#it just happened on twitter but the other instance that sticks out to me was this dude a couple years back | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

poppyandzena · 2 months

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So, Zena and Poppy just announced on their Discord that Poppy has been let go from her job. It goes without saying that a stable income, housing, food etc. are a human right that everyone deserves (and I do mean everyone). I am not happy or gloating about this. What did seem odd to me about this announcement however was the given reason for letting her go: "Poppy was let go from her job due to her unwillingness to stop speaking out about her assault. She was given an ultimatum to cease social media activity including video production or she could lose her job." In the announcement she states she chose to stick up for herself and was therefore let go. What is strange to me is: is this even possible? I'm not from the US/Canada so I'm not familiar with the laws there, but firing someone over what they post and talk about in their private time ESPECIALLY if it's about something traumatic that happened to them HAS to be grounds for a lawsuit, right? Either she has every right to go after her former employer or she's not being honest about what's going on. And honestly? I'm more inclined to believe the latter. Because I *can* see a therapist getting fired after harassing her ex on Twitter, smearing her, and posting inappropriate things in spaces that allow minors. Maybe I'm wrong for speculating about this, but after everything that's come out about what Poppy (and Zena) did to Milena, Noeh, her own child, and countless others I find it hard to believe anything that's coming out of their mouths. I am just endlessly baffled at the behaviour and lies of these two.

Long story short, Poppy does not have a case. Private companies, while they adhere to basic state and federal laws on retaliatory firing, are at liberty to fire if there is sufficient concern. This instance is not sufficient enough for any payout on Poppy's end. She has burned her bridge all on her own.

Her boss is within their right to fire an employee that poses a reputational threat to the business, which is exactly what happened. From what I've seen, Boss was more than generous enough in giving Poppy time to rectify her doxxing of Noeh and Dormiyu. Poppy flip-flopped, bitched about the entire incident publicly, and then essentially told her superiors to fuck off in spirit. Her firing is her own doing and was completely preventable. Noeh and Dormiyu had every right to be concerned about their real names being used for defamatory, threatening purposes.

Poppy likes to say that there's no material harm to using their real names, while at the same time saying that using her already publicly known name that she has used ON HER OWN TWITTER PRIOR is doxxing. Do I feel bad for this turn of events? Let's just say my empathy is reserved for Noehflake, Dormiyu, Poppy's child, and all the other victims.

I'm not going to revel in it here. I've got other things to take care of in the meantime. This may actually be my only statement in regards to this situation given the open and shut nature.

Also thank you for the summary 🧡

#poppy #poppy and zena #zena and poppy #poppy diabolique #ladydiabolique #poppy & zena #zenaandpoppyonyoutube #nf #dormiyu

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headbucket · 2 years

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MCYT Characters: The blurry line between c! and cc! and how it improves story-telling

Something that intrigues me about MCYT series is how the difference between characters and the people who create those characters is a lot less clear than in most media. There's a reason we had to start using c! and cc! when that doesn't happen anywhere else! Because in most books, movies, or TV shows, one writer designs many characters, and actors play an already-created character that they have little to no say over. But in MCYT, each content creator designs and acts one character - and that character isn't totally distinct from themselves, like an actor signing a contract to play a particular part, but more like an extension of themselves. They go by the same name and most of their presence on the internet is as that character. Or is that presence just themselves and the character is like an exaggerated version of themselves? This is where it gets complicated.

In some contexts it's a little easier to tell where the boundary between c! and cc! lies, like on a DSMP lore stream where you know that everyone will be in character. But what about when you have Scar streaming from the Hermitcraft server, for instance? He's himself, the content creator, talking to the viewers and playing Minecraft, but he's also the character interacting with other characters in the world of Hermitcraft. Or what about Twitter? CCs switch rapidly between talking about their irl lives and bantering with other CCs in-character. Most of the time c! and cc! are pretty indistinguishable.

Now, there are ways in which this fusion might be problematic (i.e. shipping discourse), but in general I think it's a really interesting and engaging way of crafting a narrative. Because rather than a writer trying to come up with multiple original characters, then passing them off to different people who design their costumes or act them on out on screen or stage, each cc! has full control over their c!, which I think creates characters that feel more real. It's like starting with a person and building a character off of themselves rather than creating a character out of thin air (although, of course, writers take inspiration from many sources).

The plots of MCYT series also tend to emerge more naturally than other forms of media. Movies and TV shows are written ahead of time and have to cater to what will sell - what they think people will want, which tends to make them more predictable and trope-heavy. Minecraft CCs, on the other hand, have full creative liberty in what personas and plots they'll create in different series - they can take it in whatever direction they want. And while I'm sure there's a lot of planning that goes on behind the scenes, most of the details are improvised. At the end of the day these "characters" are just people interacting with their friends in the ways that feel most natural and enjoyable to them, which makes the series feel natural and enjoyable to the viewer.

An important detail of this is that every character is real and natural. Instead of a few main characters that get to change over the course of the plot and background characters that are only there for their role in the main character's story, we get to see the perspective of every single c! in a series because every cc! is making videos or streams. This makes the storylines a lot more complex and also more subjective, because there's no obvious good guy and bad guy. The Life Series are a perfect example of this, like in Third Life where from Desert Duo's perspective The Red King seems like an evil ruler with a rapidly growing army that will soon snuff out the desert dwellers, but from Dogwarts perspective, Scar and Grian are the antagonists with their monopolies and traps, and the Red Army's just trying to stick together and protect themselves. Every perspective is realistic and understandable, which makes the story more interesting than a simple hero defeats villain plot. In most media you get one perspective - just one, and it's the one the writer or director wants you to see. But with MCYT, where every c! has a cc! behind them, you get to see the story from every side, and suddenly it has so many more layers and so much more to contemplate.

Another advantage of these quasi-characters created by the lack of distinction between c! and cc! is that it leaves a lot of room for viewer interpretation. I, like many others, have gotten very attached to particular characters that speak to me, even if those characters sometimes have very little screen time (Helsknight, I'm looking at you). Regardless of how much the cc! chooses to do with their c!, the fandom gets to take those characters and draw them, write about them, and weave theories about them. And while that absolutely happens for characters from non-Minecraft media, I think we have more freedom with MCYT characters because the characters start off more loosely defined. A book, movie, or TV show is meant to be a self-contained story arc, including a thorough enough explanation of a character's backstory and motives and development and resolution that the reader or viewer feels satisfied - they don't have to do the creative work themselves because everything is presented to them, otherwise the story would feel incomplete. But MCYT doesn't work like that - we don't have a single plot that introduces and develops and resolves one or a few main characters, rather, we have many intertwining plots that leave most of the character up to the viewer's interpretation. Their full "story" has unfolded over years of different videos and streams, but very little of that is necessary to understand the character because you can pay attention to whatever parts you want. A few loyal Etho fans have seen every one of his videos, but most of us haven't, and we can still enjoy watching him and feel like we know him and do what we want with that character. Canon is limited, and flexible, and so fanon has a lot more room to spread its wings.

That flexibility also means that everyone has their own version of the characters, and I don't just mean whether you're a proponent of Watcher!Grian or parrot!Grian; it can be a lot more subtle than that. A character will mean something different to each viewer depending on what content you've seen and what details stood out to you. The freedom to interpret a character how we want to and the diversity of how each of us sees the characters makes this community really enjoyable as we share and inspire and discuss with each other about what the characters mean to each of us. And that means that the characters are constantly changing, both in your own head as you adopt or reject different parts of fanon, and as the cc! continues to embody their c! in new and different ways. There is no end of the story - there's always more videos, more fanart, more ways to understand a character. Dynamic characters are a lot more interesting than static ones, so there's always more to hold your interest.

Personally, I don't watch MCYT for the Minecraft. I don't watch it for the builds or redstone, although those are certainly impressive, and I don't even watch it for the storyline necessarily: what I really watch it for is the people. All of the CCs are amazing people who put a lot of effort into what they do, and we get to benefit from it. It's a lot more fun to watch friends having fun together and creating things they're passionate about than a predictable show some corporate representatives decided would draw an audience. I love how each cc! has their own unique style and vision for their art (because I do believe it's art) that is expressed in their characters, whether a DSMP villain we have to stress is separate from the cc!, a carefully planned Empires ruler with their own aesthetic, or just a Hermit hanging out on the server. Some characters are more closely related to the cc! than others, but all of them are an extension of that person, which I think makes MCYT an incredible story-telling tool unlike any other.

#wow that ended up a lot longer than I expected #if you read all the way down here thank you! I appreciate you!#mcyt #hermitcraft #dsmp #empires smp #trafficblr #hermitblr #mcytblr #did this really take me an hour... woops. I'm off to get a snack

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beautifulpersonpeach · 1 year

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I feel like kpop stans created their own worst enemy in armys maybe they should've been nicer. Exols vips and shawols specifically I feel like out of the fandoms that did the most damage they're the biggest ones still sticking around

***

Hi Anon,

Watching from the sidelines, it was equal parts hilarious and disturbing to see that creation happen in real time. The dominant cultures of those fandoms haven’t changed in years, and neither has the animosity to ARMYs by virtue of the competition the artists they support have to BTS - not intentionally, but just by virtue of the dynamics in k-pop. SHINee, Big Bang, and EXO were supposed to be the dominant groups in k-pop globally - they had the company backing and privilege, the money, and the articles going as far back as 2011, to guarantee it. And they still enjoyed wide-scale success and are by several metrics still very successful. But BTS was an aberration that completely upended the hierarchy in k-pop, and just by virtue of being an anomaly in the system, earned them animosity. It’s a dynamic that used to fascinate me in 2018 and Kim Young-dae’s writing on it at the time was very interesting to read.

Anyway, now ARMYs are what they are for better or worse, and responsibility for the fandom’s behaviour rests solely on the fandom, though of course it’s best understood when looking at the wider k-pop and music ecosystem.

One thing my k-ARMY friend was telling me yesterday was that this partnership HYBE is pursuing with SM serves as insurance against the worst factions of anti-BTS sentiment in SM, while plugging the revenue shortfall from BTS enlisting. I disagreed (and still do) about the first point.

Spite is a very natural human emotion but in k-pop, it’s distilled to an extremely potent and poisonous weapon. You see it everywhere in even the most innocuous places and it’s so prominent that even newer k-pop fans tap into that undercurrent almost immediately as soon as they enter k-pop spaces. In terms of corporate benefits, this SM deal for HYBE is nearly airtight in how brilliant it is, but when considering dominant fandom behaviours that stretch past 15 years at least, it’s a poorly thought out choice.

I mean,

- SM, SM staff, and fans of SM groups have been well aware of the company-wide corruption and crimes Lee Sooman is guilty of, for literal decades. But it was him approaching HYBE that became the turning point that apparently has “destroyed his legacy” - quoting a k-SM fan on a forum yesterday.

- MHJ is responsible for several of SM’s most iconic concepts. Some people had misgivings about her but it was well understood that she worked within a team and took direction for those concepts from none other than Lee Sooman and Yoo Young-jin. In fact, when she announced her resignation from SM a couple years ago, I recall seeing several fans of SM groups sad and distraught about her leaving. But when it was revealed she moved to HYBE, the dominant sentiment changed. Cue all the subsequent accusations to justify that sentiment and the stigma applied to NewJeans, but it’s very curious to me that neither Blackpink, nor Big Bang, nor Baby Monster have any stigma attached to them despite training as minors under Yang Hyun-suk - the only actual known pedophile in k-pop. Like it’s not even common knowledge in wider k-pop fandom despite a court case, tv interview, and marriage certificate which prove his predilections beyond reasonable doubt. But after MHJ moved to HYBE, all it took was a Twitter thread, Pinterest pictures, and an active imagination to sell the crime.

- Garam.

I could list more instances spanning the last 6 years but I’ll stop here for now. My point is, I understand why HYBE is pursuing SM. That company has been so badly managed that it’s simpler cheaper to acquire it, than any of the other Big3 companies. If I were to suggest a company with better potential synergy for HYBE, I would suggest JYPE and that’s also a company that prudently disburses capital. But JYPE would also be more expensive for HYBE and likely wouldn’t yield as good a return as acquiring SM. This is one case where I’d say money isn’t everything, but lol what do I know? I’m just an ARMY and k-pop stan.

#BTS #Hybe #sm entertainment #JYPE #kpop industry #kpop #fandom behaviour #kpop fandom #bts army #bts fandom

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distort-opia · 2 years

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I see a lot of people say they don't want Joker to be important in The Batman sequels, that they're sick of Joker, etc. but is it just me or do people kind of overstate how ubiquitous Joker is in Batman adaptions? He appears in most of them yeah but that's to be expected when he's Batman's archnemesis. There are some where he doesn't show up, or if he does, isn't necessarily the main/only focus of the villains. The only time I can think of where it got egregious was in the Arkham games, but even then other villains still got a good deal of attention. Or do most of the people making these complaints just not like Joker in general?

Mm, no, I would agree Joker isn't as ubiquitous as he's made out to be in Batman media. However, I do agree with the complaints regarding him to an extent. I'd say it's less about how often he shows up and more about how he does it. Him showing up frequently should be a consequence of him being crucially important. Whether people like it or not, Joker is essential to Batman, that's impossible to dispute -- as you said, he's Batman's archnemesis. But there is a difference between writing a good Joker story and just... sticking Joker in one because he's a popular, titular character.

For instance, in the current Batman run they had Joker be the one who hired Deathstroke to kill Robin way back in the day, and I rolled my eyes so hard. They shove Joker in whenever they're in need of a Plot Twist (aha, it was Joker all along!) or when they have something horrible happen, because of course Joker would do that, he's deranged! Even if the act itself is not in character for Joker. He's come to be used as a plot device when writers don't know what villain to pull out of the hat, and it wouldn't annoy me as much if it were well-written. But instead of trying to fit the story within Joker's core characterization, his personality tends to get rewritten a lot, in order for the writer to tell the story they want. That's how you get... one-dimensional, shallow, typical serial killer and not-actually-funny Joker. So I get how this might make people feel Joker shows up too much, because a lot of the time he's not showing up in the right way, and it becomes grating. I love Joker, but even I am torn between watching his character get skewered vs. not reading about him at all.

Plus, something to keep in mind is the fact that a lot more people watch movies, and not nearly as much read comics. For many fans, the contact they've had with Joker has been through live-action films, and The Dark Knight (2008) especially. Ledger's iconic performance forever influenced what came after. Every attempt at playing Joker since then has had elements from it, and this after Joker got turned into a mascot for dudebros who watched TDK and thought "I'm an agent of chaos" is all there was to him. So many people associate Joker with this "We live in a society" kind of message now -- which Joker (2019) played into heavily, creating a completely different version of him -- when Joker in the comics is so much more than that. It's actually baffling to me how Joker, such a heavily queer-coded character (even within TDK) came to represent toxic masculinity for a lot of people. This, I would say, is another big reason why Joker has become so hated. People have heard of Joker inspiring a shooter to go into a theater and unload a gun into the audience, they've heard about Leto sending dead rats to his colleagues, they've seen all the toxic mysoginist 'alpha' males with Joker posters in their room, and they've landed on this horrid image of him. Which does annoy me to no end, because that's not who Joker is. Joker isn't about wanton destruction, the same way Batman isn't about mindless vengeance. But that's an essay for another day.

Also... it's become a bit of a trend in the last five years, especially on Tumblr and Twitter; to complain about Joker's every appearance, to wish for Batman to kill him or for Joker to disappear entirely, etc. Obviously not saying there aren't people who genuinely dislike Joker (and that's their prerogative), but there's a bit of a 'getting woke points' aspect to this more recent wave of hatred, which has become more prevalent right now for villains in general. Hating on Joker is an easy way to show your moral superiority -- after all, he did so many horrible things. And it's tough to even introduce nuance in a discussion about Joker with people like this, who only view the world in black and white, because they do not seek to understand. The goal, conscious or not, is more the performance a 'pure' moral stance so that they feel good about themselves, and so others flock to agree with them (which in turn makes the commentators feel good about themselves, and on it goes).

Sorry, anon, this got way longer than I expected :)) In the end, this Joker fatigue many DC fans are having right now is influenced by many factors, and it’s such a pity. When done right, Joker can be an absolute delight.

#oh the unattainable dream of getting a comic accurate Joker in a live action adaptation #sigh #dc hire me you cowards #asks #batman #joker #joker meta #batman meta #my meta

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renardtrickster · 1 year

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My take on the Wizard Game Discourse is that the Harry Potter Video Game Scene hasn't been good since Prisoner of Azkaban on the PS2 (and also the LEGO games), but furthermore the left dropped the ball on Hog Legacy by A LOT, and on SO MANY LEVELS.

The first thing that should be discussed is the streaming scene, in particular the fact that a lot of streamers got sent hate for playing or wanting to play the game, or outright harassed for it (I don't know how widespread this was but I'm moving forward with the assumption that it was a Notable Phenomenon). In particular, this doesn't do anything useful and actively hurts us. If you're a neutral "apolitical" streamer who just wants to play a mediocre wizard game, then you're more likely than not going to block, ignore, and continue on (while also drawing attention to it on social media), because spite and the Streisand Effect is a very potent motivator, and this goes double if you're an especially big streamer. If you're a leftist streamer, see the next paragraph. And if you're a reactionary streamer, you're just going to spin it as a culture war "the left attacked me for liking Harry Potter" thing. And on this point, leftists already have to struggle with a reputation for being no-fun-allowed wokescolds. If we had said "don't play the game it's shit and so is JKR" and responded to it coming out by clowning on it 24/7 (and also not making it trend on twitter every day leading up to it releasing) then we still would have gotten that, but at that point is becomes Dialogue and you can just tell them that their mom sucks you good and hard through your jorts. The circle of online political discourse turns gently. The imagery of leftists actually actively jumping on people's backs because For God's Sake I Just Wanna Game, however, is much harder to shake off though. That shit scares normies off and gives reactionaries more ammo.

Going from the above, I mentioned there's one group of people who will fold when given backlash for playing Wizard Game, and it's: other leftist streamer! I've seen quite a couple of lefty streamers say something to the effect of "might play it, prolly not buying it though Yar Har Har, and make fun of it/donate the money to a trans charity to stick it to JKR", and they get blowback from it, even from their own audience. One notable instance was Hasan Piker planning to do Exactly This, only for his fanbase to slag on him and not do it, because doing otherwise would be "supporting JKR". I have more to say about "supporting JKR", but let's look at the impact here. Before, JKR was going to make a shitload of money, but also a couple of prominent leftist streamers would have streamed the game, made fun of it, showcased to their audience all the shortcomings of the game's mechanics and writing, potentially done the Really Smart Thing of using a normie opener ("Harry Potter am I right?") to inject leftist commentary in a way that's easily consumable, even by liberals and apoliticals, and then tossed whatever money they made (likely the hundreds of thousands, if not millions in Hasan's case) into a trans charity. Instead, what we get is just JKR making a shitload of money and also we get headlines about how the most prominent leftist streamer got bullied by his own audience for playing bideo james, and also the charity streams don't happen. What is our outcome? What did we accomplish? Was it moral purity? Do we care about moral purity? Will moral purity prevent the rapidly approaching trans genocide from happening? I dunno, but at least I feel slightly better for it.

The final point is my address of a counterargument I've often seen in relation to "just pirate the wizard game" or "play the wizard game to slag on it and make money for charity" or similar, and I imagine it's a point that someone reading this was about to shoot at me. It was a tweet by JK Rowling, where she states that she counts any support of her works, including Harry Potter, as indirect support of her and her ideology. Now, financially speaking this is true, any money you throw at JKR goes to JKR (which is why you should either Not Give Her Money For The Game or at the very least do it and then throw x200 that much towards groups harmed by her), but a lot of people seem to take this further, in that even if you don't financially buffer her, playing/reading her stuff is like an unconscious and/or spiritual "good job on the transphobia, love the way you're the public face of a hate movement!" handshake, and that publicly doing so is just a roundabout means of sending support and fans (and recruits) her way. And to this, I would like to say THAT'S NOT HOW ANY OF THIS WORKS. ARE YOU FUCKING STUPID?

Not only is this argument as incoherent as Tom Cruise saying that watching his movies is like an indirect vindication of Scientology, and also insincere because even if Harry Potter and Cormorant Strike or whatever became unpopular and unprofitable overnight she would keep on doing what she's doing, but the real baffling part is the fact that lefties just accepted and agreed with this, letting JKR define the framework and the endgoals. By accepting this, we immediately concede that the only proper response to a 10+ years old sitting on the bookshelf at home is to burn it (please think carefully before commenting "yes I am okay with identifying with the imagery of leftists being book-burners but politically reflected). By accepting this, we concede that someone watching the films or reading the book to MST3K it or negatively review it or critically point out all the things wrong with the writing or JKR's worldview is the same thing as uncritically watching and supporting it and loving JKR. By accepting this, we make a bet with JKR that if her new game sells well, then that means she's right, and the public is on her side when it comes to transphobia. It's not, by the way, people liking Harry Potter doesn't mean people liking transphobia, much less JKR herself, in much the same way that H.P. Lovecraft being a household name doesn't mean that everyone who's ever read Shadow Over Innsmouth actually really secretly supports racism not to mention the fact that the public majority is on the side of trans people, transphobes just so happen to be loud, fucking annoying, and also in positions of power because our power structures really favor the reactionary voice for No Reason In Particular. But the game was destined to make bank, because of reactionary support, and also apoliticals/liberals/normies not being too assed about it, but mainly because JKR is a household name bigger than Lovecraft at this point. It was a bet we didn't need to make, because we let her control the narrative when we didn't need to, and in attempting to "win" the unnecessary bet, we gave her free advertising, embarrassed ourselves, prevented ourselves from doing charity streams for some reason, and accomplished nothing where just saying "game a shit" and clowning on it on twitter would have done infinitely more at none of the cost.

My final note before you go is that this post is a criticism of the online left, but it is from a leftist perspective. This is no place for people whose takeaway is "well the real issue you guys don't realize how BASED JKR is and how trans people are bad" and you will be beaten senseless by every able-bodied patron in the bar bar for such audacious behavior.

#oh no renardie is posting #infoxicated

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hesitationss · 9 months

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fb+/meta or whatever is one severely unfunny joke. i know i am mostly a hater of social media, but i don't see how threads is going to be better for usability and reach. especially given how shit numbers are on IG (i get more noted "per capita" of followers on tumblr and twitter for untagged posts). i already made a small thread of zucc apps being shit which I'll copy paste here. i don't know how people are thinking threads is going to be better than any of the twitter alternatives when it's most likely the WORST option out there. anyway-

the reason why the other twit replacement apps aren't as insidious as threads (zucc/fb owned) should be obvious, but i'll list some things:

• infamously on zucc platforms you can get reported for saying "white people" which is why so many of us say yt now (a bit of poc social media history for u from the 2010s)

• private messages are sold/given to police no warrant: this could be anything used against you, could be protest info, where you've been, etc.

• right wing propaganda/misinfo is lucrative for facebook. this is something that heavily affects the global south btw.

• they lie about views and growth for business accounts to keep you on their platform. the case i know best is that they inflated college humor's analytics to compete w youtube. this resulted in so many businesses throwing money and labour at facebook w out much return.

also zucc sucks, he's pure evil... like u don't need me to get into *that* hopefully

addition:

omg 🙄 so shocked 🙄 that zucc is further propelling nazism on his latest app that has the exact same content moderation as all his other fucking apps lol 🙄 who would have guessed ?

Far-right figures, including Nazi supporters, anti-gay extremists, and white supremacists, are flocking to Threads (Media Matters)

Adding sources:

Point 1 - i can't find any formal articles that document the particular insidiousness of this, but I and many others who were in BIPOC only "leftbook" groups had either our accounts or groups we joined completely nerfed for using language against white people. hubs that had been for info dissemination, discussing theory, and organizing were marked as hate speech or reported by white reactionaries (even "leftist" ones)

Point 2 - Has been apparent since Michael Brown's murder by police in 2014 and the protests following, but was esp apparent in protest following George Floyd's murder and subsequent protests.

FBI trawled Facebook to arrest protesters for inciting riots, court records show (NBC News)

Point 3 Links - Facebook Admits It Was Used to Incite Violence in Myanmar (NY Times) | Whistleblower: Facebook is misleading the public on progress against hate speech, violence, misinformation (CBS) | How Facebook and Google fund global misinformation (MIT Tech Review)

Link for point 4 - Adam Conover talking about College Humor's inflated FB numbers (plus many other articles have been written about this)

more on the privacy shit - sex workers who have used fb AND ig on burner emails with fake names, had their emails and real names auto linked bcuz of how much a little bit of information goes. how fucked up is that.

How Facebook Outs Sex Workers

BTW i have been preaching this for years but if you want to learn why our internet is fucked up, learn about what happened with net neutrality cases in the US, and then later, SESTA FOSTA (primarily targetting sex workers but is the reason why everything is censored now). ppl online have been warning everyone about this for years, but you are just now experiencing the consequences. but again, nobody listens to things that target primarily sex workers.

plus from a functional standpoint, if you want to delete your threads account, your instagram is deleted as well. like it really doesn't seem worth it for people who are desperate to find the social media that will stick. i don't have anything nice to say about any of the other social medias except that some Mastodon instances do a great job at keeping nazi's out and using alt text, but the bar is extremely low and everybody else is even lower ^_^

#the thing that should be the most glaringly insidious of them all is how fb enabled genocide against rohingya muslims in myanmar #which was carried out by the democratic burmese princess herself 🙄#social media

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smokingtiger · 10 months

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I hope you also made a post when JK solos were dragging Jimin to filth using animal names, SA and r*pe insults during FACE era (they are still at it btw). I won’t hold my breath on that happening since a lot of armys have collective amnesia when other solos drag Jimin but only wake up when it is their Tae and JK pookie bears getting dragged by Jimin solos. And then it is save vminkook from solos. And please don’t give examples of them defending Jimin against other fandoms.

Let’s treat all solos equally and not when armys feel like calling out when their fandom fav is getting dragged.

And if you did make a post about this on tumblr then I apologise for being snarky. I have seen too many OT7s showing this hypocrisy (even today) and if you didn’t then I guess you think Jimin is fair game to be dragged by other member’s solos, right?

Well, I did make a post about when tae solos and jimin solos were both going after one another and even addressed a few vmin-centric asks that followed my initial comments on the entire situation + accusations against their friendship. I didn't even mention Jungkook during these instances.

What I will say is that I don't always see every single smear campaign nor hateful trend given how my Twitter algorithm works. I have a friend who will come into my Twitter DMs and ask "did you see [insert this]" or "have you heard [insert this]" and my answer is usually no. I have 100+ words muted on Twitter, so I do a good job of shoveling most of this hateful shit off of my timeline. I don't particularly think that it's good for my mental health, but if I do see it and it drives me to anger, I might talk about it.

Also, I will accept the apology, but I do think it's best to do a little digging through someone's account before making a heated ask. Trust me, I probably have done the same thing, so it's fine, I get it. I have defended Jimin several times on this platform, even if it wasn't necessarily about solos, but just his haters in general. I am quick to shoot down the p*do accusations, as well as the countless claims that he makes the other members uncomfortable.

I love Jimin with all of my heart (he's my bias wrecker), but I don't always make a post about every new hate comment made towards him, or else I'd be here all day. This is my first time talking about antis lashing out against Jungkook, too. There is just so much junk online, I'd rather make silly little posts that don't really mean much in a massive sea of information.

Usually, I stick to inner-fandom drama because I disregard the opinions of outside voices who'd rather make a fuss over nothing. Who gives a fuck about what a toxic BLINK says? Who cares about what a salty EXO-L wrote? We know they're just doing it to be hateful and that there isn't any true validity to any of their statements. Of course, if the hate train is significant enough, I might weigh in, I am a 2015 ARMY who has been on the other end of online negativity and how it has affected not only the fanbase but the boys themselves. Fan wars are not something I particularly enjoy engaging in, but if you scroll through my asks, you can see I'm more comfortable voicing my opinions on matters that occur within BTS' fanbase, especially about the ugly side of shipping.

Some Other Asks I Have Answered: General Confusion about Solos Does Jimin make Jungkook uncomfortable? Are VMIN still friends? Toxic Taekookers Compilation (vs Jimin)

This might not all be super specific in dissecting Jimin vs Solos/Antis, but you can see that I am very much against the negativity this boy receives + the baseless theories that try to defame him.

Everyone stream Like Crazy, I haven't stopped listening to it and it's starting to become a problem. I stream it for a minimum of five hrs a day... someone send help.

edit: also, I will say, just because someone doesn't make a post about something doesn't necessarily mean they agree/disagree with it. Like, just because I said "Solos don't attack Jungkook" does not mean I said "It's okay for solos to attack Jimin." ... It just reminds me of that one tweet: You can say "I like pancakes" and somebody will say "So you hate waffles?" No bitch. That's a whole new sentence. WTF are you talking about.

I just think the rule of thumb is: don't attack people. at all.

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burins · 11 months

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53, 65, 69, 73

53. when writing, do you have an outline? and do you stick to it?

i don't usually start off with an outline at the very beginning, but as I've been writing more long stuff and fewer 1-3k character studies i've been outlining much more– I think there are people who can write plot without an outline but I sure am not one of them! i use scrivener to write, so i usually create a bunch of scenes i want to hit and then end up adding more/structuring them into actual chapters as i write. so for instance here's the mission parameters outline when i'd only gotten a few scenes in, and then the final outline:

so i definitely do insert scenes as needed while writing. I rarely find myself needing to cut whole scenes once I've written them (although I did cut a big scene out of mission parameters.) also i looooove scrivener it has been SO helpful as i've started to write longer fic!

65. what is your favourite title for a fic you’ve written?

i am so so bad at titles, almost everything i've written is titled with a song lyric. i do really like "a silent and particular scream," or the zombie yanqing fic, which was one of my rare non-lyric titles and i think encapsulates the whole fic quite well!

69. how do you write emotional scenes? do you ever feel what the characters feel?

emotional scenes are honestly pretty easy for me because I am always just doing what i've been doing since i was 12 years old when i started enacting whispered conversations between characters in the bathroom mirror. i'm just banging characters together! i really love writing high-conflict/high-emotion scenes— i got back into writing via making my friends incredibly miserable via posting sad fatt headcanons on twitter, which is the most concentrated form of "follow the emotions juice" imaginable. basically i just sit down and let the characters bounce off of each other!

i wouldn't say that i'm actually feeling what the characters are feeling— i've never had kids, or fought a war against my husband, or murdered my spouse!— but there is a certain feeling of shivery delicious misery that lets me know i'm doing things right.

73. how do you visualize scenes? do you see it like a movie in your head, or do the words just flow?

a little of A a little of B! I tend to start scenes with dialogue because that's easiest for me to write, and that's just a flow thing. and then I'll let the setting coalesce around the scene based on what's happening emotionally. I do think a lot about lighting, because it's something that very much shapes my own emotional experience of a space! (anyone who read timkon road trip fic is like "we know" lol.)

ask game

#ask game

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kenkamishiro · 3 years

Text

Lost in Translation: Choujin X chapter 1

Fun fact, I was planning to do fan translations for Choujin X with a scan group until it could get a simulpub release, though I didn’t expect it to get one from the very first chapter lol. I’m happy though since it means everyone can read it right away and it doesn’t mess up my schedule.

So instead I’ll be making comparison notes between the EN and JP text to supplement the official translation. I’m not doing this because the official TL is bad (I actually think it’s pretty solid and I hope it will maintain this quality) but because it’s inevitable for something to be lost in translation, and it’s nice to have that additional context for theory crafting and whatnot.

If you want to read it on Twitter instead, the original thread is here, but this is the proofread and way more detailed version 😄

This translation isn’t wrong, but there’s an emphasis on それ (which is TLed as ‘it’) that connotes a stronger, “other, that thing” feeling that isn’t present here. The general idea behind this sentence is: That [becoming a Choujin] resembles more of a disease [than a transformation].

Ely talks like a tomboy, she uses rougher speech patterns and the pronoun オラ (ora), a derivative of the masculine 'ore'. But it's a bit old-fashioned (eg. すまなんだ) which makes sense considering her upbringing with her grandfather on a farm. Hence her country bumpkin speech pattern in English.

Not sure if I should use Ellie or Ely? Ellie makes more sense based on the kana, but Ishida explicitly called her Ely so I might stick with Ely for now... (also istg that blond guy with the huge chin is a reference, I've seen him somewhere)

Tokio, I know your teacher is annoying, but it's rude to call her that lol. This is basically the oppai equivalent of paisen (senpai backwards, it’s slangier). Similar thing actually happened with Ely describing her dream hubby as Goldilocks instead of blond; ‘kinpatsu’ (blond hair) was inverted to become ‘patsukin’, hence the translation as Goldilocks.

Kurohara Tokio (黒原トキオ) and Higashi Azuma (東アヅマ). Kurohara is a common surname, means 'black fields'. Tokio is in katakana, so it’s hard to say what kanji it could be. 'Toki' could be 時 (time) or 外喜 (outside + delight). The 'o' can be the common male name suffix 男 (boy).

But when I think of Tokio, I think of TK's song called 'tokio'. You can read the translated lyrics here. If these lyrics end up being relevant to Tokio's character development I will eat my shoe lol.

Higashi means 'east'. Azuma (which can also be romanized as Aduma, it’s a softer ‘zu’ sound which is why Tokio called Azuma ‘Aju’ earlier in the chapter before correcting himself) is an archaic form of ‘east’. So...this guy is literally East East. The Choujin X equivalent of Moon Moon 😂

Someone also informed me that Higashi Azuma is a station in Tokyo, though the kana are slightly different (アヅマ／あづま vs. あずま). They effectively sound the same though nowadays, if I have to be honest. It’s like comparing the difference between 애 and 에 in Korean.

Tbh this is minor, but worth mentioning just cause it changes the meaning a bit. Tokio is saying something more like, “Why are we even talking about this [the roly-polies] again?”

I think I heard people talking about how the official TL doesn’t match the original text, but personally I really like how this was translated! Sis is using the expression 「爪の垢を煎じて飲む」, which literally means “boiling the dirt under someone’s fingernails and drinking it”. By taking the dirt/grime under the fingernails of someone that you admire, and boiling it and drinking it like a tea, you can become more like them.

But because idioms don’t tend to directly translate well between languages, translators often have to adapt it so that the meaning still remains the same. In English the closest idiom we have to this is “rubbing off on someone.” The “holding hands” bit was added to replace the physical aspect of “taking the dirt from someone’s fingernails” and also contribute to Sis’s sassy and very informal way of speaking.

So Sis is saying in JP (ignoring her personal speech style for now):

You should take the dirt from under [Azuma's] fingernails and boil it so you can be more like him.

And now in ENG it becomes:

You guys should hold hands or something, then maybe he’ll rub off on you.

It now sounds natural in English, still carries the same meaning as the original text, and also suits the character’s speech pattern.

Moving on, in that same panel the literal TL of Tokio’s dialogue is, “Policeman Azuma got dispatched again today,” emphasizing Azuma’s heroic deeds along with his family connections to the police. Another thing I want to note is that this is the second time Azuma has been called 偉い (erai) so far - noble, and now great guy. I’ll just dump the general English definition of 偉い from Jisho here so you get the general idea:

Great; excellent; admirable; remarkable; distinguished; important; celebrated; famous; eminent

But you can tell from how people describe Azuma as 偉い that others look up to him, think he’s a great person and Mr. Perfect. Always being placed on a pedestal by others. (What are the odds this will affect his mentality after the Choujin serum?)

The meaning is still pretty much the same, but I’ll offer a slightly different perspective. Sis mentions that if she were Tokio, she’d burst from the [Azuma] complex. (Clearly Tokio and Azuma's relationship is gonna crack at some point)

Tokio mentions an idiom about hawks (taka) before recalling his childhood memory about vultures. Vultures are called 'hagewashi', but in the chapter it mentions they can also be called 'hagetaka' (buzzard/condor, literally bald hawk).

The kids call him names like "Hagetaka Tokio" and "Hageo". But Hagetaka Tokio only really works in JP cause Hagetaka kinda mimics his last name (Buzzard Tokio doesn't give the same vibe). Same with Hageo. Hage-o = Bald-o = Baldy.

I also think Buzzard was chosen over another name for a vulture like Condor because Buzzard can pass off as an insult.

I would have translated this as, “I wanted to be a lion too...” but this is just personal preference.

A continuation of the 「爪の垢を煎じて飲む」 expression Sis used earlier. Without the adapted idiom the exchange goes something like this:

Tokio: My sister said I should bring home the dirt from under your nails. Can I have some?

Azuma: ...huh? What for, that’s scary. No way.

Tokio: I have to boil it and drink it, apparently.

Azuma: Don’t even think about boiling or drinking it.

But since the 「爪の垢を煎じて飲む」 expression was modified to make it sound natural in English, it means this conversation has to be modified too.

JP: My sister said I should bring home the dirt from under your nails. Can I have some?

EN: My sister says we should hold hands...so I can be more like you. What do you think?

The “dirt from under your nails” part got adapted to “holding hands”, hence how the 1st line from Tokio becomes, “My sister says we should hold hands...so I can be more like you.” “Can I have some?” makes no sense now in this context now, so it was changed to “What do you think?” as a question to Azuma to keep the similar conversation flow going.

JP: ...huh? What for, that’s scary. No way.

EN: Huh? What’re you talking about? No thanks.

Azuma’s next line is similar enough to the JP text except for the removal of “scary”. I think the reason it was most likely removed is because leaving it as it is could be constituted as homophobic (2 boys holding hands, absolutely nothing scary about it as bible thumpers would like people to believe).

JP: I have to boil it and drink it, apparently.

EN: She said to hold hands so you’ll rub off on me.

Tokio’s response to that is explaining what he meant by his proposal. In the original text he lays out the latter half of the idiom (he doesn’t even realize it’s an expression, poor boy), and in English he does something similar by going into why his sister said they should hold hands (so Azuma can rub off on Tokio).

JP: Don’t even think about boiling or drinking it.

EN: C’mon. That’s not how things work.

Azuma’s then rebuts Tokio’s proposal as ridiculous. In the original text he drops a typical straight man response (don’t do *insert whatever ridiculous thing the idiot suggested*). But since Tokio’s proposal in English isn’t as preposterous, his rebuttal is toned down in response by telling him not to take it literally.

Ultimately, even though a lot of this dialogue was changed, I still think it was successful in maintaining the original’s intent. Tokio takes his sister’s sarcastic suggestion literally and brings it up to Azuma, who dismisses it as silly. It would be nice if we could keep the expression as it was in Japanese, but in instances like this where it’s played off of in multiple lines, that’s easier said than done.

軟体 isn’t an actual word, it’s made up of the kanji soft + body. So kinda like Elastigirl, but Flexi was chosen instead. It doesn’t sound 100% right, but I don’t think I could come up with anything better.

Replacing the しい in 楽しい with the C plus that elongated pronunciation makes Johnny sound even more like a stereotypical Yankee, which is why he sounds like that in English 😂

Random but I found it interesting how Azuma called Johnny a youkai (妖怪) instead of something like bakemono (化け物) or obake (お化け) since they’re shapeshifting monsters.

Tokio is worried that if he doesn't do something right now, he's going to lose his friendship with Azuma. The sentence is fine as it is though.

Azuma’s line can also be worded as, "No hard feelings, okay?"

Bestial = 獣化 (juuka) = beast+change = beast transformation

That’s it from me, if you have questions about the TL feel free to send an ask or reply to this post, I promise I’ll check my inbox more often this time 😂

#Choujin X #Translations #fyi i also went into the holding hands TL #tl;dr i don't think it's bad and suits it well #but that's just my opinion

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brostateexam · 3 years

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Hi! What's the deal with Roxane Gay? I've read Hunger but I haven't kept up with her internet presence at all

I don't want to mislead you, here, so I will say that first and foremost, I fundamentally do not and have not ever found her writing that great. I think she's overhyped, takes herself too seriously, and doesn't really have all that much to say. Her thesis in Bad Feminist, for instance, is basically "pobody's nerfect" which... ok. It's the kind of wisdom that fits on a refrigerator magnet. You can find inspirational posters in your dentist's office that say "you can't be all things to all people so just be yourself." In all subsequent novels/essay collections/anthologies I've been struck by the fact that she centers herself and her own experience more than I personally care for, and that despite decades of her life being devoted to feminism, analysis, writing, and chronicling her own life, there just isn't much water in any of these wells. Reading Roxane Gay to me feels like being trapped next to someone who won't shut up on an Amtrak trip from NYC to DC.

I also think the elephant in the room here is that Roxane Gay grew up absurdly wealthy. Her parents sent her to Philips-Exeter as a boarder, which costs $58k/year now and cost the 70s equivalent when she was there; it has always been one of the most expensive boarding schools in the US reserved for people who are the children of senators and such. I have no doubt that her life there was not all pony rides and illicit caviar parties, but I do think there is some consequent distance between her understanding of normal people and their actual lives.

Viewed through this lens, I find her work makes a lot more sense: she sticks up for Lena Dunham and Sheryl Sandberg, for instance, because in many ways they are her peers as daughters of privilege and boardroom feminists. Dunham and Gay share that indelible quirk that happens when too many people encourage you as a child to view every mundane thing that happened to you as the sort of thing that you should write a personal essay about. Sandberg and Gay both think that all problems in the world can be solved with individual effort and charitable donations because to people born into privilege and comfort, that is largely true.

I am not saying that rich people are immune to bad circumstances, however, nor would I be able to say that about Gay's body of work, because it is firmly (and in my opinion voyeuristically, myopically, uncomfortably) rooted in her suffering. Clearly, this resonates with many people, but it just makes me feel like I'm paying to read someone's therapist-assigned journaling exercises. I don't feel the need to read about Gay's discomfort flying coach because of the relative size mismatch between her body and the amount of real estate allotted her, for instance, both because I am also fat and uncomfortable flying economy and because it's just not an interesting or unique experience.

I'm sure someone has compiled or is compiling a list of every boneheaded thing she has ever said on twitter, which at a rate of about 3 tweets per day every day for the last 14 years is probably a lot of dumb things, but I doubt much of it is dumber than what you'd expect from any other interchangeable bluecheck with terminal must-comment-on-everything brainrot. I am content to just say: I don't find her work to be that good, and to admit that upfront, because maybe I am looking for reasons why she sucks harder than I should, and then to mention a few reasons why I think her work isn't that good: it doesn't say anything new, it's out of touch, it's self-centered, it's fixated in her persecution.

And if anyone has read all this and is already composing a heated counter-essay:

2) if you are a stranger to me and found this by accident, I 100% do not care about what you think

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joezworld · 3 years

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📁

Specifically, any headcanons of the Sodor Engines interacting with the internet, or the internet in general?

For some reason, I’d imagine that podcasts and the like are popular among vehicles in general.

That is a question that I've been working on for some time - because I'm workshopping my own Tornado headcanon (and boy oh boy does she use the internet a lot) - but I have some ideas for the Sodor engines as well:

Henry is probably the most "plugged in" engine on the island, weirdly enough. One of his drivers gave him an iPod back in the early 2000s, and kindly preloaded it with a bunch of torrented music.

BTW, that works because all the engines are now equipped with automatic train warning systems, and the little on-board computer has a USB port - as a nice side effect it allows music players to work with the engines in the same way as bone-conducting headphones do. The computer also acts as some kind of computer interface, which I am not going to explain how that works because Jesus Christ I don’t know how it does either.

Henry has managed to upgrade his iPod a few times since thanks to hand-me-down units from NWR staff, so he eventually got his buffers on a wifi-enabled iPod Touch and now downloads new music from the station wifi. He does listen to podcasts, but as every other engine will tell you, you could show Henry ten thousand new and exciting songs from the best artists in the world, and his top ten played songs are still going to be Genesis, Phil Collins, and Yes. Bear considers it a win that he managed to convince Henry to regularly listen to Rush after a mere twenty years of convincing.

Mavis and Daisy listen to a very interesting program called The News, because as stated elsewhere, they invest a shitload of money and need to be on top of things. Thomas and Percy wish that Daisy would use headphones or something similar to that, instead of listening to Bloomberg TV at loud volumes in the middle of the night. Toby frankly doesn’t mind, as it’s very nice to be kept up-to-date on the outside world.

In a move that surprises no-one, Bill and Ben have a podcast where they talk about whatever they think about at that moment - usually horse-racing, investing, and clay mining. As such, they have a wide audience, almost none of whom know that they’re that Bill and Ben, as their podcast is audio-only.

In an also unsurprising move, Edward and BoCo have been made very much aware that Bill and Ben have a podcast, but are still unsure as to what the hell a podcast is, despite being frequent guests on it.

Of the main line diesels, only Bear has shown any real interest in the internet, and was immediately put in charge of the Amazon Alexa when a unit was installed in the diesel shed. He also has an iPod that he got for Christmas a few years back. (The NWR has a very good personal electronics recycling program called give it to Henry, he’ll make use it.)

Bear does listen to podcasts as well as music, but his choices are so insufferably boring that even Henry refuses to listen to them. (I don’t really listen to podcasts - despite making one - so insert the most boring podcast you can think of here.)

As for other internet uses...

Gordon is very up-to-date on the newest social media trends - somehow - but only really cares when he is involved. He won’t admit it, but he’s been trying to figure out how to work a camera/selfie stick for some time so he can start up his own Instagram account. So far he has been unsuccessful, but one day he will manage it.

James has had an ongoing feud with his own Wikipedia page for about a decade now. The article sourced most of its information about his construction off of some out-of-print book about the L&Y. The book in question is accurate about James’ class, but not James himself - as he was a prototype engine. There’s no other primary sources available, so the very dedicated Wikipedia mod who created the page won’t change it - no matter how much James complains that he was there! He knows what happened!

Every now and again a TTTE fan blog/tumblr will make a post about hypothetical “ships” of the Sodor engines. Most of the time it’s shipping the core characters like Gordon and Henry, much to Gordon’s bafflement and Henry’s amusement!

Only one blog (a ttte fan tumblr by the curious name of @mean-scarlet-deceiver ) has gotten it right. Henry actually reached out to congratulate this blogger, but was unfortunately mistaken for a very dedicated roleplay account.

James is very annoyed by these blogs, as they have never once correctly guessed who he is “shipped” with! He has tried several times to be seen in public with Delta, but these events have never gone as planned - the “best” instance is when Edward rolled by at exactly the wrong moment, leading to months of speculation that JamesxEdward was the ship to look out for!

Thomas, being a generally oblivious sort of engine, was totally unaware of the online fan community around the TV show until he started getting actively harassed by vloggers and Instagrammers in the early 2010s. He’s fine with it now, but it was a deeply unusual experience for most of 2012.

Toby has developed an unexpectedly popular following on social media following his collab with Stormzy. His official twitter is huge now, with over a million followers, even if he has no idea what to do with it. He posts rarely, but usually manages to make an incredible post when he does.

No-one is sure who told Oliver what a “fan-production” is, but if you manage to get ahold of him for any period of time and ask him nicely, he will lend his voice to your TTTE fan-project, so long as it isn’t about [INSERT TERRIBLE SOCIAL/POLITICAL VIEW(S) HERE]. This means that he has 100% voiced dramatic readings of NSFW Fanfics before, which is always an absolute riot to spring on people unannounced.

There is a series of slice-of-life TTTE fanfics on Ao3 that have been written with such accuracy and innate railway knowledge that people are sure it was written by a Sodor engine, but nobody knows which one.

The Culdee Fell Railway has very active Instagram, Twitter and YouTube accounts, with all of the engines and coaches showing up regularly. It’s about the closest any of the railways on Sodor have come to what those outside the UK would call “normal locomotive social media”.

The Skarloey Railway has social media accounts too, but they don’t really feature the engines in any meaningful way, instead being used as a normal service announcements page.

The SR is a real working railway that doesn’t rely on tourism money as much as the others do, so they get a bit of a pass here.

The Arlesdale Railway has Twitter and YouTube, which didn’t usually get a lot of hits until 2020, when Ivan and Amanda Farrier started badgering the staff to make some videos just to alleviate some boredom. So far the most popular videos on the channel are a front-mounted camera video of the entire line slow-tv style, Bert explaining how steam engines work, and a video of Mike complaining about Justin Bieber for a solid half-hour.

That’s about it as far as Sodor goes, but before we’re done, I want to take a moment to talk about Tornado, because I have some fun ideas for her...

First of all, we need to establish that Tornado is very young. Her construction only started in late 90′s, and she was steamed to life in 2000, putting her firmly into the “Zoomer” category. Add in the fact that she was built by a bunch of old men who didn’t really know how to treat a new engine, and she was raised much more like a human than a locomotive - I’ll get to this much more in the proper Tornado Headcanon post, but what this means here is that when social media started being a thing in the mid-to-late 2000′s, the people at the A1 Trust decided that they needed a young person to run things like Twitter, Facebook, and Myspace... and, well, Tornado was the youngest person in the trust by a large margin.

I should state here that in the rest of the world, locomotives are on the internet at roughly the same level as humans are, so there’s plenty of equipment to connect a phone/computer/camera to an engine - being English, the A1 Trust didn’t know how common it was, but they managed to get it up and running just the same.

So Tornado has very quickly become attuned to the internet, just like any other teenager would. (yes, let’s let that settle into our minds for a moment - Tornado is barely old enough to drink in the US!) Quite naturally that means that she knows social media inside and out, and is actually quite a proficient social media manager for the trust, managing all of their social pages. More than one person who has complained about the trust on twitter has unknowingly been complaining to Tornado herself!

“On the internet, nobody knows that you’re a dog Engine”.

Tornado has her own personal social media accounts too, but most/all of the time she gets mistaken for a very dedicated role-player, as the general perception of British Locomotives is that they don’t tweet. This has resulted in some amazing reactions from podcast hosts (because, as you might expect, Tornado is very knowledgeable about steam traction in the 21st century, and tweets about it often, so train podcasts want to talk to her) when she gets invited onto video calls, turns on her webcam, and is met with screams from people who suddenly realize that her profile picture is accurate.

By far the best instance of this is when she was invited onto a video call with a railfan podcast. She was at the NRM at the time and managed to convince them to let her use their Skype setup. A wide-angle lens was needed because she was on the turntable in the Great Hall, so that podcast quickly got sidetracked when her webcam was turned on and revealed Tornado, with Mallard, Evening Star, City of Truro, and Green Arrow visible behind her. Whatever the original topic was quickly got thrown out in favor of a 2-hour Q&A with some of the most famous engines in the UK.

#ask response #the internet #ttte thomas #ttte toby #ttte bill and ben #ttte gordon #ttte daisy #ttte mavis #ttte henry #ttte bear #ttte oliver #tornado #nrm #trains using the internet #ttte #sodor #sodor shenangians #the formatting on this one is super fucked up and i can't figure out how to fix it - sorry

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ravenadottir · 3 years

Note

What do you think Kassam’s route would have been like if he had been one of the og boys, and how would his character have developed

my guy, i think i had a braingasm the moment i saw this ask! this is such a cool galaxy brain question, i can’t even...

‘cause i think so much about the possibility of kassam as an og, it’s actually ridiculous!! but in order to put him on day 1, i would have to put one of the boys in casa amor, and i’m choosing gary. that’s because lottie is gonna take interest in kassam right away. let me organize these thoughts in order of happenings in the villa...

♪ when mc steps outside, he’s lowkey interested, but he keeps his hands behind his back, only giving her a nod, accompanied by a smirk, when she says hi.

♪ “if any of you fancy me, please step forward.” kassam would be discreetly stepping forward, shooting her a neutral look, since he doesn’t want to come across as desperate, but a wink is also happening.

♪ “why did you step forward, kassam?” “i think we’re gonna hit it off, and you seem like a real sound girl.” bobby would say something like “ha! get it, because he’s a dj!” and laugh, but the prickly boy wouldn’t even look at him, focusing on mc.

♪ if mc chose to couple up with him, he would stand by her side, whispering his conversation, slightly analyzing the other boys.

♪ when lottie struts out, not gonna lie, he’s gonna think she’s attractive, but maybe a little intimidating. i do believe if she stole him (which i very much want to do here, since it’s an o.g kassam route), he’ll be standing next to her, but glancing at mc’s direction.

♪ the truth or dare challenge would probably be the opportunity to send him the picture, but if mc decided to kiss her partner i think that would “scare” kassam a bit. just because i don’t think he’s into p.d.a.

♪ he would have a lot of trouble relating/talking to anyone, because he automatically hates rocco, and for sure has some issues with how much rocco and bobby talk. which leads me to believe he would be closer to noah and ibrahim. (IT’S SO FREAKY TO THINK ABOUT THAT!!).

♪ priya is still gonna steal mc’s partner, which is not a big deal because she’s more interested in kassam than anyone else.

♪ kassam having more time in the villa means he’s also gonna open up to mc, eventually, and i think that’s what i wanted the most in casa amor. something to make us understand why he’s been closed up and extremely on edge at all times, like having the ear tick, the nerves, the quietness, if there’s anything to be talked about, mc would be person he would go to.

♪ music is probably what helps him relax, and right now he’s deprived of that, in every instance, so if the game wanted me to pay gems to bang some pots and do the glasses’ rim trick with him, i would a hundred percent be paying for that!

♪ bobby being musical himself would definitely blossom a connection between them. something that would make him a little fonder of cake boy. “i was wrong to judge you so fast, i guess.” and this could’ve been the “rap gang” throwback to season 1, having kassam doing beats, bobby doing the harmony, probably ibrahim rapping nonsense along with mc, and getting weird lines out of it! i would pay gems every time, i don’t care how much that would cost!

♪ as the recoupling approaches, kassam says he wants to couple up with us, but because bobby and he weren’t so close, the pastry chef has no idea of the dj’s intentions, proceeding to pick us.

♪ bobby’s choice forces kassam to choose between marisol and hannah, and going for the law student would be the obvious pick. but so much more awkward than gary’s was, because kassam wouldn’t try to hide the fact that he’s into someone else.

♪ marisol and kassam would be a friendship couple from the get go, because they have nothing in common, and that would probably make marisol realize her attraction towards rocco earlier.

♪ i do believe kassam would’ve been a cheeky sort, not the type that gary is, but definitely sneaking around to steal a kiss or two. “i don’t know what’s happening to me. i wouldn’t usually do this...” he smiles, almost not noticing it. “... but i feel close to you... it’s weird...”

“wow, kassam, thanks...”

“no, no i don’t mean like that... i’m just not used to it. you’re not the weird part of all this.”

“and what is?”

“me...” he proceeds to laugh uncomfortably.

♪ twitter bingo would have a fact about him, possibly a secret kiss, but it’s not revealed who he had it with.

♪ mr. love island. his “swimsuit” portion would be similar to lucas’, flexing his arms once he gets out of the pool, direct advice from noah, rahim and bobby. his talent would definitely include music in, possibly doing those beatbox tricks with two or three layers of sound... maybe even the low bass voice, which it’s honestly... SO FUCKING HOT. it would be a tough competition. between ibrahim doing the rubik’s cube trick shirtless, and kassam doing this... i don’t think noah or bobby would stand a chance!

♪ roccosol is still happening, and kassam is baffled by how much lottie is lying through her teeth, and shouting about the matter, since she was already talking to him behind rocco’s back. remember the welcome party for lucas and henrik? which would also mean kassam doesn’t take much heat from food/drinks, and that’s funny to me, for some reason!

♪ i do think instead of rahim, kassam would’ve been voted as “least dateable/leaving the show with a girlfriend. not endangered like lucas/henrik/rocco, but definitely voted. mc having the opportunity of the firepit conversation would end up in a kiss, and the angst is just taken on a new level!

♪ the date with him, before the recoupling on day 9, would be the chance we have to get to know him better, maybe having him tell us an embarrassing story about a gig he had. and if it was an ex’s story, even better! we don’t have that from him.

♪ hideaway scene, after the girls’ choice, would have him slightly less confident than he usually is. “i’m really excited to be here with you, i just don’t know exactly what to do.”

“i mean, if you don’t know, i don’t think i can get a biology book here.”

he would probably chuck a pillow in your direction and laugh at your joke. “i’m just nervous, i guess... i’m not used to feeling nervous around girls.”

♪ now! here’s the tricky part of the whole villa plotline in his route. operation nope. if mc went with it, he would end things, loudly and clearly, because he cannot stand betrayal, much less coming from the girl he spent so many days chasing. and he would probably advise MC to tell hope about it before it happened. kassam should be the type that breaks up with you and don’t want you back, later. i would definitely program him to act like that!

♪ drama to him is pointless, especially if it involves other people. he doesn’t see why people are being so out there about things, and definitely doesn’t understand why his girl has to be the one to solve everything. “i understand they’re upset but it’s not your job to fix it.”

♪ chelsea coming in, along with jakub, would irritate him to the extreme. the bomb she drops about him and lottie would have everyone riled up. YES, I WANT KASSAM TO KISS LOTTIE. they were coupled up before and he thinks she’s hot, besides the fact he was insecure about mc being picked by bobby. similar plot line to gary’s, except he might say something like “i had to know if there was anything there.” i really want him to explain himself here, but with short words: “we were coupled up just an hour before the recoupling. i wanted to make sure there was nothing there.”

“and...?” mc asks, staring at him.

he glances at lottie, shrugging. “there isn’t.”

♪ as revenge, mc would go on the date with jakub, resulting in kassam being apprehensive when it comes to talk about his feelings to her. and very angry and jealous, because that’s just who he is!

♪ the news about the recoupling arrive the night priya and hope are having that big fight, and yes, the bathroom scene happens with kassam, but he’s one of the boys that say the line “i want this to mean something to you”.

♪ disaster recoupling gets you both angry, and kassam would, for the first time, raise his voice, questioning jakub and the boy who steals mc. no, he wouldn’t be like the others and only question jakub or no one. at that point, everything is working against him, and just two days after mc finds out about the secret kiss, this is throwing him into a spiral of stress.

♪ casa amor gets everyone pissed off, and everything stays the same, except you get gary instead of kassam, and he’s interested in lottie and mc. (maybe the unicorn route wouldn’t happen). but casa days would’ve been way more interesting because now marisol and lottie are interested in the same guy! and in some cases, mc as well lol NOW, THAT WOULD’VE MADE CASA INTERESTING!

♪ cheeky the way gary is, he’s probably trying to stick with one girl by suggesting a kiss, sharing the bed and etc, but if mc is not interested in him, lottie would probably be torn about bringing him back or not, and marisol would get confused between gary and graham, proceeding to focus on fish boy, later.

♪ coming back from casa amor, kassam is single, and you get bean bags conversation, only with him he says how anxious he was for mc to come back. “i’m just... really glad you’re here. i...” he stammers a bit. “i missed you.”

“did you miss lottie too?” mc would raise her brows, slightly irritated.

“no, of course not! i missed...” realizing she’s being prickly, just like him, he continues. “har, har... very funny.”

“i didn’t think it was funny finding out you kissed her.”

“i wouldn’t think that either... i’m sorry i didn’t tell you.”

♪ the route is pretty much the same from there, except for a couple of moments:

one: the conversation we have with gary, by the pool, is held by kassam, and he talks about anxiety, and how that affected his relationships in the past. he didn’t know how much he missed out because he was too afraid of taking the leap, and he’s glad he’s in a better place now. also, talking about therapy and mental illness in the same tone gary did, with body issues.

two: he would make a comment of how excited he is to write songs about mc, and how much he has been thinking of his journey and the album he’s gonna dedicate to his time there.

♪ asking mc to be his girlfriend would go a little differently, since he’s not the blob of characterization he normally becomes in the game.

♪ he would continue to be prickly, and sarcastic, but his journey would’ve taught him how to trust people more, and the improbable friendships he developed there would go to show just how much he’s opening up, and how it can only get better from there.

♪ his speech, at the prom, would include his friends, mentioning them as the support system he had in there, just like one of the girls do with mc. “my journey wouldn’t have been the same if it wasn’t for you lads. and despite the bad advice i got, i guess everything worked out in the end.”

i really think kassam deserved a spot in the og’s line up, mostly because of how different he is from the other boys. he would probably have a brief friendship with lucas if the physiotherapist stayed, too.

hope this is what you were looking for. thank you so much for this ask!

#litg kassam #litg #love island the game #love island the game season 2 #litg s2 #litg season 2 #fusebox #fusebox games #queue #alternative routes

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muninnhuginn · 3 years

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I saw your post comparing the finales of odd taxi and wonder egg and i agree the odd taxi finale was TIGHT - i was wondering though if you knew about the production issues on wep and that's why they had that recap episode. the actual actual finale just came out today!

Hey ^^.

Yeah, I'm aware of the production issues on WEP and I've seen the proper finale. Just gonna go through my understanding of them below so sorry if I repeat stuff you're already aware of!

(EDIT: This post got a lot longer than I intended so I put it under a readmore but it basically goes into my opinion on the production stuff as well as how the finale contradicts the groundwork previously laid out)

From what I gather, they've had scheduling issues throughout which led to them having to bring in a lot of foreign animators (I think ANN actually did an interview with some of the translators involved in relaying information between production and the animators - I'll see if I can find that after this). There were also instances where I believe people involved in the production literally ended up in hospital due to overwork.

In terms of the finale episode itself, I think this reddit post gives the gist of the timeline:

(Please keep in mind that though this is an example from just the finale, it happened for several episodes that they only finished with hours to spare - this actually led to the episode being released late on the Eng sub side a couple of times)

I think with WEP, it is going to become difficult to untangle where the issues arise from the production problems and where it's down to the actual writing and directing.

The show definitely started strong and in terms of tackling the really dicey topics it did superbly (I remember my only real issue on that end prior to the finale was the Accas commenting on "male vs female suicides" and iirc that was clarified on Twitter as *not* being the views of the writers - and the Accas acting that way tied in massively with their backstory in the Frill episode and how they clearly don't understand.) The art and animation throughout? Honestly, if I didn't know already about the production issues from outside sources like Twitter I'm not sure I would've been able to tell? Because for the most part it was ridiculously solid (though of course there were still signs - namely the midpoint recap episode and the way they stopped interweaving flower language near the very end and the sheer number of stills they used in ep 13).

Where the finale fell down in my eyes was the very thing that brought me into the series in the first place, aka how it handled the difficult topics. The narrative of the series is fairly strong early on, about how various societal factors contribute towards suicides, especially in young girls. This starts to falter somewhat down the latter end, though my personal opinion is that the Frill stuff doesn't discount the societal factors, but rather the pacing was off with her introduction and so there was no way the Frill and AI angle would have time to be fully explored and resolved within the remaining episodes. Anyway, society and how it impacts on minors with fairly nuanced takes in terms of how adults can take advantage of power dynamics over minors. There’s also the more straightforward character part about how the main four start as outsiders but end up actually becoming proper friends, hanging out outside of the egg quests.

With this in mind, there are some places where the final episode actively went against the previously laid groundwork:

In the Frill ep, we see Himari claiming to Ura-Acca that she’ll be “marriable” when she grows up, with the implication that this is pretty horrifying just hammered in by how she then mimics Frill with the “pop” noise. And then separately from this, we see that Sawaki has painted art of Ai as a grown-up and says “someday you’ll be a wonderful, adult woman like your mother”. Her mother who, I have to point out here, he is dating. There are various other red flags throughout the episodes but I’m just highlighting this one because it’s a parallel within the series itself. In the finale what we get is Sawaki saying that truth behind Koito’s suicide (which he was heavily implicated in) was “Koito tried to put advances on me, yelled rape accusations, then fell off a building”. And that scene ends with alt!Koito saying “Mr Sawaki is kind”. The entire series had been setting up red flags in terms of Sawaki’s relationship with Koito pre-series as well as his behaviour towards Ai and then the resolution is just “Koito was lying about rape threats and Sawaki is innocent”. Like, you can’t even argue this is somehow commentary on how there can be witch hunts when people make false accusations because nothing happened to Sawaki. It’s just plain and simple going against both Sawaki’s suspicious behaviour *and* undermining a lot of the previous points made about sexual harassment by having it be that Koito was lying. (Sidenote: If you *did* want to have something about people lying about sexual harassment without it undermining the rest of the series, you would have put it midway and had counter examples throughout, not put it at the very end so it becomes the final say, so to speak.)

Ura-Acca, Acca, and Frill. I personally think some of this is down to pacing issues which were present earlier than the finale compounded by the overall production issues, but regardless, this entire plotline with Frill and her minions was set up a few episodes prior to the finale. In the finale itself, the only time we even see Frill is in Neiru’s dream where her only role is to reveal that Neiru is an AI (and bring up the potential parallels that could be contained in that only to immediately go “but we don’t have time to unpack that”). The Accas just exist to say to Ai about the eggs, with no mention of the Warriors of Eros or Fear of Death stuff, despite how all four girls managed to achieve their goals. There is just no resolution or even acknowledgement as to this storyline.

This one is more subjective and tied in to how Neiru was handled. A big point which is shown during the series but explicitly laid out in ep 12 is how Ai has friends now and has grown throughout the series. Don’t get me wrong, I understand that people drift and that they no longer have the egg quests tying them together. But at the same time, why make the point near the end when Ai is talking to her alt!self that she has friends and has grown now if you’re then just going to undo that at the final hurdle. (I could go into the Neiru stuff specifically but I think this post has gotten long enough and I’d tangent even further from talking about consistency throughout the series into the general writing of the last episode)

In retrospect, I do think you can tell from episode 12 that it was going to be almost impossible for WEP to stick the landing from the pieces that we had there, but I think it could have been salvageable if they'd just kept their own themes and narrative consistent with the rest of the show.

#wonder egg priority #wonder egg priority spoilers #ask #long post #sorry anon I went on a total tangent when you probably just wanted to tell me the finale was up #please lmk if you want me to tag this with any specific warnings #I kept quiet about how I think odd taxi did manage to hit the key points as part of its finale because that would be spoilers ahoy #but ye no that series did great at hitting all the key points and resolving them so I only have a few minor quibbles there

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ironwoman359 · 3 years

Note

Okay smart ass. How come you and the other big blogs aren't saying shit about the racism and other problematic things happening in the fandom? Specially when almost all of you were always ready to put your opinions on something as petty as fans criticizing Thomas for how he wears a skirt.

Well, I cannot speak for other ‘big blogs’ because, while I am friends with some of the people who run the blogs that you’re lumping into the ‘big’ cateogory, we are not a monolith. We don’t have a secret group chat where we all decide “today we shall talk about Thomas wearing a skirt and ignore racism on purpose.” I can offer speculation that perhaps more people quickly added their own two cents on the skirt thing because when compared to everything else that was going on in the world, both on tumblr and off it, it was such a simple thing to digest. Everyone was craving something simple at that time, so it was an easy, cathartic thing to jump in and say “hey, don’t be mean in people’s inboxes” and proceed to stop thinking about almost just as fast. Anyway, like I said, I can’t speak for other people, only for myself. So since you apparently want me to, I’ll speak for myself.

“How come you and the other big blogs aren’t saying shit about the racism...”

I am white. It is not my place to speak over poc about racism. It is my place to reblog their posts, elevating their voices without commentary. That is something that I learned this year, and it is something I intend to continue to practice. I do recall making one post in early June, about not using the b/l.m tag on fanart posts, but after seeing several poc express that they wanted white people to talk less and listen more, I elected to make no more original posts about the subject and stick to reblogging without comment. If you’re looking for some good posts about racism in the sanders sides fandom, here are a few good ones. Though most of the posts about racism that make their way across my dash and subsequently onto my blog are less fandom focused and more broad.

“...and other problematic things happening in the fandom?”

This is where I must repeat what I said the other day; this could relate to any NUMBER of things, and unless you are more specific I have no idea what you’re talking about. Are you talking about callouts for specific creators? There were two that happened over the summer that I know about, but A) again, those were about racism, so I chose not to muddle the conversation with my voice, and B) the works being discussed in those situations were works I was personally unfamiliar with, and thus did not feel like I had enough information to state an opinion publically (which again, as I understand it, would have been unneccessary additions to an issue I have no authority to speak on).

So maybe you’re talking about the Twitter callouts, or the situation with the artists for the Storytime Madlibs video? Again, I felt as though I lacked sufficient need/information to make any statements about those issues. I have a twitter, but I barely use it, and don’t use it for the fander community at all. I had NO IDEA what any of that stuff people were talking about was, and still don’t, and since I don’t use Twitter and am not in that community, it seemed pointless to speak about. That is not to trivialize any hurt or harm that was caused or experienced during those events, just to say that I have nothing to do with them, which is why there’s nothing about it on my blog. (The joke I made about fandom twitter was supposed to be universal and relate to how all the twitter discourse these days seems to be a rehash of tumblr discourse from five years ago. Bad timing on my part I guess, oh well.) And, being 100% honest here, I don’t think I even watched the Storytime Madlibs video. If i did, I don’t remember much about it. I know that when it came out that the artists were underpaid, I reblogged one or two posts about how content creators should not be put on pedestals and are not perfect, but the rest of that situation was centered around the artists involved in that video, and since I was not one of them nor did I know any of them personally, it seemed like something that again, I shouldn’t bring up because I didn’t know anything about it. From what I understand, a solution is/was being worked out, but I haven’t heard anything recently.

Or by ‘problematic things’ do you mean the existence of remrom, or unsympathetic sides, or how I’ve been in this fandom for over 3 years and our anon hate problem has never gone away, or the rampant purity culture, or the pervasive ageism, or literally a dozen other things, some of which are genuine issues and some of which are simply differing opinions being handled with all the grace of an elephant on roller skates? I’ve said it over and over again on this blog, but this fandom is not perfect. No fandom is perfect, but this one in particular has a reputation for being ‘pure’ and ‘wholesome’ for some reason; a reputation that it has never upheld by the way, because, shocker, fandoms are made of humans, and humans are not flawless porcelein dolls. We’re incredibly flawed creatures, and mistakes are inevitable. The sooner we all accept that and start treating our mistakes as an opportunity to learn and grow and do better next time instead of a signal that we were always worthless pieces of garbage that had no chance to do anything other than fuck up, the better off we’ll all be.

And may I reiterate: look outside this website for a minute. There is SO MUCH going on in the world right now, every single one of us is utterly exhausted, we are suffering from a massive traumatic event, several massive traumatic events at once, actually, forgive me if my attention is spread a little thin at the moment.

I’ll readily admit, there have been posts in the past several months that I’ve seen, read, and then not reblogged. Often this is because I feel as though the post that I am seeing does not have the full picture, and that it would be irresponsible to reblog only that part of the ‘discourse.’ And most of the time, I just don’t have the mental energy to go looking for the full story on whatever the Issue of the Week is. And I shouldn’t have to. Because at the end of the day, what I put on my own blog is my business, and no one else’s. There’s not some rule list that magically appears once you pass 1,000 followers that tells you what you must and must not do as a blogger. I am not required to weigh in on every little thing that happens in this fandom just because a lot of people in it follow me, and in fact, NO ONE is obligated to reblog something regardless of how many followers they have. If you are dissatisfied with the posts I make and/or reblog, you’re welcome to unfollow, there’s no rule that says you have to stay. But my energy is so limited these days, and I’m not going to devote what little free time and headspace I have to figuring out the ‘Correct’ take on fandom discourse.

I’d like to end by once again reiterating what many have said beffore, that racism is not the same thing as fandom discourse. It is always my goal to not speak over the voices of poc, and if in this post I have done that in any way, I’d like to apologize. Poc are welcome to DM me so that we can discuss it in any such instance, whether on this post or any other from the past or that comes up in the future. I am still working on unlearning racism, and know I am likely to make many more missteps on that journey. Stay safe out there everyone.

#taylor talks #fanders #fandom discourse #racism tw #longpost #ask to tag #asks and answers

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mariaiscrafting · 3 years

Note

You know, what think I like when you are critical of a content creator is that you know how to separate a fact from especulation, unlike a blog out there that took especulation as facts.

Example, that night when we were critical of Karl, or any instance you have discussed about him, a lot of anons were saying that he gave them clout chaser vibes to them, and despite your opinion, you expressed that those were only especulation and not the truth, and to keep that in mind. That's good critical thinking.

But this blog had some similar anons, saying that he only is friends with the Feral Boys gro clout- In fact, they said the Feral Boys were only in it to benefit from clout and money. And they took it as a truth. I know you instance on them is neutral, but come one, they are friends. All of them. Karl isn't friends with them for clout. Like today Karl was playing golf with salad gang plus Sapnap and George at first and then Quackity and Dream joined bc they had spared time and it all devolved into typical chaos (Poor Corpse and Tina and Brook, had to endure those children lol/lh /j). Like, the stream wasn't planned with the 5/5 yet they joined, missing Karl and just having fun.

Idk, I guess that blog's superiority (They were a SBI focused blog) just irritated me. It's as if they were putting both groups at each other as if those streamers aren't friends or close. They were singing prayers of one while shunning the other based from especulation. Criticissism is fine, in fact recommended to be critical of your interests, but taking rumors as facts to base your crit is yikes. It's as if I wanted to crit SBI and base it only of "Philza hanging only with people younger than him is kinda weird ngl.." or "Sbi doesn't care about Tommy cuz he joined late" like that dumb Tumblr post did or some fuckers in Twitter imply.

The main reason I take so much care to separate speculation from evidence-backed theories and confirmed truths is because I feel like that separation is what distinguishes us from mcyttwt the most. One of the main reasons for mcyttwt's toxicity, imo - for its relentless cancelling of everyone, for its bandwagon campaigns - is that people oftentimes criticize and defend based on their personal feelings rather than rationale or evidence.

For example, I complain a lot about Dream stans on here, but you know the reason I didn't stop watching Dream directly after the cheating scandal broke loose, even though I thought he cheated? Because of mcytblr Dream stans. Mcytblr Dream stans engaged with me in discussion, both publicly and in DMs, about the cheating scandal, and even those who eventually came to the conclusion that Dream didn't cheat accepted the facts and statistics they were given and kept a healthy skepticism throughout the process. On Twitter, Dream stans were defending him before he even made a video following up to the mods' initial accusations because they felt that Dream wasn't the kind of guy to lie or cheat. They were replying to screenshots of statistical analyses from subreddits and to articles from mathematicians and staticians with extremely reactionary responses because of that feeling, which they believed in so adamantly, they had accepted it as fact. The thing is, to believe that Dream didn't cheat in the face of all the statistical and rhetorical evidence to the contrary is, in itself, speculative. Usually we think of speculation as a baseless theory that something is a positive truth- that is to say, that something did happen. But speculation also applies to those theories of someone not having done something, when the opposite has been nearly proven to be true.

For this same reason, I chose not to ignore the anti-technotwt threads with screenshots of Techno's old tweets in them. For me to have simply ignored these screenshots and continued supposing that Techno never expressed bigoted beliefs and/or currently doesn't would have been speculative on my part, and to boot, blatantly wrong, given the evidence to the contrary.

People in this fandom, and in all RPF/RPF-adjacent fandoms need to understand that almost everything they believe about the CCs they watch is speculative, at least to some extent, because of the nature of the content they make. Even if someone, in your opinion, displays evidence of some aspect of their personality - whether that be some form of bigoted, sweet, rude, clout-chasing, or anything else - because of the extremely one-sided nature of sharing one's life through a screen, that theory of ours will almost alwyas only ever be speculation, not a solid conclusion that can be drawn. We will never know these people's true intentions behind something shared to us via the Internet.

That vagueness leads to virtually every viewer creating a different theory in our heads about the CCs we watch, and we can't treat those theories as facts, especially not when sharing them with the rest of a fandom. I'm not a very big blog, but I consider even over 50 followers to be way too many people to spread a theory too, without at least clarifying that what I'm posting is speculation. If I have evidence, I like to list it or, if I can, provide sources; but otherwise, I take care to qualify most things with phrases or disclaimers that will clue followers into the speculative nature of whatever it is I'm saying. This is because theories and "feelings" can blaze through a fandom like wildfire, especially somewhere like Twitter, where so many things are word-of-mouth or based on summary due to character limitation.

You know why mcyttwt was cancelling Andi? Only a handful of original Tweeters under the cancel Andi hashtags actually knew what clips or tweets to criticize her for, or tried to elaborate on that criticism. But because every other mcyttwt user was getting bombarded by their mutuals hate-posting about Andi on their TLs, the "negative feeling" towards Andi grew and grew, even if most people didn't even know what they were supposed to feel negative about, exactly. Our judgement works on a quick trigger on the Internet because of the amount of information we're receiving, and so, even a single bad word against someone you don't have too strong of an opinion on can fundamentally alter your perception of them, usually subconsciously. If the first thing you see about Andi, who you've only seen on a couple LOH's or a couple Punz streams before then, is a tweet along the lines of, "disappointed in Andi for her homophobia and joking about suicide," despite you having no context, you will most likely be pushed to the negative side of her. Thus begins the cycle of hatred, building up and up, leading to you searching for more and more criticism about Andi, whether speculative or not, until you solidly and genuinely believe she is a Horrible Person. It all starts with the vaguest fucking feeling, because that's all speculation has to go off of, and it snowballs into a fucking wildfire across an entire fandom. I'm not about to be another person to let feelings snowball and spread like that.

Now, I don't know what exact blog you're referring to, but as an adamant SBI enthusiast, let me flip the argument many SBI stans have for their speculation upon the genuity of Karl's friendship with the Feral Bois, onto SBI. What do we have to go off of for the genuity of SBI's friendship, anyways? Our perceived brother dynamic between Tommy and Wilbur could very well just be Tommy capitalizing on Wilbur's brand and continuing the charade until now because it's been profitable. Maybe Techno only continues to associate with SBI because he knows how much his fanbase likes headcanon'ing about SBI, so he puts up with streams with them so he can continue to feed his fanbase with dynamics he knows they're obsessed with. Maybe Phil would rather play MC with people his age, and actually dislikes that he's friends with a teenager, but sticks around because he profitted so much off of Dream SMP and SBI-related content. And what could any SBI stan have to argue with me on any of these theories? Just because SBI laughs around each other and seems fond of each other doesn't mean they're actually like that behind the cameras. They so seldomly stream or make videos together anymore, anyways, so maybe they've grown tired of keeping up the dynamic.

Everything I said could be interpreted as utter bullshit, and that's because it fucking is. I don't actually know what Techno wants to do with his life, or how Wilbur and Tommy actually feel about each other, or who Phil wants to fucking befriend. The same goes for Feral Boys. There's nothing wrong with stating your theories or speculation, but to treat them as fact or not at least qualify such posts with the fact that this is all based on your bias and opinion, and no substantive evidence, is irresponsible. Just because you feel like one or more of the Feral Boys is "clout-chasing" doesn't mean you have the right to tout that feeling as truth. I feel a lot of things about a lot of CCs, both negative and positive, but no matter how strong my feelings, unless they have substantive evidence backing them up, I have no right to treat them as facts with my followers.

#anyways this kinda went everywhere but oh well #discourse #fandom critical #karl jacobs #feral boys #mcyt #asks #uhhh yeah this isnt neg to any cc just to the way fandom will treat them

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