#BUT. there’s so much misinformation out there that I want to actually advertise this one

[sirsugarmeat]

Made a video on the whole Pucca hack situation since there’s a lot of information out there for anyone who doesn’t want to weed through it all! Unfortunately made it too late to include the whole voozga suspension detail :(

[gutsheapofrawiron]

binggeyuan au in which shen yuan is a popular (leftist) political commentator streaming at least 9 hrs a day, 6 days a week tackling topics you'd expect a political streamer to talk about, except he meticulously and ruthlessly breaks down various right-wing figures' views and statements (much like how he tore apart Airplane's writing in his internal dialogue constantly in the novels. imagine that but in the form of a streamer yelling at the camera as he's reacting to a Joe Rogan video), picking apart each logical fallacy with unfailing scrupulosity and sarcastic quips thrown in here and there while consistently referencing his sources properly, preventing spreading of misinformation amongst his fanbase to the best of his ability.

his fans love him because he appears, superficially, like a stereotypical cishet gamer dude who would yell on twitter about female character models in rpgs having peach fuzz on their face or about forced DEI in games nowadays, but once you actually tune in to one of his streams and turn up the audio you'll quickly realise this guy is very much an avid feminist who'll burst into an informative rant each time he comes across something even vaguely patriarchal or misogynistic on stream, educating the viewers whilst simultaneously airing out his issues with the 'stupidity of the right-wing grifters' erroneous view of the world we live in' , and he also staunchly refuses to 'objectify' women because he 'respects them too much' (speculations about how he's probably gay are properly tagged #cutsleeveornah on his dedicated fan forum). on top of that, though he tries to downplay it, he's actually really kind to his community members and makes sure to do a charity/fundraising stream often, donating (more than) liberally himself each time. When fans ask him about life advice or vent in chat he makes sure that when he does spot the message, he takes the time to give an earnest, thought-out answer, often stern with the individual but never not gentle. needless to say there's enough RPF fiction out there to last hardcore fans a triple lifetime.

(bingge comes in under the cut cause this is long)

one day he dedicates a stream to this one right-wing political streamer* who's either already concerningly popular or right on the cusp of making it big, picking apart the guy's statements and views with devastatingly correct but sometimes overly nitpicky counterarguments and rebukes, absolutely destroying this guy and everything he stands for, all the while growing increasingly incensed, all worked up because of the harmful influence of this guy and just how large his following is, face red and glasses now askew because he's gesticulating aggressively and pointing angrily at the screen and the camera while he moves about in his gamer chair because he's so!!! angry!!! at this toxic bigot!!!

anyway enter bingge who's a sloppy redpilled incel and thusly also a superfan of the right-wing streamer (in part because he relates to the streamer's lifestyle, like bingge here does Nottt cook nor clean his apartment, man lives in unnecessary SQUALOR. this is also why he's not bingmei in this au).

naturally he tunes in to watch the right-wing streamer react to the VOD of shen yuan's targeted tirade live, and though the streamer is obviously getting obliterated he just twists it (poorly) and treats it like 'free advertising', pulling a gotcha face the entire time and smirking to cover up the fact that he probably definitely wants to cry because shen yuan is vicious in tearing apart not only his viewpoints, but also his concerningly unhealthy lifestyle and personal hygiene ('there are MAGGOTS flying around your room while you're trying to convince your chat Sumeru characters being that pale is 'not colourism, actually.' How am I supposed to listen to anything you're saying and engage in a productive dialogue when there's MAGGOTS in your background?!?! Get a grip!!!').

bingge, being one of the more rabid fans, heads over to shen yuan's channel and starts hate-watching with vigour. he eases himself a little too easily into tuning in to shen yuan's stupidly long daily streams a little too fast, obsessively keeping up with whatever this pathetic leftist cuck says, does, or eats. he clips parts of the streams and posts them out of context on the right-wing streamer's forum and social media, on top of unfortunate screenshots of shen yuan in compromising positions and unflattering closeups of his face, taken mid-sentence. everything for the memes *doge face*

this goes on for a while where he just laughs at this loser cucked commie streamer crashing out live on the reg, and ignores how much shen yuan's face being all flushed and sweaty, with hair sticking to his brow as he gets all heated up from the exertion of his rants gets to him, until one day.

bingge actually decides to go out and touch grass for once, and goes to [au Twitchcon equivalent]. of course his favourite right-wing streamer will be there, and he's deadset on getting his idol's autograph. before he goes in however he decides to drop by the grocery store that's right by the venue, stocking up on a few drinks and some food he can smuggle through the entrance so he won't have to go broke on buying the stupidly expensive food at the convention itself. right when he's got the things he wants and is heading for the cash register however someone bumps into him, making him drop all of it. he turns around and it's shen yuan, in the flesh.

shen yuan looks (up!!! shen yuan isn't even that short bingge's just tall!!!) at bingge with those soulful eyes of his all big, gasps and goes 'oh god! sorry!! are you okay?' before ducking and kneeling on the floor as he's hurriedly picking everything up. bingge, having recognised him in 0.03 seconds of laying eyes upon his face, now met with the sight of shen yuan BENDING DOWN in front of him, short-circuits and just stands there, frozen, as he watches shen yuan get back up and hand him his stuff back with a small, apologetic smile before saying sorry again and something about how he's unfortunately on a tight schedule (he's an invited guest at the con), pushing a few bills into bingge's hands along with the items, enough to pay for double the amount, before rushing off, leaving bingge there, still utterly frozen.

bingge takes another moment to return to this plane of existence and realises he's got such a raging boner he just gives up on going to the con altogether, just paying for his stuff before speeding back home and furiously jerking off like 5 times (with shen yuan screenshots pulled up on his pc screen. of course), thinking about how he was so close to shen yuan he could SMELL his shampoo and about how their HANDS brushed when shen yuan put the groceries back into his arms (bingge hadn't bothered with a basket).

needless to say this is the moment his life Changes and he doubles down on clipping and screenshotting, but no longer posts any of these publicly, simply saving them in a cherished, secret folder on his computer.

*: like a svsss version of asmongold. literally just svsss!asmongold. I'd say shang qinghua but he wouldn't actually be serious about whatever rhetoric he would spout, he'd just be a pure grifter for the bag and call people the f-slur regularly meanwhile he'd go to the club every Friday and get dicked down nasty in the alley each time.

[kremlin]

i actually do know who needs to hear this, it’s most people, in fact, it’s likely you, statistically; we are entering the american election campaign season, and there are caveats i’d like you to be aware of, and to that effect, i am cashing in on my many years of demonstrated knowledge about The Computer.

you indeed cannot trust what you read on the internet. someone will, indeed, go on here and tell lies. this is no shocker to you, you know this, i know this, i know you know this, but i insist you think about it.

you must know my beliefs regarding conspiracy theories fall far, far to one side of the spectrum: i do not believe them. i dismiss them out of hand on principle. axiomatically. and i am here today to tell you the concept, existence, execution, and proximity of paid, phony, engagement-manipulated, political advertisement is not only real, it is the status quo.

would you describe yourself to others as:

A.) smarter than than they think you are

or

B.) not as dumb as they think you are

if you responded with option A, you are more than likely to be greatly more susceptible to these underhanded messages than you think. option B respondent’s outlook is brighter, only relatively. to restate this in a more digestible way, there are two wolves inside you, one takes top-voted comments to reddit posts on face value. the other, takes top-voted comments to reddit posts on face value. you take top-voted comments to reddit posts on face value.

those responsible for such comments are effective in their endeavors, because they think about it. they do not approach their work mystically nor inefficiently. they know what to say to you, because they know what language you speak.

a thoughtless individual would read one of the only proper noun phrases in this post, “american election season”, and limit their perspective to exactly two possible entities to watch out for. this individual has, with a pep in their step and a whistle on their lips, stepped directly on a land mine. maybe this individual was you, if so, don’t sweat it, allow me to yank you away at the last moment by your shirt collar. there's tertiary actors at play, and possibly even more, if only we could invent a word that mean's "the fourth thing" and so on

a very large, very easily guessable country has, for some time now, engaged in organized astroturfing or misinformation or disinformation or whatever-you-want-to-call-it campaigns, to great effect, with their angle being to flood the airwaves with so much conflicting information that you, the individual, feel hopeless, and lose your confidence in discerning truth from fiction.

i use this example not because that country or my country or this election or whatever is a key component here, they're not, this applies to everyone using the internet socially, and if you don't think there are disingenuous actors' words appearing on your computer screen at some regular rate, you're also stepping on a landmine.

you just have to think about things, and maybe, from time to time, turn on an electric stove and put your finger on it to remind yourself that there is indeed a very real, objective reality we live in, and that if you find yourself asking, "how can we see if our eyes aren't real", someone has put rats in your head

it goes beyond just politics though, hell, i would describe all of modern marketing to use essentially these same tricks. don't fall for them! my technique is to just approach any written text found online, most especially "comments", with the same utter hater energy as salieri in amadeus.

and hey, while you're at it, pass this thinking along to kids, they're kind-of the first generation that has to deal with an internet that is mostly ingenuine meaningless bullshit, not like we had it, when it was mostly genuine meaningless bullshit.

[aquamine-amarine]

Why is it that Western fans are so fucking miserable and feel the need to lie and spread misinformation without providing any evidence to back up their claims? This is such a bullshit claim not based on reality. Because this is NOT what I've seen when it comes to how the series is viewed in Japan. It's actually really popular. Their ratings are just fine, they're not crying for help at all. Why do people feel the need to lie when it's so easy to prove them wrong?

I have been posting Peach-Pit news for 10+ years and I saw first hand the reactions from Japanese fans when the reprints were first announced back in 2021. The first two volumes were released on March 1st, 2021. They sold out so fast they had to reprint them. And then they had to reprint them AGAIN in April 2021.

I recently bought another set of the reprints, let's look at the reprint information on the last page:

Volume 1 was reprinted 6 times, most recently on November 21st, 2024.

Volume 2 was reprinted 5 times, most recently on July 17th, 2024.

Volume 3 was reprinted 5 times, most recently on November 21st, 2024.

Volume 4 was reprinted 5 times, most recently on November 21st, 2024.

Volume 5 was reprinted 5 times, most recently on November 21st, 2024.

Volume 6 was reprinted 4 times, most recently on July 17th, 2024.

...according to the copies I have. My volume 2 and 6 do have the obis around the cover advertising the sequel, so it makes sense that those came from the July 2024 reprints. Those volumes were also most likely reprinted in November 2024 with the others, Animate just sent me a mix and I didn't get the newest version of those.

As for the first volume of Jewel Joker, the regular and special editions were released on February 13th, 2025. They announced a reprint of both editions 4 days later on February 17th, 2025. That is the OPPOSITE of a cry for help. That means the series is doing really well, because they have to keep reprinting the volumes. And it's highly likely it's going to keep getting special treatment just like the original series did, with the rest of the volumes getting a regular AND special edition.

The September 2024 Issue of Nakayoshi, which included the first chapter of Jewel Joker, sold out really fast. Animate cancelled my order for the issue because they ran out, even though I had pre-ordered it. Third party sellers on Amazon Japan were selling the issues for a much higher price because everyone wanted the issue and furoku. Nakayoshi had to offer the September 2024 Issue for free digitally for a limited time so people could actually read it.

Since the first chapter, it has been featured on the cover of Nakayoshi 5 times, and has had 4 color title pages. Each title page has the words 大人気 (very popular) on it. There are only 8 chapters so far and it's already so popular. Every month when a new issue comes out and Nakayoshi's X account makes a post for every manga that is in the issue that particular month, Shugo Chara!'s posts always have the highest likes and views.

There has been a constant, nonstop stream of merchandise, goods, popup shops, and collaboration cafes since the reprints came out in 2021. The Animate cafe collaboration back in March was huge. The X post announcing it has 3 millions views and 26k likes. When mail order for the goods was made available, some of the goods were sold out within 2 hours! Amu's acrylic stand sold out first, by the way. Ikuto's acrylic stand sold out the next day.

That is NOT a series struggling with ratings. With or without Ikuto, the series was doing just fine. It's probably the most popular series in Nakayoshi right now. Because Japanese fans actually like the series for the plot too, not just the pretty boys. There are a lot of Japanese fans that are huge fans of the female characters as well.

It was inevitable that Ikuto was going to come back sooner or later because he's one of the main characters and also Amu's love interest. They're the main canon couple. You wouldn't have Sailor Moon without Mamoru or Cardcaptor Sakura without Syaoran. The love interest HAS to be there. Even though romance is not the main point in these manga (the actual plot is) these boys are still there. They HAVE to be there.

The merchandise and other goods have made it very obvious that Amuto is absolutely canon at this point. There are Cocollabo and Animate goods where it's just the two of them, and Palcy has been advertising their relationship as "fated to be attracted to each other". This is an official Kodansha app. I've also seen things on Peach-Pit's pixiv Fanbox that just make it more obvious too, I just can't share them because they're behind a paywall and they said not to talk about pixiv Fanbox contents outside of pixiv. They're only okay with sharing articles that are listed as "All Users". Which means you can view the articles without paying for a plan and without having a pixiv account.

Honestly, the only people who are salty about Ikuto's return are probably Tadamu fans that are still in denial about Amuto being canon. That's the simplest answer. It has absolutely nothing to do with ratings. They don't like Ikuto so they're annoyed he's back, and they're just pretending it's some other reason because they're dishonest. I'd respect them more if they just told the truth.

The Asian fandoms (I mainly lurk among Japanese, Korean, and Chinese fans) are all in a euphoric haze that they've been in since the Nakayoshi cover was first revealed, and when chapter 8 came out on Thursday they were freaking out all day. One fan described it as a "lethal dose of Amuto". lol The Japanese fandom is overjoyed with chapter 8, and thankfully their opinion is the only one that matters because they're the ones actually buying the issues and volumes as well as going to popup shops and collaboration cafes. It doesn't matter what Western fans think, because apart from a few people like myself and some others, most of them aren't supporting the series in any way. I buy direct from the source using Buyee and Tenso.

There's a reason Amu and Ikuto are ALWAYS featured in every new set of illustrations Peach-Pit releases. They're always there, and the rest of the characters chosen are usually a mix of Tadase, Utau, and/or Nadeshiko/Nagihiko. I think Peach-Pit is just really happy that they can finally go all in on Amuto and they wanted to advertise it as much as they could. That's why the cover was released a week early, why they've been so giddy talking about the chapter. As I said before, they've said things on their pixiv Fanbox that have confirmed some of my suspicions. Also the notes in the artbooks:

万里: グランドフィナーレですね. 白い服の2人とブーケ…, というのは最初から決まってました. 12巻でバージョンちがいを描きましたよ. Banri: It’s the grand finale. Two people wearing white clothes and a bouquet​… that was decided from the beginning. The Volume 12 version is drawn differently.

This was canon since day 1. It's what they've always wanted to do, and they're so happy that they can finally do it.

Also, X is NOT a "hellspace", it is an extremely effective social media platform. Another ignorant opinion not based on reality. I know I'm dealing with literal children when you people feel the need to insert politics into a hobby discussion where it is not needed, wanted, or in any way relevant to the conversation. A smart entrepreneur will use every social media platform they can to advertise themselves. It's common sense. And today X is THE best place to do it.

When the series was first serialized in Nakayoshi, social media - especially X - was not as widespread as it is today. If you wanted to see comments by the manga artists, you were limited to comments they made in the issues, comments in the published volumes, or you tracked down their personal website and hoped it had a blog section (Peach-Pit's old website did). They occasionally had autograph sessions, and Peach-Pit also replies to fan letters and they send postcards out during summer and winter. Advertising each series was also limited, probably to just each magazine's websites, the manga artist's blog, and bookstores like Animate.

Now the publishing companies and magazines all have an X account, and the manga artists being published in the magazine have one as well. Peach-Pit only created their X in 2011, and Nakayoshi created theirs in 2014. That was after SC! ended in 2010. Some also have a pixiv Fanbox.

Social media makes it much easier to advertise each series, and you'd be stupid not to. You couldn't do this before and now you can, so you should absolutely use this to your advantage. Their goal is to get more readers and to make money, and I don't fault them for that. They need money in order to live. I thought this stupid website supported artists? Of course SC! has an easier time since it already has an established fanbase (the same could also be said of CCS Clear Card when it was running in Nakayoshi).

Speaking of CCS, I don't think it was a coincidence that the issue announcing SC!'s sequel (the November 2023 Issue) came two issues before CCS Clear Card ended (the January 2024 Issue). I believe they did this on purpose. Their cash cow was ending and they needed to make sure people stuck around for the next cash cow, so they wanted CCS readers to see the news about SC!'s sequel. Because if anyone is desperate for ratings, it isn't Peach-Pit - it's Nakayoshi.

Recent issues of Nakayoshi are very thin, nothing like the thick phone book-like issues I have from 2006 during SC!'s first serialization. I think the magazine is struggling, which is why they keep giving sequels to their most popular classic manga to bring back old readers. In a list of Japanese manga magazines by circulation as of June 2023, Ciao is #10, Ribon is #12, and Nakayoshi is #23. CCS Clear Card would later end in the January 2024 Issue which was released on December 1st, 2023. I'm really interested to see the current numbers and how SC!'s sequel might have effected the amount of copies they printed. Clearly they didn't print enough copies of the September 2024 Issue which had the first chapter of Jewel Joker in it. Did they fix this by making sure to print more copies? Doesn't look like it, because the May 2025 Issue appears to be sold out in some stores already. Animate's online store says they only have a few left.

In 2019, Nakayoshi published an artbook to celebrate their 65th anniversary. The manga artists were listed in order of publication - with Peach-Pit being listed last. An indirect admission by Nakayoshi that SC! was one of the last good manga to run in the magazine and there hadn't been any new hits between SC! ending in 2010 and 2019 when the artbook was published. Not even Ema Tooyama was featured in the artbook, and she's had numerous Nakayoshi manga throughout the years.

It's Nakayoshi's 70th anniversary this year and they've barely celebrated it. They released a card set furoku in the January 2025 Issue featuring art from popular manga, but that's about it. No word about any special campaigns or exhibitions. Will they release another artbook just like that one, to include popular manga from 2019 to 2025? I wish they would do something.

Alright, this is long enough. Leave it to the miserable Western fandom to ruin the good mood I've been in since chapter 8 came out. I'm going back to Japanese X, they're not fucking miserable.

[heian-era-housewife]

more realistic smut please (I'm begging)

Idk why but somehow it was more erotic may God help me with this need TO FUCK THESE MEN

No need to beg! There are more on the way 😁 The big all-in-one post took me out though, so I'll be doing individual releases this time around.

Anon, I feel ya. I'm so down bad for these guys it's not even funny. 😩

Please enjoy some Choso in the meantime and thanks so much for reading!

~Yuri

Synopsis | Choso learns that not everything on the internet can be trusted. But he can always trust in you ♡

Content | mdni, Choso x fem!reader

This is part 2 of a "realistic" smut series. Read part 1 here!

Choso is ready. He's done his research. He's come prepared. Armed with new knowledge and bolstered by fresh confidence, he wants nothing more than to show you what he's learned and put the memory of your most recent amorous encounter behind you both. That's why he flashes you a clever grin as he pulls out not one, but two condoms to set on your bedside table.

"Ooh, someone's been thinking ahead!" You praise him, taking notice. "Always good to have a backup."

"I didn't want a repeat of last time," he recalls, one bashfull hand rubbing the back of his neck. "So, I did some reading up on my own this time."

"Impressive!" You coo.

With a coy smile, he slides on the first condom, watching as you give your hips a little wiggle of anticipation. Ready to impress, he reaches for the second.

"Wait, Cho, what are you doing...?"

"I told you," he smirks. "I don't want a repeat of last time, so I'll be wearing two. They call it 'double bagging.'"

"Oh...Cho, that's not ummm..." you squirm, trying to find the right words.

"What's wrong?"

"That's actually not the best idea, despite what some people might think. They're actually more likely to rip or come off..." your voice trails away watching as his face falls. "It's not your fault, though!" You hasten to reassure him. "The internet is full of misinformation. I'd love to hear what else you've learned!" Face brightening, Choso scooches forward eargerly for his chance at redemption.

"Let's see..." he recollects. "Size isn't as big a deal as people make it."

"Good! I'm glad you understand that," you encourage.

"Oh! And communication is really important!"

"Absolutely! You can always be open and honest with me, Cho!"

"I know," he says. "That's why I haven't been faking any of my orgasms!"

"Oh, wow I-" It's all you can do not to burst out laughing. "I figured as much."

"Speaking of fake, I never realized porn could be so misleading!"

"Yeah...unfortunately it's full of misconceptions and myths," you agree.

"Yeah! Like the g-spot!"

"Oh. Actually, that one's real," you can't help but laugh this time. "It's just really hard to find. We'll work on it."

"Ughhh!" He cries in frustration, falling back against the bed. "How does anyone figure this all out?!"

"Time and patience. Lots of practice," you say with a wink. "And you don't have to rely on the internet alone. You can always come to me with questions, you know."

"There is something I wanted to ask you!" He remembers, sitting up. "What's a MILF?"

"A MILF?!" You repeat in surprise.

"Yeah! I keep getting these advertisements. Whatever it is, there are dozens in our area!"

MDNI banner by @cafekitsune ♡

[prose-among-the-trees]

Okay I’ve been brought up to speed on a bunch of stuff that’s been happening with close friends and I want to unpack it with what I experienced under this person. I’m not going to name them but they’ll find this and turn it into my fault somehow. Fuck off in advance.

I found a blog on tumblr dedicated to stopping the stigma and spread of misinformation around Dissociative Identity Disorder. I was really excited because all I’d experienced on tumblr surrounding the disorder I’d been diagnosed with had been conjecture and fantastical. It was genuinely refreshing.

This person advertised a discord server to get away from syscord and actually promote real information. I liked that and I supported it, so I joined. I lurked at first, but towards the end of its run I really started enjoying it, so much so that I overlooked a lot of problems with it and the owner.

I’d look in on arguments this person had with other members and would side with the owner, whether it was warranted or not. I was under the impression that this was someone diagnosed and in active treatment for their disorder, as well as significantly older than me. I really wanted this person to like me and I respected them a lot. (I would later find out that this person was freshly an adult, undiagnosed, and apparently used the server to validate self diagnosis while talking about how harmful it was on the misinformation blog).

I remember a few arguments in particular that rubbed me the wrong way. One was talking about the idea of transmisogyny. This person (transmasc) at one point claimed that the idea of categorizing a new type of misogyny was playing oppression Olympics in the trans community. They also claimed that they were oppressed as a transmasc who passed very well because women are scared of men. I don’t have a screenshot or proof for this, which I know means nothing. I’m also paraphrasing a lot. I would have had screenshots had the server not been deleted.

This person participated in a harmful bait blog pretending to be a 15 year old trafficking survivor in witness protection program. They went on to tell everyone in the server that no part of cult abuse or the like was real, and it was all RAMCOA nonsense. I believe that trauma exists, but that the wide spread conspiracy does not. For about two days, I made a similar bait blog. I’m saying this so it doesn’t get brought up as a “gotcha.” In this blog, I pretended to be several introjects from a video game I really like, and the owner’s bait blog would fake harass my bait blog for being anti-endogenic. It was the Zelda one, though I’m sure it was obscure enough that most people don’t remember it. It didn’t get much attention at all.

I deleted it very quickly because of the harm I realized I was causing. It made me feel gross. I wasn’t claiming anything extreme, but I didn’t like how it made me feel. I figured if the owner found so much joy in it, if I stuck with it long enough I could too. I didn’t, so I got rid of it.

But about the server nuking.

Earlier that day (day of server deletion) I’d vented in the server about how rough the day was for me with ptsd and flashbacks, and how I was struggling with my dissociative symptoms that day because of a particular trauma anniversary. This person sympathized and honestly made me feel better. I had let the server know that it was really hard for me to feel like anything was real at all and that I was struggling with unreality.

A few hours later there was an argument in the server around the term “functional multiplicity.” The argument was between the owner, who had only learned about the term “integrated functioning” a few hours prior (and was subsequently getting angry with everyone for being uneducated about it despite how recently they learned of that term) and someone who was relaying their own personal experiences with functional multiplicity as a way to heal from DID. Everyone in the server saw how heated it was getting and the owner wasn’t happy with everyone suggesting they take a step back and evaluate, especially since they had insisted the other party do the same thing. They deleted the server without warning.

I reached out to some people on tumblr that I knew from the server to reconnect and we made a backup server quickly to try to recalibrate after the argument. In the meantime, I dmed the former owner on tumblr to see if they were okay, because they seemed really emotional and upset.

They proceeded to tell me that I didn’t exist, none of what was going on was real, and everything would go away in a few hours. This was after the context of them comforting me and validating how dissociated I felt all day. I don’t know whether they were in an episode of psychosis or not, but I’m still hurt by what happened and I was still badly affected for about a week.

After the server was deleted, the new server tried to figure out what to do. In this time, one of the members was in contact with them to try to work something out between the group. I was a bit shaky from the unreality stuff but I was genuinely willing to hear them out. We were waiting for an apology from them.

I got a personal apology for the dm conversation, which I genuinely do appreciate. While I don’t completely dismiss everything as forgiven and forgotten, it went a very long way in helping me get to a place where I could see them as a friend again at some point.

The apology to the server was fine, I don’t remember much about it and I think everyone was alright with it for the most part.

What didn’t help was their continual stalking and spam liking of our blogs before that initial apology. That was weird and stressful and made the server feel super uneasy about them.

We all moved on after that. The server became a haven for me, and I felt and still feel like that group has my best interests at heart. If you guys are reading this, thank you for the support you’ve offered me despite how little we knew each other. It means more than you could ever know.

At some point I saw this person come back as pro endogenic, something that bothered me pretty intensely due to why I respected them in the first place. Nothing new happened besides the discord server being frustrated that they switched up so quickly after the fallout. It felt sudden.

I posted something to the endogenic community warning them to not believe everything they hear, especially after the bait blog and the misinformation blog were so heavily anti endogenic. I share these views, I am completely anti endo, but I sent a message out so that someone wouldn’t get caught in the crossfire like I did. They direct messaged me and asked me if my post was about them, and I chose to ignore it.

Not even two months after the discord server deletion and my dm conversation with them, they started another blog in which they frequently interacted and argued with friends of mine, claiming to be pro endo and partially endogenic. No one (at least I didn’t) realized it was them. None of us realized they were choosing to engage with us knowing our histories. Finding this out today has been alarming. I don’t look closely at blogs and side blogs, so I maybe could have caught this sooner, but it made me feel like my privacy was invaded. After deciding to leave us all behind after deleting the server and doing what they did to me, they decided to still engage with us without being forthcoming.

If you read this, which you likely will, since that blog of yours liked to argue with me, it feels so disingenuous and gross. I would have rather you told me.

The way this person treated @ratinacoat on this separate blog was also horrific, and considering that they weren’t forthcoming about all of this, it really comes off as stalking.

They are now turning around and acting like scary anti endogenics are harassing them. This is after they wanted to be systemcringe’s favorite “one of the good ones,” after getting rid of an entire server over semantics and then sending me into an unreality episode after I tried to help, after they continuously stalked and harassed one of my friends. I’m so grateful I only found out about this tangentially. I cannot imagine how my friends are feeling right now. This was disgusting.

So to every blog

To the original reblog main

To the misinformation blog I adored and became friends with you from

To the bait blog that was larping a trafficking victim

To coming around as pro-endo and pretending your friends are evil monsters.

To the half endo half trauma blog used to stalk and engage in syscourse with my friends without our knowledge

To whatever you’re doing claiming a victim mentality now

A massive fuck you.

-Prose

Adding a small edit:

I’m so disappointed that we couldn’t be friends. It’s embarrassing to say that but it’s true.

[lyle-and-erik-menendez]

I don't want to judge Rand too much - he is a long time supporter and I think he has good intentions all in all - but I don't understand the fascination with the show. (I don't really know who these Paul brothers are, but they seem like complete idiots btw.)

"Monsters" has done nothing but spread misinformation, painted Erik and Lyle in a bad light, downplayed their abuse, and so on. They themselves have spoken out against it through their wives. So I'd think that supporters maybe watch it out of curiosity at most, but certainly don't "fangirl" over it. As far as I know, the brothers weren't even contacted by the creators before production, which I think was a highly disrespectful move. I mean, you plan to make a show about a serious, sensitive topic like this and you don't even care to reach out to the subjects? This alone indicates that they only cared about money and the exploitation of their trauma.

The show may brought some new publicity to the case, but there are plenty of people who don't do any research and take the false allegations as the truth, and that ultimately only makes things worse. Though I think the new interest has more to do with the new evidence and the possible resentencing. If some media needs to be advertised, it should be their most recent documentary. ID has done documentaries about them as well, and there's the trial on Youtube of course if someone is interested in the actual truth. No one really needs to watch that trash.

I try not to judge Rand, but then he reposts dumb stuff and I can't help myself. I would think that someone who knows LA, who knows the Hollywood system would be a little more wise to how these things work. I mean there have been so many documentaries about the brothers, so many books, so much misinformation our there even through media before that. I don't understand why Rand decided to even give this show the time of day.

Like him telling people that we should all support Kim K was something that I cannot consent to. That entire family is shady, they've bullied people, silenced people. They're probably involved with Diddy, allegedly. So no Robert, I don't want Kim on our side because she visited the brothers once.

I feel the same way about the actors, I don't need actors like Cooper Koch or Ari Graynor using the brothers in a bid for Emmy and Golden Globe buzz. I remember saying this on Reddit, and got downvoted badly. But whatever, I was right. Where were they at the rally? Nowhere to be seen since the brothers aren't useful to them.

Everyone knew what the show would be, no one was naive. There lawyers were given the show early. I had a clip before, I seem to have lost it. If I find it, I'll post it again.

Moral of the story: Rand should know better.

[mariacallous]

Stories about AI-generated political content are like stories about people drunkenly setting off fireworks: There’s a good chance they’ll end in disaster. WIRED is tracking AI usage in political campaigns across the world, and so far examples include pornographic deepfakes and misinformation-spewing chatbots. It’s gotten to the point where the US Federal Communications Commission has proposed mandatory disclosures for AI use in television and radio ads.

Despite concerns, some US political campaigns are embracing generative AI tools. There’s a growing category of AI-generated political content flying under the radar this election cycle, developed by startups including Denver-based BattlegroundAI, which uses generative AI to come up with digital advertising copy at a rapid clip. “Hundreds of ads in minutes,” its website proclaims.

BattlegroundAI positions itself as a tool specifically for progressive campaigns—no MAGA types allowed. And it is moving fast: It launched a private beta only six weeks ago and a public beta just last week. Cofounder and CEO Maya Hutchinson is currently at the Democratic National Convention trying to attract more clients. So far, the company has around 60, she says. (The service has a freemium model, with an upgraded option for $19 a month.)

“It’s kind of like having an extra intern on your team,” Hutchinson, a marketer who got her start on the digital team for President Obama’s reelection campaign, tells WIRED. We’re sitting at a picnic table inside the McCormick Place Convention Center in Chicago, and she’s raising her voice to be heard over music blasting from a nearby speaker. “If you’re running ads on Facebook or Google, or developing YouTube scripts, we help you do that in a very structured fashion.”

BattlegroundAI’s interface asks users to select from five different popular large language models—including ChatGPT, Claude, and Anthropic—to generate answers; it then asks users to further customize their results by selecting for tone and “creativity level,” as well as how many variations on a single prompt they might want. It also offers guidance on whom to target and helps craft messages geared toward specialized audiences for a variety of preselected issues, including infrastructure, women’s health, and public safety.

BattlegroundAI declined to provide any examples of actual political ads created using its services. However, WIRED tested the product by creating a campaign aimed at extremely left-leaning adults aged 88 to 99 on the issue of media freedom. “Don't let fake news pull the wool over your bifocals!” one of the suggested ads began.

BattlegroundAI offers only text generation—no AI images or audio. The company adheres to various regulations around the use of AI in political ads.

“What makes Battleground so well suited for politics is it’s very much built with those rules in mind,” says Andy Barr, managing director for Uplift, a Democratic digital ad agency. Barr says Uplift has been testing the BattlegroundAI beta for a few weeks. “It’s helpful with idea generation,” he says. The agency hasn’t yet released any ads using Battleground copy yet, but it has already used it to develop concepts, Barr adds.

I confess to Hutchinson that if I were a politician, I would be scared to use BattlegroundAI. Generative AI tools are known to “hallucinate,” a polite way of saying that they sometimes make things up out of whole cloth. (They bullshit, to use academic parlance.) I ask how she’s ensuring that the political content BattlegroundAI generates is accurate.

“Nothing is automated,” she replies. Hutchinson notes that BattlegroundAI’s copy is a starting-off point, and that humans from campaigns are meant to review and approve it before it goes out. “You might not have a lot of time, or a huge team, but you’re definitely reviewing it.”

Of course, there’s a rising movement opposing how AI companies train their products on art, writing, and other creative work without asking for permission. I ask Hutchinson what she’d say to people who might oppose how tools like ChatGPT are trained. “Those are incredibly valid concerns,” she says. “We need to talk to Congress. We need to talk to our elected officials.”

I ask whether BattlegroundAI is looking at offering language models that train on only public domain or licensed data. “Always open to that,” she says. “We also need to give folks, especially those who are under time constraints, in resource-constrained environments, the best tools that are available to them, too. We want to have consistent results for users and high-quality information—so the more models that are available, I think the better for everybody.”

And how would Hutchinson respond to people in the progressive movement—who generally align themselves with the labor movement—objecting to automating ad copywriting? “Obviously valid concerns,” she says. “Fears that come with the advent of any new technology—we’re afraid of the computer, of the light bulb.”

Hutchinson lays out her stance: She doesn’t see this as a replacement for human labor so much as a way to reduce grunt work. “I worked in advertising for a very long time, and there's so many elements of it that are repetitive, that are honestly draining of creativity,” she says. “AI takes away the boring elements.” She sees BattlegroundAI as a helpmeet for overstretched and underfunded teams.

Taylor Coots, a Kentucky-based political strategist who recently began using the service, describes it as “very sophisticated,” and says it helps identify groups of target voters and ways to tailor messaging to reach them in a way that would otherwise be difficult for small campaigns. In battleground races in gerrymandered districts, where progressive candidates are major underdogs, budgets are tight. “We don’t have millions of dollars,” he says. “Any opportunities we have for efficiencies, we’re looking for those.”

Will voters care if the writing in digital political ads they see is generated with the help of AI? “I'm not sure there is anything more unethical about having AI generate content than there is having unnamed staff or interns generate content,” says Peter Loge, an associate professor and program director at George Washington University who founded a project on ethics in political communication.

“If one could mandate that all political writing done with the help of AI be disclosed, then logically you would have to mandate that all political writing”—such as emails, ads, and op-eds—“not done by the candidate be disclosed,” he adds.

Still, Loge has concerns about what AI does to public trust on a macro level, and how it might impact the way people respond to political messaging going forward. “One risk of AI is less what the technology does, and more how people feel about what it does,” he says. “People have been faking images and making stuff up for as long as we've had politics. The recent attention on generative AI has increased peoples' already incredibly high levels of cynicism and distrust. If everything can be fake, then maybe nothing is true.”

Hutchinson, meanwhile, is focused on her company’s shorter-term impact. “We really want to help people now,” she says. “We’re trying to move as fast as we can.”

[sophieinwonderland]

Why focus on anti-endos? Or another way of putting it, why focus on the negativity surrounding plurality? Why not instead focus on how plurality helps people? i.e. You catch more flies with honey than with vinegar. The attention seems to only encourage them. If no one is paying them any attention, they no longer will have anyone to argue with and may lose steam.

I'm skeptical of the catching more flies with honey thing. At least as it applies to this. I think if it was true, you wouldn't see the mainstream media put so much focus on playing to people's fears to drum up ratings and clicks. (But I do find you need a healthy mix at least.)

Besides that, in my experience, it depends a lot on what attention you give sysmeds.

If you respond with hate, then yeah. That is going to encourage them. If you respond with sources and facts behind you, while asking them to provide the same, you'll probably end up blocked. This shows what type of attention sysmeds tend to not want.

Also, just speaking for myself, I tend to not be as good at classic positivity posts, but I reblog those when I see other people make them because I do want them to be popular. I would hate if literally the only plural posts on this site were syscourse.

That said, I enjoy intellectual challenges. Figuring out how to rebut and disprove sysmed claims is fun, even if a tad easy these days now that SAS and most of the intelligent anti-endos have converted to pro/neutral stances, and most remaining anti-endos are really bad at arguing their positions even half-coherently.

But also, I just think it's really important to drive home how anti-science sysmeds actually are. Because if you let them, they will spread lies and do their best to shape public opinion in their favor. Having sources to back our positions up means nothing if we aren't countering their misinformation. When truth and lies are at war, the sad reality is that the winners won't inherently be the ones with facts on their side, but the ones who can shout the loudest.

Finally, I still think of the relationship with anti-endos and pro-endos as being somewhat symbiotic. Yes, arguing with them can encourage them. But I think it can also encourage US.

In the longterm, I believe system medicalism needs to be eliminated as an ideology. But in the short-term... the louder both groups are, the more awareness it brings to system issues in general. I kind of hate that I have this utilitarian view of anti-endos because the cost is that real people are getting harassed and bullied by them, and they're doing real emotional damage to innocent people who definitely don't deserve it.

The Yaelokre incident, for example, destroyed a community that a lot of people loved and felt safe in because of anti-endo bigotry. At the same time, I can't imagine much better advertising for people to become pro-endo than sysmeds just harassing endo-neutral singlets for being inclusive, and making a nuisance of themselves wherever they go.

[rjalker]

idk if anybody has said this to u yet but thank u for spreading awareness about how the public domain actually works, if i saw one more "you Have to call him willie and he HAS to be black and white" post i think id have a conniption fit

Thank you! It's very frustrating seeing all the fearmongering misinformation. I've been looking forward to this for the last year, but somehow I didn't realize that so many people had no idea what the Public Domain was at all...

I'm hoping people will actually put in the effort to do research and learn about these things so we don't have this problem every year, rather than everyone jumping on the "lets play attack dog for Disney's lawyers for free by screaming copyright infringement at every drawing of Mickey Mouse" bandwagon.

Like. It is baffling in the extreme how many people have instantly turned into corporate attack dogs over things that they do not in any way understand, but somehow they think they're being anticapitalist by doing so? They think they're being progressive by leaping to fearmonger and uphold Disney's stranglehold over the Public Domain by spreading fearmongering and misinformation that...literally didn't even exist before five days ago.

People now think that because Mickey Mouse is Public Domain, this somehow magically means it's literally illegal to draw Mickey Mouse in any way. It's confounding. And its just showing how deep the corporate propaganda runs. And I'm really really hoping people will start waking up and realizing how fucked up their reactions to this is and start actually learning about the Public Domain instead of immediately just spreading blatant misinformation about it that a five second google search will dispel.

I've now had to see four people proclaiming, with utmost self-righteous confidance, that celebrating the Public Domain, and celebrating that Mickey Mouse is Public Domain, is "corporate bootlicking for Disney" and "free advertising for Disney".

Because these people saw everyone saying not to give JK Rowling free advertising by continuing to celebrate her characters when the books have bigotry baked into them, and now think that they can just say the same thing about anything no matter what the context, even when they have absolutely no idea what they're talking about.

Disney has done so much to destroy awareness of the Public Domain that people are now convinced that celebrating the Public Domain...is capitalistic greed. Really makes you wish werewolf transformations were in real life because god fucking damn do I want to maul some billionaires.

I am once again begging everyone, as a bare bones beginning, to their understanding of the Public Domain, to go watch this presentation by the Internet Archive from 2019 if you're able to. (Some of them have subtitles, some of them don't, I'm going to ask if they have a transcript)

Here's a relevant clip from video 14.

[ID: A short video clip of Joseph Gratz at the 2019 Internet Archive conference about the Public Domain, sitting in a yellow chair as he speaks, saying and gesturing along with his words: "That's the, uh, official, maybe impractical strategy. The unofficial, um, more practical strategy is...be bold! Right?" [applause] "If you're acting in good faith, people are not going, ah, most copyright holders are people of good faith, who do not want to go after people who are acting in good faith, who are not harming their legitimate economic interests. And so if you're doing something, even pretty boldly, that is, that you believe and have a basis to believe, uh, and a reasonable basis to believe is in the Public Domain, or is fair use -- going out and doing it is the way, um, is the way forward, rather than being endlessly afraid." His speech ends, there's a short pause, then more applause. End ID.]

[elvensaber]

IDK if this is gonna resonate with anyone on this site but I have thoughts about the ways Academics go about doing public work, especially through social media (twitter, primarily). This isn't a deeply researched post or anything, just kinda thinking. Well, ranting really

So, I feel pretty at home with the internet, online jokes, youtube, tumblr, twitter, etc. I am also entering the final year of my PhD and am thinking about what I want to do once I graduate. I love public-facing work, and love the idea of doing long-form video essays, so I pay attention to how academics conduct themselves in online spaces.

Academics (before the Musk thing happened, and even now after) primarily use twitter to advertise themselves and their work, to celebrate their accomplishments, and to network. In some ways, that's very effective. Networking is deeply important for job hunting, and twitter allows people to become aware of one another and build connections.

HOWEVER, some academics also used twitter as a public education platform, and I think it's not as effective as many academics make it out to be (The exception is Dr. Raven Baxter, a molecular biologist who has done an excellent job in online spaces imo).

Maybe this is specific to fellow archaeologists, but I find that people in my field use twitter threads or quote-tweets to correct the rampant misinformation about my field. And I don't know how effective that really is? I personally don't enjoy reading twitter threads - maybe others do, but they don't hold my attention, and often the information you can provide is somewhat limited. I also don't like that you have to take an academic at their word, with a limited ability to see what their sources are and check them for yourself. But, this seems to be the golden standard for online public content in archaeology. It's what the academics do!

There are two further disconnects with online archaeologists and academics broadly: One, oftentimes there's a "callout" aspect to the quote-tweets. This type of post is geared towards a specific audience, and the callout content doesn't ACTUALLY change anybody's mind. It instead serves as a joke for the in-group who already know the misinformation is incorrect, and serves as entertainment (NOTE: I'm thinking specifically about the tweets I've seen calling out Ancient Aliens stuff. I know people who correct misinformation in a very measured and strategic way, and that is much more effective. But unfortunately, Ancient Aliens IS a TV show with an audience who isn't going to change their mind if you make fun of them.) Two (and this is actually my biggest gripe), there now exists a pressure to extend one's professional life into the personal life via social media.

This extension then makes your job a central part of your private identity. And as a result, I experience pressure to maintain a mostly-professional identity even in my private online spaces. (I could make a second, private anonymous twitter account. But my friends follow me on my twitter and I don't wanna.) I want to be able to make stupid little jokes, but they're always tempered by the fact that twitter has become a pseudo-workplace for academia. I can be silly, but not as silly as I really want to be because my advisor will see it.

I'm a whole person - I study the things I do because I think they're interesting. If I talk about them on twitter, then that's my professional twitter. If I make stupid jokes, then it's my private twitter. So I end up walking the line by basically never posing on twitter, while allowing myself to make silly jokes as a treat with the occasional milestone update.

But you know why this disconnect especially bothers me? I think that public work is so much more effective when it doesn't have a veneer of professionalism. I truly think the long-form video format of Hbomberguy, Jenny Nicholson, Shanspeare, Munecat, etc could be an excellent frontier for public education. And that includes the silly jokes and references. So when I complain about the idea that I need to have a professional public twitter, it's not the public aspect of my work that bothers me. It's that I feel my personality has to be tempered in order to please other academics, when really I want to make tweets for my friends and people who aren't archaeologists.

There's also a whole other rant I have about how academics misjudge how to communicate their work, and the fact that our work is NOT inherently interesting and you DO have to work to capture and audience, but that's a whole other bucket of fish.

[behindthewox]

I have a question for you all. If you could decide the content and focus of this blog, taking the opportunity to make use of the established audience and reputation that already exists, what would you do?

There are a lot of things I want to do with this blog, and it's not just criticism. I'd like to do tips and tricks, guides and helpful examples to actively provide help and support for the sites too. But I'm just one person, I only have so much time and although I have some experience and skill to share I'm not an expert by any means. But we have a lot of people across WoX who are very experienced and very skilled in various jobs, and it's a shame we don't make that available across sites for others to learn from and make use of.

This blog could be a platform for sharing tips, advice and how-to guides between sites to help each other out. It could even be used to advertise site events and reach out to potential new users. But for that it needs contributors who contribute with content, and I can see why people would hesitate to get involved in that.

I made a decision early on with this blog: the most efficient way to get attention and reputation within the WoX community would be to make content that people would talk about and have strong opinions on, for better or worse. I'd say it worked, people have strong opinions on the content and that makes them pay attention and talk about the content they feel strongly about. A lot of people across WoX are familiar with the blog and there is a regular audience. It comes at a price though: this blog now has a reputation for being controversial and problematic. It's a price I was, and am, willing to pay. A risk I took knowingly and strategically. In some circles it's mostly supported and people appreciate the content and the platform as an option to be heard and supported, and do so anonymously without risk of repercussions. In other circles it's considered a venomous pit of hate and bitterness, toxic and abusive, spreading radical views and unfair assumptions, using misinformation and false accusations under the guise of "voicing opinions" to bully and hurt people because they're upset about something. (I personally think that's a rather extreme and unfair opinion/accusation based on personal feelings rather than objective observation, but I can see where they're coming from. Credit to the anon who summarised these opinions for me in a submission.)

The problematic reputation will probably stick, no matter what sort of content I choose to focus on. And to some extent I think we need to be a bit problematic and controversial in order to change for the better. We need some radical opinions to start discussions about things we wouldn't discuss or even consider otherwise. It's a tricky balance but progress doesn't come out of compliance - progress is triggered by criticism. It's a process that does damage but like the saying goes, "you can't make an omelett without breaking a few eggs".

That said, I'd like for this blog to do more than just breaking eggs. I'd like to provide the instructions for how to make an omelett out of it too, and I do my best to try when I can. The question is, is it worth the time and effort to create the content? Would it be helpful or just dismissed because it comes from a blog with a problematic reputation? Would other people be willing to contribute? Would it be worth making an offensive overstep, an outsider providing a service that the community leaders should provide, making them look bad for failing to provide it? These aren't rhetorical questions, I actually need answers. And we, as a community, could probably use a healthy discussion about it too.

Feel free to make subsmissions with your ideas on how we can change and improve things, not just this blog but also the WoX sites at large. It's important to discuss the problems, but it's even more important to discuss the solutions.

[owlbelly]

man i can't stop thinking about that antidepressant post going around (this is really long & not happy)

the one that started out as someone comparing taking their SSRI to taking insulin or thyroid medication, & turned into other people linking all the studies showing that the serotonin deficiency / "chemical imbalance" theory of depression has been pretty well debunked & that doctors/scientists don't really understand how a lot of psych medication works, particularly SSRIs, so you can't really compare taking a medication for something your body actually physically lacks or that's correcting a chemically measurable problem to taking a psych med that isn't doing either of those things (no one is measuring your brain chemicals & there's no agreed upon baseline for something like seratonin - a re-uptake inhibitor isn't making you make any more of it either it's just prolonging its effects in your system)

like. idk. i understand that the science is demonstrably faulty & that advertising campaigns for medications are the reason the popular conception of innate "chemical imbalance" persists even among doctors! this is not new information to me & it's obviously critical to talk about it & continue to do research.

but i also feel like there has got to be a way to talk about it that doesn't implicitly shame or, idk, outright deny the experience of people for whom taking SSRIs has been life-improving or even life-saving? "this stuff doesn't work the way they tell you it does" is one thing, but it so quickly seems to turn into "this stuff doesn't do anything at all (except hurt you)" which is...literally just not true. we can question whether or not medication is the best choice for someone, we can criticize the intersection of capitalism & medicine that's resulted in poorly understood medication with serious side effects being pushed through to sales, we can talk about how structural/societal change would help most of us MUCH more, etc. etc.

but for some people nothing else works, or nothing else works without an additional boost, or nothing else is accessible (which is fucked). these are shit circumstances. idk i think the wording on that post was like "it's fine if you feel like they help you but don't spread this misinformation about depression as a chemical imbalance" & i guess "it's fine if you feel like they help you" always reads to me as "okay sweetie, you have the right to enjoy your poison placebo." clearly they fucking do help sometimes. we don't know how exactly & we should be concerned about lying corporations & shitty institutions, but like...some people are clearly getting results from them. not all of them good results! but good enough that we can function & live, otherwise we wouldn't take them.

lmao maybe i just don't know how to not feel like shit about any discussion of SSRIs, since i have taken them longer than almost anyone i know (almost 25 years) & from a young enough age that they've possibly shaped the development of my brain in ways that no one really understands & the side effects have definitely shaped my life & i have never been able to function without them! maybe i never will be able to now. was it wrong for them to be prescribed to me in the first place? idk i was pretty set on being dead at that point. maybe i would have been okay, maybe not. i've tried to taper off them multiple times, both with doctor supervision & without. it fucking sucks & i stop feeling like living. should i do it again & stick it out to the point of wanting to die because "depression isn't actually a chemical imbalance" & i am just a duped pawn of big pharma?

or am i SSRIs Georg now, who has been taking Prozac for a quarter of a century & does have a resulting "chemical imbalance" & is an outlier, should not have been counted

sorry i hate this i hate being both critical of & also dependent on psych meds, i hate the way everyone talks about it. people who are pro-meds always act like no one is ever forced to take them or stigmatized for not taking them & that the science around them is clear-cut, people who are anti-meds always talk like there's no stigma around taking psych medication (lmao! even antidepressants!) & also like they're just shit placebos for idiots.

i super hate not knowing what 25 years of SSRIs has done to my body & also being pants-shittingly terrified of trying to remove them from my life. it all fucking blows i just want to see a little more compassion for all of us trying to survive here in whatever way we can

[yvesdot]

i believe that you're a person with the best intentions, and i don't doubt it's true that a certain number of palestinian fundraisers are scams, but the tone of the post you recently reblogged on this feels really racist and unpleasant, from the way they imply every fundraiser is a scam to making up stereotypical arabic names to serve their point as though a fundraiser being run by someone named Mohamed or Noor or whatever is inherently suspicious and not just like names that Palestinian people commonly have. if you feel motivated to look at the blogs of the people who actually vet these fundraisers and read what they have to say about their process and how they defend themselves i think you'll get a much more rounded view of the situation and how many fundraisers are fake than if you just trust of some random presumably white American claiming theres some massive Palestinian scammer conspiracy (which, uh, i think should ring some alarm bells as a claim?)

https://www.tumblr.com/el-shab-hussein/757726704054763520/kind-of-important-post?source=share (same anon of earlier message) here's a post by one of the people verifying fundraisers for easy access! if you want to share to your followers i would really appreciate it because there's so much misinformation and confusion going on right now

Thank you for sending this. I've deleted the post and will respond in a bit more detail below the cut.

Firstly, you have my apologies, because reblogging the post without calling out its racism is unacceptable and inexcusable. I did initially notice the "interchangeable" names (as well as calling people "Arabic-looking" ??) and in fact almost did add a tag about them, and the fact that I didn't-- and only noted my disagreement with the point about charities vs direct aid-- is in itself racist. I was in a rush, and the fact that in that moment I prioritized "getting the word out about possible scams!!" over making sure I didn't reblog anything racist is, well, also racist. (This general busyness is also why it took me until after Shabbat to respond to this-- I have now taken a few hours on either side to read further on the subject; thank you for waiting and I apologize for not managing to do more than delete the post before Shabbat began.)

The facts of the matter are that, the more I look at posts espousing skepticism, the more I see an inability to give any grace to Palestinians making these campaigns who are advertising in a non-native language on an unfamiliar website, and Palestinians who are heavily overworked right now verifying all of these campaigns while dealing with the obvious emotional toll of the genocide of their people. It's particularly egregious to me that there has been no apology for any of the individual racist elements of these posts or for targeting specific Palestinians we now know have gone through ID verification. I will be reaching out to the people I'm mutuals with to at least do my due diligence there. (Also, of course, I will be doing a lot more personal introspection on how I address situations like this in the future.)

Once again, thank you for reaching out to me. I was speaking to someone just the other day about how difficult it can be to reach out to a stranger on a mistake-- let alone a bigoted one-- they have made, and you should know I am deeply grateful to you for stepping up, particularly with much more kindness than was warranted. You (and anyone else) are welcome to say more on anonymous or in DMs.

[sekhithefops]

Elon Musk's Steady Descent into Madness Masterpost

Because I realized just now I posted a bunch of these things documenting the catastrophic fall of Tweeter and its descent into being a letter from the ass end of the alphabet, I figured I may as well put all these in one place.

Elon Musk Got Sued For Violating a Disabled Worker's Rights

Musk Initiates Rate Limits Because Reasons

Oops Turns Out There Were No Rate Limits, He Just Didn't Want to Admit He Fucked Up Again

Musk Writes Stoner Poetry to Try to Explain Away Rate Limits

Twitter is Losing Advertisers in Droves, Known Human Trafficker Andrew Tate Profits From the Few That Remain

Zuckerberg's Answer to Tweeter, Threads, Launches. Somehow its Even Worse

Musk Threatens Legal Action Against Zuckerberg Because He Thinks Owning Twitter Means He Owns the Concept of Social Media

Legal Eagle Weighs In on Musk's Suit Against Zuckerberg for Threads

Musk Wants to Rebrand Twitter as "X" Because He's Actually an Edgy Teenager from 1999

Wait, He Was Serious About Rebranding?!

Oops, Turns Out Rebranding as X Now Means Zuckerberg Can Sue Musk!

Gee, I Wonder Why Twitter X is Having So Much Trouble Keeping Advertisers

The Blue Check is Now Such a Black Mark That Musk is Letting Users Hide Them

Musk thinks Blocking people is a bad idea, so now nobody can block because he's a fucking sadist.

Three years of internet history just went poof. Intentional act or did Musk just fuck up again?

Approximately Half of Musk's Followers on Twitter are Bots

Musk goes to a video game tournament, it goes as well as you might expect.

Musk wants to paywall all of Twitter/X, make it so you have to pay to use it at all.

Musk decrees that news articles shared on Twitter/X will no longer display headlines, just pictures. Why? Not a single godsdamn clue.

Linda Yaccarino says "advertisers are returning to X." Linda Yaccarino is a big stinking liar.

Musk's multitude of moronic changes makes a real world tragedy even worse by preventing those who relied on Twitter for news from getting any credible information.

With Misinformation flying everywhere following an attack on Israel by Hamas and their retaliation against Gaza, Musk cracks down... on nudity.

Musk throttles traffic to Patreon as well as several other sites in his completely doomed attempt to turn Twitter into "X, the Everything App."

Musk begins charging new accounts $1 a year and requiring a phone number to "help combat spam," because the armies of $8 verified checkmark bots have proven that this works... wait, that didn't sound right.

The EU tells Musk "fix your shit." Musk tells the EU "Screw you guys, I'm going home."

An investigation reveals that 74% of the misinformation and propaganda spread during a recent attack in the Middle East was spread by Verified Users on Twitter. Oops.

A year after Musk's takeover, Slate reviews everything he managed to fuck right up.

Musk states that the smoldering remains of Twitter now known as X would become a dating site. How? Fucked if I know!

Musk is sued by a prominent critic who exposed what anyone with two working eyeballs could have told you: that Twitter is overrun with hardcore Alt-Right lunatics and its entirely Musk's fault.

IBM pulls advertising after they put their ads next to blatantly pro-fascist/neo-nazi propaganda. CEO Linda Yaccarano swears that they are trying to combat such things on Twitter, Musk however endorses them because its fucking Musk.

Twitter's CEO, Linda Yaccarano, is being advised to step down as staying as CEO is doing irreperable damage to her reputation. Meanwhile as companies like Disney, Apple, IBM, and the entire European Commission bail on advertising Musk's fanclub try (and fail) to fund Twitter themselves.

Musk sues Media Matters for pointing out that his failing social media site full of neo-nazis is full of neo-nazis. Meanwhile advertisers continue to flee in droves.

A brief overview by TechDirt as to why Musk's "thermonuclear lawsuit" is a laughable mess that not even Harvey Birdman would take seriously.

In response to advertisers fleeing Twitter, musk has only this to say: "Go fuck yourselves."

Slate posts the question: "What if Musk is doing this on purpose?"

Techdirt posts the answer: "He's not doing this on purpose, he's just gone completely bugfuck nuts."

Legal Eagle of Youtube fame analyzes Elon's "Thermonuclear Lawsuit" which turns out to be exactly what you thought it was: utter crap.

Elon paid a shitload of money to create Grok, his own AI abomination, and it turned on it's master.

A leaked document confirms what we all suspected, Musk has severely weakened moderation tools and intentionally allows anti-semitism and anti-LGBTQA+ posts to run rampant.

Musk reports over one billion video views on Superbowl Sunday, but an independent study shows that 3/4ths of them were likely bots.

[familyvideostevie]

I dont know if you know about this new law that kight take effect its called the kosa act its a way to censor kids from ao3 wattpad and tumblr, they plan of banning and deleting these site forever, losing our fandom spaces and im trying to inform every fanfic writer i know bc your work is important and i dont want to let it go, we connect as a community with our obsessions no one else can understand im super sad and stressed out I just wanted you to know!

hi! i wasn't totally sure what you were talking about so i went a head and googled it and while i think you have good intentions, you are actually spreading misinformation! the bill (which stands for Kids Online Safety Act) was introduced in december 2022 and discussed and rewritten once thus far. it's only been introduced, which means there has been no legislative action on it. inside the senate there seems to be a lot of support for it as well as from multiple organizations that deal in mental health/eating disorders/protection for minors online.

so, i went ahead and read the bill, just to double check if there were stipulations for deleting online spaces and there were not! i think that we all know there are issues on here with minors and their access to things -- i don't want to claim that this bill is totally bad, since it's intent is to protect minors (defined in the bill as under 16s) from sexual exploitation and exposure to harm online. but at the same time, i personally think that it leans too much on the side of restriction and monitoring and thus encroaches on the information that teens have access to in general. it's sticky, it really is. the bill itself would require the following: for online spaces likely to be used by minors to set up a series of measures that would allow them to restrict content for minors, allow an adult in that minor's life to control those safeguards, and protect the minor's identifying info. the platform must also disclose how they use targeting and algorithms in relation to minors and allow minors/parents to report harm. it cannot advertise services that are illegal to sell to minors and annually report on potential risks.

so, yeah. that's the bill. you can read all about it online! i'm no tech expert but to me this sounds like age-verification (like when you try to visit a site for an alcohol brand), probably more serious tagging/filtering, and probably less guest/anonymous participation, which tumblr doesn't really allow much of anyway, beyond the anon feature.

i guess what i'm saying is: do your research before spreading info! i get that this is frightening but i do think overall protecting minors from literal sexual exploitation is a good thing, though this bill is, in my opinion, weird information control oversight nonsense, for the most part. i think we'll be okay. there are other things to worry about!