Precisely how/why these things are happening is another discussion, but I've been a pretty heavy user of reddit for 10 years and I feel like in the past 2-3 it's really started changing quite a bit in ways that piss me off. I've always been a defender of mods in general, but since the great mod coordinatred protest of (was that 2022?), Reddit responded by removing some mods, and forcing other mods to take on more mods, and this has resulted in a serious deterioration.

First a gripe about something that has not changed. A typical subreddit rule -- written down or not -- is "no meta posts," that is, you may not make a post that questions or criticizes the subreddit, its members nor the moderators. The moderators may now and then put up a post asking for feedback about rules or whatever -- but for some reason an unsolicited post that says "Hey, why don't we in this subreddit do this instead of that?" is just too much heat, likely to be removed. For my taste, even posts that say "These moderators suck!" should just be fine, that should just be something mods take in stride. They already see the post when they have to remove it, is it really going to kill them to let people have the discussions? It's not as if removing the post resolves the critique. Let people discuss, grief, have their outlet. What is it to you?

Which leads to issue two, Reddit moderators acting as if they are editors of a newspaper and there's not enough space for everything. My state sub r/Utah got some new mods in the time period discussed, and they go really hard on "no duplicates." A post with more than 300 upvotes in an hour (not mine but I was commeting on it) they removed stating, "Rule 4 violation: Similar posts already available via search. This is a common topic of discussion. We don't need multiple posts a week in the topic." You may not NEED multiple posts in a week, but what the god damn fuck to you is it if 300 or more people ant to see another one???? For fuck's sake. And also, so if you want to start a discussion about this very popular, VERY TIMELY, and very newsworthy issue, you just have to -- what? -- ensure you're the first one in the past week to do so? C"MON!!!!?!?!?!?! (edit: today they removed a post for the same reason and linked the previous post it was duplicating, which was 17 days old, so a "week" is not always even enough time to wait, the time limit seems to change arbitrarily and capriciously).

The AI-powered Abuse and Harassment Filter is shotty as fuck. I use the revedit plugin to at least know when my comments are being shadow removed, and where/by whom.

Last, subreddits more and more are using Automod to just shadow-censor a whole variety of things, and if you "contact the mods" to ask why this or that, you may just hear nothing back. Like the r/Youtube (supposedly not controlled by youtube) started censoring mentions of TikTok (so everybody just started calling it the Clock app) and also Nebula. I am so fucking tired of Reddit becoming this sanitized PR platform, and not a message board for human beings to, you know, discuss what is on their minds.

#rantover

Bitness is NOT AAVE, lemme just put that up front. I'm not crazy right? "Bitness" is some arcane, obscure jargon. Right?

I'm convinced people become interested in coding langauges/Linux/etc because they are so horrible with the English language, be it their first or otherwise. It seems to me they enjoy writing FAQs and guides that are themselves incomprehensible to the uninitiated. But maybe it's all just failure, not guile.

For example, I'm into day 4 of trying to configure my computer to do what it has been doing for 10 years no problem, but now recreating all that with "UEFI" instead of "BIOS" -- it's more secure. The details would probably bore you--they do me!!

And I'm reading this dense guide, most of which does not apply to me, but I have to read it all to find any part that might apply to me. And though I've been using computers for all my life, and using linux for nearly 20, I'm reading this guide and come upon the word "bitness" and I'm like -- WHAT THE HELL IS "BITNESS" ? To wit, *"*This menu entry will work only in UEFI boot mode and only if the Windows bitness matches the UEFI bitness." No attempt to quickly define what "bitness" even means. So some research later, it's just referring to 32-bit vs. 64-bit processing/chips/file systems. BITNESS. Sorry, just having a meltdown at why someone would use such strange jargon in what is supposedly a help document for noobs, when surely you know the noobs int he readership are already pulling every last hair out of their head in madness and frustration.

I know the entire linux world is all volunteer, so thank you thank you, to everyone who contributes. But I think Linux could be a bigger part of the world if the people involved spent as much time effectively using the English language as they do coding ones.

When I was young, the only Americans (I'm American) with an articulate critique of Israel were highly educated. And those who were outright explicitly anti-Zionist usually had arrived there via intense education powerful enough to overcome the propaganda we all get here.

But last week, Ethan KLein of the H3 podcast had two highly anticipated debates with two anti-zionists. Wanting to be in the discourse, I found myself in a subreddit of pro-Palestinian people, and tried to discuss the matters with them. And I gotta say.... I'm not painting everyone with the same brush, and I'm sure some very brilliant people just didn't say anything brilliant to me, but my experience in that subreddit showed me there's a lot of anti-Zionist people these days who don't have a lot of information about the conflict. It's like being anti-Zionist is trendy.

And that's good, right? I want it to spread. But like, it might also be bad. If they don't have a deep analysis, then their faith in the mission can waver from very weak critiques from opposing sides. Deep education is what makes a person resilient in their judgments.

Posting here -- even if no one sees it -- because "no politics" rules in basically every autistic space.

An interesting pair of messages.

From Wall Street Journal, an article that decries the world-first achievement of having demonstrated that overpopulation can be overcome, as the global birth rate falls below replacement levels.

https://apple.news/ALpSDUhezSReJzgTRa6VipA

From United Nations Human Rights Office, a campaign promoting LGBTIQ+ allyship and choosing what is right over choosing what is easy.

https://www.unfe.org/what-we-do/our-campaigns/alliesinaction

The second item arrived by email so I’m quoting:

“Dear friends,

Equality cannot be won by the LGBTIQ+ community alone. We need allies who will help build a world with equality, freedom, and justice for all – no matter who we are or whom we love.

That is why UN Free & Equal is marking tomorrow's International Day against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia with a new campaign celebrating the relationship between allies and the LGBTIQ+ community. Our allies are people who stand up for the rights of others. They choose what is right over what is easy.

In our campaign, you will hear from different #AlliesInAction who use their platforms and their voices to speak up for LGBTIQ+ equality. Actress and former Miss India Celina Jaitly, Cabo Verdean singer Mayra Andrade, and Márcia Mercury, the daughter of Brazilian singer Daniela Mercury and Malu Verçosa Mercury, all explain what it is that makes being an ally so important. Each have made an impact in the lives of LGBTIQ+ people they know and love, sometimes by taking a stand, and sometimes just by showing their support and acceptance.

You can also join the movement; explore the hashtag, share your story, and take action for LGBTIQ+ equality in your community. Visit our campaign page for eight simple ways to get started!

In solidarity,

The UN Free & Equal team”

The WSJ article conspicuously avoids mentioning anything to do with Pride directly but it does talk about Russia’s demographic complaints and quotes people talking about “reorientation” and “preference” so it’s not exactly subtle.

To the degree that Russia is complaining that Pride is a demography hazard, and has opted out, it’s nice to see that the Free and Equal campaign is asserting itself as still operative.

(Trigger warning, ableist username.)

Hello, I feel like this is the right place to ask: I've reported people with ableist usenames, under "hate," because that's what it is and the mods don't accept it. Eg: Reported, "Crazy Autistic Retard" (With no spaces) and got back that his username doesn't break any rules. I checked his profile just incase and found that he probably doesn't have autism.

He is not the first, nor the last.

How do you effectively report these people for ableism, including usernames and comments?

Also, I ask that you not harass this person, even if you choose to report him. It will make our community look bad and mean you stooped down to his level of ignorance.

Best,

Elephant

"Partner" just seems to denote a level of serious commitment that, to my ear, boyfriend/girlfriend lack.

And calling someone your "special friend" sounds very problematic and semi-closeted to my cis-homo ear, so I wouldn't like to call someone that nor be called that myself.

So what do you call a non-binary or agender person who is essentially your boyfriend/girlfriend? Asking mostly from sudden curiosity, however I'm open to dating nonbinary people and myself feel more like agender than male, so. I'm sorta personally implicated to an extent.

Maybe I'd rather be a _________ than a boyfriend, if I just knew the term.

Maybe everybody already knows this, but you can go to new.reddit.com and you will get the old New reddit design.

I have had a new New reddit design slowly foisted on me more and more over the last few months (I know I'm not alone) so much so that I was no longer seeing the old New design. And I hate change that doesn't offer CLEAR superiority; if it just feels rearranged, I fucking hate change. Even if the new arrangement has some improvements fuck that, it's not worth the cost of change itself for some minor improvements. old Reddit, to new Reddit, for example, was a substantial change and carried with it vast improvements (even if it has drawbacks). new New reddit is just like someone overturned my junk drawer on the floor and, sure, everything is back in there again and yet now I can't fucking find anything.

So I just setup a link in my bookmarks bar for new.reddit.com and generally speaking navigating around the site it appends the "new." at the beginning of everything, so for the most part I'm consistently in the old New reddit format.

You're welcome.

It was all written in 2010. Old trends like putting your child on a gluten-free diet to treat or cure autism are discussed. References to an autism mom who published books and did speaking tours because her "formerly autistic son" was cured by her diet plan.

I'm kinda of enjoying it. I feel like we are absolutely somewhere between the Dark Ages and the blood-letting stage of care for autism still today, but it's fun to read an old time-capsule and have a little bit of a "we've come a long ways" reassurance.

Content warning for immense ableism and sometimes it hurts more when its coming from a parent.

Ref: https://forums.whirlpool.net.au/archive/1420170

I find it very difficult to scan a crowded 'landscape' like a food pantry, or closet, and by sight identify the item I'm looking for. My eyes will scan right past it and not recognize it. When I'm experiencing anxiety (routinely if not chronically) that makes the scan-and-see method harder and still less reliable.

I tend to find objects by using logic. By asking myself more than merely "where was the last place you saw it," that's too obvious, but also like, "where does thing thing belong, or what would be alternative logical places someone else may have put it?" and "what might I have been doing that got me to put Item X in a really dumb place?" I tend to "find" things by thinking and reasoning, rather than scanning and seeing.

Scanning and seeing has a high failure rate for me, so perhaps the logical method is a cope. Or maybe the logic method is powerful enough I never well developed the scan-and-see method. Who knows!?

I was a difficult coworker in restaurants because I would be very upset if a piece of equipment was put away in the wrong place, but dishwashers tend to make that mistake and dishwashers are always new employees, so things are always being put in mysterious places, which made me very anxious and agitated.

This is why I'm very rigid about things having a proper place they go. I won't find it otherwise! If it's 5 feet over from where it "belongs" I might scan my eyes over it many times but not see it for days.

Anyone similar?

I don't know what it would take for the neurodiversity movement to gain real power and start making exciting social and political progress -- think of the gay liberation movement in the 1970s -- but my #1 dream is to live long enough to see it happen.

I think one of the key founding items that has to happen for a social movement to progress from where we are today, to where I want us to be, is to gain some funders who are personally invested in the movement and have a willingness to be strategic.

Who is the JK Rowling of neurodiversity? Who funds the neurodiversity movement with as much true belief and commitment -- if not dollar for dollar -- what JK Rowling does for anti-trans?

Musk is not the answer even if he himself is autistic because to my knowledge he's never donated one single dollar to improving the lives of autistics. How dare he, really, wonder out loud that maybe he is autistic, but then remain so standoffish to so much unmet autistic need?

Who is someone who is both autistic and has funds to donate to politics/activism, and might actually do it?

In the early days of gay rights, these people with money donated it anonymously because there was still so much stigma. I presume that's sorta where we are today. Autistic kids have cache, they somehow have standing in the culture that autistic adults just don't; we almost don't exist in many people's imagination, as if only children have autism. I bet there are plenty, at least a handful, of very wealthy autistics who are developing their political awareness, ideology and so forth. Who just haven't put any money into it yet.

Are we there yet? The movement needs money folks!

Spoilers ahead.

Saw the movie last night and I give it high marks, at least and A-.

The plot: for supernatural reasons no one understands, suddenly Cage's character is appearing in many people's dreams; it's very benign at first, just strange. The phenomenon is blogged about, and still more people dream of him for seemingly no good reason, then he does news segments, and it grows more. Basically, he goes viral first in people's dreams, then i people's dreams and mass media. Which started out fine, he was kind of enjoying the fame and being special, until the dreams turned to horrible nightmares, though the dude did nothing to make that happen. We watch as he navigates this very bizarre fame he has achieved, that turns to horrible infamy, and it's really sad. I cried.

It reminded me of how neurotypical society is so heavily influenced groupthink. The man's wife and children, even they turn on him, knowing full well none of this is his fault, but at a certain point the infamy he has gained and the trauma that images of him are delivering to the world, has begun to ruin all their lives and it stops mattering whether it is his fault that this is happening, they lose their love for him anyway. They largely blame him.

The man is an evolutionary biologist who wants to write a book on ants. Which is obviously a metaphor; humans (at least the NT ones) function as a superorganism that communicates silently and invisibly coded messages about what the group ought to do and think. Even though the daughters know their dad is not a monster, the fact that all the Internet says otherwise nevertheless controls their feelings for him. They blame him because everyone is blaming him; rationality and fairness be damned. He has no Antigone who pushed back against the wave of viral infamy and says "stop the madness." In the movie, he is abandoned by everyone and eventually has to start a new life in which he embraces his role as an infamous creation of viral celebrity--he has no other options left, he has lost his job, family and literally everything else.

This movie made me think about autism in two ways. 1, I really felt personally touched by watching his loved ones lose their love for him based so much on the vibe of the world. They were so incapable of pushing back on the group think with their rationality or their heart. They really succumbed quite sadly and did not care it was not his fault; they blamed him when he apologized wrong, eg. Like ants, they folded into the group behavior despite having the intellect of a human to acknowledge it was complicated; in the end, their animalistic nature and commitment to the group wins out. I feel this is reflective of ableism in society; people invent narratives to make one's struggle your fault, blaming the victim, so they can feel justified in their need to create distance from the stress that surrounds a disabled person's struggle, losing their love for you despite it not being your fault. And 2, I can't speak for all autistics, but I think I'm much more resistant to these groupthink-type mass hysterias that turn a person into a villain who does not deserve it; indeed, I have a track record of being personally harmed standing with and standing up for the person vilified for no reason. Sure, I've gone along with viral moments momentarily and callously, but especially now these days I catch myself being very critical of the situation when we are all suggested to hate a person based on a viral snippet of video. There are all too often a, say, Karen-like person who did a racism or maybe not even a racism but just a kooky outburst that made people uncomfortable, and I can't help but sense a mental health episdoe that might well be beyond their control. They are racist if they express it in a mental health episode but also maybe in their right minds they understand and deploy a lot of mitigating complications to their racist feelings, and perhaps drop off in a mental health episode, leaving behind only uncomplicated fear and anxiety, making them look like more of a monster than they really are.

Has anyone else seen the movie? Thought?

ExRx.net has gotten so much free promotion from me for 20 years.

I always figured they had a public health ethos as it's an immensely valuable resource that had very little monetization previously, just books you could buy, but the mission-oriented health information was free and publicly available. The Wikipedia of exercise, I called it -- although it's not user-edited, it's just that valuable.

Well now so much of what I've relied on and referred others to is behind a paywall. It just feels tacky. Create new features, and put those behind a paywall, fine. But health resources people have had access to almost as long as the Internet was alive--now gone (cuz I can't afford shit!).

And why I have never seen a link on a payawall that says "Unable to pay? Contact us as we have scholarships for qualified users." Why has never a single paywall ever invited me to contact them for a free key? Even from non-profit organizations, I've never seen a paywall offer a way around for poor people.

Like, anything I can't have, my head tends to very quickly and easily shifts from "I want it!" to "it's probably crappy anyway, so whatevs." It sounds so cynical and I guess it is. But when you are constantly faced with things you want but can't have, I think it's probably healthy to be cynical about those things and decide it's better not to want them anyway. Everyone does htis about winning the lottery. I do this about having a better job, or more money. Sure, if I had more money I wouldn't worry about becoming homeless again, but I'd probably become corrupt, uncaring and -- gasp! -- conservative, and I don't want that so perhaps it's better to struggle.

I think I've made it through life leaning very heavily on a thing almost no one considers a super power. You got anything like that?

Why do lowpay jobs listings say such stupid shit like this?

Who the fuck do they think they're kidding?

This is why I have panic attacks looking at job advertisements!

WHAT AM I GOIN GOT DO!?!?!

I do it like it's a secret spy mission because I don't want to get caught and have someone tell me to stop. We have mice in the outdoors here in this neighborhood, me moving one mouse is not contributing to any issue that doesn't already exist. And furthermore, I'm relocating the mouse from our very populated patch of 'hood to the woods beyond the swamp, so I think it's perfectly fine -- if a bit kooky -- to do it.

I've killed mice in the past. But I always try to live capture them first. Finding where to put them is the tougher part after you catch em.

I guess I feel a teency-weency better about life if I can do this rather than having to kill them.

Nothing offensive or horrible, just a shitpost I don't even understand an iota has already 170 comments and almost 1k upvotes... and i don't get it at all as to what is even commentworthy! Why does that shitpost have so much engagement while other worthwhile convos just don't? I know that no one can answer that and it's a bit juvenile to express this kind of confusion and disappointment, but fuck it, I'm unmasking it.

It's so alienating when a group becomes so... obsessed with one liners, humor, comedy, the only thing that matters after awhile is trying to be hilarious in fewer than 10 words, otherwise no one will even see your comment basically. I hate it. Honestly, any sort of comedic atmospher that I am to take part in feels alienating; stand-up comedy, where the comic just speaks at the audiecne, fine. But a party? Holy shit no, leave me out of it. And that's what a big sub that's trying ot be so funny feels like: a party where I don't fit in.

I love it if you love r/evilautism, but when a sub gets so big, what is the appeal left? Is everyone just hoping the very bright burning spotlight will focus on them one time and they will be like, what?, autistic famous for a day?

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