The Inquisitive Elf

So let's talk about this for a minute.

First of all, how do you think Pride events fund themselves and stay free for attendees? O.o Vendor fees aren't all of it - a lot of money comes from sponsors - but like... we paid $1300 to vend at Seattle Pride this year. That's the money that pays the people who work to make Pride happen. That is not free. Pride as an event does not just magically happen. A lot of people work really hard to make Pride happen and to clean up after it.

We're a small trans-owned company and 100% of our employees are trans & queer. We jokingly refer to Pride as "Gay Christmas". The money we make during Pride means we stay open, Pride events get vendor fees, and our employees get paid for the rest of the year. This company does not exist without Pride events. The only reason we survived as a company during COVID is because my wife has a stable, good IT job.

This shit isn't free to do. It does not just magically happen. Performers need to get paid. Tech crew needs to get paid. Equipment needs to be rented for performers. Stages need to be rented. Electrical services need to be paid for so food can happen. Ice and water cost money. Trash pickup costs money.

A lot of people volunteer and donate, but festivals and big community events? They cost money, and the money we pay to be able to vend is part of how Pride events happen. Without that, small queer businesses like @nerdykeppie don't survive and the only people putting their money in to make this happen, AND MONEY NEEDS TO CHANGE HANDS FOR EVENTS TO HAPPEN, are Smirnoff and fucking Wells Fargo.

Rainbow capitalism is when uncaring corporations blast rainbow things on their products to get queers to buy them, while not actually doing anything to help queer people. Rich cishets getting millions of off a minority group.

You can be queer and never buy a single queer-coded item. Queer merchants, artists, performers, none of them are getting in the way of you being queer.

If you want that queer swag, art, advertising "hey I'm queer and very visibly so", you aren't entitled to free access to the hundreds or thousands of hours that went into that merchant/artist/etc getting good at making that thing you want.

I GROW WEARY OF MIMICKING YOUR OBNOXIOUS MANNERISMS TO ACCOMMODATE FOR THIS ENVIRONMENT. I WISH TO RETURN TO MY CHAMBERS TO REST AND SO I MAY PLAY SPLATOON 3 ON THE NINTENDO SWITCH. WE SHALL GATHER AGAIN NEXT HALF MOON AND I SHALL TELL YOU OF MY VICTORIES.

them:

They are not as high-profile as the WGA, but I would like to bring everyone's attention to the imminent strike action by thousands of hotel workers in Los Angeles. They are set to go on strike tomorrow, July 1st, 2023.

Here’s the deal: You’re already burned.

It’s over! There’s no going back! Your face is in a database and your DNA is in a database and your social profile is in a database and there’s nothing you can do about it. Even if you didn’t put it there somebody else did. Congrats, we’re all fucked!

Facebook builds shadow profiles on people who don’t have accounts. Surveillance cameras are everywhere. Your cousin signed up for Ancestry and your brother did 23&Me.

So what can you do about it? Essentially nothing. So there’s no point in panicking.

You know what you have to do if you want some kind of privacy? Start leaving your phone at home randomly. Or at work randomly. People don’t think about the fact that their cell phone’s location data (which is constantly tracking even if you don’t enable location data for apps) is a more effective way of tracking them than anything they post online and it’s *real* easy to get a warrant for that data. And if you suddenly ditch your phone for the first time in several months it’s suspicious as FUCK.

Automated license plate readers track your drive. Do you commute? Do you drive the same way every day? Why the sudden change to your routine? What were you doing that you needed to park your car and wander away suddenly? What are you hiding?

Complaining about people posting selfies when companies are compiling DNA databases sharing them with the FBI is like blaming ocean pollution on people using plastic straws when about half of plastic ocean trash is abandoned fishing equipment.

Do you use gmail? You’re fucked.

Do you have a bank account? You’re fucked.

Do you use public transportation? You’re fucked.

Do you go to school? You’re fucked.

Do you have a job? You’re fucked.

I had to track down a guy who didn’t have facebook or social media profiles, didn’t have a listing in the phonebook, didn’t have a linkedin. I started with his first and last name and ended with his supervisor’s phone number, a ten year history of his income, and his home address. I got to it through his son’s little league team.

And I’m fucking J. Random Nobody. I don’t even have shiny databases full of tracking data.

So you’re already burned. There’s no going back, we passed the tipping point. Even if you threw out your computer and shut down all your accounts and smashed your cell phone and lived in the woods there’d be video of you walking out of town for the last time and satellite images of wherever you ended up setting up camp.

I was never going to be able to hide from the cameras on the streets and the data in my cell phone and the scanners that look at the license plate of my car and the information that my school sold about my age and income and interests. So fuck it. Share a selfie.