Katherine Alejandra Cross

@quinnae.com

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Sociologist, Mistress of Information Systems || A techie TransLatina Ph.D Candidate at the UW iSchool || The Saturday Paper VG Columnist || 📍Seattle || 🏳️‍⚧️ || Author of LOG OFF; preorder here! https://www.littlepuss.net/logoff

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Katherine Alejandra Cross

happy today for those who celebrate

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Katherine Alejandra Cross

Weaponised trauma is trauma I categorically will never give a shit about. If you decide to use whatever happened to you as a cudgel for coercion, then I no longer have to care about what happened to you. I have tons of trauma so I have the right to see that for what it is: not symptoms, but a choice

Reply to

Maaike Verbruggen

Nice!

"Put your right hand in the box." "...What's in the box?" "Bluesky."

Reply to

Casey Plett

Yeah, I know you get it, sister. 💙

This whole thread is worthwhile, but Kairi drills down to some of the more important questions here. It's easy to preen on behalf of victims whose stories you exploit and who you'll never check in on again--just another resource to burn through, one more disposable account.

It's far harder to build a sustainable community, however. Social media is frequently a carnival of traumas on display; they drive engagement, ratchet up the emotions that keep people posting. But the platform will never, ever heal you, nor give you peace.

That's not on us as individual users to solve, because I don't think there's a way to build places like this that'll *ameliorate* this issue--never mind fix it. But it is incumbent on us to not hold out the false hope of healing-through-Discourse.

Caring for abuse victims will require meaningful stewardship, guidance back into the arms of trusted friends (especially those with whom the victim has a physical connection--someone they can see in-person), and often guidance away from the platform.

It means connection to durable resources and trustworthy organisations; it means helping people deepen healthier ties that leave them less dependent on the platform; it means ensuring that they're not just another bit of #content, in other words.

I want to believe that this place could do more than just point mobs at worthy targets. But I admit a certain amount of pessimism on that score. I don't know if this place can truly be a space for healing the afflicted. Only offering the illusion of momentary vengeance--same as it ever was.

One of the worst issues with these platforms is that there is simply no way to build brake lines into them. If a mob can sustain itself? If there's enough raw libidinal pleasure in keeping at it? It'll go on indefinitely, long past any sense of proportional justice. *Boredom* is the sole limit.

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Katherine Alejandra Cross

It's SO WILD that the Moon exists!! Consider, She is: -RIGHT up there -Approximately as big across as The Continental United States -Made of rocks -Again, She is RIGHT up there! -You can SEE Her -She lives in Space -She lives in SPACE and you can SEE Her

*whips off her glasses* My. God. There's a Haus of Decline character spitroasting the entire planet.

behold: the grand plan

I keep warning people about getting ragebaited by headline screenshots...

Reply to

Faine Greenwood

This is a blameless, holy creature.

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Katherine Alejandra Cross

Recent dnd comm :)

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Katherine Alejandra Cross

Kinda wish I had a Venn diagram for the overlap between “bellingcat is a CIA op” and “environmental activist group funded by an oil heiress that accepts donations in cryptocurrency it totally legit and grassroots”

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Katherine Alejandra Cross

I love hearing authors read their own work. Author readings are the lifeblood of book culture -- i miss bookstore readings and spoken word events. So in my latest newsletter I offer some tips to help authors do a better job with reading out loud 📚🎤🤩 buttondown.email/charliejane/...

Let Authors Read Their Work!buttondown.email One thing that bums me out is my sense that people don't seem to want to listen to authors reading their work in public as much as they used to. (This is a...

This was one of the best Bond themes, and the music video just slams hard.

Reply to

Faine Greenwood

Not exactly web design, but... real ones remember Presario Plaza.

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Katherine Alejandra Cross

"One of the most thought-provoking books I have read all year." Thx Largehearted Boy! @quinnae.com's playlist for LOG OFF 👇 largeheartedboy.com/2024/06/19/k...

Katherine Cross’s playlist for her essay collection “Log Off” – Largehearted Boylargeheartedboy.com

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Katherine Alejandra Cross

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Katherine Alejandra Cross

Apparently someone at the Boston Fire Department had a wonderful, vindicating day yesterday, during the 911 outage:

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Katherine Alejandra Cross

gone but not forgotten

Home Screen widget that shows an “in memoriam” for cancelled users like when someone dies in the hunger games

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Katherine Alejandra Cross

Reply to

Ripperoni

Oh yeah, I liked it too. Watched it years ago with an ex-girlfriend.