oh my god. it didn’t even post the image

When I was 14 and started using wattpad it was still a shitty little fanficiton app and everything on that app was free. E v e r y t h i n g.

You only needed an account and you could download countless books and read them offline whenever you wanted. You could write offline and publish and edit whatever and whenever you wanted. There were no ads, no premium no money involved what so ever. It was the reason why I used it, I used to download (well save to my library) 200 fanfics before my summer vacation because I knew I wouldn't have internet and I wanted to entertain myself, I wrote 7 books and published them for fun because I could write and save while offline and then publish them later if I wanted.

When I opened wattpad after a few years I was first met with "upgrade to premium to download and read unlimited books" and then I was met with an ad in between chapters. I didn't continue I deleted my account and haven't even wanted to download it again.

What capitalism and consumerism did in the last few years has had an affect on everything in such a way that cannot be explained unless you've seen the before. Because now you have these platforms crying and begging you not to use an ad blocker, but that means nothing to me because I know they can function without ads, because I've seen and experienced it. Which is why I do not understand people who pay for these things, but if I grew up in an environment where all of these things were already this obsessed with getting money maybe I wouldn't complain either.

Tldr. children do not have spaces anymore where they're not bombarded with ads and it's sad because they were born into this.

Trump lost 9-0 against the Supreme Court. Let’s keep the energy going y’all more people are waking up! Hands Off Our Rights!

I can't even articulate my words so I'm just going to tell a story in screenshots

I am so fucking tired of being gaslit about this

I'm also still so fucking pissed that we have to include "ooo the trans fencer only finished in X place" because its a reminder that trans women will never be allowed to excel at anything in the public eye without being cut down. Fuck OFF

I know the forfeiter, unfortunately she's from my fencing club. Everyone at our club agrees she did this purely for the spectacle, in a sport that's heavily steeped in sportsmanship and respect.

If she's ejected from the club (she might have been already, the club understandably probably won't issue a public statement) it'll be because she broke the rules in a direct, intention, and disgustingly public way. At tournaments, they don't just kick people out, she almost definitely was warned and told to go and fence, then refused again. The rules are unambiguous and everyone knows you can't refuse to fence. And thankfully USA Fencing already decided to officially allow trans athletes.

But she'll claim any repercussion she faces is for her politics, she'll describe herself as a victim and keep raking in conservative money. It's shitty, she's shitty, but thankfully most of the fencing community agrees on the absurdity of her claims. She regularly fenced in coed events, and it's ironic because the tournament allows grown adults to fence 14 year olds but she decided that including a trans woman was unfair. It's bigotry and looks idiotic, but she'll benefit because conservatives are deciding to be "woke" snowflakes about trans people

Credentials: I have fenced since 2009, I am a certified fencing referee, and I unfortunately know this woman