The (w)Hole

We’re making a big change to how account deletion works on Tumblr, and we’re really excited about it, because this is something that some of you have been requesting for… well… a literal decade.

Before today, when you deleted your Tumblr account, it was immediate and permanent. Occasionally, this resulted in Very Sad Times. Even though we’ve tried to make it super difficult to accidentally delete your account, this is something that still happens a lot. Like, a lot. There’s also plenty of folks who delete their account on purpose, but then regret it shortly afterward. Worst of all, if your account was hacked, and then deleted by the hacker, there was no way to get it back. 

All of these problems are *poof* no more. As of today, when you delete your account, we will keep your data for 30 days. Your account will remain recoverable during that time, and you can contact us within that 30 day window if you’d like us to restore your account.

Eventually, we hope to make this process a bit easier, and allow you to restore your account with a single click of a button. For right now, though, you’ll need to contact us via tumblr.com/support and choose the category “Account Access” > “I have deleted my account or blog by accident”. 

FAQs

How do I delete my account? Does that process look different now?

You can follow the steps here to delete your account on the web or through the mobile app, which works pretty much the same way as before. You’ll notice we’ve updated the confirmation screen to reflect the new process, though.

Does a deleted account still appear on Tumblr during this 30 day window?

Nope. As soon as you submit the request to delete your account, all of your blogs will no longer be accessible (they’ll 404), no one will be able to message you, your posts will no longer appear in search results, and you won’t be able to log in anymore. This happens right away, not 30 days later. Deleted accounts still behave exactly as they always have.

What about my email address and username? Will those become available again immediately after account deletion, like they did before?

Notably, no, they will not. In order to make it possible for the account to be restored during the 30 day window, the username and email address must remain associated with the account during that time. So they won’t be available to register again until 30 days after you’ve deleted your account.

If you’re deleting your account, and you already know that you’d like to use the same username or email address on a new account immediately afterward, we recommend that you change your username and email address before deleting the account. That way, they will become available right away, instead of being on hold for 30 days. 

What if I’ve accidentally deleted one of my sideblogs, but not my entire account?

If you delete a sideblog, it will be deleted right away, and cannot be restored. We can only restore an entire account (which will restore all of its blogs along with it). 

Is this feature retroactive? Can you restore the account I deleted two years ago?

As much as we would like this to be possible, the answer is no. We still haven’t perfected the art of time travel, so all accounts deleted before today are still deleted for good. This new change will only apply to accounts which are deleted after this announcement is posted.

Where can I learn more about the account deletion process?

However, the final say in things is the verdict slip. We’ve been talking a lot about jury nullification for the last year and a half, and this is where is comes into play. The jury can find whatever elements in the charge or instruction have been met, and that will instruct them how to find on the verdict slip. Luigi’s will probably have a “select all that apply” with “guilty of… and…” with each weapons charge as well as “the lesser crime or manslaughter OR the greater crime of manslaughter”, and finally, a “not guilty” option. The jury can find how the please despite the jury instruction, but a hung jury or inconclusive verdict will only result in a mistrial and starting from square 1. So basically, we are banking on having several jurors fully understand their right to find as they please on the slip despite the jury instruction, and that they want to do so.

All this to say, it will probably come down to the language of the jury instruction which will not include many “not guilty” options. However, each side is going to present a jury instruction and we can only hope that the Defense’s is selected, as I’m sure the language will be more favorable.

Another thing I’ve seen a lot is a comparison between EED and a crime of passion/depraved heart murder. The principals are very very similar, but NY does not have a crime of passion/depraved heart murder statute. The EED defense is their way to allow lesser charges for these types of crimes. Without going too deep into the elements, depraved heart murder requires that the murder is committed immediately after the triggering event without a “cooling down” period (ex - walking in on a spouse cheating on you and killing the partner right there). However, I read through some of the case law, and it seems like the EED defense does not hold as strict of a time frame and instead understands that the disturbance can be built over time as a result of the triggering event. This is a huge distinction. Also, as I mentioned earlier, the EED defense has a much lower burden of proof at “a preponderance of the evidence” instead of the more strict criminal law go-to of “beyond a reasonable doubt.”

first crush

Though they make at least $7.25 an hour, the state siphons 40% off the top of all wages and also levies fees, including $5 a day for rides to their jobs and $15 a month for laundry.

Turning down work can jeopardize chances of early release in a state that last year granted parole to only 8% of eligible prisoners — an all-time low, and among the worst rates nationwide — though that number more than doubled this year after public outcry."

Long post warning lol.....

The Dateline special didn't really reveal anything new. If anything, it felt like a recap for the general public who haven't been following the case closely. However, what stood out to me was the consistent tone of disgust and confusion surrounding the murder (again nothing new), paired with the repeated attempts to humanize BT.

The reason I bring this ups specifically, is because I think it's important to address this in more detail, especially after what happened outside of court with those 3 idiots during the last hearing. The conversation around why this murder has had such a huge impact is getting muddied and losing the plot. A lot of people, especially those who support Luigi, seem to struggle with reconciling two things at once: recognizing murder as a terrible act while also understanding why so many people sympathize with the anger behind it. Here's my interpretation of how we as supporters can remedy that.

As I was watching the episode, Lester Holt asked the legal fee fundraiser organizer, Sam Beard (Bear? sp?), a very simple question:

"Did BT deserve to murdered on the street?"

They started struggling and bumbling to answer it, eventually giving a sort of non-answer deflect, that didn't really make sense. Honestly, it was frustrating to watch for me. These are the moments where the message needs to be loud and crystal fkn clear. Whether you're standing with press on the courthouse steps or on national TV, people need to know exactly why this case is important. If supporters can't articulate their position clearly, it becomes easy for the opposing entities (like Dateline!) to distort it causing confusion, and confusion kills momentum in any movement.

So, here's how I would answer that question.

"Did BT deserve to die?"

My Short Answer:

No.

That's it. The answer is simply no.

No matter your view on the case, Luigi, or health insurance, BT did not deserve to die. He was a cog of a larger system that rewards profit over people. The real issue is the broader capitalist system we live in that encourages harmful business practices, not just one individual.

Here's the Long Answer/In Depth Expalnation:

No matter how you feel about the alleged killing, Luigi, or the healthcare system, BT did not deserve to die. Simple.

Now before you jump down my throat for saying that, please note, this NOT a sympathy post for BT or people like him. It's just a recognition of a larger reality that we all need to lock in on sooner than later.

For supporters, this was not some celebration of some innocent guy dying or a blind hatred for anyone who has CEO as a profession. However, where I think most supporters get confused is that they treat BT as if he was the sole villain, rather than a more visible representative of a much bigger and corrupt system. The reality is most of those individuals, are just one of many cogs, operating within systems that reward the very behavior they're being criticized for by the general public. The word system here is key. What is a system? It's a group of connected individuals that make decisions and work together to achieve a particular purpose or produce a certain outcome. An outcome favorable to those who primarily benefit from it.

The "system" that keeps getting mentioned is Capitalism. Lets just rip that bandaid off now. We all live under capitalism. That's not some pseudo political tiktok buzzword. It's a fact. At its core, capitalism rewards profit, growth, and returns on investment for the select few who benefit from it. In many industries and from certain positions of privilege, that's not necessarily controversial. The problem is what happens when that profit driven mindset expands and colonizes areas for the public good, like healthcare, housing, education, and food (to name a few). Areas that are essential for average people to survive, and are basic rights for ALL human beings, but especially those who are already paying taxes to facilitate for most of those benefits in society in the first place.

Since the 1970s/1980s, when Reagan and neoliberalism first took off, profit focus initiatives have increasingly infected the basic needs of our everyday lives. And everything from our nightly news to the movies we watch, to the music we listen to, encourages us to abide by this economic system for the "greater good" even increasingly at our expense.  The result is that we are conditioned since birth to celebrate capitalism and what it values: Endless growth, record profits, soaring stock prices (The Dow is over 50,000 right now, guys!), billionaires, rag-to-riches success stories, and of course the highly revered and coveted position of CEO. And a lot of us do, without question, exchanging our liberties for the blind misguided fantasy that one day we will be just like them. Never ever asking ourselves how they got the money to afford all of that first place. 

What is the ethical and societal benefit of 10 billionaires? Hell, even just ONE billionaire, especially in a world where people can’t afford to eat? How do companies make record profits during a recession? During a pandemic?? Why do so many workers face layoffs or financial struggle while the companies they helped become profitable continue to do thrive?

Those questions rarely get asked or answered the powers that be.

That's why I think as supporters, focusing entirely on BT misses the point. He wasn't the system of capitalism itself. He was just a cog within it. A big cog, sure, but still one part of something much larger and complex.

The clearest example of this is what happened after his death. Like any broken cog, he was replaced almost immediately after, I think within a week or two. The UHC kept operating business as usual. The other predatory health insurance industries kept operating too.  The incentives that shaped his and other CEOs decisions remained exactly where they were. Sure, this murder caused their stock to drop and they are still fighting the negative press to this day (which something at least, that's great), but the reality is they have the profits to outlast and the PR to outmaneuver all of this backlash in the years to come. In other words, despite this bump in the road, they'll be fine, unless we start targeting the true underlying problem of why they exist in the first place.

So when I say BT didn't deserve to die, what I mean is that most people like him, operating and benefiting inside this capitalist system aren't waking up every morning thinking about how more efficiently and effectively they can hurt others. There's no evil mustache twirling plan for people like him. Often their money and proximity to power insulates them from truly seeing any of the consequences of their decisions. The people’s lives they affected get dehumanized and reduced to report percentages and numbers on a spreadsheets. They don’t ever see the harm they cause. So as a result, they don’t see themselves as monsters. The people in their lives don't see them as monsters. And most of the general public don't even see them as monsters. They don’t understand all this love for this murder....because, well, why would they?

No one can see their privilege. And the higher up in society someone gets, the easier it becomes to lose sight of the human impact of their decisions. That’s why the system is designed that way. To hide the consequences and so those individuals working within it only see the benefits. Success of the employee gets measured by growth and profits. The Shareholders/Investors/PAC Donors, [Fill in Private Funding Entity] reward those results. Bonuses get handed out. Careers advance. Backs are patted. Rinse and repeat this across ALL political and business sectors. NOT JUST HEALTH INSURANCE. This is VERY important part to understand.

Meanwhile, the everyday people affected by those profit driven decisions remain invisible. Just necessary collateral on the road to endless growth and profit for the few. These "few" will always reward their agents of capital (whether it be a CEO or the, President) and always steer the public's discord to view their endless pursuit of profit as nothing but virtuous.

So this is why someone like BT can be viewed by his friends and colleagues as a kind, humble, hard-working fellow while simultaneously being part of a system that causes enormous and reckless harm to others. Those two realities exist at the same time.

And that is the part I think Dateline and other bs docuseries largely miss, and also what a lot of people on both sides are missing in this conversation as well.

We are talking about political and economic systems that have not centered on public wellbeing for a long time. And this is not new. This did not start with Trump or just the republicans. It is about how ALL major political and economic institutions for decades in this country consistently put profit ahead of people and how that negatively shapes nearly everything in our very lives.

In that context, BT becomes less of an isolated story and more of a reflection of a much bigger structural issue. One that does not excuse or simplify the murder, but does explain why people are reacting so strongly with all kinds of opinions, yet the conversation keeps getting muddied and more confusing as this trial goes along.

The point is BT should not have had to die in order for the powers that be to pay attention to the needs of the people.

If institutions were doing what they are supposed to do, regulating harmful business practices and prioritizing public health and wellbeing, we would not be here trying to make sense of something like this at all. We would not be calling the alleged murderer a hero. I think BT's blood is just as much on their hands as the one who (allegedly) pulled that trigger.

Overall the Dateline episode, was just one of many paid advertisements for Empire. It was less interested in examining the structures that created public outrage and more interested in reinforcing faith in the institutions themselves, by trying to still gloss over that this was just a senseless act of murder instead of a desperate cry for help. This is why the message needs to be crystal clear from us, the supporters, because entities like Dateline are just a mouthpiece for the very institutions we are fighting against. They are not going to investigate or incriminate themselves. They are not going to bite the hand that feeds them.

The stench of propaganda in this episode was strong. From the framing of the "senseless" murder as some fringe event, to the circle jerk admiration for the asshats in the NYPD, to pride over the ever expanding Orwellian surveillance state in our cities, the episode's message felt clear: