I am a Jewish woman, with family who were killed in the Holocaust. I recently travelled to visit two of my close friends, and to see the country that they are from. While I was there visiting, I realised that some of their friends they were introducing to me are Nazis. I am ashamed to say that I didn’t say anything while there, and held my tongue until later where I confronted my friends. They admitted that they have many friends who are Nazis, but that they don’t see it as a problem. I don’t know what to think, am I being to sensitive? I haven’t spoken to my friends since I returned home, how can they condone such behaviour?!

Based on the way you write, I’m guessing you’re from somewhere in the UK, and so your trip was probably to Continental Europe, which is to say that you’re not talking about a couple of redneck white power douchebags. When you say Nazis, you mean actual fucking Nazis. Real live “Sieg Heil” motherfuckers.

Ugh, that’s so creepy.

Do I really have to say it? It’s not okay to associate with Nazis. If there are people you know who “have many friends who are Nazis,” and “don’t see it as a problem,” then those people simply can’t be in your life anymore.

Sorry. You gotta draw the line somewhere, and fucking around with Nazis is a pretty obvious place to start.

Is it not racist/sexist to assume that the black women in Lily Allen’s video had no choice and were being exploited? Are we assuming they’re oblivious too? They didn’t seem like they had a problem with it.

Had no choice? No, no. You’re misunderstanding the concept of exploitation in the context of media.

It’s not that the women in Lily Allen’s video were forced to perform against their will. They were free to enter into a contract and be compensated for their work, but then again, it’s not their labor as black women that’s being exploited (although I suppose that argument could be made.)

It’s their image as black women that’s being exploited. It’s a cultural and sexual exploitation that’s going on here, and no, we’re not assuming they’re oblivious to it. That would be condescending as hell.

Still, whether they themselves have a problem with it is somewhat beside the point. Their awareness and consent doesn’t negate the underlying exploitation.

Also, let’s not go too far down the rabbit hole here. It’s not as though Lily Allen committed some fresh and horrible crime. She merely made some poor creative decisions that were unintentionally racist and sexist while remaining oblivious to her white privilege and therefore unapologetic for the exploitation.

This kind of shit happens all the time. That’s kind of the point. It’s all a big hideous cliché.

What would be your rules, regardless of what kind of business you were going to start, on running that business?

Never give up controlling interest.

Never take on a partner who doesn’t have skin in the game.

Always be the one who signs the checks.

Always be the one who maintains the key business relationships.

Always draw a hard line between business and personal relationships.

Always use contracts, and document everything.

Never give the government a reason to look at you.

Always be prepared for either a lawsuit or an audit.

Always know your numbers. No one should ever be more familiar with the general ledger than you.

Never forget why you are in business.

Speaking of parody vs satire… Any thoughts on GTA 5 and if it’s satirical or not?

Grand Theft Auto V is both parody and satire. On a narrative level, it’s an amalgamated parody of an entire genre of crime fiction, but on a thematic level, it’s a searing satire of contemporary American culture.

Likewise, the city of Los Santos is meant to be a parody of Los Angeles when taken as a whole, but at a granular level, the memetic elements of the Los Santos universe (the various objects, characters, landmarks, and institutions) interact and behave in ways that are satirical.

Normally I’m not one for video games, but I was sort of fascinated by GTA 5 as a culturally significant document. The ability to explore an open world version of Los Angeles was more fun than I ever thought it could be, and I was surprised to find how well-written and complex the game’s narrative and environment actually was.

That being said, please know that I am fully aware the game is brutally violent and eye-rollingly misogynistic. Duh. I’m not apologizing for the game’s obvious shortcomings, but I will give it credit where credit is due.

Lily Allen’s Hard Out Here: satire or racism? (As – I gather – a white woman you of course have no business answering that question, but you acknowledge you have no business answering any of these questions, so.)

Yes, well. It’s definitely not satire, and it’s most certainly racist, but let’s set the socio-political critique aside for a moment and focus on something a little more fundamental: This is a terrible song.

It’s just bad music, aesthetically. Whoever produced this track should be dragged out of the studio and beaten over the head with whatever Casio keyboard he stole the sample from. The song is a derivative, auto-tuned mess with unpleasant instrumentation, no discernible melody, and lyrics that could have been written by a teenager.

(Come to think of it, the last album written by a teenager was fucking amazing, so for all of you giving Lorde shit for her subject matter, consider how much more depth and poetry she brought to the table when compared to this stupid, one-dimensional single.)

Honestly, I’ve seen better YouTube parodies than this piece of shit video, and everyone involved should be ashamed of themselves for sucking so badly.

That’s another thing. This video isn’t satire. It’s low-grade parody. It’s just a clownish impression of a genre. Sure, it tries to poke fun, but you can’t satirize booty-and-bling videos simply by making a bad one.

Lily Allen’s intentions may be tongue-in-cheek, and she may claim to be taking a counter-position to other white artists who would unironically accessorize with hypersexualized black women, but she fails at this. The irony is lost, and she is just as guilty of exploiting black female bodies as Miley Cyrus.

Yep, she really fucked this one up. Lily remains oblivious to her white privilege and unapologetic for her creative choices. Meanwhile, she’s guilty of the exact same sexist and racist bullshit she claims to be indicting, and the fact that her lyrics would seem to suggest otherwise is merely an unintentional irony.

Sorry, Lily. You don’t get credit for good intentions with shit like this.