"Summer is over," says me.
Aug. 25th, 2025 10:00 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
Last night I used a random number generator to pick my nail polish color for the week. The color was to be "Nocturnal Wine" by Revlon from the c. 1992 ColorStyle line which I found at a thrift store. (I found some articles about the ColorStyle line which was apparently Revlon's first line of products intended to suit PoC.) It's a very pretty cinnamon/brick color. Please excuse the messy application. I do still struggle with the long, thin older style of brushes and I don't think the old Revlon ones can be replaced. I don't typically wear reds in the summer so I had been waiting to try it until we got closer to fall. But the number generator said it was time!

The temperature got down to the low 50s last night so we slept with the windows open. The high is only supposed to be 69 today!
And then they had all the pumpkin flavors out at Dunkin. So I've got a pumpkin iced coffee with me this morning.
All this to say, I officially declare it to be fall now!

The temperature got down to the low 50s last night so we slept with the windows open. The high is only supposed to be 69 today!
And then they had all the pumpkin flavors out at Dunkin. So I've got a pumpkin iced coffee with me this morning.
All this to say, I officially declare it to be fall now!
Postcards and Post-apocalypse
Aug. 25th, 2025 11:06 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
◇ Skipped going to the garden today for the first time since June. I feel bad, but in my defense my right hand is still a bit injured and I don't want to open up any of my scabs digging in the dirt with a half-healed hand. I'll go next week, though.
◇ Read Erio and the Electric Doll, up to chapter 21, which is as much as is scanslated in English. There's more in French, though! Maybe I should try reading that for practice? Anyway, it's a GL manga, a post-apocalyptic steampunk story that has very nice art. I think the atmosphere is the most notable thing about it— the back-story and all that is pretty cliche robots rose up against the humans so to prevent the robots from doing that, humans stopped using electricity all together. The protagonist girls are an electric doll left over from the war and a girl whose body has been engineered to create electricity, as they travel through cities recovering from the war. I have a weakness for post-apocalyptic travel manga. There's honestly a fair few, and it's nice to see one that feels optimistic rather than pessimistic.
◇ I took down a few friend's addresses to send them post-cards! And I do have the post-cards! I just need to write them all, since I'd like to send them all out at once. Which... means I have some more to do. I've written some, just not all of them yet. It's maybe kind of a silly thing to do since we're all in contact online anyway, but I still want to.
◇ Diet time for real. It's just a few kilos but my dysphoria is acting up real bad, and I hate my clothes feeling tight.
◇ Dyed my hair! Or rather, a friend dyed it. I'm really happy with it. And since it's just the tips, if I get hired at a place that requires natural hair colour, it shouldn't be hard to cut. I'm hoping I won't need to, though.
◇ Read Erio and the Electric Doll, up to chapter 21, which is as much as is scanslated in English. There's more in French, though! Maybe I should try reading that for practice? Anyway, it's a GL manga, a post-apocalyptic steampunk story that has very nice art. I think the atmosphere is the most notable thing about it— the back-story and all that is pretty cliche robots rose up against the humans so to prevent the robots from doing that, humans stopped using electricity all together. The protagonist girls are an electric doll left over from the war and a girl whose body has been engineered to create electricity, as they travel through cities recovering from the war. I have a weakness for post-apocalyptic travel manga. There's honestly a fair few, and it's nice to see one that feels optimistic rather than pessimistic.
◇ I took down a few friend's addresses to send them post-cards! And I do have the post-cards! I just need to write them all, since I'd like to send them all out at once. Which... means I have some more to do. I've written some, just not all of them yet. It's maybe kind of a silly thing to do since we're all in contact online anyway, but I still want to.
◇ Diet time for real. It's just a few kilos but my dysphoria is acting up real bad, and I hate my clothes feeling tight.
◇ Dyed my hair! Or rather, a friend dyed it. I'm really happy with it. And since it's just the tips, if I get hired at a place that requires natural hair colour, it shouldn't be hard to cut. I'm hoping I won't need to, though.
New Toy: Innioasis Y1
Aug. 23rd, 2025 11:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
I just got the Innioasis Y1. Why? Well, frankly the other DAP had frustrating limitations that I am hoping this one does not have, primarily with respect to audiobooks and podcasts. It kind of seems like the easiest way to get an inexpensive device that can handle audiobooks well (as in, keeping bookmarks) is by having an android base, but having an android base also causes other issues. So it's a tradeoff. I got the Y1 for $50 so right now if it doesn't work out I'm not going to beat myself up too much about it, and also if I hate the original android OS I can choose to install rockbox (though I don't know how good rockbox is for audiobooks... have not done research.
I'm not going to do a full review because I haven't used it much, and have barely uploaded all my music onto it. The Innioasis Y1 is designed to look like an iPod but feels way cheaper than an iPod, because, of course, you are only paying $50 for it. I got the blue (which is a teal color) even though my first choice would have been the teal (which is a blue color), but it still looks nice. Honestly in terms of first impression of builds, I think the Snowsky Echo Mini is probably nicer. I am definitely contemplating getting a screen protector for this thing.
The sound quality is ok -- on first impression I am not sure if it is slightly worse than the echo mini or I just haven't found the right volume (I think the Echo Mini can get way louder). One thing it does have is the ability to create themes. The Y1 is advertised as being "for kids," I guess because it doesn't have any web functionality so you can control what your child is listening to, so most of the default themes are kinda goofy looking. So the first thing I did was download a bunch of themes and am currently using a Windows 95 theme I found on Reddit.
I'm going to give it at least a week to see how it compares to the echo mini, or if I want to try running rockbox on it.
I'm not going to do a full review because I haven't used it much, and have barely uploaded all my music onto it. The Innioasis Y1 is designed to look like an iPod but feels way cheaper than an iPod, because, of course, you are only paying $50 for it. I got the blue (which is a teal color) even though my first choice would have been the teal (which is a blue color), but it still looks nice. Honestly in terms of first impression of builds, I think the Snowsky Echo Mini is probably nicer. I am definitely contemplating getting a screen protector for this thing.
The sound quality is ok -- on first impression I am not sure if it is slightly worse than the echo mini or I just haven't found the right volume (I think the Echo Mini can get way louder). One thing it does have is the ability to create themes. The Y1 is advertised as being "for kids," I guess because it doesn't have any web functionality so you can control what your child is listening to, so most of the default themes are kinda goofy looking. So the first thing I did was download a bunch of themes and am currently using a Windows 95 theme I found on Reddit.
I'm going to give it at least a week to see how it compares to the echo mini, or if I want to try running rockbox on it.
Pokémon: Get!
Aug. 23rd, 2025 10:48 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
Got my assignments for
pokepodproject!
I'm writing about Xatu and Sneasel. Xatu's got a pretty cool design in general, and I've been a fan of Sneasel pretty much since I first laid eyes on it. Reading their 'dex entries and lore on Bulbapedia got me a plunny for Sneasel already, but I'm still working on finding one for Xatu.
If you haven't checked out the fics/podfic from last year, I recommend it! It was a long listen (about ten and a half hours total), but I loved almost every fic, and keep meaning to go back and comment on all of them.
![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
I'm writing about Xatu and Sneasel. Xatu's got a pretty cool design in general, and I've been a fan of Sneasel pretty much since I first laid eyes on it. Reading their 'dex entries and lore on Bulbapedia got me a plunny for Sneasel already, but I'm still working on finding one for Xatu.
If you haven't checked out the fics/podfic from last year, I recommend it! It was a long listen (about ten and a half hours total), but I loved almost every fic, and keep meaning to go back and comment on all of them.
TTRPG CHARACTER 8: Theatri Glacialis
Aug. 24th, 2025 10:44 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
![]()
| UNRELIABLE DOCUMENTARIAN, KNOWS A GUY, WOULD LIKE TO KNOW YOU BACKGROUND
ABILITIES Experience
EDITORIAL
|
Migrating to Nearly Free Speech
Aug. 23rd, 2025 06:40 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
🖥️ Migrating to Nearly Free Speech
I'm too tired and uninspired to bother updating my site, but.... Just in case the worst scenario happens...NC
Aug. 22nd, 2025 10:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
1. I am drunk right now because I was gonna go out to a lesbian bar this evening, but then some at home schedule stuff got in the way lol. So I am coping by drinking at home. If this is incoherent, that's why.
2. Soooo there's whispers over on Bsky (etc.) that Neocities might follow suit on the NSFW bans. This was disclosed via an email from Kyle Drake, and Neocities in general is kind of... unmoderated unless it's something REALLY bad or something that exploits the site's spaghetti code. NSFW will only get banned from Neocities IF the US laws allow it, but.... I was thinking that maybe, the silver lining of the social media bullshit is that people will go make their own sites again with no rules besides "don't post CP or anything else illegal". But if this happens, I will go postal. I will cry. I've been willing to grit my teeth and agree to disagree with Kyle Drake's AI shilling but he cannot sell out so easily when the baseline rules of "anything legal in the US" works and NSFW websites are shadowbanned / not searchable. I'm already worried Bsky is going that way when I really like it, but if the worst happens I really might bite the bullet and look into buying a domain and a paid host. I'm just not ready :( (<- draft I wrote last night when I was sober lol)
I know there's Nekoweb, since the servers are in Germany and they (probably) won't be affected by US laws. But it's run by zoomers and customer support is done over Discord, that's insane. I don't even mind Discord but emails are right there. I know where I'd buy a domain, and what paid host I would use (NFS), but ugh. I've been taking a prolonged hiatus from my site because I don't enjoy it anymore, and the community is just refurbished Tumblr/Discord. I should probably look into push updates and a SSG. If I move to a better paid host, I'm sure that .php or .cgi has better ways of hosting an art gallery than the hard-to-organize OC bullshit I have and Javascript. But I'm just not ready for all of it, but the way things are is too much for me. Again, I'm drunk so if this is "unfiltered but incoherent" I'm sorry. I'm a wagie, not a techie. I'm trying to touch grass and try to be in sane online communities. But man. It's hard.
2025 is 2005 if I was an adult during it. What the fuck.
2. Soooo there's whispers over on Bsky (etc.) that Neocities might follow suit on the NSFW bans. This was disclosed via an email from Kyle Drake, and Neocities in general is kind of... unmoderated unless it's something REALLY bad or something that exploits the site's spaghetti code. NSFW will only get banned from Neocities IF the US laws allow it, but.... I was thinking that maybe, the silver lining of the social media bullshit is that people will go make their own sites again with no rules besides "don't post CP or anything else illegal". But if this happens, I will go postal. I will cry. I've been willing to grit my teeth and agree to disagree with Kyle Drake's AI shilling but he cannot sell out so easily when the baseline rules of "anything legal in the US" works and NSFW websites are shadowbanned / not searchable. I'm already worried Bsky is going that way when I really like it, but if the worst happens I really might bite the bullet and look into buying a domain and a paid host. I'm just not ready :( (<- draft I wrote last night when I was sober lol)
I know there's Nekoweb, since the servers are in Germany and they (probably) won't be affected by US laws. But it's run by zoomers and customer support is done over Discord, that's insane. I don't even mind Discord but emails are right there. I know where I'd buy a domain, and what paid host I would use (NFS), but ugh. I've been taking a prolonged hiatus from my site because I don't enjoy it anymore, and the community is just refurbished Tumblr/Discord. I should probably look into push updates and a SSG. If I move to a better paid host, I'm sure that .php or .cgi has better ways of hosting an art gallery than the hard-to-organize OC bullshit I have and Javascript. But I'm just not ready for all of it, but the way things are is too much for me. Again, I'm drunk so if this is "unfiltered but incoherent" I'm sorry. I'm a wagie, not a techie. I'm trying to touch grass and try to be in sane online communities. But man. It's hard.
2025 is 2005 if I was an adult during it. What the fuck.
When You're too Lazy to Login
Aug. 22nd, 2025 02:18 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
I got logged out of Dreamwidth and it made me too lazy to want to login and write a post I wanted to make earlier. It's funny to be pointlessly lazy like that... the tiny extra bit of friction of having to log back in has stopped me more than once from posting or interacting with people in a timely manner. Besides that, I got mentioned in a weird post on Tumblr where someone was making polls comparing people's art?? I... I can't be the only one who finds this incredibly rude. I don't want to see the poll answers. I.........how DARE you??? I don't draw to be in a competition with other artists!! I didn't sign up for this!!!!! I'm just going to ignore it instead of draw attention to it. It really annoyed me at the time though.
Well, besides that, I've been getting a lot more kind random messages these days since I started being more social again, which is nice. I'd like to focus on that and write some kind of Today In Video Games post to talk about some of the latest games news I've been interested in besides Sonic.......but also Sonic. I've also been thinking of some older artists that influenced me a lot that deleted their galleries and I want to write about that. Much to do. Too much, even. I hate that being social requires... being social. It's as overwhelming as it is stimulating.
Oh, I've also never posted my art here before despite saying I willl, but I don't know if the first art of mine I want on this journal to be Espio getting fisted by Vector. A friend of mine mentioned it to me offhand and I just HAAAAAAAD to make it real. It looks as ridiculous as I thought it would. I don't know if I'm gonna color it or leave it a sketch, LMAOOOOOo... it'll be on Inkbunny eventually either way. Oh. Inkbunny is the only site that feels like it has a lot of Sonic artists outside of Twitter?? Weird. Oh, but I'm really rambling off all stream-of-consciousness like now and that'll never end. Back to werk.
Well, besides that, I've been getting a lot more kind random messages these days since I started being more social again, which is nice. I'd like to focus on that and write some kind of Today In Video Games post to talk about some of the latest games news I've been interested in besides Sonic.......but also Sonic. I've also been thinking of some older artists that influenced me a lot that deleted their galleries and I want to write about that. Much to do. Too much, even. I hate that being social requires... being social. It's as overwhelming as it is stimulating.
Oh, I've also never posted my art here before despite saying I willl, but I don't know if the first art of mine I want on this journal to be Espio getting fisted by Vector. A friend of mine mentioned it to me offhand and I just HAAAAAAAD to make it real. It looks as ridiculous as I thought it would. I don't know if I'm gonna color it or leave it a sketch, LMAOOOOOo... it'll be on Inkbunny eventually either way. Oh. Inkbunny is the only site that feels like it has a lot of Sonic artists outside of Twitter?? Weird. Oh, but I'm really rambling off all stream-of-consciousness like now and that'll never end. Back to werk.
Random PIDW Monster
Aug. 21st, 2025 11:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
IDK if I'll ever put it in a fic or anything, but the words "Eight-Legged Spider Hawk" spontaneously generated themselves in my brain as I was preparing for my evening ablutions.
My first reaction to this thought was that Peerless Cucumber absolutely roasted Airplane in the comments when this monster made its debut, because he thought that "Eight-Legged" and "Spider" were redundant. Airplane retaliated by introducing Six-Legged and Ten-Legged Spider Hawks in the next chapter, including important distinctions between the species.
I don't know about the six- or ten-legged varieties, but here's the lore I came up with for the eight-legged ones:
The ten- and six-legged varieties probably have somewhat different venom or are more prized for their feathers or something.
My first reaction to this thought was that Peerless Cucumber absolutely roasted Airplane in the comments when this monster made its debut, because he thought that "Eight-Legged" and "Spider" were redundant. Airplane retaliated by introducing Six-Legged and Ten-Legged Spider Hawks in the next chapter, including important distinctions between the species.
I don't know about the six- or ten-legged varieties, but here's the lore I came up with for the eight-legged ones:
Appears very much like a very large spider with hawk's wings, it is often mistaken for one in flight or while hunting. Its movement on the ground, however, is unmistakable. These creatures line their nests with a particular type of silk that makes exquisite bondage rope.
The ten- and six-legged varieties probably have somewhat different venom or are more prized for their feathers or something.
Green nails and knitting
Aug. 21st, 2025 04:13 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
I'm in a very green mood right now. :)
Knitting is a beanie in Knitted Wit Sock Yarn I got from Peoria. Nails are a c.2012 China Glaze "Rare & Radiant".

Knitting is a beanie in Knitted Wit Sock Yarn I got from Peoria. Nails are a c.2012 China Glaze "Rare & Radiant".

Fiddling with things
Aug. 21st, 2025 01:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
If an item comes into my possession, I will absolutely remix/update/tinker with it in order to make it more useful. Nothing is too precious or too cheap for this treatment. Things are for using!
One recent example is this cubic zirconia necklace I got from Body Art Forms (which is where I get most of my jewelry. I have...11 piercings. I had to pause to count haha.) I had been on the hunt for a very simple pendant necklace for a while. I have some beaded necklaces, both vintage and me-made, but no pendants that would work for every day wear.

I really like the necklace but the bale was wayyy too big. Almost as big as the pendent itself! And it kept flipping upside down and sticking out funny. I've been on the hunt for a replacement and ended up getting this stainless steel one from Michaels. Much better!
Also, a lot of the nail polishes are I are from around 2010. While they are generally in excellent condition, their brushes are often that long skinny older style that are a huge pain in the butt to work with. Especially because I really like metallic polishes which are enough of a pain to work with as is. I got some paddle style replacement brushes from KBShimmer since they fit with China Glaze and Sinful Colors. I got my info on what brushes fit what bottles from this chart on Reddit. My only quibble with the chart is that the KBShimmer brushes did not fit into any of my Revlon polishes, even with the KBShimmer caps. :/
One recent example is this cubic zirconia necklace I got from Body Art Forms (which is where I get most of my jewelry. I have...11 piercings. I had to pause to count haha.) I had been on the hunt for a very simple pendant necklace for a while. I have some beaded necklaces, both vintage and me-made, but no pendants that would work for every day wear.

I really like the necklace but the bale was wayyy too big. Almost as big as the pendent itself! And it kept flipping upside down and sticking out funny. I've been on the hunt for a replacement and ended up getting this stainless steel one from Michaels. Much better!
Also, a lot of the nail polishes are I are from around 2010. While they are generally in excellent condition, their brushes are often that long skinny older style that are a huge pain in the butt to work with. Especially because I really like metallic polishes which are enough of a pain to work with as is. I got some paddle style replacement brushes from KBShimmer since they fit with China Glaze and Sinful Colors. I got my info on what brushes fit what bottles from this chart on Reddit. My only quibble with the chart is that the KBShimmer brushes did not fit into any of my Revlon polishes, even with the KBShimmer caps. :/
No News Is Good News
Aug. 20th, 2025 07:08 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
Feeling like I got nothing to write here because I'm been spending my time being publicly feral on my Espio sideblog again. Especially with all the CrossWorlds news being dropped from gamescon!!!!! Oh, and a new Bubsy game lmao. Sonic fans still eternally doomposting no matter what the news is. Whatever. Nothing of note other than it's getting harder to stick to my morals and not buy CrossWorlds at launch because it's 70+ fucking dollars.
I'm feeling weirdly motivated to try to improve my art again. I really want to get better and more consistent and not cringe at literally everything I make and feel embarrassed I actually showed it to people and want to hide under a rock and--
Anyway, I need to kiss Espio desperately.( random unhinged nsfw fantasy text )
I'm feeling weirdly motivated to try to improve my art again. I really want to get better and more consistent and not cringe at literally everything I make and feel embarrassed I actually showed it to people and want to hide under a rock and--
Anyway, I need to kiss Espio desperately.( random unhinged nsfw fantasy text )
I never really understood what people meant by a comfort character, but I guess I do now. Life really feels so much brighter when you spend a portion of your time gushing over a fictional magenta chameleon.
I don't expect to get much agreement with this thought
Aug. 20th, 2025 02:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
I understand nonbinary as an umbrella term but I kinda hate it as a descriptor. It'd be nice to be something rather than be labeled by what one isn't by default. There's something distinctly unmooring about being forced to identify with what one is not, and I'm not sure who decided on that, but I wish they would have thought this through a little better, idk.
"Not Right, Not-Left, Just Online"
Aug. 19th, 2025 10:15 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
I need to make a more introspective and serious article-like writing about this one day when my brain isn't broken. ... That being said, Katherine Dee's latest blog post had me thinking.
And what filled that vacuum? The so-called “right-wing” alt media. What nobody wants to say about these creators, except for maybe the creators themselves, is that they—and indeed, the whole ecosystem they belong to—are not strictly right-wing. They are “not-left” but they aren’t on the right.
Being “not-left” during COVID was simple. All you had to do was disagree with lockdowns and mandates. That low bar brought in a huge tent of people. The tent, of course, had already been built by the excesses of wokeness, #MeToo, etc. COVID filled it out.
These creators shared one message: “The mainstream media is lying to you. We’re telling the truth.” In many cases, they were right. This “not-left” group was absorbed into the Online Right, a sprawling ecosystem that includes everyone from the Dissident Right to anti-woke crypto hucksters to Nick Fuentes’ groypers to Intellectual Dark Web figures to mainstream conservative podcasters to dozens of smaller micro-subcultures and ideologies.
I’m skeptical that the left doesn’t have the same media power—last time I checked, there are more liberal podcasts, magazines, TV shows, etc. than any one person could count. But it could be that they just don’t have the same political influence. Whatever the case, the specter of the Online Right and Alt-Media Ecosystem emerged, full-force, during the podcast election.
MAGA CHANGES EVERYTHING
Trump’s 2024 win exposed the fault lines in what everyone assumed was a unified “right-wing” movement. For some people, being anti-establishment got complicated when your side controlled the establishment. A lot of people who’d been lumped in with the right realized (or had always known) they didn’t like Trump or his politics—it was just that there was nowhere to go. Some people simply changed their mind.
Whatever the reasons, this fracturing created a massive opportunity. All these people with huge, engaged audiences who’d been accidentally sorted into the “right-wing” category were suddenly politically homeless again. They didn’t want to be MAGA cheerleaders, but they also couldn’t go back to a left that had already expelled them for “thought crimes.”
THE GREAT REALIGNMENT Now we’re seeing different types of these creators and audiences sorting themselves out:I've more or less "retired" from this, but I do remember how the pandemic was a gold age of "alternative thinkers" taking advantage of how many people were stuck inside and angry about it. I'll never forget how wrapped up I was in this sphere after my county went under lockdown. I've wasted 7 years of my life to "controversial politics" and making "unpopular opinions" so centric to myself. I haven't bothered to check out "where are they now" with a lot of the content I watched 5 years ago. I don't know if I want to find out. But now liberals and the portion of the left that didn't fall into pure antisemitism are trying to jump in on this train with the whole "dark woke" thing that's pro-offensive but anti-conservative for lack of a better description.
During lockdown it was easy to see all sides as the same and part of "the establishment", near the end of 2018 I became blackpilled and got lovebombed by a tankie who was the only person who reached out to me during an isolated time. When Biden won, it was also easy to continue being "anti-woke" because it was counter-cultural to be conservative. Now that Trump won, the anti-wokes have become "the culture", and seeing everything that's happened in the last 8 months... It isn't fucking worth it to obsess over what "woke" AKA more of a prescriptive than descriptive label even is. I really think obsessing over "wokeness" is borderline privileged when the economy, housing, and healthcare is more important. The "ex-liberal" morons will become single issue over "wokes" and vote Republican, despite nearly every recent recession being caused by a Republican. So many people have been laid off, had their medicaid slashed, veterans benefits lost, and so on, but at least we don't have "woke DEI / CRT" anymore!!! At least we don't see rainbows everywhere anymore!!! Shut up man lol. I never cared about the "DEI" and "CRT" shit. It felt similar to how I felt like I "had to" be on board with Leninism or whatever because I had other opinions in that umbrella. So I just sheep'd in the other direction by nodding along with psychos pretending these were the worst thing ever.
The "big tent" aspect was there in 2020 too. There was always a mix of actual right wingers, MAGA, classical liberals (technically center-right), "old school" anti-idpol Marxists, all under this one umbrella. And now that I'm no longer a "radical" or populist I just find it disgusting instead of an awesome display of solidarity. Because of course there's going to be splintering, even MAGA has had infighting when it comes to Trump's support of H1-B, Elon Musk getting disowned, the spats Tucker Carlson and Ted Cruz had over Iran, Marjorie Taylor Greene and Laura Loomer's catfight on Twitter, the pro-Netanyahu side of MAGA vs. the anti-Israel groypers, etc. This shit is so stupid, I hate these people so much.
I often have people online follow me under the assumption that I'm "based" and secretly in the same camp as they are. They always end up disappointed. I don't know how else to explain it to people, I'll probably figure it out when I have free time. I wasted almost half of my adult life on the bullshit and it's time to move on. I'm still not "PC" or "woke" and still skew "exclusionist" if we're using mid-2010s Tumblr lingo, but the real enemy is right in front of us and it's a matter of picking your hills to die on if you want to go out in the world and interact with real people. Not floating opinions or words on a screen from shut-ins. "Radicalness" is a poison that destroys you from the inside.
Snippet from article about the anti-woke sphere
THE ALT-MEDIA ECOSYSTEM
Here’s a story most of you already know. COVID was a great time to try your hand at Internet celebrity. Institutional trust—CNN, Fox, the New York Times, Fauci, the WHO—collapsed for millions of people who suddenly needed new ways to make sense of the world.And what filled that vacuum? The so-called “right-wing” alt media. What nobody wants to say about these creators, except for maybe the creators themselves, is that they—and indeed, the whole ecosystem they belong to—are not strictly right-wing. They are “not-left” but they aren’t on the right.
Being “not-left” during COVID was simple. All you had to do was disagree with lockdowns and mandates. That low bar brought in a huge tent of people. The tent, of course, had already been built by the excesses of wokeness, #MeToo, etc. COVID filled it out.
These creators shared one message: “The mainstream media is lying to you. We’re telling the truth.” In many cases, they were right. This “not-left” group was absorbed into the Online Right, a sprawling ecosystem that includes everyone from the Dissident Right to anti-woke crypto hucksters to Nick Fuentes’ groypers to Intellectual Dark Web figures to mainstream conservative podcasters to dozens of smaller micro-subcultures and ideologies.
I’m skeptical that the left doesn’t have the same media power—last time I checked, there are more liberal podcasts, magazines, TV shows, etc. than any one person could count. But it could be that they just don’t have the same political influence. Whatever the case, the specter of the Online Right and Alt-Media Ecosystem emerged, full-force, during the podcast election.
MAGA CHANGES EVERYTHING
Trump’s 2024 win exposed the fault lines in what everyone assumed was a unified “right-wing” movement. For some people, being anti-establishment got complicated when your side controlled the establishment. A lot of people who’d been lumped in with the right realized (or had always known) they didn’t like Trump or his politics—it was just that there was nowhere to go. Some people simply changed their mind.
Whatever the reasons, this fracturing created a massive opportunity. All these people with huge, engaged audiences who’d been accidentally sorted into the “right-wing” category were suddenly politically homeless again. They didn’t want to be MAGA cheerleaders, but they also couldn’t go back to a left that had already expelled them for “thought crimes.”
THE GREAT REALIGNMENT Now we’re seeing different types of these creators and audiences sorting themselves out:
- The Post-Right: People who burnt out on the online right-wing ecosystem entirely. Think Richard Hanania, Nick Fuentes1, or even Richard Spencer. They’re not leftists, they’re not people who were mislabeled during COVID, #MeToo, or “peak woke,” but they do reject the current-state of the Right. Sometimes they’re Democrats who took “the scenic route.” Sometimes these people are opportunists. Sometimes they’ve evolved.
- The Post-Anti-Woke: Contrarians and other anti-woke voices who don’t like the state of the Right or “anti-woke” media. They built audiences criticizing progressive excess. Some may have even voted for Trump. Too anti-progressive for the present-day left, too anti-Trump for the right.
- Centrists Drifting Right: People responding to audience incentives and cultural energy. They’re following where the engagement is (which has been rightward) or discovering they’re more right-wing than they thought.
- The Older Liberal Center: Similar to the post-anti-woke but coming from a different starting point. These are traditional liberals who never went full-bore woke nor did they pivot to anti-woke. Here, I’m thinking of somebody like Ezra Klein or Gavin Newsom’s new stance.
- The Grift Doubling-Down: Online right figures who’ve discovered that rage-bait pay the bills better than nuanced takes. They’re trapped in an increasingly extreme content cycle to maintain their audiences.
- The New Old Left: I see more and more of these people every day. They’re leftists—and use that word—but they’re trying to improve their theory of mind of the right. They focus more on class than other dimensions of identity.
During lockdown it was easy to see all sides as the same and part of "the establishment", near the end of 2018 I became blackpilled and got lovebombed by a tankie who was the only person who reached out to me during an isolated time. When Biden won, it was also easy to continue being "anti-woke" because it was counter-cultural to be conservative. Now that Trump won, the anti-wokes have become "the culture", and seeing everything that's happened in the last 8 months... It isn't fucking worth it to obsess over what "woke" AKA more of a prescriptive than descriptive label even is. I really think obsessing over "wokeness" is borderline privileged when the economy, housing, and healthcare is more important. The "ex-liberal" morons will become single issue over "wokes" and vote Republican, despite nearly every recent recession being caused by a Republican. So many people have been laid off, had their medicaid slashed, veterans benefits lost, and so on, but at least we don't have "woke DEI / CRT" anymore!!! At least we don't see rainbows everywhere anymore!!! Shut up man lol. I never cared about the "DEI" and "CRT" shit. It felt similar to how I felt like I "had to" be on board with Leninism or whatever because I had other opinions in that umbrella. So I just sheep'd in the other direction by nodding along with psychos pretending these were the worst thing ever.
The "big tent" aspect was there in 2020 too. There was always a mix of actual right wingers, MAGA, classical liberals (technically center-right), "old school" anti-idpol Marxists, all under this one umbrella. And now that I'm no longer a "radical" or populist I just find it disgusting instead of an awesome display of solidarity. Because of course there's going to be splintering, even MAGA has had infighting when it comes to Trump's support of H1-B, Elon Musk getting disowned, the spats Tucker Carlson and Ted Cruz had over Iran, Marjorie Taylor Greene and Laura Loomer's catfight on Twitter, the pro-Netanyahu side of MAGA vs. the anti-Israel groypers, etc. This shit is so stupid, I hate these people so much.
I often have people online follow me under the assumption that I'm "based" and secretly in the same camp as they are. They always end up disappointed. I don't know how else to explain it to people, I'll probably figure it out when I have free time. I wasted almost half of my adult life on the bullshit and it's time to move on. I'm still not "PC" or "woke" and still skew "exclusionist" if we're using mid-2010s Tumblr lingo, but the real enemy is right in front of us and it's a matter of picking your hills to die on if you want to go out in the world and interact with real people. Not floating opinions or words on a screen from shut-ins. "Radicalness" is a poison that destroys you from the inside.
Silt Verses, Chapter 8
Aug. 20th, 2025 06:11 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
So, my best friend is bad at audio media but we like reading scripts together— we've read a lot of enstars and mahoyaku aloud to each other, voice-acting out characters and playing the scenes. The Silt Verses sounded interesting to Kaz, but the medium was a huge stumbling block— but I remembered wait! There are transcripts!
So now, once a week, we read a chapter of the Silt Verses together.
This means I've been pretty quiet abt the Silt Verses on tumblr, lest Kaz stumble into some spoilers accidentally as we slowly read though. We just reached chapter 8. But as a side-effect of doing this really slow re-experience of canon, we end up having book-club type discussions at the end of every chapter and I try hard to not spoil anything which I am bad at but. I am trying.
Anyway, for this week, Kaz's roommate was around and there were enough Paige, Faulkner, and Carpenter scenes that we were like-- hey let's ask Moelle if they'd be up to voice a character for the three-person scenes. And realised almost immediately that it was a really funny episode to enter to immediately get the wrong impression of Faulkner. The in-universe first impression of Faulkner: what a nice boy with kind eyes experience is not usually what you think about him as a listener but in this case. That's how Moelle got to experience him, coming in totally blind.
A weird place to start.
also, a sketch page for brother faulkner:
So now, once a week, we read a chapter of the Silt Verses together.
This means I've been pretty quiet abt the Silt Verses on tumblr, lest Kaz stumble into some spoilers accidentally as we slowly read though. We just reached chapter 8. But as a side-effect of doing this really slow re-experience of canon, we end up having book-club type discussions at the end of every chapter and I try hard to not spoil anything which I am bad at but. I am trying.
Anyway, for this week, Kaz's roommate was around and there were enough Paige, Faulkner, and Carpenter scenes that we were like-- hey let's ask Moelle if they'd be up to voice a character for the three-person scenes. And realised almost immediately that it was a really funny episode to enter to immediately get the wrong impression of Faulkner. The in-universe first impression of Faulkner: what a nice boy with kind eyes experience is not usually what you think about him as a listener but in this case. That's how Moelle got to experience him, coming in totally blind.
A weird place to start.
also, a sketch page for brother faulkner: