#mass migration and war

[dfnkt]

What pill makes you feel okay about the fact that anyone under 30 is going to see either hell on earth or the beginning of hell on earth in their natural life span (if they live that long) barring an absolute miracle

[hexjulia]

Stark doesn't seem to have had something like lawrence's divided loyalties, but then she only worked for the british government during wwii, not before. most of the prose i glanced at so far was very readable and occasionally pretty. given who she was just from a look at wiki she probably did and said some troublesome things though, so i expect actually reading her books will have you reading more than a little of that. But genuinely interesting life. I should read more older nonfiction books by women and lbh a lot of widely read men were deeply terrible people.

[epitome-the-burnkid-viii]

[renegadetalk-fm]

American Journal UK War On Free Speech Heightens As Citizens Push Back Against Mass Migration

[alfedena]

People do not realize that when we say Israel is a settler-colonial state, we mean it was literally devised in junction with European imperialism around the turn of the century.

Political Zionism was founded by Theodore Herzl. Originally, Zionists were not specifically interested in the land of Palestine as a colonial project. In fact, Herzl was debating making Argentina the focus of mass Zionist migration, which is quite ironic considering Argentina's colonial and Aryanist past. British-controlled Uganda was also offered as a possibility by Joseph Chamberlain, a Conservative imperialist.

To encourage mass Jewish migration to Palestine, he worked with the British, who had recently drove the Ottoman Empire out of the Levant, and now boasted political dominance in the region, thanks to the Sykes–Picot Agreement between the UK, France, Italy, and Russia which covertly authorized British influence in Palestine, which had become a target of colonial expansion. He specifically wished to collaborate with Cecil Rhodes, a British imperialist who played a lead role in colonizing Zimbabwe and Zambia, and later took inspiration from his time spent extracting wealth from Africa as the founder of mining conglomerate the British South Africa Company.

Herzl’s personal goals for Zionism were colonial. He said in a letter to Rhodes:

“You are being invited to help make history. It doesn’t involve Africa, but a piece of Asia Minor; not Englishmen but Jews […] How, then, do I happen to turn to you since this is an out-of-the-way matter for you? How indeed? Because it is something colonial […] I […] have examined this plan and found it correct and practicable. It is a plan full of culture, excellent for the group of people for whom it is directly designed, and quite good for England, for Greater Britain [...]”

At that time, Palestine was predominately populated with Arab Muslims and Christians, as well as Arab Jews (Old Yishuv) and Druze. Jews made up around 6% of the population. The Ottoman government specifically released a manifesto at the start of Zionist migration condemning the colonization, stating:

“[Jews] among us […] who have been living in our province since before the war; they are as we are, and their loyalties are our own.”

The Balfour Declaration of 1917 on behalf of parliament, officially established the British Mandate of Palestine, sowing the seeds for the modern state of Israel, by means of the UK's ongoing occupation of the region.

Zionism was never about promoting Jewish culture or safety; it has always been tied up in Western (settler-)colonial expansion. !من النهر إلى البحر

[opheliapurple]

Mxtx love interests and their relationships with captivity are fascinating and all, but I’d rather just focus on how funny Hua Cheng’s is in particular.

We have Luo Binghe‘s creepy replica bamboo hut and the tragic horror of watching him succumb to his worst impulses and try destroying the world to trap Shen Qingqiu by his side.

We have Lan Wangji warring internally with himself for years over his smothering need to hide Wei Wuxian from the world and save him from himself.

And then there’s Hua Cheng

Professional Gege Catch and Release Wildlife Expert Hua Cheng.

This man is a gege rehabilitation facilitator who does what he loves and loves what he does.

He tags his gege with a gps tracker so he can study his migration patterns. He humanely traps and relocates his gege whenever he’s strayed into danger.

If you hit a gege with your car, all you need to do is call Hua Cheng and he’ll be there with an animal control slip leash, a GoPro to promote his TikTok awareness campaign for gege welfare and conservation to the masses, and Yin Yu is on the phone preparing the treatment center for a new arrival.

He’s one of those guys who lovingly cares for a feral cat colony in his backyard, providing handmade housing with heating and regular check ups.

He’s insane don’t get me wrong. But his crippling self doubt and unbreakable compulsion to provide merged in such a weird way, it comes off a little more wildlife rescue than I think is intended.

[zvaigzdelasas]

[H]undreds of legal experts and groups on Monday urged the global community—and the United States government in particular—"to comply with international law by ending the use of broad, unilateral coercive measures that extensively harm civilian populations."

In a letter to U.S. President Joe Biden, the jurists and legal groups wrote that "75 years ago, in the aftermath of one of the most destructive conflicts in human history, nations of the world came together in Geneva, Switzerland to establish clear legal limits on the treatment of noncombatants in times of war."

"One key provision... is the prohibition of collective punishment, which is considered a war crime," the letter continues. "We consider the unilateral application of certain economic sanctions to constitute collective punishment."

Suzanne Adely, president of the National Lawyers Guild—one of the letter's signatories—said in a statement that "economic sanctions cause direct material harm not only to the people living on the receiving end of these policies, but to those who rely on trade and economic relations with sanctioned countries."

"The legal community needs to push back against the narrative that sanctions are nonviolent alternatives to warfare and hold the U.S. Government accountable for violating international law every time it wields these coercive measures," she added.[...]

"Hundreds of millions of people currently live under such broad U.S. economic sanctions in some form, including in notable cases such as Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Syria, and Venezuela," the letter notes. "The evidence that these measures can cause severe, widespread civilian harm, including death, is overwhelming. Broad economic sanctions can spark and prolong economic crises, hinder access to essential goods like food, fuel, and medicine, and increase poverty, hunger, disease, and even death rates, especially among children. Such conditions in turn often drive mass migration, as in the recent cases of Cuba and Venezuela."

For more than 64 years, the U.S. has imposed a crippling economic embargo on Cuba that had adversely affected all sectors of the socialist island's economy and severely limited Cubans' access to basic necessities including food, fuel, and medicines. The Cuban government claims the blockade cost the country's economy nearly $5 billion in just one 11-month period in 2022-23 alone. For the past 32 years, United Nations member states have voted overwhelmingly against the U.S. embargo on Cuba. Last year's vote was 187-2, with the U.S. and Israel as the only dissenters.

According to a 2019 report from the Center for Economic and Policy Research, a progressive think tank based in Washington, D.C., as many as 40,000 Venezuelans died from 2017-18 to U.S. sanctions, which have made it much more difficult for millions of people to obtain food, medicine, and other necessities.

"Civilian suffering is not merely an incidental cost of these policies, but often their very intent," the new letter asserts. "A 1960 State Department memo on the embargo of Cuba suggested 'denying money and supplies to Cuba, to decrease monetary and real wages, to bring about hunger, desperation, and overthrow of government.'"

"Asked whether the Trump administration's sanctions on Iran were working as intended, then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo responded that 'things are much worse for the Iranian people, and we're convinced that will lead the Iranian people to rise up and change the behavior of the regime,'" the signers added.

12 Aug 24

[that-rad-jewish-girl]

Double standards are the name of the game when it comes to antisemitism “anti Zionism”.

“The pager and walkie attack was a declaration of war and a terror attack!” Okay….then what tf are all the rockets being launched over the northern border? Remember when Hezbollah bombed a soccer field and killed 12 children? What was that?

“The Palestinians are being killed - it’s a genocide!” No, it’s a war. What was Oct. 7th? Was that not a genocide? 1 million people have died from the Russia-Ukraine war…..is that a genocide? Are Ukrainians committing genocide right now by bombing Russia? How many civilians have died (on both sides)? Is that genocidal?

“Israel stole the land from Palestine and they need to give it back!!” I’m tired of this lie - it’s getting old. But even if you were right, what does it matter? I guess everyone who has ever migrated in the history of all time needs to move back? How far back should we go? The early white Americans were from England, sure, but before that they were from somewhere else. This is such an unproductive conversation to have it’s not even funny. I guess every country needs to close their borders and not allow any immigration. Oh wait! - you claim that’s apartheid and xenophobia. So the standard only applies to Israel?

“Israelis are white colonizers!” Again, a lie. A lie I’m tired of. But were we white when you put us in camps? Were we white when we were slaughtered for not being white? Were we white during every genocide to ever take place against our people? If you stuck me in front of a Nazi and said “she’s a Jew”, would that Nazi say I’m white? How dumb of a claim to say that we are white only because the most recent country some of us come from is a white one. Try applying that to any other ethnic or racial group. I guess every black person in the UK is white now. Why? Because they live in a white country. Ridiculous thought process.

Even more ridiculous is to talk of “Israeli occupation and colonialism” without talking about the history of Palestinians. Staging a coup in Jordan? Assassinating the Jordanian Prime Minister? When that didn’t work, they sent their troops to Lebanon instead. That’s why Hezbollah is in Lebanon today. That’s why they have control over Lebanon today. They went in as refugees before staging a coup and talking over the government. Hezbollah has direct control over much of the land there - only because of Palestinians invading under false pretenses and taking over. Native Lebanese people were slaughtered en masse, and many fled for their lives. But yeah, let’s talk about the big, bad, boogeyman Israel.

[spacerockfloater]

“The Targaryens/ Valyrians are not white supremacists and can’t be compared to European Colonisers!”

Oh? My bad then. I must have them confused with some other white folks who thought their appearance made them superior, brought whole continents to heel, exploited the lands of others for their own greed, destroyed whole civilizations and enslaved vulnerable people who unfortunately lacked the advanced weapons of mass destruction they possessed.

“Well, the Andals and the First Men were also colonisers, so they deserved it!”

No way! Are you actually telling me that every race has a history of violence because human nature itself is corrupt and we’re no better than animals fighting for their place on this earth? That’s so crazy and original. By the way, are you saying that people deserved to get colonised and enslaved because they were fighting other people in order to survive? Are you suggesting these “savages” should have been contained by the righteous white folks who came there to better their lives? Not to mention that the Andals and the First Men came to Westeros 12,000 and 6,000 years ago respectively, while the Targaryens attacked Westeros barely 130 years ago (literally just 3 - 4 generations) from the Dance of the Dragons? So are you comparing the morality of the people who migrated here, who were so primitive that barely even possessed weapons of steel, with that of the most advanced civilization ever built in the ASOIAF universe? That’s so interesting! It’s almost as if the Andals and the First Men didn’t know any better until it was too late and were trying to find a land that could accommodate their millions of people, so they were essentially fighting for survival, whereas the Targaryens who came from a race that had evolved philosophically, politically, academically and technologically wise, possessed enough wealth and land to sustain their little family, yet still chose to go to war against the land that nurtured them out of pure greed! Hmmm. Do you also believe that the Greeks had it coming when they were enslaved by the Ottomans and should just let go of the past because it’s been so long since they regained their freedom (barely 200 years ago btw, after 4 centuries of slavery), because their Ancient Ancestral Tribes migrated to Greece and conquered the land 3,500 years ago, a little after the age of bronze? No? Then you might see why that kind thinking is flawed.

Stop defending these inbred bastards with your full chest. We get it. They look badass. We all have a fave war criminal but all of the Targs need to be put to the sword, along with their fucking lizards. Purposely denying the parallels between the Targaryens/ Valyrians and the Colonisers/ Conquerors of our world screams white saviour complex.

[sopafa]

Camelot, the center of this story, is ruled by Jim Lake Jr., trollhunter and leader of both the magic and human realm. The round table, is full with knights and ladies, from all the distant lands, willing to defend the magic and fight for what is right. The queen of these lands, is Claire of the Lake, a shadowmancer. A witch. Who is able to not only control shadows, but fill Jim’s heart with pure love.

Aja Tarron, monarch of the land of Akiridion, who, despite being part of the round table, lives in her own kingdom, as opposed to her consort (the knight Palchuck) and her brother Krel (who serves as Ambassador to the lands of Camelot).

From other kingdoms, and distant lands, we have other rulers and monarchies, who have signed the peace treaty of the lands of Camelot, and follow the traditions of caring for, protecting and preserving magic, as well as magical creatures and beasts.

Rosas, an island kingdom with milk teeth, created by the King Magnífico, as a sanctuary for those who want to escape war, and leave in piece. Witches and wizards are often seen in the kingdom of Rosas, after all, it was the first kingdom to be formed with a monarch capable of manipulating magic.

Arendelle, The mountain kingdom, known for its proximity to fjords and ice magic. The world knows well the story of the so-called snow queen, and how the firstborn of the royal house of Arendelle was blessed with the kiss of ice magic, to protect her people, and prove herself worthy of the throne.

And of course, the kingdoms of the champions.

From cities, to islands. The legend says that the purest hearts come from anywhere and anywho.

No matter gold, or silver stone, what is really important is the soul.

Berk, The center of the archipelago, the land of Vikings and fierce dragons, where beasts and men live together as one. Be careful with teeth, fire and weapons, who knows, they say that the least dangerous thing in those lands are dragons. Not for nothing, Berk has no enemies.

Dumbroge, legend has it, that the oldest souls and magic itself, comes from these lands. That the richness of its power is so high that if you stand still, you can see magic itself take shape. Unfortunately, past prejudice and persecution of magical creatures in times past caused a mass migration, leaving witches and entities in short supply in this area.

Corona, the land of the sun, an island in the middle of the Mediterranean, which is said to be rich in trade, art, minerals, and above all, raw materials for magic spells. Some say that its power comes from the sun itself. Others are just lucky. The truth is that nobody knows.

[the-ind1gen0us-jude4n]

@elenajones23 first of all, who are you, a non Jew to lecture me about what my religion does or doesn’t allow? Who are you to tell me, as someone who doesn't practice the same religion, that I can or cannot do things?

The Torah isn’t a simple set of guidelines and commands, it’s far more complex than that. It has different interpritations, so saying the torah doesn't allow it is blatantly false. The name "Zion" (Promised land) is mentioned 154 times.

“It isn’t your land and it never was your land” bullshit.

We absolutely do have a land, if we don't, then why do we have holy sights in Jerusalem? Why are names like "Jaffa" and "Haifa" Hebrew?

The land of Israel is where my ancestors came from, it is where they lived, it is where they had a connection to, and it is where they suffered under the romans and were exiled.

We were never welcomed in Europe, we were never welcomed in the rest of the middle east.

These are ancient scrolls called the "Dead sea scrolls" which are a set of ancient Jewish writings dating from the 3rd century BCE.

This is all of what remains of our ancient temple, this is what it once was:

The first temple is Solomon's temple, the second one is Herod's temple, which was destroyed in 70CE by the romans. centuries later, the Muslim caliphates built the Al Aqsa mosque which was built on top of our temple mount. Today, the west wall is all we have left of this historic holy place.

The name "Palestine" was given to the land of Israel by roman colonisers who exiled most of us from the land of Israel, took many of us slaves, and scattered everyone else through western Europe (Some moved further east).

Now about the Nazis = Zionist argument. The Nazis originally made a deal with German Zionist Jews (The Haavara agreement) to bring about a mass migration from Germany to Israel, it should be mentioned that this was because Hitler and the Nazis wanted a Jew-Free Europe, not because the Nazis supported Zionism.

This deal was criticized by both Nazis and Zionists. Zionist criticised it because it made a deal with the devil, and the Nazis criticised it because it went against their philosophy.

The Nazis were extremely antizionist, the belief that they were Zionists is soviet cold war propaganda to demonise the state of Israel and the broader Jewish community. They believed that Jews were biologically incapable of running their own state and were too inferior. Hitler had a "Palestinian" friend (Amin al-Husseini) who campaigned in Berlin, fought for a Palestinian state, and even CONTRIBUTED TO THE HOLOCAUST. They also lead a boycott of Jewish businesses in "Palestine".

So, you're wrong. So very very wrong. You can try to lecture me about the history of my own people and religion all you want, but you're wrong.

Please, kindly fuck off and read a history book. Please attend a Synagogue service and learn more about our religion before you come spewing false bullshit about it.

[fatehbaz]

In fact, far more Asian workers moved to the Americas in the 19th century to make sugar than to build the transcontinental railroad [...]. [T]housands of Chinese migrants were recruited to work [...] on Louisiana’s sugar plantations after the Civil War. [...] Recruited and reviled as "coolies," their presence in sugar production helped justify racial exclusion after the abolition of slavery.

In places where sugar cane is grown, such as Mauritius, Fiji, Hawaii, Guyana, Trinidad and Suriname, there is usually a sizable population of Asians who can trace their ancestry to India, China, Japan, Korea, the Philippines, Indonesia and elsewhere. They are descendants of sugar plantation workers, whose migration and labor embodied the limitations and contradictions of chattel slavery’s slow death in the 19th century. [...]

---

Mass consumption of sugar in industrializing Europe and North America rested on mass production of sugar by enslaved Africans in the colonies. The whip, the market, and the law institutionalized slavery across the Americas, including in the U.S. When the Haitian Revolution erupted in 1791 and Napoleon Bonaparte’s mission to reclaim Saint-Domingue, France’s most prized colony, failed, slaveholding regimes around the world grew alarmed. In response to a series of slave rebellions in its own sugar colonies, especially in Jamaica, the British Empire formally abolished slavery in the 1830s. British emancipation included a payment of £20 million to slave owners, an immense sum of money that British taxpayers made loan payments on until 2015.

Importing indentured labor from Asia emerged as a potential way to maintain the British Empire’s sugar plantation system.

In 1838 John Gladstone, father of future prime minister William E. Gladstone, arranged for the shipment of 396 South Asian workers, bound to five years of indentured labor, to his sugar estates in British Guiana. The experiment with “Gladstone coolies,” as those workers came to be known, inaugurated [...] “a new system of [...] [indentured servitude],” which would endure for nearly a century. [...]

---

Bonaparte [...] agreed to sell France's claims [...] to the U.S. [...] in 1803, in [...] the Louisiana Purchase. Plantation owners who escaped Saint-Domingue [Haiti] with their enslaved workers helped establish a booming sugar industry in southern Louisiana. On huge plantations surrounding New Orleans, home of the largest slave market in the antebellum South, sugar production took off in the first half of the 19th century. By 1853, Louisiana was producing nearly 25% of all exportable sugar in the world. [...] On the eve of the Civil War, Louisiana’s sugar industry was valued at US$200 million. More than half of that figure represented the valuation of the ownership of human beings – Black people who did the backbreaking labor [...]. By the war’s end, approximately $193 million of the sugar industry’s prewar value had vanished.

Desperate to regain power and authority after the war, Louisiana’s wealthiest planters studied and learned from their Caribbean counterparts. They, too, looked to Asian workers for their salvation, fantasizing that so-called “coolies” [...].

Thousands of Chinese workers landed in Louisiana between 1866 and 1870, recruited from the Caribbean, China and California. Bound to multiyear contracts, they symbolized Louisiana planters’ racial hope [...].

To great fanfare, Louisiana’s wealthiest planters spent thousands of dollars to recruit gangs of Chinese workers. When 140 Chinese laborers arrived on Millaudon plantation near New Orleans on July 4, 1870, at a cost of about $10,000 in recruitment fees, the New Orleans Times reported that they were “young, athletic, intelligent, sober and cleanly” and superior to “the vast majority of our African population.” [...] But [...] [w]hen they heard that other workers earned more, they demanded the same. When planters refused, they ran away. The Chinese recruits, the Planters’ Banner observed in 1871, were “fond of changing about, run away worse than [Black people], and … leave as soon as anybody offers them higher wages.”

When Congress debated excluding the Chinese from the United States in 1882, Rep. Horace F. Page of California argued that the United States could not allow the entry of “millions of cooly slaves and serfs.” That racial reasoning would justify a long series of anti-Asian laws and policies on immigration and naturalization for nearly a century.

---

All text above by: Moon-Ho Jung. "Making sugar, making 'coolies': Chinese laborers toiled alongside Black workers on 19th-century Louisiana plantations". The Conversation. 13 January 2022. [All bold emphasis and some paragraph breaks/contractions added by me.]

[clumsybriar]

König x Fem! Reader — Stranded

König x Fem! Reader

Word count: 5,833

Notes: reader gets stranded on an island, use of (y/n), fluffy at the end.

———————————————————————————

(Y/n) wasn’t so sure how she had survived a natural disaster such as she did. But here she was, proof that miracles do happen.

Her eyes were blurry as the tears welled up in her eyes as she looked around the abandoned beach. No one was left in the small boat she had been traveling on. Her assumption was that she was the only one.

She thought she was alone and left to die in this hellscape no matter how beautiful it truly was. There was no time to take in the beauty when panic settled in her soul.

She was in pain and felt like she went through a terrible beating. Her eyes glanced back at the boat as she saw it washed ashore broken in half and clearly not being able to be sailed back into the mighty sea Poseidon ruled over.

She had just woken up a bit ago, finding herself ashore laying in the sand as her summer dress didn’t do a good job at keeping her cool in the sweltering heat.

She had a massive headache, and her body ached worse than anything. She had a few minor scrapes except for her forearms that had been scratched up a bit heavily either due to maybe the boat capsizing at times during the storm, or for other reasons when she was unconscious.

Her eyes glanced back at the boat as it was clear no passengers were left having been through such a rough water spout that had ripped the boat in half.

She was lucky she even survived this far. She hoped partially she would be able to live to tell the tale, but then again, she had no survival skills.

She was doomed. That was all she knew.

Why? She thought traveling by boat from Belgium back to America would be a fun little trip to end her Europe tour, but it ended up being a disaster, one she wouldn’t make again by choice and one she may not get to make ever again.

“Du bist endlich aufgewacht und hier dachte ich, ich müsste dich mit den Massen begraben.“ ("You finally woke up and here I thought I had to bury you with the masses.")

Her eyes glanced back at a large man who spoke another language she didn’t know at all. He was large and tall and quite frankly scary with that mask he wore over his head. He was garnished in medals and a military uniform with Austria’s flag on it.

He must have been speaking German.

“Katze hat deine Zunge? Sprichst du Deutsch?" (“Cat has your tongue? Do you speak German?”) he spoke as he knelt in front of you checking you over.

„I-ich, spreche kein Deutsch.” She uttered softly. “Es tut mir leid.”

That’s all the German she knew. That’s all her great grandfather had taught her when he was alive. He was from Germany and had migrated to America during the second world war since he was a Jew. From there he met his wife and her great grandmother who was a catholic and he was a Jew. It was a weird combo but they made it work and loved each other a lot.

“Ah, I see.” His English was amazing, he had a deep accent but he was understandable and that helped ease her mind.

She wished she could be fluent in another language but it was so daunting and scary to learn another language. Especially when English was such a difficult language and not like the other ones.

In the distance the sky was growing dark and hazy.

The soldier had been keeping his eye on it as (y/n) felt nervous and terrified. She didn’t like storms, and she didn’t like being stranded either. It seemed she was facing all sorts of fears today. How delightful.

He tended to the cuts on your forearm, having wrapped them up with bandages as he spoke softly.

“My name is König, yours?” His eyes looked up at her.

“(Y/n),” she said softly. “My name is (y/n).” She nodded. He gently tucked the cloth into itself as he tucked her arm close to her. He was being so gentle for being such a tall muscular man. (Y/n) had thought maybe he wouldn’t know his own strength but that didn’t seem to be the case. He was gentle and careful and made sure not to make any movements to scare her.

“Are we the only survivors?” She asked her eyes looking at the wreckage.

König's eyes glanced at her. He looked back at the wreckage. He seemed to be thinking about what to say.

“Do not go near the wreckage, we are the only survivors.” He said softly. She would heed his warning having a weak stomach was something she did struggle with, a reason why she didn’t watch movies like horror or thriller. Anything that showed disgusting scenes she was out for the count.

The universe seemed to be on her side leaving some military man as her other sole survivor. Maybe she would make it home one day. Maybe she would go home and see her family and hug her family cat again.

God how she missed that little devil that ran around at midnight.

Most of all she just wished she could close her eyes and wake up in her bed again, but she couldn’t. She was a long way from her bed.

Days and nights started to blur and she was left wondering if anyone knew the boat had crashed. Was someone on their way to rescue her and König?

“Come, let’s set up a fire.” König guided her to the little camp they had set up. Things were getting better situated as time went on. So far they had been stranded for a week, and König was keeping them well safe out here in the wilderness. He was the sole provider having years of experience being able to survive in treacherous areas such as this.

She was getting used to eating the animals he hunted though she did get queasy at the thought of some of them.

“Are you a part of the military in Austria?” She asked. For this last week it had been mostly silence. On both ends, talking here and there but not conversations. Neither of them had conversations.

“Colonel in the Austrian military, now an operator for KorTac, a private military that gets contracted out for whoever wants our services.” He said softly as his eyes never left the flame he was trying to produce with the flint he had found and the rock he had. He just needed to make a spark, that’s all he needed. “I was leaving a Austrian militia event and returning back to my KorTac base taking the boat.” He said softly, finally achieving the fire he wanted.

“Oh,” she smiled softly. “I’m surprised you traveled by boat, wouldn’t a plane get you home earlier.”

“Mmm,” he shrugged as he stacked dry wood up.

She felt like he wasn’t feeling very chatty and it made her a bit self conscious. “Tell me why you were far from home schatz?” His blue eyes looked up at her.

“M-me.” She said softly. “O-oh, well.” She got a bit flustered. “I took a big trip for work. I'm a travel writer for a popular magazine and I traveled to the UK, Denmark, Paris, and France and lastly Belgium.” She spoke quietly. “Then I booked a boat ride home with this company, back to the states where I could then go back to work.” She said softly. “It’s boring.”

“Mmm, no it’s quite interesting.” He said softly as he speared a few things of meat as he started to cook them for the two.

“I imagine my boss is wondering where I am.” (Y/n) spoke softly. “Probably writing emails trying to see if I stayed in one of the countries or if I’m ever coming home.” She smiled softly but it turned into a frown. “I miss home.”

König did too, he missed home as much as she did.

“Someone’s out there looking for us, I know.” He told her reassuringly.

“I hope so.”

The nights had started off warm, but now they were getting cold. König had said it was a storm blowing in, so he made their hut sturdy and kept her close to him at night time. Her face was nuzzled into his chest as she would sometimes listen to the ocean waves as they crashed against the coast.

“You're still up schatz?” König shifted a bit as his thumb rubbed against her back.

“Did I wake you?” She asked softly.

“No, Schatz, nein.” He cooed softly. “Just woke up on my own accord.” He hummed.

She nodded as she listened to the ocean again. König was doing the same thing as he rested a hand behind his head as his other arm was asleep, giving it up to her to use as a pillow. He wanted her comfortable, and she was. She was coming to rely on him and feel afraid when he left. It got to the point that she followed quietly when he hunted or stayed close by as close as possible.

“What’s on your mind tonight.” He asked softly.

“What tomorrow will bring.” She said softly. “Maybe a rescue crew.” She nodded her head.

“We can dream, but don’t get your hopes up.” He was realistic.

“Do you miss home?” (Y/n) asked as she looked up at him.

“I miss Home, I do, liebling.” He said quietly.

Outside random frogs were croaking and random animals were making sounds.

She was so grateful to have found a crystal clear body of water to bathe in not too long ago. Her and König would take turns and it made things so much better as she wasn’t feeling embarrassed about sweating as much. Now she didn’t mind being curled next to him as they slept. A week ago, she would have been repulsed and kept on her side away from König because she felt stinky and quite frankly didn’t want him to smell her body odor she had collected from her wonderful journey in the wilderness.

“In the little town I live in, there’s this bakery,” She hummed softly. “They make the best apple crumble.” She hummed softly. “I’m craving it right now.” She giggled softly.

“Mmm, and here I was craving a bratwurst and the best Austrian bier.” He chuckled, his chest rumbling and causing her giggle.

“Bier! Nein! Das ist nicht lecker.” (Beer, no, that is not tasty!”) she had been slowly picking up German from him. Having been near him for about three weeks he was filling in some words with phrases teaching her without any of them noticing,

“Oh, now you spreche Deutch.” He teased her softly.

“Picked up a bit.” She hummed. “Like…oh!” She cleared her throat. “Du bist ein stück Scheiße.” She paused. “You said that when you were angry at the fire.”

“Mmm,” he chuckled. “Language.” He patted her back. “Leave the foul mouthed cuss words to me.”

She giggled softly. “Yes colonel.” She smiled up at him. “I sometimes think about the people who are worried sick about me, like my mother and father, my sister, they have no way to contact me and I can’t contact them to let them know I’m safe.” (Y/n) said softly as she looked out at the ocean. “Do you have people at home waiting for you, worried sick?”

Her eyes traveled back up to him as her hand rested on his chest.

“Meine Mutter und mein Vater.” He hummed. “I call them every night, but they’ve gone a few weeks without it.” He chuckled softly. “Maybe they think I went on an important mission.” He hummed softly. “That’s all that would worry other than my team.” He said softly. “I’ll get you home, I promise.”

She smiled softly at his promise. “I trust you colonel.”

»»————-　♔　————-««

Finding a water source that offered crystal clear water had made things ten times easier. The ocean was great but it was salty and one couldn’t survive off of that unless they wanted to be dehydrated and dead by the end of the week with this sweltering heat. König had found that it was coming from a spring that trickled down from a mountain.

(Y/n)’s first thought was, it must not have been that small of an island, maybe they were on an island with civilian life. If that was the case then they needed to find people, find a town, something.

“It's not safe to leave what we created here.” König was stern when he said that. “We leave this behind, we risk having to survive in a new location that’s why we haven’t gone far.”

“But—“

“No buts schatz, what if you don’t have that spring water and it’s just saltwater bubbling up through the sandy terrain making a body of saltwater. Hmm?” König asked. “You don’t have fresh water now. Liebling, trust me.”

“I trust you.” She said softly as the two sat back down having lunch. He tucked her close to him as he nuzzled the top of her head.

“I’ll get you home, right now our best bet is to stick close to the wreckage cause that’s what they are looking for.” König hummed as his thumb rubbed soothing circles on her waist.

It was logical, you're missing a colonel and a boat full of people, what are you looking for, not random people walking around. A boat. You're looking for a boat.

She was ready to feel the grass between her toes and hopefully not the damn sand anymore.

Needless to say, she didn’t need to take a beach vacation in the next 10 years. She was all beached out. Three weeks felt like a lifetime to her right now, it felt like entirely too much time to be stranded.

Her and König, though, had grown a stronger bond. König kept watch over her, made sure she was safe, made sure she was well fed even if she didn’t eat all that much since she was cautious of the food. He could tell she wasn’t used to eating wild animals, fresh just hunted.

“You got a man waiting for you back at home.” König asked that night as they stared at the stars laying under the canopy of the sky. Her head was on his chest as she listened to his voice rumble from deep within his chest.

“No.” She said softly. “Just me.” Her eyes glanced up at the sky.

She didn’t have a guy or a gal waiting for her back at home. It was just her and her alone. She had been on a few dates but her job consisted of traveling often and writing, and potential partners just didn’t like the fact that she’d be traveling all the time if her boss sent her somewhere. They were self conscious, and that was fine. So it was just her, just (y/n) and it was okay.

“Mmm, such a pretty little schatz like you would be swiped up fast where I grew up.” He smiled at her.

“People don’t like the traveling I do.” She informed him. The sound of the ocean breeze blowing the palm trees behind them is comforting. It soothed her soul more than anything at the moment. It reminded her of nights where she would sit on her breeze-way and listen to the nature around her as she would read a book.

Part of her wished König would stay with her, part of her wished he would. He was charming and sweet and she felt like she was falling for him slowly. Maybe it was because they were both living such a traumatic event, like surviving a boat crash or trying.

She could remember the night the captain told everyone to essentially buckle up and go below deck because the waves were massive and a few times they capsized. It wasn’t a huge cruise boat that transported people, it was a smaller size that carried at most 30 people. Still, it capsized a few times and then things were over when the water spout had picked them up and carried them.

It was an act of Mother Nature telling them to get away.

She had nightmares of it, often, almost every night.

She could remember the fear as she laid in her bunk. She would roll with the boat hoping for some miracle especially when it capsized.

The captain had said there was no worries when it coasized because the boat was made to flip back over, but still it had a small window of failure. Not everything worked 100 percent of the time.

“People should want to travel with you.” König hummed. “See the world, they're just scared.”

She hummed softly. “You think so.” She thought about it for a second. “Maybe they are scared.” She agreed softly as she bit her lip. “Do you have a partner?”

“Nah, just me too.” He acknowledged. “Been just me since I joined the military.”

“What was the military like?” She asked softly.

König wasn’t afraid to tell her. He liked their conversations. Enjoying how the two could talk about anything and it was easy. He never had that with anyone especially with his social anxiety he had obtained a while back. He didn’t feel like he had suffered with his severe anxiety at all during this stranded journey. He felt almost at peace and he wasn’t sure if it was because of the lack of people around him or if it was physically her calming him down by just being near him. It was like a flip had switched off and he took to protecting her like it was the last thing he would ever do. He took the mission and took to putting his heart into it.

“I suffered from severe social anxiety,” he said softly as he kept his blue eyes locked onto the starry night sky. “Bullied often for it, so my childhood was one thing.” He tugged her closer keeping her tight against his side. His other hand rested on his stomach as he rubbed it softly feeling calm at the moment. “So at the age of 17, I joined the military, I wanted to be a sniper, but I grew to be too big to be that and I couldn’t sit still enough.” He chuckled softly. “So I was an insertion specialist. From there I rose from the ranks and became a colonel.” He hummed softly. “I just recently joined KorTac, it’s not like serving my country. It’s a weird thing, I’m not so sure how much I like it.” He rubbed his thumb in her back as he soothed himself and her. “But I’m not one to quit, I see things through.”

“As my dad always says, you have to give things time, feel it out.” She hummed agreeing with him.

“That’s a good way of putting it, schatz.”

»»————-　♔　————-««

More time had passed as they had now been stranded for exactly two months.

Two months.

(Y/n) was losing her mind. When were they coming to rescue her and König were they getting rescued? At this point probably not.

She wondered if anyone was even looking, were they out there searching, or were they sitting at home watching movies and kicking their feet back and forth giggling.

She was frustrated, and she knew König was as well, but he held it together for her.

He swallowed his anxiety that was slowly starting to creep into his system and tried to hold it together for her.

There were many times like now he had to walk off and let her know he would be right back so he could get the worry and anxiety out of his system.

He sat on a log in the forest a far enough distance away that he could still see her partially and hear her if he screamed.

He sat bouncing his leg as he whistled nervously trying to calm the rising nerves in his system. It was getting harder to fight off the anxiety and harder to fight the constant panic that surged through him.

His eyes flickered around the vast forest scenery. The area was beautiful, it would be beautiful to visit if traveling. Being stranded was a different story.

König took a deep breath as his leg slowly stopped shaking and he stopped fiddling with his military uniform. His eyes glanced back down at his hands as he shook off the fear that tried to consume him and he started to slowly make his way back to the camp they had set up.

Things were going to be just fines

He had to often remind himself that everything was going to be okay. That everything would work out in ways that it should.

He came back to camp to see the woman figuring herself, the fear that probably consumed her. The thought of her having been alone for a bit had terrified her.

He took a deep breath reminding himself to be calm and collected as he approached.

“Hmmm, Liebling, don’t fret.” König sat on a log beside her. “Gonna get you home schatz.” His hand rested on the back of her head pulling her into his chest. “I’ve kept us alive this far, gonna keep us alive for longer.”

She wrapped her arms around him as she hugged him tightly. She trusted him with her life.

Though it didn’t mean that she still didn’t want to rip her hair out of her head and cry nonstop. She was struggling and she was struggling with a lot of different things. Struggling with the idea of never making it home. Struggling with the idea of dying here with König, or let’s be honest even struggling with the idea she might just be König meal soon enough if they ever ran out of huntable food.

She didn’t want to be a snack to the Austrian giant. And it wasn’t even going to be the good type of intimate snack she was physically going to be his meal if they don’t get off this island.

Maybe it was a weird fear of hers, but it was logical…right? If they had to survive on this island for another 9 months. Fruit only grew in one season, and animals could only repopulate so fast. That was her logic and right now her logic was far from a normal person's logic.

It was a small percentage of her being his snack, but that one percent was still there. It was still there…

“Come let’s get a bath.” He cooed softly.

Bath time used to be one standing guard and the other one bathing and then switching. Due to her fear, it had become a joint event. Why?

(Y/n)… she had become so dependent on König she became fearful of being away from him for long periods of time.

Probably a reason why she thought she would be eaten first, get rid of the one who relies on the other.

She had to have König beside her even if that meant he had to see her naked body, she didn’t care at this point.

She scrubbed her shoulders making sure all the dirt and grime were off her skin. She paused as she looked back at König having felt his eyes on her.

She felt that cold chill and the goosebumps rise. She slowly turned around and surely enough König was staring at her.

“Something wrong?” She asked softly. Her eyes flickered from his bare chest up to his eyes. He had finally let her see his face, something she didn’t think she’d ever be blessed to see. Truly she didn’t need to see it either.

“N-nothing schatz.” He looked away embarrassed as he went back to scrubbing his own skin.

“He’s going to eat me!” She thought to herself as she turned around slowly. She was being so illogical right now. They still had plenty of food options. She wasn’t going to be a snack…yet.

“Here Schatz." König's hands brushed against her hip as she jumped slightly. “Es tut mir leid, didn’t mean to startle you.” His voice was soft and gentle. “You okay?” He asked softly.

“M’okay.” She nodded as she leaned into his hands as they rubbed across her back cleaning her up.

“You’ve been jumpy more often.” He said softly.

She has been, she was just on edge lately, afraid she would never make it home.

“Have I?” She hummed softly as he brushed her hair from her back scrubbing her clean.

“Just a bit.” He nodded softly. When he was done he turned her around to look down at her. His large hands gently brushed her hair away. As he looked down at her face taking in her soft eyes that looked up at him.

His hands were calloused but gentle. She didn’t mind them touching her. It gave her a sense of ease and a sense of comfort.

Her head leaned into his large palm as she closed her eyes.

There was this sense of serene calmness at the moment, and neither of them minded. His forehead leaned down against her as he reassured her quietly.

“We’ll be fine, I promise schatz.” He hummed softly. “We will be just fine.”

She trusted those words. She had spent two months with this man. Two months of being close to him and bathing with him. Two months of practically being his own companion, a dependent one, but a companion nonetheless.

Her eyes looked at him as she gently cupped his face. Her body got smooshed against his as his hands found her waist.

Before the two could think straight they had their lips on one and another. It was a soft and tender kiss, one that had been slow and full of passion. The two had been cresting this bond over their time of being stranded. Starting with small conversation at night too laying close in each other's arms, now bathing with one another.

This had brought them together.

“König.” She said softly.

"Mein Liebling." He said softly.

“Thank you.” You said softly. “Thank you for keeping me safe.” She uttered softly.

“I’d do it all over again.” He hummed. “Mein Liebling."

»»————-　♔　————-««

(Y/n) helped König watch the food that was roasting over the fire. She was tucked close to him as she could her hands traced over his forearms as she watched the waves crash into the beach.

She felt giddy after the kiss they shared three days ago, though she was afraid to initiate another kiss though. To be frank König was as well. The two would lean in close and then get embarrassed and look away as if they weren’t just about to kiss.

They had more important matters right? Like getting off this island they had become stranded on.

“You have very beautiful eyes.” König hummed softly.

“Mmm,” a smile formed on her face as she looked up at König. “Do I?” She said bashfully.

“Ja,” he smiled at her.

“I don’t think they're as pretty as yours, yours are like the ocean.” She hummed softly. “I could get lost in them.” She spoke quietly. She leaned forward and cupped his face.

She was going to kiss him this time, there was no running away from it. She wanted this.

“Just kiss him, just kiss him!” She thought in her mind. It was a whole internal battle in her mind. She wanted his lips on hers, that’s all she wanted.

“What is it, schatz?” He asked softly. He touched his face thinking there was something in it.

She lurched forward and kissed him. Her hands found their way in his hair as he tugged her closer.

“You like to tease me schatz.” He chuckled as he pulled away looking at her.

“I don’t mean too.” She giggled as her soft smile graced him. He wrapped his arms around her waist pulling her closer.

“Sure.” He rubbed his thumb on her waist. “Sure.” He teased softly. His lips leaned down and snatched a kiss away from her as she.

The two stayed close to each other for the rest of the day, resting and gaining back some energy. They watched the ocean and chatted to one another about random things. They didn’t want the day to end, they didn’t want this happiness to end.

Yeah they were terrified but they didn’t want the happiness they served one and another to end. They always wanted to be with one another.

The world had other plans though, it always did.

Who knew that night the rescue crew would find them. Who knew it would be KorTac, pulling their colonel away from the woman who had been stranded with him. Pulling her to the other side of the helicopter to get checked over while soldiers talked to their colonel.

“König,” she uttered in fear as she pushed herself more into the corner. These medics surrounded her and spoke to her softly.

“Colonel König is needed for something,” a medic hummed as she tried to give a fluid IV to the woman.

“König,” she said louder, getting frantic. “No, no, don’t touch me!” She shrieked as she scurried back more.

It got König attention fast. He pushed his way out of the men that surrounded him and looked at the medic with a glare.

“Don’t you lay a hand on her.” He snarled as he quickly cupped her face in his hands. “Mein Liebling, Du bist okay.” He hummed softly. “I’m here.”

The medic watched as König gently sat beside (y/n), dehydrating himself, but instantly calming her down. The woman curled into his arms as she squirmed away from the medics.

“Colonel, we just need to give her an Iv.” The female medic spoke softly.

He paused as he looked at the medic then down at the woman who was hiding her face in the string Austrians arms. He sighed softly as he cupped the back of her head in his hands.

He knew she needed the IV, she needed the fluid and so did he. He nodded slowly as he leaned down to her softly cooing sweet nothings into her ear to ease her fear.

“They will not hurt you, let them give you the IV so we can get you some fluid.” He hushed her softly. “Hmm?”

“Okay,” she said softly.

(Y/n) had become so in need of König, she was afraid to be separated from him in general. She needed to be beside him the whole entire time. She was fearful, and he wasn’t going to lie, he was under a lot of stress when his men had surrounded him and she was nowhere to be found.

He needed her in his sight so he could make sure she was safe, he felt like it was his only duty. The helicopter ride was stressful for the two. Constantly being bugged when they wanted to slowly digest this moment that they were going home. They were finally going home.

“Your mama and Vati, they won’t be so worried now.” She said softly. “They’ll know you're safe.”

“Hmm,” he hummed softly, nuzzling into her hair. “Your mutter and Vater will be happy to see their precious daughter too.”

When reunited with family (y/n) stuck close to König afraid to move away as her parents greeted her. She was afraid this was all a dream and she’d wake up back on the island but this time, without König. It was as if she’d walk away, she'd be there again and she’d be alone this time.

“You're alive.” Her mother sobbed as her father thanked König himself,

“Thank you for keeping our daughter safe.” He thanked König. “We owe you everything.” Her father held tears in his eyes looking up at the Austrian who towered over him.

König looked at (y/n) then back at her father.

“You don’t owe me anything,” he said softly. A smile graced his face. “I’d protect her with my life every time.”

“Oh thank you, thank you.” Her mother cupped Kong’s face giving him kisses on his cheek. “We owe you everything, you kept our girl safe. You're both safe though, you're both safe.”

Kining smiled as he hugged the woman feeling a sense of comfort and love. He now knew where (y/n) got it from, both her parents were loving people.

Her parents had fallen in love with him right away, just like his parents fell for (y/n). They could see the connection the two had to offer for one and another, there was just this connection.

And they read the room correctly, because a year later the two were married, just having known this is what they wanted. They were content with one and another, happy, and felt safe with one and another.

Thanks to a little magic—traumatic magic—from Mother Nature.

»»————-　♔　————-««

“That’s how you met mama?” Their older son sat in the recliner as he watched his Vati put a coffee table together,

“That’s how I met your mutter, ja.” He hummed softly as he smiled. “Your gorgeous mutter couldn’t not fall for me when I carried her to the little shelter I made.” König puffed his chest out.

“He didn’t carry me, I walked.” (Y/n) smiled at her son. “Papa tells slight fibs, we did meet on an island, stranded, only survivors.” She hummed as she carried a little baby. “Two grueling months of papa hunting and keeping me safe.” (Y/n) cooed softly. “Papa, was scared but put on a brave face for mama.”

“Papa was brave?” Ryker asked softly as he leaned forward with his teddy bear in his arm.

“Papa is always brave.” (Y/n) leaned down and kissed König on the cheek.

“You're too sweet, schatz.” He cooed to her softly.

“Mama, did you like Vati right away?” Ryker asked as she sat down on the other recliner rocking the baby. Ryker hoped to her chair cuddling against her.

“Vati was very handsome, in his uniform, and speaking his native tongue to me.” She smiled at him. “But Vati and I didn’t connect until closer to the end of our very…exciting adventure.” She found key words to use for it.

“Mmm,” König smiled. “Vati had the looks then.” He added.

“Vati still has the looks.” (Y/n) added.

“So does mama,” he chuckled. “Pretty schatz.”

“Is he your hero?” Ryker asked.

“Yes, Vati is my hero.” She smiled. “And grandpa’s and grandma’s hero.”

“Your mama is Großmutters und Großvaters hero too.” König smirked as he had the table halfway built.

“Why?” Ryker asked.

“Yeah why?” (Y/n) cocked her head to the side smiling, curious of the answer.

“Because mama married your grumpy Vati!” He punched ticking Ryker as their son cried squirming on (y/n)’s lap trying to get away from his father. “Vati didn’t think he’d ever get married let alone to your uber pretty mama.”

“König,” (y/n) giggled as she cupped a hand underneath his chin gently tickling him. “You're such a tease.” She smiled.

“You tamed the grumpy Vati.” Ryker giggled.

“Mama knows how to keep Vati in check, at times.” She giggled, leaning forward and kissing the man on the lips as the baby cooed softly in her arms.

“My precious family.” He hummed against her lips. “You're my hero schatz.” He said softly as he looked up at her.

“I think we both know the hero in our story is you though.” She hummed against his lips. “You saved my life.”

“I’ll save you in every life.” He told her.

She smiled and replied—with a soft, “I know you will.”

———————————————————————————

Hi! I hope you enjoyed, this isn’t my greatest work but I enjoyed writing it! I thought it started off strongly in my opinion and then it dwindled but I’m still proud of it because we can’t have perfect days! Anyways, enjoy! ✨💕

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Better failure for social media

Content moderation is fundamentally about making social media work better, but there are two other considerations that determine how social media fails: end-to-end (E2E), and freedom of exit. These are much neglected, and that’s a pity, because how a system fails is every bit as important as how it works.

Of course, commercial social media sites don’t want to be good, they want to be profitable. The unique dynamics of social media allow the companies to uncouple quality from profit, and more’s the pity.

Social media grows thanks to network effects — you join Twitter to hang out with the people who are there, and then other people join to hang out with you. The more users Twitter accumulates, the more users it can accumulate. But social media sites stay big thanks to high switching costs: the more you have to give up to leave a social media site, the harder it is to go:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2021/08/facebooks-secret-war-switching-costs

Nature bequeaths some in-built switching costs on social media, primarily the coordination problem of reaching consensus on where you and the people in your community should go next. The more friends you share a social media platform with, the higher these costs are. If you’ve ever tried to get ten friends to agree on where to go for dinner, you know how this works. Now imagine trying to get all your friends to agree on where to go for dinner, for the rest of their lives!

But these costs aren’t insurmountable. Network effects, after all, are a double-edged sword. Some users are above-average draws for others, and if a critical mass of these important nodes in the network map depart for a new service — like, say, Mastodon — that service becomes the presumptive successor to the existing giants.

When that happens — when Mastodon becomes “the place we’ll all go when Twitter finally becomes unbearable” — the downsides of network effects kick in and the double-edged sword begins to carve away at a service’s user-base. It’s one thing to argue about which restaurant we should go to tonight, it’s another to ask whether we should join our friends at the new restaurant where they’re already eating.

Social media sites who want to keep their users’ business walk a fine line: they can simply treat those users well, showing them the things they ask to see, not spying on them, paying to police their service to reduce harassment, etc. But these are costly choices: if you show users the things they ask to see, you can’t charge businesses to show them things they don’t want to see. If you don’t spy on users, you can’t sell targeting services to people who want to force them to look at things they’re uninterested in. Every moderator you pay to reduce harassment draws a salary at the expense of your shareholders, and every catastrophe that moderator prevents is a catastrophe you can’t turn into monetizable attention as gawking users flock to it.

So social media sites are always trying to optimize their mistreatment of users, mistreating them (and thus profiting from them) right up to the point where they are ready to switch, but without actually pushing them over the edge.

One way to keep dissatisfied users from leaving is by extracting a penalty from them for their disloyalty. You can lock in their data, their social relationships, or, if they’re “creators” (and disproportionately likely to be key network nodes whose defection to a rival triggers mass departures from their fans), you can take their audiences hostage.

The dominant social media firms all practice a low-grade, tacit form of hostage-taking. Facebook downranks content that links to other sites on the internet. Instagram prohibits links in posts, limiting creators to “Links in bio.” Tiktok doesn’t even allow links. All of this serves as a brake on high-follower users who seek to migrate their audiences to better platforms.

But these strategies are unstable. When a platform becomes worse for users (say, because it mandates nonconsensual surveillance and ramps up advertising), they may actively seek out other places on which to follow each other, and the creators they enjoy. When a rival platform emerges as the presumptive successor to an incumbent, users no longer face the friction of knowing which rival they should resettle to.

When platforms’ enshittification strategies overshoot this way, users flee in droves, and then it’s time for the desperate platform managers to abandon the pretense of providing a public square. Yesterday, Elon Musk’s Twitter rolled out a policy prohibiting users from posting links to rival platforms:

https://web.archive.org/web/20221218173806/https://help.twitter.com/en/rules-and-policies/social-platforms-policy

This policy was explicitly aimed at preventing users from telling each other where they could be found after they leave Twitter:

https://web.archive.org/web/20221219015355/https://twitter.com/TwitterSupport/status/1604531261791522817

This, in turn, was a response to many users posting regular messages explaining why they were leaving Twitter and how they could be found on other platforms. In particular, Twitter management was concerned with departures by high-follower users like Taylor Lorenz, who was retroactively punished for violating the policy, though it didn’t exist when she violated it:

https://deadline.com/2022/12/washington-post-journalist-taylor-lorenz-suspended-twitter-1235202034/

As Elon Musk wrote last spring: “The acid test for two competing socioeconomic systems is which side needs to build a wall to keep people from escaping? That’s the bad one!”

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1533616384747442176

This isn’t particularly insightful. It’s obvious that any system that requires high walls and punishments to stay in business isn’t serving its users, whose presence is attributable to coercion, not fulfillment. Of course, the people who operate these systems have all manner of rationalizations for them.

The Berlin Wall, we were told, wasn’t there to keep East Germans in — rather, it was there to keep the teeming hordes clamoring to live in the workers’ paradise out. In the same way, platforms will claim that they’re not blocking outlinks or sideloading because they want to prevent users from defecting to a competitor, but rather, to protect those users from external threats.

This rationalization quickly wears thin, and then new ones step in. For example, you might claim that telling your friends that you’re leaving and asking them to meet you elsewhere is like “giv[ing] a talk for a corporation [and] promot[ing] other corporations”:

https://mobile.twitter.com/mayemusk/status/1604550452447690752

Or you might claim that it’s like “running Wendy’s ads [on] McDonalds property,” rather than turning to your friends and saying, “The food at McDonalds sucks, let’s go eat at Wendy’s instead”:

https://twitter.com/doctorow/status/1604559316237037568

The truth is that any service that won’t let you leave isn’t in the business of serving you, it’s in the business of harming you. The only reason to build a wall around your service — to impose any switching costs on users- is so that you can fuck them over without risking their departure.

The platforms want to be Anatevka, and we the villagers of Fiddler On the Roof, stuck plodding the muddy, Cossack-haunted roads by the threat of losing all our friends if we try to leave:

https://doctorow.medium.com/how-to-leave-dying-social-media-platforms-9fc550fe5abf

That’s where freedom of exit comes in. The public should have the right to leave, and companies should not be permitted to make that departure burdensome. Any burdens we permit companies to impose is an invitation to abuse of their users.

This is why governments are handing down new interoperability mandates: the EU’s Digital Markets Act forces the largest companies to offer APIs so that smaller rivals can plug into them and let users walkaway from Big Tech into new kinds of platforms — small businesses, co-ops, nonprofits, hobby sites — that treat them better. These small players are overwhelmingly part of the fediverse: the federated social media sites that allow users to connect to one another irrespective of which server or service they use.

The creators of these platforms have pledged themselves to freedom of exit. Mastodon ships with a “Move Followers” and “Move Following” feature that lets you quit one server and set up shop on another, without losing any of the accounts you follow or the accounts that follow you:

https://codingitwrong.com/2022/10/10/migrating-a-mastodon-account.html

This feature is as yet obscure, because the exodus to Mastodon is still young. Users who flocked to servers without knowing much about their managers have, by and large, not yet run into problems with the site operators. The early trickle of horror stories about petty authoritarianism from Mastodon sysops conspicuously fail to mention that if the management of a particular instance turns tyrant, you can click two links, export your whole social graph, sign up for a rival, click two more links and be back at it.

This feature will become more prominent, because there is nothing about running a Mastodon server that means that you are good at running a Mastodon server. Elon Musk isn’t an evil genius — he’s an ordinary mediocrity who lucked into a lot of power and very little accountability. Some Mastodon operators will have Musk-like tendencies that they will unleash on their users, and the difference will be that those users can click two links and move elsewhere. Bye-eee!

Freedom of exit isn’t just a matter of the human right of movement, it’s also a labor issue. Online creators constitute a serious draw for social media services. All things being equal, these services would rather coerce creators’ participation — by holding their audiences hostage — than persuade creators to remain by offering them an honest chance to ply their trade.

Platforms have a variety of strategies for chaining creators to their services: in addition to making it harder for creators to coordinate with their audiences in a mass departure, platforms can use DRM, as Audible does, to prevent creators’ customers from moving the media they purchase to a rival’s app or player.

Then there’s “freedom of reach”: platforms routinely and deceptively conflate recommending a creator’s work with showing that creator’s work to the people who explicitly asked to see it.

https://pluralistic.net/2022/12/10/e2e/#the-censors-pen

When you follow or subscribe to a feed, that is not a “signal” to be mixed into the recommendation system. It’s an order: “Show me this.” Not “Show me things like this.”

Show.

Me.

This.

But there’s no money in showing people the things they tell you they want to see. If Amazon showed shoppers the products they searched for, they couldn’t earn $31b/year on an “ad business” that fills the first six screens of results with rival products who’ve paid to be displayed over the product you’re seeking:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/11/28/enshittification/#relentless-payola

If Spotify played you the albums you searched for, it couldn’t redirect you to playlists artists have to shell out payola to be included on:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/09/12/streaming-doesnt-pay/#stunt-publishing

And if you only see what you ask for, then product managers whose KPI is whether they entice you to “discover” something else won’t get a bonus every time you fatfinger a part of your screen that navigates you away from the thing you specifically requested:

https://doctorow.medium.com/the-fatfinger-economy-7c7b3b54925c

Musk, meanwhile, has announced that you won’t see messages from the people you follow unless they pay for Twitter Blue:

https://www.wired.com/story/what-is-twitter-blue/

And also that you will be nonconsensually opted into seeing more “recommended” content from people you don’t follow (but who can be extorted out of payola for the privilege):

https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/Twitter-Expands-Content-Recommendations/637697/

Musk sees Twitter as a publisher, not a social media site:

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1604588904828600320

Which is why he’s so indifferent to the collateral damage from this payola/hostage scam. Yes, Twitter is a place where famous and semi-famous people talk to their audiences, but it is primarily a place where those audiences talk to each other — that is, a public square.

This is the Facebook death-spiral: charging to people to follow to reach you, and burying the things they say in a torrent of payola-funded spam. It’s the vision of someone who thinks of other people as things to use — to pump up your share price or market your goods to — not worthy of consideration.

As Terry Pratchett’s Granny Weatherwax put it: “Sin is when you treat people like things. Including yourself. That’s what sin is.”

Mastodon isn’t perfect, but its flaws are neither fatal nor permanent. The idea that centralized media is “easier” surely reflects the hundreds of billions of dollars that have been pumped into refining social media Roach Motels (“users check in, but they don’t check out”).

Until a comparable sum has been spent refining decentralized, federated services, any claims about the impossibility of making the fediverse work for mass audiences should be treated as unfalsifiable, motivated reasoning.

Meanwhile, Mastodon has gotten two things right that no other social media giant has even seriously attempted:

I. If you follow someone on Mastodon, you’ll see everything they post; and

II. If you leave a Mastodon server, you can take both your followers and the people you follow with you.

The most common criticism of Mastodon is that you must rely on individual moderators who may be underresourced, incompetent on malicious. This is indeed a serious problem, but it isn’t the same serious problem that Twitter has. When Twitter is incompetent, malicious, or underresourced, your departure comes at a dear price.

On Mastodon, your choice is: tolerate bad moderation, or click two links and move somewhere else.

On Twitter, your choice is: tolerate moderation, or lose contact with all the people you care about and all the people who care about you.

The interoperability mandates in the Digital Markets Act (and in the US ACCESS Act, which seems unlikely to get a vote in this session of Congress) only force the largest platforms to open up, but Mastodon shows us the utility of interop for smaller services, too.

There are lots of domains in which “dominance” shouldn’t be the sole criteria for whether you are expected to treat your customers fairly.

A doctor with a small practice who leaks all ten patients’ data harms those patients as surely as a hospital system with a million patients would have. A small-time wedding photographer who refuses to turn over your pictures unless you pay a surprise bill is every bit as harmful to you as a giant chain that has the same practice.

As we move into the realm of smalltime, community-oriented social media servers, we should be looking to avoid the pitfalls of the social media bubble that’s bursting around us. No matter what the size of the service, let’s ensure that it lets us leave, and respects the end-to-end principle, that any two people who want to talk to each other should be allowed to do so, without interference from the people who operate their communications infrastructure.

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

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

Heisenberg Media (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Elon_Musk_-_The_Summit_2013.jpg

CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en

[Image ID: Moses confronting the Pharaoh, demanding that he release the Hebrews. Pharaoh’s face has been replaced with Elon Musk’s. Moses holds a Twitter logo in his outstretched hand. The faces embossed in the columns of Pharaoh’s audience hall have been replaced with the menacing red eye of HAL9000 from 2001: A Space Odyssey. The wall over Pharaoh’s head has been replaced with a Matrix ‘code waterfall’ effect. Moses’s head has been replaced with that of the Mastodon mascot.]

[rukafais]

Underrated part of the newer Drizzt books is introducing a bunch of new drow groups and going "yeah everyone mass migrated and went underground because Something Really Horrible Happened!" and a trilogy before that it was like "we all went underground originally because Something Really Horrible Happened!" and they dont like super elaborate on it

but if you know like, anything about the Crown Wars youre just kinda like. Oh yeah, that time like all the elves started beating the piss out of each other and caused a concerning amount of destruction and a massive rift that never healed and it's vaguely talked around as this GIGANTIC cultural shame. Yeah I can see why you guys were all like GOODBYE WE ARE GOING DEEPER IN AND WILL NEVER COME OUT AGAIN

[apricitystudies]

what i read in dec. 2023:

(previous editions) bold = favourite

class, race, gender, & sexuality

a good prospect

damages (usa)

the moral panic against uk drill is deeply misguided

i survived a lot of edwards and now i'm team bella

death on a dairy farm (usa)

the fence (canada)

politics & current affairs

'weapons of mass migration': how states exploit the failure of migration policies

president's war against 'fake news' raises alarms in south korea

in the shadow of the holocaust

justice from below

where are they? in remembrance of victims of indonesia's enforced disappearance

culture & essays

raising the dead

one swedish zoo, seven escaped chimpanzees

the cult next door

what kind of future does de-extinction promise?

the battle over dyslexia

palestine

palestinian men are not 'terrorists in the making'

israel: starvation used as weapon of war in gaza (human rights watch)

atrocities present, past, and future

israel working to expel civilian population of gaza (un ohchr)

inhumane treatment and enforced disappearance of palestinian detainees from gaza (amnesty international)