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you and i don't live, claire. we survive.

@lights-in-the-distance

Toby - 21 - they/she (no preference) - gay genderqueer butch lesbian 🏳️‍🌈
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lights-in-the-distance
cthulhu-with-a-fez
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beemovieerotica

PSA: bot comments are taking over ao3

The above examples have been provided with the authors' permission to demonstrate what these look like.

Basic rundown:

  • They are all 3 sentences long
  • Perfect grammar, capitalization, and punctuation
  • Like absolutely flawless English teacher-style writing with only a single exclamation mark, ever
  • No mentions whatsoever of character names, settings, situations, or anything that could be tied to the story
  • The usernames may be identical to people who exist on ao3, but the name is not clickable, and no profile is associated with it EXCEPT when you directly search for that name. What this means: the comments come from an unregistered (not logged in) reader, bots scrape the site for real usernames, attach that to the comment, and post

Please spread the word about this so authors can filter comments and report them accordingly

There has been some speculation about why this is happening at all, and the best guess is that this is a feature that AI-training story-scraping tools are implementing to try and make their browsing traffic look legitimate

lights-in-the-distance
furthersuns
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thetransintransgenic

Oh yeah while I'm here you all should read What Happens Next.

Like, ...

...

... you all should ABSOLUTELY read What Happens Next.

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what happens next
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whathappensnext.webcomic.ws

[ Patreon | artist's Twitter | retrospring ]

“i think i would rather get stabbed again than have tiktok users descend like vultures on my social media, zooming in on pictures of my messy bedroom to analyze the tedious minutia of my deeply average life.” - emma berquist, true crime is rotting our brains “your fingers up inside of me/feel like fingers down my throat/everything is fine in heaven/but i’ll never get to know.” - nicole dollanganger, “angels of porn ii”

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furthersuns

From the author's curiouscat, lol:

lights-in-the-distance
nirtonic
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snowy2989

They are not as high-profile as the WGA, but I would like to bring everyone's attention to the imminent strike action by thousands of hotel workers in Los Angeles. They are set to go on strike tomorrow, July 1st, 2023.

More than 15,000 hotel workers are seeking higher pay, better benefits, and working conditions. This includes an across-the-board $5 an hour raise, as well as affordable healthcare and better pensions. They also are seeking a ban on the use of E-Verify, which is used to deny employment to undocumented workers and workers involved with the criminal justice system. You can follow what is happening at their Twitter.

lights-in-the-distance
bitegore
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faustandfurious

Still remember when a homo- and transphobic acquaintance tried to bring up JKR’s views on trans people in conversation and I shut it down with «oh yeah she’s been saying a lot of dumb shit on Twitter after she finished writing Harry Potter, like when she claimed Dumbledore was gay, just to be politically correct», which made it absolutely impossible for him to admit that he agreed with anything JKR had ever said. Sometimes you just have to weaponise people’s homophobia against their transphobia.

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faustandfurious

Other ways to stop family members/acquaintances from going on bigoted rants:

  • «Isn’t this all a bit silly? I mean, I’m more concerned about the economy/the war in Ukraine/covid/my job» - weaponised whataboutism
  • «Do you work with a lot of trans people? Because it seems like this is a problem you frequently encounter in everyday life from the way you talk about it» and when they say they don’t, follow up with «well then I don’t see what you’re making such a fuss about»
  • «Idk, I haven’t been much on social media lately, I think Twitter is a waste of time» - make them feel like they’re the ones who are terminally online
  • «Idk, I’m not that concernced with other people’s genitals and sex lives» - creep shaming
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faustandfurious

The point is that I’ve used all of these in various contexts and they’ve saved a good number of dinner table conversations from derailing into pointless debating. You don’t de-radicalise friends and family members by entering into political discussions they initiate just to stir up shit. You de-radicalise them by shifting the focus away from their shitty opinions and onto the things you have in common and the practical everyday stuff that exists outside their internet echo chambers.