#like. what the fuck. that’s so intuitively misinformation

[flareguncalamity]

my toxic trait is that i saw a “fun fact” on a girl’s profile in a dating app, went this doesn’t fucking sound true, and spent over half an hour hunting through primary sources linked on wikipedia and learning the etymology and history of word-usage just to prove the very specific and meaningless thing she said was false and then tell her that through the dating app. she’s not even my type

[polarisjisung]

tw: nth room talk— sa, cp, generally dark + heavy themes

I'm not going to go into detail about what the nth room is, but if you don't know and would like to this post is a good place to start. This is more a reminder about how much misinformation is really going around with this topic.

First things first, this is absolutely terrifying. These people are sons, brothers, fathers and husbands, the very people who you'd think would protect the women in their lives are the ones ruining them. It's sickening and it's hurtful. My heart goes out to the victims. Truly I wish nothing but the worst on these men.

With the whole 'list of celebrities' that's allegedly coming out tomorrow— I get that this is a difficult situation, especially to find out that someone you have admired for so long is nothing like the person you imagined them to be, but this is not about us.

If you're a fan you have the right to be sad, but it's the same whether this is about taeil, other idols, actors, celebrities, etc— there are victims at the centre of it all. The victims deserve justice and support. Not continuing to support the perpetrators will always be part of that.

So while you might think your fave would never, remember that you don't know these people.

When and if a confirmed list does come out, which it hasn't yet, please support the right people.

If, and I truly hope this isn't the case, but if you see the name of someone you support on that list, and you think "he would never" then the harsh truth is that you seriously need to revaluate your parasocial relationships. Because we do not know these people.

There's lists of suspected idols circulating tiktok/twitter already, which is disgusting. To accuse someone of something with no basis, of something so heinous and sickening is real fucking low just because you don't like them. Just because someone is morally flawed in one area/certain areas does not immediately mean that they're sick enough to commit these crimes. And by no means am I defending these idols because yes they've done some real fucked up things, but that does not equate to them being involved in sexual crimes.

You can have a hunch, intuition, or whatever it is you'd like to call it, but falsely accusing people of sa will never be okay. Keep these thoughts to yourself. Don't spread them by making videos, posts, or comments.

Thoughts and prayers to the victims and their families.

[kind-of-a-chaos-witch]

Baby witches, listen up.

You listening? Cool.

I'm not advanced and have nothing important to say and you probably shouldn't listen to me, but just by writing that, I've caught your attention.

I wouldn't consider myself a baby witch, but definetly not advanced — somewhere inbetween. After not practing for a while, a lot of my current practice is based on intuition after learning (what I consider to be) enough.

That being said.

When I was a baby witch, I wasn't critical enough. A lot of posts can just say BABY WITCHES, LISTEN BITCHES and I would follow it immediately.

For example: the phrase blessed be. I didn't know what it truly meant, but because others where saying it, I felt like I should — it felt witchy. That feels kinda dangerous, considering words have power and intention. Maybe you have the same mindset as I did, without realising.

Another example: I remember as I was learning, I'd write out the information (such as learning about chakra's) and post it in a forum, for other people to learn from. But here's the problem — I didn't know what the fuck I was talking about because I was learning. And chakra's aren't exactly for some white teen to be teaching about. Hence, I was most likely spreading misinformation.

So what's the point of this post?

Be critical.

Think about the information you're basing your entire practice/religion on, then think again. Is it a trustful resource — are they learning or experienced, does it make sense to you, your intuition and follow your prior knowledge? Yeah? Epic.

This has been a PSA from Kind Of A Chaos Witch, probably the only one I'll do because I'll be honest — I'm not qualified to talk about much.

[rpmemesbyarat]

RP Memes from Reddit’s Thread “What is denied by everyone but is actually 100% real?”

“You are not immune to propaganda.” “Everyone is susceptible to bias. We all think it's something that just affects other people.” “Part of having bias always is that your think yours is the thought out reasonable and just one.” “You are much more likely to believe whatever side of a story you hear first.” “They knowingly put out harmful fearmongering misinformation, the issue a retraction several days later that less than 1/10th of the original audience will hear about, and even less will believe.” “The first thing we judge a person on is looks.” “Everyone is stereotyping and judging others constantly, it’s human nature.” “We judge others on their actions and ourselves on our intentions.” “This is going to sound crass and unkind, but sometimes I wish I was less intelligent both intellectually and emotionally so I could just go through life dumb and happy.” “You should not confuse your idea of another person with what they really are. You will never know how it feels to be them. How the world looks from their point of view. You will always only know your side of the story.” “Without the money, I have zero desire to teach kids.” “People often brush off gut feelings as just random, but there’s some real science that suggests intuition can actually lead us to good decisions.” “Everyone judges, it's just a matter of keeping it in your mind or letting it out.” “You are the enemy in someone’s story.” “There will always be someone who doesn't like you, for whatever reason, no matter how good or kind you are.” “You can be the sweetest peach on the tree, but some people just don’t like peaches.” “I have this plush shark and can confirm it brings pure joy.” “Did you know the giant snake plush is a PUPPET?!” “This “you can do anything” rhetoric just messes with a kid’s mind.” “If nobody is perfect, then there is no "The one." You just have to decide if someone's pros outweigh their cons for you personally.” “"Don't judge a book by its cover" that's literally what covers are for, so you can judge the book.” “I saw your text but responded in my mind.” “Beauty is a privilege and a super power.” “Everyone is not, and cannot be beautiful. And that's okay.”“I'm pretty sure that most other animals probably think all Humans are ugly as fuck. Imagine an animal with no hair except for a few patches over the body, walking around on two legs with the other two legs dangling at the side with extra long toes hanging off it. By our own standards of animals we find cute and animals we find ugly I reckon humans are definitely somewhere at the ugly end.”

“The idea that we only use a small percentage of our brain, often cited as 10%, is a myth.”

“Everybody lies.”

“The same people you talk trash with are talking trash about you.”

“Something like 80% of humans have herpes. Cold sores are herpes. If you’ve had a cold sore ever in your life you have herpes.”

“If someone says “I’m not that person anymore”, and their actions seem to confirm it, might be time to let it go.”

“Capitalism only exists to funnel all the wealth we create to a very few elite.”

“Girls fart.”

“People seriously underestimate their ability to do things they consider bad or wrong. No one is above an amoral act.”

“You will be too old to work one day and you will die. You will be very sorry if you don’t start planning these things decades ahead.”

“The world would be better with more cheese on everything.”

“This one I think is sad but humans are tribal animals and we honestly just don't like people we don't see as being in our tribe. This isn't about race or anything I just mean in the most general sense.”

“We all pee in the shower.”

[yermes]

PAC: 🐦‍⬛

Its hard for there to be safe, magical, online places for young practitioners when the idea of a hierarchy of any kind is implemented. So and so is better, so and so has done it since the dawn of time, so and so is so fucking cool because dagaggafafffaffa stupid shit.

PEOPLE WHO HAVE THE NEED TO PUSH PEOPLE DOWN AND BULLY ARE TRYING TO COMPENSATE!

You don’t need these meat heads for validation. You working on any practice of any kind and trying to seek solace in an online community is a new thing. Its hard to think about how this can impact and damage us when pursuing it.

A reading for all my grown up kik kids

Disclaimer: please take what I say with a grain of salt and not as the gospel. I just want to share some ideas of practicing and giving advice using the medium as often as I can with school, work, and my own personal studies and practice. Finished the latest podcast ep! Next one will be on psyber magic! Liking and sharing does a lot 🥰

Socials: latest podcast ep | Follow me!

Pick a meme

1 2 3

The cards

Moon + Clouds 🌧️ 🌕 

Sometimes people get into your head and cloud your judgment. Its hard to think and use you intuition when theres a constant spread of misinformation and the constant strain of always being put down. Are you actually thinking or is your hidden bully thinking?

Clover + Whip 🍀 👹

Little joys in combination with little punishment. The highs and very high and the lows are sitting in the final ring of hell :/. You also won’t find those little joys without the struggle of fighting against this internet conflict.

Garden + Ship 🚢 🪴 

Your a chatty kind of girlie so when you go on a venture or venture away from a toxic group it will be very public and talked about amongst your “friends.” But honestly if were being so fucking forreal if they’re micromanaging you like that you gotta dip.

Extras:

Story/vent:

I start school next week! Love you

[baybeered]

On one hand being really aggressive towards people who are misinformed about aorace stuff and so ignorant and privileged to live in their little allo bubble is counter intuitive. Nobody learns anything and if anything at all they've gotten a negative experience to justify their aphobia.

On the other hand;

I'm so fucking exhausted of you assholes fuck off and die. You can never understand what it's like to live in a world that consistently treats you like you don't exist. That hurts your fucking community and you can't do anything about it because people have decided its better to treat you as a joke or a disease that needs to be stopped. And heaven fucking forbid you stand up against other queer people for their aphobic treatment and remarks because then you're the problem, then you've slighted the queer community, you're not queer enough or your existence is "inherently homophobic/lesbophobic/biphobic."

I don't want to have to dance around your fucking feelings when I tell you this character and the experience they represent IS NOT FOR YOU. Like a child when told you can't have one singular thing, you bawl your fucking eyes out and throw a tantrum because the mere thought, the guilt of knowing that you've done something bad or that you've hurt us isn't as horrid to you as not being allowed your ships. YOUR QUEER IS NOT MY QUEER AND YOU HATE ME FOR IT.

And even those who don't actively take from us are more than happy to sit aside and let their fellows do so, there is little to no ally ship and we're all worse off for it.

Every time one of you fucks talks a character our of their aroace canon because it doesn't suit your needs, some who isn't aware of the label but can't fit in with their peers, can't fit in with societies demands is kept in the dark. I cannot express enough how important it is to keep aroace characters aroace and to talk and celebrate their queerness. I cannot express how many times I seen someone come to the labels of aromantic and asexual through these celebrations and said

"this is how I feel, I didn't know there was a word for it"

"I didn't know this was a thing! I think I might be this!"

"I'm less scared now that I know what I am"

less anxious

less afraid

You kill our community without second thought because people understanding themselves either scares you or you're privileged enough not to care.

You open the door for a queer revolution and when the A in LGBTQIA follows you in you slam in in our faces.

Go fuck yourself, allo pieces of shit, you exhaust me and I'm tired of having to explain to you what you should already fucking know. We deserve a seat at your table, and representation that holds up the full aromantic and asexual spectrums for all to see and understand even if that means its not for you because guess what? NOT EVERYTHING IS FOR YOU ♥

[protect-namine]

okay gonna take a stab at articulating Thoughts here but this is probably gonna end up like word salad. it's okay, whatever, what is blogging if not chucking thoughts into the void.

so. usability right. websites should have more ✨️ intuitive ✨️ ux/ui where users are guided around and they understand how things work out of the box because the site follows patterns the user is already used to.

oh man.

something this immediately reminds me of is how japanese website design is markedly different, very "cluttered" and heavy on text. is the whole country just terrible at ux or are they just serving a different set of users who expect something else?

another thing I think about is how, at one company I worked at, they've thought about revamping the admin section of the website because it's sooooo "cluttered" and not "clean" but decided against it because, I mean, who uses the admin section? the main operation team. what do they use it for? banning users, tagging stuff for fraud and investigation, processing incidents, etc. do they want pretty and clean and beautiful and modern UI? NO actually they're power users who want to be able to do 10 things efficiently on the same page without having to go through 15 extra clicks to finish those 10 tasks because each task was separated onto different menus and pages.

(not to mention the amount of resources you need to do that kind of revamp, the cost-benefit trade-off, the time spent by people who are used to how things work now with learning how the new layout works, thereby disrupting the way they already know how to do things, and for what benefit? it's easier to onboard a new admin user than to redesign a whole system and fuck everyone's workflows)

so like. functionality and purpose and user segmentation can vary differently and "intuitive" is a vague nothing descriptor because what's intuitive for one user might not be for another. what makes a site usable is if it lets you do the job you were there for. pro users have different needs from new users and sometimes you really just gotta prioritize one over the other, because resources!!! are finite!!! and if you aren't actually doing this to market a product and attract new users, guess which category of users you're gonna prioritize!

another thing this makes me think of is how, like, we want things to just work out of the box. no need to think about how things work under the hood. great for accessibility, no need for high literacy to just do things and that is genuinely great. but also. alsooooooo

I'm thinking about how there are some kids who don't have a concept of file systems because everything is an app and search systems are now so sophisticated you can just rely on it instead of thinking in directories and file hierarchies. which is honestly pretty cool, like how many times have you just searched for an app on your phone instead of swiping through a list of apps, or folders? (I do both, so for the ones who say "uhhhh it's been a long time actually because I still use folders" don't worry you are understood. I understand. this isn't about us though). anyway, do people need to know about file systems? I guess not, but it's also a fundamental part of how computers work that if you start trying to do more complicated computer stuff and don't know how they work, you can get stumped by a simple error message such as a program not finding the your files.

and like. I'm not saying we shouldn't make navigation easy, because accessibility is a good thing and not everyone wants or needs to do complicated things on the computer. but alsooooo I don't think it's the ultimate goal? because to do so would be to continue to create that divide between "tech-savvy" and "not tech-savvy" when I think the goal alongside good tech navigation should be to raise tech literacy for everyone. we're in an age where society is becoming more and more reliant on tech AND an age where information is king and misinformation is rampant and like. likeeeeee

also not to make this a generation thing but there is a subset of people where they have to teach how technology works to people who are both older than them and people who are younger than them but have already gone through high school. and like, shouldn't it be that the younger generations will keep teaching the older generations what's hip and new and how things work?

if you're too afraid to tinker around with stuff you'll end up just accepting chrome's advertising policies and tumblr's awful new layout and youtube pushing youtube shorts all the time even though you fucking hate it. when, with just a few clicks, you could be using an extension or script to block ads and hide youtube shorts and unfuck your tumblr dashboard. if you only rely on programs with "intuitive" ux/ui you can get trapped in the app store walled garden with no idea how to get your shit together again when you're no longer using the laptop with the only os that uses those programs. you don't want to pay to watch something but you also don't know how to pirate, what do? you get a phishing email or something that looks like a scam to someone who knows what to look for, oh but you don't so you click on it and send you banking details to someone you didn't mean to, oh no!!!!

anyway. so you want to find a fic and the tools are right there but you didn't know they existed because you didn't know how the site was built to work and maybe the site should have taught you better how it works. it's not the user's fault that the site doesn't work like the rest of the internet does. that is true and those are good points. but also, sometimes. sometimes. the people working on the site don't have the resources to do that, or maybe they're not even really prioritizing you as their user and just hopes you'll eventually figure out how to find your fic because you're good at searching, you grew up in an internet where search is so sophisticated (and, sigh, ad-driven, though this does not apply to the site we're talking about). you can find anything you want, and this website is designed NOT to punish you for clicking around. you can just fuck around and find out! in fact, clicking around might actually reward you!! you learn a new tag, you figure out where the fics for a specific fandom or character are, etc. it doesn't take that long to find the tools you were looking for. two clicks (one click for a tag to go into tag search, and another click on the filter button if you're on mobile to open up the sort and filter menu). two clicks to discover the plethora of tools available to you, with each of them having those question mark links you can click if you want to find out what they do in detail.

but I guess that's hidden too well now!!!!! UN-intuitive design because it's not friendly to new users even though this site can't even leave the beta stage for a decade. or more!! it's not keeping up with modern designs even though it doesn't have a goal of attracting new users or become like the rest of the internet. and I guess it doesn't matter that as an archiving system you can search things with as much maximum specificity as the site allows. you can search like you would search a database because it's an archiveeeeeeeeee and that's it's purpose, that what you use it for but that doesn't matter because new users don't know how to search a database so the website is not usable, we need to keep it current so even non-fandom users can understand how to use it, even people who don't know what an archive is EVEN THOUGH THAT'S NEVER BEEN THE GOALLLLL OF THE SITEEEEE

anyway so yeah we should redesign the site every now and then :) and maybe a/b test it :) :) :)

[devilisln-moved]

You know honestly, I wish diet culture and “wellness” culture weren’t a fucking industry and full of really horrific misinformation. One of these days I’m going go on rabbit trail to figure out what exactly Matt eats and how often he works out. Honestly, I think a lot of his exercise is living in a city like New York, walking a lot, and his near nightly patrols. However, I’m sure he does some deliberate things to keep his shape up. In a way Matt and other superheros are like...professional athletes. Like, The Boys may have a cynical streak a mile wide, but there’s some very intuitive ideas on display. I’ll be the first to say it’s a little tryhard to portray it as ‘tHiS iS hOw ReAl LiFe SuPeRhErOeS wOuLd Be’, but he’s onto something as a satire. Honestly, Seth Rogan is the Garth Ennis whisperer. He manages to take Ennis’s rather nasty sense of humour and make something that’s palatable without losing the deeper meaning.

ANYWAY.

So yeah tl;dr, one of these days, I’m going to do some research about that and it will probably  be just for me.

[hailmaryfullofgrace55675]

[ID: screencapped tags from user isa-ghost reblogging from pwettyepic

#i get this post is silly and also spicy but #in my innocent little cis ally brain transgender is ppl my age or close to it #transsexuals are majestic elder queers who dont give a shit about the performative overthinking bs my generation does abt labels #and that might not be necessarily right bc every trans/nb umbrella person picks n chooses which words they use for themselves ofc i get that #but transsexual has such a Vibe to it it sounds like the person has unlocked a secret mastery or bonus wisdom to being cisn’t #it makes me think of the Black queens and homeless queers who were so gorgeous and gave no fucks and #made the most of what they had. who found family in each other in the worst of conditions and expressed their #Fuck Yous to their oppressors with bricks and partying in their secret safe spaces in spite of the world that hated them #hearing people my age choose to use the word is so nice bc it feels like an instant bridge between my gen of queers and theirs #i hate ppl my age who decided our elder labels are icky dirty wrong offensive labels /end ID]

Let’s get in depth on how this is line of thinking is shallow and misinformed, and develop a better understanding of trans history along the way.

in my innocent little cis ally brain transgender is ppl my age or close to it

This is wrong. See Transgender*: The Rhetorical Landscape of a Term by K.J. Rawson and Cristan Williams, Rawson’s timeline The “Trans + Gender” Project, and Williams’s Tracking Transgender: The Historical Truth. Alternately, just go to a space with some trans people over 45, and you will hear them using the label transgender. “Transgender” is people of all ages. It is not a new term. The period in which “transsexual” existed in English without “transgender” was 15 or 16 years from ~1949 to 1965. (It was earlier coined in German by Magnus Hirschfeld, in 1923. Happy centennial, Transsexualismus!) The vast majority of current trans elders came to trans identity very much in the age of transgender identification.

transsexuals are majestic elder queers who dont give a shit about the performative overthinking bs my generation does abt labels

This is manifestly untrue. Many young people identify as transsexual, many of whom are extremely online and discourse-brained.

Furthermore, this is objectifying of queer elders. They’re not magical forest creatures. They’re people who were born five, six decades ago, maybe more. It’s just silly. “Majestic”.

Queer elders who currently use the term transsexual were young once, and when they were young discussions about labels were alive and well, see previous sources. To use an example for context, the woman most (inaccurately) cited for coining the term transgender was born in 1912 and died at 96 in 2009. The label discussions of yesteryear were also perfectly vicious. More on this later.*

and that might not be necessarily right bc every trans/nb umbrella person picks n chooses which words they use for themselves ofc i get that

Ha. Yes, it’s a good intuition that vibes-based affinity sorting of people who use contentiously defined queer identity labels for what are inevitably idiosyncratic personal reasons is not going to be necessarily right. Thank fuck we got over doing this nonsense with bi and pan, amirite, folks?

but transsexual has such a Vibe to it it sounds like the person has unlocked a secret mastery or bonus wisdom to being cisn’t

“People who use a special cool label are special and cool. They’re wiser and more enlightened than people who use other labels.” is the mind-killer. It is the little-death that brings total obliteration. Do not let aesthetics rule over your critical faculties like this. Seriously. This is naïve the way “that guy is wearing sunglasses, so he must be chill” is naïve. This is naïve the way “that girl sounds really confident, so she must really know what she’s talking about” is naïve. Independent from anything specific to the word transsexual or gender and sexuality labels, or even to words, do not put stock in vibes like this.

it makes me think of the Black queens and homeless queers who were so gorgeous and gave no fucks and made the most of what they had. who found family in each other in the worst of conditions and expressed their Fuck Yous to their oppressors with bricks and partying in their secret safe spaces in spite of the world that hated them

First of all: this is objectifying. It’s not respectful, it’s pedestalizing and dehumanizing. So gorgeous, so romantically marginalized, so in the past. They “gave no fucks and made the most of what they had.” How sweet, and how flat. And their successors, in this imagining, aren’t other Black queens or other homeless queers (plenty of whom are on tumblr, in 2023, blogging about the discourse, by the way), but people who use the label “transsexual”.

Second: many, perhaps most, of the people being gestured at here didn’t identify as transsexual. Many identified as transvestites and as (drag, street, no modifier) queens. In many cases, the ones who identified as transsexual did so specifically to indicate that they wanted, were pursuing, or had already gotten hormones and surgery. More on this later.*

hearing people my age choose to use the word is so nice bc it feels like an instant bridge between my gen of queers and theirs

This is an illusory sense of closeness. Using the word transsexual conveys no instant understanding or connection. It’s completely separate from any actual work of learning or community building.

It’s perfectly possible to actually connect with people who were trans in the 70s through their writings, their art, their interviews, and other preserved sources, and it’s also possible to connect with them live and in person. Someone who was born in 1950 is only 73, it’s not like they’re all dead! In terms of connecting with older trans people, hearing 25 year olds call themselves transsexuals is nothing. If it’s mistaken for and takes the place of actual connection it’s worse than nothing.

For a more substantial connection to past generations of trans community than hearing 25 year olds identify like other 25 year olds on twitter, look up Miss Major on YouTube or join some kind of local group.

i hate ppl my age who decided our elder labels are icky dirty wrong offensive labels

People isa-ghost’s age (24) didn’t decide “transsexual” was “icky dirty wrong offensive”. “Transsexual” has, see initial sources, been a contested label since the so-romanticized 70s. Early Zoomers came of trans age just in time to pretty well miss the discussions in which transsexual fell out of fashion in favor of transgender, MTF and FTM in favor of trans woman and trans man, and genderqueer in favor of nonbinary; and to receive that the latter of each set were the most current terms as wisdom from people 5-15 years older than them.

For more detail on the transsexual vs transgender discussions, see Julia Serano’s A “Transsexual Vs Transgender” Intervention for her overview and the community engagement in the comments, or a discussion on Susan’s Place for the grittily authentic forum version.

*This is the more later. Look at those discussions, really. Look at Phyllis Frye’s 1976 table comparing transvestites to transgenderists to transsexuals. Look at Harry Benjamin’s Sex Orientation Scale. Transgender and transsexual aren’t alternative umbrella terms, or they certainly weren’t before transsexual fell out of favor. “Transgender” is by no means without its gatekeepers, and trans people have had (sometimes) more expansive and compassionate understandings of what transsexuality could encompass than medical gatekeepers and transphobes, but “transsexual” has been extensively used to specify hormones-and-surgery transitioners as different and often more committed and more legitimate than “mere” transvestites and transgenderists. It’s been bitterly fought over, wielded as a weapon, and defined in terribly narrow, homophobic, sexist, binarist, and transphobic ways.

Transsexual is not a beautiful, baggage free word from before trans people got into label arguments. If such a time ever existed, it was certainly well before 1923. Transgender is not a lightweight bit of newstyle political correctness, it has decades of baggage, too. It’s fine to disprefer transgender and to reclaim transsexual, but it should be done in knowledge of the history (and present), not in romanticizing a poorly understood past. Older trans people are human beings, not elves of the woods, and a lot of them use transgender over transsexual because they’re the ones who participated in the switchover in the first place.

📜 Maybe the real connection to trans communities of the past was the arguments we had about the uses of “transsexual” and “transgender” along the way. 💎😌

[jordanas-diary]

Seaspiracy

This documentary seems to be the talk of the time at the moment and I have to say that initially, I was super excited to see issues that I have been studying for the last four years, being brought to the forefront of people’s minds after having banged on about them for who knows how long. But boy oh boy was I disappointed in how the issues were being portrayed. Where to begin?

The first thing that frustrates me with this is the science/data/information these people are using. Or the lack of it. Sure it has sources for some of the data being used, but not once do I see the utilisation of a credible science journal with peer-reviewed articles. Nor do I see a lot of scientists providing input on the questions they are posing to ocean conservation organisations. With some googling, you will find a lot of the data isn’t backed up by scientists working in these areas of study in reports or in articles - so what’s the truth? The graphics in this documentary too ... a great white shark on coral reefs? Un-fucking-likely. Two heccing ridiculous claims were made in this documentary: 1. Dolphins are only killed bc they're pests; and 2. Ebola was caused by decreased fish stocks????? I will elaborate on these later. But anyways ...

This brings me to my next issue - the demonisation of ocean conservation organisations. Somehow BP oil came out looking like a good guy in comparison to these organisations. How in the world did that happen? These organisations provide funding for ocean conservation, research, clean up and education - if we stop funding these organisations, how can we continue to learn about the ocean and educate our younger generations?

What's more is the interview tactics used were shady as hell, and just aiming to paint the narrative they wanted. Now I was ok with this in the beginning, but the less they tried to paint a more balanced picture of the industry, the more frustrated I became. The narrative they were aiming for will have some detrimental impacts on these organisations as mentioned above.

Furthermore, this documentary is incredibly white-centric. Sure there are problematic practices across the world, but painting Asia as the worst? Have you ever wondered why? One of the key drivers for unsustainable fishing practices is the demand - but this demand is not only domestic, but international as well. Now, where internationally is the demand coming from? The West. It is our demand for more and more seafood, drives for the supply to become higher and higher CAUSING these businesses and countries to find more seafood in order to turn a profit.

I also had an issue with the spread and demographic of people contributing throughout the documentary. All of these people were white/white-passing, mostly male, majority activists/journalists, all bringing exceptionally similar perspectives and ideas as to what they see as the ideal future. But without diversity of thought - how can we create a truly encompassing and servicing society for all?

Back I will return to the "dolphins are pests" claim. This i n f u r i a t e d me to the absolute max. Why? Because not once did these people even THINK to acknowledge or even explore indigenous practices in the marine environment, or the significance these animals hold to these people culturally. Which then brings me to the intent of the documentary. 

This documentary was not created to explore sustainable modes of fishing - or even the idea of it for that matter - but to stop the consumption of fish. There are so many issues in this. I mean to unpack this from a science perspective - the lack of scientific backing of the majority of the claims this documentary made is laughable - but to go and completely disregard years of research and experiments and exploration is just plain ignorant. Why only tell one side of this complex issue? Where is the balance between science, governments and protection organisations? Heavily weighting this documentary to the side creates the misinformation that has scientists pressed from the get go fam. Science and technology have evolved [and will continue to evolve] to help us better understand fish stocks and populations, as well and feeding and breeding patterns. Genetics can be used to understand where fish are coming from and whether or not their capture was legal or not, making it harder for fishing vessels to lie about where and how stocks were caught. New Zealand is a good place to look at when exploring sustainable fisheries if you are interested in what this might look like. 

AND THEN from a cultural and social perspective - well if all fishing is banned then how do we put millions, if not billions of people into jobs to feed, clothe and house their families? What assistance will be given to these people from governments or international institutions? My guess? Very little. Most fisherman probably get paid dirt nothing and have skills for a specialised field - how can we ask them to go out and retrain? They most likely will not have the finds to do so. Many of these people will live in vulnerable communities, lacking infrastructure and opportunity to provide them with jobs if the fishing industry was to just ... stop. The expectation that Asian nations that make up a lot of international seafood trade will immediately have the capacity to if not give jobs, but provide assistance to millions of people without jobs and their families is so unrealistic that even on an international level this would be a huge ask. 

THEN we come to the question of what happens to indigenous people, coastal communities and island nations that literally r e l y on the ocean for everything? If we ask these people to stop relying on the ocean, not only will they lose their source of income and sustenance, but also lose their cultural practices and knowledge of the ocean that they can no longer pass on through action. Indigenous peoples and coastal communities have such a different relationship with the environment and the ocean, it is hard to comprehend let alone explain if you do not possess this. There is an inherent as well as learned intuition that is passed down between generations where you learn the right times of the year to harvest through the. understanding of the lifecycle and breeding patters, without specific scientific knowledge have the ability to know the difference between mature and juvenile species, and so much more. The knowledge that these people hold is integral to the survival of our oceans, yet not once was this mentioned throughout the documentary. 

Urging people to stop eating fish is incredibly ignorant. Some people many not be in a position to - whether that be culturally, socially, for health reasons - whatever. Sure reduce consumption, find an alternative if you have the ability and means to do so. Don’t do it just because a documentary told you to. The reason why a lot of organisations made no comment on this is because people deserve the right to choice of what they seat - and in some cases, seafood might be their main source of protein and energy. 

What this documentary did do right though, is raise all of these issues by bringing them to the front of public mind. Ghost fishing, overfishing, shark finning - all of these practices take an absolute toll on our oceans - without halting these specific practices, I cannot see how our oceans can survive, let alone sustain the human race.  

For me, Seaspiracy comes from a place of privilege and stubbornness. There is very little attempt to better educate themselves on these issues, lack of will/want to learn about cultural aspects in fisheries, and the spread of misinformation through data and “facts”. If this documentary has made some how emotionally charged you to do something to protect our oceans - WOOO!!! This issue has been so underrated for far too long. However, do not take this documentary as gospel - go and do some of your own research! Explore the topics raised! Educate yourself! Critically analyse every piece of information you come across, check if it can be backed/verified by other articles/reports released on the same/similar topics! 

Happy to answer any questions people might have on this. Hopefully this sheds more light on our ocean issues and that people think more critically about this documentary before, during and after watching it. 

Tagging: @lightacademiasworld

[thetrunchbull]

True story: I used to be a GIANT ASSHOLE KNOWITALL. Ask anyone. Relatives will testify. Old friends. Since like, I was a toddler. But I have become someone who is so much more patient and tries to communicate on levels different than my own. I have learned humility when I was nothing but a smart ass just good at whatever I tried and had nothing but my sassy dickhead mouth to show for it. I grew. I fought. I rebelled. I excelled on accident. I had nothing and made it everything.

I have learned so much it should count for something. I try to slow down my thoughts and intuition and judgement to accommodate others to be a better partner and friend and human. I try to think of things using my empathy as a tool instead of an overwhelming annoyance that makes others utterly insufferable. I try to understand their emotions instead of pushing them away so I don’t have to absorb them as strongly as my own against my own free will. I try not to over analyze and give the benefit of the doubt even when I know that’s usually a setup for failure. I try and I try and I try and I try. Goddamnit. What the fuck is the point of all this growth and trying when you still have to TALK TO FUCKING UNDERDEVELOPED NARCISSISTS WHO CANT SHUT THEIR MOUTHS LONG ENOUGH TO HEAR YOU LET ALONE COMPREHEND THEIR OWN BASIC ASS BITCH LACK OF EMOTIONAL DEPTH?

But I mean, I’m not a jerk. I’m so understanding. Everything is fine. Why are you so stupid? That’s what you wanted me to say right? That I’m smarter and yr dumber? Well you win. Yr dumb. Because you can’t see what the fuck is in front of you as you throw it right the fuck away. Yr an idiot for that. Sorry I put it nicely too many times you didn’t get it in time. My bad, yo. You missed out on me and that’s a real loss. Because I would’ve been there for you harder than you ever might’ve. I could’ve made you better just by letting you be near me while I grew and outgrew but instead you tried to manipulate me (silly, idiot). You tried to use me (awful, for shame). You tried to trick or outsmart me (why would you think that could ever work?). You tried to be emotionally superior to me (you projected, were found lacking the things you criticized).

I have spent my whole life falling in love with the wrong people, putting my heart into toxic assholes, have let myself become smaller for those who needed me to be small so they could sound big in a room they shouldn’t have been in at all. It hurts that there are still so many people I am ok with loving after I’ve grown up enough to be forced to make excuses for why I still love them. It’s sad but also ultimately fulfilling that the people who love me and see me for exactly who I am (with the utmost truth and unconditional understanding) are so few and yet so real I could cry.

Anyways, the point of all of this may not make much sense to you, not amongst the chaos of the world, the memes, the horror, the distractions, the cute penguins in knitted sweaters, the misinformation spread faster than the wildfires actually setting shit ablaze...the misunderstanding of fact versus fear-fueled opinion that keeps separating us from our empathy and knowledge that could make some sense of it all if anyone would shut up long enough to actually listen to someone else...

But the point remains: I used to be a DICK. I was so much more vocal and proactive in my anger, especially if it got in my own way, with plenty to back it up but no patience to absorb another narrative that wasn’t my own. I’d like to think of myself as better than that now, with a lot of the same ideas but much more mature ways of sharing them, instead of going for blood, going for compromise and opening the mind of another closed off perspective or normalized and romanticized concept of rebellion for rebellions sake (anarchy now, not anarchy later right?) I try. I know I said that enough already, but I can’t help but keep trying. And if you get me and you love me for who I truly am, I thank you with no way to repay you. I need you. I validate myself now, but you solidify it in a way that gives me safety from the insecurity (we can’t outgrow fast enough) and the faith I myself kinda already had (but you made it real when you believed in me when I didn’t have to ask.) I want to be better every day and I fucking work for it. If yr not totally here for it: Get out of the way, jackass. If yr lucky, I’ll still think of you fondly. Otherwise I might run out of room to think of you at all. 🤘🏻🤘🏻🤘🏻🤘🏻

[thedreadvampy]

Like idk what you want from me here. If you want to engage me in a specific question about ace/aro identities, as I've said several times and nobody has ever actually done, then ask me the specific question. Don't fuck around with vague gestures at Points of Discourse and then get cross with me because I haven't answered the Exact Question you Didn't Ask But Expected Me To Intuit.

Preface: If you don't want to answer any of these because you are allo/allo and don't have a say because its not your place, say that. In fact, I'm asking these because you seem to do have opinions on things you shouldn't based off things you have said in the past.

I also want to state that I agree fully with your points about Martin- minus the blatant aphobia. Not just acephobia, arophobia as well.

1. Do you think qprs are problematic? I believe you once made a post saying roughly that qprs are just normal friendships, or something like that, that has since been deleted. What is your current opinion?

2. Are het aros lgbt?

3. Are het aces lgbt?

4. Cis aro/aces lgbt?

5. Cishet aro/aces?

6. Do the spectrums and micro identities exist? You've implied in the past they don't, in the post about how they were supposedly created from sex positivity

7. Can aros be in or desire romantic relationships?

8. Can aces have or desire sex?

9. Does the split attraction model exist and does it benefit people?

10. Can teenagers identify as aro/ace or do you think they're too young?

11. Can you be, say, an aroace lesbian, or an aroace gay, aroace bi, etc. Idk how to phrase this one but like can you be aroace and still id with another orientation?

I could send another anon detailing the aphobia in the post, because I at least am certainly not upset about Martin being sexual, rather it was the very blatant aphobia. It could have stemmed from ignorance, and if that's the case I don't mind explaining it.

Ok this is a lot of questions, some with quite involved answers, so I'm gonna answer them chunk by chunk so it's a bit more manageable, and then I might come back to some of the surrounding message. This isn't gonna be an immediate bang bang bang, but I'll try and work through them over the next couple of days.

Question 1

1. No, I don't think qprs are problematic. I don't necessarily understand them but I don't need to understand them to understand and respect that they're a thing that's important to a lot of people. I don't know what post you're referring to, but I'm surprised that you say it was deleted, because I very rarely delete posts except, occasionally, reblogs where people have flagged up misinformation or dogwhistles or which I reblogged by accident. tbh I'm the messiest online presence I'm way too lazy to delete past posts or block people even when I probably should bc I don't like to feel like I'm ~hiding evidence~. So I'm not saying you're wrong, you're probably totally right, but I'm surprised.

I'm thinking about what posts I've made that you could be thinking of, and obviously I don't remember everything I say on here bc I say A Lot and I actively post to get things out of my head so 🤷‍♀️ but I do remember making a post a while ago where I said that it was a normal expectation of friendship to have some friends close enough that you'll live with them, raise kids with them, etc, and I'm wondering if that was the post you're thinking of? I did have qprs in mind while writing that to a degree, but only because I think 'you wouldn't do this with your friends' is a very common argument people put forward about qprs and I think it's a weak argument, because many people have different definitions of friendship, and the only argument I think is needed for any sort of I Have X Emotional Relationship To This Thing is...I Have X Emotional Relationship To This Thing. Like you can't offer a universal materialist definition of the differences between romantic, queerplatonic, sexual and platonic relationships, because the boundaries are very personal and it's really an emotional and experiential difference. so if that is the post you're thinking of, I wasn't criticising The Concept Of QPRs as much as saying that I thought trying to put hard lines around What Friends Do Vs What QPPs Do was a) counterproductive when arguing with someone who thinks QPR is Just Normal Friendships bc. if they do those things with their friends then saying NO THIS IS A QPR THING just reinforces their existing belief that you're talking about the same thing as they mean by friendships and b) to me seems to set a painful expectation to young people that you can only get these kinds of close friendships occasionally and in the form of a QPR and it will be stigmatised and misunderstood (and depending on how people talk about it, is only accessible to aspec people and allo people should only expect it to come through romantic/sexual relationships), when in fact most people of most ages I know have friends with whom they can share things like housing, deep feelings, futures, finances, who they miss if they don't see for a few days, who are mutually supportive and vital to their wellbeing. I don't think that's mutually exclusive with the existence of QPRs though - like I personally don't know what the difference is between a QPR and a close friendship, but I also don't know what the difference is between a romantic relationship and a close friendship but I know there is one and I know it's not a question of What You Do but a question of How You Feel And Interact, and that's pretty hard to define in unambiguous terms.

Like generally I don't Not Think QPRs exist, and I think it's a dick move to try and tell people they're wrong about how they experience and define their relationships because???? how are you meant to know that better than the person whose relationship it is??? but I do think the way people talk about QPRs (both from the perspective of defending them and from the perspective of attacking them) is pretty rife with problems and I don't think it's invalidating the reality of QPRs to talk about where the arguments and language around them potentially falls down or has unexpected consequences.

On the other hand, I don't know if that actually is the post you're referring to - the reason I'm calling back to that is that that and a few resultant asks are the only time I remember talking about QPRs on here in the last year or so. So like, several of these questions reference past posts, which is very fair, but I do need it to be clear that, since I don't really tag anything and I don't have a great memory, I can only really speak to What I Think Now In This Context, not to what I posted in the past and what I was thinking when I posted it. Like, this isn't too deny responsibility - I reckon I'm responsible for what I post even if I don't still agree with it, which is why I don't tend to delete my own posts on purpose - but just to deny capacity, I guess? I don't really KNOW what I've posted so if you talk about it in vague terms (and I do understand that if it's been deleted there's not a lot you can do but that) I may not necessarily be responding to the part of it that's worried you, so if I'm not speaking to something specific I've said or done, it's not because I Don't Want To, I just don't necessarily know to.

I'm waffling about this because looking through your messages there's a lot of "you said X" and like. given that the intended message of the post that's kicked this off was very different to the message people have taken from it, it feels important to me to know whether if I looked at the posts you're referencing I'd be like "ah yeah I did believe that but now I believe X" or if it's more a situation of "oh right I can see how you took X from that but my thinking was more Y".

(also sometimes when people say "you made a post" they mean "you reblogged a post" and I am a compulsive discourse scroller so sometimes I reblog a random post to bookmark my place on someone's discourse blog or I accidentally longpress the reblog button while scrolling - I try to delete reblogs that I don't agree with but sometimes I miss some, all of which to say if there's a post on my blog that doesn't seem to reflect what I say in my original posts then it doesn't necessarily mean I'm a crypto-whatever so much as I'm very lazy and messy with my blog. Doesn't mean I shouldn't be held accountable for reblogs but it's useful to know if we're talking original content or reblogs bc I'm unlikely to fully accidentally make a post. but I quite often accidentally reblog stuff. I doubt this is the case with this sitch just bc of your phrasing but I want to cover my bases)

anyway tl;dr: no I don't believe that QPRs themselves are inherently problematic, nor do I think I have at any point believed that, but I do think that a lot of the language and ideas used to talk about them are based in miscommunication or absolutist ideas about relationships and can have damaging knock on effects.

[moonenjoyer]

thing is if it did turn out that the mitski allegations arent true. yall are still in the HUGE fucking wrong regardless.

calling this person “psycho” “delusional” and otherwise trying to use mental health/state to discredit and gaslight them.

spreading lies and misinformation to further confuse people and overwhelm/discredit the victim.

acting like you, a random nobody ass tumblr user, is some ingenius intuitive detective and if YOU find it “suspiscous” or “fishy” or like “something doesnt add up” then clearly something must be wrong because you would know best (sarcasm)

when victims come forward with stuff like this its SO important to believe and support them as a default. no that isnt “gullible” or “naive” you fucking monsters. you dont know op. you dont know the situation. and i hate to fucking break your heart but even if you like her music or she made you laugh in one of her interviews. you dont fucking know mitski either. shes not your friend. thinking she is is whats gullible and naive.

i see so many people who would be considered progressive and anti abuse saying the same “this could ruin someones life” and “why arent you giving me, a stranger, access to every intimate traumatic detail so that i can pick it apart bc ive already decided not to believe you” that all abuse apologists/enablers do. fuck you. go to hell.

[laniakeabooks]

Free to Fall by Lauren Miller, A Rant Review by Laniakea

Hello. How are you?

It’s been a long ass time. Why? My dumbass decided to take summer courses. You know those super condensed ones? The ones that make you want to rip your eyeballs out? Yeah... I took three at once. What was I thinking, right? I couldn’t tell you. I regret it. 

BUT. I still managed to read. And in July I read this gem of a book dubbed Free to Fall, written by Lauren Miller. And oooooooooh boy do I have shit to say about this... shit. So, brace yourselves, because this is a long and angry one.  

So, this is how this review is going to go:

       The major issues I had with this book and its narrative (when I say major issues, I mean MAJOR ISSUES… like, dare I say, problematic aspects of this book).

       Because it’s me, the deplorable excuse for science/neuroscience that Lauren Miller apparently didn’t find the need to take five minutes to google-check the concepts she was using.

       The little things that just kind of twisted the knife of annoyance

You may be saying: “Wait a second, she isn’t going to be talking about anything that the book did right.” And to that I say: “The things that the book did right? Nothing, IN MY OPINION. The thing that Lauren Miller did right, though, was write in a style that jives with my personal tastes. She didn’t beat around the bush to say something, she just said it outright. WHICH I LIKE, because, I don’t have time or the patience to suss out all of those little details and symbolisms just to get to the point that (for example) it’s a beautiful day.” There. Positive point. Hey, I didn’t rate it one star because it had a lot of positives.

So, let’s get started, shall we? (Shout-out to Corrine and Rob because damn, they’ve had a tough year.)

Issue #1: This is the biggest issue I had with this book. It has nothing to do with the plot or the characters or anything like that, but it’s what bothers me the most. What is it, you may ask? Well, it’s the simple fact that everyone in this book (and I have to assume Lauren Miller too) refers to the mentally ill as “crazy”. If you don’t understand my issue with this, let me explain. Calling someone who is mentally ill “crazy” is equivalent to calling a black person a “nigger” or calling a gay person a “faggot”. The word crazy is used as a slur to put someone beneath you, to make them less believable or trustworthy… to dehumanize them. It’s derogatory and offensive. It’s time that we stop using that word when talking about mental illness. It’s 2019 (2014 in the book’s case). Unacceptable.

So, when do we see the mentally ill referred to as crazy in Free to Fall? Throughout the entire book pretty much. It’s just said over and over and over again. But the worst instance? Here it is as a direct quote from page 127 (Oh, and mind you, the character saying this is a psychologist teaching a cognitive psychology class. Let that sink in.):

“You’ve all been given limited access to the Department of Public Health’s medical records database,” Rudd said as he returned to the front of the room.

(*record scratch* Wait a second, high school students having access to medical files? Absolutely not. Would never happen. You usually can’t even get your hands on medical records unless you’re the patient’s doctor. So that’s a technical issue with this book… one of many. Again, five minutes on Google, Lauren. Okay, back to the whole “crazy” thing.)

“Your login has been coded to the research topic you selected, allowing you to review the med records for patients who suffered from the mental illness you’re studying.” He picked up his tablet off his desk and tapped the DPH icon. The app launched on the screen at the front of the room. “Now, I know what some of you are thinking,” he deadpanned as he logged himself in. “You’re hoping this means you’ll be able to prove once and for all that your frenemy in a certified nut job. But, alas, your access is limited to dead crazies, and this particular database is anonymous anyway, which means the only identifying information you’ll have are gender, ethnic origin, and birth and death dates.”

That’s right. Lauren Miller had this character say, “dead crazies”. Dead. Crazies. The note I wrote in the margin right beside this passage? Word for word: FUCK YOU, YOU PIECE OF SHIT. Not sure if I’m directing this at Lauren Miller, Rudd or both, but I stand by it. In reality though, I don’t think there are any words to describe how disgusted and offended (and it’s VERY hard to offend me) I am by those two words. At this point, page 137 out of page 469, I decided this book would get a 1 star and a damning review.

“Oh, you’re being so petty.” Yeah bitch, I sure fucking am.

“It’s just a word.” No bitch, it fucking ain’t.

“You shouldn’t read books that say things like that.” Well bitch, I didn’t know books written in 2014 would use derogatory words like crazy. And I’d rather it be me who reads it and warns people about it than have someone who is vulnerable read it and take it seriously.

I am a huge advocate for mental illness and destigmatizing it. It’s time we stop using this disgusting derogatory word when talking about mental illness. And a good place to start is right here in the media.

Issue #2: Rory and North are preparing to roofie someone. That’s right. Roofie. As in drug them against their will. Assault them. Violate them. And to make it worse, they’re planning to administer it intravenously, because the whole assault thing wasn’t despicable enough. BUT DON’T WORRY YOU GUYS! North says he’ll get some legal drugs from a pharmacist because that makes it okay.

He objects for 0.5 seconds… but it doesn’t last. Here’s how the conversation goes:

“The only question is, how do we take Liam out of commission for a couple of hours?” North asked.

“We roofie him” I say without hesitation. “It’ll incapacitate him without killing him, and it’ll screw with his memories.”

“Oh, okay. I’ll just grab the bottle of date-rape pills I have in my medicine cabinet.”

“Not pills,” I corrected. “Has to be injectable. There’s no way we can guarantee that he’ll drink whatever we put it in.”

North gave me an incredulous look. “You’re actually serious?”

“What? It’s what the society uses. And it’ll do exactly what we need it to do.

North tugged at this Mohawk. “I know we don’t have time to get into this right now, but, holy crap, Rory, this shit is seriously messed up.”

“You’re right. Not the time. We have to go buy roofies.”

“Where, at Walgreens? I’m sure we’ll find them right next to the Advil.”

I crossed my arms, irritated by the sarcasm. “You’re a guy with a Mohawk and tattoos. Don’t you know people?”

“People with Rohypnol?”

“So, you don’t know anyone who can get it?”

He started to shake his head but seemed to think of something. “One of my clients is a pharmacist in Greenfield. I could probably get a prescription sleeping serum from him. Something potent but legal. I can message him from my apartment.”

North said it, this is so messed up… but is surpasses the “messed up” title and deserves the “fucked up” title. By the way, they never talk about it again. Getting “legal” drugs does not make the act of drugging someone okay. Ever. And on top of that Rory wants someone that will mess with Liam’s memories? I guess assaulting him and revoking his control over his own body wasn’t evil enough for Rory, she had to fuck with the essence of who he is.    

Moving on to the… “science”. Listen, I get it, this is fiction. It doesn’t have to be 100% in line with reality. But do you know what isn’t fiction? Neuroscience. Science that has already been researched and accepted. Why does this matter so much to me? I hate misinformation. It leads to fear and people doing stupid shit. Also, I am an aspiring neuroscientist myself and would like for people to understand how the brain works on a physiological (and psychological) level. That way there will be less of that “vaccines cause autism” and “sunscreen causes ADHD” crap, because they don’t, by the way.

Lauren Miller latches onto the term “synaptic pruning”. This is a real thing. During your first few months of life, unused/rarely used neurons will die (don’t worry, this is perfectly normal and an essential step in neurodevelopment). How does Lauren Miller incorporate this into her story?

“Now we knew that the inner voice was nothing more than a glitch in the brain’s circuitry, something to do with ‘synaptic pruning’ and the development of the frontal lobe.” (p.13)

My response went something like this: NoOOoooOOOOoOo! It’s only page 13 and I’m being subjected to poorly researched scienceeeeeeEEEeEEEeeee.

It would have taken five minutes on Google to look up: Which areas of the brain have to do with hearing voices? Answer: temporal and frontal lobes. Done. Next: why do people hear voices? Answer: potentially neuronal death in said brain regions (not synaptic pruning, very different concepts). Why? We don’t know yet. Anyway, the voice they are talking about here is “The Doubt” which is basically intuition so that would most likely relate to the hippocampus (and other memory-storing regions) and the prefrontal cortex. But then again, “The Doubt” is supposed to be altruism… but it’s written as intuition, so I’m just confused.

Next in bad (neuro)science, Lauren Miller claims that enzymes for memories (this relates back to the whole roofie scene where Rory wants to mess with Liam’s memories too). Basically, neurotransmitters are responsible for memories, namely glutamate and dopamine. I’ll be talking about glutamate here because dopamine forms the “do that again because it made us feel good” kind of memory, and glutamate forms the kind of memory Lauren Miller is referring to. You need to glutamate for LTP (basically a memory) which, in short, is strengthening the connection between two neurons. If you’ve ever heard the term “Neurons that fire together wire together.”, that’s exactly what I’m talking about here. So, no, enzymes do not form memories. (P.S. LTP is really interesting... if you’re interested in brains, so check it out!)

Onto “SynOx” (synthetic oxytocin) which is really, from what I understand, simulates oxytocin but activating oxytocin receptors on neurons (Lauren Miller doesn’t go into this much detail on how SynOx works, but I’m just trying to understand by talking through it so bear with me). First of all, Lauren Miller describes oxytocin as the “love drug” which isn’t exactly true… it’s more of a bonding “drug”. Love is a little but more complicated than oxytocin release. Not that big of a deal, but I thought I’d point it out.

Unfortunately, SynOx has a major role in the plot… and it doesn’t… work. Basically, the big bad corporation is relying on SynOx to make consumers trust their products unconditionally by injecting people with SynOx nanobots under the guise of a flu shot. That way the nanobots can get into their brains and they can be forced to trust everything Lux suggests. Essential mass mind control. Theoretically that could actually work… BUT the nanobots would never be able to cross the blood-brain barrier to actually get into the brain, and therefor wouldn’t be there to allow Gnosis to control people. Did that make sense? Basically, SynOx is the soldier, the brain is enemy headquarters. But enemy headquarters is so highly reinforced that the soldier can’t get in to do its job, so it’s left out in the cold with no power. Maybe I just confused you, but what I’m saying is that this SynOx would never work as a mind control device unless it is injected directly into the brain (or even spinal cord)… through the skull and everything. That being said, the evil plot would have failed form the get-go.

And yes, I do hate being this rational sometimes because suspension of disbelief is very difficult and makes it very hard for me to enjoy some works of fiction.      

Now the little things.

In the synopsis: “Rory Vaugh: a brainy sixteen-year-old…”. She’s also a “hepta” which means she shows aptitude in all seven liberal arts at Theden and makes her the smartest kid at school. Well, she sure doesn’t act it.

She can’t tell the difference between Arabic and Hebrew writing. I mean… are you serious? Have you seen them? They look nothing alike.

Doesn’t see the value of experiments in ethics such as the Trolley Problem. I mean, one of the liberal arts is philosophy and she’s supposed to be naturally gifted at it… but I guess not.

Proudly states she took human anatomy in grade nine (and considers herself an expert from that one class in middle school)… but doesn’t know how ABO relates to blood. I guess she forgot the mention she failed the class.

Also seems to consider herself an expert in genetics but never thinks to ask herself as to why she and her father share zero genetic traits.

She can’t figure out a simple riddle (You know that one about the letter e? Yeah that one)

It takes her forever to figure out who her biological father is (should be glaringly obvious from a certain physical description and all the other evidence Rory gathers)

Doesn’t know what a USB is or what it does (Oh, I’ll get to that in a minute)

There’s so much more… but the review would have to be a whole book if I were to list them all. Basically, if you’re going to call your character a genius, MAKE SURE THEY ACT LIKE ONE.

It seems that Lauren Miller forgot Rory’s blood type (little detail, I know), but instead of going back to look at what she wrote, she just gives her a new blood type. Rory goes from being A+ at p .226 to being AB+ at p. 237/238. That’s just lazy.

When Rory finds out the man that raised her and loved her doesn’t share her genetics, all of a sudden, he’s no longer her dad. Imagine being a vulnerable teenager who is being raised and loved by someone who may not be biologically related to you and reading that a character you may look up to goes through the same thing and says that that makes that parent’s love irrelevant. They aren’t related to you, so they’re not your dad/mum. How sad. 

Now, the USB thing. This book is set in the mid-2030s and they don’t use USBs anymore. Basically, they’re obsolete technology. And that’s fine! There will come a day when this is a reality. Here’s the thing, though: Rory the “genius” doesn’t know what it is or what it does. You expect me to believe that? When I see a floppy disk (which I have never used), I know what it is and how it works. Even a telegraph! I’ve only ever seen pictures of telegraphs, but I know what they are and what they do.

Page 229. North says (in response to Rory talking about research and science):

“Whose research are we talking about here?” He scoffed. “’Science’ with a capital S? The same geniuses who said the Earth was the center of the universe?”

Um… the church actually said that. And then they murdered anyone who dared to say otherwise. Wrong “geniuses”, genius. (Also, scientists rethink their beliefs all the time, and are more than willing to accept discoveries that overwrite their previous beliefs as long as there is evidence. Just saying.)

Rory goes from relying solely on Lux to make her decision to criticizing everyone who does the exact same thing within a few pages. Hypocrisy, not my favourite.

Hershey is described as a naturally beautiful woman who wears makeup to highlight that beauty… but the tone of the narration suggests that that’s a bad thing? Gross.

When they are preparing for the final boss fight, Rory wants North to write an algorithm that will reverse Lux’s algorithm. North says that it would take weeks for a professional programmer to write an algorithm like that… than proceeds to do it overnight. And manages to get some roofies to assault Liam.

North gifts Rory with a necklace that contains a tracking device and a camera… and she thinks that’s romantic and sweet because hE cArEs. I… have no words for how creepy (and honestly bordering on abusive) that is.

So, in conclusion, I feel that Lauren Miller wrote an offensive mess that didn’t know what the hell it was talking about, topped with despicable (and flat) characters that think drugging someone against their will is okay as long as the drug you use is legal.

The end! 😊

Oh yeah, 1 out of 5 stars!

[awesomelisaremoaner-blog]

Combatting Cummings Communications Campaign

So, here they are.

Three road-tested and ready to go campaign messages designed to strike at the wavering hearts of a few hundred thousand people in a smattering of marginal constituencies that Dominic Cummings knows he needs to win if he is to save Brexit and place Boris ‘Bozza’ Johnson on the Iron Throne of rUK until god knows when.

These simple, pared-back statements have been focus-grouped to death, and are now finely-honed weapons of mass persuasion. They are to be feared.

They will be repeated ENDLESSLY by the Conservativeratti, hoping that, over time, the statements will smash their way into the consciousnesses of ordinary people, grab ahold of their amygdalas, and squeeze a vote for the Tories out of their ordinary hands.

But there are two great things about these statements:

1.    They tell us lots about what Dominic Cummings has learnt from his focus groups

2.    They can be killed.

Let’s deal with point 2 first.

Behavioural science tells us that if you keep repeating a statement enough, eventually it will become truth. This is why Donald Trump says ‘Fake News’ a lot. If you keep repeating something that taps into people’s emotions, you will have an even easier job. And if that thing you repeat is very simple to say, job is most definitely a goodun.

These days lots of bad people on the depressing side of politics have worked this out, and the internet is abuzz with the sounds of bite-size populist sentiments pouring unwantedly into the minds of defenceless populaces, from Budapest to Beijing.

BUT – behavioural science also tells us how to effectively debunk these unhealthy mind viruses, strip them of their power and turn them into weapons that actually do the opposite of what was originally intended, like a re-programmed Terminator.

This was done to some effect in the 2017 election, when Theresa May’s ‘Strong and Stable’ message gradually became paired with a ‘Weak and Wobbly’ counter-message (on t’internet at least), which – allied with her increasingly wobbly performances - made repeating the phrase more of a liability than a strength. By the end of the campaign they had stopped using it altogether.

And that’s what we are going to try and do this time around – take super-villian Dominic’s campaign messages apart, and reconstitute them as something remain-y.

This is an eminently winnable fight. The Conservative victory absolutely depends on getting the kind of people who hate Brexit but also hate Jeremy Corbyn and thought Ed Miliband was a bit wet to say ‘fuck it, there’s no one else, I have to vote for Boris fucking Johnson because I am a Conservative voter’.

whereas, our victory depends on getting these lovely people to say “I don’t feel good about voting for Boris Johnson, and I never wanted Brexit anyway.” And then either voting for someone else or just going to the pub and saying fuck it all and not voting.

By the way - they are not going to vote for Corbyn, okay?

I know loads of these people, and so do you. They feel politically homeless and are ripe for conversion.

So, what does behavioural science say about how exactly you counter Dominic’s misinformation? Well, there are certain key principles:

1.    Never re-state the myth. In 2017, too many people would say “it doesn’t sound very ‘Strong and Stable’ if you can’t turn up to your own debate. Sounds more like weakness”. This is wrong, wrong, wrong. All you are doing is strengthening the phrase ‘Strong and stable’ in someone’s mind. No, instead you must have a…

2.    Persuasive alternative counter message. Which you repeat anytime you come across the original. This counter message should directly relate to the original message (e.g. ‘weak and wobbly’ scans like ‘strong and stable’), and it should contradict its impact.

3.    It should be simply expressed

4.    It should be framed to appeal to YOUR audience.

So, let’s look at the three Conservative statements and see what they can tell us about how to destroy them. Here they are:

1.    We will get Brexit done by October 31st

2.    We are the Party of the people

3.    We will take this country forward.

I am going to deal with the last one first, as I think this is the common theme that will underpin a lot of what the Tories try to do over the next few weeks.

We will take this country forward

It’s clear that much of the clash and thunder of Bozza’s arrival in Number 10 over the last few weeks have been about creating the illusion of busyness and purpose. ‘At least he is doing something’ cries Dominic’s target audience, and this message is designed to appeal further to that powerful sentiment of frustration.

This central idea of forward momentum, impetus, activity, inevitability is going to be big for the Tories. They will complain that they were dragged into an election they did not want, and only they, not the squabbling remainers or even parliament as a whole, have the sense of initiative to get us out of the morass.

And it makes some intuitive sense. They do have a plan (a stupid, self-serving one), and they are certainly very focused on winning over the next few weeks (for the benefit of the Conservative party if not the country). So, you can’t challenge this myth by saying, “no, you are not going forward”. They are most definitely in motion.

What you have to say instead is “But they are heading in the wrong direction.”

It’s that simple: “The Tories are steering Britain in the wrong direction.”

Easy. Say that whenever you hear this ‘going forward’ line, and it will become a rock of Kryptonite around the neck for them.

Or, in the mocked-up parody campaign posters: ‘We are taking this country in the wrong direction” under a big picture of Boris’ mug.

Of course, you will have to be able to justify why you think they are pointing us in the wrong direction – but as soon as you do that you have WON, because now we are not talking about ‘forward’, but about ‘wrong direction’.

And it’s easy to justify, because not only is Brexit a BAD thing, but also they are spectacularly unprepared for any of the logistical issues of either shit Brexit, or terrifically shit Brexit, PLUS they are not going to get any meaningful changes to a thrice-rejected deal so we are either going to be a vassal state or watching fist fights breakout in chemists all over the country over the availability of Epipens  or both.

See – wrong direction.

Which brings me to point 1.

We will get Brexit done by October 31st

So, once again, the way to deal with this is not to say ‘no, you won’t’, or ‘it’s a coup and the Queen will stop you’ or anything else silly – that will not appeal to our target audience.

The power of this statement comes from (1) implying that the endless debates and fannying about around Brexit will be over if we just lie back and let Bozza get on with it, and (2) that this is not such a bad thing after all – in fact it’s all fine and we might as well be cheered by his jollying, can-do demeanour rather be positively sickened by it.

It’s key to challenge this ‘not such a bad thing after all’ emotion with its converse – Brexit is in fact a terrible, terrible thing (for many of the reasons listed above).

To this end, we have had a stroke of good luck, courtesy of Theresa May no less, who managed to delay the date of Brexit doom to October 31st. Or Halloween.

Yes, Halloween.

Brexit is coming on Halloween.

And thus it is easy to pair evil with evil in the mind of the floating voter.

There are many possible permutations, e.g.:

·     Boris’ Halloween Horror Show is coming

·     It’ll be a real fright night this Halloween

·     Don’t let your kids see what Weird Uncle Boris has planned for them, etc.

The important thing is to pair the October the 31st thing with fear.

And yes, here at last we can use Project Fear to our advantage. If someone mentions it, we can say “Yes, it is Project Fear – because Boris is about to make Project Fear a reality – on Halloween... Steve Barclay said last week they haven’t even started talking yet about how to keep car parts supply chains running after Brexit – WTF?!”

See – turn their weapons on them.

This can be fun, this can be playful. We can make memes where Boris is a scary clown. We can make jokes. We can make deep fakes.

The important thing is October 31st stops being a nothingburger, and starts being something that people might want to think carefully about before rushing headlong into it.

So we have:

·     Boris’ Halloween Horror Show is coming

·     He’s steering Britain in the wrong direction!

I think these two ideas play well off what I imagine are Bozza’s brand weaknesses - his underlying associations with being reckless, slapdash, mendacious and spivvy. Our target voter has all these doubts about him too.

We are the Party of the people

So this is the Tories attempt to roll their tanks on to traditional Labour territory, by indicating that they are the true champions of the 2016 popular vote, PLUS this probably also encapsulates their crowd pleasing policies on the NHS, policing and crime.

You can’t challenge this by pointing out (as I am sure Labour supporters are minded to do) that no they are bloody not the Party of the people. Trying to explain who actually influences Tory policy and how that tends not to benefit the person in the street is all a bit ‘yawn’ and won’t actually register with disengaged voters.

No, we need something cleverer and something that skewers the meaning at the heart of the message.

I think the solution is two fold:

One – the statement refers to ‘the people’ like we were one big homogenous mass of dutiful subjects, but the truth is vast swathes of the country are not reconciled to Brexit and never will be. They are in open rebellion against their flagship policy.

Most polls show more than 50% support for remain these days – so even those soft Tory voters who are leaning towards voting for him for want of any other obvious candidate do not feel truly represented by him.

Boris is acting like he is the unifying figure that can bring the country back together, and this is where we must challenge the statement. He is not uniting us at all. We are a divided people.

And this gives us the key to unravel the second part of the sentence – that reference to the big P Conservative Party.

The sentence implies that the Conservative party is acting with one voice (trying desperately to draw on that ‘stability’ that they have long ago squandered) – but the plain truth is they are divided too.

MPs are resigning, others are in open rebellion and the executive is calling for de-selection. They, like the people are split down the middle.

So there you have it:

“A divided party can never unite our country”.

The final message:

·     Boris’ Halloween Horror Show is coming

·     His divided party can never unite our country

·     He’s steering Britain in the wrong direction!

Getting the message out

It’s clear from 2016 that Dominic has lots of whizzy tools for targeting his message where it needs to go, and you may not.

But you do know soft Tories, lots of them.

What you need to do now is to deliver this message – by sharing it on social media – into the heart of the conversation about who should run our country so it changes the dialogue and makes everything they try to do work against them.

You are like Han Solo flying the Millenium Falcon deep inside the Death Star, Frodo lobbing Gollum into the Cracks of Doom, Arya pulling the knife-drop trick on the Night King. Watch the waves of destruction spread.

Thanks for listening and good luck.

[bitchinfitness]

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Should I do keto, slimming world, fed or fasted training, cut carbs, intuitive eating, meal replacement shakes, 😱

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