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perpetually mad

@nympheticism / nympheticism.tumblr.com

creeps beware
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DEBUT

I haven't written more than a journal entry in years, and I'm afraid I've forgotten how. To put words on a page that are meant to be read, I mean, by anyone other than myself. I'll just make things easier on myself and treat this no different than something personal, simply another few pages kept close by on yet another bookshelf, left to collect dust except for the occasional revisit when I'm feeling particularly reflective.

Storytelling is not something that has ever come easily to me, on a page or in person. I find myself trying too hard to mimic others, making attempts at using devices and skills I couldn't even honestly define. Even now, as I put down what is essentially just a jumble of my thoughts, I feel myself doing it again. Is it pretentiousness? A grasp at approval, showing off my most favorite hard-to-spell words and changing my sentence structure to fit what I subconsciously rate as "smart-sounding"? The after-effects of being a try-hard teacher's pet, methinks.

(Sometimes, it really is just entertaining to try to use a word that's been lost in everyday conversation. How many excuses will I legitimately have to use "methinks", if not just to giggle to myself?)

And anyway, writing is so subjective! There's something so fun, so freeing about playing pretend while I'm putting my thoughts out there in the real world. If I can't write a character into existence, I may as well play the part and write from whatever perspective I happen to choose in that sitting. You could argue that that adds a layer of dishonesty to my work (if you can even call it work), but I choose to turn the other cheek. Who does it hurt, anyway?

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reblogged
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fairycosmos

i hate shark slander. theyre literally just sitting in their own living room

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997

the way andy warhol would be doing NFTs if his stupid ass was still alive

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eleni-anz

Ummm byee

So I kind of hate that Putin is trying to restrict the flow of information into Russia so that he can control the narrative, so for my Russian friends, here is my guide on

How to get around internet censorship and maintain internet privacy

This will be an extremely long post 😅

Priorities

  • Download the Tor Browser
  • This will hopefully help you access the internet regardless of Russian government bans. It’s a little slow, but better than nothing. It hides your IP address from the internet, so it’s kind of like using a VPN. A very basic summary of how Tor works: your internet traffic is routed through several “nodes”. The Entry Node, can see your IP address but has no idea what data you’re sending, and this goes through several middle nodes, until it reaches the Exit Node. The Exit Node can see what data you’re sending, but it can’t see your IP address so it doesn’t know WHO sent it. That’s why it’s a good idea to do nothing identifying when using the Tor Browser, like writing personal information. Here’s a blog post with more detailed information about the Tor Browser.
  • Get a VPN
  • VPNs are often used to get around government internet restrictions. Russia will probably not be able to do much about it. However, not all VPNs are created equal. Nearly all of the free VPNs are a scam that turn around and sell your data, so free VPNs are not secure. The only exception to this is ProtonVPN which has a free tier, but it’s very slow. Basically the only good VPN is one you pay for. When choosing a VPN, be aware of where the company is based, because if a VPN company is based in the USA, it will have to comply USA privacy laws. So choose a VPN based in a country that has good privacy laws. A great one is Mullvad VPN, which is based in Sweden. But for the purposes of Russia, just making sure your VPN is not Russian or in a country sympathetic to Russia is probably good enough.

Alternative Front-Ends A frontend is the the part of a website which the user interacts with directly. To browse the contents of websites, you usually have to visit them. However, many people have made alternative privacy-respecting frontends to popular websites that allow you to see the site’s content without actually visiting the website. This helps avoid tracking, data-collection, and even countries’ attempts to ban websites. Twitter is banned in Russia right now, but using all an alternative frontend to Twitter works (according to my Russian friend).

Google Translate

Imgur

Instagram

Medium

Reddit

TikTok

Twitter

Wikipedia

YouTube

YouTube Music

If anyone knows of one of these for Tumblr please let me know. I found this site called Tumgir but it looks sketchy and unlike the rest of the ones I listed, it’s not open-source. So visit with caution, but I’m mentioning it because it might be better than nothing.

There are also these browser extensions that automatically redirect site links to the available alternatives:

Mozilla Firefox

  • LibRedirect - Redirects YouTube, YT Music, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, Imgur, Reddit, Wikipedia, Medium, etc.

Google Chrome

  • Privacy Redirect - Redirects Google Maps, Google Search, Instagram, Reddit, Twitter, Youtube.

iPhone (iOS 15+) Safari

  • Privacy Redirect - Twitter, Reddit, YouTube, Instagram, Google Translate, Google maps, Google Search, Medium

Android

  • UntrackMe - Google Maps, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube

Messaging / Communication

Matrix is a federated and decentralized End-to-End Encrypted (E2EE) messaging with many platforms, the most popular of which is Element. It’s like Discord, but worse. It’s getting better over time though! You can even use a a throwaway email to sign-up.

If you’re Russian you likely already know about Telegram, but MAKE SURE you’re aware that only Secret Chats are End-to-End Encrypted. So don’t say anything that would get you in trouble outside of a Secret Chat.

End Notes

China is way better at internet censorship. They’ve had years to build the infrastructure to control the flow of information online. And yet, the Chinese people still manage to “climb the wall” and find ways around this. Russia is new to this game and doesn’t have the resources China does. So I really doubt it’ll be that hard to get around their attempts to block websites. Have faith! And feel free to DM me for more info cause this post just scratches the surface for things you can do tbh.

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gracelesso

Additionally, if you’re struggling to access non-state news sources, the BBC (whose coverage of Ukraine so far has been excellent and which has now been blocked in Russia) has set up alternative methods to access its reporting.

It is also providing shortwave radio coverage in English, available in Ukraine and parts of Russia, on 15735 kHz and 5875 kHz.

Text version below:

Advice on accessing BBC News

To access the BBC, circumvention tools can be used, such as the Psiphon app (Android, iOS, Windows, Mac).

The Tor Browser also has a dedicated BBC site, on this URL: https://www.bbcnewsd73hkzno2ini43t4gblxvycyac5aw4gnv7t2rccijh7745uqd.onion/

Please note the BBC site for Tor works only on the Tor Browser, or a similar browser (such as Onion Browser for iPhones).

If you find it difficult to get the two applications above from AppStore or Google Play Store, please send a blank email to get@psiphon3.com or gettor@torproject.org, respectively. You will then be sent an email with a direct and safe download link.

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so women are supposed to grin and bear the books, the comics, the movies, the plays, the tv shows, the stories, the sci-fi, the translated ancient poems, the fucking millennia of men writing about their self inserts torturing women and it being declared as High Art by other men, we’re supposed to read it in our free time, study it in classrooms, include their styles in our own writing, accept their cultural influence as natural, watch it in the cinema, write about it, talk about it, accept it, aspire it, but men can’t tolerate three seconds of female wish fulfilment of a woman snapping the wrist of a creep without feeling personally kicked in the balls.

This reminds me of something I observed in college while I was doing my honors thesis on women in modern horror films. I watched a LOT of horror during that time as part of my research, and sometimes that was done with my family around.

And my dad and brothers? Were deeply disturbed by the movie Jennifer’s Body. I was flabbergasted. It’s not scary! It’s not even that gory. But they were horrified by it. These men who grew up on 70s slashers were legitimately shook by 90 minutes of Megan Fox eating a few teenage boys, mostly off-screen.

Similarly, my all-male reading panel for my thesis? Were so disturbed by my synopsis of the film Teeth that they couldn’t even talk about it. One of them said he couldn’t look at his wife for a week after reading it.

Again, grown-ass men who study and teach media for a living. Who definitely watch and enjoy horror movies. One of whom was a huge Tarantino buff. We watched and read worse in his intro to mass media class! But one movie about a girl whose vag could bite was enough to haunt him.

Then of course you have things like the Gone Girl backlash–men yelling that Amy Dunne is evil and women clamoring to assure everyone that they know she is not someone to emulate–the backlash against Carol Danvers, and, more recently, the griping from MRAs against the upcoming film Hustlers, which is about strippers scamming their Wall Street clients.

My conclusion? Most men–at least most straight, cisgender men, who are both my sample population and most of the ones whining that Carol is a “villain”–are perfectly fine with, and desensitized to, media where men do violence to women (horror movies), or men do violence to men (horror and action movies). They’re even sort of fine when women do violence to women (“ooooo cat fight!”).

But they get intensely uncomfortable when women are depicted doing any kind of violence to men, especially in films that tilt the balance of power to the other side of the m/f gender binary beyond a single moment or scene.

So woman as flesh-eating monster with men as her preferred cuisine? Woman who responds to unwanted sexual contact by biting it off? Woman who frames her cheating husband for murder? Woman whose response to harassment–behavior that many of the loudest whiners know is both creepy and reflective of their own thoughts/actions–is to break something?

Too scary. Unacceptable. Disturbing. These men hate being presented with the idea, even in fiction, that their position of power is socially constructed, that it could easily be flipped the other way. It terrifies them.

In feeling that terror, they experience a tiny modicum of what living, existing, moving, being perceived as a woman in the world is like.

And they flinch every time.

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tzikeh

Here have a newspaper comic from 1993

[ID: A comic depicting a man reading five different newspapers. Monday through Thursday, the headlines all read “Stalker kills woman,” and he sits with an expression of calm indifference. On Friday, the headline is “woman kills stalker,” and he and the other men in the background all react in extreme shock and distress. End ID]

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theforce

name one native american intellectual off the top of your head, name one native american actor or actress off the top of your head, name one native american senator, one native american news anchor, or an author or a tv personality or a singer or a poet or a comedian, name a single native american teacher you’ve had, can you? probably not 

ok so now think of one native american cartoon character you know of or a sports team relating to native americans whether it’s their actual name or their team logo, or a town you live in or near with a “native” name bet a lot of these things came to you right away i bet you didn’t even have to think 

needing native representation in media, education and government are not decoy issues, the commercialization and appropriation of native cultures are not decoy issues, the lack of native representation is institutional oppression at work 

White people specifically need to reblog this, I don’t CARE if it makes you uncomfortable–that’s the point. Listen to Native voices about Native issues PLEASE

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kutyozh

[text ID: a comment pinned by “thelastpeanut”, reading:

“I’m genuinely touched by the sudden influx of attention, but I want to humbly remind everyone that each protester you see in this video is now either in jail, in exile or in some form of hiding. Most can’t escape, and now that the decades-old Hong Kong democracy movement has been completely crushed, they’ll likely live the rest of their lives under Beijing’s authoritarian rule. The protesters knew it would probably end like this, but they did it anyways, hence the rallying cry of “攬炒”… “if we burn, you burn with us”.

Most of my friends now suffer from PTSD, depression or perpetual anxiety. Words and ideas that were once debated in public are now whispered in private - or not at all - out of fear that a neighbour or co-worker or family member overhears and decides to report you. I don’t think calling Hong Kong a police state is an exaggeration anymore, and it’s only the beginning.

Maybe it’s too late for Hong Kong, but you can still learn from what happened here. I hope you realise that you’re not alone, that your pain and yearning is shared by countless silent strangers, and that when enough people speak as one, you can move the needle of history. I’ve seen it happen.

Most of all, I hope you remember us.”

162K upvotes, no downvotes, 500 replies /end ID]

Hongkonger here.

I cannot begin to describe the feelings I have seeing this post here. Grateful, but sadden.

The information here is correct, though the shut down of the Apple Daily, the pro-democary paper was already months ago.

One of our biggest concerns now is the National Security Law, which allows the government to basically arrest anyone and ban anything that speaks against them. Movies and documentaries about the protests have been banned in Hong Kong. (e.g. 少年'May You Stay Forever Young’ and 時代革命 ‘Revolution of our times’, which got the Best Documentary award in Taiwan’s 58th Golden Horse Awards. )

A lot of our protestors are jailed. Our pro-democratic socities have disassembled. Our democratic politicians are facing charges or have been jailed. Candidates for our upcoming election for the legislation council are all more or less pro-beijing, and even publishing a poll that shows people are choosing not to vote for anyone this year risks breaking the law.

The situation is pretty bleak, and a lot of us have plans to leave Hong Kong because of it. Especially teachers, who are either unwilling to teach students propaganda and only information about how great China is, or fear that they will say something anti-China and will be reported and have to go to jail.

People mostly avoid talking about politics now. Whereas once we all talked about it openly, you can feel that we are all censoring ourselves now. And even if they do, it is mostly behind closed doors or whispered between friends or using really watered down facing.

(and whereas once I would talk and post about all this in IG, which is popular among HKers, I do not dare to now. Tumblr still seems safe. Hardly anyone know about Tumblr in HK)

Anyway, thanks for remembering us and reblogging this.

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some random woman's thoughts: oh hey, he's kind of hot.
Edward Cullen: Dear Diary. Today another WHORE vies for my affection. Existence is agony.
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COVID is slowly becoming a “third world” disease. While first world countries are hoarding vaccines, having doses for populations many times their size, third world countries can’t get any because pharma companies want to sell to the first world countries first. Even then, first world countries will receive them first. While rich countries recover from COVID, they will forget about the pandemic while many other countries live the absolute worst moment of the pandemic without being able to vaccinate their population.

Watch also when some first world countries finish vaccinating their populations, they will turn to third world countries and “donate” or sell surplus vaccines. People in these countries will go “Oh how sweet! The government is donating vaccines to the poorer countries <3” when it was their hoarding that led to many, many third world citizens dying before they could even get vaccinated in the first place.

african and latin american countries are also pushed by pfizer to give up sovereign assets as part of their vaccine agreement

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elinaline

Yo europeans, sign the fucking petition, get the european commission to lift the patents

This is not a bullshit useless change dot org petition by the way this is an actual thing with legal consequences. If this petition gets to a million signatures, the european commission HAS to examine it.

They need not only a million signatures but to pass thresholds in at least seven member states - which only Belgium has done so so far. Especially if you have Italian, Irish, or Cypriot citizenship, please sign. Sign it in general, but try to circulate if you can to anyone with those nationalities specifically.

231,195 / 1,000,000 signatures as of 10/28/21

237,730  /  1,000,000  signatures as of 11/28/21 and the Signatory Deadline(it has to be signed by this date) is January 8th, 2022.

PLEASE sign, especially if you’re from one of the countries that has not reached it’s threshold. (France, Sweden, Greece, Germany, The Netherlands, Austria…basically every country except Italy and Belgium)

Minimum thresholds must be met in at least five more countries in addition to the 1,000,000 signatures requirement.

The countries closest to reaching their minimum threshold are Ireland(89% of required signatures), France(75%), The Netherlands (75%), Spain (69%), and Cyprus (46%). If you or anyone you know have citizenship in these countries, please sign it, encourage them to sign it, and pass it forward.

If the requirements are met, the European Commission will be forced to examine this and take legal action. Real change is a possibility if enough signatures are collected.

Spread this.

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bnprime

come onnnn eu citizens

If you’re a citizen of the EU, this is the most important thing you can do today to make a positive change in the world.  All it takes is a signature.  Please sign.  Belgium and Italy have reached their countries’ respective thresholds, but Belgians and Italians can still sign to help reach the 1 000 000 signature requirement.

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Jan Baiboon, Jundan Chen, Xue Huizi, Seohyun Kim, Hyunser Park, Yoonmi Sun, Amane Taniguchi By Rafael Pavarotti For Vogue UK December 2021

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