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leupagus · 4 years

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Who’s your County Executive? and other steps to becoming a valuable pain in the ass

I fired off a tweet thread this morning, but I feel like a lot of folks here might benefit from this info, too. Which is: if you want anything to change, from police abolition to getting statues removed to passing local ordinances requiring masks to removing local legislation putting limits on abortion (just for some random examples), you need to get real familiar with your local reps. As in, you need to know who they are, what they do, how they’re elected/appointed, how long they’ve been doing that job, what their history is and how you can pressure them into doing what you want. Using hashtags and sharing links and signal boosting can only do so much. Talking to the people who are actually able to implement the change you want is a huge part that I don’t think gets discussed enough; and although it requires some preliminary work, once you get into the groove it’s surprisingly easy.

First, find out where you live! Which you may think is a stupid step, but —do you live in a city? Are you sure? I live in a city, for example, but I actually live in a township/suburb of that city, not the city proper. (Fortunately due to what I suspect is some white flight-related weirdness, I can still hassle the city proper.) There are entire towns inside of some cities, like West Hollywood and Los Angeles. Double-check; you might be surprised.

Then, find out who’s in charge of said place. There are quite a few people, actually. You probably have a mayor — but they might be called a supervisor. Or you may have a city manager, or executive, or clerk, or all three, or someone else entirely, who’s actually doing the day-to-day running of the place — for instance, while Austin has a mayor, it also has a city manager, and the city manager does WAY more than the mayor does. You also have people at the county/parish level — a county executive is I think the most common term, although sometimes it’s the county clerk, who can have entirely different duties depending on the county. Whatever way it works where you live, find out. While you’re at it, find out who’s in charge of your local elections. Sometimes that’s the county clerk (actually I think it’s almost always the country clerk, but sometimes it’s the county auditor or something weird like that); sometimes they’re elected and sometimes they’re appointed. Find out. Get names, put their contact info in your phone. (More on that later.)

Then, find out who represents you on the city/town council and the county legislature, or whatever they’re called where you are. Finding out what district you’re in can sometimes be hellaciously frustrating; when in doubt, an email to the county or city council can often get you an answer if you provide your address. Also bear in mind that different places have different ways of apportioning council members; sometimes they’re all “at large,” sometimes they’re elected according to districts, sometimes it’s a combination of both. Sometimes (not often I don’t think) they’re not elected at all but appointed by someone. Find out who! And don’t leave out things like school boards and zoning boards and community college boards and anything else you happen upon that has a representative you didn’t know existed. They exist, and I guarantee they’ve got power.

Note: find out who represents you state-wide, too. Often calling the governor isn’t that effective (at least for me, calling Cuomo ain’t gonna do much; if you live in Delaware or Montana or Iowa or somewhere relatively less populous, definitely get your governor’s information), but your state reps are usually pretty eager to talk to constituents, even — and this is really important these days — ones who aren’t of the same party. I’m represented by a GOP state senator, for example, but he ended up voting for this bill that just got signed into law. Most states are bicameral (except Nebraska, heyooo), so you likely have a state senator and a state rep/assemblyman/whatever. Make sure to get info for both. (Unless you live in Nebraska, in which case tell Ernie I said hi.)

Next, find out what the court system looks like where you are. Are your state/county/district/etc judges appointed? Elected? What are their terms? Who’s your District Attorney? Who’s in charge of your Public Defender’s office? (I actually haven’t bothered to look up that myself until today!) What courts handle which offenses in your area? Collect that information.

And what do you do with this info? You put it into your phone contacts, or whatever you use to keep your contacts organized, I dunno, maybe you still use your Wizard from 1992. No judgement. However you do it, put all of these contacts somewhere they’re all together — for example, if you have a letter in your directory that isn’t used much. I have a kind of weird method of organizing my contacts, which is that I put their first and last names (and their handles, if I know them online) in the Firstname field, then the Lastname field I use to say how I know them. So all of my New York-based friends are listed as “NYC, Holly Golightly/moonrivergoddess” or whatever. So for me personally, I just put all my political contacts under “Y” as in “Y do I have to keep pestering you to make you do the right thing.” So a county clerk would be listed like so:

Y, County Clerk Horace Vandergelder

In the “Company” field, I usually put their party and when/if they’re up for election next as well as term length, so Horace would be “Dem, 2020/2024.″ And then I might add any links I thought were helpful as well as notes about, say, what staffer I may’ve talked to or if there’s an important bill coming up etc.

And now you’ve got that information, it’s time to fuckin’ use it. Was there a protest that happened in your area that ended in arrests or violence? Call your mayor, register your displeasure. Call your DA, ask if anyone’s being charged. Call your city council member, ask them what legislation they’d support to end police violence. What do you know that you want them to know? Alternatively, was there a protest in your area that was really great and positive? Call these people; ask if they attended. If they did, offer support for them and say that you want them to follow up with actionable steps. If they didn’t, ask why. (BTW, it’s election season — look at the candidates, too! That state senator I mentioned earlier is retiring this year, and a pretty awesome Democrat is in a good position to get his seat; I’ve started volunteering for him in part because he’s got a history of agitating for police reform and has been regularly attending the protests here.) You can email, too; you’re welcome to c&p form emails, but once you have all these people’s contact info at your fingertips you’d be amazed how easy it’ll be to write something from you, that will be far more effective.

It’s also important to keep a record for yourself of who you’ve talked to, when you talked to them, what they said, if you want to follow up etc. I’ve got a little section of my planner for this; it has dates, names, topics, the works. It’s been really helpful to me over the past few weeks making sure I’m exerting pressure to a variety of people in a variety of positions, not just repeatedly calling one office and leaving the same message over and over again.

But if you really want to, as I put it on twitter, tighten the sphincter of local government, nothing beats face-to-face (or, these days, facetime-to-facetime). And here you’ve got a shitton of options. You can see if a particular politician/government office is taking virtual one-on-one meetings, where you can lobby either your politician or (more likely) one of their staffers to support legislation or policies or whatnot. This is, and I cannot stress it enough, HUGELY EFFECTIVE, especially if you are a demo they don’t often see (aka if you’re not a white Boomer). Local politicians are both desperate for and terrified of an engaged constituency; they want you to care but they’re very much aware that anyone showing up to an office (or a zoom meeting) could make their lives very, very difficult.

If one-on-one isn’t your style, there are also committee meetings, which... holy shit, you would not believe the number of committees there are. Committees for art festivals, committees for transportation, committees for public safety, committees for pretty much everything you can think of and a few I’ll bet you can’t. Noodle around on your councils’ and county’s websites, including their facebook page (nine times out of ten there will be more — and more up-to-date — info on the facebook page) to find out what committees meet when. And here is where your specific priorities will be important, because usually you can attend and in some cases even become part of these committees. Do you want to advocate for better public transportation? Find out when the transportation committee meets. Go to that meeting. If they have a Q&A, get some fuckin’ Qs ready and demand some fuckin’ As.

And then there’s the big kahunas of council meetings and state legislature sessions. Most city/town councils have a segment of their weekly/monthly meetings to hear from the public (this is different from a public hearing, FYI, although they too are really important and you should find out if there are any going on where you live and when). Do you have something you want to get in front of the whole council? Get your ass on the list! In Austin I think you had to call or email the council’s office by the day before; in my town you just roll up and get in line when it comes time. Then for state legislatures, often there will be specific bills on which they ask for “citizen input” or however else they describe it. This is less practical because we don’t all live in easy distance of our state capital, but if you do, consider getting involved there. (And right now with the pandemic, your state legislatures may have new rules about citizen participation that actually make it easier for you to get involved, for once.)

Mostly, though, this is about local involvement — find out who’s in control of your city, your county, your precinct and district and all the other ways your home is demarcated. Talk to these people, even if it makes you nervous; their power to make effective change comes with their responsibility to listen, and your power to make them listen comes with your responsibility to speak.

#you want your city to follow in camden and minneapolis's footsteps?#then CALL THEM UP #protesting sometimes works #advocating sometimes works #if you are only doing one of them that's fine #but doing both is more effective #and if what you want is change then you will want to be at your most effective #ergo this post #politics!

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cockbiteproductions · 4 years

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just another person Going Through It with hashtag ryangate lol f

i was going through jeremy’s twitter likes because someone said he liked friend of mine’s tweet about feeling bad for fiona in this situation and i wanted to see it myself. and then i scrolled down and in the older likes was a tweet from ryan qrting the rt account from like october 1st and he had attached a video of him. and the date just struck me as so fucking recent. this was less than a week ago. less than a week ago everything was fine and he was acting like he hadn’t done any of this shit and business was carrying on as normal. and i just viscerally had to close the tab and get up and go outside on a walk.

and i just hate this i hate how deeply ryan was embedded in rt and ah and how many years of memories are tainted now. just a few hours ago i was like oh well maybe ill go watch [an ah video] to make myself feel better but then i remembered i can’t. like even if he wasn’t in it i couldn’t, it all just feels dirty now. i don’t want to in a year from now open up an old ah video and then immediately have to close it because ryan was in it. like going back to old old ah videos and seeing ray in it is a pleasant surprise but seeing ryan would just be. like almost every time i type his name i have to pause and physically shudder. it just fucking sucks. i hate that years of positive memories are now fucked up because of him. god how hard is it to not cheat on your wife with fans.

and i keep going back and forth on being able to laugh about this. like joking to lighten with the fuckery of it all and being glad that he has been exposed for the creepy and cheating fucker he is. like i keep remembering this one tweet i saw that was like “lol rip to everyone who bought a ryan body pillow” and it’s fucking hilarious and i laugh every time i think about it. but then 2 seconds later i remember those people legitimately looked up to him and found him to be a source of comfort. and how fucked up i would be if My Favorites were exposed for something like this and then it just isn’t funny anymore. and it wasn’t like i didn’t like ryan like he was a solid member in the ah cast and i very much liked him in videos and i already feel like shit because of this. so ill see people making jokes about this and laugh momentarily and then think to myself ok stop being fucking rude this isn’t funny stop making jokes about this. even though i was laughing myself a second ago.

but also i feel like just the tiniest smidgen of sympathy for him in having his nudes leaked like. fuck. if that happened to me i would be mortified. and people are making jokes about it and how he looks and it just doesn’t sit right with me like i know he did a terrible thing but god those were still personal and he didn’t deserve nudes of him leaked. like i guess some people could argue it’s retribution for what he did but i’ve never been one for revenge except in the most extreme cases and i know this is bad it’s so bad i understand what he did was terrible i even answered an ask explaining why but this isn’t one of those Most Extreme cases im willing to say that he deserves this.

and also in the comments of that ryan situation video from tessa i kept seeing things that were like “i have no sympathy for you. you knew what you were doing. you knew he had a wife and kids.” and. i understand what kind of point you are trying to make here but truly i don’t think they understand the power parasocial relationships can hold over people. they are your favorite person. you would do practically anything to feel close to them. and especially at that young age. like not to discount the critical thinking skills of a seventeen year old because i mean i was seventeen once and i had a brain but with the idol worship/stan culture and not fully developed brain you cannot possibly think that what she did was entirely of her own. i dont know the word im going for here. i guess of her own volition. that’s not very right but i can’t think of another word right now. like to a small small degree she is culpable for what she did there but not NEARLY anywhere in the ballpark of what ryan did. ryan, in his 30s at the time, married with children, should have absolutely known better and not been recipient &| solicit sex from his fans. they’re just nowhere near the same ballpark of blame in this.

and as for ryan’s tweet like. “i made mistakes.” yeah bro you sure fucking did. mistakes is the weakest word for it i can think of. god again just how fucking hard is it to not cheat on your wife. but the “please stop harassing and threatening my family” like holy shit i am livid that people are doing this. they are the victims of this and people are going after them????? what is wrong with people. everything about this is disgusting.

since i guess i’m just ranting about everything about this right now also in relation to ah’s tweet on monday about cancelling the stream, the quote rts were so fucking wild. like you had people defending ryan and saying that even if the rumors were true, they would continue to stand by him. and then on the other hand people were calling ah cowards for having replies turned off and saying it was classic rt, avoiding the problem. like the news broke literally that previous night. an account is posting actual pornographic material in the replies of tweets about ryan. in what fucking world would they have replies to that tweet on. no way should a social media manager have to deal with that. and it’s been less than a fucking day you can’t say they’re fucking avoiding the problem when you haven’t given them time to actually come up with anything. i’m surprised ryan “resigned” as soon as he did. all of you have 0 fucking brain cells and no sense of nuance and i fucking hate it here.

oh and i keep thinking about how he was the voice for a villain this season of rvb and now i wonder if they’re going to get someone to redo the voice.

also i guess if you continue to post ryan content ill probably unfollow you like i get having a comfort person/character i really do and i get that the vagabond or whatever is almost an entirely separate concept from ryan at this point but i personally cannot handle seeing him on my dash anymore so nothing against you but i don’t want to see it.

#teresa talks #rt wank #tldr: this sucks; if you post ryan content after this for my own sake i will be unfollowing #oh and i guess don't reblog that shouldnt have to be said but some of yall will rb almost any post i make #once again i will be ignoring asks sent about this

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tdchristmas · 3 years

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Matching Week is upon us!

Sign ups are officially closed! Thank you all who signed up! Today I will start matching but let me say something right out of the gate;

I am already getting rude, snarky and down right mean messages before matching has even started. I would like to remind everyone that I’m doing this alone. I cannot respond to you within a certain time frame because I have a job and a personal life. I want to ask that you remain respectful towards me. I understand the frustration of me not getting back at you within a few minutes but let me breath.

How will matching work

I will send you a message with who you’ll be matching to! In that message are the details, the person’s handle, their preferences, etc. Again, matching is 100% random, though I tried to match people who like skeksis with one another, people who prefer gelfling with one another and people who like urRu with one another.

If you have a strong objection against making something for this person let me know WITHIN 24 hours of matching.

I will try to match half the people today and the other half tomorrow. Please stay calm. I have everyone’s names and I’ve already matched you all, I just need to contact you! Don’t panic.

How will posting work

You’ll post your work on tumblr or twitter using the hashtag; ‘TDC Secret Santa 2020′ or ‘TDCSecretSanta2020′, I’ll be tracking those tags and reblogging everything as well.

You can upload things to YouTube. TikTok or AO3 but please make a tumblr/twitter post about it.

Feel free to tag the person you are gifting to and leave them a nice message.

Post your works before December 10th 2020, need an extension on that deadline? Let me know.

How does receiving work

THANK YOUR SANTA. A little thank you goes a long way. Be polite and kind. Retweets and reblogs would be really nice.

What else?

If your Santa fails to gift you something, please come to me. Please don’t play judge and jury yourself. It’s a fun time of year, no need for drama.

Contact me as well if there are other issues that you think your Santa or Giftee should know.

If you have any more questions; please let me know.

MOST OF ALL; HAVE FUN!

#the dark crystal secret santa event 2020 #tdc secret santa 2020 #tdcsecretsanta2020 #The Dark Crystal #the dark crystal age of resistance

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deafeningcreationcollective · 3 years

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Public health campaign & communities

ONHello everyone, today I would like to discuss about public health.

What is public health?

According to CDC Foundation (2020), public health is the science of protecting and improving the health of people and their communities. The goal of public health is to promote healthy lifestyles, study diseases and injury prevention, and to diagnose, prevent and respond to infectious diseases. Overall, public health is concerned with protecting the health of entire populations. These populations can be as small as a local neighborhood, or as big as an entire country or region of the world. Public health professionals try to prevent problems from happening or recurring through implementing educational programs, recommending policies, administering services and conducting research—in contrast to clinical professionals like doctors and nurses, who focus primarily on treating individuals after they become sick or injured. Public health also works to limit health disparities. A large part of public health is promoting healthcare equity, quality and accessibility.

The impact of social media towards public health campaign & communities

Social media has changed people's everyday lives in ways that no one has ever thought possible. Most people find a way to a social media site at least once a day to find out what's going on. What no one can argue with is the fact that platforms like Facebook and Twitter have positive and negative effects on people's wellbeing – positive from trustworthy public health influencers and negative from disinformation and conspiracy theories. Studies have shown that there is a strong correlation between public health and social media, both in the short and long term. The following is a look at social media and public health communication and how it impacts people's lives and their health. Health authorities aren’t the only ones who are using social media platforms to amplify public health messages. Many people take a stand on social media sites against negative and anti-social behaviors that cause health issues for society as a whole. These users won’t back down from their stance which then gains attention from other like-minded users. Posts are shared, seen by other users, spread into more feeds, etc., and amplify a single message into a broadcast that catches the attention of thousands, even millions of people (MPH online 2020).

Example:

How social media handle covid-19 crisis in Malaysia

The Government of Malaysia issued a Movement Control Order starting on 18 March 2020 to break the COVID-19 chain (MyGovernment Portal 2020). The media actively spread the #stayhome hashtag. Non-governmental organisations, as well as prison inmates, began producing personal protective equipment for frontliners. Several organisations hosted fundraising events to provide essentials to hospitals in particular. A provisional hospital has been set up and collaborations with health service providers have been provided, while additional laboratories have been assigned to enhance the capabilities of the Ministry of Health.

The MoH also sought transparency in the handling of the pandemic by providing sufficient and up-to-date information to the public through three major platforms including the Official MoH Portal, and the creation of a special Facebook user account. including the Official Portal of the MoH, creation of a special Facebook user account called the Crisis Preparedness and Response Centre (CRPC), Kementerian Kesihatan Malaysia (KKM), and CRPC KKM Telegram (My Government, 2020). The Ministry has given awareness programmes on basic protective and hygiene measures to reduce transmission of SARS-CoV-2 in clear diagram form to reach the public easily. This involves hand-washing procedures and the use of hand sanitizers and face masks. In addition, numerous infographics related to COVID-19 have frequently been prepared and posted to the website. The MoH also arranged regular press conferences, conference recordings and released related news on COVID-19 to improve public participation and ensure public understanding and access to reliable information.

In the nutshell, communication is a vital aspect of public health. The impact of social media on public health cannot be underestimated, as social media is the modern-day equivalent of telephone. One person says something to one person, the other person passes it to the third, and so on and so forth. Information frequently gets distorted and misinformation becomes a reality. Quelling bad information becomes difficult due to the fact that people prefer to view issues through their own filters and perception and don’t always seek out better information. One example comes in the form of images of people gathering in large groups on beaches during the coronavirus outbreak.

References List

CDC Foundation 2020, ‘What Is Public Health?’, CDC Foundation, viewed 23 November 2020.

<https://www.cdcfoundation.org/what-public-health>

MPH online 2020, ‘What is the impact of social media on public health?’, MPH online, viewed 23 November 2020.

<https://www.mphonline.org/social-media-and-public-health>

MyGovernment Portal, 2020, viewed 23 November 2020.<https://www.malaysia.gov.my/portal/content/30936>

#week7 #mda20009 #public health

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cardamomoespeciado · 4 years

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High school black make-up and black talent criticized ⇒ "I didn't have any intention of racism." Disputed in Korea

Huff post

High school black make-up and black talent criticized ⇒ "I didn't have any intention of racism." Disputed in Korea

Became a debate

In Korea, disguise photos of high school students with black make-up on their faces in graduation photos are causing controversy. High school officials explained that they had no intention of racism in response to the criticism of black talent, but they are beginning to join forces with the talent online.

What kind of picture it was

The photos that were discussed were the Uijeongbu High School. Every year, students are famous for wearing unique costumes and taking graduation photos. Each student is dressed as a "legend", which has been a tradition for over a decade.

On August 3, the high school student association published a graduation photo on Facebook. Attention was drawn to the appearance of celebrities and independent activists who were talked about, such as Korean entertainers and director Pong Jun-ho of the movie “Parasite”.

On the other hand, there were some controversial photographs. This is a picture of students painting their faces black and holding a casket. It is a funeral home in Ghana, dressed as bearers dancing while holding caskets.

The Ghanaian bearer, who dances while holding a casket, became popular on YouTube in South Korea, and became popular as a "meme" (videos and images spread on the net as news items). On the Internet, the name "Coffin Boys' Club" was named after the popular artist "BTS" and became a hot topic.

In the graduation photo, it was this "coffin boys group" that the students were dressed as, but it was pointed out that racism was seen in the makeup with black face painted.

In response to this graduation photo, Sam Okia, an actor from the Republic of Ghana who is active in South Korea, said that he was "sorry and sad."

Mr. Okia pointed out on August 6 that he was very uncomfortable from a black point of view. (Currently deleted)

Subsequently, Mr. Okia uploaded a costume photo of the student and criticized, "I know that I imitate culture, but did I have to paint my face? I hope this behavior will disappear in Korea." He said, "It is most important to respect each other's culture. And if there is an opportunity, we would like to talk together once."

The school’s reaction to the discussion was

In response to Mr. Okia's suggestion that it might be "racism," the school has made its official point of view.

The school explained in an interview with OSEN, "I just parodyed the YouTube video and had no intention of racism."

The school also said that he was confused about the fact that the photo had sparked the racism controversy, and requested that he refrain from the excessive interpretation because there was no malicious intent.

However, the public criticism by Mr. Okia has led to widespread debate, and the school plans to discuss how to handle the photos after internal discussion.

Sam Okia apologizes. Criticism that in the past it was a pose to humble the Orientals

On the other hand, Mr. Okia, who criticized the graduation photo, is forced to apologize.

The background to the apology was that there were many opinions on the Internet that Mr. Oki pointed out that black-painted makeup was "black face."

In addition, Mr. Okia, who was uncomfortable and appealing for "black discrimination", was uncovered in the past in the JTBC "unusual meeting" where he was posing with his eyes narrowed with his fingers It was This pose is a gesture that discriminates against typical Orientals.

"I'm sorry for the controversy caused by the pictures and sentences I gave," Okia said in an apology letter uploaded to Instagram on August 7, "I have no intention of degrading the students, my opinion But I apologize for uploading a disguise photograph showing the students' faces to my Instagram, saying, "I am sorry to upload the photos without the students' permission, beyond the line."

"It does not mean that Korean education is incorrect," he said.

Also, while I used "#teakpop (tea + kpop)", which means KPOP's inside story and gossip, together with the sentence, "I did not know that the teakpop hashtag is a bad story for KPOP" I also added.

This is the answer to the suggestion that the "#teakpop" hashtag may have been used to inform foreigners interested in KPOP of the issue of racism in Korea.

Mr. Okia wrote in the end, "It seems that this time was indiscriminate, even though I have received a lot of love in Korea for a long time."

Net reaction to discussion

On the other hand, there has been a reaction that the accusations against Mr. Okia are excessive.

These people complain that students may unknowingly make a "black face" but must defend it, not defend it. He also pointed out that just because Okia has discriminated against Orientals in the past, it cannot be said that Korean black costumes are not black discrimination.

It is a criticism for understanding and repelling in a structure of "Korean vs. foreigner" without facing the problem of their discrimination.

"#I_Stand_with_Sam_Okeyre" hashtags have appeared on social media such as Twitter and Instagram.

The hashtag says, "Ignorance is no more excuse" and "It's embarrassing to live in a country of racists."

"Blackface" is said to have spread in the South American era when slavery was still legal, when a white comedy actor acted as a conte for a white audience. Black characters were acted as "dirty, ugly, low intelligence, dangerous beings" based on a sense of discrimination.

Due to this history, black disguise by non-Black people has become one of the symbols of racism in the United States and Europe and is being demanded for revision. On the other hand, there are some works that have been continued even after being pointed out, and the opinion that "it is only traditional play" and the opinion that "racist tradition must be changed" clash with the Dutch “Black peat” is a typical example.

Even in some Asian countries where racial discrimination against black people is not treated as a major social issue (Thailand, Japan, etc.), in recent years, there have been cases of criticism at home and abroad that black-painted makeup by entertainers was disguised as "black face". is there.

Many people in Japan will remember the turmoil in the popular comedy program aired on New Year's Eve 2017.

The criticism also points out that there is no consideration for foreign viewers, but there is also a side in Asia, where people used to despise African descent and used stereotypes as a source of laughter.

Even in Korea, the comedy-comot "Sicomons" (colored people), which is often referred to as a performance using "Black Face", was abolished in 1987 before the Seoul Olympics.

In a 2010 interview, Lee Bong-won, who was the protagonist of the comet, said, "Because people are coming from Africa, "Isn't it black-eyed?" I have explained.

Huff Post Korean version translated, edited and revised.

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wolfgabe · 4 years

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rI am not exactly a big follower of Pokemon but in a way it kinda makes me sad seeing Gamefreaklied trending on Twitter especially after seeing all the #ThankYouGameFreak posts trending. Just when I thought people were actually starting to lighten up a little here comes the GameFreakLied hashtag all because apparently the models are not entirely original after all which reminded me of two relatively insightful posts on the matter from a blog I have been following called askagamedev. He is basically a legitimate developer who answers questions about video game development and the like and I highly recommend him if you wanna get some good insight into game development and the industry in general

https://askagamedev.tumblr.com/post/186632316431/what-do-you-think-about-the-pokemon-sword-and

https://askagamedev.tumblr.com/post/186632974686/ok-but-the-models-for-the-older-pokemon-in-the

I think his posts regarding the development process for Pokemon models help provide greater context to Game Freak’s explanations. Reusing older assets from previous games to help save time is hardly anything new really. While yes the base models are probably from the 3DS everything else about the models likely had to be redone from scratch. That includes new textures to better fit the Switches higher resolution, shadow maps, shaders etc. Considering the situation Game Freak is in it makes sense from a development perspective as only having to make new textures and maps is far less of a time sink than having to build new models entirely from scratch. I don’t think Game Freak truly lied in the sense that they just lazily copied over 3DS assets. Askagamedev explained how when transitioning to new hardware its often expected that what worked on the older system may not work on the new one at least not with a good deal of rejiggering. One good example would be how the Switch handles lighting compared to the 3DS. From my understanding the 3DS models mainly used baked lighting since the 3DS was not capable of dynamic lighting in the transition to switch models now require a proper light map in order to look correct on the newer hardware.

And heres the other thing if Gyardos needs new textures then that also means new normal maps, shadow maps, shadow masks shaders etc. and if Gyrados needs all those thing all the other Pokemon need it too. Now when you consider having to do this for 800+ models one can see where it can quickly start to get out of hand. Among devs this is referred to as multiplicative scale which if not careful can quickly grow out of control in terms of scope. Its pretty telling really how pretty much every other developer AGD has spoken with on this was surprised they didn’t scrap the national dex sooner.

I cannot help but feel sorry for Game Freak I know this decision probably was not an easy one and while yes its easy to knock them for not delaying their game and improving it remember Animal Crossing New Horizons wasn’t part of a larger media franchise under pressure to coincide with so many other things including an anime, toyline, films, and of course a new series of Trading Cards on top of the fact Nintendo is no doubt riding on this game heavily as their big title for the 2019 Holiday season. The whole National Dex fiasco is why I often consider Pokemon Sword and Shield a textbook example of what happens when fan entitlement meets reality. As Askagamedev explains this situation was inevitable since Game Freak cannot stop adding new Pokemon their most viable choice really is to stop supporting every single Pokemon forever as sucky as that may seem.

I can’t help but feel sorry for the people who are attacked and shame simply for wanting to enjoy the game. I get that people are upset but constantly lashing out at the developers does little to solve anything. Its quite sad really seeing the Pokemon fanbase turn into as a friend of mine put it the Sonic fanbase but what I think makes it worse is that I am now starting to see aspects of the worst parts of the Star Wars fandom

#pokemon #pokemon sword and shield #game freak #askagamedev #thoughts

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phroyd · 6 years

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A new conspiracy theory called “The Storm” has taken the grimiest parts of the internet by, well, storm. Like Pizzagate, the Storm conspiracy features secret cabals, a child sex-trafficking ring led (in part) by the satanic Democratic Party, and of course, countless logical leaps and paranoid assumptions that fail to hold up under the slightest fact-based scrutiny. However, unlike Pizzagate, the Storm isn’t focused on a single block of shops in D.C., or John Podesta’s emails. It’s much, much bigger than that.

As most terrible things do, this story begins with a post on /pol/, a sub-board of the more-or-less-anonymous, anything-goes website 4chan. Over the last few years, /pol/ — which technically stands for “politically incorrect” — has slowly but surely become a top contender for the ever-coveted title of the most upsetting community online. It’s the sort of place where neo-Nazis and people who believe women shouldn’t have basic human rights used to meet before we started verifying them on Twitter and electing them to public office. And as of late, it’s expanded its ranks to include fringe members of all shapes and sizes.

On October 28, someone calling themselves Q began posting a series of cryptic messages in a /pol/ thread titled “Calm Before the Storm” (assumedly in reference to that creepy Trump quote from early October). Q claimed to be a high-level government insider with Q clearance (hence the name) tasked with posting intel drops — which he, for some reason, called “crumbs” — straight to 4chan in order to covertly inform the public about POTUS’s master plan to stage a countercoup against members of the deep state. It was, in short, absolutely insane. However, thanks to some rather forced coincidences — like Q kind of, sort of guessing that Trump would tweet the word “small” on Small Business Saturday, and this one time the internet decided that Q was “totally on Air Force One” because he posted a blurry picture of some islands while Trump was on his trip to Asia — and a whole heck of a lot of wishful thinking, people believed he was the real deal.

So he kept talking.

According to Q, Trump was never really involved with Russia, and isn’t actually under investigation by Mueller & Co. On the contrary, Q insists thatit’s actually Clinton and Obama who were corrupted by Putin (and are nowactually under investigation by Mueller) because they’re obviously just evil, money-hungry globalists who’ll do anything for the highest bidder. (Oh, yeah, and they’re also apparently into raping and killing children, though the crowd is split over whether this is because they’re satanists or just part of some weird blackmail scheme involving the CIA.) Q also claims that Trump, the genius that he is, figured all of this out way back when he was just a measly presidential candidate, and has been pretending to love Putin and/or be involved with Russia ever since as a way to force a third party to investigate these horrors — without drawing the attention of those evil Dems-who-must-not-be-named, of course — because he’s just that selfless of a leader.

In this fantasy world, all of the far right’s wildest dreams come true: Q promises that Clinton, Obama, Podesta, Abedin, and even McCain are all either arrested and wearing secret police-issued ankle monitors, or justabout to be indicted; that the Steele dossier is a total fabrication personally paid for by Clinton and Obama; and that the Las Vegas massacre was most definitely an inside job connected to the Saudi-Clinton cabal.

They believe all of this will be coming to a head any day now. That “The Storm” — of arrests, political turmoil, and Republican vindication — is coming. Though there have been some, uh, miscalculations as for exactly when.

For example, take this “crumb” left by Q on November 1:

Q Clearance Patriot

My fellow Americans, over the course of the next several days you will undoubtedly realize that we are taking back our great country (the land of the free) from the evil tyrants that wish to do us harm and destroy the last remaining refuge of shining light. On POTUS’ order, we have initiated certain fail-safes that shall safeguard the public from the primary fallout which is slated to occur 11.3 upon the arrest announcement of Mr. Podesta (actionable 11.4). Confirmation (to the public) of what is occurring will then be revealed and will not be openly accepted. Public riots are being organized in serious numbers in an effort to prevent the arrest and capture of more senior public officials. On POTUS’ order, a state of temporary military control will be actioned and special ops carried out. False leaks have been made to retain several within the confines of the United States to prevent extradition and special operator necessity. Rest assured, the safety and well-being of every man, woman, and child of this country is being exhausted in full. However, the atmosphere within the country will unfortunately be divided as so many have fallen for the corrupt and evil narrative that has long been broadcast. We will be initiating the Emergency Broadcast System (EMS) during this time in an effort to provide a direct message (avoiding the fake news) to all citizens. Organizations and/or people that wish to do us harm during this time will be met with swift fury – certain laws have been pre-lifted to provide our great military the necessary authority to handle and conduct these operations (at home and abroad).

POTUS will be well insulated/protected on AF1 and abroad (specific locations classified) while these operations are conducted due to the nature of the entrenchment. It is time to take back our country and make America great again. Let us salute and pray for the brave men and women in uniform who will undertake this assignment to bring forth peace, unity, and return power to the people.

It is our hope that this message reaches enough people to make a meaningful impact. We cannot yet telegraph this message through normal methods for reasons I’m sure everyone here can understand. Follow the questions from the previous thread(s) and remain calm, the primary targets are within DC and remain at the top (on both sides). The spill over in the streets will be quickly shut down. Look for more false flags — stay alert, be vigilant, and above all, please pray.

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. Love is patient, love is kind.”

God bless my fellow Americans.

I’m not sure if you’re aware of this, but November has come and gone without the slightest hint of a Q-style military-backed Armageddon. Yet, this pretty glaring mistake doesn’t seem to have weakened anyone’s faith in Q. If anything, it’s brought more followers into the fold.

Over the last month and a half, the Storm has spread from the depths of 4chan and 8chan to Reddit, YouTube, and Twitter, where it’s found hundreds of thousands of devout followers. Some of the most popular explainer videos boast nearly 200,000 views, and the QAnon hashtag has gotten so popular, it’s honestly difficult to track. (I signed up for one of those freebie “Track Your Hashtag Now!” services and #QAnon hit the 2,000-post limit within four hours.) Some poor soul even took the time to write a 117-page book charting Q’s rise to power, which I’m guessing has been seen at least as many times as this very aggressive Imgur guide, which was at 137,000 views as of Sunday night.

It’s been a little over a year since Edgar Welch, military-style assault rifle in hand, walked into a D.C. pizza parlor, convinced it was part of a child sex-trafficking ring run by Hillary Clinton, and the internet hasn’t gotten better. If anything, it’s worse.

Sure, in the wake of Pizzagate’s brief encounter with reality, a lot of changes were made: Reddit shut down the conspiracy’s designated sub, Twitter suspended some of the movement’s most vocal supporters, and the whole thing was debunked time and time again by the press. But it’s more evident now than ever that this was merely a Band-Aid, not a cure. And now, here we are a year later with the same thing. Sure, it’s a bit bigger and a whole lot less focused, but at its core, it’s the same. What is there even left to try? We know that stopping the conversation doesn’t work. Neither do the facts. How can we even begin to argue with hundreds of thousands of people who choose to believe that a top government agent is speaking to them through 4chan, that Trump has been playing a game of 4-D mind chess this whole time, and that the Las Vegas massacre was an inside job? Is the next Edgar Welch already out there, scrolling through the Calm Before the Storm thread, and if so, is it even possible to stop him?

Phroyd

#conspiracy theories #pizzagate #the storm #4chan #alt-right #qanon

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zeencox-blog · 5 years

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10 Social Media Marketing Trends to Watch Out for in 2019

Never before was a generation so virtually active than the one thriving at present. According to Statistics report, the estimated headcount of social media users around the globe is expected to rise up to 2.77 billion this very year. What does this fact show you? That the future is all about increased interactivity and co-creation.

The world of social media is constantly evolving. It may have started off on a small footing, but it has grown to become a gargantuan entity. So much so, that people now prefer consuming content by scrolling through their newsfeeds and engaging with their friends over social media channels—rather than spending their time watching TV or playing video games, as figured by Stoubos. Just observe the general lifestyle and you will find truth in this assertion.

Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter and other forums have become household names. This shows the power and influence that social media continues to have over the consumer circles. If the businesses and brands of today wish to expand their outreach and bring in more profits, then they need to plan their marketing strategies around this rising sun of social media. In other words, if you, as a digital marketer, wish to divert more traffic to your online domain, then you must dive deep within the pool of social media and catch your audience there.

However, with each passing year, social media incorporates new and exciting trends into its makeup, with the purpose of increasing the user involvement and refining the user experience. If you want to stay ahead of your social media game in 2019, then I suggest that you take note of these expert-predicted changes, and mold your marketing strategies accordingly. Some of them are quite subtle, while others can be termed as downright uproarious. In this post, I will be listing the top social media marketing trends which you need to watch out for in this dawning year. Check them out below.

1. Live Video Content

You cannot exist in two places at one time, can you? No. However, with Facebook Live, you can. Yes, this ground-breaking video-push feature allows you to enjoy a rock concert while attending a business meeting simultaneously. All you have to do is gain access to a “going live” feed and you will be able to experience an ongoing performance in all its rawness, and be a part of ‘the moment’. According to Social Media Today, around 3.5 billion live videos have been broadcasted on Facebook up till now, and the trend is not about to stop in this present year. You will be seeing many brand awareness campaigns meted out through this “going live” feature, primarily due to its authentic and personalized appeal for the audiences. So, do include this marketing technique in your 2019 plan.

2. AI-Driven Service

Artificial Intelligence or AI is the beacon of a technologically-rich future. It has already made quite an impact in the form of facial-recognition, voice-control or some such wonders across different spheres of society. Nevertheless, 2019 promises to show an even brighter picture of this advanced tech, especially in the domain of social media. Yes, this year, you can be sure to find an enhanced customer personalization, creative ad optimization and an efficient AI chatbot utilization meted out by businesses and brands on social media channels. This integration of AI into Facebook, Instagram, and alike platforms is expected to refine the way marketers meet their consumers’ expectations. Some of the most famous experts have predicted that by 2020, more than 80% of customer service queries and other commercial interactions will be sustained via powerful AI bots.

3. Mega-Influencers

As per Jordan French, 2019 will be the year in which we will get to see an exponential rise in the presence of mega-influencers. You might have already heard of the term ‘micro-influencers’ in your digital marketing circles. These are the individuals with 5000+ user following on a social media channel, who manage to obtain a relative authority over a particular niche. In other words, their say molds the say of the general audience as regards a certain topic. Now, however, you will find people, who’ve been deemed too important for social media marketing, making headway as major or mega-influencers, like the Obama-Netflix collab in 2018. Digital marketers can get a hold of these high-profile celebrities and get a word out about their brand through them.

4. User-Generated Content

The buying process has changed significantly since the days of brick and mortar. Nowadays, people do not simply pick up a product and purchase it right away. No, they carry out elaborate research before reaching a buying decision. This research primarily includes looking up secret discounts, comparing product prices across brands, and reading up testimonials that other customers have left after trial-and-error. These user-generated reviews and referrals really contribute to the creation of a brand’s image in the eyes of the general audience. You will experience advancement in this testimonial trend in 2019, especially over the social media channels. From a digital marketing perspective, I’d suggest you to use this UG content to promote your brand, via sharing contests and hashtag shout-outs.

5. LinkedIn Business Profiles

Having 590 million active users as of last year, LinkedIn is considered as an ideal digital platform for entrepreneurs. Why? Because it offers easy access to serious professional circles across various domains. However, it is not as popular as those colorful, trendy and entertainment-filled channels like Instagram, Snapchat and Facebook etc. 2019 seeks to change that. Yes, if you have a proper LinkedIn business profile this year, you can be sure to see a new dimension of traffic headed your way. According to Stoubos, these profiles will emulate some of the top features of Facebook landing pages, like prominent payment getaways and links to mini sites etc. and improve them too. So, if you don’t have a LinkedIn business page, it’s the perfect time to make one over your amazing Charter Spectrum internet connection.

6. Smtv and Vertical Video

According to comScore, an average internet user spends about 69% of his/her total media time on his/her smartphone. In addition, this parentage is only expected to elevate in the coming years with the introduction of social media television. Digital marketers need to cater to this smtv trend, which brings ‘vertical video’ to the horizon of 2019. You might have already come across IGTV (Instagram TV)—user-friendly, mobile-first and wildly popular among the current generations. Keeping this in mind, I would recommend you to allocate some budget for making promotional video content flexible enough to fit different formats across multiple platforms.

7. Ephemeral/In the Moment Content

Although the ‘stories’ culture became popular with Snapchat, it has since then left the primary channel to spread across other social media forums, like Instagram and more recently, Facebook. Now, users, especially late Millennial and Generation Z-ers, are more interested in engaging with short-lived, in-the-moment and mobile-captured content that is relatable and easily-shareable. According to Entrepreneur, around 200 million Instagrammers use Stories each month. Digital marketers should definitely take this ‘stories’ trend into account in 2019, and create personalized promotional narratives which reel the audience in.

8. Real-Time Response

Every business entrepreneur knows that customer satisfaction is the key to monetary success. If your clientele is not pleased with you, you cannot possibly hope to retain a place in the competitive market of the future. One of the ways you can reach the core of customer concerns is by establishing a link with them on the social media platform of your choice. 2019 is expected to bring ‘real value’ to producer-consumer relationship via a more ready inculcation of real-time response (RTR) in social media. In short, you will see brand managers giving instantaneous replies to people’s queries or grievances, left in the form of comments or private messages on Facebook and Twitter etc. This trend is hoped to aid in better brand perception, increase customer service, and promote the personalization.

9. Transparency of Social Data

Some of the most sinister data breaches came to the surface only last year. These security compromises have significantly shaken the trust of people in social media. According to Edelman’s Barometer, more than 60% of its respondents were found to lose faith in social media enterprises in 2018. In addition, as per Ponemon’s research, Facebook got the hardest-hit out of all. However, 2019 comes with a data transparency promise unlike you’ve ever seen before. In other words, this year you will be able to experience quality engagement on social media platforms which is based on increased consumer involvement and co-creation. People will finally see how their private and confidential data is being handled by these social enterprises. This trend will do away with much of mistrust that built up last year.

10. Music-Curation

If anything is more viral these days on social media platforms, it is those Tik-Tok videos. The well-received app hosts a whole library of curated music, which the users enact in their mobile-shot videos. This content is then shared like wildfire on Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat, promoting the integration of social media and the world of music. You, as a digital marketer, can use this trend to your advantage, especially if you mean to target the younger demographic. Use this music app-social media collaboration to raise brand awareness.

In conclusion, if you want to supersede and outlast the tough commercial competition in the market, then do pay heed to the aforementioned social media marketing trends that are expected to surface in 2019.

#socialmedia digitalmedia online digitalmarketing trends 2019 digitaltrends

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mrsmilfzilla · 5 years

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２０１８年30日12月

４：３９午後

i need to rant about a community for twitch: streamerssquad

so last few days i been off streaming due to health problems and life lol. but i been looking around spending time in streams and other communities, and nothing compares to StreamerSquad. I don’t mean that in a negative way per say, but what intelligence they show me its a twat of a community. Last few months a few Instagram followers came out to me about their experience in their discord. They were being banned for a misunderstanding on a Christmas picture challenge and posted under the same chatroom not knowing it was supposed to be somewhere else due to loss of communication. Innocent people misunderstood due to the communities leaders being terrible at explaining what the community wanted. Not only that but ban people who stood up to the ones they said were spamming in the wrong chatroom. How insane is that?! but thats not all. Their tweets are so terrible i get a charlie horse of cringe, from racism, judgement, and standing up for sex offenders. I am shook this even has half the popularity like these people.

update: they banned me on all social medias but like anyone growing up on the internet i used my 8th grade acc xD

i don’t mean to talk only shit about this community but they are so bad at pretending to be the right side of the wrong its youtube expose worthy. I will do everything to put my actual opinions over being triggered you banned my friend called your admin a Nazi for autistic-ly screeching about miscommunication on a Christmas challenge in the wrong chat.

Now lets move past their miscommunication skills, as humans we all strive to become better people and they try to keep this facade of being pure beings. BUT what most people don’t do is go through your tweets over the months, and through how you speak whiten few weeks and your actions towards others you cannot handle criticism. the person or people who run their twitter sure have a different view on what is repeated to us as consumers. you cannot say you accept everyone’s opinions and then brag about your block list. Its so hilarious you see yourself as a leader, but what i know about boosting on twitch is if you create a community for small streamers to collide only people who really get that boost everyone is looking for is the creators/staff. From what i can see, throughout however long you tried to create this community. I haven’t learned one thing on being a better person then doing what you tweet me to not do, and do the exact opposite. What i can see from your representation; 10k followers on twitter, 6k on insta, and 1k on discord it seems you’re worth something, but your posts interaction says completely opposite. on average a recent instagram post will only get 117 likes including over 8 hashtags, as their tweets get barely over 25 people interacting even though its their biggest marketing by follower rank. it’s funny how their discord is exactly 1k at the end of this year(2018.) because they have over 10k on twitter and have their discord pinned to the top. Seems like your community is a mess, thats why i don’t join communities like this at all and just go out my way to look at the bottom the the twitch list for friends.

None the less i am going to post their most hilarious tweets below

Please don’t forget to reblog this to let others know how these leaders are doing nothing but speaking through their asshole not their heart.

#streamers squad #twitch communities #false advertising #flogger #flogging #twitch streamer #twitter #reblog

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jagadeeshkrishnan · 3 years

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[26/08, 10:10 PM] 98 41 121780: Awesome Without Allah: Why These Muslims Are Leaving Islam And Are Proud Of It

How a North American group is building public support for those who seek to leave, or have left, the Muslim faith.

For the past few days, the hashtag #AwesomeWithoutAllah is trending on Twitter. Ex-Muslims across the world are celebrating leaving Islam and sharing with ‘twitterati’ their happiness on being free from the shackles of Sharia and acquiring newfound freedoms which they could only imagine before.

Ex-Muslims of North America (EXMNA), a non-profit organisation, is spearheading this campaign online as well as offline. It has put up billboards at various public places. “Nearly one in four Muslims raised in the United States have left Islam,” reads one. “Godless. Fearless. Ex-Muslim,” it adds.

One of the goals of EXMNA is to reduce discrimination faced by those who leave Islam. It promotes secular values and is working towards making religious dissent acceptable. The initiative was founded in 2012 by Muhammad Syed, a human rights activist.

Islam is a one-way street as far as its affiliation is concerned. It allows, no, insists, on converting people of other faiths. But no one can leave it for the punishment decreed by Sharia (Islamic law), for apostasy is death.

And killing someone for leaving Islam is not a mere disturbing theory. It is regularly enforced across the Muslim world and that includes even the Western nations where Sharia is not the law. Where the state is not Islamic, zealous Muslims take it upon themselves to punish those who ‘stray’ from the path of Allah. Last week, two Muslim men were arrested by the authorities in the UK for plotting to kill a female relative who had renounced Islam.

"This is why @ExmuslimsOrg works to normalize dissent in Muslim communities. This is why we run campaigns like #AwesomeWithoutAllah," tweeted Sarah Haider, executive director at EXMNA.

In such a scary environment where apostates have to live in constant fear of getting killed, what the organisation is doing is quite courageous.On its call to trend #AwesomeWithoutAllah on Twitter, many ex-Muslims have shared their stories on why they are happy to leave Islam. And it should come as no surprise that most of them are women, given their secondary status in the religion.

Nik, a co-founder of Ex-Muslim Support Network of Australia and who goes by the Twitter handle @HereticalGray, explains why she is awesome without Allah. “Because no child should be forced into a hijab/niqab. Because my worth is not determined by a cloth. Because by removing my hijab, it does not mean I am an immoral person that deserves to be raped. Because I believe everyone has a choice,” she tweeted.

“Now we are free to enjoy life as we want. Our minds are free to think what we want. Our hearts are free to love who we want. We are no longer under the commands of some narcissistic demanding being,” tweeted Yasmine Mohammed. Her profile reads: think outside the kaaba (which is depicted in form of an emoji).

‘Unapologetic Madow Lover’ (@gabariskufilan), an honour killing survivor, says she left Islam for feminism. “Because as a radical Black feminist, I can NOT be simultaneously Muslim and feminist. I choose women’s liberation. I love to travel solo, wear whatever I want without victim blaming and support LGBTQIA rights," she tweeted.

"My mother wanted me dead for removing hijab & leaving her house. She endlessly prayed for God to kill me from the moment I left & honestly believes I'm going to die soon bc "allah listens to her prayers"," tweeted Jinan Murtad, a Muslim-turned atheist, sharing her deeply personal story. “Its been 2 yrs now, I'm still alive & well but mostly #AwesomeWithoutAllah," she added.

The best part about leaving Islam, according to Meriem who recorded a video for the EXMNA campaign, is that she doesn't simply pray or fast anymore. “I am breaking free from a toxic, abusive and patriarchal environment,” she said, adding that, “No one can force me to wear something, or do something, or feel something, or be something that I'm not.”

Zara Kay, a Tanzania-Australian, tweeted a picture with her dog. “I am #AwesomeWithoutAllah Because puppies! No more feeling like I shouldn't touch dogs because they're najis," she gave her reason. She is getting a lot of abuse and threats on Twitter for coming out as an Ex-Muslim. But she is not deterred.

“I woke up to 30 messages in my inbox, people wishing death to me, calling me a bitch, talking about hellfire, or wanting to kill me. This is exactly why we need to keep fighting,” she tweeted. She also posted screenshots of some of the abuses coming her way.

In all the backlash that the 'Awesome without Allah' campaign is getting, EXMNA executive director Sarah Haider said she was 'amused by the many "omg it's the end of timess!!!" comments by believers in response to our billboards and the trending of #AwesomeWithoutAllah. I have good news! It's not THE end of times! It's the end of A time — the end of a time of religious privilege, abuse, persecution."

"If #exMuslims speaking up about their persecution, legalized murder in 12+ countries, their jailing & torture, myriad other horrors they face due to Islam makes YOU uncomfortable, it's because you can't bear to look at yourself in the mirror, have some shame!," EXMNA founder and president Muhammad Syed tweeted.

It's not just women who are speaking out and coming out of the closet. Muslim men are also doing so in droves.

Sohail Ahmed, an Ahmadi Muslim by birth, says that 'the best part of leaving Islam was in no longer having to defend verses of the Quran where the inequality of men & women is baked in.

Ali Malik, who is an atheist now, tweeted that is awesome without Allah 'because how independent, human, humble and compassionate it made me.'

"The best part of leaving Islam is to be free from mental shackles." said Abdullah Sameer in a video he shot for the EXMNA initiative.

Alireza Azami posted a photo with the hashtag showing his middle finger.

Supporting these voices of dissent, Ali A. Rizvi, a Pakistani-Canadian and author of The Atheist Muslim, said that Muslims are not immune to reason, secularism, and enlightenment. “We normalised lapsed Catholics, secular Jews, and ex-Mormons. Now it’s time to normalize ex-Muslims,” he tweeted.

Islamic theology has no love lost for the non-believers. It decrees unrelenting hostility towards kafirs. The believers must shun all kinds of relationships with them and if they are to be engaged then that should be done strictly out of necessity. They cannot be accorded any position of respect.

Even saying words of respect to them is not allowed. Not even in their death. To ask dua for them is haram. Their places of worship are places of the devil. Their festivals are haram. They are physically detestable and untrustworthy.

It is no wonder then that when a believer leaves Islam and becomes a non-believer, it is considered a great affront to the religion. That's why the punishment for apostasy is nothing short of death.

If some ex-Muslims are daring to come out in the open and speak against the problematic aspects of their former religion, their dissent not only must be fiercely protected but also promoted.

They are doing a great service to humanity and even Islam itself. Criticism and dissent is the first step toward reform. And Islam needed reformation yesterday

Jagadeesh krishnan

Psychologist and International Author

[26/08, 10:11 PM] 98 41 121780: அல்லாஹ் இல்லாமல் அற்புதம்: இந்த முஸ்லிம்கள் ஏன் இஸ்லாத்தை விட்டு வெளிய��றி பெருமைப்படுகிறார்கள்

ஒரு முஸ்லீம் நம்பிக்கையை விட்டு வெளியேற விரும்புவோருக்கு அல்லது வெளியேறியவர்களுக்கு ஒரு வட அமெரிக்க குழு எவ்வாறு பொது ஆதரவை உருவாக்குகிறது.

கடந்த சில நாட்களாக, #AwesomeWithoutAllah என்ற ஹேஷ்டேக் ட்விட்டரில் ட்ரெண்டாகி வருகிறது. உலகெங்கிலும் உள்ள முன்னாள் முஸ்லீம்கள் இஸ்லாத்தை விட்டு வெளியேறி, ஷரியாவின் பிடியில் இருந்து விடுபட்டு, தங்களுக்கு முன்பு கற்பனை செய்து பார்க்க முடிந்த புதிய சுதந்திரங்களைப் பெற்ற மகிழ்ச்சியை 'டுவிட்டர்' உடன் பகிர்ந்து கொண்டாடி வருகின்றனர்.

வட அமெரிக்காவின் முன்னாள் முஸ்லிம்கள் (EXMNA), ஒரு இலாப நோக்கற்ற அமைப்பு, இந்த பிரச்சாரத்தை ஆன்லைனிலும் ஆஃப்லைனிலும் முன்னின்று நடத்துகிறது. இது பல்வேறு பொது இடங்களில் விளம்பர பலகைகளை வைத்துள்ளது. "அமெரிக்காவில் வளர்க்கப்பட்ட நான்கில் ஒரு முஸ்லிம்கள் இஸ்லாத்தை விட்டு வெளியேறினர்" என்று ஒருவர் வாசிக்கிறார். "கடவுள் இல்லாதவர். அச்சமற்ற. முன்னாள் முஸ்லீம், ”அது மேலும் கூறுகிறது.

EXMNA இலக்குகளில் ஒன்று இஸ்லாத்தை விட்டு வெளியேறுபவர்கள் எதிர்கொள்ளும் பாகுபாட்டைக் குறைப்பதாகும். இது மதச்சார்பற்ற மதிப்புகளை ஊக்குவிக்கிறது மற்றும் மத எதிர்ப்பை ஏற்றுக்கொள்ளும் வகையில் செயல்படுகிறது. இந்த முயற்சி 2012 இல் மனித உரிமை ஆர்வலர் முஹம்மது சையத் என்பவரால் நிறுவப்பட்டது.

இஸ்லாம் அதன் இணைப்பைப் பொறுத்தவரை ஒரு வழிப் பாதை. மற்ற மதத்தினரை மாற்றுவதற்கு இது அனுமதிக்கிறது, இல்லை, வலியுறுத்துகிறது. ஆனால் ஷரியா (இஸ்லாமிய சட்டம்) விதித்த தண்டனைக்காக யாரும் அதை விட்டுவிட முடியாது, ஏனெனில் துறவறம் மரணம்.

இஸ்லாத்தை விட்டு வெளியேறியதற்காக ஒருவரைக் கொல்வது வெறும் குழப்பமான கோட்பாடு அல்ல. இது முஸ்லீம் உலகம் முழுவதும் தவறாமல் அமல்படுத்தப்படுகிறது மற்றும் ஷரியா சட்டம் இல்லாத மேற்கத்திய நாடுகளையும் உள்ளடக்கியது. அரசு இஸ்லாமியமாக இல்லாத இடத்தில், வைராக்கியமுள்ள முஸ்லீம்கள் அல்லாஹ்வின் பாதையில் இருந்து ‘வழிதவறி’ வருபவர்களைத் தண்டிக்கிறார்கள். கடந்த வாரம், இஸ்லாத்தை துறந்த பெண் உறவினர் ஒருவரை கொல்ல சதி செய்ததாக இரண்டு முஸ்லீம் ஆண்கள் இங்கிலாந்தில் அதிகாரிகளால் கைது செய்யப்பட்டனர்.

"இதனால்தான் @ExmuslimsOrg முஸ்லீம் சமூகங்களில் கருத்து வேறுபாட்டை இயல்பாக்குகிறது. இதனால்தான் நாங்கள் #AwesomeWithoutAllah போன்ற பிரச்சாரங்களை நடத்துகிறோம்" என்று EXMNA இன் நிர்வாக இயக்குனர் சாரா ஹைதர் ட்வீட் செய்தார்.

துரோகிகள் கொலை செய்யப்படுவார்கள் என்ற பயத்தில் தொடர்ந்து வாழ வேண்டிய ஒரு பயங்கரமான சூழலில், அந்த அமைப்பு என்ன செய்கிறது என்பது மிகவும் தைரியமானது. ட்விட்டரில் #AwesomeWithoutAllah ட்ரெண்டில் அதன் அழைப்பில், பல முன்னாள் முஸ்லீம்கள் தங்கள் கதைகளை ஏன் மகிழ்ச்சியாக பகிர்ந்து கொண்டனர் இஸ்லாத்தை விட்டு. அவர்களில் பெரும்பாலானவர்கள் பெண்கள், மதத்தில் இரண்டாம் நிலை அந்தஸ்து வழங்கப்பட்டதில் ஆச்சரியமில்லை.

நிக், ஆஸ்திரேலியாவின் முன்னாள் முஸ்லீம் ஆதரவு நெட்வொர்க்கின் இணை நிறுவனர் மற்றும் @HereticalGray என்ற ட்விட்டர் கைப்பிடியின் மூலம், அவர் ஏன் அல்லாஹ் இல்லாமல் அற்புதமாக இருக்கிறார் என்பதை விளக்குகிறார். ஏனென்றால், எந்த குழந்தையும் ஹிஜாப்/நிகாப்பில் கட்டாயப்படுத்தப்படக்கூடாது. ஏனென்றால் என் மதிப்பு ஒரு துணியால் தீர்மானிக்கப்படவில்லை. ஏனென்றால், எனது ஹிஜாபை நீக்குவதன் மூலம், நான் பாலியல் பலாத்காரம் செய்யப்பட வேண்டிய ஒழுக்கமற்ற நபர் என்று அர்த்தமல்ல. ஏனென்றால் அனைவருக்கும் ஒரு தேர்வு இருக்கிறது என்று நான் நம்புகிறேன், ”என்று அவர் ட்வீட் செய்தார்.

"இப்போது நாம் விரும்பியபடி வாழ்க்கையை அனுபவிக்க சுதந்திரமாக இருக்கிறோம். நமக்கு என்ன வேண்டும் என்று சிந்திக்க நம் மனம் சுதந்திரமாக உள்ளது. நாம் விரும்பியவரை நேசிக்க எங்கள் இதயங்கள் சுதந்திரமாக உள்ளன. நாங்கள் இனி சில நாசீசிஸ்டிக் கோட்பாடுகளின் கட்டளைகளின் கீழ் இல்லை, ”என்று யாஸ்மின் முகமது ட்வீட் செய்தார். அவளுடைய சுயவிவரம் பின்வருமாறு கூறுகிறது: காபாவுக்கு வெளியே சிந்தியுங்கள் (இது ஒரு ஈமோஜி வடிவத்தில் சித்தரிக்கப்பட்டுள்ளது).

‘Unapologetic Madow Lover’ (@gabariskufilan), ஒரு க honorரவக் கொலையில் உயிர் பிழைத்தவர், அவர் பெண்ணுரிமைக்காக இஸ்லாத்தை விட்டு வெளியேறினார். "ஏனெனில் ஒரு தீவிர கருப்பு பெண்ணியவாதியாக, நான் ஒரே சமயத்தில் முஸ்லீம் மற்றும் பெண்ணியவாதியாக இருக்க முடியாது. நான் பெண் விடுதலையைத் தேர்வு செய்கிறேன். நான் தனியாக பயணம் செய்ய விரும்புகிறேன், பாதிக்கப்பட்டவரை குற்றம் சாட்டாமல் நான் விரும்பும் எதையும் அணிய விரும்புகிறேன் மற்றும் LGBTQIA உரிமைகளை ஆதரிக்கிறேன், ”என்று அவர் ட்வீட் செய்துள்ளார்.

"ஹிஜாபை அகற்றிவிட்டு வீட்டை விட்டு வெளியேறியதற்காக என் அம்மா என்னை இறக்க விரும்பினார். நான் போகும் தருணத்திலிருந்து கடவுளைக் கொல்லும்படி அவள் முடிவில்லாமல் பிரார்த்தனை செய்தாள், நான் விரைவில் இறந்துவிடுவேன் என்று நம்புகிறேன்" அல்லா அவளுடைய பிரார்த்தனைகளைக் கேட்கிறார் "என்று ஜினன் முர்டாட் ட்வீட் செய்துள்ளார். ஒரு முஸ்லீம் நாத்திகர், தனது ஆழ்ந்த தனிப்பட்ட கதையைப் பகிர்ந்து கொண்டார். "இப்போது 2 வருடங்கள் ஆகிறது, நான் இன்னும் உயிருடன் இருக்கிறேன், ஆனால் பெரும்பாலும் #AwesomeWithoutAllah," என்று அவர் மேலும் கூறினார்.

EXMNA பிரச்சாரத்திற்காக ஒரு வீடியோவைப் பதிவுசெய்த மெரீமின் கூற்றுப்படி, இஸ்லாத்தை விட்டு வெளியேறுவது பற்றிய சிறந்த பகுதி, அவள் இனி பிரார்த்தனை செய்யவோ அல்லது விரதம் இருக்கவோ இல்லை. "நான் ஒரு நச்சு, துஷ்பிரயோகம் மற்றும் ஆணாதிக்க சூழலில் இருந்து விடுபடுகிறேன்," என்று அவர் கூறினார், "யாராவது என்னை ஏதாவது அணியவோ, ஏதாவது செய்யவோ, அல்லது உணரவோ அல்லது நான் இல்லாத ஒன்றாக இருக்கவோ கட்டாயப்படுத்த முடியாது."

தான்சானியா-ஆஸ்திரேலியரான ஜாரா கே தனது நாயுடன் ஒரு படத்தை ட்வீட் செய்தார். "நான் #அற்புதமானவன் அல்லா ஏனெனில் நாய்க்குட்டிகள்! நாய்கள் நாஜிகளாக இருப்பதால் நான் அவர்களைத் தொடக் கூடாது என உணர்கிறேன், "என்று அவர் தனது காரணத்தைக் கூறினார். அவர் முன்னாள் முஸ்லீமாக வெளிவந்ததற்காக ட்விட்டரில் நிறைய துஷ்பிரயோகங்களையும் அச்சுறுத்தல்களையும் பெறுகிறார். ஆனால் அவள் தடுக்கப்படவில்லை.

"நான் என் இன்பாக்ஸில் 30 செய்திகளை எழுப்பினேன், மக்கள் எனக்கு மரணத்தை விரும்புகிறார்கள், என்னை ஒரு பிச் என்று அழைக்கிறார்கள், நரக நெருப்பைப் பற்றி பேசுகிறார்கள், அல்லது என்னைக் கொல்ல விரும்புகிறார்கள். இதனால்தான் நாங்கள் தொடர்ந்து போராட வேண்டும், ”என்று அவர் ட்வீட் செய்தார். அவள் வரும் சில முறைகேடுகளின் ஸ்கிரீன் ஷாட்களையும் அவர் வெளியிட்டார்.

'அல்லாஹ் இல்லாமல் அருமை' பிரச்சாரம் பெறுகின்ற அனைத்து பின்னடைவுகளிலும், எக்ஸ்எம்என்ஏ நிர்வாக இயக்குனர் சாரா ஹைதர் கூறுகையில், "ஓம்ஜி இது நேரத்தின் முடிவு !!!" எங்கள் விளம்பர பலகைகளுக்கு பதிலளிக்கும் விதமாக விசுவாசிகளின் கருத்துகள் மற்றும் #AwesomeWithoutAllah இன் போக்கு. என்னிடம் நல்ல செய்தி உள்ளது! இது காலத்தின் முடிவு அல்ல! இது ஒரு காலத்தின் முடிவு - மத சலுகை, துஷ்பிரயோகம், துன்புறுத்தல் ஆகியவற்றின் நேரத்தின் முடிவு. "

இஸ்லாமியர்கள் தங்களின் துன்புறுத்தல்கள், 12+ நாடுகளில் சட்டபூர்வமான கொலை, அவர்களின் சிறை & சித்திரவதைகள், இஸ்லாமியர்களால் அவர்கள் எதிர்கொள்ளும் எண்ணற்ற பிற கொடுமைகள் பற்றி பேசினால் உங்களுக்கு அசableகரியம் ஏற்படுகிறது என்றால், கண்ணாடியில் உங்களைப் பார்க்க நீங்கள் பொறுத்துக் கொள்ள முடியாது. சில அவமானங்கள்!

வெளியே ��ேசுவது மற்றும் வெளியே வருவது பெண்கள் மட்டுமல்ல. முஸ்லீம் ஆண்களும் கூட்டமாக செய்கிறார்கள்.

சோஹைல் அகமது, பிறப்பால் அஹ்மதி முஸ்லீம், 'இஸ்லாத்தை விட்டு வெளியேறுவதன் மிகச் சிறந்த பகுதி குர்ஆனின் வசனங்களை பாதுகாக்க வேண்டிய அவசியமில்லை, அங்கு ஆண்கள் மற்றும் பெண்களின் சமத்துவமின்மை சுட்டப்படுகிறது.

இப்போது நாத்திகராக இருக்கும் அலி மாலிக், அல்லாஹ் இல்லாமல் அற்புதமானவர் 'ஏனெனில் அது என்னை எவ்வளவு சுதந்திரமாகவும், மனிதனாகவும், மனத்தாழ்மையாகவும், கருணையுடனும் ஆக்கியது.'

"இஸ்லாத்தை விட்டு வெளியேறுவதில் சிறந்த பகுதி மனக் கட்டுப்பாட்டிலிருந்து விடுபடுவதாகும்." எக்ஸ்எம்என்ஏ முன்முயற்சிக்காக அவர் படம்பிடித்த வீடியோவில் அப்துல்லா சமீர் கூறினார்.

அலிரேசா ஆசாமி தனது நடுத்தர விரலைக் காட்டும் ஹேஷ்டேக்குடன் ஒரு புகைப்படத்தை வெளியிட்டார்.

இந்த எதிர்ப்புக் குரல்களை ஆதரித்து, பாகிஸ்தானிய-கனடியரும், நாத்திக முஸ்லீம் ஆசிரியருமான அலி ஏ.ரிஸ்வி, முஸ்லிம்கள் பகுத்தறிவு, மதச்சார்பின்மை மற்றும் அறிவொளி ஆகியவற்றிலிருந்து விடுபடவில்லை என்று கூறினார். "நாங்கள் கத்தோலிக்கர்கள், மதச்சார்பற்ற யூதர்கள் மற்றும் முன்னாள் மோர்மான்ஸை இயல்பாக்கினோம். முன்னாள் முஸ்லீம்களை இயல்பாக்க வேண்டிய நேரம் வந்துவிட்டது, ”என்று அவர் ட்வீட் செய்துள்ளார்.

இஸ்லாமிய இறையியல் நம்பிக்கை இல்லாதவர்கள் மீது அன்பை இழக்கவில்லை. இது காபிர்கள் மீது தீராத பகைமையை வெளிப்படுத்துகிறது. விசுவாசிகள் அவர்களுடனான அனைத்து வகையான உறவுகளையும் தவிர்க்க வேண்டும், அவர்கள் நிச்சயதார்த்தத்தில் ஈடுபட வேண்டும் என்றால் அது கண்டிப்பாக தேவையின்றி செய்யப்பட வேண்டும். அவர்களுக்கு எந்த மரியாதையும் அளிக்க முடியாது.

அவர்களுக்கு மரியாதை வார்த்தைகள் சொல்வது கூட அனுமதிக்கப்படவில்லை. அவர்களின் மரணத்தில் கூட இல்லை. அவர்களுக்காக துஆ கேட்பது ஹராம். அவர்களின் வழிபாட்டுத் தலங்கள் பிசாசின் இடங்கள். அவர்களின் பண்டிகைகள் ஹராம். அவர்கள் உடல் ரீதியாக வெறுக்கத்தக்கவர்கள் மற்றும் நம்பமுடியாதவர்கள்.

ஒரு விசுவாசி இஸ்லாத்தை விட்டு வெளியேறி, நம்பிக்கையற்றவராக மாறும்போது, அது மார்க்கத்திற்கு பெரும் அவமானமாக கருதப்படுவதில் ஆச்சரியமில்லை. அதனால்தான் துறவுக்கான தண்டனை மரணத்திற்கு குறைவாக இல்லை.

சில முன்னாள் முஸ்லீம்கள் வெளிப்படையாக வெளியே வந்து தங்கள் முன்னாள் மதத்தின் பிரச்சனையான அம்சங்களுக்கு எதிராக பேசத் துணிந்தால், அவர்களின் கருத்து வேறுபாடு கடுமையாகப் பாதுகாக்கப்படுவது மட்டுமல்லாமல் ஊக்குவிக்கப்பட வேண்டும்.

அவர்கள் மனிதகுலத்திற்கும் இஸ்லாத்திற்கும் கூட ஒரு சிறந்த சேவையைச் செய்கிறார்கள். விமர்சனமும் கருத்து வேறுபாடும் சீர்திருத்தத்திற்கான முதல் படியாகும். இஸ்லாத்திற்கு நேற்று சீர்திருத்தம் தேவைப்பட்டது

மூலம்

ஜெகதீஷ் கிருஷ்ணன்

உளவியலாளர் மற்றும் சர்வதேச எழுத்தாளர்

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justasocialmediastudent · 6 years

Text

Is social media really bae?

Over the past few weeks, I have been talking about the identity crisis of Tumble, how social media relates to activism and political engagement. We all know that social media started off with the moto “to connect people worldwide”. Its reachability has been a great help in many ways to from communities and societies. It has linked millions and millions of individuals online and even brought some connections from online to offline. However, troll and social media conflicts exists. There is still this question: Is social media really bae?

Bae has been up to something all the time

Danah Boyd mentioned in the book called It’s Complicated:

Although new forms of drama find a home through social media, teens’ behaviour have not significantly changed. Social media have not radically altered the dynamics of bullying, but it has made these dynamics more visible to more people. - Danah Boyd

Our bae did nothing wrong by existing and became the medium of trolling and social media conflicts. Trolling and other social media conflicts (or the Internet plague) are everywhere online. It spreads like a plague, disease and social media happens to be the medium. You wouldn’t blame the ship that carries disease-carry rats for the plague outbreak, right? I agree to what Danah Boyd said, especially how Internet makes the conflicts more obvious. Memories stay forever on the Internet, so does mistakes. No matter what you do, you just can’t undo whatever has been done online. This leads to a huge question: Why do people troll or involve in conflicts?

It’s all about ME!

Trollers love reactions from those who they trolled and bullies love to target those who are weak and powerless. The trollers and bullies have a sense of achievement or accomplishment after taking it all out on total strangers. This kind of behaviour is what people called narcissism.

Internet trolls are narcissists, psychopaths and sadists. - Dr. Golbeck

It’s all about themselves, the big word ME! They might have no reflections on their actions or might know that their actions are harmful towards others but hey, they can do it. No one would know. No one would care. It’s the INTERNET! The Internet then become the medium for them to spread this cyber plague. A case for this is the Tyler Clementi case. Tyler was ridiculed by his friends on Twitter after Tyler’s roommate recorded him kissing a boy in their room on his laptop web cam. This happened after he had come out. In the end, he jumped off the Washington Bridge. There is another case where a teenager called Hessay has committed suicide after receiving mean anonymous feedback from Sayat.Me.

I don’t know you, you don’t know me, so……

The concept of anonymity has been the idea of social media in connecting people and creating a safe space for everyone to voice their opinions. It was aimed to create a public sphere for everyone to take part in something without concerning their identity. There is this ideal “equality” for everyone online, but look at how it turns out. Trolling, bullying, harassments, and more ill-thoughts or ideology are being spread online. The idea of freedom of speech has been the shield for those who abuse it. The social media affords people to create fake identities online and start doing whatever they want to, including attacking people online.

Not long ago, when episode 14 of Darling in the Franxx aired, it causes the fandom to rage as the plot twist is unexpectedly different from the fans’ expectation. It leads to some fans string to use thrown-away twitter accounts to send death threats, curses, and harassments to the producer’s tweets.

I don’t belong here

The sense of belonging also plays an important role in social media users behavior online. Most people went online to seek for connection with people, they want to build their own social circle that they feel they belong to. It’s all good when the people connects with one another in a community that are sharing the same hobbies or interests. However, it also forms societies where ideologies and information are being spread from communities to communities. For instance, a person may be inside of a community that loves pets, this person may also be inside a community that pro-guns. Imagine this kind of relationship where each person are in different communities as they have different interest and beliefs, the transmission of information will happen when they start sharing information from each of their own communities. It spreads like a ripple effect. Here are some examples of unhealthy or rather dangerous ideologies that exists online:

Pro-suicide : It’s not that long ago since the Blue Whale challenge came out, “preparing” or encourages teenagers to suicide in order to “become a whale”. It consists of 50 tasks over the span of 50 days which include mutilation, carving blue whale and watch horror or gory videos.There are posts on Tumblr that encourages suicide. Some are even forcing people to suicide.

Thinpo : I believe a lot of people has discovered the dark side of Tumblr that Tumblr is now trying to get rid of. Thinpo came from the word “thinspiration”. There are a huge community online that supports thinpo which also relates to eating disorder such as anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa. Majority of the people who supports thinpo would be also in the pro-ana community, where they believe that being thin to the bone and boney figures are attractive. However, they just cannot see that their health is declining and their bodies are slowing dying because of the unhealthy practices. For them, it hurts more to look in the mirror and to being called “fat”. Thinpo can be often found on blogs and Tumblr where they would write blogs about their tips on achieving the boney figure through excessive or extreme dieting or practices.

The two ideologies mentioned above are spread using hashtags, such as #Iamawhale, #proana and #thinpo. The social media affords exposure and findability through the hashtags function but the fact that it also affords unhealthy ideologies to be spreading is also an issue.

Save them, save us

Now most of the social media have revised their community guidelines to prevent these kind of communities online. Does social media governance work? Well, I think it can restrict the access and minimize the spreading of cyber plague but not totally killing it. People will still find ways to get around any restriction or rules. I have seen some blogs that have taken down, came back with a new blog but with secret messages hidden in it, still convey the messages that broke the community guidelines. Bots can only block certain words but not hidden meanings. I think that social media classes should be given to parents and students at young age, so they would understand how Internet works in order to face and handle social media conflicts and trolling the best way.

Social media is love, social media is life

In my opinion, the Actor Network theory can be applied here as social media is a tool used to connect with people, and people are the ones that created social media. Human and this piece of technology are influencing each other. This can also be related to grassroots ‘bystander’ activism, where activism happened because human made social media a medium to spread the awareness or issues, but social media also affords human to be able to connect and form communities and societies. An example of this will be the #MarchForOurLives campaign.

References

Chin, B n.d., ‘ Week 7 Digital Citizenship 3: Trolling & social media conflict ’, MDA20009 Digital Communites , Learning materials on Blackboard, Swinburne University Sarawak, 16 April 2018, viewed 16 April 2018.

#mda20009 #topic of the week #cyber bullying #cyber harassment #social media #thinpo #pro ana #pro suicide #activism #love #march for our lives #sense of belonging #anonymous #bae #me #darling in the franxx #darifura

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ultratesterthings · 4 years

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‘Humanity is doomed’: People keep throwing cheese on babies’ faces for social media likes - The Washington Post

It all started with a dad in Michigan. Now people all over the country are hurling cheese slices at their babies and sharing the result on social media. (Michael Tsang via Storyful.)

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What happens if you throw a slice of cheese at a baby’s face?

Some laugh and shake it off. Others grimace, stumble around blindly, recoil like they’ve been hit by a truck, flail their arms, or stare reproachfully at the cheese-thrower. Some eat the cheese. Generally, all look confused.

We know this thanks to a week-old viral phenomenon called the “cheese challenge,” in which people toss shiny slices of processed cheese at unsuspecting infants and share their reactions on social media. Depending on whom you ask, it’s either extremely hilarious or proof that the Internet should never have been invented.

The highlight of my day was watching this video of someone throwing a slice of cheese on their baby.... what’s wrong with me and why am I still laughing? pic.twitter.com/ZHUB421SG2

— madi (@Madison_Combs1)

According to Eater, the craze started with Charles Amara, a dad living in Michigan. Last Tuesday, he posted a short video on his Facebook page, captioning it “Attack of the cheese Episode 2” and adding, “He wasn’t happy after this one.” In it, a baby seated in a high chair and clutching a sippy cup looks increasingly nervous as a luminous yellow slice of cheese gets closer and closer, then lands squarely on his face. Remarkably, the slice — which has not been identified but resembles Kraft Singles, a processed American cheese — proves to be extremely adhesive. As the baby blinks, his facial expressions revealing what seems to be a mixture of surprise and dismay, the cheese remains firmly plastered to his face, covering his nose and right eyelid.

Two days later, as the footage was shared hundreds of thousands of times on Facebook, a man using the handle @unclehxlmes posted the same clip on Twitter and added the caption “just cheesed my little brother.” Eight million views later, he felt compelled to clarify that the small boy in the video was not, in fact, his younger brother. He had deleted the tweet and apologized to the child’s mother for invading the family’s privacy, he wrote on Friday, explaining that the response “genuinely got way out of hand” and that he had never imagined that throwing cheese on babies would turn into a trend.

Introducing Logan, the Cheese Ninja -#cheesechallenge pic.twitter.com/xxXnHO1ou5

— Michael Tsang (@mtsang8)

But by then, it was too late. Under the hashtags #cheesechallenge or #cheesedchallenge, parents, grandparents, siblings, aunts, uncles and babysitters were eagerly tossing cheese at babies and documenting the results for posterity (and for likes on Twitter and Instagram). Others tested it out with toddlers, full-grown adults, disgruntled cats and even a Jonas brother. Amara, meanwhile, has taken down the video that started it all and did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Tuesday night.

In certain corners of the Internet, news of the cheese-throwing fad was received as a sign that we are heading toward societal collapse. Meanwhile, unlikely alliances were forged as people normally on opposite sides of the partisan political and cultural divide were forced to acknowledge that they agreed on something: Hurling dairy products at a baby for social media clout is really, really stupid.

“I’m not sure anything better sums up the current moment we’re living in than the fact that adults are throwing cheese onto toddlers’ faces for attention online,” tweeted the Daily Caller reporter Peter J. Hasson.

The liberal writer Molly Jong-Fast concurred: “I can’t help but feel humanity is doomed.”

#cheesechallenge thanks for participating kendall pic.twitter.com/RdtOfQWsnJ

— kailey reau (@kailey_reau)

As Mashable points out, the cheese challenge bears a certain resemblance to “dog cheese,” a short-lived meme from last November that involved — you guessed it — lobbing slices of cheese at dogs. But while the dogs definitely liked it, it’s not so clear how babies feel about having things thrown on them for the entertainment of Internet strangers.

Scroll through the comments on any popular #cheesechallenge Instagram post, and you’ll find an all-out war: While some commenters feel that tossing cheese at a child’s face and posting the video online without their consent humiliates them and is akin to bullying, others insist that it’s ultimately harmless and the kids are having fun. One mother, responding to criticism on Instagram, fired back, “Maybe you could try smiling or heaven forbid laughing one day! You might like it!”

Somewhat surprisingly, so-called influencers have been among the most vocal critics of the trend. Social media personalities like Casey Neistat and Kalen Allen have politely asked parents not to throw cheese at their pre-verbal children, while model and cookbook author Chrissy Teigen wrote, “I love a prank as much as anybody but I cannot get myself to throw cheese at my adorable, unsuspecting baby who has all the hope and trust in the world in me.”

Others were much less restrained. “DO NOT THROW CHEESE AT A BABY,” tweeted the British actress India de Beaufort. “What is happening?!?! How is this a ‘challenge.’ It’s not funny. Your baby trusts you and has no ability to ask you not to mistreat them so just DON’T. I can’t even believe this has to be said?!?!?!”

this is my family lol 🤪🧀 @WaleTrent #Cheesed pic.twitter.com/klPlBuXffM

— bailey gottschalk (@bgottschalkk)

Apparently, it does need to be said. But there is good news for babies who are tired of appearing in viral videos with cheese on their faces: Internet fads are mercifully brief, and the cheese challenge will likely go the way of the mannequin challenge in no time.

More from Morning Mix:

This content was originally published here.

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dissolutionandcreation · 7 years

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Any guidelines/rules or tips you could give me for making an OC with DID? I don't want to be stereotypical or offensive, and I want to be as accurate as possible!

I (and we) totally appreciate that! Doing thorough research, especially by reading the many accounts of people who publicly share their stories, will be of great help. Some YouTubers (Autumn Asphodel, Multiplicity and Me) and some blogs (like The We in Me) could be great places to start. You’re also welcome to check out the #DIDchat tag on twitter to read experiences of real people living with DID. It’s a weekly chat, but the hashtag can be viewed at any time!

Also, if you want a good feeling of what it’s like to live with DID, I’d recommend watching the show Sense8. It’s not actually about DID, but it’s basically exactly what living with DID is like lol.

But, let’s see, if I were to help you write this disorder into “a” character, here’s what I’d suggest:

Understand why DID forms: Simply (and subjectively) put, DID forms when a child under the age of nine experiences repeated trauma that they cannot handle. They detach from it (dissociation) and when this dissociation isn’t enough, their brain literally creates a family--more than one person--to handle the trauma. Think of your character not as an individual, but a family or team that was built to handle circumstances an individual couldn’t handle alone. DID is an adaptive and creative disorder.

When writing a character with DID, you’re not just writing one character. People with DID aren’t a person with alters--many of us consider ourselves and our alters to all be equal. One may appear most often, but that doesn’t mean we’re more of a person.

Create complex backstories, worldviews, and motivations for each alter. Alters are full identities, meaning each one sees and experiences the world in a unique way. Essentially, create each alter into a whole individual person (with their innate “role” having to do with the trauma their whole system faced). Just like how a character’s experiences inform their personality, an alter’s experiences do the same. Keep in mind that alters can have different physical abilities and experiences too (i.e. different strengths, one having a mobility condition, one being blind, etc).

Understand when each other will take over. Since they are multiple people, but all share one body, it’s common to fight for time out in the world. For self-expression, to be ourselves, and so on. Think about which characters are comfortable not revealing themselves, and if some feel the need to. Think about when they will take turns being up front (both accidentally and intentionally).

Don’t focus solely on alters. Because people with DID are trauma survivors, we basically all have PTSD (most often Complex PTSD). Look into those symptoms and figure out what each individual alter will have as their most prominent symptoms, which ones distress them the most, and which can they handle well. Also, describe the complexities of dissociation, amnesia, and other symptoms with DID.

Understand the alter’s role, but don’t stereotype them. (And gosh, please no murderous alters! Or if you have a violent one, have them be sympathetic and violent because they needed to in order to survive, since that’s the real story behind violent alters.) I’ll give an example of a stereotype versus reality below.

Don’t make DID too obvious to the people who know the character (presuming they’re not “out”). Although sometimes it’s obvious that a person has more than one identity, it’s often a very subtle disorder. It more often appears as mood swings (like alters who tend to feel different moods more often--though remember that each alter can feel every emotion, they don’t represent single emotions unless they are fragments, but that’s more rare and probably too hard to get into in writing). As well as appearing as memory loss.

Capture the issues people with DID face. Acceptance, stereotypes, stigma, being presumed to be dangerous, not being believed by mental health professionals, not having physical disorders taken seriously, and so on.

Pay attention to the internal relationship dynamics. Communication is key for those of us with DID, we have to get to know each other, understand each other, and support each other if we want to live harmoniously. A good exercise might be to imagine (after writing all the alters’ basic character traits) them all stuck in a room together. How would they treat each other? What relationships would they have?

Don’t forget the embarrassment of suddenly having someone comment on a private thought of yours. Alters, since we all share the same head, will sometimes chime in at really awkward moments. Even though we’re not all present at the same time, we are sometimes present at inopportune times.

And here are some personal examples corresponding to these above points that might help get your creative juices flowing! (All what I’m willing to share, so some might be vague, and heads up for abuse mentions.)

For three of us, here’s how we all sort of formed. I think I, Arien, was around first. I’m generally compassionate, trusting, and try to heal others (even those that hurt me). When I was abused too painfully, more than I could handle, Bael came into being. He’s more sexual (basically adapted to get off on being abused) and he’s masochistic. When we were then asked to do morally questionable things by our abuser, Sion stepped in. He was colder and more detached, and didn’t have the same issues with morality as the rest of us. See how some of us formed to step into a situation the others couldn’t handle, or didn’t have the skills to? (Sense8 btw, gives a really good subjective portrayal of what this feels like.)

Don’t really have anything to add to this point. Though, you might want to write one alter that’s hesitant to realize they are a we. I was initially scared I’d lose my sense of self when I was admitting I wasn’t alone in this body.

Some examples of our differences: Bael is very good at drawing anatomy and understanding lines and angles when drawing. I’m a softer, more curvy, artist. I’m better at coloring. Sion likes overcast, rain, and wintery weather, whereas I get depressed and moody in the winter. Bael doesn’t like Indian food (besides chicken curry) but I LOVE Indian food. I have a mild mobility disability, Bael is very rarely disabled at all (he’s pretty strong, except for when our body as a whole gets sick). Ava is afraid of water, the rest of us love it.

An example of intentionally taking over: Bael wants to talk during therapy, so on our walk there, he turns on his playlist and the music helps him come forward and feel grounded. An example of accidentally taking over: During past abuse, I’d be abused and it would be intensely painful, then I’d just black out (not pass out, but no longer remember anything). Bael was taking over during that time. Sometimes we accidentally switch without amnesia. Like in therapy I was once talking about Bael and then Bael was like “wait...I think I’m here now” to our therapist.

For context, I remember about 10% or less of my life. And I miss casual things too. Like my apartment is cleaned or messier and I don’t remember doing it. I’m half way to a destination and then realize that I’m halfway there (like not remembering how I got to the half way point). Recently, a friend texted to confirm we were meeting in an hour, and I had no recollection of us ever setting up a time to meet at all (despite it being in texts when I looked back and such). PTSD and other symptoms are things you can look up, I think they’d be easier to write. Also, sometimes we jump when we look in the mirror. Like we don’t recognize ourself (depending on who’s fronting) and it startles us.

Okay! Stereotype versus reality. Sion (tentatively) said I can use him. He’s what’s sometimes called a “persecutor alter,” alters who tend to take after their abuser and sometimes will hurt the system or others. If you were to write a persecutor as a typically abusive, one-dimensional person, it would be stereotyping them. But, if I were to write someone, based on Sion, I’d describe how much he struggled to accept himself because of the immoral things he was forced to do and chose to do to save himself and us. How he felt that was all he was good at. I’d describe how he thought Bael needed to be hurt when he was stressed, because that’s what Bael described wanting. I’d talk about Sion’s complex desire to protect us, yet also being afraid he’d hurt us. There’s a lot more, but that’s all he’s comfortable with me sharing.

In my own experience, I had one friend who had met a few of us alters and she kept a journal about it. But she thought maybe it was something spiritual. More commonly, I would just have confused friends (before my dx, when I didn’t have an explanation) be angry that I didn’t remember promising or telling something, accuse me of manipulating them. Whereas I literally just wasn’t the identity that had promised something or given a different opinion earlier. A friend also described me changing opinions mid-dialogue. Like “ah, I’ll totally commit to this lease, I feel great about it!” and then “there’s no way I’m going to commit. It’s a bad choice for all these reasons.” It wasn’t me doubting myself (it was multiple selves), but that’s how it looked like to others.

There is SO much stigma around DID (one reason I’m happy to type all this out! To help dismantle that). Look into movies that bug those of us living with it, slurs and microaggressions (”yeah, it was like she had multiple personalities, she was so emotional!!”). How we’re treated as monsters rather than survivors. The fear we face whenever we see a new doctor or go to the hospital and have to decide if we want to say we have DID or not. How we’re left out of conversations about mental illness, abuse, and childhood trauma.

This point’s more on your character development! But, I can say, us alters argue, support each other, comment on each other’s actions, I narrate what we’re doing sometimes (lol). Also, sometimes we’ll get tired of the others being in pain. It takes a lot of energy to always, in the back of your mind, know someone is hurting. (Like our Little will sometimes cry for a day or two and we can all hear it.)

Oh gosh, point ten happens so much! Like I’ll be fantasizing about something then someone will comment on the thought and I’ll be like “auhhlsiudhfliushd” *blushes* xD. It’s even worse if one us fantasizes about another alter LOL. This can also happen with other private thoughts (not so funny ones) like suicide ideation, shame, watching one alter act on an addiction, etc. Also, us alters do feel some of each other’s emotions (like we’re affected by it), although it doesn’t feel like our emotions.

I really hope this helps you and many others write and understand DID! More questions are totally fine, and this post is okay to reblog!

(Also hey if you want to pitch into my service dog fundraiser that would be awesome?? :D)

#dissociative identity disorder #mental illness #creative writing #character writing #actuallydissociative #writing #fiction #oc #original characters #Anonymous

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bountyofbeads · 5 years

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https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/what-you-missed-while-not-watching-day-7-of-the-impeachment-inquiry-drama/2019/09/30/24a38cf0-e38c-11e9-a6e8-8759c5c7f608_story.html

Here’s a guide to standout moments from another newsy day in the impeachment drama engulfing the Trump presidency. This does not include Mike Pompeo flying to Italy with Nazi Sébastian Gorka flying aboard the taxpayer trip:🤢🤬🤬🤬

What you missed while not watching Day 7 of the impeachment inquiry drama

By Michael Scherr | Published September 30 at 8:15 PM | Washington Post | Posted September 30, 2019 |

Here’s a guide to standout moments from another newsy day in the drama engulfing the Trump presidency:

6:08 a.m. Seven days into the impeachment morass, former government officials have begun to speak up without hewing to partisan talking points. On Sunday, the new face was President Trump’s former homeland security adviser Thomas Bossert, who went on ABC News to say he was “deeply disturbed” by Trump’s call to Ukraine. He also said it was “far from proven” that Trump withheld foreign aid as part of an effort to dig up dirt on former vice president Joe Biden. Today the new voice is former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine John Herbst, a veteran of the George W. Bush administration, who tries to drop some historical context on NPR listeners. “This is highly abnormal,” Herbst says of Trump’s July call with Ukraine.

6:12 a.m. Herbst also contradicts the Trump argument that Biden did something wrong by pushing to fire Viktor Shokin, a Ukrainian prosecutor who once investigated a company that employed Biden's son. Herbst says Shokin was an untrustworthy “corrupt prosecutor,” who the United States, the European Union, the International Monetary Fund and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development all wanted out of the job. Herbst also notes that the Shokin affidavit saying Biden’s concerns over his son’s company caused his firing was written to aid attorneys for Dmytro Firtash, an oligarch U.S. officials are seeking to extradite on a warrant of bribery. “The folks who are pushing this conspiracy theory are citing this as proof,” Herbst says of the affidavit. “And in fact it undermines their position.”

8:32 a.m. Kate Bedingfield, Biden’s deputy campaign manager, is asked a question that will not go away anytime soon. Does the former vice president have any regrets about not keeping son Hunter Biden from working for the Ukrainian firm while Biden oversaw Ukrainian policy at the White House? “No, because he didn’t do anything wrong,” Bedingfield says of the younger Biden on CNN’s “New Day.”

8:46 a.m. Former senator Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.), who quit after undermining his reelection hopes by opposing Trump, calls on other Republican senators “to risk your careers in favor of your principles.” In a Washington Post opinion piece, he describes removing Trump from office through impeachment as a tough call, but argues that opposing Trump’s reelection is a moral necessity. “Trust me when I say that you can go elsewhere for a job,” he writes. “But you cannot go elsewhere for a soul.”

9:44 a.m. Attorneys for the whistleblower who launched this process share a letter sent Saturday to the Director of National Intelligence. “The purpose of this letter is to formally notify you of serious concerns we have regarding our client’s personal safety,” it reads. The concerns were created by Trump. “I want to know . . . who’s the person that gave the whistleblower the information, because that’s close to a spy,” the president said Thursday at an event in New York. “You know what we used to do in the old days when we were smart? Right? With spies and treason, right? We used to handle them a little differently than we do now.”

10:36 a.m. The president’s 2016 opponent Hillary Clinton takes a stab at Trump’s Twitter crown with a seven-word tweet devoid of context. “The president is a corrupt human tornado,” it reads. She premiered the meteorological epithet last week with CBS News.

11:07 a.m. Letters have become as hip as tweets. Republican Sens. Charles E. Grassley (Iowa) and Ron Johnson (Wis.), release a new missive, dated Friday. The senators ask Attorney General William P. Barr to reveal any Justice Department investigation into alleged efforts by Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign or her allies to get Ukrainians to help dig up dirt on Trump and his former campaign manager, Paul Manafort. “Ukrainian efforts, abetted by a U.S. political party, to interfere in the 2016 election should not be ignored,” the senators write. Ukrainian officials have denied any effort to help Clinton in the 2016 election.

11:18 a.m. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) goes on CNBC to confirm what his office has previously made clear. If the House impeaches Trump, the Senate must hold a trial under Senate rule and precedent. “I would have no choice but to take it up,” McConnell says. This will come as a disappointment to Diamond and Silk, who call themselves “Trump’s Most Loyal Supporters” on Twitter. A few hours ago, they called on the GOP to “enforce the rules to end the games,” by which they meant McConnell should ignore the rules and not take up impeachment.

11:21 a.m. Ukraine’s former top law enforcement official Yuri Lutsenko, who took over after Shokin was fired, recounts yet again the efforts by Trump to pressure him to investigate the Biden family. In an interview in Kiev with the Los Angeles Times, Lutsenko says he told Trump lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani there was no evidence that the former vice president or his son had broken Ukrainian laws. “I told him I could not start an investigation just for the interests of an American official,” he said. This restates comments he made to The Post last week. Earlier this year, Lutsenko told a conservative columnist for The Hill newspaper that he would be happy to share what he knew with Barr.

12:36 p.m. Trump’s Twitter tally today stands at 13 so far. He has denounced the “witch hunt,” called the whistleblower “Fake Whistleblower” and declared “the Bidens were corrupt!” He also raised the possibility that Rep. Adam B. Schiff (D-Calif.) should be arrested “for treason” for using words Trump never spoke to dramatize the president’s call to Ukraine. Trump tweets #fakewhistleblower in an effort to get the hashtag trending, but at the moment the top trending tags include #civilwarsignup and #civilwar2, both references to another tweet the president sent Sunday quoting a pastor warning of a “civil warlike fracture” if Trump is ever removed from office. Most of these tweets are not from Team Trump.

12:49 p.m. Another data point from the political twitter wars: Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) has about 25,700 retweets on his reaction to Trump’s civil war tweet, which reads, “@realDonaldTrump I have never imagined such a quote to be repeated by a President. This is beyond repugnant.” Trump’s original tweet, by contrast, only has 17,200 retweets.

2:39 p.m. In an Oval Office pool spray, Trump makes television of his morning tweets. “We’re trying to find out about a whistleblower,” Trump says. This may run counter to the whistleblower protections that are codified in law and rule. “In recognition of the importance of whistleblowing and whistleblowers to the effectiveness and efficiency of government, whistleblowing is protected by Federal laws, policies and regulations,” reads a Web page maintained by the Director of National Intelligence. “These protections ensure that lawful whistleblowers are protected from reprisal as a result of their Protected Disclosure.”

3:05 p.m. A national poll by Quinnipiac University finds that the share of American voters who support impeaching Trump has grown from 37 percent to 47 percent over one week. Among closely watched independents, the share opposing impeachment fell from 58 percent to 50 percent over the same period, while the share supporting impeachment rose from 34 percent to 42 percent. In a separate question, voters support the impeachment inquiry of Trump by a margin of 52 percent to 45 percent. That number closely tracks with Trump’s overall approval in the poll, with 53 percent disapproving of the way he is handling his job and 41 percent approving.

3:30 p.m. Schiff signs a fundraising text for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. “Rest assured I won’t back down from holding the president accountable, and neither will my Democratic colleagues,” he writes. “That’s why I’m reaching out.” The ask is $5.

3:55 p.m. The House Intelligence, Oversight and Foreign Affairs committees release a subpoena demanding documents from Giuliani and three of his business associates. The documents concern 23 separate items, including communications about potential meetings with Barr or any of his associates.

4 p.m. CNN releases new national polling that closely tracks the Quinnipiac numbers. Young people are particularly drawn to the effort, with 65 percent younger than 35 saying they want to impeach and remove Trump from office, compared with 43 percent who felt that way in May.

4:07 p.m. The afternoon news dump begins. The Wall Street Journal reports that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo took part in the July phone call between Trump and the new president of Ukraine. The source is a senior State Department official.

4:19 p.m. The New York Times reports that Trump pushed Australia’s prime minister to help gather information that he hopes will discredit the investigation by former special counsel Robert S. Mueller III. The sources are two American officials with knowledge of the call. Australian officials tipped off the FBI in 2016 to alleged Russian overtures to a Trump campaign foreign policy adviser. The Russians were said to have boasted about having dirt on Clinton.

5:11 p.m. The Post reports that Barr has held private meetings overseas with foreign intelligence officials seeking their help in a Justice Department inquiry that Trump hopes will discredit U.S. intelligence analysis of Russian interference in the 2016 election. This includes overtures to British, Australian and Italian officials. The sources are people familiar with the matter.

What you missed while not watching Day 3 of President Trump’s impeachment drama

Acting director of national intelligence Joseph Maguire testifies before the House Intelligence Committee on Capitol Hill on Thursday. (Melina Mara/The Washington Post)

By Michael Scherr | Published September 26, 2019 | Washington Post| Posted September 30, 2019 |

This is what you missed if you weren’t watching Day 3 of the impeachment inquiry into President Trump:

6:07 a.m. A weary nation awakens to find its combatants emerging from cable news makeup chairs, ready for battle. It’s been two days since Democrats announced they would pursue the impeachment of President Trump, and one day since the White House released call records showing Trump had urged Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to help find dirt on a political rival. Today, the acting director of national intelligence will testify, and there are already reports that the whistleblower complaint at the center of the Ukraine scandal has been declassified and will be released shortly. Here we go.

6:33 a.m. Impeachment is legally prescribed by the Constitution, but political in practice and therefore made for TV. The judges and jurors all hold elected office. They answer to the American voters, most of whom have better things to do right now, like make breakfast and get their kids out the door. Morning Joe talks about Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.) saying Wednesday that the whistleblower allegations against Trump are “very troubling.” Fox and Friends plays clips of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) opposing President Bill Clinton’s impeachment in 1998. “It doesn’t matter about facts. It doesn’t matter about truth,” says Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) in an appearance on the show. He means that Democrats have no scruples.

8:03 a.m. Starting the day at his Fifth Avenue penthouse, Trump fires off a fusillade of tweets, landing faster than they can be read. He wants people to know what his pundit friends, family and Republican operatives think. All seem to agree it is perfectly fine for Trump to ask Ukraine’s leader to help the Justice Department and his personal attorney investigate a rival candidate for president, as the phone call summary revealed Wednesday. First daughter Ivanka Trump is proud of her president. Vice President Pence thinks Trump “has been completely vindicated.” Former daytime talk show host Geraldo Rivera suggests Trump’s reelection is now more likely. “STICK TOGETHER, PLAY THEIR GAME, AND FIGHT HARD REPUBLICANS. OUR COUNTRY IS AT STAKE!” reads one Trump tweet, which is later deleted.

8:41 a.m. The House Intelligence Committee drops the whistleblower repo rt. The complaint confirms, with detailed notation, the outlines of charges Democrats have leveled against Trump. The central allegation is that the president is “using the power of his office to solicit interference from a foreign country in the 2020 U.S. election.” In a new disclosure, the document describes a political effort by unnamed senior White House officials to “lock down” all records of the phone call between Trump and Ukraine’s president by moving paper records to a “codeword-level” computer system. It also describes separate alleged efforts by the Trump administration to get Ukraine to “play ball” in the spring. It provides a detailed analysis of the internal Ukrainian politics Trump has allegedly been trying to manipulate for months.

9:13 a.m. As everyone struggles to make sense of the document, Rep. Adam B. Schiff (D-Calif.) opens a hearing of the House Intelligence Committee. The witness is Joseph Maguire, the acting director of national intelligence, who previously decided not to give the whistleblower report to Congress, as the law seemingly requires, after consulting the White House and Justice Department. Schiff wears his serious face. He says the Trump call to Ukraine “read like a classic organized crime shakedown.” Then, instead of reading from the document, he decides to dramatize it with made up words from an imaginary mob boss. “I’m going to say this only seven times, so you better listen good,” Schiff says. “I want you to make up dirt on my political opponent understand.” This is, Schiff says, “the most consequential form of tragedy.”

9:22 a.m. The committee’s ranking Republican, Rep. Devin Nunes (Calif.), congratulates Democrats on the “rollout of their latest information warfare operation against the president.” He talks about the “Democrat’s mania to overturn the 2016 elections,” and uses the words “hoax,” “fake story,” “hysteria,” “frenzy,” “gambit,” “charade,” and “grotesque spectacle.” He also falsely asserts that former vice president Joe Biden “bragged that he extorted the Ukrainians into firing a prosecutor who happened to be investigating Biden’s own son.” Biden did push to fire a prosecutor who had previously investigated a firm on where his son, Hunter Biden, worked. But Biden and other Western officials said the prosecutor was not sufficiently pursuing corruption cases. The investigation into the firm was dormant at the time and Hunter Biden had not been accused of wrongdoing, according to former Ukrainian and U.S. officials.

9:29 a.m. Maguire describes his work history, taking note that he has 11 times sworn an oath to the Constitution. “No one can take an individual’s integrity away,” he says. “It can only be given away.” Then he explains two reasons that he did not give the whistleblower complaint to Congress, after consulting with the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel and the White House. First, he said he was advised by the Justice Department that it could contain privileged information about the internal workings of the executive branch. Second, there was a question of whether the complaint fell inside his purview because it concerned behavior by the president who is “outside the intelligence community.” At the same time, he is pleased that the information is now public. He says the whistleblower has behaved lawfully and “acted in good faith.”

9:44 a.m. For the next several hours, Maguire takes questions from members of Congress, most of which consist of efforts by Republicans or Democrats to score points for their teams.

11:18 a.m. Pelosi takes the stage at the Capitol building to announce that she is sad, prayerful and patriotic. She tries to put a headline on the now-released whistleblower report. “This is a coverup,” she says, in reference to the claim that White House officials tried to move information to a highly classified computer system. She also says the acting director of national intelligence “broke the law” by not immediately turning over the whistleblower complaint. Then she quotes Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Paine.

11:45 a.m. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) takes the same stage before the same flags with another patriotic message. “America is too great for a vision so small of just impeachment and investigation,” he says. He attacks Pelosi for opening an inquiry before the records of the call to the Ukrainian president were released. “Let’s be very clear — the president did not ask to investigate Joe Biden,” McCarthy says. This is not clear at all. In the call summary released by the White House, Trump tells Ukraine’s president, “There’s a lot of talk about Biden’s son, that Biden stopped the prosecution and a lot of people want to find out about that so whatever you can do with the Attorney General would be great.” When a reporter points this out, McCarthy stands his ground. “What you’re reading and what you’re trying to — my belief is you are misstating,” McCarthy says.

11:50 a.m. The Associated Press moves a story saying Vermont Gov. Phil Scott just declared himself the first Republican chief executive in the nation to support impeachment proceedings against Trump.

12:47 p.m. The Los Angeles Times publishes a story quoting from a private speech Trump gave this morning at a New York hotel. In an audio recording taken from the room, Trump calls reporters “scum” and attacks the unidentified whistleblower, suggesting that he has committed a crime historically punished by death. “I want to know who’s the person, who’s the person who gave the whistleblower the information? Because that’s close to a spy,” Trump says in the recording. “You know what we used to do in the old days when we were smart? Right? The spies and treason, we used to handle it a little differently than we do now.”

12:48 p.m. The cable networks start showing a hallway news conference by Schiff, just as Air Force One, carrying the president back from New York, makes its final approach at Joint Base Andrews. Trump immediately tweets, “Adam B. Schiff has no credibility. Another fantasy to hurt the Republican Party!” On television, Schiff says his team will keep working on Trump’s impeachment over the next two weeks, when the rest of Congress heads home for a recess.

12:52 p.m. A reporter at the Capitol asks Schiff about Trump’s four-minute-old, in-flight insult tweet. “I’m always flattered when I’m attacked by someone of the president’s character,” Schiff says, before ducking into an office.

1 p.m. With Schiff off television, Trump steps off the plane to address reporters. “Adam B. Schiff doesn’t talk about Joe Biden and his son walking away with millions of dollars from Ukraine, and then millions of dollars from China,” Trump says. This is an inaccurate statement. Hunter Biden did collect significant income from a Ukrainian company, but there is no evidence Joe Biden made money from either country, and Hunter Biden’s lawyer denies that he made any money from a China investment deal he advised. Trump says three times that his call with the Ukrainian president was “perfect.” “Absolutely perfect phone call,” he says.

1:54 p.m. The New York Times reports that the whistleblower is a CIA officer who was detailed to the White House.

2:21 p.m. The Washington Post updates its tally of House members who now support the opening of an impeachment inquiry. The new tally notches 219 Democrats and Rep. Justin Amash (I-Mich.), who announced this summer that he had left the Republican Party. A simple majority of 218 members is required to adopt articles of impeachment and prompt a Senate trial of the president.

3:35 p.m. Joe Biden’s presidential campaign releases a statement quoting the former vice president’s appearance the night before on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” Biden said then that Trump’s efforts were “18 out of 10” on the outlandish scale. Kate Bedingfield, Biden’s deputy campaign manager, says Biden deserves indirect credit for Trump’s dealings with Ukraine. “It is all borne from his deep, fully substantiated fear that Joe Biden will beat him in November 2020,” she says.

3:44 p.m. CBS News announces that former secretary of state Hillary Clinton called Trump a “corrupt human tornado” in a new interview. She supports an impeachment inquiry.

4:28 p.m. Former director of national intelligence James R. Clapper Jr., a longtime critic of Trump, says on CNN that the president’s morning comments comparing the whistleblower to a treasonous spy is “witness retaliation.” “What’s really bad about it is this is going to have a very chilling effect on any other potential whistleblowers,” Clapper says.

7:02 p.m. The evening spin time begins. Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), a candidate for president, appears on MSNBC to throw a bunch of punches. She calls Trump a “lawless president.” She calls the situation “outrageous.” She calls the White House “a racket.” She says there was a “coverup.” After a clip of Trump talking plays, she adds, “He sounds like a criminal.”

8:28 p.m. Former House speaker Newt Gingrich goes on Fox News to say that Democrats are making “a really bad decision” that will ultimately destroy Biden’s presidential campaign. Gingrich is qualified to make this claim because he lost his job running Congress after pushing the impeachment of President Clinton. What went wrong? “What happens is you get in a room, you are surrounded by your partisans, you only listen to yourself,” Gingrich tells Tucker Carlson and the primetime Fox audience.

9:01 p.m. Sean Hannity offers a coda on the day — a “Fox News Alert” — to say that everything that just happened didn’t matter. “The real story. The real corruption,” Hannity announces. “None of it, zero has to do with President Trump.” Stay tuned. He has a special report on Biden. We are just getting started.

What you missed while not watching Day 4 of President Trump’s impeachment drama

By Michael Scherr | Published September 27, 2019 | Washington Post | Posted September 30, 2019 |

Here’s a guide to standout moments from another newsy day in the drama engulfing the Trump presidency:

7:21 a.m. It’s Day 4 of the impeachment effort, and President Trump wants everyone to know he has done nothing wrong. His early tweets contain some typos, including a double preposition. “I had a simple and very nice call with with the new President of Ukraine, it could not have been better or more honorable, and the Fake News Media and Democrats, working as a team, have fraudulently made it look bad,” he writes. A White House spokesman, Hogan Gidley, goes on “Fox & Friends” to deny reporting from multiple news outlets that White House staff were alarmed by the call. “No one I’ve talked to is concerned at all about this,” Gidley says.

7:31 a.m. Trump’s chief adversary, House Speaker Nanci Pelosi (D-Calif.), makes her first public appearance of the day, arriving at an MSNBC set on a rooftop across from the U.S. Capitol. On “Morning Joe,” Day 4 is a special event. Rising sun. Brisk fall breeze. Pelosi has come with a glittery American flag brooch and talking points to hammer like a nail gun: “This is about national security.” “This is a sad time for our country.” “We have to be prayerful.” “He gave us no choice.” Attorney General William P. Barr has “gone rogue.” The bottom line: “The president of the United States used taxpayer dollars to shake down the leader of another country for his own political gain. The rest of it is ancillary.”

8:29 a.m. Trump calls on Rep. Adam B. Schiff (D-Calif.) to resign and “be investigated” for reading a fake transcript of the president’s call with Ukraine at a hearing yesterday. In Trump’s telling, Schiff was “supposedly reading the exact transcribed version” and “GOT CAUGHT.” Schiff, who as chairman of the House Intelligence Committee is emerging as a key point person in the impeachment drama, had actually been a bit more nuanced. He introduced the fabulism by calling it “the essence of what the president communicates.” The moment was nonetheless potentially misleading, especially because sound bites are regularly chopped without context on social media.

9:04 a.m. The White House releases a memo headlined, “The swamp is beyond parody, but the American people aren’t laughing.” The argument is that Democrats are spending their time on a “political circus” instead of “real, pressing concerns” such as strong border security, real gun safety, affordable prescription drug prices and a new North American trade deal. “You can’t make this stuff up,” the memo reads.

10:20 a.m. Not much happening at the moment. A good time to catch up on the stories you might have missed last night. A Washington Post deep dive into former New York mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani’s efforts to cultivate “a bevy” of current and former prosecutors in Ukraine. A Post visual guide to everyone mentioned in the whistleblower report. The Atlantic’s captivating interview with Giuliani, which Elaina Plott conducted from the back of an Uber. “It is impossible that the whistleblower is a hero and I’m not,” Giuliani told Plott. “And I will be the hero! These morons. When this is over, I will be the hero.”

10:37 a.m. Sen. Kamala D. Harris (D-Calif.), whose presidential campaign has been struggling to gain traction, calls for an investigation of the State Department’s apparent role in Giuliani’s meetings with Ukranian officials. She cites Giuliani’s appearance the night before on Fox News, in which he showed text messages he claimed to be from State Department officials urging him to reach out. Harris also addresses a tweet to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, telling him to “instruct State Department staff to preserve any communications involving” Giuliani.

10:50 a.m. CNN reports the White House had offered a statement confirming a central allegation of the whistleblower complaint: Records of Trump’s call with Ukraine were moved to a separate server inside the White House. National Security Council lawyers “directed that the classified document be handled appropriately,” the White House statement reads.

11:21 a.m. Former secretary of state Hillary Clinton takes a shot at Trump during an appearance at Georgetown University. “Now we know that in the course of his duties as president, he has endangered us all by putting his personal and political interests ahead of the interests of the American people,” she says.

11:30 a.m. Lara Trump, the president’s daughter-in-law and a senior adviser on his campaign, goes on Fox News to say Democrats are “unfortunately” tarnishing their name and overplaying their hand. “Just because it might not have been something every president would have said doesn’t make it an impeachable offense,” she says of the president’s phone call to Ukraine.

11:40 a.m. The Senate convenes for a pro forma session, which is like opening a store but locking the cash register. Nothing can really happen. Like members of the House, senators began a two-week break today. Schiff has said his staff will continue working during the break.

12:14 p.m. The Post reports that a group of lawmakers in Ukraine are seeking to launch a new probe into Burisma Holdings, the gas company where Joe Biden’s son Hunter served on the board during his father’s time as vice president. The younger Biden has not been accused of wrongdoing.

12:53 p.m. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii) becomes the last Democratic candidate for president who has qualified for the October debate to announce that she supports impeachment proceedings against Trump. She had been attacked Thursday night on this point by the primary opponent running for her House seat. “This inquiry must be swift, thorough, and narrowly-focused,” Gabbard says in a statement shared by a campaign adviser. “It cannot be turned into a long, protracted partisan circus that will further divide our country and undermine our democracy.”

2:17 p.m. The House Appropriations and Budget committees announce sending a letter to the White House demanding documents and answers by next week regarding the Trump administration’s “involvement in the withholding of foreign aid, including nearly $400 million in crucial security assistance funding for Ukraine.”

2:30 p.m. The Associated Press alerts that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has previously committed to holding a trial of Trump if the House votes to impeach him. “If the House were to act, the Senate immediately goes into a trial,” McConnell told NPR in March. The regular rules for conducting an impeachment trial in the Senate are spelled out in the United States Senate Manual, and they include lots of specificity: When the House delivers the impeachment articles, the senate sergeant at arms must proclaim the following words, “All persons are commanded to keep silence, on pain of imprisonment, while the House of Representatives is exhibiting to the Senate of the United States articles of impeachment against” whoever is being impeached. The chief justice of the United States “shall preside,” and the doors to the chamber “shall be kept open,” unless directed otherwise for deliberation.

3:41 p.m. Trump previews how he hopes the impeachment fight will play out in the 2020 election if Biden becomes the Democratic nominee. He posts a 30-second campaign ad. “Biden promised Ukraine a billion dollars if they fired the prosecutor investigating his son’s company,” the narrator says, over ominous music. “But when President Trump asks Ukraine to investigate corruption, the Democrats want to impeach him.” Much of this is misleading. Biden threatened to withhold aid that had been promised to Ukraine if it did not fire the prosecutor; he did not promise to give $1 billion for doing so. The Ukranian prosecutor in question did not have an active investigation of the company where Biden’s son worked at the time. Biden’s son was never a subject of the investigation. The Democrat’s current impeachment investigation focuses on Trump’s specific request to the current Ukrainian president for aid in an investigation of Biden, his political rival. Such details might get lost in a war of sound bites and paid advertising.

4:03 p.m. The House Foreign Affairs, Intelligence and Oversight committees announce a new subpoena of Secretary of State Mike Pompeo for documents related to the Ukraine investigation that were requested earlier this month and never delivered. The letter concludes by alleging that Pompeo’s continued refusal to provide the documents “impairs Congress’ ability to fulfill its Constitutional responsibilities to protect our national security and the integrity of our democracy.”

4:58 p.m. The Washington Post reports that Rudy Giuliani, the president’s personal attorney who has been helping lead Ukraine outreach, is scheduled to make a paid appearance at a Kremlin backed conference in Armenia. Russian President Vladimir Putin is scheduled to attend. Giuliani declined to say how much he will make. “I will try to not knowingly talk to a Russian until this is all over,” he says.

6:09 p.m. Giuliani tells reporters he will no longer attend the conference. “Just found out Putin was going and I don’t need to give the Swamp press more distractions,” he tells The Post in a text message.

6:10 p.m. Kurt Volker, Trump’s envoy to Ukraine, has resigned, reports the State Press, the student newspaper of Arizona State University. Volker is also the director of ASU’s McCain Institute for International Leadership. Giuliani had posted a reputed text message exchange with Volker on Thursday and boasted on television of their communications. House leaders announced Friday that they planned to interview Volker next week.

8:26 p.m. More comes out. The Washington Post reports that Trump told two Russian officials in a 2017 Oval Office meeting that he was unconcerned about Russian interference in the 2016 election. This assertion prompted alarm in the White House, leading officials to limit access to the remarks to an unusually small number of people. The source of this information is three former officials with knowledge of the matter.

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