Yesterday, VICE published a piece calling out Quebec for unrolling the strictest proposed cannabis regulations in the country thus far.

To recap: Quebec is only opening 15 government-run dispensaries next year, is banning growing weed at home, and will implement a zero-tolerance policy for drivers who test positive for THC, despite the fact that reliable tests don’t exist yet.

A recent Télévision de Radio-Canada interview with Quebec’s Minister for Rehabilitation, Youth Protection, and Public Health Lucie Charlebois provides some clarity on what the province was thinking—and it’s not comforting.

As first reported by Lift News, Charlebois told Tout Le Monde En Parle that black market weed is contaminated with fentanyl, which is in part why the government opted to take privatization off the table.

“Those who sell on the illegal market care very little about the health of their consumers and about the quality of their product,” she said. “There are even people who told me that they (illegal sellers) had already started to incorporate fentanyl into cannabis. It's really disturbing. I think people want a crown corporation that does not rely on profit, which is why they asked us not to go private.”

There is no evidence anywhere that suggest weed is being laced with fentanyl. It’s an idea that former federal Health Minister Jane Philpott has strongly debunked.

“I don’t know why this persists,” said Rebecca Haines-Saah, a public health policy expert and professor at the University of Calgary told VICE. “I think it’s creating a public health crisis where there is not.”

Haines-Saah pointed to a recent CBC report on drug seizures in Canada for the past five years. The data showed there was no fentanyl present in any weed samples tested over that time period.

When asked why people can make their own wine but won’t be allowed to grow weed Charlebois said she was concerned about the possibility of children—specifically her own grandkids—being able to eat cannabis plants.

“I do not grow cannabis, but my neighbour grows it. If my grandchildren go to my neighbour's house and inadvertently get into the marijuana plants and eat them, that's not good,” she said. She also noted that four plants at home could keep two people “stoned 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.”

Where do we even start?

First off, politicians shouldn’t be making policies based on fears about their own family members. Secondly, this sounds like a solution for a problem that doesn’t exist. Where are all the reports of kids eating dried marijuana? We’re not talking about brownies and gummies here, we’re talking about a plant. Poisonous berries are probably a bigger concern.

Even if, for some reason, a kid decided to eat “raw” cannabis, it’s not a drug that kills people. (It likely wouldn’t even get you high.)

“It’s kinda ridiculous to think parents are just going to have plants openly accessible to kids,” said Haines-Saah, adding a far bigger concern for teenagers is the access they may have to prescription opioids in their parents’ medicine chests.

Charlebois’ office told VICE the minister is not available for comment. But she isn’t the only Canadian politician perpetuating reefer madness.

Federal Liberal Health Minister Ginette Petitpas Taylor recently equated driving drunk with driving stoned.

In an interview with CBC, Taylor said, “Many kids sometimes will think that if they consume cannabis, they can drive and it’s not as bad as impaired driving, when we recognize that it’s certainly just as harmful.”

It’s not.

Research out of US has shown that drunk driving is far more dangerous than driving stoned.

(It also goes without saying that consuming cannabis while drinking will significantly increase impairment.)

Let’s finish this off with a shout out to Conservative Senator Denise Batters of Saskatchewan who tweeted a Regina Leader-Post article that said "concern is growing about a little-known provision wrapped into the bill that would allow kids as young as 12 to legally possess pot.” She added the hashtag #DoesntProtectKids.

Both the tweet and the article seem to conflate decriminalization and legalization. It will remain illegal for kids and teens to buy pot, and for anyone to sell it to them. But the government is saying being caught with up to five grams of weed will not result in criminal charges—an attempt to keep kids and teens out of the criminal justice system.

It’s too bad that being a square seems to be a prerequisite for going into government, because we could use leadership from people who know what they’re talking about.

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When former pimp, failed musician, and murderous cult leader Charles Manson died Sunday at 83, he left behind a massive stamp on American pop culture. After all, besides launching an acid-fueled cult of teenage runaways who savagely killed nine people and fueled national panic over an allegedly gruesome counterculture, he also helped inspire Marilyn Manson and, before the killings that made him notorious, even laid the groundwork for a Beach Boys track.

But his enduring status as an outsider icon tends to overlook the fact that Manson was a virulent racist—and the murders he orchestrated were fueled by the delusion that African-Americans were plotting race war in hopes of enslaving all white people. That delusion is not completely absent from politics today. Manson's insistence that social unrest in the black community was a threat to his followers' safety has echoes in contemporary American life, where race-baiting can help get you elected president and the White House openly stokes white nationalism.

“If Charles Manson were alive and literate, he would be writing for Breitbart,” said Jeff Guinn, author of one of the more definitive biographies of the killer, Manson: The Life and Times of Charles Manson. “Like all good demagogues, he knew how to prey on fear, to take something that’s a genuine concern and exaggerate the threat to create a panic.”

Rather than some kind of cultural innovator, then, the cult leader's strategy is best understood as building on an already-rich national tradition of convincing people that those who look, talk, or pray differently were a violent threat.

“This kind of racial paranoia is an effective tool for controlling and containing people,” said Katrina Bell McDonald, associate professor of sociology at Johns Hopkins University. “We saw this with Asians during World War Two, with African-Americans during Jim Crow, and we’re seeing that with Hispanics and immigration today.”

In the late 1960s, there were no shortage of powerful men using this tactic to arouse fear and outrage toward the black community. Riots and the emergence of armed black radicals dominated the evening news, fueling the “law and order” and “segregation forever” campaigns of Richard Nixon and George Wallace, respectively. The Manson Family amounted to a strange microcosm of this racial tension in America, guided by the primal fear and hatred of African Americans instilled in their abused and angry leader.

“Manson had an ingrained, redneck hatred of black people,” Guinn told me. “He is first around black people in prison, where he is instantly intimidated by the Islamic brotherhood. When he gets out of prison, he goes to Berkeley, California, where the Black Panthers scare the crap out of him. So when he gets his young followers—these gawky little white kids strung out on drugs—he starts telling them about the coming race war, black against whites, the blacks are gonna rise up and massacre the whites. And when the war starts Charlie is going to take his followers out into the desert to hide them.”

In addition to fueling racial paranoia, Manson used isolation, cultural appropriation, religious fever, and generous amounts of LSD to mold his followers. As is well known, he convinced them that The Beatles' White Album was written as a message containing the prophecy of race war. He explained how they would all hide until the whole thing blew over—and then emerge and rule the world.

As Guinn writes in Manson:

The women in particular were reminded that if they remained loyal, while they were down in the pit living in a wonderful underground city, they could change into any creature they wished. Several wanted to become winged elves, and Charlie promised that, when the moment was especially near, they’d begin to feel budding wings growing on their backs.

As batshit crazy as this may sound, Manson provided meticulous details outlining the connection between himself, the White Album, and the Book of Revelation, helping refute claims of gaping holes in his obscene logic.

“Charles Manson wasn’t crazy—he was calculating, and that’s the scariest thing about him,” Guinn said.

The murders of Sharon Tate—who was eight-months pregnant—and several others on August 9 and 10, 1969, represented an attempt by Manson to frame black militants, spark retaliation among whites, and thereby bring about the race war he’d dubbed “Helter Skelter.” His followers drew paw prints and the words “death to the pigs” on the wall in blood, apparently hoping the media would make the connection to groups like the Black Panthers.

Spoiler alert: Manson’s vision of a race war and the promise of an underground utopia of winged elves one day returning to rule the world never quite panned out. He and several of his followers who actually carried out the gruesome killings were arrested and convicted on various counts of murder. Yet many of his adherents continued to support and obey him during and after his trial—long after his old prophecies had lapsed and new ones were promised. One of the youngest of the Manson Family, Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme, even attempted to assassinate President Gerald Ford in 1975 in her pursuit of Manson’s approval.

Meanwhile, the conservative movement has recently descended into a cesspool of sometimes violent white nationalism that includes armed militia offshoots who wait fervently for some kind of post-apocalyptic wonderland.

“There’s always the promise of a reward at the end of all of this,” said McDonald, adding, "You get people to fixate on some end-point when they’re going to win something, that white people are going to win a better life. And it works, even if the promise never materializes. With Manson it never materialized, but people were holding out for some end of the rainbow.”

Guinn has made a career of studying dangerous cult leaders, and while he does not mourn the death of Charles Manson, he does hope renewed interest in the man’s manipulative tactics could lead to a greater understanding of how demagogues operate—and how to combat them.

“The things I learned writing this book... scare the hell out of me in today’s America,” he told me. “Any time you hear people say ‘we need to protect our traditional way of life,’ or, 'They’re taking things that belong to you and giving them to people who don’t deserve it, but I am here to protect you, I am the only one who can solve this problem,’ that ought to run up a red flag."

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The head of Wilfrid Laurier University officially apologized to a teaching assistant for a meeting in which she was berated for playing a video clip of controversial professor Jordan Peterson in a classroom.

The brouhaha all started when Lindsay Shepherd, a graduate student at the university, played a clip from TVO’s The Agenda with Peterson, a U of T professor, debating against the use of gender-neutral pronouns—the subject that has garnered him significant fame and criticism globally. Shepherd played the video for a class of first-year communications students.

Shepherd, the teaching assistant, was told by university officials that by showing the clip—which had been aired on public television—that she was creating a “toxic environment” for her students. The professor that conducted the meeting, Dr. Nathan Rambukkana, indicated that might have broken the law and, at one point, said the clip “is like neutrally playing a speech by Hitler.”

Shepherd secretly recorded the meeting and released it to media several days ago which led to the incident becoming talking point regarding freedom of speech on post-secondary campuses. Many high-profile academic personalities, including Peterson, came to the defence of Shepherd and criticized Laurier for censorship.

In the letter of apology, which was posted on the Wilfrid Laurier website, the university's president and vice-chancellor, Deborah MacLatchy, said that she was first able to listen to the meeting through “the media.”

“After listening to this recording, an apology is in order,” reads the open letter. “The conversation I heard does not reflect the values and practices to which Laurier aspires. I am sorry it occurred in the way that it did and I regret the impact it had on Lindsay Shepherd.”

Rambukkana also posted a lengthy open letter of apology to the university's website, in which he said, “everything that has happened since the meeting has given me occasion to rethink not only my approach to discussing the concerns that day, but many of the things I said in our meeting as well.”

“I should have seen how meeting with a panel of three people would be an intimidating situation and not invite a productive discussion,” reads Rambukkana’s letter. “Had I tried harder to create a situation more conducive to talking these issues through, things might have gone very differently, but alas I did not.”

Rambukkana also directly apologized for likening the playing of the debate to Hitler. In response to the public apologies Shepherd took to a Twitter account she made specifically to address to public about the incident.

“Moral of the story: A university must be repeatedly publicly shamed, internationally, in order to apologize (oh, but keep the task force & investigation),” Shepherd tweeted. “Even then, ambiguous about free speech. Also, make sure to secretly record all meetings or they won't take you seriously.”

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Researchers agree friendships are the key to long-term emotional and physical health. But while there’s plenty of concern and conversation around romantic heartache, no one really talks about how devastating friendship breakups are. The feelings of loss and abandonment are just as real as any romantic breakup.

And while there are lots of avenues to find new romantic partners as we age (seriously, pick any website or app to meet someone new), replacing a treasured best friend isn’t as easy once you leave your college dorm room. It’s hard enough to juggle work and family responsibilities, much less find the spare time to nourish lasting, fulfilling friendships.

It can be confusing to know what to do when a friend cuts you out of their life. Aside from dealing with your own pain and confusion, there’s the added stress of not knowing how to talk about the rift with mutual friends. We spoke to therapists, relationship experts, and media personalities to see what advice they can give us about how to handle a friendship breakup with dignity. Answers have been edited for length and clarity.

Initiate Conversation

Try to take a breath before responding (or choosing not to respond). Often, when a friend does this, our immediate reaction is hurt and anger. We may get defensive and lash out and do something to make things worse. So don't make any rash decisions. But remind yourself that you have the right to be treated well in a relationship, and that if someone can't do that, it doesn't make sense for you to keep trying to make it happen. Also keep in mind that a friendship doesn't have to last forever in order for it to have had meaning and for you to have grown from it. If you do decide to make contact, keep it respectful and clear, like, "I know I don't hear much from you lately. I hope it is not due to something I did; I trust that you will tell me if so. If you are just going in a different direction these days, and though I miss you, I understand and wish you the best."—Andrea Bonior, PhD, licensed clinical psychologist and author of The Friendship Fix

Allow Yourself to Mourn

You might find yourself going through the stages of grief, which is common after any type of loss including a friend breakup. Don't isolate yourself or pull away from other people in your life. Be mindful of numbing your emotions with TV, food, alcohol, or partying it away. Find healthy, constructive outlets for your energy and emotions—journaling, yoga, etc. —Melody Wilding, LMSW, coach, and human behaviour expert

Letting Go, Moving On

Often relationships end because of something to do with the other person, not us. Yet it's hard not to have your mind race with all the possible reasons that would make it our fault. Not knowing the reason why is hard to accept, but we must since we usually never find out. This leaves us with the choice of either torturing ourselves seeking answers we'll never get, or letting it go and moving on. —Kurt Smith, PsyD, clinical director, Guy Stuff Counseling and Coaching

Focus Your Energy Elsewhere

Think about who you aspire to be, and try to befriend people who are already like that. Focus on being more conscious about choosing good potential friends. Sometimes we're so busy stewing about someone, fighting with her in our heads, that we forget to reach out to our loyal friends who've been there all along. As for your ex-friend, perhaps you had to give her up to grow and move forward. Whether or not it was against your will, you'll be mourning the part of you she brought out. —Carlin Fior, Author of Friendfluence: The Surprising Ways Friends Make Us Who We Are

Acceptance

Try to remember that if a close friendship ends, it may have been for the right reasons. All relationships need to be reciprocal, and if you both weren't getting your needs met equally, your friendship may have run its course. Whether expectations were too high, values and lifestyles changed, old habits continued to cause pain; you both deserve to have a friendship that feels safe. Once you can go through these emotions naturally, you may find you end at acceptance. The loss becomes easier to experience, even though you may always miss them. Try to use this loss as an opportunity to learn to better yourself and future relationships. —Alysha Jeney, relationship expert and therapist, owner of Modern Love Counseling, and co-founder of the Modern Love Box

Keep Perspective

Friendship breakups are natural, and––now that I've lived in one city for ten years––I can tell you that friends come back to you; you grow up and sometimes feel like reconnecting if not just to say sorry, just to say, "Hey, I hope we're cool." That old quote, "Friends are in your life for a reason, a season, or a lifetime," is the most true thing. Not everyone will be there for a lifetime. It's an unreal expectation. Instead, hang tight to the memories, lessons, and growing experiences you lived through because of this person. —Molly McAleer, writer, co-founder of Hello Giggles, and host of the podcasts Plz Advise, Emotionally Broken Psychos, and Mother, May I Sleep with Podcast?

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This story was published in partnership with the Marshall Project.

In April 2015, Ashley Sprague was making $2.13 an hour plus tips as a waitress at Waffle House when she was pulled over for speeding in a small city near her home outside Nashville. The speeding ticket, plus another citation for failure to have proof of insurance, totaled $477.50, a sum that might as well have been a million dollars. Over the course of the next 13 months, she was cited twice more for administrative infractions, including—she was surprised to discover—driving on a suspended license.

Tennessee is one of 43 states, plus the District of Columbia, that suspends driver's licenses for people with unpaid court debt, according a recent report by the Legal Aid Justice Center, a Virginia-based organization that filed a lawsuit there challenging the practice. Although Tennessee says it gives drivers 30 days notice before suspending a license, Sprague and her lawyers say she was not told about her suspension and the state does not notify people in every case. Only four states require a hearing beforehand to determine whether the failure to pay is willful or simply a reflection of poverty, the report found. Almost a million people in Virginia and 150,000 in Tennessee currently have their licenses suspended for failure to pay, according to documents filed in lawsuits there.

The lawsuits in Virginia and Tennessee are part of a nascent trend around the country: Lawmakers are beginning to reconsider the practice, and lawsuits in at least five states are challenging it. They argue that suspending driver's licenses for unpaid court debt traps poor people in an unfair and counterproductive cycle: If they can’t drive, they can’t work; if they can’t work, they can’t pay; if they can’t pay, they can’t drive.

Sprague and others made this argument in a class action suit filed this fall, and in a preliminary ruling last month in Nashville, US district judge Aleta Trauger agreed. She ordered the state to reinstate the licenses of Sprague and a co-plaintiff, Fred Robinson, writing that “no person can be threatened or coerced into paying money that she does not have and cannot get.”

In court filings, the state of Tennessee argued that a license is a privilege and not a right, and that the state “has a compelling public interest in promoting public safety by enforcing its traffic laws and keeping serial violators off the road.”

In addition to the ones in Virginia and Tennessee, similar lawsuits are pending in California, Michigan, and Montana.

At least three states plus the District of Columbia are reconsidering the practice.

Lawmakers in California this summer passed a bill ending driver's license suspensions for unpaid court debt. Instead, courts can arrange a payment plan, a reduced payment, or community service for those who cannot afford to pay but can no longer suspend driver's licenses for failure to pay. A package of bills has been introduced in the Michigan legislature that would help those with unpaid traffic debt to get their licenses back.

This year the Mississippi attorney general’s office reached an agreement with local advocacy groups to end the practice, according to Sam Brooke, a lawyer at the Southern Poverty Law Center who participated in the meetings. The attorney general’s office declined to comment, referring questions to the Department of Public Safety. A spokesman there did not return phone calls or email messages.

The mayor’s office in Washington this month started a pilot program to allow district residents returning home from prison with unpaid traffic debt to have their licenses reinstated, noting that this is a vulnerable time when the mobility to look for work and attend appointments is crucial. “The No. 1 reason for recently released men and women being re-incarcerated… is for driving without a valid license, which also can lead to additional charges for failing to stop and other related crimes,” Susana Castillo, a spokeswoman for Mayor Muriel Bowser, said in an email.

The Washington program provides for those returning home from prison to defer payment for up to a year while they look for work, or to pay a significantly reduced amount up front, according to the mayor’s office.

The lawsuits tell the stories of people jailed for driving after having had their licenses suspended for failure to pay court debt—a situation that critics liken to debtors’ prison. Robert Taylor is a plaintiff in the Virginia case who was earning $9.62 per hour working for T-Mobile and was pulled over for running a red light. This set off a cycle of debt, license suspensions, and new convictions for driving with a suspended license that landed him in jail for 20 days last year. He still owes more than $4,000 in court debt.

“When you are faced with the uncertainty of potentially being pulled over and being incarcerated versus the certainty of losing your job and not being able to provide for your family, most people would choose to drive, and that’s what most people choose,” says Angela Ciolfi, a lawyer representing Taylor and the other plaintiffs in the Virginia suit. “We don’t live in a society where most people can rely on public transportation and work and shop and meet their basic needs without driving.”

Most of the movement on this issue began in the last two years, sparked by a Department of Justice investigation into the predatory practices of the Ferguson, Missouri, municipal court. The report, issued in 2015, found that the local police and court system were run with an eye toward maximizing revenue, often on the backs of those who could least afford it. “Ferguson made it part of the national debate—the way states coerce people into paying and deprive them of their livelihood,” says Ciolfi.

As for Ashley Sprague, facing $946 in traffic debt and $388 in reinstatement fees, she had no hope of getting her license back until the judge’s October ruling. She had lost her job when a colleague who had been giving her a ride could no longer do so. Now she is back waiting tables at Waffle House and has plans to start nursing school in Nashville this spring—a 30-mile trip that would have been impossible without a car. Having her license back means being able to get a job to provide for her children who have been living with relatives, Sprague says, because she could not afford to care for them. “To be able to save up money so I can have them back."

A version of this article was originally published by the Marshall Project, a nonprofit news organization that covers the US criminal justice system. Sign up for the newsletter, or follow the Marshall Project on Facebook or Twitter.

On Tuesday, VICELAND is airing the season finale of CYBERWAR, sending Ben Makuch to Mexico to investigate the government's potentially fraught use of hacking tools. Mexican authorities purchased spyware for their fight against drug cartels—but now a spate of watchdog journalists covering government corruption have detected the invasive software on their smartphones.

CYBERWAR airs Tuesdays at 10 PM on VICELAND. Find out how to tune in here.

John Lasseter, the chief creative officer of Pixar and Walt Disney Animation, is stepping away from his role for six months after apologizing for "missteps" he made at the studios, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

He announced the decision Tuesday just before THR published an exposé on his alleged sexual misconduct in the workplace. A source at Pixar told THR Lasseter had a habit of "grabbing, kissing," and "making comments about physical attributes” to employees and others in the entertainment industry. Variety described Lasseter as a "prolific hugger," a habit he apologized for in a memo to his staff.

"It’s been brought to my attention that I have made some of you feel disrespected or uncomfortable. That was never my intent," he wrote in the memo. "I deeply apologize if I have let you down. I especially want to apologize to anyone who has ever been on the receiving end of an unwanted hug or any other gesture they felt crossed the line in any way, shape, or form."

According to THR, female employees at Pixar were allegedly forced to avoid unwanted kisses from the CCO, and had a specific gesture—coined "the Lasseter"—used to prevent him from putting his hands on their legs. He has also been accused of embracing employees at company meetings in a way that made them feel uncomfortable.

"You’d hug him and he’s whisper in your ear, a long time,” a source told THR. “He hugged and hugged and everyone’s looking at you. Just invading the space.”

Lasseter is a scion at Pixar and Disney, where he's known as the brains behind hits like the Toy Story franchise, Frozen, and Wall-E. He was co-directing Toy Story 4 until July, when he stepped away from the project, leaving Josh Cooley in place as the sole director. Pixar tapped Rashida Jones to help write the film's script, and—though she's still credited—she left the project early on after allegedly being subjected to one of Lasseter's unwanted advances, according to THR.

In a statement to Variety, Disney said it appreciated "John’s candor and sincere apology" and would "fully support his sabbatical.” According to the memo Lasseter sent employees, he plans to come back to the company in 2018.

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If you don’t already know, Zinzi Clemmons, writer for Lena Dunham’s feminist newsletter, announced her resignation on Sunday shortly after Dunham defended fellow Girls writer-producer, Murray Miller, who actress Aurora Perrineau accused of rape. Clemmons went on to claim that “she ran in the same circles in college” as Dunham. “Back in college, these people like the plague because of their well-known racism, I’d call their strain ‘hipster racism,’” she wrote.

In the colourblind-ish, post-racial, white tears era, I know the strain intimately. They’re the apologists and the #alllivesmatter hashtag busters before the storm. The sort that Kanye and Drake stan their way into the culture while getting eight syllabled brews from Starbucks. They’re the completely non-racist of all racists. They’ll often murmur their non-racial tendencies to themselves at night after their all-white crew joked about the use of the N-word: how it’s completely cool, because it’s supposedly so ironic; fuck that My Nigga, YG censorship, they’ll say. And of course, they have a black friend, me—the ultimate key to the racially sensitive mint that excuses it all.

This is the hipster racist Clemmons speaks of, and I’ll speak for the majority of black folks in saying that we dislike you almost more than the hick that brandishes “nigga” like a sword. But hey, if you’re not sure if you fit the mold, here’s how to know if you’re a hipster racist.

You have a ‘black friend’

I’ve been that black friend, many times, and as a hipster racist, you’ll need one too. At times, our roles can be that of the teacher. You can ask us the most ignorant-ass questions you’d never ask a stranger. It’s our role. Universally answerable questions can now be answered like, do ya’ll really love chicken and watermelon that much? To which I’ll tiredly direct you to a Dave Chappelle joke. You should do uncharacteristically foolish things like fist bump your black friend, or reply with an “aight” when you damn well know, but still ignore the fact, that you don’t usually say “aight.” And use my name like a shield every time you say some “unintentionally” racist thing. Of course, you can expect the black friend like me to pat you on the head, and repeat the words, you’re not racist, you’re my friend until you can sleep at night . And like a test-tubed black man, racist jokes in our vicinity always are free for experimentation. Just give us the side eye, and at the moment of protest scream, “I’m just joking!”

You play devil’s advocate

If you’re white, the words, “To play devil’s advocate…” may have come up; and it means you’re already on your way. Maybe it was around a discussion regarding black lives, Colin Kaepernick, or white supremacy, maybe you didn’t even say the words but hid it behind an opinion piece: "Not saying I agree with this, but check out this link here, some good points, maybe?" Just know that what you did was dangerous, and borderline grimey. It’s always good to reduce racism to a political disagreement. One that has a completely unreasonable solution for one side. You’re already being disingenuous from the moment you tried to justify your logic over black safety. So go all out with the mental gymnastics that tiptoes and reduces white-supremacy and issues like it, to a bullshit experiment of exchange. Be as Megyn Kelly as you can be.

You’re colourblind

Everyone already looks white to you, because colour absent colour is clearly white; plain, boring, drama-less, spice-less. Yours is a super power indeed; to not see colour to is to be immune to the silliness of that thing called racism that no longer exists. You’re already better than the nation that housed you. Your mantra, “I don’t see race!” defuses accusations, and even in your silence, we hear it. So fuck all that systematic racist shit, all that #blacklivesmatter shit. Ignore the real issues in your very bland world of conflict-less/every body is the same-ness, because if you just ignore it, the “kumbaya’ will come.

Appropriate, appropriate

Oh you’re real comfortable right now. You’ve spotted that old dance, old food, and old hair and made it all brand new. You gentrified the hell out of that shit, and removed the stink of culture to make it user friendly for the white you. Cozying up to the word “nigga” is a past-time to you, so bootlegging your blackness, brownness, Asian-ness, or Indigenous-ness from from the online store of, One Race Fits All seems fitting. Take a cue from Kylie Jenner here; and blacken your look by stealing from black-run boutiques like PluggedNYC. Borrow, take and remove. Come to the cookout without the invitation, grab a plate without asking and put your own spin on that bitch while you’re at it. Because there’s nothing wrong with stealing cultures; kinda like there was nothing wrong destroying them.

You talk about white people as if you aren't white

You’re at the peak. You’re basically black on the inside. You’re free to call the oppressor a piece of a shit because you’re too cool to “be” the oppressor. Practice saying “ugh, white men,” while ignoring you are a white man. Intellectually, you’re above the systems that benefit the sort that protest for white rights. And in this space, you can freely confuse causes meant to benefit people of colour, while promoting the bullshit you really care about (all white feminism, animal rights, or gorillas named Harambe). You can have your cake of allyship and eat it too. And there’s nothing more hipster racist then some good ol’ pretend allyship.

Via. Wikipedia Commons

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Growing up, I spent every holiday down in southern Virginia with my mother’s family. Christmases, Thanksgivings, Fourths of July—all were commemorated by weekends of parties, dinners, and barbecues that were attended by every member of my extended family from first cousins to my great aunt’s weird third husband. It being the South, there were predictably some people who hated Bill Clinton and the Democrats, and some who loved him. But it was the holidays, we all loved each other (some more than others), and we put these differences aside to see our family and friends.

In the era of Trump, Breitbart, and the MAGA set, it seems as if familial cordiality is becoming a thing of the past for many. America has always been ruled by political tribalism to some degree or another, but the divisions have been kicked up to 11 since the 2016 election, with no signs of being cranked down anytime soon.

The evidence of this is (of course) on social media. On Tuesday, popular pro-Trump Twitter account @Education4Libs tweeted out, “I just saved a bunch of money on Christmas presents by sharing my political views on Facebook,” a sentiment that subsequently went viral, with more than 2,700 retweets. Obviously the original post was meant to be (at least partially) satirical, but as beloved cool guy of online @RandyGDub pointed out, it precipitated thousands of replies from @Education4Libs’s fellow Trumpers, many of whom seemed gleeful that their breathless support of America’s big wet leader has alienated them from their loved ones:

There are a surprising amount of replies like this, most of them incredibly sad. Political tribalism (particularly the “worth it to own the libs” brand of tribalism) has become so ingrained in our psyches that it seems normal to purposefully start fights with loved ones out of a misplaced allegiance to a deluded and vicious game show host who wouldn’t piss on his supporters if they were on fire.

Trickle-down economics may be a big pile of Reagan-era bullshit, but trickle-down Trumpism seems to be a startlingly real factor behind this rise in manic tribalist behaviour. Trump’s identity, and his style of governance, is based on highly polarized divisiveness and outspoken feuding. In just the past few weeks, he has started extremely public fights with everyone from NFL player Marshawn Lynch to basketball dad LaVar Ball to North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un. The unifying factor in the Trump attacks is a complete scorched-earth strategy: The NFL should enforce his suggestions or face total boycott. Ball should be thanking Trump on both knees for keeping his son out of Chinese prison. There is no room for nuance or compromise or even just not talking politics—either you’re with Trump, or fuck you. And now his supporters are bringing this philosophy into their own lives.

Now, to say this is entirely a result of Trump would be a lie—right-wing and conservative outlets have been pushing this strategy for a long time, and moguls like Rupert Murdoch and his crony Roger Ailes deserve more blame than most. But Trump inarguably accelerated this divide at a rate unseen before in our politics—a divide that seems increasingly difficult to bridge. How do you build a productive dialogue when people seem willing to throw anything they hold dear under the bus—friends, family, career—for President Big Boy?

During the campaign, Trump said, "I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn't lose voters." I used to think that statement was hyperbolic, but it seems more and more likely to be true. Fuck, he might just do it to prove himself right. (I can hear him now telling Steve Doucey he’s never even been on Fifth Avenue.) I never had many Trump-supporting friends on Facebook to begin with, but the few I did have spent the last year systemically antagonizing everyone they knew, almost challenging them to sever ties. By way of a fun example, here is the kid who sold a bunch of my friends pot in high school:

Imagine trying to have this kid (now an adult, despite the nature of the above post) to Thanksgiving dinner. How do you engage with someone who doesn’t just not care if their aggressive political stances upset you, but wants you to get upset—someone for whom “this makes people upset” is actually the whole reason to have that stance in the first place?

Conservatives are of course not the only guilty parties here —many on the left have consciously uncoupled from relatives and friends following the election of America’s Special Guy. (I personally cut ties with an old coworker who sent me a bunch of racist stuff on election night as a way to gloat.) But the gleeful attitude of some of these Trump supporters is still a hell of a thing to see. It’s supposed to be sad when we can’t bring ourselves to sit down to a meal with people we disagree with. Politics isn’t supposed to be this toxic.

So what is the way forward? How do we bring disciples of such a deluded school of thought back to the table (both literally and figuratively)? To be completely honest, I have no idea. My sincere hope is that this represents some kind of fugue state that has overtaken American society—the type of collective sadistic psychosis that could drive otherwise sane people to burn all of their most important bridges for no personal gain. Or maybe this is just what conservatism has become. I don’t know. I just want to eat dinner.

K.T. Nelson tweets as Krang.

It’s a story as old as time. Guy meets girl, girl falls under the spell of the guy’s oafish jokes, they hang out, they make out, and then the guy says something like, “Wait, I’ll get something.” And the girl thinks he’s kindly looking for a condom so he keeps all his transmissible diseases to himself, but suddenly he reappears with a cornbrator and whispers, “Can I put this in your ass?”

This is what experts call a "turn off." And it’s what Meatloaf means when he sang: I’d do anything for love, but I just won’t do that. So to find out what members of the general public won’t do, or where they draw the line, we asked around Melbourne.

Claire, 21
Works in Hospitality

VICE: Hey Claire, what makes you lose your hard on?
Claire: Homophobia. Being queer is hard, but being homophobic is not. Homophobia is so common. Not accepting people for who they are breaks my heart and makes me lose my hard on as well.

Well, the good news is the county seems slightly less homophobic right now. Are you happy about the "Yes" vote result?
Yeah, it’s a very special moment and maybe the most important for queer people in Australia. I’m very excited.

Like, turned on?
Maybe.

I’m not homophobic. Like, at all. Do I turn you on?
Yes, definitely.

Cool.

Chris, 26
Works for an Unnamed Swedish Design Agency

Het Chris, what makes you lose your hard on?
Circumcised dicks. There’s no flavour and nothing to eat. Plus, it’s genital mutilation. You really think a two-day-old baby has the choice? Like they had an opportunity to say, “Mummy, mummy, don’t cut my foreskin from my dick”? No, they did not.

It’s more hygienic though.
I agree, but I prefer natural dicks.

Did you ever have to deal with a circumcised dick?
Yes, a few times. I looked down and told myself, "Oh my God, there is no skin, there is nothing to nibble on!" It was very boring, always. If the guy is perfect but his dick is circumcised—look, I’d have to do a pros and cons list in my head. And being cut is obviously a con.

You’re tough Chris. A dick is a dick.
You’re right… Maybe I learned something today. I suppose I have to follow more the dogma that says it’s not what it looks like, it’s how you use it.

Betty, 27
Fashion Student

Hey Betty, what makes you lose your hard on?
Guys who use their masculine power in a way to dominate space. In two words: hypermasculinity, and the patriarchy.

Deep.
Like a very loud guy in a big group, swearing, and drinking beer all day.

Like any Aussie, Betty.
Yeah. Shit.

I guess you don’t like being dominated.
Oh no, no, no. It depends on the context. If it’s between consenting adults, it’s great. I like being dominated sometimes.

Is there anything else that makes you lose your hard on?
Yeah, I find it very unattractive when people try to be cool. Or, like, too cool. That’s not cool to me.

Sean, 28
Illustrator

What makes you lose your hard on Sean?
People who don’t walk fast.

Are we talking about sex, Sean?
Yes.

All right, I just thought I’d ask.
You know, someone who has no energy, who can’t keep up with me.

Does an ADHD person turn you on?
Sure, why not. I want someone keeping my mind active.

You don’t seem to be very energetic though.
Mmmh.

Ben, 24
Stylist

What makes you lose your hard on?
Well, I love sex. Great sex.

I’m glad to know that Ben.
So I think what turns me off the most is a partner who doesn’t consider my feelings in bed and what makes me feel good. It’s important to talk during sex. Or someone who comes first and doesn’t let me come later. Fuck you, those people.

Poor thing. Does that happen often?
Sometimes. It’s very sad because you’re here like, "Hey I have blue balls." But I’m lucky to have met someone very respectful who waits for me and lets me come. Coming together is a nice feeling.

Yes, but there is waiting, and then there’s waiting…
Yeah, it’s not always a fun time.

Emily, 24
Fashion Student

Hey Emily, what makes you lose your hard on?
I don’t find people eating meat very attractive. It’s probably because I’m vegan.

Here we go. So, a tofu eater is sexy?
Yes. But the ultimate is someone who eats fruits.

Which fruit turns you on?
A mango is pretty sexy. Or a durian.

I had to read "How to Eat Durian" on wikiHow to know how to eat that shit.
Yeah, it’s a pretty weird fruit from Malaysia. I don’t think a lot of people find it very attractive because it has a fucked smell. Kind of a mix between shit, onion, and vomit. But it’s a very intense aphrodisiac, I can tell you.

Follow Sophie on Twitter

The phrase "hipster racism" recently came to light thanks to the black feminist writer Zinzi Clemmons. In a statement directed to Lena Dunham on Sunday – following Dunham's decision to publicly undermine an allegation of rape made by actress Aurora Perrineau against a Girls writer – Clemmons said she would no longer write for Dunham’s website, Lenny Letter, after Dunham had failed women of colour.

In her letter, Clemmons said she "ran in the same circles" as Dunham in college, and that both her and those in her group not only came from wealthy, powerful families, but that they enjoyed "wielding" and "denying" the power this brought. The people in these groups would do things like using the N-word, but instead of own up to it simply claim "it was a joke", she said.

When reading this description of "hipster racism", my memory was flooded with identical examples from my own past and incidents my friends have told me about. The phrase perfectly encapsulates micro-aggressions from people in liberal circles who, upon being called out for it, will twist the accusation round and undermine you further (another word for "hipster racism", of course, is just "racism").

Here’s a not-at-all-exhaustive list of some of those examples:

• In my third year of university I went to a Harry Potter-themed party dressed as Professor Trelawney. I had the glasses, my hair was curly and wild. A guy came up to me, said, "Who are you? One of the Patel twins?" and burst into laughter.
• When I went travelling in Europe people would ask me where I’m from. When I’d say England or Birmingham, they’d say, "No, where are you really from?" and just take a stab at any South Asian country. I think they were trying to look well-travelled.
• In a seminar last year, my tutor, in front of the whole class, called on me to confirm details about Indian caste systems.
• A friend was at Coachella and was dancing pretty much the same as the mostly white audience around him until someone told him to calm down.
• One of my best friends was interning with a theatre company in America. The director was an accomplished woman academically, and said the gun shooter in the play they were producing should be black and listen to reggae.
• In my first year of uni, when the Panjabi MC song featuring Jay-Z came on, my friends at the time – who I'd just met – started doing stereotypes of Indian dancing at me.
• People have literally put on an Indian accent – or an accent lie Apu's in The Simpsons – and spoken to me. They’ve asked me things like, "What’s your favourite curry?"
• When people find out I’m Indian they rush to tell me their love of Bollywood or Indian food.
• My friend’s lecturer used the N-word six times and then got offended when called out on it. They proceeded to lecture the class about safe spaces.
• A white teacher from school posted an image of blackface online and, when called out on it, immediately became defensive and said it was a common practice from a tribe in Africa.
• My friend’s group of white friends use the N-word around her and claim it’s simply because they feel comfortable around her.
• I’ve had friends say they’re not attracted to Asian men to me, before following up with "obviously Asian women are different, though".
• My flatmate heard an encounter between two people on the bus in London. A white woman was talking to an Indian man and was mentioning how cheap something was. She said: "I suppose for you that’d be like mangos in India – you know?"
• Someone made bhangra sounds around me and forgot I was there. When I said "that’s offensive" they said it was appreciation and not meant as an offence.
• I once spoke about how Friends is really disappointing in hindsight because of the lack of diversity in it. A friend of mine said that if I had that mentality there would be nothing from the 90s I’d ever like.
• One of my friends in the past used the term "jungle fever" jokingly to describe someone’s interracial relationship.
• Whenever my friends and I have brought up examples of these instances, the other person often starts crying or saying that it was a complete misunderstanding.

Many people – myself included – bury numerous examples of "hipster racism" for our own well-being. This might seem like a long list, but it's barely scratching the surface of what people of colour go through in supposedly politically-conscious circles.

@RuchoSharma

You might remember when Diplo and Rihanna made headlines after she compared the DJ's music to "a reggae song at an airport." However, there's a little more to the story than you saw on your timeline.

On Tuesday's episode of VICELAND's Desus & Mero, Diplo stopped by to talk about his new documentary Give Me Future, and cleared the air surrounding his supposed beef with Rihanna. In fact, he ended up gushing about her, calling her a great role model and a revelatory talent.

"She's the truest artist that we have in this era right now," Diplo said.

You can watch last night’s Desus & Mero for free online now, and be sure to catch new episodes weeknights at 11 PM on VICELAND.

After a nine-month battle, ISIS was finally expelled from Mosul earlier this year, leaving devastation and destruction in its wake – homes lie in ruins and residents bear the physical and psychological scars of war.

Teenagers have grown up knowing a life only of conflict. Born in the time of the Iraq war, they saw their country occupied by the US-led coalition, before coming of age in an era blighted by the brutality of ISIS, with Mosul under the control of the jihadist group for three years. Many suffered unimaginable trauma and hardship – but they are determined to raise their country from the rubble.

Oxfam (where, full disclosure, I work) is warning about the long-term consequences for a generation of Iraqis coming of age in war. The international agency’s report "We Have Forgotten What Happiness Is" tells of the trauma suffered during the ISIS occupation.

Years of education were lost and women were prisoners in their own homes, only able to go out with a male chaperone. Then the fighting came. Fifteen-year-old Malak’s mum and sister were killed when her home was bombed, Salih’s ten-year-old sister was killed in an airstrike. Seventeen-year-old Zahra’s legs were broken when rubble fell on top of her. Remarkably, these young girls are now the torch bearers for a brighter future for their county.

Zahra wants to be a teacher, Salih wants to be a tailor and Malak wants to go back to school. Here, they tell VICE their stories.

Names have been changed to protect identities

Zahra, 17

Zahra photographed in her home in Qayarreh sub district, which was retaken from ISIS in late 2016. Photo: Tommy Trenchard / Oxfam

I grew up here and knew everyone here. I was happy here until my uncle was kidnapped. When ISIS came we wanted to escape, but they would execute anyone trying to leave so we decided to stay.

I felt very unsafe, so I just stayed at home. ISIS would use any excuse to kill people. I was so scared. If I went outside I would have to cover my face and hands, and would have to have a man with me. That’s not freedom.

Three days before our village was liberated we left. A house behind ours was bombed and then half of our house was bombed and my legs were broken. I managed to escape with my mother, brother and sister. My father stayed, as he was scared they would take our house. We went to Makhmour and then Kirkuk for treatment, as my legs were broken.

I feel safe now there’s no ISIS any more. I'm back in school now. I would like to study and work later, after I finish. I'm very happy we came back to our village and all of the families are together again. I want to be educated and become a teacher. I want to stay here because I belong here. I don’t want to go anywhere. I want everyone to study and be educated and rebuild Iraq again.

Salih, 20

Photo: Tommy Trenchard / Oxfam

When ISIS came they forced us to cover and not go outside alone. We tried to escape, but ISIS didn’t let us go anywhere.

The most difficult thing about living under ISIS was that they didn’t allow us to go out alone. They made announcements from the mosque that if a girl goes out alone or doesn’t cover, they will take a brother and kill him.

We wanted to leave, but it was so scary, because if ISIS saw families trying to leave they would execute them. When fighting started at home there were airstrikes and my ten-year-old sister was killed and my father was injured.

[My family fled, and when the fighting stopped] my mother and father asked us if we wanted to come back and we said yes. They said to us, "Even if your house is destroyed you want to go home?" And we said yes.

I'm happy now because ISIS is gone, but I'm unhappy because I'm not in my own home and my sister died. I think about that a lot. I want us to rebuild our house again in the same place. I want to stay in the village – all of my family and relatives are here – but I’m afraid that ISIS will come back again.

I wish I would wake up one day to find that we have rebuilt our house and I would have a sewing machine to sew clothes.

Malak, 15

Photo: Tommy Trenchard / Oxfam

Many people left during the fighting, but we stayed with the army. But then a mortar from ISIS hit my home and my mother and sister died and my father was injured.

My mum’s hair and skin was all over the wall. We’ve cleaned it off now, but when we come back here I remember what happened and I think of our family. It makes me sad because I miss them.

We went to a camp and I had to take care of my little brother, who still wanted to be breastfed. I didn’t want to stay in the camp; I wanted to be in our village. The weather was so hot it was difficult to be in the tent. It was so difficult for me. I used to cook and make bread, and no one helped me – my father was disabled and injured.

We came back this summer, but our house is destroyed; we're now staying in my grandfather’s house. I feel free now: I can go anywhere and move because it’s safe. I'm not happy, though – everything is OK, but I lost my mother and sister, and I am very sad.

I'm too young to marry; I want to finish my education first and then get married. I would like to go to Mosul; I prefer it there because there is everything – it’s a big place.

If I could wake up and all my dreams had come true, we would have a new house, better conditions, more money and a new life where everything is safe.

I had been living in London for years, and in thinking of myself as a Londoner, I had already grown tired of her charms. In a city that has been the focal point of every modern western historical incident from Wellington and Nelson to William Wallace, and where every great mind from Shakespeare to Sherlock has lived, it’s easy to become overwhelmed by it all. So easy, that instead of exploring Temple church to see the Knights Templar effigies, or visiting the birth-homes of Charlie Chaplin and Charles Dickens, I often opted to spend my nights in, eating Pret-A-Manger sandwiches and watching Eastenders, waiting for my death.

My only joy came on the weekends when I would explore Shoreditch and Hackney for street art and graffiti murals, which I’ve always enjoyed—and for a time I ran a small street art blog that catalogued all the urban art that crossed my path. That meant I was somewhat in the loop when, in 2014, I caught wind of a new, free street art app that turned “graff-hunting” (as I call it) into a real-life video game. It was called Flash Invaders and it centered on the Parisian street artist Space Invader.

For fans of the 2009 Banksy documentary Exit Through The Gift Shop, you might remember Space Invader as the cousin of protagonist Mr Brainwash. Using bathroom tiles and a lot of epoxy resin, Space Invader creates small mosaics in the image of the Space Invader aliens from the eponymous 1980s video arcade game. He places them on walls, bridges, overpasses and ledges all around the world. I had hunted and photographed his work before, as he’s left his mark in major cities all around the world like New York, Miami, Hong Kong, Kathmandu, Paris, Amsterdam, and many more. But this new app took the act of graff-hunting and turned it into a game of points and high scores, much like Pokemon Go, but predating it by two years. And also, not lame as fuck.

London was suddenly new and exciting again, and the familiar streets I thought I knew inside and out became strange. I had to look at them with new eyes, because now I was scouring every nook and cranny for Space Invaders.

As soon as I would stumble upon a ‘Vader in Soho or Finsbury Park or Old Street, I would whip out my device and take a picture, or “flash” the piece with the app. (It wouldn’t allow you to use photographs from your camera roll, to prevent cheating.) The app uses your GPS location and the image provided and cross-references it against the large databank of “activated” ‘Vaders around the world. And if there’s a match, your device makes this “dun-dun-TAH-DAH!” video arcade midi-type chime and your screen flashes with how many points you’ve earned with that particular ‘Vader. Most of the old ‘Vaders are worth a mere 10 points, but some of the bigger pieces are 50 points. And the large ‘Vaders that are new and timely garner a whopping 100 points.

It became especially exciting to scour London for ‘Vaders every time the street art blogs and listserv’s announced that the artist himself was in town and had slapped up a dozen new pieces. Suddenly it became a race to flash the pieces before the street art looters scraped them off the walls in an attempt to sell them on eBay, or business owners caught wind of the vandalism and blasted them off. If the blogs sent you to a specific ‘Vader location, but the piece was already gone, that piece was quickly catalogued in the databank as “deactivated,” and you could no longer get the points for it.

To this day, Flash Invaders is still wildly popular. In fact, Invader recently posted on his official Instagram page that the app has surpassed one million flashes. When Invader put up new pieces in Ravenna, Italy a few weeks ago, the front page headline of the French newspaper Libération said that Invader’s invasions are without end. With his recent invasion of Tokyo, and the thousands of users on the app, it seems Flash Invaders won’t be losing steam anytime soon.

The great thing about Flash Invaders for me was it forced me to pay attention to the city that I had already begun to take for granted. I would look at every street that I’d walked down a hundred times with fresh new eyes, like a modern day flâneur. Every world-weary Londoner is sick of Westminster Bridge and the London Eye. But recently I actually headed straight for that area and elbowed past throngs of gaudy American tourists with their fanny packs and selfie sticks just because the blogs reported a new ‘Vader had been erected on the south embankment. Sure the area is a tourist trap, but I have to admit, the view of a ‘Vader overlooking Big Ben and the houses of Parliament to the north at dusk is quite the beautiful sight. It also took me to areas of London I had never seen before and would never have had the impetus to visit otherwise. London is just such a sprawling metropolis, if you live in Tooting Broadway, you would have no reason whatsoever to visit Ladbroke Grove, which is on the other side of the city and a two-hour tube-ride away. ‘Vader became that reason for me.

Hunting ‘Vaders along Rivington Street in Shoreditch led me to discover murals by Thierry Noir, the French artist who famous painted the Berlin Wall during the height of the Iron Curtain. Because of ‘Vaders, I discovered everything from the colourful Brixton Market, to the popular blue door featured in the Hugh Grant-Julia Roberts rom com Notting Hill, to the rooftop on Savile Row where The Beatles infamously performed their final public concert.

Furthermore, it connected me to a large graff-hunting community that was more than willing to share tips, maps, and locations. I would run into many fellow ‘Vader flashers on the street, easily identifiable by their devices pointed skyward, trying to zoom in on small mosaic tiles. But like most 21st century interactions, most of my connections came from the internet. ‘Vader hunters run huge Instagram accounts and post their finds using hashtags like #invaderlondon #invaderwashere and #SpaceInvaderLondon.

In fact, some Instagram groups, like the #reactivationteamUK and @spacerescue_intl have become so popular, they decided to make it their mission to “reactivate” some of the “deactivated” ‘Vaders, and even managed to get the elusive artist Space Invader himself to collab. Once these groups have remade the old, damaged, or destroyed ‘Vaders, and placed them back in their original locations, Space Invader himself will make sure those pieces are once again “flashable” on the app. It’s a huge network of people who do all of this for free, just because they enjoy public, urban art and they want to share in the joy. And as luck would have it, they’ve shared it with me.

I’m returning to London this holiday season and have already begun planning which coveted ‘Vaders I want to find and which other hunters I want to collab with whilst there. Three years later, the game still excites me because the scavenger hunt has become addictive. As long as ‘Vader continues his ‘invasions,’ there will always be new pieces to find, new areas to explore, and new art to admire.

Follow Christine Estima on Twitter .

Everything you need to know about the world this morning, curated by VICE.

US News

Uber Covered Up Massive Cyberattack
The company reportedly paid hackers $100,000 to delete stolen data and conceal the fact that 57 million users’ personal details—including names, emails, and phone numbers—had been exposed. The license details of around 600,000 drivers were also compromised in the 2016 breach, as admitted by the company. Both Uber’s Chief Security Officer Joe Sullivan and his deputy have been fired. “None of this should have happened, and I will not make excuses for it,” said recently-installed CEO Dara Khosrowshahi.—VICE News

Navy Aircraft Crashes Off Japan's Coast
Three people are missing after the plane fell into the sea near the Okinawa coastline. Eight others were rescued from the water and are in “good condition,” according to the Navy. The plane had been headed to the USS Ronald Reagan aircraft carrier in the Philippine Sea as part of military exercises in the region.—NBC News

Democrat Probed for Allegedly Paying Off Opponent
The FBI is investigating Pennsylvania Representative Bob Brady for his alleged role in a payment made to his opponent Jimmie Moore to encourage him to abandon their 2012 House race, court documents show. Moore has admitted to taking the sum.—CBS News/Philly Inquirer

Minnesota Lawmakers Resign over Harassment Claims
Democrat Dan Schoen and Republican Tony Cornish have both stepped down from the state legislature amid allegations of sexual harassment. Schoen, accused of grabbing one woman and sending another an unsolicited dick pic, has denied wrongdoing. Cornish, meanwhile, reached a settlement with a female lobbyist who accused him of persistently harassing her.—The New York Times

International News

Bosnian Serb General Convicted of Genocide
Ratko Mladic, the former commander of Bosnian Serb forces, has been convicted of genocide and crimes against humanity for ordering the massacre of 8,000 Muslims during the Bosnian War of the early 1990s. Mladic was hauled out of courtroom at The Hague for shouting at UN judges as they began reading the verdict. He received a life sentence.—VICE News

Ousted Vice President to Take Power in Zimbabwe
Emmerson Mnangagwa, the former vice president fired by Robert Mugabe two weeks ago, has returned from South Africa to take charge after Mugabe finally stepped down Tuesday. Mnangagwa could be sworn in as president as early as Wednesday, according to a Zanu-PF party official. Zimbabweans took to the streets Tuesday night to celebrate the end of Mugabe’s 37 years in power.—BBC News

Lebanese Prime Minister Postpones Resignation
In a televised speech, Saad Hariri said he had decided to delay his resignation following talks with Lebanese President Michel Aoun. Prime Minister Hariri arrived in Beirut Tuesday night having sparked a diplomatic crisis weeks ago by appearing to resign on TV while in Saudi Arabia. Hariri said he now wanted to help “resolve internal conflicts.”—Al Jazeera

Video Shows Shooting of North Korean Defector
Footage released by the UN command in South Korea shows the moment a North Korean solider was shot at as he fled over the border. The video reveals the defector initially used an army vehicle before fleeing on foot, and shows him being dragged to safety by South Korean soldiers. After being admitted to a hospital, he has reportedly regained consciousness.—The Guardian

Everything Else

Pixar Boss Takes Leaves of Absence After Sexual Misconduct Allegations
John Lasseter, chief creative officer for Pixar and Disney Animation, apologized to anyone “on the receiving end of an unwanted hug or any other gesture” and said he would step down from his position for at least six months. He has been accused of grabbing and kissing female employees, among other offenses.—VICE

Hawaii Politicians Mull Ban on ‘Star Wars Battlefront II’
Two legislators were considering ways to prohibit the sale of the video game in the state over concerns it was ”designed to lure kids into spending money.” Their worries relate to payments players need to make to unlock hidden content. The game's manufacturer has previously denies it includes what amounts to gambling.—Rolling Stone

Yet Another US Gymnast Alleges Sexual Abuse by Notorious Doctor
Gabby Douglas said she was abused by doctor Larry Nassar, backing up claims made by teammates McKayla Maroney and Aly Raisman after previously suggesting women should avoid provocative dress. Douglas said she had been “conditioned to stay silent.”—ABC News

‘Reputation’ Purchased 1.2 Million Times in First Week
Taylor Swift’s new LP enjoyed the tenth-highest selling week since Nielsen began recording album sales in 1991. She sold 1.216 million copies, making this the fourth time Swift has sold more than a million albums in a week.—Noisey

Greta Gerwig Shares Her Fan Mail to Justin Timberlake
The actress-director published gushing letters she wrote to Timberlake, Alanis Morissette, and Dave Matthews to get the rights to their music. She told JT that “Cry Me a River” was “sultry and sullen and infectious…it transmits the cool.”—i-D

Make sure to check out the latest episode of VICE's daily podcast. Today we look at a violent form of tattooing performed by a collective named Brutal Black.

The beginning of the Snapchat sent to a young woman in Vancouver begins simply, “your cat loves molly.”

The cat’s name was Gigi, and is owned by the Haglund family in Cowichan Valley on Vancouver Island. The Snapchat clips were allegedly of Gigi being tortured and sent to a young woman from people she described as “former friends” early Tuesday morning. Sharline Haglund, the mother of the young woman, contacted police when her daughter told her of the snaps. Haglund told CTV that the cat got out and must have went with the kids because it had seen them before.

A Facebook post made by one of the young woman's friends outing the alleged perpetrators, reads that one of the accused sent a snap “to the owner of the cat showing her that they were drugging her cat with MDMA and shaving her fur off, and then throwing her out a window.”

A photo posted to Facebook of the cat after it was found. Photo via Facebook.

The internet being the internet did as it does when it hears of a cat being abused and quickly launched into formation to find the feline.

The Facebook post includes a screenshot of a snap in which the cat is roughly being shaved with a razor—the post was shared over 1,000 times. What really occurred to the animal is unsure at the moment, as Haglund told CTV that she heard that the cat was given a bath in bleach and released it while it was still drugged.

"It's just getting worse and worse," said Haglund to the news outlet. "They let her go, drugged, in the middle of the night and now she can't find her way home, or she's not even able to."

While Haglund didn’t think that the cat would survive, it was found and returned to the owner on Tuesday night. The person who found the animal commented on a local gossip site that the cat showed signs of abuse.

“She came running up to me and meowing like crazy,” the user who found the cat wrote. “I quickly knelt down and put her in my hoodie to warm up. She is indeed shaved and very shaky, she also has 666 [shaved] in her ear. Her owners came and got her and she is safe.”

The RCMP confirmed to CTV that they are now investigating the incident with the assistance of the BC SPCA.

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In 1986, Spike Lee released his first feature film She’s Gotta Have It, a dramedy about an independent black woman having sexual relationships with various men without belonging to one of them. Thirty-one years later, Lee's turned the film into a new Netflix series launching on Thanksgiving.

Set in modern-day Fort Greene, Nola Darling (DeWanda Wise) is a free-spirited Brooklyn artist in her late 20s getting her start in the art world. She juggles three different lovers in her life: a businessman, a commercial photographer, and a bicycle repairman, all of whom suit different needs.

While the original film focused on Nola’s taboo lifestyle in the 1980s, things have clearly changed since, and this series reflects the times as such. From #blacklivesmatter to the gentrification of Fort Greene and online dating, the series delves into the male gaze in art, the aftereffects of sexual harassment, and a feminist street art project that taps into body politics.

Lee and Wise spoke to us about sexual liberation, work ethic, and what it’s really like shooting a Netflix series in Brooklyn.

VICE: Why bring back She’s Gotta Have It now?
Spike Lee: It was my wife’s idea [Tonya Lewis Lee]. She said: “Spike, you should try to do this, or we should try to do this together as a series.” So I said, “That’s a great idea. Let’s do it.” Many of the issues I dealt with in 1986 in the original film have not gone away. But also, in this new world we live in, we have gentrification. There wasn’t gentrification in Fort Greene in 1986—there wasn’t even a word for gentrification. Now that part of Brooklyn is different today. It was a great opportunity to focus on the past, the world we live in today, and the future.

You both have spouses and are in monogamous relationships. But the character DeWanda Wise plays is Nola Darling, who is polyamorous.
I have no idea what the word “polyamory” means. What is it? Polly wants a cracker? What are you talking about? [Laughs.]
DeWanda Wise: I married young, true. Nola's just more transparent about dating multiple people, which is something a lot of people do today. I have friends in committed, polyamorous relationships. It’s more prevalent. I haven’t seen any examples of polyamory in TV or film in 1986 other than She’s Gotta Have It, which is depicted in a real way.

The film was originally shot in Fort Greene before it was gentrified. How is it different shooting there now?
Lee: This isn’t the first time I've shot in Fort Greene, so it wasn’t much different. Even though it looks fun on camera, we become a drag to people in Brooklyn. They can’t park their cars where they want to, and they have to wake up early in the morning by loud crew members, banging on sets, and loud trucks. After a while, the magic wears off and they want you to get off their block.
Wise: When Spike Lee's in Brooklyn, he's in his hometown glory. He puts out a casting call and people come through. If you see a party scene in Spike's show, it’s because Spike threw a party and filled it. People pull up.

Can you give us an example?
There’s a scene in episode four when I’m at a nightclub, and there's a reggae concert with a fictional artist, Wally Mirk. When we showed up that day to shoot, there was a line around the block. The energy was real—I didn’t have to act. That’s the kind of environment Spike Lee sets up for his actors.

Which issues are as relevant today as they were in 1986?
Lee: This is the first Netflix series I’ve done. Gentrification is one of the things, but there are so many things in there. Let the viewer connect with what’s close to them—what they care about, what speaks to their heart. We only hope, God willing, that we get a second season and more to explore. It’s not like everything is tied up. There's a wealth of stories that need to be told.
Wise: I had the scripts for all 10 episodes before starting to shoot. I was compelled by a number of things: Body issues, and female body issues for black women. It’s always presumed we’re confident, strong, and don’t care what anyone thinks. Also, sexual liberation.

Sexual violence also plays a role in this show, right?
Art is always this living, breathing organism. It’s kind of surreal, whether it’s the Trump administration or what’s been going on in Hollywood, a lot has compounded.

What vision brought you guys together?
I come from a background in indie films. There was so much serendipity in this: people I worked with from a 2013 play, someone from Netflix saw my work. Me and Spike clicked instantly. We’re both efficiency snobs—work hard, play hard. We came to the set passionate to tell the story.
Lee: Then go home.

Spike, do you believe in serendipity?
Yes, I’m a big believer in that. It has come into my life many times. Those have been blessings. DeWanda is Nola. It’s a very hard role to cast. We were approaching the end of the deadline to cast and Netflix was getting worried that we would have to push back the dates because we couldn’t find an actress. But I knew a talented person would reveal herself before we began shooting. I had a belief we had to keep looking. It was meant to be—end of story.
Wise: I feel like this was Spike’s baby, I took care of it and gave it back to Spike, and now it doesn’t belong to either of us. It's become the audience’s. We’re both very open. It’s special, and it’s a global relationship that keeps us making it.

In 2004, three events took place that forever changed American identity, both politically and socially.

In early February, the CIA officially admitted to there being no imminent threat from weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, thereby admitting to either unintentionally peddling false information or blatantly misleading the American public. Barely two months later, CBS ran a story detailing the systemic abuse and torture endured by Iraqi prisoners detained in Abu Ghraib, at the hands of American soldiers. The Abu Ghraib atrocities ended up being overshadowed by the pop culture monsoon that is MTV, which five months after the CBS exposé, premiered the reality show juggernaut Laguna Beach. In the midst of a political and moral existential crisis the American people were given an escape that came equipped with golden, sandy beaches, palm trees and young, tanned white youth living their best lives under the California Sun. Why think about human rights abuses when you can spend your hours deciphering if Lauren Conrad really was a natural blonde?

MTV—while not quite the behemoth it used to be—still has a profound influence on the current pop culture landscape. Its laser focus on discovering emerging talent and trends has ensured that it’s legacy is one of constant evolution. At some point in its 36-year history it recognized the potential of reality shows, which were curated to be as alluring and vapid as possible. Watching people living their “authentic” lives with liberal amounts of scripted drama thrown in for ratings offered the illusion of an escape, which came at a time when real life was becoming increasingly uncomfortable.

When Laguna Beach premiered it was a novelty not only because something so boldly superficial and airbrushed had not yet been seen, but because it seemed to simultaneously mock and represent the fantasy cultural zeitgeist of its time. A year before its release, persistent paranoia, fear, and anti-Muslim rhetoric saw George W. Bush leading Americans into Iraq and what would be one of their most deadliest wars of the new millennium. This, along with the Abu Ghraib crimes, had Americans questioning their understanding of democracy, liberty, and the all-important “American Dream.” Where could the dream be found in a country that was sending its young and brave to fight against an enemy no one really knew, for reasons that seemed uncertain at best and disingenuous at worst? In Laguna Beach, an eden untouched by war and the idea of government transparency. A place where your patriotism was unspoken but expected because everyone was white, everyone was happy, and everyone was well-off. In this place the American dream was distilled into the most artificial of concepts (wealth and successful heterosexual relationships) where the only stumbling block is your own self.

In her 2003 memoir, Reading Lolita in Tehran, Iranian author Azar Nafisi wrote, “Americans have a dream, they feel nostalgia about the promise of the future.” From the onset of Manifest Destiny the quintessential American future has always been painstakingly upheld in the lives and experiences of white American youth. Their cares or lack thereof feed the belief that to be American is to be in a constant state of mindlessly, blissful celebration, unencumbered by political, social, or racial worries. Reality television, though not real, portrays the very real and longed for carefree attitude that is hard to cling to when you’re grappling with the public failures of your country.

Four years after Laguna Beach hit the screen, America was ushering in its first black president and as hopeful and ebullient as the mood was, there were countless anti-Obama protests across the country from those unwilling to live in a nation where the highest office was now held by a black man. As Republican congressman Paul Brown labelled Obama “a Marxist” with the “potential to become Hitler,” Jersey Shore hit the screens with drunken white debauchery. The adventures of Snookie, JWoww, and the guy with the really greasy hair became the cultural landmarks of choice, lulling the American public into a false sense of comfort and easy pleasure. Reckoning with the still very racist present of the American people could be avoided as long as everyone consumed the tawdry lives of those on the Jersey Shore.

Now, as we brace ourselves to face another three years of Trump’s America, MTV’s Siesta Key—the breezy, sunny series that premiered in July—has reintroduced us to the formulaic concept made famous in Laguna Beach. The white kids are wealthy, and even when they are struggling it’s never so bad that it affects their quality of life. Worst case scenario: you get a bartending gig at the local bar where the pay is enough for you to take weeklong trips to Bimini, Bahamas, and the hours flexible enough to only have you be there once a week. The classical American dream: working just enough to make a living, but never to the point of back-breaking labour. Worrying about health care is never an issue, flight bans are unheard of, and gun violence is a thing you only see in The Expendables movie series.

The golden reality show scheme propelled by Laguna Beach, Jersey Shore, and Siesta Key seduces the audience with the promise of unblemished, perennial youth, unaffected by everyday realities. Their whiteness isn’t a miscalculated lack of diversity, but the intentional marketing of that glorious American dream that is white, young, and available to those who will choose to indulge in the fairytale.

When F.Scott Fitzgerald wrote The Great Gatsby it was an indictment of superficiality, materialism and consumerism. But he also foreshadowed The Great Depression and knew that the decadence of the Roaring 20s would not last and was more of a distraction to draw people’s attention away from the issues at hand; a precarious economy, civil unrest and the fragility of world peace. In Daisy Buchanan, Fitzgerald placed all the shallow and fickle characteristics of a dream that is as alluring as it is elusive and ultimately dangerous. As she was a distraction from the real-life perils surrounding Gatsby, so too have MTV reality shows fooled people into settling into complacency and buying into a reality that is unattainable, and only serves to both distract and numb.

The uniquely American escapist myth via the lens of white American youth has always seemed to be financially sound because people will always tune into a reality that is less Brave New World and more Sweet Valley High. But it is also socially inept. Sure your life can be golden, but that doesn’t mean that the world you live in ceases to fall apart. That barrier is only ratings-deep. In his series of essays entitled The Undercommons: Fugitive Planning and Black Study, author and professor Fred Moten talked about a number of social ills including anti-black racism, capitalism, white supremacy and the privileges it offers. On white people’s reticence to fully engage with the suffering of black people, Moten wrote, “I don’t need your help. I just need you to realize that this shit is killing you, too, however much more softly, you stupid motherfucker, you know?” The whiteness of MTV reality show casts creates a barrier that sells the notion that for white people such bliss is achievable if they simply choose to disengage from the realities of inequality and just focus on self-gratification. World problems do not have to be white problems, and pain is othered as something that only affects those removed from white youth and golden sunsets.

The beautiful disaster of reality shows is that as dreamy as they are, while people continue to watch the illusion of real so they can ignore the problems around them, their version of real will always come to the exclusion of everyone else. It’s easy to avoid racism, poverty and systemic oppression when all your characters are white, representing the unattainable American dream that has actually been a very real nightmare all along.

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A student at the University of Waterloo says she was told to collect statistics on racial demographics at her school by herself if she wanted to develop services for visible minorities on campus.

Fiqir Worku, third-year health studies student at Waterloo and the head of the campus’ Black Association for Student Expression approached her university’s equity centre earlier this month to discuss developing services for racialized minorities on campus. Worku, 21, says she told by the school’s former equity director Mahajabeen Ebrahim, that in order to move forward she had to collect statistics on the school’s 34,325 full time students by herself.

“It’s unfortunate that as students we’re expected to prove the need for a racialized service when even the Ontario government has invested substantial funds in support of black Ontario youth,” Worku told VICE.

Waterloo is one of the many Canadian universities that doesn’t collect statistics on the race and ethnicities of their student population. Matthew Grant, Waterloo’s director of media relations told VICE it’s because the school does not “make decisions related to [students] participation in the university based on these factors.”

In many Canadian universities, racialized student collectives are groups that run under student unions and receive funding from them. And many administrations, like McGill, University of Toronto and Queen’s also have a department under their equity centre to help minority students with their life on campus. Worku’s organization, Black Association for Student Expression, only receives $75 in funding from their student union.

“We do not have the resources or training to address certain adversities that our members have been through,” said Worku.

In March 2016, a racial slur was spray painted on a house near campus. Worku says she had to redirect students to the diversity and equity office at Wilfred Laurier, a nearby university, to receive more “specialized services.” Worku says she’s been making attempts to sit down with the university for two years now to develop the administration’s equity centre.

“One email took the university a full semester to respond to.”

According to Statistic Canada’s 2016 census, 26.4 per ent of the city of Waterloo’s population is made up of visible minorities.

Renu Mandhane, the chief commissioner of the Ontario Human Rights Commission told CBC in May 2017 that universities need to know the demographics of their student body in order to “track the effectiveness” of their diversity programs.

"If you want to really serve the population, I think you first need to know who's in your student body and not just at an eyeballing it sort of way, actually understanding in a much more discrete way.”

Grant says the university recently created an “associate vice-president of human rights, equity and inclusion” position to address the issue.

There is currently no one directing the equity centre at the university and the former equity director’s official statements and contact information have been taken off Waterloo’s website.

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We’re often told that Gen Z aren’t that up for hedonism and drugs; that they're more into Netflix and chill than vodka and Red Bull. Next year, that theory gets put to the test for the first time, as "millennium babies" – those who were born in the year 2000 – will be able to legally go out clubbing for the first time.

So, what do young people, currently 17, think about that age-old pursuit of lugging oneself around a dance floor in an inebriated state? We’ve asked seven people on the verge of their clubbing dawn whether or not they care that they'll soon be able to legally dance in sweaty rooms until 4AM.

Niyonella

I do think that clubbing is on its way out. I don’t think it will end with my generation, but I definitely think we’ll see a decline in the culture. People will always like partying, but with the way everything’s changing, I don’t think clubs will be as successful as they are for too much longer.

I think social media has allowed for people like myself – who aren’t really into the going out scene – to have a reason to stay in while still feeling connected to their generation. Though, I definitely think social media glamorises clubbing and glosses over the dangers of it.

I like early mornings better than late nights, and find that the risks associated with clubbing outweigh the benefits.

Sara

I know how to get a fake ID, and I've had opportunities to go clubbing, although I've never actually been. I think there's too much risk and not enough reward in the potential dangers going out as a young female. I have reason to fear sexual harassment and assault at clubs in today’s society. Clubs seem to provide an environment that makes it easy to take advantage of people, with the alcohol and drug use. I feel like I would have to be on high-alert at all times in a club just to keep myself safe, which defeats the purpose of going at all.

House parties are ideal. We go out for events and special occasions, but we prefer to stay in and watch movies, play games and eat pizza, mostly. We love to stay in and chill.

Ernest

When I went to clubs in Moscow I edited a copy of my passport and told my bouncers that my original passport was on a visa. Clubbing is good mainly for the new acquaintances with girls, and the funny consequences you discuss with friends in the morning.

While I was away, I met drunk Russian men who tell you absolutely everything about themselves after an hour of dancing and call you "brother". That’s a great clubbing experience. The worst, though, were the guards who often behaved aggressively.

Back home, at the weekend, every second on my Instagram feed is photos from people at clubs. There are so many different clubs for every taste. Club owners come up with more ways to drag people inside, so there are always a lot of people on the weekends.

Noah

Recently, someone told me clubbing wasn’t the same as it used to be. Obviously I don't know what it used to be like, but they said people don't seem to have the same attitude as they used to. Apparently people would be very loyal to a club that they wanted to get into: they would try over and over, changing their clothes or appearance until they were allowed in – but apparently this doesn't happen any more.

I think it’s a lot easier to get into clubs now; I hardly ever see people being turned away from clubs. What I don't understand is why another club hasn’t opened up that is hard to get into, which gives people the old school attitude.

It’s risky going clubbing underage, with someone else’s ID, so I’ve only done it four times.

One time in a club a fight broke out between two girls, and one of them threw a cup at the other but it missed her and cut my friend’s head open. He was fine – he didn't need stitches or anything – but it was my first clubbing experience and it surprised me how lairy things could get. It wasn't really what I expected to see.

When I’m 18 I expect to go clubbing a lot more. When I see that famous people I like are going to a club it makes me want to go. I like the idea of a VIP area with friends a lot more than going in, getting drunk and dancing for a while. I’m not a big drinker and I don’t do drugs.

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Matilda

I usually go clubbing once a week, even though I'm 17. I like the whole experience of going out: it’s so different to anything I’ve experienced before, like house parties. When you're out, you forget about everything else going on and just focus on that moment, have a good time, dance, listen to music, have some drinks and meet new people.

Pretty much all of my friends can’t wait to go clubbing, and the ones who are already 18 are constantly messaging each other, arranging when they're next going out. We all like a party and drink, so we're all going to pick a night out over staying in.

Isaac

The appeal to going clubbing is drinking, dancing and getting your graft on, to say it bluntly. Pulling girls is rather a big appeal.

I've used fake ID before. It wasn’t really a peer pressure thing, but the fact all your mates go and you can't without fake ID is a bit of a bummer.

I've often found an ace variety of people at the clubs I've been to. The worst is usually the overpriced drinks, or sometimes the occasional dickhead, but you don't often get them.

My main group of mates would much rather chill out – mainly because the majority are potheads, excluding me and a few others, and because we live quite far from the closest nightclub. However, I've got a group of "club mates" who I normally stay with, and they go out every weekend pretty much. Social media's improved the clubbing experience. I'll often get a Snapchat or a Facebook message asking if I'm going to Spiders, our local nightclub in Hull, at the weekend.

@adamzx