ok being vague but apparently the Particularly Bad Lines From Nightheart in the sky spoilers were most likely a lie or misconception, which is good, but also either way im still a hater

so should i reply in tiny font or just regular font?

hybe should do better in spreading out the comebacks of the groups under them :/ they're already at a huge advantage, might as well use it strategically. AHA streaming mvs is so convenient for a multi. the filler vids i could use in between could be mvs from the other groups that i stan. also you know what, i still haven't watched a single final performance bc im waiting for a friend to watch with me :D

i have a chinese movie recommendation in case you want something to cry over. i still love its ost and it's been months since i watched it. i'm not sure if you watched it already but more than blue. i've never cried over a movie as much as i cried for that one. the angst *chef's kiss*. i'd do anything to wipe my memory of it and watch it again for the first time.

also sungchan is mc-ing in inkigayo every sunday! and honestly, what the hell is nct hollywood :D but a part of me thinks it's just going to be a bunch of asians living in america like johnny that'll be a part of it. just a hunch tho. imagine having all 4 units coming back in a year with like 1 unit per quarter of the year. i'm not sure if sm even has the money to do this, especially when they filed bankruptcy recently.

and i've seen a lot of twitter memes saying taro's ghosted stans T_T alexa play ghosting by txt T_T sm come on give him smth to do, you're wasting talent.

the mall didn't burn down entirely (like from the outside it looked fine). the ventilation system caught fire so it was more internal—ceilings and all that. covered things with soot(?) and ashes so the entire mall was closed for nearly 2 years. and hey, i've experienced a school fire too back when i was younger. i, too, thought it was nothing but a fire drill until i saw the charred remains of the buildings behind our school : D thankfully, no one died.

the new nct track is for a samsung commercial AHAHA it's funny because nearly everyone uses apple TT_TT and the mv screams neo culture tech tho (well as it should lmao). yes, i was talking about that part in hot sauce but yes, it grew on me too.

ateez really know how to do a performance. they put the standard so high for me when it came to performing. their facial expressions and overall stage presence just impresses me. it's been a while since i've seen idols draw me to them by those standards.

ah, the long stan list! good luck in getting through it and i hope you do have fun as you go :] (also you can check out aurora by ateez and whiplash by tbz. the songs popped up in my head as i was typing this reply, you might like them)

ohhhh, what was the pd48 scandal? i don't watch survival shows so i don't know any of the stuff going on. would you care to elaborate? about their disbandment :(( i hope you're okay now tho! are the other girls still debuting in new groups? anyone eyeing an acting career instead of being an idol?

YES, A PATTERN IN THE BIASES (if you count an analysis of two ppl as a pattern, that is.) because it's the same pattern i have for my biaswreckers :D jake & seungmin, not only do they have the same animal to represent them, they have the same 'golden retriever' type of personality that just makes you go all soft. ygwim ;n; i wish i could elaborate but both boys just devastate me in the same level and my friends pointed out that they were quite similar in some aspects.

jaemin used to send really long bbl messages :< like if there was anything he loved most it was nctzens and it was obv in his messages. speaking of dream, album repackage news today! idk what to feel bc my hot sauce albums haven't even arrived yet :D + i'm dead br0ke.

how do you even manage to read 30k TT__TT i cant handle long fics bc of my attention span :D also, yes, i found the user now, i'll check if i'll like their works soon. <33

YES YOU SHOULDVE BEEN THERE T_T what a day that was. i think seungmin is still sweet and active in bbl. not a single cent goes to waste with him. also i think i'll post the drabble some time this month.

and oml seungmin vs jake :o let's see how that goes O.O XDD

clickity-clackity AHAH do you have a mechanical keyboard? :c i wanted one too but i haven't got around to saving up for one. but yes indeed, typing asmr v relaxing \m/

sunny hyuck day, fullsun sunday, fullsunday T_T feels were very strong that day. i kept seeing edits on my twt tl and i would just s o b : D i've only stanned nct for a year but i've seen him grow so much i just wanted to crie i love him sm :') yk my mom didn't cook spaghetti for my birthday, but she cooked for hyuck's? : D

and i checked ur recs blog and indeed, full of nct T_T

also have i mentioned that your desktop thing amuses me so much HAHAH i got confused for a sec if i had twt opened or tumblr. plus, i've been wanting to mention that i noticed that our mobile themes are opposites. black and red, white and blue. it's cute XDD <3

help, people have been telling me that our asks are long but i highkey love it. i added a ‘keep reading’ for the mobile users though, sorry in advance hh.

honestly, both works. tiny font saves space but regular font does more justice for my poor eyes haha. its your call!

hybe comebacks :( yeah enhypen got lucky because they came back right before cb season so they got three wins (yay)! on the bright side, txt just got their first win and bts has six wins, so it all works out i guess. omg yes, the streaming thing is perfect. i stan like 20 groups so i have a never-ending cycle of filler mvs and its always so helpful. ooh for the final performances - you wont regret watching any of them! literally wild, kingdom's budget and talent are wild.

ooh, I don't watch any cdramas lmao. i want to but i can barely finish kdramas. if its a movie ill watch it! ive never heard of more than blue but ill check it out <3 where can i watch it?

yes yes i have just realized that sungchan is yujin's co-mc! i watched their special stage (which is literally adorable) and was today years old when i realized that the dude is sungchan pls. nct hollywood was so unexpected and i still have mixed feelings about it now. LMAO JUST ASIANS LIVING IN AMERICA...help. that would be interesting (?) but the concept reminds me of those horrendous awesomeness tv shows. lets hope sm pulls this off well and proves me wrong. lmao all 4 units coming back would probably happen, but i hope none of them get overworked :( i constantly feel like mork lee has four clones :'( also...sm filed bankcruptcy??? dang, what happened?

ugh omg yeah shotaros talent is seriously being wasted in the basement right now. as for fires, scary T-T i wasnt that fazed by them until the australia wildfires happened, and i learned about the consequences of fire and got really scared. its good that the entire mall didnt burn down though! although its weird that no one is opening it :( schools really need to tell us the difference between drills though, it might be dangerous for those rebellious kids.

yeah i just realized that the nct track is an endorsement which partly explains why i cant listen to it. the mv's visuals are stunning!! the set and people are so gorgeous aa i cant

oh yeah im not an atiny but i have acknowledged since 2020 that they have one of the best, if not the best stage presence and expressions on stage for 4th gen. i think their only worthy competitor would be stray kids actually. theyre truly one of a kind and all of them are cute especially that yeosang guy. i will definitely check out your song recommendations though!

oof the pd48 scandal is extremely complicated. to condense it in a few statements: all of the girls' rankings have been rigged since the very beginning and it was rumored that they already had their end group before the show even started. it was like this for pf48 and pdx101 (group x1) which was why x1 disbanded within a month of debuting, and izone were on hiatus for like 4 months. im not the best at explaining stuff like this haha, but i think you get it. you can check out yt or search up 'pd48 scandal', a ton of articles and videos. as for new groups, nothing has been made clear yet. theyve only made instagram handles for now and appeared on variety shows haha. as for acting career, hyewon was supposed to do acting but was forced to join pd48 so maybe she'll continue acting afterwards? nothing is confirmed yet!

lmao two similarities, its okay it counts. ah, true, i can see their similarities now that youve mentioned it, as well as how jeno is kind of like that. however, i am currently attached to jaemin so we'll see what happens from there hehe. i swerve easily.

jaemin on bubble grr, that would be a whole experience. from the bare minimum of vidoes ive seen for him wbk jaemin is so whipped for czennies. ah yes repackage! i saw the post on instagram and went to the comments to see everything screaming ‘iM bROke!’ and it was lowkey hilarious lmao. kpop is really trying to suck our money T-T.

ope the longest fic ive read is like...40k words i think? and it was by jeonginks. ill read anything eiko produces lmao, theres always so much substance in her work. ooh, tell me what you think of luvdsc’s stuff, i just finished binging their entire masterlist lmao.

seungmin vs jake yeah, i havent been catching up on skz enha content because im still obsessing over the dreamies but when that saga is over then im going to focus on my ults lmao (which might include dream soon, hehe).

yes yes i have a mechanical bluetooth keyboard that i use to connect to my computer! it literally sounds amazing lmao, its only 10am here but i feel like im going to doze off from the clickity clackitys already. i cant wait for you to get one! tell me when you do, we can match hehe.

hyuck is an aodrable brat please. hes like the best comedian of nct at this point, so hilarious and filled with variety i love him. he rose up my bias list pretty fast too. LMAO YOUR MOM IS SO COOL I LOVE HER ALREADY. if only my mom would cook for my ults’ borndays.

yes my rec blog is a mess right now, ill organize it soon haha.

omg thank you and yes my website theme is one-of-a-kind. even i get confused when i open it or edit it, and i constantly get comments about it. also i just realized our opposing theme colors and i love it! its adorable.

Progressive social media activism movements that urge consumers to use their spending power to influence politics have taken off: They’e gotten hundreds of companies to stop advertising on sites such as Breitbart, pushed companies to drop Ivanka Trump’s products, and pressured CEOs to drop off of advisory boards to the president. But looking to the 2018 midterm elections and beyond, these groups are faced with a new question: Now that they’ve got the left’s attention, what are they going to do with it?

Donald Trump’s presidency has boosted Democratic energy in several ways, including in political fundraising, voter enthusiasm, and a record number of women running for political office. It’s also shown up in movements such as #GrabYourWallet, which organizes boycotts of companies tied to Trump, and Sleeping Giants, which alerts companies when their ads show up on websites that promote bigotry, sexism, and racism.

Both movements have some pretty significant successes to their names. #GrabYourWallet contributed to multiple companies dropping products sold by President Trump or his daughter Ivanka Trump, including Nordstrom and Neiman Marcus. It may also have been a factor in Ivanka’s decision to shutter her eponymous brand this year — or at least the movement’s founder, 46-year-old California marketer Shannon Coulter, claimed victory when it happened.

This is people power at work. This is you using your voices and your hard earned money to push back on extremism. This is you saying no to the hate that the Trump administration embodies. You are #GrabYourWallet and this is your win.

— Shannon Coulter (@shannoncoulter) July 24, 2018

Sleeping Giants got hundreds of brands to block their ads from appearing on the right-wing website Breitbart. The people behind the account were anonymous until the conservative website the Daily Caller identified San Francisco freelance copywriter Matt Rivitz as its creator against his wishes. He runs the account with another freelance copywriter and marketing consultant, Nandini Jammi.

Neither Coulter nor Rivitz consider the movements they’ve created particularly partisan — Coulter says her activism has been aimed squarely at Trump, and Rivitz on combating misogyny, racism, and bigotry. But the pair have earned themselves big platforms, and they’re weighing how to use them in the 2018 midterms and beyond.

#GrabYourWallet is jumping in with a fundraising campaign to support candidates and one of its own new initiatives. Coulter has also started a 501(c)(4) “social welfare” organization — the same setup as the Democratic Socialists of America, Americans for Prosperity, and the National Rifle Association — and considering launching a 501(c)(3) nonprofit.

Sleeping Giants, however, is still weighing the options. While they’ve been embraced by the left, where the group’s movement is headed politically is unclear.

“No one wrote any book on how to do this,” Rivitz said. “Never before could you start something like this on a phone and organize the people the way we’ve done it.”

Coulter started #GrabYourWallet in October 2016, before the election, with an almost off-the-cuff tweet saying consumers should avoid shopping at stores that carried Ivanka Trump’s brand.

After the election, the movement and the hashtag took off, and Coulter and another woman she met on Twitter, Sue Atencio, created a spreadsheet of a list of companies carrying Trump products for boycott. More than a dozen companies severed ties with the Trump family, including Jet, Carnival Cruise, and Nordstrom.

The team has also set its sights on harnessing its voice in other ways, such as encouraging Twitter to permanently ban conspiracy theorist Alex Jones and shaming companies such as Uber, Tesla, and Disney over their chief executives’ participation in advisory forums to Trump.

At the beginning of October, Coulter took the movement into political fundraising with #GrabYourBallot, a donation campaign on the progressive fundraising platform ActBlue.

“It’s very clear that we’re at a cultural inflection point, and women in particular are very fired up right now,” she told me. “It’s really important that we turn the anger that we’re feeling right now into political victory, to use that momentum of that anger to change things for real.”

#GrabYourBallot is raising money for nearly three dozen Democratic candidates in especially tight races in the 2018 midterms, including Florida gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum, Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams, and California House candidates Josh Harder, Andrew Janz, and Katie Hill. It added Sen. Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota to its list after she decided to vote against now-Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh and her Republican opponent, Kevin Cramer, called #MeToo a “movement toward victimization.”

Donations are being split among the candidates as well as the Grab Your Wallet Alliance, the 501(c)(4) Coulter has created as a “rapid-response army for people who want to continue to use their economic power for promoting inclusion and respect,” as she put it. People donating to #GrabYourBallot can choose to opt out of donating to the alliance, she added.

Thus far, about 1,200 donors have given to the campaign, and it’s raised nearly $180,000 of its $300,000 goal.

“These Democratic candidates represent the best hope for pushing back on the Trump administration right now,” Coulter said.

She’s also in the fundraising process for creating a nonprofit, though it’s not clear what shape that will take. She talked about potentially focusing on ways to reduce workplace sexual harassment or, more along the lines of what #GrabYourWallet has been doing thus far, providing consumers with information to help them decide where to spend.

“I’m realistic about the percentage of US consumers who will ever want to spend in strictly ethical ways,” she said. “There is a large and growing percentage of people who want to do that, and what we end up doing for those people will end up being helpful.”

While Coulter has been out in front of the #GrabYourWallet movement from the get-go, for Rivitz at Sleeping Giants, that hasn’t been the case: He was forced to go public when the Daily Caller revealed his identity in July.

It’s something that still bothers him. “I had my address and my kids’ names splashed all over the internet within 30 minutes of that article coming out,” he said. “I don’t think that should happen for anyone; I don’t care what their political beliefs are.”

But now that he and Jammi have been outed, they’re continuing with their work — they were profiled by outlets such as the New York Times and Recode, and their Twitter account has more than 200,000 followers, giving them a platform to speak out. They have convinced more than 4,000 companies to pull their ads from Breitbart and have also engaged in campaigns aimed at Fox News, Bill O’Reilly, and Robert Mercer.

Democrats have embraced them — Rivitz recently appeared on the liberal podcast Pod Save America — but the team isn’t so sure they want to step into the political fray.

“We’re probably going to be doing the work we’ve always been doing, which is just keeping an eye out for big media platforms tilting toward racism and bigotry,” Rivitz said. “It’s been said that we’re a political campaign, and we don’t think of ourselves as that. We’re really focused on the racism and misogyny part.”

He acknowledged that most of Sleeping Giants’ followers are on the left, but clarified it “just so happens that a lot of the media outlets that have been espousing this bigotry basically have been selling themselves as conservative outlets.”

That’s not to say Sleeping Giants does not have aspirations beyond getting companies to make sure they’re not running inadvertent Breitbart ads. Rivitz said he’s interested in getting more deeply involved in advertiser and corporate responsibility and helping companies understand programmatic ad buying and make better choices.

“People are increasingly going to consumer companies as a way to get themselves heard. I think that’s because that’s ultimately the power we have as individuals,” Rivitz said. “We have our votes and we can use those every couple of years, and we have our money.”

Coulter and Rivitz have come to know each other and have developed a sort of camaraderie. She told me he sits on the board of her 501(c)(4), and he told me they speak often because there’s “no one else to talk to” about what they’re trying to do.

“It just helps to share ideas sometimes,” Rivitz said.

That this is a relatively new phenomenon might explain why Coulter and Rivitz, at least right now, appear to be going in such different directions with their initiatives. Boycotts and consumer movements have existed for decades; social media and hashtags that propel them have not.

#GrabYourWallet has also managed to ride another political wave: the increased energy among women, especially on the left. Women hold an enormous amount of purchasing power, and in the wake of Trump’s election and the era of #MeToo, they’re politically and socially engaged as well.

“Women are willing to be more public and vocal about their lives and to push more aggressively for hard power, and they’re starting to understand, on a visceral level, that if they don’t do these things, this will keep happening,” Coulter said, pointing to Kavanaugh’s confirmation to the Supreme Court despite credible allegations of sexual assault and misconduct against him (which he denies).

Both #GrabYourWallet and Sleeping Giants are still trying to figure out exactly what to do with the energy behind them. They’ve shown they can make a difference, but like so many new organizations, especially those that have come to prominence since the 2016 election, the right next step is not always clear.

Original Source -> These consumer advocates successfully boycotted Ivanka Trump. Now they’re turning to the ballot.

via The Conservative Brief

The thin green line: Why you should be skeptical of financial blogs

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Ive been blogging since before blog was even a word. (I wrote my first blog post twenty-one years ago last Thursday!) Ive had a financial blog for a dozen years now. In that time, things have changed in a variety of ways. For instance: Blogging has become more business-like and less personal. A decade ago, most blogs even money blogs were rooted in the authors individual experience. Nowadays, most big financial blogs have a minimal editorial voice. Theyre much like money magazines used to be.Audience interaction is limited. In the mid-2000s, it wasnt unusual for blog articles to get dozens (or hundreds) of comments. This site has old articles with over 1000 comments. Nowadays, many blogs have removed reader commentsbecause they receive so few reader comments. And when blogs do allow comments (as here at GRS), theyre scarcer than they used to be.Today, most bloggers want to make money. In fact, thats their primary goal. When I started blogging in 1997, there was no way to make money from it. When I launched this site in 2006, my primary goal was to get out of debt. My secondary goal was to help others get out of debt. Yes, I wanted to make money but that was only my third aim. It was almost an after-thought. (This was, in part, because it was more difficult to make money blogging in 2006.) Most of the changes in the world of blogging are neutral. Theyre neither good nor bad. They just are. But I think the move to a more money-centric approach often does a disservice to readers to people like you. How I Became a Blogging Cynic Twelve years ago, if I read something on a financial blog, I generally accepted it at face value. If somebody recommended a book, I trusted their sincerity. If they wrote about the best bank accounts, I believed they were telling me about the best bank accounts. If they raved about a company or service they liked, I had no reason to doubt them. Today, Im much more skeptical. Why? Because most of my friends are bloggers, and I know what they think and say in private. Now, these folks are not bad people I love them! but, like most of us, theyll sometimes put profit ahead of, well, truth. Honesty. Objectivity. Today, for instance, I saw an article from a colleague I respect. He was raving about a financial service. The problem? Im damn sure hes never used the service himself and the only reason hes recommending it is he gets a commission on it. With his huge audience, he can make big bucks by promoting this company.Or there was the time I overheard another colleague talking with her partner about an advertiser who had just cancelled their affiliate program. (An affiliate program is, essentially, a commission program. You provide a sale or a lead to a company, and you get a kickback.) If theyre not going to offer an affiliate program, my colleague told her partner, were not going to promote them. We need to go back and change articles to feature a company that does offer an affiliate program. I wanted to call out my colleague on that last one but I didnt. I bit my tongue. I think her actions were shady, but I realize that not everyone shares the same values. What isnt right for me and my business might be perfectly fine for her. Whats perfectly fine for me and my business might seem shady to somebody else. Im not willing to criticize other financial bloggers for what they do. Im not in their shoes. Their business is not my business. Theyre free to make choices that adhere to their personal ethics. (My hope is that theyre at least considering ethics when they make these choices.) But I have to say: The stuff I hear and see behind the scenes has made me cynical. Ive become skeptical of the stuff I read on other money blogs. (Not on all money blogs Ill recommend some I trust later but on many of them.) The Thin Green Line Heres a prime example of how whats right for one person (and business) may not be right for another: credit cards. In the world of personal finance, credit card companies pay big bucks for sign-ups. Why do you get pitches for credit cards in the middle of cross-country airline flights? I guarantee you the flight attendants (or at least the airline) get a kickback. Why do services like Mint promote the hell out of credit cards? Because they make their money when users get new cards! And why do financial bloggers write credit-card reviews? Because theyre earning $100 or $200 or $500 per sign-up. Does that mean promoting credit cards is evil? No, of course not. But while some people feel okay promoting credit cards, others dont. I have never made a penny on credit cards. Not a cent. The opportunity has always been there, but Ive never taken it. Having wallowed through twenty years of credit-card debt myself, I dont want to play a part in trapping other people in the pit. (True story: Ten years ago, I turned down $20,000 for a single blog post about a credit card. Thats right: I could have earned several months worth of income for a days worth of work, but I said no.) Now, having said that, Ive made peace with the world of credit cards. Ive come to understand that credit cards are not evil. Theyre a tool. And like any tool, they can be used constructively or destructively. I now believe I can promote credit cards and earn commissions in a responsible manner, doing my best to steer readers clear of debt. As a result, Ill soon be writing more about the subject, and Ill include affiliate links when I do. (This might happen as soon as next week!) So, you see, whats right for one business may not be right for another. Theres a thin green line that each of us is unwilling to cross but that thin green line is in a different place for each person and each business. And that line can shift with time. Actually, this is true for all sorts of businesses, right? One restaurant may not offer alcohol because the owner has religious objections to the stuff. Another restaurant might be vegan-only. Another might source only products from within a hundred-mile radius. And so on. This thin green line isnt unique to bloggers or to financial bloggers.

Your Mission: Be a Skeptic! The trouble with the rise of blogging as a business is that the business has become the focus for most financial blogs. Financial bloggers arent making decisions based on whats best for their audience. Theyre making decisions based on whats likely to bring them the most income. And truthfully? Theyre generally looking at short-term profit rather than long-term profit. Ive seen so many people make choices that earn them a big payout today at the expense of audience trust; as a result, their audience shrinks and theyre less able to earn profit tomorrow. This problem is even worse with corporate-owned financial blogs. As more and more businesses acquire small, personal blogs, these businesses make decisions based solely on short-term profit. They miss the fact that whats profitable in the short-term may actually kill the golden goose in the long-term. So far, it probably sounds like Im writing this article to call out my colleagues. Thats not the case. They can do whatever the hell they want with their businesses. I wish them all the best. (No, really. I do.) My purpose in writing this article is to encourage you, the blog reader, to approach financial blogs with skepticism. Do the same with any website nowadays, especially if its about personal finance. My goal is to get you to think critically about the financial advice you read on the internet. When a popular money blog recommends a specific mortgage company, ask yourself: Why did they write this glowing review? Did the author use the company themselves? Did anyone in their family use the company? No? Then what other motive could they have? And could their review be colored by the fact theyre getting paid? That list of best bank accounts on Financial Blog X? Its probably actually a list of best bank accounts that pay me a commission. And its not just blogs. Find a list of best bank accounts on a nationally-known money site and odds are its exactly the same thing. (Another common trick with lists of best bank accounts? Link to the ones that pay commissions, but dont link to the other ones even if the other ones are better.) Based on what I know of the space, its especially important to be skeptical of reviews for credit cards, bank accounts, and so-called robo-advisors. Financial bloggers with big audiences (or strong search-engine presence) can make a ton of dough pitching these products, even if they wouldnt ever choose them personally. Here are two specific examples: A lot of folks promote Bluehost, a company that provides hosting for websites and blogs. Why do they pitch Bluehost? Do bloggers actually use Bluehost? No. I dont know a single one who does. Yet, people promote the company because they earn $100 per sign-upmaybe more. When asked why they push Bluehost if they dont use the company themselves, theyll say, Well, my blog is too big. Bluehost is good for beginners. Fair enough. But in private, Ive never heard a single blogger say theyd use Bluehost even if they were starting out. Regardless, theyre perfectly fine running How to Blog articles that promote the company. (I have nothing against Bluehost, by the way.)In the personal finance space, you see ads for Personal Capital everywhere. I have them here on Get Rich Slowly. (And soon Ill move over my Personal Capital review from Money Boss.) In this case, many folks do use (and like) Personal Capital. I like the service primarily because I think they have one of the best retirement planning tools on the market. But many of the people promoting Personal Capital do not use the app for various reasons. In fact, some have strong objections to the company yet still push it on their financial blogs because they earn thousands of dollars per month doing so. Every so often, you get to see a public example of a blogger having second thoughts, changing their mind about what theyre willing to do for money. Last week, Early Retirement Dude wrote an article entitled I Wont Be Advertising for Personal Capital Anymore, and I Apologize for Doing So. (I love that piece for its honesty!) Again, Im not writing this article to call anybody out. And Im not trying to hold myself up as holier than thou. No, my aim is to make sure that you, as a consumer of financial information, view recommendations with a critical eye. Actually, skepticism is a handy skill in all walks of life. When you hear something, verify it before you believe it. And dont just verify it from a similar source. Seek out opposing viewpoints.

This is especially important in the realm of politics. If you hear something from a liberal commentator, seek out a conservative rebuttal and vice versa. Dont live in an echo chamber. One of my favorite ways to check the accuracy of a review? When somebody recommends a product or service to me, I use Google to search for [product/service] sucks. Or, if Im on Amazon, I read the one-star reviews. You can learn a lot from the complaints about a company or product. Readers First Other personal financial blogs with traffic similar to Get Rich Slowly (about 10,000 visits per day) earn anywhere from $500 to $2000 per day. (Yes, really.) Get Rich Slowly earns only $50 per day. Crazy, right? Part of this is because Im lazy. Part of this is due to fear (no joke). But another part is because Ive been wrestling with how to make money without compromising my personal values, without crossing that thin green line. How do I advertise credit cards when I know credit cards cause problems for so many people? How do I promote banks in a way that Im providing honest, objective info yet still earning commissions? So far, Ive been treading water using Google Adsense and Amazon links. Im earning more than minimum wage with this blog but not much more. Get Rich Slowly is a business. Its a money-making venture. It doesnt make much money right now about $2000 per month but Im hopeful that it can eventually earn as much as it did in the olden days: over $20,000 per month. That said, Im not willing to compromise the editorial side of things to make a quick buck. Heres my number-one guiding principle at Get Rich Slowly: Readers first. In everything I do, from design to advertising to content creation, I try to put myself in your shoes. Does this article help my readers? Does this ad interfere with the reader experience? How does the layout of the site help or hinder the folks who come here? You know why I dont have pop-ups or splash screens at Get Rich Slowly? Because I think theyre actively reader-hostile. My colleagues tell me they vastly increase the number of subscribers and affiliate conversions, but I dont care. I personally hate pop-ups, so why would I subject my readers to them? That sounds like hypocrisy to me. Its important to note that readers first doesnt mean readers only. A readers only policy would mean no ads. Im not willing to run Get Rich Slowly for free. This is work, dammit, and I want to get paid for my work. (This notion is lost on a lot of folks at places like Reddit, where they think any blogger who tries to make money is somehow shady.) Readers first means that before I decide whether to run an ad, before I decide whether to write a review of Personal Capital, I do my best to minimize the negative impact on my audience. The best-case scenario is promoting something like a bank account. Helping readers sign up for good bank accounts is a win-win-win: a win for the reader, a win for the bank, and a win for me (because I get a commission). Amazon affiliate links are another no-brainer. A middling scenario is something like banner ads at the beginning and end of my articles. Or my Personal Capital review. Or the upcoming credit-card articles. Less-than-ideal scenarios include those two stupid ads I have embedded in the middle of articles right now, which seem to be causing headaches for certain readers. (Those are on the chopping block for when the redesign goes live. Eventually.) Or the promotion I did for Credit Sesame back in January. (My solution there? I did the promotion because I was contractually obligated to do so but I declined to take money for it.) Last year at Fincon the financial bloggers conference I participated in a panel discussion called What Will You Do for Money? We talked about scenarios like this as we explored financial journalism and ethics. If youre interested in this subject, you can watch this video recording of the entire panel (which the Fincon organizers have graciously made available specifically for this article). [embedded content] Four Financial Blogs Worth Reading Its perfectly possible to run a blog even a financial blog in a way that serves the readers and provides an income for the author. Thats how I made money before with Get Rich Slowly, and thats how I intend to make money in the future. There are lots of other financial bloggers whose view of the thin green line is similar to mine. Some are big. Youve probably read Mr. Money Mustache, for instance. Pete and I have remarkably similar views on monetization and serving the audience. Its easy, though, for MMM to play it safe. His audience is so large that even minimal monetization produces huge income. Im more impressed with new, small financial blogs who have made a commitment to serve their readers. When youre just starting out, you want to make money now now now. Its tough to wait. Most new bloggers bury their sites in ads. (I saw one a couple of months ago that was almost entirely ads the editorial content didnt start until below the fold. Ugh.) Most new bloggers want to run advertorials and/or promote products and services with big payouts. Here are four newer financial blogs that I think do a great job of making money while remembering to serve their readers: Please note that these are by no means the only financial blogs worth reading. There are tons of folks producing quality content and putting readers first. These are just four blogs that I personally have found to be filled with useful, entertaining articles without the marketing that mars the experience for me on other sites. Simply put, these newer bloggers have earned my trust. Honestly, if I were starting out, Id be tempted to focus on the money too. Im fortunate that Ive earned a wad of cash already, so I can sit back and take a more measured approach. Im not in a hurry to make lightning strike twice. Instead, Im going to stick to my Readers First pledge. Yes, I want to make money from Get Rich Slowly, but my primary aim is to help the folks who find this site to make and keep more money for themselves. If there are ways that I can do this while also earning a little scrilla, Im going to do it. Meanwhile, Ill continue to be skeptical of the information I find on other financial blogs. I encourage you to do the same. In fact, you should be skeptical of what you read here too. I know Im staying on my side of the thin green line, but you dont know that. I want you to be skeptical of me and my motives until Ive earned your trust. Several GRS readers have written to let me know they love the Spare Change section that resides after the first post on this sites home page. I use the Spare Change to share worthwhile articles from financial sites around the web. Its my attempt to sift the wheat from the chaff so that you dont have to. You can find an archive of all past Spare Change links via my Pinboard account. Shares 100 https://www.getrichslowly.org/financial-blogs/

Mother’s Day Gift Guide: Gifts For The Regular Mom, The Cool Mom & Everyone In Between

What greater holiday is there than a day that celebrates the strong, beautiful women who raised us? Go ahead, try to think of one, Ill wait. 4th of July you say? Okay. Anyway, Mothers Day really does serve as a reminder that we should be really really nice to all the moms in our lives because we too may be mothers some day and we dont want a bitchy daughter who doesnt appreciate us.  So its good karma to get them a gift, right?  A betchs mom is the most important lady in her life. Shes given us endless words of wisdom on fuckboys, shes reluctantly allowed us to borrow steal her clothes, and she always picked us up from school when we were feeling sick.  Shes molded us into the betch we are today, and for that we are forever grateful.  To show her how much you love her, were giving you a list of all our favorite brands/gift ideas that are perfect for every type of mom in your life. Welcome to the Betches Mother’s Day Gift Guide 2017.

FOR THE MOM WHO STILL GRABS CANDY FOR HERSELF AT THE CHECKOUT COUNTER

Hats off to this mom, she still answers to her sugar cravings and DGAF. Elevate her candy standards with Sugarfinas Sweetest Mom Candy Bento Box and watch it disappear within 20 minutes of her opening it. If shes into the juicing craze like any betchy mom, feel free to gift her a bottle of Pressed Juicery x Sugarfinas green juice gummy bears. Its the perfect candy she can eat while convincing herself that shes healthy AF. These are the chicest and yummiest candies ever, and Im sure this mom wont mind if you steal a few for yourselfmaybe

FOR THE ZEN AF MOM YOU CAN ALWAYS VENT TO

This mom is amazing because she has the patience to listen to us talk shit about irrelevant shit for hours and somehow make us feel 10 times better in the end. Philosophy is a fave brand of ours, not just because of their amazing products, but also because of their values. Its the wellness brand version of the mom who always sends you inspirational articles and makes sure you never leave the house without food in your stomach. To reward this woman for putting up with your crazy ass, give her the Moments of Grace boxthe perfect set of shower, fragrance, and moisturizing products.

FOR THE MOM WHO KNOWS HOW TO MAKE A HOUSE A HOME (AND WONT LET YOU EAT ON THE COUCH)

This mom might have come off as a little strict and slightly neurotic due to her strict house rules you lived under as a young betch, but you now understand it was all worth it for the image of a perfect home. Shes classy, shes elegant, and shes not afraid to tell you to fuck off when you deserve it. Giving her a Venus Et Fleur box is not just giving her clich flowers for Mothers Day, its giving her a centerpiece for her precious home. These are the most beautiful flowers and they last for an entire year. There are several colors to choose from so you can def find one to match the living room couch. PS, theyre having a pop-up shop at Saks specifically for Mothers Day, so go with your siblings and get her the most Instagrammable flowers ever.

FOR THE MOM WHO WANTS TO BE INA GARTENS BEST FRIEND

This mom spends half her life watching the Food Network and the other half begging her husband to agree to redoing the kitchen. As such, she takes great pride in all her kitchen essentials, and each time you come home theres a new blender or toaster. Although you have barely any space for a wooden spoon in your apartments kitchen and deem it acceptable to microwave water for your tea, this mom would rather be caught dead than without at least 25 different spatula options. Cuisinart is the perfect place to find the best and newest kitchen products that this mom will die over, like the QuicKettle and the PrepExpress. If you get her any of their products, I foresee massive amounts of free food in your future.

FOR THE MOM WHOS NOT AFRAID TO BLACK OUT AT FAMILY DINNERS

This mom is always invited to hang with you and your friends whenever shes in town. As a betch who can single-handedly create a party out of thin air, her Mothers Day gift needs to suit her hostess needs. Kim Crawford Wine is the perfect bottle to whip out on any given occasion, and with summer around the corner, it is officially ros season. Their website has tons of amazing recipes, including fros, sothis mom will def exploit a bottle of Kim Crawford ros for all its worth. If she also happens to be an Insta whore, were sorry in advance.

FOR THE MOM WHO GIFTED YOU YOUR WITTY SENSE OF HUMOR

This mom has passed on her good genes of having no filter and always has the entire family in tears at Thanksgiving dinner (like, the good kind). We were always afraid of what kind of backhanded bitchy comment she might make at our frenemies when we were younger, but we loved her anyway and secretly enjoyed it. If shes begging you not to get her anything this year, at least get her the perfect card from Shop Betches.

FOR THE MOM WHOS PUTTING OFF BOTOX FOR AS LONG AS POSSIBLE

This mom has had perfect skin her entire life and is now in overdrive doing everything she can to keep it that way.  Washing her face isnt just something she does a couple times a day, its now an insane obsession. To make sure this mom is getting the most out of her incessant face cleansing, get her the Soniclear brush from Michael Todd Beauty. The antimicrobial brush stays cleaner and fresher for longer, and cleans deep into your pores.  Lets be real, youre probs going to get one for yourself as well. Also, since shes probs big into blending, you should get her the Sonicblend brush to apply her makeup flawlessly.

FOR THE MOM WHO WON’T LET YOU ANYWHERE NEAR HER KITCHEN

This mom has a panic attack whenever there’s too many people in the kitchen (which for the most part means if there’s anyone in there besides her). She’s a firm believer in “a place for everything and everything in its place”, which as a betch you can only relate to on the level of your apartment’s bar cart.  Joseph Joseph has the perfect modern organizational kitchen shit that will perfectly encourage this mom’s obsessive compulsive habits, but at least the kitchen will look sleek AF so who cares. We love their Nesting Bowl Sets and their super chic Worktop Savers.

FOR THE MOM WHO ALWAYS FALLS ASLEEP WITH HER IPAD ON HER FACE

This mom can’t get enough of her Facebook feed and loves to send you videos of dogs at all hours of the night. She probably thinks she’s squinting at all her screens because she’s old, but really it’s because no ones eyes should not be staring at this shit all day. Felix Gray glasses are v trendy-looking and protect your eyes from the blue light emitted from all our electronics’ screens, so mom won’t have to fight through the headaches to continue scrolling through Insta anymore. Our offices fan favorites are the Turing and Nash frames.

FOR THE MOM WHO JUICED BEFORE IT WAS COOL

This mom has been a juice drinking yoga freak since before you were born, and she’s always looking for new ways to show the world that she’s healthier and has more of her shit together than anyone else. Daily Harvest delivers fresh soups, smoothies, chia parfaits and overnight oats to your door on your schedule. This way, mom can get her fav smoothies delivered at 3pm just in time for her to consume before her 5pm spin class. If you didn’t think eating healthy could be convenient, neither did we, but here we are.

FOR THE MOM WHO HAS EVERYTHING YOU NEVER KNEW YOU NEEDED

This mom may seem like a hoarder, but in reality she’s just a collector of random shit that will impress people. Totally different. Also, we are not ones to talk about hoarding as evidenced by our closets. Anyway, Tovolo is the perfect place to shop for this mom because while it’s super fun for us to look through all the fun kitchen gadgets they have, it will be that much more fun for her because she’ll know exactly what to do with whatever you get her. “OMG, skull ice molds?! This will be perfect for Debbie’s divorce party!”  We love their Clear Ice System and Stainless Steel Cocktail Shaker.

FOR THE MOM WHO ALWAYS LOSES SHIT

As a young mom, this one relied on her children to remind her of her dentist appointments or whenever she accidentally left the stove on. Though shes the most scatter-brained person you know, shes so lovable youve never (really) faulted her for it. Plus, her lack of having her shit together taught you how to be a proactive, multitasking betch. To make this moms life a little easier as her brain is only getting worse with age (sorry but its true), get her Tile for Mothers Day so you never have to get another phone call about her missing keys again. All she has to do is attach the little Tile to whatever it is she loses every day and connect it to her phone through Bluetooth and voil, when she needs to find either thing she can make em ring (I did not do that on purpose but I apologize).

FOR THE MOM WHO REALLY WANTS TO LOSE 3 POUNDS BUT HATES THE GYM

This mom might sound very familiar because she is all of us. She would much rather spend an hour at book club talking shit than hitting the gym, but the thought of showing up to Southampton for the summer in her current state is freaking her out. Do her a favor and buy her HUM Nutritions Skinny Bird, a natural weight loss supplement. If youre feeling really generous, they also have a Turn Back Time supplement that helps with skin cell protection. Time to pop some pills!

FOR THE BRAND NEW MOM

This mom has been MIA because she is now with child and a real human and also struggling to get more than 4 hours of sleep at night. Brighten up her day by getting her little Betch In Training a baby onesie from Shop Betches.

FOR THE MOM WHO IS ALWAYS ON THE GO

This mom has always been your business betch inspiration, as youve admired her for balancing her work and home life so well. Despite being super important at her company, she somehow found the time to proofread all your high school papers and prepped you for every job interview youve ever had.  Soap & Glory is the perfect cheeky and empowering cosmetic brand that this mom absolutely NEEDS in her life. Since shes always running from mandatory family breakfast to business meeting, get her some of our favorites like their Rushower Dry Shampoo and their Hand Food hydrating hand cream.

FOR THE MOM WHO ALWAYS KEEPS IT SIMPLE

This mom is a woman of few words, but always knows what to say. You can find her in the yoga studio in the morning and hosting a charity dinner party by night. Shes the one who taught you that doing things for others is like, important. Not one for flashy things but a lover of the arts, this mom would love a piece from Adam Marc Jewelry. Our favorite pieces are the Kim Star Choker and the Rafaeli 14k Gold Bar Necklace. Use code BETCHES20 for 20% offyour mom will never have to know you didn’t pay full price.

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from Viral News HQ http://ift.tt/2r4hrCi via Viral News HQ

How to fight back against the excessive Photoshop that’s bad for body image

Fake photos are everywhere.

Image: Christopher Mineses/Mashable

When Sarah Krasley Kickstarted her customizable bathing suit line, she faced an ethical dilemma: should she Photoshop her models if her company mission was to make women feel more comfortable in swimwear? She went searching for some guidance online, but came up short.

That’s when the idea for the Retouchers Accord was born. What if she could get retouchers, photographers, designers, brands, celebrities and media companies to follow a code of ethics for altering images? She put together a board, a website, social media accounts and strategy sessions to suss out a pledge and all the while, in the background, new complaints about excessive photoshopping kept exploding on social media.

SEE ALSO: Hey, trolls: Woman will wear a bikini if she wants, thank you

It seemed as if the time was ripe for change. But a big hurdle remained.

“We heard a lot of folks in retouching and styling saying this is never gonna work. You cant tell a client not to retouch the work,” she said.

Thanks to an amazing group of collaborators, we launched the first Hippocratic oath for image-makers! Join us: https://t.co/wzT5N4C5Kw http://pic.twitter.com/451ClLxjmR

retouchersaccord (@retoucheraccord) March 21, 2017

So how do we get to a point where retouchers can “practice authenticity” and “advance the understanding of healthy body image,” per the oath? It will be up to armies of social media users to keep praising body positive campaigns, consumers buying products from brands that don’t “body sculpt” models in photos, and industry folks raving about how it’s good for business, activists and Retouchers Accord supporters said.

And the stakes are high. Advocacy groups warn of the psychological dangers of seeing a constant stream of perfect bodies that don’t exist. The barrage can contribute to eating disorders and a lack of self worth. Altered images have become so ubiquitous it’s a given that celebrities don’t look anything like what you see in magazines and on film, but even when we know the images aren’t real, a damaging expectation is set.

SEE ALSO: The secret Hollywood procedure that has fooled us for years

Krasley’s pledge can’t fix the problem on its own, and it won’t please the most ardent body positive activists, but it can get the ball rolling from the industry’s inside. It’s open to interpretation and focuses on using retouching in an ethical way, not doing away with it completely.

“There arent any guidelines, theres a lot of outcry, we need some organizing principles.”

“We’re looking to help in this moment were in right now. There arent any guidelines, theres a lot of outcry, we need some organizing principles and guidelines to get the industry out of this paralysis of, ‘Oh this problem is too big we dont know what to do,'” she said.

That’s something Dana Suchow can relate to. The body positive activist and founder of dothehotpants.com went viral in 2014 when she posted an article to her fashion blog spotlighting photos she wishes she hadn’t altered. Back then, she couldn’t see a place for fashion and body positivity to coexist. Today, the glimpses are there, but it’s still not mainstream, she said. Everyone’s still feeling around in the dark for a way to make it so.

“Brands are starting to learn they can make money off body positivity, as well, but is Chanel going to be showing cellulite and body hair? Absolutely not. Theyre going to keep requesting [heavy Photoshop] because thats what society wants,” Suchow said.

The cover of March 2017 @voguemagazine. Can we please stop with the aggressive photoshop? Look at Gigi’s hand/arm… http://pic.twitter.com/3tqppySyaz

Kim Pincombe~Cole (@kimpcole) February 8, 2017

Women are gonna be insecure about their knee caps now that Kendall and Gigi set the standard of not having any https://t.co/jlrYw9w414

anna (@hesthirIs) October 20, 2016

Photoshop fails have been publicized far and wide like when Gigi Hadid’s arm looked like Inspector Gadget’son the cover of Vogue or when she went knee-less for W. There are far more fails than success stories these days, Krasley said.

“Women are under daily attack, whether you walk by a billboard, you see a magazine, you get something in the mail, you see a popup, you see something on TV, … How do we fight this battle? Its daunting when you try to look at it. I commend Retouchers Accord for beginning to try,” Suchow said.

Even more daunting is that for every retoucher who signs the pledge, there are plenty of others who won’t, said Substantia Jones, a photo activist and founder of the Adipositivity Project, a photo series that proudly puts fat on display.

What’s to stop clients from going elsewhere? You.

“Theyre going to need it to be backed up with dollars, the consumers are gonna rule on this one,” Jones said. That means, if you want the standards to change, you have to buy from brands that strive for realness in their ads and call out ones that don’t.

The final draft of the pledge was finished earlier this month, and it’s clear that early adopters were already on board with body positivity. But the hope is that eventually it won’t be all about preaching to the choir.

“Nobody wants to get left behind, nobody wants to be the one person going too far.”

One retouching agency that’s taken the oath and is a member of the accord’s advisory board, Feather Creative, has had a more natural approach since its founding. They’ll fix lighting and smudged makeup, but extreme retouching isn’t their game.

“Its been pushed to the extremes and now were seeing the industry pull back from that,” Cofounder Linn Edwards said. “When digital photography came on the scene, suddenly anything is possible, the style of retouching went too far, people were too airbrushed, the ability was suddenly there to easily shape somebody … Nobody wants to get left behind, nobody wants to be the one person going too far.”

Mix, match & share! For every unretouched swim photo you post with #AerieREAL, well donate $1 (up to $10K) to @NEDA.

A post shared by aerie (@aerie) on Mar 21, 2017 at 6:02pm PDT

Some brands are using their stance against Photoshop as a marketing tool. Aerie stopped Photoshopping models the company says the models are completely unretouched in 2014 and by 2016, sales spiked 20%. And Target just came out with a Photoshop-free swimwear campaign, too. In 2014, ModCloth became the first retailer to sign an anti-Photoshop pledge created by girl empowerment advocates Brave Girls Alliance. It goes further than the Retouchers Accord no material alterations unless marked with a “Truth in Advertising” label but only about 40 small retailers have signed it since ModCloth, Nancy Gruver, a Brave Girls Alliance leader said. She’s hopeful that retouchers on the inside can move the needle more.

Krasley is, too. Can retouchers help each other write contracts with policies that avoid awkward conversations about excessive alterations with clients? Can they convince celebrities to only work with retouchers that take the pledge? Can they teach each other authentic retouching techniques? Can they get Adobe involved? Can they get fashion magazines in on this, too?

shoutout to target for not using photoshop in their latest swimwear campaign!!! http://pic.twitter.com/2wkxVPebia

gab (@gabby_frost) March 20, 2017

They’re lofty goals, but Krasley sees potential because a similar, and very successful, pledge already exists in the product design industry.

The Designers Accord, which aims to mainstream sustainability in design practice, launched 10 years ago and now has thousands of members and is taught in design programs.

Valerie Casey, who originally wrote the online manifesto which would become the Designers Accord, is now on Krasley’s board. To thrive, Retouchers Accord members will need to articulate how they can make their clients more successful, Casey said.

“That was the key to the success of the Designers Accord we werent the conscience for our clients, we were their competitive advantage,” Casey said.

But Krasley thinks it can go one step further.

“I hope the public outcry makes it so this isnt a competitive advantage any more, this is just something you need to do, like youre a weird outlier if you don’t.”

WATCH: Robotic glove lets people with limited hand mobility perform daily tasks

Read more: http://ift.tt/2mJcpwu

from How to fight back against the excessive Photoshop that’s bad for body image

The thin green line: Why you should be skeptical of financial blogs

Ive been blogging since before blog was even a word. (I wrote my first blog post twenty-one years ago last Thursday!) Ive had a financial blog for a dozen years now. In that time, things have changed in a variety of ways. For instance: Blogging has become more business-like and less personal. A decade ago, most blogs even money blogs were rooted in the authors individual experience. Nowadays, most big financial blogs have a minimal editorial voice. Theyre much like money magazines used to be.Audience interaction is limited. In the mid-2000s, it wasnt unusual for blog articles to get dozens (or hundreds) of comments. This site has old articles with over 1000 comments. Nowadays, many blogs have removed reader commentsbecause they receive so few reader comments. And when blogs do allow comments (as here at GRS), theyre scarcer than they used to be.Today, most bloggers want to make money. In fact, thats their primary goal. When I started blogging in 1997, there was no way to make money from it. When I launched this site in 2006, my primary goal was to get out of debt. My secondary goal was to help others get out of debt. Yes, I wanted to make money but that was only my third aim. It was almost an after-thought. (This was, in part, because it was more difficult to make money blogging in 2006.) Most of the changes in the world of blogging are neutral. Theyre neither good nor bad. They just are. But I think the move to a more money-centric approach often does a disservice to readers to people like you. How I Became a Blogging Cynic Twelve years ago, if I read something on a financial blog, I generally accepted it at face value. If somebody recommended a book, I trusted their sincerity. If they wrote about the best bank accounts, I believed they were telling me about the best bank accounts. If they raved about a company or service they liked, I had no reason to doubt them. Today, Im much more skeptical. Why? Because most of my friends are bloggers, and I know what they think and say in private. Now, these folks are not bad people I love them! but, like most of us, theyll sometimes put profit ahead of, well, truth. Honesty. Objectivity. Today, for instance, I saw an article from a colleague I respect. He was raving about a financial service. The problem? Im damn sure hes never used the service himself and the only reason hes recommending it is he gets a commission on it. With his huge audience, he can make big bucks by promoting this company.Or there was the time I overheard another colleague talking with her partner about an advertiser who had just cancelled their affiliate program. (An affiliate program is, essentially, a commission program. You provide a sale or a lead to a company, and you get a kickback.) If theyre not going to offer an affiliate program, my colleague told her partner, were not going to promote them. We need to go back and change articles to feature a company that does offer an affiliate program. I wanted to call out my colleague on that last one but I didnt. I bit my tongue. I think her actions were shady, but I realize that not everyone shares the same values. What isnt right for me and my business might be perfectly fine for her. Whats perfectly fine for me and my business might seem shady to somebody else. Im not willing to criticize other financial bloggers for what they do. Im not in their shoes. Their business is not my business. Theyre free to make choices that adhere to their personal ethics. (My hope is that theyre at least considering ethics when they make these choices.) But I have to say: The stuff I hear and see behind the scenes has made me cynical. Ive become skeptical of the stuff I read on other money blogs. (Not on all money blogs Ill recommend some I trust later but on many of them.) The Thin Green Line Heres a prime example of how whats right for one person (and business) may not be right for another: credit cards. In the world of personal finance, credit card companies pay big bucks for sign-ups. Why do you get pitches for credit cards in the middle of cross-country airline flights? I guarantee you the flight attendants (or at least the airline) get a kickback. Why do services like Mint promote the hell out of credit cards? Because they make their money when users get new cards! And why do financial bloggers write credit-card reviews? Because theyre earning $100 or $200 or $500 per sign-up. Does that mean promoting credit cards is evil? No, of course not. But while some people feel okay promoting credit cards, others dont. I have never made a penny on credit cards. Not a cent. The opportunity has always been there, but Ive never taken it. Having wallowed through twenty years of credit-card debt myself, I dont want to play a part in trapping other people in the pit. (True story: Ten years ago, I turned down $20,000 for a single blog post about a credit card. Thats right: I could have earned several months worth of income for a days worth of work, but I said no.) Now, having said that, Ive made peace with the world of credit cards. Ive come to understand that credit cards are not evil. Theyre a tool. And like any tool, they can be used constructively or destructively. I now believe I can promote credit cards and earn commissions in a responsible manner, doing my best to steer readers clear of debt. As a result, Ill soon be writing more about the subject, and Ill include affiliate links when I do. (This might happen as soon as next week!) So, you see, whats right for one business may not be right for another. Theres a thin green line that each of us is unwilling to cross but that thin green line is in a different place for each person and each business. And that line can shift with time. Actually, this is true for all sorts of businesses, right? One restaurant may not offer alcohol because the owner has religious objections to the stuff. Another restaurant might be vegan-only. Another might source only products from within a hundred-mile radius. And so on. This thin green line isnt unique to bloggers or to financial bloggers.

Your Mission: Be a Skeptic! The trouble with the rise of blogging as a business is that the business has become the focus for most financial blogs. Financial bloggers arent making decisions based on whats best for their audience. Theyre making decisions based on whats likely to bring them the most income. And truthfully? Theyre generally looking at short-term profit rather than long-term profit. Ive seen so many people make choices that earn them a big payout today at the expense of audience trust; as a result, their audience shrinks and theyre less able to earn profit tomorrow. This problem is even worse with corporate-owned financial blogs. As more and more businesses acquire small, personal blogs, these businesses make decisions based solely on short-term profit. They miss the fact that whats profitable in the short-term may actually kill the golden goose in the long-term. So far, it probably sounds like Im writing this article to call out my colleagues. Thats not the case. They can do whatever the hell they want with their businesses. I wish them all the best. (No, really. I do.) My purpose in writing this article is to encourage you, the blog reader, to approach financial blogs with skepticism. Do the same with any website nowadays, especially if its about personal finance. My goal is to get you to think critically about the financial advice you read on the internet. When a popular money blog recommends a specific mortgage company, ask yourself: Why did they write this glowing review? Did the author use the company themselves? Did anyone in their family use the company? No? Then what other motive could they have? And could their review be colored by the fact theyre getting paid? That list of best bank accounts on Financial Blog X? Its probably actually a list of best bank accounts that pay me a commission. And its not just blogs. Find a list of best bank accounts on a nationally-known money site and odds are its exactly the same thing. (Another common trick with lists of best bank accounts? Link to the ones that pay commissions, but dont link to the other ones even if the other ones are better.) Based on what I know of the space, its especially important to be skeptical of reviews for credit cards, bank accounts, and so-called robo-advisors. Financial bloggers with big audiences (or strong search-engine presence) can make a ton of dough pitching these products, even if they wouldnt ever choose them personally. Here are two specific examples: A lot of folks promote Bluehost, a company that provides hosting for websites and blogs. Why do they pitch Bluehost? Do bloggers actually use Bluehost? No. I dont know a single one who does. Yet, people promote the company because they earn $100 per sign-upmaybe more. When asked why they push Bluehost if they dont use the company themselves, theyll say, Well, my blog is too big. Bluehost is good for beginners. Fair enough. But in private, Ive never heard a single blogger say theyd use Bluehost even if they were starting out. Regardless, theyre perfectly fine running How to Blog articles that promote the company. (I have nothing against Bluehost, by the way.)In the personal finance space, you see ads for Personal Capital everywhere. I have them here on Get Rich Slowly. (And soon Ill move over my Personal Capital review from Money Boss.) In this case, many folks do use (and like) Personal Capital. I like the service primarily because I think they have one of the best retirement planning tools on the market. But many of the people promoting Personal Capital do not use the app for various reasons. In fact, some have strong objections to the company yet still push it on their financial blogs because they earn thousands of dollars per month doing so. Every so often, you get to see a public example of a blogger having second thoughts, changing their mind about what theyre willing to do for money. Last week, Early Retirement Dude wrote an article entitled I Wont Be Advertising for Personal Capital Anymore, and I Apologize for Doing So. (I love that piece for its honesty!) Again, Im not writing this article to call anybody out. And Im not trying to hold myself up as holier than thou. No, my aim is to make sure that you, as a consumer of financial information, view recommendations with a critical eye. Actually, skepticism is a handy skill in all walks of life. When you hear something, verify it before you believe it. And dont just verify it from a similar source. Seek out opposing viewpoints.

This is especially important in the realm of politics. If you hear something from a liberal commentator, seek out a conservative rebuttal and vice versa. Dont live in an echo chamber. One of my favorite ways to check the accuracy of a review? When somebody recommends a product or service to me, I use Google to search for [product/service] sucks. Or, if Im on Amazon, I read the one-star reviews. You can learn a lot from the complaints about a company or product. Readers First Other personal financial blogs with traffic similar to Get Rich Slowly (about 10,000 visits per day) earn anywhere from $500 to $2000 per day. (Yes, really.) Get Rich Slowly earns only $50 per day. Crazy, right? Part of this is because Im lazy. Part of this is due to fear (no joke). But another part is because Ive been wrestling with how to make money without compromising my personal values, without crossing that thin green line. How do I advertise credit cards when I know credit cards cause problems for so many people? How do I promote banks in a way that Im providing honest, objective info yet still earning commissions? So far, Ive been treading water using Google Adsense and Amazon links. Im earning more than minimum wage with this blog but not much more. Get Rich Slowly is a business. Its a money-making venture. It doesnt make much money right now about $2000 per month but Im hopeful that it can eventually earn as much as it did in the olden days: over $20,000 per month. That said, Im not willing to compromise the editorial side of things to make a quick buck. Heres my number-one guiding principle at Get Rich Slowly: Readers first. In everything I do, from design to advertising to content creation, I try to put myself in your shoes. Does this article help my readers? Does this ad interfere with the reader experience? How does the layout of the site help or hinder the folks who come here? You know why I dont have pop-ups or splash screens at Get Rich Slowly? Because I think theyre actively reader-hostile. My colleagues tell me they vastly increase the number of subscribers and affiliate conversions, but I dont care. I personally hate pop-ups, so why would I subject my readers to them? That sounds like hypocrisy to me. Its important to note that readers first doesnt mean readers only. A readers only policy would mean no ads. Im not willing to run Get Rich Slowly for free. This is work, dammit, and I want to get paid for my work. (This notion is lost on a lot of folks at places like Reddit, where they think any blogger who tries to make money is somehow shady.) Readers first means that before I decide whether to run an ad, before I decide whether to write a review of Personal Capital, I do my best to minimize the negative impact on my audience. The best-case scenario is promoting something like a bank account. Helping readers sign up for good bank accounts is a win-win-win: a win for the reader, a win for the bank, and a win for me (because I get a commission). Amazon affiliate links are another no-brainer. A middling scenario is something like banner ads at the beginning and end of my articles. Or my Personal Capital review. Or the upcoming credit-card articles. Less-than-ideal scenarios include those two stupid ads I have embedded in the middle of articles right now, which seem to be causing headaches for certain readers. (Those are on the chopping block for when the redesign goes live. Eventually.) Or the promotion I did for Credit Sesame back in January. (My solution there? I did the promotion because I was contractually obligated to do so but I declined to take money for it.) Last year at Fincon the financial bloggers conference I participated in a panel discussion called What Will You Do for Money? We talked about scenarios like this as we explored financial journalism and ethics. If youre interested in this subject, you can watch this video recording of the entire panel (which the Fincon organizers have graciously made available specifically for this article). [embedded content] Four Financial Blogs Worth Reading Its perfectly possible to run a blog even a financial blog in a way that serves the readers and provides an income for the author. Thats how I made money before with Get Rich Slowly, and thats how I intend to make money in the future. There are lots of other financial bloggers whose view of the thin green line is similar to mine. Some are big. Youve probably read Mr. Money Mustache, for instance. Pete and I have remarkably similar views on monetization and serving the audience. Its easy, though, for MMM to play it safe. His audience is so large that even minimal monetization produces huge income. Im more impressed with new, small financial blogs who have made a commitment to serve their readers. When youre just starting out, you want to make money now now now. Its tough to wait. Most new bloggers bury their sites in ads. (I saw one a couple of months ago that was almost entirely ads the editorial content didnt start until below the fold. Ugh.) Most new bloggers want to run advertorials and/or promote products and services with big payouts. Here are four newer financial blogs that I think do a great job of making money while remembering to serve their readers: Please note that these are by no means the only financial blogs worth reading. There are tons of folks producing quality content and putting readers first. These are just four blogs that I personally have found to be filled with useful, entertaining articles without the marketing that mars the experience for me on other sites. Simply put, these newer bloggers have earned my trust. Honestly, if I were starting out, Id be tempted to focus on the money too. Im fortunate that Ive earned a wad of cash already, so I can sit back and take a more measured approach. Im not in a hurry to make lightning strike twice. Instead, Im going to stick to my Readers First pledge. Yes, I want to make money from Get Rich Slowly, but my primary aim is to help the folks who find this site to make and keep more money for themselves. If there are ways that I can do this while also earning a little scrilla, Im going to do it. Meanwhile, Ill continue to be skeptical of the information I find on other financial blogs. I encourage you to do the same. In fact, you should be skeptical of what you read here too. I know Im staying on my side of the thin green line, but you dont know that. I want you to be skeptical of me and my motives until Ive earned your trust. Several GRS readers have written to let me know they love the Spare Change section that resides after the first post on this sites home page. I use the Spare Change to share worthwhile articles from financial sites around the web. Its my attempt to sift the wheat from the chaff so that you dont have to. You can find an archive of all past Spare Change links via my Pinboard account. https://www.getrichslowly.org/financial-blogs/

Mother’s Day Gift Guide: Gifts For The Regular Mom, The Cool Mom & Everyone In Between

What greater holiday is there than a day that celebrates the strong, beautiful women who raised us? Go ahead, try to think of one, Ill wait. 4th of July you say? Okay. Anyway, Mothers Day really does serve as a reminder that we should be really really nice to all the moms in our lives because we too may be mothers some day and we dont want a bitchy daughter who doesnt appreciate us.  So its good karma to get them a gift, right?  A betchs mom is the most important lady in her life. Shes given us endless words of wisdom on fuckboys, shes reluctantly allowed us to borrow steal her clothes, and she always picked us up from school when we were feeling sick.  Shes molded us into the betch we are today, and for that we are forever grateful.  To show her how much you love her, were giving you a list of all our favorite brands/gift ideas that are perfect for every type of mom in your life. Welcome to the Betches Mother’s Day Gift Guide 2017.

FOR THE MOM WHO STILL GRABS CANDY FOR HERSELF AT THE CHECKOUT COUNTER

Hats off to this mom, she still answers to her sugar cravings and DGAF. Elevate her candy standards with Sugarfinas Sweetest Mom Candy Bento Box and watch it disappear within 20 minutes of her opening it. If shes into the juicing craze like any betchy mom, feel free to gift her a bottle of Pressed Juicery x Sugarfinas green juice gummy bears. Its the perfect candy she can eat while convincing herself that shes healthy AF. These are the chicest and yummiest candies ever, and Im sure this mom wont mind if you steal a few for yourselfmaybe

FOR THE ZEN AF MOM YOU CAN ALWAYS VENT TO

This mom is amazing because she has the patience to listen to us talk shit about irrelevant shit for hours and somehow make us feel 10 times better in the end. Philosophy is a fave brand of ours, not just because of their amazing products, but also because of their values. Its the wellness brand version of the mom who always sends you inspirational articles and makes sure you never leave the house without food in your stomach. To reward this woman for putting up with your crazy ass, give her the Moments of Grace boxthe perfect set of shower, fragrance, and moisturizing products.

FOR THE MOM WHO KNOWS HOW TO MAKE A HOUSE A HOME (AND WONT LET YOU EAT ON THE COUCH)

This mom might have come off as a little strict and slightly neurotic due to her strict house rules you lived under as a young betch, but you now understand it was all worth it for the image of a perfect home. Shes classy, shes elegant, and shes not afraid to tell you to fuck off when you deserve it. Giving her a Venus Et Fleur box is not just giving her clich flowers for Mothers Day, its giving her a centerpiece for her precious home. These are the most beautiful flowers and they last for an entire year. There are several colors to choose from so you can def find one to match the living room couch. PS, theyre having a pop-up shop at Saks specifically for Mothers Day, so go with your siblings and get her the most Instagrammable flowers ever.

FOR THE MOM WHO WANTS TO BE INA GARTENS BEST FRIEND

This mom spends half her life watching the Food Network and the other half begging her husband to agree to redoing the kitchen. As such, she takes great pride in all her kitchen essentials, and each time you come home theres a new blender or toaster. Although you have barely any space for a wooden spoon in your apartments kitchen and deem it acceptable to microwave water for your tea, this mom would rather be caught dead than without at least 25 different spatula options. Cuisinart is the perfect place to find the best and newest kitchen products that this mom will die over, like the QuicKettle and the PrepExpress. If you get her any of their products, I foresee massive amounts of free food in your future.

FOR THE MOM WHOS NOT AFRAID TO BLACK OUT AT FAMILY DINNERS

This mom is always invited to hang with you and your friends whenever shes in town. As a betch who can single-handedly create a party out of thin air, her Mothers Day gift needs to suit her hostess needs. Kim Crawford Wine is the perfect bottle to whip out on any given occasion, and with summer around the corner, it is officially ros season. Their website has tons of amazing recipes, including fros, sothis mom will def exploit a bottle of Kim Crawford ros for all its worth. If she also happens to be an Insta whore, were sorry in advance.

FOR THE MOM WHO GIFTED YOU YOUR WITTY SENSE OF HUMOR

This mom has passed on her good genes of having no filter and always has the entire family in tears at Thanksgiving dinner (like, the good kind). We were always afraid of what kind of backhanded bitchy comment she might make at our frenemies when we were younger, but we loved her anyway and secretly enjoyed it. If shes begging you not to get her anything this year, at least get her the perfect card from Shop Betches.

FOR THE MOM WHOS PUTTING OFF BOTOX FOR AS LONG AS POSSIBLE

This mom has had perfect skin her entire life and is now in overdrive doing everything she can to keep it that way.  Washing her face isnt just something she does a couple times a day, its now an insane obsession. To make sure this mom is getting the most out of her incessant face cleansing, get her the Soniclear brush from Michael Todd Beauty. The antimicrobial brush stays cleaner and fresher for longer, and cleans deep into your pores.  Lets be real, youre probs going to get one for yourself as well. Also, since shes probs big into blending, you should get her the Sonicblend brush to apply her makeup flawlessly.

FOR THE MOM WHO WON’T LET YOU ANYWHERE NEAR HER KITCHEN

This mom has a panic attack whenever there’s too many people in the kitchen (which for the most part means if there’s anyone in there besides her). She’s a firm believer in “a place for everything and everything in its place”, which as a betch you can only relate to on the level of your apartment’s bar cart.  Joseph Joseph has the perfect modern organizational kitchen shit that will perfectly encourage this mom’s obsessive compulsive habits, but at least the kitchen will look sleek AF so who cares. We love their Nesting Bowl Sets and their super chic Worktop Savers.

FOR THE MOM WHO ALWAYS FALLS ASLEEP WITH HER IPAD ON HER FACE

This mom can’t get enough of her Facebook feed and loves to send you videos of dogs at all hours of the night. She probably thinks she’s squinting at all her screens because she’s old, but really it’s because no ones eyes should not be staring at this shit all day. Felix Gray glasses are v trendy-looking and protect your eyes from the blue light emitted from all our electronics’ screens, so mom won’t have to fight through the headaches to continue scrolling through Insta anymore. Our offices fan favorites are the Turing and Nash frames.

FOR THE MOM WHO JUICED BEFORE IT WAS COOL

This mom has been a juice drinking yoga freak since before you were born, and she’s always looking for new ways to show the world that she’s healthier and has more of her shit together than anyone else. Daily Harvest delivers fresh soups, smoothies, chia parfaits and overnight oats to your door on your schedule. This way, mom can get her fav smoothies delivered at 3pm just in time for her to consume before her 5pm spin class. If you didn’t think eating healthy could be convenient, neither did we, but here we are.

FOR THE MOM WHO HAS EVERYTHING YOU NEVER KNEW YOU NEEDED

This mom may seem like a hoarder, but in reality she’s just a collector of random shit that will impress people. Totally different. Also, we are not ones to talk about hoarding as evidenced by our closets. Anyway, Tovolo is the perfect place to shop for this mom because while it’s super fun for us to look through all the fun kitchen gadgets they have, it will be that much more fun for her because she’ll know exactly what to do with whatever you get her. “OMG, skull ice molds?! This will be perfect for Debbie’s divorce party!”  We love their Clear Ice System and Stainless Steel Cocktail Shaker.

FOR THE MOM WHO ALWAYS LOSES SHIT

As a young mom, this one relied on her children to remind her of her dentist appointments or whenever she accidentally left the stove on. Though shes the most scatter-brained person you know, shes so lovable youve never (really) faulted her for it. Plus, her lack of having her shit together taught you how to be a proactive, multitasking betch. To make this moms life a little easier as her brain is only getting worse with age (sorry but its true), get her Tile for Mothers Day so you never have to get another phone call about her missing keys again. All she has to do is attach the little Tile to whatever it is she loses every day and connect it to her phone through Bluetooth and voil, when she needs to find either thing she can make em ring (I did not do that on purpose but I apologize).

FOR THE MOM WHO REALLY WANTS TO LOSE 3 POUNDS BUT HATES THE GYM

This mom might sound very familiar because she is all of us. She would much rather spend an hour at book club talking shit than hitting the gym, but the thought of showing up to Southampton for the summer in her current state is freaking her out. Do her a favor and buy her HUM Nutritions Skinny Bird, a natural weight loss supplement. If youre feeling really generous, they also have a Turn Back Time supplement that helps with skin cell protection. Time to pop some pills!

FOR THE BRAND NEW MOM

This mom has been MIA because she is now with child and a real human and also struggling to get more than 4 hours of sleep at night. Brighten up her day by getting her little Betch In Training a baby onesie from Shop Betches.

FOR THE MOM WHO IS ALWAYS ON THE GO

This mom has always been your business betch inspiration, as youve admired her for balancing her work and home life so well. Despite being super important at her company, she somehow found the time to proofread all your high school papers and prepped you for every job interview youve ever had.  Soap & Glory is the perfect cheeky and empowering cosmetic brand that this mom absolutely NEEDS in her life. Since shes always running from mandatory family breakfast to business meeting, get her some of our favorites like their Rushower Dry Shampoo and their Hand Food hydrating hand cream.

FOR THE MOM WHO ALWAYS KEEPS IT SIMPLE

This mom is a woman of few words, but always knows what to say. You can find her in the yoga studio in the morning and hosting a charity dinner party by night. Shes the one who taught you that doing things for others is like, important. Not one for flashy things but a lover of the arts, this mom would love a piece from Adam Marc Jewelry. Our favorite pieces are the Kim Star Choker and the Rafaeli 14k Gold Bar Necklace. Use code BETCHES20 for 20% offyour mom will never have to know you didn’t pay full price.

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Blogologues: The Hilarious Live Show That Puts Internet Trolls in Their Place

Allison Goldberg and Jen Jamula are speaking to the audience in alternatingrapid-fire bursts, with the familiar staccato of a Gilmore Girls-shapedmachine gun. It’s Friday night at the People’s Improv Theater in New York, and the comedy duo ispretending to host a terrible daytime infomercial for an even more terrible relationship-advice bookone that coacheswomen to disempower themselves if they ever want to earn the affection of a man. The two are chastising the audience for havingthe audacity to express normal human feelings toward another person.

“I hate to tell you, but your instincts were right,” Goldberg says to the audience.

Jamula chimes in. You could have kept this intense connection alive.

You could have avoided this sadness and confusion.

You could have had the relationship of a lifetime.

If only you’d understood the unspoken desires of men! they continue. “If only you’d given him what he wanted!”

And on and on they go. But while they’re getting laughs, the routine isn’t somebit they’ve written. They got it straight from the website of a guy who fancies himself a “dating coach” for women; what the audience is watching is a comic reinterpretation of one of his blog posts. The words were originally intended as a pitch for the guy’s dating-coach services, where he encourages women to pay hundreds of dollars for e-books, videos, and audiotapes that feature him mansplaining why they must submit themselves to the wants of men. This isBlogologues, a sketch show co-created by Goldberg and Jamula, that takes the ridiculous and sometimes awful stories that pervade the internet, and performs them, verbatim, as comedy.

Since its inception in 2011, Blogologues has borrowed from the absurd to perform the absurd. They’ve performed threads found on brony forums, posts written by M-Preggersan online community of men who wish they could become pregnantand stories from sites like “Is It Normal?,” likethe tale of a man who wanted to know if his obsession with burning cockroaches made him weird.

But over the last couple of years, as the absurd and awful have become more mainstream, most notably through hate groups like the so-called “alt-right,” the shows source material has become increasingly more relevant. Hate speech and conspiracy theories, once relegated to the farthest reaches of the Internet, now rest comfortably atop it. “We thought ‘these are just the weird Internet haters,’” Goldberg says. “And now theyre in the White House.”

Goldberg and Jamula are hilarious, but theyre also more likely to landin online crosshairs. From targeting feminist writer Lindy West to hacking Saturday Night Live cast member Leslie Jones, hate groups on theInternet seem to find a new woman (and especially a funny woman) to harass every day. Jamula and Goldberg themselves have encountered internet harassment, with one of their sketches unleashing “a slew of hate and death threats from Twitter.”

“As with anything entertainment and internet related, you’ll always have people who don’t love what you do,” Jamula says.

That’s what makes Blogologues seem particularly important right now. Performing offensive speech exactly as it appearsonlinemakes itmuch more than a comedy showit’s a way to reclaim power from the trolls.

Finding Humor on Breitbart

In their latest show, Jamula and Goldbergperformed a Breitbart columnwritten by the infamous Milo Yiannopoulos entitled “Birth Control Makes Women Unattractive and Crazy.” Dressed in military-esque garb, they yell atthree female audience volunteersin some sort of Catholic-school purity ceremony.

“Women on the pill dont look right and dont talk right!” Goldberg yells at the women on stage, repeating the words from the article.

“What could be worse?” Jamula adds. “Well, they cant jiggle correctlyeither.”

The rant continues in exactlyas Milo’s column does, citing a study that connects mens attraction to women based on their level of fertility, before a drill-sergeant whistle sounds andthe two shout BIRTH CONTROL MAKES YOU JIGGLE WRONG!one of the nine subheds featured on the article. (Yes, they go through all nine of them with similar corporal execution.)

It was interesting how, if you didnt know it was from Breitbart, it wouldve seemed like it was from The Onion. Its like a parody, but its real.Jen Jamula

Goldberg says the duo didn’t really want to perform something from Breitbart, but after looking through material that surfaced during last year’s election, the Yiannopoulos piece was too perfect not to use. “If you didnt know it was from Breitbart, it wouldve seemed like it was from The Onion,” Jamula adds. “It’s like a parody, but its real.”

More than a comedic reinterpretation, Jamula and Goldbergs performance of the Breitbart piece is a rejection of its attempt to reduce them to its view. By usingthe language of the article in a comedic context, they underscore the message’s absurdity using the writer’s own words, thereby undermining its intended effect. “Theres a power in this because theres a sense of ‘these words are coming from me, and not from you against me,’” says Adam Galinsky, a professor at Columbia Business School, who co-authored a study on the re-appropriation of stigmatizing labels. “Theres ashaming aspect: to say the words out loud shows how despicable those words are.”

A Brief History of Comedic Resistance

In the 1970s, feminist philosopher Luce Iragary defined this form of resistance as “mimesis,” and endorsed it asa strategy for women to underminetheir own exploitation. As a strategy, mimesis is predicated on the notion that “negative views can only be overcome when they are exposed and demystified,” writes Sarah Donovan, a professor of philosophy at Wagner College. “When successfully employed, it repeats a negative viewwithout reducing women to that viewand makes fun of it such that the view itself must be discarded.”

Theres a shaming aspect: to say the words out loud shows how despicable those words are.Columbia Business School professor Adam Galinsky

The strategy is by no means newin fact, a broader definition extending beyond strictly womens oppression was usedagainst the ruling class in 1960s Yugoslavia, and has rhetorical roots that date back to Platobut given the current political climate, and the rising issue of Internet hate speech, this type of resistance is ripe for implementation. In Edinburgh this winter, for example, four women will perform a piece of verbatim theater called “Locker Room Talk” based on the misogynistic comments made by President-elect Donald Trump in that Access Hollywood tape that leaked during the election. By repeating the comments word for word, the women aren’t just condemning the languagethey’re parading it in an attempt to get people to confront its contents.

In fact, one of most popular memes of the election was another mimesismemealso Trump-inspired. During the final debate, as Hillary Clinton spoke about raising taxes on the wealthy to help fund Social Security, Trump leaned into the microphone to call her a “nasty woman.” Instead of just ignoring it, in which case it might becomea rallying cry among Trump supporters, Clinton supporters re-appropriated “nasty woman” as a phrase of empowerment. Galinksy calls the move “a clear attempt at trying to revalue [the language].”

Which is exactly what makesthe Blogologues go from merely funny to actually important. Intentionally or not, they have brought to light an engaging, funny, and effective implementation of subversion. By bringing the internet into the real worldand finding a way to undermineits ugly partsthey’ve found a way to neutralize and overcomeit. Laughing at it IRL just sweetens the deal.

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from Blogologues: The Hilarious Live Show That Puts Internet Trolls in Their Place