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@good0eye0sniper
the way fandoms are desperate to make all aroace characters romance and sex favorable but then dont do anything remotely similar to any other identity is astounding. hmm i wonder why
PLEASE dont derail this about shipping characters of other identities please let this one post be about an aroace struggle
Victorian children making creepypastas be like Benjamin Drownsworthy doth reside within mine copy of hoop and stick
yeeeeehawww
Introduction to BuffaloTechFascism, a space to track and discuss state surveillance, power and money, human testing, and environmental anomalies in Buffalo, NY
Hi. I made this sideblog out of necessity. I am a 26 year old queer person from Buffalo, NY. I've lived here my whole life. Politically, I am extremely left wing. For many years I called myself a communist/Marxist, and while I still am at my core, I have incorporated many anarchist ideas and methodologies into my practices recently.
Let me get to the point: For the past 6-12 months, and possibly more, I have been under increased state surveillance. A lot of it has to do with a close friend of mine, Kimalah, an anarchist who has been under extremely severe surveillance for 10-15 years now. Due to my proximity to her, and the fact that I am assisting her in spreading information about Buffalo being entirely run by a cabal of feds and tech fascists, I have now been experiencing many of the horrors that she does. I will get into the specifics of why she and I are under such surveillance on a later post. But it is mainly due to our wish to uncover corruption happening with politicians, police and corporations in the area, as well as our desire to help people.
Here are some of the ways that I have experienced surveillance:
Drone surveillance: The city has heavily invested in drones for surveillance and intimidation purposes. I have seen several different models both flying around town and directly following me. I have been unable to find the specific models for most of the drones I've seen on the websites of major weapons manufacturers during my research. However, all of the websites have the disclaimer that many of their products are being developed in secret, meaning the ones I've seen are most likely still in development and are going through test runs. Every night once it gets dark, the sky outside of my apartment is filled with drones, some hanging low and others up much higher. I know they are drones and not airplanes because the majority of them are completely silent. They all have distinct light flashing patterns that airplanes do not have, and most of them are shaped differently from one another. This is mostly an intimidation tactic so that I don't speak about what's happening to my friend, but they are also using AI to collect data about me and of course the rest of the regular people living here.
Helicopters: Like the drones, these are intimidation tactics. But given that they are helicopters, there are real people (most likely Homeland Security officers or some other type of feds) inside them. They send out helicopters when I've done something or told someone something that makes them especially nervous or mad. Last month, a helicopter waited outside my workplace for me to leave each day for a week. When I'd leave work, it would be hovering only ~30 feet above my car, and it would follow me home. Any time I took a new route, or stopped at the post office or pharmacy, it would swerve to follow me and then wait for me to finish my errand so it could continue to follow me home. Then once I entered my home, the helicopter (and often times there would be more than one) would circle my house for hours. They're extremely loud, distracting and unnerving. The helicopters have mostly ceased in the last few weeks, because many people in Buffalo began complaining about so many of them flying around town each day. They obviously realized they were being a bit too obvious, and they now mostly send out drones, save for a few helicopters here and there.
Phone hacking: My partner and I have both had our phones hacked and had messages deleted. We knew it was a hack because it was simultaneous and our batteries depleted extremely quickly. Also, we were able to send and view new messages to each other, but they did not show up as "Delivered". Those messages were then wiped completely. The screen and keyboard also glitched quite a bit, and my phone got very hot. This happened two days after Kimalah reached out to a journalist about everything that's been happening, and offered to have me speak with him as well. My upstairs neighbor is also under surveillance, probably because he is very outspoken against ICE. One day as he sat in his living room, his phone lit up without any notifications there, and a voice said "Wait, it's on?" and then got cut off.
Surveillance from neighbors, landlords, and random people: I am not entirely sure the degree to which this happens to me, although I know it occurs at least somewhat. This type of surveillance is extremely intense for Kimalah. Her entire street has been hired by police to surveil, terrorize and collect data about her. When we go out together, people follow us from place to place just to stare at us, and they're very obvious about it. I do not care whether or not you believe me about this part. I am fully secure in my knowledge and experiences and people calling me crazy cannot phase me.
Cameras: Police have set up AI police cams at every major intersection the city. Flock Surveillance has also made its way to Buffalo. Police are able to track our habits and routes through these cameras and send out drones/helicopters accordingly if we get too close to an area they don't want us to be in. Additionally, my neighbors set up AI cameras pointing into our backyard. These neighbors are tech fascists with DARPA connections. I have read some of their published studies, and they are interested in the field of developing ways of influencing human behavior through brain signals. Essentially, mind control. When Kimalah contacted the journalist, she specifically mentioned my neighbor, and even linked his LinkedIn account. Three days later, the camera directly pointing at my window (they have several around the property but only one is in direct contact of me) was taken down entirely. This is most likely because they found out a journalist may be looking into Kimalah's story, and by extension, them.
I'm currently too exhausted at the moment to share any more. I had another post planned today about how to track landlords in Buffalo to find out if they are affiliated with the police that will have to wait. I also plan to eventually post more about the drones, the situation regarding my friend's surveillance, the odd environmental things that occur here due to the extraction of resources for weapons manufacturing, and much more. This is only 2% of what I plan to share. For now, this will do. Thank you to anyone who has read this far. I post this not for sympathy, as I am somewhat numbed to the severity of it all at this point, but because more people need to know this is happening. And because I know it is already happening to many more people, possibly without them knowing about it.
I fucking hate it here
For those of you with android devices, you can use the Android Debug Bridge (ADB) standalone app control program to get rid of all the bloatware, data mining, and AI crap - no coding needed!
save
There are also Android-based alternatives like GrapheneOS and LineageOS, which are pretty easy to install. These are unfortunately available for a more limited range of devices (Graphene is ironically Pixel only, while Lineage supports more), but it's very worth checking out whether one of them might work for your phone.
GrapheneOS is a security and privacy focused mobile OS with Android app compatibility.
LineageOS Android Distribution
Typing this from Graphene now, in fact. But, both of those take the Android Open Source Project, without all the bloatware--and largely de-Google the whole thing. They give you much more control over privacy and what the apps you choose to install can do and access on your phone.
I know Graphene sandboxes everything, including the optionally installed Google Play Services which a lot of apps unfortunately require to run. (Lineage uses an alternative to Play Services instead.) So, you can install what would normally be unacceptably intrusive apps and just lock them away from pulling any funny shit with your data, or phoning home. Including the couple of Google things I do still keep around.
I also prefer running much more transparent, privacy-respecting open source apps where possible. Besides the transparency, I'd rather avoid the shitty tech corps entirely where I can. There are pretty good alternatives available for a lot of the usual suspects.
AlternativeTo lets you find apps and software for Windows, Mac, Linux, iPhone, iPad, Android, Android Tablets, Web Apps, Online, Windows Tab
An alternative app store:
F-Droid is an installable catalogue of FOSS (Free and Open Source Software) applications for the Android platform. The client makes it easy
Also just going to leave this here.
Continuing the legacy of Vanced.
💊 Application to use ReVanced on Android . Contribute to ReVanced/revanced-manager development by creating an account on GitHub.
This lets you pretty easily patch some of the worst offender corporate apps to make them behave better.
never kill yourself. you have to fill your mutuals dash with shit they don't care about forever, okay?
wow dude jts so awesome that your car is loud as fuck and smells worse when it drives past. thags fucking epic man. i really like how it hurts to listen to you drive past and it scares people. thats awesome man. i really like your car that makes a loud as fuck fart sound. fucking epic dude
honestly I'm very grateful that I got involved in queer community organizing basically as soon as I turned 18, because that's how I was exposed to other queer people saying things like "I just wouldn't trust a bisexual" and "I don't believe in that privilege stuff" and "I don't like when people act like you have to be a feminist if you're gay," all of which taught me at a very young age the crucial truth that queer people can be very stupid and very wrong
I think there's a pervasive tendency among very young baby queers to get kind of dazzled by being among other gay people for the first time and that combined with the heady drug of the first taste of independence can really make you start thinking of The Queer Community(TM) like it's one big enlightened rainbow utopia but unfortunately we have dipshits and malevolent freaks like every other demographic. Peter Thiel is in here.
my condolences to the people learning that Peter Thiel is gay from this post
So important. At a memorial day party I met a gay man who is a flat earther. They're all around us be cautious always
Any sci-fi media: the spaceship is a character
Me: OMG THE SPACESHIP IS A CHARACTER
@helcathelcat listen I know I must clog your dash as I do everyone's with copious amounts of Murderbot Diaries but!!!! I cannot stress how much the spaceship(s) is Indeed a character and it is my favorite one ever 💖💖 highly recommend.
Ah, Amaterasu Origin of all that is good and mother to us all ☀️
Zoids Wild Hunter Wolf custom
Another Ammy themed custom Zoid, I thought it'd be fun to revisit the idea with the more organic shapes of the Hunter Wolf! The original Command Wolf Amaterasu was done ~12 years ago
AMATERASU ZOID?! gnawing on this chewing biting
Ugh. Why is my learning curve always a flat brick wall? I finally got up the energy (mental and otherwise- thanks to a medication change) to install Linux on my laptop... and ran into a fundamental Windows problem. My. Fucking. Life. Now I have to go into the registry and screw around with how the multiple SSDs are accessed. In my *ENTIRE TIME* of using computers I've avoided fucking around with the registry. Since I started even LOOKING AT COMPUTERS. Because that can *BRICK YOUR COMPUTER*.
And now I have to put on my big person panties and attempt it.
Goddamnit.
At least Ubuntu offers a tutorial with pictures. I guess.
I did not want to get this crunchy this fast. I was trying to ease myself into it. Just sorta heat up the bathwater slowly. My PTSD surrounding tech and how I've been treated is pretty damn sensitive.
Install Linux Mint, they said! It will be easy, they said! Easiest distro to use and install, they said!
Except if you have an aging gaming computer. Then fuck you.
I was thinking about doing something similar with my old laptop since it has a disc drive and a huge screen I like. I'm really intimidated by installing Linux/Ubuntu on my own so I've reached out to some computer repair stores and some acquaintances who might be able to help.
Would love to hear how yours goes! I would be willing to try it myself possibly if I had some feedback from someone at a similar comfort level as me (which is not much lol). Good luck!
A lot of companies that make things have two separate lines: consumer and enterprise. Consumer is for us poors that the company doesn't need to respect. You can buy more expensive, higher tier consumer items but it's just as fragile. You're paying for more bells and whistles. Enterprise grade is stuff that will actually last because it is often sold in a lot as part of a contract and the contract won't be renewed if the items suck. These things are often just not sold to consumers because why would you ever buy consumer-grade garbage if you could buy this?
For something like computers, this looks like how pricey "gAmiNG" laptops look all fancy but fall apart in about the same timeframe as the lower end laptops for students. But if you've ever handled the sort of laptops for banks or businesses, you'd wonder why laptops can't all be like this. People swear by Lenovo Thinkpads for a reason. Dell's Latitude (general productivity) and Precision (has the power of a gaming laptop but far less bs) lines, HP's probooks, all feel really nice and last for-fucking-ever. But you can't buy them in a store even if you wanted one.
So the trick is to buy what big organizations are buying, but you likely gotta get 'em secondhand when the orgs are done with them. For basic clothes, mil surplus might be a good port of call, for technology see an e-waste recycler or sometimes government auction (you just gotta know what to ask for; ThinkPads, Dell Latitude/Precision, HP Probook/Zbook). Otherwise try to thrift old, pre-enshitification items. The blanket I had as a kid is still going strong and has lived to bury multiple sets of newer bedding (which have worn thin and torn). Kitchen items, see if you can shop at a restaurant supplier.
TL;DR: if you need an item, think "which business needs these to function" and see where they 1) buy theirs (suppliers) or 2) sell their old ones (surplus) and buy that. If you can't do that, look at older, pre-enshitification things.
