#I cannot believe it’s so unpopular I hate Twitter for that

[phantom-does-a-thing]

thank you for being my guilty pleasure (mockingjay) hookup, i salute your service o7

also, i gotta say for a while I was convinced the love potion fic was gonna go another angle where its like. gillion explains to chip that jay got hit w the love potion towards chip and chips brain just plays a montage of. potioned jay looking at him and sobbing all day (preferably set to the curb your enthusiasm theme).

like we know from jay’s perspective WHY but it’s so fucking funny (slash horrifyingly sad) from chips. like that’s just the Loving Chip Jrwi Experience. local woman mourning over loving chip jrwi.

GODDDDD FINALLY SOME SENSIBLE PEOPLE ON THIS SITE (mockingjay enjoyers). It’s such an underrated ship and it’s so unpopular but it’s actually means everything to me. I’m so normal about mockingjay (it’s honestly prob my default ship tbh)

I don’t think gill honestly would’ve like thought to do that, he was more concerned about the fact that JAY was upset and was gonna 100% try and wingman her bc he didn’t really understand the whole love potion thing. I also straight up had no idea what to do with that scene after I started the convo w jay and gill (I was gonna cut it out tbh). Gillion was tryna work this out logically like “do you really love him?” And try and talk it through which obviously wouldn’t work when Jay’s emotions and rational thoughts r all on the fritz from the potion.

But yeah Jay really would’ve been sobbing the whole day over this not bc she’s in love with Chip but because she’s SO in love with him it’s overwhelming. Chip ofc would’ve taken it the other way and DID take it the other way tbh in he’s certain she doesn’t actually love him and it’s just the potion (even tho she does actually love him).

I was gonna have a scene in the fic that didn’t end up fitting in cuz I didn’t know how to put it there where jay would admit to getting hit by the love potion to Chip after he finds her to try and comforts her. And he asks jay who she got affected by, like who the potion manifested on. And she just stares at him and she’s clinging in his lap and hugging him so tight and just starts sobbing harder and he realizes like “oh”. Didn’t make it in but I think of it often.

[inquisitorius-sin-bin]

✨What's a fic you've posted you wish you could breathe life into again and have people talking about it? (or simply a fic you wish got more credit)

💫what is your favorite kind of comment/feedback?

🎀give yourself a compliment about your own writing

🕯️how do you think engaging with each other through tumblr, twitter, comments, kudos, creates healthy fandom experiences? How do you deal with that if you're not a social person/experience social anxiety?

💌share something with us about an up-and-coming work (WIP) that has you excited!

Ohh bless thank you for this ask

I put so much work into Blowing Cover and it is super unpopular compared to all my other works. I really liked the character too and kind of thought they might be fun to bring back for another one shot (I mean, given the ending, they have a ton of one-shot potential).

But. The kinks/tags involved are certainly a bit edgier so I can see it getting less hits. I'm already writing for a very niche group, then this hits an even smaller category within that group. Ohh well. I enjoyed making it, at least.

As for feedback! Uh, your kind, lol. I love that you put so much time into selecting the lines that really stand out to you. That blows me away. It's like the best kind of annotations ❤️ and it helps me tailor what I do, I'm still learning what gets folk's hearts fluttering!

That said, literally just a like on a Tumblr post or a message or a keyboard smash also has the capacity to melt my heart. I've received PMs that I gush over for days and reread 1000x over. Back in the old old days of my elder fics, I got fan art and I still have them saved on a special folder on my phone. I drink out of mugs someone created of my OC's Fay and Tsiri. Just knowing people read and enjoyed it is great.

(And I'm one of those weird folks who also welcome criticism too, actually. I want to be better. I want to write good good fics that get people coming to the table and screaming for more. I want to know what you like and hate. What I could improve about my style for clarity. What was so cringey it made your skin crawl. I aim to please.)

Compliment?

I am almost done writing a fic longer than Return of the King that's literally all I'm going to be talking about for weeks. I hope it's good, lol.

In regards to engagement, in my experience I've created numerous connections with people all across the world from different experiences and backgrounds just through fandom culture. That's healthy for cultivating a good, open-minded worldview. Those connections give me so much joy and energy and help inspire me to create! When I get home, I can't wait to work on my projects, and I really want to finish something so that I can giddily hide behind my computer screen and hope you all see and enjoy it.

But beyond that, human connection is very important to me. I like seeing your personal ramblings about how y'alls days are going, your jobs, your day-to-day stuff. The people behind the blogs. And I like that on the internet, there isn't a huge expectation of availability like there is in person. I myself have a great deal of social anxiety, but online, I can choose when I have enough energy to reach out or start a conversation or message back, or when that reserve just isn't in me.

If you're really anxious, know that I still see you and am happy even if you just follow and lurk, even if I just get a kudos or a like and then you disappear. I know what I share is quite salacious and not everyone wants to have that on their blog, believe me lol. Being seen is also gratifying. If you ever have the energy for a word of an ecouragement, that means the world to me! But if not, be not afraid. I do not hate you for liking my posts.

Aaaaand for WIP stuff-

Nice try, you can't fish out more deets about the end of Ride or Die/Fly or Fall than I have already shared lol. I CANNOT spoil anything at this point. But I will say this: I feel more strongly about the theme and the arc for Volume 2 than I did for Volume 1. I have a more concrete plan overall than I did the first go round. And the message is kind of something I'm already working towards at the very end of this work, so they should flow together quite cohesively.

[kaoarika]

Ugh. I’m tired. 

This might sound a little bit of an unpopular onion, but, I’m tired of weeding out or the idea of weeding out... nifty... creators or ppl that crossed that dark side. I, of course, do not approve what they are doing, nor do I support it (and I also believe the bubble might explode rather sooner than later giving the last few months’ thing of cry*pt0′s value dropping and speculation of an economic crisis/inflation in the upcoming months and year) but I’m getting quite freaking tired about, well, everything about it.

From both the positive side (like, wtf, my local newspaper has been normalizing the talk about it in a positive? trendy? light in the past few weeks) and the negative (which is where I stand, because objectively I do see it as a big pyramid/mlm scheme where rich ppl are the ones getting MORE freaking rich, as many, MANY others do, and I do feel quite sad and empty when I see ppl falling into it as if it’s an easy way to make money). It’s all becoming stomachache revolving to me.

Like... I’m kinda lucky that in the circle of ppl I’m friends with + I follow and the like, a great majority of it (ENG speaking folks) hate it with all their guts, and obviously don’t support it. On the other hand, I think other part of these same folks (which are from the side of the world -i.e. non-ENG speaking folks, or those whose their ENG is pretty limited- where the talk about the negatives about this whole thing hasn’t exploded as it did in the west, yet) are seemingly blissfully ignorant about what it is besides probably hearing buzzwords around and being told “wonderful” things about it whole (and/or thinking they are just another collectible as other physical or digital stuff). Do I feel these blissful ignorant folks are the next ones that would fall into this shitty rabbithole? Of course I do, even though I think there is ppl wanting to educate them as nicely as they can, all I see is MUCH MORE ppl screaming at each other with little success on that regards. And that... kinda tears me apart? because you don’t know how well ppl will react once they get explained the problematic issues that the nifty things involve in general more than “oh, this looks kinda cool? my fave artist has one of these/making them? how do I collect this? can I make money out of it?” that every single news outlet seem to paint these as.

Am I going to get strongly disappointed to see them fall into this? Of freaking course I do! But... there’s also a part of me that cannot trash them so easily JUST because of this? I also don’t want to get my torches and burn everything down just like that. I’m EXTREMELY tired of this “all or nothing” mentality, too.I mean, sure, it’s all a bad thing... but... it’s... I just feel... empty. Disappointed. And thinking about all of this is making me feel terribly bad, because I am somehow expecting it to happen (we are already living in a fucking dystopia, the pandemic hasn’t ended and things both locally and globally are looking as a freaking wasteland and probably will ruin us all... this whole thing that cry*t0 leeches are selling is certainly NOT helping, but there’s LOTS of bad things going on RIGHT NOW...), and I am not sure how well I would take it all. Thinking in the possibility some of my fave artists/celebs falling into this or endorsing it wants to make me CRY (I even got a nightmare related to it and was quite angry and sad about it?! because I believe it’s HIGHLY possible to happen?!). I agree this is ridiculous, but what else do you want me to tell you????

Scrolling through twitter accounts that are in the negative side of this whole is, certainly some kind of delight (because I DO want to see this whole thing CRASH AND BURN, and it’s SO CLOSE... yet SO FAR, at the same time)... but it’s doomscrolling through these is also becoming quite depressing to me, because you find out things you... simply cannot believe, yet totally do, because these cr*yp*t0 leeches are capable of IT. Heck, I just found out there are some snakes trying to sell the whole idea to kids fr them to make their own nifty things??? And they are coming from legit good sources that are enabling THIS. (I’m also inclining in the side that thinks that they “might” -yet TOTALLY ARE- exploiting other individuals who are really struggling with financial AND mental health issues like it’s none of their business and, sure, that is turning ALL RIGHT 😒). Like, SERIOUSLY? I’m baffled about how this has been turning on... I just... ._.

I just... I’m so fucking tired of all of this. 

I have enough with knowing and finding out even MORE of how my own country is falling apart in its own feet due to many, MANY things going on including one of the VERY bad fed gvnments I have seen in my 31 years of life  (I FUCKING HATE IT HERE), besides what our northern neighbors are ALSO going through... internationally... and...

...I’m... I’m trying to hold on being kind and on the little hope that this all might end one day... but at the cost of WHAT?!

I’m sorry that I don’t feel like the kind of person that would weed out any more creators falling into this stupid mlm scheme. I have gone through the luck that I don’t have seen much of it in my own circle. I do have... what, blocked total cr*yp*t0 leeches? insisting and talking like they are economics experts attempting to convince everyone and their grandmas that what their “tech” is the future, becoming too invasive in others ppl business, like (and spam bots, because, of fucking course, there are spam bots, too). I have seen other ppl doubling down and disowning their other creative ventures and basically murmuring to myself “good fucking riddance” because, what else you can do about that?

I don’t want to normalize it, either! But part of me is also going “at this rate, many are going to fall into it” and then, WHAT? I want to stop feeling terribad, with a knot in my stomach, or worrying about potential situations... I’m just extremely, extremely TIRED. 

[supercorp-hosie]

Thank you for answering my question, and I noticed how you said the writers are still going with Handon but in my personal opinion I think that ship has wrecked because apparently Julie Plec left the show and the writing the script for it, now for Hosie I actually do believe that at some point they will start to date just to give the Hosie shippers some desert for that, but I don’t think they’ll be endgame in the end like how Damon and Elena were. I loved how you described Holarke and how you said they can really balance each other out it makes sense. I also have a deep feeling that Holarke will eventually be endgame in the end of the show but who knows I could be wrong. :)

Thank you for asking and enjoying it♥️ oh you’ve no idea how much I wish that I’m wrong about the Handon thing. I’ll gladly receive that prove 🤣

Yes, they’re wrecked but the writers always are able to miraculously bring back Landon, having those big mistakes he did conveniently justified where other characters just have to suck it up, and bear the consequences (like ripper MG and Dark Josie). As you can see, they even undo the seemingly irredeemable breakup, and everything MaliLandon did here, cannot be accountable by Landon, because while ripper MG and Dark Josie is part of who they are, MaliLandon isn’t. Even Hope doesn’t have such privileges, you know? Like what she did in 308, as events unveiled now, her actions are totally not justifiable. Whereas can you think of any big mistakes that Landon made are not justifiable? I can’t. There’s someone saying that on Twitter that Brett confirmed that Landon is his self-insert....I don’t go on Twitter I couldn’t verify the source, so I may be very wrong about that. Who knows? From what I saw in 316, it’s the whole Legacies telling us Handon is totally rebooting. I have my two ships telling me that Landon is the one for Hope, very deliberately.

Who knows, maybe you’re right? Anyway, I just don’t trust the writers to be professional enough to set up two relationships starting and breaking up in the time span of nearly end of 4b and the whole season 5.

In the professional perspective, I have to say that Matt Davis is more professional than the writers. As we can see just how much the writers hate Alaric, his characters is all over the place and a joke, my bet that’s because their hate for Matt make such writing results to Alaric. On the other hand, while Matt is totally one who deserves the hate from the public, he does his work professionally, he did what he got from the script with respect. Alaric deserves better writing regardless of the how unpopular the actor is to the public. And here we thought the writers out of all people would know the differences between actors and characters.

All in all, I just don’t think that the writers and the producers themselves are professional and open-minded enough to do the right thing for the majority of the fandom. They are proven to be stubborn and unprofessional, so no expectations at all. (Buzzfeed poll does reveal that only 7% of the fandom actually love Handon)

[nyaheum]

My yearly list of Eurovision songs after the first impression (I mean, for like, half of them. I heard snippets of some songs.). Judged on music videos, because...if I only listen to the songs on Spotify, my eyes get bored. :’)

(oh, and don’t talk to me about iceland’s placement, I know this might be unpopular)

X. Belarus

Fuck Belarus, all my homies hate Belarus. Not even going to grace them with a rating.

Norway (TIX – Fallen Angel)

...no. :( And it’s not even because Keiino didn’t win, I just wholeheartetly hate this song. And I’m kinda sorry to TIX, because he seems like a cool dude and his stage outfit is absolutely hilarious, but oh my god do I hate this song with an absolute burning passion.

Poland (RAFAL – The Ride)

eye emoji mouth emoji eye emoji – well, this is a non-qualifier if I’ve ever seen one. Can we just...skip this?

Belgium (Hooverphonic – The Wrong Place)

Nap time! This song annoys me. I cannot explain it, but it gives me a headache and my whole body is revolting against this song. I am not kidding. Objectively, I don’t even hate it, but there’s just something about it...that makes me go...hnghgng…

North Macedonia (Vasil – Here I Stand)

eye emoji mouth emoji eye emoji ver. 2 – I am not trying to sound mean, but does North Macedonia do any music that is not dramatic power ballads? I’m serious. (And I don’t like it, sorry. :((...except for the high notes, I like them. When he can hit them live.)

Estonia (Uku Suviste – The Lucky One)

This (the music video)...is soft porn. I am slightly scared of Uku. I don’t know why. But, uh...this is better than last year’s song? Still, it wouldn’t qualify under my watch, whoops.

Georgia (Tornike Kipiani – You)

He stopped yelling angrily at the microphone. :((( Nah, but this isn’t my thing. It’s great that they are doing their own thing, it’s just not really my thing...it also reminds me of a song I know, damn.

Austria (Vincent Bueno - Amen)

He looks like a german youtuber. I don’t know hich one, but he looks like one. I also canot tell if he’s 18 or 38, lol. (For some reason he also reminds me of Alex Albon, which is even weirder.)...oh, uh, the song? Idk, I don’t care for I. It’s fine.

Spain (Blas Cantó – Voy A Querdarme)

Confession: I’m probably the only person who actually doesn’t like the sound of Spanish all that much. Whoops. Apart from that though, I’m not the biggest fan of this song. Can’t really say more about that. Meh.

The Netherlands (Jeangu Macrooy – Birth Of A New Age)

Listen: I really like the tone of this voice. It’s great. I am not a fan of the song. There’s something just very off about the loud percussions (?) in the background that make me go absolutely crazy when listening to this. My sensory-overload-prone ears hate it, and I’m sorry...the part before the last chorus on the other hand I love. The whole song could have sounded like that and I would have loved it. (...and I can’t unhear “You are my broccoli – You know my broccoli!” ;-;)

Azerbaijan (Efendi – Mata Hari) Whenever I see Efendi, my brain still goes “Cleopatrrrrra!”, oof. This song sounds like a song I know. Which...is super unprecice, but I genuinely don’t know which one. I do like that they kept the weird pre-chorus thing from Cleopatra (and reference the song later on), but I must say that I liked Cleopatra more...but it’s a party song, so I think it will be fun on stage!

Romania (ROXEN - Amnesia)

I didn’t like her song last year, I don’t enjoy this all too much and I’m kinda sorry but also...I don’t want to apologize for my taste in music, lmao. I want her hair though. Give me her hair.

Denkmark (Fyr & Flamme – Ove Os Pa Hinanden)

Ring ding ding, native language bonus. This is also way more fun than I thought it would be, hah. VERY retro, but I don’t hate that? :D (this and sweden really aren’t any different in terms of how much I like them)

Portugal (The Black Mama – Love Is On My Side)

I can appreciate this. I just wish it was in Portuguese, honestly. I don’t really know if I like the English for this song. That being said, I don’t know if you can make these very specific tones (you know what I mean) in portuguese without it sounding super off, so…

Ireland (Lesley Roy – Maps)

Okay, you do you Ireland. :D

Israel (Eden Alene – Set Me Free)

This exists. :D

Cyprus (Elena Tsagrinou – El Diablo)

Cyprus came to party, and I can’t be mad at that. I just don’t know why everybody in the YouTube comments loves this SO MUCH that they are sure that it will win if it gets the jury votes. I don’t think it’s as good as Fuego or She Got Me were, but maybe I just have no taste in party music. I don’t party. (Only if you got a 2000s playlist and some iced tea.)

France (Barbara Pravi – Voilà)

FRANCE sending a BALLAD? In MY Eurovision? It’s more likely than you think. It’s good, objectively. Personally, I don’t really care for it all that much and feel like I already know it.

United Kingdom (Embers – James Newman)

A good, modern song? In my british eurovision song? What happened on the Isles over quarantine? Are you guys okay? Did you find yourself? Have you taken your last breath (breath!) and looked at your past results? I’m impressed enough to put this relatively high, wow.

Serbia (Hurricane – LOCO LOCO)

*adore delano voice* party! Oh, and native language bonus...for a party song! I’m...impressed, actually. I cannot decide wheter I prefer this or Hasta La Vista, but I think it’s this one? The flows smoother, if that means literally anything.

Bulgaria (VICTORIA – Growing Up Is Getting Old)

*shrugs* I think a lot of people will like this. And I get that. I think I even understand it...yeah. I didn’t like her song last year either. It’s just personal preference, I think. I just want to have fun during Eurovision, hah.

Finland (Blind Channel – Dark Side)

Finland: FUCK YOU!!! Germany: Fuck you. <3

That’s all I’ll say, we know how the Finnish are, this is not surprising, lmao. (And I’m one of those children that grew up on Rammstein, so I legally cannot dislike this.)

Croatia (Albina - Tick-Tock)

Tick-tock, can you hear me go tick-tock? My heart is like a clock, I'm steady like a rock-...oh wait, wrong tick-tock! Still, really enjoy this song’s chorus – I actually enjoy it so much that it makes up for the utter loss of interest I experience once it’s over, chrm.

Sweden (Tusse – Voices)

I mean...let’s be honest, it’s a generic swedish pop song. It sounds like every other Swedish entry, and I think that bothers me. I know, that sounds kind of...weird, looking at my choices higher up in the list, but...meh. I think this will easily qualify for the Final and place high, and I am totally okay with that. It’s just not...what I wanted, I guess? :D (and i’m sorry but as a german-speaker I cannot get over the name “tusse”) (oh, and tusse seems to be super cool)

Albania (Anxhela Peristeri - Karma)

Oh, we’re going to war in 130 A.D.? Fine, let me just pack my spear and- oh, Albania has already sent a singer? Ah, well, might as well give up and just vibe.

Czech Republic (Benny Cristo - omaga)

This sounds fun. Not a winner or anything, but fun. I’ll probably still be on Twitter when he’s performing, whoops.

Slovenia (Ana Sklic - Amen)

Wait, there’s TWO songs called Amen? And why do I actually kinda like this? Oh well, might as well just accept it. (Her voice though...mhmmhmhm…yes please)

Iceland (Dadi og Gagnamagnid – 10 Years)

We just vibin’. I liked Think About Things more, but I’m very much biased here...because I’ve known that song for a year now. But this is still very good, and very on brand. (And I understand like...half of the lyrics, but I am okay with that.)

Australia (Montaigne - Technicolour)

not australia flexing at all of europe that they can hold big gatherings! D: oh, but I like this way more than last years song. I feel like Montaigne can show her GREAT voice way better in this song. (Even though her outfit and the sound of the song reminds me of the UK song that had...a dude run on the stage. I can’t think of the word for it right now.)

Malta (Destiny – Je Me Casse)

Destiny’s voice is just….wow. This is very different than All My Love, but it’s fun. The topic of the lyrics kinda remind me of Toy, and I like that…..I don’t really like the music video (especially the dancers in the colorful dresses? idk), but I’ll just ignore that.

Germany (I Don’t Feel Hate - Germany)

Confession time: I actually actively enjoy this song. Everybod is shitting on it, but it’s FUN and it has a good message, and Jendrik seems like the nicest dude ever and...it doesn’t deserve all the hate it’s getting? It’s completely self-produced and just fun. Stop being mean. :(

(...also someone on youtube said “pewdiepie” and I can’t unsee that now so fuck you >:((...no, no I don’t feel hate, just rethink your life choices)

Moldova (Natalia Gordienko - SUGAR)

What in the “Eis.de ist in der Kiste” is this music video? And I thought I would absolutely hate this song, but I actually don’t mind it all that much. It’s actually fun. Oh no, I’m splipping, someone catch me, aaaaaahhhhh….(and that poor cake dude. Is this song about cannibalism? Does she want to eat him?)

San Marino (Senhit – Adrenalina)

Catch me hum the chorus of this song at least once a day...but honestly, without any malicious intent: what the actual FUCK san marino? This is so much better than Freaky, and even though I do not believe for one second that this will win, the simple outragiousness of bringing Flo Rida to Eurovision deserves attention. (Bringing someone like Flo Rida to ESC sounds more like Scandinavia/Bulgaria, doesn’t it?)

Russia (Manizha – Russian Woman)

Not gonna lie, I miss Little Big, but at least they are sending something that’s at least as weird. I love that. Russian Rap is cool as fuck anyway, so I’m fully here for this...but I’m glas this song doesn’t have a music video, this just has to be a live performance. (Oh, and another strong woman!)

Ukraine (Go_A – SHUM)

I’m SO glad Go_A are back. But, let me be completely honest: I know why they had to change the lyrics, but I still liked the first version better. BUT I feel like the new one will grow and me and it will climb one or two places, because the Instrumental just slaps SO HARD. (Makes me feel like putting on a Cybergoth outfit and start dancing at a German industrial park, lmao.)

Latvia (Samanta Tina – The Moon Is Rising)

Does this count as my guilty pleasure this year? I loved her song last year, and this sounds similar, so...I like this too. It sounds modern as fuck (well, for Europe, you know) and I can definitely...”vibe” with that. I genuinely really enjoy this, and I don’t know why. (Even though I prefer last years drop.) A lot of “strong, independent women”-songs this year, and I’m not complaining.

Switzerland (Gjon’s Tears – Tout l’Univers)

Just so we’re clear, this and Italy share the exact same spot. I just cannot compare them at all. Gjon’s voice just takes me hostage throughout this whole song and won’t let me go. And everything that isn’t english/is in the countries offical language immediately gets plus points from me. As if this song needed them anyway.

Lithuania (The Roop – Discoteque)

Aaaaaand...dance break! Good, I just love them so much, it’s not even funny anymore. And I’ve been singing this song randomly since it came out. I can’t stop. It has burned itself into my brain. Let’s dis-co-teque right at my home! *waves arms around with no sign of coordination*

(and does anyone else feel like he’s serhat, just with a different alignment? Like, they are both chaotic, but serhat is chaotic neutral and he’s either chaotic good or chaotic bad, it really depends on the way he looks at the camera)

Italy (Maneskin – Zitti E Buoni)

Italy delivers, as they do every year. Not only do I really like this song (it is very much my genre), THIS is an aesthetic I can get behind! Knowing Eurovision, I doubt it will win, but damn if it won’t be super fun! (I am so glad this won Sanremo, hah.)

[kitemist]

I wrote a post on twitter called: “Unpopular Opinion: You’re a fake ally.”

I had to write it after my ex-best friend never ceased to amaze me with how horrible of an ally she is, with the added insult of false promises that always break.

It got zero traction on twitter because I don’t have that many followers on there, or people who really interact with me, but I want to post it here too.

From here onwards, it’s copy and pasted from the exact twitter post, and I would appreciate feedback in a civil manner if you want.

“What’s something that you’ll get a lot of hate for if you said it out loud?” I’m going to be subtweeting a very specific person when I say this but I’m going to forward it to you all too. If you feel uncomfortable from what I’m saying, I am definitely talking about you. I’ve seen this several times with this specific person with the added insult of a record of broken promises to be better, as well as the same thing over the past few years from other people, so I am pissed enough to speak out. Obviously, this is just my opinion, disagreements are going to happen, I’m not forcing anyone to do anything, just asking you to read if you want. If a person, or more relevantly, group of people needs help, and you retweet, repost, share, post to your story, spread in any way that you can their cries for help like infographics, GoFundMe’s, links to online wallets, emergency commissions, news updates and all that; if you donate to such things and spread them around; push people to do the same; if you do donation commissions and give the money attained from that to them; bring it up in conversations with them and others every now and then; but you don’t emotionally help your everyday member of that group or that person, especially if they are your FRIEND, YOU ARE A FAKE ALLY. I do not care if you do everything else. If you don’t do that one thing, you’re a fake ally. And doing everything else doesn’t make you a good person either, if that is how you judge yourself and others. And if you're uncomfortable, then leave now. Doing everything else and not that is literally no different than 1 like for water for Africa, those old pics that would ask for likes during early facebook days, with the added insult of a trending event/group of people with it and resurging every now and then whenever something horrible happens, and they’re always seen first. You just click on those things to reassure people that you’re not THAT kind of an insensitive asshole, but then you just feel great about yourself that you added to that number even though you have only done the bare minimum, because you ultimately don’t want to get TOO involved in something that makes you uncomfortable, and give yourself a great pat on the back for all the hard work you’ve done just pressing that button. You obviously don’t care about this issue enough to throw your comfort zone aside, even for just a second. We don’t have that choice to not see it like you do, and we feel a lot more than just “uncomfortable”. For WAY longer. Doing those things without emotionally supporting the actual people just separates yourself from the problem in a convenient way. Passing thoughts and prayers and especially clicks on posts aren’t going to help anyone but a completely detached algorithm. You do not get credit for doing the bare minimum and expect the same rewards as passionate, achieving activists. I’m not just talking about #StopAAPIHate just because it’s trending right now, this applies to literally every hashtag that is the only way of a group of people’s cries for help that generates some kind of attention to everyone else that people care about. I’ve seen it be a pattern for enough time now. I’ve seen stories of people who would use #BlackLivesMatter, or the name of any black person who died, as a way to spread it by their banner or profile picture or even turn it into a meme that pushes people to sign their latest petitions, but then completely disrespect actual black people or don’t do anything else for their causes. The only reason you would ever do this is because you care about other people’s approval of you, not actual POC, and you only ever see them as a trend or a platform to be trendy. As a POC myself, we are more than just a fucking hashtag on twitter. We’re more than just a label to reassure people that you’re not a bully. We’re people. But I guess that’s too hard to understand for those fake allies, all they ever see is something to click on, and they’ll get the same credit as those genuine allies without having to work. Or be UNCOMFORTABLE, God forbid you have to step outside of the comfortable world you think you live in. Now for donating money. I get that monetary support isn’t something that everyone can afford to do. I’m not forcing or expecting everyone to do that or not do that. If you can’t, then I recommend spreading donation posts, for the hope for it to come by someone who can and will. You can then still be a vehicle for help if you cannot provide it yourself. But I know that everyone is capable of being completely fake when it comes to donations when they have that kind of money to spare. You can totally just dump $100 or so into a GoFundMe, and never interact with anything related to that group of people ever again and live a completely separate life, with that same convenient separation, but with a receipt this time so that if it’s brought up again, that’s all you have to show to say to them to not worry, you did something, you’re not THAT kind of fake asshole because your wallet is involved this time. It’s what youtubers do when they have to make a YouTube apology just so everyone can stop hating on them for a little while. Anyone can do that. I’m not assuming the worst in everyone, I’m saying you don’t need a platform to be an asshole. Money doesn’t make you better or worse than anyone else, it just shows that you’re more financially well off to be able to donate and that’s something that we can appreciate, but it’s not pure sentiment. Money isn’t feelings. It’s just money. It doesn’t tell us anything about your morals. It doesn’t care how you obtained it and it doesn’t care where you spend it. Donating from your heart and donating from your wallet are two very different things, but it’s not like we can tell from here, so we can’t give you credit for that, especially if those donations are also in the complete public eye. That kind of difference is only discernable to us long after, and even then, that requires some detective work and pattern searching with other donations you have made in the past, if any. Sometimes we don’t even have that time to see if that genuine empathy would come about or not. Whether or not you have a heart in that donation or not, it’s not like we can read your mind as you press confirm. The money doesn’t tell us your feelings, morals, or your heart. Only you can. And you have to WORK to tell us that. You can be appreciated for giving a monetary donation, but that appreciation is toward the money and not at you as a person, and if it is, it’s not towards the real you, it’s only towards you at that time and who knows if that’s gonna change within a minute, or was superficial the entire time, or if it’s the real ally we all knew we needed. We wouldn’t know, all we see is a name and a money amount. Those real allies take time to come out and solidify themselves within themselves and within others, but it’s not as soon as their money disappears. You don’t get credit as a person and your morals when it was the money and temporary self at that time that ultimately helped them. Just because you were behind that money doesn’t mean that the morals associated with you are in that money, and who knows if you were the same person as you made that donation a week ago. Do you know exactly where the dollar bills you have right now have gone through? How many inhumane multi million dollar corporations, or funding something harmful? If you can separate yourself from that, then the money you’re giving can easily be separated from you in both morals and in bank accounts. That’s what you’re choosing to give away as well when you make a donation. If you’re completely fine with that, then donate if you still want to. Just know that by doing that, it doesn’t make you special. In the end, the only thing received is money, not thoughts. That money is completely useless if it’s not being spent towards that needed relief, after all. You can also totally give out of obligation or social pressure instead of believing in the cause or caring about the person affected. That’s not being a real ally either. That’s hopping on a bandwagon because that attracts you more than what the cause is, because the value of human life doesn’t line up with your own. You would only care about this BECAUSE it’s trending, not because it has ever gotten to your emotions, morals, or anything you care about. Giving a donation or not doesn’t tell anyone anything about you, other than how relatively well off you are in terms of money and time, and that’s not relevant to what’s being asked. Donations can have so many motives behind it, and you are not free of those motives just because we can’t see it immediately, and those motives are completely lost once that money is received and eventually used. Money can be helpful in terms of alleviating the situation, but ultimately, it’s not help in placing you on a moral scale whether it’s others judging your character or just judging yourself. And there’s also the risk of donating to a complete scam, and again, money doesn’t care where it’s going to or where it’s coming from, because it’s just money. Not everything that is asking for donations is a scam, but because of this possibility, what you claim to be your one act of good will from your heart in the form of monetary support can easily be debunked and ultimately be used against you whether you were aware of this being a scam before then or not, because the internet is very reactive more than anything else. And if you are donating from your heart and you end up donating to a scam, that’s just even more emotional damage to you as well as the cause, an even worse situation. So again, monetary support isn’t any better than what I determine to be the one defining factor of being a good ally. It’s just a different kind of support that can be useful but it’s not with any heart in it. And because most of those people asking for donations would say that even a little bit helps, the amount of money you’re donating doesn’t give you more credit than others, it just puts you higher on the highest donations list that is made by another detached algorithm, which is ultimately meaningless except for telling whoever clicks on that list how much money you were willing to spare to them, and not what you were thinking when you did it. To be a real ally, that’s a constant effort more than just money or spreading posts. It’s something that can’t ever be measured or manipulated by any algorithm. And I know that the majority of “allies” die out as soon as it’s not trending anymore. It’s happened enough times and how much it happens just has it be a part of a trend’s life cycle on the internet, and that temporary life in the public life can vary greatly. That constant effort also does not (solely) consist of making more donations to more places. That’s just another kind of monetary help that’s ultimately just money. That doesn’t tell anyone anything about you other than that you can afford to do so and being able to afford to do this can sway you on either end of the moral scale, whether you care about that or not. To give an example, the overwhelming response to the Notre Dame fire in 2018 showed what could have been possible if everyone donated what they could, and of course the response to that has never happened to any disaster before, and to my knowledge, ever since. All those millionaires and some netizens credited themselves with their affluent donations but everyone else only saw them as those who ultimately did nothing when any other disaster also needed help in the past and since then, so those donations didn’t make them any kind of ally even though they gave more than the majority of the world can ever afford to give in their lifetimes. Why didn’t every other disaster that lasted longer, had more casualties and damage, had more emotionally traumatic damage that lasted from then onwards, have as much support as this one fire that didn’t completely destroy this building? With almost a billion dollars (954 million USD) donated towards restoration in such a short amount of time, there was still anger, especially towards those who have donated that. And people who have donated copious amounts were also not technically millionaires, but still made and had enough to be part of that same 1%. And anyone can be in that nonspecific well-off group, not just people who were born rich or inherited it. There have been debates that this was a matter of how personally interested these rich people suddenly became because they saw the Notre Dame as a beautiful tourist spot full of history, even though there was a museum in Brazil that was nearly completely destroyed, with majority of its contents and even more history gone forever on the same day and didn’t get a fraction as much attention as this did, and got even less donations. Therefore, monetary support doesn’t give you, or anyone, any more moral high ground, no matter how much it is, because again, it’s just money. It can be help, but not like human support. All that being said, I still think it’s great if you can afford to keep donating to people in need, but if you want to make your support stronger and genuine or have a solid foundation that can be paired and amplified with monetary support, it won’t cost you anything but your time and changing behavior. And right now, I bet everyone reading right now has a lot of those two if their wallet is empty. To do so: • Learn about our struggles. We’re not asking you to be total experts on this, but to know enough to answer, “What can I do to help?” and “What do they need right now?” and it’s best to have them answered by us. Listen to us. And keep making more questions the more that are answered. The best way to learn is to ask. • Speak out against hate speech of any kind from anyone, no matter how much you like them, when you see it in the moment, and hold them accountable. Just saying racism is bad isn’t going to help anyone, but to call out a specific person as a racist will challenge them, because there’s more at stake than just a fact that racism is bad. Whether you want to be polite about it or not is your choice, whichever is more effective. Their feelings are definitely not more important than what they are contributing to the problem. • Emotionally check up on us, we aren’t fine if we have to see more of our family’s beat up faces on the news and screens, or see our family and friends being even more scared to go outside with every passing day. Whether it’s talking about the main situation in depth or providing a respite in the form of having fun when asked; emotional check ups are what makes you the real ally first. • Reassure us that whether or not this is just another trend you see everywhere on social media for the day, you’ll always be there for us, and then hold up that promise, follow through with it whenever we are in trouble. If you consistently do this, it won’t turn into a super conscious decision anymore to be an ally, you’ll reprogram yourself to learn and think that you are now involved and can fight with us, whether or not this becomes something in the twitter sidebar to look at. • Acknowledge your privilege as someone who isn’t targeted and, depending on who you are, would never be targeted, in whatever way that would be, and use it as a weapon for us if applicable. Ex. if you’re white and straight and the current group that needs help is not white and not straight, let them speak about their struggles, amplify their voices because you have the privilege of having more people taking you seriously and paying attention to you, and learn about what you can do to help them and make their life easier with them knowing you are an ally. Redirect that attention and authenticity to us because we sure can’t make it by ourselves. • Learn and involve yourself in our culture if that helps you learn more about us, that is not appropriation. We totally welcome people who want to learn more about us in a respectful and open-minded way. You are a constant learner in doing this, as well as doing any or all of the above-mentioned tasks. There’s no real end to being an ally, just as there is no real end to the fight. It’s always better to ask questions than to keep it to yourself and mess up. There was always a better time to learn all of this, but the second-best time is right now. Just because you never learned this earlier doesn’t mean you can’t start to change that. We won’t shame you if today has to be your first day as long as you stay just as eager and able to receive criticism from then onwards. Even if you become well educated, don’t act like you know exactly what it’s like. Because no matter how educated you become, you are ultimately not us. Keep that in mind as you embark on your journey. Constant effort is what every single one of those groups need, I guarantee that. It’s such a great skill that can be used in anything. Consistency is rare and powerful and key in achieving nearly anything you want. But that’s not something we can automatically detect and always takes time to make happen, there’s no shortcut to that. Are you just going to retweet these for a day or week or month or two, or are you going to speak out whether you are going to put a tag on it or not? Are you just going to donate a small fraction of your paycheck once or are you going to keep going whenever you can and donate to even more people that need help that isn’t just part of that group? All we see is that one instance, and people are pouring either their first or their first and last instances of helping us, and there’s no way to differentiate who’s what until that first wave dies down. And that is a journey of watching it be less and less important on the timelines, growing disappointment and sorrow that we have always felt from the beginning, something that no one outside of the current targetted trending group, or anyone who has ever trended, can ever understand or experience. It’s like wearing halloween costumes that are clearly a costume from another culture. You can wear that costume, or in that case, that hashtag for a day. We wear that stigma for life. I hope this post makes you reconsider what you’ve been doing in terms of fighting for social justice, or at the very least, make you uncomfortable enough to think about what you have been doing for such groups of people who need help. Obviously if you are a real ally as I’ve described by not only doing monetary donations if applicable, but fighting back, constantly learning, and emotionally supporting and checking up on your friends constantly, this post isn’t talking about you. And if you don’t want to learn about all this stuff that can be towards the better, then there’s nothing that can ever help you. That’s just willful ignorance at that point and I as well as others are completely free to judge you for that. On the note of being a good person or bad person, I know that’s not how everyone wants to judge themselves. Looking deep enough, it can be subjective, or just a matter of good actions and bad actions instead of good people and bad people. Either way, you have that “good” and “bad” judgement on something, even though that concept itself is also a spectrum, and at times, they can be applied to both people and actions, such as a good person making a bad decision or a bad person making their first good deed. So, whether it’s actions or people, being a “good person” doesn’t excuse you from your mistakes or shitty decisions. A good record can just be completely shattered at any time. A lot of people who we have thought were “good” have been exposed, and those who we thought were “bad” have been redeemed. It’s celebrated in fiction, but apparently not welcomed in real life. And improving your allyship as I described above doesn’t automatically make you a “good person”, if that judgement is what you have for yourself or want to have for yourself, but it IS a very “good action” to get started in expanding your world beyond what you initially knew before this post, because it’s always a “good action” to constantly question what you know before making judgements or actions. That constant questioning is learning and not being compliant with how things are, because things can always be better. Being a bad person entails not caring about doing better and is magnified by being two-faced like being a fake ally. And you can also stop caring at any time about yourself and what your morals are. Not all fake allies are “bad people,” maybe they just needed an awareness check that emotional support makes all of their previous work or work afterwards more authentic and appreciated. I don’t blame anyone who really didn’t think that emotional support wasn’t part of helping those who need it and now take that fact in stride, or just didn’t know how to do that in the first place. But all “bad people” are fake allies because they don’t care enough outside of themselves to change what their environment presents themselves with, or just complain about it without bothering to question or research why things are that way. And obviously, “bad people” would contribute to the problem by either never being an ally in the first place or do the bare minimum in allyship and expect rewards without being caught in the stress that comes with actually fighting for a cause. So, if you read this entire post and are one of those people who do the bare minimum but want the rewards, or think I and others are just too sensitive, and have no intention or desire to change any of your actions around pleas for help from groups of people or even start to think about changing that, I would think you’re a bad person. But that’s only how I judge you. I know plenty of bad people who go on and life happily knowing how many people hate them whether they know them personally or not. If you’re taking that so personally, you could have left much earlier in this longass post. I don’t know what you expected with me talking about this topic and somehow not being super cordial about it. I don’t owe you a polite tone or managing your feelings, and neither does anyone else. If you really think my tone is the problem here more than anything I have ever explained in this post I guarantee you’re a bad person who is just looking for an excuse to completely dismiss this even though you had the opportunity to do so much earlier, around 4,000 words ago. And if you really need someone else to help you with your fragile and insecure feelings, I guarantee that they’re not on the internet. Again, to reiterate, this is just my opinion, feel free to tell me any of your own. I’m not forcing anyone to do or stop doing anything, I just appreciate that you read this far. I hope you reconsider how to fight for your loved ones that aren’t as well off as you are, or how to fight alongside others who have been though the struggles of being either underprivileged or just not as well off. Thank you.

[rudystree]

first I wanna apologise because I re-read that and I came off really rude and I do mean that in anyway so I’m sorry!

1. To be honest I’m friends with a girl that runs her account and I’m honestly the sticking up for my friend.

2. I understand that you’re feeling sorry for Elaine getting hate, as much as I don’t personally like her & I don’t she’s not a very nice person and I also don’t agree with the stuff that she’s done. I also feel bad that she ask the problem we put up with it on a day-to-day basis I don’t know I don’t keep up with her.

3. People have said that it was your account that told them to block and get her account deleted on Instagram and this is according to her tellom thing (idk what is called) where they send an anonymous questions and stuff ???

I also understand that you can type in things that she posts about 500 times a day can I be annoying but you can restrict that certain account so you don’t have to see it. Don’t use Instagram much so I’m sure there is a way that you can do that.

I understand that people I so much more open behind a screen & no don’t say what they wanna say out in public and say anonymously. But what I know from being on Twitter & people sharing their opinion freely is that they get attacked so quickly and bullied, my friend eneded up getting death threats for the things that other people were saying and she posted as a confession.

That’s really sweet of you, thank you! 💛

I completely understand you sticking up for your friend. Is there a reason she cannot come and talk to me herself?

I also understand that people love to gossip and it must feel nice to have others agree with your unpopular opinions.

However, there’s opinions like “i don’t ship jjxkie” or “i don’t think sarah cameron is an interesting character” and then there is slandering real life people like “elaine doesn’t deserve to be with rudy because she’s ugly and attention seeking” or “madison is so annoying and just wants clout”.

The personal life and identity of real human beings should not be investigated and attacked on public platforms. That is why the instagram community guidelines exist. If your friend is running a page that is slandering people instead of sharing innocent opinions, then I believe it is not appropriate and should be deactivated.

[homestuckexamination]

A Statement on Kate Mitchell

Hoo boy, starting the day with discourse huh. But this is something that needs some serious addressing.

Over the past few months, I have received various messages asking about my opinion on Kate, which I have lightly sidestepped and shown myself neutral towards for a variety of reasons. Part of it was uncertainty, lack of information, and part of it was not wanting to engage in discourse, and some personal biases. But I hate being Neutral and one can only be uninformed and clueless for so long. Specially because the Kate Hatred ramped up yesterday for some reason.

So let me begin saying, I don’t really... Agree with some of Kate’s takes? I used to follow her, then I stopped following her over some specific take that I didn’t necessarily like, but it wasn’t like, volatile or angry. That worked as a bias for me, when people began to mention about Kate attacking people on Twitter or whatever, I felt a bias against her because of our differing opinions, so I tried to stay out of the drama because I didn’t want to fan the flames, and didn’t do my research.

However accusations have escalated, and so has my understanding of the situation at large, and honestly, I feel all the hatred is honestly ridiculous at best, and actively malicious at worst.

I’ve heard rumors, about ‘people emboldened by Kate to attack others for their opinions’, about her ‘sway on the WP team’, and a lot of it just seems... Not just demonizing, but actively insulting of the rest of the WhatPumpkin Team and their agency? I know for a fact they’re still getting threats, and accusations of being problematic, and all sorts of offensive shit. So first of all, a member of this team being tired of dealing with the bullshit and being more aggressive about defending herself just makes total sense, but on top of that, in this hostile climate, looking for a ‘scapegoat’ is just so convenient, isn’t it? And so suddenly the rumors and accusations are very easy to recontextualize.

Her ‘sway’ on the Team would make her uniquely exclusive of a lot of the bullshit in the Epilogues. Her bold attitude makes her an easy target on Twitter, because she doesn’t hold back the punches, making her an easily ‘hate-able’ person that can be showcased around the rest of the Fandom. Exaggeration comes in, and a Witch Hunt starts. We’re not having another V scenario here. I fucking refuse.

It was today when a friend of mine I trust actually went through her Tweets and relayed how none of it wasn’t even a deal in the slightest that it clicked for me how much of this is bullshit, and the messages I’ve gotten about Kate, most of which were already accusatory in the sense of starting the conversation like “Wow, I can’t believe Kate is doing this”, weren’t meant at all to inform me of what’s going on, but trying to use me in order to broadcast more hatred out towards her.

And honestly considering that a lot of this hatred comes from, and I also have confirmation on this, transmisogynistic bullshit, as an autistic trans woman myself I cannot just afford to stay ‘neutral’ and let this keep going while some assholes send me messages about how you ‘wish that Kate and all of her entourage got Coronavirus’, and offensive messages sexualizing and demeaning her, and literally posting a petition on a petition website to kick Kate out to the point Hussie had to fucking step up.

I don’t care if Kate is actually coarse or mean, and I am certain that there are some genuine criticisms going around the mess of Twitter. But that doesn’t make someone ‘problematic’ or give anyone the right to just group in hordes to attack and demean them, and when a great deal of those takes are just insulting the Team and making bad assumptions and straight up bigotry, what I’m seeing is a creator that doesn’t hold back their tongue even if their opinion is unpopular, and a trans woman that doesn’t back down or allows herself to just take it.

And now it’s not wonder there’s so much bullshit going around the situation huh.

Knowing the asks this is gonna spawn, I am going to be very block-happy today, so be warned if you plan to send some passive-aggressive retort. People don’t have to be well-spoken and nice to make their point valid, thinking as such is a fallacy and often used to demean and shut down people genuinely invested in an issue, but there’s a difference between not being well-spoken, and being a god damn asshole, and I reserve the right to not have the patience or spoons to deal with you.

[thepencilnerd]

Yoongi apologized for his track, why the fuck are you still so petty about it? HE DIDN'T PRODUCE IT!!! BIGHIT ALREADY ADMITTED THAT HIS CO-PRODUCER CHOSE THE TRACK AND YOONGI DIDN'T KNOW!!!! grow the fuck up and stop being such a hater

Are you kidding me? Are you serious? Please tell me you’re joking because one person cannot seriously be this blind to common sense and reality...? 

!!disclaimer, I am not an ARMY!! 

However, I genuinely admire Yoongi out of all the members for his pieces and keep up to date with his pieces and activity. His lyrics are really ones that sit with me on a deeper level and align with my principles and values, and I will never find it in myself to carry any malice towards him as a human being.

Hate me if you want, I have no problems with dealing with those who hide behind the screens of their phones and computers.  

My post was not directed specifically towards Yoongi alone. If anything, it was directed more towards the mindless fans such as yourself who continue to support artists and celebrities blindly simply because of their social status. 

I am not, never have been never will be, and currently in utter disbelief that you would call me a hater when about half of my blog consists of Yoongi content and supporting him, especially his solo work throughout the years. 

Regardless, it is beyond astounding that you actually think he had no part in producing "What Do You Think?” when there is video of him sampling the clip early last year in a documentary. He is someone who prides himself on producing, writing, and composing his own songs, so when a track blows up with positive opinion it’s all his work, but when something isn’t well-received and controversial, he doesn’t claim it as his? Come the fuck on. 

I’d also like to add that Yoongi himself has not apologized, BigHit apologized for him and in his name in a half-assed Tweet. I do not hate Yoongi and I could never hate him, and I completely understand that foreign social issues—particularly American ones—are not top priority for Koreans. Source: I AM KOREAN.

You don’t just “stumble across” a cult leader/mass murderer’s propaganda sermon, it is something that you have to do lots of digging and researching to even find. The clip of him sampling it is damning and if you deny that he added it onto the track, you are blind. Absolutely morally blind. You need to wake up. You need to grow up. 

To add to this, toxic ARMY’s have been showing their true colors on Twitter and other social media platforms. A young Black woman was harassed, DOXED, and sent death threats by ARMYs because of her response to the situation and for purely putting out her opinion onto the Internet. I’m not saying that all ARMY’s are toxic or malicious and the community can be a beautiful place at times—but of all the fandoms I see get thrown into vats of controversy, hate, and unpopular opinion, ARMY’s stand out like a sore thumb. Maybe it’s because the fandom is so large so it only makes sense for there to be as many bad people as there are good, but I believe that fandom culture is unhealthy as a whole and is a purely dogmatic way of thinking. 

Let’s say that it really was “an accident” and his co-producer included the clip without Yoongi knowing where it was from. Are you telling me that he went through the entire writing, producing, recording, editing, and finalizing process without asking once where the intro audio was from? Months editing, cropping, trimming, and piecing everything together without asking his “co-producers”, “Hey the clip you used in the first 15 seconds sounds pretty dope and fucking rad, where is it from?” Really? Really? REALLY?

I don’t hate Yoongi but I sure as hell am really fucking disappointed in him and BigHit’s handling of the situation. Whether it was his work or not (I have strong evidence and reason to believe that it is indeed his work), he should apologize himself and face the backlash, not let his company coddle him like a baby and shelter him from his critics, only to have him write a diss track and call all of them haters and anti’s. 

If he had come clean and said, “I produced the track and sampled the audio because ‘xyz’ or because it just sounded cool and I didn’t do enough research into the historical and cultural background. I apologize for my mistakes. I made mistakes and I understand that they were not nor will ever be under any circumstance acceptable. I messed up. I’m sorry.” This would have definitely earned some backlash but as an idol, you’re damned if you do and damned if you don’t, so why don’t you just practice what you preach and do what’s morally right? 

You are almost 30 years old and you can’t stand up against your own company to speak for yourself? You are a worldwide superstar “idol” that spits out diss track after diss track like clockwork, say you love yourself and don’t give a shit about the haters, , fame never gets to your head, and that , yet you don’t have confidence the It’s not only offensive, childish, and complicit with what you stand against as an artist, but embarrassing, tone deaf, and disrespectful as a human being.  

This is the problem with the Kpop industry and a lot of it’s mass fanbase. You are the problem. Yes, idols and celebrities are human, but this does not give them a hall pass to do things that are wrong or hide behind the big names of their company and PR staff. This is more towards BigHit and not so much Yoongi, but is money really worth this? Is your fame and status really more valuable than the integrity of human rights and basic common sense? 

This way of thinking disgusts me. The Kpop fandom ceases to make me speechless. This platform at times makes me want to scream and rip my hair out, and if I get death threats and hate mail from putting my opinion out there regarding this situations as a Korean American, it only proves my point so keep them coming. 

BigHit made a mistake. Yoongi made a mistake. Admit that they did not handle it well at all, especially considering the weight and power they have in American media and culture. With BTS and BigHit being aware of the current world’s social climate, it was wrong of him to handle the situation the way he did and I am extremely disappointed. I do not think that I will be able to respect or love him the same way I did before this fuck up, purely out of what I believe in and stand for as a human being. 

Min Yoongi was and still is wrong and he knows it. 

양심 없니? 그냥 사과를 하면 되는 것을 이렇게 끌어낼 꺼니? 너도 잘못한 거 알잖아. 인정해. 거의 30살이 돼가는데 유치하게 사과도 재대로 못해? 실수한 걸 인정 못해? 민윤기, 제발 정신 좀 차려. 

[arrowpusher]

Breaking my silence

After a week straight of insomnia keeping myself awake reflecting on current events, I think I need to write something to collect my thoughts.

Yes, I chose Tumblr because I am not brave enough to display my unpopular opinion on Facebook or Twitter where a lot of my friends and family will disagree, and I don’t want to cause any hard feelings. (It’s like whenever I post about Apple, my older cousin who works at Apple always write lengthy replies, and then I do not elaborate on my beliefs with counter-arguments because I respect my cousin too much.) I just value relationships far above than my political viewpoints, so here I hide.

First of all: I support Black Lives Matter. I am saddened by the tragedies. I believe systemic racism urgently needs to be addressed.

However, there are aspects of recent events that make me uncomfortable and conflicted.

1. “It is wrong to condemn the violence and the looting. This takes away from the BLM Movement. Property can be replaced.” I remember my college professor on Cal tuition protests explaining that if you don’t throw a temper tantrum, people won’t listen to you. But so much looting has absolutely nothing to do with protests, it creates mixed images of the cause locally and worldwide, and the extent of destruction makes me lose faith in humanity. I heard about a local privately owned pharmacy not only suffering significant losses; they run a mental health clinic and because long-acting injectables got stolen, patients are unable to receive their treatment. I saw on the news people stealing cars, women walking out of Victoria’s Secret with designer lingerie, teenagers hysterical getting their hands on “free” stuff... tell me how this helps address racism. Businesses are already suffering huge losses in these uncertain times, and people are just getting back on their feet and likely running on a deficit. Even when property can be replaced, what do we gain from the destruction that cannot be accomplished through constructive means? Do people's livelihoods have to be destroyed overnight to make a statement? I saw a video explaining the looting of a low-income neighborhood, that people are profiting off of the pain (and I noticed someone posted this video on social media and got significant backlash for condemning violence.)

2. “Police are bad. Hence, they need to be de-funded.” While systems-wide changes need to be made to eliminate police brutality, I also find myself feeling bad for the the part of the police workforce who actually are kind-hearted individuals who are doing their job to protect society and putting their life on the line while at it. Policemen went from being first responder heroes to national villains overnight. I do not find it acceptable that policemen have lost their lives amidst the chaos of the lootings (like the retired officer checking on his friend’s store... I saw a poster “You killed him because ‘they’ killed someone?” It reminds me all too much of the primitive eye-for-an-eye argument). Also, I have not seen any mention of 2A. Despite all the recent shootings and massacres, relatively little change has happened on gun control. Until then, there is significant risk to both police officers and the general public. I recall reading that the Gilroy Garlic Festival shooting was not catastrophic because the police were able to control the situation quite quickly. I don’t expect gun control and crime to dissipate by itself (especially during economic and political instability) and I actually fear for public safety in the future. Who would want to be a policeman if you get so much hate, have limited resources, yet are still forced at times to make split-second decisions that could cause your life. This spirals further into me being annoyed at how little is said about decisions on the military and warfare, which not only consumes so much funding, but directly causes blatant harm and civilian lives. When I have to Google “current wars in 2020″ as a refresher, I begin to question why the same momentum of the anti-police movement in the US is not given to international conflicts with oppression at much greater magnitudes. 

3. “Speaking up about other minority issues takes away from the cause.” I don’t know, maybe I have a conflict of interest as a minority living in America... but I really would like to see this blossom into a larger civil rights movement. I did not see as much outcry, as much action, as many donations by individuals and large corporations, when ICE was hunting down and deporting immigrants, when children were separated from families and detained, when the oil pipeline was planned to invade Native American territory, or when all of the tax changes were made under the Trump administration which perpetuates and accentuates socioeconomic inequalities. There was news coverage, but for the most part, we sat on our couches. I also should not have to worry about my parents being the victim of hate crimes when they go on a walk outside. I know we still need to maintain focus (like when I start to think about the inertia in dealing with climate change... but I’m not going to say wildlife matters because then any movement is a moot point if you try to change everything about the world in one go). I think we still can maintain focus and expand the scope: systemic racism and implicit bias apply broadly. Just because an inequality isn’t trending, it doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist and does not deserve attention. 

I try to convince myself to try not to lose more sleep over this (hint: it’s been pretty unsuccessful) because at the end of the day, I’m not going to change anything. This is a sad reality I have felt about current events and the workings of social media--constructive discussion is important, yet it gets stifled in the cyberspace and you get personally attacked. I’ve commented on a few posts on Facebook with a relatively moderate viewpoint, and I got replies that essentially made me wonder if I was unknowingly alt-right. (Then, I had the same discussions with co-workers who agreed with me and brought up other valid points, and I felt less like a bad person). I know I contribute to the problem and I have my own implicit biases, but I don’t think my opinions are really as malicious as some Facebook friends of friends have made me feel. My endurance has dwindled and my mental strength has already grown fragile during these difficult times... I think I need to give myself a little more self care than staying up every night thinking I’m racist because I agree 100%, but not 1000%, with the current movement. 

Anyways, I don’t care whether or not I get hateful comments on this post. I wrote this largely for myself, so one day as I revisit my previous blog posts, I can see how I used to think about the world, and inspire myself to make change if I’m jaded. 

“You, I, and we all have the right to be respected.”

[insomnihan]

han’s Entire Thoughts and Feelings on Dreamcatcher’s “Deja Vu”

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

MY TIME HAS COME 2.0!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! FULL INSOMNIA MODE DONT. LOOK. AT. ME.

there are no read mores here so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

ALRIGHT SO-

THE SONG OKAY LETS JUMP RIGHT INTO IT i wasnt expecting something lowkey sad BUT im not mad at it!!!!!!!!!! i had conflicting emotions when i desperately wanted to cry but also headbang?????? HOWEVER thanks to force and air the tears in my eyes were drying as i headbanged- LIKE this song really PUT ME THROUGH IT like that chorus didnt have tO DO ME LIKE THAT™!!!!!!!!!!!!! BUT THEN THE VERSES AND THE PRE-CHORUSES WERE SLOW (and the bridge but bridges be like that in nearly all songs) WHICH IM ACTUALLY REALLY INTO it was like being in a roller coaster with the verses being the slow hill and the chorus was the fall THAT PIANO GOES HARD...................... but like in a soft way????? DONT ASK ME WHAT IM SAYING IS IM A HOE™ FOR PIANO THOSE DRUMS DURING THE CHORUS STOP IT I CANNOT I FELT THEM VIBRATE THROUGH MY BONES

like i DEADASS have nothing to criticize or change about this song its PERFECTLY FINE AS IT IS (except for like more gahyeon and dami????? pls??????)

siyeon starting the song.......................... thank you.............. I STILL STAND BY SAYING I WOULD LISTEN TO HER VOICE FOR LITERALLY FOREVER HER VOICE DURING THE CHORUS QUEEN OF SINGING CHORUSES OH BUT THEN THAT HIGH NOTE ARE YOU KIDDING ME??????? SHE DIDNT HAVE TO KILL ME LIKE THIS BUT THANK YOU SO MUCH I- and now....... im in the deja vu P L E A S E

gaaaaaaaahhhyeeeeeooonnnn her voice is so pretty!!!!!!!!!!! BUT I WANT MORE!!!!!!!!!! HOWEVER youre the second one to sing with this beautiful gentleness of a part and to be honest this part paired with siyeon starting it really eases you into the song and its quite the blessing to hear thanks- and then yknow this part right after handong........................... Heaven™

SPEAKING OF HANDONG LISTEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! THE AMOUNT OF LINES SHE HAS MAKES ME WANNA CRY OKAY THIS PART RIGHT HERE............................. PLS.............. (i think its just me but theres a smaller voice singing like right under her voice????) HER PRE-CHORUS PARTS ARE LITERALLY THE BEST PARTS IN THE WHOLE SONG TO LISTEN TO pls believe me when i say this its NOT bc shes my ultimate bias like i genuinely like her parts the most

sua pls i was already prepared for softer vocals and you really gave that to me and then this is absolute perfection they were beautiful and amazing OF COURSE got me feeling like i was floating on actually clouds god TAHNK YOU AND THEN YOU JUST HAD TO HIT ME WITH YOUR PART RIGHT HERE???? i understand its just the chorus but I Felt That™ okay!!!!!!

JIU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i stand by saying how your voice be powerful as hell still even during these lines VERY short but VERY effective and very good leading into the chorus i love- and then your bridge....................... B I C T H really put me in my feelings but i welcome it with EVERY FIBER OF MY BEING and with open arms.......................

YOOHYEON AKA THE OTHER QUEEN OF SINGING CHORUSES I MEAN..................................... I LITERALLY DUNNO WHAT TO SAY!!!!!!!!!!! LIKE THEIR BEAUTIFUL SOUNDING HER VOICE GOES WELL WITH THEM like i really like the parts she sings after siyeon like................. Y O O F if a feather became a voice-

i need more dami too..................... P L E A S E like obviously with their other songs i was expecting dami to be in the second verse and with a smooth rap section and the former was correct HOWEVER to my pleasant surprise SHE SANG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! her singing voice suited this SO MUCH and im actually glad there wasnt a rap part at all in this song especially that SECOND PART.................. Heaven™ 2x

my favorite lyrics (x): i know i said handongs were my favorite to listen to but i like these lines dont hurt me

난 이 숨결이 허락되는 날까지 As long as I can breathe 다신 너를 놓을 수 없어 I can’t let go of you again 우린 모든 순간 함께 할 테니 We’ll be together for every moment 내 곁에서 beside me

THE DANCE OKAY IM GONNA DO SOMETHING DIFFERENT ill be referring to THIS PERFORMANCE can we pls talk about how loud the fanchant is im crying and really take it in and all of their talented glory ANYWAY OF COURSE the choreography F UKCING SLAPS just so many different position changes and just alwaYS SO IN SYNC WITH EACH OTHER ITS INSANE ill just list them briefly and keep the points short this is long enough:

THE BEGINNING AND THE END BEING THE SAME...................... CERTAINLY DEJA VU-

SIYEONS TUTTING THING THANKS

handongs majestic spin

this and this with how the formation changes and how their arms swing AND the kick

ALSO in those parts in the last bullet i dunno why but i like that move jiu does when she sings IT HITS

i recall sua spoiling literally the first move of the chorus dance in that vlive THE CHORUS DANCE ALL THOSE FORMATION CHANGES LITERALLY MESS ME UP and THIS most important move in the entire choreography and they line up and its SO COOL to look at

when they lie on each other doing yoohyeons lines

handongs part again when theyre in the line and how satisfying it is to watch

THE ENTIRE BRIDGE

LITERALLY THE ENTIRE DANCE FROM START TO FINISH

QUEENS OF STABILITY

sidenote: can we talk about how handong and dami?????? literally spin during their parts????? and they sounded super clear??????

THE VISUALS SO.......................... if you had asked me two days ago (maybe a little bit of yesterday) about how i felt about this video.................. i wouldve mentioned some unpopular opinions regarding the videos look............ i mentioned to gwen @loonapunk that i wasnt TOO into it............ BUT- after finally sitting down to do this long ass post i dont hate it!!!!!!!!!!!! i think bc i have to remind myself that this song (album???? well song-) is for that kings raid game and all the visuals AND story are based off that????? i dunno BUT WHAT I DO KNOW IS I LIKE TO WATCH IT

IM TOO BIG STUPID™ TO COMPREHEND THIS STORYLINE AND COME UP WITH MY OWN THEORIES EVEN NOW AND I WOULD L O V E TO EXPLAIN IT TO YOU BUT THIS IS LONG ENOUGH AS IT IS SO ILL REDIRECT YOU TO THEORY POSTS (TWO (2) FROM MY GALAXY BRAIN MOOTS) THAT I LIKED:

@highsomnia NITAS POST WHICH I PERSONALLY FOUND ENJOYABLE TO READ SO IF YOU COULD READ THIS YOU SHOULD ALSO READ THAT

@in-somnias ELENAS POST WHICH WAS ALSO AN INTERESTING READ RIGHT HERE

AND THEN THIS ONE THAT WAS ORIGINALLY FROM TWITTER i dont follow her so im not gonna @

AIIGHT IMMA GO CRAZY WITH THESE SHOTS (with only small one/two sentence captions this is LONG ENOUGH):

BICTH I SAW THIS AND KNEW I WAS GONNA GET GOT™ like its just super duper INCREDIBLY PRETTY TO LOOK AT

THIS WILL BE FOREVER ICONIC™ DONT ARGUE WITH ME

this is what the calm before the storm looks like

went back to the mv film making video and turns out they got slippers on under that table love that for them

how in the hell am i supposed to interpret this exchange

okay longer section i think im supposed to interpret this more as a sister bond than a romantic one?????? i remember being taken aback and believed this to be something gay BUT 99.9% OF INSOMNIAS say its gay subtext so ill just put it like that i dunno but like i just wanna say they have beautiful smiles and im love them!!!

a youtuber reacting to this mv saying it just looks like theyre shading each other.................... anyway-

i CANNOT i repeat I CANNOT EXPRESS TO YOU how Shook™ i was when i saw this for the first time i basically jumped out of my chair i couldnt i-

this mv really led me to believe jiu was the evil one.............................

POETIC. CINEMA.

THE WOMAN. THE MYTH. THE LEGEND. THE FIREBENDER. THE WOLF. LEE SIYEON. pls light me up

Symbolism™................ SYMBOLISM I CANNOT COMPREHEND GO TO THE THEORIES

MORE SYMBOLISM GO TO THE THEORIES

T H E M

NOT ONLY IS THIS VIDEO SUPER AESTHETIC™ BUT THE SEVEN (7) MOST BEAUTIFUL WOMEN IN THE WORLD BLESSING US ONCE AGAIN WITH THEIR PRESENCE AND ALLOWED THEIR ROYALTY VIBES SHOOT INTO THE MESOSPHERE INTO REAL LIFE KILLING ALL OF US

THE DANCING SCENES WITH THE TEASER OUTFITS...................................... AT EASE.....................

LITERALLY NO COMPLAINTS MOVING ON:

JIU

L I S T E N KIM MINJI YOURE A FULL PRINCESS this pink fluffy dress with the flower crown in this picture............................ i may have cried- like a lot of people were trying this look to persephone and im HERE for that concept for her and like the white outfit AND black outfit is probably super symbolic again im too Big Stupid™ anyway when i saw that black outfit in the teaser........................... i was attacked jiu with a sword is just EVERYTHING i wanted and more

SUA

LITERALLY I CANNOT- her hair being wavy looks SO GOOD on her THIS BLACK DRESS WITH THE FLOWERS she is always a Serve™ WE KNOW THAT but her visuals just HIT DIFFERENT this time lighter colored hair really suits her and then of course she looks FAN-FREAKING-TASTIC in the dance scenes in the white and the black that low pony tail pls

SIYEON

purple on this woman just shoulders and collarbones out being Beautiful™ ALL THE WHILE staying ON BRAND with herself and was wearing pants good for her G O D i just love the way her hair looks in the white and gold outfits like it just LOOKS PRETTY to me i dunno how to describe it also her with a pony tail WHAT ARE YOU SO PRETTY FOR-

HANDONG

i just................... want closer shots of this.................. CLOSER SHOTS IN GENERAL OF HER ACTUALLY like LOOK HOW BEAUTIFUL™ SHE LOOKS HERE I WANNA SEE MORE OF IT??????? PLS??????? nothing gets me weaker than her hair being styled exactly like in the picture i just love that her royalty and regal vibes and looks were FINALLY realized and WAS BROUGHT TO THE FOREFRONT

YOOHYEON

THIS MV MUST CONVINCE ME SHE IS EVIL BY SHOWING HER FOREHEAD first of all the first outfit turning her into an Actual Entire Princess™/Queen™ that red one i dont really understand SHE MAKES IT WORK THO THEN THAT BLACK OUTFIT LISTEN yo it was like getting hit by a whole truck full speed i wasnt ready and i just wanna admire that yoohyeon and gray colored hair is an actual match made in heaven i just have to say-

DAMI

i love this suit and the patten on it so much this outfits color (what is that teal????) and her hair color is such a GOOD PAIRING and on her SHE JUST KILLED ME WITH HER SOLO SCENES i wish i had more to say about her and her outfits but what else can i say other than that she is INSANELY ATTRACTIVE AND I WANT HER TO STEP ON ME???????

GAHYEON

she really broke my neck when i saw her the first time LIKE DEADASS LOOK AT THIS PICTURE i had fallen for her and i cannot get up when i saw this outfit in the other shots like the black top and the see through sleeves but her skirt is like different colors she really Served™ in this outfit bangs usually look cute but in her solo parts she was coming for my heart like miss lee gahyeon pls-

BONUS TIME: B-SIDE TRACKS (just short thoughts and point out specific parts i liked lmao)

Intro:

their intros always slap are you kidding me-

The curse of the Spider

i wasnt ready for this bop to slap me in the face on my spotify that chorus didnt have to do that to me THAT GUITAR DIDNT HAVE TO DO THAT TO ME i love the way dami and handong sound in this song i mean wrow-

favorite lyrics (x):

소름이 끼칠 만큼 It’s chilling 도망치고 싶어질 it makes me want to run away 그런 두려움일 테니 such is this fear

Silent Night

B I H C T i knew when i heard this in the highlight it was going to be my favorite one IT REALLY WOKE SOMETHING IN ME these lyrics i cant- gahyeon and handong hurted me with their lower registers Y AL L YOU KNOW WHAT ELSE HURTED ME THAT D R O P DID

favorite lyrics (x):

겨눈 칼 끝은 a blade directed at someone 결국 돌아오게 돼 eventually returns 더 다가오지 마 don’t come closer

Polaris

this song is as if i was wrapped in the thickest blanket i got and im resting on the softest bed in the world with a fireplace going nearby and i could finally rest peacefully bc the lord knows i need it- i really cried a little bit listening to this pls leave me be i legit cant pick a specific member i liked the most for this song i just love it and everything it got

favorite lyrics (x):

그게 너라서 행복해 I’m happy that it’s you 그 많은 인연 속에 Among those numerous connections 수많은 사람 중에 Among those numerous people

LIKE im so completely satisfied with every song on this album and im completely in love with it!!!!!!!!!! the only ‘issue’ i really had was with the mv visually but as you read i warmed up to it lmao LIKE IM JUST SO PROUD OF THESE WOMEN AND HOW TALENTED AND HARDWORKING THEY ARE like i have to say the japanese release?????? and this????? being so close to each other????? you telling me they learned TWO (2) different choreographies one after the other???? i absolutely love this album and i desperately desperately DESPERATELY want so much more success for them bc ITS WHAT THEY DESERVE!!!!!!!!!!!!! this is supposed to be just about the overall mv and deja vu but i might as well just type what i feel lmao

IN CONCLUSION: MY INSOMNIA ASS IS BOTH ALIVE AND DEAD BUT MOSTLY ALIVE I LOVE THIS IM STREAMING

i have to bring this back its relevant again:

[diarrheaworldstarhiphop]

According to a narrative that’s currently popular in the mainstream media and the more lowbrow end of academia, the recent surge in popularity of the American nationalist right was caused by the radicalization of nerds. Dweeby white manchildren, so the story goes, retreated into video games, the science fiction fandom, and anonymous online forums like 4chan, and formed misogynistic, resentment-fueled subcultures within them. These neckbearded neo-Nazis gradually coalesced into the ‘alt-right,’ an internet hate machine that contributed greatly to Toupee Hitler’s otherwise inexplicable rise.

There are many versions of this narrative. The common feature is the ascription of Trump’s electoral victory — and, in some cases, the surge in right-populism all across the Western world — to the vile machinations of movements of fascistic, internet-based nerds; but the details vary. One version, laid down in a popular Tumblr post (at the time of writing, it has over 22,000 notes), ascribes the rise of the alt-right to a successful campaign by Stormfront to turn 4chan Nazi. Another version blames it on Gamergate, allegedly a hate campaign born out of a misogynist’s attempt to “punish his ex-girlfriend” that served as a breeding ground for far-right extremism, and as the petri dish that they organized in before taking over America. The Z-list Youtube celebrity Zinnia Jones has described Gamergate as “one of the worst things ever to happen” because it “enabled Trump” — apparently, a piece of fandom drama ranks up there with the Spanish flu pandemic, the Mongol conquests, the Black Death, the invention of the nuclear bomb, the post-Columbian plagues that depopulated the Americas, and the unfortunate events of the 1940s.

Deployments of the narrative abound. A popular Medium “32-minute read” bears the headline, “4chan: The Skeleton Key to the Rise of Trump.” Politico insists that “the Trump campaign … paid rapt attention to meme culture from the start.” CNET helpfully explains that “what began as a backlash to a debate about how video games portray women led to an internet culture that ultimately helped sweep Donald Trump into office.” Chris Grant, editor-in-chief of Polygon, complains that “the overlap between Gamergate and Trump(ism) is astounding. GG was like the trial run for this whole mess.” The Independent, a British paper, speaks out against the “very geeky” Trump supporters of the alt-right, and claims that “The uncomfortable truth, that should worry anyone praying for a Trump defeat, is that the Alt-right following he has tapped into are more numerous and unpredictable than traditional political commentators understand.” And so on. And for every article that explicitly draws a connection between internet-based youth countercultures and Trump, there are a dozen more that simply make a point of mentioning them in the same breath, and let the reader work out the connection for himself. Trump… Gamergate… Trump… neckbeards… Trump… 4chan… Trump!

At this point, it’s worth taking a step back from the phenomenon of heavy internet users failing for the first time to line up in lockstep behind the Democrats, and looking at the bigger picture. Trump’s electoral success was not driven by the alt-right; it was driven by the usual factors. To make a long story short, Trump won because Clinton ran a bad campaign and took unpopular positions on the issues. Insofar as the election was unusual, it wasn’t because Trump posted a picture of a cartoon frog — Clinton made her own bids for pop-cultural relevance, as did her husband when he took out his saxophone on Arsenio Hall’s show in 1992 — but because Clinton, in violation of a long-standing norm, directly insulted large swathes of the voting population with her “basket of deplorables” line.

Trump’s success is also not unusual in a global context. In recent years, Viktor Orbán’s Fidesz won a supermajority in Hungary and proceeded to rewrite the Hungarian constitution to declare Hungary a Christian nation and ensure the electoral dominance of Fidesz for the foreseeable future. Britain voted to leave the European Union, and politicians like Marine Le Pen, Nigel Farage, and Andrzej Duda became household names among the set that pays attention to international politics. Trump is not a uniquely American phenomenon; if anything, he’ll likely prove to be a more moderate parallel to the trends sweeping Europe, just as FDR paralleled the European extremists of the Depression years. Of course, these trends are not just sweeping Europe, as is proven by the victories in Asia of politicians like Narendra Modi and Rodrigo Duterte.

This global trend simply could not have been caused by an obscure piece of American fandom drama. Gamergate and 4chan cannot have contributed to the rise of the right, because the rise of the right happened to approximately the same extent in countries outside the Anglosphere and outside the cultural reach of Anglosphere nerd culture. Even Vox, which once described Trump as “the first Republican nominee whose ethos owes more to 4chan and Gamergate than it does the Bible,” has found that “polarization is accelerating fastest among those using the internet the least.”

Nor could Trump’s rise to power have been substantially helped along by pictures of cartoon frogs. A full analysis of Trump’s victory is beyond the scope of this article, but it borders on delusion to believe that Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania were flipped by 4chan trolls, rather than by such ordinary factors as Trump’s more popular positions on the key issues of immigration and trade and Clinton’s failure to run a functional campaign.

The internet has, however, reshaped American politics; just not in the way pundits say it has. The main effects have been on the left, not the right.

The most obvious effect is that leftists, especially those in the fields that shape and promulgate leftist doctrine, spend a lot of time online. Journalists spend less time cultivating networks of sources and more time ‘building their brand’ and interacting with other journalists; academics network on Twitter; and so on. Connection matters more than ever, and the internet has weakened local scenes and replaced them with placeless ones. Indie game developers from all over the world, for example, can compete for the attention of the largely U.S.-coastal ‘mainstream’ games journalism industry, whose writers are of course all on the same mailing lists, not to mention following each other on Twitter. Journalists, academics, political advisors and the like disappear into their own world — a world where it’s acceptable to wage war on large parts of one’s own audience, or to lead a mainstream presidential candidate to insult a large part of the voting population. And the scenes that are best able to capture the attention of this world will gain power, influence, and the propagation of their norms.

One scene that has been markedly successful in capturing the attention of the journalistic world is the one that developed from the pay-to-post forum Something Awful. Originally a humor site, it became one of the most influential sites on the internet — you probably know that 4chan was created by a Something Awful regular, and that its initial userbase drew heavily from SA. Its influence on politics, however, extends far beyond 4chan. Buckle up, folks: you’re in for a long, confusing, and terrible ride.

In the essay “Exiting the Vampire Castle,” Mark Fisher, who was roundly condemned for writing it and killed himself three years later, attacked not only the identitarianism that has metastasized in academia since the ’60s, an identitarianism in which “the sheer mention of class is now automatically treated as if that means one is trying to downgrade the importance of race and gender,” but also the “paralysing feeling of guilt and suspicion which hangs over left-wing twitter like an acrid, stifling fog” and the “kangaroo courts and character assassinations” that are, as anyone who has observed the state of the left today, overwhelmingly common. This guilt and suspicion, these kangaroo courts and character assassinations, need not have anything to do with politics; in one memorable instance, a once-popular Tumblr communist blogger with the sadly real URL of “fuckyeahmarxismleninism” was dogpiled and laughed into irrelevance for admitting to watching My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic with his daughters. This was seen as a far worse faux pas than even his support of North Korea. I am, unfortunately, not making this up; I saw it all happen firsthand.

These aren’t the kangaroo courts of Stalin. What they are is the schoolyard courts of Helldump, a Something Awful subforum created for the strange purpose of being a schoolyard court. The Something Awful wiki speaks for itself here: “The official birth of Helldump 2000 spawned a new creative outlet for pedophiles, racists, bigots, Ron Paul supporters, gun zealots, defenders of anime and otherwise crap posters to be outed in a thorough, convincing manner by an astute civilian task force. Essentially, it checks and balances the stupidity that seeps its way into the forums as a whole, although (unfortunately) it does not function as a preventive treatment (shit posters still propagate at an alarming rate). Rather, the modus operandi of Helldump is to profile and insult the (assumed) poor goon for his questionable views, and in turn function as a virtual tourniquet in an attempt to stop the bleeding, as well as force said shit poster into online anonymity and/or reclusiveness.” In practice, most of what Helldump did was dogpile furries.

As a side note, internet lore has it that the population of Helldump regulars itself skewed furry. This is not terribly out of the norm for Something Awful, the admin of which employed Shmorky for ten years before firing him on the sensible grounds that he was “secretly into pedophilia incest diaper shitting roleplay” and allegedly “would get way too excited over [SA admin Lowtax’s kids] coming to the office.” (Shmorky has also been reported to at least have once been friends with Rebecca Sugar, the creator of the TV show Steven Universe, which has a remarkably Shmorky-like art style and has as its target demographic the same Tumblr crowd that Shmorky fell in with.)

Zoe Quinn herself was a SA member under the username Eris, and participated in at least one Helldump dogpile. It’s often believed that Gamergate began when her ex-boyfriend posted a ‘callout’ of her abusive behaviors, cheating, and so on — the “Zoe Post” — on 4chan, but he actually joined Something Awful to post it there first. He was quickly banned for it, and the ban message reads: “Thank you for joining the Something Awful Forums in order to post a giant loving psychopathic helldump about your ex-girlfriend in the forum about video games.” (The original phrasing was “giant fucking psychopathic helldump,” but SA has wordfilters.) The belief in a connection between Helldump and ‘callout culture’ is held by the SA moderators themselves.

Helldump was closed after two years, and many of its regulars migrated to a different subforum, Laissez’s Fair, “the original Dirtbag Left.” The SA wiki entry for LF helpfully explains that it was “opened up to put all the Ron Paul shit” and became a “refugee holding bay” for Helldump after the latter was closed. “Over time people started making effort posts about such things the nightmare that is our criminal justice system, social justice in general, as well as the ideas of Karl Marx. The lack of moderation was made up for by basically shouting people out of the forum who were stupid MRAs and concern trolls. Gradually the complexion of the forum shifted from liberal to socialist.” Eventually, LF was closed, because “LF posters went internet detective on mods and posted death threats,” including several to then-President Obama.

At least two regulars on Helldump and LF went on to get careers in journalism. Jeb Lund, who wrote a vague and rambling essay about his posting career for Gawker, went by “Boniface” and “Mobutu Sese Seko” on Something Awful. Under the former pseudonym, he threatened a Helldump victim: “how about you promise never to post here again on pain of being permabanned, otherwise there’s no reason for all the posters here with lexis-nexis to stop at just your email addresses and not go straight for driver’s license photos and info, tax records… the list goes on and on.” Sam Kriss was (or at least was widely believed to be) Dead Ken, as well as Red Ken, Dub Mapocho, Agenbite Inwit, Dead Skeng, and presumably other accounts. After LF was removed from SA, its regulars established and migrated to explicitly Communist forums offsite; he was a regular on one such forum, “tHE rHizzonE”, which was later given some sort of contest by the leftist magazine The Baffler, whose editor was “a fan” of said forum. (Sam Kriss has written for the Baffler.)

Many people from the more leftist parts of SA went on to become “Weird Twitter,” which was puffed by outlets like Buzzfeed. John Herrman and Katie Notopoulos, the authors of the linked piece, gravitated toward LF superstars on Twitter and tried to replicate their style. Some of them, such as Lund, Kriss, David Thorpe (who had a regular column on SA and is now a music journalist), Virgil Texas, Jon Hendren (who was, as docevil, once an admin of the “Fuck You And Die” (FYAD) subforum, but was shamed off the site after a bizarre incident involving a charity event featuring Smash Mouth and Guy Fieri), and Alex Nichols, parlayed those connections into posting careers.

Herrman also profiled a Weird Twitter poster, @CelestialBeard, whose claim to fame was tweeting a lot, and being followed by Herrman on Twitter. @CelestialBeard has since become a transgender brony.

From Weird Twitter, which attracted and assimilated people who weren’t active in SA’s leftist cliques (such as Felix Biederman and Virgil Texas, who just lurked), came Chapo Trap House, darling of every obscure Slate clone from Brooklyn to Queens. Chapo has featured several SA regulars, including Alex Nichols (@Lowenaffchen), who was active on LF as Golden Lion Tamarin (his Twitter username used to be @GLDNLNTMRN), and Dan O’Sullivan (@Bro_Pair), a now-banned former SA moderator whose username is now Fat Curtain Dweller. It’s interesting that a podcast heralded for ‘actually giving a shit’ comes from a subculture that began as pure trolling.

Providing a precise accounting of the impact of Something Awful on the Anglosphere left is difficult, as it would be with any subculture. The history is oral, largely lost, deliberately obfuscated, and shrouded in irony. It is likely that nothing will come of it, and that, in the end, it will be the farce mirroring the tragedy of neoconservatism: an insane political movement that developed out of a bizarre and insular clique in a world where having the right connections matters above all else, writing things that very few people care about but doing a great deal of damage along the way. It seems that the norms of Helldump have become callout culture, SA users’ trolling of the libertarians corralled in LF have become the dirtbag left, and some of those responsible have written for not only Gawker and Buzzfeed, but also The New York Times.

At the very least, the overlap in population is clear and suggestive. Someone can go from being repeatedly banned from a pay-to-post forum for something involving the word “nigger” to writing for the Guardian, the Atlantic and the New York Times, largely on the dubious strength of his Twitter account and forum fame. There are few lessons that can be drawn from this; the obvious one is that perhaps the media rewards expertise less than connectedness.

I’m told that this is what Gamergate was about. But there are many things I’ve been told Gamergate was about. The internet is something awful indeed. And it’s only going to get worse.

[lightcomingthroughthedarkness]

Do you think that CL is going to somehow end up together in the flame at the end of the show, like maybe Clarke is dying and she puts in the flame just before so they live on together? Because I just cannot understand all of these Lxa mentions if the writers aren’t planning on doing anything more with her. I know you said you’re not bothered by them but I don’t get it at all. Clarke knew L for a couple months, hating her for most of it. I can’t make any sense of them mentioning L 100 years later

Maybe this is an unpopular opinion but I think, other than the story on screen - which I believe definitely had its place in the overall narrative - L and CL is also something influenced by fan outrage. While I do think they had always planned on working through Clarke's trauma from season 3, I definitely think fan outrage influenced Jason to write this story in a different way after s3. Just look at 3x16, how they made Eliza record ADR, adding "I love you" after the season had already been filmed and that had not been in the original script. 3x16 WITHOUT the ILY was even aired in some countries because they had already sent out the finished product. And then not to mention, how they wrote that Clarke and Abby scene in 4x01, where Clarke talks about loving Lxa. There is absolutely NOTHING wrong with that scene in and of itself. But when you think about the fact that Abby had never seen Clarke and Lxa together, had never even known Clarke had feelings for Lxa or that no one knew about Clarke's relationship with Lxa, it's then strange to read on twitter how they explained that scene by saying "a mother always knows". Or the fact that initially, Lxa was supposed to have been played by a child actor and CL wasn't planned from day one. It was obviously planned after they got ADC and saw their chemistry but it wasn't the original plan from the start. And they only managed to get ADC back for s3 because they made a deal with AMC to let ADC finish the show. Why? Fan response.

The potential of what CL could have been had Lxa stayed on the show is one story and I feel, a reasonable story to tell after it ended. An entire retcon of CL in later seasons AFTER s3 because of fan outrage, making CL out to be something that was never supported in canon, is why I am tired. They have literally told more CL stories after Lxa's death than they did while she was alive.

And I definitely think they wrote season 4 with the outrage in mind. Which is I guess a way to right your wrongs? You give a story MORE importance, even after it ended, just to kinda say "hey, we know we fu*ked up, but look, we won't move on for several seasons. We care. We are so sorry. Look it was real". CL was real, absolutely. But to make it this great love that made Clarke's entire life stand still for 2,5 seasons? That's not what I saw in canon. So fan outrage, HUGE impact. Which is why I think this is still a thing, in the year 2019. Just to be clear, it doesn't mean that I don't think L and CL has its place in the show. They do. I just don't think it was ever shown in canon during s2 and s3.

Do I think CL will be endgame in the flame? Maybe, who even knows? This is scifi. As long as they still have chips and flames, I won't rule anything out. But we also have to remember Lxa had a part in the story as a commander. As a character involved with the flame. So it's not completely unreasonable that Lxa is mentioned when it comes to the flame. Lxa wasn't just Clarke's LI. If we separate those two storylines, then fine. But they never do which is exhausting. But do I think, if Clarke gets to live and have a life in the end, that CL will be endgame? No. CL will not be endgame. Lxa is dead. Clarke needs relationships with the living.

What I'm waiting for THIS season, is to see if they are gonna let Clarke live and move on. A season full of flames and chips?? Well, I'm gonna wait until 6x13 to see if they are willing to move on for GOOD or not.

[mypatchworkreflection]

Transcript from the Daily Kos-

"Thank you, Mr. President,

I didn't expect to wake up yesterday to the news that the senator from the 22nd district had overnight accused me by name of grooming and sexualizing children in an email fundraising for herself. So I sat on it for a while, wondering why me, and then I realized, because I am the biggest threat to your hollow hateful scheme, because you can't claim that you are targeting marginalized kids in the name of quote, parental rights if another parent is standing up to say ‘no.’ So then what? 

Then you dehumanize and marginalize me. You say that I'm one of them. You say, ‘she's a groomer. She supports pedophilia. She wants children to believe that they were responsible for slavery and to feel bad about themselves because they're white.’

Well, here's a little bit of background about who I really am. Growing up, my family was very active in our church. I sang in the choir. My mom taught CCD. One day, our priest called a meeting with my mom and told her that she was not living up to the church's expectations and that she was disappointing. My mom asked why. Among other reasons, she was told it was because she was divorced and because the priest didn't see her at mass every Sunday.

So where was my mom on Sundays? She was at the soup kitchen with me. My mom taught me at a very young age that Christianity and faith was about being part of a community; about recognizing our privilege and blessings; and doing what we can to be of service to others, especially people who are marginalized, targeted, and who had less often unfairly.

I learned that service was far more important than performative nonsense, like being seen in the same pew every Sunday or writing Christian in your Twitter bio and using that as a shield to target and marginalize already marginalized people. I also stand on the shoulders of people like father Ted Hesburgh, the longtime president of the University of Notre Dame, who was active in the Civil Rights Movement, who recognized his power and privilege as a white man, a faith leader, and the head of an influential and well-respected institution. And who saw Black people in this country being targeted and discriminated against and beaten and reached out to lock arms with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. when he was alive, when it was unpopular and risky, and marching, alongside them to say, ‘we've got you.’ To offer protection and service and allyship to try to write the wrongs and fix injustice in the world.

So who am I? I am a straight, white, Christian, married, suburban mom who knows that the very notion that learning about slave slavery or redlining or systemic racism somehow means that children are being taught to feel bad or hate themselves because they are white is absolute nonsense. No child alive today is responsible for slavery. No one in this room is responsible for slavery, but each and every single one of us bears responsibility for writing the next chapter of history. Each and every single one of us decides what happens next and how we respond to history and the world around us.

We are not responsible for the past. We all also cannot change the past. We can't pretend that it didn't happen or deny people their very right to exist. I am a straight, white, Christian, married, suburban mom. I want my daughter to know that she is loved, supported, and seen for whoever she becomes. I want her to be curious, empathetic, and kind.

People who are different are not the reason that our roads are in bad shape after decades of disinvestment or that healthcare costs are too high or that teachers are leaving the profession. I want every child in this state to feel seen, heard, and supported, not marginalized and targeted because they are not straight white and Christian. We cannot let hateful people tell you otherwise to scapegoat and deflect from the fact that they are not doing anything to fix the real issues that impact people's lives. And I know that hate will only win, if people like me stand by, let it happen.

So I want to be very clear right now. Call me whatever you want. I hope you brought in a few dollars. I hope it made you sleep good last night. I know who I am. I know what faith and service means and what it calls for in this moment. We will not let hate win."

[beinglibertarian]

Propaganda Outlets “Hogg”ing the Narrative

Nearly a month ago, I wrote an article saying that for the foreseeable future, it would be impossible to avoid mentions of the gun control debate on any media outlet we use daily (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.). There was a brief period in the beginning of March where it appeared that things might fizzle out. It was discovered that the law enforcement had miserably botched their investigations into the shooter, the police on the scene failed to respond even after the initial gunfire rang out, and the additional forces on the ground were told to stand down upon arrival.

The gun control debate was taking the appropriate swing towards realizing that our enforcement of current gun regulations is severely lacking and needs to be scrutinized at the most basic level to ensure that law enforcement does its duty in protecting the citizens. The left couldn’t have that. They needed to take back control of the narrative.

Enter David Hogg.

By now, we know more about David Hogg (17), than we ever will about the shooter, Nikolas Cruz. David Hogg has launched himself onto the political platform with the support of nearly every single liberal media outlet available. His disgusting rhetoric, exceptional anger, and unabashed virtue signaling has made him the left’s iconic dream of all that they could hope for in a political mouthpiece to parrot their narrative. Due to his age, Hogg has full freedom to say things that CNN hosts would get fired over for even feigning to mention and come under absolutely no scrutiny from the hosts who give him air time. He can unapologetically say all the terrible, evil little thoughts that they’ve been dying to get out while they sit in their studio, tapping a stack of papers against their desk and smiling half-heartedly into the cameras.

Lovely lines, such as, “I’m going to start off by putting this price tag right here as a reminder for you guys to know how much Marco Rubio took for every student’s life in Florida”, as was said at the March for Our Lives protest.

And, “If you can’t get elected without taking money from child murderers, why are you running?”, Hogg asked, referring to the NRA funding political campaigns and politicians like Senator Marco Rubio who accept their contributions.

Could you imagine if CNN’s Brian Stelter made that contention — that Marco Rubio is responsible for the deaths of the students in Parkland, Florida? The outrage and retribution for such an accusation would be astounding. Advertisers would abandon his show, the organization would face a public relations war, and Brian Stelter would undoubtedly lose his job. Yet, thankfully, Democrats have found a child to say all these things for them. It is their favorite shield to hide behind. It is the mask that they wear while claiming to be “objective journalists.”

It is a façade that they can use to push their agenda forward.

This is the dangerous part of the war for the hearts and minds of Americans. Simple untruths such as Dana Loesch owning the NRA, politicians and gun manufacturers are inane and false, but the claims go completely unchallenged by CNN’s Brian Stelter.

At CNN’s disgusting, Orwellian town hall meeting where they lined up Dana Loesch and Marco Rubio in front of a firing squad of traumatized children to begin the “Two-Minutes of Hate,” Jake Tapper played a similar hand of not mediating a single slander or defaming remark towards a sitting Senator of the United states. For example, when Cameron Kasky (17) alarmingly touted, “I’m sorry, I know I’m not supposed to do this, but I’m not going to listen to that. Senator Rubio, it’s hard to look at you and not look down a barrel of an AR-15 and not look at Nikolas Cruz, but the point is you’re here and there are some people who are not.”

The role that propaganda outlets such as CNN and MSNBC are playing in this debate is a scary one.

They are the gatekeepers to what information the American people are fed, and the narrative they are pushing is an ugly and vile one.

They, themselves, cannot espouse such nasty views towards anyone who is a pro-gun advocate. They cannot openly call for a full and total gun ban and confiscation; it’s unpopular, even now. The amount of support that propaganda actors such as David Hogg, Cameron Kasky, and Emma Gonzalez have is not as profound as their backers would have you believe. Thus, the ball starts to roll slowly.

The left does not want to talk about their real agenda. They cannot mention a full and total gun ban. So, instead, they talk about banning bump stocks. They talk about banning assault weapons. They talk about “common sense gun regulation” as if it’s some sort of buzz word that they don’t have to define what it actually means.

You won’t hear them talk about the full gun-ban. Instead, what you will hear Delaney Tarr (17) say in the March for Our Lives protests is, “There are so very many things, so many steps to take. Like right now, sign our petition. It takes two seconds and it matters. We will take the big and we will take the small, but we will keep fighting. When they give us that inch, that bump stock ban, we will take a mile.”

I can feel the left cringing at how openly honest that statement was, but I totally understand the defense. Clearly, she just wants reform. Her goal isn’t a total ban and a gun confiscation, right? The only problem is that she even goes on to shatter that defense with her very next words:

“We are not here for bread crumbs. We are here for real change.”

A bump stock ban is crumbs. An assault rifle ban is crumbs. Reform is crumbs. Minor changes to the regulations surrounding guns are crumbs. What they want is “real change”. What they want is revolution.

The only thing that qualifies as change for this movement is the complete and total dismantling of the 2nd Amendment and the confiscation of all firearms from American citizens. This is just the start of the movement.

CNN, MSNBC, and the New York Times won’t run stories supporting this agenda, now. It’ll happen exactly as it did with nationalized healthcare. For decades, Democrats have said that they would never move to a system of nationalized healthcare and that they supported the private healthcare industry. Then, they continued to push along the narrative until it became more socially acceptable and more politically palatable until they were able to take power and establish Obamacare.

The abolishment of the 2nd Amendment will be no different. It will be a slow death caused by Republicans who gave an inch so that radicals, like the Parkland shooting survivors, that you see all over propaganda outlets like CNN and MSNBC can take a mile.

When it happens, that will be the day that freedom died.

* Robert Ward is a second-time contributor to Being Libertarian. He is a twenty-seven year old former marine and a conservative-libertarian.

The post Propaganda Outlets “Hogg”ing the Narrative appeared first on Being Libertarian.

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[uk-news-talking-politics]

'Despair' the greatest obstacle to a Biden presidency

By Dorian Lynskey

Last month, a Politico reporter attended a brunch for around 40 affluent black professionals in the Detroit suburb of Grosse Pointe Woods and spent six hours talking about the presidential election. Every single person there expected Donald Trump to win in November because Republicans would turn out and Democrats wouldn’t, even though all of them personally planned to show up for Joe Biden. “I’m going to vote,” said one woman. “But Trump’s getting back in office either way.”

On 24 June, a few days after the brunch, a New York Times Upshot poll gave Biden an extraordinary 14-point lead over Donald Trump, with gains in every demographic, turning red states purple and purple states blue while endangering the Republicans’ Senate majority. There hasn’t been a summer polling margin this wide since 1996, when Bill Clinton eventually thumped Bob Dole by carrying 31 states, and no candidate has hit 50% since Ronald Reagan in 1984, prior to his 49-state demolition of Walter Mondale. In the latest credible polls, Biden’s lead ranges from 5-17 points.

On paper, this seems obvious. Biden is facing a weak and erratic President who has bungled his response to both coronavirus and the Black Lives Matter protests, lost the strong economy that he inherited from Barack Obama, and never seen his approval rating exceed 50%, even during the initial rally-around-the-flag phase of the pandemic that favoured incumbents around the world. So why do so many people find it so hard to accept that Trump is exceedingly likely to lose?

Well, for the same reason that I just replaced “will” with “overwhelmingly likely to”. Britain has just marked the fourth anniversary of the EU referendum, which saw nationalist populism drive a horse and cart through liberal orthodoxies. Trump’s much more shocking victory in November completed 2016’s double whammy and the liberal left has not yet recovered from that compound trauma. By trampling long-held assumptions about political behaviour into the dirt, it created a terrible new form of received wisdom: What’s the worst that can happen? Bet on that. I’ve seen numerous friends confidently predict that Trump will either win or refuse to accept defeat, offering no evidence except their pessimism.

Writing in the New Statesman recently, Andrew Marr warned against “the ‘now-next illusion’ — the trap of thinking that today’s vivid headlines are a good guide to the near future”. Criticising the American intellectual James Burnham 74 years earlier, George Orwell noted the same tendency among political “prophets” who believed that whatever was happening at the time of writing would continue to happen, only moreso: “Burnham sees the trend [towards oligarchy] and assumes that it is irresistible, rather as a rabbit fascinated by a boa constrictor might assume that a boa constrictor is the strongest thing in the world.” Since 2016, right-wing populism has been our boa constrictor and its face is that of Donald Trump. This strong bias towards pessimism has survived even the Democrats’ impressive gains in the 2018 midterms, when the Trump playbook demonstrably failed. For Britons, watching the campaign in the aftermath of a Tory landslide and exit from the EU, it is even harder to think positive. Psychologically, we are still fighting the last war.

Let us look at the evidence. Trump is exactly the President that his fiercest critics said he would be: unstable, incurious, petty, vindictive, paranoid, ignorant and inept. Whenever a major test has come along, he has flunked it. While his base remains fanatically loyal (though apparently incapable of filling an arena in Oklahoma), this historically unpopular president has shown no ability to expand it, nor even retain his winning coalition, because he is utterly incapable of not doing the things that alienate people. Millions of Americans hate him like they have never hated anyone before, while many of the voters who took a punt on him despite their reservations, because they hated Hillary Clinton, or hoped that he would rise to the occasion, are tired of him turning the country into 24/7 rolling chaos. They know what another four years of Trump would look like. One plank of his campaign, the economy, has been snatched away by Covid-19 while another, racial grievance wrapped in the tissue paper of law and order, has proved limited in the face of Black Lives Matter’s popularity. Lest we forget, even though it feels like several years ago, he is one of only four presidents ever to be impeached.

His opponent, meanwhile, is perennially underrated. As Bernie Sanders discovered, Biden’s hold on key demographics, notably older black voters, is ultimately undiminished by his low-key campaigning style and occasional blunders. That’s how he went from clear favourite to underdog to comeback kid. If Biden does not generate great excitement, then nor does he inspire intense hatred, as Hillary Clinton did. He made few enemies as Barack Obama’s genial vice president; Sanders himself is personally fond of the man. Neither his son Hunter’s business dealings in Ukraine, nor former staffer Tara Reade’s sexual harassment allegations, have damaged him. Claims that Biden is suffering from cognitive decline (as opposed to continuing a tradition of gaffes that goes back to the 1980s) backfired in his final debate with Sanders by setting the bar too low. The more people say that he is sleepy and doddery (a risky line of attack for the increasingly incoherent Trump), the less he has to do to appear impressive. His responses to Covid-19 and Black Lives Matter have struck the right tone of compassion and competence at a time when the White House offers neither.

Now, only a fool would say that it’s impossible for Trump to win. Perhaps Biden isn’t Clinton in ’96 but Michael Dukakis in ’88, whose substantial lead in early summer evaporated by the autumn. The polls will inevitably narrow. Perhaps he will make a truly disastrous mistake, or fall foul of a scandal that we cannot foresee. Perhaps disillusioned members of the Democratic base will be unpersuaded that the difference between Biden and Trump is substantial enough to get them to the polling booth. Beyond the standard electoral potholes, there are valid concerns about Trump using voter suppression, mass disinformation, and, if the election result comes down to the wire, legal challenges in order to remain in office, although it is worth reassuring anxious friends that constitutionally he cannot simply cancel the election, nor refuse to step down if he is defeated. He may have the instincts of a tyrant but not the power.

Complacency duly guarded against, the smart money is on Trump losing in November, but this is where the trauma of 2016 raises its head. The polls weren’t wrong: it really was extremely unlikely that he would win, and Hillary Clinton really did win the popular vote, and yet 77,774 votes in the right districts of the right three states gave Trump the presidency. But just because an improbable thing has happened once, it doesn’t mean that an even more improbable thing will happen next time. Remember everything that had to go wrong for a much more divisive Democratic candidate, with a narrower lead and a more hostile media, to lose in 2016. If populism’s opponents used to be far too complacent, then we are now too neurotic – prone to seeing a flailing mess of a political project as an unstoppable force. Fear should inspire Trump’s opponents to vote, campaign and fundraise with electric urgency but despair will not. Despair is the greatest obstacle that Biden needs to overcome.

There are countless reasons to want Biden to decisively rout Trump in November. The one that matters whether or not you live in the US is the opportunity to finally provide catharsis for the trauma of 2016. It wouldn’t instantly heal America or purge the poison of white nationalism. I don’t even know what kind of president Biden would be, except a better one. Still, a result that proved that anger, resentment and race-baiting aren’t enough, that flagrant lying can only go so far, that populism is not unbeatable, that the laws of political gravity haven’t been permanently suspended, would go a long way to rescuing us all from the nightmare land of anything-can-happen in which we have been living for the past four years. We’ve spent too long feeling like Orwell’s rabbit, hypnotised by the boa constrictor. If nothing else, a Trump defeat would break the spell.

Dorian Lynskey writes about politics and culture for titles including the Guardian, Observer, GQ and New Statesman. He is the author of 33 Revolutions Per Minute: A History of Protest Songs and The Ministry of Truth: A Biography of George Orwell's 1984. He co-hosts the Remainiacs and Bunker podcasts. You can follow him on Twitter here.