#getting into internet fights or whatever

[jadedresearcher]

It will be okay.

I get that the US election feels like it's so huge the fate of everything is at play. And its important. Don't get me wrong. I very much have opinions (that are likely quite obvious given my reblogs) on how I want things to shake out. But it will be okay.

Even if the worst possible outcome happens. (which please, don't lose sight of the fact that its not guaranteed. The future can still be changed, please vote if you have an opinion on what future you want to reach for). I am not saying this because I want to cover my ears and believe in hope and dreams or whatever. I'm saying this because if the worst possible outcome happens there will still be tasks we can do to make things better for everyone. You will still have power. And the people who care about you will too, if you are too tired to use it. You've see a lot of reblogs going around about how it will be more important than ever to be active in local politics if the scary result happens in the election, right? That isn't blind optimism or busy tasks to work out anxiety. It works. It genuinely, truly does. And we know this because its worked before: The "gilded age" was a Period of US politics with rampant corruption.

"Presidential elections between the two major parties were so closely contested that a slight nudge could tip the election in the advantage of either party, and Congress was marked by political stalemate."

Does that sound familiar? Hardly sounds like something from 150 years ago, does it?

"Many cultural issues, [...], became hard-fought political issues because of the deep religious divisions in the electorate."

It's like looking into a mirror.

And do you know what happened? Do you think it was forever and everyone just died from despair? No. (i mean obviously, we're here now aren't we?) It was fought against, little by little, building momentum. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progressive_Era

"Progressive reformers were alarmed by the spread of slums, poverty, and the exploitation of labor. Multiple overlapping progressive movements fought perceived social, political, and economic ills by advancing democracy, scientific methods, and professionalism; regulating business; protecting the natural environment; and improving working and living conditions of the urban poor."

No trend is forever. Nothing is set in stone. Any amount of corruption can be undone. The past proves it's possible.

"Initially, the movement operated chiefly at the local level, but later it expanded to the state and national levels."

And it is undone by exactly the means people have been saying all along. Being active locally. By caring. By not giving up.

Sure, the past is not today. There are plenty of differences and there are no guarantees in this world except one: there will be change. And each and every one of us can do things that matter to make the change happen in the direction and speed we want it to, little by little.

[ratatatastic]

i just think forsy stumbling through an answer about ekky fighting for his honour mmmm

[feline-evil]

I can't think of anything that could kill a generative ai system faster than letting it pull from blogs on here, its going to be fed so many erroneous callouts and pointless discourse posts that its gonna generate a way to speedrun offing itself

[handweavers]

1 thing that i think is important to be aware of is that the people online who are the most vocal/posting constantly and fighting with people are usually not people who are members of actual communist parties and if they are they're either part of some weird offshoot branch that split 30 times from the primary party due to interpersonal drama or they are the most annoying person at meetings and will likely be asked not to come back at some point in the near future because they keep causing problems and saying stupid shit online and not actually doing anything helpful lmfao. by virtue of being a poster online their views are usually not even actually representative of marxism leninism but their own view of it built in an online echo chamber that is typically more ultraleft and reactionary than you will find in real life parties with veteran communists who have been actively organizing for decades and those of all ages and abilities who are learning directly from them and not strangers on twitter lol

[glennmillerorchestra]

if i hear one more person* say something along the lines of “mccartney was a pop star, lennon was an artist” i will lose my goddamn mind

*middle-aged men with music opinions that are wrong

[coratorium]

apparently some of you need this reminder: if someone is talking about how they've been getting harassed, and you open the replies on the post and see further harassment, do not respond to it

this should be basic internet common sense at this point. responding to someone who is being malicious: 1) reminds them that their existing posts have not been punished, encouraging them to escalate 2) shows that they are successfully upsetting people or at least getting their attention, which is their goal 3) calls more attention to their post from other users, resulting in more people seeing the harassment, which is also a win for them 4) shows that you are an easy mark and can probably be provoked further because you don't have the common sense to not respond 5) potentially allows them to frame YOU as the one doing the harassment, getting you in trouble instead of them

it doesnt matter how cool you think your comeback sounds. responding to malicious and hateful comments actively makes the situation worse for everyone you think you are standing up for. the correct course of action is just to block and report them without saying anything. getting the last word in against a troll is not a "win". they "win" by getting the argument to happen at all, and the longer it continues, the more they get out of it. you are making the problem worse.

[ettadunham]

i feel like i only just now started comprehending parts of elden ring's lore and story 69 hours in (nice), and my conclusion? gideon sucks.

[commsroom]

Dear listener, happy birthday!

Your writing is always a joy and seeing you on my dash always means smiling and also bracing for excellent angsty emotion (and the occasional necessary horny posting for eiffel, high five).

Here is your present, a silly little eiffel question I’ve been mulling over. Do you think he’d be a social media guy? I mean, he’s hilarious and loves an audience but while he seems slightly tech adept its always very tactile clunky retro tech in vibe, and i guess the baseline shame and guilt he feels could tip him either ways vis a vis having a large online following . I’ve always liked how ambiguous time on wolf359 felt because i guess making it more pointedly feel like our time (even though it is set in our time) didn’t feel like the energy they were going for, but as a result i just do not know how to feel about eiffel on twitter or something. Thoughts?

aw, thank you! that's sweet of you. i love everything about wolf 359, but i post first and foremost for people who want to know eiffel carnally. well. and people who see hera as a trans woman, also.

and this is a great question! i love to think about eiffel and social media. he is absolutely, 100% an analog guy; i think he resents how much has been digitized. which isn't to say he sticks to his principles about it. eiffel is a creature of comfort above all else; he's going to use whatever service is most convenient. but he's going to complain.

eiffel has a huge collection of physical media. eiffel still has his blockbuster card in his wallet as a point of pride. eiffel listens to the radio, and complains about what they play on the radio (90s music on classic rock stations? blasphemy), while people are constantly telling him to just listen to his own music. he likes doing this! i honestly think eiffel is relatively offline - his star wars opinions are too normal for him not to be. social media for eiffel is, like... a couple of pop culture news accounts he follows. his youtube recommendations are mostly just music, simpsons clips, the livestreams of radio guys with call-in shows, and, like, old tech repair stuff.

maybe eiffel still posts on some forums that he's been occasionally posting on for the last decade, but he's not in tune with modern social media or internet culture. if eiffel wants to show you a Funny Internet Video, it's going to be, like, star wars bad lip reading. he absolutely wants to have an online radio call-in show, but he can't commit to being consistent enough to build an audience. eiffel might listen to podcasts sometimes, but he thinks 'podcasts' are just guys chatting about movies. he also thinks he could do that, but there's nobody who wants to make a podcast with him. if he did manage to convince someone, he would post like five episodes at once, forget about it for six months, post one or two more, and then get bored and move onto something else.

[brynnmclean]

every time someone complains about sun imagery for Númenor and says the designers clearly didn’t read anything because why would they use the sun, I just--Men awoke in Hildórien at the rising of the Sun--

don’t act like you’re a better authority on the legendarium when you’re blatantly missing the Silmarillion reference right there

[spotsupstuff]

ur grading people and if they get an f theyre blocked? my main you aint a kindergarten teacher this is a microblogging platform

yeah, that's why there's that function called blocking! :) cuz this is a microblogging site! that's what microblogging platforms have! :) so you don't have to put up with people's shit! :) interesting that kindergarten teachers where you live are capable of blocking people in real life, hope you had fun with that

[smarterthantheaverageloser]

Reading up on the current Dream drama like a suburban mother listening to her kids explain the lore of the game they've been playing in the woods for a month

[gingerbreadmonsters]

if my main goal was to get into arguments about people who aren't real, and explain for the millionth time that reading comprehension and critical thinking are actually useful skills that you should know, you do realise that i just wouldn't bother with the whole writing thing, right?

[lord-squiggletits]

Idk if anyone is interested in hearing this, but here’s a very important fact about martial arts:

Yes, some martial arts are more practical for self-defense than others.

No, there is not a single martial arts style that will instantly make you proficient at self defense.

It ultimately doesn’t matter which style of martial arts (or multiple styles) you decide to practice: no matter what, you’re going to need to practice for hours, constantly, in order to maintain your skills, and you’re never guaranteed to walk out of a fight healthy and in one piece. You need to practice, practice, practice, no matter what style you choose, because you’re not going to be able to defend yourself at all if all you do is take a couple self-defense classes and never practice again.

[apathyfairy]

being a kid was thinking surely being an adult can’t be that bad but i just spent 2 and a half hours on a thursday morning trying to install a new antivirus on my laptop and now i either have to kill myself or go out and spend 7 dollars on coffee to cope

[pktired]

unpopular opinion time: people who grew up playing n64 or gamecube games will ever let you forget the fact that those were "the best games" to ever exist and everything else is downhill from there

maybe I'm biased because I have zero nostalgia factor? I've played said consoles & a few popular as a teenager and they were nothing special. dont start bitching at me I just lack the old school experience I guess.

[lonaami]

i just

hm