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mostlysignssomeportents · 8 months ago

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Precaratize bosses

I'm touring my new, nationally bestselling novel The Bezzle! Catch me SUNDAY (Apr 21) in TORINO, then Marin County (Apr 27), Winnipeg (May 2), Calgary (May 3), Vancouver (May 4), and beyond!

Combine Angelou's "When someone shows you who they are, believe them" with the truism that in politics, "every accusation is a confession" and you get: "Every time someone accuses you of a vice, they're showing you who they are and you should believe them."

Let's talk about some of those accusations. Remember the moral panic over the CARES Act covid stimulus checks? Hyperventilating mouthpieces for the ruling class were on every cable network, complaining that "no one wants to work anymore." The barely-submerged subtext was their belief that the only reason people show up for work is that they're afraid of losing everything – their homes, their kids, the groceries in their fridge.

This isn't a new development. Back when Clinton destroyed welfare, his justification was that "handouts" make workers lazy. The way to goad workers off their sofas (and the welfare rolls) and into jobs was to instill fear in them:

https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2018/03/welfare-childhood/555119/

This is also the firm belief of tech bosses: for them, mass tech layoffs are great news, because they terrorize the workers you don't fire, so that they'll be "extremely hardcore" and put in as many extra hours as the company demands, without even requiring any extra pay in return:

https://fortune.com/2022/10/06/elon-musk-jason-calacanis-return-to-office-gentlemens-layoffs-twitter/

Now, there's an obvious answer to the problem of no one taking a job at the wage being offered: just increase the offer. Capitalists claim to understand this. Uber will tell you that surge pricing "incentivizes drivers" to take to the streets by offering them more money to drive during busy times:

https://www.uber.com/blog/austin/providing-rides-when-they-are-most-needed/

(Note that while Uber once handed the lion's share of surge price premiums to drivers, these days, Uber just keeps the money, because they've entered the enshittification stage where drivers are so scared of being blacklisted that Uber can push them around instead of dangling carrots.)

(Also note that this logic completely fails when it comes to other businesses, like Wendy's, who briefly promised surge-priced hamburgers during busy times, but without even the pretense that the surge premium would be used to pay additional workers to rush to the restaurant and increase the capacity:)

https://www.theguardian.com/food/2024/feb/27/wendys-dynamic-surge-pricing

So bosses knew how to address their worker shortage: higher wages. You know: supply and demand. For bosses, the issue wasn't supply, it was price. A worker who earns $10/hour but makes the company $20 profit every hour is splitting the surplus 50:50 with their employer. The employer has overheads (rent on the shop, inventory, advertising and administration) that they have to pay out of their end of that surplus. But workers also have overheads: commuting costs, child-care, a professional wardrobe, and other expenses the worker incurs just so they can make money for their boss.

There's no iron law of economics that says the worker/boss split should be 50/50. Depending on the bargaining power of workers and their bosses, that split can move around a lot. Think of McDonald's and Walmart workers who work for wildly profitable corporate empires, but are so badly paid that they have to rely on food stamps. The split there is more like 10/90, in the boss's favor.

The pandemic changed the bargaining power. Sure, workers got a small cushion from stimulus checks, but they also benefited from changes in the fundamentals of the labor market. For example, millions of boomers just noped out of their jobs, forever, unwilling to risk catching a fatal illness and furious to realize that their bosses viewed that as an acceptable risk.

Bosses' willingness to risk their workers' lives backfired in another way: killing hundreds of thousands of workers and permanently disabling millions more. Combine the boomer exodus with the workers who sickened or died, and there's just fewer workers to go around, and so now those workers enjoy more bargaining power. They can demand a better split: say, 75/25, in their favor.

Remember the 2015 American Airlines strike, where pilots and flight attendants got a raise? The eminently guillotineable Citibank analyst Kevin Crissey declared: "This is frustrating. Labor is being paid first again. Shareholders get leftovers":

https://www.thestreet.com/investing/american-airlines-flight-attendants-bash-citi-analyst-who-put-shareholders-before-workers-14134309

Now, obviously, the corporation doesn't want to offer a greater share of its surplus to its workforce, but it certainly can do so. The more it pays its workers, the less profitable it will be, but that's capitalism, right? Corporations try to become as profitable as they can be, but they can't just decree that their workers must work for whatever pay they want to offer (that's serfdom).

Companies also don't get to dictate that we must buy their goods at whatever price they set (the would be a planned economy, not a market economy). There's no law that says that when the cost of making something goes up, its price should go up, too. A business that spends $10 to make a widget you pay $15 for has a $5 margin to play with. If the business's costs go up to $11, they can still charge $15 and take $1 less in profits. Or they can raise the price to $15.50 and split the difference.

But when businesses don't face competition, they can make you eat their increased costs. Take Verizon. They made $79b in profit last year, and also just imposed a $4/month service charge on their mobile customers due to "rising operational costs":

https://www.reddit.com/r/LateStageCapitalism/comments/1c53c4p/79bn_in_profits_last_year_but_you_need_an_extra/

Now, Verizon is very possibly lying about these rising costs. Excuseflation is rampant and rising, as one CEO told his investors, when the news is full of inflation-talk, "it’s an opportunity to increase the prices without getting a whole bunch of complaining from the customers":

https://pluralistic.net/2023/03/11/price-over-volume/#pepsi-pricing-power

But even stipulating that Verizon is telling the truth about these "rising costs," why should we eat those costs? There's $79b worth of surplus between Verizon's operating costs and its gross revenue. Why not take it out of Verizon's bottom line?

For 40 years, neoliberal economists have emphasized our role as "consumers" (as though consumers weren't also workers!). This let them play us off against one-another: "Sure, you don't want the person who rings up your groceries to get evicted because they can't pay their rent, but do you care about it enough to pay an extra nickel for these eggs?"

But again, there's no obvious reason why you should pay that extra nickel. If you have the buying power to hold prices down, and workers have the labor power to keep wages up, then the business has to absorb that nickel. We can have a world where workers can pay their rent and you can afford your groceries.

So how do we get bosses to agree to take less so we can have more? They've told us how: for bosses, the thing that motivates workers to show up for shitty jobs is fear – fear of losing their homes, fear of going hungry.

When your boss says, "If you don't want to do this job for minimum wage, there's someone else who will," they're telling you that the way to get a raise out of them is to engineer things so that you can say, "If you don't want to pay me a living wage for this job, there's someone else who will."

Their accusation – that you only give someone else a fair shake when you're afraid of losing out – is a confession: to get them to give you a fair shake, we have to make them afraid. They're showing us who they are, and we should believe them.

In her Daily Show appearance, FTC chair Lina Khan quipped that monopolies are too big to care:

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

Philosophers of capitalism are forever praising its ability to transform greed into public benefit. As Adam Smith put it, "It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker, that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest." The desire to make as much money as possible, on its own, doesn't produce our dinner, but when the butcher, the brewer and the baker are afraid that you will take your labor or your wallet elsewhere, they pay more and charge less.

Capitalists don't want market economies, where they have to compete with one another, eroding their margins and profits – they want a planned economy, like Amazon, where Party Secretary Bezos and his commissars tell merchants what they can sell and tell us what we must pay:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/03/01/managerial-discretion/#junk-fees

Capitalists don't want free labor, where they have to compete with rival capitalists to bid on their workers' labor – they want noncompetes, bondage fees, and "training repayment agreement provisions" (TRAPs) that force their workers to stay in dead-end jobs rather than shopping for a better wage:

\https://pluralistic.net/2022/08/04/its-a-trap/#a-little-on-the-nose

Capitalists hate capitalism, because capitalism only works if the capitalists are in a constant state of terror inspired by the knowledge that tomorrow, someone smarter could come along and open a better business, poaching their customers and workers, and putting the capitalist on the breadline.

https://pluralistic.net/2024/04/18/in-extremis-veritas/#the-winnah

Being in a constant precarious state makes people lose their minds, and capitalists know it. That's why they work so hard to precaratize the rest of us, saddling us with health debt, education debt, housing debt, stagnating wages and rising prices. It's not just because that makes them more money in the short term from our interest payments and penalties. It's because it de-risks their lives: monopolies and cartels can pass on any extra costs to consumers, who'll eat shit and take it:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/02/02/its-the-economy-stupid/#overinflated

A workforce that goes to bed every night worrying about making the rent is a workforce that put in unpaid overtime and thank you for it.

Capitalists hate capitalism. You know who didn't hate capitalism? Karl Marx and Freidrich Engels. The first chapter of The Communist Manifesto is just these two guys totally geeking out about how much cool stuff we get when capitalists are afraid and therefore productive:

https://pluralistic.net/SpectreHaunting

But when capitalists escape their fears, the alchemical reaction that converts greed to prosperity fizzles, leaving nothing behind but greed and its handmaiden, enshittification. Google search is in the toilet, getting worse every year, but rather than taking reduced margins and spending more fighting spam, the company did a $80b stock-buyback and fired 12,000 skilled technologists, rather than using that 80 bil to pay their wages for the next twenty-seven years:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/02/21/im-feeling-unlucky/#not-up-to-the-task

Monopoly apologists like to argue that monopolists can rake in the giant profits necessary to fund big, ambitious projects the produce better products at lower prices and make us all better off. But even if monopolists can spend their monopoly windfalls on big, ambitious projects, they don't. Why would they?

If you're Google, you can either spend tens of billions on R&D to keep up with spam and SEO scumbags, or you can spend less money buying the default search spot on every platform, so no one ever tries another search engine and switches:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/04/04/teach-me-how-to-shruggie/#kagi

Compared to its monopoly earnings, the tech sector's R&D spending is infinitesimal:

https://pluralistic.net/2020/08/11/nor-glom-of-nit/#capitalists-hate-competition

How do we get capitalists to work harder to make their workers and customers better off? Capitalists tell us how, every day. We need to make them afraid.

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/2024/04/19/make-them-afraid/#fear-is-their-mind-killer

Image: Vlad Lazarenko (modified) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Wall_Street_Sign_%281-9%29.jpg CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en

#pluralistic #petard #precarity #cares act #stimulus #market discipline #competition #too big to care #antitrust #labor #trustbusting #consumer welfare #every accusation is a confession

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justinspoliticalcorner · 5 days ago

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Rosemary Westwood at NPR:

A group of high-level managers at the Louisiana Department of Health walked into a Nov. 14 meeting in Baton Rouge expecting to talk about outreach and community events. Instead, they were told by an assistant secretary in the department and another official that department leadership had a new policy: Advertising or otherwise promoting the COVID, influenza or mpox vaccines, an established practice there — and at most other public health entities in the U.S. — must stop. NPR has confirmed the policy was discussed at this meeting, and at two other meetings held within the department's Office of Public Health, on Oct. 3 and Nov. 21, through interviews with four employees at the Department of Health, which employs more than 6,500 people and is the state's largest agency.

According to the employees, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they fear losing their jobs or other forms of retaliation, the policy would be implemented quietly and would not be put in writing. Staffers were also told that it applies to every aspect of the health department's work: Employees could not send out press releases, give interviews, hold vaccine events, give presentations or create social media posts encouraging the public to get the vaccines. They also could not put up signs at the department's clinics that COVID, flu or mpox vaccines were available on site. The new policy in Louisiana was implemented as some politicians have promoted false information about vaccines and as President-elect Donald Trump seeks to have anti-vaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr lead the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. And some public health experts are concerned that if other states follow Louisiana, the U.S. could face rising levels of disease and further erosion of trust in the nation's public health infrastructure.

[...]

A blow to public health practice

Staff at Louisiana's health department fear the new policy undermines their efforts to protect the public, and violates the fundamental mission of public health: to prevent illness and disease by following the science.

[...]

Experts fear consequences of undermining trust in vaccine

Last year, 652 people in Louisiana died of COVID, including five children. Louisiana currently is tied with DC for the highest rate of flu in the U.S. In 2022 alone, flu killed 586 people in Louisiana. Every health department staff member, former staff member, public health official and vaccine expert contacted by NPR repeated the scientific consensus that vaccines are safe, effective, and essential for preventing illness, hospitalizations, and deaths.

[...]

Policy change follows new governor's election

Until becoming Louisiana governor in early 2024, Republican Jeff Landry served as the state's attorney general for eight years. During the pandemic, he criticized the state's COVID response and filed lawsuits over federal and state vaccine mandates. On Dec. 6, 2021, Attorney General Landry spoke at a state committee hearing against adding COVID to the childhood immunization schedule. At his side was Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., who presented false claims about COVID vaccines. This year the Republican-controlled legislature passed five bills — all signed by Gov. Landry — and two resolutions aimed at loosening vaccine requirements, limiting the power of public health authorities and sowing doubt about vaccine safety.

Gov. Landry also appointed Dr. Ralph Abraham, a family medicine doctor, to be the state's surgeon general. That position co-leads the Department of Health, and is tasked with crafting health policy that is then carried out by the departmental co-leader, the secretary. [...] Abraham said masking, lockdowns and vaccination requirements "were practically ineffective," that COVID vaccine adverse effects have been "suppressed," that "we don't know" whether blood from people who've been vaccinated is safe for donation and that "we hope and pray" COVID vaccines don't increase the risk miscarriages.

[...]

A slippery slope to future disease outbreaks

Experts told NPR they feared a policy that undermines COVID, flu and mpox vaccinations could have a spillover effect, reducing public trust in vaccinations overall, including those given to children to prevent a host of dangerous and deadly illnesses. "I believe that we will see measles cases. I believe we will see whooping cough cases. I believe we will likely see meningitis outbreaks," said Hood. In the Nov. 14 meeting, a staff member asked whether the ban on promoting vaccines applied to children's immunizations, but the answer was noncommittal, according to an employee with knowledge of the meeting's details. "My understanding was it's not clear to what extent we might be able to promote childhood vaccinations," the staff member said. (The Louisiana Department of Health's statement to NPR said the changes in policy and messaging do not apply to childhood immunizations.) Nationally, vaccination rates for serious childhood diseases have been falling in recent years, including in Louisiana.

[...]

The rise of public health officials promoting misinformation

Louisiana isn't the only state where public health officials have recently announced controversial decisions and repeated false or discredited health theories. Florida's surgeon general has made false claims about COVID vaccines, undermined school vaccine mandates for the measles and said local officials should stop adding fluoride to water supplies.

The consequences of anti-vaxxer extremism and anti-public health sentiments being normalized by Republicans: Louisiana bans the state's Department of Health from promoting COVID, flu, or mpox vaccines.

#Anti Vaxxer Extremism #Vaccines #Coronavirus Vaccines #mpox Vaccines #Flu Vaccines #Flu #mpox #Coronavirus #Louisiana #Public Health #Louisiana Department of Health #Jeff Landry #Ralph Abraham #Anti Vaxxers

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katapotato55 · 1 year ago

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IMPORTANT PSA TO THOSE NEW TO TUMBLR OR REALLY ANYONE ON THIS SITE IN GENERAL:

IT IS OK TO REBLOG SPAM AND LIKE SOMEONE'S CONTENT ON THEIR BLOG NO ONE HERE IS GOING TO BE WEIRDED OUT, IN FACT IT IS ENCOURAGED THIS IDEA THAT SOCIALIZATION = BAD IS A TOXIC CAPITALISTIC TOOL DESIGNED BY HELLSITES LIKE TWITTER TO LEACH MONEY AND GOODWILL FROM YOUR BODY. I honest to god have no idea why "ratioing" on twitter is bad, like the act of engagement is considered a bad thing as if twitter were trying to encourage your toxic rage. oh wait that is exactly what twitter is doing. Twitter's entire business model is to encourage you to get outraged and to profit off of your rage induced engagement.

TUMBLR. DOES. NOT. HAVE. RATIOS. REBLOGGING IS A GOOD THING HERE. NEVER APOLOGIZE FOR THAT, AND HONESTLY MY MEMORY IS SO CRAP I FORGET Y'ALL RESPOND TO MY STUFF ANYWAYS.

All you need to do is change your profile pic and post something, and congratulations you now have a valid Tumblr citizenship. also to you twitter users: you can't cancel people on tumblr. this is a website full of eccentric weirdos. We are so far away from the mainstream that tumblr struggles to find advertisers for this site. At one point tumblr was very toxic, and the toxic tumblr people would eventually move to twitter during the porn ban. Twitter + the pandemic simply gave the toxic weirdos mainstream power to ruin people's lives. politely fuck off with your toxic crap, no one here is afraid to call you out on your obvious bullshit like on twitter. We don't have anything to hide here and even if we did your impact means NOTHING here. If you try to make tumblr toxic again then you will not be welcomed here by the community. Behave.

#tumblr #tumblr meta #tumblr culture #tumblr stuff #hellsite #the tumblr experience #twitter drama #elon twitter #twitter buyout #twitter refugees #twitterpocalypse #twitter meltdown #twitter #social media #reddit #reddit blackout #reddit refugees #reddit exodus #tumblr migration

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maigeiko · 3 months ago

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The look of… IX: Hakone-Yumoto Onsen

History Although it‘s likely that Geisha worked in Hakone since the late 19th century, not much can be found about their history. The current Kenban was built in 1950 [1]. In the early/mid 80's (before the bubble economy), 400-450 Geisha lived in Hakone [2]. The Otosan of Ikedaya Okiya reformed the traditional employment system and introduced benefits like pension plans and financial compensations for cancelled jobs [3].

In 2000 latest, the Hakone Yumoto Kenban launched its own website [4], creating a space for Okiya to advertise and look for new members [5]. In 2001, the Okasan of Wakita became the current head of the Geigi Union. In order to ensure the survival of local Hanamachi culture, the Kenban became open to public in 2008, and the Geisha band Basara (婆娑羅) was founded in 2009. [2]

In the late 2010's, around 150 Geisha from age 18 to 80 lived in 32 Okiya. Lack of work during the Corona pandemic reduced their numbers to 109 in 2021. The amount of Geisha working in Hakone has increased meanwhile, with 140 of them active in January 2024, but still hasn‘t reached its pre-pandemic levels. [2]

The look of Hakone Maiko

Local term: Kirariko きらり妓

※ Hairstyle: own hair, Shimada mage and Hanaogi mage ※ Kanzashi: Kushi, maezashi, non-seasonal hana kanzashi ※ Make up: western make up or light oshiroi, both lips painted from the start ※ Kimono: Furisode mostly without tucks (rarely with sleeve tucks) ※ Eri: white, white with embroidery (red, red/pink) ※ Obi: Koken musubi ※ Obiage: tied and tucked in, red ※ Obijime: red with simple, rectangular Obidome ※ Footwear: white or black Zori

The look of Hakone Geiko

Local term: Geisha

※ Hairstyle: Taka shimada or Tsubushi shimada Katsura ※ Kanzashi: Taka shimada: Kushi, Tama in the back, Kogai in the back, and sometimes in the front too. Tsubushi shimada: Kushi, Tama ※ Make up: Oshiroi ※ Kimono: Mostly Homongi/Tsukesage, sometimes Hikizuri. Kuromontsuki for Tachikata is always a Hikizuri ※ Eri: white, rarely with white or pink embriodery ※ Obi: Yanagi musubi with Kuromontsuki (white/blue Hakata ori), otherwise Otaiko musubi ※ Obiage: always red with Kuromontsuki, otherwise white, pink or light blue. Usually not patterned. ※ Obijime: light-coloured. No Obijime with Yanagi musubi ※ Footwear: Zori, Geta with white or blue Hanao

Casual/Jikata style

※ Hairstyle: Yohatsu ※ Kanzashi: usually none, maki (蒔絵) kanzashi at best ※ Make up: western make up ※ Kimono: Kurotomesode, otherwise Homongi ※ Eri: white ※ Obi: Otaiko musubi ※ Obiage: mostly warm pastel colours, but basically anything goes. Not patterned. ※ Obijime: Sometimes with Obidome ※ Footwear: Zôri

Tachiyaku style

※ Hairstyle: Maeware Katsura ※ Kanzashi: Tama pin in the back ※ Make up: Oshiroi ※ Kimono: Hômongi ※ Eri: white ※ Obi: Koken musubi with mint/light green Kakae Obi (抱え帯) ※ Obiage: red, white, pink or light blue. Obidome not uncommon ※ Obijime: light-coloured

Notes

Arts: The schools taught in Hakone are Nishikawa 西川 (dance), Honjo 本條 (Kouta, Hauta and Min‘yo), Kineya 杵屋 (Nagauta) and Tosha 藤舎 (Hayashi). [6]

Kirariko is a newly coined term in use since 2003 to call junior Geisha in the age group from 18-30. [7] Upon turning 30, Kirariko have to take either a „dancer grade B“ or „dancer grade A“ test. To pass the B test, she has to perform two dances. For the grade A test, she has to perform three female style and three male style dances. [8]

Companions: Okiya recruit and employ companions as well as Geisha. Companions receive a fixed wage, which is usually lower than that of the Geisha, but the customer pays the same price. Companions can be requested to wear either western clothing or Kimono. Western clothing is a business suit provided for free by the Okiya, Kimono can be rented for a set fee by the Okiya as well. [9] Companions receive professional names like Geisha. They don‘t study performing arts and can work part-time. Their job is to serve drinks and food and engage in „pleasant conversation“ with customers at banquets. [10] In my opinion, a good entry-level job in the Karyukai – some companions became Geisha later in their carreer. [11]

Becoming independent: after being Geisha for seven years, you have the opportunity of opening a branch of your debut Okiya. In all cases I know, the new Okiya takes one or two characters from the original Okiya. For example Ikedaya 池田家 → Wakita 和喜田 and Yukieda 雪江田 (田 Kanji is part of the new name). Wakita 和喜田 → Suzuwa すず和 and Yukiwa ゆき和 (和). Kitami 㐂田見 → Kisaya 㐂茶家 (㐂).

Changing Okiya registration: only possible when becoming independent, or when your (biological) mother, sister, or daughter opens a new Okiya.

Sources

[1] https://note.com/meetgeisha/n/n1cc907ffd4c9. [2] https://www.tokyo-np.co.jp/article/301712, [3] https://conex-eco.co.jp/hakonesaisai/71824/ [4] https://web.archive.org/web/20000919171055/http://www.geisha.co.jp:80/ [5] https://web.archive.org/web/20001017234326/http://www.geisha.co.jp/okiya-name.htm,[6] https://geisha.co.jp/kenban/, [7] https://web.archive.org/web/20040408030159/http://www11.plala.or.jp/fukunoya/what_is_kirariko.html,[8] https://konohanasakuya.blogspot.com/2012/03/dance-performance.html,[9] https://yukieda.com/kyuujin_answer/, [10] https://yukieda.com/recruit/companion/,[11] https://web.archive.org/web/20080220191156/http://www.00wakita.com/hyousyou.html

Picture sources: Group picture 2024, Hakone Odori, three Kirariko 2023, Kirariko back view 2023, Geisha dancing, Geisha preparing Tosenkyo set 2019, Sumomo with a dancer 2009, Anzu and Yuho 2023, really nice picture of Yumiko with Kokyu 2022, Chacha dancing 2022, Atsumi and unknown Tachikata 2019, Natsumi 2022, Matsuyoshi new year's picture 2023

#mg #hakone #geisha #geiko #maiko #geigi #hangyoku #kimono

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covid-safer-hotties · 1 month ago

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Reference saved in our archive (Daily updates!)

Far right defenses of 'freeze peach' keeping doctors from facing discipline for spreading medical misinformation.

Key Points Question How frequently do medical boards discipline physicians for spreading medical misinformation relative to discipline for other professional misconduct?

Findings In this cross-sectional study of 3128 medical board disciplinary proceedings involving physicians, spreading misinformation to the community was the least common reason for medical board discipline (<1% of all identified offenses). Patient-directed misinformation and inappropriate advertising or patient solicitation were tied as the third least common reasons (<1%); misinformation conduct was exponentially less common than other reasons for discipline, such as physician negligence (29%).

Meaning Extremely low rates of disciplinary activity for misinformation conduct were observed in this study despite increased salience and medical board warnings since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic about the dangers of physicians spreading falsehoods; these findings suggest a serious disconnect between regulatory guidance and enforcement and call into question the suitability of licensure regulation for combatting physician-spread misinformation.

Abstract Importance False medical information disseminated dangerously during the COVID-19 pandemic, with certain physicians playing a surprisingly prominent role. Medical boards engendered widespread criticism for not imposing forceful sanctions, but considerable uncertainty remains about how the professional licensure system regulates physician-spread misinformation.

Objective To compare the level of professional discipline of physicians for spreading medical misinformation relative to discipline for other offenses.

Design, Setting, and Participants This cross-sectional study analyzed and coded publicly reported medical board disciplinary actions in the 5 most populous US states. The analysis included data from January 1, 2020, through May 30, 2023, for California, Florida, New York, and Pennsylvania and from January 1, 2020, through March 30, 2022, for Texas.

Main Outcomes and Measures Medical board disciplinary proceedings that resulted in some form of sanction were analyzed. Codes were assigned for the different types of offenses relied on by medical boards for imposing physician discipline.

Results Among 3128 medical board disciplinary proceedings in the 5 most populous states, spreading misinformation to the community was the least common reason for medical board discipline of physicians (6 [0.1%] of all identified offenses). Two reasons tied for third least common: patient-directed misinformation (21 [0.3%]) and inappropriate advertising or patient solicitation (21 [0.3%]). The frequency of misinformation conduct was exponentially lower than more common reasons for discipline, such as physician negligence (1911 [28.7%]), problematic record-keeping (990 [14.9%]), and inappropriate prescribing (901 [13.5%]). Patient-directed misinformation provided a basis for discipline 3 times as often as spreading misinformation to the community. The frequency of disciplinary actions for any reasons related to COVID-19 care, even if not about misinformation, was also quite low (10 [0.2%]). Sanctions in misinformation actions tended to be relatively light.

Conclusions and Relevance The frequency of discipline for physician-spread misinformation observed in this cross-sectional study was quite low despite increased salience and medical board warnings since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic about the dangers of physicians spreading falsehoods. These findings suggest that there is a serious disconnect between regulatory guidance and enforcement and that medical boards relied on spreading misinformation to patients as a reason for discipline 3 times more frequently than disseminating falsehoods to the public. These results shed light on important policy concerns about professional licensure, including why, under current patient-centered frameworks, this form of regulation may be particularly ill-suited to address medical misinformation.

#mask up #pandemic #wear a mask #public health #covid #covid 19 #wear a respirator #coronavirus #still coviding #sars cov 2

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didhewinkback · 3 months ago

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Call me deranged but Florence post-filming is right there with me in the deranged box. She and only she alone was acting a fool after the movie wrapped. My coins will never go to any of her projects. I have no time for her. Sweet, sweet Andrew out there busily promoting a film that he knows so many professionals contributed to by overcompensating for her tarnished reputation with saccharine praise.

i really should not bother responding to this because you are never going to agree with me but this topic does get me heated so here i go

"she and she alone was acting a fool after the movie wrapped" - was she at the wedding in the middle of the pandemic when people were told to stay home and the entire crew of that movie was ordered to not fuck up the movie by going out by the director who then went to said wedding with her costar? 1 example of 1800 i could give.

if during a movie you are making the director and your costar have an affair and you are directed in sex scenes with her 26 year old boyfriend without an intimacy coordinator for the movie that was supposed to be this feminist battle cry and got advertised by the director as a celebration of the female orgasm when it was in fact a story about a woman held against her will and repeatedly raped by her incel boyfriend - i think you should be allowed to publicly bash the movie all you want and instead she just kept quiet and did her work and showed up when she had to. the response she got from the rest of the cast on that red carpet does really say it all. the way people like to bend themselves into pretzels trying to act like what harry and olivia did was not insanely unprofessional and inappropriate and also legitimiately put the health of their cast and crew at risk in that one example and that florence was behaving a certain way out of nowhere when in fact its occam's razor and the most obvious answer is the real one just always blows my mind

also why are u acting like florence is not also currently promoting this movie w andrew theyre literally holding hands talking about how much working together changed them for the better but go off i guess

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evidence-based-activism · 2 months ago

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Is it true more trans teens attempted suicide after ‘anti trans’ laws passed?

Hello! I am guessing this is in reference to this recent study [1], which made this exact claim. In short, this study has substantial issues that weaken its conclusion severely. These flaws, paired with stronger contradictory evidence, suggests that no, these laws are not connected to increased suicide among transgender teens.

First, the contradicting evidence:

While not in reference to these specific laws, other studies have attempted to determine if there is an increase in suicide following laws aimed at restricting transgender healthcare.

This independent report for the UK NHS [2] found "the data do not support the claim that there has been a large rise in suicide in young gender dysphoria patients" and "the claims that have been placed in the public domain do not meet basic standards for statistical evidence". (They – correctly – also criticize the way "this issue has been discussed on social media", which we will get into later.)

The Cass review [2] was an extensive literature review that found evidence did not support the belief that "hormone treatment reduces the elevated risk of death by suicide in [the transgender youth] population".

This Finnish study on adolescents and young adults [4] took a slightly different approach, attempting to determine if access to "gender reassignment" reduced suicide rates. First, they found "clinical gender dysphoria does not appear to be predictive of all-cause nor suicide mortality when psychiatric treatment history is accounted for." They also found "medical gender reassignment does not have an impact on suicide risk".

This similar Swedish study on adults [5] found that "sex reassignment, although alleviating gender dysphoria, may not suffice as treatment for transsexualism" as higher "mortality, suicidal behaviour, and psychiatric morbidity" persists after "sex reassignment".

This Dutch study on adults [6] also found that "the suicide risk in transgender people ... seems to occur during every stage of transitioning".

Importantly, these studies are all reasonably strong and well-designed. The centralized nature of these country's health data allowed for large-scale, representative studies to be performed. The English study [2] reviewed data directly from the NHS, the Cass review [3] was an extensive and through literature review (common myths about the report are debunked here [7]), and the final three studies [4-6] were all long-term (multiple decade), nation-wide cohort studies.

This evidence provides a strong indication that medical gender transition treatment do not reduce suicide risk in transgender populations.

---

So, what are the issues with the US study?

First, this study [1] was not representative. The participants were recruited from "non-probability cross-sectional online survey" via "targeted advertisements on social media" between "2018 and 2022".

Already there are substantial issues:

This study is explicitly noted to be non-representative, drawing conclusions about transgender youth based solely on this study is irresponsible.

The participants were recruited via social media, which past research [8] has shown to be correlated with suicide attempts. Notably, the causality of this relationship is irrelevant in this case, because it is still evidence of a significant confounding variable. (Confounding variables are the primary reason why you cannot determine causality from correlational relationships like the one presented in [1].)

This study overlaps with the COVID-19 pandemic. They claim to have "considered the potential impact of the ... pandemic" and found "minimal evidence" of any impact. This conclusion contradicts substantial amounts of past research including a systematic review and meta-analysis of youth suicide during the pandemic [9], a systematic review and meta-analysis of youth depression and anxiety [10], and an analysis of national suicide data for US youth [11].

Their analysis of the impact of the pandemic used "population-adjusted ... death counts by year as a proxy for the overall impact ... in a given state for a given time period". It's likely this was on of the only data sources they had to evaluate the impact of the pandemic, but that doesn't change the fact that this proxy neglects to consider the isolation, financial stress, and social media use among youth and their families that likely drove their decline in mental health. (See studies [12-15] for some introductory evidence of this.)

Other issues:

They considered only self-report of suicide attempts and serious suicidal thoughts, not actual measurements of suicides or suicide attempts. This adds an additional possibility of response bias. (Notably, this was not a concern for the studies I discussed above, which show no relationship between similar laws and suicide, as they evaluate actual medical report data.)

They found a statistically significant effect for suicide attempts but not for "seriously considering suicide". This is a strange finding, as, if we assume the results are accurate, it suggests that suicide attempts increased following the laws without any corresponding increase in suicidal thoughts. (This will be relevant later, so keep it in mind.)

The don't appear to report an actual incidence rate, which is a significant oversight considering the topic.

The substantial reduction in effect size when considering the total number of reported suicide attempts versus the number of people who reported at least one suicide attempt suggests that the attempts are clustered within a small group of participants.

They found no evidence of the introduction or enactment of additional "anti-transgender laws" had any impact of transgender youth suicide. Again, this is inconsistent with their overall conclusions; if it is the legal restrictions that cause an increase in suicide attempts then you would expect an increase in restrictions to also increase attempts. (Although not necessarily in a linear fashion.)

All in all, this study makes claims that are much stronger than the evidence they provide to support them. Other, stronger studies, contradict the assertion that these sorts of laws increase suicide among transgender youth. (Which is, I should stress, a good thing for the transgender community.)

(And I should also note here that my personal opinion on the morality of these laws is specific to each law/law category. I'm purely presenting the empirical research concerning the relationship between these laws and suicide in this post.)

---

The major confounding factor: social contagion of suicide.

It is, at this point, all but settled evidence that "suicidal behavior is 'contagious' in that it can be transmitted, directly or indirectly, from one person to another" [16]. This is extraordinarily important because it impacts the way we (i.e., society) should talk about and depict suicide. For an unrelated example, this review [17] concludes "portrayals of suicide in entertainment media may increase suicides and attempted suicide in the population". A specific example of this was the increase in suicide rates and admissions among youth, following the release of the "13 Reasons Why" television show [18-19].

And this is well-known by LGBT organizations. In 2017, the Movement Advancement Project (a pro-LGBT think tank), the Johnson Family Foundation (a pro-LGBT organization), and the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention co-authored the second edition of the report "Talking About Suicide & LGBT Populations" [20], which was also endorsed by GLSEN, GLAAD, The Trevor Project, the Transgender Law Center, and the Human Rights Campaign (among others).

Recommendations in this report include [emphasis mine]:

DO encourage discussion about suicide prevention strategies.

DO emphasize the vital importance of resilience

DON’T attribute a suicide death to a single factor (such as bullying or discrimination) or say that a specific anti-LGBT law or policy will “cause” suicide.

DON’T risk spreading false information by repeating unsubstantiated rumors or speculation about suicide deaths or why they occurred.

DON’T talk about suicide “epidemics” or suicide rates for LGBT people. (Remember that sexual orientation and gender identity are not recorded at the time of death, so we do not have data on suicide rates or deaths among LGBT people. In addition, presenting suicide as a trend or a widespread occurrence (for example, tallying suicide deaths that occur in proximity to an external event) can encourage vulnerable individuals to see themselves as part of a larger story, which may elevate their suicide risk.)

DON’T use social media or e-blasts to announce news of suicide deaths, speculate about reasons fora suicide death, focus on personal details about the person who died, or describe the means of death.

DON’T idealize those who have died by suicide or create an aura of celebrity around them.

(They also note that suicide rates cannot be determined by looking at suicide attempts, which is relevant to the above study.)

Please take a moment to consider the extent to which public officials, organizations, and figures are completely disregarding these recommendations in reference to the transgender community. Beyond the anecdotal evidence people involved with or aware of the community are exposed to, this English study [21], this Indian study [22], and this American study [23] all find "poor adherence to responsible reporting guidelines" for the transgender (or "LGBTQ+") community.

Further, as I indicated earlier, the English study [2] directly addresses this sort of irresponsible rhetoric. Failure to comply with responsible reporting guidelines is causing direct harm to the transgender community.

And how does this apply to the first study [1]? It adds in an additional confounding factor: the rhetoric surrounding these laws and their impact on suicide in the transgender community. It suggests that at least some of the observed suicide attempts were precipitated by the social contagion of suicide.

This theory would also explain some of the inconsistencies in the study. That is, it is possible that there was already a subsection of suicidal transgender youth, who, once exposed to increasingly this irresponsible social-contagion-inducing rhetoric, reported (more frequent) suicide attempts. This would account for:

The lack of increase in suicidal thoughts (i.e., those effected were already suicidal).

Why the effect size for the "at least one attempt" is so much lower than the "total attempts" effect size (i.e., the reported increase is concentrated within a small group of people)

Why there is no dose-response relationship between the number of laws and suicide attempts (i.e., it is not the laws so much as the rhetoric surrounding them that is having such a negative impact)

---

Conclusion

Ultimately, there is strong evidence from other countries indicating that similar "anti-trans" laws are not associated with suicide rates. The new American study suggesting otherwise is remarkably weak, and may actually be providing evidence for the social contagion theory of suicide.

Most importantly, the current rhetoric surrounding suicide in the trans community is incredibly dangerous and does a great disservice to all transgender people.

(And again, my personal opinion on the morality of these laws is specific to each law/law category. I'm purely presenting the empirical research concerning the relationship between these laws and suicide in this post.)

I hope this helps, Anon!

References under the cut:

Lee, W. Y., Hobbs, J. N., Hobaica, S., DeChants, J. P., Price, M. N., & Nath, R. (2024). State-level anti-transgender laws increase past-year suicide attempts among transgender and non-binary young people in the USA. Nature Human Behaviour, 1-11.

Appleby, Louis. “Review of Suicides and Gender Dysphoria at the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust: Independent Report.” Department of Health & Social Care, 19 July 2024, https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/review-of-suicides-and-gender-dysphoria-at-the-tavistock-and-portman-nhs-foundation-trust/review-of-suicides-and-gender-dysphoria-at-the-tavistock-and-portman-nhs-foundation-trust-independent-report.

Cass, H. (2024). Independent review of gender identity services for children and young people.

Ruuska, S. M., Tuisku, K., Holttinen, T., & Kaltiala, R. (2024). All-cause and suicide mortalities among adolescents and young adults who contacted specialised gender identity services in Finland in 1996–2019: a register study. BMJ Ment Health, 27(1).

Dhejne, C., Lichtenstein, P., Boman, M., Johansson, A. L., Långström, N., & Landén, M. (2011). Long-term follow-up of transsexual persons undergoing sex reassignment surgery: cohort study in Sweden. PloS one, 6(2), e16885.

Wiepjes, C. M., den Heijer, M., Bremmer, M. A., Nota, N. M., de Blok, C. J., Coumou, B. J., & Steensma, T. D. (2020). Trends in suicide death risk in transgender people: results from the Amsterdam Cohort of Gender Dysphoria study (1972–2017). Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 141(6), 486-491.

Final report – FAQs. (n.d.). The Cass Review. https://cass.independent-review.uk/home/publications/final-report/final-report-faqs/

Sedgwick, R., Epstein, S., Dutta, R., & Ougrin, D. (2019). Social media, internet use and suicide attempts in adolescents. Current opinion in psychiatry, 32(6), 534-541.

Madigan, S., Korczak, D. J., Vaillancourt, T., Racine, N., Hopkins, W. G., Pador, P., ... & Neville, R. D. (2023). Comparison of paediatric emergency department visits for attempted suicide, self-harm, and suicidal ideation before and during the COVID-19 pandemic: a systematic review and meta-analysis. The Lancet Psychiatry, 10(5), 342-351.

Madigan, S., Racine, N., Vaillancourt, T., Korczak, D. J., Hewitt, J. M., Pador, P., ... & Neville, R. D. (2023). Changes in depression and anxiety among children and adolescents from before to during the COVID-19 pandemic: a systematic review and meta-analysis. JAMA pediatrics.

Bridge, J. A., Ruch, D. A., Sheftall, A. H., Hahm, H. C., O’Keefe, V. M., Fontanella, C. A., ... & Horowitz, L. M. (2023). Youth suicide during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. Pediatrics, 151(3).

Felfe, C., Saurer, J., Schneider, P., Vornberger, J., Erhart, M., Kaman, A., & Ravens-Sieberer, U. (2023). The youth mental health crisis: Quasi-experimental evidence on the role of school closures. Science Advances, 9(33), eadh4030.

Jones SE, Ethier KA, Hertz M, et al. Mental Health, Suicidality, and Connectedness Among High School Students During the COVID-19 Pandemic — Adolescent Behaviors and Experiences Survey, United States, January–June 2021. MMWR Suppl 2022;71(Suppl-3):16–21. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.15585/mmwr.su7103a3.

Kalenkoski, C. M., & Pabilonia, S. W. (2024). Teen social interactions and well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic. Review of Economics of the Household, 1-48.

Adegboye, D., Williams, F., Collishaw, S., Shelton, K., Langley, K., Hobson, C., ... & van Goozen, S. (2021). Understanding why the COVID‐19 pandemic‐related lockdown increases mental health difficulties in vulnerable young children. JCPP advances, 1(1), e12005.

Forum on Global Violence Prevention; Board on Global Health; Institute of Medicine; National Research Council. Contagion of Violence: Workshop Summary. Washington (DC): National Academies Press (US); 2013 Feb 6. II.4, THE CONTAGION OF SUICIDAL BEHAVIOR. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK207262/

Niederkrotenthaler, T., Kirchner, S., Till, B., Sinyor, M., Tran, U. S., Pirkis, J., & Spittal, M. J. (2021). Systematic review and meta-analyses of suicidal outcomes following fictional portrayals of suicide and suicide attempt in entertainment media. EClinicalMedicine, 36.

Cooper Jr, M. T., Bard, D., Wallace, R., Gillaspy, S., & Deleon, S. (2018). Suicide attempt admissions from a single children's hospital before and after the introduction of Netflix series 13 Reasons Why. Journal of Adolescent Health, 63(6), 688-693.

Bridge, J. A., Greenhouse, J. B., Ruch, D., Stevens, J., Ackerman, J., Sheftall, A. H., ... & Campo, J. V. (2020). Association between the release of Netflix’s 13 Reasons Why and suicide rates in the United States: An interrupted time series analysis. Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 59(2), 236-243.

Movement Advancement Project, Johnson Family Foundation, and American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. August 2017. "Talking About Suicide & LGBT Populations." 2nd edition. MAP's Talking About LGBT Issues Series. https://www.lgbtmap.org/talking-about-suicide-and-lgbt-populations

Bolzern, J. E., Mnyama, N. L., & McMillan, D. (2019). Responsible journalism, imitative suicide, and transgender populations: A systematic review of UK newspapers. Journal of gay & lesbian mental health, 23(3), 276-288.

Kar, S. K., Menon, V., Mukherjee, S., Bascarane, S., Sharma, G., Pattnaik, J. I., ... & Agarwal, V. (2023). Suicide reporting of LGBTQI+ population in India: An analysis of online media reports of the past decade. Journal of Public Health, 45(1), e95-e103.

Kirchner, S., Till, B., Laido, Z., & Niederkrotenthaler, T. (2024). Suicide-related media reporting with a focus on sexual and gender minority identities: A content analysis of the quality of reporting. Crisis: The Journal of Crisis Intervention and Suicide Prevention, 45(5), 339–347. https://doi.org/10.1027/0227-5910/a000956

#feminism #postmodernism

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beardedmrbean · 2 months ago

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A House committee revealed Friday that the Pentagon, other US agencies and the European Union — in addition to the State Department — have funded a for-profit “fact-checking” firm that blacklisted The Post.

House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) wrote a letter to the firm, NewsGuard, demanding more details about the public-private collaboration that led last year to the State Department being sued by conservative outlets that were labeled more “risky” than their liberal counterparts.

NewsGuard has briefed committee staff on contracts it had with the Defense Department in 2021, including the Cyber National Mission Force within US Cyber Command; the State Department and its Global Engagement Center; and the EU’s Joint Research Centre.

“The Committee writes today to seek additional documents and communications from NewsGuard related to all past and present contracts with or grants administered by federal government agencies or any other government entity, including foreign governments,” Comer informed NewsGuard CEOs Steven Brill and Gordon Crovitz.

“The protection of First Amendment rights of American citizens is paramount and attempts by government actors to infringe on those rights is dangerous and misguided,” the chairman warned.

The Oversight panel in June opened its investigation into NewsGuard’s apparent participation in a government-funded “censorship campaign” to allegedly discredit and even demonetize news outlets by sharing its ratings of their reliability with advertisers.

Comer also expressed concern about NewsGuard employees sharing social media posts exhibiting left-wing bias, in violation of the company’s policies, and the firm throttling disfavored outlets’ “misinformation” — which in at least one case included a published academic study on the failure of lockdowns during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“These wide-ranging connections with various government agencies are taking place as the government is rapidly expanding into the censorship sphere,” the chairman wrote. “For example, one search of government grants and contracts from 2016 through 2023 revealed that there were 538 separate grants and 36 different government contracts specifically to address ‘misinformation’ and ‘disinformation.’”

The right-leaning websites the Daily Wire and the Federalist filed a civil complaint against the State Department in December 2023 for allegedly using taxpayer dollars to fund firms like NewsGuard and the Global Disinformation Index (GDI), which smeared the outlets as “purveyors of ‘disinformation.’”

Both firms have relationships with social media platforms such as Facebook, YouTube and TikTok, as well as advertisers like Dell Technologies, ExxonMobil and Nike, prompting concerns about how their “disinformation” ratings would affect business.

In 2022, GDI distributed a “Disinformation Risk Assessment” that rated the “riskiest” sites for factual news as the Federalist, the Daily Wire, Newsmax, the American Conservative, Reason Magazine and the New York Post, among others.

The New York Times and the Washington Post were ranked as among the “least risky.”

In a statement Friday, Crovitz said: “When the Trump administration first asked us for our data and insights about disinformation campaigns from hostile foreign governments in 2020, we contracted with them on the condition that such work be strictly limited to disinformation from hostile governments, not US publishers. We’re proud that NewsGuard’s data and analysis has helped defend Western democracies against Russian, Chinese and Iranian disinformation. NewsGuard was created as a transparent alternative to censorship by governments or big tech companies, and we do not censor any content.”

The 2020 and 2024 elections have brought so-called “anti-misinformation” and “anti-disinformation” efforts to the fore — with The Post’s bombshell scoop on Hunter Biden’s laptop being falsely labeled a Russian plant by then-candidate Joe Biden.

Some Democrats have since been suggesting that the only way to defeat pushback to their policies is by crushing the First Amendment.

President Biden’s ex-climate envoy John Kerry even called the constitutional freedom “a major block” to keeping people from believing the “wrong” kinds of things.

“You know, there’s a lot of discussion now about how you curb those entities in order to guarantee that you’re going to have some accountability on facts,” Kerry told an audience at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

“But look, if people only go to one source, and the source they go to is sick, and, you know, has an agenda, and they’re putting out disinformation, our First Amendment stands as a major block to be able to just, you know, hammer it out of existence,” he said.

Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate, Tim Walz, also downplayed free speech protections during a 2022 appearance on MSNBC’s “The Reid Out.”

“I think we need to push back on this. There’s no guarantee to free speech on misinformation or hate speech, and especially around our democracy,” the Minnesota governor inaccurately stated.

Comer has asked for NewsGuard to provide by Nov. 8 all records of its contracts, grants or other work with the Pentagon, the State Department and any other federal agencies or departments.

#nunyas news #and they call trump a fascist

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maxwellatoms · 2 years ago

Note

as a person on the inside of the animation industry, are there signs that we might be heading to another dark age of animation like the 1980s (e.g. animation is regulated to just glorified toy commercials or dark fantasy movies)?

"Kid Vid" regulations mean you can't advertise for stuff kids might buy from within a show anymore. Generally, you can't even have (say) Yogi Bear wearing a shirt with his best friend BooBoo's face on it as a gag, because "what if someone made that shirt one day?" Then it would be a retroactive ad, I guess? I'm not schooled in reverse-time law like studio lawyers, so I can't really say. Still, it's almost impossible to get even a fictional product into a kid's show these days, so I think the 1980s will probably stay in their timeline. At least in that way.

I do think a bit of a "Dark Age" is upon us, though. Maybe just a small one. Just a wee little snip of a Dark Age is all.

As far as I can glean, there are going to be precious few animated shows coming out over the next couple of years because not much was picked up during the pandemic. There are only a few things being developed here and there, and I'd wager that those properties "win" simply by existing in a competition-free environment. It takes a long time to produce animation, so almost anything greenlit right now is looking at a full year for turnaround. If you talk to people in the industry right now about jobs, they use words like "wastelend" and "ramen noodles".

Then you've got A.I., of course. The other night I was having dinner with a friend and I found myself in the A.I. conversation I always imagined myself having one day-- the one where we're talking with some immediacy about what the rest of our futures look like as artists, because we know they're not going to look the same ever again. It was pretty cool in a William Gibson sort of way, but I honestly didn't expect to be having that conversation for another decade. Turns out A.I. is becoming a problem right now.

I've already talked about the "art theft" angle, and that's not the problem I'm speaking about here. The problem I'm talking about is the "what do I do when what I do becomes trivial?" problem. If anyone can make a TV show or movie in a week or a day using AI assistance, who determines what gets seen? Networks, I'd imagine, would become redundant. You don't need to fork over $15 a month for Netflix if you can make Netflix-quality content yourself. And if you can't make anything decent even with A.I. assistance, surely someone on the internet can. There would be an incredible glut of content to choose from, so again... who decides what gets seen? An algorithm, probably. Who owns the algorithm?

Peak Dark Age will be the time period when the networks realize that they're going to die, and sink all of their resources into forcing their own survival on the rest of us. I imagine massive layoffs (you don't need multiple writers or artists or support staff when you've got the right tools.) Studios will want to own the tools (of course) and/or suppress the use of those tools by anyone who might want to cut into their profits. Expect to see "A.I. is just too dangerous for the public to utilize, so it needs to be left in the capable hands of corporations". Expect to see customizable Batmans, the ability to put your mom in any Star Wars, and the serialized fever-dreams of billionaires.

I think that's the next 5-10 years. And while that's happening, the tools will keep getting better and better until literally anyone can sit down, ask for an Oscar-worthy part-rom-com/part action movie starring a twenty-five year old Steve McQueen and and eighty year old Daniel Radcliffe rescuing Air Bud from the Death Star, and then watch the resulting film with some degree of satisfaction. There'll come a point when content of any visual, auditory, and written complexity can be generated on-the-fly, and the traditional limits of budgets and schedules will just be gone.

It's easy to spin off into fantasy and try to guess exactly what's coming. I could probably spin on that all day. But what I know is that the future of the animation industry won't look anything like what I've become accustomed to. And maybe that's okay because what I've become accustomed to looks nothing like the industry I started in. Things change, and you roll with the punches. Thanks to the self-fulfilling dystopian prophecy we find ourselves in, just about everyone on the planet is finding themselves rolling with the punches coming from the Powerful Greedy. That's less a "me problem" and more a planet-wide problem we should probably all sit down and hash out, like, yesterday.

My immediate problem as an artist (and yours if you're an artist too) is figuring out how to get your ideas seen in a world where the amount of entertainment content is exploding exponentially. Especially if you're the sort of artist who needs to eat and live somewhere.

So yeah, I think there's going to be just a little peppering of Dark Age coming up. But in every time of change, there are opportunities. Hey, I'm down for an animated Dark Fantasy movie. Let's do this!

#animation dark age #a.i. art #animation #the future #maxwell atoms

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literaryxbones · 6 months ago

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youtube

Link to Original Video: The Fashion Goths Are Taking It Too Far - YouTube Link to Channel: 90s Goth | What it was like (youtube.com)

Yesterday night I watched this video by goth creator Angela Benedict. It was very well put together and spoke openly about some issues I've come across in the subculture for a long time.

For reference, I joined the goth scene during 2020. I had listened to post-punk music before then and really enjoyed it, I just didn't know there was a name or community for the genre I loved so much. As a baby bat during the pandemic, I felt pressured to buy expensive clothes. I wanted to look like the content creators I admired. I didn't want to be seen as "not goth enough" for not being able to afford the high prices set by online retailers. It was later that I learned that many alternative influencers wore garments donated by sponsors. They didn't have to pay large sums of money for what they wore. Rather, they were being paid to advertise the brands. I'm not against sponsorships in any form, and I'm glad these creators are making a living inside the scene, doing what they love. Others online were either old enough to purchase these fancy clothes, and there were some that upcycled thrifted fabrics to create custom, detailed pieces all their own. When I was 14, I didn't have the skill or knowledge to DIY. I've rambled on for a long while, but Angela has re-sparked my interest in upcycling, embroidery, and DIY. I'll definitely be posting my ideas, inspiration, and crafts on here soon! I'm still a beginner when it comes to making your own clothes and accessories though. My stitches are totally uneven still

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orange-plum · 2 years ago

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So there’s this older couple who have been getting my groceries whenever I ordered on the app during the pandemic. They told me I was their fav customer before and bought me a Christmas present last year, and the guy even offered me an advertising gig at one point before

Anyway, they know I have bad tendons cuz I had to order groceries last January for 3 months cuz I was on crutches. Well, I ordered some groceries tonight and rolled up to the door with my knee scooter. And the guy sees me peek out and laughs and goes "oh no!" and then he yells back at his wife in the car and pulls my door open all the way and points at me and yells "Hey look, she hurt herself again!"

💀💀💀 my reputation precedes me

#personal

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gacha-incels · 2 months ago

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[Exclusive] "Namu Wiki, a Haven for Sexual Exploitation Content, Grows in Size… Remains in a Regulatory Blind Spot"

published Oct 16 2024

Kim Jang-gyeom, People Power Party Lawmaker, at National Assembly Audit Namu Wiki Headquarters in Paraguay, Generating Revenue in South Korea

this article is originally in Korean and has been mtl and edited into English here. it’s not going to be 1:1 but the basic info should be there, if you see any discrepancies though lmk and I’ll edit it asap. thanks everyone for your continued help and understanding.

During the pandemic, exposure and advertising revenue surged Affiliated 'Arca.Live' Faces Issues with Illegal Pornographic Content Distribution Selective Compliance with Korea Communications Standards Commission's Regulations

The participatory knowledge-sharing site "Namu Wiki" is expanding its reach through illegal content, yet remains in a regulatory blind spot, according to reports. Although its headquarters are located in Paraguay, Namu Wiki generates substantial revenue in South Korea while selectively responding to requests for cooperation from the Korea Communications Standards Commission (KCSC).

According to data obtained by Kim Jang-gyeom, a People Power Party lawmaker and member of the National Assembly's Science, Technology, Broadcasting, and Communications Committee, Namu Wiki's combined PC and mobile advertising banner revenue approximately doubled during the pandemic. This increase was attributed to a significant rise in both exposure and click rates, which nearly doubled.

From April 2019 to October 2021, over a span of 2 years and 7 months, the estimated revenue generated by a single advertising banner on Namu Wiki amounted to 479.85 million KRW (approximately 359,000 USD). During this period, the total number of ad impressions reached 19.15 billion, while the total number of clicks was around 2.09 million.

The affiliated platform "Arca.Live" has also come under scrutiny due to issues with the distribution of illegal pornographic content. Despite these concerns, Namu Wiki’s response to regulatory oversight has been selective, responding to requests from the KCSC on a case-by-case basis.

This situation has raised concerns that the platform, while continuing to grow its user base and revenue, is not sufficiently addressing the illegal content problem. Calls are mounting for stronger regulatory measures to prevent illegal and harmful content from spreading on online platforms such as Namu Wiki and Arca.Live.

During this period, Namu Wiki's advertising revenue steadily increased each year: 112.05 million KRW (approximately 83,900 USD) in 2019, 177.1 million KRW (approximately 132,600 USD) in 2020, and 190.7 million KRW (approximately 142,700 USD) in 2021. Monthly revenue ranged from 7 million to 15 million KRW (approximately 5,200 to 11,200 USD) in 2019 but rose to around 20 million KRW (approximately 14,900 USD) per month by 2021. Considering that the last two months of 2021 were not included in these figures, the total advertising revenue for that year is estimated to have surpassed 200 million KRW (approximately 149,000 USD).

These figures represent the revenue generated from a single advertising banner on the Namu Wiki website. The platform's total advertising income is likely several times higher, possibly even reaching multiples of ten.

The number of ad impressions also saw significant annual growth: 3.7 billion in 2019, 7.6 billion in 2020, and another 7.6 billion in 2021. Monthly ad impressions were in the range of 400 to 500 million, but doubled to around 700 to 800 million in 2021. If the trend continued at a similar rate towards the end of the year, the total number of impressions in 2021 is expected to have exceeded 9 billion.

The number of ad clicks, which directly impacts revenue, also showed changes: 510,000 clicks in 2019, 850,000 in 2020, and 720,000 in 2021. In 2019, monthly clicks fluctuated significantly between 15,000 and 75,000. From 2020 onward, however, the numbers stabilized at a relatively higher level, ranging between 65,000 and 80,000 per month. Assuming a similar trend continued towards the end of 2021, the overall annual clicks are expected to be comparable to the previous year.

Since Namu Wiki’s headquarters are based in Paraguay, its exact revenue structure remains unclear. Nonetheless, the platform is known to generate income through advertising on its site as well as through its affiliated websites such as Arca.Live and Namu News.

The Korea Communications Standards Commission (KCSC), Namu Wiki's regulatory authority, has previously granted the platform a high degree of autonomy. Even when reports were made regarding inappropriate content or potential defamation on Namu Wiki, most cases resulted in "no action" decisions.

Meanwhile, issues have arisen with Arca.Live, a community site under Namu Wiki, which has been involved in the distribution of illegal pornographic content, including material featuring children and adolescents. Recently, it was confirmed that "deepfake" sexual exploitation content was being disseminated through Arca.Live. Although the site is fully serviced in Korean, harmful content remains accessible without age restrictions, facilitated by the use of virtual private networks (VPNs) and unrestricted sign-ups.

Following criticisms, Namu Wiki removed some pornographic content from Arca.Live in August at the request of the KCSC. However, the platform has maintained a lukewarm stance, declining to participate in regulatory meetings with the commission. It is reported that communication between Namu Wiki, which is based overseas, and the KCSC primarily occurs via email.

This has led some to call for the KCSC to move beyond self-regulation and take a more active role in content review and regulation. There have been repeated concerns about the platform's lack of transparency regarding information sources and the absence of any measures against discriminatory or hateful content.

Lawmaker Kim Jang-gyeom criticized Namu Wiki, stating, "Namu Wiki has become a primary conduit for the spread of illegal content, including deepfake pornography and fake news. While it presents itself as a self-edited encyclopedia based on collective intelligence, it allows for malicious edits and stigmatization."

He further stressed the need for the government to implement strong countermeasures against the illegal and dangerous aspects associated with Namu Wiki.

#South korea #article #namuwiki #namu wiki #arcalive #arca.live #Long post

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rmoonstoner · 1 year ago

Text

Kinktober 2023

***

Theme:

4 - Incubus Sex (Monster fucker)

***

Warnings:

18+, darkish setting (surviving zombie apocalypse), angst, fluff, smut, vampires (oppressive dominate species and blood drinking is mentioned a lot), a monster with a hero complex (Stephen coming to save you), monster fucker smut, sex with monster style Stephen, oral (sucking tentacles), tentacle sex, p in v sex, cream pie, oral, size kink, vibrating tentacles, anal play, double penetration, come shower

***

Pairing:

Doctor Stephen Strange x Fem!Mystic!Reader

(Past relationship mentioned)

Watcher/Eldritch Being Doctor Stephen Strange Supreme x Fem!Mystic!Reader

(Current relationship)

***

Please note:

Writing this made me both cry and very horny. I love writing about evil monster men that get redemption and now act like soft and gentle golden retrievers.

I did not have a proofreader.

***

Summary:

Your husband died a long time ago, during the outbreak. There was never a cure found, but a vaccine was made with Doctor Morbius's blood. Unfortunately, instead of a world of humans being eaten by zombies, it's now a world of humans being eaten by vampires. You're one of the few uninfected left, and a terrible fate is heading your way.

Until a familiar looking man comes to make a bargain with you, offering you salvation, but at the cost of leaving your universe forever.

***

Surviving this horrible hellscape was tough, but you managed to do it just fine, all by yourself, without your husband's help. Zombies had rolled through, covering half of the earth in just under a month. The great Doctor Morbius had discovered a vaccine to stop the spread of the virus, but that still meant people would be turning into monsters. Instead of zombies, they'd be vampires. Still, it was better than turning into a mindless decomposing corpse, so what did your people have to lose?

It had been years since that incident, and you had been lucky enough to avoid being bitten by a zombie, and contracting the virus. You were also lucky enough that you didn't turn into a vampire when you got the vaccine, but it did seem to stop allowing you to age. Apparently your blood was unique, and you wouldn't have been able to turn into a zombie either, if bitten.

You made a lot of money by selling your blood weekly at the local blood bank, and soon the vampiric citizens of New York were paying you top dollar for your blood. You were also an avid pot smoker, and that contributed to the price that your blood was worth.

But still, you missed your husband dearly, wishing he never died during the pandemic. You dreamt of him almost every night and when you didn't, you dreamt of your own death in so many horrifying and gruesome ways.

You grew tired as the weeks passed into months, and then into years. The people buying your blood started asking you to come in twice a week, to deal with the high demand, then three. You knew if you didn't, you'd be hunted down and forced to do it against your will. It was bad enough that the vampires kept harassing you to breed with other uninfected humans, just so they could have more livestock.

You sat at home, watching television and seeing a commercial about the company that marketed your blood. They advertised it like it was various soft drink brands, with yours being a luxury item like fine alcohol once was. You scowled and leaned back against your bed. You felt so fucking tired recently. You just wanted to hide away and not be bothered by anyone anymore.

You wanted your husband back so fucking badly.

You didn't want to be used as food any more, and since you stopped ageing, that was just going to be your life now.

Forever.

Eventually, you knew they'd stop being so nice in asking you to pick a partner and reproduce. You almost would have rather died when the zombies showed up. You sighed and laid down, closing your eyes and trying to think of a plan to get away.

***

A man dressed in an expensive suit greeted you with a wide smile and twinkling blue eyes. His hair was combed and gold back, just the way you liked it, and his goatee was freshly trimmed, allowing you to see his full and luscious lips.

It was your husband.

"Hello again, my dear. I am pleased you've come for another visit." He said smoothly as he produced a bouquet of your favorite flowers. He made them float all around you, with them morphing into glowing butterflies and bubbles.

"Hello, Stephen… I… I can't remember why I came here." You said softly, almost remembering that you were dreaming, when he chuckled. Stephen spread his arms out and engulfed you in an embrace. He felt warm and safe The next moment, he was dancing with you in a large empty ballroom. He leaned in close to your ear and whispered sweetly.

"Does it really matter? We both know what's going to happen."

He spun you around and the scenery changed to a backdrop of stars. The floor was gone, leaving you both alone in the vastness of space as you kept dancing with him. It didn't feel scary, far from it. Your heart was pounding, stomach full of butterflies as he gazed into your eyes.

Gods, you missed this.

You missed him.

"No, I guess it does not." You murmured back. He drew you close and stuck his nose into your neck, inhaling deeply as his hands smoothed up your sides.

"It does not. What matters, is that you're here, safe, with me." He husked and nipped your ear lobe. You moaned as he kissed down your neck to your shoulder.

"Yes. I'm safe. With you." You softly replied as his kisses became needy and his hands got more adventurous. You felt him grab at your ass and push you up close to him so you could feel his desire for you. You whined at the hardness of his body while you grabbed his face and kissed him deeply.

He groaned, his free hand gliding up your back and into your hair. Stephen gripped your locks and pulled your head back as he placed open mouthed kisses and licks to your skin. Stephen hummed and dragged his teeth along your most sensitive areas, effectively turning your legs to jelly and making it hard to stand. You wrapped your arms around his neck, pushing your face into his shoulder and groaned as he started to suck on your skin.

You could hear a deep rumbling noise coming from him, a gentle sounding growl as his hand moved from your ass and he pushed you backwards. You landed on something soft as kept his mouth on you, moving down your chest.

"This dress needs to go." He rumbled, and in an instant your dress was gone. He took his time with you, sucking purple marks into your skin at every sensitive spot you had along the way. You gripped his hair, whimpering and squirming for him as he gave each breast a good squeeze and a tantalizing lick to both nipples.

He moved down, bringing a hand to your wet pussy and slid a finger along your seam. You keened for him and lifted your hips, trying to encourage him to put it inside.

"Stephen… More, please?"

"I'll give you more, baby, but first, I need you to wake up and answer the door." He murmured softly and kissed your head.

"What? Why?"

"Because the real thing is so much better, don't you think? Now, wake up!"

***

You heard knocking at your door, and you huffed and rolled out of bed. It was still early, around 3:00am. Who the fuck would be bugging you at this hour? You really hoped it wasn't the security guard, coming to ask you if you had any spare bags of blood in your freezer again. You sighed and got up, going to answer the door, and finding no one there.

"What the fuck? Stop with your stupid games, and just come in already." You snapped and waited a moment as air rushed past you and towards the curtains in the living room. You closed and locked the door. After, you turned towards your freezer and grabbed a pack of blood.

"For fuck's sake, Carl. You don't have to do the super speed ghostly bullshit. I used to be married to the spookiest man alive, so cut the crap. If you wanted a bag of blood, you could have just asked-" You stopped talking when you turned around to see a tall dark figure looking out your window.

That did not look like Carl at all.

Carl was a short, round man with the best sense of humor. He looked and acted exactly like Danny Devito. It was really a shame he was a vampire.

But this guy…

This guy was not Carl.

This guy was over six foot tall, and was quite slender. Most of him was covered by a long black cloak with a very pointy collar. It threw you off, because it reminded you of your long dead love.

"Thank you for inviting me in." His voice was raspy, and you placed the bag of blood onto your counter as you processed the sound of his voice. He sounded strikingly familiar, but people had been known to fuck around and tease you for your past.

Fucking vampires.

"Look, buddy. I don't know who you think you are, but this is private property. I don't take kindly to pranks." You said firmly as you grabbed a knife and held it calmly. The man turned to look at you, his yellow eyes twinkling as he chuckled softly.

"Knives aren't going to hurt me. Not ones made of Earthen Steel, anyways." He said as he took a slow step towards you. You found the knife was no longer in your hand, and now back in the block again. In its place was your favorite flower.

"Why are you here?" You asked, your body trembling in fear. You hadn't seen actual magic in a long time, and it frightened you.

"I'm here to remove you from this world." He continued with a sly smile. His voice was sounding more and more like Stephen's, and the simple magic trick was hitting you hard in the chest, like a knife.

"Okay, that's a fucking threat, isn't it?" Your voice cracked as if you tried not to cry.

"No, it's not. I'm not here to kill you, darling. I'm here to liberate you. No harm shall come to you, if you come with me. I want to keep you safe." He calmly replied as he lifted his hand in the air, showing off the strappy leather and cloth of his bracers, and flicked his wrist. The bag of blood in front of you floated up into the air, and to the open freezer, then the door shut with a gentle thud. For some reason, the tone in his voice was calming you down fairly quickly.

"What? What does that even mean?" You asked.

"Silly girl. I feel great sadness within you. You miss your husband dearly, and wish he didn't die. You also wish to join him, but know he'd never want you to end your life to be with him. You wish to leave this world behind, but you don't want to die, correct?" His baritone voice was silky smooth, and you could feel your body react to it. Your skin was heating up at the way he was looking at you, hunger clearly evident in his amber eyes. It was still too dark to see his face very well.

"How… How did you know that?" Your voice cracked again, and he stepped into the light of the kitchen. You gasped when you recognized his face, your chest tightening as you tried to stay calm.

It was your husband, but that was impossible. He died a long time ago, and you missed him so much.

"I've been watching you, my dear. I've seen what you've been through, and managed to do here. While at first, I thought it was a noble sacrifice. You, willing to make such a commitment for your people to keep them alive, but your people quickly took you for granted and started asking too much of you. They have forgotten who you belong to."

"I don't belong to anyone, except Doctor Stephen Vincent Strange, and he is dead." You remarked as a tear rolled down your face.

"Oh, I know. I've seen your entire life. The past, present, and all the future possibilities. I was very shocked to find you were linked to my variant. How very fitting, though, that one of me should hoarde such a beautiful and powerful magical energy source." He said and he leaned against the counter, flashing that signature trademark smirk your husband always wore.

"But you're not my husband, are you?" You asked, but he chuckled and changed the subject.

"That big pharmaceutical company that sells your blood… I am concerned for your well being. They want to breed you against your will, and feed off of your children the moment they come out of you. I find that disgusting." The pale man leaned lazily around your apartment and frowned. He turned back to you and pressed his hands against the counter. He didn't have any scars on his hands like your husband did. He quickly conjured up some documents and slid them towards you, and you looked down at them.

They were papers that showed the blood bank was going to acquire you as an object, with you losing your independence and autonomy. You would lose the right to choose what you did with your life. Even the plans for the next fifty years were clearly laid out a schedule for you to remain constantly pregnant with various sperm donors. You grimaced and shoved the papers off the counter in disgust.

"That's no life for a beautiful immortal such as yourself. I can offer you so much more. Something better, something brighter. A chance to do more with your life, instead of being a glorified cow. I won't ask for much in return, except to feed from you once a month, and for you to assist me while I watch over the Multiverse." The doctor explained as he conjured up a bottle of red wine and two glasses.

"That sounds too good to be true. I have a hard time trusting vampires. Let alone ones that look exactly like my dead husband."

"I'm not the same kind of vampire, my dear." He laughed as he shrugged off his cloak and it wandered off to look out the window. It was different than the one you were used to seeing on him, which now belonged to Spider-Man.

"But you're… I watched you die, Stephen. Before they came out with the vampire vaccine." You pointed out. Again he snickered and poured some wine in both glasses.

"I am a variant of your dead doctor. I am an Eldritch being, not a vampire. I've absorbed so much magic, that my body has changed. I'm more like… A demonic God now, but I'm not evil." The doctor handed you a glass and he sat down on one of the barstools you had.

"How's that anything like a vampire?" You asked

"Do you know what an incubus is?"

"Yes… Wait… Oh my God."

"Ah, there we go. It's finally sinking in, isn't it?"

"So, you feed off of sex?"

"Yes, but also no. I need to eat, and I don't eat food much these days. What I do enjoy consuming, is raw energy or magic, which you are just dripping with, my dear. I can smell you all the way across the Multiverse."

"So… Does that mean… I have to…"

"Nothing. You just let me drain some of your magic, and I don't even have to touch you."

"Forgive me, Doctor, but I'm really confused."

"What's there to be confused about? You let me feed off your magic, and I take you away from this universe where they want much worse out of you. If not, you can stay here. It is your choice."

"But you mentioned you are like an incubus?"

"Oh, yes. That. If you allowed me to make love to you, I'd be sharing my powers with you, without the adverse effects that I suffer. But, I'm not going to ask that of you, since that might be cruel, given your-"

"Okay. Fine. Deal. Take me away. I don't want to be here any more. This place sucks, and you're hot." Uou said, and he looked very surprised.

"What?"

"You heard me, old man. Take me away, and you can incu my pussy as much as you want. I don't care that you're not my Stephen."

The doctor's face melted into a wicked smile and he raised his glass in a toast. You grabbed the other glass and tinked it against his, then had a sip of the wine. The liquid didn't taste at all like wine, so you coughed as you set the glass down.

"What was that? That wasn't red wine!"

You were panicking, because it tasted exactly like antifreeze with blood in it.

"No. It wasn't. It is my blood." He said calmly, his smirk growing wider. Your eyes went wide, and you made a disgusted face.

"Ugh, why? I'm not a fucking vampire. Blood doesn't taste good to me. Why does it taste like antifreeze?"

"Haha. My dear, I'm an abomination of nature and magic that exists outside of time and space. I shouldn't exist at all, yet I do. I exist, and I watch over all universes. In all of my years of witnessing millions of realities grow and perish, I have never once seen someone that should be up with me in the Watcher's area. Not even any of my variants. You don't belong down here, and you don't belong in any other universe."

"Okay, but that's not explaining exactly why you just tried to pass your blood off as wine."

"I need you to have some of my essence in you, otherwise the process will be painful. If you won't drink the blood, we have other ways to make the transfer."

"You've done this before?"

"Yes, but also, no." He said in that annoyingly self assured tone of his. Apparently this Stephen was much the same as yours once was.

"I'm starting to hate that phrase." You muttered and he chuckled as he stood up and conjured up a viewing orb, showing a woman with red hair.

The orb cycled through hundreds of ways that she died, with over half of them being accompanied by a younger looking and cleanly shaven version of Strange. You covered your mouth at the horrible ways she perished, and you felt tears forming when you saw his sorrowful reaction each time.

You knew the woman in question. Your Stephen had once been engaged to the one in this world, but they broke up swiftly after his accident. You had replaced her as the love of his life, until the day he died from being bitten by Christine. This variant of Stephen could sense your sorrow, and he placed a hand to your shoulder.

"I tried to save her, many times. I wasn't as wise back then, as I am now."

"Then you did end up saving her?"

"No. I destroyed my world for her, and when I did save her, she rejected the horrible creature I had become. I frightened her so much, she died again, and the look on her face told me I needed to stop. So, I did. I stopped. I became a Watcher, and I learned many new skills. I got over her, moved on, then I finally figured out how I can stop a Nexus event quite easily, without tearing a reality apart and corrupting it." He explained as he showed you on the orb what he really looked like. You crouched down and looked at his demonic form, sighing as you felt your heart ache for him.

"You're the only person I've ever done this to. I am hoping this time, you'll be better prepared, and there will be less complications down the line."

"This time?"

"Yes. Fear not, for I won't make the same mistakes I did last time. I've figured out that it's just easier to remove a person from a universe altogether, before their Nexus event can occur to kill them, instead of trying to stop the event by any other means. Then, I just simply don't return them to that universe. They will exist outside of their time and space."

"... You've done this before, and I died? But I'm… I am supposed to be immortal."

"You weren't the first go around. I figured changing your fate, and having Doctor Morbius be able to get his vaccine out would work much better. You see, I am able to twist time in any universe. I can look into the future, but when I do, I actually live through it, before deciding to go back. It's a standard feature on most Doctor Stranges."

"So is being frustratingly cryptic. How did I die?"

"The first time? My dear… I've seen thousands of possible futures for you."

"Ugh, tell me the first time that you actually had to interfere."

"Oh, well, I'd rather not. It was really quite gruesome. That's why I showed you the paperwork. That's exactly what happened to you. In fact, they are due in just a few hours to come and collect you. I turned the clock back, and now I am here to take you away. This world doesn't have anyone capable of coming to find you once I remove you from it."

You sat there quietly and fidgeted with your hands as you glanced at the door and then back at him. You thought back to the many dreams you kept having, and how they all involved your death, or this man. Most recently, they had become very dark and debauched fantasies of him fucking you in various ways, and less about you dying. When given the choice of being stuck here as a glorified farm animal, or going with another variant of your dearly departed husband to see the wonders of the Multiverse, you definitely were choosing the doctor.

Besides, even after seeing what he looked like in the orb compared to how his form was now… Both were very tempting. It was even more tempting he was a variant of your dead lover. You felt your face grow hotter as you thought about those very sexual dreams. Yes, that would be a much better future for you.

"Take me now. I trust you." You finally said while reaching out to grab his hand. His face softened, eye turning that soft baby blue you missed, and he gave you a warm smile, his thumb gently caressing the back of your hand.

"Good. Do you need to bring anything?"

"No."

***

The place he brought you to was very Strange, pun intended. It was a building in the middle of what looked to be a cluster of bright twinkling lights in outer space.

"That looks like home, the Sanctum Sanctorum…" You said softly, and Stephen placed a hand to your lower back

"It is. I've replicated it perfectly to be my home, with much needed improvements." He whispered into your ear as his hand moved just slightly lower.

"It's way more beautiful than the one I've seen "

"Ah, yes, well… Better materials do go a long way. I've used a lot of rare metals and wood from across the Multiverse. Let me show you the inside."

***

He showed off the entire place, and as the tour progressed, you started to feel off. It wasn't in a bad way, but you found that you felt hot.

Down there.

He was just as much of a talker as your husband was, full of both useful and useless facts. You noticed the artifacts he had were very much different then the ones your Stephen had in his Sanctum, and he enjoyed telling you about any item you pointed at. He was nice about it, much nicer than your husband was. This one kept checking to see if you knew what things were, before offering the information up. He finally brought you to a large room that looked like an old English pub inside, and he sat you down at the bar, with him going behind it.

"I'm sure you'd like some real alcohol, now. I can assure you I have the finest you'll ever find anywhere." He declared happily while grabbing a fancy bottle of Kree Whiskey in one hand, and very elegant looking Asgardian Wine in the other.

"Sure. I want a slushed Bellini with raspberries in it."

He stared at you for a long moment, then slowly put both bottles down.

"You want prosecco?"

"Uh, well, no. I mostly just want a fancy, tangy peach and raspberry slushie, with booze in it."

"Ah, so may I put a different kind of alcohol in it?"

"Sure, why not? Give me something strong." You said firmly, and he went about making you a drink the old fashioned way, without magic.

"So, tell me more about this deal." You asked. He handed you the drink and you took it, smelling it and taking a sip. It tasted exactly how Stephen used to make them and you felt a pang of guilt as you sat here with some copy of your spouse.

"I need an assistant. Not a secretary type, but a partner to help me with overseeing and managing the Multiverse. My friend can only do so much by himself, and he's not allowed to interfere with any of the worlds he watches, but I am, and so are any I bring up here." He casually explained while pouring himself some of the wine.

"There are others here?"

"Just you, me, and Uatu. Uatu has his own area. You'll know him when you see him. Really big bald head, hates my jokes…" Stephen chuckled. The sound was like music to your ears.

"Tell me about you being an Incubus. I remember those dreams. Was that actually you, or was it my brain processing the world around me, because I miss my husband?"

"Oh, that was me."

"Go on."

"There's not much to tell, I'm afraid. I can feed in various ways. I can drain the life force from someone and leave a husk behind. I could straight up devour the entire being, leaving nothing left, or… Or I could use the pleasures of the flesh, and not harm the person I am feeding off of." He sounded quite honest, and that's when you realized you had already been having sex with this man, but in your dreams.

Those overly vivid and realistic dreams that left your panties soaked when you woke up.

A sinful throb beat between your thighs at the thought, and you gave him a playful grin as you reached out and placed your hand on his.

"Oh… Well I don't think I want to be a husk, or eaten. You know, unless my pussy is the one being drained and eaten." You said in a sultry voice. His eyes flashed a dark amber.

"I'd rather fill you up after I eat you."

"Don't threaten me with a good time." You drank the rest of the Bellini and made a pleased sigh.

"My dear, I don't make threats anymore. I just do it."

"Then stop talking already, and show me what you can do."

Stephen grinned wickedly and snapped his fingers. Everything was replaced by a nicer looking version of your old bedroom that you used to share with Stephen in the Sanctum. You gasped as he pushed you down to the bed and kissed you passionately.

You moaned into his mouth as your tongues danced, and his hands tore your clothes away from your body, almost violently. His hands grabbed at your hips as he chuckled and banished his clothing away. Stephen was nudging himself between your legs, when you put a hand to his chest and stopped him. He furrowed his brows in confusion.

"Wait…"

"Have you changed your mind?" He asked, a look of hurt flashing through his eyes.

"No… But I want to see you for what you really are when we do this." You said and his face fell into surprise.

"I don't think you'd like that very much." He finally said, his mouth turning into a doubtful frown.

"I saw you in the orb. You don't scare me."

"I only showed you the tamest part of my true form." He muttered bitterly. You reached up and grabbed his face, bringing him down so you were nose to nose.

"I loved my husband with all of my heart. I was devastated when he died. I know you are not him, but I still feel that same connection of love in your presence, like he never left me…" You begged him as you kissed his lips gently.

"But-"

"Please, Stephen?" Again you begged, kissing his cheek and along his neck. He groaned and reared back to look at you.

"Alright. I will show you. I'll understand if you wish to leave. I can put you somewhere nice that I know you'll like and-"

"Stephen. Shut the fuck up and show me what you look like."

He huffed and nodded while his skin darkened slowly. Bit by bit, it became a deep ashy purple, with a sheen of glittery red on it. His eyes went back to being that slitted, dark sunset orange, and he started to grow several multicolored eyes on his forehead and the side of his face. Large horns protruded from his head, and his cloak melted into his back, becoming large leathery wings.

But the most striking thing about him, were all the fucking tentacles.

"You hate it, don't you?" He asked, his voice laced with shame.

"You're beautiful." You breathed back and smiled brightly at him.

"What? No, that's not… I'm not-"

"Yes, you are. That's amazing… Are they… Dangerous?" You asked as you sat up and reached out to grab one of his tentacles. The one you tried to touch, recoiled away from you.

"Sometimes, if I need them to be."

"May I… May I touch it? Please?"

"If that is what you want." He sounded very unsure as the appendage unfurled and rested on your palm. You stared at it and reached up to touch it with your other hand.

It was soft, and not at all slimey, like you thought it would be. Your fingers gently ran over the length of what you could reach. The skin there felt a bit rough, but the underside with the suckers was soft, and very much felt like…

"Oh… Careful now. If you keep that up, I won't be able to stop myself."

You felt your face heat right up at the statement. You looked at his main two eyes as you stroked around each sucker, watching him twitch and grunt. You grinned at him, and decided to see what he would do if you licked it. The impulse was too much to hold on to, and you leaned forward, eyes still locked with his, and gave the girthy appendage a long lick. Stephen groaned, all of his eyes closing halfway as he watched you suck the tip into your mouth.

"Fuck…"

You swirled your tongue around the tip, feeling every little circle, dip, curve, and edge. He groaned and leaned forward, caging you in with both hands as he rested his forehead against yours.

"I've never… No one has touched me like this before…" He growled, his voice beginning to warp and sound more like the deep echoing of Eldritch voices you used to hear when your husband cast spells. Your heart fluttered, and your pussy throbbed from the nostalgia.

You took him deeper into your mouth, tongue rolling over his skin as you reached out and grabbed another tentacle. He curled that one around your wrist as you gave it a gentle squeeze, drawing forth another deep moan from him. Your hand left the one at your mouth, going to grab yet another, but this time you placed it between your legs.

He almost wanted to ask what you were doing, when you leaned back and pulled on him. He moved with you, hovering over your body as you spread your legs for him. Stephen hummed as he looked down, another deep rumbling noise emanating from him while he watched you rub him against your wet entrance.

"You're so wet…"

Stephen twitched, but he didn't dare prod you with it. The tentacles that weren't on your body were coiling in anticipation as you took the one in your mouth out with a loud slurp. You gave him a sultry look and placed the wet appendage to your breast.

"Don't be scared, Stephen. I am not as fragile as you'd think." You said, and pressed him against your breast, squeezing softly to encourage him to move it by himself. Your hand pushed the tip of his other tentacle to your clit and you rubbed it in circles. He let out multiple groans and purring noises.

"It's hard not to be, my dear. I could snap you in half with just a thought."

"You sound like my husband." You teased him in a breathy whisper, hands still trying to encourage him to touch you.

"I am your husband…" He groaned and before you could register what he had said, or the meaning behind it, he brought a few more tentacles down to touch you experimentally. You felt two of them curl around your ankles, slowly spreading them farther apart as the one on your breast squeezed and wrapped the tip around your nipple.

"Ohhh… Stephen… Just like that." You murmured softly as one of the suckers melded over your nipple, perfectly covering it, before it started to pulse. Another one curled around your other breast, giving it the same attention and working them in a good rhythm. You whined and pushed your hips up while rubbing him against your clit. More tentacles crept out, one wrapping around your other wrist, snaking its way up your arm and cupping your chin. Stephen leaned down, almost close enough to kiss.

"You're so soft… And warm…" Stephen hummed as he coiled more and more of his tentacles up and around your limbs and torso. He brought a large hand to your back, pulling you closer as he looked into your eyes.

He saw how they shined for him, even half lidded as he slowly pushed into your pussy. Your breathing quickened as he pushed deeper and deeper, slowly pushing the thicker parts in, while the tip slipped back out to curl over your clit. You keened and he kissed you, groaning into your mouth as he slithered all over you.

"Stephen…" You breathed his name, causing him to grunt as a tentacle slowly snaked up your leg and cupped your ass. You felt more, pulling and tugging at your cheeks, with one going to catch the slick that dripped from your pussy, before probing your backdoor.

"Sweet girl… Fuck… How are you this wet?"

"Because of you, Stephen. Because it's you." You murmured back as you felt him move, sliding his thick muscle in more, stretching you wider as another one slipped inside to find your gspot. It felt amazing, feeling two of them writhe inside of you.

"May I… May I put one in your ass?" He growled while rubbing your tight ring of muscle.

"Please." You answered softly. Your hands came up to his face again, fingers gliding up to his horns. He let out another deep sounding growl and shut his eyes.

You felt your asshole slowly being dipped into, then with a sudden sensation of liquid being applied, he pushed in easily. Your head went back as you gasped and panted, feeling three tentacles wiggling inside of you.

"Fuck… You're something else, you know that right? Anyone else would be terrified right now…"

"Th-that's what my h-husband used to saaay- Oh fuck! W-when he used sex magic on meee..." You sassed back as you licked his cheek.

"Shit… What… What sort of things did he used to do to you?" Stephen asked, his mind already spinning a million images as to what his variant did to you.

"Sensory intensifying spells, lubricating spells, g-ghostly touches, mag-gic vibratory aids…" You started to list some things off, and when you mentioned the last one, you suddenly felt intense vibrations coming from each one of his limbs.

"Oh… Gods… Fuck… That feels so g-good!" Your breath came out rushed as he pushed in deeper with all three of them. The way he throbbed and pulsed was amazing, like a designer toy made just to make you come. You felt so full, and it was glorious.

"So pretty… So divine… How could such a beautiful angel like you, let a monster like me do this to you…? You dirty little thing… Fuck…" Stephen husked and slowly put more pressure on each of your sweet spots. You yelped and thrashed, feeling your pussy clench the closer you got to your release.

"I bet you let him double team you with himself, yeah?" He asked, his voice rough and deep as he started to thrust his tentacles in and out of you.

"Y-yes!" You whined back, feeling yourself get to the edge, but not quite able to jump off yet.

"Did you let him fuck you raw, and come inside you?" He asked, and again you whined.

So close…

"Fuck, yeah…"

"How about the multiple arms spell?" He asked as a tentacle slowly wrapped around your throat.

"Yeah… That was always a favorite of mine…" You sighed when he rubbed your cheek. That sigh quickly turned into a debauched moan as he jerked your body flush against his and started to fuck into you faster, the tentacles rubbing you just right.

"Fuck… You feel so wet… Your walls are clenching so tightly around me. I want to see you come." Stephen licked his lips as he turned the vibrations up.

You howled and felt your nerves snap, and you shook violently in his grasp as you came hard. Your nails dug into his shoulders, and he grunted in pleasure as he fucked you through your orgasm. Stephen rumbled and leaned in, forehead pressed to yours as he watched you writhe and moan. The tentacles in your cunt slowed in their movements, and he slowly pulled them from your dripping hole. You stared at him as he brought them up to his mouth, his very long tongue coming out to lick your juices off of them.

"Fuck, that's hot…" You breathed as you tried to catch your breath. He glanced at you and grinned.

"Naughty girl…" Stephen hummed and slowly moved your legs, bringing your feet up high into the air as he positioned himself between them. You glanced down and gasped, eyes going wide like saucers when you saw just how big his cock was.

"Do you like what you see?" His voice was raspy as he made that purring sound. You shivered and stared at his dick. It was dark red, the bulbous head almost a royal purple as it oozed precome. He had thick veins running all over it, and it looked like he was ribbed!

"Do you think it'll fit? I can make it smaller, more the size you're used to." Stephen asked in that teasing tone you missed so much.

How dare he think you couldn't handle that monster of a cock after he just had two thick tentacles in there!

"I can take it."

"Are you certain? I'll ruin you for anyone else."

"I don't want anyone else. I want you. Now please, Stephen, shut your big mouth and fuck me already!"

"So much confidence… That's hot…" Stephen remarked as he brought you closer, resting the large head of cock on your seam. He gently rubbed you, teasing you as he spread your lips with the tips of his tentacles. With a grunt and a gentle push, he nudged the head of his cock into you. You gasped, feeling him push inside, his girth stretching you far more than his tentacles had.

"Shit… Sssooo… So b-big…" Your voice cracked as he shoved in deeper while he carefully watched your reaction. You began to pant and squirm, fingers digging in harder into the meat of his shoulders

"I can stop if-"

"No! Don't stop!"

You struggled to breathe as he pulled you closer, pushing his throbbing member in as deeply as he could. You whined as you felt his hips kiss yours, his cock bottoming out and pulsing. You felt his heavy balls resting flush against your ass.

"You're doing so well, my little minx. You've taken every last inch of me. Can you feel me deep inside of you? Can feel it throbbing, just for you?" He waited for a moment, allowing you to adjust and get used to his size as he cupped your face and kissed your forehead.

"Oh… Gods, y-yes… You feel so good…"

"As do you…" Stephen murmured back, then started whispering a spell into your ear. You felt pleasure tingle all over your body, nerves sparking with fire. Your eyes rolled back, back arching as he began to move his hips.

"Gods be damned… You feel absolutely heavenly…" Stephen growled as his tentacles squeezed and slithered all over your body. He sighed as he sped up, his hips slapping away at yours as he fucked you hard.

"St-stephen!" You called his name and tugged him closer to kiss him. He groaned and stuck his long tongue into your mouth, it sliding around and down your throat. You made small grunting noises as you breathed through your nose, the sensations overwhelming you, and you came.

He pinned you to the bed and pressed you down, his hips fucking up into your tight cavern over and over, sending your senses into overdrive as he pulled another orgasm from your body so quickly after the last. You would have screamed if he wasn't tongue fucking your mouth.

Your nipples suddenly surged with pleasure, and then the suckers on your clit started to send harsh vibrations to it. You gurgled and shook, feeling him draw yet another orgasm from your body. You felt his cock pulse and throb along with every tentacle he had wrapped around you. The one in your ass was purposely pushing against the thin wall between it and his cock, making your eyes roll back as you drooled excessively.

'I'm going to fill you so full…'

You heard his voice in your mind, and all you could do was take his harsh thrusts as he moved in and out of your holes.

You felt his cock throb, and a moment later, he was growling as you felt him spurt the first rope into you. You moaned, feeling more and more fill your womb directly, his come forcing its way out from the side of his cock, and dripping down your ass cheeks.

His come was so warm, and it sent tingles of pleasure through you as you felt the tentacle in your ass begin to fill you like his cock did. You felt warm and sticky, all the other limbs releasing gobs of come all over you. You felt him draw his tongue from your mouth, and he watched as you twitched and thrashed from overstimulation.

His hips slowed down, and then he finally stopped moving altogether, just resting inside of you as he rolled over with you in his arms. You laid on his chest, panting and huffing as his wings slowly wrapped around you, covering you in a warm embrace.

"Stephen..?" You gently asked as you stroked his chest.

"Yes?"

"I missed this so much…" You softly murmured. You felt him kiss the top of your head.

"And I missed you more." He replied as he stroked your shoulder and back with a few tentacles. He had one hand on your ass, the other holding your left hand, his thumb slowly stroking the wedding band that your husband had given to you. You hadn't taken it off since he died.

"Stephen..?" You asked again.

"Yeah?"

"Did you absorb my husband?" You suddenly asked. You felt him still and his hand gripped yours a bit tighter. You heard him swallow, and he took a deep breath.

"Would you be upset if I said yes?" His voice trembled as did his hands. You looked down and noticed the one you were holding had deep dark lines etched into skin.

"No." You sighed happily and nuzzled your face into his chest.

"Then yes."

"Okay. I thought so. I love you." You cooed and kissed his shoulder. He sighed back and held you a bit tighter.

"I love you, too, my dear. Thank you for waiting for me."

"Thank you for coming back to me."

***

@jumpdingus @ashreblogsnow

Tags:

#doctor strange smut #doctor stephen strange smut #doctor strange supreme smut #eldritch monster #incubus strange #watcher strange #stephen strange smut #doctor strange x female reader #doctor strange x you #doctor strange x fem!reader #doctor stephen strange x you #doctor stephen strange x fem!reader #doctor stephen strange x female reader #monster fucker #doctor strange #18+ fanfic #kinktober 2023 #kinktober

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