Yep.

::rant incoming::

Their psyops game is horrendously effective, and it makes me furious.

And because it’s so effective, it makes sense for them to continue it, to continue to fracture the English-speaking world.

(It’s also cheap compared to manufacturing weapons…get a bunch of laptops, hire a bunch of trolls for a slightly-better-than-average wage in some local currency doing a job that ISN’T hard labor, which probably seems cushy. Put them in a room, and have them do a script. Very cheap compared to actually designing and manufacturing real weapons, or doing real logistics for war, etc. Cheap and effective = huge incentive for continuing indefinitely.)

The goal I’ve noticed is to make no place online safe. Poison everything. Texts in this particular case, make PoC in America and elsewhere apt to vent and lash out because of the pressure, but also they also poison forums, social media of any and all stripes, etc. Divide and conquer, anyone, everyone, everywhere.

Have a hobby? They’ll slide into the hobby discussion sites and start flame wars.

(I saw this happen a lot on Reddit’s Star Trek sub. Why was that sub a target? My suspicion is that it’s because Star Trek is a comfort show for a lot of people over generations and across nationalities in the West, and also acts as a way to promote Western values of tolerance and thoughtfulness and curiosity, so they want to poison the comforting retreat people go to when they can’t stand the overt hopelessness of the political or news subs.)

It happens with all sorts of loves and hobbies too. Have a favorite team, a favorite book, a favorite movie and want to just geek out over it? They slide into that and start shit.

And it’s really insidious sometimes…they’ll take an already-hot topic and start up a new thread with wording that makes them look clueless but not aggressive. So because they’re not obviously an asshole, people hop in giving them the benefit of the doubt and the flame war on (whatever topic specific to that interest) ignites again.

Unless the mods know how to spot that and moderate (which is fairly rare)…but even if that happens, the problem there is that if the mods do their jobs, a true clueless newbie coming in won’t know the history of this or that topic and will accidentally get hit by a sudden banhammer without knowing why…which in its way also starts shit, because the real person caught in the net gets their feelings hurt. So it’s a catch-22…bad mods, and an online social space is easily manipulated to become a cesspool, but good mods sometimes also accidentally catch a real person in their net…so shit STILL goes down and poisons the well.

Nations doing psyops shit online play both sides, too. So they won’t always start shit by posting a far-right viewpoint…they’ll choose a lefty viewpoint too, it costs them nothing to lie, but they’ll speckle it in with enough “tinder” that flames still ignite. Or they’ll have multiple accounts responding to each other.

The only reason I notice this, btw, is because I was a geek in fandoms BEFORE this sort of manipulation started, so I remember what a “legit” forum SHOULD look like. Like, there were always trolls and people with shitty social skills…but it was a very different type of trolling than this psyops shit we see now, because real people with real egos and desires and motivations were behind it. It had a different rise and fall, a different pattern. I guess it was more like real life–with allowances that people will say things anonymously that they’d never say face to face?

Younger folks who have never known a “good” and sane discussion forum think the toxicity and hopelessness online everywhere in every topic is NORMAL. But it’s not.

(When Lemmy was unknown, it was more like the forums of old, but now it’s on various antagonists’ radar there’s been an uptick of bad actors starting shit in comments.)

There’s some talented fanfic writers out there who could probably make it work.

I’m always excited to see new designs for her. She always looks awesome.

I need to play Disco Elysium again.

I’ve been finding the crazy building in arid environments odd, because even aside from forest fires, if your water supply dries up, you’re going to have to uproot and move to a state or location with a reliable water source. And you’ll be part of a big mass of climate migrants at that point.

This picture is too cute for something so horrific.

Because most people run on their personal experiences, and don’t do great when they have to think very far ahead or extrapolate and make connections.

If you’re lucky enough to be born into a conservative home that’s not bugshit crazy, and you’re lucky enough to not be TOO smart, neurodivergent, gay/lesbian/trans/etc. then you’ve probably never seen the full ugly face of conservatism because you were treated nicely.

Lots of conservatives will treat you perfectly politely…if they get to know you, and as long as you look white and clean-cut enough. As long as you give the right social signifiers, basically.

Most of my ex-conservative friends group was driven away from conservative family because we were abused in some obvious fashion, were gay/lesbian/trans, were neurodivergent, etc. We were different in ways that, ultimately, after a lot of pain, forced us to cut ties with family. (It was never our first choice though.)

But a woman who was lucky to be born into a family that treats her halfway decently won’t experience that sort of ugliness until an emergency happens and it’s leopards-eating-faces time.

And it’s VERY hard to rock the boat BEFORE something bad happens to you, when you know rocking it will have really bad consequences immediately. People don’t like to be shunned or kicked out of families, so if they’re not treated TOO badly they’ll toe the line and conform out of fear of the unknown and fear of losing everything they have and know.

I’m curious about two things. Will nesting birds or animals find this material tasty or good to gnaw on?

I always ask that ever since I learned vehicles using a more organic plastic for wiring harnesses suffer from shorts due to animals like mice nibbling the plastic because it smells tasty.

Random addition to your post…

There’s early/limited studies suggesting the drug valproate, which is used for bipolar and epilepsy sometimes, can re-open the perfect pitch acquisition capabilities of the human brain even if the individual is no longer an infant and has aged past the language acquisition stage of childhood development.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3848041/

Different use of it in an 8 year old girl with language regression: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11230735/

Acting, literally. Playing a character to entertain. Some characters are villains.

I think this is why random wrestling dudes sometimes successfully slide into Hollywood acting careers.

The thing that makes me cackle about this movie, as a Fandom!Old, is that it’s basically written as the crackiest crack-ship you could ever find on AO3.

And yet…it’s had one of the biggest box-offices ever.

This brings me no end of glee.

Roberts send bob pics, not dick pics.

That’s how you end up washing your earphones

I finally realized this guy’s name reminds me of some in house menswear brand at Sears or K-Mart or some other department store that suffered and wheezed and whimpered before going out of business.

I wonder if Ukraine is having an effect on attitudes.

Anyway, I can’t speak for others, but one thing I’ve come to realize through life experiences is that the best way to resolve differences is to behave civilly and talk. BUT. I’ve also seen that there are people who do not ascribe to or live by my preferences and ideals for this. There are people who don’t value rationality, there are people who can’t be shamed or pressured by society into behaving nicely and getting along with others. Those people respect the stick, and only the stick. I don’t want to use the stick. But these people do not live by my ideals (which are to talk things out and behave civilly), no matter how I say pretty please to them, and it’s foolish to project my values onto them when I see with my own eyes that they behave and react in patterns different to my own. They respect things that scare them or directly threaten them only, and continue to misbehave if all they’re going to get for it is a finger-wagging and a scolding.

So it seems very wise to “speak softly and carry a big stick”. The military is our stick. There are people out there who will behave in the most horrific uncivil ways right up until the moment they realize you have a big stick, then they’ll suddenly rein themselves in, and you can then be civil and talk things out. But that opportunity to talk doesn’t appear unless you actually have the stick when you’re dealing with folks of that sort of mentality.

It’s very important to look at your opponents with clear eyes and see what they ARE doing, not what you wish they would do, and not what you would do if you were in their shoes. As the saying goes, “When someone shows you who they are, believe them.”

Without laws letting child workers maintain their own bank account in their own name without parents being co owners allowed to drain it at any time, children working become money pinatas for abusive parents.

I say this as someone who would have benefitted from being independent earlier. My uncle did have me work at 14, and when I went to the bank I found he had stolen every penny, and because I was a minor I had no legal recourse to get it back.

A few years later the courts emancipated me, but it didn’t return the money he had stolen. Mind you, he was not working at the time himself and he got a few hundred from the state a month to care for me, and he spent what he stole on computer parts so he could game.

Children working only is in the child’s benefit if there are ironclad laws allowing them to keep their money, and right now there is not.

Leaving its carnal meaning in oblivion, eh?

That sounds like a challenge…

It can be other things. Some of why I didn’t get stuff done when younger was actually a symptom of PTSD from unrelated trauma. Basically my stress response is messed up and so anything I could link to stress or shame can make me avoidant, which snowballs into not doing the thing and more stress.

When I unlinked daily tasks from shame and stress I could suddenly do them, as I actually have ok executive functioning when PTSD isn’t messing with me to cause avoidance which as I understand would not really be the case for ADHD. Although PTSD and the like can also pop up in ADHD people who were bullied for their symptoms.

Dungeons and (bad) Dragons

Grandma is a wise, WISE woman. Like, I can’t tell you how wise. And everyone should listen to her advice–men and women both. Have an account in YOUR name, and have enough stashed away in there so if things go tits up and all you have left is the shirt on your back, you can get an airplane ticket to someone who will help you get back on your feet. $2k sounds good to me, but even $100 can help massively if you’re in a dark place.

(And if you don’t have anyone you can get a plane ticket to–put even more in if you’re able, so you can keep a roof over your head and gas in your car if you have to suddenly reinvent your own life and have no friends or other family members to flee to.)

I grew up in an abusive home, and found out the horrifically hard way when I ran away at 16 that my uncle had been stealing out of my account, because minors are forced to have joint accounts instead of accounts in their own name. He purposefully stole the money I earned at work and took it, so when I needed it most when I ran away from home, it wasn’t there.

In my darkest hour, I needed money, because the ones who were supposed to love me didn’t actually love me and I hit my limit and I had to get out.

And my money wasn’t there. And this happened because I wasn’t allowed to have a bank account of my own. As a minor I was old enough to work–but not old enough to have my own bank account, and I had no legal recourse to get that money back once my guardian stole it from me.

And as I understand it, even if you’re an adult, you have no legal recourse to get money back if someone on a joint account with you takes out of it–even if you’re the one who earned the money to begin with. I would only have had recourse if the account had bee IN MY NAME ONLY.

I’m nowhere near grandma’s age up there, but it’s SO FUCKING common for abusers to steal your money as way to control you so you can’t leave. Having an account of your own with anywhere between $100 -$2,000 in it as an emergency fund is critical to your OWN survival. Everyone should have a separate bank account of their own with a little money in it for emergencies, even if they largely agree to join finances with a partner or spouse. Men AND women should have it. It’s not a betrayal of trust to give yourself a lifeline like that. You don’t know what life will bring you. Or take away.

And it’s not some “hiding assets in a divorce” trickery that some people crawling about these comments would say. Shoving $2k (or even less, because sometimes even an extra $100 can help in dire situations) into an account only YOU can touch isn’t divorce malfeasance, it’s not the same as shoving a fucking yacht or a bunch of stocks or whatever in there as a way to fuck over a divorcing spouse. It’s making sure if things go truly tits-up, you can get a plane ticket or uber or SOMETHING to get yourself to physical safety if it’s needed. It’s not swaning off in a golden parachute, it’s making sure you can put gas in your car and pay the insurance for a month or two if you’re suddenly living in it.

Honestly, for all of you saying “oh, my trust in my spouse would be broken if they did that!” and “oh, someone this paranoid isn’t even whole enough to have a relationship–they should stay single!”…well, let’s turn that around.

Why the hell would I want a spouse that LOVED ME SO LITTLE that having a $2k emergency fund in my own name in a bank account only I can access would break your heart to pieces?

Why is ME caring for MYSELF and my physical safety in the most minimal way possible something that will make you love me less? Why do you, a person supposedly in a relationship with me (or someone like me!) not love me enough to allow me to have an emergency escape plan that might keep me physically safe if something unexpected goes wrong? Why are you elevating your feelings over my SAFETY?

That selfish behavior is just as chilling to ME as my supposed “betrayal of trust” would be to you if I had a bank account kept secret from you.

Grandma in the Tweet above loves her grandkids. She’s not afraid of hurting her granddaughter’s feelings because she knows the advice might well keep her grandkid physically safe and alive to face another day.