- Enjoy your stay - @hdbreakd0wn - Tumblr Blog

decentralize and clean up your life!!!

use overdrive, libby, hoopla, cloudlibrary, and kanopy instead of amazon and audible.

use firefox instead of chrome or opera (both are made with chromium, which blocks functionality for ad-blockers. firefox isn't based on chromium).

use mega or proton drive instead of google drive.

get rid of bloatware

use libreoffice instead of microsoft office suite

use vetted sites on r/FREEMEDIAHECKYEAH for free movies, books, games, etc.

use trakt or letterboxd instead of imdb.

use storygraph instead of goodreads.

use darkpatterns to find mobile game with no ads or microtransactions

use ground news to read unbiased news and find blind spots in news stories.

use mediahuman or cobalt to download music, or support your favorite artists directly through bandcamp

make youtube bearable by using mtube, newpipe, or the unhook extension on chrome, firefox, or microsoft edge

use search for a cause or ecosia to support the environment instead of google

use thriftbooks to buy new or used books (they also have manga, textbooks, home goods, CDs, DVDs, and blurays)

use flashpoint to play archived online flash games

find books, movies, games, etc. on the internet archive! for starters, here's a bunch of David Attenborough documentaries and all of the Animorphs books

burn your music onto cds

use pdf24 (available online or as a desktop app) instead of adobe

use unroll.me to clean your email inboxes

use thunderbird, mailfence, countermail, edison mail, tuta, or proton mail instead of gmail

remove bloatware on windows PC, macOS, and iOS X

remove bloatware on samsung X

use pixelfed instead of instagram or meta

use NCH suite for free software like a file converter, image editor, video editors, pdf editor, etc.

feel free to add more alternatives, resources or advice in the reblogs or replies, and i'll add them to the main post <3

last updated: march 18th 2025

anyroads

Something so profoundly fucked up between the inverse ratio of shrinking middle class and ever increasing aggression of advertisement

mamzier

anyroads

In which we're all Truman

anyroads

#this is how it feels to be on tiktok#every video is secretly an ad somehow and theyre so good at hiding it u don't find out until the wnd#end*

This post has way too many notes and they've been clogging up my notifs for a month, but these are the first ones I've seen that Get It. Thank you. This is exactly it.

I wasn't talking about the absurdity of companies trying to advertise cars or vacations that no one can afford, like everyone in the notes seems to think. There are plenty of people who can afford them. Fewer than there used to be, but corporations aren't starving.

I was talking about the invasive way advertisers have taken over every modicum of available space and how it's no longer possible to turn anywhere without advertising being pushed on you, despite the fact that most people don't have the kind of expendable income that these companies are trying to extract from them. The less money the average person has to throw around, the more aggressively they're hounded to hand it over. Where people used to be able to afford a new car and a vacation and still throw expendable income around, they now save up for one or another big purchase (those who can afford one, and that population has significantly dwindled). People limit their other spending, and in response companies descend on our consciousness, on every last bit of space they can squeeze their presence into, like pigeons onto a handful of seeds thrown on the ground.

You have to sit through advertisements to watch something on youtube only to realize the video is, itself, an ad in disguise. You can't pump gas without a little screen blaring at you wanting you to buy things. Billboards and bus benches weren't enough, they have to be energy gobbling screens now so five companies can sell you shit while you wait instead of just one. Every available surface is screaming at you to BUY THE THING. Where you used to be able to play a game on your phone, now you can't get through more than a round of any without having to sit through ads to keep playing. Ads that are pushing other games to you that have more ads. Games based on making working class jobs look fun. Be a barista and fulfill every order or the customers will be angry! Lolololol! Work at a hotel and don't fail, making the demanding customer angry is failing don't fail! Hahahahahahahaaahaaaaahaaaaaaaa it's fun! Run a farm and make money to buy more things to grow and sell to make money to buy more things to grow and sell to make more money to buy more things to grow and sell and and and! Even in your free time you should be thinking about your place in the market economy! Or worse, they're ads for predatory games, whether they're "play our game and win real money!" bullshit or "doctors want you to play this to avoid alzheimer's [if you're old play this game where we'll exploit your confusion about technology to sell you more things.]"

Every free moment you have, every free surface you come across is another opportunity to sell you something. We aren't able to get a break from it in our free time in our own home unless we constantly take steps and make effort to, like installing ad blockers - which youtube and other websites are constantly working against - but those don't even work on your phone or tablet. And the closer to home the advertisement, the more it targets you specifically, because your personal devices, that should be your personal, intimate, private property and space, are exploited to collect data on you to wrench every last cent from your wallet. They want to get to know you, not because they're curious about you, but because they want your money. They don't just see you as a wallet with thumbs, they do so unabashedly and brazenly and aggressively.

This post wasn't about the content of what's being advertised to us. It was about the relentless, instrusive aggression with which advertising invades our privacy and personal space and every inch of public space. We are exposed to hundreds of images daily, none of which are art or even remotely creative or inspiring, but instead demand our attention and our money while ignoring that both have been stripped bare by the mere need to exist from one day to the next.

This post was about the insidious way advertising has embedded itself into culture and consciousness, so much so that in a post trying to call this out, most people's immediate reaction is, "yes, the problem is that I can't afford the thing being advertised" and not "why can't I go three seconds without being advertised to" in the first place. That advertisers continue to pour money into new ways to insert themselves into the average person's life when it's absolutely fucking pointless.

fuzzynecromancer

Just to clarify, there's a bill that would STOP credit card companies from controlling who's allowed to spend money on porn or "risque" (read: queer) content. If you don't think big business should be able to tell you what to spend your own damn money on, call your senators and reps to let them know! It's the Fair Access to Banking Act, H.R.987 in the House, S.410 in the Senate.

emmaubler

Banks and credit cards should not be in the business of making moral judgments about what their customers spend their money on. Their job is to facilitate transactions, period. If it's not illegal, then they should have no say on who buys guns or porn or junk food or any other thing somebody might decide is objectionable.

catblinker

this is an american bill about american companies that, as usual, effects people worldwide. if you're statesian, here's a chance to make something decent of it- put pressure on your politicians to pass this bill and protect queer porn and art, especially transfeminine porn and art!

blazing-butterfly-inactive

Text for H.R.987 - 119th Congress (2025-2026): Fair Access to Banking Act

microsff

The sigil was drawn in salt and ash, the candles lit at the pentagram points, the incantation declaimed.

There was a shimmer - a demon appeared.

"Curious. What ritual is this?"

"I got it from ChatGPT. I included all protections in my prompt!"

"I see," the demon said and stepped out of the sigil.

canvoid

"I-- I don't understand! I followed everything it said --"

"Your first mistake was entrusting your work to the hallucination machine." It reached down to pinch the mixture, give it a sniff. "Potassium chloride? What ash is this?"

"Um." The disciple nudged a bucket with their boot.

"Tastes like ... maple. And potatoes. Blech." It wiped its fingertips clean on their robes. It paused, rubbing its tongues against the roof of its mouth. "Damnation, what did you anoint the candles with? Is that ... PAM?"

The disciple whimpered. "It wasn't specified."

"Pfft. Of course not." It sighed, and extended its tri-fingered hand. "Let me see that incantation." Shakily, the parchment was extended, and snatched with irritation. " 'Bene! Ecce incantatio initiorum ...' What the seven hells is this? You didn't even trim the auto response."

"Well, I don't speak Latin..."

The demon snorted. The parchment sailed over its shoulder to a candle and hovered there, alight, then disappeared in a puff of ash and smoke. "Right. Legally I could take at least a limb for this, but hey, you like your limbs, right? Pretty attached to them, you'd say?" The disciple desperately nodded. "Great. So here's what we're gonna do: you're going to write me an essay --"

"What?!" The disciple gasped, paled. "Wait, no, maybe an arm would be okay..."

"-- shut up. You're going to hand-write a 2,000 word essay -- listen, no -- and you're going to write it on the perils of sourcing research from generative AI. You are going to source this in MLA format -- yes the fuck you are --" tired of the protestations, the demon's hand loosely threatened the human's throat, and quickly made its point, "and you will do this and turn it in in two weeks' time, with a proper summoning ritual. And -- and this part is very important, mind you -- you are going to tell all your little demon-summoner buddies that if this ever happens again I will simply eat your fucking souls and be done with it. Do you understand me?"

The disciple nodded again, with wetter pants.

"Good. Fine." The demon roughly patted the student on the head and retreated back to the ruined glyph where it stood expectant, hands on what must have been its hips. "Alright. Banish me and call me up properly in two weeks. Don't make me come looking for you."

"I -- uh -- well, that is to say, I don't... um."

The demon's shoulders dropped. "You don't know how to banish."

"I don't know how to banish, no."

The demon let loose a series of deep, frustrated grumbles that had some resemblance to speech, enunciated with emphatic gestures, and gave the vague impression of a dinner getting cold. "Get a pen."

"What? Oh, I --"

"G̸̨̙̠͎̯̯̟͕̜͍͌̓͋̍̂̏͌Ē̵̦̯̪̻̼̂͛T̷̨̺̜̠͖̻̮̪͎̖̗̱͇̄͒͑̐̈́̿̏̒̋̆̿͂̓́͘ ̸̧͍̻̗̽̓̃Ā̸͈̰̏̄̾̑́̾̑ ̴̪̰̆̏̐͗̐͝ P̴͔̗͇̯͈̣͊̅̀͒͂͘Ę̴̤̌̒̈́̈́͂̈̓̂͌͒̈́̚͝N̴̡̧̞̯̖͉̯̼͍͉̹̲͉͍̅̇̓̈́̓͗̽̈́̚͜.̸̹͕̠͎̘͆͊͒͋̓̒̈̅͗"

asmuchasidliketo

#writing prompt #flash fiction #my writing #NO ai used #you can pry the em dash from my cold dead hands we had it first tags from above post that deserved to be shared ✨

shithowdy

i thought my laptop was on its last leg because it was running at six billion degrees and using 100% disk space at all times and then i turned off shadows and some other windows effects and it was immediately cured. i just did the same to my roommate's computer and its performance issues were also immediately cured. okay. i guess.

so i guess if you have creaky freezy windows 10/11 try searching "advanced system settings", go to performance settings, and uncheck "show shadows under windows" and anything else you don't want. hope that helps someone else.

shithowdy

hey this is apparently helping a lot of people! adding that on top of this you can also go to settings > personalization > colors and turn off transparency to also boost performance. this wasn't the Big Fix for me but might as well do that too if you're trying to optimize.

shithowdy

past a certain note threshold on tumblr posts you unlock a bloodborne-esque insight and the strange lives of this site's users become visible to you

flipocrite

(x)

theothin

we fucking found them?

asteroidtroglodyte

TIL the reason you don’t find much Lyme’s Disease in California is not because we don’t have Ticks, or Lyme Disease Vectors; but rather: because the Western Fence Lizard (if you live anywhere in California this is your regular Garden Variety Lizard) has adapted a passive immune response that makes their blood lethal to Lyme Disease Bacteria. Any Tick that feeds on one gets its gut cleansed of Lyme Disease as a side effect.

Fucking neat.

iheartvelma

There is a new vaccine going into Phase 3 trials from Valneva and Pfizer as well as a monoclonal antibody-based prophylactic treatment being researched at UMass!

dragon-in-a-fez

"the only cure for this weird disease is the special lizard blood" is a Star Trek TOS plot that escaped into the real world

whencartoonsruletheworld

did i tell u guys i got into an argument on twitter bc i said foxes are dogs and someone tried to bring up their actual fuckin. classification or whatever and i just said “foxes are dogs cause they are fluffye” and they kept arguing with me. the entire time i was like “you will not survive the immigration to tumblr you are lucky we are not there right now”

neopolitanfox

This is especially funny because they aren’t even right. Foxes *ARE* dogs.

trojanhorse8-2

No they aren’t.

supreme-leader-stoat

yes they are. because they are fluffye.

trojanhorse8-2

OK yes they are.

mr-deep-downer

Dog

jooshthepunished-deactivated202

Dog

utah-mountain-drifter-deactivat

Different family, but same order as @pictures-of-dogs

zarabithia12365-deactivated2022

No, they are the same family. They are the same kingdom, phylum, order and family. They separate at the genus.

They’re a dog.

birdsareblooming

yeah they’re fluffye

dacavendishtime

theyre literally not dogs theyre not even fluffy. can we get science tumblr over hear or what!?

birdsareblooming

checkmate athiests

ajarofpickledtears

fluffye

pa-pa-plasma

okay but they literally are dogs, for those who are confused

stele3

If foxes are dogs, then so are wolves, coyotes, dingoes, jackals, and several other extant and extinct species.

Behold! A dog.

lemon-badgeress

of course it’s a dog you buffoon. it’s fluffye.

findingfeather

Why on earth would someone think “BUT IF THEY’RE DOGS SO AR -”

Like yes of course wolves are dogs, where have you been. Jackals are excellent doggies! So are coyotes. Why is this confusing.

theknightlywolfe

I love that this is literally two completely different arguments running simultaneously.

derinthescarletpescatarian

That guy up there who said they’re not even fluffy was thinking of sharks

thebelovedlion

sharks are also dogs. ravenous water dogs, but still dogs

derinthescarletpescatarian

Sharks can NOT be dogs they are SMOOTH

porcupine-girl

Tags via @jenroses

gabyluvsxena

sharks are smooth dogs

grubby-gerblin

BEHOLD, a SHARK

bamboozled-bumblefuck

17 clown car pileup 84 injured 193 dead

melgillman

Here’s the new 24 hour comic I drew this year! This one is called THE KING’S FOREST. cw: blood, violence

rayj4ck

How the fuck did you make that last panel say so many things without using any words at all that’s so fucking cool.

mossworm

I feel like "trump wants to throw away literal dinosaur fossils" would really turn heads if we actually had a functional opposition party in this country to get messages out, but I guess I'll just have to get a paint pen and write it on my car. fine, I'll do it.

mossworm

Trump and friends are trying to get rid of IMLS (Institute of Museum and Library Science, USA Federal agency). Everyone is on leave/in admin limbo while the DOGE kids do whatever and lock people out of their emails. Already-awarded federal grants (that's how I get paid) for museums and libraries are now being terminated early via executive order. Museums are already closing (to be fair it has been bad for decades) and a lot of large and delicate fossil material will need new homes with space and funding, which almost no one has. It's bad. I don't know what to do except to keep working and occasionally scream into the internet.

mossworm

Not trying to be a bummer, but this is pretty much the only thing anyone at my job can think about right now. I can only speak for museums, but specimens need periodical tending or they will decay or get lost. Grant funding is how we do everything: it's how temporary workers get paid, how we get access to subscription-based software, and it's how we buy new label paper for cripes' sake. We are still fighting, but everyone is honestly loopy with stress all the time now. People should know what they are destroying.

mossworm

The staff of the Institute of Museum and Library Services was placed on administrative leave Monday morning, following a meeting between IML

shittysplitty

Join us and Show Up #ForOurLibraries.

The ALA (American Library Association) has a page on how to help the IMLS and ways to contact your members of Congress! They even have an email form that literally only takes a minute to complete!

specimentality

There isn’t a ton of news coverage discussing this from a paleo standpoint but here’s the SVP letter to the senate

slavery

macbethz

Fuck I’m at a fencing tournament and literally a minute after I reblogged this my dad told me that he talked to the point people and I’m probably going to win a medal.

seananmcguire

BURN BAGEL BURN

gothiccharmschool

OH WHY NOT?

harukami

I need to follow up to say I reblogged this last night, and this morning I got some of the best news of my life, like, a life dream come true news thing.

Bagel what are your powers

acabosetotal

FUCK, I though it was just another lucky meme but LISTEN. Since a week ago I was waiting a phone call to confirm me if I got a job or not in my university. I reblogged this yesterday’s night “just for fun and because I don’t want any bagel to be mad with me”, and today’s afternoon, while I was losing my time as always, the professor I was supposed to work with called me and asked me for my personal information to start working with her.

THE BAGEL POWERS ARE WAY TOO MUCH FOR THIS WORLD

token-white-friend

I GOT A JOB THE DAY AFTER MY QUEUE POSTED THIS THE FIRST TIME AND I JUST REALIZED IT WHEN I SAW IT AGAIN HOLY GOD

noodle-dragon

The bagel hasn’t let me down yet!

blackcatgodess

I got a job offer after reblogging the bagel. Believe in the bagel!

anayely420

🙏🏼

sonsfantasies

Worth a try lol

theblizzardsix

i could use some good news or even a good girl

pantspooplover

Go lil bagle! Show me your power!

itaachiyama-moved

Okii then!

blastlight

THIS IS THE FIRST THING ON MY BLOG

I GOT ASKED OUT FOR THE FIRST TIME AFTER I REBLOGGED IT

cuappatea-deactivated20200216

wait but whats happening with the bagel tho

dukemz

It’s burning, as is everything I’ve hoped for whenever I’ve reblogged a post like this

gone-dw-abt-it-deactivated20260

I just kinda wanna watch something burn?

dukemz

Mood

rip-paramour

You guys didn’t listen when I said Bagels hold an ancient and wonderous power.

bloomcrys

Why the fuck not

skinth1n

mr bagel do your thing

strawberry-lemonade

I HOPE THEY TELL ME I’M GONNA BE BURNED AT THE STAKE

trashy-artist-here-deactivated2

Alright

pridepotatoz

Alrighty then- bagel don’t let me down!

takisdaddy

Titty

stup1d-idi0t-deactivated2021092

Luv u bagel

yanderefantasies

Help sidhjdjhfjf

ladytuarach

myrandomstuffpage

I did not know…

Here’s the link:

The American Medical Association (AMA) is the largest and only national association that convenes 190+ state and specialty medical societies

Pay attention please, this is going to get real bad real quick and we literally have anti science assholes now in charge so don’t expect help from DC.

kurbiismind

Oh hey, this is how you commission an artist >:)

Get them here: https://imgur.com/a/BA88oPx These are free but if you could support me a bit that would be appreciated :) https://ko-fi.com/kurbiismind

catgirlapologist

isn't it insane though how schizophrenic people are viewed as violent and dangerous by the majority of society when in reality schizophrenic people are nearly 14 times more likely to be on the receiving end of violence than to be the perpetrators...

catgirlapologist

schizophrenic person: makes a post trying to raise awareness about the disproportionate abuse and harmful stereotypes schizophrenic people face

yall: "yeah im not gonna reblog this they used the word ins*ne which is so problematic ://"

truth-spatter

What the fuck happens that changes these stats to such a massive degree?

catgirlapologist

1) schizophrenia hardly ever causes people to be violent so schizophrenic people aren’t more likely to be violent than anyone else

2) schizophrenic people’s autonomy is often taken away from them because of their schizophrenia. because the authorities and mental healthcare providers often automatically assume schizophrenic people to be violent, they’re more likely to immediately react to schizophrenic people's symptoms with violence, without even knowing for sure said schizophrenic person was going to be violent. all of this causes schizophrenic people to be more likely of being victims of violence and abuse. schizophrenic people also have a harder time getting out of abusive households because of the risk of their autonomy being taken away. if a schizophrenic person’s relative or partner is abusive, often the schizophrenic person has no way out of the situation, both because our disconnect from reality can result in us being easier to manipulate, and because the system is built in a way that it takes away our autonomy because of our condition.

catgirlapologist

also schizophrenic people and psychotic people in general, please do a lot of research before picking a provider for your own sake, and if they try to treat your psychosis in a way that you think is harmful then don’t hesitate to switch providers. your safety and wellbeing should be a priority over everything else.

catgirlapologist

can y'all please reblog this version instead

palant1r

the virgin loss.jpg versus the chad xkcd Seven Years

palant1r

ms-demeanor

a-real-human-person-not-fake

Don’t forget the latest version, Ten Years

rozentias-deactivated20240103

in the latest cyber-news: the internet archive has lost their case against 4 major publishing houses (verge article). they’re going to appeal, but this is still a bad outcome. the fate of the internet is currently hanging in the balance because 4 multibillionare publishing groups missed out on like $15 of combined revenue during the pandemic because of the archive’s online library service. it’s so fucking stupid.

for those who don’t know what the internet archive is, it’s a virtual library full of media. books, magazines, recordings, visuals, flash games, websites - a lot of these things either don’t exist anymore or cannot be found & bought. heard of the wayback machine? that’s part of the internet archive. it is the most important website to exist, and i don’t say that lightly. if the internet archive goes down, the cultural loss will be immeasurable.

so how can you help?

boycott the publishing companies involved in this. they’re absolute ghouls, frankly, and don’t deserve a penny. the companies involved are harpercollins (imprints), wiley (imprints), penguin random house llc (imprints), and hachette book group (imprints). make sure the websites are set to your location as it may differ worldwide.

learn to torrent. download a torrent client (i recommend transmission), a vpn (i recommend protonvpn - sign up and choose the area that’s closest to your continent/country), and hit up /r/piracy on reddit for websites. with torrenting, you can get (almost) any media you want for free in high quality, with add-ons such as subtitles, and with no risks of loss. i would also recommend getting into the habit of watching stuff online for free. the less you can pay to a giant corporation, the better.

get into the habit of downloading and archiving materials. find a TB external hard drive, ideally the higher the better. it’ll probably cost around $60 for 1TB and continue to go up, but they’re so so useful. if you can’t afford a drive, look for any GB harddrives or memory sticks you have lying around and just fill them up. videos, pdfs, magazines, songs, movies, games - anything you can rip and download and fit on there, do it, because nothing is permanent.

donate to the internet archive. this is the most important option on the list. the IA relies entirely on funding, and it’s going to need more to fight this case. whatever you can donate, do it. i promise it’s helpful.

and finally…

charaznablescanontoyota

cannot stress enough that donating to the internet archive to help them appeal this without going broke is the most important thing you can do right now. my day job revolves around fulfilling digital article and book scan requests at an academic library and a huge part of that is borrowing from other libraries that do controlled digital lending (incl. the internet archive!). copyright law is already hugely restrictive on what we can and can't lend, and we absolutely don't have the option to pirate anything for our patrons due to being a large academic institution. it's difficult to overstate just how bad this ruling could end up being for libraries that have digital lending programs, esp ones that rely on CDR for old/archival/hard-to-find texts.

memewhore

bananahomo

I reblogged this last month, tagged it, and said “might as well see if it works.” I used this video as a reference to find all the forms that i needed (which is A LOT, especially if you’re a dependent) and sent them through the mail, not really allowing myself to hope.

dude.