#social media has made people incredibly stupid

[tuttle-did-it]

I'm a very big fan of when specialists debunk crap online because it's ineffective or dangerous.

[king-ludwig-ii]

T shirt that says I still have social issues and trauma from things that happened over a decade ago

[communistkenobi]

I’m watching FD Signifier’s new video about edgelord white guy movies. He spends a decent amount of time talking about how creators have responded to their edgelord fanbases, using The Joker and The Boys as two examples, where these creators feel uncomfortable with how their art has been received and taken up by “angry white men,” and that in response to this, they have followed up these artistic products with sequels or new seasons of television that are incredibly blunt and obvious about how you shouldn’t think of Homelander as a based chad or Arthur Fleck as a motivational figure in your life. And like he ends the video saying this is insufficient because these audiences won’t care about the messages in these follow-ups (largely bc these are downstream of larger social issues), but his framing of it in terms of “the death of media literacy” is still really frustrating and annoying because it’s buying into the idea that the main problem with people “not getting” art is literacy/education. And its not just his video, this framing is a popular memetic phrase across social media, and he does a better job than most people in talking about it

But like I just straight up do not accept that the audience of these edgelord movies “didn’t get” that they are portraying bad people, that audiences of mass media are “taking the wrong message” of “very obvious” pieces of art. Not because I think they do secretly get what these films are ‘actually saying,’ I don’t care about what’s in their hearts, but because this concern with people ‘not getting it’ feels wildly off-topic. I think it has been demonstrated over and over again that mass media is not an educational tool where people go to “learn lessons” or “take away a particular message.” I think the very fact that we have a consumptive marketised relationship to these artistic products structures and produces a specific set of responses, which is, above all else, “getting my money’s worth.” Who gives a shit what the movie is ‘really’ trying to say! That’s unimportant when faced with the question of did I get what I paid for? And I don’t mean this in an annoying lib “consumerism is making us all stupider” way I mean the economic structure of artistic production is the primary determinant of how commodities on a market are received. The idea that, under these conditions, we can purchase a piece of art that will “teach us” something about the world is laughable, that art-by-itself contains the authority to impart political knowledge. The idea that we can purchase our way into good values, good politics, that we can buy a movie ticket and see the error of our ways is buying into this same exact consumptive framing.

“The death of media literacy” implies a point in recent history where this economic relationship to art was unimportant, that we used to be able to participate in mass standardised artistic production and be unaffected by this arrangement. I think about Adorno & Horkheimer’s argument in The Culture Industry, that the profit motive is itself an object of consumption under capitalism, that advertisements are themselves products & as a result, all mass standardised artistic products are advertisements for their own capitalist production processes and logics. 

I think when people “don’t get” that Starship Troopers is depicting a fascist society, when people “don’t get” that Travis Bickle is a bad, un-admirable person, they aren’t stricken by a sudden deficit of education or literacy, they are responding to the conditions under which these things get made. Being able to get art’s “true message,” no matter how supposedly clear or compellingly-articulated, is to argue that ‘message’ and ‘meaning’ can be made independent of the conditions under which those things are created and presented to people. The industrial capitalist machinery outputting standardised artistic products is itself an authority telling you how to interpret its own products, much the same way a cathedral is presented as evidence of god. There is a material & physical authority in their presence and social arrangement that are themselves arguments. Adorno talks about this with the radio - that this vast industrial infrastructure of radio towers, broadcast stations, systems of wires and cables, and the production of standardised radio receivers (available for purchase, of course) is utterly incomprehensible to most people and amounts to hearing the voice of god when you turn on the radio. The arrangement of artistic production & presentation is itself the structure through which you experience art, and that structure is an authority you can neither comprehend nor alter. And again as A&H say in The Culture Industry, the techniques, narratives, and genres of the culture industry become standardised themselves, cookie-cutters on a production line, and therefore dictate meaning above and beyond any particular semantic meaning injected into an individual film or story. “Romcoms” are a cultural authority above and beyond the sum total of every romcom film ever made, and it is these genres and techniques that transmit the justification for their own continued reproduction. Under this arrangement, the meaning of this film or that television show are rendered marginal - not unnoticeable or irrelevant, certainly, but secondary to the cookie-cutters they were produced from 

Now does this lead to a widespread ignorant, impoverished, reactionary view of art? Of course, but that is not because the guy who likes wearing V for Vendetta masks is illiterate. To place the blame on individual education, discipline, or literacy is to take Hollywood for granted as a natural eternal entity, to take it as just another church. It’s a goofy fucking argument! 

[leidensygdom]

Fighting AI and learning how to speak with your wallet

So, if you're a creative of any kind, chances are that you've been directly affected by the development of AI. If you aren't a creative but engage with art in any way, you may also be plenty aware of the harm caused by AI. And right now, it's more important than ever that you learn how to fight against it.

The situation is this: After a few years of stagnation on relevant stuff to invest to, AI came out. Techbros, people with far too much money trying to find the big next thing to invest in, cryptobros, all these people, flocked to it immediately. A lot of people are putting money in what they think to be the next breakthrough- And AI is, at its core, all about the money. You will get ads shoved in your fave about "invest in AI now!" in every place. You will get ads telling you to try subscription services for AI related stuff. Companies are trying to gauge how much they can depend on AI in order to fire their creatives. AI is opening the gates towards the biggest data laundering scheme there's been in ages. It is also used in order to justify taking all your personal information- Bypassing existing laws.

Many of them are currently bleeding investors' money though. Let it be through servers, through trying to buy the rights to scrape content from social media (incredibly illegal, btw), amidst many other things. A lot of the tech giants have also been investing in AI-related infrastructures (Microsoft, for example), and are desperate to justify these expenses. They're going over their budgets, they're ignoring their emissions plans (because it's very toxic to the environment), and they're trying to make ends meet to justify why they're using it. Surely, it will be worth it.

Now, here's where you can act: Speak with your wallet. They're going through a delicate moment (despite how much they try to pretend they aren't), and it's now your moment to act. A company used AI in any manner? Don't buy their products. Speak against them in social media. Make noise. It doesn't matter how small or how big. A videogame used AI voices? Don't buy the game. Try to get a refund if you did. Social media is scraping content for AI? Don't buy ads, don't buy their stupid blue checks, put adblock on, don't give them a cent. A film generated their poster with AI? Don't watch it. Don't engage with it. Your favourite creator has made AI music for their YT channel? Unsub, bring it up in social media, tell them directly WHY you aren't supporting. Your favourite browser is now integrating AI in your searches? Change browsers.

Let them know that the costs they cut through the use of AI don't justify how many customers they'd lose. Wizards of the Coast has been repeatedly trying to see how away they can get with the use of AI- It's only through consumer boycotting and massive social media noise that they've been forced to go back and hire actual artists to do that work.

The thing with AI- It doesn't benefit the consumer in any way. It's capitalism at its prime: Cut costs, no matter how much it impacts quality, no matter how inhumane it is, no matter how much it pollutes. AI searches are directly feeding you misinformation. ChatGPT is using your input to feed itself. Find a Discord server to talk with others about writing. Try starting art yourself, find other artists, join a community. If you can't, use the money you may be saving from boycotting AI shills to support a fellow creative- They need your help more than ever.

We're in a bit of a nebulous moment. Laws against AI are probably around the corner: A lot of AI companies are completely aware that they're going to crash if they're legally obliged to disclose the content they used to train their machines, because THEY KNOW it is stolen. Copyright is inherent to human created art: You don't need to even register it anywhere for it to be copyrighted. The moment YOU created it, YOU have the copyright to it. They can't just scrape social media because Meta or Twitter or whatever made a deal with OpenAI and others, because these companies DON'T own your work, they DON'T get to bypass your copyright.

And to make sure these laws get passed, it's important to keep the fight against AI. AI isn't offering you anything of use. It's just for the benefit of companies. Let it be known it isn't useful, and that people's work and livelihoods are far more important than letting tech giants save a few cents. Instead, they're trying to gauge how MUCH they can get away with. They know it goes against European GDPR laws, but they're going to try to strech what these mean and steal as much data up until clear ruling comes out.

The wonder about boycotts is that they don't even need you to do anything. In fact, it's about not doing some stuff. You don't need money to boycott- Just to be aware about where you put it. Changing habits is hard- People can't stop eating at Chick-fil-a no matter how much they use the money against the LGBTQ collective, but people NEED to learn how to do it. Now it's the perfect time to cancel a subscription, find an alternate plan to watching that one film and maybe joining a creative community yourself.

[inuyashaluver]

hi hi hi I love your fics. I was wondering if you could more grace clinton. maybe about a new years kiss?? <33 also I love the way you add the social media posts very nice touch!!

happy new year - grace clinton

grace clinton x reader

description: in which you and your best friend don’t have anyone to kiss for new years, a friendly kiss won’t hurt, right?

warnings: long!! a little swearing

a/n: my love! you’re so sweet, thank you so much for the kindness and your request, enjoy ❤️ media posts till i DIEE, also can we tell i get to requests late HAHAHHA

⋆ ★ ⋆ ★ ⋆ ★ ⋆ ★ ⋆

since the day you and your best friend, grace, met, she has always been your go to person. you and grace had a bond that people could only dream about, radiating love, warmth and respect.

the two of you were truly a dynamic duo, stuck together like glue. unfortunately for the both of you, in a platonic way, something you both unknowingly wanted to progress further into something more.

it’s been that way since you were both 12, the best of friends through thick and thin. the bond between the two of you was very special, everyone could tell.

specifically through the way you both could laugh at anything and everything. the ability to be serious yet silly all at the same time.

sharing your stupid little inside jokes that had you both cackling while everyone shrugged around you because they really didn’t understand the joke. it was soulmate energy, affection begging to be shown between the two of you.

no one really understood you like grace did and vice versa. you truly brought out the best in each other, both on and off the pitch. it was honestly quite concerning how the two of you didn’t realise the amount of mutual infatuation you had for each other.

especially since you lived together, played in all the same clubs, spent each and every minute of everyday with each other, yet the confessions were never verbalised.

the amount of times the two of you had been ‘subtly’ told by your teammates that you both liked each other was unnerving. both of you dismissing it.

in your case, you were terrified to say something, the time didn’t feel right. you and grace had just been called up to the senior england team, both of your seasons at the spurs was going well, you didn’t want to jeopardise anything, you couldn’t afford to lose grace.

in grace’s case, she was also terrified, she could never really confirm whether your affection towards her was strictly platonic or not, you were notorious for being one of the kindest people in the world, you were incredibly affectionate, she truly believed you only viewed her as a friend.

oh how the two of you were just plain wrong. you’re absolutely perfect for each other.

—

grace was scrambling around your shared flat, huffing out in frustration when she couldn’t find her left boot. you both had to leave for training in 5 minutes.

“love, have you seen my boot anywhere?” she yells out, now for some reason throwing all the pillows off the couch.

you come into the room with a concerned expression, holding back a laugh at an annoyed grace laying on her stomach with her phone light shining under the couch.

“gracie” you call out, holding the boot in your hand with a cheeky grin. she whips her head towards you, letting out a sigh of relief and hurrying up towards you.

“you’re a lifesaver” she breathes out, grabbing the back of your head and placing a kiss on the top of it before she rushes back to her room.

your cheeks flush instantly and you have to fan yourself to calm down, moving to grab some pre-made smoothies from your fridge for the car ride, pressing them against your cheeks.

you sling your bag over your shoulder and wait for grace by the door, she was always the late one out of the two of you. she comes out with a smile, a little puffed out from all the hustle and bustle.

she takes one of the cups from you, also taking your bag off your shoulder and putting it on hers, “gracie,” you groan, ready to tell her you can carry your own bag.

she looks over her shoulder at you, winking when she caught your eye, “shh, let gracie help you, love” she mocks and shuts you up, making you shake your head fondly as she walks you out to her car.

when you’re both situated in your seats, grace wordlessly hands you the aux cord, sending you a gentle grin as your fingers brushed hers as you took it.

whatever song you played, grace made an effort to add it to her secret playlist dedicated to you, learning all the songs on there off by heart so she could scream the lyrics with you.

you and grace both entered the spurs training facility with bright grins, laughing loudly with each other as you stumble through the door, unaware the social media team was filming a little project at the moment.

“our dynamic duo, what’s on your lockscreen?” she said, you and grace simmer down your giggles, taking your phones out and showing them to the camera.

“this is a picture of grace being an idiot” you chuckle, saying it while directly looking at her, she sticks her tongue out and puts her phone in front of yours, “here’s a photo of (y/n) being an idiot” she parrots cheekily, making you laugh when you see the photo.

you both wave to the camera and grace slings her arm over your shoulder, still carrying yours and hers bags when you enter the change rooms.

the comments on that video had everyone going insane, there was always the common debate about yours and grace’s relationship, considering how close the two of you were.

—

there were so many instances where you and grace were obviously in love, not uncommon in your day to day life.

you were both walking out to the pitch for training, grace telling you a story that had you laughing brightly, only becoming worse when she would keep adding to it, struggling through the laughs she was producing.

“and then i fucking dropped the drink on the floor and it went everywhere!” she laughed, you join her, stumbling over your feet about to fall to the ground before you felt a warm hand planted firmly on your waist.

grace pulled you up quickly, the force of it having you smashing into her side, “easy” she chuckles, rubbing up and down your waist quickly before she let it linger on your lower back, directing your steps.

your cheeks go pink, your breath quickening a little at the interaction.

grace looks down at you a little worried about your breathing, “you okay?” her thick, northern accent making your stomach lurch, butterflies were an understatement when it came to grace.

“yep, fine” you breathe out, grace narrows her eyes at you but nods, hand still on your back as the group gathers, only leaving your body when you had to train, and of course, you’re partnered up.

clearly the two of you were in a silly mood because you two could not stop giggling. everyone would smile at the two of you, honestly the both of you were big kids stuck in adult bodies and it was incredibly endearing.

you were a striker, grace decided to practise her set piece with you in preparation for an upcoming match. you were known to be a little unstoppable, a rising star in everyone’s eyes, you were relentless when it came to scoring goals.

grace kicked the ball to you and you plant it in the back of the net, grace runs over to you and hoists you up in her waist, running around with you as you scream and laugh. acting as though she’s never seen you score before.

“top bins” she yells, making you laugh brightly as she jumped up and down with you in her arms, you slap her shoulder with a laugh, “gracie we have to practise,” you chuckle, she places you down on the floor with a laugh, waiting for you to run up so she could pass you the ball again.

and when you manage to score again, she just could not ignore the amount of admiration for you, hoisting you up again and running around the pitch while the team laughs at your screams and laughter.

“$5 they confess right now” beth jokes, celin laughs brightly, “no way, i don’t think it will ever happen” she smiles, watching as grace puts you on the ground as you shove her, your smiles infectious for everyone watching. “they’re so stupid” beth coos.

“gracie, don’t do that anymore” you laugh, giving her chest a little shove, “never” she replies cheekily, giving your nose a little squeeze before running off.

you smile as you watch her running off, waiting for you by your water bottles and chucking yours to you when you were near.

“what a save! ever considered being a goal keeper?” she teases, you drink your water with a shake of your head and flip her off, making her giggle before you both chat back and forth, promptly getting yelled at by beth for being distracted.

—

changes were evident when you and grace got called up again for the senior team, only this time, you were both debuting.

you were both starting, grace managing to assist you in two goals and getting her own in turn. you both got subbed off 20 minutes till full time and collapsed on the bench with bright smiles.

“little superstar, two goals” grace smiles down at you, nudging your shoulder with hers, you smile at her, “little superstar, one goal, technically three with your perfect assists” you say cheekily, nudging her like she did to you.

she looked down at your lips for a second before swallowing harshly, suddenly hyper aware of where she was, she faced the front with a nervous expression. you missed it completely.

she quickly begins to feel comfortable when you joke about something, falling into comfortable conversation and giggles.

you both joked as you watched the match, both of you yelling when something bad would happen or when something went well. all grace could really focus on was you, only reacting when you would because you were actually paying attention.

when the match concluded, you jumped on grace’s back and without a second thought, she held you by the underside of your thighs as you went to talk to your teammates.

“are you two dating yet?” ella laughs when she saw you leaning down to whisper something in grace’s ear as she chuckled.

you both froze, alessia winces and slaps her best friend on the shoulder, “tooney!” she exclaims, ella looks at her offendedly, “what?” alessia shakes her head, sending you both an apologetic smile as she dragged ella away, promptly scolding the girl as they walked.

you clear your throat and wriggle out of grace’s embrace, awkwardly chatting while you walked along side each other but returning to normal when you both laughed about a sign someone was holding with both you and grace on it saying ‘bestie goals’. you both wished it said something else on it.

—

though, what really changed everything was a new year’s party the lionesses frequently had. you and grace both got ready at home and when you came out of your room to an awaiting grace on the couch, her breath hitched at seeing you.

you looked drop dead gorgeous, stumbling inside while adjusting your earring. her mouth was slightly agape as she took you in, “do you think this looks okay?” you say with a little uncertainty, giving a little twirl with a nervous smile.

“(y/n) you look so beautiful,” she says earnestly, her eyes staring into yours as you nervously shifted your weight between your feet. your cheeks were pink, and so were grace’s.

“really?” you breathe out, grace nods firmly, “really, love” she smiles, you look at grace up and down, smiling as you took in her appearance. you were unintentionally in matching colours.

“you look beautiful as well, gracie” you smile, “but you copied my colour” you tease, grace rolls her eyes amusingly, “fine, i’ll change” she jokes when she stands up from the couch, you catch her hand before she could move past her.

“you look perfect, no” you scold, pulling her towards the car. she swore she went into cardiac arrest then and there.

you’re still hand in hand by the time your reach the car, grace making an effort to open the door for you with a sheepish grin when you smile at her affectionately, a small, “thank you, gracie” escaping your lips that made her nervous.

when you both get to the party, you’re instantly thrust into different conversations, unfortunately being separated.

that didn’t mean you didn’t stop looking at each other, however, your eyes always managing to connect from the other side of the room before making your way to each other again.

you and grace opted to not drink, she had driven and you didn’t want her to be sober alone, she was incredibly grateful for you.

you both chat and laugh, engaging in other conversations while grace placed her hand on the small of your back again, claiming you needed to stay with her or she’d ‘go insane’.

it was 11:50 and you watched as your teammates and friends all neared their partners, sticking close to them so they could have that new years kiss.

you looked to your side on the small couch, grace. grace was there. like she always was.

you couldn’t help the lingering thoughts of how you wanted grace to be your new years kiss, something you dreamt about every year.

if only you knew about the war going on in her mind at that moment, she fiddled with the rings on her fingers as she watched the surrounding couples get increasingly affectionate as the time neared.

you and grace danced along to the music on the couch before you both got pulled up by ella, “no sitting!” she laughs, pushing you forward and making you stumble into her arms before she walked away with joe.

grace’s hands catch you by the waist, your own holding her shoulders for support as you looked up at her. she swallowed the lump in her throat as she looked at you, your wide eyes and plump lips making her incredibly nervous.

you glance over at the time quickly for good measure, 11:59. “it’s almost midnight” you breathe out, grace nods, humming at your words. “yeah, 1 minute” she points out, her head double checking before focusing back on you.

“should we kiss at midnight?” you blurt out, internally cursing yourself for your forwardness. though, to your surprised grace nods, “why not?” grace shrugs.

a little smile plays at the corner of her lips at the thought of kissing you. you were both incredibly surprised at how forward the whole situation was.

“nothing wrong with kissing your best friend” you stutter, “no, nothing at all” she rushes out, making you both giggle before you hear people counting down from ten.

your pupils were blown out, grace as well, additionally with the two of you so pink in the cheeks, it looked like you were sunburned.

both of your eyes would stare into each other’s before dropping to your lips, both of you were incredibly nervous but overall excited.

by the time it reached two, everything felt in slow motion as grace cradled your cheek in her hand, gently pulling you forward till your lips met hers.

“happy new year!” people yelled.

almost feeling as though you had done it before, you both kissed each other sweetly, expressing everything you felt just with the press against your lips.

she pulled you closer as your arms wrapped around her neck, pressing you against her as your mouths moved together.

grace lets out a happy sigh against you, her hand around you waist moving to give your hip and gentle squeeze.

you hum against her, making her grin against your lips, your own little grin making its way into the kiss before you both pulled away in need of air.

you’re both still incredibly close to each other, everything tuning out around you as your breaths intermingled with each other.

“i love you” she breathes out, you smile at her and without hesitation you reply, “i love you” making her grin and press another tender kiss against your lips.

you hear some faint cheering but you ignore it, only focusing on the girl in front of you. your girl. her girl. finally.

of course when you and grace pull away, you’re teased like no tomorrow, both of you just taking it with bright grins as grace back hugged you, her arms around your middle as she kissed your cheek, your hands holding onto her arms resting on you.

—

you both got home after the party and grace just couldn’t resist you anymore. kissing your neck gently while your shaky hands attempted to open the door.

she places her hand around yours holding the key, helping you open it with a chuckle and closing it behind her when she gently pushes you inside.

as soon as the door closes, you surge forward and kiss her, she hums out surprised against you, walking you backwards until you both reach the couch.

she sits down first, patting her lap and giving you an inviting smile that had you swooning. you straddle her lap and she pulls you into a kiss without missing a beat, your tongues exploring each others mouths before her teeth gently tugging your bottom lip.

you smile when she releases it gently, moving forward to kiss her again. she suddenly giggled against you and you pull away with an amused smile, cocking your head to the side questioning her giggles.

“sorry, i just never thought this would happen” she says adoringly, her hand moving to rub the apple of your cheek gently, “yeah, me too” you smile, carding your hands through her hair and gently scratching the back of her neck with your nails, making her completely melt under your touch.

you both talked and talked all night, interrupted by a few stolen kisses until you both fell asleep on the couch. when you woke up to grace’s head resting on your chest as your legs were tangled, you couldn’t help but smile at the sight.

you smooth down the back of her hair gently and she stirs awake, holding herself above you and smiling down charmingly before tucking her head into the crook of your neck.

she places a gentle kiss there before she straddles your hips, kissing all over your face until you broke out into a fit of giggles, making her giggle along with you just at the sweet sound.

“will you be my girlfriend, baby?” grace breathes out, nudging your nose with hers, you nod instantly, pulling the back of her neck until your lips met with hers gently.

“i’d love to” you whisper against her, another kiss placed on your lips that made you so dizzy, you were both absolutely blissed out.

—

when you both went back to training, let’s just say some money was passed around with groans at seeing your intertwined hands.

⋆ ★ ⋆ ★ ⋆ ★ ⋆ ★ ⋆

you know the drill, just pretend it’s you! ily celin❤️

liked by ellatoone and 44,232 others

graceclinton_x: me looking at her like this even though she stole my food

view all comments

yourname: baby, sharing is caring

↳ graceclinton_x: sharing is caring when it only applies to you, baby girl

↳ yourname: very true xx smart girl!

↳ graceclinton_x: mhm

ellatoone: why don’t you ever look at me like that, clinton?

↳ alessia: ella

↳ graceclinton_x: ella

↳ yourname: ella

↳ ellatoone: what?

[nostalgicmiscellaneous]

Lol as someone who actually works in the industry: you guys are very, very naive if you believe a tumblr blog would tell you secrets about the behind the scenes of Bridgerton for a bubble of specific fans, and even less that someone who actually have access to executives would be around telling so many incorrect stuff that can be proven wrong with some clicks. And would tell you about the actors that way, while working for Netflix. It's hilarious because production is segmented, there are different crews as well, and it simply wouldn't have production/executive inside information if it worked close enough to the actors day by day to know them, and they wouldn't work with all of them to know them personally, repeatedly in the way it says, as the teams are the same for a long time and they all have made their opinions on actors very clear. It's so stupid that it made the mistake of telling you all it doesn't work with crew. They really don't know how a production of a show works and it's funny to see anyone believing it. Then again, only Kanthony and Benophy fans do.

Not only that, contradicting not simply Netflix's news of profitability and success of Season 3, but in fact, actual market news and data releases, Investments prospects, and investors reports, plus licensing, that anyone with any inside information would know it's done publicly and show the actual success and profit delivered by Season 3. To even try to say it lost money, Lol. The data is there, if you worked in a exec. position, even management position, you wouldn't say something so ignorant.

Critically, official certified critics, and audience numbers averaged above Season 2 and on par with Season 1, and you can also check the aggregate of that on RT, IMDB, sites that reunited and average the score. Audience is measured not only by Netflix, but Luminate and Nielsen. Data that is ALSO PUBLIC. And that showed the successful amount of views, specially recovering audience that Season 2 had lost. It was also superior to QC. Netflix also ranks #6 ( above Season 2, again) as their most viewed seasons. Another public information.

It becomes evident you're dealing with a fan of Anthony and Kate and Sophie and Benedict when it spills target hate for particular actors, with nonsense that is so painfully clear from a fandom member, a mere angry fan trying with a insane agenda.

That's the problem when someone has an agenda against some actors and some fictional characters, a TV show, specifically a season. They throw away logic and believe anyone.

There is no insider, you have actual market information and investors/ experts that are not even Netflix connected telling you the success of season 3. Anyone who works for the industry would know that. Lol

There is no inside information of actors from that person. All cast and crew, and connected workers, and adjacents from media, PR and more, have their words and testaments to the cast and crew openly at their socials, dismantling their obsessive nonsense, contradicting them. I contradict them, lol, as i've actually met some of them and know their work ethics and behavior.

And most importantly, the so-called ''insider'' is not even from or in the UK…yes, i know exactly what i am talking about. But for now, i wont publish. For now.

Just be aware of bullshit and propaganda with fanwar nonsense. You're dealing with someone who is simply a discontent Kanthony & Benophy fan, and a Simone fan and hater of other actors in the show ( VERY OBVIOUS THE TARGETED HATE), connected ( lol very much connected) to a blog who has adopted the name of "Anti" since the start, who hates Polin. Some people just want to create a narrative, and while they say that Benedict is the most popular and wanted character for the GA, try to justify an eventual less number say it would be S3 fault, when S3 actually revamped the numbers from S2 and had incredible profitability ( again, public data).

But be aware that we know with 100% certainty, people like that do not work for Netflix. They don't even have a clue what a netflix contract is and how it works.

Also, a warning: People should have their faces and real names on when they say things, responsibility is a must, don't you all agree? Sometimes people think they are protected under the anonymity of a tumblr url to lie their hearts out and become desperate later when they have to own personally, with their actual faces and real names, and social reputation, the stupidity of their words.

And in a more fundamental sense, grow up. Tomorrow, someone else can simply create a blog telling the opposite about your favorites, their work, their seasons, it's a game nobody wins when fans act that desperate and stupid, lying and manipulating.

Or worse: perhaps someone with actual information can start posting, and you wouldn't like what they have to say…reflect on that.

[baw-sixteen]

would've could've should've - dr3

pairings: daniel ricciardo x op81 social media manager! reader

they could've been so much more

July 9, 2023

You stared at the picture in the darkness of your hotel room. You should've known. Everyone was talking about it.

Nyck has had a terrible rookie year so far. Knowing Marko, knowing Red Bull they needed more. More points, more perfection.

You couldn't say you weren't happy. You were happy. For him. You were elated.

Daniel loved racing. He had told you that before. You had felt it - every time he got into that Mclaren, every time he had done a better score than before.

He wasn't jobless. No. He could never be. Not till the day Christian Horner was still alive. You knew that.

You see the news yet?

You sat up on the bed. That empty feeling inside you shifted at the text.

The last few weeks were bad. Bad for Oscar. Bad for Mclaren.

Bad for you.

But who cared about that?

Oscar was good. He was very easy to handle. He was less trouble than Daniel.

The few people who cared about the fans' backlash had suddenly dropped to one. You were just a social media manager.

I would've stayed on my knees.

And I damn sure never would've danced with the devil

But he wasn't Daniel.

He could never be what you two were.

Yeah.

You did.

You had seen the news.

___________________________________________

"I'm sorry"

A very tired Michael stared at you.

"What's there to be sorry about, yn?"

You laughed. You actually laughed.

The fans were incredibly intelligent you'd give them that. The theories that you, Michael, Yuki and Lando had read on the internet were crazy.

All this time, both you and Michael had got a lot of backlash from the fans. All because you loved your job more than him. All because Mike wanted to share a bit about him to the fans.

And now that I know, I wish you'd left me wondering

Believable. But crazy.

They said you were draining him off his money. That Michael starved him. Gave him severe training. Just to make him perfect.

There was not a single bone in his body you wanted to change. For the better or for the worse. It's what made you fall in love with him.

How you wished sometimes you could just scream it at the world that he already was perfect.

If clarity's in death, then why won't this die?

His smile. His charm. His stupidity. His laugh.

That scar on his knee. Or that cut on his chin.

You loved all of him.

"I don't know what I'm gonna do when I see him."

You always had.

Years of tearing down our banners, you and I

He was tired too.

"I heard he didnt ask Pyry for training?"

"No. Says he doesn't need it. Doesn't need anyone. A lone wolf."

"Lone wolf, my ass."

A small smile graces both of your faces. No matter what he said. You knew him better.

Memories feel like weapons.

The moment you walked into the hotel your eyes caught him. Head thrown back with a laugh louder than the fans outside. Smile brighter than the Hungarian morning.

"Yn!"

All eyes fell on you as Lando waved you over from where he was sitting among the drivers in the lobby.

The world felt like it stopped as honey coloured irises met yours.

The eyes that once spoke forever to you, were cold, dark - they were trying to drown you in them, choke you with your own guilt.

You heart felt like it shattered into a million pieces as he looked away from you and turned back to where Max was sitting.

And the God's honest truth is that the pain was heaven

You could hear Lando saying something but you felt dizzy. Tears started to blur your eyes as that pounding in your chest grew louder and louder.

"I'll speak to you later Lando."

You forced your shaky voice to speak as your feet carried yourself to the elevator as fast as they could. But what your retreating figure could notice was the way he shivered.

Your voice still had an effect on him.

God rest my soul, I miss who I used to be.

The tomb won't close, stained glass windows in my mind

A sob erupted from your throat the moment the elevator door closed. Hot, steaming tears rolled down your face.

The wound won't close, I keep on waiting for a sign

As long as Daniel Ricciardo was going to be around, you would never be the same.

I regret you all the time

Oh Daniel, we could've been so much more.

Could've, Would've, Should've.

____________________________________________

author's note: hi everyone!! well here it is!! since you wanted a part 2!!

[pinktrashgoblin]

SERIOUS POST.

This may have some uncomfortable topics. But please read this whole thing. It’s important to be transparent, and I don’t want Cin to spread more shit.

my deepest apologies to people who are just here on my blog and reblogging my work for fun.

EDIT: I can’t believe I have to say this but don’t fucking harass anyone mentioned in this post. That just reflects on YOU.

Alright, Cin. Since you want a response so bad, here ya go.

So what is this whole thing about?

User @/cintagonisupset is going around telling people this.

I’m already seeing the impacts, having my friends come to me about this. You’ve got my hands tied, so I’m making my statement.

First and foremost: I‘m not going to pretend that I didn’t make dirty jokes in my server in the past, before my birthday when I was 17, a minor myself, and before I banned such jokes last year. With 100% earnest I know this was a bad idea, and I have taken the time to be more careful about what I say around certain audiences. I am not perfect. But in his haste to fuck me up, he left out some crucial details.

1: I was 17 at the time, a minor myself, and was and still am in high school. I was a high schooler, making high-school-tier jokes in a server of other high schoolers. I am not ACTIVELY MAKING THESE JOKES like he says I am, and I do not condone the idea of doing so.

2: I am autistic. I struggle with social cues, with decision-making and so forth. I am only recently 18, but that does not mean I am mentally or emotionally mature, far from it. Mentally I am still a child. I struggle more than the average person with judgement, and often slip up around those I let my guard down around. I am working on this to avoid things such as this.

3: I am incredibly susceptible to peer pressure. In a place where those jokes were made, I wanted to feel like part of the group. So, as I often do, I mirrored behavior to feel like I fit in. I wasn’t sitting my high-school ass down and going “Let’s make raunchy jokes with kids!”, I was thinking in terms of “Maybe if I talk like them, they’ll like me and I’ll fit in somewhere” without fully realizing what everything meant, and without being able to properly process the social queues associated.

4: This was MONTHS ago. I do not actively do these things, nor condone them, I think it’s fucked up and I’ve done everything I can to be better than that. But to misrepresent the situation as me actively doing so isn’t great either.

So with that out of the way.

Do I think it was a good idea? No, absolutely not, but let’s not pretend that this is unheard of in high school and definitely on the internet. Since the dawn of time kids have made stupid jokes with one another. I was a middle schooler once and a high schooler now, I know exactly what goes on in those places. Let me restate: that doesn’t make it good, but let’s not pretend I’m the only high school kid who’s ever made a joke like that around their peers.

My point is, once this thing has become so normalized all over the place, in school, in media, it becomes difficult, especially for a neurodivergent such as myself, to deduce what to and not to do. I have fundamental principles and rules, but that does not mean I am not susceptible to being pressured into this sort of thing.

As I mentioned: I am not emotionally, or mentally, mature. I don’t know everything. I don’t fully comprehend the nuances of things. I am not always aware of what I am saying. I cannot understand social queues in the same way you do.

Make your conclusions as you will, but this is my stance, and this is the truth.

Also, maybe don’t tell people to kill themselves and that nobody likes them? Just a thought. (BTW: As mentioned I am autistic, it’s not as simple as “grow up”.)

TL;DR: I made raunchy/dirty jokes in my server when I was 17, in high school, with a bunch of other high schoolers, and Cin is telling me to end my life because of it.

Please consider my words. I have worked hard to build what I have, and feel it is important to be transparent. I want nothing but to make a positive impact on this community and the people within it. This does not mean I am perfect, but I am trying my best and my intentions are good.

Feel free to ask me, or leave opinions in the reblogs and replies. This is a conversation, not a preaching.

Also, about the art thief thing: I genuinely have no fuckin clue what he’s going on about there.

Edit: I have deleted the “P.S.” section regarding a suspicion I have to avoid further conflict.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Everything advertised on social media is overpriced junk

In “Behavioral Advertising and Consumer Welfare: An Empirical Investigation,” a trio of business researchers from Carnegie Mellon and Pamplin College investigate the difference between the goods purchased through highly targeted online ads and just plain web-searches, and conclude social media ads push overpriced junk:

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4398428

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

https://pluralistic.net/2023/04/08/late-stage-sea-monkeys/#jeremys-razors

Specifically, stuff that’s pushed to you via targeted ads costs an average of 10 percent more, and it significantly more likely to come from a vendor with a poor rating from the Better Business Bureau. This may seem trivial and obvious, but it’s got profound implications for media, commercial surveillance, and the future of the internet.

Writing in the New York Times, Julia Angwin — a legendary, muckraking data journalist — breaks down those implications. Angwin builds a case study around Jeremy’s Razors, a business that advertises itself as a “woke-free” shaving solution for manly men:

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/06/opinion/online-advertising-privacy-data-surveillance-consumer-quality.html

Jeremy’s Razors spends a fucking fortune on ads. According to Facebook’s Ad Library, the company spent $800,000 on FB ads in March, targeting fathers of school-age kids who like Hershey’s, ultimate fighting, hunting or Johnny Cash:

https://pluralistic.net/jeremys-targeting

Anti-woke razors are an objectively, hilariously stupid idea, but that’s not the point here. The point is that Jeremy’s has to spend $800K/month to reach its customers, which means that it either has to accept $800K less in profits, or make it up by charging more and/or skimping on quality.

Targeted advertising is incredibly expensive, and incredibly lucrative — for the ad-tech platforms that sit between creative workers and media companies on one side, and audiences on the other. In order to target ads, ad-tech companies have to collect deep, nonconsensual dossiers on every internet user, full of personal, sensitive and potentially compromising information.

The switch to targeted ads was part of the enshittification cycle, whereby companies like Facebook and Google lured in end-users by offering high-quality services — Facebook showed you the things the people you asked to hear from posted, and Google returned the best search results it could find.

Eventually, those users became locked in. Once all our friends were on Facebook, we held each other hostage, each unable to leave because the others were there. Google used its access to the capital markets to snuff out any rival search companies, spending tens of billions every year to be the default on Apple devices, for example.

Once we were locked in, the tech giants made life worse for us in order to make life better for media companies and advertisers. Facebook violated its promise to be the privacy-centric alternative to Myspace, where our data would never be harvested; it switched on mass surveillance and created cheap, accurate ad-targeting:

https://lawcat.berkeley.edu/record/1128876?ln=en

Google fulfilled the prophecy in its founding technical document, the Pagerank paper: “advertising funded search engines will be inherently biased towards the advertisers and away from the needs of the consumers.” They, too, offered cheap, highly targeted ads:

http://infolab.stanford.edu/~backrub/google.html

Facebook and Google weren’t just kind to advertisers — they also gave media companies and creative workers a great deal, funneling vast quantities of traffic to both. Facebook did this by cramming media content into the feeds of people who hadn’t asked to see it, displacing the friends’ posts they had asked to see. Google did it by upranking media posts in search results.

Then we came to the final stage of the enshittification cycle: having hooked both end-users and business customers, Facebook and Google withdrew the surpluses from both groups and handed them to their own shareholders. Advertising costs went up. The share of ad income paid to media companies went down. Users got more ads in their feeds and search results.

Facebook and Google illegally colluded to rig the ad-market with a program called Jedi Blue that let the companies steal from both advertisers and media companies:

https://techcrunch.com/2022/03/11/google-meta-jedi-blue-eu-uk-antitrust-probes/

Apple blocked Facebook’s surveillance on its mobile devices, but increased its own surveillance of Iphone and Ipad users in order to target ads to them, even when those users explicitly opted out of spying:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/11/14/luxury-surveillance/#liar-liar

Today, we live in the enshittification end-times, red of tooth and claw, where media companies’ revenues are dwindling and advertisers’ costs are soaring, and the tech giants are raking in hundreds of billions, firing hundreds of thousands of workers, and pissing away tens of billions on stock buybacks:

https://doctorow.medium.com/mass-tech-worker-layoffs-and-the-soft-landing-1ddbb442e608

As Angwin points out, in the era before behavioral advertising, Jeremy’s might have bought an ad in Deer & Deer Hunting or another magazine that caters to he-man types who don’t want woke razors; the same is true for all products and publications. Before mass, non-consensual surveillance, ads were based on content and context, not on the reader’s prior behavior.

There’s no reason that ads today couldn’t return to that regime. Contextual ads operate without surveillance, using the same “real-time bidding” mechanism to place ads based on the content of the article and some basic parameters about the user (rough location based on IP address, time of day, device type):

https://pluralistic.net/2020/08/05/behavioral-v-contextual/#contextual-ads

Context ads perform about as well as behavioral ads — but they have a radically different power-structure. No media company will ever know as much about a given user as an ad-tech giant practicing dragnet surveillance and buying purchase, location and finance data from data-brokers. But no ad-tech giant knows as much about the context and content of an article as the media company that published it.

Context ads are, by definition, centered on the media company or creative worker whose work they appear alongside of. They are much harder for tech giants to enshittify, because enshittification requires lock-in and it’s hard to lock in a publication who knows better than anyone what they’re publishing and what it means.

We should ban surveillance advertising. Period. Companies should not be allowed to collect our data without our meaningful opt-in consent, and if that was the standard, there would be no data-collection:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/03/22/myob/#adtech-considered-harmful

Remember when Apple created an opt out button for tracking, more than 94 percent of users clicked it (the people who clicked “yes” to “can Facebook spy on you?” were either Facebook employees, or confused):

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/02/02/facebook-says-apple-ios-privacy-change-will-cost-10-billion-this-year.html

Ad-targeting enables a host of evils, like paid political disinformation. It also leads to more expensive, lower-quality goods. “A Raw Deal For Consumers,” Sumit Sharma’s new Consumer Reports paper, catalogs the many other costs imposed on Americans due to the lack of tech regulation:

https://advocacy.consumerreports.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/A-Raw-Deal-for-US-Consumers_March-2023.pdf

Sharma describes the benefits that Europeans will shortly enjoy thanks to the EU’s Digital Markets Act and Digital Services Act, from lower prices to more privacy to more choice, from cloud gaming on mobile devices to competing app stores.

However, both the EU and the US — as well as Canada and Australia — have focused their news industry legislating on misguided “link taxes,” where tech giants are required to pay license fees to link to and excerpt the news. This is an approach grounded in the mistaken idea that tech giants are stealing media companies’ content — when really, tech giants are stealing their money:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/04/18/news-isnt-secret/#bid-shading

Creating a new pseudocopyright to control who can discuss the news is a terrible idea, one that will make the media companies beholden to the tech giants at a time when we desperately need deep, critical reporting on the tech sector. In Canada, where Bill C-18 is the latest link tax proposal in the running to become law, we’re already seeing that conflict of interest come into play.

As Jesse Brown and Paula Simons — a veteran reporter turned senator — discuss on the latest Canadaland podcast, the Toronto Star’s sharp and well-reported critical series on the tech giants died a swift and unexplained death immediately after the Star began receiving license fees for tech users’ links and excerpts from its reporting:

https://www.canadaland.com/paula-simons-bill-c-18/

Meanwhile, in Australia, the proposed “news bargaining code” stampeded the tech giants into agreeing to enter into “voluntary” negotiations with the media companies, allowing Rupert Murdoch’s Newscorp to claim the lion’s share of the money, and then conduct layoffs across its newsrooms.

While in France, the link tax depends on publishers integrating with Google Showcase, a product that makes Google more money from news content and makes news publishers more dependent on Google:

https://www.politico.eu/article/french-competition-authority-greenlights-google-pledges-over-paying-news-publishers/

A link tax only pays for so long as the tech giants remain dominant and continue to extract the massive profits that make them capable of paying the tax. But legislative action to fix the ad-tech markets, like Senator Mike Lee’s ad-tech breakup bill (cosponsored by both Ted Cruz and Elizabeth Warren!) would shift power to publishers, and with it, money:

https://www.lee.senate.gov/2023/3/the-america-act

With ad-tech intermediaries scooping up 50% or more of every advertising dollar, there is plenty of potential to save news without the need for a link tax. If unrigging the ad-tech market drops the platforms’ share of advertising dollars to a more reasonable 10%, then the advertisers and publishers could split the remainder, with advertisers spending 20% less and publishers netting 20% more.

Passing a federal privacy law would end surveillance advertising at the stroke of a pen, shifting the market to context ads that let publishers, not platforms, call the shots. As an added bonus, the law would stop Tiktok from spying on Americans, and also end Google, Facebook, Apple and Microsoft’s spying to boot:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/03/30/tik-tok-tow/#good-politics-for-electoral-victories

Mandating competition in app stores — as the Europeans are poised to do — would kill Google and Apple’s 30% “app store tax” — the percentage they rake off of every transaction from every app on Android and Ios. Drop that down to the 2–5% that the credit cards charge, and every media outlet’s revenue-per-subscriber would jump by 25%.

Add to that an end-to-end rule for tech giants requiring them to deliver updates from willing receivers to willing senders, so every newsletter you subscribed to would stay out of your spam folder and every post by every media company or creator you followed would show up in your feed:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/12/10/e2e/#the-censors-pen

That would make it impossible for tech giants to use the sleazy enshittification gambit of forcing creative workers and media companies to pay to “boost” their content (or pay $8/month for a blue tick) just to get it in front of the people who asked to see it:

https://doctorow.medium.com/twiddler-1b5c9690cce6

The point of enshittification is that it’s bad for everyone except the shareholders of tech monopolists. Jeremy’s Razors are bad, winning a 2.7 star rating out of five:

https://www.facebook.com/JeremysRazors/reviews

The company charges more for these substandard razors, and you are more likely to find out about them, because of targeted, behavioral ads. These ads starve media companies and creative workers and make social media and search results terrible.

A link tax is predicated on the idea that we need Big Tech to stay big, and to dribble a few crumbs for media companies, compromising their ability to report on their deep-pocketed beneficiaries, in a way that advantages the biggest media companies and leaves small, local and independent press in the cold.

By contrast, a privacy law, ad-tech breakups, app-store competition and end-to-end delivery would shatter the power of Big Tech and shift power to users, creative workers and media companies. These are solutions that don’t just keep working if Big Tech goes away — they actually hasten that demise! What’s more, they work just as well for big companies as they do for independents.

Whether you’re the New York Times or you’re an ex-Times reporter who’s quit your job and now crowdfunds to cover your local school board and town council meetings, shifting control and the share of income is will benefit you, whether or not Big Tech is still in the picture.

Have you ever wanted to say thank you for these posts? Here’s how you can: I’m kickstarting the audiobook for my next novel, a post-cyberpunk anti-finance finance thriller about Silicon Valley scams called Red Team Blues. Amazon’s Audible refuses to carry my audiobooks because they’re DRM free, but crowdfunding makes them possible.

Image: freeimageslive.co.uk (modified) http://www.freeimageslive.co.uk/free_stock_image/using-mobile-phone-jpg

CC BY 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

[Image ID: A man's hand holds a mobile phone. Its screen displays an Instagram ad. The ad has been replaced with a slice of a vintage comic book 'small ads' page.]

[love-byers]

Hi!! I binge-read some of your byler analysis, along with other users', and I can't help but STILL feel on the fence about hoping for byler endgame. I guess I just don't want to get my hopes super high only for them to be crushed by whatever CGI fest the düff3rs got in store to "go out with a bang" (while, obvs, sticking to the status quo and what they think the GA wants to see). I've seen so many intelligent people write media criticism pieces and analysis in support of the ship, but I still dread that the writers cry plausible deniability on all the clues they DID lay, that the people behind the N*f1ix social media accs confess that they've willingly posted queerbait to boost their engagement and thus get a bigger paycheck (I wouldn't blame them if they did, obvs; besides, it still means that some higher-up approved those misleading posts) and, worst of all, that this whole thing may end up blowing up negatively like the JohnLock conspiracy or the Voltron shenanigans or, y'know, the Supernatural fandom after Castiel's introduction and up until that lame ass final season. In your opinion, what makes byler different? Is there real hope for a satisfying mlm relationship from a show made by het men that capitalizes on 80s nerd culture nostalgia?

Sorry for coming off so jaded: I do wish for a byler ending, but it's been hard to keep my hopes aflame against these worries :c

i think everyone has some amount of doubt, which is totally understandable.

lgbt representation has come a long way, but a lot of us fans who are a bit older grew up consuming media that either had no representation or shitty representation. we sought ourselves in the media we loved and never found it, and corporations exploited that. nowadays there's way more representation that isn't left up to interpretation or censored, but a lot of the time that's in shows that are about romance and drama, high school a lot of the time. which is great, but stranger things is a sci fi show with romantic sub plots. it's easy for queer characters to end up being left out of a show like ST, but they haven't been at all.

one of the big messages of ST is embracing weirdness and being different. loving whatever it is you love, unashamed. when a character strays from being their true self or pushes away the things they love, there are consequences for the character. they become less likable to the audience. the entire theme of s4 is living in the truth, not hiding things, embracing love, being misunderstood simply because you're different. all of that is very queer coded. and it happens to be the season where will's love for mike fully comes into light.

there has been so much thought put into stranger things. the duffers have said there are no coincidences. they put thought into everything, thats why it takes so long to make a season, because they care so much. there are endless details i could point out not related to romance. they've also said they've been set on the ending for a while and will not be changing it to please people. i believe they said some people might not like the ending, but they don't care because they're making the story THEY want. which so far has uplifted queer people and promoted being different. so some antis may call be stupid for trusting them, but im choosing to. i believe they'll do these characters justice.

and my favorite quote from them is "The best plot twists don't make the audience say "wow I never saw that coming!", it makes you say "I should have seen that coming."

as a writer and a creative writing major, i definitely look up to the writers of ST. they are all incredibly talented and i hope one day i can put this much thought and love into a project. and, as a writer, i cannot see them throwing mike and will's relationship down the drain.

so, what makes byler different? there's very few shows where this much thought is put into everything. its not debatable that they do that, they've said it and its evident if you watch the show. so i refuse to believe all of these things between mike and will are just coincidences or accidents. there's just no possible way. i definitely had a klance phase and i can confidently say voltron writing is nowhere near the level of ST, and neither is supernatural. supernatural is one of those shows that has a lot of seasons and has gone all over the place in terms of writing and plot. the duffers have known the ending to this story since season 1. and unlike those shows with lots of seasons, ST only has 5. it won't be dragged on and beaten like a dead horse like some shows.

you don't have to completely eliminate your doubt. even i have doubt even after all i've said and posted. there is simply no way to confirm what'll happen before s5 releases, and they want it that way. just hold on until s5 friend

[bibibbon]

I feel like fan discussion regarding MHA has become so boring for the past months/year or so, at least around some social media platforms (I don’t check Twitter). Criticism is the most interesting thing about MHA discussion right now.

It’s hard to have fun theorizing or speculating about the plot because the story is incredibly shallow and plot points only happen to move the story along. For other series you might think more about the deeper meaning of the story themes and symbolisms and give multiple interpretations of the same scene, but for MHA not only do they poorly attempt to spell out the plot for you but they also have too much plot convenience so that whenever somebody asks “Why did X happen in the story?” there’s no deeper reason behind it besides “Horikoshi just wanted to write it that way regardless of whether it made sense or not.”

And because Horikoshi just pulls shit out of nowhere for any reason, it ruins speculation when anything stupid can happen for any reason. It’s gotten to the point where I know readers are dreading the idea of something stupid out of nowhere happening just because the plot wills it. Some readers despise the idea of Deku ending the series Quirkless so they’re waiting in anticipation for the next chapters not because they are hyped but because they are afraid of what the author is doing to their own series. MHA is just so mid.

As someone who has been in quite a few fandoms and has seen their mangas end there's usually huge uproars and widespread criticism of the story because thats kind of what people move onto. I guess what I mean is that by the lack of content and ability to theorise what would happen fans in general move to looking back over at the story and maybe nitpicking details that the mangaka hasn't addressed. Also don't get me started on the endings because it seems like every time a mangaka ends their manga they will get criticism one way or another. Take for example the attack on titan ending that got so much backlash that isayama literally had to modify the ending by adding half a chapter and that didn't even stop some people from whining. Personally I really enjoyed the aot ending and I have almost no criticism for aot in general.

To me MHAs quite different because we can tell it's rushed and the plot points are somewhat predictable. In all honesty MHA fanfiction can sometimes be better than canon itself which says a lot in my opinion.

I have been on the MHA critical tag since December/November of last year so Iam not surprised to see more posts on that tag since the mangas writing has taken a turn for the worse due to various different factors.

In the end I practically agree with all that you said anon.

[sharklovingaquarist]

Im kinda hate this idea that birth in media is actually some really progressive advocation for women. Males are the dominant demographic when it comes to producing media. There has always been an immense amount of birth scenes with screaming women in media. This isn't new. And it's not some "wow poor women" thing. It's a male obsession with seeing females in pain. It's a male obsession with seeing reproduction as something they "do to" a woman, not with a woman (yes yes pregnancy is female but an expectant father should, imo, revolve her. That's why humans stay together as a couple). This has nothing to do with commentaries on women's pain it has everything to do with a male fantasy. I could watch a random show on Netflix about cars or some stupid shit and there will be a birth scene where we have a good 5 minutes of a woman in labor. Not to mention how this would be a shit way to portray recent events. There's a much deeper social dynamic that comes with our current situation that only effects women. The way men see reproduction as ejaculation and leaving as if it doenst concern them. It strikes me as if the people who depict it as such see the social shit around it as innate but when a woman wants a kid she submits to that insulting structure. Especially since most men who make this type of media explain it as "yeah like I just feel so bad for women their existence is suffering". It's acting like women get pregnant on their own and our suffering is just nature and we choose when to do it. Yeah blah blah pregnancy and childbirth is painful but it seems to benefit off it and make it worse than it should be. Idk if that made any sense but there's something about this post that makes me incredibly uncomfortable and I tried to word it best I can. There's more to these scenes and I find it weird how it's always focused on being insulting or portraying pain to women. Something about it strikes me as wrong, maybe one of you girls could word it better or understand me

[rainybubbles]

How do you meet Haikyuu boys ? part II

Sakusa, Atsumu, Hinata

Part 1 (Kenma, Akaashi, Osamu, Bokuto)

S A K U S A :

-You shot him a ball on the head.

-...yeah, it didn't start well between you two.

-In fact there was a charity event organized by Kenma, that gather different volleyball team in a tournament.

-So you started with your team to warm up.

-The problem was that your teammate, the one supposed to catch the ball you were smashing, was distracted by their huge crush on Hinata.

-The ball rebounded.

-And guess where it ends up?

-On the head of Sakusa who was drinking his water on the bench.

-You apologized a hundred times, explaining the situation.

-But the only thing that Sakusa was thinking was :

-"This is the ball that Atsumu licked."

-The ball was pink and he knew it was the one that Atsumu licked because of a stupid challenge with Bokuto.

-Even if it was two years ago.

-He had Atsumu's DNA on his face.

-He ran to the shower and scrubbed his face as hard as he could, ignoring you.

-When he finished, you proposed buying him some skincare products because his skin was really red.

-He hesitated and just noded.

-Weirdly you both started sending each other some skincare products after that.

-Maybe you had good advices.

-Or maybe he just wouldn't let you feel guilty about this ball when it was Atsumu's fault.

A T S U M U :

-He kneelt down in front of you the first time you met.

-You were one of the last students that didn't have a club.

-And he had a bet with his twin and Suna of who would find a manager first.

-So when he heard that you were free.

-He ran.

-Firstly he tried to convince you with his arguments. ( his thighs and arms)

-Then he showed you the statistics of the team.

-He even made a PowerPoint.

-But you said no.

-So he tried the puppy look.

-Then he fake-cried

-He told you his tragic background with the fact that if you became their manager he could finally make his mom proud and let her rest in peace.

-But you found out she was alive by Osamu.

-So he apologized and asked how he could convince you.

-You joked and said "kneel down and beg."

-...yeah.

-In the corridor in front of anyone, he did that.

-You never felt so embarrassed in your life.

-You accepted so he could quickly stood up.

-A strange first meeting yes.

-But when Atsumu tells the story, he has this smirk and this ambiguous tone which let people think a total different story.

H I N A T A :

-You made edits on social media.

-Some actors, anime characters and so on...

-But what you were known for were your Hinata Shoyo edits.

-You were a fan of his, and your followers loved your edits of him!

-What you didn't expect was him to see them.

-And commenting them.

-And...dm you.

-Complimenting you and thanking you for your hard work.

-You were speechless.

-You started to say "your welcome" and...

-And you two started chatting.

-Firstly about the volleyball, then about some movies or series you watched recently.

-You didn't consider him as a friend because after all he was a star, and he was probably only doing some fan-service.

-But you appreciate it.

-Until he sent you tickets.

-...to see him.

-And talk to him.

-It was VIP ticket.

-...okay maybe it was not only fan-service.

-Maybe he really appreciates talking to you.

-But you stay calm.

-(False you screamed on your pillow and smiled so hard that you felt your zygomatici the next day )

-You hesitated.

-Maybe it was a trick or he was weird or...

-Or you were broke and it was your unique chance to see his match.

-So you went.

-But you texted your friends, let them knowing where you were, with who.

-The match was in fact incredible.

-You were so happy to see that in real life, that at the end you almost forgot you had to meet him with all the VIPs

-But he didn't.

-He even looked after you in the crowd and jumped in front of you.

-He asked if he could hug you.

-You said yes/no.

-He smiled and...

-And that's how you met and slowly became friends and even more...

[infanttoes]

The Closet Was Tinted Glass

Trans Katsuki AU! (Requested by a friend :D)

CW: unsafe binding, mention of dysphoria(very brief)

Locker rooms have always been a challenge to Katsuki. He's known he was a guy since the day he could understand the concept of gender at all, there was absolutely no changing his mind about it. If you told him otherwise, you'd either get blatantly ignored or screamed at. The only people he needed to accept him (his parents and Izuku), accepted him, and so he couldn't care less about the opinions of anyone else.

But ever since he got into high school, he decided he wanted a fresh start. Being a hero means that his public image mattered a whole lot more than it did in middle school, and being transgender in Japan isn't a great look. Best case scenario, he'll receive a lot of backlash. He doesn't even wanna think about the worst case scenario. Yikes.

So before the school year began, he made sure to visit Izuku at his house over their break and inform him that he is not, in fact, transgender but rather that he has always been a guy. Izuku, in his pijamas after a long day on the beach with All Might, tiredly grumbled that if he doesn't want him to tell anyone he's transgender, he won't. Katsuki bopped him on the head and left with a huff. At least he got his point across.

Everything went fairly well for the next two years concerning his identity. There was no speculation on social media, Izuku kept his word and didn't make a peep about it towards anyone, and his teachers were all pretty supportive since the start. He did have to lie to his classmates a few times concerning why he stays behind on the training grounds until everyone leave the locker rooms, but besides that, things were going smoothly.

That was until stupid, idiot Deku was too busy tying his signature red shoes to notice literally everyone else had gone out of the locker room. Katsuki unsuspectingly comes in, not bothering to check for any signs of life as he's been doing this routine for years and assumed it wouldn't change any time soon. To his surprise, when he begins tearing his sweaty costume off and setting each part down on the bench behind him, he hears a faint gasp.

"What the fuck?" He immediately yelps, turning his head so fast he gets whiplash. To his dismay, Izuku's standing across from him with an incredibly concerned pout and wide eyes.

"Did you seriously have your binder on that whole time? You're gonna get really hurt doing that," Izuku confronts, marching over to Katsuki and flicking him on the forehead. He winces at the sting but ultimately rolls his eyes.

"You don't have the room to talk, nerd. All I do is see your shithead will your life away on the daily. Besides, if I train without a binder, someone's bound to notice. Tits aren't exactly the most easy things to hide." He cringes internally at the memory of his classmates agreeing that he has a really feminine body type. That single handedly fueled his dysphoria for the following weeks.

"I can see the bruising, Kacchan! It's no wonder you've been taking so many breaks during training. When have you ever cared about people knowing anyway?" The shorter argues, seeming genuinely adamant about the topic, albeit a little embarrassed at the nature of it. Katsuki sighs, partly because he knows Izuku's right and also because he's annoyed at his hero complex.

"I fucking don't, dipshit. Those idiots just don't know how to keep their mouths shut and I'd be revolutionarily fucked if the press found out I was trans. It doesn't even hurt; we've been through worse and you should know that of all people."

Izuku's eyes soften. Now it’s his turn to sigh, pinching the bridge of his nose. He takes a moment to gather his words and put them in a way Katsuki will take into consideration.

"Okay, I get it. Coming out is really dangerous to your career. But letting yourself get injured like this is holding you back from your true potential; weren't you the one that got upset with Todoroki during the Sports Festival because he wasn't putting his all into the fight? You're disabling yourself just like he did."

At that, Katsuki stares at him blankly, unmoving and silent. To him, the world stopped spinning for a moment. He feels like the biggest hypocrite ever. Izuku's just about to accuse him of zoning out while he was rambling when he finally speaks up.

"Damn, you're such a hassle to deal with. Do you have an extra shirt I can wear then? A looser one?" Katsuki grumbles, uncharacteristically sheepish. Izuku's face lights up in an instant, letting out a relieved exhale and nodding. He slides his bag off his shoulders and places it on the bench, digging through for a couple seconds before pulling out a black tee that reads 'extra shirt' in small, bold lettering. Katsuki offers an unimpressed glance, snatching the shirt away and doing a 'shoo' motion.

Once Izuku leaves the locker room, Katsuki steps in front of the mirror. Seeing himself so up close is unsettling. The former was right; the bruising is super obvious. He slowly undoes each clip starting from the top, relief filling his lungs as their constraints are removed. His ribs are dotted harsh purple spots, a sickly yellow ring surrounding each of the dark marks. He stares at himself uneasily for another moment before forcefully tearing his gaze away, reaching for the borrowed shirt and pulling it over his head as quickly as possible. It fits nicely; more snug than it would've been on Izuku since he has a smaller form, but it's much less apparent than a tank top. He does regret not bringing a bra, but to be fair, he wasn't expecting to be given a (metaphorical) slap in the face for being a professional dumbass.

He isn't sure why he's nervous. He collects his miscellaneous belongings, shoving them in his tote bag and swinging it over his shoulder. It takes a significant amount of effort to trudge himself towards the door, trying to keep his nausea to a bare minimum as he pushes it open. He subconsciously has his arms crossed and body slouched when he walks out, as if trying to go unseen.

By the time he catches up with the rest of the class, they're seated at some outdoor table on campus, sharing the granola bars Eijirou packed in his sports bag. Training had been particularly rough today so a snack would do well by them. Katsuki inconspicuously slides onto the bench next to Eijirou and promptly tunes into the conversation. They're discussing the best horror movies and ranking them out of ten; nothing particularly interesting but enough to distract him from the pit in his stomach.

It's when Katsuki goes to stretch his arms that hell begins to raise. He groans lightly, the day leaving his body with each pop of his joints. The noise draws the attention of Denki, who would normally go right back to conversation, but his eyes caught something out of the ordinary.

"Woah dude, did your chest grow two inches in the past hour?" He teases unsuspectingly, a small snicker coating the question. Despite the obviously playful manner, Katsuki's face pales. Suddenly, any sense of relaxation he felt did a total 180 and he's back in panic mode. Just that simple sentence made his hands go clammy and his mouth dry as the Sahara Desert.

"The fuck? No, you dunce. Go back to talking about Annabelle or whatever," he growls, kicking Denki's leg under the table. He whines pitifully, mumbling a 'what was that for!'

"No, he's right! Did you get implants while you were gone? I mean, damn! Your tits are bigger than mine. It's almost like they're real," Mina comments, giggling. In hindsight, that probably isn't the best thing to say about someone, but she honestly didn't think anything was going to come of it.

Katsuki, on the contrary, was having a war inside his mind. On one hand, he knows his friends will accept him no matter what gender he was born as or conforms with. Everyone's already acutely aware that Eijirou is a little more interested in other men than he lets on so he has nothing to worry about. But on the other hand, he's actually really scared. Scared that he'll be treated with less respect or assholes will underestimate the extent of his abilities just because he happened to be born with different genitals.

Thinking back to what Izuku said, though, he's completely right. He's desperately trying to keep up his pride while simultaneously holding himself back. He'll never be able to fight properly if he's constantly hiding, and if you know Katsuki, you know that he's not satisfied with a half-assed fight. Finally, he decides he's pushed through pain for far too long.

"Probably because they are."

The table goes silent. Even Jirou looks up from her phone long enough to gape at the revelation. Katsuki's skin is burning under the intensity of all their shocked stares.

"Geez, don't make this more awkward than it has to be."

At the uncomfortable plead, Eijirou immediately goes to Katsuki's rescue.

"Bakubro, that's so fucking awesome! I had no idea, congrats on telling us!" He praises, wrapping his arms around Katsuki with tears pricking his eyes. Katsuki stiffens at the display of affection, half-heartedly trying to push him away.

"Shut the fuck up, that wasn't an invitation. And I did it for myself, not for you goons," he hisses, inevitably accepting the hug when Eijirou uses his quirk to stop his struggling. It takes barely a second for the rest of the group to begin fussing over him, sharing their congrats and how, 'wow, you passed really well.' Not like he doesn't know that. What shocked him the most, however, was Hanta silently pointing to himself and then holding up two fingers.

From the corner of his eye, he can see Izuku sitting at the table beside him with his own nerd club. Izuku smiles at him proudly. Katsuki smiles back.

positive feedback/kind criticism only please! <3

[no-face-no-shame]

Ok. I said I will write some of my thoughts on Disco Elysium a few days ago, and I'm finally in the mood to do so, so here we go.

First things first - it's one of the most unique, incredible games I've ever played. It just feels different from anything else that I know. The world, the characters. It feels real. The worldbuilding is spectacular. As someone from a post-Soviet country, the atmosphere of the whole game hits too close to home. Even stupid things like architecture - I've seen it all before. I've seen these buildings, those streets. DE is the kind of game that will make you laugh until the full meaning reaches you, and then there is no laughter left.

Staying on the topic - the art style and animation blew my mind. The portraits are beautiful, painted in a very characteristic way. The animation of the game itself perfectly translates the atmosphere of the drawings into 3D. Extremely detailed backgrounds and locations, just a beauty overall.

Great soundtrack. The boat song made me cry. Literally. It just paralysed me. The whole OST is spectacular, but there is something so etheric about this particular track and its placement in the game.

There are no fully good people there. And I love it. I love how complex everyone is. It's one of the aspects that make DE feel so real. Everyone has some shit going on, everyone has some stupid opinions, everyone has fucked something up. Just as in real life. It doesn't make the characters any less sympathetic or likable. Quite the opposite - it makes them feel human in a very touching way.

Harry is a fascinating protagonist. He has so much good in him, and so much evil. It depends on how you play him - from the same background you can obtain such different people. Just like in real life, it's up to you to interpret his past and make a future out of it. Will Harry become bitter and hateful towards everyone? Will he start hating women and pouring his frustrations out on minorities? Or will he see the hope in the future and not give up on himself, letting the world welcome him back? The only chance for him is in love. Yes, you can choose the path of a hateful bigot who scares everyone. But this is how you get the weakest version of Harry. He can't build himself up, create a new himself out of violence and hatred. It only ruins him.

The way DE deals with the topic of addiction is one of the best takes I've seen in any media. The drugs will give you bonuses on checks, so you want to do more of them. Everything seems easier. Before you know, you take something before every check. And we're back at the beginning. I did my playthrough without taking anything, and I'm thankful for that. I like how especially alcoholism isn't shown in a profound, elegant way it is often in media. It's ugly, it's embarrassing, it reeks, it makes you stupid. Nothing elegant about it. Quite the opposite. It's a humiliation. No romanticising.

DE also has one of the best takes on politics I've seen recently. This is a very political game, it's one of the most important mechanics. To cover this topic more fairly, a separate post would be needed, but it's really refreshing to see such a complex portrayal of such a complex topic after being regularly exposed to, well, social media takes on politics. DE seems to be mocking all political fractions equally, however the reality quickly shows that they aren't the same.

Leftist Harry is the only one who has a chance to make some change - not only in his own life, but in the world around him as well. Yes, he's cheesy. Yes, he says stuff that sounds naive. But the thing is - he's right. The naive dreams about justice for the weak are right. It reminds me of that one quote, I can't recall the author, who says that children are naive in their belief that everything should be fair and that life should be good, and they are right in their belief. Things won't change immediately, especially not for Harry. But there is hope.

Centrist Harry never does anything and lets his life remain bad. Just as real life centrists, he sees harm, injustice and suffering, and is indifferent to them. But he's also indifferent to the good of the world. He's stuck in limbo which he will never leave.

Fascist Harry is a miserable rubbish that will probably die soon. He hates everything and everyone, and himself the most. There is no hope. The fascist route is the one where Harry gives up, collapses into the darkest chasms of his own mind. Everything is ugly, everything is violent, and the world will fall apart. Harry takes no pleasure in his views - they literally hurt him (by taking away his morality points), but he can't stop making himself and everyone around miserable.

Now, into the supernatural. I'd classify Disco Elysium as magical realism (one of my favourite literary genre.) Many times it reminded me of South American literature, with its smooth mixture of brutal reality and magic that's just right outside your grasp. There are so many moments in DE when you're wondering if something is actually happening, if this world is magical or not. And you never get the answer. Once again, spectacular worldbuilding and atmosphere.

The Pale is an intriguing, unique concept. A mixture of science and something supernatural. The End, Death, Freedom and Oppressor of the world. There are people who travel through it, yes, but they never come back the same. Some don't come back at all. The whole concept is linked to the side plot with the whole in the universe and the scientist woman. It was one of those parts of the game where I just sat in my chair and thought very deeply about not only the reality of DE, but also about ontology in the context of our world.

Dolores Dei and her becoming one with Dora in Harry's mind. What can I say. The dream was so eerie. I find it interesting that it happened towards the end of the game. "I will see you tomorrow, Harry." He’s not free from her. Will he ever be? The figurines won't win her back. Nothing will, because she's gone. The innocence and war criminal at the same time. The love of his life and his nemesis. With a crown on her forehead and an ugly suitcase in her hand.

I could talk about a million more things, but I think this post is already long enough. My final thought is - if you haven't played Disco Elysium, do it. It's one of those games you won't ever forget. I believe that there is a piece of it that detaches itself from the rest and buries somewhere deep within you, not allowing you to ever forget what you've seen.

[foggyparadisecandy]

On the Dangers of B—-i Sleep

[NOTE: this is NOT an advertisement to search out the files described. Just don’t. Don’t. I’ve listened to hypno files for decades with minimal impact. These files have damaged me. Perhaps permanently.]

Please consider reblogging if you think this can help others facing similar struggles.

**TRIGGER WARNING**

True confession time: I have listened heavily to a series of hypnosis files called Bambi Sleep. Why? I’ll get into that in a future post.

For now I want to discuss the dangers and possible paths out for anyone struggling with the effects - as I very much have been over the last few days.

SAFEGUARDS FIRST

I’m using words which are triggers so let me provide some incredibly useful instructions to all the Bambis and old selfs reading this:

Bambi is always as smart as she needs to be.

Bambi is always just as smart as she needs to be.

Simple instructions that Bambi obeys because Bambi is obedient and takes instructions. Bambi does as she’s told so she now knows:

Bambi is always as smart as she needs to be.

Bambi is always just as smart as she needs to be.

With those instructions, Bambi knows when she’s in hot water with abusers who want to upend and likely ruin the life of her “old self”, the original listener.

And guess what?

THE ENDLESS LINE OF ABUSERS

In the online world or anonymous assholes, there are a TON of abusers looking to play with Bambis and the old self with absolutely zero regard for long-term damage.

In fact, I would say my Bambi found five asshole abusers for every decent human being who just wanted to have some consensual fun playing with Bambi’s powerful triggers.

I had one such “daddy” nearly convince my Bambi to leave my life and my wife and find some anonymous men to take me in, in exchange for living as their sex slave. Yeah. So that’s what we’re dealing with. Not a joke.

These abusers are quick to gaslight and twist logic and paint the picture that they are doing you a favor (“hey, you came to me. I’m just helping you be who you want to be.”) to further convince you to continue being endangered and abused and falling further down the hole.

Yes. I’m a grown adult. I made choices to listen to the files. And yes, I - or my Bambi persona more likely - reached out to a “daddy” to have fun.

Or maybe your Bambi, like mine did, will start dropping messages on social for daddies to come find her and trigger her.

Social media is littered with regretful “old self”s who had to delete their accounts because their Bambis had done just that.

CONSENSUAL PLAY IS SEXY PLAY

The ultimate problem with Bambi is she is designed and trained to be a real dummy who just sits back and waits for orders to follow.

Many of the files are about becoming stupid as a rock and blanking away your old personality and memories and identity and name and replacing it with this new empty shell who just wants to obey and suck cock.

And trust me, I get the appeal of “getting dumb” in trance.

I *soooooooo* get it. The idea of just giving over and submitting to another and letting them take the wheel.

And after connecting with so many peeps here on tumblr, I know I’m not the only one looking to dumb down, turn off my brain, submit, and just follow orders blindly.

Life can be hard and stressful. Blanking out is such a seductive concept.

But here’s the thing:

You can’t have consent with a dumb object that is programmed to blindly accept orders, obey orders, and then forget those new orders were orders at all.

By definition, there cannot be consent with Bambi. There is only abuse.

“BRAINWASHING DOESN’T CHANGE ANYONE AND HEY, *YOU* REACHED OUT TO *ME*”

It’s debatable about the effect brainwashing has on people. I have listened to hypno files for years and never had anything other than short-term effects. No big deal.

But Bambi is something on a different level. It’s pervasive and seductive and is a form of conditioning that erodes your core character.

If you ever have had a friend or relative get addicted to nonsense conspiracy theories, it’s kind of like that. Did they always believe the aliens are controlling the liberal plot to introduce tracking chips by starting a global pandemic? Maybe? But probably, no.

And yeah … maybe I did reach out to you.

Maybe it wasn’t my Bambi and I was in charge.

Did we discuss limits? Did we get a safeword established? Are you there to fucking take care of me as a good dominant should take care of their submissive?

Or did you think it was going to be fun to ruin someone else’s life by twisting them up … just because you had some levers to do so?

BRINGING IT HOME

I reached out to a few folks during my recent difficulties and want to confirm that, yes, by god, thank god, there are some really decent folks out there willing to help a total stranger who got into a nasty jam.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you all. And thank you for your articles on safe ethical hypnosis. Keep it up. The subjects and submissives lining up for fun play need to read those articles and need to play safe or not play at all. Bambi is not safe.

If you are reading this thinking, “oh it can’t be that bad, it sounds fun, where can I find these files,” you have not read a single thing I wrote. I’ve talked with dozens of other Bambis and only found one who had avoided the nasty pitfalls (she is amazing and literally unique).

Those are not good odds. Don’t think you are going to beat them.

If you yourself are struggling with Bambi, feel free to hit my DMs or my Asks and I will support you in finding a path out as best as I can.

But in the meantime, the best thing to remember, the best thing to do is for Bambi to accept and obey these instructions:

Bambi is always as smart as she needs to be.

Bambi is always just as smart as she needs to be.

Bambi loves fun and a good time.

Bambi can smell predatory assholes.

Bambi can run from predatory assholes.

And Bambi can come to me for help.