#the censorship rn is so concerning

[mollyjimbly]

🚨🚨🚨RED ALERT🚨🚨🚨

if you care about trans folks please take a few minutes to read through this post and share.

They are not even trying to hide their true intentions with KOSA...

"Top of the agenda is to go after providers of gender affirming care, including for adults. The FTC could also go after online platforms for displaying LGBTQ content which would be supercharged under KOSA."

This is catastrophically bad.

There is a HUGE push to pass KOSA rn at the end of the year.

Real quick summary: Blumenthal and Blackburn "rewrote" KOSA to appeal to the right more. They worked with ELON MUSK 🤦‍♀️🤦‍♂️ to push this bill "protecting kids". Tomorrow, many orgs are bringing groups of parents to speak to congress. This is coming at a time when FTC commissioner admitted their agenda is straight transphobia:

There are two ways KOSA can be passed right now. Either from the House or attaching it to an end of year spending bill. They will try both.

Republican leadership (Scalise and Johnson) are surprisingly what is stopping thia from going through. They wont admit it out loud but they dont like the bill.

WE NEED TO PUSH BACK NOW!! Tomorrow those phones need to be ringing OFF THE HOOK while they meet with parents.

PLEASE SPREAD THIS EVERYWHERE!! ADD THESE LINKS TO TWITTER, REDDIT, INSTA, TIKTOK!!

USE THESE CALLING TOOLS AND SCRIPTS TODAY AND TOMORROW ALL DAY!!!

SCRIPTS:

🔴 If your rep is GOP:

"I am urging you to VOTE NO on KOSA, the Kid’s Online Safety Act. This is a dangerous bill that will harm children.

Many news organizations have reported that this bill actively harms kids by exposing their private data to strangers under the guise of protecting them.

We need to hold Big Tech accountable, but KOSA is not the solution.

The bill let any state attorney general and the FTC to sue any website for “harmful” content. Do we really want blue state lawyers deciding what can and can’t be allowed online?

Big Tech is already censoring us. That’s why they support KOSA. This is massive government overreach. We need a bill that actually protects children by creating better security measures instead of bringing about more censorship.

Multiple experts agree this bill pushes age verification, even with the new language.

KOSA hands more private data of children to third party companies, which would put them in further danger. How is this protecting children’s privacy?

What parent would want their child’s private data in the hands of strangers like this? KOSA is actively putting kids in danger.

Do NOT support this bill. Thank you."

Also,to note, Biden supports KOSA: You could try asking your GOP rep why they would support a bill that has Biden's support,and that he could use it to his advantage somehow (we know GOP does not like Biden,so it should be utilized somehow). We need to ensure the bill doesnt pass at all.

🔵 if your rep is DEM:

"I am urging you to VOTE NO on KOSA. Nearly 200 human rights and LGBT organizations total came out in an open letter opposing it. The ACLU is against it. Hundreds of thousands of Gen Z, who actually live online, are against it.

We know the harms of social media, and we know this is not the solution. The new language does NOT meet any concerns brought up, in fact many organizations were ignored.

Major news have reported that this bill actively harms kids. We do not want this. The rewritten bill would still allow any state attorney general, and now the FTC, to sue any website for “harmful” content. When you have Republicans calling anything LGBT “sexual exploitation” or anything about race “CRT” to successfully ban books and teachers, then they will use any justification to censor the internet.

The Missouri attorney general used “mental health” successfully to ban gender-affirming care with backed up research. Suicide rates will skyrocket for marginalized youth with this bill restricting content. Multiple experts agree this bill pushes age verification, even with the new language.

KOSA hands more private data of children to third party companies. Furthermore, updated language threatens encryption the same way the Earn It Act does.

How is this protecting children’s privacy? KOSA actively harms kids. Do NOT support this bill. Thank you."

Tell them you'll vote for your reps if they vote no on KOSA, anything goes. But most importantly it's crucial that KOSA is not being brought at all for any vote.

Thank you, remember to stay calm and stay strong. We've got this!! ♡

[kimkhimhant]

truly don't know how to feel about the crazy booktok plots that are circulating rn bc like I find them very disturbing and a little concerning for the people who may be truly romantacizing these things & the violent misogyny displayed in the books but also. I am so staunchly against censorship & the policing of fiction. I write dead dove fic. I read dead dove fic. I support the creation of dark & disturbing art and fiction.

I feel like the issue here though is the promotion of misogynistic & violent male×female "romance" in an era like the one we are living currently, in which violent misogyny is rampant & ruling society

like where is the healthy balance between protecting the freedom of creation & the freedom of kink, & also being critical of the dangers of romantacizing a mentality that is so dangerous in reality?

[oddlylongtelephonecord]

I have a lot of thoughts on vnc but tbh it can all be summed up by saying that if Vanitas doesn't end up being canonically queer, it’s one of the first actual instances of queerbaiting I have seen.

Like, what people don’t often realize is that just because who characters are close, that doesn’t at all mean that they are implied queer. (I realize how dismissive this sounds, I only mean to say that to be queerbaiting, it has to be intentional and with the end goal of drawing in a queer audience)

I could talk about this for hours, but even shows that are the most basic definitions of queerbaiting weren’t actually queerbaiting.

Voltron is a prime example. Keith was queer-coded (kind of, but I don't have time rn to unpack all of that). But his and Lance’s relationship was never actually queerbaiting.

The same stuff applied to so many shows.

People want to claim the show was queerbaiting because the popular queer couple didn’t go canon, but what people rarely realize is that either they couldn’t make them queer due to censorship or they never intended for them to be queer in the first place. I won’t even lie, y’all don’t seem to understand that if the queer-coding is unintentional, then the character, by definition, cannot be queerbaiting. Because to queerbait, the author has to intentionally queer-code a character to draw in a queer audience, then have then leave the character's sexuality ambiguous.

But now on to vnc. Vanitas is a little bit different than your traditional queerbait character, because while yes, he is in a relationship with a woman, it feels very forced and out of place. Even from the beginning, there doesn’t actually seem to be any connection between the pair, with Jeanne even going as far as saying she hates Vanitas.

But in the end, the one Vanitas always returns to is Noe. The only one he ever actually expresses any concern for is Noe. The only one he has even implied any care for is Noe.

In s2 of the show, or chapter 42 of the manga, Vanitas is shown with Jeanne. But in a flashback showing Luna telling Vanitas to find someone to open his heart to, it doesn’t only cut to Jeanne, it’s cuts to Noe. Because in the end, Vanitas will always return to Noe.

In the most recent chapter, Luna tells Vanitas to “pick something that will be soothing to have with him” and once again, the next scene is one of Vanitas seemingly begrudgingly sitting next to Noe.

Vanitas is always close to Noe. He rarely touches him in any “loving” sense, but wherever Noe is, Vanitas won’t be far behind.

Long story short, Vanitas’ character is the exact definition of queerbaiting. He is heavily implied to love Noe in some way or another, but (at least at present) he is put with a woman.

Now, I honestly believe that this might change. I’m not super confident, but I think it’s possible because the author of the series is very intentional with everything they do.

Nothing is ever done unintentionally, and I don’t think that they would unintentionally imply that Vanitas was queer. At this point, it really just comes down to whether or not the author is trying to queerbait, but we won’t know that until the story is finished.

tldr: Vanitas’ character, at present, qualifies as queerbaiting, but we won’t know for sure until the series is over

[santae-salt]

re: 765787462678298624

the revealed blog turned all their posts to private within the last day or two. claiming that there was information that was dangerous to santae staff and users (never specified) and they would return if something. and now today they've completely deleted the blog, meaning all those privated posts are lost.

this happened after a few things -

1. Santaesecretsrevealed commented (and later deleted) on jinogasux-fr's post regarding being banned and having their ID requested, giving information that had not yet been shared by jinogasux-fr (and later was). this was information that /only/ santae staff and jinogasux-fr would know. screenshot can be found on this post: 765600201568354304

this means that if the revealed blog wasn't run by staff, santae staff have /no issue/ sharing private support ticket information to an unknown, anonymous third party (albeit one that has been supportive of the site) tumblr blog. both options are bad obviously.

2. a few days prior, santaesecretsrevealed responded to the part 2 of the post mentioned in the current pinned comment on this blog (trying to be vague for you cloudmin!). this included screenshots of discord conversations between CJ and an artist who had apparently drawn /some/ of the NPC art (notably they did not include some of the more egregious examples from part 2)

again, if this wasn't run by staff, CJ or whoever else had no issue sharing private DMs /to an unknown, anonymous third party/ that had not been released by the artist in question. the artist's name was NOT censored and it was enough that it was easy for me to find them.

3. santaesecretsrevealed also posted the supposed ask they got regarding the dox information that santae-salt and santaesecrets received.

the big difference is that both of the other blogs refused to post the information for safety concerns, but revealed posted it anyway with /horrible/ censorship. like, no solid bars just scribbles over /most/ of the information, and leaving the ex-staff's online alias uncensored making it easy to connect their RN to said aliases. this was later updated by revealed to have solid block censors, but i noticed they kind of acted like it wasn't that big of a deal and oops they just made a mistake hehe get off my case :). normally who cares about the online names, but to my knowledge said ex-staff has done /nothing/ besides be associated with santae.

this situation also made me more confident that staff was the one who participated in sharing the dox info. too many connections, too little care about the information.

i also noticed that they were one of the few vocal, oh Ken/Lurapets was years ago!! this doesn't even matter he's so different now!! and completely ignoring how his actions back then are repeating themselves today.

tin foil hat time: i will admit to sending specific asks to that blog to see what they would and wouldn't respond to. and it's quite telling imo. any of my non-emotional hey what do you think about this thing santae did recently (like asking for jinogasux's ID) were ignored (and were not otherwise addressed in their other posts). but anything that could be easily dismantled because it was an opinion or had so many random explanations (like the art issues), were answered. despite claims that they post everything.

anyway it's gross and bad!! i have no issue with someone trying to show the other side of things, but it's obvious that santaesecretsrevealed had an agenda beyond showing the truth.

☁️

[sailermoon]

wholeheartedly u need to question everything u see u need to stop using tiktok as a “news source” or have someone “girlsplain” it (be for fucking real rn) and actually start looking for the facts read articles watch interviews of first hand accounts make an effort to find the truth and think critically on your own!

the reason misinformation is so rampant is cause some guy with 50k+ followers on Twitter posted something ONE time and it spread so far that now everyone and their mother takes it for fact even when it’s been debunked

we are currently witnessing a mass censorship campaign where journalists are losing their job and even an entire news source can run the risk of being banned from covering and that should fucking concern you and wake you up

[saint-theophania]

i had seen a post floating around with links to the social media accounts of reporters in gaza but couldn't find it so i'm making my own. here are accounts to follow to get the raw unedited footage and information of what is currently happening on the ground in gaza in real time.

those currently on the ground in gaza:

instagram: hindkhoudary, her twitter account is here. she has an international e-sim so even when the internet is cut off she's able to give live updates.

instagram: byplestia, her tiktok account is here.

instagram: motaz_azaiza, one of the more popular users rn. (note: motaz does not have any accounts on other platforms and there are many uploading his content on other sites and claiming to be him to scam people, DNI.)

instagram: wizard_bisan1

instagram: joegaza93

instagram: wael_eldahdouh. he is one of the most well-known reporters in gaza rn working for al jazeera. the IDF recently targeted and killed his entire family, but he continues to report.

instagram: mohamed.h.masri

instagram: alijadallah66

twitter: refaat in gaza

twitter: muhammad smiry

accounts of those not in gaza but are palestinian & do great job at providing analysis/context:

instagram: eid_yara

instagram: gazangirl

instagram: anat.international

instagram: sbeih.jpg - his tiktok is here

instagram: naleybynature - her tiktok is here

instagram: anees - his tiktok is here

news accounts and palestinian activist groups:

instagram: eye.on.palestine

instagram: palestinianyouthmovement

instagram: jewishvoiceforpeace

instagram: ajplus

instagram: decolonizethisplace

as you can see a lot of this coverage is being done through instagram/tiktok and a lot of it is being shared through stories (which expire after 24 hrs). many have been making concerted efforts to preserve the footage and images as the rampant censorship and ease with which these accounts can be purged is concerning.

this is not a comprehensive list, just the ones i follow and keep up with.

resist, stay alert, and free 🇵🇸

[edwardsissyhandsthtdanceslikeabb]

my longsuffering meta on extremism in fandom

aka this reblog was too good not to make into its own post —

✧˚₊‧

(These comments were rebutting calls for censoring predatory / "pedo" fics, with detractors claiming all censorship, without exception, is authoritarian).

"Either you’re for it or you aren’t."

"...if you take it to its logical extreme."

"It’s that they want you backed into a rhetorical corner where you feel compelled to agree with them."

"Something being nasty is not a good reason to ban fiction about it."

my reblog:

im not sure if ppl are aware they're doing it, but they're employing very extreme, conformist, fearmongering language which inadvertently ends up reinforcing exactly what they're critiquing. im definitely not the biggest anti sympathizer around, but the stuff they're talking abt isn't just "nasty", that's a very disingenuous and reductive way of characterizing it, a good portion of it is illegal, and can and has been illegal without simultaneously/automatically targeting people's rights. and while illegal, a lot of it is trivialized, unaddressed, rampant, sewn into cultural norms, or having protections dismantled rn, these are not issues that are unanimously bad or completely safeguarded irl.

additionally, these ppl are not automatically asking for authorized/institutionally enforced censorship just bc they think some things should not be promoted, they're very clearly using words like "we" and "everyone" which alludes to fandom culture and etiquette, and relatedly, they're not necessarily saying that this restriction should extend to victims and educational media, conflating the two ends up weaponizing and tokenizing victims and portraying them as a monolith that all feel and cope the same way. now i'm NOT trying to say that this conversation does not include or has not been informed and spearheaded by survivors [even in this very thread] of a lot of the abuse mentioned, but i think hearing the input of those (also possibly survivors) you don't agree with and considering their feelings is imperative in letting everyone be heard and not enforcing authoritarian dominance you sanction. this doesn't mean you can't have your safe spaces or have to acquiesce to the demands of outsiders — policing the ways ppl explore and deal with their trauma is unhelpful, sanctimonious and pushes purity culture (esp when there's a double standard for victims of violent crime and the main issue here often being HOW ppl express entertainment/enjoyment), but i think understanding their concerns and the ways facets inherent to exploring problematic themes, though relegated to narratives, may bleed into real harm, problems or attitudes that escape the confines of that space or affect fandom as a whole, hurting ppl in tangible ways, and actually functioning as smth dangerous.

this becomes a bit tricky bc what's defined as "pedo" for example varies from person to person (fiction is a vehicle for narrative exploration, meaning characters can and have been reduced to functional constituents as opposed to representation, and consequently, irl contexts can be/are stripped. not everything is actually harmful, there are PLENTY situations where a dynamic that would inherently be predatory irl is just a dynamic and age or power imbalance doesn't factor bc its not real, so those aspects have been eliminated, in the source material or the fic. however if real markers of age or youth or maturity are applied to a character and major facets of their personhood are inextricable from their age, then yk, that aligns with promotion). plus "knowing" who is a victim or not can often undermine anonymity and make ppl feel doubted or pressured, but i think a very rudimentary and balanced way to get around this is to actually evaluate what the content is saying and encouraging those who its intended for to hold the author accountable if they end up platforming problematic matter in a way that romanticizes, undermines or promotes it. like i think its fairly easy to tell when someone is exploring a dynamic or theme, portraying a dynamic, using a theme as a narrative vehicle, delving into the theme's dubiousness or complexity to the characters or working through smth vs using something effectively as propaganda to excuse or cause irl harm to marginalized communities, and if that distinction becomes muddy i think its just as easy to engage the author instead of automatically deferring to either extreme of censorship or blind support.

language like "if taken to the extreme" is very revealing bc why do we have to do that? it also reveals that we're NOT there, and that intervention IS a spectrum, we CAN employ nuance ppl. yall's kneejerk should NOT be to reject balance or productivity or coherent arguments.

this shouldn't be a puritanical fight where each side levies their big moral argument as to why they're superior and ur a bad person if you don't support them (which is what implying that censoring works that promote, not depict but promote problematic themes is equivalent to erasing lgbtq or victims' rights. bc realize it or not, ppl are equivocating the two — and i get why, but we don't have to / it can be implemented in a way that doesn't).

we're all clearly doing this bc we care abt ppl, so let's maybe start doing that, yeah?

[llycaons]

ep35: another slog, but at least nhs is there

gold star, jiang cheng. not physically abusive. really knocking it out of the park

AWW YEAH BRIDGE SCENE

THERE'S the lwj we know. that attentive look, that concern, that clear interest in wwx/ exactly as it should be

they really did spraypaint a leg gray huh

YEAHHHH

god this makes me so sad. wwx doesn't remember that??? he jerks away from lwj a few times this episode, maybe out of embarrassment, maybe because he can't quite believe that lwj is really on his side here

doesn't stop him from going all googly-eyed when lwj just picks him up and goes though

*voice of a touch-starved victorian maiden* SCANDALOUS!!!!

wwx is all over the place postres honestly. he's reluctant to open up to lwj, he'll cling to him for protection, he won't understand why lwj is helping him, he'll demand wine from him in random rooms. and get it

oh nhs is so silly

this story is so insane and convoluted, and also why do all the generations of the nies just keep doing this if it's such a bother after the cultivators' deaths. like at a certain point you'd think they'd transition to swords

like what!! that is so impractical and dangerous!

nhs is really the highlight of this episode honestly. agreeing with wwx about HIS OWN ANCESTORS being arrogant, whew

damn jin ling what did you bring to that tomb. do you have access to bombs

oh he's so funny. lwj literally is his social inferior but he puts on such an act and gives lwj all the power in the room (or appearing to) and FLEEING when lwj gives him permission to leave

god you know the bdsm mind games he gets into must be insane

this was such a sweet moment! idk if it's really necessary bc wwx was always a decent friend to nhs, and this makes his identity a bit suspect, but it's still a sweet moment. so THERE person who 0opsted 'jin zixuan was the only character to change for the better'. you fucking idiot

aww here's lwj cleaning the flute. man coming back from fanfic and you can really tell how restricted the censorship made them. not that I liked how the sex scenes in the novel went but there was licking involved well before that. they could never get away with that here

horny little duet (classic)

damn this was insane

okay god this is so cool because we don't see nmj's face close up during this last scene so it just looked like he's threatening them both but in the flashback from his pov you see him looking at jgy and this is actually him pointing baxia at jgy to IDENTIFY HIS KILLER wheee I love those camera tricks. there aren't a lot in these episodes honestly, all the fun stuff stopped in 33. maybe we'll see it in yi city?

but mostly im looking forward to 40 and beyond when wwx and lwj are closer. they're still kind of unsure and stumbling around each other rn and it is SUCH a slog! let's see that soulmate shit!

liked this little detail of nhs gribbing the stone as wx discuss nmj's death

oh my god and it looks literally exactly the same doesn't it

wwx being like 'that little fuck works for the JINS now???' I feel that

'my junior uncle' oh baby 🥺

yesssss you talk about your hopes and dreams and desires baby!!!

LAN WANGJI DRINKING TIME WHEEEE

personal highlights:

bridge scene was so pretty

hand to hand contact. thrilling

every time they asked nhs for something and he agreed only to realize what it was he agreed to and panic. love him

the clever camera work around nmj's death

lwj drinking because he was upset about SL and XXC

[messylustt]

basically ao3 is under a ddos attack (basically a group of people are flooding the site w internet traffic to make the website crash so that it’s unavailable) and now it’s like a national concern of censorship?? bc hate groups are upset that there’s lgbtq+ and smut content on there and the u.s. is thinking about passing laws that would heavily censor / ban any kind of lgbtq+ and / or smut content

literally it feels like the internet is on fire rn there’s like live news coverage where i am it’s gone crazy

🫧

wtf???? lgbtq+ and smut?? really? why lgbtq+ stuff? that doesn’t make sense.

[bookishjules]

came across this article (while i was looking for an actual trigger warnings list) by the new york post's designated movie critic, johnny olenksinki, who, as far as i can see, is at least left-leaning. but for him to come at trigger warnings with zero compassion and label it as "censorship" really just... points the wrong fingers.

censorship is a huge (and very real and concerning) topic of conversation in the states rn because of certain conservatives trying to erase progress and people's very real experiences while they rewrite history to serve their causes. it's also, ironically, conservatives who are the ones most likely to be against providing trigger warnings, because it just amplifies our "coddling culture" as johnny here put it. so if trigger warnings are "censorship," why would the right be so against them? they're all for censorship right?

there's such an important distinction between creating warnings for people who need them and just completely crossing a piece of media or history off the page.

anyway, i know i'm probably preaching to the choir, but i couldn't comment on the article or come at johnny directly, so here we are.. basically censorship, bad; trigger warnings, good.

[androgynealienfemme]

Genuinely can’t believe this is the norm now in fandoms and also it’s … scary? Because like the current right wing moral panic about groomers and book bans and queers is happening actually right now and fandom discourse is a microcosm of real life and if even generally left leaning queer kids are thinking people who likes the weekly Bad Genshin Ship™ or draws actual dark content porn or whatever are all actual predators/pedos/incest supporters/rapists then what the hell are they gonna fall for when they grow up? What batshit censorship laws are they going to pass? Cause everyone who thinks “oh it’s just kids so it doesn’t matter” don’t realize 1. It’s not only kids 2. These kids are going to grow up and actually be able to do politics soon? And they’re rn across the internet AND IN REAL LIFE doing insane abusive behavior to each other and to others over FICTIONAL CHARACTERS. Like I know some people are rightly concerned but definitely not enough?

[notcapableofbeingtheguy]

Hiii I love bcs so much but I still haven't decided for myself if I feel queerbaited or not (re Gus, mostly, like I just want to be Acknowledged by the universe in a way straight audiences can't ignore you know?); do you ever get frustrated by this/know people who talked about it on tumblr/do you know of more subtle nods like that Patrick Fabian thing...

(Bf hasn't seen bcs and I have nobody to talk to about it u_u so hiiii)

Hiiii! Thanks for asking this and sorry for the response time. I wrote like a ten page essay on why what BBC Sherlock did was so wrong so I also hate queerbaiting and I totally feel you. I don’t talk about it very much on here because having invested a lot of energy into pulling for queer ships/characters that didn’t pan out ina previous period of my life, it’s not where I currently try to center my experience of media, especially when there’s so much about BCS that’s just so wonderful to celebrate (tldr I’m just trying to meme around and have a good time rn)— but you are totally right that there is a very frustrating problem in the gilliverse with queer rep (there isn’t any), and it’s worth talking about so I’ll throw in my two cents.

I tend to categorize content that lacks explicit canon queer rep, but has queer coded characters into two varieties:

1) classic straight people shit. Writers are too heteronormative/homophobic to even think about having queer characters. They are not aware of/concerned with their queer audience. Any queer coding that arises in such content/any characters that are read as implicitly queer is largely accidental. We (queer viewers) know how to easily recognize common signs of queerness but the writers don’t, and so when these things get into their scripts and characters, it’s not intentional. They’re just reflecting what they see in the world (which happens to include queer vibes, queer codes, queer narratives, because those EXIST in the world), and trying to write characters who feel varied and unique— and traits that often clock as queer (e.g. gender deviance, a witty/flirtatious edge, flamboyance in men and stoicism in women) tend to make for compelling and real feeling characters. They don’t have the awareness to understand how those things read to an audience— they think they’re just writing saucy straight people.

2) Queerbaiting. Writers are aware of queer themes and queer codes, and of the potential queer flavor they can give characters. They are aware they have a potential or actual queer audience, to whom these codes and themes will speak. They want to write characters who have a queer flavor, for whatever reason (courting a queer/liberal audience, because they think it’s “funny” (which may not even be something they consciously clock as homophobic), or simply as part of an attempt to write characters who feel varied and unique, as I mentioned above), BUT they also INTENTIONALLY don’t want to write queer representation for whatever reason (e.g. marketability to a conservative audience, their own homophobia).

(((Bonus #3 would be content written by queer people/allies who are living under censorship of some kind that makes it impossible for them to state their characters are queer explicitly. But this doesn’t apply to the gilliverse so we’ll ignore this for now)))

Obviously the major difference between these two types of rep comes in the intentions of the writers—do they know they’re writing queer coded characters or not, is it intentional? And this can sometimes be difficult to parse.

When I watched Breaking Bad, I assumed Gus’s writing was an instance of type 1. These were straight people who had no idea they had written a very gay man. And when I watch type 1 shows, they mostly don’t bother me. I get to have a laugh out of making a character queer with the fandom, and know there’s nothing to really be done about it. Yes, not having queer characters is homophobic, but the act of queer coding some of their characters itself wasn’t intentional, and so it doesn’t really add to my ire.

But in Better Call Saul, it became clear to me the writers KNOW. I only started paying attention to behind the scenes stuff recently, so people are welcome to fill in the blanks there if writers have talked about this in a way before that makes their intentionality clear. BUT I saw some things on the show in season five that were an explicit nod to Gus being queer-coded, the foremost being:

This reads as a homophobic Lalo joke to me (in terms of writer intention— obviously we all know lalo is gay, mlm hostility, etc etc etc), not as a canonization of Gus/Max. And when writers JOKE about their queer-codes relationships, THAT is what makes my blood boil. It shows that they are actively aware of the coding, but will not take the step to make it explicit. It feels like I’m being taunted. The baiting metaphor is apt: you bite down on what you think is sustenance and instead you get stabbed in the mouth by a barbed metal hook. I hear “boyfriend,” and I invest emotionally (I’m hooked), but I never get anything from it— no kiss, no explicit acknowledgement of who Max was to Gus— and that hurts.

Now, we don’t know yet whether we’ll get a canon acknowledgment of Gus’s sexuality. Maybe the fountain/school he dedicated to Max was supposed to be that nod from the writers? If so, I guess I would understand that it comes in the context of a show where many things are implied and the writing is very restrained. I would still be frustrated, and it would still be homophobic, because it would be SO EASY to make Gus (or any character) explicitly queer in a way that wouldn’t need to feel heavy handed but that would be impossible for straight audiences to deny (straight characters mention their partners in scenes all the time!). But I could MAYBE see a piece of where the writers were coming from.

I’m not really keeping my hopes up, honestly. For either explicit canonization on screen, or explicit statements from the writers. 🤷‍♂️ it could happen. If it doesn’t, we’ve been queerbaited. Not egregiously, in my opinion. I think the writers realized Gus was queer coded late in the game, and were too skittish/homophobic to fully pivot (I think they have NO IDEA howard, lalo, nacho, et al. come across as queer, and those are type 1 mistakes). Which IS homophobic, but isn’t bone-rattling to me. Still, it sucks, because I would love to be seen and Acknowledged, like you said, rather than toyed with. I’d love for the best show on television, which is celebrated for its dynamic characters (many of whom are dynamic and interesting in part BECAUSE of their queer coding), to have explicit queer representation on it. But alas… I don’t think it’s gonna happen 😔

Gilligould prove me wrong challenge!!!

[andthelightswavegoodbye]

A Certain Someone and Manipulation

Edit as of May 3rd: I'm afraid the linked post is no longer available as the account has since been deleted or deactivated. I'm not sure when This happened but apologies in advance!

As I’m sure many in the NIN blog community have heard by now, A fairly popular fanartist (MMY) has been called out for publicly posting N*crophilia, and months prior, P*dophillia. This in turn caused a suicide bait of said person, and things got out of control from there. I encourage everyone in this community to check out the post created by @playthegoddamnedpart for further info on what happened, as well as multiple responses regarding the suicide bait (Mine Included) (Link to full thread here). 

Firstly, I like to make an apology statement. Rather than focusing on the problem - someone creating gore p*rn and posting it on a public platform where children can see - I focused on the suicide bait issue. Although I still don’t agree with those methods used, I was subsequently ignoring the issues at hand, and in a sense defending what MMY did. This was never my intention, but it still does not excuse me for what I did. I won’t go into full detail here, as my official response is in the aforementioned link, however I do think there’s still something important I need to warn others about. 

Long story short, it has been brought to my attention that MMY, whether they are aware of it or not, has slight manipulative tendencies, and I might have fallen into said trap. In case MMY pops up again (Highly likely), I want to share about how we grew to talk, and the possible manipulation so people can be further aware. I also acknowledge that my initial response to the situation is still fully my blame to take. 

Slight trigger warning for brief descriptions of what their art entails, as well as self-deprecation further ahead.

In terms of art, gore never usually bothered me. When I first stumbled upon Manmade Yellows (MMY) page some time ago, there was gore, but nothing overtly terrible from what I first saw. Sure, there was death (Examples being Trent choking another version of himself, or Trents head detached from it’s body), But I did not pay it much heed as I should have at the time. Part of this is due to my own desensitization, I will admit. They also depicted Trent in sexual situations (Example being in womens underwear). I liked the art well enough and followed them on Instagram. 

Very early on, I noticed on their instagram stories that they would become very self-loathing in terms of their art and self-worth. there was a lot of “I’m a terrible person, when my parents find out who I really am they’ll hate me”, “My art is terrible, I can’t even do lineart”, “I’m not even a real artist, I only draw porn”, “I’m a piece of shit who only spends their time addicted to porn and gore” “All I do is sit in my room” talk. The first time I saw this, it was extremely concerning and I found myself DMing them about how they were feeling. We talked a bit about, and I tried to be supportive, and then we’d move on. These self-deprecating stories were very common. I found myself saying “No, you’re a real artist. You make art, that’s the only qualifying factor in being an artist”, and they would reply with “It doesn’t have meaning, so it’s not real art”. I in turn would defend them.

I think that’s where the possible manipulation started. I don’t know if they were aware of them doing this, and they did accept compliments easier in time, but I still somehow ended up often trying to make them feel better, put them on a pedestal, because of the constant self-hatred. This led me to get a bit attached to them in a sense, as I too struggle with depression. But at the same time, I should not have continued getting involved. And it should have been obvious that they were posting about the hardships so much to the point it was probably unhealthy for the people reading it.

Along with the depression story posts, they would occasionally talk about instagram censorship, and art censorship in general. Things like how “social media is forcing art to be censored”, “I don’t have anywhere to post my art cause it always gets taken down” “Art shouldn’t be censored, it’s not fair to self expression” “This will just get taken down...”, etc. And to a degree, I agreed. They once gave an example of how renaissance-esque paintings got taken down for nudity on instagram, so “Yea I suppose what they’re saying makes sense”. But I was ignoring two key factors: This is Instagram, a place where kids are allowed to sign up on. And they weren’t posting “Just nudity”. If I’m honest, I’m probably too quick to agree on things. I shouldn’t have immediately folded on the subject. 

 This slowly turned into me outright supporting the gore and porn. I’d say “You draw dark stuff so inexplicably, it’s inspiring”. And to be honest, I still liked their art. I would be a liar if I said technically speaking, their art was bad. And I like dark art too. Some of it I DID truly enjoy, especially cause it depicted Trent, a celebrity that I really like. But I remember one specific set of posts where they depicted Trent getting his limbs chopped off, and just being “used”. And even I knew that was too far. But I think I’d grown so used to them posting gore or sexual stuff so often, and connected with them enough emotionally, that I let it slide and even liked those posts. On their insta story, they’d even post gore videos with the text “Mmmm so hot” or something. But they’d put silly emojis and a comedic tone so “theyre not actually turned on by gore, I’m sure”. That was a blatant red flag. I should have unfollowed then.

When the eventual eruption of what they’d posted happened, doubled with the suicide baiting, I immediately went to shame the baiter, yet didn’t say anything on MMY. I even DMed MMY asking if they were okay. I asked them upfront if they were legitimately a necrophile, and they said no. I took that as truth, and though we still don’t know the actual reality, considering they drew necro porn, I should not have trusted them so easily. They said they realize that maybe they have an issue and wanted to slow down on the gore drawings. I genuinely thought that to be true. They even had an instagram story saying “I realize what I did was wrong, and I won’t be doing this anymore” but looking back, even that was slightly self-deprecating. Afterwards, I noticed that they posted on their story less about wanting to fix things and focused more onto attacking everyone else. it was no longer “I shouldn’t have done that” and it turned into “I don’t care. You guys are just so caught up in your censorship” “I’m just terrible, but whatever”. That’s when I started to really doubt the side I was on. It wasn’t until the tumblr post that I previously mentioned called MMY out, as well as an Instagram comment I left on a post (Talking about the suicide baiting), That I fully realized what I was doing. I once again apologize. I ignored many redflags,  and chose to pretend it wasn’t happening. Because I liked some of their art, I didn’t want to admit that some of it was morally wrong, because that would mean I too was doing something wrong. I fully admit that now. I have since blocked MMY on instagram. 

I still don’t know if this counts as manipulation. In the sense that they constantly shifted the blame from themselves to others, and often made themselves the victim, I would say yes. I think it’s plausible this happened to other followers of MMY, even from just reading their story reels. To anyone reading this, if you encounter MMY in the future, don’t pay their self loathing and insisting of “censorship being bad” any attention. Whether they mean to or not, they are always putting themselves in need “saving”, and always discounting others valid opinion for their own gain. I was gullible, and I don’t want anyone else to do what I did in the future.

[burningarchitecture]

I feel like I'm prodding a hornet's nest with a stick but can we just move on from the AO3 drama that's happening rn. Like yes, we shouldn't vote for Tiffany G because a lot of her statements are contradictory, she mentions wanting to give AO3 a good reputation in China even though that's pretty much impossible for a fanfic site if you don't start censoring A LOT of things including queer content, but also mentions she doesn't want to censor anything and just wants to improve the tagging system. Which sure! I wouldn't mind that at all! The key problem with her is she says things that imply she doesn't understand AO3 isn't a business and a lot of her answers don't let us understand what changes she ACTUALLY wants to make while raising certain red flags. This means she could be anything from a naive person who means no real harm but has some misconceptions about how AO3 works to someone from the Chinese government that genuinely wants to harm the site but doesn't know how to answer an interview in a consistent way and get elected. We. Don't. Know!!! Which is why it's so ridiculous to run around screaming about the end of AO3 and how censorship is about to destroy your favourite thing on the internet AND to say we should support her with the slogan "finally someone will clean up AO3!" (Clean up how? If she actually starts censoring things people will just stop tagging them and it will be impossible to censor everything which will only worsen the problem. But we don't know if she's going to do that because her interview answers are so unclear). I understand why y'all are concerned, especially after that tweet her irl friend made saying AO3 is not above the law which COULD mean she wants heavy censorship considering a lot of things are banned in China, but we don't even know if that tweet was actually made by her best friend because this is The Internet.!! So how about we stop blowing the whole thing out of proportion (it's just one person on the board after all), not vote for her because she acts like a naive person who has no idea what they're doing and Move The Fuck On!!!! I'm so tired.

[gemsofgreece]

I know that the Gr-Tk relations are very tense rn, but I need to know if you know of any anti-Erdogan movement/sentiment within Turkey??, I'm pretty sure (And I hope) that the majority of the population is against this populist (barely reaching to far-right) government; from journalism censorship, to rejection of liberal-lefty ideas in order to bring conservatism worthy of a Republican Party's wet-dream, I could imagine if the population has made some pushback all these years.

I believe most people are against him, especially the younger and more educated ones. They often speak of Erdogan's government as a straight-out regime.

University students were protesting against him for a long time last year.

In 2016 an attempt at a military coup against him took place. Many of the military officers involved asked for asylum in Greece and Greece accepted them which further worsened the official relations of the two countries as Erdogan repeatedly demanded their return.

More Turkish political refugees have been trying to leave and come to Greece. They are often scientists and journalists. I've read some articles that some search their genealogical trees for Greek ancestry to ensure they will get more easily accepted by the Greek state.

What concerns me is that I don't think they have a through-and-through liberal / secular political party in the parliament at all. I've never heard of any of their political parties criticizing their strategy in the Aegean Sea and opposing to Erdogan's Ottoman bravado. On the contrary, I am aware that some of their other political parties criticize Erdogan for being all words and no actions and not finally showing the Greeks who's the boss! (That's how they talk about it in their talk shows and news.)

So for Greece's interests, I am not sure much would change regardless if Erdogan is the one up or not. Maybe the young people are against a war with us but unfortunately the young people's beliefs are hardly represented in their political scene.

That's all I know.

[deokmis]

The class of Itaewon Class

As a disclaimer I would like to say that I had very low expectation of this drama when i went into it. A webtoon adaptation that sticks closely to the original webtoon script can be a little clumsy (and since the writer of this drama is the writer of the webtoon as well I was wary of how it would be produced) since webtoons exist on a diff plane where there is less censorship and topics that are uncomfortable to the regular society are often touched on. I was concerned that the topics wouldn’t transfer to television well and would be butchered. I had convinced myself that I would only watch it as a PSJ loyalist.

I was dead wrong.

Itaewon class is one of the most socially conscious and responsible dramas that has come out in the last few years. The delicate way they handle topics that other shows wouldn’t touch with a ten foot pole has warmed my heart. The characters feel real and raw. You would expect a man like Sae Roy Yi to be angry, resentful, destructive, but what you get instead is a calm, rational and responsible young man. Having been through hell at such a young age, he still has the magnamity to be understanding of someone who is part of a family that brought him inconceivable pain. He isn’t blind in his anger, if anything his desire for revenge makes him more focused.

Park Sae Ro Yi is a ride or die friend. If you’ve been a good person and a good person to him specifically, he will go to the ends of the earth for you. That’s what attracts ppl to him, even the mercurial Jo Yi Seo is pulled in by the honesty, tolerance and loyalty he shows. He commands loyalty from ppl, never demanding it, never pushing. Always being a fair and just man.

Also how refreshing has it been to see an adult man not be icky and jump into a yikes relationship with a barely legal girl who’s obviously super into him and can be groomed and moulded. Instead, he keeps an appropriate distance and is always treating her like a kid she is to the adult man that he is. I respect him for respecting her autonomy before jumping into being her knight in shining armour.

His relationship with Soo-ah is also admirable. Disregarding her behaviour, he has been nothing but supportive and understanding of her dilemma. He encourages to choose his greatest enemy over him again and again. Because he knows that he does not have the right to have her life trampled over because he has romantic affection for her.

His relationship with Hyun-Yi is so pure and wholesome. He liked her cooking and as simple as took her under his wing and made her one of his own. He knew her truth and said “what about it??” (which is how it should always be) he never once forced her to come out or to jump any hoops for other people who might be “uncomfortable” and his openness and respectful attitude made others around him change their behaviour as well. The plot line was dealt with so simply and honestly, it was refreshing and a joy to see.

In conclusion, hats off to the writer, the director, the cast, the producers everyone. I’m sorry I went into this drama with preconceived notions. I’ve never been happier to have been proven wrong.

Everyone go watch itaewon class rn!!