Digital Discipline

I can specifically speak about lagonegirl as I was a follower. They never spoke to their followers. Their posts all had a similar format to Vox posts at the time. They would leave a written funny comment on their posts turns out those were taken from Twitter users and written out like it was their own words. The many popular Black tumblr users rebloged the posts and added more funny comments and post would get widely shared.

1. people saying yes, russian psyops on social media accounts were totally a thing. they copied real content (which could be traced back to their original sources) but edited and modified in ways that helped them shape the conversation in the direction that served their purpose.  source: here are 5 sources documenting it

2. people saying no, russian psyops was never a thing.  uhhhh, duh! pfff, you believed that? cringe. OBVIOUSly fake. 

Afterwards the inquiry concluded that the russian trolls (of whom several were in fact indicted) specifically targeted Black voters to divide and undermine their vote

https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-49987657

They piggybacked on BLM

https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/social-media/russian-trolls-went-attack-during-key-election-moments-n827176

And they focused on Black Americans as prospective assets

https://edition.cnn.com/2018/12/17/tech/russia-2016-election-social-media-report/index.html

Ok guys you do know that every major Empire employs PsyOps pretty much 24/7, right?

The United States Cyber Command is a fucking agency with a published budget.

China’s combination Space Force and Cyberwarfare Army was formally launched in 2015. These agencies have full-time employees, you know? This is what they do.

Russia has been big into telecom as a vector for Imperial directives all throughout the history of the technology and they did not miss a beat when we switched from analog to digital.

Every time there’s a big election, there’s folks on some government payroll on every social worth a damn trying to steer the conversation. This isn’t even new! It’s just another branch of Propaganda, really, which all Empires engage in. They did it with television. They did it with Radio. They did it with newspapers. This is basic Statecraft.

Cultivate Skepticism.

There are far more players to this game than just Russian Trolls, and this year is an important one. Tumblr is a small pond but something is sure to show up. Be wary. Stay calm. Fact check.

Like for the majority it really is "oh i'm hungrier and moodier than usual"

If, before you get your period, you feel furiously angry, suicidal, irritated by every tiny thing to the point you want to murder someone, stuck in a black hole you'll never escape from. If you are experiencing extreme emotions for what seems like no good reason, especially if you get your period and those extreme emotions just go away. You're probably not just PMSing , you may have PMS's feral big sister PMDD and it's treatable.

John Rogers is the creator of two of my favorite things:

Leverage and Leverage: Redemption, show(s) about criminals who team up to punish billionaires and corporations who take advantage of regular people in ways that the law won't punish. It's a great heist show, it's hilarious, it's satisfying in a vengeance sort of way, it's deeply nerdy in sometimes subtle ways (criminals using aliases from Doctor Who, anyone?), and seeing the characters and relationships develop is really nice, too.

Mr Rogers: Be kind

Steve Rogers: Do the right thing

This is true of literally any technology, of course, but I forget that many people just go "This Technology BAD." So yes, good reminder: computers and algorithms—and yes, even generative 'ai'—are just tools, and what matters is how they're used.

So some fanartist drew a “sexy” (read: booby) version of a (cartoon) character who is traditionally very non-sexualised. Fans of the character got mad about it because it’s kind of groundbreaking how that character is written and portrayed and this art totally ignores the entire point of the character. They demanded the art be deleted. In response to that other people said, well what the fanartist did may be distateful but they have every right to draw what they’re into. The two sides fight for days and each starts a harassment campaign and even report their “opponents’” accounts.

So far so typical. But things eventually come to a head and they decide that this will be settled by votes - not through a poll. Through donations to a children’s education charity via each side’s portal. Whoever can get the highest amount of donation wins.

Pros: I’ll have access to them later because they’re fucking hilarious

you don't deserve me at my

Phooey.

“It’s tempting to assume”: someone’s assumption is about to be criticized