Goldkin @Goldkin@awoo.space

An issue I’m having making the jump from birdsite to Masto for public posts is I want to post too much stuff, including linking in things I post on gallery sites. It all sort of logjams into not posting at all, because I’m worried about clogging timelines with what I made for dinner that day, nightly art, old Art Fight posts, etc etc etc.

In other words, the private community vibe is good, but doesn’t shape itself well to putting art posts on blast for people to follow. So, what do?

One extra note here: I get it if people still want or need to use Twitter, especially if they're running their own business and/or have a need for a public facing presence. It's part of why I keep an account there.

Even so, please please please be careful, consider deleting old tweets (eg, via reputable service), and give these articles a read on how to protect yourself on an increasingly hostile platform: http://www.crashoverridenetwork.com/resources.html

And as an occasional reminder: I'm best found on chat applications like Discord and Telegram at this point (as well as encrypted platforms).

If you'd like those contacts, feel free to message me privately -- though my handles are pretty easy to find on your chat services of choice.

I didn't expect keeping Alex Jones was a hill Twitter (through Jack) was willing to die on, after his hate speech was deplatformed from iTunes, Facebook, and YouTube: https://twitter.com/jack/status/1026984242893357056

For those who have tried migrating back or creating a presence there, I strongly urge you to reconsider at this point. Twitter has been increasing its support of hate speech and disinformation because it continues to be profitable for their platform.

I received a card from all of my coworkers this week for my six year employee anniversary. I never expected to be there this long, nor did I expect the overwhelmingly positive messages I received.

Once I got home, I cried.

It's the first time I've had a longstanding group relationship that hasn't, yet, resulted in me being thrown under the bus for someone else's political expediency. And these people really do care.

Thank you. ;..;

I guess this turned into a winding rant when the core message is to continue to be good to each other and that capitalism sucks, y'all.

Even though I'm charged with defending against this kind of thing at infosec dayjob daily, I guess this worldview grinds my gears and makes no sense to me. It's like looking in on an alien civilization that finds all of this zero-sum chaotic nonsense perfectly acceptable, and that nihilism is surely the only acceptable coping strategy to maximize value, sense of self and ambitions and hopes and dreams for the future be damned.

Um. Fuck that?

While this isn't exactly a subtoot, I'm thinking about this after a minor disagreement with someone I used to know over this comic: https://zenpencils.com/comic/king/

I noted that it's very good at describing how art isn't really about maximizing one's value, but is instead a celebration of existence. To which I received the response that, of COURSE art is about maximizing value.

This was several months ago, and I've still been trying to process how someone can even think that way.

It's taken me the better part of a decade to realize how highly unusual, and toxic, it is for people to be treated as transactional objects. Doing so leads to a sense of nihilism that completely annihilates any sense of self, of the exact form many fled birdsite for to be here.

It's taken longer for me to realize people who were transactional with me weren't really friends, and that I'd much rather be a person than be someone that facilitates those kinds of relationships.

This has passed my dash several times. It contains advice on dealing with the constant deluge of depressing and difficult news happening right now without tuning out entirely: https://twitter.com/CindyOtis_/status/1012488916178436096

I kind of need to be around people again. Most of my darker moods have been sourced in spending too much time in my own head, which I need to crawl out of for awhile.

Are people still meeting up in places and, if so, are they reasonably receptive to someone that is socially timid and just wanting company?

I spent my off-hours this past week reading innumerable volumes of case law, legal explainers, historic texts, and listening to legal podcasts to try to make sense of what’s happening in the world right now. I also donated and called electeds, too.

It’s been a bit too much for me emotionally, even though it’s left me hopeful.

For my sanity, I’m going to try to draw for a week or two to recover my emotional spoons. Pardon that my toots have been kind of weird as I worked through all of that.

I guess that sourcing for that lesson is also kind of silly, not dissimilar to how one of the most profound quotes I know came out of a localization decision for Metroid Fusion. But, so it goes, and it did stick with me regardless.

It’s difficult to have a real sense of forward progress, when all seems to be chaos and when oppressors seem to have the upper hand. But all is not lost, and hope and community continues to grow in the spaces that chaos forgot.

So too does it seem to be the case now. And I guess that’s part of why I’m still hopeful for the future.

One of the enduring messages I got out of that tiny epiphany back then was, even through the pit of despair, it’s possible to press on, rebuild, grow, and eventually overcome. Even in the shadow of oppression. And I guess that stuck with me.

It’s been helpful these past few years, when things have seemed particularly bleak. And each revision, after I’ve gotten kicked down by injury or circumstance, has slowly gotten better.

I guess that’s especially useful now.