Yep.

::rant incoming::

Their psyops game is horrendously effective, and it makes me furious.

And because it’s so effective, it makes sense for them to continue it, to continue to fracture the English-speaking world.

(It’s also cheap compared to manufacturing weapons…get a bunch of laptops, hire a bunch of trolls for a slightly-better-than-average wage in some local currency doing a job that ISN’T hard labor, which probably seems cushy. Put them in a room, and have them do a script. Very cheap compared to actually designing and manufacturing real weapons, or doing real logistics for war, etc. Cheap and effective = huge incentive for continuing indefinitely.)

The goal I’ve noticed is to make no place online safe. Poison everything. Texts in this particular case, make PoC in America and elsewhere apt to vent and lash out because of the pressure, but also they also poison forums, social media of any and all stripes, etc. Divide and conquer, anyone, everyone, everywhere.

Have a hobby? They’ll slide into the hobby discussion sites and start flame wars.

(I saw this happen a lot on Reddit’s Star Trek sub. Why was that sub a target? My suspicion is that it’s because Star Trek is a comfort show for a lot of people over generations and across nationalities in the West, and also acts as a way to promote Western values of tolerance and thoughtfulness and curiosity, so they want to poison the comforting retreat people go to when they can’t stand the overt hopelessness of the political or news subs.)

It happens with all sorts of loves and hobbies too. Have a favorite team, a favorite book, a favorite movie and want to just geek out over it? They slide into that and start shit.

And it’s really insidious sometimes…they’ll take an already-hot topic and start up a new thread with wording that makes them look clueless but not aggressive. So because they’re not obviously an asshole, people hop in giving them the benefit of the doubt and the flame war on (whatever topic specific to that interest) ignites again.

Unless the mods know how to spot that and moderate (which is fairly rare)…but even if that happens, the problem there is that if the mods do their jobs, a true clueless newbie coming in won’t know the history of this or that topic and will accidentally get hit by a sudden banhammer without knowing why…which in its way also starts shit, because the real person caught in the net gets their feelings hurt. So it’s a catch-22…bad mods, and an online social space is easily manipulated to become a cesspool, but good mods sometimes also accidentally catch a real person in their net…so shit STILL goes down and poisons the well.

Nations doing psyops shit online play both sides, too. So they won’t always start shit by posting a far-right viewpoint…they’ll choose a lefty viewpoint too, it costs them nothing to lie, but they’ll speckle it in with enough “tinder” that flames still ignite. Or they’ll have multiple accounts responding to each other.

The only reason I notice this, btw, is because I was a geek in fandoms BEFORE this sort of manipulation started, so I remember what a “legit” forum SHOULD look like. Like, there were always trolls and people with shitty social skills…but it was a very different type of trolling than this psyops shit we see now, because real people with real egos and desires and motivations were behind it. It had a different rise and fall, a different pattern. I guess it was more like real life–with allowances that people will say things anonymously that they’d never say face to face?

Younger folks who have never known a “good” and sane discussion forum think the toxicity and hopelessness online everywhere in every topic is NORMAL. But it’s not.

(When Lemmy was unknown, it was more like the forums of old, but now it’s on various antagonists’ radar there’s been an uptick of bad actors starting shit in comments.)

There’s some talented fanfic writers out there who could probably make it work.

I’m always excited to see new designs for her. She always looks awesome.

I’ve come to view this stuff as people trying to cast spells. Basically, if you do a ritual and write magic words, maybe what you want will come true.

In the ancient days you summoned demons and angels. Now you invoke the Secretary of State or something.

I read that as Miette and did a melodramatic voiceover in my head.

I’ve been finding the crazy building in arid environments odd, because even aside from forest fires, if your water supply dries up, you’re going to have to uproot and move to a state or location with a reliable water source. And you’ll be part of a big mass of climate migrants at that point.

This picture is too cute for something so horrific.

I’ve been thinking of getting a motorcycle, and Harley has no entry level bikes So new riders try a Honda or Kawasaki when young and broke and build brand loyalty to that, I’m sure.

Not surprising Harley is dying. All their stuff is so expensive you never get to figure out if it’s good or if they’re coasting on reputation while quality goes to shit or something.

Duality exists. He might have been awesome in a way they saw, even if his loud pipes were annoying to you.

Don’t know if he was, only that you got a limited view of this person, and it seems cruel to degenerate how other people mourn.

Because most people run on their personal experiences, and don’t do great when they have to think very far ahead or extrapolate and make connections.

If you’re lucky enough to be born into a conservative home that’s not bugshit crazy, and you’re lucky enough to not be TOO smart, neurodivergent, gay/lesbian/trans/etc. then you’ve probably never seen the full ugly face of conservatism because you were treated nicely.

Lots of conservatives will treat you perfectly politely…if they get to know you, and as long as you look white and clean-cut enough. As long as you give the right social signifiers, basically.

Most of my ex-conservative friends group was driven away from conservative family because we were abused in some obvious fashion, were gay/lesbian/trans, were neurodivergent, etc. We were different in ways that, ultimately, after a lot of pain, forced us to cut ties with family. (It was never our first choice though.)

But a woman who was lucky to be born into a family that treats her halfway decently won’t experience that sort of ugliness until an emergency happens and it’s leopards-eating-faces time.

And it’s VERY hard to rock the boat BEFORE something bad happens to you, when you know rocking it will have really bad consequences immediately. People don’t like to be shunned or kicked out of families, so if they’re not treated TOO badly they’ll toe the line and conform out of fear of the unknown and fear of losing everything they have and know.

I’m curious about two things. Will nesting birds or animals find this material tasty or good to gnaw on?

I always ask that ever since I learned vehicles using a more organic plastic for wiring harnesses suffer from shorts due to animals like mice nibbling the plastic because it smells tasty.

I remember as a kid, I was mystified by this other girl on the block who could do this. I didn’t understand why anyone would care. A car is a car?

Eventually I realized it’s because she was super into external social status signs. She wasn’t a gearhead, so she hadn’t picked it up the way guys do bonding over technical stats of whatever, but she was hyper-sensitive to social status, so she picked it up along with anything else related to fashion. And cars can be considered fashion, right up there with makeup and having the right purse.

Random addition to your post…

There’s early/limited studies suggesting the drug valproate, which is used for bipolar and epilepsy sometimes, can re-open the perfect pitch acquisition capabilities of the human brain even if the individual is no longer an infant and has aged past the language acquisition stage of childhood development.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3848041/

Different use of it in an 8 year old girl with language regression: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11230735/

Acting, literally. Playing a character to entertain. Some characters are villains.

I think this is why random wrestling dudes sometimes successfully slide into Hollywood acting careers.

The thing that makes me cackle about this movie, as a Fandom!Old, is that it’s basically written as the crackiest crack-ship you could ever find on AO3.

And yet…it’s had one of the biggest box-offices ever.

This brings me no end of glee.

Roberts send bob pics, not dick pics.

Doesn’t help you now I’m sure, but I’ve found gently banging around the rim or lid of a jar on the concrete outside usually loosens the seal enough to open the jar.

(Outside on concrete because I don’t want to dent anything inside.)

That’s how you end up washing your earphones

I finally realized this guy’s name reminds me of some in house menswear brand at Sears or K-Mart or some other department store that suffered and wheezed and whimpered before going out of business.

I wonder if Ukraine is having an effect on attitudes.

Anyway, I can’t speak for others, but one thing I’ve come to realize through life experiences is that the best way to resolve differences is to behave civilly and talk. BUT. I’ve also seen that there are people who do not ascribe to or live by my preferences and ideals for this. There are people who don’t value rationality, there are people who can’t be shamed or pressured by society into behaving nicely and getting along with others. Those people respect the stick, and only the stick. I don’t want to use the stick. But these people do not live by my ideals (which are to talk things out and behave civilly), no matter how I say pretty please to them, and it’s foolish to project my values onto them when I see with my own eyes that they behave and react in patterns different to my own. They respect things that scare them or directly threaten them only, and continue to misbehave if all they’re going to get for it is a finger-wagging and a scolding.

So it seems very wise to “speak softly and carry a big stick”. The military is our stick. There are people out there who will behave in the most horrific uncivil ways right up until the moment they realize you have a big stick, then they’ll suddenly rein themselves in, and you can then be civil and talk things out. But that opportunity to talk doesn’t appear unless you actually have the stick when you’re dealing with folks of that sort of mentality.

It’s very important to look at your opponents with clear eyes and see what they ARE doing, not what you wish they would do, and not what you would do if you were in their shoes. As the saying goes, “When someone shows you who they are, believe them.”