therealmaeel

[therealmaeel]

We live in the dumbest, lamest cyberpunk dystopia possible.

So LA has been — and continues to — protest against ICE. These protests haven’t gotten any smaller or lost any momentum, but social media wasn’t reflecting it.

TikTok users, realizing that the platform/other social media are censoring/deleting/shadowbanning these protest videos, decided to find a workaround.

They’re calling it the LA Music Festival. Ice detention centers and other protest locations are “stages.” The hottest band is Rage Against the Machine. “Here’s what gear you should be bringing to stay safe at the LA Music Festival.”

And it fucking worked.

TikTok has become a proving ground for a lot of new music, meaning lots of labels and organizations have lucrative deals with TikTok to promote their new artists and music festivals. So they absolutely cannot censor the words “music festival” or train the algorithm to ignore it, or they risk endangering that very important revenue.

So now protest videos are flooding feeds again, but it’s the LA 24/7 Music Festival. Truly an incredible timeline we’ve landed in.

[therealmaeel]

Obligatory AI hate post bc I intend to be even more annoying about this

[therealmaeel]

We're all tired. We all want this to end. The pain, the death, the suffering. It's unbearable to witness, feeling like there's nothing we can do to help. Israel continues its genocide in Gaza, shooting, bombing, starving, and the world stays silent despite our screams and pleas.

[therealmaeel]

reject the western gaze!

mutual aid means no hierarchy between givers and receivers

a new mutual aid org, Bridge of Solidarity, has been established in the gaza strip by 17 year old poet yazan mohammed in response to the exploitative practices conducted by some charities and encouraged by the existing charity-based model of fundraising for gaza. according to BoS: "the western attention economy and pity economy plays a large role in who lives or dies in gaza." essentially, people need to make themselves marketable in order to receive lifesaving aid; people who are not marketable die. yazan himself wrote about the damage this can do to one's self image, which you can read here.

after trying for a year to respect his own privacy, my friend siraj was also pressured into posting images of his son's emaciated body in order to gain sympathy from westerners.

we cannot keep forcing people to do this anymore.

here's a declaration of their values from bridge of solidarity's most recent post:

Our organization is against the Western gaze. We refuse to humiliate people. We refuse to force people to take photos. We refuse to force people to take photos with our flyer or logo. People will receive aid freely without being forced to pose. We will respect people's privacy completely. Our principles include autonomy, dignity, sovereignty, mutual respect, and mutual aid.

this org will prioritize giving aid to people without phones or social media, who do not speak english, and who do not have outside support or living parents. these are the people who are not palatable to westerners but who deserve to live with as much dignity as everyone else

as of five days ago, BoS are working on a water truck delivery

[therealmaeel]

being anti ai is making me feel like in going insane. "you asked for thoughts about your characters backstory and i put it into chat gpt for ideas". studies have proven its making people dumber. "i asked ai to generate this meal plan". its causing water shortages where its data centers are built. "ill generate some pictures for the dnd campaign". its spreading misinformation. "meta, generate an image of this guy doing something stupid". its trained off stolen images, writing, video, audio. "i was talking with my snapchat ai-" theres no way to verify what its doing with the information it collects. "youtube is impletmenting ai based age verification". my work has an entire graphics media department and has still put ai generated motivational posters up everywhere. ai playlists. ai facial verification. google ai microsoft ai meta ai snapchat ai. everyone treats it as a novelty. every treats it as a mandatory part of life. am i the only one who sees it? am i paranoid? am i going insane? jesus fucking christ. if i have to hear one more "well at least-" "but it does-" "but you can-" im about to lose it. i shouldnt have to jump through hoops to avoid the evil machine. have you no principles? no goddamn spine? am i the weird one here?

[therealmaeel]

I almost felt a little relieved, but more than ten large rockets shook Gaza, as Netanyahu said, he will penetrate

[therealmaeel]

I'm watching my friend slowly die and I don't know what to do. Starvation, tumors, and depression are eating away at him while he has nothing to eat.

I don't know what to say to make people donate. I'm begging you to donate anything you can to Anas. Any treat you can go without or any extra cash to spare. Ask people to donate. If that's embarrassing to you please know it's infinitely more embarrassing to him. Please.

Fundraiser || Vetting 1 || Vetting 2

@el-shab-hussein @fairuzfan @nabulsi @sar-soor @khanger

[therealmaeel]

By the way, the prosecution just violated Luigi Mangione's HIPAA rights and I have not seen people talking much about it

[therealmaeel]

Pretty incredible news to hear during tough times

Source.

[therealmaeel]

[therealmaeel]

I’m just saying if Daniel Radcliffe, the literal protagonist of the Harry Potter franchise since the age of ten years old, was able to disavow JK Rowling and move on from the HP universe then actually what the fuck is anyone else’s excuse. There is no one else on the planet who can say their entire childhood was HP more than that guy and he still cared about trans people more than the average tumblr user who says “we’re protesting by making all her characters queer and trans!!” like you can do better. You should do better.

[therealmaeel]

In this specific post, we try to draw your attention to Gaza students who suffer from multi-faceted conflicts, including the interruption of the Internet and electricity for at least 660 days in this cruel war, so I will not talk much. There are details within the campaign and there is an Instagram page to document everything we do inside ihyaa.

Anas is a programmer who lost everything when he got a free seat. He told me that one of the best things that happened to him in this war is getting a free seat. Doesn't this give you positive energy? Your donation contributed to the happiness of a student in this unjust war!!!

Also, Ahmed, a graphic designer, told me that he works with a company in a simple employment contract with a monthly salary. $400 is not enough for him. He was renting a seat elsewhere for $150 and $250 remains when he withdraws them. There is no $140 left of them. This would have made him stop his job until he found a free seat in the ihyaa community. Hope returned to him. Doesn't this make you feel proud that your donation helped this student? This is the story of two people from more than 30 students and his student. Each of them has a story.

The campaign support link is below to donate to contribute to alleviating Gaza students

Note that we will only get PayPal for $25

Let's build hope in the hearts of students again

[therealmaeel]

hello physically disabled person reading this. it is not your fault that your medical supplies are made from a lot of single use plastic and you can continue using them guilt free. your health comes first. thank you for existing.

[therealmaeel]

something i've noticed that has become really annoying in the past 10 years or so is this fad of what i've been calling, for lack of a better word, "structural whataboutism." it's that thing where, when faced with a concrete, resolvable problem in your community, your answer is to blame it on a vast, unsolvable issue of structural inequality and then throw up your hands. "there's trash all over the ground in this corner of the park" becomes "well, that's where MEN OF COLOR congregate after their 12-HOUR GRAVEYARD SHIFTS and i'm not going to support a CARCERAL SOLUTION to a CAPITALISTIC PROBLEM. WE NEED TO ELIMINATE POVERTY AND THE SUBJUGATION OF THE WORKING CLASS" and it's like okay but sis. someone still has to go pick up the trash. we don't need a carceral solution, we need more trash cans. you're not going to eliminate poverty and the subjugation of the working class and even if ya did, there would still be trash on the ground. how any of this passes for radicalism within their peer groups i simply don't understand. it's radical laziness more than anything else

[therealmaeel]

[therealmaeel]

what abled ppl think is a massive problem for disabled folks: 13 year old on the internet faking something

what is actually a massive problem for disabled folks: "well you don't LOOK disabled, are you sure you're not faking? I'm not giving you accommodations until you PROVE you're not faking. Please give me, a stranger, your medical info and explain your condition to me in detail so I know you're not faking and only then will I respect or take you seriously"

[therealmaeel]