Negation Aspiration vol. 140

THE TRAUMA FLOOR

The secret lives of Facebook moderators in America

KEY FINDINGS

• Moderators in Phoenix will make just $28,800 per year — while the average Facebook employee has a total compensation of $240,000.
• In stark contrast to the perks lavished on Facebook employees, team leaders micro-manage content moderators’ every bathroom break. Two Muslim employees were ordered to stop praying during their nine minutes per day of allotted “wellness time.”
• Employees can be fired after making just a handful of errors a week, and those who remain live in fear of former colleagues returning to seek vengeance. One man we spoke with started bringing a gun to work to protect himself.
• Employees have been found having sex inside stairwells and a room reserved for lactating mothers, in what one employee describes as “trauma bonding.”
• Moderators cope with seeing traumatic images and videos by telling dark jokes about committing suicide, then smoking weed during breaks to numb their emotions. Moderators are routinely high at work.
• Employees are developing PTSD-like symptoms after they leave the company, but are no longer eligible for any support from Facebook or Cognizant.
• Employees have begun to embrace the fringe viewpoints of the videos and memes that they are supposed to moderate. The Phoenix site is home to a flat Earther and a Holocaust denier. A former employee tells us he no longer believes 9/11 was a terrorist attack.

Awwww Yeah vol. 102

Nassau lawmakers propose bill making 'revenge porn' illegal

The Nassau bill, which has yet to be put on the legislative calendar, would need support from the GOP majority to pass from committee to the full 19-member legislature. 

U.S.A.! U.S.A.! vol. 166

Many of the photos depict explicit images of violent deaths that have yet to be identified by the Pentagon. Among the soldiers, the collection was treated like a war memento. It was passed from man to man on thumb drives and hard drives, the gruesome images of corpses and war atrocities filed alongside clips of TV shows, UFC fights and films such as Iron Man 2. One soldier kept a complete set, which he made available to anyone who asked.

In a break with protocol, the soldiers also took photographs of themselves celebrating their kill. In the photos, Morlock grins and gives a thumbs-up sign as he poses with Mudin’s body. Note that the boy’s right pinky finger appears to have been severed. Staff Sgt. Calvin Gibbs reportedly used a pair of razor-sharp medic’s shears to cut off the finger, which he presented to Holmes as a trophy for killing his first Afghan.

The Kill Team 

Photos

More war crime images the Pentagon
doesn’t want you to see

We Are The Sprocket Holes vol. 333

On Murder as Fine Art: Lars Von Trier’s The House That Jack Built

Negation Aspiration vol. 139

Vatican abuse summit: Cardinal says files were destroyed

U.S.A.! U.S.A.! vol. 165

"Please send me your violence that I may unleash it onto their heads," Hasson wrote in a letter that prosecutors say was found in his email drafts. "Guide my hate to make a lasting impression on this world."

"I never saw a reason for mass protest or wearing uniforms marching around provoking people with swastikas etc.," Hasson said. "I was and am a man of action you cannot change minds protesting like that. However you can make change with a little focused violence."

Self-proclaimed white 

nationalist planned mass 

terror attack 'to kill almost 

every last person on earth,’

 authorities say

Awwww Yeah vol. 101

R Kelly “close to facing criminal charges” over sex tape featuring 14-year-old girl

Awwww Yeah vol. 100

WHEN YOUTUBE RED-PILLS THE LOVE OF YOUR LIFE

What it's like to watch, terrified and helpless, as your partner becomes radicalized by hate on the fringe right

U.S.A.! U.S.A.! vol. 164

STEVE BANNON IS HELPING RAISE MILLIONS TO GET THE BORDER WALL BUILT — OUT OF HEMP

Negation Aspiration 139

Children found malnourished and locked inside dog kennel at Texas home

U.S.A.! U.S.A.! vol. 163

Around 60% of America’s wealth is now inherited. Many of today’s super-rich have never done a day’s work in their lives.

Trump’s response has been to cut the estate tax to apply only to estates valued at over $22m per couple. Mitch McConnell is now proposing that the estate tax be repealed altogether.

What about the capitalist principles that people earn what they’re worth in the market, and that economic gains should go to those who deserve them?

America is on the cusp of the largest inter-generational wealth transfer in history. As rich boomers expire over the next three decades, an estimated $30tn will go to their children.

Those children will be able to live off of the income these assets generate, and then leave the bulk of them to their own heirs, tax-free. (Capital gains taxes don’t apply to the soaring values of stocks, bonds, mansions and other assets of wealthy people who die before they’re sold.)

After a few generations of this, almost all of the nation’s wealth will be in the hands of a few thousand non-working families. To the conservative mind, the specter of socialism conjures up a society in which no one is held accountable, and no one has to work for what they receive. Yet that’s exactly the society Trump and the Republicans are promoting for the rich.

Trump offers socialism for the rich, capitalism for everyone else

Negation Aspiration vol. 138

The charges stem from the death of 4-month-old Sterling Koehn, whose body was found Aug. 30, 2017, in a maggot-infested diaper at an apartment in Alta Vista. First responders found his body in a sweltering bedroom in a baby swing.

Mom convicted of murder after baby died from diaper rash infection

The 4-month-old baby was found lifeless in a baby swing wearing a maggot-infested diaper.

Awww Yeah vol. 99

GAMERGATE’S MERCEDES CARRERA ARRESTED FOR SEXUAL ABUSE OF A YOUNG CHILD

RIP the career of one of my top 5 hate-wanks

whelp, she was always going off on "SJWs" and gamer girls on her Twatter feed. Guess we can file this under "When 'Keeping It Real' Goes Wrong".

U.S.A.! U.S.A.! vol. 162

Why millions of people are getting hit with a surprise tax bill this year

An effort to make the tax bill look better ended up making it look worse.

We Are The Sprocket Holes vol. 332

All 10 Episodes of Nicolas Winding Refn’s ‘Too Old to Die Young’ Are 90 Minutes, Says Cliff Martinez

U.S.A.! U.S.A.! vol. 161

Gavin McInnes Writes Letters to Neighbors to Take Down Anti-Hate Signs

Gavin McInnes Sues Southern Poverty Law Center for Branding Proud Boys ‘Hate Group’

Awww Yeah vol. 98

When was the last time the internet made you feel good?

When was the last time the internet gave you hope?

When was the last time you felt free on the internet?

When was the last time you thought of the internet as a weird and wonderful place?

How sex censorship killed the internet we love

Negation Aspiration vol. 137

YouTube star Austin Jones pleads guilty to production of child pornography after coercing underage fans to send him videos

Awww Yeah vol. 97

Inside Queens’ hidden sex district

Negation Aspiration vol. 136

‘Nobody Is Going to Believe You’

The Bohemian Rhapsody director Bryan Singer has been trailed by accusations of sexual misconduct for 20 years. Here, his alleged victims tell their stories.