witchbitch's recent activity
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Comment on I gave Lemmy, Kbin, and Beehaw a chance. I think I'll be sticking with Tildes. in ~tech
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Comment on I gave Lemmy, Kbin, and Beehaw a chance. I think I'll be sticking with Tildes. in ~tech
witchbitch Link ParentYeah that seems realistic. It's also possible that folks who ARE trolls, who want to start shit and get hit as it were, look at this community and go "...god they're not going to be any fun are...Yeah that seems realistic. It's also possible that folks who ARE trolls, who want to start shit and get hit as it were, look at this community and go "...god they're not going to be any fun are they?" I mean we're not a terribly divisive or angry lot, and it does feel a little like this is a group of people who, regardless of other demographics, are broadly pretty mild and not interesting for trolls. So I wonder how many people wanted to target us and just decided we weren't worth the effort.
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Comment on I gave Lemmy, Kbin, and Beehaw a chance. I think I'll be sticking with Tildes. in ~tech
witchbitch Link ParentThat's odd, as we have the numbers there and of the thousands of new users, very few seem to be being banned. It feels more like there are people arriving, seeing that it's a tiny community that...There are also a few rumors that @Deimos is supposedly heavy with the banhammer
That's odd, as we have the numbers there and of the thousands of new users, very few seem to be being banned. It feels more like there are people arriving, seeing that it's a tiny community that isn't reddit-sized, and going "this isn't a reddit replacement!" and running away.
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Comment on Steam Desktop gets a big update in ~games
witchbitch Link ParentHonestly I didn't think I'd use a Switch all that much, and yet here I am, playing Zelda in bed because it's cold outside (southern hemisphere!) and I don't want to go anywhere. I imagine the...Honestly I didn't think I'd use a Switch all that much, and yet here I am, playing Zelda in bed because it's cold outside (southern hemisphere!) and I don't want to go anywhere. I imagine the Steam Deck is just that but... more.
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Comment on <deleted topic> in ~music
witchbitch LinkI recently found a fun little country band called "The Trials of Cato" who I've been enjoying. "Thundamentals" are a band from the Blue Mountains outside Sydney who I'm told are classified as hip...I recently found a fun little country band called "The Trials of Cato" who I've been enjoying.
"Thundamentals" are a band from the Blue Mountains outside Sydney who I'm told are classified as hip hop. I have no idea if this is true because quite frankly I do not normally listen to that kinda music but I love these boys.
"The Rizzos" are a lot of fun and absolutely fucking tiny. I think I make up a measurable percentage of their monthly listens on Spotify. I highly recommend them.
"Charming Disaster" are... eclectic? They're very goth-core and unbelievably indie in a really charming and interesting way, based out of Brooklyn in New York and are just fun. I love Ocean City from them, it's so fun.
"AlicebanD" is a UK-based artist who hasn't really put anything out since the early 2010s but I love all her stuff. She's one of the very few artists that I keep FLACs of around on my phone and use Poweramp with decent headphones to play them at near-audiophile levels just for like... walking around. I like to buy FLACs of the work of artists I really like, but I rarely actually listen to them on my phone since it's just a bit of a waste most of the time. Not these ones!
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Comment on A "low-risk" AMA thread for everyone in ~talk
witchbitch Link ParentHuh, okay. Yeah I was definitely wondering about how far driver-assist/"self-driving" tech could reasonably come in the next [insert reasonably foreseeable timeframe]. It feels like something...Huh, okay. Yeah I was definitely wondering about how far driver-assist/"self-driving" tech could reasonably come in the next [insert reasonably foreseeable timeframe]. It feels like something that's both revolutionary and deeply dependent on widespread changes in more than just technology. It feels, to me as a non-expert, like we will need to fundamentally adapt both our infrastructural systems and social understanding of and integration with transportation in order for genuine self-driving, autonomous vehicles to be a widespread reality.
Like, right now, we have a situation where I could plonk a true, genuinely self-driving car on the road and honest to god I think a lot of people, even intellectually knowing it was a better driver than themselves, would drive like absolute maniacs around it because they wouldn't know how to conduct themselves with a car that doesn't respond quite like a human does. So it feels like we will need to adapt infrastructure to accommodate a greater number of driverless - or even empty - cars being on the road, but also adapt how we think about both transit and cars themselves. I mean, I primarily use public transportation, so I'm used to the idea of working on a timetable and not necessarily going the most direct route.
If we started to have driverless minibus-type deals going around, that could be very interesting but a lot of people would need to buy into that sort of system.
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Comment on A "low-risk" AMA thread for everyone in ~talk
witchbitch Link ParentHow did you get started teaching ESL? Do you have an ethnically or linguistically Chinese background yourself or was Chinese (presumably Mandarin?) something you started learning for other reasons?How did you get started teaching ESL? Do you have an ethnically or linguistically Chinese background yourself or was Chinese (presumably Mandarin?) something you started learning for other reasons?
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Comment on A "low-risk" AMA thread for everyone in ~talk
witchbitch Link ParentI am from a Reform family who do observe but are not strict and my father decided not to inform me of many religious things about our culture until I was a teenager so that I would be able to have...I am from a Reform family who do observe but are not strict and my father decided not to inform me of many religious things about our culture until I was a teenager so that I would be able to have an unforced view on things. Orthodox Jews always seem so strict to me. What was it actually like living day-to-day in that household? How was Sabbath conducted? I cannot imagine my parents telling me "you're not allowed to work on your worldbuilding notes because it's Saturday", that's insane to me. It's a day of rest!! Do things that are restful and fun for you!
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Comment on A "low-risk" AMA thread for everyone in ~talk
witchbitch Link ParentWhat kinds of technologies do you expect to see being implemented in new mass-production cars in the next decade or so? I'm talking "Subaru outback" levels of mass-production, rather than these...What kinds of technologies do you expect to see being implemented in new mass-production cars in the next decade or so? I'm talking "Subaru outback" levels of mass-production, rather than these expensive-as-hell quasi-prototype cars that seem to be flooding the market.
For reference, I live in Australia, where a combination of baffling legislative decisions and an ideologically-driven tax on electric vehicles not levied on ICE vehicles has meant we're severely behind the times on EVs. We are only just now beginning to see the expansion of EVs into our market, which means a lot of these new techs are strange and confusing to me.
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Comment on A "low-risk" AMA thread for everyone in ~talk
witchbitch Link ParentHi! How exactly does quilting... work? My grandmother made me a quilt when I was very young, by hand/by operating a conventional sewing machine vs a special machine which I'm told exists. I'm...Hi!
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How exactly does quilting... work? My grandmother made me a quilt when I was very young, by hand/by operating a conventional sewing machine vs a special machine which I'm told exists. I'm aware is a tremendous amount of work but I'm not sure why. I've never understood what it actually involves!
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How do you find your rotty/retriever cross behaves? I personally love household guard breeds, as they tend to make wonderful dogs when given appropriate training and exercise, but I have only ever met purebred rotties. What kind of behaviours do you get when you cross that with a retriever, a breed with a singular brain cell to be shared across the entire lineage?
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How much of a ridiculously good deal am I getting if a friend gives me a pair of hand-knitted fingerless gloves for Christmas?
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Comment on Looking for suggestions for games that don't require hand eye coordination or fast twitch reflexes in ~games
witchbitch Link ParentIt's available on Android and I'm deeply grateful because it's a favourite to just pull up and play for a bit! For some reason, Slay the Spire is good on Android but has a multi-minute-long...It's available on Android and I'm deeply grateful because it's a favourite to just pull up and play for a bit! For some reason, Slay the Spire is good on Android but has a multi-minute-long loading process and I truly do not know why. Dicey Dungeons is a great little game!
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Comment on Looking for suggestions for games that don't require hand eye coordination or fast twitch reflexes in ~games
witchbitch Link ParentSeconding Into the Breach. If you enjoy: Chess FTL (it's from the same folks) Making hard choices Then you will probably enjoy ItB.Seconding Into the Breach. If you enjoy:
- Chess
- FTL (it's from the same folks)
- Making hard choices
Then you will probably enjoy ItB.
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Comment on Introductions | June 2023, part 2 in ~talk
witchbitch LinkHello everyone, I've been here since 2018 but haven't really commented anything. I've been checking in every month or two for a bit, and now that reddit's down and my niche subs aren't around, I'm...Hello everyone, I've been here since 2018 but haven't really commented anything. I've been checking in every month or two for a bit, and now that reddit's down and my niche subs aren't around, I'm hopeful we'll start having a few more niche tildes here!
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Comment on UK to stop administering puberty blockers to adolescents in ~lgbt
witchbitch LinkWe know that gonadotropin releasing hormone antagonists, which are the main drugs used here, are basically fine in kids. We know this because we currently use them in kids with precocious puberty,...We know that gonadotropin releasing hormone antagonists, which are the main drugs used here, are basically fine in kids. We know this because we currently use them in kids with precocious puberty, i.e. who are going into puberty under the age of 8, which is a disease that actively causes damage to children (especially girls) and so we use GRH blockers to stop it. When you stop taking them, you start going through puberty again as normal - sometimes a single low dose of oestrogen or testosterone is needed to tell the body "hey this thing works now, try using it", which is a standard treatment for kids with delayed-onset of puberty and is absolutely 100% safe.
Banning the use of blockers is categorically not due to a risk of damage to children. It just isn't. We use these drugs in children quite routinely. These are known to be safe in paediatric patients. We just don't use them often in trans kids, who would ideally take them to block the worst effects of an unwanted puberty until they reach an age where they can maturely make a call on whether to try allowing puberty to proceed normally or whether they want to take low doses of transitional HRT.
Spoiler: we do not allow most kids to take blockers. The ones who are given permission to do so have already gone through extensive psychotherapy to assess whether this is a good step for them, and are kids we are reasonably confident might identify as trans when they are older. We want to give them the time to make that choice without being forced - and yes, kids do decide they don't want to transition! That's fine! They stop taking the blockers and go through a normal puberty and everything is fine. Worst case scenario, they're a tad (like a few centimetres) shorter than average. Really negligible impact. We KNOW these are safe medications. The only reason people can even slightly claim they're "unproven" is because it's unethical to actively conduct experiments on children, so MOST medications are "unproven".
You know what else is "unproven" by that same metric? Virtually all of the psychiatric medication that TERFs want kids displaying signs of gender dysphoria to take instead of taking puberty blockers. They don't care. They just hate trans people and don't like the idea that some kids might be born knowing they're not built quite right. Nobody is giving children HRT. We give them blockers so they CAN make a call when they're mature enough.
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Comment on Reddit appears to be down during blackout day 1 in ~tech
witchbitch Link ParentIt's down on my end, using desktop from my Windows machine (they intentionally broke browser access from mobile devices a while ago, hence specifying). RIF is also down for me. Personally I...It's down on my end, using desktop from my Windows machine (they intentionally broke browser access from mobile devices a while ago, hence specifying). RIF is also down for me.
Personally I suspect a DDoS.
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Comment on Reddit appears to be down during blackout day 1 in ~tech
witchbitch Link ParentPossibly, but I'd suspect a DDoS honestly. This seems like the sort of thing that would happen - plus, googling "reddit DDoS june 12" brings up people who were in reddit pre-blackout, organising...Possibly, but I'd suspect a DDoS honestly. This seems like the sort of thing that would happen - plus, googling "reddit DDoS june 12" brings up people who were in reddit pre-blackout, organising doing just that.
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Comment on Do we need to hide who we are to speak freely in the era of identity politics? in ~life
witchbitch Link ParentBecause generally in the past, ethicists were given vastly more leniency to suggest extreme things primarily because people didn't listen to them. The average person didn't care what ethicists had...Because generally in the past, ethicists were given vastly more leniency to suggest extreme things primarily because people didn't listen to them. The average person didn't care what ethicists had to say, since they had other things to worry about or because they had no access to the information. Now, with the internet freeing up anyone and everyone to access anything any ethicist has ever said, suddenly the world is no longer tolerating their views because the world has discovered what it is they're saying.
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Comment on Do we need to hide who we are to speak freely in the era of identity politics? in ~life
witchbitch LinkI honestly have to say, I don't believe there IS an "encroaching intolerance of free expression"; what I think there is, are a large number of people who are unused to being told that their...- Exemplary
I honestly have to say, I don't believe there IS an "encroaching intolerance of free expression"; what I think there is, are a large number of people who are unused to being told that their viewpoints are no longer considered gospel.
The problem is that every single generation has said exactly this. Every single generation has recorded examples of people saying "why are the youth today so intolerant of free expression?". But the "youth" are not intolerant of free expression, instead, it is those who have historically expressed themselves freely who are now finding that a new generation no longer considers what they say to be acceptable.
Consider homophobia. For decades, open and often quite vitriolic homophobia was considered generally acceptable, even encouraged. We were a society that persecuted non-heterosexual people most aggressively, and the espousal of those views was considered normal and right. But over time, we as a society have moved away from that. We no longer consider those views to be acceptable, and thus we now criticise those people who have always been saying homophobic things, where in the past we would not have criticised them (or may even have joined in). Those who have always been saying homophobic things view themselves, not unreasonably, as having not changed their output. They have always freely expressed their views, that has not changed. What has changed, though, is that the views they have always expressed were once accepted and are now considered reprehensible - essentially, fewer people are willing to tolerate their bigotry, and fewer people are willing to give them a platform to air those views. The younger generations are no longer allowing those people to use the platforms that younger people set up, to espouse views that they disagree with.
The same thing happened with racism, and sexism. It's not that society has become "less tolerant of free expression", it's that society has become less tolerant of what is being expressed, by those specific people. We no longer accept what they say, and are thus no longer inclined to support them on platforms we created - which is a part of free expression. They are free to say what they wish, but they are not free to do so on any platform created by anyone for any reason, and when they express what they like they are not free from the consequences of their actions.
People who complain about "safe spaces" or about "universities are too coddling/echo chamber/whatever" or similar forget that their own experiences were exactly the same. It's just that now the spotlight has turned against them, and suddenly it feels scary and cold and they want to know why everyone is angry at them now when their view hasn't changed. It's because society did, when they didn't. It's because we do tolerate free speech - and they don't; they want everyone to listen to them, and have their views heard no matter what they are.
So, while I certainly don't approve of death threats, I also think that the premise of their argument is fundamentally flawed. They are arguing that the world has turned against free speech - it simply hasn't. The world has turned against them, and they have misattributed the cause. It's not that people don't like free speech anymore, it's that what they are freely speaking is no longer acceptable, and now they're realising how cold it is when you say something most people disagree with... and it scares them. Ultimately, I'm a gay polyamorous woman, I'm pretty familiar with the world disagreeing with me, sometimes violently. I never felt the world was against free speech, because it wasn't. Now that people are starting to agree with me, and I feel more supported, I don't believe that "free speech has won the day!". I just accept that I got lucky and my views are now the acceptable ones. They are experiencing the opposite. I have had many, many death threats in my time, and at least two attempts on my life. They're scary, VERY scary, and when you feel like the whole world is against you then you're terribly inclined to want to paint it as, "the world is against me because it's stupid and wrong and against freedom!". But it isn't. It's just against you. When you forget that, you lose focus.
I'm not against them having their "controversy journal". But I want them to stop deluding themselves about the reasons behind the outrage.
People don't hate free speech, they just hate what you're saying. There's a big, big difference.
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Comment on How to study abusers: Should reading lists come with a content warning? in ~humanities
witchbitch Link ParentI think it's a little sad, really, that you view pain as a weakness and that you view weakness as so shameful, it must be avoided at all costs. Here's the thing about trigger warnings for people...- Exemplary
One should either deal with their weaker sides or choose an area more apt for them should that be impossible.
I think it's a little sad, really, that you view pain as a weakness and that you view weakness as so shameful, it must be avoided at all costs.
Here's the thing about trigger warnings for people with traumatic stress: they help you become strong. Consider that perhaps trigger warnings are not always there to allow people to hide from the things that hurt them. They're also there to allow people to confront the things that hurt them, too. For example, say we're dealing with a soldier who came back from active combat with PTSD. This is a very common occurrence, particularly because PTSD becomes more common when you are exposed to constant stress. When our soldier comes home, they find that they are unable to easily cope with graphic descriptions of combat or death. It fires too many memories that they can't control, until they're flashing back to combat situations and they start to have delusional breaks. Neurobiologically, this is a very expected reaction - remember that our healthy processing of memories involves running memories through our senses in small chunks, things we can cope with, but that PTSD jams that breaking-up process so that ALL of the memory gets shunted through instead. This causes flashbacks: your brain is pushing SO MUCH memory through your senses that you stop being able to perceive anything else. It's like a hallucination but from the other side, it's a real memory that you're unable to stop seeing, hearing, smelling, feeling. And because PTSD prevents you from breaking memories up, being reminded of one part of the memory will inexorably drag the rest of the memory with it, because memories are linked together and PTSD stops you from breaking those links. But to get back to our scenario!
Our soldier, they want very much to get past this part of their life. They want to be able to use repeated exposure to slowly desensitise themselves to the situations that present them with difficulties. But... desensitisation isn't always the same. Some days are better than others. Some days you just know that you aren't really strong enough to deal with your triggers, and other days you feel ready to take on the world. So our soldier uses the trigger warnings to decide "OK, this story has some non-graphic mentions of combat. It's not going to go into detail about it, but it will mention it. I think this is a good starter for me!" They read the story, and they know in advance that the story will present them with something they find distressing - but they also know that it is a relatively mild case, and they know it's coming which allows them to prepare themselves for it. When it comes, it gives them a chance to practice dissociating "combat" from "my memories of combat". It lets them practice exposure.
If they didn't have that, they might be too anxious to risk it. They would avoid all books, because they don't know which are safe. They would avoid all movies, because they can't be certain which movies are harmful to them. This gives them a chance to explore things that they would otherwise be too scared to experiment with, and that exploration gives them tools to explore deeper. After all, when a book talks about combat, it's common for the main character to THEMSELVES struggle with it! And then the character learns how to cope, which could potentially help our soldier learn how to cope better themselves.
Perhaps a month later, when they see a warning that says that there's a fairly graphic description of violence, they think about how they feel, and go "...no, I think that today it would hurt me too much. But tomorrow, we will see". And the next day, they feel stronger. They feel less afraid, and so they read the story when they knew they could. It gives them a chance to confront their fears and traumas on THEIR OWN terms, not the terms of fate and fault.
I think it's actually a little sad, really, that you see this as something inside you yourself that's somehow broken. Pain doesn't make you weaker, it just makes you scared. But the only way to move past it is to fight it, and trigger warnings HELP you to fight it, so that one day you don't have to anymore. Nobody stays broken forever, unless they don't try to fix themselves, and you can only try to fix yourself through sensible, measured risk. Trigger warnings help us make those measurements.
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Comment on <deleted topic> in ~tech
witchbitch Link ParentThe problem with being judged by a machine is that people assume that a machine is necessarily "better" at judging, and so they will often defer to it. It's a kind of misplaced "Appeal To...The problem with being judged by a machine is that people assume that a machine is necessarily "better" at judging, and so they will often defer to it. It's a kind of misplaced "Appeal To Authority"; we assume the machine MUST be objective, because it's not a human and therefore surely it's without human biases, right? But that's failing to account for the fact that its goals are set by humans, and what it considers success is set by humans, and therefore it is necessarily at LEAST as fallible as humans. AIs that judge this kind of highly subjective and complex thing are always going to have a ceiling on how successful they are, and that success ceiling will be the same as the best human who designed its brain. But there's no realistic floor to how bad its failure can be.
So, while a machine is not inherently worse at this kind of thing, it IS problematic because people will wrongly assume that it MUST be better by virtue of being a machine, and therefore will be too inclined to not question its judgement.
There's a concept in game design that splits players of MMOs into four categories. One of those categories is, essentially, trolls. They're the griefers and the PKers and the trolls and the people who look for MMOs that will specifically feed their desire to cause problems, be they legitimate suffering or mild annoyance, for other players. The thing is, the system is an ecosystem: you have trolls, but they need prey and they can't prey on each other because if they get PKed too hard then they'll just leave. They need targets, and in MMOs that's mostly PVEers, people who exist to explore the world and engage with it as a game.
In the social network ecosystems, you have trolls, and they prey on "normal users". People who aren't power-using, who aren't running crazy experiments, who aren't massively creating content. They specifically prey on people who authentically and boringly engage, and try to upset them or wind them up or otherwise engage with them.
The problem, in both MMOs and social networks, are the people who just do not give a shit about engaging with the trolls. In MMOs, that's players who use the game as a fashion and socialisation space, who hang out in the world just to... be present. In social networks, that's people who engage with complete civility at all times and either just ignore the trolls and keep talking around them as if they're not there, or simply walk away without doing anything and leave the conversation.
Trolls hate that. The latter might feed them for a bit, but it's so unbelievably boring when it's all that happens... and mostly that's what you get here. You get people who engage with this space as a social discussion space, and aren't interested in gamifying it. Lack of gamification is what kills trolls, since it incentivises users who are being trolled to simply not engage with the troll.
If you want to avoid trolls, don't allow them to win by doing what socialiser players in MMOs do: ignore the game completely. Don't treat it as a fight, or engage with the trolls even to tell them to stop. Hell, even to label Malice. Just flat-out do not respond and continue to talk to people who are engaging in good faith.
Remember old-school netiquette: don't feed the trolls. They don't exist to torpedo civility, they exist to get a reaction out of human beings. They aren't a force of nature, they're a group of arseholes who feed on your frustration. So... don't feed them. They'll starve to death very quickly.