Quickies
Skepchick Quickies 1.22

On January 22, 1968, Apollo 5 launched. This unmanned flight was notable because it carried the first Lunar Module into space (for testing). Sort of related: this lunar panorama (from the recent Chinese moon landing).
- 5 Ways Growing Up Inside Scientology Was a Nightmare – Only five? From mrmisconception.
- Even in Death, Abortion Politics Never Goes Away – An interesting piece on some recent news items, from the New Yorker.
- Sarah Silverman is Visited by Jesus Christ – And you won’t believe the one weird trick he shares with her! Haha, seriously though, it’s a great video and you should watch it. From Kyle (via Amy).
- In the Name of Love: Elites embrace the “do what you love” mantra. But it devalues work and hurts workers. – The privilege behind saying “do what you love,” as if that’s an easy choice for most people.
- The vile threats of sex and violence that men use against women online – “… a Pew Research Center poll found that over five years of its research, 72.5% of the ugly online incidents reported to the group Working to Halt Online Abuse came from women.” From Amy.
- Why walking through a doorway makes you forget – That *is* a pretty annoying phenomenon. THANKS BRAIN.
“a Pew Research Center poll found that over five years of its research, 72.5% of the ugly online incidents reported to the group Working to Halt Online Abuse came from women.”
Unfortunately it looks like Misogyny is a live and well.
Welcome to the internet. To the left are the racist YouTube commenters and to the right are the people who tweet rape threats in order to prove misogyny doesn’t exist anymore. Enjoy your stay.
Jon Brewer,
Believe me, I’ve come across my share of racists, misogynists, homophobes, Islamophobes and antisemites on the internet. None of it is ever pretty, especially when the comments are posted on things that refute the bigots. Than you get to see the things they say when they’re really angry, and they don’t think they’ll have to suffer the consequences for it.
Yeah, believe me, the worst part of it is, I’ve seen all variety of bigots. To me, they’re annoying more than anything. I still report them, though. But given that I’ve previously reported a dude talking about sex with his daughter to the FBI back when usenet was A Thing and the dude’s still around, now infesting YouTube, I’ve learned not to hold my breath.
(The dude’s name is Richard Steven Walz, by the way. Just in case you ever meet him.)
The really annoying thing is, racists, conspiracy nuts, wannabes, and animal rights activists have wrecked several ndn (If you don’t know what it stands for, say it aloud.) boards I’ve been on. The absolute worst case involved me modding this one Yahoo! group along with two other people. (The founder had since passed.) One of my co-mods had decided to leave because of personal health concerns. Cue the other mod (who later turned out to be a wannabe) seizing founder privileges (without consulting any of us) and banning me, and all the other real Indians.
Jon Brewer,
Well, I hope I never have to meet Mr. Walz than.
You must have been annoyed being banned from internet forums and all, not because you violated the rules, but because the guy was a jerk, and just didn’t like you.
Jon Brewer,
Sorry I couldn’t respond earlier, but I had been logged out for some reason, and I had a lot of trouble logging back in, and I don’t know why.
Yeah, it’s easy to see that kind of thing. It’s not just that. There’s also when they issue the imperative to display your breasts to the rest of the forum, once they find out you’re a woman.
You’d be surprised at the worst part of it. I’ve been the target of harassment campaigns by wannabe Indians before for saying “No, the Lakota don’t do that. And it’s offensive that you’re even doing this.”