#eliminate negative people

[dumblr]

Solitude over toxicity.

#quotes #wise words #thoughtful #solitude #toxicity #know your worth #let them go #create your own happiness #eliminate negative people #good vibes only #positive vibes only

[sardinemasc]

RIPPING PEOPLES HEADS OFF NEVER PLAYING SPLATFEST AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

#eliminate shiver from the game. get her out of here #she used to be my fav too…. no longer. #FRYE TEAM FTW!!!!!!! #BIG MAN AND FRYE SOLIDARITY WE GOTTTA TAKE OUT SHIVER #nintendo has gotta fix this shit it cannot keep being a popularity contest shiver is always gonna win it’s so irritating lmao #splatfest #splatoon 3 #also remember that negativity/criticism ≠ toxicity. this is a competitive game with competitive players #anger doesn’t equal actually hating people!! saying this as an INCREDIBLY competitive person

[smile-files]

clover spotted!!!

also i just have to say it: i really liked cabby and bot as a duo in this episode - they play off each other well and make for some interesting character moments - so it's a real gosh darn shame that they eliminated bot!!! like seriously you're gonna give me one relationship that i actually enjoy and then you break it in half??? thanks a lot animationepic :'DD

#melonposting #inanimate insanity #ii #ii spoilers #ii cabby #ii bot #also i don't know if this was intentional but there's something really stupidly funny with bot in this episode #like you have them taking to n/a about how they're the only one of their kind and that there are fewer folks like them than there should be #and then that line gets echoed later on in application to bot #which just reminds me of the fact that immediately after bot came out as nonbinary paintbrush got eliminated?? #as in the literal only other nonbinary person??? #like there should be more nb people here - more people like bot here - but there aren't :'D like hello #and then *bot's* eliminated???? #it's like they're rubbing in our faces how non-existent the queer representation is here #golly gee #bot did have some really nice moments near the end of the episode that i appreciate #but a lot of it is frankly insulting :') #ii neg

[hell-heron]

Sometimes the fact that GRRM has, amid all his efforts to have nuance and a wide spectrum in his female characters and to deconstruct certain tropes, played the daddy's girl tomboy in contrast to the hostility or complete elimination of the female figures in her life trope completely straight over and over again, with basically every female warrior he wrote, from his female lead to two whole secondary POVs to one note extras (with the exception of the Mormont ladies yeah at least, maybe when we get more Alysane content I will be less grumpy about this), leaves me kind of bitterly shocked tbh

#have seen a very rightful post that people are vocal about ned favoring arya but not so about cat favoring sansa and while part of it is #yea some people can't read etc on the other its also true that the first is a living onpage subtle dynamic and plot relevance and #the second is. stock recollection of generic my mom told me to brush my hair :( episodes between characters who never interact #and that kinda contrasts with other things we know of cat: like she clearly did not overvalue primness in her childhood memories. she takes #to other willful ladies so quickly and this with arya already having plenty of negative female figures with sansa jeyne and septa mordane #idk i get why the fandom isnt too focused on this. not ideal for when what is being done is objective analysis of the text ofc. but i feel #ignoring lazy male writing is kind of a fandom tradition even if here the well is poisoned for any deviation from canon sadly #with the distortion at play from that side #i have not tagged the canon nor any character's full name so huh if you see this in any tag i apologize and that wasnt the intention #i also strive heavily in my writing to subvert this with asha as far as canon supports but one my mother raised me to be bold doesnt really #change the fact that is def a case of complete elimination of the female authority figure in practice #op

[iloveyouitisruiningmylife]

the good place

#i think about this quote a lot 🧘‍♀️ #tgp has given me such a strong unwavering faith in humanity istg all my brain screams is PEOPLE CAN BE BETTER PEOPLE CAN BE BETTER #and even when they can't it isn't their fault society failed them #but if i really think about it by this belief i am not allowed to hate on geto too because society failed him he failed to see the #good in humanity because he wasn't shown it his closest friends were distant from him so how can i blame him hold it against him when he #wasn't given the love and support to get better feel better get out of his depression #i can't 🧍 #but he can't just kill everyone 🧍 #don't cursed spirits form because of feelings of depression sadness too? he can't just eliminate all negative emotions from the world #that's not how it works we need negative emotions as much as we need the positive ones

[honestlyvan]

As someone who doesn’t use Twitter and hasn’t used it since 2016, at this point I feel like every even slightly Twitter-esque (let alone overt Twitter-esque) design choice Tumblr makes gets yelled about because People Really Just Fucking Hate Twitter whether they realise it or not.

Which, like. Fair ‘nuff. I also hate Twitter, which is why I don’t use it. But nobody ever really gives these design decisions any time to percolate on this site in favour of kneejerk “they changed it and we hate it” reaction. Public likes are not new. Multiple tabs on a dashboard (some of them not things you opted into seeing) are not new. Having to block ads with external tools is not new (and it’s a big deal that photomatt said the words “ad blocker”, like, you couldn’t get that shit on any other profit-driven site, everyone is too scared for their precious monetisation)

The new sidebar, also, I think is pretty ugly right now but it’s probably going to go through a few iterations. I, personally, really wish they’d put the search bar literally anywhere else (maybe group search and discovery together IDK I’m not an UX designer) and I think accessing sideblogs has been too complicated for a while now, but none of those are the same as “this looks like The Other Blue Site”.

Like I’m not a graphic designer. I am certainly not a fucking UX designer, and I think those people are either all nuts or all geniuses. I’m pretty sure the new layout is being extensively heatmapped rn, and what changes it’ll undergo are gonna be done based on that, based on comments that are along the lines of ‘this change would make me more productive’ and less on “WEEEEEH CHANGE IT BACK CHANGE IT BACK CHANGE IT BACK”. 

Your animosity towards change is not meaningful user experience information. You misclicking on shit more *is*. If this layout is really *that* bad and terrible, Automattic’s research tools will demonstrate it as such. The developers now are actually much better versed in Web 2.0 design, for better and for worse.

#van stuff #Also like yes I also hate the touchscreenification of desktop sites #as someone who does not have and does not want a touch screen computer #but that's not a design trend I get to dictate as I am in fact a minority user for this site #and the complaints I am tired of seeing are also coming from other legacy minority users of desktop #There are many good UX reasons to opt for a vertical layout instead of a horizontal one #and I think the majority reason is so that people who are on mobile and desktop simultaneously don't have to have two different brainmaps #for their muscle memory on this site #but like... the vertical sidebar is not the same as 'randomly swapping 'Close' and 'Post'' lol #the top of the screen horizontal bar still does things and there's way less empty space there now #and I get wanting negative space and less screen clutter #like... that's the ONE criticism of this update I can agree with #but that's STILL NOT THE SAME as 'arbitrarily fucking over the muscle memory of EVERY site user' #how many people on this site *ever* move out of their dashboard? I know I do! #but I think it's the minority of people considering the user-curated model of propagation this site is still #*actively* promoting #This site looking superficially more like twitter doesn't change that! #like the sky is not falling call me when they eliminate the ability to browse the tags in favour of a flat search #AGAIN #remember when we had that? Remember how *BAD* it was? #remember how much easier finding stuff became when we got 'browse tags' back as the default search?

[lord-squiggletits]

Sorry for being negative, I’m just a bit disappointed that after looking through the Earthspark Optimus tags on and off on different occasions weeks apart, it seems like the only thing the fandom has to say about ES Optimus is finger snaps and dad jokes. :/ (And also a handful of people already trying to frame him as a bad person lmao)

Watch for it, when more episodes of Earthspark come out and a conflict with GHOST inevitably arises, people are going to be raging at Optimus for being “stupid” or “self-righteous” or “blind” for working with GHOST and start calling Megatron and/or the Decepticons right about everything because they spent so long focusing on “haha funny dad Optimus” that they forgot about the other parts of Optimus’ character like... idk, not wanting to colonize planets? Not wanting to start wars with entire species that didn’t want to be involved in the war in the first place? Being willing to make compromises even at risk to himself and his own because he wants to treat everyone fairly?

Idk I guess I’m just a bit salty because it genuinely seems like all this fandom wants is “funny dad Optimus” and nothing else. Like you will give them funny dad Optimus who’s ALSO complex and morally gray but people will only ever talk about the former part. And then when Optimus inevitably makes a mistake and bad things happen, people are probably going to treat him as if he’s stupid or an asshole when he ends up not being the Perfect Unproblematic Fave that people seemingly want him to be.

#negativity #the tf fandom has protagonist centered morality really badly #like yes we all joke/think that humans are the most boring part of transformers #but there's a difference between that as like a narrative preference in a story #versus literally acting like humans don't matter #and a lot of takes i see in earthspark and other continuities #seem to completely ignore the fact that cybertronians securing their future on earth and eliminating the people who want to do them wrong #would literally mean stealing resources from humans and killing them aka COLONIZING THEM #so i see people calling OP a bad leader or stupid or overly trusting for working with GHOST when he's literally no such thing #he explicitly says 'we are guests on this planet' and acknowledges that he sees GHOST merely as his best option and doesn't fully trust them #but ppl in this fandom have a really infantile perspective of optimus #where they want him to be Good All The Time or they just see him as an idiot for some reason #so they see OP making compromises to not hurt humans (people who didn't even want to get involved with cybertron's war) #and theyre like durr hurr he's stupid! he's ignorant! he's an asshole to the decepticons! #no he's not he's literally just trying to not hurt innocent people? and he has to balance both human lives and cybertronian lives #and that's fucking hard and there are no perfect options and there are no outcomes where no one will get hurt #and the existence of those bad choices doesn't make optimus stupid or malicious #it makes him a FUCKING PERSON #trying to navigate a HARD SITUATION and do the right thing #but we can't have optimus being an actual character who behaves like a human being #he has to be perfect daddy prime that does nothing wrong ever and if he does he's a STUPID ASSHOLE ugh

[cotarded]

"It is for this reason that art in general, literature especially, and poetry in particular, is not exactly favored by the champions of the common good, masters of the masses, heralds of historical necessity. For there, where art has stepped, where a poem has been read, they discover, in place of the anticipated consent and unanimity, indifference and polyphony; in place of the resolve to act, inattention and fastidiousness."

Joseph Brodsky, Nobel Lecture December 8, 1987

#poetry #Joseph Brodsky #words #the whole carson trainwreck made me think of this quote #both in the way the poem was literally met with indifference polyphony inattention and fastidiousness #but also in the way some people reacted with sentiment boiling down to “if you don't have anything positive to say don't write anything” #because the modern “champions of the common good” champion above all positiveness and wellness and constant contentedness #and see any suffering as an attack #or someones fault #but much of poetry reckons with negative feelings and treats them as normal inherent part of human condition #which is an antithetical heresy to people who believe that all sadness and struggle can and should be eliminated

[napoleon-usher]

.

#fuckity fucking fuck nothing ever goes my way #🫠🫠🫠🫠🫠🫠🫠🫠🫠🫠 #hey siri how do i not take every rejection as an indication of absolute personal worthlessness 🤔 #also hey siri how do i eliminate the maladjusted coping mechanism of wanting to fucking d** everytime i face a failure whether big or small #yeah yeah i know: therapy #i am nothing if not living in a shame fucking based existence #is it bad that im more embarrassed about having to tell people about my failure than the fact that i didnt get it?? #any of y’all come from money cause im broke af and apparently no one wants to hire me /hj #any way pay no attention to the tumblr user having a breakdown in the corner on main #sign that says ‘zero days since i openly sobbed’ #i shall be fine i just need to punch some shit and them go back to my willful ignorance of my own problems #btw in these trying times every kind comment on my gifsets mean even more and make me so happy so thank y’all for saying such nice things #to put a positive spin on it ive finally had my first cry in the new apartment so that’s something #tw negativity #(just in case) #riah.txt

[literateleah]

i have two weeks until i move in for sophomore year this is sick and twisted and dark sided but also illuminating and ebullient

#is it gonna be even better than last year yes is it going to be infinitely worse in some respects yes #like i know i have too much on my plate… and i’m not taking anything off……… so we’re just gonna have to wait and see what gives first #but dorm and friends and life stuff makes me more excited than ever #a lot of negativity has been eliminated #but i still HATE my department and there are unavoidable things and people i could certainly do without #i am just. going to have to take myself very seriously and be honest and gentle with my mind body and energy #like really kick things into gear bc this year is kind of crucial #and it’s only gonna get More 💪🏽💪🏽 More What idek but definitely More 👹👍🏽

[heritageposts]

In November, Israel’s public broadcaster, Kan, uploaded on its official X page a video of Israeli children singing a song celebrating their country’s ongoing genocide of Palestinians in Gaza. The broadcaster deleted the video clip after a huge online backlash. Even after the video was silently erased from social media, however, the song remained a subject of discussion and controversy. Many across the world were shocked to see children sing happily about “eliminating” an entire people “within one year”. Yet a closer look at Israeli literature and curricula shows this open celebration of genocide was the only natural outcome of Israel’s persistent indoctrination – or brainwashing to be more blunt – of its children to ensure that they do not view Palestinians as human and fully embrace apartheid and occupation. There is myriad evidence of Israel’s brainwashing of its citizens to erase the humanity of Palestinians spanning many decades. Israeli scholar Adir Cohen, for example, analysed for his book titled “An Ugly Face in the Mirror – National Stereotypes in Hebrew Children’s Literature” some 1700 Hebrew-language children’s books published in Israel between 1967 and 1985, and found that a whopping 520 of them contained humiliating, negative descriptions of the Palestinians. He revealed that 66 percent of these 520 books refer to Arabs as violent; 52 percent as evil; 37 percent as liars; 31 percent as greedy; 28 percent as two-faced and 27 percent as traitors.

. . . continues at Al Jazeera (13 Des 2023)

#i remember being taught in school that the indoctrination of children was one of the reasons why the israel-palestine ''conflict'' #was so ~ complicated ~ #but of course according to our teachers and our school books this was a sin only the palestinians were guilty of - never the israelis #palestine #israel #gaza

[tacticaldiary]

It All Comes Crashing Down

Pairing: Simon 'Ghost' Riley x Reader

Genre: Hurt/Comfort

She presses the metal radio against her lips and mumbles her final words, hoping that although he has not spoken, he would hear.

"I love you, Simon.

A/N: The classic 'bomb my location' fic you've all been waiting for! This has been sitting in my drafts for weeks, so I'm glad I finally got it out- I'm thinking about a part 2 where she wakes up and it's some extra fluff, maybe?

Masterlist

She takes a shaky breath in as her hands grip her rifle tighter, but when she speaks her voice is as steady and firm as ever.

"Bomb my location."

The words are acrid on her tongue, but they feel right to her heart. Her mind is in disarray, trying to piece together any other solution that won't have her ending up under dead under pounds of rubble, but she knows deep down that there's no other way out of this.

An entire enemy organisation eliminated at the expense of one soldier.

It was a win-win for everyone but her.

And that was alright. She's made her peace with it, made it the moment she signed her name on those documents giving her life away to the tang of blood and the scent of gunsmoke.

"Level the building." She continues, wincing at another hail of fire that rains upon her. Heavy footsteps and orders barked in Russian move around her location. Steadily being surrounded, there was little hope for a smooth extraction or escape anyway. "Have Soap blow the charges, Captain. Then send in the airship and raze this hellhole to the ground."

"Like hell we're doing that." Gaz's voice comes through her comms, frustrated. "We're not leaving her, Price." They must have rendezvoused successfully, because Gaz doesn't speak through the comms, rather it sounds as if he's turning away his head to speak to the man directly.

It brings a small smile to her face despite the circumstances. Her boys would get out of this, at least.

Simon. Her mind flashes to her Simon and she thanks whoever's above that they had split up before everything went to shit.

It had been fine at first. She was setting the charges they needed to bring the building down while he fetched the intel from somewhere else, and really, she should have been suspicious when it all went smoothly.

She'd planted the last charge before the enemy started closing in.

Like rats, they seemed to emerge out of nowhere shooting her down and pinning her until she had no choice but to slip away and barricade herself in one of the nearby rooms. The entrance and exits were likely swarmed with people and here she sat, in the heart of it all.

Unreachable, untouchable.

She sort of tunes out the muted conversation on the other end, lets the ringing on her head take over. Loud angry cursing, yelling in distinctive Scottish, the harsh rasp of her Captain telling everyone to calm down...it all floats through her mind.

Everyone but Ghost.

She doesn't hear his voice...but he was alive, wasn't he? She'd seen him slip out of the building through the window in front of her, so she knows he must have gotten out. The thought makes her gut curl up, brings her back to the present.

"Negative, Sergeant." Price's voice cuts through her thoughts, much louder than the others. "We're mapping out a route to come get you-"

"Price, it'll be suicide." Perhaps it's the way her voice softens and quiets, the gentle way she talks so different from the harsh way she's spoken earlier. It's as if she's accepted it, is content to lay down and allow herself to be swallowed by the dirt she came from. "I'm one soldier. Don't make yourself visit more than one coffin."

"I'm going to-"

"Set off the charges."

There's a beat of silence, painstaking silence where nobody speaks. Even the gunfire outside the room she's barricaded in seems to fade out for a moment.

"Copy."

A death sentence coming from the man she considered family.

It cracks a smile out of her. She squeezes her eyes shut, lets her head fall against the blood spattered wall behind her.

"Make sure my replacement's just as much a pain in the ass to you, alright?" If the way her voice breaks at the end of her last sentence is noticed, it's not brought up. "Simon's gotta have someone to push around, yeah?"

"There's no replacing you."

There's arguing. Soap and Gaz are yelling, and it's startling because she's never heard either of them shout the way they are, at their Captain nonetheless.

It's comforting to know she was cared for, even if she's about to die.

A sudden bang on her door makes her jump. Muffled Russian filters through the old wood. Someone ramming at it with something, trying to break it down.

But it doesn't really matter, does it? She'll be going out on her own terms even if they find her now.

Ghost...Simon. Where was he? If there was one thing that'd settle her mind right now it'd be hearing that gravelly voice, even if it was merely yelling at her, telling her how stupid it was to suggest what she has.

A desperation claws at her chest, deep down. She wants Simon, wants to spend the night in his bed again, wants to hug him, feel his skin, wants to see those rare smiles of his one more time.

Just once.

Just one more time before she-

"Charges setting off in 5-"

How cruel was the world?

She hopes Simon knows that she didn't mean to leave him. That she wanted him to go on without her, to not fall into the void of 'what-if's.' It wasn't his fault.

Her eyes burn but she refuses to let out the helpless sob clawing its way up her throat. She wants...she wants so much. Wants to do so much more, wants to live, and breathe and smile and laugh and experience and live. Simon. She wants to tell him so much more.

If she could go back in time and fill their silences with all the words she wants him to know right now, she'd do it in a heartbeat.

It's an impulsive decision, how her hand shoots up to grab at her radio frantically. Switching it to the private line between just the two of them, she presses the metal against her lips and mumbles her final words, hoping that although he has not spoken, he would hear.

"I love you, Simon."

The ground crumbles beneath her, the world turns to black.

                                  · · ─────── ·𖥸· ─────── · ·

Slipping out of the small shed, he tucks the papers into his vest. For a multi-national organisation, they sure were stupid as hell when hiding their intel.

Scanning the grounds for any movement, Ghost moves out, keeping to the shadows until he reaches the edge of the field that morphed into the woods farther down.

"Intel secured, moving to rendezvous point now." He says into his comms. He frowns when he doesn't get an answer back, grabbing his radio and speaking again, casting a glance back into the foliage in the distance where he knows the others have staked their place to operate from.

Price, Gaz, and Soap were operating remotely, dealing with drones and distant detonation devices, whereas the other two had infiltrated the building separately.

Plant the charges and secure the intel. Simple tasks made difficult when they both realised that the intel wasn't in the building, but instead in the shed attached to the side of the complex instead. Splitting up had been the most logical thing to do, even when Ghost had refused at first.

"It'll be fine. Quick and easy, right?" She'd told him with a grin. "Get that intel before I'm out of the building and maybe I'll give you an extra treat when we get back." Ghost had rolled his eyes at her suggestive wink.

"Does anyone copy?" He says into the object. He's met with nothing but muffled crackling and garbled speech, tinny and indecipherable. Ghost scowls at the machine, ripping it off of his vest and turning it over. It crackles and pops with bursts of sound but nothing cohesive enough to interpret

"I-...ou...Simon"

"Fucking thing's busted." He mumbles to himself, shoving the item back into his vest, his hand brushing against the folder of intel he's successfully recovered from the shed attached to the main building.

He can spot one of the convoy vehicles near the edge of the woods, but he doesn't let his guard down even as he crosses the field towards it.

Ghost barely takes a step through the dead grass before the building behind him goes up in an explosion that makes even him unsteady with the force of it. Flames lick up the east side of the massive structure and Ghost takes a second to watch as it crumbles in on itself sending up clouds of dust and debris.

Good fucking riddance.

He's looking forward to getting the hell out of this place once he rendezvous with everyone else. This mission had stretched on for far longer than it should have, the elusive bastards slipping away through their fingers time and time again with dirty, underhanded tactics.

The foliage grows thicker as he steps into the woods, rifle at the ready. A click of a safety had him raising his weapon and spinning around immediately.

When he sees a very familiar mohawk, however, he lowers his weapon instantly. "Blue!" He says loudly, bringing up a hand to half Soap. "Just me, Johnny."

Soap follows suit and lowers his weapon, his shoulders visibly relaxing the tiniest bit. "Welcome back." He says, but something about his voice makes Ghost uneasy. "Price and...and the others are prepping exfil." He gestures towards the clearing.

"Everyone else made it back?" He asks as they push through the meager trees and into the open space where soldiers are rushing around tying up loose ends.

"Aye." Soap chokes out.

Ghost would question it, but he's too busy doing a sweep of the clearing, putting names to faces. Price and Gaz were there, going back and forth over something. It strikes him a little odd how furious Gaz looks, Price looking so resigned but he pushes it away in favour of catching a glimpse of the person he's more inclined to spot.

"We tried what we could, but she was pinned down." Soap breaks the silence, misinterpreting the reason behind his silent staring at Gaz and Price. "We didn't...Laswell's insisting immediate evac, but Gaz wants to at least find a body to bury." A bitter laugh that makes Ghost's stomach drop like a stone.

"What?"

Soap rakes a bloody hand through his hair, shakes his head, and continues on like he's in some sort of shock. "I don't want to. I think she'd rather us leave her buried there than dig out bits and pieces and bury her again." His voice cracks.

Bury...?

There's only one woman in their team.

There's only one person he hasn't accounted for in the clearing.

There's only one person he hasn't reached on his comms before they broke.

The world spins, his mind screams and falls silent, a crescendo of noise and denial. The ground shifts beneath his feet, rocking him into a state that makes him feel like he's walking on string.

"MacTavish." His words are so calm and even, it's eerie. "Is my girl still in the building?" He feels detached from himself, perhaps a way to distance himself from the pain of the implied.

Soap looks at him for a long moment, then croaks out one, broken word.

"Was."

And it all comes crashing down.

He's been through torture before. Had his skin marred, his fingernails torn off, been hung from his ribs but nothing, nothing has ever come close to the way his heart twists.

Nothing had ever made him panic in a way that has his throat closing up.

"Christ." Johnny breathes, and it's a sound that drags him back from the brink of something horrible. Soap's eyes are fixed on the empty spot on his vest that holds his radio on normal days, horrified. "You didn't bloody know." He states.

Wasting time answering is useless. Talking, speaking breathing is useless because not a moment later Ghost is sprinting towards the rubble.

The rubble that he had just watched fallen. The building he'd stood there and watched fall down, had felt pride and relief in seeing.

His gear digs into him, the air thickens with smoke and dust but he doesn't stop. Vaguely he hears people yelling after him, hears Price and Gaz and Soap and every other motherfucker who stood by and detonated the charges. Friend or foe it didn't matter to him right now. If someone dared to get in his way he'd mow them all down, grind them into nothing and keep going.

They blew the charges.

The airship would be here any minute to finish the job.

No, he'd get to her by then. Ghost slams down into the ground somewhere near where they split off. He'd find her by then, and he'd bring her back, bring her to medical and she'd be fine in a week or two.

There was no other fucking option.

The debris rakes off the fabric of his gloves, splits the skin on his fingertips as he hauls and pushes and pulls and digs through stone and metal and wood, leaving evidence of his efforts in the form of his own blood behind.

She had to be okay.

Not her. Not like his mother, not like his brother, not like his nephew.

Not her.

He digs, calls out her name until his voice is hoarse, pulls away piece after piece of rubble until his fingers are torn to shreds.

Just as he hears the sounds of incoming aircraft, he spots something that makes the knot in his chest slam against his ribcage in pure and utter terror.

It's been a while since Simon has felt fear this pure.

Hair that he's familiar with, strands that he's gripped and gently soothes his fingers through peek out from under the piece of metal he's just lifted.

Unable to breathe, his attempts at moving the earth increase tenfold. He picks off stone after stone, brick after brick until more of her body is uncovered. Still, unmoving, bleeding. Once he's gotten her top half free, he hesitates for one horrible moment because what if he looks down to see a still chest?

Steeling himself, he bites the bullet and curls an arm around her waist, pulling her out of the debris.

The relief that slams into him when he feels her shallow, breaths against his palm is almost enough to send him to his knees.

"I've got you, love." He mumbles, half to himself as he adjusts her in his arms. She's dead weight, pulse barely there but present.

Cuts and bruises, Ghost can name at least five lacerations and countless other places she's bleeding from, a broken arm, leg, and who knows what kind of internal bleeding.

Alive.

But still alive.

And that was enough because like hell Ghost was going to let the one good thing in his life slip through his fingers ever again. He'd drag whoever he needed to her aid, he'd go to hell and back just to make sure she got to open her eyes again.

With limps that ache and a heart that's heavy, he quickly moves them out of the rubble, just in time to see two aircraft circling their location. They hadn't dropped any explosives yet, which a far part of Simon's brain thinks might be Price's doing.

Uncaring of whoever was watching, because frankly everyone could fuck off right now and it would be preferable, Ghost presses his lips to her hair as he moves into the clearing with her.

"Medic!" He barks out. "Right fucking now!"

He ignores Gaz's strangled gasp, ignores the way the entire team approaches them and tries to help. Ghost is a little concerned that if he let the adrenaline that's pumping through his veins go, he might just collapse as well, and that was unacceptable at the moment.

A weak hand grasps at the front of his vest, his eyes snapping immediately to her at the movement.

"S...'mon?" She says, words so faint he barely hears them?

"I'm here." He confirms, pressing his face to her hair harder. "I've got you, darling." He whispers. "I've got you."

It soothes her, because she nods against him and lets herself relax. It's only then that Simon notices she's holding something in her good hand in a deathly tight grip.

Upon closer inspection, it's a radio.

"I-...ou...Simon"

Fucking hell. His grip on her tightens.

She'd been trying to contact him in what she thought were her last moments, and he'd never have known because his fucking radio was broken.

It doesn't matter, he tells himself, chants it over and over again in his mind. He's got her again, and like hell is he ever letting go now.

When the medics bring out a stretcher, Price has to talk him into letting her go down into him, practically ordering him to let the bloody medics do their jobs. He doesn't stray far, however, keeping a hand on her at all times. Sat next to where they were working on her in the helicopter back, never once do his eyes stray from her unconscious form.

She wakes up once or twice, whines, and fights against the medic's hands with a panic-induced haze. Every time Simon is there, holding her hand, muttering rough, soothing praise and assurances.

It calms her down immediately, the trust in those far away pain-addled eyes when they meet his is enough to make his heart twist.

Simon stays with her the entire time, and then takes residence in a seat next to her hospital bed on base, ready for when she wakes up.

Hell would freeze over before Simon would ever let them be apart again.

If that makes him selfish, then so be it.

Requests Are Open! Reblog, Like and Comment!

(12/08/2023)

#ghost cod #cod mw ghost #ghost call of duty #ghost modern warfare #ghost mw2 #ghost simon riley #ghost x reader #cod ghost #mw2 ghost #simon ghost riley x reader #simon ghost riley x you #simon ghost x reader #simon ghost riley #simon riley x reader #simon riley x you #call of duty modern warfare 2 #modern warfare x reader #angst #x reader #x y/n #fluff #simon riley #simon riley fluff #simon riley imagine #call of duty modern warfare #call of duty modern warfare ii #modern warfare #cod modern warfare #modern warfare 2 #modern warfare ii

[faye-circle]

I think what a lot of people miss about dismantling stereotypes is that they DO exist for a reason. Good or bad, they are there for a reason. For example the whole “women love shopping and getting shoes” stereotype. This stereotype is harmful! It paints women as vanity-ridden and is just generally icky.

The problem with the stereotype is that it is an inaccurate, and negative, representation of women and contributes to misogyny and sexism. The problem is NOT women who do happen to very much enjoy shopping and shoes. There are going to be people who enjoy shopping. There are going to be people that don’t.

If we force people who just happen to have aligning traits with a stereotype like the one I mentioned, we’re just coming full circle and pressuring people into not doing something they love.

TL;DR: The problem with stereotypes is not the people who happen to fit in with said stereotypes, but rather the assumptions made about a person without any actual information.

#little extra mention about EXTREME stereotypes #such as ‘muslims are terrorists’ #obviously if a muslim happened to be a violent terrorist that would be. Bad #but again the problem with the stereotype itself ISN’T: a hypothetical terrorist who HAPPENS to be muslim #but rather the problem is that it inherently assumes someone extremy negative about a person and that severely affects the way people inter #interact* #even subconsciously! #Our society is so plagued by stereotypes and ‘isms’ that we all do things subconsciously that are prejudiced #like my mom’s dad was racist and my mom isn’t racist but she had to work on observing #and analyzing these biases (e.g. locking the car door a little quicker if a person of color comes walking by) #and of course #eliminating them #stereotype #stereotypes #discussion #discuss #I dont wanna tag this as politics cause I’ll get eaten and I’m not looking for that rn

[penisbagelbite]

"Affirmation" & Malgendering

"Fine, I'll 'respect' your gender, but I'll make it absolutely miserable for you. What? You don't like the way I'm 'affirming' your gender? Guess you'll have to stop being a (trans) man then."

I want to put something out there about what I call "malgendering". I see trans men talk about the phenomenon and acknowledge it as a part of antitransmasculinity but not the concept of "malgendering" itself and what it's purpose is, and as trans men and transmasculine people are especially caught in the lose-lose situation between misgendering and malgendering I think it is an important concept to establish. The erasure of transmasculinity, particularly as a unique gender and gendered experience, also serves to keep the transmasculine trapped within this double-bind, positioned between the gender binary of cis patriarchal ideas of womanhood and manhood, where for us there is only misgendering (being abused with the Woman gender) or malgendering (being abused with the Man gender).

I define malgendering as the practice of "validating" someone's gender identity only when it can be used against them and to hurt them, and malgendering almost always involves the enforcement of only the most negative sexist stereotypes available onto the victim with none of the "positives". If misgendering is forcefully pushing you back into your 'proper place' such as by calling you a "girl" or a "her" and showing you that you're really a woman through sexual assault -malgendering is scaring and traumatizing you into it by using your own gender against you. Malgendering is the realization that you don't need to misgender someone to hurt them or to punish them for the way they identity and push them towards the gender they're 'supposed' to be - you can do all that through 'validation'. It's psychological warfare on the sense of self.

This violence and abuse under the guise of "respect" and "identity affirmation" creates plausible deniability of intent and places the blame on the victim for "identifying that way", so much so that even other trans people will defend it and believe it's not maligned (especially because "but being seen as and treated as your gender is what trans rights is all about!" and "errm but its transphobic to not treat u this way?/ur misgendering urself by wanting to not be treated this way :/" with the hidden message being "don't like it? stop being trans"), even when faced with evidence of the (very much intended) effects it has on stalling and outright eliminating transmasculinity (ie. repression, detransition, suicide).

Some examples I can pull off the top of my head:

A transphobe is talking about a pregnant trans man. The whole energy of the Facebook video is 'comedic', and while calling birth the most “feminine” thing someone can do and alluding to how the trans man is really a woman, they still use he/him and call him a “guy” (in air-quotes). Not out of any respect but because the idea of a man being pregnant, calling a pregnant person a "he", and the very existence of the trans man in question, is the whole joke. In doing so, the transphobe has turned the act of using the proper pronouns and gendering him into a source of humiliation and made the experience of being properly gendered a demeaning one. -

The Ukraine military situation where all males aged between 18 and 60 were banned from leaving the country and obliged to serve in the military. Trans women were denied passage out of the country "because they were men", and trans men were similarly denied passage out of the country "because they were men". With the discrepancy between invalidating the gender of trans women and "validating" the gender of trans men, you'd think the motivation behind this would be obvious - that trans people are expendable meat and it's better they die than cis people. It shouldn't of needed to be said that "I'm only affirming your gender because it allows me to put you in a position where you will likely suffer and die and put the blame for it on you" is not 'respect' or 'affirming' at all but somehow this was taken as evidence for the idea of that trans men are more 'respected' and seen as their genders than others (and are thus 'privileged'). -

A common one almost every trans guy deals with at some point is cis people threatening to beat trans men up (and often following through), because "If you're a man and not a woman (anymore) that means I can punch you," using the proximity to masculinity that transmasculine people claim as a justification for violence. Every other week there's a new story in online transmasculine spaces about someone having their ribs broken with "Since/if you want to be a man so bad-" preceding the attack. -

The above is in a similar vein to when accounts of violence done to transmasculine people by cisgender men are brushed off and they're told something along the lines of "welcome to being a man", "that's just what men do to each other", "that's just the way things are with men", etc. along with the insistence that their attack had nothing to do with antitransmasculinity, making it an immutable problem with (cis)men as a whole - creating a sense hopelessness and that this is all they have to look forward to. -

Transmasculine individuals being refused treatment, tests, or insurance for gynecological issues, especially cancer, despite the knowledge that they are transmasculine, because "men don't deal with these problems" and they don't want "men in women's spaces", and if you don't want to be 'treated like a man' and get the care you need (and not die), you're going to have to go ahead and detransition, change that M marker back to an F.

All of this functions to create contention, and eventually a rift, between the individual and their sense of gender identity. Creating an association between being gendered 'correctly' and 'respected' as your gender (and ultimately existing as a transmasculine person) with abuse, violence, helplessness, trauma, fear, isolation... and by making transmasculinity and transmanhood uninhabitable and driving a wedge between the individual and their sense of gender identity you can more easily drag them back to their 'proper' place. Plant seeds of doubt by making being transmasculine an exceedingly unhappy experience. Make them think that everything that's happened is their own fault for choosing to be transmasculine or trying to be a man. That maybe since they're so unhappy this isn't for them. That living as a transmasculine person is just too difficult and they're not cut out for it, that if they "gave up" and were to be women again things would be easier and they would be safer and happier.

This also all serves to maintain cis patriarchal ideas of gender and the gender binary and police the boundaries of manhood, in a way I can't articulate right now.

Through all this, despite being called "men" during malgendering, we are not actually perceived as such. We are always an "other". Acknowledging us as "men" is just another weapon, and why some transmascs flinch at the phrase "trans men are men". Our own genders are used to beat us.

Using a scrap from my .txt journals:

"[...] on the subject of having a core aspect of yourself taken from you and turned into a weapon to beat you with, with the result being that aspect of yourself now becoming a source of trauma and pain so you abandon it and lock it away like an awful secret, that’s exactly what happened with my gender. Being genderless and a(nti)binary is what I’m most comfortable as, a(nti)gender is my ~real gender~, but I have to admit a lot of this is because I have been traumatized out of any gender with binary associations and have consequently come to know gender itself, and the act of gendering, as violence. Gender is but a designation for what exploitation, abuse, and violence can be enacted upon you and the justification there of. When someone asks whether you are "masc" or "femme", behind their back as they face you is a hammer in one hand, and a knife in the other, and what they are actually asking is if they can pummel you or lacerate you. When it comes to the “direction” I’m transitioning in though, it is obviously “masculine” (as much as a negation of "femininity" is always taken as stepping towards "masculinity") and you wouldn’t be entirely wrong to call me “transmasculine”, though I have been scared to death of being acknowledged as such."

My first encounter with malgendering was when I was 13 and had just started to realize I was "ftm" and looking for community online. My first exposure to any affirmation of transmasculinity was someone I came to respect reblogging a post about how Kill All Men includes trans men. This would set the precedent of the next decade of my life of existing while transmasculine. A decade of only hearing the words "trans men" and "transmasc" used negatively and as the butt of jokes that served to reinforce patriarchal ideas of gender. The consistent and relentless denial of transmasculinity as a unique gender and gendered experience, the denial of transmasculine reality especially in regards to misogyny, and continuous abuse and threats of violence, all under the guise of affirming trans men's genders as men (and affirming the gender binary in the process). A decade of having antitransmasculine sentiment fed to me in every way possible.

For me, the experiences of antitransmasculinity and malgendering from non-transmascs has effectively "chased" me out of my transmasculinity and any acknowledgement of it. For years I have hidden my transmasculinity and presumed "AGAB" out of fear, even in queer and supposedly trans-friendly spaces. I have not been able to associate with any “masculine” language in reference to myself without feeling that I am in imminent danger, have made a grave mistake, and suffocating in anticipation of punishment. I have always been scared of posting any of my art that eludes to my transmasculinity. I have always been terrified of being referred to or perceived as “transmasc”, a “trans man”, of being called a "guy" or “dude” or “bro”, of using "he/him" anywhere. All of it. Deep down on some level I do desire it, but it’s been forbidden and only aggravates existing wounds.

And this, in turn, pushed me out of associating with other transmasculine folks out of fear and internalized antitransmasculinity towards other transmasculine people, isolating me from any community or connection with anyone similar to me, exacerbating my loneliness and alienation as a youth to the point where now as an adult my ‘normal’ human social needs – connection, community, relationships, empathy – are completely broken. I don’t feel loneliness anymore, or the desire to connect to anyone, despite in ways being even more alone now than I was then. In a way I believe antitransmasculinity shaped the path of my schizoidism. Isolating and divorcing me from my transmasculinity and the world at large is what I understand to be yet another point of this type of antitransmasculine rhetoric - because when you've destabilized and isolated someone from their whole sense of self and community, they are much easier to control.

#transandrophobia #antitransmasculinity #transmisandry #malgendering

[ghostlyferrettarot]

🖤🌗Lilith in the Signs🌓🖤

❗️All the observations in this post are based on personal experience and research, it's completely fine if it doesn't resonate with everyone❗️

✨️Paid Services ✨️ (Natal charts and tarot readings) Open.

🖤If you like my work you can support me through Ko-fi. Thank you!🖤

🌟Masterlist🌟

🐈‍⬛Lilith in Aries: the native may feel more of a desire to be independent, to stand up for things he believes in, to cherish individualism, to argue persuasively for his opinions, and to be more sensual and straightforward when in love. The issue is that this can make relationships a little more challenging, encouraging more rejection or the tendency to look for flaws in a spouse since it's hard to commit. Those who were born with this alignment in their birth chart might have gone through periods of rejection.If Lilith is in Aries, don't be scared to look ahead; what vibrates will remain, and if not, don't be afraid to let it go for good.

🐈‍⬛Lilith in Taurus: Lilit in Taurus indicates a stronger sense of tenacity along with an increased attraction to all things sensual and lovely. Additionally, it may increase emotional activity to the point that you look for greater security in relationships. Furthermore, this comfort isn't necessarily purely emotional; you might want to look for individuals who are stable financially, for instance. This particular dependency on tangible, safe things might occasionally cause discomfort and disrupt your emotional balance. Lilith, who stands for feminine power, narrates how the family's ladies acquired strength and empowerment so Lilith is in Taurus could be a clan women who came to power by making excellent use of their resources and handling their finances and belongings with diligence.

🐈���⬛Lilith in Gemini: It can induce a greater search for independence and make the native particularly interested in intellectual or communicative areas, such as literature and public relations. This position can also suppress emotions a little or make the native more rational. With this placement it is important to understand that what kills or what hurts the native is not the physical offense, but the negative use of other people's words. With Lilith in Gemini this people may be afraid to connect with their environment for fear of rejection Or it could be the opposite, someone who is very good at social communication, who is friendly and fun and connects with everyone.

🐈‍⬛Lilith in Cancer: Lilith in Cancer has a great capacity to intuit emotionally charged issues, perhaps about the past, childhood, lack of protection during childhood, or during a moment of great vulnerability. She encourages the native to reflect on the concepts of family. This movement also speaks of emotions that are gestated in the primordial energy of Creation. The desire to establish emotional ties is intense and these people may obsessively seek to start a family.

🐈‍⬛Lilith in Leo: In general, it brings a greater desire to have fun, increases the desire to participate in parties and perhaps be the center of attention. It increases the chance of convincing and seducing people and slightly increases the chances of being a notable person. Self-knowledge is very important for you to find your true identity and eliminate any type of narcissism and overvaluation of your shape or physical beauty. When seeking recognition and attention, you must be careful not to do so in an exaggerated way. Lilith in Leo represents the energetic vibration of rebellion, uniqueness and creativity. This energy has the quality of helping those with this position.

🐈‍⬛Lilith in Virgo: They have a character that is not afraid of loneliness, they are independent and do not sacrifice their autonomy for some company. They are very selective with their friends and partners and do not dedicate time to the bonds that do not find meaning in the shared moments. This positioning of Lilit can make objectivity in details a little difficult, influencing the native to criticize things or people at first glance. Her analytical and psychological abilities tend to increase and they may have very strong intuition. The problem is that they may not be exactly aware of these abilities or, out of modesty, may not admit them.

🐈‍⬛Lilith in Libra: Lilith in Libra can intensify the thirst for justice, this position indicates a constant search for equality and beauty and at the same time a great need for symmetry in relationships. The challenge of this displacement is that natives often face scenarios where independence is threatened. with Lilith in Libra you may have difficulty establishing healthy boundaries in your social connections. This is because Lilith represents our darkest side.

🐈‍⬛Lilith in Scorpio: Lilith in Scorpio can generate a tendency towards self-destruction or an overwhelming need to go against what is established. People born under this sign have an intense and magnetic energy that can attract others to them. In addition, they are very passionate and deep people, which allows them to connect with their darkest part and have the ability to face fears and internal traumas. In addition, it can speak of people with a strong and defiant character who do not follow conventional social norms. People with this position may be curious about issues associated with sexuality, power, and individual and social transformation.

🐈‍⬛Lilith in Sagittarius: Here this native has the opportunity to unite intellect and spirituality, in addition, he suggests an influence that gives rise to a greater desire for knowledge and adventure. He usually contacts other people in search of more experience, always with good intentions. Also, he can talk about detached people, who feel that they cannot dedicate themselves to a single person, who need to adventure, travel and discover other cultures. This individuals must be careful from those who try to take advantage of their generosity as well as they must avoid nurturing vices.

🐈‍⬛Lilith in Capricorn: It tends to slightly intensify the desire for status or to obtain a prominent position, it induces the native to be a little more indifferent or demanding with others, but sometimes it is important to make concessions. On the other hand, it can increase the sense of discipline and duty, basic things to achieve a prestigious position. It is important to keep in mind that those born with Lilith in this Earth sign can express themselves in a harsh way emotionally, and their own limitation makes it difficult to expression of others. They treat the people they love with somewhat authoritarian dynamics and expect them to respond in a certain way.

🐈‍⬛Lilith in Aquarius: Lilith in Aquarius can intensify intuition, the desire for adventure, and a bolder attitude. She can stimulate independence or rebellion. Lilith in this Air sign, by not respecting what is established, they can adopt a permanent attitude of being contrary and testing everything around her. Their biggest urge is to cut ties and be totally autonomous, which can cause discomfort with others. These natives may feel that they do not match their family, they feel like the black sheep or the oddball of the clan. Then, they leave the blood network in search of a group to which they belong.

🐈‍⬛Lilith in Pisces: This positioning can cause the person to intensify themes, such as imagination, fantasy, artistic sense and inspiration. It may also stimulate a greater inclination to help people or an appreciation for social work. However, such influence can cause one to neglect oneself and fail to meet one's own needs. You must be careful not to get caught in illusions. Your spirituality or creative imagination can bear good material fruits, and it is necessary to deepen your knowledge and self-knowledge to unlock good ideas. You should always think about how to develop your spirituality and intuition to get a good idea of everything that happens around you.

#astrology placements #astro community #zodiac #astro blog #astro notes #astrology moodboard #astro news #astro observations #tarot cards #tarot and astrology #astrology planets #astro chart #astro content #Lilith in signs #tarot reading #astrology #lilith in aries #lilith in taurus #lilith in cancer #lilith in gemini #lilith in leo #lilith in virgo #lilith in libra #lilith in scorpio #lilith in sagittarius #lilith in capricorn #lilith in aquarius #natal chart reading #kpop astrology #jennie

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Wellness surveillance makes workers unwell

I'm on tour with my new, nationally bestselling novel The Bezzle! Catch me in TORONTO on Mar 22, then with LAURA POITRAS in NYC on Mar 24, then Anaheim, and more!

"National conversation" sounds like one of those meaningless buzzphrases – until you live through one. The first one I really participated in actively was the national conversation – the global conversation – about privacy following the Snowden revelations.

This all went down when my daughter was five, and as my wife and I talked about the news, our kid naturally grew curious about it. I had to literally "explain like I'm five" global mass surveillance:

https://locusmag.com/2014/05/cory-doctorow-how-to-talk-to-your-children-about-mass-surveillance/

But parenting is a two-way street, so even as I was explaining surveillance to my kid, my own experiences raising a child changed how I thought about surveillance. Obviously I knew about many of the harms that surveillance brings, but parenting helped me viscerally appreciate one of the least-discussed, most important aspects of being watched: how it compromises being your authentic self:

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/blog/2014/may/09/cybersecurity-begins-with-integrity-not-surveillance

As I wrote then:

There are times when she is working right at the limits of her abilities – drawing or dancing or writing or singing or building – and she catches me watching her and gets this look of mingled embarrassment and exasperation, and then she changes back to some task where she has more mastery. No one – not even a small child – likes to look foolish in front of other people.

Learning, growth, and fulfillment all require a zone of privacy, a time and place where we are not observed. Far from making us accountable, continuous, fine-grained surveillance by authority figures just scares us into living a cramped, inauthentic version of ourselves, where growth is all but impossible. Others have observed the role this plays in right-wing culture war bullshit: "an armed society is a polite society" is code for "people who make me feel uncomfortable just by existing should be terrorized into hiding their authentic selves from me." The point of Don't Say Gay laws and anti-trans bills isn't to eliminate gender nonconformity – it's to drive it into hiding.

Given all this, it's no surprise that workers who face workplace surveillance in the name of "wellness" feel unwell as a result:

https://www.ifow.org/publications/what-impact-does-exposure-to-workplace-technologies-have-on-workers-quality-of-life-briefing-paper

As the Future of Work Institute found in its study, some technologies – systems that make it easier to collaborate and communicate with colleagues – increase workers' sense of wellbeing. But wearables and AI tools make workers feel significantly worse:

https://assets-global.website-files.com/64d5f73a7fc5e8a240310c4d/65eef23e188fb988d1f19e58_Tech%20Exposure%20and%20Worker%20Wellbeing%20-%20Full%20WP%20-%20Final.pdf

Workers who reported these negative feelings confirmed that these tools make them feel "monitored." I mean, of course they do. Even where these tools are nominally designed to help you do your job better, they're also explicitly designed to help your boss keep track of you from moment to moment. As Brandon Vigliarolo writes for The Register, these are the same bosses who have been boasting to their investors about their plans to fire their workers and replace them with AI:

https://www.theregister.com/2024/03/14/advanced_workplace_tech_study/

"Bossware" is a key example of the shitty rainbow of "disciplinary technology," tools that exist to take away human agency by making it easier to surveil and control its users:

https://pluralistic.net/2020/07/01/bossware/#bossware

Bossware is one of the stages of the Shitty Technology Adoption Curve: the process by which abusive and immiserating technologies progress up the privilege gradient as their proponents refine and normalize dystopian technologies in order to impose them on wider and wider audiences:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/02/24/gwb-rumsfeld-monsters/#bossware

The kinds of metrics that bossware gathers might be useful to workers, but only if the workers get to decide when, whether and how to share that data with other people. Microsoft Office helps you catch typos by underlining words its dictionary doesn't recognize; the cloud-based, "AI-powered" Office365 tells your boss that you're the 11th-worst speller in your division and uses "sentiment analysis" to predict whether you are likely to cause trouble:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/08/21/great-taylors-ghost/#solidarity-or-bust

Two hundred years ago, Luddites rose up against machines. Contrary to the ahistorical libel you've heard, the Luddites weren't angry or frightened of machines – they were angry at the machines' owners. They understood – correctly – that the purpose of a machine "so easy a child could use it" was to fire skilled adult workers and replace them with kidnapped, indentured Napoleonic War orphans who could be maimed and killed on the job without consequence:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/03/12/gig-work-is-the-opposite-of-steampunk/

A hundred years ago, the "Taylorites" picked up where those mill owners left off: choreographing workers' movements to the finest degree in a pseudoscientific effort to produce a kind of kabuki of boss-pleasing robotic efficiency. The new, AI-based Taylorism goes even further, allowing bosses to automatically blacklist gig workers who refuse to cross picket-lines, monitor "self-employed" call center operators in their own homes, and monitor the eyeballs of Amazon drivers:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/04/12/algorithmic-wage-discrimination/#fishers-of-men

AI-based monitoring technologies dock workers' wages, suspend them, and even fire them, and when workers object, they're stuck arguing with a chatbot that is the apotheosis of Computer Says No:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/01/11/robots-stole-my-jerb/#computer-says-no

There's plenty of research about AI successfully "augmenting" workers, making them more productive and I'm the last person to say that automation can't help you get more done:

https://www.ibm.com/thought-leadership/institute-business-value/en-us/report/augmented-workforce

But without understanding how AI augments class warfare – disciplining workers with a scale, speed and granularity beyond the sadistic fantasies of even the most micromanaging asshole boss – this research is meaningless.

The irony of bosses imposing monitoring to improve "wellness" and stave off "burnout" is that nothing is more exhausting, more immiserating, more infuriating than being continuously watched and judged.

Name your price for 18 of my DRM-free ebooks and support the Electronic Frontier Foundation with the Humble Cory Doctorow Bundle.

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

https://pluralistic.net/2024/03/15/wellness-taylorism/#sick-of-spying

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

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

#pluralistic #surveillance #workplace surveillance #disciplinary technology #bossware #taylorism #ai #automation unemployment #wellness #health #labor #parenting #luddism