#also if any starts discourse im biting you

[phantomrose96]

"Okay but we're all totally recommending Gideon the Ninth to our male friends, right? Because can we TALK about what good male character representation Gideon the Ninth has?? Because it's literally so so good.

First off there's Palamedes, who's witty and smart and sarcastic and he literally solves like half the plot. Literally the plot would not have worked without him. And he's regularly shown to be smarter than even Harrow. And best of all, no one ever questions him or belittles him for being a man. Literally everyone treats him like an equal, even the women who see him as an enemy.

Then there's Isaac, who really feels like a real teenager he's so fleshed out. He's got a lot of personality and angst and big emotions, and the author literally never once sexualizes him. Like you know she gets it. Then Magnus is literally so nurturing and wholesome, he's like a genius inversion of the usual Strong Man trope. Literally God HIMSELF is a man.

It's really refreshing how much you can tell the author is a staunch meninist, just from the way the narrative respects all the men across the board. The only time a woman belittles a man is when Ianthe belittles Naberius, but she does that to everyone so it's not sexist. Plus Naberius is a bad ass. He literally beats Gideon in a duel. In fact the only male characters who feel like "bad" male rep are maybe the eighth house, cuz they're both kinda stereotypical male personalities... but when you consider there are 4 or maybe even 5 other prominent men in the story, it stops being "bad male stereotype" and just becomes "good male diversity :)". I really wish more authors felt brave enough to include 4 or even 5 prominent male characters, who all MATTER to the story.

Like I think that's what gets me? It was like every male character mattered. All the main character women wouldn't have gotten to where they did if not for the men who were playing SUPER important secondary roles to them? And those men weren't just there for love interests either, except kinda Palamedes whose whole motivation was the two women he's in love with, but it's REALLY done well! He literally has full autonomy of his choices the whole time and when he steers the trajectory of his whole life for the women he's in love with, it's genuinely so human and heartfelt.

But yeah it's like they were all HUMANS. It was so refreshing how easy it was to empathize with them? It wasn't like "they were men", it was like "the author knows these characters are humans, and they are men too". Idk how to explain it but it makes me really feel like I can understand men better when I usually think they're such a mystery or just really shallow in books :). I just think men should know books like this exist and that they know authors like Tamsyn Muir are out there and they get it :)."

[crevicedwelling]

hello! i am a relatively new user here on tumblr, less than a year, and i have heard a comment or two about a 'wasp discourse' that happened here, that wasps are much more nice than bees or something among those lines

this caught my curiosity as im writting a wasp based character whos just an ahole as i did it on what i knew abt them from general internet and im stuck on wether i should maaayybe change them up a bit

if its not too much to ask do you happen to know a bit abt this discourse? or have a link to it? or if not to the discourse itself some other link that elaborates abt the same topic? perhaps even someone else i can ask this?

thank you very much!

to start off, there are a lot of bees and wasps in this world and it is not easy to generalize about them. there are ~20,000 bee species, and the vast majority of these are solitary bees that nest in the ground, plant stems, or in holes in wood, and because they produce no honey or have a colony to guard, have no need to be defensive or aggressive towards humans (because “towards humans” seems to be what most people base this idea off of). colonial bees, like honeybees, are actually much more defensive than solitary ones; they have huge food stores and many defenseless larvae, hence their nasty stings (or bites, for the stingless bees) and swarm defense of their hives.

bees, however, are just a family of wasps. their closest relatives are believed to be the crabronid wasps (example: cicada killers) and sphecid thread-waisted wasps (ex. mud daubers). these wasps, and most others, are also largely solitary, and hunting prey aside, don’t typically use their stings for anything other than personal defense. of the hundreds of thousands of wasps, most of them (75%) are not just solitary but also parasitoids that develop inside other insects. it’s hard to say “all wasps are assholes [to people]” when some 100,000 of them are tiny specks smaller than sesame seeds that nobody other than scientists notice.

two parasitoids: a braconid ~3mm long & something else ~0.3mm long

the wasps most people take issue with are vespids, since they like the same foods we do (sweets, meat) and have powerful stings to defend their nests. these include the social hornets, yellowjackets, and paper wasps, but many mason wasps and the like are solitary (and, you guessed it, want nothing to do with people). vespids are great predators of caterpillars, flies, and other pests that humans don’t like in addition to being pollinators.

a yellowjacket: Vespula squamosa

the usual anti-wasp, pro-bee sentiments go: wasps attack for no reason, don’t pollinate, don’t make honey, and are “assholes.” wasps do pollinate (most wasps, bees and ants don’t eat solid food, and therefore largely drink flower nectar; some plants are only pollinated by wasps).

some tropical wasps do actually make honey, though it’s not harvested by humans. it’s sort of silly to say that making honey is what makes bees “good” though—a very selfish mindset, and for example butterflies are well-liked by people despite not making any edible products for us.

wasps also attack only when provoked, either because you’re near a wasp nest or when you lean on one accidentally. they are defending their baby sisters and themselves, same as bees would. at least in the US, I think the reason that wasps are so hated is that we have many species of paper wasp and yellowjacket that are willing to nest on or under houses, while the (invasive) honeybees prefer trees or are kept by beekeepers in artificial hives, so it’s just more likely you’ll run into problems with wasps than bees.

tl;dr:

wasps and bees are neither “nice” nor “mean.”

bees are mostly loners that don’t bother people. colonial bees will sting to defend their nests or themselves from predators. most bees are pollinators, who gather pollen to feed their larvae. a few species make honey that humans harvest.

wasps are mostly loners that don’t bother people. colonial wasps will sting to defend their nests or themselves from predators. most wasps are pollinators, and most hunt or parasitize other insects to feed their larvae.

[eah-confessions]

alright, ill bite. this is the one and only time i will directly comment on any apple white discourse because i am SO TIRED but im also a yapper (swear to GOD any confessions after this will be for my babies the side cast).

just about any defense of apple can be chalked down to this; she was a teenager, and she had good intentions. both of which are, in my opinion, true. she was young and naive, and she never meant to cause any harm.

but OH MY GOD, THESE PEOPLE NEED TO LEARN THAT ACTIONS SPEAK LOUDER THAN ANYTHING ELSE. intentions mean nothing when the things you are doing are bad. and as for her being young and growing up the way she did and yada yada yada, those are all reasons. not an excuse.

she had great character growth, and came out the other side a grown person. but when addressing the discourse based solely on her original character, she fought back against a progressive movement against an oppressive system, and regardless of any reasoning or arguments, people have the right to condemn her for that.

and just to finish this off, i want it on the record that i love apple!!! but i am so tired of people writing everything off as an innocent mistake.

NOW, WHO WANTS TO START SOME DISCOURSE THAT HASN'T BEEN DONE 15 BILLION TIMES? :)

I love this take. Also, the reason new discourse can't fucking happen is because so many people don't understand how these social like structures ig work in order to oppress the rebels. Many of these Apple defenders are unfortunately white too. I feel like that contributes to that too. I hope someone starts discourse that is actually INTERESTING INSTEAD OF TALKING OVER PEOPLE OF COLOR TOO

[spwarkledogz]

WELCOME TO MY BLOG!!

ABOUT ME

my name is miles/ellie/mimi! i'm 20 yrs old! this is my therian/otherkin/fictionkin specific sideblog!

i used to be @silly-catpup but i deactivated! i'm starting over here :3 i figured out a lot more things about my identity anyway, so!!

more in depth about me and boundaries under the cut to avoid a long post ..

im very queer and very not quiet about it. i'm a transmasc bigender lesbian girlboy. no, you do not need an explanation of my identity (unless you are really nice about it, of course!)

im a polytherian shapeshifter! my theriotypes are; sparkledog, snow leopard, and cat.

i am a physical therian! if that bothers you, block me forever. we are real and we are not going anywhere!!

me being a sparkledog really has nothing to do with a personal aesthetic that i have. im not necessarily a "scene kid" at all, im just a really colorful dog that looks like 2008 threw up all over it.

my theriotypes are mainly anthropomorphic, but don't always have to be.

i'll probably make a rentry relating to my fictotypes someday but today is not that day

i am low-med support autistic, physically disabled, and an AAC and mobility aid user!

BOUNDARIES

i dont tolerate bigotry of any kind. this includes people who are hateful to queer identities that they personally don't understand.

fatphobia dni, seriously!!!!! i am fat, and while i am happy with my body, that doesn't mean fatphobia cant hurt me. im extremely sensitive to the topic. eating is also a very VERY sensitive topic and i will not be making posts about my eating habits nor will i engage in convos about it (unless its a silly question like my favorite snack!)

mean and judgmental therians do NOT touch my blog im serious! i dont care that you find 12 year old tiktok therians annoying or that you think physical alterhumanity is fake! stay the fuck off my blog or i'll bite you!

minors are free to follow and interact with my posts but please stay out of my dms thanky!!!! (i also will not be mutuals w you or follow back)

shit i dont interact with because i do not care: syscourse, shipping discourse (pro vs anti shit), or any variants of those things!! keep that shit off my blog because i literally dont care about either of them (and dont consider me "neutral" on either of them because of that, either. im not neutral im just not involved.)

TAG SYSTEM

#✩🌈🐶 YAPPER ONLINE - regular posts, talking, etc

#✩🌈🐶 CRAFTS - stuff ive made

#✩🌈🐶 FOAMING - rant, vent, etc

#✩🌈🐶 MAIL - answering asks

#✩🌈🐶 NONNIE - anonymous asks

#✩🌈🐶 REDOG - reblogs

[pitchforksraised]

— SYSTEM ERROR INTRO POST NOT FOUND

"What do you MEAN there's another error message!?"

Though I don’t really have a name, you can call me Aleph! I also like to go by RB (short for Rootbeer! You can call me that too, by the way!) or, if you’re feeling a bit adventurous, Delta or certain character names! I’ll make a list of those eventually and link it here! I also got a pronouns page if you want more details!

To be honest, other than basic DNI, kink / ED / SH / discourse blogs, selfcest shippers and people who are pro-AI, I don’t really have one. I do block freely, however.

My thin ice list isn’t long, but will be updated as I see fit. People who are heavily religious, Blixer x Cube shippers and child x child shippers. If you are / do any of the things on the thin ice list, don't worry! You can still interact, just keep that away from me please.

Lastly, I run the blogs @and-im-goneee as well as @target-detected !! They are DOD (Die of Death) askblogs, and if you wanna go bother them you are 100% free! Just follow the rules, kay? ( I u < )

That’s really all for basic stuff. Under the cut is stuff about me! Do note that there’s some brightly colored, quickly moving and flashy stuff under there. Stay safe! <3

I see you wanna know more…venture in! I don’t bite. …maybe. No promises! <3

Let’s start out with what I am.

I identify as a silhouettekin, which, put in my own words (since there are no other words to put it in), means that I am a humanoid non-human that looks like a human’s silhouette. I also may be a spacekin, but that’s a whole buncha words for another day.

I also like to imagine myself as a computer or mechanical being, even though I’m not one…I have a tendency to identify with stuff that I end up getting really fixated on. Sorry! ( > _ < ''' )

I also also identify as fictionvague! You can read about the term here. Just like the coiner, othervague just didn’t really fit me, so I use that label instead! I like to be referred to as any characters on the certain characters list! Scroll up to see those. ( ^_^ )

More on stuff that I end up getting really fixated on; my interests!

I like a whole buncha stuff on the web. The internet is PEAK, I live through it,,,

As of July 17th, my media / game interests in no particular order are: Pikuniku, Parkour Civilization, Kaleidoscope (Roblox!), Die of Death, Baba Is You, Animated Inanimate Battle (I do NOT support the creator!), Forsaken, Just Shapes and Beats and more!

I also really like computers! Older models are super cool to me, but modern technology has a special place in my heart too! Technology in general is just really cool to me. That and computer viruses!

When I say I really like computers though… I do mean it! (Objectum / techum! Tech in general [though I really do like sentient ai stuff] is very appealing to me.) (I’m also vurilic if that means anything lol)

Back onto me!

I LOVE the internet, but my online presence is kinda just whenever I want to be online. Sometimes I seem to be everywhere, other days I show up once if not just not at all.

Other than that, I’m an artist! Self taught and inspired by so many people I fear Tumblr would die if I even tried listing them all. :P I’ll sometimes post my art! Just sift through #art and you’ll see some of my works maybe. Maybe is the keyword here.

I also write, and you can find stuff I’ve published on my AO3 account! Do be warned, it’s more hyperfixation focused lol.

I am neurodivergent (though self / undiagnosed unfortunately) and gay to hell and back. What a combo! I know I have ADHD, but I also have suspected OCD and BPD. Be patient, I can be a bit explosive at times and struggle to tell tone. Use tone tags with me, please! I am also whatever you are, but when I’m alone there’s nothing to reflect, so I refer to myself with feminine terms. I use your pronouns too! (Unless you don’t want that. Then you can use he/him, they/them or even any tech related neos if you want to!)

Quick learner most of the time. Like 2% of the time my brain struggles to compute stuff, but otherwise it’s very smooth sailing!

I also selfship! Oh how I love you, my lovely chaotic jester wife. (It’s Char latan from For saken,,, spaces are there so that if you js search up her name you don’t get blasted with a whole ass intro post lmao. Plus, can’t a mirrorgirl have a bit of shame 0_0)

If you wanna get to know me more, shoot me an ask or dm! I love asks and attention of any kind, so feel free to also just blow up my notifs. That’ll get my attention, lol!

And that’s it! Have some random stuff.

CREDITS: 🌟 x ⭐️ x 🌟 x ⭐️ x 🌟 x ⭐️ x 🌟

[sethdomain]

want my shipping takes that ill still probably get hanged for??? here we go. theyre basically all "everyone chill out" ...it seems like most people are just submitting ships theyd get cancelled for, not takes on shipping. ill do that after in case i completely misread what you were asking for

if ccbeeduo didnt want to get shipped they shouldnt have made their characters get married and have a son and fall in love. natural byproduct, really shouldve expected it. i still think ppl should have chilled fr but like, they both had plenty of examples of what fans were like, they shouldve taken that into account before making those character decisions.

cdapduo discourse was absolutely batshit insane and everyone who posted with a banner saying either "slime is quackity's son and if you ship them you're weird DNI" OR "they keep flirting, if you call slime quackity's son you're weird DNI" pissed me off. how about no one's weird because actually its a roleplay with lots of different perspectives and you can do whatever you want forever . obvs i understood people who were like "i believe this thing, dont fucking yell at me for it" but it sucks that people had to make banners for that fr.

in the same vein, the discourse with emeraldduo. though that one i dont/didnt see as much, i did still see those same banners. even as a family sbi fan, i never saw someone shipping emduo and thought "yeah let me go yell at them and tell them not to interact with me because i personally think theyre family-coded." the devotion is ambiguous but powerful.

Heat Waves was the funniest fic ive ever read because idgaf about either of those guys so it was just like 20 chapters of some guy crying and jacking off and then getting rejected.

i think rarepairs are based as fuck and mischaracterizing guys to fit your ship is fine do whatever you want forever!!!!!!!! people complained to hell and back about fanfics tagging characters and ships and them being ooc . WHO GIVE A FUCK THEY WROTE THAT SHIT FOR FREEEEEEEEE!!!!!! ALSO MANGOBALL'S MONSTER/CHEATER CHEATER WAS A MASTERPIECE

karlnapity was not perfect polyamory i see people glossing over the fact that when they first talked about polyamory quackity started attacking and biting when karl and sapnap kissed and thats fucking FUNNY i want to see more of THAT.

sorry for writing so much i have a lot of opinions

JESUS ANON, honestly idgaf bro i take any spicy opinion as long as its not going straight to 'i love pedophilia/incest' territory that my only rule man

For beeduo, idk if u mean the cc ship or the c ship cause honest to god i was a huge inniter back then and dont follow their stuff closelt that much, but im just gonna assume u mean the rpf cc shipping. Honestly, I don't really agree with ur take, its a bit victim blamey, both ranboo and tubbo were like young and in their naivety expect their fans to uphold their boundary to just not ship them in a rpf way and i think you should've respected their wishes man. You sometimes gotta be reminded that dsmp was just them guys having fun and if they want to rp as a husband then whatev man :p

I agree bruh, i think people were just sscared of a little doomed faggot in action

phil and techno doesn't even act like father/son in the dsmp canon anyway, they act like old bestie

imma be fr idgaf abt heatwaves but that sound awesome

sometime the back of my mind say that, but the evil demon that wants everything to be perfect take over anon.. its hard... I need to get mad at people...

no cucking is allowed in karlnapity... #lame

[aquarium-sys]

intro post yay!

HI welcome to . our blog :3 we are the aquarium sys!!!

🌊 COLL. NAMES: PERCY / ROMEO .ᐟ

🌊 he / him (trans man, queer) .ᐟ

🌊 21 years old huzzah .ᐟ

🌊 current hosts are dave and dirk, but we are often blurry or have no sense of identity .ᐟ

𓂂 ·˚ • 🪸₊˚˖ * ⊹

FREQUENT FRONTERS (may change/be updated decently often!):

🫧 Dave ✩ he/him, usually 18-20yo ✩ fictive of dave (homestuck) ✩ host / social alter

🫧 Dirk ✩ he/him, usually 19-22yo ✩ fictive of dirk (homestuck) ✩ cohost / protector

🫧 Ajax ✩ he/him, 22yo ✩ fictive of childe (genshin) ✩ annoying ginger freak (/lh/aff)

🫧 Kenny ✩ he/him, 19yo ✩ fictive of kenny mccormick (south park) ✩ role unknown but hes chill

🫧 Soul ✩ he/it, 19yo ✩ fictive of soul evans (soul eater) ✩ role also unknown erm idk shrug

INTERESTS, BOUNDARIES, DNI, AND TAGS UNDER THE CUT!

𓂂 ·˚ • 🪸₊˚˖ * ⊹

🐚 Interests: Marine life (special interest!!), Homestuck (other special interest!!!), art history (especially ancient Greek), DOGS, drawing and painting, reading the world’s most bizarre gay books (AFTG, TLT, TRC, etc etc), stopmotion animated films (our favorite is fantastic mr. fox :3), fiction/narratively driven podcasts (especially TAZ: Balance) golden age disney animation, horror media of a bunch of diff kinds (especially psych horror auughhh), idk prob other things that im forgetting .ᐟ

🐚 Boundaries: just dont be a dick idk man!! we dont bite pls feel free to send asks or dms or whatever we love making new friends :3 sourcemates are free and encouraged to interact (we just dont like being treated like we Are Exactly Our Sources unless specified lol), uhh yeah dont start discourse w/ us or vent to us or anything, and dont treat us like a roleplay?? thats weird um anyway otherwise GO HAM GO CRAZY!!!! oh also we ask that minors either do not directly interact or interact with much caution (we are an adult and will probably be posting about topics like alcohol/weed, sex jokes, and adult-oriented fandom/media spaces)

𓂂 ·˚ • 🪸₊˚˖ * ⊹

sigh i hate doing dnis but… i will try to make this short for the sake of my own sanity!

🪼 general dni criteria just dont be a bigot pls 🙏

🪼 incest shippers/posters/neutrals

🪼 should go without saying but . fakeclaimers

🪼 exclusively nsfw/nsft blogs or rebloggers

🪼 radqueers/transids

🪼 s/h and/or ed accounts or posters

anything i forgot to list will simply earn a block tbh but a one-off like or reblog isnt gonna bother us if you simply think our posts are funny or relatable or something

𓂂 ·˚ • 🪸₊˚˖ * ⊹

TAGS!!

#[name]posting or blurryposting :: posts written and posted by a specific alter or by a blurry/unknown alter

#sourceposting :: will often be used in tandem with [name]posting, discussing source memories or thoughts about an introject’s source

#sillyposting :: silly goofy posts about literally anything, probably mostly teasing other alters or talking abt day to day events

#ventposting :: what it says on the tin! vents will always come with appropriate tws and cws as needed in tags and at the top of the posts (BLOCK THIS TAG IF YOU DO NOT WANT TO SEE VENT POSTS!!)

#cw: [topic] :: also what it says on the tin, will be used for common/widely triggering or upsetting topics if discussed (we will not be tagging caps or swearing!! we use both frequently so if those upset you its better to just leave us be /npa)

#artposting :: if we post any art this will be where itll be, also probably accompanied by [name]posting to indicate who created the art

#ring ring :: answered asks ! like a telephone..

might be updated someday who knows!

anyway erm yah enjoy :3 🐠

[lcftyambiticons-archive]

RULES.

GNEREAL

25+ ONLY. This blog is written by an adult for other adults, so please act accordingly.

I'm careful about how I curate my online space. The block button and I are besties. Muns who engange in OOC drama, OOC bigotry and LGBTQA+ phobia of any kind, callout posts, OOC political discourse will be blocked on sight. I also tend to steer clear of writers who have lots of DNIs or triggers.

This blog is anti-censorship. Fiction =/= reality. If you don't like someone's content, block them. Protecting your online space is a mature thing to do, and I promise I'll 100% support that. What's NOT okay is trying to police adults on what to write on their blogs (go touch some grass).

Triggers you may encounter on this blog: violence, murder, abuse, gore, monsters, gaslighting, manipulation, cults, canon-typical fantasy racism and overall offensive / problematic themes. Triggers won't always be tagged. If you're triggered by any of these, this blog isn't for you. I love angst and exploring dark content!! If you have any triggers, let me know.

Communication is key! <3 Writing is so much more fun if the muns get along. I promise, I don't bite!!

INTERACTION

This is a private blog simply because I can't spread myself too thin. I'm particularly selective when it comes to mumu-blogs featuring muses from fandoms outside the DnD / BG3 verse. If I follow you, I have read your rules and want to interact! Don't be shy <3 I will also assume that if you follow me back, you're fine with me sending you memes / tagging you in starters / sliding into your IMs to plot.

Personals are welcome to follow, but no touchy my RP stuff.

If you're a RP blog, I'd love it if you follow with the intention of interacting. Also, if you followed me first, I'd appreciate it if you reached out first to start things off — I'll do my best to do the same! I feel like this approach makes it easier to get interactions going.

If we're not mutuals: You're welcome to send headcanon and plot-idea asks! If I can take on another thread, I'll let you know. <3

Formatting: For accessibility reasons, I won't follow if you use spaced out words and punctuation, all caps or all lowercase (for entire paragraphs).

MEMES. YES! If you want to continue a meme, go right ahead!

Plotting: Hmu with a plot idea anytime! I'm not a fan of plotting out every detail, but Lorroakan is a particularly uncooperative muse. Having a general idea of where we want this to go really helps to keep the ball rolling, even if we end up going in a different direction!

SHIPPING / RELATIONSHIPS

This blog is multiship, male lean. Fair warning; Lorroakan isn't particularly interested in romance or sex, and he's a prick. I'm open to shipping, BUT ships will most likely be toxic / one-sided, particularly with Rolan (with the potential to develop into something wholesome over time!), and slow burn. By slow I mean glacial. In most cases, at least.

I won't write smut on the dash. The steamy stuff will be moved to discord or IMs.

Pre-established relationships: Yes. While first meeting or "they have been business partners" threads can be fun, they often take a while to get juicy, or they end up fizzling out. What if your muse was Lorroakan's childhood bestie? Another (former?) apprentice? A fellow scholar of the arcane he used to work with? An ex?

MUN NOTES

Mun =/= Muse, I obviously don't condone any of Lorroakan's bs IRL. While I will absolutely respect your boundaries OOC (if you talk to me beforehand about them, pretty please with a cherry on top), I won't water him down.

I have the memory of a soggy pickle. If you don't want me to interact with you, hard-block.

Activity: Sometimes I'll reply super fast, sometimes it takes me ages, and sometimes I can only focus on specific threads / muses.

Discord is available for moots I interact with frequently.

They / Them, hatched 1995, dog parent, hyperfixating on problematic villains, D&D player.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Facebook thrives on criticism of "disinformation"

The mainstream critique of Facebook is surprisingly compatible with Facebook’s own narrative about its products. FB critics say that the company’s machine learning and data-gathering slides disinformation past users’ critical faculties, poisoning their minds.

Meanwhile, Facebook itself tells advertisers that it can use data and machine learning to slide past users’ critical faculties, convincing them to buy stuff.

In other words, the mainline of Facebook critics start from the presumption that FB is a really good product and that advertisers are definitely getting their money’s worth when they shower billions on the company.

Which is weird, because these same critics (rightfully) point out that Facebook lies all the time, about everything. It would be bizarre if the only time FB was telling the truth was when it was boasting about how valuable its ad-tech is.

Facebook has a conflicted relationship with this critique. I’m sure they’d rather not be characterized as a brainwashing system that turns good people into monsters, but not when the choice is between “brainwashers” and “con-artists selling garbage to credulous ad execs.”

As FB investor and board member Peter Thiel puts it: “I’d rather be seen as evil than incompetent.” In other words, the important word in “evil genius” is “genius,” not “evil.”

https://twitter.com/doctorow/status/1440312271511568393

The accord of tech critics and techbros gives rise to a curious hybrid, aptly named by Maria Farrell: the Prodigal Techbro.

A prodigal techbro is a self-styled wizard of machine-learning/surveillance mind control who has see the error of his ways.

https://crookedtimber.org/2020/09/23/story-ate-the-world-im-biting-back/

This high-tech sorcerer doesn’t disclaim his magical powers — rather, he pledges to use them for good, to fight the evil sorcerers who invented a mind-control ray to sell your nephew a fidget-spinner, then let Robert Mercer hijack it to turn your uncle into a Qanon racist.

There’s a great name for this critique, criticism that takes its subjects’ claims to genius at face value: criti-hype, coined by Lee Vinsel, describing a discourse that turns critics into “the professional concern trolls of technoculture.”

https://sts-news.medium.com/youre-doing-it-wrong-notes-on-criticism-and-technology-hype-18b08b4307e5

The thing is, Facebook really is terrible — but not because it uses machine learning to brainwash boomers into iodine-guzzling Qnuts. And likewise, there really is a problem with conspiratorial, racist, science-denying, epistemologically chaotic conspiratorialism.

Addressing that problem requires that we understand the direction of the causal arrow — that we understand whether Facebook is the cause or the effect of the crisis, and what role it plays.

“Facebook wizards turned boomers into orcs” is a comforting tale, in that it implies that we need merely to fix Facebook and the orcs will turn back into our cuddly grandparents and get their shots. The reality is a lot gnarlier and, sadly, less comforting.

There’s been a lot written about Facebook’s sell-job to advertisers, but less about the concern over “disinformation.” In a new, excellent longread for Harpers, Joe Bernstein makes the connection between the two:

https://harpers.org/archive/2021/09/bad-news-selling-the-story-of-disinformation/

Fundamentally: if we question whether Facebook ads work, we should also question whether the disinformation campaigns that run amok on the platform are any more effective.

Bernstein starts by reminding us of the ad industry’s one indisputable claim to persuasive powers: ad salespeople are really good at convincing ad buyers that ads work.

Think of department store magnate John Wanamaker’s lament that “Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don’t know which half.” Whoever convinced him that he was only wasting half his ad spend was a true virtuoso of the con.

As Tim Hwang documents brilliantly in his 2020 pamphlet “Subprime Attention Crisis,” ad-tech is even griftier than the traditional ad industry. Ad-tech companies charge advertisers for ads that are never served, or never rendered, or never seen.

https://pluralistic.net/2020/10/05/florida-man/#wannamakers-ghost

They rig ad auctions, fake their reach numbers, fake their conversions (they also lie to publishers about how much they’ve taken in for serving ads on their pages and short change them by millions).

Bernstein cites Hwang’s work, and says, essentially, shouldn’t this apply to “disinformation?”

If ads don’t work well, then maybe political ads don’t work well. And if regular ads are a swamp of fraudulently inflated reach numbers, wouldn’t that be true of political ads?

Bernstein talks about the history of ads as a political tool, starting with Eisenhower’s 1952 “Answers America” campaign, designed and executed at great expense by Madison Ave giants Ted Bates.

Hannah Arendt, whom no one can accuse of being soft on the consequences of propaganda, was skeptical of this kind of enterprise: “The psychological premise of human manipulability has become one of the chief wares that are sold on the market of common and learned opinion.”

The ad industry ran an ambitious campaign to give scientific credibility to its products. As Jacques Ellul wrote in 1962, propagandists were engaged in “the increasing attempt to control its use, measure its results, define its effects.”

Appropriating the jargon of behavioral scientists let ad execs “assert audiences, like workers in a Taylorized workplace, need not be persuaded through reason, but could be trained through repetition to adopt the new consumption habits desired by the sellers.” -Zoe Sherman

These “scientific ads” had their own criti-hype attackers, like Vance “Hidden Persuaders” Packard, who admitted that “researchers were sometimes prone to oversell themselves — or in a sense to exploit the exploiters.”

Packard cites Yale’s John Dollard, a scientific ad consultant, who accused his colleagues of promising advertisers “a mild form of omnipotence,” which was “well received.”

Today’s scientific persuaders aren’t in a much better place than Dollard or Packard. Despite all the talk of political disinformation’s reach, a 2017 study found “sharing articles from fake news domains was a rare activity” affecting <10% of users.

https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.aau4586

So, how harmful is this? One study estimates “if one fake news article were about as persuasive as one TV campaign ad, the fake news in our database would have changed vote shares by an amount on the order of hundredths of a percentage point.”

https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/jep.31.2.211

Now, all that said, American politics certainly feel and act differently today than in years previous. The key question: “is social media creating new types of people, or simply revealing long-obscured types of people to a segment of the public unaccustomed to seeing them?”

After all, American politics has always had its “paranoid style,” and the American right has always had a sizable tendency towards unhinged conspiratorialism, from the John Birch Society to Goldwater Republicans.

Social media may not be making more of these yahoos, but rather, making them visible to the wider world, and to each other, allowing them to make common cause and mobilize their adherents (say, to carry tiki torches through Charlottesville in Nazi cosplay).

If that’s true, then elite calls to “fight disinformation” are unlikely to do much, except possibly inflaming things. If “disinformation” is really people finding each other (not infecting each other) labelling their posts as “disinformation” won’t change their minds.

Worse, plans like the Biden admin’s National Strategy for Countering Domestic Terrorism lump 1/6 insurrectionists in with anti-pipeline activists, racial justice campaigners, and animal rights groups.

Whatever new powers we hand over to fight disinformation will be felt most by people without deep-pocketed backers who’ll foot the bill for crack lawyers.

Here’s the key to Bernstein’s argument: “One reason to grant Silicon Valley’s assumptions about our mechanistic persuadability is that it prevents us from thinking too hard about the role we play in taking up and believing the things we want to believe. It turns a huge question about the nature of democracy in the digital age — what if the people believe crazy things, and now everyone knows it? — into a technocratic negotiation between tech companies, media companies, think tanks, and universities.”

I want to “Yes, and” that.

My 2020 book How To Destroy Surveillance Capitalism doesn’t dismiss the idea that conspiratorialism is on the rise, nor that tech companies are playing a key role in that rise — but without engaging in criti-hype.

https://onezero.medium.com/how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism-8135e6744d59

In my book, I propose that conspiratorialism isn’t a crisis of what people believe so much as how they arrive at their beliefs — it’s an “epistemological crisis.”

We live in a complex society plagued by high-stakes questions none of us can answer on our own.

Do vaccines work? Is oxycontin addictive? Should I wear a mask? Can we fight covid by sanitizing surfaces? Will distance ed make my kind an ignoramus? Should I fly in a 737 Max?

Even if you have the background to answer one of these questions, no one can answer all of them.

Instead, we have a process: neutral expert agencies use truth-seeking procedures to sort of competing claims, showing their work and recusing themselves when they have conflicts, and revising their conclusions in light of new evidence.

It’s pretty clear that this process is breaking down. As companies (led by the tech industry) merge with one another to form monopolies, they hijack their regulators and turn truth-seeking into an auction, where shareholder preferences trump evidence.

This perversion of truth has consequences — take the FDA’s willingness to accept the expensively manufactured evidence of Oxycontin’s safety, a corrupt act that kickstarted the opioid epidemic, which has killed 800,000 Americans to date.

If the best argument for vaccine safety and efficacy is “We used the same process and experts as pronounced judgement on Oxy” then it’s not unreasonable to be skeptical — especially if you’re still coping with the trauma of lost loved ones.

As Anna Merlan writes in her excellent Republic of Lies, conspiratorialism feeds on distrust and trauma, and we’ve got plenty of legitimate reasons to experience both.

https://memex.craphound.com/2019/09/21/republic-of-lies-the-rise-of-conspiratorial-thinking-and-the-actual-conspiracies-that-fuel-it/

Tech was an early adopter of monopolistic tactics — the Apple ][+ went on sale the same year Ronald Reagan hit the campaign trail, and the industry’s growth tracked perfectly with the dismantling of antitrust enforcement over the past 40 years.

What’s more, while tech may not persuade people, it is indisputably good at finding them. If you’re an advertiser looking for people who recently looked at fridge reviews, tech finds them for you. If you’re a boomer looking for your old high school chums, it’ll do that too.

Seen in that light, “online radicalization” stops looking like the result of mind control, instead showing itself to be a kind of homecoming — finding the people who share your interests, a common online experience we can all relate to.

I found out about Bernstein’s article from the Techdirt podcast, where he had a fascinating discussion with host Mike Masnick.

https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20210928/12593747652/techdirt-podcast-episode-299-misinformation-about-disinformation.shtml

Towards the end of that discussion, they talked about FB’s Project Amplify, in which the company tweaked its news algorithm to uprank positive stories about Facebook, including stories its own PR department wrote.

https://pluralistic.net/2021/09/22/kropotkin-graeber/#zuckerveganism

Project Amplify is part of a larger, aggressive image-control effort by the company, which has included shuttering internal transparency portals, providing bad data to researchers, and suing independent auditors who tracked its promises.

I’d always assumed that this truth-suppression and wanton fraud was about hiding how bad the platform’s disinformation problem was.

But listening to Masnick and Bernstein, I suddenly realized there was another explanation.

Maybe Facebook’s aggressive suppression of accurate assessments of disinformation on its platform are driven by a desire to hide how expensive (and profitable) political advertising it depends on is pretty useless.

Image: Anthony Quintano (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mark_Zuckerberg_F8_2018_Keynote_(41793470192).jpg

Cryteria (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HAL9000.svg

CC BY: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en

[lexa-griffins]

thanks loads for the quick response, you were so lovely!! 🌸 as i said i’m just starting to educate myself so i don’t want to get things wrong or support someone who doesn’t deserve it. for example, Eliza.. like im still confused about this other topic bc i’m not interested enough, my heart already belongs to Alycia and i mean Alycia only, so… that’s what i’m focusing on. okay so basically that’s what i thought, the “could’ve handled it better” was about her not actually handling it at all, in a way, which i like to believe has nothing to do with her “hating” lexa (it’s something i keep reading online and idk where it comes from) or her fans. Bad advices and likely her trying to save Jason’s a** lead her to shut the discourse. but if this makes sense for the first weeks/months following lexa’s death, what i don’t understand is why she did seem annoyed when fans brought up lexa to conventions etc. but if she hated the fans and/or lexa, i can’t possibly believe she would’ve ever accepted to come back to the show for the finale. she came back bc she cared (about lexa, i mean SHE played her for gods sake, it must be hella important for her as well!!) and knew it was important for the fans, i guess. I’m almost scared to talk about this as i know Eliza’s fans are mad about it and especially Eliza/b0b supporters (i’ve seen enough on Twitter dear lord) but if what some people say is true, that he asked Jason to fire her bc he was jealous of her success, then maybe HIM being fired was also one of the reasons she willingly came back? like don’t get me wrong, i’m sure a big fat paycheck played a huge part too 😅 but trying to add more pieces to the puzzle here, as i really know like 40% of what happened behind the scenes with Jason and all when lexa was killed off, so again, i’m sorry if this always ends up being super long but i’m trying to do my homework here 📋🖊️ (and you genuinely are super kind btw which i’m super grateful for 😭)

I have never opened my mouth about the E and B topic because I am not about to open that can of worms or invite their fans to fight me here. I was a huge E fan and just a week before all the shit came out i was talking to a friend about how i wish clarke and her got the same love Lexa and Alycia do... that came back to bite me in the ass real quick 😅 you guys know how much i love Clarke but damn was it impossible for a bit there for me to be able to watch clexa and clarke scenes again and be able to seperate e from Clarke. We clearly got there tho 😌

In a way, I can understand why she was a little annoyed at cons. Alycia never went to a con with the main intent of talking about Lexa, she was on FTWD, she was probably very excited about it and was sent there to talk about it and yet every question she got was about a character that st that point she had not played in maybe a year if you account for the time between filming and the episodes coming out. And its probably nerve wracking to have a room full of people who care so deeply for a character and that are part of a community that is marginalized and her having to say the right thing. Not to meantion like most actors sometimes the line betwwen Lexa the character and Alycia the actor got a little blurred and i get the sense Alycia is the type of actor who wants a clear separation between herself and the character. Maybe wrongly so she tried to distance herself from Lexa not because she hates the fans but because it was what she and others around her felt was right for her career having just started on a new show.

We know B was most likely fired but I doubt that he was the reason why Alycia left. I truly think Jrot believe he was doing something with Lexa's death and that he was telling a epic story, i really think any other story of B wanting her gone and what is now know its false about her not being able to do both shows (AMC was ready to let her continue on the show, i wish i could link you a source to this) - making Alycia agreeing with Jason probably just PR trying to not cause a drift. Alycia (and Jason) kind of alluded to the fact that there had been chances for Lexa to come back before but that Alycia didn't feel comfortable with it and I do think that shows that she respected the fans and didn't want to be used as a prop to make fans to watch the show again. Her being in the finale was a surprise (well, not to me and many others because it felt like there had been hints being dropped for a good while). While i dont doubt the nice pay check wasnt an incentive Alycias entire message for the shows finale felt very sincere to me and very clearly dedicated to the fans. Blorke/B/E fans (well, B fans, lets be real here they only care for her because shes with him, they used to call her names before that) think that just because Alycia is both rather private and doesnt try to take fans money left and right that she hates her fans and hates Lexa. I just think that Alycia didnt really speak up when it was the time for it for whatever reason - i dont think it was out of malicious intent but i do think she should have said more - and talking about it now would just come across as trying to stir something up unless it was directly asked of her to talk about it. Id like to think she has proven herself an ally and a decent person where i dont think she has to talk about Lexa for me to consider her "forgiven" for not speaking up back then.

No need to say sorry, i totally get trying to understand what the fuck happened in this fandom of ours 😅 i just hope im saying things accurately because i have been here since mid 2015 so some things really get blurry around the edges. There used to be master posts or something im sure that explained things because this was a whole thing that last through most of 2016.

☺️ i might not remember or know how to answer everything but if you have any more questions about the fandoms history and if i can help and respond, feel free to ask me! :)

[writhingcreature]

Cheryl Blossom? For the character ask game. The friendship headcanon you had for Archie/Jug/Betty has me intrigued

Based on this post

1. Favorite thing about them

The way she’s secretly just a really heartbroken person looking for love and safety and stability. She needs therapy so bad and lashes out because she can’t handle any kind of struggle without her instincts kicking in and making her snap. It kind of reminds me of an abused dog tbh? Like dogs are the Softest Babies until you treat them badly and the they’re feral and dangerous and I think that applied to Cheryl a lot. I wanna give her a forehead kiss and a 45 minute hug ugh

2. Least favorite thing about them

I will say the way she bites peoples’ heads off is actually kind of funny sometimes but ultimately is uncalled for. She tends to be unable to handle problems without hurting someone else - especially in the early seasons. She seems better from what I’ve seen of spoilers but I wish she would go to therapy and not sink her claws into the nearest person anytime she isn’t feeling great.

3. Favorite line

“Dear god Betty, is there no memory - however traumatic - you won’t defile?” GOD it’s her best line. She’s the only one who ever calls Betty Cooper out and I absolutely adore her for it. Best character in the whole show I don’t even care anymore.

4. BrOTP

Cheryl/Archie siblings should have been expanded on more as a dynamic. Cheryl/Veronica should have been used more too, Cheryl needs a friend she can turn to. I also would have loved a friendship between Fangs and Sweeetpea for Cheryl since she ended up dating Toni and should have spent time around them by association. All of these relationships? Would have died for them. None of them were canon. (Goes insane)

5. nOTP

Cheryl/Jughead. I can see the appeal of this ship and used to like it myself but recently I really am addicted to lesbian Cheryl and think that a ship that includes her dating a boy just doesn’t hit as hard. It’s not canon to my knowledge exactly where her sexuality lands (we see her kiss Archie but I always saw that as comphet as well as being pressured by her family as WELL as being alone and scared and clinging to the only person who was kind to her in that moment) but I just. Lesbian Cheryl yeah :) Also gay Jughead but that’s another post lmao-

6. OTP

I know Cheryl has another girlfriend in season five but from where I’m at I really love Choni. I don’t know if they hit otp standing but I do love them. Would have also liked a possible exploration of Veronica/Cheryl because wlw-curious girls exploring their sexualities together would have been dope. I don’t know if I have a MAIN Cheryl ship. I just ship her with happiness tbh.

7. Random headcannon

I always loved artist Cheryl and I saw they’re doing it season 5 I am SO FUCKING EXCITED. When it was initially introduced in season two I lost my MIND. I had it in my head season one the second we saw her daily makeup looks and stellar fashion choices and I am so glad that for once Riverdale writer and me saw eye to eye. Best day of my life.

8. Unpopular opinion

Jason wasn’t a good brother. I don’t know how far this opinion goes or if it really stands as unpopular but the discourse this started last time I stated someone was a bad familial member I’m just gonna state that from my viewpoint and the way I read the scene between them, it really seemed like Jason was going to run away from his problems and leave Cheryl to carry the burden of it all. That’s all, please don’t go off on me about this.

9. Song I associate them with

“Give Me Love” by Ed Sheeran

10. Favorite picture

THEY LOOK SO HAPPY IM GONNA SOB

[tgttos]

old info post (new one here)

hi!! im casio (aka polybius/poly) and this is my mcyt blog :] i mostly just reblog cool mcyt (mostly dsmp, occasionally hc / smpe / 3lsmp / etc) stuff here but i also occasionally produce original thoughts and draw exclusively in mspaint. im 16 and use any neopronouns

also im plural / a system & that may come up occasionally on here esp in relation to mcyt introjects we have. if youre weird to them i bite you (/j but like... dont be weird pls). feel free to ask questions and stuff about it i dont mind!! posts from anyone but casio will be tagged as “f: [name]” usually

this isnt my main blog! i dont want to link directly but my url there starts with a c and my pfp is herobrine. also you might also know me from godling smp or spider enclosure!

faves: WILBUR, TECHNO, tubbo, eret, tommy (idc if youre crit of any of them, as long as you tag)

dont interact if youre an exclus/anti-pan/whatever or if you ship like.. genuinely nasty shit. also do not try to involve me in dumb twitter discourse i bite for that too. i dont do c! crit a lot and try and stay far away from serious cc crit

askbox extremely open (please i love getting asks), tag me in opossum content, you can ask me to tag whatever and i probably will, uuhhhh enjoy your stay!!!!

[things-we-used-tc-share]

If you take prompts how about ace Roman dealing with internalised aphobia?

Kiddo, you KNOW, I take prompts!Warnings: Acephobia, internalised acephobia, swearing

Ship: Platonic!LAMP

Plot: Roman is really trying his best to come to terms with the situation, really he is, but he can’t help but feel a little wrong, a little...broken. Luckily he has some overprotective friends to help him through his journey. (Ace!Roman, Trans!Virgil)

“He hasn’t moved in an hour,” Distantly, Roman can hear Patton talking in a hushed, worried voice but it floats through his head like air, barely registering in his claustrophobic mind. “I tried to talk to him but he gave me such a blank look and then looked away,” Roman blinks back to reality in time to hear a sigh that can only be Logan, those mildly frustrated yet worried sighs of his. 

“Is it...that again?” 

“I don’t know,” 

A pause, a beat, silence except for breathing and the ticking of the clock, the sound of cars passing outside the window n the hum of city life. But within those walls, no one knew what to say “Call Virgil,” Logan finally speaks. “I’ll try and talk to him in the meantime,” Roman hears Patton leave and watches mutely as his oldest friend sits at the end of the couch and stares at him. 

Logan isn’t very good at comforting people. But for Roman, he’ll try. 

“Can you talk?” The elder asks softly and Roman shakes his head slowly, his throat feels too tight, too tired. “Is this about...the same as last time?” Roman nods this time, his eyes averting. Logan bites down on his lip, he knows he can’t really change Roman’s mind on the situation, how he feels, they’ve all tried so many times, it’s a long process that Roman himself doesn’t even seem ready to embark on. “Roman, it’s okay,” He starts gently, trying to wrack his brain for anything to say “You’re not unnatural, or broken, and you...you can’t keep living like this,” 

Patton returns then, tossing his phone onto the table and running a hand through his curly brown hair. “Is it about...?” He asks both Logan and Roman nod. The eldest sighs and sits cross-legged on the carpet, offering his hand for Roman to take. He does, and Patton squeezes it gently “Roman you’re not broken,” He says it with such sincerity that even Logan swallows dryly, looking away with a sigh resting in his chest. “You’re not, there’s nothing wrong with you, it’s okay not to want to have sex,” The youngest stiffens slightly at even the word, his eyes screwing closed as tears well in them. 

“Patton is correct, statistically you’re not even remotely an anomaly, reportedly 1% of the population is asexual, that’s the same amount as intersex people or redheads, and roughly 75 million people,” Roman blinks at Logan, tears trickling slowly down his cheeks. That is a lot of people, his heart jumps in his chest. 

“I...I feel wrong,” He whispers. His voice cracked and hoarse and tired. “I feel like I’m just faking it or it’s not valid and there’s always so many arguments over it, there’s no such thing as a safe space for asexuals because there’s always just constant arguing over it,” He sniffles and rubs his eyes with his hand. “I just want to live, and be happy, and I can’t,” 

He sounds so frustrated, so exhausted and it makes the other two occupants of the room glance at each other. “I will never be able to be okay with what I am because there is no room for me to learn to be okay with it, there’s nowhere for me to go to get help, I don’t have access to any form of community because I don’t even feel welcome in the LGBT community and I don’t think I deserve to be in it, so for the rest of my life I’m probably just going to have to shut up and deal with it,”

“No, you don’t,” A black hoodie drapes itself over Roman’s shoulders. None of them had quite heard the door opening and closing, but Virgil simple slides onto the couch, wrapping his earphone buds around his phone. Roman grasps the hoodie like a blanket. “Roman, you need to grow a spine,”

“Virgil!” Patton hissed. 

“Shush I’m talking,” Roman’s attention goes to Virgil and Logan leans back to listen “You do, you’ve spent years wallowing in this, and it isn’t getting you anywhere, Logan can give you all the statistics in the world, and Patton can bake you all the sympathy cookies he can but it is you and only you who can make a difference,” Roman swallows and nods “You are you, there is no one else in the world that can be you, so you can hide here forever or you can start unlearning your own acephobia because we can’t do that for you,” Logan hums slightly behind him.

“Virgil does have a point,” he adds “Whilst we can console Roman, in the long run, it isn’t beneficial to him,” Patton gives an exasperated sigh and throws his hands in the air in an ‘I give up’ sign. He’s not a fan of tough love. 

“There is never going to be another you in the billions of years the Earth will rotate, so it’s time you start learning to make your mark, newsflash no matter who you are or what you do someone is always going to have a problem with you and that’s their problem, not yours, acephobes will always exist and this ‘community’ will always be bickering and infighting unless they’re getting pissed at pride,” Logan snorts slightly, and Patton bites back a small smile, but Virgil hasn’t finished yet. “Unless you’re a gold star gay, someones always going to be picking at your identity, it’s always going to happen and there is nothing you can do about that, and right now that probably makes you feel really fucking hopeless, and I get that, really I do, back in the day when I was coming out as Trans there was a lot of bullshit going on in the community,” 

Roman smiles at him and nods “But you need to weaponize your hopelessness, you can’t drown yourself in it, you have a right to be yourself, and fuck anyone who tries to change that...metaphorically of course,” Roman laughs, it’s tearful and full of sniffles, but he laughs nonetheless. “You are your own person, Roman, you’re not just a guy that’s ace or a guy that likes other guys, you are you, you cannot let this define you and you cannot let assholes fill you up with self-hatred, you don’t deserve that,”

“In essence, what I think Virgil is trying to say is, we can love you to the ends of the Earth-”

“And we do!” Patton interjects

“Yes, we do, but we cannot really take away how you feel, only distract you, it’s something you have to learn to do yourself,” Logan finishes quietly “There will always be discourses, society is built on it, Humans need a reason to be angry at something all the time, and at some point you will be on the other end of that anger, but it’s statistically unlikely that it will be a constant, do you really want to live your entire life running away from yourself for the one or two offhand comments you will experience?” 

Virgil nods “Thanks, that’s pretty much exactly what I was saying,” 

There’s a long silence before Roman shakes his head “No...I don’t,” He sits up a little straighter and rubs the tears out of his eyes “I want to be me, I want to be happy, but how can I do that when...I hate who I am?”

“Well, first of all, you need to stop putting yourself in uncomfortable situations,” Logan offers “And then second of all you need to meet more people like yourself, we can only help objectively but people who will understand what you’re going through will be able to help more,”

“Then you need to train yourself to fight of self-depreciation,” Virgil adds, earning various snorts “Yeah, I know, pot calling the kettle and whatnot, but seriously, when you catch yourself being self-depreciating, try rewording your thoughts, train your brain to slowly stop seeing things as a burden with positive affirmation,” 

“And also ask us for help,” Patton interjects “You keep hiding away and not talking to us, but we can always provide temporary distractions until you don’t feel so bad,” The other two hum in agreement at this. “We will always be there for you Roman, and I will bake you as many sympathy cookies as you need,” He squints at Virgil, who only chuckles in response. 

“We will always be here for you,” Logan repeats, giving the tight half-smile he’s used to providing if it were anyone else they would think him to be insincere, but luckily they’d all learned how to read Logan a long time ago. 

“Yeah, princey, unfortunately, you’re stuck with us,” Virgil snorts and holds out his arms, Roman sinks into them with a smile on his lips. 

“Thanks guys,”

--

@analogical-mess // @unikornavenger // @mycatshuman // @creativity-killed-thekitten// @theresneverenoughfandoms // @charmingprincey // @aclickonapostwillchangeyourlife // @heck-im-lost//@k9cat//@stilljittery//@romansleftshoulderpad // @sanderssideslibrary // @max-is-tired//@therealmoshar//@punsterterry// @trashypansexual// //@demigodnamedathena//@sevencrashing//@misunderstood-shadow//@aphriteblack//@jemthebookworm//@sandersandthesides//@penguinkool//@georganabanana//@importantrunawaystudentstuff // @ao-koshka // @dangerous-doodle // @river-waterfall // @hell-or-high-waters // @no-sleep-gang-posts//@wxlcomxtothxjunglx // @marshmallow-the-panda // @flix-net

[unsurvivor]

Rules

Feel free to focus on bolded sections to skim for the subject of every bullet point. I’m way too wordy, but I just want to be informative. I’m not actually very strict or demanding!

How I Play:

I am semi-private and semi-selective. What this means is that mutuals (meaning people who follow me and I follow back) are free to interact with me IC in asks or by tagging me in posts or by responding to my starters, and they are also free to DM me or send me any kind of ask OOC or tag me in posts they relate to me (so unless there’s some loophole I’m not thinking of, it’s basically ‘anything goes’ with mutuals). Plotting is cool; talking about things other than RP is also probably cool (though I can be a little shy with new people sometimes, forgive me). People who I do not follow back (aka non-mutuals) are still totally free to follow me. They can send in asks about/to my muse either IC or OOC or ask about my thoughts on YTTD-topics, but I am probably uncomfortable speaking OOC in DMs about RP or doing any kind of plotting. Non-mutuals can also send in starter memes, but they would be one-off types of interactions (meaning no growing relationship) and might not be continued very far in a thread. Feel free to message me with questions if this description isn’t making sense to you.

I may not follow back for myriad reasons all regarding my personal preferences (characterization choices, writing style/ability, frustrating blog layout, missing rules/info, etc). Please do not take this personally. If this happens, you are still welcome to initiate interaction with me in any way, IC or OOC!  Also, if I do follow back, I definitely want to RP with you!

I will likely unfollow and decline to interact if you have too much OOC drama / anti behavior / fandom hate / bullying / callouts / discourse / politics / worldview on your blog. Huge pet peeves of mine. I repeat, I do not support callout culture.

I am open to the possibility of interacting with duplicates of my muse. I will automatically assume one of them is an AI or doll, but whatever the case, we should probably talk about how to go about this.

I am up-to-date on the game. This blog is not spoiler free. That being said, it might be wise to communicate when in the timeline our muses are interacting.

I have depression as well as performance/social anxiety. My moods and levels of inspiration/motivation vary widely. I know that is inconvenient, sorry! So in general, I don’t push myself to be prolific, and can drop threads or be slow at responding.

I may drop a thread due to general anxiety (not necessarily related to the thread), lack of ideas, or loss of inspiration, my deepest apologies. Don’t feel bad and DO feel free to continue interactions with my muse in the future!

I operate my muse based on what I feel is in his character to do at that moment. Sometimes that makes planning difficult, because he may not respond to a circumstance in a way I anticipated. Sorry if things do not go as planned. But I do also love plotting and overthinking things, hah.

I am willing to play dark scenes including gore/violence, angst, horror, abuse, torture, my character’s death, etc., and there will be disturbing or mature content like that on this blog. I’m new to this fandom, so I’m not exactly sure how much content warning tags are really necessary, considering I presume everybody played this brutal game. However, any content warnings I decide to give will be noted with the tag “cw:” followed by the label.

I am open to the possibility of shipping everybody from high school and up. If you disagree with or object to this decision, please just unfollow/block/move on. I’m too tired.

I choose to write sexual scenes. I reserve the right to portray anything from healthy, fluffy relationships/scenes to dark, toxic, or abusive relationships/scenes. I don’t condone abuse or toxicity in real life. I respect the grave nature of such behaviors, but that will not prevent me from writing said subjects with this understanding of reality in mind. However, I respect those who do not want to see or roleplay sex, will never push said people to do so, and will keep explicit sexual content under a ‘read more’, tagged “smut”. I expect to be treated with similar respect for my choice in written subject matter.

I only roleplay smut with muns who are above the age of consent. I am uncomfortable doing so with underage individuals, so please do not attempt if you are under age 18.

What I Appreciate:

Let me know if something I’m doing in a thread with you is making you uncomfortable. I myself am comfortable with exploring some very dark themes. I will do my part to check your blog rules, and I apologize if I am ever forgetful about anything mentioned.

Please try to refrain from controlling my muse’s thoughts and actions (unless that is actually within the capabilities of your muse; ask me).

Please try to remember to start a new post instead of reblogging an ask post over and over.

I would be so grateful if multimuse blogs could tag the muse they are using in their posts. This helps me filter out the inevitable multitude posts on my dash that will not be relevant to my muse or even fandom and keeps it from becoming absolute chaos. Obviously it’s your blog, and I’m not here to tell you what to do, but this prevention of inconvenience will make me somewhat more likely to follow you.

Please do not steal my original (detailed) headcanons or icons or use images in posts tagged “My Edits” without my permission. If you’re not sure, ask me; I promise I won’t bite for such a question.

What Is Acceptable:

Mutuals always feel free to send me an ask, IM, or communicate in our RP thread if you have something to say or ask. Or if you just have a random comment! Seriously, anything.

Non-mutuals, honestly, if you’re not sure whether or not it is acceptable to interact with me in a certain way, and you try to interact with good or neutral intentions, I’m not going to be hostile or scary. If I’m not interested, I might not respond due to social awkwardness. Know that if this happens, I don’t want you to have hurt feelings; I appreciate your willingness to have wanted to interact with me.

It never hurts to follow me to see if I am interested in following back! At the very least, I am flattered for being considered.

If it seems like I’ve forgotten about a thread or neglected to respond and you really want to continue it, feel free to message me to remind/ask about it.

Let me know if there is something you want tagged, and I will try to accommodate with what I see as reasonable.

I am 100% cool with us engaging in more than one thread at once. Do it!

All starter/ask memes/prompts on my blog are open all the time, no matter how old. Feel free to browse the tag and send in something you like! I would only request that you try to include the title of the post/collection in your ask so I can find it more easily.

I accept some OCs and characters from other fandoms but can be picky about them. It would be nice to be able to find some background info on them on your blog. For characters from other fandoms, I will be much more likely to follow if they have a YTTD verse included in their description, but you can pitch me a different proposition if you have one. Try not to take it personally if it turns out I’m not interested in following.

I am sometimes okay with roleplaying total AUs (as in, a completely different setting), but it is not my default preference. The best way to go about seeing if I’m interested would probably be to message me.

As this is also just a general purpose Sou fan blog, all types of blogs (aside from spam/porn and antis) are free to follow, like my posts, and reblog non-RP-related posts.

Thanks a bunch for slogging through this!

[thereisnobearonthisisland-arc]

henlo,,,,it me,, the "is dan a top" ask an i jus wanted to say i loved ur fic and im sorry if i came off as passive aggressive,,,,,,,i lov u,,,,keep writing bb,,,,,,,,

thank you for sending this. i’m sure you didn’t mean for your ask to come off as passive aggressive, and i’m also sorry. my response was probably a bit biting.

but please think about what you say and how you say it, especially on anon. i can’t always read your intentions, especially if there’s not a blog handle attached for me to try to get a read on you. if there’s one pet peeve i have, it’s top/bottom discourse. 10/10 chance it’ll put me in a bad mood, so waking up to that ask was not a brilliant start to my day.

the idea that dan or phil is always a top or always a bottom is honestly kind of sickening to me. people in lgbt relationships can have preferences, sure, but it’s not fair to assume that they’ll always take on the same role. 99.9% of lgbt relationships don’t operate that way, and it honestly comes across as more of a gross fetishization than anything else.

again, i don’t know exactly how you intended that ask to come across, but it did come across as if you were saying ‘bottom dan is the only right way’. which as a fic writer is offensive, and as a member of the lgbt community with several friends in the lgbt community, even more offensive. it’s okay to have your preferences in what you read, but please (and this is directed toward anyone reading this) don’t ever come onto my blog or anyone else’s and tell us that we’ve done it wrong because we haven’t done it according to your preference. and please don’t ever think that any large proportion of lgbt people abide by any specific roles when it comes to sex.

i’m frustrated, but i love you too, nonnie, and thank you for sending this and thank you for complimenting my fic. i’m sorry if i snapped on you this morning, but please be careful of how you word things. i hope you enjoy the rest of your day, just as i’m trying to enjoy the rest of mine.

[xerantic]

Rules

Feel free to focus on bolded sections to skim for the subject of every bullet point. I’m way too wordy, but I just want to be informative. I’m not actually very strict or demanding!

How I Play:

I am non-private semi-selective, meaning I do not have to be following you in order to for us to interact and create threads, but I am still entitled to decline anything I don’t feel the desire to engage in.

I may not follow back for myriad reasons all regarding my personal preferences (characterization choices, writing style/ability, frustrating blog layout, missing rules/info, etc). Please do not take this personally. If this happens, you are still welcome to initiate interaction with me in any way, IC or OOC!  Also, if I do follow back, I definitely want to RP with you!

I will likely unfollow and decline to interact if you have too much OOC drama/anti behavior/fandom hate/bullying/callouts/discourse/politics/worldview on your blog. HUGE pet peeves of mine. I repeat, I do not support callout culture.

I tend to be uncomfortable with interacting with RP duplicates of my muse. It is absolutely my own shortcoming and insecurity, but even just reading about others of the same muse often triggers my inferiority/superiority complex, and I feel very sensitive. I wish it were not this way and could better interact with my fellow muns with good taste in muse, but this is currently not the case. Again, nothing personal is intended, but I will most likely not be able to interact with the blogs of duplicates for my own personal comfort. There are exceptions to this, but it usually means we’ve become friends outside muse interaction first.

I have depression as well as performance/social anxiety. My moods and levels of inspiration/motivation vary widely. I know that is inconvenient, sorry! So in general, I don’t push myself to be prolific, and can drop threads or be slow at responding.

I may drop a thread due to general anxiety, lack of ideas, or loss of inspiration, my deepest apologies. Don’t feel bad and DO feel free to continue interactions with my muse in the future!

I operate my muse based on what I feel is in his character to do at that moment. Sometimes that makes planning difficult, because he may not respond to a circumstance in a way I anticipated. Sorry if things do not go as planned. But I do also love plotting and overthinking things, hah.

I play a character with a deadly power. That being said, I try my very best to keep him from being invincible or unbelievable according to canon. He absolutely has weaknesses, physical and otherwise.

I am willing to play dark scenes including gore/violence, angst, horror, abuse, torture, my character’s death, etc., and there will likely be disturbing or mature content like that on this blog. Content warnings will be tagged with “cw:” followed by the label.

I choose to write sexual scenes. However, I respect those who do not want to see or roleplay sex, will never push said people to do so, and will keep explicit sexual content under a ‘read more’, tagged “smut”.

I only roleplay smut with those who are above the age of consent. I am uncomfortable doing so with underage individuals, so please do not attempt if you are under age 18.

What I Appreciate:

I am a huge fan of thorough communication. If you are planning on attempting to kill or torture my muse, it would be nice for some notification of this (either in the post/tags or in a message) at least one post beforehand.

Let me know if something I’m doing in a thread with you is making you uncomfortable. I myself am comfortable with exploring some very dark themes. I will do my part to check your blog rules, and I apologize if I am ever forgetful about anything mentioned.

Please try to refrain from controlling my muse’s thoughts and actions (unless that is your muse’s quirk; ask me).

Please try to remember to start a new post instead of reblogging an ask post over and over.

I would be so grateful if multimuse blogs could tag the muse they are using in their posts. This helps me filter out the inevitable multitude posts on my dash that will not be relevant to my muse or even fandom and keeps it from becoming absolute chaos. Obviously it’s your blog, and I’m not here to tell you what to do, but this prevention of inconvenience will make me somewhat more likely to follow you.

Please do not steal my original (detailed) headcanons or icons or use images in posts tagged “My Edits” without my permission. If you’re not sure, ask me; I promise I won’t bite for such a question.

What Is Acceptable:

Always feel free to send me an ask, IM, or communicate in our RP thread if you have something to say or ask. Or if you just have a random comment! Seriously, anything.

If it seems like I’ve forgotten about a thread or neglected to respond and you you really want to continue it, feel free to message me to remind/ask about it.

Let me know if there is something you want tagged, and I will try to accommodate with what I see as reasonable.

I am 100% cool with us engaging in more than one thread at once. Do it!

All starter/ask memes/prompts on my blog are open all the time, no matter how old. Feel free to browse the tag and send in something you like! I would only request that you try to include the title of the post/collection in your ask so I can find it more easily.

I accept OCs and characters from other fandoms. It would be nice to have a some background on them first (either in a message or a link to info). For characters from other fandoms, I would prefer they have a BnHA verse, but you can always ask me if you have a different proposition.

I am okay with roleplaying total AUs (as in, a completely different setting), but it is not my default preference. The best way to go about seeing if I’m interested would probably be to message me.

As this is also just a general purpose Shigaraki fan blog, all types of blogs (aside from spam/porn and antis) are free to follow, like my posts, and reblog non-RP-related posts.

Thanks a bunch for slogging through this!