Ironic Movie2: Rescue Social Tech should be Artificial Intelligence that keeps people in Equilibrium online - that means positivesentiment.(Social Bots Scripts of Social Influence 2)
Dramedy?3rd parties get involved how? It’s a critical juncture of Social Influence…
‘Let’s brag about bot accounts to Twitter,’ sayslobbyist Adam Waldman - *Fastest* to 1 Million followers in *HISTORY* of Instagram… Campaign Bots! ;) ~ Art of Cyber War.
Live and Learn: What’s *training* on Amber Heard’s 21st Century Story? A Movie?
Winston Churchill (fake vs real profile bots, black and white vs color) is another of Worldie’s Symbols… (Worldie is humanitarians, so that means we can work with many sides for GOOD!).
(History, as in how many Social Bot Accounts to go! Let’s obsess over it! ‘How much can we exploit loopholes in America’ vs targets!?)
Since Worldie has mostly *Whistleblower Types* on its board, we know Wickr is another mercenary tech platform - also used byBlackCube -which attacked dozens of actresses.
1st Photo is Content Agent Moderators/Founders/Inventors put at the bottom of the ladder (Jennifer Lawrence in Joy the movie - 2015)
2nd is a private jet from Smallville - Queen Industries
3rd is before Adam Waldman was suspended, attacking Amber Heard with Winston Churchill pic symbolism of him using a cigar (not SirWChurchill1)… Who are also is featured in this moviewe created.
4th, “She’s out of control!” - meme of Lex Luthor
Moreover…. No one is interested in a Deli Meat Smuggler!!! Do you really think they should be about dogs?! “Do you really think the CIA is interested in a Deli Meat Smuggler?!” -Sarah Walker in Chuck, scene seen below.
Care to look at this Propaganda Analysis Project Organization? It’s well-frequented in Moscow and Qatar! (Intro)
“Persuasion Techniques Detection: Propagandist messages are conveyed through a number of rethorical and… techniques”…. (Except this is open-source: news articles aren’t including social media analysis or comments via social bots). Open-source usually provides introductions to more!
Don’t you love it when Europeans come to the Rescue, while Facebook is Signalbook/military book, & well, so are the other platforms. ~ Cyber War 2.
Amber Heard’s case made us dive deeper into social bots. It’s the most severe case, but we’re creating an Alternative Ending/Universe. With Reverse Engineering and Social Network Analysis, it can be exposed…
Live and learn, you might actually think Life is Like a Movie!
I wonder what a grand finale would be? Apparently, they want this to be a 21st century sadism story!
ok so, this is all just what ive seen in the 12 episodes so far, a deep dived/ rabbit hole and trying to connect stuff. I feel like a crazed person with a board with pictures and strings all connecting stuff.
Time line: so the show begins in 2021. We have a few different times that have been given or tossed at us but they are important with history and connection to dynasties, religion and important symbolism in art. The first 2 are the “600 years ago” and the “1000 years ago” we are often told. With some simple math we know that all this ish started in 1021. This is the Goryeo period for Korea. Eul Tae’s character, of unknown age but an adult, is the older son of an important figure head of a village. He is sickly and has found out his father is planning to abandon him and take his younger son and look for more opportunities for power and financial growth. He has managed to lure his brother out into the woods and murders him. He is spotted in the act and is accosted by the OG Sung-un bulgasal* (ill get into more about why i dont think she is a bulgasal). Eul Tae lies to his father about his brothers death. Thanks to episode 12 we learn that OG Hwal was around and a grown man and a bulgasal* and makes Eul Tae into the monster is he now with the black hole and also takes his soul, making Hwal a human before dyng. Hwal, as we know him pre-bulgasal and as a child, was born in 1394. He is born from a dead mother and shaman lady states that he should have died, for it would have ended the curse/retribution. Skip 27 years later he becomes the bulgasal we all know and love/hate currently. At this time it is 1421 and thus the “600 years ago”. Before he becomes bulgasal he believes OG Sung Un is the bulgasal that has killed his family and amry bros, I am unsure at this moment why she is bathed in blood and runs him through with a sword but she takes his (Eul Taes) soul by accident and becomes human (she looked dumbfounded as to why this happened), Hwal stabs her twice with two swords. Before she died she cureses him and pretty much tells him she’ll be seeing him again. 199 years pass and Japan is up to their historical bullshit and invading korea, and we learn that Hwal is feeding off animals. Good for him for keeping his promise. 3 years later we get our first mention of Sung-un being reincarnated but aling with that info we learn she is also being hunted by “black hole” aka Eul Tae and that the monsters Hwal hunted down are now following her because she has Hwal’s soul, Which is actually Eul Tae’s soul. Skip to present day and we learn that Sung un is actually a twin. Sung-un is the bearer of Eul Tae’s soul and has the ability to sense monsters (also is able to black out and beat the shit out of monsters is she is stabbed, cool defense trick) while her sister sung yeon has all the memories and curse mark from her previous lives. We also learn that they are on their 8th reincarnation and wont reincarnate again after they die. Shenanigans ensue and Sung yeon and her mother are both murdered by Eul Tae but we learn that Sung Yeon did something to Sung Un’s soul/ body/ being that makes it impossible for Eul Tae to kill Sung Un. Present day episode 12 and Sung un still doesnt remember anything on her own except for what reincarnated shaman lady states or her sister si-ho sees from her soul memories, until she is attacked by a cop and is stabbed. After she sees her stitched up wound and touches it we get some interesting flash back memories and she proceeds to stab Hwal. Let me just say, full on monster looking hwal was hott.
Important art and religious connections: if the writers did their research on art symbolism and art through history then oh my god.
Here are some shots and angles of this painting that is always in the background. This painting was done after the monster hunting era, so its a Joseon style painting and the main religion during this time was Buddhism. I was an art major in college and took several religious studies classes while in college and i squealed when i saw this. Its beautifully drawn and there is so much symbolism in this painting outside of the obvious stuff. If you look past the monsters you still see many things. Lets looks at the bigger details. You have the monsters that hwal hunted and their respective human forms/ shapes. The hand in the center in the water, the charka symbol stands for balance or balancing your chakra/soul. Everything is near or surrounded by fire, and when used in paintings symbolizes purifying or cleansing. This is also great because the mythology of bulgasal is its either immortal or can be killed by fire. The way its written in chinese means its “impossible to kill” and if you change out one of the letters its becomes “killed by fire” We see two caves that are in close proximity to the two haloed figures. We see these caves in the show being used as residence of the bulgasal*.
This was OG sung uns cave.
This is hwals cave. (im sure to budgeting reasons they reused the cave but to stick with the paintings they are two separate caves.
Next we see the two main figures. The first and slightly more centered is the female, dressed in red with gold lotus flowers and a golden halo. Within Buddhism halos are seen as an aura of sanctity, or perceived goodness/holiness. Its also given to individuals who are deities within korean mythologies. The female is positioned in a way you notice her first and for koreans red is used to ward of evil and bad luck but to wear red is a sign of bad luck it is in opposition of the color blue. In korean art the golden lotus symbolizes creation, birth, reproduction and livability. This is interesting given that its on an individual who is supposedly immortal and seen as a god like being. Next we have the male who on the right and slightly further back. He is turned away and is presented as aloof and mysterious. He clothing is simple with only a belt. He also has the same halo and in the same colors. He is also seen as a deity/godlike. Blue stands for the element of wood, the east and is the balance to the color red.
let me mention that all these symbols in this painting were probably drawn and painted by Eul Tae himself. He has been around to witness all the monsters being killed. What i find interesting is that he didnt insert himself into this painting given his ego and narcissism.
i got a closer picture of this painting because i wanted to focus on the halos and the color symbolism. this painting was painted by a reincarnated monster. He states he saw Sung un and was captivated by her beauty and had to paint her after killing her. Sung un is clothes in black and gold. In buddhism, black is used for primordial darkness and mysteriousness. It is the color of hate. She wears a grown of gold and jewels upon her head and body. This is a status marker. The painter is stating she is powerful. She is once again painted in flames and surrounded by monsters, stating she is either cleansing these monsters or that she is surrounded by bad luck from these monsters. She is painted with halo rings, and for this painter he has perceived her as good and holy, another deity. This reincarnated monster got the feeling that she was an older being that which held a lot of power and hatred.
(edit) I want to talk more about symbolism with colors. We see a lot with OG Hwal and OG Sung un the constant use of reds and blues for their respective characters. If we look at Eul Tae’s pin board we use the use of colored strings. Red for Sung Un and blue for Hwal. if we look closer at it we see that sung un has a lot more connections to hwal than the other way around. Sung un plays a heavier roll in hwals life than the reverse. There is like, 3-4 stings max of hwals connection to sung un where as we see half of the stings pinned to hwal are from sung un. i just thought it was interesting. Also if we look at the old paintings they belong to hwal.. meaning Eul tae has been following hwal around since the beginning. (Im only saying they belonged to hwal because of the ink and flow style of the drawings are soooo similiar)
(im going to be inserting pictures from different episodes and not following episode order so spoilers if you havent watched all aired episodes yet)
So in the very beginning, we learn that the bulgasal curse is a blood curse as well as the stab would on the right hand. Hwals mother KNOWS that her child is cursed but we are not explained to as to HOW she knows. She offers her child to the jomagu monsters on the mountain while she is pregnant and the monsters want nothing to do with it. They can sense something is wrong. The mother hangs herself and then hwal is born. After that we get this from the resident shaman.
This bit confused me because of this…
if no soul then why did OG sung un get a soul after stabbing Hwal? was it because he wasnt supopsed to have a soul but had OG Eul Tae’s soul? It would explain her confusion. When Hwal was a child and being tormented by the other villagers OG/OOG (because at this point we dont know unless her eyes are glowey what she is) she steps in and saves him, JUST to end up getting stabbed in the back when trying to shield him.
Right after this hwal gets adopted and leaves the village. 17 years pass by and he returns to the area in hopes of killing bulgasal. At this point he doesnt know who he is looking for but through coincidence he meets OF sung un again and she hasnt aged.
Arrows going flying and they both get hit, and she bounces. Hwal and the military group make camp with hwals family. Hwal leaves to go in search of bulgasal and while he is away shit hits the fan. At this point we know its Eul Tae but hwal doesnt. I dont know what happens while Eul tae is killing everyone but Sung un appears and guts Hwal. Like, wtf, what happens between her getting shot at with arrows to 2 seconds before she stabs him that she is covered head to toe in blood. Was she fighting Eul tae or other monsters under Eul tae’s employment? Anyways, these two have a telepathic/non-telepathic convo and she tells hwal that essentially she has cursed him and because of him the retribution will continue… and hes dumb and blows a raspberry before peacing out.
Fast forward to present time we learn that monsters are still gunning for Sung-un. We learn that other monsters think her soul smells terrible and makes them sick. Could it be the smell of a soul that belongs to a person who is also sick? both mentally and physically? im call you out Eul Tae! Monster attempts to kill Sung un and we see her black out for the first time. When she comes to he see that he is badly hurt and is freaking out. Wanting to know who she really is. Interesting, we’ll be seeing this happen again.
After a brief encounter and a non-murdering time between sung un and hwal we see that when sung un touches hwals blood for the first time she unlocks memories that arent originally his from this current life, and they include OG/OOG sung un.
Isnt she pretty? i think so. At this same time though we see Og/OOG hwal (but we dont know that unless youve seen ep 12 and can connect dots) He is clad in that ratty shawl and blue outfit and is inside a cave.
We know this is OG/OOG hwal because thanks to episode 12 we get these stunning looks and views.
We learn in episode 4 that Eul Tae kills/ drains the blood from his victims through biting their necks. You know who else got their necks bitten and died? everyone that died that hwals blames OG sung un’s for. Hmm. We only ever see OG Sung un get a little stabby, no bitey. Eul Tae also learns that Sung Un doesn’t remember him and he seems legit upset.
then he just decides to reverse tokyo drift his way into her heart but with murder instead of flowers. Eul Tae get a little handsy and flirty with Hwal in a tunnel and then they go on a date. What even is this show at this point. At this point we learn, or think we learn, that Eul Tae knows the real reason why Hwal was turned and we also learn that Eul Tae has been around for longer than Hwal. This makes us think that Eul Tae is an OG bulgasal but nope. In ep 11 or 12 we learn he is half bulgasal and he tells hwal that its OG Sung Uns fault he has the black hole curse buuuttt like everything Eul Tae, its a lie. OG Hwal in all his almost dead glory is being begged by Eul Tae to be turned to what ever Hwal is. Eul Tae no longer wants to be sick and not important. He wants to have a normal life and not be abandoned, but oops. Hwal died immediately after ripping out his soul and absorbing it. Bring on the life wheel of fortune.
We are made to believe he is bulgasal but i dont think that is what he and OG sung un are. Hwal digs his fingers into Eul Tae and takes his soul and gives him that black hole curse. The curse is given to him by hwal, not sung un but that makes things complicated because of Sung Yeon making it impossible for him to hurt Sung Un. i dont know what the hell to think, i just need the next 4 episodes to clear some shit up.
anyways, im gonna skip the whole road trip and spending the night together in a single room.
We learn that OG Sung-un was around when Eul Tae murders his warrior brother and blames her for it. We get that slow motion reveal with nice dramatic music so that we know its from his POV and le-gasp, shes beautiful but also indifferent towards him. Just dont kill in her woods!
She also has the same ratty shawl as the OG hwal. im diggin it.
in Episode 10 we learn that Eul Tae was the bulgasal that killed his family and he is out to do it all again if he cant get Sung Uns soul AKA Hwals soul AKA Eul Taes soul. All this hot potato is getting annoying.
In the next episode we see that hwal is now hell bent on killing Eul Tae for what he did to his family and those he cares about. These two meet at hwals well and attempted murder happens, we learn that bulgasal are born as pairs and that Eul Tae is only half a bulgasal due to OG Sung Uns curse. I dont know if Eul Tae was spinning lies again but she declares that hwal is to blame for all of this mess and that OG Sung un has been trying to get them to kills each other. Hwal cuts the conversation short and Eul Tae flings them off a bridge into an aqueduct.
the only flaw in this is that Sung Un has human emotions and has fallen in love with Hwal, thus ruining the plan. In order to kill a bulgasal another must be used and they kill each other. Sung un, now with the ability to understand love towards a man, no longer wants hwal to kill Eul Tae because this means he too will die. Oh No! Time for another plan. Eul Tae hasnt made it out of the forest yet, looking like a corpse, he waits for hwal to come to him. Hwal finally appears and they talk for a bit. Eul tae tries to bargain for Sung un with knowledge and answers but hwal doesnt care about them, and proclaims he wants to save sung un. Here we learn that 1000 years ago OG hwal had a one sided love towards OG sung un and that he gave up his life for her and protected her. Eul tae begs for Hwal to choose him and stay with him, all while buying time for a bad cop to show up and try to murder sung un. We see again Sung un black out and this time has beaten up a cop.
Skip some scenes and hwal and sung un are back at his place and he stitched up and cleaned up a bloody sung un. She is in the bathroom and waitin on hwal to come back and change her bandages when she notices her stab would is in the same exact spot at sung yeons and OG sung un sword stab would. She touches it and get some interesting flash backs, of which i believe are of a different time period than when we saw her with Eul Tae.
During this memory, OG hwal is killing people, and ms OG Sung un isnt happy. I dont know the context for why he is killing or who he is killing and we see where Hwal has gotten his curse mark on the right hand. Im hoping within the next 4 episodes it explains it.
Sung un comes out of her memory but is still haunted and confused and upon seeing present time hwal with a similar haircut grabs a paid of scissors and stabs him with them, all the while seeing the OG hwal. its reflected in her eyes.
Im really curious about the whole “one-sided” love thing. Eul Tae repeatedly states that OG Sung Un hated him and hwal and for a monster/ deity can one even show love? Up till she stabbed him and accidently took his soul she never spoke to him and saved him a couple of times. Monsters and Eul Tae both keep saying that sung un is incapable for human emotions and that she is using hwal for her own purposes but this whole show is about her love for others and the idea of family that she put herself at risk for others.
I want to know about this weird triangle of obsession. eul tae has this weird obsession for hwal, even outside of him being bulgasal. He never went out of his way to harm Hwal unless he was in the way of Sung Un. he is soley fixed on Sung un. He has stated that he has regrets for what he wished for and wants to end it. Does he mean to kill Sung un just to get rid of the black hole curse and live forever or is he tired of being alive. He is so lonely and his existence is painful.
Did after OG sung un curse OG hwal did he get away hurt and injured and run into Eul Tae? Is this scene happen directly after sung un? He was shot from behind with an arrow. He could have taken Eul Taes blood and healed but he chose to take his soul and die. Did he act as a decoy for Sung un to live? i need answers!
what about Si-hos baby/ hwals baby girl that died from being stillborn. What was the connection between Do hyun getting stabbed and Si-ho having pain in her side?
What will actually happen if Sung un regains all of her past lives memories? Will her inner bulgasal/ deity awaken?
Is OG Hwal and OG Sung un the original pair? Was there another pair and Sung un isnt actually a bulgasal but a creator deity?
Why does the bulgasal eye color change all the time? Gold, yellow, red, purple and white?
Why is OG Hwal super hot when bloodied up?
This is from my main Tumblr and not my mobile account.
I’m also going to add to this since I’m here: adding to the color theory and connection between sung un and hwal. In episode 12 we see that hwal for the first 50 some odd minutes in dressed in blues and blacks. Like we have seen in every single episode and in flash backs. After he sees sung un as not his enemy and she has confessed to him he is more informant to.him than her revenge the show upticks in their blooming romance. His next shirt color is a deep purple. Just like the colored strings, he is being half of sung un’s red color.
Sung un is now dressed in a white and blue floral top. Could this be a symbol for her love of hwal?
Tune in next week for another rabbit hole and deep dive!
@mawmaartsy this was seriously a loooooooooooong read, but I lapped it all up. Very informative and concise. I like to know more about your thoughts on the paintings. I love the meta and history it contained regarding our OG’s. Thank you for sharing!
Just thinking about how in Sailor Moon, relationships are never put in a bullshit hierarchy. Familial relationships, romances, and friendships are portrayed as equally valuable, as we see them through their importance to Usagi.
When Usagi gets together with Mamoru, her friendships with the Senshi never take a backseat. She still spends tons of time with them and it’s obvious she greatly cherishes her relationships with her friends. Mamoru himself never puts Usagi in a position where she has to choose between him and her friends. For fuck’s sake, he’s practically a cheerleader for the Senshi’s friendships in the 90s anime, where Tuxedo Mask delivers speeches about how awesome Sailor Moon and her friends are and how friendship is the best thing ever.
Familial relationships get less of a spotlight as Usagi’s family gets less and less focus as the series goes on, but it’s still very clear that they mean a lot to her. Moreover, when Chibiusa, Usagi’s future daughter, is introduced, a lot of focus is given to her relationship with Usagi.
It’s just so refreshing given that amatonormativity (a norm where tons of emphasis is placed on the importance of romantic relationships) is so prevalent in most cultures. Yes, Usagi’s romance with Mamoru is a big part of the series, but so are her friendships with the Senshi and her relationship with Chibiusa. It was so awesome of Naoko Takeuchi and the teams behind the various adaptations to defy the typical “romance comes before everything else” formula and portray Usagi and Mamoru’s romance as just one of many healthy, loving relationships in Usagi’s life.
To briefly analyze, I want to point out that Luz’s cloak seems to be repaired! Not sure how Eda pulled that one off without our former demon hunter Prim… Did Darius help, as he did with Hunter’s cloak? Maybe even Steve, since he doesn’t have a sigil???
We see Luz has a new outfit! Seems to be a gray shirt with baggy beige pants, we can get a better look with this leaked thumbnail;
Definitely a more tactical, practical type of outfit for combat and lethal situations! I appreciate the CATTs making sure this kid is prepared and dressed to fight! Luz also has a blue backpack, possibly for glyphs and/or her Palisman, and I just love the new look overall! Like the letterman was already enough as a Season 2 update but the creators really go above and beyond in updating our cast to symbolically and visually show their growth, I love it!
Pretty sure this is the same balcony from the Latissa hideout, you can see the railing and in the background over the doorway is a sign saying “sssssss” no doubt the cut-off hiss banner alluding to the CATTs!
But maybe it’s a hiss alluding to a snake Palisman…? Regardless, King is clearly pumped and hyping himself up to take on the Emperor’s Coven and his mom and sister are there for him!
thinking about buffy season six some more i’m sorry for all of this
i think i’m finally starting to get why season five spuffy and season six spuffy are so drastically different in execution and purpose
like, in season five, the subtextual and… domtextual suggestion is always that buffy is some level above spike. in terms of what kind of person she is. spike is a monster and she is something human, something pure, something inundated with heroism and righteousness. he is, to put it in his own words, beneath him, and early on he struggles with this idea but by the gift he seems to accept it. he’ll always be a monster. but she treats him like a man. and the important part of that is that he is still monstrous. he is still human. by treating him with kindness in her position of looking down on him she is giving him more respect than the narrative says he deserves.
it sort of reminds me of courtly love and that concept. guinevere and lancelot. the knight ever working to be on the same level as his lover, knowing that he will not be, and that her caring for him is more than he ever deserves. and there will never be a togetherness, because the point of courtly love is the longing. the disparity.
season six does away with this romantic framing of a hierarchy. it literally and physically brings buffy down to spike’s level. where there were once shots of her looking down on him, now they’re framed in the same way. her violent ejection from heaven, in her eyes, rendered her something ultimately inhuman and thus now attainable for spike. she isn’t a queen anymore. she’s in the dark and in the dirt, just like him. and spike’s afraid of her moving out of it, of losing this perception of himself, because then he loses this equality that makes a physical relationship with her possible.
just speculation, really, but i do think i finally get it and if anyone is willing to craft something coherent from this… thanks lol
there’s this sort of deeply intentional concern with surveillance and vision permeating the entire thing. everyone watches and judges. the trio in life serial, buffy finding their tiny cameras, everyone watching anya and spike without their knowledge or consent during entropy… and this surveillance in the context of all of this becomes more about. violation. which is so obviously present throughout the entirety of the season, especially in regards to buffy, and i think it all comes together to make some interesting suggestions about autonomy and personhood. more under the cut
historically, violation and nonconsensual surveillance of others has been justified with depersonalization and dehumanization. the suggestion that because who - no, what - your viewing is in some way not a full human, their boundaries matter less. and dehumanization of buffy is something we see constantly, most explicitly by her belief that she’s come back as something broken and inhuman, but also pervasive elsewhere in how her enemies treat her, and how her friends treat her, as concepts rather than a being. she represents safety, stability, love, understanding, and her own pain is not relevant to that conceptualization. buffy’s dehumanization of her self and in dead things reflects her self-loathing and a subconscious desire to have a justification for said violation. if she isn’t a real human, she can violate others and also herself, let her friends and enemies place her in a position of constant surveillance and transgression of her boundaries.
if she is simply an entity, not a person, then this lack of regard for her autonomy becomes justifiable.
but you know, buffy is a person, and her constant, violent violation has serious consequences because that violation does hurt her and she is in no way deserving of it because you know. no one is. spike’s attempted rape of her, her friends wrenching her out of heaven, the trio playing with her like some kind of toy, making her doubt her own mind, none of this is acceptable and her own disconnect from her body is not an excuse.
i don’t have a coherent thesis for any of this, these are just observations that i think were intended to be made and observed together. buffy is watched and buffy is violated because buffy is seen as a thing. but she is not a thing, she is a human being, she is deserving of boundaries and privacy and safety. she is deserving of something other than numbness. she is deserving of personhood.
The researchers behind The Field Guide to Urban Plazas (published by SWA Group) decided to study the public behaviour of human beings in New York City, an update on William H Whyte’s pioneering work from 1980, The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces. From ‘roosting’ to ‘schooling’, here are the patterns they found.
Automated accounts are being programmed to spread fake news, according to the first systematic study of the way online misinformation spreads
Fake news and the way it spreads on social media is emerging as one of the great threats to modern society. In recent times, fake news has been used to manipulate stock markets, make people choose dangerous health-care options, and manipulate elections, including last year’s presidential election in the U.S.
Clearly, there is an urgent need for a way to limit the diffusion of fake news. And that raises an important question: how does fake news spread in the first place?
Today we get an answer of sorts thanks to the work of Chengcheng Shao and pals at Indiana University in Bloomington. For the first time, these guys have systematically studied how fake news spreads on Twitter and provide a unique window into this murky world. Their work suggests clear strategies for controlling this epidemic.
At issue is the publication of news that is false or misleading. So widespread has this become that a number of independent fact-checking organizations have emerged to establish the veracity of online information. These include snopes.com, politifact.com, and factcheck.org.
These sites list 122 websites that routinely publish fake news. These fake news sites include infowars.com, breitbart.com, politicususa.com, and theonion.com. “We did not exclude satire because many fake-news sources label their content as satirical, making the distinction problematic,” say Shao and co. […]
Shad and co say bots play a particularly significant role in the spread of fake news soon after it is published. What’s more, these bots are programmed to direct their tweets at influential users. “Automated accounts are particularly active in the early spreading phases of viral claims, and tend to target influential users,” say Shao and co.
That’s a clever strategy. Information is much more likely to become viral when it passes through highly connected nodes on a social network. So targeting these influential users is key. Humans can easily be fooled by automated accounts and can unwittingly seed the spread of fake news (some humans do this wittingly, of course).
“These results suggest that curbing social bots may be an effective strategy for mitigating the spread of online misinformation,” say Shao and co.
That’s an interesting conclusion, but just how it can be done isn’t clear.
When People Are as Predictable as Water Image: Start of the 2016 Bank of America Chicago Marathon. Left panel: images after correction from perspective distortion effects. Right panel: Walking speed of the crowd, measured from a PIV analysis. Credit: Nicolas Bain and Denis Bartolo
Can we apply a physics-like reductionism to people? That’s a question we asked Simon DeDeo, a professor of social and decision sciences at Carnegie Mellon University, who also heads the Laboratory for Social Minds at the Santa Fe Institute. DeDeo was well suited to the question. With a background in astrophysics, studying galaxy formation, he’s applied a similar, mathematical approach to both contemporary and historical social phenomena (see his Nautilus feature on shifting attitudes toward violent crime, “When Theft Was Worse Than Murder”).“
One of the bugbears of the social sciences—and the study of groups and the origins and development of civilization—is this notion of human nature,” DeDeo told Nautilus editor in chief Michael Segal. “Since the very beginning of what you might call a ‘science of society,’ people have always gone back to this idea that there are some invariants of human society.” These boil down to a list of biological constants that are able to generate a diversity in human societies that somewhat mirrors galactic variety. “If you’re a physicist, you’re really proud of how little you need to assume to get where you’re going—and I think in the modern era now, in the study of society, of human behavior, we’re beginning to develop a taste for those kinds of explanations that get further with less,” DeDeo said.
It shouldn’t be a surprise, then, to hear that people, moving as a crowd, shift and jostle in ways that render them as predictable as water spilling down a channel. In a paper published in Science this month, two French scientists, Nicolas Bain and Denis Bartolo, modeled marathon runners as they walked up to the starting line of the Chicago Marathon. However, they modeled the runners not as individuals, but as part of a continuous flowing material. “Guided by the spectral properties of velocity waves, we build on conservation laws and symmetry principles to construct a predictive theory of pedestrian flows without resorting to any behavioral assumption,” the authors wrote.
As if taking a cue from DeDeo—getting further with less—Bain and Bartolo eliminated any trace of human characteristics in their model and explained human behavior with a physicist’s precision. From a practical perspective, they concluded, understanding the behavior of crowds in terms of hydrodynamics could help civic planners design more efficient and safe crowd controls.
Holding Up Mirrors: How Sorry to Bother You succeeded Where Don’t Look Up Failed
In 2021, Adam McKay released Don’t Look Up on Netflix. The film centers around two astronomers discovering that a meteor the size of Mount Everest will strike the earth in half a year, killing everyone and everything. Utterly terrified, they try to warn the world of the impending doom with unbelievably mixed results. Politicians are more concerned with re-election and news reports try to make light of an apocalyptic event.
The film was met with very clashing reviews. Some saying that it’s a funny and poignant satire about major government’s reaction to the climate crisis, others say it’s an obnoxious and poorly edited film that’s too smug for its own good. Me personally, I’m in the latter half of that argument. The actors involved certainly do their best, and I’m glad that climate scientists feel vindicated or at least related to the scientists in this film, but to me it’s a slog to get through. While I’m not usually one to compare certain works of fiction to each other, I’d like to compare Don’t Look up to Another dark-comedy satire. That movie, one of my personal favorites, is Sorry to Bother You by Boots Riley.
Sorry to Bother You follows Cassius Green, a rookie telemarketer that finds an unlikely pathway to success. But with that success comes immediate conflict with his friends, who plan on unionizing against the company that Cassius works for. While Don’t Look Up deals with the bleak horror of the climate crisis, Sorry to Bother You deals with the bleak horror of late stage capitalism. With that brief description out of the way, let’s get into the comparisons.
Variety, The Spice of Comedy
What different people find funny is one of the most subjective things on earth. More sophisticated people can sneer at fart jokes all they want, but that won’t stop some people from chuckling at them. So I won’t say that Don’t Look Up is objectively unfunny. But the film does have a problem when it comes to the assortment of jokes. Nearly every comedic event found in Don’t Look Up can be put into two camps; the world not understanding the severity of the situation and “politicians, ammiright?” It’s really hard for a comedy to be consistently funny when it only has two jokes to work with. Sorry to Bother You, while primarily satirizing capitalism, knows not to completely rely on that for its humor. From how poorly maintained Cassius’ car is to poking fun at physical comedy game shows, Sorry to Bother You has enough different jokes to let the capitalism satire to breathe.
Mirror, Mirror
While the limited comedy is a problem, the Major issue with Don’t Look Up is the way it portrays it’s world. In my opinion, a good satire is like a funhouse mirror; it creates an exaggeration of something to poke fun at it or point out it’s flaws. Don’t Look Up is weirdly selective with what it chooses to satirize, or at least how far it satirizes. The politicians and billionaires are (rightfully) made fun of for prioritizing profits and personal gain over actually saving humanity, but everything else is played straight. It’s cartoonish antagonists don’t feel complimentary to the everyday people in the story. In Sorry to Bother You, almost everything is exaggerated to some extent. Tying back to the varied comedy, the general world building makes it so that when the antagonists over the top plan is revealed to the audience, it actually makes sense in the context of that world. If Sorry to Bother You is a funhouse mirror, than Don’t Look Up is just a cracked mirror.
the whole “fiction doesn’t affect reality” argument is actually kinda racist…
people talk about like how finding nemo and jaws are great examples but nobody ever talks about how fiction has shaped our perceptions of different racial and ethnic groups
like do you think the media has no hand in why alot of ignorant white people think africa is a desertland and not a continent of different countries, full of rich and diverse cultures, beautiful buildings and riches? or why they think asia is only japan, korea and china? when asia is also india, bhutan, the Philippines, nepal, etc?
do you think that media and fiction hasnt allowed whites to view black people as ignorant and lazy thru cartoons and minstrel shows?
like if you really think what youre seeing on tv doesnt affect reality and how people think then like. you must be fuckin stupid.
i know i know water is wet, all these studies to tell you what common sense could. but like … there is very real research out there that shows fiction has a very real harmful impact on minority communities. and that positive representation has a positive effect on these communities.
so no. fiction is never just fiction. and frankly people who think fiction is just fiction can fuck off.
And as creators of fiction we owe it to ourselves and our audience to be aware of these things and to do our very best not to feed that particular beast.
Whoever is using Jaws or Finding Nemo as examples of fiction not influencing people is wrong. Both of those had a huge ecological effect and negatively impacted conservation efforts.
If a fictional shark can put a species on the endangered list just think of what centuries of racist portrayals of people of color has on society.
Fiction is where people learn their first lessons on interacting with other people, other cultures, and new ideas. Fiction can change minds and save lives, but it can also destroy lives.
Never, ever underestimate the power of fiction
Yup. We are the stories we tell ourselves. The good news for writers is that fiction DOES matter. But that good news comes with the responsibility to be thoughtful, ethical, and progressive with the characters and narratives we put forth into the world. Let’s not reinforce the same old shit!
Sidenote: I think the whole “It’s just a story” argument is a weak excuse made by people that want a blank check to write whatever-the-fuck-they-want. Then, when confronted about how they’re perpetuating racist/sexist/etc. bullshit, they come back with “It doesn’t matter.” Ironically, those are usually the same people who freak out when they do an all-female Ghostbusters reboot or something, but whatever…
Reblogging again because I need to pull this up for some TikTok videos about “The Pawn and the Puppet” aka a super ableist and transphobic book written by a popular indie BookTok user.
A lot of trans people, including myself, have called out this book but we keep getting told “it’s just fiction!”
The problem is that this argument exists in two forms on Tumblr.
One form says “fiction affects reality” and what they mean is, representation matters. Accurate portrayals of other cultures matters. Exactly the argument made above. And they’re talking about mass media, Disney and Warner Bros and Paramount and all them, the movies, the TV we all watch. Netflix, HBO. The books we tell our children are important to read, the books we find for ourselves that speak to us. This is an argument for better representation, better research, more roles for a greater variety of people and plots that let different kinds of characters shine.
The other form says “fiction affects reality” and what they mean is, portrayals of bad things will normalize those bad things, even if it’s clear from the portrayal that it’s bad. And they’re talking about fanfic. Fanfic, where if you get an audience of 100 people you’re doing great. This is an argument for censoring fanfic and demanding that no one write pedophilic relationships… or age gaps… or age gaps of 1 year if they’re 17 and 18… or a short cute woman and a tall man because that’s “coded” as pedophilia… you get the idea. And it’s not enough to properly tag those materials to keep them out of the hands of people who take responsibility for curating their own experience, and choose not to read those things. They have to not exist.
It’s a good idea to clarify which argument you’re making, or arguing against, when you’re talking about fiction affecting reality. Because one of those arguments is about pushing back against mass media’s tendency to amplify stereotypes, and the other is about censoring a form of expression that’s created mostly by young women and afab people to express sexual and romantic feelings that women (and anyone society thinks is a woman) are told they should not have.
I do absolutely agree with the points made above. But I have to admit, I’m so much more used to the second argument, at first I didn’t recognize that the posts above are arguing the first argument.
here’s the thing about “fiction affects reality” – the effects of fiction are 1) cumulative, 2) not universal, and 3) not direct.
it’s not “you read one story about a black person who’s a gang member and immediately you assume all black people are gang members.” it’s “90% of black characters you see are gang members and so over time you associate the two with each other because it’s just so common.” it’s “you never see a single bisexual character or hear the word ‘bisexual’ so you don’t even have the vocabulary to describe your own experiences.” it’s “you and a friend read the same story, but come away with two completely different interpretations of it because you are different people with different experiences.”
and finding nemo is actually a great example of something being actively opposite to the intended message of the movie. like, the reason they need to find nemo is because nemo was kidnapped by an evil tropical fish hunter and sold as a pet to live in an aquarium, which is portrayed as a horrific prison that slowly turns you insane and at any time you could be shaken to death by a kid with headgear. and a bunch of people watched it and went “ooh! clownfish as pets! sounds neat!”
when people say “fiction affects reality” in the context of fanfic they don’t like, it’s never articulated like this. it’s “you write one story about a 30-year-old dating a 50-year-old and everyone who reads it will immediately start thinking pedophilia is okay, and also, that was your deliberate intention when you wrote the story, fic writer.”
I think what you’re saying is that if 90% of stories we read/see are about abusive relationships, we’ll start thinking that abusive relationships are normal. And this has happened with the “stalking is romantic” trope! But if we read a few fanfics about incest, it’s not going to change our perception on incest.
If the vast majority of the stories we read/see in MAINSTREAM MEDIA are presenting abusive relationships AS A NORMAL AND GOOD THING, then we MIGHT start as a culture seeing abusive relationships as a normal and good thing. But it’s more complicated even than just that, and that’s not the whole story.
Like… okay if the majority of stories we see in mainstream media present black people as gang members/thugs/single mothers/etc etc etc, it’s a lot more likely for our society to see black people as those things. That said, it’s alsonot “fiction affects reality” on a 1:1 even there, even though we KNOW that’s an issue with our society, because… it’s only an issue because our society already viewed black people that way.
That’s the thing, see. The prevalence of the “normalization” of things in fiction generally depends heavily on what our society already is beginning or willing to consider normal. You’re not going to see pedophilia being normalized in fiction in large part because our society already doesn’t consider it normal and okay. It would have to be getting normalized outside of fiction for a sudden influx of mainstream media promoting it to affect our society. Plus we’d need a sudden influx of mainstream media promoting it
Yes, it can be helpful to have representation of minorities in fiction. Yes, it can be harmful to engage in negative stereotypes and harmful tropes. But it’s not because that fiction is on its own going to change things on a large scale. It’s because fiction affects reality by supporting other things happening elsewhere in society. Fiction can support harmful existing social structures. Fiction can support existing attempts to change harmful social structures. But it’s not going to cause change all on its own. It might spark conversations, it might change individual people, but it won’t be the solepoint of change on a structural level. And that structural change is what’s required for something to be “normalized”.
Fanfiction is never going to normalize fuck all that isn’t already normalized by our society. It’s extremely niche on its own, even if it’s more widely known about, and every trope or topic only ever is going to be consumed by apiece of fandom, which means any topic or trope used withinfanfiction is going to be even more niche than fanfiction in general.
“That sounds like a good idea…….”-“Is there something bothering you with the idea?”-“No, the idea is GOOD…..”
Can someone explain this to me?
Old people use quotation marks to indicate emphasis, as a substitute for italics (which many of them could not produce on the old typewriters they learned to write on), whereas young people use them to indicate sarcasm or falseness. They’re used as “scare quotes”.
And old people use ellipses simply to indicate a pause, or for some other incomprehensible reason I’m not aware of. But young people use ellipses to indicate passive-aggression.
So an old person could type something like:
how are things going with your “boyfriend”….
and what they mean is
How are things going with your boyfriend? [Im so excited for you, sweetie, and I wanna hear about it]
But a young person would interpret that sentence as
How are things going with your so-called boyfriend…. [I say, while seething with contempt for him and possibly for you too]
The linguistic difference across generations is beautifully explained here thank you
I read elsewhere on Tumblr that ellipses used to be used instead of line breaks to save space on small pieces of paper, so they should basically be read as a new paragraph.
Saying “this niche, properly tagged, warned, and rated piece of fiction could theoretically hurt someone” is not a good argument. This properly labeled cookie with the allergen information at the bottom that contains gluten could theoretically harm me very badly, but only if I consume it. Tags are like nutrition labels, and warnings are like allergy information. If you know you have an allergy to something, the logic is to stay away from it. It is the same with fiction. I’m not running through stores yelling at people to take all the products with gluten off the shelves just because it could hurt me. Instead I ignore it and go to the gluten free section and find cookies that are right for me. And if running through a grocery store yelling sounds ridiculous, that’s because it is. Stop doing the same with fiction.
this is the best way i’ve seen this put!!
And just like with food, what might be harmful for one person to consume could be quite *beneficial* for others. One man’s trigger is another man’s catharsis.
AND if you lack the maturity/self control/awareness to stop yourself from eating things that could potentially harm you, you either 1) are too young to be making your own food choices and should be supervised by a parent/other adult who is supposed to be responsible for you (and the store clerk who put the food on the shelf is NOT) or 2) need to take accountability for your own actions, because if you deliberately consumed something you knew could hurt you as a fully autonomous adult, then you really have no one to blame but yourself.
To push this analogy: I know I’m lactose intolerant; if I eat cheese (read or watch content that I know will upset me) and get sick (feel upset) that’s on me. I’m allowed to take that risk, but I’m not going to blame anyone else for it. I can also take lactaid (engage in appropriate self-care strategies) to mitigate the effects (if I want to read/watch something that I anticipate finding disturbing).
the whole “fiction doesn’t affect reality” argument is actually kinda racist…
people talk about like how finding nemo and jaws are great examples but nobody ever talks about how fiction has shaped our perceptions of different racial and ethnic groups
like do you think the media has no hand in why alot of ignorant white people think africa is a desertland and not a continent of different countries, full of rich and diverse cultures, beautiful buildings and riches? or why they think asia is only japan, korea and china? when asia is also india, bhutan, the Philippines, nepal, etc?
do you think that media and fiction hasnt allowed whites to view black people as ignorant and lazy thru cartoons and minstrel shows?
like if you really think what youre seeing on tv doesnt affect reality and how people think then like. you must be fuckin stupid.
i know i know water is wet, all these studies to tell you what common sense could. but like … there is very real research out there that shows fiction has a very real harmful impact on minority communities. and that positive representation has a positive effect on these communities.
so no. fiction is never just fiction. and frankly people who think fiction is just fiction can fuck off.
And as creators of fiction we owe it to ourselves and our audience to be aware of these things and to do our very best not to feed that particular beast.
Whoever is using Jaws or Finding Nemo as examples of fiction not influencing people is wrong. Both of those had a huge ecological effect and negatively impacted conservation efforts.
If a fictional shark can put a species on the endangered list just think of what centuries of racist portrayals of people of color has on society.
Fiction is where people learn their first lessons on interacting with other people, other cultures, and new ideas. Fiction can change minds and save lives, but it can also destroy lives.
Never, ever underestimate the power of fiction
Yup. We are the stories we tell ourselves. The good news for writers is that fiction DOES matter. But that good news comes with the responsibility to be thoughtful, ethical, and progressive with the characters and narratives we put forth into the world. Let’s not reinforce the same old shit!
Sidenote: I think the whole “It’s just a story” argument is a weak excuse made by people that want a blank check to write whatever-the-fuck-they-want. Then, when confronted about how they’re perpetuating racist/sexist/etc. bullshit, they come back with “It doesn’t matter.” Ironically, those are usually the same people who freak out when they do an all-female Ghostbusters reboot or something, but whatever…
Reblogging again because I need to pull this up for some TikTok videos about “The Pawn and the Puppet” aka a super ableist and transphobic book written by a popular indie BookTok user.
A lot of trans people, including myself, have called out this book but we keep getting told “it’s just fiction!”
The problem is that this argument exists in two forms on Tumblr.
One form says “fiction affects reality” and what they mean is, representation matters. Accurate portrayals of other cultures matters. Exactly the argument made above. And they’re talking about mass media, Disney and Warner Bros and Paramount and all them, the movies, the TV we all watch. Netflix, HBO. The books we tell our children are important to read, the books we find for ourselves that speak to us. This is an argument for better representation, better research, more roles for a greater variety of people and plots that let different kinds of characters shine.
The other form says “fiction affects reality” and what they mean is, portrayals of bad things will normalize those bad things, even if it’s clear from the portrayal that it’s bad. And they’re talking about fanfic. Fanfic, where if you get an audience of 100 people you’re doing great. This is an argument for censoring fanfic and demanding that no one write pedophilic relationships… or age gaps… or age gaps of 1 year if they’re 17 and 18… or a short cute woman and a tall man because that’s “coded” as pedophilia… you get the idea. And it’s not enough to properly tag those materials to keep them out of the hands of people who take responsibility for curating their own experience, and choose not to read those things. They have to not exist.
It’s a good idea to clarify which argument you’re making, or arguing against, when you’re talking about fiction affecting reality. Because one of those arguments is about pushing back against mass media’s tendency to amplify stereotypes, and the other is about censoring a form of expression that’s created mostly by young women and afab people to express sexual and romantic feelings that women (and anyone society thinks is a woman) are told they should not have.
I do absolutely agree with the points made above. But I have to admit, I’m so much more used to the second argument, at first I didn’t recognize that the posts above are arguing the first argument.
here’s the thing about “fiction affects reality” – the effects of fiction are 1) cumulative, 2) not universal, and 3) not direct.
it’s not “you read one story about a black person who’s a gang member and immediately you assume all black people are gang members.” it’s “90% of black characters you see are gang members and so over time you associate the two with each other because it’s just so common.” it’s “you never see a single bisexual character or hear the word ‘bisexual’ so you don’t even have the vocabulary to describe your own experiences.” it’s “you and a friend read the same story, but come away with two completely different interpretations of it because you are different people with different experiences.”
and finding nemo is actually a great example of something being actively opposite to the intended message of the movie. like, the reason they need to find nemo is because nemo was kidnapped by an evil tropical fish hunter and sold as a pet to live in an aquarium, which is portrayed as a horrific prison that slowly turns you insane and at any time you could be shaken to death by a kid with headgear. and a bunch of people watched it and went “ooh! clownfish as pets! sounds neat!”
when people say “fiction affects reality” in the context of fanfic they don’t like, it’s never articulated like this. it’s “you write one story about a 30-year-old dating a 50-year-old and everyone who reads it will immediately start thinking pedophilia is okay, and also, that was your deliberate intention when you wrote the story, fic writer.”
I think what you’re saying is that if 90% of stories we read/see are about abusive relationships, we’ll start thinking that abusive relationships are normal. And this has happened with the “stalking is romantic” trope! But if we read a few fanfics about incest, it’s not going to change our perception on incest.
