Jake Topkis

Filmmaker, Writer, VR Director. Co-creator of @TheCaveAllegory (on IG).

[Ryan Grim @ryangrim]

We recently interviewed one of the guys on the Explosive Media Lego team and he said that, surprisingly, their attitude toward the American people has significantly *improved* throughout this conflict, as they have come to recognize that both they and we are subjects of the Epstein class, that Americans voted against war and are appalled by what we're doing. I think the same is true for Americans, and these videos have helped humanize Iranians, in a weird way (considering they are Lego characters and not humans in the videos)

[Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani @NYCMayor]

This merger is bad for New Yorkers three times over. Thousands of jobs at risk here in the city. Streaming bills going up as competition disappears. And two of America’s most powerful media companies under one roof, deciding what you watch and what you hear.

Today, as Warner Bros. and Paramount shareholders vote, New York City is on record: this merger should be stopped.

[BuBBliK @k1rallik]

> Netflix raised prices
> Disney+ raised prices
> HBO Max raised prices
> Amazon just removed 4K from standard plan
> YouTube Premium now $15.99/month
> Family plan hit $26.99
> Average American spends ~$828/year on streaming

We are paying MORE, getting LESS, and watching ads anyway.
They didn't kill cable. They became it.

[hasanabi @hasanthehun]

i have warned of the dangers of the false conflation between the state of israel and judaism for years. i will always fight against antisemitism and zionism no matter what vicious smears people launch against me.

[Anish Moonka @anishmoonka]

Sure, your eyes aren’t tricking you. That clip looks better than the new trailer, and the reason has nothing to do with talent. The VFX supervisor on Amazing Spider-Man 2 in 2014? Jerome Chen. The VFX supervisor on Brand New Day? Also Jerome Chen. Same person. Completely different system around him.

In 2014, Chen had 50 effects artists at Sony Imageworks, the largest VFX crew the studio had ever put on a single project. They handled about 1,000 of the film’s 1,600 VFX shots on a $255 million budget. The crew shot on real film (not digital), on location in actual New York City, scanned Times Square with 36,000 photographs of over 100 billboards, and built physical lighting rigs on set so the CGI would match the real world.

Now look at how Marvel makes Spider-Man movies. No Way Home had 2,500 VFX shots spread across 12 studios and about 3,000 artists. The budget was $200 million, $55 million less than TASM2 despite having 56% more VFX shots. Digital Domain, one of the VFX vendors, was delivering final shots days before the December 17, 2021, release. They kept reworking shots into mid-January, after the movie was already in theaters.

Zoom out, and the math gets worse. Marvel released 6 films between 2008 and 2012. From 2023 to 2025, they pushed out 7 films and 7 TV shows. The Hollywood union representing VFX workers reported that Marvel pays artists about 20% below industry average and staffs one person where other studios hire three. Artists described 64-hour weeks and breakdowns on the job. Then, in February 2025, Technicolor, the parent company of MPC (three-time Oscar winner for Life of Pi, The Jungle Book, and 1917), collapsed almost overnight. 4,500 jobs gone globally. The studio had been actively working on Disney and Paramount films when the lights went out.

Brand New Day has four months before release, and trailers routinely show unfinished shots. But the gap between a 2014 Spider-Man and a 2026 Spider-Man has nothing to do with technology going backwards. The industry has been asked to do three times the work for less money per shot while its biggest studios are going under.

[hasanabi @hasanthehun]

it’s hard not to feel discouraged seeing material realities destroyed in a collapsing fascist system every single day but there’s truly hope out there. one must use the marginal victories to maintain revolutionary optimism everyday. people are angry. now is the time to organize.

[Ken Klippenstein @kenklippenstein]

For the first time in 25 years of Gallup polling, more Americans say they sympathize with Palestinians than with Israelis.

[A Left-Wing Account ™️ @PushDemsLeft]

Newsom just had Ben Shapiro on his podcast to do genocide denial & walk back criticisms of ICE.

He did photo ops stealing from homeless people. He opposes taxing the rich to fund programs like Medicare for All, which he abandoned.

Who cares about marginalized groups? Not Gavin!

[Jake Topkis @JakeTopkis]

@FearedBuck How many lakes dried up to generate this?

[Briahna Joy Gray @briebriejoy]

It’s good of @kalpenn to try, but deeply naive for him to think Blinken was simply unaware of how unpopular and evil Israel’s genocide is. They don’t CARE. They are CHOOSING to protect the corporate/Epstein class over defeating Trump. And they’ll do it again.

[Ilhan Omar @IlhanMN]

The leader of the Pedophile Protection Party is trying to deflect attention from his name being all over the Epstein files.

At least in Somalia they execute pedophiles not elect them.

[Drop Site @DropSiteNews]

Rep. Ro Khanna on Breaking Points reacting to Sen. Chuck Schumer touting unconditional military aid to Israel:

“I couldn’t believe it. Here is a nation that has committed genocide in Gaza, and Chuck Schumer in the same years is bragging about providing them unconditional military aid.”

Khanna also slammed the latest appropriations bill, saying it includes a “significant blank check” for Israel, more than $6 billion, and “triple the ICE funding,” calling both “deeply problematic.”

@Krystalball | @esaagar | @RoKhanna

[Emma Vigeland @EmmaVigeland]

The fascists know they're lying about this murder.

[Jake Topkis @JakeTopkis]

Everyone needs a pal like Dan—!

[Jake Topkis @JakeTopkis]

No, no, no, no and no.

Cringe that you have “based” in your name, loser.

[Andrew Torba @BasedTorba]

The real problem they have with the group chat is young men being young men. Like it or not, this is how we talk in our own spaces. They want to utterly crush, demoralize, and emasculate any and all forms of male communication and comradery. That’s why it is so important to never apologize for it and frankly—to just start talking in public like we all do in private.

[Drop Site @DropSiteNews]

A survey by the Hebrew University’s Chord Center found that 87% of ruling coalition supporters believe there are “no innocents” in Gaza. On international media coverage, 69% of respondents said CNN and the BBC are biased in favor of Palestinians, with 50% perceiving Fox News, the bastion of the U.S. right, as pro-Palestinian.

The poll was conducted in the final week of May and surveyed a sample of 1,112 Israelis.

[Jake Topkis @JakeTopkis]

@MattLech Maybe the rapture did happen, because this is hell.

[Jake Topkis @JakeTopkis]

@IsraelinLA You’re asking us to trust your “real” AI artwork?

[Jake Topkis @JakeTopkis]

@Betar_USA If the shoe fits…

[Jake Topkis @JakeTopkis]

@dccc Oof.