ayesha siddiqi
[nyc]
intro’d to ayesha when she tweeted this:
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Superscript 2015 – jun
when first asked to speak on community/connectivity.. broadness reminded of how much time we spend completely emeshed in them and how living in it keeps us from questioning our relationship to these subjects.. tensions…. and how what was described as shifts in power.. or empowerment for typically marginalized voices has really just been a masking of new vulnerabilities..
1/ diy vs indie notion.. seems we live in a positive time.. ie: infrastructure being provided for you.. but what we have instead – diy is no longer indie… because you are foreclosing on independence by pursuing diy projects… don’t anymore own that which enables your project… vulnerable to platforms… as much as if corp backed..
3 min – in doing so.. some obvious benefits (from using platforms)..
we’re increasingly mistaking visibility for power..
people have most angst around internet… opinions voiced on internet.. these are people that rest of world have been typically kind too..
5 min – bizarre how word – life-hacking – gets used… to mean.. association w/tech bros.. when people doing far more interesting work.. people trying to move through world w/relative grips on their sanity/safety..
6 min – am happy for people who have these spaces/convos..
7 min – so much of what is described as twitter backlash is really the resistance to the historical/ongoing erasure of voices/discourses.. essentially colonial perspectives on culture writing… great deal of power in affirmations of allowing marginalized voices to speak out….
8 min – the visibility that follows those critiques.. don’t have then access to actual capitalism.. distinguish visibility… often times produces same vulnerabilities rest of world had for them… a lot of writers … who are creating communities… running tumblr/twitter.. they don’t own what they’re putting out there.. subject to corp ownership of platform.. and also vulnerable to all harms those platforms can bring…
9 min – so a micro level of individuals.. ie: stalked.. et al.. these vulnerabilities also present for anyone trying to produce independent projects… so.. w/diy i see foreclosure of indie culture…
11 min – you don’t have to a be ie: a coder… but that means vulnerability to those coding.. .. us w/amazon… but there’s no real solution to that vulnerability.. as anti corporate as you want to me.. they are intermediaries.. between you and audiences.. as much as social web has produced new shifts.. it’s producing new kinds of co options and oppressions..
12 min – what community means to those getting together online.. and what community means to owners of platforms… passive participants in corp maze..
15 min – with our communities.. being so public.. feeding corp’s..
16 min – the co option of cool… ads using slang of original community.. gets to denny’s via vine.. platforms are just corps.. mistaken for bastians of democracy…
17 min all the voices that are vibrant and make spaces worth being on.. at the end of the day.. they’re only producing.. for free.. all the methods.. that places that always had money are able to use… age of internet .. more democratic… yet.. who is it ultimately connecting..
18 min – visibility in a surveillance state is not power… just migrating.. all vital .. exciting work.. the life hacks… exist in an ecosystem that’s primed for their continued exploitation.. remains many ways hostile to them… entitlement easily replicated online.. all the places we were meant to subvert by being online.. by bypassing traditionally barred paths… gatekeepers… those gains have to be seen in light of fact that all of this exciting/interesting work… (connections we need) . .. in long game.. these are communities i’m still concerned about..
20 min – a lot of what’s referred to as empowerment on internet.. is stories.. that does not .. haven’t seen yet.. translate to actual power.. still mediated by corps.. looks like power has always looked.. very removed from all communities… that participate.. so as much i’ve enjoyed/appreciated all the rest of us getting to speak/be heard.. we haven’t reached power that can truly compete with historical power structures..
22 min – seeing same patterns of erasure/entitlement evolve to online spaces… ie: a muslim that;s going to bring down america.. which any muslim could hear.. that’s something we haven’t found a way yet to evolve…
all words i’ve heard/used to describe this moment in time.. ie: powerful… that has to be reconciled eventually… that ultimately .. these content creators.. don’t own what they’re putting out there… rather.. all just running for free these platforms… corps
23 min – the understanding of the social web as less organic… digital space.. community spaces have been able to generate.. is only for free labor.. to me.. that’s not new and not encouraging… otherwise.. everything exciting about now.. in a few years is going to seem like a lot of applause for very little gain
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oct 2015 – Maz & Juan Strike Back: On Hillary Clinton with Ayesha Siddiqi
there’s a consensus available for people to push these programs..
(white homegeny – made up overwhelmingly by white people.. people saying white homegeny isn’t reason behind generous welfare state.. yet..)
on us using consensus ness to marginalize et al.. so let’s disengage… no?
the idea that immigrants and minority populations are competitors for resources that social welfare policies provide is a major part of the political platforms… enabled by people in previous decades would be associated w/slurs against ie: jewish people, muslims…
2 min – it’s interesting to see how anti muslim and anti immigrant rhetoric has been married to anti austerity and pro social welfare…
3 min – it’s about the dominate demographic that has the power… (wanting to help people that look like you) ie: sweden accepts largest number of asylum seekers.. so rise of anti immigrant rhetoric .. for social welfare.. saying.. we want this for us.. definitely on the us them stance..
it’s that simple.. why trope of welfare queen (was white.. and white people largest recipient of welfare in us).. but in political rhetoric it’s the stereotype of the black recipient of welfare that has been so effective in garnering support against welfare programs…
5 min – in minds of people already protected by state.. not so much… the idea in people’s minds.. of the other gaining mobility in society is so threatening to dominate demographic.. because it’s attached to them losing something… viewed as antagonistic force to their comfort/stability.. reveals fundamental misunderstanding of privilege.. ie: your comfort isn’t what’s at stake or threatened.. it remains whether or not rights/privileges are extended to those without..
7 min – anti immigrant rhetoric.. ie: idea that mexico should pay us every time immigrants come over .. completely ignorant/divorced from the role that america has played in debilitating mexico’s econ through nafta and the role we play in opportunities available to mexicans..
8 min – for me.. there remains nothing interesting to be seen from upcoming election… w/in larger culture.. rise of white feminism… very white corp friendly fem movement.. not so much a robust ideology but .. a branding that can be beneficial to any entity..or commodity including a person..(capitalism) .. it has to be to succeed in american culture..
9 min – the idea that we must feel a great deal more sense of victory in her victory… as women feel compelled to share when her policies have more in common w/white patriarchs.. than anything that would liberate women of color
isn’t that the hallmark of liberalism.. consumer choices that are meant to make you feel good about yourself…
10 min – used to overwhelm any memory of clinton policy.. we’re living in an era of poehler/tina .. the cultural climate in which we’re seeing rise of hilary clinton.. tina making fun of white woman.. sarah pahlin.. it’s allowed a very comfortable packaging.. classist.. et al..
11 min – the list goes on and on… of clinton … stuff… (spouting drivel but have no idea what’s going on with people you are talking about – juan )
12 min – the short attention span of media cycles.. and the general amnesia assumed of the populous has always been useful to politicians… and white feminists have always relied on presenting their particular trajectories of one with a far steeper incline than may actually be the case.. so there is a sense of the idea of a h clinton victory of being more earned/deserving.. but also simultaneously temptation to withhold victory from tracy type character.. an uppity blonde..
13 min – (america as oligarcy.. clintons.. few families running.. ..selling image – maz)
14 min – hasn’t it always been… it’s historically consistant.. absolutely case.. the self-perpetuated myth we circulate in school curricula.. and news media.. only recent relative challenge.. success of online media antagonistic to it….
manufacturing consent.. perpetuate\ing not us ness
15 min – the establishment is shook. . and they have very little to worry about.. still very well .. comfortably employed… they’ve never suffered consequences for regularly being wrong….
16 min – (on the topic of striking back – juan)
their right to power is assumed.. they don’t have to compete..
17 min – (i don’t think they know.. because voices of people affected never reach them – maz)
part of job in being any part of media.. is constantly justifying your right to that space.. and the people we’ve been talking about … their right is taken for granted.. never had to defend it… assumed objectivity of white/wealthy is something that’s long overdue to be recalled…
18 min – (every human being has a bias.. and yet this is the basis of our entire media – maz)
19 min – that media battle has been part of blm movement.. confronting people who never had to seriously think about police brutality w/facts of it.. the nature of over policing of black people…… white america has always escaped the deep shame… which should be the natural result of its policies toward black/brown people...
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find/follow Ayesha:
writer, editor, tv developer, thank you based goth. forecaster:
@viceland friend:@newinquiry#homelandbling
https://www.instagram.com/ayeshaasiddiqi/
[prior had @pushinghoops..?]
http://thenewinquiry.com/author/ayesha-siddiqi/
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a nother way.. for all of us
let’s do this first: free art-ists.
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@nathanjurgenson
this essay by @AyeshaASiddiqi on first-wave millennial nostalgia is fantastic thenewinquiry.com/essays/our-bra…
t makes sense that the filmmakers’ generation, first-wave millennials, fixate on authenticity as a value. This was the wave of millennials that took their angst at the strange new world and channeled it toward artisanal goods and an aggressive return to American craftsmanship. They outgrew their devotion to vintage and irony but bought wholly into selling “realness.”They opened Brooklyn farm-to-table restaurants and Portland pour-over coffee shops. No wonder they look at freelance hours and the branded-content generation with skepticism, even as they ape colonial ancestors with their beards, suspenders, and predilection for displacing communities of color and pretending they discovered bean-to-bar chocolatiering. In an interview withTime, director Max Joseph uses the word authentic five times.
[..]
Life under contemporary capitalism demands an aggressive alienation from each other and our bodies. Most of western culture is dedicated to recouping sensation amid that strain. When your life doesn’t seem to have much meaning, wringing the most out of moments of pleasure and friendship take on a near canonical duty.
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humans have a life span guys. what mountain ? She was a wizened racist that held a seat of power that doesn’t make sense by the definition of ‘democracy’. rip to her but do you all not have other shit going on
and.. moxie on democracy et al
gonna delete those last few tweets eventually I’m just frustrated and repulsed
I’m only being rude about her death bc the breathless sycophancy is an insult to what people are dealing with right now in their homes. Americans can barely afford food and medicine. I can’t think of a time less suited to respectful silence.
we’re all trading the same few dollars on gofundmes. millions are living under police occupation. I’m not moved towards ceremony rn
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be you. 