#Like as bad as money as I allegedly am (and I'm not bad I'm just no finance wiz) my parents are both worse in their ways

[smegmafactory4ever]

I guess i just always lived very much within my means (perks of communist parents who never explained to me what money is or how much of it we do or don't have atm) but I also got older, realized I need more than i currently have and even if it was something I could save for I have ZERO money saved (downside of having communist parents who never thought me what money is)....

[charmre]

Going through a tiny existential crisis rn bc what if I don't get out of my master's program with a job??? 🙃🙃🙃

[angellic-critique]

Hey, I want to ask something: why Is using a drag queen's persona to create a female character a bad thing?/genq

The implication of cissification/forced gender norms is what I take issue with.

You're okay anon. I am going to clarify that this is a queer person critiquing upon a poorly mishandled drag persona of an animated Italian mobster spider that is named after cocaine. I am aware of the extremities here but I cannot stress enough how harmful viv's surface level writing for only her character designs is genuinely harmful and hurtful to me, as a queer person.

I see the themes she attempted to write but having angel dust only centered purely around sex, sexual advantages from the porn industry [without substance[, the pimp abuse and nearly racist depictions of Italians [Gold tooth mobster who only likes guns, violence, sex, drugs, money, alcohol etc,]-

I could go on and on and on as to why Angel Dust despite seeming to come from some level of apathy to drag kings/queens is nothing but surface level tripe. I do not care if the show releases and all it is focused upon is Valentino's abuse and misdeeds towards angel, IS THERE ANYTHING TO THIS CHARACTER BESIDES BEING ABUSED.

there is a difference of wanting to design a drag persona and having the gender be ambiguous but it is an entirely different level of tripe bullshittery to have a character that is allegedly surrounded around drag performing and openly being himself, is supposedly forced under a guise of abuse to undergo the said drag performing...????

Having a AMAB crossdressing to be a drag persona but then take that empowerment away from him, as if he was never allowed to be feminine in the first place. Angel Dust screams tryhard sexy appeal. I do not understand his, alastor, or Stolas for that matters' 'sex' appeal if they are not written well nor with any care for that regard about the communities they are representing.

Viv just wants to write the themes of addiction, gay trauma and industry abuse? That's perfectly fine as long as there is nuance and reasoning and justification for those characters turning to those types of aliments for aid. What do I meaaan????

Alastor has no asexual/aromantic representation, if anything the fandom has proven that it is APHOBIC !!!

Stolas takes pills and it never going to be brought up until Octavia finds out and then SHE is casted to be the villain over calling out the fact that her dad is a POS that only cares about Blitzo! GENUINELY WHAT?

Blitz is an alcoholic stalker SEXUAL HARRASSER that has NO REPRECUSSIONS WHATSOVER FOR SAID DRINKING, IF ANYTHING THE SERIES PRAISES HIM TO BE ONE!!!!

Husk is also a surface level alcoholic that doesn't get called into question! I'm sorry I'm not talking about the main point you asked anon but genuinely please look at the larger scope over why viv just depicts abuse and substance use as 'haha comically funny' while attempting to 'humanize' her Demons. It seems that the show is just pro-abuse and of they genuinely actually have Valentino try to be threatening or a well written pimp ill laugh and delete my blogs honestly since I have no hope from script leaks revolving around him comparing guns to cocks. Viv really loves writing about industry abuse with no nuance here.

I did not bring up Molly whatsoever because unlike Viv I actually love the drag performer community and empowering culture they represent. It's the same reason I believe that Brandon Rodgers is anti-drag despite constantly crossdressing/displaying it within his videos. It's harmful because his drag didn't NEED to be a separate person angel dust should BE the DRAG PERFORMING NAME.

HELLUVA BOSS HAS PROVEN THAT ALL VIV CARES ABOUT IS EXCUSING AND MARKETTING ABUSERS RATHER THEN CALLING INTO QUESTION WHY ABUSE IS HAPPENING IN THE FIRST PLACE.

[montied]

Omg pleaseee tell me about your ocs, listening to people talk about their characters is my fave thing ever

AH hiiii

so. theres uhhh... lots. too many. nevermind its only like. nine. its perhaps an issue. whatever.

SO there is:

Francis

Yvonne

Irene

Anne

Robert

James

Audrey

Vivian

Nelson

I'll just do three main things about each of them so i'm not here for literally ever

Francis (last name is either Harcourt or Beaufort. i'm indecisive)

killed her husband because honestly he sucked

catches the tram which yvonne is often working on to her job at the ford factory

basically kidnapped as a child bc she's indigenous and that was the government's "strategy". that's a whole thing.

Yvonne Kennedy

tram conductress

about as normal as trams as i am about trains

she's chill unless you commit fare evasion. in which case she is Significantly Less Chill. this is partly due to not wanting to lose her job and partly due to her stringent following of rules

Sergeant Irene Lau (my belovedddd)

flight rigger with the waaaf

basically every new acw is terrified of her. not for any logical reason tbh. shes just strict.

the sort of person to get incredibly excited every time she sees a plane (despite literally working on an air base)

Anne Lau

Irene's 14-y/o sister

wants to be a journalist so badly

thinks vivian is So Cool and will do anything to help her

Robert

american marine currently stationed in australia

himbo, but you didnt hear that from me

he and nelson are very good friends

James

ran away from home to trans his gender. as you do

"helps out at the docks" allegedly. no-one has proof of this. what does helping out even entail.

weirdly mysterious + one of the only sensible ones here. well. occasionally.

Audrey!!!!!!!!

i love her but her character is literally entirely based off of vibes atm

loves a good trenchcoat (or a bad trenchcoat. any trenchcoat. hell, any coat)

Vivian Boivin

seems like she should be in a hollywood film.

doesnt have a "proper war job" because her parents think its not Ladylike. she is very salty about this. so she volunteers at the usmc canteen as a civilian and helps out on the same farm nelson works at despite not being meant to do either of these things. like. probably legally.

to describe her in one word? glamorous

Nelson (or Nellie or Addie, depending on who you ask)

land girl. part of the awla.

her family Has Money but differently to vivian's and irene + anne's. her father did Inventing and eventually that went well for him

chaotic mess tbh

anyway thank you for asking and uhh sorry for the really long reply lmao

also @dilfsuzanneyk here you go :3

[gwydionmisha]

The Boomers Keep Finding New Ways to Endanger My Housing

So good news and bad news on the illegal "Special Assessment" all wrapped up together. For those following on Tumblr, I'd been waiting for the money for the third payment to arrive at my bank account after I transferred it on the 4th, so I could pay the third installment. I couldn't transfer it until the monthly housing auto-withdraw went past or risk my benefits because that would exceed the $2000 limit. My bank said paypal hadn't sent it when I called them. I got a live person at paypal who said it would be sorted today.

There was still only bill money in the account. This time my bank was able to go back further for me. (They were limited database when I'd called before).

HOA stole the whole third installment instead of taking the regular housing payment without informing me or sending a receipt. as of last Friday, their obnoxious customized "Portal" did not have any category for Illegal special assessments, nor did it show the payments for it in the regular legal housing payment category. (I discovered this evening it now does both.) My Social security in toto is significantly smaller than the third installment of the illegal special Assessment. This massively overdrew my account, wracking up fees, none of it anything anyone let me know about.

The operative word here is "Instead of." The Math doesn't add up. They did not take monthly housing. The email they sent threatening to auto-withdraw all accounts owing said it would pull on the 17th, whether we wanted it to or not. By my Math I now owe them the housing payment they did not take last week.

I would need $300ish more to cover the rest of housing I don't have, plus the auto-insurance autowithdraw.

This leaves nothing for bills at all, with is likely to be another 300-400, as I just had to over extend credit for gas for errands and medical stuff this month. I think I can float this part a little while, but January is also a month with extra bills in it and February is the other big semi-annual housing bill, so it's just going to keep getting uglier.

This is so cruel and exhausting and none of it didn't need to happen if the Boomers hadn't been set on (allegedly) wasting the emergency fund on a non-functional security theater fence they put up without asking anyone instead of doing necessary repairs to the buildings with the emergency funds, or if the HOA would just have taken what they were supposed to take and waited until I transferred the third payment as we agreed they would do.

So here I am stuck again, because I'm pretty sure they will overdraw me next Tuesday, causing cascading overdraft fees at the bank.

I hate to do this, but it's been one disaster after another this year, in large and small ways, and this absolutely blind-sided me. Twice.

If you can help: https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/Gwydion

[zoobus]

Not a lot of boy centered otome mobile games out there in English, which means recommendations are usually bad because within that limited pool, none of them are actually alike beyond being a probable attraction to men. Here's what I played in the desperate hope of fulfilling the same hole Obey Me did for me.

Love and Deepspace: the new girl on the block. Allegedly breaking ground by being for girls and you beat up aliens. Extremely well made, tons of money poured into it, boring. Lots of reviews in that "I'm giving it 5 stars because I want to prove women are worth this kind of investment and/or are interested in action dating sims!" vein.

If I'm honest, I've realized no brown skinned dateables = no interest, so there was no chance I would care about this game. I tried though!

Twisted Wonderland: Despite how often I heard "if you liked OM, you should play Twisted Wonderland," the two aren't alike beyond surface level. It's an all right time passer, especially the vignettes. I have more fun mentally comparing them than anything - I could probably write a whole post about how despite similar premises, they're clearly not even after the same demographic, plus all the things each excel at, PLUS all the things I wish OM had copied. Why the hell does the Disney property understand the importance of deranged anime boy diversity, but the fucking 7 deadly sin dating simulator does not?

I also enjoyed watching my character tier-list change in real time. It starts off like I think these guys are the hottest, so I'll probably like them the most (Leona, Jamil, Malleus, Professor Male!Cruella) -> Okay, seeing this guy in action made me realize how cute he is (Azul) -> hahaha holy shit, this guy rocks (Rook, Azul, Jade) -> Your good looks will not save you from dropping tiers after that stupid story (Leona) ->...but a horny-coded vignette might (Leona and Vil)

Also, the story is kind of terrible, so I've been ignoring it. "What if we gave all of our hot guys tragic backstories that contradict the premise of the game (Disney villains won in this universe and are idolized for their actions) and were just kind of. Needlessly pathetic. In an embarrassing way."

Lovebrush Chronicles: Tried to care. Could not. Sorry.

Nu Carnivale: Love how it jumps straight into you getting a blowjob from demons but the second they pulled that card based battle system out, I was done. I'm sorry, I can't do this.

What in Hell is Bad: I'm not done with this. I will try again. But I am truly baffled by their battle system. No idea what was happening or how I won. Also, the one sex scene I read was cringe and bad.

Mystic Messenger: I saw my own review for the game timestamped to 2016 and withered up. I did love it though.

[exeggcute]

there's a developing story in Australian media about Tiktok pixels collecting unauthorised data in an aggressive manner via their ads on thrid party websites, and I was wondering what a Professional like yourself made of it

ooh reading into this now... full disclosure that (1) until/unless I get another job in adtech I am technically not a Professional anymore lol and (2) pixel tags weren't a big component of my last role so I only have a fairly basic understanding of how they work. but from what I'm seeing here it sounds like the main issue with tiktok rn isn't the data collection per se, since these pixel tags are functionally identical to the ones employed by facebook and others, just that tiktok isn't obtaining user consent the way other companies are ostensibly do. although even that seems like a convenient lead-in for the whole Oh My God A But Chinese Company Is Doing It thing.

and tbf I kinda can pull that in both directions—on one hand facebook in particular has gotten in a lot of trouble before for bad data collection practices and putting that data in the hands of people who used it to (maybe, allegedly) sway public opinion, so the general fear underpinning this thing is like, not unfounded right. (even though I don't think the issue behind the cambridge analytica scandal was centered around tracking pixels specifically?) on the other hand the very nature of facebook's rocky history re. data and privacy proves that western companies can and will spy on their users and it's for sure disingenuous to act like ~shady foreign governments~ are the only ones with any incentive to do so lol.

I guess you could argue that facebook's incentive for all the spying was simply Making Money, even if they took money from people who did use that spy data to spread propaganda; like, to the parent company, the propaganda wasn't the goal. whereas many will obviously argue that with tiktok data some undefined form of propaganda is the goal. but seeing that tiktok ads are a multi-billion dollar enterprise(!) I'm way more inclined to believe that tiktok is also spying for the sake of Making Money. clearly a whole fucking lot of money!

this is something I've for sure said before but I also wholeheartedly believe (and to some extent, know, although again pixel tracking isn't my exact wheelhouse) that advertising data is a lot less granular and therefore less useful than most people imagine it to be, which severely limits the kind of compromising shit you can pull under normal circumstances.

even in the article I linked, where they talk about tiktok pixels being able to track the shopping/browsing habits of users, basic device info, and occasionally some PII like phone numbers and email addresses... like, okay, so let's say tiktok knows that junglejim4322@yahoo.com used an iphone to look at a website that sells orthopedic shoe inserts. or even maybe something more salacious like, idk, questionably legal gas station dick pills. from a "let's use tiktok to spread propaganda" perspective I really struggle how that information would be valuable or what you'd do with it other than emailing that person outright to taunt them about their fucked up feet and/or dick? (if the goal is to show people certain kinds of content in tiktok's app then certainly you have both the means to do so and plenty of behavioral data to draw up on in the app itself. it's a literal video platform lol.) otoh from a "let's use this data to create advertising segments" perspective then you can easily monetize this info by telling advertisers that you know a guy who's a prime target for ads about podiatry treatments or whatever, in which case advertisers are more eager to spend money on ads because they think they're talking to a relevant audience. and in that case advertisers don't really care what the guy's name or email is, just that he ticks certain boxes that make him a worthwhile use of ad dollars. and even in cases where bad actors do want more specific data for shady purposes, it's pretty difficult to collect it and even harder to propagate it across different platforms; one thing I think gets overlooked a lot with cambridge analytica in particular is that it happened on a platform where users willingly share their full name, birthday, gender, relationship status, political leanings, job title, etc. outright, and then create connections between other people who also willingly share all that info. in some ways I don't think it could've happened anywhere but facebook, because this is a situation where you really didn't have to squeeze anything out of users—they just came out and told you! (it's also part of why non-shady facebook ads are so lucrative; you don't have to guesstimate audience data when you can literally just specify that certain ads should only be shown to people whose profile says they're between the ages of 35 and 55.) and as far as I'm aware tiktok just does not have anything remotely approaching that kind of profile data.

anyway lol. as far as I can tell I think this is a GDPR-y consent issue first and foremost, which will probably turn into a thorny battle over whether tiktok can/will be held to EU data standards or similar statues with a good helping of Chinese Company Bad mixed in for good measure. also side note but remember the whole thing about tiktok data transparency but the american company they put in charge of it is fucking oracle?

[poeticpains]

Alright. I've been chewing on the ETN movie news all day, and I think my thoughts are finally coherent enough to follow. I'll put it under a read more, mostly because it's probably going to be pretty negative and I don't wish to yuck anyone's yum.

First of all, I'll just say outright that I think including fans in the production of the movie is a bad idea. Allowing them to have cameos is, while still a little too close for comfort for me personally, one thing, but fully allowing fans to have directorial input on the season itself does not sound like it will end well in any way, shape, or form. What if they insist on a decision that Joey hates, but he does it anyways because they paid? Or what if Joey insists on a decision that they hate, and they wasted all that money?

I will be completely honest: do I want to be a part of the movie? Yes. Yes, 100%. I would love that. But that is not the question. The question is: would having me, a random 20-something with no professional film or writing experience, be involved with a movie be a good idea? And the answer to that is no.

(And I really don't want to hear about how this allows for us fans to have so-called representation. People with $350/$2,500/$3,000 just laying around do not represent me, and I'm sure that many of you feel the same way.)

Second of all, I am wary of anything that asks for funding with this little planning having gone into it. There is no cast list, no filming location, and contradictory statements on the nature of the movie itself. Is there even a script written? Is there even a story laid out? Joey has had four years to figure this out. And yeah, I know that I'm one to be talking about slow story writing, but the difference is that I'm not asking for $250,000 (at minimum!).

This is especially relevant when you consider the $3,000 donation tier and the promise of being in the movie as an extra. It says on the IGG account that it will be in the US, and yet the Twitter account says this:

I don't think I need to be the one to tell people that if you're US based and they end up filming in the UK, you're going to end up spending a lot more than $3,000 to simply get what you paid for.

This isn't me saying that I won't back it — I do plan to at one of the lower tiers, just to get the perks (I would be especially interested in the script). I'm just saying, as a friendly reminder, that it's basically akin to gambling, at this stage. Don't give them any amount of money that you're not prepared to lose entirely.

I know that a similar thing to this happened with the board game, and look how that turned out, in terms of fandom satisfaction. I don't know many people who actually enjoy that game; even I house rule a lot of it just to make playing it somewhat fun.

And finally, I really wish the Escape the Night Twitter account would get someone better suited to PR to handle their social media. It is wholly unprofessional and a terrible look for an organization that is allegedly trying to seek a place on one of the "traditional" streaming services to be getting into slapfights with people on their official account.

I realize that this post was pretty scathing, but I feel like it's deserved. I try not to be super negative on this blog, and avoid the worst of the drama, because I want my account to be a place of community. I just didn't want to ignore this.

I do have hope for the movie. I want it to happen, and I want it to be good. I want everyone to get what they paid for and be satisfied. I want to be able to get closure for Joey's story. (I want to see a 20 minute makeout scene between him and Matthew. With tongue! I'd give $350 for that!)

It seems that, at least for now, all we can do is hope.

[sweetfirebird]

I have a messy rant about some historical docs that I needed to get out. It's incomplete and not well-written, but, yeah, I had to get it out of my head. So it's going behind a cut. Free free to ignore it.

It's amazing how many documentaries about notorious historical figures will do their best to avoid any thought or commentary about the systems these people lived in (and sometimes ruled over). They might do a passing mention of something terrible in the person's childhood or something. But it's only ever in passing and it's not even a guarantee that it will get mentioned at all. (Maybe it's the shitty documentaries and I need some better books on the subjects.)

And I am not excusing any of the things these people did if they did do them. It's just incredible to me, though I shouldn't be surprised because we don't even really do this now for our current notorious figures.

As one example, though, I've watched/listened to a lot of things about Richard III and not one has really gone into any depth about the warring all throughout his formative years or how that was pretty normal? for the ruling class of that time and place? His brother had his other brother executed (for reasons but nonetheless he did it). His brother also (more than likely) had the previous king murdered. This was the procedure. This is a system that encouraged this and allowed this--as long as you held the throne once you had it and gave your supporters their cash money and honors.

Is (allegedly) killing your tween nephews bad? Yeah obviously but it also... is the logical outcome of that system. It was as close to perfectly normal as a system that allows taking leadership of a country by force and bloodline can be. He just failed at holding the throne but he wasn't like... unusual.

But they don't want to talk about that because, I assume, it sort of reflects badly on the entire still going monarchy business. (And yeah yeah Tudor propaganda but I'm not talking about that right now. I'm talking about the lens with which we are examining these people now.) Probably no one wants to talk about that but my annoying nerdy ass, i know.

Or, okay. Let's say you have people accused of Bad Things ranging from general debauchery and reckless behavior to... possible devil worship... to serial killing with a frankly ridiculous number of victims. Or let's say you are discussing a few cases of "mad" kings. Or de Sade or someone like him. If you set aside the validity of many of the charges against these people (it's easy to accuse someone who is already behaving badly of behaving VERY badly in order to get what you want) and acknowledge the difficulty of diagnosing anyone hundreds or thousands of years later, you have... people being punished for being, like, too obviously the logical outcome of their time and place and then failing instead of succeeding. That's it. These monsters (to us) could only exist in those places. They are products of those places. But these specials never go into that. They just popped up out of nowhere! Amazing! A mystery!

Like, these people were just embarrassingly too much of the thing they were supposed to be and it was making the rest of those in their stations look bad, which set their peers against them and made them easy targets (for land grabs or whatever).

Or when they did succeed (while being horrible), the docs try to excuse it, and maybe this is why you get modern historians trying desperately to say that Henry VIII must have had a head injury or madness from syphilis to explain his behavior and not just....

he was never told no, guys. No one ever told him no. There was no way TO tell him no (if you wanted to keep your head). Henry is what happens when you do that. Henry is what happens when the world says women do not really have value outside of childbirth and fucking anyway. Henry is what happens when you say kings are divine--and he's also what happens when you come from a violent class and culture and you've recently had a long civil war that killed off most of the other possible claimants to the throne so there is no one to really oppose or stand up to you.

Or the slutty slutty drunken Earl of Rochester having no known childhood behavioral problems being carted off to school at thirteen and then suddenly becoming reckless and violent and lecherous? I wonder if the set up for abuse of all kinds at those schools had anything to do with that, and then also the general world for noble men of that time which allowed them to do whatever they wanted, particularly with (lower class) women with little to no repercussions. hmm a mystery where he came from.

He's not actually that unusual, he just wrote slutty slutty poems about it so he gets remembered. There were tons of dudes like him who probably did worse. They just also did enough of the things they were supposed to do that no one cared about the rest. He's not really an outlier. He is representative of the time and place.

These are ruling class people, and it's Europe, so there is also the Church to consider in all of these things, like, intricately tied up with the misogyny and classism and everything else is the Church. It is also a thing with beliefs that these docs do not want to get into. And I'm not going to go into it either right now. It's just a pattern I've noticed and it's irking me.

Heroes and horrors are created by their times. I mean... no. NO. I'm going to stop there before this gets any longer or more rambly. They still do this now, I know. But I guess I expect historians to have the distance to really look.

But as I said, maybe I just need to watch better docs.

... You can see now where Larin came from though, I bet.

[elizabethplaid]

daily notes - april 16, 2024

Got up fine today, though I still didn't quite feel "on my game". How bad was I spaced out? Didn't realize I forgot my nose ring until I was already at the library. Remembered my other jewelry, though!

LL-J wasn't there, so it was an "indulgent" day. Since joined me again, too. I played phone games the whole time, until there was like an hour left. Then I read badly-edited romance novels and kept having to stop and cringe, pedantically.

"Why am I reading this?" I asked myself. It's the smut, truly. But a lot of the stories on the app are fantasies: eg werewolves, billionaires, mafia, fated mates, etc. So the lead-up romance scenes aren't always smooth.

I had just finished a really nice story set in a bakery with a hard-of-hearing FL and an ML with burn scars on his leg. (It's "Wrong Number" by Laura Brown, on the Readict app, if you're inclined.)

There was another recent one with some cursed pirate-ghost situation. Seemed to be set in my area of Maine, though they only mentioned nearby towns. They also spelled Eastport as two separate words and misspelled the name of my college's town. Other than those details, it was pretty nice. ("Salvation" by Jacqueline Paige)

I haven't been reading on the app as much since mid-January, when my phone-friend got in contact with me again. Between our conversations and rereading my own writing, it's a lot harder to turn off my brain for these stories.

The hyper-empathy is also a challenge, as I envision how I'd react in those situations. In particular, it's the rich guy buying expensive things for the woman without consulting her. (In contrast, those shopping-spree montages in movies are a fantasy I know I want but can't achieve. More because of what sizes stores offer, than the fictional budget. Guess it's about control and my opinion mattering.)

My mom used to do that a lot, with her ebay purchases, and her bad spending habits were a big source of tension in the family. But she'd buy these things with me in mind, allegedly. Sometimes it was something I wanted to show her to say "hey this is neat"; other times, it was something of interest that I hadn't seen. But they were unwanted. After all, if money is finite (mom always ran up her credit cards to the limit), I should make what I get count - pick out something -really- good, that I won't regret getting.

I've mentioned this to phone-friend before. When thinking of trinkets as gifts, I said I wanted something practical yet meaningful, preferably not expensive. And they gave me a Saint Sebastian key chain, which I adore. My side of the exchange was our friendship bracelets.

Over time, I've learned -and am still learning- just how much my mom mucked with how I perceive relationships. It's tough to accept being appreciated for just being myself - that I don't have to do some service in order to be "worth keeping around". (It was easier to accept that my body type can be seen as attractive, and that's already a hurdle for many people.) Accepting gifts makes me feel guilty sometimes, reliving those memories. I'm getting better about asking for allowance, but I don't like spending money often.

It's funny that mom was the one who introduced me to romance novels, including the smutty ones. Now I'm noticing my struggles with enjoying them, because of her affect on me. Then again, I keep thinking of what I would do in these situations. Basically, it's food-for-thought as to developing my own stories.

[gaykarstaagforever]

I missed the fine details of the Linus Tech Tips implosion back when it happened, because I was starting a new job and dealing with workplace bullshit of my own (fortunately nothing quite so serious as what happened here).

But I'm nothing if not a little slut for other people's drama, so I watched Austin Green's 2 hour discussion of the LTT car going off a cliff.

Being 40 and not interested in Call of Duty, I am no longer always shopping for new overpriced hardware and so was never a huge Linus fan. Some of the little side channels were interesting enough background noise. Filled with bad data and lazy tests, apparently.

Like, you had one job, dude. And it wasn't to turn into a daily content farm with an accuracy rate rivaling what you would have gotten if you'd just had AI do it. You chucklehead.

I don't mean to be trite. This guy is a man-baby piece-of-shit, and ruined how many people's lives and livelihoods because he thought he was Steve Jobs or something? And Steve Jobs was also a huge asshole with emotional problems who treated people like necessary evils. But at least the company he worked for had a barebones functional corporate structure to smooth over all the internal fallout from his shenanigans.

It isn't like Linus didn't have the money to pay qualified people to handle his chaos. If he wanted to personally step back and do his dumb podcast - which he obviously did, or he wouldn't have hired 120 people to churn out bad videos in the first place - why didn't he turn management over to people who could just quietly run things for him? Instead he let whatever managers he had seemingly hired from the darkest recesses of Twitter yell at and grope whomever they wanted, so then he had to personally whine and threaten people to deal with the consequences.

Like...that's MORE work, not less, you weiner. And it immediately puts all your brand deals and corporate relationships in trouble, because real companies run by grown-ups aren't going to want to be associated with you and your egg carton of incel turds. I don't understand the math. Except that he just didn't give a single fuck so long as someone was handing him money, and he never figured it out beyond that.

Which is believable. I mean, who is he? Just some YouTuber who got big. That doesn't immediately qualify you to be good at anything besides whatever batch of skills that is. But that's why so many people in his position hire qualified corporate people to run their businesses, or at least agents and PR people and lawyers to deal with the boring day-to-day slog of contracts and paying bills and making sure people show up to work and stuff.

He didn't do that. He never learned that? He's out of Vancouver, and he didn't know he could do this any better?

Or is he just so greedy that any dollar spent on something not immediately generating 2 dollars wasn't appealing to him? That's such bad business. Like, his entire brand and career was always doomed the moment all the behind-the-scenes shit he refused to be a man about inevitably went public. And that is exactly what happened.

Businesses are inherently evil and exploitative. Sure. But they also pay all those people and have all those rules because they NEED TO. To follow the law, to not get sued, to stay solvent. How did a 35+ year old man, presumably with a mortgage and family, not ever learn this? I'm not much older than him, I don't even have a YouTube channel, and I knew this. Come on, dude.

...Also, LTT OnlyFans? Where you allegedly made at least one female employee flirt with guys sending her cock pics?? What kind of exploding clown car shit is that?? Where in Steve Jobs's biography did he sell iPhones by making his PA do topless conference calls? That sounds like something I would sarcastically suggest a failing company try. And I'm an idiot who has to remind myself that wrestling isn't real at least 4 times a week.

I hope Linus and the other Reddit trolls he hired go to jail or at least get fined for all the obviously illegal things they did. And Lord give the rest of us the strength to cancel them for all the other nonsense they pulled that didn't actually break Canadian law.

And if you still need product reviews to help you shop for graphics cards, watch Gamers Nexus, the guys who stood up to call LTT out in an unimpeachable way, back when they got nothing but flack for it. I can't vouch for their accuracy, but they at least seem to care about more than just pimping the Algorithm for money they can then ill-advisedly invest in doomed little tech startups no one cares about. Another thing Linus does.

Say what you will about Jimmy Donaldson, but at least he just rebranded crappy chocolate bars. Which was also a confusing and stupid thing to do, but at least no one got groped. Allegedly. That we know of. Yet.

...People may have gotten injured during his Squid Game thing. I can't remember the details. And I can't google MrBeast facts without YouTube peeing the very worst content all over my recommendations for the next month.

I think we can all just agree that Google deciding to do revenue sharing with content creators was probably one of the worst decisions they ever made; that we, as a global society, have ever made. These are the people who after 20+ years still haven't come up with a user-friendly interface for Gmail, and we put them in charge of Earth's television?

Linus is terrible, and we made him into what he is today. It would be great if we could all learn from this sort of thing.

We won't, but wouldn't it be great?

[galvanizedfriend]

I'm scared about all the AI stuff that's been going on. I don't want to lose my work or my characters. Is there anything that we can do to make sure we still keep our works?

So am I. :( In my line of work we're already starting to see the use of AI being seriously discussed to replace certain tasks - and not because it'll make workers' lives easier, or even be necessarily more efficient, since it'll be utter chaos not to have real humans in certain position. It's purely to save money, both by replacing people and by creating more unemployment, which will then lower overall wages.

If you're a writer (I assume you are, since you mentioned you don't want to lose your characters), I don't think it's so much about losing rights over what you create, but having machines being trained on existing content (maybe even yours) in order to do your job. Publishing a single book is work that involves an entire chain of people. The writer is just one part. You have at least one editor, you have someone who prepares the text, you have someone who does formatting, you have sometimes a proof-reader, or sensitivity readers depending on what kind of story you write, then you have artists who create the covers and other related illustrations, and that's not even to mention people such as agents, who perform a very important role identifying good manuscripts, finding new writers, and then representing them.

What AI is already doing is using existing works in order to train a machine in specific styles so that a computer might churn out an entire novel in the space of an hour. They're using someone's work for machine-learning, but they're no longer having to pay any of these people in the chain of creation any money for it. In my country, there are big publishing houses already using AI created illustrations for books. But computers don't have artistry, it doesn't have coloring or drawing styles. They are stealing the work of illustrators to allegedly create something "new", making money off of this thing, and not paying the original creators a dime.

This is a particularly dire situation for independent writers/creators, or writers/creators who publish their work through small, lesser-known publishing houses. There's always going to be a hefty countract for the J.K. Rowlings and the Stephen Kings and other big name authors. It's for the little ones and the ones just starting that things are going to be very complicated if widespread AI use is allowed to continue like this. And then imagine the consequences of this in the long run in terms of authenticity, originality, creativity, diversity. Imagine the consequences of this for entire careers. How many people are actually going to be able to make a living in the publishing industry?

I'm obviously painting a very bad picture here that might seem like an exaggeration right now, but it's certainly the path things are starting to take (like with the book covers I mentioned). And I honestly don't know what we can do. I don't know if there is anything any one person can do to stop it. For so many years, particularly for artists and creators in general (but noy only) we've been told that the internet was where we should be. Showcasing our writing, photography, illustrations, paintings, and so on. It's how people publicize their work and get noticed. If you're not on the internet, you don't exist. You need to have portfolio online, preferably with a built audience. And suddenly, having that kind of thing out there now just means that everything we create can (and probably will) be used to train an AI that will make these very same creations not necessary to the industry anymore. It doesn't stop us from writing, painting, or what have you, but it means we might not be able to make a living out of it anymore.

It's not really about banning the use of AI, it's about establishing rules both about how it is trained, and about whether or not whatever an AI creates should be copyrightable. Honestly, if it's decided that AI-created content, whatever kind of content it might be, cannot be used for profit or protected by intellectual rights, then it's already a very big step, because then it will just not be financially interesting anymore to these industries to replace artists and writers and actors for AI, since anyone will then be able to just steal whatever they create out of that. If Disney have a show where scripts are made by AI, then it can't be copyrighted. Anyone can take it and do their own thing, make a new show, whatever. What are the chances that Disney will then start using solely AI for their scripts (like they want to)?

That's the discussion that needs to happen in the next few years in many, many areas. It's already happening in many countries, within many industries, unions and sectors of society in general. AI can be a very useful, helpful tool, but it cannot be used for exploitation and to create massive unemployment.

I'm not the most politically engaged person in that aspect, but what I can say is if you're ever in a position to have your voice heard, do it. If you know that discussions are happening close to you, or online, see if there's a way for you to take part in it. or just spread the word, make sure more people are aware of it. Discuss it with your friends or your social groups. And if there's a way for you to protect your creations from AI-mining, do it as well. As individual people with very little power, we can often only rely on our representatives to make the right decisions (which doesn't always happen, sadly, especially in certain countries), but there are serious people and unions fighting the good fight out there. We can show our support.

[practicalmagicintuitions]

Regarding the anon about the author, he said he's seen better and he's seen worse. The Netflix show and game are not the first or last adaptations of the story. Lauren contacted him about the show and said he didn't want to be a part of it and that he believed in artists freedom of expression. I stopped supporting all of Cavill's work personally. Stopped watching after season 1. Can't lie though I found that comment on matching the reading tantalizing! Spill the tea anon! 🤣

As for the Jonah Hill thing, my first thought was that old adage when someone tells you who they are, you should listen. I don't agree with all his personal boundaries but he spelled it out right there on the kind of person he was. He's free to have boundries. And the girl was free to walk if they didn't fit her life. I don't care if someone uses therapy speak. If what they said is an ultimatum that doesn't match my needs/wants/life etc. Then I'm out. It is that simple but us humans love to complicate it for one reason or another. Obviously I have no inside knowledge but I bet she thought if she sticks around for awhile and shows him some loyalty he'll change. He'll get more secure in himself and in the relationship and it will get better. Nope! You need to look and accept that person for who they are in that moment. Not what they could be, should be, would be.

“Obviously I have no inside knowledge but I bet she thought if she sticks around for awhile and shows him some loyalty he'll change. He'll get more secure in himself and in the relationship and it will get better. Nope! You need to look and accept that person for who they are in that moment. Not what they could be, should be, would be.“

I SO agree with this.

For the record I think Jonah Hill is extremely insecure, that’s why he needed to rely on therapy talk aka others thoughts but at least that means he is willing to go to a therapy and thy to improve himself, be more aware. Being in a relationship with an insecure person is extremely daunting but this alone doesn’t make the relationship abusive or even toxic. I think his biggest mistake was ( and I never understand this) the need to keep a friendship with his ex. No. This is not a possibility especially if the main disagreement was having/not having a family. The way he said “look, maybe I am not for you, go on separate ways if our needs don’t align etc” for me is super grown up and adult thinking and shows he didn’t want to tie the girl to himself or didn’t blackmailed her emotionally. The girl’s responses and actions are super immature though. She definitely thought she will got the ring if she sticks. And this is a perfect example for you ladies. Never date or invest time into a potential. So I think they were not compatible, but she is butthurt and posting those screenshots is just effin low.

About Sapkowskij: I think he just loves money and sold the rights and doesn’t care that much until he gets his share. Which is okay if he is okay with it. But this still doesn’t legitimize Lauren’s unbelievably bad writing. Wattpad is nobel prize worthy compare to her storytelling.

About the anon an rhe tea. Maybe I was just too careful not to share this, idk. Anon said it seems HC indeed bought his house throughout a company which can be in fact reduce costs like taxes. Allegedly! Which is totally align with my reading on the matter. So we will see if anything will be more clear or specific on this subject. I obviously didn’t see any document or anything so it could be just a rumor. But I don’t think this is only a gossip.

[ohbutwheresyourheart]

If you get this, answer with 3 random facts about yourself and send it to the last 7 blogs in your notifications, anonymously or not! Let's get to know the person behind the blog :D

oh god I'm sorry friend I've been saving this for an unspecified good moment but I'm just doing it now

I like beer! Light beer mostly (I like a hazy pale ale) but I can also go for a delicious dark chocolatey porter. Brought to you by: I am sitting in a brewery, allegedly writing.

I am writing a novel! It is called Unquiet Bones and is about death and the extent a person is entitled to autonomy over the time and manner of their death, set against a backdrop of necromancy, a failing kingdom, and a cult run by a man who is very kind, very evil, or perhaps both. There is also a wisecracking skeleton.

If I won the lottery, I would absolutely use at least part of the money to fund a union at my workplace. Also, I would buy a truly monumental haul of hand-dyed yarn.

I am bad at tagging people for this stuff, so if you see this feel free to do it 💖

[falconlord5]

Maid of Honor

I.e. the episode dedicated to getting as much crap past the radar as possible.

Ah, Paris. That most romantic of cities. Allegedly.

Where did Diana learn French?

Well, now we know where Zack Snyder and Joss Whedon ripped that scene in Bullshit v. Stupid from.

Smooth, Bruce. Smooth.

Audrey is reminiscent of a more innocent time. Before Paris Hilton and Elon Musk, when we admired useless layabouts with obscene amounts of money.

This aired two years after 9/11. I'm honestly surprised they managed to get away with terrorists in a kid's show after that. Though, the DCAU has been mining terrorists as threats since BTAS

Wonder Woman is a foot taller than Audrey and it's kind of adorable

Written by Dwayne McDuffie

Directed by Dan Riba

Kaznia is kind of a screwed up country. Though it does appear to be doing better than the last time we saw it in STAS.

Pretty sure hijacking superhero is a crime, Audrey

Bruce is clearly a 'work hard, play hard' kind of guy

Man, there is nothing I love more than when they do the old BTAS gag of making Batman just... become his entire silhouette.

Every bad guy says that, and every bad guy is wrong.

Diana and Audrey have the exact same eyes. Like, the exact same. Their facial features and builds are different, but the eyes are identical.

That is not the word he used.

Diana x Audrey all I'm saying.

In the real world, clubs have limits due to things like fire safety. Being a celebrity does not (necessarily) allow you to cut in line.

Audrey just straight up arranged an orgy on a kid's show.

Okay, first off, Bruce: you, 'Mister I am the Night!' have no right to judge anybody about the hours they keep. Secondly, breaking into a lady's room is tres creepy

Lying motherfucker you are, Bruce Wayne.

Yeah, cause she's a ditz! And as princess, probably does not have the authority to order her military around. That would either be her father the king or their prime minister, depending on what flavour of dysfunctional government Kaznia has.

Dun dun dun!

On the one hand, Vandal Savage's origin is a little weird even for superhero comics. On the other hand, it's not that weird? And wouldn't the Kaznian royal family have done a thorough background check first?

Wow, they implied the king was a rapist and murdered him on screen. On a kid's show!

Savage, you are a manipulative prick, you know that?

That's an old-school tv.

That's remarkably good animation for a tv show.

Superman created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster

Batman created by Bill Finger

Wonder Woman created by William Moulton Marston

Animated by Koko

[bemusedlybespectacled]

Additional updates! OH JOY, OH RAPTURE.

Update 1 (short but awful):

Kat, Hbomb's producer, got emails claiming to be from James, including one that explicitly threatened suicide. We don't know if they are from James or not – they could be sockpuppet accounts or just imposters sending harassment – but clearly it was on Kat's mind, at the very least, when James posted the suicide note on Twitter.

Update 2 (MORE fraud): In addition to his Twitter and Tiktok sockpuppets, he had a LinkedIn account under a fake name with fake credentials (since deleted, but screenshots are below).

I am specifically calling them "fake credentials" for two reasons: 1) it's James Somerton, no one should believe a word he says without independent, documented proof to back him up, and 2) in his second apology video, he discussed at length how he'd had trouble finding jobs, both in and out of his areas of expertise, because he had epilepsy and therefore was considered a safety hazard, and so couldn't be insured under his employer's insurance. Because of his inability to work a "normal" job, he turned to Youtube for money.

Now, this is bullshit for different reasons: employment insurance is based on the kind of business and whether it's high or low risk (ex: the insurance premiums for a library are going to be much lower than those for a coal mine), not the safety profile of any individual employee, and anyone straight telling him "we don't think you can do this job because you have epilepsy" is looking at a very easy employment discrimination lawsuit. But regardless, that was his claim: "I can't work because I have a head injury."

So, there are three possible scenarios:

James is lying about his credentials on his LinkedIn, and does not have the experience he claims to have had. I'm particularly dubious of his claims to have attended Carleton University for his MBA the entire time he was a "Marketing Specialist and Account Manager" in London, on site, particularly given his other claims that he grew up extremely poor and was still poor enough to need a roommate (Nick) for the first few years of the channel, and AFAIK has never discussed living or working anywhere other than Canada. In both apologies, he only ever mentions moving between different locations in Canada, without mentioning anything like living in the UK for multiple years.

James was lying about his inability to work in his second apology video, and was in fact able to balance multiple jobs while also producing content for Youtube, and hold down those jobs for significant periods of time. This is all despite allegedly being turned away or fired from jobs due to his epilepsy and having such bad memory issues that he could not tell when something was written about his own experience or was copy-pasted from someone else.

James was lying about both: he is capable of working a regular 9-5, but something else (lack of experience, lack of work ethic, lack of the kind of prestige and money he'd want) keeps him grifting on the internet instead.

Sources and screenshots under the cut:

Additional link sources:

Transcripts of his first and second apologies, with commentary, since I reference both. Check out that whole site, btw, they have good breakdowns of the misinformation and plagiarism in his videos.

what's happening with James Somerton right now: a probably-incomplete primer

TW: suicide, including suicide as a threat and a manipulation tactic.

The short version:

James Somerton is a former Youtube essayist who focused entirely on queer history, queer media criticism, and queer issues in general. He is also a flagrant grifter who has made tens of thousands of dollars via fraud, both directly (lying about his finances to beg for money and getting donations for films he never even started making) and indirectly (stealing whole essays and articles and books, reading them out loud verbatim for his videos without indicating they were anything other than his own work, and then using the prestige he gained from using their work to get Patrons and sponsorships).

The story as told James and James apologists was that James attempted to apologize twice, was hounded mercilessly on the internet for weeks, and then, driven to the end of his rope, he posted a suicide note on Twitter, was MIA for several days, and from then on has been avoiding the internet.

The actual story, as revealed yesterday, was that James used two sockpuppet accounts to defend himself and parrot his talking points (again, while publicly claiming to be trying to take responsibility for his actions), using one to try to rebrand the con under a different name and another to deliberately stoke the panic caused by his suicide note. He was not only aware of the pain and anxiety he was causing people, but he encouraged it on one alt while hornyposting about his favorite movies on the other.

He is an unrepentant con artist who successfully used a suicide threat to prevent further interference with future cons. The only reason he was caught is because he is apparently incapable of going more than a couple of weeks without trying to get back in the internet spotlight, allowing people to tie his alts back to him. He lies for fun and profit and he should not be taken seriously, ever.

The long version:

In December 2023, Youtube essayist Hbomberguy (Harry Brewis) put out a four-hour-long video about plagiarism on the internet, and devoted two hours to addressing as much of JS's plagiarism as he could. I strongly recommend watching the entire thing, as the first two hours build on the concepts that he uses later in the video.

He also blew the whistle on James' fraud surrounding Telos, a studio James founded using thousands of dollars of IndieGoGo money that never actually produced any films despite him definitely working on them! Any day now they'll be released! Don't you worry!

A day later, Todd in the Shadows, a guy whose entire thing is music reviews, posted his own video debunking multiple outright lies that James had told about history, especially queer history. A few more days later, The Ace Couple, who run a podcast about asexuality, released an episode detailing how they'd lost $1.5k donating to Telos.

I have put the videos, Twitter threads, Patreon posts, and Reddit posts by other people discussing different aspects of James' fraud under the cut.

Every other time James was caught plagiarizing, prior to Harry's video, he would lie about it. Either he'd have some excuse (easily proven to be a lie) or he'd retreat to his favorite deflection: "I'm just being harassed because I'm gay."

This last lie was one he'd use not only to deflect accusations of plagiarism, but all criticism in general, no matter how trivial. Every time, the critic or someone associated with them would somehow dox him, or harass him, or send him death threats, or threaten to falsely accuse him of sexual assault.

This happened to The Ace Couple (who'd tried to correct him on something extremely acephobic in one of his videos), Jessie Gender (who'd tried to correct him when he claimed that there were no queer content creators on Nebula, given that she and a bunch of other queer creators were definitely on that platform), and the person who first blew the whistle on him stealing from Tinker Belles and Evil Queens by Sean Griffin (who was accused of being behind death threats he'd received, and hounded so harshly they had to leave Twitter).

It is important to note that every time James faced potentially damaging criticism, or even just a threat to his ego, suddenly he would claim to be harassed by people connected to the critic, including threats to his life. There has never been any proof of any threats being directed at him, nor evidence that, if the threats were real, that they are actually from people connected to the critic.

In the original video by Hbomberguy, Harry makes a compelling argument that James brought on a friend of his, Nick, as a co-writer specifically as a shield against accusations of plagiarism. "How dare you accuse me of plagiarism! Nick would NEVER do that!" This is even more apparent given subsequent developments which I will get into.

When evidence started dropping about different aspects of his fraud (not only Harry's video, but Todd in the Shadows' video debunking his misinfo, The Ace Couple's podcast about their experience donating to his fraudulent film studio, and Dan Olson's tweet thread about James' obvious lies about his finances), he went into hiding for two weeks, and then put out the first of two apologies. He then deleted that one and put out another one a few weeks later. And then he immediately deleted that one.

While his first apology was rambling, vague, and dramatic (lots of sniffing/crying), and his second was more measured, thought-out, and totally batshit (lots of hilariously and bizarrely implausible excuses for why he'd done what he'd done), they had roughly the same points:

Not ALL of his stuff was plagiarized! Actually, a lot of it wasn't! No specifics as to what, though!

Most of the stuff that was plagiarized was just a failure to properly cite sources, as he had no idea that putting someone's name in your end credits or video description (without specifying what parts are attributable to that person or disclosing that you are using their words verbatim) is not sufficient credit,

Also, he totally had permission, in some cases, to use their work verbatim prior to publishing the video (this is not true, and is disproven both in Harry's video and his own screenshots);

He definitely didn't commit fraud with Telos and would soon have a good explanation for where the money went! (he did not)

He was going to keep the videos up so that he could either donate the funds from any monetization to the fund Harry had set up for his victims or to "help Nick's portfolio" by showcasing his work;

He lost his best friend (i.e. Nick) over these allegations, who absolutely definitely wasn't a scapegoat, except Nick was also responsible for a lot of the stuff James was being criticized for;

He was going to keep the videos up so he could either donate the advertising proceeds to Harry's fund for his victims (first apology) or to "help Nick's portfolio" by showcasing the work he'd done; and

As a result of this entire ordeal, he had attempted either self-harm or suicide (he merely alluded to "doing something stupid").

Again, his response was to 1) downplay the severity of his actions or flat out ignore allegations against him, 2) come up with ridiculous excuses for his behavior, 3) throw Nick under the bus, and 4) claim to be in mortal danger. As far as I am aware, he has never taken any concrete action to make amends to any person, not even donating money to charity.

This was coupled with some kind of attempt to profit: monetizing his apology videos, closing and then reopening his Patreon right before the monthly charge cycle happened (totally to let people unfollow him, not at all as a grab for that money), creating a new Patreon under a different name, and changing his Twitter and Youtube handles to distance himself from the controversy while gathering new followers.

At one point (I forget if this was on Twitter or Instagram), he also said that someone had broken into his apartment due to the notoriety he'd received from Harry's video. I believe that was after his first apology, when people started to point out that he'd just changed the name of his Twitter and Youtube channel and had restarted a new Patreon under a pseudonym. (BTW, the pseudonym he used for his new Patreon was "The Gay Raconteur"; this will be important later).

It had what I think was the desired effect: any attempt at pointing out that he was rebranding his grift now came across as weirdly fixated on minor things he was doing, which certainly wasn't worth putting him in physical danger. (Again, he has never provided any proof of this happening, nor provided any evidence that these people allegedly threatening him were, in fact, in some way inspired by Hbomb).

So along comes March 5, 2024, and James posts a suicide note on his Twitter, saying that he is going to set up his videos to automatically publish (for Nick's portfolio), provide in some way for the ad revenue to go to a suicide prevention nonprofit, and then kill himself.

The immediate response from the internet was compassion and totally chilling any further criticism, since you might be callously criticizing a dead person. Harry and Kat worked for a couple of days to get a wellness check for him while a substantial section of the internet called them murderers.

On March 6, a day after the note was published, Nick tweeted that that he had cause to believe James was fine. Kat confirmed that James was safe on March 11. Due to the drama of the "suicide attempt," however, the chill on criticizing James stayed in place for months.

And then yesterday Lady Emily, one of the cowriters for Sarah Z., drops two more bombs:

James has not one but two alt accounts that he was using to rebrand and start over.

The first one was created between his first and second apologies, and originally was for "The Gay Raconteur" until he changed it to "Will"/"thatgayyouknow" and, later, "The Achillean Boy."

The second one was much older, under the pseudonym "Mikey JB," and used stolen pictures from Grindr instead of his own face. However, it is pretty obvious that it is, in fact, a sockpuppet account and not just some other person who happens to like James, as detailed below.

Both accounts, both between apologies and after his "suicide," talked about how criticism of James was unfair because the plagiarized stuff was "like a decade old" and repeating the same excuses that James had also made.

The "Mikey JB" account not only supported James, but actively threw Nick under the bus, saying that a criticized part of a video "reeks of his co-writer."

On March 6, the day after James' main Twitter posted the suicide note, The Achillean Boy account was hornyposting about Ryan Phillipe. James didn't even take a day or two off of Twitter. If he had been completely off Twitter for a couple of days, that could have been an indication that he really had hurt himself and was unable to access his phone, or at the very least unaware of the panic. But he wasn't. He was aware of it and did nothing. Actually, no! Worse than nothing!

On the same day (March 6), the Mikey JB account was actively contradicting Nick saying he was okay (they "haven't spoken in months" so there's no way Nick could know if he was alive) and saying that "people like you" i.e. his critics, "drove him to it." Not only did he ignore the panic he'd intentionally created, he actively drove it.

He saw people going emotionally through the wringer over the idea that they might have somehow caused his death, and intentionally made them keep thinking it. He say people calling his critics "murderers" for "driving him to his death," and he joined in.

Why am I explaining all of this? I want to make a couple of things extremely clear, and the context is necessary to my ultimate points, namely:

James Somerton didn't merely "credit people improperly;" he conned his followers out of more money than some people make in a year with the Telos con, while raking in thousands more per month on Patreon and buying expensive equipment, while claiming to be near insolvency and in desperate need of money.

James Somerton has never taken full responsibility for his actions or attempted to make amends. He has only ever tried to dodge responsibility, particularly by throwing Nick under the bus.

Every time he has ever been criticized, for any reason, he has lied about threats to his life to gain sympathy and quell criticism. This is a standard part of his MO. He has done this over and over and over again. At this point, I think if he says the sky is blue, someone should go out and check first before doing anything.

"But BB, what if he really is getting harassed/threatened or really is suicidal?"

So, okay: people who are attempting to manipulate you may use legitimate problems as a tool. It doesn't need to be fake to be effective - in fact, it might be more effective if it it's true. An abusive ex who says "if you leave me, I'll kill myself" and genuinely means it and actually attempts it (and possibly even succeeds!) is a lot harder to leave than someone who says the same thing but is clearly just bluffing, because the threat is real.

My rule of thumb in these cases is to treat the threat like it's real, without caving to the intended manipulation. Whether your ex is lying or telling the truth when they say, "I'll kill myself if you leave me," the appropriate response in both cases is to immediately call a mental health service or supportive family member. If it's fake, it's inconvenient for them; if it's real, you reacted appropriately. Your response needs to be the same regardless.

You don't get back together with them because it's a real threat (presumably you wouldn't do that if you knew it was fake and they were never in any danger), and you don't tell them that they're a piece of shit who should be dead (HOPEFULLY you wouldn't do that if you knew for a fact that they were telling the truth).

In this case, I am extremely confident in saying that he was coldbloodedly lying the entire time and was never once threatened, and certainly not to the degree he claimed to be. But even if he wasn't, that does not and should not change anyone's behavior in terms of holding him accountable.

And I mean actually holding him accountable: making sure he doesn't try to start a new con on new people, continuing to point out that he hasn't paid anyone back for his previous con (so long as it's still true), that sort of thing. It doesn't mean people should tell him he should go die for real or, I don't know, try to get him fired if he gets a job at Tim Horton's or Target or something else that's not fraud. That would be wrong regardless of whether he's actually in danger or not. The point is to avoid being cruel without negotiating with terrorists.

Video sources and links under the cut:

Links:

It's like Breaking Bad, but backwards: a brief history of how Somerton successfully screwed himself Dan Olson's Twitter thread about the financial fraud My Year With James: Todd's post explaining the backstory of his video (Patreon-locked) DJSO#: Dan Olson's breakdown of James' second apology (Patreon-locked) Lady Emily's Twitter threads revealing James' alt accounts, part 1 and part 2