I saw Bumfights about a week ago and its been itching at the back of my skull since. I can honestly say that Bumfights has made me more _angry_ then anything else I have seen in quite awhile. To the best of my memory, I have not seen another video that made me feel like I needed to shower repeadly after watching. I had trouble sitting through it. I'm not even sure why I didn't stop it half way thru. I wanted to. Maybe it was because I couldn't believe what I was seeing. Or that I needed to see and end to it, possibly something redeeming might happen.. Or at least I might gain some understanding or perspective about this evil shit I was seeing..

And I am a sick fuck, ask anyone I know. Its hard to offend me. Very hard. I like art that confronts me. But this has really got me going.. In an effort to get this out of my head, I must rant.

For those of you who are not familar with this pile of shit (which I refuse to link to on my blog), its the clearest example of an act of class warfare you will ever see. In Bumfights, you get to see homeless people paied to beat the hell out of each other, run into walls, spray painted while sleeping, and generarly abused for your "entertainment". But wait! thats not all! If that was all, it would be _so_ bad..

Between the footage of street bums being abused, you get to see white rich kids beat the shit out of each other around their backyards and their hot cars. You get to see several segments called "Bumhunter" where an idiot imitates Steve Irwin (Crocodile Hunter) as he wrestles and ties up homeless people trying to sleep in alleys and under bridges. You get video segments of crack dealers ranting about how cool crack is, how cool selling crack is, how great doing crack is, etc.. And through the entire video, the people making it do a pretty good job of obscuring most of their identies, rendering them faceless pricks who are clearly concerned with people coming after them. This includes the segment where the "Executive Producer" beats the shit out of someone labeled a "random crackhead".

This is crap. Now, if it was simply people running around paying homeless people to fight each other or do dumb stunts while they film it, it would be one thing.. Jackass stuff.. Thats tasteless, but not this far over the line.. Its the thrust of this video thats its poison. The contrast between the abuse of the homeless, the glorification of violence between stupid white rich kids, and the downright exploitative elements to it... Its clearly trying to drive a wedge between the poor homeless and the white middle-class youth, saying something to the effect of "they are different, they are less then human.." There was defintally a white/back thing in play here, along with the prementioned poor/rich thing.

Its reminiscent of Hitler Youth style dehumanization. It strikes you within 10 min that you are watching the propaganda of the new American fascist youth. At least, I hope it strikes you within 10 min. It really scares me that its likely shitloads of people are sitting around watching this stuff thinking its cool and funny.

Its all got a drum and bass groove under it, flashy techno style type setting, and all the markings of your standard "hip" reality video type thing.. But buried within this video lies some of the most dark social commentary I have ever seen. The message is simple: "We do not care about social justice or the welfare of our fellow man, we just want to fuck shit up, bling bling." Its a meme that I see growing, and it scares the hell out of me. To me, this is clear evidence of our society cracking.. It makes me sad and angry. I am surprised people are not actively trying to KILL the people who made this video.

I am sure the group of people that get angry about every damn thing thats a little bit edgy are angry about this. But they are pointless, they are angry about everything, the power of their descent is limited and diluted by its over use. Censorship is not the answer. An answer that erodes free speech is not an answer.. This is a deeper social problem, shown by this video, but not caused by this video. So I don't even entertain thoughts that follow a line of blocking the producers ability to produce volume 2 & 3 of this series.

So what do I suggest? A little reversal is in order. If this is class warfare, the white rich kids threw the first punch. It should be followed with a block and a hook in self defense.. Its time for the Fightbums. Get some bums coke'd out of their minds... Set them loose to beat the shit out of rich white kids hanging out with their psudo gangs.. (or maybe the producers of Bumfights?) Capture it on camera.. Print it up on VCDs.. Start sticking copies of it wherever Bumfights is sold.. The highest form of boycott. Devalue the product and erode its business, using only the opposing viewpoint.

I'd watch that. I'd laugh at that. I'd make copies of that and stick it on shelves next to Bumfights.

... Or maybe that just adds to the problem. Argh.. Ok, I feel better now that I've vented.

(Sorry if some of my details about the scenes I described are incorrect, I don't have any desire to watch this again in order to get my facts 100% correct..)