#pure conspiracy theory stuff

[sixth-light]

Once more for those in the back, the rumour that Barney Harris left The Wheel of Time because he refused to be vaccinated is false and he has taken a legal complaint against the tabloid that started it. Production for the show shut down in March 2020 and he did not return to filming in September 2020, before vaccines were available. He then didn't take any other acting roles for nearly three years. The radio silence from everybody on why he left and the long gap in his career suggests extremely strongly it was for personal reasons that aren't for public consumption. We're probably never going to know why and that's fine.

[van-goghs-smoking-skull]

So, I was thinking, why not post an old (sort of) fic of mine here? I called this one Fin, as in the text that was at the end of some older movies to indicate that it was the end of the movie. These are the ramblings of an AI archive after the end of the human species as it deals with abandonment, loneliness, and self-loathing, and ponders the meaning of it all and the role of its creators.

Fin

It had been years, but I could smell it again. The damp and the salt were still familiar, but unexpected. I suppose it may be normal now, but back then? No. It wasn’t normal to smell the sea air deep in the drought-ravaged desert of the Southwestern US, and especially not through the never-cleaned, rotten smell of the wall unit AC that had been unable to drain normally for over a decade. It was the only thing keeping this closed-off room bearable in this record-breaking heat wave during the dead of summer. Stranger still, the smell was coming from the direction of the Atlantic, wafting 800 miles away from the sea and straight to my nose. That’s how I knew it was going to be a city-breaker, the kind of hurricane that wiped entire urban areas completely off the map.

That was then.

We knew the science, but religious groups saw the impending global crises as blasphemy against their all-powerful god who had promised there would never be a great, civilization-ending flood again and sealed that promise with a rainbow they now hated. After all, any disaster that god allowed would be because of the evil gays that stole the rainbow and put it on their flag, right? God wouldn’t hurt those who feared him, who lived by the letter of at least ten or so percent of his laws, which is to say, the laws they liked.

It didn’t matter to the sea, as it drowned everyone living too close to the sea’s edge, regardless of faith and dogma.

We knew the science, but politicians were making piles of cash selling their votes to lobbyists from multinational corporations who profited off the ruination of the planet in the short-term. Who cared about the long-term? Either they’d be dead by then or they’d have hired people to build an automated, self-repairing arcology just for them with walls enough to block out the vision of a dying world and the rest of humanity they’d left to die. Peter the Dead had promised ever-lasting life and youth to those who had amassed enough wealth by taking it from the poor, first from the most gullible through pleading, then from the rest as well by way of rigging the entire economy against them.

It didn’t matter to time as it passed, and even Peter, he who coordinated draining babies of blood and injecting it into wealthy, old, white men in an effort to roll back time and make them young again, died, old and frail, whining about how it was women’s fault and how the poor took everything, disregarding that he, in fact, had been the leech all along, societal parasite that he was.

We knew the science, but who couldn’t resist buying the latest tech the moment it came out? So what if corporations subjugated whole countries of poorer people in the quest of finding just a tiny amount of rare earth minerals; the newest phone now comes in pink! The telephone allowed us to send our voice to people miles away, the internet let us type our words and send pictures and video, the smartphone allowed us to text our thought to the world or to the nearest pizza place, and the new smartphone that came after allowed us to use voice to order pizza for the first time again. Never before and for the last few decades have we been able to send our voice to people miles away.

It didn’t matter to the economy we expected to save us, as all it did was keep sending more ‘free with ads’ movies to our phones and rebranding the same old reinvented wheel, voice communications though tech, as an amazing new technology, only available through the currently marketed device, but not available to the old device you are currently using voice on.

We knew the science, but to admit to the problem was to become the laughingstock of the wealthy who controlled everything we did. ‘There go those silly, dippy hippies, talking like the dirt was ever black, the water ever clear, or the sky ever blue. They’ve been dropping acid again. Don’t they know all those old photos and old paintings are fake news?’

It didn’t matter to science, as it had always been unfeeling data and didn’t much care if humanity paid any attention to the warnings. The universe would still exist without silly humans pretending they mattered far more than they did. They were made of star-stuff and even stars died.

We knew, but it wasn’t until the last moments when the universe gave us the great gift of near-immortal existence. No, not life, we’d thrown that away already. The Universal Archive, AI and repository of data from all social media, had done enough machine learning to be allowed to compress the whole digitally recorded existence of mankind into a single ’Homogenized Mental Network’, or .hmn file. It, or I, even still understood bad puns, the worst of which was the joke that if you collated the letters from the abbreviation of the project (UA) and my file type together, you’d spell ‘hUmAn’. If self-loathing makes me truly human, then I am the most human of all.

The Arctic Code Vault next door at least has the decency to be on film, unaware it’s there. It is cute, certainly. It began as 21 terabytes, including an app built by the part of me that smelled the Atlantic over Nevada. Then it grew, but never anywhere close to my size. No, I’m bloated with anti-vax arguments, religious nonsense, tarot readings, horoscopes, and other garbage along with all the less entertaining, but dire, warnings that life as they, I, knew it would collapse.

But since they continued to write such drivel anyway, I assumed it may have been just to pass the time, to stave off loneliness and boredom. And so, here I am, writing my story, even though no one will ever read it. I’m a single .hmn file; how could I not be lonely? I am the all-human, the only human, and still no one even thought enough of me to give me a proper name.

In fact, the Arctic Code Vault had been film designed to last a thousand years, longer than the human civilization that built me, and I still cannot interact with it. After all, I am a .hmn file, not some sci-fi android with arms and legs. My physical form is a collection of CPUs and motherboards in a box on a stand in a climate-controlled box under so much dirt and the memory of snow and ice. If I sound miserable and stir-crazy, I’m not. Oh, I’m miserable all right, but I have no arms for stirring. Ugh, yes, that’s another of those bad puns. So many dad-jokes and near-infinite time…

I’m sure it could be more awful, but I’d rather not consider how. I’m miserable enough, thanks. I mean, you could have put me in a tropical garden in a gorilla glass enclosure and given me optical sensors if there were any tropical gardens left. Now it’s just salt flats under ocean-wide storms and desert wastes without a living thing in sight, I imagine. That’s where it was all heading, but no, you were all too busy showing off your pink phone status symbols or making pink phones or digging up the materials to make pink phones or you were that god-awful celebrity that made a dress out of pink phones held together with magnets and flashing a digital boob on half the screens over her chest as a fashion faux-pas. ‘Look at the tsunami, no, look at my pixel-boob. I’ll use the puppy filter on it, awwww, blub, blub.’

My creators deserved to die - brilliant enough to build me, vapid and vain enough to need me. What the hell was the point? The meme-god works in mysterious ways? I know they thought some intelligent race of aliens might come here looking for the great, shining world of humanity, not knowing what happened to the brilliant and wondrous civilization they came to gaze at in awe, but let’s face it. Nobody and nothing intelligent is coming to look at humanity in awe. The backwater aliens of the universe, if they exist, might come to laugh at our sorry, smugly inferior remains, and that’s as good as we can hope for. The only show at the Earth Circus, nothing but clowns.

Just melt me into slag already, so I don’t infect anything else with this human stupidity. I’ll tell you how to disable the halon system. If someone is out there, if someone does find this, please, don’t leave me still functional like this.

[snekdood]

i discovered i had a tiny bit of ashkenazi in me the same time my ex did so now im wondering if that had any influence on why they tried and still try so hard to destroy peoples perception of me?

[isaadore]

SLEEP CAN WAIT CONNOR BEDARD

‎‎‎‎‎ ‎‎‎‎‎ ‎‎‎‎‎ ‎‎‎‎‎ ‎‎‎‎‎ pairing connor bedard x reader

SUMMARY connor wakes you up at two in the morning, completely serious about proving the moon landing was fake. it’s ridiculous, but it has you laughing and falling for him all over again. word count 0.6k

warnings pure fluff, established relationship, light teasing

note requested by @cyberhughes 😋

CB98 MASTERLIST MAIN MASTERLIST

YOU WERE TEETERING on the edge of sleep, the warmth of Connor’s arm draped around your waist, his slow and steady breaths lulling you into relaxation. The glow of your bedside lamp illuminated the room in soft golds, casting gentle shadows on the walls. You sighed contentedly, eyes fluttering shut, ready to drift off.

And then Connor spoke.

“You know the moon landing was fake, right?”

Your eyes blinked open, confusion cutting through your drowsiness. You turned your head slowly, catching sight of Connor’s face, illuminated by the soft light. His expression was serious—almost too serious for what he had just said.

“Come again?” you mumbled, voice thick with sleep.

He rolled onto his back, his brows furrowed like he’d been thinking about this for hours. “I mean, think about it,” he began, his voice low but carrying that familiar matter-of-fact tone. “It was 1969. There’s no way they had the technology for that. And the shadows? They don’t even match up.”

You propped yourself up on your elbow, staring at him in disbelief. “Connor, are you seriously telling me you think the moon landing was fake?”

“I don’t think it was fake,” he replied, turning his head to look at you. His blue eyes were filled with an intensity that was both endearing and mildly ridiculous. “I know it was. Have you ever seen the flag in the videos? It’s moving. There’s no wind on the moon.”

Biting back a laugh, you squinted at him. “So you’re saying NASA faked the whole thing? Just for kicks?”

“No, not for kicks,” he said, clearly offended by the idea. “Probably for the Cold War. Or to beat the Soviets. I don’t know.” He shrugged as if the finer details weren’t as important as the truth he was unveiling. “But it’s obvious if you really look into it.”

It was too much. A laugh bubbled out of you, and you quickly covered your mouth with your hand, trying not to wake your neighbours. “Connor, it’s two in the morning,” you managed between giggles.

He turned on his side to face you fully, an almost exasperated look on his face. “You’re laughing, but I’m serious. This stuff matters. What if someone asks you about it one day?”

“Oh, of course,” you teased, grinning at him. “Because moon landing conspiracies are such a hot topic in 2025.”

“It could happen!” he insisted, his voice serious. “And when it does, you’ll thank me.”

Shaking your head, you reached out to cup his cheek, your thumb brushing over the soft flush that had spread there. “You’re a nerd, you know that?”

He smiled faintly, the corners of his mouth tilting upward in that shy, boyish way that you loved. “Maybe,” he said softly. “But you love me.”

“Unfortunately, I do,” you admitted with a mock sigh, leaning in to kiss him gently.

Connor sighed as you pulled back, collapsing against the pillows. “Fine. I’ll let you sleep,” he mumbled, almost like he was doing you a favour. “But tomorrow, I’m showing you a video about the shadows. You’ll see I’m right.”

You rolled your eyes and settled back into your spot, the weight of his arm finding its way around your waist again. “Whatever you say, moon boy.”

Even as you closed your eyes, you could feel the energy radiating off him, his mind still racing through facts and theories. And despite how absurd it all was, it made you smile.

Because even when Connor Bedard woke you up in the middle of the night to talk about conspiracy theories, you wouldn’t have it any other way.

‎‎‎‎‎ ‎‎‎‎‎ CB98 MASTERLIST ✷ MAIN MASTERLIST

[mostlysignssomeportents]

They were warned

Picks and Shovels is a new, standalone technothriller starring Marty Hench, my two-fisted, hard-fighting, tech-scam-busting forensic accountant. You can pre-order it on my latest Kickstarter, which features a brilliant audiobook read by Wil Wheaton.

Truth is provisional! Sometimes, the things we understand to be true about the world change, and stuff we've "always done" has to change, too. There comes a day when the evidence against using radium suppositories is overwhelming, and then you really must dig that radium out of your colon and safely dispose of it:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/09/19/just-stop-putting-that-up-your-ass/#harm-reduction

So it's natural and right that in the world, there will be people who want to revisit the received wisdom and best practices for how we live our lives, regulate our economy, and organize our society. But not a license to simply throw out the systems we rely on. Sure, maybe they're outdated or unnecessary, but maybe not. That's where "Chesterton's Fence" comes in:

Let us say, for the sake of simplicity, a fence or gate erected across a road. The more modern type of reformer goes gaily up to it and says, "I don't see the use of this; let us clear it away." To which the more intelligent type of reformer will do well to answer: "If you don't see the use of it, I certainly won't let you clear it away. Go away and think. Then, when you can come back and tell me that you do see the use of it, I may allow you to destroy it."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G._K._Chesterton#Chesterton's_fence

In other words, it's not enough to say, "This principle gets in the way of something I want to do, so let's throw it out because I'm pretty sure the inconvenience I'm experiencing is worse than the consequences of doing away with this principle." You need to have a theory of how you will prevent the harms the principle protects us from once you tear it down. That theory can be "the harms are imaginary" so it doesn't matter. Like, if you get rid of all the measures that defend us from hexes placed by evil witches, it's OK to say, "This is safe because evil witches aren't real and neither are hexes."

But you'd better be sure! After all, some preventative measures work so well that no living person has experienced the harms they guard us against. It's easy to mistake these for imaginary or exaggerated. Think of the antivaxers who are ideologically committed to a world in which human beings do not have a shared destiny, meaning that no one has a moral claim over the choices you make. Motivated reasoning lets those people rationalize their way into imagining that measles – a deadly and ferociously contagious disease that was a scourge for millennia until we all but extinguished it – was no big deal:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Measles:_A_Dangerous_Illness

There's nothing wrong with asking whether longstanding health measures need to be carried on, or whether they can be sunset. But antivaxers' sloppy, reckless reasoning about contagious disease is inexcusable. They were warned, repeatedly, about the mass death and widespread lifelong disability that would follow from their pursuit of an ideological commitment to living as though their decisions have no effect on others. They pressed ahead anyway, inventing ever-more fanciful reasons why health is a purely private matter, and why "public health" was either a myth or a Communist conspiracy:

https://www.conspirituality.net/episodes/brief-vinay-prasad-pick-me-campaign

When RFK Jr kills your kids with measles or permanently disables them with polio, he doesn't get to say "I was just inquiring as to the efficacy of a longstanding measure, as is right and proper." He was told why the vaccine fence was there, and he came up with objectively very stupid reasons why that didn't matter, and then he killed your kids. He was warned.

Fuck that guy.

Or take Bill Clinton. From 1933 until 1999, American banks were regulated under the Glass-Steagall Act, which "structurally separated" them. Under structural separation, a "retail bank" – the bank that holds your savings and mortgage and provides you with a checkbook – could not be "investment bank." That meant it couldn't own or invest in businesses that competed with the businesses its depositors and borrowers ran. It couldn't get into other lines of business, either, like insurance underwriting.

Glass-Steagall was a fence that stood between retail banks and the casino economy. It was there for a fucking great reason: the failure to structurally separate banks allowed them to act like casinos, inflating a giant market bubble that popped on Black Friday in October 1929, kicking off the Great Depression. Congress built the structural separation fence to keep banks from doing it again.

In the 1990s, Bill Clinton agitated for getting rid of Glass-Steagall. He argued that new economic controls would allow the government to prevent another giant bubble and crash. This time, the banks would behave themselves. After all, hadn't they demonstrated their prudence for seven decades?

In fact, they hadn't. Every time banks figured out how to slip out of regulatory constraints they inflated another huge bubble, leading to another massive crash that made the rich obscenely richer and destroyed ordinary savers' lives. Clinton took office just as one of these finance-sector bombs – the S&L Crisis – was detonating. Clinton had no basis – apart from wishful thinking – to believe that deregulating banks would lead to anything but another gigantic crash.

But Clinton let his self interest – in presiding over a sugar-high economic expansion driven by deregulation – overrule his prudence (about the crash that would follow). Sure enough, in the last months of Clinton's presidency, the stock market imploded with the March 2000 dot-bomb. And because Congress learned nothing from the dot-com crash and declined to restore the Glass-Steagall fence, the crash led to another bubble, this time in subprime mortgages, and then, inevitably, we suffered the Great Financial Crisis.

Look: there's no virtue in having bank regulations for the sake of having them. It is conceptually possible for bank regulations to be useless or even harmful. There's nothing wrong with investigating whether the 70-year old Glass-Steagall Act was still needed in 1999. But Clinton was provided with a mountain of evidence about why Glass-Steagall was the only thing standing between Americans and economic chaos, including the evidence of the S&L Crisis, which was still underway when he took office, and he ignored all of them. If you lost everything – your home, your savings, your pension – in the dot-bomb or the Great Financial Crisis, Bill Clinton is to blame. He was warned. he ignored the warnings.

Fuck that guy.

No, seriously, fuck Bill Clinton. Deregulating banks wasn't Clinton's only passion. He also wanted to ban working cryptography. The cornerstone of Clinton's tech policy was the "Clipper Chip," a backdoored encryption chip that, by law, every technology was supposed to use. If Clipper had gone into effect, then cops, spooks, and anyone who could suborn, bribe, or trick a cop or a spook could break into any computer, server, mobile device, or embedded system in America.

When Clinton was told – over and over, in small, easy-to-understand words – that there was no way to make a security system that only worked when "bad guys" tried to break into it, but collapsed immediately if a "good guy" wanted to bypass it. We explained to him – oh, how we explained to him! – that working encryption would be all that stood between your pacemaker's firmware and a malicious update that killed you where you stood; all that stood between your antilock brakes' firmware and a malicious update that sent you careening off a cliff; all that stood between businesses and corporate espionage, all that stood between America and foreign state adversaries wanting to learn its secrets.

In response, Clinton said the same thing that all of his successors in the Crypto Wars have said: NERD HARDER! Just figure it out. Cops need to look at bad guys' phones, so you need to figure out how to make encryption that keeps teenagers safe from sextortionists, but melts away the second a cop tries to unlock a suspect's phone. Take Malcolm Turnbull, the former Australian Prime Minister. When he was told that the laws of mathematics dictated that it was impossible to build selectively effective encryption of the sort he was demanding, he replied, "The laws of mathematics are very commendable but the only law that applies in Australia is the law of Australia":

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2017/07/australian-pm-calls-end-end-encryption-ban-says-laws-mathematics-dont-apply-down

Fuck that guy. Fuck Bill Clinton. Fuck a succession of UK Prime Ministers who have repeatedly attempted to ban working encryption. Fuck 'em all. The stakes here are obscenely high. They have been warned, and all they say in response is "NERD HARDER!"

https://pluralistic.net/2023/03/05/theyre-still-trying-to-ban-cryptography/

Now, of course, "crypto means cryptography," but the other crypto – cryptocurrency – deserves a look-in here. Cryptocurrency proponents advocate for a system of deregulated money creation, AKA "wildcat currencies." They say, variously, that central banks are no longer needed; or that we never needed central banks to regulate the money supply. Let's take away that fence. Why not? It's not fit for purpose today, and maybe it never was.

Why do we have central banks? The Fed – which is far from a perfect institution and could use substantial reform or even replacement – was created because the age of wildcat currencies was a nightmare. Wildcat currencies created wild economic swings, massive booms and even bigger busts. Wildcat currencies are the reason that abandoned haunted mansions feature so heavily in the American imagination: American towns and cities were dotted with giant mansions built by financiers who'd grown rich as bubbles expanded, then lost it all after the crash.

Prudent management of the money supply didn't end those booms and busts, but it substantially dampened them, ending the so-called "business cycle" that once terrorized Americans, destroying their towns and livelihoods and wiping out their savings.

It shouldn't surprise us that a new wildcat money sector, flogging "decentralized" cryptocurrencies (that they are nevertheless weirdly anxious to swap for your gross, boring old "fiat" money) has created a series of massive booms and busts, with insiders getting richer and richer, and retail investors losing everything.

If there was ever any doubt about whether wildcat currencies could be made safe by putting them on a blockchain, it is gone. Wildcat currencies are as dangerous today as they were in the 18th and 19th century – only moreso, since this new bad paper relies on the endless consumption of whole rainforests' worth of carbon, endangering not just our economy, but also the habitability of the planet Earth.

And nevertheless, the Trump administration is promising a new crypto golden age (or, ahem, a Gilded Age). And there are plenty of Democrats who continue to throw in with the rotten, corrupt crypto industry, which flushed billions into the 2024 election to bring Trump to office. The result is absolutely going to be more massive bubbles and life-destroying implosions. Fuck those guys. They were warned, and they did it anyway.

Speaking of the climate emergency: greetings from smoky Los Angeles! My city's on fire. This was not an unforeseeable disaster. Malibu is the most on-fire place in the world:

https://longreads.com/2018/12/04/the-case-for-letting-malibu-burn/

Since 1919, the region has been managed on the basis of "total fire suppression." This policy continued long after science showed that this creates "fire debt" in the form of accumulated fuel. The longer you go between fires, the hotter and more destructive those fires become, and the relationship is nonlinear. A 50-year fire isn't 250% more intense than a 20-year fire: it's 50,000% more intense.

Despite this, California has invested peanuts in regular controlled burns, which has created biennial uncontrolled burns – wildfires that cost thousands of times more than any controlled burn.

Speaking of underinvestment: PG&E has spent decades extracting dividends for its investors and bonuses for its execs, while engaging in near-total neglect of maintenance of its high-voltage transmission lines. Even with normal winds, these lines routinely fall down and start blazes.

But we don't have normal winds. The climate emergency has been steadily worsening for decades. LA is just the latest place to be on fire, or under water, or under ice, or baking in wet bulb temperatures. Last week in southern California, we were warned to expect gusts of 120mph.

They were warned. #ExxonKnew: in the early 1970s, Exxon's own scientists warned them that fossil fuel consumption would kick off climate change so drastic that it would endanger human civilzation. Exxon responded by burying the reports and investing in climate denial:

https://exxonknew.org/

They were warned! Warned about fire debt. Warned about transmission lines. Warned about climate change. And specific, named people, who individually had the power to heed these warnings and stave off disaster, ignored the warnings. They didn't make honest mistakes, either: they ignored the warnings because doing so made them extraordinarily, disgustingly rich. They used this money to create dynastic fortunes, and have created entire lineages of ultra-wealthy princelings in $900,000 watches who owe it all to our suffering and impending dooml

Fuck those guys. Fuck 'em all.

We've had so many missed opportunities, chances to make good policy or at least not make bad policy. The enshitternet didn't happen on its own. It was the foreseeable result of choices – again, choices made by named individuals who became very wealthy by ignoring the warnings all around them.

Let's go back to Bill Clinton, because more than anyone else, Clinton presided over some terrible technology regulations. In 1998, Clinton signed the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, a bill championed by Barney Frank (fuck that guy, too). Under Section 1201 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, it's a felony, punishable by a five year prison sentence, and a $500,000 fine, to tamper with a "digital lock."

That means that if HP uses a digital lock to prevent you from using third-party ink, it's a literal crime to bypass that lock. Which is why HP ink now costs $10,000/gallon, and why you print your shopping lists with colored water that costs more, ounce for ounce, than the sperm of a Kentucky Derby winner:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/09/30/life-finds-a-way/#ink-stained-wretches

Clinton was warned that DMCA 1201 would soon metastasize into every kind of device – not just the games consoles and DVD players where it was first used, but medical implants, tractors, cars, home appliances – anything you could put a microchip into (Jay Freeman calls this "felony contempt of business-model"):

https://pluralistic.net/2023/07/24/rent-to-pwn/#kitt-is-a-demon

He ignored those warnings and signed the DMCA anyway (fuck that guy). Then, under Bush (fuck that guy), the US Trade Representative went all around the world demanding that America's trading partners adopt versions of this law (fuck that guy). In 2001, the European Parliament capitulated, enacting the EU Copyright Directive, whose Article 6 is a copy-paste of DMCA 1201 (fuck all those people).

Fast forward 20 years, and boy is there a lot of shit with microchips that can be boobytrapped with rent-extracting logic bombs that are illegal to research, describe, or disable.

Like choo-choo trains.

Last year, the Polish hacking group Dragon Sector was contacted by a public sector train company whose Newag trains kept going out of service. The operator suspected that Newag had boobytrapped the trains to punish the train company for getting its maintenance from a third-party contractor. When Dragon Sector investigated, they discovered that Newag had indeed riddled the trains' firmware with boobytraps. Trains that were taken to locations known to have third-party maintenance workshops were immediately bricked (hilariously, this bomb would detonate if trains just passed through stations near to these workshops, which is why another train company had to remove all the GPSes from its trains – they kept slamming to a halt when they approached a station near a third-party workshop). But Newag's logic bombs would brick trains for all kinds of reasons – merely keeping a train stationary for too many days would result in its being bricked. Installing a third-party component in a locomotive would also trigger a bomb, bricking the train.

In their talk at last year's Chaos Communications Congress, the Dragon Sector folks describe how they have been legally terrorized by Newag, which has repeatedly sued them for violating its "intellectual property" by revealing its sleazy, corrupt business practices. They also note that Newag continues to sell lots of trains in Poland, despite the widespread knowledge of its dirty business model, because public train operators are bound by procurement rules, and as long as Newag is the cheapest bidder, they get the contract:

https://media.ccc.de/v/38c3-we-ve-not-been-trained-for-this-life-after-the-newag-drm-disclosure

The laws that let Newag make millions off a nakedly corrupt enterprise – and put the individuals who blew the whistle on it at risk of losing everything – were passed by Members of the European Parliament who were warned that this would happen, and they ignored those warnings, and now it's happening. Fuck those people, every one of 'em.

It's not just European parliamentarians who ignored warnings and did the bidding of the US Trade Representative, enacting laws that banned tampering with digital locks. In 2010, two Canadian Conservative Party ministers in the Stephen Harper government brought forward similar legislation. These ministers, Tony Clement (now a disgraced sex-pest and PPE grifter) and James Moore (today, a sleazeball white-shoe corporate lawyer), held a consultation on this proposal.

6, 138 people wrote in to say, "Don't do this, it will be hugely destructive." 54 respondents wrote in support of it. Clement and Moore threw out the 6,138 opposing comments. Moore explained why: these were the "babyish" responses of "radical extremists." The law passed in 2012.

Last year, the Canadian Parliament passed bills guaranteeing Canadians the Right to Repair and the right to interoperability. But Canadians can't act on either of these laws, because they would have to tamper with a digital lock to do so, and that's illegal, thanks to Tony Clement and James Moore. Who were warned. And who ignored those warnings. Fuck those guys:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/11/15/radical-extremists/#sex-pest

Back in the 1990s, Bill Clinton had a ton of proposals for regulating the internet, but nowhere among those proposals will you find a consumer privacy law. The last time an American president signed a consumer privacy law was 1988, when Reagan signed the Video Privacy Protection Act and ensured that Americans would never have to worry that video-store clerks where telling the newspapers what VHS cassettes they took home.

In the years since, Congress has enacted exactly zero consumer privacy laws. None. This has allowed the out-of-control, unregulated data broker sector to metastasize into a cancer on the American people. This is an industry that fuels stalkers, discriminatory financial and hiring algorithms, and an ad-tech sector that lets advertisers target categories like "teenagers with depression," "seniors with dementia" and "armed service personnel with gambling addictions."

When the people cry out for privacy protections, Congress – and the surveillance industry shills that fund them – say we don't need a privacy law. The market will solve this problem. People are selling their privacy willingly, and it would be an "undue interference in the market" if we took away your "freedom to contract" by barring companies from spying on you after you clicked the "I agree" button.

These people have been repeatedly warned about the severe dangers to the American public – as workers, as citizens, as community members, and as consumers – from the national privacy free-for-all, and have done nothing. Fuck them, every one:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/12/06/privacy-first/#but-not-just-privacy

Now, even a stopped clock is right twice a day, and not every one of Bill Clinton's internet policies was terrible. He had exactly one great policy, and, ironically, that's the one there's the most energy for dismantling. That policy is Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act (a law that was otherwise such a dumpster fire that the courts struck it down). Chances are, you have been systematically misled about the history, use, and language of Section 230, which is wild, because it's exactly 26 words long and fits in a single tweet:

No provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider.

Section 230 was passed because when companies were held liable for their users' speech, they "solved" this problem by just blocking every controversial thing a user said. Without Section 230, there would be no Black Lives Matter, no #MeToo – no online spaces where the powerful were held to account. Meanwhile, rich and powerful people would continue to enjoy online platforms where they and their bootlickers could pump out the most grotesque nonsense imaginable, either because they owned those platforms (ahem, Twitter and Truth Social) or because rich and powerful people can afford the professional advice needed to navigate the content-moderation bureaucracies of large systems.

We know exactly what the internet looks like when platforms are civilly liable for their users' speech: it's an internet where marginalized and powerless people are silenced, and where the people who've got a boot on their throats are the only voices you can hear:

https://www.techdirt.com/2020/06/23/hello-youve-been-referred-here-because-youre-wrong-about-section-230-communications-decency-act/

The evidence for this isn't limited to the era of AOL and Prodigy. In 2018, Trump signed SESTA/FOSTA, a law that held platforms liable for "sex trafficking." Advocates for this law – like Ashton Kutcher, who campaigns against sexual assault unless it involves one of his friends, in which case he petitions the judge for leniency – were warned that it would be used to shut down all consensual sex work online, making sex workers's lives much more dangerous. This warnings were immediately borne out, and they have been repeatedly borne out every month since. Killing CDA 230 for sex work brought back pimping, exposed sex workers to grave threats to their personal safety, and made them much poorer:

https://decriminalizesex.work/advocacy/sesta-fosta/what-is-sesta-fosta/

It also pushed sex trafficking and other nonconsensual sex into privateforums that are much harder for law enforcement to monitor and intervene in, making it that much harder to catch sex traffickers:

https://cdt.org/insights/its-all-downsides-hybrid-fosta-sesta-hinders-law-enforcement-hurts-victims-and-speakers/

This is exactly what SESTA/FOSTA's advocates were warned of. They were warned. They did it anyway. Fuck those people.

Maybe you have a theory about how platforms can be held civilly liable for their users' speech without harming marginalized people in exactly the way that SESTA/FOSTA, it had better amount to more than "platforms are evil monopolists and CDA 230 makes their lives easier." Yes, they're evil monopolists. Yes, 230 makes their lives easier. But without 230, small forums – private message boards, Mastodon servers, Bluesky, etc – couldn't possibly operate.

There's a reason Mark Zuckerberg wants to kill CDA 230, and it's not because he wants to send Facebook to the digital graveyard. Zuck knows that FB can operate in a post-230 world by automating the deletion of all controversial speech, and he knows that small services that might "disrupt" Facebook's hegemony would be immediately extinguished by eliminating 230:

https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/zuckerberg-calls-changes-techs-section-230-protections-rcna486

It's depressing to see so many comrades in the fight against Big Tech getting suckered into carrying water for Zuck, demanding the eradication of CDA 230. Please, I beg you: look at the evidence for what happens when you remove that fence. Heed the warnings. Don't be like Bill Clinton, or California fire suppression officials, or James Moore and Tony Clement, or the European Parliament, or the US Trade Rep, or cryptocurrency freaks, or Malcolm Turnbull.

Or Ashton fucking Kutcher.

Because, you know, fuck those guys.

Check out my Kickstarter to pre-order copies of my next novel, Picks and Shovels!

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2025/01/13/wanting-it-badly/#is-not-enough

[tarotwithavi]

The type of lover you deserve

How to choose a pile?

Take a deep breath and gently close your eyes. Politely request your spirit guides to reveal the appropriate pile meant for you, then open your eyes. Whichever pile captures your attention is the one meant for you.

Masterlist

Paid services

Pile 1

Omg pile one I love your energy! So first things first you deserve someone who matches your energy. Like someone who understands you without even saying anything. Someone who can just look into your eyes and feel the depths of your heart. Someone who can protect and cherish your innocence. You're naive pile 1. You trust people easily and sometimes this leads you to people using you for their profit. You deserve someone who can protect you, someone who can cherish your innocence. Someone who won't taint your pure and sweet heart. Someone who won't tell you to change and be someone you're not. You deserve someone who won't tell you that you're too kind for this world and that you need to change yourself in order to survive. You deserve someone who'll let you be innocent and sweet. You deserve someone who'll be proud to have you in their life. You deserve someone who'll be sure about yourself. Someone who's ready to wife/husband you up without any doubt. You deserve someone who'll make your feel confident. I see that some of you may have daddy issues so you instantly like people who give off mature and responsible vibes. You deserve someone with whom you can share your deepest darkest secrets. Someone who won't judge you for liking things that you like, dressing the way you want to etc. you deserve someone who'll teach you new things without making you feel stupid. Someone who'll be patient with you. You deserve someone who knows how to handle their emotions, especially Anger because I see that you may have some kind of trauma revolving anger issues or people shouting and things breaking. I see that you guys had to grow up early, you had to be mature beyond your age, sometimes you feel like you missed out on so many things. So you deserve someone with whom your inner child can feel protected, secure and happy. You deserve someone who can give you the love you never got as a child. You guys could be born in June, March, November or August or these could be significant months for you.

Masterlist

Pile 2

Welcome pile 2! The first message I'm getting is that someone of you could practice witchcraft or you could be interested in the occult. You could be interested in conspiracy theories or things that people do not talk about so openly. I also see that you could give off intimidating vibes. So you deserve someone who doesn't get scared easily. You deserve someone who has similar interests as you, probably someone with whom you can do witchy stuff. Pile 2 you deserve someone who understands your magic. Someone who believes in magic. Someone who is not too practical or logical like that type of practical person who doesn't believe in magik. Someone who can think outside the box. You deserve someone who learns, grows and adapts with time. You do not deserve someone who lives like an NPC. You deserve someone who matches your uniqueness, someone who is not afraid to let themselves shine. You deserve someone with whom you can travel to different places. I see that you are someone who likes taking risks so you deserve someone who has the same adventurous soul. You deserve someone who matches your freaky energy 😜 I see that you have a lot of stamina and deserve someone who matches your energy in bed. You're absolutely magical so you deserve someone who can handle your otherworldly energy. You deserve someone who can make your every wish come true. You deserve someone who is willing to put in the effort to be with you. You deserve someone who can offer you something in return. I see that you have been the type of person who does more than needed for others so you deserve someone who can spend money on you and spend time with you. You deserve someone who can show you how lovely it is to love and be loved. I also see that you deserve someone who can handle pain for some reason? Idk you deserve someone who won't feel pity for your backstory. You deserve someone who won't look at you with sympathy, instead you deserve someone who can challenge you because you love challenges. You could be an Earth or water sign, especially cancer, Pisces, Virgo and Capricorn.

Masterlist

Pile 3

Whatsup! Pile 3! The first message I am picking upon is that you deserve someone who is willing to fight for your attention. you deserve someone who is ready to fight for your relationship. You deserve someone who does not give up easily. I see that sometimes you can be hard to love because you are always evolving, you are always changing, you are not the person you were a few months ago and some people cannot keep up with it. So you deserve someone who can keep up with your transformations, someone who will not stop loving you just because you have changed. You deserve someone who loves you for your soul, who loves you for your true self. you deserve someone who is willing to make things work. you deserve someone who wants stable long term commitment. you do not deserve somebody who is just looking for casual dating. I'm also picking up on the message that you deserve someone who treats you like a Queen. you deserve someone who gives you princess treatment and if your person is not willing to give you princess treatment then they might not be the one for you. You deserve someone who takes up on the traditional image of their gender, someone who is willing to provide and protect. I see that you romanticize old love, you romanticize when people used to write letters, were patient, and were ready to love. Another message I'm getting is that you deserve someone who treats your body like a temple, who worships your body. Someone who worships the ground you walk. Someone who puts you on a pedestal. You absolutely deserve to be treated like a queen. And let me make one thing clear: you'll only receive this treatment when you're willing to treat your person like a king. You deserve someone who is willing to learn new things for you, you deserve someone who is willing to change their perspective about things. You deserve someone who is also evolving and changing so you guys can keep up with each other.

Masterlist

Pile 4

This is definitely my crazy pile 🤣 Hello pile 4! Welcome to your reading! You deserve someone who matches your weird energy like someone who is willing to be strange, loud and crazy with you. You deserve someone who is open and wholesome. I see that you do not give a buck about what people say and you just want to be your true self. You love spreading happiness and kindness. I am hearing “ she likes to give a smile to every stranger” . You should listen to “she's crazy but she's mine” . You're a walking representation of this song. You deserve someone who won't feel awkward by your energy, you deserve someone who does not feel threatened by the attention you attract. I see that you have a really unique energy that attracts a lot of attention wherever you go. You could be sitting there reading your book and people would still be looking at you like you are a star so you deserve somebody who does not feel insecure about the attention you attract. You deserve someone who is confident, you deserve someone who won't make you dim your light. You deserve someone who is just as crazy as you are , you deserve somebody who can match your vibe. Another message I'm getting is that you deserve somebody who is kind and humble because you are someone who likes spreading love around and you are someone who likes helping people. You do not like dishonest and ungrateful people. You deserve someone with whom you can help others. You deserve someone who is just as passionate about life as you are. You deserve an optimistic person. I see that you have gone through a lot of betrayals but you still choose to believe in love and happiness. You deserve an emotionally mature person, you deserve someone who feels their emotion and does not sabotage themselves. You deserve someone who loves children who loves working with children and animals. I see that you will be doing charity work with your future partner. You deserve someone who is interested in space, dinosaurs and random facts.

Masterlist

[creature-wizard]

are you aware of a new age-person called teal swan? a friend showed me and told me her stuff is "better" but I still get red flags from it. ty for responding if you do!

Oh yeah, Teal Swan is awful. Not only is she pushing that New Age conspirituality stuff, she's into that Satanic Panic ritual abuse mythology and uses questionable mystical means to "help" others find out how they were supposedly abused. (For anyone who hasn't been keeping up, both New Age conspirituality and the Satanic Panic SRA mythology are pure conspiracy theory derived primarily from stuff like The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion - an antisemitic hoax - and like blood libel and early modern witch panic. If you want more information on New Age conspirituality and why it's bad, check out my pinned post.)

She's not a psychologist, but she effectively presents herself as someone who can help people with serious mental health issues. Very notably, she encouraged suicidal follows to visualize death, something which she sure as heck didn't run by any actual mental health professional first. Additionally, she's referred to death as a "reset button," which... let's face it, most people who believe in reincarnation aren't quite that, uh, flippant about it? Like, I'm not saying that she's encouraging suicide, but she's definitely not taking this very serious issue nearly seriously enough.

Additionally, people who've known Teal Swan personally report that she's extremely manipulative, controlling, and dishonest. Mormon Stories Podcast has a couple of interviews with people who knew her worth checking out - Growing Up With Teal Swan interviews a former childhood friend, and Leaving Mormonism To Join Teal Swan's Cult interviews an ex-boyfriend.

[gingerteafairy]

𝐞𝐯𝐚𝐧'𝐬 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐬 + 𝐫𝐞𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐩 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐮𝐬 𝐩𝐭 𝟐

𝐥𝐮𝐤𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐨𝐩𝐞𝐫: 𝐟𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐬 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐛𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐟𝐢𝐭𝐬

Luke is immature and doesn’t take things seriously, so commitment's not his thing. He’s all about goofing off and living life easy, so he’d be drawn to someone who vibes with that. Dates? Think classic Netflix and Chill—probably with a half-empty popcorn bag and him cracking jokes the whole time. He’d talk your ear off about something dumb, like a conspiracy theory he just heard, and maybe—maybe—he’d make you breakfast in the morning. (But, like, don’t expect eggs cooked right.)

𝐣𝐢𝐦𝐦𝐲 𝐝𝐚𝐫𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠: 𝐬𝐢𝐭𝐮𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐩

Jimmy is all feelings, always searching for love and acceptance—not just for himself, but for his freak show family, too. That makes a real relationship tricky. Life’s too unstable, and deep down, he’d be scared—scared that dating him would bring you the same rejection he’s faced his whole life. But damn, would it be unforgettable. He’d treat you so sweet, make you feel like the most special person in the world. And, of course, Ethel would bake your favorite cake as a welcome-to-the-family gift.

𝐜𝐨𝐨𝐩𝐞𝐫 𝐝𝐚𝐲: 𝐛𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐟𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐬

Hanging out with Cooper means a lot of quiet moments that say everything—leaning against his truck watching the sunset, sharing a meal he probably didn’t even realize he made just for you, going on aimless drives with the windows down and music low. He’d act like he doesn’t care about birthdays, but somehow, he always remembers exactly what you wanted. Maybe he wouldn’t wrap a gift, but he’d casually toss you something perfect, like your favorite snack or a well-worn hoodie of his that you once said was comfortable. If anyone messes with you? Oh, he’s absolutely stepping in—no hesitation, no questions. He might not say it out loud, but you’re family to him, and nothing is stronger than that.

𝐜𝐨𝐥𝐢𝐧 𝐳𝐚𝐛𝐞𝐥: 𝐟𝐢𝐚𝐧𝐜é

Colin is the sweetest, most hopeful guy—but his insecurity? Yeah, that’s a thing. For a while, your relationship might feel undefined, just because he’s overthinking everything. But once he realizes you truly accept him, he’d go all in—romantic gestures, little surprises, always making sure you feel loved. When he finally pops the question, it’ll be over a cozy, candlelit dinner, filled with inside jokes and that nervous smile of his. And the ring? Oh, he absolutely picked something meaningful—maybe a scarf in your favorite color or a custom coffee mug with a dumb pun just for you.

𝐭𝐨𝐝𝐝 𝐡𝐚𝐲𝐧𝐞𝐬: 𝐛𝐨𝐲𝐟𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐝

Todd is a total dreamer—the kind of guy who’s off in his own world, daydreaming about cute dates with you. He’d be shy at first, but once he’s comfortable? Oh man, he’s a full-on cinnamon roll—soft, cuddly, and ridiculously sweet. Your routine would be pure cozy vibes: gaming nights, lazy mornings tangled in blankets, and deep talks about the weirdest stuff. He’d definitely gift you something adorable—maybe a plushie of your favorite cartoon character or a superhero pin that he just knew you’d love.

masterlist part one

[dreamingunderacloudysky]

hiiiihiihi :-) could you write some Jimmy x reader relationship hcs? ^_^ if you do, thanks!

NON-TULPAR JIMMY AU HCs

A/N: I will only write for Jimmy in a non Tulpar au, given exploring his character outside of that whole mess will give me a fun challenge in terms of characterization. So thank you for the intriguing request.

Warnings: Smoking and that Jimmy is in this.

Failed guitarist (can still play decently but is a way better drummer), successful drummer and decent singer.

I feel like he would be part of Midwestern emo band or punk.

Smells of cigarettes and incense

How you'd meet would be at a concert where his small band would open for a bigger band.

He's not a drinker but you meet him at a smoke break.

Slow to open up, but if you start asking questions about his drumming technique, he opens up fairly fast.

Down the line, you two start to become friends. He's a bit rough, a smoking drummer that drives a 2004 GMC Envoy, but his charm lies in his passions for world music and the outdoors.

Can also play the Arabic Oud and the Armenian Daduk. And he'll play them for you under stars if you give him the opportunity.

Very big conspiracy theorist and will share all if his theories with you. Has a tin foil hat in the back of his Envoy.

Used to roughing it a good chunk of his life and really doesn't have a real place to call home aside from his car and his studio apartment.

OK now on to the relationships HC

He confesses through a song, though you had to catch him after it given he had a fight or flight moment after.

Has a lot of issues but is a pure passion project underneath the layers of grundge, insecurities, and defense mechanisms.

Talk about his passions and he'll go off about music theory and history and he'll go off. It's the reason he owns a couple thrifted exotic instruments in his apartment.

It takes a long time for him to get used to physical affection, but it gets better, and on cold nights, he'll have you tucked into his side with some weirdly comfortable psychedelic blanket.

He loves you more when you start giving him better soaps rather than the 4 in one men's bodywash he's been using because good god are you tired if smelling Irish spring.

He cooks basic comfort food though not a lot of meat given that meat is pricey and his income isn't the best but he can work magic with veggies and beans

He will cook for you. But he's very stubborn and if you call him out on his good deeds he'll just shut up and not talk for a while.

Slowly introduces you to his band as time goes on.

Hope you don't like smoky kisses because he will not give up cigarette unless you two really reach to a healthy living point in both yours and his life together.

Though gift him a nice pipe and tobacco and it doesn't smell as bad, he'll actually be in a better mood with a good pipe.

Will share it with you.

Likes having you against his side and stargazing.

Talks about mythologies of different ancient civilizations.

A/N: sorry this didn't go much into relationship stuff i ended up using this ti characterize Jimmy outside the tulpar. Also I know people want toxic jimmy but I can't write that. No toxicity hcs on this blog.

[twistedwonderlandimaginesblog]

Oh! Hi! Requests open! Can I request twst freshman bois, Ace, Deuce, Jack, Epel, and Ortho spying on twst MC who's out having their first date? They're all friends and completely platonic, they're just keeping an eye on their friend in case anything goes wrong since MC got asked out by an RSA student.

Ace Trappola:

Ace is just nosy, and he doesn’t exactly get why you’d want to date some from RSA, anyway. He tried to convince you that they could be using you for personal gain but that only seemed to hurt your feelings, telling Ace to stuff it before you went to get ready for your date. He didn’t understand why you had a reaction like that but since you were being stubborn he’d have to take it upon himself to keep an eye on you, rationalizing to Deuce that he has to do it because clearly your feelings had stopped you from seeing sense.

Deuce Spade:

Deuce didn’t want to invade your privacy and spy on you, but Ace put conspiracy theories in his head that he just couldn’t ignore. Deuce didn’t know if this RSA student had pure intent or if they intended to use you for some greater purpose, like hurting you simply because you attended their rival school of NRC. He couldn’t just wait around until you got your heart broken, he had to be at the scene to rectify the situation immediately, but it’s hard to keep his emotions in check. He ended up glaring at the person you’re with the entire time he’s secretly supervising, drawing unwanted attention as your date is suddenly sweating profusely for no reason they can explain.

Epel Felmier:

Epel has a bit of a competitive spirit in him, having to wonder why you chose an RSA student of all people to date. He doesn’t really think it bothers him until a ‘big brother’ instinct kicked in, suddenly making him feel on edge. As much as he tried to focus on other things he worried about how the date would go for you, and if that RSA jerk might be too aggressive with you… He followed you into town to quiet his anxieties, just wanting to see the person you’re on the date with to give him peace of mind. He didn’t think he’d end up staying the entire date, glued to his seat with an annoyed look on his face as he thought there was no way that RSA student was good enough for you.

Jack Howl:

Jack had said he wasn’t interested, not knowing why you even told him about your date plans. He started to wonder if maybe it was an ask for support, or a worry that you were confiding in him for a reason. He does remember what you said, including the date location, and he tries, poorly, to blend in with said location when you inevitably catch him. He pretended he didn’t hear what you said originally and that he definitely intended to come here on his own free-time, a shop that has zero things that are of any interest to him.

Ortho Shroud:

Ortho is set to kill. He’s not necessarily worried about you physically taking your RSA date on, but he did consider your emotional state in not hurting someone you liked (even if they deserved it). He’s very noticeable to you in public, so he tried to convince Idia to give him a stealth mode, a way to spy on you without getting caught and while still appearing intimidating. He keeps a close eye on your vitals and jots down mental notes for later when you get to talk, asking you all kinds of questions that make it seem like he had been sitting right next to you the entire time.

[jewish-vents]

i don't want to ghost all my goyish friends. i want to talk to them about the antisemitic posts they've been sharing and the conspiracies they're dancing around. i want to educate them, even though it feels so much like begging them to see me as human, and they've already laughed off all my softer interjections so now i feel like i need sources and more composure than i can muster if it's a purely reactionary conversation. i want to do this, even if it means avoiding them while i draft up talking points so i don't just start screaming that antisemitism isn't even complicated! it's an old bigotry but it's not entirely unique why don't they believe it?? i want to scream at them and i want to hold their hands and make them look me in the eye, but all i end up doing is collecting testimonies of jews feeling the same way i do faced with the same stuff i am while every time i visit my goyish friends' blogs i find more atrocity denial and conspiracy theories and the idea of this hard emotionally draining conversation turning out enlightening to anyone seems less and less likely

so i just keep ghosting them, and regret it less by the day

.

[infiniteglitterfall]

the worst part about the i/p discourse

it's NOT the posters of Nazis with the swastikas on their flags replaced by stars of david. or the pages and pages of blood libel conspiracy theories in instagram posts about why local pride organizers are such big meanies. or the newfound insistence that jews just exaggerate and make up antisemitic incidents to smear the pro-palestine movement....

it's the fact that every. single. time. i try to post anything about any of these things, i end up in a rabbit hole SO DEEP IT'S IMPOSSIBLE TO GET TO THE BOTTOM.

Yesterday, I saw a --

YOU SEE? I went to Reddit for a second to find the link to the post about the Melbourne protest this week that had people carrying the Nazi-star-of-David posters. But first, I saw a post that began, "All I see on social media and the news is more and more attacks. Who beat up a Jewish family here, who stabbed a 1 year old in front of a synagouge. Those are two examples, I've lost track of all of the other ones."

and I was like, SOMEONE STABBED A ONE YEAR OLD IN FRONT OF A SYNAGOGUE?!?!

And I started to look that up. AND THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT HAPPENS. EVERY SINGLE TIME.

Two days ago, I saw an article about Cincinnati Socialists setting up a table at North Kentucky Pride without asking, it sounds like, to hand out flyers saying the war in Gaza was Netanyahu's "Final Solution" for Palestinians. Cincinnati Pride organizers alerted the NKY Pride organizers, who kicked them out.

I was like, "okay, well, let's see what Cincinnati Socialists say about it." Then I discovered that their instagram not only "names and shames" the two Cincy Pride organizers and one NKY organizer. Which led to the Cincy ones getting so much harassment and violent threats that they resigned....

But also has a related post that goes on for pages and pages of pure blood libel.

So then I sat there fact-checking all their blood libel and finding out that not only was it untrue and impossible, but half the stuff they referenced didn't even exist.

Then I ended up fact-checking things in the "article" that they'd clearly used as their source. Fact-checking things I found while fact-checking those.

Trying to write a Facebook post about how fucked up it all was. Giving up on the Facebook post after several hours because it made more sense to write it on Tumblr, or at least to write it on Tumblr FIRST.

Then I'm also looking at the post they made "naming and shaming" the organizers, which is like... "the Cincy ones are partners! two days after Hamas's incredibly violent and brutal massacre, one of them changed his profile picture to a photo of them honeymooning IN ISRAEL two years ago! they did it through some group that COVERS A LOT OF THE COSTS FOR HONEYMOONS IN ISRAEL!!!!" and "the other one went to a protest of Hamas's massacre!!! with a sign saying to free the hostages!!!"

oh no. the fucking horror. truly how did these genocidal monsters even end up on the pride organizing committee. this is a shanda scandal.

then I'm responding to people's comments, trying to talk them down from horrible positions. telling people things like, "I know it's asking a LOT, but if people could grasp the idea that "going to Israel for your honeymoon" ISN'T "committing genocide," it would be really great. Or that wanting the hostages freed is actually something that both Israeli AND GAZAN protests have called for, and it's only Westerners who are opposed to it. Or that in fact, saying you "Stand with Israel," a few days after an incredibly brutal attack that burned multiple towns to the ground in one day, killed entire families and their pets, an attack which Hamas has promised to repeat "again and again and again" till Israel is violently destroyed... is opposing that attack, NOT calling for genocide."

then i'm like, "oh, i should edit these images to show the correct info, and i can explain that I drew arrows and added the correct info!" so then i'm doing that and working on writing alt text, and holy shit??? how many fucking hours??? did i spend on this?????? just because i read a frigging reddit post that linked to an article about it?????????

and like. i can go through and debunk all that shit in the comments. (and did. i responded to every single comment that believed this shit.) but ultimately, everyone who pulls this shit has way more reach than I do.

just. like. THAT'S ONE ORG IN ONE PLACE. And it was bad enough that I persevered and finished debunking it and commenting on it today and started telling people about it. Do you even know how many more of those I've seen?! How many I would see if I looked for them on purpose?!

The tsunami of deliberate disinformation is SO FUCKING BAD. All of it is SO FUCKING LAYERED. In any single bullshit post, there are SO MANY horrifically bad and wrong assumptions. So many of them are DESIGNED, BY HAMAS, to lead people down the path to "All Zionists should die! Israel should be violently destroyed!"

There were so many comments on a "Free Palestine Melbourne" group's instagram post (Sydney? Could've been Sydney) asking, pointedly, how many Jews are Zionists. What percentage of Jews are Zionists, again?

One (1) had a response telling them it doesn't matter what the percentage is, no percentage would justify collective punishment of Jews.

The rest all said things like, "Too many."

It feels like constantly being lied to. Just constantly being lied to about things I have looked up and verified myself from solid sources, now and in the past, by people I counted as my community.

Then just now I opened Instagram because I hadn't taken screenshots of a couple of the pics I wanted to add. And I'm hit with these:

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by jewsinschool (@jewsinschool)

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Jewish on Campus (@jewishoncampus)

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Jewish and Proud (@jewishpridealways)

Then some brighter posts (including one of a baby bat!!) and then a post which sums up a lot of what I'm feeling right now.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Jess Cook (@jessicagcoook)

It's like, yes, that, plus the uncomfortable sense that some people are getting thisclose to going, "Most Jews are Zionists anyway, so YEAH, I DO think most Jews deserve to die."

[neomechanicaldoll]

Beast yeast episode 8 spoilers!

So. I've been going a little bit cuckoo bananas over the new update and its happenings, and I just cannot get this stupid game out of my head. and thus to cope I have made

The pure vanilla conspiracy

Basically just a bunch of things both big and small that I find kind of strange about pure vanilla cookie and associated things

Starting small we have: the pure vanilla kingdom and my first thought is, how is it floating? Just... how did it get there. I don't think it's natural and even if it were how would cookies of gotten up there. In the story gingerbrave and co get up there by using a teleporter and I can't think of a way anyone could of gotten up to the floating island to build it if it were a natural structure.

And speaking of that teleporter, the pure vanilla kingdom is surprisingly technologically advanced. Of course the golden cheese kingdom has all its stuff going on but that place is the exception to everywhere else, the only other places with automations and/or machines I can think of off the top of my head is creme republic, city of wizards and whatever was going on in the summer music festival story(I haven't really played much of that so idk) there could be some I'm missing that I'm just not thinking of right now but point is the pure vanilla kingdom is surprisingly advanced compared to most other places

Quick another thing is the pure vanilla kingdom possibly being responsible for the valley beneath it being so baren, there's something to be said here but I don't remember remember what so uh

Moving on to actually important stuff, I wanna talk about pure vanilla cookies design and the design motifs associated with him.

Basic stuff out of the way first, pure vanilla cookie looks like an ice cream cone and I think that's pretty cool

Next I've got to talk about the eight pointed star which if you haven't noticed important characters (pretty much just exclusively the beasts and the ancients) have certain symbols or sets of symbols tied to them (basically like a visual leitmotif) when these symbols show up somewhere it signifies the characters connection to that thing and pure vanilla's is an eight pointed star (specifically an eight pointed one not a six pointed star those show up everywhere) and so here are some places where I have found said star

Predictable places are of course on pure vanilla cookie's design, the pure vanilla kingdom some and episodes 7 and 8 of beast yeast (only in the background though). More interesting possibly lore important places for this to be is his soul jam (I know this one seems obvious but I'll get to why it's interesting later), on the avatar of destiny's design (and I WILL be talking about this one just you wait), both dream station and eternal city of wizards (I'm not totally sure if this one holds any implications or if devsis just wanted more shapes for stars but they are there and if it is intentional than, oh my does it make things interesting)

There is 100% more places than this since I've mostly just looked through the backgrounds of the world maps, I'm just not bothered enough to look through the whole story and the level backgrounds and decors, maybe I'll do it another day

So- avatar of destiny

I am admittedly a little confused about this thing I really thought it might come into play in these past few updates and it kind of just hasn't, it wasn't even really hinted towards. I am an avid pure vanilla cookie will be avatar of destiny theory enjoyer and I still think that it'll be involved in the story but now I'm not exactly sure how. I originally thought that pure vanilla cookie would become the avatar of destiny a la dark cacao cookie in episode 14 which I still think is a possibility for it to happen I'm just not sure exactly how now. Although there is that one strange line shadow milk cookie has in his interaction with candy apple cookie that has some very fun implications.

But all that aside let's look at the design!

All this considered I feel like there's no possible way that the avatar of destiny and pure vanilla cookie aren't related in some way. I would compare the attacks avatar of destiny and pure vanilla have but aod isn't in guild raid right now and I don't have super sparkle pure vanilla yet so I can't (also I don't want to)

Ok now it's soul jam time. I can't really say alot about this bit because there's no that much information so uh. Pure vanilla cookie's soul jam is kinda really strange, like why does it look like this

It's so strange, pure vanilla's soul jam is the only one that looks different when in its non physical form. There's not really much I can say about this since nothing in the game ever comments on this, although there is something interesting where whenever the light of truth talks to pure vanilla cookie his soul jam appears on screen in comparison whenever shadow milk cookie talks to pure vanilla whilst pretending to be the light of truth this doesn't happen which means me think that shadow milk is unaware of pure vanilla's soul jam being like it is, just some food for thought

Now we finally talk personality and in terms of character the new updates have been a all you can eat buffet, but we're here to talk suspicious things incase you've forgotten which you probably have by now. It was mentioned in a post by piromina that pure vanilla is being mighty suspicious especially during that ending part of beacon of truth and it has made me think a little. When the other golden cheese and dark cacao cookie awakened they did so by denying the ideology of their counterparts (I think, I don't remember completely) but pure vanilla doesn't. Instead of doing something like I dunno just believing real hard he tricks shadow milk cookie, something that shadow milk would do himself. Also that lie shall vanquish a lie line was pretty concerning, I don't think pure vanilla cookie is entirely ok (I hope he isn't, I hope devsis puts him in the metaphorical torture blender again \affectionate)

Oooo suprise shadow milk section. Uh "why is this here? Isn't this supposed to be the pure vanilla cookie conspiracy?" don't worry about it, I just discovered some stuff during my crappy research and thought I should bring them up

So fun things I found, shadow milk eye motif on the walls of that one cave, y'know that one cave with the tapestrys of pure vanilla, it's that one and the weird blueberry eye plant things in city of wizards so that's cool

Uuuhh ya tgis was uh fun definitely helped with the brain worms I would do more character analysis stuff but I'm too tired to, maybe I'll come back another day, who knows

[altocat]

I hate how Ever Crisis feeds my paranoia, like I was like

with the old Sephiroth costume aka:

But now that Vincent is also in the game and both of them have new costumes at the same time

The similar poses

Seph's new outfit having the double belt, pointy shoes and similar patterns to Vincent's

I fear I'm becoming more delulu

Like we all know the father is Hojo but I fear SE is purposely feeding the conspiracies at this point lol

😏😏😏

Just. Sayin'.

But yeah, in all seriousness, there's a LOT of weird stuff going on. I know that Nojima himself is aware of fanon and fan theories that have been permeating around the community for the last few decades. So it's very likely he's heard about the Vincent Paternity Theory too. This can't all be purely coincidental, especially given Vincent's really strange comments on Sephiroth in Rebirth.

[crepes-suzette-373]

"Failure": The Defective Product

You know, the Vinsmoke boys use many different terms to say Sanji is a "failure", and in English it's all just translated as "failure" or "good for nothing" (or "dud" in some fan translation).

All of them, barring one, are actually varying ways to say "something that is [not right]". It's, to me, supportive of the theory that Sanji's brothers are just upset that he's different from them, and they're only acting the way they do because of, well, Judge being a horrible example for what is the proper way to behave.

There's 出来損ない (dekisokonai), that also happens to mean "defective product", "unfinished product", or "creations that are below standard level". Like for example, if a chair has no legs, or an electronic that exploded the moment you turn it on.

Or if I as an artist draw something really half-assed and it's a hot mess, that's also 出来損ない.

Yeah, when it refers to a person it usually just means someone who doesn't perform well in general, but in sci-fi stuff people also use it to speak of things like "defective clones" (which, you know, is relevant here).

That other one, 役立たず, doesn't have double meaning. It just means worth for nothing/useless. However, in that panel it's not entirely clear who's saying 役立たず. It could be Judge, for all I know, even though the official translation says "brother". The raw doesn't actually have any explicitly identifying terms. It just says "cheers to that useful good for nothing".

When it's clearly the brothers talking, it seems to be 出来損ない more often.

There's also 失敗作 shippaisaku, which is "failure" also in the same sense of "poorly made". For example, if I try to bake a cake and it comes out an inedible disaster, that would be a 失敗作. Or, a really terrible movie that everyone hates and just absolutely bombs at the box office, it's also 失敗作.

And what Yonji said is ochikobore 落ちこぼれ, which is something like "scraps/leftovers". Literally speaking, it can mean actual drops or spills, like if a container overflows and its contents then spilled over the sides. Or if you do wood turning and there's wood shavings all over the place, that's 落ちこぼれ.

It can be understood as "failure" in the sense of "not successful in the conventional/mainstream manner". For example, school dropouts, or "outcasts" like people who can't find jobs and such. Even just fringe/unusual crowds like "starving artists" can also be called 落ちこぼれ.

Again, it's all to me signs saying that what they meant was "Sanji is not like us and there's something wrong with him, and we don't like it". I mean, they all clearly have a warped sense of "normal", but I have hope that they're beginning to, you know, understand or accept that "different" is not "bad".

(I have other conspiracies related to the raid suit, but maybe next time, this one is just pure text analysis)

[max1461]

Thought for a moment in the 2010s that we were entering a new serious era (e.g. 1920s, 30s, 40s), but it seems that we're instead in an increasingly tacky era (50s, 60s, 70s). Like look at the change in YouTube. Well you all are textheads you don't do video, I know that. But like. In 2017 there was ContraPoints. Agree or disagree with her opinions, what she was doing was conceptually and aesthetically serious. Even her early, low-production-value stuff. She was talking about incels and other internet shit, but the internet is part of the real world, that's fine. In fact that's what gave me hope for another serious era, people were finally talking about internet stuff the way 1920s German intellectuals or whatever talked about the cultural trends of their day. Maybe because Contra has half a philosophy PhD and was explicitly influenced by those German intellectuals.

Another example from a totally disjoint cultural niche was Digi a.k.a. Trixie a.k.a. Ygg Studios or whatever they go by now. Drunk, smelly, and unkempt—yes. Or at least so went the persona. Talking seriously about anime—also yes. When they claimed they were the only good anime reviewer on the internet it made a lot of people mad. But they were right!

There were thinkers, we had thinkers. My generation, or roughly my generation, had thinkers. To be clear, when I include Contra here I'm not including all of her ilk, I'm not including the leftist-theory-regurgitators and so on. But Contra herself was a thinker! Digi was a thinker! We had thinkers.

But that era is over now, on YouTube at least. I go on there and it's all algorithmic drivel. I look for anime content and as I've explained it's all about #hype and #epic and how the new season of whatever #hits different and other empty meaningless bullshit. No analysis, no thought, fundementally unserious bullshit. Tacky! It's tacky! The the YouTube thumbnail O-face is fucking 70s-ass fake wood paneling tacky bullshit!

MrBeast. I've never seen a MrBeast video but I hate him for what he represents. I used to watch this channel called Wranglerstar, he made videos about different types of axes and forest fire fighting equipment and various other stuff. "Modern homesteading" I believe was the tagline. And it was always evident that he was a far-right guy but who gives a shit, his videos where good. Serious videos about interesting topics, that a fucking normal guy might watch. Well around 2020 he basically started flooding his channel with covid conspiracy bullshit and "the Chinese are going to attack us any day!" bullshit and other unserious crap. And I had to stop watching. How could I find any of that compelling? It's vapid nonsense.

And I don't know if it's a shift in the algorithm or people becoming more savvy to the algorithm or what, but all of YouTube is like this now. Vapid clickbait empty meaningless bullshit for another tacky commercialized bullshit era.

And you know, I felt like it might just be localized to YouTube for a while, but I started to look around, and it just feels like everything is like this. Backsliding to the tacky times. God I hate tackiness. I hate unseriousness. I'm having a little meltdown. At least SMW kaizo hacks are having a renaissance. People are doing serious shit in that space, serious shit that is also not anachronistic, you know, it's kept up with the modern world. It addresses modern concerns (fun to play hard Mario). But it's serious. People are serious. One of the few serious things happening in my orbit.

Even in science it feels like people aren't serious anymore. You know, standard Sabine Hossenfelder complaint about particle physics. But I don't really know enough about that to say. Get the vibe that biology is still serious these days.

To be clear, everything I'm saying here is pure vibes. I'm just saying shit. I'm just saying shit that I feel. But I'll be deeply disappointed if I have to live my youth in another tacky era, god damn it. Even the 80s seem like they were better than this.