20-21 Sep 2010
I woke up at 12:00 PM, and took 1 piracetam and choline at 2:00 PM. I didn't get as much sleep as I could have, so I was a bit tired throughout the day, but it was nothing excessive. Being nervous kind of balanced it out. I recorded and posted the new video, which was pretty stressful. It's very strange to look at a progress bar inching away, and realize that this is something which could potentially explode your life. It seems like an analogue to the concept of Hell: something massively disproportionate that hinges on something so trivially unimportant. It's just that this is actually real. It felt like standing at the edge of possibility. I had wandered into one of those most delicate areas where freedom itself becomes frightening, because literally anything can happen. You can precipitate disaster from your bedroom with nothing but a video camera and some carefully (or carelessly) chosen words. Whether you're Jessi Slaughter or Zinnia Jones, that's all it can take to upend your existence in utterly unpredictable ways.
I still chose to do it. I consulted with friends, almost wishing they would tell me not to. I waited, I put it off for as long as I could stand. It would have been "easier" to just back away and forget about it. But that wouldn't have been right. This was necessary, even if it's dangerous. I can't just shut up and watch this happen without objecting. So I took precautions, made plans, got over whichever part of myself was holding things up, and did it. And there's still no way to tell what comes next.
Ultimately, this came down to weighing the cost of inaction against the possible results. And once I had reached the conclusion that not doing anything would have too great a price, there was no other acceptable option but to do it. After that, anything else became irrelevant - I had to let go of it and move on. I like how Taylor Swift (in)articulated this:
So, I think I should work on a video review of the Kindle. It's probably best to just focus on what's next, act like everything is as normal as it was before, and hope that this holds true indefinitely. It's the only sensible choice.
My best advice would be to remember why you went about creating the video in the first place; you wanted a world where people needn't live in fear due to religious fundamentalist psychotics making threats. Consider every day you live happily and in the company of friends and family a victory and do your best to be both careful and to keep the fear in check. It's what they want after all.
Stacy
Man, I love you.
You are inspiring, and made of win. You're right that it's entirely ridiculous for people in our culture, with our right to free expression, to fear offending someone who might kill you for a drawing. Especially when many people are defending the extremist's right to free expression, even when their religious views are believed to be reprehensible.
Too many otherwise intelligent people defending the religious nutjobs, all in the cause of cultural relativism. As if those who do not share the ideals of secularism should be given leeway.
luckily and sadly at the same time, I dont think this will get you any wide attention to the problem or attention of muslim extremist(to show them the middle finger), because as far as I can tell(as an atheist with a shallow understanding of islam) you didn´t break any islamic rule/law. Creating images of mo is forbidden to them but I dont think there is a rule against destroying those (there might even be a rule demanding what you did(deriving from mo´s actions at the kaaba)).
Way to take the initiative, especially when it's so serious an issue.
I don't think you quite grasp how this will effect you ZJ. You ATE Muhammad - consequences will never be the same.
Fuck Taylor Swift for stealing someone elses witticism, bastardising it and claiming it as her own.
Now back on topic: you are awesome. do not stop being awesome. that is all.
After seeing all of the videos you have made on you tube the last one was one of the better ones.Most people would not have the guts (myself included) to do what you did.Please make more videos like this one, simple subjects,simple words for your simpleton viewers like myself.Some of the videos that you make I just can't understand them,they go over my head,I'll watch them 3 or 4 times in a row and I don't understand what there about,I used to think that the close captioning was for just for the hearing impaired viewers but now I know there also for the intelligence impaired viewers like myself.This comes from one of you less intelligent imaginary boyfriends.
to Zinna:
"Please make more videos like this one, simple subjects,simple words for your simpleton viewers"
Please DO NOT do this.
to Starman:
"but now I know there also for the intelligence impaired viewers like myself."
Not understanding a subject ins´t always due to lack of intelligence but rather (often) lack of knowledge about the involved elements (so informing yourself about those elements is a more fruitful approach for everyone involved than just giving up and asking for a simplified version).
I was being honest,have you ever admitted to an imperfection once in your life?Or are you like most of the general public that never once admits to being anything less than perfect?
And copying and pasting what someone else wrote all the time really shows a lack of creativity on your part,you can do better than that.
"I was being honest,have you ever admitted to an imperfection once in your life?Or are you like most of the general public that never once admits to being anything less than perfect?"
-if you just look up a few posts above you will see that I described my understanding of islam as "shallow"(implying that there is a good chance the assessment I made could be wrong)
-I generally don´t think of myself in absolute terms of perfect/imperfect (or quantification of it) but rather in terms of how I performed in comparison to someone else
-you did more than that, you asked that ZJ to (no offense) dumb it down for you (and subsequently for everyone else)
"And copying and pasting what someone else wrote all the time really shows a lack of creativity on your part,you can do better than that."
quoting my discussion partner is just to show to what exactly I am referring and my comments usually aren´t constructed to be creative but to get my point across as effectively as possibly (with generally mixed result´s)
You couldn't stop copying and pasting to save your life,I guess it's true what they say that you can't teach an old dog new tricks,now copy and paste that why don't you?
"You couldn't stop copying and pasting to save your life,"
I could stop quoting what I refer to, I just see no reason why I should (you claiming that its "uncreative" is not a good reason).
And I would like to add that this is a rather weird point to criticize (to concentrate on such a minor(not even negative) point of style rather than on the substance).
"I guess it's true what they say that you can't teach an old dog new tricks,"
said the guy who was unwilling to inform himself further in a subject at hand and asked that its simplified for him instead
"now copy and paste that why don't you?"
sure WHY NOT?
Don't worry, Muhammad loves executive transvestites. And technically you were destroying an image of Muhammad, so with one less image of their prophet in the world, wouldn't that make them happy? Plus, their prophet is now in the belly of the beast, so to speak.
i hope u don't get indigestion; i like you and ur videos
I think you're ridiculously brave, Zinnia.
Honestly, I probably wouldn't have had the guts to make such a video, even though I agree with you 100%.
I posted a picture on my Facebook page of my drawing of Muhammad was attacked (verbally, not physically) by some of my Facebook "friends", NONE of whom were Muslim! No one understood it. People have come to accept fear of Islamic extremism as a way of life, and it has to stop.
Standing up against Islamic extremism (and extremism in general) the way you did is amazing. Keep being awesome.
I applaud you, ZJ.
When a cartoonist has effectively has had to start a new life because she decided to satirise something, it gets my blood up both as an atheist and an aspiring comedian. I'll admit, part of me is still not quite on board with Draw Muhammad Day (I know it's inconsistent, even I'm having trouble explaining to myself quite why) but this has tipped it over the line for me. It's unacceptable that threats have been made on Molly Norris' life for drawing something, and it would be unacceptable if anything happened to you.
I hope it all goes well.
well, if you saw my video response to your video, you know where I stand. standing up for what you believe in and saying "no! I have the right to stand up to you!" may be nerve wracking. but if people don't stand up, don't voice what they believe, then it's over.
you've made where you stand known. and others have done the same.
and being that I'm one of them, I can say proudly "I stand with ZJ on this."