#Tether

[mostlysignssomeportents]

“That Makes Me Smart”

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

https://pluralistic.net/2024/12/04/its-not-a-lie/#its-a-premature-truth

The Biden administration disappointed, frustrated and enraged in so many ways, including abetting a genocide – but one consistent bright spot over the past four years was the unseen-for-generations frontal assault on corporate power and corporate corruption.

The three words that define this battle above all others are "unfair and deceptive" – words that appear in Section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act and other legislation modeled on it, like USC40 Section 41712(a), which gives the Department of Transportation the power to ban "unfair and deceptive" practices as well:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/01/10/the-courage-to-govern/#whos-in-charge

When Congress created an agency to punish "unfair and deceptive" conduct, they were saying to the American people, "You have a right not to be cheated." While this may sound obvious, it's hardly how the world works.

To get a sense of how many ripoffs are part of our daily lives, let's take a little tour of the ways that the FTC and other agencies have used the "unfair and deceptive" standard to defend you over the past four years. Take Amazon Prime: Amazon executives emailed one another, openly admitting that in their user tests, the public was consistently fooled by Amazon's "get free shipping with Prime" dialog boxes, thinking they were signing up for free shipping and not understanding that they were actually signing up to send the company $140/year. They had tested other versions of the signup workflow that users were able to correctly interpret, but they decided to go with the confusing version because it made them more money:

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2024/05/amazon-execs-may-be-personally-liable-for-tricking-users-into-prime-sign-ups/

Getting you signed up for Prime isn't just a matter of taking $140 out of your pocket once – because while Amazon has produced a greased slide that whisks you into a recurring Prime subscription, the process for canceling that recurring payment is more like a greased pole you must climb to escape the Prime pit. This is typical of many services, where signing up happens in a couple clicks, but canceling is a Kafkaesque nightmare. The FTC decided that this was an "unfair and deceptive" business practice and used its authority to create a "Click to Cancel" rule that says businesses have to make it as easy to cancel a recurring payment as it was to sign up for it:

https://www.theregister.com/2023/07/12/ftc_cancel_subscriptions/

Once businesses have you locked in, they also spy on you, ingesting masses of commercial surveillance data that you "consented" to by buying a car, or clicking to a website, or installing an app, or just physically existing in space. They use this to implement "surveillance pricing," raising prices based on their estimation of your desperation. Uber got caught doing this a decade ago, raising the price of taxi rides for users whose batteries were about to die, but these days, everyone's in on the game. For example, McDonald's has invested in a company that spies on your finances to determine when your payday is, and then raises the price of your usual breakfast sandwich by a dollar the day you get paid:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/06/05/your-price-named/#privacy-first-again

Everything about this is "unfair and deceptive" – from switching prices the second you click into the store to the sham of consent that consists of, say, picking up your tickets to a show and being ordered to download an app that comes with 20,000 words of terms and conditions that allows the company that sends you a QR code to spy on you for the rest of your life in any way they can and sell the data to anyone who'll buy it.

As bad as it is to be trapped in an abusive relationship as a shopper, it's a million times worse to be trapped as a worker. One in 18 American workers is under a noncompete "agreement" that makes it illegal for you to change jobs and work for someone else in the same industry. The vast majority of these workers are in low-waged food-service jobs. The primary use of the American noncompete is to stop the cashier at Wendy's from getting an extra $0.25/hour by taking a job at McDonald's.

Noncompetes are shrouded in a fog of easily dispelled bossly bullshit: claims that noncompetes raise wages (empirically, this is untrue), or that they enable "IP"-intensive industries to grow by protecting their trade secrets. This claim is such bullshit: you can tell by the fact that noncompetes are banned under California's state constitution and yet the most IP-intensive industries have attracted hundreds of billions – if not trillions – in investment capital even though none of their workforce can be bound under a noncompete. The FTC's order banning noncompetes for every worker in America simply brings the labor regime that created Silicon Valley and Hollywood to the rest of the country:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/10/26/hit-with-a-brick/#graceful-failure

Noncompetes aren't the only "unfair and deceptive" practice used against American workers. The past decade has seen the rise of private equity consolidation in several low-waged industries, like pet grooming. The new owners of every pet grooming salon within 20 miles of your house haven't just slashed workers' wages, they've also cooked up a scheme that lets them charge workers thousands of dollars if they quit these shitty jobs. This scheme is called a "training repayment agreement provision" (TRAP!): workers who are TRAPped at Petsmart are made to work doing menial jobs like sweeping up the floor for three to four weeks. Petsmart calls this "training," and values it at $5,500. If you quit your pet grooming job in the next two years, you legally owe PetSmart $5,500 to "repay" them for the training:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/08/04/its-a-trap/#a-little-on-the-nose

Workers are also subjected to "unfair and deceptive" bossware: "AI" tools sold to bosses that claim they can sort good workers from bad, but actually serve as random-number generators that penalize workers in arbitrary, life-destroying ways:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/11/26/hawtch-hawtch/#you-treasure-what-you-measure

Some of the most "unfair and deceptive" conduct we endure happens in shadowy corners of industry, where obscure middlemen help consolidated industries raise prices and pick your pocket. All the meat you buy in the grocery store comes from a cartel of processing and packing companies that all subscribe to the same "price consulting" services that tells them how to coordinate across-the-board price rises (tell me again how greedflation isn't a thing?):

https://pluralistic.net/2023/10/04/dont-let-your-meat-loaf/#meaty-beaty-big-and-bouncy

It's not just food, it's all of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. Take shelter: the highly consolidated landlord industry uses apps like Realpage to coordinate rental price hikes, turning the housing crisis into a housing emergency:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/07/24/gouging-the-all-seeing-eye/#i-spy

And of course, health is the most "unfair and deceptive" industry of all. Useless middlemen like "Pharmacy Benefit Managers" ("a spreadsheet with political power" -Matt Stoller) coordinate massive price-hikes in the drugs you need to stay alive, which is why Americans pay substantially more for medicine than anyone else in the world, even as the US government spends more than any other to fund pharma research, using public money:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/09/23/shield-of-boringness/#some-men-rob-you-with-a-fountain-pen

It's not just drugs: every piece of equipment – think hospital beds and nuclear medicine machines – as well as all the consumables – from bandages to saline – at your local hospital runs through a cartel of "Group Purchasing Organizations" that do for hospital equipment what PBMs do for medicine:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/09/27/lethal-dysfunction/#luxury-bones

For the past four years, we've lived in an America where a substantial portion of the administrative state went to war every day to stamp out unfair and deceptive practices. It's still happening: yesterday, the CFPB (which Musk has vowed to shut down) proposed a new rule that would ban the entire data brokerage industry, who nonconsensually harvest information about every American, and package it up into categories like "teenagers from red states seeking abortions" and "military service personnel with gambling habits" and "seniors with dementia" and sell this to marketers, stalkers, foreign governments and anyone else with a credit-card:

https://www.consumerfinance.gov/about-us/newsroom/cfpb-proposes-rule-to-stop-data-brokers-from-selling-sensitive-personal-data-to-scammers-stalkers-and-spies/

And on the same day, the FTC banned the location brokers who spy on your every movement and sell your past and present location, again, to marketers, stalkers, foreign governments and anyone with a credit card:

https://www.404media.co/ftc-bans-location-data-company-that-powers-the-surveillance-ecosystem/

These are tantalizing previews of a better life for every American, one in which the rule is, "play fair." That's not the world that Trump and his allies want to build. Their motto isn't "cheaters never prosper" – it's "caveat emptor," let the buyer beware.

Remember the 2016 debate where Clinton accused Trump of cheating on his taxes and he admitted to it, saying "That makes me smart?" Trumpism is the movement of "that makes me smart" life, where if you get scammed, that's your own damned fault. Sorry, loser, you lost.

Nowhere do you see this more than in cryptocurrencyland, so it's not a coincidence that tens – perhaps hundreds – in dark crypto money was flushed into the election, first to overpower Democratic primaries and kick out Dem legislators who'd used their power to fight the "unfair and deceptive" crowd:

https://www.politico.com/newsletters/california-playbook-pm/2024/02/13/crypto-comes-for-katie-porter-00141261

And then to fight Dems across the board (even the Dems whose primary victories were funded by dark crypto money) and elect the GOP as the party of "caveat emptor"/"that makes me smart":

https://www.coindesk.com/news-analysis/2024/12/02/crypto-cash-fueled-53-members-of-the-next-u-s-congress

Crypto epitomizes the caveat emptor economy. By design, fraudulent crypto transactions can't be reversed. If you get suckered, that's canonically a you problem. And boy oh boy, do crypto users get suckered (including and especially those who buy Trump's shitcoins):

https://www.web3isgoinggreat.com/

And for crypto users who get ripped off because they've parked their "money" in an online wallet, there's no sympathy, just "not your keys, not your coins":

https://www.ledger.com/academy/not-your-keys-not-your-coins-why-it-matters

A cornerstone of the "unfair and deceptive" world is that only suckers – that is, outsiders, marks and little people – have to endure consequences when they get rooked. When insiders get ripped off, all principle is jettisoned. So it's not surprising that when crypto insiders got taken for millions the first time they created a DAO, they tore up all the rules of the crypto world and gave themselves the mulligan that none of the rest of us are entitled to in cryptoland:

https://blog.ethereum.org/2016/07/20/hard-fork-completed

Where you find crypto, you find Elon Musk, the guy who epitomizes caveat emptor thinking. This is a guy who has lied to drivers to get them to buy Teslas by promising "full self driving in one year," every year, since 2015:

https://www.consumerreports.org/cars/autonomous-driving/timeline-of-tesla-self-driving-aspirations-a9686689375/

Musk told investors that he had a "prototype" autonomous robot that could replace their workers, then demoed a guy in a robot suit, pretending to be a robot:

https://gizmodo.com/elon-musk-unveils-his-funniest-vaporware-yet-1847523016

Then Musk did it again, two years later, demoing a remote-control robot while lying and claiming that it was autonomous:

https://techcrunch.com/2024/10/14/tesla-optimus-bots-were-controlled-by-humans-during-the-we-robot-event

This is entirely typical of the AI sector, in which "AIs" are revealed, over and over, to be low-waged workers pretending to be robots, so much so that Indian tech industry insiders joke that "AI" stands for "Absent Indians":

https://pluralistic.net/2024/01/29/pay-no-attention/#to-the-little-man-behind-the-curtain

Musk's view is that he's not a liar, merely a teller of premature truths. Autonomous cars and robots are just around the corner (just like the chatbots that can do your job, and not merely convince your boss to fire you while failing to do your job). He's not tricking you, he's just faking it until he makes it. It's not a scam, it's inspirational. Of course, if he's wrong and you are scammed, well, that's a you problem. Caveat emptor. That makes him smart.

Musk does this all the time. Take the Twitter blue tick, originally conceived of as a way to keep Twitter users from being scammed ("unfair and deceptive") by con artists pretending to be famous people. Musk's inaugural act at Twitter was to take away blue ticks from verified users and sell them to anyone who'd pay $8/month. Almost no one coughed up for this – the main exception being scammers, who used their purchased, unverified blue ticks to steal from Twitter users ("that makes me smart").

As Twitter hemorrhaged advertising revenue and Musk became increasingly desperate to materialize an army of $8/month paid subscribers, he pulled another scam: he nonconsensually applied blue ticks to prominent accounts, in a bid to trick normies into thinking that widely read people valued blue ticks so much they were paying for them out of their own pockets:

https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-65365366

If you were tricked into buying a blue tick on this pretense, well, caveat emptor. Besides, it's not a lie, it's a premature truth. Someday all those widely read users with nonconsensual blue ticks will surely value them so highly that they do start to pay for them. And if they don't? Well, Musk got your $8: "that makes me smart."

Scammers will always tell you that they're not lying to you, merely telling premature truths. Sam Bankman-Fried's defenders will tell you that he didn't actually steal all those billions. He gambled them on a bet that (sorta-kinda) paid off. Eventually, he was able to make all his victims (sorta-kinda) whole, so it's not even a theft:

https://www.cnn.com/2024/05/08/business/ftx-bankruptcy-plan-repay-creditors/index.html

Likewise, Tether, a "stablecoin" that was unable to pass an audit for many years as it issued unbacked, unregulated securities while lying and saying that for every dollar they minted, they had a dollar in reserves. Tether now (maybe) has reserves to equal its outstanding coins, so obviously all those years where they made false claims, they weren't lying, merely telling a premature truth:

https://creators.spotify.com/pod/show/cryptocriticscorner/episodes/Tether-wins–Skeptics-lose-the-end-of-an-era-e2rhf5e

If Tether had failed a margin call during those years and you'd lost everything, well, caveat emptor. The Tether insiders were always insulated from that risk, and that's all that matters: "that makes me smart."

When I think about the next four years, this is how I frame it: the victory of "that makes me smart" over "fairness and truth."

For years, progressives have pointed out the right's hypocrisy, despite that fact that Americans have been conditioned to be so cynical that even the rankest hypocrisy doesn't register. But "caveat emptor?" That isn't just someone else's bad belief or low ethics: it's the way that your life is materially, significantly worsened. The Biden administration – divided between corporate Dems and the Warren/Sanders wing that went to war on "unfair and deceptive" – was ashamed and nearly silent on its groundbreaking work fighting for fairness and honesty. That was a titanic mistake.

Americans may not care about hypocrisy, but they really care about being stolen from. No one wants to be a sucker.

[weepingwidar]

Mary Herbert (British, 1988) - Tether (2022-2023)

[runcriedthecrawlingif]

"You’re about to say that you’re not in Yuel, before you realize that’s not true anymore.

It feels like from one day to the next, the mountains were absorbed into their ever expanding empire. It only took a show of force that could not be matched, and a treaty written in a language no Arantian could understand. You miss the days when your little town flew beneath their radar.

But who are you to argue when you work for them, the Yuelians and the man they put in charge."

You're the Interpreter for Lord Aulos. Half Arantian, half Yuelian, there's no one more suited for the job. You're back in Arantes for the first time in years, following its Yuelian occupation.

You're not much more than a scribe, bound on paper to the new Lord of the Manor. But language is a powerful tool, one you wield expertly.

The fate of Arantes is in your hands. Will you push back against Yuelian occupation? Protect your home and heritage from outside influences? Or will you further your own agenda? Make Arantes the new jewel of the empire?

Maybe you'll delve into something deeper. The Manor holds many secrets if you're willing to uncover them.

Link to Demo (10k released 30/10/24)

Beware of typos, it's still in its first edits.

[deltarune-au-domain]

Honestly, there wasn't much and I don't think I got the details of the rubble pile very well. It looked better in the dream. :/

The rest of my dream wasn't Deltarune related and requires WAAAAAY too much prior knowledge of previous dreams, so I won't get into it.

I've been having Deltarune dreams more often since chapters 3 and 4. There are 2 I never drew or posted about simply because I could never get the details right. The scenes I see are so beautiful and intricate that I can never truly capture their beauty.

[annerb-fic]

I have posted chapter 10 of my @mdzsbigbang fic Tether. This chapter comes with lovely art from the amazing @alightbuthappypen! (How did I get so lucky to get so many pieces for this fic?!)

Enjoy!

[skulldeermate]

Happy Late Halloween!

[antomander]

Watching Marisha and Laura after the tether conversation is something else. Marisha’s reflective fascination. Her little looks in Laura’s direction, her little smiles. Laura’s nervous body language, her twitchiness, her trembling; that anxious intoxication. They really gave space to Laudna and Imogen at the table and felt their feels and it shows.

[sillylunaa]

Totally didn't forget about this umm,,

@know-it-all-and-all

Little critters

[midwinterspringwrites]

won't start (till you touch)

Rated E

Darklina

Alone in her room in the Spinning Wheel, Alina fantasizes about Aleksander.

(Some horny angst inspired by "Fortnight" by Taylor Swift.)

Written for Jo in the @darklinaserver Valentines Mixtape.

Moodboard by me.

Read on AO3.

[furiousflamingfeline]

OC for @aidenr0 (Spindle) on bluesky. I just love Tether’s design, she’s so cool, and I simply needed to draw a buff woman to heal my soul. 🧡 if you’re feeling down, try drawing a beefy woman. It really helps!

[know-it-all-and-all]

Beach episode 2.0 (colored)

[annerb-fic]

I have posted chapter 4 of my @mdzsbigbang fic Tether. This is the first chapter with art from the amazing @alightbuthappypen ! Behold the wangxian goodness.

Enjoy!

[alygator86]

I forgot how perfect tumblr was for ✨feelings✨ and ✨thoughts✨ about fandom.

I rewatched The Librarians right? And I mean the movies too.

Then my AuDHD self decided to write a bunch of fanfic about my OTP Fleve. So naturally I had to make a list of episodes Flynn was in.

Have we ever talked about how similar Eve was to Flynn?

Flynn was alone for 10 years. He had Judson and Charlene and Cal was his best friend. Bestie, really.

But the first episode Eve is literally the same. She has her job and idk about best friend and she doesn’t want to be on leave because what is in her apartment?

They’re both stubborn af and don’t like being told what to do - Eve that tracks. She’s a Capricorn.

But also? Maybe no one tell her that on Flynn’s first artifact mission Nicole just like threw him out of a plane and caught him. Nicole was not really top notch Guardian vibes. Like I know Nicole is on the good side now but Eve still might punch her for that. Who tf throws a Librarian out of a plane?

Then it took me some time to put it all together and put it together but Fleve are 100% magically married. Like I thought tethering was was being magically connected to make sure the Library didn’t stop existing. But I missed the hints. I mentioned the Au of the ADHD right?

But Flynn or Eve (I forgot) compared to Jenkins the world’s worst wedding planner. And after evil Nicole stole Flynn, Eve wouldn’t pick one of the others to tether with. Yeah, sure, it could have been a plot point to get Jenkins to be died dead and the other 3 to resign but they could have done it another way too.

Then Fleve find each other in Nicole’s world, fix the things, use the arson toaster to locate Nicole in the past (does anyone remember what that toaster is called?) and give her her book so she can be good Nicole. Then poof! Because she does do things for good, for the Library they’re back at Tethering rehearsal day.

I know people don’t like that because it “erases” a lot of season 4. But I like it. Fleve decide to tether right then because they remember everything that happened.

And I think they still do the same missions/artifact retrievals. Eve wouldn’t not let them. But now she has an advantage.

Like she can just go and dominate Fortuna. When they go on the trip with Santa? She’s taking noise canceling headphones because those partying elves were annoying. Because even if they knew the “kids” used the sleigh it still has to happen so Ezekiel can fix things with his mom.

She and Flynn know all about that movie they’re getting trapped in. They know how to fix they ending and Eve loves the movie. They won’t be stuck for days now.

Daringington Dare? Flynn isn’t such a fanboy anymore. And they know more than he does this time. But they can let Dare think he does sometimes.

That forest gave Eve a gold pinecone the first time so they still have to go. But if she’s not in her I Can Do It With A Broken Heart era AND Flynn goes too they will totally beat that DOSA team while. It would be hilarious.

The Ecuador Mission that made Cass want to go to the Safest Town where she freed a fairy? Eve has to let that happen.

They have to go to Feud and help the ghosts!! Eve knows about the book that guy named Jeff had that let him switch bodies with Jenkins. She was over that. She and Flynn would probably go to his house, be like yeah, no and take the book. Maybe they would take Jenkins to meet Jeff though.

[qjqzxjq]

Mary Herbert (British, 1988) Tether (2022-2023)

[thethirdbear]