This is one of the best examples of cultural appreciation vs appropriation I have ever seen.
Yeah, thatās a cis white dude doing Indian dances. But heās obviously a) engaging with the peoples whoās culture this is from b) theyāre happy to share it with him c) he credits them and isnāt acting like itās all his and d) everyone is having a good time and enjoying themselves!
The Indians here are obviously happy to share their favorite thing with a new person who is interested and genuinely trying to engage with their favorite thing. Heās being respectful and engaging and learning as best he can. I love this.
happy pride! remember that being a transgender is everything but fiction. there are so many real historical figures from every century about whose transgenderism we aren't even aware of
on this picture i drew Alexandr Andreevich Alexandrov - cavalry officer of the russian imperial army that participated in napoleonic wars. people persistently keep on misgendering mispronounsing deadnaming and calling him a crossdresser although alexandrov clearly stated that he didn't want to be called by his deadname and being treated like anything but a man. that's an interesting historical figure and i wanted to draw attention to his person. i can't tell everything about him in only one post so i recomend you to read about alexandrov by yourself
also be proud of yourself and remember that you're valid! š³ļøāšš³ļøāā§ļø
I used to get a lot of hate for using the word "queer" in the title of this project. One of the justifications I gave was that LGBT+ was too easy to take apart. Just drop whatever letter you don't like and go on with your day.
My posts have gotten tagged LGB more and more often lately. Usually accompanied by the worst additions imaginable. People are starting to whittle down and choose who they think of as disposable, so let me say this:
Queer as in trans people
Queer as in asexual people
Queer as in aromantic people
Queer as in nonbinary people
Queer as in bisexual people
Queer as in unlabled people
Queer as in anyone who counts themselves as queer.
Queer as in no questions asked, just an open door and a place to stay.
Personally I hate AI because it uses slave labor, is killing the planet and is making people stupid, but that's just me. The soulless art aspect is just one little piece of my grander disdain.
wait how does AI use slave labor? Do you mean the human works that are stolen and not credited or compensated? Because technically under capitalism everything is exploited but there are varying degrees
Aside from the scraping, AI tech companies, including openAI/chatGPT, have outsourced training their models to countries in the global south, specifically Kenya in openAI's case. These workers are working in sweatshop conditions for less than 2 bucks USD per hour. I'm on mobile, but if you search 'openAI Kenya slave labor' and related keywords, you can find multiple articles about it.
I think about this so goddamn often. Even the good uses are trained on slave labor.
Wambalo and other digital workers spent eight hours a day in front of a screen studying photos and videos, drawing boxes around objects and labeling them, teaching AI algorithms to recognize them.
Human labelers tag cars and pedestrians to teach autonomous vehicles not to hit them. Humans circle abnormalities in CTs, MRIs and X-rays to teach AI to recognize diseases. Even as AI gets smarter, humans in the loop will always be needed because there will always be new devices and inventions that'll need labeling.
Ā Humans in the loop are found not only in Kenya, but also in India, the Philippines and Venezuela. They're often countries with low wages but large populations ā well educated, but unemployed.
The pay for humans in the loop is $1.50-2 an hour.Ā
"And that is gross, before tax," Wambalo said.Ā
Wambalo, Nathan Nkunzimana and Fasica Berhane Gebrekidan were employed by SAMA, an American outsourcing company that hired for Meta and OpenAI. SAMA, based in the California Bay Area, employed over 3,000 workers in Kenya. Documents reviewed by 60 Minutes show OpenAI agreed to pay SAMA $12.50 an hour per worker, much more than the $2 the workers actually got, though SAMA says what it paid is a fair wage for the region.
It's destroying the environment. It's taking advantage of people who're desperate. It's traumatizing them for dollars an hour--if they're lucky and they aren't denied their pay for no reason. I think about this a lot, that these people were made to look at awful and disgusting and illegal things for the sake of training these stupid AI.
"I looked at people being slaughtered," Wambalo said. "People engaging in sexual activity with animals. People abusing children physically, sexually. People committing suicide."
Berhane Gebrekidan thought she'd been hired for a translation job, but she said what she ended up doing was reviewing content featuring dismembered bodies and drone attack victims.Ā
[...]
SAMA says mental health counseling was provided by "fully-licensed professionals." Workers say it was woefully inadequate.
It's just absurd and disgusting and infuriating. Yes the good applications are worth humans working on. It's not a bad thing--if the people employed to do the work are compensated appropriately and cared for. But so many of the uses are just unnecessary.
It just. Sucks. And all they'd have to do to make it suck just a litte bit less would be to pay people appropriately, give them access to the counseling needs they have, treat them like human beings worthy of respect and care on a basic fucking level. It wouldn't resolve the environmental issues or the fact that people are thinking less and less for themselves in the name of getting all of their answers from gen AI but at least they could do one thing to make it a little less The Worst Thing Ever.
This is the best description Iāve heard for this method, I always thought it was bullshit because I never heard a description that actually explained how to do this other than ātap your head 20 timesā.
I have anxiety-induced hissing, which sounds/feels different from sound-induced tinnitus (which I have also experience). Sound-based tinnitus actually sounds like youāre āhearingā something in your ears, whilst the hissing I have feels like itās āinside my headā, if that makes sense. But this technique still helps!!
You can check here so you can donate with confidencešverified ā
If you came from the tags , I want to reassure you, donāt worry, because @gaza-evacuation-funds helps me to make the post reach the largest number of people
ā¼ļøPLEASE DONāT IGNORE THIS ā A FAMILY NEEDS YOU NOW ā¼ļøš„ŗš„ŗššš
This was our homeā¦ now itās gone
Even $20 will make a big difference and save us!
We have collected $21,777raised of $40,000 !šµšø
š š Gofundme link for donations ššššš š
Hello everyone,
We are the Anas family, a famā¦ ANAS MOHESEN needs your support for ANAS family from Gaza,Help Us Rebuild Wha
save family lost their home ,dreams and everything in Gaza šš
This is my home before the war and after the war how it becameššš
Before: After:
Before the war, we lived a simple but happy life in Gaza. Our home in Shujaiya wasnāt big or luxurious, but it was filled with peace, love, and comfort. We had our own land ā a small garden where we planted vegetables, a roof where we sat on warm evenings drinking tea, laughing as a family. Our kids went to school every day with joy, dreaming about their future. We had work. We had neighbors we trusted. We had routines, family dinners, birthdays, laughter. Life wasnāt perfect, but it was ours. It was full of meaning.
The bombing started, and we had to flee our home during the first week of the war. We left everything behind ā not knowing it would be the last time we would see our home standing. We first went to Rimal, hoping to be safer. Thatās where we heard the news: our home, the place we built with love and hard work, was destroyed. Flattened. Just like that ā gone. Everything we owned, everything we saved for, was buried under rubble.
After that, we kept running. From Rimal to Al-Zawaida. Then to Rafah. Weāve been displaced four times. Each time we carry less with us, but more pain. We sleep on floors. Sometimes thereās no roof. Sometimes we stay in tents. The nights are cold, the days are burning hot. There is no electricity, no clean water, no toilets, no privacy. We wait hours just to get a piece of bread. We lost our jobs, our income. We lost our safety, our dignity. We live in fear every day ā fear of the next bomb, the next loss.
We used to dream of the future. Now, we just dream of surviving the next day.
We are the Anas family ā like many families in Gaza ā ordinary people who only wanted peace, a safe home, and a chance to live in dignity. But the war has taken everything from us: our home, our land, our jobs, our dreams, our stabilityā¦ even our sleep.
Itās hard to write this. It's hard to ask for help. But we are desperate.
Please, if you are reading this, help us. Even a small donation could mean we sleep under a real roof again. Could help us buy medicine, food, or clean water. Could bring back a little dignity to our lives. If you cannot donate, please share this story. You might reach someone who can.
This isnāt just a story. This is our life. And weāre still living through it.
Thank you from the bottom of our hearts.
š
Please, we are in dire need of you and your support. If you cannot donate, you can shareā¹ļøā¤ļøš„¹
This is a scam post written by ChatGPT. The multitude of em dashes is a dead giveaway. Don't give your money to a random stranger using ChatGPT to write stories.
tumblr user gaza-scam-alerts associates with zionists and calls any fundraiser from gaza a "scam", please ignore and block.
also the usage of em dashes is never a good reason to suspect the usage of ChatGPT as they are a normal form of punctuation.
and of course palestinians cannot and should never be expected to know english perfectly (especially considering that they are literally surviving a genocide right now), so the usage of AI, is perfectly acceptable in this context
TLDR: the only thing that gaza-scam alerts blog is useful for is to serve as a blocklist to help you block people who believe that palestinians should die
love the idea of the transformers being seen as cryptids in their respective universes. optimus being a ghost truck with no rider cruising down a lonely highway, offering help to those lost on the side of the road. starscream, the phantom f22 with no callsign who won't respond to any radio signals. ratchet as the lone ambulance that isn't registered to any local hospital, but will sometimes rush people to the emergency room without warning. mirage being a porsche without a driver that'll playfully race other drivers on lonely roads, then seemingly vanish into thin air. the potential is incredible.
Old post is apparently broken so Iām making a new one!
Ratchet as a cryptid ambulance: https://www.tumblr.com/white-aster/774289792328466432/ratchet-eventually-realizes-hes-creating (not the old post I had linked but still a good one)
Also funny art: https://www.tumblr.com/arma-dillidium/773834087578386432/drew-this-when-i-shouldve-been-sleeping
Optimus as a highway ghost: https://www.tumblr.com/loving-loner/750672818053824512/optimus-prime-becomes-a-western-highway-ghost (thank you @thegabofriel)
Starscream as an omen: https://www.tumblr.com/loving-loner/750579995949301760/starscream-becomes-an-omen-to-the
Continuation of omen Screamer with the Elite Trine by @n1ght5h4d3: https://www.tumblr.com/n1ght5h4d3/751499674408599552/i-love-this-so-much-i-wanna-add-onto-this-a-little
These links are working for me so please tell me if they work for you. I still donāt have any mirage stories sorry
it makes me sad the way cis women are so terrified of and disgusted by their own body hair. and i'm not talking "i have to shave for sensory reasons" i mean i keep seeing videos of women using hair identifier spray on their faces and hands so they can shave the tiniest barely-there bits of peach fuzz that came free with their bodies. hair that serves a purpose and that purpose is cleanliness and protection. i mean when i was in elementary school girls who had barely hit puberty were talking about shaving their arms. i mean full-grown adult women who will have a breakdown if they see two days of stubble on their legs/crotch/ jaw/pits because god forbid you don't look like a perfect plastic barbie doll. god forbid your body that keeps you alive comes with hair that may not be soft and glossy and photogenic. some women are so afraid of having any hair apart from their head and eyebrows that they've uno reversed themselves into six different kinds of gender dysphoria that they can't recognize as such because they're convinced that this unnatural state of highly-groomed capital-informed beauty is how women have always been. you're so scared of looking "gross" or "ugly" or "mannish" that you can't even look at your body in the mirror and recognize what it is. sister you are an ape. why are you so determined to deny your nature.
[ id: a set of four digital, stylized paintings, the first three with white backgrounds and the last one with a black background. Individual descriptions below:
1) A thin person with dark skin and black, coily hair wearing a yellow top stands in front of the aromantic flag with closed eyes, a green heart on their chest. Text around them reads: Black aros matter. ("Aros" is in green, the rest is in black)
The aromantic flag has five horizontal stripes, in green, light green, white, gray and black.
2) A thin person with medium-dark skin, no hair, a beard and brown eyes wearing a purple flannel shirt stands in front of the asexual flag smiling, with a dark purple heart on their chest. Text around them reads: Black aces matter. ("Aces" is in purple, the rest is in black)
The asexual flag has four horizontal stripes, in black, gray, white and purple.
3) A thin person with dark skin, long, colorful locs and brown eyes wearing glasses, a yellow hat, a green shirt, and black suspenders, smiling in front of a rainbow infinity symbol. Text around them reads: Black neurodiversity matters. ("Neurodiversity" is in rainbow colors, the rest is in black)
4) A black fist stands in front of a green and turquoise splash of paint, with text around it reading: All black lives matter. ("All" is underlined and hot pink, the rest is in white)
"Americanization" is a real phenomenon, and how non-Americans should be cautious of it is taught in different countries at school. It's taught in Greece and people from other countries told me their elementary or middle school teachers (using the American grades, to make it make sense to the majority on the site) talked to them about it.
It's common sense here, except for USians, so I'll analyze it a bit more for the dominant demographic here. In a globalized setting, the most dominant culture affects the others and sets the trends. The way our language works, how we think, our levels of politeness and intimacy, and our levels of respect. (flash news, they are going down š)
I don't want to imply that there is nothing good in the US. There are plenty of positives in the country. It's just that for the rest of the cultures online it's a constant daily fight to not forget our roots, with the degree US media and brands have permeated our lives. In Greece at least we watch more US American media than Greek media nowadays, and many of our shows are rip-offs of USian ones, with little adaptation to Greek reality and culture.
And to demonstrate the amount of this exposure, a 22-year-old Greek asked me the other day "if something happens we call 911, right?" This might have literally cost them their life, in a dangerous situation! Because all the movies and songs they consumed (not an unusual thing for the Greek youth) were what they knew. And I found a similar comment in this comment thread.
Lots of Americans in the notes failing to understand this post. It's not about not liking the US. It's not about you feeling ashamed or guilty for being American. It's not about you.
It's about American media drowning out native language media all over the world, and workplaces requiring the English language in your repertoire more and more. It's about proper translations and foreign language dubbing of films disappearing because "everyone speaks/should speak English anyway." All of this is leading to the deterioration of native speaker groups of languages worldwide.
In my country, Dutch language courses can't find enough people who want to study the language, while English language courses are overflowing with people who want to study the language. There is even widespread distaste for the Dutch language for being crude or sounding rough or what have you. That's our native language!!! That is our culture in its purest form!!! That is knowledge we inherit from our parents as they did from theirs!!! That is how we learned fairytales and folk stories and myths!!! That is the language that shapes our communication and our way of thinking!!! To hate your native language is to hate yourself at the deepest level.
And yet it's so normalised. Droves of foreigners living in the Netherlands will never learn a word of Dutch, because "everyone speaks English anyway." We are the world's leaders in non-native understanding of English, but it comes at a cost. A grave cost we will continue to pay.
If you're looking to support your non-American friends in any way that is not performatively shouting "I hate being an American" into the void, first of all, unlearn that hatred of yourself and your culture. You are of no help self-flagellating, and there is a difference between holding your country accountable for its issues, and denying yourself your culture because your country is doing and has done bad things.
(I am not going to get into arguments about whether or not US American culture exists. It does, and if you think differently you are welcome to change your mind.)
Secondly, learn about other countries. Learn a bit of Chinese. Take an interest in the Italian political system. Ask your friends about their countries' folklore. Watch documentaries about art from Nigeria. Absorb information that is not fed to you by American media.
And thirdly, quit expecting your non-American friends to communicate in a way that appeals to you. The French and Dutch will always seem rude to you because our way of communicating is far more direct than the way you communicate. People from other cultures may seem vague to you because their way of communicating is far more indirect, and you're not used to that either. Quit being frustrated when you don't get what we mean exactly. Quit assuming we mean the absolute worst thing you could imagine just because you didn't get what we meant the first time. Ask us to explain if you need us to, and learn to accept that we are different from you.
We are already adapting to your culture 100% of the time we are online. It's your responsibility to adapt to us, too. At least do your friends the courtesy of learning about and adapting to them.
