel’s Precious Little Sociopath

Marvel debuted the character Riri Williams in July 2016. The character replaced Tony Stark as Iron Man, adopting the name Iron Heart (which ironically turns out to be the name used in a porn parody of Iron Man). Riri’s claim to fame is that she is a 15-year-old black female super-genius supposedly smarter and better than Stark.

Brian Michael Bendis, the character’s creator, faced a backlash from progressives because Bendis is a straight, white, Jewish man writing a black female character. His critics ignored at Bendis and his wife adopted two black girls. They also ignored his reason for creating Riri Williams, as explained in the Time article. His critcis felt much more content to attack the man rather than give him a chance.

However, things have not been that great for Riri. The Invincible Iron Man series that Riri leads has seen its numbers drop dramatically since its November 2016 debut:

What happens when you play loose with the definition of rape

I wrote about case in February in which an Iraqi refugee raped a 10-year-old boy because the man had a “sexual emergency”. The man, known as Amir A, claimed he had not had sex in four months and felt the need to release his “excess sexual energy”. He assaulted the boy while they were a pool facility. After the assault, Amir went back to the pool and continued diving and swimming. The boy reported the assault, and when confronted, Amir admitted to committing the crime.

This occurred Austria, a country that has taken in a number of Middle Eastern refugees. The Austrian government tries, like many European nations, to avoid any apparent attacks on Middle Easterners or Muslims. While this is a noble and reasonable position, the application of it is far from either of those. Instead of revealing what happened, the Austrian government attempted to conceal the assault from the media, claiming to do so for the victim’s protection.

Now, the Austria Supreme Court has taken it one step further. Amir A was convicted and sentenced to six years in jail for sexual assault and the rape of a minor. The Supreme Court decided recently to throw out the conviction. Their reason is because the prosecutors did not prove the victim said “no”:

Hypocrisy, thy name is Candy

How many memes does it take to get to the center of hypocrisy?

Apparently it only takes one.  Donald Trump Jr. revealed just how hypocritical the left can be. Trump Jr. tweeted: “If I had a bowl of skittles and I told you just three would kill you. Would you take a handful? That’s our Syrian refugee problem.”

The internet lost its collective mind. One look at the news feed reveals how instantaneously people drew together for a dogpile. The general consensus is that the analogy is bigoted, racist, and completely illogical.

That is accurate.

You’re Not Helping v.27

If Matt Stone and Trey Parker decide to make fun of you, the best recourse is to just let it happen. Stone and Parker are two of the best modern satirists. Even if one had the skill to take them on, their response would be devastating. It would be a particularly terrible decision to do this just before the next season of South Park began.

Enter the promo for season 20 of South Park:

The Curious Case of Trigglypuff

A few days ago I checked my Twitter account and happened upon a curious hashtag: #trigglypuff.

My first response was what is a trigglypuff? A quick Google search provided the answer:

This was but a moment from the spectacle at University of Massachusetts Amherst.

I Can Haz Hypocrisy?

Tal Fortgang has gotten more attention than he likely assumed he would. He wrote a piece for his college magazine titled Why I’ll Never Apologize for My White Male Privilege. It made enough waves that Time magazine ran the article, and Tal ended up with an interview with a national media outlet.

His comments sparked leftist rage because he dismissed the notion that he had “white privilege.” He argued that his grandfather, granduncle, grandmother, and father worked hard to achieve what they had. These things were not afforded to them because of “white privilege” but because they strove through many hardships to get them. Tal cited his grandparents experiences in Nazi Germany as prime examples.

None of that mattered to his critics. Violet Baudelaire sums up the general response from the left:

You claim you’re tired of people telling you to “check your privilege”, and in response, you have written a long diatribe about how because your ancestors dealt with some shit it means you’re not privileged like all these people think you are. Then, you go on to explain all of the ways in which you think you are privileged, throw in some solid nonsense about reverse racism, and end up coming to the ultimate conclusion that:

It’s not a matter of white or black, male or female or any other division which we seek, but a matter of the values we pass along, the legacy we leave, that perpetuates “privilege.” And there’s nothing wrong with that.

I’d like to explain to you how you have completely missed the most basic definition of privilege; why you, like so many others, immediately got offended at the idea that you have somehow had it easier than others and leapt to your own defense without trying to listen or understand what someone was truly saying.

Let us see if Violet can do this without ironically proving Tal’s point:

What #WhiteFeministRants Can Teach Everyone About Feminists

Nothing says unity like taking potshots at your allies. The internet tends to bring out the worst in people, and Twitter seems to be adept at doing this to liberals. The amount of snarky, petty sniping many liberals engage in on Twitter boggles the mind. If they spent less time making catchy hashtags to attack each other they would have more time to actually change things.

For example, Barb Moreno wrote about the recent hashtag #WhiteFeministsRants. Feminist Twitter users wrote various tweets mocking white feminists’ position on race. Moreno decided to take on some of the issues mentioned in a handful of tweets, but ironically revealed part of the problem feminism has as an ideology and movement.

Her first example:

1. The privilege the tweets keep mentioning isn’t money, it’s race.

“Not all white women are privileged…that’s a stereotype” #WhiteFeministRants

— Native Sista (@JustaNativeSis) February 1, 2014

White people (including White Women) earn more money than minorities, and, yes, money puts you in a position of privilege. However, the reason they can earn more money is because the system is set up for them to benefit that way. I’m a white Puerto Rican, and I know my whiteness had a lot to do with my success in my career, even though my background is from the inner city of Chicago. Those in power, who tend to be white, saw me as one of them. I wasn’t different. I could be just like them. So, when it comes to saying that all women struggle with careers in the same way, is racist. White women have it easier even if it doesn’t appear that way to you.

How does she know that for certain? Moreno may be able to pass as white, but she is not white. She has not lived that life and seen things through “white eyes.” How could she possibly know how much easier things are for white women? Let us assume that in general white women have an easier time getting work than minority women. That does not mean all white women have it so easy. Are there no poor white women? No ethnic white women who people may be more inclined to look down on? Every white women brims with privilege no matter what?