The following is a video from my YouTube channel, Jack’s World. I’ve been working on this for a while now. I’m aware of the various criticisms that superhero media has received in recent years, from political pundits to former writers like Alan Moore. I’ve been wanting to respond to that criticism in some comprehensive way. This video is my way of addressing it, as well as reaffirming why I love superheroes and why they mean so much to so many people. Enjoy!
Jack Fisher’s Sexy Sunday Thoughts: St. Patrick’s Day 2021 Edition
I know it’s a bit premature to talk about St. Patrick’s Day. I also know there has never been a year in which an exception is more warranted. Let’s not lie to ourselves. Around this time last year, the world was just starting to fall apart as a global pandemic started raging. Everything after that was basically an extended nightmare.
It was right around St. Patrick’s Day that many parts of the world went into lockdown. That was around the time movie theaters closed, major events got cancelled, and everyone had to get used to regularly wearing a mask. It was a dark time and if you had St. Patrick’s Day plans, you had to cancel them. Even if you tried to celebrate on your own, the news was just too dire.
It’s been a year since then and while things are still bad, we’re tantalizingly close to the end of this pandemic. With three vaccines now in our arsenal and vaccination efforts underway, we have a valid reason to celebrate. Even if you don’t care for St. Patrick’s Day or the history behind it, this is the perfect time to make an exception.
Whether it involves having a drink or watching college basketball, I encourage everyone to do something extra this year. Get together with family. Go out if you can, but continue to wear a mask and wash your hands. Use this holiday as a prelude to better times. I know they can’t some soon enough, but they’ll be here eventually.
I don’t know how I’ll spend my St. Patrick’s Day. I just know I’m going to try and do something festive and fun. Here are some Sexy Sunday Thoughts to help get you into the St. Patrick’s Day spirit. We need to start having good times again. Let this St. Patrick’s Day be the first.
“Confidence won’t make you better in bed, but it can fool others into thinking you are.”
“A woman’s love for her man is directly proportional to her willingness to wear uncomfortable lingerie.”
“Do we really want to know what inspired the inventor of the butt plug?”
“Dance like no one is watching and make love like you’re being filmed.”
“When it comes to making love, searching for your lover’s G-spot is every bit as important as finding their G-spot.”
“Learning things the hard way is still enjoyable when it comes to oral sex.”
“Pillow talk is the primary commercial sponsor for all lovemaking.”
Filed under Sexy Sunday Thoughts
Marijuana Legalization Is Progressing (And Why Prostitution May Be Next)
It’s amazing how certain social issues progress rapidly. Hell, it wasn’t that long ago that the vast majority of Americans opposed the legalization of same-sex marriage. Back when I was in college, supporting the full legalization of same-sex marriage was considered an extreme position. Today, it has so much support that even those who identify as conservative support it.
Not every issue changes so rapidly in such a short period of time. I honestly thought same-sex marriage wouldn’t be legal for decades when I graduated college. I thought it would take even longer for marijuana to be legalized. It turns out I was even more wrong about that.
As quickly as same-sex marriage gained acceptance, marijuana legalization has progressed even faster. It actually caught a lot of people by surprise. In 2012, two states legalized it through a ballot initiative. I don’t think even the most ardent weed legalization proponent expected it to progress as quickly as it did after that.
Once the precedent was set, other states followed suit. As of this writing, there are 14 states that have some form of legalized marijuana and several more states are well on their way to follow suit. I may not live in one of those states, but I’m a 20 minute drive away from one of them.
In those states that have legalized it, society didn’t collapse. A new multi-billion-dollar industry emerged. The stage is set. It’s basically a matter of time and bureaucracy. The negative effects of drug prohibition are becoming more and more apparent. It’s not at all unlikely that marijuana will be legalized nationwide in America by the end of the decade.
This trend, which I feel is objectively positive for society, is likely to spill over into other issues. That tends to happen a lot as social attitudes and norms evolve. What was considered taboo or undeniably negative for one generation is considered an issue of justice and progress to the next. We saw it with same-sex marriage in the early 2000s. Then, we saw it with weed in the 2010s.
Now, I suspect that the next issue to undergo that process might be prostitution, or sex work as it is more commonly known these days.
I make this claim with no expertise or insight. I’ve written about prostitution before, both in terms of its legality and its taboos. In terms of progress or change of any kind on this issue, there hasn’t been much since Nevada legalized prostitution decades ago. Unlike weed and same-sex marriage, prostitution has some unique challenges.
The biggest of those challenges, by far, is how policy changes affect human trafficking, an objectively horrible crime that nobody wants to help or facilitate. Whether fair or not, prostitution gets linked to human trafficking. Anytime there are proposed changes to prostitution laws, be they legalization or greater criminalization, human trafficking is often cited.
These are tough hurdles to overcome for anyone hoping to put sex work on the same level as other social issues. However, there are signs that the cultural tide regarding sex work is changing.
Back in 2016, Amnesty International made headlines by publicly endorsing the widespread decriminalization of prostitution. In their official policy, this was their position and their justification.
It recommends the decriminalization of consensual sex work, including those laws that prohibit associated activities—such as bans on buying, solicitation and general organization of sex work. This is based on evidence that these laws often make sex workers less safe and provide impunity for abusers with sex workers often too scared of being penalized to report crime to the police. Laws on sex work should focus on protecting people from exploitation and abuse, rather than trying to ban all sex work and penalize sex workers.
The policy reinforces Amnesty International’s position that forced labour, child sexual exploitation and human trafficking are abhorrent human rights abuses requiring concerted action and which, under international law, must be criminalized in every country.
When it first came out, this caused some uproar, especially among those who favored the Nordic Models of combating prostitution, which only criminalized the buyers of sex. That uproar hasn’t fully abated. There is still a great deal of disagreement on how best to reform prostitution laws to improve the situation for sex workers and combat human trafficking.
Then, the pandemic hit and like so many other things, we all had to rethink everything.
To say that the pandemic has impacted the lives of sex workers everywhere would be a gross understatement. Legal or not, this is an activity that cannot accommodate basic practices of social distancing. That’s especially true for sex workers who are minorities or otherwise disadvantaged. Amnesty International even cited racial justice as a reason for their position.
At a time when injustices of so many kinds are becoming more prominent, the time might be right for prostitution and sex work to enter the conversation. Some jurisdictions are actually proposing new, more liberal policies on sex work. The rights of sex workers are quickly becoming more entwined with human rights, in general.
That’s a path that closely mirrors what happened with same-sex marriage. It’s also a path that the pandemic has reshaped considerably. Like every other industry, the sex industry has had to adapt. Even once the pandemic is over, it’s very unlikely things will go back to the way they once were.
The need for change is apparent now. That nature and extent of that change is still unclear. However, as the fight over weed legalization settles and same-sex marriage becomes mainstream, I believe it’s very likely we’ll see prostitution and sex work become a more pressing issue in the coming years. If for no other reason, it’ll have to be addressed. If it’s ignored, then expect progress on sex robots to accelerate even more rapidly.
Filed under politics, prostitution, sex in society, sexuality
I Paid Off My Student Loans, But I Still Support Student Loan Forgiveness
After I graduated high school, I was a mess. I was not yet equipped to charge into the adult world and start a career. I didn’t even know what the hell I wanted to do with my life. I didn’t know where to begin.
That’s why I went to college. I didn’t go there thinking I would find all the answers, but it felt like the best decision for me at the time. In hindsight, that feeling was spot on. I really blossomed in college. I learned more my first year than I did in my past four years of high school. It’s there where I made new connections, developed my sub-par social skills, and started building my future.
For me, college was incredibly beneficial. At the same time, it was expensive. Even though my parents had saved up some money, I still had to take out loans in order to attend. I also had to work a summer job in order to help pay for it. Even after I graduated, I still had a sizable debt to pay off. I won’t say how large it was. I’ll just say I had to live at home for a while.
Eventually, I worked long enough and hard enough to pay it all off. Around 80 percent of my paycheck went just to paying down that debt. I didn’t have much money for anything else, but I sacrificed and my parents helped me every step of the way. By the time I moved out of my parent’s house, I was completely debt free.
I understand that makes me more than an exception to the ongoing student loan debt crisis. Some might say it makes me a freak, paying off my entire student debt before I was 26. I don’t deny my situation was unique and not everyone could’ve done what I did.
I personally know some people who attended college for the same years as I did, but graduated with way more debt. One girl in particular had over $100,000 in debt by the time she graduated, but it wasn’t because she was irresponsible. Unlike me, she had no major parental support. She was also going to med school, which is very expensive.
That kind of debt isn’t just big. It’s crippling. I can seriously impact your mental well-being. That’s not a trivial amount for college. That’s a goddamn mortgage for some people.
On top of that, we expect these kids to just start their lives and become productive members of society when they graduate? We expect them to do what their parents did, getting married and having kids despite the limitations of this debt and the cost of living going up?
Regardless of your politics or party affiliations, I ask you honestly. Is that reasonable?
I say it isn’t. In lieu of recent economic trends, I’d say it’s downright absurd. If that weren’t bad enough, there are still a bunch of older, less indebted people whining about how young people are too lazy and entitled. That is not a healthy dynamic.
That’s why I am totally in favor of large-scale student debt forgiveness.
I know that’s a politically charged statement these days. The idea of the government just canceling or forgiving a certain amount of student loan debt has become a legitimate political issue in recent years. Chances are, it will get worse.
Even with the recent global pandemic, the debt levels are increasing. As of this writing, the average loan debt per student is $37,500. That’s more than what I had and that’s from someone who had support from his family. I can’t even imagine how much harder it would be for those who come from poverty.
It’s not like canceling the debt would be that difficult. It might even be possible to do so by executive order. With a stroke of a pen, this financial burden could be lifted for millions of students.
Now, some might say that’s not fair to those who worked hard and paid off their debt. To that, I call bullshit. We’re not talking about forgiving the debt incurred from people who bought too many Beanie Babies in the late 90s. We’re talking about an entire generation who is trying to better themselves by going to college and getting an education.
Why not support them?
Why not make it just a little bit easier for them?
Would there still be a cost and consequence to canceling so much debt? Yes, of course it would. There’s always a larger impact to consider. I still believe the benefits outweigh the cost.
If ever there was a time to give a large swath of indebted students relief, it’s this. We’re coming out of the worst pandemic in over a century. We’re dealing with record levels of income inequality and a job market that is becoming increasingly limited. Doing nothing in a situation like this can be just as damaging as doing something wrong. I’m not a student anymore and I have no student loan debt, but I remember how relieved I was the day I paid it off. If we can share that feeling with millions of students in need of help, I say it’s worth doing.
Filed under Current Events, Jack Fisher's Insights, real stories
New Comic Book Day March 10, 2021: My Pull List And Pick Of The Week
Even in a year not heavily impacted by a global pandemic, this time of year tends to be a real drag. It’s a time devoid of major holidays for which you can get a day off work or school. The weather isn’t always nice. Depending on where you live, it can still be cold, dreary, and miserable for weeks on end. It’s just not an eventful time of year for anyone.
However, if you’re a lifelong comic book fan like me, it doesn’t matter what time of year it is. You’re only ever a week away from New Comic Book Day, a weekly holiday that all comic fans cherish. Thanks to the wonders of Comixology, it doesn’t matter how bad the weather is. You’re never more than a few clicks away from new comics. It’s a beautiful thing.
I like to think it has also helped me endure this time of year better than most. For weeks on end, there just seems to be no relief or distraction from the drudgery. A fresh stock of comics gives me something to look forward to every week.
This is also usually the time of year when major publishing companies start teasing their major summer events. It’s like a preview for summer Hollywood blockbusters and it’s often the most exciting time for fans of major crossover events. This year has more than its share and those first steps towards those events are starting now.
March often feels like the longest month of the year. With new comics, it’s that much easier to endure. To help in that effort, here’s my pull list and pick for the week. Enjoy and endure, my fellow comic fans! Enjoy and endure!
My Pull List
Wolverine: Black, White & Blood #4
My Pick Of The Week
Joker #1
Filed under Jack's Quick Pick Comic
Jack’s World: WandaVision Finale Reaction And Final Speculation
Once again, I’m breaking up my usual video release schedule to give everyone a reaction video to the “WandaVision” finale. Once again, Marvel Studios has risen the bar for the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It’s safe to say now that their first TV show is a success. It managed to deliver the same satisfying spectacle that we’ve come to expect from the movies.
If you haven’t seen the show yet, I highly recommend you check it out. This video does contain major spoilers, so if you don’t want to undermine the experiment, watch the show first before you watch this video. Enjoy!
The COVID-19 Pandemic: One Year Later
At this time last year, the world was a very different place. There’s a running joke that people now refer to this as “the before times,” but in retrospect, it’s no laughing matter. The world, as we knew it, before the COVID-19 pandemic might as well have been a different universe. Honestly, I look back at those times with mixed emotions now.
Back then, we could go to a crowded movie theater and not feel unsafe.
Back then, we could go to a restaurant without a mask and not feel at risk.
Back then, we could go to a concert or sporting event and enjoy being surrounded by thousands of cheering fans.
Back then, we could decide to travel on a whim, going wherever we pleased without concern about what was closed or cancelled.
I long for those times, as well. I miss them as much as everyone else. Even with all the encouraging news about vaccines and improved treatment, the world is a long way from returning to those fanciful times. Some wonder if we’ll ever go back. I hope we do, but I don’t want to dwell too much on that.
The reason I’m bringing this up is because, here in America, we’re nearing the one-year mark for one things really went south. The COVID-19 pandemic may have begun in late 2019, but the world didn’t really start feeling the effects until February 2020. That’s when the news started to get scary and dire. That’s also when things started shutting down, from major sports to major events.
However, it really didn’t sink in until March 2020. That’s when it became painfully clear. This was not going away quickly. This was not some storm that would pass. It was not going to go away after a few weeks, despite what some claimed. It was when the harsh reality sank in. The pandemic was here and our lives were never going to be the same.
I remember where I was at this time last year. I was having coffee with my mother on a Sunday morning. She too had been watching the news. We were both concerned, but didn’t know just how bad it was going to get. On that same day, I started getting notices from friends and family. The next day, the state made it official.
Everything was being locked down. Schools were closing. Movie theaters were closing. Everything that wasn’t essential was being locked down. People had to either start teleworking or lose their jobs completely. Nobody could travel outside their state. Some states even began stopping people with out-of-state plates from entering. It was that serious.
It happened so fast. In just a few days, the world as we knew it shut down. We didn’t know how long it would last. We didn’t know how bad it was going to get, but it got pretty damn bad.
To date, over 2.5 million people have died from this pandemic. Millions more have been sickened and left to suffer. Numbers like that are impossible to wrap your head around. This pandemic crossed borders, cultures, and classes of all kinds. It didn’t matter what you believed in or who you voted for. You were still vulnerable.
It’s hard to overstate how much this pandemic has changed our world in the past year, so I’m not going to try. I don’t doubt that it will have a major place in future history books. It will also be a traumatic moment in our collective memories.
Regardless of your age or background, you’ve felt the effects of this pandemic. This past year has seared itself in your memory for all the wrong reasons. We’re at a point where we can barely remember what the world was like before all this happened. It’s a painful reality, but one we cannot and should not ignore.
I’ll definitely remember this past year. No matter how long I live, I suspect I’ll feel the effects of this year until my dying days. I don’t claim to know what will happen in years to come or how much the world will change from here on out. I just know that, one year ago, the world as I knew it changed forever.
We all took it for granted. We can look back on it fondly, but let’s not dwell on it too much. We can’t change the past. We can only effect the present.
Filed under Current Events, health, Jack Fisher's Insights, real stories
Jack Fisher’s Sexy Sunday Thoughts: Hard Running Edition
There was a time in my life when I hated running. I’ve made no secret of that. Around that same time, I was not into fitness, exercise, or anything of the sort. Gym was one of my least favorite classes and I saw running as nothing more than extended pain endurance. Needless to say, that had a huge impact on my overall health and body image.
As I got older, I came to appreciate exercise. A big part of that process was learning to appreciate running. I admit, it was still a chore at first. I still disliked the strain and soreness that came with it. That didn’t stop me from pushing myself. Even though it was painful at times, I got better at it. In time, I came to really enjoy it. It’s at a point where I actually enjoy running.
However, through this process, I learned there’s a big difference between running hard and a simple jog. There’s certainly a place for a light jog every now and then. That can be plenty enjoyable and beneficial, in its own right. Hard running is different. Hard running will test your body and your mind, but in the best possible way.
It also has a unique sex appeal to it. There’s no way around that. You’re sweaty, you’re breathing hard, and you’re grunting constantly. I don’t think I need to explain why that has some sordid parallels. Whether you’re a man, woman, or something in between, it’s a sign of strength and endurance. That comes in handy in any sexy situation.
With the weather getting warmer and the world emerging from a global pandemic, the time is right for everyone to start planning for a time when you can show off your sex appeal. We’ve all been pent up and anxious for so long. It’s time to start pushing ourselves and a little hard running will help get our bodies back to form.
Here are some Sexy Sunday Thoughts to get you motivated, among other things. Enjoy!
“If you’re not willing to share a bathroom with someone, then should you really share your genitals with them?”
“Sleeping with a douchebag can be as risky as receiving oral sex from a cannibal.”
“It’s usually safe to assume that someone with a good imagination masturbates more frequently than most.”
“Someone with significant credit card debt is going be more prone to getting involved in S&M, by default.”
“Sleeping with someone who failed sex ed counts as thrill sex on some levels.”
“An important part of finding love is realizing what weird someone does to make you horny.”
“Polyamory only works when everyone involved freely admits just how horny they are.”
Filed under Sexy Sunday Thoughts
Jack Fisher's Official Publishing Blog 
Artificial Intelligence Is Struggling With Racism (And The Larger Implications)
There’s no doubt that artificial intelligence will fundamentally change the world. Its potential is so vast that some even say it will be mankind’s last invention. Once it gets to a certain point, it won’t just be better at everything humans do. It may very well supplant humanity as the dominant life form on this planet. There are no shortage of movies that depict how dire that could be.
That said, it’s bound to go through some growing pains. Not all of those pains will involve a Skynet-level malfunction, but they will warrant concern.
At the moment, our artificial intelligence is still limited. It’s not dumb, but it’s very limited. It can do certain tasks very well, like play chess or win Jeopardy. It can’t apply that intelligence at a broader macro level like a human.
That still makes them useful and they’re still advancing rapidly. Artificial intelligence programs are used frequently for tasks like moderating comments sections and tracking sales data. The problem with these programs is that, since the AI is not generally intelligent, humans have to fill in the gaps. Since humans are flawed and bias, those traits sometimes find their way into the AI.
That’s what happened recently with YouTube’s comment moderation algorithms. As an aspiring YouTuber, I know how imperfect those algorithms can be. The intentions are noble. These AI programs are supposed to curtail hate speech. The internet needs that right now. Anyone who has ever visited 4chan knows that.
However, sometimes the AI systems are so narrow that they don’t ese the forest from the trees. That’s what happened recently when those systems mistook discussions about chess for racist language. Tech Xplore did an article on it and while it’s somewhat humorous on the surface, it’s also quite revealing.
Tech Xplore: AI May Mistake Chess Discussions as Racist Talk
Now, should we be concerned? Is it worrying that an AI with the backing of Google couldn’t surmise that simple terms like “black vs. white” were referring to chess and not race relations?
The short answer is not really.
The longer answer is not really, but we should learn important lessons from this.
The AI systems that moderate YouTube comments are nowhere near the kinds of systems we’d see in an artificial general intelligence. It’s like comparing a steam engine to a modern rocket. That said, we had to learn how to make a damn good steam engine before we could learn to make a decent rocket.
With something like advanced artificial intelligence, the margin for error is very small. You could even argue there is no margin for error. That’s why so many worry that such an AI could be an existential threat to humanity. If its too flawed to understand the difference between chess and racist rhetoric, then we could be in serious trouble.
The problem, in this case, isn’t with the nature of the AI. It’s with us, its creators. Since we humans are so flawed, racism being one of our worst flaws, it’s understandable that this sort of thing would find its way into our programming. It already has in a number of fields.
Again, those types of systems are limited and narrow. There’s a lot of room for human flaws to enter the system.
With advanced AI, those flaws could end up being extremely damaging. If too many of them find their way into a more advanced AI, we wouldn’t end up with a helpful, usable system. We’d end up with something like Skynet or Ultron. At that point, we’d be in serious trouble and we wouldn’t be able to rely on John Conner or the Avengers to save us.
We still have time. This latest issue with YouTube’s algorithms is minor, in the grand scheme of things, and fairly easy to correct. Once we get around to creating more advanced systems, though, we need to be aware of these flaws. We need to remember that any advanced AI we create will reflect our best and worst qualities. Let’s make sure our best win out in the long run.
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Filed under Artificial Intelligence, technology, YouTube
Tagged as AGI, Artificial General Intelligence, Artificial Intelligence, artificial superintelligence, Chess Discussion, comments moderation, computer intelligence, computers, Flawed AI, machine intelligence, machine learning, Racism, racist, racist discussion, Rage Against the Machine, technological singularity, technology, The Queen's Gambit, Weak AI, YouTube, YouTube Comments, YouTube Comments Section, YouTube Video