#boycott youtube if they do this 100%

[mbrainspaz]

'Ad Blockers are not allowed on Youtu'--shut up big tech bitch boy I will literally just rip every song I want to listen to and leave and you can kiss all those sweet sweet view numbers you sell to your precious advertisers goodbye. Who put all 27 views in the last 7 years on 'Geckosong' by the Stantons? ME

[hurpdurpburps]

Astoria: Fate's Kiss Is Getting Re-released On 25 July, Here Are Some Things You Should Keep In Mind

Most people don't know it (until now I guess), but I'm the founder of, and have been running the @ls-salvation-squad project since Christmas 2021. I hardly interact with the LS community outside of the project server in a personal capacity as I've largely left the fandom around 6 months before the announcement of the app's closure.

I was pretty late to the game (pun intended), having only learnt about the app in 2020, but managed to be around for 'milestone events' such as the writers' strike and the DMCA rampage on YouTube/tumblr. Thanks to certain friends and technology, I've also had privileged access to a quasi-'insider look' into Voltage's workings (and failings) as a studio, both in real time and through secondhand horror stories of the past.

This culmination of experiences has spurred me to make my first, and last, personal opinion piece regarding LS on tumblr, a corner of the community that I haven't really interacted much with.

While I understand the sheer joy, relief and excitement that comes with revived, legal access to some of the most impressive, unapologetically queer stories to have ever graced the internet, I want to point out the ugly truths that are intertwined with the revival of this troubled app:

Buying the game =/= supporting the creators. Not a cent of your money goes towards them. Even when Voltage USA used to be a thing, barely any of it went towards the employees in general either. The writers were paid 3 cents/word, and producers were working twice as hard but only paid around half of their counterparts in other companies. AFAIK the artists have kept quiet but it would be more of a surprise if they were treated any better than their peers.

Buying the game =/= supporting queer content/community. This might come as a shocker, but homophobia ran rampant within Voltage's management. The best evidence of this can be found in their history of 'peculiar' business or creative decisions - and they've made a fuckton of bad choices. Fun fact; the first queer routes were only made possible via sheer force of will of a particular producer. I'm not at liberty to share the nitty gritty on this public platform as the stories aren't mine, but maybe if you asked some of the former staff nicely, they might give you cryptic hints.

You're gonna be paying them a THIRD time. Many of us have already shelled out hundreds of dollars on heart choices - not once, but twice. Putting the whole version on Steam/Switch had always been a valid option from the beginning of the end, but they chose not to do it. Why? Because users scrambling to make bulk purchases of tickets and hearts to record routes as a last hurrah meant a last, fat cash-in. Not to mention the fact that they're selling the game at US$30 per series, for almost decade-old content, presumably without any new additions. At this point, throwing your hard earned money at them AGAIN is just rewarding scummy management and unscrupulous business models.

Do you really need to? Our team of around 100 archivists worked tirelessly in Q1 of 2022 to provide you high quality recordings of every single route. We've gone so far as to acquire recordings of pre-LS Voltage content such as Queen's Gambit and all of the soundtracks. We've put assets up for download. There are a dozen passionate creators out there who have been updating their Ren'Py recreations so that you can scratch your itch - and all for free!!! What more could you possible want or need that only the greedy bastards at Voltage can give you - apart from seeing your custom MC name on the screen and the absolutely inconsequential choices B & C that our videos didn't cover?

Is this a call for a boycott? I guess not really, or at least I didn't consciously set out to make it like this. Dissuading others from purchasing legal access to media when it's easily available goes against my general principle about responsibly and pragmatically supporting creators. And as one 'em Gays™, I know the preciousness of possessing Queer Stories Written By Queer People.

But I was concerned at what seemed to be a wave of happiness and eagerness at news of the revival, without any mention of the absolute shit show that has led us to this very point. There's a very big part of me that's absolutely pissed at being taken for a ride. News of the revival has been a bittersweet development for us all, especially those who have poured their time, money and energy over the past 2.5 years into salvaging what was thought to be a lost piece of queer media - only to find out that all that effort might only get them a slap to the face in the form of a DMCA from the grave. So yeah, fuck you Voltage.

TLDR: You should really save your money for more ethical, indie developers who have the decency to not mock your consumer intelligence. I don't think it's a crime against humanity if you end up buying it after all, but just think about it yeah?

[nykloss]

I'm seeing so much actively harmful misinfo regarding boycotts.

If you are spreading information on a boycott PLEASE focus on just what the BDS is asking you to boycott. In my honest opinion even THAT is a lot to keep track of, but boycotts work better the more laser-focused they are.

This is the closest thing to an official boycott being asked:

I've seen a lot of posts both here and elsewhere asking people to boycott not just everything on that list, but also Walmart, Amazon, Google, PespsiCo, Coke, Nestle, 4 dozen other big name conglomerates, and a big list of at least 50+ individual celebrities/CEOs/actors. That is not boycotting.

If YOU want to personally abstain from every Israeli-supporting-prduct/service you can, please do it!!!! Even before now, I've personally always abstain from chick-fil-a and 🏴‍☠️ most of my media–but that isn't an organized boycott. In fact, spreading info that every single one of those companies/individuals are "part of the boycott" is blatant misinformation and actually harms the boycott.

Giant lists that include dozens to hundreds of giant conglomerates and individuals that are hard to keep track of are meant to overwhelm individuals and dissuade them from boycotting at best, and are actively impossible to personally enforce at worst. If you are reading this post, chances are you are breaking one of the many unofficial "boycotts" being asked of you.

For example, following every ""boycott"" being asked of you 100% means: stopping use of any Google products (quitting a job that uses Google workspace, abandoning your Android phone, switching to Firefox or Safari web browser, not using Gmail, not using YouTube), stop using most/all social media, making entirely home cooked meals (every restaurant, even small ones, support Pepsi/coke), only being allowed to buy ingredients for those home cooked meals from physical, local small businesses (which may be wiped out in your area/take more gas to drive to/cost more money to buy from), and cross-checking every single item you buy with a giant list (that I hope you printed out, because chances are you can't use your phone/the internet without sending precious ad profit to Google!).

Telling someone to "do that much or do nothing" is going to result in the vast, vast majority of people doing nothing. Think about the every day people in your life–parents, coworkers, community members. Are they going to do that much? If the answer is no, then a boycott is ineffective. (Plus, doing a lot of that stops you from staying informed on the situation, which is top priority right now!)

Stick to spreading the image at the top of this post. The more people boycotting a small handful easy-to-remember companies, the more effective a boycott will be. A small amount of companies will lose a lot of money, and will have to re-evaluate their stance to give money to Israel–the point of a boycott. But, if everyone only ends up boycotting a handful of completely different companies depending on what list they were given online, all of those companies only lose a little money and no impact is made at all.

TLDR: Feel free to personally abstain from whatever products/services you want, but spreading that they are part of the boycott if they AREN'T is harmful!

[xclowniex]

So I have been doom scrolling on YouTube shorts those days,,, a video of someone buying/eating something that the pro palis are boycotting pop up.

It’s a simple innocent video, the comments are full of “boycott (brand name)” and watermelon emojis and “free Palestine” some even calling the YouTuber names and stuff.

This is harassment, this is full on harassment of someone who crime is buying from a brand they are boycotting.

Not going to lie but they started to sound like a cult at this point.

Instead of focusing all their energy on harassing random YouTuber and Jews and destroying properties, they could focus it on more useful and important things that will help stop this war.

Like idk, helping with the release of the hostages? Not supporting Hamas?

100%

The BDS movement is majorly problematic. They celebrated the shut down of a soda stream factory in the west bank a few years back yet they didn't do anything to help the palestinian workers who lost their jobs find new jobs so they can, ya know, feed their families.

BDS also claims that you should listen to all palestinian voices, yet is telling people to boycott standing together, an org which uplifts Palestinian and Israeli voices.

In regards to non BDS boycotts, it also a cult mentalility especially with that clip of that Australian Hasan fan who said "just don't drink coke on stream, just drink it in private as we are boycotting coke" like ah yes, only boycott a product in public and still give them your money in private, totally how a boycott works.

Like giving BDS some credit (which i hate to say) at least they focus on only a few things which is achieveable. Some of those long ass boycott lists (like that 300+ German list) is just unachieveable.

The whole reason for the boycotts is to make the Israeli government have less money so war cannot happen and to punish the Israeli economy. Essentially civilian created sanctions, however it will not work unless the majority of the population does so. Israel will also always defend themselves when they are attacked. So like you said nonnie, unless Hamas is gone and peace is achieved, Israel will continue to have wars with breaks in between until they are no longer attacked. And obviously war and after after war is bad for everyone on all sides as both Israeli's and Palestinians should not have threats to their safety due to their respective governments actions.

[hacked-by-jake]

Is it just me , but doesn't it seem like they aren't taking accountability?

Well, partly they did. I mean, I wasn't expecting a statement that fast, definitely not. But I'm glad they sat down immediately and talked about it. And I also think they really read things we said. At least, it feels like that to me.

Of course, they statement isn't the best one and I don't agree with a couple of things. (I'm still not done with speaking about it.)

And I also understand why people are still disappointed and also not satisfied. And it's true, their words weren't what we were hoping for.

And I repeat, nothing of it makes me forget the problems about it. But I still want to point something out. Because I want the best for both sides.

So, here's the thing. Everbyte is still the small studio they were before. Three young people creating games. And one of those games blow up completely in a blink. All of sudden they had thousands of people looking at them. I mean, Duskwood has over 10 Million Downloads on Google play. It's impossible to imagine that.

So, and here's the thing. They're not any influencer with marketing team or social media team. They don't have a company that is specialised on this matter. It's them and only them.

And back then, Duskwood jumped from 0 to 100. And now, with Moonvale, sadly, they fell down from there again. I don't think they expected this to happen. In another blink they had an unbelievable amount of people criticising them, hating them, even others demanding to boycott them.

They don't have a management to write them the perfect statement for the world like any influencer or youtuber or celebrity has.

I mean, imagine you're suddenly in a position were many people demanding a statement. This alone is already a situation that's completely overwhelming. Because you know, no matter you're going to say, some people will still hate, and I don't mean criticising them, but hate them. And every word you say will be put on a gold scale. Fact is, no matter how your statement is, in most cases you still can only lose..

Three normal people facing a huge wall of criticism. And I don't think any of them knew how to handle this. And there's no real way to handle this. And we also should not forget, we don't see the behind the scenes. We don't see the problems they have to face.

And of course, we all see this critical. What happened. And we have the right to point that out. But I believe that we should have a little forbearance and tolerance for Everbyte.

They were probably in panic, scared to lose everything and they had not time to really figure things out. Of course their statement is very vague and I am not satisfied with most of it.

But we still should give them some time to figure things out and especially to think about everything that happened. The fandom was incredibly emotional, and Everbyte, they're humans as well. And also they were incredibly emotional. We can't imagine how they felt in that situation.

But until episode 2 they have a lot of time now. They can figure things out, they can find ways to change things. And I actually trust them so far. We saw they can do differently.

And especially, they just see everything completely different. They created this this game, for two years. They saw it every single days. They worked on it every single day.

I don’t know if you can relate. But if a writer reads their own text over and over again, at some point they won't see any mistakes anymore. Even if there are some. But for some thing you just become blind. That's a process you can't stop.

I want to repeat, it doesn't make the problems any better. Especially the AI thing. They right thing would have been to say "we will delete it completely"

But Everbyte can't be neutral on that because it's their game. We all have completely different view for it.

So I do think we should give them some time to figure things out. They deserve it. And no matter how disappointed we are, we should not forget that empathy cost nothing. And even if everything ended up in a little disaster, Everbyte still deserves our empathy.

We can keep firing against them but I fear at some point it might fire back and they won't listen at all.

Keep showing them constructive criticism. Leave reviews in your app stores etc. And then the time will show what is going to happen. But right now, it's still too emotional for everyone.

I'm still sorry you're feeling this way, Anon. I definitely know what you mean and I even agree with you. But everything I want is peace and I want to keep up the hope.

Thank you for sending your ask, sorry my answer isn't probably exactly what you expected but I really hope you understand my point of view and I hope even if my answer is differently, I hope you want be mad at me because of it.

I hope you will have a fantastic day/evening/night. Take care of yourself and stay healthy and safe. 💚

[beautifulpersonpeach]

Hello bpp!

I know you’ve talked about solo stans or akgaes on &off in a lot of your posts but I was wondering if you can make something like a guide to how to spot them in the wild like their common talking points etc because I see so many well meaning armys both new &old keep falling for their ideas not knowing how distorted their perception of bts and hybe is. I think it would be really helpful. I shared your anti post to a few fellow armys & they found it really helpful esp since at the time jimin was getting a lot of hate &a lot of us were feeling bad for him. It would be really helpful if we had something like that for solos or akgaes but ofc only if you wanted or if you had time cuz i know your really super busy. Thank you bpp!

*

Ask 2: Bpp with this BB issue deleting Jimin's sales with no comment from the company, people are becoming solo stans and I don't know how to stop it. I tried explaining to my friend that BH isn't liked by BB, they're a Korean company and BB is a private American company that has all the power so BH has to be careful to not blacklist BTS more than before. She brought up newjeans but I told her it's under a different company but she didn't care. She's now saying boycott D Day is the only way BH will listen! I never knew she had this side to her! What can I do?

***

Hi Anon(s),

I'm not trying to convince anybody here. When I write what I do, I'm not actually asking anybody to agree with me, nor do I care if they do. And this applies to solos, shippers, OT7 ARMYs whatever version or combination of those comes across my posts.

This is probably going to be controversial (lol), but I think the people who become solo stans, akgaes, shooters, toxic shippers, etc, were always going to be that. Granted, sometimes siloed environments can radicalize people into joining those factions, like baby ARMYs who get into taekook through Youtube rabbit holes, but it's also true some people are naturally more susceptible to radicalization than others, and some people are more prone to twisted ways of thinking, they just need a cause or catalyst. And I'm not interested in pointing out the road maps to get out of cuckooland.

What I've observed is that a lot of the time, the view a person takes about Jimin, BTS, k-pop, HYBE, etc, has more to do with their own personal inclinations/experiences, than anything that's actually happening in reality.

*

*

*

*

*

*

I look at all the above and see an asylum let loose.

There's nothing to be done for these people. And I'm genuinely not interested in convincing any of these sorts of people to get their heads out of their ass.

It's no good pointing out the difference in power dynamics between BigHit and Eldridge Industries, if the person you're talking to is personally distrustful of authority and corporations to begin with.

What good is there talking to someone who refuses to understand how an independent label/subsidiary functions within a parent/conglomerate?

Do you think the people calling for BigHit to market BTS the way those fans and the Western entertainment industry would prefer, care about the number of times the members have explicitly said they've always known of easier ways to get success, but choose to decline those methods?

Every instance we have of Jimin asserting himself, a trait that over 10 years appears to be very dominant in him, becomes background noise for people who believe him to be too timid, too stupid, or too selfless to stand up for himself.

...and so on.

These are people who cannot think beyond a very narrow set of ideas that hinge on their personal experiences. They cannot imagine any other scenario in which HYBE might not release a statement in response to Billboard's selective application of the rules; they cannot think of any other reason why we haven't seen Jimin post a cake for his album, or BigHit posting an article for his Hot 100 win, except that their golden boy is suffering in the gilded cage that is HYBE; they cannot think beyond their own personal needs as a fan, to see that their expectations might not align with Jimin's; they cannot comprehend any other reasons for what's happening to Jimin, except that his team is actively sabotaging his career out of malice and coercion (by their expectations); that Yoongi akgae (in SS above) cannot comprehend the eventual outcome of their race to the bottom with other members' akgaes, when reporting playlists for rival members or review bombing their albums; they cannot think of any other reasons why xyz member has less lines, screentime, promotion times, etc; and so on.

Something you'll notice about every solo stan and toxic shipper, every single one, is that all their ideas always lead to one logical conclusion. They can dress it up in different ways, and yeah there are stages where some people are farther along that narrative arc than others, but without fail, every single akgae theory is subversive to the idea of BTS, and always ends at one logical point.

Anon in ask 2, this is probably not the answer you wanted, but I have nothing to say to your friend besides "good luck". We all have at least 10 years of bangtan history available to us; we all see various examples of all the members making sacrifices to uphold the one thing they all claim they love above all else - their team; we see several examples of BigHit navigating adversarial environments in Korea *and* the West, to make BTS the biggest group in the world with ARMY supporting the whole time.

Anybody becoming an akgae today over this BB debacle and BigHit's handling of it, over Chapter 2 roll-outs and sales numbers, etc, would have been one in 2016, or 2018, or any other time the members faced inequitable treatment that just happened to hit that person's mental sweet spot, the set of conditions that in their heads that results in only one explanation: the member they love being hated and exploited by their team with no recourse and no agency. In spite of all the times the members have explicitly expressed the opposite.

Anyone losing sleep over the chaos right now wouldn't have lasted a minute as ARMY in the earlier years for BTS, and I have no qualms about letting dead weight fall off.

[chiarts45]

I am FUCKING SEETHING

What the fuck is this!?

Like who the actual fucks white baby is this gacha life reject???

Honestly shit like this is part of the reason I wanna create my show because this is not just a slap in the face for all Africans/Nigerians but it just shows us that if we wanna see ourselves in media we gotta mold it with our own fucking hands!

And the wolf ears too like naaaah

Bitches couldn't even get his fucking name right, this character was inspired by a Yoruba/Nigerian god btw named Olorun like I get genshins history and all but they couldn't even say no maybe we shouldnt disrespect this country's culture,maybe we should do it right and give this character brown skin this time at least just this time to just be respectful

It's not just the fact they whitewashed him that's pissing me off but it's the fact that they made a deity from a culture look like some gacha life character and for crying out loud not even his clothes are African! Oh and they added the lil tattoo on his arm to probably add "a little touch of African/black" and decided "phew that's enough representation for this character! That's enough for today!" Bullshit.

Anyone who's on my blog often or sees my posts often knows that I do not swear very often well through text at least but bro the way this bullshit from hoyoverse has me fuming, I found out on a YouTube video and i didnt even know there was a Nigerian character in there and i also heard that because of this and many other hoyoverse "episodes" that they're planning to boycott it and honestly i 100% support, im on board, im on the fucking wagon even, im at the fucking front, I'm steering the horse cause what the fuck is this!?

[bandzboy]

I'm sure this concert thing has been in the works for awhile probably since the very first time that the deal was signed but i'm sure it would have been possible to scrap the project. And like even if the idols understand the boycott, they probably have no ground to challenge the company on this. I just think about how Felix reacted during that live where he was showing coca cola like I know he at the very least knows and I wish these idols could have some more autonomy. I hate how the K industry is so reliant on brand deals like it's actually crazy

it could have been scrapped 100% they just don't wanna do it and also i think about that felix situation so much because he apparently apologized on live about it and remember some of the reuploaders i follow on twt (for files to gif) reuploaded his live on youtube and it was being taken down by, i suppose jype, for copyright which is so like...? idk if this happens with ig lives that reuploaded on youtube often but it's interesting that it was the one where he apologized for having the coca cola on display like i wish i saw the live myself or even that clip but since everything was deleted i never got to see it but it's not hard to believe since they have that partnership with them ofc they could not have someone from a group basically apologizing for making publicity to them

[colorisbyshe]

You're advocating for personal responsibility, which is something that most people in first-world countries utterly lack. You can see people saying "there's no ethical consumption under late capitalism" (which means like... poor people have it hard to fully boycott Amazon) as an excuse to buy an antisemitic Harry Potter game that directly benefits a TERF. Not "calling her a terf because she doesn't like the word queer" but an actual "funneling money into transphobic orgs and legislations TERF."

Yeahhhhh.

I won't act like I'm immune to/above "Let other people do the grunt work, I wanna enjoy shitty things while other people protest" but... there comes a limit where you forfeit your right to complain about something if you are still participating.

ESPECIALLY when it comes to consumption of entertainment, which is not a necessity. Like if you are voluntarily paying $100+ a year to netflix KNOWING they're going to cancel every show before they'll ever seen season 3 (or even season 2), KNOWING they don't value diverse representation, KNOWING they feel price hiking 3 times in one year AFTER admitting they also plan on trying to kill password sharing... that's on you babe!

Like it IS on netflix but that's also on you.

It isn't a moral failure to keep using netflix that way it is to get the new HP game but it is... embarrassing to continue to pay while complaining.

At the veyr least, find a way to mooch. OR learn to rotate subscriptions. Only have 1-2 services you use a month. Bcause you do NOT need to watch shows on hulu AND netflix aND disney+ AND youtube AND whatever else EVERY month. If you are not doing a friendship pool where one person is paying for each service and you all share (and I guess, now find a way to visit each other to log in ot the "home" wifi), you are giving these companies too much money.

I feel like subscription services that you just pay for FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE have been too normalized. Like people, AT THE VERY LEAST, need to be less loyal and unsubscribe unless there's somethign new they know they want.

Or unsubscribe for a couple of months after bad policy changse OR SOMETHING.

Anything would be better than the constant "HERES NETFLIX'S DOWNFALL BUT I'M GOING TO AVERT MY EYES SO I DON'T SEE THEM REPORT RECORD INCOME NEXT QUARTER" posts.

[nuerodiventperson]

Anyone wanna boycott yourube with me?

I don't wanna do it unless I know people are gonna so it with me, first goal let's try and get 100 people

Youtube is a shit company and I mainly wanna do this because of how sssniperwolf went on unpunished

[xclowniex]

I am completely on board with believing the vote for Israel ad is fake because... That is totally something that I can imagine faking but what do you mean by it's not credible because the screenshot is from outside of Israel? If the Israeli broadcaster or the Israeli government or any of the delegates bought the ad, they would not want other Israelis to see it. People in Israeli seeing it would completely defeat the purpose? You can't vote for your own country so would it not be geared only towards non Israelis?

Regarding the voting and boycotts. I think Israel gained votes because of politics (that was just a lot of votes for a song not previously well received as a song) and the boycotts and I do think the other countries lost some but I don't think the amount lost would be that impactful because well. I don't think that many Eurovision watchers actually boycotted? I saw more new viewers this year than I saw regular watchers boycotting. Most posts I saw about boycotting came from people that do not watch Eurovision. Lots of fans but not super fans don't vote either. I feel like the two biggest voting demographics are the very casual fans and the super fans. Super fans are very into it, those who only watch it as a cultural event will vote because you're "supposed" to. But most of the fans I know that keep up with it but are not super fans don't really vote anyway and are also the people I think boycotted the most I did not see any super fans talk about it nor did I really see anyone who just watches the finals and doesn't keep up with it talk about boycotting. Obviously that's anecdotal and not statistical, but still.

I think you might have misread my post or I may have misworded something.

The alledged youtube is ad is targeting countries outside of Israel and that is not the reason its sus, it just looks sus because it looks sus. The ad being outside of Israel is some extra information so people don't think it was an ad for those in Israel.

Onto the bit about eurovision voting, yeah I 100% agree. I would like some stats before i 100% commit to that being what happened.

[demifiendcruithne]

and i have more time now, so - i'm not 100% on image id standards so if anyone wants to fix this up you're welcome to do so

[image id: an infographic from the Al Jazeera website titled 'Why are people boycotting certain products?' it reads, 'The Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement has identified numerous companies with a role in Israel's crimes against Palestinians. Their campaign is divided into four categories:' category one reads: 'Consumer Products: Complete boycott of brands that have a proven record of complicity in Israeli apartheid'. the listed companies here are Ahava, Axa, Carrefour, HP, Puma, Re/Max, Siemens, and Sodastream. category two reads: 'Divestments: Pressuring governments and institutions to stop doing business with companies that enable Israeli occupation'. the listed companies here are Barclays, Grupo CAF, Caterpillar Inc. (CAT), Chevron, Elbit Systems, HD Hyundai, Hikvision, JCB, TKH Security, and Volvo. category three reads: 'Pressure: BDS calls for people and institutions to pressure brands and services to end their complicity in Israeli apartheid'. the listed companies here are Airbnb, Amazon, Booking.com, Disney, Expedia, and Google. category four reads: 'Organic Boycotts: BDS supports grassroots boycotts of brands that openly support Israel's violence against Palestinians'. the listed companies here are Burger King, Domino's Pizza, McDonald's, Papa John's, Pizza Hut, and Wix. the source is the BDS Movement and the date sourced is December 15th, 2023. end id.]

also an addition to my google replacements above - youtube is a big one i forgot that would be difficult to lose entirely, but there's third-party frontends such as invidious (works in-browser) and newpipe (android app) for example to at least prevent google getting data from you

hi friends

as we boycott in support of palestine, here is a little reminder of the companies that specifically supported israel in their crimes against palestine (taken from the al jazeera website)

do as much as you are able to during the boycott, but if you need essentials or need to go to work to support yourself, that is okay! anything helps and boycotting these companies specifically is great because of their direct role in the violence against people in gaza

free palestine

[teaveetamer]

So many people who get outraged by the "problematic" elements of Fire Emblem, etc get even more offended if we suggest that they should boycott the series/not give the company their money, claiming that they're just being "critical" of what they like and we're gatekeeping them. And I'm sorry, but I don't care if someone is being critical of what they like. If they're getting offended by the problematic elements but still giving the creator/company who's putting said outraged/problematic content their money, they're enabling the creator/company. This is especially true for Intsys, who has time and time again not given a rat's ass about the problematic elements they put, and has at points poked fun at the people getting offended by this.

It's the hypocrisy for me. This is a big enough problem that you're harassing fans (who have nothing to do with the creation of the game) while still providing money to the people who made it (who will make decisions based on the amount of money they receive for a game)?

I wouldn't even call this gatekeeping. It's like saying:

"Hey do you want to go to the club tonight?"

"I don't like clubbing."

"Oh, okay, then don't go to the club. It's a waste of your money because you're not going to have fun. Anyway see you tomorrow, I'm going clubbing tonight."

"How dare you tell me I can't go to the club! I'll go to the club tonight, too! And how dare you continue clubbing when I told you I don't like it!!!"

Like my dude why are you paying money for an experience you KNOW you do not enjoy nor approve of?

And that's not to say you can't be critical of things you buy because that's not what I'm saying. I HATE the toxic positivity mentality that you have to love everything you've ever purchased or consumed unconditionally, or you're not allowed to say negative things about something. The whole -100 IQ take of "well if you hate it so much why do you keep talking about it!" as if a thing demands praise for its mere existence and there would never be any reason to criticize it ever.

It's a big problem with The Sims community, where you will deadass have 13 year olds telling you that you should be grateful to a massive company like EA for making you pay $40 for more game content. I can buy a $40 sims pack and criticize it just fine, that's okay. What wouldn't be ok is if I bought a $40 sims pack and then went around to every Sims YouTuber who bought it to castigate them for buying and enjoying it. I mean you shouldn't do that if you didn't buy the thing either, but at least if you didn't buy the thing you aren't also part of the problem you're whinging incessantly about.

[nealcassatiel]

Dear fandoms of The C*W shows on tumblr, 

When our dashboards and blogs appear to be in a completely different world from the dashboards and blogs from other fandoms, it’s easy to forget that we’re all connected by a shared passion for our beloved shows. I don’t know if the waves caused by the Supernatural finale have been felt across fandom spaces on here, but I would urge everyone to read the below article which does a great job in expressing the distress a lot of the SPN fans are feeling (warning, there are major spoilers):

https://www.buzzfeed.com/deirdre-t/supernaturalas-legacy-the-trauma-of-silence-1b17yhc5ye

We, as a fandom, are trying to boycott The C*W in the hope that hitting them financially will mean that they will have to pay attention to the effects of their decisions and will hopefully mean that there is better POC representation, disability representation, queer representation, and mental health representation in their shows. Despite their hollow corporate messaging and their inclusion of minor or shallow characters which tick their diversity quota, The C*W ultimately fails to champion multi-faceted and complex diverse characters. 

If The C*W did wrong by your show, please help us. The C*W is a huge and powerful network, but the more we as a group join together, the stronger we become. 

The C*W has ruined the final message of our show, please help us to make sure your favourite show doesn’t end up like ours. Supernatural won’t gain much from this, but maybe this will help your show achieve better representation and progressive storylines. 

Here’s what you can do to help:

- Unfollow any official C*W_Whatever account on all social media platforms - both the C*W account as well as the official programme account. This includes facebook, insta, youtube, etc. 

- Use the hashtags #TheySilencedYou / #TheySilencedThem on twitter. Do not include official show or network hashtags alongside. 

- Do not engage with official C*W social media accounts or official hashtags.

- In general, minimise engagement or using hashtags for your show on social media platforms apart from tumblr.

- When many of your shows return, you could hold off watching them for a while. I know this is extreme, but I thought I might suggest it anyway.

- Share posts such as this one around your fandom spaces and have conversations with your fellow members of your fandom about these issues.

To our friends in fandoms for The Flash, Batwoman, Riverdale, The 100, Charmed, The Outpost, and other C*W shows, please consider helping our voices be heard. 

Thank you

[leomitchellart]

So… about this latest Inktober controversy….

Time to begrudgingly chuck in my two penneth… (Remeber you can always press “J” to skip this post altogether)

As most of you may or may not know, Alphonso Dunn released a Youtube video wherein he publicly accused Jake Parker, and creator of the Inktober challenge, of plagiarising his book. Both of these men are public figures, artists specialising in pen & ink. In the video Dunn looks at the preview pages and flip through footage of Parker’s “Inktober All Year Round” and says they draw many similarities in the illustrations, language and layout that he used in his own book, “Pen & Ink Drawing”. Parker’s book was set to this month. Hense why Dunn only used footage and not a physical copy.

Since the video’s release, the art community has been very spilt down the middle. The book’s publisher has halted the launch of Parker’s book until the matter can be investigated. Even DeviantArt cancelled their own Inktober event thing (I’ll admit I don’t keep up with these things DA keeps doing). Parker has since released a statement in the matter. Now it’s up to the courts to decide what’s happening next. The video itself is an hour long, but it’s crucial to see it yourself. 

People are, understandably, outraged after seeing it. This seems like a shitty thing to rip-off Dunn - not to mention stupid. Since Dunn is the more popular pen & ink artist with more social media followers and name recognition. Many have called to boycott inktober and condemn Parker. I’ll admit, I was right alongside them at first, at least for feeling outraged. The similarities are there. But if YMS’s Kimba video has taught me anything, it’s that, even if an accusation of plagiarism may be obvious at a cursory glance, sometimes it’s important to take a more critical eye and do more research to learn that things aren’t as cut and dry as they first seem. If there’s a lesson I can take away from the internet as a whole, it’s that no one thinks about the consequences of mob mentality.

The most common defence of Parker is that because they’re both books about pen and ink drawing, then they’re inevitably going to be similar. I’ll admit that, when you pick-up so many art books, a lot of them will cover the same basic grounds of materials, tutorials, strokes, techniques etc. The parts about rendering textures on spheres and cubes isnt new. Look up “texture study” and you’ll see so many examples of artists rendering these kinds of things digitally. I’ve also noticed a common theme of people more formally educated in art pointing out how none of these are original. Everything down to the steps and illustrations are things they’ve learned from years ago. Since I'm a pen & ink artist, inspired by my love of comics, I have quite a few books about inking: Dunn’s included. I own both his books and still highly recommend them. I didn't even preorder Parker’s book. Ironically because I didn't think it could offer anything new that my other books hadn’t already.

While Ethan Becker took the time to cross-examine Dunn and Parker’s books with several others, there weren’t many of the ones I actually owned. So I looked to my shelves to see what I could find. Books like:

“The Art of Comic Book Inking” by Gary Martin & Steve Rude

“How Comics Work” by Dave Gibbons & Tim Pilcher

“The DC Comics guide to Inking Comics” by Klaus Janson

“Making Comics” by Scott McCloud

“Stan Lee’s How to Draw Comics”

I’m sure there’s plenty more examples out there. I was planning to go through all of these and take pictures. But ultimately that’s not the core point of these post. Plus it would’ve taken WAY too long and this post itself, is long enough.

Of course, none of the them are 100% close to Dunn’s in the way they’re displayed. Not as close as Parker’s could be considered. That being said, I know Dunn is trying to claim that he invented these techniques. The nucleus of the issue is how similar they are in terms of order and how these pages are displayed. Some I can chock-up to standard practice, while others seem more coincidental.

If there’s one thing I’m adamant about, it’s that I think that Dunn should’ve messaged Parker first before making the accusation public. Some try to dispute that this would've made it easier for Dunn to be “silenced”, whatever that means; but that sounds a bit conspiratorial to me. Ideally, you confront him about it in private, if he makes any threats or blows you off, get your lawyer on the phone and then make the video. Not only is it the more civil thing to do - but it’s the smarter thing to do. This is a serious legal matter, not just internet drama. While I’m sure Dunn had no intention of tearing Parker down or getting a mob onto him, that’s unfortunately what’s happened. A backlash both from the general artisan community and several companies. Wherein it was left to Parker himself to make this an official legal matter. If Parker’s found not guilty, then this could easily leave the gate open for him to sue Dunn for damages, loss of revenue, defamation of character or whatever else, should he see fit. As could the publishers, given how this affected their sales. Companies responded to the accusation of the video alone, before an investigation could be launched. Sure, it wouldn't be “acting the bigger man” but he’d be well within his right to do it. Dunn showed that Jake has mentioned him before, shown admiration for his career and referenced him in other posts. If it comes to light in court, that Dunn is even cited as an inspiration or source in the book itself, then it’s case closed. 

Then there’s the other possibility that Parker might not have done this on his own, but that he has a team behind the book. If that’s the case, the most I can accuse Parker of is being a hack. I worry Dunn has kneecapped himself for just how badly he’s handled this situation. Made worse by him not having an actual physical copy to assess and just had footage of preview pages to go on. So far, the circumstances don’t seem on his favour. 

I don’t think ill of Dunn. I do think he believes he’s been wronged and no malice in his intentions. I just think he’s made some critical errors on how to handled this. As for Parker himself, I couldn't give a donkey’s doo-dah about him. I’m sure you could accuse me of playing devil’s advocate earlier, but to me, he was the guy who released the annual prompt list. If it really does turn out that he’s a plagiarist and had malicious intent, then fuck ‘im. I never regarded him as an inspiration of mine or paid much attention to him outside of that. It was the community that made Inktober what it is. I’ve never met Parker. Maybe he’s a cool guy? Maybe he’s a bellend? I don’t know.

Granted this isn't the first time Parker has proved himself to be a controversial figure: - Last year people were upset about him trademarking (not copywriting, as many have erroneously claimed) the word “Inktober” and some artists were stopped from selling their related work or zines. Parker would issue a statement: claiming the takedowns were a mistake of “overzealous lawyers” and it’s just a matter of the logo being trademarked. People can sell their Inktober works and even mention they are Inktober-related. Just not use the official logo. On the one hand, from a business standpoint, I get it. It’s the bare minimum you need to do to protect your IP, especially when you have a store. BUT, like most people, I don’t like how, what’s intended as a community challenge, has slowly become more of a brand associated with one man. Hardly a surprise it left a bad taste in so many people’s mouths. But, since it doesn't actually effect anyone’s ability to take part in the challenge, outside of personal principle, I went ahead with it the previous year. 

 - The year before, when asked if one can do Inktober digitally, Parker said the following:

I know some are still bitter about that, but speaking as someone who inks traditionally and digitally, this came across as needless whinging and blowing things out of proportion. Claiming that Jake had derided digital artists and said they were invalid etc etc. Take it from me, challenging yourself to try out different methods to ink traditionally can greatly improve the work you do digitally. It’s like how learning traditional fundamentals of art can still be applied to digital. Plus he never said “No.” he just gave valid reasons about how it makes it a different experience. That said, if you’re someone who can’t afford any kind of inking equipment or pens and only have a selected application to draw on - then none of this applies to you. Just the aforementioned few who took it upon themselves to get angry over nothing. Recently I’ve heard from subscribers of his newsletter that he’s now embraced the idea of people doing inktober digitally, to the point of selling digital brushes for inktober. I’m sure some will call this “backsliding” or “money grubbing” because people aren’t allowed to change their minds or update their statements.

For weeks I’ve been torn on what to do, not being able to solidify one stance over another. One minute I thought #JusticeForAlphonsoDunn then I wonder “Wait maybe I should look again?” to “But wait, those are way too similar!” Having splinters in my arse from sitting on the fence for so long. The longer this went on, however, I began to realise that I can’t take one stance over another. This case is far too muddy and complicated. I don’t have enough sufficient knowledge or evidence. Nor do any of you. We literally only have Dunn’s video to go on. While it’s a good start, it’s not enough to be taken 100% as gospel when it’s the only thing to hand. 

As previously mentioned, a lot of artists have decided to not take part in Inktober at all, or follow different prompt lists. That’s completely fine. A lot of them are based around a specific theme: halloween, kinky stuff, bears, transformers, OCs, Disney or whatever. That has massive appeal. I just can’d do it myself. I prefer the focus on random words, rather than all centred on a single subject; allowing me to be creative with my ideas and execution. I actually did try to make a list of my own random words. Problem is, I worried that because I was choosing my own, I might be subconsciously bias towards certain prompts and not truly challenging myself. Even narrowing down my options was taking too long. In the end…. I’ve decided to just do the official prompts again this year.

For me, that’s what it ultimately came down to. TIME. It’s the middle of September. I can’t afford to wait for the court case to be settled. No other prominent artists I respect have released their own prompt lists. I know there’s been some shitty people who are condemning this choice. Attacking others, accusing them of supporting plagiarism, looking to block anyone who does the official prompts. Even trying to make this a racial issue. Just…. no. 

If someone doesn’t want to take part in Inktober, that’s fine. If someone wants to do the official prompts, that’s fine. If someone wants to do their own prompts, that’s fine.

Don’t go around aggressively making snap judgements or accusing people of taking a side. Do whatever makes you feel comfortable. This has been a shit year, let people enjoy something.

If you look at this situation and it makes you feel angry, and you don’t feel comfortable in taking part in a challenge because of it’s creator. I get that, I literally get that. It’s why I haven't done Mermay. And please don’t mention Pinktober, I’m aware of it, but given his insta video on the subject and the things he said, I quickly came to the conclusion that I can’t take this person seriously. I’m sure this might make me seem hypocritical, but how this differs, if only for me, is the sheer amount Inktober means to me. It’s more than a simple challenge. Inktober's the one thing I’ve been most excited about all year. As it was ruined for me in 2019, when I lost my home and I didn't get to complete every prompt. (Long story, I’m okay now). As we all know, 2020, has been an AWFUL year. We’ve got to take whatever joy we can. As I’ve looked longer at the official prompts, I found ideas I’m really excited for. 

Once I started to really dedicate myself to it, it became a massive event. I hype myself up as I prepare for the busy month. Buy in supplies, clean the house and workspace, cook and freeze meals in bulk to save time, printing off a sheet that allows me to jot down ideas as I plan ahead.  Then once it’s done, after so much work, it makes the reward all the sweeter: Ordering a takeaway, celebrating a great halloween night and still rocking those vibes throughout November. Feeling proud of myself for doing it and seeing myself improve my technique, discipline and earning a few lie-ins to make up for the sleep I lost working. I’m like a kid waiting for Christmas. That said, don’t think that there’s something wrong with you when you understandably can’t dedicate that amount time for a simple art challenge. If anything that’s plenty of reason to why you’re smarter than me. You have a life and don’t push yourself too much.

Now, I need to crack on with the preparations. If you want to boycott Jake Parker, just not buying any of his products should be enough. Doing the inktober challenge doesn't bring attention to him, as I doubt most people even know him as the creator, nor does it even line his pockets. I just hate how cancel culture can do such serious damage like this and then try and put pressure on others to act accordingly without even doing any research themselves. 

As long as you’re not harassing anybody. Just do what YOU want to do. That’s fine. 

[razbb]

hi, I live in the US. you might have seen people act/talk like fast food is cheaper than groceries but they are either lying or stupid.

except for very very extreme cases of food deserts groceries are always going to be cheaper. like no matter what.

there are a lot of people who are bad with money and/or don't know how to cook. so they get fast food daily. on the low low end thats like $5/meal. if you want more than their tiny plain hamburger it's closer to $10/meal. yes they have cheap $2 burgers but alone it is not nearly enough calories for a meal. mcdonalds costs even more if they have it delivered. if they actually can't afford eating out every day and refuse to start cooking then they just keep doing it and go into debt for it, it's very easy to spend money you don't have on credit cards.

some of these people will see $100 grocery bill for one weeks worth of food (very high estimate for 1 person, but maybe they got a lot of snacks/preprepared stuff) and think "hey thats not much less than eating out AND i have to cook it myself, not worth it." no matter if they can't *really* afford it, no matter if they could purchase way cheaper groceries (after you have a stocked pantry/spice drawer most places I think its not too hard to do $50/person/week most places and even much cheaper but that requires more work looking for deals/coupoons or thriftier meals). some people are just too stubborn to learn to cook.

but fresh food is NOT more expensive than daily mcdonalds. and it's not harder to make fresh meals here than anywhere else? everyone has google. youtube. everyone can learn basic meals to sustain themselves. sure if you want burgers it's a lot more effort than going to mcdonald's, but i think for most people that means you mostly make easier meals yourself (rice, pasta, couscous, bread, with protein of your choice) and then occasionally treat yourself to a burger from a restaurant. mcdonalds if you're poor or something nicer/slightly more expensive if you can afford it.

for starbucks it is part of some people's daily routine. for some it's an occasional luxury. a lot of people can afford it, a lot of people can't. price can be low if you get a basic coffee or high ($10+) if you want a fancy venti frappe. the thing is it's not like the majority of Americans go to Starbucks/mcdonalds daily or even often but the ones who DO are the ones who will complain on twitter about people asking them to boycott it. OPs initial anecdotal data is also skewed because you're only seeing people who are still on twitter. a lot of people willing to actually boycott things that might be part of their routine are still boycotting twitter because of elon lol. so you're seeing the stubborn people left.

it's crazy how I've seen stuff about a supposed boycott of Disney+ Starbucks and McDonald's on twt BEGGING people to participate

cus I have pirated every single show I've watched since I was 10, Ive been to Starbucks exactly twice in my entire life and I haven't had McDonald's in like a year. how are these things people would find hard to do?? how often do you go to STARBUCKS???

maybe I'm too LATAM pilled but like???makes no fucking sense to me