#really do not want to be lynched online.

[fionnaskyborn]

god's strongest [redacted] hater but i am being respectful about it. as anyone should. cannot fathom the kind of people who will go out of their way to harass others just because of the laws of mileage may vary.

which won't stop me from exploding [redacted] as a construct with my mind every time i come across it which is. almost daily. pain and suffering

[firelightmlpoc]

Hey, just wanted to say good on you for standing up against the completely batshit accusations that have been thrown around the fandom lately. I cannot fathom how anyone believed those screenshots for even a second. I doubt you’ll get an answer, since the harassers are stuck in an echo chamber of validating their actions and will likely just stick their heads in the sand and pretend they can’t hear you. It sucks ass, but seeing that there are at least some people who will publicly question this bullshit is refreshing.

Of course. There’s a reason ‘innocent until proven guilty’ is something that’s supposed to be a baseline for an accusation of actions that have caused harm. After all, if someone makes a false accusation that then is treated as true, then another innocent person gets harmed, & then the waters get muddied for any other accusations thereafter.

After all, if someone lied about harm done & then makes another accusation, who’s to say that accusation isn’t just another lie? Something-something, ‘boy who cried wolf’. Then it also makes any other accusations in the nearby vicinity seem lest trustworthy because people don’t want to be wrong again.

Some people solely jumped on this hate-train specifically because it was against Pansear Doodles, & wouldn’t have interacted with this accusation at all if it didn’t center around someone they didn’t already dislike.

You want proof? Easy.

Look at the accounts saying ‘I always knew that Pansear was bad! Good to get proven right…’ and then look at their accounts. Almost always, they’ve been bashing Pansear (and other artists who do shipping of Slugcats & other similar art) because they just didn’t like the topic. And, instead of just acknowledging that they don’t like that content & moving on, they internalize that dislike & then try to find a reason to attach said dislike to the author. Then, they look for anything the author did wrong (be it true or not) & suddenly cry out:

‘I was right all along for hating this person!!!’

There’s an account that replied to my earlier post which REALLY clearly shows this in action.

@hourglass-meadow .

This reply is what they said.

An ask they responded to directly about Pansear. (Long-winded, yadayada.)

Their response:

And their first response to seeing Pansear gone.

Now, you know how many posts they made about Pansear potentially being a problem? None, except for the ArtiHunter comic, which has nothing actually ’problematic’ within. What about an ‘I hope the victim can find peace…’? Nonexistent.

These people don’t care if these allegations are true or not.

They don’t care who else gets hurt in this mess, as long as it isn’t someone in their circle.

They just want to see a ‘bad guy’ who is someone they don’t like get punished.

They want to claim their righteousness for all the world to see, as they cast judgement; a lynching in the court of public opinion.

And all of this targeting, IF this is fake, is more-or-less because people didn’t like seeing Pansear & others making /shipping/ art.

Because they saw someone else making something that THEY deemed ‘weird.’

There’s something to be said about the current political climate here, be it the Puritanical aspect of eliminating anything ’other’, ‘weird’, or ‘disgusting’ from sight no matter how innocuous/harmless it is;

the ‘Guilty until Proven Innocent’ mindset going around that makes actual victims more liable to not out their abuser out of concern for what will happen to their abuser (As, statistically speaking, abusers tend to be someone close to the abused, before abuse starts.)

Or even just the fact that people are simply emboldened to be as shitty as possible while they believe they’re anonymous online, because they’re of the mindset that they’re immune to consequences because they aren’t being directly known by these internet people in-person.

Don’t believe me? Look at every account celebrating Pansear’s self-eviction from the Rainworld community. Look at their actions & words from before this accusation. And then check what I said again. Cross reference this shit. See that the majority don’t care if there was a victim, much less if the potential victim is ok now or not; they just wanted someone they didn’t like, for one arbitrary reason or another, gone.

Cruelty was the point of many people’s actions against Pansear here, & by jove did they get what they wanted.

Remember folks! Remember this well:

No matter how much you align with leopards-that-eat-people’s-faces, the leopards won’t think twice about your face being next on their dinner plate.

That’s enough words from me for the time being, however.

[agentgrange]

I saw this post and couldn't stop thinking about it, so here is the answer I gave after some consideration-- I'll tell you when I find out. Sometimes it really feels like it depends on your Agents, and what they're accustomed to. I have two groups that I play with, one is mostly serious with a handful of gallows humor quips while the other one is absolutely clown-shoes-goof-goof-times. You could lovingly craft a deeply unsettling body-horror scene or run a tried-and-true encounter straight out of an established campaign and your mileage will greatly vary depending on your audience. That's not *necessarily* a bad thing, a handlers job is to guide a narrative in a way that's first and foremost fun for the players. If they want to take it seriously and buy into the horror they will, but if they want a bit of levity then there's nothing wrong with playing to the crowd. But I do really, really empathize with struggling to convey the awesome and terrible might of some cosmic horror with nothing but your words in a group of people that (hopefully) instinctively feel at ease and jovial while fooling around playing games with their buddies. Here's a few practical pieces of advice I can give you.

Try to cultivate an unsettling environment for your players. This one seems obvious but is actually really hard to get down right, especially when people mostly play online these days. But you’d be surprised how much regularly providing good visual aids, a Discord bot playing ambient music, and a good playlist can really set the tone for your session. Don’t just provide visual aids for the money shots of alien greys and deep ones either, running a campaign based on The Conspiracy era gives you ample opportunity to post a ton of weird, liminal 90s photographs to set the vibe for everyone even during otherwise mundane scenes.

Make a point of explaining to your players the difference between what they are experiencing and what their characters are experiencing. Yes, facing off against a 8ft tall fish man with a crossbow is inherently ridiculous as a fictional abstract. Its an entirely different experiencing actually being there, face to face under an incredible amount of stress seeing something that should not exist. In a lot of ways your players aren’t their characters so much as they are mad gods guiding their characters’ fates. THEY can laugh from the safety of this higher dimension we all exist in, that’s part of the fun. Hell their characters might even have a passing thought or two about how absurd the situation might be—but that entire time they’re fighting their lizard-brained instincts just to stop from mentally imploding. Let them laugh, but then tell them how their characters' hands might be shaking, or how any clever quip they wanted to say just comes out as a mumble as their body betrays whatever thoughts their rational mind tries to convey.

Know the rules of comedy. Comedy usually needs a straight-man, so if your players are goofing around don’t be afraid to give them a straight-man NPC to react to their antics in a way that makes it feel like you’re in on the bit but keeps the narrative going. Better yet, try to get ahead of it. Set up designated low-stakes areas in your story that are designed to add a bit of levity. They say comedy comes in threes, so you should structure these segments to let your agents to do some dumb shit about three times before they get all the sillies out and are ready to move on. And the emotional highs during these side quests will just make the crushing lows in the main plot feel that much more horrifying.

Building off that last one I have one more secret, forbidden technique. Buyer beware on this one honestly, but I cannot overstress just how much. Players. Love. Silly. Characters. And as David Lynch has proven, you can have silly characters that are still deeply unsettling. Try adding a few characters in that flip the script on your players and make *them*  want to play the role of the straight-man reacting to what your NPCs are doing every once in a while. If done right, it can kind of trick them into taking things seriously or feel like the eerie out of place comedy is at their character’s expense even if the players are in on it.

I hope some of this was at least partially useful. Good luck out there.

[drdemonprince]

i would pay so much fucking money for a devon price novel and i am not joking. tell me where to preorder that shit. or drop your reccs 👉👈 (yes i have read bluebeard’s castle)

Thank you for the support! I'm about 25k words in of what should be about 100k words by the end (pray for me that i dont get too Loquacious), and that's before several deep rounds of editing and then deciding what the fuck I want to actually do with this thing (serializing on a separate Substack is one idea; self-publishing as an ebook is another, but I also might try to sell it to at least a small press), so you're quite a ways out from getting to read it. I've never properly SAT on a work of fiction before -- I've always worked on longer fiction live, publishing it chapter by chapter online, and I rush to get my short stories out too, but this one feels precious and I really want to get it right.

In the meantime, here are some fiction recommendations for you. Some of them are inspirations for this book, others are just fiction that I have read lately that really connected with me. Some of it might be informing completely separate work, nothing to do with this novel. They're approximately in the order of most to least likely to connect with you, if you enjoyed Bluebeard's Castle by Anna Biller:

Beautiful World, Where Are You? by Sally Rooney

My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell

Yellowface by R.F. Kuang

The Stepford Wives by Ira Levin

Darryl by Jackie Ess

The Secret Diary of Laura Palmer by Jennifer Lynch

Perfume: The Story of a Murderer by Patrick Süskind

American Psycho by Brett Easton Ellis (lots of people think the novel version is far inferior to the movie, but I read it after becoming enchanted by the musical adaptation and now I am a stan of just, gosh everything to do with it)

the novel project is also really strongly informed by the games Life is Strange, LiS Before the Storm, and Who's Lila. a little bit of gone girl and queer as folk is swirled around in there too. astute readers of this blog will by now see why this project is so close to my heart. an entire lifetime of shit i care about is getting packed into here

[lovethatmakingcoffee]

So!

how many more content creators are going to be accused of being called a pedophile with no hard evidence, a police warrant, anything physical and it's by an anonymous tweet from some stranger online who would rather tell social media than I don't know... HAVE THEM GET ARRESTED BY THE POLICE?!

How many more creators, huh?! How many?! How many more YouTubers, twitch streamers, singers, animators, artists?! How many of you are gonna jump on them???? And it's so easy if it's a guy, right? So easy! And no matter how they react, whether it's calm and calculated, shutting down their channel as a whole, or answering immediately yet obviously angry about it- they are always ALWAYS GUILTY. what happened to innocent until proven guilty? And eo is this person? That they are willing to fan the flames and accuse someone of something so terrible online??? Who are u?????

Why do this now? Why do it how at the HEIGHT of Forever's popularity? Why not do it before so he was never on the qsmp or even long before that? Or in the middle at all???? Why now? That is my question? If this is all true, why now? And why use social media? Why not go to the police if he really did a crime? You are accusing someone of a very terrible thing. Why not do it properly instead of searching for Internet clout? What're we supposed to do? The only thing we can, huh? Cancel. Because that's what u want. Is to cancel him. When he was obviously so loved by the masses yesterday. When he had all those cruise pic photos showing how good his life was. Yeah, I don't think u want him arrested or lynched. No, u want to cancel him. Making me wonder if there was ever a real çrime.

Which I wonder quite often with these cases.

And GUYS. HEADS UP! You know whose next? Hm? It'll probably be Wilbur, probably being said that he approached some underage girl on tour or whatever. Or maybe it'll be quackity or hell, even Philza! Oh, Etoiles got cancelled not so long ago, let's cancel him again! Oh what about Bagerha or Cellibit? Let's throw Charlie into the mix. Ironmouse will be hard to cancel cause she's been locked inside of her room all her life and has a very dedicated fanbase, but I'm sure you bastards will find something.

So mhm, everyone is nexted because antis have proven it to be so easy to get rid of someone they don't like. Gone the next day. All of them are suspectable to it. Cause u know why? Cause they are stupid humans who have said stupid shit! And you will just take anything they said and did and run with it!!! Every time! So it's only a matter of time until someone new gets targeted. And depending on how tough skinned they are, they will disappear in a matter of seconds.

Let's just throw all of qsmp away while we're at it! No more eggs, no more community, blah blah blah! Something problematic will happen and you all will jump on it and say 'oh, I never liked them anyway'. Which is such a lie! Such bullshit, u are all bullshitters.

And I know for a fact that y'all aren't saints. We have all said disgusting jokes. Race, lgbt, whatever! We've all done it- don't lie! Here, I'll go first. I joked about a school shooting the other day with my friends. There, cancel me. I gave you the ammunition, now take your fucking shot.

This happens every god damn time someone u enjoy gets popular too fast. They get called a pedo, or a racist, or a transphobe or anything easy to spark the mob. I have seen it time and time again with creators running away because theyve been chased off their respective platforms. I saw an artists make the most beautiful art ever, get accused of being a pedo by one person, everyone joined in for some reason and chased her away. I will never not be bitter about that. I HATE ALL OF YOU WHO DID SUCH A THING AND IF I EVER GOT MY HANDS ON YOU I SWEAR TO GOD. But I am sick of people 'finding' or bringing shit to light or whatever and then just post it online! Like fuck! If he really did a crime! Arrest him! But he didn't, did he? Cause that's the fucking game we are playing rn.

Such hypocrites, it's fascinating. Literally yesterday you were kissing this mans feet and exhaling him, but one anon person saw that and chose violence. And you just.... changed your minds???? Like that? Like a switch of a button? Crazy, actually crazy, and childish.

How come everyone flips and flops so easily on the internet??? How is it so easy for you????? And how can u other supposed fans just accept it so easily??? I will never understand and I will bite and claw at all of you. You all loved him 24 hours ago and now with the bare minimum of evidence you flip? You all would be terrible on jury duty. I hope none of you ever get on jury duty.

Anyway, I'll probably get a ton of backlash from this post and delete it later, waking up in the morning with tons of hate. But I don't care. Prove him guilty. Get the hard evidence that he is a pedo and I will believe it when I see it. Have him be in damn cuffs. Get the mugshot. If that is at all true! But I'm not putting my life and art on pause for conveniently timed discourse.

Maybe I'll delete this post tomorrow. But now I'm fuming at all of you.

And yeah, as for me, I had a shit disgusting last year, qsmp and especially forever was one of the few things that got me out of it and calmed me down. And you guys are going to be talking about how wrong and problematic the things he said that was (what was it?) 8 years ago!!! Then guess what, I love a very problematically spoken parent that would make all of you quake and vomit the moment she opened her mouth. But also, that woman saved me from being homeless. For giving me a place to stay after being DEPORTED. So, if u need a little kindergarten lesson today, internet, is that people will say all sorts of horrible cancelable shit, but it's what they actually do, that really matters.

Goodnight.

[littlethingwithfeathers]

I'm grumpy about Silent Hill again...

TW for discussions of suicide, self harm, abuse (both parent to child and amongst peers) and general spookiness. Y'know... the usual Silent Hill rigmarole of trauma and despair. Also be warned that I'm going to spoil a lot of the Silent Hill series, in particular Silent Hill 2 and the Short Message game that just came out. ***

So... one of my most popular posts out there is this one. It's about Pyramid head and the loss of subtlety in media. And I couldn't help but feel like we hadn't moved an inch from when I posted that back in... *checks date on post* hrrk. my bones... 2017. I'm going to die soon. Anyway. Today I watched Second Wind do a run of the short, free-to-play Silent Hill: Short Message. I admittedly had a good bit of trepidation going in just because of the marketing. Which, for all of you marketing majors out there, that is called "Not a good sign." Marketing should make you want to play a game... especially if you're a fan of the series already. But this... it was a bit of a wet blanket, largely due to the fact that it spoiled a lot of the focus of the game. It basically said "this is a game about how bullying and being chronically online is real bad. We're gonna be spooky about it now." And... straining to push aside how incredibly reductive that is... why give it away? Why say it out loud? Why did you tell us what you are doing? Can you imagine Silent Hill 2 if we'd known it was about James killing his wife from the jump? We didn't. We hadn't the first clue. We knew nothing other than that he was looking for her and she was maybe dead? But we didn't know how... possibly lung cancer or TB given that she had the most pointed coughing sequence since the movie Tombstone. And hey... the last game had someone looking for a loved one too. Maybe that's the deal with Silent Hill. Who knows? No one did at that point. It was still a big old mystery for the most part. And then the E3 trailer... like there's the weird pretty lady in jail? But what's she talking about? Who the fuck is Mary? Is that... his wife? Well then who the hell is Ms. Miniskirt? No wait... is that his wife in the VHS tape? What the hell is going on? Oh look gameplay! And... a little girl? And a weird guy with a gun... This soundtrack slaps. I'm gonna go see if it's up on Napster yet. (this was 2001... again... my bones etc) I remember combing over low-res copies of that video for HOURS when it came out. Why are the nurses different? It's not snowing? Who are all these people... And why do they all sound like they put ketamine in their coffee. It was like a great big puzzle to work out and we had a ball theorizing and researching so when it came out we were HYPE. And that was largely because in short... we knew SOME things at release. Fog. Nurses. Big stick. Weird people. Banger soundtrack. Dead (but probably not) wife. And we presumed or supposed more... cult activity? New beasties? Radio maybe? But we effectively knew nothing about the plot. And the best part was, while they had a solid hook (Find dead lady who we love so huggy buggy much) and instant intrigue (Angela in the cemetery being weirder than a film by David Lynch), and a very familiar setting (we may have improved draw distance on the PS2, but we don't have to use it!), we still didn't really know what was going on. The plot was essentially unfolding out of a black box. Silent Hill 2 was quite content to be a slower burn than trying to boil the Lake Superior with a signal flare. You don't even see the main "villain" Pyramid Head until a few hours in and, as I pointed out in that other post, there's no flashy cut scene to introduce him and go WOOOOOO SCARYYYYY. He's just chillin' behind some prison bars (which that totes is normal in an apartment complex) and staring at you like I stare at the inside of my fridge when I really would like some cheese to materialize.

And then... like we're not even really sure what the hell is going on for the longest time. We meet our wife's hot twin with the key to a strip club and she keeps getting killed over and over... and things keep getting increasingly rapey and lewd in a way that's just uncomfortable more than anything... But even at the end. Even with the big reveal of "You killed your wife." they still don't ever explicitly state "And you killed her because you couldn't have sex with her anymore." It wasn't until you finished the game, and talked to someone else about it, or let your brain cook on it for a bit that you went... heyyyy... he's a horndog! (In fact... if I'm going to chide SH2 for anything it's that right at the very VERY end they tried to frame James's actions as understandable because the woman who was dying and frightened and in pain was mean to him. Yes, being a caretaker is hard. But Christ... pick a topic for discussion.) But contrast all that with Short Message. The marketing and such all said out loud "THIS IS ABOUT BULLYING" so even going in... I was already like "yep. The bully is probably us, but we had reasons because we have to be complicated and you aren't allowed to make the player feel bad" And lo was I correct. There was no... intrigue. I was never curious about the character or the people around her because I knew this story. They already told me what story they were telling so I could practically sing along, especially as a millennial that had to grow up watching little videos and skits in school about the evils of bullying. And when you are going to tell a trope-ish story, and you tell the audience what the trope is, it becomes "say the line" writ large. This isn't me advocating for super twisty unexpected plot arcs (looking at you, Supernatural). Far from it. You absolutely should tell a story in such a way that the audience understands how you got from point A to point Z, even if there are some surprises along the way (See Sixth Sense for that masterclass). Rather, what I'm missing from this (and frankly a lot of the Silent Hill games and honestly... media in general these days) is a sense of restraint. A sense of trust in their audience to "get it." They can't just plonk us in the fog with a radio and a stick and say "You're here to find your best friend/dog/cousin/wife/business partner. Good luck. Here's a weirdo to prattle cryptically at you in order to unsettle you immediately. Bye!" No! They have to tell us what kind of story they're telling and what themes are important. They can't just... give us a Silent Hill Game and trust that we know what to do with it. It's... insulting frankly. Especially as a longtime fan of the franchise who remembers when they did trust us and they did have faith in their work. I will say this in compliment to Short Message. The environment design was pretty cool. Especially the sticky-note hallways... they looked like leaves... and sometimes teeth... and like tightly packed bones in an ossuary. It didn't... say anything really. But it looked cool. And you can't go wrong with Akira Yamaoka's soundtrack. But... while I'm on the subject of design. Y'all. An animate sakura tree in an oversized hoodie is not scary. But bless you for at least having the restraint to not make her Pyramid Head.

[utilitycaster]

Can I ask why you're a dune disliker? I haven't read it myself but I'm curious as its always on my tbr

To be honest I'm sure there's many ideological reasons to dislike it, but I read it in high school and my gut reaction was in fact "wow so you're a white guy who knows Hebrew and Arabic root words, do you want a fucking cookie." Otherwise I just remember being kind of bored and also, because I am old enough to have not been super online in my mid teenage years, having a vague sense that stillsuits were definitely some kind of fetish and definitely not my kind of fetish; also I'm like, not terribly enamored of any kind of messiah narrative but I'm really not into one in which said messiah could credibly be played by Timothee Chalamet. Also I just looked it up on wikipedia to try to refresh my memory for the plot because I only recall vibes, and apparently it was intended as a rebuttal to Foundation, and while it has ALSO been like. at least 15 years since I read Foundation, I did fucking love Foundation.

Anyway, going purely off the vibes I do remember, it's best described as very annoying college sophomore who just got way into shrooms' shitty WIP except it's like, a cornerstone of modern science fiction. The movie might be good. I'm considering going to see the 1984 version of the movie which the local indie cinema is playing both because I do enjoy some David Lynch and young Kyle McLachlan. Perhaps check out the film and see if you like it and check it out because like, it is a wildly popular book and you probably should read it instead of going off my teenage opinion.

[blueharborhq]

TASK 004 — RANDOMIZER #1

Happy September, everyone! As we celebrate (nearly) four months of being open here at Blue Harbor, we'd love to introduce something new and exciting: a randomized interaction task! This type of task is one that we'd love to incorporate more consistently moving forward in order to ensure that everyone is making new IC / OOC connections, staying inclusive towards others, and having fun! Unlike previous tasks, THIS TASK IS MANDATORY FOR ALL MEMBERS TO PARTAKE IN, excluding those who have joined or taken up additional characters following the date of September 1st. Don't worry, though, it's relatively simple! Underneath the cut, you will find every character of BH split up into smaller groups of four ( two will be of five ). These groups were mainly chosen by an online randomizer, with minimal admin interference to make sure that everyone was paired with as many different members as possible, most of whom they may not interact with frequently. That being said, considering the sheer quantity of muns and characters, there may be instances of repeats (For example: A, who has four characters, being in two separate groups with B, who also has four characters) — so don't be alarmed if that's the case for you! That just means more opportunity to chat with someone.

By October 1st, we expect all characters within a group to have at least one interaction individually with each other. This gives you all four weeks to plot and work out a connection— be it random or otherwise — with every character assigned to yours, and every mun in your group! These interactions do not need to be complex, nor do they even need to be written threads. Since this is the first time we're implementing this sort of task, we'll happily accept interactions like texts / calls / facetimes for this, so long as you keep in mind that they will not count towards activity. Ideally, these interactions will not be dropped and will surpass just one reply back and forth; we really want everyone to put the most amount of effort possible into this, rather than doing the bare minimum because it's required. PLEASE NOTE: We will be keeping track as best as we possibly can, and anyone who does not start the required interaction within the given time frame (who has also not opened up a conversation with us to discuss) may receive a friendly follow up! Rest assured, if you wind up falling into this category, you won't be in trouble in any way! We simply want to understand how we can make future installments of this task better for you and improve upon it for next time!

That being said, if you feel as though you cannot complete this task for any reason, please reach out to us. This task is supposed to be something fun and mutually beneficial for all, not a chore! Nor should it be stressful in the slightest. So if there is an element to this task that you are unhappy with, so much so that you feel like you cannot complete it, we need to know. We're willing to chat, help and compromise to make sure that everyone is having a good time! You can do so via the main's direct messages or either admin personally on Discord, as the anonymous feature will remain disabled for the foreseeable future.

Ahead of time, we thank each and every one of you for your cooperation!

GROUP 1.

Deacon Edwards ( Laine )

Elijah Falvey ( Kellen )

Leandro Contreras ( Stef )

Safiye Aksoy ( Kris )

Valletta Cambridge ( Emily )

GROUP 2.

Rafael Moldonado ( G )

Giselle Finch ( Kau )

Rachel Han ( Claire )

Dante Kidd ( Stef )

Madisyn Huang ( Soph )

GROUP 3.

Oliver Ashford ( Alyssa )

Ash Williams ( Em )

Ruby Morrisey ( Kau )

Estefania Betancourt ( Velouria )

GROUP 4.

Maximilian Mohan ( Frankie )

Halide Dursun ( Hanna )

Theodora Nowak ( Ceecee )

Sawyer Marshall ( Alyssa )

GROUP 5.

Dylan Westwick ( Claire )

Warren Pearce ( Hanna )

Grayson Heller ( Christie )

Valentine Finch ( Laine )

GROUP 6.

Juno Behar ( Stef )

Theo Bailey ( Mina )

Jack Lynch ( Aaron )

Grace Connors ( Krys )

GROUP 7.

Dilara Kaplan ( Stef )

Calahan Macarthy ( Manes )

Eliana Kendrick ( Sarah )

Leonard Katz ( G )

GROUP 8.

Daniel Choi ( Krys )

Thalia Edwards ( G )

Ruairi Macarthy ( Riley )

Antonella Ibarra ( Talia )

GROUP 9.

Cassie Westwood ( Hanna )

Dahlia Young ( Krys )

Damian Escobedo ( Ceecee )

Lisha Katz ( J )

GROUP 10.

Sofia Escobedo ( Em - 2 )

Selina Vale ( Talia )

Leon Wozniak ( J )

Angel Wallace ( Sarah )

Trey Kingston ( Christie )

GROUP 11.

Jasper Finch ( Manes )

Phoebe Yates ( Soph )

James Bennett ( Eric )

Terry Lowenstein ( Laine )

GROUP 12.

Jia Kim ( Em )

Lainey Caldwell ( Nikki )

Jeanie Ramachandran ( Aaron )

Elspeth Sun ( Manes )

GROUP 13.

Berenice Henry ( J )

Isabel Guzman ( Alyssa )

Maya Jackson ( Krys )

Avery Chopra ( Bay )

GROUP 14.

Saul Weissberg ( Velouria )

Lincoln Welch ( Nikki )

Samuel Harrison ( Talia )

Liam Reed ( Em )

GROUP 15.

Scarlett Blackwood ( Caitlyn )

Antonio Beltran ( Ceecee )

Chance Underwood ( Kau )

Nilay Bailey ( Bay )

GROUP 16.

Arizona Ortega ( Kris )

Moshe Behar ( Riley )

Izulu Zakwe ( Emily )

Quintana Weisz ( Nikki )

GROUP 17.

Rory Anderson ( Ceecee )

Matty Foster ( Molly )

Lewys Stone ( Sky )

Micah Weissberg ( Frankie )

GROUP 18.

Josie Finch ( Em - 2 )

Nate Abadiño ( Kau )

Roman Daniels ( Soph )

Charlette Lowenstein ( Riley )

[omniseurs-blog]

Last rant before bed, because I guess I'm in a ranting mood today and I need to focus on the positives and bettering my life instead.

On being trans and schizospec/having any mental illnesses

I try to hide the fact that I'm trans if I'm open about being mentally ill and hide being mentally ill if I'm open about being trans. It's a natural reaction to all the "trans people are just crazy! Trans people are delusional!" And "schizophrenics are liars/manipulators!" "Schizophrenics can't know themselves!" arguments.

Let's open up about this a little more, maybe I won't be lynched at the stake for being both at the same time. I came out as trans when I was 11 years old, I'm 23 now. Most people would never guess I was born with no dick, and for the most part, there's no reason for me to tell anyone who isn't a medical professional that I am trans. I don't date, I barely attempt to make friends and don't have much of an urge to (I just know socializing is healthy, and not socializing will kill you younger), and I'm not really doing anything that would make it essential for anyone to know what's in my pants or under my shirt.

Unfortunately, around 14-15 years old my father's genetics caught up with me and I had my first psychotic break all the way up until starting to recover at 18, and any semblance of connection to the trans community was lost along with my sanity. The trans communities I talked in pushed me away as much as I pushed them away because of my schizophrenia. Trying to talk in schizophrenia support groups, of course, I was pushed away for being trans. In order to talk anywhere about anything I needed support with, I had to, essentially, code switch. In trans groups, I may as well be the most mentally stable person ever who just needs a little help with this one aspect of transition, acceptance, or passing, and then I'm off to the schizophrenia support group, where I might as well be the straightest manliest man ever who just needs a little help with this one aspect of delusional thinking and identifying hallucinations, and then I'm off to the rest of society to be the most mentally healthy straightest manly man to exist (and then crash at home in a mess of unmasking and questioning my existence and if life will ever get easier).

Essentially, I abandoned both communities, exclusively getting help in therapy, through medications, self help books and self therapy, and focusing on things that I actually cared about, but that lack of acceptance is still there in both communities, in the broader public, and online.

I'm only one or another to each person I know, or else it's back to desperately explaining that, no, I'm not experiencing "delusions of gender dysphoria", yes, I'm actually trans, yes, I know I am, I've been out as trans for longer than my symptoms appeared AND recovered from them (12 years now), yes, I'm medicated, no, the hormones didn't cause the psychosis or else I'd be in psychosis right now and would've fallen out of it during the ~3 year period where I want taking hormones because the dumbass doctor reached the same conclusion, and yes, I'm still happier as a man even if being a woman meant psychosis never would have happened (it would've happened either way)

[femmeidiot]

tell us why Camilla cabello sucks, lay it out, give us the rant

shsiejejed idk if yall really want me to delve that deeply into this but I shall as requested lmao. Well alright umm idk where I should start with this. Okay so you see when she was in fifth harmony everyone very much treated her as the front person she got the most solos and shit and she would do these annoying ass goat sounding runs over everyone else and for the entire first fifth harmony album you could barely even hear Lauren sing at all she hardly got any parts but that's not wherein lies the issue really. It was obvious Camila just kinda wanted to leave the group and break off and go solo and she literally like recorded a duet with Shawn mendes without even like telling the rest of the group and and when she left the group they found out like shortly before she announced it.

but again that's not even the worst of it her fans are and we're so annoying and terrible and anti-black and so so so so mean to normani who was like carrying the group lets be real. At one point I think primarily in 7/27 era Camila's fans were bullying normani so bad they were sending her racial slurs and photoshopping picture of her onto lynchings. Normani has talked about how bad this online bullying was and how it hurt her so deeply because how could it not? Like camilas fans were upset because normani like spoke over Camila in an interview or something stupid as fuck but Camila got like all the speaking time and most of the singing time and ugh. Anyway the only thing Camila ever said about this bullying was like "fans of mine shouldn't bully anyone" like girl it's past bullying it's fully racist harassment and you don't even care.

also Camila is literally boring as fuck her music is bad her voice is annoying she is not talented at writing or literally anything else I hate her I so much I will never forgive her and I know she doesn't control what other people do in her defense but she did nothing to really discourage it. It took 17 co-writers to write "I love it when you call me senorita" I hope her career crashes and burns anyway normani's album comes out June 14th stream dopamine.

[bluemoose86]

Thoughts on The Woman King

Spolier-free:

First of all, I loved this movie! And so did the other two people I went with; the three of us literally talked about how we all wanted to see it again after it was over

Great fight choreography, loved getting to see a bunch of women go absolutely feral in battle without them being sexualized or still having to “look pretty.” There’s a lot of close-ups during fights of the Agojie killing people and it’s not pretty, it’s brutal and it’s fucking awesome (the movie is PG-13 though so it’s not overtly gory, which I personally appreciated)

THE ACTING???? On point the ENTIRE movie. Give Viola Davis, Thuso Mbedu, and Lashana Lynch ALL the awards RIGHT NOW. Viola Davis embodied Nanisca perfectly and was equally impressive in the epic battle scenes and in the emotionally vulnerable scenes. I’ve seen several articles talk about how this was a career performance from her, and she herself called the film her magnum opus. Lashana Lynch stole every single scene she was in. Izogie my beloved. I also enjoyed John Boyega’s portrayal of King Ghezo and Sheila Atim as Amenza

Also I literally had to do a triple take when I found out Thuso Mbedu, who plays 19 year old Nawi, is THIRTY ONE?????? SHE’S ONLY THREE YEARS YOUNGER THAN LASHANA LYNCH???? SHE’S THE SAME AGE AS SHEILA ATIM???? In other pictures she looks older but I am actually 19 and I stg when I found that out, I felt old

And still speaking of the actors, really cool how the majority of, if not all the Black actors in this movie were dark skinned, particularly the women. I read that when the movie was first being pitched, some studios wanted to cast light-skinned and well-known actresses, but the producers refused

The beginning felt a little rough to me in terms of pacing, but the movie hits its stride around the mid-point or so. And trust me, when it starts working, it works.

The script was also a bit weak sometimes, but I thought the performances made up for it

I’ve seen some people online saying the movie glorifies the slave trade or glorifies Dahomey while brushing the kingdom’s involvement in the slave trade to the side, which really confuses me because...it doesn’t? The movie opens with a text-scrolling intro à la Star Wars that literally mentions the slave trade, and several characters in the movie talk about it as well. Nanisca and King Ghezo have a conversation about how Dahomey profits from the slave trade, and how Ghezo’s brother sold their people—including his and Ghezo’s own mother—as slaves for profit. And then it gets more overt when some Portuguese men land at the port city, one of them specifically to buy slaves, and when we go into the city and LITERALLY SEE slaves being chained up, kept in cages, and brought onto the block to be sold. The movie both shows and tells you how awful the slave trade is, and how the people in the movie are impacted by it. At one point, some of the women are captured and prepped to be judged and sold and the entire process is presented as brutal and degrading. I’m seriously convinced that the people who say the movie is “glorifying slavery” have never seen it

Wanted to end this section on a good note lol so I’ll once again say IZOGIE MY BELOVED!!!!! Favorite character without a doubt, also gave off fruity vibes but y’all let me know if you picked up on that too lol

Overall, I definitely recommend this movie and I will 100% rewatch it in the future. Also this movie BETTER win some fucking Oscars or else 😤😤

Spoiler thoughts below!!

Izogie’s death scene was very well done. I kind of guessed they would end up killing her off since they really built her up as a character, but that didn’t lessen its impact at all. Lashana Lynch and Thuso Mbedu acted their asses off (as they did the whole movie, but particularly here). The actual set-up was good too: having Nawi convince her to stay alive so they could all escape together, setting her broken arm and then having to pretend like it was never broken, having her be the only one who actually escaped but deciding that Nawi was right that the Agojie should help each other and trying to go back for her, only to get killed while Nawi is begging her to keep running. Heartbreaking, but that’s what made it so good

By contrast, Nawi’s friend’s death (the Mahi prisoner, I forgot her name I’m so sorry) was not really impactful at all, beyond her dying right after being accepted by the other Agojie who had a problem with her before. I wish they had spent a little more time on both Nawi’s friends as individual characters and their relationship with each other. We barely saw Nawi interact with either of them before they became best friends, and after the Mahi girl died, neither Nawi or her other friend mourned her on screen (I know Nawi had been kidnapped at this point, but the other girl survived and wasn’t kidnapped)

I loved how Nanisca and the other Agojie went to the city intending to just rescue their own but she found out that the slave traders killed Izogie and Nawi was missing and she said “burn it to the fucking ground.” Iconic as HELL and I wish more stories would let their MC react like that

Also loved that the prisoners that Malik freed drowned the slave trader he came with. Fuck you dude

A woman literally getting to kill her abuser? We love to see it

I wish they’d brought up Nawi being an orphan a bit earlier in the movie, since it seemed like it was introduced rather suddenly after she became an Agojie. They could have pretty easily tossed in a line from her parents admonishing her for acting so terribly after they “rescued” her from the orphanage. 

I also really enjoyed Nanisca and Amenza’s relationship! I got kind of gay vibes but the only thing that was explicitly confirmed was how close they are and how much they mean to each other, which I was also happy with. I’m so glad Amenza survived the movie lol

[unknowablecore]

Im gonna make my single negative post about Greywaren...

I do think Greywaren suffered from Maggie kind of just wanting to be done with it. I am satisfied with Ronan/Adam's relationship personally (they got theirs) and Hennessey's arc, but otherwise it was the least successful book I think in terms of doing what I love about a Raven Cycle book. The character interactions that we got were good but a lot of it felt sparse. Unlike in The Raven King where I loved the parts that were left open or unexplained (I know this is kind of an unpopular opinion), in Greywaren it felt more skipped over than intentionally open ended and for me and quite a few things feel less fun to speculate on unlike TRK. The Lynch brothers needed more page time together, especially to reckon with all the new information we got. Mor didn't quite work for me, she was to amorphous, why is she at the barns. They kinda forgot about the question of Aurora. Declan's needed to find more of a middle ground. Ronan needed more pov time at the end. Maggie is only human and it's obvious online highly effected her writing of this book. it's mostly just too bad. I don't want to be overly negative about it or sound like I didn't like the book because I did really enjoy it and loved a lot of what we got but, yeah.

I'm just gonna try and hc around what didn't work for me and imagine all their futures sentimental and mushy going forward! :')

[uyuforu]

Hello Uyu welcome back 🍓🍓

I really apologize on behalf of the weird armies who wrote you messages. It's good that you spent some time away from here, but I'm glad you're back.🩷🩷

Something happened the other day I don't know if you know about it but hybe and mhj have been in an ego war for a few months using girls (newjeans). Considering Jungkook was in this disgusting industry and company from a young age, he knows what is going on much better than people on the internet. As the senior of the girls and someone who has been through terrible things himself, he posted on Instagram in support of newjeans:

"ARTISTS ARE NOT GUILTY, DON'T USE THEM"

And the armies that have been lynching these young girls for months and being fans of this disgusting company, instead of supporting their own artist jungkook, they took the side of the company. 

After jungkook's Instagram post, the armies went crazy and started saying terrible things about jungkook. Jungkook must have seen it all because the comments are open on his Instagram account for his dog Bam. 

The armies are always overprotective and supportive when it comes to other members, but when it comes to jungkook, their attitude completely changes. There have been  islamaphobic, racist, misogynistic behavior from other members, but army keep defending them.

But the slightest behavior of jungkook is a problem for the armies. They have made up a character for jungkook in their own minds and when he goes out of this character, they try to beat him. Jungkook is just a human being trying to live his life the way he wants to live without hurting anyone. He's just like us and he's not some kind of toy. It was the same in 2019 when he got a tattoo or grew his hair long, but the armies betrayed him. There are many examples of the army's strange behavior towards jungkook in previous years, but I don't want to go any further.

What I really want to talk about is jungkook's weverse update today. When the translators would translate jungkook's conversations with fans, they would always note that he "he wrote cutely". 

He always started his post by saying army. But in today's update, jungkook didn't write army and coldly wrote "I hope you have a good chuseok." (Not really his style 🫠) 

And while all this was going on, I thought of what you wrote for his solar return chart:

"ᯓ★ Chiron 9H can be a sign of JK learning a hard and painful lesson when it comes to spirituality this year. Can be about friendship, online presence, community, fandom, perhaps JK will realize something painful about his relationship to ARMY. "

How sad. He has a great heart and I hope he will have better and more supportive fans.

I hope he realizes that there are as many people who support him as there are who hate him. How ironic that the fans of his own group are upset him, while the people outside the Army are giving him supportive comments.

look I saw that story! Ngl, many armies are on HYBE's side but.. im really with JK for real. NJ are so young, they are artists, and even if they are from ADORA, isn't this label is still part of Big Hit Music? Please correct me if I'm wrong. BUT NJ is still their artists. This is really shameful how they are treated rn.

And... I did say before many times JK will eventually leave HYBE. It's also gonna happen quite soon, like around end of the year 2025, or beginning of 2026. So, to me this isn't surprising to see. Also a proof im not doing weird predictions 🥲

Overall, HYBE are really playing with fire, they should be careful. They are not doing good choices at all, and may lose BTS in the end.

Anyway, thank you for the message tho! I could also do a reading about New Jeans, and the current situation. AND also what BTS feel about this and HYBE... could be interesting lmao.

- uyu

[minnwaa]

milgram fuuta's thought

honestly tho deco*27 outdid themselves w/ the second round songs so far, because it's so good??? i still cant stop looping fuuta's song until now and it's been HOURS since then. i haven't been listening to anything else please save me

but if there's one thing that i know after listening it THEN re-listening it AND THEN re-listening it, then after analyzing both salamander and the voice drama, i definitely gonna be voting forgiven for fuuta. okay here's why. (even though i know that half of the fandom gonna be voting forgiven for him anyway lmao)

salamander is essentially a song about loving something that hurts you, got addicted to the taste of it even though it might harm you or cause you pain. it's also mentioned in the song that you can find ways to make it less painful, but you'll be definitely "eating" or consuming it anyway. it's literally in the song,

Ouch! That was hot getting burned from living too fast It’s a bit annoying because I can’t handle too much hot food I want it on repeat, I want a spicy treat Can I get seconds? One more time!! I want to burn bright red

do you know why the song used salamander? it's because salamander cannot actually stand the heat, it's basically a myth because they liked to sleep in damp logs used in camping. they will actually die when burned because they need the mucus on their skin to survive, but salamanders can survive the heat when forced, not because they like the heat or because they are fireproof. so the singer, the speaker, is basically asking a salamander to die for the thing they love, which is the heat. salamanders can regenerate their body part, though, so that's probably the reason why the singer was confused why a salamander wouldn't like the heat even though it's probably going to survive when it can regenerate its cells. but it will still be painful. but they're going to survive anyway.

then like, we have backdraft. the last part of the song, the rap part, got me really interested, right? because holy shit that is a lot of words at once.

"Oh no, surrounded, lynched by the masses Moribund, that's all from me, reporting from the ground Bust out, explode that counter uppercut Tolerate, impress those spectators Alight, enmeshed, their eyes closing in Dodging seems impossible Bust out, explode that counter uppercut Swallowing me whole, can't douse this FIRE"

also @ milgram it's not, moribound, it's moribund,

moribund definition:

so taking what we know from salamander, we know that fuuta was probably building a habit to enjoy the thing that harmed him. from bring it on, we know that he's chronically online so that's probably what he can't stop enjoying. he knew that it was wrong and harmed him too, but at this point, he's addicted and can't stop. he's at the front line and center, even when he's half dead (not sure if it's like him being real almost dying or metaphorical social death) he can't stop because he had to "impress" the spectators. he was "lynched by the masses" probably means that he was peer-pressured to be the leader, to be the hero (callback to bring it on) but then thrown away and judged when all gone to shit.

which led me to my third point, onigiriico made a translation of the voice drama which you totally should read by yourself because i am in pain and i am biased for him fucking sue me

anyway

he had a good point, which is why was he the one being punished when it's not just him who bullied this person. he only said what's wrong is wrong and what's a sin is a sin, then probably triggered a wave of bullying. fuuta might be a person who has a big following, so he might feel like he's a hero because people do listen to him, people followed him, so it's the eyes that followed him. but one thing is for sure, he felt guilty for what he did, and he didn't know what he did would impact the other person this badly. what he needed wasn't getting beaten up, he's just so fucking chronically online dude. he needs THERAPY.

(at this point who in milgram doesn't need it. probably yuno)

so yes, i will vote forgiven. because it's not about the matter of him being innocent or not. let me be clear, i don't think he's innocent in anyway. bullying is a serious matter and what he did was wrong. but he's sorry and he felt guilty for what he did. (even when he said that he's not in the wrong but he obviously is, lmao kid) he probably wanted to stop but wasn't allowed to by his peer and his addiction, but now he knows how fatal his action is.

so in my eyes, he's forgiven.

[aprillikesthings]

Starting this fall I'm doing a four-year long class called Education for Ministry, which despite the name is not about becoming a minister. It *is* some of the same material covered in first-year seminary, but it's aimed at "laypeople" (aka not clergy) and isn't graded or anything. It's also run by an Episcopal seminary but it's not restricted to us--my group has a Methodist in it, and I think one other person who is "mainline" but not Episcopal.

Anyway. It involves a ton of reading from multiple books per week, and then getting together in a group (mine is on zoom, most are in person) once a week to talk about the reading and respond to conversation prompts.

And I need to decide (soon) if I want to use paper books vs ebooks. And whether I want to take notes on the texts via sticky notes or a notebook or in the books; or typing them up. (The notes won't be the kind used for studying for exams; we're encouraged to note when the text makes us Amazed, Bothered, Confused, or Delighted.)

And here's my eternal conundrum:

I know damn well I am more likely to do all the readings if I do them via ebook. I know I'm more likely to keep notes via typing (including highlighting/notes in the ebooks!). Mostly because that means I can do them at work, between phone calls.

But I really really love the aesthetic of paper books, dammit!

Also....wait now that I'm thinking about this. I'm doing it on zoom. It'll be a huge pain in the ass to try to look at the ebooks (which would require me to have amazon's in-browser reader open, I don't have a kindle and it's too small on my phone) while in discussions.

Also if I try one way and it isn't working I can just switch to a different way.

See this is why I write out things like this. I always somehow end up making the decision as I write/type.

Anyway I've managed to keep a paper planner/journal for most of the last three and a half years (no, really) in part by making the aesthetics cater to my very specific tastes (erasable gel pens with small nibs in a rainbow of colors, erasable highlighters with same, fuck-tons of washi tape and stickers, fancy notebook paper). So I might be okay re: EfM.

The first year has the most reading because we do the entire old testament. Second year is new testament, third year is church history, fourth year is theology and learning about other faiths. All four years are in the same group. I can (if I want) drop out and join back up next year, or drop my group and join another one at any point, because the material is standardized. So that's cool. The program is fifty years old now, which is amazing; but also it means they've had a lot of time to figure out how best to do this sort of thing.

ANYWAY there's a couple times per year everyone (no matter which year they're in) reads the same book, and this year one of them is James Cone's The Cross and the Lynching Tree, and Beyond A Binary God: A Theology for Trans Allies by Tara Soughers.

My other books this year (other than a study bible--and I already own a doorstopper of an NRSV Oxford Study Bible, with all the maps and translation notes and footnotes on cultural stuff, though I'll have access to one online as well) are A Short Introduction to the Hebrew Bible (third edition) and The Hebrew Bible: Feminist and Intersectional Perspectives.

I'm nerdy enough that all those book titles are making me just :D :D :D

ANYWAY if you really want to nerd out on this shit for some reason, most of last year's manual/guide is here, in pdf form

(I was side-eyeing the trans theology book a tad because it's written by a cis woman with a trans kid, but in reviews people point out it's entirely aimed at allies, not transgender people. Because while there are absolutely transgender people in our churches!, they've often already figured this shit out, and it's The Rest of Us who need to get with the program, so to speak. I just hope I'm not The Token Gay (who knows a ton of trans people) but knowing the Episcopal church...probably not gonna be the only queer lol.)

[uncloseted]

How do you feel about the desensitization social media has about tragedy and how this affects our brains? I’ve studied media and communication and I’m super passionate about this topic.

The other day I was scrolling on Youtube shorts, and I saw a girl post a video about the air quality in new york due to the wildfires in Canada. The video was satire/comedy and she sped her video up while prancing around lip singing to yellow by coldplay or something. (Side note: why do people even find these sped up videos funny? They’re annoying)

I’m just wondering if you have an opinion on how desensitized people have become. Like at first glance I was like Oh that’s a bit funny! And then I caught myself and was like hang on this really happened as is currently affecting others… that’s horrible. I’ll scroll on my snapchat news and see murder case / true crime headings reading like fun little blurbs. And people do their makeup and profit off other peoples trauma for views like they’re professionals doing it and it’s so insulting. The list really goes ON.

Do you think some studies will start coming out soon about how our empathy levels are incredibly low or even developing our brains differently because of social media’s impact on empathy and being desensitized to so many things?

Sorry for the loaded question! I’m curious to see what you think.

Thank you for this question because I've been thinking about it for like, three days straight. At first I was inclined to be like, "well, no, I think the internet is fine and our worries about empathy are just a moral panic that we see with every new technology that's developed." And then I was inclined to be like, "people have definitely become less empathetic lately, and the internet is probably a big part of that." But I think the reality is that the internet is kind of neutral. More than anything, the internet is a tool that acts to magnify and intensify the way people already are. Some people use the internet to become more aware of other people and understand their unique situations; other people use it to be trolls.

The first thing I want to talk about here is the idea that people used to be more empathetic in the past. I just don't know if that's actually true. Blood sports- games in which people are violent towards one another on purpose as a form of entertainment- have existed for most of human history. Gladiator combat in Ancient Rome is a relatively popular example of this, and often ended in the death of a gladiator. Boxing is a sport that has historically been popular and continues to be popular to this day, despite the fact that it's just two people violently attacking one another. Lynchings used to be public spectacles, where the attendants often treated these as festive events, with food, family photos, and souvenirs. I don't know that I believe we were really more empathetic in the past at all. I think we've actually really improved on the "you can't torture, maim, or kill other people or animals for entertainment" front, especially since those types of things are generally banned from social media.

And like I was saying before, I do genuinely think that the internet can foster greater understanding and empathy towards marginalized groups. I know the struggles of all sorts of groups that I might never encounter in real life. I know how to be polite to people from a variety of different cultures that I might never experience. I've been posed with some really challenging philosophical questions through the content I've been exposed to online. I'm hearing the narratives of marginalized groups that I may have never otherwise heard, and I'm hearing it in their own words. That's incredibly valuable, and I think people who have grown up in the internet age don't fully appreciate how historically rare that actually is. Up until now, history has been written by the victors, the powerful, the oppressors. Now that narrative is democratized and widely available. That's huge in terms of its ability to build empathy and understanding if we choose to be open to it.

But, that same democratization can create problems. The first is that there's not really a distinction between in-group and out-group content anymore. It used to be that there was kind of a sense of, "well, I can say that about my own [group/family/situation] to people who understand, but you can't say that, because you're not part of it and you don't get it." People create content with their in-group in mind, but it often "breaches containment"- it's seen by people who aren't in that in-group. People who are living in New York and making jokes about the air quality situation in New York are usually making those jokes for other people in New York who are in their same situation. They're trying to lighten the mood of something scary. But the people who are seeing it aren't necessarily in New York; they're all over the world, and the context and emotional intention of that joke is kind of lost. There's an implicit assumption in these videos that you're starting from a place of understanding how horrible it is because you're living it, but that's often not true of the actual viewers. In your case, you saw a funny video and thought it was funny. If you had seen a serious video about the same situation, you probably would have been like, "oh shit, this is serious. I hope the people are okay." It's not necessarily a lack of empathy here but a lack of shared context in the way the information is being presented (or something like that?)

That brings us to problem two, which is compassion fatigue. More than ever before in history, we are constantly aware of every bad thing that has happened everywhere in the world, every single day. It used to be that you would get the newspaper and it would be focused mostly on local news, with some national headlines and a couple international headlines that were really important. The information we had about bad things that were happening were mostly things we could do something about. But now, that's not really the case, right? Today, I know that the Jenin refugee camp suffered massive damage following the Israeli army's biggest assault there in 20 years. I know the Palestinians fear that the situation will escalate. I know that Allison Mack, who ran the Nxivm cult, was released from prison after serving just two years of her sentence. I know that a suspect in a Philadelphia shooting was charged with the murder of five people, and that a Canadian man is facing terrorism charges over far-right videos, and that Japan has announced a controversial plan to release treated waste water from the Fukushima nuclear plant, and that Senegal has been facing a crisis because their President, Macky Sall, was threatening not to step down after the end of his second term, and that France is protesting police violence because a police officer shot and killed a French-Algerian teenager. And I can't do anything about any of this. I just know about it, and I have to care about it because I know about it.

And we've created this weird ecosystem online where everyone feels like they need to issue a PR type statement about whatever sociopolitical thing the internet cares about in the moment to show that they're a good person who is informed, even if they don't have a significant following and aren't impacted by the issue at hand. All of us are doing a weird kind of brand management for a brand that's just our own self, and we're managing it for the sake of our friends and family because we feel like we have to. And any time a person with a significant following does publish one of those statements, inevitably there are people badgering them about why they haven't spoken on the issue that they care about that's happening in their country. I just don't think that we as people have the emotional capacity to process that much information or care about that many things, especially when they're situations that we can't really do anything about, and especially when that situation will be replaced with something new within a few days. I think that's one of the reasons so many people feel helpless and disempowered right now. There's too much to fix but no real way for us to do it, especially in the time scale the internet provides.

So in this sense, I don't think that we're lacking empathy so much as we're required to be so empathetic that we've exhausted our capacity for it. There are more demands put upon us to be empathetic than ever before, and so we reach those moments of compassion fatigue more than ever before.

The other thing that I think is worth talking about here is the way in which the internet prioritizes extremes. The goal of algorithms is generally to get people to stay on the website longer, and the easiest way to do that is by getting them to feel a strong emotion. That's why clickbait works. It's also why the internet is invested in creating so much outrage. And the easiest way to continue getting people to feel outraged is to show them increasingly outrageous things, whether or not they're true. The internet kind of got 4chanified- like teenagers on 4chan, social media algorithms and article headline writers are trying to out-do one another by recommending or posting the most outrageous thing they can in order to capture the attention economy.

This is the part that concerns me the most with regards to the internet in general. Famously, Facebook’s negligence facilitated the genocide of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar after its algorithms amplified hate speech and Facebook failed to remove the inflammatory posts. Outrage = views = money for Facebook = more outrage bait being pushed = in the most extreme cases, genocide. And also, outrage = views = money for Facebook = more outrage bait being pushed = Donald Trump getting elected in the US. Outrage = views = money for Facebook = more outrage bait being pushed = people believing misinformation about medicine. And I think that creates a kind of interesting dynamic when it comes to empathy. Because in some sense, these people are very empathetic- they're outraged because of their empathy. They read a (fake) story about a child being victimized by a pediophilic trans teacher (or whatever) and panic because they have empathy for the children that they believe were victims. They're anti-immigration because they have empathy for the people who (they believe are) losing their jobs to immigrants. In the case of the Rohingya genocide, the Buddhist majority in Myanmar had empathy for the individuals that they believed were victimized by the Rohingya for their religious beliefs. These people were all wrong, but they're not lacking empathy. They're making a decision that an outside group isn't worthy of empathy because they've committed such heinous crimes. And that's a tale as old as time; just ask anyone who's Jewish.

I think what we need to be worried about is the ways in which the internet, and especially social media, can platform and expedite that process on a level that hasn't really been seen before. After the 2016 election, I used to really believe that we just needed to sit down with people across the aisle and have a civil, empathetic, rational conversation about the issues. But now I think that if that was ever possible, the time for it has passed. Misinformation, disinformation, and sensationalized information have become so rampant online that there's not really any way to have those discussions anymore because there's no way to agree on what is and isn't true. And unless we change something really quickly, that problem is just going to get worse with the advent of deepfake technologies and AI bots.

I feel like I've said a lot here but I haven't really come to any conclusions... but those are some of my thoughts, at least. I guess maybe it's that humans have always kind of sucked at being empathetic to people who are part of an out-group, but now we're just doing it on a global scale and reacting to threats that are (perceived to be) larger than ever before? Maybe it's that we should focus on strengthening and bettering our local communities as much as possible, and contributing on a global scale when we can? Maybe it's that media literacy is important, and we should always interact with news articles critically, even if they seem like they're a credible source?