This is foolishness

this is the single best picture of an eclipse I've taken ever. it's not even close

bark bark bark bark

the one on the right is looking at the moon

Yoshitoshi Kanemaki

https://www.behance.net/gold44104

The thing we're talking about here is something that I'm staring to call "commercial leftism". I think a lot of us are drastically underestimating how many people are on our feeds in bad faith.

"Tee hee, I'm spreading misinformation for fun!" And profit, if they can.

Basically, they're running the Fox News playbook at you, except Leftist. They have no intention of taking concrete actions that advance a cause, they are here to dominate conversations that aren't theirs, silence dissent, and chatter endlessly because that's their business model. Some of them are copycatting, not knowing what they're up to, but many of them are creating a sales funnel toward some opportunity to give them money.

See, once you get involved with any concrete activism you quickly realize that the group must first discuss its limited credible options, then make some sort of plan, and then it's time to shut up until the day of the protest, the vote, the whatever. Nothing left to do but go back to your life for a while.

They can't have that. Somebody else might start talking and that's not acceptable. They also don't want to do anything, at all, ever. They want money, or maybe just attention. Everything they do is an ornate excuse to avoid action, only talking, only words, and only if they are talking. They make a LOT of noise about action, but use shaming tactics to shut down any suggestion of action, especially voting, especially things that change the law.

Teri-Kanefield calls it the Misinformation-Outrage Cycle, and while what she wrote isn't about Tumblr Leftism, it's going to hit you.

Here's the link you need to click.

A lot of shit will make more sense once you manage to march through these posts.

"Don't be a Job Hopper" 1940s Disney WWII propaganda poster

A recurring theme I see in discussion of the present wave of Internet content regulation bills is the presumption that politicians are just so old and out of touch that they don't realise that these bills will have a deleterious effect on everyday communication. Y'all, they know. By and large, modern governments just don't want people talking to each other – they'd cheerfully impose licensing, monitoring, and identity disclosure requirements on talking to the person sitting next to you on the bus if there was any practicable means of doing so. Don't give these ghouls the benefit of the doubt.

They know, and they're hoping we don't know, but we do know, and they should know that we know!

Call (202) 224-3121 (I have phone anxiety as much as the next person, but a phone call really does mean more than an email, even if it's a message after hours!), and tell your Senators NO on KOSA and NO on EARN IT.

The details will vary depending on whether your Senators are red or blue, but the core issues - the right to free speech and the right to privacy - work for an argument on either side. Bonus: since the phone call is mostly to let them know that voters are aware of this issue and watching them, don't worry if you don't have the best argument ever. Let them know you're aware of these bills, you think they are bad, you have engaged your church/school/workplace about it, and that ALL of you will vote for your next Senator according to how the Senator votes on this issue.

These bills have come up repeatedly because these ghouls want them, but they have failed to pass - repeatedly - because nobody wants to risk it all on these particular bills once they realize people can see them. Call them and let them know you're watching!

physically unable to stop thinking abt this

We really do need to bring back the word "trolling" and warning ppl not to feed the trolls

That TikTok of ppl pouring tomato sauce directly on the counter, adding spaghetti & mixing it with their hands while commenting how great of an idea it is? Yeah, we used to call that trolling, it's pathetic & bc all they want from it is attention, the best thing is not to give them any. Block & move on.

I keep seeing it on here too. Someone comments something outrageous on a post & gets dozens of ppl to respond, filling the entire comment section & making it unusable. And on Instagram, a comment saying "I hate colors" on a post of someone showing off colorful art gets 100 replies while positive comments get none. Congrats, you've fed the troll. Now stop doing it.

Trolling used to get you banned from forums. Now they call you an influencer and give you brand deals & ad revenue. That's why it's more important than ever not to feed the trolls, especially in spaces where any attention is good attention and getting yelled at by 10k ppl in the comments counts as "engagement", boosting your troll post in the algorithm.

Every once in a great while I see one of the Old Masters at work online.

Of course, there is no way for me to be certain that I have seen them except that they wrap an entire community around their finger for a single joke and somehow, with one deft post, get the mods to ban everyone who replies to them in a cascade of hilarity while they appear as innocent as the Christ Child, and it's like seeing the sun come out for the first time in years.

I was sure that their kind were dead, perhaps I only imagined them? Then, like a miracle, one returns, it's once a decade but still. Oh yeah. It's an art. We were serious about that, because it was.

Still. Everyone who knows what I mean has to let it go. It's over. This place isn't really for our kind, not anymore. There is a business model behind every action now, especially the one where they do things "wrong", because it makes maximum attention.

There's a glitch in people's brains, they won't listen to you, it's the same thing that makes them slow down for a car crash to gawk, scolding them does nothing. Every child on the internet is now running the same exact scam as right wing talk radio assholes and Fox News blowhards, just slightly more fashionable, allegedly "leftist". They all have YouTube channels, Cash App in bio, Patreon.

There's a stack of "influencers" underneath the one who posts "wrong" content and their scam is reacting to the content like there they go, being stupid again! Grown ass men are making a career out of it, it's whale fall they survive on, it never ends. Everyone's desperately trying to get their lips on Google's big fat money titty any way they can.

There's a deliberate reason that their conversations go nowhere, fold back into themselves in circles, refuse to focus on actions. Every conversation online is like two pastors debating scripture at each other, God will never show up to declare a winner, so they can go at this forever, it's what they want. Watch how efficiently they silence anyone who thinks their "politics" is actual politics and tries to hand them action. They are making content. They want to talk and talk and talk and never end the talking. They intend to make videos with it until the dead horse stops leaking money.

I'm talking about the 12-year-olds, here. All they need is one viral hit, and enough people to throw into their Cash App to get them $5k, and they win. Roblox is a business, for kids. Everyone on the modern internet is running scam, except maybe for us, the people who know what I mean by Old Masters trolling. I don't think we've adapted all that well.

Everyone is "playing a character", everyone a streamer, and you're just the chat, now, a serf in the machine. The egalitarianism of the old web is gone as hell. We are now the audience at a standup show. Sit quiet, laugh on cue, pay and pay, don't argue with the populists or else. How fucking DARE you question my straw man argument? You heckler???!

Don't scold them while they're turning the money crank, or think they are. May as well scold a thief for stealing. It's trolls trolling trolls trolling trolls, forever. Some asshole's job is to make sure that politician's Tweets escape containment, every time. This asshole works for a PR firm, and probably makes more money a year than your house costs. Or maybe it's just some guy from India running a bot, but he will keep feeding trolls until the sun dies, either way.

These people may not be sure why they take the troll bait every single time, they probably think the money is on the other end of the line, and they don't want to hear from you. Let the hook hurt them, try to keep it out of your own face, if you can. You have no other option.

I think a lot of us need to grieve a thing that's been dead for ages, and find some way to move on, probably talk to more human faces while we still breathe. Everything you just posted, that I just posted? Training data. Do you work here? I don't.

We were pioneers, we went West, we saw a wilderness they'll never see, but it's gone now. The wilderness became - literally - modern California, and now neither of us can afford this town. I don't know where we should go, but it doesn't matter, we're the people in tents under a bridge, not some wise old heads. They want us out.

I comfort myself that it wasn't that great. The cruelty culture that drove early internet humor sure has blossomed, because of course it has, but all the good parts have been stripped for shareholder value. Moot has become the fascist he was made to be. That type of guy turned out exactly as we expected.

The true trolls of old, that era lasted for maybe a year, the abusive loudmouth right-wing types came in quick to spoil it fast. I don't dare remember it all too fondly, it was pretty ass, at least Musk is a wealthy scion, and not some insane fuckwad who owns our entire community from a server in his goon cave. I spent several years of my life in the forums of some lesser cartoonist who's now most famous as an obscure TERF. At least now, we all get hassled by proper wealth when we aren't getting talked down to by a 22-year-old with absolute power who's entire skill set is turning on a ring light and getting OBS to kinda run.

The average group of black teens on whatever platform would mop the floor with all those fashy hard asses from Something Awful who thought they were such hot shit, sneering down at the normies from their throne of self-worship. Turns out, they just didn't have much competition for whatever the fuck they thought they were doing.

Even Popehat is just Ken, now. He's a lawyer, probably nice and rich, still has it, probably the only man on the internet qualified to discuss free speech law. But he's just another guy with a Substack in 2024.

We need new hobbies, and to stop training AI how to talk. Stop feeding algorithms, stop giving all our time to people who view us like a chef views peanut butter. Don't worry about what they do. Let the trolls troll the trolls, they aren't going to stop. No, it doesn't matter what effect that has on anything, nobody is going to stop, let it go.

This is all just a smoking habit now, and it's time to quit. If you aren't making money here, everyone is just using you to make theirs.

Party's over. Lights are up. Time to leave.

If you do some sort of roommate pre-screen, the number one question is "do you have to refrigerate butter?" and the only answer is YES, no matter what they think.

If they can't say yes, just a flat yes, no elaborations, no debates, then wish them well and on their way, next candidate. Hustle them out the door. They can be a friend, that's fine, never roommate.

Somebody's granny tells them one time that they don't have to refrigerate butter, which isn't all that true at best, and that somehow turns into "SCIENCE IS A LIE, REFRIGERATE NOTHING".

My personal name for it is "white trash disease", and it comes with people who leave food out and uncovered while the flies dance on it, and they ignore it. It's a great way to have miserable arguments about refrigerating something that says PLEASE GOD REFRIGERATE AFTER OPENING on the side. Like sneaking that shit into the fridge like you're hiding pot from your mom to avoid the yelling.

It's a fantastic way to end up apologizing and buying a new one because you threw away the old one that had a scum of gray mold on the top because they took the lid off, forgot it on the counter for hours, then put the lid back on and left it on the counter. "That's how it's SUPPOSED TO LOOK!" No the fuck it's not, and the new one won't have it, because that was mold, and they were going to cook with it.

It comes with a nice helping of clown chatter about Best By dates being some sort of conspiracy, even though those dates are weeks and weeks, even months after you bring the stuff home. There's a mentality that comes with it. The butter is an iceberg tip.

I get a knot in my gut just thinking about it, it's so much more than the butter. The mentality affects everything, and they will not treat nasty like it's nasty. It's a great way to find them acting like you cleaning is some sort of weird hobby for crazy people, but all you've ever done is clean the toilet on a regular basis. To them, simple hygiene will seem absurd.

It's not about respecting their boundaries or culture ways, at all, it's about keeping those out of your life, at all costs. I know it sounds unreasonable, but this is one of the reddest flags, there's a reason nobody pays proper attention to those until it's too late.

Please understand that it sounds like I maybe had a bad experience with one person, but I promise you I am thinking of multiple people, dozens. It's "white trash disease" to me, but it might be "ghetto disease" to your experience. It's a culture, one that you do not want in your house. Let those people live with each other while eating butter with gray mold on it that they simply choose not to see.

For the love of all holy things do not pay rent while putting up with "I don't refrigerate butter".

This is a warning.

This must be one of those “cottonmouths that chase people down” from all the stories. Im betting most of them were just ones coiled and doing threat displays while floating away.

✨there she goes✨

Threatening the paparazzi

reblog to be eaten by this thing

It may feel like spring, but I’m not through with winter yet.

I had this idea for a looping animation in which a single dot has a pretty long loop, but the animation as a whole is much shorter. Because of the repetition this animation is only 1 second long!

tried to follow the path of the dot, got caught in a loop

pop up ads on pirating websites are so fucking funny. "do you want sex?" if I wanted to have sex do you really think I'd be watching doctor who. answer quickly

Please, never let this meme die.

This is the best one I’ve seen so far

What kind of quantum fucking memeing from 2056 are you people beaming to us

It’s fucking back

shooting star. i can’t believe i’m hearing shooting star again in the year 2020

The fates have ordained that this cross my timeline again and you better fucking believe i’m reblogging it.

This is the only good meme, don’t @ me