Thinkpiece Bot  🌹

i've been having bad takes sent to me to use as bot fodder for a couple years now and these are one of the ones that make me fucking sick

remember how this bot used to be funny? that's because when i started it i was poking fun at the bad way that clickbait headlines are structured

i was mad about the bad portrayals of millennials, sure, with all the fucking baby boomer entitlement and obliviousness to the way my generation was failed by capitalism

it was easy to come up with all the topics i put in it. shit like fidget spinners and new video games and all the other thinkpiece bait

and every time i expanded it it got better at prophecy, because all these topics come around over and over

i put in "Avocados" back when the avocado emoji was being considered and it cycled back like clockwork to avocado toasthttps://twitter.com/thinkpiecebot/status/641823359605542912 …

i still add new fun topics like that but not too often. mostly now i update this when i'm filled with rage

rage at the constant insistence by the press to play softball with the nazis, rapists and transphobes that threaten the lives of people i love

and rage at the lack of even self-interest by those presses as they insist on giving the kid glove treatment to fascists who would tear down the free press in an instant if given the opportunity

i don't have any solutions right now but god i hope that someone gets through to Richard Fausset and the rest of the NY Times in a way that makes it hard for them to fucking sleep at night

at this point i'm resigned to the knowledge that we're relying on that core of socialists, communists and anarchists to actively resist fascism while everyone else focuses on protecting nazi speech

there's no way for me to include shit like the way that the cops of st louis are murdering ferguson activists and getting away with it with no investigation in the bot

it's not something being covered enough to satirize and the algorithm would pair it with shit that makes it a trite joke anyway

but the only thing of any fucking use at all that this bot does is making occasional tweets that point out that the way this shit is being handled is fucking garbage and even a goddamn robot can see it

and thanks to everyone else out there who's doing the work on the ground with organizing, protesting, beating the shit out of nazis, etc

especially to everyone who's been outing abusers, both recently and in the past. that's another thing i can't put in the bot because i can't make it trite or funny

i hope all the people enabling the fascists and the abusers realize their mistakes mostly for selfish reasons: i hope they fucking lose sleep over it. i hope they die miserable

but i want to end this on a note of solidarity to everyone living with the consequences of living in this fucked up reality

it's dead brave to come out about your abusers but no one should have to do it. there shouldn't be a fucking toll in blood and confession for people to get rid of predators

solidarity with all of you from another survivor running a little bot project in a corner of this website

and to everyone else who sees the constant attempt to pretend at normalcy and feels like you're losing your mind: it's not just you

solidarity to everyone feeling that mass gaslighting campaign.

solidarity to the trans people who are being constantly told that their existence is up for debate with anyone who demands your time

and a huge thank you to all the people continuing to exist in a white supremacist society, who have been forced into this fight just to exist

that's not a struggle i can speak to personally but that work is fucking real

thank you and solidarity to everyone else who's in this fight against fascism and capitalism. no matter how many more times the new york times decides to hand over free advertising to nazis. you're not alone.