#google false equivalence

[macaroni-rascal]

They’re both bad though?

Imo Depp and Heard both should have had consequences.

With all due respect, which is none, please shut up and do a tiny bit of critical thinking about what it means that it was proven he abused her multiple times and yet he won a defamation case. just like, think about that. fire those synapses, connect those dots, and then get out of inbox.

#i have ZERO patience #google false equivalence #think about what this means in the big picture #think about how disgusting the coverage was #the mockery #the farce #and then still get out of my inbox

[diobrando]

the yen really has depreciated quite a bit

#making the calculation in my head for figures with the false notion that 10k yen is more or less equivalent to $100 but its not #i have to google it everytime bc my calculations are always waaaay off #i even checked its value in 2015 2016 and 2018 lord those numbers are very different now

[girlactionfigure]

Let me say this in the clearest possible terms. If you’re concerned with Israel’s response, if you’re focused on the people of Gaza right now, you’re either ignorant or intentionally hypocritical. 

2005: Israel handed Gaza over on a silver platter. No “occupation”, no Israeli presence, nothing. 100% theirs. If they wanted anything other than dead Jews, they had the chance. 

In what world is it normal to demand a country provide water and electricity to its enemy when there is clear evidence that they are using those water pipes to create rockets that then kill Israelis? 

You’re worried about the electricity and water in Gaza? You can provide it. Don’t want to? Then keep your mouth shut. 

They have nowhere to go those poor Palestinians? Why don’t you go look at a map? They have a border with Egypt. Let them take them in if they care so much.  

Oh, Egypt doesn’t want them? Did you hear that? That was my heart breaking for them. Egypt can take them. They don’t want them? Not my problem.  

You’re worried about a disproportionate response by Israel? Kindly tell me what a proportionate response would look like. 

Because if we did what they did to us, that would require the murder, abduction, and rape of over a thousand people. 

Is that what you’re recommending Israel does? Because that’s pretty sick of you. 

And once and for all, we need to unequivocally reject the false narrative of “They’re not all Hamas supporters so Israel has no right to attack Gaza.”

A- The Palestinian people elected Hamas. Make up your mind. If they’re a people who you believe deserve a state then it’s time you held them accountable as a people. They elected Hamas. They will pay for that tragic decision.  

B- The Palestinian people, not 100, 1,000, or 10,000 of them, give out candies when innocent Jews are murdered. Have you seen thousands of Palestinians speaking out against Hamas? I haven’t. Where are they? Their silence is all I need to know. 

C- In every war in the history of the world, innocent people die. That fact, as sad as it might be, has zero relevance to whether the war is justified or not. Need I remind you how many innocent Germans died in WWII? Israel is fighting Nazis now. Zero difference. In war, innocent people die. 

D- And finally, don’t come at me with the whole “They can’t speak out. Hamas will kill them.” 

Where have we heard that before? “I was just fulfilling orders. I had no choice.” 

Oh yes, that was what the Nazis said. It was not a legit argument then and it’s not a legit argument now. 

What Israel experienced on October 7th was the equivalent of 9/11 times 50. Israel WILL retaliate accordingly and it will not stop no matter how much you throw your double standard at us. 

We not only have every right to do whatever we can to obliterate Hamas, we have a moral obligation to do so.  

You might not know this now, but a world without Hamas is a safer world for you and your children. 

If you didn’t complain when ISIS was defeated, if you think WWII was justified in order to defeat the Nazis, then you can either stand with Israel while we cleanse the world of Hamas savages or you can go ahead and keep your mouth shut while we do the work from which you will benefit. 

If you have any integrity at all, go read the charters of Hamas and the PLO. If you’re honest, ask yourself what “From the river to the sea” means. Look at a map if you can’t figure it out. It means no Israel. Do you support that? Throwing all Israelis into the sea? Because that’s what that means. 

If you are still delusional enough to think they want a state, go Google The Partition Plan. They had one. They rejected it. Then google how many times Israel offered them a state.

And if, after all that, you still think the Palestinian’s agenda is anything other than total genocide of the Jewish people, congratulations, you have earned the privilege of being named a flaming antisemite who supports murder and rape. 

I’m sure your mother is proud.

Hillel Fuld

#Israel #Gaza #Egypt #🤮 #Palestinian’s agenda

[triviallytrue]

You referenced Benghazi and Her Emails in your recent Hillaryposts. I don't get where you're coming from. I came away from that era thinking that those were both largely manufactured controversies that persisted through misinformation, like birtherism. The damage came from the sustained media furor and campaign PR failures, not the events themselves, and however bad the real events were, they were business as usual for US politicians.

Prev ask said it's baffling to claim that running your own email server for work stuff is acceptable. Idk. Why? Nobody else is doing that? Does it let you get away with crimes?

Maybe I'm wrong, but it's not like I can google Her Emails in 2024 and find my way to a truthful objective analysis.

Where are you at on this? And where do you think the public consensus is?

Fwiw I wasn't talking about Benghazi - I honestly forgot about it entirely, seems disproportionate and mostly manufactured by right wing media.

I was talking about broader US strategy in Libya, which seemed to perfectly thread the needle of knocking out the pillar of stability in the region but not bothering to stick around and clean anything up. She had quite the take on it:

The reason the email server thing is something that would get you fired is that if you work for an organization, that organization wants to be able to have a consistent record of what you've received and written when acting in your capacity as a representative of said organization, doubly so if your work is as critical as US diplomacy and your employer is the US government.

Other people also do this - my vague recollection is that Mike Pence had done the same thing at some point and was getting hammered for hypocrisy - but I have never really found "other people break rules too" to be a very convincing defense.

I think the public negatively polarized on both issues - Trump supporters view it as basically treasonous and Hillary supporters do the whole mocking "but her emails!" thing to minimize it.

Personally I don't have a strong stance on whether it implies corruption or criminality or anything, but as I said in the ask it certainly contributes to my sense that she didn't have much interest in following rules designed for normal people.

In the electoral context of 2016 the whole thing is nonsense of course, Hillary would've been a worse president than Obama or Biden but significantly better than Trump, and the false equivalences that pervaded the coverage of the race were insane. I think more than anything, the shared assumption that she was a shoe-in as soon as the conventions were over by her campaign, the media, and James Comey was what doomed her.

[thenightling]

DO NOT BUY THIS EDITION OF FRANKENSTEIN! This is a sexist and ignorant dog whistle and as a fan of the actual Frankenstein novel, I am furious.

1. First there is the false implication that Percy Shelley co-wrote Frankenstein. He did not. In fact Mary Shelley revised the 1818 text in 1831. That's AFTER Percy's Death.

This sexism was brought to you by such "reliable" books as "The Man who wrote Frankenstein" which was written by a very sexist conspiracy theorist who once claimed that AIDS was spread through pills. That conspiracy theorist used dummy accounts to positively review his self-published books on Amazon (seriously, go check if you want) and his main reason for believing Mary Shelley didn't really write Frankenstein is his claim that she was "uneducated."

Percy wasn't a novelist. He was a poet. Mary Shelley actually wrote many novels after Frankenstein, it's just that none were as successful as Frankenstein. Just because she wrote her greatest novel while her husband was alive doesn't mean her husband secretly wrote it.

He also claimed a woman cannot have written a man's perspective so well and she wrote from the perspective of three men. Victor Frankenstein, The Creature, and Captain Walton.

By that same reasoning Stan Rice must have written Interview with The Vampire, not Anne. It's a sexist and classist equivalent of the classist conspiracy theories that Shakespeare couldn't have written Shakespeare because he was "Too poor and ill-educated" to have been that creative.

2. One big problem with novels like Frankenstein and Dracula being in the public domain is anyone can re-publish them any way they want, even with this sleezy and misleading presentation.

3. Frankenstein wasn't really a science fiction novel even though Google and this blurb claim it is. Frankenstein, the novel, never warned about the advancement of technology.

There's no hard science in the book. Victor wasn't studying biology. He was studying metaphysics and he never graduated.

(Metaphysics degrees aren't even currently recognized in the US. You can only get an honorary one from institutions like ULC).

Victor found the secret of life while reading the works of Agrippa and Paracelsus. A self-proclaimed sorcerer and alchemist.

The Creature is more like a Dungeons and Dragons Flesh Golem with a soul than what you see in most of the movies.

Its main morals and themes had nothing to do with "Playing God" or "the advancement of science." No. That overly exonerates Victor Frankenstein and those The Creature interacted with. Victor's main crime was rejecting his creation as soon as he came to life, which may have been a metaphor for what we today call Postpartum depression.

The themes were about parental responsibility, the futility of revenge, and the need to forgive.

If you have a shred of integrity or respect for women do NOT buy this edition of Frankenstein that falsely credits Percy Shelley and feels like it was being described by someone who only watched the 1931 movie. (The more accurate to the book film adaptation is the 2004 Hallmark mini-series version starring Luke Goss as The Creature.) If you want a good edition of Frankenstein, I strongly recommend the 1831 version republished with Bernie Wrightson's gorgeous illustrations accompanying it. That one is exceptional and respectful to Mary Shelley without falsely crediting Percy Shelley.

Here's the blurb that was attached to the awful edition:

"That’s right, the very first science fiction novel is also a work of transhumanism, though I’m not sure Mary Shelley would have used the term. After all, the monster wouldn’t even exist without technology. So even the earliest sci-fi novel was trying to warn us about the dangers technology poses to our humanity."

#Frankenstein #Mary Shelley #Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

[astrosky33]

Hello, I hope your health is getting better. I will be praying for your health. I came across your blog some days ago and I am loving it. I am interested in learning astrology so I was reading a book to get my basics strong because I understand I can't learn from tumblr or google. 🙈🤭 In that book it was said that how modern astrology is merging the meaning of house, signs and planets. There was an example that second house is money house, and its ruled bu taurus. Taurus is ruled by venus so many astrologers say that venus represents money. The book said that its false. Venus does represents luxuries but its not the planet that will give you will and power to work hard. So I wanted to ask you if you can make post about how people mix up the meanings of houses, signs and planets. Also if you can recommend some good books to learn astrology, I will be forever grateful. Thank you so much. Praying for your health. 🙏

Thank you so much! I appreciate it! I go to the doctor again soon 💚

The Venus observation is correct astrologically speaking even though people don’t like to hear it because they have Taurus placements. Jupiter actually is the planet that rules over wealth itself. Venus rules over material/worldly items though so yes it may rule over money itself but NOT an abundance of it/wealth without certain attributes

However, the 2nd house ≠ Venus meanings entirely. They share similar energies but the 2nd house is just happiest in the sign Taurus. People often confuse what natural rulers are and think that indicates equivalent meanings when it does not. It just means the houses are most beneficial in certain signs

I would make a post on it but people get really mad. I sort of made one similar though about how planets/houses do not have all the same exact meaning -> here

#astro community #astrology #zodiac #astro placements #astrology tumblr #astro chart #birth chart

[mariacallous]

This is from 2022.

The claim: Bob Cratchit was destitute but still earned more than the U.S. minimum wage

The work of Victorian-era novelist Charles Dickens went viral over the holidays, when a tweet used his 1843 novella "A Christmas Carol" to make a point about the minimum wage. 

Posted Dec. 19 and retweeted by over 14,000 users, it centered on Bob Cratchit. The character works as a clerk and accountant for wealthy Ebenezer Scrooge yet struggles to provide enough food and clothing for his wife and six children.

According to the post – which was screenshotted and shared by many Facebook users – Cratchit symbolizes "destitution" in the novella but would have made an inflation-adjusted wage of around $13.50 per hour – almost twice the federal minimum wage. 

"Time for your annual reminder that, according to A Christmas Carol, Bob Cratchit makes 15 shillings a week. Adjusted for inflation, that's $530.27/wk, $27,574/yr, or $13.50/hr," the tweet reads.

"Most Americans on minimum wage earn less than a Dickensian allegory for destitution."

If he were alive today, would Cratchit actually be earning more than the minimum wage?

The wage figure is roughly accurate. But as independent fact-checking organizations have reported, the claim is more complicated than the post makes it seem.

Chris Thompson, who posted the original tweet, told USA TODAY in a LinkedIn message that the claim came from an article published by the site EverythingWhat, which he said he found after "a very cursory Google search."

The tweet drew thousands of comments and shares on Facebook, Instagram and other platforms. More than 30,000 users shared a screenshot of the tweet posted by liberal Facebook page The Other 98% – though it later updated its post to state that "this post has been fact checked and found to be False."

Cratchit's salary roughly equivalent to $14.20 per hour

Inflation is typically measured using the Consumer Price Index, which looks at annual increases in the average price of a standard bundle of consumer goods and services.

But this kind of measurement can't accurately estimate Cratchit's salary, said Samuel H. Williamson, professor emeritus of economics at Miami University of Ohio.

"The term ‘inflation-adjusted salary’ is very misleading because it implies that ... these 'adjusted' salaries can buy a similar set of goods and services," Williamson said. "But over time the bundle becomes so different that the comparison is ludicrous. Cell phones with quill pens, etc.”

While no measure is perfect, What is the relative value of Bob Cratchit’s 15 shillings a week in 1843? of the modern-day equivalent of a 15-shilling wage in 1843, Williamson said. This indicator adjusts a wage based on the inflation of the average worker’s pay each year.

Using this method, Cratchit’s 15 shillings per week would translate to a relative labor earnings value of £611.30 per week, according to MeasuringWorth, an inflation calculation resource that Williamson co-founded. At the current conversion rate, that's about $850 per week and $43,000 annually. 

Keep in mind that, in Victorian England in the 1840s, laborers were expected to work 10 hours per day, six days per week. Assuming Scrooge didn’t make Cratchit work longer hours, that means Cratchit was making the equivalent of $14.20 per hour, adjusting for wage inflation.

That would make his pay nearly double the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour, though 30 U.S. states have set higher pay floors. 

However, that wage would put the Cratchits below the federal poverty line of $44,660 for a family of eight. 

Cratchit wasn’t 'destitute' for his time

By calling Cratchit "a Dickensian allegory for destitution," the tweet implies he was paid a relatively low wage for a person in the Victorian era. But that isn't the full story. 

Joel J. Brattin, a professor of English at Worcester Polytechnic Institute who has researched Dickens’ work, told USA TODAY that although Cratchit was paid a relatively low wage for his skillset and time period, he wasn’t the poorest person in Victorian London. For example, manual laborers were paid around 8 shillings per week, he said, and there wasn't a minimum wage.

“It is important to note that Bob Cratchit was not destitute,” Brattin said in an email. “Rather, he was paid little, and had a large family – six children and a wife – to feed and clothe.”

Peter Gurney, a history professor at the University of Essex who has studied consumption and consumer goods in the Victorian era, said fixating on Cratchit's wage takes away from the message of "A Christmas Carol."

“The important thing is that the Cratchit family are almost starving all year round, and Dickens shows how Christmas makes things worse, exposing extremes of poverty and wealth and the erosion of Christian charity by laissez-faire individualism," Gurney said in an email.

Our rating: Partly false

Based on our research, we rate PARTLY FALSE the claim that Cratchit was destitute but still earned more than the U.S. minimum wage. Based on wage inflation, his salary of 15 shillings per week translates to around $43,000 per year, or $14.20 per hour with the standard 60-hour workweek of his time. So it's true that he would have made more than the federal minimum wage.

However, he was not "destitute" for his time, experts told USA TODAY. Cratchit's pay as an educated clerk, while meager for a family of eight, was higher than that of many other workers. There was no minimum wage in Victorian London. In addition, the standard and cost of living today are so different that comparing wages directly is misleading.

[missgryffin]

big, /big/ sigh. 

Hi, friends. This is not a post I ever thought I'd make, but since I've been dealing with some behind-the-scenes harassment and another author has posted a tangent of false statements about me, I feel compelled to at least set the record straight and tell you my side.

After @maraudersftw voluntarily stepped in to take over @jilyawards, she tapped me to help with redesigning the JA blog and making the graphics to accompany all the typical posts. Claudia retained sole access to the Awards Google account, was the only person actively running the blog/answering asks, and was the only one keeping up with processing nominations. Neither of us would be voting. I was also intending to decline certain nominations if others made them. All of this was communicated to the author in question.

The only goal here was to move forward with the Jily Awards in as healing and empathetic way possible for everyone. I gave my opinion regarding the decision to not have the dark!James trope in the Awards, yes—as did many others—but it was not my final call to make. Much, much consideration went into that decision, and I stand by it fully. (If anyone wants to discuss my thoughts on that further, I am more than happy to chat over DM.)

When the decision was finalized, I informed an author who has a work that would not be eligible, as the work was and currently remains tagged for "dark!Jily," "Death Eater Lily," and "evil Lily Evans." Obviously, this is a tough conversation to have. We both were affected by the reckoning over dark!Jily/DE James this past spring, and though I knew she would disagree with the decision, I expected to have a civil conversation and hoped to reach a point of understanding.

I discussed our rationale at length, as did Claudia. We explained repeatedly that this was not a "punishment." This is the Jily Awards equivalent of the prior conversation and agreement to tag dark fanfic as "dark!Jily" so as to remove it from the "Jily" tag, where many members of the community voiced valid concerns over being unable to avoid content they found triggering and deeply offensive, despite their best efforts to do so. All of this was communicated to the author in question.

Several hours later, the work in question was updated, along with a corresponding Tumblr post, stating that multiple dark!Jily fan fictions were eligible in the Awards and tagging the Jily Awards Tumblr account, bringing the advertisement to our attention. I confronted the author about this post and requested she take down the misrepresenting language. To date, she has not done so. I shared the conversation with Claudia, and great care went into drafting a post that would correct any misunderstanding without singling out the author (which would have been embarrassing and unnecessary). All of this was communicated to the author in question.

Not long after that, more public/internet harassment started, and I blocked the author in question. Yesterday, on Halloween (the last day of Jily Awards eligibility), the author in question posted the first chapter of a long-hyped, non-dark, Muggle AU story. Unable to reach me otherwise, the story opened with an Author's Note that was a message directed at me. A few hours later, the story was deleted. Had the story remained up, it would have obviously been eligible for the Awards, so why it was deleted remains unclear.

The subsequent behavior of the author in question led to the decision to halt the Awards.

Friends, I am the first one to advocate for DLDR. I dabbled in the DE!James trope, even if my James was really an undercover good guy all along. I believe that fiction does not equal reality, and that creators have every right to explore dark themes and tropes within fiction. I do not, and have never, judged, shamed, or ridiculed any author or reader for engaging with dark fic. I have said all of this before. But I ALSO believe in being a good community member. Community requires listening. Community requires compromise. When people come to you and say, This trope is actually deeply offensive and triggering to me and others, and here's why, ignoring that and continuing to blast that content into community/gen spaces where they can't avoid it (like the Awards) isn't just irresponsible, it's downright cruel.

It's okay to write content that's not for everyone. (I do.) It's okay to have gen fandom Tumblr events that celebrate a ship and exclude fringe content that is not representative of that ship as it's canonically known and sought. It's okay to have gen fandom Tumblr events that celebrate a ship and exclude fringe content that fandom members have expressly stated causes offense and hurt. That is not censorship—that's having a party and setting a menu that's considerate of known dietary restrictions. ***It's not personal. It's a simple respect of community boundaries.*** And maybe boundaries for triggering topics were not always brought up or addressed in prior Awards, but we all know they were brought up after last year's, and under Claudia's leadership and with my help and support, they damn well were going to be respected now.

All of this was communicated to the author in question.

The insinuation that I was trying to "remove the competition" or however it was phrased is so unhinged it's honestly laughable. This is about so, so much more than just getting a cute little Canva-designed card with your name on it. (That's the part that's simply meant to be fun.) It goes without saying, but had the Awards continued, I would have had no qualms about removing myself and my stories from consideration entirely. The engagement I get from readers enjoying stories with me is more than enough; any nomination nod or cute little Canva-designed card, while of course much appreciated, is the icing on top.

I understand that I'm the current target of a lot of vitriolic anger because I was the messenger. I've obviously taken measures to digitally protect myself, including turning off asks entirely. If you actually believe what the author in question said about me, I don't care to hear about it. If you don't like me, I don't care to hear about it. I'm here to write and vibe about Jily.

Maybe the fandom—fractured and traumatized as it is—wasn't ready for this. We wanted to try.

post script: To tHe pErsOn I knOw is rEadiNg tHis riGHt nOw:

#bye for now #I am mentally and emotionally okay I promise #just exhausted from dealing with harassment #I have a great support system of friends in this community #both writers and readers alike #much love to you all #💗💗💗

[synthcryptid]

one of our bigger pet peeves: "shi/hir pronouns are intersex exclusive!"

they are not. not only are the commonly-stated claims of "it was coined by intersex people" outright false (and any attempts to back these claims usually just link to old tumblr posts from known bad-faith users), but this completely ignores that these pronouns date back to the usenet days, and directly originate from sie/hir, a set of pronouns that we frequently see people propose as an alternative to shi/hir.

sie/hir pronouns in particular are quite notable, as their use was semi-common as an all-gender-encompassing set of pronouns on usenet prior to september 1993 (that date carrying significance due to being when usenet hit the mainstream as a result of internet providers opting to offer free usenet access). sie/hir pronouns also have a bit of historic basis prior to usenet, with the sacramento bee having coined it in the 1920's as a gender-neutral set of pronouns.

shi/hir pronouns were only regularly seen in one general circle of usenet: furry and furry-adjacent groups (such what drew a lot of furries to usenet to begin with, alt.fan.furry, or one of the first major otherkin communities, alt.fan.dragons). prior to the creation of alt.fan.furry, "shi" pronouns were generally only used accidentally, as an attempt to extrapolate "hir" to a nominative form (with the logic usually being "well, 'hir' sounds a lot like 'her', so that probably means the equivalent of 'she' is 'shi'"). given the general rarity of nominative use of gender-neutral pronouns, it was incredibly common for users to simply not know what the nominative form of "hir" was supposed to be. and thus, quite a few openly non-binary users ended up identifying with shi/hir as their preferred pronouns (all the way back in the 1990's, mind you!). and since the population of alt.fan.furry and adjacent groups were largely users new to usenet as a whole, shi/hir ended up taking off as the nonbinary pronoun set within the furry community.

so the thing about the early furry community is that the demographics of the nonbinary population at the time were, by and large, bigender (by today's definitions, at least). however, "bigender" simply wasn't a term in the community's collective vocabulary at the time, and thus self-identifying users usually opted to self-identify as hermaphrodites. however, the point of confusion stems from communities outside of alt.fan.furry, in which it was common for the concept of a bigender person to instead be labelled intersex regardless of whether or not they actually are intersex, with the term being falsely believed to be politically correct. it was quite common for self-identifying herms to (rightfully) take offense to being called intersex, and for intersex users to (also rightfully) be vocal that hermaphroditism and intersex are separate concepts. but as the eternal september began, and the number of users who were neither intersex nor hermaphrodites skyrocketed, the voices of both demographics were quickly drowned out outside of the most obscure groups. this ended up extending past usenet, with sites like furaffinity ending up opting for "intersex" as the primary way to describe the concept of bigender, and both intersex folks and self-identifying herms being met with immediate hostility for merely suggesting that these terms describe completely different concepts. however, despite "herm" being pushed out of the community's vocabulary, shi/hir remained, and ended up staying the primary way to describe """intersex""" characters in the furry community well into the late 2010's, even as self-identifying herms and actual intersex folks were pushed into the shadows of the furry community. it wasn't until nonbinary identities started experiencing a resurgence that shi/hir pronouns began dropping in use.

given that usenet rarely shows up in searches (search engines deliberately deprioritize results marked with old dates), and google's usenet archive's search feature is barely functional (searching in a group won't show you results before 2000, and searching all groups disables most advanced search features), it's much easier said than done to actually find these discussions and discourse in any way other than sitting down and trawling the archive yourself, thread by thread. it also doesn't help at all that linking tends to be incredibly unreliable, with google groups being quite unreliable at showing posts if you didn't navigate to a thread naturally (this is especially egregious with searches; it's quite common to end up clicking a search result only to not find the post that put the thread in the results). as such, this has lead to the wider public being genuinely unaware of any part of the LGBTQIA+ community's and furry community's history on usenet, as a result of usenet's sheer obscurity, and the only actual archive being immensely headache-inducing to browse. this has made it incredibly easy for bad-faith actors to simply ignore usenet's existence, allowing for ahistoric claims like "shi/hir pronouns are intersex exclusive" and "shi/hir was coined by intersex people" to end up spreading way beyond what's reasonable, as most folks genuinely don't know that the story of those pronouns starts decades before furaffinity (which quite a few folks cite as the pronoun set's origins) even existed.

the main takeaway of this monolith of text? if someone is exhibiting cop behavior when it comes to other people's identities, please be skeptical of that, as it's quite common for identity-policing to rely heavily on ignoring history, deliberately or not, as shi/hir pronouns are an excellent example of

#bhijn posting #this ramble brought to you by a migraine from someone insisting that shi/hir is intersex-exclusive even as we- an intersex person- say no #op #rambling #long post

[windor-truffle]

is this a pun??? (aka Dolphin doesn't know how to read japanese)

ok i'm going to reveal myself now as an absolute monolingual ignoramus on a site full of people who fluently speak japanese but i think i might have accidentally taught myself something whilst translating the graces perfect guide and it's making me weirdly happy so allow me to be a language-acquiring toddler for a moment and overexplain what happened tonight:

so from the beginning of this translation project i was noticing some inconsistencies in how Google Translate approached the word used to describe Ephinea in relation to Fodra. "Star" is the english word it goes for the most, but sometimes satellite which seems more correct, and this bothered me because, well, Ephinea's not a star?? Not by scientific definitions anyway, I know this is a fantasy world but you can't live on a star, it's gas. But I chalked it up to odd translation quirks and moved on, until I accidentally got a few different translated lines thanks to part of the text being cut off the first time: "A satellite of the planet Fódlan" vs "Mamoru of Planet Fódlan" vs. "guard of the planet Fodlan." The original text is, I believe, エフィネア 【[ 文 明 ・ 文 化 】 惑星 フォ ドラの衛. Anyone who can read this probably can tell exactly where I'm going but I had to learn this so please be nice to me ;_;

The romaji caught my attention here because even with my limited knowledge I was like. wait a minute mamoru I know that word. A certain dumbass won't stop saying it. Is it possible that mamoru is somehow related to the word used to define Ephinea?? Is this a pun???? And upon some isolating of characters and a reference to JapanDict I learned 3 things:

The character 星 is the one google translate likes to define as "star."

The character 衛 is the one google translate told me was mamoru, and wouldn't translate it into "guard" until I allowed it to detect Chinese, so I assume that means it's kanji? (I'm sorry I know fuck all about reading in Japanese). By itself it didn't show up in JapanDict.

But you know what DID show up? 衛星, translated to satellite or moon. It seems the characters for "mamoru" and "star," when put together, become the word for the world of Ephinea, "satellite." The themes of the game are baked into the world itself ;_;

I had to stop myself here for a minute though because like I've said so much already, I don't know the first thing about how character based languages work. Maybe this isn't a big deal at all, maybe this is just equivalent to an ESL learner getting worked up about the morpheme "cat" existing inside the word "catastrophe" when the actual root and definition of that word has nothing to do with cats.

But the thing is, context matters??? If there was a story in which feline-based disasters were happening and it was being described as a catastrophe, that would almost certainly be intentional by the writers and immediately understood as a pun by fluent speakers, probably to their chagrin. But maybe to the ESL learner with juuuust enough knowledge to understand that there is a pun, it becomes immediately delightful.

Anyway, for now I'm gonna assume that this is intentional because it seems like there are many other words for "moon" or "satellite" in Japanese and they chose the one that uses 衛. Someone who actually knows anything feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, I'd really rather have my bubble burst but learn something than go around with false conclusions I made up because of confirmation bias and a foolish attempt at teaching myself a foreign language without any actual speakers around to consult.

But in conclusion,

#dolphin noises #graces perfect guide #please be nice to me i am starting from ground zero #i didn't even know the difference between kanji katakana and hiragana until tonight and im still not sure i quite get it #but it was fun to delve into and get my synapses going even though i also have a headache now

[redwineconversation]

Welcome, Ghosts (Slavia Prague - Olympique Lyonnais Postgame Thoughts)

"No, we haven't forgotten. We think of it as motivation."

That's what Danielle van de Donk said in the postgame interview when asked if the loss against Chelsea has been pushed aside.

I called it at the time. I said it would keep them up at night, bring back the insomnia they both hate so much and yet crave at the time. They're better like this, angry and bitter and desperate to satisfy their bloodlust. They need something to get angry about because that allows them to reveal their true nature.

They're better for it, really, when they're pissed off. They see more clearly. Their passing is crisper, faster. The goals are more clinical. The defense is cleaner. In a weird way that maybe monsters only truly understand, the only way this team can be truly happy if when they have a blow torch in their hands and the world is starting to shrink back in fear. Monsters recognize monsters, after all.

You can argue that Slavia Prague doesn't have the same pedigree as Lyon and therefore the score is misleading. Sure, I will give you that. I'm not sure any alleged fan of WoSo would be able to cite a player from Slavia Prague without googling it first. But, you only beat the team that's in front of you. You have to play the team, not the club, or else you have to admit the consequences. Wendie Renard said as much in the pregame press conference.

And it's not like Slavia Prague is a bad team. They're honestly not. I think a lot of the pearl clutching is unwarranted because it was based on the false equivalency of "if I have not heard of this team or league then it must be bad." Slavia Prague had won all of their league games coming into this game. Slavia Prague had a considerable number of Czech international players on their team. Slavia Prague had also a history of playing in the Champions League.

if you want to talk about Lyon's "easy" group, then talk about what made it happen. Talk about Arsenal treating the qualifying game like a preseason game against a farmer's league team and how they got their ass handed to them. Talk about Wolfsburg not knowing better when they really should have. If those two teams aren't in the group stages, it's because they rolled up and thought a team WoSo had to google - and even then did so incorrectly - and thought that team would blink. They were sloppy, they were careless, and that's why Lyon is booking flights to Norway and Austria instead of England and Germany.

But this isn't about hubris.

This is about a vexed, vengeful benefactor having given in to their blood lust and not particularly caring anymore about being reformed.

This is Lyon, really. A monster in search of satisfying their bloodlust simply because they were wrong a year ago. This is Lyon without the restraints caused by crippling injuries. This is who they are underneath all the pretenses: a team of vexed players who are annoyed people are no longer bowing in front of this ruthless killing machine.

I'm not sure when, exactly, the game was won. 3-0, probably. 4-0 for sure. But Lyon scored more because they could, because this is who they are, really: vexed, vengeful, wronged, they wanted the world to know payments are finally due. Debts must be paid, and Lyon doesn't particularly care who they have to ruthlessly dismantle for that to happen. Bow down or feel the consequences. For Lyon, it's that simple.

It wasn't a perfect performance - Hegerberg was sloppy at best, the kindest thing I can say about Becho is that she completed passes - and I think that's important to really emphasize. Not all 11 players played a perfect game the way they did against Barcelona in May 2022. But we saw the old Lyon, really, the one who made people uncomfortable. A lot of the players were "good" simply because they were playing the way Lyon is when dangerous: happy, carefree, and with a score to settle.

It's early in the season. it's so, so early, and so much can change. November 14, 2023 does not tell us anything about how things will look in May 2024. But what it does tell us is how things could go. We know what Lyon is capable of now, of what their intentions are.

May 2024 is so far away. There are so many games to be played between now and then, so, so many things can - and probably will - go wrong. But we have something in the meantime: a vexed, vengeful monster coming in from the rain, with their dark eyes, looking like themselves again.

I'm not ashamed to admit it: I missed my ruthless killing machine. Welcome back. I love the color red on you, let's see what we can do with that.

#all good love stories start in the rain #monsters recognize monsters

[galerymod]

Personally, I think the AI is misjudged. As always, there is far too much hype about something that is currently only about beta testers in many areas. Namely, a herd of voluntary users who optimize the incomplete product free of charge for the tech giants. Click workers for free.

Dangers yes but first open the Pandora's box and let it run and then talk about ethical principles. But only talk and warn not implement. Whether only nuclear energy or chemical weapons to bio weapons first make and then look.

The same problem happens again, we are simply not capable of learning whether only genetic manipulation or AI we run after the progression because it could be another faster.

Ultimately, it is the great challenge which will bring about an entire social transformation. That will be so drastic that no area of life remains untouched.

All this takes place without restrictions and any ethical basis. It leads us not into the as always promised paradisiacal future but into the irresponsibility of the individual. And the loss of control of the individual against the AI system owners. By the way, who does not know the real satirical slogan atomic energy make electricity cheaper for all, from the sixties,

Today, a soldier sits at the trigger of a killer drone and must make a decision or a higher level of responsibility in the Relationship of dependence makes this decision with the consequence of responsibility.

But what then? The drone has an independent AI and decides without final consideration.

China is a special example to the loss of control of the people by a regulative and punishing state AI with evaluations system around the maximum control to receive.

At some point, the wolf will no longer have to monitor the sharp, but they will do everything not to attract the wolf's attention. The independent curtailment of freedom with the scissors ✂️ in the head.

Just to info the entire use is not climate neutral!

For example only Google without all the other options in the Internet.

Since Google currently processes up to nine billion search queries per day. If every Google search used AI, it would require about 29.2 terawatt hours of electricity per year, according to calculations. That would be equivalent to Ireland's annual electricity consumption.

I do not believe in help systems that filter my world and use my data for the self-interest of a few. In the end, the whole thing is just a crappy licensing system to sell surveillance products.

For example, why does facial recognition AI software need to recognize everyone to protect society?

Isn't it enough just to search for the people who are criminals and are wanted by court order!

All those the software does not recognize are irrelevant, thus false negatives.

However, it is not so you want to be able to judge whether someone is suspicious and perhaps criminal or even terrorist is on the road.

.

But this is error-prone and thus antisocial and dangerous.

If someone sweats at the airport and has anger in his face, this means an error assessment if it goes wrong. If one would be a terrorist, one injects Botox and has no anger and no hatred in the face but only the indifference of a misguided person whose act can only be resolved in retrospect. The more data you have to analyze, the longer the analysis takes. So why make the pile of straws bigger when you are only looking for the pins. Is my question!

mod

#ai generated #freedom of expression #freedom of speech #freedom #ai is stupid #ai is not our friend #responsibility #algorithm #ai don't dream #ai art generator #vs #reality #real horror #climate crisis #climate change

[dragonomatopoeia]

Hey I’m so sorry if I’m missing something obvious but a quick google search didn’t rlly help me out w this,

What’s your issue with Henry Cavill? Did he do something wrong?

Also feel free to publish this ask if you’d like!

No worries! It's been a while since this stuff came out, so I'm not surprised it doesn't come up immediately

The biggest issue i have is that he dated a 19 year old college student when he was in his 30's. secondary grievance is that in the middle of the #metoo movement he said some stuff about how he couldn't talk with women anymore for fear of “being called a rapist or something”. He apologized afterward, but considering his history, I wasn't exactly impressed

That being said, considering how WB has been handling the Ezra Miller situation, I'm not too surprised that Cavill's behavior is a non-issue for them

the rest of my grievances are petty and therefore i'd feel weird about lumping them in with, like, my actual moral reasons for disliking him. false equivalencies and all that

#asks #anonymous #sorry for making this unrebloggable but i have been on tumblr for so long. and it gets scary #rape ment

[scarletpoupee]

OK, I am kinda angry...

Last night on some interview podcast, Charlize Theron (btw actually pronounced "Tron") said that Afrikaans is a "dying langauge" and only like "44 people speak it" (paraphrased). Even went as far to say that it's a "useless language" (again paraphrase). Even the host, who is a Dutch, and have spoken about Afrikaan in the past acknowledged that he "didn't know it was a completely different langauge".

To both of yall, and especially Theron, are you fucking kidding me!?

Theron likes to use her Afrikaanse heritage as a token in so so many interviews. Constantly bringing it up. And I guess this wasn't doing the "oh wow" thing she was hoping for anymore, so she decided to rather just declare it a useless and dying language? To make herself appear even more special? She has turned her back against her South African origins years ago, but refuse to acknowledge it. She is essentially an American at this stage.

Yes, she is a good actress, and it's amazing that she got her way to Hollywood from Benoni, RSA. Very few people can say that. But don't use your platform to discredit and spread false information?

Some Afrikaans schools have more than 44 children per class. Every day there are music being written, poetry being composed, movies being shot, TV series being created - all in afrikaans. There are dedicated TV stations (plural) and radio stations (plural) that's only Afrikaans. Almost every university has a whole Afrikaans department. A seperate department. While the rest of the African languages are all grouped together into a single department.

Simply because Afrikaans is not used in her everyday life anymore and doesn't hold any true value outside of her one-trick-interview-talent, doesn't mean its a useless language. That's like me saying since I haven't heard anyone speak French, it's a useless langauge? Because I don't actively use or engage with the Italian culture and language, I state its a dying culture? Fuck, I can even say, because I don't really have Zulu friends, nor speak isiZulu, I deem it useless and dying? (PS Zulu is arguable one of the most useful languages to speak in South Africa, above English, above Afrikaans.)

Like are you fucking kidding me.

Now I am not saying this as purely a hate against her, or her chose of false information.

What I am angry about it how this completely destroys the true narrative for languages that really are facing distinction and recognition.

You know what are languages that are facing drying out?

'Ōlelo Hawai'i, San and Khoi (also referred to as the Bushman Langauges), Romania and so so many more (PS some of these I know aren't the correct / true names, but the english equivalents, I had to do a Google search to find some, open to corrections).

Theron saying a nonvulnerable langauge is vulnerable is removing the attention off of those languages that are truly endangered.

This is what I am mad about more. The ignorance. The use of her culture to make herself seem more special for her own popularity and gain. The spread of false information. The erasure of cultures and languages that (arguably) deserve more of our time than others.

Op die einde van die dag, Charlize, Afrikaans is nie 'n stewende taal nie. Gebruik eerder jou platform vir iets beter as om valse inligting te versprei. Of hou eerder net jou mond, wat eerlik waar, vok jou.

Ok...I'm done ranting now...

#charlize theron #afrikaans #afrikaans language #south africa #fuck you #theron #long post #rant

[hussyknee]

Genuinely didn't know that "go die" is as much suicide baiting as "kill yourself". "Die already", GDIAF and stuff like "jump off a cliff" and "please go drown" were so normalized and casual since I first arrived on the internet twenty years ago. "Die" just sounded like "fuck all the way off".

It was "kill yourself" that was understood to be a nuclear thing to say, and Not Done. It's that phrase that has a fuckload of trauma for me, because it's the favourite one of antis, many of absolutely do want you taken out of the world because they believe you're a pedophile or pedophile supporter. ("Pee yourself" is also one that became popular during with rise of tumblr, which is clearly ableist and I always registered as sadistic schoolyard bullying.)

But it's been about 8 years since this trend started surfacing, so I was wondering whether hearing these things all over the place, especially from people they believed had the "right" politics, had normalized it the same way the internet culture of my generation defused the word "die".

Otoh, I have seen people reblog posts saying "kill yourself" tagged #yassss go off #tw suicide baiting. What the fuck. They know it's wrong, they know it's harmful to mentally unwell people, so they trigger warn and endorse?? What kind of brainworms?

But then again, I was also dead convinced that "go die" and "kill yourself" had different connotations and cultural understandings, because I've never seen anyone treat the former as suicide bait. I googled it and saw our favourite Elder QueerTM doing what they do best, which is yelling at some poor kid who made the same assumptions I did, but made the gaff of trying to defend it in an info post. But I know they're a few years older than me, so I wonder whether "go die" was not a casual phrase for their internet generation, and therefore registers as nuclear as "kill yourself".

Yet another person said on the same post that as a suicidal person, "go die" and "kill yourself" both meant that they were a worthless as a human life and should commit suicide. I don't know this person's age or generation, but it begged the question – can culture really "defuse" phrases and terms at all if the meaning is still the same? Is there such a thing as cultural diffusion? I'm likening it to how "cunt" is a nuclear insult in North America, but a casual one in the UK and Australia. I can't tell whether that's a false equivalence or not.

I'm aware that dehumanisation and deliberate and malicious callousness is a hallmark of purity politics, and those tags show that the kids know that "kill yourself" is suicide baiting, unlike people like me, who truly didn't know that "go die" could be taken seriously by anyone. But I'm wondering whether they believe that the people they target also couldn't possibly take it seriously, because it's so ubiquitous as to be meaningless to them. Whether "kill yourself" is just a phrase you can say to get a rise out of older people, and only as harmful as any other trigger.

I say kids, but I see this most among people in their late-teens/ early-20s. They're legal adults and being part of the working and voting public while still believing they have no power to seriously harm older people just makes this behaviour even more serious. But I still believe that a large part of it is simply immaturity and the young adult tendency to see older people as stupid, regressive and oppressive. I think this increasing age segregation of social media circles is creating an alarming amount of insularity that is allowing this attitude to become entrenched and propagate, rather than run its course as it should.

Fact of the matter is that culture creates cognitive dissonance and commonsense notions. Sometimes they're not a big deal (unless you're autistic. RIP) but sometimes they are. I want to give these kids the benefit of the doubt, because I'm as stupid as they are when you get down to it. But they sure make it hard.

#purity culture #purity politics #tw suicide baiting #suicide baiting #tumblr wank #anti bullshit #trauma #bullying #ageism #knee of huss

[scalamore]

Disclaimer

Wanted to get this off my chest, but over the past few months I've gotten into some disagreements (?) where people don't like some of my posts/interpretations of various manhwa including YM. For example, I was offended by someone who read a google translate of YM says that I was making stuff up, that my spoilers were based on conjecture (incomplete facts) and that I was flat out wrong. Example: Tori is a very complex character, and I gave the spoiler that the reason why she acted the way she was was due to the nature of being an alchemic doll. It's uncertain how much she really loved/hated Rupe and Lari, because she was losing her sense of her original self. I forgot what the other person said, but they basically dumbed her down to "Tori is a tsundere who both loved and hated rupelali, because she directly said that she loved/hated them in this part". Uhm... Another is when someone asked if Trash dad ever loved Lari/thought of her as a daughter? My answer: no Their answer: yes, that he loved her as much as lehan, that he raised her like a doll because of that love, but he loved the former emperor/empire more so he was willing to sacrifice all for his beliefs. Ummm..... Lastly, for some reason they also believe that Amanda Belois was originally a commoner, because she was a singer.

-- I'm annoyed that this particular individual accuses me of saying wrong things because of incomplete information, when they do the same thing (the Amanda Belois one especially...). In any case, I wanted to write the disclaimer that YM is my favorite series, and it's a particularly hard one to translate because a lot of things are very contextual. It's hard to say something as fact, because a lot of things are implied from the context, but IMO some things are "more correct than others". It's hard to point to one scene and say AHA! THIS IS THE TRUTH! because there's so many lies and false things, and so many things change from scene to scene. The most obvious example is Lari and Rupert's relationship. The way it was written, a lot of readers thought that she still hated him in the current novel chapters (the equivalent around chapter 80-90), but the manhwa made it more obvious that she cares much more than she admits with her blushing/flirting/and discomfort. I didn't want to engage with this individual, because each person's reading experience is their own. I'm not going to argue to change someone's viewpoints, because if that's how they interpreted a scene, good for them. people are allowed to have different, even wrong interpretations. Again, the thoughts and opinions of my posts are my own. I love this series a lot, and I want to share all the details and intricacies of how I interpreted the events from both the novel and manhwa, so yes, my thoughts and opinions are valid. I won't tolerate other people try to accuse me of spreading wrong information, when their own interpretations may be different than mine. Again, people are allowed to have different, even wrong interpretations. The main thing is they enjoy the series in their own way, and to not force their opinions on others, no matter how "correct" it is.

#your majesty please spare me this time #manhwa #rofan