I really struggle to take seriously what these tech people say about ‘not wanting to censor’. They made a business calculation, and maybe an ideological one, and decided “we want that nazi money, it’s worth it to us.” which really tells you everything about a company and how it is likely to approach other issues, too.

The incredible horror of tying self worth to romantic “success” and then charging people money for it, is awful on its face, but it leads to much worse things too. This is, in effect, charging money for people to have “access” to people who haven’t consented to being contacted, furthering the idea that money=access to people who can’t say no to you. Tinder is monetizing peoples’ emotional need for connection at best, which is horrible, but at worst it’s also propping up a whole complex of ideas that erode respect and consent toward potential romantic or sexual partners, and that the far end eventually leads to like, Andrew Tate shit. And why wouldn’t it work? People have had their self worth obliterated by the commodification of human beings that is mainstream heteronormative dating culture. Tech companies making themselves the mediator of human connection, romantic or platonic or in terms of activism, hobbies, groups, etc - and then charging money for us to know each other and meet each other - horrifies me daily.

Absolutely miserable that they would do this. You just can’t ever replace, or replicate a place like Tumblr. Tumblr isn’t for people who want well curated content. It’s not for people who want a website that works all the time or makes sense. It’s a dense forest you’re supposed to wander and stumble through, and in the process you see things that you would absolutely NEVER get the chance to see otherwise, if you hadn’t been walking in that particular place at that particular time. It’s spectacular, and so specific, and the reblog system is a huge part of that. I’m sad about reddit and twitter, but tumblr is MY house, damn it! Stay the hell away from my unprofitable weirdness hive.

I really feel like this has not been reported on enough. This is really deeply scary shit, and extremist conservatives in every country are talking notes.

"Exclusive memes" this is hell.

This is an infuriating story for sure, but I just want to clarify for anybody just seeing it for the first time that it happened in 2022.

Systematically being the key word. There is no way to claim that what keeps happening to boats carrying migrants is accidental. It's a policy decision. So awful.

Yeah, the real problem is that it’s socially acceptable to be an asshole, but unacceptable to call it out. There needs to be far less tolerance for people insisting “no, you’re actually being cruel by telling me i did a misogyny” while at the same time allowing those who make honest mistakes or are really young to figure it out. I often feel like moderators are stuck doing the work of parenting vast swathes of people who choose not to grow up.

“Aesthetic injury.” I don’t mean to draw attention away from what’s probably a specific legal term, but the word aesthetic here : certain people are so interested in the idea of, the aesthetic of, babies and fetuses as this kind of innocent ideal, totally unconnected to anything difficult or complicated. I just find it really resonant to see the word in this context. Abortion ruins the vibe. Abortions are an aesthetic injury, to a certain type of doctor’s idealized, perfected, imaginary and totally pure vision of pregnancy. Pregnancy is supposed to be about joy and family only, always, and now they’re trying to legislate the messy human reality of womanhood and pregnancy and fetuses and babies to fit this pure aesthetic.

Strong words from the anti ceasefire country. A real moral stand here.

I imagine cnn doesn’t want to encourage people to visit the hate account in question by posting a link or screenshot. It doesn’t mean they don’t have proof, it just means they don’t want to drive traffic to hate content. Printing that would be kind of irresponsible. But CNN is known as a pretty reputable news source. I can’t see why they’d lie about it.

If you aren’t seeing any white supremacy on your own timeline, that doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist, it just means the algorithm isn’t showing it to you, which is a good thing. It might seem surprising, but people do actually search for and deliberately seek out that shit. Hate groups use social media to network, I imagine that’s why CNN didn’t post a screenshot of the account name, or its content.

I am so tired of this dynamic, both in high profile cases and in my own local community. If people gave even a tenth of the support they give to accused predators, to the actual people they have hurt, the world would be a completely different place. I don’t understand the instinct here to shame and ostracize survivors but lionize the people accused of rape and abuse. I’m exhausted.

Edit: I want to add: People do deserve support while they work on changing, but this isn’t that. They were trying to help his case and rehabilitate his character, not help him take accountability and make amends. That’s what makes it so awful. You can support someone you love in taking responsibility for their their actions, without downplaying the seriousness of it or shielding them from what they did. This is the latter. People always say they’re doing the former, but there is a massive distinction.

This is really cool. It is actually really useful to be taught things that will help you navigate the world better. Lots of people just don’t get this information at home and tumble into adulthood without it. I’m really grateful that when I went to school about ten years ago, many of the intro classes included units about privilege and race. I remember the experience as being more like “oh crap, I didn’t realize that, now I have a bit more information about how to to act more in line with my preexisting values in the world and be wayyy less weird socially” and not “oh no it is bad to be privileged!”. I imagine that is what it’s like for most people. Fearmongering aside. Lots of people just don’t get parented or educated about this so schools have to do it. It’s helpful. It’s useful. I know many of these articles are supposed to make it seem shocking, but it’s not, it’s just telling people things they might not have realized in high school. It’s a good thing and it isn’t new at all. It’s just that this terminology has entered the public conscIousness and made some people mad. I’m really glad not all schools have caved to this weird reactionary disingenuous repression of what are honestly important life skills

Power to them. Kids and teens are part of our communities, they’re affected by decisions, so they should have a role in making them when practical. I absolutely trust a 16 year old to vote, and make decent community-minded decisions - most already do so and contribute a lot, just without the same rights as slightly older people. I think this is a step in the right direction.

People who move their mask down to talk to me are the most infuriating people in the universe. Like, you were wearing it…. until you got close to me?? and started talking??

Mike Johnson is doing creepy, but very unfortunately mainstream weird patriarchal purity parenting in public and I hope it highlights the fact that among a pretty large segment of the population, this is seen as acceptable and goes unchallenged.

I don’t know. I dislike when apps and websites behave greedily as much as the next person, but within the system where we live, I don’t know if i would go so far as to say that people choosing what’s readily available or easiest for them is “morally lazy”. That line of thinking kind of implies that having the option or the knowledge or the preference to use certain types of “better” technology makes one a “better” kind of person, and I just don’t think that’s true.

Genuinely surprised by some of the comments here. This is worth discussing and I'm glad the writer of this article drew attention to it.

For people who physically cannot go places or access important services (like healthcare, or their jobs) in person, this is a double violation, because it’s unavoidable. Increasingly, the only spaces available to us, our only avenues for accessing services or community, are becoming heavily surveilled in a way that in-person places are not (though in some places physical spaces are catching up). Everyone deserves well-enforced privacy laws and all these corporations should be regulated , but for people who are disabled or housbound or otherwise forced to rely on digital services that we know we can’t trust, it’s extra bad. Between this and the heavy push to sign up for digital medial record apps, I do not feel great about the future.

This bizzare push to keep children/young adults from having the choice to leave the worldviews and religions of their parents is gaining much more mainstream political support than I would have thought. It's weird and worrying. I think need a strong push for children's rights alongside academic freedom.

I think there’s probably a lot of profit in creating the impression among (disproportionately young) users that they can, though.

This is awful. Imagine being this guy, sitting down, taking the time to type this out, and then going through all the steps of making it official. So many chances to stop and think for a minute about what you’re doing and why. Clearer than ever that this is about random men believing they get to be in control of people’s bodies at any cost. The entitlement. Ffs.

I don’t think that it’s a mistake or unintentional per se, but I love when songs leave talking in, or laughter. It’s just nice.

Hard agree. It’s awful, but we can’t be intimidated or they become emboldened. Speaking from my own life experience- I think we have to make the bullies feel it’s not worth the trouble, or they will become emboldened and take it as a sign that they’re in the right and can do much worse things next year. I say “we” as somebody in another part of the country because i think this is happening everywhere in some shape, even where it’s not at the level of actual policy yet.

I know little about her and I definitely don’t want to excuse her actions in defending twitter, but this is such a glass cliff situation. (Hiring a woman or other marginalized person to take the heat after basically destroying the company by himself)

There are a lot of simple definitions out there, but I think there is no perfect wording that you can craft to convince them of the validity of peoples’ experiences. You will know pretty much right away where they’re at. People who are open and willing to be respectful will be curious, interested, and maybe kind of awkward or misinformed at first but you’ll see the good faith and see their attempt to understand and be kind about it - whereas people who have no intention of understanding will often pretend it’s much way confusing than it is (it’s not!), or get hung up on grammar, focus on semantics or how they’re “too old”, etc. Explaining the concept itself pretty easy, but the hard part comes if they’re not really listening. But, hopefully “oh, so that’s what that means! Huh! Your cousin three times removed was sorta like that, let me tell you a story…” will be the response you get.

I think this is a good example of how people can be oppressed in multiple ways (medical gaslighting, ableism, financial class, fatphobia, low wages, etc) without one of those ways being racism. The world is still garbage for many white people, but not because of racism. Talking about privilege is not a way to say that all white people are doing perfectly fine, just a recognition of the ways that being white protects one from racism specifically, and from the economic or other social effects of racism. (And what a big difference that make even if we don’t realize that) But not from all isms, and not from all difficulties. Saying someone has a certain privilege is not meant as a way to dismiss their other problems, it’s just supposed to be a neutral way to talk about how different people get treated differently on a sociological level for different reasons. People can have white privilege but not economic privilege, or straight privilege but be sick, or any combination of traits that affect their life and how they are treated. I really hope that you can find a more respectful doctor.

I feel like they always try to make it sound more complicated and high minded. I really don’t believe it is!

Anti human behavior.

RIGHT. Thank you for pointing this out.

:::

It's infuriating. I think that tacitly allowing people to be hurt or die for personal/political gain is one of the worst things a human being can do. And yet so many people - from fascists to liberals- seem to be on board. It's so normalized. It's the same at every border. Completely preventable. Completely unnecessary. Insane that "I don't want those people moving here so let them die instead" is seen as a normal and politically centrist take.

Due to deliberate underfunding, lack of staff, and poor oversight when companies that necessary services get contracted out to are not held accountable for doing what tax dollars are ostensibly paying them to do. I don’t believe that governments are unable to manage things well, I think it’s a profitable choice for many to simply not to prioritize running these systems well.

“What the fuck is going on” is the reaction I most hope to have to fiction. Games get to be weird in a way books and movies can’t always get away with. I am excited.

Why not post a link to an article about the statement? That way, the same information and the same discussion about it could be present in the news community.

This is fantastic.

This really sucks. Important to remember anybody is capable of anything. I dread the ensuing conversations about this.

Thanks for posting this. I feel i have no wise solutions for this, but I sent you a dm. I’m really glad this discussion is being had over there.

Wild. It's just regular abuser thinking dressed up in a fancy costume.

I really like it too. I feel like it's good to have a more diverse group of people and topics in each little space, keeps it lively. I wouldn't run into most of those conversations offline or in a more atomized group.

Yes. This argument gives me hope for the other cases going on.