If you haven't heard, the em dash has been getting a lot of attention lately…
Because it was trained on pirated work—including freely accessible online writing (like fanfic, academic texts)—ChatGPT picked up patterns and quirks native to human writing.
Including (sigh) the em dash.
There are other victims here (RIP tapestry and delve 🫠), but the appropriation of the em dash—a punctuation mark beloved by writers everywhere—feels especially personal.
A kind of low-grade panic is ensuing. Writers who once memed their own em dash overuse—the greatest punctuation mark ever to grace the control-freak’s lexicon, frankly—are suddenly backing away to avoid accusations.
No. More. We have centuries of dash-abusing writers behind us. We will not sit quietly while AI repurposes our beloved stilted aside—or the just-one-more clarification the sentence demands—or the dramatic pause your comma could never—etc.
You don’t write like AI—AI writes like you.
Defend the em dash.
(Feel free to download/share/stick it where it matters!)
If this post reaches your dash after Jan 1st- YOU'RE NOT LATE to the party!!!
It's never too late to practice selective consumerism, and when companies try to pull bullshit it's up to us to say we won't stand for it by not continuing to use their product until they roll back the change. If we don't push back that's seen as consent, and more sites will follow in YouTube's (and Spotify's) footsteps.
And if this post reaches you before Jan 1st- GREAT! Please reblog (or even repost this on other socials- no need to credit!) to help get the word out as quick and as far as possible!
And if you have more questions on the hows and why's they're under the cut:
For those unaware, people started boycotting Youtube and Spotify earlier this year because of internet privacy and data safety concerns after they started implementing the ID age verification, as well to push back at this push towards mass surveillance poorly veiled as "we need to protect the kids!"
However, the first attempt made the mistake of giving a three day deadline - which resulted in poor turnout and high drop off.
We won't make that same mistake again. We'll "start" the boycott on Jan 1st, but keep pushing out the word even after it's started because it's never too late to join. (Yes, there have been those of us already boycotting for a minute now- but having looked around it seems like a relatively sparse group with little attention. Only reason we're calling for this "start date" is to hopefully get A LOT more people on the wagon)
No deadline. We're going to keep going until they roll the policy back, checking in at each financial quarter (every 3 months) to see how well they're listening. (Got this idea from the Kelloggs boycott)
I recommend also making your own posts and memes to spread the word. We need to make more noise.
Boycotts work if done effectively. This isn't just about YouTube, or Spotify. This is about precedent. If we don't push back that's seen as consent, and more sites will follow in YouTube/Spotify's footsteps.
Remember that we're boycotting YouTube/Spotify- NOT the creators on those platforms.
Your favorite creator is bound to have another way to support them, and I suggest you find out what that is. (i.e: do they have Patreon/Kofi? Something else? A different platform perhaps?)
This way they're not caught in the crossfire and can't be used as leverage to guilt you into abandoning the boycott. ("Oh a company wouldn't do that-" YES they would!)
I think if folks want to form a new and healthier intellectualism as a tide against a lot of the culture industries worst sins, we also have to freely share information. If you have access to an ebook, share it, if your professors have class readings spread them around, put your notes up online. Be free and willing to talk to people about questions they have, point to your sources, leave no barrier against learning intact. If we actually want to get people to think and look and listen we cant just "advocate" for change; we have to make it, too.
in the young pope, mario assente served as prefect of the congregation for the clergy until the role was later passed on to cardinal dussolier. he was responsible for overseeing matters concerning priests and deacons outside religious orders — which is rather ironic, given that he also handled cases of priests accused of breaking their vow of celibacy. and i can easily imagine him ✨taking advantage of that power, just a little✨.
“oh, your eminence, forgive me! i have no idea what happened to the personal file of that priest accused of... unnatural relations — or to all the evidence against him!”
“oh? really? how unfortunate... do be more careful with the documents next time.”
hey, do i have any followers from the usa? if you have some time and feel like chatting with my girlfriend @witch-ren about public transportation there, we’d both be super grateful🙏 she is a writer and an artist, she will need it:)
post your top 10 songs from your favorite artist(s)!
i was tagged by @chappellland 🩵
no pressure tags: @thebreakfastgenie @anyataylorjoys @kizzyedgelll @bruceewayne @sculien @laurabenanti @courtney-miller @vinnymauro @miwtual and anyone else who wants to do this!
i don’t know if i can participate in disability pride month, because i’ve never been properly diagnosed — i’ve just been living with pain. and maybe my problems aren’t “bad enough” to consider myself part of the community... i don’t know. but at the end of the month, i’ll probably speak out.
it’s been almost ten years (or is it already ten?) that i’ve been living with back pain.
i can’t sit or stand for long periods, which creates problems for my studies — and honestly, there are so many situations in the world where you’re expected to “just” sit or stand still, without being able to get up and move.
sitting in public places often feels like a form of torture: designer chairs with no back support or with a “back” that ends just above the waist, plastic or metal chairs made entirely of right angles, bus and train seats with no headrests (why are they mandatory in cars, but not on public transport?)...
bending over is hard, so in public cloakrooms i often end up awkwardly squatting on the floor to put on my shoes, because there are never footstools — and bending to tie my laces while sitting on a chair can hurt a lot.
i can’t carry bags on one shoulder or in one hand for long. but not every backpack fits businesswear — and in public places, you’re often expected to check them in. and if the backpack does look elegant, it probably has thin shoulder straps that dig into your skin, a bad zipper, and barely any pockets.
many schools expect students to carry their entire set of textbooks and notebooks in print. thankfully, my university doesn’t say anything about the fact that i keep everything on a tablet and only carry that. but i know that’s not allowed everywhere — and it’s definitely not allowed in schools.
back in school, lugging around five or six textbooks and five to ten notebooks every day was torment. huge thanks to my friend who shared her textbook with me (so i could at least stop carrying some), but we were constantly scolded by teachers for having only one copy on our desk.
i can barely sleep on a regular bed. thanks to Japanese culture, i feel a little less awkward every time i drag my mattress to the floor and sleep like that again...
when i'm at home, i basically spend all my time reclining — with pillows under my lower back and neck, because that way it hurts less. and i constantly hear: “are you planning to lie around your whole life?.” people who lie down are incredibly irritating to people who don’t.
i've lost count of how many times i’ve been given the so-called "helpful" advice not to study or work in the same place where i sleep. it sounds like great advice — except that i either have to sit "properly" at the desk (getting up from the pain every twenty minutes, which really affects my concentration), or i sit or lie down "improperly" and can carry on with my work, experiencing much less chronic pain as a result.
and sometimes the pain is so intense, i can't lie down, or sit, or stand — and i just want to die.
i just want to say: those “annoying” people who always get up and stretch, or lie down constantly, may not be “fidgety,” “unfocused,” or “lazy.” they may just be in pain.
and i want to send so, so much love to everyone out there who’s living with back pain.
blakekathryn
dededos
jbbartram-illu
germansingergirl
janainaart
annaxmalina
discoholicmusic
