#but there was never twitter level toxicity so prevalent

[kitsuneoftheorganization]

no but like s a m e

left tumblr because it was dying and toxic, went on twitter cause it was the natural progression, ya know???, that dives straight into a dumpster of fire, and now it feels like the “i’m free!! worst experience of my life.” meme.

YES EXACTLY if tumblr was toxic then twitter has become a whole biohazard ;-; literally feels like breaking out LMAO

#at least we ARE free!! #i honestly started drifting away out of interest because it's so hard to separate the negativity from the content #i still like them but i feel like i just escaped some country holding me prisoner LMFAO #i'm just so happy to see tumblr is less toxic now #when i left there was a big migration to twitter from armys #and other fandoms i suppose #but there was never twitter level toxicity so prevalent #anyways high five for yeeting ourselves out of clown town 🤚

[faelapis]

so. while this was confirmed a year ago, new tweets by ian jq have reawakened the discourse about humans being the first intelligent life gems encountered. note intelligent life, not organic life. alien animals still died from previous invasions, but humans are the first intelligent creatures gems encountered. 

apparently, the party line on twitter (where nuance goes to die) is that it’s too “convenient” that humans are the first other intelligent species gems met.

i take a few issues with that assessment: 

a) “it was pink’s first colony, isn’t it convenient the diamond concerned with organic life owns the first planet populated by intelligent organics? wouldn’t they have died if any other diamond got them? isn’t that super lucky?”

no. we know rose/pink was very interested in organic life from before earth. she always thought aliens were cool, interesting, fun, and liked learning about them and keeping some as pets - such as the rainbow worms. we know she visited the others’ colonies, even if she doesn’t own them. she’s the only diamond who is simultaneously “selfish” enough to visit colonies up-close on a whim because it’s fun AND doesn’t see herself as too good to play with local organics.

so, then, why on earth (hah) wouldn’t she care if there had been intelligent life on any of the other planets? she didn’t fight for earth just because she “owned” it. she cared because she was able to form connections to humans... which she would have done regardless of which diamond’s colony it was. if anything, ownership is a hindrance to her usual romps, because blue & yellow expected her to stay put in her moon base. smile and wave. be a “leader”. 

b) “how is it realistic that humans are the first intelligent life gems have met?”

the SU universe as a whole is not a universe filled with life. it has been framed as cold, animalistic, overall lifeless, purposeless, and one in which you gaze at an empty sky and beg for an authority figure to give your life meaning. this works much, much better if life, especially intelligent life, is incredibly sparse. they are small flickers in a cold void. it adds to the feeling that both humans and gems feel of loneliness and pointlessness, where you create these intricate structures of organized almost-religion to feel devoted to a purpose. this existentialism, which we will explore further below, is a huge part of SU’s themes.

c) another theme - and this one is important - is that gems and humans have been treated as this mirror parallel of life, people, and society (tm) for the entire runtime of the show. hence, steven as the bridge. a bridge, usually, connects two sides, not five. they are more similar than they are different - to the point where you can use gemkind to comment on how humans are like, and see some of the horrors and tragedy of what humanity looks like “from the outside”. not once has there ever been implied to be any other intelligent species to disrupt this elegant, thematic dichotomy. ever. 

d) unlike fanon speculation, the show has always been very careful about never implying there were any previous rebellions. SU is not a star wars-esque universe populated with a million different intelligent species and cyclical rebellions + alliances between them. it is a big, cold, empty void, with tiny pockets of fragile life. which is part of why the connection between two alien species is so remarkable. it is the exception, not the rule.

e) many of us who looked at homeworld in a not-badfaith light already came to the conclusion that humans are probably the only intelligent life they’ve met. (based on what we know about the universe, its logic, the themes, the implications of other colonies, pink diamond’s personality, no other species ever bonded with enough to fight for, etc etc,)... and those of us who did, including myself, have (lovingly!!) compared the crystal gems to hippies or eco-terrorists. this 100% holds up to how homeworld gems generally, and the diamonds specifically, see them. 

this is why blue thinks a “solution” to pink being sad about the invasion is to create the zoo. it’s a petty conflict, from her perspective, of environmentalism vs conservationism. like how, if a capitalist is kinda sad about a rainforest being bulldozed, you might as well just take some pretty toucans and panthers and stick them in a zoo. they’re preserved for humans to enjoy. problem “solved”. it worked with the kyanite colony & rainbow worms, why not here?

this is part of why lapis accuses the CGs of not caring about gemkind. they put this silly little dirtball above gemkind, starting a war that hurt (”real”) people? 

this is also why pink, mocking the other diamonds, says “you wish to save these life-forms at the expense of our own? ha! don't be absurd!”. gemkind needs resources to create more gems. so, to the diamonds, of course that’s more important than Making The Bees and Monkeys Sad. they’re not even directly killing them, they’re just taking resources. it’s not “””their fault””” they need ‘em too, gems are more important. the same way, to us, humans are always the most important. many of us don’t give a damn about how we hurt animals.

f) it galls me that anything but the darkest possible interpretation, even when it makes perfect sense with what we know, is always seen as “convenient” by people who watched nostalgia critic once and think they’re now great media critics. i saw similar comments to jasper being brought back to life, even though it made perfect sense with what’s implied about the powers of the diamonds. most of that, too, was woven together by paying close attention to implication, not outright stated in a lore dump - but that doesn’t make it “convenient” in the bad way. it makes it the logical outcome of this world, if you paid attention.

like jasper coming back to life, it also told us something thematic about the diamonds’ absolute power over life & death. steven is kinda horrified, even if it’s a good thing, that things can ever be fixed. he still feels like he needs to be “punished”. he holds this toxic mindset that punishment is more important than healing, because of the pit of self-harm he’s fallen into... which is kind of how some people see the diamonds, and the world as a whole. 

even if things can get better, it doesn’t matter. at least not as much as punishing and distancing ourselves from the “bad people”. even though, actually, things CAN get better, and that’s more dependent on systemic change than it is on punishing “bad” individuals... that doesn’t fascinate them. it’s a fucked-up idea of “consequences” that is sadly prevalent in fandoms: they’d rather the world be doomed if they get to kill the bad people for it, than the world being slowly healed in this bittersweet way that includes everyone.

and i’m tired of that. on the whole, fiction is a reflection of this very dour, justice-oriented view of the world where we can only gain satisfaction from punishing the bad guys responsible. SU’s response to that is, that actually, just this once... no! the world gets better, and the “how” doesn’t revolve around individual punishment. it’s trying to heal everyone. 

g) it seems to me that for a substantial amount of people, “convenience” has less to do with the themes and logic of the world than it does with wanting canon to live up to their fanon image of homeworld and the diamonds. even if that means a ton of offscreen intelligent life dying Just for the sake of a 1-v-1 earth-vs-gems conflict, with no agency in the story. i don’t understand how that would make it better. all other life we’ve seen have been animals. pink was around for other colonies - even if she didn’t personally “own” them - yet didn’t care deeply enough to fight for them. because she couldn’t bond with worms the same way as humans. (yknow, unfortunately, for the worms :’<)

also, you don’t NEED other species of intelligent life to have been made extinct to still have a somewhat cynical interpretation of the diamonds’ intentions here. even if it makes the world less grimdark in praxis. it’s not enough to be aware of humans in the abstract, blue and yellow still won’t listen. you need to actually interact with humans in order to learn about / care for organics that don’t serve a purpose in your system. this was just the first chance gemkind had to do so. it makes sense that some would be curious, while others more jaded and dismissive, after encountering a universe mostly made of the lifeless & animals.

to give the other diamonds some credit, they’ve probably encountered plenty organic life, and thus have built up a bias that everyone but gemkind are aimless, animalistic life forms, and its up to them to give themselves purpose. why should humans be any different? oh wow, they live in groups? big whoop. so do ants. they build nests? so do birds. they babble? so do parrots and rainbow worms. they still serve no purpose. they still die if you breathe on them.

it’s only when blue meets greg - thousands of years later - that we see even the tiniest of cracks, in which blue is made aware of some level of emotional intelligence, but is still firmly entrenched in the view that he’s just a Slightly more advanced organic than others. like... puppies comforting you. she was surprised he could even do that much. this was a slow process for rose as well! 

but anyway, at the point of the war, to many gems, they are concerned first and foremost with gemkind. life matters because of your singular, gem-oriented “purpose”... but some gems, like pink, who never saw herself as a justified goddess, take the opposite approach. they don’t see themselves as “above” other life out of either lack of awareness of the capabilities of intelligent life forms or a self-appointed Higher Purpose. they’re curious, and then, willing to fight for life they can bond with, once they learn to love. 

which brings me to...

h) how a big theme of the show as a whole is selflessness vs selfishness. 

here, the crystal gems as a whole have actually been on the side of selfishness, from homeworld’s perspective. the end of gathering resources would mean they would no longer create more gems. which, to HW, is selfish. which... of course it is, if you think you’re the only intelligent life out there. 

the way homeworld gems express themselves is through an elaborate system of self-perpetuation and creation, in which the emergence of more gems is a higher purpose for the collective. the individual doesn’t matter. to them, the random creatures they find on other planets do not matter. they’re just organics.

humans matter to pink because she’s, like i said, curious about alien life, and less convinced about her own purpose... but also more personal, relationship-driven, and cares about what happens the specific individuals she subjectively bonds with, rather than prioritizing the overall “needs” of her species, like a good queen bee is “supposed” to do. 

homeworld thinks that no individual feelings - even a diamond’s - is more important than perpetuating of the system that gives their species meaning. most gems are happy to be shattered for that cause, because they’ve never formed those “selfish” relationships that makes life worth living without purpose. so actually, yes, this works with pink’s motivation, and blue and yellow not being as easily swayed works with theirs.

(all of this is extremely relevant to the arc steven has in “future”, btw. he needs a reason to be needed, purpose. and pearl’s arc, white diamond’s arc, jasper’s arc, etc etc - living for purpose vs living for relationships and selfish exploration of the self is a massive theme of the whole show!! at leaast if you pay attention to anything more subtle than merely “here’s a lore dump!”, which the show has always avoided. it’s more sublime than that. you, too, are supposed to only have a small, subjective understanding of the world, like steven does, which teaches you to value subjective perspectives. your purpose is not higher than the agency of others, and you shouldn’t control the world.)

i) it makes dramatic sense, actually, to center the conflict around the first time gems have met another species that stand a chance of understanding them! hence steven is a bridge. that’s a good basis for mirroring two species, a conflict that raises interesting questions about how we, too, see non-human life, the premium we place on emotional connection vs “purpose”, and how even when we learn to value humans that are different from us, we might still fuck around and bulldoze a rainforest, if it’s convenient and we can justify it internally. 

and again, it’s more logical. as we know it, the story went “long ago, gems took resources all over the universe, until pink found a species intelligent enough some of them learned to bond with on a deeper level than Cool Pet Worm”, NOT “long ago, gems zapped a bunch of intelligent species - which we will not mention ever, or give any agency in the story - and pink just ignored that, until she randomly decided humans were more important than all those, for no reason, even though she’d met countless intelligent species before”. 

the former makes more sense in ~every reading of canon, be it thematic, logical, personal, character-driven, etc~... except the one most favored by SU’s most badfaith of critics, which is that the only “logical” way for the story to go is one in which we can safely label the diamonds as inhumanly, unchangably bad, rather than having base assumptions, motivations and logics that aren’t so different from many non-dictator humans.

i think for some, they protest not because that makes more sense on a thematic, logical or character level, but simply because they want to. they’re USED to being fed that narrative satisfaction has to do with seeing the bad guys face comeuppance, in place of inclusive, welfare-oriented healing. faced with storytelling that rejects their view of justice while also openly being subjective, sublime, and loving of all of its characters, not just the “nice” ones, they see it as a “failure” to be what they’re used to. 

if the world CAN systemically heal in a way that includes people you personally don’t forgive, that must be a “flaw”. if those “bad guys” haven’t actually killed hundreds of intelligent species offscreen who have no chance to heal, that doesn’t fuel your justification for the most cynical interpretation of justice possible, so that, too, “must” be a “flaw”. if it’s framed as possible for them to work towards undoing their harm, that deprives you of the satisfaction of edgy punishment for unhealable hurt, so that, too, is of course a “flaw”. any world where healing is possible for everyone, and the perpetrators can contribute, must be a “flaw”, to a mind only concerned with the validity of vengeance. 

even when the story is perfectly candid that you’re personally allowed to be hurt and traumatized (like steven - and most characters, really), you’re still allowed to feel... you just can’t expect society as a whole to abandon its “inclusive healing” model and function on your logic; that your pain is solved by vengeance. it isn’t.

in short, cry about it. 

#steven universe #homeworld #the diamonds #rose quartz #pink diamond #rose diamond #jasper #su theory #su future #su analysis #and by 'a few issues' i mean 'let me write you a novel about why this was always canon' #i know it must be a big blow if you've decided you're morally superior for hating SU based on fanon assumptions #but that's kinda on you fam. stop listening to bad youtubers. and do indeed cry about it - it's healthy

[dailytomlinson]

When reflecting on music’s most influential artists, critics tend to use statistics to measure their legacy—whether it’s a band reaching #1 on the charts, multiple sold-out tours, or albums that represent a generation. Those types of accolades and praise are for bands that, typically, exist within rock with a predominantly sizeable male fanbase, like The Rolling Stones or The Beatles. For English-Irish boyband One Direction, who actually broke one of The Beatles biggest achievements by having five Top 10 debut tracks on the Hot 100 compared to The Beatles’ four, have sold out multiple tours and delivered five albums five years in a row, they have not been regarded as much of an influential force in the music industry as they should be.

Today—on July 23rd 2020—the band celebrates ten years since they first became a band, even if five years of that time was during a prolonged indefinite hiatus while each of the members pursued solo ventures. A decade marks ten years of One Direction and, for the fans, ten years of an impactful legacy the band, both together and apart, has had on their lives.

After being thrown together on The X-Factor back in July 2010, the band did more in five years than most bands do in their entire careers; they released five albums and sold more than 6.49 million copies in just America alone, filmed one concert documentary and one tour film, completed multiple world tours, and pursued philanthropic ventures. All of those things didn’t come without a price, though. Zayn Malik left the band in 2014 due to his mental health suffering. The band toured consistently every year with hardly ever having any personal time off, and add in an album release a year, they were extremely overworked.

There’s a belief boy bands have an expiry date, and it’s likely their management felt they needed to get as much out of the band while they believed they were still relevant. It’s likely that fans would’ve stuck around if the members took time between their albums and tours. In 2015, when the hiatus began, people wondered if One Direction really could ever come back and, if they did, would fans still really care about them?

“One Direction was one of the biggest and most successful bands,” said @TheHarryNews, a Twitter fan update account. “They achieved amazing things in the five years they were together, despite being overworked by putting out albums and touring every year, which isn’t normal.”

One specific thread that ties together every fans’ thoughts when they reflect on why they decided to become fans of the boys in the first place is the carefree and loving rapport the band has with one another. We’ve all seen The X Factor video diaries, laughed over their banter during interviews, and watched every live performance they did to look out for cute interactions between our favourite members. In their own unique way, One Direction helped defy traits typically associated with toxic masculinity; they didn’t shy away from their affection for one another and made that known in interviews and concerts. Their friendship set them apart, made them more real, and through them, we made friendships of our own.

When someone seeks out new friends, they go to where they feel safest: the communities of people who love the same things as they do. Social media not only propelled the band to international audiences, but it also helped many fans meet the people they now call their lifelong friends. “They have impacted my life in ways I never thought a ‘boyband’ could,” said Lauren, a fan from Buffalo, NY. “They gave me the best friends I could ever ask for, helped me when I was lost and thought I had no one. They ultimately helped me find myself.”

Social media did more than just help us make friends. It was also a major catalyst for the band’s success, and a large part is due to update accounts on Twitter that were created by fans, for fans. Fan-created update accounts would document every single movement and moment made by the band’s five members, whether it was live-streaming a concert or updating fans on the band’s whereabouts. For @With1DNews, a UK/Canada-based update account, it’s a labour of true love for the band that “glued them together” in the first place. “We found each other through our 1D fan accounts on Twitter,” they said. “We started talking about the boys, then our lives, and quickly became great friends.”

Even though they started the account after the hiatus already began, they still felt like fans needed One Direction news. “We had noticed there weren’t really any active 1D update accounts left and we knew a lot of fellow 1D fans were still interested in seeing news about the boys’ careers and lives. It was also because we missed seeing 1D together and hearing about them together. We thought, why not create this space that connects them even if they’re now all going their own way.”

Update accounts take as much time, effort, and energy as an unpaid second job; it requires those who run them to schedule themselves accordingly to cover certain times of each day to ensure their fellow fans get updated in a timely manner, and they do as much fact-checking and researching that any other traditional news outlet does.

Even if some critics might not consider One Direction an influential force in the music industry, the impact they continue to have on their fans is what has set them apart from every other musical act. In a scene in One Direction’s concert documentary, This Is Us, a fan breathlessly states “I know they love me, even if they don’t know me.” This type of parasocial relationship to a band is something not many understand; it’s a sense of intimacy that doesn’t require either party to actually deeply know one another on a personal level but is still as meaningful and significant as actual relationships.

A connection with the band is even more prevalent for Amy, a Los Angeles based writer and mum of two, because of the impact the band has had on her family is something that isn’t tangible but has been detrimental to her children’s development. “I have a child with physical and neurological disabilities who, prior to One Direction, was completely non-verbal and really struggling to find motivation and happiness amongst all the doctors and therapy appointments,” stated Amy. “They have done more for her development, including indirectly teaching her to speak and sing, than any therapy she’s ever done. Up until we found the boys, everything was trial and error; trying to find what makes sense to her and would, in turn, make the world make sense to her. Who knew the key would be a ‘silly’ boy band?”

Many fans have expressed that the band is their happy place – the only positive light in their life when things got tough. For so many, the band came at a time when they desperately needed something to help them through difficult situations whether that be pressure from school, jobs, peers, or life in general. Watching the ‘Best Song Ever’ music video, or a funny interview felt like a cure to smile and laugh after a long day. “They were what we turned to when we felt overwhelmed in our own lives. Now, we’re adults, and they still bring us as much happiness as they did when we were younger,” says @With1DNews.

Not only that, but the band has also helped fans gain more confidence in themselves. By helping create a space and community for them, fans who may have felt lonely, different, or struggled to find a place they belonged had somewhere to go now. They made friends who accepted them, endless content that felt like a burst of serotonin, and a band of boys who told them through lyrics how great and valuable they are, songs like ‘Through the Dark’, ‘Diana’, and ‘Little Things’. Through the band, One Direction fans created their own safe space to work out and navigate their own identity; a space that is free from outside shame where they could be whoever they wanted to be because the people they loved the most accepted them for exactly who they are.

Despite the safety found in those spaces, others have given those fans different descriptions: Hysterical. Rabid. Extra. ‘Screamers.’ Those are just a few of the many words that have been used to describe female fans of boy bands, both past and present. Although these words carry negative connotations, they imply something more powerful than any naysayer could understand or try to define: the sheer force that comes with unashamedly loving something so deeply, you don’t really care about anyone else’s opinions.

Young female fans are the most supportive, passionate fanbase an artist can have, yet they are the most trivialized and ridiculed both within and outside of the music industry. At the start of their career, music’s most beloved band The Beatles was a boy band that catapulted into fame because of, not despite, their female fans. It wasn’t until male fans noticed the band’s progression into an experimental sound when they decided to embrace the band and deem them worthy of their support after they began playing ‘real’ music.

Even if there are major similarities between The Beatles and One Direction, the latter is still regarded by many to be a manufactured pop boy band with a ‘teenybopper’ fanbase. The members of the band have consistently embraced and validated their predominantly female fanbase; Harry Styles has been consistently vocal about this matter, going so far as to say “Teenage-girl fans — they don’t lie. If they like you, they’re there. They don’t act ‘too cool.’ They like you, and they tell you.”

In ‘Girl Almighty’, the fifth track on their fourth album, Four, the band addressed the way their fans have been misjudged and labelled ‘crazy’ because of their passion and not only applauded them for their dedication and love, but bowed down to them as well; “Let’s have another toast to the girl almighty […] I get down on my knees for you.” Not only has One Direction always known who helped them get to where they are today, but they’ve also never shied away from declaring their respect for them, constantly validating their fans’ feelings.

For One Direction’s fans, a decade of the band’s formation represents ten years of a legacy that will continue on, even if the band never formally get back together. For Amy, it doesn’t really matter if they got their start on a TV talent show because it’s the fans that made them and set the band apart from every other boyband. “What we all created together feels so untouchable in regards to boy bands of the past and ones to come. I think people will look back in awe and see what we see; we’ve been so incredibly lucky to have witnessed the magic of One Direction.”

They might not be aware of it, but One Direction was incredible at predicting what was to come in their own music; “Who’s gonna be the first to say goodbye?” / “But it’s not the end, I’ll see your face again” / “We had some good times, didn’t we? We wore our hearts out on our sleeve” / “We could be the greatest team that the world has ever seen.” In ‘Best Song Ever’, a song that ordinary listeners would not exactly consider overly sentimental or profound, there is one lyric that will always stand out for the fans to represent One Direction’s legacy perfectly: “I hope you’ll remember how we danced.” Ten years later, we haven’t forgotten.

#tmrw magazine #230720 #10years1d #press

[pidgydraws]

Okay, I absolutely adore your art. I found your account today from your good omens fanart and like your entire account is so positive and just hate-free?? Like it’s so refreshing because so many people are super negatives and you always fill the tags with trivial facts and a bunch of emoji and Idk it’s just really different from a bunch of other profiles I’ve seen where discourse is prevalent and they hate on everyone.

ahhh~ thank you 💙 this took me a long time to respond to cuz it feels really important and personal to me. i struggle with feeling like keeping things positive is a valid way to express myself in my own spaces? i believe that not engaging with or helping to grow things like hateful and toxic dialog is 100% the best way to live for ME~ and if that creates an emotionally inviting space for others, i couldn't be happier. it’s all i’ve ever wanted.

but in an, increasingly, scary and difficult world it feels irresponsible for me to curate my own spaces in a way that doesn’t engage with negative things? i know i don’t have an obligation to turn my fanart blog into a place to engage with the real world~ but in my daily life i’m surrounded by the voices and energy of so many powerful feminists, queers, and progressive people who turn their fear and anger and social privilege into powerful things, that i’ve built up a disabling amount of guilt over not being able to do the same with my online spaces.

it doesn’t matter how i live my life in person or privately with friends and peers~ there’s a performative layer to today’s social media age that makes me feel like if i’m not actively engaging the world, and just try to keep things soft and sweet, i’m doing something wrong. i wake up every day and feel like - on some level - i’m a bad person because my blogs and twitter posts aren’t a constant stream of “important” dialog mixed with some kind of wit that i don’t posses. and i KNOW that that’s RIDICULOUS. that’s MADNESS, i shouldn’t feel like that. a sweet and wonderful Ask like this shouldn’t bring me to tears as i struggle with this internalized fear that “kindness isn’t enough, positivity is weak, and i’m never doing enough to make things better for other people” but i do. i do constantly.

so~ thank you, truly, for this beautiful message. it means SO MUCH to me when i hear that the way i like to keep my spaces brings happiness to someone else. i want to believe that even little bright spots can help foster a feeling like “it’s not all bad” and the ugly and hard parts of our days that we DO spend fighting back against the bad stuff~ are worth while.

thank you. and so much love 💙

#pidgy asks #pidgy talks #oof #the hard stuff #i didn't mean to get so heavy on your light and lovely Ask #but #i just got some feels about stuff #yeah... #i'm sorry #<3 #i hope that wasn't too much of a downer #because really #the take away is that i'm happy! #very very happy! #(-^ ____^-) #<3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 #Anonymous

[iconiceyesleedswestyorkshir-blog]

Issues To Contemplate Whiling Pondering For Graphic Design Outsource

Boutique operation providing customized focused graphic designs for all print media. As has been discussed above, the viewers in the Twitter verse is functioning inside a burgeoning and expanding social media entity which supplies them anonymity or exposure, which in both case, they maintain the ability of affecting data dissemination to another level that they were by no means capable of earlier than the coming of the Twitter. The reducing down of timber, the toxic materials of companies and the garbage are elements of the incident and remember these are all ending product of technology that individuals used and invented, by simply misusing expertise society change into ruined. Her spectacular physique of design formed the notion and application of graphic design in many ways, significantly her strategy of treating type as a visible picture in her work for the New York City's Public Theater (pictured above) which continues to have a lasting impression on trendy design. Some other methods I will write about intermittently below simply to maintain the narrative zeroed in on the fact that The ANC should start to tell the individuals the reality; they must have self criticism of the Mao Tse Tung mode, and combine that with the criticism that's being laid on their doorsteps by their very own individuals who have elected them into energy. This does not mean we are going to routinely return to the Homo-Sapien instances and age, but we shall have to add our fashionable affect in at the moment's civilization of the techno age, however shouldn't be afraid to say that we are African, and contribute our additions to the development of man. Quickly, we method the final phase of the extension of man - the technological simulation of consciousness, when the artistic process of realizing will probably be collectively and corporately prolonged to the whole of human society, a lot a shave already extended our senses and our nerves by various media. Yet, on the similar time, we see spiraling addition, trivia, and numbness; elevated surveillance from governments, and from companies, a very unnerving attempt to harvest the individual's stream of consciousness, as concretized by its search engine historical past. Andre Gunde Frank opens our minds as to how we are manipulated and splurged helter-skelter so's not to be united, because we now have to start to grasp the social sciences and the natural sciences- were used totally to protect the interest of the US. It is from these disciplines that the USA is controlling South Africa and the World. Many still want the affirmation of their white contemporaries to be writers or whatever… We've got some of these White authorities who dictate to our African elite, and the African bourgeoisie(and they are referred to as so today in south Africa), are too keen and able to please and adjust to the dictates of their Masters-and be accepted as being the identical as the Grasp-even if they'll remain the underdogs. There are all kinds of activities in the African neighborhood that contribute to liquor, licentious conduct, and community 'get-togethers' like the After Tears funeral Events", Stokvels, Shebeens or Taverns, wherein consumption of liquor is large,and those make up for lewd and obscene habits; that, if we're talking about sexual acts and the inconsistent use of condom, in all population groups, we should then additionally have a look at the behavior of people who find themselves inebriated and the sexual acts following their unprotected sex in a drunken stupor. The individuals, leaders and protectors of the folks of African descent are the one which can be closely concerned of their oppression, depression, repression, poverty, illnesses, ignorance, unemployment, making for them electricity and water exorbitantly priced, meals unaffordable, overcrowding and poor housing amenities; additionally, one sees the hospitals overwhelmed and can't even give drugs nor adequately treat their patients; assassination and and serious intimidation of what are known as the 'enemy' or anarchists or "Mdlwembe", pick your alternative, the end outcomes is death and or murder. We also read from Neil Postman that Media Ecology is wanting into the matter of how media of communication have an effect on human perception, understanding, feeling, and worth; and how our interaction with media facilitates or impedes our chances of survival. Comical caricatures of trying to present Western cultures, languages, mores and beliefs-absent and nothing of our personal indigenous cultures, languages, values and intones:"The lasting problem that we face is the absence of information and understanding of African tradition. The problem that Why Africans don't make head-manner with their wrestle is that Africans, amongst their midst, have loads of these self-styled, self-pointed-revolutionary fakes and liberators-wanna-be's who supply nothing however distortion, no packages, unfavorable critiquing and lack in planning and real leadership talents and minds, and who preen their egos to a motley crew of ignorant followers, with out themselves(these self-styled leaders) encouraging their followers to go to the plenty, talk to the lots, arrange structures amongst and with the masses for their very own liberation, with the lots dictating and in charge of their future, not some banal and bare formulations of some these intellectual sitting nest to their computes or utilizing their telephones, in the consolation zones, imbibing the trappings of sick-gotten material wealth, and couching their rhetoric with pretend revolutionary-jabbawocky. Margolin explains that To make the contributions and struggles of black graphic designers in Chicago more seen, we need to tell the story of graphic design within the metropolis as a social historical past and never simply an aesthetic one.” (Margolin 5) This proves that, although only a few, there was minority designers producing good work in the subject. What the Intel group is anxious most about here, is that if the American public learns that they've been secretly mind fingerprinted by the National Safety Agency, it will show that the United States Federal Authorities is managed by a shadow authorities based mostly on a fascist dictatorship, which masquerades as a democratic republic. Graphic design offers each credibility and belief when it comes to that almighty CTA you are engaged on. Without an experienced graphic design firm your calls-to-action as well as your online targets hold on the precipice of mediocrity and failure. Subsequently, their small accumulation of capital and the earnings which they obtain from skilled providers throughout the African (or White) neighborhood make them seem wealthy in comparison the low economic status of nearly all of poor delusion of wealth is supported by the myth of African business. Fortunately, section 195 of the South African Constitution does direct the general public administration that, Folks's wants have to be responded to, and the general public have to be encouraged to participate in policy-making," and in accordance with this directive, the proposed Draft Online Regulation Coverage has been opened for public remark, which remains open till June 15. i need a graphic designer iconiceyes.co.uk Leeds, West Yorkshire like Right to Know have already been mobilizing in opposition to the proposal, and are amassing supporters for a petition and social media campaign, which EFF heartily endorses. Consequently, the (global) public sphere will grow to be extra complete by encompassing a wider spectrum of social collectivities and by reaching further right down to very low levels of society (e.g. the extent of tiny communities and insignificant voluntary associations). The situations of poverty, over-crowdedness, lack of police management and the prevalence of police corruption, breakdown of family mores and construction, basic social anomie and an enormous "Apartheid Hangover" which has been contributing to what Frantz Fanon called "Colonial Mental Disorders," excessive incidences of rape, crime and anarchy, all render completely different results and impacts on the African inhabitants. The White Paper which preceded the Telecommunications Act 6 also commented on the principles in regard to the interception of call visitors particularly, that the very proper of presidency to intercept telecommunications visitors should be stringently controlled; that the Interception and Monitoring Prohibition Act needs to be reviewed with a view to ensure ample safeguards are in place and that such a assessment should of necessity contain public debate and the participation of other Ministries, reminiscent of that of Safety and Security. Although website designer near me give us an image of how Africa makes use of social networking, it does not tell us concerning the segregated growth and entry of Africa and other so-referred to as Third and Second World International locations who haven't any wherewithal to be as superior and developed as their Western counterparts, elsewhere. When we start to learn and have a sense and more concrete data about our tradition, by trying it as it in it its whole wholesomeness(Holistically), we begin to grasp, see and recognize, and observe more similarities in dancing types, hand-clapping, voicing, circle-formations, and half moon patterns crisscrossing strains, snake-like, and choreographic backwards and forwards movements in-sync and patterned exactly, with a flurry and changing shapes, and varieties on and of their similar vivid and energetic colours, Polyrhythmic syncopated sounds, explosiveness, and rhythm of all of the eleven(eleven) African people as one unified and diverse, variegated and one frequent national entity. Instead, the users and consumers of data all sorts of information are low logged into these social media, and what makes them common, it is their capability to allow peculiar of us to partake or control the flow of information with out having 'gate-keepers' censoring or adjusting what is data or what is reported. But Gwala's colleagues have little doubt about what happened that evening: the assassination of a conspicuous and vocal thorn within the facet of native authorities and officers from the ruling African National Congress as he fought corruption within the allocation of social housing. In the days of social media and the Web, these have been delivered to bear and in the front of society within the US. What this means is that, the numerous races and different communities, races, and so forth, snapped when the Grand juries, in numerous states of the United States discovered the cops not guilt or responsible for the homicide of Garner and brown, and these had been captured on video. The eyes of the world are actually more targeted on the offers that governments and enterprise did collectively, on the methods in which public procurement contracts have been determined and who benefitted on those actions by which individuals in power that have hitherto not been sufficiently topic to public scrutiny and oversight-have their actions laid naked within the viral stream.

[mimmerr]

Talk to a Teacher: Toxic Schools.

After following each other on Twitter for months and repeatedly agreeing with each other, Shuaib Khan and I decided to collaborate. For my blog, this is in the form of an interview below where we discuss toxic school cultures and their impact, which Shuaib explores in his blog and upcoming book.

 For our readers who don’t know you yet, please introduce yourself and tell us about your career in education so far:

My name is Shuaib Khan and I’m a secondary school teacher currently working as a supply teacher. I am qualified to teach RE and Sociology. 

Having taken a 6 month sabbatical from Easter 2019, I decided I wanted to have more flexibility with work but stay in education. Supply teaching is tough but definitely better for me to have some sort of work-life balance. 

You are currently writing a book about toxic schools. How does one define a school as ‘toxic’?

Toxic schools have a really fuzzy logic. They aren’t tangible as such. For one teacher, a school is toxic but for another it’s good. 

Toxic schools are based on predatory and intrusive cultures that undermine, bully and hound staff. Bullying can be done through a range of forums from overt comments to emails. 

I don’t think there’s a set definition of what we’d consider a ‘toxic’ person, it’s in motion, constant ebb and flow. Same with schools. Part of my work is to help teachers realise these awful practices. 

 I think it’s very brave of you to write a book about harmful schools. You mentioned in a blog post that some people have called it career suicide. Do you think this is true and does it matter to you?

 I never came into teaching for a ‘career’. It was my life. I loved teaching, the pride filled me up, even during the darkest of times. This book may ruffle feathers and it may unnerve a few people but there’s real stories, real pain and hurt behind the words. 

I know for a fact my own experience of a toxic school has left me very scarred and with PTSD. I have a forum and I intend on sharing that forum to give light to others. Career suicide? What about all those people who have contemplated or actually committed suicide because of toxic schools? Careers are superficial statuses, we need this dialogue now, more so than ever, in light of the teacher wellbeing crisis.

What do you think the average class teacher can do about reducing a toxic culture in their schools?

Teachers must put their own wellbeing ahead of work. I know it’s tough if you’ve got children, a mortgage and family. Yet when we allow work to impede our daily lives, especially at home, we lose any chance of creating a work-life balance. 

As teachers we have to treat one another better. The battle is in the classroom not the staffroom. Toxic schools thrive off staff that conflict with one another. We must treat each other better and support those who are struggling. 

What can leaders do about these toxic environments?

Leaders need to look at Teacher wellbeing with a discerning eye. School leaders can make or break a school and their position to ensure their staff are supported is paramount. 

Demands need to be realistic. People need to be treated as people; workload needs to be addressed. I’ve seen teachers sat in cafes on weekends marking books whilst the world just passes them by. Why has it got to this? Why are we allowing workload to reach such unattainable levels? Leaders in schools need to reflect on their own practices in a more real and profound way.

Your blog also explores racism. Your ‘Twelve Big Questions’ explains unacceptable common language. What do you think we as teachers can do to address such a prevalent issue?

Racism has been a part of my daily experience as a British Muslim. My first ever experience of racism was actually at Infants school and these experiences have continued for 24 years. 

Stop and search, randomly being asked about drugs, schools asking me not to pray on site, small looks and gestures. Even with my pale complexion, there’s such a frightening level of hostility in Britain at times. 

I did my NQT year in a RI school in Lincolnshire. It was so tough, the racial abuse was virtually a daily issue. It was heartland Brexit, even during my preliminary visits, UKIP banners surrounded the town centre. But amidst this was a core of Year 11s who took to me straight away. We had ZERO commonalities but we clicked. It was November and after a child racially abused me, I was teary and sat in my classroom when these Year 11s walked in and consoled me. 

At a classroom level, we’ve got to be prepared to hold tough conversations with our students, challenge misconceptions and really open up dialogue. Fear and prejudice is born out of being afraid of the unknown. Sadly, at times I don’t think the media and politicians help the situation at all but as teachers we’ve got to retain the moral high ground, for the kids.

I know from reading your posts that this year is going to mainly be about your book. But will we see anything else from you online? If so, what can we expect?

I never intended to start blogging. It just happened and the book - well that was almost like a New Years resolution. I’m due to attend and contribute at #bakesandbeats out in Dudley in April. 

I’m open to bookings and would love to share a forum with people like Tom Rogers and Helen Woodley. But in truth, you can just expect honest tweeting, parody, good blogs and the book. 

After reading through Shuaib’s comments, I realised what a multifaceted issue the recruitment and retention crisis is. If you follow me online, I mainly discuss issues such as marking and emailing. But from this interview, you can see how awful things can be, to the point of verbal abuse, to the point of educators being discriminated against, to the point where people have committed suicide because of work pressures. And this is within institutions where we are sending our children. 

I am also very proud that people like Shuaib are making this stand and talking about toxic school culture. I hope you walk away from this article taking away his advice to put your wellbeing first, to support struggling colleagues and to maintain a high moral ground in class and in the staffroom. 

You can find Shuaib on Twitter here and read his fantastic blog here. If you have experiences of a toxic school culture, you can contact him about contributing to his book. 

Education Support provide counselling here

#education #toxic schools #teaching crisis #teachers #interviews

[aj4kids]

Autism is an epidemic.

The first autism prevalence study (Treffert, 1970) showed an autism rate of less than 1 in 10,000 kids.

Today the autism rate in the U.S. in 1 in 36 kids (Zablotsky et al., 2017).

So we've experienced a 27,000% (277-fold) increase in 50 years.

Genetic theories never made much sense because 'there is no such thing as a genetic epidemic'. Early twin studies (Folstein & Rutter, 1977) were characterized by small sample size & flaws in study design. Hallmayer (2011) showed that genes only explain small % of autism cases.

Well perhaps it's just better awareness (& what's called diagnostic expansion & substitution)? Nope that doesn't check out either. Byrd (2002) & Hertz-Picciotto & Delwiche (2009) showed that changes in diagnostic criteria only explain a small % of the total increase in autism.

In 2015, autism cost the U.S. an estimated $268 billion a year in direct costs & lost productivity; given current rates of increase, autism costs could reach $1 trillion a year (3.6% of GDP) by 2025 (Leigh & Du, 2015). The U.S. Defense Department budget is "just" 3.1% of GDP.

Autism increases inequality. Lifetime care costs for autism range from $1.4 to $2.4 million (Buescher, 2014). Mothers of kids with autism earn 35% less than mothers of kids with other health limitations & 56% less than mothers of kids with no health limitations (Cidav, 2012).

In the last decade, 3 groups of top epidemiologists have published consensus statements declaring that neurodevelopmental disabilities including autism are caused by toxicants in the environment (CHE, 2008; Mt. Sinai, 2010; Project TENDR, 2016). This is good news because it means that autism is preventable and treatable.

We have fairly good data that five classes of toxicants increase autism risk:

1. Mercury from coal fired power plants;

2. Plastics;

3. Pesticides & herbicides;

4. EMF/RFR; and

5. Pharmaceuticals (Tylenol, SSRIs, & vaccines).

For every 1,000 pounds of environmentally released mercury, there was a 61% increase in the rate of autism (Palmer, 2006). For every 10 miles closer a family lives to a coal fired power plant the autism risk increases 1.4% (Palmer, 2009).

Plastics:

Children with autism had significantly increased levels of 3 endocrine disruptors (two phthalates — MEHP & DEHP, & BPA) in blood samples as compared with healthy controls (Kardas, 2016).

Pesticides & herbicides:

Increased use of RoundUp is strongly correlated (r = 0.989) with the rising prevalence of autism (Swanson, 2014). Organophosphates increase autism risk 60 – 100%; chlorpyrifos increase risk 78% – 163%; pyrethroids increase risk 78% (Shelton, 2014).

9 studies show an association between acetaminophen (Tylenol) use & adverse neurodevelopmental outcomes (Bauer et al., 2018). Avella-Garcia (2016) & Liew et al. (2016) found that males exposed to Tylenol in utero have significantly elevated risk of autism.

8 studies show a statistically significant association between selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) use in pregnant women and subsequent autism in their children (Kaplan et al., 2016). Doctors who prescribe SSRIs to pregnant women are committing malpractice.

Dr. Paul Thomas is the most successful doctor in the world at preventing autism. The latest data from his practice shows:

•If zero vaccines, autism rate = 1 in 715;

•If alternative vaccine schedule, autism rate = 1 in 440;

•If CDC vaccine schedule, autism rate = 1 in 36.

That study had large sample size (3,344 children), access to medical files, & good researchers working on it. Look closely. His alternative vaccine schedule reduces autism risk by 90%. But even an alternative vaccine schedule nearly doubles autism risk vs. no vaccines at all.

And all of those other toxicants that I described above in this thread that have been shown to increase autism risk? Those are the 1 in the 715 cases when the parent does not vaccinate at all. Autism appears mostly be a story of iatrogenic injury from vaccines.

This is not a surprise. Thousands of parents have been telling us for years that their children regressed into autism following vaccinations. Ethylmercury is a known neurotoxin and is still in 7 different vaccines (Thomas & Margulis, 2016, p. 14)

Aluminum is a known neurotoxin (Grandjean & Landrigan, 2014) and is used in a majority of vaccines. 'The dose makes the poison' paradigm has collapsed in recent years and now we know that many toxicants have no safe dose.

In a sane world, all of this would be seen as good news. In a sane world the CDC, EPA, NIH and every major newspaper would rush out to Portland, OR to confirm (or deny) that the data from Dr. Paul's practice (and other studies) are correct. But we live in an insane world.

To date, the CDC, EPA, NIH, federal government, & all state governments have completely ignored Dr. Paul's work. None of the top 10 major newspapers in the U.S. have reviewed his book, The Vaccine Friendly, plan even though it is a bestseller on Amazon.

Which leads us back to these mandatory vaccine bills that Pharma is promoting in all 50 states aided & abetted by the mainstream media & the Democratic Party. The vaccine paradigm has collapsed. We know some vaccines (hepatitis B., HPV, flu, DTP...) cause catastrophic harms.

We know this because there are still small groups of unvaccinated people in the country -- Amish, homeschoolers, hippie parents, warrior parents who have stopped vaccinating. The unvaccinated population is much healthier across most indicators than the vaccinated population.

So Pharma is in a rush to wipe out the control group, to reach 100% vaccination rates, before people wake up. Anyone who supports these mandatory vaccine bills (A2371A in NY, SB 276 in CA, etc.) is engaged in racketeering & crimes against humanity. There will be trials.

Pharma thought that they could run the table. But they started too late and got too greedy. Now, in every state there are thousands of warrior moms and dads who know vaccine injury firsthand. And they are rising up and fighting back with everything they've got.

Pharma may (or may not) be able to buy off enough politicians & reporters to survive this round. But the scientific debate is over & Pharma lost. The current U.S. vaccine paradigm has collapsed. Something new & better will & must replace it. It's only a matter of time & how much carnage Pharma will cause as they try to protect their profits. The autism epidemic tsunami is already here. It just remains to be seen whether politicians will continue to cover it up or do something to stop it. SB 276 is a criminal cover up & must be defeated.

~ Toby Rogers, PhD, MPP via Twitter

[jdlmpo]

Of Pixels and Spaces

I was once a happy child curious of the world. Finding questions. Seeking joy out of discovery. Sneaking into silent, unknown corners of mind. Transforming scraps into fascinating child’s encounter of knowledge and basic shapes of art. Always eyeing for moments of adventure in some of the most quiet and isolated place. Hearing these little voices once touched the grass, trees, rocks, soil, dirt, materials of knowledge being found. Even I used to play with air by containing it in a small plastic bag and try to sink it in water as if I could drown air just to learn pressure. I used to keep looking for nature to respond. It was innocent. There was always somewhere to fill in. Like a space that I could claim. Safer than the safest behind a close door. The world was open.

Until age came over with a new kind of world. This world is overwhelmingly bigger but hollow, open but crowded where space cannot be safe and be contained or claimed.

I was in early high school when I got fully convinced that I am a “user” even my accounts were born during their beginning of unprecedented domination on my early childhood. I enjoyed MySpace for its side-scrolling home page but it’s just once and I never had the chance to get an account there. I prevented Friendster for everything I’d heard from my childhood friends maliciously enjoying its alleged feature from where they could find anyone with their scandalous “bold” pictures of other persons with their photoshopped heads on it or even videos by searching their names. It was hilariously convincing. But I never had visited the site even up to this day.

The only Social Networking Site of this time was the rocking dominating Yahoo! Messenger. Once in that time, when I decided to stay at my uncle’s friend’s house, I was enjoying her unlimited access to Internet that I could freely open sites anything I knew. She used to join in many chat rooms. She showed me how it works: permission before the group to lead and talk, like there is protocol, they called themselves “DJs”, users could open their microphones and cameras, or just only join in the message conversation. She told me, as I remember, anyone could join in, including users around the world, as I noticed she was talking in English, in mic and in messenger. I just got to discover that this was then simply open but not safe, when one male chatted to the group tagging someone: this is for you, and danced maliciously, beginning to remove his shirt and short. My uncle’s friend turned off her shared view of the group video, but it was till opened for the rest of users who wish to view.

Digital space is open and free that it has been easily invaded by malevolent people who adore to play with fire.

As a toddler, I was addictive to playing simulation and sandbox games such as CityVille (occasionally, FarmVille). It was a time when PSP, GameBoy and DS were replaced by easily accessible Internet, especially Facebook. There were players I encountered cursing and sending senseless messages to insult people during the game, as well as in most of the games on the site. I was often bullied in my childhood. Bullying would extend to using my ignorance of the Internet. My computer illiteracy had made me vulnerable for making me ignorant to malicious sites. That time when I’m with my uncle’s friend, that’s even the first time I had opened a porn site because I trusted suggestions of my classmates when I asked for popular gaming sites, like Friv, Y3, Y8, Y100, etc. We were Grade 4. 

‘Pisonet’ then popped up rampantly around the town. It was the cheap alternative of ‘comshops’ (computer shop/rent shops), but both are then used interchangeably. In the worst case of machoistic culture of Filipinos, playing Counter-Strike or Special Forces require boys to be mocked and questioned if you are gay or straight to play the game. So I was stuck playing children games that were likely more appropriate for my age that did not fit for their masculinity. Bullying was the line between these classes of younger users. Of those games, DOTA became the very toxic game for children playing in comshops, where there would be inescapable influences of gambling, bullying, bad behavior and attitude, cigarettes, alcoholics, and even drugs from adult costumers of these shops. At that time, managers could not help but tolerate this behavior of children and adults alike as they generate the most of their income.

 Mostly, these irresponsible shops contribute to the worsening situation of Internet use in the Philippines. When CCTVs were not prevalent before, younger users had no direct guidance in using the Internet as renting it became it as their personal territory where they were free to visit malicious sites. Oftentimes, I would see children watching porn and, much worse, aware adults just ignored those kids.

It was a horror for parents that they have to ban their children from these shops or pushed shops to act. Implementing strict and stricter rules to maintain discipline in playing games and using the Internet.

These risks were even not resolved even to this day of high level of security and management in Internet. Children also turned to higher means of escaping restrictions with the rise of VPN and uncrackable levels of anonymity. Total control was not even the cure.

As a teenager, Facebook is the staple. Early on high school, it was posting updates that broke personalities of the Filipino teenager. Everyone has to have a Facebook account otherwise you will look like the uncivilized.

Internet is breaking free from limitations of humanity with digital space had begun to be the playground for crimes at the turn of the 21st century.

As you know, Internet is the greatest democracy in history. That how miracle was the EDSA revolution came with technology, was the very power made as the advancement of Internet created revolutions around the world, affecting the actual physical world. By turning into hashtag activism in Twitter. Fighting against ignorance on Facebook. Sharing educational videos, evidences for protest from YouTube. Googling knowledge at the entire immeasurable catalogues of information. Hiding in the corners of this ever-expanding space. Or even deeper than the surface, the world protest for the crisis of truth and false information have used the Deep(er), Dark(er) layers of the Web and to declare history must never forget the power of Internet. 

#PowerOfInternet #Cyberbullying

[fractalfractures]

On Tumblr

Remember the post that went around recently comparing SJ discourse to conservative Christianity? I made the mistake of checking the notes, and was surprised to see a lot of people getting super offended, not because they were defensive on behalf of Christianity, nor because they thought it was unfairly characterizing social justice and none of the trends described are actually prevalent among *real* feminists or whatever ... no, because queer people are oppressed in the name of Christianity and HOW DARE YOU COMPARE US TO OUR OPPRESSORS DON’T YOU KNOW HOW GROSS AND OPPRESSIVE THAT IS. And I saw someone talking about how seeing the post come across their dash made them feel grossed out and was ruining their day, and seeing them say that made me feel super triggered at how the legit and serious harm that people like me have suffered in the name of social justice is dismissed and calling attention to it is labeled violence.

And the blatant symmetry there made me realize something. Whenever anyone tries to talk about whether social justice communities are toxic a lot of their staunchest defenders talk about how incredibly healing and empowering the communities are for them and how they function as safe spaces for them to work through their trauma and like ... look at reality. Look what actually happens in most Tumblr arguments. What’s actually happening is a bunch of oppressed people RE-TRAUMATIZING each other over and over again. Like, the fact that I get so upset by things I read here that I can’t function isn’t due to me as an individual being Not Progressive Enough, it’s a feature of Tumblr discourse norms that has little to do with my flaws as an individual and can happen to *anyone* no matter how hard they work to conform themselves to the Tumblr Hivemind.

And for some reason the last couple of weeks my dash has been full of examples of how Tumblr turns every single minor difference of opinion into a flamewar between opposing factions with no middle ground. Concerned about how mental illness support groups can turn into people reinforcing each others’ hopeless pessimism about ever learning to manage their conditions better? LOOK AT THIS ABLEIST SCUM TELLING ME I NEED TO BE “CURED” OF MY IDENTITY. Feel like body positivity has had strangely little impact on your own body image issues and those of the people around you, and think it might work better if there were less of an emphasis on challenging mainstream beauty standards and more on directly challenging the idea that attractiveness equals worth in the first place? YOU’VE NEVER SPOKEN TO A *TRUE* BODY POSITIVE ACTIVIST OR YOU’D KNOW WE ARE PERFECT AND BEYOND REPROACH STOP MISREPRESENTING US. A particularly stupid argument that showed up on my dash recently about whether you’re allowed to have triggers that are racist or sexist or not having cured yourself of that trauma yesterday makes you a terrible person. And out of curiosity I went to OP’s blog (mostly because I was having a bit of trouble following the argument and keeping track of who was on what side) and saw that just about everything else they wrote was that same level of incredibly terrible. Like, they were calling out the entire Ace community for being terrible oppressors because they hadn’t called out one of their own (as in, some random blogger who happened to be ace) and shunned them for being Problematic. Where the Problematic thing that person had done was ... make an unintentionally offensive post and, once notified that it was anti-Semitic, delete it. And acknowledge to anyone who brought it up that yeah, they were sorry they had posted it. But apparently they hadn’t made the right kind of “apology post” which showed they were utter scum and anyone would forgive them for that was also scum.

(So I don’t know why reasonable people were treating that troll as someone worth interacting with in the first place. Seems to me to be exactly the kind of person you can confidently block without worrying that you’ll miss out on anything important.)

Also, it’s been interesting to note that that person’s description said they were 17, and a lot of the nastiest people I’ve seen on this site, both radfems and users with blogs entirely about how radfems should all kill themselves, are age 15-17. I was around 17 when I discovered social media, and I spent a lot of my first couple of years being incredibly stupid and also sometimes quite belligerent and rude and I cringe badly to think about it now ... but I definitely never felt the urge to call people disgusting freaks who should die or send them anonymous messages telling them to kill themselves. Like, I really don’t think it requires an unreasonable level of maturity not to do those things, or that this is the inevitable result of allowing teenagers to have blogs. Something is seriously wrong here, guys.

(And on Twitter. I’ve never seen much point in using Twitter, but from what I can tell the main difference is that the people getting into stupid name-calling arguments are doing so under their real names, and then every celebrity’s spat gets reported on in the mainstream media.)

#the discourse #tumblr being stupid #someone is wrong on the internet #sj movements being toxic

[jaycehardy-blog]

Whore

I had an interesting experience recently on a popular social media platform. Now before I get in to detail about the experience, allow me to start by saying my first mistake was to engage in a discussion on this particular platform. Firstly, to have any form of meaningful discussion on Twitter is going to be difficult due to the limited characters available in a tweet. And secondly, it is close to impossible to gauge any sort of tone, and often the text written can either be misinterpreted or misunderstood. Or it is simply to difficult to elaborate before being bombarded with negative comments, by which point the discussion becomes irrelevant and it can turn in to a mud slinging contest.

So to give context to the situation, there was a picture posted, the main message portrayed was not to call a woman who has sex for money a whore. I commented saying that often the word ‘whore’ didn’t have to have negative connotations and it can simply be used as a term to label a sex worker who offers sexual services in exchange for money (this is not word for word, but similar). I also explained how as a male sex worker who associates with many other sex workers (male and female), we used the word and did not find it offensive, whether used by a sex worker or non sex worker.

The comment itself was not made to offend, persecute or insult anybody. However what ensued seemed to be insults, passive aggressive comments, and many people who I assume were rather offended by my comment. My comment wasn’t my personal opinion, I actually agree with the vast majority of opinions. The term whore has historically been used to persecute and offend women. However I don’t agree that non sex workers should not use the term ‘whore’ to label a sex worker. For us as sex workers to forbid 99 percent of the global population from using the word ‘whore’ seems a little drastic. To use it as a tool to ridicule and persecute a group of people is unacceptable, yet to assume the word is only an insult would show naivety of the English language, but also hand over significant power to anybody who has used this word to harm an individual.

At the risk of coming across as arrogant and obnoxious (I hope by now anyone who reads this realises that is not who I am as a person) The oxford dictionary provides synonyms for the word whore, among many was sex worker. This was quite literally my point, that the word doesn’t have to be negative, and can quite simply be a label for sex workers. I’ve spoken to female sex workers about this, they all made it very clear. They know me, and who I am as a person. Therefore they weren’t offended by what I wrote or said. Unfortunately the vast majority of people on Twitter don’t know who I am as a person. This is what ultimately drove me to finally touch on all manner of subjects in a more appropriate forum such as this,

So now that that’s cleared up, it led me to think about some of the responses. Many of which really intrigued me. The first type of response was insults / antagonistic attacks. I thought long and hard about why such a simple comment could evoke random insults. Was it that my comment was poorly worded and therefore misinterpreted? Perhaps. However does a poorly worded comment warrant offensive insults? Perhaps. I believe the reason for this type of response was that this particular woman has been directly affected by this word. Perhaps it has been used to hurt her in the past, perhaps in my comment I unknowingly failed to acknowledge the hardship she has experienced in the past, and the harm this word has inflicted on her purely from its nasty and toxic delivery. This alone may have opened old wounds that have been inflicted over the course of ‘x’ amount of years. I believe this alone was the cause of an antagonistic approach (I’m guilty of this reaction myself), and in saying that I also acknowledge I have done exactly the same in the past.

The second reaction was explaining the persecution of sex workers as opposed to lawyers and doctors (I compared the term ‘whore’ as a job label such as lawyer or doctor). This isn’t a new concept. Persecution of sex worker’s has been prevalent since biblical times. I have been hassled at airports myself, I’ve had toys and equipment confiscated and been asked inappropriate and probing questions by security. And I have no doubt it is magnified for female sex workers. The reason I don’t find this an issue is because I understand different states / countries all have their own different laws and legislation’s regarding sex work. I also understand and accept that this line of work will always carry a substantial level of taboo and society will never be as accepting of sex worker’s as they are of other professions considered ‘normal’. I have never stated that sex workers are not ridiculed, persecuted or targeted any more or less then any other profession. And again the irony is that I agreed with this individuals stance on this particular matter. Yet it was written with a strange assumption that I was completely opposed to it.

I am not free of blame in all of this. I responded inappropriately when I was accused of ‘mansplaining’ the term ‘whore’. Regrettably this did frustrate me. As a man, it feels somewhat insulting that any opinion we have is automatically labelled as mansplaining. A term which in itself is antagonistic and used to evoke a negative reaction, which again isn’t helpful in trying to establish good communication. I can already predict the response to this paragraph. And as I am writing it I realise my feelings of being dismissed and not being allowed to have an opinion on a matter that is so heavily intertwined with female persecution become completely void and unimportant. And I don’t blame people for reacting that way either. I can’t provide the answers, but I don’t think it is to label any male voice as mansplaining,

In hindsight, although this may have ruffled a few feathers, it has a silver lining. It gave me the final push I needed to start writing about a topic within the industry. It also gave me the opportunity to hopefully reach out and maybe show a person or two that I’m not entirely naive (yes I know female sex workers are heavily persecuted). I have no doubt there are going to be a handful of individuals who sling a little bit of hate. I’m a professional cage fighter, so to those of you who want to engage in that type of behavior, it takes a bit more then mean words to hurt me. There’s going to be a handful who couldn’t give a shit about a single word I have to say. And that’s cool too. Hopefully there is small minority of people who gain something from this, or encourages some form of positive communication in future. Regardless of whether we agree with an opinion or not.

[jobsearchtips02]

Trump’s crusade versus vote by mail could backfire on Republicans

But Trump’s war versus vote by mail and his false claims that it leads to fraud might injure Republicans, and his own potential customers, in November.

There is no widespread proof for Trump’s claims that expanding vote by mail or increased citizen turnout automatically benefits Democrats, indicating he might be inadvertently harming his own chances.

Visit Organisation Expert’s homepage for more stories

In his first tweet, he wrongly declared that the Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson (who he called “rogue”) was sending every registered voter an absentee tally, an act he called “unlawful,” and he threatened to cut off moneying off to the state.

” Everybody has the authority to mail applications to registered citizens in our state, and the application is even offered on our site,” she stated.

As Cegavske’s workplace noted in a statement to Expert: “Secretary Cegavske lawfully declared the 2020 main election as a mail-in election.

Contrary to Trump’s claims, all citizen scams, and particularly fraudulent usage of absentee ballots, is exceedingly uncommon

In this Nov. 1, 2016, file picture, mail-in ballots for the 2016 General Election are shown at the elections tally center at the Salt Lake County Federal Government Center, in Salt Lake City. As President Donald Trump rails versus voting by mail, lots of members of his own political celebration are embracing it to keep their voters safe during the coronavirus outbreak. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer, File).

Associated Press.

Trump’s war on absentee ballot is making it harder for Republican officials and Trump’s own campaign to go out the vote

John Pudner, a former Republican politician project strategist and executive director of conservative campaign financing policy nonprofit Reclaim Our Republic, told Insider he supports vote by mail as long as states can still require a legitimate alternative method of identification, like with mandated signature matching and a witness signature on every ballot.

” I would share Trump’s worries if the workplace were sending out real ballots, but the application itself is a misdirected issue,” Pudner said.

As Trump openly rails versus vote by mail, Trump’s own project and the RNC are working overtime in multiple states to inform Republican politicians on how to vote absentee in their state, and are sending texts and mailers reminding them to send in their ballots, the Associated Press reported.

Despite their on-the-ground-efforts, anecdotal proof shows that Trump’s ardent opposition to absentee voting is hurting Republicans down-ballot.

Reuters recently reported that in Pennsylvania, which has no-excuse absentee ballot and is holding its main on June 2, 70%of the absentee tally demands so far have actually originated from registered Democrats in spite of Democrats just having a 55%to 45%registration advantage in the state.

” It’s a real problem and could be really uncomfortable come November,” one county-level Republican celebration chairman informed Reuters, including that his advocates “just do not trust the procedure, and the president’s remarks have not assisted things, for sure.”

— Nick Corasaniti (@NYTnickc) May 20, 2020

— Varad Mehta (@varadmehta) May 20, 2020

In Kentucky, which is enabling all citizens to vote absentee without an excuse for its June 23 main, the Republican politician Secretary of State Michael Adams informed NPR that he had his “head removed” by fellow Republicans just for sending out signed up citizens a postcard describing their alternatives to vote.

” The greatest challenge I have today is making the idea of absentee voting less toxic for Republicans,” he told the outlet, including that “it’s partially on me since I discussed it in my project.”

And n Wisconsin’s chaotic April 7 elections, where a Democratic prospect for the state’s Supreme Court conveniently beat the Republican incumbent, The New York Times reported that rural Republican voters and county clerks had trouble voting absentee.

” While Republicans encouraged early and absentee voting, numerous elderly either did not have the wherewithal to request absentee tallies or the inclination to enact individual on April 7,” said the Republican politician Celebration chairman in Monroe County. “They were confused, afraid and decided to stay at home.”

As the University of California election law teacher Rick Hasen wrote in a Wednesday Washington Post op-ed: ” Why would Trump voters leap through extra hoops to vote by mail if they think, as the president is telling them, that the system is rife with scams? The voters Trump is injuring is his own“

” It’s just a bad message for anybody to state, ‘We’re the celebration attempting to stop you from mail-in voting,'” Pudner stated.

Individuals are seen casting their votes throughout the 2018 elections, New York City, New York, on November 6,2018

Michael Brochstein/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images.

Expanding vote by mail does not substantially benefit either party

Trump has likewise wrongly claimed that broadening absentee and vote by mail would harm GOP candidates, saying in March that a Democratic coronavirus stimulus plan that would have enormously broadened early and absentee voting “had levels of ballot, that if you ever accepted it you ‘d never have actually a Republican elected in this nation once again.”

There is no commonly accepted proof to support Trump’s claims that increased voter turnout automatically benefits Democrats. A brand-new working paper from Stanford University, for instance, found that counties in California, Utah, and Washington saw modest increases in citizen turnout throughout the board however no clear partisan benefit for either political party when they switched to holding elections practically entirely by mail.

As political researcher Lee Drutman recently summed it up for FiveThirtyEight: “Ballot by mail is easier for some voters but harder for others, and these clashing factors appear to cancel each other out, dampening any partisan advantage. Furthermore, the large bulk of nonvoters don’t get involved not due to the fact that it’s too troublesome to vote, but due to the fact that voting isn’t a routine for them.”

He added: “Perhaps they do not care about politics, possibly they don’t believe their vote matters, perhaps they do not like any of the candidates, or possibly it’s some combination of all of the above. But the bottom line is that these voters’ decision to vote depends more on whether someone around them can encourage them to vote, not whether they are able to vote by mail or in person.”

In several states that Trump won in 2016, a quarter or more of the electorate cast tallies by mail, United States Census Data show. In both Arizona and Utah, 68%of citizens cast ballots by mail, 58%did so in Montana, 27%of voters cast ballots by mail in Florida, 25%in Iowa, and 24%in Michigan, the target of his ire on Wednesday.

In many states where the electorate skews older, like Arizona and Florida, the GOP heavily relies on mail-in ballots. As one Republican strategist informed NPR, “absentee ballots are usually Republicans’ friends in Florida.”

In March, Trump, now a citizen of Palm Beach, voted by mail in the state’s Republican presidential primary election, according to the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.

And in such a close election, having Democrats promote absentee voting while the leader of the GOP decries it as fraudulent and unsafe might have real effect on the margins.

” In Florida, Trump won senior citizens 57%to 40%in 2016,” Pudner kept in mind, pointing out CNN exit surveys “If you have a five percent drop in seniors voting due to the fact that they’re frightened of in-person ballot and believe vote-by-mail is deceitful, that’s damaging.”

The Stanford study and other documents have actually found little increases in turnout for states and counties that broadened vote by mail. But even if broadening absentee ballot did significantly increase turnout, the available evidence about non-voters does not support Trump’s assertion that greater voter turnout would automatically benefit Democrats.

A 2019 New York City Times Upshot meta-analysis of citizen file, census, and ballot data from registered voters in swing districts discovered that the prevalent presumptions that non-voters would back Democrats if they ended up to vote may not keep in 2020, partially because of college-educated voters swinging to Democrats and white, non-college educated citizens extremely backing Trump.

As The Times kept in mind, non-voters and particularly Americans who aren’t signed up to vote at all are chronically under-represented in public opinion surveys, making it hard to assess how they would vote.

A February 2020 study on 12,000 non-voters performed by the Knight Foundation found that while non-voters directly lean Democratic as a group and in swing states like Michigan and Wisconsin by one and two portion points respectively, they prefer Trump by higher margins in other battlefield states.

But The Times’ polling of voters in 2018 battleground districts and estimates based upon voter file information discovered that Trump’s approval scores were almost the very same among voters and non-voters, suggesting that non-voters aren’t always more anti-Trump than those who did cast ballots.

The Times said that while Democrats saw the upper limits of how a boost in voter turnout could benefit them in the 2018 midterms, white, working-class citizens who did not enact 2018 are “likeliest to return to the electorate in 2020, and it might set back Democrats in important battlefield states.”

As Nate Cohn, a Result reporter and the author of the 2019 article, said on Twitter on Wednesday: “Among the odd features of the Trump effort to suppress absentee mail ballot is that it’s totally conceivable to me that higher turnout would assist him in these Midwestern states, where the type of lower turnout and less educated citizens who sat out the midterms most likely tilt-GOP.”

More:

2020 election President Donald Trump

.

%%.

from Job Search Tips https://jobsearchtips.net/trumps-crusade-versus-vote-by-mail-could-backfire-on-republicans/

[morethanjustmediocremusings]

The Wealthy’s Concept of Wellness

Taylor Abouzeid

Dr. Seth Donal Hannah

Sociology 110-01

29 May 2018

Among my peers, the accepted definition of health more accurately reflects a modern concept of wellness. This almost glamorized ideal expressed by my companions, remains in line with our socioeconomic and racial statuses. Hailing from wealthy, white-majority neighborhoods, health was never an eminent concern, but rather a concept of personal promotion and an act of self-love. When not faced with threatening illnesses, nor any other immediate health concerns, the wealthy often busy themselves with superficially “achieving wellness.” The collision of social media and a blind enthusiasm for all things “well” created an exclusive environment flooded with different conceptions of wellness.

Among the five Cal Poly students that I interviewed, demographic variation was purposefully kept to a minimum. For this project I desired to examine how a specific sub-group, that my peers and I personally identify with, views and interacts with the concept of health and wellness. Everyone that I interviewed came from wealthy backgrounds, primarily white neighborhoods, and familial values structured around success and education. I interviewed two male-identifying students, and three female-identifying students from my community. By intentionally selecting demographically similar students, I was able to see extreme similarities in beliefs of health and value placed on wellness among the selective circle I identify so strongly with.

The origins of wellness are firmly rooted in the absence of illness. When one had no aliments, he/she was considered “well.” These ideals continued until 1948, when the World Health Organization published that health was considered to be much more than the absence of illness. Today’s perceptions of wellness have transformed into a largely commercialized market targeted at those who are fortunate enough to ignore the common threat of an unafforded illness. Many current trends permeating the elite network that my peers and I occupy, come with a heavy price tag. From green juices, chakra alignments, and expensive therapists, achieving the desired level of health, or “wellness,” requires lavish rituals that have become exclusive to those with the funds to support them.

This elusive relationship that the well-off seem to be searching for along the path of wellness is a connection to the physical, emotional, and spiritual world. A medicalization of wellness can be traced back to the eighties, but now “treatment” to the upper echelon means supplements, juice cleanses, or even crystal baths. However, traditionally one does not treat wellness. A movement in the seventies based on personal progress has now become a profitable industry targeted at the upper class. Without the presence of actual illnesses my peers and I are able to immerse ourselves in the culture surrounding all things deemed “well.”

Based in commercialism, wellness today exploits the overarching desire to be well. Seemingly inescapable, wellness has seeped its way into everyday life. Wellness shots are advertised on every corner, Starbucks offers a variety of pressed juices, essential oils are sold like candy, and the true flavor of wellness has become lost in the advertisements. A popularized dietary approach full of vitamins and supplements may help mitigate some symptoms of perceived illness, but my peers, who are healthy in regards to symptoms (or lack there-of), habitually take overpriced concoctions of vitamins and dietary protein supplements. The routine of consuming upscale supplements has created a fashionable, wellness community where my peers publicly reside. But, similar to Goffman’s “back-stage,” when out of the public eye our actions drastically change.

Shrouded by the protective cover of night, all previous conventions that governed daytime actions, melt away to reveal a rowdy clique of pretentious college students on the prowl for a good time. Inspired by East Coast characteristics of drug-addicted, social elitists, and liquor-filled Hollywood glamour, the late-night activities of my interviewees directly violate any concept of health. Superficially focused on personal wellness the elite subculture existing at Cal Poly disregards health for the sake of aesthetic-based party habits. This particular circadian shift has been prevalent since high school for many of my peers. Sneaking out of our gated communities to relish in rebellion became normalized and now, when confined to campus, my peers and I have an itch for disobedience. By disregarding conventions of health, my peers and I are able to gain the same juvenile “high” from our younger years while maintaining our daytime façade of wellness.

Health, said to come from within, is often associated with leafy greens and an organic rainbow of fruits and vegetables. But in today’s world, is there a point when eating healthy becomes unhealthy? Dr. Danyale McCurdy-McKinnon believes so; “something recently added to the nomenclature of eating disorders is orthorexia.” It is an obsession with the quality of food whereas anorexia is more with the quantity of food. The idea of “clean eating” created a trigger, as the opposite of clean is dirty, something people want to avoid. These charged words, derived from an infatuation of health, can potentially evolve into obsessional eating which is the direct antithesis of pure wellness. The mere idea of consuming fried foods nauseates my peer group. Surviving on expensive lattes, and carefully constructed salads, a fear of “dirty” foods avidly exists at the forefront of my interviewees’ minds. Ironically focused on modern ideals of health, malnutrition and other consequences from this particular pattern of eating, now have the potential to develop into the recently recognized eating disorder of orthorexia.

           Among my peers that I interviewed, astoundingly all of them relate at least part of their personal worth to social media following. Although not directly stated, questions along the lines of confidence and Instagram likes or Snapchat views reflect the detrimental correlation that my generation has between social acceptance and self-love. Today, with photographs taken in an MRI scanner, doctors are able to generate a perfect and personalized rendering of the brain. Using this kind of technology developed at UCLA, researchers are able to view the physical, real-time effects of all kinds of phenomena on the brain. From getting high off Instagram likes to easing stress with meditation, doctors see mental receptors ignite. Mental health is no longer a singular battle, in the universe of social media, numerical definitions of happiness create a toxically dependent relationship between users.

           Aristotle defines Eudaimonia as a type of preserved happiness. It is easiest to describe in contrast to Hedonia, which is the immediate gratification that comes from satisfying one of the basic urges; feeding, fighting, fleeing, and reproductive behavior. There is a system in the brain that matches up what is expected to happen with what really happens. The mental systems then secrete dopamine into the ventral regions of the brain where the “reward centers” are located. As soon as this excessive stimulation goes away, the mind is left in a state of withdrawal. Social media hijacks these systems, and addicts new generations to the feeling, falsifying one’s presence as if connected to another person. During these moments of fabricated attachment, one’s wellness begins to disintegrate as tangible relationships disappear.

Regardless of objective science, simply believing in something and acting accordingly could have a profound effect. Due to the fact that we live in such a negative society, my peers are turning to alternative means in an attempt to achieve personal wellness. Society often doubts the impressed importance of crystals, yet many have a huge diamond rings on their fingers that they impose so much worth upon and use as a status signifier. According to one of my interviewees, every crystal is a conductor of a precise frequency, but what comes out of that frequency is in the control of the beholder. We decorate our dorms in expensive rose quartz coasters, amethyst crystals, and Himalayan salt lamps from popularized centers for wellness, small boutiques and the more commercialized Urban Outfitters. This selective aesthetic surrounding perceived wellness, is a part of the elite clique fortunate enough to preoccupy their minds, and their wallets, with the necessary habits of the subculture. Despite having significantly less science behind them, crystals, and the possible placebo effect associated with them, come with little consequences, and in a world obsessed with wellness what could possibly be the harm of accessorizing with some rose quartz here and there.

A new-age wave of apps is propelling wellness to the forefront of people’s screens and encouraging mindfulness in everyday life. Former monk, Andy Puddicombe, co-founded Headspace with his partner Rich Pierson in 2010 in an effort to make the practice of meditation more accessible to the world. Meditation among my peers is as common as drinking metabolism-boosting, lemon water (extremely common). The addictive traits behind apps such as Instagram and Twitter seem to melt away in Headspace’s simple ten-minute introduction practice. The app has now been downloaded by over seven million people worldwide. Andy’s movement has started to restore the toxicity of yesterday’s understanding of wellness and revive the original connotation of the word. Now, an important aspect of our lives, my peers and I meditate daily and often find ourselves bragging about our tranquil mental states. The peace that comes with introspection has now become a signifier of the selective sub-group we identify with.

Wellness is not necessarily a selfish thing it’s about a sense of community and connecting with others. We are fortunate enough to not have to focus our time on illness, so instead my peers and I spend our days in the glamorized, and exclusive universe of those who are “well.” There seems to be one commonality through the exploration of different approaches to wellness, and that is the unrealistic message of living in the present and being mindful. The symbols associated with this subculture falsify statuses of wellness, and simultaneously unify the private community. This exclusivity surrounding the lifestyle may be caused by the necessary funds and selective locations that house this fortunate community. The journey of wellness is based in healthy practices but has also become a distinct aspect of the exclusionary group associated with upper class teens, hailing from fortunate, white-majority neighborhoods.

[endenogatai]

Voter manipulation on social media now a global problem, report finds

New research by the Oxford Internet Institute has found that social media manipulation is getting worse, with rising numbers of governments and political parties making cynical use of social media algorithms, automation and big data to manipulate public opinion at scale — with hugely worrying implications for democracy.

The report found that computational propaganda and social media manipulation have proliferated massively in recently years — now prevalent in more than double the number of countries (70) vs two years ago (28). An increase of 150%.

The research suggests that the spreading of fake news and toxic narratives has become the dysfunctional new ‘normal’ for political actors across the globe, thanks to social media’s global reach.

“Although propaganda has always been a part of political discourse, the deep and wide-ranging scope of these campaigns raise critical public interest concerns,” the report warns.

The researchers go on to dub the global uptake of computational propaganda tools and techniques a “critical threat” to democracies.

“The use of computational propaganda to shape public attitudes via social media has become mainstream, extending far beyond the actions of a few bad actors,” they add. “In an information environment characterized by high volumes of information and limited levels of user attention and trust, the tools and techniques of computational propaganda are becoming a common – and arguably essential – part of digital campaigning and public diplomacy.”

Organised social media manipulation campaigns are now prevalent in 70 countries around world, (more than doubling from 28 in 2017) finds latest @oiioxford @polbots report #cypbertroops2019 https://t.co/pZ7TgAo73t pic.twitter.com/L0er8bKpfK

— Oxford Internet Institute (@oiioxford) September 26, 2019

Techniques the researchers found being deployed by governments and political parties to spread political propaganda include the use of bots to amplify hate speech or other forms of manipulated content; the illegal harvesting of data or micro-targeting; and the use of armies of ‘trolls’ to bully or harass political dissidents or journalists online.

The researchers looked at computational propaganda activity in 70 countries around the world — including the US, the UK, Germany, China, Russia, India, Pakistan, Kenya, Rwanda, South Africa, Argentina, Brazil and Australia (see the end of this article for the full list) — finding organized social media manipulation in all of them.

So next time Facebook puts out another press release detailing a bit of “coordinated inauthentic behavior” it claims to have found and removed from its platform, it’s important to put it in context of the bigger picture. And the picture painted by this report suggests that such small-scale, selective discloses of propaganda-quashing successes sum to misleading Facebook PR vs the sheer scale of the problem.

The problem is massive, global and largely taking place through Facebook’s funnel, per the report.

Facebook remains the platform of choice for social media manipulation — with researchers finding evidence of formally organised political disops campaigns on its platform taking place in 56 countries.

We reached out to Facebook for a response to the report and the company sent us a laundry list of steps it says it’s been taking to combat election interference and coordinated inauthentic activity — including in areas such as voter suppression, political ad transparency and industry-civil society partnerships.

But it did not offer any explanation why all this apparent effort (just its summary of what it’s been doing exceeds 1,600 words) has so spectacularly failed to stem the rising tide of political fakes being amplified via Facebook.

Instead it sent us this statement: “Helping show people accurate information and protecting against harm is a major priority for us. We’ve developed smarter tools, greater transparency, and stronger partnerships to better identify emerging threats, stop bad actors, and reduce the spread of misinformation on Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp. We also know that this work is never finished and we can’t do this alone. That’s why we are working with policymakers, academics, and outside experts to make sure we continue to improve.”

We followed up to ask why all its efforts have so far failed to reduce fake activity on its platform and will update this report with any response.

Returning to the report, the researchers say China has entered the global disinformation fray in a big way — using social media platforms to target international audiences with disinformation, something the country has long directed at its domestic population of course.

The report describes China as “a major player in the global disinformation order”.

It also warns that the use of computational propaganda techniques combined with tech-enabled surveillance is providing authoritarian regimes around the world with the means to extend their control of citizens’ lives.

“The co-option of social media technologies provides authoritarian regimes with a powerful tool to shape public discussions and spread propaganda online, while simultaneously surveilling, censoring, and restricting digital public spaces,” the researchers write.

Other key findings from the report include that both democracies and authoritarian states are making (il)liberal use of computational propaganda tools and techniques.

Per the report:

In 45 democracies, politicians and political parties “have used computational propaganda tools by amassing fake followers or spreading manipulated media to garner voter support”

In 26 authoritarian states, government entities “have used computational propaganda as a tool of information control to suppress public opinion and press freedom, discredit criticism and oppositional voices, and drown out political dissent”

The report also identifies seven “sophisticated state actors” — China, India, Iran, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela — using what it calls “cyber troops” (aka dedicated online workers whose job is to use computational propaganda tools to manipulate public opinion) to run foreign influence campaigns.

Foreign influence operations — which includes election interference — were found by the researchers to primarily be taking place on Facebook and Twitter.

We’ve reached out to Twitter for comment and will update this article with any response. Update: A spokesperson told us: “Platform manipulation, including spam and other attempts to undermine the integrity of our service, is a violation of the Twitter Rules. We’ve significantly stepped up our efforts — investing in people, policies, and tech — to catch this behavior at scale. Additionally, we’re the only company to disclose every account and piece of content that we can reliably link to state-backed activity on the service. Research like this is the reason we’ve made this choice. We believe that full transparency empowers public understanding of these critical issues.”

A year ago, when Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey was questioned by the Senate Intelligence Committee, he said it was considering labelling bot accounts on its platform — agreeing that “more context” around tweets and accounts would be a good thing, while also arguing that identifying automation that’s scripted to look like a human is difficult.

Instead of adding a ‘bot or not’ label, Twitter has just launched a ‘hide replies’ feature — which lets users screen individual replies to their tweets (requiring an affirmative action from viewers to unhide and be able to view any hidden replies). Twitter says this is intended at increasing civility on the platform. But there have been concerns the feature could be abused to help propaganda spreaders — i.e. by allowing them to suppress replies that debunk their junk.

The Oxford Internet Institute researchers found bot accounts are very widely used to spread political propaganda (80% of countries studied used them). However the use of human agents was even more prevalent (87% of countries).

Bot-human blended accounts, which combine automation with human curation in an attempt to fly under the BS detector radar, were much rarer: Identified in 11% of countries.

While hacked or stolen accounts were found being used in just 7% of countries.

In another key finding from the report, the researchers identified 25 countries working with private companies or strategic communications firms offering a computational propaganda as a service, noting that: “In some cases, like in Azerbaijan, Israel, Russia, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, student or youth groups are hired by government agencies to use computational propaganda.”

Commenting on the report in a statement, professor Philip Howard, director of the Oxford Internet Institute, said: “The manipulation of public opinion over social media remains a critical threat to democracy, as computational propaganda becomes a pervasive part of everyday life. Government agencies and political parties around the world are using social media to spread disinformation and other forms of manipulated media. Although propaganda has always been a part of politics, the wide-ranging scope of these campaigns raises critical concerns for modern democracy.”

Samantha Bradshaw, researcher and lead author of the report, added: “The affordances of social networking technologies — algorithms, automation and big data — vastly changes the scale, scope, and precision of how information is transmitted in the digital age. Although social media was once heralded as a force for freedom and democracy, it has increasingly come under scrutiny for its role in amplifying disinformation, inciting violence, and lowering trust in the media and democratic institutions.”

Other findings from the report include that:

52 countries used “disinformation and media manipulation” to mislead users

47 countries used state sponsored trolls to attack political opponents or activists, up from 27 last year

Which backs up the widespread sense in some Western democracies that political discourse has been getting less truthful and more toxic for a number of years — given tactics that amplify disinformation and target harassment at political opponents are indeed thriving on social media, per the report.

. @facebook hard at work 'Connecting people' https://t.co/GtIOXa1X2q

— Natasha (@riptari) September 24, 2019

Despite finding an alarming rise in the number of government actors across the globe who are misappropriating powerful social media platforms and other tech tools to influence public attitudes and try to disrupt elections, Howard said the researchers remain optimistic that social media can be “a force for good” — by “creating a space for public deliberation and democracy to flourish”.

“A strong democracy requires access to high quality information and an ability for citizens to come together to debate, discuss, deliberate, empathise and make concessions,” he said.

Clearly, though, there’s a stark risk of high quality information being drowned out by the tsunami of BS that’s being paid for by self-interested political actors. It’s also of course much cheaper to produce BS political propaganda than carry out investigative journalism.

Democracy needs a free press to function but the press itself is also under assault from online ad giants that have disrupted its business model by being able to spread and monetize any old junk content. If you want a perfect storm hammering democracy this most certainly is it.

It’s therefore imperative for democratic states to arm their citizens with education and awareness to enable them to think critically about the junk being pushed at them online. But as we’ve said before, there are no shortcuts to universal education.

Meanwhile regulation of social media platforms and/or the use of powerful computational tools and techniques for political purposes simply isn’t there. So there’s no hard check on voter manipulation.

Lawmakers have failed to keep up with the tech-fuelled times. Perhaps unsurprisingly, given how many political parties have their own hands in the data and ad-targeting cookie jar, as well as pushing fakes. (Concerned citizens are advised to practise good digital privacy hygiene to fight back against undemocratic attempts to hack public opinion. More privacy tips here.)

The researchers say their 2019 report, which is based on research work carried out between 2018 and 2019, draws upon a four-step methodology to identify evidence of globally organised manipulation campaigns — including a systematic content analysis of news articles on cyber troop activity and a secondary literature review of public archives and scientific reports, generating country specific case studies and expert consultations.

Here’s the full list of countries studied:

Angola, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Brazil, Cambodia, China, Colombia, Croatia, Cuba, Czech Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Honduras, Guatemala, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Iran, Israel, Italy, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kyrgyzstan, Macedonia, Malaysia, Malta, Mexico, Moldova, Myanmar, Netherlands, Nigeria, North Korea, Pakistan, Philippines, Poland, Qatar, Russia, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Syria, Taiwan, Tajikistan, Thailand, Tunisia, Turkey, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States, Uzbekistan, Venezuela, Vietnam, and Zimbabwe.

from RSSMix.com Mix ID 8204425 https://ift.tt/2nwcCED via IFTTT

#IFTTT #RSSMix.com Mix ID 8204425

[sheminecrafts]

Voter manipulation on social media now a global problem, report finds

New research by the Oxford Internet Institute has found that social media manipulation is getting worse, with rising numbers of governments and political parties making cynical use of social media algorithms, automation and big data to manipulate public opinion at scale — with hugely worrying implications for democracy.

The report found that computational propaganda and social media manipulation have proliferated massively in recently years — now prevalent in more than double the number of countries (70) vs two years ago (28). An increase of 150%.

The research suggests that the spreading of fake news and toxic narratives has become the dysfunctional new ‘normal’ for political actors across the globe, thanks to social media’s global reach.

“Although propaganda has always been a part of political discourse, the deep and wide-ranging scope of these campaigns raise critical public interest concerns,” the report warns.

The researchers go on to dub the global uptake of computational propaganda tools and techniques a “critical threat” to democracies.

“The use of computational propaganda to shape public attitudes via social media has become mainstream, extending far beyond the actions of a few bad actors,” they add. “In an information environment characterized by high volumes of information and limited levels of user attention and trust, the tools and techniques of computational propaganda are becoming a common – and arguably essential – part of digital campaigning and public diplomacy.”

Organised social media manipulation campaigns are now prevalent in 70 countries around world, (more than doubling from 28 in 2017) finds latest @oiioxford @polbots report #cypbertroops2019 https://t.co/pZ7TgAo73t pic.twitter.com/L0er8bKpfK

— Oxford Internet Institute (@oiioxford) September 26, 2019

Techniques the researchers found being deployed by governments and political parties to spread political propaganda include the use of bots to amplify hate speech or other forms of manipulated content; the illegal harvesting of data or micro-targeting; and the use of armies of ‘trolls’ to bully or harass political dissidents or journalists online.

The researchers looked at computational propaganda activity in 70 countries around the world — including the US, the UK, Germany, China, Russia, India, Pakistan, Kenya, Rwanda, South Africa, Argentina, Brazil and Australia (see the end of this article for the full list) — finding organized social media manipulation in all of them.

So next time Facebook puts out another press release detailing a bit of “coordinated inauthentic behavior” it claims to have found and removed from its platform, it’s important to put it in context of the bigger picture. And the picture painted by this report suggests that such small-scale, selective discloses of propaganda-quashing successes sum to misleading Facebook PR vs the sheer scale of the problem.

The problem is massive, global and largely taking place through Facebook’s funnel, per the report.

Facebook remains the platform of choice for social media manipulation — with researchers finding evidence of formally organised political disops campaigns on its platform taking place in 56 countries.

We reached out to Facebook for a response to the report and the company sent us a laundry list of steps it says it’s been taking to combat election interference and coordinated inauthentic activity — including in areas such as voter suppression, political ad transparency and industry-civil society partnerships.

But it did not offer any explanation why all this apparent effort (just its summary of what it’s been doing exceeds 1,600 words) has so spectacularly failed to stem the rising tide of political fakes being amplified via Facebook.

Instead it sent us this statement: “Helping show people accurate information and protecting against harm is a major priority for us. We’ve developed smarter tools, greater transparency, and stronger partnerships to better identify emerging threats, stop bad actors, and reduce the spread of misinformation on Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp. We also know that this work is never finished and we can’t do this alone. That’s why we are working with policymakers, academics, and outside experts to make sure we continue to improve.”

We followed up to ask why all its efforts have so far failed to reduce fake activity on its platform and will update this report with any response.

Returning to the report, the researchers say China has entered the global disinformation fray in a big way — using social media platforms to target international audiences with disinformation, something the country has long directed at its domestic population of course.

The report describes China as “a major player in the global disinformation order”.

It also warns that the use of computational propaganda techniques combined with tech-enabled surveillance is providing authoritarian regimes around the world with the means to extend their control of citizens’ lives.

“The co-option of social media technologies provides authoritarian regimes with a powerful tool to shape public discussions and spread propaganda online, while simultaneously surveilling, censoring, and restricting digital public spaces,” the researchers write.

Other key findings from the report include that both democracies and authoritarian states are making (il)liberal use of computational propaganda tools and techniques.

Per the report:

In 45 democracies, politicians and political parties “have used computational propaganda tools by amassing fake followers or spreading manipulated media to garner voter support”

In 26 authoritarian states, government entities “have used computational propaganda as a tool of information control to suppress public opinion and press freedom, discredit criticism and oppositional voices, and drown out political dissent”

The report also identifies seven “sophisticated state actors” — China, India, Iran, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela — using what it calls “cyber troops” (aka dedicated online workers whose job is to use computational propaganda tools to manipulate public opinion) to run foreign influence campaigns.

Foreign influence operations — which includes election interference — were found by the researchers to primarily be taking place on Facebook and Twitter.

We’ve reached out to Twitter for comment and will update this article with any response.

A year ago, when Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey was questioned by the Senate Intelligence Committee, he said it was considering labelling bot accounts on its platform — agreeing that “more context” around tweets and accounts would be a good thing, while also arguing that identifying automation that’s scripted to look like a human is difficult.

Instead of adding a ‘bot or not’ label, Twitter has just launched a ‘hide replies’ feature — which lets users screen individual replies to their tweets (requiring an affirmative action from viewers to unhide and be able to view any hidden replies). Twitter says this is intended at increasing civility on the platform. But there have been concerns the feature could be abused to help propaganda spreaders — i.e. by allowing them to suppress replies that debunk their junk.

The Oxford Internet Institute researchers found bot accounts are very widely used to spread political propaganda (80% of countries studied used them). However the use of human agents was even more prevalent (87% of countries).

Bot-human blended accounts, which combine automation with human curation in an attempt to fly under the BS detector radar, were much rarer: Identified in 11% of countries.

While hacked or stolen accounts were found being used in just 7% of countries.

In another key finding from the report, the researchers identified 25 countries working with private companies or strategic communications firms offering a computational propaganda as a service, noting that: “In some cases, like in Azerbaijan, Israel, Russia, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, student or youth groups are hired by government agencies to use computational propaganda.”

Commenting on the report in a statement, professor Philip Howard, director of the Oxford Internet Institute, said: “The manipulation of public opinion over social media remains a critical threat to democracy, as computational propaganda becomes a pervasive part of everyday life. Government agencies and political parties around the world are using social media to spread disinformation and other forms of manipulated media. Although propaganda has always been a part of politics, the wide-ranging scope of these campaigns raises critical concerns for modern democracy.”

Samantha Bradshaw, researcher and lead author of the report, added: “The affordances of social networking technologies — algorithms, automation and big data — vastly changes the scale, scope, and precision of how information is transmitted in the digital age. Although social media was once heralded as a force for freedom and democracy, it has increasingly come under scrutiny for its role in amplifying disinformation, inciting violence, and lowering trust in the media and democratic institutions.”

Other findings from the report include that:

52 countries used “disinformation and media manipulation” to mislead users

47 countries used state sponsored trolls to attack political opponents or activists, up from 27 last year

Which backs up the widespread sense in some Western democracies that political discourse has been getting less truthful and more toxic for a number of years — given tactics that amplify disinformation and target harassment at political opponents are indeed thriving on social media, per the report.

. @facebook hard at work 'Connecting people' https://t.co/GtIOXa1X2q

— Natasha (@riptari) September 24, 2019

Despite finding an alarming rise in the number of government actors across the globe who are misappropriating powerful social media platforms and other tech tools to influence public attitudes and try to disrupt elections, Howard said the researchers remain optimistic that social media can be “a force for good” — by “creating a space for public deliberation and democracy to flourish”.

“A strong democracy requires access to high quality information and an ability for citizens to come together to debate, discuss, deliberate, empathise and make concessions,” he said.

Clearly, though, there’s a stark risk of high quality information being drowned out by the tsunami of BS that’s being paid for by self-interested political actors. It’s also of course much cheaper to produce BS political propaganda than carry out investigative journalism.

Democracy needs a free press to function but the press itself is also under assault from online ad giants that have disrupted its business model by being able to spread and monetize any old junk content. If you want a perfect storm hammering democracy this most certainly is it.

It’s therefore imperative for democratic states to arm their citizens with education and awareness to enable them to think critically about the junk being pushed at them online. But as we’ve said before, there are no shortcuts to universal education.

Meanwhile regulation of social media platforms and/or the use of powerful computational tools and techniques for political purposes simply isn’t there. So there’s no hard check on voter manipulation.

Lawmakers have failed to keep up with the tech-fuelled times. Perhaps unsurprisingly, given how many political parties have their own hands in the data and ad-targeting cookie jar, as well as pushing fakes. (Concerned citizens are advised to practise good digital privacy hygiene to fight back against undemocratic attempts to hack public opinion. More privacy tips here.)

The researchers say their 2019 report, which is based on research work carried out between 2018 and 2019, draws upon a four-step methodology to identify evidence of globally organised manipulation campaigns — including a systematic content analysis of news articles on cyber troop activity and a secondary literature review of public archives and scientific reports, generating country specific case studies and expert consultations.

Here’s the full list of countries studied:

Angola, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Brazil, Cambodia, China, Colombia, Croatia, Cuba, Czech Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Honduras, Guatemala, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Iran, Israel, Italy, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kyrgyzstan, Macedonia, Malaysia, Malta, Mexico, Moldova, Myanmar, Netherlands, Nigeria, North Korea, Pakistan, Philippines, Poland, Qatar, Russia, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Syria, Taiwan, Tajikistan, Thailand, Tunisia, Turkey, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States, Uzbekistan, Venezuela, Vietnam, and Zimbabwe.

from iraidajzsmmwtv https://ift.tt/2nwcCED via IFTTT

#IFTTT #iraidajzsmmwtv

[technicalsolutions88]

New research by the Oxford Internet Institute has found that social media manipulation is getting worse, with rising numbers of governments and political parties making cynical use of social media algorithms, automation and big data to manipulate public opinion at scale — with hugely worrying implications for democracy.

The report found that computational propaganda and social media manipulation have proliferated massively in recently years — now prevalent in more than double the number of countries (70) vs two years ago (28). An increase of 150%.

The research suggests that the spreading of fake news and toxic narratives has become the dysfunctional new ‘normal’ for political actors across the globe, thanks to social media’s global reach.

“Although propaganda has always been a part of political discourse, the deep and wide-ranging scope of these campaigns raise critical public interest concerns,” the report warns.

The researchers go on to dub the global uptake of computational propaganda tools and techniques a “critical threat” to democracies.

“The use of computational propaganda to shape public attitudes via social media has become mainstream, extending far beyond the actions of a few bad actors,” they add. “In an information environment characterized by high volumes of information and limited levels of user attention and trust, the tools and techniques of computational propaganda are becoming a common – and arguably essential – part of digital campaigning and public diplomacy.”

Organised social media manipulation campaigns are now prevalent in 70 countries around world, (more than doubling from 28 in 2017) finds latest @oiioxford @polbots report #cypbertroops2019 https://t.co/pZ7TgAo73t pic.twitter.com/L0er8bKpfK

— Oxford Internet Institute (@oiioxford) September 26, 2019

Techniques the researchers found being deployed by governments and political parties to spread political propaganda include the use of bots to amplify hate speech or other forms of manipulated content; the illegal harvesting of data or micro-targeting; and the use of armies of ‘trolls’ to bully or harass political dissidents or journalists online.

The researchers looked at computational propaganda activity in 70 countries around the world — including the US, the UK, Germany, China, Russia, India, Pakistan, Kenya, Rwanda, South Africa, Argentina, Brazil and Australia (see the end of this article for the full list) — finding organized social media manipulation in all of them.

So next time Facebook puts out another press release detailing a bit of “coordinated inauthentic behavior” it claims to have found and removed from its platform, it’s important to put it in context of the bigger picture. And the picture painted by this report suggests that such small-scale, selective discloses of propaganda-quashing successes sum to misleading Facebook PR vs the sheer scale of the problem.

The problem is massive, global and largely taking place through Facebook’s funnel, per the report.

Facebook remains the platform of choice for social media manipulation — with researchers finding evidence of formally organised political disops campaigns on its platform taking place in 56 countries.

We reached out to Facebook for a response to the report and the company sent us a laundry list of steps it says it’s been taking to combat election interference and coordinated inauthentic activity — including in areas such as voter suppression, political ad transparency and industry-civil society partnerships.

But it did not offer any explanation why all this apparent effort (just its summary of what it’s been doing exceeds 1,600 words) has so spectacularly failed to stem the rising tide of political fakes being amplified via Facebook.

Instead it sent us this statement: “Helping show people accurate information and protecting against harm is a major priority for us. We’ve developed smarter tools, greater transparency, and stronger partnerships to better identify emerging threats, stop bad actors, and reduce the spread of misinformation on Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp. We also know that this work is never finished and we can’t do this alone. That’s why we are working with policymakers, academics, and outside experts to make sure we continue to improve.”

We followed up to ask why all its efforts have so far failed to reduce fake activity on its platform and will update this report with any response.

Returning to the report, the researchers say China has entered the global disinformation fray in a big way — using social media platforms to target international audiences with disinformation, something the country has long directed at its domestic population of course.

The report describes China as “a major player in the global disinformation order”.

It also warns that the use of computational propaganda techniques combined with tech-enabled surveillance is providing authoritarian regimes around the world with the means to extend their control of citizens’ lives.

“The co-option of social media technologies provides authoritarian regimes with a powerful tool to shape public discussions and spread propaganda online, while simultaneously surveilling, censoring, and restricting digital public spaces,” the researchers write.

Other key findings from the report include that both democracies and authoritarian states are making (il)liberal use of computational propaganda tools and techniques.

Per the report:

In 45 democracies, politicians and political parties “have used computational propaganda tools by amassing fake followers or spreading manipulated media to garner voter support”

In 26 authoritarian states, government entities “have used computational propaganda as a tool of information control to suppress public opinion and press freedom, discredit criticism and oppositional voices, and drown out political dissent”

The report also identifies seven “sophisticated state actors” — China, India, Iran, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela — using what it calls “cyber troops” (aka dedicated online workers whose job is to use computational propaganda tools to manipulate public opinion) to run foreign influence campaigns.

Foreign influence operations — which includes election interference — were found by the researchers to primarily be taking place on Facebook and Twitter.

We’ve reached out to Twitter for comment and will update this article with any response.

A year ago, when Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey was questioned by the Senate Intelligence Committee, he said it was considering labelling bot accounts on its platform — agreeing that “more context” around tweets and accounts would be a good thing, while also arguing that identifying automation that’s scripted to look like a human is difficult.

Instead of adding a ‘bot or not’ label, Twitter has just launched a ‘hide replies’ feature — which lets users screen individual replies to their tweets (requiring an affirmative action from viewers to unhide and be able to view any hidden replies). Twitter says this is intended at increasing civility on the platform. But there have been concerns the feature could be abused to help propaganda spreaders — i.e. by allowing them to suppress replies that debunk their junk.

The Oxford Internet Institute researchers found bot accounts are very widely used to spread political propaganda (80% of countries studied used them). However the use of human agents was even more prevalent (87% of countries).

Bot-human blended accounts, which combine automation with human curation in an attempt to fly under the BS detector radar, were much rarer: Identified in 11% of countries.

While hacked or stolen accounts were found being used in just 7% of countries.

In another key finding from the report, the researchers identified 25 countries working with private companies or strategic communications firms offering a computational propaganda as a service, noting that: “In some cases, like in Azerbaijan, Israel, Russia, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, student or youth groups are hired by government agencies to use computational propaganda.”

Commenting on the report in a statement, professor Philip Howard, director of the Oxford Internet Institute, said: “The manipulation of public opinion over social media remains a critical threat to democracy, as computational propaganda becomes a pervasive part of everyday life. Government agencies and political parties around the world are using social media to spread disinformation and other forms of manipulated media. Although propaganda has always been a part of politics, the wide-ranging scope of these campaigns raises critical concerns for modern democracy.”

Samantha Bradshaw, researcher and lead author of the report, added: “The affordances of social networking technologies — algorithms, automation and big data — vastly changes the scale, scope, and precision of how information is transmitted in the digital age. Although social media was once heralded as a force for freedom and democracy, it has increasingly come under scrutiny for its role in amplifying disinformation, inciting violence, and lowering trust in the media and democratic institutions.”

Other findings from the report include that:

52 countries used “disinformation and media manipulation” to mislead users

47 countries used state sponsored trolls to attack political opponents or activists, up from 27 last year

Which backs up the widespread sense in some Western democracies that political discourse has been getting less truthful and more toxic for a number of years — given tactics that amplify disinformation and target harassment at political opponents are indeed thriving on social media, per the report.

. @facebook hard at work 'Connecting people' https://t.co/GtIOXa1X2q

— Natasha (@riptari) September 24, 2019

Despite finding an alarming rise in the number of government actors across the globe who are misappropriating powerful social media platforms and other tech tools to influence public attitudes and try to disrupt elections, Howard said the researchers remain optimistic that social media can be “a force for good” — by “creating a space for public deliberation and democracy to flourish”.

“A strong democracy requires access to high quality information and an ability for citizens to come together to debate, discuss, deliberate, empathise and make concessions,” he said.

Clearly, though, there’s a stark risk of high quality information being drowned out by the tsunami of BS that’s being paid for by self-interested political actors. It’s also of course much cheaper to produce BS political propaganda than carry out investigative journalism.

Democracy needs a free press to function but the press itself is also under assault from online ad giants that have disrupted its business model by being able to spread and monetize any old junk content. If you want a perfect storm hammering democracy this most certainly is it.

It’s therefore imperative for democratic states to arm their citizens with education and awareness to enable them to think critically about the junk being pushed at them online. But as we’ve said before, there are no shortcuts to universal education.

Meanwhile regulation of social media platforms and/or the use of powerful computational tools and techniques for political purposes simply isn’t there. So there’s no hard check on voter manipulation.

Lawmakers have failed to keep up with the tech-fuelled times. Perhaps unsurprisingly, given how many political parties have their own hands in the data and ad-targeting cookie jar, as well as pushing fakes. (Concerned citizens are advised to practise good digital privacy hygiene to fight back against undemocratic attempts to hack public opinion. More privacy tips here.)

The researchers say their 2019 report, which is based on research work carried out between 2018 and 2019, draws upon a four-step methodology to identify evidence of globally organised manipulation campaigns — including a systematic content analysis of news articles on cyber troop activity and a secondary literature review of public archives and scientific reports, generating country specific case studies and expert consultations.

Here’s the full list of countries studied:

Angola, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Brazil, Cambodia, China, Colombia, Croatia, Cuba, Czech Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Honduras, Guatemala, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Iran, Israel, Italy, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kyrgyzstan, Macedonia, Malaysia, Malta, Mexico, Moldova, Myanmar, Netherlands, Nigeria, North Korea, Pakistan, Philippines, Poland, Qatar, Russia, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Syria, Taiwan, Tajikistan, Thailand, Tunisia, Turkey, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States, Uzbekistan, Venezuela, Vietnam, and Zimbabwe.

from Social – TechCrunch https://ift.tt/2nwcCED Original Content From: https://techcrunch.com

#Technical Solutions #SEO #Online Earning #Youtube Marketing #Android Developer

[ethelbertpaul444-blog]

Leo Dottavio Had A Complete Meltdown On Twitter Betches

Happy Thursday! I’ve woken up in a world where recent Bachelor in Paradise reject, Leo Dottavio, had a very public meltdown on Twitter last night. You know, the guy who gaslighted the sh*t out of Kendall, threw a drink in Joe’s face, and otherwise trashed whatever goodwill he’d earned on The Bachelorette. Over the past 24 hours, Leo has tweeted what some perceive to be attacks on former friends, threats of violence, and messed-up views on masculinity. While we expect this kind of behavior from our government, it’s much more unsettling when it comes from a Bachelor in Paradise contestant. Let’s take a look at how this spiraled out.

Apparently, things kicked off with this tweet from previous contestant Amanda Stanton.

Just got a lovely DM from Leo calling me a “piece of shit” & that my tweet about him last night is going to “come back to haunt me”…so i guess he can never blame “editing” #BachelorinParadise

— Amanda Stanton (@amandastantonnn) August 29, 2018

Oh, and in case you were wondering the HEINOUS tweet that sparked his outrage:

Catching up on #BachelorInParadise from last week. Thoughts: 1. I’m glad Jacqueline went home. She was too good for this show. 2. I love seeing @JubileeSharpe1 face on my TV! 3. Leo scares me.

— Amanda Stanton (@amandastantonnn) August 28, 2018

There was also, reportedly, a comment about Leo’s place of employment. The Daily Mail reported that Amanda said, “Slightly off topic but Leo did get fired from WaterWorld, right? Need to make sure before I take the kids…”

Apparently Leo has some sort of Jonathan Cheban-level radar for his name (as one commenter pointed out, she didn’t even tag him).

Original tweets have been deleted from this point on, but luckily US Weekly has done some detailed reporting,  and Instagram account @thebachelorbanter is here with the receipts. Leo reportedly fires back with the following:

Hide yo kids, hide yo wife! . . . #thebachelorbanter #batchybantz #bachelorinparadise #bip #thebachelorette #thebachelor #thebacheloretteabc #thebachelorabc #bacheloretteabc #bachelorabc #bachelornation #thepsychopathtest #bachelor #bachelorette

A post shared by The Bachelor Banter (@thebachelorbanter) on Aug 29, 2018 at 9:07pm PDT

If you’re unclear what this is about, please see Bekah and Leo’s interactions from earlier this month. Basically, Bekah got some DMs from women alleging Leo had sexually harassed them. He denied everything and had his lawyer send Bekah a letter demanding she retract her statements and issue an apology. He insisted, as he still does, that the harassment claims are false.

At this point, Tanner (another former contestant), suggests that Leo needs help. Leo responds with a joke about being a narcissist, then tells him he wants to fight him. Again, I’d recommend reading this in full, but he really gets into the masculinity politics with the ending: “When I knock you out can I stand over you and call you a beta?” I can only hope this is a joke and real men don’t call each other “betas” and “alphas”, except I read enough Reddit to know that there are absolutely people out there who use those terms in earnest. I just can’t be sure if Leo is one of those people.

With that tweet, Leo sets off Nick Viall’s spidey senses for when a sensitive male Bachelor contestant is needed. Either that, or he felt an interaction involving the Bachelor franchise had just gone on too long without him. He chimes in with the following tweet:

Breaking news: Self proclaimed Alpha suggests Charity boxing match with someone they have a clear physical advantage over as means to inflate their own ego all while further demonstrating their deep insecurities. https://t.co/EyyR0qC6xZ

— Nick Viall (@viallnicholas28) August 29, 2018

Look, Nick Viall’s never been my favorite person. But someone if someone is going to call out toxic masculinity, the guy who cried in every episode of The Bachelor seems like a good candidate. Again, Leo deleted his responses, but US Weekly reports the following response: “Hey nick how about you and tanner at the same time vs me?… For allllll the marbles let’s goooooo.” Nick’s response to this is still up—as are the comments.

Wait … you can beat us both up at the same time? … that’s like sooo cool https://t.co/TNcyTnUBnS

— Nick Viall (@viallnicholas28) August 29, 2018

Now, maybe there’s some fun new youth lingo I’m missing out on, but I truly had no idea where Leo was going with the “marbles” comment. So I have to say that Dean’s responses are my absolute favorite here. NO, NOT JUST BECAUSE HE’S SO PRETTY. (Hi Dean!) Look how funny this is:

Are marbles still a thing? Why would anyone want ALL the marbles. Honestly, that seems like a burden.

— Dean Michael Unglert (@deanie_babies) August 29, 2018

A BURDEN. Dean. I’m laughing, I’m crying, I’m gazing into your blue, blue eyes…ugh. This brief moment of lightness is interrupted by Leo’s now-deleted tweets back at Nick, reportedly saying the following:

“Jesus your forefathers would frown at your weakness my friend…This kind of adherence to physical altercation is what makes high school kids turn to guns. Be a good example and stand up to a cyber bully like I am… in person.”

I don’t think Leo knows what “adherence” means or how to use it. But I think he meant to say that refusing to engage in physical violence is the reason why kids shoot up schools…? It’s not the guns that are the problem; it’s the fact that boys are no longer beating the sh*t out of each other on a regular basis. Someone call Betsy DeVos and get mandatory fight clubs in school across the nation.

Finally, I happily don’t have to deal with his “forefathers” comment, because Nick Viall did it for me:

Apologies for the delayed response. I went to a WaterWorld to look for you but you weren’t there.

To be honest, my forefathers might have frowned at my support of feminism and gender/race/sexual orientation equality too …so like, it’s fine https://t.co/iAPuaRg8CP

— Nick Viall (@viallnicholas28) August 29, 2018

For those of you who have lives outside of this, the WaterWorld dig is a reference to the fact that Leo reportedly works or worked there. And look, I hate to give Nick Viall the “feminist hero” title he’s so blatantly vying for, but if the gender-neutral cape fits…

Even Deanie Babies, who in all other instances wins me over, was a little off the mark with his response. He commented “I would have forgotten we’re living in the 1920’s without it,” which misses the point that sadly, this kind of garbage is as prevalent in 2018 as it ever was.

Leo ended the feud with a very confusing comment that amounts to “real men don’t shoot up schools”. No, I’m not sure how he got there, either, or if he watches the news. What I’m also not sure of? How many brain cells I lost in following this feud.

Mostly, my feelings from all this are outrage toward ABC. ABC, you need to screen your contestants better before you give them a national audience. First of all, for the safety of ALL contestants, and second of all, to give our eyes a break from this guy who is, at best, woefully inept at successfully pulling off sarcasm. 2017 me is shocked to hear me say this, but praise be for Nick Viall and Deanie Babies—the true heroes of last night’s saga.

Images: Twitter; Instagram; Twitter 

Read more: https://betches.com/?p=35311