Do Not Siege Walled Cities - 295
If You Don't Care Enough, Something Bad Will Happen
HELLO AGAIN NEWSLETTER FAM
I’ve arrived in Tasmania. Destination known. It’s the end of a long journey and I am in my home.
I look forward to learning more about the place, but as it stands it’s about as pretty a setting as I’ve ever lived. Like the PNW but without the homeless encampments.
KEEP YOUR EYES OPEN
Coming soon.
FAVORITE PANEL IN MY INBOX THIS WEEK
I’LL NEED TO KNOW WHAT YOU EXPECTED
It’s a truly bizarre statement. I’ve read a million negative things about this person, but it’s all of the “she’s a TERF!” variety. Which might terrible, but the internet has made it impossible to parse. When that’s the go-to dismissal, it loses punch for the average person trying to make sense of a thing. Whatever. Take it under advisement that ‘good people’ didn’t wanna believe the Gaiman news because it was broken by this individual. A silly, self-serving instinct.
I don’t know this person and frankly don’t care about their ‘goodness.’ I am just curious what anyone ever means by statements like “I never intended to cancel him!”
He’s being accused of rape. It’s about the harshest word in the English language. It cuts through any room and stops most conversations dead. While it has all the same rights violations as murder, many people consider it worse because of the motives associated with it. So when you bring this to light, what else could happen? I mean, I’m asking sincerely, is there any other way this coulda gone?
But it’s typical to hear this when someone is being goaded into suicide by the internet. “I didn’t mean for this to happen!” You chose the target and armed the missiles. Why play dumb now? There’s also the matter of “did he actually do it?” Because if he did or you believe he did, then what are these crocodile tears about? I’m a fan of thorough investigation followed by legal proceedings. But in 2025, I may be in the minority. And most people seem satisfied with mob justice. So, again, who is this “I’m so sorry I set the world upon this rapist” act for, exactly?
I’m gonna make a strained comparison here, and before I do I want it understood that I’m not likening the accused to each other. I’m comparing the motivations of the media personalities who brough the accusations to light. Read that again if you find yourself malfunctioning.
This week I watched a film called Soldier Blue. It’s heavy commentary on the white settlement of west and the breaking of treaties. It’s on-the-nose and unsubtle “who is the real savage?” material that occasionally masquerades as a romcom or road movie.
The film’s title song is by Buffy Sainte-Marie. She’s a figure I had to scour my memory to find any vague impression of. She was on Sesame Street, but before my time. She’s most relevant to me for co-writing ‘Up Where We Belong’ the Joe Cocker and Jennifer Warnes track that dominated soft-rock radio for decades.
Sainte-Marie is an American Indian. It’s central to her creative life and identity. She’s was a pioneer in bringing indigenous representation to mainstream media. She represented a type of culturally-tethered but modern woman that television and radio just did not otherwise get much of. She was an active part of her community. Is/was a member of the Piapot First Nation.
And then overnight, she wasn’t an American Indian. A CBC reporter dug into Sainte-Marie’s life in 2023, when she was 81, with the intention of exposing her. There had been allegations in the past, even from her own family, but that was before the permanence and hysteria of the internet.
Sainte-Marie’s story is murky. Her DNA is clear. She is not American Indian. But that doesn’t mean she was lying for six decades, necessarily. Many Americans of European ancestry have an ‘Indian story’ in their family history. My grandfather was allegedly Blackfoot. 23 And Me says differently. Common phenomenon.
It’s unclear if Sainte-Marie latched onto a story about her family origins for profit, because she’s mentally ill, or because it sincerely made sense to her. But, she did. And she lived it. During her career she sang many songs about the history and contemporary lives of indigenous people. So even a Ditko-esque truth-at-all-cost ideologue like myself has to ask, “what was gained by ‘exposing’ Sainte-Marie?”
Is her work on behalf of American Indians worth less than it was three years ago? Is any impact she may’ve had somehow less real?
But that’s dorm room talk. The real question is: why?
Why did a CBC reporter think this was news? Because it’s true? It is a true statement that I enjoy foot massages. It is not news. So, what exactly called a reporter to burrow into this woman’s life like a tick?
Because, while decidedly not news, it is ragebait of a stripe. Schadenfreude. The thrill of watching a do-gooder brought low. “You thought you could lecture people on how Indians should be treated? Jokes on you, lying bitch.” It’s predicated on the idea that anyone who is doing something good is doing so to obscure their own evil.
I tell this story because while I don’t give a shit about fake indians and do give a shit about rape allegations, it’s my belief that the reporters have like-motivations for their stories. They are exploiting you. They are functionaries tasked with a simple job: answer to their bosses. They are Tommy Lee Jones as the perfect civil servant in The Fugitive.
The fugitive declares, “I didn’t murder my wife.”
“I don’t care,” responds the US Marshal pursuing him.
The person who ‘cancelled’ Neil Gaiman doesn’t care that/if he raped multiple women. That person just wants you to click or listen. They answer to someone, even if it’s just the bank holding their mortgage. Just like the reporter that ‘brought down’ Sainte-Marie. They are exploiting your need to feel superior to someone. And they are betting on the fact that you didn’t like being lectured. Some part of you always suspected that the false-profundity of Gaiman was a smokescreen. The tweets about believing women were too pat. Too convenient. You knew.
I think you should find this whole thing repellent. If the reporter is motivated by pleasing her bosses, and the bosses are motivated by commercial growth, then what is the moral core of this undertaking? The fact that a few hundred thousand people will pay attention-dollars for the privilege of watching a public figure dismantled is not an answer. If Gaiman is a rapist, that demands the attention of a criminal court. And, unless we’re tapped as jurors, that’s the end of our involvement.
MEDIA CONSUMPTION
Solider Blue is not expertly made and the message, to anyone in 2025, feels obvious. It is, in fact, not a good thing to see yourself as the good guy while you align yourself with butchers. Got it. But in the context of its time, one in which people still enjoyed westerns without examination, it has some bite.
And, more importantly for Patrick the movie viewer: I was never bored. The movie was brutal by the end and pulled no punches, but the journey to it was practically a road movie. Candice Bergen was middle-aged by the time I became familiar with her and watching her in this was a bit destabilizing! I guess I assumed she was born old. Recommended.
I’d been chipping away at what’s considered a classic point-and-click adventure, Broken Sword: Shadow of the Templars, and can now say I’ve finished it.
It’s very breezy. The tone is one that I think many pieces of media attempt in 2025, but nobody ever nails. Almost sitcom adjacent. The story is fun and the characters are likable. The setting (mostly Paris) is ideal for lightly comedic moments. The puzzles vary from easy to arcane, but that seems to be the way adventure games do things. One vindictive developer and one softy were assigned to every point-and-click game of the 90s. I had fun with it. Recommended.
Speaking of light tones, The Inspector Wears Skirts is as weightless as action movies get.
It’s more Police Academy than Naked Killer. Not sure I can give this one a full-throated recommend, but I did find it funny that the ‘ugly’ member of the squad who is frequently the butt of fat jokes, was neither ugly nor fat. Soft recommend.
FROM THE DESIGN FOLDER
Why aren’t more comic book covers bordered by figures the way this poster is? Works for more than just cowboy girls.
THANK YOU FOR YOUR TIME
End of newsletter. Next one may come fast on the heels of this late drop. GEHENNA: NAKED AGGRESSION has been solicited. I’ve got one more small matter to work out with Image and I think you can expect me to pump that thing nonstop in these newsletters. Maurizio, Marco, Matteo and I are very proud. Prolly Jim Campbell too, but I haven’t talked to him about it so I don’t wanna speak for him. It’s just the most fun a book can get, and it makes me happy to be part of that. Have a good one. Do for self.
The article about breaking the Gaiman story is insane to me. They aren't even subtle in their attempt to feign plausible deniability while also trying to sell me something, making sure to include, "I hope everyone listens to the podcast." with a link at the end. They got what they wanted. Find another profession if you can't handle the sting of accountability. If they actually felt remorse for trying to incite the most knee jerk reaction out of as many people as possible with a headline, this isn't what it would look like.