NB Brat 👑

Terror is knowing that it’s for landlords to control their units remotely, while being to see and hear everything in the rented space.

“What is a Faraday cage?” you might ask. “How will it help me defeat Big Sister Alexa?”

Easy answer: a Faraday cage blocks EM waves. WiFi, the thing Alexa needs to do anything of use at all? That’s a type of EM wave.

I know, I know, “Faraday cage” sounds like it’ll take 47727372 hours with a welder, right? Wrong!

A simple Faraday cage that anyone can make is as easy as a cardboard box with as many layers of heavy-duty aluminum foil as you can stand to coat the box with. I usually do about 5 layers because that number is easy to remember, but if you’re paranoid or simply need more layers you are more than welcome to add as many layers as necessary to keep Alexa at bay. I think the average is about 4-6 layers.

Hilariously, I actually learned this technique from those crazy prepper types. Which, ironically, is why I know it works. (Not to mention I tested it myself by wrapping my phone in foil and seeing if my roommate could call or message me.)

If your landlord notices, they will not receive any warning or notification that you tampered with Alexa- because you didn’t. All they will notice is that they can’t communicate with that particular Alexa device (because it will be “offline”, aka not sending or receiving signals).

A box is also easily hideable in case of surprise visits from the landlord or anyone else who might report you to your landlord, accidentally or on purpose. Just pop the bitch out, restart it (or don’t, this just clears any other hitches from the system) and it should behave normally.

Additionally, most landlords have the general tech expertise of an orangutan with a headset, so technical hitches are relatively easy to handwave with a good ol’ “Fire is scary and Edison and Tesla were witches”. Basically, if they question you about why Alexa suddenly is or isn’t working, shrug and say that it must have suddenly either just gone out or come back (depending on the situation), but that you didn’t do anything to it because you don’t know anything about that sort of tech and that you didn’t want to mess with it out of fear you would break it.

“LGBT people — especially gay men — are not inherently progressive voters. Give them the chance and they will vote for xenophobia, for racism, and for misogyny.”

From over here in Europe: YES. This is a very serious issue. Capitalism and white supremacy are very capable of incorporating the most privileged gay men, and potentially the most privileged lesbian, bi and trans people too, into their system, to reward their assimilation with privilege and receive support for their shitty politics in return.

White abled middle class gay men are the most sensitive to this because they are one step away from enjoying all the privileges of the system, and it is very tempting for them to belief that people exactly like them are the allies, while people not like them - refugees, muslims, trans people, working class people, angry social justice activists - are the enemies. But they’re not the only ones for whom this mode of thinking is tempting.

She also addresses other important things in her vlogs like the reflex lots of girls have to apologize for things even when they aren’t your fault and her sister Stacie’s trouble with shyness and a bully and how maybe sometimes it’s best to just walk away from bullies and standing up for your dreams and the dream gap and the harm that “it was just a joke” does.