Where's all the rum gone?!

The post has about 15k notes at the moment and I have been seeing it on my dash frequently. I clicked one of the links because I did want to inform myself and i encountered this:

In one paragraph there are no less than TWO prominent antisemitic tropes (the idea that Jewish people are socio-economically advantaged and that they use the Holocaust to get what they want.) This isn’t subtle. I wouldn’t be surprised if other links on the post ended up being anti-semitic too, considering op’s willingness to add this one.

This is just part of a larger issue of anti-semitism in discussions of i/p. Yes, you can be anti-zionist without being anti-semitic but to do so you have to make an effort, you cannot just spout old anti-semitic conspiracy theories and then say “oh it’s just anti-zionist so its ok.” Even if you don’t care about jews, at least avoid being blatantly anti-semitic so that your talking points are taken seriously.

This is a post being made regarding the tumblr users @/thestubbornscientist and @/milsoms, and their dangerous behavior. This is not a call to harassment in any way; please do not attempt to contact these individuals and simply block them for your own safety. The intended purpose of this callout is to protect minors in the Don’t Starve and Don’t Starve Together community. This is mostly the community that this is being used to warn others of these two individuals, as they were most prevalent and active in that community. Though both of them have moved on towards other fandoms as well.

A document is linked within this post that details the claims along with substantial evidence backing them up. Please read this in its entirety before making any personal acts or judgements yourself.

TW: NSFW, grooming, explicit descriptions of v/ore, oncest/selfcest, dubcon, gore, guro (gore NSFW), pro-shipping, omegaverse

I will continue to voice out if any updates are made to this document; whether that be to add anything that may happen to further support the evidence within, or anything else similar.

Furthermore, please stay clear of user “meias!”, “pato-ki” and “ohmeohmei”, known as Mei. As shown within the document, she has read it in full and has chosen to defend Stubbs despite the contents inside this.

I'm going to try it.

Writing Advice: By Chuck Palahniuk

In Six seconds, you’ll hate me. But in six months, you’ll be a better writer.

From this point forward – at least for the next half year – you may not use “thought” verbs. These include: Thinks, Knows, Understands, Realizes, Believes, Wants, Remembers, Imagines, Desires, and a hundred others you love to use.

This list should also include: Loves and Hates

And it should include: Is and Has, but we’ll get to those later.

Until some time around Christmas, you can’t write: Kenny wondered if Monica didn’t like him going out at night…”

Instead, you’ll have to Un-pack that to something like: “the mornings after Kenny had stayed out, beyond the last bus, until he’d had to bum a ride or pay for a cab and got home to find Monica faking sleep, faking because she never slept that quite, those mornings, she’d only put her own cup of coffee in the microwave. Never his.”

Instead of characters knowing anything, you must now present that allow the reader to know them. Instead of a character wanting something, you must now describe the thing so that the reader wants it.

Instead of saying: “Adam knew Gwen liked him.” You’ll have to say: “Between classes, Gwen had always leaned on his locker when he’d go to open it. She’d roll her eyes and shove off with one foot, leaving a black heel-mark on the painted metal, but she also left the smell of her perfume. The combination lock would be warm from her butt. And the next break, Gwen would be leaned there, again.”

In short, no more short cuts. Only specific sensory detail: action, smell, taste, sound, and feeling.

Typically, writers use “thought” verbs at the beginning of the paragraph (in this form, you can call them “thesis statements” and I’ll rail against those, later). In a way, they state the intention of the paragraph. And what follows, illustrates them.

For Example: “Brenda knew she’d never make the deadline, was backed up from the bridge, past the first eight or nine exits. Her cell phone battery was dead. At home, the dogs would need to go out, r there would be a mess to clean up. Plus, she’d promised to water the plants for her neighbor…”

Do you see how the opening “thesis statement” steals the thunder of what follows? Don’t do it.

If nothing else, cut the opening sentence and place it after all the others. Better yet, transplant it and change it to: Brenda would never make the deadline.

Thinking is abstract. Knowing and believing are intangible. Your story will always be stronger if you just show the physical actions and details of your characters and allow the reader to do the thinking and knowing. And loving and hating.

Don’t tell your reader: “Lisa hated Tom.”

Instead, make your case like a lawyer in court, detail by detail.

Present each piece of evidence. For example: “During roll call, in the breath after the teacher said Tom’s name, in that moment before he could answer, right then, Lisa would whisper-shout ‘Butt Wipe,’ just as Tom was saying, ‘Here’.”

One of the most common mistakes that beginning writers make is leaving their characters alone. Writing, you may be alone. Reading, your audience may be alone. But your character should spend very, very little time alone. Because a solitary character starts thinking or worrying or wondering.

For example: Waiting for the bus, Mark started to worry about how long the trip would take…”

A better break down might be: “The schedule said the buss would come by at noon, but Mark’s watch said it was already 11:57. You could see all the way down the road, as far as the Mall, and not see a bus. No doubt, the driver was parked at the turn-around, the far end of the line, taking a nap. The driver was kicked back, asleep, and Mark was going to be late. Or worse, the driver was drinking, and he’d pull up drunk and charge Mark seventy-five cents for death in a fiery traffic accident…”

A character alone must lapse into fantasy or memory, but even then you can’t use thought verbs or any of their abstract relatives.

Oh, and you can just forget about using the verbs forget and remember.

No more transitions such as: “Wanda remembered how Nelson used to brush her hair.”

Instead: “Back in their sophomore year, Nelson used to brush her hair with smooth, long strokes of his hand.”

Again, Un-pack. Don’t take short-cuts.

Better yet, get your character with another character, fast.

Get them together and get the action started. Let their actions and words show their thoughts. You – stay out of their heads.

And while you’re avoiding “thought” verbs, be very wary about sing the bland verbs “is” and “have”.

For example:

“Ann’s eyes are blue.”

“Ann has blue eyes.”

Versus:

“Ann coughed and waved one hand past her face, clearing the cigarette smoke from her eyes, blue eyes, before she smiled…”

Instead of the bland “is” and “has” statements, try burying your details of what a character has or is, in actions or gestures. At its most basic, this is showing your story instead of telling it.

And forever after, once you’ve learned to Un-pack your characters, you’ll hate the lazy writer who settles for: “Jim sat beside the telephone, wondering why Amanda didn’t call.”

Please. For now, hate me all you want, but don’t use thought verbs. After Christmas, go crazy, but I’d bet money you won’t.

(…)

For this month’s homework, pick through your writing and circle every “thought” verb. Then, find some way to eliminate it. Kill it by Un-packing it.

Then, pick through some published fiction and do the same thing. Be ruthless.

“Marty imagined fish, jumping in the moonlight…”

“Nancy recalled the way the wine tasted…”

“Larry knew he was a dead man…”

...and do more than reblog this post about it.

Chronic migraines. Dyslexia. ADHD. Autism. Vision impairment. Visual sensory processing disorder. Colorblind. & Neurotypical. Abled.

These are aspects of people that are affected by Discord’s new update to its color scheme and font, and there very well could be more I didn’t mention. Yes, you read it right, abled people and neurotypical people too. You are not immune to eyestrain.

What are the issues?

A font which is both overly uniform and overly squished, with many letters that have essentially the same silhouette as others and could easily be flipped and look the same as another. ▻ This is dyslexic-unfriendly, as well as generally harder to read and an issue for people with visual impairments who may find that letters bleed together or that their eyes ‘skip’ over letters or words at times.

A color scheme that is so highly saturated that it both immediately draws your attention and also makes you want to immediately look away. ▻ This is generally unfriendly, affecting people with sensory issues the most (ADHD/Autism, migraines, processing disorders), but it’s also colorblind-unfriendly. Due to the differences between the colors being exclusively the part that changes the named color (hue; “green” vs “blue”) instead of both that and the colors being different intensities (saturation; “neon green” vs “leaf green”), they look practically identical.

Aren’t there more? No. This is pretty much all that was changed.

Discord changed TWO THINGS and pretty much managed to land every single person possible to genuinely hurt with a visual design change that doesn’t add or remove any elements. Including abled and neurotypical people!!!

Discord is currently a good number of people’s lifeline and way to connect with others. And with this change, they just made using their app hurt. They know that we can’t leave their app without leaving our friends and communities behind. They know that if they can just sweep this under the rug, they won’t have to do a thing.

...So we can’t let them.

Why would Discord do this?

It’s actually fairly simple. Discord was hemorrhaging money from its very conception. Discord only exists because investors think it’ll make money in the future. If Discord doesn’t do as well, investors will push to make it “better” or they’ll drop their funding. Discord was probably forced into this situation, they probably knew exactly what would happen.

We have to show their investors that Discord was right.

What can we do to fix this?

DON’T:

Reply to Discord’s tweet about the design change. ▻ It gives Discord more attention, and if any complaints are acknowledged they are directed to Discord’s accessibility forums.

ONLY post on Discord’s accessibility forums. ▻ It gives Discord stats to work with, but it also means the outcry isn’t public. We need everyone to see this, not just Discord.

DO:

Reblog this post. ▻ Spreads the awareness, and all.

Retweet, reply to, and/or like this tweet: https://twitter.com/KarklesMarx/status/1393223369571586053 ▻ This tweet is part of our and our friends’ initiative to get this big and get this public.

Make your own posts about it on different social medias. ▻ Tumblr, Twitter, Discord servers, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, whatever ground you have, use it. You can help make this change too.

Find other people doing the same thing. ▻ One initiative is never enough. Look for other people making posts like these and boost their posts too.

Wait, don’t you have pictures of what’s going on?

We do. They’re under the cut, to prevent causing issues for people reading the post.

Israelis settlers, not officers or soldiers, are literally beating and killing Palestinians on the streets, even if they were also citizens of Israel, with their own two hands right now. The Israeli police are allowing them to do whatever they want.

Yesterday I posted about Israeli settlers lynching a Palestinian in the middle of a public street live on Israeli TV with all of their faces shown, I posted a video about Israeli settlers blocking roads and checking if the people inside the cars were Jewish or not so that they can attack them, just today Israeli settlers are currently shooting live ammunition at Palestinians in Sheikh Jarrah and this morning they have thrown molotov cocktail at two Palestinian children who (thankfully) barely survived being burned to death, in their campaign of burning down Palestinian houses.

None of these Israelis have been arrested by Israeli police, the same Israeli police that you can see in almost every Palestinian neighborhoods with automatic guns in their hand, who in some areas, are even joining these Israeli mobs in attacking Palestinians, even if those Palestinians were also fellow Israeli citizens.

We have reached a point where Jewish Israeli civilians, are literally leaving their homes to attack or kill Palestinians and then returning safely to their homes at the end of the day, knowing full well that their police will not arrest them and that if those Palestinians tried to defend themselves, they will either be tackled to the ground or even shot by their police. 

I can promise you that “cheating” is okay. As an adulty adult, I can tell you something. That thing they do to us in school were we’re not supposed to work together for tests and cannot consult material?? Bullshit. When you are an adult, you work with people. You consult shit. As a translator, I spend a lot of time in forums and online dictionaries. You can see doctors googling stuff all the time. THE DIFFERENCE is that after you are in a certain field you know where to look and what sources are better and you have enough base knowledge to know when something is not correct and when it might be on the right direction.