#<- not shown (he runs the lab twitter)

[our-happygirl500-fan]

Something that I think is kind of funny is how excited Donnie kind of looks to use his drill against Shredder

Donnie: Everything can be improved by some Donnie Tech!

It kind of seems as though Donnie has a look of glee just to be able to use his drill against the Shredder & I kind of think part of the reason that Donnie might be excited about using his drill is that he might be excited over being able to use his tech against the Shredder.

Donnie: All of my tech is standing by, and I mean all of my tech. Eat Science! Sad Face Emoji!

When Donnie previously went up against the Shredder in the episode Many Unhappy Returns, the Shredder pretty much tore through nearly everything Donnie had without even seeming phased. It kind of seems as though Donnie’s tech being kind of ineffective against the Shredder is almost a sort of a kind of running gag as the Shredder also quickly dealt with Donnie’s tech in the episode Shreddy or Not.

Shelldon: Get away from her!

In the episode Shreddy or Not the Shredder destroys Shelldon & the defences in Donnie’s lab with a single strike & in a deleted Shreddy or Not scene (found on JJ Conway’s twitter) the Shredder also easily defeated Donnie.

Donnie: From our recently discovered yet dearly beloved grandmother

Shredder: Once I destroy her, I will be invincible

Throughout Rise it has kind of been shown that Donnie is proud of his tech yet time & time again whenever Donnie is faced with the Shredder, his tech seems to pretty much get ripped through.

It kind of makes sense that Donnie might be sort of excited when he gets the chance to finally use his tech effectively against the Shredder.

[vineboom-sfx]

More of these (I fucked up with the year, but whatever)

Fake oc tweets

[spookyprime]

God I remembered the way people infatalize Bart allen specifically because he sometimes gets in the way of timkon shipping. people don't wanna admit he and kon had a thing. People don't wanna admit he has any kind of love interests or desires or even canon girlfriends. How many times has konbart shown up on a tumblr poll or Twitter poll only to be met with "ew" reactions like what are you fucking talking about. He's the only one of them that's had a genuine solid run as a real adult what the hell do you mean he's too young. I understand he's grown in a vr lab chamber but my current understanding is that he's older than both Tim and Conner. What are you fucking talking about.

[shayminlucario07]

In response to today's selection of Dumb Twitter Takes

(If you don't know, people were clowning on a Smash Bros player on Twitter who made a "Smash characters if they had TikTok" post and said Shulk would make gym videos. This is, obviously, inaccurate to his character and suggests that the OP does not know Xenoblade, but people's responses to it were widely equally as dumb as the original post.)

I'm tired of people mischaracterizing Shulk as "Twink scientist who has never done a pushup in his life". That man is in the fucking Defence Force. He is LITERALLY IN THE MILITARY. His best friend is REYN and his hero/mentor is DUNBAN THE WAR HERO. Yes, he's a weaponry scientist- yes, he canonically spends most of his time in the lab to the point of forgetting to eat consistently enough that Fiora brings him food to make sure he does; yes, he is told outright by Dickson at the start of the game that he needs to get out more; but what people need to acknowledge, and refuse to (Gee I wonder why... I'll let you figure that out for yourself, but it's not hard), is that he is a trained combatant, who has spent his entire life in a world that is at war, is a member of his Colony's military, and throughout the entire game, is shown to be physically strong enough to be able to block attacks from Faced Mechon five times his size. He is able to run long distances at fast speeds for very respectable amounts of time- probably more than most people reading this, if we're being honest. And, again, he is a trained combatant. Fighting, especially with a sword, is VERY physically exhausting, and doing so as much as he does throughout the game- even just in cutscenes, if you choose to ignore gameplay- is very physically demanding! Shulk may be a scientist, but that does NOT mean that he's automatically weak, and if you think it does mean that, you're proving your lack of media literacy.

[cheeriecherrymain]

Headcannons you say? 👀 why not how Viktor would react to reader's lotal pet bird! Especially if it cawed out his name everytime he passed?? Only if you're comfortable with this, much love <3

My cousin has an african grey parrot, whose name I have lovingly reused for this.

Viktor x fem!Reader

-He doesn’t know you have a bird until you’re comfortable enough to visit each other’s homes.

-You’ve probably brought him (and Jayce) lunch at the lab a couple times, and he seemed to enjoy the meal, so you figured it might be nice to invite him over for dinner sometime. The two of you are always running out of time during your conversations, interrupted by school or work, so an evening together sounds nice.

-The first time he walks into your home, he’s generally polite. You’re a student, so like him, you don’t have much money to spend on decor items - but he doesn’t judge. He can smell whatever you’ve been cooking, so it’s kind of the only thing on his mind.

-Until something screeches from the other room.

-He’s visibly alarmed by the noise, whereas you’re perfectly calm. You’d heard that too, right? He wonders, hoping he’s not losing his mind.

-You disappear from the room, and he can vaguely hear you speaking softly, but he’s not able to decipher what you’re saying…

-But you return moments later, with what looks like a plucked chicken standing on your shoulder.

-And he must be making some kind of expression, because you reach forward suddenly and pinch his cheek. 

- “Don’t stare at her,” you scold, without a single hint of malice in your tone. “She’s shy.”

-As if on cue, the bird twitters softly and climbs behind your neck, poking her head out slightly so she can stare at him. Viktor feels incredibly judged, despite the fact that it’s a bird and an incredibly weird one at that.

- “Her name is Peach,” you explain, settling the table while the little creature balances happily on your shoulder. “Some rich bastard kept her in a tiny cage for years - she was so stressed that she pulled all her feathers out. As soon as she wasn’t colourful, she was abandoned…”

-Viktor watches as the little bird presses her beak against your cheek and makes a dramatic kissing noise, and his heart warms. Of course you’d be the one to see some sad creature and decide to help it; you saw the value in every life you stumbled upon. Much like you had with him.

-He was no plucked parrot, mind you, but he wasn’t unaware of the fact that most of the students at the academy -if not most of the people in Piltover- looked down on him. Because of his roots, because of his disabilities.

-But not you.

-You’d stumbled into the lab one afternoon, looking for Jayce (you’d somehow ended up with some of his mail. ‘Again’, according to you) and had started up a conversation with him instead.

-You’d shown a genuine interest in what he was working on, asking how things worked, and even offering a little bit of advice on why some components may not have been functioning. He’d been a little peeved at first, because who the hell were you to walk in there and criticize his designs?

-But then your ideas had worked and he’d been a little less annoyed. And then you’d come back a week later, once again looking for Jayce, once again striking up a chat with him. You’d eventually stopped bringing mail with you, and just started showing up to loiter and talk to him.

-Soon enough, he considered you a friend.

-Soon enough, he noticed the way his heart sped up whenever you were around.

-Soon enough, you apparently trusted him enough to introduce him to your strange little bird.

-He doesn’t get along with Peach at first. He’s rightfully wary of how protective she is of you, despite her being a parrot. She’s grabbed and chewed on his fingers on multiple occasions - whenever he got too touchy with you, really.

-If it wasn’t for Peach, he would have told you how he felt by now; he would have held your hand, or kissed your cheek, or something.

-It all comes to a head when he’s over at your house again, and you suddenly have to run to the kitchen to keep the stew from boiling over.

-Leaving him alone with Peach.

-Who glares at him with her beady little eyes.

-And he sighs.

-He reaches forward slowly, and offers his hand to the little bird, who surprisingly takes the invitation and steps into his palm.

- “Look,” he says quietly, bringing her up to eye level, “I know you do not like me very much. You bite me, and you hiss at me, and you steal my food. But I know you’re just protective of your mother.”

-With his other hand, he slowly strokes over the few feathers still on her head. “I know you love her dearly; I love her dearly, too. She’s kind, and caring, and smart. Perhaps, if you are amicable, we might be able to share her affection?”

-He hears a giggle from the doorway, and all at once he realizes how absurd he must look - talking to a bald parrot, professing his love, of all things.

-But instead of poking fun at him, you instead find a seat beside him on the couch, and lean over to press your lips onto his cheek a couple times. -It still takes a while after that for Peach to truly warm up to him, but eventually, whenever she hears the tap of his cane on the hardwood floors, she squawks his name and puts up a fuss until he comes over to offer her his shoulder to perch on.

[cae-ruleam]

the progression of succession

multichap fic, AO3 link (the format is a bit better there)

rating: T for swearing. later chapters might get heavy

word count: 1788

-

“One day, Phantom changed, or did he, really?”

Or, Danny is taking a test he isn't aware of ever having signed up for.

-

When Danny woke up, nothing seemed out of the ordinary. That should’ve been a sign of something amiss.

The previous night, he had been, rudely, awoken by Johnny and Kitty when they decided Amity had to be their dating spot again, at 2am in the morning. Whoever ever uttered that the dead sleep forever were clearly wrong.

It hadn’t been much of a fight, luckily. The couple genuinely just wanted to have some harmless fun riding and sitting around. Shadow even smiled at him. Johnny’s familiar was never able to lie about their emotions or intentions, which were, by extent, Johnny’s.

By then, already feeling guilty for impeding on their date, Phantom left them to it and drifted back home slowly. While there was no fight, regularly sleeping just four hours a night was bound to have some side effects. Unfortunately espresso shots only did so much.

So, color Danny surprised when he woke up fine. Better than fine, actually. He felt energized in a way he hadn’t felt in months, since Christmas Truce. Again, that should’ve tipped him off, but Danny was not one to look a gifted horse in the mouth.

The halfa shot a quick look at his bedside alarm – 7am – he could work with that. If he had to use some ghost perks to speed up the process, no one would be any the wiser.

He quickly pulled on some casual clothes, you can never go wrong with a NASA hoodie and black trousers, before he sped for the bathroom. He was in and out and down to the kitchen like lightning.

‘Thank god mom and dad are only ever down the labs or in their room.’ He thought as he grabbed a quick bite.

The house felt empty.

It has for the past year or so, ever since Jazz left for college some states over.

Soon – Danny thought. In just one more year, he will be able to leave this house behind as well.

He quickly scarfed down the rest of his breakfast and left silently like the wind.

Once outside, he stepped into a familiar alleyway and let his transformation wash over him. He flew high up into the sky.

His itinerary towards Casper high was practically second nature, and he let his body take the lead as he looked around, down at Amity.

Ghost attacks have become less frequent, but visits were becoming more common. It would still take some time before the citizens actually understood that, though. So Phantom was still as busy as ever. Just thankfully, less beat up.

At a distance, down below, a student running late felt a shift in the air. She looked up at the sky and saw... an anomaly.

She pulled her phone out of her pocket and hastily tried to take a picture. Once shot, the entity was glitchy as fuck.

She pulled up Twitter and put out a quick tweet before hurrying on.

-----

illegally blonde @.royallyhigh

alright this is creeping me the fuck out. has any ghost capture ever been this disturbed???

[Image ID: A vague, long and slender figure zipping across the sky. They’re incredibly distorted as if the image had already been compressed a thousand times over and shown on a twenty year old monitor, instead of having been taken two minutes ago.]

 - reply to @.royallyhigh

in denial hush @.creamcherrypie

what the fuck. if i didnt know you suck ass at editing id say this is fake

 - reply to @.royallyhigh

ember's new single out now! @.rosesformystar

no... don’t they look familiar...? i'm not going crazy, am i?

 - reply to @.royallyhigh, @.rosesformystar

its halloween month idgaf @.starsformyrose

are you thinking what i'm thinking?

 - reply to @.royallyhigh, @.rosesformystar, @.starsformyrose

Hopeless Writer @.mydailyfoodblog

You’re all crazy. It can’t be. They SCREAM bad news

-----

Danny slipped into his seat at the back of Lancer’s class with two minutes to spare. Most of the class was already present.

Lancer walked in and proclaimed it, “Too early to deal with this,” and started the class without marking attendances. The last few students came in a few minutes after without much fuss from them or their teacher, and class went on as normal. If the students seated near Daniel Fenton felt chills on their back, no one made a sound.

‘It can’t be coming from him. Not from that whimp.’ were their collective thoughts.

Puberty may have stretched him out and he may be quite fit, but his baggy clothing made sure no one would be aware of it. Sometime when he was fifteen Danny realized how badly his identity was hidden. He made an effort starting then, and it has been working well. No one suspected a thing, no one but Wes, of course.

Classes came and went. Students got increasingly creeped out near Danny Fenton of all people, for whatever reason.

Lunch came around.

It was just the second week since the start of the school year and Danny was already tired of it. Lunch breaks and free periods they shared being his only salvation. Such as right now.

The universe still seemed against Danny, for some reason. When they received their timetables for the first semester Team Phantom was thoroughly pissed. They barely had any classes together, the ones which they did share, were the only classes they took where there was only one class. They must’ve caught on that Sam and Tucker were covering for Danny’s ‘extracurricular activities’, and, fair. But it sucks.

While walking through the halls towards the cafeteria, he couldn’t help but notice the other students all stepped away a bit more than usual. Couldn’t help but overhear some whispers.

Do you think it could be because of some creepy shit his parents have been pulling? They have a PORTAL in their basement, don’t they?

Maybe you’re right... God, he may be a loser but I kind of feel bad... Shit! He’s near, shh.

If Danny didn’t know any better, he would’ve thought he was back in his freshman year. Actually, that might be the case. He wouldn’t put it past Clockwork to send him back in the past without warning. But their comments do not add up, at all.

Making his way past the rows of lockers a bit faster, he quickly arrived at the cafeteria. He went up, got some food and sat down at their usual table. The other two were already there.

“Do I have something weird on my face or something? Do I have ectoplasm scarring I missed?” was his greeting.

Sam and Tucker looked up from their food and stared at him with unreadable expressions. Eventually Sam scrunched her brows in confusion when that emotion won the inner battle.

“No... but if people have been avoiding you I can understand why. No offense, but you feel insanely unapproachable. Any idea what could’ve caused it?” The goth spoke with little emotion in her voice. It might’ve been a subconscious effort to not set off this anomaly- no, her friend, she had to remind herself. Why?

Tucker wanted to join in on the conversation, but his throat was locked. Why? This is his best friend! He could only settle for nodding with an identical quizzical expression on his face.

Danny sighed, and sat down frustrated. They continued their lunch, ignoring the elephant in the room. They tried to chat normally. They talked about the upcomming DOOMED game and the co op session they had been planning for ages, since its reveal. Lunch proceeded normally. If Sam and Tucker still felt on edge, they did not let Danny know. They shouldn’t.

-----

Danny was at P.E. His last period of the day and light at the end of the tunnel. Aside from the avoidances all around, his day had gone smoothly. Of course, that’s when everything went wrong.

As he reached the end of the obstacle course, alarms blared. The ones signaling a ghost attack, yeah, those.

After three years of ghost attacks, everyone had become used to the procedure and thankfully quickly left the gymnasium, to the safety zones, belongings forgotten. Danny was with them, until he wasn’t.

While walking, running, with the crowd, he silently left them and slipped into the bathroom invisibly and intangibly. He transformed, and left in the same state.

He took the malevolent ghost – a new one, huh – by surprise and tackled the both of them to the outside, somewhere safer and less destructable.

The ghost sneered, something about not expecting the ghost child to show up so quick. It was rare to meet a ghost out here who was unaware of the fact Phantom attended Casper high as a human.

Below, some people ran. Other passerby stopped in their tracks instead, gawking up at the two ghosts. Was that Phantom?

The teenaged ghost looked familiar, yet so different, so distant, hazy, unapproachable. If people claimed this is the one ghost you could always trust to help you, people would not have believed it. Few people’s hands subconsciously headed for their phones.

In the air, the ghost got ready to launch an attack, until they looked up and tilted their head.

“You are the ghost child, right?”

“Phantom? Yeah, who else? Now come on, let’s do this dance quick so I can head back. Some of us actually have something to do with their afterlife.”

The other ghost was still clearly thrown off, they shook their head and readied themselves again. Whatever was going on was weird, Danny had decided that hours ago, but it just became even crazier, if ghosts were affected too.

His solution was to ignore the issue. If he did not pay it any mind, it would go away on its own, and hopefully not bite him back in the ass.

He took advantage of the ghost’s confusion. He shot a quick ectoblast at their chest and sucked them into the thermos. After sealing them, he darted back towards the school.

Once inside, he noticed the students packing their bags and leaving. When he got near them invisibly, someone less attentive wouldn’t have noticed anything odd. Danny saw that they became tense and rigid.

He ignored the ever-growing enigma and ran the facts through his mind. Right, it was last period. The area must’ve been declared safe and they’d been dismissed early.

No one noticed, or cared about, his absence as usual.

Danny did a quick one over of the entire school building before heading towards the gymnasium. Thankfully there were no damages inflicted in between the ghost’s arrival and the time he took to transform and push them out.

He gathered his things and sped back home, ignoring the dread gnawing at the back of his mind.

Meanwhile, Amity’s filtered side of social media was ablaze.

[adventseven]

Static Is Back | COMIC BOOK REVIEW

It’s time to put a shock back to your system. That's right, after its short-lived run as a part of DC's New 52, the electrifying teen superhero is gracing the pages of DC comics once again. 

The series is titled, Static: Season One, written by Vita Ayala and art by Chriscross and Nikolas Draper-Ivey. The first issue of this six-part series was released on June 15th, 2021. 

Static isn’t the only hero from Milestone Comics making their return. Both Icon & Rocket and Hardware are receiving six-part series as well, officially re-establishing the “Dakotaverse”.

For those of you who don’t know what the “Dakotaverse” is, let me give you a quick rundown. The “Dakotaverse" refers to all characters licensed by DC Comics from Milestone Comics. All characters involved are based in/operate out of the fictional city of Dakota, whose population is majority Black with a heavy gang presence. Milestone Comics’ creator, the truly incomparable Dwayne McDuffie (may he rest in peace) and Denys Cowan, wanted to write stories featuring Black heroes so readers could see that heroes come in all colors. They also wrote stories from their own experiences which is why Dakota is a stand-in for any inner city in America.

The following will be a review for both Milestone Returns and Static: Season One #1. Spoiler Warning.

Milestone Returns is essentially issue 0 for the three new series being revived, Static, Icon & Rocket, and Hardware. For both Static and Hardware, it revamps their origin stories. Originally, Virgil Hawkins, Static, gains his powers because he was dragged into a gang war and was exposed to an explosion of strange gas. This event is known as the “Big Bang”. In Milestone Returns, the “Big Bang” happens at a Black Lives Matter protest in Dakota when the police decide to use an experimental “tear gas” on the protesters. 

Of course, updating Static’s origins allows readers to connect with the story on a personal level, given the events of 2020. This also aligns with McDuffie’s goal of using common experiences to tell amazing stories.

Hardware is introduced as the scientist, Dr. Curtis Metcalf, who developed the gas for Alva Industries (evil corporation). He is immediately blamed for the “Big Bang”. Seeing the writing on the wall, Dr. Metcalf runs to his secret lab to transform his body and equip armor with a lot of firepower.

Icon and Rocket's origins aren't fully explored here, but it does establish that Icon is an alien who has been on Earth for a looooong time. He is a Superman-like hero with several abilities even known to him. Rocket, on the other hand, is a girl from Dakota that met Icon and convinced him to clean up the drug problem in Dakota.

Milestone Returns defines the social issues created by the “Big Bang”, basically the same problems seen in the X-Men comics. We are shown Virgil’s first conflict with school bully turned pyromaniac villain, Hotstreak, and the rise of the big bad, Holocaust. There are a few smaller stories included in this comic but I'll let you read those for yourself.

Milestone Returns is a showcase of what we can expect in the future from the new writers and artists for these series. I highly recommend reading this comic if for nothing else seeing Virgil let out some major voltage. I rate it a 7/10.

Static: Season One #1 continues to dive into Virgil’s thoughts about all the changes he is going through. After his fight with Hotstreak, he’s worried he can’t control this new power. To his relief, no one except Hotstreak and Virgil’s friends, Frieda and Richie, knows he has powers. 

Virgil is constantly feeling the buzz of electricity under his skin. While it isn’t hurting him, the pressure of controlling it is causing anxiety and irritability with those he's close to. Add in the trauma of being hospitalized by the "Big Bang" and knowing that the person that hates him the most could barbeque him, it's a lot for a 16-year-old to handle. It's a lot for anyone to handle.

The artwork and paneling in this comic are stunning. I am loving Virgil's new design. The characterization of Virgil, his family, and Hotstreak is perfect. Artist Nikolas Draper-Ivey has stated multiple times on Twitter that he wanted to give this series a cinematic quality. He has not disappointed the reader, so far. There are two scenes between Virgil and his family, one before the "Big Bang" and one in the present. The page layouts are identical but the conversations are very different in tone, and I am just amazed by these scenes.

I was already a Static fan before reading this comic, and now I’ve fallen in love with the character all over again. I rate this issue 9.5/10.

The next issue of Static doesn’t have a release date yet, but in the meantime, Icon & Rocket will be released in July and Hardware in August.

TL/DR: Static is back and it’s really good.

Milestone Returns, available now. Rating: 7/10

Static: Season One #1, available now. Rating: 9.5/10

By Tré Hanzy

Follow Tré on Twitter: https://twitter.com/tre_hanzy

Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Advent_Seven Subscribe on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/AdventSevenMedia

[punz4lyfe]

Pokemon Journeys Episode 68 Review

Pokemon Journeys Episode 68. Let’s review:

After all the hype the trailer, episode preview, and even some promotional material shown on Twitter gave out, I can definitely say that this episode... somewhat lived up to it.

Now don’t get me wrong. I loved seeing some of Ash’s older mons again. I loved to see some of them interact with each other despite being from different regions. I loved seeing Gary again and how civil and respectable his interactions with Ash were. I loved seeing Gary tease Goh and actually give his goal some more depth to it. I loved Paul and Ash’s Sinnoh design getting a little cameo. And I loved seeing Ash command an older mon again. But even with all of that, there are still problems that hold this episode back.

Firstly, Ash’s Pokemon. Just like with Alola, we don’t see Ash introduce his current team to his veterans despite all the potential you could do with a scene like that. The issue of Ash not leaving the Cerise Lab with anyone but Pikachu for most of the series is starting to become incredibly problematic. Additionally, despite being one of the special trailer’s main hype points, barely anything remarkable was done with its presentation. Only 19 of Ash’s lab-left mons were shown with a huge, noticeable number of 16 were not for no good reason. Seriously, Corphish was the only Hoenn mon shown in this episode. What, is Journeys trying to retcon to make it that Corphish was the only mon Ash caught in that region? That’s one for the solo-run books. Plus, all the lab-left mons who weren’t fire-types (or Bulbasaur) only had about half a minute of screentime at best with most of that time being wasted on the usual Tauros and Muk gags that we’ve ALREADY SEEN BEFORE and it becomes even more jarring when it’s frequently mentioned that Infernape has battled and made friends with all the other fire-types when Torkoal isn’t even shown. Does Infernape have something against him?

Secondly, poor Tracey. The episode gave out no reason why he wasn’t at the lab and he only got a slight mention at best. Writers, just like the mons you didn’t show, there are people who like Tracey and would very much appreciate him getting some fan service too like everyone else! Cause, y’know, it’s blatantly fair.

Thirdly, that so-called battle with Moltres was utterly disappointing. Barely anyone was able to land a hit on the thing. Infernape, the one who should’ve at the very least put up a good fight against the bird considering the episode’s own fucking plot, hardly did anything impressive. And Blastoise got knocked out. (and he replaced Hydro Cannon with Water Pulse, what the hell?!) This actually wouldn’t have been a huge problem if we didn’t see Goh use his frickin’ Raboot to damage and almost capture a Zapdos back at episode 40.

Fourthly, the ending. We don’t get Ash saying goodbye to his older mons (again, just like Alola) and the episode’s final frame ends with Goh and Grookey as the focal point as if either of them deserved it in this episode.

So yeah, positives and negatives kinda equal on this, 5/10. Expect a Wasted Plotential on this tomorrow. At least the next episode’s looking to be pretty cute.

[arcticdementor]

The hilarious headline in the Daily Beast yesterday read like a cross of Clickhole and Izvestia circa 1937: “Is Glenn Greenwald the New Master of Right-Wing Media? FROM HIS MOUTH TO FOX’S EARS?”

The story, fed to poor Beast media writer Lloyd Grove by certain unnamed embittered personages at the Intercept, is that their former star writer Greenwald appears on, and helps provide content for — gasp! — right-wing media! It’s nearly the exclusive point of the article. Greenwald goes on TV with… those people! The Beast’s furious journalisming includes a “spot check” of the number of Fox items inspired by Greenwald articles (“dozens”!) and multiple passages comparing Greenwald to Donald Trump, the ultimate insult in #Resistance world. This one made me laugh out loud:

In a self-perpetuating feedback loop that runs from Twitter to Fox News and back again, Greenwald has managed, like Trump before him, to orchestrate his very own news cycles.

This, folks, is from the Daily Beast, a publication that has spent much of the last five years huffing horseshit into headlines, from Bountygate to Bernie’s Mittens to classics like SNL: Alec Baldwin's Trump Admits 'I Don't Care About America'. The best example was its “investigation” revealing that three of Tulsi Gabbard’s 75,000 individual donors — the late Princeton professor Stephen Cohen, peace activist Sharon Tennison, and a person called “Goofy Grapes” who may or may not have worked for Russia Today host Lee Camp — were, in their estimation, Putin “apologists.”

…

For years now, this has been the go-to conversation-ender for prestige media pundits and Twitter trolls alike, directed at any progressive critic of the political mainstream: you’re a Republican! A MAGA-sympathizer! Or (lately), an “insurrectionist”! The Beast in its Greenwald piece used the most common of the Twitter epithets: “Trump-defender.” Treachery and secret devotion to right-wing politics are also the default explanation for the growing list of progressives making their way onto Fox of late, from Greenwald to Kyle Kulinski to Aaron Mate to Jimmy Dore to Cornel West.

The truth is, Trump conservatives and ACLU-raised liberals like myself, Greenwald, and millions of others do have real common cause, against an epistemic revolution taking hold in America’s political and media elite. The traditional liberal approach to the search for truth, which stresses skepticism and free-flowing debate, is giving way to a reactionary movement that Plato himself would have loved, one that believes knowledge is too dangerous for the rabble and must be tightly regulated by a priesthood of “experts.” It’s anti-democratic, un-American, and naturally unites the residents of even the most extreme opposite ends of our national political spectrum.

…

Follow the logic. Isikoff, who himself denounced the Steele dossier, and said in the exchange he essentially agreed with Meier’s conclusions, went on to wonder aloud how right a thing could be, if it’s being embraced by The Federalist and Tucker Carlson. Never mind the more salient point, which is that Meier was “ignored by other media” because that’s how #Resistance media deals with unpleasant truths: it blacks them out, forcing reporters to spread the news on channels like Fox, which in turn triggers instant accusations of unreliability and collaborationism.

It’s a Catch-22. Isikoff’s implication is a journalist can’t make an impact if the only outlet picking up his or her work is The Federalist, but “reputable” outlets won’t touch news (and sometimes will even call for its suppression) if it questions prevailing notions of Conventional Wisdom.

These tactics have worked traditionally because for people like Meier, or myself, or even Greenwald, who grew up in the blue-leaning media ecosystem, there’s nothing more ominous professionally than being accused of aiding the cause of Trump or the right-wing. It not only implies intellectual unseriousness, but racism, sexism, reactionary meanness, greed, simple wrongness, and a long list of other hideous/evil characteristics that could render a person unemployable in the regular press. The label of “Trump-defender” isn’t easily removed, so most media people will go far out of their way to avoid even accidentally incurring it.

…

The consistent pattern with the Trump-era press, which also happens to be the subject of so many of those Greenwald stories the Beast and the Intercept employees are complaining about, is that information that is true but doesn’t cut the right way politically is now routinely either non-reported or actively misreported.

Whether it’s Hunter Biden’s laptop or the Brian Sicknick affair or infamous fictions like the “find the fraud” story, the public increasingly now isn’t getting the right information from the bulk of the commercial press corps. That doesn’t just hurt Trump and conservatives, it misinforms the whole public. As Thomas Frank just pointed out in The Guardian, the brand of politicized reporting that informed the lab-leak fiasco risks obliterating the public’s faith in a whole range of institutions, a disaster that would not be borne by conservatives alone.

But this is only a minor point, compared to the more immediate reason the constant accusations of treachery and Trumpism aimed at dissenters should be ignored.

From the embrace of oligarchical censorship to the aggressive hawking of “noble lies” like Russiagate to the constant humbugging of Enlightenment values like due process to the nonstop scolding of peasants unschooled in the latest academic jargon, the political style of the modern Democratic mainstream isn’t just elitist and authoritarian, it’s almost laughably off-putting. In one moment it’s cheering for a Domestic War on Terror and in the next, declaring war on a Jeopardy contestant flashing the “A-OK” sign. It’s Dick Cheney meets Robin DiAngelo, maybe the most loathsome conceivable admixture. Who could be surprised a politically diverse group finds it obnoxious?

During the Trump years conventional wisdom didn’t just take aim at Trumpism. The Beltway smart set used the election of Trump to make profound arguments against traditional tenets of democracy, as well as “populism,” (which increasingly became synonymous with “the unsanctioned exercise of political power by the unqualified”), and various liberal traditions undergirding the American experiment. Endless permutations of the same argument were made over and over. Any country in which a Trump could be elected had a “too much democracy” problem, the “marketplace of ideas” must be a flawed model if it leads to people choosing Trump, the “presumption of innocence” was never meant to apply to the likes of Trump, and so on.

…

By last summer, after the patriotic mania of Russiagate receded, the newest moral panic that the kente-cloth-clad Schumers and Pelosis were suddenly selling, in solidarity with famed progressive change agents like Bank of America, PayPal, Apple, ComCast, and Alphabet, was that any nation capable of electing Trump must always have been a historically unredeemable white supremacist construct, the America of the 1619 Project. The original propaganda line was that “half” of Trump supporters were deplorable racists, then it was all of them, and then, four years in, the whole country and all its traditions were deemed deplorable.

Now, when the statues of Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln and Roosevelt came down, there was a new target, separate and apart from Trump. The whole history of American liberalism was indicted as well, denounced as an ineffectual trick of the oppressor, accomplishing nothing but giving legitimacy to racial despotism.

The American liberalism I knew growing up was inclusive, humble, and democratic. It valued the free exchange of ideas among other things because a central part of the liberal’s identity was skepticism and doubt, most of all about your own correctitude. Truth was not a fixed thing that someone owned, it was at best a fleeting consensus, and in our country everyone, down to the last kook, at least theoretically got a say. We celebrated the fact that in criminal courts, we literally voted to decide the truth of things.

This new elitist politics of the #Resistance era (I won’t ennoble it by calling it liberalism) has an opposite view. Truth, they believe, is properly guarded by “experts” and “authorities” or (as Jon Karl put it) “serious people,” who alone can be trusted to decide such matters as whether or not the Hunter Biden laptop story can be shown to the public. A huge part of the frustration that the general public feels is this sense of being dictated to by an inaccessible priesthood, whether on censorship matters or on the seemingly daily instructions in the ear-smashing new vernacular of the revealed religion, from “Latinx” to “birthing persons.”

In the tone of these discussions is a constant subtext that it’s not necessary to ask the opinions of ordinary people on certain matters. As Plato put it, philosophy is “not for the multitude.” The plebes don’t get a say on speech, their views don’t need to be represented in news coverage, and as for their political choices, they’re still free to vote — provided their favorite politicians are removed from the Internet, their conspiratorial discussions are banned (ours are okay), and they’re preferably all placed under the benevolent mass surveillance of “experts” and “professionals.”

Add the total absence of a sense of humor and the inability of “moral clarity” politics to co-exist with any form of disagreement, and there’s a reason why traditional liberals are suddenly finding it easier to talk with old conservative rivals on Fox than the new authoritarian Snob-Lords at CNN, MSNBC, the Daily Beast or The Intercept. For all their other flaws, Fox types don’t fall to pieces and write group letters about their intolerable suffering and “trauma” if forced to share a room with someone with different political views. They’re also not terrified to speak their minds, which used to be a virtue of the American left (no more).

From the moment Donald Trump was elected, popular media began denouncing a broad cast of characters deemed responsible. Nativists, misogynists and racists were first in line, but from there they started adding new classes of offender: Greens, Bernie Bros, “both-sidesers,” Russia-denialists, Intellectual dark-webbers, class-not-racers, anti-New-Normalers, the “Substackerati,” and countless others, casting every new group out with the moronic admonition that they’re all really servants of the “far right” and “grifters” (all income earned in service of non-#Resistance politics is “grifting”). By now conventional wisdom has denounced everyone but its own little slice of aristocratic purity as the “far right.”

[cheryls-blossomed]

This was on the Burning Questions article the other day on TVLine: "Coming off the intense Mirrorverse arc, is The Flash still failing to “read the room”? Like, why delight us with a (very well-acted) detente between Flash and Abra Kadabra only to… well, you know? Have Iris and Joe had even half of a meaningful father/daughter scene since her escape from the Mirrorverse (and his stint in WITSEC)? Wouldn’t Allegra’s time be better spent be at the Citizen getting any content onto the site, given their massive drop in traffic??  And when is Twitter planning to update this years-old “Trending” image (above)? (The season 5 poster of Barry without a chinstrap and Nora running)"

I really didn't think anyone else noticed the stuff we noticed on this site. Eric needs to get his team in shape before this whole season gets clowned. What do you think?

TVLine means Matt Mitovich, and if there was going to be an entertainment journalist who notices these specific things that we do, it’s going to be Matt, for sure. He is, after all, the person who originally asked Grant if the show was going to explore the lightning rod connection again between Barry and Iris regarding Barry getting his powers back (at that time Grant had said it didn’t look like it, which is why I think TPTB changed that particular aspect of the story arc, and I am more than glad about that... but I digress). So yeah, Matt tends to be on it, when it comes to these things, but it’s a good sign that, in general, that this is being raised in mainstream entertainment media sites. The fact that Joe hasn’t shown any concern towards Iris since she escaped the Mirrorverse, let alone had a one-on-one scene with her, and the fact that Allegra really should be at the Citizen a lot more instead of forced into S.T.A.R. Labs are both really important problems that ought to be raised. So, I’m glad Matt raised them. 

(Also Twitter really does need to change that image, lol.) 

[queenangst]

Glitch Techs: A Theory about Miko, the Kubotas, and Hinobi

Includes Glitch Techs Season 2 spoilers.

With Glitch Techs season 2 comes more questions and more information. And I have thoughts. Parts of this theory may not be “new,” and have been discussed elsewhere/builds on other ideas pointed out in the fandom before. 

Thank you to @happi-tree for feeding this theory and adding to it. And here’s some great theory by @frogsfangs that covers some points about Hinobi. 

So Glitch Miko is not a new concept to the fandom at all since season 1, though HinobiTech (the Glitch Techs Twitter) has debunked the theory of Miko as a Glitch. According to HinobiTech, “she's only a 16-year-old gamer!” 

We know Miko’s not a Glitch... but that doesn’t mean she can’t be Glitch-like or part-Glitch, a hybrid experiment by Hinobi from their so-called development labs. 

Theory continues under the cut, due to the length.

In seasons 1 and 2 (or seasons 1a/1b, as we can technically consider these two as one running storyline/arc), the most obvious piece of evidence is that Miko cannot be reset with the mind-wipe. This is an anomaly; as Mitch says, everyone can be reset. Why not Miko? This is pointed out multiple times in the show. Another interesting narrative choice is that when involved with the Glitch Techs, in Collection Quest and Karate Trainer, neither of Miko’s sisters were reset. The implication of this is that the question whether or not they can be reset is important to the narrative, and can impact the story later on. 

Here’s where the Kubotas come in. They’re a busy, and incredibly talented family. Nica is tech-savvy. She’s the older sister who taught Miko to game, and is proficient in mobile games, or apps. Lexi, who eavesdrops on Miko and their parents in Age of Hinobi, is proficient in karate, tracking, and seems to be highly athletic. Miko dances well, and as pointed out by Mitch in Find the Glitch, was “one of the only players to log in remotely” at the Hinobi tournament, her teamwork with Five caused “a glitch that nearly took down the entire store,” isn’t able to be reset, “incited the release of a viral glitch [Chomp Kitty],” went on to “destroy the training sim, and... released a dangerous Glitch into HQ.” Not exactly a great track record. And notably, her reflexes are “inhuman.” Nobody could be that good... except for Miko. All of the Kubota sisters (with little information on the brothers) are knowledge or proficient in skills that are what Hinobi wants from a perfect Glitch Tech: athletic, fighting, quick-thinking gamers, who are as if not better than the average. And these are the skills that will hopefully lead Hinobi to Bolypius. 

What about, and why not Nica? Nica is one of the first experiments, but maybe she’s a failed one in the eyes of Hinobi. She’s skilled and knowledgable, yes, but maybe doesn’t display the qualities or desires that Miko does. Hinobi may monitor the experiments as young children/teens, and deemed Nica to be less useful, whereas Miko has more potential. Lexi, at eleven, isn’t quite old enough.

Now for the Kubota parents. Here’s a thought—Mayumi and Hugh Kubota are former Glitch Techs, or even higher-ups at Hinobi, who consented for their children to be Glitch experiments. Mayumi seems quite excited for Miko to get a job at Hinobi, and her parents support that. When we meet them, we also see both parents wearing wrist/smartwatches. While these are shown to help them keep track of time, these could also be a subtle connection to Hinobi; a way for Hinobi to keep track of the Kubotas, or communicate with them. And it’s possible for Hinobi to record any information the Kubotas have forgotten, in case of a mind-wipe like in the first episode, which I’ll talk about later; or the Kubotas themselves may have also consented to having their minds wiped.

But let’s talk about Phil, Inspector Seven, the end of Season 2, and do a little bit of math. Based on what we know from BITT Prime, Phil has been around managing Bailley Glitch Techs for at least 20 years, though he has likely been a Glitch Tech for longer. His younger self at the end of the episode says that Phil has probably has his mind wiped again, so this has happened multiple times, enough that Phil eventually figures out to hide a file and all the information “recovered from Hinobi’s development labs” in BITT, where most won’t find it. 

Jump to Inspector Seven. This is all connected, I promise. Inspector Seven knows about Miko. She also occasionally comes by with her job as an inspector, but that might not be the only purpose. She needs to make sure Miko is progressing as desired, and to keep Phil from being suspicious; to the point whenever she comes for an “inspection,” she’s really mind-wiping Phil for getting too close to the truth about the development labs. Note that in Season 1, the first episode is when Miko is hired and Phil meets (and mind-wipes) Mayumi and Hugh. Right after that, in the second episode, is when Inspector Seven visits Bailley HQ, when she can mind-wipe Phil in case his interaction with the Kubotas causes any trouble. Whenever Phil gets close, he gets mind-wiped. The timeline also appears to line up. Nica is seventeen and Miko is sixteen, which is around the right time for Phil to discover the plans/their existence around twenty or so years ago. (This is, of course, approximate because twenty years refers to when Phil last deleted a file, and so may account for any confusions in the timeline.) 

Hinobi seems to keep track of high-profile and skilled gamers as potential recruits, which is why they host the SmashBall tournament—perhaps to test their skills. Inspector Seven is implied to know Miko, and refers to Miko specifically as “the subject,” whereas High Five is “the subject’s friend.” 

If Miko is a successful Hinobi experiment, a hybrid, human Glitch, she needs training before she can be used. This comes from her own parents and their family, but also from being a Glitch Tech—where Hinobi can keep a close eye on her progress. They need these experiments, because regular Glitch Techs haven’t been working the way Hinobi wants. And they need Miko, too; if she can’t be reset as a side effect/part of the experiment, then Hinobi needs to make sure Miko is working for them under control and not against. 

Also... if Miko is part-Glitch, maybe Ridley can mod her, too, if needed.

There’s a couple questions that still need answers, though. What or who is Bolypius? What about Miko’s brothers? What is on Phil’s files? And hey, what the fuck does Hinobi want? 

(Anyway, real or not, this is some great fic material. And I sure want to write it.)

[cryptoevent]

Bitcoin breaks $40,000 and sets its sights on a new all-time high, ETH fees spike as a new price record is set, and Elon Musk really loves Dogecoin.

Published every Saturday, Hodler’s Digest helps you stay on top of all the week’s important news. The best (and worst) quotes, adoption and regulatory highlights, highlights, predictions and more – the week at Cointelegraph in one link.

This week’s headlines

  Bitcoin sees $50,000 less than a month after the price of BTC broke its 2017 record.

Bitcoin is showing signs of a new rally after passing the $40,000 resistance zone, fueling hopes for a new record.

It will be very important for Bitcoin to stay above this level in the near future. This comes days after MicroStrategy exposed more than 1,400 companies to Bitcoin.

According to Michel van de Poppe, analyst at Cointelegraph Markets, BTC’s strength means that its market dominance is being restored at the expense of most altcoins.

He added, “However, an apparent break above the historical record of $42,000 should take the price of bitcoin to $50,000.”

Bitcoin has crossed the $40,000 mark for the first time in 23 days, but this time market sentiment is much calmer and the derivatives market is not as overheated.

Some establishments took advantage of this week’s blowout to take money off the table. Ruffer Investment, for example, made a $650 million profit after doubling its cash flow in just two months.

With the Ethereum price reaching $1,750, the royalty of the Ethereum network has reached its highest level ever.

ETH set new records this week, moving closer and closer to $2,000.

After trading at $1,756.51, the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency has fallen slightly to $1,672.99 at the time of writing.

This record is due to the intense interest in theFi components, many of which use the Ethereum network as a backbone. Expectations have also been driven up by the launch of CME Group Ether futures.

There is only one problem: the price of gasoline is rising. This week, transaction fees rose so much that some exchanges no longer accept gas.

Blockstream’s developer, Mr. Grubles, fears that this could affect the proper functioning of DeFi protocols: “This is a legitimate crisis. We will have to stock up on popcorn to see how Ethereum will fare”.

“Welcome” – DOGE rises after Elon Musk returns to Twitter … to force the coin

To some extent, the rise in crypto prices can be attributed to Elon Musk. For reasons unknown, the richest man in the world is obsessed with Dogecoin.

Tesla’s CEO caused quite a stir this week when he shared a fake photo of him dressed as Rafiki from “The Lion King,” with Simba inu shiba on top of his face in the famous scene where the cub is held aloft on “Pride of the Rock.”

Musk helped DOGE get off the ground this week, but the comments he made in a club discussion about bitcoin did not have the same impact as last Friday, when BTC jumped several thousand dollars because Musk added #bitcoin to his Twitter bio.

During a conversation at the club, the billionaire reportedly said, “I’m late to the party, but I’m a Bitcoin supporter.

This week, a new study looked at Musk’s tweet six times about BTC or DOGE, and concluded that his comments caused price spikes and a “significant increase” in trading volume.

But an article in the Blockchain Research Lab warns, “While Musk’s behavior and communications may be considered positive or fun (and thus perhaps uncritical), similar studies have already shown that negative tweets can also have a negative impact on financial results.”

The rage to win: XRP price drops 50% after reaching its highest level in two weeks

XRP was the subject of a commercial frenzy last week, with an 86% breakthrough after it became the new focal point of r/Satoshistreetbets, a spin-off of r/Wallstreetbets.

The pump came while XRP’s legal troubles showed no sign of stopping, and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) confronted Ripple later this month.

On February 1 at 8:30 am (Eastern Time), the Telegram and Discord chat prompted people to buy XRP en masse, but as expected, the pump ended in tears. Within two hours, Altcoin fell by almost 50%…. , scaring off new investors.

Keith Waring tweeted, the coin dealer, “Although the $XRP army will be aggressive if you warn them about the elephant in the coin’s escrow form, I can’t help but feel sorry for those who bought at .75c today. X R (I)P”.

PayPal offers encrypted payments to merchants, limited exchanges on Venmo

PayPal revealed that its crypto commerce service has “exceeded expectations” since its limited launch in the United States.

The payments giant now plans to focus on encrypted, chain and digital currencies in 2021, with a “significant” investment in the new entity. According to the company, those who bought Bitcoin ended up putting twice as much money into the system as before.

After an “excellent response,” CEO Dan Schulman said that crypto will be offered as a funding source later this quarter when users store at one of PayPal’s 29 million merchants, and that a “full roadmap” of new services will follow.

In November, PayPal took a big step toward digital assets by allowing its U.S. users to buy cryptocurrencies directly through the application. US-based customers are limited to $20,000 per week. Since then, the volume of cryptocurrency transactions on the platform has reached record levels, peaking on January 11 with $242 million in transactions.

Winners and losers

At the end of the week, Bitcoin stands at $40,776.40, Ether at $1,676.86 and XRP at $0.44. The total market capitalization is $1,218,786,711,013.

Among the top 100 cryptocurrencies, the top three altcoin players of the week are UMA, 0x and PancakeSwap. The first three altcoins of the week were lost against HedgeTrade, ThorChain and Fantom.

For more information on cryptocurrency prices, don’t forget to read Cointelegraph’s market analysis.

Most memorable quotes

  “After a record year in 2020, when it grew by more than 300%, Bitcoin is expected to remain strong in 2021 as more individuals – and large institutional buyers – enter the market.”

Jesse Cohen, Senior Financial Analyst at Investing.com.

“While Musk’s behavior and communications may be considered positive or fun (and thus perhaps non-critical), similar studies have already shown that negative tweets can also have a negative impact on financial results.”

Lennart Ante, co-founder of the Blockchain Research Laboratory.

“If one tweet can increase the cap on the Bitcoin market by $111 billion, another tweet can erase a similar value.”

Lennart Ante, co-founder of the Blockchain Research Laboratory.

“Welcome.”

Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla

“We have also seen an exceptional response to our cryptocurrency launch…. The volume of cryptocurrency transactions on our platform has far exceeded our expectations.”

Dan Schulman, CEO of PayPal

“The economic climate for Bitcoin could not be better right now.”

Duncan McInnes, co-manager of Roefer.

“Despite the aggressive $XRP army warning you about the elephant in the room escrow form, I still can’t help but feel sorry for the people who bought at .75c today. X R (I)P”.

Keith Waring, coin image marketer.

Predictions for the week

  The CIO of BlockTower Capital estimates that there will be another 9 to 22 months of “bull run” in cryptocurrency.

With the new optimism surrounding the operation of Bitcoin, the question inevitably arises: how long will the bull last?

According to Ari Paul, Blocktower Capital’s Chief Information Officer, we have at least nine more months.

He said, “There is a continuous and dizzying rotation going on here. BTC omhoog, dan wanneer BTC een adempauze neemt, ETH en enkele grote kapitalisaties (en in die modus, DeFi blue chips), dan kleine kapitalisaties, flush en herhaal. Of course, you can add a 30-60% correction for fun”.

On the question of how Bitcoin will behave, Paul added, “In terms of price, I think BTC ends a bull run between $100,000 and $400,000 and the alts do better.”

FUD of the week.

  The Guggenheim CIO is under fire for changing his position on BTC.

Scott Minerd’s apparent shift from bullish to bearish, and vice versa, on both sides of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing regarding his $500 million investment in the BTC is raising eyebrows on social media.

Guggenheim’s CIO made headlines after stating that BTC would see a “complete correction to return to the $20,000 level” – later adding that there was insufficient institutional support to justify a price above $30,000.

A few days later, Minerd stated that bitcoin could reach $600,000 in the long run because of the scarcity and value of gold.

Some people on Twitter were not impressed. Economist Alex Krueger wrote, “Remember, Guggenheim wants you to sell #bitcoin so you can buy cheaper. They tried to scare the market into lowering the price to $20,000 when they think it’s worth $400,000.”

New class action lawsuit against Robinhood raises allegations of oligopolistic manipulation

It has been a full week since Robinhood, a stock trading application, took off following GameStop’s trading restrictions.

A class action lawsuit has been filed because this radical decision deprives customers of the opportunity to profit from the volatility of GME shares – by manipulating the share price.

Meanwhile, some reports have indicated that Robinhood is delaying its planned IPO to focus on fighting a public relations disaster. Other media outlets have questioned this claim and claimed that the IPO is proceeding as planned.

It is also reported that Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev will testify before the Financial Services Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives about the company’s role in the recent volatility.

Robinhood, a stock exchange app that has been popular for millennials, is facing a new class action lawsuit after it recently temporarily suspended purchases from GameStop and other “gift stores” through its platform.

  Polish crypto exchange employee in artificial coma after armed attack

An employee of a Polish crypto and gold exchange has been put into an artificial coma after an armed attack.

On January 22, the offices of FlyingAtom in the city of Olsztyn were attacked. The masked attacker managed to escape with gold worth about $120,000.

The suspect was subsequently arrested in connection with the incident, and police thanked him for his assistance.

The best features of money

  Is it time to shine? Crypto should take a chance after the GameStop drama.

The GameStop pump could encourage some amateur investors to finally learn about DeFi and its benefits.

  The only way to enable the execution of the blocking chain is to enter consciousness.

Inactive transactions can help keep the BeCeFi active so that the sector can continue to develop and increase its relevance.

  R/ Wall Streetbets vs Wall Street: harbinger of the DeFi explosion?

Was the Robinhood stock market app the culprit in the GameStop saga? “In a decentralized trading market, no one would have that kind of power.”

Related Tags:

eth price, cryptocurrency prices, bitcoin stock price, eth to usd

[solacekames]

(This is a great serious study with a lot of data, which is the only way to fight this online disinformation shit. 

I’m already accustomed to us Japanese-Americans being almost completely unable to have online public conversations because we get trolled to the point of nausea by creepy fetishists, fakers and just plain racist trolls. But it could get worse. It IS getting worse. 

While a lot of the article may sound very “water is wet” please don’t be dismissive of it. It’s very important.)

Members of vulnerable groups such as the Latino, Muslim, and Jewish communities are being disproportionately targeted online with disinformation, harassment, and computational propaganda — and they don’t trust big social platforms to help them, according to new research by the Palo Alto–based Institute for the Future’s Digital Intelligence Lab shared exclusively with BuzzFeed News.

Researchers found that online messages and images on platforms such as Twitter that originate in the Latino, Muslim, and Jewish communities are co-opted by extremists to spread division and disinformation, often resulting in more social media engagement for the extremists. This causes members of social groups to pull away from online conversations and platforms, and to stop using them to engage and organize, further ceding ground to trolls and extremists.

“We think that the general goal of this [activity] is to create a spiral of silence to prevent people from participating in politics online, or to prevent them from using these platforms to organize or communicate,” said Samuel Woolley, the director of the Digital Intelligence Lab. The platforms, meanwhile, have mainly met these complaints with inaction, according to the research.

Woolley said he expects strategies like fomenting division, spreading disinformation, and co-opting narratives that were used by bad actors in the 2016 election to be employed in the upcoming 2020 election. “In 2020 what we hypothesize is that social groups, religious groups, and issue voting groups will be the primary target of” this kind of activity, he said.

The lab commissioned eight case studies from academics and think tank researchers to look at how different social and issues groups in the US are affected by what researchers call “computational propaganda” (“the assemblage of social media platforms, autonomous agents, and big data tasked with the manipulation of public opinion” — i.e., digital propaganda). The groups studied were Muslim Americans, Latino Americans, moderate Republicans, immigration activists, black women gun owners, environmental activists, anti-abortion and abortion rights activists, and Jewish Americans.

In one example, immigration activists told researchers that a “know your rights” flyer instructing people what to do when stopped by ICE was photoshopped to include false information, and then spread on social media. A member of the Council on American-Islamic Relations said the hashtag related to the organization’s name (#CAIR) has been “taken over by haters” and used to harass Muslims. Researchers who looked at anti-Latino messaging on Reddit also found that extremist voices discussing Latino topics “appear to be louder than their supporters.”

Jewish Americans interviewed by researchers said online conversations about Israel have reached a new level of toxicity. They spoke of “non-bot Twitter mobs” targeting people, and “coordinated misinformation campaigns conducted by Jewish organizations, trying to propagandize Jews.”

“What we've come to understand is that it's oftentimes the most vulnerable social groups and minority communities that are the targets of computational propaganda,” Woolley told BuzzFeed News.

These findings align with other data that reinforces how these social groups bear the brunt of online harassment. According to a 2019 report from the ADL, 27% of black Americans, 30% of Latinos, 35% of Muslims, and 63% of the LGBTQ+ communities in the United States have been harassed online because of their identity.

BOTS

While bots were generally not a dominant presence in the Twitter conversations analyzed by researchers, automated accounts were used to spread hateful or harassing messages to different communities.

Tweets gathered about the Arizona Republican primary to replace John McCain in the Senate and his funeral last year showed that bots tried to direct moderate Republicans to america-hijacked.com, an anti-Semitic conspiracy website. (It has not published new material since 2017.) Researchers also found that Twitter discussions about reproductive rights saw anti-abortion bots spread harassing language, while pro–abortion rights bots spread politically divisive messages.

Researchers used the Botometer tool to identify likely automated accounts, and gathered millions of tweets based on hashtags for analysis. They combined this data analysis with interviews conducted with members of the communities being studied. The goal was to identify and quantify the human consequences of computational propaganda, according to Woolley.

“The results range from chilling effects and disenfranchisement to psychological and physical harm,” reads an executive summary from Woolley and Katie Joseff, the lab’s research director.

Joseff said people in the studied communities feel they’re being targeted and outmaneuvered by extremist groups and that they don’t “have the allyship of the platforms.”

“They didn't trust the platforms to help them,” she said.

In response to a request for comment, a Twitter spokesperson pointed to the company's review of its efforts to protect election integrity during the 2018 midterms elections.

"With elections taking place around the globe leading up to 2020, we continue to build on our efforts to address the threats posed by hostile foreign and domestic actors. We're working to foster an environment conducive to healthy, meaningful conversations on our service," said an emailed statement from the spokesperson. (Reddit, the other social platform studied in the research, did not immediately reply to a request for comment.)

Joseff and Woolley said more extreme and insular social media platforms like Gab and 8Chan are where harassment campaigns and messaging about certain social groups is incubated. Ideas that begin on these platforms later dictate the conversation that takes place on more mainstream social media platforms. “The niche platforms like Gab or 8Chan are spaces where the culture around this kind of language becomes fermented and is built,” Woolley said. “That’s why you’re seeing the cross-pollination of attacks across more mainstream social media platforms … directed at multiple different types of groups.”

Co-opting

Researchers found that several of the communities studied are dealing with hashtag and content co-opting, a process by which something used by a group to promote a message or cause gets turned on its head and exploited by opponents.

For example, immigration activists interviewed for one case study said they’ve seen anti-immigration campaigns “video-taping activists and portraying them as ICE officers online, and reframing images to represent immigrant organizations as white supremacist supporters.”

Those interviewed said the perpetrators are tech savvy, “use social media to track and disrupt activism events, and have created memes of minorities looting after a natural disaster.”

The researchers found that messages initially pushed out by immigration activists were consistently co-opted by their opponents — and that these counter-narrative messages generate more engagement than the original, as shown in this graphic representing one example:

“In all cases but one a narrative was consistently drowned out by a counter narrative,” the researchers wrote.

Another case study about Latino Americans gathered data from Reddit. It found that members of r/The_Donald, a major pro-Trump subreddit where racist and extremist content often surfaces, were hugely influential in organizing and promoting discussions related to the Latino community. By filling Reddit with their content, as well as organizing megathreads and other group discussions, they drowned out Latino voices. Researchers also wrote that trolls have at times impersonated experts “in attempts to sow discord and false narratives” related to Latino issues.

Old Tropes

The specific disinformation identified by researchers was often connected to long-running conspiracies or false claims. The case studies about online conversations about women’s reproductive rights and climate science found that old tropes and falsehoods continue to drive divisive conversations.

In the case of women’s reproductive rights, researchers studied 1.7 million tweets posted between Aug. 27 and Sept. 7 last year to coincide with the timing of the Kavanaugh confirmation hearing. The two most prominent disinformation campaigns identified were false claims about Planned Parenthood. One false claim was that the founder of the organization started it to target black people for abortions. This is based on a deliberate misquote of what Margaret Sanger actually said, which was in fact to warn against people thinking the organization was targeting black Americans.

“Recurrence of age-old conspiracies or tropes occurred across many of the case studies,” Joseff said.

Key to the spread of hate, division, and disinformation online is inaction from social media companies. Many of those interviewed for the studies said that when a harassment campaign is underway they have nowhere to turn, and the tech giants don’t take any action.

“There is just so much, it can't be a full-time job,” the director of a chapter of CAIR told researchers when asked about muting or blocking those who send hateful messages.

When platforms do take action, they sometimes end up banning the wrong people. One interview subject who participates in online activism related to immigration issues said that Twitter removed the account of a key Black Lives Matter march organizer last June.

“Subsequently the march was sent into disarray and could have been avoided would major voices of social rights activist organizers have been present in the conversation,” the researchers wrote.

The case studies also identified the fact that algorithms and other key elements of how social media platforms work are easily co-opted by bad actors.

“Their algorithms are gameable and can result in biased or hateful trends,” the executive summary said. “What spreads on their platforms can result in very real offline political violence, let alone the psychological impact from online trolling and harassment.” 

[giftwrappingpaper]

wangxian scifi au featuring android lwj, whose response to wwx’s offhanded joke “i don’t wanna die a virgin” is “ok lets fix that”

- - - - -

“You do not have to.”

Wei Wuxian, whose attention is split between Lan Wangji and the innumerous stars and galaxies they fly by, says, “I don’t have to what?”

Lan Wangji frowns. It’s unlike Wei Wuxian for his memory to be this shortsighted. “You stated only a moment ago that you ‘don’t want to die a virgin’,” he reminds him, “and I am telling you that you do not have to.”

This is enough to shake Wei Wuxian out of his contemplative reverie. “Um, okay? What?” He turns to Lan Wangji with a wrinkle on his nose that suggests confusion.

Lan Wangji pauses to upload the image Wei Wuxian’s nose wrinkle into his memory bank. In the deep throes of space and rush of near intergalactic war, he reasons, it’s uncommon to run into a scene so innocuously cute, thus calling for detailed recordkeeping.

“I am programmed with a wide array of techniques for providing physical pleasure, from kissing to various postions for sexual intercouse with partners of either sex,” he informs him after a successful upload. “Although I have never done any of them before, I could, in theory, perform them skillfully.”

It’s a stray thought at first, but the more Lan Wangji thinks about it, the more the idea becomes unexpectedly brilliant. “The chances of us successfully coming out of this mission alive is less than favorable. You have expressed a desire for sexual intimacy before death.” He leans back against his seat, ignorant of the flustered horror draining the color from Wei Wuxian’s face. “I have the information necessary to be an excellent partner. We have an abundance of privacy and spare time. Conditions for intercourse are optimal.”

Lan Wangji turns back to Wei Wuxian, only to take in the other man’s pale pallor and deer-in-the-headlights eyes.

And Lan Wangji — well, Lan Wangji just wants to help. Wei Wuxian is his friend, the first friend he’s made. He’s allowed to do that now. To help. To want.

“Um,” Wei Wuxian says. He doesn’t explain himself further.

“The captain's quarters,” Lan Wangji ponders aloud, “has the most spacious bed. Or do you have a preference as to which room we will proceed in?”

An aspect of Wei Wuxian Lan Wangji has come to admire is his quick wit and sharp tongue, always present and always frustratingly endearing. He wonders where this intellect has gone, for Wei Wuxian spends the next minute in silence, his paleness flushing to a deep pink.

Asphyxiation, Lan Wangji’s internal diagnostics registry supplies. Heat stroke. Heightened anxiety.

Embarrassment? Plausible, but unlikely. Wei Wuxian was a shameless man. Nothing could get under his skin enough to render him flustered.

“I,” Wei Wuxian deigned to say. Jaw tight, eyebrows twitching, hands curiously curled to fists from where they rested on his thighs. “I didn’t take you for the joking type, Lan Zhan.”

“I am not,” Lan Wangji corrects him. “I was not programmed as such in my initial manufacturing. Perhaps I can practice internalizing a humorous attitude after we have sex.”

Wei Wuxian coughs. Coughs again. His coughing fit ends just as Lan Wangji is about to offer him some water. Curious; he hadn’t shown signs of sickness before this conversation.

“I — appreciate the offer,” Wei Wuxian says. “But I couldn’t. We shouldn’t.”

Lan Wangji frowns as a churning turns over his synthetic gut. It takes him a moment to realize that the unfamiliar sensation is disappointment. “Why not?”

“Other than the fact that we’re currently on a suicide mission hinging on the small chance we stop both our planets from destoying each other?” Wei Wuxian strokes his chin. His expression sobers.

Lan Wangji takes an educated guess. “Is it because I am an android? Only yesterday, we came to the conclusion that I have a soul and can no longer be singularly considered as such.”

“It’s not that,” Wei Wuxian sighs. “You’re not just an android. And I don’t — you’re not just an android, Lan Zhan.”

“...I see,” Lan Zhan says, which is not true. But the thrilling giddiness at the revelation that he could lie at all overrides the guilt that could’ve come with it.

Seeing right through him, Wei Wuxian shrugs and explains, “Sure, you apparantly have a fucking sex manual downloaded in your brain; do what you will with that. But I don’t want you to think that just because you were made in a lab, you have to, to cater to me or anything. To satisfy me because you have to. You and I are the same. Well — not the same the same. But you get what I mean.”

Lan Wangji wonders if he should point out that if he had been born an organic human, he still would have given Wei Wuxian the same proposition. But he deigns not to, in the end, for it has become resoundingly clear that if Lan Wangji had been born an organic human, Wei Wuxian’s response to his proposition would be the same.

The gut churning returns. Lan Wangji both rejoices and cowers at its unfamiliarity.

“And besides,” Wei Wuxian adds. A hint of color returns to his cheeks. “What I said was a figure of speech that people say when they’re about to die. I was joking.” He laughed, but it didn't sound like a happy one. “I’ve had sex before. Obviously.”

Lan Wangji cannot recall any figure of speech adjacent to Wei Wuxian’s claim, nor is he aware of anything that could point to the fact that Wei Wuxian has had sex before. Does his handsome face count as a sufficient moniker to his status of “non-virgin”? His charming personality? His endless capacity to be selfless, brave, and, above all else, kind?

Having a soul is much more complicated than Lan Wangji could have ever anticipated.

“I understand,” Lan Wangji tells him, because he does. Despite the sting of rejection, Lan Wangji can still appreciate Wei Wuxian’s acceptance of his autonomy. His humanity. This has never happened before. If it was necessary for Lan Wangji to breathe, he would be breathless at Wei Wuxain’s knack for always taking him by surprise.

“Good. Good talk. Thank god.” Wei Wuxian stands, arms stretched over his head, and Lan Wangji is hit with another unfamiliar emotion. Not an unwelcome churning this time. Something much more pleasant. It knocks him off balance yet grounds him, and he is hit with a strong urge to follow. What, he doesn’t know. Or maybe he does.

Wei Wuxian says, “I’m exhausted, and now I’m getting a headache. How much longer till we reach our destination?”

“Twelve hours.” The conversation seems to be over. Lan Wangji gets to his feet. “Rejoin me after you get a sufficient amount of sleep.”

“How about you? You need to rest, too.”

Lan Wangji shakes his head. “I have returned to normal operations. Rejoin me after you have, too.”

Wei Wuxian snorts goodnaturedly. “Look at you, ordering me around. You sure are getting the whole having a soul thing down.” He’s teasing. He turns away to return to his quarters. Alone. But just as he heads out the door he looks over his shoulder and says, “Good night.”

“Good night,” Lan Wangji echoes.

He is then once again left to his own devices. Lan Wangji turns back to the cockpit and stares out the window. He knows that he is disappointed, but is still unsure as to where the disappointment stems from.

Was Wei Wuxian right? Was Lan Wangji’s well-intentioned proposition an effect of his embedded instinct to serve? It is plausible, he supposes; the directive to obey the orders of the nearest human commander is an integral part of his programming. He has proved that his programming no longer dictates his actions, but the impulse to heed it will always nag at his every decision.

But even now, long after Wei Wuxian has left the vicinity, Lan Wangji continues to replay his memory of asking him to have sex. Analyzing each of his decisions and Wei Wuxian’s reactions. Combing through the multitudes of alternate scenarios and outcomes, what he could have said or done to get Wei Wuxian to say yes.

Lan Wangji stares ahead, seeing but not seeing. The deep expanse of space stares back.

For as long as Wei Wuxian is asleep, Lan Wangji allows himself to revel in his newfound disappointment.

- - - - -

originally posted on twitter

[melo-yello]

Baking with the Wakandan Royals would include:

A/n: I've been watching a ton of baking shows lately so I've been mad inspired to write some domestic headcanons.

*I added Shuri

T'Challa

If you mention to this man you're thinking about baking he's already checking for necessary ingredients quantities and locating the measuring cups

T'Challa's need for order and a systematic approach to life can either be really helpful when you're baking or really annoying

This man takes pride in prepping the pan

I mean oiled, floured, and lined with parchment

T'Challa didn't come to play. He got a cake stuck one time and he's never been the same

I'm tellin you he's a complete ace when it comes to measurements

This man will measure, level, sift, and whisk together the dry ingredients in less than 90 seconds

"Here you go, Love." handing you the bowl and kissing your temple

He even will have the separate little glass bowls in various sizes like he stepped out of his very own cooking show

T'Challa is definitely the clean as you go type

Boi is washing dishes almost as fast you can make them

I've got that, Sweetheart." snatching up dirty bowls and taking them to the sink like clockwork

You already kno he's a stick to the recipe type of guy

You kno better than to tell him "We can just eyeball it" or end any measurement/cook time with "or so"

He will absolutely lecture you on the acute chemistry of baking

After so many times of 'sneaking' in extra pinches of 'this' and 'that' and him catching you'll be forced to put him out to stop his constant meddling

"Challa, I swear to Bast if you say one more thing about the 'balance of baking' and don't get yo ass outta this damn kitchen, Shuri will be an only child!"

He occasionally peeks back in offering his two cents before you glare at him and he slinks back to whatever he's preoccupying himself with

Once everything out of the oven and cooled you can't help but smile and bring T'Challa a goodie for all his efforts and help even if he's kinda a pain

Erik

He will 100% be minding his own business until he peeps you in the kitchen baking something

He immediately steps in to take over whether he knows what you're making or not

Deadass has slid across a counter, swiped the bowl, stuck the landing and been like "Ok Ma, what am I makin?"

Boi will even take your apron and do it smooth as hell too

The first time you thought he was trying to be freaky by grabbing ya ass and kissin all down ya neck in the kitchen but before you knew it the apron was untied and around his neck and he was stirring the bowl that was just in front of you

Growing up basically raising himself and being bounced around from relative to relative made learning to cook essential and he's a pretty damn good at it

And he knows it

Erik deadass cooks like somebody's Auntie

"Baby, lemme go ahead and do that." Is something you'll hear every step of the way

He'll just stare at the recipe for .5 seconds then be like "Do that shit, That shit right there and it'll be bland as hell!"

Erik starts off measuring but gradually shifts into eyeballing everything

He's prone to add pinches of different spices that are no where to be found in the recipe

Erik refuses to cook in silence and will always throw on one of his playlists

Y'all bop all the way from TLC to Daniel Caesar to Anderson. Paak

When all the baking is done Erik loves to humble brag about his baked treats

"Yea me and Bae, kilt that shit." Or "Oh you know, Babygirl can throw down"

That is until his cousin says something

T'Challa: "These are great."

Erik: "Damn Straight it is, T'Chump! Didn't kno my baby could FUCK it all da way up! Who you think taught her that! Who!"

M'Baku

*nervous laughter*

M'Baku has an enormous sweet tooth but can't bake to save his life

Not that hasn't tried but most of those trails ended in flames

Since then the great gorrilla has been banned from most of the palace kitchens

Naturally when you ask "Baku, help me bake some cookies."

He's a little hesitant

M'Baku tries to explain to you that his strong suit is really savory and much rather do anything

He really hates that he's not naturally good at it like most things he does (fighting, leading, flirting, etc.)

This gets him out of helping the first few times before you drag him in kitchen promising "Trust me, I can teach you. It can't be that bad."

With M'Baku's help be prepared to remake batters at least twice

He's either heavy handed or extremely light handed there's absolutely no inbetween with him

He's gonna apologize each time he messes up no matter how many times you tell him it's fine

You put him on mixing duty but he gets bored so he starts distracting you

"Oh that look absolutely scrumptious, My Love." grabbing your ass as measure out brown sugar

"That tastes amazing, My Queen." giving you bedroom eyes as he sucks your finger clean of the batter you were about to taste

"You smell like heaven, Dear Heart." nipping at your neck as you place a pan in the oven

This is also the kinda man that eats as you bake

As soon as they hit the cooling racks he's bodying half of them

Putting up high doesn't work either when your mans is 6'5" and can reach all your hiding places

Only on rare occasions do you actually have sweets to show for you efforts if you only make one batch

3 seems to be the sweet spot since M'Baku eats half of 2

He actually does pay attention when you show him how to do things correctly and each time he makes fewer mistakes and he's so proud of himself

Shuri

Shuri is allergic to anything remotely domestic. Not that its difficult she just isn't interested

Mysteriously she always has all the software updates to do when you ask "Wouldn't it be fun to help me bake something?"

"Yes, My King?!?!" Shuri yells running down the hall after a very confused T'Challa that tells back "Stop calling me that!" as the two run in the opposite direction as you

She's definitely not above making up tech tasks to get out of being forced into baking

"Oh I'd love to but I need to check... Erik's torso to make sure he's healing ok. Too bad he's shy so you can't come." She shrugs pulling Erik into lab before he can get in a word

Or "Oh yes Sergent Barnes, I do have time to look at the mechanics of each synapses of every nerve ending in your arm. This could take a while." practically tackling Bucky as he enters the lab

The only way to get her there is by treachery

"Shuri, come quick! The stan mixer is smoking you have to fix it. Or I'll never bake again." is enough to get her to bolt out of the door and into the kitchen

There's no way she can let your Double Fudge Sea Salt Pecan brownies vanish from her life

"This mixer is absolutely fine, Y/n. Don't scare me like that ev..." trailing off as she turns to see you locking the door to the kitchen

"Noooooooooooooooooooo!"

Once she finds that all exits are blocked off

Vents, windows, and personal secret passages she has installed for times like these

She starts offering 'helpful' advice to really 'expand' your baking horizions

"I'm telling you, Y/n, 1 and 1/4 teaspoons of white vinegar would really help these sweets raise to the ocassion." as she presses record and steps back

You soon learn after several batter explosions and looped videos and gifs sent across the Insta, Twitter, and Snap she can't be trusted

"Oh come on,now! How was I supposed to know it was going to do that?" Laughing as you glare at her wiping yet another batter blow up off your face

Before you accept her advice now it is questioned with "And if I add that it won't end up in my face?"

Shuri will pause then offer something else because she's no evil just mischievous

She pretends to be bored out of her mind the whole time even though she's mentally pocketing all the little steps so she can later try by herself

Every once in a while she'll hit you with an absolutely old school but completely clutch trick you've never heard of before (most likely something she picked up from cooking with Queen Mother) and you pause to look at her

Like "Where the hell did that come from?"

She just shrugs and offers some off the wall flavor combo to throw you off her trail

"Chocolate and peanut butter? Boring. How about anasis and chardonnay." genuinely curious about the combination

Shuri loves to experiment and play with structures and variables esspecially in the kitchen

So tell her your trying to make a souffle or flan and she's there automatically no plots involved or locked doors

Afters all the sweets and practical jokes are out of the oven and cooling and the doors are unlocked

Shuri takes a treat or two and hums looking satisfied with your team work "This was actually fun." mouth half full and gives you a quick hug before leaving

Ever so often she'll come of her own prompting to you wanting to be shown how to make a cookie or some other baked good

And you do but as soon as they're done

She steals like 75% of the goodies as you check some of the few left in the oven and splits them with M'Baku who was already waiting at the door and they run down the hall like small children

Always leaving a note "XOXO, Princess Shuri" and scribbled in the biggest calligraphy that is usually saved for royal documents "Thx from Great Gorrilla,M'Baku" at the scene of the crime