Since Israel and the US have started bombing Iran, Israel has bombed Gaza almost every single day. Conditions in the strip grow even rockier than they were before. Food scarcity is a huge problem and the medical needs of the people are not being met. People are dying.
Please consider helping my friend Hamza, whose large family is currently struggling with their health due to malnutrition. His fundraiser is here.
Art school made me realise that no matter how bad the imposter syndrome got, no matter how different every artist was, we all had different qualities the other admired.
Perhaps I haven't paid enough attention, but I haven't seen anything online or in the news about this, or rather, I've stopped seeing anything about Palestine, and that's unfortunate. Keep in mind that Israel considers the Palestinian government and many humanitarian and charitable organizations to be terrorist entities, which automatically labels us Palestinians as terrorists.
Legislation initiated by far-right Otzma Yehudit party drew mounting criticism from opponents and rights groups as it moved through the Knes
Please don't like or reblog anything posted by @itxjester
they're a shameless reposter who improperly credits, if at all, and is refusing to cooperate by repeatedly ignoring pleas to fix their credits.
DO NOT HARRASS THEM, ONLY BLOCK AND MUTE - starve them of the attention they're seeking by doing this.
I dmed them on monday to fix this post, which they took from my account without permission and INCORRECTLY CREDITED TO SOMEONE ELSE.
I gave them a 48 hour window to fix the post and to also delete the version they uploaded to twitter (which was dropped there also with incorrect credits) - otherwise I'm making this a public problem.
the 48 hours are up and even with a 10 hour heads up on twitter to check their dms on tumblr, they blatantly ignored me on BOTH PLATFORMS and just went and reuploaded another artist's work.
Screenshots of the tumblr dms:
I basically made exactly the same demands on twitter too when I gave the heads up there, can show screenshots if wanted.
I tried to be reasonable and give the benefit of the doubt in attempting to resolve this diplomatically, but I'm not about to let some reposter walk all over me, so I'm making good on my threat and giving a public warning to not interact with this account.
here's btw an artwork they reposted from @littlevioletart and never credited, even after having it pointed out to them in the comments.
I don't think they're that big of a problem over here on tumblr, but they sure get a lotta likes and retweets on their twitter for it.
I'm gonna block them on both platforms now.
EDIT:
Apparently they tried to com scam someone as well hoooly fuck what a piece of shit 💀
I wasn't originally going to but I'm definitely making a twitter version of this post next bc that's unbelievably scummy and their account gets notably more attention over there, oof
OK, so while it is never a bad decision to delete social media from your devices (seriously, do it, get rid of as much of it as you can), this post is based on misinformation.
The terms of service everyone is freaking out about are more or less unchanged from what they were prior to the sale. The highlighted section in the pictures here is "Information You Provide" - which is to say, it is detailing how TikTok handles information that YOU PUBLISH on their app. If you post a video where you say something like "as a biracial New Yorker..." or "as a queer person," then you have personally and voluntarily published that information about yourself, and TikTok will store it alongside the rest of the data they have on you.
TikTok was already collecting all of that information, it was already selling all of that information to the highest bidder, and so are all of its competitors. If you're on Instagram, they are also tracking and selling that information, if you use any of Google's apps, it's the same deal. Hell, if you have installed a third party weather app or an app that identifies bird calls or a ticket app for your local public transport, or a period tracker or a news app or calendar or music player or literally any free-to-play mobile game, there's a better-than-average chance that they are collecting and selling that kind of data about you.
The major change now that TikTok has been purchased is not how much information it is extracting from you. The volume remains largely unchanged, ByteDance is a market leader in that regard. If the US government wanted to use TikTok data to identify dissenters, they could almost certainly simply purchase that data from ByteDance and feed it to Palantir the same as they do data from Meta and Google.
The greater worry about the US TikTok app is that the new government affiliated ownership will implement speech-control and heavy-handed algorithmic censorship on the US side of the app, since the gov't push to acquire the app seems to have been prompted in no small part by a panic that the app was used to disseminate information about the Gaza genocide in a way the US government couldn't easily control or interfere with.
It's also a sale that was heavily pushed for by Meta and Google, who have been extremely keen to both neuter TikTok as a competitor in the social video space, AND acquire their technical information and content serving algorithms to optimize their own products to be more competitive. Which, by the way, this is also relevant information: ONLY the US version of the app is now controlled by US billionaire interests, the global version used by everyone else in the world remains under the control of ByteDance, and by extension the Chinese government.
To be clear, I'm not recommending that anyone should be on TikTok, and I am not saying that the amount of identifying private data that these apps collect from you isn't fucking horrifying and invasive and dangerous.
I'm saying that people flying into a panic over supposedly "new" dystopian terms of service are either jumping at shadows, or else are rather cynically trying to farm engagement by playing on people's fears to prompt sharing and reposting. Panicking doesn't help anyone, and spreading misinformation doesn't help either.
Yes, everyone should be especially wary of the US branch of TikTok after the sale, but they didn't hide their nefarious doomsday plot in a ToS update like cartoon villains. They bought the app in part because it was already doing all the nefarious invasive data-collection we're afraid of, but it was under the ownership of a foreign authoritarian regime, and they wanted to cut out the middle-man.
If you want to start protecting your privacy online, deleting as much social media as possible from all of your devices is a very good place to start, but just panic-deleting TikTok is not going to make you any safer. At best it'll create a false sense of security while fourteen other apps on your phone harvest all the same data for all the same data-brokers. Yelling at other people for still being on the app won't help either, that is mostly just a way to draw a false demarcation line that you can feel better about being on the "right" side of.
Absolutely uninstall TikTok, but do it based on a factual understanding of what these apps are and how online privacy works, not because someone posted a breathless set of screenshots and the word "DYSTOPIAN!!!" on tumblr dot com.
(this list is mainly ways non-locals can donate but by extension offers a lot of resources and places to volunteer in the Twin Cities + there are specific ways to donate time under the cut which can be adjusted to your local neighborhood)
full credit to cataloo from r/minnesota [x]
🩵Immigrant support
Immigrant Defense Network – coalition of 90+ groups organizing rapid response and collecting evidence.
Immigrant Law Center of MN – free immigration legal representation to low-income immigrants and refugees.
COPAL – advocacy, organizing, phone hotline. Focus on Latine community.
Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Committee (MIRAC) – education and protest organizing.
Interfaith Coalition on Immigration – advocacy, aid, events.
Monarca MN – training and phone hotline.
Unidos MN – education, protests, advocacy.
Center for Victims of Torture – advocacy and mental health services for immigrants and refugees.
International Institute of Minnesota – refugee resettlement group that provides support and legal help to vulnerable new-to-country families.
Lutheran Social Service of Minnesota – offers services to refugees, including legal aid to non-citizens.
🩵Food support
If local, food donations are welcome, otherwise monetary donations help these types of orgs source what is most needed
VEAP
Second Harvest Heartland
Every Meal
The Food Group
Meals on Wheels MN
Find a local food shelf
🩵Mutual aid funds & community support
Community Aid Network
Twin Cities Trans Mutual Aid
Leo's Tow (Venmo @leostowingmn) is towing cars back to families if a car is stranded when someone is detained.
🩵More links
MN50501 Mutual Aid Linktree – well-organized list of various Twin Cities groups.
Mplsmutualaid Linktree – many neighborhood and individual GoFundMes listed here.
Mpls.St.Paul Magazine – see Food Drives and Fundraisers.
Stand with Minnesota – extensive list of organizations, mutual aid, and crowdfunding campaigns.
🩵Donate blood
Memorial Blood Center declared a blood emergency on Tuesday, Jan 13. MBC is the blood supplier for both tier 1 trauma hospitals in the metro area (Hennepin County Medical Center and North Memorial Health).
American Red Cross
🩵Donate food or other goods
Mpls.St.Paul Magazine – see Food Drives and Fundraisers.
Volunteer your time (under the cut)
🩵Mutual aid
Reach out to your neighbors – especially if you know they are staying home right now – and ask if they need groceries or toiletry items. Offer to pick up prescriptions, give rides, or shovel their driveway. If you know them well, bring them a treat that you know they'll enjoy. Or just ask them how they're doing and let them know you are there to support.
Connect with any of the orgs above and see if they are looking for volunteers.
Connect with a church or mosque in your area. From u/MuddieMaeSuggins: "I know a lot of regular Redditors are not religious (myself included) but like it or not this is a where a lot of community organizing happens, especially in immigrant communities."
Connect with your local school's admin office and/or their PTA. It's ok to reach out even if you don't have kids at the school. PTAs are organizing mutual aid for school families, safe rides, school observers.
🩵Activism
Find an official protest or other event via Indivisible, 50501, FREE AMERICA, or MIRAC. Students at many high schools are staging walk-outs; if your local school is doing this, reach out to school leadership or the PTA and ask how you can support as a community member.
Join the effort to stop Hilton from housing ICE by booking hotel rooms and then cancelling at the last minute. This action can be done from home! The effort is being organized by Sunrise Movement, who are telling activists to target specific hotels one-by-one. More info: SHUT DOWN HILTON
Find people in your area who are actively monitoring ICE and/or stationing themselves in high-traffic areas and ask how you can help. Check for local FB events where people are organizing and just show up.
At minimum, read the COPAL Handbook before you go out to observe. The DFL, Monarca, and other orgs have been hosting online trainings for constitutional observers (though these fill up quickly).
When you see ICE in action, start recording. Be as loud and as disruptive as possible: honk your horn, set off your car alarm, blow your whistle. Let people know that ICE is in the area. If you see someone being detained, try to get their name and a phone number to call their emergency contact.
If you do not feel comfortable observing ICE in person, there are ways you can support from home. Just ask the people who are organizing in your area. I have social anxiety, and I had never participated in any kind of political action before this past Saturday. If I can do it, you can!
Local organizers are requesting that people who help monitor ICE DO NOT participate in 1-to-1 mutual aid efforts, as these can put the families you are helping at risk.
If you have friends/acquaintances who are sympathetic but not politically active, reach out to them. Show them that they're not alone in feeling helpless. Pick a few low-commitment actions from this list and do them together.
why is everything doing a "wrapped" now? why are you self admitting to storing my data and then presenting it back to me like we are having fun. discord and youtube and whatever else do not need a wrapped
I love when an artist does something as a joke but then obviously thinks about it until they trick themselves into being into it. like haha I drew them in the green alien au where they're both green aliens who say gleepblorp [three days later] I drew another green alien picture
