Kind heart, passive aggressive personality.

"Let's take a word from our sponsor."

*Skip ahead a minute* "You can-"

*Skip ahead a minute* "Use code-"

*Skip ahead a minute* "300,000-"

*Skip ahead a minute* "300,000-"

*Skip ahead a minute* "T-shirts-"

*Skip ahead a minute* "Motherfuck-"

She has over 4 megajoules of energy.

that way we know we’re from tumblr without revealing anything

I’m just going to say this to strangers until i find a tumblr person

must keep reblogering!! Im going to be so suspicious if any one tells me this now!

Remember the answer is: I stole them from the president.

so I'm in a sporting goods store that sells hunting rifles. a tourist (50ish-year-old white woman) starts taking photos of the weapons on display, and a local man stops her and says "excuse me, it's not allowed to take photos of the guns."

tourist woman: "do you work here?"

local man: "no, I'm just–"

tourist woman: "well then it's not your responsibility to tell people what they can do, is it?"

local man: "it's everyone's responsibility, these rules are for the safety of our community."

tourist woman: "no, it's not. I don't have to listen to you. only the shop staff can tell me what I can't do."

at this point the man shakes his head, says "idiot" under his breath, and walks away.

and the woman calls after him three separate times, at increasing volume as he exits the shop: "excuse me? what did you say? what was it you said to me?"

then she turns to me and the cashier and says "strange man. scary guy. talking about guns and telling women what to do. I'm afraid to leave the shop now. I think he's going to shoot me. he seems like someone who kills women. scary guy."

and I'm thinking, yeah, you were so scared of the guy walking away from you that you kept trying to drag him back in and escalate the confrontation.

or could it be, perhaps, that what you really wanted was another chance to win the argument in front of witnesses, and when you didn't get that, you decided to pivot to being a poor helpless little misogyny victim about it. perhaps throwing your weight around as a rich tourist didn't work so you thought you'd save face with onlookers by rolling out the Men Are Always Threats To Women trope.

no wait that- no that's not- no.

Unles you've like, poured out ALL OF YOUR BLOOD, used it for a spell, and then somehow SIPHONED THE WHOLE THING BACK IN, that doesn't mean the blood on the inside of you is also used. And even then, if you'd had your sacrifical blood IV'd back into your body-

actually nevermind, I need to draw a graph to illustrate:

No.

“there’s a restaurant two miles from my house called—” nope

“today I learned [celeb] went to my high school—” nope nope nope nope nope

these are all real posts I’ve seen on the internet that allowed me to identify a user’s hometown instantly. if it’s a small town, that’s doubly dangerous, because a bad actor could trace you just by a unique first name or selfie you once posted. in an age where doxxing and stalking are some of the worst I’ve ever seen it, you HAVE to think twice about what you’re posting online.

i once saw a 13-year old post an image they noted as being “a few miles from their house.” it had a theater in the shot with a unique enough name to be local. one google maps search, now everyone knew not only what city they lived in, but the possible neighborhoods in that radius too. and they had a HUGE following…who all knew this was a 13-year-old child.

so yeah. not to sound like a 90s internet safety PSA…but I’m gonna be that PSA for a minute.

if you’re posting an image, there is NO need to say that you live there. you could just be traveling. “saw this in Montana” is better than “saw this by my house!”

before you post about a venue, especially a restaurant or small store, check and see if it’s local—CRUCIALLY if it has only one or two locations. people might travel to arenas or convention centers, but they’re far less likely to be traveling to Bartleby’s Fish and Chips. if it’s an anecdote and you still live nearby, you can honestly just leave the name out entirely.

if you’re sharing a news story, it can just be a story you found and wanted to share. you don’t have to clarify “it happened in my town,” because even if you don’t mention your town name, an easily-googled news article will.

if you’re seeing a concert or meeting a celebrity on a tour that’s stopped locally, wait until they’ve hit a few more venues before you post about it, or at the very least wait until you get home. this is honestly a smart move for any event you attend: unless you’re marketing yourself, there’s no need to advertise your location in real time.

check your selfie backgrounds for anything identifying. this includes city names on venues, school names, street signs, and house numbers.

this stuff is flexible if you no longer live in your hometown, or if your city is particularly big, but there’s STILL no reason to tie yourself to your school, your workplace, or your street. you can call it paranoid, but as someone who’s seen my friends get literal death threats over fictional characters before, the last thing I want is someone willing to act on those threats finding out where they live.