All I know is: be gay, commit arson, and vibe

Even as an advertiser (especially as an advertiser), I am convinced that outlawing advertising is the best thing we can do for our world now. More than gun control. More than tackling climate change. More than lowering the price of eggs. Removing these advanced manipulation tools would force everyone—politicians included—to snap back into reality. By outlawing advertising, the machinery of mass delusion would lose its most addictive and toxic fuel.

I started out reading this smugly saying to myself yeah, right.

But by the end I'm sold. Let's ban advertising.

We can start small, maybe with city ordinances. Then roll it out county wide, then at the state level. Once other states see how quiet and sane things can be, they'll adopt the ban too. The ones that don't will remain snarling islands of rage & delusion until the people move away.

Imagined Slights by eirtae

"because of The Curse?"

Which is an interesting thing to say about a character that spends the first third of T1 looking out for people who don't like him, while ignoring his own discomfort, then spends a chunk of TDW protecting a woman who doesn't like him and who has slapped him across the face, then ends up being the ONLY person taking up the responsibility of restoring a half-destroyed city that Thor left behind to be with his gf, then helps and in fact saves people who didn't gaf about him AND a brother who tortured and left him to die (because Grandmaster WOULD kill him) like 30 minutes ago, a girl who threw bottles at his head, and his former enemy, all without expecting a mere "thanks" in return. Oh, he also spends a good portion of all of his screentime, from T1 to LS, giving people pep talks, and basically being their therapist.

I do find it fascinating how quick people are to call someone who doesn't simply suck up and tolerate the abuse and mistreatment in silence self-centered. Because yeah, he complains about the way he is treated. A lot. Guess why? Because the way he is treated is never changed, and you would rather call him selfish and annoying for not shutting up rather than blame the people who won't stop mistreating him.

T1 script has a scene of Frigga telling Odin that it's ok to make Thor king despite him clearly not being ready for this role because Loki will be there to guide and help him. And, looking at the relationship the brothers share, it's so clear that Loki was always raised with this expectation of taking care of Thor. Thor ALWAYS runs to Loki with his problems, even when they haven't talked in over a year, Thor vents to Loki, Thor decides where they're gonna go and what's they're gonna do, the people they both hang out with are Thor's friends, etc. Loki doesn't do any of this, in fact, I cannot recall a singular time Loki would ask for help/bring up his problems around Thor. Moreover, each time Loki expresses any kind of an emotional need or acts unhappy, Thor gets angry, and even violent. Tell me what kind of dynamic it portrays to you. Damn, Thor doesn't even look at Loki while talking to him in T1. ("Never doubt I love you" - "Thank you").

Then there's Odin and Frigga consistently holding the fact they "love" him and, in Odin's case, "didn't let him die" over his head, in both T1 and TDW, to guilt him into obeying them and acting the way they want him to, to remind him that he's "obligated" to be grateful and helpful.

The Other tells him that he owes Thanos for the "great purpose" and his own enslavement.

Then there's Mobius telling him that he was born for the sake of the avengers' success and "to make people into the best versions of themselves". He also holds the "I didn't lat you die" card over his head and tortures him for "being a bad friend" for "running away", etc.

Like, at any given opportunity, Loki is reminded that his existence is in service of other people, he's discouraged from having feelings, or even acting in self-preservation/making decisions that do not result in someone else directly benefiting from.

"He betrayed Odin" - no

"He betrayed Grandmaster/Thanos/Mobius" - no and f u

"He wanted to take over NYC" - no

"He killed his mother" - no and f u #2

"He was a bad king" - no evidence of that either

Etc

But never, NEVER "Loki tried to eradicate his own race".

Which! He DID DO. HE TRIED TO OFF HIS PEOPLE AND HIMSELF OUT OF SPACE-RACISM.

I have switched to using Startpage.com and vastly prefer it. for one thing, instead of displaying an "AI summary" at the top of the search results (unless you turn it off, yes I know), it displays the first paragraph of the Wikipedia article, with link, whenever it finds one that's relevant.

also a waaayyyyy better sense of design than duckduckgo

Search Engines

Infinity Search is an alternative search engine with a special focus on privacy

DuckDuckGo is a popular search engine for those who value their privacy and are put off by the thought of their every query being tracked and logged. Uses bangs, ![site] for in-page search (sells your data to microsoft and draws from fucking bing)

WolframAlpha is a privately owned search engine that allows you to “compute expert-level answers using Wolfram’s breakthrough algorithms, knowledgebase, and AI technology.” A data search engine.

Boardreader is a search engine for forums and message boards. It allows you to search forums and then filter down results by date and language.

Based in France, Qwant is a privacy-based search engine that won’t record your searches or use your personal details for advertising. Uses “&” as a bang search.

Another privacy-based search engine is Search Encrypt, which uses local encryption to ensure that users’ identifiable information cannot be tracked. Metasearch across multiple engines. 

Offering unbiased results from several sources, SearX is a metasearch engine that aims to present a free, decentralized view of the internet. Can be self-hosted. 

Gibiru’s tagline is “Unfiltered private search” and that’s exactly what it offers. Requires AnonymoX Firefox add-on for privacy. 

Disconnect allows you to conduct anonymous searches through a search engine of your choice.

Swisscows provides fully encrypted searches to protect your privacy and security. Built-in violence/porn filter cannot be overridden. 

MetaGer offers “Privacy Protected Search & Find” through its anonymised search. A plugin will allow it to be made a default.

Gigablast is a private search engine that indexes millions of websites and servers real-time information without tracking your data, keeping you hidden from marketers and spammers. Variety of filtration and refinement options for searching. 

Oscobo is a search engine that protects your privacy while you search the web. By not using any third-party tools or scripts, your data is protected from hacking and misuse. Has a Chrome extension to allow use in toolbar. 

https://search.marginalia.nu/ an independent DIY search engine that focuses on non-commercial content, and attempts to show you sites you perhaps weren't aware of in favor of the sort of sites you probably already knew existed. Use old-school searching rather than query-based for the best results. 

https://www.mojeek.com/ 

https://wiby.me/ - It’s goal is to index as many personalized websites as possible, and NOT commercial sites. 

https://4get.ca/ it works a lot like SearX, but honestly better. It doesn’t have its own index, but pulls from many others. I think it’s the best for research, since it allows you to search for answers from different indexes, is easy to configure, add free, and avoids censorship as much as it can.

https://www.searchenginemap.com/ for more on how search engines relate to each other.

https://yep.com/ is a crawler

https://www.etools.ch/ retrieves from Google, Mojeek, Bing, and Yandex, like Searx

https://www.dogpile.com/ 

https://searxng.org/ (next gen Searx)

https://luxxle.com/ - possibly conservative?

https://presearch.com/ - good for academic?

https://kagi.com/smallweb - free/randomised Kagi.

Other Searchers

www.refseek.com - Academic Resource Search. More than a billion sources: encyclopedia, monographies, magazines.

www.worldcat.org - a search for the contents of 20 thousand worldwide libraries. Find out where lies the nearest rare book you need.

https://link.springer.com - access to more than 10 million scientific documents: books, articles, research protocols.

www.bioline.org.br is a library of scientific bioscience journals published in developing countries.

http://repec.org - volunteers from 102 countries have collected almost 4 million publications on economics and related science.

www.science.gov is an American state search engine on 2200+ scientific sites. More than 200 million articles are indexed.

This is the smartist and dumbist cover up for vampires

Because how many ask games are too many? Trick question, there's never enough! We all know we adore talking about our Kindred and hearing about others.

Send as many Clans/ Cults of your choice to the reblogger, plus their OC name, let them answer the relevant questions about their Kindred. The questions are based around the Clan/ Cult rather than you have to send the cult or clan the OC is in. ♥️🩸

Add your OC's names in the tags and share!

Don't forget to send asks to the person you reblogged this from!

Clan Inspired

Banu Haqim - What's the worst punishment your OC has received? Have they given any punishments out? How was it handled?

Brujah - What is something your OC will always fight for? What's the reason?

Gangrel - What is your OC's Beast like? Do they get along.. more or less?

Hecata - Does your OC have a family? Be it through blood or chosen. Tell us about them.

Lasombra - What's the most ruthless thing your OC has done? Why?

Malkavian - Think of your OC as a mortal, pre-embrace. If someone showed them what's going to happen to them, from the night they were turned to now, would they let the embrace happen or would they try to avoid it?

Ministry - What's the best/ worst lie your OC have ever told? What was the reason? Was it believed?

Nosferatu - Your OC is now cursed. Again. Their favourite physical thing about them has been changed to their worst nightmare. What is it?

Ravnos - Is your OC a daredevil or are they more cautious? What's the most chaotic thing that they've done?

Salubri - Ignore how many dots in Humanity there are. In your opinion, what's your OC's humanity like?

Toreador - Describe your OCs aesthetic in the worst way possible, then tell us what it actually is.

Tremere - What is something your OC wanted and got it for themselves, no matter how selfish or high the cost was?

Tzimisce - What's your OC's most prized possession? How long have they had it? Why is it important?

Ventrue - Does your OC have any influence or sway anywhere? Are they respected?

Caitiff - Would you say your OC is quite individualistic or do they conform to their Clan stereotype?

Thin-blood - Has your OC ever been shunned or cast-out? Are they currently an outcast? Or have they ever shunned someone else? Why?

Cult Inspired

Ashfinders - Does your OC use social media? If so, which platforms and what's their following like?

Bahari - How well does your OC cope with physical and/ or mental pain?

Church of Caine - Does your OC have any religious/ Kindred beliefs?

Church of Set - Is your OC able to be their true selves? If not, why? Is there anyone they can be real in front of?

Cult of Shalim - What's the worst thing your OC has suffered so far?

Cult of Mithras - Has your OC been in a blood bond? Are they currently in one? Do they have anyone bonded to them?