#How to be Successful on Substack

[mehmetyildizmelbourne-blog]

The Strategic Move: ILLUMINATION Community’s Commercial Arm for Charitable Success

The ILLUMINATION publications have been providing full free service to all community members, now made up of 32,000+ freelance writers globally through our volunteer workforce on Medium.com since March 2020. It has been an absolute pleasure for our team o

Discover the Strategic Benefits and Impact on Our Nonprofit Mission and Join Our Exciting Journey for Freelance Writers Globally Dear Writers and Readers,  Medium is a wonderful community and now we are integrating and enhancing its value it with Substack community to give a competitive advantage to our writers and delight our readers better with new synergistic input. Collaboration for writers…

[foxmulderautism]

one niche weird thing about reading for a litmag is the more online flash/micro fiction i've read the more i've found specific writers that i really admire or at least i can recognise their name when i see them published in litmags. and sometimes they'll they show up in the queue and it's like oh i'm really inspired by this writer and their skill but now i'm on the side where i read and analyse and vote on their submission. and my impostor syndrome is like what the hell

[dashcon-two]

Volunteering, Virtual Dash, and Various Other Happenings!

Hey y’all!

Buckle up, we’ve got a bit of everything in this one.

Volunteer Applications!

We’re excited to say that volunteer applications for DashCon 2 are now open! You can apply to our form here (https://forms.gle/aaBjd9eSGZBsARBE7), or find out more on our website (https://www.dashcontwo.com/volunteering/). Our convention relies on volunteer staff to keep everything running smoothly, and there’s plenty of work to go around. We’re really glad to have received interest from so many of y’all, so applications will be open until we’ve filled all of our positions.

All regular volunteers will be assigned to at least one 4-hour shift between 7 AM and 11:30 PM on July 5th, 2025. Volunteers who complete their shift, or otherwise work 4 or more hours, will get free access to the con for the rest of the day.

Successful applicants will be required to sign a waiver to volunteer for the convention. Applicants who are under 18 years old must have a parent or guardian sign their waiver.

What about Virtual DashCon?

We appreciate all of the feedback we got after our announcement post last week! We’re happy to say that we’re going ahead with our plans for a virtual convention! However, considering how many of you were enthusiastic about the concept of virtual dash, we’d like to address a common question!

Why would a virtual con cost money? Because it costs money to run! We’re partnering with Live Media to ensure that the live-streamed panels, pit, and duel will run smoothly. We want to make our convention as accessible as possible, we’ve received hundreds of messages from people who couldn’t get a ticket, but we just don’t have the resources or expertise to run a virtual event with volunteers alone. Even with a professional live-streaming team, we’ll need to organize moderators for the official server, vet digital panellists, and all the other administrative work that comes with a virtual event. DashCon 2 is going down in history one way or another, but we’ll be damned if we don’t get good footage for the next generation of documentarians.

We’ll also donate 15% of every ticket to the Canadian Cancer Society! That’s 15% of the total price of the tickets, not the profits. You can learn more about our fundraiser here, and donate directly to our campaign on the Canadian Cancer Society’s website.

Drag at DashCon 2!

DashCon 2 is excited to announce that we’ll be featuring a spectacular showcase of talented drag performers! Performers will be lipsyncing, dancing, and generally serving, to the tune of such classics as How Bad Can I Be? We’re happy to say that we have two confirmed drag artists: Heaven/Hellish Lee (@heaven_lee_court.hellish_lee) and Pandora’s Box Muncher (@pandorasboxmuncher), both on Instagram! They are both incredibly talented - please check out their work and give them some love :)

We hope to announce a few additional performers before the day of the con, so stay tuned!

If you’re an interested local performer: please feel free to reach out to us directly at activities@dashcontwo.com with a link to your website/social(s), a few example photos, and what sort of performance you’d like to give. Portfolios may contain 18+ content, but performances at DashCon 2 must be appropriate for ages 13+.

LVLUP Board Game Room

We’re happy to remind you all that DashCon 2 will have a board game room, kindly sponsored by LVLUP Games! A quick FYI: while they will be providing board games of all sorts, they will not be providing TTRPG materials, dice, or DMs, so you’ll have to BYOD (Bring Your Own Dice). There must be at least a few dice goblins in our audience who have collections to show off.

As always, you can find more information on our website or follow us on Substack!

[luigilore]

oh PLS tell me your thoughts about inexperienced luigi whenever possible,,,,🙏🙏

omg ofc okay sorry this took a sec and is also just me rambling BUT

luigi would be so earnestly excited to have a girlfriend and it's YOU! is always like ive never been able to do this before' whenever ur doing coupley things and he loves it.... it's always 'my girlfriend' like yeah he is obsessed with dropping that in convos

i think he would get jealous so easily idk like he is NOT sharing sorry! he loves his girlfriend a lot.

okay inexperienced... in that sense... i cant even imagine how much he would lose his mind the first time you suck him off like actually couldn't compute, would accidentally pull your hair a bit too tight... not that u totally mind...

is rambling out an apology and is cut off by his own moan when u suck harder like shut up babe <3

would cum so fucking fast lol like he's actually embarrassed the first few times you guys have sex... esp when u ride him

and lovesss when you ride him like he used to dream of times like this fr

his fav position is missionary tho he just loves how intimate and loving it is... he likes any position where you guys are face to face... but looks down at you with sm love in his eyes like

mouth agape at you shirtless for the first time like please lol. dont even start on any frilly, pretty, cute lingerie luigi would die

his hands shake a little... just a bit! when he's undoing ur bra for the first time and touching your boobs; he'd be so tentative and shy so ur'd be like ... "ur my bf they're urs" 🤗 and luigi is like :0 "you can't just say stuff like that" lmfao

his hands are soooo big like shut up. "anything you do will feel good," you'd reassure him with a sweet smile and you're very right like it's so easy for him to curl/hook his fingers inside of you does that make sense? idk it just feels GOOD whenever he touches, wherever he touches you tbh

a very enthusiastic learner like genuinely is on substack researching feminine pleasure and buying sm different books... you come over one day to him reading that 'come as you are' book and you're like ? lol okay thank you baby

omg library study dates... imagine just like putting you hand on his thigh while you guys are working and he's looking at you like... babe... baby.. um :) like that's enough for him to be totally distracted like gl getting any actual work done after that

pleasuring you is very important to him it's like a game/challenge/hyperfixation for him to like he's a perfectionist he doesn't like not being good at something and yes that applies to sex like shut up

would be blushing at you offhandedly mentioning u have a vibrator... then asks to see it... will eventually work up the courage to ask to use it on you lol

would be sooo loud.. is aware of this and tries to not be... but is never quite that successful

luigi would be such a soft baby after sex like sorry like it's so physically intimate and that goes hand in hand with emotional intimacy to him and he'd just want to hold his GIRLFRIEND in his arms <333

[drdemonprince]

Hi Devon !

I just listened to your newest YouTube reading of your Substack and it made me realize that I have a different understanding than you of Sizhen’s gender framework, or perhaps am still developing my understanding of it.

You describe yourself in the piece as, through failing to join the Power gender, a Faggot-Subaltern. Other writings of yours describe experiencing some social privilege of having been perceived as masculine, and we both agree that our transmisogyny-exempt status renders us by average safer than our TMA siblings. In my understanding of Sizhen’s framework, this would render you closer to the Not-Power gender category, making transition something of a lateral move: away from Some misogyny but towards transphobia. Or, rather, in different gender categories depending on the power systems that be: given some power in comparison to TMA folks, recognized socially at times as an ally to other Not-Power folks against the subaltern of the transfem, but an otherwise marginalized category that is used as a threat to those within the cisgender hierarchy. Perhaps this perspective of conditionality is not the purpose of the framework; I’d like to hear what you think.

This also made me think about other scenarios where marginalized gendered folks engage in respectability politics - transmeds, transandrobros, and the like. Would you describe them as claiming Not-Power status against a Faggot-Subaltern for profit, safety, and success? Or is their ultimate failure in doing so a sign that they are in fact Faggot-Subaltern?

Thanks for reading !

I would say that the 'Not-Power' category is, predominately in our society, the category that cis women are relegated to and enjoy certain privileges within, and my trans masculinity doesn't slot me into that category so much as expel me from it. I was in not-Power when I was moving through the world as more or less a cishet woman. As a man, I'm theoretically aligning myself with the Power category, and my masculine qualities often afford me a lot of the privileges that come with being in the Power category, at least relative to those around me (I have always worked in fields filled with women, queer people, and men of color, and so I can access the privileges of white manhood relative to them). However, I'm also someone people yell "faggot" at on the street who cannot pass as a straight man for more than a thirty second interaction. And it's abundantly clear in how other men and cis women relate to me that I'm faggotized, as the sizhen system post talks about. If you're in the faggot subaltern, you pretty well know it, and I know it immediately in the way other men physically relate to me. It's a mix of condescending feminization, dehumanization, and imparsability that's very distinct. (it's hot as fuck when it's some big burly masc guy throwing my over his shoulder and dragging me home at the gay bar, and even kind of cute when it's a straight man in line at the walgreens smelling my hair, but not so cute when i'm alone on a train platform at night and a crowd of drunk Cubs fans is approaching.)

I am notably LESS safe in a lot of straight spaces now than i ever was as a cis woman, because I'm not in Not-Power, I'm in Faggot Subaltern, and everybody can see it a mile away. I stand out as not belonging and not following the rules of either pre-determined gender category ("powerful" men and 'not-powerful" women) and there is a looming threat that comes with this, and that's what defines being in the faggot subaltern. as you can see i dont see this stuff as fully categorical, but rather contextual. depending on the situation i have both privilege and a lot of vulnerability, and that's true of a lot of feminine gay men.

[hiscalliope]

i hope luigi knows the impact he's had on adults like myself who have navigated their entire adult lives thus far knowing they're neurodivergent/struggling with mental illness and perhaps are afraid/unsure of how to get diagnosed.

seeing another person, a person considered "successful" by societal standards (with both a bacehlors and masters before the age of 25), openly admit that mental battles were being waged in his mind when the people around him were none the wiser, has such a profound impact. i hope he one day understands this. looking at substack articles for tips for neurodivergent individuals as if looking to see if he fit the bill, potentially gearing up to seeking a diagnosis, its something that makes me feel seen as someone who has always been anxious and that anxiety caused me to make decisions (or not make decisions) that snowballed into depression.

just humans trying to seek answers as to why they are the way they are or why they feel the way they feel.

he's managed to specifically connect with people who don't have their shit figured out the slightest, who feel absolutely lost in a world where neurodivergence can often be an isolating experience, who are watching life go by without a single clue as to how to take the stirring wheel and take control.

so i thank god that i've gotten to know the name luigi mangione, for being a human that taught me that even those who have everything seemingly figured may not after all and that's okay.

[dolphin-diaries]

A Conversation With Lucy Kartikasari

An interview with a fellow detrans woman and activist about her experience. Originally posted on the Dolphin Diaries substack.

Dolphin Diaries: Would you introduce yourself and describe how you identify?

Lucy Kartikasari: Hi! My name is Lucy Kartikasari. I’m twenty-eight years old, I live in the Netherlands and I would label myself as a queer, bisexual detrans woman. Aside from my normal day job, I’m an online activist for LGBTQ rights with a focus on community-building between trans and detrans people. I feel like that is very sorely needed in today’s political climate.

So, when people think of detrans people, they usually think about the medical aspects of transition first and foremost. You were a teenager when you started transitioning, and you went through the Dutch transition procedure, is that correct?

Right, that is correct. I was twelve when I started my social transition and sixteen when I started my medical transition.

What has that experience been like?

My experience of it as a teen was marked by long waiting lists—which are still part of trans healthcare in the Netherlands today. After I came out to my parents, we went to our GP, and then I spent about three and a half years on a waitlist before I could even start the diagnostic portion of the transition process. It’s all been quite gatekeep-y.

But at the same time, I don’t think the psychologists involved really understood transition and what might motivate someone like me to do it. For me specifically, the root of my transition was the idea that I’d be a failure as a woman. I couldn’t be that beautiful, thin, hairless doll. So I remember the doctors asking me, have I considered if I could just be a masculine woman? And, no. I don’t think this way anymore, obviously, but back then, for me being a masculine woman also meant being a failure. Anything less than picture-perfect cisheteronormativity was not good enough. So I felt like, I may as well be a man. And I don’t think they understand what that kind of trauma looks like.

So, based on the kinds of questions they were asking you, what do you think they were trying to screen you for?

I think, besides asking if I was just a masculine woman, they were trying to screen for things like sexual trauma. But mostly it was, like, what makes you not want to be a woman? And I would say, well, it’s my body parts. I had a lot of negative thoughts about having extra fat on my body—you know, growing up in a half-Asian household, fatphobia is very common. Only thin women can be successful, and if you’re not under fifty kilos, you’re not thin enough. And so I had a lot of negative feelings about that and my breasts in particular. Just very disinterested in having them, very unhappy with them. And I didn’t really want to be a woman, so I was like, well if I want to live as a man, I should have a flat chest, a penis, and so on. And so, because I was so dissatisfied with my body and with my breasts especially, that assured them it was really gender dysphoria. I don’t think they really understood my cultural context, either.

Would you say it was like, the doctors were aware that women might have bodily insecurities, but surely, if you were really a woman, you wouldn’t hate it that badly?

Exactly. And while I was on the waitlist, I was in therapy, but I was never in therapy with someone who specialised in gender dysphoria. They just looked at me and went, well, let’s wait four years and see if the child still wants to transition. So what happened was, I spent all that time presenting as a boy, at the time that my identity was really crystalising, between the ages of twelve and fifteen. So by the time it came to doing the diagnostics, I was already like, yeah I’m a boy, there’s nothing else to it. I’m a dude.

So it sounds like, since you had to wait so long, you weren’t really coming to a psychologist to help you with figuring out your transness? You just came there specifically to transition?

Yeah. When I first came out, it was to my dad, and I wasn’t sure then. I just said, I think I’m a boy. What would’ve been helpful for me at the time was if someone would’ve sat down with me and helped me untangle my feelings, why I was so insecure about the idea of growing up as a woman, why the trappings of a female body were so traumatising to me. Why I had so many of these weird issues of, like, my bones being too big, my wrists not being small enough. Because I was just like: I don’t want to fail, I don’t want to be bad at this; I may as well do something I’ll be good at.

So that time you spent living as a boy while not being able to access medical transition—how did that affect you?

I felt like I was a victim of my own biology. I felt like, if I was on testosterone, at least some of this fat would be muscle. I know it’s a lot of fatphobia—don’t get me wrong, I’m a gym girl now, I know you don’t have to be on T for that. But I’m still working very hard to deconstruct all these things. Back then, I looked at my unclothed body with revulsion, and I felt like a masculine body would be so much better than whatever I had going on. Going through life as a boy while simultaneously being so disgusted with myself—it was just so much easier to exist in places where I didn’t have to be physically present, like online. I learned to detach my personality from my physicality, to disassociate.

Has that affected your experience with detransition?

Well, I’m twenty-eight now. My adolescence was a long time ago at this point, so it can be hard to reconnect with the way I used to feel back then. But that ability to disconnect from my body has actually made it easier to cope with my bodily insecurities now, too. Because it’s like, even if I feel horrible, even if I were to devolve into some sort of horrific creature physically, I know I’d still be me in my mind, no matter what.

And have you needed to access gender-affirming care as a detrans woman?

Yeah, I’ve had a total hysterectomy, so I’m reliant on oestrogen HRT for the rest of my life. I have had laser hair removal on my face, since the growth there was bothering me quite a lot. And I’ve been planning to undergo breast reconstruction and a treatment for the scarring on my chest.

In terms of access to gender-affirming healthcare for detransition as an adult, what’s been your experience?

As an adult, I found that there really are no protocols in place for detransition—like, they just don’t think about it at all. Some of my interactions with healthcare professionals have been quite callous. For example, when I first approached my doctor about switching my hormones, one of the first things he said to me was, You know it’s actually really rare for people to do this. And I was kind of like, well of course it’s rare. But how is that supposed to help me now?

One of the other things I had to do is wait. I took my last dose of testosterone in September 2022, and I only got to start oestrogen in December 2022.

So that’s like, months with low sex hormones across the board?

Yeah, it crashed pretty quickly. October, I wasn’t feeling great; November, menopausal symptoms were starting to kick in. It was starting to affect my day job. Thank goodness, the company doctor was an older woman, so I just explained to her my detransition and said, look, I don’t have hormones in my body right now. And she understood.

So, for November and January, I was actually experiencing menopausal symptoms for the second time in my life. Because I’ve also been on hormone blockers and nothing else when I was sixteen. There’s some comedy there, menopause at sixteen and then again at twenty-six. Now I look back at it and laugh, but at the time it was obviously horrific.

As for the social aspect of detransitioning, I didn’t really want to tell people about it because I was essentially stealth in a lot of places, especially my professional life. So people in the workplace would see me and interpret me as a trans woman all of a sudden. To be fair, I was working in data engineering, so I think everyone was just looking at me and being like, yep, makes sense.

This dovetails into my next question: what has it been like, outside of online and queer spaces, to live as a detrans woman?

It’s been kind of a mixed bag. I think my greatest concern, or fear, or whatever you want to call it, has been triggering people’s transmisogyny, because they assume I’m a trans woman. I’ve had instances where I, like, went out partying and approached a guy, and then that guy found my Instagram. He saw my they/she/he pronouns, heard my voice. And then he was just like, You used to be a man. And we’re in the middle of a dance floor, I’m not giving him my entire gender history. At that particular club, I was with my sister and knew the security, so I knew I’d be safe if something went down, but it was scary. Dating in general is strange, intensely uncomfortable and scary. I just have to throw my entire story out there, because otherwise it’s like, what’s up with these chest scars? And you know, with single-sex spaces, I go to the changing rooms in the gym with my sister, because I’m scared that, if I speak a word, there will be a problem. Legally I’m still male and I have a traditionally masculine name, so I run into issues because of that, too.

When it comes to my friends and family, however, they’ve been really good. I’ve been so lucky. And I think it’s also because I’ve been so open about my transition and everything that went into it, that people were like, well, Lucy, we love you no matter what. It’s all good; if you want to detransition, that’s fine; if you want to retransition later, that’s also fine. There’s only one exception to that, and it’s my mum. She struggled a lot with my transition in the beginning, so it was quite hard to tell her. Even to this day, I think she still has issues with the fact I want to be a mother, in part because it will cost me a lot of money. So I waited until, like, four months on E to tell her, surprise, I’m your daughter again.

I also worry about certain expectations being put on me again, like the way I need to look, act, sound. But I feel like that’s kind of just being a woman in society, unfortunately.

Have you ever worried about coming out as detrans and unintentionally confirming people’s worst suspicions about trans people?

I find that the one way I combat this is, just by openly stating that this is my experience—I really emphasise that. If you want to take my story and run with it, I can’t really stop that. But I try to be really emphatic of my support for trans people, of my trans friends, even if it’s a little silly. Like, I still do the testosterone shots for my best friend, who’s a trans guy; I’m friends with trans girls; I’m still very much in community with trans people. When I say this so often, it might come across to other queer people as performative—but that’s the point, I need to do this performance when I talk to cis people who really don’t get it. For whom I’m just a confirmation of their worst instincts.

So what has being detrans been like for you in queer circles?

In my local communities in the Netherlands, because I’ve been involved with activism, it’s really fine as I’ve made a name for myself in being very pro-trans rights. Overall, it’s been good.

Were you involved in activism before you detransitioned, also?

I only really got involved in activism as a detrans person. Before that, I felt like there were so many people much more eloquent than me, people who already have huge followings—what could I possibly add to the conversation? But then, about six months after detransitioning, I found a tweet by Oli London [about detransition], and that was a catalyst. I thought, I need to do something about this. I figured that I could add way more to the conversation about being detrans and in community with trans people than anything else.

What would you say are trans people’s attitudes about detransition and detrans people?

I think it really depends on the age. I feel like, the younger you go, the more vitriolic the hatred towards detrans people. Young people and especially teenagers are very prone to black-and-white thinking. I think—and this is going to be controversial—that the trans kids who are incredibly vitriolic towards detrans people are the ones who are most likely to detransition later down the line, because they do not give any room for their doubts and might be reacting this way because they’re hiding something away. But generally, I’d say the older you get, the more someone has been in community with other trans and queer people, the more likely they are to look at your experience in a nuanced way. At least that’s what I observe with my followers. The only exception is—and I know this comes from a place of pain—some trans women who really hate detrans women, because they see it as squandering the gift of natural-born femininity. Like, you had this, I want it and I can’t have it—and you just threw it away.

When you describe your experience to trans people, do they recognise it as a detrans experience? Or is it usually the first time they hear something like that in regards to detransition?

I think it’s usually new to them in that context. I think the only detransition content they’ve encountered before was, let’s face it, Christofascist white nationalist content. Let’s just call a spade a spade. So the fact they’re hearing someone empathetic to trans people, who wants them to have adequate healthcare, job opportunities, everything—that’s new. They’re very quick to rip into certain well-known right-wing detransitioners, but when they respond to me with hate because I’m detrans and I just shrug it off, that kind of defangs it.

On a broader scale, would you say that detransitioning impacted the way you think about gender and sex?

Being a detrans woman just made me realise—it’s all the same thing. It’s always sexism, misogyny; it’s always hatred of the feminine, the unmet expectations of the feminine, failing to be a woman. I don’t understand how people like Chloe Cole and Prisha and whoever else can be like this, because you know they’ll treat you just the same as a trans woman. You’ll get lumped in when the chips are down. There’s so much more to gain in accepting gender fluidity, in community.

What would you say are the biggest challenges to detrans people right now?

I think it’s the fact that the organisations that have been founded supposedly to help us always have ulterior motives. For instance, I have a Brazilian detrans friend, and she complains to me it’s all very Jesus-saved-us there. I’m Australian, so I need to get all paperwork changes through the Australian government, and the only organisation that cares about detransition there is the LGB Alliance. Then you look at the US, and it’s Genspect. These organisations are usually Christofascist. So yeah, there’s never anything that offers a structured way of helping detrans people without that agenda. That would sort out your documents and your healthcare.

So what I’m surmising is, when detrans people need help with legal gender marker change or gender-affirming healthcare access, the only option they see available to them are those right-wing organisations?

Right. We need to take that power away from them.

I very much agree. Lastly, in your opinion, do detrans issues tie in with any broader issues right now?

I think a lot of the things relevant to detrans women tie in with general women’s issues. For instance, speaking as a detrans woman that has been sterilised, there’s reproductive healthcare. The Right has this chokehold on conversations of fertility; they talk about how you’ll never breastfeed, never have babies if you take T for too long, and so on. It’s about reproductive rights and control over everyone who has the capacity to bear children. And of course, there’s trans rights and the encroachment of transphobia. The Right wants to construct a very specific view of gender, of women, and in part they use detrans women to do that.

Lucy Kartikasari can be found over on TikTok, Twitter, Instagram, and Threads. She creates content about her transition and detransition as well as trans and detrans solidarity. Find her other links here.

[strangebiology]

Do nonfiction authors really need social media to get a book deal?

I asked successful agents and trad signed authors how important social media is to getting book contracts. Here are some data and quotes about how they responded on my Authors of Nonfiction Books in Progress Substack! Read if you want more details and caveats to the data, as well as my story and why I like social media anyway.

TLDR: Social media is NOT necessary!

Here's an editorial explaining why. But for nonfiction non-memoir, you have to do something to prove that you know what you’re talking about, as you'll see repeated over and over in my Substack article. That proof could be social media.

Trad publishing is very hard and competitive, and sometimes even unfair. But the people who say "you can't get a deal unless you know someone or are TikTok famous" are flat-out wrong. (Also, you can become a person who knows someone by joining communities, attending conferences...hell, you can DM me if you have writing experience and I might hook you up with my agent. There, now you know someone and have no excuse. I've successfully hooked up 4 people I knew from communities I'm in, or something like that, not because they're my family members. I have said "come back when your query and/or experience are better" to 3 people, and 2 people didn't get the deal despite having good pitches and my recommendation, it just wasn't a match.)

Unfortunately, I think some aspiring authors are looking for an excuse, as many of these people don't often tend their writing craft. That is a much bigger indicator as to whether you'll get a deal, even if the trad world still isn't a perfect meritocracy.

Remember, I LOVE social media and have over 300,000 followers across platforms. I mostly do recommend that writers and journalists should use it! I find it sad, even, that there are so many writers with no audiences, when there are huge social audiences who would love to hear what these writers have to say! (But there are downsides too, so it's not ideal for all. Check out the pros and cons for science journalists being on TikTok.)

If you’d like to share your experience with trad publishing and social media (or lack of social media!), I still look at the survey results, so feel free to fill it out here and I may share the results in the future. Some questions are optional and of course I redact the (optional, anyway) emails:

[rubyvroom]

Silicon Valley's Parasite Culture

From Ted Gioia's substack -- and I do realize the irony of reposting a substack post about parasitical behavior as content on my Tumblr yes -- that said, I really want people to read this

...For the first time in history, the Forbes list of billionaires is filled with individuals who got rich via parasitical business strategies—creating almost nothing, but gorging themselves on the creativity of others. That’s how you get to the top in the digital age. Instead of US Steel, it’s Us steal. Instead of IBM, it’s IB Robbing U. But when parasites get too strong, they risk killing their hosts.

Recall that only ten percent of animal species are parasites. What happens if that number grows to 30% or 50% or 70%? That must have catastrophic consequences, no? This is precisely the situation in the digital culture right now. Google’s success in leeching off newspapers puts newspapers out of business. Musicians earn less and less, even as Spotify makes more and more. Hollywood is collapsing because it can’t compete with free video made by content providers. It’s no coincidence that these parasite platforms are the same companies investing heavily in AI. They must do this because even they understand that they are killing their hosts. When the host dies, AI-generated content can replace human creativity. Or—to be blunt about it—the host will die because of AI-generated content. And then the web billionaires won’t even need to toss those few shekels at artists. It’s every parasite’s dream. The host can die, but the leech still lives on! But there’s one catch. Training AI requires the largest parasitical theft of intellectual property in history. Everything now gets seized and sucked dry. No pirate in history has pilfered with such ambition and audacity.

now, I think we are finding that there are diminishing returns on the AI training at this point (in this gen of the technology at least) such that they are not able to replace human creativity. But if they could, they would, is the point. And when we talk about AI we need to address the parasitical business models that make it an inevitability.

[ofmdrecaps]

01/18-20/2025 Daily OFMD Recap

TLDR; David Jenkins; Rhys Darby; Taika Waititi; Con O'Neill; Vico Ortiz; Kristian Nairn; Guz Khan; Gypsy Taylor; Minnie Driver; In Person OFMD Events: The New Uni Con; Donation Raffle Reminder; LGBTQ+ Resources; Love Notes; Daily Darby/Today's Taika;

Hey crew, been a week. Hope you're well. I've broken the recaps up into three day parts for the next three additions, there is more news in some and less in others. Thanks for your patience. Thinking of you.

= David Jenkins =

Chaos Dad shared some love from the wonderful @illustoryart!

Source: David's Bsky

= Rhys Darby =

More Cryptid Factor filming going on!

Source: Shreiberland Instagram

Rhys was on the Concert For America fundraiser show! He helped raise quite a bit just by being there. Thank you to the crew that donated to support him and the victims of the LA Fires! Edit: Im not sure why the video was taken off youtube..luckily I saved a copy prior to it being taken down. I've added it to a personal drive.

Source: Concert For America

= Taika Waititi =

Taika continuing his theme of sleeping anywhere!

Source: Taika's Instagram Stories

Something a bit silly for you-- NZOnScreen shared this older video of Taika from 2009!

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by NZ On Screen (@nzonscreen)

Source: NZ on screen's IG

= Con O' Neill =

With Inauguration Day being as rough as a day as it was.. Con was a sweet heart and sent some love to everyone.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Con O'Neill (@oneill.con)

Source: Con O'Neill's Instagram

= Vico Ortiz =

New episode of Today in Gay came out and Vico sent lots of love notes to everyone. Remember to lean into the community crew <3 We will get through this together. If you haven't already, check out the Today In Gay Substack for Positive Queer News.

Source: Vico's instagram Stories

= Kristian Nairn =

Kristian was on the Six O Clock show talking about Hodor's Death in Game of Thrones.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by The Six O'Clock Show (@sixoclockshow)

Source: Kristian's IG

More convention dates for Kristian! He'll be joining Comic Con Scotland on Saturday 1st & Sunday 2nd March 2025!

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Comic Con Scotland North East (@comicconscotlandaberdeen)

Source: ComicConScotland

= Guz Khan =

Guz was out performing at the Dubai Opera House this past week!

Source: Guz' Instagram

= Gypsy Taylor =

Our dear S2 costume designer, Gypsy Taylor wrapped on the new show "All Her Fault", based on the bestselling novel by @andreamaraauthor! She shared some BTS photos in celebration!

Source: Gypsy's IG / 2

= Minnie Driver =

Some love from our Anne Bonny, but also an announcement that there are more episodes of the podcast Minnie Questions! You can check it out on your favorite podcast platforms. Here's the spotify link.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Min. (@driverminnie)

== In Person OFMD Events ==

= The New Uni Con =

A new Convention has been announced for London in June this year -- The New Uni- Con! Check out more information on their Blusky!

Source: Bsky

= Donations Raffle Reminder! =

As a reminder, our fabulous crewmate Irene Adler has put together this Charity Raffle to help support people affected by the LA Fires! It's almost reached the $1000 point where a signe photo by Con, Rhys, Vico, Kristian, and Nathan will be added as another prize drawing!

More info on how to enter can be found here.

OFMD’S DP fundraiser: https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-mike-and-danielle-rebuild-after-fire

GOFUNDME WILDFIRE RELIEF FUND: https://www.gofundme.com/c/act/wildfire-relief/california

Source: Irene Adler's Instagram

= LGBTQ+ Crisis Hotlines =

This is just some extra info in case you need it. These hotlines don't call law enforcement or emergency services without consent.

Source: Them Instagram

== Love Notes ==

Hey lovelies. This week has been hell. I know it has. I hope you know though that for every asshole out there who is unkind to you or wants to take away your rights-- you have a hell of a lot more of us who love you dearly and recognize the beauty and the wonder in you. I know it's easy to fall into despair.. and it's good to feel the feelings to help heal them, but don't fall too far down the rabbit hole okay? You are loved. Period. You are worthy of love. Period. You are valid. Period. Shine brighter than their hate. Shine brighter than their ignorance. You are a force to be reckoned with. Be safe, and reach out when you are in trouble or unsure. There is no shame in getting help-- and most of all, there is no shame in being you, okay? None. We will persevere. Love you crew.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Kelly Vincent, Psy.D. | Holistic Psychologist (@dr.kellyvincent)

Source: Dr.Kelly Vincent Instagram

== Daily Darby / Today's Taika ==

The theme tonight is laughing! Because we could all use a little smiles/laughter from our favorite guys.

[bijoumikhawal]

Ghosts of History- Augmentation and the Eugenics Wars in Star Trek

(Also available on my substack!)

From the start augmentation has been connected to eugenics, and therefore has been a criticism of white supremacy. However, it has also from the start been given a brown face; therefore augmentation represents the fear of brown people given justification. On some level, the horror of augmentation is "what if brown people acted like we do? What if our problems spilled out and caused them to be even better at our games of destruction than us?" Augmentation is implied to have started in this US, as were The Eugenics Wars (having started as "the Second Civil War" before the conflict spread to other countries).

The association, while grossly mishandled in Trek's canon, isn't entirely unfounded. Ethnic and religious chauvinist movements have occurred in Africa and Asia for centuries before European colonialism, and supremacist ideologies have as well. Existing ethnic divides (sometimes stemming from non-European colonialism) were often used by colonizers to cause further conflict by exacerbating existing problems, and the aftermath has, as of yet, never been resolved. The wrongs committed have never been righted, and colonial meddling makes talking about the rights and grievances of minorities taboo in some cases.

Racial supremacist ideologies have also been adopted by some non-white people- there's a joke that a significant amount of anonymous white supremacist accounts online are secretly run by brown men, and it unfortunately is based on a real phenomenon.¹ Something I am very familiar with is how non-Black "North Africans" have attempted to gain global prestige by rejecting a connection to Africa- downplaying their connection to the desert, to the rural, and to darker skin. I have seen too many social media posts claiming random white blonds and gingers are "true representatives" of Mediterranean Africa when they don't even fully represent Mediterranean Europe. Existing issues have allowed people to co-opt bigoted ideologies of white origin- and unfortunately, in some countries, this has included eugenics.

Enterprise implies that a significant amount of augments were "designer babies", human embryos modified before birth for desired traits. This phenomenon is one we deal with today, and it is reserved for the wealthy, and commonly defended by and performed in white countries. Deep Space Nine (DS9) furthers this, adding that augmentation as of the 24th century could even be done on children outside the womb, but ultimately for the same purpose. However, Enterprise (ENT) and The Original Series (TOS) imply augmentation is usually "successful", while DS9 implies it isn't.

The augments we see in the former two shows are fully "supermen" convinced of their superiority. They are portrayed as aggressive liars and manipulators, who may use sexuality as a weapon. On a metatextual level, I would note that many autistic people struggle with emotional regulation, as do other neurotypes, disorders, and disabilities. This can lead to anger issues, violent urges, and outbursts. While autistic people are stereotyped as truthful, we are sometimes known to have behavioral issues that are perceived as manipulative (this is especially true of low support needs autistics).² Plenty of other neurotypes may have similar behavioral issues. This is distinct from the “genetic personality” that is assigned to augments, as the presentation of emotional dysregulation varies. But if we deconstruct the metanarrative… then are augments really “perfect supermen”, cured of all disabilities and “abnormalities”? The Machiavellian personality Star Trek uses for augments is, itself, pathologized and linked to various disorders.³ My point here is that if we don't accept that augments are “supermen”, then the implication is that eugenics really doesn't work. Not even in advanced sci-fi. This reading still isn't unproblematic, but it's one to keep in mind.

In Deep Space Nine, however, the main augment we meet is still very readily identifiable as probably being autistic. No active metatextual deconstruction required. Julian sometimes struggles to understand socially appropriate behaviors, or outright ignores them (many autistics will tell you they understand this or that, but don’t respect it or understand why people do it), is morally stubborn, and has special interests. Further, he possibly was intellectually disabled as a child, with augmentation being done to “fix” him. While I read Julian as still autistic, some people take the fact that he’s augmented to mean that he isn't anymore. The other augments we meet in DS9 are also mostly, high support needs disabled people that live in an institution. The only one that isn't is Lauren, who seems to have lower support needs. However, she has a high sex drive, which is notable as women have been sterilized by eugenicists specifically for having high sex drives. Especially if they were deemed “imbeciles”.⁴

Sarina eventually is able to leave the Institute, due to Julian treating her for her medical issues and making her support needs lower. This choice is controversial, but I don't personally think treatment lowering Sarina's support needs is the same as “curing” her, though I don't especially like it because the nuance is certainly not carried through the show. With that lack of nuance around cures vs mitigated support needs, the nuanced feelings around how different support needs are treated intercommunally is also gone. You can examine it on a metatextual level, but odds are you'll only do it if you're “in the know” because it's not in the episode.

As Julian's experiences match up with designer baby trauma, this overlaps with the experiences of trans people and intersex people. One of the most famous designer babies to speak out against their parents is Elon Musk's daughter, Vivian. Her defiance of his desire for his kids to fit a specific, biologically determined role by being transgender is a driving factor in why he's now a public, rabid Nazi. Designer babies struggle with high expectations placed on them, parents treating them like an object they own rather than a person, feeling like science experiments, controlling families, and a lack of support. The "designer baby" scheme also doesn't really work out, as many designer babies are autistic, were born pre-term and disabled, or inherited issues from biological parents anyway. Despite designer babies not existing when Deep Space Nine aired, the show predicted a lot of the social and psychological struggles they experience through Julian's character, as well as predicting the failure of such procedures to achieve desired results.⁵

A thorny area to acknowledge within this is also that people can be negatively impacted by eugenics while adopting it's ideology. Elon Musk is (allegedly) autistic. However, he is also a eugenicist that does Nazi salutes. Unfortunately, he's not a solitary figure. Many autistics with low support needs are chauvinistic and demeaning towards those with medium and high support needs. Some of these people continue to identify as having Aspergers (fittingly, a diagnosis named after a Nazi that separated the “good” autistics from the “needs to die” autistics), and call themselves “aspies”. Aspergers was retired as a diagnosis before I was diagnosed almost a decade ago, and is outdated terminology to say the least.⁴

However, these behaviors aren't neatly cordoned off to just self identified aspies, though they are strongly associated with them. Even autistics who aren't actively eugenicists often have shitty beliefs regarding people with high support needs. Sometimes people also state things like “aspies/autistics are the next stage in human evolution!” and aggressively deny that they are in any way disabled. I have personally been told, “autism is disabling, Aspergers isn't”, with the implication that disability was bad. What I'm getting at here is that the implication in Deep Space Nine that many augments are still disabled or neurodivergent is not as incompatible with augments still believing in eugenics as you'd expect. Further, there are various mystical and pseudoscientific nonsense beliefs spread- we don't have augments in our world, but we do have “starseeds”, “energy workers”, “rainbow/crystal/indigo children”, and so on. These may be accompanied by anti-medicine beliefs.⁴

There is also something to the pattern alphacanon (the shows and films in the Trek universe) implies for the spread of the Eugenics Wars. In terms of real life issues, terrorist organizations in the Global South have often started as being funded, armed and/or trained partially by the US, before eventually turning on them and becoming pariahs (this phenomenon is called “blowback”).⁶ Further, their extremist ideologies were also created by the US or encouraged by the US. Like the Eugenics Wars, there is a sense in which "terrorism" is something that started as an American problem and spread outwards. It is notable that after a much more humanizing portrayal of augments in Deep Space Nine, Enterprise- as a post 9/11 entry to canon, and therefore jingoistic and sensitive to the topic of terrorism- returns to the origin of augments in Trek. Particularly, it makes them inherently villainous due to biological impacts on their personality.

This idea, of a genetically determined personality, is ironically, a eugenicist one. Especially when the personality traits in question are things such as morality (those deemed immoral, criminal, sexually perverse, and so on were sterilized in the US).⁴ It is also an idea that Deep Space Nine loudly rejected. Furthermore, it's a lazy and boring way of creating an antagonist. It is much more likely that many augments were indoctrinated into a specific ideology. Enterprise, however, refutes this, and generally refutes DS9's refutation of "genetic personality". When Arik Soong tries to raise augments to not be like Khan, he fails because that is "in their nature". Ignored is the fact that Soong believes in at least some eugenic ideas, such as augments being the next step in the evolution of humanity. All augments, ENT argues, need to be hunted down and killed. ENT also tied the Eugenics Wars to the Global South, with Archer mentioning his great grandfather fighting in "North Africa" against augments. During the 90s. The Sahelo-Saharan region has, in recent decades, struggled with religious extremist violence. Even though Enterprise's main augment is white, he's still named Malik, which means "king" or "owner" in Arabic. This tie is not new, as on top of Khan being Khan, TOS states that Khan ruled over a large swathe of Asia nearly equal to a quarter of the planet.

Of course, the connections to the War on Terror didn't exist when TOS, TNG, DS9, or VOY were made. During DS9's run, a terrorist could still be a hero- so long as they didn't get too in your face about the fact that they were inspired by Palestine when writing her culture. However, it does end up fitting in hindsight, especially when coupled with the series that was influenced by the War on Terror. Because of the racial implications of augmentation, augments such as Julian face a constant pressure to be one of the good ones. "For every Julian Bashir that can be created, there’s a Khan Singh waiting in the wings". Julian is told to his face that he's an "exception" in a later episode.

The current alphacanon (shows and films) stance on the origin of augmentation directly ties it to the Cold War, and accidentally ties it to Nazism. Currently, it began in the 1950s with scientists (implied to be in America) started trying to create supermen that would "lead Humanity into an era of peace in a world that had only known war". If you know your WW2 history, you will immediately recognize this is an ubermensch. You may also recognize that in the 1950s, a lot of Nazi scientists were running around America thanks to Operation Paperclip. The implication from the information we have indicates this ideology spread outwards.

While I don't know of as many eugenics movements in the Global South, I do know that Westerners have promoted some degree of negative eugenics via fears about overpopulation. This fear has lead to Westerners educating women in Asia and Africa about birth control (good) because they don't want there to be "too many" Asians or Africans (bad). Population control efforts using birth control started in India in the 1950s, and in the decades afterwards, were aggressively pushed by other countries controlling million dollar loans and food aid. These efforts did often target lower income families, and in the 70s people of low socioeconomic status were sometimes picked up off the street or rounded up in their villages by police to be sterilized. Religious tensions with the Muslim minority also came into play, with Muslims being suspicious of the genocidal implications of this tactic. During the 1970s, over 18 million sterilizations were done. To achieve such numbers, operations were often poorly done, unhygienic, and lacked follow up care. Thousands died as a result.⁷

While the fear of overpopulation targeting Africa and Asia is justified by pointing out differences in fertility rates, the actual issues said to be caused by overpopulation (carbon emissions, for example) are overwhelmingly caused by white, Western countries. The issue "overpopulation" is worried about is not actually carbon emissions. It's worried about white people being too outnumbered.⁸ Eugenic ideology has not been fully adopted in the Global South, but it is rising, especially in connection with fascist movements such as Hinduvta. In fact, some Indians associated with the RSS (the overall organization Nahendra Modi is associated with) have publicly promoted the idea of designer babies, though in a less high tech and more accessible form.⁹ Subtler forms of eugenics are also promoted, occasionally in slogans such as "tashin al nasal" (Egyptian Arabic for "improve the race"), a sentiment which is linked to violent racial nationalism in Mediterranean Africa, and partly responsible for why I try to no longer use the terms "North" and "Sub-Saharan" to describe Africa. The Earth that Starfleet presents seems to be one wherein not only did we have far more advanced technology during the 1950s, but also where the eugenic ideals the West exported to the Global South focused very strongly on positive eugenics (trying to encourage certain behaviors rather than trying to limit negative ones, though both are often done simultaneously).⁴

Puzzling is the fact that Khan is an augment, and one of the most notable and powerful. Khan is explicitly mentioned to be a Sikh in his first appearance. Sikhs are an ethnoreligious minority in India (which is a Hindu majority country), but are the majority in the region of Punjab. Post-colonial Indian politics, especially recently, have been dominated by religious, caste, and ethnic chauvinism and supremacy, in favor of high caste Hindus (from the Northern regions).¹⁰ Said people are also the ones, to my understanding, who would be more likely to adopt ideologies such as eugenics. In fact, two decades after Star Trek introduced Khan, Sikh civilians were killed by the Indian government and subjected to genocide.¹¹ As before mentioned, eugenic programs in India are typically associated with Hindu supremacy. The fact that Khan is an augment is puzzling (though not impossible) due to the socioeconomic struggles of that community.

The Eugenics Wars did not present a united front of augments vs non-augments. From canon alone, we know augments fought with each other as well as fighting against non-augmented humans. There is also the possibility that some augments fought as allies with non-augments. Further, while the Federation is against augmentation, it is not against ableism. The idea of "self improvement and self enrichment", first espoused in TNG, has the unspoken conclusion that if you can't achieve, you're worthless. Being mediocre is a failure, and this is part of what drove the Bashir parents to break the laws around augmentation. As Worf states "...parents would feel pressured to have their children enhanced so that they could keep up".

This observation isn't entirely original. In a “Trek, Actually” video by Steven Shives, he points out that Federation society, or at least some Federationers, are implied to be bigoted towards those with disabilities, and that being disabled or having a disabled child may still be a source of shame. In a comment (that I don't fully agree with) by lunatickoala on this video, they also point out "...If you have a society where people are told pretty much from birth that a person's job, their goal in life is to better themselves, you can damn well sure that people are going to be judged on how much they've "bettered themselves". And in the absence of capital capital, social capital becomes the only capital. People with power and influence will use that power and influence to ensure that their kids get into the best schools... In such a society, having a learning disability would be like having a physical disability in Klingon society..."¹²

Further, we see that disabilities such as dyslexia, dyscalculia, and dyspraxia (seen in Spock in Discovery) are still stigmatized as of the 23rd century. Spock, in turn, during TOS undermines Pike's autonomy as a disabled person and his wishes not to go to Talos. Pike's disability is also portrayed primarily as an object of horror and discomfort. People who are paralyzed and disfigured still have lives they enjoy. Mental illness is also portrayed with varying quality. PTSD is often handled well, but many other characters with other issues aren't. Garak, one of my favorites, is in a weird in-between area for me. His claustrophobia is treated well, possibly because it's caused by trauma and therefore is similar to PTSD, and this is also true for his addiction. However, Garak’s writing often makes him come off as generally… with some screws loose. I don't dislike this portrayal, but it's complicated because Garak is a murderer, slowly deprogramming fascist, and generally what one might term “bad representation”. Frankly my main issue is that he's the only character on Deep Space Nine portrayed as his flavor of mentally ill. Many characters on Deep Space Nine have mental issues, but they are ones that Star Trek already handles well or portrays in specific terms that are more palatable.

While some disabilities, such as blind people, are not particularly stigmatized, this is in part because assistive technology has advanced to the point where blind people can "see". In TNG Geordi defends himself to a person from a eugenicist colony based on his ability to "contribute". While an important episode, it does not actually fully refute ableism because of the attention given to "contribution". Disabled people deserve to live even if they can't contribute anything, because disabled people are human beings who can be happy and enjoy the lives they do lead.

Notably, while Julian's initial fascination with Melora is pointed out as inspiration porn in another Trek, Actually video,¹³ it goes beyond an abled person being weird to a disabled person because I do think Julian is still autistic. His fascination with Melora's refusal to accept help or "special treatment" reads as being influenced by his own upbringing, where, after being augmented, he was likely taught that asking for help was shameful or inappropriate. When he calls her extraordinary, it's still demeaning and he is still being ableist, but it has the added layer that he has almost certainly internalized that that's what he's supposed to do. Similarly, Julian tries to help Melora with her disability for her work as an expression of his belief that he can “fix” people… which is what his parents did to him (also not an original observation from me). This video also has pretty good criticisms of how this episode focuses more on Julian's thoughts and feelings than Melora's.

While I hope this article leads to a better and more developed understanding of this issue and it’s real life ramifications, the tension we noted at the beginning remains. Augments and the Eugenics Wars are a statement against white supremacy and ableism, though one that falls short. They also serve as a vehicle for fears regarding Brown people, especially in TOS and ENT. As a concept, it is not internally consistent due to these two forces.

Sources and Further Reading:

“Many Indian trolls wrote me hate mails defending white supremacists” by Chandrima Banerjee

All About Autistic Meltdowns: A Guide For Allies from Reframing Autism, and Manipulation – Does It Occur in Autism? from Autism Awareness Center

Machiavellianism from Wikipedia. Note that this is considered a “dark triad” trait, a term that immediately invokes a sense of foreboding. While not a disorder itself, it is discussed in similar terms to the way people colloquially discuss disorders.

“Aspie Supremacy”- A Deep Dive by Ember Green.

Designer Babies Are Teenagers Now—and Some of Them Need Therapy Because of It by Emi Nietfeld

Go to United States and state-sponsored terrorism on Wikipedia and feel your brain melt! This isn’t even all the examples I would give; for example, this page does not cover Operation Cyclone. Whose Monster? A Study in the Rise to Power of al Qaeda and the Taliban by Nicholas Kotarski does discuss this, as well as other factors in the forming of al Qaeda.

India: “The Emergency” and the Politics of Mass Sterilization by Prajakta R. Gupte

The Overpopulation Myth and its Dangerous Connotations By Brittney Bush Bollay

India's far-right is trying to make India great again through eugenics by Jyoti Malhotra

The Growing North-South Divide in India by Sehr Rushmeen

It’s Time India Accept Responsibility for Its 1984 Sikh Genocide by Simran Jeet Singh

Trek, Actually, “What the Bashir Family Tells Us About Ableism in Star Trek” by Steven Shives

Trek, Actually, “How Star Trek Actually Deals (And Doesn’t Deal) With Disability” by Steven Shives

Specific Trek Episodes: Star Trek: The Original Series, "Space Seed”. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, “Dr. Bashir, I Presume?”. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, “Statistical Probabilities”. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, “Chrysalis”. Star Trek: Enterprise, “Hatchery”. Star Trek: Enterprise, “Borderland”. Star Trek: Enterprise, “Cold Station 12”. Star Trek: Enterprise, “The Augments”. Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, “Strange New Worlds”. The lore about the 50s is from Star Trek: Into Darkness.

[mehmetyildizmelbourne-blog]

Rise Above Mediocrity to Win as a Creator or Freelancer

Inspiration for Skeptical Creators and Freelancers on Medium Stop Thinking Small and Manufacturing Excuses Congratulations, Aiden, the instructor of From Zero to Substack Hero, for becoming a Bestseller on Substack, gaining 99,000 subscribers in a short time. There are more success stories in this post that can inspire you. Do not stop writing about your Substack experience — just because…

[vintageandroid]

By the way

I suggest that when your representatives do actually do something you want them to be doing, be sure to send them a message to thank them! They hear about what we want them to do but I don't know how often they actually hear anything favorable. Dems are actually doing plenty (I recommend Ariella Elm's substack for daily wins and activity from them) and we want to encourage them to fight and make good trouble.

(Actually, anytime your republican representative stands up, as some are actually doing now and again, thank them for that, too!)

Yes, it isn't always "enough," sometimes it isn't successful, and it's rarely solving everything at once. But it's something! They need to know what their constituents would like them to do, of course, but they should also hear when they're acting in ways you want to see so they know to keep on in that direction. Their facebooks are full of MAGAts being douchey, so give them a few nice words here and there. They're people too!

A quick script in case Words Are Hard:

My name is [name] and I'm a constituent from [address & zip code]. I just wanted to thank [Senator][Representative] [Their name] for their work doing [whatever it is they did]. I appreciate their efforts in standing up for their constituents' needs and best interests.

Remember to leave your full address if it's a voice mail! It helps their tallies or whatever. Also, if you're sending an email, mention that you're a constituent in the subject line.

Anyone clowning on this post or conveying full doomer bullshit will be blocked.

[dashcon-two]

An Important Notice for Panel and Vendor Applications!

We’re very excited for Panel Applications to open tomorrow, and wanted to share some more information about the application process! 

Panel applications open February 10th, 9 am EST, and will close February 15th, 9 pm EST. Shortlisted panellists will be contacted to arrange an interview and discuss further details at a later time. Shortlisting is not a guarantee that you will run a panel. 

For those unaware, panels kinda like convention breakout rooms. They’re typically lecture-style presentations to a small audience of guests! Think ‘powerpoint night where I yap about my hyperfixation’ but on a larger scale, with topics ranging from professional artists giving advice, to in-depth breakdowns of specific media. There’s a lot of diversity, and panels can take forms beyond what we’ve outlined: a trivia show, an art trade, a skill-building workshop, et cetera. We’re open to all your wildest and whackiest ideas!

Initial applications are pretty basic: all you need is a description. Tell us about your panel idea in 1-2 paragraphs at most, and how long you’ll need to run it. A maximum of 7 people are permitted to panel together, but 1-2 people are standard. Applicants may discuss their qualifications or attach a partial or completed slideshow to their application, but these are both optional. 

Our guidelines for panel content are available on the Panel Applications of our website. All panelists will also have to follow our Convention Policies. Please know that DashCon 2 will not permit 18+/Adult content to be discussed or presented during panels. Any violation of these rules will result in the immediate cancellation of a panel, and the offending panelist’s pass being revoked. 

Panelists will not have to pay for a convention pass, but we encourage all applicants to purchase tickets on February 22nd as we cannot guarantee spots in advance. Panelists who have purchased a ticket will be offered a refund. Unfortunately, DashCon 2 cannot refund the processing fees taken by Simpli Events nor those of their transaction processing service Stripe. We do not offer compensation for travel or other expenses occurred as a result of volunteering for DashCon 2. 

Since panellists are considered volunteers, they are free to explore the convention outside the bounds of their panel. However, panellists are expected to have signed in and to be on-call 30 minutes before and after their scheduled panel time. Panellists who do not check in before or show up to their panel will have their pass revoked.

Vendor Applications Will Close Soon!

This a reminder that Vendor applications are still open!! Thank you to everyone who applied to be a vendor, we’re really excited to host so many incredible artists. We’ve decided to close applications on Wednesday, February 12th at 9PM EST. We will be contacting successful applicants before the 22nd, so others will still have the option to buy tickets!

As always, you can find more at www.dashcontwo.com, or subscribe to our mailing list over on substack!

[drdemonprince]

I’ve only just read your Burnout piece on Substack and it made me think of the anon you answered awhile back about anti depressants and anti anxiety medications.

I’m Autistic and am on anti anxiety medication which basically masked all the warning signs and symptoms of Autistic burnout. Those usual indicators I usually can pick up on which indicate I’m doing too much and not resting enough weren’t present on the medication.

I felt good (although very numb like the anon said) so I kept on taking on more and more and initially thought it was great! I’ve never been able to commit to things or work on multiple projects at once even ones that super interest and excite me because I get overwhelmed and burnt out quickly.

But without the warning signs I kept going and going until I started to feel really weird. Disassociated, not sleeping, upset stomach, drinking a lot. I thought everything was great so it took awhile to piece together that this is maybe what Autistic burnout results in when it’s covered by meds.

I’m now slowly withdrawing from the meds. I figure the authentic anxiety is better than false measures of “success”.

So just a warning to Autistic people I guess, I don’t know if what I’ve experienced is common or just subjective but it’s worth being aware of.

This is pretty much how I feel about psychiatric medication for myself, as well. I want the warning signs. I want to notice my body and brain rebelling. A lot of psychiatric drugs are somewhat effective at making us feel more numb, for a while, which is why they are used as a stopgap when a person's situation is unmanageable. I'm a big believer in the "Affect as Information" Hypothesis: when we feel like shit, that means something about our circumstances simply has got to change. Often that means giving up responsibilities, letting people down, letting things go.

I even feel the same way about weed. I have a lot of friends who use weed daily to manage their overwhelm, and it seems to work great for them, and potentially I should be doing the same thing. But I am terrified of having a massive dependence on a large quantity of weed in order to function, and when I *did* use weed daily, it became a baseline need and made me dissociate even further from myself. I now take the desire to use weed or otherwise get blasted as a signal that something is amiss and that I'm overwhelmed and seeking escape -- that doesn't mean I don't listen to that desire some of the time. I get high and/or drunk on the weekends pretty often. But I don't want to lose touch with my body's warning system. AND I have the immense luxury of being able to change my life circumstances when things get to be too much. If someone doesn't have that freedom, well, sometimes substances are the best thing you can get - be that psychiatric or off market.

[stronghours]

ft. candles that work; 50% gelatin success - 6th Annual Holiday Bash

everything was pretty well prepared regarding timeage - keeping in mind next year, it really would be better for the layout to be totally set by the expected start time. a routine that has established itself in the past three years is my guests watching me bash gelatin molds around so I can Complete the Table, and as I was carving the beef with a ring of My Insanely On-Time Guests sitting on the rug behind me holding polite conversation, I felt like I was keeping things (and refreshment!) at standstill

these are little party scheduling blip-blups of time and space that I feel are circumvented when you're in a house or a larger apartment - people can roam without feeling hide-y, they can poke around more, they can lounge. in a small spaces lapses are more intimately felt, especially when a lot of the guests run anxious - I don't like the idea that people feel they can't eat or drink until a signal is given

presentation: I'm getting closer to what I want. I always think I'll have time and energy to run up a seasonal homemade tablecloth or tree skirt or make a wreath, but never do; managed this year with doing a couple flower arrangements and flung my old twin bed cover around the tree stand Just So that it appeared passably intentional

presentation 2: if your fruit bowl is too Aesthetic and Pretty, despite being placed welcomingly on the table with all the rest of the edible food, your guests will be wary to remove anything from it; if a lid or cover is placed over a dish, your guests will not remove it; if you have a candy dish full of spiced pecans at the wayside, your guests will naturally assume it is a dish of (1) potpourri, or (2) decorative dried mushrooms and will not remove anything from it

misc: a lamp I had stopped liking so much was broken, which means I can go lamp-shopping again; I was gifted a massive fern terrarium

at this point, I'm so fascinated by what compels me this time of year that I'm thinking of starting a substack just to start writing about my (admittedly uneven right now) cooking and domestic life

earlier this year I requested/demanded @drdemonprince read (and hate) Brandon Taylor's Real Life so I would have someone to talk to about how much I hated it (see post below), so he bought me the record I have been avoiding all year because I have not had the strength to confront the sorrows Sufjan Stevens has experienced recently.

having a friend is a lot like throwing a party - it is, quite overlapping, the twin whims of wanting to impart a good time and submit loved ones to ordeals.