piranesi

I've always hated this logic, shifting the burden of a decision he has to make onto us makes him a hero for making the choice he was always going to make anyway. Don't do we 50,000 innocent, needy morons any favors, Cody. We'll be fine without your story. And honestly you will be better off too. But just say the truth "MY whole life is invested in this."

Can you even imagine the things he’s managed not to read, see, hear over the years as they were happening in the next office, backstage, in the hotel. he’s just a doomed creature.

I didn’t mean he quit as like a punishment. He had a chance to reach for some personal redemption if anything like that means anything to him. Just a missed opportunity to save himself is all.

Im just saying it might help out a lot with his fragile heart if he relieved it of the weight of guilt of continuing to stay in the business. I just want what’s best for him. And that would 100% be best for him.

The correct answer to the question was “I’m announcing my retirement from this business and dedicating my very comfortably wea;thy remaining years to trying to atone for what I was a part of for the last 3 decades.”

The problem I see with this, at least for me is that I knew. I 100% knew, not names or dates. But deep down, I knew Vince was pimping women out probably against their will to talent, to promoters, to advertisers, whatever. I wouldn't doubt it was going on since Rock N Wrestling era at least. I knew. And did I know it also involved sadistic and humilating and torturous acts. Yeah. I probably knew. No one asked but if I was asked I would have to say "Yeah, I knew." Maybe I have a darker mind than most. SHit I knew about Moolah for decades but I was like "Well that was the 1930s. You could buy women at the corner store then!" I knew about Snuka's girllfriend. It's not like dozens of people haven't been chased out of that company by horrific abuse and then attacked by the company for leaving. It's not like the product itself didn't go past "a sketch" to real world humiliation of real people and train us all to chant along "Show your tits!" They knew. I knew. Ther Torch guys knew. The Observer guys knew. Seeing the details of one case spelled out clincally made it hit so hard that all of that shakes out of the tree and now you see everything (or I see everythign I had been letting slide. Because it was an addictive product and I'm not a great person. But now that it's all there in one big pile, I just hate it all. I hate it for what it convinced me to ignore or to say "hey, they knew what they were getting into. They want to be famous, this is the only way."

That said I have no help on what might work. "Hey, kids, you know what's way more fun than watching wrestling? Japanese Math Rock!"

This part is tough. I don't think anyone expects anyone to make their kids go cold turkey while really not wanting to explain why. Maybe a slow process to let them do what I never did and "outgrow" it naturally works better. Something tells me that some of our kids might thank us in a few years if we slowly steer them away from a lifetime obsession with this particular form of entertainment.

Oh it's real. I don't know if we're allowed to say the names of litigious wrestling journalists but Dave S. is one of the ones that has made the most $$$$$ off of it than anyone else in that business. BTW It then ends with this:

Wrestling journalism: An AI bot trained on WWE press releases couldn't have written it better Dave S. Weirdly I still feel like absolute shit. But also please subscribe to elite for more wrestling news!

Da Vinci's reboot.

We have fully acclimated to the cruelty of our betters and revel in it for entertainment. These are the same people stamping a signature on denied insurance claims and putting them on the pile. The same people writing press releases for Nestle. all the way down to the same people calling single mothers to scream about the money they owe someone every night of their lives. The same people who get mad when they see a kid in school with a free lunch. We're baked into the system even when we're home alone. They rely on everyone from the top down just doing the job and moving on. They took our hearts and souls because those were not monetizable and left us with just the jerky.

It's frustrating. I feel like at one point in history people would have. But since maybe 1980 or so we have had three generations just swamped with the propoganda that "business" has nothing to do with morality or humanity. It's frankly more illegal or will lead to your justifiable firing to do the "right" thing in almost any situation because "the right thing" would violate your fiduciary legal obligation to maximize growth for your stockholders. People have gotten so good at thinking like that, and so much of those decisions is filtered through just paperwork...no people, just papers, numbers. People who are fucked over by other people pulling levers at other companies will, without even a thought of dissonance, pull levers on other people because "that's the job." and to question that apparently makes you insane. Because those business rules overrule everything else. Why? Because it's somehow ordained by some God somewhere that anything else is a violation of business logic. So it's not even a hard choice. They make it sound so tempting "your professional obligations...be rational about this...real jobs are at stake. that's real jobs...those rapes that's moralist abstractions...but these spreaadsheets aren't going to balance themselves!!!!!" So of course everyone nods their head. To do anything else would mark you as obviously insane. So march on, Slim Jim soldiers. March on WWE SUPESTARS! You're the real heroes!!!!!! Getty images of SLim Jims being manufactured. I think there was a movie about this. It was called Drag me to Hell. It was about some low level bank employee that got what she earned and how in the end no one at the bank cared and no one else cared that she did "the job right."

They've all made their choice. It was the expected one. A little window dressing and back to "doin the job." But I'm glad this unfortunate and obviously isolated event had the silver lining of providing a small PR benefit (but without any eventual expensive "changes") to our proudest human meat jerky corporation. We at Slim Jim human meat products urge you all to sit back and enjoy your Wrestlemania moment...and hope and pray that another rich guy with ad dollars to spend doesn't decide to make a Wrestlemania moment with you! (but that's not our business. Our business is business and anything else would be crazy). They made the smart play. That is all they are legally, and apparently morally or rationally allowed or expected to do. Clearly there was no other choice...for the stockholders...The system remains in the control of our most rational and professional leaders. Remember the system has not failed us. The fact that we eventually made this one evil man...um....retire? is proof that the system is operating as it should. Rape first...maybe retire in a few decades with millions and millions of dollars and no other consequences at all. that's just good business practice.

I don’t know I feel like if you asked me ten tears ago if Vince was doing something like this to someone I would be like “I figured.” And I’ve never been within a mile of the guy. And there’s almost no way this a sudden urge and idea he got in 2021. He’s been doing things Like this for as long as he’s had the ability to probably. And he’s not a subtle guy. And he clearly saw it as a way to deal/coerce/tempt people, one of whom was head of personnel for decades. There’s just no way to stay and be clean of this ‘stay tuned to Netflix for a moving tribute to the great jimmy Snuka

He'll always be welcome in Saudi Arabia. Maybe they'll fund a biopic of him.

When they start tweeting various versions of "I hope the actions of one and only one evil man are not allowed to taint or destroy the legacy of the WWE Universe for all those we have inspired and empowered over the years." then we'll know what they were hearing behind the scenes...or at least what they were told to say.

I still kind of wish he was left in a puddle by the workers. But that's just fantasy booking. Fantasy booking is still legal.

Unfortunately today there are two more rich powerful rapist stories ahead of this one. Trump and Cuomo. It's a real bottleneck up there.

Blasting your headlights into a foggy woodland at the end of an empty cul-de-sac and turning your engine off is a great way to test whether you are still scared of Jason Vorheeses even in your 50s. spoiler: you are still scared of Jason Vorheeses.

The Octopus Marquee Independent Film Festival...Made for humans...made by humans...but never ever made of humans (except the actors they are in there but, you know, not mangled up in machinery except that one old projector runner in 1956 but he was really drunk and very skinny.... )." Not as catchy but it will play!

SLim Jim will lead the way. Even if it's just a business decision. Sometimes something is so big that "good for business" and "good" actually overlap a little. "Slim Jim: Made by humans...Made for humans...made near humans...but never ever ever made of humans."

Trying to distract myself from things. This was a nice way. Here's my ten best Criterions In The Heat of the NIght All About Eve Wings of Desire To Be or Not to Be Female Trouble Tokyo Drifter Repo Man The Killer Midnight Cowboy The In-Laws

People quitting their job when their boss is revealed to be torturing and pimping girls out is not exactly anarchy. But whatever gets you over the line comfortably, pal. Say high to the bosses for me when you get that big law promotion. Ladies and Gentlemen, there is no need to worry. The very rational and infallible system is in good hands and will continue without but a ripple. Professor Dog is on the case! You will be tested on this later!

Most people are not wrestling fans so for the vast majority of people out there this will just lead to them muttering "Fuck those sick freaks. I hope they hang him and shut the whole company down." We here are discussing this in depth because we are the few who have invested some portion of our lives, our joy, our writing, our thinking, our childhood, our adulthood (such as it is) about this business as an art or at least a great skill set. But we all know and have known deep down that it is not a savory business. It's maybe the least savory that doesn't involve human trafi....ooops. We have to admit that while there are some very nice people who have been in wrestling and really great people who have liked it or loved it and made it part of their lives, it is also likely the when you look at the people who "thrived' in the industry., Got to the top. the precentage of psychopaths to humans gets...less good. we all know that. And we all have accepted it. Over and over becausd we didn't hit the line or at least it didn't hit us this hard. Someone mentioned Moolah early int he thread. i've known about that scum sucking piig for decades. But I or we never hit this line. Well we hit it now. It seems really clear that we hit it. So now we don't have a choice but to make a choice. It's not my fault. It's not yours. But that doesn't mean the line isn't there. If we didn't hit it before (well I do feel bad personally about not hitting it before) but we're only human. But No contract language, no fiduciary responsiblit, no speech about "how things actually are" no Wolf of Wall street "someone's gonna do it" affects that line. It is immutable and unforgiving. And we're there now. We can't not make a choice. The line doesn't disappear because a lawyer or contract law CONSUTLTANT says to ignore it. We can pretend we don't have a choice because "that's ho things actually are." but that is also making the choice. There is no way to go past today and not have made the choice. Not your fault. Not my fault. But the line doesn't care whose fault it is. It just is and what's on the other side is all of us admitting out loud "Yes, the richest psychopaths can and will do anything they want to any of us whenever they want and we accept that because they tell us that's the way things actually are." Or we can fucking destroy a few little companies and a few little billionaries and maybe...just maybe the line will start to show up for them too.