Tag Archives: pop culture

Excerpts from a Beatles Fanzine

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(There was some kind of web hosting problem and this post got erased the day after I posted it so I’m recreating it here. Lesson, which I have learned to heed from past experience – always write your article in a text file on a hard drive first so you can quickly re-create it!)

There is a possibility that during my current Social Engineering class I might want to cite in a paper or project some of the old content that I produced for a Beatles fanzine in the late 1990s and early 2000s. I was a member of the St. Louis Beatles Fan Club and we published a fanzine called “What Goes On”. I’ve been meaning for a long time to re-publish some of these old articles on my blog, but to make them fully indexable I would need to find a way to access some of the floppy and zip discs I have to get typed-out copies of these articles. For now it’s a lot quicker to scan the pages I might want to use and put them in a PDF file. In order for the PDF to be somewhat searchable, I’m leaving the introductory text and index as text and not rasterizing it. I will also include a list of keywords for each excerpt so that researchers online can at least get a hint of where to access some of this information if they want it for study. I’m going to reproduce the searchable text in the PDF in the remainder of this blog post also. Believe it or not, there is scholarly interest in not only the Beatles, but also Beatles fandom, fandom in general, and ‘zine culture.

I kind of made up my own format, very loosely based on MLA, so I don’t claim that this document adheres to a standard way of cataloging this type of material. I might revise the format later. Enjoy!

Excerpts from “What Goes On”: A Beatles Fanzine
Originally published by the St. Louis Beatles Fan Club, 1999-2003
Copyright 1999-2003 the original authors

Excerpts included:

Winkelmann, Carolyn Hasenfratz. “‘Across the Internet’ #1”. What Goes On, Vol. VI, No 3, October 1999, pp. 11-13.
Keywords: fandom and VCRs, home video recordings, history of media formats, Across the Internet, internet use by fandom in 1999, early days of the World Wide Web.

— “Revolution #9: The Art of Play and the Joys of Noise.” What Goes On, vol. VII, no. 1, January 2000, pp. 6-9.
Keywords: sound collages, music concrete, experimental music, sound experiments, conceptual art, performance art, home taping, cassette tape culture, Beatles 1968 Christmas message, Beatles fandom in the 1980s, history of media formats, noise tapes, White Album, playing records backwards, backwards sound experiments, St. Louis Steamers, Checkerdome, Revolution 9, soundtrack for art gallery, low-fi sound experiments, homemade sound recordings, prank calls, Commodore 64 computer, found sounds.

— “Across the Internet” #2. What Goes On, vol. VII, no. 1, January 2000, pp. 12-13.
Keywords: history of media formats, Across the Internet, internet use by fandom in 2000, early days of the World Wide Web, RealPlayer, Windows Media Player.

— “Joe Davis Takes Us Back To ‘Meet The Beatles’.” What Goes On, vol. VII, no. 2, April 2000, pp. 1, 9. Aricle by Rich Reese, Carolyn’s contribution is the collages of Valentine cards on page 9.
Keywords: Joe Davis, listening party, “Meet the Beatles…Again!” radio show, 97.7 KSD FM, Nick Baycott, Les Aaron, Bears Who Care, St. Louis Veteran’s Hospital, Brentwood Community Center, “The Beatles are more popular than Jesus” controversy, 101 the Fox, FM radio in St. Louis, Missouri.

— “Happiness is a Warm…Picnic.” What Goes On, vol. VII, no. 4, October 2000, pp. 4. Photos by Carolyn.
Keywords: PepperLand, Creve Couer Lake park, Beatle Bob, Rich Reese.

— “I Wanna Be Santa Claus.” What Goes On, vol. VII, no. 4, October 2000, pp. 5, 11.
Keywords: John Lennon tribute, Peace Tree, Christmas, Holiday party, Christmas ornaments, conceptual art, group art project, John Lennon, Yoko Ono, Bagism, performance art, peace activism, peace movement.

— “Pop! Goes The Beatles: the beatles and pop art.” What Goes On, vol. IX, no. 3, September 2001, pp. 13.
Keywords: Pop Art, St. Louis Art Museum, Pop Impressions Europe, art show review, Richard Hamilton, mass media criticism, consumer culture criticism, printmaking, Peter Blake, swinging London, Eduardo Paolozzi, album cover design, Dieter Roth, illustration, fan art, interpretation of song lyrics.

— “‘Across The Internet’ #3” What Goes On, vol. IX, no. 3, September 2001, pp. 13.
Keywords: Liverpool Sound Collage, Peter Blake, history of media formats, Across the Internet, internet use by fandom in 2001, early days of the World Wide Web.

Here are the Beatles Pop Art ornaments I made for a 9/11 benefit recovery raffle. I actually won back the Paul ornament and I still have it. Later I used the templates and prototypes to make a rubber stamping project that was published in RubberStampMadness magazine. Here is a link to an ornament that is similar to the ones in the article: Surreal Mixed Media Shadow Box Ornament

— “Fans and Friends Remember George.” What Goes On, Special Commemorative George Harrison Issue, February 2002, pp. 5. Carolyn’s contribution is the George Harrison themed Pop Art ornament.
Keywords: Pop Art, handmade ornament, Christmas ornament, fan tributes to George Harrison, Dave Grohl, Louise Harrison, Jools Holland, Eric Idle, Anthony Kiedis, Mark Klose, Jeff Lynne, Gerry Marsden, George Martin, fan art, celebrity tributes to George Harrison, Louise Harrison Caldwell.

— “McCartney Drives Into Chicago With Full Tank: The Sights.” What Goes On, vol. IX, no. 1, June 2002, pp. 1, 6.
Keywords: Paul McCartney concert review, Chicago, United Center, Driving USA Tour, concert lighting, concert video screens, special effects, performance art, live actors, Surrealist performance, Dadaist performance, rock concert production, arena rock, mulimedia, conceptual art, Pop art, Psychedelic art, art history.

— “‘Across The Internet’ #4.” What Goes On, vol. IX, no. 2, October 2002, pp. 5.
Keywords: history of media formats, Across the Internet, internet use by fandom in 2002, early days of the World Wide Web, Linda McCartney photography exhibit, Sheldon Art Galleries, Nine/One One + One art show, Art St. Louis, 9/11 art show.

Note: For the 9/11 art show referenced just above, I made two collages to submit for judging. There are some differences between them that I deliberately put in to test a theory about which one had a chance of getting in the show and which did not. My prediction was accurate, and is interesting to think about in light of the social engineering I’m currently studying. Here are the links to the two collages, if you want to guess which one got in and what didn’t.

“State of the Union #1”

“State of the Union #2”

This is another 9/11 themed project I made, and artist book that was in a show that was not juried. I made this about a month after the event.

“Liberty – A Successful Experiment”

— “New Paul Live CD = Permanent Grin.” What Goes On, vol. IX, no. 3, 2003, pp. 4.
Keywords: CD review, record review, Paul McCartney Back in the U.S., concert recording, concert CD, live album, live CD, rock concert.

— “Scrapbook Scraps.” What Goes On, vol. IX, no. 3, 2003, pp. 13.
Keywords: scrapbooking, digital scrapbooking, Seattle, Seattle Kingdome, record breaking rock concernts, legendary concert venues, rock concert history, Hollywood, Capitol Records building, Hollywood and Vine, Yellow Submarine, John Lennon, Hollywood Walk of Fame, gold records, travel photos, Beatles impact on culture.

Download the PDF file here:

Excerpts from “What Goes On”: A Beatles Fanzine

“I listened to a hilarious podcast about a fistula the other day…”

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The quote above probably sounds like an unlikely sentence to text to anyone, but I have a doctor friend who shares my interest in audio content and has a weird sense of humor. She did in fact receive such a communication from me. We often recommend podcasts to each other to try out. A humorous episode about a fistula sounded to me like one she’d enjoy!

What are podcasts? They are audio presentations that you can consume on demand with a device that can access the Internet. If you like books on tape, instructional audio tapes, public radio, community radio, talk radio or similar audio content you will probably enjoy them – there seems to be a podcast for almost any topic you might be interested in.

Podcasts are a big part of my life. One reason is that I’m not very patient with entertainment content that is not on demand. I don’t want to constantly watch or listen to content that is selected by programmers to emotionally and intellectually manipulate me. I’m currently working on a Master’s Degree in Communications. My long-held suspicions that most mass media content is manipulation disguised as entertainment have been confirmed by my recent studies. I feel less manipulated if I at least choose the topics I want to hear about and get more of my entertainment from independent content producers. Although I sometimes enjoy mass entertainment for my own reasons, I prefer to avoid being inundated with commercials when possible and I don’t normally want to arrange my schedule around entertainment schedules – I want to watch or listen when it’s convenient for me.

Another reason is that I rely on podcasts a lot to help me fall asleep at night. While recovering from severe emotional trauma, I was introduced to meditation apps and sleep aid podcasts. Some podcasts are designed specifically for inducing sleep, and others work that way for me even if not specifically produced for that purpose.

I also spend multiple days a week working from home and podcasts help keep me entertained and less lonely if I’m doing tasks that are not that mentally engaging.

Here are some of my favorite podcasts, many with my brief commentary, divided into categories. I’ve linked to the podcast’s web site or social media fan page whenever possible so that no matter what platform or service you use to consume podcasts, if you can access the Internet hopefully you can find a way to listen. Usually that is done through a web browser or podcast app.

Educational podcasts

The History of Egypt Podcast – seems to be real archaeology, not pseudoarchaeology!

Pet Fish Talk – Inactive, but most of the episodes are still available. It’s not very polished, but these guys are like rock stars to me because of all the knowledge they have – when my landscaping boss told me he met these guys at a green industry conference, I was excited and pumped him for every bit of information he could remember. “You met the Bailey Brothers!!!! OMG!!!”

PodGOATS – great if you need an introduction to a history topic that you are interested in exploring in a more in-depth way later.

Stuff to Blow Your Mind

Stuff You Should Know – I don’t know if some of this “stuff” is important, but it’s almost all interesting once you get into it. A wide variety of topics to choose from.

You Bet Your Garden – A perennial favorite (har har).

Humor podcasts

The Crash Bang Wallop Podcast – This is a weird one. Two British comedians mocking some aspects of disasters. I felt extremely guilty for trying this one out, but since once at a trivia night I did sweep, singlehandedly, both the British slang and Disaster categories, I had to see for myself what I thought of it. They seem to (try to) steer away from mocking the victims and instead mock some aspects of the situation. Some of the disasters they cover are very tragic and terrible, and some are more lighthearted, such as New Coke. If dark humor does not appeal to you probably best to avoid the more tragic episodes.

The Dave Glover Show

The Tim Conway Jr. Show

Political podcasts

The Kevin Jackson Show – African-American conservatives are not unheard of, but they usually don’t get featured a lot in the mass media. If you want to hear from one, Kevin Jackson is very entertaining and will help you look at things from angles you may not have considered, if that’s what you are looking for.

Pop Culture podcasts

The Beatles Naked – I listen to a lot of Beatles podcasts and this is my current favorite. From what I can tell there is a lot of original or less obvious research presented.

Deck the Hallmark – I found this podcast while doing research for my paper What is the Hallmark Channel Selling? There are three hosts who have different views on Hallmark Channel programming – fan, tolerant, and critical. They are also very funny and I think you’ll laugh as they find things to rip and praise.

Fabcast – If you don’t LLLOOOOVVVVEEE the Beatles you might get frustrated by the sometimes over-the-top praise from these hosts, but they really do know their stuff and they have some perspectives that are worth hearing.

Fab 4 Free 4 All – These guys talk over each other a lot, which can get annoying sometimes, but their likable personalities and vast Beatles knowledge help make up for that.

I’ve Got a Beatles Podcast! – The hosts are really knowledgeable – one is even a musicologist. They also sometimes say hilarious things. For example, if you are a Paul McCartney fan, check out Episode 80: McCartney’s “Silliest (Love) Songs!” in which they include this concept – is a song “bad” if you love it? Thought provoking and funny!

Paul or Nothing – Some Paul McCartney fans that night not like this one. The host has some controversial opinions and has interviewed possibly the most controversial guest available – Geoffrey Guiliano. Guiliano is such a polarizing Beatles author that some people made up a rumor that he died in the 9/11 attacks. I found the resulting interview extremely entertaining along with most of these episodes, which sometimes praise and sometimes rip apart McCartney’s music. The host is engaging, funny and does his research. He is young and just learning some of the things we older fans have known for awhile, but he’s clearly putting in the effort.

Rushcast – hasn’t been active in awhile, but you can still listen to the archived episodes. Hosted by a bassist and music teacher.

Something About the Beatles

Talk More Talk – This is a videocast about the Beatles as solo artists. So far I’ve consumed it as audio only.

Take It Away – Knowledgeable analysis of Paul McCartney’s music.

Things We Said Today – Solid and entertaining Beatles analysis. Allan Kozinn in my opinion stands out in a field of talented hosts.

Trashy Divorces – Most of these episodes are about celebrities, so if you study pop culture, reputation management, the use of media as a weapon or related topics you might find it useful.

Religious podcasts

Catholic Answers Live – You have to know a lot to be able to explain the Catholic Faith and the rotating hosts on this show know the answers. They are respectful and loving to all callers but not afraid to tell it like it is even when it’s radically counter-cultural. If you are curious about what Catholics believe or are Catholic and want to strengthen your practice, this is one of the best resources I know of.

The Thriving Christian Artist – Tips to help achieve spiritual, artistic and financial success.

Who Is the Man of the Shroud? – One of my favorite intersections – Archaeology and Christianity!

Sleep Inducing podcasts

Sleep With Me – Delightfully, whimsically, benevolently weird! Effective too!

 

I’m not sure why but I feel I have to explain my interest in the next couple of podcast categories a little bit! I inherited a layperson’s interest in morbid topics and forensic science, along with archaeology and history, from my Mother and Grandmother. It may be weird, but I came by it honestly! My Mom subscribed to Reader’s Digest when I was in grade school and I usually read every article in it, but the ones that really stick in my memory are the disaster and unsolved mystery related articles. My Mom took us to every historic site that was possible during her life and history is often rather dark. When you visit historic sites and monuments, you will learn about all kinds of disasters, deaths, epidemics, assassinations, wars, crimes and oppression as well as happier topics.

When I was young, along with subscriptions to the adult and kid’s versions of National Geographic, I also had a subscription to a kid’s magazine for mysteries, UFO’s, Sci-Fi and paranormal stuff called Weird Worlds. I lost most of my interest in Sci-Fi and UFO’s when I got older but I still love mysteries, especially historical ones. I also am fascinated by human behavior. The way people react in extreme situations is interesting to me.

Weird History and Paranormal podcasts

Astonishing Legends – I am a practicing Roman Catholic, so I do believe there is a realm of existence that is beyond what our senses can normally detect, but that doesn’t mean I find every report of such phenomena credible. Most paranormal topics bring out the skeptic in me, but I have an open mind and if someone can make a case that is evidence based, I would like to hear it. The Astonishing Legends guys do a great job of doing thorough research and presenting their evidence in a way that seems intellectually honest. They lean on the side of believing in some of the paranormal phenomena they research when evidence is inconclusive or suggestive. I have no problem with that. There is no point to listening for entertainment to a presentation of research on a paranormal topic that is settled. What is the fun of that? If you don’t consider a mystery debunked, why not entertain it for awhile and see what happens? I enjoy the mental exercise of deciding how to evaluate evidence.

Diggin’ Oak Island – This podcast is about a TV show that my husband and I watch called “The Curse of Oak Island”. The History Channel should be ashamed of how intellectually dishonest this show is, but it’s still entertaining because I like the personalities, the technology and the ridiculousness. If you are interested in the actual mystery (I’m one of those people who was fascinated by the Reader’s Digest article about it in the 1970s) I recommend this podcast as a companion piece to the show. It helps understand what you’ve just watched and figure out what is bunk and what might have some credibility to it. This host doesn’t trash the show when it’s not called for, he is a fan, but he is also appropriately critical.

The Futility Closet – Obscure bits of interesting history plus lateral thinking puzzles.

Jimmy Akin’s Mysterious World – Jimmy Akin is my favorite host on the Catholic Answers religious podcast. Here he tackles both mysterious faith related subjects and mysterious non-religious topics and analyzes them from both a logic perspective and a faith perspective. Very stimulating and refreshing to listen to, because he draws on many areas of knowledge and explores how they inform each other. The depth of this guy’s knowledge is astonishing every time I listen.

Lore – Sometimes it annoys me that the description of each episode is kind of vague, but on the other hand not knowing much about the topic before I listen helps me to be surprised and exposes me to bits of history that I didn’t know. I also like this host’s other podcast, Cabinet of Curiosities.

Omnibus – This is the podcast that featured the hilarious fistula episode. What more do I need to say?

Thinking Sideways – Unfortunately inactive but the archives are still available.

Disaster and Disturbing podcasts

Casefile – This is one of my favorites in the True Crime genre. Well researched and respectful to the victims, and free of rambling.

Coroner Talk – Sounds like a great educational resource if you are a coroner. Why do I like it? I am also interested in how such an occupation affects people psychologically and what it takes to be able to do a job like that.

Great Disasters – The hostess has a great delivery, very clear and organized, but not without emotion when appropriate. She is an amazing storyteller and reader. And the topics are well written and researched. You’ll be moved and informed.

Nocturne – This is a good one for when you want to be just a little creeped out but not necessarily terrified!

Omitted – Season Four, Island Vacation combines creepiness, storytelling and travel. Really compelling.

Plane Crash Podcast – Believe it or not, there are several podcasts about plane crashes in existence. This is by far my favorite. The host does good research, is logical, doesn’t ramble, and has a kind, compassionate attitude.

Rippercast – Although organized around the Jack the Ripper case, this podcast is mostly not focused on gore but instead on Victorian history and culture and how it intersects with the case. Since the case lives on in current pop culture, some of the episodes examine that aspect also. If you have any interest in the Victorian era there will probably be some episodes you can get into.

True Crime Garage – I don’t listen to every episode, but my liking for the hosts keeps me checking in from time to time.

Wow, that was a huge list. It doesn’t include all the podcasts I currently listen to or have listened to, but I hope it’s enough of a selection that you’ll find something interesting!

More Pop Art – Poop Emoji Patch and Pillow

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I started seeing poop emoji pillows for sale in mall kiosks last fall. Ever since then I’ve been tempted to buy one – why? They make me laugh, that’s why, and I like to laugh! But I have been too embarrassed to buy one. It’s kind of hard to justify at my age! At JoAnn Fabrics and Crafts, where I teach classes, they have started selling emoji merchandise. You can buy patches, pillows, pillow kits, suncatcher kits and more. The poop designs seem to sell out a lot faster than the other emojis, so I guess I don’t need to be embarrassed. Still, I feel better about making a poop patch and poop pillow rather than buying one. I can always justify it as sewing practice, right?

When I was in seventh grade, my Mom made a duffel bag for me out of an old pair of my jeans. I used to use it for Girl Scout camping trips. It’s a good size for transporting a sleeping bag, pillow, air mattress and sheets. When I was older, for nostalgia reasons I got it out again and I decided it would be a good place to display my growing collection of patches. Over the last several years I’ve been sewing on old patches and collecting new ones and adding them to the duffel bag. It’s a great conversation starter on trips and reminds me of fun times!

Duffel bag with some of my patches

To make the poop patch, I downloaded a pattern and used Photoshop to size it for a patch. I printed out the design and traced it onto tracing paper. I made extra tracings to use for cutting and lining up.

To make a poop patch like mine, transfer a tracing of the outline of the poop, the white smile and the white part of the eyeballs onto scrap chipboard. Cut out the chipboard.

Place the poop outline chipboard template onto a piece of medium brown felt. Trace around the chipboard with a ball-point pen and cut out the brown poop piece. Trace around the smile and eyeball pieces on white felt and cut out.

Take a tracing on tracing paper of the whole poop design, with the brown lines and facial features indicated and pin it to the front of the brown felt piece. Use it as a guide for where to pin the white smile and eyeball pieces. Using white thread, sew around the edges of the white pieces to hold them in place.

Using dark brown embroidery thread, sew the brown diagonal lines using a running stitch. Don’t sew the outline yet – you’ll sew the outline when you sew your patch where it’s going to go. Carefully tear the paper away. A pair of tweezers is helpful for removing tiny bits of paper that might stick in small crevices.

Make a tracing on tracing paper of only the eyes, including the pupils and cut out, leaving some space around the eyes for pinning in place. Pin your tracing over the eyes so you can see exactly where to sew the pupils. With black embroidery thread, outline the pupils then fill them in solid with a satin stitch. Tear away the paper.

When you sew on your patch, use brown embroidery thread around the edge. You’re done!

handmade felt poop pillow

Pictured above is the small pillow I made from the same pattern at a larger size. Because of the larger size I sewed on black felt ovals for the pupils instead of using stitching only to fill them in. I used two pieces of dark brown felt as the pillow body. Cut a little larger, they made a nice outline. I sewed the medium brown felt portion with all the details onto the front.

Heisenberg Pillow

Fabric and Fiber Arts, Home Decor, Upcycling, , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Heisenberg pillow inspired by Breaking Bad
Heisenberg pillow inspired by Breaking Bad

A therapist recently suggested the use of a talking globe for family discussions. This reminded me of the family intervention scene with the talking pillow in the TV show Breaking Bad. In my immediate family we are all fans of the show and I thought it would be funny to make a talking pillow and have a portrait of the main character Walter White aka Heisenberg on it. That should create a more convivial atmosphere for us. I feel a little silly making fan art at my age but if I call it Pop Art it’s more legit, right?

I traced a drawing of the character at the size I wanted onto translucent tracing paper. I decided to applique felt onto the dark hat and sunglasses areas so I used my tracing to make additional outlines for the hat and glasses on scrap paper. I pinned the scrap paper to the felt and cut the shapes out. Another method for transferring a shape design to felt is to make a chipboard template and trace around it with a ball point pen or graphite pencil for light colors or a light colored chalk pencil for dark felt colors.

Next I cut out two square pieces for the front and back of the pillow from scrap knit white fabric with a texture to it that was suggestive of cross stitch backing fabric. I ironed fusible webbing onto the backs of each piece because stretchy fabric like this knit is sometimes hard to keep square.

I pinned my tracing to the front of the pillow and fastened my felt pieces in place over the sunglasses and hat areas. I stitched the felt pieces around the edges with black embroidery thread to hold the applied pieces in place. I then stitched the rest of the design with two different weights of embroidery thread through the tracing paper. When I was finished stitching I carefully tore the tracing paper away. In places where the stitching was close together I used a pair of tweezers to tear out some small remaining tracing paper bits.

I pinned the pillow halves together with the good sides facing out since I was not planning to turn the pillow inside out. I stitched the halves together with more of the black embroidery thread leaving a gap at the bottom edge for stuffing. I stuffed he pillow with fiberfill then sewed the gap shut. The last step to finish the pillow was to trim the raw fabric edges with pinking shears.

A Comparison Between Emotional Abuse and Saul Alinsky’s “Rules for Radicals”

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The tone of public discourse about politics in our country today alarms a lot of people of different political persuasions. Events in my recent personal history have caused me to educate myself about emotional abuse tactics that others have used against me. I’ve noticed that a lot of these tactics are prominent in social media and the “mainstream” media. It seems to permeate almost all pop culture, entertainment and “news” which is why I avoid most of it and have for many years. I thought it would be interesting to compare emotional abuse tactics that I have personally experienced with Saul Alinsky’s “Rules for Radicals” and see if there is any overlap.

Here are links to the source documents I used for my comparison:

And here are the results:

My Personal Experience Rules for Radicals
Intended target I was likely perceived as vulnerable because of grieving a deep personal loss and having suffered a recent and extreme career and financial downturn Low-income communities and “have nots”
Gaslighting Ex-boyfriend tried to convince me that I have a lot of illnesses and that my web site gave him a virus. Ex-boss told me I’m not smart enough to learn things in classes I wanted to take. “Whenever possible, go outside the expertise of the enemy.” Look for ways to increase insecurity, anxiety and uncertainty.
Name-calling and put-downs Just in the last week I’ve had the following terms applied to me – “dumb”, “mouth-breathing”, “brain-dead”, “stupid”, “subhuman dwarf”. These were in one-on-one interactions where the people knew exactly who they were addressing.
My ex-boyfriend mocked my physical appearance and gloated and mocked me over signs that I was hurt by his actions.		 “Ridicule is man’s most potent weapon.” There is no defense. It’s irrational. It’s infuriating. It also
works as a key pressure point to force the enemy into concessions.
Isolating you from your support networks My ex-boyfriend put down my family and sabotaged a reunion I had with some friends I hadn’t seen in years.
My ex-boss instructed co-workers not to help me with my projects.		 “Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it.” Cut off the support network and isolate the
target from sympathy. Go after people and not institutions; people hurt faster than institutions.
Projection – accusing you of doing things they are doing themselves My ex-boyfriend had a lot of debt and I have none but he accused me numerous times of being bad at handling money. “Power is not only what you have, but what the enemy thinks you have.”
They accuse you of being “too sensitive” in order to deflect their abusive remarks When people taunt you and hurt you until you react, they can accuse you of all kinds of things, such as being neurotic and mentally ill. And that’s just the beginning! “If you push a negative hard enough, it will push through and become a positive.”
They try to make you feel as though they are always right, and you are wrong Abusive people have criticized me for not having enough money then got angry at me for working too hard.
I’ve been put down for taking classes to help me with my career while simultaneously being put down by the same person for my career not being sufficiently successful. I’ve been put down for things that I think are common sense – getting exercise, wearing sunscreen, eating healthy food, losing weight, saving my retirement money for retirement, combining car trips to save on gas. An abusive ex-roommate used to put down my hair color (it was natural then!). There doesn’t seem to be any aspect of my life that is too trivial for someone else to take notice of and attack.		 “Keep the pressure on. Never let up.” Keep trying new things to keep the opposition off balance.

Results: there is not a one-to-one correspondence, but there is some overlap. I recommend you read the signs of emotional abuse very carefully – is someone in your personal life using those tactics against you? Is the media using those tactics against you? Are political movements using those tactics against you? I’m not pointing the finger at only one side here – I’ve been abused by people from different political points of view. My goal in writing this is to make you more aware of abuse in your life and inspire you to refuse to tolerate it – no matter who is doing it to you!