finding it more and more difficult to keep a baseline level of respect for people who think “lived with parents after 18” and “can’t drive” are legit insults/ acceptable jokes to make about anyone
When my mom started to go blind, she kept driving well past the point of safety because of the idea that “people who can’t drive are pathetic.” And her brother can’t drive! He’s mentally disabled! But to her, he had a reason and she didn’t. Many times after she had to stop driving she told me that losing the ability to drive was one of the hardest parts of going blind—and she didn’t even like driving. It was just the “being pathetic and helpless” part that bothered her. And my mom was a lot of things, and some weren’t very nice, but let’s all ask: did a lady in her 50s, stricken with a mystery illness that took her sight, deserve to feel even worse about herself because “not being able to drive is pathetic”?
Just saw an 11 year old on Tumblr with her whole name and info in her bio and like-
Listen i know there are lots of kids here under the age of 14 and you want to be on internet and have fun too and it’s all good just be safe?? Don’t tell your full name, where you live, your age (to random strangers) and especially your photos. I know I sound annoying and “old fashioned” but it is important dude, there are lot of people on the internet waiting to take advantage of you, i am not saying everyone is bad most people are amazing but some are not good? Don’t disclose your information, idk if schools and parents have stopped teaching these things but you have to know internet safety, I know how much you wanna ignore and “break the rules” I was just like you but for god sake keep yourself safe please.
There are a lot of really dog shit things in the world of tech that can be solved with a bit of time, some stubborn googling and maybe some special hardware and piracy is only the tip of the iceberg.
Printers are notorious for claiming they’re out of ink when they haven’t come close to the suggested number of prints, and their cartridges literally still have ink in them. So after a bit of googling I found out how to ‘reset’ a cartridges automatic stopping system (its literally 1 physical wheel on the cartridge that you gotta turn back). The only downside is that I don’t get a digital ink monitor, but since it told me it was empty when still half full, I don’t mind.
Like, you can just jiggle with some shit and solve one of the biggest money making scams in the post-industrial world and I don’t think people realise its that easy.
Or, like, repairing your own technology. A few months ago, I swapped out my sister’s laptop screen. Did it myself, I removed maybe 4 screws, no vital parts were exposed and it cost me $40. I even got a choice of matte or glossy.
My point is, any walls that capitalist technology presents you with will be a false one. And one already broken by a dedicated community of interesting people working hard for free to break down that wall.
kids these days will be all “be gay do crime” and dont even know how to watch a cartoon without paying for it smh
IN FAIRNESS
piracy was definitely leagues easier a decade or so ago when thepiratebay was functional, megaupload was still running, and YouTube and Google made only the most cursory attempts to block copyright content. like let’s not pretend that the internet hasn’t got a lot more corporatised in the past decade or so. piracy is still possible and you can and should do it but it’s a LOT harder to do safely and reliably than it was.
^thank u
Sorry, this is all wrong.
1) ThePirateBay is still functional. (It’s not the same pirate bay that it was back in the day, but let’s not get into Theseus’ ship territory. It’s still here and it still works, that’s all that matters.) There are plenty of torrent sites around, more than there were 10 years ago – although overall traffic has plummeted. Now as then, it’s a whack-a-mole game.
2) Why was it “leagues easier” a decade ago? Some countries, not all (not north America, for example), now mandate ISP blocking of torrent sites, but this new complication can be bypassed with one (1) step: a google duckduckgo search for proxies. No government agency or ISP can possibly keep up with proxies, it’s yet another whack-a-mole game. So yes, it was technically easier before, but I don’t see “leagues” anywhere.
3) It was safer before? Are you shitting me? Have you lot forgotten that the legal departments of MPAA and RIAA sued torrent sharers (not even uploaders) and asked for millions of dollars for damages? AND GOT THEM? (By which I mean they didn’t actually get millions since the people they sued didn’t have any, but said people were convicted and ruined and that was the goal in the first place. It was a deeply amoral and cynical scare tactic.) Well they stopped doing that at some point, and focused on hunting P2P and torrent sites. Running a site is certainly less safe today. Using one, though? Depending on where you are, the ISP may be allowed to block you after repeated instances, and that’s it. You’re not getting in trouble with the law or into crippling debt. And either way there’s only a minuscule chance that any of this will come to pass, which becomes zero (0) with a VPN. (Safety of course depends on the country, and in some cases piracy is the least of your concerns. Let’s not get into that.)
4) Ten years ago there was no Sci-Hub, and Library Genesis was in its infancy. If today it’s harder to find PDFs on google, it is orders of magnitude easier and more reliable to find them elsewhere. People just have to unstick their minds from the notion that stuff is either on google or doesn’t exist at all. Geez.
5) P2P still exists. IRC (the sharing channels in particular, #bookz and the like) still exists. Torrenting functions like it always did. All these methods are exactly as easy to use as before, i.e. not necessarily a piece of cake, there’s a learning curve. But it’s the same learning curve it was 10 years ago.
6) So what have we lost? Only YouTube (meh, the film/tv quality was appalling anyway, and music is still there) and direct downloads (at least the permanent ones: there are plenty of them still around, but files expire and you need to keep track of what goes up when. So this goes beyond knowhow, it’s about internet communities. Let’s not get into that either, it’s a huge subject.) It’s a loss, sure, but I wouldn’t call it a terrible blow.
7) And in exchange for that loss, we got streaming sites. This is piracy, too, and it’s much much easier than torrents, and tons of people do it. Any “piracy has declined” narrative either implies that we’re excluding streaming from the discussion for some reason, or is flat out wrong. Ten years ago, grandpa couldn’t possibly torrent a film, and it’s debatable if he even knew how to open the file you helpfully sent him. Now, as long as someone has set up kodi or similar, grandpa can watch it on his tv and it just feels like cable.
8) On why torrents in particular have declined in recent years, see here. It’s a big subject and I didn’t cover all of it, but the main reason is that people had access to easier methods to get what they wanted (some legal and affordable, some illegal and free), so they didn’t need to learn how to torrent. Ergo, they never did. There’s more of course, and there’s definitely a cultural shift too, but that’s a very long story so let’s not get into it. The linked post also includes some thoughts on why torrents aren’t dead and doomed just yet, and ooh, I forgot a very important one: you can’t stream photoshop.
To summarise, internet piracy is NOT more difficult, unreliable, and unsafe today than it was 10 or 20 years ago. For reasons why people (young or otherwise) seem less versed in it, please look elsewhere. I have thoughts on that too, but this is already a very long post, so I’ll just leave you with the best kind of thought. I’ll leave you with a doubt:
ARE people less versed in piracy? Are they really? Or is it simply that 20 years ago, internet users were computer geeks by definition, whereas now everyone’s online? Perhaps the percentage of skilled pirates in the general population remains more or less the same, and the only thing that’s dropped is the percentage of skilled pirates to total internet users. I can’t be sure without statistical evidence, but it’s a possibility.
You can literally google “watch _____ free online” and find most movies but the third result just download Adblock or popup blocker and you’re golden it truly couldn’t be easier
I’ve been meaning to make a piracy masterpost for awhile and what better time than now?
Materpost: A curated Githup tutorial of links to more torrent sites, software, VPNs, uBlock origin filters, ect. Basically everything you could ever want starting out. Do be warned though it doesn’t appear to have been updated in awhile so a few of the links are dead.
GAMES:
Vimm’s Roms: NES era->ps3 era roms and emulators to play them. Has user ratings on games. Cons: slow download speeds.
nsw2u: More switch roms. Check here if nxbrew doesn’t have the game you’re looking for.
Hshop:3ds games/updates/dlc. Very well organized and sorted by console region. Bonus ability to generate QR codes to scan with homebrew to begin download directly on your console.
Oldgamesdownload: Old 90’s-2000’s PC games and some gamecube games. Technically, all of the games here are abandon ware, meaning the original company/creator doesn’t sell nor make money from the games anymore period. If you’re into that.
Fitgirl repacks: Heavily compressed PC games, and other various consoles. Small downloads and faster speeds for the size of the games. Somewhat limited game selection.
Steam unlocked: Steam games with easy-to-use installers. Check here if fitgirl doesn’t have what you’re looking for.
Steam Underground: A user forum for piracy support, usually about installing cracked games. Does have some scattered PC game downloads.
Amiibo life: Amiibo bins, can be loaded with some homebrew to load in games without any external source, or, if you buy writable NFC cards, you can make your own free amiibos.
Books:
Library Genesis: a good all-in-one ebook finder. Has books, magazines, scientific papers, ect. Well organized and able to sort by Author, Genre, ect ect. Almost all books in .epub format
Calibre: Not piracy but a free software for reading said .epub files, and other ebook formats. Good for sorting your books.
Sci-Hub: Research papers, academic books, pdfs, ect. Helpful for collage students.
IT ebook: eBooks about learning programming languages.
getintopc: Wide selection of pc (mostly windows) software of all sorts, and different versions. Can personally vouch for the site, I’ve gotten Photoshop, Maya, and Sony Vegas from here over the years.
Other:
the eye: An archive of old roms, OS systems, roms (non nintendo), comics, books, ect, ect. Cons: No search function and slightly hard to navigate.
1337x.to: Torrent site for movies, shows, games, comics, ect.
they always make you the one to blame and make you feel bad but don’t take blame
you’re fighting so often your friends know who you’re fighting with before you even say
you feel the urge to apologize just to fix things
they make you feel your best but more often make you feel your worst
their love is conditional
when you make up, you’re just waiting for things to fall apart again
you question if you’re a bad person because they tell you something is wrong with you
in your head, you know it’s better to leave but that “but i love them” always makes you stay
you question their actions but brush it off as paranoia or blame it on a bad day
it’s a cycle
people in your life are telling you this is bad for you
sometimes they’re almost too good at making you feel better after you’ve made up, like not losing them is worth it
you begin to think love is synonymous with staying or sacrificing
you put them before yourself even if they never asked you to
you put them before everyone in your life
they come to mind whenever you have something you feel you need to talk out
you aren’t sure if they love you back
you give more than you get
the facts don’t always add up right
you catch them in little lies or find them breaking promises
you cry over them more often than you smile with them
you feel like you’re playing a game or being played
FEEL FREE TO ADD… THIS APPLIES TO ALL KINDS OF RELATIONSHIPS
they come to mind whenever you have something you feel you need to talk out
can someone explain this to me please? (Idw an argument I just want to learn)
ex: you have therapy and they’re the main topic or if you’re with friends and want to vent, you vent about them
Just so yall know, toxic friendships are a thing. I can relate to most of those because I had a really, really, really toxic friend till i called it cuts. It’s really important to emphasize that it doesn’t happen only in romantic relationships.
@dechart Same. I think it was made clear that this applies to all types of relationships tho. Sometimes our friends r closer than lovers bc we allow them in further. So it hurts harder when u realize this is what happened.
if i rolled out of bed, didn’t fuck with my hair or wash my face and put on ill-fitting, dirty clothes and went to run an errand, someone probably would take pictures of me and put me on a page like “people of walmart” or “ratchetmess”.
when im out my body and image belongs to the public, and nobody in that space cares about my wellbeing. i want to be me and do me no matter what, but unlike my white peers i don’t have the option of not looking good. i don’t have the option of having a bad hair day if i want to keep a job. few people will ever find my dishevelment charming, and looking upset (this is often a neutral expression or slightly showing stress) is a threat. people will not recognize my humanity and there’s always a decent chance of bullying, harassment and danger.
my mom lived paycheck to paycheck. to appear respectable and keep that job, working alongside and under white people, she had to keep her hair permed or covered. natural hair wasn’t really acceptable anywhere, it’s considered a BIG political statement to have an afro or dreads. some men in my family have dreads, like her dad. it’s a real source of pride and sign of mental/spiritual fortitude because white people treat you like real scum when you have dreads. most of the other guys around me growing up had cornrows or buzzed hhair.
ive never actually seen her or my younger sister’s natural hair texture that i can recall. that makes me kinda sad… my features generally favor my dad’s, so i was told my hair was the “best” in the house- its 4c like theirs but i have a different curl pattern from theirs, and my hair grows fast.
it’s still a variation on 4c. to keep my natural afrotextured hair straightened:
i got a perm every 3-4 months that might take up a whole day. they slather a chemical (there’s a cutesy box just for kids) on the hair that straightens it. it gets itchy, very itchy, but you can’t scratch it. it burns. if you’re old enough and thorough enough to wash it out on your own you can get in the shower.
if it gets wet in that 3-4 months it has to be redone. any swimming or showering is supposed to involve covering your hair. cover hair immediately if it starts to rain.
you’re supposed to sleep with it covered but. y’know. neurodivergent child. the results of wet permed hair, bed head or
mom would get me and my sister up at 5am (4 on picture day 😤) and fix our hair before school. put in moisturizer, straighten it from whatever bedhead with a hot flat iron, style it… some styles are simpler than others, but a simple style is much easier to mess up, and i put my hands in my hair a lot. it’s disruptive to focusing in school: tight rubber bands, sharp pins, hard barrettes that smack me in the teeth and eyes when i try to run and play. curls are added with a very hot curling iron, my ears got burned if i squirmed. all kids squirm, but im very squirmy.
a protective style like braids is less daily maintenance, but not comfortable. if my hair needed to be braided, i had to sit for 4-8 hours. i would cry about how tight the braids were and occasionally pulled braids out of my own head to relieve discomfort. i didn’t have braids in often or long.
you can shave it or keep it short, but theres notions of gender conformity to worry about. white people will treat you like you’re inhuman no matter what, but being a black woman with short and/or nappy hair makes you the picture of undesirability for lot of people. especially if you’re fat, expect some reeeeeal dehumanizing treatment.
wigs and weaves are a cheaper and less time-consuming option. personally, i can’t manage daily hair maintenance because im chronically ill. im also a trans guy who was closeted (for safety) for a long time, so i cut my hair short and started wearing wigs exclusively for a while. it’s not always easy or cheap to make them look natural, and people will really tear you down over a bad wig or weave. people also generally regard this as “cheating” or “lying” and as a failure to adequately perform femininity.
full days dedicated to cultivating a single style are expected of black women and children because of white supremacy and eurocentric beauty standards.
this is normal but uh. kind of horrific. things do seem better now than when i was a kid! i love seeing little kids with protective and locked natural hair, because they should get to grow up comfortable, and also be comfortable with themselves.
what so many white people really don’t understand is that we HAVE to modify our bodies or face direct bullying and harassment, racial profiling, and hiring discrimination.
it’s “not just hair” as long as giving your small child chemical burns so they aren’t bullied or pulled out of class is a better option than letting them wear their hair naturally.
There’s nothing wrong with being a sex worker, or with enjoying sex work
There’s no modifiers to this, btw. Not “its okay to be a sex worker if you have no other options” or “its okay to be a sex worker but also you poor poor victim”. No. It is okay to be a sex worker. Full stop.
i think its important to recognize that when a creator you like is revealed to be a piece of shit its like. not about you. even if theyre your “comfort streamer” or they make content you like its NOT about you. you dont know that person, and unless youre the person/people they hurt it isnt your responsibility to forgive their actions.
i also get that its hard to let go of a series you love, like, a few years ago a youtuber who co-created several series i enjoyed was outed as a predator. and it sucked bc the stuff he made meant a lot to me but his personality and persona was so integral to the media itself that i couldnt in good conscience continue watching/supporting it.
as soon as the cameras were off, the same guy i was laughing along with was hurting people. he wasnt playing a character, he was playing himself, and he used that to his advantage TO harm people. and ultimately, even though it upset me, i wasnt one of the people he hurt. the victims always matter more than your own mourning of some youtube video. you cant really separate “art” from “artist” when the “art” IS that person
just like. dont blindly support people because they made a youtube video you like.
read up on parasocial relationships. listen to victims
ppl are asking who this is about, and like while it was originally about the latest mcyt bullshit, it’s . just a general thing. like everyone who reblogged this is tagging it w/ a different guy. it’s about mcyt, it’s about the fnaf guy, it’s about the rt guy. this isn’t an isolated incident bc influencers are just people who have the same capacity to fuck up and do harm
hey remember how awhile back i mentioned that tiktok has a whole trend where people mix cleaning supplies well i redownloaded tiktok so im finally able to show you what i mean
I put my bare hands in this sink and get a chemical burn so bad it oozes and bubbles nonstop for days
i have GREAT news for you
potion of cough up blood
people are so fucking stupid oh my god
Cleaning TikTok: We’ve mixed the perfect cleaning solution!
Everyone Else: You’ve created mustard gas is what you’ve done. Your lungs look like you’ve just returned from the Western Front.
Jesus fucking christ. One time I accidentally mixed an ammonia scrub and a bleach spray and gave myself a migraine in 15 minutes how the fuck are they even still standing.
Time for a health and safety lesson.
See below for a chart on what household cleaners to NEVER EVER MIX EVER OR YOU CAN (AND WILL PROBABLY) DIE OR OTHERWISE BECOME EXTREMELY FUCKED UP AND NOT IN A FUN WAY BUT IN THE HOSPITAL AND/OR GRAVEYARD WAY:
The above is not a complete list, but these are extremely common in most households and therefore are the most likely chemical fuck-ups to occur.
DO NOT MIX HOUSEHOLD CHEMICALS.
DO NOT MIX CLEANING AGENTS.
DO NOT MIX CERTAIN ASTRINGENTS. (HYDROGEN PEROXIDE IS OFTEN IN FIRST AID KITS OR WOUND SPRAYS AND CAN CAUSE A REACTION IN SMALL AMOUNTS IF MIXED WITH THINGS IT SHOULD NOT BE MIXED WITH EVEN ACCIDENTALLY ON A SURFACE ETC.)
DO NOT MIX ANY CHEMICALS THAT YOU ARE NOT 100% SURE ARE SAFE TO MIX. (SPOILER: MOST THINGS ARE NOT REALLY SAFE TO MIX AND SOMETIMES COMBINING SAFE ONES ACTUALLY MAKES THEM LESS EFFECTIVE ANYWAY, SO JUST DON’T COMBINE THIS KIND OF SHIT!)
YOU ARE PROBABLY NOT A CHEMIST. PLEASE DO NOT TURN YOUR KITCHEN/BATHROOM/HOME INTO A LAB ACCIDENT.
IF YOU ARE A CHEMIST, YOU SHOULD STILL NOT FUCK AROUND. MANY OF YOU DO NOT RELIABLY USE YOUR SAFETY GOGGLES OR THE CORRECT TYPE OF SAFETY GOGGLES. (IF YOU’RE THE TYPE OF CHEMIST WHO DOESN’T ENSURE ADEQUATE VENTILATION IN YOUR WORK AREA, I WILL NOT TRUST YOU WITH BLEACH. COMPLACENCY KILLS.)
CONCLUSION: STOP MIXING CHEMICALS!
YOU ARE NOT PROFESSOR X, AND YOU WILL NOT END UP CREATING THE POWERPUFF GIRLS.
YOU WILL ONLY CREATE A NEW INVOICE FOR YOUR LOCAL FUNERAL HOME.
I AM YELLING AT YOU BECAUSE I LOVE YOU AND WANT YOU TO BE SAFE.
TO ANY DUMBASS TEENAGERS OUT THERE, I WANT YOU TO SURVIVE LONG ENOUGH TO BECOME DUMBASS ADULTS.
PLEASE DO NOT DIE.
The fumes from this vid burned all the hair off my body,melted my skin, and then killed me t.f
Hey, this actually very useful information to have if you are a kid or otherwise don’t know.
I feel like the “may cause death” part on that chart needs to be majorly bigger. The descriptions of the first two sound like they’d be unpleasant, but “unpleasant” doesn’t cut it. Needs to have a way bigger “THIS IS HOW THEY KILLED PEOPLE IN WARS BEFORE IT WAS OUTLAWED” warning.
Pseudonyms! Use them! Even if it’s a nickname, a favorite character’s name, a letter, your username, use a pseudonym. Especially if you have a unique name
Private information is PRIVATE. Last name, age, full birthday. Things that could be used to identify you should not be shared. Remember those “enter anyone’s name and learn everything about them” websites? They aren’t kidding around, and they’re dangerous.
Your house is your business. Don’t share your home address, school name, city, even sharing what state you live in could be risky. There’s no reason for people online to need to know this, there’s no reason for people online to ask for it. This is a red flag
Pictures are worth a thousand words. Take note of what’s in pictures you post. Can you see a state flag? A pet’s collar with a home address on it? Does that screenshot have your phone number in it? Be careful with EXACTLY what you post.
Once you post it, it’s not yours anymore. Anyone on the internet can share a post, take screenshots, repost to other websites, send to other people, etc. Once you post something, what happens to it is out of your hands. Make sure you be careful with what you post.
Face and voice can reveal a lot about you. They can reveal age, agab, in some cases they can be used to determine where you live (accents anyone?) be careful.
Please kids on the internet, BE SAFE. Remember these are strangers. Remember the internet is full of real people with their own motives and intentions. Remember that you can’t control the internet. Please please PLEASE be safe!
ifesbob 