"Shock Influencers" Web Artifact

For my project, I endeavored to choose something very relevant to me—social media and its confluence of shock-humor "influencers." These so-called "influencers" consist of straight men who build social media platforms by sharing their conservative and regressive opinions on polarizing topics such as the LGBTQ+ Community, Women's Rights, Racism, Guns, and politics as a whole. The stances are usually disseminated through TikTok as clips from podcasts. However, these ideologies tend to be backed up by misinformation and are shared to an audience made up of impressionable teenage boys who thrive off toxicity and desire "shock content." Shock content is a subgenre "deliberately designed to evoke strong emotional reactions, typically through the use of graphic, disturbing, or provocative elements."

The video I created with my co-star, Izzy Yaffe, is a satirical recreation of the previously mentioned type of videos, specifically inspired by the influencer @Sneako. Sneako's entire platform revolves around sharing conservative perspectives with justifications brimming with xenophobia and untrue information. The podcasts serving as the source material for these Tiktoks feature the host of the podcast and the influencer engaging in conversations on highly polarizing topics. The host is typically in agreement with their guest, rarely offering a critical analysis of the influencer's claims or statements. My video differs because the host finally claps back. Additionally, in this age of the internet, fact-checking appears to be, quite frankly, absent. It is incredibly easy to start a lie and spread it to a large audience without doubt about the claim's validity. The audience of these videos will then agree with whatever Sneako says and incorporate the rhetoric into their beliefs, meaning that a substantial group of individuals is actively becoming less informed and more bigoted members of society. 

For my role, I embodied the stereotypical "douce bag" and repeated rhetoric common to the type I was recreating: misinformed and sloppily presented. I juxtapose my strong and bold claims with Izzy's calm and humorous demeanor. 

Zach's Reaction to La Concienca de La Mestiza

 Firstly, I found the way this piece was written to be the most intriguing and beautiful in comparison to the other works we have read. Anzaldua's utilization of poetry helped in creating an immediate connection to her writing, allowing me to walk away from the piece with a deeper understanding and appreciation for her many messages and ideas. Poetry is an art form that connects people emotionally and, sometimes, even spiritually, especially with the proper use of imagery and beautiful stanzas.

Anzaldua, being a member of the LGBTQ+ community, effortlessly incorporated that aspect of her identity into her writing; many of her points resonated with me. Her quote on page 380 reads, "As a Lesbian, I have no race; my own people disown me, but I am all races because there is the queer of me in all races." This idea of being inherently connected to every race through her sexual orientation was very compelling, and I appreciated how she didn't sugarcoat the fact that homophobia is still a prevalent issue within her community. She states that LGBTQ+ people of color have been at the forefront of all liberation struggles in the United States and that we have "suffered more injustices and survived" (383). Whether intentional or not, she made me extremely proud of those in my community who have come before me and risked their lives and well-being to better the world. Moreover, she repeats the idea of acknowledging harmful tendencies in her communities and holding those accountable. For example, when speaking about Machismo, she first sympathizes with them as a whole, stating: "The loss of a sense of dignity and respect in the Macho breeds also breeds machismo, which leads him to put down women and even to brutalize them" (383). She then asks for an apology and, at the very least, respect for women.

Overall, the messages present in this piece, along with the beautiful poetry and use of her native tongue, create a highly captivating and successful argument.

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