#dealing with chinese online world

[weilaverdui]

could you teach me how to use baidu cloud? I've been trying to download some books off of it but it wont let me for somereason

Ok. I actually consider making a post about this adventure of mine. So: the approach is through this page: https://login.bce.baidu.com/?lang=en Where you need to use “sign me in with sms code” option. If you are lucky, they are sending sms to your country, but even if they do, it does not always work. Also, for some reason, I finally got my messages through Whatsup. No idea why or how. They tell you there is no account with this number, register now? You answer yes, fill the capcha, get the code, you are in. Took me the longest. I do not remember if I got to set up the username here. It probably did. As soon as you managed to get in for the first time, you want to go to the user centre here: https://passport.baidu.com/v6/ucenter . Here you can set up your email. On the left, there are multiple lines that you can click to set up various stuff. You are looking for one that has 邮箱 in it, you can set up the email there. Hopefully another text will come through for confirmation. Be careful, they do not accept gmail, but they do accept, for example, outlook or yahoo (first worked better for me). Get an email set up, it will send you a confirmation code there. Next you need a password. Setting it is above setting email and has 密码 in it. Set the password. Now you should be good to go. Next. Baidu has an app through which you download stuff. I do it on desktop, it is here https://pan.baidu.com/download#pan Then you can login through it, and then the app will handle the download link properly. You can just click a button with download button. I mostly navigated the site with my limited chinese knowledge and Zhongwen add-on for pop-up dictionary, if you know the language, would be easier. For some reason I can’t copy words from interface, so to use a translator, one with OCR would be good. I do not know where you are on your journey, but hopefully it will be useful for you and others. If you have any further questions - feel free to ask.

[floorpancakes]

today's spoils and leftover snacks!!!!

[piosplayhouse]

I too watched the hbomberguy video and went straight to Twitter, whereupon I found that James Somerton had mentioned danmei in one of his videos and it made everyone mad, so I went looking and. yeah here's a full transcription of his just completely incorrect coverage of cql and mdzs from "Hollywood's (Gay) China Problem" so you don't have to watch it and give him views:

"The 2019 fantasy series The Untamed, featuring an unlikely bond between a man with magic powers and a stoic prince, started an online craze over the pair's implicit romance, but the show's promotion focused on its portrayal of Chinese traditional culture, a push consistent with Chinese communist party propaganda.

The show was... Queerbait-y. But the novel on which it was based [shows a picture of the fanmade cover for The Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation made by fan translator team Exiled Rebels] certainly was not. That featured a very explicit love story between the two main characters, but was self-censored when adapted to meet the censorship guidelines of the Xi Jinping government. But it didn't matter. Like so much queerbaiting before, people saw through the weak veneer of heterosexuality. They "took the bait", so to speak. The series has accumulated a total of 9.5 billion views in China as of this summer, and had also received an international release via Netflix. It was described as a global phenomenon, taking off like no BL series before it, making its way all around Asia and with the Netflix deal, all across Europe and North America as well.

Tencent, the Chinese streaming platform it originated on, saw 2.6 million new subscribers to the service when it was released. And WeTV, an app that lets you watch BL content anywhere in the world, saw growth of 250% while the show was airing. In January of 2020, the cast members planned to embark on a multi-city, worldwide fan meeting tour. Cities included Bangkok, Singapore, Tokyo, Seoul, Macau, Kuala Lumpur, Toronto, Los Angeles, New York... But it was cancelled due to COVID-19.

Even the Chinese government has endorsed it. The overseas popularity of these romantic sword-wielding heroes is often highlighted in Chinese media coverage focusing on the massive overseas streaming numbers and its ability to build a growing appreciation of the charm of Chinese culture."

[madamlaydebug]

CRITICAL WARNING!!!! Radio talk show hostess, Kim Komando, did some digging about TEMU and this is what she found!

Seemingly overnight, everyone’s talking about Temu (pronounced “tee-moo”), an online shopping app that boasts deals that seem too good to be true, like $17 wireless earbuds, $1 “gold” necklaces and $23 wedding dresses.

Over 50 million Americans have downloaded Temu since it launched state-side in September 2022, after it gained traction with expensive Super Bowl ads promising to let you “shop like a billionaire.”

Today, Temu is the most popular shopping app in the U.S. behind Amazon. But most of us don’t know much about the app’s true origins. Reader Daniel Mayer asked an important question, “Is [Temu] something we should be concerned about?”

So, I did some digging. And as it turns out, yes, you absolutely should be. Here’s what I found:

Where did Temu come from?

This isn’t some fly-by-night operation. Temu is based in Boston, Massachusetts, by PDD Holdings Inc. (Nasdaq: PDD). PDD is headquartered in Shanghai, China.

PDD also owns the e-commerce platform Pinduoduo headquartered in — you guessed it — China. So, Temu is a Communist China-based app and site.

What you need to know before using Temu

First, you’re buying goods directly from manufacturers in China and other parts of the world. That’s why shipping times are often 12 days or longer. The prices are low because the goods are cheap. The pictures of what you see advertised may not be what you actually get.

Temu’s BBB rating is 2.21/5. Reviews at TrustPilot are interesting, with 38% 5-star reviews and 41% 1-star reviews.

But that’s not the worst of it.

Temu is downright dangerous.

The app is a clever, pervasive digital stalker. As you shop, Temu monitors your activity on other apps, tracks your notifications and location and changes settings.

🛑 It gets worse. Temu gains full access to all your contacts, calendars and photo albums, plus all your social media accounts, chats and texts. In other words, literally everything on your phone. This is scary

No shopping app needs this much control, especially one tied to Communist China. If you’re using Temu, delete the app from your phone ASAP.

On iPhone, Long-press an app, then tap Remove App > Delete App. Tap Delete to confirm.

On Android, touch and hold an app, then tap Remove App > Delete App > Delete.

Pro tip: If you downloaded Temu, to be safe from Chinese spies, you really need to do a full factory reset.

But wait, there’s more! Temu’s sister app was removed from Google Play because of malware.

Do not buy from this company, or use their app!

COPY AND PASTE PLEASE

[bjyxobsessed]

It’s one thing for CP fans to deal with homophobic idiots online… It’s another when it’s effecting them and making it EVEN HARDER to see each other 😢 This is the world they live in (that too many people have to live in)… And it’s sad to be reminded of that.

Sure, it was nice to have a giggle over Yibo being in Hengdian (where XZ was) over the holiday… But it seems to me that the guy who posted about it was more interested in getting attention from other fans than in doing what decent CP fans make a priority: protecting them.

We are continually reminded that a minority voice filled with vitriol and hate can be louder and more dangerous than those of love and hope. As much as we are always so desperate for any little hint of them being together, I really hope this was a reminder to our fellow turtles in China to be more careful… To keep the juiciest pieces of candy off main and in the group chats.

Because there would be nothing worse to me than a situation where they are forced out of the closet and all hell rains down 🥺 (Somebody that hates me but is a very good writer wrote a really good, devastatingly sad fic about a similar situation. When things like this happen and solos lash out, I always think about this fic and how potentially possible it is 😢)

It’s hard. It’s hard to watch the homophobia. And I don’t know what the answer is given the limitations of China. But I have seen progress made in the 4 years I’ve been in this fandom - in online interactions, in Chinese dramas, on social media. Change is slow - acceptance is slower. But I truly think XZ and WYB are changing hearts. And turtles are a big part of that. I just hope we can all be careful and keep them safe in the process.

[mxtxfanatic]

I'm not very active online socially, so I find your takes on the whole JC stans situation very helpful and interesting. It does a lot to contextualize what I see reading a lot of fanfiction, wherein I've found much MDZS fanfiction to be very divorced from the reality of the source material, both due to cultural insensitivity towards the Chinese source material, the CQL problem, and of course the ubiquitous JC apologia. I've been in equally, if not more, contentious fandoms before (the Sherlock fandom comes to mind) but, if I can be frank, to me the difference between those experiences and now is that MDZS is an actually good book! I feel like a lot of the fandom inclinations toward sanding down conflicts or exacerbating them, inventing personalities for background characters, turning all the characters into dolls and the setting into your dollhouse (which no one else may touch!) were codified for the current userbase in Superwholock, whether people realize or not. Those fandom instincts were helpful when working with source material that was shallow, inconsistent, and from the english-speaking world, but it did not equip fandom to deal with a book from a foreign culture that didn't need "fixing" for lack of a better term. It also reminds me a lot of early otaku culture in the USA, with the botched translations, weird cultural takes, and... odd characterization in fanfiction (why does Naruto need a harem???). Which, one may hope, could indicate that things will get better over time. That's just my spaghetti thrown at the wall, though.

I think it's a combination of both the quality of the book (Western fandoms are unused to having source materials with such tight storytelling where they don't have to fill in major parts of the plot with their own imaginations) and racism (Western fandoms feeling so entitled to Asian works while also not respecting their creators enough to even pretend to attempt to understand what the creators are trying to say, instead, choosing to fall back onto the orientalist "those Asians are just an enigma" stereotypes to justify superimposing their own ideas onto the text and calling it "basically the same thing").

I also believe that the sheer volume of unchallenging art that the Western world mass-produces, paired with disdain towards literary pursuits like critique and analysis, has led to a generation of "fans" who believe that the only "right" way to engage in your favorite media is to turn your brain off. "If you joined fandom to share quotes from the book and not just follow the 'incorrect-quotes-blog' and laugh at out-of-context excerpts, then what's your problem???" seems to be the consensus nowadays.

Here's to hoping one day people get over themselves and realize that just because their usual interests are careless drivel written to make money doesn't mean that everyone is writing trash stories they could care less about outside of how much money it makes them. Mxtx writes amazing stories, but you don't actually care about the story like you claim you do if everything you "love" about it can be easily just summarized in a recycled fandom trope meme.

[simply-ivanka]

Biden Leaves His Successor a World of Disorder

His policies have encouraged the advance of U.S. adversaries across the globe.

By The Editorial Board -- Wall Street Journal

President Biden will address the United Nations on Tuesday, in what is likely to be his last big moment on the world stage. A President’s foreign-policy legacy typically outlasts his term, so it’s worth taking a step back and considering the world Mr. Biden will leave his successor.

It is a far more dangerous world than Mr. Biden inherited, and far less congenial for U.S. interests, human freedom and democracy. The latter is tragically ironic since the President has made the global contest between democracy and authoritarians an abiding theme. Authoritarians have advanced on his watch in every part of the world—Europe, Asia-Pacific, the Middle East, Africa, and even the Americas.

***

• Mr. Biden’s chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan was his single most damaging decision, and it has led to cascading trouble. The Taliban control the country and are reimposing feudal Islamist rule. His withdrawal has done more harm to more women than anything in decades, while jihadists have revived their terror sanctuary.

• More damaging is the message his withdrawal sent to adversaries about American will and retreat. The credibility of U.S. deterrence collapsed. Mr. Biden tried to appease Vladimir Putin by blessing the Nord Stream 2 pipeline and refusing to arm Ukraine. Mr. Putin concluded he could invade Ukraine at limited cost, especially after Mr. Biden blurted out that a “minor incursion” might not elicit the same Western opposition.

After Kyiv bravely resisted, Mr. Biden sent weapons, but too little and too delayed at every stage of the war. Even now, after 31 months and 100,000 or more dead, Mr. Biden dithers over letting Ukraine use long-range ATACMS against targets inside Russia.

• His record in the Middle East is worse. Rather than build on the Abraham Accords he inherited, he tried to ostracize Saudi Arabia and he banned offensive weapons to fight the Houthis. From the start he courted the mullahs in Iran to renew the 2015 nuclear accord that had enriched Iran before Donald Trump withdrew. He refused to enforce oil sanctions, even as Iran spread mayhem through its proxy militias.

The U.S. was caught flat-footed when Hamas, aided by Iran, invaded Israel and massacred 1,200 innocents. His national-security adviser, Jake Sullivan, had to edit an online version of a Foreign Affairs essay already published boasting that “the region is quieter than it has been for decades.”

Here’s how quiet: Our foremost regional ally is now at war on multiple fronts. Israel’s defensive campaign in Gaza isn’t finished and a new and perhaps bloodier fight is unfolding with Hezbollah. The Houthis have all but shut down Western commercial shipping around the Red Sea, while Mr. Biden makes U.S. naval commanders play whack-a-missile.

Meanwhile, Iran marches undeterred to becoming a nuclear power. The Biden Administration mouths pieties that this is unacceptable, but its every action suggests it believes a nuclear Iran is inevitable and trying to stop it is too risky. When Iran goes nuclear, the security calculus in the world will turn upside down.

• Mr. Biden’s record in the Asia-Pacific is marginally better, at least diplomatically. He has strengthened U.S. alliances against China, especially with Australia, Japan and the Philippines. The Aukus defense deal is important, as is Japan’s move toward closer military integration with the U.S.

Yet diplomacy hasn’t been matched by hard power. The U.S. isn’t building enough submarines to meet its Aukus commitment and U.S. needs. American bases lack adequate air defenses and long-range missiles to defeat a Chinese invasion of Taiwan. State Department foot-stomping hasn’t stopped Chinese harassment of Philippine ships.

• Closer to home, Venezuela’s dictator has predictably stolen another election, exposing the Biden Administration’s deal to ease oil sanctions as naive. Mexico is tilting in an authoritarian direction without U.S. protest. Cuba continues to spread revolution wherever it can. The resulting human suffering reaches America in the flood of migrants that now burden our cities, from Manhattan to Springfield, Ohio.

• Most ominous is the collaboration of these menacing regional powers into a new anti-Western axis. Iran supplies missiles and drones to Moscow, which may be supplying nuclear know-how to Tehran. China is aiding Moscow, which now joins Beijing in naval maneuvers. North Korea also arms Moscow while being protected by China from United Nations sanctions it once voted for.

***

All of this and more adds up to the worst decline in world order, and the largest decline in U.S. influence, since the 1930s. Yet Mr. Biden continues to speak and act as if he’s presided over an era of spreading peace and prosperity. He has proposed a cut in real defense spending each year of his Presidency, which may be his greatest abdication.

Addressing this gathering storm will be difficult and dangerous. The first task will be restoring U.S. deterrence, which will require more hard power and political will. Whoever wins the White House will have to abandon the failed policies of the Biden years, lest we end up careening into a global conflict with catastrophic consequences.

Appeared in the September 23, 2024, print edition as 'How Freedom Faded on Biden’s Watch'

REPOST THIS EVERY TIME

[olderthannetfic]

CW: rant about "racist fetishizing" and "exotification" as a white person, etc.

One thing that particularly drives me bonkers is when antis take issue with things that are either not obviously negative or are inextricable from things that are neutral or even positive. For example, are there situations where AAVE really is "appropriated" and used in a way that takes advantage of black culture while keeping a comfortable distance to actual black people? Sure! But my gents. 1) A random Tumblr user having absorbed a ton of AAVE into their speech patterns and saying "y'all" a lot is not it, 2) absorbing language patterns from those you socialize with is an unavoidable side effect of socialization, and I don't know how to tell this to terminally online people but it is in fact a good thing. It is a good thing that African-American people are so present and their content engaged with enough that people are passively absorbing AAVE! No, it doesn't mean racism is solved or that people who say "y'all" can't be racist, but absorbing AAVE in and of itself is a good sign!

I have a similar complaint with most accusations of "fetishization" (beside the meaningless vagueness of the term), because what it comes down to is "you find people who look like this sexy and that's BAD". Even "exotification" is not in and of itself a bad thing, when removed from the context of imperialism and colonialism, because looking at someone and thinking they're sexy because they look so different to what you're used to, i.e. "exotic", is not actually inherently a bad thing! We have some amount of sexual draw to what's different - I mean, people with blue eyes apparently all have a single common ancestor who really got around, for crying out loud.

Where this attraction becomes problematic is when due to the outside material conditions (whether on the societal scale or the single person scale), the exotified person is both desirable and lacking in power, but the exact same thing is true whatever the ethnicity of the person! (A good deal of what feminism views as "predatory" behavior in men is only really predatory against the background of economic desperation in women wherein there is some material disadvantage to turning down unwanted advances, and would be considerably more harmless in a setting where everyone is equal and living comfortably, which I daresay should be the end goal of any equality and empowerment movement).

As someone with straight hair, I think curls are sexy. As someone with brown hair, I think redheads and blond people and people with black hair are sexy. As a white person, I would probably date one of my cute Chinese co-workers if I weren't so damn ace, because something about that combination of same tone or darker skin + completely black smooth hair + the general facial features (including the monolid some people get so insecure about because Western poisoning sigh) is just gorgeous to me and I'm not afraid to say it. Saying something like this should not be taboo. People of any ethnicity deserve to have people of other ethnicities gushing about what makes them look distinct and unique! I mean, shit, people gush about white skin and blond hair and blue eyes enough.

(Disclaimer: I am once again not saying that there aren't contexts where calling out racial fetishization is appropriate, or where people desire someone for their physical differences but still consider them to be subhuman. There are many such cases, I know. I would even say that, based on observations of the heterosexual world, wanting to fuck someone and thinking they have equal value as a person can be completely and utterly uncoupled from each other. But this doesn't mean that all expressions of attraction because of the physical differences are automatically suspect, and it's no wonder that so much of pushback against "fetishizing X ethnicity" reads like a pamphlet in support of racial segregation!)

Tl;dr: Thinking someone of X ethnicity is hot and being racist towards that ethnicity can co-occur but have little to do with each other. People try to fix the latter problem by attacking instances of the former, and that's stupid, and just ends up looking like "you're not allowed to thirst outside of your own race".

--

It still boggles my mind that y'all is the thing people have chosen to take as appropriation from AAVE.

[sophia-sol]

8 original fiction recs (4 short stories, 3 novelettes, 1 novella)

One Flew Over the Songhua River, by Qi Ran, translated by Andy Dudak

➤ scifi short story translated from chinese; originally published in 2021

➤ it's a fascinating outside-outside pov, a nephew telling the story of his aunt, whose story is that of her famous physicist-astronaut husband

➤ the multiple layers of abstraction work well for this story -- and the narrative loops around itself in how it's told, too, wandering forwards and backwards in time to circle around the heart of things

➤ which is really a story about family and about place and about how you decide what to prioritise in your life

➤ it's lovely and thoughtful and wistful. I really liked it!

➤ 7k words in length

Himalia, by Carrie Vaughn

➤ Scifi novelette about growing up somewhere you always know you're going to have to leave eventually, because it was never intended to be permanent

➤ and leaving your best friend behind, who wants to never leave, because it's home

➤ it's really good!! I had a lot of feelings about the characters, and the way Niri is drawn in Jenny's life through her absence in this day of her return

➤ also it's set in space, on one of the satellites of Jupiter!

➤ 8k words in length

The Weight of Your Own Ashes, by Carlie St. George

➤ scifi short story about a multi-bodied alien in a relationship with a human

➤ questions of identity, of whether you're being seen for who you truly are by people who want to interpret the whole world as being inhabited by people like them, eyes closed to the reality of differences

➤ I loved the intertwining of the worldbuilding and the relationship drama, and I loved that we got to see Yonder's relationships with other people, friends and siblings and so forth, the ways those relationships are different than the one with Alice

➤ 6k words in length

Half Sick of Shadows, by Elle Engel

➤ post-apocalyptic novelette about a girl who's the only survivor left in a tower that protected her and her ancestors from the outside world

➤ the whole story is just Lena and her interiority as she faces the realities of her situation, as she grows and changes and develops the strength of will to do what needs to be done

➤ and it's so well done! I was captivated the whole time

➤ 10k words in length

Blackjack, by Veronica Schanoes

➤ fantasy novelette about a jewish grandmother, after the death of her daughter, facing and dealing with the ways her troubled first marriage affected her life and her daughter

➤ Schanoes is so good at character and setting and emotion!

➤ and it's always great to have a story where the hero is an older woman

➤ 12k words in length

The Spindle of Necessity, by B. Pladek

➤ short story about a trans man who's obsessed with the m/m novels of a dead historical novelist who he's convinced was trans

➤ and about the dreams he has where he meets her and talks with her

➤ it's a story that feels unsatisfying but like, in a satisfying way?

➤ idk how to explain! it makes me want to reread it 3 more times and think about the way one's relationship with oneself is mediated through the stories one reads and loves

➤ it's really good

➤ 6k words in length

An Intergalactic Smuggler's Guide to Homecoming, by Tia Tashiro

➤ a scifi short story set in space, about a smuggler who left her sister behind when she left the shitty planet she grew up on

➤ but her latest mission has her returning to that planet to deliver the goods

➤ (the goods are hundreds of teeny tiny sentient bioluminescent jellyfish fleeing civil war)

➤ I enjoyed the worldbuilding, and the difficult emotions about family, and how the things that felt world-endingly true at 17 don't need to be true forever

➤ 7k words in length

Between Blades, by Filip Hajdar Drnovšek Zorko

➤ a full novella published online for free the same way a short story would be!

➤ secondary world fantasy about two women from the outskirts of empire, who don't fit the identities their cultures expect of them but who are also out of place within the empire

➤ they're gladiators in a partnership where one in a pair of gladiators takes a "swordform" and the other wields them

➤ great characters and great worldbuilding and great reflections on identity in this context!

➤ I loved Leris and Gerthe, and Ulmo too

➤ and the Empress herself and her story is fascinating, and I can see how in a different narrative her backstory would be the focus of a heroic narrative, and I love that that's not the story we get, this isn't a "monarchy is good with the right person in charge" kind of story like so much fantasy is

➤ the narrative perspective on religion is really cool too

➤ 36k words in length

[jupiter--dream]

What a day man

If I had a euro for every time a fucking tourist family decided to scream at me for something I have no power or say over... (Add another euro every time an old guy makes some incredibly strange comment about me.)

Just. British tourists are fucking everywhere, and they're so, so disrespectful. Mass tourism is dreadful. I keep getting tiktoks where everyone is talking about how they're all vacationing in Spain and just. Where do we go if every building is being bought to use as a bnb?? I don't mind tourism, I just wish tourists had an ounce of respect.

A guy yesterday had the balls to tell me that he's paying a lot of money to live in Spain so that I can have this job. A month ago a guy told me "he was surprised that despite Spain being a rich country, barely anyone spoke English" and just. Spain has five official languages and you can study up to SIX in regular school (Spanish, whichever regional language you have, English, French is always available as an optional class, and if you study humanities you must take Latin and Greek classes) LIKE how many languages do YOU speak???

Other tourists at LEAST try to communicate in broken Spanish, they KNOW your average Joe doesn't speak German or Russian or Italian. But BRITISH tourists?? EVERYTHING is catered to them. EVERYTHING is for them. I'm so tired.

I'm the only person in my workplace with a C2 level in English so I have to take care of most of the talking.

Just. I'll be real and just say that I hate how English has become the lingua franca of the world. How you can't expect to achieve relevancy without speaking it. How I go online to hear about everything and anything to do with the US and then look away from my phone to deal with British tourists wearing "I <3 Benidorm/Mallorca/Madrid/Toledo/Granada" shirts.

I can barely get people to care about my first language and now I have to talk to people who don't even care about Spanish? Who don't try? Who throw an "Hola" and "Gracias" and then look puzzled when I speak Spanish? Who can't differentiate between the culture of the south, north, east and west of the country? Because I assure you, you will NOT find bullfighters and flamenco dancers and paella in proximity.

Do they know about Valencian? Catalan? Galician? Euskera? Basque? Do they know about Turrón? About the centuries we spent as Arab territory? Do they know? Do they care? Would they like to know?

Touristic cities are a paradox of being SO Spanish it's uncanny and also having not a single ounce of Spanish in them, it's all english breakfasts and italian/chinese/indian/etc restaurants and souvenir shops.

I saw a slideshow of a British guy taking pics posing next to "tourists go home" & "end mass tourism" graffiti and had to take a break from looking at my phone for the rest of the day

[maximumphilosopheranchor]

“While disinformation, fake news, and propaganda have been around since the beginning of time, today, new technologies are helping it proliferate online, often drowning out responsible voices. Nowhere is this truer than in Ukraine.

Bot technology, which was developed in the earliest years of the internet, has more recently been put to nefarious uses. Unscrupulous actors are using social media algorithms to raise the popularity of particular kinds of inflammatory content and to spread propaganda.

For more than a decade, former Soviet bloc countries have played an important and disturbing role in developing bot and troll farms. Russian and pro-Russian Ukrainians, many working for the Russian Federal Security Service, have launched well-functioning bot factories, creating chaos, distractions, anger, and fear via numerous disinformation streams that now pose an integral challenge everywhere, in countries as different as Venezuela, Colombia, the United States, and the U.K. - not just in Ukraine.

This is how it works. We are spending more and more time online, reading posts, watching videos, and consuming more information than ever. We share them with our friends and tweet about them. Many people rely on social media for all their news. In this way we have created entirely new information ecosystems outside the traditional systems that include fact-checking procedures.

Bots pretend to be a person online. They take advantage of our already established social media networks and spread like wildfire on them, on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and instant messaging apps. The messages they push out are simple, precise, unambiguous, and convey a single thought. They are calibrated to produce the strongest emotions possible and elicit fear and confusion, creating havoc and causing considerable psychic damage to each of us, our loved ones, and people all over our country.

After Zelenskyy became president, it didn’t take long for him to understand how dangerous these bot farms are and the peril they posed to Ukraine: “These are the challenges of today, and we must be prepared for them,” Zelenskyy said in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine in February 2020. “In Ukraine, this is now a real business, a very serious business. Bot farms are a problem, whatever they are: for white or black, there is no difference. Because those who stand up for good, such as Ukraine’s independence, in social media today may be against it tomorrow. Therefore, we must fight against such things. For the independence of the country, the independence of the individual, human rights must be fought in any way.”

At that moment, Zelenskyy was speaking more broadly, meaning that not only Ukrainians but the whole world must learn to distinguish the line where freedom of speech ends and disinformation begins. To me, it seemed a very crucial point, because if we cannot decide on what is allowed on social media now, we will be unable to deal with even greater challenges in the future.

Bot farms were used to supplement and reinforce the methods used on the oligarch-owned television networks. They helped amplify the message of pro-Russian puppets brought to power by Moscow in different countries, influencing their politics and media. For Russia, the internet has been an important source of contemporary propaganda, and its use of the internet is analogous to the methods the Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebels developed in the 1930s on the radio and in newspapers. As he once said, “If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it.” Nonsense remains nonsense in the singular. But when someone sends hundreds and thousands of nonsensical posts and commentaries to people’s phones and computer screens, people begin to believe what they see.

Here is but one outrageous example in Ukrainian media: to undermine government land reform policies, an endless number of absurd stories appeared about Chinese people digging up and shipping out the famously fertile Ukrainian soil. The usual chauvinistic and racist Russian-style propaganda outlets promulgated and published these stories. Their purpose was to create doubt about these needed land reform measures – such as lifting the moratorium on the sale of Ukraine’s agricultural land and investing in irrigation systems – which would help rid the agricultural sector of fraud and abuse and boost Ukraine’s economy. In the same vein, other stories trumpeted that Zelenskyy was a pro-Russian president or controlled by oligarchs – anything that could undermine people’s trust in him. By repeating such garbage over and over again, some were seeking political dividends. This fake news contributed to an oppressive political atmosphere and increased Ukrainians’ disenchantment with their institutions.”

Iuliia Mendel, The Fight of Our Lives: My Time with Zelenskyy, Ukraine’s Battle for Democracy, and What It Means for the World

[miyamiwu]

Tian Huafang, author of that Flower Vase novel which I love and hate so much, had actually finished their other unlimited flow novel entitled 魅力值满点会吸引脏东西 (A Full Charm Value Attracts Dirty Things). But back when I bookmarked this, which was before the author started publishing it, the title was 第四天灾都觉得我是万人迷 (The Unpredictable Players* All Think I’m a Heartthrob). Now that old title is being used as the novel’s one-line description instead.

*Translated from 第四天灾, which literally means “Fourth Natural Disaster.” That slang tripped me up so badly, idk if my translation’s good enough)

They also updated the summary of the novel, removing specific details which might be considered spoilers now and adding a new paragraph that hints at the ending instead (why????) They also removed the bit about the cat. I wonder if they edited the cat out of the novel too.

For reference, the full old summary is under the cut:

Disclaimer: This summary is just MTL. Sadly, I don't have a copy of the raws

---

Tang Yu is different from others. He can see the game interface on everyone's bodies. The people around him have an NPC interface; altogether, there are six attributes, and the upper limit value of the attributes is 10.

His childhood sweetheart A has three attributes at 9, his senior B has four attributes at 9, his pursuer C has five attributes at 9, while Tang Yu... Apart from charm being a 10, the rest are 5, even for intelligence. In other words, he was a flower vase.

Aside from dealing him a blow, Tang Yu never understood what the purpose of the attribute interface was, until one day, there was a *ding* in his mind, along with a mechanical voice that announced: "XXXX" countdown to server opening. 3, 2, 1... The game is starting.

Tang Yu looked up blankly and saw a group of people with a player interface happily go online.

Since then, Tang Yu's ordinary life has undergone earth-shaking changes. The place where he studied became a death high school; when he returned to his hometown, he saw a death village; the shopping mall where he worked was a death mall...

The sweetheart who likes him turns out to be a ghost capturing great celestial master who deals with the Chinese supernatural.

The senior who likes him is said to be the Cthulhu evil god's priest who deals with the Western supernatural.

The world changed too fast. Tang Yu hugged his little black cat tightly. One night, the light was too faint, and Tang Yu accidentally sat on his cat.

Then, Tang Yu saw his cat post something on the supernatural forum: The human that I'm raising

purposefully sat on my lap in the middle of the night, is he hinting at something?

Tang Yu: "......?"

—

"XXXX" is a super popular VRMMORPG. In the game, the sorting of the NPC's rank is tied to the attractiveness index. After discovering the beautiful NPC called Tang Yu, the players excitedly launched an investigation, and then subsequently saw Tang Yu's attributes.

Players: "A true flower vase, switch to another NPC to lick!"

The players heartlessly turned their heads to lick Bigshot A, A's interface introduction: A is secretly in love with Tang Yu.

They went to lick a more powerful Bigshot B, B's interface introduction: B is secretly in love with Tang Yu.

They went to lick an even more, super-powerful Bigshot C, C's interface introduction: C is secretly, deeply in love with Tang Yu.

(ps: brushing Tang Yu’s good impression is tantamount to brushing the three people: A, B, and C's good impression.)

Players: "!!!"

Players: "What part of this is a flower vase! This is obviously my long-lost father ah!"

Only a few players who wouldn’t brush the big shots’ favorability were still stubbornly not acting like a licking dog; afterward, when they were about to rank up, some people accidentally saw the evil god's interface: Cthulhu is pleased with Tang Yu.

All of the players were greatly shocked, and the spirits of licking dogs flew out of their bodies!

—

The evil god is moved, He turns into a little kitten, and very courteously crouches in front of your house's gate, meowing towards you —

*Open the door, delivering a husband*

[protoslacker]

Songs are funny things

I'm not very dumb, but not very smart either. And I'm old and I work. So there's whole bunches of stuff that's important that I'm pretty ignorant about. I am glad to be curious. As ignorant as I am, I often fall into rabbit holes.

I was thinking about songs. I want people to sing songs. There's a quote by Pete Seeger about songs which I like very much:

“Songs are funny things. They can slip across borders. Proliferate in prisons. Penetrate hard shells. I always believed that the right song at the right moment could change history.”

I was mulling over the trouble with people singing other people's songs. And thought of a lecture that Lawrence Lessig gave a long time ago. Searching for it the very first google result was a link to Leonard Lin's blog random($foo). Lin had put the lecture on the Internet and it's kind of cool to see how it was done back then. I headed over to YouTube to watch Lessig's talk at the O.Reilly Open Source Conference in July of 2002.

The talk is still worthwhile. At the time some of my creative friends thought Lessig was a sort of villain, so his talks got talked about.

At Tumblr someone I am very pleased to have encountered is Dr. Damien P. Williams. Something about meeting him at first on here is knowing what a kind and good person he is prior to discovering his deep erudition about the social implications of technology. These days I follow him on Mastodon where he pointed to an episode of NPR'S Code Switch with Safiya Noble dealing with "the complex questions that arise when algorithms and AI intersect with race."

It's a wonderful interview which really does touch on complexities, but the part that really made an impression was her background in advertising before returning to graduate school and earning her Ph.D. It put the economics of enclosure front and center in discussing AI.

I'm describing my fall down a rabbit hole and I think the next thing I engaged with was a post by Andy Baio at WAXY, Weird A.I. Yankovic, a cursed deep dive into the world of voice cloning. Songs are funny things.

After that I landed on a review of a new book by Yanis Varoufakis by Christopher Pollard at The Conversation, Is capitalism dead? Yanis Varoufakis thinks it is – and he knows who killed it. The book is entitled Techno-feudalism: What Killed Capitalism and will be available in print in the US in February. I listened to several interviews with Varoufakis and searched for literature on Neo-feudalism. It's certainly an idea I want to learn more about.

Back in the early oughts there was a book, Netocracy : the new power elite and life after capitalism by Alexander Bard & Jan Söderqvist. For a little while the ideas were discussed quite a lot online. Remembering those conversations I did not anticipate how incredibly concentrated the autocracy would become, i.e., how few feudal lords there would be. And I paid too little attention to Chinese technology. But Bard coined a term for a new underclass called the "consumtariat" which seems quite handy and has stuck with me over the years.

It's going to take me a long while to wrap my head around neo-feudalism. But I suspect it will be time well spent.

Wendy Grossman at net.wars has a recent post, The end of ownership. The provocation for the post is a garage door opener which among other evils forces an ad on you before you can open the garage door. Grossman points to Cory Doctorow, The enshittification of garage-door openers reveals a vast and deadly rot. I'd laugh, but it telling how fast technology and the tech-lords are enclosing us.

Who can sing songs and whose songs can we sing are urgent questions.

[gossipgirloff1]

about the kelly and max relationship discourse:

the whole "magical night" thing is very problematic and kelly does deserve to be called out about it but equating the relationship to the clearly abusive relationship that max and jos have is taking it too far. we don't know these people and we don't know what really goes on in their lives. and max is not a little child, he can definitely handle himself and does not need people on the internet to fight for him. yes, his issues with his parents must have scarred him and warped in perception of healthy relationship but he clearly chooses to surround himself with problematic people and is not forced to stay in a relationship (let's be real even if it was pr, max verstappen, three time world champion doesn't need kelly piquet to be relevant or cultivate an image. his brand is not going to be hit significantly if they break up tomorrow because his image is not fully based on that relationship but the relationship is just an aspect of it. and again he can probably get into a new relationship just as fast if he wanted to.) he himself is a bit problematic (his support of piquet snr, using a nationality as a slur) but it just isn't talked about much anymore. also before anyone calls me a kelly supporter, i genuinely do not care for that woman, she is a fascist and racist person who deserves every bit of criticism. the way she made fun of the chinese during the covid pandemic, supports bolsanaro, is a performative activist is so disgusting to me and on top of that she puts her child's privacy in danger by constantly displaying every moment of her life in social media. kelly is an adult who probably knows about the dangers of exposing young children on social media and actively chooses to ignore them. and if the allegations are true, then it was very predatory of her to be in groupchats with young teenagers who probably did not understand the gravity of the situation and were just happy to have access to max's personal life. i really feel for the child because it seems most adults in her life seem to exploit her for their own gains (I'm giving kyvat the benefit of doubt because to my knowledge he hasn't posted her online much and generally stays away from publicizing her every move but I could be wrong too so please correct me). and max too is to be blamed, though not as much as her parents and immediate family. as an adult in her life he too should be a bit careful but he's not her father or step father so it's not his job.

and the alex thing that gets dragged through hell every week is getting a bit too old guys. she has a public tiktok account, I don't think she is asking for privacy or anything. the reason she privated her Instagram is because of the crazy fans who jump on the wags like sharks. it's no big deal anyway. it's different on her tiktok because mostly people look at her to get style inspo (love her or hate her, she does have a very Pinterest-y style and people are influenced by it and I know I'm gonna get hate for this but I have to say, she and to a certain extent carmen are the wags that can actually be called influencers because they actually influence and people actually imitate their style etc.) anyways, the privacy thing is such a non issue imo and I don't think it really needs that much discussion.

also while we're on style can I just say that I don't like kelly's style and I don't understand how she's considered a style icon? maybe it's because I'm a lot younger, gen z person but her style seems so mismatched and matronly to me. i don't like how she wears a blazer with every damn outfit, it's giving corporate dude. i love carmen and kika and alex's style though. also i loved flavy's looks in monaco, they were really good.

also do you know about this crazy article in Spanish that was calling charles "woke" just because he has a dog and not a child? like what the actual fuck. i saw some screenshots but basically it was like how he's not "manly enough" because he adopted a dog and did not have a child at the big age of 26. crazy people

also (I'm so so sorry that it's so long) I read once that you would love to engage in fashion discourse and I have so many thoughts on the topic. and also driver market discourse especially after Checo's signing ( i again do have thoughts)

ciao

-fashion girlie anon(??)

Hi 👋🏻

Thank you for sending this ask I love reading people’s thoughts ❤️

I didn’t saw Charles article if anyone has it can please send it to me?

Who cares if he is not a “real” dad it’s his choice

I forgot I was gonna do rating outfits of wags 🤦‍♀️ we should do that sometime I wanna hear your thoughts too ❤️

How about this Sunday we do the ratings ? After their paddock walk yeah I will try to be free that day👍🏻

[fontainegirl]

* ◟ : 〔 ANYA TAYLOR-JOY, NONBINARY + SHE / THEY 〕 OPAL FONTAINE , some say you’re a TWENTY SEVEN YEAR OLD lost soul among the neon lights. known for being both DRIVEN and CONFRONTATIONAL, one can’t help but think of MERMAIDS by FLORENCE + THE MACHINE when you walk by. are you still an ASSOCIATE / HEADLINE PERFORMER for THE BURNING GODS / OLD WORLD CASINO, even with your reputation as THE STAR? i think we’ll be seeing more of you and LIMBS THAT APPEAR TRANSLUCENT IN CERTAIN LIGHTING, A FAMILIAR FACE HIDDEN BEHIND A MASK, DRESSES MADE FROM BLOOD DIAMONDS, although we can’t help but think of OPHELIA (HAMLET) + AVA (EX-MACHINA) + LIZZY WIZZY (CYBERPUNK 2077) whenever we see you down these rainy streets.

FULL NAME: Opal Anette Fontaine NICKNAME(S): Opie, Anette AGE: Twenty-Seven GENDER: Nonbinary PRONOUNS: She/They BIRTHPLACE: Paris, France OCCUPATION: Headline Performer & Model GANG AFFILIATION: Associate of Burning Gods FC: Anya Taylor Joy

APPEARANCE

HAIR COLOUR: Dyed platinum blonde, originally dark brown. EYE COLOUR: Brown HEIGHT: 5”7 PIERCINGS?:Both ears. TATTOOS: None.

TRAITS

POSITIVE: Driven, Honest, Independent NEGATIVE: Confrontational, Secretive, Spoiled

BACKGROUND

TW gore, body mutilation, body issues,underage drinking, drugs, 

She remembers very little of her past, only what they’ve been re-taught by others. Opal has been in the spotlight since childhood - there are magazines and ads that show them as a child, be it for clothing or toys or jewelry, an accessory for their mother, the actress Brigette Fontaine. That is obvious, something that can be physically seen and understood, and with it comes very vague memories; Opal can remember being painted for pageants, can remember their mother smacking her chubby baby thighs and encouraging them to spit-take the sweets they chewed. Who’s papa? There are photos around their grand parisian home, a stern looking man with a cold gaze, a man who prioritizes work over family and is disappointed that Opal is not a man. When he has a son with another woman, there is a complete disappearance of him from her life.

They didn’t stay in Paris because now she’s in New York, a singer in a casino. America held better studios, better make-up and record companies that Opal could be thrown at. A few minor roles, nothing serious, teenage years spent on sitcoms as the ditzy french best friend, accent thick and played for laughs in front of a live studio audience. There is always a sense of discomfort for Opal when they watch these, as if it wasn’t a happy time, makes her skin crawl. Something bad happened, she cannot recall what. Parties came next, underaged in nightclubs and bars just barely 18 when pictures started showing up in papers of her in various states. Boyfriends twice her age, men with children younger than her taking her out to dinner. There are articles online Opal has read, comments still available after all these years. 

The accident was terrible. Still, nobody knows how it came about - did Brigette owe money? The former actress had been taking out loans to fuel an addiction to surgery and opioids. Or was it the absent father? Involved with arms dealings with Chinese triads and Saudi prince’s that had gone horribly wrong? Or was it Opal themselves? Drunk behind the wheel? Nobody knows, only the outcome is fact; that legally, Opal Fontaine should be dead. Two limbs crushed to a bloody pulp, spine cracked, blood spilling from her ears. And yet - she isn’t. Half of their body has become meshed with robotics, Opal a picture of modern cybernetic enhancements and what they can do. There was a price to it all, for stuff like that doesn’t come for free.

Brigette Fontaine dead, aged 58, overdose. All that debt is piled onto Opal who learns that their life was paid for with dirty money, an arrangement with a local gang Burning Gods. It was transferred to her, now a headline singer at Old World Casino, a shadow of who they were prior to the accident.

OTHER

Got a job at Old World Casino due to nepotism but is actually a good singer.

Hasn’t seen her younger half-brother before.

They have cybernetic enhancements, as their right leg and arm had to be completely replaced following the accident. Part of the spinal cord is also synthetic. These enhancements, particularly the one of their right hand, have allowed her to become oddly good with computers. 

Though in debt to the Burning Gods, she also works off some of that via doing a little hacking which is why her associate status isn’t chosen but almost contractual.

Still models occasionally for magazines. Their most recent one is becoming the face of Hi-Chew in America.

Speaks French, English and Korean.

Legally dead for 30 minutes.

Sells feet pics online.

Kind of a huge bitch actually.

The accident was about 5 years ago.

[ottokallenhonkai3rd]

⚜ 𝒦𝒶𝓁𝓁𝑒𝓃 𝐹𝒶𝓃𝓉𝒶𝓈𝓎 ⚜

Cecilia: Eh, isn´t this Kallen Fantasy lll? Cecilia: This is an RPG with 3 Characters: Kallen the Valkyrie, her boyfriend Otto, and their pet HOMU. Cecilia: The aim is to defeat the Dark Fox of the East and ensure that Kallen marries Otto in the End. Source: Gameplay 6-1 - Tower of Babylon

I would like to write about this dialogue. Kallen Fantasy lll is a game developed by Otto Apocalypse, alongside the HOMU games. You now know the content. The game looks like this:

It's a normal arcade mini-game where you have to hit targets with a spaceship. On the Japanese server the game is called Kallen Fantasy Zero. After that, Kallen Fantasy Online came out. Probably only for the Chinese server because you can't really find anything about the game. However, a person who understands Chinese and has already played the game said that it adapts Kallen Fantasy III.

Kallen Fantasy VII brings up the rear. It is a heavily modified futuristic version of Kallen Fantasy III.

Kallen attends St. Freya High, which only accepts strong students and she is the strongest. Her nerdy friend Otto seems to want to stop her, but to no avail. She is promptly beaten up by a version of her in "The Sixth Serenade" costume and given her a suit of armor, because of her willingness to fight. She learns over the course of the story that she has BH3A genes that are specifically designed for combat. She fights her way through the classes, which are designed for the 3 types that each Valkyrie has and offers advantages and disadvantages. In the end she finds out that she is an escaped experiment from the "Far East Superhuman Genetic Engineering Project", which was intended to save humanity. The genes originally came from an evil fox from the Far East who tried to destroy the world. This technology reincarnated Sakura on campus. After Sakura Samsara screenshots popped up, Kallen fought Sakura to finish. ~*~ I don't want to say anything. But it's a little annoying. Apart from the four Sakura Samsara, there were two Sidevents, dealing with Kallen and SAKURA. There was Sanka Saga, in which Kallen took the role of Otto and was in love with SAKURA. In Sangoline, clone Kallen could only remember the time with SAKURA... Which also had zero impact on the story. And this is just about Kallen and SAKURA. Instead of translating Kallen Fantasy Online for the other servers, they preferred to release a modification of Otto's game. Why? What would have been so bad to at least let Kallen be Otto's fiancée? Instead, this important aspect, the goal of the game, was left out and OttoKallen fans were deprived of the opportunity to get content for their ship. You just notice that Sakura is the most popular character in Honkai Impact and Kallen is not allowed to exist without her. lol