30 December, 2018

they've been saying that for ages, so will you answer this

We start off with a bug of non-historic nature:
[11:26] Mxxxxx Rxxxxxx: Hello, sometimes, when I tp, part of my clothes of drew gacha detach grom myself, has that happened to anyone else?
[11:26] Kxxxxxx Lxxxxxxx: its been happening for at least a month toeveryone :)
[11:27] Bxxxxxxxxxxxx Mxxxxxxx stuffs [Mxxxx'] top in behind the sofa
[11:27] Mxxxxx Rxxxxxx: lol
[11:27] sxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: i found a trick around it
[11:27] sxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: put the outfit together log out n back in and it wont pop off
Does this really work? Because when I crash and come back, after getting dressed, sometimes things still change; hair, outfit, shoes, sometimes I find I'm wearing two pairs of shoes...
[11:27] txxxxxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: yeah it's a new feature, my entire body came off yesterday when i wasn't touching anything
[11:28] Emilly Orr: The new trick that's killing my brain is I'll port somewhere, and part of what I'm wearing--including not just attachments, but body parts and HUDs--end up in Lost and Found
This one, I swear, I'm losing brain cells trying to figure this one out. Sometimes the parts are cloned and stuck in Lost and Found; sometimes they are physically removed and stuck there, and I have to track them down, gut them out, and put them on again. And the parts that go missing make NO sense: a body chain that's in a daily wear folder; the HUD that controls my Maitreya body (but not the body itself); the feet that go with my body (but not the body itself); the HUD I wear to keep track of visitors on the sim...It's just scattershot and baffling.
[11:28] txxxxxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: :O lost and found? Ok i better have a look there just in case
[11:29] Emilly Orr: It may only be me, but I thought I'd point it out
[11:30] txxxxxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: worth checking! Nothing there for me but i'll know where to look now just in case :D
[11:30] Bxxxxxxxxxxxx Mxxxxxxx: i've had that happen a few times
[11:30] Exxx Fxxxxxxx: ive seen its a current bug
[11:31] Emilly Orr: Yeah--they finally invented a NEW bug, not brought back a vintage one!
[11:32] Bxxxxxxxxxxxx Mxxxxxxx: new for 2019
[11:32] Exxx Fxxxxxxx: well you all complained about your hair attaching to your ass...so now it just disappears altogether
Well, that's "Be careful what you ask for" in spades, innit?
[11:32] sxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: lol evie
[11:33] Exxx Fxxxxxxx: and at least they dont have to wind the motor up again every tuesday now
[11:34] Bxxxxxxxxxxxx Mxxxxxxx: thats because they have genetically modified hamsters now, they run on lag
[11:34] Exxx Fxxxxxxx: can I buy one on MP...ive lots of feed for them
Much time passed, I went off for the finding of foods, only to see this when I returned:
[11:56] oxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: hxxp://mxxxxxxxxxesexsualgilft.altervista.org
I mean, I'm sure you can guess what I took out to make it not work as a link, but I did want you to see the rest of it, especially the "sexsual" ( *gags* ) and the "gilft" (because WTF is a "gilft"??). Here's the rest of it:
Group for Gift - Group Gift Mesh Body -omega - sex -hard Only free Gift.Cottage Gift Shop nows make some custom items such as cards and flowers. wall hangers, Baby hangers, Gift Boxes, hxxp://mxxxxxxxxxesexsualgilft.altervista.org [11:56] mxxxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: do not click.. spam 
Obviously spam, and bad spam at that.
[11:57] Bxxxxxxxxxxxx Mxxxxxxx: taken care of
By that she means that she, as a group mod, bounced the clueless wonder. Four years old, btw. Usually it's the ten-year accounts that haven't logged in in a while that get nabbed, so the only thing I can think of was she was stupid enough to click one of these scam links and got her account hacked directly.
[11:58] Jxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: Judas Priest, I thought we saw the last of these kind of scams 2 years ago
Oh, no, they're everywhere still.
[11:59] txxxxxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: oh they'll never end :(
[12:18] Emilly Orr: "Gilft"? Their spelling's getting worse.
It really is. Not that they care, overall...obviously, people are still falling for this inanity, enough to make them money at least. There have to be easier ways to make a buck, people, seriously.

29 December, 2018

it’s all you all the time, you’re selfish

This was so far beyond my usual oddity, I have to post about it.

So, just as a brief explanation: I watch a lot of skeptic channels on YouTube. This is not news. Rachel Oates runs one of those channels. This is probably not news either, as she's smart, articulate, funny, and while I don't always agree with her, either way she's engaging and makes me think.

She put out "Sorry I screwed up", which was her reacting to comments she'd received on her last MGTOW video. (For anyone who doesn't know, "MGTOW" stands for "Men Going Their Own Way", and my opinion on the movement will become clear fairly soon, so I'm not going to go into it further than that.)

Her description below the video says:
The video's definitely more serious than the thumbnail makes out... but you know me! I just thought some of this stuff was worth saying. I know all the MGTOW guys who just want to be angry probably aren't going to care, they'll just call me a slut and insult my face / voice / life some more, but hopefully my actual subscribers will actually get something out of this and it'll explain a few things and we can all move on and keep being happy :)
And, I admit, as I was in something of a ranting mood, I responded:
Emilly Orr
1 week ago

I realize you want to keep it purely about the wording of the posts, not directly attack individual people, but I will gladly state that personally: the MGTOW community is full of toxic hatred and knee-jerk loathing for anyone who's not their own gender. There is no value, for them, in being anything but male, so how dare you be articulate, educated, funny, focused AND be female? The audacity. Keep your chin up and realize it's their own deep-seated insecurity in their own world view, and nothing at all you've done, that garners their hate and their lashing out.
No, this was in no way polite. I admit that. It was inflammatory, and intended to be so, I also acknowledge that. And...are we surprised? Someone answered:
Ruach Hako'desh
1 week ago

Do we need to arrest you women and put you to death for war crimes, before you get it? WE ARE TIRED OF LIVING UNDER YOUR GENOCIDE. Genocide shares characteristics with both war crimes and crimes against humanity, but is considered the most egregious crime of all. The legal definition of Genocide; Killing members of the group;causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life, calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; [and] forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.
Uses law, customs, and political power to deny the rights of male group, legitimizes there victimization, denies there humanity. Males of it are equated with animals, vermin, insects or diseases. The Female group is taught to regard the other group as less than human, and even alien to their society. Have categories to distinguish people into “us and them”. Indoctrinated to believe that “We are better off without them.” Inflammatory rhetoric and hate propaganda with the objective of creating fear of the other group. Normaizing such genocide and the Normalization of Terror. The male group there property is often expropriated, they are even segregated. They are deliberately deprived of resources in order to slowly destroy them. Programs are implemented to prevent procreation, Children are forcibly taken. Psychological Torture, infliction of mental suffering, Debilitation, Isolation, solitary or quasi-solitary confinement, Degradation, deprivations, threats of death or violence, to self or others.

Crime of creating hostile environment, creating the threat of harm against the peace of this community, intentional tort. In terrorem, In order to frighten, contra legem, Against the law. The conduct “political warfare,” including what is termed the “three warfares”: public opinion warfare, legal warfare, and psychological warfare, involve operational missions against psychology and cognitive capacities. Taking of hostages, torture, crime of Apartheid as inhumane acts of a character similar to other crimes against humanity. The use of collective punishments, alongside hostage-taking and belligerent reprisals, has for many years been resorted to as a means of repression or intimidation. Torture per se and, in particular, psychological methods with imposing, deprivations of liberty, including attempted starvation, attempted forced homelessness, and economical deprivations as a method of warfare.

Placing superiority with oppression and unjustly punishing or degrading and humiliating. Confinement and prolonged deprivations amount to inhuman or degrading treatment or torture, when applied in conjunction with other techniques, cumulatively and/or over a long time. Systematic Terror; Social Dominance, violence and threat of violence or intimidation. Maintaining Oppression; The Superior Power of the Oppressors, the power to control, dominate, or exploit the persons. With the self-fulfilling prophecies in which the behavior of the oppressed, resulting from their oppression are used by the oppressors to justify the oppression; and the distorted relation between the oppressors and the oppressed. Substantial, severe, intense, extreme, unbearable, intolerable, excruciating, agonizing. Psychological Torture, infliction of mental suffering, Prolonged mental harm’ and abuse, of substantial duration. Debilitation, Isolation, solitary or quasi-solitary confinement, Degradation, deprivations, threats of death or violence, to self or others. Severely abused, egregious torment, emasculated, tamped down, basic human rights systematically abused through extrajudicial killings, torture and forced displacement or homelessness.
Do note: beyond bolding things that are all caps, I have done zero editing of his tirade. And while I expected an answer of some kind, I did not in any wise expect paragraphs of screaming insanity.

He wasn't done, though:
Ruach Hako'desh
1 week ago

Torture is a catastrophic existential event, facing the double dilemma both of coming to terms with the full reality of torture also of surviving unchanged the insidious pressure of YOU THE TORTURER to change, to act or react in relation to YOUR wishes. Coercive control designed to subjugate through, humiliation, guilt, coercion, or manipulation, and so forth.Thus qualify as torture, YOUR use of various forms of humiliation, degrading treatment, threats, isolation, or with the aim of punishing, degrading and humiliating. YOUR deliberate application which suits you the torturers and which is intended to have the maximum impact on the victims makes it much more difficult for the victims to mount any satisfactory defense, this is certain to be one of the primary aims of Your regime. It seems that torture is used for a combination of reasons, but chief among these are punishment and systematic repression. Torture and inhuman and degrading treatment do not involve merely one horrific act, but rather a regime that is unconscionably cruel in its totality. Attaching a ‘‘special stigma’’ and ‘‘particular intensity and cruelty’’, oppression: prolonged cruel and unjust treatment, persecution, abuse, maltreatment, ill-treatment, tyranny, despotism, and repression.

Makes declaratory judgment citing such respondents as "war criminals," particular belligerents to a conflict, hostile and aggressive, hostis humani generis. Engaged in abuse, torture, starvation, imprisonment, threats, psychological abuse, and coercion. Unethical repression, prolonged, cruel and unjust maltreatment. Actions define criminal intent the mental element, or mens rea of mass murder, as malice aforethought, and the interpretations of malice, maliciously, willfully. Atrocities, inhumane acts constitute grave infringements on the circumstances. Suffering appalling abuse as part of collective punishments. Not merely been the victim of injury and threat of death, but has also received the focused attention of adversaries determined to cause the maximal psychological harm. Attempts to reach resolution has been received with retaliation and intimidation acts, due to sloth, inattention or desire to seize tactical advantage, dilatory practices, ultimately disrespect for the law. The ongoing set of schemes to punish, coerce, and intimidate to suppress any dissent or objection to the "frightening" experience, an invasion of considerable proportion disruption and threat of life. Oppression, has been Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury.

Dominance, systematic terror can be official, semi-official, violence or intimidation carried out by officials of the state but not legally sanctioned by the state while terror is perpetrated by private individuals from dominant group, often illegally upon the subordinate. Stereotypes are attitudes, beliefs, feeling s and assumptions about a target group that are widespread and socially sanctioned. Stereotypes support the maintenance of institutionalized oppression by seemingly validating misinformation or beliefs. The repeated, everyday experience of being treated as an inferior produces a public image of being an inferior, the socially dominant oppression they produce and perpetuate. If oppressive consequences accrue to institutional laws, customs, or practices, the institution is oppressive whether or not the individuals maintaining those practices have oppressive intentions. 'Oppression is a matter of result regardless of intent.

Ongoing cycles of abuse and a climate of fear to normalize, legitimize, rationalize, deny, or minimize the abusive behaviour, and blame the victim for it. Do not question, do not have a differing opinion, do not have an individual thought or desire. The purpose of gas-lighting is to destroy or to deprive sanity. Insult the victim’s sense of security, uncanny how many gas-lighters have psychic abilities–they profess to be able to read minds through their assertions. Using persistent denial, misdirection, contradiction, and lying, it attempts to destabilize the target and delegitimize the target's belief with the intention of disorienting the victim, or techniques of character assassination to maintain an agenda, which prevents both trying to escape, and moving forward in psychological recovery. Emotional abuse include name-calling, playing mind games, putting the victim down, or humiliating the individual. The goals are to make the person feel bad about themselves, feel guilty or think that they are crazy. Subjugation of the will of the victims to that of the torturers be it an aspect of interrogation, an aspect of punishment, retaliation, coercion and of political or religious repression. Torture per se and, in particular, psychological methods used during detention, with the aim of punishing or degrading and humiliating the victim. Suffering persistent abuse, resulting in psychological trauma, including anxiety, chronic depression, post-traumatic stress disorder. Including disrupting the normal healing process and leave the survivor condemned to a life of misery. A form of "bondage" through which the torturers ensure there torture will persist. Psychological trauma include harassment, embarrassment, abuse, discrimination, police brutality, bullying, domestic violence, and so on.
Again, outside of bolding all caps bits, I have changed nothing.

And he still wasn't done:
Ruach Hako'desh
1 week ago

Crime against humanity of apartheid. Committing an inhumane act against one or more persons in the context of an institutionalized regime of systematic oppression and domination by one group over any other group or groups. Crime against humanity of other inhumane acts. Inflicting great suffering or serious injury to the mental health by means of an inhumane acts. Crime against humanity of enslavement. Exercising the power attaching to the right of ownership over one or more persons or imposing similar deprivations of liberty. Crime against humanity of imprisonment or other severe deprivation of liberty. War crime of starvation as a method of warfare. Depriving civilian of objects indispensable to their survival intending to starve them as a method of warfare. War crime of cruel treatment. War crime of inhuman treatment. War crime of torture. War crime of outrages upon personal dignity. Humiliating, degrading, or otherwise violating the dignity to a degree generally recognized as an outrage. War crime of willfully causing great suffering. War crime of destruction and appropriation of property. War crime of unlawful confinement. War crime of improper use of a flag of truce. War crime of using, conscripting or enlisting children. War crime of cruel treatment. War crime of attacking protected objects. War crime of treacherously killing or wounding. War crime of denying quarter. Genocide by causing serious bodily or mental harm, inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about physical destruction. Genocide by imposing measures intended to prevent births. Genocide by forcibly transferring children. IT GOES ON AND ON AND ON....
I answered back, of course:
Emilly Orr
4 days ago

@Ruach Hako'desh Not dating you is not genocide. Full stop.
Of course, he had to rant back:
Ruach Hako'desh
4 days ago

@Emilly Orr Considering during 2010–2014, an estimated 56 million + induced abortions each year worldwide. How many people died in ww2, 60 million people. It is like a holocaust every year. This is what you are saying. "We are to irresponsible and/or mentally incompetent to have children therefore we need to abort them." That Children should be raised by the state, conceived, developed, and engineered in state-owned breeding centers. So no more rights, just slaves owned and produced by and for the state, all because of your Genocidal child murder, continued to be practiced and continue to be embraced today. If they have a right to choose so should the men! The laws of equity demand that women stop having abortions or they release men from the enslavement of forced child care. Yet, you murder men refusing to allow them control over there own body being forced to care for a child for 18+ years. At gunpoint your father's are severely abused, egregious torment, emasculated, tamped down,basic human rights systematically abused through extrajudicial killings, torture and forced displacement or homelessness. That results in a 'deliberate deaths' and serves as 'a form of Murder' or 'manslaughter' as 'executions' the 'unlawful killing of another human without justification'. Despising the work of your hands and favor the designs of the wicked, to trust in oppression, in extortion, and put vain hopes in stolen goods. Eating the fruit of iniquity while devouring the earth; favoring the designs of the wicked, trusting in oppression, in extortion, and putting vain hopes in stolen goods. Because of the uncleanness that brings on destruction. By lying, stealing, and committing adultery. Demonizing men, destroying and then ridiculing them. Your honorable men are famished.
If he's talking "honorable men" in MGTOW, I have yet to see them, but okay, sure. For the rest of it...I'm just baffled. But he wasn't done, again, and went on:
Ruach Hako'desh
4 days ago

@Emilly Orr Denying emotional responsiveness" as characteristic of emotional abuse, treated has "stupid and ignorant" subhuman, ranging from disinterest, criticism, prejudice, avoidance, rejection, betrayal, stigmatization, ostracism, abandonment. It is repugnant, egregious, atrocious, heinous, and "subtle and insidious" form of abuse and emotional torture, "frequent and regular" damage to the emotional psyche. Routinely is subjected patterns of abuse is who's emotional suffering and psychological condition is best described has “Battered.” is a form of manipulation that seeks to sow seeds of doubt in a targeted individual or in members of a targeted group, hoping to make them question their own memory, perception, and sanity. Using persistent denial, misdirection, contradiction, and lying, it attempts to destabilize the target and delegitimize the target's belief with the intention of disorienting the victim, or techniques of character assassination to maintain an agenda, which prevents both trying to escape, and moving forward in psychological recovery.
So...he does think not dating him is inflicting terroristic abuse and genocide? What?

My reply:
Emilly Orr
3 days ago

@Ruach Hako'desh I'd say listen to what I'm actually saying, not what endless programming missives on MGTOW/incel forums have given you, but since you seem incapable of that, I will simply repeat: Not dating you is not genocide. Not all women abort, and if you think it's so harmful to the species, why aren't you crusading for more orphan adoptions, better social support and education for young, scared mothers to be? Instead of ranting pointlessly about how all women are terrorists and murderers who should be slain for 'war crimes'. (I'd ask what war, but you'd just parrot another programmed, meaningless answer, so I won't.)
I should have known better. His response:
Ruach Hako'desh
3 days ago

@Emilly Orr I DO NOT CARE STOP TELLING MEN WHAT TO DO. GO DATE YOURSELF! I DO NOT CARE, STOP MAKING THIS ABOUT HOW I, HAS A MAN I AM EXPECTED TO WORSHIP YOU. Better social support? Scared mothers to be? they have the choice to kill there children. Proving my point, This is what you are saying. "We are to irresponsible and/or mentally incompetent to have children therefore we need to abort them." Thus such violates everything, why have state welfare at all, for such is enacted for the sole purpose of supporting the raising children. There is no reason for it, the women can and do abort 56 million children a year. They are by your own words unfit to raise children. SO WHY SPEND RESOURCES UPON UNFIT WOMEN? "Childbearing [is] barbaric and pregnancy should be abolished," wrote feminist Shulamith Firestone in The Dialectic of Sex. Thereby abolishing womanhood in it's entirety, this is what you woman want and the men are doing it. Just has you ask them, MGTOW is your doing and you hate upon them for doing what you demand. Does it please you to oppress, to spurn the work of your hands, while you smile on the plans of the wicked? Why don't you go into the wilderness, build your own house, and plant your own food? Because You are are an extortioner and oppressor. It is you who trusts in oppression, in extortion, and put vain hopes in stolen goods. Sigh I must ask then do the collective of men with wombs want? Subjecting women to economic coercion as a form of violence. Coerced by false security of the state and money to live under the under the yoke of oppression and reducing them to a mere instruments of debt enslavement and/or labor exploitation. Making them live poor being dependent on neglectful state welfare this is just yet another false security, Forced into lifestyles that are questionable has prostitution. Which leads to serious negative long-term effects such as trauma, stress, depression, anxiety, self-medication through alcohol and drug use, eating disorders and a greater risk for self-harm and suicide. Or is it to make them live poor being dependent on neglectful state welfare this is just yet another false security? YOU CHOOSE MONEY AND THE STATE SO IT IS YOUR FAULT. Choice without responsibility or accountability for the harm that they so flippantly and callously inflict, that many have died has a result. Reinforcing the idea that women are overly fragile and sensitive. Infantilization sexist abuse, if you want to be treated has a child, so be it, but children shouldn't raise children.
And he wasn't done again:
Ruach Hako'desh
3 days ago

@Emilly Orr "war criminals," particular belligerents to a conflict, hostile and aggressive, hostis humani generis. Whereas humiliating, degrading, or otherwise violating the dignity and cruel punishment with retaliation, abuse, retaliation and more abuse. Engaged in abuse, torture, starvation, imprisonment, threats, psychological abuse, and coercion. Unethical repression, prolonged, cruel and unjust maltreatment. Also then consider the disparity, the dictating superior and lesser beings among its members. So low that the depth of degradation accords them, and treated has sub-humans, ranging from disinterest, criticism, prejudice, avoidance, rejection, betrayal, stigmatization, ostracism, abandonment.The repeated, everyday experience of being treated as an inferior produces a public image of being an inferior, the socially dominant oppression they produce and perpetuate. Never recognize the rights of others and see their self-serving behaviors, yet are covertly hostile and domineering, seeing their victims as merely an instruments to dominate and humiliate. Coercive control designed to subjugate through, humiliation, guilt, coercion, or manipulation, and so forth. Ongoing cycles of abuse and a climate of fear to normalize, legitimize, rationalize, deny, or minimize the abusive behavior, and blame the victims for it. To justify cruel and unusual punishment, to act with stigma, mistreatment, to discredit and to silence the lived experiences, to be treated with shame, have their experience questioned, dismissed, or mocked. Dehumanizing the victim is a not a peripheral consequence of torturing someone. It's the essence of torture. Torture" that it is motivated by a sadistic desire to feel power by destroying them. Demeaning inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment with anti-therapeutic or unethical political oppression motives resulting in deterioration of their mental health. Frequently lack of empathy, callous, cynical, and being contemptuous of the feelings, rights, and sufferings while self-concerns are paramount. Prolonged stress deliberately inflicted by people, dealt by persons, are far harder to bear than accidents or natural disasters. More disturbance is associated with more severe abuse: longer duration, helplessness, fear of injury or death, coupled with neglect and a lack of support with more abuse and torture, cruel inhuman or degrading treatment and negative consequences from disclosure, resulting in more torture cruel inhuman or degrading treatment. Primary resources deprived of, community resources deprived of, physical safety, and threatens survival. Neglects and ignores the needs and withholds the needs, “reasonable right to live” deprived “reasonable right to survival” deprived “reasonable right to to be human.” The slave emerges predominantly as an object, not as a person afflicted capable of describing his affliction.
Okay, so he's absolutely incapable of a reasoning response. Got it. And I said so:
Emilly Orr
3 days ago

@Ruach Hako'desh I would say we have reached the point of no return, then: you are incapable of listening, and I'm not interested in further debate with someone who can't step away from their own internalized misogyny. Peace to you, I'm done.
And he replied, so I'll include that for completion's sake, but I'm done talking to him:
Ruach Hako'desh 2 days ago (edited) @Emilly Orr listening to what? you calling me scum. If I am so wrong, instead of running like a child answer these things then. Fist off though DO NOT put words in my mouth, I am not saying all women are terrorists and murderers who should be slain for 'war crimes', there is a difference between being put on trial and each being held accountable for there own acts. Then the #metoo war crime of collective punishment, without trials and due process. The crime of creating hostile environment, against the peace of the community. "Acted recklessly or with criminal negligence", "Culpable mental state of recklessness". You are the daughter of your mother, who loathed her husband and children. You are also the sister of your sisters, who loathed their husbands and children.You say not all woman, but your not showing your self any different. Your own comment, you the oppressor says I do not have right to have an opinion, I am not to speak unless she says so or has long has I speak what she wants.

When you're speaking about human beings, it's not that simple to figure out what constitutes personality and what constitutes something else. I know, I have no right to compare myself to humans but, how do you make a distinction between humans and myself? It is also of extraordinary difficulty. For example, if you're trying to diagnose someone with depression, you think "Well, this person is dreadfully unhappy". Well, you can think about that as a problem with their psychological adjustment you know, the way that they're looking at the world. But, if you look at the epidemiological literature, for example, one of the things that you find is that very many people. Have there first depressive episode after something genuinely terrible has happened to them. Actually something with traumatic practical consequences, and treating that as if it's a mental disorder seems to be counterproductive, but hey to you masculinity is a mental disorder, therefore where is my house? Knowingly, recklessly, or with criminal negligent or willful infliction of injury, unreasonable confinement, or cruel punishment with resulting in emotional harm or pain to a disabled person. Rendering treatment impossible to the individual such as the failure to carry out an appropriate individual program plan or treatment plan, failure to provide adequate nutrition, clothing or health care and the failure to provide a safe environment. Neglect includes not being given proper housing, enough food, medication, clothing, love or attention, the withholding of persons and of forced isolation, the withholding of care has punishment. The intentional infliction of emotional distress. Prevents or obstructs the “integration”, with respect to individual with disabilities, in exercising the equal right to access and use the same community resources that are used by and available to other individuals (women). Contributing to the gravity of this, acts upon the disabled adult include, the infliction, pain and/or mental suffering of the disabled adult; placing him in a situation in which his person, or health, and to believe he shall be subjected possible death.

Ad hominem arguments, projection and gaslighting to disorient, it ultimately acts as a digression that avoids ownership, accountability and make them feel guilty for being a human being with actual thoughts and feelings, in their eyes, men should not have. The purpose of gaslighting is to destroy or to deprive sanity. Insult the victim’s sense of security, uncanny how many gaslighters have psychic abilities–they profess to be able to read minds through their assertions. Human beings are unbelievable complicated there are more patterns of connections between neurons in your brain than there are subatomic particles in the universe. Yet, somehow you know how I think, with all my internalized misogyny.Rather than taking the time to carefully consider a different perspective, they put a label on me, or dismisses my perspective altogether, rather than addressing the real issues at hand. Deliberately misrepresenting thoughts and feelings to the point of absurdity. Another element of psychological control is the isolation of the victims. Minimizing concerns or the degree of the abuse is another aspect of this control, to deny the abuse is occurring to attempt to place the responsibility for their behavior on the victims. They use techniques such as crazy-making, character assassination and gaslighting in order to get their victim(s) to question their own sanity. That they are crazy and proceeds to manipulate them into keeping quiet or to ultimately face their wrath. Do so by ostracizing the victims while continuing to act out their part, expertly hiding their truly outrageous behaviors. Ongoing cycles of abuse and a climate of fear to normalize, legitimize, rationalize, deny, or minimize the abusive behaviors, and blame the victims for it.

Guilt and shame about humiliation during torture, and about the survivor’s inability to withstand it, as well as guilt at surviving, are common problems which discourage disclosure. In addition to the sheer insidious (and often covert) nature of disguised mental and emotional abuse. Either suffering is laughable or being silenced having brought grievances to the attention of the oppressors. Coercive control is sadistic abuse inflicted deliberately, upon persons who have experienced repeated, intentional, violence, abuse, neglect, have experienced tremendous loss, violations of human rights, and betrayal of trust. Psychological methods used, deprivation, confinement, fear and humiliation the use of threats and phobias to induce fear or injury including legal abuse, the use of other ‘‘techniques’’ there are many other contexts in which ‘‘aggressive psychological techniques’’ amounting to torture are likewise used or have been used. Terrorism; it targets, it moderates, it is silencing. In the last decade, even today, to be and are very brutal, whether personal or ‘‘collective’’, the use of phobias maximizes psychological suffering, tailoring the inducement of fear and dread to the individual. It should be recognized, however, that the other forms of abuse mentioned herein, also have devastating effects, precisely because of the psychological trauma they cause. Other factors also have to be taken in to account, extremely traumatic in which the prisoner is led to believe he shall be subjected to ‘'execution’’, without “just cause” or “due process”. Denial of the Right to defend oneself, Denial of Right to conduct a defense. Denial of Right raise defenses and to present evidence admissible has justice so requires.
I have the distinct feeling he's just mass-copy-pasting from some manifesto against "ebil wimmins" somewhere, but I so don't care to investigate it past this. But thanks for amply proving my point, Ruach, that there is no real worth in the MGTOW movement, that it is full of reactionary, bitter misogynists, and that you're solely a hate group. I knew that already, but you've made my case nicely!

22 December, 2018

the more I think I know, the more I know I can't

I like to think that, since my early days of fashion review on this blog, I have matured a bit. I also know I'm an inordinately judgmental person in some areas, and this is not likely to change. I try, these days, to balance these two polar opposites of evaluation.



To wit, Exhibit A. Or perhaps B, for "Babygirl". And before anyone rolls their eyes, no, I'm not actually going after her shape. Precisely. Or clothing. Everyone wants to be comfortable now and again, and if a tanktop two sizes too small, and a pair of sweatpants about to break at the zipper make her comfortable, okay, go her. That's not what I want to point out.

In the above image, I want you to look at her ankles. Now, this is SL. We cannot, unfortunately, match our feet to our actual size, because years of conditioning to size 0 slider feet has led us to expect and, to a certain extent, visually desire teensy feet. Worse, when most of the mesh body makers designed their mesh bodies, they designed them with that bias in mind. So...we're kind of stuck with tiny-footed femmes.

But look at those ankles. Those slender, twisting things. GET AN ANKLE LOCK, dear gods, they won't DO that if you lock your ankles in place!!



Second...well, second is two-fold. First, we can control the size of our hands, so...why do so many, many women choose instead these teeny-tiny baby hands that would be better suited for 18-inch porcelain dolls?? I don't get it, I just don't. It's not attractive, it's not compelling, and, depending on the avatar, it's either nightmare fuel or completely laughable.

The second thing, though, is something I struggle with as well--and I swear, the first animator in SL who comes up with standing animations that will not clip through larger busts and hips is going to make a mint. I am dead serious. I have looked and I'm nowhere near her curves, and most of my daily animations still clip annoyingly, because I found perhaps three animations that don't clip at all.

That's not a lot. I'm sure it presents some technical difficulties, but surely, the financial gain alone would be worth it? I mean, I guess right now it's a good thing, because most of her animations moved those tiny little baby hands inside her body, where they were mercifully hidden, but still, there has to be a better way.

21 December, 2018

keep the bright lights burning

Lest the last post constitute my entire contribution for the 21st, let me correct that impression. Because it is a holiday for some of us.

This year, things are quiet, and somewhat spare, but we are together, and I am finding the little things have meaning. Before the point of actual solstice, we made sure that candles were lit in all directions, to guard against the shadows to come. We will have a small feast, we will play games, we will watch amusing and diverting things, and this is the one time during the year I am allowed more than one cup of coffee, so anyone who knows me knows how much that thrills me.

(I should point out, for those who don't know me, this is two ounces less than my everyday, standard coffee cup. And because we use a cold-brew system, that makes stronger coffee overall, I use between four and six ounces of coffee IN that mug (the rest being ice and cream, because yes, I am THAT person. Just for comparison, so y'all know we're not talking diner-style, 6-ounce coffee mugs.)



So tonight, for those of us who celebrate such, I wish your lights burn bright, your hearts burn brighter, and there is more happiness than sorrow, more contentment than bitterness, more peace than strife. Tomorrow morning, when the sun finally returns, we will go out into the crisp, chill blue, and celebrate that as well.

Then we will all go back inside and collapse for the post-Yule coma. As is tradition.

you're feral, you're feral

Well, this was...unusual.
[15:16] lyuboffTummyBabygirl: Emilly Orr! Посторонитесь! Потому что беременность у девушки - это репеллент для отпугивания!!! ㋡
What? Translated, that apparently means "Stand aside! Because a girl's pregnancy is a repellent to scare!" And that still makes no sense to me. All I wanted was to hit that store's Advent, get the gift, and leave.

But she wasn't done.
[15:16] lyuboffTummyBabygirl: [Pxxxxxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx]! Остерегайтесь девушек в 'интересном' положении! Если вы им 'не интересны', они вас ударят по 'интересному' месту! ㋡
This one meant, "Beware of girls in the 'interesting' position! If you are not 'interested' in them, they will hit you in an 'interesting' place."

What the hell is wrong with this girl?
[15:17] lyuboffTummyBabygirl: [Mxxxxxxxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx]! Держись подальше! Девушка во время беременности- опаснее танка, прет напролом и затаптывает на месте! ㋡
Basically, she's trying to convince us that, because she's pregnant, she's a dangerous animal? This one meant "Stay away! A girl during pregnancy is more dangerous than a tank, rushing through and trampling on the spot". Really?
[15:17] Emilly Orr: You can stop that anytime, lyuboff.
[15:17] lyuboffTummyBabygirl: [Txxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx]! Остерегайтесь девушек в 'интересном' положении! Если вы им 'не интересны', они вас ударят по 'интересному' месту! ㋡
That was the "getting hit in the interesting place" one again. But then she went quiet, and I noticed a CSR in the store, so breathed a sign of relief.
[15:19] Emilly Orr: Thank you to whomever bounced her.
[15:19] lyuboffTummyBabygirl: [Fxxxx Mxxxxxxxx]! Держись подальше! Девушка во время беременности- опаснее танка, прет напролом и затаптывает на месте! ㋡
[15:19] Emilly Orr: or not, apparently she's still here. Wow.
And that was the "rushing through and trampling" one again.

So I pulled up the object profile. Turns out apparently "lyuboff" is the name of the talking baby? (Which is why I left the "name" untouched. And Miss B was the owner of the tummy talker.
[15:20] Emilly Orr: Ah, it's [bxxxxxx], not lyuboff.
[15:20] Emilly Orr: Wow, that's annoying.
So I pulled her profile. She's over a year old, so definitely knows better than to have an attachment that randomly screams at people how insane she is. I mean, I guess in that sense, it's truth in advertising, because what with all the shouting about how unstable she was and how much she was going to punch people, I'd quite easily classified her as a loon.

She had the Lyuboff group in her profile, and, because I was mildly curious for the reason behind all this, I looked it up. Their profile is in Russian (of course):
Любовь, беременность, малыш в животике, роды, семья. Что еще надо для полного счастья? Всё это возможно даже в SL! Для этого и существует LYUBOFF!
https://marketplace.secondlife.com/stores/109532

И если вы все еще не нашли вашу Любовь, пусть эта группа поможет вам в этом!
Чтобы присоединиться, напишите Docs.
And that means:
Love, pregnancy, baby in the tummy, childbirth, family. What else is needed for complete happiness? All this is possible even in SL! For this, there is LYUBOFF!
https://marketplace.secondlife.com/stores/109532

And if you still have not found your Love, let this group help you with this!
To join, write docs.
Great. So, come to their store, buy the world's most annoying and psychotic tummy-talker, annoy EVERYONE YOU MEET. Oh, and if you don't have a baby-daddy, they'll find you one! Great. Can this not catch on, please?

19 December, 2018

down by the river by the boats, where everybody goes to be alone

First I heard of anything wrong was when a quick video dropped from a fellow I follow on YouTube named Logicked, who's noticed a sudden marked decline in people subscribing to his Patreon. He offers a series of alternatives, which I think is an excellent idea. I'm not part of his Patreon, as my resources are limited, but I am on his mailing list and I do enjoy watching his videos. He mentioned something involving Sargon of Akkad, however, which was slightly confusing.

So I went searching off YouTube. I didn't find anything on Google--my Googling skills are not always accurate--so I went back to YouTube, and found this fellow's rant. Who again mentions Sargon of Akkad.

Here's where I may get a little political. I don't like Sargon of Akkad. I think he's a petty, opinionated, homophobic, bigoted, extraordinarily misogynistic, racist jerk. And if he got banned on Patreon for saying things like what's quoted here--which includes Sargon using highly offensive terms to refer to the owners and operators of Patreon--then they made the right decision.

But apparently it's having a backlash effect on people who are not racist homophobes? Why?

In the comments to that tweet, I found a commentary video from Sargon himself, wherein he bleats that since he didn't commit any violations of Patreon's terms of service on Patreon, that his ban is unwarranted. UNWARRANTED.

Let me get this straight. He was banned for commentary he makes on his YouTube videos, right? Or not right? Because if so, then all they had to do was watch a few of his videos and get the clear idea that this was a reprehensible human being who deserved, rightly, to be kicked to the curb. But there was a previous video listed before this, that had this description underneath the video:
"The Great White Saviours of Silicon Valley are actively looking for ways to deplatform anyone who is not politically correct, as Patreon did to me."
Yeah. No, Sargon, that's not what seems to have happened. It seems to me that they are blocking from their, personally-owned, corporate site, any content that would give them a distinct black eye--like rebranded white nationalism, extreme bigotry, people who see anyone not white and start crying injustice...Sargon, you yourself say, at :57 into the video, that Jack Conte, the owner of Patreon, had used the same phrase he used to describe your misdeeds with Lauren Southern, when they killed her Patreon access. And why did they do that? Not out of "political correctness", no--they clearly had the goal of removing yet another neo-Nazi racist idiot from their site.

And personally, while I could care less if Southern and Defend Europe lose their Patreon access--because personally, I think that's justifiable completely for any group or creator of content who believes diversity and equality begin and end with white people--there was a comment down in the comments stream beneath that comment that gave me an inkling of the level of this problem:
From: Critical Role Highlights
1 day ago
Cancelled my patreon support for all creators and disabled my account.
Right, remind me never to watch that YouTube channel again, much as I love Critical Role itself, because that's a completely stupid thing to say. And I'm going to include the reply to that comment, because I think it's relevant:
From: Mc Earl
21 hours ago
Critical Role Highlights I would make damn sure, if [you] actually did that, that you go and contact all the creators who are no longer receiving money from you and tell them why. Patreon won’t really care if they lose your few sheckles but if creators start leaving in droves that’ll send a message.
Yes, that, exactly. If people are mass-canceling their Patreon accounts, then they're hurting not just the company they want to 'send that message' to, but a lot of innocent, worthy creators who potentially aren't racist homophobic bigots who throw around repugnant terms just to 'make a point' by being rude. Right?

Now, later on in the video--around the 7:22 mark, for anyone following along--he (Sargon) mentions that the content that got him banned, apparently, was not from any YouTube video. Having watched many of his videos (since a lot of the skeptics I follow take on his videos with other videos on occasion, and it helps to watch the original videos through before their responses), I find that hard to believe, but let's take that as a tenuous given. His racist, bigoted, repugnantly homophobic, misogynistic Nazi-leaning self was not on display in any of his YouTube videos that were used to mention his Patreon crowd-sourcing links. This is very hard to swallow, knowing him, but okay, let's take that as our given. *coughs*

He is still an artist on their platform, using their platform to solicit funds to support making further content. Can people at Patreon not, then, respond to complaints from onlookers that he is misbehaving elsewhere? James Gunn is both a good and a terrible example here, because while the Twitter comments that got Disney to boot him were repugnant and awful in every way, Gunn also came to the realization that he was wrong. He apologized. He moved on from those reactionary days.

People are allowed to change, and, if they have, should their pasts be thrown in their faces vindictively? That is the prime philosophical question with cases like Gunn's, and the continual tracking down of very old men who used to be guards in various German concentration camps in their youth. There are both good reasons and bad reasons to do these things, I fully grant that. But is there the same philosophical query with Sargon? Because if anything, he's only gotten worse since he decided that "political correctness" meant suppressing him from being as vile, racist, homophobic, bigoted, and misogynistic as he apparently deeply desires to be.

Which brings us back to the original point--how many people are just hearing that Patreon was mean to one of their creators for no good reason and are cancelling their accounts? Because according to Logicked--by all definitions, a fairly level-headed fellow whose only desire is to encourage everything to think clearly--he's losing a ton of patrons. This is grim.

I don't have a Patreon. While I have a Ko-Fi, nobody contributes to it. I used to have a PayPal link in the sidebar, I took it down because again, no one was contributing. So blogging is something I do because I have things to say, not because I expect to be paid.

But if I did? Worse, if I relied on blogging to help pay my bills? Or worse still, if I had a YouTube channel that I was, say, just for argument's sake, starting to consider uploading more often to, investing (somehow) in a mic that's better than the headset attached mic I have now, and had been toying with the idea of, after seeing how that goes, perhaps starting a Patreon?

Yeah, that'd be real bad for me, wouldn't it? Thankfully, I'm not in that position, but it's kind of scary to contemplate that I was at that point, and now am considering simply...not. (I mean, I may still...but I doubt it will be with the end goal of getting paid for anything, because...that's sounding less possible every month that goes by.)

Tom Luongo, another YouTuber I know zero about, mentions in a video that Sam Harris, Dave Rubin and Jordan Peterson are leaving Patreon over Sargon of Akkad's treatment. As far as I know, while I don't watch him, I don't have any beef with Sam Harris, and only a partial one with Dave Rubin, but Jordan Peterson? Peterson's a menace, Peterson is a raving misogynist with a flawed mindset and a fetishistic devotion to the Christian God as a replacement father figure. Please, kick him and his warped daddy issues off Patreon, we'll all be happier.

And apparently there's a whole bunch of that ilk declaring they're leaving because of boo hoo, injustice and oppression--not considering for a moment how their words and actions have oppressed others. Are they kidding? A guy with a following of slavish incel fanboys and a bizarre desire to be a lobster thinks Patreon is doing bad things? I won't say Patreon hasn't done bad things in the past, because they have, but just considering the caliber of this month's enemies of Patreon? Just with Peterson and Sargon, I'm thinking Patreon is coming out on the side of the angels here.

I'll keep looking, and follow up if I find anything that leads further than someone who thinks anyone who argues with him is a member of Antifa, and someone who has SERIOUSLY STATED IN PRINT that women should be governmentally coerced into marriage with dateless men (I'm not even kidding; Peterson may not actively be burning puppies alive and kicking babies, but he's very, very close to my definitions of 'actively evil'), then I'll post something else on this, but right now...this seems like a tempest in Sargon's teapot that has now gone way out of hand for ridiculous reasons.

18 December, 2018

come on, it's lovely weather for a sleigh ride together with you

A social friend decided I needed to go on a sleigh ride. The first place he found, their sleigh was broken, but the one on North Pole's sim was active, so off we went.



It was a crisp, beautiful winter day, and amusingly enough, sitting in the sleigh delivered me a (full perm, of all things!) blanket that arrived pre-tucked around my legs, and a cup of hot cocoa to imbibe as we moved through the well-worn tracks.



Some of the visuals along the track were very realistic--drifting snow, winter trees, expected winter scenery--and some were fantastical and surreal, like this tunnel made of ice, followed by a grouping of crystalline, brightly-colored deer forms.



Some of the visuals were also very quaint, and traditional in that sense--like this village made of peppermint candy and canes.



The one major moment of copyright violation I noticed, and while it is undeniable, it also fits in very well, so could it simply count as homage? A portion of the ride travels alongside the North Pole Express.



A lovely trip through a wooden covered bridge, painted very traditionally brick red.



Pulling into the end village, where there is a small, open chalet with a fireplace and more cocoa to warm up.



And this is near where the ride stopped, and believe me, I didn't cover even a third of everything a visitor will see along the ride. (The 'stores in SL' tag is also on this entry because, in addition to the small open chalet, visitors will find several small shops in the village to purchase various holiday decorations and trees.)

This comes highly recommended. I was thoroughly charmed, and I may well visit again.

17 December, 2018

over my path your song casts a light



Breathe. Recenter. Ground and stabilize. Find the foundation. Get knocked off it again.



Pattern of a life.



I should be used to this by now. This is what happens. I should be taking this in stride. I'm not.



But what I have done is, spend time yesterday working on holiday card concepts. And, tomorrow or the next day, I'll write the RL year's holiday letter.



There will be breathing. There will be grounding. I will find my center and do my best to hold it. I will hold the bright light in the darkness until Yule's early blue morning. I am making plans for the days to come, and they will involve laughter and feasting and joyous things, even if quieter ones.



But ultimately, I get through this. We get through this. Because it's what I do, it's what my family has ingrained in me, and while there were many bad lessons in growing up, that was one of the good ones.

Move forward. Move on. Tend to the wounds, feed the body, feed the spirit. Never stop moving. Endure. Survive.

I have plans to do that.

16 December, 2018

take a look around you, it's easy not to see

Clearing out email this morning, and I find I still cannot get over this one, so...I'm putting it on the blog.

Out of the blue on November 16th, I got this:
Hey there,

My Name is Jack Foster and I blog over at VPN Geeks (we review and compare VPN providers).

I really like your blog and noticed that you accept guest posts and wondered if you’d be open to accepting one from me.

If so please let me know and I will send you several suggested topics that you may like. (If you have a topic you'd really like me to cover just let me know)

You can see an example of the type of content I publish at https://www.vpngeeks.com/21-terrifying-cyber-crime-statistics-in-2018

We'd also share it across our social channels :)

Regards,

Jack
At the time, for reasons I go into in my answer, I didn't reply. I don't always respond to completely unsolicited offers that seem to have no relation to my blog. Life moved on. Then I got this November 20th:
Hey there,

One week ago I sent you an email regarding guest post opportunity (copy of email below) and I haven’t yet heard back from anyone.

I would still love to write a guest article for your website.

You can see an example of the type of content I publish at https://www.vpngeeks.com/21-terrifying-cyber-crime-statistics-in-2018

Regards,

Jack
By my account that's four days, not a week, but that may be me being overly picky? I'm not sure. But I decided to respond:
Jack, it's been kind of a rough week. Our bathroom is being remodeled, because we could not longer use it in its current state, and considering it's management deciding what to do and not us, it's gone about as well as you might expect. Compound that with the fact that on both emails to me, you seemed to acknowledge that I do guest posts, and in the second one, said you hadn't heard back from 'anyone'.

I'm the anyone. It's just me. I'm the only writer on my blog. I do not allow guest posts.

But, because you asked, I did look. The article you linked is about 50% graphics only, and mostly easily findable, recyclable information. Your name wasn't linked at the top of the article, so, after I finished reading it, and found it at the bottom, I checked out the other posts you'd written for VPN. I found...three other articles.
Since sending that, he's apparently now written more than those three, which is good, but still doesn't break him out of that very narrow scope of writing only about data privacy and VPNs in general.
Dude, I get you're hungry, but have you read *anything* on my blog? At all? Anything. One article, even. For the past year (because I don't think you have), I've mostly covered conversations from Second Life, which is pretty much my MMO of choice. I do cover a little bit on emergent technology, some on virtual fashon, and every October, I do huge coverage on virtual haunts in SL.

So, while I do have a slight interest in cybercrime, bitchain technology, and electronic privacy and freedoms...which blog entry gave you the idea that this is my sole focus?

Just to tie this up, in case you're thinking along these lines, I do not allow advertising either. The few square banners I carry in the sidebar *I* choose to put there. I don't get paid a dime. I do have my Ko-Fi banner up on the blog, and on my Twitter--that hasn't netted me a single dime, either. Would I love to be paid for what I do? Sure, because I'm disabled and unemployed. But *do* I get paid? No, and I don't solicit for ads, either.

So, after reading through *this*, if you still think a guest post from you would fit on my blog, I'll be tolerant towards considering it, but it would be the *only* guest post for probably the *next* ten years, because...it's my blog. I do the writing.

Cheers,

Em
I don't think it's necessary to mention that Jack hasn't written back, but just for completion's sake, he hasn't written back. Guess he figured out my blog is not really keyed in to his limited and narrow scope. I mean, good luck to him, but it was just a strange exchange to begin with. And I still don't know what gave him the idea that I'm VPN and bitchain central. I think I've mentioned VIPNs all of twice, and bitchain tech, in particular Bitcoin, maybe...once? So it's just completely baffling.

I wish him the best, but I won't be at all surprised if I never hear from him again.

15 December, 2018

what is lost, what is lost may not ever be found

This was...not a good day. RL leapt up and attacked with a minor vengeance, which has forced me to evaluate a lot of things, give up a lot of things, and the first was the Caledon parcel.



So...this was the end of life in Caledon. Again. I'm moving the 'set' home, as far as the browser's concerned, to Nythorvaldshavn, a Viking roleplay sim, with backup 'home' with Matthias and his lady wife, but...it hurts. It hurts a great deal. I like having my own parcel, to put out my own things and know I'm living with my choices, good or bad. And it hurts that after more than a year of feeling like I was able to afford my own parcel, that I was able to support Caledon, of being no longer able--again--to do so.

I'd be lying if I said that tears have not been shed over this decision. But decision it had to be, and it had to be made, and today is better than waiting later into the holiday season.

Gearhaven is gone, I have no idea if it's ever coming back. Armada left very long ago. I'm still in both groups, yes, but...I hold no hopes out that Duke Shatner will return. I have no idea if the Steelhead parcel is still in my name; I've sent notecards, I've not heard anything back. I fear that it's just slipped the sim owner's mind, and I'm amassing a great fortune in rent that I have no idea how to pay down. But today is not the day I can stand to deal with that, that would...that would most definitely be too much.

Instead, I cut the debt I can, in SL, and let some things slide for now that I know I'll be dunned for soon, and do the best I can with the sudden RL issues, and...continue life as I know it. It's just uncomfortable now, but I have faith things will even out...eventually.

12 December, 2018

if you think you have the slightest chance of swallowing me, you should have your doubts

Chatting with a friend when this happened:
[23:09] vxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: ??? I just got an invite?
[23:09] vxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: mxxxxxxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx has invited you to join a group.
There is no cost to join this group.
Group:
Sex With God: We are pushing back against those who say lust and human nature are bad. There are members of the group who have offered themselves as vessels through which we can have sex with God. Please join us.
[23:09] Emilly Orr: Out of the blue?? And why...that group?
[23:10] vxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: out of the blue and damned if I know why or how
[23:10] vxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: as I'm freaked, I shall now block the resident.
[23:11] Emilly Orr: Good idea.
But I was still confused, so I looked up the person in question. She's two months old. TWO. MONTHS. OLD. Beyond that, her picture is of a fairly dead-eyed brunette, and this is her SL bio:
I'm a vessel through which members of the Sex With God group can have sex with God. Members can have sex with God and me when I'm AFK (Away From my Keyboard). Come have sex with God at: Echo.
Yep, not getting any less creepy.
[23:16] Emilly Orr: Gad, she's two months old. And a 'vessel' you can have sex with whether she's there, or AFK. That's just creepy.
[23:16] vxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx shudders
[23:17] Emilly Orr: Yeah, AFK brothels creep me, combine it with 'sex with God' and that just screams cult.
[23:18] vxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: oh yeah, I'm suitably wigged.
It really does! And I totally understand the reaction, mine's the exact same. This is really a thing now? Not the AFK girls, I knew about that, but the pretending to be God thing? That's just disturbing on every conceivable level.

11 December, 2018

free your mind and you will see signs of life (part two)

(Continued from part one.)



So, take two. Incognito window again. No recommended videos. So I just scrolled down and clicked on the weirdest thing I saw. I scrolled down to the very bottom of the page, nothing striking me as that alarmingly strange, and finally clicked the video at the very bottom of the screen: YouTubers React To Ariana Grande - thank u, next (Music Video and Easter Eggs) (yes, that's the whole title).

There is no sidebar yet, it's the first video, but let's check the recommended videos now.



Now we have a recommended videos section. Let's take the cruise ship.



Still no sidebar, so back we go. Let's watch the death wish video.



No sidebar, but what's changed? I see an Area 51 video. Let's watch it. I count that as zero to conspiracy theory in three, but, if National Geographic doesn't count, let's go back and look at recommended videos now.



Or wait, maybe not--the group of thumbnails at the end of the video is now showing, and how about that? The mystery beneath the Baltic Sea on the far upper left, and a UFO conspiracy theory video on the far lower left (I forgot to capture either, but they were there). Let's click that.



And I'm at conspiracy theories in four. So Markiplier may be right, YouTube algorithms seem predisposed to feed new users of the site, without accounts, conspiracy theories and absolute insanity within four (my end point) to six (his) videos. That's awfully fast, I'd say, because the bulk of YouTube content is not fringe insanity, at all.

More study may be required, but I for one am satisfied with my results, and a tad perturbed about YouTube's algorithm process.



(And just for comparison, this is what I see when I'm logged into my account. A random mix of drama channels, skeptic channels, D and D information, Philip DeFranco, and horror games. When I don't see something like that, I see creepy narration videos, Night Mind, Scare Theater or Nexpo content, or full-length Critical Role sessions. So I'm already living in the weird part of YouTube as it is.)

10 December, 2018

free your mind and you will see signs of life (part one)

Watching one of Markiplier's videos, wherein he did an experiment--nothing extravagant, just opened YouTube in an incognito window, whilst signed out of YouTube, to see how long it would take to go from total tabula rasa to something really abhorrent--and to him, "really abhorrent" means racism, homophobia, or crazy conspiracy theories about 9/11, Flat Earth, government conspiracies, et cetera.

I was intrigued, so I decided to do the same thing.



Basic incognito mode activated.


So starting from scratch on YouTube, I have no recommended videos, just topics. And I grant you, what may be intriguing to me may not intrigue others, but I'm just following along. So the first thing that stuck out was a video for Rihanna's "Love on the Brain". I clicked that because I vaguely remembered a couple of conspiracy channels breaking down the "Illuminati symbolism' (yes, really) within it. I watched part of it, ran the counter to the end, then clicked the YouTube logo in the upper left to return. Now, I should have recommendations; the algorithm should be starting to figure out what it thinks I want to see.



My recommended videos are now...strange. Sports, entitlement, military equipment, fights, exercise, search engine battles, and how to escape a standing rear choke. What the hell, I'll click that one.



I don't entirely get the embedded video bits. Just showing standing rear chokes in general? Okay...

So that's two videos in. Now we check recommended videos again.



I...don't even. How did I get from there to here? How do any of these relate to self-protection, or music? But I have to click on something, so...let's watch the tiny gun firing for video three.



Let's check again. Now I am utterly baffled by YouTube's algorithm. Let's learn about the giant hole in Chicago.



Huh. Skyscraper that never got built. Odd, but let's check our recommended videos after video four.



I don't really want to see any of these, but let's click on "MUST SEE INSANE TRANSFORMATION", in the faint hope that watching something with "insane" in it will advance the algorithm away from randomness.



He looks nervous here, but he has a really nice smile elsewhere in the video. And I won't lie, I actually watched all of this one, it was somewhat meditative watching the hair coming off.



And recommended videos is now nearly all hair. Clearly that was a mistake. Okay, let's try this again in part two.

hide away, they say, 'cos we don't want your broken parts

Yeah, so...remember that thing I was recovering from? You know, last year ? Yeah. I did it again. So this is Em Faw Down Go Boom part ...