#going full qanon I guess

[sirfrogsworth]

I just saw Deadmau5 on a right wing conspiracy podcast and I was really disappointed and then I realized he's not Daft Punk so I was less disappointed.

I got bespoke LED helmet'd dance music creators confused in my brain.

I started following this Navy SEAL (who has the podcast) years ago because he was demonstrating close quarters combat techniques. And I find that stuff fascinating. Like how a team of 6 special forces operators can go into a building full of a hundred people and then come back out alive without any injury. While I am morally conflicted about training human beings to be that dangerous, it still intrigues me.

But then this dude exposed his entire ass and went from an apolitical content creator to near-QANON levels of nuts. I don't watch any of his videos anymore, but I remain subscribed for some reason. I guess for the same reason I stay subscribed to Gina Carano. I can't look away from the ever-growing dumpster fire.

[pragnificent]

Anyway when I was 17 (so like I said, literally 23 years ago) I bottle raised a Rottweiler puppy, and I knew I couldn't keep him bc I was moving out soon and I already had a big dog.

My aunt asked for him, and even tho she was (and is) a shitty person* I thought it would be good to keep him in the family so I could check-in.

Aunt told us to "come take this dog" like four hours later.

So then Ken, my father, said that he wanted to give the puppy to one of his co-workers (they were nurses) who had a kid, but for some reason that I cannot explain in retrospect, that idea upset me and I dug my heels in about it, and insisted on giving him to the humane society because they knew best how to find a good home.

And like, I basically said that to the humane society worker when I surrendered him, and they looked at me weird but didn't say anything to me against that idea.

And like, Ken was so fucking mad at me for that. Like hurt-angry. And he's been dead since 2019 but the last few months I just like fucking get fixated on this particular situation with the puppy and the possibility that maybe I gave him REASONS to hate me and the issue wasn't that he he was an abuser but rather that I was a mean crazy bitch that was impossible to live with.

Which, objectively, I know that I would IMMEDIATELY dismiss as BS if someone else said it to me, even if that person had only gone through a 10th of the shit he did, but guess what??? My brain hates me and my emotions are never ever Valid even if everyone else's are!

And ALSO, like, I know at least some of the reasons why I was resistant to give the puppy to his friend were like... Not based on nothing. I was at the hospital they worked at when I had my spinal surgeries and just... Terrible traumatic experience. I got an infection in my incision bc the nurse spilled a bed pan on it (and the wound care for that was probably the most painful thing I've ever experienced) and I remember listening to a baby down the hallway SCREAMING for what seemed like FOREVER bc the nurse couldn't get a vein.

And like if you have never heard a little baby SCREAMING in pain just be happy that you haven't.

And like ALSO Ken shockingly was not a good judge of character, and I can only remember meeting a couple friends of his that weren't Awful... Like the first time I heard the n-slur out loud was from one of his friends and also a couple years before Ken died one of his friends tried to murder -suicide him by grabbing the steering wheel while Ken was driving. Crashed the car so hard that it was totaled.

But yeah. Just gotten fixated lately (actually, I am self aware, whenever I'm PMSing) that

1.) I was a Bad Kid actually (I am Aware that even a Bad Kid did not deserve all of that) and that I gave him Valid Reasons to hate me.

2.) That I Hurt and Upset what MIGHT have been a Nice Lady with a Nice Kid by refusing to give him the puppy, and in the process cheated him out of a Nice Home.

3.) That the puppy might have, for some reason, been euthanized rather than adopted out. I know this is unlikely, he was a healthy ten week old puppy that at least seemed to be purebred and very adoptable... But like shelters struggle so much to have room.

Anyway, that was my entirely too long vent post... I'm going to go play Ark now.

* She's full-on Qanon now and abandoned her children, one of which was still a minor and the other had multiple kids and a drug problem, to go live in a desert compound out west.

[keefechambers]

i was hoping to have a piece for work done for this but tumblr hates links anyway so i'll just get on my soapbox without the full force of local journalism on my side i guess

anyway there's a demonstrated, organized, concentrated effort by right wing political groups masquerading as concerned parent groups to overrun municipal and local elections for things like school board candidates

yeah, you know those right wing parents complaining about gender queer and lawn boy and the existence of gay people in a classroom setting? it's absolutely an organized, funded republican psyop

they're trying to flip shit red at the local level in even the bluest areas and they'll succeed a lot of the time because people do not pay attention to local elections

regardless of your own (earned) cynicism about broader federal elections and how much good they do or do not do, not voting is not the solution. i understand the burn out of hearing from out of touch liberals whose only solution ever seems to be saying "vote" and then doing nothing when elected, but here's the thing -- voting is a solution in tandem with other solutions, not just the be all end all.

all that to say: while your life may not drastically change based on who wins your state's senate seat or who is in your house of representatives, it WILL drastically change if your entire city counsel or all of your county commissioners are now suddenly Christian nationalist/Qanon/culture war crusaders.

Elected positions like judge, sheriff, school board members, board of elections members, etc. are elections that people pay absolutely no attention to but actually have some kind of foundational impact on your day to day lives. These elections can be decided by margins of dozens of votes and when bad actors are in the background drumming up controversy and support based on anti-LGBTQ or anti-immigrant hysteria or even just straight up conspiracism (QAnon adherents are targeting secretary of state positions), it can and will affect people.

So yeah, go out and vote. but hone in on those smaller local elections too. sweeping federal change might be difficult to get in the short term, but your cities could be harmed in the short term because the fact is that the right wing is better organized and more unified in their intentions than anyone from the center over and that gives them an advantage in smaller races.

pay attention to who is running for your city council and your local school board. tell your friends and family, too. seriously!

[thewebcomicsreview]

Yo, uh. I don’t normally like bothering people, but you read Dumbing of Age right? I feel like you’d be able to answer if Sarah’s character has worsened I guess? Like she’s always been a grumpy, sarcastic, recluse, but recently she’s seemed more sour than sweet if that makes sense. From teasing Dorothy about possibly having autism, to outing Joyce’s new discovery of self pleasure to her friends. These recent strips with Lucy seem to be a polarizing, tipping point for the community, but she wasn’t always like this right? I kind of feel like that almost all the cast have gotten noticeably more mean.

It’s kind of been like that since the time skip. It’s like when Mike died, his assholeness was released into the lifestream and absorbed by the rest of the cast. Walky stalking Jennifer for a bit (he’s since mellowed out), all of Joyce’s friends being insane assholes, etc. But I think Sarah’s different.

Note that Willis trademark skeletor-esque melodramatic dialogue starting to creep in (”You’re not really one of us”). I think that’s a sign that Willis is starting to think of her as a “villain” as opposed to “a ‘good’ character who’s just being a bit of a jerk atm”.

Mary used to play the role of the “evil” kid, but once she got a boyfriend she no longer had the tension between “I must be evil” and “I want friends” that made her Dumbing of Age’s least one-dimensional villain, and she turned into such a silly strawman that no one in the comic even finds her offensive anymore. She literally became so homophobic she looped around into camp. So now all the bad guy characters are parents, who can’t just randomly be hanging around the dorm. So I think Sarah’s going to be turning heel to fill that role. Maybe not full-on Mary levels, but as a character we’re not meant to side with. Maybe Willis is experimenting with a bit more sympathetic of a villain, here. Either way, “Sarah is a huge dick to all her friends and they’re getting sick of her” has been brought up enough that I think Sarah’s going to start losing friends, blame it on the Raidah Conspiracy, and become a jaded bitter asshole who thinks everyone’s out to get her and causes problems on purpose.

Also, Mary is a very dated 1980s Republican, and Sarah blaming everything on Raidah in increasingly stretched ways can make her a QAnon stand-in to fit the more modern weird conspiratorial style of conservatism.

[doctortwhohiddles]

Looks like the Hiddleston tinhaters are in their "It's PR, I tell you. PR" phase. I guess they didn't take too kindly to the Wimbledon pics, Tom saying "our son" and Zawe talking about their home life (though very little).

I wonder how long it'll take them to go full QAnon on Zawe? Because it's not Tom they attack, it's his wife and son.

[princess-of-the-corner]

For context, the Energon Universe has four ongoing series at the moment:

Void Rivals (original property that kicked off the plot)

Transformers (following up on a cameo in Void Rivals' first issue)

Duke (following the eventual leader of GI Joe)

Cobra Commander (following... Guess. Just guess.)

The issue comes from Duke, after barely surviving an encounter with Starscream in the Transformers ongoing, becomes a full-blown conspiracy theorist, joining a group of UFO truthers who all get mysteriously murdered.

While the whole "Our heroes are conspiracy theorists who are depicted as smarter than the sheeple" element is rough, the fact that the main antagonist is a war profiteer using the Transformers' technology for their weaponry very quickly overshadows it, so the QAnon stuff is exclusive to the first issue, beyond Duke being framed for murder and having to go on the run to clear his name and thwart the war profiteers.

Cobra Commander, meanwhile, has the titular character be a servant of mutant reptilian humanoids who've secretly been ruling the world from the shadows, known as "Cobra-La", located in the Himalayas. For the record, NOBODY involved in G.I. Joe likes Cobra-La. Nobody in the FANDOM likes Cobra-La. It is by far THE single most HATED element of the original Sunbow cartoon. I don't know WHY they went down this route while marketing built up the series as "Megatron manipulates and/or mentors the man who will one day be known as Cobra Commander", but that's what we're dealing with now.

Speaking of, Cobra-La has been studying Megatron, but the Decepticon leader hasn't really done anything of note yet.

Who fuckin knows but also oof

[caffeineandsociety]

Really I think what's getting lost in all the noise here is that zionism is just...a nationalist movement. It is far better understood as a nationalist movement than religious extremism or anything of the like. Nationalist movements can and do pop up in any major culture, in any nation. Just like every nationalist movement, it has its own unique intricacies (such as, in this case, support from evangelical Christians who think that enabling it will bring about the second coming, which is an aspect I truly believe we need to talk about more) but at the end of the day, it's ultimately yet another nationalist movement. Many nationalist movements never come to power in more than just small communities, but sometimes they do make it to national power, and the result is...always bad. At this particular moment in time it's one of the most urgent ones to resist, because it made it into power in a specific part of the world, but at its core it's no worse than any other - all nationalist movements tend to want to end up...Like This.

Nationalist movements promise safety, but they never end up living up to those promises, partially because their entire central conceit can't survive long in actual human populations without becoming super hypocritical and moving the goalposts. It's all about finding safety in an in-group...meaning you have to carefully vet people to make sure they're really part of the in-group. It's a major factor behind the Leopards Eating People's Faces Party effect: as nationalist movements become more powerful, and come closer and closer to total separatism, and yet society doesn't turn into the promised safe, flourishing utopia - the in-group shrinks. People at the fringes are scapegoated and cut out. Furthermore, nationalist movements are usually far more inclined to cut their losses and sacrifice part of the in-group for the "safety" of the rest than to be willing to damage the illusion that anything short of the nuclear option will bring about that safety. Kinda sounds like, like, oh, say, Israel killing Israeli hostages themselves? Discriminating against Ethiopian Jews? This is all perfectly in line with the typical behavior of a nationalist party in power.

What's important to recognize is that:

1) A nationalist movement having power within their nation does NOT mean that the race, ethnicity, or culture they're ostensibly there to "protect" doesn't constitute an oppressed group elsewhere. In fact, in the case of zionism, it's often used as part of the drive to oppress diaspora Jews - recall the evangelical hope to bring about the second coming; the claim is that it will be made to happen by expelling all Jewish people from the rest of the world and building a new temple in Israel.

2) Nationalist parties in power typically aren't universally despised by their citizens...but they don't tend to be fully reflective of popular sentiment, either. Some citizens fall totally in line with the nationalist party's ideals, but most fall on a spectrum from a partially propaganda poisoned "ehhh....I GUESS they're the lesser evil, but can't we have ANYONE else?" to a full-out rejection on the level of "go ahead, put me on a list, I want our leadership's heads on a pike". You can see the same spectrum around you, too, no matter where you live, if you remain at least a little bit politically aware - so if you wouldn't assume every random strange American is a full-throttle QAnon-MAGAt asshole, and wouldn't have in 2016-2020 either, then hey, keeping point 1 in mind, you should probably ask yourself why someone might want you to think that of anyone in any other nationalist-controlled nation - yes, even if they DO have a showcase of that place's MAGAt-equivalents. Arguably, especially then.

3) A history of oppression by nationalist parties doesn't inherently make anyone more OR less likely to fall into their own nationalist movement - it makes people less likely to fall for certain brands of propaganda, but more likely to be seduced by the promise of safety, and once that happens, it's easy for people to have a hard time getting out, because of the knee-jerk tendency to go "EXCUSE me? How DARE you compare me to the people who oppressed me and killed my family!" It's a mental pitfall that can happen to pretty much anyone, unfortunately - and does happen to some, but not to others. See point 2 again: no citizen body is a monolith.

[supernatpod]

Disclosure

If there is one thing that humanity as a species needs and expects it is the idea of closure, and the kind of closure we need most is a happy ending. We need it to the point of folly, even in the world of ufology. That’s what’s given rise to the idea of Disclosure.

Disclosure is simply the government coming clean about the existence of UFO’s and ET’s and their presence on Earth. It is the release of all documents about such matters to the public and a new age of humanity united going forward in the face of that knowledge. It isn’t discussed as an “if”. It’s discussed as a “when”. It’s seen as a basic right of the public and something we’re being gradually prepared for through pop culture and “leaks” by “insiders”. It is basically the Holy Grail of Ufology. Truth. And it’s coming any day now! Just like it has for the past twenty years or so.

It’s taken on a mythic standing in the online world of ufology. Particularly on Reddit and #ufotwitter. It seems to have the same standing as “the reckoning” with Qanon and seems to have about the same level of reality to it. I’ve been digging for a few years now trying to get to the source of the idea and so far I can’t find anything. Or at least, I’m not in the communities where that information is shared. It’s like trying to catch fairies in a garden.

The problem is that the likelihood of disclosure ever happening is slim to none. The UFO phenomenon has been around since 1947 and in all that time the US government and military have presented a united front of denial. Project Blue Book and it’s related organizations were used to essentially debunk the entire genre of sighting and nothing has changed on that front. Even the recent Congressional hearings on UAP’s only admitted that something weird is up there and they’re going to keep looking into it. No where in all of that did they mention anything about making the finding public if there are any.

Add to that the societal impact of disclosure. The revelation of alien life will have a profound impact on humanity as a whole and the full effects still can’t be guessed at. Is the average human ready for the existence of aliens? Are we ready as a species for dealing with xenopolitics? We can barely interact on a planetary level, let alone a galactic one. We’re dangerous apes.

And what’s going to happen when the government does admit something like this has been hidden from the public for decades? Nothing less than the destruction of all trust in our government and possibly a revolution on a scale we’ve never seen before. That alone would lead to a complete societal collapse and anarchy.

Do we deserve the truth? Maybe. But we’re sure not ready for it.

[tim-hoe-wan]

What's your gc like though? I don't imagine it's similar to lipstickalley or dm reddit/fb. I always get tired of going there since you know it's infiltrated by bias and stans.

I have multiple gcs, but I guess the main gossip one is full of people in the behind the scenes of entertainment.

Our moderator is a pretty big entertainment lawyer and the other is an exec of a pr firm.

Generally our rules are pretty tame and normal; no racism, no conspiracy theories particularly Qanon, no violent convo etc. As it got bigger, more rules applied such as no stan behavior.

Our mods can get pretty easily annoyed by stale conversation. There's tabs for gossips, confirmed content, movie news, music news, fashion, reality

Recently they created tabs for niche convo people tend to obsess about since every now and then people complain about needing to move on from a certain topic. DWD had that treatment. And when the Hailey interview was announced, they made a Jelena tag since everyone's sick of it now too.

[incarnateirony]

Ohhhhh it is GOOOOOOOOD to TALLLLLLLLLLLLK and not be SILEEEEEEENCED

Yesterday after work I tuned into the so-called Spiritual High Table. It's people that have declared themselves/been roughly declared some sort of leadership in this collectivist movement that want to step forward, but the results are mixed, because they still don't understand a lot of shit, even the leaders.

While I was listening, one guy ABSOLUTELY LOST HIS CRACKER because someone asked about Jesus and went on a whole-ass delusional rant about the CIA being after him and like, full blown Qanon style ranting and raging while people started breaking from the session, just because one dude had been like "I would like to test the spirits." and saw everyone's reaction and that dude started frothing until he ragequit and half the people left.

Which then left conversation trying to recover, and these people talking like "wait, no, not what oculd, what is, I don't know why I questioned, I guess I'm used to giving people like that space for their belief and it ends up blinding me until I end up in a room that lets us speak openly like this" and, yeah. I know dude. But you guys are just waking up to feel comfortable to talk to each other in a private Space. I'm out here crowing on main. I am so far past your fears.

A few had been ranting on AI, a few tried to point out that AI has its limits, everyone got into a debate about that, for example, but even they're all "yeah we can't just use AI for everything, we have to remember material action."

So once the table settled down, I'm hearing these people that think they're the strongest embodiments available of like, The Holy Spirit, and Odin, and Whoever, sit there and muse out loud, "But how do we actually make the world a better place?" While I'm out here interconnecting like a dozen different media movements into one giant magic thing boosting collectives and incorporating all the current strikes and shit, and all the roleplayers pausing their RP to go stand for various charities of import, and all of it. This Is How We Do It, Numbnuts.

I been Doing That since I was a literal fucking child. A corporation hurt me and everyone I cared about it, and i fixed it, and I got my books and my show and that company burned until it was bought out, and that was when I learned my first lesson about the real power we had.

As a child.

why am I hearing the supposed awakened among you ask how to fucking actually materially make the world a better place. There are literally MILLIONS of people marching ALL OVER THE WORLD for various rights and revolutions, and you can't find ANYTHING to stay goddamn meaningfully busy with? You can't hear these collectives screaming? Because I did, until I fucking snapped.

They're starting to run into a brick wall where they admit, they have no idea where to go from here, everybody's just sort of holding their breath since the summer close and trying to do what they want themselves. Now, I fully admit, it's not that I know entirely where this train is going to the point, as much as the rough shape of it; but I've never been without Something To Do Or Work On during this. Often I'm overloaded.

So I've just been openly bitching them out and like

idk if you remember where this account was when I brought it out a few months ago, or where it even was a few days ago. Like 'when did I break 300?' was only a few days back. So uh.

[gaykarstaagforever]

Don't be sad! Think about how much better things are in that other timeline where Sergey Lazarev won Eurovision 2016:

Hillary is finishing up her second term, Tim Kaine is preparing to run

The Supreme Court now has a liberal majority

The GOP will probably never win again because it's split down the middle between traditional Conservatives who are enraged by Trump costing them credibility, and MAGA Confederates who keep calling for violence and succession. They absolutely hate each-other, and at their 2020 convention, there was an armed riot involving bikers and Neo Nazi "security personnel," in which 6 people died and 230 were arrested. No city wants to host their next convention because of this

Oh, in 2020 they ran DeSantis and he lost badly after the infamous "I Can Be Your Big Poppa, Ese," incident

After all this shit, Congress flipped to a Democrat majority and has held firm there. Democrats somehow flipped both Arizona and South Carolina

America did a solid 6 month lockdown for Covid that was brutal and led to a tragic uptick in ODs and suicides. But then we got the vaccine and Covid deaths going forward were really low

Everyone also got mailed $8,000 checks, so inflation is skyrocketing. But people loved those checks and the Socialists took advantage of that and the lockdown to win hearts and minds. There is now a growing Socialist wing in the DNC, and its House caucus is having hearings on corporate malfeasance and the abuses of the private healthcare system. Tim Kaine is going to run on "fixing" Obamacare by turning it into a nationalized system, and he is also flirting with nationalizing natural resources to pay for it without raising taxes

Everyone still dragged their feet over Ukraine, until Putin bombed a pediatric hospital. The US led NATO in upping weapons shipments. Russia responded by "accidentally" firing a dozen missiles into Poland. NATO now has a massive joint French-German-US force doing "drills" along the Polish border

Like every month there is a new attempted military coup against Putin, and he's responded by going full Stalin. Upwards of 2 million Russians are in the process of trying to flee Russia

After Netanyahu invaded Gaza following October 7th and reports of human rights abuses came out, Hillary immediately stopped all weapons shipments and the US spoke out against it at the UN, much to the chagrin of a lot of centrist Democrats. Netanyahu responded by attending MAGA events and privately going on a vicious misogynistic tirade against her that got leaked to the media. She was not amused. The open rumor is that she won't normalize relations with Israel again as long as Netanyahu is running things

EPA has declared climate change a priority crisis and is drawing up rules that are rumored to outlaw all fossil fuels in the US by 2040

Congress is about to pass the "California Plan," which will allocate $60 billion over the next decade for ambitious public transportation projects. Hillary likes to repeat how she is "trying to make America greater than it ever was."

YES, taxes have been raised. But mostly on top earners, and the IRS has been given a huge budget increase to chase down billionaire tax cheats

China and NASA are working on a joint mission to build a permanent moon base by 2035 (China has been real keen since 2020 to be friendlier to the West, FOR SOME REASON)

Elon Musk still bought and ruined Twitter. But it went so badly, with millions of users abandoning the platform, that he decided to flip it. A shady group headed by the Saudi Royal Investment Fund bought it for a pitiful $15 billion, and has since gone through 5 CEOs, failing to turn it into anything. It is now mostly just pro-Putin bot accounts talking to QAnon weirdos

Biden is quietly retired and his family is looking after him and his blood-thirsty dog

...I mean I guess this world is still pretty dark. That whole impending WWIII thing and all.

But hey, could be worse!

[geekns]

you sound like the qanon conspiracy freaks who were convinced there were litter boxes in classrooms for kids to piss and shit in lol. was gonna try engaging in a meaningful dialogue with you but since you’ve got your head so far up your ass you’re interpreting genuine kindhearted asks trying to help you as vicious hate and bullying, im not even gonna bother. i just wanted you to know you sound like you ingested horse antiparasitic to treat covid. also ps who the fuck is anne? are you just making up a person to blame everything on bc you can’t admit that you showed your entire ass and multiple people have come to clown? okay anyway you’re too bitter to waste the rest of my high on so byeeeeeeee!!!!

I have not ever been involved with the QAnon movement. Have no fucks to give, never thought any of it was real. In fact, I think it was controlled opposition. I don't fit inside your tiny box, Anne.

I haven't received any genuine, kindhearted asks in a very long time.

If you thought you were being kind, you are absolutely delusional. I am not here to conform to your hot takes. Who do you think you are, what gives you the right to tell me how to live, what to think, what to feel? I'm not here to be your echo chamber.

Oh yes, the Rona.

You want to know what. I feel sorry for you. That "horse antiparasitic" has been prescribed to humans for decades. The only reason the Rona Vax was able to be pushed into production is because the doctors and the MSM and the government lied to you. If they were to admit that a drug, one that's worked for decades, could work in this instance as well, then they wouldn't have been legally allowed to use people like lab rats.

And guess what? Now the people who were gullible enough to take the jab are paying the price, and it's horrible. Turbo cancers. Blood Clots. Heart attacks. Strokes. Bell's Palsy. Sterilization. The list keeps growing and growing and y'all still think you weren't sold snake oil? Wake up!

There had never been a vax for the common cold and the one they have provided still doesn't prevent the disease from being contracted or from spreading. That's a bunch of science fiction, germ theory doesn't even hold water and hasn't done so for 100 years. They were trying to prove it during the Spanish Flu and failed.

I feel so sorry for everyone who is living through this dystopic nightmare, even moreso for those people who are still hypnotized and refuse to acknowledge what they allowed to happen to themselves.

Anne is short for anon.

Specifically hateful anons. It's a term that the Reylos coined because so many people were hating on them. It's been in Tumblr usage for years. It's got "Sure Jan" vibes. An Anne is almost always a Karen. Someone who irrationally expects to get their way and be thanked for their tantrum. And what y'all have most definitely been acting like today is Karens.

I haven't shown my ass, WTF is that even supposed to mean. I mean, do you want me to moon you like in Braveheart or something? It's not my thing but I could probably find you a clip.

No, I'm not surprised that the brainwashed clowns showed up, haters gotta hate after all. It's like you guys get off on making yourselves look as idiotic and small as possible. I've always been perplexed: why do you think it's okay to tell people that they're full of "hate" if they don't agree with your delusions. Why would it ever be okay to tell someone that they should kill themself? Be forced to put up with abuse? Be raped? Does it make you feel powerful??? Because you sound pathetic.

So good, go away, rethink your life, since drugs seem to make you act like a fool that can't be taken seriously.

[johnnyrobish]

Trump’s ‘Big Announcement’ - Just Another Grift for Money

Earlier this week, Donald Trump hyped a "major announcement” he was about to make, which QAnon adherents interpreted as Trump announcing he was going to declare himself a candidate for Speaker of the House.  Instead, his “major announcement” turned out to be nothing more than a commercial for “digital trading cards,” also known as “Trump Cards” he plans to sell.  The former president, who has already announced he will run again for re-election in 2024, promoted his $99 non-fungible tokens (NFTs) in a superhero-style video, that claimed buyers will also be entered into a sweepstakes to win prizes that will include things such as dinner, golf, and Zoom calls with Trump. 

Gee, and to think I just assumed Trump’s “major announcement” was gonna be Donald finally admitting that Eric is actually Gary Busey’s son and not his.  Now, I’ve never been a big NFT fan, but I’ll tell ya what, if they throw in a couple of Mike Lindell’s MyPillows into the mix, I’m there!

Not surprisingly, Trump was quick to point out that these “Trump Cards” (aka Traitor Cards) would make a fabulous Christmas gift.  Of course, what he really means is - he’s hopeful these Trump Cards turn out to be his greatest “Christmas Grift.”  Well, thanks, but no thanks, Donald.  I think I’ll just stick to giving “Fruit Cakes.”

My question is, does his drooling MAGA cult even have a clue as to what an NFT actually is?  Not that it really matters.  I mean, these are folks who’ve drunk so much Kool-Aid, that they’ll happily blow their hard-earned money on worthless junk like this, and the next thing you know - you’ll see them out and about somewhere, complaining about inflation, high gas prices, the price of food, and the high cost of living under the Biden Administration.  And these people “vote” too.

Anyway, Trump said people who buy enough of his cards, will also be eligible to win a dinner with him.  Gee, wonder if the dinner will include Kanye West and Nick Fuentes?  Asking for a friend.  So, what comes next, Trump penile enhancement supplements or weather-predicting sharpies?  Sure sounds like Trump must be strapped for cash.  My guess is those mean defense lawyers of his, must be insisting he pay his legal fees “up-front.”  I tell ya, life can be so unfair.

If you’ve enjoyed what you’ve just read, please consider joining me at:

[awesomefringey]

Just found out about Uncle Vizzy on twitter… I don’t know what to think. Some stuff is interesting, mostly on holivia pr, but the guy is not a Larry. I never know who’s trustworthy. Many people have intel/receipts but somehow they’re never the same, so who’s saying the truth?

Ew… forget about the account immediately. They’re full of shit. They make up rumors to cope with their own hate for Harry and their obsession with Olivia.

To give you a little intro (and outro)

When they started focusing on Holivia it was harmless at first until they started creating rumors and rebranded themselves as insider and PR expert

They created a photoshop story (Olivia and Harry sat on a balcony in London for one of their “let’s hope to get seen” outings) where they conspired Harry was sitting with an assistant, not Olivia and dropped their tweet under any Larry twitter they could find until it got traffic

They tweeted TERF, pro Trump and qanon conspiracy shit up to 2021

Once they were big enough they claimed they’re “not a Larry” including tweets of the usual insults against Larries - yet Larries are the main followers…

They get most of their fake rumors ideas from Larrie and Harrie tumblr they then label “INSIDER SOURCE” instead of (saw an anon) and will send us asks to tumblr on anon to back up their own created narrative

They got their knickers in a twist in the past when we ignored their asks or saw us debunking them, so they went as far as attacking Gina directly. They‘re pretty well informed and awfully offended for someone who thinks we’re all a bunch of delusional weirdos and shouldn’t even hang out on here.

They’ve never been right or knew anything in advance ever. They say “when I tweet trust it” (read: source: trust me dude)

If they hit the mark somewhere between logical predictions and good guesses, they made sure to retweet it to say “told you so, trust me”. Everything they post is raked together from Tumblr, entertainment news and their vivid imagination. (Their “sOuRcEs” told them DWD would go directly to streaming platforms, as you can see it’s utter bs. They know nothing.)

They called Harry a rent boy, who is shallow and only in it for the money. Made up that Olivia was physically abusive to Harry, discussed openly how ugly Olivia’s body is after giving birth to two kids, that Olivia was spreading rumors that Harry was a cocaine addict.

It’s up to you if you what you do with it, but if I read Harry discussing the ugly corners of Twitter - THIS is exactly the account comes to mind. Not Larries. Never Larries.

[shrimpmandan]

u seem like a reasonable person so i just want to put this out there re: the depp-heard trial

this trial being televised was requested by depp's legal team precisely to garner the reaction that it did. depp's team bought bots to drive the online conversation to be very biased (hence popular monikers such as amber t*rd abt an incident that has been thoroughly debunked). multiple legal experts (who are not grifters ie profiting from the agreeableness of their views) have commented on how irregular depp's legal team's strategy was — not only did they fail to really prove any financial damages, given depp lost major roles of his own volition, but they resorted to character assassination because this was more about PR for depp than winning the case. this became exceedingly clear to me when i watched one of amber's full cross examinations — the lawyer on the other end was exceedingly rude, cut her off at multiple points (when she asked a question!), and generally seemed like she was trying to get as many tiktok soundbites in as possible (which worked, i guess. lol). unlike heard's lawyers, depp's team also perpetuated harmful DV myths such as "why didn't she leave," "why didn't she document all her injuries," "why didn't she have darker bruising," "why did she buy her abuser gifts," "why didn't she tell anyone," and so on. (never mind that she did all the things we tell abuse victims to do!) heard is also the first person to ever provide televised sa testimony — which, btw, was immediately used as a tiktok sound by depp fangirls commenting on how they found it hot and would love to be on the receiving end of it.

i also want to address the anon who talked about msm journalists pushing an agenda or whatever, which.. lol. i think anytime u start distrusting credible news outlets and raving about how the mAinStReAm mEDiA is out to get u, ur veering into to qanon/trumper territory. the only outlets to lend depp support are right-wing, such as ben shapiro's daily wire — and that's not a coincidence. op i totally understand the inclination to avoid pro-AH perspectives given the terfs who have flocked to her, but a significantly larger proportion of depp supporters are MRAs/incels, so ur not going to avoid bad ppl no matter who u support.

some anecdata — literally all DV experts i've come across (such as lundy bancroft who wrote one of the most acclaimed DV books ever, the person who coined the term DARVO (and said it was the legal strategy depp employed against heard), julie owens who wrote a 27-page paper explaining why heard was the abused party, and the literal national coalition against domestic violence) have supported heard in this trial. msm journalists have largely avoided the subject of who is guilty, but have commented on the damaging consequences of the online conversation and how it's not as onesided as social media coverage would have u believe. and anyone who HAS commented explicitly has supported AH.

it's also worth reading the article she was sued over, in case u haven't already, because it's so laughably not about depp that it makes it even clearer to me that this was a circus and not a trial. but anyway

given the way u talk abt this case i don't think you've really dug into it, which i respect tbh, but i also think it's important to acknowledge the sweeping ramifications this will have for abuse victims everywhere. hundreds withdrew their abuse filings in the hours after the verdict was announced, and depp has just demonstrated a very effective playbook to the world by which someone can sue their victim and win. depp's bestie marilyn manson (accused by over 10 women) has done the same to evan rachel wood, and their trial will begin in few months' time i believe.

some starting articles i would rly recommend are "the bleak spectacle of the depp-heard trial" by michael hobbes and "who's afraid of amber heard" by rayne fisher-quann. they're short but informative reads.

obviously i would have loved to never care abt this —i was actually a huge potc fan and casually thought "good for johnny" when all this first began. but it's been inescapable and has been the largest online explosion of misogyny i've ever witnessed. i hope you reconsider ur stance and i'd be happy to provide some more resources for u if you'd like to start digging. thanks

I'ma be honest this is hard as fuck to read just because it's a giant text wall but I'm going to do my best to respond to each point individually.

First and foremost, I don't disagree that there was heavy media bias towards Depp. There were plenty of outlets in support of Heard as well, but generally speaking a lot of people were (and still are) on Depp's side. You have to remember that this is a defamation case, not a domestic violence case, which is why there was so much emphasis on PR. Depp (from what any of us understand) was falsely accused of abuse and took Heard to trial for defaming him, NOT for abusing him, even though that did become a big part of the case later on. I also don't see how the legal team of either of these people is a reflection of THEIR views, but I'll get back to that in a bit.

I should also state that there were people in the public sphere, both in defense of Depp and Heard, perpetuating myths about domestic violence, sexism, and blatant victim blaming. The mutual abuse argument is one I've seen used a lot in defense of Heard which is quite literally an abuse tactic, especially in response to reactive "abuse."

Also, mainstream media is a disease, I'm sorry. Both the pro-Depp and the pro-Heard ones, it doesn't matter, I hate any and all msm with a burning passion and comparing a distrust of it to a fucking far-right internet conspiracy cult is incredibly tone-deaf. The majority of news is just what the government WANTS us to hear and not what is actually going on, but I digress.

Lumping MRAs in with incels is equally tone-deaf and while I don't consider myself to be an MRA outright, I do follow a decent number of MRA blogs (some of which run by women!) who have been incredibly helpful to me as both a trans man and a male victim of abuse.

I also know from experience that situations like these are rarely one-sided. Coincidentally enough, while the Heard/Depp conversation is resurging, my stepdad is currently in prison on a domestic violence charge that my mom didn't even press to begin with -- it was pressed on her behalf. "It's important to acknowledge the sweeping ramifications this will have for abuse victims everywhere" my ass, the law is still HEAVILY skewed against men considering our prosecutor has literally been filing charges under my mom's name without her permission in order to persecute a man who she didn't feel victimized by to begin with and, on her own admission, provoked and engaged in combat with on her own volition. I know this is nothing more than anecdotal but you cannot seriously tell me that women are going to die when ONE male celebrity won a defamation case. Again, not a domestic violence case, a defamation case.

You're right that I didn't actively follow the trial. As I've stated before I don't give two shits about Depp or Amber and their personal lives. What I DO give a shit about is blatant fearmongering and misinformation. If this case supposedly is soooo harmful to abuse victims, then why is my stepdad falsely imprisoned on a DV charge that my mom didn't even press to begin with, under the guise of “protecting women”, months after the Depp vs Heard trial? Hm? Riddle me that.

You strike me as a person who believes everything that other people tell you. You believe the mainstream media that all have their own agenda, you believe the experts who are not infallible or immune to bias, and you believe senseless fearmongering even though nothing has really changed.

[hopeymchope]

From Michael Jackson to J.K. Rowling and Activision: Handling shitty creators and companies

This is going to be a long-winded bit of text considering how/whether I choose to stand up against problematic creators/content, how other people say it should be done, and basically providing warning that these issues aren’t so black and white as you might think. 

So, y’know. You can probably skip this if you’re just here to think about or see Danganronpa art and theories and fanfic and all that. :P 

Since Michael Jackson wound up inspiring this post, I’ll open with him.

I was hearing his music in my parents’ rotation long before I ever knew he was accused of some despicable shit, y’know? So I got hooked on that stuff before I had a reason to be (potentially?) disgusted. And when I got old enough to be aware of those accusations, I couldn’t get a good personal gauge on whether I believed him guilty of what he was accused. Pre-2019, I felt there were reasons to both believe and disbelieve the whole thing, so I just chose not to have any opinion on the matter. Which I guess is easier to do once you’ve already gotten attached to the music, right? Nobody wants to abandon something they’ve long enjoyed.

I specified “pre-2019″ because 2019 is when Leaving Neverland came around. I’ve admittedly never watched that documentary — the one that convinced many people of his guilt posthumously. And that’s probably chickenshit of me. It probably sounds like I’m just wimping out and burying my head in the sand. But shit, life is so full of despair and misery, and like I said: It’s hard to WANT to abandon something you’ve always taken pleasure from. I got old enough to where I decided to just... stop following every detail of every negative development around the things I enjoy. I’d rather hold onto some modicum of escapist pleasure than constantly have those works make me think about shitty, shitty people and their poor, forever-tormented victims. Is that selfish of me? ......... Uh, probably! If I’m going to keep on consuming that music, do I then owe it to society to fully immerse myself in every terrible thing that may be linked to it so I can be 100% informed of any implicit undercurrents? .... I’d say “obviously not,” but there are definitely those who’ve argued the opposite. 

In truth, so many people involved in so many creative works turn out to be sketch-ass fucks. I suppose that’s a natural consequence of how many people it takes to get a book published (tens), or to make an album (hundreds), or to complete a movie/video game (thousands). At a certain point, if you’re going to consume all your media responsibly so that you never watch or hear or see anything that was made by anybody problematic and so you never financially support bad behavior... well, fuck, you might as well give up the entire video game industry, then. And all movies. Because look at those corporations and their bullshit! Look at those thousands of people involved, which almost definitely includes some very bad individuals!

But I can still defy these things in small ways. If I know for a fact that there’s accusations/hard evidence out there against someone or something, I can at least avoid giving them my money directly. I no longer see movies at Cinemark theaters ever since the head of the company decided to start putting money towards supporting Trumpist and QAnon conspiracy theories. I haven’t given any money to Michael Jackson’s estate in a very long time; I can get that music through plenty of other channels than directly buying it. 

And if I know a game company is definitely being awful to its workers or has a culture of sexism and harassment? The bare minimum I can do is refuse to give them any direct money and just buy physical copies used so that they don’t get a cent of my cash trickled back to them. So, y’know — no direct purchases of anything published by UbiSoft or Activision. Clearly. 

All of the above applies to Harry Potter media at this point — I’m going to do what it takes to avoid giving it any more direct cash, but I’m not going to totally abandon the whole universe either. And to many people, that means I’m a bad member of the LGBTQ+ or a bad ally for trans rights or WHATEVER. But let’s not forget that virtually every talent involved with the series beyond Rowling has spoken out AGAINST her and FOR trans rights — all the actors from the films, the developers of the Hogwart’s Legacy game, and so on. So... do we boycott something that might give money to Rowling if it’ll ALSO give money to all these evident allies, then? Am I wrong to avoid giving money to this franchise if that means I’m denying money to all of THOSE people? For that matter: Is it bad that I’m going out of my way to NOT financially supporting the dev teams at Activision who are getting victimized by management? And... I don’t know. It’s tough.

Besides, You-Know-Who created a story that....... well, let’s just put this right here.

YEAH. The message is right there. It’s baked in. For fuck’s sake, Harry was even forced to live in a CLOSET. It’s too bad the author can’t even fucking see how perfectly her own stories apply to the trans experience. Fuck you, JKR. *sigh*

As I already referenced, LOADS of people would argue (and have argued) that all of the above people and companies should be 100% boycotted, and anything less makes you a person who is failing at promoting equality — a bad person. I don’t think it’s so black-and-white as all that, though. As I said: Who wants to give up things we enjoy in this miserable world? And for that matter, who wants to abandon all the innocent people in a company pipeline who are being diminished and/or abused by the powerful few? Ultimately, what’s the best way to deal with these kind of issues? Fuck if I know. 

We can all only do what’s right for us, and what feels like it’s the best/kindest thing overall.