#the quote was made up not a callout btw

[mitsvriii]

i hate fics where someone cheats and reader gets back with them. like “you accepted ___’s apology and heartfelt embrace” like no tf i didn’t 😭

#the quote was made up not a callout btw #writing memes #breakup #writing angst #writing #bell’s tells

[arvoze]

btw in lieu of disease deactivating her tumblr + deleting her shit attempt at a callout on me & my friends + putting a stupid “if youre here to stir up drama please leave” on her TH as if being a groomer and compulsive liar is “drama” here’s ermmm. well.

deleting your attempted callout on me won’t mean a thing when i have a logged dissection of the whole doc to refute you so! have fun trying to hide shit LOL

this has the majority of her attempted callout on me logged but is missing parts w/ images in it   idk if i have them anywhere unfortunately. im only posting this so it’s logged somewhere accessible x

everything in quotes are direct copypastes from her document. each sc will have the exact thing copypasted right underneath it so sorry if it feels repetitive

lewis:

Before I begin this callout, I wanna start off by addressing some things that will be said during it. Back then, I was not in the right mind frame I needed to be and shit talked a LOT. I said some things about others that were never deserved and I regret them to this day. A few people who I have done this to either have forgiven me or I have simply let it stay in their mind for when they are ready to talk to me. I have already grown up from this behavior and have made myself into a better person than I was years agp. Because of this,, I want to address behavior from other users that were never addressed.

i dont think this in particular needs to be explained since she's very, very clearly still pent up about shit and shits on people all the time. the sheer amount of hate she has for me is just really weird at this point and she takes any chance she can get to shit on me in particular and it's just. you haven't changed? you're still the manipulative, lying shithead you've always been and even your ""best friend"" says you haven't changed after years so. fun! [00:36] "you are a good person" is actually a very common thing for her to say during issues tbh

XX [redacted name]:

It's so irking, and we are no longer friends of any sort, that's the end of that for sure.

lewis:

Back in 2018-2019 (Whenever), I was shoved into a Call out post by the user ColorCodex ( Also known as Pongo) that discussed all MY shit talks but never about the real behavior of some people that need to be aware of. This callout of mine was deleted when Pongo came to realization that the call out was petty on their end and didn’t really display anything other than a typical 18/19 being a shit talky idiot on the web.

pongo is the former owner of the server that you've joined, which i now own -- pongo has actually told me that she regrets deleting the callout, especially because she's lost all of that stuff now, and really can't stand anima anymore. i'd have to dig a little to find it, but also (havent fully read what pongo said in the screenshots) pongo and i are currently close, and oftentimes when we dm it's me giving her comfort and advice when she asks for it. so uh, i don't think pongo has any issues with me xP

I also would like to publicly say that a large portion of my proof is missing due to the fact I couldn’t get the people who saw any of this to actually cooperate and help me make this document. Only a select few did and it really shows how messed up this fandom is becoming.

lewis:

afaik she's never came to anybody who i know about anything, otherwise we'd have been made aware. i wouldn't be surprised if she was picking and choosing within her own circle, which is very, very small. there's no indication of the fandom being messed up; just that nobody wants to talk to her in particular since most people know she's full of shit by now.

This is a Callout on Arvozephyr/Lewis, Si-ko/Russelspacecat and a few other members of the Keroro Gunso community.

this is a very weird statement from her. and by that i mean, "russelspacecat" was never siko's name, it was russelthespacecat, her former tumblr url, and my tumblr URL (arvoze) was apparently not listed. but my twitter is listed and siko's isn't? plus siko's tumblr URL changed way before she made this doc (going off of icons in screenshots) so idk why she wouldn't have put the effort in to get that right 

XX:

I think she's trying to hard to make it seem like yall are villians and trying to list all the socials

lewis:

This will be a big topic to cover so lets start off with the small portions. I met Lewis around 2017 or 2018, We met on Artfight and a Keroro gunso Amino when I was giving away free old adopts. I want to point out that His Orikero, Takaka, is an OLD adoptable from me. He refuses to credit me for the character as whole because he ‘Redesigned’ them. I haven’t further tried to gain credit from this Oc but I do regret giving him that Oc.

yes, the "redesign" is completely different to the "old" design, because of reasons i shared before -- i only asked for the oc so i wouldn't have been called out on making something "inspired" by a character i didn't own. the original design was included in the original image, but they're not too similar (takaka's appearance is actually based on something within the keroro anime itself, which i can provide). she does try to claim that she "made" takaka, but the redesign is so heavy that i don't really think it warrants linking directly back to her. in his TH description for a while i did state that he was originally designed by her and redesigned by me, but i took that out some time after cutting ties w/ her, i'm not sure when exactly. even if she "gave" me the oc, it wouldn't have been anything near the one she oh-so-heavily fell in love with and obsessed over. the original image is no longer on toyhouse, but i can see if i can find it somewhere in my files [00:48] sory i typed this in notepad kjdfgfkdg [00:49] yeah she loves not being the villain

lewis:

(i cant find the original image but to be fair trying to sift thru 3500 images is hard ;; )

XX:

I okay trust me i understand entirely

lewis:

I wanna address that he is a very BIG manipulator and uses ‘Formal talk’ to get whatever he wants. During my time in the Keroro gunso server, Lewis had a really big hard-on for getting upset if anyone remotely copied his orikeros. There’s a user named ‘Jarkster” that he absolutely LOATHED because of a Character named ‘Yoyoyo’ that Jarkster owned looking slightly like Lewis’s orikero named ‘Peruru’.

something i can get screenshots for! i actually don't care if people do stuff similar to me, especially if it's unintentional. my only gripes are when it's direct inspiration from characters that are very openly close to me, since it's kind of a general consensus that we all respect eachother wrt designs. fun fact: she's the one who got pissed over anyone doing anything slightly similar to her stuff, and was always of the assumption that everybody knew all of her characters, so anything with a similar theme must be inspired by her. extra fun fact: i did actually make one of my ocs out of spite against her for this fact; claiming that a character with multiple mouths was similar to one of her ocs. bonus fun fact: she's the one who did all the instigating against jark & the oc, and i'm on totally good terms with jark now. i know i'm sometimes a little scary and intimidating but that's kind of just The Way I Am, and ultimately i still look out for him where i can. i'll always have issues with everybody, and i say this a lot where it's relevant, but frankly that stuff doesn't matter, cuz people are always gonna have problems with me too, so i stopped expecting perfection a while back. [00:58] lemme go get some stuff about this oc and jark

XX: 

Okeedokee! I know i dont trust them after the stealing the concepts of others ocs

lewis:

(ive just got the go-ahead from pongo to share the stuff w meke! but ill get that later)    [ note: this was about a conversation prior, about disease lying about her “dead best friend” but was included to avoid it looking like messages were deleted/removed. i only skip a few parts in here since it’s not relevant to documenting her scrapped callout ] [01:04] im gettin stuff rq but fun fact about this dm

IMAGE LINK

she removed all this from it :sob:

IMAGE LINK

XX:

of course she hides the fact u should do soemthing rancid

[ there’s then a compilation of her doing exactly what she accused me of doing, including me clearly saying that i didn’t want to[1] have this stuff said[2] to me all the time[3]  --  also note the person being discussed and i are presently friends and have been for a long time, since we actually talked things out. ]

XX:

yeah I getchu! i started having doubts you were as bad as she was depicting you. I ws like aint no way ima be yelled at if i came in and asked some info

lewis:

YEAH im v chill like im impulsive and i have anger problems sometimes but i lke. actually started to work on those LMAO [02:02] srry i just finished anther part of this response so ill send it

Of course, This naturally did not end THERE. Because its such a big deal to go off the wall bonkers at others, He even turned on a friend of his because he believed they were also stealing designs.

this is. really shit wording to use on a doc that's meant to be serious, but i'm not surprised. i have no idea who the "friend" in question is, it's totally unclear who she's talking about here. my responses were part of the deletion, so i can't get the context either. no idea what she's saying in this part

There’s plenty more of Lewis talking poorly about Jarkster in other logs but the logs were lost in a server that he lied about being the ‘original founder’ and pressured me into giving to him even though I made it. He may have SAID something about it but I was the one who originally made it.

this is the private server, that we refer to as w12! (short for "we're 12", though the full server name is "we're 12 HELP US PLEASE"). i have never once claimed to be the "founder" of the server -- even in my first announcement after coming into ownership of the server, i say that "now the server is under new management" -- i'm really open about her being the former owner! one of these logs are lost, by the way; which means she's under the assumption that i deleted stuff after becoming owner and banning her, which i didn't. every channel that's ever existed has been archived by me, just in case anything was ever needed again.

the server was actually originally an idea between my bf and i, and i shared that idea with her, to which she then ran with it without consulting us. here's part of our final conversation in the server with her, where she admits to "finding" that this was the case, only conveniently finding the "proof" after i'd said i'd found it: https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/523973446028361744/530852530415075328/unknown.png

XX: [ accidentally not captured just above this ]

that is ironically sus that she suddenly found it

lewis:

yyyyyyep! she absolutely wasn't looking for it [02:11] (i can probably check this to see if an img was attached but i want to cover the whole doc first)

pongo stuff   [ note -- this was in hard-to-read screenshots and i was tired of copypasting at that point so some of this from the doc might actually be lost ]

pongo and i have had a fair amount of animosity towards eachother over the years but that is no longer the case. i don't really know the full context of this but anima really does take pongo's word as gospel, which is fucked up, considering she absolutely fucking hates pongo and everything about her. i can't tell the date of this either, since i assume it was capped on the day. we did have a lot of in-group problems at this point, and i don't think i'd be the only one to admit to that. siko and i did intentionally lead her on at times, but never to the extent that she did, and especially not doing anything like fucking grooming children.

"lewis' server is all about validation and hate speech" -- this is legitimate! this was a concern i had at some point, since we had a private channel for complaining about other people in. after a lot of thought and deliberation i removed everybody's access from the channel, because i didn't like the hivemind environment that i was creating. i still vent about things, most of it private, but i do think having reactions to stuff is only natural. i'm not gonna flat-out deny this stuff happened cuz it did. & i *did* have the mentality that "this is fine because you did worse than i did". it's not really something i carry with me much anymore, but i do think it still slips in here and there.

what i'm interested in is who this conversation is with, since it's clearly not anima herself. UPDATE -- i know exactly who this is; it's one of anima's friends, R (redacted since he's not relevant). i didn't realise the discord language was italian, of which he's the only associate i know to live in italy. the stuff about "freedom" as a mod -- one of us are like that anymore! we just moved on and did better, and even as the server owner, i still ask for permission from the people below me before i make any decisions for the server. (it's really strange if i did say jark shouldn't ask or consult -- not sure if i did -- since for a long time i've been with the belief that consulting/letting people know stuff is the right way to moderate). [02:13] uh oh i cant tell if the other person in the doc is her or not cuz of this kjfkdgdfkg

lewis:

OH i didnt cover specifically this statement

I wanna address that he is a very BIG manipulator and uses ‘Formal talk’ to get whatever he wants.

no, i don't use it to get whatever i want. i'm simply just british and literate and i like my big words sometimes and i like saying big things and taking things seriously. this is very evident when you talk to me tbh [02:16] closed the doc out of paranoia but now i shall cover this part

this is such a weird fucking statement. like. you know we just talk about things right? like we just? talked things out and got over it? there's no "stockholm syndrome" it's literally just adults deciding to be adults and settling things, which is something she's never actually done in her life, as far as i'm aware. we just. talked. and moved on. we did a 180 because we're not balls-deep in the past like she is. she'll be absolutely devastated to find out that pongo and i are friends, i think. i don't think she has any idea about what's happened between any of us and is just making assumptions.

she's really trying to hammer in an evil narrative at the end, which i think is obvious. i don't really care, cuz if doing better and trying to fix things with people makes me a manipulator, then i guess i'm the best fucking manipulator out there. it kind of just reeks of trying to put a specific narrative in your head a la conspiracy theory videos, shit makes no sense and if anything makes her even less reliable [02:21] this part is funny cuz i don't think i even posted the callout anywhere ngl

again i hold nothing against pongo but the mention of someone named salt brings to mention -- we didn't outcast him for being friends w/ disease (we kind of did), it was the way he romanticized abuse and incest and actively drew incest wrt moomin characters and the likes. also his username is literally "saltyshota" so you can imagine what he's like

IMAGE CAPTION: [..] dare like her at all or still associate with her, they outcasted Salt just because he wanted to stay friends with her, like that’s his vite, why should they care, I certainly don’t care, if I did, I wouldn’t have remained friends with Sutata, but regardless doing such a thing is petty, I seen Lewis call Salt and Sutata and [..]

lewis: 

none of this stuff w/ pongo would have been after she found out about the grooming stuff btw, afaik

these 2 users in question are raptor and motley, raptor after finding everything out and motley after i messaged them to let them know. i know these two people much better than she does (the former moreso) so i knew they wouldn't want any kind of support from her. both of them i asked if they wanted reimbursement(?) for any lost money but to my memory (not sure) they both declined, which is obviously fine, i just didn't want them to lose money.

XX:

I know you said someone was there but did anything change? I think shes offically blocked me now but now i am very curious [02:28] because that last bit sounds like her recent complaint?

lewis:

might take me a while to find this chat if it even exists, which is really funny, considering we've been part of a GC where she "apologised" to me about stuff wrt stealing ocs, paying someone to rip off my oc (takaka) and saying stuff like "oh i didnt actually know he would look like that i just had the finished image!"

it'll take a while to find, but she was full of shit with that too -- and i know it, because i have the entire comm chatlog from the artist themself! i just didn't connect the lies until after it was over so i never had the chance to call her out on that

not sure, i can check again maybe, i dont remember what was there befre

[ END DOCUMENT RESPONSE ]

[demonic-bun]

End of the year thing.

As we come to the end of 2020, looking back it's safe to say how absolutely nuts the year has been.

Covid. Australian Wildfires. Murder Hornets. Online School. The list goes on.

However, despite all that was thrown at us, we've managed to survive all of that and then some. So all I can say is:

Thank Fuck.

So I've decided to dedicate this post to the friends I've made this past year that I've interacted with or looked up to. Starting with this piece I made on Christmas.

Special Thanks to:

@chelledoggo - enjoyed your 101 DS fanart and the like.

@sunsetcorvid - Thank you for the incorrect BNA quotes.

@drawbauchery - Your animaniacs post and your artwork give me life. Keep at it!

@laughable-lion-king-art (Can't tag) - Your criticisms and genuine callouts are well appreciated.

@doglover502 - Came for the 101DS stuff, stayed for the TD Nowen stuff. Made you a Dalmatian Noah.

@helthehatter - you and @skeletonguys-and-ragdolls are pretty much who inspired me to draw. God bless you for bringing Violet into people's lives. Love the new fursona btw.

@spotty-bee/@notsoblackandwhite101 - Love your fanfic and style. Keep up the good work! Wasn't sure how to represent you, so have an inverted Dante(?).

@dootdootboopedsnoot - I enjoy your art, au, and cosplays. Hang in there, mate!

@mean-scarlet-deceiver - I enjoy your headcannons and tags. Wasn't sure what to put to represent you so I made Fox!Sir Handle.

@togetherness23 - Thank you for enjoying the stuff I reblog. Hope to see more hunger games stuff.

And finally:

@lookinglikeanerd - Thank you for basically being my best friend since the days of Google+. Hope to work more on our aus.

Thank you all for the content you put out here.

Anyways, this post is long enough. So remember: Stay safe, stay artistic, and most importantly...

... Pray that 2021 isn't a trash fire as well.

🎉🎉GOODNIGHT EVERYBODY! AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!🎉🎉

#Happy New Year! #aaaaaaaaa #WE DID IT BOYS!

[catbountry]

It's the 5th anniversary of your callout blog, congratulations! I was wondering how life is after that whole ordeal, did you have any self refection? What would have you done differently? Do you still believe you haven't done anything wrong?

I’m going to keep this brief (edit: was going to keep this brief) because I am 90% sure this is not being asked in good faith. You’d have to be a total fucking moron or willfully ignorant to believe that I believe I’ve done nothing wrong. I’ve fucked up a lot. To the people who I’ve felt that I’ve hurt who did not deserve it, I have apologized to them. To the people who I’ve said nasty things about who have repeatedly proven themselves to be awful people, including the person who created that callout blog in the first place, I don’t owe them any apologies, because they’re shitty people. I think the very strong evidence pointing towards the person who made my callout blog being the very same person who had made Vade’s callout blog months before should speak to how they view other people, as mere stepping stones to get clout who are discarded and thrown to the side as soon as they’ve outlived their usefulness.

Keep in mind, my biggest crimes are just saying no-no words and attempting to call emergency services for a teenager who was threatening suicide. The kind of people I talked shit about were guilty of things like stalking, ripping people off by taking their money and never giving them the things they paid for, abusing their partners, using people as ATMs, and in one case abusing an S.O. to the point of driving him to suicide, crying on the phone to his sister who found his corpse about how THEY were going to commit suicide, not showing up to his funeral, and using his memory to get pity from people on the internet about how much of a victim THEY were, while never even attempting to contact his family or pretending to give a shit what they went through.

That last one is Vade, btw. Vade has been pretty much rendered toothless since me and a few others actually decided to stand up to them because they were doing shit like doxing fanfic writers they didn’t like and sending those dox to the writer’s past abusers.

So am I so terribly sorry I called Cuteosphere a cunt or questioned idislikecispeople due to the fact that she was provably a massive liar who bullied trans men and used the money donated to her on video games instead of insulin? Nope. Am I sorry I quoted a meme with the word “nigga” in it that got EMAILED TO MY FUCKING BOSS in an attempt to get me fired? Still no. My boss saw right through that flimsy attempt to paint me as a racist and advised me to contact the FBI. She said that if I were actually racist, she would have been able to tell after I’d worked there for over a year, but all these people who see screenshots out of context who have never spoken to me a day in their lives were convinced otherwise.

So, it’s not so much that I feel I’ve done nothing wrong, because I did plenty of things wrong, and to the people I have genuinely wronged, I apologized to them, because I did the wrong thing to them. I don’t apologize for trying to call an EMT from a teenager who was threatening to commit suicide, an attempt I treated very seriously, only for them to back down and then, weeks later, tell me that they never even meant it? That they had lied to me? Nope. Can’t apologize for trying to save the life of someone who was lying to me about wanting to commit self stab, no matter how many fucking randos they threw at me to get me to stop being so gosh-darned angry because they were doing all this after I had gotten mad at them... after being deliberately provoked. Like, I don’t know what the fuck to say to you.

I am not soft uwu, I am prickly and thorny and a bitch and I don’t tolerate assholes. I don’t tolerate people who lie, I don’t tolerate scam artists, or pedophiles (not the type who ship anime characters, I’m talking the type who slip into the DMs of 14 year-old girls who ask them to take a picture of their butt for them, ha ha, wouldn’t that be so funny?), I don’t tolerate people who walk all over others to get clout and use people’s desire to do the right thing against them to bully them into submission. Fuck those people, they are my enemy.

It sucks that there are people who are kind and compassionate who think that I am this nasty person because of the words of the exact type of person who becomes my enemy. I’ve had at least one experience where I met somebody at a con and they liked me a lot, said I was nice, and when I mentioned my Tumblr URL, they were surprised because they had me blocked. My story has stayed consistent over the years. The stories of the people who have a vested interest in making sure people know I’m a bad person? Their stories change constantly. That’s not a coincidence.

If you came here in genuine good faith, I am sorry I came off as aggressive and defensive. People have tried to fuck with me, and when you have people who won’t stop poking you with a stick, you get wary of anybody that approaches you with some sort of stick-like object. You can feel free to go through my #drama tag on my Tumblr, see me go through this exact song and dance every time somebody tries to bring up my past transgressions. I am really fucking tired of apologizing to people I’ve never interacted with. And the last thing I need is somebody who is coming off like a smarmy fuck, asking me if I still feel like I didn’t do anything wrong.

I may have done wrong, but I take great comfort in knowing the people who have me on their shitlist are some of the nastiest, cattiest, self-serving motherfuckers on the internet, and I am more than happy for them to hate me, cause fuck them.

And if you’re the person who started that blog, fuck you, you stalker bitch, you abused your ex-boyfriend and you’re as phony as a three-dollar bill who’s more than happy to stab backs once you realized you weren’t getting the popularity you so craved from Kiwi Farms so you ran back into the arms of people like Vade, fuck you, hope you’re proud and feeling real good about yourself and what a good person you are, hoping to humiliate me into agreeing with you because you took a bunch of screenshots for a shitty blog. If you’re not, then disregard that last message.

... Man, that felt good to type.

#drama #thestarbot

[rinrenrina]

Protests and social movements: local news media and you.

This Patriot Act video by Hasan Minhaj is about how important local news is to covering what affects us, especially in light of BLM and antifa protests. Local news media are compiling lists of Black-owned businesses, protest groups that need support, community resources, and documenting/recording perspectives and events. It's also local news media that are breaking stories of national importance like Epstein.

First, a timely article about the Seattle autonomous zone/CHAZ that’s an exact example of what’s going on in the video: local Seattle Times journalists did original reporting [link] and fact-checked some claims (yes, it’s peaceful; no, crimes are not happening; no, local businesses are not being extorted and in fact are doing well; yes, the mayor and governor told Trump to shut up) along with USA Today, which picked up ST’s reporting and added more information [link]. And here’s more original local reporting about armed right-wing groups being dangerous and obnoxious because they boogeyman antifa: [link]. Industry callouts on Fox News for creating and publishing doctored images of CHAZ, which is as ridiculous as it sounds [link].

Ridiculous.

To the point, the video had me thinking about the widespread "Why isn't the media talking about this" or "What the media won't show" messaging that's in nearly every high-note protest/BLM Twitter thread or Tumblr post I’ve seen that are not only often false (Yes, local and national news organizations are reporting that protesters are peaceful [link], cops are abusive+lying to everyone about the content of their body cams [link], and communities are creating resource and hydration centers [link]. No, news media will not ignore you if you keep protesting - the video in this post [link] is from NBC.), but show how much of an information bubble some people live in.

Remember, these are your news orgs, not a government's news orgs. Everyday people are the voices in an article, especially in local and community news.

The same popular posts I see about not trusting Democrats/Biden/liberalism and incrementalism are voiced by several knowledgeable activists in this article, New generation of activists, deeply skeptical of Democratic Party, resists calls to channel energy into the 2020 campaign [WP link | non-paywall MSN link] by Cleve Wootson Jr. [link].

Some pull quotes (but you should check out the article):

“Some people are like I’m . . . done accepting what the Democratic Party has offered us. It’s not getting better,” said Keene, 37. “This current moment is a reflection of the United States’ inability to meet any of the demands black people have put forward. I wish they would stop holding black people responsible for the failures of the Democratic Party. Why aren’t y’all responsible for not giving us a candidate worth voting for?”

Malcolm X warned people that neither Democrats nor Republicans had adequate plans to help black Americans in his “Ballot or the Bullet” speech. And Martin Luther King Jr. called on his followers to not accept political stalling.

“It’s always come down to the question of time,” Delmont said. “Dr. King had so many great sermons or speeches about time and how that group of activists just could not wait. People feel the same way today. You can’t wait for Biden to get elected. You can’t wait four years. We can’t wait on politicians if we want to see these things change.”

These are the same ideas that have floated through the blogosphere, especially here on Tumblr.

That isn't to be an idealist though. There's a lot to complain about in US journalism. At the top editor positions, it's highly staffed by white people, men, cishets, and those with privileged backgrounds. All journalists use news judgement (PBS has information on what news judgement is here: [link]), which in front page design aims to showcase what’s important to know in terms of impact, but deciding "what's important/what will people read" when the decision-making team is homogeneous and privileged leaves valuable voices unheard, entire life experiences unaddressed, and harms marginalized groups.

This is something recognized among journalists: The Inquirer's POC staff had a sick-out and open letter about a now-fired top editor's news article that insensitively riffed on BLM [link], NYT staff and union came out against the now-demoted opinion editor’s publishing of an opinion piece by the Arkansas governor that called for violence against protesters [link], Post-Gazette was publicly criticized by staff, union, and the public when management barred a Black journalist from reporting on protests because she joked about anti-protester hypocrisy [link].

There's a lot of criticism to be had about US journalism, but the "Why isn't the media talking about this" or "What the media won't show" messaging I'm seeing on Tumblr and Twitter is inaccurate because the very things people are saying are not being reported actually are being reported. It's coming from a place of not having the methods to access this information - maybe it’s not visiting non-social media sites to receive the news that affect and reflect you, not understanding that articles of quality take time, not knowing that you can reach out to news orgs and tell them what the news is, and/or not knowing how overwhelmed/source competitive news organizations are.

A read more to not dash stretch. Under the read more is information on how to escape the “Why isn’t the media reporting”/”Why am I only just hearing” information bubble (visit a news site), why the news takes days to be good (imagine writing an original research essay), and tips on avoiding paywalls and on basic journalism.

Receiving the news that affect and reflect you

There's a significant difference between the news you will see on a social media feed (even if you do follow news orgs) and the news you will see by going to any news website. I can write more about it later, but the tl;dr is that the news you see on a social media feed is decided entirely by algorithms, money, and community bubbles, which isn't evil, but causes other important news to be buried on your feeds. Social media are great for fast news and no longer letting only a select few people, who cannot reflect the need-to-knows of everyone, decide what's important. And to better avoid the information bubble, you can combine your social media feeds with news websites so that you can better avoid the "Why am I only just hearing about this" phenomenon and see that yes, the thing you said was never reported on, probably was reported. Yes, the front page curation won’t reflect the need-to-knows or even nice-to-knows of everyone, but the information available is still valuable and impactful - I saw the article on armed right-wingers holding an anti-antifa block party by visiting Seattle Times, Wootson’s article from MSN, the article on cops lying on documents about their body cam recordings from CNN’s front page. By visiting news websites, you may find information and topics that never landed on your feed - which you can now introduce to and improve your social circles with.

Articles of quality take time, aka "People wanted the news five minutes ago"

There's a few tweet threads where someone is shooting video of a currently developing situation, with a caption akin to "Why isn't the media talking about this" ...even though this is something that is currently happening, so of course no one has sat down and made the article or video segment. Especially if they’re waiting on comment from city officials. Tweets are a fast, immediate information delivery method and this is where protesters have an advantage. If you had checked YouTube's front page from the US the past weeks, you may have noticed that the news video article/news livestream section took about two days from the start of the protests to say that the protesters are peaceful and that it's the police that are violent. It's extremely slow compared to a protester's tweet. If you combine the speediness of a protester's tweet with the context/backstory/statement from officials in a news article, your knowledge of what's happening is more thorough. The news article takes time to come out and be worth reading, though.

(Related to the topic of speed and quality is the Mueller Report. It's 450 pages, yet news orgs were writing about it on day one. It was all junk because they were reading from the Trump CliffsNotes in the rush to meet the people-want-to-know-yesterday/first scoop demands so the articles worth any time only started coming out a week after the Report's release. News orgs admitted to their initial reporting being garbage and being led on, but by then readers who don't look at news websites had moved on. The same goes for any protest or breaking news coverage: it's usually junk for the first few days. Sometimes subverted by local news orgs due to their proximity to the events.)

Reach out to news orgs

There's important ground information coming from protesters and observers - first-hand experience with police brutality, police militarization, and just how tired Black Americans are of having to protest for their lives. Among this info are communities' food and hydration resources, example here [link].

"What the media won't show." "These stories need to be told."

Two things that go well together by remembering to tell your local news organizations. And if they show up (you might get the reporting from a desk treatment: adapting a press release (which btw, nonprofits and non-organized groups can write and submit too) to an article), you have their ear: tell them your message. Something every journalist has heard? "Your article is only as good as its sources." You can be the reason that article and news org are good.

The above mostly applies for when you don't want to be a press worker. But another angle is to be your own community's source of news and watchdog. You have access to the exact same information a news organization is privy to (FOIA and PRA), the same protective laws (shield laws, the First Amendment guarantees the right for journalists to work), and being a writer is free to learn and easy to do especially in the time of free blogging and content hosting. As this NPR post [link] put it:

I think I can say that I have some professional credibility as a journalist. I have a master’s degree from a major university, a national Emmy award, work in all forms of media, and am in charge of journalism at Wayne State University in Detroit.

Yet legally, I have the same standing as a journalist as a high school dropout who writes a blog in his grandmother’s basement, and that is exactly the way it is supposed to be.

And if you do start your own community news source, forward the articles you publish to the wider-area news orgs above you. Tying it back to the video: this is how the news works - local news media are important to national discourse.

Here’s some other things that can hopefully be helpful to understanding the essential field that is journalism:

- If you're being paywalled by a local or national newspaper or by a magazine you want to read, check if your library (or a friend who will let you use their library card) already pays for online access either through a website or through an app like Flipster. Or, search the title of the article and see if an another site (such as MSN) offers it free. - Tips: You only need to read the first two-three paragraphs of a news article, but it helps to read the rest. How and when to be an anonymous or on-background source: when you have information no one else has and/or you would face retaliation for speaking. More here: [link]. What differentiates an opinion from an editorial: editorials are the opinion of the editorial board, opinions are written by columnists, officials, and readers. Figure out what type of article you like better: inverted pyramid favors quick reporting (minutes to hours) and fewer facts, feature style favors long-term reporting (weeks to months) and more research, details, and human-focused anecdotes/testimony.

To nitpick the video: local and national broadcast news has more than what’s on TV, they also have a robust web article and web video article presence. For example, NBC’s article about BLM NY members’ and other activist groups in NY’s social justice and policy goals (and an app that creates digital models of Black and brown heroes of history to educate!). [NBC link | MSN link]

#blm #black lives matter #seattle autonomous zone #patriot act #journalism #chaz #'the news doesnt cover protests anymore': consider that your social media feeds arent enough #its true of youtubes featured news section (all corona) for me #but its 90-10 where 90% of front page coverage is protests and social justice and black art on local news sites msn wp nyt and even fox

[fair-fae]

As much as I don’t want to bring this up again (though the drama is still going strong on Twitter, so still relevant enough, I guess)... As tempting as it is to point all the fingers at Oz and blame them for everything that happened, to make them the one and only big bad guy, take a step back and look at how the community failed Oz’s victims, and how you and the people around you may have contributed to that.

Oz alone didn’t terrify anyone into submission, hiding, and harm. Oz alone did not alienate anyone and make them feel unwelcome in the community as a whole. Oz alone did not flood anyone’s inbox with hatemail, death threats, and nasty anons. Oz alone did not spread lies and rumors about people through the community and give them traction. Oz was the catalyst, but it was their friends and the community who did the real dirty work in so many cases. When the secrets blogs started to get bombarded with demands for “evidence” about the “The Crusader” and their misdeeds, all I and I’m sure many more of their victims could do was laugh. A lot of the evidence was public. Painfully public, in front of everyone’s eyes, and so many people didn’t care. It was not secret, it was not hidden, it was just ignored, or even lauded on as some form of righteous justice. I wonder how many people now acting outraged and disgusted with Oz aided in the harassment of Oz’s victims and believed the lies about them? How many of you reblogged callouts and gossiped with friends, blocked and avoided people, denied them from your FC’s and linkshells, even sent them nasty anons or treated them rudely when you encountered them? How many of you had your own beef with a victim, and used the claims Oz had created to harass them, even perhaps knowing they were untrue? How many of you already hated a victim and were just so bent on having them burned at the stake in the community that you were eager to jump onto the crusade bandwagon Oz had created against them despite it being total bullshit? You may think this makes you a victim as well, that you were misled and deceived. And perhaps that’s true in a way. But you’re adults with your own decisions and agency over your own actions. You hurt people, be it with your own malice, or carelessness, or misplaced, zealot-like sense of justice. The venom of Oz’s crusades, the lengths they went to for “justice,” the lack of proof, the wild and baseless claims, they were right in front of you. You chose not to see. That’s on no one but you. You’re more perpetrator than victim. I hope you will be more considerate and careful of your actions in the future. I’ve had several people people apologize to me, some anonymously and some not, and I appreciate it and hope Oz’s other victims have been receiving similar apologies from those who believed the lies about them and wronged them. But the community as a whole needs to examine our own behavior and not fall into the same mistakes, not enable and encourage another abuser. When you see a “callout post,” look for evidence. See if the evidence matches the claims, or if they seem to be exaggerated or taken out of context. Look at the tone of the post and if it seems rational and reasonable, or if it’s laden with personal insults, hyped up SJW buzzwords, and unnecessary jabs at the person. Think about what you know of the accused’s behavior and personality and if it seems to match up. Ask yourself what the OP could have to gain for making these claims about this person and how trustworthy you believe them to be. Ask yourself if the alleged behavior is something you deem concerning and relevant or not (i.e. I’ve seen a lot of people “called out” for RL relationship drama which is not something we can know or that I care to boost on my FFXIV blog; you, of course, are welcome to feel differently on that matter). Keep in mind that even if there is “evidence,” anything can be faked. Conversations and quotes can be taken out of context, cropped, and cherry-picked. The /echo function can be used to fake in game conversations. Screenshots and photos can be photoshopped. Copy/pasted logs can be edited or fabricated entirely. Editing web pages can be used (no, that’s not even getting into “hacking”--a longshot, but I guess also always a possibility) to alter any web page or conversation there upon. Fake accounts can be made using the same handle or similar handles and matching icons to impersonate another person.  Use your own brain. Be a grown ass adult with your own thoughts who makes your own decisions. Find the careful balance to protect yourself/your friends/your FC yet not potentially contribute to the slander and alienation of an innocent person. Don’t gossip. Don’t spread the rumors. Give the accused a chance if the claims against them seem shaky and you can find it within yourself without jeopardizing your own stability and safety. Think twice before you leave a comment, like, or reblog on vague posts and look into things a little bit. A post that says “Kill all Nazis” may seem innocuous enough and worthy of a “like.” But then, maybe it’s not when you scroll down the OP’s blog a little and see the post was directly following them making an entirely false accusation about someone else being a Nazi. Maybe someone’s “like this to piss off a homophobe” post was made directly after someone politely asked them to tag their risque posts (that happened to feature a same sex couple) and now the person who didn’t want to see psuedo-porn on their dash is getting bombarded with anons calling them a homophobe. I’m not pulling these out of my ass btw; these are real examples I’ve seen. What might seem like a generic “bad thing is bad” post becomes something else when someone has just been wrongfully accused of that “bad thing.” Instead, it’s a tactic of intimidation and alienation. The OP is making this post knowing that well-meaning people are going to like it, and their the victim will see the notes and think “all these people believe that about me, all these people hate me.” Don’t fall into their trap, don’t become an accessory in their harassment. And, for the love of god, don’t believe you read.

#ooc #discourse #oz #legendofkungjew #long post #this isn't just an oz issue btw #if that wasn't obvious #there was no excuse I got more tired of hearing as an fc leader than 'WELL SO AND SO TOLD ME THAT BLAHBLAHBLAH' #'SO I BELIEVED IT AND DID A SHITTY THING BUT IT'S SO AND SO'S FAULT FOR TELLING ME THAT' #no honeychild #that's still on you

[miraniel]

Like a lot of us, I got that email saying I had either followed, liked, or reblogged posts from the Russian Internet Research Agency. Sorry about that, guys. I try not to pass things on without fact-checking, but I slip up. Looking at the content, though... it’s not just or even mainly untruths they were spreading. It’s facts or common political stances, but shown in a way meant--through the 20/20 vision of hindsight--to be devisive, defeatist, and dividing. 

On my part, most of those posts were social justice related, primarily tied to Black Lives Matter movement, which I continue to support. Looking over what I found on my blog, a lot of these posts had content or commentary that I supported, either on the part of the original (Rusian IRA) posters, or from other, presumably genuine tumblr users. I’ve made a point of going and reviewing and researching each post I reblogged. In some cases, I cringed. Others, if those posts were created today, and I didn’t know where they came from, I would probably still hit reblog. Heck, one I reblogged only last week. Most of these posts had hundreds of thousands of notes. It’s alarming. 

They were designed to pass unnoticed. To slip in under our guard. Guess it worked, and I’m sure this sort of thing will continue to happen, to all of us. Which means we’ve got to fact-check. And we’ve got to stay vigilant. We’ve got to reevaluate our thinking, always keep questioning the sources and opinions we immerse ourselves in. 

I highly recommend that everyone at least go and check the list they’ve released, then cross-check your blog. I’ve decided to delete any posts I’ve reblogged from these accounts, on principle. 

For anyone who wants to know, here are the posts I’ve deleted: 

- A headline praising Simone Biles from the Olympics with a caption mentioning racial discrimination. 

- A side by side comparison of gymnastics at historic and modern Olympics, praising Simone Biles and with the hashtag #BlackGirlsMagic. 

- A post supporting young black artist Egypt “Ify” Ufele and saying “Our schools are so hateful, racist and cruel,” featuring dubious grammar, again with the hashtag BlackGirlsMagic, by the same blog. 

- A series of gifs that were basically just closed captions of a Daily Show segment on Standing Rock, from December 2016. 

- An article on a proposal to raise entrance fees to certain National Parks to $70, phrased to incite outrage

- A post on Myya D. Jones, a black college-age woman who tried to run for mayor of Detroit. 

- An interview with Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie on BLM

- A post on Imran Yousuf captioned “Why aren’t we talking about this?”

- That adorable video of the little kids doing “Honor to us All” from Mulan I reblogged just a week ago, with the caption “we don’t even need a disney remake of Mulan. Look at this.” (I’m honestly pissed about this one. Might track down the original video and re-link it.)

- That post featuring the callout of a guy who basically claimed only western men can make great art and that gorgeous statue of a woman made by female Chinese artist Luo Li Rong. (Fuck, it’s so obvious when you know. I’m embarrassed guys). 

- A post about a real and creepy article titled “How to talk to a Girl Wearing Headphones” which the fake blog had retitled “How to Harass Women Who Don’t Want to Be Approached.” 

- A signal boost profile of Le’Jemalik, a women-only salon in Brooklyn catering to Muslim women (The salon seems to be doing fine btw, I checked)

- A screenshot of a twitter exchange in between Jesse Williams and Mic.com shortly after the shootings of two black men with a satirical article “23 Everyday Actions Publishable By Death if You’re Black in America,” highlighting police brutality.

- A comic of the 2016 presidential primary candidates on both sides as Disney Villains with the hashtag # HateIt

- A post about the Oakland Police department scandal which asked the question “can a PD that’s wrapped up in murder, suicide, child rape, cover-ups at every rank protect anyone? # Hate it!” 

- A gif of the photos taken by Jonathan Bachman of Ieshia L. Evans standing in front of and then being arrested by police in Baton Rouge with a quote from an interview with the photographer. 

____________________

All right. Sorry for any typos in all that; I’m tired. Now, I’m thoroughly pissed at the Russian IRA and I’m going to bed. 

#I have no idea what to tag this #russian ira #the fucking with us by external forces #tumblr