[WARNING: some video footage on this list is of an adult nature and may contain shocking or sexual images.] Despite being lusted over by hundreds of millions of people worldwide, pornography has always been held at arms length compared to other forms of popular entertainment. This is certainly due to the fact that pornography contains graphic and sexual imagery that goes against many religious and cultural norms. While porn has become more socially acceptable and even mainstream, there have been several controversies relating to the industry, the actors in it, and people who view porn. Here are the most significant ten.

10 Terrorist Death Threats

Religious symbols and their use have always been a source of controversy, even outside the porn world. In 2015 however a new shock began after Lebanese born porn-star Mia Khalifa appeared in a scene wearing a hijab, a garment used by Muslim women to signal modesty. Upon release, this scene garnered the attention of the Islamic State, who in turn called for the murder of Khalifa, even going so far as to post a photo of her home to their twitter page and creating a fake video of her being prepared for execution.^[1]

These threats, as well as the group’s hacking of Khalifa’s instagram page led to her leaving the porn industry after only a few brief months. In 2018 Khalifa revealed in an interview that she left the porn industry due to these threats and regretted her work there. Mia’s is not the only nasty story like this. For other horrifying tales from deep in the bowels of social media, take a look at 9 Sinister Facts About The Dark Side Of Instagram.

9 Addiction

Society recognises and accepts the damages caused by things such as alcohol and drug addiction, however equally damaging things such as pronography addiction are simply brushed off. This is despite numerous studies that have proven the dangers of regular porn use. Such effects include erectile dysfunction, social isolation, and relationship dysfunction.^[2]

Porn addiction was brought to the forefront of public attention briefly in 2016 when noted actor Terry Crews revealed that he had been struggling with it for years, even needing to attend rehab in order to fully quit and save his marriage. Sadly, there has been no other mainstream recognition of this issue since. And with 40 million Americans using porn every day, and pornhub.com receiving an average of 120 million visits a day, this is a problem that is growing hugely. You can learn more about this controversial industry on Top 10 Things You Didn’t Know About Pornography.

8 Mercedes Carrera Child Abuse Scandal

On February 1 2019 police raided the home of pornstar Mercedes Carrera and her husband Jason Whitney leading to the pair later facing several criminal charges. The most damning of the charges are those in relation to the alleged sexual abuse of Carrera’s young daughter from a previous relationship. The girl reported the alleged abuse to her father who in turn reported it to the police. Searching the couples’ home, police found that their bedroom had been outfitted to record pornographic videos, as well as digital evidence which they say proves abuse. In total, the couple were charged with inappropriate touching, oral copulation, digital penetration, in addition to several charges relating to gun and drug possession which were later dropped.^[3]

Their trial was scheduled to begin February 6 2020 however due to scheduling issues with lawyers as well as the coronavirus, it has been put on hold until further notice. If the pair are found guilty, it will represent an example of sexual abuse that porn critics claim is rampant in the industry, as evidenced by the Top 10 Terrible Cases Of Kidnapping And Abuse.

7 The Suicide of August Ames

On December 2 2017, Canadian born pornographic actress, August Ames, tweeted a warning that a performer on a set she had previously worked on had been involved in gay pornography. She implied that it was unprofessional to let him work with female performers. The tweet became a lightning rod of controversy, with many in the industry accusing Ames of hating gays. Ames doubled down, saying she had the right to feel safe in her job and should have the choice to work with whomever she pleased, but the threats, accusations and criticism of her kept coming.^[4]

The next day, December 4th 2017, Ames sent out a final tweet, simply reading, “fuck y’all.” Her body was found a day later: she had committed suicide by hanging. This tragedy sparked an international debate around bullying, insanity in the porn industry, and people’s opinions on homosexuality. Perhaps some of the ire targeting Ames would have been better served focussing on the countries listed on our Top 10 Countries That Completely Hate Gay People.

6 Bradford Thomas Wagner

Between 1993 and 1998, the women of Boulder Colorado lived in fear of the Tantra Rapist, an assailant who is known to have sexually assaulted at least 4 women. In June 2004, police arrested 36 year old real-estate agent Bradford Thomas Wagner for allegedly committing 5 rapes between 1993 and 1998. Although on the surface, Wagner may have appeared to be an average white collar worker, he had a checkered past.^[5]

In the early 1990s, coinciding with some of the alleged rapes, Wagner had starred in twenty gay porn films under the name “Tim Barnett”. Authorities in California also considered Wagner a suspect in 14 other rapes committed prior to his time in Colorado. Before he could be brought to trial however, Wagner hanged himself in his cell using a bed sheet, dying on July 13 2005 at the age of 37, taking the truth of whatever happened with him. Wagner is, of course, not the most recent case of someone prominent being found hanged in prison . . . 10 Facts That Will Make You Believe Jeffrey Epstein Was Murdered.

5 Child Pornography

Most of us probably think that child pornogrpahy is confined to the dark web, where only the most depraved members of society venture. The truth however, is that child pornography is avalible on nearly every mainstream porn site in the world, with not enough being done to take it down. In 2020 alone, Pornhub, the most popular online streaming service, was found to have hosted videos of a kidnapped 15 year old being sexually assaulted. The CEO of the company Girls Do Porn was charged with luring women under false pretenses to appear in videos and footage depicting children being sexually abused were being routinely uploaded to the site.^[6]

These controversies led to condemnation across the political spectrum, as well as protests outside of Pornhub’s Montreal headquarters in March of 2020. Protesters demanded that company executives be held fully responsible and the website be shut down due to the many laws broken. Pornhub has not responded to the demands and continues to operate as normal, with those critical of the site pursuing legal action in order to shut down what they believe to be a website aiding in human trafficking. For a deeper look at pornography as a product of modern slavery and human trafficking, you should look at 10 Everyday Products That Are Made With Slave Labor.

4 Pornstar Dismembers Man to Live Out a Movie

In one of Canada’s most shocking crimes, former gay pornstar, stripper, and wannabe movie star, Luca Magnotta, stabbed and dismembered a Chinese exchange student, Jun Lin, after meeting Lin on a gay dating app. Upon dismembering him, Magnotta sent Lin’s body parts to a series of public schools, and the offices of various Canadian Political Parties, including the governing Conservative Party. Soon after this he went on the run, triggering an international manhunt. He was eventually caught in an Internet cafe in Germany reading articles about himself.^[7]

At trial, it was revealed that Magnotta had spent most of his adult life trying to achieve fame, whether it be through his work as a pornstar, his claim that the media was writing false stories about him being engaged to Karla Holmolka, and that members of Toronto’s Greek community were out to get him. Today, while Magnotta is serving a sentence of life in prison with no possiblity of parole for 25 years his videos remain on pornhub, where he is likely garnering the fame and attention he wanted from his porn career. For those preferring to read more on the murderous side of Magnotta’s story, check out Top 10 Gruesome Crimes Fit For Horror Movies.

3 Serial Killer Pornography

Several serial killers such as Ted Bundy have cited pornography as something that led them to kill, however not many serial killers go so far as to appear in pornography outright. There are always exceptions however. American Serial Killer, Leonard Lake, spent much of his childhood taking naked photos of his sisters, often with the encouragement of their grandmother. This sparked Lake’s interest in pornography, one that followed him for the rest of his life. This is evidenced by his adult activities, where he made, produced, distributed, and starred in various amatur porn movies, usually featuring bondage and sadomasochism.^[8]

Some of these themes echoed Lake’s crimes in which women were imprisoned in a bunker on Lake’s land and repededly sexually assulted before being murdered by Lake and his accomplice, Charles Ng. Today very few copies of Lake’s pornographic films exist, however snippets have been used in documentaries about the murderous pair, often to highlight Lake’s depraved sexual appetite. If you have the stomach for it, Lake and Ng can be seen on our list of 10 Videos Of Violence And Insanity.

2 Incest

Incest is rightly condemed in every developed nation around the globe, and can lead to mental instability, drug abuse, and suicide in its participants. That hasn’t stopped the porn industry however. The step-fantasy has been a long running theme in the porn industry, however it was strictly fantasy, until recently at least. Now many porn studios are recruiting blood relatives to appear in scenes and photoshoots together. In January 2020, a mother and daughter went viral on twitter after they announced they were creating an OnlyFans account, complete with the pair posing in lingerie. This is only one of many similar cases of family members appearing in pornographic videos together.^[9]

Fraternal twin sisters going by the names Joey and Sami White have appeared in numerous scenes together, as well as Polish sisters going by the names Natalia and Natasha Starr. Some scenes have bypassed regulations due to the fact the girls have not touched each other, however that is not always the case. There have been scenes filmed and distributed across mainstream pornography websites depicting actual blood relatives having sexual relationships. One notable example would be real life half sisters Katya and Veronica Rodriguez having sex with each other and posting the video to pornhub where it remains to this day. Incestuous prostitution was a big feature in the Weimar Republic as it began its final decline. You can read more about that on 10 Indications That Western Society Is Collapsing.

1 The Wonderland Murders

John Holmes is considered to be the first mainstream male pornstar. He also stood accused of murdering four people and attempting to kill a fifth in what is known as The Wonderland Murders. The events surrounding the murders are obscure, however what is known is that on the night of June 31 1981, 4 members of the Wonderland Gang were killed, with a fifth member found badly injured but still alive. A palmprint of John Holmes was found at the scene leading to his questioning by police. No further evidence could be obtained from Holmes, who upon leaving the police station, went on the run, but was eventually arrested and charged with all 4 murders in Florida 5 months later.^[10]

Holmes pleaded Not Guilty” and after a three week trial was acquitted of all charges except one count of contempt of court, for which he served 5 months in jail. He made a brief return to porn after his release, but soon after he was diagnosed as HIV positive, causing him to retire from the industry permanently. Even on Holmes’ deathbed police were still trying to gain information on what had happened that night, however the HIV had rendered him unable to answer. If you want more information on John Holmes, he was featured prominently on our list of Top 10 Most Famous Adult Film Stars.

Regardless of the absurdity of conspiracy theories, it seems there is always someone asking: “what if?” What if Elvis really is still alive? What if Tupac faked his own death? What if the Illuminati really is in charge over the entire music industry and we’ve all been duped into buying music from specific artists for obscure and evil reasons? Whether you’re a believer or not; below are 10 more music industry rumors to argue over or secretly believe.

SEE ALSO: 10 Bizarre Celebrity Conspiracy Theories

10White lighters

Think 27 Club and Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison and Kurt Cobain come to mind. Other members of this fictional club include Jonathan Brandis, Amy Winehouse and Anton Yelchin. What do all these celebrities have in common? They all died under extremely tragic circumstances at the age of 27. Kurt Cobain committed suicide as did Jonathan Brandis. Janis Joplin injected herself with heroin in her hotel room, fell over and hit her head on a table. Her body was found the next day.

Rumors started making the rounds about celebrities “timing” their deaths so that they could join 27 Club. Another rumor had it that those who had already joined the club all had a Bic white lighter in their pockets at the time they died. This led to a wide-spread belief that white lighters were harbingers of bad luck. The white lighter myth is still going strong despite factual evidence that Bic didn’t even start producing white lighters until several years after the deaths of the original 27 Club members.^[1]

9 Mysterious album cover

The cover art for Black Sabbath’s self-titled debut album released in 1970 was meant to scare fans. It was released on Friday the 13th of February to increase the creepy factor. The cover photo depicted a watermill built during the 1400s and an eerie female figure dressed in black standing before it. While it is known that the woman was an actress hired specifically to pose for the cover, this fact did nothing to quell the multiple rumors that sprouted soon after the album was released.

One of the creepier stories stated that the woman was a witch and that the photo depicted her during an actual ‘black sabbath.’ A satirical claim was thrown out there that it wasn’t a woman at all, but rather Ozzy Osborne in drag. Yet another theory claimed that there was no woman to begin with; instead the figure in black appeared after the photo was developed.^[2]

8 Fire and Rain

Fire and Rain is a popular folk-rock song written by James Taylor. The song was inspired in part by Taylor’s childhood friend, Suzanne Schnerr, who committed suicide. He only found out about her death six months after the fact.

Despite Taylor confirming this as well as revealing other details about the song during an interview in 2005, rumors still have it that the song was written for Taylor’s girlfriend, Suzanne. It is claimed that Suzanne was going to surprise him by showing up at one of his concerts, but her life was tragically cut short when the plane she was traveling in crashed en route. Several websites have debunked this claim, but it is still going strong around the internet.^[3]

7 Where did the ashes go?

Sid Vicious was a member of punk rock band, the Sex Pistols. Unfortunately, he was known also for being a suspect in the murder case of his girlfriend, his extreme drug use and eventual overdose on heroin.

It is said that after his death, Vicious’ mother travelled from New York to England to scatter his ashes over his girlfriend’s grave. However, she had a stash of heroin hidden in the urn. When she realized there were a lot more security at Heathrow than she anticipated, she began to panic and promptly dumped the entire contents of the urn into the nearest air conditioning vent. Another rumor has it that she accidentally dropped the urn on the tarmac at the airport, spilling the contents everywhere. This led to another persistent urban myth that Sid Vicious’ spirit hasn’t been able to leave the airport after being disposed of in such a disrespectful fashion.^[4]

6 Cocaine request

Much the same as Sid Vicious, Stevie Nicks is not only known for being part of a band. It is well known that she snorted loads of cocaine back in the ’70s and ’80s and eventually ended up with a hole on the inside of her nose.

As if the facts weren’t horrifying enough, people wasted no time in adding a tall tale to them. Considering that her nose was messed up and couldn’t take anymore coke snorting, it is alleged that she got some of her people to blow the coke up her rectum, since apparently doing it that way allows you to still get high. So persistent was this rumor that Nicks had to eventually publicly deny it.^[5]

5 Love Rollercoaster

Some theories are creepier than others. The one about the song Love Rollercoaster by Ohio Players is an example of this. During editing of the song, the sound engineers failed to remove a woman’s scream in the middle of the track. About a year after the song was released to the public, a couple of crazy theories started making the rounds.

Some say the Playboy model, Ester Cordet, who is featured on the cover of the album, was burned by hot honey and as she screamed her voice was recorded in the studio. An extended version of this tale says that she suffered permanent injuries from the honey and was going to sue the band. The band manager couldn’t get her to change her mind, so he stabbed her to death. Since he killed her just outside the studio, her dying screams were recorded over the mics.
There are several more theories surrounding the scream, including that it was the sound of mental patients in an asylum being subjected to terrible torture, or even a rabbit being killed and screaming as it dies.

It was later revealed that Billy Beck, one of the members of Ohio Players, is the one who produced the scream. However, many people refuse to believe this explanation.^[6]

4 The Monkees and Charles Manson

Charles Manson is synonymous with murder, mayhem and psychosis. The last thing one would expect to associate with Manson, is music. However, he wrote songs that were eventually covered by The Beach Boys, Guns N’ Roses and Marilyn Manson.

It is therefore not surprising that there exists a music-related conspiracy theory involving Manson and the Monkees. In 1965, literally hundreds of young men answered a casting call to be part of The Monkees. One of them was said to be none other than Charles Manson himself. This is also a particularly persistent rumor, even though it is a fact that Manson at that time was too old to audition (he was thirty and they were looking for young men between the ages of 17 and 21). Also, he was in prison at the time.^[7]

3Duane Allman’s strangely timed death

The story about the death of Duane Allman, leader of the Allman Brothers Band, is certainly one of the stranger ones out there. On 29 October 1970, Allman overdosed and was rushed to a hospital in Nashville. Doctors were not hopeful that he would pull through.

It is at this point where the story turns strange. It is claimed that Berry Oakley, bass guitarist of the band, entered into a pact with God. He pleaded for Allman to live for another year so that he would be able to continue his music career and carry on doing what he loves.

Allman survived. However, on 29 October 1971, Duane Allman drove his Harley down Hillcrest Avenue in Macon. Approaching Bartlett Street, a flatbed truck stopped unexpectedly in front of him, causing Allman to swerve sharply. He hit the truck anyway and was thrown from his motorcycle. The bike landed on him, crushing his internal organs. Allman died in hospital hours later, exactly a year to the date that his bandmate allegedly made his bargain with God.^[8]

2 Elvis and the aliens

Elvis Presley unknowingly contributed to a myth (one of many) about his own death. When he was born, his family doctor claimed that a strange, unexplained light shone over the house that baby Elvis was in. Adult Elvis eventually claimed that he had had been telepathically visited by aliens at age 8, who showed him his future in music. He also claimed to have seen many UFOs.

It is therefore no surprise then that following hot on the heels of the “Elvis is alive” theory, came the “Elvis has been abducted by aliens” theory. Claims were made that he was not dead, but instead had been abducted by aliens. The reason: The aliens had heard his music and simply could not pass up the chance to meet their idol in person. In addition to this madness, not long after Elvis’ funeral, rumors of the singer being an FBI mole who had to go into hiding began swirling.^[9]

1 Axl Rose’s dogs

Axl Rose, lead singer of Guns n’ Roses and more recently AC/DC, has been hailed as one of the greatest singers of all time. He has also been a very controversial celebrity; from accusations of being homophobic and racist being hurled at him in 1988 to pitching up hours late for several shows rising the ire of thousands of fans. He decided to include a Manson-written track on an album, resulting in even more controversy.

As if all the above wasn’t bad enough and didn’t make him seem like the worst famous person on the planet there was also a rumor (apparently started by the media) that Axl Rose ran over his own dogs and then proceeded to eat them. This terrible story gained so much traction that Rose had to publicly deny that he had ever done such a thing.^[10]

We all know that sugar is delicious but not the healthiest thing to eat. We’re starting to understand its role in weight gain and other health complications. But why has it taken so long? And why haven’t we found better, safer alternatives yet? Here are some reasons the sugar industry works so hard to keep you in the dark and one thing you can to do to counteract their power.

Top 10 Biggest Lies People Tell Every Day

10 Slavery

For something so sweet, the widespread popularity of sugar has a dark and bitter origin story in slave labor. Sugar cane originated in the West Indies and Brazil. At one time it was simply a luxury spice among wealthy Europeans. As they colonized the ‘New World’, particularly the British, a huge profitability that helped finance the growing American colonies was recognized in this spice and it became known as ‘White Gold’.

Because it is a labor intensive crop, a cheap work force was created to ensure that sugar remained purely profitable. Slaves, including children, were the best source of labor that couldn’t say no to the back breaking and sometimes deadly work entailed in harvesting and processing of sugar cane. Many of these plantations and processing plants that operated day and night were located in Louisiana near New Orleans, surrounded by dumps and prisons. And they were treated very cruelly even when fatigued and unable to keep working. It wasn’t uncommon for exhausted slave laborers to lose limbs in the balers and other processing equipment.

Sugar was as lucrative back then as it is now. So the disease of greed won and the sugar trade was not just allowed, but promoted the destruction indigenous cultures and enslavement of many. Looking at that yellow and white bag of future cupcakes in your pantry a little differently now, huh?

9 Congress

Sugar’s popularity also grew its power and influence over the United States Congress. In 1816 there was a tariff imposed on imported sugar, especially from Cuba, at 16-19 percent on wholesale imported sugar. It granted more consumption and power to the sugar produced by slave labor in Louisiana and other slave friendly states.

This also gave birth to a banking scheme, born in Louisiana, that helped clients buy slaves while attracting foreign investments to the industry. A grower would pledge their estate and slaves to the bank as an asset and then borrow back part of the assessed value. Through this activity, sugar plantations could expand their acreage and grow their slave populations. In turn, the banks could bundle all of the assets, make them collateral, and sell slave and mortgage backed securities to investors. Can you get more evil?

When investors complained that the slaves were ‘perishable’, Louisiana actually issued state bonds backing the plantations to ensure investors that there was no risk. This unfortunately encouraged investors, who jumped on the opportunity, allowing the sugar industry to surge. And slavery in the area saw an uptick of 86 percent in the 1820’s. This only continued the trend in the near future. Sugar is looking a lot more bitter now.

8 Slavery Still

There is still slave labor alive and well in the sugar industry today! Spit out that candy and pay attention. In the Dominican Republic, hundreds of thousands of indebted Haitians work in labor camps called bateyes. They work 12-14 hour days harvesting sugar cane for less than $1 and are paid in company scrip instead of actual currency. They arrive, often starving and devoid of identification papers, lured by the promise of paid labor and are intercepted by traffickers who give or sell them to these farms. Unbeknownst to you, you may be buying the products of their forced labor in your local grocery store. Did you spit out that candy yet?

On the very slow moving upside, more awareness is working to change these practices. In Britain, in 2017, the UK instituted the Modern Slavery Act in an effort to ensure there remains a zero tolerance policy for products developed through slave labor. Frankly, it’s the least they can do considering their history in the industry’s inception! Now we need to get the rest of the sugar addicted world aware and on board too. These people will be way better off if consumers use their money to vote down these barbaric practices.

7 Lies

Part of the human condition is sadly lying to get what we want or downplay our wrongdoings. And it is humans running the sugar industry. So they too are guilty of deception. In the 1960s, this conniving industry funded research to highlight the [false] dangers of fat in an effort to diminish concerns about sugar’s role in heart disease. They even went about it in a brilliantly evil manner.

A group named the Sugar Research Foundation (SRF) employed Harvard scientists and had their findings published in the New England Journal of Medicine (1967) without disclosing that it was the sugar industry funding the research. It was done as a review that examined different studies and experiments that implicated sugar as a culprit in coronary heart disease. It suggested that all of the former research pointing to sugar was flawed and implicated fat and cholesterol as the main contributors to the disease. Having such a prominent journal publish the review has allowed the sugar industry to shape and lead the scientific debate about the dangers of sugar and fat for the past five decades! Sugar. Hate. Fueled. Rage. Building. And we’re still waiting on new research not funded by the industry.

6 Poison

Most of us (probably all of us realistically) love to indulge ourselves …cake, soda, alcohol, ice cream and a wide variety of other guilty pleasures. The sugar industry counts on us caving to our weaknesses or feeling the need to reward ourselves whether we deserve it or not. They also make a concerted effort to confuse our understanding of the effects of our reckless sugar consumption.

According to Marion Nestle of Nestle Foods, “Food company sponsorship, whether or not intentionally manipulative, undermines the public trust in nutrition science, contributes to public confusion about what to eat, and compromises Dietary Guidelines in ways that are not in the best interest of public health.”

The reality is that sugar is a poison that promotes fat storage in the liver, creates insulin resistance, increases insulin production, and promotes tumor growth. Go ahead, have another spoonful of that delicious vanilla ice cream …with a side of chemo. The industry is working very hard to make sure you don’t learn these things.

5 Profit Above All Else

The devil exists and he is clearing running the Sugar Association that represents the sugar industry. This creepy and horrifying association, along with a few other big food industry groups, has demanded that the United States Congress stop funding the World Health Organization (WHO) simply because they declared that sugar should contribute to no more than 10 percent of a healthy diet. They want the WHO report withdrawn for the government to continue funding them.

So they’ve made it pretty clear that their only interest is their profits and continued growth with no regard for the health or safety of their consumers. You’re just a pawn in their deadly games and a way to keep lining their pockets. Who wants some chocolate chip cookies?

4 Fake Health Food

Desserts, soda, grandma’s goodies, and other sweet treats where you expect to find sugar aren’t the only sources of sugar in your diet. Many foods that are marketed as ‘low fat’ or ‘light’ actually contain higher sugar levels than their regular counterparts. “Low fat’ yogurt, for instance, often has added sugar to enhance the flavor lost when fat is removed.

Things we may tend to consume large amounts of without thinking about their sugar content have deceptively high amounts of sugar like ketchup, jarred spaghetti sauces, and barbecue sauce. Sports drinks, fruit juice, iced tea, vitamin water (great tricky name), premade smoothies, and flavored coffees are likewise heavy on their sugar content. Cereals, granola, protein bars, and cereal bars also contain higher levels of sugar. And canned soups are as high in sugar as they often are in sodium. Sugar is even added to many canned fruits, as if they didn’t already contain their own sugars. So with all of the sugar hidden in what can be part of a regular diet, adding those delightful desserts is literal overkill. Walk away from the apple pie a la mode!!

3 Climate Impact

As sugar consumption, known or unknown, grows, so does its effect on the climate. And of course, that is not in a positive way. Sugarcane growers typically use nitrous oxide fertilizer which is an extremely potent greenhouse gas that has 300 times more potential to increase global warming than carbon dioxide. There are more sustainable options that are being adopted more commonly.

Let us hope that modern day sugar growers are more honest and interested in the well-being of all humans than their historical counterparts. For that matter, let’s hope they make the entire industry more honest and forthcoming in their practices. Crossing my sugar bloated fingers! That iced scone and double mocha frappuccino from Starbucks were really tasty.

That climate change is going to turn on them anyway. The higher temperatures, especially in winter, can ruin the ripening process of sugarcane. Perhaps pay back for all of the industry’s wrongdoings will be delivered by their own unchecked greedy practices! Irony really is its own sweet reward.

2 Addiction

The addiction capability of sugar is real and promoted by the industry! Like many illicit drugs, sugar promotes the production of dopamine in humans. Dopamine is the pleasure center of the brain that creates cravings and keeps you coming back for more and more. Foods with high sugar content are designed to be hyperpalatable to make you want more. Who can stop at one Oreo?

In studies with animals, sugar was found to be more addictive than cocaine. The animals were not only drawn more to the sugar than the cocaine, but they also experienced withdrawal. The addiction has a tendency to cause overindulgence. Humans likely don’t experience withdrawal often because our sugar is delivered regularly through a large variety of sources. That is only going to make the industry happy to take more of your money and find new ways to distribute more to you. The lobby in the millions to make sure they can continue to do so.

Have you ever tried taking candy from a baby?! Or it makes more sense to ask if you’ve ever tried telling a 4 year old they can’t have a popsicle when they’re used to someone saying yes? Get ready for H-E-double hockey sticks! Or have you tried to cut your sugar intake only to not be able to stop thinking about devouring an entire bag of chocolate chips?

1 Miracle Fruit

It’s fair to bet that you haven’t heard of an amazing, completely natural, safe alternative to sugar that can make anything you eat taste divinely sweet. Can you guess why? By now you’ve probably guessed it is because the sugar industry and lobbyists have put forth a lot of effort to make sure you don’t know about it. Well, say hello to Miracle Fruit! The author has personally experienced this heaven sent little berry and can’t speak enough of it’s wonders!

Miraculin is the glycoprotein in Miracle Fruit that makes everything you eat for several hours afterward taste sweet. We’ll leave the full science lesson for chemistry class. But it is AMAZING! You can eat a lemon like you would an apple completely free from that sour pucker. It will taste like Countrytime Lemonade.

Until very, very recently, all uses of this little miracle were banned by the FDA thanks to Donald Rumsfeld and GD Searle in 1977. They were the makers of aspartame, that other toxic alternative to sugar. Angry yet?! Go get some Miracle Fruit berries and try it for yourself. You’ll be happy again. The miracle is real! And the more people who know about it, the quicker we can do away with the twisted sugar industry with a history steeped in self-serving deception. Be an informed eater and enjoy that coffee with no sugar added!

The People’s Republic of China and its dominant party, the Chinese Communist Party, can be  trickier to place on the political compass than it might seem. While it’s famous for state-owned businesses, in 2019 the National Bureau of Statistics reported that 84% of its businesses are privately owned, which was part of a 78% uptick since 2013.

While it’s far enough to the left on social issues that there is a 95.1% healthcare coverage rate as of 2013 (in America it’s closer to 91.5% as of 2018), it also is very unfriendly to LGBTQ rights, and we’ll see examples of this shortly. Wherever it fits in terms of economics and social issues, when it comes to published media, the People’s Republic of China does not pull punches. From sports to esports to broadcasts, nothing is too seemingly innocuous or too influential to escape government controls. 

10. Red Dawn Changes

Today the 1984 John Milius film Red Dawn is considered a bit campy and implausible, if nuanced in its anti-war message, but still it struck a sufficient chord with audiences that it was a box office hit and resonated enough that a major military operation was named after it for America’s disastrous War in Iraq. Even pretty naive moviegoers in the 1980s could feel how implausible it would be for a nation as large as the USA to fall to the USSR through conventional warfare, even with Mexico and Cuba’s help. The Cuban Missile Crisis was all the evidence anyone needed that nuclear deterrence made any such war unthinkable. But when the film was remade in 2012, changes that were made to please the PRC made the original look like a model of plausibility. 

From pressure by the Chinese market, the invaders in the remake were changed from China to North Korea. About the only way anyone could claim this change makes the least sense would be because North Korea has a standing army of roughly 1.2 million troops, but how the nation would get them on US soil when it’s a country whose biggest military accomplishment in recent years is that its missiles can reach Japan is a question the movie doesn’t come close to answering believably. This probably wasn’t the sole reason the remake was a box office failure, but it couldn’t have helped.     

9. Overruling Warner Brothers

In 2018 Legendary Entertainment, which as of 2016 was owned by Chinese Communist Party member Wang Jianlin, partnered with Warner Brothers Studios. While it has generally been a very lucrative arrangement. Still in 2021 the partners began a bitter argument over the distribution of Godzilla Vs. Kong. Warner Brothers planned to release it directly to HBO Max, a decision which was arrived at without consulting Legendary Entertainment. 

Not only did Godzilla Vs Kong turn out to be simultaneously released in theaters and on HBO Max, but only after HBO Max agreed to pay $250 million for it. The film went on to make $442 worldwide, which made it the one of the first box office smashes since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic. It went to show that not all decisions made under the direction of the CCP don’t work out. 

8. The Apology

He may be a 17-time world champion wrestler, but John Cena decided in 2021 that he wasn’t about to tussle with the wrath of mainland China or his fans there. During an announcement regarding the theatrical distribution of Fast 9, Cena referred to Taiwan, with its infamously contentious relationship with China, as “the first nation” that the movie would be screened in. This went against the narrative the People’s Republic of China is insisting that Taiwan is as much part of China as Hawaii is a state in the USA, or at least as much as Guam is a US territory. 

Cena took to the Chinese site Weibo and recorded an apology video, speaking in the Mandarin Chinese he’d spent years learning. To date, there haven’t been any further significant developments and the movie went on to considerable box office success in China and Taiwan. It’s still one of the most uncomfortable reactions to pressure from a foreign power leading to kowtowing from professional wrestling since the WWE endorsed the nation of Saudi Arabia.   

7. The Looper Rewrite

2012 was really the year that the Chinese government made its influence felt on American screenplays. Under Dan Mintz of Dynamic Marketing Group’s direction, Rian Johnson’s screenplay for the film Looper was rewritten so that a scene set in Paris, France in the distant future of 2074 was moved to Shanghai. This was to ensure that the film got around the PRC’s foreign film limits for theatrical distribution. 

It’s also worth noting that DMG also guided the script from including any cultural stereotypes and cliches (street lanterns, “Chinatown” architecture, and so on). A failure to do so was disastrous for Men in Black 3, which was barred from theatrical distribution in China. Considering that Looper grossed more in China than it did domestically, that could have cost the sci-fi sequel dearly indeed.

6. Mulan Issues 

Mulan was one of the most critically-panned films of 2020, with even second generation critics such as Walter Chaw tearing it a new one for being simultaneously pandering, shallow, and dull. But truly, the greatest issue many had with the film was offscreen. And for certain authority figures, that didn’t leave the issue nearly out of sight or out of mind enough. 

A total of 78 seconds of the live action remake were filmed in Xinjiang Province, near the much-publicized re-education camps Uyghur Muslims were held in. As per domestic policy, the production had been required to partner with a local film company to shoot and distribute in China. Eight government agencies were thanked in the film’s credits. But what many found hardest to ignore was when star Liu Yifei made a statement in support of the police crackdowns in Hong Kong. It’s like the production couldn’t decide if it was more important to be a financial or a public relations disaster.

5. Sports Aren’t Safe

It’s not just athletes like John Cena with his innocent gaffe who have to worry about Chinese backlash. On October 4, 2019, long before Liu Yifei spoke in favor of the Hong Kong crackdowns, then-Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey tweeted in support of the protestors. This gained an especially high amount of attention as the NBA had a number of exhibition games going on in China at the time, and it had turned out that a NBA training camp had been built near the Xinjiang internment camps. LeBron James was called upon to comment, and on October 9 he said that Morey’s tweet was poorly timed and that he had made the tweet without fully educating himself on the issue. This was felt to be so subservient to the PRC that LeBron James was dragged for it years later when tweeted that another police officer would be held accountable after Derek Chauvin’s conviction. 

The day after LeBron James’s comment, it was noted that ESPN had a broadcast which featured a map of China. Sharp-eyed viewers noted that Taiwan was included in the highlighted area despite the controversy regarding its sovereignty. ESPN did not comment on the use of the map, leaving many to assume the worst.       

4. The Celebrity Crackdowns

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfYs7uvsbU4

Celebrity culture might seem too immaterial of an industry for the PRC to regulate very firmly, but there certainly have been a number of efforts in that direction recently. Beginning on June 8, 2017, a large number of celebrity news blogs and social media accounts were shut down. There was little consideration for backlash from banning accounts of size and influence: One gossip account by a Zhuo Wei had more than seven million followers and still went down. 

The PRC also cracked down on attempts to use social media influence to manipulate children for financial purposes. For example in May 2021 the reality program Youth Without You was shut down by the government because it was found that the show was secretly pushing products by the show’s sponsors on its young audience. Music groups such as Panda Boys have had to change their designation to “children’s art trope” for being too young to not appeal mainly to children. Imagine One Direction being told that they were too young and thus couldn’t advertise themselves as a “boy band.”  

On August 27, 2021, The Guardian reported that the PRC had banned sites which ranked celebrities by popularity. The justification largely boiled down to claims that such sites were creating too much fan rivalry and leading to intolerable amounts of online bullying, particularly among impressionable youth. There’s no explanation needed for why we here strongly object to any effort which bans lists! 

3. Gaming Restrictions

On September 1, 2021, it was reported that the PRC would be limiting the number of hours of online gaming that those under 18 could undertake to three per week. Or rather, per weekend since it’s only one hour per day Friday through Sunday, specifically from 8 p.m. to 9 p.m. There would be time carved out for public holidays too, though you’d think that would be when the PRC would most want kids to be with their families or communities instead of trying to do 360 no scope headshots.  Penalties would only be inflicted on the companies instead of the underage players, which seemed like it would make massive workarounds almost inevitable. 

While this might have seemed out of the blue and arbitrary for many Westerners, for Chinese children it was more an escalation than an out of the blue restriction. On April 10, 2020, China banned the online game Animal Crossing. Apparently deciding that didn’t go nearly far enough, on April 16 of that year, the ban expanded to include all online games including zombies, doomsday, ghosts, and evil in general. All game chat rooms and customizations were to be strictly monitored. Anti-gaming advocate Jack Thompson must be feeling at least a little envious.  

2. Nanfu Wong’s Career

As far as the world of documentary filmmaking goes, the PRC probably has no higher profile and cutting critic than Nanfu Wong. In 2019, she released a documentary on the disastrous One Child policy called One Child Nation. The film won the prestigious Grand Prize at the Sundance Film Festival and yet Chinese media censored all references to it being shortlisted for an Academy Award. 

Apparently deciding that wasn’t provocative enough, in 2021, she released In the Same Breath, which went in depth about how the PRC bungled the initial containment of Covid-19, how it arrested doctors that tried to warn the public, how it downplayed the spread and the human cost. In response, not only was Wong threatened by the government, but her family which lived in China. Even during the production her crews would follow around activists and get arrested. As Adam Johnston said in his review of her latest film, presumably she’ll never go back to China again. 

1. No “Girly Guns” on TV

For those who aren’t keeping up to date on Chinese slurs, “girly guns” is a phrase for effeminate men. On September 1, 2021, the National Radio and TV Administration announced that such men were to be banned as part of an effort to remove “abnormal aesthetics” from the national media. AP News speculated that this was intended to blunt the influence that music stars from Japan and South Korea were having.

In something of a callback to our third entry, on September 9, the PRC ordered gaming companies such as Tencent to remove all effeminate content from their games. Considering that games such as Fortnite intentionally included such male characters to appeal to a broader audience and discourage a culture of harassment (albeit it with reportedly limited success in terms of the latter) this could prove especially disastrous for the gaming giant. 

Dustin Koski can be followed on Twitter, though not so much in China since the site is blocked there.