#Fuck the state of the internet in 2023

[apparentlyshane]

I am fucking RAPIDLY losing my patience.

Surely YouTube can't get away with this kind of insidious shit, right? The fact I have to jump through a billion fucking hoops to have an actually tolerable experience online in 2023 is genuinely disgusting.

Adblock ain't just an optional choice, it's a fucking necessity online, and forcing users to turn it off compromises not only quality of life, but privacy and actual personal safety too.

Fuck this shit, man.

[flippedorbit]

i’m gonna be so for real, if things don’t start changing for me in good ways i will be disappearing off the face of the earth

[enfinizatics]

dear americans,

as a polish queer woman and human rights activist, i know exactly how you're feeling right now and what to expect from these elections. i lived through the 2015-2023 regime of pis, a right-wing populist party that divided families in the same way trump did. i’ve experienced the rise of fascism in poland, the influence of far-right parties like konfederacja, and their “santa’s little helpers”—ordo iuris, an ultra-conservative catholic organization (banned in many countries, mind you) that helped enforce a near-total abortion ban and runs anti-queer campaigns in public spaces. i supported the black protests in 2016 as a middle schooler when they first tried to ban abortion. as an adult, i actively participated in the 2020 women’s strike, running from police tear gas daily after they finally passed the ban. i supported friends who faced charges.

i’ve lived through intense homophobia in poland as a queer teen and adult. i survived the first pride march in my hometown, where far-right extremists threw stones and glass at us. i endured the anti-queer propaganda spread by the ruling party in state-owned media. i survived the “rainbow night,” poland’s own stonewall moment in summer 2020, when police arrested around 50 queer activists following the arrest of margo, a nonbinary activist. i survived the "lgbt-free zones," the targeted violence, the slurs from strangers on the street, and the protests i held against queerphobia. it was hard as fuck, but i survived.

but just because i survived, it doesn’t mean others did. many women died because of the abortion ban—marta, justyna, izabela, dorota, joanna, maria, and many others who didn’t survive pis’s draconian anti-abortion laws. milo, kacper, michał, zuzia (she was 12), wiktor, and other queer and trans kids and young adults took their own lives because of the relentless queerphobia.

despite all of this, our experience in poland can serve as a guide now. here are some tips for staying safe and how we, polish queers and women, organized under the regime:

safety first, always. if you know someone who’s had an abortion, no you don’t. if you know someone is trans, no you don’t. if you know people who help with safe abortions, no you don’t—at least not until you know it’s 100% safe to share. if you are queer or have had an abortion, only share this with people you trust fully. most importantly, not everyone has to be an activist just because they’re part of a minority. if it feels unsafe to share that you're queer, trans, etc., then don’t. it doesn’t make you any less queer.

use secure, encrypted messaging like signal for conversations on potentially risky topics, such as queerness, abortion, organizing counter-actions, protests—anything that might be used against you.

stay anonymous online. if you want to research or report something without surveillance, do not use regular internet. get a vpn (mullvad is affordable and reliable), download the tor browser (for both onion and standard links), and if you plan to whistleblow, consider using a riseup email account.

organize and build networks. community is everything now. support each other, foster independence, because your government won’t have your back. set up collectives, grassroots movements. create lists of trusted professionals—lawyers, doctors, etc.—who can offer support.

to lawyers and doctors: please consider pro-bono work. this is what got us through poland’s hardest times. your work will be needed now more than ever.

for protests or risky actions: always write a pro-bono lawyer’s number on your arm with a permanent marker.

get to know the anarchist black cross federation and other resources on safety culture: "Starting an anarchist black cross group: A guide"; Still We Rise - A resource pack for transgender and non-gender conforming people in prison; Safe OUTside the system by the Audre Lorde Project;

for safe abortion info or involvement: get familiar with womenhelpwomen.

stay radical, stay strong, stay informed: The Anarchist Library

if i forgot to (or didn't) include something, don't hesitate to reblog this post with other resources.

[fleapit]

hi. why is nobody talking about the porn ban in north carolina? the PAVE act is a bill that was passed back in september 2023 (came into law january 1st 2024) that effectively bans users from viewing websites hosting adult content without age verification. (link to the bill)

"-the act legally requires commercial ventures to verify users’ ages if a company “knowingly and intentionally publishes or distributes material harmful to minors on the internet from a website that contains a substantial portion of such material.”

In order to do so, North Carolina requires these sites to either use “a commercially available database that is regularly used by businesses or governmental entities for the purpose of age and identity verification,” or utilize “another commercially reasonable method of age and identity verification.” Companies are not allowed to hold records on any personally identifying information used to confirm users’ ages.

Additionally, North Carolina offers residents the right to a lawsuit if a site is found to record user identifying information, or if a minor’s parent or guardian finds that a website allowed their child to access a site purposefully hosting material “harmful to minors.”" obviously we don't want these websites having our IDs, but sites like e621 and pornhub just straight up aren't asking for them either- blocking their service to the state in it's entirety instead. even beyond the restriction of adult websites, obviously as the 'queerest place on the net' we can see how "material that is harmful to minors" is not just intentional vague wording, but a massive red flag. even if you dont care about the porn- which you should, this is a massive rights violation. how long until 'harmful material' is expanded to include transgender people? same-sex relationships? anything lgbtq? this is a serious fucking problem and it opens the door to hundreds of potentially worse bills that extrapolate on the same concept.

i have no idea what to do to fight it, but if someone smarter than me could add links to representatives or something, that would be awesome.

i'm also going to tag a few people to get this post out: @polyamorouspunk @safety-pin-punk @doggirlbreasts (i have no idea who else to tag, if any of you can think of someone who can help this post get out there, please tag them!)

[fullhalalalchemist]

URGENT: Congress about to pass a mass censorship and surveillance bill under the guise of "protecting children"

May 13 2023

The Senate has been in a "do something!" mode regarding children's online safety. They're using this as an excuse to push for widespread internet censorship and surveillance. The EARN IT Act, has a slimmer chance of passing with widespread opposition and some senators saying they won't vote for it. TLDR;The real threat is actually KOSA (s.1409), the Kid's Online Safety Act, which will mass censor and surveill the entire internet by giving all 50 state attorney generals the power to remove content that is "harmful" for kids, and force you to upload your govt ID online to access the internet. I'll explain how it works below the action items but it's absolutely urgent that anyone who likes having a free and open internet fights back. It's all hands on deck, because this has so much public support it's insane:

HOW TO FIGHT KOSA

CALL YOUR REPRESENTATIVES & THE COMMERCE COMMITTEE

This is a link to the Senate Commerce Committee phone numbers and a call script to read off of. (202) 224-3121 connects you to the congressional hotline

Opposition is getting drowned, and these upcoming weeks will be heavy for lobbying and they're using young people to do it. We NEED to show these senators that young people are actually opposed to this and don't want it.

2. Sign these petitions

Open Letter Against KOSA

Petition 1

Petition 2

Petition 3

Petition 4

Resistbot: Text PHJDYH to 50409

3. Spread the word.

The opposition is getting absolutely drowned online. Dove has nearly 100k signatures to push for KOSA. Influencers on tiktok are pushing for this without ever having read the bill. Fucking Lizzo is sponsoring it. If you have twitter, reddit, tiktok, are in any community, SPREAD THE WORD, PLEASE.

Here is a linktree with all the above petitions for easy shargin: Link to linktree

HOW KOSA WORKS

First, KOSA pressures platforms to install filters that would wipe the net of anything deemed “inappropriate” for minors. This means instructing platforms to censor. We saw how these filters impacted websites firsthand with tumblr in 2018, with not only blocking all adult content but also sfw queer content such as suicide hotlines, art archives, wiping out entire blogs because they had queer fandom related posts, etc. Places that already use content filters have restricted important information about suicide prevention and LGBTQ+ support groups. KOSA would spread this kind of censorship to every corner of the internet. And who gets to decide what is and isn't harmful for minors? Oh don't worry, just every single state attorney general and the FTC, which is appointed by the president. You know, the same attorney generals that just banned gender-affirming healthcare under the guise that it "ruins mental health" of minors. This is why the Heritage Foundation was one of the first to sponsor the bill because they can use it to censor trans content, and Senator Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee is it's co-author.

Second, KOSA would ramp up the online surveillance of all internet users by forcing websites to use age verification and parental monitoring tools. Yup, that's right. Now every single person who wants to access the internet has to upload their govt ID online to third party apps that get hacked all the time. You queer in a red state? You undocumented? You an activist? Have fun getting all your online activity and metadata attached to your govt ID.  

Over 90+ human and LGBT rights groups agree that KOSA is dangerous and updates to the 2023 version won’t and can’t address the big problems with the bill. This bill has MASSIVE bipartisan support, and the authors Blumenthal and Blackburn (yes, that Blumenthal that's pushing the EARN IT Act, and who also sponsored the RESTRICT Act and SOPA/PIPA if you remember) are using the tragedy of mothers who lost their kids to online harassment and young adults who've been traumatized online to lobby for it, and got Dove the company to use a bunch of influencers to push for this under the guise it prevents eating disorders...I wish I was lying. There are already 30 co-sponsors.

It is all hands on deck. I'm dead serious when I say if this bill is passed it is the beginning if not end of the open and free internet.

[nova2kss]

Influencer island

“GOOD MORNING AMERICAAAA”

“I’m your host Yanna Bailey and we are back here on the influencer island”.

“On the previous episode we introduced the men that dared to step foot on this island and you guys went absolutely wild!”

“I know we picked a top tier cast but damn, #theinfluencerisland number 1 trending on twitter?”

“You bitches are eating it up, so I know for a fact when we introduce these ladies yall are going to be in absolute shambles.”

“Starting off hot as HELL”

“….sorry y’all I had to take a breath.”

“It’s Mikasa fucking Ackerman”

“I fucking love her okay! And I’m not gon lie I don’t know if ima be able to host this show…you can’t put Mika in a room with Yanna cause ima jump on this woman bones.”

“Anywho.. Mika is a celebrity nail tech and hair dresser, you’ve seen her on tour with Victoria Monet, Megan the stallion, so many more but most importantly ? Cardi B!”

“Yes the girl who gives cardi those gorgeous claws and the girl who be giving cardi that long ass weave that be tickling her ass crack that is THE Mikasa Ackerman.

Aside from her gorgeous looks and work she is a party animal and you can see her turning up in multiple crowds of the artists that she stays with…let’s see if she can bring that same energy to the island.”

“Gosh I am so excited to introduce this next hottie, she so soft spoken but I heard she gives it up pretty wild off the camera, as you know she is a pretty new influencer so I think she’s coming in here with something to prove.”

“The gorgeous blonde baker Historia Reiss”

“So off topic but her name is sooo cute”

“Historia went viral showing her tremendous cooking skills back in mid 2023, and since then she’s been going viral for baked goods and beauty.”

“But let’s not forget about the time this little firecracker whooped ass at a Fourth of July party THIS YEAR!”

“Something that not only myself but the fans were not excepting, I know you guys are gonna be so happy to see her on here”

“We’ve seen how Historia gives it up in the in the kitchen, we’ve seen how she gives it up in the field, now it’s time to see if she can hang with these animals on this island”

“As stated she is pretty like an angel but the call her the devil…(there were no lies told)”

“Sasha braus first rose to fame on TikTok reviewing foods and looking so hot with that gorgeous maroon hair”

“You can see her with the talented man himself Jean Kristen, according to them they are childhood best friends and we’ve seen Jean and party mode but never sash…that’s gonna change on this island.”

“Sasha was ranked on the 2024 top 20 comedians list at #12, I can honestly see why everyone loves Sasha pretty, hilarious, and relatable… mhm she’s gonna fit right in here”

“Calypso, calypso, calypso…mhm girl you are gonna get me in TROUBLE”

“This short haired hottie calypso blue has been on a longgggg break from the internet and the only time we’ve seen her is when she popped outside with her influencer bestie y/n”

“And mind y’all we only knew it was her cause of them famous short hair..”

“Well let me tell yall, after a damn near year long hiatus she has popped out and boy oh BOY!”

“This girlie done came back with some longer hair, and some Tatts…?? We already knew calypso blue was a hottie but this?? Oh she is taking it hunty”

“The intro is no longer needed calypso blue is here and you’ll be seeing her first hand on influencer island.”

“…..I don’t like this bitch.”

“But it’s my job to introduce her.”

“Ummm so i really don’t know who picked her BUT this is Pieck finger, she’s a black haired bitch who party’s a lot fucked porco on video tried to get at my nigga and I’m probably gonna beat her ass.”

“On a brighter note we know she can party cause it’s all she does, no questions asked she could get as wild as the other guys and gals…NEXT”

“Our next and final blondie is Mrs. Hitch”

“And according to her Rihanna’s faviorite which I’m pretty sure the whole internet disagrees with but..I digress.”

“Beautiful girl who rose to fame back in 2022 being spotted with Rihanna and I mean if you’re being spotted with someone as big as mofucking riri you think we not finna check you out?”

“But besides being ri right hand women it’s time to see what else hitchey can do…you know without the co-sign ”

“The beautiful Ryan!!”

“Ryan is the owner of the ASOS clothing brand which is a brand for plus sized men and women.”

“She became very popular on TikTok while promoting her clothing brand and since then she’s taken off with so many sells, fans and followers”

“We know she can design the hell out some clothes but I wanna know what it she gonna do once her toes hit this sand.”

“As y’all known she’s known to be a shy girl and doesn’t party much…BUT WE CANT BE HAVIN THAT HAIR”

“So we gone need Ryan to come up out her shell and hopefully survive on this long awaited journey”

“And finally we have the beauty, the mogul, the TOP influencer y/n”

“She needs to intro we all know her”

“And we all love her”

“She is THE beauty influencer, 9 time outta 10 if you’re searching tips and tricks you’re on her page scrolling endlessly”

“I’ve partied with this city girl before so I know how she gives it up now it’s your turn to see and boy I cannot wait for you to see, you guys fav isn’t as innocent as you think”

“Whew lord I pray for the beds in this house cause with these fine ass men and these gorgeous women I feel like they’ll be broke before we ever get to finish filming.”

“Know that you know which of your favs will be participating in the match a vote will be up shortly you can choose who you want to stay or go before they even get into the house, and remember to chose wisely after all you don’t want the wrong person to get that 1 million dollar check.”

“I’m your host Yanna Bailey signing out, make sure you stay tuned for the pilot of influencer Island.”

The girlies are here!!!! Sorry if I didn’t add an aot character that you wanted, I needed my sexy ocs to shine 😁

Idk if you guys peeped but I tried to do different shades of black for y/n but yea first ep coming soon and make sure to vote on the poll !!

❤️

[k3n-dyll]

I know I said I'd be inactive but I gotta rant like I'm at a point of pure rage and I'm not all the way sober rn. As a black woman? I feel betrayed. Like I have no clue why, but for some reason I had faith in y'all to come through and recognize that while Kamala isn't perfect by any means that a Trump presidency would likely mean wraps for all of us, but no. Every. Single. Group managed to fuck up aside from black men and women in this election.

What happens when the internet becomes so overruled with censorship that we can no longer share information about the causes we care about? The police are already over militarized and the oompa loompa that's been put up in office is fully ready to grant them immunity, meaning they would essentially be able to do whatever the fuck they want to us without consequence.

I mean let's be fucking real that immunity is going to affect my community at a disproportionate rate just in case you guys already forgot what those pigs like to do to us. And my community is also that main group of people that is out on the street riding for everybody when there's an issue so what's gonna happen now? Hm?

Black women have been saying for a good while that we should vote for the candidate who will let us keep doing the work we're trying to do. The one that we would be safe protesting and organizing under so that we can make change both in and outside of our community, for example, actually putting third-party candidates in STATE GOVERNMENTS so that when actual viable third parties run, they'll have some chance in the presidential election. Y'know because the Electoral votes and support from state governments are really what matters.

And I say ACTUAL viable third-party candidates because, let's be real once again, half the people who voted for Jill Stein didn't do research on her like they should have. That white lady has been a grifter this isn't news.

It's like...watching people just cling to the idea that some big revolution is going to start within the next year because of this is exhausting, especially when the vast majority of American citizens had not a fucking clue about Palestine, Sudan, or Congo until 2023. Unfortunately for us, this shit takes time and actual irl community building. These election results have only made what would have been difficult nearly impossible because people either want to stand on some moral high ground or for 'tax cuts' that they aren't eligible for because half of you bitches are poor just like the rest of us.

I'm fucking exhausted. My ancestors survived slavery, Jim Crow, red lining - we're still surviving and fighting for justice for victims of police brutality and I am so. Fucking. Tired of surviving shit because y'all can't think critically for two fucking seconds. It's like doing a group project but everyone else has a few pebbles in their skulls knocking around in there instead of brains.

[the-rad1o-demon]

Please share, and donate if you can!!

$375 is way too low right now to be of any use in stopping KOSA, so the more you share, the better, and it's also great if you're able to also donate (only if you're able to do so without worsening whatever monetary and/or safety situation you're in)!!

This bill affects all of us. Both children and adults of the following: the LGBTQ+ community, Black communities, Latinx communities, Native American communities, Asian communities.

It will affect ex-Jehovah's Witnesses, and younger folks still trapped. Same thing for ex-Catholics and children/teens still trapped in the Catholic Church. Same thing for Mormons.

This bill affects everyone, okay? There is no beating around the bush. It has been stated time and again by literal lawmakers that this bill is a censorship bill. Senator Blackburn, co-author of the KOSA bill, said herself it would be used to "protect children from the transgender."

So please help keep the fight going. Because the more of us contribute, the bigger chance we have of winning.

And don't fall for that "oh, what I do won't matter much, other people will do it" line of thought.

Even if you think other people will help: please help anyway. We are running out of time, and when one person falls into this line of thinking, so does everyone else, and then nothing happens. So if you can, please help anyway, because we need all we can get. It's all hands on deck at this point.

So far, chances of KOSA being enacted is 31% according to the site linked below.

We need to get it down to zero. 31% is way too big still.

Also, here's a petition you can sign!! If you can't donate, signing will also be a big help (I also recommend signing even if you do donate).

You can also call your senators' offices!!

(Correct call script document in post this time as opposed to comment section, ha!)

The call scripts linked below were originally for Congressional representatives, but now that the bill is in committee consideration by Senate Commerce, you should call your Senators instead and you can use the scripts for them. Also, when calling your Democrat senators, make sure to add that Senator Blackburn explicitly stated in interview that it would be used to "protect children from the transgender." I think it's pretty clear that this is not meant to protect children. It's just going to harm children further, especially trans children.

(Article below with a video of the interview embedded.)

Please help keep the fight going. If we let up for even a second, the bill might get passed and the fucking conservatives will win this round. Yeah, we can still fight after, but it's going to be so much harder with how much damage KOSA is going to do to social media sites and our ability to communicate online.

We need to stop KOSA now, if we want the best chance at protecting our freedom on the Internet.

[datamined]

Because it's relevant to the blog: TLDR; The United States' Justice Department have Google in an Antitrust lawsuit over it's ability as a monopoly to corrupt search engine results and more people need to understand what's going on and why this is important. https://www.npr.org/2023/09/12/1198558372/doj-google-monopoly-antitrust-trial-search-engine At work one of my bosses threw a fit (justifably) because Google is doing a lot shittier things with advertising and their algorithm than you think. I feel like most people know at this point that Google search results are essentially bunk- the top searches is influenced by how much a company directly works with and pays google. People bid to make their names or businesses at the top of the search results. But it goes a little deeper in that. Recently, I learned that top bidders do not actually get the top result. Why? Because Google wants to make it look less bad when Amazon always gets the top result for virtually anything you're looking for. Top bidders get second top search, the NEXT top bidders actually get the top spot. I could be wrong, but this is essentially my understanding of it at our office in super simple terms. But the biggest issue right now is that Google actually quietly (but significantly) raised their prices for bidding and nobody has any fucking say in it. This makes large corporations (such as Amazon) more likely to be only ones that can manage to take up these top spots, and smaller companies continue to get shafted because they simply cannot compete and Google is essentially stiffing the competition, so to speak, harder than ever before. BUT ON TOP OF THAT, my boss also found that Google is actively making it harder to find information about this and the incoming huge fucking lawsuits thrown at them. They're trying to make it difficult for their users (and basically, the entire world considering so many devices automatically use google search, as Google has deals with Apple and Samsung) to find out anything about their corporate greed and corruption. When searching for the same thing in a different Search Engine like Bing, the lawsuits are the first things to come up. It's huge fucking news but few people know about it or are talking about it. The results of this lawsuit are going to permanently and drastically change the internet and how people find their information.

[isa-ghost]

REBLOG THIS, ESPECIALLY IF YOU'RE AMERICAN!

On March 2nd, 2023, Tennessee Governor Bill Lee passed an anti-drag (read: anti-trans) bill for the state. To grossly oversimplify, this bill basically requires everyone to pass as their birth gender, and any individual suspected of not being cisgender/being dressed in drag will be charged with a felony.

On March 8th, 2023, local legend Maia Crimew leaked 2600+ emails between hate groups and Republicans, scripting a narrative targeting trans people.

Now today, March 27th, 2023, in Nashville Tennessee there's been a mass shooting at a Christian school of ages Kindergarten to 6th grade. The shooter was reportedly a former student at the school, a 28 year old woman named Audrey Hale.

However, misinformation is flying through the internet, apparently starting from 4chan, that the shooter was a trans teenager and former student named "Samantha Hyde." There have also been archived threads about it.

Other sources, like one my mother read to me from Twitter which I can't find atm, claimed someone (Nashville police?) found the shooter's LinkedIn, which had he/him pronouns on it.

A few people have also told me they've seen tweets of people claiming the shooter was trans because "they can't imagine a real woman doing this" and other vile bullshit along those lines.

What am I suggesting here? I find it very fucking funny that we have 2600+ emails of proof that politicians are coordinating shit with hate groups against trans people, which arguably has started publicly in Tennessee after the anti-drag bill passed, and suddenly there's a "trans shooter" at a CHRISTIAN school full of young children IN TENNESSEE.

4chan rumor aside, this misinformation is already being used by sources like Fox News, the New York Post and, according Newsweek, "high profile" Conservatives in general to push their "Trans people are threatening our good Christian nation and are out to kill our children" narrative.

Even worse, the same Newsweek article claimed that the Nashville Police "confirmed" that Audrey was transgender:

SPREAD AWARENESS that this misinformation is being weaponized against trans people. REBLOG.

[becomingpotatoes]

quotes from the 2023 wine stream that live in my head rent free

“ive got my own alcohol free options…how do i continue from here”

“limited edition livestream where only one of us is completely sloshed”

“i’ll drive you i just cant promise that we’re gonna get there.”

“THIS ISNT A TABLE THIS IS A STOOL! THIS IS A STOOL!”

“yeah i do think people in mexico speak spanish”

“a dating show just like the qsmp”

“lloyd! my man lloyd”

“why are you fucking calling me on whatsapp auto”

“brighton. my favorite state.”

“i mean the sun’s shining”

“wilbur soot is DEAD. meet WILBUR SOOT.”

“they wanna hear about da eggs”

“you’re coming to vegas or else im gonna kill myself”

“ive been high on the internet twice”

“weed is like tiktok”

“what we need is this building to just start like fucking burning”

“his head turns into a fucking knife”

“it’s not fucking abba chat”

“what kind of music?”

“just the one that you sing”

[dazed-poltergeist]

The Scholar & The Assassin

Pairing: Arno Dorian x Reader

Warnings: None in particular.

Summary: Arno makes the Reader take a break for once as they prepare for an important assessment.

Add. Notes: I'm quite sure I have said this before, but I'm sorry if any of the Assassin's Creed characters I write about are out-of-character. I only have access to ACIII and ACIV: Black Flag, and honestly? I prefer playing first-hand instead of watching a playthrough on the internet. Now, watch me try to figure out the entire internal structure of Café Théâtre solely through Fandom Wiki screenshots-

>✉️<

{ Dude. I planned to write this in May/June to celebrate the end of the school year. I was like "why not?" and started writing the piece at the start of May. The problem? It's fucking August. I finished it after three fucking months. I'm afraid I finished this only because I felt obligated to. }

-Eero, August 2023

Masterlist ✧⁠*⁠。

"You have been working for quite a while. Can you take a break with me?"

Arno's spontaneous request caught you off-guard. You were a scholar preparing for the final exams created by your institution, and you now realized you had been studying in the memento gallery the whole morning.

"I probably should, I completely lost track of time." You responded to Arno, as you dipped your quill in the pot of ink sitting on your workspace. "Give me a moment to finish writing this down, I'll come with you in a bit."

"Will you? Put the quill back in the ink pot and simply go out for a bit with me." Arno insisted, but added with a chuckle: "It won't grow legs and escape while we are away."

You giggled at his remark as you got up from your desk. After a stretch, you cleaned up the quill and closed the lid of the ink pot. In the process, Arno left the gallery to get some more practical clothing for you.

As you were changing into the clothing Arno had brought you, he asked; "Do you know any places you want to pass by as we are out?" "I don't have any in mind," You told him, and added a question of your own, "You were the one who wanted to take a walk, though. Don't you have any ideas?"

"It never hurts to ask. But yes, I thought of going to the Café's rooftop, and it looks like that's where we are going." Arno stated, as the two of you began walking in the direction of the gallery's exit.

Once you had entered the balcony, you noticed that the weather had improved from the last moment you had taken a break. The Sun had come out and the winds had calmed down. Perfect weather for relaxing on the rooftop.

Arno swiftly climbed onto the roof, then turned to you and offered you his hand to help you up. You took it, and with a little struggle, you managed to get on the rooftop as well.

As the two of you moved away from the edge of the roof, you realized how much you envied Arno's skills as an assassin. Your inexperienced self was trying to keep up with him while he moved like he lived on the roofs.

Arno gestured you to sit next to him once you had made it to him. You obliged, and told him: "You need to teach me how to climb like that." "Like what?" He playfully questioned. Without a pause, you clapped back: "Like a roof hermit."

The man next to you burst into laughter at your blunt response. He took a moment to calm down, but finally he explained: "Learning to move the way I do takes years of practice. It's not something you can learn in one sitting. "

You sighed when Arno told you the truth about his skills. "At this point, I am probably too old to become an assassin," You told him. "You told me of a few assassins before. All of them were already related to the Brotherhood when they were children."

All Arno could do was agree with you. He was associated with the assassins since his childhood as well – his father was one.

Neither of you didn't want to dwell on that anymore, so you leaned against him, and began explaining the topics that you were revising before he offered to take a break.

He enjoyed listening to you talk about the things you studied, as you were passionate enough to dedicate a few years of your life to learn even more about it.

Arno realized shortly after that you were technically back in the state before the break – revising. He was sure to bring it up: "Wait a second! We are supposed to be taking a break from reviewing all that!"

[soaringwide]

Pick a Card readings - what I learned as a viewer/consumer

Part 02 of my vision of the use of pick a card readings. I’m someone who makes them but I also consume them as a viewer. I wanted to combine both in a post but it’s too damn long so I divided in two parts. Part 1, reader (link); and this is part 2, consumer.

Part 02 - From a viewer point of view

Link to part 01 here

I discovered pick a cards readings on YouTube back in 2017, was super into them for like a couple years before distancing myself from that whole thing due to realizing the spiritual bullshit I was getting myself into (it's a story on its own, so perhaps I'll go back to it at another time).

Found my way back to them back in December 2023, again on YouTube, then Tumblr, due to a specific love situation I needed insight on but for some reason wasn't willing or able to divine on on my own.

The Good & the Bad

I definitely think that they can bring actual insight to a situation. There were many time where I was blown-away by how accurately a pile described my situation, despite feeling like I was just ''randomly'' choosing the first one that pulled me in.

It's definitely an interesting exercise of intuition, to see if you're connected well to yourself and if you're able to grab the thread that shines with your color the most. It's quite fun to see that some days it seems really easy to find your pile from the first try, and some days you just struggle, or don't find it at all.

It's a nice way to get familiar with the feeling of your intuition ''clicking'' when you're looking at all the piles, and makes you realize that it's something that's available to a lot of people, and that's fascinating on its own.

That whole thing made me think about what was happening exactly. Like, is this internet reader I've never interacted with actually reading on my personal energy or situation? I don't think so. I went into it a bit in part 01 but yeah I think those readings target too general energies for that. I see it more like story lines floating in the air, and the reader is guided towards translating one of them (by who or why, I don't fucking know).

Don't get me wrong, it might still be accurate because we human are unique but we also are all the fucking same deep down, and history repeats itself all the time.

It's a game of resonance, as in, you're naturally drawn to the pile that holds the same note as the one you hold inside. And sometimes you do stumble upon a reading that is so crazy specific that it seems like it was made just for you. Not gonna get too into that because I found this post by @helianthus-tarot that explains it very well already.

However, something I've experienced myself and anyone has to be super careful about, is to not over do it.

I think it's very easy to end up in a toxic cycle when you keep looking at tarot spreads about the same topics. What happens is that you keep getting slightly different answers, which make you confused about the situation, so you want to find more, and confuse yourself even further in the process, thus starting an obsessive cycle of not feeling satisfied with anything.

It also removes your sense of agency. You end up trusting what you read online more than your own intuition and guidance and you abandon yourself, in a way.

I'm saying that because I went through phases where I was ob-sess-ed with those damn PAC because of a love situation that was frustrating me a lot, and my mood would actually fluctuate a ton if I got a good one or a bad one. It's like I was trapped inside my own head and was just mirroring the chaos happening within me and mistaking it for reality. It's possible that some of them were actually real but I had no way of knowing because I was seeking as many PAC in a day as I could, thus drowning any useful message and keeping myself in a state of fear that colored everything else.

So yeah that's your PSA to be more mindful about what PAC you decide to read or watch. Don't just read everything all the time. Take breaks and only do it if you actually have a clear issue in mind and feel called to a reading, and once you get the message you needed, let it rest until you or the situation develops further.

[penelopwgarcia]

Why did Alexandre de Moraes banned Twitter (or X, whatever) and Elon Musk is having a beef with the Brazilian Supreme Court because of it - from a brazilian

I don't know how many knows it but Twitter has been banned from Brasil - rightfully so, and as I don't want to extend myself so much what happened, in chronological order, is that:

1. The right-wing candidate Bolsonaro lost the elections on 2022, even when he clearly attempted against elections laws by sending feds to lock the streets on the area he knew he would lost (he was the president at this time). It was a miracle that Lula won, there were about 200 operations in various states to BLOCK the population to vote. But anyway, the left wing candidate won, and Bolsonaro's supporters didn't like it a bit. So,

2. They start to provoke people on Twitter, telegram and other social media to plead for the army to illegally take the power off the elected government (there are so many videos of them crying on the gates of the army all around the country is so fucking funny). Anyway the Army did the right thing for the first time ever and stayed quiet and didn't interfere. So then, those who provoke people to plead for a CONSTITUTION CRIME spread more messages for this group to handle the matter themselves through telegram groups and tweets.

3. In January, 8 of 2023 this misery of 3,000 people (and if you check the area where the Supreme Court, parliament and other state buildings are, you'll see they look like ants) vandalized and broke historical items on their wave of stupidity (because they truly thought those acts were leading somewhere) (!!!!also!!!! The cops did shit).

The thing is, as much as political speech will claim the case against the people that went to Brasilia (Brasil capital(yes it isn't Rio I know) and the people behind who orchestrated this federal crime is about democracy, it really is because they defied their power (specially the Supreme Court) and believe me those justices won't stop until each and every one that fermented it be in jail or get punishment of some kind.

But then, what does it have to do with Twitter at all? Because they spread their ideials from there. And if it was a right-wing thing, the same liberal shit, we would have to deal with it. But they're a fascists spreading hate and misinformation and therefore must be fought. And what did the billionaire Elon Musk do? He refused to block those accounts under the argument that it was against freedom of speech, saying it was a censorship, and that was a threat to democracy.

And as everything is political and Moraes (this diva) has the power according to our constitution to ban enterprises that don't have a legal representation in Brasil, he stipulated a deadline for Musk to do so. He didn't, and therefore the platform is banned.

The thing is, Musk could've banned the 11 accounts, but he choose to be whiny bitch under the liberal argument of freedom of speech without regulation and now the platform has lost over 200,000 users. What a genius.

Also, despite the fact SOME NEWS tries to put Brasil's decision as a dictatorship, the EU charges Musk for the very same reasons.

So no, Moraes isn't wrong in doing this because he did follow every step to ban fascists accounts. Regardless of his motivation (and I'm serious on this he isn't any left-wing supporter, back in 2016 when he was commissioner of Sao Paulo, he sent the police to brutalized teachers on strike) he isn't in the wrong side. Who is wrong all along is Musk, and as I see some right-wing conservative news, they are trying without shame to put the billionaire as a token protector of true democracy. As a brazilian who saw those illegal acts and knows who those accounts belonged to, I stand with conviction that freedom of speech HAS to be limited by laws and that the internet isn't a no man's land - if X doesn't follow our rules, then it isn't good enough for us to use either.

[jewishbarbies]

How on earth are Jews “playing the victim” when antisemitism has been well documented over CENTURIES? And it seems to increase? Also apparently saying hey I think maybe you shouldn’t harass them (specially since some people do love to do that to the ones who live in diaspora) and they deserve to live is still a hot take in 2023 and somehow for them implies that you saying it, means that you want a whole other group dead??? Like how

literally like these people are genuinely convinced that any kind of oppression is a competition, and if you think that way then you’re in the conversation for all the wrong reasons because this shit shouldn’t be happening to ANYONE. no one should be going through this. saying “jews deserve to live” does not mean palestinians don’t and vise versa. it’s the mentality of “oh they didn’t mention this OTHER thing so obviously they hate it” like if you say you like chocolate ice cream people automatically assume you hate/don’t like vanilla or other flavors, and it’s getting so incredibly tiresome. it’s wholly unhelpful and a waste of time and energy. we could be helping the people in the middle east but instead we’re on the internet debating whether or not jews should be harassed, if they deserve to live, and if calling for genocide of jews on a college campus counts as harassment and bullying.

I’ve stated so many fucking times now what I think and believe regarding pretty much every aspect of this situation and if people aren’t willing to take 5 minutes to scroll through what I’ve said personally, then they aren’t worth the time it takes to respond to their disgusting ignorance. period, end of. I’m done explaining the obvious to those who willfully ignore it.

[just-antithings]

Found while dredging up ✨influencer✨ controversies on TVTropes:

Lola Presents was a semi-active user on FanFiction.net who wrote many fanfics based on The Loud House. In her bio, she stated she was a 20-year-old female victim of child sexual abuse who wrote Loudcest fanfics as a way of coping with her trauma. However, on September 25, 2023, it was revealed that Lola was actually a married man in his fifties who had attempted to gaslight other users on the site. Shortly after this revelation, Lola deleted his account and scrubbed all of his fanfics off the site, ending his presence on the internet.

Is it me, or does this really not belong on the same page with the likes of Onision and James Somerton and Austin Jones? Aside from the vague mention of "gaslighting" (which - let's face it - these days could mean pretty much anything) it looks like literally all this dude did was write some fucking stories

also like in today’s fanfic climate lying about your identity so that you can write problematic fanfic is a lot more understandable imo