facebook, instagram, twitter & tiktok have been captured by fascists & those who bend their knee to it

it’s more critical than ever to cultivate new communities on alternative platforms

even more importantly, begin connecting & investing into local offline communities 1/ we need to keep an eye on who owns our platforms, who’s invested in them

social narratives are easily controlled+shaped by those who control platforms + the algos that run them

social narratives shape how we think & respond to the world around us

SM *creates* social narratives

as an anthropologist, one of my specialisations is authoritarianism & revolutionist practice in response to it

one of my research foci for is the social processes of a society's descent into authoritarianism

a historian once told me:
it happens slowly, then all at once. i investigated questions like, how did it happen?

what was said, what was rationalised, what was tolerated?

how do people accept & normalise the killing of their neighbors they'd known for years?

hitler's rise matched trump's. hitler was once a political laughingstock too

we’ve gotta allow space for people to fuck up. to say the wrong thing. or a mean thing, a rude thing, a wrong thing. we’ve gotta make room for people to have takes we disagree with

we are human. we fuck up. we grow. we grow because we are fuckup creatures

allow space. it’s love this constant perfection seeking, this hysterical “holding each other accountable” which is rooted in shame and aggression and not respect and grace…

it’s unnatural. it cultivates a hostile, fearful society full of people constantly conditioned for defensiveness or aggression

yall still out here ready to defend steam to the death over its goodwill&right to monetise whatever it wants however much it wants

or are we ready to have the conversation that its fundamentally an exploitative company that doesnt give a fuck about the industry that sustains it?

https://twitter.com/pcgamer/status/1744899353188180212

because i remember last time i tried to talk about its fundamental issues of exploitation and esp the exploitation of small devs that people swore up and down steam is The Good Guy and we should all say thank you daddy provides us the opportunity to lick his boots

i was vaguetweeting weeks ago about a huge media org that fucked us over bad

gave me exclusive content requests + deadlines, set up meetings then ghosted me & cost us 1000s of dollars

i was going to keep quiet but you know what

@PCGamer don't treat women like shit challenge

https://twitter.com/pcgamer/status/1721975088432492650

@pcgamer these orgs have so much power over us

when they toss us around, cost us money, make commitments they don't keep, lift us up just to break our hearts

we usually don't say anything because we don't want to feel their wrath in future

it's an abusive relationship & i'm tired of it

hello new friends <3

i'm founder of the studio @whalitf, lead dev on @darkwebSTREAMER & an anthropologist with an english degree. also an AI nerd+ethicist

i founded the Women Leaders In Games professional network (@WomenLeadersIG)

rowdy, fulla opinions & happy to help <3 @whalitf @darkwebSTREAMER @WomenLeadersIG i also host @DirectionalShow with @newjorg, the podcast where we talk about videogames and the creative rebellion

we talk to amazing creatives who do things in all the ways society told them they couldn't or shouldn't do em

& talk about how we can change the world

this is a really interesting post+thread that perfectly reflects my lifelong experiences being a woman in gaming spaces

many women chiming in in the comments

/r/GirlGamers is a really interesting and thoughtful subreddit, I really like it

(thread link below) i can't tell you how many times me being my friendly&playful self has resulted in a sense of entitlement

people catching feelings is not a big deal, it happens

it's the anger & lashing out that follows, the diminishing of worth when sex is off the table, that is a huge problem

got the middle seat on this fifteen hour flight, forgot to book a vegan meal, and the woman next to me just spilled her entire glass of white wine all over my leg, seat and ass

so this trip is going well

my apologies to the next three passengers for my alcoholic stench updates for your entertainment:

I pushed the call attendant button to get napkins to attempt to dry myself+my seat

we immediately hit turbulence and the seatbelt sign came on and the attendants came past but just said BUCKLE UP BOYOS* and left

*not verbatim

We've had quite a few responses to the Women's Safety & Inclusivity in the Games Industry survey.

Not gonna lie, reading the responses made me cry. Marginalised folks are still dealing with so much. Every day. It needs to change.

Survey still open here: bit.ly/reboot_questio… What has struck me most is how close to the surface the pain and the struggle to contain and manage that pain is.

Every day women are making a million decisions about their physical and emotional safety in the work place.

About maintaining employment by not calling shit out.

i continue to be absolutely shocked by how little people get paid in contrast to their level of professional responsbilities

and to be shocked how rarely people make efforts to find new jobs in which they're not exploited PLEASE KNOW you should apply for roles you don't hit 100% of the "requirements" for

apply even if you have a couple less years experience than requested

if you feel confident you could pick needed skills up, APPLY

the worst that can happen is a no.

the best is life-changing.

🧵
Hey team! @leighalexander @ashleyriott @AnyaynA and I are giving a talk at @RebootDevelop discussing women's safety in the industry + during events.

We have a survey we're asking industry women to fill out in order to gather insights & better representation

RTs appreciated! @leighalexander @ashleyriott @AnyaynA @RebootDevelop The survey takes 15-20 minutes to fill out and asks questions about women's experiences at industry events as well as online and at work, and asks about measures you take to keep safe.

Some questions may be confronting or triggering -- of course feel free to skip them.

#gamedev

i make horror to bear witness

so many turn from the ugliness of the world because it hurts too much

but it leaves those who cannot turn from it because they exist within it so very, very alone

standing with someone in the horror even when it is not your own is an act of love i don't begrudge those who have to turn from it

but a lot of people think people who are into horror or make it are some deranged sadism-loving beings

when actually horror as a genre can perform a deepest form of empathy

the pleasure comes in solidarity against suffering