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March 31, 2016 - Sargon of Akkad - Carl Benjamin
11:34
The Conspiracy to Murder LGBT Characters is Real!
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Some of you may be asking, well, what does his race have to do with anything?
To which I say, if you even have to ask me that question, check your privilege.
Some people ask me why I don't make videos more regularly these days.
I only put out a couple a week.
And then other people say, well, you should not go for the low-hanging fruit.
You should definitely be doing some important work.
You have a big platform.
You should be in important work.
And I have to explain to these people, look, sometimes the low-hanging fruit is just for fun.
Something to have a laugh at, so we can all enjoy this.
So let's just, let's just chill out and check our privilege.
Hi.
Hey.
So a topic that's been coming up a lot recently has been about the death of the character Lexa from the television show The 100.
For those of you who don't know, Lexa was a lesbian who was killed by the means of a stray bullet.
It's been all over different social media sites, it's been on internet press outlets, it's even been popping up in the YouTube comments of our videos.
Wow, this is important, isn't it?
Fictional character killed off in TV show.
Go.
Here's a fun fact, or not so fun fact.
She's actually one of several queer characters who have been killed off this year, and it's only March.
This is gonna absolutely bake your noodle, but this is what you asked for when you said, we want more queer characters in TV shows.
Now you have them, and they're being treated like regular characters, which means they can die.
How many straight cis white men have been killed off in TV shows since the beginning of the year?
Probably thousands.
Asking for equality is you asking for your characters to die just like them.
That's like some new f ⁇ ed up record or something.
Yes, congratulations.
This is the future you chose.
Do I think what happened was messed up?
I bet you don't even watch the show.
I bet you have absolutely no context for what happened.
Absolutely.
Duh, of course you fucking think that.
Do I think it's fair for people to be upset about this fictional death?
Deaths?
You mean these first world problems?
Yeah, I do think it's fair.
Now, a quick disclaimer.
I never watched the show 100.
What a fucking surprise.
You aren't a fan of the show, you don't know why this happened.
You don't know anything about the situation or the characters, but a lesbian was shot.
The show personally never interested me, and...
Oh, what a fucking surprise.
You know what?
I don't watch the show either.
I don't give a fuck what characters in the show die or don't.
Neither do you, so shut up and fuck off.
I don't know about others, but there was a huge red flag from the very start of Klexa.
I stepped away because everything about it came off sketchy from the sweep sweep kiss.
Yeah, but you don't watch it, so you don't really give a fuck.
What's your real reason for being opposed to this?
To the person who created it.
A straight white male writer.
So you're basically saying you don't know anything about this person, but you're going to make judgments about him based on his race and gender.
That makes you a racist and a sexist.
Some of you may be asking, well, what does his race have to do with anything?
To which I say, if you even have to ask me that question, check your privilege.
Okay, I've checked my privilege, but you still haven't answered the question.
You bigot.
If you're white, you were born into privilege.
Like, end a story, that's non-debatable.
If you're straight, you also have privilege.
If you're male, you've got privilege coming out of your ass.
When you're all three of these things in America, you're f ⁇ ing jack on the Titanic with your arms out screaming, I'm the king of the world, but instead of freezing to death and falling to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean, your ass is placed in a lifeboat with Wi-Fi, a TV, and a never-ending supply of food and water.
Oh yeah, that is the perfect analogy for the life experience of every straight white man in America.
You've nailed it.
This is where we're setting off from.
This isn't even debatable.
This is non-negotiable to these people.
When you have someone wrapped up in that warm blanket of privilege right for a community that's freezing their asses off, it's a recipe for disaster.
And it shouldn't be that way.
You don't have to tell me, sister.
Some people were just born wrong.
I like to place straight people into three different categories.
Yeah, I often do the same thing with blacks, gays, and women.
And if you think that's a problem...
First category are the ignorant ones.
Some of us are ignorant and there's nothing wrong with that.
People like to think of the word ignorant with a negative connotation, but formally it just means a lack of knowledge.
And they should probably educate themselves, shouldn't they?
Second category are those of us who are willing to listen and learn.
Believe.
Those of us in the second category use our privilege and our platform to allow those who are screaming with no results to speak with the megaphone.
It's weird that they don't just participate like the rest of us.
Oh wait, you think that society at large is so deeply racist and sexist and homophobic that there are no, what, black people on TV or in music or in politics?
Third category are the dumbasses.
These ones are either blamed with not giving damn or they're sneaky with it and they use the community to get ahead.
The writing team and showrunners who hook an audience and then kill off an LGBT character are the sneaky ones.
Oh yeah, and it's generally because they're straight white men who have a love of seeing LGBT characters murdered because they can't do it themselves in real life.
They've been using the same formula for years.
Hook the audience with a gimmick, showcase the character, gain the die-hard loyal fan base, kill the character or the storyline after getting the desired viewership.
They know the community is thirsty for representation, but more importantly, they know that that community has the ability to launch their show higher in numbers for demo and views.
It's the perfect conspiracy.
But the thing is, one of the selling points of diversity was increased audience numbers.
You fucking offered them this.
Speaking from personal experience, I'd say it's hard to find a fan base that is as loyal as the LGBT community.
I didn't know you were a comedian.
They don't get to see themselves on television a lot.
Oh yeah, no gays or lesbians or transsexuals or anything on TV these days.
Just doesn't happen.
It's just white men from wall to fucking wall.
Now people outside of a minority community, they can't understand this.
They can't grasp what it means to have visibility because they take their representation and their visibility for granted.
Translation, white men are incapable of empathy, and I will tell you this because I know exactly what they think.
I mean, they'll say stupid sh ⁇ like, what?
They're turning her gay?
God, now this whole show is going to be gay.
It's f ⁇ ing gay agenda.
Excuse me, but one lesbian out of your 20 straight characters and all of a sudden the show is gay.
Did you miss the point that you're complaining about so many gay characters being killed off because no one has to actually worry about the diversity quota of gays now because they're everywhere.
In fact, SJWs are trying to make it that gay isn't even an oppression anymore.
I've even seen some people say stuff like, it's just a television show.
Grow the f ⁇ up!
Yeah, because television has never left a major influence or impact on pop culture.
You're right, it's just television.
What are you talking about?
Television is pop culture.
You're talking about items of pop culture right now.
They don't understand.
They can't grasp it.
They can't grasp why representation, visibility is important.
Oh yeah, tell me what I think.
But just want to point out, no one is saying that diversity and inclusion and all this representation isn't important to you.
We're saying you have it.
And that your characters are being treated like every other character as someone who can be shot and be damaged and have a bad time in the story and experience character growth through challenge means that you don't have anything to complain about.
So let me try to help.
Let's set up a scenario here.
We have Johnny and his two mothers.
They're watching TV and they see a straight couple kiss on the television.
Johnny turns to his mom and says, Mom, how come we never see two mommies kiss on TV?
To which the mother has to say, oh no, Johnny, there's somebody just like mommy right there.
Oh, she's dead.
She's dead, but still that she was there.
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah, that happens all the time.
Millions of households across America.
Little Johnny is asking his lesbian mother why we only see straight people kiss on TV.
He's not doing something that doesn't revolve around identity politics.
He's not playing with his transformers.
He's not playing fucking games out in the yard with kids.
He's questioning identity politics on the television.
That's what he does.
This isn't you projecting your concerns onto everyone else or anything like that.
That's not right.
It shouldn't be that way.
Now, a straight person, they replenish.
I mean, we're like f ⁇ ing cockroaches on TV.
You could see us anywhere.
If there was a TV atom bomb, we'd all survive.
Oh yeah, tell me how I think.
Tell me how I replenish.
I mean, I don't watch TV, so I don't need to replenish, because I never see millions of gay people murdered in Home and Away, or whatever it is you're watching with Little Johnny.
And the lesbian would die from a paper cut.
That's how bad it's gotten.
Oh yeah, that sounds really fucking bad.
It's progressively getting worse.
How worse?
How bad is it gonna get?
Just because you have one queer character on the show, you can't use that as like a quota, Phil.
Like, oh, we've got our gay.
She's good.
Until next year, we're gonna kill her.
The conspiracy is real!
I'm telling you!
Straight people just want to kill lesbian characters!
They only have them because they have to!
They only have them because they have to, because they're evil!
By my iodine!
Like, I don't even understand the line of thinking.
Oh, I can tell.
I can tell that you really do not know what the fuck you're talking about here.
You're getting exactly what you wanted, and you hate it.
My point is, those sneaky bastards can't get away with this anymore.
Because of the growth of social media and YouTube and sites just like it, people are now given a platform to be able to drag your ass if you try to pull this kind of sh ⁇ .
And they should.
Oh, yeah.
If you dare write a script that doesn't appeal to her sensibilities or the sensibilities of other people like her, you deserve this.
You had this coming.
Keep on dragging.
They deserve it.
But you don't deserve this kind of treatment.
You deserve better.
What?
Fucking treatment!
These are fictional characters and TV shows, you fruitcake!
You absolute fucking lunatic!
Nobody is being treated!
Even the people you are saying are being treated aren't even fucking real!
My God, this is the future we have chosen, ladies and gentlemen!
These idiots demand representation, and when they get it, they're not happy with it.
Because nothing makes these people happy.
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