#(was that their ship name or just the website name?)
Explore tagged Tumblr posts
Text
Gordon/Barney/Alyx is really really funny to me conceptually bc it's like, two hot geniuses in their 20s who look at the 40-something smartass who hangs around and go 'yeah that guy. we both want him carnally'
#and they're SO right#half life#half life 2#gordon freeman#alyx vance#barney calhoun#freemance#valhoun#freehounce#idk what the hell their poly ship name is sorry lol#(me. posting about a ship with an age gap on the 'can't be normal about age gap ships' website:#SURE HOPE THERE ISN'T ANY AGE GAP DISCOURSE IN HERE)#this was the first time I've drawn any of these characters in LITERAL YEARS and. wow........#feels so crazy that this was the fandom that got me to join tumblr in the first place (in 2011!!!!) and I used to draw them ALL THE TIME#interests change I guess#but I think I'll always come back to hl and portal occasionally. they're too much a part of my dna at this point LOL#my art#description in alt text#oh my god I just went back through my half life tag and the last time I drew these three was when I drew that freehounce meme LMAOOO#how serendipitious
709 notes
·
View notes
Text
Hnng, desire Cabby Plushie, I have the power to....
#osc#inanimate insanity#3d#ii cabby#my art#For context this is a website called plushify where you can make plushie patterns out of 3d models#Its a pretty great software to name pettern pieces#determine fur direction#assign colors and calculate fabric amounts#even calculates measurements#I have some basic 3d modeling skills#enough to whip this up and sew it together#but im working on another plush at the moment so i really shouldnt buy the fabric#plus what if they release the cabby plush again#i really like that plush#the only thing that kinda irks me is the color#i found some minky online thats pretty close to her actual color#though its $20 to ship just one yard#not including the black and grey fabric i need to scout out#and possibly foam to keep her shape more rigid#Aghhhhh#Cabby my beloved#i really gotta finish liam
25 notes
·
View notes
Text
bwwuuuuhh i figure if i mayhaps post abt my tptm ocs i will be more inclined to work on the rest of their designs..... i have pretty solid ideas except for one but i just. uhhh dont draw them
anyways if anyone in le community is at all interested in them maybe lemme know...... i dunno :P bleeeh
#.pichures#tptm oc#the post traumatic manifesto oc#the plan. is to have a website similar to the official tptm site... i dont have any plans for songs cuz i do not write songs but. smiles.#but yeah. i have the 3 of them kinda designed then 5 more ideas#the last one im having trouble. kinda figuring it out. but also i mightve just had a brain blast hmmm..... i dunno i dunno. we'll see#anyways. um yeah my dollops. technically two of them dont have defined names and im kinda struggling 2 think of what 2 name em........ ANYW#lol. ehehe. i luv ocs i luv making them i love processing trauma thru art ^_^...............#also one of these is the self insert of me that i ship w faineant. becauuse i am in love with faineant. so if that guy seems more developed#for some reason. um well thats why
27 notes
·
View notes
Text
Hear Me Out
#my art#one piece#trafalgar law#boa hancock#got the color palette on her 1 outfit from a pic off colorpalettes dot net but i have no idea if that website like#Makes the palettes or just nabs them and either way it's colors so who cares#this is the most that ive drawn in a single day in AGES i dont know that i feel productive but i def feel something#i don't know what this ship name is either so if the anon who asked me to tag frobin has any objections please gimme the deets
48 notes
·
View notes
Text
talked w/ a friend about this and wanted to post something similar yesterday after a convo i saw also
about people criticizing ttcc / ttcc fans for just... being cog fans? being cog centric? usually coming from people who only like the toons.
and everyone likes what they like! it's okay! but saying that people who like the cogs are horrible and support the bad things they do, is just blatantly wrong. i thought we knew that enjoying villainous and morally Bad / grey characters is... okay? it doesn't mean you support what they do. it's interesting to explore these topics.
i've seen many people just... paint anyone who likes the cogs as horrible because they're "apologists of x and y" and... i dunno. rubs me the wrong way! you do have a point and recognize the cogs do bad things, but liking them as characters means nothing about who you are as a person.
and this is not to say that people who are in toontown for the toons are bad. hell! they are right this IS toontown. i may be on the cog liker side but i like the toons! maybe ocs more than the npcs - mostly because i like my friends and the sheer creativity the toons can bring out!!
SO what i wanna say... i dunno. let's not point fingers...? let's have fun in a goofy cartoon game together??? also complaining about people liking VILLAIN ROBOTS on TUMBLR is kind of funny to me. do you realize where you are. but then again a lot of this i see on discord and in-game as well since i avoid things on tumblr... i am a sensitive little fella i avoid misty fight bc of One Really mean "Critic" guy i saw there and i have been shivering in my bootsies since. so you get me
but like yes ttcc is more cog centric but... that's okay? things could be written better and i still wanna speak on it, and i do thing the toons deserve attention and better writing... but the fact it focuses on the cogs isn't... bad? if you don't like how con centric it is you can go play ttr...? god forbid people have fun and explore the villain's side of things...? i'm not saying either toontown server is better or worse than the other... and everyone can like their own things!!
but like... people will just like the cogs and that's okay and it doesn't make you bad. let's all be friends okay? both sides may be going at each other's necks in-game and the cogs in fact do horrible things - but it's what makes them fun, and it gives the toons things to do in the game!! but we don't gotta !!!!!!!! i may be really sarcastic and sometimes mean in private but like that's me just privately sassing, deep down i think people should just... y'know..? enjoy things.
so yea that's the guzma / cathal thought of today. toon people cog people both people are all awesome as fuck and you keep doing what you're doing i love you toontown isn't toontown without you
#anyways omg god forbid ppl are cog kissers on the robot kissing website /silly#but like!! tt/r may not be for everyone and tt/cc may not be for everyone and THATS OK!! ur not gonna like everything!!#like i accepted tt/r isnt for me but its mostly bc they dont show cog health specifically and i struggle with these things but !! i#heard they are updating that so i might be able to play without getting bored / frustrated again ^^ i havent played properly in yeaaaars#i will still prefer clash bc fixation and?? i LIKE ROBOBTS....!#but tewtow is tewtow its all swag. the least toony thing u can do is bully someone for Liking Robobt. be niceys#like ya i admit im not perfect i also dont like people andhave so much one sided beef and i am sensitive to so many things and i complain#in private but at the end of the day its to make myself feel better and i KNOW to not engage and look away and work on feeling better#bc this stuff does Heehoo upset me bc Mental Health Probulem. but i know everyone should and can do their own thing and have fun#i may complain about (redacted ship) all the time and i dont get it at all but...? bro... just have fun... be free. im not here to stop you#im just not gonna interact as i should. good for both of us! joyous world! happy that ur happy!!!!#why complain abt ppl just Enjoying Cogs like that though................................................ do you not like fun#this is not at anyone specific#my friend did show me tags of a post anonymously#and i vague a person whos name i dont know ingame like A YEAR AGO#and a convo what happened in a server a while back. but its not anyone specific i just wanted to like. speak my thoughts#lets be frense... and if not thats okay lets not argue either then we all stay in our lanes
15 notes
·
View notes
Text
Re-reading vol 10 of Kamisama kiss is amazing… it’s so fucking fruity
Tomoe turning into Nanami to try seducing Jiro is amazing, truely taking advantage of the genderfluidity of kitsune, I love it
(Sorry about the image quality, it’s dark and I’m tired)
And then my favourite past ship in this fandom…
You can’t be a demon lord in Japan without being at least a tad fruity, the ridiculously strong bond with one person and one person only is very bisexual and autism…
(Sesshōmaru does this too)
#I know that I read the whole thing before#but I don’t really remember it#so my plan is to save up and buy the whole thing#probably after I buy the hanako im missing and clean my shelf of dust and random shit#I have so many manga series I wanna get#magi. Kamisama kiss. akagami no shirayuki-hime. toilet bound Hanako-kun. children of the whales.#I was buying each volume of COTW but the pacing wasn’t working with my ADHD and I couldn’t find the next volume for a while#so I kinda lost interest#I also really wanna get akagami no shirayuki-hime#cuz I watched the anime but it never got a season three#it ended when she got her job properly and left so many plot threads!! so now I’m gonna read the whole manga somehow#I was reading hanako on a website#but I’m not sure if the translations were official#plus the website stopped working#so now I’m just gonna try getting it physically#kamisama kiss#kamisama hajimemashita#mt kurama arc#I wonder what the ship name for Tomoe and Akura-ou would be…#akuroe? Tomoe-ou? tomo-ou? idk#Tomoe as nanami was Jiro’s bi awakening#I’m just imagining jiro coming to visit nanami and then asking to talk to Tomoe cuz he can’t stop thinking about him as assertive nanami#long distance polyamory with the person and the persons disguised boyfriend who acts more assertive
10 notes
·
View notes
Text
everyday i wake up and have to start a new boss challenge called dealing with my mother
#not a single speck of consideration for whether or not i'm busy or tired or sleeping#she doesn't even TRY. the text is too small? ok i'll make it bigger. but wait now she's lazy to read. doesn't even want to try to understan#we had this whole thing yesterday where she was raising her voice at me bc she didn't get that#basically free shipping if products r over $500. our Total (incl. delivery) was $488 and she wanted to add on but i told her no... delivery#is $70. and she wasnt getting me so she was raising her voice like holy shittt not everything has to result in you yelling!!!!#you wake me up when i'm sleeping just to help you. you disturb me when i'm studying omggg girl please....#i remember her [ why does it say– what transaction? i didn't make any transaction ] the text was literally-#[ no current transaction history ] smth like that like MOTHER???????????? and i think she's been telling my sister i'm complaining abt it#should i die. 1 like i'll do it#power outage started so i'm going to stay in my room and nap until lunch fml#but i have to go out and help my mom with an app thing first bc ofc#she admits shes just not bothered to READ. when it comes to emails or ordering food or anything like ohvm mymgodog#and shes so short tempered fuckkk ?!?#AH. EDIT BC I REMEMBERED. when she got an email today.. her application was rejected#for smth smth. anyways it told her she could login to the website using her birth info. (e.g 1870....) and she was like#u typed something wrong bc why does it say 1870... LIKE MOTHER ITS AN EXAMPELREFKWKSABHAHHHHH#THE EXAMPLE DIDNT EVEN HAVE HER NAME?!?£#💭#cw rant#negative
8 notes
·
View notes
Text
My best friend's birthday is in 5 days and I just got her present in the mail and it sucks. So I'm killing myself.
#since we opened the salon for her birthday I hire people to make illustrations in certain styles w our salon name#last year was snakes + old band tee-esque. this year was groovy bc she's been digging that kind of vibe lately.#anyways. so I get back the designs and while none of them were exactly what I had in mind#they worked. and I accepted that I just wasn't going to be able to explain what I wanted enough to make it perfect.#so I get the designs and I hop on the tshirt design website I always use. and I tell them specifically#I do not want the designs to feel like iron-on stickers. I do not want that. idk what y'all have to do but whatever you did last time#was fine. it felt good. like the design was part of the shirt. I want that again.#they assured me it would be like that.#package of tshirts arrive in the mail today. open them up. the design feels like a fucking iron-on sticker.#like. idek what to do. cuz her birthday is in 5 days and I waited over 2 weeks for these to ship.#and I really do hate how this feels lmao.
2 notes
·
View notes
Text
I made a deal with a friend that in exchange for her reading the Six of Crows duology I’d watch Willow (2022)
As a fan of the original movie I have so many thoughts on how they portrayed the old characters (ESPECIALLY Sorsha) but I don’t currently have the time to get into all that
Anyway Kit and Jade are everything and Ruby Cruz could stab me and I’d thank her
#and I thought my crush on her mom in the movie was embarrassing#kit tanthalos#jade claymore#tanthamore#I just found out that’s their ship name#btw if anyone wants a link to the totally 100% legal website I watched it on dm me#willow 2022#willow series#btw this friend still has BARELY started soc >:(
9 notes
·
View notes
Text
A Trick of Fate by pristineungift
Summary:
The Shikon Jewel is complete. Kagome thinks she has crafted the perfect unselfish wish - the consequences of which are far reaching. Finding herself forever changed, she unwittingly turns to Sesshoumaru for help. Seven time award winning fic now being edited and crossposted.
Relationships: Higurashi Kagome/Sesshoumaru, Inuyasha/OFC, Miroku/Sango (InuYasha), Ambiguous or Implied Relationship(s), Past Higurashi Kagome/Inuyasha - Relationship, Rin/Shippou, Ayame (InuYasha)/Kouga (InuYasha), Past Sesshoumaru/OFC, Inu no Taishou/Sesshoumaru's Mother
Characters: Higurashi Kagome, Sesshoumaru (InuYasha), InuYasha (InuYasha), Shippou (InuYasha), Rin (InuYasha), Sesshoumaru's Mother (InuYasha), Miroku (InuYasha), Sango (InuYasha), Jaken (InuYasha), Kouga (InuYasha), Shiori (InuYasha), Original Characters, Ah-Un (InuYasha)
Additional Tags: Action/Adventure, Youkai, BAMF Higurashi Kagome, Youkai Higurashi Kagome, Romance, Family, Pack Dynamics, Pack Feels, Pack, Pack Family, Kitsune, Time Travel, Fate & Destiny, Slow Build, Slow Romance, Wishes, Magic, Drama, Identity Issues, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Epic Friendship, Epic, Japanese Mythology & Folklore, Canon-Typical Violence, Sexual Tension, Sexual Content, Swearing
Notes: Were you ever curious what I first started reading as fanfic? No, too bad. It was InuYasha. This was my first foray into fanfic back in like 2007. I was reading InuYasha on FFN. It would take me 9 years to move over to Ao3. I don't read it much now, but I did find this one on ao3 and fall into it and it's incredible and amazing. I loved it a lot.
(This is part of my year of recs. I'm trying to share some of my favorite stories on tumblr. I've set up a series of Soulmate recs for each month on the 15th, but these will be randomly dispersed throughout the year.)
#rec#fanfic#inuyasha#kagome higurashi#sesshomaru#sesshoumaru x kagome#dokuga#(was that their ship name or just the website name?)#it's been so long lol#year of recs#2024 fanfic list of favs#don't look at the photos#I got them on flikr#trying to avoid copyright issues#hope you enjoy
2 notes
·
View notes
Text
Sometimes I’m like “my time in internet fandom hasn’t been THAT crazy” and then I remember that someone I’ve never met IRL wrote RPF about me once.
#this is 100% true#also it does not exist anymore#this was in YE OLDE DAYS before the fandom social media consolidation and the website is long gone#sorry to disappoint#TBF it wasn’t just about me it was about all the big names on a particular forum#but I was definitely shipped with someone I had also never met#who was a dude which like… lol#anyways old internet fandom was truly the Wild West#at the time I thought it was great#but I was also in high school#which is hilariously why I think it isn’t around anymore#the author found out belatedly that some of the people they were writing about were under age and deleted#pour one out for her
2 notes
·
View notes
Text
Source: "Happy Haunting to Boo and Yours" Storybook record (Welcome Home website/ transcript)
HOWDY: As serious as a heart attack! I was practically GIVING IT AWAY! But what was the buy of the century left unbought?!
SALLY: [Laced with sarcasm.] I’m… dying to know.
HOWDY: It was… The very sheet I’m wearing!!
EDDIE: [Eddie screams again!] I knew it!!!
HOWDY: Available now for only… For only… 100% off! [Howdy lets out a sound of anguish as he begins to dramatically cry]
NARRATOR: Barnaby patted Howdy on the back as the caterpillar cashier cried into his shoulders. Maybe these stories are starting to get scary…
(THIS CAN BE SOME REALLY GOOD LAUGHINGSTOCK POTENTIAL!!! TEE HEE!!)
(Here's another one according to the transcript.)
SALLY: Yes, yes, of course, mailman! Now come in here, you two, we’re just about to begin the festivities and you’re our last guests!
HOWDY: Well don’t I feel special! Almost makes it worth closin’ the store early!- Is that my favorite regular over there? Gang way!
[Howdy’s shoes can be heard as he barges past Sally and leaves her alone with Eddie at the door.]
(There's no way you can't convince me that he wasn't referring to Barnaby like...... COME ON!!!)
#golly gosh#Where do I begin?!#First of all#Halloween is my FAVORITE holiday so it was such a blessing to get this update on the website.#The new art is always beautiful to the eyes and soul for me.#I WOULD DEFINITELY NEED TO ATTEMPT ONE OF THOSE COOKBOOK RECIPES!!#And the Storybook audio!!#holy moly#That's the best part out of all this!!#there's so much potential in it that I can't wait to draw myself and see other great#Laughingstock caught more of my attention though.#Even if it's not Canon I still think it's a beautiful and cute ship to like. Just like the Sally and Poppy one.#I can't name the ship name on the top of my head but it's still very cute.#Anyways#YESS#I was SO down when I saw that the audio was almost 20 minutes.#that's when you become highly confident that this is about to go DOWN!!#The audio scared me though#Obviously in a good way#I might even need to go back because I think i missed a few things when things were getting#A bit hard to hear.#It was so fun and entertaining though to just hear and experience all of them having fun and being#Well#Um.... In character.#You know?#It's a bit hard to explain but you get it#happy halloweeeeeeen#welcome home#rambles#laughingstock
4 notes
·
View notes
Text
I’m not gonna begrudge anyone their ships but when people talk about Zoro settling down with Tashigi post canon like it’s the obvious end to his arc it confuses me so much lmao
#I just…. don’t see it#I’m not even sure Zoro knows her real name#honestly it just confuses me when people talk about how Oda obviously intends for one of the straw hats to be perceived romantically with#any character#because he’s made it very clear that he hates writing romance and is not planning to write romance into the main story of one piece#rambles#just to clarify because this is the piss on the poor website#not about shipping Tashigi and Zoro in general#just the idea that it’s a ship with a foundation in canon#the last time I made a post about finding Tashigi’s one sided beef with Zoro funny a Tashigi stan got REALLY mad at me
0 notes
Note
Do you have any fiction book recommendations?
One (1) (series)
#ask#anonymous#anon#books#scifi#book recommendations#i mean. science fiction is fiction right#sorry i'm one of those cringe kids that doesn't really read and most of what i do read is fanfic lol#the only other thing i read are art books#i just don't really have the opportunity to go to bookstores or libraries and i just don't seem to find books#that fit my very niche weird tastes#and even when i do its not like books have content ratings. im a baby there's tons of stuff i do Not want to read#i want to read more but nothing seems to hit for me#except for books about 1960s film noir robot detectives. that is so incredibly up my alley. so i love this series#there's some good series i read in high school but i don't remember the names of them :^(#i think i kept my book reports since i did Art in them. i hope i find them#there was this one really good steampunk series about exploration and i think the last one - or at least the third one?#saw them heading into Space in this huge ship that crawled along a tether like a huge elevator. also there was a monkey#extremely cool series wish i could remember what tf it was called#anyway if any of you bookworms have a website that 1. really lets you search for books via weird specific tags#and 2. also has content warnings for those books#that's my ideal website please send it to me#i want more scifi and robot books
1 note
·
View note
Text
“That Makes Me Smart”
If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:
https://pluralistic.net/2024/12/04/its-not-a-lie/#its-a-premature-truth
The Biden administration disappointed, frustrated and enraged in so many ways, including abetting a genocide – but one consistent bright spot over the past four years was the unseen-for-generations frontal assault on corporate power and corporate corruption.
The three words that define this battle above all others are "unfair and deceptive" – words that appear in Section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act and other legislation modeled on it, like USC40 Section 41712(a), which gives the Department of Transportation the power to ban "unfair and deceptive" practices as well:
https://pluralistic.net/2023/01/10/the-courage-to-govern/#whos-in-charge
When Congress created an agency to punish "unfair and deceptive" conduct, they were saying to the American people, "You have a right not to be cheated." While this may sound obvious, it's hardly how the world works.
To get a sense of how many ripoffs are part of our daily lives, let's take a little tour of the ways that the FTC and other agencies have used the "unfair and deceptive" standard to defend you over the past four years. Take Amazon Prime: Amazon executives emailed one another, openly admitting that in their user tests, the public was consistently fooled by Amazon's "get free shipping with Prime" dialog boxes, thinking they were signing up for free shipping and not understanding that they were actually signing up to send the company $140/year. They had tested other versions of the signup workflow that users were able to correctly interpret, but they decided to go with the confusing version because it made them more money:
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2024/05/amazon-execs-may-be-personally-liable-for-tricking-users-into-prime-sign-ups/
Getting you signed up for Prime isn't just a matter of taking $140 out of your pocket once – because while Amazon has produced a greased slide that whisks you into a recurring Prime subscription, the process for canceling that recurring payment is more like a greased pole you must climb to escape the Prime pit. This is typical of many services, where signing up happens in a couple clicks, but canceling is a Kafkaesque nightmare. The FTC decided that this was an "unfair and deceptive" business practice and used its authority to create a "Click to Cancel" rule that says businesses have to make it as easy to cancel a recurring payment as it was to sign up for it:
https://www.theregister.com/2023/07/12/ftc_cancel_subscriptions/
Once businesses have you locked in, they also spy on you, ingesting masses of commercial surveillance data that you "consented" to by buying a car, or clicking to a website, or installing an app, or just physically existing in space. They use this to implement "surveillance pricing," raising prices based on their estimation of your desperation. Uber got caught doing this a decade ago, raising the price of taxi rides for users whose batteries were about to die, but these days, everyone's in on the game. For example, McDonald's has invested in a company that spies on your finances to determine when your payday is, and then raises the price of your usual breakfast sandwich by a dollar the day you get paid:
https://pluralistic.net/2024/06/05/your-price-named/#privacy-first-again
Everything about this is "unfair and deceptive" – from switching prices the second you click into the store to the sham of consent that consists of, say, picking up your tickets to a show and being ordered to download an app that comes with 20,000 words of terms and conditions that allows the company that sends you a QR code to spy on you for the rest of your life in any way they can and sell the data to anyone who'll buy it.
As bad as it is to be trapped in an abusive relationship as a shopper, it's a million times worse to be trapped as a worker. One in 18 American workers is under a noncompete "agreement" that makes it illegal for you to change jobs and work for someone else in the same industry. The vast majority of these workers are in low-waged food-service jobs. The primary use of the American noncompete is to stop the cashier at Wendy's from getting an extra $0.25/hour by taking a job at McDonald's.
Noncompetes are shrouded in a fog of easily dispelled bossly bullshit: claims that noncompetes raise wages (empirically, this is untrue), or that they enable "IP"-intensive industries to grow by protecting their trade secrets. This claim is such bullshit: you can tell by the fact that noncompetes are banned under California's state constitution and yet the most IP-intensive industries have attracted hundreds of billions – if not trillions – in investment capital even though none of their workforce can be bound under a noncompete. The FTC's order banning noncompetes for every worker in America simply brings the labor regime that created Silicon Valley and Hollywood to the rest of the country:
https://pluralistic.net/2023/10/26/hit-with-a-brick/#graceful-failure
Noncompetes aren't the only "unfair and deceptive" practice used against American workers. The past decade has seen the rise of private equity consolidation in several low-waged industries, like pet grooming. The new owners of every pet grooming salon within 20 miles of your house haven't just slashed workers' wages, they've also cooked up a scheme that lets them charge workers thousands of dollars if they quit these shitty jobs. This scheme is called a "training repayment agreement provision" (TRAP!): workers who are TRAPped at Petsmart are made to work doing menial jobs like sweeping up the floor for three to four weeks. Petsmart calls this "training," and values it at $5,500. If you quit your pet grooming job in the next two years, you legally owe PetSmart $5,500 to "repay" them for the training:
https://pluralistic.net/2022/08/04/its-a-trap/#a-little-on-the-nose
Workers are also subjected to "unfair and deceptive" bossware: "AI" tools sold to bosses that claim they can sort good workers from bad, but actually serve as random-number generators that penalize workers in arbitrary, life-destroying ways:
https://pluralistic.net/2024/11/26/hawtch-hawtch/#you-treasure-what-you-measure
Some of the most "unfair and deceptive" conduct we endure happens in shadowy corners of industry, where obscure middlemen help consolidated industries raise prices and pick your pocket. All the meat you buy in the grocery store comes from a cartel of processing and packing companies that all subscribe to the same "price consulting" services that tells them how to coordinate across-the-board price rises (tell me again how greedflation isn't a thing?):
https://pluralistic.net/2023/10/04/dont-let-your-meat-loaf/#meaty-beaty-big-and-bouncy
It's not just food, it's all of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. Take shelter: the highly consolidated landlord industry uses apps like Realpage to coordinate rental price hikes, turning the housing crisis into a housing emergency:
https://pluralistic.net/2024/07/24/gouging-the-all-seeing-eye/#i-spy
And of course, health is the most "unfair and deceptive" industry of all. Useless middlemen like "Pharmacy Benefit Managers" ("a spreadsheet with political power" -Matt Stoller) coordinate massive price-hikes in the drugs you need to stay alive, which is why Americans pay substantially more for medicine than anyone else in the world, even as the US government spends more than any other to fund pharma research, using public money:
https://pluralistic.net/2024/09/23/shield-of-boringness/#some-men-rob-you-with-a-fountain-pen
It's not just drugs: every piece of equipment – think hospital beds and nuclear medicine machines – as well as all the consumables – from bandages to saline – at your local hospital runs through a cartel of "Group Purchasing Organizations" that do for hospital equipment what PBMs do for medicine:
https://pluralistic.net/2021/09/27/lethal-dysfunction/#luxury-bones
For the past four years, we've lived in an America where a substantial portion of the administrative state went to war every day to stamp out unfair and deceptive practices. It's still happening: yesterday, the CFPB (which Musk has vowed to shut down) proposed a new rule that would ban the entire data brokerage industry, who nonconsensually harvest information about every American, and package it up into categories like "teenagers from red states seeking abortions" and "military service personnel with gambling habits" and "seniors with dementia" and sell this to marketers, stalkers, foreign governments and anyone else with a credit-card:
https://www.consumerfinance.gov/about-us/newsroom/cfpb-proposes-rule-to-stop-data-brokers-from-selling-sensitive-personal-data-to-scammers-stalkers-and-spies/
And on the same day, the FTC banned the location brokers who spy on your every movement and sell your past and present location, again, to marketers, stalkers, foreign governments and anyone with a credit card:
https://www.404media.co/ftc-bans-location-data-company-that-powers-the-surveillance-ecosystem/
These are tantalizing previews of a better life for every American, one in which the rule is, "play fair." That's not the world that Trump and his allies want to build. Their motto isn't "cheaters never prosper" – it's "caveat emptor," let the buyer beware.
Remember the 2016 debate where Clinton accused Trump of cheating on his taxes and he admitted to it, saying "That makes me smart?" Trumpism is the movement of "that makes me smart" life, where if you get scammed, that's your own damned fault. Sorry, loser, you lost.
Nowhere do you see this more than in cryptocurrencyland, so it's not a coincidence that tens – perhaps hundreds – in dark crypto money was flushed into the election, first to overpower Democratic primaries and kick out Dem legislators who'd used their power to fight the "unfair and deceptive" crowd:
https://www.politico.com/newsletters/california-playbook-pm/2024/02/13/crypto-comes-for-katie-porter-00141261
And then to fight Dems across the board (even the Dems whose primary victories were funded by dark crypto money) and elect the GOP as the party of "caveat emptor"/"that makes me smart":
https://www.coindesk.com/news-analysis/2024/12/02/crypto-cash-fueled-53-members-of-the-next-u-s-congress
Crypto epitomizes the caveat emptor economy. By design, fraudulent crypto transactions can't be reversed. If you get suckered, that's canonically a you problem. And boy oh boy, do crypto users get suckered (including and especially those who buy Trump's shitcoins):
https://www.web3isgoinggreat.com/
And for crypto users who get ripped off because they've parked their "money" in an online wallet, there's no sympathy, just "not your keys, not your coins":
https://www.ledger.com/academy/not-your-keys-not-your-coins-why-it-matters
A cornerstone of the "unfair and deceptive" world is that only suckers – that is, outsiders, marks and little people – have to endure consequences when they get rooked. When insiders get ripped off, all principle is jettisoned. So it's not surprising that when crypto insiders got taken for millions the first time they created a DAO, they tore up all the rules of the crypto world and gave themselves the mulligan that none of the rest of us are entitled to in cryptoland:
https://blog.ethereum.org/2016/07/20/hard-fork-completed
Where you find crypto, you find Elon Musk, the guy who epitomizes caveat emptor thinking. This is a guy who has lied to drivers to get them to buy Teslas by promising "full self driving in one year," every year, since 2015:
https://www.consumerreports.org/cars/autonomous-driving/timeline-of-tesla-self-driving-aspirations-a9686689375/
Musk told investors that he had a "prototype" autonomous robot that could replace their workers, then demoed a guy in a robot suit, pretending to be a robot:
https://gizmodo.com/elon-musk-unveils-his-funniest-vaporware-yet-1847523016
Then Musk did it again, two years later, demoing a remote-control robot while lying and claiming that it was autonomous:
https://techcrunch.com/2024/10/14/tesla-optimus-bots-were-controlled-by-humans-during-the-we-robot-event
This is entirely typical of the AI sector, in which "AIs" are revealed, over and over, to be low-waged workers pretending to be robots, so much so that Indian tech industry insiders joke that "AI" stands for "Absent Indians":
https://pluralistic.net/2024/01/29/pay-no-attention/#to-the-little-man-behind-the-curtain
Musk's view is that he's not a liar, merely a teller of premature truths. Autonomous cars and robots are just around the corner (just like the chatbots that can do your job, and not merely convince your boss to fire you while failing to do your job). He's not tricking you, he's just faking it until he makes it. It's not a scam, it's inspirational. Of course, if he's wrong and you are scammed, well, that's a you problem. Caveat emptor. That makes him smart.
Musk does this all the time. Take the Twitter blue tick, originally conceived of as a way to keep Twitter users from being scammed ("unfair and deceptive") by con artists pretending to be famous people. Musk's inaugural act at Twitter was to take away blue ticks from verified users and sell them to anyone who'd pay $8/month. Almost no one coughed up for this – the main exception being scammers, who used their purchased, unverified blue ticks to steal from Twitter users ("that makes me smart").
As Twitter hemorrhaged advertising revenue and Musk became increasingly desperate to materialize an army of $8/month paid subscribers, he pulled another scam: he nonconsensually applied blue ticks to prominent accounts, in a bid to trick normies into thinking that widely read people valued blue ticks so much they were paying for them out of their own pockets:
https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-65365366
If you were tricked into buying a blue tick on this pretense, well, caveat emptor. Besides, it's not a lie, it's a premature truth. Someday all those widely read users with nonconsensual blue ticks will surely value them so highly that they do start to pay for them. And if they don't? Well, Musk got your $8: "that makes me smart."
Scammers will always tell you that they're not lying to you, merely telling premature truths. Sam Bankman-Fried's defenders will tell you that he didn't actually steal all those billions. He gambled them on a bet that (sorta-kinda) paid off. Eventually, he was able to make all his victims (sorta-kinda) whole, so it's not even a theft:
https://www.cnn.com/2024/05/08/business/ftx-bankruptcy-plan-repay-creditors/index.html
Likewise, Tether, a "stablecoin" that was unable to pass an audit for many years as it issued unbacked, unregulated securities while lying and saying that for every dollar they minted, they had a dollar in reserves. Tether now (maybe) has reserves to equal its outstanding coins, so obviously all those years where they made false claims, they weren't lying, merely telling a premature truth:
https://creators.spotify.com/pod/show/cryptocriticscorner/episodes/Tether-wins���Skeptics-lose-the-end-of-an-era-e2rhf5e
If Tether had failed a margin call during those years and you'd lost everything, well, caveat emptor. The Tether insiders were always insulated from that risk, and that's all that matters: "that makes me smart."
When I think about the next four years, this is how I frame it: the victory of "that makes me smart" over "fairness and truth."
For years, progressives have pointed out the right's hypocrisy, despite that fact that Americans have been conditioned to be so cynical that even the rankest hypocrisy doesn't register. But "caveat emptor?" That isn't just someone else's bad belief or low ethics: it's the way that your life is materially, significantly worsened. The Biden administration – divided between corporate Dems and the Warren/Sanders wing that went to war on "unfair and deceptive" – was ashamed and nearly silent on its groundbreaking work fighting for fairness and honesty. That was a titanic mistake.
Americans may not care about hypocrisy, but they really care about being stolen from. No one wants to be a sucker.
#tether#ftx#scams#trumpism#caveat emptor#cryptocurrency#twitter#sleaze#premature truths#bossware#pluralistic
368 notes
·
View notes
Text
fanfic/fandom ettiquite guide
Okay, I've seen some things recently that make me think there is some need to make a master post of some general fandom and fic ettiquite just because some people may not know and I think there's a huge wave of fanfic becoming more mainstream especially on apps like tiktok.
If you don't like it, don't engage with it!! I think this above all, is the golden rule of fandom. The internet is made for you to be able to mute, hide, and censor things you don't like. DO THAT! don't make a career off of hating things. This goes along with the three laws of fandom, which u should check out FIRST OF ALL.
DON'T GATEKEEP!! If you're posting about a fic, art, ANYTHING link it, credit it! Don't post a tiktok about a fic and then refuse to give the name. Not only are you failing to credit the creators of this content, but you're taking away from the fact that fandom is a COMMUNITY where content is meant for everyone.
Ao3 is an archive. You're going to see things you might not like or even find offensive or uncomfortable. But fanfic is not meant to be censored. Ao3 is made to be unfiltered, people can post anything and everything. Posting fics on other sites simply to shame their content not only brings MORE attention to it, but it's pointless. If you want a website that is censored go to wattpad. And of course, if you don't like it DON'T READ. You can filter your tags and warnings on ao3 so it won't show you that content.
Along those lines LEARN HOW TO USE AO3. There is no algorithm, it is not tiktok. You don't need to censor words in your tags. Your fics are not magically getting pushed out to people. Make sure you're using "person 1/person 2" for romantic relationships and "person 1 & person 2" for non-romantic relationships. Make sure things like non-con and underage are tagged under the warnings. AND AS A READER, know how to filter ships and tags to find the content you want. You can filter by kudos, certain tags, exclude certain relationships or characters etc. USE IT.
Do not create placeholder fics or other "non fics" on ao3. This is against their terms of service. You can (and probably will) be reported, this annoys people endlessly. We don't want to find a fic and open it to see "I haven't written this yet, sorry!" JUST SAVE A DRAFT OR DO IT IN A DOCUMENT? this seems like way to rack up hits, and it comes across as disingenuous, I don't see a real valid reason to make placeholders.
HOW TO WRITE AN ACCEPTABLE COMMENT: long is not important. A simple "loved this!" will make an author happy. DO NOT say any variation of "update pls?" regardless of how nice you think it is. Authors update when they can.I'm not the only author I've seen unhappy with this. JUST WAIT, either it will be updated or it won't, and either way you will live. If you have nothing nice to say about a fic?? MOVE ON. Don't leave a hate comment.
Do not rate or publicly shit on fanfic! A lot of authors know many people, and the chances of that author seeing whatever you're saying about their work is very high. If you don't like it, click off and read something else. If it's still living rent-free in your mind, that sounds like fan behavior to me. And there is no standard fics are supposed to meet, don't rate them.
Don't cross-post fics. Don't put fics on other sites, don't put translation on other sites. DON'T DO ANYTHING with a fic without checking with the author first. On that note, also don't post fics on GoodReads etc. unless an author explicitly says it's okay.
IF YOU DO NOT MARK YOUR BOOKMARKS AS PRIVATE AUTHORS CAN SEE THEM!! If you're going to say anything that isn't positive, you better mark that as private or better yet, move on. Don't say anything on a public bookmark you wouldn't want the author to read.
YOU CANNOT PROFIT OFF OF FANFIC, don't sell bound fics! Don't bind fics if the intention is to sell them. You're potentially creating a lawsuit for the authors of these fics and putting the existence of fanfic in danger. I've seen multiple authors debating taking fics down because of binding issues, just don't do it. AND IF YOU'RE BUYING BOUND FICS YOU'RE PART OF THE PROBLEM. it's selfish and I wish bad karma upon you.
You wouldn't think I'd have to say this but don't plagiarize or use AI to create fics/art etc. firstly making ai write something IS a form of plagiarism. bUT ALSO just write your own content. If you can't, then writing fics etc. is just not for you. No shame about it!
DON'T ASK AUTHORS TO BETA FOR YOU!! You wouldn't believe how many people have asked me to beta their fics for them, I AM NOT A BETA. I HAVE a beta because my proofreading skills are shit. If someone wants to beta they will offer, or go find a blog or somewhere where people are looking to beta. Like @needabeta You can even make a post asking around for a beta, but don't go bug your favorite authors to proofread your fics.
Really just don't harass authors. Of course, don't be afraid to send nice dms, asks, or comments if their inbox is open, but don't spam them especially if they don't reply. Respect boundaries! Don't send nasty anons, everyone knows this is a sign of jealousy and obsession. You're only succeeding in making yourself look bad. Ask yourself why is this author living rent-free in your mind, hm??
If you don't like a ship, stay away from the content geared towards that ship. There's no reason for you to be in people's inbox harassing them over a ship. It's never that deep. If you truly hate it so much, go consume the content for ships you DO like.
Stay grounded. This goes to both fic authors and readers alike. Hits and popularity are not the mark of a good fic. Getting a lot of hits doesn't mean it's good and NOT getting many doesn't mean it's bad. I'm tired of seeing tiktoks asking "so what's the next big fic?" WHY DOES IT HAVE TO BE A "BIG FIC"? go look through the ao3 tag and find something you like to read, it doesn't have to be what everyone else is reading.
Headcanons are not law. People can think whatever they want about the characters. If you disagree with someone's hc, just move on... and just because a headcanon is popular, doesn't mean everyone has to abide by it. Be creative!
Don't treat artists and authors like celebs! We're all in this together! We're all losers who like the same characters and ships. Of course, compliment and be kind to all creators because we put a lot of time and effort into creating fan content for you all, but don't worship anyone. Don't treat them weirdly or make a post like "omg x followed me!" that's a bit weird. If you want to be excited, dm your friends and giggle together, but acting like authors and artists etc. are celebs only creates the room for people to stop seeing them as normal people and start acting rude or entitled. And many people are uncomfortable with it!!
TLDR; stop creating so much negativity in fandom spaces. At least in MY fandom it's just constantly shitting on ships, fics, art. It's hate anons, antis, and constant fighting about every headcanon. I'M TIRED OF IT! Learn to filter out content you don't want to see, and move on with your life instead of spreading more negativity.
If you have anything you think I should add shoot me a comment or an ask and I will add it! I'm sure I didn't get everything :) this mostly applies to my own experience being in the hp/marauders fandom for a good 10+ years, and I'm sure it varies slightly from fandom to fandom.
#fanfiction#fanfic#ao3#archive of our own#fandom#fandom culture#ao3 fanfic#ao3 writer#fanfic authors#ao3 author#fanfic readers#fanfic etiquette#fandom etiquette#fanfic rules#jegulus fanfic#jegulus#marauders#the marauders#marauders fandom#harry potter fanfiction
1K notes
·
View notes