Goldkin @Goldkin@awoo.space

While it's important to remain engaged and present while all of this is happening (also, for the love of everything good, please vote), it's a good reminder that you don't need to constantly be immersed in what's happening.

It's entirely fine to be yourself, to protect your sense of self, while bad things are happening. And it's pragmatic to plan for a better future, instead of putting life constantly on hold because of situations outside your control.

When I was in an emotionally abusive household (with parties I will not name, as their situations have changed substantially since that time), my way out of the abusive pattern was limiting my exposure to it and planning for my own future. I spent a lot of time reading fiction, and many of my art projects focused on building a better world than my day-to-day lived existence.

It's taken me awhile to realize that that isn't escapism. It's pragmatism when existence takes on an unreal quality.

The K nomination battle this week is the first time the news has physically made me ill enough that I couldn't function. As before, I've had to disengage from the news for my health.

Some parting words on it: this is not "just how the world works." Our leaders have chosen dysfunction and power consolidation as their only viable strategy for weak governance.

It's easy to become cynical, when this is the closer to how abusers convince you there is no alternative to an abusive pattern. There is.

@Oasus@snouts.online \o/

@Oasus@snouts.online Heh, I’d wondered if it was you when I saw the commentary tracker on Speedgaming. I’m assuming so, and I hope it’s been a blast!

@orrery @rootsworks Thank you. I don’t have much else to add, but these references seem like good starting points that I’m going to follow up on.

I guess I’m asking because I think there’s going to be a strong push to deradicalize after what I’ve seen described as the current uncanny valley of interpersonal communication (https://mobile.twitter.com/AstroKatie/status/984606232408461313), and researching that now may be helpful.

@orrery @rootsworks This may be a dumb question on my part, but what strategies exist to deradicalize people enough to be interested in reform instead of just the optics of reform?

I guess I feel much of what is causing people to disengage is the presumption that change is painful enough to not be worth the effort, and that it should be given infinite skepticism. Which seems to be part of why cynicism is in vogue lately.

@salameleon@snouts.online @Zordrak Which I guess makes it worth reiterating: that they consider all of this to be a viable business model is why I’ve ghosted my accounts there and will not be returning.

@salameleon@snouts.online @Zordrak I’m assuming at this point that they’re doing whatever it takes to be profitable, ethics be damned. I think Jones was already on the ropes of that calculus (revenue vs causing users to disengage or leave) before the hearing, since other corps had already banned him.

My cautious read is this seems to be from Twitter legal instead of PR, meaning it’s not just optics. Which makes me curious which pressure they’re facing here.

@Zordrak Given birdsite has doubled down on using disinfo to push ads, I’ll be surprised if they _don’t_ implement this in a way that’s harmful.

But much of that is my cynicism talking, and they do still need to retain users to be profitable. Because of that, I think it makes sense to observe what they actually do with this to gauge if they’re feeling pressure from people leaving the site, or if this is feigned compliance.

Twitter just changed its policies to prevent distribution of dox materials, hacked content, and fake accounts (among others):
https://blog.twitter.com/official/en_us/topics/company/2018/an-update-on-our-elections-integrity-work.html

This appears to be for US elections, but if they implement this generically, this might also help block some of the common targeted harassment scenarios.

Which doesn’t entice me to return, but I’ll be interested in how they roll this out.

@roguecnidarian IOW: a majority of users are not used to thinking about personal opsec. I think that’s in the process of changing, though.

@roguecnidarian My take is that, over the years, people have been trained to give very intimate data over to third parties. So they tend not to consider Google having home address, phone, bank and CC info, and an entire model of purchasing habits built around them as especially notable...

... until a breach happens or behavioral inferences are shown directly.

Then it’s very eye-opening when a subsequent data audit happens.

(FD: I work for a competitor, opinions my own, etc etc.)

TIL: there is a game named Pet the Pup at the Party, and it is the best thing ever.

@Taylor I agree that a large part of people not agreeing with sourcing is a presumption of bad faith due to polarization, and there’s really no answer to that other than to not engage. If they show up on thread trying to knock down your claims, that’s what going to moderators is for.

Since Twitter and Tumblr don’t have any functional form of moderation, there’s no ability to moderate disinfo in comments there. That caused me to leave birdsite entirely.

@Taylor Bad faith is corrosive, and if it’s alleged by someone over sourcing, the conversation with the person alleging it is over. There is no antidote to someone having made up their mind, except to convince others reading the thread than them.

As for _using_ sourcing with a problematic message or spin intermingled with truthful info, that one’s harder. The approach I’ve most seen used is a citation model or disclaimer on what’s being shared.

I’ll append more if I can, but those are the big ones I can think of for now. Feel free to add your own to this thread if you know of any I missed.

(I’ve kept a therapist for about 5 years. It’s helped me get through a lot, and is strongly recommended as general maintenance. I cannot stress how much it helps if you can find one.)

Fourth, remember that not all disinfo is designed with a target in mind. Several campaigns are designed to mentally or emotionally paralyze you by bombarding you with too much info, making the truth hard to find, or trying to convince you to stop trying.

Ignore those outright.

Third, stay calm. It’s really easy to panic if you or a friend gets targeted. Step back, go offline for awhile if you need to, and make a plan to get through it. It’s going to be okay.

Some people, even people you care about, will fall for it. Reach out to people that haven’t and set up a support network for yourself. It’s often really easy to feel like everything is falling apart, but it isn’t.

Also, get yourself a therapist if you can. Seriously. It helps.

Second, don’t try to publicly refute the attackers or any online mobs they send your way. Protect yourself first. http://www.crashoverridenetwork.com provides actionable info that you can use to audit your online presence and handle being targeted.

Especially good here: get yourself a security key for your personal email. If you use Gmail, you can also set up Google Advanced Protection on your accounts: https://landing.google.com/advancedprotection/