My own opinion is enough for me, and I claim the right to have it defended against any consensus, any majority, anywhere, anyplace, anytime. And anyone who disagrees with this can pick a number, get in line and kiss my arse.

Christopher Hitchens

ushas42:

“Bottom line: There are no shortage of sites on the internet that feature
adult content.”

This? In particular? Pisses me off. I hate it.

I hate the implication that all porn is interchangeable and devoid of cultural value, so it’s no big deal when a decade’s worth of creative endeavor produced by a vibrant subculture is destroyed, because, whatever, it’s just dirty pictures.

I hate the disingenuous inability to see a distinction between a website that is about porn only, and a website that allows people to blog about all of their interests and aspects of their lives including sex and porn because those are normal parts of the human experience.

It’s the most tone-deaf bullshit.

If you’re leaving Tumblr for good, then cancel your account on your way out.

nomadicism:

Sounds drastic. Especially for content creators who may still need Tumblr for commissions while they find an alternative.

If you can swing it, here’s why:

I suspect that the December 17th deadline is so that Verizon/Yahoo can clean house and make Tumblr appealing to investors. This is a Q4/Q1 fire sale kind of thing. It makes a certain amount of business sense to make this change. Human-lead content curation (e.g. separating the CP from the legit) is expensive and time-consuming. I doubt they have the money for it. They already sold off Flickr. As a long-time Flickr pro user, I’m not pleased by the change and increase in pro account price, but I get it.

Investors are looking for a user base. User base is a prime attraction for investment or buy-out for a social media platform or application (I speak from experience as a co-founder of Rhinobird.tv).

Every account that is cancelled will be one less account in Tumblr’s user base for their pitch. I assume that there are millions of accounts with some percentage simply being abandoned accounts that haven’t been used in years. So cancelling one’s account on the way out the door won’t really matter unless the number of cancelled accounts reaches several hundred thousand at least.

If you decide to leave and cancel, then I also recommend sending a polite message to Tumblr staff, or tweet to the account about why you are leaving.

Finally, using Twitter to voice your concerns and thoughts about this issue will increase its visibility. They ain’t gonna like that. Media outlets that cater to tech entrepreneurs, and Silicon Valley types are going to be all over this.

I never ask for reblogs, but I will this one time.

George H.W. Bush Was the Man Who Got Along | National Review

Richard Nixon thought George H. W. Bush “a good man with good
intentions … but no discernible pattern of political principle …
no political rhythm, no conservative cadence, and not enough
charismatic style to compensate.” And part of the bipartisan praise of
him that we are hearing now is because Democrats love Republican leaders
they can defeat, as we recently saw with John McCain, and their hatred
of Trump propels them to canonize a preceding president who was such a
decent man. Personally, he was unfailingly gracious, modest, and
likeable. James Baker reckons the late President Bush the country’s best
one-term president. I would give that honor to Nixon (using an elastic
definition of “one-term”), followed by James K. Polk, with Mr. Bush
contending honorably with John Adams.

With all that said, not every president is a Lincoln or Washington or
Roosevelt (of either party). And the president the nation now mourns
was a fine and admirable man and leader, a brave patriot, and a great
gentleman. Service was his honor and his vocation, in peace and war (and
he is the last president who served in combat). He deserves every word
and gesture of admiration he receives this week.

George H.W. Bush Was the Man Who Got Along | National Review

We do not need Neo-Masculinity

higher-order:

rtrixie:

What we need today is re-evaluating the value and forms of expressions of traditional masculinity in society, restoring the mindset of what have been countless generations of heroes, of saints, of explorers, of warriors, of thinkers.

Not constricting masculinity in its urbanite, lite version of mediocre wood-carving, beer-brewing, and combed beards, not forfeiting it to the pitiable wailers of MRA wretches, and certainly not flattening masculinity to a mere caricature of its sexual drives and social rituals.

Neo-”masculinity” is just commodified masculinity; it’s some well placed tattoos, a well groomed beard, trouser braces and a pipe. You’re not allowed to actually be a man because that would be toxic, but you’re allowed to LARP as a man by acquiring all the right accessories (for a low, low price of $199!). It’s a desperate attempt to feel authentic in the vapid post-modern hellscape. The whole neo-masculine culture is populated by nu-male eunuchs who want to signal how manly they are without being “problematic”.

We do not need Neo-Masculinity