Steff 🏳️‍⚧️ 🏳️‍🌈

Technologist, LGBT and HIV activist, baker, cat lover, and former biker and Queer Nation member. Rubber girl and scrambled egg.

#Cybersecurity Practitioner

#Akkoma: [ferral.cat](http://ferral.cat )

#Tor Exit-Node Op

#Matrix Op: @steffie:matrix.l8x.cc

#Signal on request for mutuals

#Hamradio General license - call sign upon request

Note: CWs in use for posts - not always for re-toots
Follow requests get a quick vibes check if we haven't interacted before

Orientation: Queer
Gender: Queer / Transfem
Pronouns: She/They
Promoting: Feminism, Liberation
Sign: Scorpio
OS: Debian

Public Key

npub1gpzsxqk28g9m3fj58as4wtxh6gnzk9880wc7rxuajgjkt0mfelmswf8ngw

NIP-05 Address

steve_at_ferral.cat@momostr.pink

Profile Code

nprofile1qqsyq3grqt9r5zac5e2r7c2h9ntayf3tznnhhv0pnwweyft9ha5ulacpz3mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuerpd46hxtnfduqs6amnwvaz7tmwdaejumr0dsqrzuxs

Publishing to

relay.nostr.band

relay.damus.io

nos.lol

Author Public Key

npub1gpzsxqk28g9m3fj58as4wtxh6gnzk9880wc7rxuajgjkt0mfelmswf8ngw

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Last Notes

2026-01-07 20:07:23 UTC

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It's fascinating that payment processors and app stores happily bullied Tumblr over _female presenting nipples_ and have kicked adult game creators off of Steam, but have been completely silent on CSAM and misogyny generated on X

2026-01-02 21:11:07 UTC

Let's be clear: Grok did not make child porn or non-consensual porn on X. Men who use X did. The entire platform has become and outlet and mirror of the worst kinds of misogyny that are growing in our culture. Men's need to control women throw sexualization and violence is being accelerated by shitty AI and the shitty men who are using it.
https://media.ferral.cat/media/015f3e12fcc9445372c957d7473c908ce3a45eaea400dd7192f9eab9a5512cb5.png?name=there-is-currently-a-crisis-on-x-right-now-because-everyone-v0-qvfsjr2wazag1_png.png
https://media.ferral.cat/media/015f3e12fcc9445372c957d7473c908ce3a45eaea400dd7192f9eab9a5512cb5.png?name=there-is-currently-a-crisis-on-x-right-now-because-everyone-v0-qvfsjr2wazag1_png.png
https://media.ferral.cat/media/7e0d9b1a1120642fd179a0e9d128150b01aa237637979bd7e3171987acc2229c.png?name=there-is-currently-a-crisis-on-x-right-now-because-everyone-v0-bk9f70osazag1_png.png
https://media.ferral.cat/media/afb486b32735f888f7c9e274efd8f050a0412772fd5307deadacf8ba046ec10c.png?name=there-is-currently-a-crisis-on-x-right-now-because-everyone-v0-7m9l4auqazag2_png.png

2025-12-23 23:24:41 UTC

Trump is pledging to create a whole new fleet of battleships - at $10B each!
To put in perspective: that's
2,000,000 Boob Jobs - for the cost of 10 of these we could give everyone in America,one wants them, beautiful tits and have lots of money left over
https://www.csis.org/analysis/golden-fleets-battleship-will-never-sail

2025-12-18 18:35:00 UTC

It would be a real shame if people just [started submitting random complaints and photos...](https://www.texasattorneygeneral.gov/texas-womens-privacy-act-complaint-form)
Paxton’s office launches tip line to encourage enforcement of Texas’ “bathroom bill”
https://www.texastribune.org/2025/12/17/texas-bathroom-bill-transgender-tip-line-ken-paxton/

2025-10-03 16:22:53 UTC

I accidentally posted an E hrt question to global this morning. Since then, and after deleting the post, I continue to be inundated by Nazis spouting really long transphobic screeds against me. I find it pretty funny that 1) they spend any time reading and posting paragraphs of hate and 2) they think they can make me feel bad or intimidate me. What a sad little group of homunculi they are.
Just be aware all that there are a lot of Nazi instances popping up lately, and some old one resurfacing.

2025-09-30 17:47:59 UTC

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Fascism means you're always at War: war against impurity, war against the entrenched internal enemy, war for national glory. Do US military leaders want this? Maybe some will go along maybe not, but this gathering was, in part, to test the loyalty of commanders and replace those who might be disloyal to Trump and his henchmen.

2025-09-13 15:46:57 UTC

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This kid went to school for 1 semester at Utah State in '21. It's interesting how 3 months of college 4 years ago was enough to radicalize him as a "leftist" while we continue to graduate soul less MBA's who would chop children up for dog food if it were profitable.

2025-09-04 19:10:54 UTC

This really shouldn't as any surprise, as the US govt has declared war on trans people and their rights, but it is worth nothing that these are the same people who opposed Red Flag laws to stop known abusers from purchasing firearms.
DOJ Plots Banning Trans People From Owning Guns
https://www.joemygod.com/2025/09/doj-plots-banning-trans-people-from-owning-guns/

2025-08-30 18:45:26 UTC

~~Don't~~ Be Evil
Google Sends Parents of LGBTQ Kids to Conversion Therapy Websites.
https://www.unclosetedmedia.com/p/google-sends-parents-of-lgbtq-kids
#lgbt

2025-08-24 18:24:14 UTC

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While I don't disagree, this conjurers images of an artisan CRT movent, where men with garters on their arms and sporting waxed mustaches spend their time hawking refurbished Sony trinitrons. So I think I'm out.

2025-08-17 00:39:43 UTC

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The existence of Vagina dentata implies the existence of vagina teething.

2025-08-07 04:26:02 UTC

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I'm merely going by what you wrote in the post. As I said, I vaguely remember the incident. However, there seems to be a trend where accusations of racism are escalated while homophobic and transphobic and misogynistic behavior are excused or require "other factors" to be considered serious. Without a doubt racism, homophobia, transphobia, and misogyny are all terrible, but some seem more publicly acceptable than others.

2025-08-07 03:51:05 UTC

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I vaguely remember the details here, but it seems like you're already picking teams. You exclude racists but not queerphobes. Your example suggests accusations of racism require investigation, while homophobia requires a consistent pattern of behavior - as if some homophobia or transphobia is acceptable.

2025-07-08 22:06:33 UTC

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I've always had mixed success with S2T apps, but as I've developed some minor essential tremors, my handwriting has gotten terrible, so I will give it a try again.

2025-06-09 02:35:01 UTC

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I'm not unsympathetic to this argument. Yet, I question the idea of setting a "feminist agenda." Ideas that women are equal human beings with their own ambitions and flaws and personalities just as men are may be anti-patriarchal, but not feminist. My own observations have been that young men can't, or won't, listen to women with regards to interacting with women. The current patriarchal line is that men are lonely, angry, and disenfranchised because of women; thus, it seems absurd to suggest women engage with this rhetoric - as they can only confirm it, whether they are or disagree.
Men, whether they call themselves feminists or not, need to listen to young men and encourage them to see women as other equal human beings and not simply as other creatures who are mysterious and exist solely for pleasure.

2025-06-09 01:25:36 UTC

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I partially agree, but I also recognize that it's not women's job to "fix" men. Certainly everyone contributes to a healthy culture, but it has been clear for the past 10 years that young men have sought models of masculinity from men - and not women - and it has been women who have born most of the hated from what these young men learned. I can certainly understand why women would be highly skeptical or dismissive of men, online, at this point.

2025-06-09 01:00:01 UTC

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I agree, the fact that we can't seem, at the moment, to conceptualize a model of masculinity that doesn't focus on hierarchies and appeals to young men doesn't mean it doesn't exist. Eventually it will have to, but those ideas will need to come from men speaking to younger men.

2025-06-09 00:42:22 UTC

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Patriarchy is a system that recruits all of us throughout our lives, but particularly when we're young. Young men are being recruited into the worst aspects of it, and I'm not sure anyone knows what to do about it.

2025-06-08 15:39:34 UTC

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"States Rights" was always a sham to allow states to serve as incubators for racism, misogyny, and homophobia.

2025-05-20 14:51:44 UTC

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I'm not sure New Atheism is dead, as much as it's ideas have been absorbed by Thiel, Musk, and other techno-facists. There was always an underlying bio-essentialism in Dawkins work and those ideas have definitely worked their way into discourses around both atheism and theology.

2025-05-18 01:41:44 UTC

https://media.ferral.cat/media/bd3429b5402009c02425d8c6b965e619f902cd615f797b61b233b3842bf24099.jpg?name=2025_05_17_20_39_28_1.jpg

2025-04-15 18:16:29 UTC

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This is going to be pretty disruptive ongoing. Any talk of another org picking this up?

2025-04-07 22:53:06 UTC

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I've seen this kind of analysis before and it relies on a greatly devalued dollar, which would create even greater domestic inflation to spur an export economy. Additionally, the pitfalls of a rapid dollar devaluation are numerous, including a global depression

2025-03-19 14:00:15 UTC

*sigh*
#LGBT
Trump administration considers plan to eliminate CDC's HIV prevention division
https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/trump-administration-considers-plan-eliminate-cdcs-hiv-prevention-divi-rcna196946

2025-03-03 15:13:40 UTC

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I haven't tried plugging Signal into Matrix. Is this a simple or complicated process?

2025-03-03 15:00:18 UTC

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Telegram (particularly group chats) is only marginally secure - as the app does not utilize full E2E encryption, as used by either Signal or Matrix. This means your, particularly group, chats are exposed on the Telegram servers. How much does this matter? IMO for basic (non-privileged) chats it's probably fine, but if you are sharing activist or journalism work, you're much better protected using Signal or Matrix. As with all security (and a lot of things) this depends on your risk profile, and who you're trying to protect against. Personally, I use all three platforms, Signal is where various activist groups I'm a member of exchange info, Telegram has a lot of my kink friends and chats, and Matrix, has been mostly for distributing sensitive info-sec work.

2025-02-08 21:46:03 UTC

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I'll just leave this here
https://media.ferral.cat/media/3e4eda00958c4bc8f25e1577e4dcbe7b52e689969d1eb189c4a03692b93a2601.jpg?name=1000003575.jpg

2025-02-07 14:41:34 UTC

This is not good - across all fronts:
C.D.C. Posts, Then Deletes, Data on Bird Flu Spread Between Cats and People
#H5N1 #PublicHealth
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/06/health/cdc-bird-flu-cats-people.html

2025-02-04 19:10:51 UTC

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I would suggest the the lack - and even opposition to - account discovery features and quote posting played a much greater role then a clash of social norms.

2025-02-03 18:46:49 UTC

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I would agree you don't necessarily need native encryption - in fact I would imagine any encrypted messaging within the fedi to be an add-on/plugin app. The single biggest issue with asymmetric encryption is key management and trust. Any external app needs to deal with this, and it's typically the area that most trips us non-tech users.

2025-02-03 17:41:14 UTC

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As someone who used to teach journalists and researchers how to deal with PGP encrypted e-mail, I can tell you this is not the way for most non-tech users.

2025-01-27 04:07:15 UTC

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Folding to Trump's demands is just going to embolden him. This is not a good start.

2025-01-13 04:06:25 UTC

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Agreed, but I tend to make a distinction between conservative and right-wing. Western conservatives tend to still embrace liberalism - which is opposed by the right-wing elements within conservative movements.

2025-01-13 03:56:33 UTC

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I tend to agree with you, but -and I don't mean to be pedantic - is there currently a right-wing movement that does not have an authoritarian goal?
In the strictest sense, the right-wing began as supporters of an authoritarian monarchy. The nature of the right is always to support a strict hierarchical structure which tends towards social control.

2025-01-09 22:00:45 UTC

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This is good information. As I just spun up my own akkoma instance, I've not had any issues yet, and I have no desire for virality; yet, I am interested in what the scaling metrics are for akkoma? For instance, I've noticed more context switching and iops load as I interact more, but it hasn't been terrible. As I have access to a datacenter and my own servers, I have been watching some of the my server metrics with a keen interest on what capacity planning looks like.

2025-01-04 18:19:07 UTC

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Quite a few admins go back and forth on blocking or limiting mastodon.social due to spam and moderation issues. Personally, I feel strongly that admins need to be transparent with their users when doing this. Before leaving, I would encourage you to move to a different instance.

2025-01-03 23:50:57 UTC

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In my early days on Mastodon, I wrote a long screed opposing quoted boosts. Having just left the clown-show that was twitter, I wanted to avoid some of the issues that showed up there. Today, I gladly admit I was wrong. Quoted boosts are valuable feature. More user controls simply needs to be placed on them.

2025-01-03 23:40:50 UTC

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Google moving to 90 days was a bad idea. Moving to 6 days is insane. This is going to lead to users ultimately accepting questionable certs (which becomes a major security issue) or users not being able to access services.