Don’t forget to look me up on Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter under “RealAutismSpeak” if you want to follow my daily exploits, for more than what I’m able to put out here–for the time–on this blog! Also on Clouthub, Gab, Telegram, GETTR, Minds, Truth Social, and Locals as well….might look into Substack too.
You folks will have to excuse me, as I feel kinda drowsy as I type this, and half-want to go back to bed–now that the contractor has left–and half want to get thru this new blog entry. I know in the very least I gotta get my guinea pigs’ nails checked later today, and get some shipments ready to go out tomorrow, but otherwise my schedule is kinda-open for the day. That being said, however, before I get to the main topic at hand, I want to discuss a little bit further about yesterday as it somewhat relates to this topic. So as stated in the update linked above, I went to see the Sound of Freedom yesterday. Now, I was semi-anticipating seeing this movie all week; by “semi-anticipating”, I refer to I was waiting to see if I’d hear from my landlord at all this week, to find out if his contractor was going to stop by for anything; I waited til around Thursday, and when I heard nothing, then I decided to proceed with it yesterday. It was actually on Friday he got back to me, and told me that the contractor would be coming by (I paid him next month’s rent as soon as the money came in, and he thanked me for my payment, and let me know then), but likely wouldn’t be in my place on Saturday, though the water might be off for a few hours, while he checked the leak downstairs. It was after they realized that the leak was due to my latrine having been improperly installed that they said they’d be coming by earlier today. As for the movie, I also didn’t know how long it would or wouldn’t be in theaters (especially being released by an up-and-coming studio), and as much as I wanted to see it Wednesday, as stated in the entry linked above, I was just too mentally shot that day, and was busy with laundry anyway. So, when the landlord told me they were coming by during the weekend, I told him that I had plans yesterday anyway, and the guy was already gone by the time I left for the theater.
Now, again, I don’t know how long this movie is gonna be in theaters, but I do know it’s having a major impact….but I can’t say that the impact would be the same at any other time, necessarily; I know the movie was held back a few years for a variety of reasons (and shut down by Disney, upon their acquirement of Fox), and I definitely don’t think back then it would’ve had the same impact anyway. I do consider it very significant at this time, especially being part of the “tin foil hat” community (and as I stated in yesterday’s update linked above, quite a bit for the Autistic community to “chew on” too), and although many folks on Twitter are saying it’s just another “psy-op”, psy-op or not, I got more out of the experience than just the movie, and a good bulk of the experience came just from sitting in the lobby, waiting for the showing to open up, staring at some movie posters for Coming Attractions, and thinking to myself “I remember the guy who used to be excited by all this stuff; the anticipation for new pop culture, whether on the big screen or on TV; seems like such a long time ago, now….”
That being said…..I have some good news for all of you:
No, I don’t plan on prattling on even more about the Sound of Freedom; I hadn’t even intended to. In fact, this entry is actually gonna be one of the lighter entries I’ve done in quite some time; I decided to mention it both to elaborate more on how busy I’ve been, and also mainly to emphasize about the aspect of cultural significance; let me explain, by officially really kicking this off, and taking you on a trip back in time…..
In the late 80s/early 90s, at some point, I found myself watching Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 with my parents on either HBO or Cinemax; I enjoyed watching it with them, but the one thing I never forgot was how after it ended, they insisted “it was nothing like the original; that was a real classic, terrifying and everything!”, and what followed the production I believe was either the trailer for the original, or a few scenes from the movie; I won’t lie, it did hype me up a bit, thinking I missed out on something great (yeah, how often have we heard that throughout our years?); well, fast forward 10-15 years, and I’ve just purchased a copy of that movie on DVD at Suncoast to watch with my Dad, to finally get the big experience hyped up all those years ago, and these were literally my words to him as we’re halfway thru the movie:
“Sooooooooooo……I don’ know…..maybe that one gal could take her top off or something, cause CHRIST THIS IS SO BORING!!!!!!!!!!!!! I thought you said this movie was so big, action-packed, intense, etc?!”
To give you an idea, while it did get a lot better toward the end, I even found myself making fun of the movie with the former Rat Pack leader while we were shopping around Target, one day, quoting who I considered to be the hands-down most bearable character in the movie, and I assure you that wasn’t saying much. These days, I appreciate the movie for what it is (though still preferring the sequel), but it honestly took James “Angry Video Game Nerd” Rolfe to elaborate during his “Cinemassacre’s Monster Madness” Halloween Marathon just how revolutionary the first movie was considered for its time, and there’s the key phrase.
Why is this so important, you may ask? Simple: because not only are these events significant in terms of what gets pushed in culture at the time, but the shared experience, and how it involves the socializing landscape. I.E. those who think it’s “all that and a bag o’chips” are the ones who experience it when it’s first released or gains a cult following; I’m not saying it can’t be appreciated by audiences later on, but….we’ll get to that, and how it involves our community, at that point. Another great example of this, btw, is The Exorcist; I remember that my Mom & my Uncle went to see it in his late teens/her early 20s, and they were so freaked out about it as kids, they had to talk each other thru it before going to bed that night. I watched it decades later, and….I could see how social stigmas being they were played an impact in freaking a lot of people out, but honestly….I thought the girl was absolutely adorable, all possessed, for whatever reason. Another great example here is Freddy Krueger; some people said they found that first movie so frightening, they didn’t want to leave their boyfriends’ houses that night, and….the boyfriends got lucky, let’s just put it that way. That first movie–much like the first Friday the 13th movie–honestly bores the ever-loving shit out of me, and I honestly found Freddy to a lot cornier than in future installments where it was by design, at that point.
Let’s take yet another cue from that epic Youtuber “Junkman” who I brought up here, as he was awesome enough in one of his videos to actually further elaborate on the points Scott “Toyguru/Scooter” Neitlich made about the impact Star Wars had at the time it had its theatrical tenure; Neitlich had already brought up that home video wasn’t common at the time, so many scenes really had to stick out to be memorable in peoples’ minds, which I could totally see; Junkman added to that the way Star Wars was marketed to the public changed how pop culture was pushed to the public, moving forward, and added even further to that one of the biggest elements of excitement for the movies during the actual run was the big “twist” in the second movie that fans then had to wait three more years to get their resolution today…whereas after that, everyone already knew the twist, you could watch the movies one after another during TV marathons, so basically by then Star Wars just had to sell itself on just looking cool to kids with space battles, and offering nostalgia goggles for adults (now I’m thinking about Citizen Kane, interestingly enough); this….may have been another part of the reason I was never that excited for Star Wars, even when I wasn’t 10 years old yet: that required impact of the environmental factors at the time combined with anticipation for the resolution were long gone by the time I was out and about (there are other reasons, but not necessary to bring up at this time).
And of course, how could we forget about everyone’s favorite 1960s group from Liverpool (I know, it’s funny how I almost always seem to bring up Star Wars and this in the same entries, right?)….who incidentally got a very brief resurgence in popularity when the mainstream news recently pushed a distraction featuring a company named Oceangate looking to visit the Titanic; sure there are people who fell for them years after the group disbanded in the mid 70s, but for the “full impact”, it was about experiencing them when they were trotted out on Ed Sullivan, right as the world wanted something to ease their minds after….what happened in Dallas, Texas a short time earlier.
So, what in Hell you may be wondering does any of this have to do with the Autistic community? Well, like I said….the socializing connection that often takes place amongst the masses during these events is a shared experience, and what often helps our community even less (than, you know, like everything else) is our attempts to connect with those who’ve already taken part in these events during their heyday as opposed to when we’re finally crossing paths with them, hoping we can get that same connection out of them that they reached with it at the time, when at that point they’re usually operating on memories of their attachment to it, if that makes sense. No, I’m not saying they don’t still enjoy it, but it’s not enjoyed in the same way, at least not unless it’s something they’re genuinely devoted to, beyond the mainstream popular appeal.
This however may wind up being a bit of a difficult situation for those of us who really, really, really want to be accepted by our environments….even though I still stand by it’s on a very “surface” level, and you usually won’t get much more out of it beyond that immediate high of the shared experience; if it sounds like a drug, in a way, it kind of is; I’m not saying to aim for it, I’m simply stating why I don’t believe it works as effectively in the long run as most would hope, no matter how popular it is at “some point”.
I’d like to briefly add before I get to what I consider to be a big “bomb” about this…a nice little segueway that I’d like to thank a Youtube channel called “WorldClassBullshitters” for:
Aside from currently being one of the top Youtube channels I watch that discusses the downfall of pop culture on the regular–and the Puppet Masters of the matrix in the process, in conjunction–one of the most popular video series the channel features is going to stores to see what movie/TV merchandise is moving, and what’s overloading shelves at Ollie’s Bargain Outlet….and in many cases has been. As of recent, the channel tends to bring up a lot of Disney properties on the regular, but in the videos you can also see a lot of other pop culture mainstays that…..let’s just say I think Disney is dragging down with ’em, in the process.
The reason I bring this up however is because of where I think an actual benefit to our community actually comes up, going back to a statement our good buddy Zeleni has so famously stated; essentially, while our community usually doesn’t get the “shared experience” benefit of events/the aftermath–and due to our brain workings, usually wouldn’t get to in the same way, anyway–what we do get is the opportunity to “go back”, and go over the tenure of the releases on our own terms, rather than what society dubbed good or bad at any given time. We’re not “waiting in anticipation” for the next album or movie, only to be utterly disappointed when it’s underwhelming (see: Todd In the Shadows’ review of “Ringo the IVth”); we get the opportunity to go thru the catalog, and judge for ourselves what we love and what we don’t, and we get to do it with a fresh new perspective that almost everyone else has usually overlooked; basically experience it with an unbiased set of “eyes and ears”, if that makes sense.
One of the best parts about my experience with doing it, for instance with music, is that if a certain album happens to be a flop, my own personal feelings of that album aside, I can usually pinpoint the spot on an earlier release where I see things…..starting to “come undone”, as it were, so I see where the problems resulted, rather than missing it due to just being a fan/enjoying the “shared experience” at the time, and getting disappointed over a release that didn’t perform, “killing” the momentum, as they say. A great example in my own case is with Devo; I had been trying to get their “Shout” album in for quite some time, and the Exchange finally got it; I heard the album was a flop, and was bracing myself for maybe one good song, and possibly a few others where I could at least enjoy it on my own terms. Instead, I love the whole album, though not only do I notice some things where fans of the time wouldn’t be as enthusiastic, but I think I can trace the problems that resulted in said quagmire….back to the preceding album (New Traditionalists), where while I still found the output to be good, it was the first album of theirs I found to be inconsistent; incidentally, this album directly followed the album of theirs I thought to be the best one (Oh No, It’s Devo), and my money is on the time they were riding on that high of popularity, got overconfident, and……let’s just say tensions may’ve started bubbling up behind the scenes.
That being said, my focus is on enjoying their catalog for my own enjoyment and enrichment, as opposed to “being in” on the latest thing to be cool or whatever, since I know the momentum for that could get killed at any time, and in part because the crowd is/did enjoy it for being the “in-thing”, not necessarily due to if the quality was there or not; often times, due to our desire for social approval, we may try to jump in for the former reason, in hopes we can use it as a stepping stone to something stronger–as stated here–when not only won’t that happen, since the Normies are already doing it with each other, but truth be told it’s often not necessarily done of things with substance, but just whatever happens to be the “in thing” at any given time, that might be dropped 5 minutes later; and lest we forget…..when we invest in something, we invest in it…..so we might as well make sure it’s something we can stand by, thru thick and thin, amiright?
Seriously, think about the whole roller coaster ride Star Wars fans have been going on now for 40+ years, regarding the “coolness” factor, and how divided it got the fanbase, the nostalgia kicked in, yadda yadda yadda; is it really worth your time and energy to hope that this time you “got it right” about what pulls people in, when those people may be pulled in for about 15 seconds, before you can get the same thing on Clearance for 75% off at Ollie’s? Let me conclude this entry with a perspective I was kinda hinting to a little bit earlier:
I was born in 1982, so by the time I was genuinely aware of the world around me, Star Wars was already dead in regard to pop culture fandom; it resumed just as I’d moved on from pop culture for a period of time, and upon my re-entry into the field, I gave it another chance, liked the first prequel, everyone else hated it, hated the two that followed (which everyone else loved), gave it yet another chance when the Sequel trilogy was announced, loved Episodes 7 & 8 while everyone else hated them, and by the time I got to Episode 9, I was ready to bookend my pop culture experience, and what should follow right after that? The Mandalorian with Baby Yoda, which no one would shut up about.
Weeeeeell….amongst the “tin foil hat” community, it’s often discussed that most pop culture is actually designed with an agenda behind it, as part of the matrix simulation. The more I learn about the actual intent of pop culture, along with energy frequencies, the more I’ve come to the conclusion that everything I’ve experienced with “failing” at pop culture with the masses has always been part of God’s design for me. He knows he wants a lot more from me than to waste my time being easily baited in like others for the latest dancing monkey that the matrix puppet masters put forward, and he knows deep down it really only resonates with me to a point (which might very well explain why I felt like I was in another world, at the movie theater)…but that point is what he needs to resonate with me, and for whatever long-term purpose he has for me, and I can live with that, entirely!
Bottom line, friends:
Don’t just follow “the latest big thing” in hopes that people will gravitate to you for doing what they do; they won’t. God has a plan for you, and you’ll know from trusting your intuition whether you actually resonate with it or not; even if you do happen to like some of that pop culture, including from the “days gone by”, the connection you’ll mostly have with the masses is on a very surface level, and I assure you it may feel good at first, but you’ll know in the long run you need something deeper, and you won’t get it, especially not from something like that. Find what you love, pursue it (even if God does implement some pop culture acts to emphasize it), and take it from there to find you; that guy/gal will be the one the right people will want to be with
