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Raffi Sarkissian

@rsark

queer Armenian, made in L.A., live in VA, teach at CNU media studies, queer culture, film festivals, awards discourse

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12.08.2023
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Latest posts by Raffi Sarkissian @rsark

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One of my favourite sides of politics/media.

02.03.2026 10:20 πŸ‘ 13391 πŸ” 4254 πŸ’¬ 131 πŸ“Œ 174

Re: Actor Awards autopsy

Madigan can easily take Oscar on long-time industry cred. Wunmi distant second.

Penn: sure. International mix could still lean Skarsgaard. Delroy’s visibility is god tier timing. It’s a race.

MBJ was always gonna SAG but can’t count him out now v Timmy (Hawke dark horse).

02.03.2026 04:17 πŸ‘ 2 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

Is Ryan Coogler the only director to have directed two SAG/Actor Ensemble wins? #ActorAwards

02.03.2026 03:32 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

okay finally caught up with SONG SUNG BLUE. definitely enjoyed the music more than anticipated though a bit of a clunky script.

but I looked up the soundtrack and *confusion* what a lost opportunity to not open the album with "Soolaiman"

28.02.2026 18:33 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

Gosh I truly missed having Kyle on my TV screen. (And Audrey. And Genevieve.) #Survivor

26.02.2026 02:29 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

oh no! hope it's a speedy recovery from here on out. πŸ«‚

23.02.2026 15:39 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
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DoJ cases against protesters keep collapsing as officers’ lies are exposed in court String of embarrassing defeats for prosecutors as experts condemn DoJ effort to cast people as β€˜violent perpetrators’

"In Chicago, of 92 people arrested for assaulting or impeding officers last fall, 74 cases have resulted in no charges; in 13 cases, charges were filed and dismissed; and five charged cases were still pending. . . there have been no convictions.

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

22.02.2026 12:13 πŸ‘ 23810 πŸ” 8410 πŸ’¬ 621 πŸ“Œ 438
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a woman says i don 't know her on a tv show ALT: a woman says i don 't know her on a tv show
21.02.2026 21:14 πŸ‘ 7 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

The last season of Glee is truly an unimaginably unhinged train wreck you can’t turn away from.

20.02.2026 03:08 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
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I hacked ChatGPT and Google's AI – and it only took 20 minutes I found a way to make AI tell you lies – and I'm not the only one.

I got a tip that all over the world, people are using a dead-simple hack to manipulate AI behavior. It turns out changing what AI tells other people can be as easy as writing a blog post *on your own website*

I didn’t believe it, so I decided to test it myself www.bbc.com/future/artic...

18.02.2026 16:37 πŸ‘ 1970 πŸ” 672 πŸ’¬ 31 πŸ“Œ 122

Thousands of institutions abandoned programs, ended or rewrote scholarships, closed down clubs and publications, all in pre-emptive compliance.

And you know why?

Mostly because they wanted to do it if they thought they could blame someone else for it.

18.02.2026 23:47 πŸ‘ 7845 πŸ” 2531 πŸ’¬ 65 πŸ“Œ 84

I’ve been saying since 2015 that the three things you need to understand to understand who Donald Trump and the MAGA movement are and what they intend to do are GamerGate, EuroMaidan, and the various scandals of FIFA (esp under Sepp Blatter).

That feels more true today than it did then.

16.02.2026 22:55 πŸ‘ 44 πŸ” 10 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

En route to #1 of 2025 releases!

15.02.2026 18:23 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
One of Your Girls (NSFW Heated Rivalry vid)

As with *many* others, Heated Rivalry has consumed more of my life than I care to admit recently.

My rewatching and watching other people watching and talking and fan editing led me to finally create my first public fanvid.

Overused song in the fandom but oh well.

drive.google.com/file/d/14m7k...

14.02.2026 23:26 πŸ‘ 3 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

Criminality is so rampant inside CBP that it has seen one of its own agents or officers arrested every 24 to 36 hours since 2005.

www.doomsdayscenario.co/p/accountabi...

13.02.2026 12:54 πŸ‘ 1289 πŸ” 599 πŸ’¬ 23 πŸ“Œ 39

THEY ARE BUYING UP WAREHOUSES TO HOLD HUMAN BEINGS IN DETENTION INDEFINITELY.

I feel crazy at how everyone is acting like this is normal. These are concentration camps being built right before our eyes. These buildings are not meant to house human beings. People will be caged like cattle and die.

10.02.2026 23:19 πŸ‘ 6453 πŸ” 2410 πŸ’¬ 147 πŸ“Œ 71
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a cartoon cat is hugging another cat with a heart above it ALT: a cartoon cat is hugging another cat with a heart above it
11.02.2026 00:23 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

Media and technology criticism masterclass here. Great teaching tool

10.02.2026 21:42 πŸ‘ 7 πŸ” 1 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

Hate fans are asking: has love gone too far?

09.02.2026 05:54 πŸ‘ 408 πŸ” 41 πŸ’¬ 6 πŸ“Œ 3
Just a quick update from the Twin Cities. (Please forgive the unsolicited message). THINGS ARE NOT BETTER IN MINNEAPOLIS. The media is mostly moving on, Trump is focused on other stuff, BUT NOTHING HAS CHANGED ON THE GROUND. More than 2,000 DHS thugs continue to roam the streets, abducting people 24/7, assaulting legal observers with impunity, and routinely denying 1st, 4th, and 5th amendment rights. Drones and helicopters are overhead every day. Hundreds and hundreds of terrified families have not left their homes since mid-December ... relying on the community to bring them food and help with rent and other necessities. (Those people are NOT violent drug cartel sex offending murderers, as DHS would tell you. Most are legal residents or citizens.)  If anything, things have just become more stressful and intractable (think trench warfare as a suitable metaphor): The resistance is better organized and numerous, but DHS has become more clever and better at disguise... and the county sheriff's office is increasingly supporting them . Do not let anyone tell you that Homans (the new person in charge of the occupation) is making anything better. Do not let anyone tell you that 700 ICE agents leaving the city has made much of a difference; the remaining force (again, ~2,000) is still larger than the entire city's police force (which is legally unable to do anything). Please call your congressional reps ... especially if there is any chance the administration might listen to them.

Just a quick update from the Twin Cities. (Please forgive the unsolicited message). THINGS ARE NOT BETTER IN MINNEAPOLIS. The media is mostly moving on, Trump is focused on other stuff, BUT NOTHING HAS CHANGED ON THE GROUND. More than 2,000 DHS thugs continue to roam the streets, abducting people 24/7, assaulting legal observers with impunity, and routinely denying 1st, 4th, and 5th amendment rights. Drones and helicopters are overhead every day. Hundreds and hundreds of terrified families have not left their homes since mid-December ... relying on the community to bring them food and help with rent and other necessities. (Those people are NOT violent drug cartel sex offending murderers, as DHS would tell you. Most are legal residents or citizens.) If anything, things have just become more stressful and intractable (think trench warfare as a suitable metaphor): The resistance is better organized and numerous, but DHS has become more clever and better at disguise... and the county sheriff's office is increasingly supporting them . Do not let anyone tell you that Homans (the new person in charge of the occupation) is making anything better. Do not let anyone tell you that 700 ICE agents leaving the city has made much of a difference; the remaining force (again, ~2,000) is still larger than the entire city's police force (which is legally unable to do anything). Please call your congressional reps ... especially if there is any chance the administration might listen to them.

A desperate plea sent to me by a Minneapolis resident who's been on the front lines since the beginning of the ICE occupation:

08.02.2026 05:06 πŸ‘ 14978 πŸ” 8424 πŸ’¬ 158 πŸ“Œ 311
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New Mozilla Firefox version to allow AI features to be blocked Mozilla will allow Firefox users to entirely block current and future generative AI features on the browser.

Mozilla will allow Firefox users to entirely block current and future generative AI features on the browser after user feedback revealed many who wanted an AI-free browser experience.

03.02.2026 12:50 πŸ‘ 2146 πŸ” 709 πŸ’¬ 52 πŸ“Œ 211
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10 Movies to Stream for Black History Month

Not only is it Black History Month. It’s also its 100th anniversary!!

To commemorate its centennial, I wrote a list of 10 Black films, one from each of the last 10 decades, to stream.

03.02.2026 16:27 πŸ‘ 1210 πŸ” 561 πŸ’¬ 11 πŸ“Œ 23

oh forgot to say: NSFW πŸ˜…

03.02.2026 17:29 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0
One of Your Girls (Heated Rivalry w:lyrics).mp4

Here’s a link to it (should work). I’m still tinkering with small bits but overall it’s pretty much done.

Unfortunately it is a *very* commonly used song in the HR edits already but oh well. It’s my own take.

drive.google.com/file/d/1baTW...

03.02.2026 17:10 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

No. Is there a central place anyone is collecting these edits/vids?

03.02.2026 16:14 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 3 πŸ“Œ 0

This one is good! As an academic who studies fan culture/practices partly, it does bug me that the Internet calls everything "edits" now. This is a very solid, full "vid" in the old school fandom terminology. πŸ€“

03.02.2026 15:42 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

yes I've created one so far but it's not posted in full anywhere yet.

03.02.2026 15:39 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0
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It’s -9 degrees. Downtown Minneapolis is packed for the anti-ICE rally and the crowd keeps growing

23.01.2026 20:16 πŸ‘ 37394 πŸ” 10899 πŸ’¬ 806 πŸ“Œ 971

This is amazing.

23.01.2026 23:12 πŸ‘ 984 πŸ” 145 πŸ’¬ 12 πŸ“Œ 5
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Minneapolis says no to ICE.

23.01.2026 22:51 πŸ‘ 8755 πŸ” 2562 πŸ’¬ 328 πŸ“Œ 207