A bit less dystopian in some ways but terribly recognizable in others is Malka Older's Infomocracy! On the romance side I like the mercenary librarians series by kit rocha as well

(maybe a new poster? depends on how folks feel about it, might upload it to the shop if so)

For years, my fighting game community folks have talked about how dangerous it is that so much community knowledge and connection are tied up in discord servers that can turn pretty quickly into petty fiefdoms, and thinking about what we lost from the forum age; that IPO is troubling for sure

Very true, though I think there's still hope. Regarding scale, I'm spending a lot of time thinking about how to empower those with my values to empower & impact their knitting group, Final Fantasy linkshell, fantasy football league, etc - rather than making a big new org to sign folks up to.

And listen, even if things magically suddenly get better, this is how to get prepared to be a helper.

Get connected to folks BEFORE crisis hits so you don't have to waste valuable time trying to figure out who's down when the moment comes

Teacher friend gave us another way to help:

Do they have favorite historical clothing YouTubers? My spouse has a grip of recommendations I'm sure, curious if I can gift her a new one

I dunno if I can build an entire functioning brainstate from cozy magical librarian romances but I'm damn sure trying