my idea for a visualization of the risk and threat assessment modules! i've been wanting to design some feed elements since they're so integral to the series, and decided to start with these two similar (and pretty wonky) modules.
my interpretation of risk assessment is that it's more related to the success percentage of a plan/generally more long-term, while threat assessment is more about the likelihood of immediate danger. so i made risk assessment more of a "throughline" that tangles when risk increases, and threat assessment more like a soundwave/heartbeat monitor that spikes when threat increases.
plus a little comic showing off these modules spiking (featuring ART and Iris)
@thebibliosphere , I have long followed your blog, and I have the deepest respect for you as a writer, a disability advocate, and-- as is most relevant in this instance-- a homeowner.
I am a person of limited means, and aspirations of future home-owning. My sister-in-law recently showed by a Real-Estate listing for a 3-bed, 2.5-bath, 1,607-sqr ft house on a 0.26-acre lot, built in 2002, selling for $99,900.
The most obvious reason for the suspiciously low price seems to be a mold-problem, which is visible in the photos on the real estate website.
As a home-owner, as one who has frequently posted about The House That Cthulu Built, I must ask you: do you think this property would be worth the problems?
So, um, this is very long. I am very much enjoying the show. I very much enjoy the books. I think they complement each other in interesting ways. While also understanding that not everything hits for everyone. See also, folks I was *sure* would like the Good Place and bounced right off.
Anyway, post Covers Ep3-5 (which I watched last night).
I continue to find the places of divergence between books and tv show fascinating, if ultimately symbiotic.
Anywho, many thoughts.
All Systems Red (ASR) versus TV - Pin-Lee Researching the Satellite
Rewatching Ep 3, I was once again struck by the difference between how Pin-Lee's research into the satellite glitches is handled book vs show.
Quick note,
-book Pin-Lee - she,
-tv Pin-Lee - they
Book Pin-Lee looks into the glitches. MB tells us that it's noticed this because the company requires that its SecUnits watch / listen to every private moment of clients and analyze for minable data, but does not tell Pres-Aux / the team that it has been monitoring Pin-Lee's research.
Tv Pin-Lee gets the same moment with a significant difference.
They state that they've been researching the glitches, get a "What really" (tagging for later) and tv-MB backs them up.
Doylistically, this lets Pres-Aux (and the audience) know that data mining is a thing that is happening without it being a voice over, which works in 1st person narrative, but less well in a show.
Non-Murderbot Digression about Security Versus Privacy
I write about this for a living, so let's take a moment to hyperfocus shall we…
Security is about protecting people/things/data from bad things happening.
Privacy is about defining individuals' rights to control their own data.
Privacy and Security intersect, but they are not the same thing.
To get some terms out of the way, a Data Subject is an identifiable natural person (i.e., not a legal entity like DeltFall) whose personal information is being collected and used, and *may* have certain rights with regards to their data.
Because there is no uniform law, these rights may vary. But collectively these rights are referred to as Data Subject Access Rights (DSAR) and most often include: knowing what data is collected and why, and by extension the right to consent or object to that collection/use, ability to correct errors, and a right (under certain circumstances) to have your data removed.
Where most people encounter consent agreements is Terms of Service, which is the consent document. So do actually read them, so you know what you agreed to. They also toggles in privacy and security settings.
If you live in a place with defined privacy rights.
Privacy rights may vary wildly.
In a totalitarian / capitalist hellscape, an individual might not have DSAR. This is relevant because CorpRim is a Capitalist hellscape.
Back to What this Scene says about Privacy / Lack In Pres-Aux vs CorpRim
For book Pres-Aux I have no sense if they know that MB/HubSystem are watching them every moment or not. I mean, book-MB tells us everyone knows it, but ASR is so deeply in MB's POV it's hard at times to know what Pres-Aux characters know/don't know.
And fairly significantly, when writing cross cultural documentation, it's important to understand that it's easy to make assumptions. We the viewers neither live in the CorpRim (I mean, I feel you, but I have DSAR where I live/work), nor do we live in the Preservation Alliance, which is socialistic and communal. Mind you, the part of me that is really interested in how pre-modern society barter systems work is really interested in this -- particularly as it applies to women's labor -- but doubts I'll get much detail either way.
In the show, the DSAR of it all is explicit. Pin-Lee did not know, because they react to MB telling them their logs are being reviewed, and they take this as an invasion of privacy.
To be clear, I don't think this means that as a lawyer, Pin-Lee should have read where the contract said that the Company could data mine Pres-Aux logs, because I don't think the contract needed to mention it at all, or for that matter mention they are being watched at all times.
In the Corporate Rim, no one has DSAR. Everyone is the product and no one has privacy of any kind.
It's something everyone in the Corporate Rim knows, but is not written down.
This is a lovely example of cross-cultural misunderstanding.
Because I'm fairly certain the Preservation Alliance does have defined privacy rights for their residents.
Unless Pin-Lee is a privacy lawyer (rather than a corporate), I'm not sure they would have a reason to know that. The focus of a Privacy lawyer is ensuring that customers/residents have their rights followed. The purpose of a corporate lawyer is to ensure that the corporation/legal entity they represent interests are supported. They are different focuses.
And other Privacy Violations
It's why I'm glad shortly thereafter we see MB watching Gurathin go into Mensah's room/sniff her pillow. Because (pure speculation) this information is going to come out in a MB - Gurathin spat.
Both what MB is doing and what Gurathin are doing are violations of privacy.
MB's is the legal privacy DSAR context expressed above. Gurathin's violation is more rooted in the idea of privacy in one's domicile. Or possibly not. It's possible, he has permission to go in there and seek comfort when he needs it. Not sure. There's a very interesting dynamic between Mensah and Gurathin, which I suspect has a great deal to do with the trauma of coming from the Corporate Rim and Mensah getting him out of the Corporate Rim.
Hyperfocus - Pin-Lee and the What Up the Satellite
I realize that everyone in fandom has zoomed in on Gurathin as neuro spicy, but I would like to argue that they are missing the bus on Pin-Lee as equally (if not the same) spicy.
While deciding to research something in one's spare time isn't necessarily a sign of hyperfocus, nor being neuro diverse, a lot of Pin-Lee's interactions (relationship by contract, hiding interests, satellite research) are pinging neuro diverse bells for me, but presented in a way that…look I don't want to misgender tv Pin-Lee, but they ping a lot of information / signs for neuro-divergence in women being under reported.
Anyway, Ratthi saying an equivalent of "No you didn't" in response to Pin-Lee saying they are researching satellite malfunctions comes across as Ratthi is aware this is something Pin-Lee would do, but is being playful in the same way as, "Who is this?" on seeing MB without a helmet.
While to MB, it's Ratthi saying, "No you didn't." Flat denial. Much as book MB took Ratthi as not recognizing it without the helmet, "Who is this?"
MB has been watching Pin-Lee conduct analysis. MB conducts analysis. Half-assedly because it hates the Company, but certainly book MB seems to enjoy analysis once it can do it for its own purposes.
So tv MB see's Pin-Lee conduct analysis, and speaks up in Pin-Lee's defence, and immediately regrets it.
Yes, this then tangents into the whole discussion around privacy / lack thereof, but at it's basis, MB's motivation is still to speak up for a person who is hyper focusing, and hasn't repeatedly spoken about melting it down, etc.
Doesn't put them on the same wavelength, because there's lots of plot to go, but it's some interesting foundational leg work.
Auto Grinding
If I'm understanding correctly, when Ratthi tells Pin-Lee and Arada his level on shooter-videogame, Pin-Lee's response is to suggest that Ratthi has set up code to play the game for him so he can get to that level.
His reaction to this statement makes me think that is exactly what Ratthi is doing. It's some interesting character development congruent as it is to the self-loathing as expressed by his rant about being too hung over for weapons training and recontextualizes his Golden Retriever surface.
That he decides to go try to rescue Mensah is an interesting play with tropes of hyper masculinity.
He's choosing to take action when he doesn't know what he's doing and is just as likely to be a detriment. It's action media-its video-game, I know what I'm doing. But he also compliments Arada and Pin-Lee, asks for their help, acknowledges they were right about the setting thing, isn't embarrassed to have bonked himself in the head, and cheers when they arrive / deal with other SecUnit.
This plays into the moment when he says that Seccy is their friend. "That's right, I'm a SecUnit's friend." It's simultaneously standing up for MB, because Ratthi is a sweetie, reacting to LeBeeBee's WTF energy, but also part of the narrative that Ratthi's telling in his own head. Badass/friend to a SecUnit, yeah.
This is a premature statement. He's not (yet). There are many miles to Babylon, and they haven't gone there and back again.
Arada and the Wind Chimes
Arada bringing a gift for DeltFall is simultaneously profoundly midwest US "Don't show up without a casserole dish", and Proto-Indo-European guest/host obligations, and also seems somewhat idiosyncratic to Arada.
After all, it's not, they consensus discuss that they need to bring a thing as uninvited guests to DeltFall, and decide what that thing is. Arada decides to bring a thing. A thing she made out of found material.
On one hand, it's very '70s macrame art, but simultaneously, there's that moment when the throuple (for the length of the contract) are about to go into the hopper. Ratthi wants to make way for Pin-Lee, and they want to make way for Ratthi, and Arada walks through the middle, because she'll go first per usual.
This strikes me as less neuro-spicy than Arada has made some choices about how she's going to live her life. She's not going to awkwardly do the "You, no you." thing. She's just going to go first. She made a wind chime. Giving gifts feels good. She's giving the wind chime away.
She wants to make connections.
It's an interesting expansion on Arada from the books who is nice, doesn't want people to be hurt, but I don't know much more about her.
Again, that works in the books, because we are so deeply embedded in MB's point of view, but in an expanded story, getting additional characterization is useful.
Identifiable Individuals
To get back to Privacy, when the Corporation manufactured SecUnits with unique faces, they made identifiable individuals.
I mean, for the purposes of privacy law no SecUnit isn't a natural person, but we get into this interesting space that by hacking its governor module, MB is not freeing itself. Legally within the Corporate Rim, it is enslaved property governor module or not. Physically MB is not freeing itself, it is still on a Corporate Rim mine surrounded by Corporate Rim security / infrastructure.
But by hacking its governor module, it is granting itself control of its own data / thoughts / choice of actions. It's taking the DSAR it has not been granted.
Tthe tv show is making me think about MB as an identifiable individual in a way the books -- which I adore and love and have read many times -- didn't because book MB has never had a face for me.
I mean, yes, I know it has a face, that has definitely been a key point that comes up time to time, but because maybe because 1st person narrative, I have been behind the face not in front of it.
I get others have a definite idea what MB looks like, but, okay years ago I wrote a story that featured (among others) a sentient block of stone. She identifies female, but she is an eight foot tall obsidian monolith. Who can move (and joins a girl's sports team for plot reasons, but I have about as much sense of book MB's appearance as the monolith.
Giving it a face has been a shift in perspective that I'm not sure will carry over to reading the books, because they are very separate experiences. Only time will tell.
Creating Chronically Depressed Individuals
The opening scene of creating SecUnits was a delightfully economical way to get across to the viewer that in the Corporate Rim no one has autonomy. Humans work long indentures where individuals expect not to survive because to the corporation, they are as disposable as a construct or bot.
The way many of the workers are dressed in hazmat outfits with glassy faceplates, creates a visual similarity between humans and SecUnits.
"Have some pride in your work," yeah, no.
The difference between MB's narration about the control and cleanliness of the creation of SecUnits versus the reality, and yet that line about accidentally creating a chronically depressed MB gives lie to the narration. That it flashes back later to images of its creation and that it was able to reconstruct what happened while it was -- technically speaking -- dead makes me think it knows exactly how much care went into its creation.
Also, there's an interesting punch down quality to the indentured worker telling MB's disembodied head that it will kick it's ass. The repetition of the story that SecUnit's go rogue all the time.
Corporations have media that tells people SecUnits always go rogue. Don't trust them.
It reminds me of race-class narrative discussions about how the elite / corporations create divides between natural allies so they don't go, "The reason my life sucks is the person with five yachts and twenty houses." and instead go, "XYZ is stealing my job! / are the reason the world is on fire."
LeBeeBee - WTF Gurl
The only question my friends and I had after finishing watching was: EvilCorp agent or ComfortUnit/Evil Corp construct? There is no way she's on the level.
But I do see where she is a necessary addition / divergence from the books.
Because the ASR is a very quick read, it's hard to notice that we/the characters don't actually interact with anyone from EvilCorp until very late in the story. I mean yes, fighting a SecUnit, but that's a bit different from in person interaction.
What we get in the book is MB speculating to itself (so much internal speculation for MB) that someone pretended to be PresAux to gain access to DeltFall to kill them. Also, in the book (as here), there's a fight with an EvilCorp SecUnit, but we don't see its Corp handler. Despite having established elsewhere that SecUnits (though it can be lengthened) have a distance limit from their handlers/protectees.
Edited -- apparently that's not how it goes in the book (as a friend reminded me on a different platform(DW), but while writing this I had such a clear image of reading this bit. Hmmm…a dream. Me being like MB remembering GanakaPit. Well, hopefully not. Anyway, in the book it's PresAux discussing to get to this realization, which shows MB-PresAux interaction, instead of a more contained MB-Mensah interaction. With that lovely little realization that it is having a conversation. Anyway… back to the original post.
So introducing obviously sus LeBeeBee allows for that very nice quick cut of tv MB talking with Mensah / speculating that EvilCorpy pretended to be PresAux kill-kill-kill, cross cut with LeBeeBee being obviously sus.
Ominous LeBeeBee is ominous.
The part where she asks Gurathin if she can get him something from the MedUnit (and thereby get access to it - poison/drugs) or food (and thereby get access to it - poison it) is um…look she's sus.
I sort of go two ways on LeBeeBee's sexualized conversation.
I tend to think she's being deliberately off putting so everyone avoids asking her questions. The journey back where she starts speculating on MB's non-existent pee-pee is…Jebus I have been in so many awkward conversations over the years and everyone's WTF is just so relatable. In a flight, fright, freeze, fawn, situation, they freeze / flight.
But I also think it's an indicator of punching down. I suspect LeBeeBee is indentured. I mean, I think everyone in the Corporation Rim is in some sort of contract. Like the workers who the more shifts they do (unless they die), the faster their indenture is done, this mission is more time off her indenture. The "Don't look at me / you stop looking at me," and the kiss are both retaliatory / punch down.
As we get even deeper into speculation, if LeBeeBee is a SecUnit handler, she knows that they have faces and not other bits, and it is entirely possible that she regularly punches down / sexualizes the SecUnits under her control as a way of striking out a corporation that she can't touch. We'll find out.
MB Figuring Out Its Own Rescue
In the book, MB chooses where to shoot itself based on that being a recoverable spot, and expects as an expensive piece of equipment to be revived.
TV MB didn't. I'm not sure I'd call it sacrificing itself exactly, because the shooting itself is very much part of the realization that it is about to lose autonomy. That it's fate is to be trapped in its own body, killing everyone, to become the stereotype of a rogue murderbot (lower case), and in it's words, "Fuck that."
So there's this interesting quality of it going, "Why did I sacrifice myself, if I'm just going to end up there anyway." because it does not yet trust PresAux to be capable of saving it. But they are.
I really love that Bharadwaj is getting a highlight here.
In the books, she's this sort of second-remove character where MB will talk about talking with her, about things / the documentary, but there's very little in person dialog. So the series is doing a great job of characterizing her for me in a way the books (as novellas in 1st person) don't have room for, and I'd like to carry over into my thinking when I re-read the books the next time.
Why is Pres-Aux on Survey?
Rewatching Ep 3, reminded me that I really like that tv show adds Mensah talking about how some people in PresAux want to join the CorpRim, and Preservation Alliance is resource…"not rich" as an explanation for why Pres-Aux is there and that provides a context to something that isn't really explained in the the books / MB don't care.
To wit, why are they surveying the planet at all?
Preservation Alliance took an option on the planet, for which they had to go through the CorpRim. Why? Mensah's speciality is terraforming. Why go to this planet?
Neither book nor tv Mensah want to take on a SecUnit, but they want to go enough to agree.
Why?
The tv show gives a possible answer.
Preservation Alliance may be consensual, socialistic/basic income, but also not infinite in resources, and humans are by nature fallible. We don't always think through the consequences of things. Like the paternalistic way Preservation Alliance defines construct/bot rights.
It gets at that sometimes, because people have needs, we compromise on our principles to get something or avoid something.
By explicitly articulating that PresAux has a reason to be there, that opens up more plot path arcs for the other characters in future (please) seasons.
But also opens up some of the internal conflict we're seeing in the episodes so far. MB is a person, but that is an abstract concept. Its you support immigrant rights in social media versus you contact your reps in support of immigrant rights/donate/volunteer/are ready to go to a protest at an ICE detention facility where you expect to be pepper sprayed and arrested.
So to bring us back around, when the moment comes down to it, there are discussions about whether to rescue MB or not. Pin-Lee with Mensah, and later back at PresAux.
Principles are a first step. Action based on principles is harder the more personal cost there is the principle and the show is illuminating that beautifully.
So its a very lovely touch of Mensah knowing what she has to do to stick to her principles, but she's afraid. Having Mensah just go do the action, puts her in the realm of the unrealistic space adventurer. A title she explicitly rejects.
That there are physical consequences before after living up to principles is part of the reality of the thing.
Hair
Can't express how much I loved MB's little Sanctuary Moon delusion. It gave itself a Pike's peak, huzzah.
So not to deny what I already said, but the MB's physical characteristic I remember the most from the book is from Artificial Condition where it spends pages talking about not having body hair. Not an offhand reference, pages
Which is why I am very delighted Alexander Skarsgard (on his own it sounds like) got full body waxed because he grokked that it's something MB has thought about / thinks about / will think about.
So giving MB a Pike's Peak in the fantasy is fascinating. That's bouffant. That's glowing colors. That's bright visuals. That's MB's happy place. Also, possibly one that got deleted by the combat override.
It's not real that moment with the intrepid Captain Mensah with the amazing braid. MB isn't quite ready for real interaction.
Sanctuary Moon in General
The show within the show reminds me so much of the science fiction dramas that I loved (adored, sang along to) as a kid/young adult. It's ST:OS, which I watched obsessively whenever it was on, and it's Buck Rogers (where is Princess Ardala with her Space-Dynasty clothes?), and Logan's Run (with the future-mini van), and original Battlestar Galactica (space angels!), and…so many cheesy shows that didn't make it past half a season.
It's big and over the top and I'm right there with you MB. Unashamedly love the thing you love.
Seeing MB articulate that hyper fixation is so lovely, and the more it opens up about it, defends it, the better.
Because my absolute favorite scene from the book is where Ratthi very cleverly establishes MB is watching the show by bringing up a plot point that you just know in universe fandom circles was this huge flamewar thing.
It's watching the show.
It's loving the show.
What Gurathin, you don't know Sanctuary Moon.
Crap, you say.
Them's fighting words.
Seeing it even subtly expanded on with additional details was lovely. I also understand why they delay learning MB's private name for itself. The viewer/characters are already about to the shock of SecUnit lifting Guarthin by the neck, it softens the scene a bit, but also gives us chance for Gurathin to reveal the information later.
Again, that's a private name, and this is such a show and book series with an understanding of privacy issues. Because the loss of privacy of that information could be detrimental to MB. It named itself Murderbot, and they are depending on it for safety.
Anyway, looking forward to the delayed reveal.
Out in the Open
I'm fascinated by how MBs speech cadence changes with the combat unit forward. There's a lot less speech wobble, hesitancy. Once it spits out that they need to kill it, it's speech is much smoother.
First, declarations, such as letting Guarthin know that it doesn't like him. Ah, my poor traumatized character, you and Gura are very similar and that's why. Also, he's been a jerk to you for completely understandable reasons, but I understand not liking someone who has said that he wants to have you melted down for parts at the end of the mission. I mean, MB wasn't there, but I assume MB watched that. I also assume Gurathin of anyone knew that MB would see / hear him say that.
The dynamics of that scene are mostly interesting to me because of Mensah. She de-escalates the scene (just as she does in the book) to get MB to let Gurathin go.
But then the show extends on the interaction. She negotiates for MB to continue to protect them, because they need MB.
In this moment, she shows she respects MB's autonomy and ability to say no. Offers it something it will want, help to get away from the Company.
She continues on the trend of asking MB to do things and successfully getting the result she (her people) need, while doing so in a way that lets me/the viewer know she's uncomfortable with its attack on Gurathin.
Lets Go Set Off a Bomb
I think MB set itself up a bit for the conversation about Mensah's kids. It's the reverse of the conversation with Arada out of the worm pit that revealed its face to the team.
Mensah is trying to create connection by talking about her kids. Before broaching more serious subjects. Also, I think it speaks to Mensah being from a society that welcomes/accepts/celebrates sharing, interaction, community, emotion.
Doylistially, it also gives Mensah an opportunity to self-correct using one of her children's pronouns, which is a nice touch.
But um, MBs not ready to talk about her kids.
But they do have a conversation. It's first. Back and forth. Ideas. Recognizable because of shows. While also, setting up for the non-book reading audience LeBeeBee's deal.
All as prelude before getting to Mensah's actual point, the subject of, "Hey, choking Gurathin, not cool."
Alas, this is a serial and a giant bomb (that's what a rocket can be) interrupt.
So, I've noticed that a lot of people into activism and politics here just don't really have a good grasp on the concept of risk management, which is incredibly important to understand if you want to be effective. So I went and found the videos that I learned about risk assessment from back in the day.
Sixteen years ago, wonderingmind42 explained risk assessment in seven short videos. (Back in these days, free users couldn't upload videos longer than ten minutes.) Although he's specifically talking about risk assessment in the context of spending money to reduce the impact of climate change, the principles described here are applicable to every decision in life.
Something... happened to day, that made me realize a few things. Or at the very least, draw the right conclusions to knowledge I had passively observed without thinking.
I work retail at a corner store. One of my corworkers I share shift with is 17.
Today we got screamed at, over 4 dollars worth of 2 2-liter sodas.
The couple, particularly the girlfriend or wife (girlfriend honestly--I can't imagine, with how awkward 'deer-in-the-head-lights' her partner was with what happened, that he had asked the bitch to marry him), left the sodas behind. By store-closing-time, items left behind are usually put back (especially if they've come from the coolers / freezers--because that's a good way to make something go bad / get damaged by company policy timing).
I usually keep them out for 24 hours out of courtousy. There might be a policy about that--but fucked if I know where the SOPs are in easy access to look it up, but nor am I paid (or have the energy, support, resources) to do that on my lonesome. We're understaffed and there's shit to do.
So since we're not sure what to do in the situation, I text my boss. I tell em the situation, and I ask about it. While we wait, I let the couple know, and I ask them if they could wait on the side while we wait for a response, that way it doesn't look like anybody is stealing on the cameras if they just walk out with the soda without visibly paying.
The stealing word must've been a trigger, because the Girlfriend wasn't having it. She accused us of stealing by putting items back, she claimed it wasn't her responsibility to take her receipt when I suggested the receipt (in lack of any response from the boss--after all, we were just waiting for a quick verification), and slowly it escalated to her screaming.
But wait, it gets "better".
She pulls out her Phone to record the conversation, while she interrogatively pushed and hysterically screamed that we were stealing, set on ignoring me (literally putting her hand in my face--not quite touching but it was close), to interrogate my 17 year old (very much still a kid) coworker on if he put back the sodas--which he did quietly confirm.
If there was one thing I did successfully in the adrenaline rush of Freeze and Panic, I quietly motioned to him to stay as quiet as possible in the face of a recording.
Before she, with her rather bewildered struck-idiot boyfriend, left the store.
Of course I informed our boss. Luckily, our boss is one of those that backs us up when it comes to hysterically unreasonably angry customers. If the customer were to return--she's going to get a good talking to.
And in such irony, if they had just waited... they could've just walked out with the sodas without having to pay again, because the boss said it was okay because my coworker could confirm that he did sell them those sodas.
Irony is a bitch to everyone involved it seems.
Now, screaming hysterically over 4 dollars of 2 2-liter sodas is... already fucking stupid. Screaming at retail workers, when they are in the process of already confirming to you what you want, is also fucking stupid.
But let me detail how bad everything was, now that I'm capable of sitting down and writing it out--instead of freezing in panic and being utterly shaken, in the hopes ot establish--understanding of the situation and how one could be more informed about circumstances in the future.
Will it prevent anything? I don't know. But awareness is part of the battle.
Phone Recordings.
When it comes to an authority of resource and power, such as, Police, Politicians, and generally, those who can and will ruin your life by their terms--whipping out the phone is a tool to help best against a potentially predatory aggressor. It is evidence and it helps ensure fair game.
Whipping out your phone, however, to interrogate retail workers over product, and cheap product at that, is, however, aggression and potentially predatory on your part.
Because it...
1). Is with intent to publicly humiliate.
2). Intent to coerce.
3). Intent to nefarious action; with technology of today, that recording can be dressed up as anything, leading to more humiliation, false accusation, reputational destruction and slander.
Or worse.
Made more so if done towards a minor.
This means that, when not performed against an overwhelming authority, a phone recording is a potential digital attack.
I told the coworker myself that, this were to happen again, he is to go into the boss's office and lock himself in while I, or another adult, handle the situation.
We were not trained on this. So, this had to be learned A hard way, thus I could only prevent further incident instead of this one.
I am writing this down, so that others may not have to learn it in a hard way themselves.
No matter what age, circumstances dictates. Someone who does this to a retail worker, or aka "someone who is in the crab pot with you"--is performing a digital attack; digital attacks can be interrupted.
This leads to the second point.
Bystander Syndrome.
There was a line going on when this was happening. Instead of interfering, most of the line, the boyfriend included (Who stood there like a fucking turkey drowning in the rain), mere stood there awkwardly or looked at their phones.
Bystander Syndrome, when not against an aggressor with an outright weapon to immediate cause injury or an authority who's power will immediately overwhelm you and anyone near you, is the worst decision you can make.
At any point, other people could've interfered or interrupted; and you might wonder, why would they or why didn't they?
This leads to the third point.
Emergency Training.
No matter what age you are, when in an immediate situation of aggression and non-physical attack, without training or know-how, one will resolve a situation in a panicky tunnel visioned mess. If you have a lot to lose, you may unknowingly freeze or fawn and panic internally. If you feel you have nothing to lose, you may end up fighting and escalating a situation far more. Fainting will not be an option.
Its part of us being still meaty endurable animals who's first instinct is survive first, recover later no matter the cost.
Bystander Syndrome is developed when someone doesn't know how to handle a situation beyond simple surviving it with minimum input; effectively, a kind of fainting without loss of consciousness. You've checked out of the situation in front of you without assessing if the situation can be handled either by you, or by a greater authority or if freezing / fawning / fainting is the most appropriate response.
Made worse if you're directly confronted with it.
if you know how to clock it, you can get through a situation with everything and everyone intact, inspite of energy levels or levels of panicky--or at the very least, the best possibe circumstances if injury is unavoidable.
This requires training.
Training requires comprehensible instruction, repetition, and above all else, support and reinforcement. As social animals, human beings require support and reinforcement both immediately and overtime.
While experience can work, unfortunately, there are some experiences you don't come back from. This is why comprehensible instruction is so important, as it allows more survival through circumstance than experience can reliably account for.
Proof of this can be seen in emergency services, such as paramedic, firefigthers, doctors and other responders, as well as military and law enforcement.
Yes, I did say that a phone can be used to help against law enforcement in the name of fair game and protection of one's self against an authority that can abuse their power over you--that doesn't mean law enforcement is not an example of those trained, supported, and reinforced to act according in emergent situations.
That's part of why they're scary, pal.
Many people, especially when it comes to technology, are not in the know-how on how to handle or even know what counts a digital attack. Most do not know how to handle, or have been cynically drained, from handling verbal attacks alone.
Bystander Syndrome is developed by not knowing. (Or not caring, but that's its own set of problems that might require a thicker book of essays about).
An idea to remedy and mitigate, is to inform on what to do in case of a digital recording attack by a non-authority. Perhaps there is a phone number to call, perhaps an interruption / intervention is in order.
Risk assessment and empathy are, of course, required. Not every situation can be interfered with, after all.
Assessment requires an understanding of the environment and situations of all and everything involved. This is what we call "Common Sense" in polite conversation, but Risk Assessment and Situation Awareness in more serious settings.
And the reason it is in short supply--is because nobody is being trained to use it beyond fear mongering and being fear mongered.
The Four Point - Acceptability Gone Wrong.
Remember that this is a retail job. Many adults, parents included, consider (rather nonsensically) retail, fast food, and other small minimum or just above minum wage, blue collar jobs to be a child's starting job.
In many of these jobs, abuse is taken. Customers, such as grown adults and elders, will yell, scream, kick, throw, and in the story above, record, when they don't receive what they want as they want it, regardless of the cost of the item--and definitely at the expense of the worker.
In fast food, many workers have food thrown back at them in direct assault by an irate customer. Many irate customers are not, in fact, minors of any kind.
In retail, screaming, digital attack, false accusation, vandilization and slander are common. Physical assault is rare in rural settings, uncommon in urban, and not unexpected in the worst areas.
Most irate customers do this both because they feel they've been cheated, whether it was their fault or circumstance, and many see the upfront worker as the face of the entire company and thus--the easiest target to attack.
And because there is the attitude of the "Customer is Always Right"--they often get away with this.
And yet, such jobs are considered a Children's Job--meaning that many parents and other adults do not, in fact, consider the dangers that come with every job, and that taking a job, any job, should be consider, universally, a hefty thing that requires protection, proper wages (regardless of age) and more.
And that they are sending their children to be attacked for less than can be recovered from. And that they expect adults to be attacked as well, in fact, even more so--with many believing that simply having such small time jobs is worth being attacked for in the first place.
I don't know about other countries--the US seems to think that starving and being left to the elements (at the least), is the most appropriate(ly common) punishment for finding ways to exist; because the image of something seems to be worth more than the lives that have to be involved.
...
At the end of this, I hope I've written enough to garner an understanding and possibly awareness, or at the very least, assessment by example.
I don't hang around horror story retail spaces enough to know if anyone else as written as such--they prolly have, but review isn't a bad thing; and when it comes to the age of information; assess, review, reinforce, and support will be the greatest assets.
And there's prolly plenty of training for the situations above, but not easily accessible or in general awareness.
the coworker is alright. Obviously shaken, but he's fine. He's working towards getting a car, that's why he has this job.
Whenever someone promises you that a new opportunity they're telling you about is a goldmine, take a moment to remember just how many people through the course of history have lost absolutely everything mining for gold.
