**Previous Episode: [[BDE310]]** **Next Episode: [[BDE312]]** %%Post image thumbnail below.%%  > [!abstract|no-i] **Episode Overview** > - **Date Aired:** [[04-23-2024]] > - **Title:** The Art of the Retcon > - **Episode:** 311 > - **Description:** Looking into the Matthew Shephard retcon. > - **Link:** https://rumble.com/v4r7pii-big-dig-energy-311-the-art-of-the-retcon.html %%<https://historydraft.com/happened/what-happened/1-January/world>%% ## Replay %% Get embed URL then highlight and hit ALT + I%% <iframe src="https://rumble.com/embed/v4omil0/?pub=6eeyh" allow="fullscreen" allowfullscreen="" style="height:100%;width:100%; aspect-ratio: 16 / 9; "></iframe> <br> ## Greetings & Announcements 1. I will be guest hosting American Journal this Friday morning! All three hours! ## Segments ### The Art of the Retcon The modern psyche of each generation since World War II (by my own basic estimates) seems to crave Disney-esque "Good vs. Evil" social issues, where the lines are clearly drawn and the moral impetus to join the "right side of history" is hasty and rarely thought through. In the pursuit of validating one's own moral standing in the world, many have blindly thrown their votes, passion, and personalities into supporting movement after movement, flocking from one to the next without pause, trying to ensure they aren't left behind. I've shown off my own self-blackmail folder before, but if you were not aware… I was once a person who operated on a very similar basis.  In that little clear-cut bubble I lived in, right and wrong couldn't be more obvious, and it seemed unfathomable to me that anyone (let alone my own family) could see the world as being anything different from what my coddled college days had told me. Now, eight years later and a little wiser, it's easy to see how easy it is to pull off major retcons to advance agendas right in front of our very eyes. #### What is Retcon? Short for * **ret**roactive **con**tinuity. * [Merriam-Webster](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/retcon) defines it as:  On [[BDE300]], we covered the group Narrative Initiative, which seeks to "align movements" and "drive deeper collaboration" by getting people who are loosely affiliated to repeat similar phrases to form a cohesive narrative strategy.   ### Twitter Thread Reference [Direct Link](https://twitter.com/benryanwriter/status/1782807086172086432)  ### The Laramie Project One story we read in one of my classes in college struck a chord with me. It was called The Laramie Project.  > The Laramie Project is a 2000 American play by Moisés Kaufman and members of the Tectonic Theater Project (specifically, Leigh Fondakowski, writer-director; Stephen Belber, Greg Pierotti, Barbara Pitts, Stephen Wangh, Amanda Gronich, Sara Lambert, John McAdams, Maude Mitchell, Andy Paris, and Kelli Simpkins) about the reaction to the 1998 murder of gay University of Wyoming student Matthew Shepard in Laramie, Wyoming. The murder was denounced as a hate crime and brought attention to the lack of hate crime laws in various states, including Wyoming. > > An example of verbatim theatre, the play draws on hundreds of interviews conducted by the theatre company with inhabitants of the town, company members' own journal entries, and published news reports. It is divided into three acts, and eight actors portray more than sixty characters in a series of short scenes.[^1] It was also made into a film. (Show clip.) The Headlines: [Tulsa World](https://www.newspapers.com/image/894847827/?match=1) - October 10, 1998 ![[Tulsa_World_Sat__Oct_10__1998_.jpg]] Honolulu Star-Bulletin - October 13, 1998 ![[Honolulu_Star_Bulletin_Tue__Oct_13__1998_.jpg]] The Times Leader - October 14, 1998 ![[The_Times_Leader_Wed__Oct_14__1998_.jpg]] #### Critical Articles [Matthew Shepard Is the World's Most Famous Gay Hate Crime Victim. But Was He Really Killed for Being Gay?](https://archive.ph/WP4Bn)  [Have We Got Matthew Shepard All Wrong?](https://archive.ph/iT9C1)  #### The Book of Matt **"If you're going to base a civil rights movement on one particular incident, and the mythology about a particular incident, you're asking for trouble, because events are more complicated than most politicians or most activists want them to be… No one should be afraid of the truth. Least of all gay people… Shouldn't we understand better'why and how?" — Journalist Andrew Sullivan** > Late on the night of October 6, 1998, Matthew Shepard, a twenty-one-year old gay college student, left a bar in Laramie, Wyoming with two alleged "strangers," Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson. Eighteen hours later, Matthew was found tied to a log fence on the outskirts of town, unconscious and barely alive. He had been pistol-whipped so severely that the mountain biker who discovered his battered frame mistook him for a Halloween scarecrow. Overnight, a politically expedient myth took the place of important facts. By the time Matthew died a few days later, his name was synonymous with anti-gay hate. > > Stephen Jimenez went to Laramie to research the story of Matthew Shepard's murder in 2000, after the two men convicted of killing him had gone to prison, and after the national media had moved on. His aim was to write a screenplay on what he, and the rest of the nation, believed to be an open-and-shut case of bigoted violence. As a gay man, he felt an added moral imperative to tell Matthew's story. But what Jimenez eventually found in Wyoming was a tangled web of secrets. His exhaustive investigation also plunged him deep into the deadly underworld of drug trafficking. Over the course of a thirteen-year investigation, Jimenez traveled to twenty states and Washington DC, and interviewed more than a hundred sources. > > Who was the real Matthew Shepard and what were the true circumstances of his brutal murder? And now that he was larger than life, did anyone care? The Book of Maitt is sure to stir passions and inspire dialogue as it re-frames this misconstrued crime and its cast of characters, proving irrefutably that Matthew Shepard was not killed for being gay but for reasons far more complicated — and daunting. [The Book of Matt: Hidden Truths About the Murder of Matthew Shephard](https://ia600309.us.archive.org/20/items/tbom_20240424/THE%20BOOK%20OF%20MATT_%20Hidden%20Truths%20About%20the%20Murder%20of%20Matthew%20Shepard.pdf) <div style="left: 0; width: 100%; height: 0; position: relative; padding-bottom: 60%;"><iframe src="https://docs.google.com/viewer?embedded=true&url=https://ia600309.us.archive.org/20/items/tbom_20240424/THE%20BOOK%20OF%20MATT_%20Hidden%20Truths%20About%20the%20Murder%20of%20Matthew%20Shepard.pdf" style="top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; position: absolute; border: 0;" allowfullscreen></iframe></div> ### For Later: > "Most notorious hate crime"? > Al Sharpton, instigator of the Crown Heights riot and Freddy's Fashion Mart fire that left 10 dead, could not be reached for comment. - Pulse Nightclub - Moisés Kaufman %%Footer Starts Here%% --- <center><img src="https://archive.is/do5ay/df25cfff93575f174c387ac9f4c64744da0fadb9.png" alt="Keep digging!" height="100px"></center> --- ## Tags ### Linked Pages & Footnotes [^1]: Overview of The Laramie Project pulled from **[Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Laramie_Project)** on [[04-23-2024]].