simonalkenmayeris-still-dead

[simonalkenmayeris-still-dead]

Hi Izzy! Hope you're well. Have you seen that evie-the-mostly-human has been posting about "Simon", confirming that he is indeed Kristina Meister, and hinting at some pretty traumatic things that happened in their relationship? Hardly a surprise but I just stumbled upon it. Glad Evie got away in the end.

Evie's using their blog to warn people about Kristina as far as I'm aware.

[simonalkenmayeris-still-dead]

How to avoid sharing Social Media Scams in the Wake of a Disaster

The world is full of disasters. It is also full of people who have learned to profit off of disaster. It is an unfortunate fact of life in the modern social media/online environment that in order to avoid spreading scams, you have to make a continuous effort and you have to be cynical.

There are a lot of wonderful, well-meaning people in the world who want to help everyone who asks for it. Unfortunately, those people are easy to scam.

These are some rules to prevent you from either falling victim to scams or from passing scams along to other people.

These are not suggestions, these are not things to take into consideration, the rules listed here are RULES that you need to adopt in order to keep from spreading scams on social media.

Rules:

Never, ever share screenshots of fundraisers or resources that you haven’t verified yourself. If you see a screenshot of, say, the Antelope Valley Fairgrounds Instagram announcing that they will be accepting evacuees with RVs, you go find the Antelope Valley Fairgrounds website, you find the social media linked on their website, and you check that the post you’re seeing actually came from the entity it’s claiming to. Once you have proved that the post actually came from the entity it’s claiming to, double check that entity with a couple of verifiable sources. So, for instance, if I was checking on the Guitar Center Music Foundation I’d check Guitar Center’s website and maybe I’d look for news articles about donations from the foundation. If I was looking up the Antelope Valley Fairgrounds, I’d look for a local newspaper calendar of events that linked to the fairgrounds or would check the city websites in the area and search “fairgrounds” on them. I would not share a link to a social media page for an organization until I was 100% certain that it was actually associated with the organization. You shouldn’t either. If you see a post that claims to come from a specific group but all you have is the screenshot of the post, go find the group’s website and if it all checks out you may share it IF AND ONLY IF you add the link to the post. And if a post has a link already, click through it and STILL check that everything looks okay.

Never give money or information to someone with a free email address. This sucks. I know. But if the group you’re looking at only has a gmail address or a protonmail you have no way of knowing if they’re legitimately associated with the organization at a glance. And even if they ARE associated with the organization, the free email account demonstrates a lack of planning/commitment that has troubling implications for the handling of your money or data.

Do not share screenshots of “resources,” headlines, social media posts, or news articles. I’m done with screenshots. Screenshots are easy to fake and almost always remove context from the discussion. A standalone screenshot isn’t information, it’s a trap to get you to share something without thinking. Do not *trust* screenshots of “resources,” headlines, social media posts, or news articles. Always assume a screenshot is faked unless you have found the original post yourself. A screenshot isn’t a “resource” it is an un-source, it is intentionally removing information from the viewer and we are well past the time when people should have understood that sharing screenshots without a link to the original text in context is never, every trustworthy.

Do not give money or information to accounts without a history. This may mean individual social media accounts, or it may mean a shiny new mutual aid project that popped up near your house. It’s unfortunate that people have their accounts deleted, it’s unfortunate that new orgs have trouble finding support, but the likelihood that a new account is a scam is simply too high to trust your money or information with it. If someone is asking for money or offering help on an account that hasn’t posted for years, or that suddenly changed all its content, or that has only existed for a month with no links to other, older sites and socials, you shouldn’t trust that account.

Okay, those are the RULES. Those are the lines you draw in the sand. The TL;DR version is this:

Don’t share posts you haven’t personally verified

Don’t give money or information to accounts with generic email accounts like gmail

Don’t share or trust screenshots that have no links or further context

Don’t give info or money to brand new accounts

I absolve you of any guilt you have surrounding this. You want to share that post to help a stranger but they have only had an account for a week. You want to spread that resource, but unfortunately it is only available as screenshots of an anonymous instagram account. You think that perhaps that mutual aid group really can help people, but the only way contact them is to put your info into a google form and send an email to their gmail account. That post seems really helpful, but actually you can’t find anything that suggests that the Mt. Pacifico Aquatic Center exists outside of this twitter account. No more guilt! Guilt be gone! You do not have to feel bad for not sharing these things, or not reaching out, or not giving money because doing so would be irresponsible and would put other people at risk of being tricked by scammers or wasting what money they can donate on a potential fraud.

Now, some tips:

Always, always, always take at least ten minutes to think about giving someone money or your information online. Read the post that moved you, then re-read it, then go sit away from it for ten minutes and think about it. There’s a good chance you will still want to give, or sign up, but ten minutes away will give you a chance to consider if there are any red flags in the post that inspired you.

Independently search everything you’re going to share. Go outside of social platforms and check on search engines. Check Wikipedia. Look up the website and send a while clicking around. Go on a *different* social media platform and check their account.

Just straight up search “[SUBJECT] Scam” before you do anything. See if this thing you’re looking at is actually an old scam that’s revamped for a new disaster. See if you can find an explanation of how something might be a scam or risk in a way that you didn’t understand before.

Get used to getting away from social media. Go check websites.

Learn domain name syntax. “musicfoundationguit.arcenter.com” is a bullshit scam. “guitarcenterfounditaon.org” is a bullshit scam. “guitarcenter-foundation.org” is a bullshit scam. The actual domain is “guitarcenterfoundation.org” and the link to the correct page isn’t going to be “guitarcenter.foundationfires.org” it’s going to be “guitarcenterfoundation.org/fires”  

Tips for Orgs:

If you do not want your org to look like a scam you are going to have to put some effort into it. Unfortunately this will probably also require at least a little bit of money; I know it’s hard to get money together at the beginning, but it will pay off in the long run.

Invest in a domain and hosted email. You can get relatively inexpensive hosted email through most domain registrars and even if you only get one email address for your domain you can forward it to all the free gmail and protonmail accounts you want. But buy a domain, set up a simple website, and get an  info@[yourdomain].com email set up because you don’t want people emailing “MyOrgInfo@gmail.com” because it’s super fucking easy for a 1337 hax0r like me to set up “YourOrgTeam@gmail.com” and scam the people who want to reach out to you.

Make a blog on your actual website, not on a social media site. A blog means that you can make regular posts and establish a history to prove that you are real and you do real stuff; it will also help with SEO and help to ensure that when people search for your org YOU are what comes up. Keeping up calendars of previous activities with links to those activities is also good.

Set up social handles on all the sites you use, make a “socials” page on your website, and link to your handles so that people can verify if you’re the one posting something. If you don’t make it extremely easy to find your socials, that means it’s extremely easy to set up fake accounts claiming to be you. Then put the link to your website in the bio on your socials.

If you are offering something or holding a fundraiser or doing anything on your social media page, link it back to your website. If you have an IG post offering resources, you should include a url for your site in each image. If you share a photo on twitter with the info for a march, that should link back to your website with more info about the march. If you post a fundraiser on tumblr you need to link the fundraising page of your website on that post.

If you absolutely positively cannot set up a website and a real-ass email address, set up a linktree, choose a primary social media to post on that all the others refer back to, and very explicitly state what your email address is and that you do not have other email addresses somewhere that's difficult to miss. Build a history of posts and link to other orgs that you work with or any writeups or stories about your events or projects. The point of all of this is making yourself easy to verify. "northfullertonfnb@gmail.com" sucks but it sucks a lot less if it's in the bio of "@northfulltertonfnb" and that page has a two year history of posting meal share schedules and menus.

In conclusion, don't share things that you haven't personally checked. When in doubt, it is always safer not to share.

[simonalkenmayeris-still-dead]

Imane Khelif for Vogue Arabia, photographed by Tarek Mawad

[simonalkenmayeris-still-dead]

boops are on

[simonalkenmayeris-still-dead]

I didn't watch the film for YEARS (and even when I did watch it, I could barely pay attention) because I was so sure it would ruin the book for me, but this style of post gets me every time.

Okay no I need to talk about the book version of Howl's Moving Castle. I love the movie but the book has such a different vibe and you, yes you, should read it.

Movie Howl is a soulful and quiet. Book Howl is a drama queen and Causing Problems and has a long string of jilted exes and couldn't shut up if you paid him.

Sophie and Howl drive each other up the wall at the beginning and it's really funny. Sophie and Howl are (despite themselves) very much in love by the end and they still drive each other up the wall and it's even funnier.

In the movie, Howl has been ordered by the king to participate in The War, and Howl is avoiding it because he is a brave conscientious objector. In the book, Howl has been ordered by the king to rescue his lost brother from the Witch of the Wastes, and Howl is avoiding it by any means necessary because he is a cowardly weasel who wants to stay as far from the Witch as possible.

In the movie, the Witch cursed Sophie because she was jealous about Howl speaking to Sophie for five minutes. In the book, the Witch cursed Sophie because Sophie had been doing surprisingly powerful magic for years without knowing it and it was actually starting to cut into the Witch's plans. (Sophie does not discover any of this until nearly the end of the book, but the reader can start to pick it up much earlier and the way Sophie's magic works is pretty darn cool.)

In the movie, there's a rumor that Howl eats the hearts of maidens, but this is implied to be nothing but nasty fearmongering. In the book, there's a rumor that Howl eats the hearts of maidens because Howl started the rumor so people would stop asking him to do wizard junk all the time.

The book lightly parodies a couple of tropes from Western fairy tales. In particular Sophie has internalized that, as the eldest of three sisters, her "destiny" is to fail so that her younger sisters will look cooler when they succeed, which is why she's so resigned to the hat shop at the beginning. (Sidebar: Sophie's sisters come up much more in the book and they're great.) There's also a really funny bit where Sophie attempts to operate a pair of seven-league boots.

In the movie, the fourth and final location that the magic door connects to is some sort of black void / mindscape / time portal dealy. In the book the fourth location is Wales, in the UK, on Earth, so that Howl can visit his family, because from Howl's perspective this is an isekai story.

[simonalkenmayeris-still-dead]

Good gods I got psychic damage remembering all this out of nowhere and how involved I used to be in this "not-a-cult" cult. Hope you and everyone who got out has been well and have found some semblance of peace.

It's been GREAT. Went back to uni studying mathematical sciences. Started writing my novel. Sold my soul to the Siren...

[simonalkenmayeris-still-dead]

The Dybbuk Box is still one of the most asked about topics and the Jewitches Patrons voted that this was the post they wanted to see first!

[simonalkenmayeris-still-dead]

oh look

[simonalkenmayeris-still-dead]

one of the best academic paper titles

[simonalkenmayeris-still-dead]

How is "reality boils down to belief" fascist? Genuine question, you're a smart person and I want your opinion.

I'm gonna be oversimplifying here so bare with me:

Sometimes I feel like people these days think of fascists like bullies from a movie. They see the dedicated fascist mind as something almost knight-like; a rigorous machine dedicated to things like duty and honor and strength and cruelty.

The experience of being a fascist is a deeply, deeply emotional thing. Hell, a common mantra in alt-right circles is "feels over reals," meaning "evidence cannot truly be evidence if it makes you feel disgusted. Your internal experience of the world is the ultimate metric of truth."

And this isn't a recent idea. Fascists have always been obsessed with the concept of individual willpower. Read: the idea that if you don't get what you want, you didn't want it enough. If you tried your best and didn't reach your goal, it was due to a fundamental weakness of your will.

Humans are not logical creatures. Part of being human is being irrational, and making space for other people when they are irrational. But a massive -massive- part of being a fascist is actively and gleefully ignoring reality to a self-destructive degree. Might makes right, so whatever makes the mighty feel good must therefore be right.

I am not exaggerating when I say "reality boils down to belief" is how fascists see the world. Anything that makes them feel good is true, and anything that makes them feel bad is false. That is how they see the world.

[simonalkenmayeris-still-dead]

(🎀) P.S what does the - "Which is why I’d like to announce that my next technological endeavor and investment will be in AI and the rise of the machines. Free Palestine. Bow down to Skynet. I am not joking. It’s already happening." - thing... mean? i am schizophrenic and have issues differentiating between fiction and reality. uhhh. halp

Part of Simon's backstory is that he's immensely wealthy. Skynet is the name of the system in Terminator that surveils the whole world, or something.

However, in real life, Skynet is the name of an international freight company.

Basically, Simon's trying to say that he's going to use his wealth and therefore intelligence (the author seems to think these are interchangeable) to create new and better AI, and to replace our species with robots.

I don't think Simon is a bad person, I just think he's stupid, so I think his intention is to make a dark joke about how he will use the machines to make Palestine free, however the rise of the machines trope usually involves the machines turning against humans and killing everyone, so it's pretty tasteless.

[simonalkenmayeris-still-dead]

(🎀) also "No emotional supply to be found here, my narcissistic friends. You may do all the blogging you like." what the fuck is the ableism. hello.

Pretty sure this is a personal issue on the author's part.

Also they think I'm a narcissist and think every anon ask criticising them is from me. There's actually no better evidence that they don't have any of the IP tracking software they claim to have than that.

Like, presumably even if I was obsessed with them, other people would also be sending them insane asks. That's just averages.

[simonalkenmayeris-still-dead]

(🎀) also "Are my words any less true if I am a character? Is anything I’ve said ever, less true?" + "I have, but I am unable to disclose a good portion [of the results of the experiment]" due to NDA" . is really funny + predictable. god.

I mean, at least Kris now presumably knows that NDAs are legitimate when it comes to protecting intellectual property, unlike the last time they tried to invoke that.

[simonalkenmayeris-still-dead]

🎀 "History is lost on your species. Utterly lost on it. You are not worthy of being the dominant species anymore." + "I suppose it’s “anti-Semitic” for a “character” to point out humanity’s inhumanity?" etc. <- lol. anyways his shtick still being roleplaying as a cryptid, now, when theres a fucking genocide, people are dying and being slaughtered, theres a communication blackout, is crazy, its so bad. like oh my god. she has no PR team. what the fuck is going on. help.

Okay, so it's antisemitic, and he's only spelling it like that because he wants to claim "Semite" is a racial category, which is false.

There are people who speak Semitic Languages, and antisemite is a term that was specifically created to replace judenhass (hatred of Jews), but conflating those two things so you can pretend antisemitism means hatred of Arabs is a ploy used by (usually) end of times christians who want there to be more bloodshed in the middle east because they think christ will only return to earth when all the other religions have died off or converted.

The character thing is... well, it's not even that annoying. Like I can believe that if you were a thousand year old demon and people kept saying you weren't, that might get irksome and you might have some fun with it. The problem is in the execution.

On the face of it, no it wouldn't be problematic for a character to do that, but when the character does it in an offensive manner, then yes, it becomes offensive. Exactly the same as if you were any other person.

Simon's problem has always been in the execution.

[simonalkenmayeris-still-dead]

(🎀) ive also noticed that his viewer/note count seems to be way less than before, when i first saw and heard of him he had 50-100+ notes minimum. personal posts have like 10-30. what happened lmfaooo people dgaf anymore. 🎉🥂 cheers

well he's not doing anything interesting.

[simonalkenmayeris-still-dead]

(🎀) "A person can be both Jewish and wrong. Wrong is wrong. Doesn’t matter who is doing it or what the “justification”" wild, why hes bringing up jewish ppl and wont stfu about it + antisemitism is beyond me. "And if a single one of you come into my ask box or comments to say ANYTHING about antisemitism I will track you down and gut you." this is mostly what shocked me the most. like... wow. threatening violence for bringing up antisemitism. damn.

I mean, I did have some hope that after all the work he put in (and he did put in work! He tried to change! And he backslid immediately!), he might be able to tell the difference between the Israeli Government and Jewish People, but apparently not.

The antisemitism threat is just because he wants people to get in his inbox and accuse him of it so he can pretend to be a wounded victim again. He LOVES playing the victim card. I should ignore it if I were you.