Writing Mayhem

Leftist politics, feminism, and whatever the fuck. My 4 cats should be in charge of the planet, the world would be a better place when they institute a Mandatory Nap Time for 14 hours a day.

[timeisacephalopod]

This might be THE funniest AO3 notification I’ve ever gotten 😂😂

[byjove]

I know this is kind of a hot take but I think creating a religious ethnostate is bad

[byjove]

I actually think it is still bad even if it is a religious ethnostate for a highly oppressed ethnicity and religion. I just don’t think it’s a good idea

[caretalesotherstuff]

For anyone confused, an ethnostate is "a country populated by, or dominated by the interests of, a single racial or ethnic group."

This definition is taken from dictionary.com

[byjove]

Here is the Oxford dictionary definition, with a sentence example:

[its-tortle]

i don't know who needs to hear this, but you're allowed to gain weight in your twenties. you are a grown ass adult now. your body can and should not be the same as it was at seventeen. allow it to grow along with you <3

[47witchyneurons]

As someone recovering from disordered eating, I need you to know that it's physically imperative that you gain weight past 17. Your body isn't finished growing at 17. You need to be putting on more mass, and that includes fat and all the other things. If you're exceptionally healthy you could also put on substantial muscle in that time, which also weighs more.

[tzikeh]

Maryland to Become First US State to Ban Surveillance Pricing That Charges More After Mining Personal Data

Maryland will become the first US state to ban surveillance pricing in retail stores, after passing Protection from Predatory Pricing Act.

Jesus fucking christ that this exists in the first place

[boyslit]

I WAS FUCKING WONDERING WHAT THOSE DIGITAL PRICE TAGS WERE ABOUT SUDDENLY i had hoped they were so the workers didn't have to finagle those little papers into the slider part anymore 😭

[eclipticasolaris]

Hi, yes, that is the OFFICIAL excuse made to me by the guy replacing the paper tags with digital ones at my local Walmart, but the end goal is to remove the numbers off the shelf entirely, replacing them with QR codes that you have to scan with the app…. Which requires your login information….. and also stores your card information so even if you didn’t use your Walmart account at the physical checkout, if you used a card they recognize, they assign that purchase to your Walmart account purchase history.

I explained very clearly to the manager my issue with the meat section not having the price tags listed, and they claimed it was only going to be for the meat, since meat is by weight, and the price of each item is printed on the packs of each item.

Sure. That’s how they get their foot in the door. Fast forward not even two weeks, and here we are:

Bar codes. No prices, no item descriptions. No price stickers on the individual items. Heck, not even the name of the item that is SUPPOSED to be there.

No. The only way to see the price is to scan it on your phone app, which is also recording what you looked at recently, as a way of gauging what you might be looking for in the future.

So here’s what we’re gonna do gang:

Every time you go into a store that has implemented these price-less tags:

Take 1-3 items up to the cash register. Ask the cashier for the price, or hit the price check item on the self checkout, which will likely call over the attendant.

Express that you didn’t actually want it, you just couldn’t see on the shelf how much it was.

POLITELY, AND WITH A THANK YOU FOR THE PRICE CONFIRMATION, Give the items to the cashier or attendant to put back.

When they inevitably try to push the app, politely decline. If pressed for why not, say you don’t want to have to carry your phone in-hand the whole time you are shopping in order to see how much things cost. (Not having cell service or data to use the app is NOT a valid excuse, as stores already often have complimentary WiFi AND more stores will provide WiFi rather than give up on this push for surveillance pricing)

If it’s a shelf-stable item, the cashier will have to set it aside, taking up room in their limited operating space, and eventually pass it off to someone to put in a holding area to put back later. If it’s a fridge/freezer item, it might have to get tossed due to food product sale regulations.

In either case, you are making it a pain in the ass for them to have these digital bar codes. Tie up the checkouts. Give the employees more busywork that the company has to pay them to do. Hurt their bottom line having to toss the pint of ice cream you carried around in your cart for 20 minutes before giving it back to the cashier.

Yes, call your reps. Yes, push for more legislation like this in more places. But also take an extra minute out of your shopping trip to MAKE IT HURT for companies to pull this shit.

[antisocialxconstruct]

I've seen some people in the notes express (very fair) concern that this is only going to inconvenience already under-paid laborers, and not have any impact on corporate. While I can't speak for every company or every store, I do work in a grocery store and I can tell you this is precisely the kind of thing that would have an impact, especially if people are doing it en masse. Stores absolutely track their shrink numbers, and they do draw distinctions between what gets stolen, damaged, or wasted for other reasons. If people are making it clear that the reason they're bringing things to the cashier is that the prices are not adequately represented on the displays, and rather than improving business it's wasting product, slowing down transactions, and causing confusion and mistrust in customers, that is a language that shareholders speak.

[materassassino]

If there is enough widespread complaint about it at store level, it WILL get back to corporate. You can also make complaints online.

[crashtestjeffy-deactivated20240]

All amazing points and so important to take in. I think I have done a couple of these, but not habitually or intensely. But it's good awareness for me.

[creekfiend]

there are a NUMBER of folktale Woman-Creatures like selkies who exist to make the inherently coercive nature of heterosexual marriage explicit and to externalize male anxiety about how if your wife had actual autonomy she very well might disappear and you might never fucking hear from her again

which is a FASCINATING category of Woman-Creature imo

[creekfiend]

someone said it's also a cautionary tale about mistreating your wife and I think that's spot on especially for other related types of stories e.g. the crane wife. like I think these stories are very much Husband Anxiety Stories. the Woman-Creatures are black boxes whose interior experience it is impossible to know and who have strange and often seemingly arbitrary rules that you must follow or else they will disappear. idk. like. that's why I think that any empowering-to-women-ness qualities of these stories is incidental. I think they're externalized anxiety about coercive societal heterosexuality and the inability to truly Know one's wife in such circumstances.

[whetstonefires]

you also see a variant of this formula a lot (generally at the more literary end of the fairy tale space) where it's not a creature you capture, but a magical lady who picks you for seemingly arbitrary reasons, bettering your fortune enormously with her magic and wealth and second-hand status.

and then, for reasons usually at least slightly less arbitrary, fucks off again.

the husbandly anxiety here is more about not having access to coercion as an option.

[creekfiend]

oooo yes absolutely!

[snapcracklepop-myjoints]

making the radical claim "11 year old children should be taught how to make extremely simple food" has resulted in people making arguments like "I wasnt allowed to plug in electronics until I was 16 and I think this is super normal actually" and "children dont know what ratios are so its unfair to expect them to be able to comprehend the idea of adding equal amounts rice and water to a rice cooker" and I gotta say originally I thought maybe I was being too judgy but now I feel very secure in my opinion because what the fuck

[derinthescarletpescatarian]

I start making muffins with kids at age 4 or 5 (I put them in the oven and take them out, and they will often need help cracking eggs until they've had a lot of practice. They will also make a huge mess). Seven year olds, standing on an appropriate child stepstool, should be able to do most of the process of cooking noodles on the stove if an adult is in the kitchen supervising. (An adult should turn on the stove and drain the noodles but the child can stir the noodles under supervision.) They should be fully proficient at basic microwave cooking and reheating if they live in a house that has a microwave.

An eleven year old (assuming no serious disabilities) not being able to use a rice cooker is ridiculous. When I was eleven I was cooking roast dinners for my family because they didn't get home from work until seven, and baking packet mix cakes to share with the farm workers on weekends. The average eleven year old shouldn't be put in charge of the family's cooking but they should be able to do it. They should have the capabilities to cook, just not the regular responsibility. Teach your children basic life skills it's like the main job of a parent after keeping them safe and healthy.

[derinthescarletpescatarian]

#I'm regularly pissed off at my mother because she didn't teach me any basic skills like that#oh I knew how to use a microwave#but that was about it#I didn't know jack about cleaning or organising either#I wasn't allowed to do any of that at home coz it wouldn't be done as well as she would#I wish they still had classes in school#cooking and sewing and home management and DIY#“young people don't know anything nowadays”#maybe you should have taught them then?

Don't worry, you can still learn as an adult! There are so many beginner cooking shows, youtube series, and books out there!

[timeisacephalopod]

The actual funniest thing about my partner's stupid brother being shocked his (now ex) girlfriend expected a relationship with longevity is that he invited her to Thanksgiving a month after they started dating and ditched his own mother (on HER mother's 5 year death anniversary) to go to this idiots Christmas 3 months into dating and thought what, that didn't indicate an interest in a committed long term relationship? LOL

And on her stupid ass part she seriously thought a guy who didn't even dump the FIRST one he was talking to to chat them BOTH up for 2 full weeks and referred to them as a fence he was sitting on instead of actual human people was capable of a long term committed relationship? Girl, you were a fence he sat on, not a real person. Maybe starting a relationship with someone who is already seeing someone should have told you he wasn't interested in longevity and commitment, the writing was on the wall from jump LOL

This whole thing has left me like

[byjove]

I just saw someone say “You need to read a book intended for adults.” instead of “Read a different book.” to a Harry Potter fan. Big fan of that.

[byjove]

The reaction to this post is making me realize I need to start saying this immediately.

[byjove]

They are books written for children. Children are the intended audience. Not that you cannot enjoy children’s books as an adult but that you should not be reading children’s books exclusively.

[sunnyfuneral]

Children's books are not stupid but they are intended for an audience with

very limited experience,

very limited access to resources

and the unique legal and social positions that is found in childhood

You should be able to read children's books and recognise that they are not for you. they are answering questions that you should know the answers to. They are describing social and political situations that children are new to and have little to no social responsibility to react to

You an adult, when you engage in adult literature should already know and be able to process social nuances developed with age you also have a different social responsibility when you engage with this type of literature, you have a different political and legal framework to engage with this literature.

If you find yourself only reading kids books ask yourself, what about your own adulthood Has left you so sheltered that literature intended for people that have only been alive for ten years is the only thing that you can engage with.

[timeisacephalopod]

Haha, so my partner's dumb shit brother broke up with his dumb shit girlfriend and I got to finally say you're welcome for being right about her the whole time, not that you believed me because no one ever does! Sure rubbing it in is rude, but her intro to his family was fucking his idiot brother in the back seat of his MOTHER'S car and she got his info off her DAD to message him on Facebook. In WHAT world does any of that indicate someone worth your time? Granted she got with a total moron who himself isn't exactly the catch of any given millisecond let alone more than that, but still.

I said it then and I'm sure I'll say it again- behavior like that doesn't come from nowhere and it never leads to nothing. Someone THAT willing to step over REALLY OBVIOUS boundaries like don't leave your god damn sex juice all over your mother in laws car or at least ask the guys FRIEND for his info and not your DAD who has no real relation to the guy like HELLO. I could list even more red flags but why do that when no one believed me when I pointed out how rancid all of that was from day one!

I'm sure my partner did not enjoy when I decided to rudely point out my correctness, but after more than half my life being forced into silence because my one sister "didn't want to hear it" as if any of US wanted to LIVE IT since she can't be bothered to choose men who aren't cockroaches I'm done! Sorry, I've run out of Shut Up patience especially when I did what I always do and started waving my arms around going UHHHHHH only to be labeled the problem myself! Just like my sister used to do to me all the time! Because the problem isn't the Boundary Breaking Freak that was foisted on us all it's the person who pointed all those boundary breaking actions out!

I'd said from jump I have a 100% success rate in detecting Trash Partners, I've had ample opportunity since technically both my siblings have had REALLY horrible relationship histories, but the one in particular made the fucking worst stink in the world if anyone except her pointed out how shitty her dumb fuck boyfriends she had kids with (and not ONE kid has the same father. There's FOUR kids) are. So sorry but after that I'm not keen on being told I'm an idiot who can't see what's in front of my face when I've BEEN right about these people 100% of the time! It turns out I am not stupid, I know what the fuck I see when I see it!

[guerrillatech]

[aflo]

posting this on twitter will get you put into witness protection

[truestoriesaboutme]

The magic of childhood is that you were constantly encountering new things. The best way to feel that way again is to fill your life with new experiences.

[terminallyonlinecat-deactivated]

The magic of childhood is that you were constantly encountering new things. The best way to feel that way again is to fill your life with new experiences.

[milkinyourtoaster]

@isuggesteatingtherich

[isuggesteatingtherich]

i have a suggestion

[stackslip]

we're moving to an internet where children would be banned from reaching out for help and friendship online but abusive parents can post their children's every second online to humiliate and expose them for money with no pushback

[fishpondfish]

it is impossible to watch a movie. every night i think i want to watch a movie. no movie gets watched. because it's not possible

[mousidy]

and yet they keep making movies with the hopes that one day humanity will discover a way to watch them. it's so inspiring

[dragon-in-a-fez]

so much of the "research" on "phones bad" is just statisticians congratulating themselves in a circle

[dragon-in-a-fez]

example: I am right now reading an article on "phubbing", which is apparently the term for ignoring people you're with in order to pay attention to your phone. we'll slide right past the claim that this is a normal word people use.

the authors have developed a "phubbing scale" and demonstrated that it has strong correlation with the existing "maladaptive technology use" scale. from this, they conclude the "phubbing scale" is a valid and useful metric.

the "maladaptive technology use" scale, if you go and read that paper, has shown strong correlation with the "problematic smartphone application use" construct.

have you caught the problem yet? nowhere has it been proven that scoring high on any of this is actually bad for you.

imagine someone told you "if the ground is wet it probably rained recently". then you talked to someone about rain and they said "if it rained recently there were probably clouds". yeah okay sounds reasonable. then all three of these people told you their research proves clouds, rain, and wet ground are all signs of demonic possession in giraffes. you'd be like hold up, I think you lost me somewhere

[ollievion]

I don’t need a study to know using my phone makes me feel like shit

[dragon-in-a-fez]

do different things on your phone then. I'm guessing you haven't written off paper as a technology just because tax forms make you want to cry

[weeknightbrutal-deactivated2026]

It's fair to be skeptical of research into problematic mobile phone usage on the basis that while some studies have shown it to be correlated with anxiety, insomnia, and depression, correlation is not causation and it is difficult to establish a causal relationship when studying this kind of problem. It's also fair to be skeptical of psych research in general due to the problems that are pervasive in the field.

But being not just skeptical but confident that you've debunked all the extant research on the basis that...the dumb statisticians never even bothered to check if this was actually bad for you LMFAO IDIOTS is just plain anti-intellectual though.

[dragon-in-a-fez]

> spend 5 years getting a PhD in youth and digital media

> express annoyance with a common failing of academic writing in your field

> get called anti-intellectual

[dragon-in-a-fez]

now reading a paper where the researcher:

asked students to volunteer to take a "screen-free challenge" where they didn't use electronic devices in class for a semester

recorded students' views on the challenge at the end of the course, and found that most of the students who participated had positive views while most of the students who didn't participate had negative views

completely ignored that this might just mean "people who thought something was a bad idea didn't do it", and instead concluded "the screen-free challenge leads to more positive views on the learning experience"

I'm getting whiplash from all the looking into the camera I am doing here

[pinnipetal]

I do really think that the use of ChatGPT and genAI by students highlights the fundamental flaw of our education system focusing almost entirely on grades and test scores rather than generating curiosity and inquiry, which produces individuals who fundamentally do not understand that the purpose of an assignment is meant to be to learn *how* to do something, not simply to produce a product you can turn in to get an A+

[snake-eggs]

“There aren’t enough hours in a day.” There are actually. The problem is that we think 40 hour work weeks are an unavoidable fact of life.

The problem is that everyone has to work 8 hours, pretty much no exceptions, and with getting ready time + (unpaid) lunch + commute, “8 hours” is actually anywhere between 9 and 12, every single day, with more work to do when you get home because our society and culture was built around having one member of the household home full time and nothing has changed now that almost everyone works.

No wonder Americans are reliant on DoorDash and fast food, there’s no time or energy to cook. No one wonder mental and physical health are in shambles, many just spent all day sitting in fluorescent lights with little to no stimulation. “Just wake up earlier” “Just meal prep”… these are ok short-term, individual solutions, but the broader, systemic issue is obvious. We aren’t built for this. There’s no work-life balance. Genuinely, I think if our culture could normalize a shorter work week, many individuals’ biggest problems would simply evaporate.

[broken-horn-of-equius]

[girlcodedhamlet]

it's very frustrating seeing otherwise well-structured posts about media literacy and critical thinking bookended with statements about "nowadays", "nobody has literacy anymore", "this generation is so anti-intellectual", and the like, unquestioningly falling into better past fallacies.

Do we really think the 80s and its Satanic Panic were better at critical thinking? what about the 40s? the Victorian era? societies have always had problems with critical thinking and literacy, because most societies have dealt with propaganda, corrupt leadership, difficulty providing education (due to poverty or discrimination or other issues), and/or people who resist critical thinking (due to privilege or circumstance or what have you). we can criticize media trends without pulling a "well back in the GOOD OLD DAYS" about it.