#i hope internet culture takes a turn to just being haters again | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

wildpeachfarm · 2 months

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Hi Moku!

It’s been a while. Hope you’ve been well!

I only want to say something once (and then move on) about the events that transpired yesterday on the bird app (still glad it’s deleted off of my phone though).

Dream continues to prove time and time again why he’s a better person than me, and probably 99% of CCs. I would not have forgiven this man for attempting to ruin my career and slander my name. I wouldn’t have even approached him directly; my legal team would have done it, if I were in dreams shoes.

If you were to ask me why I am a fan of Dream, I’d say it’s because he’s produces good content and it brought me closer to my brother. If you were to ask me on a deeper level, it’s because this man is kindness and empathy personified. I thought I possessed empathy, but this man has enough for the whole world. Seeing a person continue to get beat down as hard as he has by not only fellow ccs, but other fandoms, and haters of himself- watching that- makes me indescribably upset on his behalf. But seeing him continue to rise above makes me realize just how much growth I still have to do as a human. (And he’s doing all his maturing publicly; I’m just a mere fan who does all of my maturing in private.).

If you asked me on a deeper level why I’m a fan, it’s because in all the time I’ve been on the internet, I’ve never seen someone so unapologetically themselves. I’ve never met the man, but from what I’ve heard, he’s even sweeter in person. Online culture can be cringe and when your career is based off performing well online, sometimes you can get caught up in it. Dreams never strayed from who he is. He’s always been empathetic but now he’s incredibly more so because he just wants us all to be loved. And it’s more than admirable, and if I found a word that means more than that, I’d insert it.

Anyway. Enough Dream love posting, even though I could go on for all of ever.

I rarely reply on Reddit, more of a lurker on most social forum apps now. But I replied yesterday. Cause as a victim of grooming, abuse, and SA I am so exhausted from seeing all this “I know something about Person A that you don’t know but I’m not going to reveal it cause the ‘victims’ aren’t ready” bullshit. It does nothing except for piss off actual victims. Parading around potential victims and would-be abusers but never actually releasing anything makes you just as bad as the person you’re claiming is despicable. You’re showing victims you don’t care about them and would instead protect their abuser in favor of some interaction on your account. And that’s exactly the reason why some people don’t speak up.

Never in my life have I seen people go “I’m going to publicly allude to there being victims of Person A (without releasing proof) to see how the public responds” until I joined this fandom . Motherfucker, you got clowned on by everyone including one of dreams biggest ops. All you did was show victims that should they come forward, they can expect that same response. This takes away from the legitimacy of true victims and helps actual abusers (or whatever the nature of the crime is) keep getting away with being horrible people.

That is if there are any victims, and this time there weren’t. And haven’t been. And as this man quickly found out, people are still trying to spread false information to take Dream down cause they can’t handle that he’s not a despicable human who’s done criminally offensive shit. Why those people would want there to be victims explains everything about who they are as people.

To his latest statement, I’m glad this turned out positive. But again, I would not have been so kind if I was in Dreams position. This man claiming he had nothing to gain from this when his entire career is commentary makes me laugh. He absolutely had something to gain from this. Dream is still a giant creator (Twitter isn’t where his fandom is, contrary to other CCs and antis beliefs). Taking him down would make you the hero of Twitter (I’m saying Twitter cause on YT Dre keeps thriving), and riding off the George/Caiti situation, it would have been monumental (again, all true if this man wasn’t talking out of his ass). He absolutely had a million things to gain from saying what he did. You can’t convince me otherwise.

And his shock at dreams empathy is incredible.“Yeah sorry I tried to ruin your career bro. This is probably where I get sued, right?” ‘No, dude, it’s all good. I’m here to clear up any misinformation. Just want us all to get along.’ Is how I imagine that went. Incredible that not everyone possesses the same kind of malice those bad faith actors sending him that shit did. Or even himself for trying to ruin someone’s career over baseless shit sent by people who clearly have a bias against Dream.

I am once again begging people to talk to each other. I feel like everyone forgets the DM button exists on every app. And with how few people use it, it’s probably all dusty and covered in spider webs. This situation was resolved cause Dream reached out and they talked it out like the adults that they are. Amazingly, this whole situation could have been avoided if Slander or Zander or whatever the fuck his name is just talked directly to Dream first. We wouldn’t have even known more people were trying to spread shit, cause it would have already been resolved (though I’m not dumb and know people are still trying to do so. Brighton Bastards, looking at you).

I understand Dream wanting us to leave this man alone, and I will. I want no part in whatever he’s doing. He could completely change his whole approach around and suddenly be a better person, and I literally would not care. Cause I am not Dream, so I have nothing personally invested in being respectful to this man. But I’ll leave him because for my own victim hood, I couldn’t trust this man with my food never mind supporting me when I needed it.

I will not be praising him for “doing the right thing”, though I am glad he apologized both publicly and hopefully privately. Had he done the right thing before boldly making those claims, we wouldn’t be here. You don’t get to try to ruin someone’s career off of baseless shit and then backtrack when you’re corrected and expect people to praise you. Congratulations, you chose to be a decent human this one time. Now continue to do so.

To wrap this up, I am glad he apologized. I am glad he said he’d be taking a better approach to future situations should there be any (not just with Dream but with other CCs too). I am still saddened that Dream has to continuously reach out to these bad faith actors cause they don’t care to fact check things (when it’s literally their job to do so).

Dream, never change. I know the fandom says they want Nightmare to return, but your kindness is why we love you.

Zander, thanks for apologizing. Hopefully you mature from this and I don’t have to do this again-coming from the empathic part of me. From the victim side, fuck you for adding on to why it’s hard for victims to come forward.

I didn’t mean for this to get so long, but I greatly appreciate you reading it. I will be moving on now. Maybe back to Dream love posting. I like that, that makes me happy.

Hope your Sunday goes well!

-L :)

L omg hi it's been ages! Hope you're doing well ^^

and yeah this is all very true and well-said; Dream is a whole new standard for empathy and understanding in the face of harassment and misinformation and slander. I am slowly learning to understand him and I also feel like I am maturing more alongside him because I really thought I was empathetic to people before, but Dream knocks it out of the park every single time and leaves me speechless.

I agree that Zander should not be applauded for doing the normal thing and privately communicating and publicly apologizing after constantly creating issues. But I am glad it happened nonetheless because maybe this will inspire more people to chat with dream before coming out with vague shit that ALWAYS turns out to be untrue.

Another good turning point for the fandom that I hope wakes people up to just how ridiculous and convoluted things become when private communication amongst people is not promoted in the face of potential drama/controversy

#ask #anon #anti drummyache tag

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himbos-hotline · 2 months

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hey! while it’s disheartening and sucks to get hate comments, you should try to remember that the fics you write should be purely for your enjoyment. it’s stuff you like and want to share with the world, and some people find it and end up liking it a lot! you’d be surprised how many people probably read your fics and love it but don’t say anything bc they’re shy. unfortunately, there are a lot of hateful people on the internet and they will do anything to try and bring you down. you should try your best to ignore it (i know you probably don’t wanna hear this but it’s true). another way to get rid of hate is turn off anon on tumblr, if anyone sends you hate after then you can block them. you can also restrict comments on ao3. if you ever get a hate comment on ao3, you can also block or remove (i think) the comment. trust me, there are a lot of people who LOVE your work. just continue doing what you love. if you have haters, they’re most likely just jealous or miserable people. sorry for the long note, hope your day is good!

anon this is gonna sound really mean and I am PROMISING that it isnt, but I kinda just, need to reply to little bits of this message like were having a convo and im not arguing, im just..tired of being told the same thing [again not mad, clarifying stuff]

you should try to remember that the fics you write should be purely for your enjoyment

yes I know that, so is people baking or drawing. but if someone gets told "this cake kinda sucks." or "your drawing is wrong." they seem to be allowed to get upset but with writing its just "well youre writing for yourself!" Yeah, I know that and I am. But if I was writing for myself, I wouldnt be sharing it. People wouldnt be requesting it. if it was just for me. I wouldnt have an ao3 account. im writing for ME but im posting and sharing for other people, the people who ask for said fics, people who are my friends, people who like the ships, the fandom cuz fandoms simply do not exist without fanworks, not creations. were not getting paid for this. AT ALL! Like you cant do fic commissions cuz youre just sitting fanfic and fandom culture back YEARS AND YEAR.

I am writing for me, why do writers always get that? why is it never "but youre editing for yourself" or "youre making gifs for yourself" or "well you are drawing for you."

and end up liking it a lot! you’d be surprised how many people probably read your fics and love it but don’t say anything bc they’re shy.

Please get over that shyness. Thats what anons are for, thats for like guest comments are for on ao3. thats what reblogs and nice tags are for. thats for recommending fics on PUBLIC spaces, not discord servers youve made privately. Please tell fanfic authors that you like their fics, please leave comments and draw fanart or whatever you want to do just share it with us! because otherwise writers are going to feel unloved and lost and NOT write anymore and then fandom spaces will, im sorry die cuz the whole point of fandom is we inspire each other, we lift each other up!

im sorry for ranting back at you anon, this ask was really sweet but there was just points that I had to put out, things I had to say because it gets kinda draining being treated differently as a writer than say an artist. Its just like if I drew, like really instead of once or twice a year. People wouldnt be going "youre drawing for yourself." also just the weird diconnect between like, people who write and other people who are making things in fandoms is upsetting because it takes so much work, so much dedication.

like sometimes it feels like people forget that me personally, am disabled and chronically ill. Im currently fighting off pheumonia, ive just gotten out of a very abusive and manipulative relationship where him not liking my writing was a big way he would control what I would do. writing is harder than what it should be right now. But I do love writing, I adore getting requests and every nice comment I get I reguarly go back to read and it means so so so much

#mouse has pals #anon notes #sorry anon

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thanx-idonttry · 4 years

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Bakugou x Black Singer/Blogger!Reader

They Are Pro Heroes, like Age 25.

This came out longer than expected.

Tags: Fluff. Bakugou being a fanboy.

You weren’t hugely famous, but you were internet famous, and that’s still pretty huge. You were just a Black girl showing your voice, hoping to brighten someone’s day.

And with each video of you upload to your blog, you manage to make over 1 million people smile. And one of those 1 million people was Katsuki Bakugou, A.K.A Dynamite. One half of the #1 Pro Hero of Japan.

A few years after high school, He and Midoriya teamed up and climbed the charts to the #1 spot. As busy as he and Midoriya is, he always finds time to watch each and every one of your videos.

He made a secret page under another name, just to like and reblog your videos. He likes to start his day by clicking one of your singing videos, and blare it through his house as he gets ready for the day. He could be going to work of off for the day, he’ll play one of songs.

The man was hooked as soon as he heard you do a cover to Beyonce’s “1+1″. He was shooketh! He’s used to hearing your original songs, you rarely do covers. But he still loved it. Unable to look away from you as your power house voice blocked out everything around him. He loved hearing you sing or watching your other videos of miscellaneous things because it relates to your culture, which he really isn’t exposed to all the time. So he watches to learn more.

But he really just likes watching you. You look so passionate when you do your blogs, it was so interesting to him. You were such a foreign masterpiece to him, everything from your thick, curly (or braided) dark hair. Your brown (or Hazel) eyes seemed so bright to him. Your skin tone was so wonderful, it always made you look like you were glowing. And your attitude was nothing to play with. He realized that when you obliterated a racist hater on one of her live videos.

He was crushing, he was crushing hard and didn’t even realize it yet. He’ll put on one your videos to relax him Not long before his friends catch on and realize that he was a fan. The first to find out was Midoriya. (He works with the man sooo...) Catching Bakugou watching your videos. “Oh you Follow Y/N too? I think she’s really talented.” Midoriya says to him.

Katsuki, who was still wrapped up in watching you talk about the injustices against your race, he accidentally let “She’s so fucking wonderful.” Slip out loud, and Midoriya smirked teasingly.

Bakugou stiffened, completely frozen with wide eyes and a red tint hitting his face. “Did I hear right? Kacchan has a crush on Y/N?” He teased. In honesty, he’s happy for Bakugou.

But Bakugou being a proud man, doesn’t want to fully admit it. “SHUT THE HELL UP!! I just think she’s... Cool.” He says while still trying to cover up his flushed face, He didn’t want anyone seeing this.

He was embarrassed, his secret is out. He kept you a secret because it was his way of having you all to himself. Even though he didn’t know you and Vice Versa, he wanted you to be his in a way. So yeah, he was crushing.

“So you already know she’ll be here in a couple of weeks for her blog and to do a few promotions. Why don’t you make some arrangements to meet her?” Midoriya suggests, and it makes Bakugou nervous.

“I don’t know about that, she never really mentioned Heroes in any of her posts... I don’t think she’s interested in Pro Heroes.” Bakugou said with some disappointment in his voice

———

“The Wonder Duo once again saved over 200 civilians who were attending a charity ball that was taken hostage by villains. And—” You didn’t even get the chance to hear the rest of the news report because you started fangirling over Dynamite.

They showed clips from the incident and all you could think was how good he looked taking down those villains. You were such a fan of him, but you thought that people would discriminate you two because of your races. Don’t want to constantly hear “DyNaMiTe DoN’t EvEn LiKe BlAcK GiRls” *Insert Eye Roll*

You kept your love for him a secret, if only your fans knew that he was the reason behind every love song you made. You have merchandise from the hero, your love for him ran deep. So you were looking forward to your trip in a couple of weeks, being in the country as Dynamite gave you goosebumps.

A huge part of you was hoping to run into him while you were there. Get him to sign a few things before finishing his patrol, maybe have a little chat. You squealed at the thought of being in front of your favorite hero, thoughts of possibilities floated into your head, like possibly getting a hug, or like sing for him! You wondered if he was a fan of you.

Then a frown appeared on your face, He’s probably too busy to look at your videos. Sure you had fans, but someone like Dynamite is probably too preoccupied with cooler shit to watch your videos. I mean, you two are from different worlds. Then the comments from people of your blog saying “PRO HEROES FROM JAPAN DON’T LIKE BLACK PEOPLE” “DYNAMITE DON’T LIKE BLACK GIRLS” Blah, Blah, Blah.

You were worried that your favorite hero wouldn’t want anything to do with you. You grabbed your plushie of Dynamite and held it tight, you did your best to let them thoughts go, but you knew there was only one way to cool your jets, was to blog about it, then make a video afterwards.

You ranted about black love and the appreciation of Black x Japanese interracial love, and that it’s okay to date outside your race. Love is Love and as long as they respect each others cultures and truly love each other. After you logged off, you started getting ready for your trip. You ignored your phone going off, and continued packing.

When you were done, you decided to write a song to help with the left over nerves you got from multiple things. As you sit there in your bonnet, (Favorite color) tank top, (Other Favorite color) shorts, your house shoes booties, typing lyrics into your phone. In your most natural state, you wondered if Dynamite would like you like this.

You know that you’re beautiful, but the possibility of your future not finding you attractive does bother you. You kept telling yourself to stop thinking like that and focus on your shit. You don’t need obsessing over petty little shit from people you don’t even know.

_____

Bakugou watched your rant video the moment he woke up. He woke up and grabbed his phone. Once he saw your notification on his phone, he fully woke up and instantly clicked play. Once he didn’t see your bright smile, he knew something was up.

He laid in his bed, watching you rant about Black love. He heard you mention Pro heroes, and his eyes widened. He knew someone had irritated you, and that irritated him. He knew for sure that he, and a lot of heroes and civilians here don’t discriminate. He wanted to know who the hell filled your head with this bullshit?! He wanted to make a video, yelling at the extras that think that told you this crap. He wanted to set them straight.

But then people will find out that he’s a fan of you, and if his friends find out... he’ll never hear the end of it. Kirishima, Kaminari, and Sero will tease him at every given moment. But he wanted to let you know that all of us Heroes in Japan have nothing but love for the black community.

Mirko, the Hero he was a sidekick to for 5 years, She was black. And she was the most Badass out of all heroes. He didn’t want you feel this way, he wanted to find a way to make you smile. You make him smile every morning, so he should return the favor. He’ll have to figure out while he patrolling today.

Bakugou got his opportunity while patrolling with Midoriya. The town was holding a festival and a lot of people were attending, including 5-6 News reporters. The Mayor had asked them to guard the event, and of course, being heroes, they accepted.

A idiot wannabe Villain with his quirk being animal shapeshifting, turned into a giant, raging Ape. He was bent on destroying the festival and everything that makes people happy. He and Midoriya took him down in like 10 mins, and of course, reporters wanted them to say a few words or interview them. “Dynamite! Deku! Do you have any words to say?” a reporter asked as she shoved her mic in his face.

“All I wanna say is... I fucking Love Black People, They are awesome! Awesome, strong, and especially beautiful. Shout to all the Black Girls/Women everywhere.“ Then he walked off to give the villain to the cops. Midoriya chimed in and said. “I agree with everything he said. Shout out to the Black People! If you feel like your lives don’t matter to anyone, just know and remember that they truly matter to us, and we’re going to do are hardest to make you all feel protected.“ Then he walked off, catching up to Bakugou.

____

“All I wanna say is... I fucking Love Black People, They are awesome! Awesome, strong, and especially beautiful. Shout to all the Black Girls/Women everywhere.“

“I agree with everything he said. Shout out to the Black People! If you feel like your lives don’t matter to anyone, just know and remember that they truly matter to us, and we’re going to do are hardest to make you all feel protected.“

The video you watched on the plane was weeks old, but it stills get you feeling good. After you saw this video for the first time two weeks ago, you kinda been smug about it. But not in a bad way.

You felt safe Wearing your Dynamite mearch while blogging or singing. You showed a different side of your room, The side where your shrine to Pro Heroes were. Posters, pillows, and Chibi Dolls.

You even Admitted it to your fans that you were a Hero Nerd, and that brought more followers to your page. You felt great that you didn’t have to hide anymore. Little did you know, A certain Hero was following and loving it more. Making sure to leave a like and reblog on your content.

You were excited for this trip and the Concert you were opening for tonight. You also have a Meet & Greet, so you know this will be great for your content. You were also secretly hoping to run into your dream Hero. You know they say “Don’t Meet Your Hero!” But they can eat your ass because you’re making that happen! You’re favorite hero loves Black Women.

You started to wonder... It’s kind of weird how after you made your rant video about Black Love, He said that on the news. A surge went through your body as your mind wondered to the fact that Dynamite might actually watch your videos! What if he comes to your concert? *Le gasp* What if he shows up at your meet and greet?! Your internal fangirl started coming out. You had tell yourself to calm down before the people on the plane think you’re being killed or something.

You took one selfie to show that you were on the way, posted it, and fell asleep. When you wake up, You’ll be in Japan.

____

Bakugou was changing out of his hero clothing, finally ending a long day at work. He had just got healed and patched up, and not he was prepping to leave when his phone went off. He reached for it and saw that had you had posted a selfie, and now you’re going live as you approach a familiar theatre.

His eyes widened, He knew exactly where that place was. Then Deku came bursting in, phone in his hand showing the same video he was watching. He had such excitement on his face, he honestly startled Bakugou the way Midoriya bursted in.

“KACCHAN! KACCHAN! WE CAN MAKE IT! WE CAN SEE AND MEET HER!“ Midoriya yelled. His eyes were showing that excitement when he meets a cool hero, a smile to match his excitement. “Get dressed quick! we can still make it on time to see her perform.“

“SHHHH! Shut The Fuck Up Before Someone Hears You Deku! and, I know. I’m getting ready.“ Bakugou had a slight blush on his face, and he was trembling. Why the fuck was he trembling?! He’s just going to meet a person that he enjoys. Someone that he watches damn near everyday and plays her music, nothing special right?

His heart was racing, he couldn’t control his feelings inside, but he did his best to not show them externally. He doesn’t want to look like Midoriya right now. But he had to admit it to himself, he was excited as hell.

Both of them put on hoodies and Sunglasses to hide their identity as they went to the concert. Bakugou’s trembling got a little more noticeable because he was in the same building as you. When you came on stage, Bakugou’s breath hitched. You were even more stunning in person, it was like you had a glow around you as you thanked everyone for coming out.

As you began to sing, what normally happens to Bakugou, happened 10x more. As your voice hits his ears, he tuned out everyone here. He got tunnel vision, and all he could see and here was you. Midoriya looked at his friend and noticed that Bakugou had loving/relaxed smile on his face. His eyes glued on you. And that gave Midoriya an Idea.

When you were done with your performance, Midoriya dragged Bakugou backstage, to your dressing room. The guards weren’t letting them pass until Midoriya revealed who they were, then the doors flew open for them. (Perks of Being the #1 Heroes.) They knocked on the door, and heard your voice, Bakugou tensed up.

The only thing that separated you and him was a door. Bakugou’s breathing got heavy, all common sense and the words he knew floated out his head. all he thought was “AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!! SHE’S BEHIND THIS DOOR!!!”

You asked who was it, and Of course, Midoriya was the one to speak first. “Hi, you don’t know us, but My name is Deku, and I’m the #1-“

The door flew opened before Midoriya had the chance to finish. You stood the with your eyes wide and jaw to the floor. In front of you stood Japan’s #1 heroes, you couldn’t believe it. “No fucking way!” was all you could get out. “I just wanted to say that I know you had a meet and greet, but we’re big fans, especially my partner here. We couldn’t wait” Midoriya finished before pushing Bakugou forward towards you.

Bakugou stumbled but caught himself as he stood directly in front of you. There you stood, in all your glory, looking like a Black Goddess. He felt like he wasn’t worthy to be in your presence. He had to collect himself, he had to say something to you! Wait a minute, he’s Katsuki fucking Bakugou! Dynamite! The Great Explosion Murder God! He shouldn’t be nervous! He’s got this

He cleared his throat, then you smiled at him. All that nerve he built, fluttered away like butterflies. He grew a love sick smile and looked at you lovingly. “I love you” Slipped out of his mouth. You gasped, then Bakugou realized what he said and nervously tried to correct his mistake. “Your Work! I love your work! I mean I don’t love you- not to sound like I hate you, I-I mean I actually think you’re amazing....ly talented! Oh Fuck! Let me start over! I’m Dynamite, but you already know that, but you can call me Bakugou. And I enjoy your work.”

Remember what they said about meet you heroes? EAT MY ASS FUCKERS! DYNAMITE IS A FAN!!!!

“He’s a huge fan! he watches everything you post!“ Deku chimed in with his teasing voice and smirk, which caused Bakugou to threaten Midoriya to shut up. You stepped aside to let the two pro heroes into your dressing room.

There the three of you talked. But it was mostly you and Bakugou talking. You find out that he’s been following you for a while and vice versa. You and Bakugou hit off so well, he invited you to lunch and you invited him to do a vid with him.

It was like the more you talk, the more Bakugou grew to like you. He gave you his contact info because he wanted to keep in touch with you. He appreciated everything that you are, and would love to see more of you in person. Even offered to pay for you to come back soon.

The two of you started traveling to see one another, like him traveling to the states and you going to his country. It wasn’t long before you two started dating. You two doing vids together, and him recording you sing.

Lets just say the world couldn’t predict that you and Japan’s biggest Hero would be a huge Power Couple.

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ohnobjyx · 4 years

Text

Plum blossoms in the snow (I)

Part 4: April and May (I)

We have gotten to the mid point of the story.

Disclaimer: I try to keep things objective (if I include my personal opinion, it’s in cursive and in brackets), but I’m biased because of the XZ friendly content I’m usually exposed to and by my own views of their situation. Open to discussion, but please make sure you’ve enough information to do so.

In March, slowly but surely, the incident was put behind. After the anger comes the aceptance, so to say. With so many people’s inputs, his fans started to let the topic cool down, while giving him their support.

So everything was coming back to their place and seemed a lot calmer than a month before. This didn’t sit well with some people.

Antis’ attacks

The antis were quite active, trying to spark a conflict one after another, because the topic had been silent for a little bit. Remember: more interactions, more followers, more money so ignore the antis always (unless they attack you, if so, report them).

To name a few:

On early April, they placed so many negative reviews on CQL in Douban that the score fell from 7′9 to 7′3. However, people didn’t react as they wanted them to, and instead the score rose steadily back to 7′7 (as of now).

When a brand of a product that XZ endorses admitted to economic fraud, antis attacked the brand, the product and XZ. Their argument was that because XZ is so popular, more people bought the product he endorses, thus contributing to the fraud. Some fans fell for it, protesting that what the brand does had nothing to do with XZ.

Some of the antis pretended to be XZ’s fans, and with that “disguise”, attacked other netizens, prompting a statement from XZ’s fans support group. In the statement, they reject this kind of behaviour and insist that everyone should be careful with what they say and how they act.

All of this, along with spreading rumors, was trying to revive the discussion and the fan war to get more attention and followers (people have a short span of attention, especially on the internet), and profit from it.

Around mid April, both w/ibo and bil/bili blocked antis’ accounts, making antis say that XZ’s company must have paid them to do so.

Endorsements

It was positive though that in April he started to appear again in commercials and banners.

(The one on the left is a commercial from February, I couldn’t find another one with a better resolution from April. By the way, from an interview done before New Year’s Eve for that brand, we get these two little moments: 1 and 2).

You may have noticed that the endorsement for the drink it’s a joined endorsement with another celebrity. Antis tried to pit the two group of fans against one another, but fans didn’t fell for it (the learning process was hard and long, but it was showing results).

Remember the one from the right. That’s a funny one, later in July.

Plum blossoms and stars

In April, XZ reappeared again in w/ibo with that drawing of plum blossoms from his Oasis account (on 200410). Previously, he had shared a post for the National Mourning Day for the people who’ve died because of the COVID-19, and before that, it was a post from February 22, before 2/27.

There are 4 main flowers in Chinese culture (one for each season), and each has a widely known meaning attached to them.

Plum blossoms are one them, and often represent resilience and perseverance in the face of adversity, because it’s a flower that blooms a brilliant red in the middle of winter and snow. It can also be a harbinger of spring.

So his first message after all of this mess to be one of perseverance and hope。 I personally find it very meaningful as to what his attitude towards the entertainment industry is.

This also calmed a lot of his fans, who had been worried of him succumbing to the antis and retiring from the industry. There had been a lot of rumours saying the he had got depression from all of this conflict, and this update effectively silenced those.

A few days later he sang a cover of the song “The hymn of the red plum blossom” for an online event “Beautiful China”. It’s a classical opera song from a film, very patriotic and well-chosen for such an event, but it could also represent his situation with the “coming of spring”. Musicians later analysed this song and deemed it too difficult for him to sing (he doesn’t have enough range for this kind of songs), but praised him for his spirit to try new, difficult things, and to bring classic songs to young people: “he’s like the plum blossom in winter: persistent against difficulties”.

XZ updated his Oasis again late in April, with a drawing inspired by posters from his university days: “hope”, “perseverance”, “acquisition”.

(This is the picture he updated on 200420, and below is a screeshot from the post in which he explains that those are drawings from his university days).

Reporting to the police

On 21st of April, XZ’s Studio issued a statement.

3 accounts (among others) had used XZ’s photos and videos to slander his name, so the studio had collected the evidence and had turned it all to the police. The accounts had been spreading rumours about him for months (about him dating other guys, plastic surgery) and insulting him for his acting skills and lack of respect towards women.

What we find most surprising is that, even in the face of a lawsuit, the antis didn’t relent and kept on trying to “black” (slander) him.

Those 3 accounts were, in their own words, chased and insulted by XZ’s fans, so they wanted to report XZ’s studio in return, for damaging their reputation.

(I don’t know exactly how this ended. I think the lawsuit is still going on, since these things take time, but the general outcome of this seems good for him. Most of the comments I’ve seen goes like “xz was just waiting for the right moment to act”, “staying silent and apologizing while collecting proof of a crime”.)

“Light Spot”

On April 25, XZ released a new song, and remarked that he thanks all well-meaning criticism and guidance, and that he’ll continue to grow from here. The song is Light Spot. There was again some drama related to this song, antis never take a rest it seems.

XZ’s apology

That week, XZ posted on w/ibo, apologizing for the troubles caused and asking people not to hurt others.

The source of the problem this time were rumours of him participating in HJ’s variety show (HJ is the host from Happy Camp with curly hair). Rumours said that he had invited XZ to participate in his new variety show on his own initiative. Haters attacked him for this, in order to prevent XZ from going to the program (remember that some of the antis’ objective is to make XZ retire from entertainment industry).

The TV station had to release a statement saying that XZ won’t participate in HJ’s show. XZ must have seen all the commotion and posted his comment asking people not to hurt HJ because of him.

Tracking down the antis

The leader of all of this commotion with HJ was a w/ibo user (let’s call her “B”) that had been a XZ hater for a long while, and her account was banned soon after this. Along with hers, many others hater accounts were blocked by w/ibo, prompted by XZ’s studio, according to other antis.

Though their accounts were blocked, B tried to come back (and even with the same username), and attacked XZ again for making “false donations” to Wuhan, and accusing him of being immoral. XZ’s Studio finally posted definite proof that their donation had been real.

B accused him of being a racist and having “abnormal sexual orientation”. She also managed to make her accusations a hot topic on w/ibo quite frequently.

This hater, with others, surprised many people in their tenacity and persistence to defame XZ. People analysed her behaviour and tendencies and extracted conclusions like these about this kind of “professional” antis:

She knows how the entertainment industry works, so she works in it or has sources inside the industry.

She knows what kind of topic will attract attention from other users.

She has good resources and is very intelligent and manipulative at the same time, so she is capable of making two groups unite against a third, for example.

She’s likely to cooperate with XZ’ competitors to spread rumors about him, to allow his competitors to get more endorsements. She incites haters and antis to boycott XZ endorsements in order to do this.

(I was asked previously if YH couldn’t have participated too in the smear campaign, to gain more endorsements for WYB. At the time, I’d been very sure that these kind of things are too much of a hassle, but now I’m not so sure that no one would do this. I mean, I don’t think YH would do this for WYB, since he is very popular and successful on his own, but for other YH’s employees or other companies for their idols... I’m not so sure anymore. But this is all especulation from me).

She often has material that a “normal” fan can’t get access to. Among the fans, there are some that are called fan representatives. They can often access the companies and agencies, so they have more information and images about a star than any other. Of course, they can’t spread it if they stop being their fan, but that doesn’t stop B from buying pictures from them.

There are also “spies” inside the fandom, who get information about a fandom from the inside.

So, in short, a great part of the general public likes the rumours and the stories she makes up, it doesn’t matter if they are true or not, and that gives her more followers.

Before XZ, she attacked the male leads from The Guardian (ZYL and BY), and used the same tactic.

(Which confirms our theory that this storm will pass for XZ, most likely because she moves on to attacking another person, but that’s a whole other story).

So at the end of April, w/ibo started to ban all the accounts that spread malicious and hate content, the numerous accounts of B among them, even though all of them had been ticked by w/ibo before (like the blue tick in twitter).

Even after being reported to the police, the account doesn’t seem to stop, making people suspect that there is money behind of this and that it’s not an account managed by one person, but rather a team. They’ll do the same to whoever is popular at the moment, so it’s not even personal, it doesn’t matter who it is, XZ, ZYL, BY, whoever.

(I don’t like conspiracy theories... if there’s no data to back them up, it all remains speculation, and it spreads more information that no one knows it’s true or not. However, this whole thing with the antis is very strange. I suppose will see what happens once XZ comes back to limelight).

Haters are also something every idol has to face.

The haters dig into an idol’s past, and make up rumours based on that. For example, XZ had a gf while he was studyinghis degree, but they broke up. Haters then said that it was because of this that he went to South Korea and got plastic surgery (false, some people do have this kind of amazing genes), and that’s why he’s so good looking. Since lies are mixed in truth, some people, especially those who just know his name, or that he’s an actor, have trouble picking it apart.

Rumours also place idols in a tight position. If they don’t answer, people will think the rumours are true. But if they sue them, haters aren’t afraid either, because the process is long, and in this process they are still getting views and new followers. It may also shift the attention to them, which is exactly what they want.

All in all, the world is complex, but even in the middle of snow you may find a little plum blossom.

←Part 3: Why does it snow? | Part 4 (II): Plums blossoms in the snow (II)→

#gg's situation series #I should have planned 8 parts instead of 7 #in my defense #I thought May would be shorter #part 4 of 7 (I)#my posts

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michaelandy101-blog · 4 years

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The Top 25 Movies About Social Media to Add to Your Watch List

New Post has been published on http://tiptopreview.com/the-top-25-movies-about-social-media-to-add-to-your-watch-list/

The Top 25 Movies About Social Media to Add to Your Watch List

Social media has inspired comedies, dystopian thrillers, documentaries, and horror movies.

Here is a list of the best movies related to social media, in no particular order.

1. The Social Dilemma, 2020

Documentary

Netflix

A popular movie that can’t be recommended enough.

Even if you’re in the business there are parts of this movie that will still startle.

Featuring interviews with people who invented a variety of the algorithms.

This movie balances the shock factor of what’s going on behind the scenes of social media with insights into how social media can be improved.

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2. Love, Guaranteed, 2020

Romantic Comedy

Netflix

Stars Rachael Leigh Cook, Damon Wayans Jr., Heather Graham, Kandyse McClure (Dualla on Battlestar Galactica).

Social media is defined as a social network, and what kind of network is more social than a dating app?

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This romantic comedy follows an attorney and her client who claims that a dating site guarantees love is offering a false promise.

As evidence, he offers himself, who has engaged in a thousand dates and failed to find love.

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3. The Hater, 2020

Thriller

Netflix

This is a great movie that you might never have heard of but should definitely check out.

It’s a fast-paced thriller and drama about using social media to settle personal scores.

The hero of the movie is both likable and worthy of loathing.

Don’t be put off by the fact that this is a Polish movie and you might have to read subtitles.

This movie tells a story of harnessing the power of social media like a weapon against those who may or may not deserve it.

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It’s highly relevant in today’s world of disinformation amplification yet it’s not really about social media in the same way that a movie like Taxi Driver is not about guns.

Both movies, Taxi Driver and The Hater, share a theme of the misfit trying to fit in and not really able to find a way in until circumstances create an opportunity.

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4. Emily in Paris, 2020

Comedy-drama

Netflix

I cheated.

This isn’t a movie.

But so many who have an interest in social media marketing and movies will find this so interesting that I had to fit it in.

The central character – Emily (duh!), is a social media marketer from Chicago who is sent to a Paris office where she’s met with skepticism.

She changes her Instagram handle to @emilyinparis and starts posting photos, her account goes viral.

The series is from the mind of Darren Star, the writer behind such hits as Beverly Hills 90210, Melrose Place, and Sex and the City.

If any of those are your favorites then it’s likely you’ll enjoy Emily in Paris as well.

There’s a bit of suspension of disbelief necessary regarding the social media, but Emily in Paris is fundamentally a fantasy not a documentary.

A little fantasy helps to get through these dark and pandemic times.

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5. Die Influencers Die, 2020

Horror

Roku

This is a B-Movie slasher exploitation flick about a group of easy-to-hate influencers meeting dreadful ends.

What’s not to like right?

Millions of social media followers are dangled in front of a small group of social media influencers in exchange for spending the night at a reportedly haunted studio in Las Vegas.

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For those who enjoy heavy metal, are annoyed by social media influencers to no end, and harbor a fondness for killer clowns…this movie is for you.

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6. Spree, 2020

Social media satire/Horror

Amazon, Vudu

A spree is defined as a sustained period of time during which an unrestrained activity is indulged.

That’s pretty much what this movie is about, a rideshare driver going to the ultimate extreme to achieve Internet fame.

Starring Joe Keery (“Steve” in Stranger Things), Spree is a dark and violent comedy that’s not necessarily for everyone.

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7. #realityhigh, 2017

Dramedy

Netflix

This is a teen dramedy about a girl going through the social media popularity rabbit hole and becoming another person to please others.

Continue Reading Below

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8. Hard Candy, 2005

Thriller/Horror/Revenge

Amazon, iTunes, Vudu, YouTube

This is an under-the-radar movie that might make some uncomfortable.

It stars Ellen Page (Juno, Umbrella Academy), Patrick Wilson (Conjuring, Watchmen, Aquaman), and Sandra Oh (Killing Eve, Grey’s Anatomy, Sideways, Princess Diaries).

The movie won several awards including three at the 2005 Sitges Film Festival (Best Motion Picture, Best Screenplay, and an Audience Award for Best Motion Picture) and four awards at the 2006 Spanish Malaga Film Festival (Best Film, Best Director, Best Actress and Best Cinematographer).

Ellen Page won Best Actress at the 2006 Austin Film Critics Association Awards.

This is an intelligent suspense and thriller.

But it’s not for the squeamish.

It can get grueling for some.

Ellen Page stars as a 17-year-old teenager who entraps an older man via a chat room.

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Expecting illicit activities the teenager turns the table on him.

Again, I must warn that this movie is not for those with delicate sensibilities.

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9. Searching, 2018

Thriller

Amazon, Vudu, YouTube

A movie starring John Cho (Harold & Kumar, Star Trek) in the missing person genre.

The daughter goes missing and police lack leads, so the father takes to the Internet to trace the daughter’s virtual steps to find her.

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10. Ingrid Goes West, 2017

Comedy

Hulu

Stars Elizabeth Olsen and Aubrey Plaza.

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Aubrey Plaza is a great actress who consistently surprises with the quirky nuance she brings to her roles and that’s also the case here.

This film is in the stalker genre but it’s also a satire of the influencer world.

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11. The Social Ones, 2020

Comedy

Amazon Prime, iTunes, Vudu, YouTube

This is a mockumentary and parody of the influencer culture, taking swipes at Instagram stars and fashion bloggers.

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12. A Simple Favor, 2018

Comedy/Thriller

Amazon, Hulu, Sling TV, Vudu, YouTube

This is a Paul Feig movie about a video blogger who gets in over her head after she befriends a woman who causes her viewership to soar.

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It’s like a noir because it has a femme fatale.

The mystery and thriller quality of the story kept me watching.

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13. Smosh: The Movie, 2015

Comedy

Amazon, iTunes, Vudu

Satire of YouTube stars starring two actual YouTube stars.

Directed by Alex Winter, star of Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure.

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14. Friend Request, 2016

Social media mystery/Horror

Amazon, Hulu, Vudu, YouTube

A woman accepts a friend request whose mysterious death sets off a series of deaths of those who are friends with the woman.

Continue Reading Below

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15. Unfriended, 2015

Social media horror

Amazon, iTunes, Netflix, Vudu

Instead of a group of young people at a camp getting murdered, it’s people on a group chat that are meeting their demise one by one.

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16. The Assistant, 2019

Comedy/Satire

Amazon

Short film 13 Minutes, available on Amazon Prime.

Comedy/satire of being an assistant to a social media influencer.

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17. The Circle, 2017

Thriller

Amazon, YouTube, Vudu, iTunes

Starring Emma Watson, John Boyega, Bill Paxton, and Tom Hanks.

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This is a cautionary tale of living life on social media based on Dave Egger’s novel.

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18. Lo and Behold, Reveries of the Connected World, 2016

Documentary

YouTube

A documentary that explores how the Internet affects society today and may affect it tomorrow.

It asks probing questions like “will our great, great-grandchildren grow up in a world where they have no need for human companionship?”

Werner Herzog is a consistently thought-provoking filmmaker.

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19. The Great Hack, 2019

Documentary

Netflix

A chilling documentary about not just about Cambridge Analytica but about the surveillance Internet.

Continue Reading Below

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20. The Social Network, 2010

Drama

Netflix

Starring Jesse Eisenberg, this movie is based on the story of how Mark Zuckerburg came to found Facebook.

Highly acclaimed and a must-watch movie.

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21. American Meme, 2018

Documentary

Netflix

Featuring Paris Hilton and DJ Khaled, it’s a behind the scenes look at what it means to be a social media star and the conflicts between the reality and what’s presented.

Continue Reading Below

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22. Disconnect, 2012

Drama/Thriller

Amazon, iTunes, Vudu, YouTube

Starring Jason Bateman, Hope Davis, Alexander Skarsgård, Frank Grillo.

Three stories interweaved around human interaction via social media.

Lives are changed, conflicts arise, some characters face a reckoning.

All of the actors are top shelf, including a strong performance by Frank Grillo – a character actor who’s been in dozens of popular films including Mambo Kings, Minority Report, Zero Dark Thirty, and several of the recent Marvel superhero movies.

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23. Catfish, 2010

Documentary

Netflix

Documentary and indie film of two brothers who strike up a relationship with a woman over Facebook, with both sides misrepresenting who they are and their motives.

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The movie is the origin of the term Catfishing, which is the practice of pretending to be someone you are not – like pretending to be an associate of a famous person over the Internet in order to woo someone.

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24. Chef, 2014

Comedy-drama

Amazon (free), iTunes, Pluto (free), Vudu, YouTube

Starring Jon Favreau, Scarlett Johansson, John Leguizamo, Sofía Vergara, Robert Downey Jr.

This is a feel-good dramedy.

A chef gets a bad review over Twitter and he responds in kind.

The Twitter argument goes viral and results in unanticipated events in his personal and business life.

It’s partially about the transformative effect that social media can have on a life.

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25. You, 2018

Dramedy/Thriller

Netflix TV Series

This is not a movie.

Continue Reading Below

Again, I cheated.

Yet it deserves to be included in a list of things to watch and chill.

The show is absolutely binge-bait, it grabs you from the beginning and you hang on tight as the story takes unexpected twists and turns.

Without spoiling anything, the series is about a smart likable guy who meets a cute college student who is between relationships.

What seems like a romantic comedy turns into something else entirely.

An enjoyable series, well worth a try.

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More Resources:

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betweengenesisfrogs · 6 years

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Homestuck is My Favorite Sprite Comic

Yes, you read that right.

Homestuck is my favorite sprite comic.

Those of you who remember the earlier days of the internet are probably looking at this post in disbelief right about now. Others of you might be scratching your heads, not knowing what I’m talking about.

But here’s my pitch: Homestuck is the culmination of an entire genre of internet art, and the tools that make it so powerful are the very tools that made that genre once so reviled.

Homestuck is the greatest and most successful sprite comic of all time.

And honestly, I’ve wanted to talk about that for ages, so let’s do it.

WHAT SPRITE COMICS WERE

Many of my readers are probably too young to remember the era of sprite comics. So: what were sprite comics?

Sprite comics were a genre of webcomics made entirely by taking pixel art from video games – especially character art, called “sprites,” but also backgrounds and other images—and placing them into panels to tell a story. They were near-ubiquitous on the internet in the early 2000s, emerging right as webcomics in general were seeking to establish themselves as an art form.

They were not, shall we say, known for their quality. The low bar to access meant that art skill was not an obstacle to starting one. The folks behind the huge swell of them tended to be young people, kids and early teenagers recreating the plots of their favorite video games with new OCs—not the most advanced writers or artists. They were the early 2000s’ quintessential example of ephemeral, childish art. Unfortunately, they look even worse today—blown-up pixels don’t hold up well when displayed on higher-resolution monitors.

Today, they’re mostly forgotten, remembered only as a weird, strange moment in the youth of the internet. Someone who evoked them today, such as a blogger who compared them to one of the most successful webcomics of all time, would be inviting good-natured teasing at the very least.

It would be unfair to dismiss them entirely, though. In this low-stakes environment, comics where the author could bring more skill—engaging writing, legitimately funny jokes, or especially, a real ability to work with pixel art—really stood out. (Unsurprisingly, these authors tended to skew a bit older.)

The obvious one to mention is Bob and George. Bob and George wasn’t the first sprite comic, but it was the most influential. Conceived initially as Mega Man-themed filler for a hand-drawn comic about superheroes, it quickly became a merging of the two concepts, with the original characters made into Mega Man-style sprites, full of running gags, humorous retellings of the Mega Man games, elaborate storylines about time travel, and robots eating ice cream. It was generally agreed, even among sprite comic haters, that Bob and George was a pretty good comic. Worth mentioning also are 8-Bit Theater, which turned the plot of the first Final Fantasy into a spectacular and hilarious farce, and of course Kid Radd, my second favorite sprite comic. (More on that later.)

But even if you weren’t looking for greatness—there was something just damn fun about them. The passion of sprite comic authors was clear, even if their ideas didn’t always cohere. To this day, I think the sprite comic scene has the same appeal pulp art does—it’s crude and rough, full of garbage to sift through, but every so often, something deeply sincere and bizarre shines through, and the culture of its authors is a fascinating object of study in itself.

Okay, full disclosure: I was one of the people who made a sprite comic. I’ve written about my experiences with that in more depth elsewhere, but yeah, I was on the inside of this scene, rather than a disinterested observer, and from the inside, maybe it’s a lot easier to see the appeal.

Still, let me make this claim: even with all their flaws, sprite comics were doing some incredibly interesting things, and Homestuck is heir to their legacy.

TAKE ME DOWN TO RECOLOR CITY

One of the problems people always had with sprite comics was the sprites themselves. They’re the most repetitive thing in the world. You just keep copying and pasting the same images over and over again, maybe with a few tweaks. That’s not really being an artist, is it? It’s so lazy. Re-drawing things from different angles keeps things dynamic, develops your skill, and makes your work better in general. Right?

I’m mostly in agreement. Certainly I think it’s fair to rag on the Control-Alt-Delete guy, along with other early bad webcomics, for copy-pasting their characters while dropping in new expressions and mass-producing tepid strips. And to be fair, digging through bad sprite comics often felt like an exercise in seeing the same slightly-edited recolors of Mega Man characters over and over again. You got really tired of that same body with its blobby feet and hands.

(It should be noted, though, that there were folks in the sprite comic scene who could pixel art the quills off a porcupine. I salute you, brave pixel art masters of 2006. I hope you all got into your chosen art school.)

All this said, I think the repetitive and simplistic nature of sprite comics was often their biggest strength.

THE POWER OF ABSTRACTION

In his classic work Understanding Comics, Scott McCloud makes an observation about cartooning that has stayed with me to this day.

McCloud notes that simple, abstract drawings, like faces that are only few lines and dots on a page, resonate with us more strongly than more detailed drawings. This is because our minds fill in what’s missing on the page. We ascribe human depth to simple gestures and expressions based on our own emotions and experiences – and this makes us feel closer to these characters as readers. Secretly, simple cartoons can be one of the most powerful forms of storytelling. If you want your readers to fall in love with your characters, draw them simply, and let them fill them in.

Video game sprites work very well in this regard. They have that same simplicity that cartoons do. In fact, I’d be willing to bet a huge part of the success of SNES-era RPGs was simple, almost childlike character sprites drawing people in. I think sprites did the same for sprite comics.

Here’s the weird thing: Bob and George worked. Despite four different characters being variations on the same friggin’ Mega Man sprite in different colors, they immediately began to seem like different people with distinct personalities. For me, George’s befuddled, helpless dismay immediately comes to mind whenever I picture his face, while with Mega Man himself it’s usually a wide-eyed, childlike glee. I would never confuse them. This, despite the fact that the only actual difference between their faces is that George is blonde. It’s pretty clear what happened. The personalities the author established for them through dialogue and storytelling shone through, and my brain did the rest.

Sprites, in short, were a canvas upon which the mind could project any story the author wanted to tell. Even the most minute differences in pixel art came to stand, in the best sprite comics, for wide divergences in personality and ideals, once the reader spent enough time with them to adapt to their style of representation.

Wait a minute, haven’t we seen this somewhere before? Character designs that focus on variations on a theme, with subtle differences that nonetheless render them instantly recognizable?

Oh, right.

Look at what greets us on the very first page of Homestuck. An absurdly simple cartoon boy, abstracted to a ridiculous degree—he doesn’t even have arms!—followed a whole bunch of characters that follow suit. Though many other representations of the characters emerge, these little figures never quite go away, do they? Why is that?

Simple: they’re very easy to manipulate. They’re modular—you can give John arms or not, depending on whether it’s useful. You can put him in a whole variety of poses and save them to a template. You can change out his facial expressions with copy and paste. You can give him a new haircut and call him Jake. It’s all very quick and easy.

Sprite comics proliferated because they were very easy to mass-produce. Andrew Hussie’s original conception of Homestuck was very similar: something he could put out very quickly and easily, where even the most elaborate ideas could rely on existing assets to be sped smoothly along. We all know the result: an incredible production machine, churning out unfathomable amounts of content from 2009-2012. I’d say it was a good call.

But it goes way deeper than that. The modular nature of sprites always suggested a kind of modularity to the sprite comic premise. George and Mega Man were different people, true, but also two variations on a theme. Was there something underlying them that they had in common? Perhaps their similarity says something like: We exist in a world which has a certain set of rules? One of my favorite conceits from Bob and George was that when characters visited the past, they were represented by NES-era Mega Man sprites, while in the present, they were SNES sprites, and in the future, the author used elaborate splicing to render them as 32-bit Mega Man 8 sprites or similar.

Suppose there was a skilled cartoonist thinking about his next big project, who wanted to tell a story centered around this kind of modularity, a narrative that was built out of iterative, swappable pieces by its very design. He might very well create a sprite comic named Homestuck.

Homestuck is a story about a game that creates a hyperflexible mythology for its players, where the villains, challenges, and setting change depending upon what players bring to the experience, yet which all share underlying goals and assumptions. What more perfect opportunity to create a modular story as well? Different groups of kids and trolls have motifs that get swapped around to produce new characters, whether that’s through ectobiology, the Scratch, or the eerie parallels between the kids and trolls’ sessions. And yet each character can be analyzed as an individual.

This is an incredible way to build a huge emotional investment from your readers. Not only does this kind of characterization invite analysis, the abstractions draw readers in to generate their own headcanons and interpretations. A deep commitment to pluralism is at the heart of Hussie’s character design. Then, too, it encourages readers to build their own new designs from these models. Kidswaps, bloodswaps, fantrolls—these have long been the heart of Homestuck’s fandom. And what are bloodswaps if not sprite recolors for a new generation? With the added bonus that now a change in color carries narrative weight, evoking new moods and identities for these characters in ways that early sprite comics could only dream of.

In Hussie’s hands, even the dreaded copy-and-paste takes on heroic depth of meaning. Even when Hussie moves away from sprites to his own loose art style, he continues to remix what we’ve previously see. Indeed, Hussie talks about how he would go out of his way to edit his own art into new images even when it would take more time than drawing something new. Why? Because he wanted to evoke that very feeling of having seen this before—the visual callback to go along with the many conceptual and verbal callbacks that echo throughout Homestuck. This is at the heart of what Doc Scratch (speaking for Hussie) called “circumstantial simultaneity:” we are invited to compare two moments or two characters, to see what they have in common, or how they contrast. Everything in Paradox Space is deeply linked with everything else. And Hussie establishes this in our minds using nothing less than the tool sprite comics were so deeply reviled for: the “lazy” repetition of an image.

(It’s fitting that some of the most jaw-droppingly gorgeous images in Homestuck—dream bubble scenery and the like—are the result of Hussie taking things he’s made before and combining them into fantastic dreamscapes.)

But it all started with the hyperflexible, adaptable character images Hussie created at the very beginning of Homestuck.

And if you need more proof that Homestuck is a sprite comic, I think we need look no further than what Hussie, and the rest of the Homestuck community call these images.

We call them sprites.

THE FIRST GENRE-BENDERS

Was Andrew Hussie influenced by sprite comics in the development of Homestuck? It’s hard to say, but as a webcomic artist in the first decade of the 2000s, he was surely aware of them. It’s likely that he quickly realized that his quick, adaptable images served the same purposes as a sprite in a video game or a sprite comic, and chose to call them that.

One purpose I haven’t mentioned up until now: sprites lend themselves very well to animations. In fact, in their original context of video games, that’s exactly what they’re for: frames of art that can be used to show a character running, jumping, posing, moving across a screen. It’s not surprising, then, that sprite comic makers quickly saw the utility in that.

Homestuck was, in fact, not the first webcomic to make Flash animations part of its story. There were experiments with various gifs and such in other comics, but I think sprite comics were among the most successful at becoming the multi-media creations that would come to be known as hypercomics..

Take a look at this animation from Bob and George. It represents a climactic final confrontation against a long-standing villain, using special effects to make everything dramatic, but ultimately, like many a Homestuck animation, leads to kind of a pyscheout. The drama and the humor of the moment are clear, though. This relies in large part on the music—which is taken directly from the game Chrono Trigger. This makes total sense. Interestingly, it also contains voice acting, which is something Homestuck never tried—probably because it would run contrary to its ideals of pluralism. What I find fascinating is that in sprite comics, animations like these served a very similar purpose to Homestuck’s big flashes: elevating a big moment into something larger-than-life. Another good example is this sequence from Crash and Bass. Seriously, it seems like every sprite comic maker wanted to try their hand at Flash animation.

(By the way, it’s a lot harder than it looks!! I envy Hussie his vectorized sprites. Pixel art is a PAIN to work with in the already buggy program that is Flash.)

The result: because of the sprites themselves, sprite comics were among the first works to play around with the border between comics and other media in the way that would come to be thought of as quintessentially Homestuck.

What it also meant was that another genre emerged in parallel with sprite comics: the sprite animation. Frequently these would retell the story of a particular game, offer a spectacular animated battle sequence, parody the source material, or all three. Great examples include this animation for Mega Man Zero, and this frankly preposterous crossover battle sequence. Chris Niosi’s TOME also found its earliest roots as an animation series of this kind. You also found plenty of sprite-based flash games, in which players could manipulate game characters in a way that was totally outside the context of the original works.

The website the vast majority of these games and animations were hosted on?

Newgrounds, best known to Homestuck fans as the website Hussie crashed in 2011 while trying to upload Cascade.

What’s less talked about is that Hussie was friends, or at least on conversational terms with, the owner of the site, hence the idea to host his huge animation there in the first place, and other flashes, like the first Alterniabound, were initially hosted there as well.

It’s hard to believe that Hussie wasn’t at least a little familiar with the Newgrounds scene. I suspect that he largely conceived of Homestuck as part of the world of “Flash animation—” which in 2009 meant the wide variety of things that were hosted on Newgrounds, including sprite animations.

The freedom and fluidity sprite comics had to change into games and animations and back into comics again was one of their most fascinating traits. Homestuck’s commitment to media-bending needs, at this point, no introduction. But what’s less known is that sprite comics were exploring that territory first—that Homestuck, in short, is the kind of thing they wanted to grow up to be.

PUT ME IN THE GAME

I would be a fool not to mention another big thing Homestuck and sprite comics have in common: a character who is literally the author in cartoon form, running around doing goofy things and messing with the story. This was an incredibly common cliché in sprite comics, no doubt because of Bob and George, who did it early on and never looked back. You might have noticed that the animation I linked above concerns a showdown between Bob and George’s author, David Anez—depicted, delightfully, as another Mega Man recolor—and a mysterious alternate author named Helmut—who is like Mega Man plus Sepiroth I think? It’s all very strange. I could ramble for hours about the relationship between Hussie and the alt-author villains of Homestuck and what it all means, but I’m not sure I can nail anything down with certainty for these two. Maybe Bob and George was never quite that metaphysical.

But yes, bringing the author into the story in some form was already a cliché by the time Homestuck started up. Indeed, I think that’s why Hussie’s character refers to it as “a bad idea” to break the fourth wall—he’s recognizing that people will have seen this before, and are already tired of this sort of shit. And then he goes and does it anyway and makes it somehow brilliant, because he’s Andrew Hussie.

Homestuck breathes life into the cliché by taking it in a metaphysical/metafictional direction. I don’t think that was really the motivation for most sprite comic authors, though. Let’s see if we can dig a little deeper.

I think the cliché kept happening because sprite comic authors were writing about a subject that very closely concerned themselves: video games. I’m only kind of joking. The thing about video games is that even though they’re made for everyone, playing through one yourself feels like an intensely personal experience. You develop an emotional relationship to a world, to its characters, that feels distinctly your own. Now, suddenly, thanks to the magic of sprites, you have an opportunity to tell stories about that world for others to read. Of course you’re going to want to put yourself in the story in some form.

When it wasn’t author characters in sprite comics, it was OCs. You know Dr. Wily? Well here’s my own original villain, Dr. Vindictus. You know Mega Man? Here’s my new character, Super Cool Man. He hangs out with Mega Man and they beat the bad guys together. Stuff like that. Most sprite comics retold the story of a game, or multiple games in a big crossover format, with original elements added in. There was quite a lot of “Link and Sonic and Mega Man are all friends with my OC and they hang out at his house.”

What’s interesting, though, is that because these sprite comics were very aware that they were about video games, this was where they sometimes got very meta. It started with humorous observation—hey, isn’t it funny that Link goes around breaking into people’s houses and smashing their pots? But sometimes, it grew into more serious commentary. Is Mega Man trapped in a never-ending cycle, doomed to fight the same fight against the same mad scientist until the end of time? Is it worth it, being a video game hero?

Enter Homestuck. What I’ve been dancing around this whole time is:

Homestuck is a sprite comic…because Homestuck is a video game.

Or more specifically, Homestuck’s a comic about a video game called SBURB, where the lines between the game and the comic about the game blur as characters wrestle with the narratives around them, both those encoded into the game and those encoded into our expectations.

Homestuck presents the fantasy of many a sprite comic maker: I get to go on heroic quests, I get to change the world and become a god. I get to be part of the video game. And then it asks the same question certain sprite comics were beginning to ask:

Is it worth it, to be that hero?

I want to tell you about my second favorite sprite comic, a comic called Kid Radd.

Kid Radd distinguished itself from other sprite comics of the time by being a completely original production. Its sprites looked like they could be from a variety of NES and SNES-era video games, but they were all done from scratch, and the games they purported to represent were all fictional. Kid Radd used animations with original music, and sometimes interactive, clickable games, to tell its story. It also used all sorts of neat programming tricks to make it load faster on the internet of the early 2000s, which was great—unfortunately, these same techniques made it break as web technology evolved, something Homestuck fans in 2019 can definitely relate to. The good news is, fans have maintained a dedicated and reformatted archive where the comics can still be seen and downloaded.

Kid Radd’s premise is that video game characters themselves are conscious and alive—more specifically, their sprites. Sprites developed consciousness as human beings projected personality and identity onto them, remaining aware of their status as video game constructs while also seeking to be something more. The story follows the titular Kid Radd, at first in the context of his own game, commenting on the choices the player controlling him. He must endure every death, every strange decision along the way to save his girlfriend Sheena. Then the story expands into a larger context as Radd, Sheena, and many other video game characters are released onto the internet as data. They try to find their own identities and build a society for themselves, but struggle with the tendency toward violence that games have programmed into them. The story culminates in an honestly moving moment where Radd confronts the all-powerful creators of their reality—human beings.

It’s a very good comic.

The first sprite comic authors wanted to fuse real life with video games. Later sprite comic authors decided to ask: what would that really mean? Would it be painful? Would you suffer? Would you find a way to make your life meaningful all the same? Despite the limitations of sprite comics, these ideas had incredible potential, and in works like Kid Radd, they flourished.

Homestuck is heir to that legacy.

It takes the questions Kid Radd was asking, and asks them in new ways. It tries to understand, on an even deeper level, how the rules of video games shape our own minds and give us ways to understand ourselves.

At its heart, Homestuck is a sprite comic, and it might just be the greatest of them all.

EPILOGUE

I’ve seen a lot of good discussion recently on how Homestuck preserves a certain era of the internet like a time capsule: its culture, its technology, its assumptions, its memes.

I think sprite comics, too, are part of the culture that created Homestuck. Do I think Hussie spent the early 2000s recoloring Mega Man sprites? No, probably not. But what I do know is that sprite comics were part of his world. The first webcomic cartoonists came of age alongside an odd companion, the weird, overly sincere, dorky little sibling that was sprite comics. Like them or hate them, you couldn’t escape them. They were there.

And maybe a certain cartoonist saw a kind of potential in them, in the same way he summoned Sweet Bro and Hella Jeff from the depths of bad gamer culture.

Or maybe he just knew, as some sprite comic authors did, that the time was right for their kind of story.

On a personal level—Homestuck came along right when I needed it.

Around 2009, the bubble that was sprite comics finally burst. People were getting tired of them, or growing out of them, and blown-up sprites no longer looked so good on modern monitors.

I was more than a little heartbroken. I’d enjoyed Bob and George, read my fill of Mega Man generica, and fallen utterly in love with Kid Radd. I’d been working on my own sprite comic for a long time out of a sense that there was huge potential in them that we were only scratching the surface of. I’d dreamed of maybe someday doing something as amazing as the best of them did. But I was watching that world disappear. I had to admit to myself that my work wasn’t going to continue to find an audience. That I could live with. But it was painful to think that the potential I sensed, the feats of storytelling I wanted to see in the world, would never be realized.

And then, in the fall of 2010, a friend linked me to a comic that broke all the rules, that mixed animation, games, music, images and chatlogs. A comic that crafted its own sprites, just as Kid Radd did, and remixed its images into an ever-expanding web of associations and meanings. A comic that took on the idea of living inside a video game with relish and turned it into a gorgeous meditation on escaping the ideas and systems that control us.

That this comic would exist, let alone that it would succeed. That it would become one of the most popular creations of all time, that it would surpass other webcomics and break out into anime conventions and the real world, that it would become such a cultural juggernaut, to the point where it’s impossible to imagine an internet without Homestuck—

I can’t even put into words how happy that makes me. It’s the reason I’m still writing essays about Homestuck nearly eight years after I found it.

And it’s why Homestuck will always be my favorite sprite comic.

-Ari

[Notes: The image of the kids came from the ever-useful MSPA Wiki—please support and aid in their efforts to provide a good source of info about Homestuck! They need more support these days than ever.

For more on Homestuck’s place as a continuation of the zeitgeist of early 2000s experimental webcomics, this article by Sam Keeper at Storming the Ivory Tower is excellent and insightful.

Thanks for reading, y’all.]

#homestuck analysis #homestuck #homestuck's influences #hypercomics #understanding homestuck #sprite comics #internet culture

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bangtanhug · 7 years

Text

a little rant...

In the last 2 weeks I noticed many things again which about I had alredy talked but! - right now, it seems it needs to be voiced out again.

Voting

Don’t pressure your fellow ARMYs with calling them out for not voting that much and threating them with harmful comments like: You are not a true army if you don’t vote everyday, // you have no right to be happy when Bangtan win because you didn’t put in as much effort as I did ...etc

=> STOP THIS! not everyone has that much time as for example a high school kid has or doesn’t have all day available Internet connection either. Please don’t drag them down, many people already feel bad for not being able to vote or stream etc because of their circumstances. We all have different lifestyle but we love the same band who we all try to support based on our abilities and limits. Everyone is thankful for those who can put more effort to the voting or the whole supporting thing, believe me, but it’s funny how some people look down on those who can’t be on the same level as them.

=> Please be considerate, we already have too many unnecessary haters therefore we don’t need badmouthing in our own fandom - it’s toxic and unnecessary.

=> Also be always humble whenever we win. You can be happy and call Bangtan your king etc but do all of these joy without bashing on other band who lost against us. for example dont call the other fandom losers as many people did before -.-”

V LIVE

for the 100th time.... DONT ASK FOR OTHER MEMBERS WHEN ONE OF THEM HAS A SOLO VLIVE!!!!! DON’t BEG FOR THEM TO JOIN THE MEMBER WHO ACTUALLY HOSTS THE VLIVE !!!

=> please....PLEASE!!!!! I don’t know what’s so hard to understand about this but you know when a member has a solo vlive it means he wants to have a little chat with fans, probably the other members are busy or asleep which MEANS THAT ONE PERSON MADE TIME FOR US, THROWING AWAY HIS SLEEPING HOUR OR OTHER TASKS!

=> I hate repeating myself or bringing up the most painful event but...some ARMY actually made Hoseok sad and basically made him to drop his solo VLive broadcast because they were keep asking for others, so he gave the phone to Jimin and left....HE LEFT ALTHOUGH HE TURNED THE CAMER ON TO HAVE A CHAT!!

Shipping

I can’t believe that we still have to address this issue....

=> Don’t ask the members in the chat or during vlive if they are dating each other. I DON’T WANT TO SEE ANOTHER “namjiin is real?” question when Namjoon hosts ...I don’t want to see another “when do Jikook date?” when Jimin does and etc...there are many others...OR don’t send -is yoonmin real?- to reporters who ask the fandom for questions before they actually interview the band. I did a post about this before and I remembered some comments of it which I will answer here once again:

But I just want to know if they are aware of their ships?

- Yes, they are aware. They read SNS, they stalk us too also shipping two male members is not a foreign concept in Asian culture. Some companies play with this concept a lot and of course there is a reason why BL was born. -> Great, now you know that they know, please stop.

But shipping is not a bad thing!

- Yes, you’re right. Shipping isn’t a bad thing, everyone has the right to do it and have fanatasy. HOWEVER: keep it for yourself or among your friends, and even when you talk about shipping stuff online for god sake DON’T TAG BANGTAN’S TWITTER IN IT. Of course we can always argue about where is the real limit of shipping: are fanfics over the limit? is fanvideo too much? or analyzis? etc...it’s hard to decide but there is one thing which about most people agree - you don’t force your shipping imagination on real people, you don’t ask people about their sexuality straightforwardly and no, shipping questions can never be asked from the main characters ....

- Seriously tho...can you imagine yourself standing in front of Namjoon and asking him face to face if he is dating with Jin ergo is he gay or bisexual, pansexual etc???....are you for real people?!?!?!

Okay but how do you know if my ship is real or not, huh?

- Dude, I don’t know, nobody knows but honestly IT’S NOBODY’S BUSINESS... only theirs. The members dating life, sexuality, or who they sleep with are not our business. If they want to share something with us they will, but just to clarify because of the pressure of public they are careful with their personal life. Please don’t dig your nose into there - it’s out of a fan’s limit. As a fan we have boundaries and this is part of it...this whole thing! I don’t think I have to give a rant about who we call sasaengs right?

and not lastly....ship wars

=> as we all know, you can ship whoever you want (between the mentioned limits), you can call your ship the real otp, you can look at their interactions fondly etc. BUT do it without calling out the members for destroying your ship moments, do it without getting angry at other people who ships Jikook instead of Jinkook BEcause there is no point of it.

I will tell you a secret...people see whatever they want in their ship. They interpret their interactions the way they want it. You probably ship two people because their interaction seems lovely to you also probably you secretly wish to have a relationship like them - filled with funny, cute, savage etc moments. Most people secretly craves for their shipped people’ bond which is fine, as I said many many times, shipping is not a bad thing.

Here is an example for all of you. There was a bangtan bomb where Jungkook- Tae- Jimin were sitting next to each other. Taekook shippers said Kookie was jealous whenever Tae turned away from him since he poked his mouth inside with his tongue then the Vmin shippers said, Jimin had heart eyes when Tae carefully talked about his feelings of the Wings era.

=> SEE?!?!? we all interpret a situation the way we want and if you ship taekook or vmin this moment will be special to you for a reason. BUT you have to let others to decide how they want to think about this moment, how they want to remember it. You can’t call Vmin shippers stupid for believing in whatever they see because what a taekook shipper sees has the same value as the vmin has. Do you see my point?

My last point....KPOP IS NOT ABOVE YOUR REAL LIFE

I know that there are many young people in our fandom which is cool, ( hello cuties wlecom here ^^/) but I know how overwhelming your life can be. Kpop is fun, you can interact with many people, it’s a sweet escape from reality and problems, something always happens and there is no rest.

Yeah...kpop is fun but it’s not a life goal.

I know that school, university etc are boring, studying is the worst thing but you have duties to do. You have to improve to get into university or you have to learn to get a degree. You need job to feed yourself and establish your life and you have real friends too who are waiting for you to hang out.

Never ignore your exams, your deadlines because everything will pile up at a certain point and maybe in the end you will collapse under the pressure.

Try to divide your online life and real life a little bit more; don’t forget that if you miss a Vlive, Bangtan bomb or concert video that won’t equal that you are not a fan, that you don’t like the band.

Being late from celebrating a win is still okay, because there are others who are late too thanks to time zone’s differences or other duties which they had to fulfill.

Risk with care - I’m not a saint, I stayed up late night to catch Bangtan on the red carpet before because!!! I knew that I didn’t have morning class, neither exam the next day. I knew that I could have 4 hours sleep just once in a while....so yeah, sometimes we all get tempted but as I said think twice before you fall for it :)

If you can, follow a schedule: It’s hard to get rid of a bad habit so let’s take it slow - in the beginning after you wrote your homework or memorize what you have to do, reward yourself by watching something on youtube. Or do your duties first, don’t turn on your computer until you’re done and just after that come online. - it seems hard but it’s important for your future.

I know that many of you will roll your eyes, saying how stupid this is but belive me...most people who have been in kpop for decade or years they all went through the same like you...we all learnt from our mistakes and because of that we try our best to help on you, the new “generation”. I was always a good student so I didn’t struggle as much as one of my friend did but even I realized that sometimes I was too much into this world which was so far away from me.....that’s why I’m talking now, that’s why I give you the same tipps which I gave to my friend who was once really obsessed.

I hope we can live peacefully in this fandom and that we can love our boys without throwing fist at each other. Let’s not make this fandom toxic, it would be such a waste after we went through and we still have to go through.

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blazehedgehog · 7 years

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With the recent EGX demo and the reception it's got from fans and critics, do you think there's reason to worry, at least for the Switch version and, since I can't think of a way to put it nicely, has the overly defensive tone some fans taken towards critics who've played the game, or even criticized it, been just or unjust? I know Sonic has this maligned reputation with game journos, but it's not like every person who's been critical are haters looking to take Sonic down.

I think a lot of Sonic fans wear some very deep scars. Many have stuck it out through some pretty dark times, myself included. You learn to put up some pretty strong defenses. You make it easy for yourself to dismiss opinions that don’t line up with what you want of expect. “IGN never knew what they were talking about, so why trust what they have to say about Sonic?”

Plus, there’s a very weird growing distrust of games media right now. It started with Gamergate, I guess. It goes without saying, but GG was an awful hate group actively centered around misogyny (or worse), and it’s a shame how many people did not realize that immediately. But that’s the thing: GG tapped into something that was also real. It did so purely by accident; under the surface, Gamergate was nothing more than an ex-boyfriend getting revenge for being slighted by his lover, and it snowballed out of control into something some are calling the new culture wars, and we’re still feeling its effects today.

But part of the reason GG originally gained momentum in the first place is because there’s an underlying distrust of any and every major games media outlet. Kotaku sucks, Polygon sucks, Destructoid sucks, Giantbomb sucks, GameSpot sucks, IGN sucks, Game Informer sucks, CVG sucks, Famitsu sucks, EGM sucked, 1UP sucked, GamePro sucked, Gamefan sucked, PLAY Magazine sucked, GameSpy sucked. Trust no one. The truth is out there. GG connected to those people who were basically waiting for any kind of “game press injustice” to rally behind, because they essentially hated all of the industry’s biggest, most important names.

Where does that come from? I mean, I guess, at least for me, is that once these places lose my trust, it’s basically impossible for it to be regained. And every outlet, at least once in their careers, has a moment that betrays that trust. Where personal interests or even financial interests outstrip the reader’s interests. Trust is so valuable and so fragile that even a single bad editor can spoil a site forever. Even if that person gets fired, the damage they caused can haunt the site’s brand basically forever. Why would I trust IGN? Hilary Goldstein worked there. I think I disagreed with everything that man ever wrote. Why would I trust Polygon? Ben Kuchera writes for them. He said Mario Kart 8 would be the worst selling Mario Kart of all time, when it was probably the single biggest sales driver for the Wii U until Zelda came along. And so on.

This isn’t even touching stuff like Kotaku’s advertising, where they dedicate whole weeks of coverage to a single game because they are paid to do so, which always ends on a glittering review. Even if the review is written honestly, the frame around it places doubt on and hurts that honesty, which above all else should be protected first and foremost.

And I think the thing that really crystallizes all of this is that once an outlet has this happen to them, where they betray someone’s trust, they never, ever, EVER make even a single iota of effort to rebuild that trust. They move on, they bury it, and it’s just assumed that the person yelling in the comments about bias is just “another crazy fanboy.” It turns into this kind of war – the scorned fan in the comments section who obviously still likes the site enough to hang around versus the person employed by the site parroting a “never read the comments” mantra while also repeatedly insulting the very same people they’ve scorned (actually some of their most dedicated fans) just for cheap laughs.

And so the fanboy’s bitterness grows. Salt in an open wound that never really heals.

It’s turning into a serious problem. Maybe there’s no turning back now. It’s that moment in the opening scene of Pixar’s The Incredibles where (spoilers until the end of this paragraph) Mr. Incredible stops the bank robber but the kid, Buddy, gets in the way. Mr. Incredible scolds him for it, and we as the audience think, “That’s right, the kid shouldn’t be there.” Rejected by his hero, Buddy then grows up to become a super villain, channeling that bitterness into a force to kill Mr. Incredible and permanently destroy his entire culture.

“Little guys” like Videogamedunkey, with nearly 4 million Youtube subscribers, are being treated as the new voice of the people. Dunkey has actively attacked what he called “limp dick game journalists” for not doing what he thinks is their job. Dunkey makes some good points against these journalists, even if he does cross some lines, but overall, the message he’s sending is that sympathy for traditional game press has run out. And Dunkey will probably not be the last big name to launch a direct attack against these establishments. They grew up reading these outlets, got burned by some type of distrust, and were constantly told their feelings of betrayal didn’t matter. And now, as these big establishments begin to show signs of weakness in the face of individuals on Youtube, guys like Dunkey are throwing all of that stored up bitterness right back in their faces. As it turns out, not every betrayed fan in the comments section will remain a faceless raging nobody forever. You might not be reading the comments section, but the comments section reads you.

Anyway, getting back to your original message, do I think some people are going overboard with their Sonic Forces hatred? Maybe. Also tying back into what I was just talking about, there is a tendency on the internet to go overboard. With so many voices speaking in unison, in order to be heard, you have to speak REALLY loudly. It’s not enough to simply communicate with friends, some people are competing for reblogs, retweets, likes, thumbs and favs. The loudest, rudest fan is just trying to be heard above the background noise. That’s why you’ve seen this trend, time and time again, where a person will meet their biggest internet heckler in person and they turn out to be nothing. Some of them just want to be acknowledged. So yeah, there are definitely people out there trying to be as loud as possible, hoping somebody will listen to them.

But here’s the deal: I’m not one of those people, and I think there’s a lot about Sonic Forces that’s worrying. As worrying if not more than Sonic Lost World was. It definitely doesn’t look like the successor to Sonic Generations people were hoping for. From what they’ve shown us, I think this looks pretty blatantly like another game where Sonic Team is flying blind and hoping they can stick the landing. I don’t blame anyone who thinks they won’t.

#questions #sonic the hedgehog #sega #sonic team #game journalism #gamergate #dunkey #videogamedunkey #youtube #kotaku #polygon #Anonymous

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non-tintedglasses · 7 years

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1st lesson of 2018: It’s (Clout over Basic Decency) Everyday, Bro

CONTENT/TRIGGER WARNING: MENTIONS OF SUICIDE, DEATH & MENTAL HEALTH

For those who have no idea about who this generic American high school jock-looking guy is, the guy above is Logan Paul, an American Youtuber and “actor” notorious for having a obnoxious personality, an even more annoying brother and an equally brainwashed “Logang” consisting of children and pre-teens.

On the 31st December 2017, he uploaded a vlog where him and his friends went to the Aokigahara forest of Japan (also known as the Suicide Forest) and filmed their “spooky adventure”. During this 15 minute vlog, he stumbles upon a dead body hanging from a tree, films it up close, focusing on certain bits of the corpse & make jokes on it, and uploads it to YouTube for millions of underaged fans to see. In other words, he had no consideration for the culture & laws of the country he was visiting, nor for those who could potentially have flashbacks or suicidal thoughts from this video, and certainly not even for the dead. As expected, this has garnered a ton of backlash from Japanese & non Japanese people alike, especially those from the YouTube & mental health community and suicide/self-harm survivors or those who have lost someone to suicide. This lead to Paul issuing two apologies on Twitter and YouTube, which seemed incredibly insincere to many. After all, if you have to issue a second apology because you mentioned how you get views & film for 460+ days more than the word “Sorry” and end it with “Peace ✌️ #logang4life”, you bet no-one is going to take your second one that seriously.

However, what was more harrowing than his actions, were his fanbase that were defending those actions. I can’t blame them, they’re children & they don’t know better. However, despite the fact that their idol told them specifically in his second apology not to defend his actions, they completely ignore that very statement & go on to post many bizarre reasons as to why people should “just let it go” and why they shall forever stan Logan. They even go on to spread xenophobic hate on people who criticise him (case in example, Reina Scully). Some examples of things I’ve seen in this video is “He’s human like the rest of us. Everybody makes mistakes”, “Can we stop all of the hate, it’s a new year!!”, “It’s not like he killed someone” and even someone saying “That dead body should be lucky that he appeared in Logan Paul’s video” Little do they know, they are completely belittling the fact that a person, who seemed like he was stuck in his completely dark and abysmal mind, took his life, and how his loved ones now have to deal with the repercussions of bereavement and loss; and that another person saw that as an opportunity for exploitation & a joke. They make death seem like a joke, just like their idol did. Which is why I have a few points to address:

Dear #Logang or Logangsters or whatever the hell you’re called,

I understand personally what it’s like to be infatuated with a celebrity. I get a certain light, happy feeling whenever I see my favourite celebrity & I think to myself “Yeah, this person is literally gold!” You also probably get this feeling on a frequent basis whenever you see Logan. I also understand that being part of a fandom makes you feel a sense of belonging & unity. But ask yourselves this. What drew you to this guy? Why do you enjoy his videos?

Is it because he’s attractive? (which in that case, they’re plenty more fish in the sea) Is it because he’s a “maverick” and “living life to the fullest”? Is it because he “appreciates” his fans and the people around him?

The reason why I ask you this is because I really want you to consider his actions. See, whenever you are obsessed with a celebrity, it’s easy to throw moral compass out of the window; it’s easy to forget what’s right and what’s wrong. However, you cannot deny the fact that it is common sense to not film a dead body and to make jokes about it, irrespective of what your coping mechanism is. Even if you have a tiny lapse of judgement, people would have the sensibility not to edit that footage and upload it with a clickbait title for your cult of 15 million children to see. It’s also common sense to not run around a foreign country, disturb its people and nature & treat it as if it’s your playground. I cannot, for the life of me, understand how you find disrespect funny? As far as “living life” is concerned, I’m pretty happy sitting down and leading a calm “boring” life rather than be an obnoxious inconvenience to those surrounding me.

“But.. he’s human?? Haven’t we all done mistakes?” Let me educate you on what a mistake is. It’s stepping on the back on someone’s shoe whilst walking (I should know about that). It’s occasionally forgetting the odd birthday. It’s accidentally spilling something; in other words, something small & occasionally forgiven. However, being disrespected, even after your death, is something the majority of people can’t tolerate. On top of that, he’s a 22 year old, fully developed adult who has the ability to differentiate right from wrong; He isn’t a kid who needs people to constantly educate him on social etiquette and sensibility. He saw an insensitive bait for views, he took it, he screwed up, and now he needs to be held accountable.

“He just wanted to raise awareness about suicide. Doesn’t that make him good?” This video had the same impact as “13 Reasons Why”. The complete opposite. There are several other ways to raise awareness about suicide, other than going all the way to a suicide forest to exploit someone’s death for views; Sitting down & thoroughly explaining why mental health should be a top priority, explaining the effects of going through suicidal thoughts, self-harm & mental illnesses, and providing resources & helplines to help those who are distraught is more convenient, correct and cheaper (but why do that when you’re an obnoxious brat with a couple of thousands of dollars & yes men to spare?)

“I’ve forgiven him. At least he’s said sorry” Please, spare me the naivety. To be frank, his apologies (if you would like to call it that) is the equivalent of saying sorry after shooting someone in the leg. If this guy wasn’t a celebrity & if this didn’t get the backlash it received, he would have slithered away in his anonymity. Another reason why he’s apologising is because he wants to salvage the tiny amount of respect that he has so that he can guilt-trip you into liking him again. One of my favourite YouTubers, Nathan Zed, once said in a video that “You have a choice. Entertain & educate, or entertain & manipulate” It doesn’t take a donkey to realise that Logan is doing the latter. As one tweet rightfully put it, he views you the same way as he sees that dead body: as a way to earn money. Please listen to yourself.

Even to the parents of these children, you have an equal responsibility of monitoring your child’s internet access. In fact, you have a larger responsibility of monitoring what content your child sees, since YouTube are failing to fulfil that very responsibility (with many examples of inappropriate content related to child exploitation on the YouTube kids app not being taken down). I’m not a parent myself, hence I have zero rights to talk about parenting, but all I know is that if my younger loved ones were watching these kind of people that encourage them to forget all human etiquette & join their “cult”, I would tell them to think about the consequences that their actions could face. And possibly break their device & delete their accounts while I’m at it.

You may choose to ignore my advice (after all, it’s mostly a free world and you can choose whatever you want to do). You can “dab” on me like I’m a hater. But when you choose to condone the actions of a celebrity who self-admittedly screwed up royally, and when you look back at this ten or fifteen years later, you would probably think “What the hell was I thinking?” If you think about it, for one person who spouts blatant and shameless ignorance about such sensitive issues, there would be another person who would be thinking that their death would bring nothing but a sigh of relief to those around them and choose to leave. I hope and pray for nothing but that you educate yourselves and become more aware of the effects of depression and suicide. Because as far as I know, if we take out the time to listen and empathise with those who are suffering with such illnesses and lend them a hand, I swear that you could give someone a reason to smile and to live (and to possibly do something Logan Paul couldn’t do, even if he tried). And if this is the generation we could become, then would raise my head high and be proud to be part of this.

Last but not the least, to those who are surviving these dark moments. Please get yourselves the help that you need (I will be reblogging some hotlines, websites and resources as soon as I upload this). I, along with all of the people of this world, have no idea how tomorrow would turn out, but the only way you could know is by being there. And regardless of how tomorrow turns out, I would certainly welcome you with open arms and stand by you.

PS: By the time this post comes out, you would have probably found out that Youtube has severed certain ties with Logan Paul. But considering that him and his brother are still trying to gain sympathy (and subscribers), his head won’t be coming out of his arse any time soon. So please still think about who and what you’re watching.

#logan paul #aokigahara #tw depression #youtube #tw suicide

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mrfirefoxgym · 7 years

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Another glimpse of hell - mean (and some not-so-mean) nicknames on the Chinese gymternet TAKE 2.

DISCLAIMER:

1. Do not read this if you are easily offended by mean names, satirical jokes or dark humour.

2. The Chinese gymternet culture, and its internet culture as a whole, is very different from the ones on tumblr. Partly due to its insularity, certain terms used in the Chinese gymternet could come across to you as too rude or brass or unacceptable. However, please also take into account the difference in the cultural aspect as well. As a common dweller in the Chinese gymternet community, I can promise that 95% of the satirical teasings or mean names created by the Chinese has no derogatory intention. The truly degrading, racist or sexist nicknames have also been filtered out by me, so rest assured.

So now, if you are ready, please read on:

——————————————–The line to hell——————————————-

A. Foundation Course Chapter 2

1. 美x~; Pretty x~; adj.

Right. So you call someone a pretty something. But it also could mean “pretty” aka fugly something. No one knows if you are genuine about it, and so after awhile the expression took on a warped connotation. Both fans and haters use it. Decipher its true meaning before replying anyone on the forum!

E.g. Pretty ___ fell two times on beam today, made my day!

2. 水x~；Watery x~; adj.

In Chinese terms, if you “inject water” into something, you will make it less substantial, less genuine, less real and less deserving. So if someone are “watery”, people are inferring that she or he is overscored and undeserving of his credentials. Some fans nonetheless use it on their beloved ones as friendly teasing or a show of humility.

3. xoP - noun.

So the official rules of artistic gymnastics are written in the Code of Point (CoP). Some fans, however, like to invent their own rules (or twisting the meaning of existing rules) on judging a routine. As such, people would say that so-and-so have invented their own xOP to judge routines. One particular notorious member in the Chinese gymternet community has the ID lldtt06, and hence whatever he says, people will reply:

“Oh wow Mdm6 is judging routines based on his 6oP again!”.

(some famous rules of 6oP include - there should be deduction whenever one does shap to pak because its so “trite”, and many others lmao)

4. 烟花 - fireworks - noun.

Used to describe gymnasts who just can’t finish a routine without falling. The Chinese gymternet sometimes use the term “explode” to describe routines with falls (e.g. Seda’s beam exploded again!). So for those who routinely fall in their routine, they are called fireworks. Also used to describe routines that fail spectacularly.

e.g. “The beam routines of Seda are one hell of a firework performance, simply stellar - I’m in awe!”

———————————————————————————————————–

B. Country related mean terms: (used only to describe radical fans)

HOW DO PEOPLE CALL TEAM AMERICA?

池塘 - pond - noun.

Many think that certain American gymnasts are overscored. A pond has lots of water. Now look at the second bullet point in the foundation chapter - Do you get it now?

HOW DO PEOPLE CALL THE (RADICAL) FANS OF TEAM AMERICA?

蝌蚪 - tadpole - noun.

Originally used to mock Liukin’s fans because Liukin’s nickname is froggy (if you remember from my last post!), the term has been expanded to embody all die-hard/radical American fans.

莲子 - lotus seed - noun.

You know, lotus grows from pond and produces lotus seed. Yep.

HOW DO PEOPLE CALL THE (RADICAL) FANS OF TEAM RUSSIA?

鹅粪 - Goose poo - noun.

A pun of 俄粉, or Rus Fans. This term though has been picked up by Russian fans themselves as self-teasing, so its no longer a mean nickname…kind of.

Ruslut - noun.

Only the meanest Russian haters use this. Most people who use this are radical American fans so Russian fans often retaliate by calling them Uslut back.

HOW DO PEOPLE CALL THE (RADICAL) FANS OF TEAM ROMANIA?

火葬粉/火苗 - Cremnator/Little flames (Though I think kindling is a better translation, meaning wise)

So in my last episode I talked about this Bulimar set a cremation spell on Team Romania thing, so I guess it isn’t surprising that its die-hard fans are being called “flames/kindlings”?

HOW DO PEOPLE CALL THE (RADICAL) FANS OF TEAM CHINA?

好粉丝/宙国粉 - “Great” fans, Fans of team universe

I’ve talked about this last time so just revision here lol.

———————————————————————————————————–

C. Gymnasts related nicknames (some are not mean at all because I run out of mean nicknames lmao)

1. Daria Spiridonova - 累女士 - Mdm Tiresome

Back in 2014 when Spi first proved her worth Chinese fans had been calling her “the new love”, which is a proof of her popularity back then. Then in 2016 the sentiment took a turn for the worse as people realized that while she can only do bars (and that her bars isn’t even the best in the team), she kept getting selected over others (like Kapitonova and Skrypnik, at least in 2016) even in team competitions. So people started saying things like “Isn’t that super tiring for her teammate coz she can only do one event and will explode on all others”. Eventually people started to call her Mdm Tiresome - someone who drains the shit out of her teammate.

2. Brenna Dowell - 嘟嘟鸡 - Dodo Chicken

Dowell’s nickname is just realllllllly unfortunate lol, because its not her fault at all. So basically a forum member named lldt06 (inventor of 6oP, remember?) is a superrrrrrr radical fan of hers and kept saying things like “she deserve a WC bars gold”, “BEST bar composition in the worlddddddd”, “excellent AAer”, which have some truth in them but are still boosty nonetheless and didn’t sit well with many. So in 2015 when Dowell did badly for bars in Worlds many people were like “WHERES THE WORLD CHAMPION? I ONLY SEE A DODO CHICKEN.” and bamm the nickname stayed. Tbh the term dodo chicken doesn’t mean anything in Chinese. I think its the combination between the first syllable of her last name and Wild Chicken, the term for newbies/noobs as explained in my last post.

3. Lin Li - 慌姐 - Sister Panic

So Lin Li is a member of China’s National Team in the 2004 squad. She is actually amazing on bars but just doesn’t have the mental tenacity to do well in major competition. She always seems to be rushing through her routines which lead to mistakes after mistakes, so after a while ppl just called Sister Panic for short.

4. The pines of 4 season 春松，夏松，秋松，冬松

So like Chunsong’s literal translation is Spring Pine, and so 3 other gymnasts were bestowed the nickname of Summer Pine, Autumn Pine and Winter Pine respectively lmao. These are NOT mean nicknames.

So Autumn Pine was first to be invented and she is Flavia Saraiva. People started to call her Autumn Pine ever since 2014′s YOG because of how tiny she was - just like Chunsong. They are also great on beam as well and competed in the same beam finals before. At the same time though she is also different from Chunsong in many way so people called her Autumn Pine to highlight the similarity and contrast.

Then not long after that people discovered Morgan Hurd and they were like “oh my! isn’t she like a clone of Chunsong?”, so people started to call her Xiasong, or Summer Pine.

Lastly is the winter pine. People actually couldn’t find a good fit for it for a long time but they also felt it’s incomplete without a winter pine. Then one day someone posted this photo of a young Melnikova (the same photo as below) and people were like “WINTER PINE IS SUPPOSED TO BE FAIR AND LIGHT COZ ITS WINTER, SHE LOOKS ABITTTT LIKE CHUNSONG, MELNIKOVA WILL BE WINTER PINE”. And that’s it LMAO. Personally I don’t find Melnikova to resemble Chunsong, but whatever lol everything is cool as long as we have the four pines.

5. The Zoo (Russia’s WC team 2010) (Not mean)

Most members of Russia’s 2010 WAG team at the Worlds have animal related nicknames. The nicknames started off as mean nicknames as they are donned by Russian haters that “Russian team is like a zoo”, but eventually even the fans themselves began calling the team #TeamZoo, so they are no longer mean anymore.

Mustafina - 母狮 - lioness - Phonic translation

Dementyeva - 德猴 - Monkey - Because she’s kinda goofy like a monkey lol

Nabieva - 河马 - Hippo - Because she must have an animal related nickname as Mus has one and people found her to resemble a hippo somehow lmao

Afanasyeva - 鳄鱼 - Crocodile - She was fierce as a crocodile on floor and I think some of her facial features (being fierce and glaring and all) reminds some like a crocodile.

BUT HERE IS THE MEAN BUT ALSO NOT SO MEAN PART

Semenyeva is STRIPPED of a animal related nickname because Russian haters didn’t hate her enough to don her a nickname LMAO. She was listed as a RESERVE FOR NICKNAME. Until now she doesn’t have an animal related nickname and its so fortunate and sad at the same time.

Now I hope that you have enjoyed reading this second episode lmao, I think I’m really running out of nicknames so there shouldn’t be an 3rd episode sadly…. Still, hope it has made you laugh!

#gymnastics #savage stuff

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hardblazesong · 7 years

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The time has come Shipsters to write a lengthy post. So here it is.

I am busting out the Marlboro Southern Cuts for this, so, be prepared for a lengthy ramble through my mind. First, some introductory notes for those of you who have not DM’d me.

I am a 53 year old Bisexual Female. This is only relevant to comments later in the post or I likely would not be sharing it on this blog. I am also a Disabled Veteran, and while that is not relevant to anything further, I am proud of it, and it does explain the inordinate amount of time I have on my hands to write these kind of things.

I am retired from a lifetime of work in multiple jobs, including ten years of Consulting on Business and Technology. I have been a student of human nature for most of my life. I am, in Jungian terms, an Introvert/Extrovert. Having been an actor, stage manager, costumer and director, who comes from a family of actors, I feel I can comment on that as well. I also am a writer. I am a bit rusty on this type of writing however, so, forgive me if it creaks along. I do hope you, if you read this whole piece, bless you, understand that it is off the cuff and not really intended for critique as to style or content, It is meant to just put my thoughts out there.

Now, to the reason for the post. I want to address the clusterfuck that this fandom is, the ways I would address some of the issues and my overall feelings about S/C the ship, shipping in general and the nature of actors. So, with those hats listed above on, here we go....

This fandom is toxic. There is no turning back from what has happened. There will never be a happy place for everyone again, if there ever really was. This is the reality of the Social Media age. This is the brutal truth of everything posted lives forever. This is the ugliest fandom I have ever seen. That is remarkable in that I have been around a very long time, fanning many different things and people. I have been active on the internet for twenty years, so that is really a dreadful label to put on a group of people, but believe me, we have earned it. Congratulations Outlander fans, you lose the fandom award for “best fans ever”.

How did this happen? Well, factions mostly, with supplied fuckery, insecure actors, incompetent handlers, nearly archaic business models, and ridiculous sums of money thrown in, just to rile up the masses. Never for a moment forget about that filthy lucre, because you better believe it IS the be all and end all of Hollywood. Oh, and if you believe that there is an actor on this planet who doesn’t want to be famous or is a true introvert, I weep for you naivete and wish you nothing but the best holding on to it.

Let’s break down the factions for a bit just to clear that from the table. F1, F2, F3 seems to be the easiest way to do this.

F1-the book readers who fanned and discussed long before anyone else came along. Subsets include: Diana worshippers, Diana tolerators, Diana haters, Diana imitators, Diana should haves, Diana could haves, Diana wills, Diana won’ts and finally my favorites: Actually write better then Dianas.

F2-the show onlies who came along starting with the production/casting news and stayed or left based on the show alone. Subsets include: Love the shows, Hate the shows, Love the show and anything associateds, Hate the show but love the casts, sorta like the shows, sorta like the actors, sorta want to stick arounds even though Starz is ridiculous, hate RDMers, etc...really too many to list.

F3-the all important bothies group. I could spent countless hours naming the subsets here and putting them up on a white board and drawing connections but here is where the money is folks. These are the people that bought over 25 million books, that spend their money on cable, that support in multiple ways, charities, conventions, memorabilia, various social media streams of income. Here is where the vast majority of Shippers, Antis, and Neutrals live. Here is the group most assuredly taken advantage of in any way possible. This is the group that gets pushed or pulled to suit the needs of Big Business. Most people in this group are normal, everyday type of people who willingly go along with whatever occurs because their needs, while oftentimes delayed, eventually get met in some fashion and so the money keeps rolling in.

F4-Trolls and the associated disenfranchised or purchased for profit motives or hopelessly ill or hopelessly deluded. Not really a money stream to be depended upon, but definitely a SM presence and a useful tool in a multitude of ways. Flames that burn high enough draw attention. They keep the conversation going when nothing else will. Throw them a bone now and again to get them salivating and watch that fandom jump. Most of the incompetent advisors and handlers really don’t understand this group because insanity is hard to control but they will also throw scraps when necessary.

Is it any wonder that this fandom was fractured from the start? This doesn’t begin to cover what went on, it’s just a base for the pyramid. The next level contains the subsets that formed their own associations. some fluid between Fs. Here we really see the SamOnlies, the CaitOnlies, the Mommies, the Fandom Police, the Deniers, the Enablers, the Accusers, the Peacemakers. The rapidly festering illness that is taking hold floats all around. Sadly the vast majority of these people are women who ought to know better, but for an incalculable amount of reasons don’t. Some of these people are just finding their feet on SM and love the perceived power inherent in that and so are letting the better angels of their natures take a backseat to the demons that niggle away at them, and some of them are just stupid, ignorant, attention seekers.

On to the heart of the matter. Sam and Cait. Actors with philanthropic tendencies. Generally thought of as good people, good actors, and if nothing else, the very best of friends. Oh that it were that simple, that pure or that classy. No it’s not. Nothing ever really is. I admire the kindheartedness of many who believe it to be so, but don’t respect the sellers of the blinders needed to buy what is being sold.

Actors Act. That is their job, likely their greatest passion and deepest need. Sure they are capable of great loves, great intentions, good deeds and all the other things that make life worth living. They also are liars, by the very nature of what they do. Lying too harsh a word? Sorry, but pretend is too childlike for those with any real talent. Liars are telling you a story, hoping to sell it to you with their actions and their emotions. Perhaps it’s a little white lie or a whopper, but it is a fabrication, an untruth, a show. Through study, practice, hard work, with luck, perhaps talent, and timing, they are able to make you believe the lie, for generally however long it takes for the show to go on. Actors who live their lives in this culture we have now, generally never completely let their guard down in any public way. They are always “in character” in one way or another. The deep rooted insecurities of the profession, the people involved in extraneous ways and their own substantial egos won’t let them truly present themselves as the human beings they are. Many a fine actor has descended into madness, addiction, death, because they can’t turn it off, never knew how or don’t want to. There are many perks, but just as many pressures and some were just not built for the strain. Now add in that fame factor, the money monster and aging. Time and Fame are fleeting. Recognition for ones work is nice, but the money is the icing on the cake. Hell, it’s probably 2/3rds of the cake too if I am being honest. Yes, they are artists, but honestly do you think any artist sets out to stay poor and struggling? Have you ever been poor? I have. It sucks.

Along comes Outlander and two “relative unknowns”. That is a bit disingenuous because they were both actively working prior to the show, but it has that lovely “a star is born” quality to it, and most are a sucker for that. So, TPTB were happy to sell that. Sam and Cait were surely on board for that meeting. Hey kids, we are gonna put on a show and oh by the way, you two are so pretty and cute with each other, work that into the “we are so happy and humble and our fans are the greatest act” would you? Then that oft spoke of chemistry became apparent to all and sundry before the show even aired. Oh my, a goldmine in the making. It certainly didn’t hurt anything that the affection between them likely was genuine and they really were flummoxed by the attention they attained so quickly. No one but the two of them really understands what it was like for them to be in that bubble together, at nearly the same age and stage of their careers. If they hadn’t leaned on each other, hadn’t formed a relationship of some kind, hadn’t sold said relationship at every opportunity and manipulated it for whatever reason they do, we wouldn’t be having this discussion. So mostly, kudos to them for a job well done, on multiple fronts, but it has not been perfect by any stretch of the imagination.

Sam, I have often speculated on his sexuality, without judgement, needed to be presented as a single, heterosexual man. Wasn’t so important that Cait be sold as a single, heterosexual woman. It actually enhances the fanbase if she can be sold as a possible bisexual. It’s not like we are saying that the vast majority of the fanbase are conservative Christians. Sex sells, go with the most profitable options. Let the Sam is gay rumors float around without addressing them. Any attractive male actor is going to get tagged that way, and it will draw a certain segment. Let the paps and fans throw some girls into the mix. No one threatening to the budding are they or aren’t they crowd though. No Cait clones. Sam you like blondes? OK. No one above D level status either, or it could distract the fans too much. Cait? Do whatever you like but keep it on the very downlow. We already have to sell you in the show as a woman in love with two men. We don’t want you looking desperate in any way. Perhaps a long term low key thing will work to keep the rumor mill in check. Maybe not, but it’s worth a shot. OK kids, let put on a show and the money will eventually flow. Oh, by the way, could the two of you roll out your charity endeavors as well? We know you both support things in real life, so be sure to let that be known. Do try not to be too political, what with the world as it is an all, but don’t be ostriches either. Oh, and sorry but PR says you have to sign these non disclosure contracts as well, and just so you know, there really is a morality clause but we don’t spell it out too clearly because that is what lawyers and loopholes are for.

Then we got the show, and low and behold, a hit. That goldmine sure is bigger then any of us hoped for here at Starz/Lionsgate/Tallship/ etc...These fans are so nice, they bring things, they say nice things on SM, they send things and most of them love the adaptation and isn’t funny how much they like us together offscreen? Wow, guess we should keep on selling that too. What’s that you say? Some are panicky that we may be too close? Why? Oh, they think if we become a couple that we will eventually break up and ruin the show or something. Can’t have that, then the money will stop. What should be done? Nothing? Carry on as before? Ambiguity is best? Alrighty. Can I throw a bone to the shippers we have acquired along the way? But what about the ones who don’t like us as a couple? Jeebus it’s getting harder to navigate these waters, why didn’t anyone prepare us for this part of it? What do you mean you just have to live it? Is that part of the contracts? oh.

Time for the intervention of the Troll Brigade, always lurking, but finally ready to find a way to break into the discussion. Mistakes were made here, not of epic proportions but enough that things began to crack around the edges. Threats were made, feelings were hurt, fans ran away, friends side eyed, Most importantly fingers began to be pointed. Advisors began to whisper in ears. Which group could likely take being battered the best to deflect attention from anything not fitting the needs of TPTB? Well, like all shows and fandoms, we have this pretty vocal shipper group. Nothing really wrong with shippers, they certainly like to promote, chatter and fangirl. Mostly harmless, although like any group of a like size, there will be some unstable ones. There is also a group of fairly rabid antis to consider. The neutrals can’t really be bothered to take the heat and would likely just walk away then take abuse. So, shippers it is then. Sorry ladies, but the writing was on the wall from before last summer that some group would have to be sacrificed for the perceived greater good.

It all went down hill from there. It hasn’t hit bottom yet. What can be done now to retain them or swap them to the neutral camp? You are seeing it unfold. Does this mean shipping S/C is dead? Of course not. Just backed into a corner, where hopefully, they will still fangirl, discuss, and spend money. Anytime they need more discussion or pap press or SM flare ups you can bet Shippers will be addressed in some manner. Too much money has come from them to let them go entirely no matter how Sam and Cait actually feel about them. They are a natural part of fandom, there will never be a time when they are gone completely. TPTB are counting on that. Only that F4 crowd really want them gone.

Yes, I still count myself among the shippers. No, I don’t care if they have SOs or if their sexulaties preclude them being an actual couple. Yes, I will watch S3 at least. No, I don’t think it will go beyond S4, the material is not strong enough. Yes, I like passages of books after S3, but not the whole books. I am in F3. I have never harassed anyone about S/C, never commented on MM’s stuff, don’t follow her, am not a fan of hers, and frankly do not care whether or not Sam is dating her. It is not my job to be her fan, promote her or protect her. Nor is it my job to worship Sam and Cait, support them or protect them. I am not here for that. I do believe that there are some very talented, genuinely funny, and awesome women in the Shippers lane. I don’t pay attention to the antis, nor do I comment on their antics to them on Twitter. I do discuss them here, but only in a general way. I find the neutrals to be just that and respect they don’t want to get involved in flame wars. I have actually been saddened by the descent of Shitner, couldn’t care less about Camuso, and they, Purv and BG will face their own Karma. Not my circus, not my monkeys.

Sam and Cait will fan the flames themselves now, no matter what they do. Until the time comes when they move on from the show, they are in a no win situation as far as some faction of the fandom goes. They likely don’t care. They are getting paid no matter what happens. If one of them cracks, my money is on Sam, he has charm and talent to spare, he will likely recovery in some fashion. He has MPC to pay him if he keeps that going. That’s right, not all the funding goes to charity, remember that. They will both getting acting gigs following Outlander. Life will go on. Much love to you Shipster Sisters, carry on.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zoXLKgX0MgU

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5hfanfiction · 8 years

Text

Too Close To Home - Chapter 16

Camila Cabello Had A One-Night-Stand With A Girl

A very surprising photo of singer Camila Cabello surfaced the internet today. This morning, a girl named Alycia Debnam posted a rather explicit photo (picture below) of the not-so-innocent Cuban-Mexican singer.

The girls were seen with a random girl whom we recognized as Alycia going out of a club late last night. There were also snaps of them in the club in Dinah's snapchat.

The photo was trending through every social medias and luckily, we managed to contact the woman who took the picture just a few hours ago.

“Yesterday, I was out at this club that just opened. That was the time I saw Camila [Cabello]. She was drunk and dancing in the middle of the dance floor. At first, I didn't remember how I knew her but something pulled me to her." She said.

"She looked at me invitingly and we danced through the night. She eventually brought me to her friends (current members of Fifth Harmony and Lauren's fiancé). That was when I realized who she was. But I didn't really fangirled then. We all played games and drank. It was fine and everything but at one point, Lauren [Jauregui] and Camila got quite moody.”

“It wasn't because of anything. I don't think they're not in bad terms. Actually, they seem quite close. Lauren seem to look at her [Camila] a lot." She said when we asked if the girls hated each other.

"For the short time I've been with Camila, she never once mentioned Lauren or anything that says that she was or is romantically involved with her. But what the hell do I know?”

So there you have it, Camilizers and Harmonizers.

We all know that the girls have been close this past year. With Camila birthday celebration and the outing they had last month. But how do you guys feel about the cute reunion? How about Camren, do you think they happened at one point? And more importantly, how's your reaction about Camila's picture? Was it surprising? Do you think she's gay, bi or just having fun? Comment your opinions below.

I scowl as I finish reading the article. Drama just keeps on coming to me. I don’t get it. What’s so interesting about a girl having fun? Everyone has sex once in a while.

The management would be so pissed. For years since I was in Fifth Harmony, they seem to push me towards the straight, pure and innocent girl but the photo just killed two birds with one stone.

The management knows about my sexuality. I actually told them right after I left Fifth Harmony, hoping that I was free enough to open up to the public. Unfortunately, they thought that I would get a wider audience if I stay in the closet for a few more years. I didn’t know anything then so I thought that they know better so I just complied.

But after more than a year staying in that claustrophobic closet, I felt the need to come out. So even if I’m quite sad that I got outed like that, deep inside, Im sort of happy that it’s out there. People know now.

But again, that wasn’t ideal. Who wants their naked picture on the internet for everyone to see? I’m just glad that she had the decency to at least not take a picture of my private parts.

How would my management react? They’re gonna be so mad. Would they fire me? Is that possible?

I start panicking at that thought. I’ve come so far, only to be demolished by a meaningless one-night stand. Oh My God. Are people going to label me as a slut now? Haters are pretty simple minded and I’m sure they would think that. I’m sure they would think that I do that often, only to be caught now. But I’ve never done that before.

Alycia is honestly the second person I’ve ever had sex with. The first being Lauren. I was just so frustrated and so dry from 2 years that I thought that it was a good idea. Basically, I was driven by desire and lust. Is that why people say that you can’t make decisions according to desire? Is this my backlash for not listening to Lauren? Is this my karma? Is karma even a thing?

I start panicking more now. My eyes are blurry from the tears that seems to pour out when I was thinking. My breathing is hectic and shaky. I grab my phone and luckily, I know where the contact app are and clicked at the first option I could find.

Of course, the universe being a usual bitch, Lauren came through the line.

“Hello?” She asks. She is seriously the last person I wanna call. I’m kind of embarrassed because I didn’t listen to her. I thought that she was only thinking about her own feelings, that’s another factor that pushed me to sleep with Alycia. But now that what she warned me is actually happening, I can’t help but feel ashamed.

“Camz?” She repeats since I haven’t answered her, “Are you okay? You’re breathing really loudly.”

“I-I’m fi-ne,” I croak out, even if it wasn’t as convincing as I hoped it would be.

“What happened?” She asks.

Again, I didn’t reply. I was too busy thinking about how to end the call before it becomes obvious that I’m panicking.

“Camz?? What’s happening? You’re scaring me.”

I take a deep breathe, trying to compose myself but failing miserably since she asks, “Are you having a panic attack? I’m coming to your room.”

“Do-ont, I’m oka-y.”

“Too late.”

A knock comes a few moments later, indicating that she’s here already so I can’t really do anything but open it.

After a minute attempting to open the door with my shaky hand, I succeeded and Lauren immediately barge into the room.

“Camz.. are you okay?”

I just look at her with my blurry eyes and she knows what’s happening. She wraps her arms around my, releasing endorphins into my body, immediately making me calmer. She then led me to the couch, still wrapping her arms around me while we sit.

After what took about 15 minutes, my breathing finally becomes normal, she releases her hold and lean back.

She takes her phone out and punch a few numbers. She brings her phone to her ear while still holding me with her other arm.

“Hey Dinah… Yeah I know… I can’t come today… I’ll go tomorrow… I’m sorry… It’s just that this is more important… I’ll record it tomorrow… Can you tell the producers I’m sorry… Yeah, thanks.”

And with that, she puts her phone back to her back pocket and continues putting her energy on trying to calm me.

“I’m sorry,” I mutter.

“What? Why?”

“I’m sorry I called you. I’m sure you would’ve preferred doing anything else than this. I’m also sorry that I didn’t listen to you when you warned me about her. If I listened, this wouldn’t have happened.”

“What happened?”

“You haven’t checked your social media?” I ask.

“No?”

“Well, long story short, the girl I hooked up with took a picture of me whilst I was asleep and posted them so now, everyone knows I hooked with a girl.”

“Damn… Was that why you had a panic attack? The fact that you got outed?”

“I mean, honestly, I don’t mind that part.. It wasn’t how I pictured it but it was long overdue. I just don’t know how the management will react. I have a feeling that they’re gonna call me for a meeting or something soon.”

“Well, you know what?” She asks rhetorically, reaching out to take my phone from the coffee table, shutting it off before putting it back, “today’s your last day before you have to go back on the road, they can’t take that away from you. So what do you wanna do today?”

“I was planning on having a lazy day before performing tomorrow.”

“Then we’ll do just that,” she responds, leaning against the couch, turning on the TV in front of us with the remote.

“Wait.. You’re staying?”

“Yeah? Why not?”

“I-” I start, “nevermind.”

She lets it go and just watches the TV. We fell into a comfortable silence. I don’t know what happened but at one point, our shoulders touch, causing warmth to spread through my body. The simplest touch could do this to me, imagine if we were kissing.

We spent about an hour staring at the TV, barely talking. But I wasn’t even watching the show, I was busy side-eyeing Lauren’s profile subtly.

“You know, staring is deemed rude in some culture..” she says at one point, still watching whatever’s in front of her.

“Sorry.”

“Don’t be sorry. I was just joking. Actually, please stare some more, it’s actually boosting my self-esteem,” she jokingly says as she turns her head to me.

“Jerk..” I say, causing her to laugh loudly.

Her laugh dies down after a minute. We just sat there, looking at each other. The mood shifts suddenly when she asks, “did you remember what happened yesterday?”

“Barely.. I drank a tad bit much.”

“Uhh, well.. Do you remember when we played Truth or Dare?”

I crack my head open, trying to recall everything that happened. Luckily, I begin to remember chronologically instead of those typical flashes of scattered memory that just makes people’s head spin some more. I smile as I remember Normani and Dinah kissing like there was no tomorrow.

But then.. Lauren. My heart constricts as I recall what Lucy said. The memory seemed vivid enough and I can’t help but feel hurt again. I know it happened a long time ago, but it still didn’t help. It felt like Lauren is now deliberately scratching my almost dried bruise, making the bruise raw again.

“I’m sorry,” she releases. She probably knows what I’m thinking about from my facial expression, “I wanted to tell you. But-”

“When?”

“What?” She cocks her head, narrowing her eyes as a sign of confusion.

“You said you planned on telling me. When did you plan it?” I raise one of my leg up to the couch so I could fully turn towards her.

She looks dumbfounded, she didn’t anticipate that I was going to ask that. I knew she just wanted to say what I want to hear. If it wasn’t for Lucy, I probably wouldn’t have known.

She said we were best friends, even before we happened. But why was Lucy never a subject? Were we even friends in the first place? If so, why didn’t I know jackshit about this?

“I thought so,” I sigh, defeated. “You weren’t really sorry for not telling me, you were sorry that you got caught. It’s different.”

She looks down at her knotted fingers, a few tears seem to flow down her cheeks to her jaw, collecting tears at her chin.

“But it’s okay,” I began, making her snap her head in my direction, “it doesn’t really matter now anymore.” Her hopeful expression faded at my last statement.

It’s true though. As much as I’m mad about it, what good would it do to dwell on it further? Yes, I feel betrayed and deceived, but at the end of the day, Lucy is still her endgame. So why the hell would it matter if they had history before?

“Yeah..” she sighs.

“On a more pleasant note, Im glad you found your The One,” I smile, a sad one but a smile nevertheless, “Remember when we were 15 and 16? We dreamed about being famous. We talked about boys and how you want to marry the person who you know before we were well-known. You also wanted the person to be so similar to you, having the same thoughts and knowledge. I’m glad that Lucy reaches all your expectations, eventhough she’s a girl.”

She laughs softly now, tears still streaming down her face, “Indirectly, I think I was talking about you. We-”

“Stop,” I interrupt, “just stop.” I was hurt already, I don’t think I need another trip down memory lane. I’m emotionally tired. I’m already in pain. I feel so drained already and it’s still a little after 2pm. My brain is pounding, my heart is aching painfully, I’m looking at the girl that got away. What good would it do to talk about the days where everything was fine - great even - and simple?

“Sorry..” she mutters.

And at that, we continue watching the movie. But the stupid elephant was back and just stared at us. The tension was thick and I felt the need to lighten the situation.

“You wanna try writing on a song together?” Just yesterday, we made a deal to write a song together so why not do it now?

“You wanna do it now?” she asks.

“Now is as good as any.” I walk to my room, only to come back with a pen and my journal. The journal has a few deep entries but most of them were just ramblings and scattered song lyrics I don’t really use. The journal is leathery and white, with my name imprinted in front of the book.

I place the journal down at the coffee table and slide down to sit on the carpeted floor. She followed suit, causing our knees to brush each other. I move my knees up so it doesn’t touch, to somewhat create a barrier between her and me. She frowned when she realized what I’m doing but said nothing.

“So what song do you want it to be about?” I ask as I open to a fresh page, free from any type of ink.

“Love,” she says without a beat,.

“What about love?”

“A dead relationship,” she says with such simplicity. I squint my eyes, confused as to why she wants to write that since there’s nothing wrong with their relationship. Just as I want to ask she beats me to it by interpolating, “it’s not based on Lucy, it’s based on any relationship in general. An internal battle between whether they should break up or not.”

“Right,” I say, still unconvinced but decidedly lets it go.

We spend at about 30 minutes discussing about the base of the song.

Lauren’s phone rang from her back pocket. She takes it out, Lucy’s name temporarily imprinted on the phone.

“Hey baby… Oh, I’m at Camila’s.. Oh, okay.. Yeah, I don’t mind, take your time. We’re just chilling here so it’s okay.. Yeah, alright… You too,” she says through the phone. I can’t really hear the other side of that conversation so I don’t really know what’s happening. She ends the call after that, putting her phone on top of the coffee table.

“Lucy?” I say in the least noisiest way possible.

“Yeah, she said a friend is in LA and they’re going out.” This was another thing I see in Lauren. The amount of trust she has on Lucy is huge.

Back when we were together, it was hard. Lauren was a very possessive person and she was jealous at the littlest thing I do. We fought about it a lot; whether it’s about a guy I clearly have no interest in like Shawn or a girl I only see as a friend like Ariana or Taylor. No matter what I do to try to reassure her, she was too hard-headed to trust me.

Hell, even now… Just two days ago, she was jealous of Ariana. It kind of hurts, knowing that Lauren has never trusted me the way she trusts Lucy.

We spent the next few hours conveying our thoughts and feelings to the song. It was easy writing with her, probably because we have some kind of bond that I don’t seem to have with the other songwriters I’ve worked with. Lauren understands me to a personal level and vice versa.

At the end of the day, we seem to be pretty proud of our creation - or our baby if you must.

The only obstacle now is how to convince the label to include Lauren for the song. I want her on it because she deserves it just as much, if not more.

#UPDATE #series #non AU #camren #angst drama #romance fluff #submission #Too Close To Home

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gyrlversion · 5 years

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Inside The Fight For A Federal Law Against Revenge Porn

In June, Bella Thorne “took [her] power back.”

For the actor, that meant revealing to her almost seven million Twitter followers — and, by extension, the Internet at large — that someone had hacked her phone and stolen her private photos. “I feel gross, I feel watched, I feel someone has taken something from me that I only wanted one special person to see,” she wrote in a note that explained how her hacker had been threatening to post the photos against her will, and had also allegedly sent her private photos of other celebrities in the process. So, she beat him at his own game and posted the photos herself. “It’s my decision now u don’t get to take yet another thing from me,” she added.

The immediate response was overwhelmingly supportive of Thorne, although some people attempted to shame her for taking the photos to begin with. She drowned out the haters by posting screenshots of supportive conversations with Dove Cameron, Zendaya, and Serayah, among other famous friends, and continued to post about the harassment on her Instagram Stories. Not once did she apologize for taking the photos, and she had no reason to: It’s the person who steals the images who needs to answer to their actions.

For many young people, “nudes” and other private photos are a common form of self-expression — so much so that the practice has been immortalized in a storyline on Netflix’s Sex Education, and in a monologue delivered by Zendaya on HBO’s Euphoria. Thanks to the rise of digital cameras, smartphones, texting, email, and apps like Snapchat, taking and sharing private photos has become increasingly normalized. Eighty-eight percent of respondents to a 2015 survey said they had sexted at least once; 96 percent of those people viewed sexting as a normal way to express themselves in a given relationship. Whether it’s healthy or destructive depends on the people involved, and experts warn to only send private photos to someone you trust implicitly.

Because therein lies danger: you can’t control whether the other person shares those photos without your consent, or if someone else obtains them through a method like hacking, or adding photos to a database or messageboard, as was the case when it was discovered in 2017 that Marines and other service members were swapping revenge porn photos. One study posits that nearly 10 million Americans have had their photos shared without their consent, though it’s hard to gauge a solid number given the shame that still proliferates the experience. And if your photos are turned into revenge porn, the legal options you can take to fight back are limited and can feel overwhelming.

Today, 46 states and Washington, D.C. have laws banning revenge porn, which is the result of maliciously sharing private photos that aren’t your own, typically by a former sexual partner and without the consent of the person in the image. The scope of these laws varies significantly across state lines: Some states classify it as a misdemeanor, while others treat it as a felony, and jail time can range from 90 days to six years. The existing laws are being updated as technology advances, too; Virginia has banned revenge porn since 2014, and lawmakers recently expanded that law to include “deepfake” porn, or work that has been digitally altered to simulate nude or otherwise explicit images without the victim’s consent.

Of course, there are still a variety of reasons why someone would choose not to report an assault or other sex crime — up to and including the experience of subjecting yourself to the law enforcement process. And if a victim wanted to report a crime to the police, they’d have to navigate a complex web of jurisdictions — because the law would have been broken depending on where the attacker was when they posted the photos, not where the victim was at the time of discovery.

As Carrie Goldberg, a lawyer in New York City whose practice specializes in helping victims of sexual harassment and assault, tells MTV News, “Especially when the offender has posted [revenge porn photos] under the guise of anonymity, we’ll have local police say, ‘Well, we don’t know where he was when he posted them.’” While Internet anonymity can make it difficult to ascertain a perpetrator’s identity, researchers found that the majority of those who post revenge porn photos are men. In a 2016 Brookings report that studied 80 separate sextortion cases, every perpetrator was male. “There’s often a lot of back and forth from local precincts about which one has the actual jurisdiction to prosecute it,” she adds.

Public retaliation has also largely targeted the victims, and not the perpetrators, in a variety of ways that include the slut-shaming Thorne faced. (Crucially, people of all genders have reported being victims, though the APA noted in 2014 that male victims are more likely to report their violation to authorities than female victims.) “The majority of people suffer extreme emotional distress and it changes their relationships with family and friends,” Goldberg says. “They’re just constantly worried about the fact that anybody on the Internet can see their genitals, and it’s a horrible feeling.”

Some attackers also target victims at their work; Goldberg acknowledges that some of her clients have been fired as a backward result of their being violated. If someone is fired from their job because of a revenge-porn attack, she recommends they sue their former employer: “I feel it’s gender-based discrimination,” she explains. Her firm also regularly works with clients’ employers so that victims feel supported throughout and after the ordeal.

Goldberg opened her practice after an ex targeted her; in the process of seeking justice, she realized how difficult it is for victims to navigate the various legal systems at play. But while some lawyers or legal support groups offer pro bono help to victims, and Goldberg notes that legal action “can be really transformative and healing if you do it right,” she also stresses that victims shouldn’t feel pressured to take any action they don’t feel comfortable with.

“Bella Thorne took a courageous step forward, and I think it’s bold and respectable for her to have done that,” she explains. “I don’t think that victims should feel they need to do that if their privacy is being threatened. It’s the right decision for some people, but it’s not going to be for everybody.”

While a federal law could help support victims, there isn’t really one on the books. Clearer-cut federal laws counter blackmail and extortion, and copyright ownership for selfies can often serve as grounds to have a photo removed from a website, but the federal law most frequently invoked for digital revenge porn is section 230 of the Communications Decency Act.

The CDA was passed in 1996, years before the advent of social-media behemoths like Facebook and Twitter, and doesn’t do much to help victims of revenge porn — instead, this law protects the platforms, dictating that the social media sites aren’t at fault for any revenge porn posted on their platforms. So if you want to scrub a photo from the Internet forever, getting the apps to take action can often require a lawyer like Goldberg, and a lot of litigation.

In May, California Congresswoman Jackie Speier and New York Congressman John Katko introduced the SHIELD Act in the House of Representatives, which would make it illegal to “knowingly distribute private intimate visual depictions with reckless disregard for the individual’s lack of consent to the distribution;” California Senator and presidential hopeful Kamala Harris is planning on introducing companion legislation in the Senate. The bill is a continuation of the Intimate Privacy Protection Act, which Rep. Speier introduced in 2016 after she “became aware of unbelievably painful stories of women in particular who not only lost their privacy but had their daily lives impacted in terms of employment and relationships,” she tells MTV News; the session closed before the bill was voted on.

According to Speier, lawmakers have been “slow to regulate an area that has become rife with a great deal of violation,” though she doesn’t necessarily believe there is a correlation between a failure to act and the fact that revenge porn overwhelmingly affects women and other minority groups, like LGBTQ+ people. “I think it has more to do with the fact that we have a lot of Luddites in Congress,” she says. “But there’s growing recognition of the need for [legislation], and we need to take a step to act.”

Yet even the most comprehensive legislation is only one aspect of the fight against digital harassment. (The 2016 bill received pushback from the ACLU which claimed criminalizing such action regardless of intent could be a violation of free speech.) And Speier is heartened by the knowledge that many survivors, like Goldberg, view advocacy as “a way of paying it forward. Many of them have already been painfully impacted by the non-consensual distribution of their photos, and they don’t want it to happen to anyone else,” she adds. Actor Amber Heard joined Speier in introducing the SHIELD Act to Congress; she was violated in the same 2014 attack in which Lawrence was targeted.

“My stolen and manipulated photos are still online to this day, posted again and again with sexually explicit and humiliating and degrading headlines about my body, about myself,” Heard said in May, per the Washington Post. “I continue to be harassed, stalked, and humiliated by the theft of those images.”

In part because of those activists, as well as a number of cultural conversations — including the photos stolen from Jennifer Lawrence and hundreds of other Hollywood stars in 2014; a similar, more targeted attack made against Leslie Jones; and the fallout from the allegations against Harvey Weinstein that served as kindling for Tarana Burke’s #MeToo movement to reach global consciousness — we’ve seen an overwhelming societal shift towards both normalizing sexting and transferring the culpability for a crime to where it belongs.

“I think with regard to non-consensual porn, there’s been a sweep across the nation of refusal to tolerate the crime, and I definitely think that translates into more understanding towards victims,” Goldberg tells MTV News. “There’s just so much more rhetoric about being the target of someone else’s control, and sexual privacy violation, and so much more empathy and conversation about it.”

The post Inside The Fight For A Federal Law Against Revenge Porn appeared first on Gyrlversion.

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samuelcarveraccidentman · 6 years

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ASSESSMENT

TO THE BOOK COMMUNITY: GO FUCK YOURSELF. AN ANTI-APOLOGY.

JANUARY 31, 2019

CORREIA45

75 COMMENTS

First off, to know what I’m talking about, read this: https://www.theamericanconservative.com/dreher/amelie-wen-zhao-learns-to-love-big-brother/?fbclid=IwAR0i1oKfiJuO2RErEnwam0kFcgddzSaFLN8hiErGvcSlYOnKFZLR_tOhtrw

Basically an internet lynch mob of Social Justice Warriors hounded an author into not publishing her book. They brow beat her. They shamed her into compliance. And now she has pulled her book, apologized even though she’s done nothing wrong, and begged forgiveness.

Seriously, read those excerpts from her blog, where she talked about her hopes, and dreams, and artistic vision… And then read about how they all got crushed in the name of Social Justice.

As an author, this makes me want to vomit. This nefarious shit is why I’ve been loud and incessant about this topic for the last decade.

So now here is my letter to the “Book Community”.

To the Book Community: Go fuck yourself.

You people aren’t a “community”. You are a fucking cancer.

People who like to read books? That’s a book community. Bullies who exist in a perpetual state of being offended, eager to silence artists, you’re scum.

If you had an ounce of self-awareness, you would be ashamed of yourself. But you don’t. So instead you pat yourself on the back for ruining yet another artist’s career, for silencing another voice, for crushing more dreams.

Fuck you. Fuck your feelings. And fuck your ridiculous claims. Fuck your perpetual offense. Take your smug, entitled ignorance, and cram it up your ass sideways, you worthless sacks of crap. You goose stepping morons should try reading books instead of burning them.

People wonder why I often fisk the bad social justice writing advice articles from places like the HuffPo or Tor. Those articles are always Don’t Do This and Don’t Do That and Write The Way We Tell You Or Else. They’re all fucking bullshit. They are maggots feasting on the dinosaur carcass of mainstream publishing.

I fisk those bad advice articles because if I can save a single young aspiring author from falling into your wretched, soul crushing trap, it was totally worth it. My goal is to expose your con, to show that your gate keepers are nutless humps, and that your Outrage Of The Day is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury but signifying nothing. Thankfully lots of people have caught on. They’ve learned that bullies only have power over you when you allow them to.

Sadly, it looks like Zhao never caught on, and she let you assholes ruin her dreams.

You create nothing. You can only destroy. You are miserable failures, and like the demons of CS Lewis, your misery makes you want to drag down everyone else too. You give one star reviews to books which haven’t come out yet, which tell us a lot more about your weird personal issues and neurosis than they do about the book you’re supposedly reviewing.

You get away with this abusive shit only because most artists are sensitive, caring types. They don’t want to offend people. They don’t want to hurt feelings. Only you lie to them. Manipulate and use them. You don’t care about their art. You don’t care about entertaining people. You don’t care about kids reading or people enjoying themselves or even the group you’re supposedly championing today.

You only care about control.

That’s why your rules are so illogical. You want—no, need—people to break them. Your rules are nonsense gibberish that changes day by day. That way even when people try to placate you, it doesn’t matter, because you just find something else to be offended by instead.

Fuck you, you goddamned communist puritans. The sooner society realizes SJWs are a suicidal dead end like unto the hippies, and everyone starts laughing at your childish tantrums, the better.

Sincerely,

Larry Correia – bestselling novelist who actually makes a good living at this business, unlike you useless parasites.

P.S – Go back to Goodreads and give me another one star review, you fucking mopes. Each time you do I sell more books to actual decent human beings who are sick of your shit.

To Writers: Do Not Negotiate With Terrorists

Brothers and sisters, please do not fall for this con.

Artists should never let a bunch of thugs tell them how to make art. Down that road lies madness, and dreary, shitty, boring books that nobody wants to read.

These people do not care about making the world a better place. They do not care about whatever marginalized group they claim to speak for this week. They only care about bossing you around.

Saying that someone is having fun wrong empowers them. So they will always be able to find somebody having wrongfun.

Their rules are arbitrary and capricious. You will inevitably violate them.

GOOD. BECAUSE FUCK THEM.

If you write about your own culture, then they declare you are erasing another. If you write about a culture that isn’t yours, then they declare you are guilty of cultural appropriation. They demand you put in a certain kind of character, but when you do, they’ll inevitably declare you wrote them “wrong”. With “right” being a perpetually moving target.

For example, in one of my books the bad guy was a charismatic psycho criminal mastermind villain. He was also gay. Eddie turned out to be an extremely popular character, and the audience loved him. But of course I got screeched at by some Social Justice Howler Monkeys because I had a homosexual villain, and that was homophobic and blah blah blah… But fast forward a few years and the same crowd was circulating a petition demanding that DC take the Joker—a charismatic psycho criminal mastermind villain—and make him gay. Because “representation”.

Or another, I got attacked for another fantasy novel because it was set in a world loosely based on India, and how that was the dreaded cultural appropriation. Except the book sold well and was popular in the English language fiction market… IN INDIA.

Plus, these SJWs are incredibly ignorant. One of them screamed at me because in Son of the Black Sword, I had someone eating a rice ball, and HOW DARE LARRY CORREIA ASSUME THAT ALL ASIAN CULTURES ARE THE SAME AND HAVE RICE BALLS REEEEEEEEE!!!!! And my response was the google image search for “Indian Rice Balls” which was like 20 pages of deliciousness. Because let’s face it, every culture that can grow rice has at some point in time discovered it is convenient to squish it into a ball.

I got called racist for having Imperial Japan be the bad guys in the 1930s (well, duh). I got screamed at for having characters be intolerant in 1932 (even though the hero of that part was the black dude who had to eat at a separate lunch counter)… but I guarantee that if I had pretended Jim Crow or the Rape of Nanking never existed, I’d get screamed at for that too.

Over and over, so on and so forth, it doesn’t matter what you actually write, because the screaming doesn’t need to make sense. So they’ll scream no matter what you do, even when they’re factually wrong about it, or your sins are imaginary, and whatever it is they’re butt hurt about today, tomorrow they’ll be butt hurt in the opposite direction.

When the game is rigged, the only way to win is to not play.

These social justice assholes are just like the little kids who throw themselves on the toy aisle floor at Wal-Mart and kick and scream and cry, purple faced and tears streaming down their cheeks, because Mommy won’t buy them a Power Ranger.

You don’t give them what they want, because then they’ll just do it again next time. You don’t reason with the hysterical child. If they’re not your kid, you ignore them and keep on walking. If they’re your problem, you say shut up you little brat, you ain’t getting shit, because you know giving in to bad behavior leads to more of the same.

Zhao just bought them the entire Power Rangers play set and Megazord.

In this case, the purple haired tantrum throwers were wailing on the ground screaming YOU CAN’T WRITE ABOUT SLAVERY IN A FANTASY WORLD! And the author said, but it is based upon the history of my own culture and actual current events, but that didn’t matter, and the horrid brat just yelled NO NOT THAT WAY!

If you give veto power to anyone who is offended, then guaranteed, somebody is gonna declare they are offended. When being a victim grants power and social status, then you’ve got no shortage of people saying they’re victimized. The actual facts don’t matter. You just gave random assholes a license to mess with you, they’re going to do it, simply because they’re assholes.

Basically, they can only hurt you if grant them the ability to do so (or your publisher is a spineless coward, but that’s a whole different problem!) .

This transcends politics. It doesn’t matter who is screaming at you, an abusive bully is an abusive bully. Don’t let abusive bullies run your life. That’s not just true for writing, but life in general.

You want to be a creator? Good. Then go create. Make art. Make people happy. Tell the story you want to tell. And if people like your stuff, they’ll give you money for it. That part is pretty awesome.

Sincerely,

Larry Correia – who is living proof that you really don’t need to fear social justice lynch mobs, because despite how much they’ve whined about me, I’m still selling books.

P.S. To hell with the haters. Go write what you want. Have fun. Get paid.

http://monsterhunternation.com/2019/01/31/to-the-book-community-go-fuck-yourself-an-anti-apology/?fbclid=IwAR0QWeUnqptFV7D66N9gLuqooZakFaIDfBUcw0BUs8Yo0XYTDHwIwjWCKBU

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jessicakehoe · 6 years

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Everything That Upset the Internet This Week

What is the web-o-sphere angry about this week? A despicable and unhumorous comedy set, an infringement of free speech, and the absolving of someone who never apologized for his mistakes. Here’s everything you need to know.

Louis CK’s Latest Comedy Set

THE STORY: On December 31, instead of Twitter exploding with New Year’s resolutions and year-end lists, it was full of tweets about a comedy set Louis CK had done the night before. The disgraced comedian began plotting his comeback with a series of unannounced appearances at comedy clubs just months after it was revealed that he masturbated in front of women at work. Leaked audio of his latest set quickly spurred outrage, and rightly so: CK’s “jokes” spanned everything from homophobia (mocking people who want to be addressed by gender pronouns like they or them) to racism (trotting out a tired routine about Asian men’s penises) to scoffing at the teen survivors of a school shooting.

THE REACTION:

This hacky, unfunny, shallow routine is just a symptom of how people are afraid to feel empathy. It’s much easier to laugh at our most vulnerable than to look at their pain directly & show them love and concern. Louis CK is all fear and bitterness now. He can’t look inward. https://t.co/aQVG0rk87y

— Judd Apatow (@JuddApatow) December 31, 2018

This is what passes for humor now by Louis CK. No one should support this racist, misogynistic piece of garbage. pic.twitter.com/PPxxT8TH9V

— Jay Kuo (@nycjayjay) January 3, 2019

one thing i can’t stop thinking about in the leaked louis ck stand up set is the guy in the audience who yelled “fuck em!” when ck was mocking, i guess, trans kids and teens who were shot at in their high schools

someone find that man and bring him to me

i just want to talk

— Scaachi (@Scaachi) January 2, 2019

RIGHTEOUSNESS OF THE RAGE: When CK issued a public apology in November 2017 after the news of his behaviour broke, he wrote: “I have spent my long and lucky career talking and saying anything I want. I will now step back and take a long time to listen.” So he listened for a year and decided that since he had nothing to lose—because his “life is over”—why not verbally attack everyone he can think of? More than anything else, what this comedy set shows is that CK learned nothing in the past year except how to fuel his own bitterness over “political correctness” and how to lash out instead of introspect. But the cultural climate has changed enormously since 2017, even if he hasn’t, and people are no longer willing to accept inoffensive material cloaked in the thin veil of humour.

Netflix Pulls a Patriot Act Episode in Saudi Arabia

THE STORY: Hasan Minhaj’s political comedy show Patriot Act launched on Netflix last October. The second episode of the series, aired on October 28, delved into US-Saudia Arabia relations and the latter’s possible involvement in the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi (which has since been confirmed). Now, the Saudi government claims that this episode violates the country’s cybercrime laws, and requested Netflix to block streaming of the episode in their country—which they’ve done. “We strongly support artistic freedom and removed this episode only in Saudi Arabia after we had received a valid legal request — and to comply with local law,” said Netflix in a statement to NPR.

THE REACTION:

This is disturbing. Love Patriot Act and I’m really bothered that Netflix took this down. https://t.co/5zV55v2NPZ

— Erin Jean Warde (@erinjeanwarde) January 1, 2019

This is insanity.@Netflix pulls 'Patriot Act' episode in Saudi Arabia after it criticized official account of Khashoggi killing: https://t.co/BaYKmUxq60

Seems @hasanminhaj is doing something right. I hope this drives more people to watch his excellent show.

— Ali A. Rizvi (@aliamjadrizvi) January 2, 2019

Seriously, @Netflix? https://t.co/GTUrB9P9x7

— fatima bhutto (@fbhutto) January 1, 2019

RIGHTEOUSNESS OF THE RAGE: Netflix basically capitulated to an authoritarian regime bent on curtailing free speech. And it did so by taking down content that itself addressed the regime’s history of curtailing free speech. Meta. At a time when journalists around the world are being attacked or killed for their work, and people’s right to information is being threatened, tech giants like Netflix need to step up and be on the right side of history. By restricting Saudi Arabian citizens’ access to the truth, they’re enabling a serious problem and also setting a dangerous precedent. However, they did leave the episode up on their YouTube channel, so lets see where this story goes next.

Ellen Degeneres Calls for Kevin Hart to be Reinstated as Oscars Host

THE STORY: A few weeks ago, after a bunch of Kevin Hart’s homophobic tweets from the past resurfaced, the internet was, understandably, upset. But not so upset that a heartfelt and honest apology wouldn’t fix it. Hart, however, who had just been announced as the host of the 2019 Oscars, had no intentions of issuing any apologies—instead, he chose to wax on about how he had grown and evolved as a person, and that since he’d apologized in the past, he didn’t need to do so again. The Academy removed him as an Oscar host and ostensibly began searching for a replacement. But as the world found out today, in a clip from his his forthcoming appearance on The Ellen Show, it turns out that Ellen Degeneres not only accepts his “apology” but she also recently called the Academy requesting that he be reinstated as host.

THE REACTION:

In light of Ellen absolving Kevin Hart for his history of homophobic remarks, this seems like a good time to reiterate that no one member of a marginalized identity can forgive a bigot on behalf of the entire group.

— ella dawson (@brosandprose) January 4, 2019

People apologize. People deserve forgiveness.

Kevin Hart never apologized. Kevin Hart doesn’t deserve forgiveness.

— Alex Goldschmidt (@alexandergold) January 4, 2019

Regarding Ellen DeGeneres…

She condemned Kim Burrell for making homophobic comments that are no different from what Kevin Hart tweeted. The reason why she excused Kevin is because they’re friends. I think that’s bs.

Start holding your friends accountable for their shit.

— Quenchi (@MrQuenchiAdams) January 4, 2019

RIGHTEOUSNESS OF THE RAGE: There are many things wrong with the conversation that took place between these two. For one, Degeneres has decided to paint critics of Hart’s homophobia as “haters,” saying “That’s a small group of people being very, very loud.” Now Degeneres has no right to dismiss the fact that people have been genuinely offended and hurt by Hart’s words, and also shouldn’t be commenting on how small or valid she thinks that group is. Two, Hart seems to think that the reason his past tweets resurfaced is because internet trolls are out there trying to “destroy” him. His perception of the situation makes clear that instead of regretting the pain he’s caused people with his comments, he’s upset at them for trying to hold him accountable. Degeneres seems to agree with this positioning of Hart as a victim, saying that by hosting the Oscars he wouldn’t let “whoever’s trying to hurt” him win. This bizarre conspiracy theory that people are just out to hurt Hart is baffling, and absolving him of all culpability—because he happens to be her friend—so that he may pursue his dream of hosting the Oscars is something Degeneres simply doesn’t have the right to do.

The post Everything That Upset the Internet This Week appeared first on FASHION Magazine.

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