#help me figure something out

[monstermoviedean]

i saw a post today where someone stated that they often can't tell real information from misinformation online. i am not here to make fun of that person. that being said, the ability to figure out if information is real or not is a critical skill for everyone who uses the internet. you need to be able to do that on your own. it's great if you can get help or if people will tell you what's real and what's not, but you also need to be able to do it by yourself. simple, easy tips under the cut.

the most common style of misinformation i see on tumblr is the fake news headline. it's an image or multiple images of a headline and sometimes an attached story. easy tips to discovering whether this is real or not:

is there a link in the post? click it and see where it goes. no link? possibly fake, possibly the poster just didn't include it.

google the full headline, not just key words. even better, google the headline with the full headline in quotes so you get exact matches. can't find a match? probably fake.

is there a clear url/website attached to the headline? if so, go to the website and search for the headline. can't find a match? probably fake.

is there an author? google them. see if they're real. see if the subject of the article matches the stuff they usually write about. see if they have social media where they may have posted the headline. can't find an author, or they seem way off-track? probably fake.

if it's an image of a tweet, look up the person's twitter handle. can't find the tweet? possibly fake. it could also be a real tweet with the text or date edited.

is there a date? a story written in 2002 may have very different ramifications than a story written in 2022. it depends on the subject, but some subjects change rapidly and even a 5-year-old story may be out of date. see if you can find anything recent. if not, it may be fake or out of context.

go to google news and do a quick scan. this is going to work better for headlines that are about world news, but it's still worth a try. google news also allows you to search stories and limit by date. see if you can find a matching headline. if you can't, it may be fake or old news.

general tips:

don't trust social media. just don't. please. people can and will say literally anything they want. anything you read on social media that has real-world implications, you should fact-check.

you may think it's overkill, but google everything. even things you're mostly sure of. reading more headlines and more news can help you get better at discerning between real and fake headlines.

every source of information is biased in some way. try to seek out less biased sources. look up the bias media chart (here's a link) and use it to find sources that do less biased and more original reporting.

think about bias as you're reading. who is the author writing for? why are they writing? what do they want the audience to feel? what facts are they choosing to include or omit? how might the presentation of the facts change if someone with a different perspective was writing?

there are also websites dedicated to fact-checking. this works best for major world news, but try snopes or factcheck. the rand corporation has a huge list of tools for rooting out disinformation as well.

there's nothing wrong with asking for help, but if you genuinely cannot figure out if something is real or not on your own, and you give up trying to figure it out without help, you run the risk of believing and even spreading misinformation. some misinformation is essentially harmless (a celebrity's favorite color, for example). some misinformation is incredibly dangerous. please please PLEASE check your facts. it is quick and easy and worth it.

if you need more help, let me know.

[woolysocks]

haley heynderickx, oom sha la la / celia pym, catalogue of holes / @seravph / madeline miller, circe / patrick bergsma / natalie shapero, a space to train and exit / @madeleinejubileesaito / jennifer willough, the sun is still a part of me

[moonpaw]

god all the speculation about who was the traitor and it ended up being the vegapunk full of desire RIGHT after stella's "we owe everything to desire!" speech, like the irony of it all

[cinematicnomad]

THE TERROR ▸ 1.05 first shot a winner, lads

[chiliger]

Sacnikte’s morning.

Test pages for a comic that I’m still figuring out the plot for, but hope to start working on soon.

[worstloki]

I’m just saying this is the kinda thing that’d start some sort of thorki plot

[sapphicmonsoon]

So I may be working on a little something something… 👀

[tierras]

making a zine of this blog ⋆ excited to have a physical form of this space 💻📲 📖

[clementimetodie]

straight up does anyone have resources on how to get family out of a cult

[frontlinebicepsoftheninth]

hi everyone i went way too deep and used some code i had saved from a text mining course last year and ran some models to break down the emotional arcs of htn and ntn and now i have graphs and everything and i'm trying to write up an analysis but it is going to be so long. i may just post it on reddit and share the link. but now i wanna make a survey to test the model against reader opinions to see how accurate it is and if i do all that this may end up literally more time intensive than my final project for that class lmao

[bastardsofravenkroft-blog]

i'm kind of new to the whole misgendering gerard stuff with girlgerard but i have seen thekidsfromyestergay 's posts constatly she/her-ing gerard but they say it's a joke. i don't know if it is funny to me or not... is that like normal? again i'm new to mcrblr

Several big mcr blogs on here she/her Gerard constantly, so it's become super normalized. But these blogs seem to always have a whole list of excuses including that its a joke, the gay she, and that Gerard is a actually a trans woman and to not use she/her is actually sooooo transphobic. In any case it's weird to constantly use the wrong pronouns for someone, or to label them in a way they don't want. (For reference Gee said on twitter his prns are he/they, and that's what Marina Toybina uses for him as well. Gee also said they don't use labels. They choose not to.)

Idc about an offhand girl joke or comment, but when thats all you use, or the thing you use the most its a problem. Jokes are meant to be funny, i don't see how addressing someone with pronouns that aren't theirs just because they dress more feminine is a joke or funny.

People deserve to have their name, pronouns, gender or lack thereof, all that, respected. None of us are Gerard or anyone else, therefore we can't know how they feel on things unless we're directly told. We only know what he has said, and to ignore that in favor of how we or any random person on the internet sees him is disrespectful to Gerard Way as a human being.

[aurosoulart]

page 70, at long last! after almost a FULL YEAR of hiatus, Sunder is BACK - and it is 100% because of patron support! 💙🐬💙

join to support the comic and get early access to new pages!

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[thethingything]

do you ever write out a post and then remember the reading comprehension on this site is abysmal and you can practically feel the potential shitty comments and think "actually no this isn't worth it"

[chocolate-cream-soldier]

@usergif back to cool event: challenge #1- Blending →” All we see has gone away”

[cherrydreamer]

It starts with a bouquet of flowers. One of those big, exotic looking ones that is far too nice for Nancy to have just picked it out of a bucket at Melvald’s. Steve can tell at a glance that it’s one she clearly went to the fancy, expensive flower shop to get. It’s so big that it’s all Steve can see when he first opens the door, and it takes him a moment before he spots Nancy peering out from behind it, all doe eyes and pursed lips. He’s over her. He knows that. And she loves Jonathan. He knows that too. But there’s still a tiny flash of hope, just for a second, that this might be...something. It’s not. Nancy doesn’t even waste time with a greeting before she’s asking for the favour. For Steve to go with her to Barb’s grave. 

“It might be the last time. For a while.” Nancy says, biting her lip against a quiver, “I’m going to college next week and I might not…I don’t know when I’m coming back and I want to say goodbye. I don't want it to...to seem like we’ve forgotten her.”  Her voice shakes on that last sentence, so of course Steve agrees to come. He doesn’t ask why she was asking him, why he’s enough now, when he hadn’t been before. Why she didn’t want Jonathan there. He just nods and smiles and says, “Sure, Nance. Of course.” 

He’d stays with her. For the whole thing. He walks her to the grave and stands there too, waiting while Nancy lay down the flowers- all those tiny forget-me-nots and big yellow roses and pastel lilies and a host of others that Steve didn’t know the names of. And he’d keeps on waiting while she talks to Barb, resting a comforting hand on her shoulder while she apologises and cries and tells Barb that she’ll never forget her. 

And then they walk back. And that’s when Steve spots it. Billy’s grave. Bare and unadorned, nothing but a modest headstone with a simple inscription. 

William Hargrove. Beloved son and brother. A Hawkins’ Hero

Steve knows Max hates the last line. They way it ties Billy forever to the town he hated. Tried to make it sound like he belonged there. Belonged to them. And he knows that she doesn’t visit often, and he understands. But still, something about the sight of the grave, colourless and neglected and slightly overgrown, makes his stomach twist with guilt. 

Because Billy was a hero. And he deserves to be remembered. So Steve comes back later. Once he’s let Nancy cry on his shoulder and then taken her back to her house, he takes himself to the fancy, expensive florist and something instantly catches his eye.  Sunflowers Lots of them. Big and yellow and bright and the most fitting bouquet he can think of. Something to chase away the grey skies of Hawkins and give Billy a little bit of California brightness. 

He lays them down on the grave and then he rests a hand on the headstone, just looking at the flowers for a moment, at the vivid pop of colour standing out so brightly, almost arrogantly.  So much like Billy when he first arrived. And even though he feels a little weird and awkward, Steve starts to talk. He says that he’s sorry. That it wasn’t right. That Billy shouldn’t have had to die. That he shouldn’t be stuck in Hawkins. Steve takes a breath. And then he promises to look after Max. To keep her safe. And he apologises again. Tells Billy they should’ve done more. Should’ve helped him. Should’ve saved him. Should’ve found a way.  And then Steve pauses. Lets his voice drop to a whisper. And he tells Billy how Hawkins seems a little too quiet without him around. How Steve maybe kinda misses him. 

It's getting late when Steve walks away, but the churning, nauseating whirl of guilt is sated for the time being. Steve can go home and he can be normal and have dinner with his parents and snort out a few laughs at Moonlighting and he doesn't think about Billy Hargrove anymore.

At least, he doesn't until he opens the door to his room, swallowing down a yawn and completely ready to fall right into bed. And there's already somebody there. Somebody reclining not on the pillows, but slightly above them. Somebody who looks a little translucent around the edges, but who still seems completely and utterly full of life. Somebody who’s twirling a single sunflower in their hand.  Somebody with a devilish wink and a familiar, cocky smirk who says, "Heard you were missing me, Harrington?" 

[simgerale]

hi all, here's a late night thought-ramble

[it's about wedding stuff so please scroll away if you're not interested lol it's 100% okay]

as you are all technically strangers, i thought this would be a good place to get unbiased opinions (^:

i'm a people pleaser by nature, so i'm struggling with the whole "it's your wedding! do what makes you and your groom happy, and that's all that matters! if they love you enough, they'll understand."

why? because i want a small wedding. but i also think it'd be nice to have everyone who ever supported me there lol. to keep it relatively small, i think only inviting family would work (this would be under 60 if everyone came from both sides of our family). i don't have many close friends, so this wouldn't be impossible. but my groom definitely has people that he'd like to have at the wedding that aren't related to us. it's just a "if he invites these people, will the category of those people in my life get offended? does it matter, NO, but won't they?" and again, he has told me time and again, that i should do what i want and nothing more.

but oh my GOSH do i worry about having regrets and hurting feelings. like!!!!!!!!!! what's wrong with me!@1!!!!!!! i know if i was giving the advice to someone in my position, i'd say "JUST INVITE WHO YOU WANT TO INVITE! in the grand scheme of things, it doesn't matteR!!!!"

i need to follow my advice. but let me tell you................... it's hard. i'm so stubborn when it comes to knowing what's right for me vs. other people.

ANYWAY. i want this type of wedding what do we all think