#lack of moderation

[tomorrowusa]

Is anybody starting a pool on when Twitter X collapses?

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Gearing up for the stat boosts

MDZS Disco Elysium AU Part 3 (Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 4)

[bandtrees]

>be me >update my warriors oc fic on ao3 and ffn >receive a pm >

>

>check this guy's profile >

>obvious fetish fics in favorites >favorite authors are mostly young warriors fans >sent the pm an hour after i posted my fic update >fetish miner who just pms every warriors author they see >politely respond "no i don't, sorry!" >close ffn for the day >next morning >check my fic stats on ffn >see my warriors fic has a new review >check it >

[vaguely-concerned]

I don't know what I love more, the fact that as rook you can make a statement in NO uncertain terms that you are NOT responsible one way or the other for the theological implications of the shit you're discovering in the 'regrets of the dread wolf' memories. not my jurisdiction. quite simply none of my business. not my chantry circus not my chantry monkeys. irrelevant to the matter at hand here we'll kill that god if we get to him he can get in line. or if the best thing about it is seeing the lone little 'lucanis approves' that pops up right after choosing it. corvid with a knife about to commit deicide keeping it real and sensibly, pragmatically, wilfully agnostic with me here in this magical lighthouse today

[kalgalen]

i do realize the death of twitter is a disaster on a cultural level and such, that said i find it so so funny that the only person to blame is one shitty childish billionaire who thinks he knows better despite being proven time and time again he's a goddamn loser baby

[tonydaddingham]

Just whacking this out there, but I mean, much as I do think the "past exploits" comment serves as a warning about Heaven's rules/standards, and reach, and the fact that they've exposed Aziraphale's 'crimes' - sort of a 'you know what we expect from your conduct, and you've been continually stepping way out of line, and we're choosing to overlook it for now, but know that we know, and that we will know about future missteps as well, that we don't approve and could still intervene' flung out there for no immediate particular purpose, just to serve as a reminder - by and large, I find the whole restoration offer thing much more bribe than threat, and, well, frankly, personally, I'd consider a bribe of such proportions more concerning than any threat could have been, no?

hello lovely!!!💕 i think ive shared my thoughts on this in dribs and drabs over multiple posts but no harm in going over it again, fuck it-

essentially, i completely agree with you. splitting those two parts of the conversation into two, i definitely see the first part as a warning, and simultaneously an unspoken threat:

what particularly speaks to me is how the metatron hesitates over both 'previous exploits' and 'partnership', as if he's specifically searching for the right turns of phrase. trying to make light of it, keep it friendly and unassuming. but the small, smirky, private smiles, compared to aziraphale's reaction of flitting eyes and tight lips - it feels like metatron is playing a cat-and-mouse game... the guise of it being that it's all a great opportunity, but truthfully they both recognise the unspoken threat is there

(but - to clarify - i don't think the metatron realises that aziraphale has seen it as a threat. ie the metatron thinks he's being slicker than he actually is, when aziraphale is very much able to read between the lines).

i remember making the comparison in a meta somewhere but it just simply strikes me that - if we're continuing with the 'sleeper/secret agent in the height of the cold war' allegory - the metatron is playing the part of the seedy villain that is doing the 'i've been watching you all along, i know precisely what your pressure point is and why' bit that we all know and love from any kind of dramatised espionage story.

essentially, as you said, "we could still intervene" - ie. 'dont think that i haven't seen every single thing, because i have. i know how deep this 'partnership' runs'. there doesn't even need to be an allusion to what metatron could do with this breadth of knowledge - just simply that he has the knowledge is enough, and aziraphale can draw his own horrific conclusions quite easily, even if they never come to fruition.

(on an intertextual level, metatron kinda reminds me of how i'd imagine karla to be - from the john le carré novels... a little bit, idk.)

now as for the second part; the restoration thing:

i completely agree - this absolutely feels like a bribe. 'i know crowley is your pressure point, and you'll fight tooth and nail coming back without him in tow, so im going to offer it to you - this amazing opportunity that you can graciously bestow upon him! "go tell your friend the good news!"'

the metatron may well be disguising a threat in the exchange, but i do think that he believes aziraphale to have taken the offer to return to heaven at face value, in earnest, and therefore he believes that he has aziraphale squarely under his thumb (and none the wiser for it). however, i personally think aziraphale may be constructing his own hasty game - ie. using the offer as an opportunity to "make a difference" as he and crowley would see fit... but the spanner in the works was that crowley refuses to come with him to play on 'their side' in this little counter-game he's trying to devise.

in terms of functionality of bribe vs. threat - absolutely, a bribe promises a greater yield. threats only work so long as it's a) inescapable enough, b) serious enough, and c) the threatened person is sufficiently scared enough that they won't toe out of line. which may well be effective in getting someone to comply, but the problem with making people scared of you or hate you, is that then they all secretly want to see you ruined or destroyed.

bribe someone, however... give them something that they might have always wanted (or, as i think is the case for aziraphale - gives them the opportunity to give another what they've always wanted), and you have a greater chance of having an ally in them forever, someone forever indebted to you.

i definitely think this is where the metatron's reasoning lies. instead of threatening crowley's life, so to speak, he's offering him the chance essentially to defect - and that's way more appealing to aziraphale and likely to get him to fall in line.

for me though, it's all a gross underestimation of aziraphale on the metatron's part. i will die on the hill where aziraphale sees through what the metatron is saying - has indeed read between the lines where he doesn't have a choice one way or another - but chooses to play the part that the metatron expected him to play (of marginalised-angel who is actually the-very-kind-of-angel-heaven-needs, and therefore very-grateful-to-given-the-top-job-thank-you) so that the metatron will keep underestimating him. bribe or not, aziraphale did not want to go back to heaven... but if he doesn't have much of a choice regardless, he's going to make it work for him.

now this ask has led me to another thought: i do wonder if the restoration is actually a thing? ie. the metatron wasn't bluffing, it's actually possible.

the metatron is putting an awful lot of bank on crowley saying no, when by all accounts - even if the metatron was directly involved in crowley's fall - the metatron doesn't actually know him... right? he likely knows that crowley is resentful and angry still at having fallen, and the unfairness of the whole shebang, but does that guarantee that crowley wouldn't want to take the restoration offer? id hazard no - so the metatron has to have a failsafe for either eventuality.

either crowley says no, and aziraphale is left broken-hearted/rejected, and that suits metatron fine because then he has aziraphale ridden of crowley's influence. alternatively, crowley returns, and is restored!

...but is restored to the same position as he was when he fell - essentially like restoring a backed-up file where the last save point was ~millions of~ years ago... and that would suit metatron fine also, because then crowley is simply not crowley anymore. plausible deniability on the metatron's part too, for the latter option - 'restoration has never happened before, didn't know what to expect, but you've gotten what i promised you!' idk, interesting thought

[sskk-manifesto]

Next time we should just skip over ep 3 and do a chapters 84-87 reread

[sweetdreamscafe]

The game of hangman has been fun, Moderator, any other games you like to play?

(Below this cut is a video which contains a glitching / FLASHING LIGHTS effect)

[ MODERATOR is now available for asks. ]

[ Ask Hints Have Been Updated ]

[theres-whump-in-that-nebula]

Interesting. Don’t necessarily think I’m autistic but I have more going on than just ADHD and I’m not sure what that is.

[r0semultiverse]

I hope Jorge keeps the streams up until the next live stream like he did with the last Saga.

I had trouble getting into Epic: The Musical without the visual aid of the animatics as visuals help me absorb the material. I kinda wish he would upload each song with the lyrics and animatics in them instead of just the animatics by themselves without the full song, but maybe that’s just me. I’m an audio and visual gal otherwise I have trouble absorbing information. Besides the streams there’s no current way to watch the musical seamlessly with actual visuals and yet it is called a musical. A medium I’ve kinda expected to have visuals by this point, that was my one big criticism going into this series was “so it’s just songs? And I have to watch the script as I listen to know what’s happening? That’s hard to keep up with.”

Though if this is a consistent change going forward of having the full musical with visuals until the next iteration premiers, then great & honestly my only criticisms are a lack of trans voice actors (seemingly but I could be wrong) and a lack of fat characters in the animatics because Aphrodite was fat in her depictions throughout history in the very least. Which I’m not even sure if this counts as a criticism so much as an observation and something that gives me a bit of pause? Again, not series ruining, but just more an observation I guess?

That being said, I’m super excited for the Vengeance Saga tonight! Probably gonna stay up just to watch it! Sleep be damned I wanna see it as it comes out! 💜

Edit: Okay actually not risking tummy issues by napping and can’t stay awake any longer. If I have tummy issues I couldn’t even watch it as it premieres anyway because I’d be fighting for my life in the bathroom. ANYWAY DON’T GO ATTACKING ANYONE INVOLVED WITH THE PROJECT, I WAS JUST MAKING AN OBSERVATION.

[tomorrowusa]

Elon Musk is making life easy for Putin’s trolls.

Hundreds of Russian and Chinese state propaganda accounts are thriving on Twitter after Elon Musk wiped out the team that fought these networks, the BBC has found.

The unit worked to combat "information operations", coordinated campaigns by countries such as Russia, China, and Iran, made to influence public opinion and disrupt democracy.

But experts and former employees say the majority of these specialists resigned or were laid off, leaving the platform vulnerable to foreign manipulation. The BBC has spoken to several of them. They asked for anonymity, citing non-disclosure agreements and threats they received online.

"The whole human layer has been wiped out. All Twitter has left are automated detections systems," a former senior employee said.

These “non-disclosure agreements“ are an attempt to circumvent accountability. Some of these former employees should be subpoenaed to testify at a Senate committee – that would provide them with the legal ability to disregard Musk’s non-disclosure agreements during testimony.

The troll farm operated by Putin crony Yevgeny Prigozhin actively worked to assist Donald Trump in 2016. With Russia mired in Ukraine, manipulating Western opinion is a cheap way for the Putin dictatorship to undermine Western support for Ukraine. 

Organised groups of people posting coordinated messages are called 'troll farms.' The term was first used by Russian reporters who exposed one of roughly 300 paid employees run by Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of the Wagner mercenary group.

Since then, troll farms influencing elections and public opinion have been uncovered in many countries, from Poland and Turkey to Brazil and Mexico. They have also been used as a propaganda tool in ethnic conflicts and wars.

Now, a new group of Russian trolls is active on Twitter.

It supports Putin's war in Ukraine, ridicules Kyiv and the West, and attacks independent Russian-language publications, including the BBC Russian Service. Many of these trolls' accounts have been suspended, but dozens are still active.

You might say that Musk is manure for the troll farms.

Lately Russia and China have also been using deceptive social media accounts to foment discord in the US over Trump’s recent indictment. The PBS NewsHour had a report on this a couple of days ago.

In general we need to quit relying on social media for news if we don’t want to get hoodwinked.

I have apps on my phone for the BBC, DW, the New York Times, the Washington Post, CBC, The Guardian, CNN, ABC (Australia)*, and about half a dozen other legit news organizations. I have notifications for them turned on. It’s not a perfect system but the chances of getting misinformation this way are small.

Social media has long been subject to manipulation. With Musk having eviscerated moderation at Twitter, that platform is more problematic than ever. I have not logged on at Twitter for years, but I maintain a bookmarked list of legit accounts which I check with varying degrees of regularity.

It’s time for serious users to leave Twitter. It continues to deteriorate under Musk. NPR announced this week that it is quitting Twitter. A viable alternative to Twitter, not vulnerable to a takeover by a rightwing oligarch, needs to be developed ASAP.

_________________________ * Just want to say that ABC News in Australia is an excellent news source. It goes way beyond Australian news. It punches way above its weight for the size (26.4 million) of the country. FYI: I’m not Australian; never been closer to the country than Southern Illinois. Look for their app at your app store. ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

[sillysymbol]

something for fun

[pink-tk-a-latte]

Chat… is it cringe to use Japanese honorifics in writing…

[samaspic31]

You can’t make this shit up you click on an article about how hamas hostages were treated (for the sake of checking yourself on bias and with the intention to verify it with multiple sources) and the headline will be « return from the horrors of hamas » and then the text is actually « they treated me rather well just didn’t have much food and i was in danger due to Israeli airstrikes” You know the shit the government claims necessary to rescue them. This world is bullshit

[8cfc00]

hey do you ever think about how david's silly/slightly unhinged moments actually act as an expression of his internal conflicts and wounds and themes or is it just me

[theliterarywolf]

I just wanted them to bring back and expand on Mega Evolutions. That was such a cool mechanic. I was so disappointed to have it not be there for two years. It's been almost a thing for the franchise.

I am also team 'Mega Evolutions were the best "Sparkle-Sparkle! Fuck You; I Win" mechanic', but you would be surprised how many people insist that Megas were broken.

AS IF TERRESTRALIZING ISN'T?!