#or articles censored and all else happening

[jecook]

Not to say anything to bold, but everyone is so surprised and horrified at people being fired for not being pro-Israel as if hordes of people online haven't been very supportive of firing and hunting down even the mildest of conservative people. "How can they fire people for just expressing a different political opinion" as if we haven't cultivated an environment of firing people based on their political opinions.

[currently-becoming-potatoes]

List of words for the computer:

LONG POST- more under the cut

STANFORD- Pulls up a file on Stanford Pines, written by an unknown scientist. It discusses his extra finger and praises his intelligence, as well as calling him the “next evolution in the human species”.

BILL CIPHER- Takes you to the Wikipedia page for the Eye of Providence. Also took me to a Sesame Street video about a Jazzy Triangle and a Square. Not sure what prompted the change.

STANLEY PINES: Takes you to a list of EBay listings for brass knuckles.

FIDDLEFORD: Takes you to the music video for Cotton Eye Joe by Rednex.

SHERMIE: Nothing. I sure do wish we got some lore about Grandpa Pines.

GRAVITY FALLS: The text on the computer reads “never heard of it” and the red light on the bottom turns green.

ALEX HIRSCH: Leads to Google Images for “flannel”. Huh.

WEIRDMAGEDDON: Pulls up an article from the Gravity Falls Gossiper about how nothing happened at all and there was no apocalypse.

DISNEY: Screen reads “rat.gif censored for your protection”

SOOS: Leads to a page of writing from Soos himself, referencing many things (including Tad Strange being gay and madly in love with Woodpecker Guy. Love wins!!!)

DIPPER: Leads to a creepy yellow parchment with a message from Bill Cipher himself trying to trick Dipper into blinding himself by staring at the sun for 13 hours straight! Silly! (Also if you keep clicking on it, the page gets darker and blurrier until it implies we've gone blind)

MABEL: Causes stickers to appear on every available surface. Clicking it enough times leads to message “lab now fully Mabelized”.

WENDY: Leads to a note from Wendy that mentions a way to ward off evil triangles written in the bottom corner of the book.

GIDEON: Makes a web recording of Gideon scatting play. It ends with “I love you forever Mabel”. Please shut the fuck up you little creep.

TAD STRANGE: Plays a video of bread with smooth jazz in the background.

TOBY DETERMINED: Leads to a Google search for a restraining order. Holyyyyy shittttttt

WHO ARE YOU: “I could ask you the same question”

SEASON 3: “Season Two”. I guess that’s that lol

This was about all I could find. Please reblog with anything else you can discover! Thank you, fellow Gravity Falls enjoyers!

And make sure to give some love to all the wonderful folks down in the comments! Many of these answers and tips come from what they've found. I can't list everyone, unfortunately- I didn't expect this post to get popular- but, to everyone who's helped out, THANK YOU.

FURTHER EDITS:

BLIND EYE: Pulls up an optometrist’s eye exam. Each line reads “WKHBOOVHH”. Too lazy to translate atm.

PIÑATA: Bill Cipher getting beaten to death /hj

MASON: A note from Dipper listing several anagrams of Gravity Falls characters’ names. You can check in the comments for the answers.

AXOLOTL: “You ask alotl questions”. Thanks for the pun, Alex, but I’m kind of losing my mind rn

MYSTERY SHACK: Leads to a Google search for Confusion Hill, the real-life Mystery Shack!

MYSTERY: “?”

MONSTER: Leads to several YouTube videos for “There’s a Monster at the End of this Book.”

VALLIS CINERIS: Leads to an analog-horror-esque video of Baby Bill and his parents, who have been blotted out by static, and a voice repeating “WHY DID YOU DO IT” over and over again until you stop the video.

PORTAL: “Portal.exe has been deleted. I bet you could build a new one.”

GIFFANY: You need to put it in multiple times. Several warnings about breaching firewall, followed by a message from GIFFANY saying “SOOS! I still love you!” or smth like that, and then GIFFANY herself briefly appearing onscreen. Trying again after that summons her more. Also lets you download some ZIP files.

DORITO: Summons an image of a spinning Dorito, followed by the most cursed image of Bill Cipher I have ever seen.

GOD: A short video of an axolotl in a tank with a Bill Cipher statue plays. This is Alex’s axolotl, shown in the Book of Bill countdown.

REALITY: “Is an illusion”

FILBRICK: “I’m not impressed”

CARYN: “I knew you were gonna write that”

GLASS SHARD BEACH: Leads to an image of the New Jersey Hell Hole.

ANY CUSS WORD: Pulls up a paper reading “NOT S&P APPROVED. WASH YOUR MOUTH OUT WITH SOAP” with an image of soap below.

MATPAT: Leads to a video of MatPat next to a conspiracy board, holding the Book of Bill. He tells us we’re on our own.

BABBA: Plays an audio recording of Dipper singing BABBA. Not Disco Girl, a different song.

CRAZ: Leads to the Jem and the Holograms theme.

XYLER: See above.

AD ASTRA PER ASPERA: Shows us two new journal pages from Ford and Mabel, studying the Cipher statue. They’re definitely worth the read, I teared up looking at them.

ANSWER: “Question”

QUESTION: “Answer”

SEASON ONE: “Season -1: Antigravity Falls”

SEASON TWO: “Season 1” …maybe scratch what I said about Season 3. Or don’t. Things are starting to damage my brain.

CURSED (got from @slimslamflimflam decoding the candle! Thanks!): Shows two pages talking about the dangers of drawing triangles, with the bottom of the second page showing several drawings of Bill and the words “HE IS COMING, RUN”

THE UNIVERSE: “Hologram”

RIZZ: “Life privileges revoked. Now releasing poison gas.” This response is repeated if you type in SKIBIDI or FORTNITE.

BABY: Shows an ultrasound of a fetus Bill Cipher, captioned “Look at what’s growing inside you! See you in nine months, papa!”

JOURNAL 3: “The Journal for Me”

PACIFICA: Leads to a note from Pacifica calling Bill Cipher “ick” and telling us to follow her on social media under “Platinum Paz”

PLATINUM PAZ: Pulls up an image of Northwest Manor with the llama symbol overlaid and a “NW” logo beneath. There's also a short story beneath!

LOVE: Leads to an audiobook of “The Love Triangle”. Need to read later.

BLENDIN: “The time agent lost and presumed incompetent”. Uh…?

SCARY: Leads to another audiobook of a cheesy Goosebumps-esque horror novel written by Bill himself, apparently.

DIVORCE: Shows you the logo of the bar Bill went to after his fight with Ford… Billford bitter exes confirmed

ROBBIE: Leads to the cringiest messages ever. He’s such a failure I love him

CONSPIRACY: Leads to a video of a man losing his mind over the countdown counting up. I feel so seen. (I have been informed that his name is Charlie Day, he's an actor from It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia and that one meme, he had a quote on the back of the Book of Bill, thanks to everyone who explained that to me, I'm sorry, I'm uncultured)

RAT: “Thurburt’s number?”

BLANCHIN: Leads to a YouTube video on how to blanch vegetables.

TJ ECKLEBURG: “Never mention that name again.”

NOTHING: “Something”

SOMETHING: “Nothing”

BURNSIDE: “Burned inside.” Well… at least we know what happened…

WADDLES: Leads to the pig placement network!

THERAPRISM: Pulls up a sign from the theraprism regarding an emergency situation. The code reads "THE OLD ONE".

SHAPE: Pulls up an article on Plato, triangles, and Ancient Greece. This article is presumably written by Bill.

LLIB and BILL: THIS leads to the Sesame Street video every time.

WEIRD: Shows a video of a frightened Weird Al panicking about being trapped in a computer. Sorry, man...

CLONE: Pulls up an image of Paper Jam Dipper, a warning about not getting him too close to liquids, and an option to print.

TRIANGLE: ")" or "Tri harder."

THEYLLSEE: "Is seeing believing?"

DEER TEETH: "For you, kid!"

LIFE: "Life: 72% complete. Now loading: death."

DEATH: "Life's goth cousin."

PINES: "A good family tree."

OWL TROWEL: A slab of hieroglyphs, translating to an ancient ad for an owl trowel.

SCALENE: "Life form not found." EUCLID has the same outcome.

WELL WELL WELL BEING: Some assorted notes from Bill's Theraprism file. These include his greatest love and fear, his art therapy notes, and notes on his phobias. Three clicks is required to read them all.

BOO BERRY: Offers a poem on the meaning of life! Wow! I feel so enlightened!

LOVE YA BRO: Shows us a doodle from Stan of one of his and Ford's Sea Grunks adventures, and another code on the back. It translates to "Kings of New Jersey." I've been told it lets you download the code as a font.

SORRY: Reveals the repaired Backupsmore photo, with a note from Fiddleford about his and Ford's growing friendship. Fiddauthor fans, we are eating well tonight!

HORROR: Pulls up an image and report on The Always Garden, which is essentially a cheap Italian restaurant hidden in the backrooms.

HOLOGRAM: "Universe."

NAITSUAF: Pulls up a page that looks like it would be from the Book of Bill, in which Bill tries to convince us to sell us his soul. Clicking "ARE YOU READY?" pulls up a contract where we can sell our soul to Bill (with an alarming amount of coded fine print. Will need to translate later). You can print this document out, back out, or sign it right there on the web. Hitting "SIGN" causes the words "PLEASURE DOING BUSINESS WITH YOU!" to appear, and the document to close. In other words, I no longer have a soul.

IMSTILLONYOURMIND: Plays a recording of the ocean, with Stan faintly talking in the background. Poor Ford ain't quite over the divorce yet...

HOTXOLOTL: Pulls up a "MOST WANTED" doc on the henchmaniacs.

SEVENEYES: Pulls up a faded polaroid of The Oracle with text on the back that reads "LEAVE HIM. Escape to dimension *blurred out*. It's against the rules but it's the only reality where you'll be safe from him." The code at the bottom (once again decoded by the powerhouse that is @slimslamflimflam) reads "Set a course for Dimension: R34LITY." Is another Cipher Hunt in the makes? Only time will tell, hehehe.

JUST FIT IN: Plays an old commercial with a few moments of speech in the glitches at the end.

EVEN HIS LIES ARE LIES: Shows a transcript from a therapy session at the Theraprism. Bill discusses his relationship with Ford and cuts off the session when someone brings up his parents.

NOT A PHASE: Shows a Google search for "black hair dye stained an entire bathroom."

PAPER IS BOOK SKIN: Instantly downloads a page of fleshy pink paper with the word "ENJOY" written on it!

SHAVE YOUR GRANDMA: Pulls up a few more pages about the human life cycle.

LIES: Pulls up an image of "The Game of Lies" board game, with a long stretch of text from (I assume) Bill, ending with "LIE UNTIL YOU ARE NOT LYING ANYMORE." Someone has some issues...

SAY BAAAA: Pulls up a neat little rhyme about being Bill Cipher's obedient flock of sheep. The code at the end translates to "Black Sheep."

ONE EYED KING: Plays a video of a hypnotist's spiral, with Bill proclaiming "YOU WANT TO PLEDGE YOUR SOUL TO BILL CIPHER" in the background. There is also morse code that translates to "NAITSUAF", leading to a previous discovery- the soul contract.

TANTRUM: Pulls up a transcript of a spat between Bill and Time Baby.

TITANS BLOOD: "HOOT HOOT! Password please!"

CURSE WITTEBANE: Pulls up an image of a Bill Cipher ouija board.

FORDTRAMARINE: Pulls up several rejected files from Ford trying to convince us Fordtramarine exists.

SUCK IT MERLIN: Pulls up a tapestry of Bill riding a unicorn. The code at the top reads "DAY MARE VS NIGHTMARE."

HEY NERD: Plays a commercial advertising things such as a Bill Cipher calendar, the Scrubba-Bill, a severed hand, and the entire Cygnus-XIII galaxy. Half of the image can be found in the Book of Bill.

DESTRUCTION IS THE FORM OF CREATION: Pulls up a frantic page of notes from post-portal-shit Fiddleford. A sticky note at the bottom has a code that reads "Unreality."

RUBBERHOSE: Plays "The World is Small Ever After for All."

IRREGULAR: Shows us Bill's mugshot in color. The code below reads "No prison or attention span can hold him."

UNREALITY: Offers a guide by Bill on how to become immortal.

GUN: "Oh yes oh yes oh yes they both."

ABUELITA: Leads to a video on vacuuming the walls.

YES: "What's McGucket's favorite soda?"

NO: "Your loss..."

REPEATEDLY CLICKING STAN: This stuff deserves a section of its own, away from the OG Stan stuff. It takes you through several Ebay listings on various Stan-ish items until you get to a page written by Bill about Stan's secret shames. "Ex-wives" further confirms our theory on Stan and Eda's relationship, as well as revealing many other bits of lore. "Fears" is somewhat goofy to be honest. "Secret Shames" reveals that Stan is a fanfiction writer and that his mother is the only member of his family who truly loves him outside of Ford and the kids. "Unreported Crimes" is somewhat goofy as well. "Failed Products" basically confirms that Stan is that world's Alex. "Lowest Moments" is genuinely depressing, and "Darkest Thought". Well. I'm not spoiling it lol. And the bit on "How He Beat Me" causes Bill to get more and more frantic/angry the more you click it! Comedy GOLD!

DIPPY FRESH: Leads to a Reddit post of the Burger King Kids Club.

MEOW: Leads to a TikTok of a man playing the Gravity Falls theme on that cap keyboard.

HELP ME: Pulls up another video of Alex's axolotl and the tiny statue. Rip Bill ig :/

R34LITY: Pulls up several photos of the henchmaniacs in live-action, captioned "They found a new home."

JOURNAL 1: "The journal of fun."

JOURNAL 2: "The journal for you."

FBI: "Your webcam is on. We are watching."

BURNED INSIDE: Shows an image of a charred Oregon Parks badge and nametag on the ground.

HECTORING: Plays a silly little country song!

OROBOROUS: Pulls up two journal pages about Fiddleford buying Ford an axolotl to keep him company, and Bill subsequently telling Ford to get rid of him. There's also some code on the first page that reads "CHONKY BOY." Ford, you wonderful dork.

[sunny-day-jack-official]

URGENT! Stop KOSA!

Hey all, this is BáiYù and Sauce here with something that isn't necessarily SnaccPop related, but it's important nonetheless. For those of you who follow US politics, The Kids Online Safety Act passed the Senate yesterday and is moving forward.

This is bad news for everyone on the internet, even outside of the USA.

What is KOSA?

While it's officially known as "The Kids Online Safety Act," KOSA is an internet censorship masquerading as another "protect the children" bill, much in the same way SESTA/FOSTA claimed that it would stop illegal sex trafficking but instead hurt sex workers and their safety. KOSA was originally introduced by Sen. Edward Markey, D-Mass. and Bill Cassidy, R-La. as a way to update the 1998 Children’s Online Privacy Act, raising the age of consent for data collection to 16 among other things. You can read the original press release of KOSA here, while you can read the full updated text of the bill on the official USA Congress website.

You can read the following articles about KOSA here:

EFF: The Kids Online Safety Act is Still A Huge Danger to Our Rights Online

CyberScoop: Children’s online safety bills clear Senate hurdle despite strong civil liberties pushback

TeenVogue: The Kids Online Safety Act Would Harm LGBTQ+ Youth, Restrict Access to Information and Community

The quick TL;DR:

KOSA authorizes an individual state attorneys general to decide what might harm minors

Websites will likely preemptively remove and ban content to avoid upsetting state attorneys generals (this will likely be topics such as abortion, queerness, feminism, sexual content, and others)

In order for a platform to know which users are minors, they'll require a more invasive age and personal data verification method

Parents will be granted more surveillance tools to see what their children are doing on the web

KOSA is supported by Christofascists and those seeking to harm the LGBTQ+ community

If a website holding personally identifying information and government documents is hacked, that's a major cybersecurity breach waiting to happen

What Does This Mean?

You don't have to look far to see or hear about the violence being done to the neurodivergent and LGBTQ+ communities worldwide, who are oftentimes one and the same. Social media sites censoring discussion of these topics would stand to do even further harm to folks who lack access to local resources to understand themselves and the hardships they face; in addition, the fact that websites would likely store personally identifying information and government documents means the death of any notion of privacy.

Sex workers and those living in certain countries already are at risk of losing their ways of life, living in a reality where their online activities are closely surveilled; if KOSA officially becomes law, this will become a reality for many more people and endanger those at the fringes of society even worse than it already is.

Why This Matters Outside of The USA

I previously mentioned SESTA/FOSTA, which passed and became US law in 2018. This bill enabled many of the anti-adult content attitudes that many popular websites are taking these days as well as the tightening of restrictions laid down by payment processors. Companies and sites hosted in the USA have to follow US laws even if they're accessible worldwide, meaning that folks overseas suffer as well.

What Can You Do?

If you're a US citizen, contact your Senators and tell them that you oppose KOSA. This can be as an email, letter, or phone call that you make to your state Senator.

For resources on how to do so, view the following links:

https://www.badinternetbills.com/#kosa

https://www.stopkosa.com/

https://linktr.ee/stopkosa

If you live outside of the US or cannot vote, the best thing you can do is sign the petition at the Stop KOSA website, alert your US friends about what's happening, and raise some noise.

Above all else, don’t panic. By staying informed by what’s going on, you can prepare for the legal battles ahead.

[fullhalalalchemist]

🚨🚨🚨Congress hiding behind "protecting" LGBTQ+ to push for censorship bills that would harm us

May 8, 2023

The EARN IT Act isn't the only bill Congress is rushing through this session that's secret goal is to censor and surveil Americans, especially queer ones.

KOSA (s.1409), or the Kid's Online Safety Act, is being hailed across the mainstream media and congress as the best bill to "protect children online from algorithmic harm" by essentially, blocking content that gives minors anxiety, depression, eating and substance abuse disorders, online bullying and harassment, sexual exploitation and abuse, suicidal behaviors, and addiction. It's gives the FTC, who are politically appointed by the president, and all 50 state attorney generals enforcement power to do this. As long as they can justify a website 'harmed' a minor by having content that leads to 'anxiety, sexual exploitation, and suicidal behaviors', they will push lawsuit over lawsuit to that site until it censors that content for the minor.

Oh, but that's not it, either. HOW will websites determine who is and isn't a minor? Well don't worry, because the bill says "age verification isn't required". That however does nothing to stop websites from pushing age verification. When they're about to be held liable and sued for millions, when there's an age verification lobby that has pushed these bills successfully in half the states, when websites should know "reasonably" that theres a minor, they are GOING to go for age verification.��Multiple experts agree that this would happen.

Last year, nearly 100+ LGBT and human rights orgs sent a letter opposing KOSA. They were ignored and Senator Blumenthal (same guy who is pushing the EARN IT Act) met with different orgs to "update the language". Except nothing in the update language changes any of it's impact. Sure, they removed "grooming" from being a target of this bill and instead are focusing on "mental health". Except, the Missouri Attorneys General, in his emergency order banning gender affirming care, cited a number of medical studies effectively claiming that access to gender affirming care is causing young people to experience mental health issues. They will use ANY excuse to censor content.

This is the tumblr purge 2.0 but for the entire internet. It's just as bad as the EARN IT Act. And it has IMMENSE levels of support. You have the national Eating Disorder Coalition, child advocacy orgs, the freaking American Psychological Association, LIZZO!!!! supporting this. It needs IMMENSE levels of backlash from us, the grassroots, the people.

The best way to fight back is to CALL YOUR SENATORS. It's now going to go to the commerce committee for markup, after it will head to a vote. This is going to be fasttracked and most likely voted on this month or June. It's all hands on deck.

Link to call script to read off alongside numbers to call:

A bunch of petitions you can sign (takes less than 5 min)

Open Letter Against KOSA

Petition 1

Petition 2

Petition 3

Petition 4

Resistbot: Text PHJDYH to 50409

And more information here: Linktree

This is a great TLDR article to read: Vox Article

TLDR; Congress's new bill KOSA that has an immense amount of bipartisan support will lead to internet censorship by giving all state attorney generals, even the ones in Texas and Florida, power to sue websites for "harmful" content and decide what is "dangerous" for minors, force websites to make you upload your govt ID online, and lead to widespread abuse of queer youth. We have to fight back NOW or else we will see an internet-wide purge of any adult and queer content online, globally.

[the-rad1o-demon]

Please share, and donate if you can!!

$375 is way too low right now to be of any use in stopping KOSA, so the more you share, the better, and it's also great if you're able to also donate (only if you're able to do so without worsening whatever monetary and/or safety situation you're in)!!

This bill affects all of us. Both children and adults of the following: the LGBTQ+ community, Black communities, Latinx communities, Native American communities, Asian communities.

It will affect ex-Jehovah's Witnesses, and younger folks still trapped. Same thing for ex-Catholics and children/teens still trapped in the Catholic Church. Same thing for Mormons.

This bill affects everyone, okay? There is no beating around the bush. It has been stated time and again by literal lawmakers that this bill is a censorship bill. Senator Blackburn, co-author of the KOSA bill, said herself it would be used to "protect children from the transgender."

So please help keep the fight going. Because the more of us contribute, the bigger chance we have of winning.

And don't fall for that "oh, what I do won't matter much, other people will do it" line of thought.

Even if you think other people will help: please help anyway. We are running out of time, and when one person falls into this line of thinking, so does everyone else, and then nothing happens. So if you can, please help anyway, because we need all we can get. It's all hands on deck at this point.

So far, chances of KOSA being enacted is 31% according to the site linked below.

We need to get it down to zero. 31% is way too big still.

Also, here's a petition you can sign!! If you can't donate, signing will also be a big help (I also recommend signing even if you do donate).

You can also call your senators' offices!!

(Correct call script document in post this time as opposed to comment section, ha!)

The call scripts linked below were originally for Congressional representatives, but now that the bill is in committee consideration by Senate Commerce, you should call your Senators instead and you can use the scripts for them. Also, when calling your Democrat senators, make sure to add that Senator Blackburn explicitly stated in interview that it would be used to "protect children from the transgender." I think it's pretty clear that this is not meant to protect children. It's just going to harm children further, especially trans children.

(Article below with a video of the interview embedded.)

Please help keep the fight going. If we let up for even a second, the bill might get passed and the fucking conservatives will win this round. Yeah, we can still fight after, but it's going to be so much harder with how much damage KOSA is going to do to social media sites and our ability to communicate online.

We need to stop KOSA now, if we want the best chance at protecting our freedom on the Internet.

[fluffer5]

How Protective Terrans Are

So... I might've dropped a few trauma bomb in my previous entries... but we won't further open those particular can of worms *smiles brightly while throwing the proverbial can at the traum-- ehem, garbage disposal*.

Anyways, this is my 5th entry to Humans Are Space Orcs! For today's human documentary, we're going to talk about what adult Terrans can and will do to you if you touch their young, family, close friends, pets, or special mementos given to them by a special someone (which doesn't have to be from a dead anybody or a romantic somebody). We all know people wouldn't hesitate to throw hands just to keep their people or stuff safe.

So, let's refer to my list, cuz it's easier to do lol. Again, I've used movies, series, podcasts, and a writer's angst-filled mind to type this. Should I warn the rest of you for further reading? I guess I should (I was so used to reading things without the warning that I'm sometimes confused of the TW tag on some stuff lol).

TW: Gore, violence, theoretical bodily harm even though I censored most of it, death, stabby people, bullying, the insanity train.

Kill the threat. Bit of an extreme one for the first thing to pop in my head, yes? But it is true. Wars were waged for lesser things. See this news article for one example: "Mom fatally shot home intruder to defend kids, she says". This one was published on August 18, 2022. In 2012, cuz I'm too lazy to search recent ones, there's another news articles featuring the same thing but focuses on a mother shooting an intruder to protect her 3-month-old baby. In 2015, an 11-year-old boy also shot an intruder trying to defend his 4-year-old sister from possible harm. I could go on and on about this but in countries where guns are not accessible, the next possible thing to use in defense would've been something sturdy and blunt or something extremely sharp. Actually, if we were in a time wherein tribes or kingdoms exist instead of cities, I can surely say that killing their young would definitely put you and your family in said people's sh*t list.

Fight the threat. Whether is be physically punching them on the face of the place where the sun doesn't shine, nobody cares as long as the deed of letting them know their place is done. Exhibit A that a lot of us know would be bullies ganging up on a younger sibling in school. We know that younger sibling are the proverbial pain in the *ss of older siblings. It's a love-hate relationship between them. But it's also an unsaid rule that only the older siblings can threaten or push around younger siblings. Anyone else touching them aside from the close family ties should be prepared to taste someone's fist. Or feet. Or the pavement. You get the gist of it. Though as long as the child in question can take care of the bullying on their own (which I did in my experience) then the parents or older sibling would gladly back off until the time they notice that things are going too far. Though, sadly, some kids prefer not to talk about their problems which leads to behavioral issues in the future, sorta trying to get attention from their elders but in a negative way.

Threaten the threat. I see this as the tamer version of protection actually lol. I don't know about other countries but in my country, the smart kids in school can threaten your life as a student. We have the usual bling-bling kids with the money and huzzah but they don't last long in the face of being a social pariah at school. They can throw money all they want but the smart kids wouldn't be threatened at all cuz they hold the key to higher GPA. Even the teachers complain about them nerds but action speaks loud and their compilation of evidence speaks louder lol. You'd be lucky if the nerd assigned to you has the patience of a saint cuz if not... well, I've had to stop fights from breaking out from simple arguments. Not just in school though. If you've got connection in higher places then that could also be a way to threaten someone (it does happen in real life so it isn't far-fetched). Though it is more effective to threaten the threat if you're in the same place as them. Another thing would be holding blackmail on said person (though that only works if they're not an immediate threat). If you have enough social influence, well, you can destroy their entire life without touching them even once.

Torture the threat. A friend says I'm too kind for ending their lives easily. Well, watching too many action and horror films prepared me for this part lol. I don't know which one would be done but interrogators have done the worst to get information from their victim. Too gory for this though and I don't know how many kids or emotional teens are in here so I have to censor a ton of the juicy details. Let's say it would be a bit similar to Saw, Jigsaw, and war interrogations. Chemicals, acids, peeled skin, salt, knives, and hammers might also be in place. Just know that it would be a bloody, unforgiving event that would take place in that particular room with that unfortunate victim.

Play the long game. Another said killing them quickly was... well... too quick XD. This one centers heavily on having money and patience. Know who the threat is, where they live, who they interact with, and what makes them tick. For this to work, you need to give up who you were before and settle on anonymity. This is... a bit more drastic than torture but works well if you have too much hate in your chest or the deed done was something you can never forgive. It's more on watching them physically suffer with their injury or doing the threatening on their family (gets messy very fast), but since this threat had amassed A LOT of enemies, they won't exactly know who did the evil deed on them. Shoot them on their legs, feet, and shoulder. Their spine if you're a good shot and know where to hit. Places that aren't close to their vital organs but would render them disabled. You'll let them live, but it will be a life of pain and agony.

Talk to the threat. The most peaceful type and probably the most boring out of this chaotic list > v <. This should be the first thing we do and not escalate to violence if some of us can help it. Again, your patience and wit will be tested here. If your threat is minor (like another child), then talking to their guardian would help with keeping the problem from going through a rollercoaster ride. Sometimes that doesn't work and the problem turns into an adult fight.

In summary, you have 2 kinds of Terrans. One would shoot before asking; the other would talk before shooting. Which is why you should never step on this particular deathworld if you were thinking about making Terran slaves or using our young in experimentation. We haven't given chase on aliens yet. Don't make yourselves the first intergalactic specie the Terrans would obliterate.

Meanwhile in a fast approaching spacecraft...

This alien reading this How To Deal With Terrans manual : Why did we want to go to this deathworld again?

Another alien turning yellow from anxiety : To befriend them and learn about the resident Terrans?

Yet another alien wilting as they feel faint from the information : Oh, thank the stars we won't be terrorizing them.

The alien commander whose frills are flaring in alarm as they read through the unredacted version of the manual : They will torture and skin us for taking their young and their pets?!

This particular scientist whose skins are changing colors in excitement : See? I told you their famous quote of "If predator not friend, why friend shape?" also applies to them!

[gatheringbones]

[“My Bodysex Workshops were well received, so I decided to film one. You just can’t beat the moving image; it’s an opportunity to give people images of what sex might be. The best way for us to learn is to find out what’s going on with everyone else.

My girlfriend and I used a home video camera, and it took me two years to edit it on two clunky tape decks. My films were automatically labeled porn, because if you see a pussy or a penis, it’s porn. But you can’t teach sex without getting explicit, so, again, I found myself embracing the role of pornographer.

Before the Internet, every time I said “masturbation,” it either sent folks into gales of laughter or provoked embarrassed looks as they quickly changed the subject. My articles for magazines were canceled and interviews for television ended up on the cutting room floor. The bottom line of sexual repression is the prohibition of childhood masturbation. This humble activity is the basis for all of human sexuality. The Internet was the first place in my long career that I was not censored.

My old lover Grant ran my first website. At the end, he was classified as legally blind, and held a magnifying glass, with his nose an inch from the screen. When I joined forces with law school grad and cyber geek Carlin Ross, we created a new website. I believe that once Grant met Carlin, he was able to leave his disintegrating body. He made it to his eighty-sixth birthday and died proud with his boots on, with the next upload for my website sitting on his hard drive. I miss him terribly to this day. We had the most passionate love/hate affair of the century.

Carlin and I offer free, accessible sex information, both visual and written, to women and men. We call the clips where we show sexual skills, “The New Porn.” Sex education must be entertaining, not academic, dry, boring, or stilted. I’m not afraid of the word porn. If people are going to call my explicit sex education porn, then I say embrace the word. Be the new porn, be the porn you want to see. While it’s true that a lot of pornography out there is shitty for the most part, it still works: it gets people hot. The biggest turn on for me is to have a fully orgasmic partner, not someone pretending or playing. We all know the real deal when it’s happening—authentic orgasms are unmistakable. I’m a sex-positive feminist, liberating women one orgasm at a time.

Our site represents a new feminist sexual politics that’s well beyond any victimhood of rape and sexual abuse. We represent orgasmic feminism—a new movement of women who have taken control of our sex lives, and who dare to design them in any way we choose whether we’re straight, bi, lesbian, or a combination, and we can enjoy our bodies in any way we desire.”]

betty dodson, from the porn wars, from the feminist porn book: the politics of producing pleasure, edited by tristan taormino, constance henley, and celine perreñas shimizu, 2013

[chaifootsteps]

People here don't seem to realise that not allowing 'bigoted' sites like KF/4chan/whatever to exist, will just make the people who use those sites move to other sites. They will move to tumblr/xitter/other and then they're interacting with you directly instead of sometimes laughing at you behind closed doors.

I still use KF for certain things (art threads and following a couple of tumblr-based lolcows) and I've seen multiple fellow trans people and trans supporters in those threads. Are there a lot of transphobic users? Absolutely, and I choose not to interact with them/mute their accounts if they're extra annoying.

Say what you want about Null but I've never seen him ban anyone for disagreeing with him, or even insulting him. That's more than I can say for Musk ¯⁠\⁠_⁠(⁠ツ⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯

All of this. You also never see people calling to deplatform 4chan the same way, news articles about it and calls to its Tier 1 providers to try and get them to deny service, and that's wild to me because Kiwi Farms is a lot smaller and more laid back than 4chan. Kiwi Farms laughs and points and stresses non-involvement; 4chan has hacked websites to fill them with gore and porn just for kicks. 4chan, if you piss them off sufficiently, will send you CP.

Kiwi Farms doesn't want to murder anyone, trans or otherwise. They're as happy as anyone else when someone gets their life together and stops being funny. There's a couple of people they would openly celebrate if they got hit by a bus, but that's true for Tumblr, for Twitter, for everywhere.

(They're particularly mad about what happened to Chloe Sagal, because Chloe didn't blame them at the end, she blamed other trans people and Brianna Wu in particular and the government for turning a blind eye to homelessness and mental illness.)

It's not about defending Kiwi Farms. It's about misinformation and government/big corporations testing the waters, setting precedents for censoring content that isn't illegal.

[teeth--thief]

What are the differences between these G. Medvedev titles?:

Chernobyl Notebook

The Aftermath of Chernobyl: No Breathing Room

Why don't we get the answer for that from the source itself?

(...) In his 1991 publication The Truth About Chernobyl (originally called Chernobyl Notebook) Medvedev provided a grimly realistic picture of the scene at the nuclear plant in the immediate aftermath of the tragedy. It was the first full-length eyewitness account of these events to appear in English, and it was notably free of the descriptions of heroic acts that characterized previous articles by Soviet writers on the subject of Chernobyl. It portrayed a group of overconfident and yet alarmingly ignorant senior officials who failed to comprehend and then refused to acknowledge the enormity of what had happened. Until Medvedev's book appeared, it had not been possible to gauge accurately just how the officials on the spot could have so seriously misread the situation. The current book, No Breathing Room, might be seen as in the same vein: it also provides revelations about the operation of the Soviet nuclear industry and its inherent secrecy. Yet it also goes further than its predecessor in that it provides us with an in-depth analysis of the Soviet bureaucracy that developed in the Brezhnev period. This book is a personal account of one man's struggle against the system, and against the censor in particular; it is the story of an honest and straightforward man whose work was constantly impeded and withheld from publication by government officials, even during the period known as "glasnost and perestroika.'

(...) It is useful, therefore, in introducing this book to portray the society in which Medvedev lived and worked, to convey the background for his struggle against the censor and against the Soviet authorities. For although Medvedev held a sensitive position in the nuclear industry, it is clear that he felt a compulsion to write: about the cover-ups of previous accidents, about the major explosion in the Chelyabinsk region in the late 1950s; and, above all, about Chernobyl, the disaster whose consequences continue to dog post-Soviet society today. Medvedev sees a natural progression in these events. In his view, Soviet society was hurtling toward a nuclear abyss. His mission, as a member of the nuclear industry, was to try to prevent disaster by exposing the flaws and dangers of the system through the printed word.

Now, I want to make one thing very clear (which I think I already said at least once, actually): I did not read No Breathing Room. I do not think that suffering through Medvedev's bullshit and lies for the second time is worth anything. It's on the Drive in case anyone else wants to, though. As far as I can tell, however, it's less about Chernobyl itself, more about the industry in general, its flaws (or whatever Medvedev perceived as flaws at least), and history. It's kind of a b-roll footage for this first book. At the very least, he opts for slandering the dead workers not nearly as many times as in his previous title. I've genuinely never seen this book mentioned by anyone anywhere, not as a source, not to critique it. Safe to say, it's a good idea to skip this one entirely. Self-important prick is what he was, OF COURSE he wrote a book about how he was the one and only whistle-blower in the industry and how he struggled and how hard it was for him...

(...) it is clear that he felt a compulsion to write (...)

Well, I wish he didn't.

If you'd like something that's actually good about the nuclear industry before Chernobyl and not... Medvedev, check out Producing Power by Sonja D. Schmid (on the Drive, of course).

[lgbt-cishet-movie-tournament]

lol the main lead actors for each movie are father and son irl. well you know the drill

The loser is either too queer to be a cishet movie or too cishet to be queer…

How is it cishet media?

LB: evil gay vampires getting in the way of a cishet lovestory

The Exorcist: A movie (sort-of) beloved by the Catholic Church that promotes traditional family values. Has a lot of homophobic language, and it was released around Christmas. Only one gay character and they only tell you through a flamboyant gesture. Screen writer and book author was homophobic enough to make petitions to “un-catholic” the catholic school featured in this film (they were reaching out to gay students and having pride so he wrote an angry letter to the bishop) and it shows. The Vatican once invited the director to come over specifically because of the exorcist :(((

How is it lgbt?

LB: those vampires were gay and trans why else did they wear leather when it was so hot out. they got a single ear piercing which was the way back then to signal other gay people you were gay (they did it on the other ear not the gay ear but I know what was happening)

Exorcist: Regan is sooo off-putting and a bad daughter. This is just what being queer and having several diseases is like minus the exorcism. Her voice gets deep while she acts rebellious and her mom rejects her. Damien Karras (the younger priest) also reads as so repressedly gay and in the closet in the original book, but the movie squeezes in a bit of that with a scene where Fr. Dyer lays Karras to bed, and they hold hands until Karras eventually recoils with so much pathetic pain. I KNOW what you are. (https://afieldinengland.tumblr.com/post/657429236105248768/they-were-in-love-here) Karras and Dyer are even closer in the book, and Dyer is his stereotypically effeminate “ride or die” gay best friend. He told him to leave the priesthood with him since the gays are doing it, meanwhile all the other local priests were panicking about gay priests. The movie is extremely quotable too and I find that camp. Also found “Mother what’s wrong with me?” and “That thing upstairs is not my daughter” to be sooo personal. I know it’s homophobic but it helped me come out more somehow because I don’t want to DIE like that. Saw some fun Regan MacNeil dragqueens, trans posts and non-binary comics (with regan and karras) awhile ago as well. In the 90s, a reviewer said that the movie was actually a priest’s homoerotic wet dream (and that’s why they wanted to kill pazuzu the “female element”) and it so threw off the director to the point that his biography, an analytical book on the exorcist by kermode, AND some articles will bring it up as a bizarre theory or serious analysis. Well I say the reviewer had a point, but with the wrong priest. Dyer is the only confirmed gay character who gets censored a lot, but I know what those two had. Big closeted catholic energy. That’s why Regan was so homophobic. She read Karras’ mind.

[crystal-lillies]

alice takes a peek down the rabbit hole; or, what happens when I accidentally find a grifter-type news article on a subject I love

the ugly snort I made when I stumbled across a headline proclaiming that U.S. Comic Books are failing because of "wokeness" but Manga is thriving instead...

no joke, I felt like H.Bomberguy setting up a bit before a 4-hour long video essay as I found this article on my "new tab screen."

and I had to read it because my first thought, of course, was, "My dude," (the author is a man) "where the fuck have you been? Manga has ALWAYS been much more left and progressive than most mainstream U.S. comic books! You shot yourself in the foot right there!"

But, of course, I wanted to see if that point got addressed, and what else this article had to say, despite knowing that it was not meant for my eyes. The first mistake was that it claimed that manga was imported "non-woke" material within the first two paragraphs, while then much later acknowledging that what "might be called wokeness" exists in manga, particularly in LGBT relationships, even citing the outcry when the Sailor Moon dub censored the ships baked into the text of the story.

Yet...the issue is that U.S. comic books that have been behind in the representation department on many intersectional departments are now working to introduce more of these elements, such as Riri Williams taking over for Tony Stark as Ironheart when Iron Man is no longer around, or that Luke Fox exists in the Batfamily...with all of the other Batfamily around...or that Carol Danvers isn't as much of a fucking sexy fantasy doll than she was made out to be before.

Put a pin in that.

Another point brought up is how at "one time," comic book shops catered to a specific, niche group of people (a mostly male-dominated, juvenile-seeming group) and certain fandoms' toxic behavior soured the image in the public's eye...but NOW the stigma has LONG been GONE! ...I'd need a citation for that, my dude. (there wasn't one)

despite how many people go to Comic Cons around the world, being a comic book geek is still an oft-ridiculed and niche thing (as is the same for manga and anime, but it's a lot easier to find manga in my local Target than most superhero comics). and while some kind comic book shops do go out of their way cater to everyone, as someone who is Not Male and Not Always "Stereotypically Geek"-Presenting, I've had my fair share of judgement for my presence in those spaces.

Now coming back to the pin...making U.S. comic books and superhero stories more aligned with a wider, more diverse, "woke" audience, just like the massively successful imported (supposedly "non-woke") manga have been doing for many years...that's the real problem as to why comic sales are seemingly doing badly, according to you, sir? Not anything to do with the fact that translated manga is at a better price point for the value page-count and quality-wise, which you cited, or the fact it is more widely available to general intersectional audiences, which you ALSO cited?

The cognitive dissonance gymnastics is really something to behold. Sometimes, you really have to see it for yourself, and wonder how these writers are missing the point they're unintentionally making.

But, of course, I'm far from the intended audience that already agrees with the blind defensive ragebait.

and I do feel like H.Bomberguy now after having brought my head out of the rabbit hole.

if I wasn't so averse and terrified of putting more of myself out on the internet...I could see how easy it would be to go insane and make a 4-hour long video essay.

[hellogirlslikegirlslikeboysdo]

And the lights are not fluorescent, and there are no words on the page. - Voice/Rough Draft Essay

Author's Preface and Ch. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7

Description: My final portfolio for one of the creative writing courses I took based around exploring the creative nonfiction essay in its many literary forms, with any and all identifying names or signifiers censored out.

During my many travels, I have found sticking a man and his daughter in a hot car for approximately 116 miles, radio on low, murmuring music she likes and he doesn’t, homemade food in Tupperware in insulated beach bags in piles of slowly unfolding clothes in the back of the trunk, will, against or with their collective will, bring about conclusions. Asinine, podcast-y, “This action will have consequences“ conclusions. Some the father’s already decided and convinced the daughter of (and vice versa).

You’ll get them in a wide variety of (recurring) topics too! The entertainment industry, capitalism, education, and, if you, the reader, happened to be a stowaway on my last return to college, my mother’s own gradual and uncharitable concussion:

That she, at the ripe old age of 50-something, is done growing as a person.

It checked out when consulted her track record, like it was fact-checking for an intervention: Her slow-roasted resentment in my grandmother’s miserly recognition of her overwhelming lifelong achievements (and, subsequently, her brother for slurping up all the motherly attention grandma served up, like the part eched little thing he was), barely abated by her (1) confrontation of my grandmother’s behavior. The following mourning period, shared with me and my father for two months at best. Her go-to apology: “I guess I’m a bad person then!” said in the most patronizing voice she could muster (and believe me when I say she has plenty of experience).

My mother is a firecracker more than she is a woman, raw, rich personality stuffed inside what looks like Barbie-laminated plastic, engineered at initial creation to shoot off into the sky quicker than the strike of a match. To burn out, quietly, like the star that she is, following the promise of a thunderous boom. A great disappointment you only understand in adulthood.

Of course she saw life, her life, as just sorta…like that. Nothing to be done about it, you could figure she figured. Best to hang that soggy pit of sadness on the coat rack and hope to god it dries in time for work tomorrow.

I wasn’t grown up though, despite my age of 20 whole years. At least, not enough to understand how anyone else could think like that. Could find something tucked away in the recess of their life that just wasn’t quite right, and go “...Mmmm that should be good enough.” The best explanation, the one meant for someone so young and hopeful in their delusions, was found in the very first conclusion I managed to bulldoze my father into coming to that evening: Ever since man first inhaled the emancipating power of creativity and survived the exhale, there has been art born out of someone, somewhere, going “...Well, it looks like the picture in the book”, and calling it a night.

You may be surprised to hear this, considering this little article of mine is (arguably) fairly coherent and, at the very least, not actively killing your brain cells, but my favorite television show of all time is one of the laziest, thoughtless, and most exhaustive pieces of media 14-year-old me had ever seen in her measly little life. It was a 15-minute serialized animated cartoon named Breadwinners running on Nickelodeon's spinoff channel, Nicktoons, at the time, aired only two seasons, and if you value your time and self-respect, you will not watch it. All you need to know about the show is the words of its co-“creator” (the term, of course, used in the most ambiguous sense possible, within the confines of human minds) Gary Di Raffaele on his and Steve Boris shared writing process: “I think, when you watch a Breadwinners episode, it feels and it sounds like no other cartoon because it’s, it’s got that, that constant drive, that constant beat.“ (“Meet The Creators”), an unofficial elaboration on the previous statement, “The way we produce our show is pretty much unlike anything else that’s been produced.” (“Meet The Creators”).

What follows these sentiments are only a few more words on the animation process and the collaborative angle the show’s crew takes, but Gary’s tone (and the show itself) is so clear and obvious that the second part of that sentence, I feel, can barely be classified as an inference. “Unlike anything else that’s been produced”, because that’s what makes the show so unique, so fun and wacky and zany!

So good.

The filming of this interview (with the help of fevered, extensive consumption of both every decent video essay critiquing this show and every episode of the show I’ve gotten my hands on) has only confirmed my suspicions. Sometime after the greenlighting of their pilot and the subsequent order of a first season, Raffaele and Boris had come to the reasonable observation that one of the many redeeming qualities used to defend a show’s quality is its supposed uniqueness, its fresh ideas or concepts. Even its ability to introduce familiar archetypes and plotlines and tropes in a new and exciting way, or with a twist or subversion of sorts! They then, despite now having contact with at least a few of Nickelodeon's experienced and accomplished writers now within contact, stumbled down one of the many historic writing pitfalls of overeager amateurs and seasoned veterans who have lost their touch over time: The assumption that because their writing looks like some of the quality art they’ve seen before, it simply must be of just as high a quality.

This artistically stunting philosophy grows in many familiar places, the way mold grows on trash bins left on the curb on a hot summer Tuesday. You may find it in the 12-year-old who is just beginning to explore their artistic capabilities by tracing screenshots of anime characters they found online, or the burned-out cartoon writer, a fast-approaching deadline for the shipment of an episode’s storyboard hanging over their head, and a hastily downed Starbucks coffee hanging off the side of their desk. You may even find it trapped within the inner workings of your own creative work (though I do hope you never do). Either way, you will find the same outcome in every new example you find yourself confronted with:

The writer eventually mistakes their work’s resemblance to the type of art they aim to recreate, whether that be in the way said example tugs at the heartstrings or gets its viewer’s blood pumping, for proof that their work accomplishes these feats too, simply due to its traceable proximity to its inspiration.

The stand-up comic throws in jokes that don’t land because they have identifiable setups and punchlines, the romance novelist adds a sex scene even when it grinds the plot to an unnecessary halt because her favorite book has one too, and the writers behind Breadwinners use an inventive new production strategy to make the zaniest, off-the-wall scripts their network had ever seen, in hopes they would help the show stand out amongst all the other wacky competition in each week’s programming block and ensure each episode shocks and surprises 9-12 year olds everywhere. That Breadwinners would be innovative, eye-catching, and above all else, unique.

This inherent “uniqueness”, of course, was presumed to come neatly prepackaged with the intended goal of their solely comedy-focused cartoon: Making the viewer laugh. In any way possible. If you’ve ever seen an episode of Breadwinners, you know fully well that it did not.

“But [REDACTED],” You cry. “Haven’t you ever written something in the style of the things you like? Who are you to judge?” Normally, I would recount the “Appeal to Hypocrisy” fallacy in detail, but this article is already long enough (I would also question why you are talking to an online article as if it can hear you, but I digress). I will instead surrender my own early work, “Body Swichers” (I invite you to ignore the spelling, if you can), as tribute, and instead call your attention to this excerpt from a twelve-year-old me with a cliche plot line and far-too-early access to Microsoft Word: “Instead of the cheerful, spike-haired boy, he saw his sarcastic, witty friend, Gretchen in the mirror…Megee raced toured the closet and pulled out an antique, dusty, enormous book.” (Sacristan 1)

Notably bad grammar and sentence structure aside, this quote is a direct result of my ongoing journey as a writer. The first thing I had ever written, the first chapter of a romance/adventure story, was an attempt to recreate the magic I’d found in the many, many novels I had gotten lost in as a child. It was, predictably, not successful. Every line held the bland and awkward hallmarks of a child’s first draft, despite both my parents’ insistence on how it didn’t. Instead of falling back on the idea that it was good by virtue of it sharing an intended style with works I had deemed good, however, I opened up my laptop a few weeks later, pulled up Internet Explorer, and set out to find why that chapter didn’t intrigue me as much as the writing in my favorite series.

This process soon led to the discovery that the books I liked had big, descriptive words in them, words like “sarcastic” and “antique” and “enormous”. The incorporation of these words in my next work led to the question of why everything I wrote sounded so clunky and redundant all of a sudden, which led to learning about effective word choice, and then good sentence structure, and then impactful tone and atmosphere, and countless other improvements! Most importantly, however, is how it highlights the difference between my approach and Boris and Raffaele, despite still sitting at an amateurish level myself.

They took inspiration thinking it would ensure quality work, to somehow magically copy and paste its greatness into their own writing. I took inspiration to learn what made it so great in the first place.

So, there. That, I figure, is how someone could look at something in their life, whether it be art, a personal flaw, or even their entire self, and assume it resembles what it's supposed to look like well enough to “pass”, whatever in god’s name that’s supposed to mean. (One way, at least.) And I’m sure this theory could apply to other aspects of issues I’ve touched upon in this article. The dire need to push yourself as a writer and avoiding the comfort of creative complacency in your work, the way this type of thinking directly informs the prevailing disrespect children’s television writers holding in their audience, mistranslating “silly and childish” as “good enough for kids”, even how that reflects a wider disrespect for children in society as a whole!

I hope, however, the single grain of wisdom you and I both take away from this literary exploration is the same one I found detailed in Stephen King’s autobiography, On Writing, in his mother’s disappointment upon realizing that that the little hand-drawn comics he’d been showing her were direct tracings of someone else’s work. IN the novel, she dismisses the original works, citing them as “junk” and insisting that she “...’bet you [he] could do better. Write one of your own.’” (King 28)

Can you imagine, truly, if King (a young child who’d never written an actual story in his whole life and could have very easily done so!) had disregarded his mother’s advice under the guise that nothing could be better than something identical to one of his favorite things to read, that drawing something that looks like them was good enough on its own? If we were forced to live in a world where this advice didn’t lead him to publish so many of the literary classics we know and love today, like “It”, or “Carrie”, or “The Outsider”?…I can’t, since I haven’t actually read any of his books, but this world has been gracious enough to let me bear witness to Carrie (1976), the Carrie musical’s off-broadway cast album, and some of the loveliest It fanart I’ve ever seen, So I imagine that world, in the kindest of words, totally blows. It stands to reason, then, that we, as writers, have a creative duty to keep growing and improving both ourselves and our work, to make sure we never come to see it.

[newsource21]

It turns out that Republicans' concerns about the Biden administration's efforts to censor the news and information Americans see are well-founded.

In a stunning letter to the House Judiciary Committee, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg wrote that the Biden-Harris administration pressured Facebook to censor content and then pushed harder after the company initially resisted the government's coercion.

In the letter released Monday, Zuckerberg said that "senior officials from the Biden Administration, including the White House, repeatedly pressured our teams for months to censor certain COVID-19 content, including humor and satire, and expressed a lot of frustration with our teams when we didn't agree."

Zuckerberg admitted that Facebook made changes to COVID-related content and that his team is responsible for the decision to do so. He also expressed regret for succumbing to government pressure to censor content.

"I believe the government pressure was wrong," Zuckerberg wrote, "and I regret that we were not more outspoken about it. I also think we made some choices that, with the benefit of hindsight and new information, we wouldn't make today."

He said the company would react differently if it received similar pressure again: "I feel strongly that we should not compromise our content standards due to pressure from any Administration in either direction − and we're ready to push back if something like this happens again."

It's sad but not shocking that Joe Biden's White House pressured a major social media company to block Americans' access to information deemed by government censors as inappropriate. Stories about government interference with Facebook and Twitter, now known as X, have been swirling for some time.

But the fact that Zuckerberg has acknowledged years after the fact that the Biden-Harris administration repeatedly pressured the company to censor content, even jokes, during the pandemic is quite damning. The First Amendment protects the right to free speech for all Americans. The Biden administration trampled on that right by using the power of government to pressure a news and information platform to block or alter what Americans were permitted to see and read.

Zuckerberg's revelation also exposes an odd double standard about the relationship the White House has with tech companies. The Biden administration has sued Apple over its supposed monopoly on cellphones, filed a lawsuit against Amazon and launched antitrust investigations into Google, Meta and Microsoft. It seems hypocritical for Biden to sue Big Tech for alleged violations and then pressure Facebook to do his bidding.

What else are Republicans right about?

When something like Zuckerberg's letter becomes public, and an idea that Democrats have long claimed is petty and false turns out to be true, I wonder if the same thing could be happening about other important issues.

How many supposedly "baseless" Republican ideas are actually rooted in truth?

Trump vs. Trump:The former president is losing a winnable election. He has no one to blame but himself.

In fact, Zuckerberg pointed to one such issue in his letter Monday.

He said the FBI warned Meta about a “potential Russian disinformation operation” before the 2020 election involving the Biden family and Burisma, a Ukrainian energy company with ties to Hunter Biden, the president's son. After the warning, Facebook demoted, or suppressed, a New York Post news article about Hunter Biden's business entanglements.

“We sent that story to fact-checkers for review and temporarily demoted it while waiting for a reply,” Zuckerberg wrote. “It’s since been made clear that the reporting was not Russian disinformation, and in retrospect, we shouldn’t have demoted the story.”

Zuckerberg said that Meta no longer demotes posts in the United States while waiting for fact-checkers to complete their work. Now that Vice President Kamala Harris has replaced Biden on the Democratic presidential ticket, the White House's record of censorship is her record. Will she pressure social media companies in the future to remove content that makes her look bad? Will Big Tech stand up against new censorship efforts, as Zuckerberg now promises to do?

Americans have a right to know.

[smartrelationshiptips]

Are Breakups Traumatic? Here are 10 Creative Ways to Improve

In this post, you can find creative ways you can improve are breakups traumatic. Many people have experienced the pain of a breakup in their life. It can be very traumatic, and it is hard to get over it.

In this article, we are going to explore creative ways you can improve your breakups traumatic. We will discuss how some habits that you may not know about could be holding you back from healing after a breakup and what you can do about them.

We will also share with you 10 bad habits that cause people’s creativity to suffer, which could help make your situation better.

10 Creative Ways You Can Improve Your Are Breakups Traumatic

We must take care of our mental health after a break up so that we don’t become too traumatized by them and start suffering from post-breakup depression. 

Here are 10 creative ways you can improve your chances of recovery:

1. Journal Your Feelings

It can be hard to know what to say or do when you’re just coming out of a breakup. Talking with your friends and family about your feelings is fine, but sometimes you need more time before sharing intimate details.

Writing down your thoughts in a journal can help you work through your emotions in situations like this.

How to do it:

Grab a notebook and pen and write down all of the feelings you’re experiencing after the initial shock of being broken up has worn off. Write about what happened that led up to the breakup, and what your relationship was like. And any other memories you have surrounding the end of your relationship.

When you’re writing, don’t censor yourself. You can include anything that you’re thinking and feeling, no matter how strange or embarrassing it may seem to someone else.

You could try reading some other people’s breakup recovery stories on the internet, which might help inspire you.

2. Talk to Someone Who Understood Your Relationship

When your friends and family don’t understand what it’s like to be in your relationship, they can say things that may hurt you. Often, someone who has gone through the same relationship experiences as you can give you an entirely different perspective on the breakup than someone who hasn’t.

3. Exercise Regularly

Exercise is therapeutic because it boosts both endorphins and serotonin, which can help you feel better. For this reason, it’s important to schedule time in your routine for exercise after a breakup. It won’t be easy at first because you’ll have little motivation, but eventually, it becomes easier as the days go by.

4. Take Care of Yourself Physically

Taking care of yourself physically can help you feel better mentally. So, if you’re having trouble eating or sleeping, make sure to find healthy ways to improve your physical well-being.

5. Stay Busy

Staying busy is a great way to distract yourself from feeling you don’t want to think about. Pursuing other interests and spending time with friends can take your mind off of the breakup.

6. Build New Relationships Outside of Your Ex’s Circles

When you’re recovering from a bad breakup, make sure that you don’t spend all of your time with people who are connected to your ex. If they contacted them after the breakup, they might give you biased opinions or hurtful comments.

By surrounding yourself with people who didn’t know your ex, you can avoid being influenced by everyone else’s opinions and problems.

7. Get Rid of Problematic Items That Remind You of Your Ex

Collecting possessions from a past relationship is never an easy process. If you’re holding onto things like letters, pictures, or gifts from the relationship, you’ll have to decide if it’s going to bring you more pain than happiness.

Sometimes these objects can help us feel nostalgia and make us miss our exes less, but other times they just cause us pain. If your ex gave you a gift that makes you sad when you look at it, give it away or throw it away. You don’t want these items to have power over you or remind you of how your ex hurt you.

8. Indulge in Something You Enjoyed Before Your Relationship

Sometimes we lose touch with the hobbies that made us happy before our relationship. After a breakup, try taking up one of these old interests again and spend time doing things that make you smile.

9. Write Down Your Feelings and Thoughts in a Journal

Many people find comfort in writing down their thoughts and feelings because it gives them an outlet to express themselves without worrying about other people’s opinions or reactions. It’s not uncommon for someone to be afraid of sharing what they’re feeling with others after a painful breakup, so writing it down is a better option.

10. Take Time to Relax and Rest

Breakups can be exhausting and overwhelming because you’re trying to deal with all the emotions from both the anxiety of breaking up as well as prolonged stress from your relationship problems. Make sure that you’re getting enough sleep each night and take breaks throughout the day during your schedule to relax and unwind.

I hope you enjoyed these 10 tips for getting over a breakup. Don’t forget to check out my website at  Romantic Advice Online for more information on surviving and recovering from the end of your relationship.

What is breakups traumatic?

Breakup refers to the act of a relationship coming to an end.   For some people, the concept of a breakup can be traumatic as it may include feelings like guilt, frustration, anger and confusion.

On top of that, many breakups are accompanied by abuse, too, when you have been cheated on or left for another person. Many things can also play a role in whether or not a  breakup is traumatic.

If you always feel hurt after every breakup, then it’s likely that your trauma will be more intense and could last longer than expected.

What psychology says about breakups?

According to psychology,  breakups are considered traumatic events. This is because breakups can cause a person to feel sorrow, anger or despair. When a person doesn’t have proper coping skills, they could experience negative feelings for an extended period, leading to some psychological consequences and complications.

How long does breakup trauma last?

The time required for a breakup to become less traumatic varies from person to person.   Some people only experience the trauma of a break up for less than two weeks, while others can experience it lasting for several years.

According to a psychologist, Robin Orloff, someone going through a breakup could suffer from an immediate post-traumatic stress reaction to the breakup. It’s not uncommon for someone to experience a massive emotional breakdown just hours after a breakup.

After going through such an intense period, most people will start feeling better over time as they recover from their break up. However, there are some cases where a person could suffer from symptoms related to PTSD like depression, anxiety or even flashbacks of a traumatic event.

If you are experiencing symptoms related to PTSD and you have been recently through a breakup, it’s best to seek professional help right away to cope with the negative feelings causing your trauma.

You May Like: Why Breakups Hit Guys Later? 5 Surprising Reasons

Why should you be recovering from breakups?

For most people going through a breakup, the chances of getting affected emotionally are much higher. This means that you could be more sensitive to any negative feelings and emotions from your relationship problems.

In addition to this, getting over a break up is also extremely important to move on to better things in life . If you’re suffering through a breakup, then it’s best to make sure that you’re recovering from it right away.

Conclusion

Breakups can be extremely traumatic, but not always. It’s important to remember that many factors within a relationship and the breakup itself could determine if it is traumatizing or not.

If you’re going through one now, check out our list of 10 tips for getting over breakups quickly and easily so you can move on with your life and recover from any negative feelings. Have some personal insight into how these principles worked for you? Let us know in the comments below!

[spectaculardistractions]

To Marie-Laure and Charles de Noailles Beverly Hills, 7 February 1931 Very dear friends, Firstly, I thank you kindly for the photo you sent of Marie-Laure and little Laure. They both look lovely and I was delighted to see them. I am so very far away that a letter or a memento from friends like you helps to fill some lonely hours with happiness. Thanks to the press cuttings I’ve received from you and Argus, I am up to date with the press campaign and reviews of the film. Your name would have been left completely out of it had it not been for Le Figaro and those spiteful comments in Aux Écoutes in particular. That magazine has taken cowardice to the point of publishing anonymous articles. If I were in Paris, I would track down that vile anonymous myself. That apart, I’ve also received some long and positive reviews. Painlevé sent me one in Dutch and Argus sent others in English, Russian and German. I’ve made an album I’ll show you when I have a chance. I quite agree with you though that for now the film is a lost cause in France. I am sure that the passing of time will correct this. In some of the cuttings (in particular an excessively ignorant article by Charensol, and in Aux Écoutes) I read that Cocteau’s film is also considered dangerous. So it seems that if we want to make films that stay within the boundaries set by the legal system, the censors, tradition and general loathing for poetry, etc., we are limited to Ruttmanesque films or charming American comedies. That is: to abstain from making films altogether. That is what is happening to me here. It is so difficult to explain, but you can’t imagine what it means to make a film over here, especially at Metro-Goldwyn. Even Eisenstein, who didn’t come up with any excessively revolutionary projects, was forced to leave after ten months without producing anything. There is nothing more predictable, outdated, banal and honest than the films made over here. For what it’s worth, they have a level of technical perfection that Europeans attempt to imitate in vain. For my part, I just observe and in no way intervene in production. Which is not to say they are not friendly, because they do pay me and do not expect anything in return. I followed your instructions not to sell the film to anyone else. Where England was concerned it was too late and by the time my telegram arrived, the deal had already been done. The arrangements with Strasbourg, Brussels and Spain though were all cancelled. On my instructions, Vicens went to the laboratory and collected the complete film negative. He wrote to say he had taken it to your home, correctly stored in two large boxes. The copy that was not seized is securely stored and will not be released without your permission. We are now going to demand the other two copies from the police: I hope they will return them. My friends on the rue Gay-Lussac are just waiting for Mauclaire’s cheque before sending you the accounts. I think they wrote to you about this a few weeks ago. As the film was banned though, I imagine there won’t be much money. GM Film have sent invoices I’ve already paid, the receipts for these are in the file you have in Paris. I’ve told them I will bring them over to show them when I get back. As for Tobis, I think he has made a copy of the damaged negative in his laboratory. I am sorry you can’t come to Hollywood. I will see you back in France then, as I don’t plan to stay in America much longer. I would love to tell you about all my adventures and misadventures since our last meeting. Best wishes to Auric if he is still with you. I’m envious. To you and Laure and Nathalie, all my friendship and fond regards, Luis PS I am sending an envelope with the cuttings you asked me to return. Thank you.

Jo Evans & Breixo Viejo, Luis Buñuel: A Life in Letters

[daedalmirage]

【RUMOR 2.3】 She finishes reading.

Almost immediately, a text has been sent to your phones from an unknown number:

Dear customers: the Omniscient Oracle’s Peculiar Articles (OOPArts) Magazine is intended for paying customers only. Due to frequent breaking of rules, the bookstore will reduce the purchase period by one week. Thank you for your understanding.

From three weeks to two, you suddenly feel as though a heavy pressure has been placed on your shoulders. 

“Whooopsie! Guess even I’m not immune to that pesky anti-theft policy! But my copy was complimentary! Was it because I read the contents aloud? My bad! Or more like your bad, for being all chummy and not killing each other. Whatever. This was a total misprint anyway. I mean they’re all mixed up except three of them? Pff.”

You could swear that she rolled her eyes – even when her puppet eyes didn’t move an inch.

“Oh, but let tell you something that they won’t tell you: they take their anti-theft policies veeeery seriously around here!”

She gives the case  a light tap with her foot.

“No one likes a freeloader who crumples all the magazines and then puts them back on the rack - if you try to get your hands on a magazine without paying up, you might wind up getting the whole magazine censored, or at least shortening your deadline. Who knows what else might happen to you if you don’t pay up the right way. You get what I’m saying? It’s kill or waste your chance to…”

She peers over the edge of the case.

“Read the exclusive article about removing the Mark and its origins! Whaaat?! I was never paid for this!”

Seemingly taken aback the puppet tsks as she straightens up.

“Well. Time’s a-wasting isn’t it? I’ll leave you all to it~!”

And just like that she disappears, leaving her magazine page fluttering to the floor. And soon after -- another voice speaks up.

“Nobody is touching that case.”

It’s Inkyo, who stations herself in front of the magazine rack.

“I will make sure of it myself. There is no need – to entertain Lady Misery’s proposal.”