#22 mar '24

[mikeywayarchive]

Instagram story by kristincolby

[Mar 22, 2024]

[sunskate]

CPom on Polina Edmunds's podcast pt 3:

What did it mean to you guys to regain your top status, your success that season- 3rd place finish [at Nats], you went to 4CC and to Worlds, your first Worlds - standing on the podium at Nationals, 3rd place, tell us a little about that headspace and the journey you had been going through and all the work you had put in to that point: A: all the momentum we created with the season, i didn't even evaluate and take a step back and look at what we were doing, it was just happening, and i would show up to skating and put in the work and try my very best every day. all that reality didn't set in until when we finished the free and i was backstage, and I just broke down into tears just looking back and even Marie-France turned to me and said 'less than a year ago, you weren't even able to walk.' having that realization set in all that hard work paying off, it was a euphoric feeling, cause the tears weren't tears of joy, it was tears of finally fulfilling something that you had set your mind to

C: that was at Worlds (giggles bc he didn't answer the question), but at Nationals, we didn't have our best skates. that was probably the only competition i'd say where we weren't happy with either one of the programs, and we got 3rd, but Kaitlin and Jean-Luc weren't at that Nationals, so we made the 4CC team, but we were named 1st alternate for Worlds. and i think that brought back for me at least, a lot of what i was feeling in the season before, where we went to competition, tried your best and it didn't work out. so at 4CC we had a week where we were training in Colorado with the other US teams, and for me, i felt a little bit of imposter syndrome like i wasn't supposed to be there because i wasn't on the Worlds team. we were pretty bummed after Nationals, it was a hard time, we were just sad that we weren't able to deliver what we wanted, cause we had worked so hard and i think we put too much pressure on ourselves. but then we redeemed ourselves with 4CC, we skated really well both programs, and after that, the confidence came back and we were able to prepare well for Worlds

not knowing because of the alternate situation is tough in and of itself because you don't know, but you also have to train without knowing- you guys were notified like how soon before Worlds?

C: pretty early - we had plenty of time- the week after 4CC, we have the same coaches, so they all talk. it would have been ok either way, even if we were notified later, but we were notified early

tell us about your first Worlds experience, the best competition of the year, and you guys got to go- what did you take from your experience-- A: it was in Saitama which was pretty special - the arena was huge, the amount of people who showed up. showing up to practice, we kind of needed a day or two to get our feet under us just because of all the excitement, all the emotions that were happening, it took us a couple days to get comfortable. it was an unbelievable experience all around - seeing all our friends in one place, all the people we grew up skating with, and being in a country like Japan, it was very special very very special. that arena -still thinking about it gives me goosebumps. it was huge

C: we had never competed in front of such a big crowd, there was like 17,000 people in there or something like that. even the practices were full. so it was a big shock to the system when we first got there. our practices, they felt like a mess, apparently they didn't look like it, but to us they felt pretty rocky, but then it all came together for competition day, and i think it was the best we did our programs that year

A: one of our big goals was trusting the coaches and trusting the process, and even with all the excitement from Worlds, we were still able to follow what they were trying to tell us, all the strategies they'd implemented to give us the best opportunity at Worlds. that was a goal we'd set all season and i feel like we did a very good job at Worlds at continuing that

[msbarrows]

Have a bit of Thing A Day catch-up to do; been having a bad mental health week. Lots of finding getting out of bed difficult. All too easy once I am up to do things like game obsessively instead of tackling anything I'd actually meant to do. As far as I can reconstruct the last most-of-a-week:

Mar 21 - I'm pretty sure I went to bed at a stupid hour (because Timberborn, again) and then overslept. Leftover shepherd's pie from the freezer for supper.

Mar 22 - Woke up at a reasonable (for me) hour, and then just lay in bed for many hours before getting up. Chili from the freezer and some rice for supper, with chopped fresh tomato.

Mar 23 - I have no memory of this day. I think I did chicken strips and fries for supper? Maybe. Or was this the shepherd's pie day and the 21st was the chicken strips. Who knows. Not my brain!

Mar 24 - Slept/lay in bed until stupidly late in the day again. Did pasta with meat sauce and chicken meat balls for supper.

Mar 25 - Managed to get up out of bed pretty early in the day, but it was because I'd barely slept. Had breakfast and then went back to bed and read for a while and then napped. Processed a bunch of meat my brother bought yesterday into 1 lb lots for freezing. Made beef stew from some of it.

Mar 26 - Sleep schedule still whacked, got up early again and then took a nap in mid-day. Did burgers & fries and a tomato-avocado-cucumber salad for supper.

Some time in the last few days I baked a loaf of cracked wheat bread, but I don't remember which day. And I might have partially cleaned the upstairs bathroom? Unless that was before this week from limbo.

It's now passed midnight; time to hit the sack before I succumb to temptation and not go to bed.

I think the lassitude and brain fog this week was largely hormones - I've hit the 'the engine doesn't always turn over' point of aging and menstruation, and after several months of very happily not having that to deal with, guess what started a couple day ago. Yeah. And the energy level and braining have rebounded noticeably since it started. Hope it fucks off again, permanently, 40+ years of this nonsense is long enough.

[apaminerala]

Soirée Carnaval @ Embassy

À vos costumes… prêts, partez !La fameuse soirée Carnaval de l’UFE ROUMANIE est de retour ! Rejoignez-nous pour une soirée déguisée mémorable, avec open bar jusqu’à minuit, DJ et rires à volonté!QUAND ? Le 29 mars, à partir de 20h. OÙ ? À l’Embassy Gallery, Piata Alexandru Lahovari, nr 8.160 lei/pers tarif non-adhérent130 lei/pers tarif adhérentLien d’inscription à l’événement…

[harmoonix]

🦁𝙃𝙖𝙠𝙪𝙣𝙖 𝙈𝙖𝙩𝙖𝙩𝙖🦁

(Astrology Observations)

𓃭~ 𝕫𝕚𝕞𝕓𝕒𝕓𝕨𝕖 ~𓃭

❂𓃭•°•°❂𓃭•°•°❂𓃭•°•°❂𓃭•°•°❂𓃭•°•°❂

❂ 𝕴𝖙'𝖘 𝖙𝖍𝖊 𝖈𝖎𝖗𝖈𝖑𝖊 𝖔𝖋 𝖑𝖎𝖋𝖊 ❂

──────────────────────

☀️ Leo Placements especially Sun/Moon/Rising/Venus have a shining face/body in general their skin shines a lot and is good because it indicates healthy skin, they may also have a very complex beauty like you need to stare at them for a bit to just admire their beauty

☀️ 5°, 17°, and the 29th° degrees indicate fame and recognition, sometimes getting a lot of attention, on the sun/ascendant/midhaven can give those things (Jupiter in those degrees extends the beauty of the native)

☀️Juno in Fire Signs love with a passion and need a passionate relationship/partner, they're very fierce and need to feel loved at fullest

☀️ Aquarius/Virgo Moon/Rising/Mercury are so analytical, they will analyze everything about a person like their eyes/face/clothes/body/behavior etc.. 😲😲

☀️ Scorpio Venus/Mars/Rising/Juno can definitely experience getting or having jealous partners, (or possesive) their partners can be clingy as well

☀️ Venus in your 7th house is in perfect harmony/will attract a lot of love/partners/harmony in their relationships and full of blessings

☀️ North Node aspecting Sun/Pluto/Saturn/Chiron literally gives the vibe of Lion King because of "Circle of life", like to experience things and to evolve and going from different circles of life to another

❂𓃭•°•°❂𓃭•°•°❂𓃭•°•°❂𓃭•°•°❂𓃭•°•°❂

❂𓃭•°•°❂𓃭•°•°❂𓃭•°•°❂𓃭•°•°❂𓃭•°•°❂

☀️Mercury/Moon in Pisces or at Pisces Degrees (12°, 24°) have a serene/peaceful voice, I know so many people with both Pisces Mercury & Moon they are having such a calm sweet voice ❣️

☀️Try to analyze your ruler planet persona chart to discover more things about yourself, if you have 2 ruler planets look at both persona chart, if you have Leo Rising your own chart is the sun natal chart ❣️

☀️Pluto aspecting the ascendant natives are not only mesmerizing but they're full of evolution as well, you'll learn so many things if you have someone with those aspects beside you, they can teach you/make you evolve with them

──────────────────────

From the day we arrive on the planet

And blinking step into the sun

There's more to see than can ever be seen

More to do than can ever be done

──────────────────────

☀️ Don't forget that the house you have Pisces in is also ruled by the Jupiter not only by Neptune, in traditional astrology Pisces is ruled by Jupiter

☀️ Sun in Leo/Leo in the 8th house have such a magnetic energy, they're like a gemstone 💎 shinning and full of mystery in the same time

☀️ Gemini Placements esp Rising and Mars are captivating people, these natives are always having the best stories to share, they're also very communicative and open to everything

☀️ Leo/Libra/Taurus/Pisces Moons know how to give themselves and others a love treatment, I know so many of them cheering others up to make them feel better and happy

❂𓃭•°•°❂𓃭•°•°❂𓃭•°•°❂𓃭•°•°❂𓃭•°•°❂

❂𓃭•°•°❂𓃭•°•°❂𓃭•°•°❂𓃭•°•°❂𓃭•°•°❂

☀️ I admire 9th house placements for their love for travelling and seeing the worlds beautiful nature, they're also outgoing from young ages and that makes them to be wild and free when they grow up

☀️ 10°, 22° are hardworking degrees, on midhaven/sun/ascendant give the vibe of a hardworking person, also shows a lot of influence upon others

☀️ 11° 23° degrees are influential degrees, on Venus these degrees can influence others based on the beauty or their fashion style/ on the midhaven influence about their work or career/on Mercury influencing about their voice/speech

☀️ Sagittarius/Aries and Gemini Degrees usually are the people talk very fast in a conversation and at the end the people can end up like "Sorry can you repeat again"

☀️ Chiron in the 4th/6th/12th houses natives may like to stay alone for a bit to relax or to calm themselves, they really need peace of mind

☀️ Sun/Mars in the 10th house shows someone who is focusing a lot on their work/job/career and its very confident about it, they may also stay over the program or overworking to put more on themselves

☀️ Venus aspecting the north node has a very beautiful journey in life, to learn how to love themselves and how to be loved, to learn what healthy and true love feels like (all aspects)

☀️ Ascendant aspecting the Moon are having a specific beauty, some of them may have big sparkling eyes, maybe oval face, beautiful smile

❂𓃭•°•°❂𓃭•°•°❂𓃭•°•°❂𓃭•°•°❂𓃭•°•°❂

❂𓃭•°•°❂𓃭•°•°❂𓃭•°•°❂𓃭•°•°❂𓃭•°•°❂

☀️ Lilith Leo/Lilith in the 5th house or Lilith aspecting Sun can feel unseen/unloved at times or they can feel people like people don't give them the attention they deserve, and is not like that, I know there is someone who loves you for who you are ❣️❣️❣️

☀️ Moon/Venus and North Node in the 3rd house create a very beautiful connection with their siblings (if they have) and a harmonious relationships

☀️ Pluto in the 2nd house has a transformative energy towards their value and worth, because you have to realize that you're worth it and you deserve the best

──────────────────────

There's far too much to take in here

More to find than can ever be found

But the sun rolling high

Through the sapphire sky

Keeps great and small on the endless round

──────────────────────

☀️ Mercury/Jupiter/ Venus & Sun in the 11th house create wonderful friendships, their friends can be everything for some of these natives and be a blessing in their lives ❣️

☀️ Jupiter aspecting the Sun/Moon or Ascendant can make the native extremely optimistic and lucky, they are having a good vibe and love to see/make other people happy with their presence

☀️ Aries Moon/Rising/Venus/Sun can be clingy/possesive and over protective it kills me sometimes how underatted these placements are when it comes to those things

☀️Mars in Earth Signs feels so full with responsibiliies at times, Mars struggles and loves it here in the same time, it gives them an bossy aura or energy too

☀️ Mars/Jupiter/Saturn/Pluto in the 1st house natives usually have a lot of body strength, they can work in gym or maybe having a muscle body or a good fit and still be strong

❂𓃭•°•°❂𓃭•°•°❂𓃭•°•°❂𓃭•°•°❂𓃭•°•°❂

❂𓃭•°•°❂𓃭•°•°❂𓃭•°•°❂𓃭•°•°❂𓃭•°•°❂

☀️ Neptune in the 1st house natives are having a great connection with their subconscious or spiritual world. These natives are highly spiritual and easily connect with their subconscious mind/soul

☀️ Neptune at 1°, 13° and 25th° degrees usually have a lot of energy and easily can get overstimulated, they be doing more things at once and hate it when it gets boring

☀️ Lilith aspecting Mars can be the ultimate femme fatale energy let me tell you how tricky this placement is cus it makes people to hate and love you in the same time (to hate you I mean some people may just not like you and because Mars is a male planet those people can be men at times)

☀️ Uranus/Sun aspecting Mars can bless the native with a lot of body motion,they can be good at dancing in general things that have to do with body movement

☀️ Uranus aspecting Sun is a vibe I swear, I love their energy they're like "C'mon let's do this thing I'm so excited for it" and the next minute they be coming with another idea and another ✨ innovative✨

☀️ Dark Lilith (58) in the 8th/12th house for in Scorpio/Pisces the native has surreal energy, not gonna lie we talk about dark lilith here these so it manifest with rage/intensity/mystery and even hypnotic vibes at times

☀️ If you have your ascendant not aspecting that many planets in your chart or an empty ascendant you'll have an easy time with discovering yourself and feeling like yourself

☀️ Having an empty 7th house is actually beneficial because long terms relationships will come easier for you with this house being empty

❂𓃭•°•°❂𓃭•°•°❂𓃭•°•°❂𓃭•°•°❂𓃭•°•°❂

❂𓃭•°•°❂𓃭•°•°❂𓃭•°•°❂𓃭•°•°❂𓃭•°•°❂

☀️ Capricorn Placements are known for being hardworking and respected in their environments but I cannot stand the fact when someone calls them cold or mean or idk what other things because I rarely met Capricorns like that, I say this as a Capricorn Myself 🐐♑

☀️ Uranus aspecting Venus natives can manifest in 2 categories as, wanting or having multiple crushes or people that you like or find attractive or being confused in their love life (omg sometimes indicating love triangles forgot that)

──────────────────────

It's the circle of life❂

❂And it moves us all

Through despair and hope❂

❂Through faith and love

──────────────────────

☀️Sun or Moon in the 9th house or in Sagittarius can have a passion about writing ✍🏼 like in their diaries or maybe writing books/mini stories

☀️ Pluto in Scorpio Generation was meant to bring back things that were classified by people as "taboo/forbidden" how many celebrities during the Pluto in Scorpio Generation were called bad names because they were bringing such things back...😨😨

☀️ Ascendant sextile or semi - sextile the sun has an easily likeable energy, a lot of people can like them because of their personality and aura

❂𓃭•°•°❂𓃭•°•°❂𓃭•°•°❂𓃭•°•°❂𓃭•°•°❂

❂𓃭•°•°❂𓃭•°•°❂𓃭•°•°❂𓃭•°•°❂𓃭•°•°❂

☀️ Whenever I say "aspecting" in my observations I also mean the "parallels and contra parallels" and even the "minor aspects" like "quintile/Bi-quintile/semi-sextile/semi-square etc...

☀️ "Quintile" aspects are very beneficial idk why so many people consider them minor aspects they're pretty powerful in the chart

☀️ Aries and in general a lot of fire placements in the chart shows a hot temper, someone who gets easily angered or annoyed but not like in a crazy way

☀️ Juno asteroid code (3) in Pisces or Pisces Degrees (12°, 24°) have a special bounding, maybe love at first sight?? Falling in love quickly too and sometimes shy in love

☀️Juno asteroid code (3) in Capricorn or in Capricorn Degrees (10°, 22°) most natives have a long lasting relationships, respectful placements, even successful and hardworking partners

──────────────────────

𓃭Nants ingonyama bagithi baba

Sithi uhm ingonyama𓃭

──────────────────────

❂𓃭•°•°❂𓃭•°•°❂𓃭•°•°❂𓃭•°•°❂𓃭•°•°❂

──────────────────────

𓃭Nants ingonyama bagithi baba

Sithi uhm ingonyama𓃭

──────────────────────

❂𓃭•°•°❂𓃭•°•°❂𓃭•°•°❂𓃭•°•°❂𓃭•°•°❂

☀️ I remember vividly that last year on the same day I posted some Venus notes observations, for this year I wanted the theme to be different and I choose my favorite Disney movie: The Lion King (The movie from 2019 had me crying on me knees), the native language,the storyline, THE MUSIC OFC and the flora/fauna & overall the sub-saharan Africa is wonderful and beautiful, and because it happens to be my birthday in the same day I wanted to make this post in time 🥳☀️ The funny thing is that finally now I can check that solar return chart for the new year 2024 🥳

☀️ I hope you all have an amazing day full of love, blessings, a good vibe/energy and just do the things you love and that make you happy ☀️

H a r m o o n i x 4/2024

[survivialswag-archive]

march 2013

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Working class Dems who campaign on economics beat Trumpists in elections

I'm on tour with my new, nationally bestselling novel The Bezzle! Catch me FRIDAY NIGHT (Mar 22) in TORONTO, then SUNDAY (Mar 24) with LAURA POITRAS in NYC, then Anaheim, and more!

The Democratic Party Pizzaburger Theory of Electioneering is: half the electorate wants a pizza, the other half wants a burger, so we'll give them all a pizzaburger and make them all equally dissatisfied, thus winning the election:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/06/16/that-boy-aint-right/#dinos-rinos-and-dunnos

But no one wants a pizzaburger. The Biden administration's approach of letting the Warren/Sanders wing pick the antitrust enforcers while keeping judicial appointments in the Manchin-Synematic universe is a catastrophe in which progressive Dem regulators (who serve one term) are thwarted by corporatist Dem judges (who serve for life):

https://pluralistic.net/2023/07/14/making-good-trouble/#the-peoples-champion

The Democrats – like all parties in two-party systems – are a coalition; in this case, a "progressive" liberal-left coalition with liberals serving as senior partners, steering the party and setting its policies. These corporate dems like to color themselves as "neutral" technocrats with "realistic, apolitical" policies that represent what's best for the country:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/09/05/not-that-naomi/#if-the-naomi-be-klein-youre-doing-just-fine

This sets up the left wing of the party as the starry-eyed, unrealistic radicals whose policies are unpopular and will lose elections. But for a decade, grassroots-funded primary challenges have made it possible to test this theory, by putting leftist politicians on the ballot in front of voters, especially in tight races with far-right Republicans (that is, exactly the kinds of races that the corporate wing of the party says we can't afford to take chances on).

The 2022 midterms included enough races to start testing these theories – and, unlike traditional midterms, these races enjoyed high voter turnout, thanks to the unpopularity of GOP positions like abortion bans, book bans and anti-trans laws. Jacobin teamed up with the Center for Working-Class Politics, Yougov and the Center for Work and Democracy at ASU and analyzed those races:

https://images.jacobinmag.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/11134429/CWCP-Report-2024.pdf

Their conclusion: candidates from working-class backgrounds who campaigned on economic policies like high-quality jobs, higher minimum wages, a jobs guarantee, ending offshoring and outsourcing, building infrastructure and bringing manufacturing back to the US won with a 50% share of the vote in rural and working-class districts. Dems who didn't lost with a 35% share of the vote:

https://prospect.org/politics/2024-03-18-how-actually-existing-democrats-run-for-office/

In other words, in the kinds of districts where Trumpist politicians are beating Democrats, running on "left populist" policies beats Trumpist politicians.

That's the good news: if Dems recruit leftist, working class politicians and put them up for office on policies that address the material reality of voters' lives, they can beat fascist GOP candidates.

Now for the bad news: the Democratic establishment has no interest in getting these candidates onto the ballot. Working-class candidates, by definition, lack the networks of deep-pocketed cronies who can fund their primary campaigns. Only 2.3% of Dem candidates come from blue-collar backgrounds (if you include "pink-collar" professions like nursing and teaching, the number goes up to 5.9%):

https://jacobin.com/2024/03/left-populists-working-class-voters

All of this confirms the findings of Trump's Kryoptonite, an earlier Jacobin/CWCP research project that polled working-class voters on preferences for hypothetical candidates, finding that working-class candidates with economically progressive policies handily beat out Republicans, including MAGA Republicans:

https://images.jacobinmag.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/08125102/TrumpsKryptonite_Final_June2023.pdf

Since the Clinton-Blair years, "progressives" have abandoned economic populism ("It's not a burning ambition for me to make sure that David Beckham earns less money" -T. Blair) and pursued a "third way" that seeks to replace half the world's of supply white, male oligarchs with diverse oligarchs from a variety of backgrounds and genders. We were told that this was done in the name of winning elections with "modern" policies that replaced old-fashioned ideas about decent pay, decent jobs, and worker power.

These policies have delivered a genocide-riven world on the brink of several kinds of existential catastrophe. They're a failure. The pizzaburger party didn't deliver safety, nor prosperity – and it also can't deliver elections.

Name your price for 18 of my DRM-free ebooks and support the Electronic Frontier Foundation with the Humble Cory Doctorow Bundle.

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

https://pluralistic.net/2024/03/20/actual-material-conditions/#bread-and-butter

[multitrackdrifting]

Horizon might have the worst release dates in gaming history.

Horizon Zero Dawn (28 Feb '17)

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (3 Mar '17, won GOTY)

Horizon Forbidden West (18 Feb '22)

Elden Ring (25 Feb '22, won GOTY)

Horizon Forbidden West: Burning Shores (19 Apr '23)

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kindom (12 May '23, Action/Adventure GOTY)

Horizon Forbidden West [PC] (21 Mar '24)

Dragon's Dogma 2 (22 Mar '24)

With this knowledge we can conclude that Half-Life 3 & Elden Ring's DLC will be announced in the near future to continue the time-honored tradition of Aloy being overshadowed by titans (and I'm saying this as a fan of the series)

[heartlilith]

Astrology Observations

Here are some of my observations and opinions on various placements - Part 5

🖤Pay attention to the degrees in your natal chart, as they influence the energy projected by a specific planet/placement. Here are some quick notes:

0° - Marks a fresh energy, beginnings, a lot of things to learn, growing into this placement, can make this placement more naive/immature.

1°/ 13° / 25°- Aries/Mars energy - Makes a placement more aggressive/brave, extroverted, and quick. Brings more of a leadership energy to the placement.

2° / 14° / 26° - Taurus/Venus energy - Can make a placement more polite, grounded, sensual, and down to Earth. This degree can also signify wealth. Makes a placement more appealing and agreeable.

3° / 15° / 27°- Gemini/Mercury energy - Placements with these degrees can be more curious, detached, less grounded, more talkative. These degrees can also signify high intellect or a duality.

4° / 16° / 28° - Cancer/Moon energy - Can make a placement more soft, adds feminine energy or placement could be highly influenced by feminine energy (MC in 4° can signify working with women or women having a big impact on your career for example), can make a placement more emotional.

5° / 17° - Leo/Sun energy - The fame degree! Makes a placement more recognizable, popular, self-centered. These degrees also add creativity, boldness, and confidence to a placement.

6° / 18° - Virgo/Mercury energy - Adds more logic/analytical energy to a placement, adds wisdom and nervous energy, makes a placement more "neat" and confined.

7° / 19° - Libra/Venus energy - Emphasizes the beauty of a placement, politeness, creativity. Can make a placement more apt to romanticize (ASC - how you see the world, Venus - how you see love, Mars - liking romantic sex more than casual sex)

8° / 20° - Scorpio/Pluto energy - Signifies a lot of transformations for a specific placement, a lot of breaking and healing in the area of this degree. Can add obsessiveness/powerfulness/mystery/depth to a placement.

9° / 21° - Sagittarius/Jupiter energy - Adds a more "happy go lucky" vibe, more free flowing, popularity, brings luck and wisdom. Jupiter is expansions it could also expand whatever placement you have this degree in (Mars - more physical energy, Sun - more egotistical, 5th house - more children, creativity).

10° / 22° - Capricorn/Saturn energy - Can slow down a placement (Venus - won't be in a relationship until later in life, Mercury - might talk in a slower pace). Brings lessons and trials to the area of this degree, maturity, ambition, seriousness.

11° / 23° - Aquarius/Uranus energy - Brings something unique to a placement, gives a placement some shock factor and flare. Can make a placement more easy going and inclusive.

12° / 24° - Pisces/Neptune energy - Makes a placement more delulu (lol). Higher octave of Venus so it adds to the beauty of a placement (Sun - adds beauty to your energy, Mercury - adds beauty to your writing/speaking abilities, Mars - adds beauty to the way you physically move (like a dancer)).

29° - Can add mastery, maturity, karmic lessons to a placement. Can signify something that is ending, lessons learned, an almost finished book.

🖤There's so much more I could say about degrees and degree theory but that would take me all day. Here is a link that goes more in depth: 360 Symbolic Degrees

🖤Jupiter is the planet of luck and expansion, therefore looking at the sign and house that Jupiter is in can signify how to lean into that luck. Sign = how, house = where. For example, I have Jupiter in Gemini in the 5th house: using my writing/speaking/communication abilities (Gemini) can help me earn luck especially if it has to do with creativity, children, and romance (5th house).

🖤The sign Mercury is in can have an impact on your learning style. Water: Reading/Writing, Fire: Auditory, Air: Kinesthetic, Earth: Visual... (this is strictly opinion based)

🖤When I look at someone's chart that I'm interested in romantically, I like to make a Venn-Diagram in my head with their Venus and Mars signs (this is the most Virgo Moon shit I've ever written). For example, Sagittarius Venus + Capricorn Mars = Detached, money-minded/materalistic, likes to take things slow, hates possessiveness and feeling "anchored".

🖤THANK YOU FOR 1,000 FOLLOWERS🖤

Masterlist

[saturnsbabyboii]

🐸Astro Observations Since School is About to Start🐸

🐸 Taurus and Leo are indistinguishable from one another. They both love the finer things in life and value self care and a hedonistic style of living. Besides they both have that regal star quality (Think of Audrey Hepburn and Lucille Ball). The only difference is that Taurus takes the slow and steady route to attain such lifestyle and Leo prefers to take risks and a gamble. Anyways ✨OPULENCE✨

🐸 4th house Aquarius/9th house Cancer people might be out of place within their immediate families but find themselves at home among strangers or while traveling.

🐸 Lilith (h12, h13, or h21) Conjunct Chiron are strong indications of sexual exploitation (and possibly abuse). These natives could be taken advantage of by people in powerful positions. Even after displaying their truth, they would be faulted and persecuted while their abuser get celebrated. They could very will be victims turned villains.

🐸 An unaspected Juno suggest a lack of desire for marriage or committed relationships.

🐸 Pluto in the 1st house might have a distinctive scar or birth mark.

🐸 Although people dunk on harsh aspects, I personally view them favorably. These aspect are strong indications of perseverance, resilience, power, intelligence and grace. People with more Squares and/or Oppositions in their chart are capable and self aware, all the challenges they face early on bring them a better and higher understanding of the world, and not to mention, many rewards down the line.

🐸 With that being said, people with Ceres Opposite Moon might be particularly hard on themselves. Believing that they would be a burden and that they hold responsibility to keep it together for others, they don't ask for help nor do they accept it when it's offered. It's important for them to practice gratitude and self appreciation.

🐸 Vesta aspecting few personal planets suggests a person with a one track mind, or a very narrow view of their own life and purpose. However, someone with multiple aspects made between Vesta and personal planets suggests someone with turbulent and changing prospects.

🐸 Conversely, someone with no (or only one) aspects made to their Vesta might not care about the meaning of life or simply take an easy going point of view towards things.

🐸 Moon in a harsh aspect to a harmoniously aspected Venus and/or Mars are people that have all the qualities of a good partner but can't seem to commit or make up their mind regarding their relationships. This could also be an indication of being happier when single.

🐸 During the last Full Moon in Pisces, my sister that has a Pisces Moon ended up having surgery.

🐸 Placements in Water degrees (4°,8°,12°,16°,20°,24°,28°) suggest karma and karmic debt or relations in the theme of the placement.

🐸 The degree of Venus can also suggest when will you feel comfortable dating authentically. The higher the degree the later in life it'll be.

🐸 Continuing on the theme of degrees, take note of the following degrees in the chart (especially for natal, synastry and solar return). The degrees are

Creation/New beginnings: 0°,4°,21°

Critical: 13°,17°,26°

Destruction: 15°,22°,23°

Completion: 29°

🐸 Check asteroid Bakker (27425) to know more about the circumstances of when you lose your virginity. Bakker means virgin in Arabic. Regardless of your stance or idea regrading the concept of virginity, you might find insight into either your first sexual experience.

🐸 Asteroid Egeria (13) represents the knowledge we learn by giving service or sacrificing in return. The sign it's in represent the kind of information, the house and aspects represent the method, purpose and teacher of this knowledge. For example, I have a friend with Egeria in Aries in the 2nd house, in aspect to Jupiter and Uranus. She learned about money, finance, self esteem, and asset flow through a mentor (Jupiter) and the internet (Uranus). She in return had to manage her money flow and expenses realistically (Aries in the 2nd house).

🐸 Another friend of mine had the asteroid in Sagittarius in the 10th house, in aspect to the ascendant. She learned how her career, image and aspiration are tied to her appearance and approach to things through mirroring (Ascendant). She had to in return manage her authenticity and be careful of who and how she express her opinion publicly (Sagittarius in the 10th house).

🐸 It is no surprise that the most common Sun sign among Popes is Pisces followed by Sagittarius. Capricorn is the most common Moon sign. Aquarius is the most common Mercury. Gemini is the most common Saturn, and Pisces, Gemini and Leo share the same spot as the most common sign in Jupiter.

🐸 Saturn in the mutable houses (3rd, 6th, 9th, 12th) might inherit hereditary illnesses. The 3rd and the 9th suggests developmental setbacks, and issues in attachment and communication. The 6th house suggests physical effects while the 12th suggests mental. Even though the 6th house manifests into physical ailments, the 12th house implies hospitalization and chronic illness from a young age.

🐸 The placement of Pisces and Neptune in the houses along with the state of the 12th house and placement of it's ruler can tell many things about someones' dreams. For example, my friend has Pisces in the 2nd house, Neptune in the 1st house, Capricorn in the 12th and Saturn in the 3rd. (Pisces in the 2nd and Ruler of the 12th is in the 3rd house) She dreams a lot about school, even though she is 25, driving, walking around, buying things, talking to people, listening to music and walking around our city. (Capricorn in the 12th) Her nightmares usually have a state of humiliation and shame. She also finds herself in dream where she is feeling helpless. (Neptune in the 1st) She receives messages through a state of 'Deja Vu' and channels it through the prediction of things.

🐸 Moon Conjunct Chiron 🤝 Mommy issues

🐸 The first impression a rising sign leaves is due to the MC than the rising sign alone. The MC rules public image and reputation, as such it influences the way we're seen by people, regardless of whether we know them or not. For example, an Aquarius rising uniqueness and reputation is supported and diversified by its MC. Although in the whole sign system the MC is in Scorpio, using the Placidus system the MC can also fall in Libra and Sagittarius. This showcases how an Aquarius rising can be perceived as a humanitarian in reputation and ethereal in appearance (Libra MC), or as a provoking trailblazer with an edgy and dark appearance (Scorpio MC), or as an enthusiastic advocate with an alienlike appearance (Sagittarius MC).

🐸 North Node in Fire signs have that "main character" energy.

-Thank you for reading. Hope you it resonates and you enjoyed it.

[elysiansparadise]

Degrees Observations IX

🟤People with Saturn in the 00° are independent from an early age. They like to be taken seriously and in turn they take seriously everything that is significant to them. They can enjoy their solitude a lot and feel that they work better on their own. People may find them admirable and somewhat intimidating, even somewhat unapproachable, but the reality is that they are cordial but reserved. They don't reveal much about themselves, much less what they feel, but it's easier for them to talk about what they think. They are irritated by people who are unproductive, incompetent, or who slow down their work or that of others. They feel the need to be productive and achieve great things in life, they may fear failure or make public/resounding mistakes. 

🟤Those with Jupiter in the 01°, 10°, 13°, 22°, 25° may feel they have more luck doing things on their own or working alone. Many of them may find it difficult to work in a team and instead may find more success if they develop their independence. It is likely that from a young age they have experienced this feeling of preferring to do things on their own, being the product of a childhood in which they had to take care of many things. When they develop their projects autonomously and without paying much attention to the pessimism or negative criticism of the rest, they can be very lucky.

🟤When Mars or Venus are at 02°, 14° or 26° the native's movements are seen as sensual and alluring, as well as graceful and assertive. People may find the way you sit, walk, or speak in public attractive. These people can have a very attractive style and pay a lot of attention to details of their body such as their skin, their scent and their hairstyle, which makes them irresistible to other people.

🟤Having Moon in the 08°, 10°, 20° or 22° makes the native feel things more intensely, especially sadness, anger or emotions that bring more emotional charge. When they're in a tense mood it can be extreme on many levels. Many of them have a complex emotional world but have the ability and tendency to always project themselves as chill and in control, even if they are collapsing inside. It is likely that since they were young they have had to deal with problems and emotions that are too intense and have somehow learned to develop this mask of serenity in the face of any storm.

🟤Having Venus in water degrees (04°, 08°, 12°, 16°, 20°, 24°, 28°) makes the person's features mesmerizing. Their eyes project mystery, they seem to try to read your soul, they look at you in a sublime, attentive way and you are paralyzed by that warm but mystical glow. Your gaze lowers to their lips, which tempt yours to leave a kiss on them, they look beautiful and plump, curiously they also seem seductive to you. Their face is the perfect combination of softness and sexyness, it is a dangerous sweetness that once you decide to look at, it can’t escape your mind.

🟤Those with Saturn in 06°, 18° can be seen as very perfectionist by many, especially by themselves. They may be annoyed by disorganized, chaotic or noisy environments, bad spelling, or they may be very picky about food. They have difficulty looking favorably on what they do and may have a very critical eye on their own work. Despite the fact that many describe themselves as perfectionists, those I have met with this placement are usually people who can find the work of others beautiful because they know that it takes work to make them.

🟤When someone has Venus in the 07°, 12°, 19° or 24° they can be delighted and attracted when they feel they can relax with that person. They like the idea of ​​someone teaching them to slow down and give and treat themselves more gently. They are attracted to those kinds of relationships in which the couple is willing to be a team with them, where the other does not carry so many burdens and rather support each other unconditionally.

🟤Those with Moon in the 00° are very emotional people who easily feel the emotions of others, tend to do a lot of introspection regarding their own emotional world. Many of them absorb the emotions of the people around them and can be influenced by the moods of the people around them. They are bothered by violence, shouting and everything that implies uncomfortable sensations, since they are sensitive to their environment. They can vividly remember the past, and may have melancholic tendencies. They enjoy spending time in what they consider home, although this does not make them lovers of routine, they are attracted to what is familiar and what gives them comfortable sensations. They may prefer to watch movies they have seen before and tend to order the drinks or food they always order. They like the idea of ​​people being comfortable with them.

🟤Those who have Venus in the 02°, 04°, 14°, 16°, 26°, 28° become very touchy when they are with their partners. Their love language can be a mixture of physical touch and quality time, since feeling close to their partner is crucial for them, both physically and emotionally.

🟤Rising in the 10° or 22° they develop from a very young age the idea that they want to be respected or admired. It is likely that when they were young they had a hard time recognizing their value as people, their abilities or simply feeling comfortable with themselves, so they choose to start loving and respecting themselves. Precocious maturity is very likely, in addition to the fact that they may have had to see or realize the harshness of reality, about their family or even about things that they considered part of their values ​​that shook their inner world.

🟤Those with Neptune in 04°, 16° or 28° feel that they must detach themselves from their feelings and emotional responses. It is very likely that they are very disconnected with sincere displays of affection from people, they may have grown up in an environment where they were not provided with much on an emotional level, where they could not feel close to other people and that their ties could not last or that they did not they could find support in them.

🟤Another thing about them is that they usually have problems with the sensation of sleeping alone. Many of them may have the need to sleep hugging a pillow or really soft blankets. Most with Neptune in this degree tend to sleep on their side and have very irregular periods of sleep, having nights in which they either sleep a lot or sleep little.

🟤Those with Saturn in the 03°, 15°, 27° may have a tendency to expect the worst in situations. They are very rational and sometimes skeptical people. They always seek to communicate clearly and concisely and can sometimes be too frank. They have difficulty doing more than one thing at a time and tend to doubt their intelligence a lot, when the reality is that they have a lot of knowledge about different subjects.

🟤03°, 15° or 27° in the cusp of the 12th house often have difficulty speaking in public and may be seen as very quiet or reserved. They are people with great creative potential and talent for writing. They may have periods of anxiety or nervousness and have a need to be in constant movement, bite their nails or have a nervous tic. Intrusive thoughts are very likely with this overlay and the feeling of not being able to shut up your mind can increase as the night arrives.

🟤Saturn in 16°, 20°, 24°, 28° have a huge tendency to repress their intense or deep emotions through work. It can be literally working on work or academic issues, or it can also refer to doing things that they consider productive or necessary to do at that moment. Many times they do this to avoid sinking into an emotional loop that begins with having had a bad day and ends in the abysses of their past to which it is not very pleasant to return.

🟤Those with 10° or 22° on the cusp of the 12th house have a tendency to depression and struggle with these kinds of very low moods, despite that, that will always be a side of themselves that they keep hidden and not dare to show anyone. They may have trouble falling asleep due to stress and have a greater tendency to remember things they regret right before bed. They fear not being enough and they fear not being able to use their potential to the full, sometimes they feel that they are not capable.

🟤Chiron in 09°, 11°, 21° or 23° often feel that they are judged by the way they see things, the way they think or the way they express themselves. They can feel left out by people many times and it is very likely that some want to make them feel silly or ridiculous for the way they think. Ironically, what others judge and point out can be seen as very charismatic in the eyes of other people, since it makes them stand out as original and spontaneous people.

🟤Having an Earth Venus in 07°, 19° can make a person very attractive. Their figure is sublimely sculpted, their features well defined and they have an elegant quality in their beauty, from their mannerisms, style or, if they like it, their way of makeup can be, although light, very favorable on them.

[harmoonix]

Short Astro Observations Part II

🍃 - Moon in Capricorn/Moon at Capricorn Degrees (10°, 22°) can ofer feel overwhelmed by their thoughts, there is something in their thoughts that makes them to feel this way

🍃 - Moon - Saturn aspects can develop anxiety and panick attacks (some of them can be developed if the native had bullying) and some of them can appear later in life

🍃 - Saturn in Pisces/Saturn at Pisces Degrees (12°, 24°) can often get lost in their dreams. These natives may like to sleep a lot

🍃 - Lilith - Sun aspects can get hate/jealousy/envy without any reason. Like people can aspire to be like them and because they cannot they try to ruin them

🍃 - Mars aspecting Moon or Mercury cannot really handle their emotions when they are angry. Is like they need to take all the nervous energy out of them…Is not something they can control

🍃 - Can we take a bit of a moment to talk about how pretty people with Venus in the 10th house will be? They age like fine wine

🍃 - People with Mercury in Sagittarius have the talent to write poetic things, it can be anything like a story or a book but they can make it to look poetic

🍃 - Ascendant aspecting the Moon natives are so pretty, they have this calmly/peace vibes and often giving hugs makes them the cutest

🍃 - Pisces/Scorpio/Gemini placements = love for sad songs, they like listening to nostalgic/sad songs and have this moody vibe

🍃 - Aries Sun/Moon/Risings have perfect eyebrows. Everyone I know with these placements has eyebrows taken out from heaven

🍃 - Virgo Moons/ Moon at Virgo's Degrees (6°, 18°) can have multiple phobias/fears to certain things. In general Virgo Moons want to keep themselves safe from everything and will do that in most times

🍃 - Leo/Libra/Aquarius Risings and their hair is everything 🤌🏼🤌🏼they can have the most shining healthy hair ever

🍃 - Sagittarius Placements are my lil' explorer people. Everytime I see Sagittarius Placements in someone's chart I teleport to heaven and back.. I just know they are embodying Tarzan when I see them 🤌🏼🤌🏼

🍃 - Neptune aspecting the ascendant can have a very soft/sensbile skin (omg esp if you have conjunct) you can get scratches fast

🍃 - You want someone who can talk with you sincerely? Find someone with Jupiter - Asc aspects. They can tell you the truth even if they already know what's the lie in the conversation

- Harmoonix 🍃🌱

[youremyheaven]

Hourglasses: Vedic Astrology Analysis

I've already made posts about how different planets/naks affect one's facial appearance. I thought it would be interesting to see how one's placements affect one's body as well.

This is going to be a long post so grab some popcorn and lezz gooo

This post will focus on what creates an hourglass body aka the most desirable female body type, astrologically.

Let us begin with THE hourglass lady

Marilyn Monroe

This is a woman whose name was synonymous with "hourglass" and who popularized this body type in the 1950s.

She's Rohini Sun, Dhanishta Moon and Ashlesha Rising

2. Elizabeth Taylor

Liz was also known for her hourglass bod. While Marilyn had an "ingenue" image, Liz was a siren.

Shatabhisha Sun, Vishaka Moon and Jyeshta Rising

3. Beyonce

She's Purvaphalguni Sun, Vishaka Moon and Chitra Rising

4. Sofia Vergara

She's Punarvasu Sun & Moon

5. Scarlett Johansson

Anuradha Sun & Rising with Vishaka Moon. Mercury in Jyeshta atmakaraka

6. Salma Hayek

She's Purvaphalguni Sun with UBP moon. Venus in Ashlesha atmakaraka

7. Christina Hendricks

Bharani Sun, Shravana Moon, Rohini Rising with Venus in Mrigashira atmakaraka

8. Brigitte Bardot

Hasta Sun, Rohini Moon and Jyeshta Rising with Saturn in Dhanishta atmakaraka

9. Sophia Loren

Uttaraphalguni Sun, Dhanishta Moon (atmakaraka) and Mula rising

10. Kat Dennings

Mrigashira Sun, Magha Moon, Mars in Uttarashada atmakaraka

11. Kelly Brook

Anuradha Sun, Purvashada Moon and Hasta Rising. Venus in Jyeshta amatyakaraka, Mercury in Vishaka atmakaraka

12. Jessica Simpson

Punarvasu Sun & Mercury (atmakaraka), Ardra Moon, Vishaka Rising

13. Pamela Anderson

Ardra Sun, Aswini Moon and Mrigashira Rising

Mars in Chitra atmakaraka, Mercury in Punarvasu amatyakaraka

14. Dita Von Teese

Hasta Sun & Mercury, Mrigashira Moon and Ketu in Punarvasu

Venus in Ashlesha atmakaraka

15. Anita Ekberg

Hasta Sun, Venus & Ketu, Aswini Moon, Mercury in Uttaraphalguni atmakaraka and Jupiter in Ashlesha amatyakaraka

16. Jean Harlow

Shatabhisha Sun, Revati Moon atmakaraka, Uttaraphalguni Rising and Ketu in Vishaka

17. Mae West

Magha Sun, Ardra Moon, Krittika Rising, Venus in Punarvasu atmakaraka

18. Honey Lee

Shatabhisha Sun, Chitra Moon (amatyakaraka), Mercury in Dhanishta atmakaraka, Venus conjunct Mars in UBP

19. Kim Novak

Dhanishta Sun & Mercury, Shravana venus, saturn and rising, Uttaraphalguni Moon & Jupiter (atmakaraka)

20. Rita Hayworth

Chitra Sun & Mercury, UBP/PBP Moon, Krittika Rising, Jupiter in Punarvasu atmakaraka

21. Claudia Cardinale

Aswini Sun & Mercury, Venus (atmakaraka) & Ascendant in Bharani, Moon in Swati

22. Gina Lollobrigida

Ardra Sun, Purva Phalguni, Mrigashira Rising, Mars in Ashlesha atmakaraka

23. Jennifer Lopez

JLo is Pushya Sun, Mercury & Rising, Vishaka Moon, Venus in Mrigashira atmakaraka

24. Jayne Mansfield

Aswini Sun, Dhanishta Moon, Ardra Rising, Mars conjunct Ketu in Magha

25. Dahyun from Twice

Dahyun is Rohini Sun, Ardra Moon, Mercury in Krittika atmakaraka

26. Jennie

Jennie is Uttarashada Sun, Vishaka Moon and Ketu in Revati

27. Priyanka Chopra

She's Punarvasu Sun & Mercury, Rohini Moon & Rising

28. Sridevi

Sridevi was Ashlesha Sun & Rising (and Venus) with Krittika Moon

29. Katrina Kaif

Katrina is a Punarvasu Sun (atmakaraka), Hasta Moon and Pushya Mercury & Rising with Ketu in Jyeshta

30. Tammanah

Mula Sun, Hasta Moon, Mercury in Purvashada atmakaraka with Ketu in Ashlesha

From all the above mentioned ladies and their placements what's apparent to me is that a combination of Moon/Jupiter/Saturn/Mercury in a chart is what creates an hourglass body on a woman. Obviously you can have all these placements and have another body type because genetics also play a role <3

Moon and Jupiter are what create curves, Mercury & Saturn are what determines bone structure.

So a balance between the two is what creates a body that is voluptuous yet ideally proportionate.

So many women on this list have Mercury atmakaraka/amatyakaraka and manyyy have Ashlesha as their atmakaraka nakshatra or another Mercurial nak in their big 3. Ardra nak crops up often because it belongs to Gemini (mercury) rashi and creates small ish, delicate bone structure

Mars & Venus are secondary influences and usually prominent in the charts of taller, more voluptuous hourglasses.

Taurus rashi and Gemini rashi were the most common among these famous hourglass women

Feline yoni (cat, tiger, lion) was also popular which makes sense because these women have a very animal like magnetism. Animals in the cat family are very sexy but also dangerous. Another common yoni animal was Serpent yoni. I had previously observed that Serpent yoni was common in the charts of most sex symbols. And most of these women on this list are considered sex symbols.

I hope this was insightful <3

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Why Millennials aren’t leaving Tiktok

I'm on tour with my new, nationally bestselling novel The Bezzle! Catch me TOMORROW NIGHT (Mar 22) in TORONTO, then SUNDAY (Mar 24) with LAURA POITRAS in NYC, then Anaheim, and more!

The news that Gen Z users have abandoned Tiktok in such numbers that the median Tiktoker is a Millennial (or someone even older) prompted commentators to dunk on Tiktok as uncool by dint of having lost its youthful sheen:

https://www.garbageday.email/p/tiktok-millennials-turns

But "why are Gen Z kids leaving Tiktok?" is the wrong question. The right question is, why aren't Millennials leaving Tiktok? After all, we are living through the enshittocene, the great enshittening, in which every platform gets monotonically, irreversibly worse over time, and Tiktok is no exception:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/01/21/potemkin-ai/#hey-guys

To understand why older users are stuck to Tiktok, we need to start with why younger users relentlessly seek out new platforms. To some extent, it's just down to youth's appetite for novelty, but that's only part of the story. To really understand why people come to – and leave – platforms, you have to understand switching costs.

"Switching costs" is the economists' term for everything you have to give up when you change products or services. Switching from Ios to Android probably means giving up a bunch of your apps and purchased media. Switching from an airline where you're a high-status frequent flier to another carrier means giving up on free checked bags and early boarding.

In an open market, rivals have lots of ways to lower these switching costs (it's an open secret that you can call an airline and say, "Hi, I'm a 33rd Order Mason on American Airlines, will you make me a Triple Platinum Diamond Sky-Baron if I switch to Delta?"). Of course, big incumbents hate this, and do everything they can to increase their switching costs, finding ways to impose high switching costs that punish disloyal consumers who have the temerity to go elsewhere.

With social media, lock-in comes for free, thanks to the "collective action problem." Getting people to agree on a given course of action is hard, and as you add more people to the picture, the problem gets harder. It's hard enough to get half a dozen people in your group-chat to agree on where to go for dinner or what board-game to play. But once you're reliant on a social media service to stay in touch with friends, relatives around the world, customers, communities (say, rare disease support groups), and coordination (like organizing your kid's little league car-pool), the problem becomes nearly insoluble. Maybe you can convince your overseas relatives to switch to a Signal group, but can you do the same for your small business's customers, or your old high-school pals?

https://pluralistic.net/2022/10/29/how-to-leave-dying-social-media-platforms/

Taken together, switching costs and collective action problems make platforms "sticky," and sticky platforms inevitably enshittify.

Platforms, after all, generate value. They connect end-users with each other (say, little league parents) and they connect end-users to business customers (you and your small business's customers). That value needs to be parceled out among end users, business customers, and the platform's shareholders. A platform can make life better for business customers at its end users' expense by increasing the number of ads (hello, Youtube!), and it can make life better for its shareholders at its business customers' expense by decreasing the share of ad revenue given to publishers or performers (oh, hello again, Youtube!).

From a platform's perspective, the ideal state is one in which end users and business customers get no value from the platform, because it's all being captured by the platform's shareholders. But if Youtube interrupted every 30 seconds of video for ten minutes of ads and paid the video creators nothing, both users and creators would ditch the platform – and advertisers would follow:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dab8sKg8Ko8

So platforms seek an equilibrium: "what is the least value we apportion to end-users and business customers without triggering their departure?" Maybe that means giving more value to end-users (for example, keeping Uber fares low by suppressing wages), or to business-customers (crowding more ads into your social media feed).

Every business – including brick-and-mortar, non-digitized ones – wants to find some kind of equilibrium between the value going to its suppliers, its customers and its owners, but digital businesses have an advantage here: digital systems are flexible in ways that analog, hard-goods businesses are not. Digital businesses can alter pricing, payouts and other dynamics from moment to moment – second to second – and make a different offer to every supplier and customer. They have a bunch of knobs, and they can twiddle them at will:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/02/19/twiddler/

Well, not quite at will. Businesses face constraints on their twiddling. If they get too greedy, users or business customers might weigh the cost of staying against the switching costs and decide it's not worth it. But the more expensive – the more painful – a platform can make leaving, the more pain they can inflict on the people who stay.

In other words, there's two ways to keep a customer or supplier's business: you can make a better service so they won't want to leave, or you can make leaving the service so painful that they stay even if you mistreat them.

There's three ways a digital company can make things worse for their customers and users without losing their business.

First, they can eliminate competition (think of Mark Zuckerberg buying Instagram to recapture the users who'd fled Facebook to escape his poor management):

https://pluralistic.net/2023/09/03/big-tech-cant-stop-telling-on-itself/

Second, they can capture their regulators and avoid punishment for trampling their suppliers' or users' legal rights (think of how Amazon has raised the price of everything we buy, both on- and off Amazon, through its "most favored nation" deals):

https://pluralistic.net/2023/04/25/greedflation/#commissar-bezos

Third, they can use IP law to prevent competitors from modifying their services to claw back some of that value (think of how Apple used legal threats to block an Android version of Imessage, blocking Apple customers from having private conversations that included non-Apple customers:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/01/12/youre-holding-it-wrong/#if-dishwashers-were-iphones

Companies can't just use this tricks at will, of course. Antitrust laws can block companies from making anticompetitve acquisitions or mergers. Regulators can punish companies for cheating their customers, workers and users. Technologists can come up with clever ways of modding or reconfiguring existing services with "interoperable" add-ons that let users bargain for better treatment by refusing to accept worse:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2019/07/adblocking-how-about-nah

Day in, day out, the decision-makers at tech companies test these constraints, twisting the knobs that shift value away from users to shareholders. Their bosses and boards motivate them with "KPIs" that dangle the promise of huge bonuses and promotions for any manager who successfully enshittifies part of the company's products:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/07/28/microincentives-and-enshittification/

Decades of pro-corporate, pro-monopoly policy has loosened those knobs. 40 years of lax antitrust meant that companies had a lot of leeway to buy or merge with rivals – that's changing today, but it's tough sledding:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/07/14/making-good-trouble/#the-peoples-champion

As sectors grew more concentrated, they found it easier to capture their regulators, so that they no longer fear punishment for price-gouging, spying, or wage-theft, so applying the same amount of torque to the "break the law" knob cranks it a lot further:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/06/05/regulatory-capture/

Once you've captured your regulators, you can aim them at your competitors. A monopoly-friendly policy environment has transformed IP law into a bully's charter, allowing powerful companies to strangle would-be competitors who dare to offer their customers tools to shield themselves from enshittification, like scrapers, ad-blockers and alternative clients. Big companies can crank the enshittification knob all the way over and know that smaller rivals knobs won't turn at all:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/10/20/benevolent-dictators/#felony-contempt-of-business-model

At one point, bosses faced one more constraint on knob-twiddling: their workforce. Many tech workers genuinely cared about their users' welfare, something bosses encouraged as a sneaky trick to get techies to put in long hours without exercising their leverage by quitting rather than destroying their lives to meet arbitrary deadlines. These workers would fearlessly slap their bosses' hands when they reached for the enshittification knob, threatening to quit rather than allowing the products they'd given so much for to be enshittified. Today, after hundreds of thousands of tech layoffs, tech workers are far less like to challenge their bosses' right to twiddle, and far more likely to get fired if they try:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/09/10/the-proletarianization-of-tech-workers/

All this means that tech bosses don't have to change their approach at all, and yet, their services will grow steadily worse. The boss who twiddles the enshittification knob in exactly the same way as he did a year or a decade ago will find it turning much further, because his customers are locked into his platform, his regulators won't protect them, the same regulators will stop his competitors' attempts at countertwiddling, and his workers fear losing their jobs too much to speak up for their users.

That's the contagion that produced the enshittocene: the forces that constrained companies (competition, regulation, self-help and labor – all melted away, allowing every company's MBA-poisoned knob-twiddling leaders to shamelessly caress their knobs with every hour that God sends:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/01/30/go-nuts-meine-kerle/#ich-bin-ein-bratapfel

Which is why people want to leave platforms. When a platform loses its users, those users have weighed the switching costs against the pain of staying and decided that it's better to bear those costs than to stay.

So why have Tiktok's younger users found the costs too high to bear, and why have their elders remained stuck to the platform?

For that, we have to look at the unique characteristics of young people – characteristics that transcend the lazy cliche that kids are easily bored, fickle novelty-seekers who hop from one service to another with unquenchable restlessness.

Whether or not kids are novelty-seekers, they are, fundamentally, a disfavored minority. They want to do things that the platforms don't want them to do – like converse without being overheard by authority figures, including their parents and their schools (also: cops and future employers, though kids may not be thinking about them as much).

In other words, kids pay intrinsically lower switching costs than adults, because a platform will always do less for them than it will for grownups. This is a characteristic kids share with other supposedly technophilic, novelty-seeking "early adopters," from sex-workers to terrorists, from sexual minorities to trolls, from political dissidents to fascists. For those groups, the cost of mastering a new technology and assembling a community around it is always more likely to be worth bearing than it would be for people who are well-served by existing tools:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/06/21/early-adopters/#sex-tech

Pornographers didn't jump on home video because of its superiority as a medium for capturing flesh-tones. Home video was a good porn medium because it was easier to discreetly get into the hands of porn consumers, who could, in turn, discreetly view it. The audience for porn in the privacy of your living room is larger than the audience for porn that you can only watch if you're willing to be seen marching into a dirty movie theater.

Every new technology is popularized by a mix of disfavored groups and neophiles, who normalize and refine it – and yes, infuse it with their countercultural coolth – until it becomes easy enough to use to become mainstream. As more normies drift into the new system, the switching costs associated with leaving the old system declines. It gets easier and easier to find the people and services you want in the new realm, and harder and harder to find them in the old one.

This is why tech platforms have historically experienced sudden collapse: the platform that gets more valuable and harder to leave as it accumulates users gets less valuable and easier to leave as users depart:

https://www.zephoria.org/thoughts/archives/2022/12/05/what-if-failure-is-the-plan.html

If you're a Gen Z kid on Tiktok, you experience the same enshittification as your Millennial elders. But you also experience an additional cost to staying: as late-arriving adult authority figures become more fluent in the platform, they are more able to observe your use of it, and punish you for conduct that you used to get away with.

And if you're a Millennial who isn't leaving Tiktok, it's not just that you experience the same enshittification as those departing Gen Z kids – you also face higher switching costs if you go. The older you get, the more complex your social connections grow. A Gen Z kid in middle school doesn't have to worry about losing touch with their high-school buddies if they switch platforms (they haven't gone to high school yet – and they see their middle school friends in person all the time, giving them a side-channel to share information about who's leaving Tiktok and where they're headed to next). Middle-schoolers don't have to worry about coordinating little league car-pools or losing access to a rare disease support group.

In other words: younger people leave old platforms earlier because they have more to gain by leaving; and older people leave old platforms later because they have more to lose by leaving.

This is why Facebook is filled with Boomers. Yes, their kids bolted for the exits to avoid having their parents (or grandparents) wading into their sexual, social and professional lives. But the reason the Boomers were late joining younger users' Facebook exodus – or the reason they never joined it – is that they stand to lose more by going. Facebook deliberately cultivated this dynamic, for example, by creating a photo hosting service designed to entice users into uploading their family photos while disguising how hard it would be to take those photos with them if they left:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2021/08/facebooks-secret-war-switching-costs

The irony here is that tech has intrinsically low switching costs. All other things being equal, a new platform can always build a bridge to ease the passage of users from the old one. There's no (technical) reason that moving to Mastodon, or Bluesky, or any other platform should mean cutting ties with the people who stayed behind.

A combination of voluntary interoperability (where old platforms offer APIs to allow new services to connect with them), mandatory interop (where governments force tech companies to offer APIs) and adversarial interop (where new companies hack together their own API with reverse-engineering, scraping, bots, and other guerrilla tactics) would hypothetically allow users to hop between networks as easily as you change phone carriers:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/12/19/better-failure/#let-my-tweeters-go

Tech platforms tend to offer APIs when they're getting started (to ease the inward passage of new users) then shut them down after they attain dominance (locking the door behind those users). The EU is tinkering with mandatory APIs through the Digital Markets Act (though bafflingly, they're starting with encrypted messaging rather than social media). Restoring adversarial interoperability will require extensive legal reform, which is getting started through Right to Repair laws:

https://www.techdirt.com/2024/03/13/oregon-passes-right-to-repair-law-apple-lobbied-to-kill/

The people who are stranded on social media platforms shouldn't be mistaken for uncool, aging technophobes. They're not stubborn, they're stranded. Like the elders who can't afford to leave a dying town after the factory shuts down and the young people move away, these people are locked in. They need help evacuating – a place to go and a path to get there.

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

https://pluralistic.net/2024/03/21/involuntary-die-hards/#evacuate-the-platformsr