Sven Slootweg (soft-deprecated) @joepie91@pixie.town

You know the "bystander effect"? The idea that in a crisis, when there's multiple people around, nobody will do anything because everybody is expecting someone else to do something - the claim being that "individuals don't have a sense of responsibility anymore".

It's a widely believed concept. It's also based on faulty data, never credibly proven, and increasingly being debunked through research of real-world incidents. By all appearances, the theory is complete nonsense.

(The original incident that sparked this theory ended up being much more about failure of the police to respond to calls for help: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Kitty_Genovese - but that's a different topic.)

More interesting is the question of why people believe they have experienced the bystander effect themselves, if it doesn't exist. And we're not just talking biased interpretation of events, but actual scenarios where nobody stepped in to help.

And I'd like to propose a more credible explanation: what if people just *don't know what to do*, and need guidance?

Look at this video of an incident, for example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TtqBU5xmv5Y (CW: video of fairground ride almost falling over, no injuries to my knowledge)

You'll notice that initially, nobody is responding, nobody is doing anything. But as soon as one person runs towards the ride to counterbalance it - everybody else joins in!

Does this really look like "nobody has a sense of responsibility"? Because to me, it looks a lot more like "people just didn't know what to do, until someone showed them", and the difference is subtle to an external observer.

I think this is a particularly important thing to consider when people raise the bystander effect as a reason why police needs to exist; it's based on the premise that you cannot trust 'regular people' to take the necessary actions to deal with incidents.

But that doesn't seem to be true - they just need to be prepared to know how! And to top it off, poor handling of an incident by police is how the entire theory came to exist in the first place.

How Russia is converting from one of the best countries to transition to one of the worst

did you know that #Russia was (and still is for now) one of the best countries for transitioning? #trans #transgender

hormones are available in pharmacies usually without any prescription and they are cheap (about $1.25/day assuming 4mg/day of e2). downside: only pills are available, injections were never approved and gels are on a shortage
in order to get an official document which allows you to change your gender marker in the ID you need to go through a “medical board”, basically psychiatrist + sexologist + medical psychologist. There are a few of private clinics that provide this, and one of them is specifically trans-friendly and does not discriminate against sexuality or non-binary people. This process usually takes about a week, however there is a queue now for the reasons I explain later (in normal circumstances there is no queue)
you also get changed gender marker on the birth certificate. not sure whether it’s important, but imo it’s good to get rid of your old gender marker entirely
the whole process is pretty straightforward and well documented
all of the process may take about a month or two (and most of the time is taken by the registry office to change your birth certificate, and sometimes a couple of weeks is enough)

also worth mentioning that this process is in order for 5 years, since 2018

so, what happened? several days ago ministry of justice issued a statement that they are strongly considering to ban changing gender marker. it’s not yet known what measures will be implemented, so I guess there are two cases:

most possible: revert to pre-2018 process. It was still possible to change gender marker back then, but that requires a medical operation (such as orchiectomy) and then sue your local registry office in order to force them to change your gender marker. so, it doesn’t 100% ban it, but it makes the whole process much more difficult and more time consuming
less possible: completely prohibiting changing gender marker. not sure how it would be implemented, but the thought itself is scary.

if you can – please support your trans friends from Russia, they probably need it now
if you’re a transgender person from Russia without changed documents – please consider going through this process, while it still works, if you need any resources, check out https://centre-t.ru/commission

my understanding of the #hachyderm meta

i noticed this post: https://hachyderm.io/@mahtheyzhawey/110126192104204312

and made this fediblock post: https://beach.city/@vantablack/110249673299010946

for this reason: https://beach.city/@vantablack/110251505042319404

some instances announced actions to be taken: https://strangeobject.space/@admin/110264904263039779

a bit later the admin announced she was stepping down: https://hachyderm.io/@nova/110268918029141405

but they've made plans to change the rule (good): https://github.com/hachyderm/community/issues/401

also there's this other stuff i found:

https://weirder.earth/@kukkurovaca/109979609572132114

https://rage.love/@unfitmisfit/109985158172152257

this resonates with me so much ​

(a suitable allegory for any number of -isms and -phobias)

As much as I like dunking on AT/BlueSky for not having a block function, let's be honest: This is far actually working on Fedi, is it? It's rather hard to block users on an individual level, and if a remote instance just ignores blocks, blocked users on such an instance can still see shit. Even worse, such instances could (and some currently do! though we suspend them for this) track blocks of local users and go harass folks that block someone.

So yeah, we are definitely not perfect in this regard, either.

Your regular reminder sex addiction is a myth. It's in neither the DSM or ICD, and it's history is part of a trend of labeling non-normative sexuality as a pathology.

Me: *starts rewriting second project in rust*
Me: oh no the prophecy

And I don't think it's a coincidence that so many things that are counterculture or taboo in society are exactly the things that help people feel a sense of bodily autonomy. I'm sure there are links to capitalism here, but more deeply I think it's about jealousy and hate.

Jealousy from generational trauma that denied our parents and grandparents ad nausem their own (bodily) autonomy, so they projected that onto us so we wouldn't pursue it ourselves, queer or not.

So the WHO is finally saying it out loud:

One in ten covid infections will need long term care.

As a #DnD player, I can tell you this is way more likely than it seems at first.

If infected with covid, and you roll 1 on a 1d10:
Gain a permanent level of exhaustion.

So wear a mask.
Get a decent modifier on your Constitution saving throw against infection.

#CovidIsNotOver

Does anyone have advice on what to use for a mailing list for a community group? Looking for something simple and totally non commercial

If your cyberpunk story includes people who do aesthetic only cyber body mods, but don't add at least one person with some sort of robo-animal ears/tail you are a fucking coward!

I wonder what the cumulative psychological effect is of subjecting people to thousands of ads every day that do nothing but remind them of their every ache, pain, and unsatisfied craving. Prolly not great, if I'm taking a guess.

Mild take: right wing media is emotional comfort food for those who have been battered and abused by their own culture to the point where they are only comfortable when they are afraid.