#fenrisesque

[dalishious]

@fenrisesque replied to your chat “Dorian: The Inquisition supports free mages. What's next? Elves...”

THAT LINE PISSED ME OFF SO MUCH....HALAMSHIRAL IS LITERALLY AN ELVEN CITY

(I really don’t like how it’s followed by “Cows milking farmers” as if elves running Halamshiral is supposed to be this ludicrous thought?

“What’s next, elves reclaiming their homeland?”

[grandenchanterfiona]

fenrisesque replied to your post: Alexander the Great is the type of successful,...

wasnt he gay……how do u make a movie that ignores his attraction to men

Yeah, most think he was either gay or bisexual and one of his closest relationships was with is bestie and BF, Hephaestion, whom he gave the world’s most expensive funeral to (not even exaggerating) and tried to get people to worship as a god.

And, somehow, very easily. Most movies about him I’ve seen, including documentaries, try to just ignore that about him.

[awellboiledicicle]

fenrisesque replied to your post “grandenchanterfiona replied to your post “So last night i kept...”

don't talk to me, or my child, or my child, or my child, or my child,or my child, or my child, or my child, or my child,or my child, or my child, or my child, or my child, ever again

yes, good

[mordinsolusarchive]

@fenrisesque replied to your post: @fenrisesque replied to your photoset: ...

thats still a 17 yr age gap….

speaking as a 20-year-old, i feel comfortable shipping 2 adult women, both of who are actually older than i am

if i ever mention it on my blog again i can tag it so you don’t have to see it

[chickadee-sun]

IRA Propaganda tactics that worked on me

(Note that many posts used multiple tactics, so I'll link to them multiple times.)

Stealing real content from real activists on social media

Most often this is done by screenshotting tweets, Facebook posts, etc. Or at least, those are the easiest for me to notice. Some of these posts don't directly further the IRA's objectives. They just make the pysop blogger look more like a real person and increase their popularity and influence. Other times they add snide little comments to help alienate and demoralize their readers. Stuff along the lines of "nobody is talking about this," or "nobody cares about this," designed to make people despair and give up on improving their country.

Now, screenshotting instead of linking should be a red flag. A link would make it easier to interact with the actual activist, not the person screenshotting their words. But tumblr's coding suppresses offsite links, making screenshotting seem like a completely normal and reasonable way to reference other platforms. The snide comments often fly under the radar because that attitude is sadly common among genuine users as well.

Of course I already knew that grabbing people's tweets and posts is a lazy and effective way to "write" a clickbait article without effort or creating content. Apparently it's also a lazy and effective way to supress the progressive vote and increase division.

I am pleased to note that I grew more fed up with the nihilist comments and less likely to reblog them over time. In another recent post (which as far as I know doesn't come from the IRA) I pushed back slightly against "why isn't this in the news?" So I think I've been on the right track even before this new information. https://chickadee-sun.tumblr.com/post/171839411085/thatpettyblackgirl-urgent-if-you-are-in

This appears to be what I interacted with the most. Here are some posts I reblogged that used this tactic: post/146412193105/musingsofaraven-valerie-volatile post/146757386220/verolynne-open-plan-infinity-swagintherain post/147206820005/chrisevansisbeautiful-areyoucoldflash post/152473414650/bellygangstaboo-this-is-happening-in-america post/153133340745/godzillakiryu91-reverseracism post/153147035545/thetrippytrip-i-wish-the-world-would post/153231802135/ghettablasta-this-is-a-great-story-of post/153483724025/dorowot-gogomrbrown-thread-my-moms post/153538772200/bellaxiao-2-years-ago-today-on-november-22 post/153734325290/an-gremlin-the-real-eye-to-see-and-media-is post/153736403455/mousathe14-raptorific-fromchaostocosmos post/154092886970/17mul-nevaehtyler-so-um-let-me-get-it post/154330979730/thetrippytrip-feminine-black-men-the post/154474122260/lagonegirl-because-we-can-recognize-more-than post/154807853475/ghettablasta-thats-so-annoying-that-no-one post/155697023025/nevaehtyler-this-is-important post/155719509740/fenrisesque-shepherdmoon-foxnewsfuckfest post/156425339773/snailchimera-ephitania-dukeofellington post/157571042371/gogomrbrown-exactly-what-the-whole-terrorism post/157590672069/go1ds-heartless-tony-blog-lagonegirl post/157983742239/roachpatrol-blackness-by-your-side-my-utopia post/160621066778/lagonegirl-white-people-using-their-privilege post/163641274771/blackness-by-your-side-people-need-knowledge-not post/164382771945/lazyscience-nevaehtyler-whats-next-take-away post/168358486495/aokayinspace-witwicky-down-to-venus-when

What I plan to do better: I'm just not going to engage with this sort of stolen content. If someone wants to screenshot *their own* twitter thread, that's fine, but if you just copy and paste someone else's content I'm not interested. Screenshots are inaccessible for people who use screenreaders anyway. This isn't foolproof, as nothing stops a propaganda blog from copypasting and pretending text is their own content, but it's a start. I also plan to push back harder against the "no one is talking about this" "nobody cares" narrative. Even when it's not from psyops on purpose it's still really harmful and counterproductive to activism. (Not foolproof; see "positivity and celebrating accomplishments" below.)

Fake news is not a euphemism for propaganda

A while ago there was a meme going around angry about how often the media allows the right wing to define terms and eumphemises the shit they pull. OK, but it claimed that "white nationalism" was a euphemism for "white supremacy," which is isn't. White nationalism is a specific type of white supremacy and the specificity matters. Likewise it claimed that "fake news" was a euphemism for propaganda. Nope. Fake news is stuff that's made up and factually untrue. Propaganda isn't defined as being untrue; it's defined by being heavily slanted and trying to prompt people into a particular course of action. Advertisements are propaganda even if they never say anything factually untrue about the product.

It's not that I'm completely gullible or without skepticism. But my skepticism and fact-checking were badly, badly miscalibrated to protect me from psyops. I was only looking for false statements from people who were misinformed or lying. I was checking to see if a reliable source backed up their basic fact claims. So when a post appeared to pass this test, I let down my guard. I was completely oblivious to the possibility of people deliberately using a pattern of basically true information presented in a misleading or inflammatory way to sway the public. And like many social media users, I had a tendency to merely skim the referenced article and not pay close attention to how closely it backed up the specific claims in the post.

Here are some posts I reblogged that used this tactic (reliability isn't binary; some are more reliable than others): links to Mother Jones links to Democracy Now and Al Jazeera links to CBS links to the Huffington Post, though the linked article appears to be about Standing Rock in general and doesn't mention Maori activists screenshots Boing Boing, links to The Guardian screenshots CNN, The New York Times, and Amnesty USA links to The Daily Beast gifset of Trevor Noah on The Daily Show screenshots The New York Times, gifset from Fusion TV screenshots Democracy Now and a scanned-in print article screenshots Al Jazeera OK, this one I'm very ashamed of reblogging, since it actually does fall into the fake news category. It embeds a video from the Youtube account 1 Soul Global, which describes itself as "an acronym for “One Source Of Universal Love.” We are a Spiritual Nexus for Global Transformation." I don't like watching videos in posts, but if I'd watched this one I would've figured out it's bullshit. It links to a, I don't know, blog? I've never heard of called Women In the World but it does some trick with the url so that when you hover over it it appears to include "nytimes.com". Oh my god, did I just hover over the link without checking it??? I guess I was too impressed the post having slightly more caution than I'm used to seeing in pseudoscientific woo??? Most of these I can see how I fell for them but this one I don't have a fucking clue. Am I really this stupid? screenshots The Atlantic Screenshots The Daily Mail--not that The Daily Mail is a reliable source for anything other that "what The Daily Mail is claiming," but that's what the post is about so good enough. Or was it? I took this post as "The Daily Fail is a trash rag, let's make fun of it," but the troll blog never really said that they were singling out one evil tabloid for ridicule. Were other people in the thread interpreting this as "news media in general is untrustworthy and unreliable"? That's actually a pretty subtle double meaning for a foreigner to pull off. I'm kind of impressed. gifset of Laverne Cox on CBS, links to Media Matters (Oh my god, Media Matters was created specifically to be a watchdog checking on media misinformation. And it was linked to by the IRA. Nothing is real anymore.) screenshots Quartz, links to The Guardian and MIT's Technology Review, as well as to some local sources I don't know the reliability of screenshots Mother Jones, links to the National Organization of Women

What I plan to do better: if someone claims an article backs up their claims, I will make sure to read the entire thing to confirm that it actually does, and does not just make sort-of related statements. If I don't have time or energy to do this, I won't reblog the post. But for the larger issue? True things arranged in misleading or manipulative patterns? I'm not sure what to do about that, though I suppose just being aware of the tactic might help a little. Suggestions?

Value added later in the reblog chain by non-IRA users

Because of how tumblr works, when I interact with a thread I'm not just interacting with the OP, but with everyone who has added to the reblog chain. Sometimes those are what attracted me to the post, rather than the psyop's post. This is one reason getting popular was so important to them! It allowed their posts to become part of the natural ecosystem of tumblr. I'm not sure how much this counts as a "tactic" because it's mostly passive, but it's significant.

This category overlaps a lot with "fake news is not a euphemism for propaganda" because often what the reblog chain added was sources with more information.

Here are some posts I reblogged that used this tactic:

Added a link to a Mother Jones article better explaining the issue.

Added more information and links to news sources.

Added news stories and a more positive slant. Note the IRA posters pushed their nihilist view of "why aren't we talking about this" while other users shifted the conversation a little to how the guy deserves a financial reward and how 70 lives were saved.

Added a link to a Guardian article referenced by the screenshotted boingboing article and a list of cities from said article.

Added a lot of cool true information about the history of the comics industry. Added something readers can do, a gofundme page. This would seem to run counter to the attitude of helplessness the IRA was trying to encourage. And yes, the gofundme did meet its goal. Added several paragraphs of details from the screenshotted article, including Theresa Kachindamoto's name which allowed me to easily look up the article. Added more information about Evan McMullin. Added more information about Asia Ramazan Antar, and shifted the focus a little (not fully) from how trash the Daily Fail is to how awesome Antar was. Added a lot of debunking of the psyop's anti-science attitude and a lot of information about how science works and how important it is. This one I'm proud of reblogging. Added a lot more information about Cameroon and sources. Added more information about voter suppression and link to the National Organization of Women. Added more information about comic history.

What I plan to do better: I'm... not sure I did wrong here. If I refused to reblog anything without thoroughly vetting the OP, that would be pretty bad purity shit. Some people are feeling vindicated because the threads they reblogged contain pushback against the IRA's narratives, or because they themselves added the pushback. Not so for me; only one example pushed back with any force. But several of the chains did shift the tone or focus of the conversation a little. I guess be less timid about pushing back when someone's tone or emphasis is off? Suggestions?

Positivity and celebrating accomplishments

Remember how I said above that rejecting a nihilist hopeless slant wasn't foolproof? I got exhausted with that attitude, though I didn't connect it to deliberate psyops, and instead tried to signal boost stuff that was positive and/or included a way to help. And yet.

I think some of these were just the innocuous posts used to gain popularity and influence. You can see a some "nobody is talking about this" narrative in a few of them, but not the majority.

Here are some posts I reblogged that used this tactic:

post/147206820005/chrisevansisbeautiful-areyoucoldflash post/152657046470/gogomrbrown-maori-activists-in-new-zealand post/153133340745/godzillakiryu91-reverseracism post/153231802135/ghettablasta-this-is-a-great-story-of post/154007254270/broadlybrazen-badscienceshenanigans post/154330979730/thetrippytrip-feminine-black-men-the post/154474122260/lagonegirl-because-we-can-recognize-more-than post/154505677960/himteckerjam-bitterbitchclubpresident post/154807853475/ghettablasta-thats-so-annoying-that-no-one post/155547170460/jkl-fff-lagonegirl-green-who-lost-her post/160621066778/lagonegirl-white-people-using-their-privilege

What I plan to do better: I don't know? I think boosting positivity is a good habit, even if it's exploitable? Shut down the "no one is talking about this" narrative I guess. Suggestions?

Jokes and memes

There's a reason so many "ironic" bigots hide behind, "calm down, it's just a joke!" People often let their guard down when something has a humorous lighthearted tone. This also serves to disguise English as a second language skills, as people often use deliberately bad grammar to emphasize a joke. 

Here are some posts I reblogged that used this tactic. Gonna explain some of these in more depth:

Non-IRA people are joking about the news media's habit of allowing the right to define terms and bending over backwards to be sympathetic to bigots while scrutinizing progressives. I didn't really notice that the-real-eye-to-see went beyond that and said "And Media is Nazi too". Journalism is an important foundation of a democratic society and there's a difference between critisizing it and dismissing it. Trevor Noah's humor is being used to promote blackness-by-your-side's insinuation about deaf ears. Stealing some viral humor that snarks about bigotry. I think this was one of the posts that's just to grow the troll's popularity, as I can't find anything harmful in it. Combines positivity with sarcastic humor, a twofer. The target of the sarcasm is how rare white people using their privilege to educate is. Not really false, but kind of a demoralizing thing to emphasize in a post that could and should have been just about congratulating the white student. People dragging ICE for being evil. The psyop didn't actually add anything bad, so I guess this was more about looking natural and getting popular.

What I plan to do better: Remember that hiding toxic messages in humor isn't exclusive to the libertarian right. Allow myself to be that humorless killjoy who scrutinizes jokes for harmful implications. Be less afraid to nitpick a joke I broadly agree with. It's less that I lacked this skill and more that using it tends to be socially unacceptable. That's part of what makes these "jokes" such an effective manipulation tool.

Conclusions: wow, these people are really really good at this. I've gotten used to right-wing infiltrators who suck at pretending to be progressive, but those are amateurs. These are professionals. I've seen some bad takes going around. "Oh, of course tumblr users fell for this shit, they're horrible people with purity culture who never factcheck." But no. Some of my vulnerability in fact came specifically from not being a negative stereotype of a tumblr user. I didn't worry about purity enough to vet the OP if other people added information. I did factcheck, to the point that it distracted me from other problems with a post. I didn't micro-analyze joke posts looking for imperfections in them. I made an effort to boost positive stories about good people accomplishing things.

You guys, if I were the stereotypical toxic tumblr essjew, I wouldn't have interacted with a lot of these posts, or my interaction would've been attacking them. People who think they're immune to cons and manipulation are the most vulnerable. Maybe don't just groan in disgust at "tumblr culture" while patting yourself on the back for being better?

Anyway, the psyops didn’t try to create entirely new ideas or change people’s opinions 180 degrees. They played on pre-existing weaknesses among progressives such as infighting, defeatism, disillusion with institutions, and so on. Being careful about those lines of attack is good whether the attacker is an agent of a foreign government, an agent of your own government, or a genuine activist who’s being counterproductive. So when I talk about what I plan to do better, I’m not just talking about the Internet Research Agency.

[dykerightsmp3]

@fenrisesque okay listen. it’s this short story and we read it in class bc my teacher last year was fucking crazy. 

basically, this girl Connie goes out dancing and spots some dude named Arnold Friend (yes, that’s really his name.) Arnold shows up at her house and hits on her in this totally creepy way. She eventually hides inside the house and at that point, the author was like “okay, time to make girls fear for their sexual purity!!” and decides to - i’m really not making this up - blatantly uses her HOUSE as a metaphor for a vagina and the dude as a metaphor for a dick. 

I’m seriously not making this up. This is a real actual story we read in english class. I had so many fucking nightmares about this. I have never hated anything more in my life. do not ever read it

[date-a-jew-suggestions]

A while ago @fenrisesque made possibly my favorite thing ever; an edit of fictional characters+the posts on this blog... if someone... anyone... could do that with the skywalkers from Star Wars.... I'd cry.... (include Rey if you want but I kinda still think she's a kenobi)

[captainlordauditor]

Why did you change your URL? Fenrisesque was so clever!

two reasons one it was a squad url and my squad mate changed xers

two laughlikesomethingbroken is both a filk reference and reminds me of fenris

[dalishious]

RE: Everyone going "its just fantasy, theyre showing the racism". No. They are not showing racism. They are showing a community that is divided. They're showing Ashkenazim being antiblack and Sefardim making fun of the way Ashkenazim talk. They are showing Reform Jews call the Orthodox "fanatics" and the Orthodox Jews calling the Reform ones "fake Jews". I get enough of this in real life. I don't need it in my fantasy.

(re this: (x) (x) (x) (x) (x))

[grandenchanterfiona]

fenrisesque replied to your post: “Here’s how I’d open DA4. Your character wakes up washed up on a...”:

i would open it with you, on the run from some slavers in tevinter. you stop to throw a knife/cast a spell and they injure you. fenris comes in out of nowhere, kills them, and takes you to a safehouse with a healer. fenris is a temporary companion until he gets recognised and then he becomes one of your advisors (along with mae, and your spymaster, who you'd have to recruit....im thinking zev but im not sure)

That also sounds cool.

Mostly I just want your character to be shipwrecked because I like the idea of Dorian, in clothes half-ruined by the surf, but with his hair and moustache still pristine. 

[malelavellan]

@fenrisesque a bit too far from chain of succession for her parent's taste, but i think having their daughter be Hero of Thedas satisfies them for... a bit

[awellboiledicicle]

fenrisesque replied to your post “I think if i ever get called up to read part of the Torah at service I...”

u get months of preperation usually, the first time u read at least

I would like to thank you whole heartedly for very seriously answering every post my brain is hyperactivity coming up with because i have words to say and i can only put them together in a vague line and you’re great at responding at them in a way that makes sense

because holy crap all i could imagine was getting all the study in from these reading assigned books and being asked if i wanted to read the thing after going in for a few weeks and dying of stage fright

and also with the lean-to thing what i was trying to say was i was agreeing with you my brain is just really bad at nodding along right now

[mordinsolusarchive]

@fenrisesque replied to your post: @fenrisesque replied to your post: ...

except sera is most likely around 20-22…..she’s at a completely different stage in life and maturity than cass

sera processes things differently than other people as does cassandra but that doesn’t mean she’s immature

she hides a lot of her personal pain behind humor and abrasiveness and she struggles with wording stuff a lot but that doesn’t mean she is lacking in enough maturity to healthily date someone like cassandra, hell in some ways she even proves that she has more maturity than solas in some regards

sera uses crude humor and bad jokes as a defense mechanism to keep people from getting too close and rejecting her, that’s almost her whole backstory

once again, i myself am younger than sera, plus i also relate to a lot of her stuff, and i don’t see why i can’t believe that someone like her can be loved by someone like cass

[dragonagemods]

"We only reccomend that one because" there is no we Jo it's literally just you all the time, trying to shove your project down our throats.

No, buddy.

This is Zev.

@fenrisesque? @eluvianmending? @flowersandtoads? are any of these names ringing a bell to you?

Now, xkit isn’t tagging automatically right now, because this is an ask, but you can see both on all three of the above blogs and on various mods I have recommended over the past months, there’s a little tag that says “crow.jpg” that I use that indicates that I’m the one who reblogged it.

And again, if you give me a link to a Zevran mod that doesn’t whitewash his skin or features and stop patronizing, I would be happy to recommend it to anyone who asks in the future.

-Mod Zev

[timesorceror]

Apparently there’s a My Tumblr Crushes™ meme going around. Here’s mine:

MY TUMBLR CRUSHES:

1) @tearsofwinter 2) @drawsshits 3) @storybookhawke 4) @therealmnemo 5) @pikestaff 6) @fyeahanders 7) @shinyhill 8) @thejourneymaninn 9) @fenrisesque

Aww. Most of you guys are my mutuals! :3

If you want to do one of your own, have a gander at your Following list and post the screenshot with tags. :)

[sonar-taxlaw]

10 random facts + one question, I was tagged by @windcalling!!

question:  who was the first person you followed? why? one of the first ones i followed was shapeways because 3-d printing is cool

1. “holy fuck it’s the gunch” will make me cry with laughter every time 2. i took 4 years of german in high school 3. i have a total of 6 clocks in my room and only 3 of them read the correct time at the moment 4. i have a birthmark on my leg and when i was born my parents looked me over for identifying marks to make sure that they kept the right baby (my dad also followed me wherever the nurses took me for ?? reasons???) 5. i was on a recreational rock climbing team in high school! i never got very good but i enjoyed it a lot 6. i did 2 trebuchet based science fair projects (one in middle school and one in high school. they were with different trebuchets and testing different things. i still have both trebuchets) 7. if i put some pulsar data up on my wall then i will have data from every telescope i’ve observed with on my wall (and if i put it on the correct wall then all of them will be on the same wall! i have data from the 40 telescope at green bank, a coaster type thing with a picture that ALMA took and the pulsar data is from the GBT!) 8. i’m pretty flexible! if i do yoga regularly i can touch my hands almost flat to the floor 9. i started wearing hoodies in elementary school and i haven’t stopped since (my hoodie back then was one that had the name of my elementary school on it! and then in like sixth grade i got a hoodie from the natural history museum in new york and i’ve basically just been collecting them since then) 10. i own at least one book from most of the webcomics i read! (a softer world (ended), questionable content, gunnerkrigg court, xkcd, order of the stick (i stopped reading when the update schedule was unpredictable and haven’t gotten back into it even though that was several years ago))

and i’m tagging

@sufjanstevenswiki @stupendousbadasses @waterloggedsoliloquy @fenrisesque @bailxrganas @trillspotsandbruises !!

your question is: what’s the name of any stuffed animal you own/have owned in the past?