While the Onion buying InfoWars is indeed extremely funny, very few of the posts I've seen commenting on the sale have mentioned that the families of the Sandy Hook victims apparently agreed to voluntarily reduce their lawsuit payout as part of a deal to ensure that the Onion would acquire InfoWars wholesale, rather than having the company broken up and auctioned off piecemeal, as the latter course could potentially have allowed some of those pieces to end up back in the hands of Alex Jones' cronies.

Like, yes, it is in fact very funny that InfoWars is now a wholly owned subsidiary of Clickhole, but the real props go out to the Sandy Hook families who saw the opportunity and willingly gave up the additional millions of dollars that could have been realised by stripping InfoWars for parts in order to make that happen.

If your democrat friends start muttering about stolen election conspiracy theories, the time to have a sit down with them and express your concerns is NOW, while you still have a chance to reach them, not 6 months from now when they're fully conspiracy-pilled.

Here's some of the talking points and why they're bullshit:

But just as importantly as the facts: sit down with your friend and talk about the anxiety that's behind their conspiracy leanings. Acknowledge their pain and fear. Help them find ways to feel less powerless and regain their sense of agency. Take them to a mutual aid event, involve them in a fundraising event for a marginalized group, invite them to a local community effort. If they spend more time feeling connection and empowerment and less time doom scrolling online, they're far more likely to stay in reality.

This this this

I worked as an election judge across multiple polling locations and election types in my state from 2018-2023 (presidential primary and general elections, midterms, and special elections like for the school board etc.)

US elections are extremely secure. There are so many safeguards in place. Everything is double and triple counted.

The number of ballots electronically counted by the box are checked against the number of physical ballots at the end of the night, and also the receipt papers that individuals exchange for their ballot. All three of these counts MUST MATCH. Sometimes you're off by 1 number and it means everyone stops and triple counts these papers until you find the error (human error, it's been 16 hours and two pieces of thin receipt paper were stuck together and the second person to recount finds it and everyone cheers because thank fuck, it means no one dropped anything on the floor anywhere.)

There are eyes everywhere and there's a deliberate mix of poll workers across political parties/affiliations. It's simply not possible to alter even 1 ballot at 1 polling place, much less thousands.

Unfortunately, Donald Trump won this election. If there was interference, it was NOT at the voting booth. That's simply not possible. The "interference" (if you can even call it that) comes from right wing propaganda convincing stupid and/or hateful and/or selfish people to vote for him.

man how the hell is this stupid ass sport legal. why do we funnel HIGH SCHOOLERS into this

jesus christ????

TOBY STEPHENS as James McGraw and RUPERT PENRY-JONES as Thomas Hamilton in Black Sails, Chapter XII.

If you read "maybe it's not helping us if the only thing boys and young men see from equity-seeking spaces is how they, personally, are to blame for everything and we actively hate them and they're garbage, regardless of behaviour, their own experiences/situations/marginalizations, and maybe we need to address that"...

...and you immediately interpret that as "you're telling me I have to prioritize never hurting men's feelings" and so on....

....maybe stop and consider that there are in fact a range of ways to treat people and interact with people and even work for change that include more options than "any criticism at all hurts feelings and is not allowed" and "people who have a characteristic that is more privileged than mine in society can be rightfully subjected to anything I want to do or say to them and I don't have to think about the impact, accuracy or justice of anything I say, ever."

Like there are some other options here. Human communication and consideration allows for a whole range in between these two comical yet so often foregrounded extremes.

Further note:

There’s also a difference between someone asking you to invite someone else to your table as an honoured guest….

…. and someone saying that if you keep calling them a piece of shit at the top of your lungs, they’re probably not going to be motivated to sign your petition and or donate to your cause.

Like. “Maybe it would help if people wearing our uniform weren’t constantly out there calling the people we’re actively canvassing for electoral support Pieces of Shit all the time” is not actually. The same. As making everything about them. Especially when that part ISN’T A METAPHOR.

If someone's "screaming" at you that you're a bad person, it's probably because you did something bad. Revenge porn, sexual assault, street harassment, sexist jokes, etc all deserve to be addressed and criticized.

Treating people who criticize your actions like unreasonable, hysterical evil feminists also isn't a good way to make people empathize or work with you, by the way.

If someone's "screaming" at you that you're a bad person, it's probably because you did something bad.

Yeah that is….a categorically bad take. And one easily disproven by being on the internet ever.

I will note that you’ve actually demonstrated/replicated the exact extreme black and white take I’m saying is a problem here: Nowhere at any point did I say “we can’t criticize”. And the fact that when I say “maybe we should consider the impact of constantly saying things like ‘men are shit’”, you’re interpreting me as saying “you can’t criticize” is EXACTLY WHAT I’M TALKING ABOUT.

You can in fact call out revenge porn as the vilest behaviour imaginable…. without doing what I’m saying is probably a bad idea. Conflating that is something YOU’RE doing.

What I wanted was for you to join my side. For that, I would have done much worse.

HIKARU NO GO | S01E14

Chinese Drama - 2020, 36 episodes

~ Episode List ~ |  ~ Chinese Drama Master List ~

anyway yeah DELETE YOUR FUCKING ADVERTISING IDS

Android:

Settings ➡️ Google ➡️ all services ➡️ Ads ➡️ Delete advertising ID

(may differ slightly depending on android version and manufacturer firmware. you can't just search settings for "advertising ID" of course 🔪)

iOS:

Settings ➡️ privacy ➡️ tracking ➡️ toggle "allow apps to request to track" to OFF

and ALSO settings ➡️ privacy ➡️ Apple advertising ➡️ toggle "personalized ads" to OFF

more details about the process here via the EFF

If your vision for the deradicalization of right-wing men begins and ends with "other men telling them that that's gross and to stop it" then I'm sorry, you do not understand how masculinity works.

"Men who hold patriarchal status" and "men who are feminists" are two groups who overlap less than you want them to. I'm sorry. That's not solely because men are so happy with patriarchal status that they don't want to risk it by policing misogyny/queerphobia/racism, It's because being misogynistic, queerphobic, and racist, end expressing other forms of toxic masculinity(and often abusively so) are part of how people establish and maintain patriarchal status. The men who have the ability to stop this via nothing but peer pressure are the very people who are doing it. That's by design. And engaging in feminist intervention is, in and of itself, usually the abrupt end of that status and its associated power to persuade misogynistic men.

Like, I have worked in blue collar jobs as a notably queer person. It was pretty much a constant deluge of verbal abuse. In my experience, most blue collar work environments are exploitative, abusive, and bigoted, and very gleefully so. On the occasions I have spoken up about someone saying something that was super fucking out of line (asking me which of the girls walking by was hottest. We were installing a portable classroom at a middle school), believe it or not, they completely failed to be shamed! Because nobody else on the crew gave a fuck. *I* was the weird one. They ghosted me. A full blown company ghosted me. I suddenly didn't have a job anymore because they just straightforwardly stopped telling me where the next job site was.

Like, this doesn't mean that it's your job to do it, but this vision you have of these big groups of men where everyone is on the fence and there is precisely one shit stirrer who can be shut down by a brave feminist man who can single handedly set the example for all these other guys...you are high. You are describing an "everybody clapped" level absurd scenario. Most of these truly virulent misogynistic guys either have zero friends, because, you know, our society is atomized to fuck, or they are in a group where the feminist guy is actually the weirdo who can be shut down and ostracized much, much easier than the misogynists, because there is no such thing as a man misogynists respect who stands up for women.

You might be saying "well, we're talking about longstanding personal relationships, actually. Like, they need to have to want to spend time with you and then, as a side effect, you can mind control them out of being a threat to us."

Problem with that being:

1: Many feminist men also have no friends, see the atomized society above.

2: Feminist men already stopped hanging out with men who make rape jokes because why the fuck would we want to spend time with them.

3: That isn't just because we respect women so hard. We are in many cases talking about men who are also deeply queerphobic, heirarchical, violent and abusive to other men. What initially drew me to feminism and women was a lack of heirarchical squabbling and constant bullying, and the ability to be openly queer. A lot of men who came to feminism did so because they knew that the patriarchy was not a place they would find success or acceptance. These are not the men who are gonna be able to change right wing minds.

4. Men do not view themselves as a monolith. There is no universal brotherhood of men. The actual meaning of the term "Fragile masculinity" is that men are constantly expected to prove that they are deserving of the status of being a member of their own gender. There are large swathes of men--including most of the men who you'd look to as examples of good, feminist men who you want to undertake this project--who are considered failed men, sissies, f****ts, soyboys, ect. They are. Not. Going. To. Convince. These. Men. Of. Jack. Shit. Much less successfully *shame* them. Jesus.

I know all of this sucks. I know it would be cool to be able to just point at a group and have them be responsible for the work. But nah. It's gonna have to be a societal project, one that will probably outlast all of us. Sorry. The thing you want these men to do is, absolutely, the morally correct thing to do. But presuming that it would be effective is, and once again I am so sorry about this, just ignorance of how these social groups function.

Since Fei Du is Luo Wenzhou's human cat, lwz should be awaken by him when Fei Du feels a little bored or hungry (of kisses :*).

Luo Wenzhou would mumble some: "uuugh what's happening" and then Fei Du in a very ruffian voice would tell: "Shixiong I need a kiss or I can't sleep properly, you can't dismiss me" and for highlighting his purpose he would nibble LWZ's pajamas like a real cat.

Luo Wenzhou would sigh his fake annoyed mood: "what can I do, I surrounded by troublesome cats" but everytime he would surrend and kiss so deeply his human cat, so deeply that Fei Du wouldn't make a sound all night.

OR some nights Fei Du would suffer of insomnia but he doesn't have the heart to trouble Luo Wenzhou because he knows he needs to sleep for his job, that old man need to rest well. (Don't let Fei Du's playing misguide you! He loves his shixiong so much!). So Fei Du would just lay there paralyzed. But Luo Wenzhou is a very proper master cats, his radar is active even when he is sleeping, he would know that his human cat is laying there on his side and he has troubled thoughts and can't sleep like he deserves, so while sleeping he would just take Fei Du more closely on his arms, caressing lightly his hair and whispering some: "sssh be good, let's sleep together, close your eyes and count cats".

Fei Du would let himself smile good-naturedly, he would murmur a Mn, thanking in his heart every gods, though he is not a believer, about the miracle of the presence of Luo Wenzhou in his life. And yeah he would close his eyes peacefully and imagine Luo Yiguo hopping instead of the classic sheep; he would count and then the sleep will come in Luo Wenzhou's comforting arms.

Messaging people for the first time is so hard. What am I supposed to say? Like, "You seem really odd and your blog intrigues me. Do you want to have philosophical conversations or perhaps talk about fictional characters?" What! Whatever. I will just follow you back and stare at your blog with my big beautiful brown eyes.

Reblog if you're okay with people coming into your DMs with the "you seem really odd and your blog intrigues me, do you want to have philosophical conversations or perhaps talk about fictional characters"

read mo du for murder and domestic shenanigans and the BEST CAT in literary fiction (that’s all cats but Luo Yiguo is for sure a top contender)

There’s a kid who wants to get into Yijianghu. But he needs a referrer that’s above 5-grade, and asked for my help.

i paint. and because someone told me that another student wanted to get his portrait done i approached this man who i have barely talked to and said "i heard you want to get painted. i'll do it for 500" because i would love some extra cash

what followed were two very confusing and exparating minutes of haggling about the price and outlining the logistics of said painting during which i said sentences like "you can be naked if you want but that would be extra" and "what do you mean why would you pay me. i do all the work?" while he got increasingly more flushed

until i put my foot down and said "well if you want to be painted baroque style that's gonna cost some money" and he said "oh my god PAINTED. that makes a lot more sense."

turns out he misheard me and thought a stranger. a random person. came up to him in the middle of the lecture hall in front of god and everyone and loudly and confidently said "i heard you want to get pegged."

and then got mad at his refusal to pay half a grand for it.

what I wish people would understand about fundraising for gaza is that while everyone is desperate and I would never say not to fundraise for or donate to individual families-- I currently fundraise to support multiple friends' families-- the overwhelming narrative I see on Tumblr that the best and most ethical thing you can do is send money to individuals and there is no option for anything else is so so incredibly damaging and inadvertently lends support to the marginalization and distrust of any remaining communal social infrastructure. the sameer project, which you should donate to, talks about this in a recent video they put out. the situation in gaza is unimaginable and everyone is in need of a huge level of support, and yet this fundraising discourse by well-meaning people in the west that donating money to individuals is the only moral way reproduces societal divides wherein resources are directed to people who speak English, who have relationships with people outside of gaza, and who have internet access while hundreds of thousands are left behind.

there ARE non-ngo locally based grassroots initiatives working to meet those needs however they can, and your small donation goes a lot further with them because they are able to buy food/water/supplies in bulk at a reduced price and reach more people with less money. again I'm not saying people shouldn't fundraise for individuals because these initiatives are so limited and many people cannot access them -- but as an example, the group I fundraise with is currently serving people fleeing north gaza who are starving and have nothing, and when we fundraise enough to do cash aid distribution there's so much need that our partners can only distribute 100-200 per large family. and then I go online and see people who have absolutely no understanding of this context at all exclusively working towards raising tens of thousands for just a few people when evacuations haven't been possible for months. it's good to do whatever you can but please consider how this narrative being reproduced among westerners trying to help that there are no other options has the potential to damage groups working towards equity and wider reach however is still possible