#lockdowns

[culturevulturette]

It's a mystery!

#bidenflation #covid 19 #lockdowns #memes

[thefreethoughtprojectcom]

Over $3 trillion in wealth was transferred from the world’s poorest to a tiny number of billionaires and their supporters, predominantly the tech and pharmaceutical industries and that's just the tip of the iceberg.

#the free thought project #police the police #lockdowns

[alpaca-clouds]

Modern Loneliness And Parasocial Relationships

With the entire drama going on with Baldur's Gate 3 and people harassing the voice actors - especially Neil Nowbon - I cannot help but think about parasocial relationships and how they happen.

I was always super anxious about this. Like, literally. Even as a little kid, before I ever knew this word, I was super anxious about not wanting to fall into this. I did not really understand the dangers of it, but I knew that this kinda feeling was going to be somehow dangerous for me.

And yeah, unpopular opinion, but I think parasocial relationships with real people (opposed to fictional characters - because yeah, you and me, we both have parasocial relationships with our favorite blorbos that never can be anything but parasocial given that the blorbos are not real and can hence never know you) can be actually dangerous to people. Because they are going to mess with your head. And if you are in a bad headspace to begin with, that can be dangerous.

Because what happens if you go fullon parasocial relationship with a person is that you kinda think of them as a friend. While they of course do not know that you exist. Yet, there are moments when they act accordingly (like you do not exist) that are going to be hurtful to you for one reason or another. And depending on your emotional control this might lead you to act demanding - because you feel like you are owed that attention.

I really think that right now there is a big issue going on with how a lot of us are lonely in real life. Modern society for so many reasons fosters loneliness, because we are lacking Third Spaces, aka community spaces, where we can go and meet people. Where we can hang out with other real people from our actual real world surrounding. Like, some people have real world friends - but a lot of people have not.

I think that hit espcially hard for the people who started university or another new phase in life just as COVID and the lockdowns hit. Because not only did they not get third spaces to meet people - but often then lacked the second places (work, university) too, while just having moved out of a family home and suddenly being all alone.

So a lot of our social interactions moved online. I mean, I will not exclude myself from this either. Most of my friends I know from online spaces. As someone who has been bullied for most of his school life, this always has been true. But of course the big difference is, that those people know I exist - and in a lot of cases I might have even met them in real life, or might even spend the holidays with them and their family.

But social media had already blurred the lines a lot before. By making celebrities very accessible to the average media consumer. You could suddenly just interact with them (or let's face it, their social media team) fairly easy on twitter or facebook. And maybe they (or their social media team) would even answer you.

The thing of course is that most celebrities (even those celebs who are more like youtube or twitch famous) have a very curated online appearance. Like, all of their posts basically are PR approved. Or at least they put some effort into deciding what someone else gets to see of their lives. Technically they are just playing a character. Because... Well, they do want to have a life outside of their celeb status.

And, you know. There were always groopies, who would build those parasocial relationships with their favorite stars and starlets. But I think internet and social media has intensified this. And the pandemic did, too.

But folks really need to understand that celebrities and creators are not their trained monkey to reply to any interaction that folks want from them in a specific way that is expected. They are people, who have their own lives. Who often enough have families and partners and all of that. And their fans do not have a right to be somehow part of that.

This is also why I have never and will never condone real person fiction of living people (and those who still have people living that have known them). Because no matter whether it is fiction or whether what you write about them is more like a role of the public facing persona they inhabit... It is just crossing a line for me to publish scenarios (especially sexual or very violent and traumatic scenarios) involving real people, who might in one way or another find out about this. And be it just because some asshole talkshow host thinks it would be funny to make the celebs read those fanfics live on air in front of an audience.

Most of all: Celebrities and creators are people first and foremost. And if you would not think something appropriate to do to a person you know in real life then, no, it also is not appropriate to do to a celeb.

If you want to keep yourself from falling into the parasocial relationship trap, I have one tip for you, that works rather well for me: Speak of them with their last name or their full name, whenever you do. It does not matter that they might use only their first name or some nickname for online accounts. If you know their full name, use it. It helps your mind put some distance between you and them. To remind you that yeah, in fact, you do not know that person and they ae not your friend. They are if anything just someone you look up to a lot.

#parasocial relationships #covid #lockdowns #lonliness #celebrities #celebrity worship #fan culture #fandom #baldurs gate 3 #bg3

[sighphi]

COVID lockdowns were a giant experiment. It was a failure. Here, a key lesson of the pandemic, excerpted from ‘The Big Fail,’ by Joe Nocera and Bethany McLean.

#chapters #covid-19 #public health #lockdowns #remove interruptions

[dontmean2bepoliticalbut]

#us politics #twitter #tweet #2023 #giffords #christian piekos #highland park #highland park shooting #Illinois #school shootings #lockdowns #highland park high school #gun violence #gun control #gun rights #mass shooters #mass shootings

[lefemmerougewriter]

She had to tell the truth. "I guess so. The number of cases have been rising…it's not that many yet. I mandated a lockdown and that everyone wear cloth masks to protect themselves. It has made people very angry at me. Even Varian refused to leave."

Rapunzel explains the rising number of COVID-19, I mean Corona-Ailment, cases across Corona in a scene from my most recent fic "The Corona Blues: Cass the Space Pirate, Her Blue-Eyed Pirate Girlfriend, and Raps' Momentous Choice".

#covid isn't over #covid 19 #quotes #my fics #ao3fics #ao3 link #ao3fic #varian tts #rta varian #varian the alchemist #tangled varian #rapunzel tangled #rapunzel #princess rapunzel #lockdowns #face masks

[y0ur-maj3sty]

#woody harrelson #snl #big pharma #coronavirus #covid19 #cdc #bill gates #dr fauci #united states #lockdowns #vaccines

[awesomecooperlove]

👹👹👹

#smart cities #smart cars #smart TV #silly people #lockdowns #tracking system #facial recognition #enslavement of humanity #end of privacy #communist regime #one world order #globalisation #one world government #you will own nothing #speak up #standup #speaktruth #fight for justice #crimes against humanity #wwg1wga #please share

[babolat85]

#2023 #2020 #weird times #tiger king #lockdowns #non sims

[thefreethoughtprojectcom]

After years of lockdowns, mandates, destroyed economies, devastated livelihoods, harassment, gaslighting, censorship, & segregation, it's all over just like that. But we can't allow them to pretend it just didn't happen.

#the free thought project #covid-1984 #lockdowns

[iiireflexiii]

Coffee high-rise building in Ho Chi Minh City - and no lockdowns - go from apartment to apartment, enjoy the variety of international kitchen art

#coffee #high #rise #building #ho chi minh city #lockdowns #go #from #apartment #enjoy #variety #of #international #kitchen #art

[merelygifted]

Boris Johnson is not a man currently without, as he might put it himself, a slew of significant botherations. But his biggest problem now, according to his biographer Tom Bower, is simply where he is going to live.

“I think it’s extraordinary that no one has cottoned on to this but his greatest problem is his own domestic arrangements,” said Bower. “He let out his home in Oxfordshire because he thought he wouldn’t need it for many years to come and he doesn’t have a house in London. Carrie has a flat in Camberwell but it’s not big enough for four people, two of whom are small children.”

What the wallpaper is like in Carrie’s Camberwell flat isn’t a matter of public record. But even assuming it is tolerable, Johnson is used to having his housing, transport and a large part of his living costs covered by the taxpayer on top of his £155,376 salary as prime minister. Now, without even a car of his own to his name, the soon-to-be former prime minister is looking decidedly ill-equipped for life in the outside world.  ...

...  “He is going to have a very tough time of reckoning in the coming days and weeks,” Bower said. “Psychologically, the threat of homelessness, not having all the flunkies, not having power, not having Chequers and not having authority is going to hit him very badly.”  ...

It couldn’t happen to a better guy.

#UK #WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK TORIES?! #EVIL #bojo the evil clown #fuck the tories #lies #crime #bojo the clown #conservative politics #corruption #tories #screw the people #lockdowns #coronavirus #Public Health #pincher the pincher #russia #EAT THE RICH #but marinate well #and keep antacid handy

[garthnadermemestash]

Stay 6 feet away from me anyways

#pandemic memes #covid pandemic #plexiglass #lockdowns #2020 #tiger king #mst memes #garth nader memes #mystery sovcit theater memes #mistaken con man #tumblr memes #dankest memes #pathetic3 #political memes

[jerseydeanne]

Demons are all over the place.

Scott Adams @ScottAdamsSays · Jun 1 We learned two things this month: 1. Everything you suspected was true. 2. No one will be held responsible. - Clinton ran the Russia collusion hoax - Voting machine were hackable - Transitory inflation was a lie - Mask mandates don't work (NYTs article) - Biden family = crooks

Hey Anon,

All true. Keep on using our voices to get the truth out.

Love, JD 😜💋

#Anon #demons #clinton #russian hoax #2000 mules #dominion voting machines #mask mandates #lockdowns #covid vaccines

[didanawisgi]

#lockdowns #covid-19