I've been perusing celebrity snark subreddits lately. The people in these spaces truly create alternative realities, always contrary to any conflicting proofs. Snarkers are the new tabloid magazine readers, only instead of gossiping in a living room it's online hate-mob and disinformation campaigns.
Also a reminder that school vouchers and charter schools, particularly those that use public funds, are a deliberate effort to starve and destroy public education. Only conservatives have wanted and tried to destroy public education for decades. Many people won't care until it's too late, sadly.
People who are disappointed in Trisha Paytas making a family channel and using her kids as content baffle me. She's a terrible person. Domestic abuser, sexualized minors, cosplayed as JonBenét Ramsey being sexually assaulted and murdered by her dad. Her exploiting her kids was expectably inevitable.
Thank you!
I successfully defended my dissertation proposal today. Now, I can move on to the actual data analysis and final chapters. My chair (who I thought hated me!) said the proposal was one of the best in the program. 🥹 Felt ill during though. Thankful to almost be done. (I do miss writing fiction!)
Lily Allen in Chicago.
Just saw Lily Allen. She was very good!
I learned who Taylor Lorenz was last year from an article she wrote. I've been shocked since to see so many left-leaning people online love her. I assume it's because she promotes their favorite influencers. She does not hold a scientific worldview of social media, addiction, social interaction.
It would be interesting if what finally gets people to stop lauding Taylor Lorenz is her LLM/AI use. Never mind she promotes gossip from celebrity hate subreddits as fact and misrepresents or ignores evidence from psychology when she talks about social media addiction. Keep it up, anyway.
I haven't run books ads in about a year or more but I sold a lot of books randomly in mid-March. I wonder what happened? 😬
Do you prefer audiobooks where the narrator just reads with some inflection or where they try doing voices for all the characters? I prefer the former. I find voices very distracting, especially if some of them are worse. An older man doing a high-pitched voice has made me turn an audiobook off. 😅
Anyone else get kind of exhausted with large numbers of people who go out of their way to be negative about every new movie or show? There is more to being a critic than hating things. But it is easier to hate, I suppose.
The way The Federalist rag's author Helen Raleigh framed Noelia Castillo Ramos's medically assisted death makes me sick. So disgusting to misuse her story, trauma, physical pain to attack medical aid in dying. These are the same folk who often support the death penalty, which is actually harmful.
I have two completely opposite endings for my series in mind. I wrote one ending before I even finished the first book and it includes a very meaningful scene (to me). But the other ending is more unconventional. 😩 I'll have to write both and show my editor and beta readers. Struggling.
Ableism is among the most harmful prejudices imaginable. There are few other immutable characteristics as dually limiting and despised as a debilitating illness, physical or mental. Ableism is so pervasive and normalized that even many so-called progressives can't help but gleefully participate.
Anyone who is not willing to stand up for and defend the most vulnerable people in society, those with mental illnesses, is not someone I will ever listen to or support. Yes, using "schizo" or other ableist slurs as an insult is that serious. Stop babying this grown man and tell him to do better.
Hasan Piker's fans are saying he doesn't promote harmful ideology. At a time when the president of the US (Trump), a known fascist, is calling for the return of asylums to lock up undesirables, the guy I'm told to listen to (Hasan) regularly uses "schizo" as an insult, as does his audience.
My dissertation proposal defense is in a mere seven days. Then, if that goes well, the research. I think if I can get through the proposal defense, the rest (full data collection and analysis) will be smooth sailing. 😩 Maybe by next year, I can finally get back to fiction-writing.
It's Trans Day of Visibility today. If you're trans and are raising money for something (I don't care what it is), reply to this thread and I will boost you.
If you are a cis person, take a look and find someone to support if you can.
Everyone give this a share after.
Unfortunately, it seems oaths don't matter to the conservatives of the current SCOTUS. Or most conservatives in general.
Protesting helps.
Calling/writing your reps helps.
Sharing resources helps.
Encouraging your comrades helps.
Uplifting marginalized voices helps.
It ALL helps.
Don't let folks who don't understand that nothing is fixed INSTANTLY get you down.
It's frustrating enough w/out them making it worse.
Do I think banning kids from social media and requiring ID verification are the best solutions to SM harms? No. However, we don't have to misrepresent evidence on the effects of SM to oppose conservatives. We need balanced discussion that acknowledges harm but suggests evidence-based interventions.
Taylor doesn't understand or doesn't care about psychology and promoting an evidence-based view of social media use. Two things are true at once: (1) conservatives want to control social media and the Internet, and (2) social media, especially compulsive use of social media, can be harmful.
Taylor Lorenz is right that the Heritage Foundation and other conservatives want to control social media/discourse. That doesn't mean that social media/addiction to have no harmful effects on people or society. Taylor has a vested interest in promoting social media usage; her perspective is skewed.
Taylor Lorenz deleted post saying social media isn't harmful to young people.
I replied to journalist Taylor Lorenz in November of 2025 when she claimed social media isn't harmful to young people. She deleted her post and carried on. I genuinely don't understand the extreme adoration for her. I saw someone saying she's "in her lane" about social media usage. No, she is not.
That is a very significant stat.
Stacy Cay hit the nail on the head about Hasan. Unlike Hasan, she (like many more regular people) has a lot to lose with Republicans in power. It's so exasperating that the people we are supposed to follow for opposition to conservatives so frequently participate in reactionary behavior themselves.
If Hasan Piker and his fans want his community to be more than mostly White guys in their 30s, they need to start listening to the *concerns of people beyond their experiences more.
*They could tone down the ableism and stop using "schizo" as an insult, too. These things are off-putting to many.
Do NOT tell Hasan Piker you’re transgender
youtu.be/MHf838xVuds...
I fear many of Hasan Piker's fans won't listen to Stacy. A lot of Hasan's fans malign and misrepresent standpoint theory as "liberal identity politics." Saw one of his fans already dismiss this video as a "typical liberal critique."
Someone tried to log into my old MailerLite account three times yesterday. Anyone else have something like that? 🤔 (I don't even use that service anymore!)
I'm something of a horror fanatic and this is a wild month for horror releases. Even just this week alone. Forbidden Fruits. They Will Kill You. Ready or Not 2 last week. The list goes on. And the rest of 2026 looks awesome too. Very exciting!