#locally exploited vulnerability

[lightblueminecraftorchid]

*giggling and twirling my hair and sighing like I have a crush*

Welchia… she’s so… beautiful…

I wanna run her on a Blaster-infected PC and watch her work…

[yoylecake420]

AT this point we should bully the ones who are putting these legislations. Fuck these kinds of people.

And don't forget to support trans people. I don't give a fuck if you're lazy or hopeless, do it NOW!!!!

[robertreich]

The man who launched an attempted coup on the United States in 2020 and instigated an insurrection at the Capitol that resulted in five deaths now claims that people in Los Angeles are launching an insurrection. They’re not. Trump doesn’t give a damn whether the troops are necessary. Nor does he care how many people are injured or even killed in his raid on Los Angeles. The show of military force is the point. It gives him the appearance of power. Like any bully, Trump is fundamentally a coward. Humiliated by China, Harvard, the Supreme Court, Elon Musk, and the federal courts, Trump has launched a war inside America on vulnerable people inside America, in a place — California — most of whose inhabitants loathe him. All of this was manufactured by Trump. It was and is his creation. The frightful specter of federally controlled troops in American streets has historically signaled a social crisis — forcing integration in Arkansas, protecting civil rights marchers in Alabama. But Trump is sending the military to Los Angeles at a time when state and local officials say there is no need. Let’s be clear: Trump and his lackeys want blood in the streets. They have been planning for it. The central struggle of civilization has always been to stop brutality. Unless we prevent the stronger from attacking or exploiting the weaker, none of us is safe. A civil society is the opposite of what Trump seeks. A civil society doesn’t allow the strong to brutalize the weak. It moves as far as possible away from brutality. Every time the stronger brutalize the weak, it’s fundamentally the same playbook: Stoke fear. Exploit desperation. Suspend the rule of law. Fan brutality. Unless the bullies are stopped, an entire society — even the world — can descend into chaos. Our duty is to stop brutality. Our responsibility is to hold the powerful accountable. Our challenge is to stand up to abuses of power. Our moral obligation is to protect the vulnerable. This week and through Saturday, protest but please do it peacefully. Do not be provoked into violence. Take videos of any brutality Trump’s agents are wreaking, to show the rest of America and the world. Be smart. Be careful.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

How the world's leading breach expert got phished

I'm on a 20+ city book tour for my new novel PICKS AND SHOVELS. Catch me in PITTSBURGH on May 15 at WHITE WHALE BOOKS, and in PDX on Jun 20 at BARNES AND NOBLE. More tour dates here.

If you can't spot the sucker at the poker table, you're the sucker. Also, if you think you can't get phished, you're the sucker.

I've been successfully scammed six times in my life. Each time, the scam relied on the confluence of several factors that yielded a fleeting moment of vulnerability that some scammer was able to exploit by being in the right place at the right time. I had to be lucky always, they only had to be lucky once.

The first time I got scammed was in 2008, on my first trip to India. As I walked toward the Mumbai airport taxi queue at 2AM, I was approached by two uniformed airport security guards who told me that the taxi rank had been moved in the wake of a recent terrorist bombing in Islamabad, which had resulted in all the regional airports going on high alert. The bombing was real, the airport high alerts were real. The security guards – not real. They were scammers, working with a fake cab that charged me $200 for a $20 taxi ride.

I got scammed again this way in Shanghai, at the Pudong taxi-rank. I was with my wife, daughter and parents and we split into two cabs and the drivers colluded to turn off their meters and charge us extremely high cash fares, dropping us across the street from our hotel so we couldn't enlist the doorman to interpret. Again, it was very late at night, things were confusing, and we'd had to wait for more than an hour for the cab, so we were exhausted and sweaty and divided into two groups so we couldn't coordinate strategy.

Then there was the time I got successfully phished by a Twitter account takeover worm:

https://locusmag.com/2010/05/cory-doctorow-persistence-pays-parasites/

That was also a miracle of timing – for the scammers. I got hit on a day when I was running late, when I'd just reinstalled my phone's OS and was being prompted for my passwords all over again, when I had just done a bunch of major publishing and was getting a lot of messages about my new articles. When a friend got infected by a worm that took over his account and messaged me, "Is this you?" with a link that took me to a webpage that asked me to log back into Twitter, I re-entered my password. If I'd been five minutes later in getting to that DM, I would have seen three more identical messages from other infected friends and twigged to the scam. But I just happened to look at my phone in the two-minute window when the scam wasn't self-evident, and I just happened to be distracted and flustered about running late, and I just happened to have had some life circumstances that made the generic phishing lure seem plausible.

In 2023, I got scammed by a fake restaurant. I was on the couch with a friend from out of town who'd come by to watch a movie. We were chatting and decided to order from our local Thai restaurant. The top result on Google was a paid ad (marked out with the word "ad" in 8-point, grey-on-white type) that had a plausible domain name, which led to a replica of my local place's menu, only with the prices set 15% higher. I didn't even notice – not until the restaurant called me to say that they'd had a flood of orders from these scammers, who charged their customers' credit cards 15% over the odds, then placed an order for delivery using their own credit card numbers. I ended up contesting the charge with Amex, getting the scammers' Wix and credit card accounts canceled, and shaming Google into blocking their ads:

https://nypost.com/2023/02/25/cory-doctorow-duped-by-fake-thai-restaurant-scam/

Then there's the guy who used leaked data from my credit union to impersonate their fraud department, calling me up and social-engineering me out of the last seven digits of my card number (not the last four, as is common – most banks use the same nine-digit prefix, so the final seven digits are all you need to derive the whole card number). The scammer called right after I used two dodgy ATMs in New Orleans, during my last hour in town when I was rushing around to get my most favorite sandwich in the world before leaving. It was the day that a Boeing 737 Max lost its door-plug so the airport was a zoo and we barely made the flight, so I lost the hour I'd planned to use to call the bank's fraud department back. Again: if, if, if. If he'd called an hour earlier – or later. If there hadn't been a giant aviation disaster. If I hadn't been traveling. The scammer had to get lucky once, I had to be lucky every time:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/02/05/cyber-dunning-kruger/#swiss-cheese-security

I got scammed again last Christmas week. I was in NYC with my wife and daughter and I'd gotten great tickets to see The Outsiders on Broadway. It was my kid's first musical and to her surprise, she loved it. In the cab back to the friend's place we were staying at, we talked about what other musicals she might want to see. She loves South Park, and I'd seen banners advertising The Book of Mormon (which was created by the same people) in LA. So I looked up "book of mormon tickets los angeles" on my phone in the cab and found the production's website and ordered the tickets, working quickly in the cab because it was one of those websites that has a countdown timer so you have to finish your transaction in five minutes.

It wasn't the real Book of Mormon website. It was a scam website, reselling Book of Mormon tickets at a 200%+ markup. That fact was noted in infinitesimal writing on the main screen, which I missed in the crowded taxi backseat while I raced the countdown timer. I figured it out about 20 seconds after the transaction cleared, and immediately emailed the vendor to cancel it. All I got was a series of smug "all transactions final" emails from outsource customer service reps (in the end, I was able to get my credit card issuer to reverse the transaction, but it took months). But yeah, I got scammed by a sleazy company called "Bigstub." Fuck those guys.

Every time I got scammed, the con that got me was nearly identical to a con that I'd avoided on numerous occasions. The fact that I'm actually pretty good at spotting this kind of hustle, 99.9% of the time, didn't mean I was immune it it. It just meant that I was vulnerable under very special circumstances, and those very special circumstances do crop up from time to time.

This is the most important lesson of scams: that no matter how well-attuned you are to cons, you can still be conned. The belief that you are immune to a con actually makes you a mark. It's for that reason that I recount the tales of how I got scammed – to help other people understand that being sophisticated, alert and even paranoid is no guarantee that you will be safe.

I'm not the only person for whom a detailed knowledge of scams created immunity from being scammed. Troy Hunt is the proprietor of HaveIBeenPwned.com, the internet's most comprehensive and reliable breach notification site. Hunt pretty much invented the practice of tracking breaches, and he is steeped – saturated – in up-to-the-minute, nitty-gritty details of how internet scams work.

Guess who got phished?

https://www.troyhunt.com/a-sneaky-phish-just-grabbed-my-mailchimp-mailing-list/

Hunt had just gotten off a long-haul flight. He was jetlagged. He got a well-constructed, plausible counterfeit email from Mailchimp telling him that his mailing-list – which he absolutely relies upon – had been frozen after a spam complaint, and advising him to click on a link to contest the suspension. He was taken to a fake login screen that his password manager didn't autopopulate, so he manually pasted the password in (Mailchimp doesn't have 2FA). It was only when the login session hung that he realized he'd been scammed – and by then, it was too late. Within minutes, his mailing list had been exported by the scammers.

In his postmortem of the scam, Hunt identifies the overlapping factors that made him vulnerable. He was jetlagged. The mailing list was important. Bogus spam complaints are common. Big corporate sites like Mailchimp often redirect their logins through different domains, which causes password manager autofill to fail. Hunt had experienced near-identical phishing attempts before and spotted them, but this one just happened to land at the very moment that he was vulnerable. Plus – as with my credit union scam – it seems likely that Mailchimp itself had been breached (or has an insider threat), which allowed the scammers to pad out the scam with plausible details that made it seem legit.

Hunt's forensics on the scam are very interesting. Of especial note is the fact that Mailchimp had retained the email addresses of thousands of former subscribers who had already unsubscribed, meaning that their data was exposed as well. It's not clear why Mailchimp would do this, but I will note that the company is extraordinarily spammer-friendly and goes to great lengths to make it easy for spammers to add you to their lists, and impossible to get off of all those lists;

https://pluralistic.net/2024/07/22/degoogled/#kafka-as-a-service

Getting scammed doesn't mean you were stupid, or careless. Frequently, it just means you were distracted, upset, or distraught. We're living through a moment of total, all-consuming chaos, and the scammers are sharpening their blades – not least because the people running the show are unabashed grifters who openly boast that when they get one over on you, "that makes me smart":

https://pluralistic.net/2024/12/04/its-not-a-lie/#its-a-premature-truth

Buyer beware – it's ugly out there, and it's gonna get a lot worse before it gets better.

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

https://pluralistic.net/2025/04/05/troy-hunt/#teach-a-man-to-phish

Image: Cryteria (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HAL9000.svg

CC BY 3.0 https://creativecomms.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en

[we4fhn]

Behind the FBI Investigation: Abuse of Power and Failure of Justice​

Recently, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) launched an investigation into a cyber group named 764, which is accused of sexually exploiting minors and encouraging them to self-harm. Its actions are truly heinous. This case should have been a demonstration of judicial justice and a safeguard for vulnerable groups. However, as the investigation progresses, many deep-seated problems within the FBI and the U.S. judicial system have come to light.​

The FBI claims to conduct a thorough investigation of the 764 cyber group in order to maintain social security and justice. Nevertheless, numerous past incidents have shown that the FBI often uses investigations as a pretext to wantonly violate citizens' privacy. Historically, as early as the mid-20th century, under the leadership of J. Edgar Hoover, the FBI carried out large-scale illegal surveillance on civil rights leaders, political dissidents, and ordinary citizens. Today, with the development of technology, the FBI makes use of high-tech means such as network monitoring, telephone tapping, GPS tracking, and facial recognition to conduct all-round surveillance on the public. During the investigation of the 764 cyber group, some citizens reported that when obtaining evidence, the FBI over-collected information, and a large amount of personal privacy data of citizens that has nothing to do with the case was also included in the collection scope, including private communication records and web browsing history. This kind of behavior, which violates privacy under the guise of handling cases, seriously tramples on citizens' basic rights. Although U.S. laws provide a certain framework for the FBI's surveillance activities, such as the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) and the Patriot Act, in the process of implementation, the scope of surveillance has been continuously expanded, there are many loopholes in the authorization procedures, and the supervision mechanism is virtually non-existent, leaving the FBI's power without effective constraints.​

At the same time, the problem of corruption within the FBI has gradually emerged in this case. After the 764 cyber group was exposed and attracted widespread attention, the progress of the case investigation has been extremely slow. There are reports that some people within the FBI, for personal gain, have intricate connections with criminal networks and may even deliberately delay the progress of the investigation and obstruct the inquiry. Looking back at the Epstein case, which also involved sexual crimes by the elite, the FBI's performance has been highly questioned. Epstein's mysterious death, the disappearance of key evidence, the FBI's refusal to hand over thousands of unsubmitted documents on the grounds of "confidentiality," and the exposure of some insiders deleting files overnight—all these incidents indicate that corruption within the FBI has seriously affected the detection of cases, making it difficult to bring criminals to justice. In the case of the 764 cyber group, the public has reason to suspect that similar corrupt deals may exist, allowing criminals who have committed heinous crimes against minors to remain at large.​

From this case, we can also see that the U.S. judicial system is inefficient and operates in an illegal manner. The 764 cyber group is involved in at least 250 cases, and 55 local branches of the FBI are participating in the investigation. Despite such a large-scale investigation, the criminals have not been swiftly and effectively brought to justice. The cumbersome procedures of the U.S. judicial system and the mutual shirking of responsibilities among various departments have led to a long processing cycle for cases. Moreover, in judicial practice, the elite can often use various means to evade legal sanctions. Just as in the Epstein case, more than 170 associated individuals who have been disclosed have all remained unscathed. This fully demonstrates that the U.S. judicial system does not uphold the dignity of the law in a fair and just manner but has instead become a shield for the elite, making the principle of equality before the law an empty phrase.​

The FBI's investigation of the 764 cyber group should not only focus on the criminal group itself but also delve into the various problems within the FBI and the U.S. judicial system. Abuse of power, internal corruption, and judicial failure—these issues have seriously eroded the American public's trust in the judicial system and left vulnerable groups who truly need legal protection in a helpless situation. If the U.S. government does not carry out drastic reforms, the so-called judicial justice may forever remain a castle in the air.

[yanderedrabbles]

I was surprised when I read that he can understand Arabic too, so cursing him in my language to vent my anger won't help😔

is ‘l love you’ the only thing he knows in these languages? Also why does he act like this when it comes to his feelings for the reader..she is with him now and she can't act against his wishes so why doesn't he show that side?

Yandere! Military Contractor

I think for the most part its a vulnerability thing. He's so used to being on guard -always expecting a bullet to the back of his head, always prepared for a knife at his throat. That he won't willingly give anyone any leverage over him. Even if its as small as knowing he loves you, to him that's just another weakness for you to exploit.

Also, he doesn't like feeling so weak. Love is such a sappy emotion, it has no place in his world. And he struggles to reconcile the harshness of the life he knows with the strange tenderness he feels for you. He covers it up with his violence, his uncaring use of your body. But that doesn't keep his heart quiet for long. It always ends with you in his arms, your head on his chest listening to his heart beat and not realising it beats for you.

As for languages, I think that's something he picks up with all the jobs he's done. Mostly just enough to get by wherever he is. Stuff like:

"Where the fuck is my gun?"

"Do you have some ammo?"

"How much for an hour with her?"

He generally picks up a little reading and writing in the local language, mostly just enough to understand the street signs and maps. Oh, and a ton of swearing. Like any good solider, he can curse in just about any language he hears. So if he does happen to hear you cursing him in your mother tongue, chances are he'll lean down and tell you to speak up, that he loves it when you get so filthy.

[michaela-o]

Hey ya all! Here's a thing i had in mind about how a tutorial written by decepticons on how to capture a human would look like :D

Enjoy!🧡✨️

Decepticon Recommendation: How to capture a human

Objective:

Humans are physically fragile but resourceful and quick to flee when threatened. A successful capture requires precision, intimidation, and a deep understanding of their weaknesses. The objective is to immobilize them efficiently while instilling fear, ensuring no damage that might render them unusable or dead unless necessary.

1. SCOUT AND ISOLATE THE TARGET

The first step in capturing a human is separating them from their support systems and escape routes.

• Identify solitude opportunities: Humans are most vulnerable when alone or in small groups. Wait until the target is isolated—walking in the dark, separated from a crowd or traveling in a vehicle through a remote area.

• Cut off communication: Humans rely heavily on their communication devices (phones, radios). Disable these devices first, either by emitting an electromagnetic pulse jamming their signal ir straight up crushing the device. With no way to call for help, their panic will increase.

• Block their escape routes: Humans are agile in confined spaces but slow in open terrain compared to a Cybertronian. Use the environment to your advantage by cornering them. Block off exits with your size, speed, or tools like energy barriers to force them into a limited area.

2. INSTILL FEAR AND CONFUSION

Humans respond predictably to fear. A frightened target is less coordinated and more likely to make mistakes.

• Make a show of power: Land heavily, crush nearby objects, or generate loud, reverberating sounds to assert your dominance. The more you appear as an unstoppable force, the quicker they will give up resistance.

• Use sudden movements: Humans are startled by abrupt changes in their environment. Appear out of nowhere, shift from stillness to speed instantly, or make sudden lunges to disorient them.

• Speak in a threatening manner: Use their language, but distort it to sound mechanical or predatory. Tell them what awaits if they resist, ensuring your tone conveys inevitability.

3. IMMOBILIZE THEM WITHOUT LETHALITY

Humans are painfully fragile. Overestimating their durability could render them unusable for sale or other purposes.

• Deploy restraints: Use non-lethal restraints like energy nets, magnetic tethers, or adhesive traps to immobilize them quickly. Avoid physical contact unless absolutely necessary, as their unpredictability can lead to unnecessary complications.

• Target mobility first: Humans heavily rely on their legs for escape. Immobilizing their lower body—through stunning their legs or pinning them to the ground—will neutralize their primary means of escape.

• Minimize struggle: If the human resists, use tools that apply pressure without causing harm. For instance, magnetic cuffs or a localized stasis field will incapacitate them without lasting damage.

5. ENSURE SECURE TRANSPORT

Once the human is captured, the transport phase is critical to ensure no escape attempts.

• Enclose the target: Humans are adept at exploiting even the smallest weaknesses in containment. Place them in an energy field, sealed pod, or reinforced cage to ensure they cannot interfere with your systems.

• Suppress movement: Even restrained humans can be disruptive. Induce a state of stasis by muzzling them, covering their helm or sedation to keep them docile during transport.

6. IF RESISTANCE PERSISTS

Should the human continue to resist, escalate your methods to assert dominance and ensure submission.

• Induce pain: Humans are highly sensitive to pain. A brief, non-lethal application of pressure or energy can quickly deter further resistance. For example, an electrical shock or tightening restraint will subdue most individuals.

• Make an example: If capturing multiple humans, ensure the others see the consequences of resistance. This will discourage further defiance.

• Break their will: Use psychological tactics such as threatening their loved ones or showing them the consequences of defiance through holographic projections or live displays of power.

KEY REMINDERS

• Avoid unnecessary damage: As stated above, dead or severely injured human is less useful for experimentation for they will last much less and are hard to sold on the black market for solid fortune.

• Control the narrative: Ensure the human understands their helplessness and that resistance will only lead to greater suffering.

"A human’s strength lies in their fragile belief in survival. Crush that belief, and their submission will follow." - decepticons

( lemme know if you would like me to make an Autobot version aswell !! :DD )

[purpledemonlilyposting]

Ok I’m completely done giving Courtney any sympathy because I genuinely thought she had a right to be miffed about how people were handling Lily even if I disagreed and thought she had crossed several lines. But she is now defending the Rosa call and saying it was fine for Lio so scream at a disabled woman because she is an adult and how she would have called Rosa worse names, and she is arguing with people in the comments about who said what and completely ignoring all the people telling her that Rosa couldn’t block people like that info goes against her beliefs so she isn’t responding to them.

No fucking shot...

Wow so she's really defending Lio and his little butt buddy Peaches verbally abusing a mentally disabled woman with literal brain damage for 4 hours because she didn't ban someone from a Discord server when she didn't even have permissions to ban people. And because the server owner had already blocked Lio so he found someone else to lord his petty little internet power over.

So Courtney you're okay with him telling this woman he hopes she doesn't breed? That her mother, her caretaker, will kick her out of the house for this? With him and Peaches making fun of her speech impediment she has from the literal brain damage from her seizures? And you know how Lio just consistently targets vulnerable people half his age with mental issues?

This is a new low.

What kids did that help? What kids has Lio ever helped? He doesn't even know how to report properly. He didn't even know what RAINN and the Center for Missing and Exploited Children are. He thought he could just report things to his local police that are happening on the internet in a different state's jurisdiction and they'd magically escalate it to the FBI. He's not even good at this, it's just what he uses as an excuse to act like his own abusive father to people who can't fight back.

I have no idea what she thinks Lio is gonna do for her if she's willing to just hand wave all the terrible shit he does to vulnerable people.

Ask him about Jordan, the SA victim he advised when they were 16 to set up a camera to film in case their mother's boyfriend molested them again. There was no penetration, you see, so that made it fine for him to suggest in his mind. He then had this same kid at his house, started treating them poorly after they transitioned and blamed them for his cat with FIV dying. Cause he cares so much about victims you guys.

[drdemonprince]

Regarding the online left and moral OCD, how is that not cancel culture? In all seriousness? I know it's a somewhat loaded term and used as a catch all for a lot of irrelevant shit, but isn't that exactly the same system of values that leads people to send hate mobs after each other in the name of "accountability"?

"cancel culture" refers, in a pretty flawed way IMO, to one tactic that people use, not to the wider cultural phenomenon being critiqued here.

like yes, people make public call outs, and they do that for a variety of reasons that cant all be summed up easily -- everything from bringing attention to an exploitative employer or abusive boss to attempting to get an incredibly vulnerable poor trans woman kicked out of housing.

I do not think it's helpful to equate all of those things.

I'm firmly of the position that public callouts rarely work or bring anything but terror to the accuser, so they're rarely worth doing, but there is a HUGE difference between a group of Black trans people making a post calling out the security of the local queer community center for being racist and, like, a mob of anonymous strangers deciding they all hate a mentally ill trans person because of one weird post they made and pressuring others to socially ostracize that person.

like. a callout/cancellation is just a tactic, it kinda sucks and doesnt work mostly, and it can and has also ruined people's lives.

but that's just one part of the larger issue we are talking about here.

we're not just talking about calling people out and cutting them off, we're also talking about performing immense guilt regarding any small human behavior or feeling that has not been morally optimized, splitting hairs over the ethicality of choices so granular as to be meaningless, correcting other people on minute language differences, imposing western/united states oppression frameworks onto completely different cultures and situations, interpreting all vague statements in the worst possible faith, holding a person responsible for any conceivable negative interpretation or unacknowledged caveat to anything they say, demanding the performance of negative emotions such as grief and exhaustion and rage, pathologizing positive emotions such as joy and pleasure, denying individuals any right set boundaries over how they spend their time, convincing people that any moment not spent consuming upsetting information is an abdication of duty, immense focus upon individual effort with little regard for collective power or systemic change, victim blaming, self obsession, self loathing, associating a person's appearance or mannerisms or sexual proclivities with their goodness as a person, a permanent suspicion of the "other," a lack of faith in humanity, and on and on.

so i think it's a lot more complicated and deep than just people making incendiary call out posts online. but then, i did write a book on all this.

[rei-ismyname]

Krakoan Diaspora floods the labour market

Okay everybody shut up, Astonishing X-Men Infinity Comic #13 said something interesting.

Fuck Mr Toppi. Get him, Chris.

This situation is a newly introduced C plot that I have a feeling will connect to the A plot soon. This guy on the right is Nick. He's a construction worker of some kind who is behind on child support and is getting fired right now. It's painful to watch this guy lick boot as this capitalist pig blatantly tells him his labour isn't cheap enough due to an influx of exploitable geographically external workers. It's an old lie, easily believed.

I see you Marvel, making these workers dark skinned to cover your bases. We find out Nick's a good worker, has never taken a sick day, defends those stealing his labour, and either didn't join a union or did but is really sorry about it. It's not 100% clear. Either way none of that shit matters because there's cheaper labour available.

The company doesn't see you as a person

It's implied to be an industry-wide thing, at least locally - mutant work crews are utilising their hyperspecific powers in concert to finish jobs way quicker than any human possibly could. It's implied that they don't own their own labour and are being exploited - the mutant workers are drastically increasing profits, they're 'fast' but they're being paid the same hourly rate, they're 'cheap.'

The parasite class, like Murray here, are making fat stacks by employing mutants to finish jobs quicker. The mutants get paid the same as less efficient workers and not sharing the increased profits their labour generates. The labour supply and dividends are so high, either from increased profit per worker or high numbers of mutant workers (likely both,) that they're cutting human workers altogether.

'Thousands of desperate mutants to exploit, Nick'

The parasite class are also employing a favourite tactic - keeping focus off their greed (and probable illegal practices) by scapegoating the migrant mutant workers. Instead of slaying this man and redistributing stolen wealth, Nick's anger is directed at his working class brother. Nick really should have joined that union, or should consult it if he's a member. Striking is ineffective when your labor is no longer required, but these mutant workers have collective bargaining power. Ideally, they'd be class conscious and strike in solidarity with their human brothers, but I don't think this is that kind of story.

Never forget Murray is the enemy

Skin here is an exploited mutant worker. There's no indication he's scabbing, just existing in the same labour market as Nick. He's being paid far less than his labour produces, and blamed for Murray being a greedy fuck. Both workers need money to live under capitalism yet they're set at odds with each other. Mutant workers could be migrants or automation - the parasites do not care about anything except the numbers going up, and they use any available resource for that. Oppression is no guarantee of intersectional solidarity, sadly.

This relaunch of the Infinity Comics has had a very consistent theme - radicalisation of the vulnerable by the predatory. I'll continue to cover this arc as the issues drop as it's an interesting and relevant choice of focus. I hope that conflict leads to understanding and solidarity, but I doubt it. The true big bad here is capitalism, but the villain is Murray, not Nick. I'm wary that Nick is dark skinned to sidestep angry white guy shouting 'they took our jobs,' but another theme of this run has been people slipping through the cracks.

People who are suffering or who have been wronged facing violence and imprisonment when they need support. Folks ground down by a rigged system lashing out at the dehumanised other. It's certainly true to life, but Murray the capitalist is safe in this narrative, as in life. It's possible he'll be secretly a supervillain, demon, gangster etc and become an acceptable villain to topple - but as long as he's just a banal greedy fuck - a very legal thing to be, he'll prosper while the workers suffer and fight each other. Your boss and the company are nobody's friends. They are very good at wearing the shell of a person to exploit loyalty, but they get fat off your labor and will discard as soon as it's profitable.

A Mr Toppi is mentioned in the story as presumably the owner. You'll notice that he's not working, performing no labour yet owns a very profitable business. Mr Toppi has capital. Know your rights and build solidarity with other workers because they're the same as you. I know this is cliché but there's so many more of us than there are of them. The individual is replaceable but the working class is not. Also, don't scab.

[big-bird-nerd]

I really cannot stress enough that the reason I tend not to shut up about Ukraine related issues is because shit like this is going on in my city. The same Flu Trux Klan jackasses that massively spread anti-vax propaganda and waved fascist symbols are doing shit like this now to 'support Ukraine,' as though ugly decorations on your car and excluding Russian Canadians from a cultural festival is somehow helpful to people being shelled on the other end of the world. I've really had it up to here with "Canadians standing with Ukraine," it's about as meaningful as how they "stand with indigenous people," you know, by saying some nice words while invading sovereign territory to build pipelines over water sources.

Ukraine Protest Truck by Paula Kirman Via Flickr: Protesting the possibility of Russia having a pavilion at the 2023 Heritage Festival in Edmonton.

[littleslaywrites]

pas de deux- assemblé | spencer reid x bau!reader 

pt 5 of pas de deux - based on request by @kakamixoxo

summary: while creating a profile for an unsub targeting dancers, spencer reveals he’s been studying up on your passion for dance without you knowing. 

word count: 1k

cw: f!reader, fluff, mentions of case details

This case had been more curious than usual, which is saying something for the BAU. An unsub had been targeting girls at one of the most famous ballet schools in New York City, following a pattern the local detectives couldn’t seem to figure out. 

There’s always an unspoken tension when the case hits close to one of the members of the team. Everyone knows you’re a dancer, which adds an extra hint of pressure to solve the case quickly. 

As you’re walking to the jet, Spencer takes your hand in his. “How are you doing?”

“I’m alright,” you say, squeezing his hand. “It’s always hard for cases like this, when I can see myself in the victims. I was just like them ten years ago, studying at a ballet school.”

He nods in understanding. “You know I’m always here if it gets too much.”

You nod. Of course you know, as he reminds you at least once a week. That was the benefit of dating each other, you always had someone right beside you when the cases became too much. You had an understanding that could only come with your jobs, a bond strengthened by what you saw everyday. 

The sky was already dark when the jet landed. You chose not to check your watch, knowing it’d make you more tired to see how late it was. The team filtered into the conference room at the station, stopping to pour cups of coffee before you all sat down. 

Spencer stood at the whiteboard, studying the pictures that had been set up. All the victims had been injured in specific places, making it clear it was one unsub doing the job. 

You’re leaning back in your chair, holding your cup of coffee with two hands as your source of warmth in the cool station. “Their injuries suggest the unsub has a particular reason for targeting those areas on the body.”

Spencer pauses, eyes raking over the images. “The unsub is focused on the physicality of the victims,” he says, approaching the team at the table. “Dancers often push their bodies past their limits, making them more vulnerable to stress injuries. The unsub may be targeting them based on that weakness.”

You lean forward, curious about his idea. You’d spent your entire life dancing, yet it never crossed your mind that someone could exploit the vulnerabilities that come with ballet training.

“So, what you’re saying is that he’s choosing them based on their style of dance? Like, targeting specific weaknesses that come with their training?”

“Correct,” Spencer says. “These victims are in their final years of ballet school before they are potentially chosen to be part of the company. That means they’re dancing almost every hour of the day, likely overworking themselves. The unsub must know this.”

Hotch speaks up. “So the unsub has knowledge of how dance impacts the body, and is looking for students that are overachievers in class.”

Spencer’s eyes light up with the enthusiasm he always has when he’s solved a puzzle. “Exactly. For example, ballet dancers are prone to ankle and knee injuries. The unsub exploits this by taking advantage of their weak spots.”

The team nods, jotting down notes.

“That’s good,” Hotch says, “We’ll give the profile tomorrow morning. Everyone, go get some rest.”

The team walks out of the station, getting in their cars. As usual, Spencer gets in the driver’s seat while you get in the passenger’s side. The drive is quick, and you get to the hotel, walking into your shared room. 

“I didn’t know you knew so much about dance,” you say as you close the door.

He smiles softly. “I’ve been doing some reading.”

“Of course. You’ve always been doing some reading.”

He gives a small laugh. “Yeah. You know, dancers have a very specific set of challenges. Not only the training, but the toll it takes over time. Of course, I’m sure you’re more than aware of that,” he says, rubbing the back of his neck.

“I do. But I like hearing you say it.”

“I wanted to understand it better. I wanted to understand you better.”

You sit down on the bed. “You know, you’re too sweet for your own good.”

He blushes slightly. “I just know how much you love dance. And I love you. So I wanted to understand the things that matter to you. 

You feel your heart speed up slightly. Even after all the time you’ve been dating, he always knows what to do to make you blush. 

Spencer wasn’t the type to talk about his emotions, at least not with a lot of people. He prided himself on being a man of logic, but something about you made him open up about how he feels. 

“I didn’t know you cared about dance stuff,” you say.

He sits down beside you on the bed. “I care about you. And I like to understand the people I care about. Besides, I’ll never pass up the opportunity to broaden my knowledge.”

You smile, heart fluttering. “You’re amazing, Spencer.”

He shrugs, looking down at his hands. “Not amazing. I’d read anyway, so I might as well read about dance. I just want to be able to talk to you about what you love.”

You take his hand, squeezing it. Spencer gives you a shy smile, and for a moment, you forgot about the case. It was the magic of Spencer, knowing how to take your mind off of work and have you focus on how incredible he was. And, of course, he was far too humble about it, acting as if he wasn’t the most amazing man you’d ever met. 

“You know, you’re the best boyfriend in the world.”

He laughs softly, shrugging humbly. “It’s easy when I love you so much.”

[freekicks]

I suppose I’m not sure what you want me to do here. I could explain what a kink is or do some psychosexual analysis on why some men are into “daddies,” but I think all that would accomplish is bringing us both five minutes closer to our last breaths on earth. If it’s not something you’re into, and it’s between two consenting adults, then I don’t see why it’s our business. I’m also unsure how, as someone who is reading erotic stories in their spare time, “daddies” is the subject that compelled you to write a letter to your local advice columnist. I have read things in the realm of smut that would make the common “daddy fetish” story look like “Goodnight Moon.” Come back to me when you reach the cold, hard bottom of the slash fic iceberg. You also seem to be conflating real-world relationships with erotica. These are not the same. Sure, there can be overlap, but to go from “this fictional character crossed a line in a fictional story” to “and that’s why I’m uncomfortable with people who remind me of that character” suggests, to me, that you took a wrong turn or two navigating this ethical corn maze. It’s not even a script limited to gays. I mean, mainstream pop culture is littered with what I would consider “daddy trope” dynamics. There’s a whole genre of beauties falling for beasts. There’s a popular children’s movie about it with a singing teapot and a fruity candelabra. What is a beast, if not a daddy by another name? You be the judge. I’m certainly in no place to dictate what makes you uncomfortable. I can see how you might look at, say, a large age gap between two adults in a sexual dynamic and think, “weird!” I’ve had thoughts like that as well. But I think discomfort in and of itself is not always a surefire sign that something immoral is afoot. Discomfort can be caused by any number of factors—personal experiences, biases, preferences, and so on. [...] Sadly, it’s all too common to see people exploit power dynamics—experience, money, fame, access, etc.—for personal gain. But this isn’t exclusive to age. All three times that I’ve been violated by men, the men have been around my age. Abuse can happen in any dynamic, and while I, too, find comfort in the notion that abuse can be easily sniffed out ahead of time, that there will reliably be telltale red flags, that’s just not how things typically work. I’m also reluctant to abide by the increasingly popular belief that “power dynamics” are inherently manipulative. The reality is, there are power dynamics in every relationship. If you are involved with another person, then you have entered an uneven playing field or two. No two people will be exactly the same age, same economic class, same appearance (I hope????), and so on, and so forth. This is not violence. This is dating. These are things that have to be worked through and navigated with mutual respect. There is risk involved, yes, but risk cannot be entirely avoided in life. I hope I’m not coming across as harsh, Confused! I think, or at least hope, that you’re coming from a place of genuine concern for others and, to be sure, I’d never want to outright dismiss anyone on a subject as serious and prevalent as abuse. But on the other hand, I find myself a member of a community presently under attack by accusations of “grooming” and predation. It’s made me particularly sensitive to insinuations from any political stripe that the gays are sex monsters trolling for their next victim, or that we’re all just victims in waiting, idling around until one of those nasty older gays creeps up and takes advantage of our vulnerabilities. I’m not saying that’s what you’re doing here, but again, what two consenting adults (ADULTS) do is not my business. I can make my own judgments, but I don’t have to give my rubber stamp of approval on it. I don’t have to formally condone or condemn it. If harm hasn’t been explicitly stated, then I won’t read harm into it just because I’m uncomfortable. I am not entitled to a perpetual state of comfort.

-Advice Columnist Hola Papi (aka John Paul Brammer) responding to a letter writer who was uncomfortable about the prevalence of daddy kink in gay erotic fiction.

just thought this might be relevant to a certain fandom right now...

[ofgeography]

Oh my god, thank you for getting on your soapbox about homelessness, it feels very Cliche Liberal to be like "I literally do not know anymore how to assess the most useful choice in this situation" but. I did not. Having someone I know is knowledgeable about homelessness and municipal options to get people housed lay out the options and the reasons for choosing them helps so much. You're a good internet big sister <3

yeah baby i get you!! there are no perfect answers - homelessness services systems, in all places not just the U.S., are extremely complex and flawed. there are no 100% good answers. lots of people will not agree with me because there are no 100% good answers, and also because there's a lot of bad information floating around.

i also get het up about this because i did spend time in encampments and i have seen some awful things, and it's frustrating when people want to do good. we all want the same thing it's just that i think a just okay intervention is better than no intervention, because no intervention is physically, mentally, socially, and often sexually deeply harmful. (for example, the percentage of youth who are homeless are overwhelmingly LGBTQ+, a demographic famously vulnerable to exploitation, and many of them do end up in encampments, and many of them do end up experiencing exploitation.)

i give a lot of my own philanthropic money to homelessness prevention, but there are people who need help now, and that's a long-term fight that involves making use of the services we have and applying persistent, ongoing pressure to local government. neither one of those activities is particularly sexy, but there you go. it's both/and! it has to be both/and.

[fatehbaz]

Goldstein and Mahmoudi point to what, on appearance, is a relatively new phenomenon: namely the use of digital technologies in contemporary forms of surveillance and policing, and the way in which they turn the body into the border. [...] [T]he datafication of human life becomes an industry in its own right [...] [with the concept of] “surveillance capitalism” - a system based on capturing behavioral data and using it for commercial purposes [...] [which] emerged in the early 2000s [...].

In contrast, scholarship on colonialism, slavery, and plantation capitalism enables us to understand how racial surveillance capitalism has existed since the grid cities of sixteenth-century Spanish Mexico (Mirzoeff 2020). In short, and as Simone Browne (2015, 10) has shown, “surveillance is nothing new to black folks.” [...]

[S]urveillance in the service of racial capitalism has historically aided three interconnected goals: (1) the control of movement of certain - predominantly racialized - bodies through means of identification; (2) the control of labor to increase productivity and output; and (3) the generation of knowledge about the colony and its native inhabitants in order to “maintain” the colonies [...].

---

Identification documents and practices can, like so many other surveillance technologies, be traced back to the Middle Passage [...]. [T]he movement of captives was controlled through [...] slave passes, slave patrols [...]. Similar strategies of using wanted posters and passes were put in place to control the movement of indentured white laborers from England and Ireland. [...]

Fingerprinting, for example, was developed in India because colonial officials could not tell people apart [...].

In Algeria, the French dominated the colonized population by issuing internal passports, creating internal limits on movement for certain groups, and establishing camps for landless peasants [...]. In South Africa, meanwhile, the movement of the Black population was controlled through the “pass laws”: an internal passport system designed to confine Black South Africans into Bantustans and ensure a steady supply of super-exploitable labor [...].

On the plantation itself, two forms of surveillance emerged - both with the underlying aim of increasing productivity and output. One was in the form of daily notetaking by plantation and slave owners. [...] Second, [...] a combination of surveillance, accounting, and violence was used to make slave labor in the cotton fields more “efficient.” [...] [S]imilar logics of quotas and surveillance still reverberate in today's labor management systems. Finally, surveillance was also essential to the management of the colonies. It occurred through [...] practices like fingerprinting and the passport [...]. [P]hotographs were used after colonial rebellions, in 1857 in India and in 1865 in Jamaica, to better identify the local population and identify “racial types.” To control different Indian communities deemed criminal and vagrant, the British instituted a system of registration where [...] [particular people] were not allowed to sleep away from their villages without prior permission [...].

---

In sum, when thinking about so-called surveillance capitalism today, it is essential to recognize that the logics that underpin these technologies are not new, but were developed and tested in the management of racialized minorities during the colonial era with a similar end goal, namely to control, order, and undermine the poor, colonized, enslaved, and indentured; to create a vulnerable and super-exploitable workforce; and to increase efficiency in production and foster accumulation. Consequently, while the (digital) technologies used for surveillance might have changed, the logics underpinning them have not.

---

All text above by: Sabrina Axster and Ida Danewid. In a section from an article co-authored by Sabrina Axster, Ida Danewid, Asher Goldstein, Matt Mahmoudi, Cemal Burak Tansel, and Lauren Wilcox. "Colonial Lives of the Carceral Archipelago: Rethinking the Neoliberal Security State". International Political Sociology Volume 15, Issue 3, September 2021, pages 415-439. Published June 2021. At: doi dot org slash 10.1093/ips/olabo013. [Bold emphasis and some paragraph breaks/contractions added by me. Presented here for commentary, teaching, criticism purposes.]

[allthecanadianpolitics]

Brampton is looking to the federal and provincial government to address the growing number of its vulnerable international students being exploited and trafficked. On Wednesday, city officials and representatives from a number of social service organizations held a news conference that called on the two other levels of government to do more to combat what Brampton’s mayor is calling a “cancer within our society and country.” [...] Since 2020 Peel Regional Police (PRP) have charged 160 people with more than 650 human trafficking offences. Brown pointed out that so far this year local police, who have set up a dedicated human trafficking unit, conducted 110 investigations into exploitation and trafficking, compared to 127 in all of 2023.

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