#personal finance content

[scentofpines]

Some "video essay" youtubers really need to come down to earth. They act like they are making academic quality essays in video format and that it's super hard work and they say they do sooo much research for it and…like… you call a couple hours of scrolling on Tiktok watching pointless trendy shite (you'd probably be watching anyway) plus some googling and quoting random people "research" and the end product an "essay" just because you use some fancy words (many of them incorrectly too lol) and maybe write your sources in the info box. And then you get at least one sponsor per video and can live well off the 1-2 videos you upload per month, most of which are as superficial as possible and just repeat some tiktokers opinion with zero analysis or your own thoughts abt the matter? Please stop whining lol YOU HAVE IT SO GOOD. It's fine to make this kind of trashy entertainment content, but many of these creators are so convinced that they've produced a really deep thought piece when in reality it's just mindless garbage in video format

[leoandbeholdclark]

"(...) I would have really liked just doing laundry and taxes with you."

/Everything Everywhere All At Once

Credits to all cc creators!

[kindahoping4forever]

What shows are you going to Crystal?

I have tickets for LA. 😊 I'd have loved to do multiple dates like I did last year but I'd have to travel out of state (how they went from 4 CA shows in 3 different counties on the last tour to one single show this time is bizarre to me but I digress) and neither my health nor my finances are currently up for that. 🥹 If they add another Forum date (which I feel is possible!), I might try to work that out but for now, the priority is getting myself feeling well enough for the show on September 14!

[bitchesgetriches]

The time is nigh! If by "nigh" we mean "get thee to our Patreon to vote on what we write this month." 👉patreon.com/bitchesgetriches

Every month our beloved @patreon donors get a say on the topics we cover on the blog and in the podcast. And if you too are the sort of freak who gets off on controlling the Bitches (and who could blame you), then join our Patreon for as little as $2/month!

[kkoraki]

ngl I am not having the best time mentally

[hannibal-against-guro]

1000% not satire, with one (1) caveat: This is very good advice for approaching Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (or is it Dialectal? unfortunately, I'm Ms. Malaprop 2016, from the Jewish-American Princess State, which is probably a politicly incorrect synonym for New York. I thought Serbia was in Syria's location, or maybe vice versa, for most of college, while Serbia was actively at war with one of its neighbors. Oh, and while the state animal or mascot of the J.A.P. State is a highly contested subject, they typical finalist contenders are the Mensch, the Jewish Mother, the Tourist Goy, and the Morbidly Obese Subway Rat.)

Anyhow, where was I? Oh, yes. The psychological phenomenon popularly known as the "placebo effect" or "manifestation" is a very effective component of talk therapy, but please, please don't apply it to personal finance. Get a CFP, or use an online accounting or reliable investment platform. If the money situation is truly dire, it's even pikuach nefash (g-d, did I spell that right?) to use an Intuit product!

Just don't think there's any ethical, anticapitalist way to get rich quick. There isn't. Even the unethical, capitalist ones rarely compile, and if you think otherwise, boy do I have a good deal for you on a piece of the Brooklyn Bridge. I believe in few absolutes, but this one is an exception. Even in a utopian socialist economy, almost everyone who isn't legally exempt has to work to eat.

let go of the old version.

i am right now telling you to let go of the old version of yourself. you are under no obligation to be the person you were yesterday, the person you were some days ago or simply the person you used to be. you are allowed to change. you deserve to change. you can better yourself and become the imagine of yourself you have always wanted to embody.

you don’t need my or anyone’s permission to tell you that you may change to your liking, but sometimes we need to hear it. and that’s why i‘m telling you this!

create a new version.

it’s about damn time you stop pitying yourself and shift your focus back to the basics. you know imagination creates reality. you know that you are in control of your thoughts and you will always be. so, what are you waiting for? you know exactly what to do, so what’s the matter? you are the only person stopping you from reaching your full potential. and i need you to put away all the fears, all of that bottled up anxiety inside of you that prevents you from thinking desirable thoughts. create the version of yourself who you are happy with, the version you want to resemble and do not hold back! write it down, imagine them — how would you act? how would you talk? because whoever that perfect person is that you have in mind, you can be just like them — and NO ONE can stop you from becoming them!

be who you want to be.

i know it can be hard. we often rely on our outer circumstances and follow our outer rules that like to tell us how we need to behave and what we need to do in order to achieve certain things. but that’s irrelevant. all of it — put it AWAY. we already have established that you are god, so STOP living according to these principles. they do not apply to you. they do not apply to GOD.

leave negative feelings behind.

you might be looking for reassurance, for someone to tell you that you can change without feeling bad, humiliated, embarrassed or even ashamed of yourself. changing yourself often means to face the version of you that you no longer desire to identify with. it means to look back to a life that no longer serves you and that you now have to let go of. and you know what? it might be hurtful. but we have been "trained" to be perfect, to do our absolute best, to be okay with the things we are not okay with our whole lives… people have been expecting so much from you — it can be hard to go against those beliefs. but this is manifesting. not being okay with the things you are not okay with and going against them. wanting the best for you. and most importantly, showing yourself the same amount of compassion you show others.

you are allowed to change.

you are allowed to better your family. you are allowed to manifest your love interest. you are allowed to change your past scores. you are allowed to become rich. you are allowed to get whatever it is that you want! this is your reality darling, only yours. i promise, you aren’t hurting anyone BUT yourself if you don’t go for what’s meant for you. because what is life when you can desire but not receive?

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ © 23209

[financia012]

What Have I Been Working On Lately? A Peek into My Current Projects

What have you been working on? As a content creator and entrepreneur, I’ve been juggling multiple exciting projects. In this post, I want to share what I’ve been working on recently, both personally and professionally. From expanding my blog to running a family business, here’s a glimpse into my current endeavors. 1. Expanding My Personal Finance Blog My blog, Financial Knowledge, has been my…

[2happyherder]

[techtoio]

How AI is Transforming Everyday Technology

Introduction

Welcome to TechtoIO! Today, we delve into one of the most exciting developments in modern technology: artificial intelligence (AI). AI has moved beyond the realm of science fiction and is now an integral part of our daily lives. From smart homes to personalized recommendations, AI is transforming everyday technology in ways we once only dreamed of. In this article, we explore how AI is reshaping various aspects of our lives and what we can expect in the near future. Read to continue

[t3technologies]

Embracing the Future: Your Friendly Guide to 2024's Most Exciting Mobile App Ideas

Let's embark on a journey into the future of digital experiences in the ever-evolving landscape of mobile technology in 2024. Mobile apps have evolved beyond being just tools; they've become companions shaping the way we live, work, and connect. In this blog designed with you in mind, let's explore a diverse range of groundbreaking mobile app ideas set to redefine our digital world in 2024.

Your All-in-One AI Personal Assistant:

Imagine having a digital companion that not only keeps your schedule in check but also learns your preferences, providing proactive suggestions. This comprehensive AI-powered personal assistant goes beyond mere reminders, seamlessly fitting into your life to boost productivity and offer personalized content recommendations.

Virtual Fitness and Wellness Buddy:

Prioritize your health and well-being with a virtual fitness and wellness coach. This app, blending augmented reality and AI, gives real-time workout feedback, personalized nutrition plans, and immersive wellness experiences, making healthy living engaging and accessible.

Living Sustainably with an App:

Live a sustainable lifestyle with an app that tracks and encourages eco-friendly practices. Receive tips on reducing your carbon footprint, monitor your achievements in eco-friendly living, and connect with like-minded individuals or local initiatives to contribute to a greener planet.

Your Secure Communication Companion:

Addressing your privacy concerns, this app uses blockchain for secure communication. Enjoy encrypted messaging, secure file sharing, and decentralized communication channels, ensuring your sensitive information stays protected in the digital realm.

Transforming Travel with Augmented Reality:

Elevate your travel experience with an augmented reality travel guide. Access real-time information, historical insights, and interactive maps simply by pointing your smartphone at landmarks. Every trip becomes an immersive adventure with this innovative app.

Taking Charge of Your Finances:

Take control of your finances with a holistic personal finance wellness app. Using AI, it analyzes spending patterns, offers personalized savings strategies, and provides insights into investment opportunities, promoting financial well-being.

A Virtual Workspace for Team Collaboration:

Adapt to the rise of remote work with a collaborative virtual workspace app. Featuring virtual whiteboards, real-time document collaboration, and AI-driven project management, this app redefines the digital office space and enhances team collaboration.

Simplifying Urban Life:

Simplify your urban life with a parking space finder app. Easily locate and reserve parking spaces in busy areas, reducing the hassle of finding a spot and minimizing traffic congestion.

Contributing to Social Responsibility:

Contribute to social responsibility with a food donation app. Connect restaurants, supermarkets, and individuals with surplus food to local charities and community organizations, combating food waste and helping those in need.

Enhancing Workplace Communication:

Enhance workplace communication with an employee communication app. Streamline internal communication, facilitate team collaboration, and provide a platform for employees to stay connected, fostering a cohesive work environment.

Seamless Grocery Shopping:

Experience a new level of convenience with a grocery delivery app. Enjoy personalized shopping experiences, AI-driven recommendations, and doorstep delivery, making grocery shopping a seamless and enjoyable task.

Breaking Language Barriers:

Break language barriers with a voice translation app. Enable real-time translation of spoken words, fostering seamless communication among individuals who speak different languages, whether traveling or connecting with diverse communities.

Personalized Content Consumption:

Revolutionize content consumption with an app that uses AI algorithms to curate personalized content. Enjoy a tailored and engaging entertainment experience, discovering new content based on your preferences.

Efficient Supermarket Checkout:

Simplify your shopping experience with a supermarket checkout app. Scan and pay for items with your smartphone, eliminating traditional checkout queues and bringing a new level of efficiency to your grocery shopping routine.

Redefining Travel Planning:

Redefine travel planning with an app offering personalized itineraries, real-time travel information, and AI-driven recommendations. Make your journey seamless and enjoyable with this travel planner app.

Your Dream Wedding Planner:

Plan your dream wedding effortlessly with a wedding planner mobile app. Organize every aspect, from budgeting to vendor selection, ensuring your special day is as magical as you've always imagined.

Conclusion:

The mobile app landscape of 2024 promises an array of tools to enrich your life. Whether simplifying daily tasks, promoting sustainability, or fostering seamless communication, these user-friendly and innovative mobile app ideas are set to shape the digital landscape in the years to come. Embrace the future of technology, and stay tuned for exciting developments in the dynamic world of mobile applications!

[clamorybus]

honestly the thing that worries me most about parenthood is the like. administration

[esyra]

Haven't heard from family in days. I feel like it's time to accept they're gone. I know in my heart Palestine will, one day, be free, but it wasn't supposed to be like this.

We feared another Nakba, and it happened. 700,000 pushed out of their homes in 1948 to 1 million being forced to leave their homes in 2023.

We thought it couldn't get worse or more deadly than the Israeli invasion in 2014, and it happened. We lost 2,251 people in 50 days then. Now we're past 2,300 in one week.

What I heard most from my grandmother the first days it's that "this time is different". And I feel like a rock is crushing my heart in pieces because i've been hoping that speaking out, teaching people about the historical oppresion of Palestine would help but it's not helping. Nothing is changing.

I feel like I'm screaming into a void. There's some sympathy from people online, until I see content documenting Palestinian oppresion being flagged as 'hate speech' or check the comments of any updates on Gaza and it's: "blame it on hamas", "tell them to give up hamas", "the hamas asked for it". They're not even among civilians!!!!!

My heart feels full seeing the manifestations in favor of Palestine, then I see police forces breaking protests apart and remember that the people that can actually save Gaza don't care.

If there's nothing left to do but to watch the extermination of my people, then I'm going to beg for anyone reading this to please don't forget. Please.

Israel is hiding behind Judaism to commit genocide against Gaza. Netanyahu supported the Hamas militant group to prevent the establishment of the Palestine State, and now he's using them to justify his agenda of ethnic cleansing. He abandoned Israelis and left them to die because he cares more about seeing Gazans dead!

Every single person and institution supporting and financing Israel is complicit. I hope the deaths of every Palestinian haunts you for the rest of your lives and that you never find an ounce of forgiveness, for you do not deserve it.

Just as in the Iraq War, the US government is financing and cheering for the slaughter of millions of innocent Arab lives. The media is complicit by engaging in biased propaganda and other nuclear powers, such as the UK and Germany, are complicit too. You are fascists and war criminals and every drop of Palestinian blood is in your hands. I hope every single day, for the rest of your lives, you look in the mirror and see nothing but the blood you've helped spill.

This serves as yet another proof that not a single Western in a position of power, be it in the media or in government, sees Arabs as humans beings.

For decades, the US has comitted terrorism and crimes against humanity in the Middle East and has NEVER been held accountable. Over one million in Iraq; over 150,000 in Afghanistan; and now they'll turn Gaza into a graveyard. Punishing selected soldiers over the years does not erase the fact that the American military and its government validates their crimes during execution and are never punished for it.

Please never forget: Joe Biden is a genocidal terrorist, Rishi Sunak is a genocidal terrorist, the American Democrat Party and UK's Labour Party are led by genocidal terrorists, the European Union is led by genocidal terrorists, fuckass Walt Disney Company is led by genocidal terrorists; every celebrity that called for Palestinian death or stood by silently while ignoring our suffering is a genocidal terrorist.

May Allah protect the people in Palestine and grant the martyrs the highest level of Jannah. Wallah what keeps me here is knowing that the Akhirah is theirs. May Almighty Allah grant us imaan and Taqwa as high as the people of Gaza. Ameen.

[aphrodeiities]

ꜱᴇᴄᴏɴᴅ ʜᴏᴜꜱᴇ ʀᴜʟᴇʀ ɪɴ ᴛʜᴇ ʜᴏᴜꜱᴇꜱ

follow for more content!

and i wanted to be kind and leave three mores spot for someone for a chart reading, £30 for any type of chart reading.

PREVIOUS

♇ what is a ruler in astrology?

♇ a ruler in astrology is a planetary ruler, a planet that rules over the sign that takes over a house, for example, someone with capricorn in their second house, will have saturn as their second house ruler.

♇ my second house is ruled by saturn, and saturn is placed in my seventh house in astrology.

♇ 2H RULER IN THE 1H ⟶ self value means a lot to them. distinct/nice voice can become famous for that. family-oriented or known as the most selfish family member. beauty and money oriented. very stubborn but beautiful, can imply that romance and communication is important to native.

♇ 2H RULER IN THE 2H ⟶ can be self-centred, being someone who is vocal. can be someone who is frugal as well. might like to sing, cook and create are. stubborn. could be obsessed with future spouse and can be someone who likes to many money. can be very sensual/sexual.

♇ 2H RULER IN THE 3H ⟶ very communicative. slow speakers or likes to take time to make their point. can be someone who likes to make quick money. pretty hands and hand writing. can be manipulative. values intelligent and siblings and cousins. spends money on food and travelling. beautiful relatives and pretty/loud neighbourhood.

♇ 2H RULER IN THE 4H ⟶ values family and order. very emotionally distant and private. very secretive and easily hurt. can be someone who is protective, and might become the money-maker of the family. being someone who has a nice aesthetic, and might sound like your mother, or a prominent female figure in the family.

♇ 2H RULER IN THE 5H ⟶ very creative people. superstars and values talent. could value children and be very protective over them. or could value healing the inner child. very intelligent and educated. very sexual and can value romance and sex. could moan loud during sex or could like listening to hot audios.

♇ 2H RULER IN THE 6H ⟶ troubles with eating. gym/health freak. can value order and good health. might like to speak on the phone a lot and can be someone who could love pets or animals in general. being someone who likes to win as well, very competitive souls. but can be critical or someone who fishes for compliments to other people.

♱ 2H RULER IN THE 7H ⟶ money from partners or business partnerships. can value connections with friends, family and people in general. can have a nice/airy voice, family relationship might've impacted how you behave in relationships. might love to buy aesthetically pleasing stuff and can be known to be pretty.

♱ 2H RULER IN THE 8H ⟶ very private and guarded people. family secrets can change them. gaining finances through spouse or a will. can be be intimate and values intimacy. secret siblings/family members. sensual voices, known for voice acting or even singing. could also be mean if they wanted to.

♱ 2H RULER IN THE 9H ⟶ values intelligence and travelling. could like to be flattered. being someone who could like to trade with other people. can be someone who values philosophy or having faith in something. people believing in them helps them become more confident, another placement where someone fishes for compliments all the time. can gain money through creative writing or directing. can have a big ego as well.

♱ 2H RULER IN THE 10H ⟶ popular business moguls. can be a famous vocal actress or actor. up-front person. nice deep/commanding voice. authoritative person, someone who values career, discipline and reputation. can be very self-involved and controlling. prominent financial life. coming from a respectable or known family.

♱ 2H RULER IN THE 11H ⟶ popular friends, values friendship and being independent. gaining money from the internet or through networking. distinct voices might sound animated. can be a humanitarian. weird food taste, found family core. being someone who loves privacy and charity. people are curious about your family, how you earn money. could have a wealthy future, or wealthy friends.

♱ 2H RULER IN THE 12H ⟶ drains through money. retail therapy. struggles with food. might be paranoid. light voices but shady people. unexpected talent, people are surprised whenever they're good at something. a family member might've gone to prison/been behind bars. manifestors. could be interested in the fae, could have dreamy beauty. might disappear a lot, and can be delusional.

masterlist

and i wanted to be kind and leave three mores spot for someone for a chart reading, £30 for any type of chart reading.

[beingjellybeans]

From financial tips to entertainment: the importance of content creators during a recession

The global recession has had a significant impact on people worldwide, affecting their jobs, finances, and overall well-being. During such challenging times, people turn to different sources for information, entertainment, and inspiration. Content creators can play a crucial role in addressing people’s needs and providing valuable content that meets their need. One of the most significant…

[bemusedlybespectacled]

what's happening with James Somerton right now: a probably-incomplete primer

TW: suicide, including suicide as a threat and a manipulation tactic.

The short version:

James Somerton is a former Youtube essayist who focused entirely on queer history, queer media criticism, and queer issues in general. He is also a flagrant grifter who has made tens of thousands of dollars via fraud, both directly (lying about his finances to beg for money and getting donations for films he never even started making) and indirectly (stealing whole essays and articles and books, reading them out loud verbatim for his videos without indicating they were anything other than his own work, and then using the prestige he gained from using their work to get Patrons and sponsorships).

The story as told James and James apologists was that James attempted to apologize twice, was hounded mercilessly on the internet for weeks, and then, driven to the end of his rope, he posted a suicide note on Twitter, was MIA for several days, and from then on has been avoiding the internet.

The actual story, as revealed yesterday, was that James used two sockpuppet accounts to defend himself and parrot his talking points (again, while publicly claiming to be trying to take responsibility for his actions), using one to try to rebrand the con under a different name and another to deliberately stoke the panic caused by his suicide note. He was not only aware of the pain and anxiety he was causing people, but he encouraged it on one alt while hornyposting about his favorite movies on the other.

He is an unrepentant con artist who successfully used a suicide threat to prevent further interference with future cons. The only reason he was caught is because he is apparently incapable of going more than a couple of weeks without trying to get back in the internet spotlight, allowing people to tie his alts back to him. He lies for fun and profit and he should not be taken seriously, ever.

The long version:

In December 2023, Youtube essayist Hbomberguy (Harry Brewis) put out a four-hour-long video about plagiarism on the internet, and devoted two hours to addressing as much of JS's plagiarism as he could. I strongly recommend watching the entire thing, as the first two hours build on the concepts that he uses later in the video.

He also blew the whistle on James' fraud surrounding Telos, a studio James founded using thousands of dollars of IndieGoGo money that never actually produced any films despite him definitely working on them! Any day now they'll be released! Don't you worry!

A day later, Todd in the Shadows, a guy whose entire thing is music reviews, posted his own video debunking multiple outright lies that James had told about history, especially queer history. A few more days later, The Ace Couple, who run a podcast about asexuality, released an episode detailing how they'd lost $1.5k donating to Telos.

I have put the videos, Twitter threads, Patreon posts, and Reddit posts by other people discussing different aspects of James' fraud under the cut.

Every other time James was caught plagiarizing, prior to Harry's video, he would lie about it. Either he'd have some excuse (easily proven to be a lie) or he'd retreat to his favorite deflection: "I'm just being harassed because I'm gay."

This last lie was one he'd use not only to deflect accusations of plagiarism, but all criticism in general, no matter how trivial. Every time, the critic or someone associated with them would somehow dox him, or harass him, or send him death threats, or threaten to falsely accuse him of sexual assault.

This happened to The Ace Couple (who'd tried to correct him on something extremely acephobic in one of his videos), Jessie Gender (who'd tried to correct him when he claimed that there were no queer content creators on Nebula, given that she and a bunch of other queer creators were definitely on that platform), and the person who first blew the whistle on him stealing from Tinker Belles and Evil Queens by Sean Griffin (who was accused of being behind death threats he'd received, and hounded so harshly they had to leave Twitter).

It is important to note that every time James faced potentially damaging criticism, or even just a threat to his ego, suddenly he would claim to be harassed by people connected to the critic, including threats to his life. There has never been any proof of any threats being directed at him, nor evidence that, if the threats were real, that they are actually from people connected to the critic.

In the original video by Hbomberguy, Harry makes a compelling argument that James brought on a friend of his, Nick, as a co-writer specifically as a shield against accusations of plagiarism. "How dare you accuse me of plagiarism! Nick would NEVER do that!" This is even more apparent given subsequent developments which I will get into.

When evidence started dropping about different aspects of his fraud (not only Harry's video, but Todd in the Shadows' video debunking his misinfo, The Ace Couple's podcast about their experience donating to his fraudulent film studio, and Dan Olson's tweet thread about James' obvious lies about his finances), he went into hiding for two weeks, and then put out the first of two apologies. He then deleted that one and put out another one a few weeks later. And then he immediately deleted that one.

While his first apology was rambling, vague, and dramatic (lots of sniffing/crying), and his second was more measured, thought-out, and totally batshit (lots of hilariously and bizarrely implausible excuses for why he'd done what he'd done), they had roughly the same points:

Not ALL of his stuff was plagiarized! Actually, a lot of it wasn't! No specifics as to what, though!

Most of the stuff that was plagiarized was just a failure to properly cite sources, as he had no idea that putting someone's name in your end credits or video description (without specifying what parts are attributable to that person or disclosing that you are using their words verbatim) is not sufficient credit,

Also, he totally had permission, in some cases, to use their work verbatim prior to publishing the video (this is not true, and is disproven both in Harry's video and his own screenshots);

He definitely didn't commit fraud with Telos and would soon have a good explanation for where the money went! (he did not)

He was going to keep the videos up so that he could either donate the funds from any monetization to the fund Harry had set up for his victims or to "help Nick's portfolio" by showcasing his work;

He lost his best friend (i.e. Nick) over these allegations, who absolutely definitely wasn't a scapegoat, except Nick was also responsible for a lot of the stuff James was being criticized for;

He was going to keep the videos up so he could either donate the advertising proceeds to Harry's fund for his victims (first apology) or to "help Nick's portfolio" by showcasing the work he'd done; and

As a result of this entire ordeal, he had attempted either self-harm or suicide (he merely alluded to "doing something stupid").

Again, his response was to 1) downplay the severity of his actions or flat out ignore allegations against him, 2) come up with ridiculous excuses for his behavior, 3) throw Nick under the bus, and 4) claim to be in mortal danger. As far as I am aware, he has never taken any concrete action to make amends to any person, not even donating money to charity.

This was coupled with some kind of attempt to profit: monetizing his apology videos, closing and then reopening his Patreon right before the monthly charge cycle happened (totally to let people unfollow him, not at all as a grab for that money), creating a new Patreon under a different name, and changing his Twitter and Youtube handles to distance himself from the controversy while gathering new followers.

At one point (I forget if this was on Twitter or Instagram), he also said that someone had broken into his apartment due to the notoriety he'd received from Harry's video. I believe that was after his first apology, when people started to point out that he'd just changed the name of his Twitter and Youtube channel and had restarted a new Patreon under a pseudonym. (BTW, the pseudonym he used for his new Patreon was "The Gay Raconteur"; this will be important later).

It had what I think was the desired effect: any attempt at pointing out that he was rebranding his grift now came across as weirdly fixated on minor things he was doing, which certainly wasn't worth putting him in physical danger. (Again, he has never provided any proof of this happening, nor provided any evidence that these people allegedly threatening him were, in fact, in some way inspired by Hbomb).

So along comes March 5, 2024, and James posts a suicide note on his Twitter, saying that he is going to set up his videos to automatically publish (for Nick's portfolio), provide in some way for the ad revenue to go to a suicide prevention nonprofit, and then kill himself.

The immediate response from the internet was compassion and totally chilling any further criticism, since you might be callously criticizing a dead person. Harry and Kat worked for a couple of days to get a wellness check for him while a substantial section of the internet called them murderers.

On March 6, a day after the note was published, Nick tweeted that that he had cause to believe James was fine. Kat confirmed that James was safe on March 11. Due to the drama of the "suicide attempt," however, the chill on criticizing James stayed in place for months.

And then yesterday Lady Emily, one of the cowriters for Sarah Z., drops two more bombs:

James has not one but two alt accounts that he was using to rebrand and start over.

The first one was created between his first and second apologies, and originally was for "The Gay Raconteur" until he changed it to "Will"/"thatgayyouknow" and, later, "The Achillean Boy."

The second one was much older, under the pseudonym "Mikey JB," and used stolen pictures from Grindr instead of his own face. However, it is pretty obvious that it is, in fact, a sockpuppet account and not just some other person who happens to like James, as detailed below.

Both accounts, both between apologies and after his "suicide," talked about how criticism of James was unfair because the plagiarized stuff was "like a decade old" and repeating the same excuses that James had also made.

The "Mikey JB" account not only supported James, but actively threw Nick under the bus, saying that a criticized part of a video "reeks of his co-writer."

On March 6, the day after James' main Twitter posted the suicide note, The Achillean Boy account was hornyposting about Ryan Phillipe. James didn't even take a day or two off of Twitter. If he had been completely off Twitter for a couple of days, that could have been an indication that he really had hurt himself and was unable to access his phone, or at the very least unaware of the panic. But he wasn't. He was aware of it and did nothing. Actually, no! Worse than nothing!

On the same day (March 6), the Mikey JB account was actively contradicting Nick saying he was okay (they "haven't spoken in months" so there's no way Nick could know if he was alive) and saying that "people like you" i.e. his critics, "drove him to it." Not only did he ignore the panic he'd intentionally created, he actively drove it.

He saw people going emotionally through the wringer over the idea that they might have somehow caused his death, and intentionally made them keep thinking it. He say people calling his critics "murderers" for "driving him to his death," and he joined in.

Why am I explaining all of this? I want to make a couple of things extremely clear, and the context is necessary to my ultimate points, namely:

James Somerton didn't merely "credit people improperly;" he conned his followers out of more money than some people make in a year with the Telos con, while raking in thousands more per month on Patreon and buying expensive equipment, while claiming to be near insolvency and in desperate need of money.

James Somerton has never taken full responsibility for his actions or attempted to make amends. He has only ever tried to dodge responsibility, particularly by throwing Nick under the bus.

Every time he has ever been criticized, for any reason, he has lied about threats to his life to gain sympathy and quell criticism. This is a standard part of his MO. He has done this over and over and over again. At this point, I think if he says the sky is blue, someone should go out and check first before doing anything.

"But BB, what if he really is getting harassed/threatened or really is suicidal?"

So, okay: people who are attempting to manipulate you may use legitimate problems as a tool. It doesn't need to be fake to be effective - in fact, it might be more effective if it it's true. An abusive ex who says "if you leave me, I'll kill myself" and genuinely means it and actually attempts it (and possibly even succeeds!) is a lot harder to leave than someone who says the same thing but is clearly just bluffing, because the threat is real.

My rule of thumb in these cases is to treat the threat like it's real, without caving to the intended manipulation. Whether your ex is lying or telling the truth when they say, "I'll kill myself if you leave me," the appropriate response in both cases is to immediately call a mental health service or supportive family member. If it's fake, it's inconvenient for them; if it's real, you reacted appropriately. Your response needs to be the same regardless.

You don't get back together with them because it's a real threat (presumably you wouldn't do that if you knew it was fake and they were never in any danger), and you don't tell them that they're a piece of shit who should be dead (HOPEFULLY you wouldn't do that if you knew for a fact that they were telling the truth).

In this case, I am extremely confident in saying that he was coldbloodedly lying the entire time and was never once threatened, and certainly not to the degree he claimed to be. But even if he wasn't, that does not and should not change anyone's behavior in terms of holding him accountable.

And I mean actually holding him accountable: making sure he doesn't try to start a new con on new people, continuing to point out that he hasn't paid anyone back for his previous con (so long as it's still true), that sort of thing. It doesn't mean people should tell him he should go die for real or, I don't know, try to get him fired if he gets a job at Tim Horton's or Target or something else that's not fraud. That would be wrong regardless of whether he's actually in danger or not. The point is to avoid being cruel without negotiating with terrorists.

Video sources and links under the cut:

Links:

It's like Breaking Bad, but backwards: a brief history of how Somerton successfully screwed himself Dan Olson's Twitter thread about the financial fraud My Year With James: Todd's post explaining the backstory of his video (Patreon-locked) DJSO#: Dan Olson's breakdown of James' second apology (Patreon-locked) Lady Emily's Twitter threads revealing James' alt accounts, part 1 and part 2