Critiki is dead

Humuhumu shut the site down today, her explanation is at the old domain.

Sooo….anyone up for rebuilding it here?

Wow, my raw reaction to her reasons for shutting down the site would probably get me banned from TC, so all I will say is that it shows a profound misunderstanding of why we celebrate mid-century PolyPop culture and I'd also add that Critiki was not really "her" site, as many of us contributed to it over the years, so for her to use its deletion as some sort of performative absolution for her supposed sins of cultural misappropriation is incredibly frustrating.

As for recreating it here, most of it already exists in the Locating Tiki forum, albeit in a less polished format.

Dang, I have referred many to her site. While I get her points, I also get the tremendous impact her site has made documenting tiki, and that loss saddens me. That information still has value. It’s as if someone said, “Let’s not talk about wars because they are bad.” Where does that leave us? I’ll leave that to the reader to decide.

I may be completely uninformed, but my impression for many years is that Humuhumu was extremely pressed for time due to the many things we all deal with in life. I can’t criticize her personal decision - it must make sense to her. And I respect that.

With regard to tiki, I think it is a natural manifestation of our human creative nature and not any direct attack on peoples of the Pacific Islands per se. Few human things are perfect. And I will leave it at that.

Critiki will be missed. And I would not be surprised to see something else arise to fill the void.

Cheers and a huge mahalo to Humuhumu and her many years of hard work. Her efforts are hugely appreciated and will be missed.

If you want a searchable database, you really should check out https://mytiki.life/tiki-bars

I have spent a lot of time doing updates during COVID and you can run cross searches by key words to find much of what was formerly listed in Critiki and much more that Critiki didn't really cover from the last 5 years or so.

Posting the explanation for preservation purposes:

In 1991, I read a biography of Queen Liliʻuokalani, the last sovereign monarch of Hawaiʻi. Despite always having had an interest in Hawaiʻi (thanks largely to briefly living there as a child), I learned far more reading that book than I ever had before about the beauty and depth of Native Hawaiian culture.

That book was also where I learned about the history of Hawaiʻi. How outsiders, especially those from the United States, caused breathtaking damage, culminating in the theft of Hawaiʻi by the United States on behalf of the American businessmen that had overrun the island. It was eye-opening. Disgusting. I refused to buy Dole products for years. I knew it was a hundred years too late, but my taste had soured. It is a history that has been glossed over, by design.

The Hawaiian culture is just one in a literal ocean full of misunderstood Pacific cultures. It is difficult for these cultures—and when we say culture, let’s be clear, we’re talking about people—to be visible, and honored, over the loud noise and suffocating weight of the other cultures they are forced to share space with, both in the islands and here on the mainland.

Critiki has played a role in taking up some of that space, and making it harder—not easier—for people to understand the cultures of the Pacific. I regret that.

The history of Polynesia-themed restaurants and other “Polynesian pop” culture in mainland America remains utterly fascinating to me. For many years, it was the only way some bit of Island culture could be experienced—but it was very much powered by a non-Islander lens, for consumption by a non-Islander audience. There is incredible beauty in that melding, but it is deeply, deeply lopsided. And while that may have been relatively progressive in 1950, we can and should do better in this century.

Because I have spent literal decades studying mainland-flavored faux-Polynesian theming, and the historic context it came from, I am roughly able to tease out what is real and what is fake. That level of discernment is simply not accessible to a casual audience. Many years of conversations with people have made that clear to me, and any assertion that the general public can tell the fake from the real is obtuse. It absolutely muddies the picture of these cultures, and that is profoundly unfair.

I have spent the last few years thinking on this. There has been a lot of being quiet, and a lot of listening. I have needed to step away from the comforting echo chamber of the world of “Tiki.” It’s very hard to shed biases when there is something to lose. I needed to be calm, and thoughtful, and get myself into alignment. Alignment with a wider picture, and alignment with my own values.

I have loved Critiki. I have loved immersing myself in history through it. I have loved getting to know the world a bit better through it. I have loved the many, many relationships I have made thanks to Critiki. And I can hold all that love, along with the reality that it is time for Critiki to go.

• Humuhumu Trott, September 2022

Critiki was an online database cataloging over 1,000 tiki bars and other Polynesian pop culture locations worldwide, past and present. It was created by Humuhumu Trott, and was in operation from 2002-2022.

[ Edited by leevigraham on 2022-09-04 19:51:25 ]

It irritates me to no end that any single person has the power to obliterate that many years of discussion, history, and research off the internet, deadlinking probably hundreds of thousands of pages. Now I feel sorry to have contributed so many things there.

Whether anyone agrees or disagrees with her reasons why she's chosen to shut it down really doesn't matter and that is her decision, but to just shut it down completely without leaving all that information up there for reference, even if a lot of might be out of date now and will be in the future as bars listed on there close, is just ridiculous.

It would have been nice if she had given people notice before she did this so people could take some screen shots of anything related to their account if they wanted to keep them for their own records (like my own personal list of all the bars i've visited). That data isn't being lost due to a server problem like TC had. It's being lost because she's decided to not allow anyone to have access to it any more.

I have to agree that turning off the valve to the site so quickly was wrong headed. The information on the site had/has tremendous historical value and was the cumulative input of many thousands of individuals. This is akin to when ancient leaders decided to de-post the history of people by removing their names and histories from public buildings. Her explanation could have served as the entrance greeting to the site and the rest of the site could have served as an archive of information. To those who believe differently, that somehow tiki limits the voices and diminishes the culture of the islanders or people themselves- or those who stand in opposition to cultural appropriation- the Kool aid you are drinking from is poured from a pitcher that has its on impurities and purpose.

Despite Humu turning off the spigot at the source, parts of it live on in the Internet Archive. Their last site crawl was back in early August:

https://web.archive.org/web/20220808085746/https://www.critiki.com/

Hopefully, something can be salvaged from that.

Well she has at least one child and that should be where most of her time and energy is spent.

Have seen people I knew had children or at least one child that would go to events or even just come to our house/Tropical Bistro and drink while the kid/wife is never seen with them, always thought they should be with their family or child more and not with some group of friends drinking so much.

But then some of them are no longer married so that may have been a factor.

It was hers to keep going or kill, she kills it she gets ripped for doing that, if she just left it there and does not keep updating, she gets ripped for that (that has been going on for some time now) and if she removes it she gets ripped for that.

So where is the upside, she keeps it going updating all the time for what the huge pay or thanks she got?

Thanks for what you did do for as long as you did it Humu.

Now do something that will last and be timeless, spend time with your family and child.

Skip, I think the most reasonable option would've been for her to let someone else curate the site or move it elsewhere, rather that what she did, which amounts to censorship of something that she apparently decided had become offensive to her.

I also thank her for all the time and effort she put into sites like Ooga-Mooga and Critiki, but I can also criticize her for the way she shut them down with little or no warning, especially when they both relied heavily on input from the Ohana in the form of photos and other historical information. They were bigger than just her, and should've been allowed to fade away in a more dignified manner than simply pulling the plug.

"Performative absolution" is a good way to describe it. This particular solution won't satisfy anyone or anything except the feelings of the person who pulled the plug. Moreover, bricking the site because 'Tiki is problematic' is a reflection of the worst puritanical impulses, which ironically seek to correct issues of cultural destruction with more of the same. Forget about the hard work of contextualizing things, or educating, etc. Tiki and Polynesian Pop must go.

A lot of the commentary on the loss of Critiki has focused on the inherent unfairness of denying an entire community access to something they contributed to and enjoyed over so many years. That's entirely on point, but I think what's being missed here is that the condemnation isn't limited to a website. What we're being told in that statement is twofold:

1. You are incapable of reaching and/or can't be trusted to reach a broader understanding around these issues of cultural appropriation; and

2. As a consequence, I think your hobby (which I no longer share beyond academic fascination) should die.

That's a level of self-loathing that likely cannot be reasoned with. While I respect the personal decision from Humuhumu to step away for what I similarly consider to be valid reasons, burning it all down on the way out and taking a broadside at everyone who hasn't landed in exactly the same place...not so much.

[ Edited by Celeres517 on 2022-09-05 08:38:43 ]

[ Edited by Celeres517 on 2022-09-05 08:50:08 ]

Yes, the level of condescension and dismissal in her remarks for the rest of us who she clearly doesn't consider intelligent or worthy enough to comprehend her exquisitely nuanced viewpoints of island culture was quite infuriating, and unfortunately, I find that sort of elitist attitude all too common these days.

I agree, or at least don't disagree, with both sides here. As somebody who has taken some time to think about the same things I understand her concerns about appropriation and if this hobby/style/culture is potentially offensive to others. Having an surprising amount of native Hawaiian in my extended family (for a family that historically is pretty much Northern European all the way through) I've taken the time to do some research and talk to some of my family members about it and I've found a middle ground that I'm comfortable with.

At the same time, wiping out a whole site with no warning, and then stating they she did it because she felt like anyone in the hobby could see the problem without being removed from it is a bit arrogant. There was a better way to handle this, maybe by posting this message with a notice that she'll be shutting the site down in 30 days or something.

Yes, the points here are right on point. When you become a leader in a community by providing major source content that relies on interactive use by those in the community to be successful and then pull the plug without notice, you have in fact joined the ranks of other notorious fascists. These are strong words but what she did was a strong action to a community that supported her own curiosities for over a decade. She changed her mind and poof, a decade worth of information vanished.

"Skip, I think the most reasonable option would've been for her to let someone else curate the site or move it"

Yeah, I guess but if she came out with hey, I'm going to Move, get rid of, or keep it for a few days, there would have been tons of backlash then too.

She had her reasons; guess I did not use that site that much I did add a ton to it though.

It's just stuff, don't you ever feel guilty spending this much time and money on such a frivolous thing.

Man people are having real trouble paying bills, trying not to get killed in Ukraine or Chicago, living on the streets and some here pay more than many make a year on tiki crap.

And we fear we might offend somebody with a tiki mug or bar.

But all the crazy stuff going on well that's ok people do die, just get my pronoun right that's what counts.

We must get really worked up about the small BS so we don't need to really face/fix the important bad big stuff.

Tiki has about as much to do with Hawaiian culture as the Simpsons does with white people, or the Seven Dwarfs do with mining.

I'll jump back in, because between 'private citizen deleting their tiki website is literal fascism' and 'we can't care about this at all because there's starving people in China', this thread has really gotten out of hand quickly.

Pulling down Critiki with no warning was a crummy and stupid thing to do. It plainly telegraphed a lack of respect and consideration for a community that had supported and gained knowledge and friendships from that website over the course of two decades. It's also a reflection of insufferable (but not exactly novel) social trends that value stamping things out should they be judged by some as disagreeable, even if they weren't inherently created for the purpose of hurting other people.

But let's not lose all perspective here. We aren't looking down the barrel of a gun. We can care deeply about the health and welfare of a cherished hobby despite the fact that there are other problems in the world right now. I'm two tiki drinks in at the moment, but I think I'll have another...

Dang, before Tiki Central was back up I got a lot of info from Critiki. Humuhumu even posted stuff about how Tiki can be problematic which was helpful for me to read.

The people I have met through tiki are some of the nicest people I have ever met. People who have fun, buy me (a stranger) drinks at a tiki bar, give me advice or tell fun stories. There's a lot of camaraderie here and people who want to help each other support their hobby to the fullest. So I think we can have conversations about tiki and problematic social/historical implications while not cancelling this hobby and the cool people that support it. We have a desire to escape and create fantastical worlds that engage our senses and bring a sense of unity (through immersion) for a moment, and tiki does a great job of that.

Lots of good points here

[ Edited by Captain Cook on 2022-09-05 21:28:50 ]

[ Edited by Captain Cook on 2022-09-07 16:55:23 ]

I guess my point was worrying about cultural appropriation now like saying you need to paint your boat while it is on fire and sinking in the ocean.

Cultural appropriation here in Columbus Ohio just never comes up, did hear one thing once but that was about American Indians, thank God I don't have a tee pee bar.

My dad loved the whole Indian history.

BUT two houses did sell in our area that went to people from out of state so it will be moving in, mess up the states they live in and move from the mess only to start on messin up Ohio.

Two movies you never see now are Papas delicate condition with Jackie Gleason, and one about a grandpa who drinks a bunch it was at 4th July but the reason is they glorify drinking or alcoholism.

Does Jackie Gleason buying a circus for his girl make you feel bad about the drunk person in your life?

Another is Charly Chan movies are these movies offensive to people really?

I'm sure the Japanese people's family who had their moms or dads in those movies sure would like to see them on TV or get any kind of money that would bring if any.

You want to feel picked on or ostracized try being the only white guy in an all-black kitchen, I can tell ya how that went.

Do know I never treated people that way or wanted to.

If anybody knows her IRL, please pass along the message that as a form of absolution and penance, she can send all of her collected items of poly-pop and Hawaiiana to me. I can provide my oppressed Pacific Islander credentials upon request.

I want the HumuHumu Norwegian Cruise Lines mug that I gave her back too. I can provide credentials as an oppressed Sicilian islander if necessary.

I've taken the time to do some research and talk to some of my family members about it and I've found a middle ground that I'm comfortable with.

Two genuine follow up questions on this:

1. What was the middle ground you came to?
2. Does that middle ground align with your extended families position?

Those are fair questions. The best take on it I found was from a Atlantic podcast that included a department head at the University of Hawai'i. The tl;dr version of it is that if tiki si fantasy and not reality, that it should use fantasy images and not images of the Polynesian gods. That made a lot of sense to me (his other significant objection was the hypersexualization of Polynesian women in tiki, something I don't have an issue with avoiding). More details are in a post I made at the time:

https://tikicentral.com/viewpost.php?post_id=799062

Combining that with the discussions with my family (largely my aunt, who's native Hawaiian and is active in Hawaiian culture issues) has helped me to understand that while the local tiki bar isn't the biggest issue facing Polynesian culture right now, that doesn't mean it gets a pass for its use of culture and its important to understand the difference between the fantasy and the reality of what its based on.

Because of all of that (and more) my "middle ground" has been to lean more into the adventure/nautical/early aircraft/etc. side of tiki and away from some of the true "tiki" images. I'm not saying I'm 100% perfect on this, but I'm focusing on not collecting mugs or other images that are using the images of the Polynesian gods (for example, if I go to Smugglers Cove I probably won't buy their signature mug, because its a pretty like-for-like image of Ku, the Hawaiian god of war.). I'm not saying others can't or shouldn't buy it, but its not what I want to include or support.

Also when I can point things out in a helpful way, I do. Last time I was at our local tiki bar in Denver, Adrift, they were using "come in and get lei'ed" on one of their signs. Play on words, not particularly harmful, but that usage was something my aunt mentioned that can rub some native Hawaiians the wrong way. So I politely pointed that out to them, telling them they hadn't made a major mistake or anything but it might be a better reflection of the culture to not use that. They seemed to appreciate the feedback.

Do I think my aunt or my other family members who are native Hawaiian would have the tiki collection I have? No. But I like to think (hope?) that if/when they visit they aren't going to see anything in my collection that raises their hackles.

The timing is really good on this.

For a while now we've been thinking of an excellent and massively improved replacement. Something that would serve tiki and non tiki interests in much better ways.

We have all the data anyway.

Any sql hackers interested in an exciting new project?

Not sure I buy any of the cultural appropriation talk.

First, the history of islanders being over run by Europeans is well known, and Two, the islanders slaughtered each other whenever the chance availed itself to them. The culture was violent and none of us would have wanted to wash up on the shores of any of the Pacific islands during the 1500s. The whole invention of peace loving natives is as much a myth as Tiki Culture in Bars.

I am fully aware of what Americans and Europeans did to the islanders.

I am also aware that when one tribe conquered another tribe, the men were slaughtered and the women were appropriated - and not in a nice way. Cultural appropriation would have been a blessing for them rather than rape and slavery.

The world is a messy place. I try not to make it any messier. I try not to offend other cultures, and I do my best to be respectful.

But what I don't do is pretend that the whole bloody mess can be rectified and simplified by being "mindful". What people really want is restitution and equality and an opportunity to live the life or lives that autonomy would deliver if it were possible. My getting rid of a mug won't deliver anything on that front.

Let me say this a different way.

If I am asked to present the "truth" of a culture that feels it has been appropriated, then I have an obligation to present the nasty mean stuff as well as all of the touch feely stuff.

No one's culture will appreciate the "truth" of everything being told, especially if food and drinks are the point of the business. It kind of spoils the atmosphere.

Humans survive, not because they are kind and sing songs to flowers and practice balance with the earth - we survived because we were the baddest of the bad.

No, that is not where I want to see our civilization aspire, but Tiki is escapism from reality. That escapism includes ignoring for a moment that the headhunter mug really comes from people who did shrink heads or that the velvet painting of a semi nude woman who seems happy is only happy because she isn't thinking about her husband and sons who were murdered in the last tribal raid and that she was sold off to serve some smelly man and his family.

You see where I am going there? Is truth always the point?

All of the bar listings are on https://mytiki.life/tiki-bars. I'm missing the ratings and check-in information tho.

I am also aware that when one tribe conquered another tribe, the men were slaughtered and the women >were appropriated - and not in a nice way. Cultural appropriation would have been a blessing for them >rather than rape and slavery.

I feel like this jumps from one extreme to the other. I don't think tiki bars need to present the full history of the islands any more than an Mexican restaurant needs to cover Aztec sacrifices. However acknowledging that, for example, the mug the bar is selling is a pretty close representation of a Polynesian god that, while maybe is no longer worshipped but is still respected and honored, might not be in the best taste is not huge ask.

Concerns about appropriation doesn't mean shutting down tiki. But considering what pieces and images of those cultures are being used and if they're really understood and used in an appropriate way is a reasonable expectation from the members of that culture iMO.

[ Edited by JasonMa on 2022-09-06 20:51:21 ]

[ Edited by JasonMa on 2022-09-06 20:51:35 ]

If a tiki bar used an actual tiki, cut it up to fit the decor in the bar, and then used it for amusement purposes, yes, I can see someone getting upset. However, I can also see people getting upset if that tiki was placed in a museum.

The genie is out of the bottle and the last ship has sailed. For example, I have quite a collection of Native American objects, some which are genuine kachinas. I treat the objects with appropriate reverence. I have a genuine peace pipe made of pipe stone and carved by a Sioux tribal member -woman of some note. I treat the pipe with respect and ensure that sage is in the pipe bowl when not in use and that the pipe is separated from the stem when not in use.

My wife has a beautiful rosary that she wears that was had carved from white onyx in Mexico by a Mayan. She gets flack from catholics from time to time because she isn't catholic. But these are some of the same people who freely appropriate other people's cultures, quite openly.

We can discuss this ad nauseam and the discussion is helpful, but for most of us, it seems the study of tiki is the study of American Pop as it was in the 40s, 50s, and 60s. That said, since this site went on line, a whole new generation has discovered tiki and of course they are bringing their own perspectives to the genre. I accept that. But it is important to remind them that tiki isn't about getting drunk or wasted. It is a fascination with and and escape to a time when tiki provided relief from the Cold War, Hot Wars, and the malaise and desperation of the Great Depression and WW11.

It just isn't so simple as to "educate" the masses on the misappropriation of cultures. Most people just want a good drink and remember a past that never was except in the imagination.

That said, since this site went on line, a whole new generation has discovered tiki and of course they are bringing their own perspectives to the genre. I accept that. But it is important to remind them that tiki isn't about getting drunk or wasted.

Its also important to remind the current generation that not everyone remembers the past the same way, especially if that past references, even indirectly, an era that wasn't as happy as it was for others.

I certainly agree with many of your points. As an international traveler and someone who travels to study the history of other people's and cultures, perhaps my viewpoint on this will always be different than a lot of people. When I travel and study other cultures, I do so through the lens of their culture and history. Usually, it is a hot mess to put it lightly. But more importantly, it reminds me that our own history in America is really no different than anyone else's. Our crimes against others often pale when compared side by side with those around us - not that it makes us any more innocent because it doesn't. But I stopped supposing long ago that somehow our "crimes" are unique or somehow unusual and require a special dispensation so we can atone for them. Yes, the 1950s were a rough time for many groups - but not as rough as the 1850s. Hopefully, the 2050s will be even more equitable and equal for all groups than the 1950s. When the lens of history is expanded to include centuries, not decades, progress and improvement become much more apparent and we begin to understand that the life of one person is a small stepping stone along the road of human existence. So I enjoy the moment, am grateful for the mugs that I have - some that are no longer available to the modern collector - and continue to look for that perfect tiki restaurant where I can forget for a few moments and relax with a nice Navy Grog. But I do appreciate the perspective that many are now bringing to the world of tiki - so long as it doesn't cancel my favorite LP covers, velvet paintings, and women in bikinis bringing out flaming drinks for the table to share. I'm a mess and I know it.

Yes, the level of condescension and dismissal in her remarks for the rest of us who she clearly doesn't consider intelligent or worthy enough to comprehend her exquisitely nuanced viewpoints of island culture was quite infuriating, and unfortunately, I find that sort of elitist attitude all too common these days.

I ADMONISH THEE, HERETIC!

lolz

btw, i like pie.

tl:dr queens gonna queen, virtue gonna signal, tiki gonna tiki, trespassers will be coconutted

[ Edited by leevigraham on 2022-09-08 03:59:52 ]

i like pie.

Pie is violence.

Since a band I originally formed with Mark Soden in my bedroom called the "Nu-Beams" (Though I parted ways with right after because it was not punk enough for me) in the late 1970s anywho the Nu-Beams put out a single afterwards called "Men Like Pie"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5fsSHMK0iI

So you have culturally appropriated from my Punk Culture and you should cancel yourself ASAP, So any mention of Men, Pie or the word "like" should be eradicated from your brain, On your way out please accept a moist towelette.

"any more than an Mexican restaurant needs to cover Aztec sacrifices"

The Aztec sacrifice taco that Taco bell put out was not that good and only was on the menu for a short time to be fair.

BUT don't bring this up around Tiki Diablo as he will go on for days about it.

I kid.

Do like pie but not in a throwing shade hidden slam kinda way.

Yes we like pie, to eat.

How did I like pie become a slam anyway?

Meringue is Murder (Lemon only, Lime is Aggravated Assault).

Tikicentral goes down for two years and during that time, the tiki world changes from a world of laughter, silliness, and overwhelming interest in the nonsense of the history of tiki and now when it the site returns, it is all about making sure everyone understands just how intrusively offensive this hobby and interest is to some people.

What?

I will miss Critiki. It was a great source for understanding and recalling bars and restaurants from years gone by. Lots of memorable photos and many interesting stories about the places and the people who visited them.

It comes with the times, I suppose.

Hi, my name is Telescopes. My personal pronouns are short and expanded. I only drink organic fruits and rums from mugs that are generic enough to look like they came from England during the 1980s. They have names like Larry, Phil, and Xandy. I would never use the name Ku to describe a mug because I am not a Polynesian.

And using Tapa cloth. Don't get me started. I grieve for the loss of the islands to the French and American sugar industry. I am truly torn up about it. You'll never catch me putting up a velvet painting....

Adios, Tiki.... it was good while the getting was good. Whoops, did I just say adios...? I mean, "good-bye".

And that’s what I like about the South.

https://youtu.be/A_dK0W0qfRo

Oh man, this is very disappointing. I'd looked at Critiki just a few days before, and like Swiz, wish we'd gotten some warning to be able to pull our own info from it. I also had Critiki's tiki bar visit notification feature to thank for meeting PineappleWhip at Don the Beachcomber days before it closed. Thanks leevigraham for saving much of the information.

It comes with the times, I suppose.

It's been heading in this direction since before the Pandemic, but apparently, letting people stew in their own woke juices for the past couple of years with minimal outside interaction has really brought things to a boil.

The Aztec sacrifice taco that Taco bell put out was not that good and only was on the menu for a short time to be fair.

Probably the only menu item that could ever entice me to eat at a Taco Bell again.

Drop the Human Chalupa!

I'm honestly still trying to figure out what exactly is the issue. Is it the use of the imagery of Tikis themselves? Because if that's what it is and we remove them, then what's left? We go back to pre-Tiki bars which are really just tropical or nautical bars or a combination of both, which is all well and good and i have no problem with, BUT, then this site becomes .....(nothing) Central. Every Facebook group removes the key word which describes what the group (should) be about and you're left with....Mugs For Sale. This is .....Authentic Mid-Century...Style collectors. ....Collectors. (Even though nowadays that is exactly what the scene has turned into-things that have got nothing to do with Tiki at all). WTF does that mean?

Man, what a drag. For me, and I'm sure so many others, this was THE resource for traveling. Some past trips were based solely around info from Critiki. The photos, the insights, the unknown (to me) gems. One of my favorite things to to was to look at the list of all the places I had been, and even revisit my ratings. When TC when down, I panicked and screencapped my list of places visited. There's some I surely would've forgotten had I not done that. This is just a shame.

I would say this is a perfect example of how the "Cultural Appropriation" fallacy actually does damage to society, by erasing history deemed uncomfortable by a few self appointed arbiters whom think themselves morally superior, this did not end well for many people throughout history.

Ignorance is not bliss, it is just Ignorance.

[ Edited by Atomic Tiki Punk on 2022-09-11 12:49:45 ]

[ Edited by Atomic Tiki Punk on 2022-09-11 12:51:46 ]

I do appreciate the brilliance that is Humuhumu and all the efforts she put into this place over the years. Same goes for Hanford. That's all I want to say.

[ Edited by exoticat2 on 2022-09-16 19:58:28 ]

I receive some other feeds from tiki cancelers. What is interesting as I read them, is that this reaction to cultural appropriation is of course much broader than simply Humuhumu pulling Critiki. In a recent post, she referenced the sins of the English Monarchy, especially at it pertains to racism.

What I found interesting is that for anyone who lives in San Francisco or any other high rent district, how could any resident who is doing well not see that they themselves as contributing to the very cultural rampage, appropriation, and continuation of racist practices that befall anyone and everyone. It's easy to throw stones at the monarchy and England, or America, its government, and it historical legacy. But anyone - that is to say really, everyone - who benefits from the privileges one has access to by simply living in a city such as San Francisco or really any area distinguished by it separation of the haves and have nots, is no less guilty.

Of course, one could make themselves sick trying to be so noble and pure as to not be contributing to the sorrow of those less fortunate, but you would be on a fool's errand. One can not erase the sins of appropriation, racism, misfortune by cutting down statues, changing the names of streets, or shutting down tiki websites.

To elevate, if indeed that is the goal, one must work to make the system more fair, not by eliminating standards, but by rather working to support those who are out of reach of making those high standards stand higher.

Eliminating websites, changing street names, etc, all may make one feel like they are doing something, but in reality, it compounds the issue by redirecting the conversation away from those things that can truly raise people up and rather keeping them in victimized status by focusing on issues that ultimately will change nothing.

The creator of any website is free to do as they wish with it. But I am deeply troubled by those who firmly believe that the solution to our world's problems can begin to be resolved by such actions. Noble to cancel - it's not for me to say. But worrisome - I am concerned.

That's a shame! It was such a great resource. That said, there's always the Wayback Machine, which doesn't work perfectly, but you can pull up a lot of the old pages: https://web.archive.org/web/20150401000000*/https://www.critiki.com/

This! Shutting down the site seems performative and like you said, privilege is everywhere so its better to recognize it, be humble, and help others instead of censorship of user generated content.