Thanks for the replies. Although my post reflects how I was feeling at the time when I saw this Reddit stuff, in retrospect I don't appreciate my shitty tone. You are clearly making an effort to engage with me in a thoughtful, mature way and I appreciate that.

But Ziq... you can always help yourself when you're being attacked like this. Don't let anyone - especially not some anonymous internet goons - have the kind of power over you that makes you feel as if you can't protect yourself from abuse. When you frame the issue in language like "I always take their bait" or "I can't help myself", you're mentally setting yourself up for defeat. You will always have the strength and autonomy within you to combat these kinds of provocations - that can never be taken away from you.

Wow, these people are clearly fucked up. I didn't make the promotional thread by the way, just observed it unfolding. Why not just post these screenshots (or don't reply to the trolls) every time they start trying to slander you? It seems they're just trying to get you to take the bait and play their sick games on their turf. It's always going to be a losing battle if you do that imo.

some shitty unorganized thoughts before i run off to work; excuse the sloppiness and try not to be an asshole if you're gonna reply to me

What does Raddle offer that other platforms do not? I like a lot of the way this site is run and am sick of supporting corporations that tolerate hate speech and endlessly try to monetize content/data, but unfortunately I don't think that being in opposition to something is much of an appeal to people. As well, original content can only take a community so far - there are plenty of incredible blogs, websites, etc that have fantastic writing but little audience.

Perhaps we should encourage local anarchist groups to use this platform to communicate with one another? Or LGBTQIA groups? Maybe that would fracture things too much if that push was successful, but then how does the site deal with the incessant trolling that would inevitably arise?

alternately we could (semi)regularly name-drop this site on certain subreddits. i know plenty of these communities have some incredibly toxic elements but... just some ideas:

• /r/chapotraphouse
• /r/anarchism
• /r/COMPLETEANARCHY
• /r/traaaaaaannnnnnnnnns
• /r/latestagecapitalism
• /r/breadtube
• /r/collapse

That might open the floodgates for trolling though

If any of us here is popular on social media we could shout out Raddle on like Twitter or some shit but I haven't played the "get e-cred" game in a long time. I yield no social influence.

Maybe we should be having more active discussions like this on a daily basis and encouraging every one here to come together on riot.im? What is the ratio between discussion posts and links to other websites?

I do know that the whole alt-accounts incident from several months back really soured things in the eyes of the dozen or so people I know who I've mentioned the site to.

Perhaps applying a more traditional-corporate "project management" lens to this shit would be beneficial.

I don't know just some random thoughts and fuck now im incrediblty late for work again

I use the following:

https://idope.cc

https://thepiratebay.org/ (of course)

https://rutracker.org/forum/index.php (very good for more obscure things like VSTs for DAWs)

I'd be willing to give up my life.

Thanks for looking into this.

And that blog... have you read the writing? It's impressively shitty.

Also, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-rRtMgsYnc

Why do you only post submissions that link to this (fairly shitty) blog?

Dude, you will never win with someone like redisnowgreen. They're going to (try and) antagonize until they're called out on their shit, strawman their way into a corner, and then flee with some self-righteous statement about how you're not worth replying to, that the "truth" is self-evident, etc. And they'll do this while trying to insult you/call you names which as far as. I'm concerned, is enough evidence that they have no interest in good-faith discussion. It's generic troll behaviour and the formula is painfully obvious with this particular user. I don't see any solutions outside of waiting until they get bored and leave, banning them (I'm a fan of this approach), or ignoring them.

I don't mean to undermine your replies here or anything. But I wonder if interacting with these goons is the best use of our time.

lol dude you think anyone's interested in fuckin' Ben Garrison?

so you believe sandy hook was a conspiracy theory? what's your shtick bro don't be a tease just get to the point

That's a great quote + article. I hate that this is the kind of headline that many will see, have an overly dramatic reaction to, and form an opinion on without giving any thought to the content of the article or experiences/opinions of those who are actually LGBTQIA. Hell, I'll acknowledge that the reactionary idiot in me started bubbling to the surface for a split-second just reading the title.

cite your sources

oh wait that's going to be impossible innit

Hey, thanks for the response!

How I interpreted your reply is that Raddle won't be making any explicit boundaries unless the content is obviously harmful towards others. And perhaps will react if there is a need to but otherwise has a hands-off approach.

As someone who was heavily involved in some druggy communities when I was younger (and not in recovery) I found there were some pretty clear patterns regarding what would and would not draw attention/legal trouble... I'm just wondering if these discussions have been had already because there can be a lot of ambiguity around things (e.g if I share research chemicals sources it could be argued that this isn't against the law, but if I start posting elaborate photo tutorials about birch reduction methamphetamine synthesis I think that could become problematic).

And I'm using drugs as the example here because:

A) I'm very familiar with the subject.

B) I think it's a good example of something that can be helpful to people (harm reduction, community support, education, etc) but also carries inherent risks. I've lost a lot of friends over the years and in my experience when someone dies from drugs and is active in a drug related community, it's very easy for things to turn into a reactionary media/law enforcement circus. "My child died because the people at [website] encouraged their use and no one did anything to stop it!"

This is me being pissy :)

Why is the quality of writing on this site such inflammatory trash? The crux of this title is, "while you've been occupied with something going on (i.e let me get on my high horse and position myself as an intellectual and moral authority) something even worse has been going on that you sheeple didn't even know about! Wake up!" I understand that people want to sell their narratives by using heavy-handed language but fuck... this is really godawful writing:

"Developments are coming like storm."

"... it seems that our second 'prophecy' (and prediction by many progressives), also becomes true. According to this, Infowars banning will be used as a blueprint by the establishment machine.. "

I don't understand why this needless Blogspot editorializing is being posted here when a link to Blumenthal's interview would have sufficed. Is this just a shitty attempt to market a blog that you have personal connections to?

Aye, I agree that this site is likely small enough that discussing illegal shit won't be much of a problem, but I also wouldn't want to bring unnecessary attention to an anarchist community. It might make it too easy for fascists/LEO to weaponize that against us.

I don't know... this gets more complex the more that I dissect it...

But thanks for the thoughts selver. Hope you have a good night (or good day depending on where you are).

I don't believe in better or worse, just whatever works best for you. I guess in a broader sense, what I was trying to talk about was, well the importance of language in shaping our experiences/identity. A few years ago I found that when I said "that makes me X" as opposed to "I'm Y" or "I feel Z", the "makes me" portion actually had pretty big implications about what I was actually saying about reality. And not just implications, but the words ended up defining my experience and reaction. If someone makes me feel an emotion, I've turned my agency over to them but if I merely experience the feeling passing through - this ties into mindfulness I suppose - I am not creating an artificial power dynamic where someone has the capacity to make me feel something.

I have a feeling, I experience it. And if I slow down enough, I can choose to attach to that emotion or I can let it float away. I don't mean this to sound like Randian nonsense, but I am ultimately in control of my emotional landscape not someone/something else. This idea of taking agency over my inner world was pretty instrumental in my development as a person and helped me find strength to break free from some really nightmarishly shity situations.

Man I've been rambling a lot today

Anyone seen/going to see BlacKkKlansman?

What OS are you using and is your computer relatively decent?

If you're using Windows and are looking to go incredibly simple you could try digging up an old copy of Windows Movie Maker (I believe it'll come bundled in a copy of Windows Live Essentials), but I suggest you pirate a copy of Adobe Premiere and spend a little bit of time learning that. It's a useful skill.

I'm not too knowledgeable about video editing - there might be fancier shit out there - but both programs can accomplish what you're trying to do.

I find the whole premise to be sickening. It is:

A) Incredibly costly, and thus pretty much the domain of rich, powerful white dudes. It's a socially acceptable fantasy that essentially reads as, "yeah, I find it okay to spend billions of dollars on juvenile bullshit while everyone else (i.e. people who failed to pull up their bootstraps) can suffer on a planet that increasingly resembles hell."

B) A colossal waste of resources and (I imagine) a huge contribution to our overall fucking of the planet. "Not only do we get to blast off in our awesome fantasy rocket, we did it by pillaging the earth for its resources without any consequences and left everyone else to starve/fight for crumbs! Woohoo!"

I'm not having a good day.

This is a total digression from the main topic here (and I in no way am trying to be antagonistic - please tell me if it comes off that way) but I wonder what your thoughts are on reframing "made me uncomfortable" into something like "I felt uncomfortable?" I found that when I've used the phrase "made me" to describe an emotional response to someone's behaviour - "you made me angry, that makes me upset" - it ended up subconsciously reinforcing a sort of "toxic passivity" in myself. Where I ultimately didn't feel that I had the power to control my experiences/responses to shit which... kinda caused a lot of problems for me. Like when someone gets in an argument and says, "you make me so mad!", I feel like it's both unfair to the other person and also dangerous in that it gives away your agency to someone/something else.

Or maybe I just wrote a bunch of pretentious gobbledygook idk

I know right?

Spend 5 minutes on just about any porn site and you'll find video titles that use words like "violate", "innocent", "corrupt", "tricked", etc. Sexualizing the act of taking advantage of someone in a position of little power/agency. Reducing sex to a commodifed and exploitative power imbalance. Hell, I've been guilty of indulging in those fantasies when I was a teenager and still occasionally have those thoughts pop up (although years of working on my shit makes it easier to combat).

I'd argue - based on observation and experience - this fetishization of vulnerability is present in both straight and queer communities, although to a lesser degree for the latter. It permeates so many aspects of our society and is socialized into us from the time we're born, so it's not a surprise that so many treat that as an acceptable norm. And if you deviate from that some people can actually be pretty hostile... I'm guessing because you challenge their preexisting beliefs about the way the world is or something, I don't fucking know.

Sorry for the wall of text rant, too much coffee, tldr men suck patriarchy is shit the world is a fuck

Good article.

I think it's a bit dangerous to speculate or buy into the narratives of why people hate. If someone tells you why they hate some benign group of people, they're most likely not telling the truth. Most people don't understand their motives or why the feel the way they do - they rationalize after the fact to justify the behaviour. If you got down to the root of someone's hatred you'd probably just find a shitton of fear and maybe some traumatic (likely unrelated) past experience that reinforces the fear/hatred.