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leftcollectionreview · 3 days

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Critique of End the Phone-Based Childhood Now

So I read Jonathan Haidt's piece End the Phone-Based Childhood Now, which is from the forthcoming book The Anxious Generation (Which I assume is a reference on The Nervous Generation and could carry some pretty interesting implications). And I think it is pretty good. I agree with the conclusion that phones and social media are bad for children. Honestly I think they're bad for humans in general but I'll agree on children for sure.

But despite that broad agreement with the things he did say, I feel that there are a number of things that he did not say that could petter inform this piece. So I am writing this post to point those things out. Ideally word gets back to Haidt and he takes them into account, but I get the impression that he is set in his ways. But in any event, it can help facilitate a critical reading of what is, again, a pretty good piece.

1. No mention of the market system

Haidt strongly, frequently, and correctly chastises social media corporations for their relentless pursuit of profit. That's all well and good, but it paints a picture of social media corporations as uniquely bad actors, instead of digital versions of literally every multi-billion dollar corporation. It is impossible to make that much money without deeply and harmfully exploiting people. Haidt never mentions the market system with its lack of regulation (especially for Silicon Valley) that allows, nay, perpetuates this fact of Western life.

Haidt mentions the Facebook whistleblower report in passing, as a way to point out that Facebook knowingly harms its users to generate its outrageous profits. But Facebook is doing exactly what it and every other corporation are created to do: return as much money as possible to shareholders. Illegal or unethical activity is only to be avoided insofar as it impacts the profit margin. Facebook's evil actions aren't unique, they're mundane. And that should be disturbing. Yes, Facebook is a great example to point to, but what about the residents of East Palestine, OH? It has been over a year since the derailment that caused the worst chemical rail disaster in the country. In that year, there has been no justice for the residents, yet they reported over $8 BILLION in profits in 2023. The impact of this on their shareholders? According to Reuters, "On an adjusted basis, the company reported a profit of $2.83 per share, compared with analysts' estimates of $2.87, according to LSEG data."

2. No acknowledgement of material conditions of childcare

My boy Jay Haidt correctly mentions that digital technologies can be an outlet for exhausted parents who need to work or rest. I agree with the unstated value that it is an insufficient replacement for socialization or more constructive activities, but there is a better point to make here.

For many of these folks, they're in this position because childcare is crazy expensive. The US Department of Health and Human Services states that affordable childcare is, at most, 7% of a household income. I'm going to set aside my concerns that 7% still is not affordable for a lot of families, because we are way past that. Care.com's 2024 Cost of Care Report states that on average, families spend 24% of their income on childcare, and FastCompany found that single parents spend 50% of their income on childcare! This is all despite the fact that childcare service providers undercharge for their services because they know that they would be unaffordable if they charged what they deserve.

So for folks desperate to be able to work or wrung out from working (maybe multiple jobs) to afford to live, it's not surprising that they will reach for what they have available. There's a small nod to this when Haidt mentions that the rates are higher for Black and Hispanic families, and while it is important to acknowledge the disproportionate impact they suffer, this is an issue where an entire class of people are unable to afford the service that they need to afford their lives. His remedy? Give kids chores, make them little household workers. 1. Obviously I'm going to have a problem with that. 2. It's not a real solution for working class people.

3. Lots of stuff happened during this era

Obviously the arrival of smartphones and constant social media was a huge turning point for our society. The iPhone first dropped in 2008, but folks with a keen memory might recall that it wasn't the only thing going on at the time.

I'll reiterate here that I don't disagree that phones and social media brought about a ton of stress and it happened at this time. But not mentioning these factors is a little too glaring for me not to mention, it leaves a real weakness in the work. And this isn't to say that young people were directly aware of these factors & events, but it's hard to imagine that they didn't contribute to the statistics he's citing.

The 2008 Crash

How can you even mention 2008 with a straight face and not mention the '08 crash? In his article (/forthcoming book) about how quickly young people became anxious and depressed, it might be worth mentioning that many of us saw our parents suddenly without work. And if they did have work, we were constantly reminded how bad the market was, how lucky they were to have work even if it was terrible, and how the market just wasn't recovering. I graduated from college in 2017, and nearly a decade after the crash there was still coverage of the "slow recovery" that meant that my job prospects were terrible. But I didn't have the worst of it. Part of why I went to college was because I heard that prospects were still bad in 2012 when I was making the decision, and I hoped that during my time in college things would get better. They didn't really, worker's wages remained stagnant despite inflation and corporate profits that grew faster than inflation. And for folks who were a couple years younger than me, who weren't looking for jobs but saw that their households were stressed out at best, it's no wonder that there would be an increase in stress, anxiety and depression during this time.

Hope & Change

Again, how can you mention young print being depressed in the 2010's and not mention absolute failure of Obama to deliver on his promises of Hope and Change? And this, after famously creating a campaign fueled by the energy of young people.

Obama's first accomplishment in office? Bail out the banks and make sure that the people who might be the reason that you did (or will) lose your home can stay wealthy and face no real consequences.

What does he accomplish next? Negotiate for a year with Republicans on the Affordable Care Act, desperately trying to get a single one on board for the sake of "bipartisanship." And so much was given away for that empty promise that Republicans dangled in front of him. So much ground was ceded that we did not get the robust system that was sold to us. It could've really helped the material conditions for people of all incomes, but now we may never get a real public healthcare system in the US.

Side note: I usually try not to read into what people are thinking, but I'll make an exception here. Jonathan Haidt has identified himself as a political centrist in interviews and in an apparently deleted tweet. It is not hard to imagine Haidt feeling that this is the political process working as it should to moderate. I obviously, strongly, disagree.

This was all done with what would today be considered a sweeping majority, a public mandate to enact your stated agenda. But he chose not to wield the power granted to him. To those young people who worked so hard to make sure that everyone would have affordable (or even free!) healthcare, this was an absolute disappointment.

But of course there would be more disappointment to come. The 2010 "shellacking" ensured that his administration would never have the opportunity to pass transformative legislation again.

Endlessly continuing "The War on Terror"

I feel like I hardly need to explain this one. Not only did the War on Terror continue, but we got "The Surge," which we got to see the futility of. And just like Vietnam was the first war beamed into folks living rooms, The War on Terror was beamed directly to our phones. As the government effort to fund war always does, it does a great job of showing that there is money available to slaughter people overseas, but there's not money available for robust public safety nets, universal healthcare, etc.

Prevalence of school shootings increased

If we are going to talk about the precipitous increase of anxiety and depression in young people, it seems mind-boggling that you can even consider not mentioning this. Yes, shootings had happened before this time, as this user points out. But Virginia Tech happened in 2007. Sandy Hook happened in 2012. These are horrific events for the nation, but especially for young people and their parents.

And not only did these direct actions increase, but Active Shooter Drills became more prevalent. According to the US Department of Education, already in 2003-2004, 78.5% of students were drilled in active shooter scenarios (page 216). By 2017, 95% of American K-12 schools implemented Active Shooter Scenarios. I cannot find data on the nature of these drills, but anecdotally they seem to have gone through an arc of being somewhat loosely structured to being dramatic and traumatizing to slowly becoming more trauma informed. There have been drills that "executed" students and teachers with blanks and rubber bullets. That is horrifying. This has gotten better over time, but I do not think that we can brush these events off or not even mention them.

Conclusion

None of this is meant to be an exhaustive list of the pros and cons of this article and/or book. But these are aspects that I think are important to critique. Again, this does not invalidate the work itself and I might well read *The Anxious Generation* when it comes out.

#social media #jonathan haidt #cellphone #smartphone #anxitey #depression #mental health #young people #class analysis #childcare

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ajsthoughtsandthings · 1 year

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Social Media VS. The News — How People Stay Informed of Current Events

Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter and more.

There seems to be a social media app to fit every preference. With the global social media industry valued at 49.09 billion USD in 2022, it's fair to say social media is everywhere.

These platforms are an integral part of our daily lives and have become a primary source of staying informed about the ongoings of the world around us, as 53% of U.S. adults get their news from social media.

According to the Pew Research Center, social media sites like Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter are the three top social platforms people regularly get their news from.

But why are people getting their news on apps made to stay connected with friends, be entertained, and maybe find an inspiring decor or recipe idea rather than a proper news outlet?

Introduction to the Two Step Flow Theory

To answer that question, I'm going to introduce you to the Two Step Flow Theory.

This theory is a communication framework that explains how people form opinions based on mass media messages. While earlier theories —like the Magic Bullet/Hypodermic Needle Theory — believed the media was highly responsible for shaping people's and society's opinions by inserting messages into their heads, the Two Step Flow Theory shares this credit with opinion leaders as well.

According to Mr. Sinn's YouTube video on the Two Step Flow Theory, public opinion forms through two steps. First, mass media shares a message that then reaches opinion leaders. These opinion leaders are active in the media, taking this information, interpreting it, and sharing it with their followers.

Mr. Sinn shares that these opinion leaders can look like influencers or talk show hosts, a.k.a; people we regularly interact with online and trust.

(Also, yes, I would advise watching the short but informative video linked above.)

Image via The Two-Step Flow Theory | Media in Minutes | Episode 2

Navigating a Maze of Information.

Humans are social creatures, so I guess it makes sense we like to find, share, and ponder information about the world around us in a community-enriched setting like social media.

I also get much of my news from opinion leaders through avenues like YouTube and TikTok. Not only is it convenient time-wise, as I'm not waiting for a show or program to start on TV, but I also get to hear from people who speak in a way that resonates with me.

Still, I rely on traditional news videos and articles to support information I have found online.

If the message is more fact-based without less likelihood of biases impacting how the information is shared — say something about the natural world or a scientific finding —I might read one or two articles to back up the information.

However, if the information is about a topic that's highly debated, politicized, or is often related to biased or bigoted views, I usually read a few articles from various sources to get a more nuanced idea of the situation.

At The Speed of Social Media

When living in a world where news travels faster than light (not literally), it is important to vet information through multiple sources.

It's a common complaint that one can't trust specific news channels because of biases. Still, this worry doesn't apply only to traditional news outlets.

The reality is we're getting our information from people either way, and social media is known for facilitating the spread of misinformation. In fact, research done by Yale indicated that social media's reward platforms facilitate this spread.

So, while it might feel daunting to sift through all this information, it is crucial. With the amount of media we consume daily, I doubt anyone can be perfect at researching every piece of information they hear before internalizing or sharing it with others.

But we can continue trying to be responsible media consumers and keep learning along the way.

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emptyairsims · 1 year

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Here are my answers:

🌸 What's your earliest memory of playing the sims? Memories arent my strong suit, lol. Fibro fog is real.. But I have foggy memories of playing with a friend in elementary school on their computer.

💫 How did you discover the sims franchise? Again, I dont really remember.

🍇 What was your first sims game? The first one I owned myself. I think it was sims 2.

🍦 How long have you been playing the sims? Probably since it came out but I really wasnt a hardcore fan until sims 2.

🧋 What is your favorite sims series? (sims 3, 2 etc.) Lame answer I know but sims 4! I dont remember the original very well. Sims 2 was amazing but my old copy doesnt play anymore on my current pc. I hate sims 3 (yeah yeah I know). Sims 4 has great graphics and the mod potential is amazing, whats not to love?

🤍 Do you have a favorite sim created by you? Yes! To be honest it kind of flip flops between two sims though. For a while its Christopher then it goes back to Reynard (dont ask).

🧸 Favorite townie? (any sims game) Dont have one.

🍨 Do you have a sim self? If yes, do you play with them? I do. I was late to game on creating one though, just recently decided to jump on that band wagon. Yes, I do play with them.

🫐 How often do you play the sims? Every day. Often twice a day.

🌱 Do/Can you relate to any of your sims? I mean - yes and no. I see myself in some of the things I do in game because its an outlet for every day stress and anxiety - its my escape. But I play with a ton of occult sims so theres a lot of fantasy stuff going on in my game so also no.

🐬 Favorite sims challenge? I have actually never done a challenge. I have considered starting rags to riches but I just made my sim a hoe with perversions and it was to easy, lol. I dont follow challenge rules well (as you can see by the hoe thing) so challenges arent my thing.

👜 What in-game career would you choose if you were a sim? Does just entering the money cheat and then doing whatever I want count?

🌷 Which traits would you have if you were a sim? Are we talking like what traits Id want or what traits Id have based on what Im really like? Cause those are two different answers!!

🍮 Favorite thing to do in the sims? (Could literally be anything!) I spend a lot of time growing my families, seeing how big and far those bloodlines can go! I also like to cause choas and havoc depending on my mood. My game is full of drama and craziness.

❄️ Favorite in-game season if you own The Sims 4 Seasons? I disabled all of the stuff I can. Blizzards, thunderstorms, weather affects - disabled. We all know sims wont stay out of the damn pools in cold weather...

❣️ Do you talk about the sims with any of your friends/family members in real life? Yeah

✉️ How big is your mods folder? Right now... 72 gb but Im about to add new stuff

☘️ Do you have any other social media where you post sims related content? I will post big mod updates - important bug information - and share my sim photos on my personal facebook page (if that counts). Im also one of the group mods in a facebook group for sims 4 pc players.

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mouritzenstrauss50 · 1 year

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lookwhatilost · 2 years

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(This is a high effort Facebook post I made in December, 2021. I never posted it here, but I figured you guys might enjoy it, so here it is)

I remember seeing this in the checkout line at Winn-Dixie when I was around 7 years old. And this was 2002, so, like the height of Friends. I remember thinking it was kind of intrusive, albeit I was way too young to articulate it properly.

Tabloids and celebrity and our relationships with them have changed a lot in the past two decades, but a version of that cover has been a mainstay for a while – speculating about Jennifer Anniston specifically getting pregnant. And I'm not exaggerating here. A while back I remember sitting in a waiting room and seeing an issue of In Touch with a picture on the cover of her and Brad Pitt that said: "Brad and Jen: Wedding and a Baby!" and all I could really think about was "How is this still a thing?"

Jen's story really had it all, didn't it? Heartbreak. Secrecy. Sex. Betrayal. But it had something else outside of it: Us Weekly and all of its copycats. Brad Pitt leaving Jennifer Anniston for Angelina Jolie would have been a huge Hollywood scandal no matter when it happened, but it became an even bigger one because it was turbo-charged by a new kind of media outlet. The tabloids transformed Jennifer Anniston into a literal cover girl for our angst, anxiety, concern, and distain about and for single and childless women. And, at 52 years old, Jen is still that cover girl. What is going on? Why is this still going on? Why is this still happening?

So, Friends is still popular today since it's been given a second life through streaming services, but it stands to reason that Jen would probably be just as famous as her costars had she not began dating Brad Pitt. But to really understand her public persona, the history of Us Weekly is pretty important.

People Magazine was the original personality journalism success, and Us was launched around 3 years later to ride its coattails. But People's coverage is, you know, more authorized. If they're running a story, they're doing it with the subject's cooperation – they sat for the interview, they posed for the photo. It's all very above-board. But since this was the benchmark for personality journalism, the Us editors noticed there was a hole in the market and took a page out of the book from European celebrity gossip weeklies. Magazines like that depend on newsstand sales, so, catchy and salacious covers, and there's more of a profit incentive there because they make a lot more money than subscribers do. Us switched over to this kind of model in 2000. Copycats started popping up in the following years, and by the mid-aughts, the US went from having no magazines that were quite like Us Weekly, to having a lot of magazines like Us Weekly full of... What, exactly? True stories, or kinda sorta maybe true stories?

While I was researching this, I was pretty shocked to learn that Us Weekly had a fact checking department. If they're relying on other people's journalism or reporting they aren't sure about but supports their story, they use words like "reportedly" or "allegedly" but if they run a story saying something Definitely Happened, it's because the magazine has multiple sources telling them that it has. It's not that everything they publish is true, but there's at least a kernel of truth involved.

You can probably liken the business model here to that of a soap opera. Sure, every now and then someone will get married or cheated on or come back from the dead, but there's also a lot of time where nothing Huge is happening and it still needs to be compelling to the person watching it. Tabloids need to do the same thing with their headlines.

So just to recap here, you have this new and massive business model where you need to drum up headlines that elicit emotional responses in prospective readers. And then you have Jennifer Anniston, a well-beloved, relatable celebrity and one half of Hollywood's pre-eminent golden couple, who's already a tabloid fixture, who millions of Americans feel very strongly about.

So, Brad and Jen separate in 2005, and photos on a beach in Kenya of Brad and Angelina Jolie and her young son, which confirms all the speculation about something going on between the two of them. And what's important to clarify here is that there couldn't be a bigger difference in the public perception of Jen and Angelina. One is America's sweetheart, the other is the woman who wears blood vials around her neck.

Two competing narratives emerge about this: One being that Jen was a sympathetic victim who had her husband stolen from her by a femme fatale, the other being that she was career-obsessed and didn't want children, so Brad left her for someone who did. She dismissed the latter in a Vanity Fair interview (it's still their best selling issue) by saying she's never stated she hasn't wanted kids: "I did, I do, and I will". And inadvertently birthed the only character she's played that's as famous as Rachel Green – Sad Jen.

Sad Jen is a version of Jennifer Anniston who, in spite of being rich, successful, and beautiful, is perpetually lovelorn and depressed, a forever victim who can't keep a man or have a baby. She's the perfect tabloid figure who readers can easily relate to – who hasn't had a heartbreak? – and wish for her happiness while her problems made them feel better about their own.

Jen, for what it's worth, doesn't really comment on this because whenever she does, it ignites even more speculation about her. So she doesn't do it very often. And that kind of contributes to her unknowability. We feel like we know her because we know Rachel Green so well, but when you actually think about her personality, she's a bit hard to describe. Hard to pin down. Like she's an enigma, a blank canvas for us to project on. And the tabloids did just that. Sad Jen completely permeated the culture.

As the years went on and Jen dated other men, got married, and did everything that looked like moving on, Sad Jen still kept selling magazines. If Jennifer Anniston is happy, there's no drama. No story. Nothing to be curious about. And, like, it doesn't really matter how woke our society gets, people are always going to want to know when women are going to have babies.

Jen's tabloid persona completely eclipsed Jen, the actress, and Jen, the real person. Sad Jen is a deeply retrograde concoction. In creating her, the tabloids were sending a message to women that was loud and clear: You need a man and a baby to be happy. But it needed saying so loudly because it was at odds with a real woman, with what Jennifer Anniston was actually doing after her divorce – dating, delaying or deciding not to have children at all, doing what made her happy and fulfilled. If celebrities are avatars for our issues, the cultural concerns that are in the air, Sad Jen isn't simply some antifeminist poltergeist. She's a proxy for all our complicated, contradictory, and changing feelings about women. She was such a powerful character for so long not because our ideas about what women ought to do are settled and decided upon, but because they're so... not.

I should probably lay my cards on the table and say that I doubt Jennifer Anniston and Brad Pitt are going to get back together and have a baby. The reason that cover grabbed my attention was because it seemed so patently bogus, fanfiction prompted by the fact that, for the first time in more than a decade, they're both single again. Generally speaking, I find tabloids very unseemly and feel uncomfortable pinning that on any one person, type of person, or entity. When it comes to tabloids – readers, writers, editors, publishers, celebrities, publicists, marketing departments... They all play their part. We all play our part. There's enough ick to go around.

For serious news outlets, every error hurts their reputation, but no one expects a tabloid to be right all of the time. In fact, a tabloid only has to be right some of the time to give its material a whiff of "could this be true?" especially if you really want the story to be true. And the tabloids, except for People, are all owned by the same company, A360 Media, the creator of Star and the National Inquirer. They do still have reporting staffs that break real, truthful celebrity news. In Touch, for example, broke the story that George and Amal Clooney were having twins, and ran an interview with Stormy Daniels about her affair with the president years before any other outlet.

One of the reasons for these ever more fanciful covers may be a reflection of what's happened to the tabloid business. Since their heyday in the aughts, tabloid sales have fallen off because of the internet, where you can get all the gossip you want, 24 hours a day. Tabloids sell on newsstands in the low hundred thousands these days. But the business model is still reliant on catchy covers, so they keep amping them up. And the people who still buy celebrity magazines grew up with Jennifer Anniston, which is probably why Jennifer Anniston is still a permanent fixture on their covers. A cover about Brad and Jen getting back together is as amped up as possible. A greatest hits reel. A reunion episode of a favorite TV show in which the heroine is finally happy. What this means, though, is that Jennifer Anniston is probably not the tabloid icon she once was, but that tabloids are getting more desperate than they once were.

Jen has gotten unlucky twice. First by getting so spectacularly divorced while the tabloids were rising, and then still being a going concern as they fall. Still, over the years, Sad Jen has largely been canonized as an antifeminist projection, one that doesn't have much of anything to do with the actual Jen. And you could argue that Jennifer Anniston has gotten some benefit from her tabloid coverage, even though I'm sure Jen would disagree with me on this one. She's a middle-aged actress whose most famous work is more than 15 years behind her, and that's in part because the public is so fascinated with her.

I think if you're gonna make some kind of positive case for the tabloids, beyond just accepting that some version of them will always exist, it's that they, and gossip more generally, are a mirror who shows us who we really are, warts and all. What we really care about, what speaks to our brains and hearts. If that's true, the Sad Jen's existence doesn't just tell us about our rigid expectations of women, it tells us something more expansive with our relationship with the truth, which is that when the truth is as propulsive as a great story, we'll take the truth. But when the truth gets gnarly or pedantic or plotless or dull, we'll take the story, even if it's no longer true.

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ones-delight · 3 years

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I unfortunately won’t have therapy until the end of this month (I should have scheduled one earlier this month ugh lmao I thought one later this month would be better) so I’m doing what my therapist suggested, write down all what’s going through my head even if it doesn’t make sense to help bring myself back to reality. lol. I’m very much lost in my own sauce of feelings and thoughts. it’s allllll about my ex again so ugh lmao. My main anxieties are just feelings about my ex and what’s coming up this semester.

I’m currently in my apartment in Iowa City since we’re about to start back up my usual routine. I’ve been here for almost two weeks now which is nice because I’ve been trying to take my time to relax and get myself mentally prepared for this upcoming semester. I’m also low key glad I’m having these overwhelming anxieties right now instead of later this week. I need to ask my therapist again what exactly I am feeling (if it’s like a panic attack because i truly dont know) because I’ve been feeling hella anxious the past few days (in general) and yesterday my anxiety was so intense that I barely ate and I felt sick to my stomach. idk if others have the same too but when I also get hella anxious, all I want to do is go to the bathroom so tmi lmao. I feel this way now and I just cannot stop crying so again, I’m just writing everything that’s going through my mind lmao.

#1) Related to my ex, heart break

Yeah.. I literally keep talking about this/him and I’m glad I have multiple outlets that I can say what’s going through my mind because if I keep these thoughts to myself, I keep spiraling. I’m also very thankful I have multiple strong support systems from people where it truly doesn’t get annoying to them when I keep talking about him/my overall heart break/healing journey. I know I don’t want to burden my friends with my own thoughts (it can be a lot) so overall very thankful for friends, family, and my therapist lmao.

I think the last time I talked about my heart break was the letter I wrote to him. I wrote it and sent it to him lmao. I also wrote his mom a letter in Spanish because I want to stay connected with her and very thankful she reciprocates the same energy, Apparently, he never received the letter even though I sent it over 3 weeks ago, but anyways yeah that’s a story I will tell later in this post. Anyways, it’s legit easier said than done to completely stop checking on his social media. I was doing great before winter break. Now that winter break has happened (still kind of is for a few more days), I have relapsed where I was checking very often. The break was great since I got to spend quality time with family, however, unfortunately being back in Wichita still floods a lot of my emotions where there are still a lot of memories of him and I that still makes me feel sad (luckily no longer sobbing about but I do still feel some type of way. It’s getting better thankfully). It also hurts that he’s making new memories with his new girlfriend Kylie so I was def feeling all sorts of things. Sorry, I’m trying to go onto chronologize order of events that have happened. I’m jumping back and forth lmao

First, did I mention his mom called me the day before Christmas? I was SHOOOOOK when I saw her name on my phone. I legit froze because I wasn’t sure if it was actually her so I accidently missed her call. I’m so glad she left a voicemail so I could listen first and immediately call her back LMAO. But basically, she wanted to check in to see how I was doing, wish me and my family a merry christmas/happy new year, and asked if I could come see her. We joked a bit back and forth like how she was learning English for me while I’m learning Spanish for her. lmao. so after this phone call, I wrote her a letter to update her on what I’ve been doing. I wrote it all in Spanish since that’s her primary language so thank god for google translate. overall, I told her about how I’m about to earn my masters degree in may, I’ve lost now 30 lbs of weight/having a better relationship with food, how I’m honestly still hurt about her son cheating on me (I was in my feels. You know if you ever get those feelings like you want your mom? She legit is like a mom to me since my mom isn’t an active part of my life so yeah I guess you can say I got mommy issues but anyways) I also told her that if she’d still like me to come over, I’d love to come over and see her.

Few days go by, I’ve been creeping onto his social media, it stings to see how he has flaunted his relationship with Kylie. It hurts because I keep playing this comparison game because he truly has NEVER allowed me to post about us and he would himself refuse to post about us on his social media. So, just to see how he’s been basically spending every single day with her and posting her throughout all of his social media, makes me feel an extreme type of way. during new years, she had a party at her house where it was him, her, his brother paco (which I was SHOOOK because she met paco and not everyone has ever met paco, who is his oldest brother), miguel and his girlfriend (both are super cute btw), Blake (surprisingly), and Erik. I felt some kind of way because obviously I know they would share a new years kiss even tho they’ve only been dating for literally a month. I dated him for 3 years and NEVER got a new years kiss (because he wanted to be with bros). Valentines day is coming up and it’d be their “two month” anniversary and I just KNOW he’d actually put EFFORT into spending that day with her. 3 years I dated this guy and he never ONCE did ANYTHING for me for valentines day. ok I’m getting more hurt thinking how he’s treating his other girls better than me so anyways BACK TO THE TOPIC

few days go by and I got another call from his mom. I actually picked up this time because I was really excited to hear her voice again. I legit would die for this woman legit #1 mom. She asked if she could see me and I happily said yes. It really means a lot that she still gives me the same energy that she gave me when I was still dating her son. One of the hardest parts of us breaking up was the potential of losing his family too because they are all truly good people and I am NOT the CEO of letting people go lmao. okay back to subject, I had TONS of anxiety driving over to her house because I had so many thoughts. I asked on the phone if 1.) is Lalo there. She said no. 2.) Is Paco there. No, he apparently flew back to California that morning. I was low key hoping paco would be there still because it would be cool to catch up with him but anyways my main concern was if eduardo was there so since he wasn’t, I was like “ok vroom vroom let’s go” lmao. WOWOWOWWO seeing her just made my heart so happy. She def has a lot more gray hairs since the last time I saw her lmao she’s the cutest anyways, I’m really shook that HIS DAD FREAKING HUGGED ME. THIS MAN NEVER USUALLY HUGS ANYONEEEEEEEEEEE. Typically how we greet each other, it’s like a wave from a distance and we obvi acknowledge each other. so WOOOOW I was very thankful and shook he hugged me. Anyways, his mom showed me around the house with the Christmas decorations, I noticed her birds were still doing well, she even showed me her new plants she got lmao. We sat at the dining room table and talked and ate mexican snacks. She has broken English and I have broken Spanish so literally thank god for dualingo because it has helped me. I love how when we are together, we talk really slow and try to annunciate for each other LMAOOO. Anyways, THIS WOMAN ALSO GOT ME A STOCKING filled with Mexican Candy. omg this woman i love her so much. Anyways, I showed my tattoos to her and she legit wanted to murder me lmao but she says she likes them but hates them at the same time. She also sat me down and we had a serious conversation in terms of how she sees me. She said that I am no longer known as lalo’s novia, what I am to her is a daughter. I am evelyn’s sister and yo boi that got me crying in the club because that’s what I would love to have, to maintain my relationship with them . Okay, to kind of speed things up, basically we kept talking about Evelyn’s quinceanera that’s happening this year AHHHHHH, dropped Evelyn off and her friend to a friend’s quince, and his mom took me to eat at paleterias tropicana where I tried elote for the first time and had a jugo verde WOOOOOW SOOOOOOOO GOOOOOOOD. literally cannot stop thinking about it. Anyways, random note, I noticed my old K-State beanie in the car and his mom said it was Evelyn’s. It gave me a weird feeling because it was originally mine that he gifted me on our first Christmas together but obviously I knew he wouldn’t keep it so I’m not suprised he gave it to Evelyn. It made me wonder then what did he do to the other gifts that he originally gave me but I gave it back to him once we broke up.. okay that was a tangent, anyways, that was it with the night with his mom and ughhh it was a really fun night and I really am looking forward to seeing her again.

Now fast forward to now-ish, me not doing good of not checking his social media, I got triggered because they now made it “facebook officlal” that they are dating. it triggered me because again, he refused to publicize our relationship and it really threw me off that they’ve only been dating for a month (technically interested in each other since October, started dating November) and already publicizing they are together. they moving hella quick and basically, I got hella bitter. I felt reckless and I texted him. I KNOW I shouldn’t have texted him because I immediately felt a sense of regret after but also low key glad I did text him. ugh i hate me lmao. Anyways, i texted him and he asked if he could call me so I said yes. Luckily, the conversation was better than I expected because it was simply like two old friends catching up. It was a really good feeling even tho I’m honestly still hurt about the way that he treated me. It caught me by suprised when he said that he has talked about me with Kylie and he actually stated that he knows what he did and feels regretful for the choices he made. That was a huge shocker and I do still have trust issues because I try to take things that he says with a grain of salt. He may be saying things to me that I want to hear but it’s not the truth so anyways lmao. Our conversation was good and it really got me thinking what exactly am I doing/how am I really feeling.

I really am happy for him. Yes i’m still deeply hurt and feel a type of way about how he treated me, but I can’t do anything about the past and all I can do is just simply be happy for him. I will always love him without a doubt, but he isn’t my person. I hope this doesn’t come off as selfish but he will never find someone better than me, he is simply finding someone better suited for him. What helps me the most about this is thinking about ME because that’s the situation for him, however, I know I will find someone better than him because I deserve the best.

I felt bad for asking because I am just fucking nosy and I’m glad he was okay with me asking about what happened with his relationship with Lila (the girl he left me for) and how did he start dating Kylie. He shared with with me that even though it was all great in the beginning with Lila (and let me tell you dude, he totally was hella infatuated with her lmao), they started becoming two different people. She apparently wasn’t emotionally there for him when he needed her (IRONICCCCCCCCCCCCC BECAUSE THAT’S EXACTLY HOW HE WAS WITH ME THROUGHOUT OUR 3 YEARS TOGETHER) and she ended the relationship. It did make me sad to hear because everyone needs support and it is sad when you go to someone for support and they don’t give you it, ya know? anyways, he said with Kylie, they’ve been friends for two years (I knew who she was when we were together but they’ve always only been friends since they worked at the Sunflower together. This will sound extremely bad but I never thought about her being a girl to worry about because she did a lot of “white” things that we make fun of white people for and so it kind of shocked me that he is dating her now but anyways) apparently he said that “they were hanging out and next thing he knows is that he kissed her and that’s how they started dating.” dude didn’t want to go into detail which was fine but I’m also in my head like “ok lmao you literally just got broken up by your ex and then immediately start hanging out with another girl? ok” ANYWAYS, I really am happy for him and wish him the best.

It was cool to hear about what he’s hoping to do. He shared a lot more detail than usual which again caught me by surprise. Anyways, he shared that he is currently looking for a new place to live (a house to rent) somewhere in college hill (conveniently where Kylie also lives lmao) with Erik. He is also hoping to find another job soon because things at KWCH are no longer making him feel happier so he’s looking to see if he can work for a non-profit org which makes me happy for him because I’d also want to do the same. If I’m at a job where I’m not excited to be, I’d want to also try to make a switch. He also shared that junior (martin, his little brother) will be moving to Cali in May to move close to paco which wow made me really happy for them all. Anyways, he shared that he is hoping to stay in Wichita for about one more year and then possibly relocating to KC or somewhere in Oklahoma. i did encourage him KC because it seems that KC has much more opportunities than Wichita and Oklahoma. Only thing we both hate is driving in KC lmao

Okay, so overall, I’m still really hurt about how our relationship was and how it ended but I’m very grateful that I’m doing what is best for me to make progress because this is not an overall easy thing to do, move on. I do feel low key embarrassed that I still am not over our break up but I’m very glad that I know that He isn’t my person. we will and I cannot get back together with him even if he stated that he has “changed” Yes i invested so much in him to be my forever partner and it didn’t work out but that’s okay. I’m always willing to invest in people to be the best version of themselves and it really makes me happy to see people thrive. I truly cannot and will not take him back if there was ever a time where he wanted to give us a second try because I need to remember how he treated me. If he really was always thinking it was me, then he shouldn’t have cheated on me, treated me so poorly. I’m okay with us remaining friends, but as partners in life? that isn’t it. I deserve so much better and the man of my dreams will come. I’m 10000000% okay with being single because I know I need to work on myself so that I can be fully ready for my next. I really wish my next relationship is my one and only, but hey we’ll see.

so this is already extremely long but I’m very glad I got this all out of me. I know I have other anxieties such as starting school again, which will be my last semester before I earn my masters (FINALLY), RA training coming back up (so me working is coming back), JOB SEARCH. So much is coming up and AHHHHHHHHHHHHH. I need to get my head into gear.

#personal

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brother-hermes · 4 years

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CORPORATE CENSORSHIP

Facebook hit me with a 24 hour ban for quoting Alexander Hamilton’s feelings on the American voter. The whole reason we are in this mess is because the Federalists set up an Electoral College that can override the popular vote. Care to guess who makes the final say? Your elected officials who fight to make sure you never figure out that the President is only a figurehead for government- one of three branches that all work together. I try and leave politics alone as I see the Hermetic Principle of Polarity being used in the most obscene ways by media, politicians, profiteers of race, etc.

Look, I know our country is sensitive to an appalling point but that does not give Corporate entities the right to infringe on our basic rights to disagree with political confusion. People have the right to say things we don’t like just like we have the right to disagree. That is one of the cornerstones of our political system in its purest form. When Corporate entities decide what can or can’t be said we are stepping into the realm of Fascism- the blending of corporate and political powers. A perfect example of this line of thinking comes from the Nazi spin doctor Joseph Goebbels:

“Repeat a lie often enough and it becomes the truth.”

This man literally believed you could convert intellectuals using dark psychology and manipulation tactics. He laid down the repetition of effective arguments with such precision an entire country marched to the war drum of racial superiority. Think about the slander campaigns again; fact-checkers and all the inner workings of what we are told.

There are only 6 media outlets spread over 50+ shell companies that control 90% of what we see day in and day out. If you think they don’t have an agenda kick on Fox News or CNN for 15 minutes and watch. When you do this I want you to consider something:

“Everything is dual; everything has poles-pairs of opposites; like and unlike are the same: opposites are identical in nature, but vary by degree. All truths are but half-truths; all paradoxes may be reconciled.”

This is the Law Of Polarity. So when these media outlets are dropping hot button issues that have extreme opposites they are inciting powerful emotions in the minds of the people. We end up arguing over Trumps racism or Cuties sexualizing children instead of focusing on the fact that we have a common threat. None of them hear the will of the people.

See, the two tier political system is a very effective method of control. They hand pick two candidates, present them to the people, polarize said people by arguing for the cameras and then go to the same fundraisers and private events after leaving Capitol Hill. Half of the Senate and the House have sat in their appointed offices for 30+ years. You think they aren’t friends after working together for decades? Think about that.

Now, these members also control the Ballot Access Laws which keep viable Third Party candidates from being able to participate.The Committee on Presidential debates made it to where these candidates have to pull 15% of the popular vote just to participate in the debates. Why? Because they want the two “extremes” to exist so they can continue to sway the people in whatever direction suits their needs at the time.

So don't tell me America is divided by race or religious belief, or any sectarian nonsense. I live in East Garland, and I'm the only white person on my block. You know what my Mexican neighbors are going to do this holiday season? Bring me tamales. You know what the young black men at the corner store say when I pull up? "What's crackin' my nigga, you good?"

Social media is divided by design, but this isn't real life. Y'all keep buying that media nonsense while these politicians are running the same game they have for the whole 37 years I been on this planet. So, I'll say it again, media is divided. You're being duped every day you get on here and buy into the agenda they're pushing. Think for yourself and teach your kids to do better than you did. That's how we win. We kill the division by loving each other.

#politics #polarity #Media Bias #divide and conquer #corporate censorship #professional liars #political science #america #we the people #love each other #be the change #media lies #control your mindset

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things2mustdo · 3 years

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The people of a nation must have common ideological, economic, political, and social ideas they agree upon or the nation, the civilization, will eventually die. Civil war is coming to the United States. Division, contention, fear, and silent invasion are being used to “reshape America.” The civil war that will emerge in the United States will not be like the previous one. This war will be for the mind and heart of the United States. It will be for the soul of the United States. What will we do when this occurs and what will be rebuilt.

In 2016 Roosh wrote an article titled, The Culture War Is Being Transformed Into A Hot War. Roosh discusses the methods that are being used to transform the culture war into a hot war. Even the Huffington Post ran an article in 2016 titled, The Coming of America’s Second Civil War. The author, a Rev. Dr. Susan K. Smith, paints the coming civil war as the result of white Americans. While she may believe the lies she is speaking and writing, more than likely she failed to realize she is part of the elitist machine which is being used to create contention and divide the United States.

Civil wars are over ideological and social issues. Economic and political issues are extensions of ideological and social issues. As real men, we will continue to have less and less in common with soy boys and progressives. The divide between the people that support the U.S. Constitution and those that want a New World Order is growing.

What does this have to do with us men? Men are the ones that establish order. Men establish civilization and build complex civilizations. Women have a much harder time establishing and completing group functions and tasks without 100 percent consensus within the group. As our civilization crumbles and eventually falls, new order will come primarily from the masculine, from men.

The Election of Donald Trump and Abraham Lincoln

In the years before the 19th Century U.S. Civil War, there were constant clashes between pro-slavery and anti-slavery forces. We are seeing constant clashed over what is termed Pro-Trump and Anti-Trump forces. Brietbart News has a list of over 500 acts of MSM sanctioned violence against Pro-Trump supporters.

In 1860 free state voting populations were larger than those of slave states so these states, as a total, had more Electoral College votes than slave states. One of the catalysts to the U.S. Civil War was the election of Abraham Lincoln over John C. Breckinridge. Lincoln took office in January 1861 and the war started in April of 1861. Abraham Lincoln was not on the ballot of ten slave states but still won the election of 1860 because he won the largest number of Electoral College votes. Seven of these slave states, unwilling to accept the results of the election, decided to secede from the United States.

Several states considered seceding from the United States over the 2016 presidential election. Oregon, California, and Silicon Valley threatened to secede after Hillary lost. Texas was discussing secession if Trump lost. Canada offered to make several U.S. States part of Canada if they left the United States.

Since the election of Donald Trump to President of the United States, we have seen an escalation of violence. Therapists have increased business because progressives did not have their way in the 2016 election. Many progressives are unable to cope with reality and instead choose to live in a fantasyland. Even before the 2016 election, we witnessed how nasty, aggressive, despicable, and violent progressives have become and these behaviors have escalated since Hillary Clinton lost the 2016 election.

The election of Donald Trump has brought to the fore the stark difference between ideological, economic, political, and social ideas. His election exposed many politicians as the traitors they really are.

We are seeing more and more allegation of electoral fraud. Several U.S. Cities are allowing non-citizens to vote in local elections. Giving non-citizens the ability to vote in U.S. elections is the same as allowing a foreign power to elect government officials. A foreign nation could easily flood the U.S. with people to vote for certain candidates drastically reshaping the U.S. political landscape. The Department of Justice recently filed charges against 19 people that were not U.S. Citizens for voting in the 2016 federal election.

Providing non-citizens the ability to vote also makes it easier to commit electoral or voter fraud. Judicial Watch is currently suing or has sued California, Maryland, Florida, and eight other states over dirty or inaccurate voter records. These states have areas with more voter registrations than eligible voters. The National Voter Registration Act of 1993 requires states to take steps to remove ineligible registrants, to protect the voting process, and to turn over relevant records and information for inspection upon request. Several progressive groups have sued in some states to prevent the implementation or execution of those steps stating the requirements to clean up voter registration rolls is harmful to minorities.

Contention as a Destabilization and Fear Tactic

The elite are working hard to divide people along every possible factor. Sex, race, religion, wealth, speech, education, “equality”, and any other factor that can possibly be exploited to divide the people are being used. The goal is the complete overthrow of all liberties of all nations, and for that to happen the U.S. must be fundamentally be reshaped or destroyed. History is and will be rewritten to attain this goal. The deep state, the mainstream media, and other elite outlets, organizations, and front men and women are being used for this purpose.

We can see forces that are seeking to divide and conquer. Forces that teach men to be weak and women to be whores. This is a strategy of contention, of never-ending conflict. These same forces seek this division to control the people and reshape the United States eliminating all of our freedoms. In the words of Barack Obama, to “Reshape America”. The removal of due process, the attacks on free speech, and the right-to-bear arms are steps in the direction of reshaping of the United States. Economics will one of the primary forces used to reshape the United States.

There are more divisions now and larger divisions in the United States than in the 19th Century. The philosophical lies of progressives did not have a strong following until the 20th Century. We are witnessing the division and the weakness these progressive ideologies create. Progressive ideologies make people weak and afraid.

One of the goals of the division is the elimination of due process. The elimination of due process subverts justice. The elimination of due process creates an environment where someone is guilty until proved innocent. The #MeToo movement, political correctness, the Title IX tribunals on college campuses, the passing of judgement in the court of public opinion, and the idea that a woman should automatically be believed because she is a woman are all designed to undermine justice for everyone.

During World War I, Germany offered financial and military support to Mexico to invade the United States to keep the U.S. out of the war and act as a mediator between Germany and Japan. Mexico rejected the proposal because of Mexico’s own inner turmoil and because the Mexican leadership realized they would not be able to control a population armed better than many other populations.

The actions to eliminate the second amendment are part of the necessary steps the elite desire for control. People that are not afraid and stand up for themselves are threats to the elite and progressives. The actions are aimed at scaring the weak-minded, the emotional. Only the weak fear guns and other means of self-defense.

Mike Adams, a professor in the University of Narcissistic Criminals System (his words), wrote an article about the lack of maturity in younger generations. In this article, he also discusses how campus speech codes enable the aggressor and violence. People that are afraid of speech they do not like or with which they disagree. People afraid of ideas and of thinking and reason. Colleges and society are creating weak adults, and weak people are capable of violent and aggressive behavior because they act out of fear.

Progressives seek to literally, make people afraid of other ideas, and by extension, speech. The first and second amendments are pivotal to the United States and clearly distinguish the U.S. from other nations of the world, past and present. Words have power and ideas are much harder to kill so progressives are using their self-appointed Ministries of Truth: Apple, Google, YouTube, Facebook, Amazon, CNN, NBC, ABC, New York Times, etc. move in the direction of reshaping America.

The self-appointed Truth Ministries have become a de facto fourth branch of government. We are seeing these self-appointed Truth Ministries silence any voices with which they disagree. This has the effect of dividing people into “tribes” and “classes” based upon progressive ideological “protected characteristics.” This psychological warfare tactic effectively reduces people to mental slaves because these “protected classes” believe they will always be oppressed without progressives and the progressive ideology and thus, a psychological dependence is created. The creation of this psychological dependence is the core of progressive racism and oppression.

Destroying confidence in the U.S. Constitution destroys the effectiveness of government and the rule of law. Justice is denied to a person based upon lack of money, lack of access to inner circles, lack of “protected class” status, or perceived privilege. Without law society deteriorates to tyranny and mob rule. Without confidence in the U.S. Government, the government is effectively destroyed and will be replaced by factions that will struggle for control.

Silent Invasion

Mass immigration is being used to create additional destabilization. When speaking with American Citizens, most Americans are not opposed to legal immigration; they are opposed to illegal immigration. Legal immigrants assimilate into their host culture. Illegal immigration is being used as a way to silently invade the U.S. Many of illegal immigrants do not realize they are being used as pawns. “Refugees” can be in either category. Refugees, if willing to abide the law and become citizens, should be welcomed. If they arrive to take advantage or to plunder they are invaders.

The difference between an immigrant and an invader is the immigrant is willing to follow the laws of the nation in which he residing, the invader has no regard for law. The invader comes to exploit us, to take from us, to use us. There is no such thing as a law abiding criminal. Notice how the majority of politicians and business leaders do not advocate for illegal immigrants to learn about the founding of the U.S., the liberties afforded to U.S. Citizens, and become U.S. Citizens. When political and business leaders do not encourage immigrants to become U.S. Citizens they are importing people they want as slaves and a silent invasion force to “reshape America.”

“Catch and release” fulfills three purposes. The first purpose is to destabilize society so people will accept the elimination of liberty for security because some criminals are released into the population. The second is to ensure the illegal immigrants remain to as competition for jobs with American Citizens to drive down wages. The third is to displace U.S. Citizens and make them aliens in their own country.

Read More: Donald Trump And His Supporters Are Fighting A Rigged System

https://www.returnofkings.com/192863/how-the-second-american-civil-war-will-unfold

The coming U.S. Civil War will not have the same outcome as the U.S. Civil War in the 19th Century. As society breaks down, other parts of our economy and civilization break down. Businesses will cease to operate. General services will become unavailable, and confidence in government is destroyed. The legal framework is being destroyed because justice is denied because of ideological lies. When the legal framework is destroyed, the entitlement among the population mindset will lead to murder, rape, destruction of property, starvation for some, and cannibalism for others.

There is no civilization without law and order. A barbaric society is a society with little or no law and order. When Europeans came to the Americas, they brought civilization, i.e. law and order, with them. While there were atrocities committed, the overall effect of European influence was to civilize, to bring law and order, to the peoples in the Americas.

One of the signs of barbarity, or the lack of law and order, is the systematic killing of babies and children (this includes unborn babies). Other signs of barbarity are the lack of children born in the bulk of a nation’s marriages and the decline of marriage.

A New Civil War Will Not Have the Same Outcome

The coming civil war will not have the same outcome of the U.S. Civil War of the 19th Century. In the 19th Century, the U.S. had a more solid and cohesive ideological, social, political, and economic fabric. The people of 19th Century America wanted to preserve the U.S. Constitution. The federal government survived the 19th century civil war. The deep state did not exist on the scale it does now; nor were there so many individual factions within U.S. borders at the time with the intent of reshaping America.

The 19th Century U.S. was more patriarchal. The decline of the patriarchal influence in the 20th century with the rise and elevation of the matriarchal over the patriarchal through feminism, anti-natalism (anti-children) has created a society that lacks foundational social cohesion because the base unit of civilization, the family, has been destroyed. The rise of the matriarchal has created feminized men and angry women.

Many forces within the U.S. do not want to preserve the U.S. Constitution and its guaranteed liberties. An example is the recent anonymous op-ed published in the New York Times. The author, claiming to be “resistance” from within the Trump Administration, declares President Trump “anti-democratic”. The irony of this op-ed is the author makes the accusation “while boasting of membership in an unelected cabal that covertly imposes their own ideology with zero democratic accountability, mandate or transparency.”

The deep state certainly exists, I know people the deep state is stealing from, and the deep state has stolen from me, but consider the possibility that this specific author may be a fabrication to create further division among the people, sow division and trouble in the Trump Administration, and further destroy confidence in the electoral process.

Trump’s election to the U.S. Presidency shows that many U.S. Citizens are not on board with the progressive agenda. If the federal government cannot be changed through legal channels, then the elites and the factions they control will seek to destroy the federal government through division and the deep state and attempt to put a new government in place.

The U.S. will eventually divide into multiple factions, each claiming legitimate government, but without the liberties of the U.S. Constitution. The U.S. will have no central government. The factions may form temporary alliances but some will seek to dominate all others and impose a new government, a reformed government, upon others. There will be those individuals and areas that will continue to stand for the U.S. Constitution and the rule of law.

Today several nations would take advantage of inner turmoil in the United States. Nations such as China, North Korea, Russia, and others would most certainly take military action and invade U.S. territories, Alaska, and potentially the mainland. Most people are so oblivious that they do not potentially see the influence of these nations even now. Undoubtedly, some of these factions will be destroyed or subjugate by invading nations.

What Will Be Our Response?

Each of us as individuals has several pertinent choices to make. The preservation of our liberties will come from honorable men because typically are the ones that fight for liberty. Preservation of liberty does not come without bloodshed. ROK has articles on survival and why survival skills are important. Most people have not considered the possibility of times without gas, electricity, running clean water, or sewer treatment.

As confidence in the U.S. Federal Government declines and justice declines because of the deep state, mainstream media, and progressivism, people, already divided against each other, will form tribes consisting of family, friends, and others with similar ideas. You are probably already seeing these tribes form in a loose manner. What immediate skills and trades facilitate survival? Skills such as farming, gardening, agriculture, and other trade skills will be of value because these skills can be used to barter or used to sustain oneself and others.

The burden will fall upon masculine men, as it always does in times of war. People will revert to the most basic survival instincts. The soy boys will be busy hiding with the women in their basements or agreeing with whomever has the perceived power before proceeding to murder, rape, and loot those that disagree with them. The larger cities and the inner cities will be more lawless, chaotic, and disorderly. Weather conditions will also affect how people behave. Some people will gladly forsake liberty for food, clean water, or warmth. Some people will sell their children for food, clean water, or warmth or eat their own children.

A sound mind, which includes sound thinking, reasoning, and emotional control, are critical in survival situations. Survival chances increase when working with other people of the same mind. Live where you desire but constantly be aware of your surroundings. Create a network of family, friends, and kindred to increase your support circle will increase chances of immediate survival and the survival of others. Gather around yourself people that are like-minded, with trade skills, people that can think, reason, and are not easily persuaded by the weak-minded and emotional. Catering to the weak drags other people down to the lowest level physically, socially, intellectually, emotionally, and spiritually.

What Will Be Rebuilt?

Civilizations will rebuild, but what will be rebuilt? Most of the time, people typically recreate the society they know unless they are already thinking about things they would change. To rebuild something better we must know what to keep and what to eliminate. We must know the mistakes of the past to avoid repeating those mistakes.

The founding principles, upon which the U.S. was built (the U.S. Constitution itself), will remain. Great care must be taken on what is built upon that foundation. Only patriarchy creates civilization. Societal and government change will come.

There are pertinent questions that will need answering, such as: Should women retain the right to vote? (Women did not have the right to vote prior to the 19th amendment to the U.S. Constitution.) Should traditional marriage be the standard and gay marriage eliminated? Do we really want the society we have now? A society where men are marginalized? A society where white people are demonized and minorities are mentally enslaved by progressive victimhood? Do we want to continue to be oppressed by children and ruled over by women?

I have pondered for many years what would be rebuilt and how to rebuild after the current civilization falls. Patriarchy must assume its rightful place in society. Giving women the right to vote, the sexual revolution of the 1960s, the legalization and acceptance of abortion and the rise of no-fault divorce are pushing our civilization toward destruction.

Undoubtedly, things will be hard. Many of the immediate conveniences our civilization has access to will be gone or reduced. Patriarchy will rebuild civilization. Men will rebuild. Let us rebuild a civilization that will not repeat the mistakes of the past.

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mostlysignssomeportents · 4 years

Text

Pluralistic, your daily link-dose: 27 Feb 2020

Today's links

Ripping the window-dressing off the .ORG selloff: It's not even an ethos.

CDC guide to filter-mask-friendly facial hair: You're good to go with a Zappa, Villain or Hitler, but stay away from the Dali, Hulahee and the dread F(l)u Manchu.

Don't trust Google to build Toronto's Smart City: Sidewalk Labs's sleaze has disqualified it.

A "girls-only" social service wants to analyze your facial bone structure: "It's science!"

Norman Rockwell turned into a radical civil rights activist: His last painting was of Nixon, too.

Gmail's filters are blocking opt-in election emails: Mayo Pete and Andrew Yang are winning the spam-filter primary.

Talking Radicalized with The Next Chapter: Shelagh Rogers is a national treasure.

Neoliberalism kills, the coronavirus edition: And you thought capitalism would kill us all with climate change!

Bernie Sanders and Public Enemy LA rally this Sunday: With Sarah Silverman and Dick van Dyke!

Venezuelan women's "army" break into dead factories to reboot them: "Only the people can save the people."

Meet Akil Augustine, voice of the Raptors…and Radicalized: A fighter in my corner.

This day in history: 2019, 2015, 2005

Colophon: Recent publications, current writing projects, upcoming appearances, current reading

Ripping the window-dressing off the .ORG selloff (permalink)

The latest on ISOC's shameful attempt to flog off .ORG to a group of sketchy billionaires: Ethos Capital's promises concerning its stewardship are pure window-dressing.

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2020/02/empty-promises-wont-save-org-takeover

Its binding promise not to increase prices for .ORG domains? Still allows it to DOUBLE prices in 8 years, then allows UNLIMITED increases afterwards. Its "Stewardship Council"? Handpicked by Ethos's own bagmen, & only empowered to rule on very narrow questions of de-anonymization and censorship, AND Ethos can simply ignore its rulings by declaring them to be required by a government or consistent with anti-abuse policies.

In an open letter in the Nonprofit Times, Cindy Cohn of EFF and Amy Sample Ward of NTEN break it down:

https://www.thenonprofittimes.com/npt_articles/commentary-org-still-wouldnt-be-safe/

"Your proposal cabins the council's authority by placing anything construed as 'advice or recommendations regarding day-to-day operational, financial or budgeting matters, or pricing out of bounds. It would be trivial to categorize harmful practices as 'operational.'"

CDC guide to filter-mask-friendly facial hair(permalink)

The CDC has an infographic enumerating the effect of various styles of facial hair on filtering respirators.

You're good to go with a Zappa, Villain or Hitler, but stay away from the Dali, Hulahee and the dread F(l)u Manchu.

https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/npptl/pdfs/FacialHairWmask11282017-508.pdf

Don't trust Google to build Toronto's Smart City (permalink)

Google is planning to turn a vast swathe of Toronto into a high-tech "smart city" through its Sidewalk Labs division. They've been incredibly misleading and opaque about their plans, and yet the city keeps greenlighting through successive phases.

The latest phase is the publication of the Digital Strategy Advisory Panel's report, a wide-ranging critical report from technologists and tech experts on Google's plan to instrument the city and extract its data.

https://quaysideto.ca/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/DSAP-Supplemental-Report-on-Sidewalk-Labs-Digital-Innovation-Appendix-DIA-Appendices-FINAL.pdf

It's pretty sharp stuff. Michael Geist's introductory letter gives a taste of things.

https://quaysideto.ca/blog/dsap-releases-supplemental-commentary-on-the-digital-innovation-appendix

But far more pointed is Andrew Clement's Appendix D, a kind of minority report that makes it abundantly clear that Google has totally disqualified itself from this project.

Question One: Does Sidewalk have a strong track record as an urban innovator appropriate for Toronto?

Short answer: No

(Sidewalk lied, omitted other projects that were terrible, and literally followed a grifter's playbook called "BOLD")

Question Two: Can Sidewalk Labs' core claims be relied on?

Sidewalk "consulted" with 21,000 Torontonians, but it hasn't shown that it's willing to take any of that consultation advice to heart ("corporate self-defense").

Sidewalk claims it's not "tech for tech's sake," but the whole plan reeks of it.

Sidewalk claimed it's not about extracting data, but the plan is totally about extracting data.

Question Three: What does experience with Sidewalk to date in this project indicate about its reliability as a partner? In particular, has Sidewalk respected its contracts and other commitments?

Nope. For example, it held its expert panel to NDAs after promising it wouldn't.

Question Four: Can Sidewalk be treated as independent of its parent Alphabet/Google and its wider enterprise?

Obviously not! "In business strategy, financing and overall managerial control, there are clear indications that Sidewalk is unlikely to diverge from Alphabet/Google."

"Nearly all Alphabet revenues are earned by Google and they have the same CEO, Sundar Pichai, and same CFO, Ruth Porat."

Question Five: What are the risks of partnering with an Alphabet enterprise?

"It has been fined a combined $9.5 billion since 2017 by EU antitrust regulators while facing further significant government investigations for its anti-competitive behaviour."

"It will be challenging to make a positive determination absent public evidence of a thorough, independent risk-benefit analysis of the prospective partnership or other contractual relationship."

A "girls-only" social service wants to analyze your facial bone structure (permalink)

Well, this is the most "now you've got two problems" moment in recent memory. "Giggle" is an all-girl social network. To be "all-girl" they have keep men off of the platform. How do they do that? With FACIAL BONE STRUCTURE scans.

"It's science! Just like archaeologists do with mummies."

JFC.

The impulse to start a girl-only social space is a potentially fine one, but deploying what amounts to eugenics – heavily borrowed from the incel movement's obsession with facial bone-structure – is idiotic.

"Unfortunately it doesn't verify trans-girls."

No shit. Also, it doesn't verify people whose bone-structure fails your digital phrenology tests. And it WILL verify men and boys who generate false positives in the system.

https://pipedreamdragon.tumblr.com/post/611048332070109184

I can't believe I need to say this, but: The goal of making girls feel OK with who they are cannot be attained by subjecting their facial bone-structure to algorithmic femininity assessments.

Norman Rockwell turned into a radical civil rights activist (permalink)

I hadn't known that at the end of his career, Norman Rockwell became a political radical, breaking with the Saturday Evening Post over his desire to depict the civil rights struggle.

https://www.vox.com/the-highlight/2020/2/19/21052356/norman-rockwell-the-problem-we-all-live-with-saturday-evening-post

Writing in Vox, Tom Carson describes how Rockwell's personal tragedies – the death of his wife – and the advice of his therapist helped him transform into an acerbic, radical painter, the opposite of who we remember him as.

Switching from the Post to Look Magazine, Rockwell depicted such subjects as 6-y-o Ruby Bridges being escorted into an all-white school by federal marshalls who led her past howling mobs of white supremacists.

He went on to paint a depiction of the imagined last moments of civil rights workers Mickey Schwerner, Andrew Goodman, and James Chaney, who were tortured and murdered by white nationalists.

http://www.nrm.org/MT/text/MurderMississippi.html

A staunch anti-war activist, he pestered LBJ with an endless stream of telegrams demanding negotiations, not bombings, in Vietnam (ironically, he voted for Nixon in the hopes that he would end the war).

Further irony: the last substantial painting he completed was of Nixon after his election win: "This time around, he managed what he'd once said was impossible. His subject looks like a nice man who is, nonetheless, unmistakably Richard Nixon."

It's the only Rockwell painting in the National Portrait Gallery.

https://npg.si.edu/object/npg_NPG.72.2

Gmail's filters are blocking opt-in election emails (permalink)

Gmail's spam filters perform very differently when it comes to fundraising emails from Democratic leadership contenders: Mayo Pete evades filters 63% of the time, Yang lands 46% of the time. EVERY Warren campaign email tested got filtered to spam.

https://themarkup.org/google-the-giant/2020/02/26/wheres-my-email

These are all emails that Gmail users have opted to receive, too, but most are filtered to the "promotions" inbox, rather than "primary." In all only 11% of emails from "candidates, think tanks, advocacy groups, and nonprofits" reached primary.

It's turning email — the last federated platform on the internet — into Facebook, a filternet whose rules are set by unaccountable algorithms operated by a secretive monopolist.

Goog has a conflict of interest here: "While Gmail does not sell ads in the primary inbox, advertisers can pay for top placement in the social and promotions tabs in free accounts."

This was Facebook's media-killing strategy: when you started your media outlet's FB presence, the company delivered 100% of your posts to your followers, then, once you depended on that, it dialed delivery down unless you paid for "reach."

The pretense of Big Tech is that you they connect you to the stuff you ask for (this is also the premise behind Net Neutrality). The reality is that they decide, unaccountably, invisibly and inexplicably, what you may see.

While the overfiltering might in error, it's an error Goog is incentivized to wontfix: "'You're not precluded from buying an ad in the promotions tab, or offering a deal,' said Lee Carosi Dunn, who at the time led election sales, political outreach and policy for Google."

Talking Radicalized with The Next Chapter (permalink)

My book Radicalized is a finalist for Canada Reads, the CBC's national book prize

https://www.cbc.ca/books/canadareads/meet-the-canada-reads-2020-contenders-1.5433115

That means all kinds of good stuff, but one of the highlights was talking with Shelagh Rogers for The Next Chapter. I grew up listening to Shelagh, and she's so incredibly smart about books.

The interview came out great! (How could it not, given the interviewer). We ranged widely over "Canadianness," "Americanness," literary forms, anxiety and creativity, and the substance of the stories themselves.

https://www.cbc.ca/radio/thenextchapter/full-episode-feb-22-2020-1.5469642

You can get the MP3 here:

http://16523.mc.tritondigital.com/CBC_THE_NEXT_CHAPTER_FROM_CBC_RADIO_P/media-session/fecd5192-14ef-43b6-b9a7-7c125875d93b/nextchapter-0I9Y1liD-20200226.mp3?ttag=season:12

It's also been included in my podcast feed, which you can subscribe to here:

http://feeds.feedburner.com/doctorow_podcast

Neoliberalism kills, the coronavirus edition (permalink)

Neoliberalism kills, a play in two acts

Act I: UK employers are not required to offer sick pay to asymptomatic potential coronavirus carriers, even if those workers' doctors have ordered them to "self-isolate" to avoid spreading pandemic.

https://memex.naughtons.org/self-isolation-and-employee-rights/28723/

Leaving workers with a stark choice: perform your duty to the public health and lose your wages or even your job, or turn up for work and infect your co-workers and customers.

Typhoid Mary vs Moral Hazard in action, there.

Act II: Alex Azar, the US Health and Human Services secretary, has ruled out price controls for a coronavirus vaccine, arguing that pharma companies need "incentives" to produce.

https://twitter.com/mmcauliff/status/1232784696792297472

"Alex Michael Azar II (/ˈeɪzər/ born June 17, 1967) is an American attorney, politician, pharmaceutical lobbyist, and former drug company executive who serves as the United States Secretary of Health and Human Services."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alex_Azar

This former pharma lobbyist, whose industry gobbles public subsidies like a tweaker gobbles bennies, firmly believes that his once-and-future paymasters must be permitted unlimited gouging, and if they choose to leave those who can't pay to die, that's "the market."

Lambert Strether, 2014:

"I propose two simple rules to which neo-liberalism can be reduced. They are:

"Rule #1: Because markets.

"Rule #2: Go die!"

https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2014/03/neo-liberalism-expressed-simple-rules.html

It turns out that all those people who thought late-stage capitalism would exterminate the human race through climate change were wrong! It's going to kill us all with pandemics, instead.

Herd immunity has a well-known leftist bias.

Bernie Sanders and Public Enemy LA rally this Sunday (permalink)

Angelenos! Bernie Sanders is doing a gig with Dick Van Dyke (!), Sarah Silverman (!!) and Public Enemy (!!!) this SUNDAY (Sunday Sunday Sunday!) at the LA Convention Center.

Admission is free, but you need to RSVP here. Doors open at 3, rally starts at 5, ends at 7. Word of warning: the last Sanders rally I attended (in 2016) started REALLY late, like 2h.

https://events.berniesanders.com/event/252466/

Campaigning presidential candidates have hard-to-predict schedules apparently (but warn your babysitter).

Venezuelan women's "army" break into dead factories to reboot them (permalink)

The "Productive Army" is a Venezuelan women's collective that has been operating since 2017. They visit shuttered factories, get workers to explain what's needed to reopen them, break in and start them up again.

https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.elsaltodiario.com%2Fmapas%2Fbatallas-ejercito-productivo-obrero-venezuela-guerra-no-convencional

They organize themselves like military units, with captains, etc, and the units generally have to beg their bosses for time off to roam the country, putting it back on its feet. Operations typically run for less than a week, and incorporate weekends to minimize time off.

They describe themselves as carrying out the Chavismo doctrine of "workers' control of factories," which even Chavez largely treated as a slogan, and which his successors have been even less committed to.

They remind me of the elite Chinese students whom Xi ordered to read Marx and Lenin, who then decided Xi was a bourgeois sellout and took to the road to support wildcat workers' strikes against Xi-aligned factory owners.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/28/world/asia/china-maoists-xi-protests.html

The Productive Army's slogan is "Only the People Can Save the People." Its missions are "productive battles." A productive battle might involve repairing the furnace in a sardine canning factory to get it running again, then turning it over to workers: "In the EPO they say that they not only repair machines but, above all, consciences."

One of the crispest definitions of "rightism" came I've heard came from Steven Brust: "Ask them what's more important: property rights, or human rights? If they answer, 'Property rights are human rights," they're on the right." (I quoted this in Walkaway).

When people want the things the factory produces, and workers want to produce those things in the factory, but the spreadsheet says the factory isn't viable, the problem is with the spreadsheet, not the people.

Meet Akil Augustine, voice of the Raptors…and Radicalized (permalink)

In the #CanadaReads national book prize, each book gets a "champion" – a defender who speaks for the book in a series of televised debates. My champion is the incredible Akil Augustine, voice of the Toronto Raptors.

Akil and I met in Toronto last month when they announced that my book Radicalized was a finalist for the prize, and the CBC sat us down for a rollicking joint interview.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=duL6rZeNJY0

I love that Radicalized connected with Akil, given how divergent our interests are (I can't even name a single basketball goalie!). I love even more how competitive he is. As someone who grew up at hippie summer-camp playing "co-operative volleyball" I'm very grateful to have a fighter in my corner who plays to win!

This day in history (permalink)

#15yrsago Halle Berry accepts "Razzie" for Catwoman, calls it a "piece of shit" https://web.archive.org/web/20050306093431/http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?storyID=7748301&type=entertainmentNews

#5yrsago Mass surveillance hip-hop from the director of the Bill of Rights Defense Committee https://shadowproof.com/2015/02/26/after-hearing-capitol-police-arrest-lawyer-for-shouting-question-at-clapper-about-nsa-surveillance/

#1yrago Bunnie Huang's tour-de-force explanation of how hardware implants and supply chain hacks work https://www.bunniestudios.com/blog/?p=5519

#1yrago AOC grills Equifax CEO: the Congressional record now contains the obvious, infuriating truth that everyone else already knew https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2019/02/11/rep-alexandria-ocasio-cortez-takes-aim-equifax-credit-scoring/?utm_term=.cbab554db359

#1yrago Fox hit with $179m (including $128m in punitive damages) judgment over shady bookkeeping on "Bones" https://variety.com/2019/biz/news/fox-bones-arbitration-emily-deschanel-179-million-1203150879/

Colophon (permalink)

Today's top sources: JWZ (http://www.jwz.org/blog/), Pipe Dream Dragon (https://pipedreamdragon.tumblr.com/), Metafilter (https://metafilter.com/), Karl Bode (https://twitter.com/karlbode), RCB Leon (https://twitter.com/rcbleon), Naked Capitalism (https://nakedcapitalism.com/).

Hugo nominators! My story "Unauthorized Bread" is eligible in the Novella category and you can read it free on Ars Technica: https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2020/01/unauthorized-bread-a-near-future-tale-of-refugees-and-sinister-iot-appliances/

Upcoming appearances:

Canada Reads Kelowna: March 5, 6PM, Kelowna Library, 1380 Ellis Street, with CBC's Sarah Penton https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/cbc-radio-presents-in-conversation-with-cory-doctorow-tickets-96154415445

Currently writing: I just finished a short story, "The Canadian Miracle," for MIT Tech Review. It's a story set in the world of my next novel, "The Lost Cause," a post-GND novel about truth and reconciliation. I'm getting geared up to start work on the novel now, though the timing is going to depend on another pending commission (I've been solicited by an NGO) to write a short story set in the world's prehistory.

Currently reading: Just started Lauren Beukes's forthcoming Afterland: it's Y the Last Man plus plus, and two chapters in, it's amazeballs. Last week, I finished Andrea Bernstein's "American Oligarchs" this week; it's a magnificent history of the Kushner and Trump families, showing how they cheated, stole and lied their way into power. I'm getting really into Anna Weiner's memoir about tech, "Uncanny Valley." I just loaded Matt Stoller's "Goliath" onto my underwater MP3 player and I'm listening to it as I swim laps.

Latest podcast: Gopher: When Adversarial Interoperability Burrowed Under the Gatekeepers' Fortresses: https://craphound.com/podcast/2020/02/24/gopher-when-adversarial-interoperability-burrowed-under-the-gatekeepers-fortresses/

Upcoming books: "Poesy the Monster Slayer" (Jul 2020), a picture book about monsters, bedtime, gender, and kicking ass. Pre-order here: https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781626723627?utm_source=socialmedia&utm_medium=socialpost&utm_term=na-poesycorypreorder&utm_content=na-preorder-buynow&utm_campaign=9781626723627

(we're having a launch for it in Burbank on July 11 at Dark Delicacies and you can get me AND Poesy to sign it and Dark Del will ship it to the monster kids in your life in time for the release date).

"Attack Surface": The third Little Brother book, Oct 20, 2020.

"Little Brother/Homeland": A reissue omnibus edition with a very special, s00per s33kr1t intro.

Posted on February 27, 2020Tags 2020, akil augustine, apple, basketball, bernie sanders, books, canada, canada reads, cbc, cdc, cdnpol, chavismo, coronavirus, democrats, dick van dyke, dotorg, dweb, eff, elections, ethos, facebookification, facial hair, federation, filternet, gmail, google, hip hop, isoc, los angeles, onpol, pir, politics, private equity, public enemy, radicalized, sarah silverman, science fiction, sidewalk labs, smart cities, surveillance, toronto, torpol, venezuela, walkawayLeave a comment on Pluralistic, your daily link-dose: 27 Feb 2020 Edit "Pluralistic, your daily link-dose: 27 Feb 2020"

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ineedrelationshipadvice · 4 years

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The In Between

So I’ve (25F) been seeing this woman (44F) for about six months now and she has this ex (37FtM) who she talks to a decent amount [texts and phone calls, we don’t live near him] and honestly it’s really starting to be a problem for me.

I feel like it should be noted I’m not really a jealous person, she’s friends with other ex’s of hers and I’m totally fine with them, hell I even like them. it’s just this one guy in particular.

while I can honestly say I’ve never been disrespectful towards him or said anything disrespectful about him, he doesn’t show me the same courtesy. he isn’t respectful of me or my relationship with her, as in he often belittles me and our relationship when they speak. he’s looked me up on Facebook for ammunition purposes and he’s been vocal about wanting to get back together with her in the past - he texts her several times a day almost every day and calls at least every other day if not every day as well and though she assures me that I’m the one she wants to be with it still irks me.

a lot of her stories are her and him stories and I’m understanding of that to a point, they spent a decent amount of time together so it makes sense that he’s in a lot of her stories… but it still hurts to hear one or three he’s so great stories a day after she told me he said something negative about me or us.

her reasons for staying in contact with him when we do discuss my discomfort over him is a financial obligation [which is completely valid] and that he has no one else that cares about him [which I personally feel is less valid] however as I do point out to her when they talk it’s never about the financial obligation, it’s about his day, her day, can she help him with this… ect.

so now I admit I may be a little overly sensitive to this situation so here’s the crux of the problem : I’m head over heels for this woman but I feel like an in between for her. as in I’m the person she dates in between her and him getting back together. what should I do?

____________

I think your perspective with this entire situation is totally valid, and that you have every right to feel disgruntled about the conversations that they're having. You went out of your way in your explanation to insist that it really is this person that's the problem, as you are okay with her other exes communicating. It's legitimately a "THIS PERSON" problem, and that shows maturity on your part, which you should be proud of.

I think the biggest thing you need to talk about with your partner moving forward is less about them talking, and more about what her obligation is when they're talking. I think the first thing you really need to do is that you need her to advocate for you and your relationship. You've expressed your displeasure with their conversations, and that's good. Now, you need to express that since this person still isn't treating you appropriately during these conversations, that your needs are not being met, and that something needs to change.

Like you said, you can't stop them from talking. But you can remind your partner that the context of their conversations - while it can be cordial - should be less involved with you. Your partner shouldn't be "spilling the tea" with her ex about you; that's just insensitive to you, and she should honestly know better, especially since this person is making themselves actively hostile to you. Ask her if she'd be willing to not talk about relationship issues with them anymore, because it makes you upset. Honestly, she should be willing to stop right then and there; you're not restricting their conversation at all, even though this person is a jackass; you're just saying, hey, don't talk about you and me, or our relationship. That's not asking a lot, and it's really easy to service that boundary that you're erecting.

You should also ask if she'd be willing to be an advocate for you and your relationship. If her ex is shittalking you straight to your partner's face, your partner shouldn't just be like "hee hee, ha ha." They should be like, "Hey, you're talking about my girlfriend and my relationship, cut that shit out." She doesn't HAVE to do this; everyone views their relationships differently. But if you would like your partner to defend you more, or defend you better, against verbal attacks against you and your character, you are welcome to make that demand, and whether your partner accepts or not says a lot about her, no matter which decision she chooses.

Finally, I don't think you're an in-between. You shouldn't view your relationship in that context, because it's kind of depressing. If she wanted to date this person, then she would break up with you and go date them. She hasn't done that, so having morose thoughts about the secret demise of your relationships are the only issue here where I would say you are being over-sensitive to things. Everything else? Nah, you're not being oversensitive at all; you're being unjustly attacked, and it's your girlfriend's duty to defend her partner. It's the least you can ask in this scenario. Have a talk and see if your partner is actually willing to go to bat for you in these conversations, at very least not talking about private relationship stuff to this one person in particular, and at most telling this person to stop talking shit against HER relationship with you.

As an extra final statement, if this jackass is actually sniping your social media for dirt, make sure you're taking appropriate steps to protect your sensitive info. Make sure that strangers can't access your stuff; this is especially easy on Facebook, where you can literally cordon off this person and them alone so that they can't see anything you don't want them to. If your larger social media concerns are absolutely public outlets, like Twitter, Tumblr, or TikTok, then just be more mindful of the things that you post before you actually post them, so you'll have less "dirt" for people to snipe on. And you might also want to just consider blocking/muting this loser, since it's clear they're doing nothing for you, and having them out of your social media life will only be a bonus to your mood.

#girls #LGBT #submission

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psychoticparadox · 4 years

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Introduction

So here we go again... I can’t even begin to guess how many times I’ve tried to be consistent with my blogging, but here goes another attempt.

As I go through life, I witness changes in myself & my environment as a whole.. Experiences build me and mold me, etc. Hopefully I am evolving throughout this process, but life is a roller coaster and I’m somehow still hanging on.

So, let’s get into this introduction a bit more with an ABOUT ME, shall we?

I think a proper greeting is due, so....

HELLO THERE! *waves*

My name is Angel. I am a shy introvert that over-analyzes every damn thing. Its both a nightmare and some cases enjoyable; depending who appreciates it and/or encourages it...if that makes sense. Some people admire my deep over-analyzing to details and therefore it energizes me and makes life as a whole FUCKING AMAZING...and simply put; WORTH LIVING. I literally crave this and thrive on this. This is my drive and simply put; keeps my crazy ass going.

Others will throw up road blocks that cause me to literally CRASH... I just shut down and become isolated, too afraid to share my most inner desires, dreams, identity, etc. When I shut down, I literally go into psychosis and helplessly drown in my own head. Often times, I contemplate suicide, as I feel so lost and engulfed in darkness... surrounded by loneliness and severe depression/anxiety. My self worth is fucked during those moments as my drive is deprived from my surroundings.

I am a Cancer Crab Zodiac, but was suppose to be born as a Gemini. My mother was pregnant with me for 10 months vs the “normal” 9 months. So I tend to take on both zodiac characteristics which makes shit even more fucking complicating.

I went to college for (too fucking long) for Psychology, Nursing, Law, and Arts. My passion seems to mostly be future based as a whole with whatever my surroundings may be. This means I may be adaptable, but also skip around like an ADD fucktard.

Which brings me to my next “about me”; I studied Psychology due to my vast diagnosis. I have been diagnosed with the following..... *clears throat*.... oh wait, I’m typing....so um..... *cracks knuckles*.......

Schizophrenia, Bipolar 1, ADD, BPD, Anxiety, Chronic Depression, Narcolepsy, Cataplexy, OCD, Epilepsy, CPTSD, Aspergers, Legally Blind, Dyslexia ...the list just keeps going....

By now, I’m sure you’re thinking... “HOLY FUCK THIS CHICK IS NUTS”..... yes, yes I am, but it also helps me see the world so different at the same time, and helps me be more understanding. If I could explain it in a lump-sum, it helps me see the world in different shades of colors others may not see. I see many are misunderstood and therefore went into Psychology to help anyone else through their battles. I had to face most of my battles alone, in silence, and don’t want anyone else to feel how I did; alone. Its one of the worst fucking feelings there is, and I thrive in helping others problem solve, plan for the future, come up with a game plan, etc. I find the human mind so fascinating and just can’t help but gravitate to increasing my knowledge of it. Even though I already have my Doctorate's in Psychology, I still can’t get enough of the mechanics of how we operate as a whole, as no one person, no one illness, is the same. And I find that amazing. I am thinking of going back to school to get my PhD in NeuroPsychology, as this is only a few more years and will educate me further. This will allow me to study brain scans in a Psychologist way. Fucking neat right? Naw? Eh,,,,I’m odd. *grins*

People often think that because I am an INTJ (Introvert Intuition Thinking Judging) personality, that I lack feelings and emotions, when its completely the opposite. I am an empath and my crazy mind throws that into my own mess of more shit for me to over-analyze as well, so I tend to show my emotions in silent, or with those closest to me I trust. Around the “right people”, I am quite driven, nurturing, loving, protective, loyal, outgoing, etc. I realize I may come off as arrogant, and even seem to have narcissistic behaviors, due to being so shy and my illnesses, and severe CPTSD. I am usually pretty reserved at first, and mostly observe others and listen. Once I know how they ‘tick’, I then will open up pieces of myself I feel may be appropriate/acceptable. I try to give others inspiration and drive. If I feel a part of me will do them no good, I keep that piece of myself quiet. Sometimes its unavoidable and my moods/actions are uncontrollable, and I try to be as communicative about my situation as I can, but most of the time I am at war in my own head and can’t even communicate to my own damn self, so its even harder to push that communication to others during those times....then BOOM.....domino effect. They feel worse as well as me. So overall, I try to only talk if whatever I have to say will be of aid, not to just “fill the silence”. My head is so loud as it is, so it does make it harder to push through my own internal noise as well.

As humans, we are our own worst critics it seems. This can be both beneficial and chaotic...and in some cases, (such as mine), completely disabling. To use this to our benefit, we must use it as lessons vs criticism. We need to grow and learn from our own thoughts and actions, as well as others, and NOT be criticizing it. Its hard to do, but the more we feed each other supportive inspiration, the brighter each of our futures will be. See what others have passion in, and fuel the fuck outta it. When you fuel others, you will fuel yourself; trust me. We are all empaths to an extent. We feed off each other. Most of the time this is referred to as “energy” and “vibes”....but its true. Whatever you put out into the universe will always return back to you... so I always quote “Spread those good vibes, y’all!”

Now, if you’ve made it this far in my post, first let me just say THANK YOU. This means a lot to me. I felt (and still struggle with this to this day) of feeling invisible and secretly hated... so when anyone shows any interest in me, I light up.

So onward of the whole “about me” I suppose, as well as my intro to this blog.

I needed an outlet to pour my mind into, as well as help others connect to me in a deeper way since I struggle with communication. My mind will literally overflow with thoughts that need to be thrown up somewhere, so heres one place they’ll go. I also plan to vblog on YouTube. I am a streamer on Twitch as well. I am on Facebook, Instagram, Discord, and will spread into other social medias as I see fit.

I started streaming on Twitch October 27th, 2019. It changed my life in many ways. I started it to build a safe place community/family, and it has been amazing. I cannot be more thankful for our community family. I mostly do the “Just Chatting” feature on there, but stream game play from time to time, and multi-stream with others as well. I mostly focus on helping others with therapy chats for free & run on a ‘donation/subscription” basis.

I absolutely love music. I’m obsessed with Rick & Morty. I used to be obsessed over Pusheen, and as I still have a place for that adorable feline in my heart, the obsession kinda faded.

I love to game and favor adventure slash games and FPS mostly.

I enjoy drawing anime, even though I have no interest in watching it. Go figure.

I write poetry from time to time. I also make jewelry, paint, etc. I love to design; whether it be decorating, technology based, fashion related, WTF ever....LOL I see it as an artistic way to plan I suppose?

I am a very misunderstood individual and hope for understanding for myself, as well as others.

I will end this post there for now, and add on when the urge comes. I hope y’all stick around and enjoy my company.

~peace & love~

xoxo angel (^_^)

#intro #about me #aboutme #info #intj #streamer #twitch #mental health #twitch streamer

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jswdmb1 · 4 years

Text

I Wanna Be Sedated

“Hurry, hurry, hurry

before I go insane

Can't control my fingers,

can't control my brain”

- The Ramones

All of our resources have been focused on two things: keeping people alive and keeping the economy afloat. It is hard to argue the prioritization of those two areas and it is understandable that there are not resources beyond what we have already marshalled to focus on anything further down the list. But I worry that we are just burying another landmine in the ground that we’ll be stepping on sooner than later if we forget about it. I am talking about the complete and brutal destruction of our mental health both collectively and individually.

Before I go further, I must repeat that I completely support the efforts of social shutdown and shelter in place that are currently in effect. It is literally the only tool we have to fight this pandemic as our leaders (most specifically the president) mocked its potential wrath when more could have been done to prepare and now we are boxed into a corner. Experts warned long before this man even got nominated by his party that he was unfit for this office and an existential threat to our way of life. It was just a matter of time before his vulgarity, stupidity and incompetence manifested into real pain and destruction, and that time is now. I bring this up before delving into my primary subject because I still see polls and news reports that show there is a large percentage of people who still think there is overreaction to the crisis and that the president is doing a good job handling it. If you believe either of those things, please stop reading now because you do not have the intellectual capacity to grasp what I am going to say.

Now that we have established how we got here and who is responsible, the real question that everyone has on their minds is what is next. We have been told to shelter-in-place for the foreseeable future and been given no further instructions. The economic bill passed yesterday is the equivalent of treating a gunshot wound with a band-aid, and will be of little use as a real solution to the financial devastation that most people will experience long after those checks run out. This combination has made it increasingly hard to keep strong mentally as the massive uncertainty weighs on our minds literally every hour of the day. For a few days, we found some solace in things like getting outside, but now that is being quashed as acceptable. We are pretty much under a house arrest with no defined sentence and we are being punished for no crime we ever committed. Even a prisoner gets access to basic services such as counseling and religious freedoms, but not those of us at home. In war, there is something known as collateral damage, and our civil liberties are fitting that description for the current crisis. On top of all of that, the weather in my part of the country has been miserable. It all adds up to one very grim picture.

Some of you may not like that I am painting such a picture, but that to me contributes to our mental health crisis in the same way that putting our heads in the sand about the virus got us to where we stand today. I am not alone in feelings of anxiety or depression, but it’s well known I have had both long before the virus hit our shores. I feel it gives me a little bit of a perspective on this issue and why I see it a potentially more damaging long-term than anything we are experiencing today. What I can tell you from experience is that it is not possible to work through profound feelings of depression by “just being positive”. The two worst things you can tell a depressed person is that they have to remain positive and they need to work themselves out of their mood. That is akin to telling someone who is drowning that they need to come up for air and should go look for a lifejacket when they do. Yet, all I see on social media and the news is that this is the “new normal” and “we’ll get through this”. What are you talking about? There is nothing normal about this at all. Why on earth would anyone accept it as such? And, how do you know that we’ll get through this? What are you basing that on? Have you been through a deadly pandemic before? Have you sat under quarantine for weeks that will soon turn into months? It literally grates on my nerves to hear such things as good tools to use to “get us out of our funk”.

So, that begs the question about what do we do? I will not pretend to have any real answers and certainly there is no quick fix. But first, we all have to acknowledge that this problem exists, and it is at least on par with the other aspects of this crisis. And don’t say that it isn’t life-or-death because it is. I predict in a matter of weeks, not months, that you will see a morbidly sharp increase in the suicide rate. This is also incredibly damaging to the efforts of those trying to recover from addiction diseases, and many will not only succumb to their addictions without a support system to help them, but they will die as a result of this. And the casualties are not limited to those who don’t make it. The deep psychological scars left on the rest of us that manage to get through this will not heal without significant intervention. I am particularly worried about our teens and young adults who were already not in a good place and I think are suffering more than most when it comes to the social isolation steps being implemented. We all need to acknowledge that we are experiencing acute mental trauma and we cannot simply accept that as “normal”.

If you cannot accept this as fact, then there is not much more I can do to help you. You are going to suffer a similar fate as those who don’t believe we are in the middle of a deadly pandemic in the first place. But if you are willing to accept that your mental health is (or will be) destroyed as a result of this, there are a couple of things that I have learned over the years that can help you cope:

Depression, pain and anxiety are normal feelings and you should not feel guilty for feeling them. By all means do not suppress those feelings as they fester without an outlet. Also be aware that those around you will have these feelings as well and don’t shame them for not being “positive” or “constructive” for expressing them. It is going to take a lot of patience along with some give and take to work with each other on this, but if we deny ourselves or others the freedom to express these emotions, we can’t even get started with healing.

Recognize that while many tools have been taken way from us that usually can be a big help, many others are still available. We have to just be more creative and look for other doors that may be open when others have been shut. One of my main outlets has been a group running program where I coach, and that is now gone in its old form. But we are working hard to still get out and run (solo and never congregating) and support each other virtually. It is not perfect, but it would be wrong to dismiss the sense of community we have built over the years because it is still alive and well no matter how far apart we are kept. It may even be stronger when we eventually can see each other again. That is just one example. I recommend you take whatever you had before and look for ways to retool and still use that as something you can have that is a positive force in your life. It could be that you have that taken away at some point, but then go back and retool it again. If GM can retool its operations from cars to ventilators, we can certainly do the same on our micro levels.

Avoid using alcohol and drugs as a crutch. I can tell you from direct experience that this is just about the worst way to deal with depression. I am not saying you cannot enjoy a drink now and then, but I have already seen anecdotal evidence in some of my interactions on social media and elsewhere that this is not the case. I know that I sound preachy here, but I’m just trying to help as I’m sure many of you may have not experienced profound depression like this before. There is no doubt that the drink or drug of your choice feels good for a little bit and may even help you forget, but it is an incredibly slippery slope.

For those who have committed to sobriety before this all went down, please hold onto that. It may be the only thing you have left that they can’t take away, and it is too valuable to give up so easily. I know it is hard, the thought of heading down to the liquor store (which incredibly is still open and considered “essential”) has passed through my head more than once, but you have to let that feeling pass. You know better than I that what I say in the preceding paragraph is true and heading off the path to sobriety will be a disaster. I have heard that support groups are still meeting (as they have also been deemed essential) so consider a way to attend those (even virtually) if you are struggling with temptation. If you have no such support mechanism, contact me directly through FaceBook Messenger. I am always willing to talk to someone who needs to work though a moment of crisis. It’s a ridiculously impossible situation, but there is no other choice to hold on.

I know that I sound like I am on a soapbox here, but that is not my intent. This is more of a plea to everyone out there not to forget that mental health is a critical component of living and bodies free of disease are useless if our brains can’t function within them. Please just remember that as you deal with the people in your house and those you interact with virtually. While you may think you have the right answer in telling people to stay happy and chipper during a dark time, that is not how everyone feels and it could be damaging to their mental health if you ignore the danger signs they are presenting. My guess is that anyone who has gone this far into reading this already knows that, but it is going to take some reminding for even the most empathetic and caring person among us. Starting now can hopefully get ahead of issues that are already taking root so that we can move forward much more quickly with “normal” life if such a thing ever exists again.

In the meantime, I sincerely hope that this finds you healthy and safe and that you are coping with the mental aspects of the situation better than me. One outlet I have is this blog, and I have thought about suspending it during the crisis because I don’t have anything to say that people want to hear. After writing this post, I realize now that would be the easy way out, and at the risk of being unpopular, I can not give up the fight to protect the most important organ in our bodies – our brain. So, I’ll keep on keepin’ on, but just remember that I really am trying to help. I don’t want anyone to end up in a place that they can’t leave. We’ve come too far to let that happen.

Please take care everybody,

Jim

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unpopularly-opinionated · 4 years

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This is going to be a bit of a long post so apologies, I’ll try to keep it brief and of course include a hider.

The TL;DR of it is: Some insane self-proclaimed SJW on Twitter made a ‘chart’ outlining how Men’s Rights and Gaming are responsible for neo-Nazis, and every website in existence is to be held responsible should anyone using their website ever commit a crime.

So, in essence, stupid people on Twitter.

To start off with, before we get onto the words, let’s discuss the Venn Diagram and how that’s immediately flawed:

Right off the bat, we have complete misrepresentations of the Men’s Rights Movement, and Gamer Culture. Men’s Rights has nothing inherently to do with Feminism, and it never has. While yes, it is typical that a Men’s Rights Activist might oppose Feminism, it’s only because Feminism has done plenty in the past to disenfranchise the movement, not the men, the movement. Very clear and important distinction. No, Feminism hasn’t “taken rights away from men”, and no one is claiming that they are, but it is also quite clearly not helping men either, despite openly claiming to be in favor of equality among the sexes and in fact they do more to inhibit the Men’s Rights Movement from trying to help men.

As for Gamer Culture, the definition here is only half-right and entirely disingenuous. It’s true that technically-speaking, men make up most gaming, but it’s still disingenuous to imply that it’s “overwhelmingly male”. We’re not talking about a 99:1 ratio here, not even a 75:25. It’s far closer to 50:50 than people seem to realize. Even being generous to this assertion, I would say 60:40 is significantly closer, albeit still too low compared to reality.

As for the claim that video games ‘objectify women’, this is a topic that has been thoroughly addressed numerous times by others, but the short and sweet response is: “women are objectified, but so are men”, and again the split isn’t as wide as you might think, however the focus might be fairly skewed which could be the problem. There are plenty of objectified men in games, but (at least in my experience) objectified women are given more of a spotlight, likely due to the fact that, for whatever reason, men AND women prefer to see women naked than they do men (don’t ask my gay ass why, I don’t know either).

What’s interesting here, is that they clearly outline a distinction between Pick-Up Artistry and Men’s Rights yet somehow fail to see that they’re separate and distinct. Pick-Up Artists aren’t interested in Men’s Rights, and neither are Incels, they just want their dick sucked, and they’ll perform whatever scumbaggery they think will accomplish that, so the definition for that is apt, but the implication that there is cross-over with Men’s Rights is laughable.

Is it possible there are Pick-Up Artists and/or Incels out there interested in Men’s Rights? Of course, but this diagram suggests that Men’s Rights is the cause of Incels, even though that literally does not make any sense unless you have a significantly warped understanding of what Men’s Rights is, which this author seems to have.

Then, of course, we have the misrepresentation of GamerGate. Honestly, that’s a can-o-worms I’m not looking to open right now because it’ll add another 10-15 paragraphs to this. There’s plenty of resources out there that are available for you to do the research yourself if you don’t know enough about it already. I suggest you start with @gamergate-news and work your way from there.

“Cool Girlism” is, admittedly, a new term to me but the definition of it is recognizable. It’s essentially saying any girl who happens to A) disagree with Feminism, B) is a gamer, C) is “red-pilled” or not immediately Far-Left, or D) All of the above, is considered a “cool girl” and is clearly just putting on an act so she can get some of that sweet gamer dick.

OR, in simpler terms, it’s an example of how misogynistic the author of this diagram is because she refuses to accept that any women can possibly disagree with their point of view and have a unique thought of her own. We’ve seen this all before, nothing new.

“Nu-Misogyny” is also a new term, apparently coined by the author as far as my research shows and is meant to be defined by the culmination of the entire graph. Frankly, even if we suspend disbelief and pretend these are all salient points, I don’t see how any of this is ‘new’ misogyny, except perhaps in reference to the method in which it’s received, that being the digital space (internet, online video games, etc.). As a completely personal gripe, I hate this fad of using made up language to replace old language. Just say new, not “nu” or “neo”, just new.

Great, now that we’ve covered that mess, moving on:

“Milo and Breitbart also used Gamergate to recruit nu-misogynists and gamers to white nationalism.”

While I won’t pretend Milo or Breitbart are bastions of integrity, the simple fact is that whatever they might’ve been using to “recruit” people (which is still a hilarious concept to consider) it wasn’t Gamergate. Never mind the fact that there’s little to no significant overlap between Gamergate and White Nationalists, there’s no overlap between Gamergate and Breitbart OR Milo. The only reason they are misconstrued as being a part of Gamergate is, perhaps, because they didn’t disparage the movement like every other media outlet did.

“As these communities grew more violently extreme, they were increasingly relegated to fringe platforms, notably 8chan.”

Now, at a surface level I don’t see anything inherently wrong with this statement, but allow me to extrapolate a bit:

Given the misconceptions of many groups throughout this post, I’m not inclined to believe they’re being genuine about these so called “extremely violent communities”.

If we were genuinely talking about white supremacist neo-Nazis actively rising up, then I wouldn’t care, but because outside of “the media says so, so it must be true”, there’s little to no evidence of this actually happening, I’m instead inclined to believe they’re referring to people genuinely critical of their world view. You know, the imaginary people harassing Anita Sarkeesian or Zoe Quinn; the people who are just pointing out how these people are wrong who are then vilified by them and their media peers.

What’s also interesting to note here is, again, if we suspend our disbelief, we see here she’s actively admitting that they aren’t doing anything to solve the problem either, something which later in the post she criticizes the chan boards for doing.

“On 4chan and 8chan, pro-terror nazis mingled with pro-terror nu-misogynists.”

Remember when I pointed out that her Venn diagram that was meant to define her coined term “nu-misogyny” didn’t define anything other than just regular old misogyny? Well apparently, it was supposed to define it as “violent” or “pro-terror”. Now, I’ve never been on 4chan, 8chan, or any chan board really, so I can’t comment on the validity of there being white supremacists, neo-Nazis, misogynists, etc. From what I’ve been told it wouldn’t really surprise me.

“Nu-misogyny (especially incel-inflected nu-misogyny) was already explicitly pro-violence and obsessed with evolutionary/racial pseudo-science, and they cross-pollinated more and more.”

I’m not too familiar with many ‘Incels’, but frankly other than right after the Joker movie released, I had never once heard exclaimed that they were “explicitly pro-violence”, let alone “obsessed with evolutionary/racial pseudo-science”. That last part doesn’t even make sense. What does “racial pseudo-science” have to do with wanting to get your dick sucked? Is it like “Yeah I had my chance to have sex, but the chick was Asian so I couldn’t do it. Whites only, ya know?” Whatever, I’m not about to defend Incels.

“And, that’s the (very) short version of the story of how you get a new generation of nazis marked by an unusually high level of hatred for women and advocacy for gynocide.”

In summary, video games and men’s rights will apparently mark the rise of Hitler 2.0.

Credit where credit is due, the sheer fact that she’s outlined this with a neat little diagram, and everything only helps to further the point that she has no idea what she’s talking about. Her chart alone never refers to an overlap between gaming and men’s rights with white supremacy.

At the absolute best, she’s made a point (albeit an easily disproven one) that gamers are sexist, but not once does this diagram point to a significant overlap, or any overlap at all, with white supremacy. All of this boils down to an argument akin to “Nazis drink water so water must be bad”, which hopefully for obvious reasons, you can understand why that logic doesn’t hold up.

“If we’d booted 8chan from the web earlier, if Reddit and 4chan had shut down extremist communities when they first started advocating violence against women, that cross-pollination might never have happened.”

Now we’ve entered the full authoritarian-brand delusion. Never mind the fact that social media sites like Facebook and Twitter are far far worse at this very thing she’s accusing the chan boards of, or that Reddit is quite obviously in favor of doing exactly this since they ban communities at the drop of a hat, what she’s asking for is quite literally impossible.

If not 4chan, then 8chan. If not 8chan, then Twitter. If not Twitter, then Facebook. If not Facebook, then Tumblr. If not Tumblr, then literally anywhere else, repeat ad nauseum forever. Removing their platform doesn’t prohibit them from speaking, it just prohibits them from speaking there, where we can see them, where we can mock them, where we can discredit their views. I don’t know about you, but I’d much rather be able to see and know people are talking about killing me than pushing them to some fringe site where they can do it without my knowledge.

Earlier, she pointed out that they pushed these people to the chan boards, thereby admitting to ‘solving the problem’ by simply making it someone else’s problem, and here she is now openly criticizing the chan boards for not dealing with this problem that they themselves created for them.

“That online nazi/gynocidaire population boom wouldn’t have occurred.”

Again, removing their platform doesn’t prohibit them from speaking. They simply would’ve organized elsewhere. You aren’t solving any problem by banning them from a website, you’re simply making it someone else’s problem, and then you blame whoever’s problem you just made it.

“But the platforms were greedy. And now, there’s blood on their hands.”

This is by far the most egregious part about this entire post. “We pushed the bad people off onto you and you didn’t immediately push them off onto someone else so that means you are liable for the blood they spill.” Never mind the overarching implication this borderline psychotic statement has. Apparently, every single website ever is to be held responsible should anyone on their site ever commit a crime. Holy fuck, the delusions from this woman.

Apologies if there are any grammar/spelling mistakes. I wrote this in a Word Document and then transferred it over because Tumblr is notoriously terrible when it comes to these longer posts.

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hopoo · 5 years

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Devblog #12 – Somewhere, Over the Double Fucking Rainbow

Hello there! This is Chris, hijacking the RoR2 devblog to share a few notes on music.

Tl;dr:

Yes, I am writing the music for RoR2

No, there won’t be a Coalescence 2

Chanson à nouveau..

The day I would start composing for RoR2 was a day I looked forward to with equal amounts of excitement and fear. The score to the original RoR is one I hold very dearly. It is music I loved writing, created during a very special time of my life, infused by each and every musical influence of my childhood and adulthood. It’s a perfect capture of me at that particular space and time. It also happens to be my most successful soundtrack to date, primarily because it’s part of a great game that people love to play, but also—if people’s feedback is to be believed—because it’s not too bad in its own right.

Now I find myself exploring the musical world or RoR once again and I can assure you it’s an awe-inspiring place! It’s also immense, savage and untrodden... You can witness this for yourself in the wonderful images posted on this blog and all over the internet, but let me tell you, it’s one thing looking at it and a whole different thing experiencing it first-hand.

The move to 3D was a bold one and I’m its biggest supporter. Honestly, even if it didn’t offer this amazing opportunity to expand the game’s universe into this whole new level of detail and immersion, I would still embrace it only because it gives me the perfect excuse—the obligation, even—to avoid repeating myself. The thing I feared most starting this project was writing the same music all over again. Not because I don’t like the existing music (I love it) but because the existing music already… exists. What would be the point of Coalescence 2 (some people have actually asked for it)? If anyone wants to listen to Coalescence it’s right there for the listening. The RoR OST is a product of very specific, irreplicable circumstances. Even if I wanted to write sequels to these tracks, I couldn’t. They would be mere parodies.

So, I’m writing new music for a new game. Hopefully it will be better music for a better game, but I’m going to be satisfied if turns out being good music for a good game. I know many of you will not be happy reading this but I ask you to be open minded and trust me. If you liked the music for the first game chances are, you’ll like this one too. It’s the same person doing the writing (and performing, and producing, and mixing, and mastering) after all. It will be different, but it won’t be that different.

Paying my Dews

Let’s make sure we avoid any misunderstanding here: I don’t take the RoR musical legacy lightly. Rest assured that many things will carry over, not least of which the RoR motif. The usual odd meter and various polyrhythms will be featured prominently too. There’s drumming, lots of drumming, way too much drumming…. Several cameos of familiar instruments and even entire sections that will sound very reminiscent to old players. And then, there’s the unsung (pun intended) hero: form. Even though you can’t literally hear it you can certainly feel it. Form is the glue holding the music together. Just like with the first game, I’m working my ass off to fit these new tracks into meticulously woven forms.

As such, all the above elements that are part and parcel to the RoR sound will not be let behind. As previously mentioned, this is terra incognita we’re heading into and only a fool would go into the unknown without a flashlight. I plan to use the original music to illuminate all the new one hidden in the darkness beyond.

Forecast

It’s still too early to tell what the new soundtrack will actually sound like. I guess it will sound more like the original RoR than anything else—a definition as intentionally vague as can be. A word I liked using to describe the first soundtrack was “monolithic”. I feel the RoR2 OST will be even more so. To use a classical music analogy, if RoR1 was a suite, RoR2 will be more like a symphony. Don’t worry though, I’m still delivering discreet pieces of music that you will be able to tell apart (and prefer over others). Let’s just say I’ve set up my sessions like communication vessels of sorts.

For the time being, you can sample some new music in the game’s teaser and this SoundCloud playlist (which I plan to sparsely update). There’s a lot of material already written but most of it is still being forged into shape. There are also new things we’re testing to make the in-game music more dynamic and meaningful to the player, which have directly impacted my workflow. For the moment, all I can say I’m working on it steadily but slowly—slower than usual (sorry, Duncan & Paul!). As I said, while I’m very excited I’m also quite fearful. There’s plenty of pressure to satisfy the many fans of the music from the original game (thank you all so much, btw!!!) and even more self-imposed pressure to write music that I feel proud of and enjoy listening to for years to come. You see, I’m trying to uncover music I’ve not written before and I need to make sure my excavation brings to surface more than just petrified feces…

FAQ

When? When the great Magma Worm in the sky deems us worthy.

Where? All over the place, starting with Bandcamp.

Vinyl? Probably. Hopefully in a nice boxset with an RoR1 re-print.

Engineer Edition 2? Yes, but no sheet music this time around. Too many arpeggiators and modular patches for it to make any sense.

DEADBOLT 2? I sure damn hope so!

“It Can’t Rain All the Time”

That will be all for now! If you made it this far, thank you for reading and see you next time! If you want to keep the conversation going you can find me in the social media outlets below, where I will post the occasional RoR2 update, answer all your questions and share pictures of my cats:

Twitter | Facebook | Instagram |YouTube |SoundCloud

Take care, Chris

#riskofrain #gaming #gamedev #devblog #indie

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