I already made a post how russian propaganda works and why they spread specific discourse.
Now here’s a scheme how they usually operate:
Another way russian trolls work is this:
Create unpolitical group (about kittens, gardening, memes, local properties, etc) -> gain followers who are interested in the topic. Create a stable following of at least 100 people -> slowly start dropping political posts or memes to test the waters. Posts would be rare and far-between, and not particularly polarizing, but a strong enough topic to get a response (likes, comments, etc) -> as engagement in these posts rises (fuelled by a bunch of fake accounts supporting the narrative and creating an illusion of community and common worldview), they increase in numbers, gradually replacing the original intent of the group. This is where some people would leave, but those more easily swayed, loyal members, or those supporting the ideas will remain -> gradually change the tone of the posts from innocently questioning to blatant push narrative and accusations, radicalizing the general view -> finally, as the final form is revealed, those who still remain in the group will be persuaded and might begin sharing some of the posts on their personal pages, further spreading disinformation and propaganda.
How would it look like in terms of, for example, anti-Ukraine propaganda?
1. A cat-owner group is created. It contains articles about cat well-being, maybe some location-specific shelter information to make it look more natural, funny memes, etc - anything that would grab attention and would be boosted by algorithms.
2. As following rises, an article or two about horrible conditions of cats in Ukraine would appear. The headline might even raise some innocent-sounding questions that would encourage reactions and discussions.
3. Gradually cat-unrelated posts about Ukraine will appear, all mildly critical or questioning. Nothing too radical nor openly negative, but enough to plant some seeds of doubt, generate discourse, and thus get further boosted by algorithms.
4. Posts about cats would slowly lose engagement while political posts will slowly replace those about cats in numbers. All done gradually so very few would notice, as they would be busy engaging in discussions.
5. Posts would become more strongly worded against Ukraine. They would feature fake news or deliberately negative information to create an overall illusion that Ukraine = bad.
6. Those who remain after all this would at the very best start questioning if Ukraine really is the victim and good. No praising of russia would be featured - no need. All that’s necessary is, at the very least, to make people believe that both sides are equally bad. At worst people would start genuinely supporting russia and attempt to spread that message to their friends and relatives to “open their eyes to truth”.
we were so right when we invented the concept of friendship bracelets and wedding bands and the like. just matchy stuff in general. to feel this piece of jewelry on your skin and to fidget with it, a physical reminder of your connection with this other person who’s so important to you. to know they’re also wearing the other half of the pair, or group of 3 or more, because they love you too…
I mean, yeah, valid! but but but I also want to add on the fact that lotr AGGRESSIVELY rejects the “grimdark” and “gritty” settings that is so prevalent in fantasy (and also in general) right now, because I physically can not shut up about it
It is hope and love and compassion that saves each character individually, and because of that, the world. Frodo fails in the end, but his acts of compassion from earlier in the story save the day. And even as the world is saved, it is acknowledged that Frodo failed—without judgement, without blame. He fails, and he is still loved.
And like what can happen in the real world, he is still irrevocably changed by his trauma. But there is still hope—he has to leave, but he leaves with the promise of healing, and the promise that his ever-faithful Sam will follow.
Aragorn, Boromir, Frodo, Sam; each and every one of the characters are driven by their love of the people around them and their hope for the future. They cling to that love and hope throughout their trials, and that bears them through.
Of course people are watching it for comfort!!!! Lotr is eternally consistent in its promise, which Sam articulates so clearly in The Two Towers: “Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines, it’ll shine out the clearer.”
Things are dark and awful and terrible, but it will not be that way forever. That is the promise of LOTR. A promise of hope, and the reminder that it is love and compassion—for our friends, for our families, for the strangers we’ve never even met—that will save us in the end.
LOTR was the last time anyone in Hollywood was blisteringly, truly genuine. The good guys were good and kind and noble and the movie creators understood that this didn’t make them boring, it made them bonkers-ass compelling and wonderful. No one winked at the camera at any point.
noticed that on social media like tiktok russians used to proudly say “this is how we do things in RUSSIA RUSSIA RUSSIA” but now more and more of them are like “this is how we are in EaSTErn EuRope……. what nationality am i? EASTERN EUROPEAN duh!!!” and its especially funny when they post shit like ‘every person from ee relates :)’ but its something so russian centric nobody outside of the russian speaking bubble in eastern europe relates in the slightest
hate when folk call the Sun “our nearest star” no you dweebs that’s OUR STAR! After everything she’s done for you and you want to compare her to some lightyears away ass nobody called some shit like Guncho 785B? We’re not spinning eternally around any old ball, we’re three deep in the window on board the Sol Train and she did NOT provide the catering, the itinerary and all the fuel to share credit with some two-bit Proxima Centauri hack. point to these nuts in a constellation while you’re at it. i love the sun
I love you “boring” female characters. I love you ingenues. I love you female characters who aren’t “modern” enough. I love you female characters who aren’t “badass” enough. iI love you female characters who aren’t “empowering” enough. I love you quiet female characters. I love you unappreciated female characters. I love you polite female characters. I love you female characters who “can’t appeal to modern audiences.” I love you frightened female characters. I love you female characters labeled as not complex just for being nice. I love you female characters who get criticism just for not being their tomboy or femme fatale counterpart.
“Sculpture for the Earth” (“Rzeźba dla Ziemi”) by Polish artist and performer Teresa Murak, created in 1974 in Ubbaboda, Sweden.
Creating the sculpture took the artist 30 days, and she used her own height as the radius for measurements. The mound was a mirrored image of the hemisphere dug from the ground, meant to represent forces of earth and sky complementing each other. After shaping the hemispheres, she grassed both convex and concave surfaces over. Just after a few days, when the green sprouts started growing, the sculpture was destroyed with bulldozers
against the artist’s will, under a pretext of a lack of building permit. Teresa Murak was among the first artists in Europe who engaged in land art.
idk i just wanna sit in a dark library in an oversized sweater and smile at my lover over the top of my book as a storm rages on outside and a fire crackles in the fireplace and i feel warm and safe and loved is that too much to ask for
CHŁOPI (eng. THE PEASANTS) 2022, dir. Dorota Kobiela — concept trailer
Based on the Nobel Prize-winning novel by Władyslaw Reymont, the story follows a young woman in the late 19th century who is forced to marry a wealthy farmer, despite her love for his son. The townspeople come to despise her, but she fights on. Set in the Polish countryside on the cusp of the 19th and 20th Centuries, the story’s dramatic turns tie into the changing seasons, hard labor in the fields, and the traditional local holidays. The look is inspired “by popular realist and pre-impressionist paintings from the 19th Century, with an emphasis on the Young Poland Movement and the works of such artists as Józef Chełmoński, Ferdynand Ruszczyc, and Leon Wyczółkowski.” It won’t be done until 2022, considering every frame (over ~65,000) has to be painted by hand.
