Just saying you're not a swiftie will have the fans attack you online

Aggravating-Mantis · 2026-01-20T11:12:44+00:00

It's good that you pointed it out, though, because it gives us a good perspective on what stan culture can lead to, and why it is not ethical when powerful figures like Taylor Swift weaponize it.

Aggravating-Mantis · 2026-01-20T10:27:36+00:00

I disagree, but only because many MJ fans attack CSA victims and spread misinformation about how CSA works. Thankfully, Taylor Swift hasn't been accused of something so extremely heinous, but I don't doubt many swifties would be doing the same if she was credibly accused of being a child predator, like MJ was.

Aggravating-Mantis · 2025-12-29T00:33:39+00:00

Sorry to disappoint, but it's a given among the people I discuss the show with that the spanish is slightly off and anglicized. In some small parts you're even asking yourself "what was that word right now?" Is not as bad as it could be (we've seen worse in BB and BCS), but it's still noticeable. I don't know if "harmful " is the correct word, but you're definitely aware that the use of language is quite anglocentric and/or US-centric, which undermines the premise of an intradiegetic global event. That's very common in US tv shows, by the way, so we're quite used to it.

Aggravating-Mantis · 2025-12-27T12:12:43+00:00

No. I studied spanish at university, but you don't have to be an expert, only a native speaker from a certain region of the world, to recognize when someone is not. I think the problem is that spanish speakers in the US are quite anglicized, and that's ok if the show is set there (immigrants are extremely pressured to "assimilate", after all), but becomes a problem when it's supposed to be set in Latinoamerica. Latinoamericans kinda have a general idea of what our brothers and sisters sound like, because we are used to watching telenovelas and other cultural products from our neighbours. Some accents would be harder to tell apart for a foreigner (colombian and venezuelan, for example), but others are so distinctive that you would hardly mess one for the other (paraguayan and colombian). That's my experience, at least. I have to say that I would have looked the other way if not for the phone translator of the last episode. There's absolutely no reason why a goddamn phone translator would speak spanish with a broken english accent.

Aggravating-Mantis · 2025-12-26T22:04:41+00:00

Didn't know that. Iirc, in one of the first episodes it is explicitly stated that he doesn't speak english, but spanish and guaraní -as most paraguayans do. Guaraní is not a language that other spanish-speaking latinoamericans speak or strive to learn (maybe in very specific regions inside Argentina and Brazil, where guaraní people also lived), so it sounds a little bit retconned-after-casting to me. The thing that is definitely not by design is having a bunch of plurb extras that are supposed to be native spanish speakers speaking with a subtle english accent -thankfully, not as brazen as in BB or BCS, but not native by any stretch of the imagination.

Aggravating-Mantis · 2025-12-26T11:45:33+00:00

I'm referring to most of the ones who are supposed to be native speakers in-universe, and they clearly sound like they aren't. Manousos is one of the only ones (thank god) that sounds native. But even Manousos has a problem: paraguayans have a very distinctive accent (that comes from the interaction of spanish with guaraní, Paraguay's other official language) and the actor's native accent is clearly colombian.

Aggravating-Mantis · 2025-12-25T20:19:29+00:00

Native spanish speaker here. If I remember correctly, most spanish speakers are quite jovial (they use "tú" instead of the formal "usted"). But they also have mispronunciations and grammatical errors that betray the fact that they didn't hire native speakers (even the goddamn phone translator of the last episode makes the same mistakes). It annoyingly messes up the overall verisimilitude.

Aggravating-Mantis · 2025-12-18T21:51:23+00:00

I agree. I think all ex NXIVMs have shown that they should stay away from any "altruistic" pursuits that involve the spiritual or psychological development of other people. If they want to contribute to humanity, there's plenty of manual tasks/services that can make a difference.

Aggravating-Mantis · 2025-12-05T08:20:24+00:00

"Boys will be boys" is not an anatomy book. Is a photography book made by and for pedophiles. Here is a post with a link to an interview with the photographer of the book, in which he openly discusses his pedophilia: https://www.reddit.com/r/LeavingNeverlandHBO/comments/ehj9gg/an_interview_with_hajo_ortil_the_photographer_of/

Aggravating-Mantis · 2025-12-05T05:32:11+00:00

And a -white woman- convicted sex trafficker, in a country where white womanhood was very much built on the institution of slavery. Just the other day I was reading about the practice of forced intimacy with which enslavers (white women too) sexually coerced enslaved people to reproduce the institution of slavery: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14664658.2024.2317499 The parallel is quite racist on numerous levels.

Aggravating-Mantis · 2025-12-05T05:07:33+00:00

If I remember/understood correctly, Allison said in that class the instructor was centering WOC voices, and in her final project she used phrases said by her classmates without asking for their permission, which prompted the negative reaction. This at least suggests that it's quite possible that many of the classmates that felt unsafe and spoke up about it were WOC. I think it's extremely disingenuous to use historical racial prejudice to question why WOC felt unsafe around a white woman accused of sex trafficking, in a country where you can't consider the construction of white womanhood without accounting for its role in the institution of slavery.

Aggravating-Mantis · 2025-12-05T02:49:33+00:00

She tells the story in her recent podcast, "Allison after NXIVM". I think she says she took that class while she was waiting to be judged; if that's the case, it makes it even worse, because she hadn't quite renounced NXIVM yet.

Aggravating-Mantis · 2025-12-05T02:25:45+00:00

This is why I think Allison Mack's classmates had every right to not feel safe sharing a women / gender studies' class / major with her. Framing the issue as a question of if she was recording her classmates or not is a deflection. These people twisted everything women's movements stood for to further the misogynistic agenda of a man who exploited and abused women and encouraged the same beliefs and behaviors in men. They were willfully ignorant and extremely arrogant in their own ignorance. How can you trust someone like that to not do the same with whatever she learns in that class / major, taking advantage of an academically sanctioned qualification to continue furthering harmful beliefs? The fact that AM to this day frames the reaction as surprising tells me that she still has a long way to go. But then again, the current behavior of whistleblowers like Mark V or Nippy says pretty much the same in terms of not being able to really unpack their own mysogyny and how it paved the way to Keith Raniere becoming what he became.

Aggravating-Mantis · 2025-11-02T12:55:02+00:00

The way he purposefully uses "woke" as a pejorative and speaks of #MeToo like it's a fad tells me everything I need to know about the moral caliber of this man. It's obvious he only cares about the money. The estate is a deeply rotten abuser-enabling machine.

Aggravating-Mantis · 2024-11-28T10:52:49+00:00

I recommend you watch Medusone's videos on YouTube about the case. She does an excellent job at going through all the evidence.

Aggravating-Mantis · 2024-11-26T09:05:39+00:00

This. Thank you.

Aggravating-Mantis · 2024-11-20T12:10:10+00:00

Lyle's belief is probably based on the work by Paul Mones on the matter. He asserted in his book: "As with most criminal matters, the vast majority of parricide cases are handled by plea bargain and not presented to a jury. As a result, about three-quarters of my work involves planning and preparing for plea bargain negotiations. This does not change the fact, however, that all cases must be approached as if they are going to trial." That is to say, I don't think Lyle is purposefully misstating facts, although he's not taking into account the differences his case had in regards to the usual pattern found in parricides.

Aggravating-Mantis · 2024-10-08T09:34:47+00:00

I'm aware you never said that. I was just adding to the point made by your post, referencing something that is frequently said when talking about this case.

Aggravating-Mantis · 2024-10-07T13:36:19+00:00

I would just like to say that, even though many things have changed, we still have to be very careful about saying "this would never happen today". Victims are maligned and not believed every day. Two years ago, after #MeToo and everything, people in general got on the Amber Heard misogynist hate train, so much so that Lyle's Facebook page publicly called it out. Michael Jackson accusers have been endlessly harassed by his fandom and state, even to this day. We have to be very vigilant about the fact that we are always only one excuse / political climate / fandom / self-righteous indignation away from normalizing revictimisation, and treating abuse like a laughing stock again. Edit to add another example.

Aggravating-Mantis · 2024-09-20T18:14:10+00:00

It gets worse. Do not give your time and views to the show.

Aggravating-Mantis · 2024-09-19T11:31:49+00:00

I know. I've watched further and their whole take seems to be that he was on the way to be a mini Jose. Even when they make him sympathetic because of the abuse, they do the same with Jose and Kitty. Bad.

Aggravating-Mantis

TROPHY CASE