#Create Groups Online

[3416]

watching leaf fans who spend 80% of their year disparaging their own team and reacting to every random ass stat about them as if they're uniquely bad and evil and cursed be so holier than thou about the game 7 stat abt the avs or the 1st round exit stat about the wild is so funny.... almost like this is a game and all teams have things that haunt them but their own fanbases don't let it define them and maybe if you didn't spend so much time buying into and perpetuating that useless shit, the leafs would get more positive and fair coverage

[angelpossum]

group therapy ended yesterday and today was the last session of my individual therapy in the intensive part (moving to fortnightly twice, then 5 monthly ones n then it’s over) n it’s so weird. so bittersweet. i feel like i have all these coping strategies and shifted perspectives but it hasn’t removed the sadness of loss. but im not devastated the way i worried i would be and i think i’ve come a long way. i’m proud of me

[icelogged]

a lot of you guys are blaming this solely on “tiktok / twitter” culture which is, evidently, valid [as she deleted those] however i think it’s important to reflect on your own actions as well instead of assigning blame to a faceless general group. we are all interacting with her parasocially through tumblr that still creates a social disconnect. that is not to say, you should feel guilty… it’s just to say that blaming a abstract group is easy and doesn’t do anything positive for the situation 

[battleshipgarcy]

[bunnyboy-juice]

a lot of ppl want to form "community spaces" but really want a (closed) friend group - and thats a totally valid thing to want! friendship groups are so important!! but maybe pls unpack that before creating yet another "community space" that becomes a rancid hive-minded clique that bullies anyone they deem unfit for the group?

[tustinjimberlake]

i wasn't myself during my kpop phase. literally out of my mind

[golohours]

its literally "i can excuse workers (some of whom are minors) being exploited and worked to the fucking grave but i draw the line at streaming on kick" "you can excuse what."

just so fucking stupid all of them have rocks for brains Genuinely there should be an intervention where ccs are forced to work normal jobs for a few years and then come back to content creation it might fix at least something in their brains

[sunlessys]

basically our ideal goal with this blog would be to form a small community with people, systems or not, who can chat w us about stuff and like. reblog and send each other ask games. that’s the biggest thing we’ve been missing about the old days of tumblr and the one thing we as a system think we’re lacking. we want a community online that really engages with itself 🥺

[tx-828]

i'm feeling nostalgic so here's a collage i made for polyvore.com's "the force awakens" contest in 2015/16. it was supposed to showcase your favorite character from the movie and i won an honorable mention :)

[lurkiestvoid]

It's absolutely a deterrent especially for folks who've never been to a protest. There's this idea that you have to Gear Up And Prepare for ANY action even just like, a simple picket or march, so folks think protesting is Always some violent dystopian Struggle with severe risk of personal harm and arrest. And while yeah, sometimes they do go badly and these things do happen, it is NOT the majority of action and most events are relatively boring risk-wise.

Like, no you don't need full black bloc gear to hold a sign for a permitted 2hr sidewalk protest, and you don't need shields and gas masks and jugs of milk for daytime local-issue demonstration of civic dissatisfaction. PLEASE just show up. If there are risks, the organizers will be able to tell you what they are and how to prepare.

The most 'risky' protests I've been to have all been either systemic, ongoing, and/or continued into late evening after sundown. They were still all highly organized, and the leading experienced activists were very clear on strategy and risks. Typically, any policing threats were made obvious by the cops changing from 'standing around looking bored' to 'organizing into groups/lines', so if you're not prepared to Resist for any reason -- zero judgement, there are so many reasons and they're no one's business but yours -- that's when you leave.

For now we still have the right to protest, and the majority of action will be calm and organized. There will be lots of in-group mediating and de-escalation if folks come in looking to start shit, and just showing up is an EXCELLENT way to meet local activists and justice groups/networks, many of whom work together on many different issues.

Even if you cannot stay or participate there are other ways to help, like delivering/dropping off water (or snacks!), donating to involved groups or bail funds, donating/lending canopy tents and seating for elderly and disabled activists, and volunteering labor like childcare, transportation, distributing materials/info, making signs and posters, translating/interpreting, and more.

And most modern protests work hard to make their actions more accessible or will work with you to ensure you and others like you can access them! If you cannot or do not want to march a route, there is still much more work that can be done both before and after, and not every action is a march!

Just please show up whenever and however you can, whatever that means to you and your circumstances.

i also think that the way people on here talk about protests is sometimes needlessly fearmongering like it's always good to have your wits about you and be aware of dangers from cops or counterprotesters but also i feel like a lot of people on here have become convinced that by going to a large peaceful protest march they are taking their lives in their hands which is just simply not the case (the point of those events is optics and showing that a lot of people are willing to show up for the cause) and i'm worried it might be deterring people from actually showing up to protests

[dumbpuppyfag]

so long as we're back to social justice 101 on this stupid website, u need to be aware of the feedback loop that emerges from disproportionate scrutiny: any social group that is placed under extra scrutiny, regardless of the actual prevalence of any particular behaviour, will appear to engage in that behaviour more often.

you see this most blatantly with racialised groups (more cops in black neighbourhoods = more arrests in black neighbourhoods = "omg look at all the crime in these neighbourhoods!" = more cops in black neighbourhoods etc). even if the rate of crime is the same (putting to one side the criminalisation of poverty which is also an important related factor), one group gets away with it way more often and a new generation of racists is indoctrinated with the crime statistics which "prove" that some groups are simply more criminal in nature. we see a similar phenomenon online with particular groups (trans women being a huge example) being subjected to mass stalking, their every move documented by weirdos and broadcast as representative of the group as a whole.

tl;dr - overscrutinising groups based on existing bigotries creates a recurring feedback loop, reproducing those bigotries across generations and nominally justifying them. this is bad, and you need to remember that you are not immune to it.

[blumenherzen]

you know what's good for the soul? plotting militant feminist action with the girls during a walk in nature.

[queeranarchism]

If your democrat friends start muttering about stolen election conspiracy theories, the time to have a sit down with them and express your concerns is NOW, while you still have a chance to reach them, not 6 months from now when they're fully conspiracy-pilled.

Here's some of the talking points and why they're bullshit:

'10 million votes don't just disappear!' -> Joe Biden's 81 million votes were a statistical outlier, sparked by the recent experience of the Trump presidency. The democrats failed to maintain that sense of urgency, but Harris still got more votes than Hillary Clinton, more than Obama and more than any previous democratic candidate. These numbers are not weird at all.

'The Republicans tried to infiltrate election- and vote counting organizations!' -> yeah, they did, and yet hundreds of independent legal observers didn't see anything go wrong enough to raise any alarms. Independent exit polls are also very consistently similar to the counted votes. Tons of international organizations specialized in this stuff observed the election and didn't see a reason to raise the alarm.

'But I know a dozen democrats whose mail-in votes were not counted!' -> In any election a certain number of votes are registered as invalid because something was wrong with the ballot. In a country the size of the US, that translates to many thousands of votes. The internet allows these people to find each other, creating the false impression that a suspiciously large group of votes was not valid.

'Musk used Star Link to mess with electronic voting!' -> Electronic voting machines are not connected to the internet and dozens of independent media have already debunked this myth. It is absolutely impossible to use Star Link to fake election results.

'There is voter disenfranchisement!' -> This is true. This has always been true, for every election. It's an issue worth talking about but it's not a special secret conspiracy that's unique to this election.

But just as importantly as the facts: sit down with your friend and talk about the anxiety that's behind their conspiracy leanings. Acknowledge their pain and fear. Help them find ways to feel less powerless and regain their sense of agency. Take them to a mutual aid event, involve them in a fundraising event for a marginalized group, invite them to a local community effort. If they spend more time feeling connection and empowerment and less time doom scrolling online, they're far more likely to stay in reality.

[itsartsavvy]

The more im on the internet the more I realize people don't care what words actually mean and they will simply misuse them to manipulate their audience and push their own personal agenda, and unfortunately it sometimes becomes mainstream and not only ruins the meaning of the words for everyone else, but also takes away the importance and weight behind other words by replacing them with watered down versions that became popular. Censorship also causes this fuck censorship

[wp100]

yeah im 007

0 friends

0 cash

7 different discord chat channels i use to talk to myself because i am unhinged

[enfinizatics]

dear americans,

as a polish queer woman and human rights activist, i know exactly how you're feeling right now and what to expect from these elections. i lived through the 2015-2023 regime of pis, a right-wing populist party that divided families in the same way trump did. i’ve experienced the rise of fascism in poland, the influence of far-right parties like konfederacja, and their “santa’s little helpers”—ordo iuris, an ultra-conservative catholic organization (banned in many countries, mind you) that helped enforce a near-total abortion ban and runs anti-queer campaigns in public spaces. i supported the black protests in 2016 as a middle schooler when they first tried to ban abortion. as an adult, i actively participated in the 2020 women’s strike, running from police tear gas daily after they finally passed the ban. i supported friends who faced charges.

i’ve lived through intense homophobia in poland as a queer teen and adult. i survived the first pride march in my hometown, where far-right extremists threw stones and glass at us. i endured the anti-queer propaganda spread by the ruling party in state-owned media. i survived the “rainbow night,” poland’s own stonewall moment in summer 2020, when police arrested around 50 queer activists following the arrest of margo, a nonbinary activist. i survived the "lgbt-free zones," the targeted violence, the slurs from strangers on the street, and the protests i held against queerphobia. it was hard as fuck, but i survived.

but just because i survived, it doesn’t mean others did. many women died because of the abortion ban—marta, justyna, izabela, dorota, joanna, maria, and many others who didn’t survive pis’s draconian anti-abortion laws. milo, kacper, michał, zuzia (she was 12), wiktor, and other queer and trans kids and young adults took their own lives because of the relentless queerphobia.

despite all of this, our experience in poland can serve as a guide now. here are some tips for staying safe and how we, polish queers and women, organized under the regime:

safety first, always. if you know someone who’s had an abortion, no you don’t. if you know someone is trans, no you don’t. if you know people who help with safe abortions, no you don’t—at least not until you know it’s 100% safe to share. if you are queer or have had an abortion, only share this with people you trust fully. most importantly, not everyone has to be an activist just because they’re part of a minority. if it feels unsafe to share that you're queer, trans, etc., then don’t. it doesn’t make you any less queer.

use secure, encrypted messaging like signal for conversations on potentially risky topics, such as queerness, abortion, organizing counter-actions, protests—anything that might be used against you.

stay anonymous online. if you want to research or report something without surveillance, do not use regular internet. get a vpn (mullvad is affordable and reliable), download the tor browser (for both onion and standard links), and if you plan to whistleblow, consider using a riseup email account.

organize and build networks. community is everything now. support each other, foster independence, because your government won’t have your back. set up collectives, grassroots movements. create lists of trusted professionals—lawyers, doctors, etc.—who can offer support.

to lawyers and doctors: please consider pro-bono work. this is what got us through poland’s hardest times. your work will be needed now more than ever.

for protests or risky actions: always write a pro-bono lawyer’s number on your arm with a permanent marker.

get to know the anarchist black cross federation and other resources on safety culture: "Starting an anarchist black cross group: A guide"; Still We Rise - A resource pack for transgender and non-gender conforming people in prison; Safe OUTside the system by the Audre Lorde Project;

for safe abortion info or involvement: get familiar with womenhelpwomen.

stay radical, stay strong, stay informed: The Anarchist Library

if i forgot to (or didn't) include something, don't hesitate to reblog this post with other resources.