#like obviously Paywalls Bad

[queenoftheantz]

Heeey can you guys give me your fave ttrpg podcasts? (dnd or other games) I have listened to Taz, f@tt, naddpod, dames and dragons, bombarded, dndads, dimension 20, i tried CR but I thought it was boring unfortunately. Too classic dnd. I want comedy with emotion!! fun characters!

OR insane concepts. f@tt is not comedy but i feel like i get my mind blown every time they have an episode 0. Trains are a plus

#im sorry CR one day i might try you again #but just so you understand #i listened to like 28 episodes #and those are long bad boys #i liked literally none of the characters the world was boring they felt aimless and no plot to hook me #sorry #do love taz and dndads obviously #loved the concept for bombarded #f@tt blows my mind every day #dimension 20 is like cute ill listen to the paywall stuff one day

[olderthannetfic]

Apparently there's actually a legit pedophile in one of my fandoms and I'm the last to know because, after five years of this fandom posting "this person is a pedo! he stans a 15 year old anime character!" or "this guy is a MAN in a magical GIRL fandom, obviously he's a pedophile!" or "he claims to be gay and not into girls but then why is he hanging around in this discord server that has minors in it?! pedo! screenshots under the cut!" I just automatically assume every callout post is garbage I can discard automatically.

To be clear, it's not that I didn't see callout posts for him. But they all begin with "he likes this character who need I remind you is a CHILD" and "he once retweeted someone who draws nsfw commissions behind a paywall LIKE A FREAK" and none of them ever lead with, y'know. The part where he fucked a 9 year old. That's not nearly as important as noting that he thinks it's okay for minors to ship themselves with the adult villain, OMG THAT'S A VILLAIN!!!!

It took four months for a post to cross my dash that led with saying that he'd assaulted an IRL child instead of listing his bad tastes in characters or ships or artists at great length.

--

[stormblessed95]

Hi Stormblessed (dope name btw),

Don't know if this is the best place for this essay or the right time but I need to word-vomit this out, or I'm gonna be a JK-style spaced out zombie all day.

It's a truth universally acknowledged that a big part of the fandom tends to mis-characterize the members based on edits, fanfics and out-of-context clips. Something probably mostly to do with how social media platforms have been pushing for these short videos over the last few years. Why watch 300 hours of original content (some of which is behind a paywall) if you can get the gist of it (you think) from TikToks?

My particular point has to do with how that allows for the narrative (aka made up shit) especially around Jimin to grow. All of the members get that treatment, the maknaes worse due to their popularity, but due to how a big part of Army are also tkk shippers, Jimin is the one who's portrayal often skews more negative. The others' perceptions just are neutral or fantastical in a sense that they're more like badly written male leads. Don't get me wrong, solos throwing around bs is nothing singular to him but no one gets accused (said completely seriously btw) of sleeping his way into BTS or the release of his album.

After I saw this vitriol for the first time I had to actually sit down because wtf.

And then I started wondering why that is, and came to the conclusion that it is:

(Internalized) misogyny and sexism

Blatant homophobia

Jimin is the member the most obviously in tune of his femininity. He hasn't subscribed to gender norms for a decade at least, and once his hyper-masculine-esque persona from the debut days was dismissed, he ventured further. (That isn't to dismiss the growth they all have shown in that area.)

But antis, akgaes, Solos and shippers take that femininity and apply every stereotype and misogynistic idea to JM.

Traits they f.e. hate:

He is openly flirty with many people (members especially)

He is very physical, and touch is arguably one of his love languages and go-to way of comforting smn

He is pretty af and knows it

He's sensual and sexy and knows it

He's cute

He's sweet (aka a good fucking human)

But why does that make "them" hate him so much?

Because they have been taught that these traits in women (like themselves) are bad. What makes it worse, however, is that the men around JM all know these things to be true, acknowledge them as true and compliment him on them. In the case of JK (since this is about Jikook at the end of the day):

He loves flirty JM despite sometimes not knowing how to handle him (ehem the 'shameless convo'). He flirts back (fe the whole live where he was in bed begging for JM to come over)

Tkkers and such love pulling the "JK hates it" card. Which is nonsense, considering how he seeks JM's comfort when he's down (esp during concerts), actively cuddles JM (In The Soop) and never uses all his big muscles to shove JM but rather to just carry him around. Compare that to the jokingly disgusted face Yoongi pulls when Tae tries to hold his hand, and it becomes glaringly obvious that no one who says the members dislike touching each other has a leg to stand on. Calling it harassment goes so far beyond any line of sanity...

JK - like all of BTS - acknowledges that Jimin's beauty is simply out of this world. They are regularly stunned by his appearance

Just gonna point to JK's reaction to Filter, Blood Sweat & Tears, Black Swan, and Set Me Free pt 2 here. JK calls JM sexy so often it's hilarious

* inserts clip of absolutely WHIPPED JK after JM cutely punches him during that performance of Boy With Luv *. Also we know that "cute" his JK's type as he himself admitted.

Jimin has been Jungkook's comfort person for so long, and with such depth that he dedicated a whole trip and video to him. They care for each other so deeply that the only logical conclusion was to go to the military together.

Aka: he is all that they hate in the girls/women in their normal life so they can't do nothing but tear him down. They envy how comfortable he seems in his own skin, how easily he goes from sexy to cute, how loved he is by those around him. On top of that is how gay people are still perceived and treated by a lot of countries around the world. No matter what they say, being an army and shipping men doesn't make you automatically an ally and non-homophobic.

They treat Jimin like they would most likely treat the lgtbqia+ people in real life: something to be careful of, someone dishonest and slutty.

They conflate everything they hate about themselves and gay people and * boom * out come frankly terrifying tweets, fanfics and shit.

Contrast that with how these very same people fetishize the relationship between Tae and Jungkook - either viewing them like men who watch p_rn involving two women, or a self-insert with how little character they have - and that's the state of the army shipping community. They could be Barbie dolls getting smashed together and you wouldn't know the difference.

I'm not saying Jikookers are better in that, but the language they tend to use is incredibly different.

---

That was a lot.

To end on a sweet note: I saw a quote on Twitter "If you want to find out what someone fears losing, look at what they photograph."

And...well. that just screams Jikook

Hi! Thank you, I like my name too 🥰

And yeah, basically I agree. I think there is more to it as well, but that a lot of it could be boiled down to all this. And yeah, jikookers are just as guilty of this too, but not always in the same way. Sometimes in a way that is more fetishizing but is just as harmful. Take it from someone who has seen it all in my inbox from people who feel safe on anon 😂😂

Thanks for sharing! And your quote at the end is SOOOOO cute!

#jikook #kookmin #Jikook antis

[shaniacsboogara]

i think a lot of things i agree with are already being said about watcher tv, so instead of focusing on those, i'm going to try to highlight things i think need to be reiterated or haven't been discussed enough.

first of all, i've been a fan of watcher's content for a long time. i followed shane and ryan over to the network after unsolved ended, and since then have made a TON of incredible friends and memories because of their shows. to anyone at watcher reading this, i really hope you're doing alright. thank you for everything you've done to foster this incredible community. and to anyone here in tumblr who's followed me for my watcher content or to any of my mutuals, i hope you're doing as well as you can. drink some water, get outside, and make sure you're getting enough sleep. this has been a rough time for a lot of us, and understandably so.

obviously, watcher tv is a massive change, and everyone who feels upset or disappointed is extremely valid in feeling that way. however, the calibre of hate being sent to the watcher crew is kind of horrific. yes, this could turn out to be a bad business decision for them, but that does make them evil morally bankrupt capitalists who never actually cared about their fanbase in the first place??? honestly, i think this type of commentary is doing a disservice to everyone who's trying to discuss this situation from a genuine analytical standpoint. not only that, but these are real people??? sure, they're on the internet and have probably had people send hate comments their way before, but as a community there are so many more productive things we could be doing instead of tearing down the folks over at watcher.

it is disheartening for content you've enjoyed to suddenly be locked behind a paywall, especially if it's not something you'll be able to afford. i've seen a lot of people emphasizing that artists should be compensated for their art, and i think that definitely applies here, but that doesn't mean people don't have a right to be upset. the fandom community we've built here on tumblr is incredible, it's brought so many people together and overall been so positive, fun, and welcoming to be a part of, so it's understandable that a change threatening the stability of that fanspace would make people upset. i'm not happy about the possibility of the watcher fandom dissipating after this announcement, but i think it's highly likely. watcher TV has created a divide in the fandom, and no matter what it looks like after this is over, it won't be the same. what's going to happen when most people can't access watcher content anymore??? no matter what happens, being in this fandom was absolutely incredible while it lasted.

what's my overall take on the situation??? i don't know how this will turn out for them, i'm not sure the announcement was carried out in the best way (it was hyped up in a way i don't think it should've been, a slower lead up to this could've made it more digestible), i'm sad that a lot of people won't be able to enjoy content that used to mean so much to them, but if this is a business move they think they need to make, then think i understand that. i'm no business expert, i have no idea how this will work out, but i'm absolutely not manifesting their downfall. i think it's very important to discuss this in a civil manner, to critique and analyze the effects of this situation on both the community and the company, but letting that turn into blatant hate and threats to watcher employees is WAY TOO FAR.

these are just some of my thoughts. if you want me to clarify anything or know my thoughts on specific aspects of this situation, please don't be afraid to ask!!! my only request is that this post doesn't turn into a vessel for hating on anyone, whether that be watcher or anyone posting about the situation.

#there's also something to be said about the effects of parasocial relationships on this whole situation #watcher

[wonder2realities]

as someone who came into the manifestation / LOA space like before the void state and neville goddard was even talked abt - its rlly interesting to see how much ppl focus or try to act as if the void state is the only way to manifest

cuz like i found out abt the void state like 2 years ago through shifting, but prior to that everything ive manifested has always been super simple i mean currently im literally living my dream life in so many ways possible (i can go into heavy detail in another post lolz) and it was never through the void state or through me reading pages of neville goddard and theories and shit and this isnt me saying theres anything wrong with that its just interesting how no matter how much time passes and different trends with the community continue there's always this need to "logicise" and almost profit off of manifestation

for example i remember ppl would pay money for someone to write affirmations for them (idk if ppl still do this) or people would pay to get tips, i rmbr ppl paying money for OTHER PEOPLE to go into the void state in like 2022 so that they can manifest for you etc — that alongside the concept of manifestation coaches and influencers and its so...tacky

and the same thing goes for submakers, as someone whos had a lot and i mean A LOT of shitty experiences with larger submakers (cons of being a blk autistic ; not a lot of ppl want u to exist happily...if i had a penny for everytime someone asked me to manifest my autism away id be scrooge mcduck) — a lot of them also fall into this category of turning manifestation or LOA into this profitable business and its sad honestly

something that is free, where you dont need anything is being turned into something that is behind a paywall - its almost sinister honestly and rlly makes me feel bad for any younger ppl (like 10-15) who are getting into manifestation or interested in it because u basically have ppl being like "YOU CAN ONLY GET UR DESIRES IN THIS ONE WAY. IF YOU WANT, I CAN DO IT FOR YOU BUT YOU NEED TO PAY ME TONS OF MONEY!!!" - it almost gives a subconscious message that they cant do it on their own which goes against the whole point of manifestation and it just sucks ass

idk maybe im like a commie in the manifestation society #downwiththesocialhierarchy but it rlly irks me and i dont like it and again maybe its cuz i dealt with a lot of bullshit before the LOA community became more...minority friendly and that shit TRAUMATISED ME but like idk i just dont fw it yk

u can do wtv u want in wtv way u want for free, u cant buy a consciousness so you dont need to waste money on shit (obviously if u wanna support a submaker or someone thats perfectly fine but you dont HAVE to)

#ᡣ𐭩 wonder2realities #zzz ... cici's rambles #shiftblr #desired reality #shifting consciousness #quantum jumping #shifting blog #scripting #manifestation #shifting antis dni #kpop shifting #law of manifestation #loablr

[aurea-corde]

I've never seen a single episode of anything related to watcher but I am eating up all this drama. Also sorry to y'all going through this

i appreciate that anon 😭 i've seen several good nuanced takes on the situation thankfully. the company definitely did mess up how it introduced the streaming service to people: they said in the video they were going to paywall all existing and new content and then in the comments and in the variety article pretended like that was never their intent. the variety article reveals that they were in fact initially told watcher was going to delete all existing content. the CEO in particular but in general all the founders said that the amount they are charging is affordable - specifically that anyone could afford it - which no they can't obviously. As they are now finding out the hard way. The CEO Steven also made an instagram post insinuating people who wouldn't subscribe just no longer want to watch them, rather than the reality which is that a massive majority of the audience can't afford to. Because he is the CEO, people are blaming the entire thing on him, but it's also important to remember there are actually three founder-owners with decision-making abilities in the company. Shane and Ryan are adults, and the way people are acting like Steven is some kind of dictator, Ryan just went along with it but Shane is the people's anticapitalist hero who was simply outvoted is not a great look. Especially the posts that refuse to acknowledge even the possibility of racial biases here. Mistakes were made, poc are not immune to criticism, but let's consider why so many feel like Shane was forced into this by the evil Steven (and people in the comments have literally called him evil for this) and either lump Ryan in with him or give Ryan no agency in the situation whatsoever. Steven is the most likely to have made the proposal as the closest thing Watcher has to a business-minded founder, but the other two clearly agreed with him. They could have just decided not to be in the video. I also don't see a world where they contractually obligated themselves to every whim of Steven's like some people are suggesting.

Do I think they're a bit sheltered in their LA life? Yeah, probably. I'm pretty sheltered myself - I live a comfortable middle class life in Australia, have a good job and am studying law. I could definitely afford the subscription. But I don't want to atm, or at least until they respond to the situation. Are they the worst most evil capitalists because they want to charge money for the content they create? No, not inherently. People supported them on Patreon because of course creatives should be paid for their labour, and ideally paid well enough to live comfortably. But the combo of bad business decisions (e.g. hiring too many staff too quickly while also wanting to pay them above a living wage, not advertising the patreon, not utilising revenue streams that aren't a streaming service like youtube memberships, spending what Ryan has said is hundreds of thousands of dollars on a single season of a series they have called Ghost Files) and the fact the CEO is pretty open about his comfortable lifestyle (drives a tesla which btw folks isn't a luxury car it's just a more expensive one, has a $300 matcha machine, has a series based on fine dining vs more affordable restaurants), means people are understandably mad because they are struggling financially and the founders (from what we know) are not - but they're trying to tell people that 6 USD is affordable for everyone.

It's a lot less to do with the fact of them charging for content as much as the way they went about it and in particular how it's been phrased to people has come across really insensitive. There's other logistics with the streaming service itself that were not thought out at all for international viewers, but I won't get into that here. And the pretending they were always going to leave their content up and telling viewers not to spread misinformation is scummy to me - at least acknowledge that was a mistake you made and backtracked on. It's just a mess but I really loved their videos and hope they make Youtube's Greatest Apology Video Ever (unironically) and try to undo some of the damage.

edit: someone in the replies made a great point that teslas could actually be considered a luxury car in some countries outside of the US, and I fully agree that 6 USD is 1) too much for what they offer, esp in this economic climate and 2) wayyyyy too much when converted to other currencies. I've seen other Australians say the conversion is too much for them but I know viewers in other countries say it comes out to literally thousands for them - if they can even access the site at all from their country.

#watcher #answered #steven lim #shane madej #ryan bergara

[hopetorun]

i'd love to hear your beliefs about the tension in their relationship because i'm a very nosy bitch but obviously only if you feel like it!

lol well i did offer! beliefs is a strong word, tbh. more of a like ... is this stuff true? i don't know. but if i were writing a story where i wanted to have tension in that relationship, these are the places i would be inclined to introduce that tension. maybe there is tension in some of these places in real life! that's none of my beeswax.*

anyway: some places i think it is plausible that there's tension in the relationship, or at least plausible enough to play with in fiction. receipts on these where i can find them, sorry if they're paywalled but them's the breaks.

*unless they make it part of their public narrative

back in 2022 matthew was on the athletic hockey podcast and he talked about feeling "like a babysitter" when keith visits and how much keith enjoys being one of the guys. now mostly i think they probably have a pretty good time, but babysitter is a word choice there. i don't think it's a stretch to imagine that having your retired dad show up at your workplace and becoming the life of the party to relive his glory days could be ... trying.

not to beat around the bush but they're both opinionated guys! opinionated and chatty! and as a result you get: keith slamming the panthers on the radio. matthew sticking his nose into brady's contract negotiations (brady being grimace emoji about it). like, we know for a fact that the radio thing bothered matthew! and there's plenty of opportunities for one or both of them to offer unsolicited opinions that don't go over well.

to the previous point: i considered not including that because it's not as speculative as the others on the list. but it's definitely something i'd draw on if i was writing a story where their relationship is tense.

look, i'm not a man and not only am i not a man but i don't have any brothers and my dad died four and a half years ago and he never talked about his dad. so i can't claim to be an expert on the fathers-and-sons relationship dynamic. but why would i let that stop me from speculating wildly!

anyway: legacies. oldest sons. expectations. @ohtemporas touched on this briefly earlier, the way there's often an extra pressure on the oldest kid to be the same-gender-parent's legacy. do what i did. represent me well in the world. and i don't think it's even particularly weird for that to potentially lead to some conflicting feelings if all that legacy building leads to you being surpassed in some way. that's just human! especially for competitive people, and as i have said on this website before: no one becomes a professional athlete without being competitive.

here's keith being presented with matthew's 99th point puck from the 21-22 season, which his then-teammate did up with the writing for this specific purpose. chantal thinks this is SO funny. do think maybe being conflicted about being surpassed makes him not proud of matthew? no. but people can be complicated.

speaking of people being complicated: that one post-game after matthew scored 5 points on the blues. i think the tension between keith wanting his own team's success and wanting his sons' success isn't something people were making up out of whole cloth. but maybe it was especially noticeable when matthew was still in the western conference? i feel like it got dialed back after the trade. lol.

i'm mentioning it only because otherwise someone else might: i don't care about the hat thing. i think it's silly. if i was asked to throw my favorite hat onto the ice at an nhl game just because some schlub scored three goals i probably wouldn't.

a few concluding thoughts

i don't think any of this means they have a bad relationship! mostly i think that no two people have a perfect relationship where they agree on everything and never butt into each other's business uninvited and never hurt each other's feelings, because that's impossible.

i'm not making some counterpoint list of all the reasons i think they love each other. someone else can. i don't think having high expectations of someone means you hate them and i don't think anyone spends their time and money following their son's hockey team around the country on a road trip hoping to see him score his 100th point out of hatred or spite.

maybe i'm wrong about all of this and they've hated each other since 2002 and someday we'll get a tell-all story and people can come into my ask box or whatever and tell me how wrong i was. i don't care. all rpf characterization is fake. i watched keith froth at the mouth in the stands at the 2016 wjc every time someone so much as breathed on matthew, though, so i don't think i'm wrong.

#ask maggie #matthew tkachuk

[madamtrashbat]

I was chatting with a friend recently about the ways antis operate and how damaging their ideology is and I wanted to organize my thoughts about it.

It's one thing to be like "I wish minors wouldn't interact with my work because it's got adult content" (which is not something you can 100% control short of paywalling) but it's another thing ENTIRELY to be like "minors should never look at anything sexual ever and people who think it's okay that they do are secret pedophiles."

Teenagers need to have the safe space to explore their sexuality and figure their shit out and sometimes that place is fandom. Sometimes teens are trying to deal with the fantasies they have about their hot history teacher so they consume teacher/student smut in order to work it out. Sometimes they're wondering what gives them their jollies and are just reading whatever they can to wank to, including incest and rape and other "unsavory" things just so they can get it all figured out.

Sometimes awful things have happened to teens and they're using the avenue of art and fiction to take the power back from their rapist and create a narrative they control where they are working through it safely.

And antis would see all of this and want it fucking destroyed.

I was brought up in fandom by a few of the sweetest older women (adult women!) who took me under their wings and showed me that what I was thinking and writing wasn't bad or wrong or shameful and it was all perfectly sane to have these sexual feelings because nothing makes sense when you're a kid and if you want to write Frerard where Gerard is the hot teacher to Frank's catholic schoolboy in order to deal with your feelings about the sexy sub you just got at your school then that's totally fine.

These trusted adults also comforted me when I was afraid, taught me what boundaries were (please do not actually pursue the sub!), told me what were normal interactions and what I should be wary of (do NOT let the sub pursue you), and they were proud of me as I made my way into the world as a reasonably well-adjusted adult.

(Hi, Gaja, can't wait for your Christmas card!)

Sexuality is weird and messy and whatever makes our pants tighter is all individual and equally weird. Telling teenagers to not seek out porn and to not even speak to adults is just a one-way ticket to growing fucked-up people who don't know how to operate without shame and then we have a resurgence in Catholicism and NOBODY needs that.

And the way that antis rally against this, like teenagers are Pure and Sweet Babies who are being corrupted by the Awful Adults Like Me (who are secretly child diddlers obviously) is just. So fucking damaging.

Imagine trying to handle the way your hormones are firing off at everything and you're just not sure what's going on and instead of a kind adult going "hey we were all freaks at 16 and it's totally normal to be like 'this strange thing is turning me on' I promise" you have some sniveling puritan asshole going "YOU ARE ACTUALLY A SEXUAL PREDATOR IF YOU LIKE THESE THINGS AND YOU SHOULD BE ASHAMED AND PUNISHED BEFORE YOU ACTUALLY HARM PEOPLE."

Like. Y'all. I have seen antis claim that people who wrote about/drew rape in order to deal with their own assaults DESERVED IT because they chose to deal with it in this way. I have seen antis tell people they hope they get raped for the fiction they create. They wish death and harm against people who make fiction. Antis literally have a body count over this shit. And yet they want me to believe they're the good guys? Bye.

Antis will argue that it's not normal for people to think about gross and icky things. I argue that Holocaust survivors had sexual fantasies about actual fucking jackboot Nazis.

No one says you have to like everything everyone else does. We have a robust tagging system for a reason. But to behave as if what YOU like is the only thing that is acceptable and everything else is Bad and Wrong is not the business. Kink Tomato exists for a reason. We are all individuals who like different things. Get with it.

Teenagers are in a precarious time of development and if you want to shame them for whatever is going on in their heads then you are the problem, not the solution. Be the kind of adult you needed as a teenager, not some shaming, screaming Puritan trying to pin scarlet A's onto everything because it's sinful. Goody Proctor is just trying to rub one out in peace.

Get with the way fandom has always operated or go away. ACAB means fancop, too.

#discourse #long post

[copperbadge]

Current Events Reading Reccs

I had a couple of people asking me about my “current events” reading in general (news aggregators, podcasts, etc) so I figured I’d just list them off here. 

I don’t read any tumblrs that are specifically focused on current events, I just kinda get news from various people I’ve followed, but I’ve found in general it helps to find people for whom the news is a hobby, not a consuming habit. I have communists and anarchists and prison abolitionists on my dash, but they aren’t people who have made that their identity, which removes the “You are insufferable” factor. So I guess find fandom weirdos with strong political views and follow ‘em. 

Also I want to state at the top that part of why I’m on top of shit that I get through Tumblr is that I have a policy of never reblogging or reacting to anything until I have 1. read the article being linked and 2. done my own research. This has saved me a vast deal of embarrassment, because sometimes I’ll save something outrageous to research and before I can even research it, it’s been rebutted. I cannot stress how important the process of reading and research is -- you can’t get your news from headlines and particularly not clickbait you see on Tumblr. 

As far as I know there’s no single tumblr clearinghouse for good high-level current events reporting and analysis (the analysis I think is a vital part) but if folks have resources they use, drop ‘em in the comments or reblogs.  

Anyway, some mailing lists I belong to are:

Quartz Daily Brief: finance and tech, mainly. Back when they were for-pay I paid for them, this newsletter was that entertaining. I believe they’ve now gone fee-free but they sometimes link to paywalls. I get it as an email newsletter, that’s just a link to the web version. 

Breakfast with ARTNews: Obviously a bit niche but I really like keeping up with the art world and they cover art crime too. The link is to the all-newsletters signup page, I only belong to Breakfast. 

The Futurist: This is the most insufferable nonsense masquerading as news ever. The ads are indistinguishable from the content. But it does help me keep a finger hard on the pulse of what irritating tech bros are into. Watch scams unfold in real time! 

I also follow a number of local interests -- community centers and neighborhood organizations primarily -- in Chicago, so those are always good to hunt up. Most major cities have a “citycast” podcast (just search “citycast [your city]” in your podcatcher) that is also good for local news.  

Some websites:

Longreads: Since longform.org went under, the best place to find the current longform pieces that everyone’s talking about.  

Brand Eating: Extremely niche, but I really love reading about “brand” food trends. It covers new food releases and sales and such in the areas of packaged food (potato chips, candy, etc), fast food, and casual dining. It’s also great as a resource for cheap eats. 

I stopped reading Bon Appetit recently (they ran this appallingly sympathetic story about a dickhead hiring manager) but like, honestly, if you want to track food trends, the BA email newsletter is kinda the way to go. If you’d like good food news in podcast form, I recommend The Sporkful (it’s in the podcast list). 

I used to read the Chicago Tribune, New York Times, and Fortune Magazine (which mostly scraped the not-awful stuff from Forbes) but I’ve cut it down to just the Trib; I don’t really need Fortune to keep me current and the NYT has morphed into a creepy proto-fash nightmare. The Trib has pretty good national/international coverage so if you don’t have a decent local paper it’s not bad, but I don’t know how much access you get as a nonpaying reader (I subscribe). 

Podcasts:

Quartz has a podcast, Quartz Obsession, which is off-and-on in terms of when episodes come out but very interesting when they do. 

Planet Money is a once-weekly podcast about economics, and has a daily show called “The Indicator” which is daily “small bites” current events coverage. 

The Late Show and the Daily Show both have an “ears edition” podcast that’s just the show audio; I’ve stopped listening for the most part but if you want good cultural commentary, that’s the place to go. 

The Journal by the Wall Street Journal is a weekly podcast focusing on one or two news stories, generally pretty relevant. 

Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me is a panel show but it’s a fun way to get bite-sized news you can look up later in more detail if you want. And it’s taped in Chicago! If you listen you can hear me in the audience laughing. :D (I’m going to another taping in a few weeks!) 

Behind The Bastards is actually a history podcast but if you’re listening current he does a bit of current-events commentary, and also I just really like it as a podcast.

Stuff You Should Know is a trivia podcast but they occasionally do current-events stuff.

The Sporkful is pretty good about current food news, although I run hot and cold on it.

I used to listen to a really good “professional” medical podcast, but it went full paywall when it started to offer certain forms of professional credit, so I found The House Of Pod as a very good free replacement. It’s not really for non-doctors, but as a non-doctor I still find it accessible and informative. (For medical history and curiosity, I do highly recommend Bedside Rounds, but I wouldn’t call it a current events cast.) 

So that’s how I get my news -- it’s not what I would call fully comprehensive but it’s reasonably informative! 

#bread-tab #auressea #tigerist #current events

[transmutationisms]

do you think vaccines should be mandatory? my view has always been that public health would outweigh personal choice in this instance but i also see the bodily autonomy argument, though ultimately i think it’s flawed and weird to compare, say, abortions with vaccines. i was wondering if you had an opinion or any resources on this topic?

this is one of those questions where i think the framing conceals a lot of unspoken premises and social/political assumptions. what do we even mean by a vaccine mandate in the first place? the truth is that in many contexts, vaccines are already mandatory—the trick is that these mandates are generally designed and first enforced by employers, schools, and private business establishments, rather than coming through direct state intervention. incidentally, most censorship works similarly, despite it also being positioned discursively as a matter of direct state intervention. the truth is that you are far more likely to run into problems if you, say, have an employer who requires vaccination—which makes your paycheck (that is, your ability to continue living) dependent on a medical intervention—than you are to face some kind of right-winger fear fantasy of a shadowy government agent showing up to your doorstep with a syringe. these things happen by economic coercion far more than through direct state command.

with that in mind, to me the issue that 'vaccine mandates' point to isn't so much an idealist conflict between 'safety' and 'liberty' or however nyt is framing it these days—rather, it's the fact that employers have the structural position to impose their will on employees, who often must comply or face, literally, starvation. i am willing to say this is a bad social structure despite the fact that in the case of vaccines i obviously agree that the particular intervention in question is a good thing, and is something that anyone who is medically eligible should be getting. in order to make vaccines mandatory, you need an enforcement mechanism—the one we currently primarily rely on is economic coercion in the form of threatening loss of livelihood (again, this also applies to most censorship cases). while i, again, strenuously think that people who can get vaccinated should do so, in order to make such a thing compulsory you have to confront the issue of what power structures make the compulsion possible and actionable. prisons? relying on the political whims and economic threats of employers? too often, a 'mandatory vaccine' is presented as though it could be ethically debated in the abstract, without reference to these conditions!

anyway, i'm not going to pretend that i can solve vaccine hesitancy in the next 90 seconds in a tumblr post, but off the top of my head here are some factors i think are major contributors to this issue:

ableism (eg, andrew wakefield preying on the fact that many parents would rather risk their children catching preventable dangerous diseases than let them be supposedly exposed to a greater chance of becoming autistic)

public distrust of physicians and public health infrastructure, for reasons ranging from medical racism and eugenics to discomfiting and traumatic experiences with the inherently (in this system) power-imbalanced relationship between medical professionals and patients

the massive gap between expert and lay knowledge on medical topics, enforced by mechanisms like paywalls and benefitting the prestige and pecuniary enrichment of physicians and public health experts (this provides fertile ground for grifters and liars to prey on people's confusion and difficulty verifying information)

possibilities for lies about vaccines to lead to financial enrichment, as in the case of social media grifts, heterodox and alternative medical practitioners, or eg andrew wakefield trying to sell his own vaccine after publishing his now-retracted paper on the supposed link between autism and the mmr vaccine

these are all bad things; they are also all actionable things. i do not think that it's some kind of transhistorical condition of humanity that we must choose between either passing each other dangerous diseases or designing coercive or punitive measures to force compliance with public health recommendations. i think all of these things are in fact very directly resultant of capitalism, the way it values bodies and health (biopolitics), and its politics of knowledge and expertise.

#public health

[dnalt-d2]

QSMP 2024 THINGS

OH BOY OH BOY IT'S THAT TIME AGAIN

TIME TO TALK ABOUT THINGS THAT HAPPENED TODAY, HOW I FEEL, AND THINGS I PREDICT

To start off with, I maintain my stance of "Fuck that Rabbit." I never liked the Duck, and this fucking camera-staring-at Rabbit is irritating me even moreso. May he perish in the flames of capitalism that he has created

Also fuck that narrator guy. He has no right sounding so jovial

(And god I can't believe the Duck really never did anything SERIOUSLY FUCK THAT GUY /lh)

Regarding the paywall thing, I kind of like the idea of it in certain increments. I know that Etoiles has been praying to any deity that will listen for the Nether to open, and I'm sure he's happy to know he can pay those deities off now. On the other hand, I've already seen a decent amount of discouragement on the lack of Create. I'm hoping that's the second thing to get unlocked for both Tubbo and AyPierre's sakes

And in terms of the reset itself, I also like the idea of it somewhat. I'm sure I'm not the only one who sometimes likes to start these types of games over for that fun feeling of playing from the ground up. Though maybe the mobs should be a little weaker, since everyone's starting from scratch. Then again, Etoiles has like a million Dark Metal, so

It's also nice seeing the beginning of these communities. Phil becoming Cellbit's temporary neighbor before he begins his nomadic lifestyle. And of course theres the up and coming Home of Fobo where definitely no one is Homophobic

Though speaking of Phil and Cellbit, I also maintain my disappointment in the lack of actual rescue mission. Like I was excited for that. I made a comic about it. And while my disappointment doesn't come from my comic being wrong, it does come from the fact that this was a thing that an ADMIN introduced. RICHAS went to Phil to recruit him for the mission, just for them to just do a little cinematic instead. Like I'm guessing this has to do with the delay in the server opening, since it was originally going to open about a week ago. My guess is that the rescue was going to happen this prior week, but because of the delay in opening the server, they decided to nix the rescue entirely and just have them show up on the opening day instead. It sucks, but I guess that's just how the cookie crumbles

AND NOW PREDICTION THING

So remember how Bagi at one point said that the Admins asked them what structures they'd like to have preserved for NO REASON AT ALL????

And how everyone spawned at about -200000 blocks away??

Well I'm kinda hoping that there's some of the original structures, back near that Zero Coordinate. Or maybe there's something else. Obviously I have no basis for any of that, but I think everyone's gonna be upset if they really lose all their builds. Specifically the Dragon, Titan, and Bad's as-of-yet unused Egg Carton. He labored over that for a while, it would SUCK if it just never got used at all. My other hope is that there's a pay-goal for bringing some structures back. That'd be a neat way to incorporate that feature. Not to mention that people who might've been in the middle of projects can get back to said projects. I think that's the main problem with losing everything, a lot of plans have essentially been destroyed

And now an Analysis

So fun fact, you know how Ducks and Rabbits are both heavily associated with Easter, which celebrates the death and rebirth of a certain person?? And how the server has essentially been reset and reborn??

Yeah that I guess, that's all I've got on that really

All I've got in general really

Here's to 2024, everyone. And the further loss of sanity we and the Islanders shall all endure

yee

#qsmp #qsmp 2024 #qsmp theory #Kind of #Doesn't matter really there's SOME theory in there I think #Do I wanna tag EVERYONE I mentioned? #I mean I could #I dunno I guess I will why not #q!etoiles #q!aypierre #q!pierre #q!phil #q!philza #q!cellbit #qsmp eggs #qsmp richarlyson #q!bagi #Yeah I think that was everyone #Doesn't really matter that much #Farewell~

[calebwittebane]

ok its early and obviously i am not gonna argue with another tumblr user especially if they're not being directly hostile and especially if their actual response is really long and frankly really condescending and entitled and exhausting but the tags are killing me here i just gotta say something... listen man let me preface that ive been like aching to commission someone but i currently have $30 to my name but even if i had enough to get a commission i am sorry but its not going to go to someone who puts characters that are not white and thin behind a paywall. like im not trying to dictate what others should do nor was my original post doing that, but i am saying that if you have to be Paid to learn to draw fat women and/or poc then to put it lightly that is nawt an establishment whose product i will be partaking of LOL. like who said i want The Artist Reading My Post, meaning likely a person i dont know, to draw something. i appreciate that you draw for yourself i think thats cool even if i personally think your practices are dogshit and many would agree. needing to hear "its okay to draw white and skinny characters" is just pretty bizarre i guess lol like no its not okay to draw them you gotta stop forever hand over your art supplies. like do what you want but i think its super limiting to do so and On You and i kinda feel bad for you all

also i didnt know characters whose names are midoriya todoroki bakugou ochako tsuyu enji and so on were white

[saltminerising]

/736734175634358272

TLDR; Staff shouldn't keep in mind those who breed right off the bat to try and profit because that is not what game devs do, its not because I just don't think they should. If you want to gene dragons day one use the methods you can to limit the chance of using a glitched gene and take responsibility for your choice of wanting to gene a dragon day one and not push it onto staff. Items being bought with IRL currency are not somehow magically immune to ever having bugs. There is most likely QA, staff is just being held to unrealistic expectations here.

[Actual Start of The Essay, yes I know its long I'm sorry]

It shouldn't be considered by staff because staff's main concern is getting the product out. Its not simply a "I don't think staff should consider it" its "considering a population of users that profit off a byproduct of how we release things is not what we should be doing" nor should they be expected to. Staff's priority is "try and make sure we can do what we can before the breed is launched" and "try and fix everything that is broken after launch" that is just how games run. Its just what happens and they have no reason to concern themselves with it. Its not a "fuck you" its a "this is a huge update and bugs will happen." You are reading malice or intentional neglect where we have no evidence of it.

If you don’t want to wait because you want profit that is on you. That is your choice you are making to ignore the system staff has in place to keep us informed of what things are bugged because inevitably there will be stuff bugged. You can still do it, I am not saying it’s wrong nor does there being bugs mean staff is targeting you specifically, it’s just a choice you are making and you have to accept the risks. That is something you need to accept you’re responsible for, not staff, because staff is already doing their part. If you think that’s too much risk, then I suggest finding some other way to make money, if it still sounds appealing to you, here’s some ways to avoid accidentally using bugged genes (I am more so using the 'general you', not towards any specific individual, here);

Compare new genes between each pose and see if they’re all consistent with each other. Compare old gene accent colors to new gene accent colors and be suspicious if you can't find any that match up, either are too drab, or are too bright. Always be cautious of extremely dark genes (there is a reason people where immediately asking if pharaoh / sarcophagus was an error). This isn't full proof but it helps reduce the chances getting glitched genes because again, you kinda just gotta accept the chance your dragons will change.

There being items you can buy with IRL currency does not suddenly lift the veil of potential bugs. If I buy a game or DLC or whatever and there's a few bugs in it, I don't go "Oh how is there not any basic quality control in this game?!" (I mean, unless its like really bad or they're very prevalent, there is a point obviously where you can start questioning their QA) Instead, I report it. No matter how many times you say, "These are premium items, there shouldn't be any bugs!" that does not stop unintended results from happening because they are unintended, unplanned for, that slip through the cracks results. This happens no matter how much QA you have because big updates are like that (and even small ones have some wiggle through!). Yeah, they shouldn't be there, and yeah, you can be a bit annoyed, but they're going to be there. These bugs do not warrant a "there's no basic QA in this game!" to me.

Also "paywalled"? Okay trying not to be too dismissive here but....really? Skins are no more paywalled then genes and that's to say they aren't. Sure some can be pretty expensive (which is their right to be) but not all of them will be (the average / go to price is 850g...that is not much in the grand scheme of things). Flight Rising is known for being very free to play friendly (even if you can't coli, yeah, they're not as efficient but that's comparing them to The ColiTM) and tons of people make skins for new breeds.

Staff is being quick to fix new errors (as shown by the large amount of fixes on the Auraboa report thread), I think they don’t want their dragons being released with bugs as much as we do.

#ancient mystery #long post

[ithinkdogshouldvote2]

Hey, just wanted to say that I thought you handled the whole Terry Jr being black post very well and very civilly. Even while faced with backlash about your design, you responded politely and respectfully.

I also didn't know it was confirmed on the aftershow that Terry and Samantha are black, not having access to the patreon, though I happened to headcanon them as black beforehand anyway. Personally, I think it's unfair to expect someone to know what has or hasn't been confirmed by the creators when the information is behind a paywall.

Also, there's nothing wrong with having different ideas than what "the fandom has decided". The whole point of fandom and diversity means people interpret things differently. While I understand how your designs along with the character's individual stories could be easily misconstrued, and that should definitely be taken into account, you haven't done anything wrong by interpreting a character a certain way, especially when they barely have any confirmed physical appearance on the show itself.

You said you're working on a redesign for Terry, but you shouldn't have been bullied into it. I understand that the original post was mostly a vent about personal experiences and feelings, and that's valid. There was probably a more respectful way to handle to situation though.

To end this tirade, let me just say that I think your artstyle is adorable

Thank you, that's honestly very gratifying to hear. The whole situation was unfortunately pretty stressful, maybe just because I'm a very anxious person, but it was really eating away at me.

I said this before in the post, but my first experience with a podcast was the adventure zone where designs were fully up to interpretation, so it was maybe my bad coming into dndads with that attitude. I've seen fanart of pretty much all the character in all different races, including Terry jr as white, so I kinda just took that as confirmation that this was the case.

The thing is with the patreon paywall is that I AM a patron, so I would totally be able to look up the talking dads episode if someone directed me to it, but no one has yet. and the op never responded to my request for it. Even though I will be changing Terry's design regardless, I would still like to see what Anthony said since I've never seen someone say it was confirmed before.

I also fully agree about not loving the whole "the Fandom has decided" thing. There will always be exceptions to the rule. I've seen plenty of people draw the characters in plenty of ways and that, to me, the fun part of podcasts. That there is no ONE design. And mine was just an ingredient in the pot of the Fandom. People who don't draw and just enjoy fanart have the ability to basically shop for what designs they like best. They can choose one person's Lark and Sparrow designs, and another person's nick design. It was maybe small minded of me to assume that people would just keep scrolling if they didn't like my designs. The op called me a popular artist in the post and I've never been a popular artist before, so it's also possible that my work might me kinda hard to avoid if it's near the top of searches. Especially with how much I DO draw Terry and with the unintended message of "good dad = white guy" which was obviously never something I was trying to convey.

In regards to changing my terry, I do have to admit that I am sad to see the old design go, and I don't feel awesome about how we got here, but I do really like the new design and hopefully you guys do too. I didn't change too much since I still like alot about the old design and changing how i see him in my head isnt gonna be a fully new design, just necessary tweaks on the template, but it'll hopefully be a good change.

I never imagined I'd be at the center of something like this, and it really didn't feel great, haha. Especially when looking at the comments on that post of people saying they've been avoiding my art because it makes them uncomfortable, something I NEVER wanted to happen. I just really hope I can turn it around and the people who avoided me before will understand that I really didn't mean any harm.

But genuinely thank you for this, sorry I'm kinda just using it to get out the rest of my feelings regarding the situation before moving past it. It feels a bit better to know that people like you had similar feelings to the situation as I did as the whole thing felt a bit isolating. Obviously it was probably also stressful for the op so I don't want to insinuate that I'm the only one who was affected by this whole thing. I'm really thankful for the support. Or at least the reassurance haha

And thank you for saying my artstyle is cute! Honestly with all the crazy talented people in the dndads community I'm really thankful to have gotten the following and attention that I have. Despite this experience, maybe not leaving the greatest impression, this fan base is one of the most kind and supportive communities I've been in. =]

#txt post #not tagging this with the fandom tags because the wider communinty does NOT want to read the essay i just basically wrote

[skullinahat]

some long-ass thoughts on watcher and dropout

for the record, i've enjoyed both of their work. i won't talk abt it much in this post, but it's very interesting how people kind of view shane's performative anti-capitalism making their consumption of ghost files a reflection of their own politics. then, a business making a business decision feels much more personal, because an aspect of your morals has just betrayed you. instead of just losing access to media you enjoyed, you just lost a reference point for your identity. Dropout is very mildly more aware of their function in capitalist society when they make anti-capitalist jokes, but the effect is still the same. the concept of supporting small business being an effective political action has obviously fed into, or perhaps came from, consumer culture. there's been a lot of "disappointment" in shane specifically, which is why i bring this up.

this post is a mess and i definitely used some of the wrong words, but i hope it makes some sense.

Watcher and Dropout have been compared alot as of late, of course both being attempted independent subscription based streaming services with a small host of content. dropout is cast as the good guy, the thing that watcher is striving for and failed at. I've seen several people joke about subscribing to dropout instead as a little fuck you to watcher.

A lot of people have genuinely asked what the difference is. Why is watcher bad and dropout good?

The most common answer i've seen is that dropout was pitched as a last effort to save a dying company, instead of the greedy money grab that watchertv feels like. dropout also offers a much larger cast, and many more shows, releasing new episodes monday through friday. Both of these things, however, are only true of dropout as of now.

Dropout was started two years before collegehumor's death, and it was only able to release as many shows as it is now very recently. It also didn't originally advertise itself as a final resort, rather "netflix- but worse!"

It didnt begin as a hail mary for a dying platform, just a new branch of an old one with no ads and more freedom. (Though it was a final resort later.) i think the biggest material difference between the two is that dropout always felt like an addon rather than an ambush paywall. later when it did become an ambush paywall, it felt justified. there was complete clarity over what would be on dropout and what would remain free on youtube.

this clarity was never present in watcher's announcement. I personally don't think watcher was ever planning on removing their free content from youtube, and they just worded it really poorly in their original video, but keeping new episodes behind a paywall is still enough to alienate their fanbase. the concept of them removing everything from youtube has stuck around despite their assurances against it.

the rest of the reasons why watcher went over so poorly is audience trust, yearly context, and marketing.

People had already followed ryan and shane from buzzfeed to watcher, so their trust had been tested before, resulting in them being more loyal, but still. I've seen a lot of people discussing their disappointment with watcher's content compared to buzzfeeds, which, everyone hates change so on and so forth, but most people are pointing specifically to the overproduction and the awkwardness. I had the same expeirence. I specifically remember watching an episode of too many spirits and realizing i was forcing myself to continue. It just felt like lipstick on a pig, hours of animation work on top of an awkward joke. I think there's been frustration with watcher's content building for a long time, and this poorly worded announcement is the straw that broke the camels back. i also don't think there was as much streaming service fatigue back when dropout was started as there is now.

It is entirely possible, given that they were spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on post-production per video, that watcher needs more money to continue. I, as many do, would attribute this to poor financial decisions. However, i think they could've framed watchertv as a last resort for a company that fiscally couldnt continue on youtube and gotten away with it. they still would have gotten some flack for steven's tesla and gold-leaf pizza, but it wouldnt be the total takedown it is now.

Instead, in the video they simply talk about being to big for youtube. No stressing about money. It feels entitled. even in the apology, where they claim that watcher couldn't continue on youtube, the overt focus is not placed on money. Wether this was a decision to try and not sound too whiny and pandering, or it's that they genuinely could continue to work on youtube but want more freedom on watchertv, i'm not sure. either way, it worked out horribly for them.

#gabbering #watcher #sorry ONE more post and then ill stop i prommy

[tau1tvec]

Thinking my biggest concern with this “official” mods business, is how The Sims Team is very intrinsically using the word “safe” in how they describe it, and that's bad... and lemme tell you why...

This is a sentiment they’ve been building for a long time now, and goes as far back as The Sims 2 days, when there were some folks who didn’t download mods or cc from any place that didn’t seem obviously aligned with Maxis or EA ( shit they still do it now, as I recently bumped into a tweet that legit thought the sharing of tray files means it's from a pirated game, and therefore the files are "dangerous" ), hence the rise of sites like The Sims Resource, that I believe at one point even got into trouble for using official logos and marketing material, and generally passing themselves off as an affiliate, while taking people’s money for content, which technically didn’t follow EULA.

However the general distaste some players had for spaces like TSR ( mind you this was in their "members only" era ), and preference for sites like Mod The Sims ( a site made by simmers for simmers that hosted content for free ) inevitably changed the eco system. LJ and forums became havens for a lot of the custom content people put in their games, and also offered a sense of community that TSR couldn’t.

With the release of The Sims 3 came with change however, to how cc was distributed, as much as how players communicated. Many creators migrated from forums to blogspot or tumblr mainly, trading out a community focused platform for one more personal ( similar to LiveJournal ). So many were hosting their own content, their own way on file sharing sites, but with self moderation, unfortunately came the downsides of it.

Though MTS was still quite popular for much of The Sims 3's life span, self moderation had opened the door to self monetization, thus incentivizing creators to move away from sites like MTS, and TSR, and instead adopt ads, and link shorteners like ad-fly. Obviously they didn't garner as much profit as TSR creators, but it was a simple and easy way to generate some kind of money off of their work... problem was... it wasn't safe, and neither was TSR at that point.

When TSR took down their members only model, likely due to pressure from EA and their sudden changes in EULA, they had to find other ways to generate profit, and thus the introduction of ads, so, so many ads... so many that some people complained it would slow down their computers, and some, if clicked on accidently, which tbh wasn't hard with how they were interlaced in seemingly every element on the website, worries of malware and virus began cropping up, by no real surprise, anyone who's grown up during the rise of the internet knows that ads = viruses. This is all just very ingrained in online culture, there's a reason why ad-blockers have been a thing since 4ever.

This didn't seem to stop TSR however, let alone creators who attached their downloads to ad-fly, and therefore once again I bring this conversation around to the word "safe".

I have been around long enough, and in the modding scene long enough to know that mods, no matter where you get them will never be safe. Much of modding was niche and fringe for a lot of gaming history, hence why it was so, and still is predominately overwhelmed by adult/erotic mods... like with pirating games, it's just always had this very, very big stigma around it, and with the recent issue of Patreon creators using manipulation tactics, and data stalking causing such a big kerfuffle in the community, that it got to the likes of EA themselves to finally decide to put their foot down on the whole issue ( and then pull it up idk ??? lol ) it all seems just so very... coincidental to me.

This isn't the first time either, there was the putting viruses in files shared with anti-paywall sites, hall passes written out by "lawyers" to excuse bad behavior, the TSR debacle, the p*do mod debacle, the LoversLab having to scrub their forum of "questionable mods" debacle, the DMCA's, the doxxing, the deleted blogs, the list goes on honestly, it's just been such a mess. Then, while all this was going on, whatever EA offered as a "safe space" for downloading user created content wasn't honestly any better.

The Sims Exchange was a mixed bag, a lotta times you'd download sims or homes with broken or corrupt cc attached, and lord knows what else... people would reupload content by other people without their consent, or even credit, which by no surprise at all ended being the same exact issue that eventually inundated The Sims 4 Gallery, not to mention the comments section being used to harass users.

tldr; modding will never truly be safe, the fact that the word "safe", this rather bold promise coming out of EA's mouth of all companies is even going to be remotely believed, bc some Sims YouTuber says it's also "safe", just really rubs me the wrong way, and says a lot about how true a statement it actually is. They're trying to stigmatize the modding community again... who's trustworthy, and who isn't trustworthy... who's good, and who's evil, and all for their own benefit... bc when the hell has EA ever once done anything, that wasn't mostly for their own benefit?

#pedophillia mention #stalking mention