Feel free to be yourself

Don't even start with shipping... just don't 

[eleni-anz]

Ummm byee

[snumblesaurus]

So I kind of hate that Putin is trying to restrict the flow of information into Russia so that he can control the narrative, so for my Russian friends, here is my guide on

How to get around internet censorship and maintain internet privacy

This will be an extremely long post 😅

Priorities

Download the Tor Browser

This will hopefully help you access the internet regardless of Russian government bans. It’s a little slow, but better than nothing. It hides your IP address from the internet, so it’s kind of like using a VPN. A very basic summary of how Tor works: your internet traffic is routed through several “nodes”. The Entry Node, can see your IP address but has no idea what data you’re sending, and this goes through several middle nodes, until it reaches the Exit Node. The Exit Node can see what data you’re sending, but it can’t see your IP address so it doesn’t know WHO sent it. That’s why it’s a good idea to do nothing identifying when using the Tor Browser, like writing personal information. Here’s a blog post with more detailed information about the Tor Browser.

Get a VPN

VPNs are often used to get around government internet restrictions. Russia will probably not be able to do much about it. However, not all VPNs are created equal. Nearly all of the free VPNs are a scam that turn around and sell your data, so free VPNs are not secure. The only exception to this is ProtonVPN which has a free tier, but it’s very slow. Basically the only good VPN is one you pay for. When choosing a VPN, be aware of where the company is based, because if a VPN company is based in the USA, it will have to comply USA privacy laws. So choose a VPN based in a country that has good privacy laws. A great one is Mullvad VPN, which is based in Sweden. But for the purposes of Russia, just making sure your VPN is not Russian or in a country sympathetic to Russia is probably good enough.

Alternative Front-Ends A frontend is the the part of a website which the user interacts with directly. To browse the contents of websites, you usually have to visit them. However, many people have made alternative privacy-respecting frontends to popular websites that allow you to see the site’s content without actually visiting the website. This helps avoid tracking, data-collection, and even countries’ attempts to ban websites. Twitter is banned in Russia right now, but using all an alternative frontend to Twitter works (according to my Russian friend).

Google Translate

Lingva Translate / Instances

SimplyTranslate / Instances

some instances allow you to choose to translate with several other services (such as DeepL)

Imgur

Rimgo / Instances

Instagram

Bibliogram / Instances

Medium

Scribe / Instance

Reddit

Libreddit / Instances

Teddit / Instances

TikTok

ProxiTok / Instance

Twitter

Nitter / Instances

Wikipedia

Wikiless / Instances

YouTube

Invidious / Instances

Piped / Instances

YouTube Music

Beatbump / Instance

If anyone knows of one of these for Tumblr please let me know. I found this site called Tumgir but it looks sketchy and unlike the rest of the ones I listed, it’s not open-source. So visit with caution, but I’m mentioning it because it might be better than nothing.

There are also these browser extensions that automatically redirect site links to the available alternatives:

Mozilla Firefox

LibRedirect - Redirects YouTube, YT Music, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, Imgur, Reddit, Wikipedia, Medium, etc.

Google Chrome

Privacy Redirect - Redirects Google Maps, Google Search, Instagram, Reddit, Twitter, Youtube.

iPhone (iOS 15+) Safari

Privacy Redirect - Twitter, Reddit, YouTube, Instagram, Google Translate, Google maps, Google Search, Medium

Android

UntrackMe - Google Maps, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube

Messaging / Communication

Matrix is a federated and decentralized End-to-End Encrypted (E2EE) messaging with many platforms, the most popular of which is Element. It’s like Discord, but worse. It’s getting better over time though! You can even use a a throwaway email to sign-up.

If you’re Russian you likely already know about Telegram, but MAKE SURE you’re aware that only Secret Chats are End-to-End Encrypted. So don’t say anything that would get you in trouble outside of a Secret Chat.

End Notes

China is way better at internet censorship. They’ve had years to build the infrastructure to control the flow of information online. And yet, the Chinese people still manage to “climb the wall” and find ways around this. Russia is new to this game and doesn’t have the resources China does. So I really doubt it’ll be that hard to get around their attempts to block websites. Have faith! And feel free to DM me for more info cause this post just scratches the surface for things you can do tbh.

[gracelesso]

Additionally, if you’re struggling to access non-state news sources, the BBC (whose coverage of Ukraine so far has been excellent and which has now been blocked in Russia) has set up alternative methods to access its reporting.

It is also providing shortwave radio coverage in English, available in Ukraine and parts of Russia, on 15735 kHz and 5875 kHz.

Text version below:

Advice on accessing BBC News

To access the BBC, circumvention tools can be used, such as the Psiphon app (Android, iOS, Windows, Mac).

The Tor Browser also has a dedicated BBC site, on this URL: https://www.bbcnewsd73hkzno2ini43t4gblxvycyac5aw4gnv7t2rccijh7745uqd.onion/

Please note the BBC site for Tor works only on the Tor Browser, or a similar browser (such as Onion Browser for iPhones).

If you find it difficult to get the two applications above from AppStore or Google Play Store, please send a blank email to [email protected] or [email protected], respectively. You will then be sent an email with a direct and safe download link.

[kendallroy-deactivated20210425]

idk who needs to hear this but when your english teacher asks you to explain why an author chose to use a specific metaphor or literary device, it’s not because you won’t be able to function in real-world society without the essential knowledge of gatsby’s green light or whatever, it’s because that process develops your abilities to parse a text for meaning and fill in gaps in information by yourself, and if you’re wondering what happens when you DON’T develop an adult level of reading comprehension, look no further than the dizzying array of examples right here on tumblr dot com

[the-movemnt-deactivated20170912]

this is true love y’all (x) | follow @the-movemnt

[screengeniuz]

😂

❤️

[enchantechante]

pls let this be the start of a trend

[warbutt]

retweet this and your dream job will come into your life

[internetsurfing]

ok y'all this is crazy i reblogged this today and i just got offered a job. what the fuck

[ummno]

Worked last year. Give it a whirl, kids.

[plain-and-simple-ninja]

So what things can I post now?

^ Forget about that, my dear. I’ll explain it to you in simpler words, based on my own experiences. Absolutely illegal things:

* anything about Star Trek outfits

( @dykespacenine; @ambassadorquark; @iridanus )

* two dudes being bros, a.k.a. screenshots from movies with male characters touching or kissing or being remotely close

( @vulcankisseshuman; @myself :P)

* Bulk & Skull sitting at the beach or crossdressing

( @bulknskull-blog )

* Talaxian feet (oh god I actually agree on that one)

( @feezalphlox )

* Julian Bashir in general (too twinky to ever be considred SFW)

( @loudfederationscreeching )

* ppl throwing shadows in the dessert

( @harrietjones1066 )

* football

( @goatye )

* female OR Kirk’s nipples

* Eurovision (again, I agree)

( @twoy; @crxstalcas )

* visible butts (context is not important)

( @pregers; @camilleflyingrotten )

* Kirk and Spock kissing OR Vulcan-kissing (kinky!)

( @trekart; @warpfactornonsense; @spacelovefanart; @spockt )

and a lot more things (feel free to add your own exaples!).

(I’m pretty sure this post will be haram too :P).

What can you post then?

Well, some porn that somehow slipped through algorithms, cubistic explicit fanart, things that you actually tag as NSFW, but Tumblr disagree… I don’t know, it’s a lottery.

(I @ed at you all so you can - if you want - check your posts and let them be reviewed again since they are obviously flagged wrong, but if you don’t want screenshot of your post here - LET ME KNOW, I’LL DELETE IT, ok?)

[pikkulaku]

Imagine being a kid in school. Your teacher comes up with an idea for class picture. Every student will draw pictures of their friends.

Everyone starts drawing enthusiasticly, and can’t wait to see what they look like in the drawings. When pictures are ready you notice that popular students have more pictures than rest, but nobody has done a drawing of you. The teacher notices that too, and asks if someone would do your picture. To your horror the class clown takes the job, and comes up with a caricature of you. Others are laughing, but you’re not. You feel awful. The teacher notices that. and asks again someone to do a drawing of you. One of the ‘good students’ starts drawing, but the result is forced. It’s just a drawing of a generic child wearing a shirt of same color as you a wearing. There’s no spirit, no soul in it. You start sensing that the class is geting frustrated with you. They want to be done with this. You ask quietly the teacher if you could do a drawing yourself.

After school your classmates confront you. Why did you have to make such a big deal out of it? The first picture was funny. The second picture was just fine! The drawing you did yourself wasn’t right, do you think you are that good-looking? There were other kids who got only one or two pictures of themselves. Who are you to demand special treatment? Maybe there would have been a picture of you if you weren’t such annoying baby, nobody likes you anyway, and nobody’s going to if you keep on being like that, you don’t deserve a drawing!

This could be story of bullying, but it’s also about how I see portraying LGBTQ+-people and PoC in mainstream entertainment.

Thanks to Fandoms and Feminism for inspiration!

[fandomsandfeminism]

This is a great metaphor. 

[vicepresidentgay]

This is the most accurate fucking post I’ve ever seen in my life oh my god.

[spiritscraft-deactivated2025031]

weeping

[naamahdarling]

This is incredible. A perfect metaphor. And it really points out how fucking childish it is to insist that representation does not matter.

[cielo-e-voragine]

[macgregor13mathers-deactivated2]

Most so-called Hollywood Elites didn’t have their daddy’s giving them millions of dollars every year.

[sua-sponte-deactivated20200331]

I’m watching that documentary “Before Stonewall” about gay history pre-1969, and uncovered something which I think is interesting.

The documentary includes a brief clip of a 1954 televised newscast about the rise of homosexuality. The host of the program interviewed psychologists, a police officer, and one “known homosexual”. The “known homosexual” is 22 years old. He identifies himself as Curtis White, which is a pseudonym; his name is actually Dale Olson.

So I tracked down the newscast. According to what I can find, Dale Olson may have been the first gay man to appear openly on television and defend his sexual orientation. He explains that there’s nothing wrong with him mentally and he’s never been arrested. When asked whether he’d take a cure if it existed, he says no. When asked whether his family knows he’s gay, he says that they didn’t up until tonight, but he guesses they’re going to find out, and he’ll probably be fired from his job as well. So of course the host is like …why are you doing this interview then? and Dale Olson, cool as cucumber pie, says “I think that this way I can be a little useful to someone besides myself.”

1954. 22 years old. Balls of pure titanium.

Despite the pseudonym, Dale’s boss did indeed recognize him from the TV program, and he was promptly fired the next day. He wrote into ONE magazine six months later to reassure readers that he had gotten a new job at a higher salary.

Curious about what became of him, I looked into his life a little further. It turns out that he ultimately became a very successful publicity agent. He promoted the Rocky movies and Superman. Not only that, but get this: Dale represented Rock Hudson, and he was the person who convinced him to disclose that he had AIDS! He wrote the statement Rock read. And as we know, Rock Hudson’s disclosure had a very significant effect on the national conversation about AIDS in the U.S.

It appears that no one has made the connection between Dale Olson the publicity agent instrumental in the AIDS debate and Dale Olson the 22-year-old first openly gay man on TV. So I thought I’d make it. For Pride month, an unsung gay hero.

[argumate]

dude had guts, someone needs to update his Wikipedia page

[cursedimages]

[commodorecliche]

[labambinafantasma-deactivated20]

If you’re European, in a couple of weeks you will be denied any and all access to fandom contents on Tumblr and everywhere else on the internet. Here’s why.

On June, 20th the JURI of European Parliament approved of the articles 11 and 13 of the new Copyright Law. These articles are also known as the “Link Tax” and the “Censorship Machines” articles.

Articles 13 in particular forces every internet platform to filter all the contents we upload online, ending once and for all the fandom culture. Which means you won’t be able to upload any type of fandom works like fan arts, fan fictions, gif sets from your favourite films and series, edits, because it’s all copyrighted material. And you won’t also be able to share, enjoy or download other’s contents, because the use of links will be completely restricted.

But not everything’s lost yet. There’s another round of voting scheduled for the early days of July.

What you can do now to save our internet, is to share these informations with all of your family members and friends, and to ask to your MEP (the members of the European Parliament from your country) to vote NO at the next round, to vote against articles 11 and 13.

Here you can find more news and all the details to contact your MEP:

https://saveyourinternet.eu

Also, sign and share this petition:

https://www.change.org/p/european-parliament-stop-the-censorship-machinery-save-the-internet?recruiter=50668942&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=psf_combo_share_initial

We have just a couple of weeks to stop this complete madness, don’t let them dictating the way we enjoy our internet.

#SaveYourInternet now!

[theconqueeror]

It’s funny how y'all will reblog any and all US things but when whole Europe might lose access to internet then everything is quiet.

[starlingsongs-deactivated201608]

Knowing that trans women of color started the movement in the united states and were literally immediately erased and excluded from what they started is the most deeply jading knowledge.

It is the original sin of the so-called queer community and it damns it from the cradle.

[starlingsongs-deactivated201608]

no white gay boy will ever reblog this, watch:

[lesbian-mimikyu]

no white gay will reblog this

[queerfemme]

no white lgb person will reblog this

[lgbtqkidsrock]

Without Stonewall, without the efforts of Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera, the LGBTQ Community wouldn’t be where it is today. Don’t forget the roots, don’t forget the catalyst.

[cyberlesbiab-deactivated2021052]

and then TERFs wanna be like, “hmm well the LGBT community existed before Stonewall!”

but like…Becky, of course LGBTQ+ people existed before Stonewall. We’ve all existed since the beginning of time. But the movement got a shock to its senses, a jump-start, a rocket-into-space when that glass shattered via Marsha P. Johnson, and when Sylvia Rivera was up on-stage protesting guess who was on the sidelines heckling her?

The same fuckers who won’t ever reblog or acknowledge this

[bitterbearsf]

My apologies to the original poster as I photo captured this post to add to the thread-I reposted this last year for pride and expect to repost it every year I have left-it’s our history people.

[ramirezbundydahmer]

When the Nazi concentration camps were liberated by the Allies, it was a time of great jubilation for the tens of thousands of people incarcerated in them. But an often forgotten fact of this time is that prisoners who happened to be wearing the pink triangle (the Nazis’ way of marking and identifying homosexuals) were forced to serve out the rest of their sentence. This was due to a part of German law simply known as “Paragraph 175” which criminalized homosexuality. The law wasn’t repealed until 1969.

[crypto-keynesian]

This should be required learning, internationally. 

[stripedsilverfeline]

You need to know this. You need to remember this. This is not something to swept under the carpet nor be forgotten. 

Never. Too many have died for the way they have loved. That needs stop now. 

Make it stop? 

[hollowoutmybody]

I did a report on this in my World History class my sophomore year of high school. It was incredibly unsettling.

[pearlclam]

My teacher shown the class this. Mostly everyone in the class felt uncomfortable. 

[sashadechagny]

I have reblogged this in the past, but it is so ironic that it comes across my dash right now. I a currently working as a docent at my city’s Holocaust Education Center (( I say currently because I’ve also done research and translation for them )) and out current exhibit is one on loan from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum ((USHMM)). This is a little known historical fact that Paragraph 175 was not repealed after the war and those convicted under Nazi laws as a danger to society because they were gay were not released because they had be convicted in a court of law. There was no liberation or justice for them as they weren’t considered criminals, or even victims for that matter. They were criminals who remained persecuted and ostracized and kept on the fringes of society for decades after the war had been won. Paragraph175 wasn’t actually repealed until 1994. And it was only in May 2002, that the German parliament completed legislation to pardon all homosexuals convicted under Paragraph175 during the Nazi era. History has forgotten about these men and women — please educate yourselves so this does not happen again. Remember this history. Remember them.

[jehovahhthickness]

@mindlesshumor ok how the fuck did I miss this when I’ve studied The Holocaust like nobody’s business??? wtf

[thereadersmuse]

Because the history we have left regarding it is literally the contents of this first hand account.

It is a thin little book.

When I first opened it, I wondered why it was so thin.

Why there wasn’t other books like it.

Other first hand accounts.

By the time I finished it, I didn’t wonder anymore.

[jeaniefranklins]

Further reading:

I, Pierre Seel, Deported Homosexual: A Memoir of Nazi Terror by Pierre Seel

An Underground Life: Memoirs of a Gay Jew in Nazi Berlin by Gad Beck

The Pink Triangle: The Nazi War Against Homosexuals by Richard Plant

Branded By The Pink Triangle by Ken Setterington

Bent by Martin Sherman (fiction; however, it’s often credited with bringing attention to gay Holocaust victims for the first time since the war ended)

[gemfyre]

This is one of the memorial sculptures in Dachau.  It was erected in the early 60s and is missing the pink triangles.  Because in the early 60s, homosexuality was still a crime in most of the world. Our tour guide explained why the pink triangles have not been added later - if they were, then folks would assume that they had always been there.  This way people ask “why aren’t there pink triangles?” and somebody can explain why - because in some ways, the rest of the world was as bass-ackwards as Nazi Germany.

[ithelpstodream]

[cheaphalloweencostume]

I love the sims because I love architecture, interior design, and playing god

[shinimegami]

[thestormscrolls]

no way in hell am i passing this up

[6-couture-deactivated20171109]

a student from uni scrolled past this and ended up failing all of his courses, even the ones he thought he passed… not gonna take this chance.

[angistudy]

just for luck 😭

[st0dent]

not taking any chances

[saltysongfury-deactivated202006]

[starshein]

Listen up. There is literally an app that can help you avoid self harm and I don’t know why we aren’t talking about it.

Calm Harm can be tailored to your needs and will provide strategies to help you get past those crucial moments of wanting to harm.

It’s also totally FREE.

once again, it’s called CALM HARM