I think the moment that convinced me the operating logic of our society is truly fucked in a way that cannot merely be reformed was after that eclipse in 2017 when the articles started coming out about how much money had been lost by productivity dropping from people stopping momentarily to watch it happen. To measure the world by the metric of the dollar to such a devotion that any cult leader would be jealous of that you would look at one of the most sublime experiences in nature which we, our ancestors, and even a not insignificant number of non-human species, have been observing in awestruck wonder for millennia, and decide that such a moment of profundity is something to be fought and preferably expunged from the human experience because it briefly impacts quarterly revenue.
It’s a feeling that has been coming up repeatedly, but with increasing frequency in the last few years. That being: what is all of this for? Where are we going? Nobody who defends the status quo can seem to answer it. What’s the point of an uninterrupted quarterly revenue stream if we can’t even look at an eclipse every few years? What’s the point of hustling and grinding 50, 60, 70 hour weeks if you never have time to have dinner with your friends, talk to your family on the phone, but on a bigger spectrum, what’s the point of all of that if you still don’t have any way of retiring in the future? With the way that our lives are being increasingly monetized and squeezed every second, what is there to look forward to?
YouGov poll shows what people assume vs reality. Most of what folks assume is the result of the relentless propaganda of the Left and media.
Ironically, this makes these groups look like less of a minority than they actually are, so they seem less “oppressed”.
Okay, if you have a brain that operates on any modicum of real world understanding, the above comments probably look like gibberish because you probably thought everyone knew “the left” as the side always famously emphasizing that minority groups are, you know, minorities, and that this is the very reason we are expected to care about the issues they face.
In fact, it’s pretty common even among “the right” to be angry at “the left” for implying a majority group has inherent privilege, so if ANYONE would want to trick people into over-estimating the population size of these groups, almost anyone would conclude it’s the hardcore conservatives, right? They would want you to think there are more black people, for instance, so they can argue that white people don’t have as much societal advantage anymore.
So what the HELL are you witnessing here? It’s probably important to explain because not everybody realizes the prevalence of this particular cognitive difference:
Many people, such as @shaughan up there, tend to at least subconsciously base their concern for other people more on an evaluation of their “usefulness” rather than sympathy alone, so in their world, the struggles of a given group matter *less* the smaller that group is. and importantly, they assume by default that this is your internal logic, too, even if you don’t admit to it.
As a consequence, guys like him believe that “the left” would be the ones who want to artificially inflate the size of a given “interest group” in order to trick people INTO caring about them. Remember, small = unimportant in his world view and he presumes this is the same logic everyone else runs on.
So he sees evidence that minority groups are smaller than everyone thinks, and his reaction isn’t the normal human one. It isn’t “wow, maybe they really are oppressed.” Instead his reaction is “aha! There’s fewer of them than I thought! They don’t matter after all, just as I suspected, and just as dirty liberals were trying to HIDE from me!!!”
If this sounds bizarro world clownshit deranged, that’s because it is, and it’s the same reason they scoff at the idea of protecting people from a deadly virus if it’s “”“only”“” deadly to one in a hundred.
It’s such an unexplainably backwards and twisted way of viewing things, you can see how even siryouremocked, who considers himself merely libertarian rather than far right, understands that a smaller population would be a more vulnerable one people might have more reason to sympathize with, but just didn’t finish turning those cogs far enough to realize he’s replying to someone who was trying to make exactly the opposite point.
I want to point out here that we’re also dealing with a failure in mathematical thinking. These are small percentages of huge populations. 1% of a big number can still be a big number.
“1% of the population” is still about 3,300,000 people. That’s not an inconsequential number of people. That’s equivalent to the entire population of Nevada. 3% of the population is the equivalent to Michigan. These ‘fringes’ are not so fringe.
“… “I’m taking action because I feel desperate,” said U.S. climate scientist Peter Kalmus, who along with several others locked himself to the front door of a JPMorgan Chase building in Los Angeles. A recent report found that the financial giant is the biggest private funder of oil and gas initiatives in the world.
“It’s the 11th hour in terms of Earth breakdown, and I feel terrified for my kids, and terrified for humanity,” Kalmus continued. “World leaders are still expanding the fossil fuel industry as fast as they can, but this is insane. The science clearly indicates that everything we hold dear is at risk, including even civilization itself and the wonderful, beautiful, cosmically precious life on this planet. I actually don’t get how any scientist who understands this could possibly stay on the sidelines at this point.” …”
Every single denialist depends on the idea that big brother government and climate scientists are on the same side so how do they even begin to fit this into their delusion?
The title says it all really. So if nothing else, please share and reblog this post to raise awareness for those that might be caught out - both artists and followers. For a TL:DR, please look at the bottom of the post
What is happening?
Right now, there is at least one person actively impersonating multiple artists across tumblr in an effort to scam their followers into paying for fake ‘cheap commissions’. The scammer will clone a tumblr, usually using a slight change to the url/account name to look like the real deal. They will then message people directly through Tumblr with messages along the lines of “Hey, i’m doing cheap commissions right now. DM me to get one”. Naturally, this is ends up just being a way to take their money without giving anything back in return.
Who does this affect?
Everyone. Simple as that. As long as the scammer in question works unopposed, they are free to spread their influence and continue to scam more people. Even if you haven’t been targeted yet, it does not mean you are safe or immune.
Several artists have already fallen victim to this scammer, and I encourage any artists that have to reblog this post with the details of their affected account(s) and the ones the scammer has set up.
How can we stop this?
Tumblr, like many other social media platforms, seems to care very little about ‘minor’ occurences like this one, and despite reaching out directly to them over a week ago through multiple avenues of contact - they have refused to comment on the situation, provide a recommended response for users, or take action on behalf of those already affected. Despite this, there are still tools at our disposal that we can use to make this scam more difficult, and to increase its visibility to those within Tumblr staff that are required by policy to take action.
Tumblr has the following to say on the topic of impersonation: Confusion or Impersonation. Don’t do things that would cause confusion between you or your blog and a person or company, like registering a deliberately confusing URL. Don’t impersonate anyone. While you’re free to ridicule, parody, or marvel at the alien beauty of Benedict Cumberbatch, you can’t pretend to actually be Benedict Cumberbatch. They then provide a link to this online form that you can fill out if you suspect someone’s identity is being confused. Unfortunately, this can only be filled out if you are the victim of impersonation. In other words, only the artists can fill this out legitimately.
So, what about the followers and users of tumblr whom aren’t being impersonated? Our most valuable tool in this online platform is the platform itself. It enables us to spread our word near-virally across all the many sub-communities on Tumblr with remarkable efficiency for a user-driven system. We can take advantage of that effect to increase awareness of the situation. Even if you - the one reading this right now - aren’t an artist or don’t know an artist, the act of reblogging this post or sharing it directly with friends improves it’s ‘ranking’ in popularity increasing its chances to be seen by more people.
We don’t need everyone on Tumblr to see the post for it to be effective, just like we don’t need the entirety of the human population of the world to be immune to a disease for that disease to be rendered ineffective or eradicated. If enough people are aware, the likelihood of pulling off a successful scam increases dramatically reducing efficiency to a point that it no longer becomes profitable to continue.
Why should I care?
It disheartens me to say this, but of the many artists I contacted directly over the past week to warn about this issue many of them refused to listen or dodged the responsibility with lines like;
“I’m not being impersonated, so it doesn’t affect me”
“I’m just one person. I can’t make an impact”
“I need to take care of my community. Other people can look after theirs”
This is honestly disappointing that so many artists or art-rebloggers care so little as to intentionally wave the responsibility of keeping their followers and fellow artists safe from this, that they cannot spare 10 seconds of their time to share an informative post. I’m not here to bash artists, but it is time that everyone takes responsibility for their own communities, and of those around them.
Artists: You have a responsibility to ensure that your followers and fans aren’t being abused by someone who may impersonate you. If they succeed, your reputation will be damaged, and your followers will resent you. Your followers are also almost guaranteed to be following other artists meaning your efforts can spread beyond your own circle of influence, so don’t be naive when you think you have little effect. Followers: You have just as much responsibility to be aware of those that might try to scam you or your fellow followers. Don’t just sit in silence when you see something wrong: Ignoring the issue only makes it more resilient to our efforts to stop it. You are the vocal majority if you just use your voices to be heard!
TL:DR
A scammer is impersonating artists and scamming money from their followers under the guise of ‘cheap commissions’. If we ignore the issue, it will get worse. Every single person that reads this can afford to spend just 10 seconds to reblog and share this post. Those 10 seconds can save others from being scammed for hundreds of dollars. Reblog & Share
Spreading this just in case someone impersonate me. I never had to randomly go and tell to my followers that i’m open for commissions.
Just in case. i will never dm you about cheap commissions because im stingy as fuck. but then again if i offer deals, they will be announced on my blog , not personally or with dm’s
I work on a “you come to me for art” kind of thing. If for whatever reason I come to you for stuff I’m doing, well there you go. That ain’t me.
Like wise
All commission are sent via my email - never a direct message
I never send out messages on Tumblr about commissions. I don’t like using Tumblr for communication about commissions at all, other than an announcement post. Everything else is via email.
Also, I don’t go to people and directly tell them I’m open. I always make a public post.
I don’t even do commissions anymore.
I don’t use Tumblr for commissions, and never contact people directly about it either.
I also don’t do this.
same
I will normally do a public post about commissions being open and even then I forget to make that post or even get back to people that ask me if I am open :U.
Normally my responses are “Oh shit, I forgot to get back to you” or something like that.
Boosting this, cause for safety reasons. Cant be too sure about these sorta things, on a small note I DO NOT EVER MESSAGE ANYONE ABOUT MY COMMISSIONS. I only post that I’m accepting em.
