Arc

Pride Sticker Collection by @Kyri45

Just something to note quickly with the heat wave going on in the US and another one coming for Europe soon: Be extra careful when you are on medications. This goes for a variety of medications including psych medications and some of the typical ADHD medications, but also beta blockers, some antibiotics and analgetics. Those might influence how your body reacts to the heat or how aware you are of your body overheating. Here is a complete list.

Also a list of some of the most common psychotropic medications.

Please be super careful with the heat. These days the heat tends to be more deadly than cold!

Slavery was not "200 years ago," the last living former enslaved african american passed away in 2014 at 70 years old.

Chattell slavery in America did not go away, it adapted. It became peonage, sharecropping, vagrancy laws, "chain gangs" or convict leasing, and continues into the modern day prison system and the systematic incarceration of black and brown people and expanded to forced detention of immigrants in modern day America.

Do not believe the common narrative that the emancipation proclamation freed every slave. There are many more who were unable to tell their stories out of shame or fear of harm.

I reccomend that people read Slavery by Another Name by Douglas A. Blackmon or watch the 90 minute documentary / film adaptation

One of the most obnoxious examples of this is about once a month I see post/post cast clip/hear from someone irl that they think JK Rowling is an in denial trans man. They’ll take the quotes from her about how were she born in this generation, she would’ve been trans and that “the allure of escaping womanhood would have been too much to resist” and say she obviously a trans man.

But by believing this you haven’t discovered some secret of hers. Rowling quite literally wants you to believe she would’ve been trans to lend herself credence into the trans conversation. And you are agreeing with her and the TERFs that reason transmasculine people transition is because of internalized misogyny and peer pressure.

the story she is actually telling and

the reason she is telling that story

The story comes from her TERF Wars essay that she published in June 2020. (Excellent timing to really hammer home just how much of a bigot you are.)

In that essay, she talks about her experiences with misogyny and abuse. She also talks about how she experienced OCD and about how much her father wanted her to be a boy.

An important thing to remember is that Rowling has a history of ... adjusting ... her backstory to fit whatever narrative she wants to tell. During the Heyday of Harry Potter, she (and her promotional staff) leaned heavily into her time on benefits to give her a rags-to-riches backstory. Most of that story was heavily exaggerated and some of the stuff that was said about that time had been pulled from thin air.

It's completely possible that she is doing the same thing in her TERF wars essay.

So we do not know how much of this is actually true.

There is an old interview with her and her sister, in which both of them talk about how her parents had wanted her to be a boy. They specifically talk about how her parents told her the male name they had chosen for her prior to her birth.

In that same interview, Rowling recounts an argument she had with her parents about how her gender and the gender of her sister. (Basically, Rowling brought up how their parents seemed to be fine with her younger sister being a girl and asked her parents if they were fine with her being a girl, too. They told her no.)

We also know that she has a history of being subjected to misogyny. The way some media outlets treated her in the past was pretty nasty and misogynistic. Some of it did criticize her for not being female enough.

So is her story true?

I don't know.

What I can say is that she sounded genuinely bitter and distraught during that interview. She also seems to have undergone a lot of feminizing surgeries since those media outlets started to report on her. So it's completely possible that at least some of it is true.

The important thing here:

While it's completely possible that she has experienced trauma about her gender, that trauma is external. At no point did she talk about how she herself wanted to be a boy or a man because she truly felt like one. Instead, she is pretty adamant that that trauma was inflicted on her by her parents not accepting her girlhood and later by society not accepting her womanhood.

Or, to quote her:

I believe I could have been persuaded to turn myself into the son my father had openly said he’d have preferred.

Which brings us to the reason for why she is telling that story. And in her essay, she is pretty clear about that, too:

Littman mentioned Tumblr, Reddit, Instagram and YouTube as contributing factors to Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria, where she believes that in the realm of transgender identification ‘youth have created particularly insular echo chambers.’

TERF wars isn't her biography.

It's her manifesto.

Or, to phrase it differently: She isn't giving you (general you) a true and heartfelt recollection of her past. She is trying to sell you a grift.

And the grift that she is trying to sell you is Lisa Littman's pseudo-scientific bullshit about Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria.

With her essay, Rowling wants to push the narrative that trans men identifying as men is a case of social contagion. It's all about how trans boys and men aren't really trans, but confused and distressed girls who convince each other into believing that they could escape their distress by becoming men.

And that's also the reason for why she is bringing up how her daddy hated her for being a girl. She is telling that sob story, because she uses it as a way to place herself in a position of authority on the topic.

And that's it.

For everyone who wants to learn more about the topic, I recommend watching this video by Caelan Conrad:

Capitalism does not want you to think about the people who designed your furniture. It does not want you to think about the people who sewed your clothes. It does not want you to think about the people who plant and harvest the food you are eating, or the people who work to keep your infrastructure running. Capitalism has a vested interest in you never thinking about the people taking away your trash, or the people who work in the warehouses from where you order. It has a vested interest even in you ignoring the work of the many invisible hands who might work on your entertainment - the caterers, set builders, gaffers, and so on.

Because as long as you are ignorant of the labor put into the things you consume, you will be fine with those laborers being treated like shit.

happy pride! remember that being a transgender is everything but fiction. there are so many real historical figures from every century about whose transgenderism we aren't even aware of

I've gotten multiple of these things now across the last several weeks, and I wanted to help folks identify this scam because I work in the financial industry. I'm not licensed, but I do administrative work, and I am very much tired of seeing these sorts of scams, and would love to help folks on here identify them to avoid falling victim.

If you see a blog that has just followed you in the last few minutes or hours, then you get a message that begins with a simple "Hey" or "Hello" and absolutely nothing more, be wary. Do not give any extra information like your name, location, what you're doing, etc. The reason these scams begin with something so vague as a single word greeting, is so the scammer can eventually steer the conversation in any given direction to gather information off of you for future use. Things such as your interests, hobbies, activities, etc. may seem harmless at first, but in the case of a scammer, any information on you is a gold mine because they'll use family members against you, steal their photos for blackmail and photoshop them to possibly make things seem threatening, they'll use your voice or image to generate AI videos and audio to use against you and those you know, etc. You name it, it's all fair game for scammers. Nothing is off the table.

If you get one of these messages, and you're unsure if they're a scammer, simply respond with something just as generic. Something like "Hi" or "Hey, how are you?" Give them nothing indicative. A response, no matter how vague, will trigger the next part of the message.

Thus, the scam itself begins. The scammer will say they reported your account by accident, and provide a screenshot of the "report".

Don't respond to these. They did not report you, nor did this report actually happen. Tap on the three dots in the corner of your message window, and report this as spam. DO NOT RESPOND!!!

If you respond, the scam continues on, and the scammer will say that they can help you by moving to a third-party service, oftentimes Telegram or Whatsapp, and there you have the catch. The reason scammers do this, taking you off platform, is because that eliminates the restrictions of the platform they begin with (such as Tumblr in this case), and allows them access to more of your information such as phone number, address, and more data that Tumblr does not use. In addition, those services can be quite easy to hack, thus they may possibly hack you there and begin taking even more information. Again, anything is possible with scammers. Don't follow them to another platform. Period.

Tumblr, or any official service, will not tell you to leave the platform to handle a report at all. Reports are handled inside the website and app service itself, never outside. Tumblr in specific handles its reports via Zendesk to send you updates and response emails. I've sent several service emails to them in the last year for technical issues, and Tumblr will specifically notify you in the email that their staff responses will be sent through Zendesk.

Now, let's take a closer look at this image the scammer sent me.

You'll notice my icon and blog name, the whole email looks pretty official, but there are some key aspects to look at.

Notice how the message expresses much urgency in the first half, and the second half says legal action will be taken against me, and that law enforcement will be given my account information as necessary. It sounds very threatening, and that is the point.

Scammers use urgency to induce fear into those they're scamming, specifically to entice you to take action and lure you deeper into their scam. The threat aspect is designed to make you afraid so you're inclined to listen to what the scammer says, and follow their lead on how to "solve" the issue. There is no issue. They will not solve anything. Nothing needs solving, they just need to be reported and blocked.

What's key to me is, the scammer's image claims that the reason I'm being reported is due to financial fraud. It states, "Due to the majority of claims, the user will not be notified."

Once again, I work in the field of licensed finance and investments. And although I am not licensed myself, I am fingerprinted with the government to do plenty of administrative work for financial professionals and advisors. And I will fully promise you that, within the USA at least, if financial fraud is committed and authorities have been notified about it, you absolutely will be contacted by investigative services. There is no reason whatsoever, and no case I can imagine, wherein you would not be contacted by especially the IRS in regards to fraud. To say that the user will not be notified, goes against the lawful procedures of financial investigation practices. Especially if there were multiple reports made against me (which there were not), I myself would've been notified a while ago by investigative authorities because of the fact that I am fingerprinted by the government for administrative financial work, and I am being monitored constantly to ensure I handle all financial work properly in accordance with state and federal law. I am audited at least every year or two to ensure this, and would've been told ages ago if an investigation was being done into my financial history, I'd have lost my job, and been fined or sent to prison depending on the actions taken against me. And the only place I've been in the last month is at home recovering from surgery, not prison. So I know for a fact this is a definite scam!

These scams will almost always involve something with finances because the ultimate goal of the scammers is to be blackmailing you like such to drain you of your money. Ultimately put, these are finance scams. If the scam continues, they'll be asking for things like wire transfers or Western Union, and other untraceable methods of sending huge sums of money, while threatening you to entice you to continue sending money. Do not send them anything. Do absolutely nothing except for reporting and blocking them!! If needed, PLEASE contact your local authorities to ensure they are notified of these scammers!!

Lastly, the contact info of the supposed support is another major dead giveaway that this is a scam.

Tumblr staff doesn't use Discord for support services. Again, this goes against their standard practice. All their support is handled through the Tumblr website or app, with emails sent using the Zendesk service.

I even went ahead and searched Discord for that username, dingofficialsupport, and it turned up absolutely nothing. No user with that name exists. I also did a reverse phone number search on several services I use at my job. The phone number provided turns up a person with an entirely different name than Hao Ding. That means this is a complete sham using a fake or spoofed number. Hao Ding doesn't exist, he is not working for Tumblr support, and that is not his contact information even if he is real.

So! Overall, how can you identify these scams?

Be wary of anyone who follows you, and immediately, or very shortly after following, sends a vague "hi/hey/hello".

The user will tell you they reported you, and provide a screenshot of the supposed report. It looks official, but check for spelling errors, and grammatical mistakes (such as extra spaces, missing punctuation, and incorrect punctuation).

Said screenshot will show an urgent message that sounds threatening to you the user, to entice you into taking action, thus luring you into their scam.

The scammer messaging you will try moving you to a third-party app or website like Telegram, Discord, or WhatsApp, to easier continue their scam against you.

The scammer offers support from a seemingly-professional service, which you can search the information of the "professional" to verify if it's legit. If said information turns up a different identity or no identity at all, it's a scam.

The report involves some financial aspect to it.

The report or message says that you won't be notified, and has vague references such as "proper authorities" or "law enforcement". A proper report would likely indicate the authorities being contacted, and USA financial investigation in particular will absolutely lead you being notified, as that is USA law.

How can you avoid these scams when they begin so vaguely as seen above?

Don't give any of your information to the scsmmers, period. Don't say what you're doing, where you live, your name, gender, age, who you follow, etc. Keep it vague as hell. Give nothing.

Report and block! REPORT AND BLOCK!!!

Verify the information sent. Check the email address of the screenshot, the contact information provided for the "support", and so on. If it looks fishy, chances are it is.

Change your password, and add any extra verification steps that you can to ensure your account is safe and secure.

REPORT!! AND!! BLOCK!!! Seriously, that is so essential to do. Do not leave them unblocked, and do not hesitate to report.

In addition to this, the screenshot of the fake report has a couple more tells:

1. A reputable website/service will not share information about you with random third parties. Someone who reported you is a random third party.

Even if that scammer reported you (they didn't) and even if there were other reports made against you, Support would not share information about those reports with random users, even if they also reported you. They would thank the scammer for the information they supplied and would handle the rest without their input.

2. Even if that scammer reported you (they still didn't) and then revoked their report - that report would simply be closed. Any other reports would proceed without it. Support would not argue with them about whether you're innocent or not.

3. At the beginning, the scam-mail claims how the reported user will not be informed about the claims made against them. A little further down the scam-mail recommends that the reported user should contact "Certified Dispute Staff" for a "live case resolution".

This doesn't make a lick of sense. Only one of these two claims can be true. Either you are not to be informed about the ongoing investigation - in which case they can't expect you to contact anyone. Or you are expected to contact staff to resolve the case, in which case you have to be informed.

Big commission for CobaltTiger22, featuring him and his otter character, Wade, going storm chasing, and successfully intercepting a tornado! This took me a while, but the results were definitely worth it. :3

We're in the midst of tornado season, so it's rather fitting this commission got done now, haha.