FILM

10 Movies Guaranteed to Make You Cry

Because tearjerkers are cheaper than therapy.

best tearjerker movies to make you cry

By Claudia-Wolff (Unsplash)

News of mass shootings, threats of nuclear war, and political and cultural unrest are inescapable these days.

The human brain isn't meant to take in such a constant stream of bad news. As a result, many Americans have become numb and pessimistic, hardly blinking an eye when we hear about the latest tragedy. It's not that we don't care—it's that letting every heartbreaking thing actually break our hearts is just too much to handle.

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CULTURE

My Hero Academia Backlash and the Art of the Bad Faith Take

#WeSupportYouHorikoshi is a nice sentiment, but the threat is mostly imaginary.

Shueisha

The My Hero Academia Twitter fandom is up in arms against the evil SJW portion of the My Hero Academia fandom over their brazen attempts to cancel the popular manga series' creator, Kohei Horikoshi...Or at least that's what some bad faith actors want you to believe.

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FILM

5 Holocaust Movies to Watch on International Holocaust Remembrance Day

"Never forget" isn't just about remembering. It's about taking action to prevent it from happening again.

Buchenwald

Photo by Wim Van T Einde Unsplash

January 27 is International Holocaust Remembrance Day, a day to commemorate and reflect upon the horrors of the Holocaust.

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Eminem 'The Jonathan Ross Show' TV Programme, London, Britain - 15 Nov 2013

Photo by Brian J Ritchie/Hot Sauce/Shutterstock

Eminem's spats with other stars are a big part of Hip-Hop lore, but Nick Cannon is sick of his sh*t.

Since 1999, Marshall Mathers has had 14 extensive feuds with rappers and entertainers and insulted countless other figures in pop culture. A battle rapper at heart, he's an emcee who thrives amid conflict. He once rapped about how conflict "gets his dick harder than arithmetic." His surprise Kamikaze album was, in this sense, a return to form. Released in 2018, Kamikaze revitalized Eminem's waning career after the lukewarm reception of 2017'sRevival, 2010's Recovery, and 2009's Relapse. Fans had long demanded he return to his sh*t-talking ways. So on Kamikaze, his battle rapping roots were on full display as he attacked a multitude of other emcees, the Mumble Rap subgenre, radio host Charlamagne Tha God, and Donald Trump. Since Kamikaze's release, Eminem's beef has begun to stack up in an almost gimmicky way. Still, his latest feud with Nick Cannon feels particularly disquieting, mainly due to Eminem's fervent obsession with Cannon's ex-wife, Mariah Carey.

Fat Joe, Dre - Lord Above (Audio) ft. Eminem & Mary J. Bligewww.youtube.com

During a guest feature on Fat Joe's 2019 single, "Lord Above," Eminem took yet another shot at Nick Cannon and rekindled his claim that he and Mariah Carey had dated. While the two pop culture figures hash it out in what is the most tepid rap feud of the decade, it's worth noting that almost 20 years later, Eminem still wants Carey to be discredited and overall has not changed his chauvinist attitude towards women.

Throughout his entire career, Eminem has always stood by an alleged fling he had with Mariah Carey. His initial mention was a feat of braggadocio, referring to Carey as his "lover" and "wife" in 2002's "Superman." Carey was quick to deny the affair, saying that the pair had merely shared a few phone calls. Since her denial and subsequent diss track, Eminem has made discrediting Mariah Carey a side project, devaluing her at random instances in his music career and reaffirming his side of the narrative, calling Carey a "f*cking liar," among other things. Nick Cannon's marriage to the starlet in 2008 only ramped up Eminem's harassment. "Nick Cannon better back the f*ck up," he raps on "Bagpipes from Baghdad," "I'm not playing, I want her back, you punk." He divulges an everlasting lust for Carey, calling her both a "wh*re" and a "c*nt," while explaining how badly he still wants her. Carey responded with a song called "Obsessed," featuring the line, "Why you so obsessed with me? Boy, I wanna know."

Mariah Carey - Obsessed (Official Video)www.youtube.com

The hit song prompted an even more aggressive response from Eminem, whose track "The Warning" graphically describes sex with Carey. He continues to hurl insults at her for denying their romance, while subsequently threatening to release nude photos and intimate voice mails from the singer to prove his point (the latter of which, he actually did, although Carey denies the voicemails are hers.)

But Eminem's misogyny goes back years before he met Mariah Carey. Christina Aguilera first noted Eminem's violent views towards women in 1999, when Eminem married his longtime girlfriend Kim Mathers. The marriage was done in secret and came after years of Eminem "slinging violent lyrics about her in his earlier work," said Billboard. Aguilera put the rapper on blast, exposing Eminem's secret while warning women about domestic abusers. Eminem has since continued to bite back at Aguilera, most recently in 2018, when during a 10-minute freestyle called "Kick Off," he rapped: "F*ck Christina with a plastic spoon, while I bump some G-funk and blast some Snoop, cause her double-g cups are massive, huge! It's fun for me to just grab a boob, plus my penis got an attitude, my f*ckin Weiner is in a combative mood."

During a 2003 feud with Benzino, the former The Source Editor-and-Chief released "Foolish Pride," an unreleased Eminem song wherein the young emcee can be heard disparaging black women. "Black girls only want your money cause they're dumb chicks," Eminem raps. "Black girls are dumb, and white girls are good chicks." He proceeds to call black girls "wh*res" and "bitches." The blowback was immediate and diffused the beef almost immediately. Eminem apologized and said he made the track about an ex-girlfriend when he was young, "stupid," and angry.

Regardless of the apologies he's continued to shell out, Eminem has dedicated a countless amount of bars to disparaging women. A few years after the "Foolish Pride" blowback, Eminem was caught in a feud with rapper Canibus, and in his subsequent diss track he wrote, "So I stabbed him twice. Kept jabbin', Christ! He won't die! This guy's like a battered wife!"

Eminem - Foolish Pride (Racist song) (READ DESCRIPTION)www.youtube.com

After his initial spat with Mariah Carey and Nick Cannon, Eminem was embroiled in yet another feud with rapper Limp Bizkit, and released a diss track called "Girls," wherein he compared the rapper to a "p*ssy" girl. In November of 2019, an unreleased Eminem feature surfaced, wherein the rapper can be heard siding with Chris Brown over Rihanna following Brown's infamous assault of the pop star. "Let me give my two cents, of course, I support Chris Brown. I'd beat a b*tch down too if she gave my dick an itch now." A representative from Eminem issued a statement saying that he rewrote the lyric in question and that "obviously" he and Rihanna have a great relationship.

Eminem's entire discography is interwoven with lyrics of this nature, and his insensitivity has continuously landed him in hot water over the course of his entire career (the LGBTQ+ community also hates him. He most recently sparked outrage when called Tyler, The Creator a "f*ggot in 2018). So as the temper-tantrum between Nick Cannon and Eminem drags on, it's important to remember that nobody wins, especially not the fans.

CULTURE

#VeTRANsDay2019 Trends on Twitter in Support of Transgender Veterans

The best way to celebrate Veteran's Day 2019 is speaking truth to power. #VeTRANsDay2019

Shutterstock

With Trump's transgender military ban having gone into effect this past April, Veteran's Day 2019 serves as a bitter reminder of discrimination against the US's 134,000+ transgender vets.

Trump's ongoing crusade against fully capable service members, based solely on hatred of their identities, is an affront to human rights and a kick in the face to the personal freedoms that define Americans as Americans.

transgender military

Now, in a beautiful act of acceptance for transgender veterans, Twitter users have started tweeting under the hashtag #VetransDay2019. And while the misspelling (it's actually "Veteran's Day") might appear so subtle that an average Twitter user could scroll past it with nary a thought, considering the sociopolitical circumstances, there's no doubt that #VetransDay2019 is a conscious act of protest against hateful right-wing discrimination.

Everyone from elementary school classes to football teams has voiced their support for transgender veterans. It's truly inspiring to see how accepting and open-minded the younger generations have become.

One Twitter user even posted a suggestion that transgender veterans should get Veteran's Day off from work––a great idea if we've ever heard one!

But perhaps most amazingly, some Trump supporters are even reaching across the aisle to speak out in opposition to their beloved leader by showing their unyielding support for transgender peoples' rights. This Twitter user might not like the left, but that doesn't stop him from standing up for the transgender veterans who have bravely served America.

There are very rarely wholly positive news stories these days, but #VeTRANsDay2019 seems to have pierced through the turmoil, bringing Americans together in the name of supporting and advocating for some of our bravest citizens during a time when they need it most.

Of course, we must acknowledge the possibility that some boomer, in a blind frenzy of alcohol-fuelled patriotism, just misspelled "Veteran" as "Vetran," and then a bunch of other dumb boomers retweeted it. If that were the case, #VetransDay2019 would not be an act of protest, so much as it would be further proof that boomers need to get off social media. But we're choosing to believe the former.

Happy VeTRANs Day 2019!

The Dixie Chicks - Emily Robison Natalie Maines Martie Maguire earned five Grammy nominations at the 49th Annual Grammy Awards in LA

Photo by Matt Sayles AP Shutterstock

Dixie Chick fans rejoiced this morning when Natalie Maines revealed that the bluegrass icons will release their first album in 10 years.

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